Chapter Text
Friday before spring break had finally arrived and she couldn’t be happier that it was here. Lionel was supposed to be in Europe for business, she was going to help Ollie and Lex with the party and Lois was actually coming in for the break, which made this the best spring break in her existence.
It was a little after five when Chloe finally made her way over to the Luthor mansion. Her dad had allowed her to keep the car Lex gave her under the condition that she didn’t drive it like him. Normally, she wouldn’t feel comfortable keeping something so expensive but it wasn’t like her dad could afford a new car for her. Besides, this was the only way she would be able to see Oliver since he still wasn’t allowed to have a car and she figured if nothing else, she could consider this her college fund.
With a deep breath, she got out of the car and rushed up the stairs, ringing the doorbell and waiting impatiently. Lionel or not, she’d been coming to the mansion more often during the day, both to show the older man none of them were afraid of him and because it was the only way she could see Ollie outside of school. She missed him sleeping over a lot, but she liked being anxious to see him every day.
A moment later, Oliver opened the door. He smiled at her, holding his hand out. “Come on in, Gorgeous.” Not that he’d been anxiously awaiting her arrival just a few feet from the door or anything.
She took his hand and stepped inside, grinning softly at him. “Finally free,” she commented. “How are things going here?”
“Good. We’re just working out some of the finer details of this shin-dig we’re planning. You’re just in time.”
“Good,” she said brightly, leaning in and kissing him as she lifted her free hand to his shoulder.
He kissed her back, winding his arm around her waist and pulling her a little closer. “You look pretty,” he said softly, pulling away to let his gaze sweep over her.
She grinned softly, lifting both her hands to his shoulders and wrapping them behind his neck. “Thank you, I’m just happy it’s today,” she admitted.
“Careful with your arm,” he whispered, kissing her cheek.
“It’s fine, I’m ready to get rid of this thing,” she told him, smiling then kissing him again.
“Just a couple more weeks,” he assured her, cupping her cheek in his hand and kissing her.
She deepened the kiss a little and shifted closer to him as she cupped the back of his neck in her left hand.
“Okay, lovebirds,” Lex said wryly. “We have planning to do.”
Chloe reluctantly pulled away and grinned when she looked up the stairs and saw Lex standing there. “That’s why I’m here.”
“Good. Come on up. We’ve got a lot of work to get done.”
She smiled at Oliver and nodded a little. He and Lex were getting along extremely well, she didn’t want Lex to feel like a third wheel. “Have you guys heard the ghost again?” She asked, arching her eyebrows.
Lex smirked. “So that’s why you keep coming back here,” he said with a knowing look, smirking at Oliver.
Oliver shook his head a little, resting his hand at the small of her back and guiding her toward the staircase. “No sign of the ghost since the last time you asked,” he teased.
“You two live in a real haunted castle and you can’t even be bothered to look at evidence, you disappoint me,” she said, mock sighing at them. “Wait until Lois gets here, we’ll find it and we’ll tell it to haunt you.”
“Your cousin’s starting to scare me and I haven’t even met her yet,” Oliver joked.
“You should be scared. Dad said he will have her report back to him on you, until you’re done being grounded and you can finally meet him,” she teased.
“You’re done, Queen,” Lex called as he made his way into the study.
He grimaced. “He’s probably right,” he told her.
Chloe pressed a kiss to his cheek and grinned brightly. “We’ll just have to sneak around again if that happens,” she whispered before following Lex into the room.
Oliver shook his head a little, following her, amusement making his eyes bright.
“Okay, so what do we have to do?” Chloe asked as she sat down on the loveseat by the fireplace, next to the armchair Lex was occupying.
“We still need someone for music, whether it’s a band or a DJ,” Lex supplied.
“Well, I guess it depends how impressive you want to be? And who is available, because it’s kind of last minute,” she said, glancing at Ollie as he sat down next to her.
“DJ might be better anyway. Wider variety of music,” he said, shrugging.
“Yeah,” Chloe agreed. “And easier to get. Lois might know some people from Metropolis, but she’s not getting here until tomorrow.”
“Finally I get to meet the famous Lois Lane,” Lex said, smirking at her.
“She’s pretty excited about meeting ‘all the billionaires’ I hang out with,” Chloe teased, leaning back against her seat.
Oliver smirked, shaking his head and reaching over to the table, picking up his glass of tea and taking a drink.
“So we will just wait until tomorrow and ask her abou--” Chloe stopped talking and her eyes widened when she heard a high pitched scream that caused the hair on the back of her neck to stand up. “What was that?” She asked, looking between the two of them.
Oliver’s eyes widened and he rose to his feet, too. “Good question.” He moved toward the door.
“It sounded like it came from upstairs,” Lex said, walking up to the door and heading outside.
“Let’s go,” Chloe urged them, starting toward the stairs that led to the third floor.
Oliver rested his hand on the small of her back as they ascended the steps together behind Lex, heart beating heavily in his chest.
