Through some act of administrative fate, for good or for ill, he hadn't ended up in the lecture hall session.

Abnormal psych was a popular class, for Psych Majors and Minors alike, for the dabblers and the people who took classes for the fun of it. It was rumored to be populated with slackers, bored housewives, frat boys and sorority girls, the industrious, the un-industrious, and everyone else under the sun. It was almost always held in the massive lecture hall in Pitts, though there were a few smaller classes.

When Clark had asked his minor advisor to sign him up for it, he'd hoped to be in that nameless mass of faces in the lecture hall. That would have suited him nicely, and his self-imposed need for anonymity would have been catered to.

Fate must have taken a liking to spitting in his eye.

Clark decided, as he crammed himself into his seat as far toward the back of the class as possible, that someone must have an ironic sense of humor -- to have deliberately assigned what must be the largest group on that course to the smallest teaching room on campus. Just while getting there, and sitting down he'd had to apologize four times for squeezing past other students, dropped his notebook twice, and by the time he got himself even remotely situated, everyone else seemed to have settled down.

He was left with a vague unsettled feeling as he glanced around, feeling out of his depth. Hopefully there would be someone familiar to connect with. He mentally kicked himself for not having twisted Chloe's arm to take this minor with him. She might have done it. Or she might not... He was beginning to wonder if she shifted personality with the phases of the moon, or something equally ridiculous.

But then again, half of Smallville was that way. Shifting personalities. Everyone wanted to escape small-town life and for every person who did, twenty turned back and embraced it tightly. So, he had to be glad that he and Chloe had gotten past Smallville, excepting visits back home.

Thinking about it, probably the only reason she was minoring in Photography was so she could take her own crisp pictures when she went snooping. He might have followed her if it hadn't been for the fact that he hadn't worked out how to stop frying the insides of a camera if he squinted and concentrated too hard. It was a bit of a disadvantage to a would-be photographer.

"Hey, excuse me -- sorry, sorry, hey, thanks." The chair beside Clark's jostled, and a harried looking student dropped his book-bag on the fold-up 'desk top' when he swiveled it into place. And banged Clark's knee in the process. "Hey, sorry about that, man..."

Clark automatically made a show of rubbing his knee as he shifted sideways to give the other student a little more room. "No problem. I managed four on the way in," he said pleasantly, as he glanced at his new neighbor.

With that common instinct that seemed to spring from all new classes, he found himself striking up a conversation with a random stranger just because he needed a connection somewhere in this class. God, he hoped he hadn't landed himself with someone who he'd spend the rest of the year trying to shake.

"Four? That's pretty impressive," his new neighbor noted, pulling a lap-top out of his haphazard looking red messenger bag. The bag ended up slipped onto the floor between his feet and the seat in front of him, guaranteeing that anyone who tried to squeeze past them would end up tripping, too. "We should be lucky this class isn't in a room with desks, you know? I saw a guy trip and knock over five of them in my calc class." The guy had a pleasant, no, a casual, off the cuff voice. No-nonsense city kids talked like that, edges on all of their words.

The guy looked at Clark with a frat-boy style grin, mellow and too laid back. He had scruffy brown hair, eyes to match, and clothes like he'd been pulled out of an Abercrombie catalogue. Just a fraction too well put-together.

Clark gave a lopsided grin, and made sure to look disarmingly normal as he studied the other student. He noted his appearance, and looked for subtle clues as to what type of person and what other information he could glean from this first contact. 'Observation of incongruities'; that could have been tattooed on the forehead of his investigative journalism professor. The man was obsessed with the concept, and Chloe would frequently bet him how many times he was going to say the phrase to see who bought the coffee in their break after class. Still, it had seeped into him somewhere along the line, and his green eyes flickered over the other guy, as he replied, "If there were desks here, that'd probably be me. I'm not very coordinated." There was something just a little off about the appearance... as if, instead of living the person he was trying to be, the guy had studied the person he was being.

"Clark Kent by the way," he introduced himself belatedly.

"Leo Byrne," was the reply while he started to open his laptop. "Is this your major?"

"No... no, Journalism Major," Clark answered easily, looking a little enviously at the computer. "Yours?"

