Broken Sonnet Series - Reality Bites - Smallville: Chloe Sullivan/Lex Luthor - PG13
Title: Broken Sonnet Series - Part 1 - Reality Bites
Rating: PG13...just to be safe
Pairing: Chloe Sullivan/Lex Luthor
Spoilers: Season4…but I don’t think I’ve given away any significant plots
Disclaimer: The title of this series came from Hale’s first single of the same title. And the movie Reality Bites is owned by its producers. None of the characters are mine, though to have Lex on eternal loan would be truly appreciated. *grin*
A/N: flashbacks, 'thoughts'. This’ll be slightly AU with some angst [coz I’m in such a rut], but I promise a v. good ending at the last part of the series. This is my version of Season 4; the way certain events SHOULD have transpired between Chlex…and because I’m absolutely revolted by the way the DOMOS used my favorite Maroon 5 song to allude to the Pink Primadonna in "Gone".
started - april 21 2005
~*~*~*~*~*~
Chloe had intended to get a headstart on the next Torch issue, but was sidetracked when her idle eyes settled on the Wall of Weird while she waited for the computer to boot up. Her notes for possible articles lay abandoned on the desk beside her as she slowly got up and walked over to the Wall. Of all the articles pinned on it, Chloe’s mind decided to focus on a particular section devoted to a particular event…and it’s not even directly meteor rock-related.
The trial and conviction of Lionel Luthor.
She had been a key witness to the trial, and also a key target of the elder Luthor’s ire. She had barely escaped his attempt on her life last summer, and she had Lex to thank for the sentries posted inside the rigged safehouse who pushed her down a tunnel towards her safety.
Lex.
Mr. Luthor, she shook her head as she corrected herself. No matter how much he insists on being addressed as Lex, the void he, knowingly or unknowingly, puts between himself and other people forces the latter to remain professional.
Chloe sighed and put her hands on her hips as she looked up at her collection.
‘What happened last summer?...What happened to us?’ She suddenly pulled a face, surprised at her own question.
‘Was there even an “us”?’ She scanned all the pictures, all the text displayed in front of her, hoping to find in them the answer that even the man in question can’t admit to knowing.
“What happened to us?” she whispered softly.
~*~*~*~*~*~
They were at it again with their usual banter that evening in the safehouse that Lex had secured from General Lane. They had just finished dinner and were retiring in the living room, still arguing whether or not the issues in the movie Reality Bites encompass and/or resolve her and future generations’ angst issues. Chloe had scoffed at Lex’s idea of angst already being passé, and retorted that it’s a critical factor in the decisions one makes in his life.
“Your issues define you as a person, and you personal angst can make or break your future,” she reasoned. “So how the heck can that be passé?”
Lex could only shake his head and smirk in her direction. He was surely in the mood for their verbal judo, but can’t seem to keep himself focused. Chloe’s grins and enthusiasm for the topic was getting distracting.
‘In a good way,’ he noted.
“If the angst cannot be passé, then it’s the heroine falling for the good guy,” he argued.
Chloe shook her head. “Honestly, Lex. Have you seen the end of this movie?”
“No.”
“Well, have you even seen it?” She paused. “The entire movie?”
“You make it sound like a crime, Ms. Sullivan.”
“No wonder your views were twisted,” she muttered. Lex raised an eyebrow.
“Well,” she explained, “in the end, she hooked up with the anti-hero. Things didn’t work out between her and the supposed good guy. They thought they were in the same wavelength, but it turned out that they’re worlds apart.” The look on her face was so earnest and her voice so passionate that Lex couldn’t help but wonder if she was alluding to her experience with Clark.
But with the smirk still in place and his eyes betraying none of his thoughts, Chloe remained oblivious as she carried on.
“Now the anti-hero, that’s the one she ends up with. ‘Anti’ doesn’t necessarily mean he’s the villain or he’s naturally evil. There were times that he ends up hurting her, but it’s usually his instinct for self-preservation that caused it. He hates feeling so vulnerable that his instinct tells him to lash out rather than risk getting hurt.”
Lex felt his chest tighten and he suddenly sat up, but the movement was so slight that Chloe didn’t even notice it.
‘Is she talking about me? Is that the way she sees me? ...Too much, Lex. You’re reading too much into this. It’s just a movie…just a movie…’ Lex mentally berated himself.
