As far as mornings went, it wasn't too strange for Lex. Waking up with some guy's dick against his ass, and his pulse throbbing out a rhythm between his brain and his skull. It always sounded sort of like 'let me out' or maybe a little faster, like 'lemmeout!lemme...out!"
Thudthud thud.
And, he was sore all over, too. But he didn't feel particularly grungy.
In fact, aside from the headache and the feel of wonderful naked skin -- well, except that dick. That, he was pretty sure, involved extremely thin cotton -- he felt remarkably well.
Especially considering the fact that the last thing he remembered was a funnel and a mixture involving a lot of Captain Morgan and some Golden Grain. To get him caught up, or something like that.
"Nnnngh." He pressed back a little, and twisted his face into the pillow. It was part of a slow, careful turning over process that would help him figure out what the hell had happened. Usually his mind cleared and filled in the blanks, but sometimes it was imperative to learn before he had water and a lot of painkillers.
Or, shit. Maybe not. Ow. Anvil anthem on his head, doo-dah. Doo-dah. At least it wasn't Dueling Banjos.
"Mmmmm."
Warm, husky sound, buried against his temple. It felt incredibly good.
Yeah. However he ended up like that, he guessed it had been fun. No, fun with a capital F. If his head hadn't been killing him, he would've done something sexy, like felt up the other guy's leg. Or moved that bit of sheet that was in the way. Something.
The best Lex could manage was an answering 'mmm'. That really sounded more like a grunt.
The sound got him a lazy chuckle, one that shifted his arm faintly. "God, Lex. Is it the hangover, or are you always like this in the morning? I vote for always." Teasing. Yeah. Clark.
Oh, YEAH.
"'m better... when my head doesn't hurt?" he half-laughed. Sleep sticky voice, while he tried to twist or move in search of Clark. There was some vague memory bit about... not being able to breathe, and warm Clark.
"Ohhh." A hand. That was a hand. It was a big hand, a nice hand. Lex decided to lay claim to it. The Hand of Luthor. Luthor's Hand. Clark's Hand of Luthor. "Well. I'd like to see that, Lex."
Luthor's Hand of Clark. He clutched at it, and turned around just enough to find himself up close and personal with Clark. "How much did I drink?"
"Honestly? Have no idea." Eye to eye, and they were so green. So gorgeous. "But you brushed your teeth and I think your eyeballs are probably floating by now because I made you drink two whole glasses of water. Clark-size glasses," he explained, "not those dinky juice glasses you like."
"They're ten ounce glasses," Lex scoffed a little. It was hard to scoff too sternly because he was in bed, he was naked, Clark seemed to be naked, and brilliant green eyes like lampshade glass were staring at him intently. His throbbing skull seemed suddenly far less important.
"Sixteen is better for you when I find you drunk off your hind end being drowned by three crazy frat guys in the fountain," Clark explained simply.
He had to blink at that, because half-memories seemed to come up at him in a rush. He could remember his head being hit, and one of those fuckers putting a thumb in his eyes -- which were probably black -- and general clawing and fighting, then... flying. And Clark. Bits about a bath and being really comfortable, but...
"Uhnn. I'll be back in a sec, then."
Giggling. Giggles. Clark was laughing at him. "Gotta pee, Lex?" he teased, slowly moving his hand away from where it rested against Lex in a way that felt much too good. "Go pee."
"Uh-huh. I'll be back." He slipped out of the bed, hands on the mattress as he tried to steady himself. All he had to find was a pair of boxers -- Clark's, his, it didn't matter.
"There's a towel. By the door," Clark told him, turning over and burying his face in a pillow. And how was a man supposed to go take a piss when he was greeted with a back like that, and an ass that just. Wow. Even through the sheet, Lex could tell it was beyond incredible.
When he got back, he was going to bury his face in that ass. Or see if he could get away with it. "Thanks." He had to forcibly make himself look away from Clark's veiled ass, and grabbed the towel from the back of Clark's chair. He could've wrapped it around his waist like a pharaoh, but that wouldn't have stopped his dick from bobbing half out. Yeah, that was great.
He could just imagine how that was going to look out in the hall.
"Hurry back," Clark mumbled, obviously half-drowsing already. Maybe Lex should shake him when he came back. Did Clark even have class on Friday mornings? He didn't know.
"Yeah. Back in a sec. Come looking for me if I take too long," he joked as he tucked the towel in tightly, then paused to unlock Clark's door before he slipped out into the hallway.
If he was lucky, he wouldn't run into a single person he knew.
"Yo! Dude!"
Fuuuck.
What was he, cursed at birth? Was it some deal with the devil his father had signed? Make me successful and you can torture my firstborn as long and as often as you like.
If he didn't think that it would've made his hangover worse, Lex would've just knocked his head against the wall. As it was, he took one wary back step, and quickly checked that Parker didn't appear to be carrying a gun on him. "Yeah?"
"Hey." Damn. That dog was, like. Attached at Parker's hip. "Just coming by to check on you. Last time I saw you, you were drunk off your ass, and what with all the commotion this morning..."
"What commotion?" Lex cocked an eyebrow a little, and grimaced a little. That hurt like hell. A man's eyebrows were not supposed to hurt.
"Yo. You slept through it?" Parker, Lex decided, was not only overly attached to the dog, but at least a decade behind in language skills. "The president and two goons -- er, that is, two members of the social committee -- got tied up to the columns on the loggia." He paused for effect. "Totally bare-ass naked. And they say they don't remember how they got there."
It made a lot of sense suddenly. Lex's lips twitched. "Nah, they know how they got there. How could a guy forget something like that?"
"They swear somebody must have knocked 'em cold." Slim shoulders shrugged. "They're getting carpet chewed right now, so that makes me acting president, right? Or close enough."
"Yeah." Lex grinned a little, even though it hurt, and extended his hand to Parker. "Congratulations, man."
Careful. Things were weird enough, and...
"So, you're in."
What. The. Fuck.
Lex finished shaking Parker's hand, before he put a hand to his head. "I'm sorry, man -- I've got a killer hangover right now. What'd you say?"
"I don't know how you did it, but damn. That's the best prank anybody's ever pulled, in or out of the house. So. They probably deserved it for beating the shit out of you. You're in."
He owed Clark. He... owed Clark a lot, but that was okay. Something told him that paying him back wouldn't be a problem. Lex just grinned wider, and fuck the hangover. He was happy. "Thanks, man. I just... You don't mind that...?" He gestured to himself, and then vaguely down the hallway, towards Clark's room.
Huh. That roll of the eyes was... interesting. "Sasha thinks it's hot."
Sasha...
Oh. Yeah. The girlfriend who did the radio sex show. Right.
"Great. Man, that just... Thanks, Parker. I'd hug you, but I think I'm going to throw up."
"Yeah. Not on me," the guy called after him, even as Lex turned and rushed for the bathroom.
Ugh.
UGH. This was going to be no fun. No fun at all. Oh, God, okay, yeah, bathroom, yeah, stall, yeah, knees, ow, but...
"Hurght."
Somehow, puking always came before pissing on the priority scale. A man's bladder could take a hell of a lot more than his stomach. Lex's stomach, and probably his liver, had finally had enough.
Booze tasted bad the second time around.
It wasn't so hot the third, either. Maybe it was time to give up serious drinking. He was still underage, not that it meant dick in Metropolis if you were a Luthor. He'd been drinking like a fish since fourteen.
Drinking like that wasn't something a guy who deserved Clark Kent would do, and God. Lex wanted to deserve him.
He didn't feel much like he deserved anything other than a boot to the head as long as he was down on his knees, puking his brains out. Clark had saved him, gotten him into the frat after all, had gotten the prez -- and god, wouldn't he have killed to see that? Maybe Parker had pictures -- had just... yeah.
Best dorm next-door person a guy could have.
"You know, I think your toenails are gonna come up, Lex."
One last, desperate, sort of reflexive 'hurrrk', and Lex finally sat back on his haunches, breathing hard. He could see Clark's feet, and that was about it. "Hey... 'm in..."
"Yeah. I can sort of tell." And then the door was open, and Clark was flushing the toilet for him. Rough, wet paper against his mouth, cold. It felt ridiculously good. "It was pretty obvious where you were, Lex. That's what you get for drinking so much, I guess. Never happened to me before."
"Won't do that 'gain," he mumbled against the paper. "'m..." Damn, he waited until Clark was done, then went on. "I'm in. The frat."
"Hm. Yeah. I saw the pervert with the dog outside the door. Or heard him. 's why I got up. I was worried about you." Clark flushed the hand paper, too, even though there was a sign saying not to do that. "Go pee. I'll get your toothbrush."
"Thanks..." He was so damn pathetic, or seemed so pathetic. Clark wasn't happy, but he was probably worried about Lex having anything to do with those guys. It made sense. Carefully, Lex pushed himself up standing, and shifted his towel.
"Hey..." Fingers gently tucked the towel back into place, and there was a pause. "I'm happy for you. If that's what you want." And then there was this thing, this blessed light brush of lips against skin, and Clark left him alone to take care of business.
Either he was that easy to read, or Clark was a mind reader.
No, if Clark was a mind reader, then he would've known that Lex didn't really want in. But he didn't want to be cut off, and maybe it would get him a little approval from his father. A little something.
Or maybe...
Maybe he could all work it out so that it was even better for himself than it would have been otherwise. He'd have to think about that when he wasn't hung over and there wasn't a gorgeous piece of boy-next-door waiting down the hall. Yeah.
Boy-next-door with toothpaste.
By the time he left the stall, Lex craved toothpaste like a man in the desert needed water. Clark had to be crazy to kiss him when he was like that.
Then again, Clark had to be crazy to tie a bunch of frat boys to loggia columns, too, and that just made Lex grin. He hurried to take care of business -- well, as much hurry as he could with such a god-awful hangover -- and then went to wash his hands and rinse out his mouth at the sink.
It gave Lex a little time to think, turning over in his mind what had happened. And to look at himself in the mirror's reflection. Black eye, scratches on his face, some interesting bruises... Great. At least if he was being assumed to have done that to the president of the frat and his yes-boys, it looked a little credible that he'd been in a fight. Even if it looked like he was on the losing side of that fight.
Lex grabbed a paper towel to dry his hands, and decided that since his nose hadn't been broken, he didn't look too bad after all. As long as he didn't puke or squint too much.
He was never going to figure out what it was that Clark seemed to see in him. Whatever it was that fascinated him.
"Lex?" Oh, Clark was back again, at the door and peering at him a little worriedly. "You coming?"
He turned away, halfway smiling. Yeah, no idea at all why Clark liked him, except Lex wasn't one to turn down a good thing. So he started to walk towards the door. "Yeah -- sorry. I just drifted off. I sorta do that when my head's killing me. Do you have any classes today?"
"Just one at eleven, but..." Green-eyed glance shattered up through black lashes. "I was thinking, it's just a lecture. There's a girl in the front row who's shared her notes with me a time or two, I could probably just get them from her..."
"I don't want to inconvenience you... I mean, you don't seem the type to skip." He didn't stop to look at Clark. Not with those mind-blowingly beautiful eyes. No, he had to get closer to him.
"A guy has to do something a little bad every once in a while. Otherwise," Clark decided, "he's got nothing to tell his kids one day. Right?"
"You have plenty," Lex murmured as he stopped maybe four inches shy of Clark, and reached a hand out towards his shoulder. "I'm really sure you do."
Dimples. Lex was lost over a pair of dimples. "Come on. Come back to the room and brush your teeth." Clark shifted, tugging him a little so that they were out in the hall. "Nobody ever wants to tell their kids the bad things they've done. My dad would rather die than admit he ever did anything wrong."
"I know how that goes," Lex grimaced a little. "My dad likes to act like he's a canonized saint. And it's just... bullshit."
Clark's grin was incredible. "Yeah, well. My dad does his best, and I don't think he's got a lot of stuff to hide. Plus, he's kind of funny when he admits to it. I wish sometimes that I was... Well, I'm adopted, anyway. So. It would be nice to know if my biological parents were anything like my real ones."
Real parents. Not many kids that Lex knew called their adopted parents their real ones. They were always looking for their real parents, and then got disappointed when they found out that their real parents didn't want to know them. Or weren't what they expected. Or something. "I wouldn't have guessed you were adopted."
"My mom's a redhead and my dad's a blond." Clark shrugged, pushing open the door to his dorm room. "Everybody at home knows. It's a small town. And I did mention it to you, but you weren't at your best, so I can understand you forgetting. It's not what's important to you about me. I like that. Not being the adopted one or anything like that, the way I am at home a lot."
"Shouldn't matter. But people always think they know what matters best..." Lex put a hand on the doorjamb to steady himself as he stepped back into Clark's room, and tried to not feel weirdly awed at the sheer number of things in there that had migrated from his room. "I like that you don't care who my dad is."
"You're not him, so it shouldn't matter." It really was just as simple as that to Clark, and that was something so special that Lex didn't quite know what to make of it. "You're you. And I like you."
