FIC: Itsy Bitsy, Teeny Weeny
Found a finished, unposted Chlara ficlet.
Title: Itsy Bitsy, Teeny Weeny
Pairing: Chlara
Fandom: Smallville
Sequel: Earth Men Are Dumb and Little Black Dress
Summary: Chloe and Kara jet off to Coast City for a few days. Set after S7 “Action.”
"Noo no no no!" Chloe protested as Kara caught her wrist and pulled her out of the public changing room. Chloe tried to cover herself with her other hand, with little effect. But hey, it was better than nothing.
Which is what Chloe felt like she was wearing.
Somehow Kara had convinced Chloe that what she needed was a few days off from work to get some fresh perspective. Meaning, of course, Kara wanted to go to the beach and get her into an itsy bitsy, teeny weeny… green. Bikini.
Chloe felt her face starting to resemble a strawberry, and she ducked her head and curled one arm over her abdomen. "I want a wrap."
Kara put one hand on her hip, then grabbed Chloe around the waist and began carrying her out over the sand.
"Eeeee!" Chloe squealed.
Kara laughed, but didn't put her down until they'd reached their blankets and umbrella. Chloe quickly crawled under it and pulled her knees up to her chest.
"Come on! You look fine. There were girls up for Miss Sweet Corn who had a worse body than you."
"Thanks," Chloe muttered into her knees.
"You're welcome. But it's true. You look good. I like how you look. Does it matter what anyone else thinks?" Kara crouched down beside Chloe and slipped her fingers through her hair. "I want you to have fun. I want you to relax a little. Can you do that?"
"There's a lot on my plate back home. I-"
"But you're here. Not there."
Chloe looked up at Kara. "I like to face my problems head on."
Kara blinked at her for a moment, then flopped on her back with a sigh.
"Did you tell Clark you were going?" Chloe asked.
"Nope."
"Well, he'll notice you were gone. What are you going to tell him?"
Kara thought for a moment as she watched a plane flying by. "I'll tell him Jimmy took me to Coast City."
***
"Voila! Room service is on its way," Kara declared. They had returned to the room after a few hours playing in the ocean and sunbathing, and the two of them were still in their bikinis, only with an added pair of jean shorts on Chloe.
Kara walked across the room, swinging her hips as naturally as though she were on the catwalk every day of her life, and picked up a guide on the desk that detailed all of the amenities at the hotel.
"How are you affording all this?" Chloe asked as she stretched over the king sized bed.
Kara leaned against the desk as she flipped through the book. “I think we should try some of these spa treatments... Or you should. I don’t want someone breaking a hand on me in the middle of a massage.”
“Kara.” Chloe frowned and sat up.
“... why would anyone want hot water up there? You humans are so bizarro.”
“Kara, where are you getting the money to pay for this?” Chloe asked again more forcefully. She got off the bed and snatched the guide from Kara’s hands. “This is a bit beyond the salary of a coffee wench.”
“I’m a barista. Lex said so,” Kara breezed.
Chloe narrowed her eyes. “Is Lex paying for this vacation?”
“Hm.”
“Kara!”
“Well. Yes.”
Chloe looked up at the ceiling, then threw her hands in the air and headed over to their suitcases.
“What are you doing?” Kara demanded as she followed Chloe to the suitcases.
“I’m packing. I’m not going to vacay on Lex Luthor’s dime. Especially when he’s interested in you.” Chloe opened the dresser and threw her clothes back in her bag. “And especially, especially when I have no idea what his game is in giving this to you!”
“What game? Who said he gave it to me?”
Chloe froze, then turned and looked at Kara in disbelief. “You... No, Kara. You wouldn’t steal from him.”
“Technically-” Kara rolled her shoulders and looked annoyed. “-I stole from Lana, but she stole it from him first.”
Chloe felt a little as though her brain was broken at first. Then she shook her head and slowly raised her hands. “That’s the divorce money, Kara. Lana didn’t steal it.”
“She didn’t get any money in the divorce.” Kara frowned when Chloe threw her hands up again. “She didn’t! I overheard them talking. She told him she didn’t need anything from him. He said other than the ten million she stole from him. Then she said she needed it to get away, or something. Although she’s here, so I don’t really understand why she stole it in the first place.”
