Chlark Fanfic: Right in Front of You, Ch 4
Timescale: Sometime after Fierce
Disclaimer: Characters belong to the CW and DC Comics
Rating: PG13 (we're gettin' there!)
Read previous chapter here.
Read story from the beginning here.
Chapter 4
This time the superspeed journey didn’t take as much time as the first. When they stopped, Clark removed the basket from Chloe’s lap and gently set her down. Chloe looked around again in wide-eyed wonder.
“Wow,” she breathed, taking in the spectacular view all around her. “Just…wow.”
Clark had taken her close to the summit of one of the surrounding hills in the Valley area, and if the view of the setting sun from the vineyard had been beautiful, then there were no words for the splendour that surrounded her now. The rich hues from the setting sun had deepened, and from where they stood they could see at least fifty miles in every direction bathed in the ethereal blaze that could only come from the setting sun. The sun’s rays pierced through the few clouds that were floating by and then emerged with a fiery tint to create what could only be described as ‘sky-halos’.
Clark had set down the picnic basket and had come to stand behind Chloe. He caught a whiff of her hair and couldn’t resist drawing in a deep breath of the rich passion fruit scent with musky undertones. Without giving it too much thought, he slid his arms around her waist and rested his chin on her sun‑kissed hair.
God, this felt so right. Like coming home after a long, tiring day. Clark’s eyelids drifted shut, and he tightened his hold on her. He couldn’t understand why, but standing here with Chloe, away from all the noise, away from the worries of his complicated everyday life…was everything he seemed to have been looking for all along. It was all so simple - and all so complicated at the same time.
He’d always thought himself to be in love with Lana, but the one chance they’d had at having a true relationship had proved what a farce that was. The entire relationship had just been one long, tedious episode he wished he could erase from his memory.
Clark thought about the woman in his arms, wondering what was going through her mind at this very moment. Ordinarily, if Clark had attempted to embrace her so intimately she’d have side-stepped away from him with a wry smile and a cynical comment on her lips. On this occasion, for the first time in a long time that Clark could remember, Chloe Sullivan seemed to have been rendered speechless. He wondered whether it was from the beauty of her surroundings or the intimacy of the moment. He guessed it was probably a combination of both. With a sad smile to himself, he figured that the moment would pass and her brain would come online any second and she’d revert to her usual snarky self. With a disappointed sigh, he braced himself for rejection.
And then Chloe lifted her hands and placed them over his, interlacing their fingers.
Clark’s heart all but melted. He felt a warmth suffuse his limbs as Chloe leaned back against him, bringing their bodies into even more intimate contact. He could feel the swell of her bottom against the front of his jeans, and suddenly the easy warmth flowing through him arrowed straight to his groin with such intensity he barely managed to stifle a groan.
He had the mother of all hard-ons. And he was pressed right up against Chloe Sullivan’s backside. Thankfully she wasn’t facing him, or she’d have seen that he’d blushed as red as a beetroot.
Clark closed his eyes and slowly counted to ten in his head, then quietly unlinked his hands from her waist and stepped away from her. She glanced across at him and he quickly averted his gaze.
Nice work, Kent, he thought, shuffling awkwardly. Say something. Anything.
“So, I uh…” God, he sounded like he’d been gargling gravel. He forced his voice back to something resembling its usual tone. “I take it you like the view,” he managed to get out.
“It’s…breathtaking, Clark. It’s beautiful beyond words.” He couldn’t help noticing that her voice had taken on an odd tone, and wondered if their earlier closeness had affected her as much as it had him. “Have you er…brought anyone else up here?” she asked carefully.
Clark heard the unspoken question behind her words. Have you ever brought Lana up here?
He fixed his gaze on her. “You’re the only one, Chloe.”
At the warmth and sincerity in his eyes and voice, Chloe’s throat constricted and tears sprang to her eyes. She wasn’t silly enough to think that Clark would suddenly fall in love with her simply because Lana was out of the picture…but the fact that he’d chosen to bring her here, somewhere he hadn’t brought anyone else - well, at least she meant something special to him.
It wasn’t exactly what she’d been hoping for…but it was something to hold on to.
She looked out over the view again and blinked several times until the tears went away. “Thank you, Clark," she said softly. “Thank you for sharing this with me.”
“Anytime,” he whispered.
Oookay, this is getting awkward, Chloe thought. And the last thing she wanted was for things to become awkward between them. She snapped out of it and rubbed her hands together with a bright grin.
“Okay Clark, I don’t know about you, but I am starving, and I can’t wait to see what Julio and Maria packed for us.” She knelt down by the picnic basket and took the blanket off the top.
