Granted (R)

[Sab_Luthor]

hello man
can you come back and update please

[scifichick774]

“Hey! I’m back!” Chloe called out as she walked into the house. She had seen Pete’s car in the driveway, and knowing her friend as well as she did, headed directly for the living room where she could hear the television blaring in the background. “Sorry it took so long, but there was this ---” Chloe trailed off as she stepped into the room and caught a sharp eyeful of Pete and Lana making out on the couch. “What the hell?!”

Pete jerked away from Lana and shot Chloe an apologetic look as he stumbled to his feet.

“Chlo! I didn’t hear you…I mean…”

Chloe placed her hands on her hips and arched an eyebrow at him, daring him to continue. When he shrunk under the intensity of her stare instead of continuing his ill-thought out explanation, Chloe began to speak.

“You just mean *what*, Pete?” she asked, her tone surprisingly calm but seething with an underlying anger that both Pete and Lana cringed at.

“She kissed *me*!” Pete exclaimed in his defense, earning a pointed look from Chloe and a blush from Lana. “What was I supposed to do?!”

“So…what? Knowing how much it would hurt your best friend *Clark* if he found you macking on his pseudo girlfriend, you were just pushing her tongue back into her mouth for her?” Chloe asked with heavy sarcasm.

“Uh…”

Chloe absently shook her head and then rolled her eyes.

“Whatever.”

“Chlo-e,” Pete whined. “Don’t be like that.”

Chloe let out a scoffing huff of air through her nose and then shot him an incredulous look.

“It’s Lana, Pete. *Lana*! You should know better,” Chloe said. Lana seemed offended by the comment, but merely scrunched her lips up into a tightly pursed line since she couldn’t say anything in response. “I mean, she’s a meteor freak magnet, for crying out loud! And I don’t care how big your new muscles are – dating Lana *and* knowing Clark’s secret? You’ll be dead before morning.” She paused as a pensive look crept over her face. “I probably shouldn’t have said anything about Clark’s secret, huh?” She shrugged. “Oh, well.”

Pete and Lana gaped at her with wide eyes and open mouths, causing Chloe to hang her head and shake it lightly in dismay. They just didn’t get it. Perhaps this was her punishment for being so unkind to Clark and Lana earlier that day, some sort of karmic balance; but whatever it was, she had lost yet another friend to Lana’s superficial beauty, and for some reason it hurt more this time.

Pete had always proved impervious to Lana’s charms in the past, and to have him just betray that strength of character out of nowhere was more than a little unsettling. But then, maybe he had never been that strong, maybe he had secretly lusted after the brunette girl all that time and just didn’t think he had a chance with her until his new body emerged.

The thought made Chloe even sicker than she felt already and she turned to walk back to the front door, completely ignoring the words spilling from Pete’s mouth in protest of her leaving.

A small part of her vaguely recognized his presence behind her as she made her way to her car, but she steeled her emotions so she wouldn’t break down like she had when she found out about Clark and Lana being together and lying to her about it.

Just then, she was struck with an epiphany. She wasn’t upset or heartbroken that Pete was with Lana, that he had chosen physical pleasure over friendship – she was angry.

Like she told him in the house, he should have known better. But, he was clearly ruled by his dick like every other guy at their school and didn’t stop to realize what the consequences of his actions might be.

Well…it was time he found out.

Chloe turned the key to her car and started the engine, not sparing even a second of time to stop and glare at Pete as she shifted the car into gear and pressed her foot to the gas pedal.

Pete watched her drive away with an ache in his heart. He didn’t think that…he didn’t think. Lana had kissed him and his body had gone into auto pilot mode; purely acting on the physical sensations that arose within him rather than how much pain he would cause his friend.

‘Friends - plural,” he mentally corrected, cringing when he realized that Clark was going to find out as well and that he’d have to come up with some explanation for his actions that wouldn’t cause his friend to beat him to a bloody pulp. “Shit.”

~*~*~*~

The loud music blared from Lex’s expensive audio system as his speed slowed to drive through town on his way to the highway.