Chloe continued to stare at Kara as she tried to think of something to say. Kara didn’t lie. Like Clark, she was terrible at it, for starters, and unlike Clark, she usually didn’t even bother to try. Most of all, Kara didn’t seem to understand humans enough sometimes to manage to come up with something like this.
“I’m not even stealing, stealing.” Kara turned and paced over toward the bed. “I’m just skimming the interest off her account, which is just a teeny weeny bit compared to how much is in there now. She’s still putting funds in. They go in. They go out. And I take the fractions of cents from the huge transitions and put them into an account. It’s barely stealing.”
“Kara,” Chloe finally said, stepping closer to her. “Let me get this straight. Lana stole from Lex, is probably still stealing from Lex, and... you’re taking the interest and putting it into an account for yourself? Then why are you working at the Talon?”
“I dunno. I like Lex. He’s weird. And smart. And I want to keep an eye on him.” Kara looked over her shoulder. “Are you still mad?”
“A little, yes! It’s not okay to steal. Not even a teeny weeny bit. It’s illegal.” Chloe swallowed. “And Clark needs to know what she’s doing.”
“Clark doesn’t trust me. He doesn’t trust me enough not to listen to Uncle Jor-El and the Martian over me. He won’t listen to this.” Kara pinched her mouth together. “Anyway, he knows. Lex told him that Lana took the money, and Clark didn’t believe him either.”
“That’s because he’s Lex.”
“And I’m Kara. We have names. I do not understand what you’re alluding to.” Kara turned and crossed her arms. “Lana lied. Lana stole. Clark is okay with that, or he’s just in denial. It’s not okay when I do it? Because my name isn’t Lana?”
Chloe licked her lips slowly, then put her hand on Kara’s bicep. “Maybe for Clark, but not for me. It’s not okay when anyone does it, and if Lana is... Okay, I believe you. No if. Whatever Lana is doing? We need to find out about it. Promise me you’ll stop stealing. It’s not worth it to wine and dine me.”
“Yes, it is,” Kara argued. “You are worth it, Chloe! You never think you’re worth whatever people try to give you.”
“That’s not... always, true.” Chloe sighed. “Please stop. For me. You can do that for me. You can give that to me. Trying to understand why this is wrong.”
“I’ll try. But giving things to people to make them happy, when no one is hurt by it... Where is the wrong in that?”
“It’s wrong because you’re better than that. And it’s wrong because Lana is getting away with something she shouldn’t. You like Lex, right? And you don’t want her to cause him trouble, do you?”
“Lex forgave her. I don’t even know if Lex really cares about what she does anymore. He never talks about her,” Kara said pensively. “Which is funny because she tried to frame him for her murder, and I thought that would be something that he’d be mad about. I don’t think he’d be mad if you got to go on vacation.”
Chloe covered her eyes with her hand, then rubbed her fingers over them before walking back to the bed.
“I don’t understand,” Kara murmured. “Why is everything I do on this planet wrong?”
“Would you be arrested for doing this on your planet?” Chloe almost felt defeated. She didn’t know if she was capable of teaching ethics to a grown woman.
“We didn’t have money on my planet. There’s nothing really comparable...” Kara looked to the side and sucked in her cheeks. “There was one man who skimmed food credits from the planetary distribution system and deposited them in the accounts of orphans in Candor Below. But the Science Council decided not to put him in the Phantom Zone. Instead, they just fixed the system.”
“I’m not an orphan, Kara,” Chloe whispered. “I don’t need this. I don’t require it. Do you get that? You think it’s okay to steal to give food to the hungry. You wouldn’t be alone in that thought on Earth. But you aren’t doing it for a magnanimous purpose.”
Pressing her lips into a line and clasping her hands together, Chloe thought carefully.
“Do you think Lex would be hurt if he knew what you were doing? Regardless of what he thinks about Lana doing it. Would he be upset if he knew that you were benefitting from someone who is deliberately hurting him?”
“He doesn’t... need the money. Chloe, I’m not trying to be dense, here.” Kara hooked her thumbs on her jeans and stared at her toes. “Would you feel better if I told him?”
