FIC: Little Black Dress
Title: Little Black Dress
Pairing: Kara/Chloe
Series: Sequel to Earth Men Are Dumb
Spoilers: Set in during “Action” S7
Word Count: 4180
She was wearing a little black dress. It came just above the knee, and the buckle was high, just below two perky breasts that were accentuated by the cut of the dress, which framed the neck and area just below. She wore no necklace, but had a pair of silver, dangling earring that were adorned with a light green stone that almost matched the green on her eyes. A little black silk purse bounced from a silver chain against her hip as she walked.
Kara felt her heart flutter as Chloe came out of her apartment and walked around to the little green Volkswagen. Chloe had her hair swept up, with her bangs and a few wisps framing her pale, pretty face. Kara breathed in. She could smell Chloe’s scent and perfume from where she hovered. She could also hear Chloe’s heart beating. It was almost impossible to wait, but she did, hearing the clip of Chloe’s heels.
When Chloe got her keys out, Kara dropped down into the alleyway beside her and tapped her shoulder.
“Ah! Jeeze, Kara, don’t scare me like that!” Chloe complained, looking around swiftly to be sure that no one hand seen Kara fly down. “God help me if Clark ever learns to fly. The teasing would be nonstop whenever he manages to pry himself away from the farm.”
“I’m not holding my breath for that.” Kara put her hand on her hip. She was wearing her red satin dress and clutched a matching red Prada purse in her hand. “A little dressed up to go to work, aren’t you?”
Chloe closed her car door. Kara peeked down the front of her dress.
“Well, if you must know,” Chloe replied in a warm, amused voice. “I’m going out on a date before I have to go into work.”
“Oo-ooh. A date!” Kara half-sang, rocking on her heels.
Chloe clipped her words playfully. “A first date.”
“I can think of a faster way to get there,” Kara teased, lifting herself onto her toes and then just hovering there a little.
Chloe crossed her arms and leaned back against the car door. “Yeah? Save gas, ride Kara?”
“It’s the right thing to do.” Kara gave a nod. “For the environment on this little mudball.”
“Hey, don’t mess with my Earthian pride, here. This little mudball is my home. What, Krypton didn’t have mud?”
“No, we had a lot of ice,” Kara said seriously. “Maybe there was some mud under the ice. I don’t know.”
Chloe’s brow creased thoughtfully. ”Yeah? No wonder the Fortress is in the arctic.”
“No, the Fortress is in the arctic because Uncle Jor-Jor is the alien equivalent of a gun-toting redneck in the woods.” Kara rolled her eyes. “We’re getting off the subject.”
“Speaking of your estranged family, have you made up with Clark yet?” Chloe asked, feigning innocence.
Kara pursed her lips. Of course Chloe was going to bring that up again, and she already knew the answer. “Aren’t you afraid of missing your date?”
“He’s your only family-“
Kara rose up higher. Chloe only raised her voice.
“And I know he was being a jerk-“
“You know how he is!” Kara complained. “How could he just….” She crossed her arms and huffed.
“But he is worried about you! You know I have my doubts about not telling him where you are,” Chloe reminded Kara in a very big sisterly tone.
Kara’s lips curved into a pout. She wished Chloe wouldn’t bring up Kal-El. Ever. “He isn’t worried. He’s too busy playing house and hosting a movie crew on the farm!”
Chloe spread her hands and shrugged. “They set up a lot of money to shoot here in town. Lex set it up.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s an even bigger Warrior Angel fan than I am, and he probably wanted to have a bit of a piece of the movie,” Chloe suggested tilting her head to the side. “It’s good money for the farm. Clark needs it. He’s not ignoring you on purpose, but with his father gone and his mother having hightailed to DC, he feels responsible for keeping the family farm going.”
“It doesn’t sound like much of a family to me.” Kara tossed her hair. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore tonight, okay? Tonight is for fun-having and first dates.”
Chloe looked up at Kara, watching her calmly. She shrugged once more and nodded. “Okay.”
Kara held out her hand. Chloe took it. And within a few seconds, the two of them were high in the air, soaring once again. Chloe kept her arms around Kara’s neck tightly, but she watched the passing scenery with the excitement of a little girl. Kara pressed a kiss to Chloe’s cheek. She couldn’t not. Her girl was so cute admiring the view like that.
Chloe gave a soft giggle in response, but kept her eyes on the ground below. “So what did you have in mind for a first date?”
”I haven’t been on this planet long. I take it you ‘Earthians’ do the dinner and the movie? This is what I gather from television. Food and entertainment of some sort.”
“Is that different from Krypton?” Chloe asked, suddenly turning her head to look into Kara’s eyes.
Kara shivered. And she never got cold. “We generally don’t eat in front of people who aren’t family. We generally don’t date. But there are some who do, even though it’s considered ridiculously outdated, and then… entertainment, I suppose. We have the science museums and different attractions on the planet that would probably be considered romantic.”
“So we’re going to a science exhibit?”
“No,” Kara said. “Science on this planet is deadly boring. You guys are so far behind.” She smirked, and then said, sounding pleased with herself, “I’m taking you for food and entertainment.”
“Wise choice,” Chloe said wryly. “I was never that into science.”
“Well, with what your planet has to offer, I’m not surprised. I wish I still had my ship. Oh, Chlo, seriously. You’d be fascinated with the computers. I’m dead sure of this.”
“I bet. Though I don’t know how friendly your technology would be to me.”
