Title: Never Meant to Be - A Christmas Ficlet
Author: Superag
Rating: PG
Summary: A ficlet. A year has gone by for our little Chlex couple. How they celebrate their second Christmas as a couple. Sequel to Gift Exchange and Ring in the New
Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville, the CW, any of the characters ever created for Superman, etc. This is for personal entertainment only.
A/N - Christmas ficlet. Probably 3 parts like the ones last year. Italics is flashback. Thanks for feedback!
Chapter 1 – Getting Things Ready
Chloe and Lana walked into the small dorm room they shared at the university. Both threw their respective bags on the beds and plopped next to them as Clark followed Lana into the room.
“That biology test sucked. I was pretty sure that the professor is hoping to see all our faces again next year,” Lana sighed as she looked over in Clark’s direction and flashed a smile.
“No, they’ll be a major curve. The ‘grade my professors’ site said that his F’s magically turn into B’s. Something about tenure and his lack of interest in the students that only take the class to get out of freshmen classes.” Chloe leaned back in the pillows and looked over at her two friends that had stayed very much the item even though Lana moved to Metropolis University with Chloe and Clark remained in Smallville.
The last year had been almost surreal for the two couples. No one expected for Clark and Lana to end whatever was going on between them. They weren’t exactly a couple but they weren’t strangers. Lana dated other guys but quickly dropped them; Clark just pined in the wings until Lana came back. It was the same story as every other year that Chloe could remember.
Her life, however, was a little different. She and Lex were still very much a couple and took the whole strange relationship into the public’s eye as soon as high school was over. Lex had moved from Smallville and now permanently lived in the penthouse a few blocks from Luthorcorp. Chloe’s dad had been moved to the Metropolis location as well, something she knew Lex had done for her but would never admit it to her.
Chloe leaned back in the pillows and closed her eyes, realizing she had a good few hours to catch up on missed sleep before Lex picked her up. He had offered months before to get her and Lana an apartment, but they enjoyed the dorm life. With the screaming in the hall right outside, Chloe giggled at how much she wondered that apartment offer was still open.
Lana giggled and went to open the door just as one of the other girls in the hall went by holding a pair of underwear. Yelling back, she laughed, “Write your name on a pair of underwear. The fraternity boys are downstairs undressed down to their underwear’s singing carols.”
“But it’s ten degrees!” Chloe laughed as she looked out the window and caught the tail end, literally, of one of the obvious first year pledges in their altogether and singing as several others dressed in warm Santa outfits playfully whipping the ‘reindeer.’
Chloe grabbed a pair of her cotton panties and took a sharpie to it. Clark watched as his own girlfriend followed suit. “What would Lex think? Lana?!”
“Lex needs to relax if one of those obvious whipping boys decide to even try to call the fake numbers we’re writing down,” Chloe tried to calm Clark’s nerves as her and Lana took off down the hall. Walking out on the porch of the little dorm complex, they laughed with the rest of the girls as the group of about 40 young men froze as they sang another three carols before disappearing to another dorm.
“That was insane,” Lana laughed as she tried to catch her breath. “I guess that would be our official signal that Christmas break has started. Are you sure you’re going to be ok hanging out here until the dorms close. I know Lex offered for you to stay at the penthouse until he got back day after tomorrow. I’m sure they would let you in.”
Chloe opened the door to the dorm and saw Clark trying to ignore the show going on right outside the window while he read the obvious women’s magazine upside down. “Nice Clark. New talent? Anyway, I have a few things to take care of here anyway. And it’ll be nice once everyone empties out, it’ll be quiet and I can get some things done. Dad only lives one the other side of town. It’s not like I’m alone.”
Clark nodded as he threw down the magazine that supposedly told women what men really wanted. He wondered if Lana and Chloe actually tried any of the suggestions in it. “So, Chloe you want to join us tonight for dinner? Mom and dad are out shopping and we’re eating before we get back on the road to the farm.”
Chloe started filing away old books and folders from the semester that just finished up. She had somehow managed to maintain a grade point that would keep her small but personally important scholarship with the journalism department and her relationship with Lex.
The first couple months after announcing their relationship, Chloe was hounded wherever she walked. She finally agreed to a bodyguard until the paparazzi lost interest in the couple that seemed to never have a coarse word in public or risqué moment.
When Chloe started college, she noticed the strange looks from some students wondering what exact merits had gotten her into the school and the scholarship. Several even suggested that the money had to be Luthor backed, but Chloe took it in stride. She worked harder and proved all the critics wrong.
Personally, she still wore her promise ring from Lex. It was like a mark of his territory that she treasured. It was odd to feel like she did; if it had been any other person, including Clark with his football jacket, she would have refused. She loved Lex. That had happened only a month earlier at Thanksgiving.
Chloe sat on the bed and flipped through some notes as Lana had Clark pack some of her menial items together.
“Chloe, it’ll be fine. Just let me look at it.” Chloe peeked through the front of the oven and shook her head at the odd smell and puff of smoke that came from the oven when she cracked the door open. The smoke was at least still white, so she knew it wasn’t completely gone. Lex bumped her in the hip, pushing her to the side as he surveyed the damage before letting the smoke billow into her kitchen.
“It’s just a little dark,” he commented as he picked up the injection kit and shot the poor dried up bird with more juice form the bottom of the pan. “Just let it cool before we crack it.” Lex closed the door and turned the oven off before noticing Chloe.
Sitting in front of the rest of the dinner that she thought had been going so well for her first Thanksgiving, she sighed. “It’s all cold.”
