Codes: Chloe, Clark/Lex
Rating: NC-17, PWP
Spoilers: Not a one
Summary: In which there is a sofa and much fun to be had.
Author Notes: All. Beth's. Fault. All of it. Every bit. Thanks to the talented Nat for the beta. *hugs* You rock.
Archiving: Go ahead.

Feedback: Like French roast, but even more fun.

It's a night with way too much energy and nothing to do with it. She's been reading those teeny-bopper magazines that she makes fun of around Clark and Pete but pulls out from under her bed when they leave. Bitten nails push against the glossy cover while she tries to concentrate, but her own company is just a little too depressing for her tonight. Even the magazines aren't helping.

She's halfway to the Kents' before she even figures out where she's going. Probably something she can angst over later, the auto-response that kicked her feet into gear, location chosen without checking in at her head. Not exactly uncommon, nor is the fact she doesn't knock on the barn door when she slips inside, taking the stairs two at a time. She's wearing sneakers and she's a reporter-in-waiting--she knows how to be quiet and be unseen.

Clark's Fortress of Solitude--she still giggles when she says the name, but only to herself--and all he really needs are some cigarettes and a bottle of bourbon to complete the props for brooding melancholy. Pretty image to carry in her head, and she lets her lips curl up before her feet almost stumble to pause on the very top step.

The loft's dark as usual, though she notes the straw's been swept up and away, the couch cleaned and a nice blanket hanging over the back--Clark taking a turn at decorating, perhaps, but more likely his mom left it here for when he falls asleep over his telescope. Same feeling of cloying thickness, though--almost smallness, though it's *not* that small, not really. More like all of Clark's thoughts have to take up physical space, and Clark thinks a *lot*.

It's not any of that, though, that made her stop. Not the small television in the corner that she hadn't known he owned or the rug on the floor that looks new. Clark, in loose tangle of limbs resting against the couch, is eating popcorn like it's his last meal and watching the movie like it has advertisement for Lana-Stalking Tips Guaranteed To Work Or Your Money Back. Call Right Now!

Surreal moment. Maybe she's been awake too many hours straight, or maybe it's just the shock of seeing that Clark. Isn't. Alone.

Lex is stretched out on the couch in the most careful sprawl imaginable, like he's waiting for a photographer to wander by and immortalize the moment. Eyes half-closed, arm tucked under his head, jacket lightly tossed over the arm of the couch, shoes on the floor. Very possibly the Luthor equivalent of relaxed.

She's been standing here too long for simple curiosity--she already knows she won't be going in there. Not this room, with the sameness that isn't the same at all. What she doesn't know is what she's going to do now.

Two boys hanging out in a quiet loft on a Saturday night. There's nothing here that should feel so different, but--it still does.

"Clark."

Even his voice is lazy, a low drawl that she never would have heard if she wasn't this close. Clark's head turns up and the smile is there, the one she knows and the one she wants, the one she'd give her soul to have turned on her, just once. It's Clark and it's sweet, but it's also--

"Yeah?"

"Why are we watching this?"

Clark shrugs, picking up another piece of popcorn and tossing it into the air. Blatant showing off, and it could have been Lana in the room with him. A grin so bright the dark should retreat in the face of it, it's Clark Kent, for God's sake, doesn't it recognize perfection when it's sprawled on the floor? He could light a room when he looks like that.

But it's not Lana who gets that smile. It's Lex.

"I'm impressed, Clark." Slow amusement, an unspoken burn of more underneath. Soft creak of the couch and Lex rolls gracefully onto his back. "Come here."

Clark pushes off the floor, jeans tight over that body that has invaded Chloe's dreams more times than she wants to think about. Clark drops onto the couch, straddling Lex's waist. She's got an easy view of the back of Clark's head, Lex's face, the way they shift together.

So much familiarity the room aches with it.

"You know, you're morose for someone who's gonna be driving a new Lamborghini." Clark's voice is teasing.

And maybe it's the loft and the feeling, the room so close and so warm, the smile Lex gives Clark, that makes this so--not-quite-real. Lex is utterly at ease, long fingers sliding up to Clark's hips, tracing the waist of his jeans, palms slowly stroking his hips.

She wasn't supposed to see this.

It didn't matter.

"It won't be here until next week."

Clark's reaching down and fingers brushing Lex's throat. Slow and careful and Lex tilts his head back with a little sigh, eyes closing. Like a cat being rubbed in just the right way.