Kara frowned. “What?”
“I was up at Clark’s ice fortress once, and the AI wasn’t particularly inviting.”
“Gun-toting. Redneck. Alien.”
Chloe laughed again and cupped Kara’s cool cheek. Their faces tilted together and kissed, softly at first, but then the kiss became more heated, more excited. Chloe’s heartbeat increased as her cheeks flushed in anticipation. Back at the apartment, they had to have set a record for length of kissing without coming up for air.
When they finally broke, Chloe looked down in surprise. “Oh! Where… are we?” She looked back to Kara with a raised brow.
“New York. You been?”
“I… no. I’ve actually never been to New York. I think Lois was here last week.”
“Seriously, Chloe-“
“Hush. Don’t want to talk about family? Let’s not talk about family,” Chloe interrupted. “Are we going down, or are we going to float around all evening?”
Kara looked around and descended onto a rooftop. Slowly, she let Chloe down and stepped away from her, holding her hands. “I’ll go down the alley in a minute. I just want to look at you for a minute, okay?”
“Fliiiirt,” Chloe teased with a wide grin.
“I’ve been called worse. Chloe. For real. You look totally amazing. You could have been in the Sweet Corn pageant with me.”
Chloe rolled her eyes. “No, I couldn’t. God, especially not the swimsuit competition.”
“Excuse me? What? You’d look fine in a swimsuit.” Kara looked Chloe up and down as though she were completely insane.
“I can’t compete with tall, skinny, boobalicious Pussycat Doll pseudo-girlpower knockoffs. It’s just not going to happen,” Chloe said pragmatically.
“You’re gorgeous!” Kara argued.
Chloe laughed and shook her head. “You’re biased.”
“Maybe.” Kara paused for a moment, dropping Chloe’s hands and walking to the edge of the building. “I don’t understand, though. Have you lost weight because of this? I though you were adorable before.”
“Am I not adorable now?” Chloe held onto her purse and watched Kara’s back against the cityscape. She looked like something out of a comic book with her hair and the tail of her red dress blowing gently in the wind.
“You are. I’m just trying to understand. Please don’t lose any more weight.” Kara turned her head. “Don’t think you have to. I was watching this talk show on anore-“
“I’m not anorexic!” Chloe burst out. She walked over to Kara. “I’ve just… had a lot on my mind lately.”
“Yeah? Tell me?” Kara looked down as Chloe joined her at the edge of the building.
“I’m working almost fulltime for the pay of an intern while our new editor sends girls he just hired out with an expense account and if I want to keep my desk in the basement, I have to make like a yellow me and write up lurid stories about the genetically enhanced. I’m also busting my butt to finish my degree and get it over with so my loans will stop building up. Not to mention, oh yeah, my friend who died, came back, moved in with my best friend, and is up to something that she isn’t telling the rest of us. Or Lex, who, God help us all, looks like he’s trying to turn over a new leaf or something with the mass amount of charity projects his company has started. Which means he’s up to something.” Chloe crossed her arms and rubbed them. “Oh yeah. And I’m a mutant freak waiting for the psychosis to kick in. It kills the appetite.”
“Well, not tonight, it won’t.” Kara wrapped her arms around her once again and stepped off the side of the building.
“Oh my God!” Chloe cried with a bit of a laugh.
“You trust me, right?”
“You know humans don’t do so well with terminal velocity, right?”
Kara swept them to the side, breaking the force of their descent and returned to solid ground a bit more slowly. “I’ll always be careful with you. Promise.”
“Uh…” Chloe stumbled away from her and put her hand on the side of the building. “Okay.”
Taking Chloe’s hand gently, Kara waited for Chloe to right herself, then walked out onto the street with her. “We’re going to have to walk a block or two.”
“Where are we going?” Chloe asked. “Have you ever been to New York before?”
“I checked it out before I came. I saw this show on Oprah about ‘foodies’-“
“You seriously need to watch less television.”
“Hush. And so I started googling around-that means searching the internet with Google,” Kara explained as they walked down the sidewalk past buildings crowded together.
Chloe pressed her lips together in a smile. “Yes, I know what it means.”
“Yeah, so I looked this place up. People put their reviews online. It’s so awesome. It’s like the Wired back home, only… less.”
“Less what?”
“Just less. Not more. I can’t describe it really, so I’m not going to try. It’s like… I don’t know, going from one piece of technology that completely changes the way you communicate,” Kara stated. She made a skip forward and took them between two buildings that opened up to a street side basketball court. “We’ll cut through here.”
Chloe nodded and turned her head to look at the basketball players, out playing shirts and skins. “Sounds like how the internet affected us over the past decade. Now everyone has their little texting abilities and cellphones and talk to each other on those all the time. You’re never really ‘off’ work. I’m expecting to get a call at any time, telling me I’m needed.”
“They’ll call you in at the Planet?” Kara asked irritably.
“No. Clark might call.”
Kara curved her lips to make a curt response, but turned her head when she heard someone making a loud, “WHOOO HOOO!” Her brow arched sharply, and she stared at the men hard.
“Oh, boy! Kitten got claws!” one of the shirtless men laughed.
Another man put the ball under his arm and raised his chin at them. “Were you, uh… holdin’ hands? That’s so hot.”
Kara walked over to him swiftly as the men started to hoot even louder with anticipation. They silenced when she grabbed the man who spoke last by the collar of his shirt and raised him above her head. “Look, I have dinner reservations at WD-50. We’re not familiar with this part of town. Are we in the right area?”
