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Keep Away
For: Originally written for SecretChlark 2014 for Gemmiel (formerly Ellyfanfiction)
Timeline: Season Six, after Sneeze. That day at Crater Lake
Rating: PG
Length: 6164 words
Summary: For Clark, his near perfect day spent with his best friend at Crater Lake was hampered by two thoughts, Lois’s new gig as a reporter and that freckle faced photographer at the Daily Planet. ---Now with bonus epilogue scene!
Keep Away
“So,” Clark asked, pausing to scoop up the sopping wet, sand encrusted tennis ball Shelby had finally dropped at his feet, “how long do you think Lois’s latest calling is going to last?” Barefoot, he and Chloe continued walking along the sandy shore, in no hurry to get anywhere.
“What? Are you having trouble buying the whole clacking of keys and scent of fresh ink revelation?” An indulgent smile curved Chloe’s lips, followed by an eye roll. “The Lois I know is strictly hunt and peck, and I can assure you, the ink from the printer does not waft through the air no matter how fresh.”
Clark casually tossed the tennis ball up into the air, driving Shelby wild with excitement. Up until now, keep away had been the name of the game, and Shelby the Grandmaster. All day long, Shelby alternated between three moves: hiding his prize in the loose sand, proudly trotting it out for display but staying just out of reach, or the obvious favorite, charging full speed ahead with the ball clamped between his teeth only to veer away from collision at the last second. After a full day at the beach, his normally fluffy golden fur and plummy tail was looking like limp seaweed, but the old retriever barely showed any signs of being tired. Clark figured the slimy ball placed at his feet was the closest Shelby would come to slowing down before he was exhausted.
Shelby barked, impatiently dancing on the wet packed sand. Clark sent the neon ball zinging down the beach with the golden retriever splashing in hot pursuit through the shallow lapping waves. He smiled at the sight. Even after the sun “unexpectedly” returned, Lois had left him and Chloe to head to Crater Lake alone. Shelby though, had been more than happy for the invitation.
They’d grabbed the cooler, strapped down Chloe’s attempt at arts and crafts and piled in the pickup. The weight of the last few weeks lifted from his shoulders long before the truck tires left the paved road, switching to the old dirt logging trail. Taking some time to let down his guard and relax was exactly what he needed. They drove on past the main beach, heading instead to the end of the trail that opened up on a secluded cove. Even on the hottest summer days, it was never crowded and today, they had the whole stretch of shore to themselves.
They swam for a while but summer hadn’t been around very long and the water was still brisk enough to limit Chloe’s time in the water. The sun though was warm, so after they dried off, Chloe only pulled back on over her swimsuit the short sleeveless striped, dress and left off that strange half sweater thing he thought his mom once identified as a shrug. He didn’t get the fashion choice but he was smart enough to stay quiet on that subject.
He was doing his best to stay quiet on another subject too. It was safe to say he also didn’t get the choice of Jimmy Olsen, but he was trying to accept it. It was probably best for Chloe if he did. It wasn’t that he was surprised someone else had figured out how great she was but why did they have to figure it out the same time that…he pushed the thought away. He wasn’t going to think about that now.
Once the afternoon shadows began to lengthen, out came Chloe’s makeshift kite. With a little “help,” they got it off the ground. With a little more “help,” they had it as high into the blue sky as the string would unwind. Clark admitted he still had some practicing to do since the next puff of “help” broke the string, sending the red kite spiraling down through the air. It splashed in the middle of Crater Lake and sunk quickly below the dark water.
.
Flying really wasn’t his thing, but when Chloe insisted they try it again next time, he agreed. He couldn’t say no and risk dimming her enthusiasm. He had a hard time not staring when Chloe got that way, her mind making one excited jump to the next, even for something as mundane as planning another day at the beach. Until he’d met Chloe, he hadn’t understood how a smile could actually beam, but hers did. Maybe it had something to do with her blond hair. After swimming, it dried in soft waves and in the natural light, every strand gleamed and sparkled. Experts always talked about how sunny days triggered a rush of endorphins, maybe that’s why being around Chloe felt so good.
A whine from Shelby had Clark automatically bending, scooping and tossing the ball again. Off the furry flash went down their private slice of perfect. It was beautiful out here, watching the summer sun set behind the hills, the pinkish light reflected on the water.
Red sky at night, sailor’s delight.
The old rhyme popped in his head, reassuring him. Nothing was wrong; there was no impending disaster, just the growing awareness that a near perfect day was ending. So why was he wasting even a second of his time left worrying over Lois’s new job? He was happy that Lois was happy; she never let anyone forget it when she wasn’t, but something about it was itching away at the back of his brain. It wasn’t the only thing bothering him, but it was the only thing he’d bring up.
“I know I’m out of practice judging, but was Lois’s article as bad as I think it was?”
“Oh god, worse I think,” Chloe quickly answered. “On the bright side, at least they fixed the e in tornado.” Chloe crouched down and plucked off the beach the small shell of a freshwater snail. She brushed off the clinging sand crystals.
Clark shook his head. “And what was with the alien invasion angle?”
Clark watched as Chloe examined the opening in the spiral shell, looking for signs of the living creature. He liked that she did that. If it was still somebody’s home, she always tossed it back into the water. This one must have been vacant since she slipped it into a pocket on the full skirt of her short sundress. She was brushing off her hands when she caught him watching her. She just smiled and raised an eyebrow.
“I don’t know, could it be you’re touchy since that would make you the alien invasion?”
Clark seriously considered the new angle for a minute. Was that why Lois’s new job was bugging him so much? Was some part of him worried about his secret? That didn’t make sense. Lois’s story was ridiculous even if built around the tiniest grain of truth.
Shelby returned with his tennis ball and Clark automatically held out his hand, but Shelby tossed his head and sidestepped away, doing the closest approximation of laughter that a dog can. Instead of releasing the ball to him, Shelby nudged Chloe’s hands with his muzzle until she accepted her honor of ball thrower.
“Oh, my turn, huh,” Chloe said giving Shelby’s ears a good scratch before straightening up. Shelby leaned into her with puppy like adoration. She raised her hand and pointed to the ground.
“Sit.”
Shelby immediately sat…for all of two seconds, and then his rump was up, hovering over the ground, his back end trembling and ready to spring into action. Chloe reached back behind her head, but her excused absences from gym class to work on the Torch caught up with her. Chloe’s throw went wild and rebounded out into the deeper part of the cove. They both watched and waited to make sure it wasn’t too far out. Shelby panted hard from his extra exertions but a couple bounding leaps, and a concentrated doggy paddle session put the fuzzy floating ball in reach. Once out of the water, Shelby headed to the dry sand and laid down, panting, his precious ball safely corralled between his paws.
As they started strolling down the beach again, Clark returned to Chloe’s earlier question. He shook his head. It wasn’t the alien angle.
“It’s not my connection to Lois’s headline, that’s bugging me; I think it’s that she’s fine deliberately trying to fake the truth. And why was she even trying to get published? Didn’t Lois say she hated journalism?”
Chloe tilted her head, studying him. “Never mind Lois. You know, maybe this is about you after all.”
“What do you mean?”
Chloe shrugged. “Well, obviously it upsets your journalistic sensibilities as much as it does mine.”