"Not sure why that's happening," Lex grinned as he moved to carefully sit back down on the dent in the bed that he'd somewhat recently vacated. "But I'm glad."
"It's one of those complicated things, I guess," Clark decided, shifting to sit beside him. "You probably need some more sleep before we get on the road, huh? Plus," he said sheepishly, "if we leave after noon, my parents won't know I skipped class."
"Smart." Lex kept himself from crossing the line. Too far at least. Maybe the waking up with a dick against his ass thing was a fluke. He really wished his hangover was a fluke. "The blinds are still pulled, so you know, why not?"
"So are you going to slide over, or not?"
Okay, so.. maybe not a fluke.
"Yeah. I sort of..." He was verbally flailing. Bailing his mind out with the bucket of his mouth, only it wasn't working in his favor. Did slide over mean move away, or closer...?
Lex gambled with closer.
Clark laughed and pushed him gently, playfully. "Into the bed a little further. Or I'll have to crawl over you. And believe me, I'm in better shape if we end up rolling off of the bed."
"Hey, I wouldn't mind," Lex grinned as he did shift over, slo~owly now that he knew what Clark wanted him to do. He was going to be up against the wall.
If Clark moved up against him, that was totally going to be okay with him. Clark seemed to take up a large amount of the bed, or maybe Clark was just a cuddler by nature. Waking up with someone pressed against his back and the cool wall close enough to reach was kind of nice.
By the time that they'd both settled into bed, and shifted around each other, they were just like that again. And even though Lex was tired, bone deep tired, he didn't think he could sleep with warm limbs wrapped around him quite like that. It made him think of and crave sex. That was a nasty counterpoint to his throbbing skull, which was still urging him to close his eyes and go back to sleep.
"Hey." Quietly spoken, yes, but Clark's voice got his attention. "You're thinking too hard over there. Are you too hot? I can let go..."
"No." Lex startled himself, but he reached a hand to take Clark's. "I always think too hard. You feel really fucking good, but my head's killing me. The other head wants something else entirely."
"Ohhhhh." That didn't sound upset, or mad, or... Mostly, it sounded... Interested. Lex decided that was the right word. Interested, like Clark would be interested in doing something about that. "You mean, like... this?"
Damn. Wandering hand. Oh.
OH.
"Oh yeah," Lex breathed. That wandering hand had snuck down beneath the band of Lex's borrowed boxers like Clark was digging for buried treasure. It wasn't the treasure of the Sierra Madre, but it was a handful. "Just. Like, That."
"Oh," Clark murmured against the back of his head, brushing his lips against the tender spot where skull curved inward. "I was really hoping that was what you had on your mind."
"You're a great psychic," Lex grunted, pressing back against Clark. "Yeah, like that..."
"All you have to do if you change your mind is say no," Clark promised. So sweet. Sweet like the way that those fingers moved, closed so tenderly about him that Lex almost couldn't believe it was Clark's big hand at all.
That was a hand meant for... for doing things like popping basketballs. Saving lives. Tying guys up to the columns. Strong, powerful hands that sure as hell knew how to stroke a cock. Lex exhaled, eyes barely slits as he clutched at Clark's arm like it was his first time. Which it technically was -- under those particular circumstances, at least. "Uhmm, not going to change my mind..."
Another tender brush of lips made itself known against the back of his neck, sending shivers all the way to Lex's knees. He was completely certain that he was never going to have standing-up-sex with Clark because standing up wasn't going to be a possibility.
He felt the whisper against his ear. "Then close your eyes. I'll make it so good, Lex."
He exhaled, slow but still anxious, and rubbed his hand down along Clark's arm. Closed his eyes, too, even though Clark couldn't see through his head to be sure. It just felt good, and made his head throb a little less. There was hot breath against the back of his head, warm kisses, and that hand wrapped around his dick.
"Shhhh," Clark murmured, tugging him back carefully into the curve of his own body. "Just be quiet, and relax. You'll feel better after. I promise, Lex."
Promises were... difficult for Lex to believe in. Clark made them something tangible, though. Something he could almost touch. Something he could believe in.
God, he was crazy as fuck, and out of his mind for the guy. No one would've believed it, because Lex Luthor just didn't do that. He went through people like water. He was a slut, he was easy, he... well, he wasn't changing much about that last part, because it felt damn good.
Clark's dick was as big as his hands were, and it was wedged right up against the crack of Lex's ass. "Mmm."
"It's all right," Clark promised him again. "All right. I won't do anything you don't want, Lex. Not ever." He wasn't even rocking to push himself against Lex, only keeping up that gentle, steady touch.
"Do you... usually need to tell people that?" Lex asked a little breathlessly as he rocked a little, up into Clark's hand and back against him. "You're so gentle, man."
"I don't do this much with other people."
It sounded sort of weird, but then again, Clark seemed like a shy guy; it made Lex slow a little, fingers still caressing up Clark's arm. "Not ever?"
"Geeky farm boy." The way that Clark was touching him was highly distracting. It made Lex's brain want to go nonfunctional. "Not a lot of people were interested. Plus..." There was an awkward shift behind him. "Um. I don't know. The handful of times... it was nice, just I wasn't as interested.. But I'm interested in you."
His eyes were still closed, and he grinned -- until Clark's thumb slipped over the head of his cock. "Oh, fuck. Mmm. You know what you're doing..." And he was hard as a rock, so he was clearly interested in Lex. Lex shifted back against him again, ready to chase Clark backwards across the two twin beds if he had to.
The grunt his motion gained him definitely told him that Clark liked what was going on. "Unh... it's 'cause... oh. Oh. Wow." Wow. He. Lex had never gotten a wow in the middle of sex before. "'cause I've g-got one of my own." And balls, too, apparently, because Clark's other hand was moving, shifting, cupping them. The faint roll of fingers made Lex's breath catch in his throat.
There was a lot to be said for the benefits of masturbation. Lex groaned low in his throat, and shifted one leg backwards and up a little -- it didn't quite matter that it was always funny to do that, it got him closer still back against Clark. He was definitely going to have to return the favor. "Fuck, yes..."
"Would it help if I talked dirty to you?"
Lex was pretty sure Clark was teasing, but the thought of sex-words passing perfect pouting lips, spilling in torrents of delicious lusty filth... It nearly undid him, a shudder wreaking havoc through him.
"Me... nnng, maybe?" He shuddered that. Hips straining to piston into Clark's fingers. Except he didn't want to rush something that felt so good. It'd been a while since it was just so simple and good.
"God." Ragged sound. Ragged breath. Clark was so hard behind him, pushing against him with a desperately tentative motion even as his hands were so completely certain. "You've gotta be so gorgeous when you cum."
"Guess... you'll find out...?" It was hard to be coherent when he just wanted to mutter dirty things and groan and shove into Clark's good, good hands. "Fuck, I'm..."
I'm Nnngh. It wasn't quite the flaunted 'I'm cumming' from porn and the things in Clark's books, but it was the best Lex could manage between the hangover and the cusp of orgasm. He arched his back, shoved his ass back against Clark, and groaned as he spurted short white streams onto Clark's fingers.
Oh.
Oh.
Nothing. Ever. Felt like that. Ever. Or maybe it was just a combination of things. Lex didn't know, Lex didn't care. It was just the best thing he could remember ever feeling, and he didn't want to lose hold of that, so he gripped it, held onto the tenuous thread of utter bliss for as long as he could.
It had to be a circumstantial thing. Had to be, or maybe because he hadn't done 'gentle' since, what, fifteen? Gentle and idle, and it didn't matter what position they were in when he came back down, fell back down, from bliss.
"Mmmn."
"Keep your eyes closed," Clark whispered in his ear. "Go back to sleep for a while, Lex. I know you need the rest." And never mind the dick rubbing against his ass.
"But..." Lex sighed, and did keep his eyes closed. Never mind the dick against his ass, or the way his one leg was sprawled back over Clark's thigh. It was actually pretty comfortable, since he tended to sleep on his side or stomach anyway.
"It's all right," Clark promised him on a breath. "It's okay. Just close your eyes, Lex. You'll feel better when you wake up, and we'll go home, then. The rest we'll worry about later."
"Not worrying," Lex denied in a sigh. "I'll suck you off later. You'll like it." So what if he decided that sleepily, or if he missed the hot-looking blush that probably flared in Clark's cheeks?
He could hear husky laughter, though. "I'll keep that in mind," Clark murmured to Lex as he lay on the brink of sleep. "For now, though. Rest."
Clark's voice had a way of turning itself into a gigantic mind blanket, because Lex just nodded complacently and let himself relax in that weird, sprawled, sticky position. Showering could be taken care of later, after...
"So. Here's Smallville."
Clark-in-Lex's-car was cute. Clark-in-Lex's-car was also a little cramped, because he was just huge. Lex was tall, sure, but he was also slender. He just kind of... FIT. Clark took up all the extra space in the front and then some, which gave Lex some seriously enjoyable dirty thoughts on the way into Hell. Smallville. Whichever.
Both, probably. Both.
Clark was just massive in his low-slung car. Broad shouldered, big hands, big feet, big... Yeah. Big everything. They apparently grew 'm big out on the farm.
"I guessed that by the wall to wall alternating corn and bleak space of fallow land," Lex winked with a quick sideways glance. "Anything you want to do before we get to your parents?"
The way those green eyes slanted at him made Lex shiver. "Well, gosh, Lex." Innocence like that had to be faked. Just had to be. "I really don't think you want to meet my parents smelling like, uh, sex. Do you?"
That was pretty straightforward, and after the shower they'd shared around noon, Lex could admit two things. One, that it was really really hard to keep his hands off of Clark, and two, he really didn't want to meet Clark's parents smelling like he'd been groping their only child in a small enclosed space.
"I was suggesting swinging through town. Maybe getting a coffee or something." It was hard to manage mock-offense when he'd been caught dead to rights. But it was merely coffee that had gotten him out of Clark's bed, to the shower, and eventually behind a steering wheel to get them to Smallville.
That and the brilliant idea that his father wouldn't follow him to that godforsaken place. It'd give him a weekend to think of what he was going to say. Just one weekend to hone his master plan.
This was going to be so good.
"Well, it's not anything like Metropolis coffee, Lex," Clark teased him. "But I guess we could pause at The Beanery if you're that interested. Mom makes better."
"I'll give your mother's a shot, then." And if it was god-awful, he now had the name of a place that might have something drinkable for him. Not that he was usually picky, but Lex was allowed to have his little fears, even if some mornings he did crawl out of bed and drink that thinned ersatz shit in the cafeteria. "I'm really glad you asked me to come, Clark."
The shy little sideways glance Clark gave him made his heart trip in his chest. "Well. Um. You know. I don't just ask anybody to come home with me, Lex." It was a hint, yeah, about as subtle as a brick. "But then, um. I don't. You know. Do much of that with anybody, either. You know. This morning."
"Yeah. You said." Lex's mouth tipped up a little as he looked out on the road ahead of them, looking for some sort of turn. "I didn't mean to make it a not-big-deal this morning. Because it is. A good kind. I... really like you. There's something there, you know? I feel like there's a connection."
"Destiny," Clark answered softly.
Lex just smiled a little and looked sideways. "Exactly. Maybe it took a couple of near-death experiences to get it into my thick skull, but..."
"But you've got the idea now." That made Clark brighten, his whole face lighting up. There was just something about Clark that made Lex feel lighter, better. All the way down to the tips of his toes, but particularly somewhere about midway in between.
It was either his heart or his dick. Maybe both.
"Yeah." Lex smiled in the rearview mirror at Clark, and Clark's head brushing against the roof's expensive leather. "So, when do we turn off? Or does the corn go on forever?"
"Forever," Clark teased him, slanting a smile in his direction. "Actually, there's a paved road about a mile up on the left. Turn down it, and then it's the third dirt road on the right. You'll see lots of fences, and the house is yellow. It's kinda hard to miss."
"I probably have more dirt in my car right now than gas," Lex grinned as he started to scan more towards the left, waiting for that next paved turn off. "So I'm scared of that dirt road."
"I promise I won't let any dirt get you," Clark swore solemnly. "I can't make any promises about the cows, the chickens or the dog."
"You've got a dog?" He'd always liked the huge shaggy mutty things better than the pedigrees his father had liked whenever dogs came up in discussion. Or those damn things like what Parker had. "It's not a yappy dog, is it?"
Clark shook his head. "Australian shepherd. Well, uh, half.. There was this accident where the neighbor's Siberian huskey got loose and, uh, made the rounds. While she was in heat, you know. We're pretty sure."
Lex took the left turn, then started to look for dirt roads, grinning all the while. Never mind that smiling was making his head hurt worse, probably. "You've even got great subconscious taste in dogs. I never could have one. There's no room for a big dog in Metropolis, not really."
And that tricky asthma thing. Even if it hadn't bothered him in years, his dad had always brought it up anytime he wanted something sweet and furry to lavish affection on.
