Guardian Angel - NC17 - Chloe/Bruce - Chapter One
Title: Guardian Angel
Category: Smallville/Batman [Crossover]
Rating: NC17
Genre: Romance/Humor/Drama
Pairing: Chloe/Bruce Wayne
Word Count: 1,807
Summary: Her guardian angel was a dark man with a fetish for rodents. Figures.
dhfreak
I.
No matter where she went, danger followed, and as if she had her own little "Help Me," sign, a hero was quick to appear as well. So when Chloe Sullivan made the move from her beloved Metropolis to Gotham City, it wasn't such a surprise that she was mugged and saved on her very first day.
"I just don't see why you have to be there and not here," Lois whined over the phone.
"Because there I'm underappreciated, whereas here I have the opportunity to become most appreciated," she replied, rolling her eyes.
Lois sighed. "But I appreciated you, isn't that enough?"
"No Lo, it's not. Look, I know you're feeling abandoned and I'm sorry, really, but this is something I have to do for myself. Look on the bright side, you still have Clark!"
"Your answer to my current abandonment is that I have Smallville? What have you being smoking since you got to Gotham?" She exaggerated a sigh. "Already into the drug scene, huh? Well, I think that's just a sign that you need to come back!"
Chloe grinned. "Seriously Lois, I'm not coming back. I just got here."
"And you apparently have a drug problem!" she claimed.
"I do not! I'm just saying, you and Clark have been getting closer and now that I'm not there I'm sure there'll be even bigger possibilities for you two to finally..." Her brows rose for emphasis despite the fact that Lois couldn't see her.
She made a choked sound of derision. "Finally what? Kill each other?"
Chloe snorted. "I was thinking more of relieve the sexual tension between you."
"Sexual what?" She laughed, a little too loud to be simple disagreeance. "Uh, seriously, cuz... Now I'm starting to worry you really are doing drugs. Sex and Clark don't even belong in a sentence together!"
Shaking her head, Chloe glanced up and down the road before crossing the street. "Whatever you say. Look, it's late and I have a hundred and one boxes to unpack. So I'll call you tomorrow, all right?"
"Call me tomorrow and give me the time your flight home arrives," she ordered.
"Goodnight Lois," she sing-songed before hanging up. Pocketing her cell phone, she smiled to herself. She loved her cousin, but really, it was just time to set out on her own. Nothing against Lois, but Chloe needed her own name and her own paper. The Gotham Gazette had been calling with offers and she finally gave in. First day here and she wasn't planning on packing it in that easy.
Click. She paused for a moment in her steps, her eyes thinning. She could've sworn she heard something. Shaking her head, she looked down the road to her intended destination, the grocery bag in her hand swinging side to side as she hurried up. The sooner she got home, the sooner she could relax. Click. There it was again. That noise. She turned around abruptly, searching for any sign that somebody else was out walking around, but there was no one. The city seemed to roll up the welcome mat as soon as night fell. She dug her hand into her purse and fingered the can of mace there before quickening her steps.
Click, click click... It was louder, more pronounced now. Clickclickclickclick...
Her breathing picked up but she refused to freak out, refused to scream or break into a run. Home was close; so close. Safety and locked doors. She knew Gotham had a bad rep and maybe she was just hearing things. Maybe it was nothing; just her mind playing tricks. She was alone, walking the streets of a strange city; of course she was a little unnerved.
Then she felt the hand grab her shoulder and yank her backwards. The sudden force made her lose her grip on the can of mace and she tumbled backwards, landing harshly on her butt. She stared up, wide-eyed at the man in front of her, dressed heavy in dark clothing and playing with a lighter. "Gimme you money, y-your jewelry, and uh, and whatever else I can pawn!"
The fear faded abruptly. He was just a kid. "Not happening, Junior."
"What? Bitch, do you know who you're dealing with?" He looked around nervously, searching for any sign that people had noticed what he was doing.
"A little kid with a bad idea in his head." She stood up easily and crossed her arms. "I've got all of ten bucks on me and these earrings are fake. Now if you'll get out of my way, I'll give you a head start before I call the cops."
The clicking stopped and she glanced down at the lighter for only a moment. He looked up at her, shaking his head as if he was sad and she furrowed her brow in confusion. Until the large group of similarly dressed people stepped out of the alleyway ahead of her, one of them tisking. "What'd I tell you? JB ain't got it in him. Can't even take on a mouthy little bitch."