Laptops were so... shiny. Like toys, unlike the nice staid desktop that Clark had bought himself with excess from his scholarships. So that spark of envy was all right to feel. "This is my minor -- I'm a biochem major." He didn't look the type, but Clark had already noted that Leo's looks were somehow... off. "Taken many other psych classes? Maybe we can study sometime. Never ask one of the people majoring to study with you. They're in a world all their own, and usually start talking about the department and professor so and so's affair with the milkman... You know. Stuff like that."

"Yeah... yeah, that would be great... I need the help I think," Clark replied with enthusiasm, seeing a lifeline dangle in front of him to yank him away from a solitary existence in this group. Leo was right, those doing Majors weren't that interested in those doing minors in the same subjects. He guessed he was a bit like that with his own major come to think of it. "I've taken Physiological Psych so far," he confessed. "You?"

"Just a course back in high school." Leo opened up a word document, and was saving it as 'notesab1', adjusting his position ever so slightly to lean into Clark. Not on purpose, but he was leaning his left arm out while typing and trying to not elbow the girl to his left. "It's been a few years, but abnormal is the stuff you remember most vividly. Autism, Turetts, Tardicdyskenesia, sch--"

Leo trailed off into perfectly comfortable silence when he realized the teacher was calling the 'As' of the roll sheet.

Clark blinked a little, and hastily got his own pen and notepad out, rather hotly aware of the comparison between the laptop and his own outdated methods. He kept telling himself that it was that which was making the heat rise a little in his face, not the rather distracting proximity of his new found study partner. He was close enough to smell his... what... cologne? Aftershave. Nothing over-powering, indeed rather discrete and terribly distracting as it tugged gently on memory fragments. He could have moved away, leaned a little more to give Leo more space, but he didn't. Clark was so wrapped up in trying to chase those tattered recollections that he very nearly missed his name, and after that, shifting away didn't even occur to him as the class began.

Leo was better than having a frat boy sitting beside him. He was silent except for the depression of his keys, but every once in a while he'd glance over at Clark and smirk at something the teacher had said, or a joke that made most of the rest of the class laugh out loud. There wasn't really much to take notes on -- a syllabus passed out, the professor sternly telling everyone that it was a serious class for mature adults.

Professor Bullock wasn't really giving off the stern vibe very strongly. Sharp-tongued, maybe, but she seemed like a professor that Clark could deal with.

That was something which was a relief, and Clark found himself actually enjoying the class. He flicked through the syllabus, absently reading the whole thing with a mere glance -- a very useful skill he had acquired the night before his first midterms when he had been cramming. It had been a very strange sensation at the time, things seeming very fast -- and yet slow at the same time. Like driving fast while being able to perceive every dewdrop glistening on each blade of grass along the road.

Speed-reading taken to a whole new level.

The fifty-minute lecture passed like a blink, between the opening speech, passing out of papers, and going over the syllabus. Soon, everyone was zipping up their bags, and Clark decided that choosing Psychology as a minor had probably been one of his better decisions recently.

"Hey, you have a class after this?" Leo drawled, while he was leaning into his messenger bag to secure his laptop into it.

"No... I'm free for a couple of hours," Clark supplied readily, packing up his own notepad and pen with a wry expression -- at least it was easier to put his supplies away. He was still intrigued by this... Leo. He couldn't shake a sudden surge of interest in the other man's sense of a mystery. Not all of it could be 'new class desperation' after all. Could it? "You?"

"I've got about an hour -- want to go catch an early lunch, or a cup of coffee?" He stood up smoother than he'd sat down, but again accidentally slammed the edge of his desk into Clark's knee. "Clark, man, I'm sorry about that -- I'm all elbows some days."

Clark gave a mock stagger as he got up. "Man, it's just as well I don't have a sports scholarship to protect isn't it? Lunch or coffee sounds great... Leo." Why had he hesitated over saying his name? If anything the hesitation made things worse as the name had sounded, well, almost deliberately savored. Damn! Now he was going to blush again. All the superpowers he had and he hadn't yet worked out how to hide a simple blush! He resorted to his usual tactic of pretending to hitch up on something and turned away, fumbling a moment. "Sorry -- you're not the only one who's all elbows," he apologized.

"Come on -- are you into Starbucks, or do you like Mocha Joe's better?" Ah, the Met U. Battle over which sort of coffee was the best. Mainstream and chain-stored, the semi-mainstreamed, or obscure little holes in the wall -- places like the Talon -- that helped to give Metropolis it's odd clash of small and big businesses.

