NS Advent Calendar 2007 - Gifts of Meaning - Complete

[somethingeasy]

Lex nodded silently at Chloe's roommate, and let her inch out the door as he tiptoed in. He put the case of bottled water under his girlfriend's desk and slid it out of the way. Opening the cupboard next to her bookshelf, he hid two bars of chocolate and a bag of chips. With her study food topped up, he ducked outside the door and picked up the bag of food he brought for breakfast.

oh WOW!! Best. Boyfriend. EVER!!! He actually brought Chloe a supply of study-snacks when she might not have time to go shopping for herself?! That is going WAY above and beyond typical male consideration. Chloe is truly depressed and blinded if she thinks that this guy is getting ready to dump her!

“Chloe, it's time to wake up,” he whispered. “I brought coffee, your favourite.”

She wiggled as if to turn away and drift deeper into sleep, and Lex tickled her side. “I can't let you go back to sleep, you'd kill me for making you late. Open those eyes,” he asked.

His mouth found hers, her neck slanting back. The light, soft kiss warmed her face and she touched his shirt buttons. The vague, sleepy motions became halting, and her eyes opened as she pushed away from him.

LOL! Best. Alarm. Clock. EVER! ROTFL! This was a beautiful way for anyone to be woken up. HOW does Chloe manage to keep herself from spending every night with Lex? How does she keep returning to the dorm when she has the option of spending the nights, and waking up in the mornings beside Lex?

He smiled gently. “It's not even time for your alarm. Relax for a few minutes and then we can eat breakfast together,” he said. “I brought some coffee and croissants, some yoghurt for you, and a berry sundae because you'll be working hard this morning. You have the literature exam today, don't you, the one with the long essay?”

I am in awe of the level of attention and devotion Lex spends on Chloe. He not only brought her the perfect breakfast, but he even knew all the details about her exams and the kind of questions that would be asked in it. In fact, he even knew her special wake-up schedule for exam days. That is remarkable!

Lex sat on the edge of the bed and nodded. “We colluded a little. I'm paying for her to take a limo to breakfast at her favourite restaurant, and she's getting out of our way so we can spend some time together. But I won't keep you from studying if you like. I'll just put the food out and you can read your books while I read the paper.”

ROTFL! Niiice! Extensive overdone bribery to get the room-mate out of the way. Dear God, if I can’t be Chloe, can I at least be Chloe’s room-mate?!

“Did something happen,” she asked hoarsely. “Something bad?”

Lex turned to see her staring, and reached for her. She took his hand but kept distance between them.

“Nothing is wrong, but I'll be working out of Smallville until Christmas, so I won't see you until you're on break. I wanted to make sure you have everything you need and that you know where to find me. As an added bonus I got to smell your neck just as you were waking up.”

Poor Lex… he went through so much trouble to provide the perfect romantic wake-up call, and he got himself a grumpy, suspicious girlfriend. So much for the fantasies about Disney Sleeping Princesses, LOL!

But he’s still being so sweet, cute and romantic despite her crabbiness. In fact, he even broke through her suspicious mood….

He rubbed her knuckles and she grinned. She wasn't getting dumped that day.

“You perverted neck sniffer. And yes, I have everything I need and I know where to find you in Smallville. It's the castle in the middle of nowhere, rising four stories high, right?”

ROTFL! And the snark has returned. It’s nice to see her smiling at Lex again. I guess his romanticism this morning provided her with a ‘little’ bit of reassurance about his feelings towards her. If ONLY she could let go of the conviction that she’s on the threshold of being dumped.

“I have something big planned for Christmas,” he told her. “It's a surprise. Do you think you could stay away from the castle until that morning?”

heh, let’s hope that Chloe’s overly-paranoid state of mind doesn’t lead her to believe that Lex has planned a special cruelty of the ‘dumping of her’ as his ‘Christmas Surprise’.

Her nose wrinkled as she brought her cup to her mouth and found it empty. “You don't like holiday things.”

Lex folded his newspaper and helped her pack the food. Chloe stood up and sent crumbs flying down into the stiff dorm carpeting.

“I liked holidays once, and a lot of that was ruined for me. I think it's worth trying again. Your family seems to survive celebrating,” he said.

She rolled her eyes.

I’m still hoping that Chloe is NOT going to go down the paranoid thought of thinking the worst of Lex’s possible surprise… But I really wouldn’t be shocked if she did jump to the wrong conclusion

He knew the only answer to that muttered comment, and Lex even meant it. He had never seen Chloe looking less than wonderful since they'd started dating. “I've never noticed any fat on you,” he said.

She stroked down his cheeks and pecked his mouth. “Cataracts so early, too bad. At least I can eat all I want apparently,” she said. “You have to get out so I can get ready. Thank you for breakfast. I'll see you at Christmas and you'll hear from me before then.”

ROTFL! That was a Good Answer from Lex, and it was all the lovelier because it was sincere. And Chloe snarky response was hysterical, LOL!

Lex pulled on his coat and left with a swagger. He would be a good husband and Chloe was a fair, loving person who gave him as much praise as she could justify. She would write exams; he would shovel dirt and decorate a tree. They would meet on Christmas morning and never be apart again.

heh, Lex is really going all out in proving what a loving, devoted life partner he can be. His devoted attention this morning should have gone a long way towards soothing away some or most of Chloe’s insecurities. If he can keep himself from repeating the mistake of neglecting her ‘for her own sake’, they might be able to breeze through this troubled patch in their relationship with neither of them getting hurt. LOL! But then again, this IS a Nonky fic, and I’m sure she has something terrible in mind to crush Lex before she deems him worthy of a happy ending, LOL! Have fun, Nonky!