“Chloe, I don’t have journalistic sensibilities anymore.”
She wagged a finger in front of him. “Don’t give me that ‘my reporting days are done’ nonsense. I let it slide last time because you were hurting about your dad.” Her face softened and she rubbed the side of his arm.
“And I know you still are, but from what I knew about your father, he wouldn’t want you to give up your dreams and before you deny it,” the wagging finger came back out, “did you or did you not write an essay sophomore year about where you saw yourself in five years?” She narrowed her eyes, like she was the one with x-ray vision. “Something about the love of seeking the truth and you wanting to be in journalism?”
She tilted her head and studied him again. “It’s been five years, Clark.”
He shoved his hands into the pockets in his blue swimming trunks and dug his toes into the damp sand. The depression he gouged out filled from below with cloudy brown water. In the next instant, the wake from a passing motorboat hit the shore hard, sending clear water lapping over the top his feet. When the water receded back to the lake, it created a strange sensation as the sand that had felt solid beneath his feet slowly disintegrated.
Five years was a lifetime ago and at the same time if he was being honest, just yesterday. Outside forces had changed the dreams he could allow himself to consider…hadn’t they? He hadn’t thought about what he’d written for Principal Reynolds in forever. He was positive he’d never mentioned it to Chloe.
“I’d ask how you know about the essay- if I was actually surprised you do. I am surprised you resisted mentioning it for – how long have you known about it?”
Chloe smirked. “There was more than one reason I was glad you didn’t entirely trade the Torch in for football, but don’t try to change the subject. What’s going on Clark? What’s stopping you?”
“My father is an ice fortress and people from my dead home planet keep popping up,” he deadpanned. “I have been kinda busy lately.”
Chloe laughed. “Ok, I’ll give you that, but Clark, I don’t think life ever really slows down for anyone. You have to fit living in around life and all the weird and unexpected it throws out there.”
He rolled his eyes. “My life is the weird and unexpected.”
She linked her elbow through his, and leaned into his side. “And look at the beautiful day it brought us.”
Clark stared down at Chloe’s sunny cap of hair. How did she do that? She didn’t pretend he was anyone but who he was, she’d been there during his every dark moment and yet she always saw the light.
“It’s your doing, you know,” he told her. “You figured out my ability.” It was more than her figuring it out; it was her joy in what he could do. She saw so many possibilities.
She flashed him one of her brilliant smiles. “Well, you’re the one with breath super enough to make the sun come out.” He choked.
“Gah, that sounds like a mouthwash commercial.”
“If you’ve really changed your mind about journalism, I’m sure they are always looking for snappy copy writers.”
He sighed. “It’s not that I don’t want it exactly; it’s just…I don’t know. The farm…I need…, I’m not ready to let it go. I don’t know if I’ll ever be.”
She laid her head on his shoulder. “I’m not suggesting you give anything up, just keep your possibilities open.”
Clark looked down at her upturned face. Her clear green eyes harbored her open faith. She was positive he would figure it all out. A longing welled up inside him. He wanted those possibilities too.
After he’d escaped the phantom zone and defeated Zod, the possibilities were all he could think about, he’d just never considered Jimmy Olsen being one of them. Even before his break up with Lana, he and Chloe had been steadily growing closer. He’d never had anyone in his life like her. They’d been friends since the first day they met and they were still friends but sometimes he’d wondered if that was a big enough word for what Chloe meant to him. In the moment after their kiss at the Planet, he’d known it wasn’t.
Still, changing what was between them was as scary as confronting Zod. If he messed up…he couldn’t imagine not having her in his life every day. He’d gone to see Chloe at the Daily Planet despite being half terrified at what he was going to say when she put him on the spot about their earth-shaking kiss but instead she’d brushed it off as no big deal. That’s not what he remembered, but he panicked and before he realized what he’d done, he’d agreed with her. He was almost sure he would have corrected his mistake except suddenly there was Jimmy. He’d barely understood a word Chloe was saying after that.
Kind of like now. He wrenched his attention back to what Chloe was saying.
“I finished my Met U finals online and when classes resume, now that I’m fulltime at the Planet, I’m going to concentrate on night and online courses. There’s no reason you couldn’t do something similar and if it’s about the money, you’d be amazed at the number of new scholarships available since Dark Thursday.”
“You’ve thought about this a lot, haven’t you?”
“I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to say something, but Clark if you at all want it, you should go for it. I know you’ve had a lot of unexpected responsibilities, but you know, don’t you, that you deserve to be happy too?”
After all the chaos he’d brought to everyone’s life, he wasn’t sure if he did, but Chloe believed he did and she had a way of making him see things in a different way.
“I don’t know what I would do without you, Chloe.”
She bumped her hip against his and rolled her eyes. “Ha! I get that from all the people that crash my kites.”
He stopped and took her hands. “I’m being serious Chlo. I can’t imagine having a day like this with anyone else.” The blush that touched Chloe’s cheek made him smile but he frowned after she looked away and the smile curving her lips faltered.
“But maybe you wish someone else had come along too.”
Did he just say that aloud? He dropped Chloe’s hands and shoved his back into his pockets. They’d reached the end of the shoreline so he pivoted on his heel and started back the way they came. Chloe followed. Why couldn’t he have just left it alone?
Chloe shook her head. “I know I’m the one who invited Lois, but no, I can’t say I missed her company today.”
Her smile was back in place but he knew Chloe’s smiles. Hadn’t he basked in them all day long? This one wasn’t right. She looked almost wistful, like something important was still missing. A guess at the something churned his guts. Suddenly the whole day seemed dimmer. Irritation is probably what made him bolder than normal.
“Not Lois, Jimmy,” he spit out.
“Jimmy?” Chloe stopped walking. Surprise swept the longing from her face.
“Or is it James?” He meant to, but he hadn’t kept the sarcasm out of his question. He tried harder, going for casually interested in his next sentence. “It’s just I got the impression he was anxious to spend time with you.” He must have pulled it off since the frown lines smoothed from her forehead. She started strolling next to him again.
“Definitely leave it at Jimmy.” She sighed. “He is attentive and yeah, we’ve hung out a few times at work.”
Hung out. What did that really mean? Were they dating? He was not going to ask her that, he was not, he was not.
“Has he asked you out?” Fine, he asked. A friend would ask. Right?
“He’s asked.”
This is why he shouldn’t have asked. Now he knew the answer and Clark so did not want to know this. He closed his eyes, ready to tune his ears to the sound of a butterfly flapping its wings in Granville rather than listen to Chloe talk about her date with Jimmy when her words caught up with his brain.
“But I’m not sure if I should say yes.” Chloe bent and chose a rock, brushing off the flat stone.
“Why not?” He asked, genuinely curious. “You seemed pretty happy to see him again.”
Chloe stood and studied her rock. “I was, I mean, Jimmy’s great but he is also the guy who never called teenage me back after…um, after our last date.” She flung the skipping stone at the placid lake. It jumped three times between the gentle waves. Satisfied, she crossed her arms and nodded. “And it’s not so much that I wanted him to call but shouldn’t he have at least said something?”