She can feel that touch through her entire body. Callused fingertips on her skin, on his skin. Slow, careful, like he's drawing, like he's painting with his fingertips and she shivers along with Lex.

"You millionaires really suffer, don't you?" Idly flicking open a button and shaking his head. "You're spoiled."

"Sometimes." Lex opens his eyes, the grin seeming to reach out and take in the entire room. "I like getting what I want when I want it."

"You ever hear of delayed gratification and how it's better to wait?" Clark's playing with another button. Still light stroking, and he leans down, bracing his other hand on the back of the couch.

And Chloe catches her breath-familiarity, easy intimacy in that kiss, heat, and it thickens the room around her, around them. Brighter, somehow, and she wonders how long she's been missing this. How she could have missed it.

How she ever could have known.

"I want to give you something," Lex says softly.

"Not that car." Another button and now Clark's fingers are below her range of vision.

"You're kidding. You'll be lucky if I let you ride in that car."

Clark laughs and sits up.

"You let me pick the color."

"Ah, but that's not true. I let you think you picked the color."

"You mean manipulated me." She can almost see Clark's teasing grin.

"You like it."

Clark's answer is too soft, but she catches the way he tilts his head back, breath catching, and she hasn't been watching for the right things. One of Lex's hands is out of view.

She shouldn't watch this.

"What are you thinking about, Clark?" Lex's voice is low and rough, almost--almost tactile. She could feel it on the back of her neck like a physical touch.

"You-want to hear-" Clark's moan raises goosebumps on her skin, and Chloe leans into the banister, legs trembling a little. Vivid visuals of what's out of her vision, what is happening between their bodies. Wrong, bad thing, should leave, leave right now, she's never going to look at Clark, look at Lex, and not feel this. Not see this. Not--not *know* what they do, how they can look--God, how they sound.

Like this.

"Tell me what you think about when I touch you."

Clark chuckles softly, and Chloe watches him tilt his head forward. She wants to see what's written into his face, how it feels to him, what he's like when someone touches him--happy, intense, smiling, biting his lip, frowning. She's never seen sex outside Pete's porn collection and the few R rated movies her mother has let her go to. It's Clark. She wants to know everything. Even if it'll never be for her.

"How-now?"

"Right now, what you're thinking."

Clark catches his breath and she can see, even from here, the way his hand tightens on the arm of the couch.

"About-your new car." Clark laughs again and winces when Lex turns his head, catching the soft-looking skin of Clark's inner wrist with his teeth briefly. "Sorry, but it's a hot car."

"There's a reason I buy them. Tell me." Slow, thoughtful lick to the injured wrist, looking up at Clark.

"What I-okay. The car and you." Clark's moving now-slow and rhythmic against Lex. "About-when it gets here. What we'll do with it."

"Tell me."

Lex is watching-intense, almost painful focus, everything in this second. Chloe draws in another breath.

"When-when you drive it the first time. The look on your face when you feel it start. The way you-God-you grin and the way you forget everything else. Like nothing else matters in the world."

Lex nods slowly and Clark lowers his head. Lex's eyes are closed but she catches the quick, sharp breath when Clark's mouth is buried against his throat. The bright run of tension when he pushes a foot into the couch and then his hand is in Clark's hair. Pulling gently until he looks up.

"Tell me more."

"I-God, Lex. When-when we're on our way to the city and you-you ask if I want to drive. And then-we get out and you stop me against the door and you just-look at me. And you don't-don't touch me, not yet, but-"

"But?"

"I know how much you want to."

Chloe lets out a breath with Lex.

"And then?" Lex's voice is lower, more a part of the room, the dark, the closeness that she shouldn't be here to witness, to feel.

"You walk away and for a second I just want to-just grab you-Christ, Lex-grab you and make you-but I-I don't. So I get in the car and turn it on, and it's impossible to think, but I get the car started and you're just sitting there like-like you don't even know what you do to me. But then you-you grin and you ask what I want to do tonight."

"So me letting you drive is the reason we have yet to actually see a movie in Metropolis?"

Chloe has to grin with Lex at that.

"You want to hear this or make fun of me?"

"Both-fuck, Clark..." It's a gasp and Chloe watches Lex arch sharply. She wonders what Clark's doing to him, can guess from the hand that's off the back of the couch.

"Tell me," Clark whispers, and he's moving on Lex harder, almost grinding down.

"Wha-"

"What you're thinking when you're just sitting there. When you're smiling at me. When-when you pretend like we're really going to see a movie."

Lex's eyes close for a second, biting into his lip.

