Banner made by Esther

Author: Zannie
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Veers off from canon after Season 4
Category: Christmas romance
Disclaimer: Obviously, I don’t own Smallville or its characters. No infringement intended.
Summary: An unconventional plan for eluding Lionel’s trap.

Author’s note: This story is reminiscent of “Road Tripping” in a number of ways—although it’s not as young in mood and character as that story was. As you will quickly see, I had to go through a series of plot convolutions in order to get the narrative set-up I needed, so I’d suggest you not spend too much time assessing plausibility! This story is more about romance and character anyway. I had to resurrect Lionel, since I couldn’t think of a believable premise for this particular story that didn’t involve him. The prologue may seem rather intense with the Lionel stuff, but the story won’t be dark or angsty.

* * *

Prologue

Chloe had no idea how she’d gotten into this mess again.

She’d just been following a story—one she thought had nothing to do with either of the Luthors. The Kyring Foundation was a charitable organization in Metropolis that Chloe was assigned to profile for her web magazine. She never would have dug as deeply into their activities had she realized where the investigation would lead.

She remembered all too well how it felt to be Lionel Luthor’s prey.

“Are you threatening me?” he asked her now, in a silky, dangerous voice. “I’d be careful, Miss Sullivan. Very careful. Didn’t you learn your lesson last time?”

“Last time I was a teenager,” Chloe replied, stiffening her spine and trying not to convey the fear rising in her gut. “That was ten years ago. I’m an adult now. And I know what I’m doing.”

She didn’t. Not really. But she couldn’t think of anything else to do.

“Do you?” Lionel moved like a predator, circling her slowly, his hazel eyes as hard and cold as ice. “I don’t think you really do. Trying to blackmail me doesn’t show a great deal of foresight.”

Chloe wished she’d never come to his office. Wished she weren’t alone. Wished she’d never started down the path of this investigation that had led her to a certain truth about Lionel Luthor’s involvement with the Kyring Foundation, a truth that left her in danger. “I’m not blackmailing you. I’m protecting myself. Sure, you have the potential to hurt me. But I can hurt you back.”

“Is that what you think? You’re dealing from a position of fear, Miss Sullivan, and I’ll always be able to recognize that.”

Unfortunately, Chloe believed that was true.

“This time,” Lionel added, “You don’t even have my disappointment of a son to run to for help.”

The reference to Lex only served to heighten Chloe’s anxiety.

“Did you think I couldn’t predict this little parry of yours?” Lionel’s tone was patronizing, made her feel about five years old.

“How could you have predicted it?”

“You might be surprised by what I am capable of. Underestimating your adversary will always mean you put yourself in their power.” He approached closer now and leaned over slightly, so close his breath blew a strand of hair from her throat. “I could kill you right now.”

“Maybe,” she admitted, her voice steady despite the fact that she’d broken out in a cold sweat. “But I’ve taken precautions. And everything you want to keep hidden will come to light if I should happen to die.”

He chuckled. “How delightfully clichéd. I’m sure I could work around that. But you might also consider that there are other things I could do to you.”

Chloe was in way over her head, but she wasn’t about to admit it to Lionel. She’d hated him in high school, when he used her for his own purposes, and she hated him even more now. “Is that what you think?”

“That’s what I know. There are still a few people you love.”

She sucked in a hard breath, thinking of her father, of Lois.

Lionel smiled. “Florida isn’t that far away,” he murmured.

Gabe Sullivan was living in Florida now, and Chloe felt ill at the thought of her poor father paying the price for her foolishness. “If you even touch him, the entire world will know what I know about you.”

“Perhaps. But there’s more,” Lionel continued. “Jobs are tenuous things, you know. You could lose yours – just like your father did ten years ago.”

She swallowed, surprised by an entirely different pang in her heart over the way her father had been treated back in Smallville. “Nice try. I’ll be at my job only for the rest of the year. Just another month. If you use your connections to get me fired, it won’t be the end of the world.”

“That’s good. Because you’ve already lost it.”

Chloe gasped in genuine surprise. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Check your phone. There will be a message from your supervisor.”

Her hand shaking a little, she pulled out her phone and checked the screen. Saw her boss’s number on the caller ID. She’d already arranged to leave her job at the web magazine at the end of December in order to start a much more prestigious and lucrative job as associate editor at a Metropolis city magazine in January. But still . . . it was a blow.

And more so since it proved how far ahead of her Lionel actually was.

“Well, it will just give me a longer Christmas vacation,” she said gamely, doing her best to hide her reaction.