“Uh… oh… yeah. Just on the other side of those buildings.” The man pointed helpfully. “Go through the fence there, keepin’ to the right, y’know, and squeeze through those buildings. Then go to the left and you should see it pretty quick.”
Kara dropped him to the ground, gave a cute, flirty smile, and dusted off her hands. “Thank you,” she said in a sugary sweet voice before returning to Chloe, who was standing where Kara had left her and fighting a smile.
“Damn. Lesbians get scarier every day,” the man muttered.
Kara took Chloe’s hand once again and headed to the fence where the man had pointed.
“My hero,” Chloe said softly as she looked up to Kara.
“I don’t understand. Why do they do that?” Kara looked down to Chloe questioningly.
“Do you have a couple of days for me to explain the male mind?”
“Nope. We’re here.” Kara stopped them in front of a rather unremarkable looking brick building. There was what appeared to be a large window, although upon second glance, it was actually a mirror separated by window frames.
“What made you pick this place?” Chloe whipped her head around, taking in the neighborhood that hosted a restaurant able to attract an out of this world kind of girl.
“I told you. I found it on the internet, looked at the menu-I had to google a lot of the ingredients-and once I figured that out, it looked like it would be good.” Kara pulled her to the door and opened it to go inside.
The space was small, with blue walls, stone floors, and a beige marble bar where silver and black barstools were lined up with people sitting and talking over ornate, colorful drinks.
“Kinda… understated,” Chloe commented, looking around.
“Yeah… I like blue, though.” Kara walked up to the hostess behind the counter and announced. “We have a reservation. Zorrel party of two.”
“Right. If you’ll come this way, ladies,” the host said, snapping his fingers. A man in his early twenties with a bit of stubble and a ponytail pulled out of his face. The waiters’ uniforms comprised of a long-sleeved burgundy shirt, black apron, jeans, and black shoes. He walked out into the cramped restaurant and seated them at a small table that shared its second seat with a long booth seat that wrapped around a long row of tables. Luckily, the restaurant was sparsely populated, or it may have been a little uncomfortable.
“Here are your menus. If you’d like to try our tasting menu, we’ll ask that you both participate. It’s $125 per person for the tasting menu and $75 for wine pairings. If you want the full experience of the restaurant, I’d recommend you give it a try,” he told them in a somewhat bored, condescending tone.
“No,” Kara replied abruptly. “We want to choose, and we don’t have forever to wait on a billion courses.”
Chloe smiled as the waiter’s brows went up. If anyone could out-rude a waiter, it would be Kara.
“Give us a minute,” Kara ordered.
Chloe held back a laugh and held up her menu so Kara wouldn’t see her biting her lip.
“Of course. Can I bring you something to drink?” he asked.
“Ugh. Monkfish are disgusting. Have you ever seen one?” Kara set down her menu and looked up at him. “What’s your name?”
“Tate. Drinks?”
“Bring us water, Tate. Do you have a wine list?”
“Yes. I-“
“I want to see it.” Kara looked back at her menu. After half a second she made a shooing motion without looking up. Tate blinked, shook his head, and walked towards the kitchen.
“That guy is so going to spit in our food,” Chloe laughed.
“What?” Kara looked up at her. “Why would he do that?”
“Because you weren’t exactly nice to him.”
“What am I supposed to do? Kiss his loafers? I don’t understand this relationship we’re supposed to have with people who wait on you,” Kara confessed. “We don’t have those back at home. We have robots, and we have um… machines that make your food. Nothing like this.” She waved her hand in the air to indicate the restaurant.
Chloe grinned from ear to ear. “Well, here’s a tip. Be at a little nicer to the waiter than you would be to a robot. Don’t people treat you like a person at The Talon?”
“Not really.” Kara shrugged and looked over the menu.
“This food sounds a little weird,” Chloe said after a moment. “And it’s really expensive. I don’t know that I have enough money with me to-“
“I’m paying,” Kara interrupted. She looked up and met Chloe’s eye seriously. “I mean it. I asked you out, so I’m paying.”
Chloe cocked her head to the side curiously. “You work at a coffee shop. Or you did, before you ‘ran away.’ How can you have enough money?”
“I have other ways of getting money,” Kara replied with a smirk.
“Please tell me you’re not stripping,” Chloe begged in a worried tone. She had enough wayward cousins in her life falling bassawkard into trouble and jobs that required them to take of their clothes.
“No. Well…” Kara looked toward the kitchen thoughtfully.
“Ah!” Chloe cried in dismay. “Kara you don’t have to do that to get money!”
Kara looked back at Chloe, narrowed her eyes, and leaned her cheek on her fist. “Does prancing around onstage in a bathing suit count as stripping?”
“No.” Chloe made a noise low in her throat. The Miss Sweet Corn contest. Of course. “No, it doesn’t count.”
“I guess you don’t want me putting on the red light?”
“Where do you hear these things?” Chloe asked.
“Moulin Rouge.” Kara grinned. “Roooox~aaaanne!”
Chloe covered her eyes and just laughed. Taking a deep breath, she looked up at Kara and pointed her finger at her. “Seriously, though, I don’t want you doing that. I’m not saying for you to show disrespect to girls who do, but I don’t want you to ever feel like you have to. You have a lot of brains, Kara. There’s no reason for you to rely on your most obvious… assets.”
“And breastsets.” Kara looked down at the low cut front of her dress.