Lex led them down a hallway, opening door after door as he went and stopping when he reached the last one. “There’s no one here,” he said, shaking his head as he turned to face them.
Pursing her lips together, Chloe poked her head inside the last bedroom then frowned. “Maybe it was one of the staff? Maybe they saw a mouse or something,” she tried. The scream had been terrified so it was one of the few logical explanations.
Oliver looked between them, frown deepening. “Is there an attic?” he asked uncertainly.
“No,” Lex said, looking at the ceiling and shaking her head. “Not one I know of, anyway.”
“I’ve said this before, but there is no way this place doesn’t have secret passages,” Chloe told the two of them. Especially with how big a creep Lionel was.
“Or maybe it really is haunted,” Oliver murmured, glancing around.
“Ghosts aren’t real,” Lex said, looking over at Oliver. “You’ve been around Chloe too much.”
“You didn’t used to believe me about the meteor rocks, either,” she reminded Lex. “I mean, it’s Smallville. What happens if someone dies around a whole bunch of those things, maybe it could have turned them into a ghost or something.”
Oliver shrugged a little. He didn’t necessarily relish the idea of ghosts living in the mansion with them, but Chloe was right about the meteor rocks. Who knew what would happen? “Maybe we should just go around checking on the staff.”
“I’ll call for Clara, see if she knows what happened,” Lex said then stepped into his room to use the intercom.
Chloe took a deep breath and turned to Ollie. “I’m not saying it is a ghost, but there is something going on here.”
Oliver nodded, pursing his lips. “Hopefully like you said, it was just a staff member seeing a mouse or something.”
“Hopefully,” she said quietly, pursing her lips together. She didn’t really believe that, but she had no proof otherwise.
“But if you are right...how uh, how do we get rid of a ghost?”
She paused at that, chewing on the inside of her mouth. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “I mean, I guess we need to find out what it wants?”
“How, though?” he asked, uncertainly. “Like a seance?”
“Well, if it’s actually here and it can scream, I don’t think we’d need one?” Chloe said, frowning.
“Beats me,” he said, shrugging.
“I guess we could research it?” Chloe suggested.
“No one saw anything,” Lex said as he came out of the room. “Staff is fine.”
“But we all heard the scream, right?” Oliver looked between them, shaking his head. “I mean, there’s no such thing as group hallucination.”
“They heard it too,” Lex told Oliver. “Security is looking around, but I doubt it’s anything serious. Wouldn’t have stopped if it was.”
He drew in a breath, looking over at Chloe with arched eyebrows. “Back to planning?” he asked uncertainly.
“Yeah,” Chloe muttered, pursing her lips together. “Let’s go get this done.”
* * *
Oliver walked Chloe to her car that night as she got ready to leave. “I wish you could stay over,” he admitted quietly.
Her face softened and she nodded a little. “Me too,” she whispered, turning to face him once she stopped right outside her car. “But I’ll be over as soon as Lois gets here tomorrow, and having her with me, dad won’t worry so much about me getting home at a reasonable time.”
He pursed his lips, nodding slightly at that. “That’ll be good,” he said softly, reaching up and cupping her cheek in his hand.
“Yeah,” she whispered, stepping closer to him and smiling softly. “And then we have the party, we’ll spend a lot of time together then.”
“Not quite the same as having you all to myself,” Oliver admitted.
Her heart skipped a beat at that and Chloe shrugged, grinning softly. “Well, just because there’s a party, doesn’t mean we have to be around people all the time.”
Oliver cocked his head, smirking faintly. “Point. It is an awfully big mansion.”
“Exactly,” she said mischievously then leaned closer and kissed him.
He kissed her back, his eyes drifting shut as her lips moved against his. He reached out, sliding his arms around her and pulling her closer to him.
She lifted her hands to his arms, resting her cast on his upper arm but cupping the back of his neck with her other hand.
They kissed for several long moments before he had to pull away just to catch his breath. He brushed his nose over hers. “Call or text me and let me know you made it home safe?”
Chloe sighed softly and nodded. “And, you know, if you’re feeling rebellious, maybe you can find your way up to my window again?”
Oliver grinned at that. “It’s a matter of finding a way to get to your window now,” he admitted.
“I know,” she said, sighing softly. “Maybe next week, when dad has to work, we can figure something out.” She kissed him again, quickly this time.
He nodded, tucking some hair behind her ear. “Goodnight,” he murmured.
“Goodnight,” she whispered, reluctantly pulling away from him and reaching to open the door of the car.
He held his breath, watching her start to climb into her car. “Love you,” he told her.
She paused and smiled up at him once she was in. “Love you too,” she whispered, her chest tight. She wanted nothing more than to have him go over with her, but now that her dad knew, she felt bad abusing his trust like that, besides, she did want him and Ollie to get along. “I’ll call you soon.”
Nodding, he watched as the car backed up out of the driveway, and he lifted his hand in a wave.