“He comforted her when she lost her internship, made her smile, indulged her quirkiness. She matched his intelligence, challenged him in banter, put down and picked him up at the same time. They fought, they argued, kissed and made up, they could easily hang out, and they started as friends. They complemented each other,” she continued.
Lex simply nodded at the assertion, trying to hide the proverbial lightbulb that just clicked on above his head.
“So if given the choice between the two men, you’d pick this anti-hero over the good guy?”
“Well, yes, of course,” answered Chloe like the answer was common knowledge. “The good guy may be able to offer her a possibly stable future, but he tends to overcompensate. Too eager to please, too giving, too accommodating. Where’s the challenge in that?”
Lex found himself nodding again. ‘Just like me.’
‘Hold it! Where did THAT come from? Why am I comparing myself to Clark? And when did I become the good guy?’ he rebuked himself as these thoughts flitted quickly through his mind.
“So Clark is like your anti-hero, am I correct?” Lex mentally kicked himself, but he felt like he needed to sate his sudden curiosity. ‘I can’t believe I’m jumping to conclusions!’
Chloe was taken aback. Her eyes widened a bit and she let out a derisive snort.
“Yeah, right. And pink elephants will fly through that window any second now.” Chloe ran a hand through her hair. “Seriously, haven’t you been listening? Clark’s like the good guy who’s so simple that he won’t be able to keep up with the heroine’s complex issues. And he doesn’t even measure up to the anti-hero.”
“And would there be anyone in Smallville that might have this anti-hero complex you find so appealing?” he prodded. ‘Just for curiosity’s sake. Curiosity…curiosity…’
In less than 5 minutes, Chloe Sullivan had already been surprised twice by the same person, and this certainly didn’t sit well with her. She squirmed in her seat as she tried to answer as vaguely as she can while desperately thinking of a way to change the topic.
“I don’t think we’ll have the same ending as the onscreen couple. I don’t think he’s even interested in pursuing.”
But Lex was certainly interested…in the name of the clueless bastard, to say the least. ‘Even if my Clark-Lana matchmaking project is on indefinite hold, I might as well pull Chloe out of her Clark-funk.’
“And he does have a name, doesn’t he?” he urged.
Chloe shifted uncomfortably in her end of the couch. She didn’t expect this sudden turn in their argument, so caught off her guard by Lex’s curiosity.
“I don’t think it’ll make a difference if I tell you his name or not. Just a friendly acquaintance, and he’ll probably opt to be nothing more than that.” She tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear and kept her head down. Fidgeting hands could be so fascinating under such circumstances.
“Well, you said it yourself, Chloe. It won’t make a difference so just come out with it.” As he said those words, he felt a weird tinge of anticipation to her answer. He shook off that feeling and replaced the eager glint in his eyes with a huge smirk instead. “Who’s the lucky, albeit clueless, bastard?” he goaded.
Chloe took a deep breath and mumbled a name incoherently as she exhaled.
Lex leaned slightly closer to her. “Just a bit louder now, Ms. Sullivan. All of Smallville won’t be able to hear you, you know.” he sniggered.
Chloe snapped her head up and looked blankly back at him.
“Luthor.”
“What?”
“His name is Alexander Luthor.”
Lex suddenly stood up and begun pacing in front of the fire. “What?” He was inwardly shocked, though his voice and visage never betrayed this.
“Weird, I know. Welcome to Smallville,” she quipped.
He whirled around to face her. “Why?” His astonishment tainted the question before he can even filter it.
“You make it sound like a crime, Mr. Luthor,” she replied quietly.
Mr. Luthor. He knew that when Chloe Sullivan turned professional, it usually meant that she knew she had overstepped a boundary. He cringed at her “retreat” and felt his initial surprise change into irritation.
“Answer the question, Chloe,” he growled.
“Refer to above anti-hero argument, Mr. Luthor,” she spoke quietly, refusing to get riled up.
Lex knew what she was talking about. He ran his hands over his face and sat back down on the couch, although now significantly closer to her. He rested his elbows on his knees and stared ahead at the fire.
“Why me, Chloe?” he asked softly. “What happened to Clark?”
“I realized that I could only take so much rejection before finally letting go of an illusion that I had wished so hard to be real.” The bitterness that Lex expected to trace in her voice was nowhere to be found.