Chloe swallowed tightly.
They circled her, the leader stepping forward his head tipped to one side and a blade held in his hand. "You gonna let her talk to you like that, JB?" He reached forward and grabbed her hair, yanking her head back. "She don't know what these streets are like, I think she needs to learn her lesson."
Sneering, Chloe glared. "Yeah and you need to learn what manners are." Quickly, she kicked her leg out, catching him easily between the legs. His hand loosened and she stood up straight, not pausing as she balled her hand up into a tight fist and aimed it directly at his nose. When he cried out in pain, she grinned. Good. She took another swing, hoping to knock him out of the way, but it barely connected with his chin before she was being held back by a few of the others, clamping her arms behind her back and avoiding her legs as they kicked furiously.
Wiping his bloody nose, the ring leader stepped up to her once more. "Kill her," he ordered.
Nobody moved at first before suddenly everybody seemed to have a weapon of their choice.
"No." He turned around and pointed at the little punk who jumped her in the first place. "Get her JB."
He stepped forward, unsure of himself and Chloe wondered if she was the only one who noticed his shaking shoulders or his slight sniffle. He wasn't like them and this was the one step that would either make or break him. She hoped he decided to make the right decision, more because she really did not want her cousin to stand at her grave and say "I told you so," but also because it seemed this was one of those moments. Here was a boy who could either choose to try and live a better life or follow in the steps Gotham's slowly dilapidating world had offered.
"Go on! Slit her fuckin' throat!"
Chloe winced, staring ahead at the boy in front of her. God, he couldn't be more than twelve or thirteen.
He stared at her, his eyes littered with tears. "I'm sorry," he mouthed.
She let out a shaky breath and clenched her jaw. She wiggled, trying to get free, but nobody's arms were loosening around her, they held her legs and arms all in place, waiting for her to get it. She closed her eyes; she didn't want to look as it happened. She'd felt pain before, knew it well, and she was tired of going through it. But as she waited for the blade to slice easily through her flesh, it never came. She opened her eyes slowly, staring at the boy in front of her, shaking his head. He dropped the blade, took a step back and before he could even say he wasn't going to do it, they were interrupted.
Falling from the sky like an avenging angel stood a man dressed head to toe in black Kevlar, sporting a scowl and a fierce growl as he landed in the center. "Let her go," he ordered and she immediately felt the arms around her fall away. But just as quickly, they were all rushing her savior, weapons at the ready. "Go," he told her.
She stepped back, eyes wide, still in shock from what she'd seen.
"GO!" he yelled before he was brought into the fight.
She felt a tugging at her arm and turned to see the boy who started this whole mess. "Come on, we gotta get outta here." She found herself running with him, down this street or that, away from the violence and the near death experience.
He brought her around the block and down an alley and before she knew it, she could see the back of her building. She made him stop before he kept going and he leaned against the fence next to her, trying to catch his breath. She wasn't sure what to think or if she should thank him. After all, he nearly got her killed.
"I'm sorry," he muttered.
She looked over at him. "You don't really seem like the type..."
"I'm not." He pulled his hood down and let her see his face. "If you wanna call the cops, I get it... It was my first time doin' anything like this and..." He sighed, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "Definitely my last."
She nodded before curiosity got the best of her. "Who was that? Back there? The Kevlar suit guy?"
"Batman," he replied, staring at her like she'd asked the dumbest question ever. "You must be new."
"Just got here today actually."
"Right... Uh, he's sorta like Gotham' hero, I guess. Depending on the day. Some call him menace, others call him hero. All I ever saw was him beating up crooks and saving people." He shrugged. "I gotta go. They find me, I'm dead."
She nodded. "Well... Thanks for not killing me, I guess."
He lifted a shoulder. "I couldn't have." He sighed. "Later."
He ran off down the alley and Chloe walked toward her apartment building, using her key to get in through the back door. She climbed the stairs to the third floor and went inside, dropping the grocery bag on the counter. She locked the dead bolt, the chain and the push lock before checking all of her windows to make sure none were open or unlocked before she finally collapsed on the couch in her living room. When she looked outside, the boys that jumped her were scattered; some knocked out, others no longer anywhere to be seen, and the Batman, as JB had called him, was long gone.
Running her hands through her hair, Chloe sighed. What the hell had she gotten herself into?
[ Next: Chapter Two.]