At Crater Lake

Chapter 2

Clark/Chloe
Season 6, after "Sneeze"
3000 words
Rating: Adult. If you're under eighteen, please go elsewhere now.
Disclaimer: These characters belong to the CW and DC Comics, not to me.

He'd blown the clouds away just for her.

Clark Kent looked up at the clear blue sky. He'd gotten rid of the ominous dark clouds partly to show off for his best friend Chloe Sullivan, and partly to try out his new power and see what he was capable of. But the main reason he'd done it had been that he didn't want the threat of rain to finish their picnic before it started.

He'd really wanted to spend the day with Chloe.

It had been a rough few days for Clark. He'd been working every night, under cover of darkness, trying to fix some of the mess he'd inadvertently made when he accidentally loosed an evil Kryptonian dictator on the world. During the day he'd continued to do the myriad chores that kept a hundred-acre farm running. And presumably as a result of his exhaustion, he'd come down with a bad cold.

But he was feeling better now, and he'd very much wanted to spend a day goofing off with Chloe, just to try to get life back on a more normal footing. Because Chloe could always make him laugh, and right now he was sorely in need of some laughs. Besides, there was no one else on earth he so enjoyed spending time with.

After he'd gotten rid of the clouds, they'd climbed into his truck and headed for Crater Lake. It was late September, and the popular summer hangout was pretty much deserted. Even so, they headed down the shore by tacit, wordless assent, heading for a secluded cove where other people rarely intruded. They'd had the small beach to themselves all morning, running around on the sand and flying the kite Chloe had brought along. Once he'd blown the clouds away, there hadn't been any breeze, but he'd been able to fix that, with what Chloe insisted on referring to as his "superbreath."

He supposed the name made sense. He had superstrength, superspeed, superhearing... and now superbreath. It made sense, but it sounded kind of dumb, in his opinion. But there was no real point in trying to get Chloe to alter her name for it, because once she made up her mind, there was no changing it.

At last, tired of kite flying, they'd dropped down on a blanket, dug into the picnic basket he'd brought, and devoured fried chicken and potato salad and homemade chocolate cake. Then they'd stretched out and looked at the miraculous blue sky together.

The sun beat down on them, but the heat didn't bother Clark. What made him heat up was the fact that Chloe was lying there on the blanket, right next to him.

She looked over at him. "You're sweating," she said.

"Um..." He stirred uncomfortably and turned his head toward her. He suddenly discovered their faces were only inches apart, and he started to sweat worse than before. "It's getting pretty hot."

"But you never sweat."

"I think it's because I'm still getting over the cold." He was lying through his teeth, but she seemed to accept his statement at face value. He had sweated while he was sick, after all.

"How about we take a swim to cool off?" she suggested.

"Sounds like a plan." An immersion into cold water ought to help what ailed him, except he was immune to extremes of temperature, so it wouldn't have the effect on him it had on human males. But anything that could get him more than four inches away from Chloe was probably a good thing at this point. Because she was just way too close to him for his personal comfort level.

Or not close enough, maybe.

He got to his feet and headed for the lake, Chloe right behind him. She dipped a toe into the cold water and made a face, wrinkling her nose up with dismay. "Forget I suggested it."

"It's not that bad," he said, stepping into the water without hesitation.

"Maybe not for you. But you were born on an ice planet."

"Oh, come on," he said, wading in deeper. "Once you get used to it, you'll hardly notice it."

"Words of wisdom, from a man who's incapable of being cold."

He grinned at her snark. "You just have to get all the way into the water."

"Not gonna happen, Clark. It's like liquid ice."

"There's no such thing." He turned around and considered her for a moment. The water must seem really chilly to her, because he could see her nipples standing out underneath her red bikini top. She looked way too gorgeous in a swimsuit, and the erect nipples didn't help matters. At all.

He was very much aware he was staring at her breasts, but he couldn't look away somehow. But he didn't particularly want her to notice, either. Since they were just friends, things between them might become extremely uncomfortable if she noticed his... preoccupation.

He decided a diversion was his best bet to avoid any awkwardness between them. He took a long step toward her, scooped her up in his arms, and tossed her out into the water. She squealed, hit the water's smooth surface with a splash, and disappeared.

