Camping
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing to do with Smallville.
Potential spoilers: Series One – although I will stick in bits from all over the place if it suits me and generally play around with the timeline (because I’m like that ;p!)
Summary: If you go down to the woods today, you’re sure for a big (Clark, Lex and Chloe shaped) surprise …
*Chapter One*
“Clark!” Chloe called out as she entered the Kent’s farm house. She had knocked but upon receiving no reply and noticing that the door stood ajar, she let herself in as she was wont to do.
“Come out come out wherever you are”, she teased in a sing song voice, “we have to go and find a really good mystery to solve”, she continued to talk to him even before she had located him. She knew that they the elder Kents had gone into town so she was in no danger of disturbing them.
Her investigative skills led her to the open door to the pantry and in the dark depths she heard someone moving about.
“Oh good, there you are”, she beamed into the darkness, “come on, you can do whatever it is that you are doing later. We have to go and solve a mystery. Well, actually, first we have to find a mystery but then we have solve it”. She blushed a little at her words, she hadn’t meant to sound so needy. That was probably why Clark hadn’t responded. Oh well, too late to do anything about it now.
“I know that you probably have other things planned for the holidays but there hasn’t been anything good for me to investigate for weeks. Everything has dried up, even that investigation I was doing for you and your Dad into Lex came up with nothing. I have done all of my homework, finished all of my outstanding projects, cleaned the house, I actually did laundry yesterday”, she shuddered at the memory, “there is not a single item of clothing on my floor and let me tell you that just looks wrong. And my Dad isn’t back for another week so come on Clark, come out and play with me”. She was whining she knew but damn it she was lonely and bored and what was the point of having friends if you couldn’t make them play with you? Even Pete was out of town and she really didn’t want to go to The Talon and seek Lana’s company but she was going to have to soon; she was getting pretty desperate.
When she still received no reply, she huffed, “Are you seriously still pouting about what I said about Lana? Come on, how many times do I have to apologise for that? I take it back okay, she wasn’t looking at Lex, she doesn’t have any interest in him and now that Whitney is out of the way – or sort of out of the way, at least – and of course she is going to fall for you and …”
“I sincerely hope not”.
That wasn’t Clark’s voice.
“Oh my God”, Chloe gulped, she ran her hand along with wall, searching for the light switch which she knew that Clark never used for some reason. She found it, flicked it and there was a popping sound. Oh damn it, that was right. They never used it because it was continuously popping.
“No Miss Sullivan, just Lex”. His voice was cool and emotionless as always. Chloe briefly wondered how long it had taken him to perfect such a voice and look. It really was rather impressive. At first it seemed unnerving but then, the more that you looked at it the more you read your own feelings into it. The very same look, given at the very same time, could look loving to one person, amused to another, or fucking scary if you were standing in Chloe Sullivan’s shoes right about then.
“Mr Luthor”, she gasped and took an involuntary step back as she watched him immerge from the cupboard, shadows clinging to his person, making his handsome features seem somehow more sinister but none the less inviting. “I was looking for Clark”. That was pathetic.
“So I had gathered”, his voice was rich with amusement and she didn’t think that it was just her imagination this time. He was definitely having fun at her expense. She didn’t take another step back, she held her ground even thought that meant that Lex was getting unsettlingly close to her. She tilted her chin up and looked him straight in the eye. She had every right to be there. She probably had more right than he did – as she had no idea what he was doing skulking in the Kent’s pantry. He evidently hadn’t wanted her to know that he was there.
“What are you doing skulking around the Kent’s house?” She asked, not bothering to keep the note of accusation out of her voice.
Lex raised an eyebrow at that, “I don’t see what business that is of yours”.
“And I don’t see why you would be hiding in a pantry, with the lights turned off and pretending to be Clark”, Chloe countered, knowing that it sounded petty. She didn’t really believe that Lex would betray his friend, but she wanted to focus on the fact that she had just made a fool of herself in front of Lex Luthor even less.
“I was not hiding, Miss Sullivan”, he spoke in a condescending tone. One which clearly stated that he was doing her a favour by responding to her accusations, but only because it meant that he could put her in her place. “I was helping my friend”, he stressed the last two words, “to unpack. I didn’t turn the light on because as you no doubt noticed, it doesn’t work, and I did not immediately inform you that I was not Clark because by that time you had already revealed far more information about your loneliness and desperation for some sort of human contact than I thought that you would want generally known”, he sneered, “so I decided to keep mum and hope that you would retreat, find Clark and then not realise. I was trying to be considerate. Do not worry; it is not an error that I will make again in my dealings with you”.
