Fic: Waiting for a Superman 1/?
Feb. 16th, 2007 01:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spikeysgrl18I'm still relatively new to writing anything Smallville/Superman related, so bear with me. And feedback is always welcome.
Waiting for a Superman
Author: Jami
Rating: 15
Pairings: Chlark, Chlex
Summary: She doesn’t know what else to do except wait.
Disclaimer: Own nothing and no one. Lex and Clark are sadly not mine, but a girl can dream, can’t she? I make no money off this; if I did do you think I’d be peddling this on the internet?
Author’s Note: This is a future fic and takes place after all things Smallville and before Superman Returns. Nothing really spoilery, since everything happens before the movie. In my dream world Chloe has taken the place of Lois, since I get annoyed by how Lois is portrayed in most movies/television. This is simply my take on what could have happened after Superman leaves Earth. And Lex hasn’t been sent to prison yet. These will be a collection of one shot stories, the titles taken from the Sound of Superman album that I have been listening to incessantly.
1: Waiting for a Superman
Chloe was used to Clark’s disappearing act.
Most days she would be talking with him, turn her head away for a moment, and then he would be gone. Just the sound of the wind whipping by him signaling that he had even been there moments before.
So when one day she returned home to their roomy and comfortable apartment after work, she hadn’t been surprised when he wasn’t there to greet her. She had seen him in passing earlier, both of them in a hurry calling contacts and scribbling notes for future articles.
Day turned to night and she still didn’t worry. Clark Kent was a busy man during the day, but he was even busier in the cover of night. Superman rarely had a night off these days.
But when one day turned to seven, a week to three, she came to the startling realization that Clark Kent was gone.
The world seemed at a loss what to do with itself. Superman had disappeared, without a word or warning, and Metropolis slowly seemed to be losing its way. Crime was steadily on the rise and without their resident man in tights, the police were found to be shorthanded and unprepared for the shift.
And everyday Chloe found herself writing another article on the world without Superman. The citizens of Metropolis missed him terribly, but no one seemed to care half as much about the also missing Clark Kent. No one except herself and Jimmy Olsen, who practically worshipped her longtime friend like a god.
She remembered the day when Jimmy came racing to her desk, eyes wide and expression excited as he thrust a postcard from no other than Clark Kent in her face. It said something about soul searching and seeing a llama rodeo, but Chloe recognized the handwriting immediately. Martha Kent was always diligent about covering for her son.
At least she had the decency not to bother sending Chloe a postcard. They both knew Clark wasn’t off gallivanting across the globe, coming to terms with who he was. He had done that years ago. But a small ache filled her every time Jimmy showed her yet another postcard he received. Martha had to know where he went, why he left them, left her.
But if she did the older woman wasn’t sharing and Chloe found herself unable to press. She knew how unbearable it could be to keep one of Clark’s secrets. She hated when people tried to pry into her life and Clark’s. She certainly wasn’t about to do that to Martha Kent. The woman had become a surrogate mother to her; she respected her too much to do that.
Still, Martha paid her no visits and Chloe found herself with the unenviable task of paying all the rent and utilities on her own and sadly coming up short each month. They had depended on both their salaries from the Planet to pay for the apartment and the costs that came with it. With Clark gone and her savings account diminishing each month, Chloe was becoming despondent.
She would have to break their lease in order to find a cheaper place, and doing so would undoubtedly incur her monetary penalties. Her father had offered to help her out and even Martha had reached out to her when Gabe let it slip that she might have to move, but she had refused both their offers. It wasn’t simply pride that motivated her refusal, but knowledge that neither one of them could afford it.
The prospect of packing up all of Clark’s things was a daunting one. She didn’t know what she would do with it all. She could send it to Martha, who would keep it safe and treasure everything until the day her son returned, assuming he ever would.