Clark knew he should have said something after taking care of Zod. After finding out Chloe was ok from his mom, he’d purposely checked on everyone else first, saving seeing Chloe for last. He hadn’t planned to go anywhere after, but then there was Jimmy and then Chloe accepting Jimmy’s vending machine raid. He should have gone with them. So much was changing but his mom said he should follow his heart. If he’d had it all to do all over again, he would have. Jimmy wouldn’t have been happy, but so what? He’d had his chance. Better yet, instead of trailing after Jimmy and Chloe, he should have convinced Chloe to come with him. If only he had it to do over again.
“What do you think? Does he deserve a second chance?”
“Doesn’t everyone deserve a second chance?” Would Chloe give him the chance to do it over again?
“So you think I should agree to a date?”
“A date, yes,” Clark found himself nodding.
A date, that’s what they should do. Something simple, somewhere they could be alone together just the two of them and figure out this thing, this bigger than friendship thing. He looked at Chloe and was about to open his mouth when he noticed her frown. He was as acquainted with her frowns as he was with her smiles. This one said deep disappointment overlaid with reluctant acceptance. Wait, maybe she didn’t want to go with him on a…crap, what had he just told her to do?
“It’s getting late. We should get going.” Without waiting, Chloe turned away and headed back toward their belongings and the cooler.
Clark stood rooted to the spot as he watched her walk away. Had he just missed his second chance? He had the same unsettled sensation as when the waves washed the sand out beneath his feet. Everything was slipping away. Why hadn’t he said something? What was he so afraid of? If he spoke up, everything would change but if he didn’t, there was still Jimmy. Everything would still change. His heart beat heavily in his chest. One way or the other, would this be the moment he looked back at for the rest of his life?
He caught up to Chloe further down the beach where she was gathering up their towels and stuffing the picnic blanket back into a tote. He tried to catch her eye but even when she tossed his flip-flops his direction she wouldn’t look at him, so rather than stand there like an idiot, he stuffed his feet in the flimsy shoes, grabbed the cooler and set it in the bed of the pickup. Still ignoring him, she went to stow the bag in the front of the cab. Leaving the door open, she turned back to call Shelby.
Clark slid in the front seat behind the driver’s wheel but didn’t start the engine. Frustration poured off him. Was that it? Were they just going to drive home pretending nothing was wrong? As far as Chloe was concerned, was anything actually wrong? He glanced in the review mirror. It was getting late. Only a few streaks of light at the horizon were holding back the darkness. She was probably anxious to get home and plan her perfect date with Jimmy. And he might be perfect for her. A normal guy, that wouldn’t put her in danger.
“Come on Shelby, here boy. I said come here Shelby!”
Clark looked up. In Chloe’s voice, he heard an echo of the frustration he felt. He hopped out of the pick-up to see what was wrong. Behind the truck, Chloe stood, feet planted and hands on her hips. About twenty-feet beyond, Shelby sat unrepentantly wagging his now dry tail.
“What’s going on?”
“Now even your dog isn’t listening.”
“Shelby.” Clark automatically called. The golden retriever jumped to his feet, but instead of coming, ran back toward the beach. A moment later, he emerged from behind a small dune with a mouth full of tennis ball. The grinning pooch raced straight at them only to veer off at the last second,
“Looks like Shelby isn’t ready to call it a day.” Neither was he, but keep away wasn’t the answer. That’s what it felt like they’d been doing for a while now, getting close only for one or both of them to veer away. He just needed to open his mouth and say something.
“Chloe I…”
Her phone rang. Chloe hesitated for a second but when the words lodged in his throat stayed trapped, she walked back and dug her orange phone out of the bottom of the tote bag.
Clark leaned forward against the side of the pickup and jabbed his toes against the ground. He held his frustration back enough not to kick up a crater but not enough to prevent his foot from ripping through the cheap sandal. He kicked the broken shoe and its mate off and tossed them in the back of the truck.
“Hello?”
Why had he stopped? Why hadn’t he zipped over and plucked the phone from her hands before she could answer it?
“Oh, hi.”
Surprise registered in her voice, enough to add curiosity to his frustration, but he resisted listening in. Half the time he could have heard both sides of a cell phone conversation even without his enhanced hearing but he had a rule about not invading Chloe’s privacy more than he already accidentally did. When Chloe turned her back and walked a few paces away, he was tempted to break his rules.
“:No, it’s fine. A huh. I’m not sure, …well maybe.”
After all, Clark reasoned, Chloe knew perfectly well that turning her back and walking a few feet away was meaningless to him. She might as well have painted a sign that said ‘I am trying to make you jealous’, only, why would Chloe think he’d be jealous? Hadn’t he just stupidly told her to go date that dork?
“How about I get back to you later tonight? I’m still finishing something up.”
Finishing up. Like in a moment, she’d be all done with him. That was what he was afraid of, wasn’t it. That she was already finished with him and moved on. And what about him? What if all these feelings crowding his mind and heart suddenly passed like his obsession with Lana had? But no, Chloe was his best friend. They’d always been closer than he and Lana ever were and the question of friends or more than friends had been there from the start. He was suddenly sure that this thing between him and Chloe would never really be over, not for him. But what about for her? Was he already too late?
“Ok, thanks. Bye.”
“Who was that?” The question burst from his lips. His ethics wouldn’t let him listen in but nothing was going to keep him from asking even if his gut already knew. He could tell just by the way Chloe avoided looking at him as she slipped the phone in her pocket.
“Um, actually,” she waited until she was leaning against the other side of the pick-up across from him before she finished answering his question. “It was Jimmy. He…”
Confirmation made the rest of what Chloe said sound like buzzing bees. “What did he want?”
Chloe sighed. “Like I just was telling you, he’s been after me to clear a night to investigate some odd reports near Lone Pine Preserve. He wanted to know if I was free now or if next Thursday worked better.”
“Lone Pine? You mean make out point?”
Chloe frowned and tapped her fingers against the metal rim of his truck bed. “There’s a lot more to the nature preserve than just make out point.”
Clark tightened his grip on the side of his truck; he felt a scowl coming over his face. Could Jimmy be any more obvious? Talk about rushing things…unless the grinning idiot was counting vending machine dinners as dates. How many ‘dates’ had they had? A more disturbing thought hit him.
“Wait,” he asked, “you aren’t actually going to go, are you?”
Chloe’s spine straightened and her head snapped up. “I’ve yet to turn down a solid lead.”
“It’s not a lead,” he insisted, gritting his teeth. “He just wants to get you up there in the dark to…to…,” he didn’t even want to say it.
“To what?” She crossed her arms in front of her. “To make out with me? And so what if he does?” She threw the challenge at his feet.
“So what?!” He clenched his fists and pushed away from the pick-up, stalking toward the rear of the truck. “You’re the one who said he never called.”
She threw her hands up in the air and then marched to meet him by the tailgate. “Yeah and like two seconds ago, you agreed everyone deserves a second chance.”
She was inches away from him, He could feel the heat coming off of her, could see sparks flashing in her eyes, the flush on her cheeks and the annoyance written in ever stiff line of her body, but she didn’t back away… she never did. All the heat drained from him.
“Even me?” he asked.
“What?”
“Second chances. If I asked, would you give me mine?”
“What did you just say?” The flush left Chloe’s cheeks. She’d heard him.
He gathered her hands in his. “Maybe I don’t deserve it but… if I don’t get one I can’t imagine what my life is going to look like.”