“That was a warning. Your new job—such a coup to earn such a position so young—is every bit as tenuous as the job you just lost.” He circled until he stood in front of her again. “Do you doubt me? Will you really risk it? You could be without any job at all. And, in this economy, that would be a shame.”

“Bastard,” she hissed, suddenly overcome by how infinitely trapped she’d somehow become.

She’d known things weren’t entirely under control, but she hadn’t thought they were as bad as this.

He tsked his tongue, “Now there’s no call for that kind of talk. I believe I’ve just proved that there’s no way you can touch me – without losing everything yourself. So the information you’ve found isn’t as helpful as you’d hoped.” He smiled, as dangerous as a viper. “You’re a smart girl. I’m sure you’ll figure out what to do. I’ll be in touch.”

It was a dismissal. Chloe understood that much. And, since her throat had closed up with panic, she turned and marched out of the sleek office with as much composure as she could muster.

She hadn’t set out to investigate Lionel Luthor. She’d wanted nothing to do with the man. But she followed leads, wherever they took her.

And somehow they’d taken her here. Knowing something she should never know about him. Something he would make sure she never shared with anyone else.

It wasn’t a position in which any sane person would want to be.

When she made it out of the LuthorCorp building, she stood on the Metropolis sidewalk, pale with fear and breathing too fast as she tried to decide what to do.

She felt naked, vulnerable, in her black trench coat and black leather boots, standing by herself on a gray day in the middle of the city. But she wasn’t helpless. She was clever and creative and brave. She would think of something to dig herself out of this hole.

A solution would appear.

A black chauffeured car pulled up to the curb directly in front of her. Before she could process who it might be, the back door opened. A voice she recognized said, “Chloe, get in.”

She stared at the open door. She couldn’t see the speaker, but of course she knew who it was. And she wasn’t about to get involved with another Luthor.

“Chloe, he might change his mind about keeping you alive. Is that a risk you’re willing to take? Get in!”

Chloe thought quickly. He was right. Lionel might change his mind, if he thought for even a moment that the other holds he had over Chloe wouldn’t keep her from becoming a danger to him.

Chloe didn’t like Lex anymore. And she didn’t really trust him.

But he didn’t want to kill her.

So she got into the car.

“Are you going to try to convince me that you just happened to be passing by?” she asked, settling herself in the plush backseat of the car.

She hadn’t seen Lex in such close proximity for more than six years. He was in his mid-thirties now – more character etched on his face and his lean body not quite so boyishly slim. But the sleek bald head, the deep blue-gray eyes, and the sophisticated authority with which he held himself were just the same as she remembered.

And she still felt the same unwilling attraction for the man she’d always felt, although tempered now by distance and experience.

The corner of Lex’s mouth twitched up in a look of ironic amusement she also well remembered. “No. Obviously I was expecting you.”

“It’s a little creepy that you know every little thing your father does.”

“Maybe. But surveillance is necessary. Ignorance is the most serious disadvantage in warfare.”

Chloe knew he wasn’t exaggerating in comparing his relationship with his father to a war. For the last eight years, LexCorp and LuthorCorp had been waging a sustained battle for control of the Metropolis business scene, both corporations swallowing up smaller companies in their strategic and sometimes ruthless expansions. Local politicians were forced into making alliances with one or the other, and the feud had implications even on the national level.

She made a face but didn’t reply. Her panic earlier had eased in intensity—thanks to Lex’s bullet-proof car and his smooth competence at everything he did. If he wanted to keep her safe, he would.

She hadn’t relaxed, though. Getting involved with Lex was just as dangerous as getting involved with Lionel.

It was just a danger of a different variety.

“I’ll admit I was surprised when I learned that you’d embroiled yourself with my father again. I thought you would have learned better last time.” He idly twisted a gold ring on his right hand.

The gesture struck Chloe suddenly as being out of character. Lex had been young in Smallville, and not fully in control of his emotions or responses. But he wasn’t young anymore. And he was always in control. She was surprised that he’d do something as revealing as fidget with the ring.

Since, however, there were more important issues at stake here, she moved the thought to the back of her mind and replied, “I didn’t pursue this intentionally. Sometimes things just . . . happen. One thing led to the next and suddenly I was . . .” She exhaled thickly and concluded, “Trapped.”

Lex arched his eyebrows. “And, once you found yourself trapped, you tried to handle it on your own rather than seeking help?”

“Help? From whom exactly? You think I should really trust the police? In Metropolis?”