Clark reached out and took it from her and shook it out. He laid it carefully on the ground and watched her as she began going through the basket. Chloe was the queen of denial, but if that was how she wanted to play it, he’d go along with her.
For now.
“Let’s see…we have a garden salad…assorted sandwiches…bottled water…some impressive cheese…a righteous-looking cluster of grapes for dessert, and…” she reached into the basket and pulled out a bottle, looking triumphant. “…a bottle of the finest house red.”
Clark took the bottle from her and studied the label. “It’s one of their own wines, from their vineyard,” Clark said. “Likely from one of their best vintage years.”
“Nice,” said Chloe, impressed. “You really do know how to make a good impression, Clark Kent.”
“Actually, I think it was you,” Clark replied with a smile. “I’ve come here several times, and they’ve never given me a bottle of wine. I show up with you and they’re falling over themselves to make you happy.”
“Yeah…you never did tell me what you said to them about me.” Chloe sat down on the blanket and regarded Clark with her best smile. “So who did you say I was?”
“Patience, Chloe.” Clark sat down beside her and grabbed a couple of sandwiches. He tossed one at her, which she deftly caught. “I said I’d tell you later, and I will. But for now, let’s eat.”
***
They sat and enjoyed their meal by the light of the setting sun, the sky now tinged with a softer purple glow. As they ate, they enjoyed their usual lively conversation, talking about anything and everything from pop icons to politics. By the time they got round to the grapes, they’d reverted to childhood games and were having a grape-seed spitting contest to see who could spit the seeds further over the hill.
Clark revelled in how easy things had always been between him and Chloe. He remembered that time in eighth grade when she’d had a splinter in her thumb and he’d been the one to suck it out, remembered the time she’d been out shopping for ladies personal items and they just happened to be on a shelf out of her reach and she’d beseeched him to reach above her head and help her bring down a pack of tampons. He recalled the time when he’d missed a test while he was out stopping a meteor freak, and Chloe had come over to help him burn the midnight oil to make sure he aced the make-up test. She hadn’t even known about his abilities then. When she had found out, she didn’t confront him with the truth or accuse him of keeping secrets, neither did she treat him like a freak or any differently; she’d simply kept her peace and continued to be the best friend she could. And when he had told her the truth, that he was actually an alien from another planet, she didn’t even flinch. On the contrary, she’d told him that if more humans were like him that the world would be a better place. He remembered looking into her eyes, seeing the sincerity in her face, and knew that he would trust this girl forever.
Once the sun descended completely over the horizon, the temperature dipped slightly. While Chloe dug out the extra blanket from the picnic basket, Clark got up and gathered some dried wood, placed them in a pile and then gazed intently at them with his heat vision. Within seconds, a nice fire was crackling merrily, and Clark made his way back to where Chloe sat taking off her shoes and wiggling her toes in front of the fire.
“Ah, this is the life,” she sighed as she stretched, tilting her head from side to side in an attempt to relax her muscles. “You think we could be at risk of getting attacked by any wild animals, though?”
Clark chuckled as he sat down beside her and took off his workboots and socks. “Chloe, you’re with me, remember? Your alien friend with all those amazing abilities.” He scooted backwards a little so that his back was against a tree, and then raised his arms and folded them behind his head. “I’m shocked that after all this time, you don’t feel safe with me.”
“Whoops, my bad,” Chloe smiled as she slid backward to align herself with him. On closer inspection, she noted that the tree wasn’t really wide enough for them to both rest side by side against it without ending up facing different directions. Shame, she thought as she worried her lower lip with her teeth. She really wanted to rest her back against something…
As if Clark had read her mind, he reached over and lifted her easily until she was squarely seated between his thighs, her back up against his chest. He leaned back against the tree and pulled her with him, raising his legs at the knees to create a cradle within which she sat. He really didn’t know what to do with his arms, so he left them at her waist, hoping she wouldn’t object.
“Better?” he asked.
“Oh yeah, thanks.” I could definitely get used to this, she thought with one mind as she rested her head against his shoulder, sneakily inhaling the woodsy fragrance of him. Curb your appetites, girl, the smart side of her brain responded. He only broke up with Lana five minutes ago. You don’t want to be his rebound girl. Keeping her voice light, she said, “It reminds me of that time in Ninth Grade that we all went go-karting. Remember?”