Lex leaned down and wrapped his arms around her shoulders and kissed her on the cheek. “Most of the side dishes for Thanksgiving are traditionally. Don’t worry about it.” Chloe leaned her head to the side and begged for the kiss on the cheek that came next.
Lex let go and proceeded to help her finish up in the kitchen as she tried to get up the courage to serve the first Thanksgiving she made to her father. Lex was enduring but she felt bad for dad. He hadn’t had anyone cook for him on the holiday since her mom had taken off.
Chloe watched as Lex moved about the kitchen as if he glided. It was wondrous. “I love you,” she whispered as she held the bowl for the gravy, which caused Lex to almost drop the container he was pouring from.
Putting the bowl down, he leaned her back against the kitchen counter and tipped her head back where he could see her eyes. His body warmed to the words that he thought she had said, but he wanted to be sure. “Say it again,” he partially questioned.
“I love you Lex Luthor.” Chloe spoke firmly and smiled at the end of the statement that she had been wanting to say for awhile but never could find the perfect time, as if over gravy drippings was the right time. Lex nodded his head and Chloe watched the small smile break on his face.
“I love you too,” he whispered in her ear as her head leaned further back. Pulling her head back up slightly, he pressed his lips to hers and felt her shudder as they deepened the kiss.
“Chloe,” Gabe interrupted as he tried to delicately break up what seemed to be a relationship that was not nearly going away. “Your hair honey.”
Lex looked over her shoulder and quickly pulled her up where the back of her hair was now conditioned with the drippings in the bowl. Chloe shook her head and rolled her eyes, leaving the two gentlemen in the kitchen alone.
“Guess I get to finish the dinner after all. Come on, give me a hand.”
Chloe felt of her hair and remembered that the day after Thanksgiving when everyone else was trying to save a buck here and there, she was sitting in Metropolis’ swankiest salon courtesy of her own boyfriend’s guilt.
“Chloe?”
Coming back to earth, Chloe glanced up in Clark’s direction. “Oh, no. I’m meeting dad for dinner tonight before he heads to Edge City for a meeting the next couple of days.” She smiled at the couple as Clark picked up most of Lana’s bags and started out the door. Getting up off the bed, she hugged Lana and wished her well before locking the door behind her.
A few hours later, Chloe returned from dinner with her father and sat down at her desk and opened up her email. She felt partly bad about basically ignoring Lex for the past three weeks, but he understood. She giggled realizing that late night history exam study session didn’t exactly go the way it was supposed to when Lana walked in on the two of them in the middle of an obvious, and very naked, study break. Since, Lex stayed away from the dorm.
Pulling up the email, she almost giggled out loud at the email that simply stated at the top, “Only a few more days until we leave.” She smiled knowing he wouldn’t tell where they were going. She continued reading the email and shook her head when in between boring explanations of work, he sprinkled in other details of their trip. Reading the last line, her eyes grew. “Have you picked out your warmest coat?”
Chloe was beside herself with the little hints that Lex dropped in her emails. From the daily little writings, she had found out it was going to be cold, foreign, and not necessarily friendly all the time. Somehow, though, Lex assured her that she would enjoy it and have a fascinating time writing about it upon their return.
**********
Chloe wandered around her dorm room trying to frantically stuff the last bit of her luggage together. Lex still gave her no indication of their romantic getaway for the holidays; she was just impressed her father was letting her go alone with Lex.
“Where’s the damn boots,” she cussed as she looked under the bed and then stopped. A wave of nausea rolled over her as she became dizzy and seemed to be grabbing for the wall. Covering her mouth, she shoved the bathroom door open and leaned her head over the toilet and vomited.
Leaning back against the wall, she felt suddenly warm and realized that she had been running on adrenalin and didn’t realize that she had the most horrid headache. Grabbing a washcloth, she propped herself up on her knees and ran it through cold water. She wasn’t going to be sick, she repeated to herself as she leaned between the toilet and the vanity.
Chloe balanced her now throbbing head on the corner of the small vanity as she waited to see if she would need the toilet again. Going through the list of possibilities, she axed pregnancy first because she had just finished her cycle. Going through the rest of her symptoms, she slipped deeper into the floor.
“Drugs, lots of drugs,” she told her herself as she strained to pull herself up. How does it come on so fast, she thought. Diseases suck was her last thought before falling to the floor in a sweat.
“Chloe? One of the girls let me up when you didn’t pick up. I figured we could get some…” Lex stopped as he pushed the door to the bathroom open and saw Chloe lying on the bathroom floor.
Grabbing the washcloth from her limp hand, he felt of her as he rinsed the cloth out again. “Honey?” Lex whispered as he slid down and sat on the floor next to her, pulling her body into his.
Chloe grabbed the washcloth from Lex as he gently ran his hand along her face and pushed back the sweaty hair from her eyes. “I think we’re staying home,” he whispered. Chloe’s face drew into a myriad of emotions that ended in disappointment before lunging for the toilet again.
TBC
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Still, I think having Lex all to you to nurse you back isn´t a bad thing, is it? 
The first thing that I thought of was an unplanned ¨pregnancy¨, but then you burst that bubble with Chloe´s own thoughts on the impossibility of that at that time of the month. Oh, well, I hope it´s nothing serious!
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by the time Christmas arrives.
lols i keep having to edit this post b/c the meds is making me talk crazy and making me slur my English. I love the edit and delete button. They are a illiterate's bestfriend.
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