Lionel had his fingers everywhere in the city. Obviously, not every law-enforcement professional was corrupt, but you just couldn’t assume they were all above reproach.

“I wasn’t referring to the police,” Lex murmured, his eyes never leaving her face.

A few years ago, Chloe would have sought help from the one person she’d always trusted. The person she knew was capable of protecting her. But she and Clark weren’t really friends anymore. He’d still help her. She knew that. He’d keep her alive. But her physical safety wasn’t the only thing she was worried about. “Exactly who do you think I should have turned to for help who would be powerful enough to stand against your father?”

Lex didn’t reply with words. He just kept gazing at her, his eyes steady and his mouth relaxed.

Chloe sucked in a breath. “What? You think I should have turned to you?”

“I’m capable of helping you. And I’m willing.”

She almost choked on her outrage. “Why the hell should that matter? You might be the lesser of two evils, Lex, but that still doesn’t leave me in very good hands.”

The words were harsher than she’d expected, harsher than she’d intended. And she saw a flicker of reaction on Lex’s face before he masked it.

Ridiculously, Chloe felt guilty for wounding him. She knew he wasn’t evil. She knew he wasn’t really like his father, even though for the last several years he seemed to have shaped his persona that way.

“You trusted me once,” Lex said mildly.

“That was years ago,” she bit out. “I don’t even know you anymore.”

Lex glanced away from her, staring out the window for a long moment. “You know that’s not true,” he said at last.

It wasn’t. She did know him. She’d always known him. And all the years and what had come between them back then hadn’t really change that.

“I kept you safe from my father then. I can do it now.” Lex’s face was utterly composed again, and his matter-of-fact voice seemed to echo in her memory. “I’m the only choice you’ve got.”

“It’s not just a matter of keeping me safe.”

“I know that. My people have already moved your father into a safe house in Florida.”

“What?” Chloe swallowed over the revealing word she kept repeating, wishing she could mask her emotions like the Luthors always did. But she just wasn’t built that way.

“All my father has done so far was get you fired from a job you were leaving in a month anyway. Do you really think that’s all he will do to try to keep you in line? Do you understand the potential you have to damage him? He’s not going to take it easy on you. I will certainly have my security personnel pull back from protecting your father, but I don’t think you really want me to do so.”

She didn’t. She would do anything to keep her father safe. But it just pulled her deeper into involvement—dependence—on Lex. And that wasn’t something she wanted. Not anymore.

“Thank you,” she managed to say. “Lois?”

“We tried. She refused. But she said she had another way to keep herself safe.”

Chloe knew what that was. Knew Lois would be safe too. Clearing her throat, she said, “But my dad can’t stay in the safe house forever.”

“Of course not. In January, the Kyring project will be complete, right? You will no longer be a threat to him.”

Chloe thought about this. She’d been so overwhelmed she hadn’t fully thought through the future. “Maybe. But you don’t think he’d try to . . . to . . .”

“To hurt you out of vengeance even after the threat is over? Only if you hurt him first. Did you want to reveal what you know about him just out of spite?”

“No. No!” She swallowed hard. “I just want him to leave me alone.”

“All right. Then we’ll keep you and your father safe until January. You won’t damage my father, so he won’t have any reason to damage you.”

She stared at Lex. Saw the confidence in his eyes. And she realized that he knew his father better than anyone on earth. If he was sure of this, then she could be sure of it too. Feeling a little better, she asked, “But my job? My new one. If he knows you’re keeping me safe, he’ll try to take that from me as well.”

Lex nodded. “Yes. He will.”

Chloe made a face, looking away, fighting to control her emotions. It was heart-breaking – the idea of losing the job she’d worked so hard to earn. But if that was the price she had to pay for her stubbornness and careless ambition, then she would do it without complaint.

“I have an idea about that too,” Lex said mildly.

She turned back to him, hope flaring up at his words. It struck her that there was a certain kind of illogic in believing Lex now—after all the distance that had grown between them—but she did.

“My father doesn’t care about morality. He doesn’t care about money for its own sake. He doesn’t care about family ties, loyalty, or human affection.” He said the words blandly, as if they meant nothing to him. “But I have learned over the years that there are certain things he does care about.”

Chloe thought about that. “Power.”

“Yes,” Lex agreed. “That’s his primary motivator. And part of the power he’s built up for himself is based on his reputation.”

“Reputation,” Chloe repeated, trying to make her mind work enough to follow the thought through to its logical conclusion. “Maybe.”