The slower speed brought nothing but irritation, as Lex figured that Chloe and Pete were undoubtedly already on their way to Metropolis. But, with any luck, their departure had been delayed a little if he sped the rest of the way, which he had planned to anyway; he might be able to catch up with them before they reached the city.

‘And do what?’ a snide voice inside his head asked. ‘Push them off the road? Risk hurting Chloe just so she won’t go dancing with someone she only sees as a friend?’

Lex frowned and tried to ignore the thoughts, concentrating on his driving instead. As it had earlier that morning, Chloe’s red Volkswagen seemed to call to him like a beacon and caught his eye.

A grin raised the corners of his mouth. She hadn’t left yet. She had stopped to get coffee at…the Beanery? Lex’s grin fell. To his knowledge, Lana had kept the Talon open during her incapacitation – simply allowing other staff to run the establishment until she got better.

‘Something’s going on,’ he thought as he pulled his car to the side of the road and parked it.

A few quick strides brought him to the inside of the building that he hadn’t stepped foot in since the Talon opened. Chloe was sitting at a table on the far end of the room, seemingly muttering something into her cup of coffee before sipping it.

Lex approached the table, his lips curving into a delighted smirk when he heard what Chloe was mumbling to herself.

“…Stupid Pete…” she paused and took another sip of coffee, not noticing that Lex was almost right next to her now.

“I thought you left for Metropolis?”

Completely taken off guard by the statement and the voice that had spoken it, Chloe choked on the small amount of hot liquid coursing down her throat and held her hand up to her mouth until the coughing cleared.

Lex handed her a napkin, the smirk on his face only seeming to grow and he motioned to the chair across from her with his head.

“May I?”

“Sure – but what are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same question,” Lex pointed out.

“No. I mean --- this isn’t exactly your turf.”

“I have a turf?” Lex asked jokingly.

“The Talon.”

“Ah. Do I have gang colors too?”

Chloe pursed her lips for a second gave him a slight glare because of his cheekiness.

“Violet and baby blue from what I’ve noticed,” she retorted with a smirk to match his own.

Lex was immediately thankful that he hadn’t ordered yet, because if he had been drinking coffee, it would have sprayed out of his mouth at her in surprise. Though part of him was pleased that Chloe had noticed what colors he usually wore, he knew that she hadn’t said or meant her statement in a flattering context.

“Perhaps we should get back to the topic at hand,” he suggested. Chloe glanced at him over the rim of her coffee cup. “I couldn’t help but overhear you say something about… ‘stupid Pete’, was it?”

Chloe groaned and set her coffee down on the table so she could start ranting, waving her hands in the air as she spoke.

“Remember how I told you the errands I had to run?” she asked. Lex nodded once. “Well, I come home from the ATM to find him *making out* with Lana on my couch.” Lex’s eyes grew a little wider. “I mean – don’t you think he should know better? It’s not just me, right?”

“I ---”

He was cut off by a waiter finally coming by to take his order and simply grinned at Chloe after placing it. With any luck, she would forget the question she had just asked him or it had been rhetorical to begin with.

“Metropolis was *his* idea,” Chloe continued, causing Lex to let out a small breath of relief. “And you should have seen the outfit I had picked out. Forget Pete - *I* could have gotten lucky with that outfit. Cute shiny red halter top that shows my whole back and my low-rise leather pants. And now - *now* - ugh. You know what? Screw it! I’ve already made all the arrangements – I’ll just go by myself.”

‘The hell you will!’ Lex screamed inside his head, but was smart enough not to voice the comment aloud – at least not in those words. “Your dad will let you go to the city without an escort?”

Chloe smiled impishly and then shrugged.

“Sure. Why not?”

“You haven’t told him,” Lex observed.

“Not true,” Chloe said. “I told him that Pete and I were going to Metropolis and that we’d probably crash at my cousin’s so we wouldn’t have to drive back at night.”

“But you won’t be going with Pete.”

The waiter came back with his order and placed it in front of him, flashing a smile at Chloe before turning around to go walk back to the counter. Lex pushed the slight twinge of jealousy he felt aside, as Chloe looked more irritated by the interruption to their discussion than anything else.