“Fine, joke. I’m just trying to look out for you.”
“Don’t be mad!” Kara cajoled, reaching over to touch Chloe’s hand.
Chloe looked up and pressed her lips together. “I’m not. But, Kara, you’re brilliant, and gifted, and you could do anything you want to do in life. I just don’t want you to sell yourself short.”
Kara traced her pinkie finger around the side of her mouth, then licked her lips. “Am I the only member of the super slacker club you want to say that to?” she asked slowly. Chloe set her menu down and took a few moments to look at the cuticles of her thumbs.
“No.”
Nodded softly, Kara looked back at the menu. “Any appetizers strike your fancy?”
“I’m not sure. I’ve never had… octopus of any kind. Let alone with these um… interesting combinations. What website did you get this from?”
Tate returned with their water and a basket of wafer thin bread with sesame seeds in it. “And here’s the wine list. Have you decided?”
“We’ll try the smoked eel, the corned duck, and the frois gras for appetizers,” Kara decided. She had more than enough appetite to finish it up if Chloe didn’t like any of it. “Do you like wine, Chloe? Red, white, or pink?”
“I actually prefer white, but I’m not exactly a connoisseur,” Chloe admitted before taking a sip of her water. She took a piece of the thin bread and began to nibble on it. “Pink is okay, too. Do you see something you like?”
“We’ll both have a glass of the Bourgogne 2004.” Kara pointed on the menu.
“Good. And for your entrees? Do you need more time?”
“Well, I’ll have the pork belly whatever-the-majig. Do you know what you want, Chloe?” Kara looked up at her.
Chloe opened her mouth, uncertain of what to say. “Oh… I guess I’ll try the scallops. I like fish.”
Kara snickered.
“Quiet,” Chloe admonished.
“Alright, ladies. I’ll put that in for you. Will you be wanting desert?” Tate asked, reaching out for the menus.
“Probably. If we have time,” Kara told him taking Chloe’s menu. “Put in for the yuzu thing.”
“And the fried butterscotch,” Chloe added.
“Absolutely. I hope you girls like your selections.”
Kara handed him the menus. “And we’ll take them without waiter spit.”
“I… er…”
“Kara!” Chloe said, rolling her eyes.
“If you spit in our food, I’ll know. And we won’t tip,” Kara warned him. She really would know. She’d keep an ear out for that.
The waiter looked as though he didn’t quite know what to make of that and began to formulate a reply, when Chloe said, quite cheekily, “And you won’t get to see her kiss me goodnight.”
Tate threw his head back and laughed. “Got it. Hold the spit.”
Chloe shook her head at Kara as the waiter departed. Kara shrugged and watched him leave. “Not bad walking away. Good choice, having them wear jeans.”
“You’re really incorrigible.”
“You love it.” Kara grinned and took her hand again, rubbing her thumb over it affectionately. “Are you entertained?”
Chloe’s pink lips curved ever so slightly at the ends. “Very.”
When their appetizers arrived, Kara was glad that she had ordered several, because the portions were rather small, if creatively arranged. Chloe was hesitant at the unfamiliar food at first, but seemed to enjoy the eel and the duck very much. By the time their entrees arrived, Kara was glad to have brought Chloe there, and they sampled bites of each other’s food. The pork belly was quite rich, but Kara had discovered that human food, if it was not potent or interestingly paired, was incredibly boring to her. She was going to have to learn to cook.
Their deserts were also plated imaginatively. Kara took a bite of hers, and Chloe took a bite of her own, and then looking at one another, they swapped plates with a smile.
Almost an hour later, Kara threw her long blond hair back as the cool night’s breeze blew against them. She kept her arms securely around Chloe’s waist. “I know you have a long shift ahead of you, but I thought this view might make being trapped inside tonight bearable.”
“It’s gorgeous, and it might.” Chloe snuggled her head back against Kara’s shoulder. “I don’t think of it as being trapped, though. It’s my life, journalism. I’m taking my licks now, but I’ll come out on top because it’s in my blood. I’ll never give up. You’ll see.”
“Is anyone going to notice that you’re coming into work dressed like this?” Kara asked.
“I doubt it. For all my coworkers care, I could be a boy in a dress. Or maybe a donkey in a dress.”
“I bet you turn some heads tonight.” Kara kissed the back of Chloe’s neck, breathing in her scent.
Chloe looked up at Kara. “Want me to change before I go in?”
“No. I want these blind and stupid people to realize you’re desirable.”
Raising a brow sharply, Chloe rolled her eyes. “Might take a couple of hunks of Kryptonite ground up in my Herbal Essences for anyone to start chasing after me.”
“Stop it. You’re beautiful,” Kara admonished.
When Chloe tried to look down, Kara touched her chin and caught her lips in a kiss. Chloe moved her right hand up to the side of Kara’s face and carded her fingers through silky blond hair. She wiggled against Kara just a little, and her tongue parted Kara’s glossy lips and chased after her tongue. She tasted like cotton candy Lipsmackers and sweet wine.
There Kara claimed Chloe as hers, on the ridge circling the globe of The Daily Planet, looking high over the city. Chloe’s back was pressed against the large ‘P,’ and Kara dipped her head to suck on the spot where Chloe’s neck and shoulder met. As the smaller woman moaned softly, Kara moved down further, stroking her fingers along Chloe’s side and kissing her plump, rounded breasts. Their evening had been short, but Kara was determined to make her date feel valuable before they had to part.
Even if none of the idiots Chloe worked with noticed her little black dress.
