Trying this again, since it didn't seem to work the first time...
Title: Banter Can Be Hell
Author: scifichick774
Rating: NC-17
Category: Romance/Smut
Spoilers: Anything through the end of the second season is fair game.
Summary: What? You wanted a plot? No plot for you. *sigh* Fine. Lex runs into Chloe at the library and their usual banter turns into something more. Happy?
Disclaimer: I don’t own Smallville or its characters, or anything from ‘No Exit’ or ‘Storm Front’.
Feedback: YES!! REVIEW!! Geez, that sounded incredibly needy.
Archival: Sure – just let me know where.
Author’s Note: Happy Birthday Adeylan! I doubt this will be finished by then, but at least you’ll get a couple of chapters to start you out. This is a response to her challenge. The requirements were: Chloe and Lex meet in the library, a mention of Sartre’s ‘No Exit’, a mention of white hyacinths, an invitation to the park, and the words: garrulous, Freud, and genuflect. Hope you like it!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Chloe placed the large headphones over her ears and pushed the play button on the CD player in front of her, briefly scanning her eyes over the ‘Property of the Smallville Public Library’ sticker that had been placed on it. She sorted out the books she had in front of her and got her pen and notebook ready. Even if it took her all day, she was going to get her research for the paper she had been assigned to write done.
Generally she would just use her computer, but both her dad and Lana were home sick with the flu, and Chloe had no desire to be their own personal nurse when she had work to do. She contemplated breaking into the school and using the computer in the Torch office, but decided against it when she remembered the lecture she had received from Principal Reynolds the last time she had done it.
And so now, she was forced to doing research the old-fashioned way by going to the town library. They had a few computers with internet access for general use, but they set a time limit of ten minutes for each person, and there was no way that she would possibly be able to get all the information she needed for her paper in that amount of time. She was good, but she wasn’t that good.
She let out an almost dreamy sigh when she heard the man’s voice come through her headphones. James Marsters reading ‘Storm Front’. Sure, it had nothing to do with her assignment, but Chloe was one of those people who had to be doing a few things at once in order to concentrate on any one of them; and she figured that if she was forced to be occupying part of her brain with the modern view of hell in comparison to ancient cultures, then she readily deserved the tingle of arousal that warmed her body with the sound of James Marsters’s voice – even if he wasn’t using his fake British accent like he did on TV.
‘You’d be surprised how many people call just to ask me if I’m serious. But then, if you’d seen the things I’d seen, if you knew half of what I knew, you’d wonder how anyone could not think I was serious.’
Chloe rolled her eyes.
“That sounds familiar,” she muttered to herself in a quiet voice.
“What does?”
Chloe turned at the sound of the familiar male voice behind her that had spoken loud enough to be heard over her headphones. Her eyebrows rose in surprise and she quickly turned back around to pause the CD. She lowered the headphones so the headband was resting around the back of her neck and then smiled at the man as she turned to face him again.
“Mr. Luthor,” she greeted quietly.
“Ms. Sullivan,” he said with a tiny smirk on his lips. Her eyes darted around the room and saw one of the passing patrons giving them a scornful look. Whether it was because she was talking to the most hated man in town or because Lex was still using his normal speaking voice, she couldn’t be sure. She motioned to the chair at the listening desk next to her and Lex sat down.
“What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same question,” he said, now lowering his voice to mimic hers. He glanced over at a couple of the books she had on the desk and the CD cover for ‘Storm Front’.
“Paper,” Chloe answered, waving her hand along with the disgusted tone that lined her voice.
“I thought you enjoyed working on the Torch.”
“The Torch – yes. Unfortunately, I meant paper in the assignment definition of the word.”
“Ah,” Lex said understandingly. He motioned to the books and gave her an almost mocking grin. “Sartre’s ‘No Exit’, ‘Ancient Egyptian Mythology’, and ---” he paused while he arched an eyebrow at her, “an audio book of ‘Storm Front’. I’m intrigued, Ms. Sullivan. What’s this paper supposed to be about?”
“Honestly?” Chloe asked. Lex nodded. “It’s about my teacher trying to exact revenge on me for mentioning him in an article about giving the jocks preferential treatment.” Lex smiled.
“That bad, huh? What topic did he give you?”
“The modern view of hell in comparison to ancient cultures,” she grumbled. Chloe noticed that it looked like Lex was about to start laughing and she glared at him pointedly. “Your turn.”
“Pardon?”
“You never told me why you were here,” she reminded him. Lex’s smile fell to a neutral expression and he shrugged.
“The library has been pleading for additional funding from the city council, but they’re overburdened already, so ---”
“So they came to you,” Chloe finished for him. Lex nodded. “And you, of course, gave them something to shut them up and improve people’s images of you at the same time.” Lex gave her a lopsided smile.
“Something like that,” he admitted. He looked down at the headphones around her neck and then back up to her eyes. “I’m curious - how are you planning to tie a book about a wizard into your paper?” Chloe gave him a nervous smile and Lex noticed a light blush rise to her cheeks.
“I’m not,” she said hesitantly, not knowing whether to trust him with the information. He was one of Clark’s best friends, and although she didn’t have a crush on Clark anymore, she wasn’t sure she wanted to risk Lex telling Clark what she told him and being teased endlessly about it. Lex looked at her expectantly and she shrugged, trying to make it seem like it was no big deal. “James Marsters is the narrator,” she said.