“He doesn’t seek the reputation of a good man. But he also can’t move forward with the reputation of a monster. Or a reputation for disloyalty.”

Chloe frowned, “How does that help me?”

“If you lose your new job right now and he gets associated with that fact, it won’t hurt him in any real sense.”

“Obviously, but—“

“But if you were linked to him more closely, taking your job away would significantly damage his reputation.”

Chloe felt like she was trying to watch a movie in fast-forward. “I don’t understand. How am I linked to him?”

“You aren’t right now. But, if you were, then he couldn’t maneuver you out of a job without damaging his reputation more than he’d be willing to allow.”

She pushed her hair back behind her ears with a huff of frustration. “Linked to him how?”

Lex glanced away, almost idly. “If you were his daughter-in-law, for instance.”

It took Chloe a full thirty seconds to process this. When she finally did, shock, anger, and disbelief washed over her in a hot wave. “What? What? Marry you?”

He met her eyes evenly. “Obviously, it’s rather unconventional. But it’s the only thing I can think of that would keep him from getting you fired.”

“But what . . . How . . .?”

“If you were his daughter-in-law, there’s no way my father would risk the damage to his reputation by threatening your job. I guarantee it.”

Chloe stared at him. She believed him. While it wasn’t something that would ever have crossed her mind, she knew he was speaking the truth.

But that didn’t mean it was a good idea.

“You think my job is so important to me that I’d actually marry you? Really, Lex!”

“You’re making the marriage more serious than it has to be. We would just need to be married for a month. Then we could get divorced, and you could go on with your life and your job. Remember, in January, the Kyring project will be complete—the most serious stakes for my father will be over—so you’ll no longer be in danger.”

“And he wouldn’t –“ She shook her head hard, trying to think. “He won’t do something afterwards, just out of spite for the way we tricked him?”

“How do you think his reputation would fare if it became known that he’d gotten the woman fired who just divorced his son? You think he’d let himself look so petty? I’ve thought this through, Chloe. It can work. I can keep you safe and you can keep your job. If you’re willing to go through with it.”

No one could solve puzzles and follow through on nuanced possibilities like Lex could. If he’d come to the conclusion that this was the only way to accomplish everything they needed accomplished, then it was.

But still . . .

“You think our marrying is really a good idea?” she asked, twisting her hands in her lap. “After . . . after what happened between us back then?”

Back then was back in Smallville. Ten years ago.

Lex gave a half-shrug. “That was a long time ago. And obviously this would be a marriage of convenience. I wouldn’t want or expect marital favors.”

Ridiculously, the neutral way he’d spoken the words made Chloe feel a little insulted. He’d been attracted to her once. And she was better-looking now than she’d been in high school.

At least, most people thought she was.

“Well, obviously,” she said. “But it still seems kind of weird.”

“It would be a business arrangement – one that happens to be convenient for both of us.”

“Why is it convenient for you?” she asked, the question coming to her suddenly – although it should have occurred to her several minutes ago. “Why are you helping me at all? What’s in this for you?”

He looked at her steadily, absolutely nothing revealed in his handsome features and slate blue eyes.

“Oh,” she said, the truth hitting her with a ridiculous flicker of disappointment. She should have known he wasn’t in this just to help her. “Of course. Quite a victory for you, getting ahead of your father like this. Taking his power away when it will matter to him. You want to use me to win this little battle with your father.”

He inclined his head. “So we use each other. For a month. After Christmas, we can go back to our own lives.”

However crazy the plan was, Chloe was taking it seriously. Despite what she said, she did trust Lex. Not to be a good man, or a safe one, or a soft one.

But to do what he said he would do.

“So I have to spend Christmas with you?” she asked, her tone different, lighter.

As soon as she said the words, she knew she’d made up her mind.

Lex’s mouth quirked up briefly. “Unpleasant, yes. But necessary.”

“I won’t spend another month in a safe house. You can’t just hide me away and throw away the key.”

“I didn’t think you’d be willing to do that, although obviously that’s the surest way of protecting you.”

Chloe shrugged. “Maybe. But I can’t live that way again. Especially over the holidays. Can you protect me still?”

“Of course.”

Chloe released a gusty sigh as she realized a smaller but inevitable consequence of this plan. “I was going out of town this Christmas – my first real vacation in years.”

“Where were you going?”

“Quebec with some friends.”

“So we’ll go. We can call it a honeymoon.”

Chloe’s lips parted. “Excuse me?”