Pairing: Kara/Chloe
Series: Sequel to Earth Men Are Dumb
Spoilers: Set in during “Action” S7
Word Count: 4180
She was wearing a little black dress. It came just above the knee, and the buckle was high, just below two perky breasts that were accentuated by the cut of the dress, which framed the neck and area just below. She wore no necklace, but had a pair of silver, dangling earring that were adorned with a light green stone that almost matched the green on her eyes. A little black silk purse bounced from a silver chain against her hip as she walked.
Kara felt her heart flutter as Chloe came out of her apartment and walked around to the little green Volkswagen. Chloe had her hair swept up, with her bangs and a few wisps framing her pale, pretty face. Kara breathed in. She could smell Chloe’s scent and perfume from where she hovered. She could also hear Chloe’s heart beating. It was almost impossible to wait, but she did, hearing the clip of Chloe’s heels.
When Chloe got her keys out, Kara dropped down into the alleyway beside her and tapped her shoulder.
“Ah! Jeeze, Kara, don’t scare me like that!” Chloe complained, looking around swiftly to be sure that no one hand seen Kara fly down. “God help me if Clark ever learns to fly. The teasing would be nonstop whenever he manages to pry himself away from the farm.”
“I’m not holding my breath for that.” Kara put her hand on her hip. She was wearing her red satin dress and clutched a matching red Prada purse in her hand. “A little dressed up to go to work, aren’t you?”
Chloe closed her car door. Kara peeked down the front of her dress.
“Well, if you must know,” Chloe replied in a warm, amused voice. “I’m going out on a date before I have to go into work.”
“Oo-ooh. A date!” Kara half-sang, rocking on her heels.
Chloe clipped her words playfully. “A first date.”
“I can think of a faster way to get there,” Kara teased, lifting herself onto her toes and then just hovering there a little.
Chloe crossed her arms and leaned back against the car door. “Yeah? Save gas, ride Kara?”
“It’s the right thing to do.” Kara gave a nod. “For the environment on this little mudball.”
“Hey, don’t mess with my Earthian pride, here. This little mudball is my home. What, Krypton didn’t have mud?”
“No, we had a lot of ice,” Kara said seriously. “Maybe there was some mud under the ice. I don’t know.”
Chloe’s brow creased thoughtfully. ”Yeah? No wonder the Fortress is in the arctic.”
“No, the Fortress is in the arctic because Uncle Jor-Jor is the alien equivalent of a gun-toting redneck in the woods.” Kara rolled her eyes. “We’re getting off the subject.”
“Speaking of your estranged family, have you made up with Clark yet?” Chloe asked, feigning innocence.
Kara pursed her lips. Of course Chloe was going to bring that up again, and she already knew the answer. “Aren’t you afraid of missing your date?”
“He’s your only family-“
Kara rose up higher. Chloe only raised her voice.
“And I know he was being a jerk-“
“You know how he is!” Kara complained. “How could he just….” She crossed her arms and huffed.
“But he is worried about you! You know I have my doubts about not telling him where you are,” Chloe reminded Kara in a very big sisterly tone.
Kara’s lips curved into a pout. She wished Chloe wouldn’t bring up Kal-El. Ever. “He isn’t worried. He’s too busy playing house and hosting a movie crew on the farm!”
Chloe spread her hands and shrugged. “They set up a lot of money to shoot here in town. Lex set it up.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s an even bigger Warrior Angel fan than I am, and he probably wanted to have a bit of a piece of the movie,” Chloe suggested tilting her head to the side. “It’s good money for the farm. Clark needs it. He’s not ignoring you on purpose, but with his father gone and his mother having hightailed to DC, he feels responsible for keeping the family farm going.”
“It doesn’t sound like much of a family to me.” Kara tossed her hair. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore tonight, okay? Tonight is for fun-having and first dates.”
Chloe looked up at Kara, watching her calmly. She shrugged once more and nodded. “Okay.”
Kara held out her hand. Chloe took it. And within a few seconds, the two of them were high in the air, soaring once again. Chloe kept her arms around Kara’s neck tightly, but she watched the passing scenery with the excitement of a little girl. Kara pressed a kiss to Chloe’s cheek. She couldn’t not. Her girl was so cute admiring the view like that.
Chloe gave a soft giggle in response, but kept her eyes on the ground below. “So what did you have in mind for a first date?”
”I haven’t been on this planet long. I take it you ‘Earthians’ do the dinner and the movie? This is what I gather from television. Food and entertainment of some sort.”
“Is that different from Krypton?” Chloe asked, suddenly turning her head to look into Kara’s eyes.
Kara shivered. And she never got cold. “We generally don’t eat in front of people who aren’t family. We generally don’t date. But there are some who do, even though it’s considered ridiculously outdated, and then… entertainment, I suppose. We have the science museums and different attractions on the planet that would probably be considered romantic.”
“So we’re going to a science exhibit?”
“No,” Kara said. “Science on this planet is deadly boring. You guys are so far behind.” She smirked, and then said, sounding pleased with herself, “I’m taking you for food and entertainment.”
“Wise choice,” Chloe said wryly. “I was never that into science.”
“Well, with what your planet has to offer, I’m not surprised. I wish I still had my ship. Oh, Chlo, seriously. You’d be fascinated with the computers. I’m dead sure of this.”
“I bet. Though I don’t know how friendly your technology would be to me.”
Kara frowned. “What?”
