Cherry Red, Chapter 1

Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8

Picture by chlarklove. Used with permission of the artist.

Kal/Chloe
Season 6
Rating: Adult. If you're under eighteen, please go elsewhere now.
Disclaimer: These characters belong to the CW and DC Comics, not to me.
Author's Note: This is an AU in which Clark and Chloe are both still virgins and unattached. Title suggested by red_dwarfette and used with permission... thanks!

You were the restless one
And you did not care
That I was the trouble boy
Lookin' for a double dare
I won't apologize for
The things I've done and said
But when I win your heart,
I'm gonna paint it cherry red
-Lou Gramm, "Midnight Blue"

“I’m totally sick of being a virgin.”

Clark Kent had been wandering around the kitchen, heating leftover pizza and putting silverware on the table. At Chloe Sullivan’s words, his head jerked around, and he stared at her. “Say what?”

“I’m tired of being a virgin,” Chloe repeated. She was seated at the kitchen table, glaring at the magazine she was reading. He noticed it was something called Glam Girl. “I mean, I’m nineteen. Almost twenty. Shouldn’t I have had sex by now?”

“Um.” He put the forks down on the table and shot a quick glance at the magazine. Just the headlines on the front cover were enough to make him blush. Fifteen sex tricks to make him scream.

Geez, did girls study up on this stuff or something? All of a sudden he felt really… uneducated.

He yanked his gaze away and cleared his throat. “Well, you know, I’m not exactly an expert on the subject. But I guess you shouldn’t have sex till you find a guy you want to have sex with.”

She looked at him curiously over the top of Glam Girl. “How come you and Lana didn’t ever…?”

He felt his cheeks flush redder than before. “Uh, we thought about it. But eventually we decided we weren’t, you know, ready.”

“You mean you didn’t want to tell her you were an alien from another planet.”

“Something like that.”

She studied him, her hazel eyes so frankly appraising that he felt his cheeks get hotter. “Do you ever feel like your virginity is… I don’t know, sort of an obstacle? Like if you got it out of the way, things would be easier?”

He shrugged and walked across the kitchen, looking into the fridge. They were out of Coke, his drink of choice. His mom’s enthusiasm for supporting local businesses seemed to have caused her to ditch the Coke in favor of an energy drink called Cherry Red, which was apparently canned in the area.

He picked up a can, seeing that the drink advertised itself as based on Spring Water From Lowell County! Considering all the concerns the locals had about pollution from the local fertilizer plant, he didn’t think that was a particularly good selling point. But hopefully the stuff wasn’t totally revolting, because it was all there was to drink in the fridge.

He grabbed two cans and turned around, to see her still looking at him thoughtfully, apparently awaiting his answer.

“I don’t know, Chlo. I’m not sure it’s safe for a girl and me to… you know.”

“Don’t you ever want to find out?”

All the time. “Maybe a little,” he lied, walking over to the table. This conversation was making him uncomfortable, in more ways than one, and he bent over to place the cans on the table, hoping the movement would help conceal his… reaction.

She lifted an eyebrow at him, and he had a bad feeling she’d already noticed his response. Like it was his fault she was talking about sex and reading a magazine that proclaimed in big letters, Oral sex—going down! “Maybe we should both, you know, work on it. Together.”

She was kidding. She had to be. But his body responded to her words with a deep throb of longing, which he tried really hard to ignore. They were just two friends hanging out. What she was suggesting would seriously complicate matters between them.

“Chlo,” he said, trying to sound remonstrative, rather than extremely turned on. “Sex ought to be an expression of love between two people.”

She giggled. “Quoting your mom, Clark?”

“Well… yeah. But you know, I think she’s right.”

“So you’ve never wanted to have sex just for the sake of having sex?”

Right now, what he wanted was for her to quit talking about sex. Because it was turning him on in a big way, and that was freaking him out. He and Chloe had been friends for a long time, and he tried really hard not to think about her and sex at the same time. It made disturbing images swirl around in his brain.

“No,” he said shortly, popping the top on one of the cans of Cherry Red and taking a swig. It tasted kind of funny—sweet, but with a strange spicy flavor he couldn’t quite identify. Anyway, it certainly wasn’t the greatest thing he’d ever drunk, but it wasn’t totally disgusting, either. “Shut up and eat, Chlo.”

She chuckled again, and dropped the magazine onto the table. He saw yet another headline on the cover: Coming or going? Keeping him turned on and tuned in.

Jesus, was this magazine totally about sex?

Next time he was in the grocery store, he was definitely going to have to grab a copy for himself and find out.

He dropped into a chair across from her, figuring sitting was safer. It would help conceal anything that might have, well, come up. He took another long swig of the Cherry Red, hoping to cool his cheeks off. “This stuff isn’t half bad,” he said.

She opened hers, took a careful sip, and made a face. “Ugh. I think it’s awful. And who’d want to drink anything made from the local water, anyway? I mean, hello, this is Smallville, Meteor Freak Capital of the World. Doesn’t it seem like the water around here might be something best avoided?”

He shrugged, unconcerned. “It’s the green kryptonite that makes the mutants, Chlo. And if there were any green K in this stuff at all, I’d be doubled over by now.”

He vividly remembered the time he’d inadvertently taken a sip of a potion the Smallville High cheerleaders had made with green K. He’d felt severe pain in his gut almost instantly. But this stuff wasn’t bothering him at all. In fact, he felt… energized. Which was weird, because caffeine didn’t affect his metabolism at all. In fact, very few substances affected his metabolism. But this sure as hell did.

An energy drink that worked on him. That was a novelty.

