Chloe Sullivan chewed anxiously on a fingernail, watching from a shadowy corner as her best friend quickly and efficiently destroyed his life. She grimaced in disgust as he approached yet another girl from behind, took a possessive grasp of her hips and danced far too close to her. As she took a sip of her drink, Chloe wondered for the umpteenth time since running into him in Metropolis what had happened to make him into this caricature of himself. When she had last seen him in Smallville he had been acting out of character and now four weeks later he was barely recognisable; it was getting worse the longer he let it continue. This dark, mysterious man was a complete stranger wearing Clark's face. Since taking up residence in Metropolis he had given himself a new name: Kal; she supposed it was to avoid anyone who may come looking for him, and strangely it quite suited this new persona. Kal was blunt, arrogant, self-assured, he was literally the mirror-image of the Clark she knew and loved. Her face twisted again as she lingered on that particular thought; this new Clark had pretty much squished any remaining romantic feelings she had towards him, and she supposed she should be grateful. She had always known deep down that she never really stood a chance with Clark as anything other than a really good friend, at least this way she didn't sit home pining as he went galavanting off with Lana or whoever snagged him next.
"Hey, cuz!"
Startled from her funk, Chloe jumped a clear inch off the floor as her Metropolitan cousin snuck up on her yet again, damn but this girl was stealthy when she wanted to be. "Lois! Jeez ever consider taking up ninjutsu as a full-time career? You'd make a great reporter, you got that sneak thing down pat."
Lois screwed up her nose, "No thanks, sleaze makes me itch."
Chloe laughed, "Gee, thanks, I'll be sure to tell Jim you're allergic to us. Speaking of Jimmy, have you seen him? He went to get a drink about twenty minutes ago."
Absently shaking her head in a negative, Lois barely registered her cousin's growing concern at Jimmy's absence as her gaze was drawn over Chloe's shoulder to the dance floor where some dark-haired hotty was tearing it to shreds. He seemed to sense her gaze and looked over the head of the girl he was dancing with at her, flashing a row of perfect pearly whites as a slow grin split his face. He waggled his eyebrows at her suggestively, and Lois smirked, pushing gently past her cousin who was now busily scanning the room for her missing friend, "Excuse me."
As she made her way through the gyrating bodies to the guy with the smile, Lois felt the weirdest sensation of tunnel-vision; the other people in the room seemed to blur out of focus leaving only him clear in her line of sight. Her smirk widened as she got closer, he was just as hot up close; watching him dance she felt her jaw slacken slightly as his muscles rippled with each sensual movement, the sleeveless black shirt he wore doing nothing to hide them. His eyes seemed to glow with a weird pink tint although that was probably just a trick of the lights scanning over them. She got to within a foot of him and he turned, completely blanking the girl he had just been with - much to the girl's anger if the glare she threw at Lois was any indication - and slipped his hands around her waist, urging her to move with him. She did so without protest as she was caught off-guard by the shock that shot through her at his touch. Quickly shaking off her disconcertion at the sensation she pulled him close, gazed up into his eyes, wound her arms around his neck and enjoyed the feel of his body against hers as they ground to the intoxicating bass that trembled the floor.
Kal was bored. He was bored of the city, bored of this club and bored stiff by the girl he was dancing with - she had seemed so promising from behind, but when she turned round and flashed him a dazzling smile from a face that had been hit once too often with the make-up shovel it was too late to escape. His sensitive hearing picked up Chloe's surprised squeal from a corner of the room, he glanced over and was rewarded with a glimpse of the most gorgeous babe he'd ever laid eyes on - well, barring that Lana chick of course, she was beautiful, it was a shame she was so vapid. As he turned away and attempted to focus on the squirt he was dancing with, his mind wandered and compared Lana to this newcomer to the club; Lana was beautiful, she was just a bit limp. Oh sure she kicked some ass every now and then, but she was just so needy. He didn't need a needy girl. He giggled and the squirt smiled up at him, clearly she thought she'd just done something funny. Once she turned away again he rolled his eyes and glanced back to the corner again where the new girl was talking to Chloe, she laughed at something his blonde amigo said and he smiled involuntarily in response. That was a real laugh, like the kind that made Chloe so attractive, one that showed all her teeth and narrowed her eyes to slits; it wasn't a laugh like the ones the rest of the women in this city used, the women who were afraid of getting smile lines or cracking their perfect make-up. This girl had an energy he could feel reaching out to him in tendrils from across the room, she was self-assured, happy with who she was - he looked at her again and smiled widely as he caught her eye, she smirked back and his heart thumped him in the chest - man, she was hot!