“You’re acting like I didn’t have to drive down there by myself every single week I was working for The Daily Planet,” she said.

“It’s a slightly different situation, Chloe. After all, you were going there to work, not to spend your nights trying to pass off your fake I.D. as a real one.”

“I was never even carded, but for your information – my I.D. could totally pass if I had been.”

‘Uh…’ Lex thought, inwardly cursing himself for not being able to come up with an immediate response to what she said. He lifted his lips into a forced and uneasy half-grin so he could change the subject without calling too much attention to the fact that he was doing so. “Whatever happened to your job at The Daily Planet anyway?”

An unreadable expression slipped over Chloe’s face.

“Death threats…pen name…long story,” she answered cryptically. Lex arched a questioning eyebrow but said nothing. He suspected that Chloe’s situation had something to do with his father, and that was a can of worms that was better left unopened. “So, what’d you wish for?”

The question caught Lex off guard and he was unable to conceal the surprise that took over his features. Fortunately for him, he was able to cover the panic that immediately followed.

“Sorry. I just naturally presumed that you’d be off to visit the medallion after I kicked you and Clark out of the house,” Chloe said.

Lex gave her a lopsided smirk.

“How very astute of you.”

Chloe smiled back at him and took a sip of her coffee.

“So?” she asked. “Should the citizens of Smallville be expecting it to rain gold coins from the sky tomorrow? Because, you know, that could be dangerous and you should warn them.”

‘Tomorrow?’ Lex thought.

His eyes widened ever so slightly as understanding struck him. It had taken all of the other wishes a decent amount of time before they went into effect. Lex smirked in delight. There might still be a chance that Chloe could fall in love with him; but he should lay the foundation for courting her anyway, in case the relic did indeed have some sort of wish limit to it.

The best way he could think of to get into her good graces was to get her talking about herself. Most of the women he knew loved to talk about themselves, but he had an inkling that Chloe wouldn’t be as easy to coerce.

“Is that what you would wish for?” he finally asked.

Chloe’s hands, cradling her coffee mug between them, stilled where they were and her eyes darted up from the remnants of the dark liquid to where Lex was waiting for an answer. She winced and looked back down at her drink, bringing it up to her mouth so she could murmur into the cup rather than speak the words to Lex directly.

“What was that? I’m sorry. I didn’t quite catch it.”

Chloe sighed.

“I wished that Lana would lose her voice,” she admitted begrudgingly. “Just for a week though. And I actually thought ‘day’ first, so she might have it back tomorrow.” Lex chuckled and Chloe gave him a weak smile. “So, what about you? You never told me what *you* wished for.”




TBC...

[marrycherry]

yes Lex tell her what you wished for!!! :eyebrows:

great chappy!!! i want more :chlexsign1:

and for once i want a scene with Clunk where he founds out about Pete and Blana opdevil: ok??

:chlexsign4:

[tigroon]

Reading fanfiction can get sooooooo frustrating :yay: .
Actually it is almost always a masochistic activity unless you
are very strong-willed and read only completed stories.

I loved the update and I'm waiting for the next...

[Sab_Luthor]

no no no no no no
you can't finish like that
please please come back please
this part is so great
and the chlex part at the beanery was so interestibg
please more

[asharnanae]

:biggrin: Fantastic lovely!!!!!!!! I loved that chappy so much, and pete and lana on the couch, what a thing to walk inon! wonderful stuff.

[jaded-swan]

can't wait to hear lex's reply... please no more cliffhangers... it's so evil!

[happy bunny]

Still loving this. Can't wait to see what Lex tells her and what her response to that is.

[tigerbaby]

Poor Pete! I loved that Lana couldn't defend herself against Chloe's observations. This is just too funny. Can't to see how Lex responds.

[WolviesLover]

Yes! One of my favorite stories updated! I've always admired your writing, though it was through fanfiction.net that I discovered it. And I've been a huge fan ever since! :blush: Actually, it was your link on your bio that brought me here! Great chapter, I hope you'll be updating this again soon! Not to mention my absolute favorite, Beloved!