“I’ll only hurt you in the end.” His voice was tinged with finality. 'Of all the clichés that could come out of his mouth…'
“But I know you’ll try not to,” she countered two slow heartbeats later.
Lex twisted his head in Chloe’s direction. He tilted her chin up and looked deeply into her eyes, tried to search for secrets and truths that might still be hidden. But her expression was so open that he knew his search was futile.
Chloe held her breath as he slowly stroked the skin below the corner of her mouth, eyes trained on his finger’s movements. It was just a simple gesture, really. But in Lex and Chloe’s little world, nothing is ever simple; every touch, every sound, every emotion signified internal battles apart from the actual argument.
Through an ordinary observer’s eyes, he seemed to be wiping a smudge from her face. But Lex might as well be tracing the patterns that Clark’s rejections to Chloe had carved onto her heart. And Chloe might as well be surrendering to Lex the power to scratch at the scabs that never healed. Or worse, engrave his own mark, his own pattern of rejection.
Chloe released the breath she’d been holding and leaned into Lex’s touch. This caused him to give her a penetrating look.
“I’ll never leave, Lex,” she whispered, as if to answer the unspoken questions his eyes asked hers.
Lex leaned over and closed the gap between them and brushed his lips against hers experimentally. Pulling back moments later, his eyes conveyed another message: ‘If I love you, I’d eventually destroy you.’
Chloe inched closer as she shook her head and stroked his cheek with the back of her fingers. She let them linger there as she answered, “Never.”
She took his slight nod as her cue to snake her hand to his nape. She gently tugged at his upper lip, the tip of her tongue tracing his scar. Lex sucked on her lower lip in return.
And as their tongues dueled, all the promises that need not be spoken poured onto the kiss. And all the reasons why they should stop what their hearts have already put in motion flew out of the window.
~*~*~*~*~*~
“We’re in this together, Chloe,” he had said before they drifted to sleep on the couch.
‘But where is he now?’ she thought bitterly. ‘Vying with Clark for Lana’s attention.’
Chloe glared accusingly at a smirking Lex on the cover of Forbes as she hugged herself tightly.
“Reality bites,” she grumbled as she stalked over to the Torch’s computer and concentrated on the next issue’s articles, dispelling all thoughts about last summer from her mind.
Reality bites.
view the story's thread over here at Naughty-Seduction.
Rating: PG13...just to be safe
Pairing: Chloe Sullivan/Lex Luthor
Spoilers: Season4…but I don’t think I’ve given away any significant plots
Disclaimer: The title of this series came from Hale’s first single of the same title. And the movie Reality Bites is owned by its producers. None of the characters are mine, though to have Lex on eternal loan would be truly appreciated. *grin*
A/N: flashbacks, 'thoughts'. This’ll be slightly AU with some angst [coz I’m in such a rut], but I promise a v. good ending at the last part of the series. This is my version of Season 4; the way certain events SHOULD have transpired between Chlex…and because I’m absolutely revolted by the way the DOMOS used my favorite Maroon 5 song to allude to the Pink Primadonna in "Gone".
started - april 21 2005
~*~*~*~*~*~
Chloe had intended to get a headstart on the next Torch issue, but was sidetracked when her idle eyes settled on the Wall of Weird while she waited for the computer to boot up. Her notes for possible articles lay abandoned on the desk beside her as she slowly got up and walked over to the Wall. Of all the articles pinned on it, Chloe’s mind decided to focus on a particular section devoted to a particular event…and it’s not even directly meteor rock-related.
The trial and conviction of Lionel Luthor.
She had been a key witness to the trial, and also a key target of the elder Luthor’s ire. She had barely escaped his attempt on her life last summer, and she had Lex to thank for the sentries posted inside the rigged safehouse who pushed her down a tunnel towards her safety.
Lex.
Mr. Luthor, she shook her head as she corrected herself. No matter how much he insists on being addressed as Lex, the void he, knowingly or unknowingly, puts between himself and other people forces the latter to remain professional.
Chloe sighed and put her hands on her hips as she looked up at her collection.
‘What happened last summer?...What happened to us?’ She suddenly pulled a face, surprised at her own question.
‘Was there even an “us”?’ She scanned all the pictures, all the text displayed in front of her, hoping to find in them the answer that even the man in question can’t admit to knowing.
“What happened to us?” she whispered softly.