Confusion wrinkled her brow but all the stiffness left her body. “What are you really saying Clark?” Chloe caught and worried her bottom lip between her teeth. The depression in her red lips taunted him while he sought the words he needed.
“Yes to second chances. No to Jimmy. Yes to the kiss…,” he squeezed her hands. “I lied. I did expect things. I’m not sure what, but I wanted to find out. I want,” he paused, putting emphasis on the present and future tense, “to find out.”
“Clark, I…,”
He interrupted her, shaking his head. “Don’t say anything yet.” Not yet. Leave all the possibilities open for a little while longer. He kept his head down; afraid to look at her face, but he shifted closer; his hands sliding up her arms until he was holding the soft flesh just above her elbows. Her hands curled into the white t-shirt covering his chest and the soft folds of the stripped dress she wore brushed against the inside of his knees.
Chloe wanted him to be happy despite the constant disasters he dragged the world through. She insisted he choose his life and then find a way to live it. He couldn’t imagine doing that without her, but despite Chloe’s teenage misgivings, Jimmy was probably a nice guy. A nice guy that wouldn’t introduce her to maniac computers or flash freeze fortresses or disembodied war criminals bent on ruling the world…and yet shouldn’t Chloe have the same right as he did to choose the life she most wanted?
“Did you mean it?” He blurted the question out, daring to raise his gaze. Confusion again clouded Chloe’s expression... He leaned closer and cupped the side of her face. His eyes went to her soft, parted lips. She wet them with her tongue and he had the urge to follow that pink tip back inside. “The kiss,” he clarified with a whisper, brushing his thumb just beneath the flare of her lower lip. “Was it just the end of the world or…”
He registered a sharp intake of breath at the same time that Chloe launched herself at him. Her arms snaked around his neck, her hands dug into his hair and her mouth…, hot, lush, hungry - it was everything he remembered and more. More heat, more urgency, more sweetness, more joy, just more. He wrapped her in his arms, holding her to him as close and as tight as he dared. He slide one arm her around the waist and used the other to angle across her back, and dived deeper into their kiss, attempting to match everything she so freely gave.
He would have happily stayed submerged in the best possible possibility but a sharp series of barks accompanied by something warm and vaguely slimly briefly rolling over his foot pulled him out of the moment. Clark surfaced long enough to note Shelby had discovered the lonely side to playing keep away but it was the mix of Chloe’s laughter and her drawn out “Eww,” that convinced him it was a good time to come up for air. The combination coming from Chloe was a bit worrying until he saw that the drool coated, green ball was now dipping its ooze between Chloe’s toes. Still hanging on to his neck and locked in the circle of his arms, she kicked the slime fest away. Shelby gratefully dove at the skittering ground ball.
He waited in anticipation for Chloe to turn back to him. The smile she wore at Shelby’s antics transformed into something bigger and brighter, something special just for him. Happiness, the special rare kind that bubbled up free of restraint or complication, filled him. A grin to match Chloe’s stretched out his cheeks.
“So I think what you’re saying is,” he teased, “it’s not just an end of the world thing?”
“Please, the end of the world comes to Smallville like every other month. If I had a kissing fetish, you’d have been drowning in them.”
He shrugged. “I could live with that, if you want to pick one up.”
Astonished, she gaped at him for a moment before tossing her head back and laughing. Her giggles brought Shelby bounding back, jumping and barking excitedly around them.
“Shelby. Truck.” He commanded and pointed at the red pick-up. The golden retriever stopped mid leap, dashed to the open door on the passenger side and scrambled inside. The wet ball in his mouth left smudges on the back window. Clark felt Chloe’s stare. She had her head tilted to the side, studying him.
“You could have done that earlier, couldn’t you?”
He shrugged again, more sheepish this time. “Shelby never refuses a ride; he won’t get out of the truck until he gets one.” At the question still lingering in her eyes he continued. “I was afraid if I didn’t say something here today, I’d never work up my courage.”
“Clark, if you’re not really sure…”
He rapidly shook his head. “It’s not that. I want this. I want you even though you’d probably be better off without me.” Chloe’s hands fisted in his hair.
“Don’t you dare walk away from me for my own good,” she growled. “Promise me. I can handle it if you’ve changed your mind about wanting more but don’t shut me out. I can’t lose my best friend.” Fierce determination flashed in her green eyes, but it didn’t completely crowd out the vulnerability he read as well. She’d been left behind too many times. He pulled her into a hug, tucking her head beneath his chin.
“I promise. And I’m not changing my mind.” He pulled back slightly so he could see her face. She was trying to smile despite the unshed tears pooled in her eyes. “Chloe, every time my world falls apart, you’ve been there to help put it back together. I never stopped to ask why I always turn to you, all I know is right from the start I’ve always known I could.”
Chloe pulled his head down for a quick hard kiss. When she pulled away, he followed her back and stole a longer, deeper one. God, maybe he was the one developing a kissing addiction. Slowly they broke apart. She used her fingers to sift through the hair just above his left temple, a soothing, comforting touch.
Her smile was less watery now. “It goes both ways you know,” she told him.
“Not enough it hasn’t, but that’s going to change,” he promised, catching her hand and pressing it against his chest. “There are things that I still need to say, things I want to say…,” he hesitated and Chloe gently finished his thought.
“But everything’s a little scary right now, even if it’s a good scary.”
He nodded and let out the breath he was holding. “I’m not sure what happens next,” he confessed bluntly, grateful with Chloe he didn’t have to pretend.
“I think it can be anything we want it to be.”
“Before I would have mentioned finishing our Star Wars marathon and the pot roast my mom said she’d keep warm, but you deserve more than that. It’s early enough to go somewhere fancy. Anywhere you want to go, I’ll take you there. Anywhere. Just name the place.”
Chloe stroked the hair along his temple again. “At some point that would be very nice – and believe me, I now have some very specific Googling to look forward to,” she smiled and shook her head, “but right now, honestly there’s nothing I’d love more than to just go back to the farm. I don’t want everything to change between us Clark. I’d miss being us too much. Besides, no restaurant can touch your mom’s gravy or baby red potatoes.”
Chloe smiled up at him, a familiar smile, one that told him there wasn’t anywhere in the world she’d rather be, and suddenly any lingering fears he’d harbored faded away. For a moment, the world stood still and he stared at her beautiful, beaming face. He took in the light in her green eyes, the inviting turn of her perfectly pink lips and the soft look of relaxed happiness he only saw when she looked at him. Warmth hit him everywhere. Everything about Chloe was familiar and precious. Why had he waited so long?
By taking this step, who they were was changing, but they were still them. The words that he needed to say and the ones he needed to hear would come eventually, but for now they could take it slow and enjoy where they already were. Together. No more keep away.
“Clark?”
“I’m listening. Yeah, home sounds real good.” He slid one arm around her waist and started walking them back to the truck. He escorted her to the passenger side where Shelby was waiting curled up in the middle of the bench seat. The old dog lifted his head and barked once,
Chloe smiled and glanced up at Clark. “I guess Shelby wants to know what took us so long.”
He shook his head. “I don’t have a great answer for that,” he said, never breaking eye contact with Chloe. She was his best friend and so much more than that; she was his future. “But I’m real glad we’re finally here.”
