Much Ado About Smallville
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: I don’t own Smallville – unfortunately.
Spoilers: I have changed so much that I doubt it.
Summary: Lex comes to stay with the Sullivans for the summer as he has done since he was a child and both of his parents died in the meteor crash which left him bald, will his dislike of Chloe turn into something more this year or will it be yet another summer of one-up-manship, machinations and snarkiness?
*Chapter One*
“Welcome to Smallville Kansas, population 25,000, largest producer of corn in the state and home of the only Luthor Corp plant not to be constantly bombarded with complaints about the way that we are treating the environment”, Lex Luthor announced as he sped passed the welcome sign.
“I can’t thank-you enough for bringing me with you Lex”, his companion thanked him from the umpteenth time.
“Sure you can, Clark. Just stop thanking me”, Lex smiled easily.
Clark smiled at that. “I’ll try but you have no idea how much this means to me”.
“I do Clark, I can assure you that I do. You have to remember that my parents died in the Meteor crash too. The only difference was that I was fortunate enough to have money and someone to support me where as you did not. I know that I would not have turned out like you did if I had been sent to an orphanage. Hell, I didn’t turn out like you and I have had plenty of stability”, he said as they raced through even more fields of corn.
“That’s the Gabe Sullivan you are always speaking about”, Clark hazarded a guess.
It would not be correct to say that Lex blushed; Luthor’s never blushed. But he did turn a little pinker, probably due to the heat of that fine June morning he told himself. “I didn’t know that I spoke about him that much”.
“You don’t, in general. You are quite guarded about your private life and the Sullivans but to me, yes you have mentioned him quite a few times especially when thinking up new business strategies”, Clark explained.
Lex tried to shrug it off. “He is a very capable business man. He ran one of the larger Luthor Corp enterprises in Metropolis originally and bloody good at it but when the meteors fell and he lost his wife he wanted a change of pace for him and his daughter. He helped build up the Smallville plant from scratch and ever since that day it has been one of our biggest hitters and somehow always environmentally sound”.
“That is impressive”, Clark said, he knew how difficult a lot of the plants found it to balance their balance their books and their environmental responsibilities. “But there is more to it than that, right?”
“Yes”, Lex shook his head with a smile; he couldn’t believe that he was actually talking about this. “I was in private boarding school in Metropolis so my life didn’t change that much after my parents’ deaths but it turns out that Gabe was their executor. He welcomed me into his home at every single holiday, took more of an interest in my academic education and in me than my real father ever did. My first act when I turned 18 was giving him the Luthor mansion, he refused of course but I had to explain to him that I wanted that house to have a family and that the only people who could fill it with enough love were the Sullivans”.
“What did he say?” Clark wondered, trying to imagine the man who would turn down a mansion.
“He still refused to accept it so I agreed that he would just manage it until his daughter came of age, and he agreed to that”, Lex smiled, “anything for his little girl”.
“You have never mentioned the daughter before”, Clark said, thinking that was odd as Lex was a notorious flirt … maybe the girl was really ugly.
“Ah there is a reason for that. The house is lovely, and so is Gabe, the only fly in the ointment is his pain in the ass of a daughter”, Lex said.
“She is really that bad?” Clark inquired, a little nervously. It was hard to imagine anyone so terrible that Lex Luthor couldn’t deal with them let alone a little girl.
“Think of the worst, most obstinate, suborn girl you can possibly imagine, times that by ten and you are still nowhere near to describing Chloe Ann Sullivan”, Lex tried to describe her.
Clark shivered at the idea of someone that Lex could not control but said valiantly, “However bad she might be, I am still glad that you invited me. Since we met you have been sort of, an older brother to me, and this … taking me to what is basically your family home for the summer while University is out so that I am not just bumming around Metropolis by myself, it means a lot”.
“I already told you stop thanking me, if anything see it as a job. Yes, I am here to spend the summer with Gabe and do a bit of work with the plant, but mainly spend time with the family. Gabe insists that a multibillionaire can delegate enough to have a holiday – or else he said that he would send Chloe to fetch me”, he shuddered at the very idea. “So you can act as a buffer which will hopefully keep me from strangling her within the first five minutes and ending up on death row”.