"What can I say? I just have great taste."
It was childish, but he wanted to puff up his chest with pride. It was really childish because he looked like a bruised, messed up wreck. "Clearly, Clark. From your classes to the people you hang out with..."
And then Clark just looked at him, so seriously. "Yeah, well. I've always had a knack with these things, Lex. You know. Knowing who the people were that were good at heart. And you're definitely one of those."
"Most people wouldn't say that." People who'd known him longer, but he wasn't going to doubt Clark's judgment, no, not as long as it was in his favor. "I... just missed the turn."
"It's okay. There's a spot where you can turn around just up ahead," Clark told him. "I'm pretty sure the neighbors won't mind so long as you don't peel out of the driveway."
"I'm going to be on my best behavior this weekend, Clark," Lex promised as he caught sight of that spot and slowed down so he could try to pull a three point turn in it. Damn his luck anyway.
"Be yourself," Clark advised. "I like you. So will everybody else, and it'll look a lot more natural if you don't spend a whole lot of time trying."
"Oh. I'm at least allowed to try to cuss less, right?" Lex looked sideways for a moment as he made the turn onto the dirt road at last. It was bumpy as hell, even with his expensive shocks.
Clark shifted uncomfortably beside him. "Well, now, I don't know about that..."
Right. Rural Kansas. Cursing probably automatically put you on the list for 'straight to Hell' when Sunday morning services rolled around.
"Right," Lex went on without much of a pause hanging between them. "I'm really glad I packed conservatively. No cursing at all."
"There are exceptions. I mean, you know. Hitting your thumb with the hammer. Or getting knocked into a pile of poo by a cow."
"Right. But no casual cursing. That's going to take work," Lex decided as he idled up the drive, mostly to bring down the sound of the engine's purr.
"You don't curse much," Clark said. "In fact, hardly at all." Just when he was being pushed around and beaten and nearly drowned. That didn't happen much outside of frat-related incidents.
Anything to do with the frat pretty much seemed to count as an exception to normal life. "Thanks. My dad always goes on like it's a massive problem of mine." Maybe that was because Lex wasn't ever shy about calling his father a bastard, or using 'fuck' with him, often followed by 'you'.
He slowed down as they neared the house. "So, this is it?"
"This is it!" So much keyed up excitement. Clark obviously loved his family, and that was sweet to see. "I know they'll be happy to meet you."
"You keep saying it, but seeing is believing," Lex grinned as he coasted to a stop, careful to stay on the dirt and gravel part when he stopped.
"You'll believe. My parents are great," Clark promised, and Lex could see them coming out onto the porch before either boy could open the car doors. "They'll love you."
Which was why Lex was as nervous as a sinner in hell just then. Right. Yeah. He'd be fine and they'd love him, and the sky would rain flower petals. He was going to mess it up, Lex knew it, and he'd mess it up big time. "Okay." He pulled the keys out of the ignition, then popped his door open to cautiously get out of the car -- except, without seeming cautious. That was the tricky part.
"Clark!" That was his mother, and she sounded so excited, like there was nothing better in the world than getting to see her baby again. His dad was close behind, one hand held out as if to shake it, but once Clark was fully standing, they both tugged him close.
"Son."
"Dad, Mom..."
Lex tried to close his car door with a quiet click, concentrating on not being too weirded out by the Rockwellian family moment. It was just jealousy, after all. He smiled as he stepped forwards a little, hands tucked away into his coat pockets.
"Uh," Clark said, not quite stepping away from them, but shifting in Lex's direction. "I figured you wouldn't mind if I brought a friend, home."
"Well of course not, sweetheart. You know how happy we are to meet your new friends," Clark's mom declared, turning in his direction. "Hi. I'm Martha."
Hi, I'm the shambling wreck that your son's hooked up with. No, no. Lex kept smiling as he stepped forwards, offering his hand. "Hi -- I'm Lex, Mrs. Kent, Mr. Kent."
"Lex...?" Clark's dad was holding out his hand, but he had that look in his eye. That look of, well. Suspicion, for lack of a better description. Like he already knew.
Jesus. He really should've introduced himself as... maybe Alexander. That could've helped. Lex smiled as he shook Clark's father's hand, and nodded. "Yes, sir."
"It's okay, Dad," Clark said a little dryly. "Last I checked, he doesn't eat babies for breakfast. He's the guy next door."
"I don't even have hair to hide horns in," Lex added, eyebrows going up a little as he pumped the man's arm and let go.
"Well, uh..." That seemed to forestall whatever the man had to say. "Why don't we go in, then? I'm sure your mother's got the coffee pot ready to go, and she made your favorite cookies..."
Martha had been eyeing all three of them with that suspicious sort of look. The look that Lex knew said 'what am I going to DO with them?' and included the options of putting drugs in their coffee and having a party by herself that weekend.
"You should have called ahead, Clark," she did scold him gently as she moved to lead the way up the back stairs. "I would've gotten the guest bed ready."
"It's okay, Mom," Clark promised, following behind her. His dad was close to them both, and Lex was only a few steps back. "I mean, Lex will be okay. We didn't want to bother you any more than we had to..."
"I'll set up the cot. You don't mind sleeping in a cot, do you, Lex?" Jonathan called over his shoulder.
"No, sir." Why would he? Even if maybe he'd see if he could get from his cot to Clark's bed. If Clark would let him. "That's fine. It was sort of a spur of the moment idea for Clark to drag me along, anyway."
"Yeah, things at school were pretty boring. All of our tests out of the way for a week or two, and Lex is a biochem major," Clark told his mother. "Well, and bioengineering. Isn't that cool?"
"Of course it is, sweetheart. I know how science interests you."
"So... how'd you two meet? We haven't exactly heard about you from Clark before," Jonathan said as he closed the door once they were all in the kitchen. It was sort of cozy-warm feeling, except for that look that Clark's dad was giving Lex.
"Well, Dad, I was being kind of literal. I mean, Lex is the guy next door," Clark explained, snagging a cookie.
Martha made a little sound. "Clark, be careful, those are..."
"Ouch!"
"...hot."
"Yeah," Lex agreed, watching Clark juggle that cookie in his hands. Oh, what hands they were, too. "We just finally bumped into each other, and we have a lot in common..."
"So he wasn't... saving you from any fights, was he?" Jonathan pressed, looking at Lex with a raised eyebrow. Oh yeah. The black eye. And everything else that was marring him from when his fellow frat brothers had decided it was easier to kill him than cope with him. Right. That.
"Oh, Jonathan, I'm sure there's a good explanation for, ah, the state Lex is in. I mean, Clark can't just go around rescuing everybody from fights..." she said hesitantly. Clark's mouth was full of cookie, and it was obvious that he wasn't answering anything.
If Lex didn't know better, Clark had stuffed that cookie into his mouth on purpose. Lex looked a little uneasy, then decided to answer. Just... be himself. Clark said it'd be fine, so why not try it? "Actually, a couple of guys from my frat tried to drown me last night. I think. That's what I remember, at least. Clark saved my life."
"Oh, honey!" It had been a long time since Lex's mother died, so it almost startled him to tears to have Clark's mom coming to him, touching him. "Are you all right? Clark, did you take him to see a doctor, or...?"
"He'zh fine, Mom," Clark answered around his cookie. "Honezht. Zhuzht kinda bea' up."
"Yeah." Lex looked sideways at Clark, nodding. "I'm fine -- they only tried to drown me. I've just got a black eye and some roughed up spots. That's all." Like that scrape on his back from the concrete. No way was he going to mention that he'd been half-drowned while naked.
"Well, did you call the police, or --" Jonathan seemed pretty concerned, too, looking at Clark. Probably didn't want Clark mixed up in anything.
"No," Clark denied, shrugging. "We just got out of there, you know. Once I helped him get away. Figured that was probably the easiest thing to do, Dad. I mean..." Clark picked up another cookie. "You always said not to hit anybody first, or while they're down, and I'd just as soon not do any of that."
"But..."
"It's all right," Lex cut in, shifting back just a little. Martha was still hovering and while it was nice, it was also suddenly really crowded feeling. "They're being expelled. And Clark just thought it was a good idea if I wasn't on campus this weekend. Just... Because."
"Because there's likely to be trouble," Jonathan said, nodding his head slowly. "Clark. Son. I thought we talked about you keeping your head down. College is an important time in your life, and..."
"I know, Dad. I know," Clark sighed. "But I couldn't leave Lex there. Not last night, not this weekend. You taught me to do what's right."
"And it's pretty easy to tell what's right this time," Martha said as she set the last mug of coffee on the table. "Lex, what do you take in your coffee?"
"Sugar and milk?" He looked over at her, a little surprised as she set both of them on the table, and then pulled out her chair.
"Have a cookie," she offered him, nodding encouragingly in his direction. "Clark practically lived off of them the year he was twelve. We still can't get him to eat his peas."
"Peas are disgusting," Clark asserted.
Jonathan heaved a sigh behind them as Lex moved to take a cookie. "All right. I'll go set up that cot, then," he said a little too loudly before tromping upstairs.
Lex winced, mostly internally, he hoped. "Thanks, Mrs. Kent. Hey, Clark, why do you eat peas if they're in with couscous and lamb kebabs?"
"I eat around them. You haven't noticed? Or, if I can't avoid them, at least they don't taste like peas." Clark picked up another cookie. Lex had never seen anybody who could eat like that and still want dinner.
Lex was going to stick with his one cup of coffee and the one cookie, because he didn't have a hollow leg. "Okay. So you were hiding peas under that pile of onions?" He looked sideways at Martha and smiled. "Apparently this is a long-standing conspiracy."
"Ever since we can remember," she agreed with a little smile. "So, how long have you boys been friends?"
"We, uh..." Lex looked sideways at Clark now, and made a bit of show out of taking a bit of cookie and a sip of coffee. Stall, he had to stall.
"Well, see, it all started... It's hard to remember, because I feel like I've known him forever," Clark answered with a blithe grab at another cookie. "I mean, we didn't meet right off or anything, school's only been in a little while, but we've got the same interests, and... you know. Right next door. We just kind of ran into each other."
"It's sort of hard to remember when passing him in the hallway turned to actual conversation," Lex decided once he'd swallowed that big bite without choking.
"Being friends with Lex just seems like something that's always been meant to be," Clark declared with a blinding smile. "You know what I mean?"
"Yes," Martha said softly, glancing between them. "Yes. I do."
That really seemed like Mom Radar going off, and Lex gave an uncomfortable shift as he took another sip of coffee. "So, uh... What kind of farm is this?"
"Oh, Clark hasn't mentioned that?" Yeah, that was Mom Radar. "We grow organic vegetables, mostly, grain fed cattle."
"It's the best stuff," Clark sighed. "You know how I hate that stuff from the cafeteria. I'm sure I've told you about it before now..."
"Hey, after that knock on the head yesterday?" Lex shrugged. "I'm not surprised if I've forgotten some things. You didn't mention the cows before..."
Clark grinned. "I mentioned cow poo on the way here, Lex. You were just so nervous it escaped you."
Oh, boy. Now he sounded like an idiot, too. Lex grinned a little, laughed nervously. He was going to forget a lot if nervousness got to his memory. "Oh yeah."
"Don't embarrass your friend, Clark," Martha chided. "I'm sure he was nervous to be coming to Smallville and meeting a lot of new people."
"Mostly about Smallville, since, uh..." Hell, they knew. How many people named Lex were out there with bald heads from Metropolis? "Well, the plant, my dad's attitude in town. All of that."
None of it seemed to surprise Clark's mother. Maybe nothing ever did. "I can imagine. You were very young the last time I saw you."
"Mom?" Clark asked, startled.
"Yes, dear. I know. We, ah, met Lex the same day we adopted you. The day of the meteor shower."
Lex cleared his throat, setting down the coffee cup. That was... one hell of a weird coincidence. "Really? My dad doesn't talk about it much and I... Apparently remember it as well as Clark did."
Martha lifted her cup to her mouth and drank deeply. "Your father flagged us down," she said softly. "We were trying to get home with Clark when he came running out into the road. Jonathan went with him to fetch you."
"Oh." He sort of remembered being in a truck, but he'd always thought that was an after the fact assumption. After all, who crammed that many people into a pickup? "You guys had a truck?"
"Our neighbor's," Martha informed him. "Ours ended up upside down in a meteor carved ditch."
"Mom! Why didn't you ever tell me any of this?"
"Because it was a really crappy day and I think we were both all of five or six at the time?" Lex suggested, grinning a little. "At least, that's why my Dad never talked about it."
"You were so sweet," Martha said faintly. "And so ill. It was really quite terrible, Clark. That's why we don't talk about it."
Lex could understand that, too. Sometimes, ignorance was bliss, particularly if the memories weren't there. "Yeah. Still, sort of neat, huh? That we ended up right next door to each other?"