.
For: Originally written for SecretChlark 2014 for Gemmiel (formerly Ellyfanfiction)
Timeline: Season Six, after Sneeze. That day at Crater Lake
Rating: PG
Length: 6164 words
Summary: For Clark, his near perfect day spent with his best friend at Crater Lake was hampered by two thoughts, Lois’s new gig as a reporter and that freckle faced photographer at the Daily Planet. ---Now with bonus epilogue scene!
Keep Away
“So,” Clark asked, pausing to scoop up the sopping wet, sand encrusted tennis ball Shelby had finally dropped at his feet, “how long do you think Lois’s latest calling is going to last?” Barefoot, he and Chloe continued walking along the sandy shore, in no hurry to get anywhere.
“What? Are you having trouble buying the whole clacking of keys and scent of fresh ink revelation?” An indulgent smile curved Chloe’s lips, followed by an eye roll. “The Lois I know is strictly hunt and peck, and I can assure you, the ink from the printer does not waft through the air no matter how fresh.”
Clark casually tossed the tennis ball up into the air, driving Shelby wild with excitement. Up until now, keep away had been the name of the game, and Shelby the Grandmaster. All day long, Shelby alternated between three moves: hiding his prize in the loose sand, proudly trotting it out for display but staying just out of reach, or the obvious favorite, charging full speed ahead with the ball clamped between his teeth only to veer away from collision at the last second. After a full day at the beach, his normally fluffy golden fur and plummy tail was looking like limp seaweed, but the old retriever barely showed any signs of being tired. Clark figured the slimy ball placed at his feet was the closest Shelby would come to slowing down before he was exhausted.
Shelby barked, impatiently dancing on the wet packed sand. Clark sent the neon ball zinging down the beach with the golden retriever splashing in hot pursuit through the shallow lapping waves. He smiled at the sight. Even after the sun “unexpectedly” returned, Lois had left him and Chloe to head to Crater Lake alone. Shelby though, had been more than happy for the invitation.
They’d grabbed the cooler, strapped down Chloe’s attempt at arts and crafts and piled in the pickup. The weight of the last few weeks lifted from his shoulders long before the truck tires left the paved road, switching to the old dirt logging trail. Taking some time to let down his guard and relax was exactly what he needed. They drove on past the main beach, heading instead to the end of the trail that opened up on a secluded cove. Even on the hottest summer days, it was never crowded and today, they had the whole stretch of shore to themselves.
They swam for a while but summer hadn’t been around very long and the water was still brisk enough to limit Chloe’s time in the water. The sun though was warm, so after they dried off, Chloe only pulled back on over her swimsuit the short sleeveless striped, dress and left off that strange half sweater thing he thought his mom once identified as a shrug. He didn’t get the fashion choice but he was smart enough to stay quiet on that subject.
He was doing his best to stay quiet on another subject too. It was safe to say he also didn’t get the choice of Jimmy Olsen, but he was trying to accept it. It was probably best for Chloe if he did. It wasn’t that he was surprised someone else had figured out how great she was but why did they have to figure it out the same time that…he pushed the thought away. He wasn’t going to think about that now.
Once the afternoon shadows began to lengthen, out came Chloe’s makeshift kite. With a little “help,” they got it off the ground. With a little more “help,” they had it as high into the blue sky as the string would unwind. Clark admitted he still had some practicing to do since the next puff of “help” broke the string, sending the red kite spiraling down through the air. It splashed in the middle of Crater Lake and sunk quickly below the dark water.
.
Flying really wasn’t his thing, but when Chloe insisted they try it again next time, he agreed. He couldn’t say no and risk dimming her enthusiasm. He had a hard time not staring when Chloe got that way, her mind making one excited jump to the next, even for something as mundane as planning another day at the beach. Until he’d met Chloe, he hadn’t understood how a smile could actually beam, but hers did. Maybe it had something to do with her blond hair. After swimming, it dried in soft waves and in the natural light, every strand gleamed and sparkled. Experts always talked about how sunny days triggered a rush of endorphins, maybe that’s why being around Chloe felt so good.
A whine from Shelby had Clark automatically bending, scooping and tossing the ball again. Off the furry flash went down their private slice of perfect. It was beautiful out here, watching the summer sun set behind the hills, the pinkish light reflected on the water.
Red sky at night, sailor’s delight.
The old rhyme popped in his head, reassuring him. Nothing was wrong; there was no impending disaster, just the growing awareness that a near perfect day was ending. So why was he wasting even a second of his time left worrying over Lois’s new job? He was happy that Lois was happy; she never let anyone forget it when she wasn’t, but something about it was itching away at the back of his brain. It wasn’t the only thing bothering him, but it was the only thing he’d bring up.
“I know I’m out of practice judging, but was Lois’s article as bad as I think it was?”
“Oh god, worse I think,” Chloe quickly answered. “On the bright side, at least they fixed the e in tornado.” Chloe crouched down and plucked off the beach the small shell of a freshwater snail. She brushed off the clinging sand crystals.
Clark shook his head. “And what was with the alien invasion angle?”
Clark watched as Chloe examined the opening in the spiral shell, looking for signs of the living creature. He liked that she did that. If it was still somebody’s home, she always tossed it back into the water. This one must have been vacant since she slipped it into a pocket on the full skirt of her short sundress. She was brushing off her hands when she caught him watching her. She just smiled and raised an eyebrow.
“I don’t know, could it be you’re touchy since that would make you the alien invasion?”
Clark seriously considered the new angle for a minute. Was that why Lois’s new job was bugging him so much? Was some part of him worried about his secret? That didn’t make sense. Lois’s story was ridiculous even if built around the tiniest grain of truth.
Shelby returned with his tennis ball and Clark automatically held out his hand, but Shelby tossed his head and sidestepped away, doing the closest approximation of laughter that a dog can. Instead of releasing the ball to him, Shelby nudged Chloe’s hands with his muzzle until she accepted her honor of ball thrower.
“Oh, my turn, huh,” Chloe said giving Shelby’s ears a good scratch before straightening up. Shelby leaned into her with puppy like adoration. She raised her hand and pointed to the ground.
“Sit.”
Shelby immediately sat…for all of two seconds, and then his rump was up, hovering over the ground, his back end trembling and ready to spring into action. Chloe reached back behind her head, but her excused absences from gym class to work on the Torch caught up with her. Chloe’s throw went wild and rebounded out into the deeper part of the cove. They both watched and waited to make sure it wasn’t too far out. Shelby panted hard from his extra exertions but a couple bounding leaps, and a concentrated doggy paddle session put the fuzzy floating ball in reach. Once out of the water, Shelby headed to the dry sand and laid down, panting, his precious ball safely corralled between his paws.
As they started strolling down the beach again, Clark returned to Chloe’s earlier question. He shook his head. It wasn’t the alien angle.
“It’s not my connection to Lois’s headline, that’s bugging me; I think it’s that she’s fine deliberately trying to fake the truth. And why was she even trying to get published? Didn’t Lois say she hated journalism?”
Chloe tilted her head, studying him. “Never mind Lois. You know, maybe this is about you after all.”
“What do you mean?”
Chloe shrugged. “Well, obviously it upsets your journalistic sensibilities as much as it does mine.”