“I was up at Clark’s ice fortress once, and the AI wasn’t particularly inviting.”
“Gun-toting. Redneck. Alien.”
Chloe laughed again and cupped Kara’s cool cheek. Their faces tilted together and kissed, softly at first, but then the kiss became more heated, more excited. Chloe’s heartbeat increased as her cheeks flushed in anticipation. Back at the apartment, they had to have set a record for length of kissing without coming up for air.
When they finally broke, Chloe looked down in surprise. “Oh! Where… are we?” She looked back to Kara with a raised brow.
“New York. You been?”
“I… no. I’ve actually never been to New York. I think Lois was here last week.”
“Seriously, Chloe-“
“Hush. Don’t want to talk about family? Let’s not talk about family,” Chloe interrupted. “Are we going down, or are we going to float around all evening?”
Kara looked around and descended onto a rooftop. Slowly, she let Chloe down and stepped away from her, holding her hands. “I’ll go down the alley in a minute. I just want to look at you for a minute, okay?”
“Fliiiirt,” Chloe teased with a wide grin.
“I’ve been called worse. Chloe. For real. You look totally amazing. You could have been in the Sweet Corn pageant with me.”
Chloe rolled her eyes. “No, I couldn’t. God, especially not the swimsuit competition.”
“Excuse me? What? You’d look fine in a swimsuit.” Kara looked Chloe up and down as though she were completely insane.
“I can’t compete with tall, skinny, boobalicious Pussycat Doll pseudo-girlpower knockoffs. It’s just not going to happen,” Chloe said pragmatically.
“You’re gorgeous!” Kara argued.
Chloe laughed and shook her head. “You’re biased.”
“Maybe.” Kara paused for a moment, dropping Chloe’s hands and walking to the edge of the building. “I don’t understand, though. Have you lost weight because of this? I though you were adorable before.”
“Am I not adorable now?” Chloe held onto her purse and watched Kara’s back against the cityscape. She looked like something out of a comic book with her hair and the tail of her red dress blowing gently in the wind.
“You are. I’m just trying to understand. Please don’t lose any more weight.” Kara turned her head. “Don’t think you have to. I was watching this talk show on anore-“
“I’m not anorexic!” Chloe burst out. She walked over to Kara. “I’ve just… had a lot on my mind lately.”
“Yeah? Tell me?” Kara looked down as Chloe joined her at the edge of the building.
“I’m working almost fulltime for the pay of an intern while our new editor sends girls he just hired out with an expense account and if I want to keep my desk in the basement, I have to make like a yellow me and write up lurid stories about the genetically enhanced. I’m also busting my butt to finish my degree and get it over with so my loans will stop building up. Not to mention, oh yeah, my friend who died, came back, moved in with my best friend, and is up to something that she isn’t telling the rest of us. Or Lex, who, God help us all, looks like he’s trying to turn over a new leaf or something with the mass amount of charity projects his company has started. Which means he’s up to something.” Chloe crossed her arms and rubbed them. “Oh yeah. And I’m a mutant freak waiting for the psychosis to kick in. It kills the appetite.”
“Well, not tonight, it won’t.” Kara wrapped her arms around her once again and stepped off the side of the building.
“Oh my God!” Chloe cried with a bit of a laugh.
“You trust me, right?”
“You know humans don’t do so well with terminal velocity, right?”
Kara swept them to the side, breaking the force of their descent and returned to solid ground a bit more slowly. “I’ll always be careful with you. Promise.”
“Uh…” Chloe stumbled away from her and put her hand on the side of the building. “Okay.”
Taking Chloe’s hand gently, Kara waited for Chloe to right herself, then walked out onto the street with her. “We’re going to have to walk a block or two.”
“Where are we going?” Chloe asked. “Have you ever been to New York before?”
“I checked it out before I came. I saw this show on Oprah about ‘foodies’-“
“You seriously need to watch less television.”
“Hush. And so I started googling around-that means searching the internet with Google,” Kara explained as they walked down the sidewalk past buildings crowded together.
Chloe pressed her lips together in a smile. “Yes, I know what it means.”
“Yeah, so I looked this place up. People put their reviews online. It’s so awesome. It’s like the Wired back home, only… less.”
“Less what?”
“Just less. Not more. I can’t describe it really, so I’m not going to try. It’s like… I don’t know, going from one piece of technology that completely changes the way you communicate,” Kara stated. She made a skip forward and took them between two buildings that opened up to a street side basketball court. “We’ll cut through here.”
Chloe nodded and turned her head to look at the basketball players, out playing shirts and skins. “Sounds like how the internet affected us over the past decade. Now everyone has their little texting abilities and cellphones and talk to each other on those all the time. You’re never really ‘off’ work. I’m expecting to get a call at any time, telling me I’m needed.”
“They’ll call you in at the Planet?” Kara asked irritably.
“No. Clark might call.”
Kara curved her lips to make a curt response, but turned her head when she heard someone making a loud, “WHOOO HOOO!” Her brow arched sharply, and she stared at the men hard.
“Oh, boy! Kitten got claws!” one of the shirtless men laughed.
Another man put the ball under his arm and raised his chin at them. “Were you, uh… holdin’ hands? That’s so hot.”
Kara walked over to him swiftly as the men started to hoot even louder with anticipation. They silenced when she grabbed the man who spoke last by the collar of his shirt and raised him above her head. “Look, I have dinner reservations at WD-50. We’re not familiar with this part of town. Are we in the right area?”
