Something is wrong. There is too much sunlight pouring through the window, and Chloe can hear her dad whistling downstairs. She is always up before him, and if she isn't up and he is then that means she is late ... late for what? SHIT! Late for school! She leapt out of bed, cursing and muttering to herself. Why hadn't her dad woken her? For god's sake, it was practically 9 am, they would have missed the bus by now, and -

"Hmmm, what are you doinggg?"

"Huh?"

Chloe spun around to see a sleepy looking Lana stretching out across her bed.

Wait a minute. Why had Lana-

Oh crap. She had done it again. Lana had stayed in her bed ... hence it was the weekend. Not a school day. They had long since agreed (however grudgingly) that sleeping in separate rooms was a necessity on school nights. Because if they were in the same room, there was never much sleeping taking place. Why did she have a complete inability to think before she leapt out of bed? This had been the third time in about as many weeks she had woken up at the weekend still running on autopilot, and she was running out of excuses.

"Chloe?"

Lana continued to stretch out lazily, eyes heavy with sleep. Chloe thought she looked like a kitten, all soft and vulnerable and adorable. If slightly puzzled. And still waiting for an explanation.

"Oh ... I was just going to um, you know ... run some errands. Really, you know ... important ones..." she trailed off, incredibly lamely.

God Sullivan, real smooth. You're gonna get busted this time for sure. Maybe, if you're lucky enough, she'll be too hazy to notice that disturbing her slumber was becoming a regular occurrence.

"What? Are you telling me you're going to miss a lazy Sunday morning in bed to run mysterious errands? Does that mean I have to get up too?"

Lana sat up now, looking so distressed at what Chloe had just told her that Chloe found it difficult not to laugh out loud. Until she realized that Lana was about to get out of bed. And then they would both be up. And seeing Lana entwined in her covers wearing little more than her underwear made getting up the last thing Chloe wanted to do.

"No - no, its ok, don't get up. Really."

"But its no fun lying in on my own."

Lana pouted.

Chloe really wanted to get back in. But she had to make this plausible.

"Well, now I think about it, the errands weren't that important. In fact, I think I can leave them til tomorrow."

Chloe slid back under the covers, spooning up against Lana. The feeling of their skin pressed together was now so familiar. Soft and warm and delicious, and it sent shivers along Chloe's spine.

"Good."

Lana's face relaxed again, as she turned to face Chloe, and planted a line of soft kisses along her collarbone. Chloe had given up trying to figure out exactly how and why this had started, and where it would lead. One day they were just plain old friends, and then suddenly something changed, and whenever Lana was around her Chloe couldn't concentrate on anything else, and she would get goosebumps, and have an intense urge to kiss her. Whatever had changed, Lana seemed to have picked up on it too, because soon they had been spending an awful lot of time hanging out in the Torch office together alone at lunch time, and making a special effort to get straight home from school so they could spend the evening together at home. And somewhere along the line their long talks had turned into long lingering kisses, and then into nights which never seemed long enough spent in Chloe's room (she had the double, so it made more sense). And then the talking had been long forgotten, replaced instead by soft sighs and hot skin and heavy air filled with desire.

Chloe had been surprised at first to learn that Lana really was as sweet and caring and generous as she seemed; always wanting to brush Chloe's hair before they went to bed, holding her tight after they had made love until they both stopped shaking, and kissing her softly to sleep. It made Chloe melt inside whenever she thought about it. Which was pretty much 24/7. Her head was filled with Lana's soft lips, Lana's arching hips, Lana's silky fingers. It certainly wasn't doing her grades any good.

But the how and the why didn't really matter at the moment, because they were curled up together and Lana's soft kisses were moving down towards the edge of her bra and Chloe's fingers were entwined in that lustrous long dark hair, and they had a good hour before they would have to pretend to surface from separate rooms. At this point Chloe couldn't remember a time when she had felt truly happy before these lazy Sunday mornings.

The kisses halted momentarily, and a playful voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Chloe, you know that if you don't stop disturbing my lie-ins because you can't tell what day of the week it is, its over between us."

"Oh shut up."