“Chloe, I don’t have journalistic sensibilities anymore.”
She wagged a finger in front of him. “Don’t give me that ‘my reporting days are done’ nonsense. I let it slide last time because you were hurting about your dad.” Her face softened and she rubbed the side of his arm.
“And I know you still are, but from what I knew about your father, he wouldn’t want you to give up your dreams and before you deny it,” the wagging finger came back out, “did you or did you not write an essay sophomore year about where you saw yourself in five years?” She narrowed her eyes, like she was the one with x-ray vision. “Something about the love of seeking the truth and you wanting to be in journalism?”
She tilted her head and studied him again. “It’s been five years, Clark.”
He shoved his hands into the pockets in his blue swimming trunks and dug his toes into the damp sand. The depression he gouged out filled from below with cloudy brown water. In the next instant, the wake from a passing motorboat hit the shore hard, sending clear water lapping over the top his feet. When the water receded back to the lake, it created a strange sensation as the sand that had felt solid beneath his feet slowly disintegrated.
Five years was a lifetime ago and at the same time if he was being honest, just yesterday. Outside forces had changed the dreams he could allow himself to consider…hadn’t they? He hadn’t thought about what he’d written for Principal Reynolds in forever. He was positive he’d never mentioned it to Chloe.
“I’d ask how you know about the essay- if I was actually surprised you do. I am surprised you resisted mentioning it for – how long have you known about it?”
Chloe smirked. “There was more than one reason I was glad you didn’t entirely trade the Torch in for football, but don’t try to change the subject. What’s going on Clark? What’s stopping you?”
“My father is an ice fortress and people from my dead home planet keep popping up,” he deadpanned. “I have been kinda busy lately.”
Chloe laughed. “Ok, I’ll give you that, but Clark, I don’t think life ever really slows down for anyone. You have to fit living in around life and all the weird and unexpected it throws out there.”
He rolled his eyes. “My life is the weird and unexpected.”
She linked her elbow through his, and leaned into his side. “And look at the beautiful day it brought us.”
Clark stared down at Chloe’s sunny cap of hair. How did she do that? She didn’t pretend he was anyone but who he was, she’d been there during his every dark moment and yet she always saw the light.
“It’s your doing, you know,” he told her. “You figured out my ability.” It was more than her figuring it out; it was her joy in what he could do. She saw so many possibilities.
She flashed him one of her brilliant smiles. “Well, you’re the one with breath super enough to make the sun come out.” He choked.
“Gah, that sounds like a mouthwash commercial.”
“If you’ve really changed your mind about journalism, I’m sure they are always looking for snappy copy writers.”
He sighed. “It’s not that I don’t want it exactly; it’s just…I don’t know. The farm…I need…, I’m not ready to let it go. I don’t know if I’ll ever be.”
She laid her head on his shoulder. “I’m not suggesting you give anything up, just keep your possibilities open.”
Clark looked down at her upturned face. Her clear green eyes harbored her open faith. She was positive he would figure it all out. A longing welled up inside him. He wanted those possibilities too.
After he’d escaped the phantom zone and defeated Zod, the possibilities were all he could think about, he’d just never considered Jimmy Olsen being one of them. Even before his break up with Lana, he and Chloe had been steadily growing closer. He’d never had anyone in his life like her. They’d been friends since the first day they met and they were still friends but sometimes he’d wondered if that was a big enough word for what Chloe meant to him. In the moment after their kiss at the Planet, he’d known it wasn’t.
Still, changing what was between them was as scary as confronting Zod. If he messed up…he couldn’t imagine not having her in his life every day. He’d gone to see Chloe at the Daily Planet despite being half terrified at what he was going to say when she put him on the spot about their earth-shaking kiss but instead she’d brushed it off as no big deal. That’s not what he remembered, but he panicked and before he realized what he’d done, he’d agreed with her. He was almost sure he would have corrected his mistake except suddenly there was Jimmy. He’d barely understood a word Chloe was saying after that.
Kind of like now. He wrenched his attention back to what Chloe was saying.
“I finished my Met U finals online and when classes resume, now that I’m fulltime at the Planet, I’m going to concentrate on night and online courses. There’s no reason you couldn’t do something similar and if it’s about the money, you’d be amazed at the number of new scholarships available since Dark Thursday.”
“You’ve thought about this a lot, haven’t you?”
“I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to say something, but Clark if you at all want it, you should go for it. I know you’ve had a lot of unexpected responsibilities, but you know, don’t you, that you deserve to be happy too?”
After all the chaos he’d brought to everyone’s life, he wasn’t sure if he did, but Chloe believed he did and she had a way of making him see things in a different way.
“I don’t know what I would do without you, Chloe.”
She bumped her hip against his and rolled her eyes. “Ha! I get that from all the people that crash my kites.”
He stopped and took her hands. “I’m being serious Chlo. I can’t imagine having a day like this with anyone else.” The blush that touched Chloe’s cheek made him smile but he frowned after she looked away and the smile curving her lips faltered.
“But maybe you wish someone else had come along too.”
Did he just say that aloud? He dropped Chloe’s hands and shoved his back into his pockets. They’d reached the end of the shoreline so he pivoted on his heel and started back the way they came. Chloe followed. Why couldn’t he have just left it alone?
Chloe shook her head. “I know I’m the one who invited Lois, but no, I can’t say I missed her company today.”
Her smile was back in place but he knew Chloe’s smiles. Hadn’t he basked in them all day long? This one wasn’t right. She looked almost wistful, like something important was still missing. A guess at the something churned his guts. Suddenly the whole day seemed dimmer. Irritation is probably what made him bolder than normal.
“Not Lois, Jimmy,” he spit out.
“Jimmy?” Chloe stopped walking. Surprise swept the longing from her face.
“Or is it James?” He meant to, but he hadn’t kept the sarcasm out of his question. He tried harder, going for casually interested in his next sentence. “It’s just I got the impression he was anxious to spend time with you.” He must have pulled it off since the frown lines smoothed from her forehead. She started strolling next to him again.
“Definitely leave it at Jimmy.” She sighed. “He is attentive and yeah, we’ve hung out a few times at work.”
Hung out. What did that really mean? Were they dating? He was not going to ask her that, he was not, he was not.
“Has he asked you out?” Fine, he asked. A friend would ask. Right?
“He’s asked.”
This is why he shouldn’t have asked. Now he knew the answer and Clark so did not want to know this. He closed his eyes, ready to tune his ears to the sound of a butterfly flapping its wings in Granville rather than listen to Chloe talk about her date with Jimmy when her words caught up with his brain.
“But I’m not sure if I should say yes.” Chloe bent and chose a rock, brushing off the flat stone.
“Why not?” He asked, genuinely curious. “You seemed pretty happy to see him again.”
Chloe stood and studied her rock. “I was, I mean, Jimmy’s great but he is also the guy who never called teenage me back after…um, after our last date.” She flung the skipping stone at the placid lake. It jumped three times between the gentle waves. Satisfied, she crossed her arms and nodded. “And it’s not so much that I wanted him to call but shouldn’t he have at least said something?”