He actually chuckled, a warm, rich sound that sent shudders of memory and feeling down her spine. “We covered that, remember? It’s a marriage of convenience. But the world will expect for us to go on a honeymoon. If you want to go to Quebec, we can.”

“If I’m going on a honeymoon, maybe I want to go somewhere better – like Fiji or something.” Her words were teasing, and she had no idea how she felt comfortable enough in this car, in this situation, to tease Lex.

But she did.

His lips quivered slightly, the only sign of a response. “So we’ll go to Fiji too. I can work from anywhere in the world, and we have a whole month. We can go wherever you want.”

Suddenly, Chloe realized that there would be certain advantages to being married to Lex Luthor, advantages she hadn’t considered before. He was a billionaire. And she could go places, experience things, she never would have otherwise.

It would just be a month. And then she would be free. Safe. And with her new job.

She studied his face carefully – the sculpted features, the faint lines next to his eyes and beside his mouth, the depth and steadiness of his beautiful eyes. The lips—softer now than they’d been when she first entered the car. Softer than she’d seen them for years, since Smallville.

And that brought back a memory – slamming into her so powerfully, so viscerally, it was like she was experiencing it again.

* * *

She was seventeen years old that summer, and Lex was protecting her from his father. She’d been clever and gutsy, but she’d also been innocent. And Lex had been her lifeline, her only link to the world.

He’d come to visit her in the safe house, probably more than he should have. At first, their relationship had been awkward. He’d been really sick—after having been poisoned and having his skin torn up by the glass table he’d fallen into. She’d tried her best to take care of him when he came by, and eventually he started to let her.

She’d warmed to him more quickly than she’d expected, maybe because he’d seemed so uncharacteristically helpless. Then he’d warmed up to her too. He was a guarded man, even then, and it was hard for him to lower his walls. But he had – with her. Eventually they’d become friends.

Closer friends as the summer went on.

One evening they were sitting on her little couch. He’d brought her a bar of the most delicious Swiss chocolate, but he’d been in a rare, teasing mood and was holding it away from her as she tried to claim it.

Chloe had been overwhelmed with warmth and giddiness. She knew they’d gotten closer, but their interaction had always been more brother-sisterly than romantic.

He was older than her—untouchable in so many ways—and he could have any woman he wanted.

But there seemed to be a new light in his eyes that evening. She couldn’t help but respond to it, even as she playfully denounced him for his cruelty.

She’d reached for the chocolate bar, grabbing his chest with one hand as the other stretched out toward where he was extending the candy.

His arm was longer than hers, and she couldn’t reach it.

His body was warm and lean and strong, and she was basically draped on top of him. Thrills of feeling and excitement spiraled through her, but she wasn’t overwhelmed enough to give up the challenge.

She tickled him, just on the side of his ribs.

He jerked, his arm bending enough for her to snatch the chocolate bar. But her victory was only short-lived. Before she could even draw a full breath, he had her on her back on the couch, and he was tickling her ruthlessly. She was squealing and laughing helplessly. The chocolate fell forgotten to the floor.

And all she could see was Lex’s compelling face, laughing, hovering above hers. His warm, deep eyes.

Something changed before either of them realized it, and his hands stilled on her body. Then his face sobered, his expression deepened and softened. And his face lowered toward hers.

When their lips met, sensations Chloe had never imagined swelled up inside her. She’d responded immediately, her mouth clinging to his, her arms twining eagerly around his neck.

The first kiss hadn’t lasted long, and they’d pulled back to stare at each other, panting and disoriented.

Then Chloe—acting on an impulse she couldn’t deny—had pulled his head down toward hers again, claiming his mouth with an entitlement that surprised her. Lex had responded. His mouth had opened to hers. He’d groaned softly against her lips, the sound sending vibrations through her body.

She was only seventeen. And he’d completely swept her off her feet.

It was a long time before he left that evening.

* * *

Even now, ten years later, that first kiss was the sweetest thing she’d ever experienced.

The memory of it hit her so hard she had to close her eyes in the back of Lex’s car, aching from the pure power of that kiss and from all of the complexities that had followed it.

When she opened her eyes, she looked at Lex, and she saw something matching in his eyes, even though his expression was as composed as ever.

If all she had known of Lex was his ambition, his control, his power, his sophistication, his intensity, his shattering intelligence, then she would have refused the unconventional marriage proposal.

But she knew more about him. The man who had kissed her so many years ago had been real, warm, tender. He’d felt things deeply, and he’d cared about her.