“Kara, I’m scared of what will happen to you if you tell him,” Chloe confessed, looking up at her.
Kara met her eye. “Are you mad because I stole, or because you’re scared what Lex will do to me?”
“I... both, actually. And because you made me an accomplice by not being straight with me about where the money came from.”
“Oh.” Kara bowed her lips slightly. “Like lying. I get that.”
Chloe rolled her eyes.
“Well, I can’t put the money back. Not that Lana would notice anyway. The only thing I can do is hack back into the system and stop the money from being transferred,” Kara explained. Tentatively, she came over and sat beside Chloe on the bed. “I’m sorry I lied to you.”
“I think you knew I wouldn’t like it.” Chloe pinched her mouth to the side. “Didn’t you?”
“I can’t always read you,” Kara admitted. She forward on her thighs. “I don’t understand everything here. It’s like, it’s not real to me sometimes. I go by what others do, and even then, it’s not always right. It’s like I take in all this information, and process it so I know how to act, but my processor is broken, so I can only see part of the information.”
Chloe reached over and took Kara’s hand. “I know it’s hard, and it’s frustrating. I’ll help you, if you let me.”
“Yeah?” Kara traced Chloe’s hand with her index finger. “Please don’t give up on me. You’re the only person here who really makes things okay.”
Chloe cupped Kara’s face and made her look up. “Things get better. Because they have to. Pain fades. You make new connections.”
“All I have are you and Lex. And you don’t even get along with him.”
“No. But... I’m not about to tell you that you can’t be friends with him. Just be careful.”
“So should I tell him or not?”
“Let’s...” Chloe sighed and straightened up. “Let’s try to figure out what Lana is doing. That way, you can help Lex out. Make it up to him. He’s a little shifty himself, so he’ll appreciate you coming to him for the sake of honesty, but he’ll appreciate it more if you can give him a practical and useful bit of information.”
Kara rubbed the side of her head. “It’s all so complicated.”
“I know.” Chloe leaned forward and gave Kara a gentle kiss.
Emboldened, Kara reached behind Chloe’s back to untie her bikini top.
Title: Itsy Bitsy, Teeny Weeny
Pairing: Chlara
Fandom: Smallville
Sequel: Earth Men Are Dumb and Little Black Dress
Summary: Chloe and Kara jet off to Coast City for a few days. Set after S7 “Action.”
"Noo no no no!" Chloe protested as Kara caught her wrist and pulled her out of the public changing room. Chloe tried to cover herself with her other hand, with little effect. But hey, it was better than nothing.
Which is what Chloe felt like she was wearing.
Somehow Kara had convinced Chloe that what she needed was a few days off from work to get some fresh perspective. Meaning, of course, Kara wanted to go to the beach and get her into an itsy bitsy, teeny weeny… green. Bikini.
Chloe felt her face starting to resemble a strawberry, and she ducked her head and curled one arm over her abdomen. "I want a wrap."
Kara put one hand on her hip, then grabbed Chloe around the waist and began carrying her out over the sand.
"Eeeee!" Chloe squealed.
Kara laughed, but didn't put her down until they'd reached their blankets and umbrella. Chloe quickly crawled under it and pulled her knees up to her chest.
"Come on! You look fine. There were girls up for Miss Sweet Corn who had a worse body than you."
"Thanks," Chloe muttered into her knees.
"You're welcome. But it's true. You look good. I like how you look. Does it matter what anyone else thinks?" Kara crouched down beside Chloe and slipped her fingers through her hair. "I want you to have fun. I want you to relax a little. Can you do that?"
"There's a lot on my plate back home. I-"
"But you're here. Not there."
Chloe looked up at Kara. "I like to face my problems head on."
Kara blinked at her for a moment, then flopped on her back with a sigh.
"Did you tell Clark you were going?" Chloe asked.
"Nope."
"Well, he'll notice you were gone. What are you going to tell him?"
Kara thought for a moment as she watched a plane flying by. "I'll tell him Jimmy took me to Coast City."
***
"Voila! Room service is on its way," Kara declared. They had returned to the room after a few hours playing in the ocean and sunbathing, and the two of them were still in their bikinis, only with an added pair of jean shorts on Chloe.