Clark knew he should have said something after taking care of Zod. After finding out Chloe was ok from his mom, he’d purposely checked on everyone else first, saving seeing Chloe for last. He hadn’t planned to go anywhere after, but then there was Jimmy and then Chloe accepting Jimmy’s vending machine raid. He should have gone with them. So much was changing but his mom said he should follow his heart. If he’d had it all to do all over again, he would have. Jimmy wouldn’t have been happy, but so what? He’d had his chance. Better yet, instead of trailing after Jimmy and Chloe, he should have convinced Chloe to come with him. If only he had it to do over again.
“What do you think? Does he deserve a second chance?”
“Doesn’t everyone deserve a second chance?” Would Chloe give him the chance to do it over again?
“So you think I should agree to a date?”
“A date, yes,” Clark found himself nodding.
A date, that’s what they should do. Something simple, somewhere they could be alone together just the two of them and figure out this thing, this bigger than friendship thing. He looked at Chloe and was about to open his mouth when he noticed her frown. He was as acquainted with her frowns as he was with her smiles. This one said deep disappointment overlaid with reluctant acceptance. Wait, maybe she didn’t want to go with him on a…crap, what had he just told her to do?
“It’s getting late. We should get going.” Without waiting, Chloe turned away and headed back toward their belongings and the cooler.
Clark stood rooted to the spot as he watched her walk away. Had he just missed his second chance? He had the same unsettled sensation as when the waves washed the sand out beneath his feet. Everything was slipping away. Why hadn’t he said something? What was he so afraid of? If he spoke up, everything would change but if he didn’t, there was still Jimmy. Everything would still change. His heart beat heavily in his chest. One way or the other, would this be the moment he looked back at for the rest of his life?
He caught up to Chloe further down the beach where she was gathering up their towels and stuffing the picnic blanket back into a tote. He tried to catch her eye but even when she tossed his flip-flops his direction she wouldn’t look at him, so rather than stand there like an idiot, he stuffed his feet in the flimsy shoes, grabbed the cooler and set it in the bed of the pickup. Still ignoring him, she went to stow the bag in the front of the cab. Leaving the door open, she turned back to call Shelby.
Clark slid in the front seat behind the driver’s wheel but didn’t start the engine. Frustration poured off him. Was that it? Were they just going to drive home pretending nothing was wrong? As far as Chloe was concerned, was anything actually wrong? He glanced in the review mirror. It was getting late. Only a few streaks of light at the horizon were holding back the darkness. She was probably anxious to get home and plan her perfect date with Jimmy. And he might be perfect for her. A normal guy, that wouldn’t put her in danger.
“Come on Shelby, here boy. I said come here Shelby!”
Clark looked up. In Chloe’s voice, he heard an echo of the frustration he felt. He hopped out of the pick-up to see what was wrong. Behind the truck, Chloe stood, feet planted and hands on her hips. About twenty-feet beyond, Shelby sat unrepentantly wagging his now dry tail.
“What’s going on?”
“Now even your dog isn’t listening.”
“Shelby.” Clark automatically called. The golden retriever jumped to his feet, but instead of coming, ran back toward the beach. A moment later, he emerged from behind a small dune with a mouth full of tennis ball. The grinning pooch raced straight at them only to veer off at the last second,
“Looks like Shelby isn’t ready to call it a day.” Neither was he, but keep away wasn’t the answer. That’s what it felt like they’d been doing for a while now, getting close only for one or both of them to veer away. He just needed to open his mouth and say something.
“Chloe I…”
Her phone rang. Chloe hesitated for a second but when the words lodged in his throat stayed trapped, she walked back and dug her orange phone out of the bottom of the tote bag.
Clark leaned forward against the side of the pickup and jabbed his toes against the ground. He held his frustration back enough not to kick up a crater but not enough to prevent his foot from ripping through the cheap sandal. He kicked the broken shoe and its mate off and tossed them in the back of the truck.
“Hello?”
Why had he stopped? Why hadn’t he zipped over and plucked the phone from her hands before she could answer it?
“Oh, hi.”
Surprise registered in her voice, enough to add curiosity to his frustration, but he resisted listening in. Half the time he could have heard both sides of a cell phone conversation even without his enhanced hearing but he had a rule about not invading Chloe’s privacy more than he already accidentally did. When Chloe turned her back and walked a few paces away, he was tempted to break his rules.
“:No, it’s fine. A huh. I’m not sure, …well maybe.”
After all, Clark reasoned, Chloe knew perfectly well that turning her back and walking a few feet away was meaningless to him. She might as well have painted a sign that said ‘I am trying to make you jealous’, only, why would Chloe think he’d be jealous? Hadn’t he just stupidly told her to go date that dork?
“How about I get back to you later tonight? I’m still finishing something up.”
Finishing up. Like in a moment, she’d be all done with him. That was what he was afraid of, wasn’t it. That she was already finished with him and moved on. And what about him? What if all these feelings crowding his mind and heart suddenly passed like his obsession with Lana had? But no, Chloe was his best friend. They’d always been closer than he and Lana ever were and the question of friends or more than friends had been there from the start. He was suddenly sure that this thing between him and Chloe would never really be over, not for him. But what about for her? Was he already too late?
“Ok, thanks. Bye.”
“Who was that?” The question burst from his lips. His ethics wouldn’t let him listen in but nothing was going to keep him from asking even if his gut already knew. He could tell just by the way Chloe avoided looking at him as she slipped the phone in her pocket.
“Um, actually,” she waited until she was leaning against the other side of the pick-up across from him before she finished answering his question. “It was Jimmy. He…”
Confirmation made the rest of what Chloe said sound like buzzing bees. “What did he want?”
Chloe sighed. “Like I just was telling you, he’s been after me to clear a night to investigate some odd reports near Lone Pine Preserve. He wanted to know if I was free now or if next Thursday worked better.”
“Lone Pine? You mean make out point?”
Chloe frowned and tapped her fingers against the metal rim of his truck bed. “There’s a lot more to the nature preserve than just make out point.”
Clark tightened his grip on the side of his truck; he felt a scowl coming over his face. Could Jimmy be any more obvious? Talk about rushing things…unless the grinning idiot was counting vending machine dinners as dates. How many ‘dates’ had they had? A more disturbing thought hit him.
“Wait,” he asked, “you aren’t actually going to go, are you?”
Chloe’s spine straightened and her head snapped up. “I’ve yet to turn down a solid lead.”
“It’s not a lead,” he insisted, gritting his teeth. “He just wants to get you up there in the dark to…to…,” he didn’t even want to say it.
“To what?” She crossed her arms in front of her. “To make out with me? And so what if he does?” She threw the challenge at his feet.
“So what?!” He clenched his fists and pushed away from the pick-up, stalking toward the rear of the truck. “You’re the one who said he never called.”
She threw her hands up in the air and then marched to meet him by the tailgate. “Yeah and like two seconds ago, you agreed everyone deserves a second chance.”
She was inches away from him, He could feel the heat coming off of her, could see sparks flashing in her eyes, the flush on her cheeks and the annoyance written in ever stiff line of her body, but she didn’t back away… she never did. All the heat drained from him.
“Even me?” he asked.
“What?”
“Second chances. If I asked, would you give me mine?”
“What did you just say?” The flush left Chloe’s cheeks. She’d heard him.
He gathered her hands in his. “Maybe I don’t deserve it but… if I don’t get one I can’t imagine what my life is going to look like.”