It hadn’t worked out – for so many reasons. He’d hurt her in so many ways. And he was so much more than that man now.

But he wasn’t a stranger. And she could trust him to keep his word.

She swallowed hard. Then she said with an amused lilt of her voice, “So I don’t even get a ring or anything?”

With a huff of laughter, he thought for a minute. Then pulled from his right hand the ring he’d been fidgeting with before. Handing it to her, he said with casual ease, “Here. You can wear that as an engagement ring.”

Surprised, Chloe stared down at the ring speechlessly. The ring was like nothing she’d ever seen. It was a man’s ring, but not as big and bulky as a class ring. It made of heavy, aged gold, without any gems or extra ornamentation. The octagon-shaped front was wider than the band and flat with intricate symbols engraved on it. “What is it?” she breathed.

“It’s a Renaissance merchant ring from the sixteenth-century,” Lex explained, nothing revealed in his voice but idle interest. “They were used like signet rings, to seal documents and verify identity. But they were used by merchants who didn’t have a family lineage. They created their own crest and put it on their merchant rings.”

Chloe was strangely affected by the beauty and history of the ring – and also by Lex’s diffident explanation.

She slipped the ring onto the ring finger of her left hand. It was too big, of course, but not so big that she couldn’t keep it on.

Breaking the odd mood—since there was no legitimate reason for her to feel such intimate tension—she said with a grin, “It doesn’t fit. How appropriate.”

Lex gave her an amused half-smile. “You’ll just have to wear it for a month.”

Chloe was going to wear Lex’s ring for the month of December. However absurd it all seemed, she was apparently going to do this.

Lex must have been able to see the decision on her face. His mouth twitched again. “What do you say, Chloe Sullivan? Do you want to marry me for Christmas?”

Despite everything—despite the danger she was in from Lionel and the high stakes to what they were doing—she couldn’t help but smile back.

And she said, “I do.”

—————

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There will be, as there has been these past couple of years, a fanfiction, some graphics and contests where you can win paid subscriptions at the forum.

This Year’s Advent Calendar Story

The fanfiction will come in 24 parts, starting on December 1st, and ending on December 24th. Each day will have a new chapter, just like on a Advent Calendar – you open a “window” and you get a gift.

This year’s Advent Calendar fanfiction is written by Zannie, who’s been a member a while and has written several fanfictions. Check out Zannie’s master fanfiction list for a complete list of her works!

Stay tuned because on November 25th, the prologue to this year’s Advent Calendar story will be posted up here on the blog, and only here!

For more information read the information thread about the Advent Calendar!

Then sign up for the NS Christmas Card Exchange 2010!

So what is a Secret Fanfiction Santa? Well, it’s basically a gift, in the form of a fanfiction that you give to someone. This is done anonymously, so you don’t know who is going to write a fanfiction to you!

Read more about Secret Fanfiction Santa over at the forums!

This short summary does not do justice to just how lovely, and Christmasy this story truly is. Read the entire spotlight over at NS Forums!

How Chloe Saved Christmas
Advent Calendar 2009
Pairing: Chlex
Rating: PG-13, Humor, Romance, Holiday
Summary: I am not alone at all, I thought. I was never alone at all. And that, of course, is the message of Christmas.
*********

Pre-Lude

He remembered Every Christmas. He remembered his earlier years when his mother was alive and healthy. Those were his good Christmases. Then there were the Christmases post accident. The Christmases when his mother was sick both mentally and physically. He remembered the disappointments. The loneliness. His father’s subtle cruelty. Those were the worst. They were the worst because he always hoped. He always hoped that the next Christmas would be better than the last. It never was. So now he was bitter and annoyed and angry. Lex Luthor hated Christmas.

Chloe knew Lex hated Christmas. She just didn’t know why. Maybe it’s because his childhood sucked. Maybe it was a Luthor thing and it was a rule that holiday cheer was not in their vocabulary. All whys aside, Lex was generally not a happy person, but he wasn’t mean, and she knew that deep down inside there had to be someone who had at least a little bit of holiday cheer. Chloe loved Christmas and this Christmas was going to be a good one. She didn’t care how much Lex hated Christmas. It was her destiny to make him enjoy it. This month, Chloe Sullivan was going to save Christmas!

So what is a Secret Fanfiction Santa? Well, it’s basically a gift, in the form of a fanfiction that you give to someone. This is done anonymously, so you don’t know who is going to write a fanfiction to you!

If you want to know more about, and how to join the Secret Fanfiction Santa project, head over to the NS Forums to read more about it!