Leo, thankfully, wasn't commenting on Clark's blush. He was hitching his bag over his shoulder better, and waiting with a wide close-mouthed grin.

"Mocha Joe's is okay," Clark said, shouldering his own bag easily. "Plus, they do food there which is... um cheap." He grinned as he turned, showing he was ready to leave. "A main priority of the poor student of course."

"Well, if you call pastries and muffins food, yeah, they do food cheaper than Starbucks," Leo smirked. He navigated down the aisle in front of Clark, then started down the broader aisle that led towards the door, waiting for Clark to fall in beside him. "So you're, what, a Junior? Sophomore?"

"Junior," Clark admitted. "You?" It was hard to place Leo's age and he found himself staring a little. There was something too familiar about him. Maybe it was just that Leo reminded him of someone, or had the same sort of mannerisms.

After all, there was one of Chloe's friends of a friend that he'd seen at a party the year before, who'd had him wondering if he found Lana's long lost sister or something by accident. He considered that to be a very disturbing prospect, but she'd turned out to have had a similar background, and interests, and had hailed from the other side of the state.

"Junior, but I'm second semester. Three more semesters, and I'll be done at last." Leo shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans, watching the steps as they made their way down them. "I sort of fucked things up for myself for a couple of years, but I'm back on track now."

"Yeah?" Clark looked at him, his curiosity piqued by that. "What happened?"

"Didn't study, partied, got high, got drunk... my dad made me get a job, and I've only just found time to get back to school." He tossed Clark a grin that narrowed his relaxed brown eyes, and took a sharp right turn once they were out of the classroom. "You're not into that stuff, are you?"

"Do I look like I am?" Clark smirked, with a touch of a self-depreciating smile. "Drugs and drink... nah, a friend of mine put me off them for life before I even got to thinking about it -- and I'd feel like I'd really let my parents down if I didn't study hard enough to warrant the money they put into me being here." He shrugged, aware that it probably wasn't the cool thing to admit. Once a geek, always a geek. "My friend Chloe always tells me to live a little. I get dragged out often enough to have something of a real life outside of studying, but wild parties aren't my thing."

"Good, then I'm not going to have to walk back that way," and Leo tossed a look over his shoulder, still smiling at Clark, "and find another study partner. I grew out of that, but... a lot of people here at Met U like the wild life. Big crowds, unbelievable actions... One on one always struck me as more fun."

Clark nodded, not catching the inference. "Yeah, crowds are not something I've ever been comfortable with. But then, I'm from a town in the back of beyond. I was pretty culture shocked when I first got here," he admitted, and smiled unconsciously back at Leo. "And I thought some of the stories I was told about this place were exaggeration to wind up the gullible farm-boy -- turns out they were just the tip of the iceberg."

"Metropolis is New York, Chicago, Atlanta, London and Paris all smashed together, the best and the worst parts of all of them. With a pretty good university." Leo was animated when he talked, gesturing freely with his right hand as he talked, left secured firmly under the strap of his messenger bag. "So, are you from Grandville or Smallville?"

"Smallville... is it that obvious?" Clark grinned raising an eyebrow at that deduction. "It's not like I go around with a great big S for Smallville on my chest is it?" No, he only came uncomfortably close to it with the scarred brand on his chest, now faint from exposure to sunlight.

"No, it's actually stuck to your forehead," Leo grinned, slapping Clark lightly on the back. Less of a slap and more of a pat and Clark decided he didn't mind that at all. "Well, you sound like you're from around here, but you said middle of nowhere, so... It's Grandville or Smallville, or some other town that's too damn tiny for me to know about."

"I'm surprised you've even heard of Smallville... most places smaller than it aren't even towns." Clark found himself returning the grin easily. "You sound like you're pretty familiar with Metropolis -- I wouldn't have put a place like Grandville or Smallville as your scene." There was at least partly a question hidden in the statement as Clark fished for information.

And Leo was a relaxed fish jumping right at Clark's bait. "Born and raised, and my dad wouldn't have it any other way. He's a small-time businessman in a city full of them. Investment banking. Very exciting stuff." Leo's smile slid towards tight and mocking as they walked outside and into the cloudy mid-day sky. There'd probably be a storm before the sun set.