~*~*~*~*~*~
They were at it again with their usual banter that evening in the safehouse that Lex had secured from General Lane. They had just finished dinner and were retiring in the living room, still arguing whether or not the issues in the movie Reality Bites encompass and/or resolve her and future generations’ angst issues. Chloe had scoffed at Lex’s idea of angst already being passé, and retorted that it’s a critical factor in the decisions one makes in his life.
“Your issues define you as a person, and you personal angst can make or break your future,” she reasoned. “So how the heck can that be passé?”
Lex could only shake his head and smirk in her direction. He was surely in the mood for their verbal judo, but can’t seem to keep himself focused. Chloe’s grins and enthusiasm for the topic was getting distracting.
‘In a good way,’ he noted.
“If the angst cannot be passé, then it’s the heroine falling for the good guy,” he argued.
Chloe shook her head. “Honestly, Lex. Have you seen the end of this movie?”
“No.”
“Well, have you even seen it?” She paused. “The entire movie?”
“You make it sound like a crime, Ms. Sullivan.”
“No wonder your views were twisted,” she muttered. Lex raised an eyebrow.
“Well,” she explained, “in the end, she hooked up with the anti-hero. Things didn’t work out between her and the supposed good guy. They thought they were in the same wavelength, but it turned out that they’re worlds apart.” The look on her face was so earnest and her voice so passionate that Lex couldn’t help but wonder if she was alluding to her experience with Clark.
But with the smirk still in place and his eyes betraying none of his thoughts, Chloe remained oblivious as she carried on.
“Now the anti-hero, that’s the one she ends up with. ‘Anti’ doesn’t necessarily mean he’s the villain or he’s naturally evil. There were times that he ends up hurting her, but it’s usually his instinct for self-preservation that caused it. He hates feeling so vulnerable that his instinct tells him to lash out rather than risk getting hurt.”
Lex felt his chest tighten and he suddenly sat up, but the movement was so slight that Chloe didn’t even notice it.
‘Is she talking about me? Is that the way she sees me? ...Too much, Lex. You’re reading too much into this. It’s just a movie…just a movie…’ Lex mentally berated himself.
“He comforted her when she lost her internship, made her smile, indulged her quirkiness. She matched his intelligence, challenged him in banter, put down and picked him up at the same time. They fought, they argued, kissed and made up, they could easily hang out, and they started as friends. They complemented each other,” she continued.
Lex simply nodded at the assertion, trying to hide the proverbial lightbulb that just clicked on above his head.
“So if given the choice between the two men, you’d pick this anti-hero over the good guy?”
“Well, yes, of course,” answered Chloe like the answer was common knowledge. “The good guy may be able to offer her a possibly stable future, but he tends to overcompensate. Too eager to please, too giving, too accommodating. Where’s the challenge in that?”
Lex found himself nodding again. ‘Just like me.’
‘Hold it! Where did THAT come from? Why am I comparing myself to Clark? And when did I become the good guy?’ he rebuked himself as these thoughts flitted quickly through his mind.
“So Clark is like your anti-hero, am I correct?” Lex mentally kicked himself, but he felt like he needed to sate his sudden curiosity. ‘I can’t believe I’m jumping to conclusions!’
Chloe was taken aback. Her eyes widened a bit and she let out a derisive snort.
“Yeah, right. And pink elephants will fly through that window any second now.” Chloe ran a hand through her hair. “Seriously, haven’t you been listening? Clark’s like the good guy who’s so simple that he won’t be able to keep up with the heroine’s complex issues. And he doesn’t even measure up to the anti-hero.”
“And would there be anyone in Smallville that might have this anti-hero complex you find so appealing?” he prodded. ‘Just for curiosity’s sake. Curiosity…curiosity…’
In less than 5 minutes, Chloe Sullivan had already been surprised twice by the same person, and this certainly didn’t sit well with her. She squirmed in her seat as she tried to answer as vaguely as she can while desperately thinking of a way to change the topic.
“I don’t think we’ll have the same ending as the onscreen couple. I don’t think he’s even interested in pursuing.”
But Lex was certainly interested…in the name of the clueless bastard, to say the least. ‘Even if my Clark-Lana matchmaking project is on indefinite hold, I might as well pull Chloe out of her Clark-funk.’
“And he does have a name, doesn’t he?” he urged.
Chloe shifted uncomfortably in her end of the couch. She didn’t expect this sudden turn in their argument, so caught off her guard by Lex’s curiosity.