"Destiny," Clark asserted again, pausing as he saw his father pause at the bottom of the stairs. "Hey, Dad. Everything ready?"
Jonathan was looking at all three of them, and his facial expression shifted just a little when all attention turned to him. "Sure, son. You boys going to get your stuff out of that... car and take it upstairs?"
"Oh..." Lex got to his feet. "Yeah -- it's just upstairs? Clark, I can get the bags."
"Yeah, it's just upstairs, but I'll come help you. I mean, you packed the sink, Lex. You're gonna need the help," Clark teased.
"Just my laptop," Lex grinned as he moved towards the door they'd come in through. And deftly avoided Jonathan Kent, who gave off such an air of gentle menace that it made Lex's skin crawl. No one had ever been more obvious about not liking him much. "And clothes. I don't know what it's like on a farm, Clark..."
And lube. And condoms. Just in case the opportunity... arose. So to speak.
Lex had never done it in a barn.
Clark's eyes rolled, the screen door slamming shut behind them. "You packed three changes of clothes for every day we're going to be here, Lex. My mom packs lighter than you do."
"But only because your dad bitches more than you do, right?" Lex felt comfortable teasing Clark once they were outside, mouth tugging into a grin again. "You never know, Clark. There might be a sudden November blizzard and we could be stuck here. Then I'd want all that underwear."
One raised eyebrow said so much that Lex felt heat sliding up his throat and flooding into his ears. He was pretty sure that his nose was glowing Rudolph red. "Uh-huh. Riiight."
"What? I would. You don't want me running around commando in your parents' house just because I didn't pack enough underwear," Lex declared as he popped open his trunk.
"Well, it's not like I'm planning on telling them," Clark informed him with a prim sort of expression, the kind of thing Lex would expect to see a maiden aunt squint out.
"I'd know. Anyway, your dad already doesn't like me," Lex decided as he picked up his laptop case. He'd brought that along mostly because he didn't want to leave it in his room while he was in Smallville, not because he actually planned on using it.
"He just doesn't know you," Clark answered seriously. "Around here, your last name's kind of a dirty word, but Lex. You shouldn't let that upset you. You're not anything like the things people say about Luthors here."
"I know. Which is why I'm going to try really hard to prove your dad wrong," Lex told him while he reached for his heavy duffle bag.
"Just be you," Clark advised simply. "That'll be all the proof you need."
Clark kept telling him that, but Lex knew it was going to take... well, probably going to take a hell of a lot more to get it to sink in than that. Lex shifted, and grabbed Clark's bag with his free hand. "So far, Clark, me being me hasn't done much for me. Ever."
"Does that include me?" Clark asked him, mouth shifting into a crooked, almost hopeful sort of smile. "'cause I really hope it doesn't."
"No." Lex smiled back, leaning up because he wanted to, to... kiss him. When Clark's father was probably peering at them through the window. Lex sank back on his heels, and sighed. "C'mon. Is that everything?"
"If it isn't, I promise I've got underwear you can borrow," Clark grinned at him, grabbing one last bag and shutting the car door. "Come on. I'll introduce you to Betsey. She likes shiny things."
"Who's Betsey?" Lex asked as he moved to tromp after Clark.
"My cow," Clark explained. "Raised all by myself. I even fed her bottles."
Lex almost stopped short as he struggled to open the back door with his two free fingers. "You have a cow? Not a stuffed toy, but your own cow?"
"Uh. Yeah?" Clark almost seemed to ask, reaching to pull the door open for Lex. "It's a big thing around here. In most agricultural places, I guess. I mean, you know, there's the FFA, and you raise a cow or a pig or a sheep. Usually, folks sell them, but... uh..."
"Clark got attached," Jonathan said, mouth twisted in a wry smile.
"He seems to do that," Lex decided as he ducked in. "Thanks. So how long ago did you raise her?"
Clark laughed and shook his head, following Lex inside. "Uh. Junior year of high school. She's the sweetest thing, Lex. Uh, but she really likes fingers, and she's probably gonna lick your head."
"I'm putting my hat on before I go meet her." Lex glanced over to Clark's mother, who looked like she was smothering a laugh, then over to Jonathan, who just seemed generally amused by Clark's cow. Okay. Maybe Clark was right, and things'd be fine after all.
After all.
How bad could Smallville really be?
Grocery shopping sucked.
Never mind that he'd volunteered to do it - he'd sort of hoped that Clark would come along, but Lex guessed that Jonathan had thwarted that just to irk him. Did a tractor really need to be functioning in November? No. Not as far as Lex knew. 'Talking about the tractor' was probably Kent-code for 'Let's talk about your pansy ass citified friend'.
Maybe that was just paranoia talking.
Then again, it was quite possibly the truest thing he'd thought since yesterday afternoon.
Spending time with Clark was incredible. Spending time with Clark and his family, while very warm and fuzzy emotionally, was a severe test of how much frustration Lex could handle.
It just wasn't fair that Clark had such a great ass.
It was less fair that the opportunity hadn't presented itself for him to do more than cop a sly feel. And even that had been filled with nervousness. Because Clark's parents kept watching him. And it creeped him out, because he just knew they were judging him, and trying to figure out what was going on with him and Clark.
Lex was just trying to figure out the difference between two kinds of chicken broth.
"You know, you look like you're taking that pretty seriously. I always go with the store brand, myself. It's not as expensive, and it generally works just as well since it's all meant as a base for something else," a voice behind him said cheerfully.
Lex turned around, lowering the two cans for a moment before he twisted to shelve the brand name version. "Uh, hi." Smooth. The girl had huge eyes, a pretty pert face, and black hair down to who knew where. "Thanks. I'm not used to grocery shopping. Uh, here, I mean."
"Um, yeah. You didn't look like you were from Smallville. And if you were, I'd probably know you. Hi. I'm Lana Lang."
She was ridiculously pretty, and wore way too much pink. Well. There was a spot of lavender mixed in there. Maybe she was okay. Still. Girls tended to be trouble, and Lex didn't want to be courting trouble -- or girls -- just then. He held a hand out to her, expression tugging into a smile. "I'm Lex Luthor; it's nice to meet you, Lana. I'm in town visiting a friend, and drew the short straw on the grocery run."
"The Kents." She grinned at him. "Well, it's a small town. News travels fast. I live next door, so... I've pretty much known Clark all my life. It's nice to know he's making friends in Metropolis."
That was sort of creepy, but Lex guessed he could peg that down as small-town small talk. After all, it wasn't often that the son of the LuthorCorp bigwig goes back to the town that his father personally put into the grave. "Yeah. Clark's great. So, uh... Does the 'buy the store brand' thing apply to everything?"
Lana gave a laugh that was undeniably pleased. "Um. No. Some things just aren't as good. Take kidney beans, for instance. You can buy the store brand if you're desperate, but I always go for Van Camps New Orleans style, myself." She shook her head and smiled. "Everybody's different."
"If they know how to cook, apparently," Lex sighed, and tossed the can of liquefied chicken into his basket. "So, how come Clark never mentioned that he lived next to a really pretty girl like you?"
"Oh..." Her blush was really sweet. Apparently, Smallville bred television perfect children who turned into equally rapturous adults. "Gosh. Clark and I have been friends for a while, and, ah. I guess you just don't think about someone when you're away from home." That seemed a little sad, didn't it?
Maybe as sad as Lex deciding that the whole town could be Children of the Corn, except that Clark liked to joke and goof off. "Oh. Yeah, probably. Metropolis is sort of weird -- place for a fresh start and all that. So, what do you do around here?"
The slim girl smiled, shrugging her shoulders. "Oh, this and that. I'm taking business management courses at the local community college, thinking about opening up a coffee shop, or maybe a specialty clothing store of some kind downtown. Of course, finding the capital will be challenging, but..." Her nose wrinkled in a surprisingly pleasing way. "What's life without a challenge?"
"Dull." Lex turned away from the shelves, fumbling in his coat pocket for the shopping list Martha had given him. "You seem pretty smart -- I'm sure you'll find a way to make it work."
"I really hope that I will," she answered happily. "My aunt has a flower shop and she owns the movie theater next door. My parents met there, so I'd really like to do something special there. Renovate it, use it for my shop. What else do you need?" Lana asked, peeking at his list.
"Flour, sugar, and tarragon." He'd already bought the bananas and broccoli. None of it really gave him a hint to what Martha wanted it all for.
"Well, I can definitely point you in the right direction for that," Lana laughed. "The baking aisle is the next one over. It's okay to get store brand sugar, but the flour you'll want is White Lily. Um, as for the tarragon..."
"It's a spice, sometimes known as Estragon, sort of an anise taste." Lex grinned as he moved to walk down the aisle. "I don't cook, but my mom put a lot of effort into trying to teach me how."
"Well, she must have," Lana said, deeply impressed. "I've never heard of it, and I do a lot of baking. It's country baking, though," she admitted with a little laugh.
"You don't usually put it in bread unless it's an artisan type of bread. I think... that Mrs. Kent might be planning a stew? But this is just a shot in the dark, yanno," Lex told her as he started to scan for the flour and sugar.
"Lana!"
Clark's voice, calling from the end of the aisle. What was CLARK doing at the grocery store? He was supposed to be working on the tractor!
"Clark?" Lana seemed visibly startled. "What are you doing here?"
"Yeah -- you're supposed to be working on the tractor with your dad," Lex pointed out. Unless Clark had finished up early to save him from having to grocery shop alone?
"I've missed you, Lana..."
What was this? Some kind of bizarre prank?
And Lex just knew that his face was screaming that. He started at Clark, jaw more than a little slack as he tried to laugh it off. There was 'I miss you' and 'I miss sucking face with you, please let's do it again' and Clark... was saying the latter, not the former. "Clark. Jesus, is this a joke?"
Clark was also ignoring the hell out of him. "If you'll just give me one more chance, Lana, I swear, I'll make it up to you, I'll..."
"No, Clark, you know we decided that this... this was a bad idea, and what are you DOING in front of your friend?" Lana squeaked.
Lex stepped between Clark and Lana, and set down the shopping basket he'd been carrying around the store. He couldn't even begin to mesh together Clark with Clark acting like that. "Clark, if this is a joke, I don't think it's funny. We both know you're not straight, dammit."
"Huh?" Clark looked deliciously confused.
"That's right," Lana agreed. "We already had this talk. I mean, it's cute that you were so in the closet in high school, but honestly, Clark. Everybody who knows you, they know."
And being closeted in high school was... normal, as far as Lex thought of it. But, dammit. Did Clark have to play with him like that? Lex bent for a second, picking up the shopping basket, and thrust it out at Clark. "Hey, since you're here anyway you can help me finish with this. I have no idea what brand of tarragon your mom wanted me to pick up. Lana's been nice enough to help me out with the broth problem."
"Uh..."
Clark really hadn't seemed this stupid before.
"Does your mom use White Lily or does she prefer..."
"Okay. that's it. Lana, you're coming with me! I am not in love with this guy, I love you!"
Now the shopping basket fell out of Lex's fingers, and hit the ground. "God dammit, I dropped out of the frat for you -- we just... You fucking bastard!"
"Clark, you've totally lost your mind. Have you been around anything red lately?" Lana asked, giving him a look that implied to Lex that red things made Clark lose his mind. Except... well, EVERYTHING Clark owned was red or blue.
Something really weird was going on here.
"He's going to be seeing red real soon," Lex muttered. And then what would he do? Drive home to daddy, with his tail tucked between his legs?
Yeah. Probably. Fuck. There was a reason why he generally tried to avoid people, because it only invited the opportunity for things to go wrong.
"You're coming with me," Clark asserted, reaching out and grabbing Lana by the arm.
Lana protested -- loudly. "Ow! Clark, that hurts!" They were gaining attention, and that couldn't be a good thing.
Now wasn't the time for muttering anymore. Lex stepped up, grabbed Clark's arm. "What the hell do you think you're doing, Clark? Let go of her."
"What the hell?" Clark turned on him, eyes looking entirely unlike Clark's eyes at all. "Don't touch me, you faggot!"
"Clark...!" Lana slammed her foot against his instep, hard.
Good. Great. Maybe they could try to outrun Clark if Lana got free. And maybe pigs would sprout wings. Weirder things had happened. A rain of fish and things like that.
"You're one to talk," Lex growled, bringing his knee up sharply to Clark's crotch. "Lana, run!"
The funny thing...
The funny thing... was the way that Clark's body just kind of....
It SQUISHED.
It didn't do that earlier in the morning. Lex was really sure of it.
"Screw this."
That wasn't even Clark's voice, but all of a sudden Lex and Lana were both being gathered up, and the other patrons were yelling as Clark (or more like not-Clark, but things were getting really weird) toted them out of the store.
Lex started to swing, trying to get some sort of blow in at Clark's head. It didn't matter if he'd been sweetly napping with the guy the day before, or if he'd snuck into his bed for a little while the night before. Clark had gone batshit crazy, and Lex had learned all about what to do with batshit crazy back at Excelsior.