“Oh. Well, that explains everything then,” he said sarcastically. Chloe’s lips spread into a wide smile.
“He plays Spike,” Chloe explained. Lex stared blankly at her. “On ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’,” she elaborated. Lex gave her a bemused grin, but it seemed to Chloe that he still had no idea who she was talking about. She rolled her eyes. “He’s *delicious*,” she finally said in frustration, motioning with her arms as she said it. Lex frowned and there was a look in his eyes that Chloe couldn’t quite place. “What?”
“You like him,” Lex stated. Chloe snickered.
“Ye-ah,” she answered. “Me and the rest of the female population.”
“No man can garner that much attention, Chloe.”
Chloe ignored the fact that Lex had just used her first name and slid the headphones off of her neck, holding them out to Lex expectantly.
“Put them on,” she said. Lex gave her a measured look and then slipped the headphones over his ears. Chloe pushed the pause button on the CD player again, causing it to play. Lex heard the low voice come through the headphones and arched an eyebrow at Chloe. She paused the player again and smiled smugly at him. “See?” Lex let out a light chuckle as he took the headphones off and handed them back to her.
“I sincerely doubt my body had the same physical reaction that yours does,” he pointed out. Chloe blushed ever so slightly, and desperately tried to force it down as Lex stood up and was apparently going to leave her there.
‘At least he’s not going to tease me too much, which means that he might not even mention it to Clark, and ---’ her thoughts cut off when she felt his mouth next to her ear from behind.
“Is that what you go for?” he asked in a low, husky voice that made Chloe’s body break out in goosebumps. “The voice?”
Chloe bit her lower lip, determined that he wasn’t going to get the best of her in this little game he had started playing. A devilish grin curled the corners of her mouth upward.
“That – and he’s gorgeous.”
“He’s too old for you,” Lex shrugged off calmly, if not arrogantly, and in his normal voice. Chloe’s head whipped around as her body twisted in the chair to face him. He was standing up straight now and looking down at her with a smile on his lips.
“I thought you didn’t know who he was?”
“Of course I know who he is, Chloe. You think I don’t watch TV?” he asked in a humored voice. Chloe’s mouth dropped open slightly in disbelief, but she quickly shut it and transformed her face into a scowling expression instead.
“He is not too old for me – not that I would have a chance with him anyway – but he’s not too old for me,” Chloe argued, suddenly back to her spirited self. Lex gave her a dry look.
“He’s forty.”
“He is not!” A few of the patrons glared in their direction because of Chloe’s outburst and she pursed her lips. “He is not,” she repeated quietly.
“Look it up on the computer when you get home if you don’t believe me,” he said. Chloe just looked at him with a stunned expression on her face. Her eyes took on a distant look and Lex frowned.
“Wow. He looks damn good for forty,” she said appraisingly. Lex squared his jaw and forced a smile on his face before she met his eyes again.
“Now, come on,” he said, extending a hand out to her, “It’s too nice of a day to spend inside.” Chloe gave him a tight grin.
“Tell my teacher that,” she said. “And what makes you think I’d go anywhere with you anyway?” He motioned with his hand again for her to take it and she shook her head lightly. Lex rolled his eyes.
“Are you always this stubborn?” Lex asked. “Most women would be thrilled at the prospect of going for a walk in the park and seeing the white hyacinths in bloom.”
“First of all, yes. I’m always this stubborn. Especially when I have an assignment from hell *about* hell that’s due in two weeks. Second, I’m not most women.”
“You don’t say,” Lex said wryly. Chloe gave him a fake smile and started to turn around to face the desk again. Lex frowned. When he had left the library’s administrative offices and seen Chloe in the audio room at a desk, with no Clark Kent or Pete Ross in sight no less, he decided to take the opportunity to act on his growing attraction for her. And now, even after some nice banter, she was turning down spending time with him. Not only was it a blow to his ego, but it made his heart constrict a little as well; an action that he didn’t want to delve into the meaning of just yet. A sly, Cheshire-like grin spread across his lips as an idea came to him. He stood behind her and leaned down to speak into her ear again.
“Would it help if I told you I can do the accent?” he asked, his voice returning to the low huskiness of before, only this time lined with the same accent that her celebrity infatuation used on the TV show. Chloe’s eyes grew wide and her body started to hum with the warmth of arousal.
“I – um ---” she stammered, suddenly finding her mouth incredibly dry.
“Come on, Sullivan,” he said, walking to her side and offering her his hand once again. “I’ll even help you with your paper if you want.”
Chloe arched a disbelieving eyebrow.
“*You’re* going to help me with my paper?” she asked.
“Who better to help you with a paper about hell than ---”
“I certainly hope you’re not going to refer to yourself as the devil,” Chloe said snarkily. Lex grinned as she pushed herself out of her chair and started to grab her things.
“If I was, would that make you *more* or *less* likely to go to the park with me?”
“More,” Chloe replied in a resigned grumble. “I need all the help on this paper I can get.”
TBC…
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(Sorry, digressed into my Spike obsession there) 
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