[for Chloe]

[hero_farmboy]

Clark is not nervous. Not at all. That pacing he's doing outside Chloe's apartment building? Totally not nerves. It's just a second date and the first one was the one he was nervous over. This one should be a breeze.

He just needs a minute.

Finally, after taking a quick look around to make sure no one's watching, he takes a deep breath and speeds up to her apartment, knocking lightly on the door.

It's hard to not just walk in.

Comments

[torch-reporter.livejournal.com]

"Hey!" Chloe protests, staring at him with a wide open smile. "I just needed to check!"

[hero_farmboy]

Standing up, he brushes the dirt off the front of his jeans. "You were close enough that the heat should have sufficed. You didn't have to stick your hand in it."

Speaking of which, Clark is just to inspect that hand with a frown. "It doesn't look too bad."

[torch-reporter.livejournal.com]

Chloe rolls her eyes at him, glancing down at her hand. There's only a light burn on it, nothing horrible.

"Yes, mother," she replies. "I'll remember that the next time my date blows up a bush in the Grand Canyon."

[hero_farmboy]

"I didn't blow it up and besides, you asked me to," he reminds her, letting her hand go.

[torch-reporter.livejournal.com]

She laughs as she slips her hand back into his.

"Okay, true. But that's aside the point."

[hero_farmboy]

Holding hands. Okay, Clark can do that.

"The point is that fire is fire and despite your reporters instinct to ferret out the truth, it's not really ever anything other than hot."

[torch-reporter.livejournal.com]

Chloe shrugs. "I didn't see any harm in it."

[hero_farmboy]

"Except for burning your hand," Clark points out, looking down at her. "Next time, remind me to demonstrate one of less destructive abilities, okay?"

[torch-reporter.livejournal.com]

"You've already demonstrated super speed. And I guess lifting me that long totally counts for super strength." She looks up at him, truly curious. "What else is left?"

[hero_farmboy]

He rolls his eyes.

"I'm not throwing a boulder to the other side of the gorge just to prove that." Then he shrugs, swinging their hands a little as they walk. "X-ray vision, superhearing and superbreath, which sounds lame, but it's come in handy a few times. I also can't get hurt."

[torch-reporter.livejournal.com]

She approves of the hand swinging. And is clearly amused by the suggestion of throwing a boulder.

"Super breath?"

[hero_farmboy]

"Yeah. I have a really big lung capacity or something. The first time I ever sneezed I blew our barn door half way across the county." Chloe doesn't need to know he almost killed her cousin in the process. "And that famous picnic, it was sort of overcast that day and I blew the clouds away so we could have sunshine."

[torch-reporter.livejournal.com]

"That I totally need to see some day."

[hero_farmboy]

He chuckles. "We'll see. You might have to agree to a picnic for it, though."

[torch-reporter.livejournal.com]

"Hey, as long as you're still willing to go out with me, I'm game."

[hero_farmboy]

"Now why wouldn't I be willing to still go out with you?" He teases, squeezing her hand gently. "You're still in the 'touch fire to see if it burns' stage. You need someone to look out for you."

[torch-reporter.livejournal.com]

"Isn't this kind of weird for you?" Chloe squeezes his hand back as they walk along the edge of the canon. "I mean, I'm not exactly the Chloe you grew up with."

[hero_farmboy]

Clark takes a minute before answering that.

"You're not really all that different, to be honest. I mean, no, you don't have all the memories of stuff that we've done together that I have, but when you get right down to it, you're still Chloe Sullivan." He looks over and gives her a quick smile before looking straight ahead again. "And just that alone means a lot to me."

[torch-reporter.livejournal.com]

Chloe nods. "She really meant a lot to you, didn't she?"

[hero_farmboy]

"Yeah, she did. I really don't know what I would have done without her." He smiles at her again. "And I'm glad I don't have to find out."

[torch-reporter.livejournal.com]

Chloe beams back at him.

"So why didn't you two ever date? I know this is only our second one, and not to be presumptuous or anything, but I think this could be a pretty good thing in the long one."

[hero_farmboy]

"There was another girl. There were a couple of times I thought Chloe and I could give it a shot, but she pulled the friends card on me. I guess I can't really blame her."

Clark sighs. "The last time was fairly recently, too."

[torch-reporter.livejournal.com]

"I can't imagine that it would be fun competing with another girl. I wasn't ever exactly in that sort of situation," she muses, glancing up at him a few times as she talks. "But I think I get where she's coming from. Still, I'm kind of really glad you gave me a chance."

[hero_farmboy]

"I didn't have all that much of a choice. You surprise kissed me." Which really just made him think about the last time his Chloe surprise kissed him and how much he had been looking forward to seeing her again afterward.

Which also reminds him, "You work with a guy named Jimmy? Jimmy Olson?"

[torch-reporter.livejournal.com]

"Hey, your the one that surprise kissed me back!" Chloe responds with a laugh.

She swings their hands a little before nodding. "He's a photographer. Not a bad one either. We're friends."