Kara walked across the room, swinging her hips as naturally as though she were on the catwalk every day of her life, and picked up a guide on the desk that detailed all of the amenities at the hotel.
"How are you affording all this?" Chloe asked as she stretched over the king sized bed.
Kara leaned against the desk as she flipped through the book. “I think we should try some of these spa treatments... Or you should. I don’t want someone breaking a hand on me in the middle of a massage.”
“Kara.” Chloe frowned and sat up.
“... why would anyone want hot water up there? You humans are so bizarro.”
“Kara, where are you getting the money to pay for this?” Chloe asked again more forcefully. She got off the bed and snatched the guide from Kara’s hands. “This is a bit beyond the salary of a coffee wench.”
“I’m a barista. Lex said so,” Kara breezed.
Chloe narrowed her eyes. “Is Lex paying for this vacation?”
“Hm.”
“Kara!”
“Well. Yes.”
Chloe looked up at the ceiling, then threw her hands in the air and headed over to their suitcases.
“What are you doing?” Kara demanded as she followed Chloe to the suitcases.
“I’m packing. I’m not going to vacay on Lex Luthor’s dime. Especially when he’s interested in you.” Chloe opened the dresser and threw her clothes back in her bag. “And especially, especially when I have no idea what his game is in giving this to you!”
“What game? Who said he gave it to me?”
Chloe froze, then turned and looked at Kara in disbelief. “You... No, Kara. You wouldn’t steal from him.”
“Technically-” Kara rolled her shoulders and looked annoyed. “-I stole from Lana, but she stole it from him first.”
Chloe felt a little as though her brain was broken at first. Then she shook her head and slowly raised her hands. “That’s the divorce money, Kara. Lana didn’t steal it.”
“She didn’t get any money in the divorce.” Kara frowned when Chloe threw her hands up again. “She didn’t! I overheard them talking. She told him she didn’t need anything from him. He said other than the ten million she stole from him. Then she said she needed it to get away, or something. Although she’s here, so I don’t really understand why she stole it in the first place.”
Chloe continued to stare at Kara as she tried to think of something to say. Kara didn’t lie. Like Clark, she was terrible at it, for starters, and unlike Clark, she usually didn’t even bother to try. Most of all, Kara didn’t seem to understand humans enough sometimes to manage to come up with something like this.
“I’m not even stealing, stealing.” Kara turned and paced over toward the bed. “I’m just skimming the interest off her account, which is just a teeny weeny bit compared to how much is in there now. She’s still putting funds in. They go in. They go out. And I take the fractions of cents from the huge transitions and put them into an account. It’s barely stealing.”
“Kara,” Chloe finally said, stepping closer to her. “Let me get this straight. Lana stole from Lex, is probably still stealing from Lex, and... you’re taking the interest and putting it into an account for yourself? Then why are you working at the Talon?”
“I dunno. I like Lex. He’s weird. And smart. And I want to keep an eye on him.” Kara looked over her shoulder. “Are you still mad?”
“A little, yes! It’s not okay to steal. Not even a teeny weeny bit. It’s illegal.” Chloe swallowed. “And Clark needs to know what she’s doing.”
“Clark doesn’t trust me. He doesn’t trust me enough not to listen to Uncle Jor-El and the Martian over me. He won’t listen to this.” Kara pinched her mouth together. “Anyway, he knows. Lex told him that Lana took the money, and Clark didn’t believe him either.”
“That’s because he’s Lex.”
“And I’m Kara. We have names. I do not understand what you’re alluding to.” Kara turned and crossed her arms. “Lana lied. Lana stole. Clark is okay with that, or he’s just in denial. It’s not okay when I do it? Because my name isn’t Lana?”
Chloe licked her lips slowly, then put her hand on Kara’s bicep. “Maybe for Clark, but not for me. It’s not okay when anyone does it, and if Lana is... Okay, I believe you. No if. Whatever Lana is doing? We need to find out about it. Promise me you’ll stop stealing. It’s not worth it to wine and dine me.”