“She sounds charming”, Clark commented, admiring the view. Even with the addition of an apparently very annoying girl, this would still be the best summer that he had ever had and he was determined to enjoy it.
“Indeed, I hope that you didn’t mind such an early start but I wanted to get there before 7am”, Lex continued the conversation.
“No problem, got work to do?”
“No, I just know that Chloe chose to come back from Yale at a ridiculous hour yesterday night rather than coming back earlier in the day because she wanted to go on a date, I plan on rubbing that in her face by arriving when she is probably still in bed”, Lex grinned.
“Why do I get the feeling that you are not exactly the innocent bystander in many of your dealings?” Clark wondered, a little shocked to hear that Chloe was in University, he had had the impression that she was much younger.
“I have no idea”, Lex tried to look innocent but his face broke out into a broad, decidedly mischievous grin.
~*~
“Ergh!” Chloe groaned, as she shuffled into the kitchen and was hit by just how bright it really was.
“Good morning sunshine, did you have a good night’s sleep?” Her father asked good naturedly from where he was standing next to the coffee pot.
“I’ll let you know when it’s over”, she groused as she plodded over to the coffee maker and wrinkled her nose.
“It is black”, he told her helpfully.
“It is liquid, good coffee shouldn’t pour easily”, Chloe complained and started making her own pot.
“Yes, so I have told by Lex numerous times”, Gabe said, “I suppose that now I will have both of your impertinent little puppies making fun of my coffee making skills”.
“Wha?” Chloe looked at him in confusion.
“It is the 1st of June, you know that Lex always comes down then for three months”, Gabe said, surprised that she had forgotten that. Maybe she really did need some more sleep, he knew that her dating had been a bad idea.
“Yeah, when he was at school, in Uni and under 21. He is 21 now”, Chloe protested.
“He may be 21 but he is still part of this family and he needs a holiday”, he said, not sternly because Gabe was never stern but the matter was definitely not open for discussion.
“Fine”, Chloe sulked, “so much for the nice relaxing summer that I had planned. I might as well have stayed at Yale”.
“It won’t be that bad and you know that you would never leave me alone for the whole of the summer”, Gabe reminded her.
“You won’t be alone, you’ll have Lex”, she said.
Gabe sighed and wrapped his arm around his daughter’s shoulders, “Not this again. Someone really is overtired. We have had this conversation before. I love Lex like a son and I always want him to feel included but I only have one little baby Chloe, and that is you. You always come first, you know that”. He kissed her forehead, “Now, as I recognised the signs that you are upset about something out with it. Why are you even up this early? I thought that you would be tired after the big date”.
“The big date, the one I have been waiting for for weeks … he didn’t turn up. I sat there waiting for him for two hours but nothing”, her bottom lip quivered.
“Maybe something happened to him. Maybe it is in hospital in a coma right now”, Gabe suggested optimistically.
“Thanks Dad, but I don’t have that kind of luck”, Chloe said, as she rested her head on his shoulder.
“Oh, I wouldn’t bet on that”, Gabe muttered stroking his daughter’s hair.
“You’re the only man I can count on”, she said.
“Yes, well as much as I would love to say that that was true and that you should swear off all boys … actually no, that is right. They are all smelly horrible creatures, you would be much better off having nothing to do with them”, he smiled at the idea.
Chloe laughed.
“Seriously sweetheart, I don’t know what was wrong with that boy last night but there are some good men out there, trust worthy ones who will make you happy and if you meet one like that … Lex and I will get rid of him and then you can stay with me until you are an old maid and no one wants you”, he said brightly as the coffee maker beeped to show that her sludge was ready.
“At least eat something if you are going to drink that muck”, Gabe said as he watched her salivating as he poured it / spooned it out.
“Will do Daddy”, Chloe promised as she pulled away from him to get her cup and he started on breakfast.
“At least you will have Lex to torment, you know how that always cheers you up”, he said with a smile.
“I resent that”, she huffed, but enjoying the feeling the heavy warmth of the mug in her hands, “I never torment him, he torments me. It is always all his fault”.