Chloe had placed a call to her landlord and arranged for a meeting the following week with the kindly older woman. She wasn’t particularly looking forward to their conversation, but practicality told her she had no choice. It was either break her lease and leave or be evicted for not paying her rent. Personally, she didn’t think she could take the indignity of being evicted on top of everything else.
Two days before the dreaded day, as she began referring to it, she was paid a visit by the last person she ever expected to darken her doorway.
Lex Luthor and LuthorCorp had enjoyed a resurgence of popularity now that their firmest critic was no longer around. Lex appeared to glorying in the acceptance of the people, every time she caught sight of him during a press conference or had the dubious pleasure of interviewing him on LuthorCorp’s latest projects he had a smug smile firmly implanted on his face.
While the whole of Metropolis was mourning the loss of Superman, Lex was reveling in it. He was careful of course to make sure his overwhelming pleasure didn’t show in public, but Chloe knew better. Superman was a thorn in his side and Lex would be more than happy if he disappeared forever.
She and Lex spoke more these days than he and Clark. While their interaction was always professional, with an occasional snipe at one another’s personal lives, she certainly never thought of Lex as a friend. Clark didn’t trust him anymore, hadn’t in years, and Lex returned the sentiment.
So Chloe couldn’t have been more surprised when she found Lex Luthor standing outside her door, looking deceptively casual in a black suit jacket and matching slacks, and a sleek but soft dark purple sweater.
Opening the door fully could have been construed as an invitation and by no means did she want him in her house, so Chloe undid the locks but left the chain in place, opening the door a sliver and eying him warily.
He greeted her with a soft and almost believably warm smile.
“Chloe,” her name on his lips was surprisingly pleasant, kindly and she didn’t know whether to just slam the door in his face or ask for I.D. After all, the Lex Luthor she had grown accustomed to never even glanced at her fondly.
“Mr. Luthor,” she replied in kind, cool and collected and he just kept giving her that slight smile until she felt guilty for shutting him out and finally opened her door. “What are you doing here Lex?” she asked bluntly, dispensing with the pleasantries. When she was at work she’d treat him as a professional, but standing in her hallway he was nothing but an unwelcome visitor.
“To the point, as always,” he smirked in what almost could have been construed as genuine amusement. “I simply wanted to see how the Daily Planet’s own intrepid reporter was doing. It seems like it has been too long since I’ve had the opportunity to speak with you.”
“You gave a press conference two weeks ago,” she reminded him shortly, placing her hands on her hips, endeavoring to look as ambivalent as possible. “I interviewed you. It was on the front page of the Planet.”
“Interviews are so impersonal though,” he dismissed with a casual wave of his hand. “All facts and talking points, endless repetition. No, I meant I can’t remember the last time we actually had a simple conversation. As friends.”
“Um, the summer of my junior year?” Chloe strained recall. “And believe me, that’s using the term ‘friends’ loosely.”
“Fine,” he gave him, raising his hands in mock surrender, sighing with a shake of his head at her dogged persistence. “Since the lady demands the truth. I hear you’ve been having a hard time, now that…Clark…is gone.”
“And where have you heard this?” she asked softly, crossing her arms over her chest in a nervous gesture at the very mention of Clark Kent.
“I have eyes and ears everywhere,” he leaned in and whispered conspiratorially. It took her a moment to figure out he was teasing her. “Honestly Chloe, it’s obvious every time I see you at one of LuthorCorp’s news conferences. You’re still the same ace reporter you’ve always been, delighting in taking every opportunity to disgrace me in public,” Lex eyed her with a tiny hint of bemusement, maybe even admiration, “but your heart isn’t in it.”
“I’m surprised you’d care, Lex,” she murmured truthfully. “We were hardly close.”
“I still considered us friends Chloe,” he replied with unexpected sincerity, “once.” Chloe felt unsure how to respond and uncomfortable moment of silence passed.
“You’re moving?” Lex eventually asked, mild curiosity in his rich voice.