[Lillian]

But...where is the rest of this fic?

Please, update soon.

[Julie]

But...where is the rest of this fic?

Please, update soon.

Relax! Nonky is doing her best updating this! You have to remember her real life is really hectic now, so give her some time. She'll update when she has something written to post.

[bether05]

I'm still holding out hope for another ch or even the finish of this story!!

[starmoon]

please come back and finish i really can't wait for more.

[kitten]

Chapter Eighteen

Digging was back-breaking but straightforward, Lex discovered. It took little skill other than to ignore the discomfort in his upper body. It went faster when he tried to block out all ideas of deadlines and boredom and just did the work. He didn't do any math to tell him when he should expect to be finished. He told the kitchen staff not to bother making lunch. The bottle of water he brought out with him had long since dripped away any real coldness, but it was cooler than his skin.

The greenhouse had enclosed boxes of different shapes. The one in the centre was round and the walls were lined on two sides with semi-circular boxes. He had known for a while he wasn't capable of building anything nearly as artistic, but when he took a closer look Lex had to chuckle at his earlier misconceptions. He had been thinking in terms of nails and lining up the edges of boards. There was a whole lot going on he didn't get at all. He would have to look up whether wood could be bent or if it was carved into the identical curves of the outer boxes.

His next shovel of soil had a worm wiggling on top and he paused with morbid distaste. What were the coffee plants going to make of a worm? He personally hadn't encountered one since elementary biology class and that one was dead. Worms created tunnels that ventilated soil. Plants took in oxygen. Unless it was a grub that would gnaw on the plant. If it had teeth it was a grub, but Lex didn't know how to tell. If he waved some leaves in front of it would it try to eat them?

He hefted the shovel with one hand and took a sip of water. Environmentalists loved worms, so it was probably welcome. Also, he was fine with shoveling dirt, but didn't feel like touching anything squirmy. He dumped the shovel and kept going. Hopefully Chloe wasn't afraid of worms, too.

He paused and straightened his shoulders. He wasn't afraid, though a lot of people were. Worms were disgusting. He finished filling the box and patted the soil into smoothness, only remembering the worm was down there afterward.

“Sorry,” he muttered. “That couldn't have felt good.”

He had filled the outer boxes and the middle section was empty. It seemed like he might be able to set up a ramp and dump the wheelbarrow straight in. Lex found a sturdy lid from one of the crates and propped it up with cans of lime. He stepped carefully as he tested it out, and sighed with relief when nothing broke. He had too much work to be in a cast.

Gleefully, he was able to dump the remaining soil in record time. Lex put down PH testing strips and closed up the greenhouse. He had to decorate the library and put up the tree that should have been delivered.


He looked the opponent up and down, slowly, threateningly. Lex squared his shoulders, slid his hands into his pockets as if he didn't have a care in the world, and then he turned his back.

"You're green," he said calmly. "You're green and I'm not. I'm the winner here, and you're not going to beat me. This isn't for me, this is for Chloe, and she likes-"

He whirled suddenly, charged the tree and started wrestling it upright from where it was leaning on the wall. All he had to do was get it standing and beautifully decorated.

"-Christmas! She likes Christmas, and I don't but I'll do this because she likes it. You're going to stand up straight, and be impressive, and then, so - am I!"

He strained to hold up the tree and wondered how his request for a big Christmas tree had been interpreted as 'cut down a redwood and put it in my library.' He was excessive and even he could see it was a monster. Maybe it was a not-very-subtle hint that someone thought he was losing his grip. He would show them.

Lex gave it a shove and ran over to the other side to catch it before it could fall into his pool table. He held it upright and kicked off his shoe to tighten the bolts on the tree stand with his toes. His head and shoulders were covered in loose needles glued on with sap.

Next year I'm going artificial, he mused tiredly. Those must be so light in comparison.

[westwingwolf]

I guess Lex never had to do so much hard work in his life. I happen to love playing with worms but I can see where he'd be disgusted by it. Though, it was sweet that he felt sorry for it later. The hardest part of Christmas has to be putting up the tree. He really shouldn't have attempted it by himself. I fear how crazy he'll be driven when he has to decorate it. He might break down crying if the lights get tangled up in a knotty mess. If Chloe doesn't accept his proposal after all this, he'll definitely end up in Belle Reve.

[Julie]

What? Am I seeing correctly? An update on the advent calendar fic?


lol... Well done Keep it up. Not much to go!

[superag]

Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree, How green? Green in July? Oh well, I love Christmas in July too! I'm SSSSOOOOOOOOOO happy that AC Lex is not dead. His incredible Niceness rolled over all the other Lexes and got to tell his story. Hopefully, he'll come back from hiding once more and tell us more of his tale. BTW, I still so totally want to own AC Lex.

[daria_103]

I'm so happy to see an update to this fic, I was checking obsessively for updates everyday at Christmas and was sad to see it go on hiatus. I love this Lex, it's wonderful and comical to see everything he's going through for Chloe.

I had to stop reading for a minute to laugh at the visual of him charging a Christmas tree. I can only imagine what he'll have to go through to get it decorated. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next.