“I know that baby, because you are my daughter. An impartial judge might not share my view. Oh and he is bringing a friend down”, Gabe added as he started pouring out porridge oats.
“No”, Chloe exclaimed. “I know that he keeps a line of whores …”
“Chloe Ann Sullivan”.
“Fine, I know that he keeps a line of ladies of slightly less than reputable virtue”, Chloe corrected herself.
“Better”, Gabe nodded.
“But not here. It is bad enough that they have to tag along on ever picnic and outing”, she brought her coffee to her lips without making any attempt to eat something first.
“Darling, you normally get rid of them within five minutes”, Gabe said with his back to her as he got to work on the muffins.
Chloe looked shocked. “I do no such thing. I am always extremely kind and gracious to the little trollo … trolls. They are just always so mean!”
“They normally dote on you”, her father reminded her.
“That is just because they think that they can get around Lex that way, although God knows why when he is always so mean to me”, she drank a little more coffee and decided that it wasn’t quite strong enough.
“Probably because everyone in Excelsior and most of society knows what happens to people who are mean to you in Lex’s presence”, he suggested mildly, not bothering to even react to the idea that Lex was always mean to her. He remembered fondly the day when they had been at Chloe’s sports day, not the part when someone had pulled her pig tail and called her a piggy, but the next minute when he had seen had been Lex flying through the air to rugby tackle the boy to the ground, sit on his back and push his face into the mud while pulling his hair whilst saying “We don’t pull people’s hair. It isn’t nice”.
“Meh!”
“You know that Jodie still has scandal attached to her name after she was apparently rude to you and Lex found out”, he still had no idea what had actually happened between Jodie and Chloe or how Lex had found out but he thought it wiser not to ask as Chloe had seemed alright afterwards and Lex felt that sufficient vengeance had been extracted, “You know that Lex had her arrested on suspicious of soliciting”.
Chloe smirked but then controlled it and announced, “Yes, well that doesn’t change the fact that his girlfriends are always stupid. Remember that one who sat down on the glue that I was using and had quite naturally left on her chair and then tried to blame me?”
“Yes, I remember that event well. You have to admit that the evidence was rather against you at that point. You had wanted to play with Lex …”
“I never wanted anything of the sort”, Chloe denied.
Gabe smiled, “Okay, you thought that you would be very kind and allow Lex to play with you …”
“Better”, Chloe nodded.
“And show him your new art kit when the nasty little girl got in the way and took his attention away from you”, Gabe said, knowing what had really got under Chloe’s skin. She couldn’t stand for anyone to have the attention of someone she cared about other than her, it made her nervous. With him that made her clingy, with Lois that made her loud, and with Lex that made her bratty. There was no one else she cared about that much.
“She also interrupted me and used one of my new crayons without asking”, Chloe pointedly ignored her father’s implication that she had ever wanted Lex’s attention knowing that if she argued the point that he would just say, ‘me thinks the lady doth protest too much’.
“The nerve of the girl”, Gabe teased, “and then she sat on your glue”.
“Yes, and Lex took her side”, Chloe finished off her coffee and poured herself another while her father wasn’t looking.
“As I remember it, Lex brought you a new even bigger even more sparkly tube of glue, stopped the girl throwing something at you, and told her that she was no longer welcome on the company picnic and that if she and her family didn’t leave immediately then they would be fired. She just happened to be there, he didn’t actually invite her”, Gabe reminded her.
Chloe shrugged, “Well, that doesn’t change the fact that he said that I was a very naughty little girl and that if I mislaid anything like that again that he would stick me in a corner for a whole four minutes”.
“No, nothing can make up for such a slight. I don’t know why he wasn’t immediately hauled off to jail”, Gabe chuckled to himself.
“Neither do I”, Chloe said, without a trace of humour.
Gabe regarded his daughter for a few moments before asking, “Would it make you happier to know that the friend coming with him now is a boy?”
“Lex has a boyfriend?” Chloe’s eyes sparked with mischief.
“That isn’t exactly how I would put it”.
“Really, it is exactly how I am going to put it”, she grinned.
“Yes, I thought that it might be”, Gabe chortled as the doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it, I’ll get it”, Chloe raced to the front door and threw it open, her freshly refilled coffee cup still in her hand.