She blushed and she hated herself for it. She knew how stupid he must think her now. It would have been bad enough if Clark had actually heard her. She had been hoping to make a good impression on Lex over time, something that clearly wasn’t going to happen now.
“Well then Mr Luthor”.
“How many times do I have to tell you to call me Lex?” He asked tersely, even though he had started it on this occasion.
“Well then Lex, you won’t mind my going to verify this with Clark?” She turned on her heel and made to leave, anxious just to get out of there as quickly as possible. She wasn’t even sure that she was actually going to look for Clark, she would probably just get into her car and call him later, she certainly had no intention of telling him that she had encountered Lex. She would save herself that humiliation at least, provided that Lex didn’t inform him first.
“Wait”, his voice was calm and authoritative but it was his warm hand on her arm which halted her steps.
She turned back around to face him, her face may betray her but keeping her back to him was a clear sign of defeat, if she was going to go down, she would go down fighting - and possibly kicking and screaming to boot. Trying to channel the worldly sophisticated looks she saw on women on the old films she watched with her father, she stared pointedly at the hand encircling her arm.
Lex was unimpressed, as if he knew that she was just acting. She resisted the urge to stamp her foot and jut out her chin – gestures far more in keeping with her true nature.
“You aren’t going anywhere until we get a few things straight”, he said in a low voice which almost sounded like a growl. He took another step towards her, making sure that he was well and truly in her personal space, making her uncomfortable and relishing it.
“You don’t scare me Luthor”.
“Lex”, he corrected her, “and that is either very brave of you or extremely foolish”.
“Perhaps it is both”, she suggested.
“Perhaps”, he ran his hands up and down both of her arms and she really wished that she had worn something with sleeves, anything to stop the tingles he was causing.
“What is it exactly that you think that we need to get straight?” Chloe asked, doing her best to look unconcerned by Lex’s proximity. She wanted to fight back, she hated when people tried to threaten her – something that seemed to be happening with increasing frequency these last few months.
“I am Clark’s friend and in his life. For that reason, I will also be in his house if he and his parents wish to allow me entry. I don’t take kindly to people interfering in my relationships however much regard I might have for their reporting skill”.
Her heart gave a flutter at that, which was ridiculous. This was no time to be getting excited about compliments, however strangely bestowed.
“Well I am his friend to and I will look out for him whatever …”
He was impressed by her loyalty but not enough to let her win this battle, even if he didn’t know how they had entered into it. “Does that mean that you have stopped investigating him all of a sudden?”
“Yes”. She looked as guilty as sin, but Lex couldn’t work out if that meant that she was lying or that she felt for ever having researched her friend (against his expressed wishes) in the first place.
“And took up investigating me instead?” It didn’t surprise him that she had done some investigation into him, she was a very well informed young lady and her interests in solving mysteries and politics would have led her down such a path regardless of any other considerations.
Chloe shrugged. She had nothing to reproach herself with on that score.
“That is not an answer Chloe, have you forgotten who I am?” He demanded, it riled him that he could not dominate this little fourteen your old. By all rights she should have been shaking and yet there she was standing tall, clearly a little nervous but that faded as her indignation grew with every passing second.
“No, you are Lex Luthor”, she informed him acidly, “Clark’s ‘misunderstood’ friend”. She actually used air quotes.
Lex grabbed her hands. “I am the head of Lex Corp and run the plant which employs half of Smallville including your father”.
A flash of panic went through her eyes. Whether from his grasp or his words he knew not. Lex winced.
He let her go immediately. “Chloe, I didn’t mean that to sound like a threat”, he tried to assure her, taking a large step back. Oddly enough when he had actually tried to threaten her before, it had had no effect whatsoever. He rubbed his hand over his bald head as he always did in moments of extreme stress. He wasn’t usually this weak. He wasn’t usually pulled into fights over very little and he certainly didn’t normally threaten – or give the impression of threating – without intending to. And when he did intend to, while he didn’t enjoy it like his father did, it had never bothered him overmuch either.
That one second of fear in Chloe’s eyes had affected him more than hysterical tears from many other people he had dealt with.
“I know”, Chloe straightened her spine and resisted the urge to rub her flesh where he had touched her, it didn’t hurt, it just felt … odd.
“I would never hurt your father because of something that you had done. I esteem Gabe very highly and I …”
“I know”, she repeated the words, this time their gazes collided and he saw the completely and utter sincerity therein. She trusted him, not with her life, or to remember an appointment or anything like that. She probably didn’t trust him in general but in this she did. She didn’t believe that he would hurt innocent people because of something she had done.
