So I was very excited to see that my secret-chlark for Fall 2014 was actually for someone that I was familiar enough with that I had a pretty good idea what she would like in a fic. The lovely and talented purple_moon123!

She has been just wonderful reading and commenting on my fics - even lending me her gorgeous artwork for my livejournal page! So I thought I had a pretty good idea of what she would like in a fic. I REALLY hope I got it right for her!

So the prompt I mainly worked from was:

1) post Vessel kiss AU where they get together after all

Though I did throw in a bit of:

2) post Fever AU where Clark finds Chloe's letter

It took me a few days or so to figure something to do with these prompts that would be somewhat unique. I tend to like weaving around canon, and one thing that always struck me about Chlark was how they kept backing away whenever one or the other did something that wasn't strictly friendly. Though they (both) took turns looking disappointed when nothing came of it. This made me think about why they would keep backing down...and what could finally cause them to take the chance. That is where I decided to focus. They kept circling and coming back, always leaving the door slightly cracked. Hence the concept of "Next Time."

I thought it would take something big to make them finally take the chance. Or somethings. Almost losing each other for good on dark Thursday. Clark finally realizing he could really miss his last chance with Chloe. Chloe realizing that he had been pushing her away for what he thought was her best interest.

As for the AU part of it...sadly things didn't turn out the way I had them go here. Though I did have some fun with Clark's "physical" side. In canon, he stopped sleeping with Lana after his power returned (and she was normal human) out of fear of hurting her, but does later sleep with Lois when powered. He claimed he had learned better control by then, but I had my own theory...which I used here.