It involved getting the hell away as fast as possible.
Preferably laying tread all the way.
"Shit." Okay, Clark didn't say shit, and Lex could tell from the look on Lana's face that she agreed. Still, he was being joggled around a little too much to get a heavy bead on anything, and then everything went black.
When things cleared up -- and that took a lot of time, because Lex and blows to the head just never worked well together -- Lex realized he was in a bad spot. It was the interior of some abandoned factory. That had a lot of purple accents on the pipes around them, which was almost as bad a sign as the ropes he could feel around his wrists.
One day, he'd find a guy that wasn't a psycho.
He'd settle for one whose nutty little revelations were reserved for the bedroom, at least. 'Hey, Lex, let's try felching.' Because he could deal with that. He could. It was a hell of a lot better than 'let me knock you over the head and tie you up in the middle of nowhere while I make my ex-girlfriend a sacrificial puppet'.
That reminded Lex of said female, and while Lana was remarkably pink, she was also incredibly nice. Nothing good could be going on here.
"Lana...?" Lex twisted his head, trying to figure out just where she was in what he guessed was the shipping floor of the old LuthorCorp plant. "Lana!" He sure as hell wasn't going to yell for Clark.
"Lex?"
Tiny, frightened little sound. Great. Just... really great.
"Lex? I can't see you..."
He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to twist. No, he was tied to a pipe -- he definitely wasn't going anywhere. "Can't see you, either, so don't feel bad..."
"Can you see anything where you are? Maybe tell where you're at?" she asked him.
"Loading dock of what used to be my dad's plant," Lex called back, as quietly as he thought she'd hear.
"Great," he heard her say. "Just great. Nobody comes out here anymore. And... Lex?" She waited a minute. "That wasn't Clark. There's just no way."
"Then what the heck was it? Wasn't a guy in a Clark mask. I don't think they make them." He couldn't help but be snide, and maybe bitchy just then. Dammit. He'd made one... one really good friend. That was nice to him, cared for him, treated him great, and just made him want to be a better person. And maybe it was obsessive of him, and things had moved too fast, but he was allowed to be pissed off.
He was tied to an old sewage pipe, after all.
"Um. Clark didn't... warn you about anything before he brought you home to Smallville, did he?" And just what was that supposed to mean, exactly?
"Just to not try too hard to impress his parents," Lex sighed, leaning his head back against the pipe. "So where're you?"
"Uh. I think I'm... it's kind of hard to describe There are... lots of green and purple pillows. It looks kind of like something out of the caterpillar in _Alice in Wonderland_..." Lana confessed. "It's really weird. If this was Clark, everything would be in primary colors."
"Red and blue and yellow." She had a point. She really had a point. Then again, Clark had gone batshit insane. Still, wouldn't he use his favorite colors? "Can you move? I'm tied up."
"Well, I'd really kind of like to move, but... I don't know, it's some sort of cage, Lex, I... I really just don't know what's going on..."
"Neither do I. His crotch... squished when I kneed him. It shouldn't do that," Lex decided, shifting a little. Maybe he could get his legs under his body, and squirm his way upright.
"Well, you'd know more about that than I would." Was humor really called for in a hostage situation? ...maybe. "I'm not sure I knew it had any state other than, ah. Urm."
"No, it squished like... putty. Or plasma. There's bone right behind it. It shouldn't do that," he insisted. Dammit, and he'd said bone. That wasn't helping his case.
An audible pause rang out for a moment, and he just knew that Lana was going to tell him he was completely insane. "Well. I guess we'd better start hoping and praying that Clark notices you're gone."
Lex drew one leg up under himself, and carefully started to try to scootch himself upwards. "Yeah. He probably will, unless his dad is still bitching him out. Still, not going to just... nnn, sit here."
"Right. That's... never a good idea. I don't think I'm going to be getting out of here any time soon. There's a padlock on the cage door that's about the size of an apple," Lana called quietly.
"Can you break it?" Lex got his other leg under him, and then it was just the wobbling act of standing up when he was tied tightly to a pipe.
"I don't think so. The... I can't reach it. Even if I could, I couldn't get any leverage..."
Great. When he got home, if he got back home, he was going to have to knuckle under and take that weekend class that the Metropolis Financial Society offered on 'Evading Kidnappers and Escaping Tight Situations Without Dropping Your Stock Price' that his dad had taken.
Maybe somewhere in there they'd explain how to untie knots and break a padlock. "Okay, uh... think I've got it."
"I really hope you do, because, uh, if that not-Clark person shows back up? I think I'll probably scream. I had enough of, 'Gosh, Lana! I'm not gay!'in high school," she stated seriously.
"He was gay as of this morning," Lex muttered more than he really called back. He twisted his wrists, like he did when he put the sunshade up in the windshield, and the ropes went slack, sliding away as he put his body weight on them and tried to step forwards.
Free!
"Are you okay over there?" Lana called, obviously worried about him. He could hear a faint clank as if a door was being opened somewhere.
Lex went silent, and quickly stalked over to the wall, ready to edge over towards where he could hear Lana's voice coming from. If only he knew where the door was that had just been opened...
"Lana..." That was Clark's voice, again, and it put Lex's back up.
"Look. I don't know who you are, but you're not Clark. Clark is so gay that he makes Liberace look like Prince Charming, so whatever's going on here..."
And if that was the case, then there was really every chance that Clark's parents knew just the sort of friend that Clark had brought home with him. Which was sort of embarrassing to think about, but then again, maybe they didn't know.
It didn't matter, since Clark had either gone batshit, or the person they were going to have to face off against wasn't Clark. Lex edged forwards, peeking around the corner.
"I am not Liberace gay!" Clark protested. "I'm just not exactly straight. Lana... Let me get you out of there. Have you seen Lex? Sheriff Ethan came by the house and half the grocery store's up in arms and..."
Oh, that... that was Clark's voice, and he seemed sane, but it still didn't explain what was going on. Lex reached down to the ground, trying to see if he could find any discarded something to use as a weapon for his own safety.
"He's tied up somewhere to the left, I think, Cla... Clark! Look out!"
And then there were two Clarks, because one tackled the other just as Lex got hold of a loose -- and thankfully shit-free -- pipe and pulled it off the wall. So it hadn't been Clark, but that didn't tell him what Clark was...
Well, Clark.
Their grappling was pretty fierce. If Lex wasn't afraid of whichever one was psycho-Clark, he'd have to say it was pretty hot, too. It would be a whole lot hotter naked. Or with them in a kiddie pool filled with pudding.
He edged closer towards the two, lifting his arm to bring down a blow. "Clark!"
The automatic jump of green eyes told him which one to smack, and he brought the pipe down without remorse upon the head of the one holding down his Clark, the one who had looked at him when his name had been called. It was a hard hit, and Lex was surprised when the Not-Clark slumped on top of Clark, unconscious.
"Wow. Clark, this is a really fucked up place to live," Lex muttered as he held on to the pipe and bent to roll not-Clark off of Clark. Not-Clark started to turn into a girl even as he moved him. Her. It.
"Ooof." Clark winced, pulling himself up and rubbing his head. "Yeah, well. Smallville. Hey, Lana. It's Tina Greer."
"Oh. God. I told her I wasn't interested," Lana sighed. "I guess she figured maybe if she looked like you, I would be. Guess she didn't know you're gayer than a tree full of monkeys on nitrous oxide."
"First Liberace, now Gaiman and Pratchett," Clark complained.
Lex suppressed an urge to point out that _Good Omens_ was a fantastic book, because just then wasn't the best time to be doing book-club type recommendations. "You're not flaming," Lex offered hopefully as he let go of that 'Tina' girl. "How about you get Lana out, Clark, and I'll run over to the office and see if there's still a phone around here that works?"
"Now that sounds like a plan," Lana agreed, clutching the wires of her cage. "Wow, I like this one, Clark. Let's keep him."
"Maybe we should tie Tina up first," Clark suggested.
"... Would tying up a shape-shifter work, Clark?" Lex asked, eyebrows raising as he already started towards where he remembered the offices were.
"I guess not," Clark admitted, taking the pipe Lex had used to bash the girl in the head so that he could begin working on the lock holding Lana in. "I mean, maybe if it was Japanese rope bondage or something..."
"And I didn't just hear that," Lana decided.
"He's taking a class about erotic historical writing," Lex called over his shoulder. "Ask him about the three testicled gay space man!"
"Leeex!" It was a great deal of fun to hear Clark whine his name that way. Now, to find a phone...
Smallville was weird. Apparently kidnappings were run of the mill occurrences, for all the stress Lana and Clark seemed to be showing about it. And shape-shifters. Lex just wanted to get the heck out of there, with their creature under lock and key.
He was really glad that someone had left a landline phone on one of the abandoned secretary desks.
It took him thirty seconds to realize that 911 was a serious proposition in Lowell County. They didn't ask any direct questions, only if anyone was injured or in trouble, and the second he said the word kidnapping... well.
~"Sir, what is your location?"~
"The old LuthorCorp plant," Lex supplied quickly. "We were taken out of the supermarket by someone impersonating a friend of mine... She's unconscious right now, but we can't find a way to restrain her."
~"We'll send a car immediately, sir. Do you know where you are in the building?"~
"Near the loading dock," Lex murmured. "I'm in what used to be the main office, but my... two friends are near the loading dock. Do you want me to hold?"
~"Sir, for your own safety, perhaps you should stay where you are..."~ the operator suggested, sounding quite obviously worried.
"Hey, Lex?" Clark called, and it made him jump. What if it wasn't really Clark after all?
Lex shifted to stand behind the desk, still clutching onto the phone. It was like something out of a horror movie? Him, on the phone with the operator, who'd later testify in court that she heard him screaming until his death. "Okay."
"Lex?" Lana called. "Maybe he still hasn't found a phone," he heard her say to Clark.
"No, I'm sure he has, we just have to... Hey, let's try there."
Lana? Or maybe it was Tina pretending to be them BOTH...? "Uh, I'm in here, guys..."
~"Sir, police personnel are currently on their way to your position. Are you certain that you..."~
"Lex!" Clark burst into the office in a rush, Lana right behind him. "Wow. I was starting to get worried that maybe Tina had managed to get out of the cage somehow, even though we managed to ram that pipe in to keep the door locked..."
Two people couldn't have come from just one, right? Lex still startled, then quickly assured the operator, "No, no, we're okay. We're all in the main office now." He stared back at Clark and Lana, trying hard to not look as freaked out as he actually was.
"It's okay," Clark promised. "Honest to God. Um, I know. We can prove we're really who we are, right? Because I saved you from drowning in a fountain this week. Among other things."
"And Clark and the nitrous-oxide-monkeys have been saving everybody who'd sit still long enough for years," Lana smiled.
Drowning in the fountain meant that it was Clark, and Lex relaxed pretty quickly. "Yeah? So this is a habitual thing you do, Clark?"
"What can I say?" Clark heaved a sigh. "I, uh. Have a thing for damsels in distress." Wicked, wicked smile. Yeah. That was Clark. Lex's knees were all weak.
"And gay frat guys in distress? I guess that's close enough to a damsel that I got lucky." Lex grinned, and then realized that he'd just said that while still on the phone with the operator. His face started to burn red, and he looked at the receiver before he said, "Yeah, so, uh, we're all okay here right now, and the perp's in a cage, so, uh..."
~"Please hold the line until the police arrive, sir. Just in case."~
Yeah.
THAT was gonna be all over the county in the next half hour. Lex would bet his entire monthly allowance on that one, and Clark was blushing so prettily that Lana was petting his hand in commiseration.
"It's all right, Clark. Most of the county already knew, anyway. Why else do you think Whitney really made you the scarecrow? He thought you were looking at his butt."
Lex sighed, and put a hand over his eyes. He'd done so well so far, too. He just knew that Clark's dad was going to kill him once he found out, and... God.
"Sorry, Clark..."
"Traumatized," Clark declared mournfully. "I'm traumatized."
"Hello, the warehouse!"
Hello, police.
What a day.
"So, you're saying Tina Greer turned into you," Jonathan said slowly, "and then kidnapped Lana and Lex. Well, I'll be."
"Yes, sir," Clark agreed with a solemn nod. "It was the most incredible thing I've ever seen. Once they got a good look at her, they took her to the hospital and did some x-rays and stuff. There's something weird about her bone structure. They're not sure exactly how she does it, or... Well, they're just not sure."
"Just that she does it, and Clark's not in trouble at all, sir," Lex added a touch anxiously. Things were bad enough as it was, let alone having them think that he'd somehow gotten Clark into trouble. "Lana and I realized that it wasn't Clark pretty quickly."
The way that Clark blushed was obviously not inherited, but something he had gained via osmosis. "Uh. Yeah. I think that half the county has figured out exactly why that is by now."
"Would you boys like some pie?" Martha offered, changing that subject quickly.
"Lana guessed that you weren't you first, if it helps?" Lex offered, then looked up at Martha. "Please, ma'am." If only to keep Jonathan from looking at them like they were both wearing ping-pong antenna.