"Sounds a little more high powered than farming," Clark replied as he mentally stored that information. "Shoveling shit in the most literal sense of the word."

"Wow, you did real farming?" Leo glanced over at him with a glint of admiration in his eyes, and then added slyly, "You must have some pretty impressive muscles."

Clark blinked a little at that, not sure entirely how to respond and opted for his 'simple country boy who can't read between the lines" act. "Well I'm pretty strong I guess, but not that impressive. It's not like I work out or anything. I can't believe that you think real farming is something interesting. Most people's eye's glaze over at the mere suggestion of crops or cattle."

"Well, I'll admit it's a little eye-glaze worthy," Leo told him. He gave a roll of his shoulders, the gesture too smooth to be a shrug, and his mouth curled almost wickedly. "But I'm one of those guys who finds the grass at least greener on the other side -- or, more interesting."

"The grass is usually greener because some hardworking farm boy has well fertilized it," Clark replied dryly, unconsciously mirroring Leo's smile with one of his own. "Always want what you can't have huh? There's probably a whole section in Psych about that."

"I bet we'll find out." Leo winked, and veered comfortably towards the main street. Mocha Joe's was just a brisk walk away from Pitts, and usually had shorter lines than Starbucks; but it was also pretty new, so Leo must've had a job in the city somewhere to know where the coffee shop was. Or, he had the usual habits of a coffee addict, and liked to know where all the best places were. "Do you live on or off campus?"

"On campus. Got a single room though. Too used to my own company I guess." Clark followed him automatically. The real reason of course, was that superpowers and roommates were never going to work, and he'd had to get a loan to cover the extra required to secure comparative privacy. "I bet you live off campus though?"

"What was the tip-off?" Leo seemed to keep almost constant eye contact with Clark, or kept trying to make it, despite somehow checking for traffic and then hurrying a bit arrogantly across the street. It was that 'hit me and I'll sue you your family, and your fucking pets' walk that so many people had in Metropolis. That Lex had brought with him to Smallville.

There, that was it, that was the connection with the familiar that tugged at him, the comparisons falling into place. Leo reminded him of Lex. Well, aside from the hair, the eye color, complexion, facial expressions, the fact he was a student whilst Lex was over in Asia putting the corporate in LexCorp. Thinking about it, they weren't that similar in fundamental things but perhaps it was just the stamp of Metropolis that was recognizable.

Clark smiled. "You remind me of a good friend of mine, and I can't imagine him in a dorm. Man, he'd be more likely to have a penthouse." He smiled as he said it, wondering what Lex was doing just then. When had he last called?

Maybe a week ago. Then again, Lex was in Hong Kong that month, and he'd said something about not having wanted to bother Clark late at night while he was eating his own breakfast. There'd been a sketchy promise of more email, but... Lex was sporadic about that when he was doing his business deals.

Besides, Lex was an important man who had a lot of more important things to do than chat with a college kid.

"Penthouse? Not in this city, at what they cost," Leo snorted as they stepped onto the sidewalk. "I've got a nice shabby apartment off of Vine."

Shabby, and living off of Vine? Sure, maybe the brick duplexes were spray-painted at the sides, but it was still pretty upscale.

"Yeah right,." Clark smiled, as he deftly avoided bumping into other passerby's whilst maintaining the conversation. "I won't tell of your secret shame of living in that neighborhood," he commented, trying not to chuckle too obviously. "If the social stigma is too much you can always come to the terribly well appointed residence of Clark Kent." It didn't bother him, but he'd found a lot of his fellow students were surprisingly conscious of status. Leo didn't seem like that type. But then he hadn't really worked out what type he did seem like yet, aside from a city-bred.

"Hey, dorms have... a certain air to them," Leo drawled in defense against Clark's own teasing of himself. "You know, the feeling that you're really going to school, that you're really doing it. Living off of them just makes it feel like some job that you're doing. Hey, figure out what you want before you get there -- my treat."

"Only if I get them next time." Clark countered, mildly amazed that somewhere along the short route from campus to there he had somehow decided there most definitely would be a next time. He felt, well, strangely comfortable with Leo for all he knew very little about him -- and that, as he discovered over the years, was a very rare thing for an alien brought up in prime freak meteor mutant growing country.