“Uh… oh… yeah. Just on the other side of those buildings.” The man pointed helpfully. “Go through the fence there, keepin’ to the right, y’know, and squeeze through those buildings. Then go to the left and you should see it pretty quick.”
Kara dropped him to the ground, gave a cute, flirty smile, and dusted off her hands. “Thank you,” she said in a sugary sweet voice before returning to Chloe, who was standing where Kara had left her and fighting a smile.
“Damn. Lesbians get scarier every day,” the man muttered.
Kara took Chloe’s hand once again and headed to the fence where the man had pointed.
“My hero,” Chloe said softly as she looked up to Kara.
“I don’t understand. Why do they do that?” Kara looked down to Chloe questioningly.
“Do you have a couple of days for me to explain the male mind?”
“Nope. We’re here.” Kara stopped them in front of a rather unremarkable looking brick building. There was what appeared to be a large window, although upon second glance, it was actually a mirror separated by window frames.
“What made you pick this place?” Chloe whipped her head around, taking in the neighborhood that hosted a restaurant able to attract an out of this world kind of girl.
“I told you. I found it on the internet, looked at the menu-I had to google a lot of the ingredients-and once I figured that out, it looked like it would be good.” Kara pulled her to the door and opened it to go inside.
The space was small, with blue walls, stone floors, and a beige marble bar where silver and black barstools were lined up with people sitting and talking over ornate, colorful drinks.
“Kinda… understated,” Chloe commented, looking around.
“Yeah… I like blue, though.” Kara walked up to the hostess behind the counter and announced. “We have a reservation. Zorrel party of two.”
“Right. If you’ll come this way, ladies,” the host said, snapping his fingers. A man in his early twenties with a bit of stubble and a ponytail pulled out of his face. The waiters’ uniforms comprised of a long-sleeved burgundy shirt, black apron, jeans, and black shoes. He walked out into the cramped restaurant and seated them at a small table that shared its second seat with a long booth seat that wrapped around a long row of tables. Luckily, the restaurant was sparsely populated, or it may have been a little uncomfortable.
“Here are your menus. If you’d like to try our tasting menu, we’ll ask that you both participate. It’s $125 per person for the tasting menu and $75 for wine pairings. If you want the full experience of the restaurant, I’d recommend you give it a try,” he told them in a somewhat bored, condescending tone.
“No,” Kara replied abruptly. “We want to choose, and we don’t have forever to wait on a billion courses.”
Chloe smiled as the waiter’s brows went up. If anyone could out-rude a waiter, it would be Kara.
“Give us a minute,” Kara ordered.
Chloe held back a laugh and held up her menu so Kara wouldn’t see her biting her lip.
“Of course. Can I bring you something to drink?” he asked.
“Ugh. Monkfish are disgusting. Have you ever seen one?” Kara set down her menu and looked up at him. “What’s your name?”
“Tate. Drinks?”
“Bring us water, Tate. Do you have a wine list?”
“Yes. I-“
“I want to see it.” Kara looked back at her menu. After half a second she made a shooing motion without looking up. Tate blinked, shook his head, and walked towards the kitchen.
“That guy is so going to spit in our food,” Chloe laughed.
“What?” Kara looked up at her. “Why would he do that?”
“Because you weren’t exactly nice to him.”
“What am I supposed to do? Kiss his loafers? I don’t understand this relationship we’re supposed to have with people who wait on you,” Kara confessed. “We don’t have those back at home. We have robots, and we have um… machines that make your food. Nothing like this.” She waved her hand in the air to indicate the restaurant.
Chloe grinned from ear to ear. “Well, here’s a tip. Be at a little nicer to the waiter than you would be to a robot. Don’t people treat you like a person at The Talon?”
“Not really.” Kara shrugged and looked over the menu.
“This food sounds a little weird,” Chloe said after a moment. “And it’s really expensive. I don’t know that I have enough money with me to-“
“I’m paying,” Kara interrupted. She looked up and met Chloe’s eye seriously. “I mean it. I asked you out, so I’m paying.”
Chloe cocked her head to the side curiously. “You work at a coffee shop. Or you did, before you ‘ran away.’ How can you have enough money?”
“I have other ways of getting money,” Kara replied with a smirk.
“Please tell me you’re not stripping,” Chloe begged in a worried tone. She had enough wayward cousins in her life falling bassawkard into trouble and jobs that required them to take of their clothes.
“No. Well…” Kara looked toward the kitchen thoughtfully.
“Ah!” Chloe cried in dismay. “Kara you don’t have to do that to get money!”
Kara looked back at Chloe, narrowed her eyes, and leaned her cheek on her fist. “Does prancing around onstage in a bathing suit count as stripping?”
“No.” Chloe made a noise low in her throat. The Miss Sweet Corn contest. Of course. “No, it doesn’t count.”
“I guess you don’t want me putting on the red light?”
“Where do you hear these things?” Chloe asked.
“Moulin Rouge.” Kara grinned. “Roooox~aaaanne!”
Chloe covered her eyes and just laughed. Taking a deep breath, she looked up at Kara and pointed her finger at her. “Seriously, though, I don’t want you doing that. I’m not saying for you to show disrespect to girls who do, but I don’t want you to ever feel like you have to. You have a lot of brains, Kara. There’s no reason for you to rely on your most obvious… assets.”
“And breastsets.” Kara looked down at the low cut front of her dress.
“Fine, joke. I’m just trying to look out for you.”