"Uh, why don't we take it out to the Fortress? I mean, I know you guys have to get up early in the morning, and we might be up for a while... and then we've gotta head back to Metropolis in the afternoon, so..."
Jonathan sat back in his chair, and cleared his throat loudly. "Clark..."
"Yes, sir?"
There was no way that kind of innocence could actually be for real. No way.
He gave him a look. An eye look, that wordless communication that seemed to pass for coherence in the Kent family. Lex just watched. "Is there something you want to tell us?"
"Uh...."
"It would be nice," Martha said sweetly, "if you'd just tell us that you've brought your boyfriend home, and you would like to go outside, because it's embarrassing to make out with your parents in the house."
"MOM!"
That was not what Lex had been expecting to hear from Clark's mom, his really nice, sweet mom. And what Clark's dad followed that remark up with was equally not on Lex's list of 'things I expect to hear'.
"The 'not under my roof' rule means I don't want you two getting up to anything when you're in Clark's bedroom at night. So maybe you should get anything out of the way before bedtime."
Now Lex cleared his throat, and pushed his chair back. "Uh, that's very magnanimous of you, Mr. Kent..."
The heavy sigh Clark gave spoke at least moderately of humiliation. The redness still creeping over his face was really kind of adorable, though. "Yes, sir. We'll, uh... if it's all the same to you, I guess we'll, ah. See you in the morning."
"Barn," Lex agreed, his own cheeks red, but not quite as bad as when he'd declared Clark's sexuality to the 911 operator. He smiled at Martha.
"And don't forget to make sure you're awake in time for breakfast, Clark," she warned her son, nodding at Lex as the two of them rose from the table. "I'm sure Lex will be hungry. You're growing boys, you know."
Growing. Oh god. Lex smiled a little more warily at Jonathan, and then moved to get outside as fast as possible. He wasn't sure he'd be able to make it to the barn with any sense of a libido left to him. And he'd definitely be doing it without any homemade pie...
"You forgot your pie!"
"Run," Clark offered to him, scooting towards the yard even more quickly. "If you value your life and the possibility of ever, ever, you know. Again. Run."
Lex gave a nervous laugh as his feet hit grass and he started to jog towards the barn. "Is the pie a decoy to stall while your dad gets the shotgun?"
"The pie makes you feel like you're six," Clark replied, keeping up with him easily. "Like you'll always be six. Then you get warm milk and, if you don't get away in time? A damp paper towel for your mouth and fingers."
God. Lex only wished he had parents that great. Even if it was the kind of thing that made a guy feel like he was still a kid.
Was it really so bad to feel like a kid? Lex grinned to himself as he slowed and crossed through the barn's doors. "Okay. But it wasn't bad last night, Clark..."
"That's before Miz Farrell's oldest daughter called to tell her that I was gay and Lana's lesbian stalker had outed me and my boyfriend to the whole county," Clark pointed out, slowing down with him. He reached out and took Lex's hand in his own.
That was nice. Lex clutched back, smiling at Clark as they came to a stop near the stairs. Boyfriend? Yeah, maybe. Lex had seriously freaked out at the idea of Clark having played him, even though he just... knew, viscerally, that it hadn't been that way. Clark was too good for that sort of shittiness. "Yeah, but your parents knew before, right?"
"About the sixth time Lana broke up with me? And Whitney started coming over, once he kind of got used to the whole notion of, well, me looking at his butt? Yeah," Clark admitted shyly. "Plus, I, uh. Kind of called and told them. That I was bringing you and everything. And... How I hoped things would be."
Lex gave a relieved sort of sigh as he turned to look at Clark face to face. "Okay. I was really worried that I'd outed you to your parents, and that would've been... really really bad."
"It's okay," Clark promised him, laying a hand on his waist. "I promise, Lex. Even if you did out me to the whole county," he teased.
"They'd find out sooner or later?" Lex half-joked. "I'm sorry about that. I sort of freaked in the grocery store..."
"Yeah, well, I'd have probably freaked out, too, Lex." Clark was smiling at him, unbelievably tender and... it made Lex want so many things, things maybe he'd never be able to put into words. "I'm glad that everything's working out, though.."
"And it is," Lex agreed as he leaned up to kiss Clark. Clark's lips were tempting him, calling a siren song that consisted of 'kiss and abuse me red'. "You... are something special, Clark." Tender, easy with him. Lex was pretty well used, been around the block a few times, and Clark... was just wow.
"I was wondering..." And wasn't that sweet? The way that Clark peeked up at him, almost shy. Lex could just imagine that look in bed, and it made his heart nearly stop. "Wanna go up to the loft and pull out the sofa bed?"
"You've got a sofabed?" That made his heart stop. It sounded a lot easier than sneaking into Clark's twin bed like he had the night before. In a loft, with open doors that could... wow. It was like sex in public, only no one was going to catch them. Or fooling around in public.
Clark nodded. "But only if you want to. I mean, I wouldn't want you to feel like you have to or anything..."
Lex took a back step, dragging Clark with him towards the stairs. "I want to. I want to feel you, I want to touch you, I want to really map you out. You know. Just in case a shape-shifting lesbian comes along who's better at pretending to be you than the last one."
The husky laugh made Lex want to get him naked even faster. "I don't think you really have to worry about that much. We're going home tomorrow, Lex. Not," Clark noted, "that I'm even close to objecting."
He almost tripped up the stairs, grinning back at Clark. "Good. Because I really want to prevent anything like this from happening again... And I want to see if I can make your sofa bed squeak. You wouldn't happen to have anything slippery in here, would you?"
"Lex." Clark looked at him quiet seriously as they got to the top of the stairs. "This was the Very Private Place of a teenage boy. There's KY under the sofa cushions."
Clark got a firmly pleased hand-squeeze for that, and Lex craned to look at the sofa. It looked perfect for folding out and... yeah. Nippy outside or not. "Great. You know, once I get you undressed we should probably work on generating some body heat..."
"We wouldn't want you to get cold," Clark agreed. "There are some space heaters downstairs, for when we have to bring the cows and calves in. I could get some... and there are blankets..."
"Blankets are a must," Lex decided. "You get that, I'll unfold the sofa bed." Couldn't be that hard, right?
Right.
By the time Clark came back with blankets and the heaters, Lex had decided that sofa beds were obviously of the devil. His dad had probably patented them at some point, just to make his pain all the more horrifying.
"Here, you set up the heaters. I'll finish pulling out the bed. There's a trick to it," Clark offered a little nervously.
"Does it involve waving a magic wand and going 'bippity boppity boo'?" Lex scowled as he stepped back to set up the heaters. THAT he could do. Keep them away from anything too flammable.
Clark heaved a sigh. "Am I really that gay?" He was teasing, and Lex knew it, but Lex also had a feeling he was going to have to reassure Clark of his manhood shortly.
Well.
That shouldn't be any problem. He'd felt Clark's manhood. It was really strong and really there, but soft and hot all at once. Yeah, he was looking forwards to assuring Clark about it. "Nah. I was just wondering if those were the magic words that would get it to work for me."
"Well..." Clark laughed. "I've always had better luck with 'dammit', myself, but whatever works for you, Lex." The bed pulled out as easily as water poured from a spigot when Clark tugged on it. That was distinctly unfair, but Lex was glad it was out, anyway. He finished setting up the heater and they started making the bed, not quite ready to crawl in it together.
Close. Very close. "See? You pulled it out and I couldn't. You have some serious muscles, Clark..." Lex snapped one last blanket so it would cover the bed, and then pulled his wallet out of his back pocket.
Lube didn't go too far without a condom.
Lex was really glad he'd just tucked two in before they left Metropolis on the off-chance that they'd get to use them. Plus, the joy of watching Clark watch him take them out was really undeniable.
"So. Ah..."
"Just in case?" Lex offered. "Keeps mess to a minimum, and uh..." Anal sex felt good. Really good, except Clark was practically a blushing virgin and they'd only been dating a... really short time. Then again, Lex had never been conventional.
"Yeah. But this is where I ask... do we undress ourselves or would you rather have me do it for you?"
Lex tossed the condoms on the middle of the bed, and moved to Clark's side of the bed. "We do it for each other?"
"That sounds really good." And Clark's hands were reaching for him, fingers trembling, and Lex wanted very badly to kiss him. There was just something about Clark being nervous when he'd been so certain all the times before, when it had been all about Lex, that made his breath shorten just a little.
Clark really didn't know what to do with himself. And Lex found that fantastically sweet. Found it hot, and... He leaned up that mere fraction, fingers finding the first of Clark's shirt buttons at the same moment that his lips found Clark's.
Hot.
Wet.
Incredibly lush.
Kissing Clark was a lesson in self-restraint, especially when he made a sexy little noise that trembled on Lex's mouth for a moment before it dwindled down to nothing. He could feel Clark's hands sliding underneath his shirt, separating it from his jeans so that big fingers lingered near his waistband, made him want to be naked now.
He wanted those big, strong fingers on him, under the waistband, wherever Clark wanted to put them. And he wanted to hiss him laying down, and somehow get Clark's shirt open without breaking any buttons. The kiss broke out of necessity, because Clark had a belt on, too, and Lex was never good at getting those off backwards. "Uhn, God..."
"Yeah." Clark's voice was just as hoarse as his, and then they were both frantic, pulling, tugging at clothing, and Lex could hear buttons scattering everywhere. He didn't care. He just wanted at Clark, at all the gorgeous golden sweet man underneath them, and so what if it took a few acts of gratuitously destroyed clothing to get them there? "Oh, God. Lex. You're..."
Clark kissed him again, and kissing Clark was as natural as breathing air. Warm, aching in a way that tingled down to pool in his stomach. And lower than that, when Lex finally got the belt undone and started to pull Clark's jeans open. Clark was like a heat-lamp all by himself, throwing off warmly like his golden skin had absorbed the sun's rays and reflected them back when extra heat was needed. If the goal hadn't been nakedness, and getting into their 'bed', Lex would've put arms around Clark's neck, jumped up and gotten his legs around his waist, and just humped him right there.
That thought was enough to make him pause, if only to keep laughter from spilling over and mortifying both of them.
"Lex," Clark mumbled, shifting to give a sharp nip at his throat, one that felt way too good. "Lex, got to get you... God, shoes and socks and..."
He was pretty sure that his answer was a combination of n and g, a rumble of a groan as he pressed into Clark and pushed his underwear down. "Could always knock boots..."
That made Clark laugh, made him pause, pull away, and God. Lex never, ever wanted to suffer that again. "Here. I'll take them off. You have beautiful feet, you know." Even that sounded sexy. "Long and elegant, kind of like your..." Back to blushing, beautiful and sweet.
Lex couldn't believe the kind of luck he had.
Clark was a keeper. A definite guy to always make an effort to do right by, because Lex was pretty sure there wasn't anyone like him in the world. At least, not that was meant to be with Lex. So Lex sat back on the bed, with his pants bunched up and open, grinning. "The foot metaphor works for you, too."
Oh, yeah. It was a wonder Clark could maintain a crimson glow like that in his cheeks when it was obvious that all the blood in his body was pooling into his crotch. "Um."
But Lex's shoes were off, and then Clark fumbled his own to drop beside them, and they were both on the sofa bed. It creaked, and there was a bar in the center of Lex's back, but he didn't care.
God, he didn't care, couldn't do anything but rock hard up to meet the downward press of Clark's body. And maybe trying to get scratchy denim off of both of them. Ideally they should've gotten under the sheets, except kissing Clark was so distracting, and so was having Clark's hard body pinning him to the mattress. It felt twice as good as having Clark gently spooning behind him. "Oh, fuck..."
"Feel so good," Clark moaned, biting at his shoulder and leaving a bruise. It would be gone by morning, Lex knew, but he wanted it to stay. He wished it would be there permanently to remind him of this, and pushing off clothing and fucking in the chill of the barn.
They were definitely going to be fucking.
Even if the condoms were currently pinned somewhere under his back, pressed low against his spine and crinkling. "Yeah..." Yeah. How stupid was that to say 'yeah' to something that felt so good? Lex was looking into Clark's hair, then he lolled his head back to invite more... anything. "You're so warm, so... fucking hot." Particularly when Lex got his hands between the back of Clark's thighs and the jeans that he was still trying to push down.
They were going to get undressed. They were. It was just that, right at the moment, it was enough that Clark's fingers were fumbling to release Lex's own straining erection, and then they were rubbing, together, and ohjesusfuckplease, and maybe he even said that.
He was sure he said that. But his cock was pressed against Clark's cock, and Clark's big hand was squeezing them both together in a god-fucking-wonderful tunnel of love. Who needed lube in a moment like that? Warm and both dripping precome. It was even better because Clark was uncut, moving better against Lex than Lex could really move back.
But maybe that was just because he was on the bottom, and really wanted to spread his legs, but he couldn't with jeans trapping him.