As she held his gaze he felt a warm pulse in his chest, and the strangest instinct to just latch onto her and never let go. The energy he could feel from her was becoming palpable, he could almost taste it, he had to sample it; raising his eyebrows at her in invitation, he licked his lips as she started to make her way towards him. At the last instant, he turned from the squirt and for a moment he could have sworn that the little thing had heat vision as it glared fire at the new girl.
Hesitating as long as he could, drawing out the delicious moment of anticipation before first contact, he reached for her and slipped his hands around her waist, sucking in a long, deep breath as her scent and presence surrounded him. As she pulled him closer and slid her hands up his front to slip into the hair on the back of his head, Kal let the breath out and fought to keep the shudder from his chest at the rightness of holding her close like this. She gazed up into his eyes, her own smoking dangerously and he let the thick, deep music fill him as they moved together.
Chloe grunted as she struggled to lift Jimmy from where he'd slumped half-conscious against a wall. Pausing to blow her fringe from her eyes, she glanced over to the dance floor hoping to find Lois in order to enlist her help, and almost swallowed her tongue. Clark and Lois were... she hesitated to use the word 'dancing'; they were practically inside each other. They moved together slowly and sensually, their hands on one another, their legs intertwined in an intimate dance. They seemed oblivious to the lecherous stares they were attracting and almost unaware that there were even other people in the room. Standing up straight and relinquishing Jimmy for the moment, she watched as they devoured each other, their bodies touching in all the fun places, and she felt a smile creep across her face; they made a pretty hot couple and she knew that given the chance, Lois' fire would be the perfect foil for Clark's quiet dignity. She squinted at them and cocked her head, if she looked just right... it was almost as if... her eyes shot open and she grinned, it was almost as if the old Clark was peeking through the miniscule chinks in Kal's facade. This was a very good sign, there could be hope yet of recovering Clark.
Grabbing Jimmy by the arms she yanked him to his feet with a burst of renewed strength and frog-marched him for the bathrooms.
"You wanna get out of here?"
The soft brushing of lips to murmur in her ear sent tingles of promise down Lois' spine, and she was sorely tempted, but Lois Lane didn't do that. Not any more at least. Besides, she got the feeling that he did this a lot, he was clearly MetroClub's resident Lothario and she had no intention of being his next conquest.
She pulled back and tried with zero success to not get pulled into the depths of his eyes, "You don't even know my name."
"I don't need to," Lois cursed herself as she felt her mouth go dry at his husky, seductive whisper, "there's something about you. I can't explain it, it's like I'm drawn to you, like magnetism or something."
Lois grimaced, disappointed as her defenses slammed into place; she knew this was coming, "That sounds like a line if ever I heard one." She reluctantly pulled free of his embrace, ignoring the fact that had she not been so thoroughly screwed over in the past she would have taken him up on his offer in a heartbeat, "Good night, Lothario." Turning her back, she pushed through the throngs of people crowding the floor to try and find Chloe and Jimmy.
Kal was drowning. From the moment she'd first stepped into his arms the energy he'd felt from her had engulfed him and he was lost. Something otherworldly was at work here; he usually stayed well clear of that whole Fate thing but there was no other way to explain what he was feeling. A moment of panic gripped him as the song approached it's end: he couldn't let their meeting end at one dance, he had to have more of her, so he did something he'd never done; in the heat of the moment, his senses on edge from her proximity, desperate to keep her near, he asked her the question he swore he'd never ask a stranger.
She said no...
As he watched her leave, he blinked in wide-eyed shock as his heart fell into his shoes and he went cold. This wasn't right, surely she'd felt the pull between them too?
"Ready to go, Chlo?"
"Lois! I thought I'd lost you for the night, watching you and Clark was making me blush."