He drained the rest of it in a single long gulp, stood up, and headed for the fridge to get a second can. She watched him go, looking mildly surprised.

“Aren’t you going to eat your pizza, Clark?”

“In a minute,” he said, popping the top on a second can and swilling it with enthusiasm. He still thought it tasted kind of strange, but he liked the effect it had on him. All of a sudden he felt really good. “This stuff is awesome.”

“You’re going to get a caffeine buzz if you’re not careful.”

Chloe drank about fifteen cups of coffee a day, so he figured she was more or less immune to caffeine. He was literally immune to caffeine, but whatever was in this stuff was in fact giving him a little buzz.

Not that he was complaining. He liked it.

He finished the second can, grabbed a third, and headed back to the table. She blinked at him. “Geez, Clark. Thirsty?”

“I really like this stuff.” He grinned at her, feeling more relaxed than he had in a long time, and his gaze slid downward. She was wearing a low cut red top—no surprise there, because she often wore low cut tops. But he generally tried to ignore what her tops put on display.

All of a sudden, though, he didn’t feel much like ignoring her assets. She wouldn’t wear shirts like that if she didn’t want guys to look, right? So he figured he might as well look.

“Clark.” Her mouth dropped open. “Are you checking me out?”

He stared blatantly at the soft swell of her breasts. “Do you have a problem with that?”

“It’s just…” She blinked at him over her pizza. “You don’t usually look at me like I’m female. I wasn’t sure you’d noticed, honestly.”

“I’m not stupid, Chlo. I’ve noticed.” He let his gaze roam appreciatively over her breasts, and she shifted in her chair, looking uncomfortable.

“Eat your pizza, Clark.”

Despite her repressive tone, he noticed her nipples had hardened beneath her shirt. Apparently she liked being looked at. Lifting his gaze, he looked straight into her eyes. “You’re the one who was hinting we should get rid of our virginity together, Chlo.”

“I was…” She swallowed nervously, her gaze flickering away from his. “I was just yanking your chain a little.”

“Shouldn’t make suggestions you aren’t planning on following through with.” He took a deep swig of the Cherry Red, finishing off the third can, and stared at her with hot eyes. He felt incredibly good. His head was swimming, to the point that he was almost woozy, but his body felt alive and vital, humming with energy and sexual awareness.

She looked back at him, and her eyebrows drew together in a frown of concern. “Clark,” she said softly. “Your eyes are glowing.”

He blinked. He knew he sometimes had a problem controlling his heat vision when he got sexually aroused, but his eyes weren’t itching and burning, the way they did when his heat vision acted up. “They’re fine,” he answered.

“No, they’re not. They’re red. I mean, the irises are red.”

That was weird, he had to admit. Even though he was an alien, he looked human, and he’d always had normal green eyes. But he felt way too good to be concerned. He didn’t much care if his eyes were green, red, or purple at this point. “Don’t worry about it. I’m fine.” He leaned forward and grinned at her. “So, want me to help you get rid of that virginity problem?”

“Clark.” She stared at him. “You’re acting really weird all of a sudden.”

“Why, because I’m interested in a hot blonde?” He scowled at her. “I’m not asexual, you know. If you’re going to walk around in lowcut tops and short shorts, I’m going to get interested.”

“It’s not like you can’t see right through my clothes anyway.”

“I don’t usually go around x-raying people, Chlo.” He lifted an eyebrow. “But in your case, maybe I should make an exception.”

“Clark.” Her cheeks flushed red. “Knock it off.”

He knew he shouldn’t invade her privacy that way, and ordinarily it was something he refrained from doing, no matter how sexy a woman was. But now that the idea had gotten into his head, he somehow couldn’t quite help himself. He narrowed his eyes, focusing his vision, and looked straight through her clothing.

“Wow,” he said softly, more to himself than to her. “I should have done this a long time ago.”

“Clark.” She lifted her hands to cover herself, which of course was totally pointless, since he could see through her hands just as well as he could see through her clothing. “Stop it.”

Her angry tone didn’t dissuade him. He couldn’t seem to look away. He was totally arrested by the sight of rose-colored nipples, hard and crinkled, a mouth-watering contrast to the pale white skin of her breasts. All of a sudden he wanted to touch her nipples, to kiss them, to draw them between his lips and suck on them until she screamed.

With those vivid images filling his head, he stared, and her nipples grew more rigid than before, touching off a corresponding reaction in his body. Suddenly he was so hard he ached for her.

He stood up and went around the table, hardly aware he was moving. She stood up and took a few steps back, looking wary, and he stalked her, backing her right up against the wall, still staring at her through her clothes. He put a hand on either side of her and pressed his body against hers, lightly enough that he didn’t crush her, but firmly enough that she couldn’t get away.

The heat of her body against his made him throb again, with a purely sexual need he couldn’t ignore. He needed to have sex with her, more than he’d ever needed anything. If he didn’t make love to her, he thought he just might explode.

He lowered his head and nibbled gently on her earlobe. “Clark,” she whispered again, the word sounding like a protest and a plea all rolled into one. She might think she should object to his advances, but she clearly wasn’t objecting very hard.

His hand lifted, stroking over her nipple, and he could feel it harden even more beneath his palm. She made a little sound of desire, a small gasping sound, and he leaned into her a little harder, seeking contact with her body. Her abdomen brushed against his hard-on, and it was exactly what he needed, like a cool breeze on a hot day, or the blessed silence of the country after he’d been in the noisy city too long. The touch of her body against him fulfilled his needs and relieved his aching desire.

But not quite enough.

He still needed more.

Read Chapter 2 here.