"Oh, baby." The way Clark whispered it was caught somewhere between affection and the sound of dirty porn, and it made a laugh stutter from Lex's throat. To make up for it, his hands reached up, pulled Clark down by his hair so that he could kiss him. Kissing Clark was almost as good as what they were doing, and if they both went on much longer, he was going to cum.
All over his stomach, all over Clark's dick, all over Clark's hand. Probably on the sheets. He'd spew it like bad porn, and... why do it so soon? "Clark..." Broke the kiss, breathing hard, trying to hold Clark still. "I'm really... really close..."
"Cum for me," Clark panted, pressing his forehead to Lex. "Come on, baby. Just. Just. Unh. Cum f-for me, edge off, wanna... wanna...."
Oh.
Oh.
He clutched at Clark, pulling him closer, feeling tight gorgeous muscles shift as they ground just a little closer, a little clo-- "Swe--oh go-h!" No dramatic cries of 'Clark' even if Lex would've liked that better, no pleading demands, nothing really coherent., His stomach went tight, and he hunched his hips up to Clark's hand shakily as he spurted. "Nnn, s-so good..."
Lex was pretty sure that he'd never come that fast in his life.
He was pretty sure nobody else had ever come with him like that before, either. When he finally managed to pull his scrambled brains back together, he realized that it wasn't just his sticky wetness spread over his stomach and Clark's hand, but it was Clark's, too, and that made everything pretty good, actually.
Even with the threat of pie, embarrassment, kidnapping, mistaken identity, and flaming gayness... They were both still really hot for each other. Lex could only guess how good it'd be on a mundane day where nothing had gone wrong. He exhaled, and turned his head to kiss Clark's jaw. "That... was amazing."
"Um." Clark apparently agreed with him, because he shifted, keeping his weight off of Lex, and kissed him again, full on the mouth.
Orgasm was better than kissing Clark, but not by much.
"Hey, I'm sorry. Maybe I'll manage to get us undressed next time."
"Not being able to wait to get undressed is the best compliment," Lex grinned fuzzily back at Clark.
"Tell you what. You lie back, and I'll finish the undressing part," Clark told him, pressing his cheek to Lex's momentarily before shifting upwards.
Lex just stared up at Clark, mouth twitching as he watched Clark move. "Okay. I can go with that..." Particularly since Clark would have to shimmy out of his bunched up jeans first. It would be a gorgeous visual, and an excellent opportunity to get a good look at the other man.
Clark stood, not seeming all that shy at first, but then he seemed to realize that they were standing in his loft, and that his parents were just next door, and that changed things. His jeans came off quickly, underpants with them, and then he slid back onto the sofa bed, reaching for Lex's.
Lex shifted, hips lifting to help Clark. "God, you're so handsome, Clark. You look like some classical sculpture..." A bronzed statue of David, except without the embarrassingly small genitalia.
Still, the complement gained him a flush of Clark's face, and a fumble of hands that made Lex laugh just a little.
"I've never... you know. Really been so..." Clark dithered. "I've never felt like this. In case you were wondering."
He got a grin for his sweet dithering. "Yeah. I guessed it. And that's cool, Clark. I... I've never felt like this before, either. You make me want to go out and do stuff. Things I wouldn't normally do. Good things. I like that feeling. You're inspiring, Clark. And hot."
The sly little smile that snuck over Clark's lips really made Lex want to molest him. Hard. A lot. And maybe even more than that. "Shucks, Mister Lex," he drawled, peering up through his lashes as one hand landed on Lex's belly. "If you keep that up, my head'll swell."
"This head?" Lex smirked. It only took one motion to get his hand over the head of Clark's cock. "Oh, yeah, that's swelled."
"Mmmm." Rich, deep sound, a noise that rumbled all the way to Clark's belly. "Yeah. Yeah, it is. Would you maybe like to do something about that, Lex?" Clark's breath ghosted faintly over Lex's skin as he moved closer, the bed squeaking in protest.
Lex laughed a little, clutching onto Clark's dick like it was the hand brake on a car. A really fast car, and if he let go, who knew what it'd try to do. "I want to suck you."
The thought alone made Clark's breath hitch, made him shift back on the bed. "Yeah? Really?"
Lex stretched on his back, smiling as he tugged at Clark's cock. "Kneel up here. I'm comfy like this."
Clark, kneeling over him, fucking down into his throat. Lex, able to look up and see all of that gorgeous gold flesh. The thought alone made him shiver, and when he realized that Clark was going to actually do it, things only got better. "You want to suck my dick?"
Lex couldn't remember ever hearing anything that sounded so dirty, or so good.
"Yeah, sexy. Let me suck you off," Lex breathed, watching Clark while he moved to kneel up over him on the sofa bed. God, that was going to be a gorgeous view. Up close and personal with Clark Kent's abdominal muscles.
If he was lucky, he'd be up close and personal with every inch of his body by the time the night was over.
"Okay." The sound alone was just a little breathless, but that could be Lex's own hearing. After all, there were two firm thighs planted on either side of his head, now, and Clark's ass was resting faintly against his chest.
This, Lex decided, was going to at least be the prettiest sex he'd ever had. Hopefully it would also be the best.
Sweetest. He was going to try really hard to make it good for Clark. Clark's first time and all that. Yeah, god, he couldn't remember the last time he'd done it with a virgin. A hot virgin. A hot virgin that he wanted to keep for always, but not in a creepy, locked in the basement way. Faintly sweaty ass cheeks pressed against his pecs were the best things ever. Moist. Not sweaty. Just soft and warm. Yeah.
All of that gave Lex a pretty good excuse to groan while he let his hands roam over Clark's thighs before he lifted his head just a little to take the tip into his mouth.
"God. Fuck." That word spilling from those lips was purely, beautifully blasphemous, Lex thought. "Oh, God. Suck it. Suck me. I want you to suck me. Please, Lex..."
"Mm." He couldn't deny him, now could he? No way. He could definitely lean up to take in more, starting to do just what Clark requested. And Lex knew he sucked cock well. Hollowed his cheeks a little, covered his teeth, and he could do a great job.
He could suck Clark until the cows came home.
Now if only that thought didn't give him the giggles. It was a most unfortunate time to feel any urge for laughter. Luckily enough, the feel of Clark's hands settling upon his head, thumbs rubbing against the tender skin there, promptly destroyed all notions of laughing. "God. You've got the hottest mouth, Lex," Clark whispered. "That little scar. Fucking. Oh, fucking beautiful around my dick, feels so.. fuck. Uuunnh."
So sexy. Lex was sort of like a cat about having his head touched. The wrong was was very bad, but when it was good, it was enough to make him purr. Or at least hum around the cock he was making an effort to suck. Clark had so many words, and Lex could just suck and hum and hope it felt really good.
When Clark's fingers started stroking behind his ears, it was a wonder Lex didn't come. He already had his tongue wrapped around Clark's dick, rubbing firmly at the little stretch of skin where the head met the shaft with a dedication that nobody could deny. "Fuck. Baby. Oh, God, fuck, yeah. Yeah..." Sweet babbling. Sexy rambles. Lex liked that. Liked sounds like that, liked the encouragement, liked the faintly dirty tinge to it. And he really liked toying with the little twinge of skin where head met shaft, feeling spongy sex against his tongue and the roof of his mouth. Clark was going to taste great.
The big man leaning over him shifted, moving as if in invitation, his head dropping back even as his hips pushed forward. One hand moved away from Lex to brace against the back of the couch, but the other cradled his head, and that constant stream of sweet filthy words didn't stop. "Fucking suck... oh, god, feels so, wanna fuck your pretty mouth, gorgeous lips, baby, suck me, suck my dick, oh, fuck..."
He was going to have a crick from hell in his neck, but it was so worth it to crane his neck and try to take Clark to the balls. He was so hard that he swore he was going to come, because there was something really fucking great about getting it that up close and personal. Warm skin, muscle everywhere, under his hands, on him, holding him, and a cock in his mouth.
Two more filthy phrases, and Clark yelled, coming into Lex's mouth in long, stringy spurts that somehow found their way into his nose, nearly choking him.
That wasn't as good as the rest has been, and he had to jerk his head back, coughing violently. At least he hadn't bit down on Clark or anything in the shock of choking. Sometimes things did happen like that. Mouth and sinus were pretty close, after all, but it wasn't as easy as squirting milk from his nose.
"'m sorry," Clark panted a few seconds later. "Oh. Geeze." Geeze because there was cum all over Lex's face, and really, it kind of stung his nose.
Next time, he was SO not letting Clark fuck his face. That was right out. At least, not that way. Maybe with him standing or on top. Or something. Lex turned his head, and used the blanket to wipe his nose because he desperately needed to not breath in cum.
"Sorry," Clark whispered again when he was done, shifting over him, moving so that he could press hs mouth to Lex's, and it was so easy to forgive Clark. He was so pretty, and so contrite.
He laughed a little, grinning against Clark's lips. That the guy was willing to kiss him after that went a long way to forgiveness. "'s okay. Sometimes it happens when you do it that way, you know? You felt... really good."
"Yeah?" Clark smiled at him, a shy little motion. God, it made Lex's heart jump. Not to mention his dick. "Maybe I should return the favor...?"
Mmm. That was going to be good, Lex decided as he stretched his legs out a little. "Yeah. I'd love that, Clark."
The flirtatious under-lashes look that gained him stole his breath away. "I'm going to give you the best blowjob you've ever had." Confidence was... AMAZINGLY sexy.
He was as hard as a rock. Harder than a rock. If Clark wanted to just grab his dick and lick the tip of it like a popsicle, it was going to be the best blowjob that he'd ever had. Grinning, Lex laid his head back, fingers reaching for Clark's shoulders. "Mmm, promises like that need to be matched..."
"Don't worry," Clark told him, and wow, that boy looked good sliding down Lex's body. That alone was almost enough to make him come. "I can match and surpass it."
And then... there was warm wet hot fucking god amazing gonna die just like this MOUTH.
Mouth like he'd never felt before. Mouth that was hot like an oven, but definitely not burning him, unless it was from the inside out. Warm and wet, and he could, oh Jesus, feel the back of Clark's throat clutching around the head of his dick.
Lex was pretty sure that he'd yelled. And even more sure that if Clark was a virgin, he was the Queen of England.
God save our gracious Queen, Long live our noble Queen, God save...
"UNH!"
Rippling. Jesus. He was sucked all the way in, and Clark was swallowing around him, fingers caressing over Lex's balls, and that one thumb... The rub-rub-rub against the thin skin behind his balls was one of the best things he'd ever felt.
He could die like this and die happy.
Another ripple of muscle, and Lex was sure that he was going to die like that., He wanted to thrust, to fuck, but he couldn't when Clark had him in deep. All he ended up doing was sort of jerking helplessly, pressing up against that thumb and the fingers that were rolling his balls like they were made for Chinese hand meditation exercises.
GUUUUH.
And when Clark's thumb slid back, back, applying pressure, rubbing at the very entrance of him, Lex couldn't help himself anymore. He just couldn't stop, not even if his dick had been bound in strips of leather from balls to tip.
"Oh yeah, oh, oh, fuck yeah.... Gunna... uhn!" Gunna cum and gunna uhn sounded pretty damn alike, and Lex was pretty sure that Clark didn't care what Lex was saying. Because he had a roar of semen spurting into his mouth, or at least, it felt like that when Lex was coming. Thumb, there. Guh!
By the time Lex's brains managed to trek their way back into his skull through his ears, Clark was over him, kissing his throat, his jaw, every inch of him that he could reach, and somehow, Lex wasn't surprised to find that Clark was hard again. The terms 'lots' and 'now' pretty much applied directly to 'Clark' and 'sex' somewhere in his own brain.
If they somehow pounded a hole into the bed, Lex wouldn't have been surprised. Or cared. Because it was just that good, Clark, being with Clark, kissing Clark and being kissed by Clark was just... just that good. "Sweet, sexy, my god."
"You know, that's pretty much what I think about you," Clark murmured against his skin, sliding against him in the most delicious way. He rubbed deliberately against the crease of Lex's thigh.
Lex bent his leg out a little, but he wasn't sure why. Like he was inviting Clark to fuck him right then and there?
Would Lex Luthor do a thing like that? Hell yes. Lex laughed a little, sliding his arms around Clark. "You... are fantastic."
"'m very glad that you think so," Clark told him, tenderly following a nip of teeth with his lips. "I hope you'll think so later, too." A shift of hips definitely implied what later meant.
Later meant fucking. Oh, God, yeah. "I think I will," Lex breathed. "Why don't you get under the covers?"
"I could do that." Ah. They were back to flirting again, and it was... SO sexy. "I was thinking about something, though." Thinking, yes, but crawling under the covers with Lex. God, yes. "I was wondering..."
Lex latched onto Clark like one of thus belly-sucking things that latched onto sharks. Lampreys. Arms around him, kissing at him. "Wondered what?"