"How you look in my car. How I like you there. That look on your face the first time I let you drive the Ferrari. The first time I kissed you. When you took off your clothes for me. The way you flush when you're remembering, too."

"God, Lex-"

"And I think about how you taste. How your skin feels on the small of your back and how you breathe when you're turned on and don't want anyone to know."

Clark gasps something and Chloe begins to tense-this build, this heat that reaches into her, even if it doesn't belong to her.

"Tell me," Lex says, and he's touching Clark's face. Running his fingers through the dark hair and watching. Blue eyes like heat.

"Tell you-"

"What we'll do with that car."

"In-the garage. At that-apartment down near the warehouse district. The-garage is filthy, I can't figure out why you like this place so much-"

"Sentimental value-" Lex arches again.

"Yeah." Breathless. "And you're-you get out and you still have that smile. And I lean against the hood and wait for you and you come just close enough so I can-almost feel you. But you don't touch me. You just look at me. And you-"

"I'm thinking how pretty you are. How hot you are. How you're just standing there, waiting. How I can't figure you out."

"I'm easy-" Clark mutters. "God, Lex, please-"

"Tell me more-"

Clark's struggling-visible in every muscle of his body. Fingers white on the couch arm and Lex is breathing so hard Chloe can feel the scrape of it in her throat.

"And you just-touch my face. Like you don't expect me to let you. And there's this second where-I wonder if you just don't-aren't-*oh*-if you aren't going to do anything at all."

Lex smiled then, quick and fast.

"Trust me, that's never going to happen."

"And then it's gone, it's like you change right in front of me. My back's to the hood and you-you kiss me. And it's like the second time we kissed. It's so hard and it's fast because you just want-God-me to know."

"Know what?" Lex's voice is almost dark. Rough.

"Know--and I--can't even think anymore and I don't care. And the--the hood is so close and I--remember the first time we fucked against a car."

"Jesus, Clark--"

"Against the Ferrari, the red one when you were--you were so high from--from no sleep and I wouldn't let you drive. And the way you laid me back on the hood and told me everything you wanted to do with me--"

"The way you started breathing so fast, Clark, and you just stared at me and then unbuttoned your jeans like you thought I'd change my mind--"

"It was a public road--"

"You think being in public would stop me?"

Clark makes a noise Chloe can't even begin to recognize. She's breathing with them, seeing this. Like they are.

"And then--and then I think of the way you touch me. Just--so light, as if it's the first time--"

"--I remember how you touch yourself when I watch--"

"Oh *God* Lex--" Clark's so tense Chloe can feel it. Lex curls his free hand around the back of Clark's neck, keeping their eyes locked. There's nothing--*nothing*--outside this room, this moment.

"How you've never had another lover--" Almost a growl.

"--like they're banging down doors in Smallville to get to me--"

"--they would. They will."

"And I think of the garage and how you don't care how dirty the floor is. Down on your knees for me, and I think--I think how *hot* that is, almost as hot as when I'm in your mouth. And I can't stop watching and I don't--please, Lex, I have to--"

Lex groans and there's this moment, bright and hot, where Chloe can't breathe. Sparkles of heat rushing through her body, everywhere, in places that she'd never known could feel like that.

"And I think about you on your knees on my bed, gripping the headboard and moaning when I lick you--your neck and your back, the insides of your thighs that make you twitch. How tight and hot you are when I slide a finger inside you and you make that sound--"

"--sound?" Clark's panting. Chloe is, too.

"That one." Breathless. "And you push back against me and spread your legs for me and beg me to fuck you."

Clark makes a noise that doesn't even sound human, head thrown back, and she wants to see his face. See this moment when everything breaks, when he breaks, when Lex breaks, hell, she's breaking too, sweat standing cold and fresh on the back of her neck. Back arched and she catches the briefest glimpse of Clark's face, lip between his teeth. Riding out the moment, so--utterly indifferent to everything. Everything but the feeling.

Lex is watching him, just as entranced, then pulls Clark down for a kiss. Hand on Clark's ass, bucking up against him, murmuring things she wants to hear, and Chloe wonders if she's leaving fingerprints in the banister from her grip.

It's--she has to go. Now.

Her sneakers are soft as they go back down, and she stumbles out into the chill of the night. Leaning up against the half-shut door, breath too fast, skin too hot, thinking too many thoughts.

Cars and Lex and Clark and oh--oh God. Fast and hard and merciless, playing in her mind like a movie screen that will never, ever stop.

She might never get to sleep again.

She's not even sure she wants to.

the end