"You know that guy? He's a sleeze ball!" Lois struggled to keep her heat from fluttering at the knowledge that Chloe was friends with the guy, that there was a chance she could see him again even though she'd just turned him down flat.
Chloe looked at her over Jimmy's head as if she'd grown a ginger head of her own, "Clark? He may have gone a bit off the rails of late, but he's no sleeze." She wedging a shoulder under Jimmy's armpit and held out her hand for her jacket, "Besides, he calls himself Kal these days, God knows why, though I guess it does give him a certain mystique."
Despite herself, Lois purred quietly, remembering the feel of him against her, "Hmm, you got that right."
After passing Chloe her jacket, Lois helped her to steady intrepid young photographer Mr. James Olsen as he staggered and swerved dangerously. As they wrestled him out of the door into the street, they jerked to an abrupt halt as they were faced down by a tall, dark, imposing figure. He locked his strangely pinky-green gaze squarely on Lois, his expression intense.
Chloe looked from Clark to Lois and back again, sensing the cuttable tension, "Uh, we'll give you two a moment alone. Lois, we'll be just around the corner if you need us." She led Jimmy around the corner out of the alleyway and into the main street.
Once the other two were clear, Lois broke the staring contest and took a step towards Kal, fiercely squashing the thrill she felt at getting close to him again, "What? One 'no' wasn't enough? You need to hear more? I can give you as many as you want."
He didn't blink, "Why?"
Lois frowned, "Why what? Why wouldn't I sleep with you? I don't even know you!"
"Why wouldn't you even give me a chance?"
She barked a laugh to cover the trip her heart gave at the unexpected pain in his voice, hiding behind her usual bravado, "A chance to what? To get me alone and 'do' me? Isn't that what you do, Lothario?"
He stepped closer, a hint of a scowl creasing his brow, "My name is Kal."
"That's not what I heard, Clark."
"Don't call me that!"
Lois jumped slightly at his yell but then smirked widely as she felt some sort of thread between them twang and thrilled in the knowledge that there was indeed an energy between them, "Touch a nerve did I? Still want me, Lothario?" She dropped into a self-defensive stance, "Come get it."
Kal's blood was ringing in his ears, he hadn't been this angry in a long time, who the hell was this woman, what was she doing to him? "You're crazy."
She grinned, "Maybe. Well? What're you waiting for?"
He smirked, his eyes narrowing dangerously as the need to retaliate against this strange woman sang through him. He reached for her and she danced out of the way, grinning as he swiped for her again and missed by a foot. Mischief glimmered in his eyes and putting on a quick burst of super-speed, he blurred from her line of sight and re-appeared directly behind her. She whirled, shocked confusion creasing her brow and dropping her guard, giving him a precious second to swoop in and grab her by the upper arms. She quickly recovered and twisted from his grasp, delivering a quick knee to his gut for good measure. Kal stepped back, winded - the problem with the red K was that although it evaporated his inhibitions, it also caused his powers to fluctuate - and backed away as she crouched to sweep his legs out from under him. Another burst of speed enabled him to get close to her again and pin her arms to her sides as she pulled him backwards in an attempt to get free.
When her back bumped up against the brick wall of the alleyway pulling his body against hers, she immediately stopped struggling and gazed up into his eyes as his grip on her arms fell away to be replaced by a gentle, caressing hold.
Kal felt the air change again, the passion of the battle abruptly switched to a more personal passion as his hips unconsciously pressed gently forwards into hers. As he gazed down at her, losing himself again in her eyes - the first time this had ever happened to him in this city - he felt her hands reach up to touch his face and he closed his eyes to better enjoy the feel of her fingertips on his jaw. They glided up his cheekbones to his brow, down the elegant line of his nose and rested against his lips, he parted them slightly and kissed the fingertips touching him. The soft sigh that drifted to his ears made his heart sing and a smile tickled the corners of his mouth as he opened his eyes to gaze at her again.
A seconds blinding pain and he was on his knees, one hand reaching to protect his crotch, the other bracing his weight against the rain-slicked cobbles as he raised watery eyes to see her standing over him, the hands clenched defiantly on her hips at a stark contrast to the confused arousal shining in her eyes, "No chance, Lothario. Man, what a sleeze-ball." She wheeled on her heel and left the alleyway in search of her friends.