“I don’t think it’ll make a difference if I tell you his name or not. Just a friendly acquaintance, and he’ll probably opt to be nothing more than that.” She tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear and kept her head down. Fidgeting hands could be so fascinating under such circumstances.
“Well, you said it yourself, Chloe. It won’t make a difference so just come out with it.” As he said those words, he felt a weird tinge of anticipation to her answer. He shook off that feeling and replaced the eager glint in his eyes with a huge smirk instead. “Who’s the lucky, albeit clueless, bastard?” he goaded.
Chloe took a deep breath and mumbled a name incoherently as she exhaled.
Lex leaned slightly closer to her. “Just a bit louder now, Ms. Sullivan. All of Smallville won’t be able to hear you, you know.” he sniggered.
Chloe snapped her head up and looked blankly back at him.
“Luthor.”
“What?”
“His name is Alexander Luthor.”
Lex suddenly stood up and begun pacing in front of the fire. “What?” He was inwardly shocked, though his voice and visage never betrayed this.
“Weird, I know. Welcome to Smallville,” she quipped.
He whirled around to face her. “Why?” His astonishment tainted the question before he can even filter it.
“You make it sound like a crime, Mr. Luthor,” she replied quietly.
Mr. Luthor. He knew that when Chloe Sullivan turned professional, it usually meant that she knew she had overstepped a boundary. He cringed at her “retreat” and felt his initial surprise change into irritation.
“Answer the question, Chloe,” he growled.
“Refer to above anti-hero argument, Mr. Luthor,” she spoke quietly, refusing to get riled up.
Lex knew what she was talking about. He ran his hands over his face and sat back down on the couch, although now significantly closer to her. He rested his elbows on his knees and stared ahead at the fire.
“Why me, Chloe?” he asked softly. “What happened to Clark?”
“I realized that I could only take so much rejection before finally letting go of an illusion that I had wished so hard to be real.” The bitterness that Lex expected to trace in her voice was nowhere to be found.
“I’ll only hurt you in the end.” His voice was tinged with finality. 'Of all the clichés that could come out of his mouth…'
“But I know you’ll try not to,” she countered two slow heartbeats later.
Lex twisted his head in Chloe’s direction. He tilted her chin up and looked deeply into her eyes, tried to search for secrets and truths that might still be hidden. But her expression was so open that he knew his search was futile.
Chloe held her breath as he slowly stroked the skin below the corner of her mouth, eyes trained on his finger’s movements. It was just a simple gesture, really. But in Lex and Chloe’s little world, nothing is ever simple; every touch, every sound, every emotion signified internal battles apart from the actual argument.
Through an ordinary observer’s eyes, he seemed to be wiping a smudge from her face. But Lex might as well be tracing the patterns that Clark’s rejections to Chloe had carved onto her heart. And Chloe might as well be surrendering to Lex the power to scratch at the scabs that never healed. Or worse, engrave his own mark, his own pattern of rejection.
Chloe released the breath she’d been holding and leaned into Lex’s touch. This caused him to give her a penetrating look.
“I’ll never leave, Lex,” she whispered, as if to answer the unspoken questions his eyes asked hers.
Lex leaned over and closed the gap between them and brushed his lips against hers experimentally. Pulling back moments later, his eyes conveyed another message: ‘If I love you, I’d eventually destroy you.’
Chloe inched closer as she shook her head and stroked his cheek with the back of her fingers. She let them linger there as she answered, “Never.”
She took his slight nod as her cue to snake her hand to his nape. She gently tugged at his upper lip, the tip of her tongue tracing his scar. Lex sucked on her lower lip in return.
And as their tongues dueled, all the promises that need not be spoken poured onto the kiss. And all the reasons why they should stop what their hearts have already put in motion flew out of the window.
~*~*~*~*~*~
“We’re in this together, Chloe,” he had said before they drifted to sleep on the couch.
‘But where is he now?’ she thought bitterly. ‘Vying with Clark for Lana’s attention.’
Chloe glared accusingly at a smirking Lex on the cover of Forbes as she hugged herself tightly.
“Reality bites,” she grumbled as she stalked over to the Torch’s computer and concentrated on the next issue’s articles, dispelling all thoughts about last summer from her mind.
Reality bites.
view the story's thread over here at Naughty-Seduction.