Lex swallowed. Trust, in any matter wasn’t something to which he was accustomed especially not in Smallville, not even over small things – people always counted the money he gave them. Even in Clark’s eyes there was always a hint of doubt and yet this remarkable – if annoying – young woman, the one who could find out just about anything she wanted to know had chosen to trust to his better nature.
He wished to God that he knew how she had come to that conclusion, what in his conduct towards her had ever … She had researched him, the information came crashing back over him. It didn’t surprised him that she would have, but on Clark’s behalf?
“So, did you have any particular reason for invading my privacy? Or was it just a whim?”
“It wasn’t really private, most of the information was published and in the public domain”, she shrugged.
“Only most?” Why did that not surprise him?
“Only most”, Chloe confirmed, not looking the slightest bit ashamed. In fact, she looked rather proud of herself at that moment as she remembered her accomplishment. She had broken into plenty of places before, but researching Lex Luthor had required a little more tech savvy than most.
“Find out anything interesting?” He tried to make the question sound casual, more out of habit than anything else. They both knew that he had done bad things, had secrets that could probably harm his friendship with Clark. Deep down he knew that their friendship would not be eternal, he just wanted to know much longer it was going to last.
“Plenty”, Chloe said with a shrug, “but most of it didn’t make its way to Clark”.
Lex looked genuinely surprised at that.
“He is my friend and I want to protect him. Destroying his faith in you wouldn’t make him happy”, she said, never doubting for a second that she could do it if she chose to.
He didn’t doubt it either. His instinct was to grab her and shake her, to demand exactly what she knew and how she knew it but he didn’t sense anything like a threat in her voice. She didn’t even really seem to judge him for whatever it was that she knew. Like she understood how difficult the decisions he had to make were.
“I don’t suppose that there is any chance that you would tell me how you got that information? Even if I asked you nicely?” He attempted a melting look.
“Not the slightest!” Chloe agreed, good-naturedly.
“How about why you and Clark feel the need to investigate me?” He had not forgotten that nugget of information which the blonde before him had let slip.
Chloe shot him a slanted look as if to say, ‘You know why, because I am a reporter’, but answered for Clark – figuring that she might as well as she had already let the cat out of the bag about the investigation -, “He is your friend and is constantly defending you, saying that you are not like your father. He wanted to have proof to offer people”.
“And that was his idea?” As touched as Lex was, he found that hard to believe.
“Well, no”, Chloe admitted. The look with which Lex fixed her, made her continue. “He was in the office of The Torch one day complaining that everyone was judging you based on your father’s actions and that that wasn’t fair. I asked why he didn’t repudiate these allegations by pointing out all of the ways that you had helped people, the ways in which the people who were criticizing you had fucked up in the past and also general business practices which people support which are worse than the things your father has done”, she didn’t like Lionel but some things really got her goat and hypocrisy was one of them. She remembered what had irked her at the time, even before she had met the infamous Lex Luthor. “There was this one guy who was having a go at Clark for being friends with you because your father brought a local store – even though the owners were going to go bankrupt so would have lost it anyway – and demanding how someone who claimed to be moral – not that that is actually a claim that Clark has actually ever made for himself – could be friends with you”.
Lex could see how angry Chloe was getting at the memory and even though he knew that it had more to do with defending Clark than him, it still almost made him smile. Almost.
“And the entire time that he was standing there spouting this garbage he acted like I hadn’t seen him the day before in the grocery store buying Nestle products!” She sounded truly outraged. “Nestle I tell you!”
He smiled at her, trust Chloe to know about scandals that happened before she was even born and still be indignant about them.
“So at least he had very noble reasons for having you investigate me”, Lex allowed his lips to curl up.
Chloe wasn’t going to be undone by that, “Well maybe if you weren’t so secretive then you wouldn’t get investigated so much”.
“Other people have investigated me?” He found that very hard to believe – if one didn’t include the press and gold diggers.
“I assume so”, she said as if she couldn’t understand what else anyone would do in their spare time, which, Lex reflected, she probably couldn’t.
Then he remembered something that she had said before, “What do you mean, secretive?” He knew that he wasn’t always the most forthcoming man about his feelings, he was a little closed off, but he was nowhere near as bad as Clark. He thought that he had been rather straight forward since he had been in Smallville.
Chloe just rolled her eyes at that.