“Don’t be mad!” Kara cajoled, reaching over to touch Chloe’s hand.
Chloe looked up and pressed her lips together. “I’m not. But, Kara, you’re brilliant, and gifted, and you could do anything you want to do in life. I just don’t want you to sell yourself short.”
Kara traced her pinkie finger around the side of her mouth, then licked her lips. “Am I the only member of the super slacker club you want to say that to?” she asked slowly. Chloe set her menu down and took a few moments to look at the cuticles of her thumbs.
“No.”
Nodded softly, Kara looked back at the menu. “Any appetizers strike your fancy?”
“I’m not sure. I’ve never had… octopus of any kind. Let alone with these um… interesting combinations. What website did you get this from?”
Tate returned with their water and a basket of wafer thin bread with sesame seeds in it. “And here’s the wine list. Have you decided?”
“We’ll try the smoked eel, the corned duck, and the frois gras for appetizers,” Kara decided. She had more than enough appetite to finish it up if Chloe didn’t like any of it. “Do you like wine, Chloe? Red, white, or pink?”
“I actually prefer white, but I’m not exactly a connoisseur,” Chloe admitted before taking a sip of her water. She took a piece of the thin bread and began to nibble on it. “Pink is okay, too. Do you see something you like?”
“We’ll both have a glass of the Bourgogne 2004.” Kara pointed on the menu.
“Good. And for your entrees? Do you need more time?”
“Well, I’ll have the pork belly whatever-the-majig. Do you know what you want, Chloe?” Kara looked up at her.
Chloe opened her mouth, uncertain of what to say. “Oh… I guess I’ll try the scallops. I like fish.”
Kara snickered.
“Quiet,” Chloe admonished.
“Alright, ladies. I’ll put that in for you. Will you be wanting desert?” Tate asked, reaching out for the menus.
“Probably. If we have time,” Kara told him taking Chloe’s menu. “Put in for the yuzu thing.”
“And the fried butterscotch,” Chloe added.
“Absolutely. I hope you girls like your selections.”
Kara handed him the menus. “And we’ll take them without waiter spit.”
“I… er…”
“Kara!” Chloe said, rolling her eyes.
“If you spit in our food, I’ll know. And we won’t tip,” Kara warned him. She really would know. She’d keep an ear out for that.
The waiter looked as though he didn’t quite know what to make of that and began to formulate a reply, when Chloe said, quite cheekily, “And you won’t get to see her kiss me goodnight.”
Tate threw his head back and laughed. “Got it. Hold the spit.”
Chloe shook her head at Kara as the waiter departed. Kara shrugged and watched him leave. “Not bad walking away. Good choice, having them wear jeans.”
“You’re really incorrigible.”
“You love it.” Kara grinned and took her hand again, rubbing her thumb over it affectionately. “Are you entertained?”
Chloe’s pink lips curved ever so slightly at the ends. “Very.”
When their appetizers arrived, Kara was glad that she had ordered several, because the portions were rather small, if creatively arranged. Chloe was hesitant at the unfamiliar food at first, but seemed to enjoy the eel and the duck very much. By the time their entrees arrived, Kara was glad to have brought Chloe there, and they sampled bites of each other’s food. The pork belly was quite rich, but Kara had discovered that human food, if it was not potent or interestingly paired, was incredibly boring to her. She was going to have to learn to cook.
Their deserts were also plated imaginatively. Kara took a bite of hers, and Chloe took a bite of her own, and then looking at one another, they swapped plates with a smile.
Almost an hour later, Kara threw her long blond hair back as the cool night’s breeze blew against them. She kept her arms securely around Chloe’s waist. “I know you have a long shift ahead of you, but I thought this view might make being trapped inside tonight bearable.”
“It’s gorgeous, and it might.” Chloe snuggled her head back against Kara’s shoulder. “I don’t think of it as being trapped, though. It’s my life, journalism. I’m taking my licks now, but I’ll come out on top because it’s in my blood. I’ll never give up. You’ll see.”
“Is anyone going to notice that you’re coming into work dressed like this?” Kara asked.
“I doubt it. For all my coworkers care, I could be a boy in a dress. Or maybe a donkey in a dress.”
“I bet you turn some heads tonight.” Kara kissed the back of Chloe’s neck, breathing in her scent.
Chloe looked up at Kara. “Want me to change before I go in?”
“No. I want these blind and stupid people to realize you’re desirable.”
Raising a brow sharply, Chloe rolled her eyes. “Might take a couple of hunks of Kryptonite ground up in my Herbal Essences for anyone to start chasing after me.”
“Stop it. You’re beautiful,” Kara admonished.
When Chloe tried to look down, Kara touched her chin and caught her lips in a kiss. Chloe moved her right hand up to the side of Kara’s face and carded her fingers through silky blond hair. She wiggled against Kara just a little, and her tongue parted Kara’s glossy lips and chased after her tongue. She tasted like cotton candy Lipsmackers and sweet wine.
There Kara claimed Chloe as hers, on the ridge circling the globe of The Daily Planet, looking high over the city. Chloe’s back was pressed against the large ‘P,’ and Kara dipped her head to suck on the spot where Chloe’s neck and shoulder met. As the smaller woman moaned softly, Kara moved down further, stroking her fingers along Chloe’s side and kissing her plump, rounded breasts. Their evening had been short, but Kara was determined to make her date feel valuable before they had to part.
Even if none of the idiots Chloe worked with noticed her little black dress.