“Oh yeah. Good times,” Clark said with a rueful smile. He, Pete, Lana & Chloe had decided to go go-karting one half-term holiday, and after several times round the track in four individual cars they’d all but run out of money. Pete had come up with the bright suggestion that they double up in the cars for the last race of the day, and they’d all agreed. To make the race fair they decided to pair up in a boy/girl fashion, but Clark pulled Pete aside and said he’d probably faint if he sat that close to Lana, so with a shake of his head and a big conspiratorial grin on his face, Pete had run and grabbed Lana as his partner, and Clark had picked Chloe with relief. It had turned out to be the best part of the day as they’d shrieked and swerved around the track, with victory going to Pete and Lana at the last turn.
“Looking back on that day…did you let Pete & Lana win?” Chloe asked.
“No, Pete’s always had a head for fast cars. He won that race fair and square. Besides, my parents drummed it into me from an early age that I could unwittingly reveal my secret if I allowed myself to get competitive, so I make a conscious effort not to use my abilities for just anything.”
Chloe thought of how tough it must have been for him as a young teenager to have to curb himself in his everyday dealings with people, and her heart went out to him. “Must have been difficult to reign yourself in all the time.”
Clark smiled ruefully and raised a had to ruffle her hair. “You do what you have to do, I guess, and you get used to things. It’s practically second nature to me now.”
“I was so bummed when we lost that race. I figured that with you, winning was a sure thing - and that was years before I discovered your secret!”
“We may not have won, but I definitely didn’t see it as losing,” Clark said thoughtfully as he continued to play with her hair. “I had the best time that day. And I really wouldn’t have had as much fun if I’d been partnered with anyone else.”
“Ah, yes…we couldn’t have had you paired with Lana ‘drive-me-to-distraction’ Lang now, could we?” Chloe responded with a sad smile. “You’d never have made it round the first bend! I guess it’s a good thing you never felt that way about me, ‘cause then you’d have had no-one to ride with!” she finished with a rueful laugh.
Clark’s hand stilled in her hair. His brows drew together in a frown. “And what’s that supposed to mean?” he queried in a low voice.
“Come on Clark, you turned into a mess whenever Lana got near you - tripping over your own feet, dropping your journals…”
“That was down to green kryptonite, I told you,” he said in a low voice, his expression darkening.
“Yeah, but I have a funny feeling that you’d have still been reduced to stammering like a stuck record with or without Lana’s greenK necklace,” Chloe replied stoically. “You don’t need to defend your feelings for Lana to me, Clark. You’ve loved her deeply for a long time…that’s not a bad thing. I’m just saying that you and I have a friendship that isn’t affected by that kind of…distraction, which is also not a bad thing.”
Clark’s frown deepened. “So what, you think I’m completely oblivious to you?” Clark shifted sideways so he could see her face, and used the hand that was still threaded in Chloe’s hair to turn her to face him. “You think I don’t have any kind of feelings for you at all?”
Chloe was somewhat taken aback by the annoyed expression in his face and the hard edge to his voice. What was he implying - that he did in fact have feelings for her? Much as she longed to hear him say that, she knew it wouldn’t be the truth. The same way she’d yearned for him all those years, he’d yearned for Lana, and she just couldn’t compete with that. Heck, the last thing she wanted was to bare her soul again and get rejected for the hundred-and-oneth time. She didn’t think she could survive another ‘peck-on-the-cheek’-consolation-prize. So she looked into his sea green eyes and soldiered on. “That’s not what I said, Clark. We’re best of friends, always have been, but you can’t sit there and say you feel anything for me beyond that friendship. And I’m fine with it, really. In fact, I’m quite honoured to be your Girl Friday,” she finished with a forced smile.
Hand still in Chloe’s hair, Clark’s eyes bored into Chloe’s green-gold depths as he regarded her with an understanding borne of years of comradeship. She really did believe she was little more than a go-to girl for him, he realised. And she was pretty much justified in her way of thinking, given the way he’d blathered on about Lana for years on end. He wasn’t a fool. He knew Chloe had feelings for him that she kept well at bay for fear of losing the friendship they shared. Looking back, he realised he’d taken it for granted that Chloe would always provide a listening ear to his Lana-whining, not caring that he was probably figuratively twisting a knife in her gut as she struggled to pull the shutters down on her own feelings for him.
As he gazed into her eyes, he searched her soul for a sign that those feelings were still in there somewhere. When she’d walked off with Jimmy at the Daily Planet after he’d escaped from the Phantom Zone, he could do nothing but blink and stare after them stupidly, hoping that she’d turn around or at least look back at him. She hadn’t. He was surprised to find that he felt like he’d had his heart cut out and handed to him on a silver platter. It gave him an idea of how she must have felt seeing him with Lana and having to put up with his whining and moping all those years.
God, he’d treated her abominably. But all that was going to change.
***
Read Chapter 5 here...