“Yes, it is,” Kara argued. “You are worth it, Chloe! You never think you’re worth whatever people try to give you.”
“That’s not... always, true.” Chloe sighed. “Please stop. For me. You can do that for me. You can give that to me. Trying to understand why this is wrong.”
“I’ll try. But giving things to people to make them happy, when no one is hurt by it... Where is the wrong in that?”
“It’s wrong because you’re better than that. And it’s wrong because Lana is getting away with something she shouldn’t. You like Lex, right? And you don’t want her to cause him trouble, do you?”
“Lex forgave her. I don’t even know if Lex really cares about what she does anymore. He never talks about her,” Kara said pensively. “Which is funny because she tried to frame him for her murder, and I thought that would be something that he’d be mad about. I don’t think he’d be mad if you got to go on vacation.”
Chloe covered her eyes with her hand, then rubbed her fingers over them before walking back to the bed.
“I don’t understand,” Kara murmured. “Why is everything I do on this planet wrong?”
“Would you be arrested for doing this on your planet?” Chloe almost felt defeated. She didn’t know if she was capable of teaching ethics to a grown woman.
“We didn’t have money on my planet. There’s nothing really comparable...” Kara looked to the side and sucked in her cheeks. “There was one man who skimmed food credits from the planetary distribution system and deposited them in the accounts of orphans in Candor Below. But the Science Council decided not to put him in the Phantom Zone. Instead, they just fixed the system.”
“I’m not an orphan, Kara,” Chloe whispered. “I don’t need this. I don’t require it. Do you get that? You think it’s okay to steal to give food to the hungry. You wouldn’t be alone in that thought on Earth. But you aren’t doing it for a magnanimous purpose.”
Pressing her lips into a line and clasping her hands together, Chloe thought carefully.
“Do you think Lex would be hurt if he knew what you were doing? Regardless of what he thinks about Lana doing it. Would he be upset if he knew that you were benefitting from someone who is deliberately hurting him?”
“He doesn’t... need the money. Chloe, I’m not trying to be dense, here.” Kara hooked her thumbs on her jeans and stared at her toes. “Would you feel better if I told him?”
“Kara, I’m scared of what will happen to you if you tell him,” Chloe confessed, looking up at her.
Kara met her eye. “Are you mad because I stole, or because you’re scared what Lex will do to me?”
“I... both, actually. And because you made me an accomplice by not being straight with me about where the money came from.”
“Oh.” Kara bowed her lips slightly. “Like lying. I get that.”
Chloe rolled her eyes.
“Well, I can’t put the money back. Not that Lana would notice anyway. The only thing I can do is hack back into the system and stop the money from being transferred,” Kara explained. Tentatively, she came over and sat beside Chloe on the bed. “I’m sorry I lied to you.”
“I think you knew I wouldn’t like it.” Chloe pinched her mouth to the side. “Didn’t you?”
“I can’t always read you,” Kara admitted. She forward on her thighs. “I don’t understand everything here. It’s like, it’s not real to me sometimes. I go by what others do, and even then, it’s not always right. It’s like I take in all this information, and process it so I know how to act, but my processor is broken, so I can only see part of the information.”
Chloe reached over and took Kara’s hand. “I know it’s hard, and it’s frustrating. I’ll help you, if you let me.”
“Yeah?” Kara traced Chloe’s hand with her index finger. “Please don’t give up on me. You’re the only person here who really makes things okay.”
Chloe cupped Kara’s face and made her look up. “Things get better. Because they have to. Pain fades. You make new connections.”
“All I have are you and Lex. And you don’t even get along with him.”
“No. But... I’m not about to tell you that you can’t be friends with him. Just be careful.”
“So should I tell him or not?”
“Let’s...” Chloe sighed and straightened up. “Let’s try to figure out what Lana is doing. That way, you can help Lex out. Make it up to him. He’s a little shifty himself, so he’ll appreciate you coming to him for the sake of honesty, but he’ll appreciate it more if you can give him a practical and useful bit of information.”
Kara rubbed the side of her head. “It’s all so complicated.”
“I know.” Chloe leaned forward and gave Kara a gentle kiss.
Emboldened, Kara reached behind Chloe’s back to untie her bikini top.