“Hello Lex, is this your new boyfriend?” She asked before getting a good look at who it was.
It was indeed Lex standing there looking a little taller than she remembered and better build in what counted as casual wear for him, grey slacks and a soft blue jumper which highlighted the lean lines of his body. He was wearing the irritating, charming smirk that he had perfected soon after his fourteenth birthday when Chloe had never understood why girls were starting to go weak in the knees over him.
Lex’s eyes trailed over her obviously and appraisingly. From her bare feet with painted toe nails, over her delicate ankles up her shapely distinctly bare legs to the short cotton shorts which encased her hips and the grey tank top which did nothing to hide the flatness of her stomach or the fullness of her breasts.
“I guess Smallville as done some growing up since Christmas”, he commented as he noticed her ample chest. It hadn’t gown since Christmas, in fact Chloe had looked more or less the same since her sixteenth birthday there was just a lot more of her on display in what he took to be her pyjamas.
Chloe rolled her eyes, “If this is your attempt to make me cower before the great and power Lex Luthor …”
“Damn, I didn’t know that you thought of me in that way Chloe”, he was aiming to irritate.
She growled.
He smirked.
Clark coughed.
“Of course, where are my manners?” Lex started.
“Damned if I know”, Chloe put in.
“That was a rhetorical question Chloe, aren’t they teaching you anything at Yale? As I was saying. Where are my manners? I will start over again. Good morning Chloe, I’m surprised to see you up and about this early. This is my good friend Clark Kent”, he refused to rise to the boyfriend comment; he wouldn’t give her so much satisfaction this early in the morning. Damn, better not to think about satisfying her in the morning.
“Oh, it is so nice to meet you Mr Kent”, Chloe gave him her most winning smile and stretched out her hand to him.
Lex rolled his eyes.
“My father only just informed me of your arrival but I am sure that the staff will have your room ready soon, would you care to join us for breakfast?” She all but batted her eyelashes.
“Please call me Clark, and I hope that I am not imposing”, he fell hook line and sinker for the smile.
“She might look sweet but trust me, pure poison”, Lex said in a stage whisper.
Chloe narrowed her eyes at him for a second before returning her attention to Clark – for Lex’s benefit, of course. “I assure you, it is no imposition at all. You will join us for breakfast, won’t you? It will be ready in a few minutes which will give you time to get your bearings and for me to changed”.
“Into someone nicer?” Lex asked.
“Out of my pyjamas”, she clarified.
“No need to bother on my account, you forget that I have already seen you in much less. If memory serves me correctly we had bathes together at one point”, Lex dug up the memory that he thought would embarrass her most at that moment.
Chloe was about to fire back some scathing retort along the lines that there was no point in bathing with Luthors as all they did was stew in their own filth before remembering Clark and giving an odd little smile, “I don’t really remember that but if you say so. So, breakfast?” She turned to the taller and younger gentleman on her doorstep.
“I would love to”, he grinned down at her.
“I remember it. You got shampoo in your eyes and I had to try to get it out before you screamed the house down”, Lex muttered and the flicker which passed through Chloe’s eyes showed that she did too.
She took a step back and let Clark and his suitcase into the house, holding the door open with one hand and her coffee cup in the other. “Just leave your suitcase there, the maids will get it”, then as she saw that Lex was about to step over the threshold as well she began to close the door. “I don’t remember saying that you could come in”.
“You are seriously going to try to keep me out of my own home?” Lex asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Ah, well if you remember correctly you signed it over to me so that you could look good in front of my father so …”
“You know that that wasn’t the reason”, he growled and Clark looked distinctly uncomfortable.
She gave him an evil smile, “Whatever the reason, I am in charge now that I am eighteen and things are going to be a little bit different”.
“Like hell they are”, Lex said, pushing the door back open gently but firmly and walking in and leaving his suitcase so that he had an extra hand to grab her coffee cup, “Oh Chloe, you brought me coffee. You shouldn’t have”.
A/N: So, what do you think? To continue or not to continue, that is the question.
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The Shakespeare thing is just because I am English. 
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