Confusion wrinkled her brow but all the stiffness left her body. “What are you really saying Clark?” Chloe caught and worried her bottom lip between her teeth. The depression in her red lips taunted him while he sought the words he needed.
“Yes to second chances. No to Jimmy. Yes to the kiss…,” he squeezed her hands. “I lied. I did expect things. I’m not sure what, but I wanted to find out. I want,” he paused, putting emphasis on the present and future tense, “to find out.”
“Clark, I…,”
He interrupted her, shaking his head. “Don’t say anything yet.” Not yet. Leave all the possibilities open for a little while longer. He kept his head down; afraid to look at her face, but he shifted closer; his hands sliding up her arms until he was holding the soft flesh just above her elbows. Her hands curled into the white t-shirt covering his chest and the soft folds of the stripped dress she wore brushed against the inside of his knees.
Chloe wanted him to be happy despite the constant disasters he dragged the world through. She insisted he choose his life and then find a way to live it. He couldn’t imagine doing that without her, but despite Chloe’s teenage misgivings, Jimmy was probably a nice guy. A nice guy that wouldn’t introduce her to maniac computers or flash freeze fortresses or disembodied war criminals bent on ruling the world…and yet shouldn’t Chloe have the same right as he did to choose the life she most wanted?
“Did you mean it?” He blurted the question out, daring to raise his gaze. Confusion again clouded Chloe’s expression... He leaned closer and cupped the side of her face. His eyes went to her soft, parted lips. She wet them with her tongue and he had the urge to follow that pink tip back inside. “The kiss,” he clarified with a whisper, brushing his thumb just beneath the flare of her lower lip. “Was it just the end of the world or…”
He registered a sharp intake of breath at the same time that Chloe launched herself at him. Her arms snaked around his neck, her hands dug into his hair and her mouth…, hot, lush, hungry - it was everything he remembered and more. More heat, more urgency, more sweetness, more joy, just more. He wrapped her in his arms, holding her to him as close and as tight as he dared. He slide one arm her around the waist and used the other to angle across her back, and dived deeper into their kiss, attempting to match everything she so freely gave.
He would have happily stayed submerged in the best possible possibility but a sharp series of barks accompanied by something warm and vaguely slimly briefly rolling over his foot pulled him out of the moment. Clark surfaced long enough to note Shelby had discovered the lonely side to playing keep away but it was the mix of Chloe’s laughter and her drawn out “Eww,” that convinced him it was a good time to come up for air. The combination coming from Chloe was a bit worrying until he saw that the drool coated, green ball was now dipping its ooze between Chloe’s toes. Still hanging on to his neck and locked in the circle of his arms, she kicked the slime fest away. Shelby gratefully dove at the skittering ground ball.
He waited in anticipation for Chloe to turn back to him. The smile she wore at Shelby’s antics transformed into something bigger and brighter, something special just for him. Happiness, the special rare kind that bubbled up free of restraint or complication, filled him. A grin to match Chloe’s stretched out his cheeks.
“So I think what you’re saying is,” he teased, “it’s not just an end of the world thing?”
“Please, the end of the world comes to Smallville like every other month. If I had a kissing fetish, you’d have been drowning in them.”
He shrugged. “I could live with that, if you want to pick one up.”
Astonished, she gaped at him for a moment before tossing her head back and laughing. Her giggles brought Shelby bounding back, jumping and barking excitedly around them.
“Shelby. Truck.” He commanded and pointed at the red pick-up. The golden retriever stopped mid leap, dashed to the open door on the passenger side and scrambled inside. The wet ball in his mouth left smudges on the back window. Clark felt Chloe’s stare. She had her head tilted to the side, studying him.
“You could have done that earlier, couldn’t you?”
He shrugged again, more sheepish this time. “Shelby never refuses a ride; he won’t get out of the truck until he gets one.” At the question still lingering in her eyes he continued. “I was afraid if I didn’t say something here today, I’d never work up my courage.”
“Clark, if you’re not really sure…”
He rapidly shook his head. “It’s not that. I want this. I want you even though you’d probably be better off without me.” Chloe’s hands fisted in his hair.
“Don’t you dare walk away from me for my own good,” she growled. “Promise me. I can handle it if you’ve changed your mind about wanting more but don’t shut me out. I can’t lose my best friend.” Fierce determination flashed in her green eyes, but it didn’t completely crowd out the vulnerability he read as well. She’d been left behind too many times. He pulled her into a hug, tucking her head beneath his chin.
“I promise. And I’m not changing my mind.” He pulled back slightly so he could see her face. She was trying to smile despite the unshed tears pooled in her eyes. “Chloe, every time my world falls apart, you’ve been there to help put it back together. I never stopped to ask why I always turn to you, all I know is right from the start I’ve always known I could.”
Chloe pulled his head down for a quick hard kiss. When she pulled away, he followed her back and stole a longer, deeper one. God, maybe he was the one developing a kissing addiction. Slowly they broke apart. She used her fingers to sift through the hair just above his left temple, a soothing, comforting touch.
Her smile was less watery now. “It goes both ways you know,” she told him.
“Not enough it hasn’t, but that’s going to change,” he promised, catching her hand and pressing it against his chest. “There are things that I still need to say, things I want to say…,” he hesitated and Chloe gently finished his thought.
“But everything’s a little scary right now, even if it’s a good scary.”
He nodded and let out the breath he was holding. “I’m not sure what happens next,” he confessed bluntly, grateful with Chloe he didn’t have to pretend.
“I think it can be anything we want it to be.”
“Before I would have mentioned finishing our Star Wars marathon and the pot roast my mom said she’d keep warm, but you deserve more than that. It’s early enough to go somewhere fancy. Anywhere you want to go, I’ll take you there. Anywhere. Just name the place.”
Chloe stroked the hair along his temple again. “At some point that would be very nice – and believe me, I now have some very specific Googling to look forward to,” she smiled and shook her head, “but right now, honestly there’s nothing I’d love more than to just go back to the farm. I don’t want everything to change between us Clark. I’d miss being us too much. Besides, no restaurant can touch your mom’s gravy or baby red potatoes.”
Chloe smiled up at him, a familiar smile, one that told him there wasn’t anywhere in the world she’d rather be, and suddenly any lingering fears he’d harbored faded away. For a moment, the world stood still and he stared at her beautiful, beaming face. He took in the light in her green eyes, the inviting turn of her perfectly pink lips and the soft look of relaxed happiness he only saw when she looked at him. Warmth hit him everywhere. Everything about Chloe was familiar and precious. Why had he waited so long?
By taking this step, who they were was changing, but they were still them. The words that he needed to say and the ones he needed to hear would come eventually, but for now they could take it slow and enjoy where they already were. Together. No more keep away.
“Clark?”
“I’m listening. Yeah, home sounds real good.” He slid one arm around her waist and started walking them back to the truck. He escorted her to the passenger side where Shelby was waiting curled up in the middle of the bench seat. The old dog lifted his head and barked once,
Chloe smiled and glanced up at Clark. “I guess Shelby wants to know what took us so long.”
He shook his head. “I don’t have a great answer for that,” he said, never breaking eye contact with Chloe. She was his best friend and so much more than that; she was his future. “But I’m real glad we’re finally here.”
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