“You want Clark and I to have a sleepover where we do each other’s hair”, he looked amused, probably by his lack thereof, “and stay up late talking about what girls we like?”
Smirking at the image, she replied, “Maybe not. But when was the last time that you just hung out?”
He looked confused and Chloe actually felt sorry for him.
“I mean, you guys are supposed to be best friends and yet, I know that you are busy, but have you two ever just got together to have fun? No other purpose required?” The second that she had said that, she felt odd. She rarely hung out with anyone either, sometimes with Lois when she was in Metropolis rather than gallivanting around her world with her Dad, occasionally with Clark and Pete although not so much since they had started High School, and other than that she was mostly at home with her Dad – when she wasn’t investigating which did take up most of her time. Today was the first time that she had admitted to Clark – or actually to Lex – that she was lonely and needed to just hang out … although actually she hadn’t admitted that, she had said that they had to find a story.
Lex looked at her as if he could read her thoughts and gave her slight, strangely understanding, smile.
“As you have apparently been investigating me, I am guessing that you know the answer to that”.
“I said investigating, not stalking”.
“Shame”.
She coloured and looked at him in surprise, even though she knew that he was just playing with her, he didn’t want her to follow him. “Yes, you need a witness for when the next woman tries to kill you”. Oops, that came out a little too harshly.
He shot her an odd look, which she couldn’t read. It might have been anger. But it could just have easily been amusement.
“Yes, that would be helpful, although …”
“Sorry about that Lex”, Clark announced, as he strolled through the back door, “I just had some chores to finish. Thanks for helping out stocking up the pantry”. Lex didn’t need to know that he had done all of his chores in ten minutes.
“No problem”, Lex smiled, “besides it gave me a chance to catch up with Miss Sullivan”.
“Chloe’s here?” Clark rounded the corner and saw that Chloe was indeed there. “Oh, hey Chloe, what are you doing here?” His question was friendly but in her current clingy state Lex could see that it hurt her. This suspicion was confirmed as he saw her force a smile and say, “Oh I just came by to ask you something about a lead I had on a story but Lex helped with it so don’t worry”.
Lex felt something inside him clench. He liked Clark, he really did, and didn’t think that he would ever intentionally hurt anyone but couldn’t he see that Chloe was feeling wounded and in need of some extra attention and consideration?
“Oh okay”, Clark continued to smile. “Sorry I had to run off on you Lex, you were saying something before?”
Chloe visibly winced now, really hoping that Lex wasn’t going to let anything she had inadvertently divulged to him in the last few minutes slip to Clark. What was she thinking slip? He would never let it slip; he might however use his recently acquired knowledge to humiliate her in front of the man she loved.
“Oh, I think that we have quite a few things to discuss Clark”, he looked pointedly at Chloe who shifted slightly but tried to put on a brave face.
He let her sweat for a few seconds before asking, “But as I have a few days mostly off work I was wondering if you would like to do it over a camping trip”.
Both Chloe and Clark stared at him in shock.
Lex smirked, “I know that we haven’t really done that before but I thought that it was about time that we just ‘hung out’”.
Chloe made a sound which she swore wasn’t a laugh trying to escape. Lex turned a quelling gaze on her. It didn’t work. She smiled sweetly back.
Clark gave him another smile. “Sure Lex, that would be great. We have a holiday and everything is set up on the farm. I was supposed to be going camping with Pete but his family went away at the last minute”.
“I know, that was what gave me the idea”, Lex said, not mentioning Chloe’s input. He spared her a quick glance and realised that she hadn’t know about the camping trip either and felt left out. He was more than a little put out with Clark and Pete now, although he didn’t know why. Chloe Sullivan was a pain in the butt, not his friend.
“I know a few different spots. Did you have any particular one in mind?” Clark inquired.
“Actually, I did. I will make all of the arrangements. Do you want to leave in about an hour? I can pick you up and …”
“Sure”, Clark grinned. “I have a few things to fix up here and to pack but then I’m ready whenever you are”.
“That’s great, I have to pick up a few things too. So, in about an hour?”
“Yeah”.
“Chloe?” Lex turned to her.
“Right, I’m off”, she said feeling sad at the idea of going back home to spend yet another day alone with nothing to do. It was getting bad when going to The Talon to watch Lana being fawned over was starting to look like a good option.
Lex gave her that infuriatingly, kind, sexy, confusing smirk. “I meant, will you be ready to go in an hour or will it take you longer than that to pack?”
A/N: As always, review if you want it to continue. Or have just read it as the thing at the bottom of the screen is gone now.
Bookmarks