Almost instantly her blonde hair popped up. She shook her head, spraying water everywhere, and glared at him.

"I'm... g-going... to k-kill you," she promised through chattering teeth.

He grinned and dove into the water, swimming over to her with leisurely, human-style strokes. "You'll warm up soon. You just need to exercise. Want to race?"

She continued to glare, treading water. "Yeah, because I have such a good chance of beating a guy with superspeed."

"I won't use superspeed," he promised earnestly.

She rolled her eyes. "I still don't have a chance in the world of winning, and you know it. I'm not that great a swimmer."

"Well, you need to swim, or you're not going to warm up." He paddled around her in a circle, humming the theme to "Jaws."

"Go away," she said, splashing him.

"What, you don't like sharks?" He circled closer. "Da-DUM, da-DUM..."

"Stop it." She was obviously trying to sound stern, but failing rather miserably, because he could hear the laughter in her voice. She splashed him again, sloshing quite a lot of lake water into his face. He snorted and shook his head, getting the water out of his nose and ears.

"Now that wasn't at all friendly," he said, going after her again.

She paddled backward and splashed him again. He reached out a long arm and splashed her in return. Unfortunately, he misjudged the movement a bit, and with his superstrength, the movement of his arm created a pretty good-sized wave.

Her head disappeared under the wall of water.

"Chloe!" All joking forgotten, he lunged toward her, grabbed her by the waist, and pulled her to the surface, planting his feet on the lake bottom. She sputtered and coughed, clinging to him, her arms around his neck, her ankles hooked around his calves.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, feeling like a moron. Worse than a moron. He didn't usually misjudge his strength that way, but he'd been sick for a couple of days, and his superstrength had been intermittent at best. Obviously his judgment was a little screwed up as a result. "You okay?"

"I'm--" She gave a strangled cough and spoke hoarsely. "Yeah, I'm okay."

"I'm really sorry." His arms were locked around her waist, and she was pretty damn close to him, but he was so freaked out he hardly noticed. "I didn't mean to do that, I swear."

"I know." She managed to stop coughing, and her hand squeezed his shoulder reassuringly. "Don't worry about it, Clark. Accidents happen."

The touch of her hand suddenly made him realize exactly how close she was to him, and how he was holding her. His feet were on the lake bottom, but the water was up to his chin, so they were in over her head. Her arms were tightly around his neck and her legs were wrapped around his, and the position was so suggestive that all of a sudden he was very hot again, so hot he was surprised the water around them didn't start to boil.

His breath caught in his throat, and he stared into her eyes, mesmerized. He just couldn't look away.

She looked back, her gaze locked with his. "Clark," she said, very softly, and moved just a little closer.

His hands slid down her back, without any input from his brain, and cupped the round cheeks of her ass in his palms, pulling her against him intimately. The brush of her body against his very aroused flesh sent a surge of heat and pleasure through him.

She felt so damn good against him that he could hardly breathe. Never mind superbreath. Right now he'd be grateful for any oxygen at all, because his chest was so tight he thought he might just suffocate.

A vague corner of his brain knew things were getting out of hand. He knew he ought to put her down and swim away, but somehow he just couldn't.

Instead he lowered his head and touched his lips to hers.

She tasted like lake water, fresh and clean and pure, and the light brush of her mouth sent shivers through him. She felt good and tasted better, but it wasn't enough somehow. He wanted more.

He kissed her again, and then again, each kiss a little longer, a little firmer, until their lips parted and their tongues met in a long, hot caress that sent fire rushing through him.

Her fingers dug into his hair, and he was barely aware of his own hands clutching her more tightly. He was so hard he ached, throbbing with need and desire, and when she moved against him a little, he couldn't stop himself from moaning into her mouth, because it felt incredible. And that bewildered him, because he'd known Chloe for years, and they'd been close friends all this time. He'd always thought she was pretty, even had a few stray sex dreams about her, but he'd had her firmly categorized in his mind as a friend, not a hot, attractive woman.

And yet the moment he'd kissed her, he'd suddenly discovered she was far and away the sexiest woman he'd ever held in his arms.

Read Chapter 2 here.