"Wondered how you feel about going for a ride."
"Mmm, a ride?" Ride in Clark's car -- doubtful, since it was dark outside -- or... "Ride you like a horse?"
Oh, yeah. Clark was no virgin. Not with a smile like that. Obviously 'I've never' had more to do with 'in the loft' or 'with somebody I feel this way about', even though wondering that made Lex feel a little insecure. "Yeah."
After all, he'd spent most of his life misinterpreting things. Still, that smile... that smile went a long way to goading Lex on. Lex shifted, eyes scanning the bed. "Mmm, yeah. I'd like to go for a ride. Where'd the condoms go?"
"Up under the pillows. There's lube there, too..." Clark peeked up at him, face going soft, serious. "Lex. I just want you to know, I... ah. You know, this, I've done before. Just not, this... with somebody I... I really think I could... Well. Um."
Lex kept looking at Clark, trying to not fill in the trailing offs Clark had. "Uhm...?" He teased that a little, reaching up under the pillows.
"I could love you." And oh, God. GOD. That was just...
Nobody loved Lex. Nobody. Not since his mother.
He was really easy that way, he guessed, compared to most guys. Even... even 'could' love you really brightened Lex with hope. Yeah. It was soon and they both found each other really sexy, but there was, could be so much more.
Either Lex was a sap, or he could really love Clark, too. Was pretty sure that he did. Clark did things to him that made Lex want to make him happy. "Yeah. I could love you, too." Could was a pretty good step, Lex decided.
Those words brought a visible relief to Clark's face, a faint release of breath. "Oh, thank God," he said, and then laughed outright. "I was hoping, you know..." That it wasn't just sex. Although, well... Lex was holding lube and condoms.
"Yeah," Lex laughed back, just as faintly nervous as Clark. "I was hoping, too. You're really... really great, Clark. And I'm not just saying that because your dick's poking a hole in me."
"That doesn't hurt, though, right?" Amusement, hands on Lex's hips, shifting him, moving him. "How much prep do you need, Lex? Hm?"
"Uhhn, right now? Bare minimum," Lex breathed, ready to move. Ready to get on top, instead of flat on his back on the mattress. "Unless you know, you want to take some time. I've done this before, too, but..." Not when it wasn't a one-night stand.
"But right now?" Clark said, tugging Lex slowly up over him, "more than anything else on earth? I'd really like to watch you getting opened up by my dick."
They shifted, squirming and rolling against each other in a way that felt really fucking good to Lex. By the time that he was on top, he felt like he was on top of the world. And he really just wanted to get down to it, but. Condoms and lube. The condoms would at least make up for the fact that the shower was all the way in the house.
One for each of them, then. Clark was breathing a little hard beneath him, the sheet up over Lex's shoulders and covering next to nothing of the golden body beneath him. Fuck. He just... It was all just so incredible. So... Clark was so perfect. Made-for-Lex perfect, and his dick was big, fat in a way that Lex knew would hurt, but it... would be so good.
It was going to be the good kind of hurt, Lex decided as he sat on Clark's strong thighs, and opened the condom. stroking it with his hand again felt really good, soft hot skin rubbing and drooling against his palm. "Wow."
"Yeah," Clark breathed. His hips pushed up, body lifting Lex slightly up on the ratty old sofa mattress. "Unnnn, Lex... Teasing me... it's not nice..."
"It's very nice," Lex countered as he dabbed a little lube in the tip, and then leaned to roll it down over Clark. Damn, Clark was strong. Usually people couldn't do that when he was sitting on their thighs.
This was going to be the best sex EVER.
"If you don't hurry up, I'm going to come without you," Clark teased him, pouting up at Lex. "Spill all over. You won't get any."
"Threats," Lex tsked as he pushed it down to the base of Clark's cock, and then shifted to stroke lube all over it. "Put mine on. If you come, I guess I'll just have to get you hard again."
"Maybe you could just have your turn first," Clark offered, reaching for one of the crinkling things, ripping open the shell and quickly pulling loose the latex sheath. "That would be okay, too."
"My turn?" Lex almost lit up as he shifted his hips forwards a little, sitting over top of Clark's dick so Clark could get the condom on him.
Clark nodded at him, concentrating seriously on his job. "Uh-huh. That's the way things work best, isn't it? Share and share alike?"
"That is the best way," Lex sighed, biting his bottom lip a little as he rocked against Clark's hands.
Just like mutual sucking of dicks was pretty good, switching who got to be on top (well...) seemed like a good idea to Lex, too. Clark's fingers slipped away from his dick, caressed across his thigh. Hands on his ass felt... SO good.
"Uhn. Shouldn't I be the one holding onto some reigns or something?" Lex joked, shifting his knees so he could get right over Clark's slicked dick. He still needed a little prep, needed to get some lube up his ass. But he wasn't a novice. He could at least pride himself in that fact for once.
Who knew laughter during sex could be so... hot? "If you want reigns, I'm pretty sure there are some downstairs. I'm sure we could... make do in the mean time..."
He liked how much Clark made him laugh. Decided it was good to feel that happy so often. "Nah, that's okay. I think I'll have a... pommel to sit on soon enough."
Just those words drove the breath out of Clark. "Do it," he pleaded prettily, hands settling on the space between Lex's hips and thighs. "Do it, come on, please?"
Right there, clutching at him, right over the muscles. Mmm. Lex moved his hands to rest over Clark's, and shifted his hips just a little before he reached to hold Clark's dick steady. Yeah. He could do it. It was just a matter of sitting down, bending a little.
Just a matter... of getting it in, and fuck. Oh. Oh, God, maybe it had been longer than he thought, or maybe Clark was bigger than he thought. Yeah. Oh. But right at first...
"Fuuuuuuck."
He was pretty sure that it was never going to go in. It didn't matter that it was, there was no magical feeling of relief once Clark was a little in. Lex huffed out air, spreading his legs a little father to 'sit' more. Still wasn't working. "Jesus... did you switch with a peanut butter jar?"
"The lube?" Clark asked, obviously confused. He was doing his best to hold still, to let Lex work things out in his own good time. "Oh, God, you're so tight. It feels... it's incredible, Lex."
"Uhnnn." Lex let his head loll back, then leaned forwards, hitching himself up a little before he pushed down again. "I meant you."
"Aahhhhh." Sound of pleasure and understanding. "S-sorry. Just... um. Just the way I'm made. Sorry." Except not so much, because his hands were shifting Lex gently, pulling him closer. Thick, yes, and long, but not so much so that Lex felt he was never going to take it all. "You're incredible like this. So hot with my dick up your ass."
"I feel hot like this," he laughed, panting a little. Yeah. He was burning up from the inside, but with a little more motion up and little more motion down it was starting to really get to him. Clark's thumbs were rubbing little circles on his hips, soothing motions, and before he knew it, he had it all. Every last fat inch of dick had made its way inside, and Lex had a feeling that it had forced all of his breath out.
"Ride me, baby."
"Oh, fuck. Jesus. You.... mmm, feel like nothing else." He closed his eyes, just for a minute -- or maybe it was two -- and the muscles in his thighs flexed as he rose up. Each inch up was one inch coming out of him, and he could feel every bit of that.
"Good. M-maybe you'll keep me around that way." It was obvious that he was having one hell of an effect on Clark, the dark-haired man's head tilted back, throat open, mouth an O as he sought for air, gasping it in when Lex tightened around him. "Unh!"
"Gunna..." Lex laughed a little, edgily as he tried to keep moving. He was gasping, struck by the sensation of Clark that deep, hell, that wide in him. At least they were both feeling it. That was the best sex. Sweaty, struggling, fantastically hot sex.
They probably wouldn't need the space heater after all.
"Keep me," Clark growled, pulling Lex down hard on his cock. It brought a yell to those lips, one Lex wasn't sure about. Could be pleasure, could be pain, could be a thousand things in between, but one thing was certain.
Whatever it was, he wanted it again.
He wanted to feel that surge again. And get loud. More yelling, more grunting, more of those eye-rolling head flung back pants of Clarks. And he wanted more of that burn, that sensation of being fucked, being really well taken. "Uhn, let... oh, fuck, letting you go? Not, not an option..."
"Perfect."
That had to be some kind of signal, because Clark was lifting him. Lifting him, settling him back down and then doing it all over again, the most thorough incredible fuck Lex could ever remember getting.
He was supposed to be riding, and sometimes that didn't get as fast or as intense as everyone wanted. Muscles gave, shook when orgasm got close, it got hard to breath in a good way... but Clark was just bypassing all of that, with his arms. Lex gasped, kept trying to move himself anyway, but the up down up down on Clark's cock at that intensity, all the way up, all the way back down, was too much.
Too good.
Coming twice inside of twenty minutes wasn't impossible. Lex had done it before. Coming three times, one right on top of the other, so close together that he could hardly tell one from the other... that was impressive. Shuddering, spasming semen right into his condom. And again, because Clark kept him moving, through one after another. He'd never done that before, quite like that before. "Oh, fuck, oh, oh, shit, you, hn..." He had to lean forwards had to lean onto anything, grab onto anything when the second one hit.
There was a gray moment, a complete blank moment where all the world just sort of... faded. There was motion, there was Clark, but it didn't quite register.
It probably had something to do with the way Lex's eyes had rolled into the back of his head.
He was settled onto Clark, laying flat out forwards. The blanket was somewhere over the curve of his ass, and Clark's chest was really warm under his, and under his hands. "Uhn?"
"Uhn," Clark agreed, his fingers now resting rather pleasantly on Lex's ass as opposed to pulling him up and down on the gigantic bar of pure steel that passed for Clark's dick. "Hm."
"Could live like this." Lex murmured that against Clark's neck, then reached down to pull the blanket up over them both. Yeah. Huge hands cupping his ass like some guys pressed breasts. Clark was an ass man, though, and Lex liked that. "mmm."
If the rest of college was as good as a weekend down on the farm -- but maybe a little less strange, because he'd had enough of strange at college -- then college was going to be fan-fucking-tastic.
There was just one last thing to do.
"Lex. What a surprise to see you, son."
It probably wasn't, not really, but Lionel said that it was anyway. It made Lex want to roll his eyes and wrinkle his nose like a twelve-year-old.
But he was better than that. He was better than a twelve year old, and it was time to prove that to his father. Or try to, if Lionel wanted to let him. That was always the toss-up, would Lionel feel like playing with him, or would Lionel let him actually accomplish something?
If he did want to play, threatened to cut Lex off... Lex had decided that he could cope. It had taken some thought, a lot of thought, but even with the guys getting kicked out, he wasn't going to go back there.
"Hi, Dad. I hope I'm not interrupting anything..."
"Oh, no, no. I was just having a, ah, conversation with the new head of Omega Sigma Phi..." Parker, then. "It's good to hear that you've managed to be accepted, Alexander. Well. Your methods were certainly interesting. How did you do it?"
Lex's mouth twitched as he wandered a little further into his father's office. Well, he had a huge strong boyfriend who'd done him a massive favor, and... "A little ingenuity, a ladder, some roofies, and help from a friend. About that, Dad..."
"Most impressive, Lex," Lionel murmured. "You'll go far. Keep that in mind. It was worth it. You had to get in."
It wasn't often that Lionel praised Lex. Usually when he accomplished something, the only thing Lionel said to Lex was an implication of what the next rung of the ladder was going to be. "No, Dad -- about that. I'm going to decline their offer."
The click and tumble of gears grinding to a halt somewhere amidst the center of Lionel seemed almost audible. "You're going to decline."
"Yes. I... am going to decline. You wanted me to be accepted, Dad, and I have been -- but I don't need them to get through college with a fantastic record. I want to be more than just a frat guy. I want to run for student senate." He knew he'd have to exchange one thing for another, but... Lex liked his 'replacement' idea way better.
There was something in his father's eyes, some gleam, some serious thought that Lex just knew was a secret way to get at him, make him suffer, and then...
Lionel nodded. "I see."
I see. Wow. Was it really going to be that easy, or was Lex just getting an out for the moment? "Great. I was sort of expecting you to need some convincing. 300 of the fortune 500 CEOs were Student Body presidents in college..."
"It's a different path than I expected you to take. But then... you've always been different, Lex." The faint implications lay between them, that different wasn't a good thing, that Lex wasn't a good thing. "It's your decision. Make the best of it."
'Make the best of it' was better than being told that he was going to be cut off. Lex flashed his father a smile. "I will. I've decided that I'm going to make the best of a lot of things."
His father just looked at him, slow and steady. It was actually a little creepy. Lionel hadn't looked at him that way since before Julian had died. "Yes. I expect that you will. Now, Lex, I have business to take care of. Are we quite finished?"
"Yes, we are. Have a good day, Dad." He turned around then, heading happily to leave his father's office. He had 'business to take care of', too.
Sort of. If business was making up for a broken dinner date of a few days earlier.
Clark was waiting. And Lex had a feeling that would be something to be grateful for all the rest of his life.