“Uh,” Chloe mumbled, her words failing her briefly. She glanced awkwardly over her shoulder, seeing the few boxes she had already began to pack scattered about their—her apartment. “Um, yeah. Landlords don’t take kindly to I.O.U.s, they sort of frown upon that, and rent on a place this big is a little more than my Planet salary can account for. Not a big deal,” she shrugged, offering him a wide smile and a slight chuckle, full of discomfort. She had no doubt he had seen through her act.
“Well,” he finally spoke after what felt like forever to Chloe, “I should be going, I have a meeting in,” he considered with a quick glance at his watch, a watch that was probably worth six or seven months rent at least, “twenty minutes with the board.” He smiled again, but this time it was his professional, detached grin that greeted her. The impersonality of it was welcome.
“Chloe,” Lex spoke again, voice disturbingly gentle and soft as she moved to close the door, stopping her in her tracks. His hand was extended, a small slip of rough paper in his grasp held up as an offering. She glanced up at him hesitantly, unsure of his motives, and reached for it with a small amount of trepidation. His business card; and more than that, his personal number scrawled along the back. “Don’t be a stranger.”
And then he was gone, down the hallway with his typical confident swagger. Chloe’s steps were anything but confident as she wandered back into her living room, collapsing on her sofa with a loud exhalation of breath. Her eyes couldn’t seem to leave that little piece of paper now resting in the palm of her hand.
The last thing she needed in her life was another Luthor messing with her head.
She resolved to tear up the offending card. Even as she placed it on the counter, propped up against the little board she used to write messages and quick reminders, she told herself she would tear it up into scraps. It remained in its place, glaring at her mockingly.
Keeping his card meant nothing. It would be foolish, she argued to herself, to destroy something like that. Bad for business. But it didn’t mean she’d ever actually call him. He was not a kind, caring man, despite his display in the middle of the hall. Nothing, not even that, would change her mind about him.
The next day came and went with little fanfare. There was no phone call from Lex, not that she had expected or desired one, and she made no attempt to contact him, despite her constant wary glances at his business card that sat on her counter almost tauntingly.
It wasn’t until the day after, after getting home from work and sifting through her mail somberly before she was scheduled to meet with her landlord, she was given an undeniable reminder of Lex once more.
The envelope was small and unassuming, her name etched elegantly on the front, the LuthorCorp logo in small print on the back. Chloe hesitated a moment before her curiosity got the better of her and she tore it open.
It seemed wrong that something so small and unassuming could contain something so immense. And yet there was no denying what she held in her hands. A check.
Enough money to buy her apartment outright.
And now she knew her plan to strategically avoid Lex Luthor was officially shot to hell.
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Date: 2007-02-16 02:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-16 08:55 pm (UTC)Thanks :)
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Date: 2007-02-16 09:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-16 09:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-16 07:35 pm (UTC)Welcome to the club.
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Date: 2007-02-16 08:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-17 12:14 am (UTC)She is, isn't she? I want to call her Nois.
(and very good story, too. heh. and yay, Chlex! :D)
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Date: 2007-02-17 01:19 am (UTC)I swear, my head hurts every time I see Erica Durance on screen. I don't know how they decided to make her Lois Lane. Lois is not a total airhead with fake boobs. And she goes from a muffin peddler to chief of staff (because you know, she's just so qualified) and now she suddenly wants to be a reporter? *headdesk* Nois is very appropriate.
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Date: 2007-02-16 09:21 pm (UTC)I squirmed in my seat when the money from Lex showed up. I am praying that Chloe doesn't accept it. I like seeing Chloe and Lex together, but not romantic way.
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Date: 2007-02-17 01:20 am (UTC)Well, there will be a bit of Chlex in this, but this will eventually be a primarly Chlark story, so I promise there is hope in sight ;)
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Date: 2007-02-17 11:04 am (UTC)woo! Chlex!! i ♥ you!! ^_^