And the Stars Go With You

Clark/Chloe angst, futurefic
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: These characters belong to the CW and DC Comics, not to me.
The title is from a John Serrie album.

"Look at the stars." Her voice was quiet, almost reverential, as she lay on her back in the grass and stared up at the night sky. "Everything else in life fades eventually, but not them. They never change."

He knew it wasn't quite true, that stars sometimes faded into darkness, or went nova. His own presence on this planet was proof of that. But on the whole, she was right. Stars existed for an extremely long time. The ancient peoples had gazed at these exact same constellations thousands of years ago, and the very same stars would still be lighting the night sky thousands of years from now, long after the two of them were gone.

"The important things in life don't change, Chloe." He squeezed her hand. "The stars, the sun, my love for you..."

She turned her head and looked at him. In her eyes he saw the gleam of amusement-- or perhaps it was only starlight. "Why, Clark Kent," she said softly. "How poetic of you."

He flashed a grin, trying to pass his words off as a joke, even though they hadn't been. What he felt for her wasn't ever going to change, and they both knew that now. "I have a poetic side," he assured her.

"Uh-huh. You're about as poetic as I am, which isn't much. Still..." Her hand squeezed his in return. "Thanks. I appreciate the sentiment."

"It's true," he said softly.

She looked back up at the stars and smiled.

"I know," she answered.

*****

He lay on his back in the grass in the dusk, gazing up at those very same stars. Very little had changed. He could pick out a dark space or two where a star had once glittered, but on the whole, the vast sweep of stars above him glowed across the velvety dark sky exactly as they had on that evening so long ago.

But Chloe wasn't beside him.

She hadn't been beside him for a very long time.

He sighed, feeling the ache of loss as if it were yesterday. What he'd told her all those years ago was true. He'd loved her then, and he loved her now.

The important things in life didn't change.

Even though she'd been dead and buried for five thousand years, even though her body had turned to dust millennia ago... he still loved her.

He reached out for her hand, remembering that night five thousand years before, but there was nothing there. He remembered her soft voice.

Look at the stars. Everything else in life fades eventually, but not them. They never change.

And she'd been right. The stars didn't change, not really. And even all these millennia later, every time he gazed at them, he thought of her.

He wasn't sure if that was a gift, or a curse.

Darkness fell all around him, and he lay alone in the grass, with only the stars for company.

-The End-