Some people he just... clicked with. Others he smiled and kept at a distance, but Leo felt like a Click. He felt like Chloe would like him -- hell, she'd probably be proud that Clark had made a friend. "All right. But you still have to make up your mind on what you want. I'd recommend the mint mochas, but you've probably been here more often than I have."

"Mint mochas sounds good. I'm not usually that adventurous when it comes to coffee," Clark admitted. "Tend to stick to the same old, same old. Chloe's the one with the fetish for trying the weird."

Leo seemed to pause, despite that he was pulling open the door of the shop and making the bell on the inside jangle. "Girlfriend?"

"No. Well... no." Clark hesitated wanting to answer that question truthfully, but not entirely sure how to go about it. "I'm not sure what she is half the time to be honest, other than a good friend."

Leo's dark eyebrows went up, but his mouth was curling again as he held the door open for Clark. "Yeah, I've known girls like that. Guys like that, too. They play hell with your emotions, don't they?"

Guys huh? Well. That was a pretty clear signal and obviously deliberate. Still, he liked the way Leo had made it subtle yet painfully obvious. "Yeah. I kept hoping I would somehow work it all out as I got older. I think it just gets more complicated as you go along." He smiled and entered the shop, breathing in the coffee rich scent. "Thanks. I think right now I'm going with the young, free, and single category. Less complicated that way," he said absently, unaware for a moment how that might come across to his new friend.

"Live it up while you can -- I hear you." But if it had come across to him in the subtext of their words, Leo either didn't notice, or gracefully accepted it. "You wait, Clark -- you'll graduate, get a job, and the next thing you know, you've got office politics to deal with and all of the cute girls -- and their numerous psychosis -- to deal with." Leo moved into the line, and pulled his wallet out of his pocket. "Grab a table?"

"Sure." Clark nodded and moved over to find one as out of the way as possible, watching Leo continuously. He moved almost fluidly, and seemed to have a presence that had the people serving the coffee responding like they never did to ordinary students. He was staring again and he nearly embarrassed himself by realizing it, snatching his gaze away to look uselessly out of the window as Leo turned and made his way back over towards him.

Two large mocha mints, in requisite paper cups with insulating cardboard wraps, were set down on the table, and then Leo slid into the chair across from Clark's, taking his messenger bag off. "The Toffee nut is pretty good, too, but this is a little less of an acquired taste than that." And then he looked at Clark with almost predatory eyes, waiting for him to take a sip.

Clark tasted the mocha with the habitual pantomime of testing for heat that was so much a part of him there was a good chance he would do it if presented with iced tea. The taste was smooth and the flavor of mint added a refreshing tang to the coffee that he took the time to savor. "Hey...this is pretty good," he said with genuine surprise. "No wonder Mom buys her own flavors and calls us a bunch of hicks for preferring instant."

The predatory gleam seemed satisfied with Clark's response, before Leo's eyes mellowed substantially, still smiling, as he took his own hasty sip. "I bet there aren't any real coffee shops in Smallville."

"Well there was one. Still is actually. It's called the Talon. Another friend of mine ran it and I worked there for a bit..." Clark replied, taking another sip of his mocha. "Well... sort of worked there. Wasn't a terribly good employee really."

"Coffee is an art form, and I'm sure you were appreciated." Leo smirked a little, and was already taking less hasty sips of his mocha mint, leaning casually forwards towards Clark as he talked. "So what do Journalism Majors do?"

"What in general? Poke their nose into other people's business." Clark shifted forward in response to that evidence of attention. "Actually, learn how to poke their nose into other people's business properly. It has to be done properly otherwise you can't be a journalist. Just a sneak." His sense of humor seemed to be taking the same turn towards the dry as it did when he was around Lex. Maybe, Clark found himself deciding, he should get to know more Metropolis city-boys.

"Like cockroaches, my father says," Leo winked. "Have you done any internships anywhere interesting? Like the Inquisitor?"

"The Inquisitor? I think I'd be disowned..." Clark replied with mock horror. "I did last summer at the Daily Planet." He settled a little and allowed himself to look a touch smug. That was the intern spot everyone wanted from the Journalism course. He'd worked hard to get that spot because they had a good track record of employing their interns if they did well. And he had done well so he held out high hopes for a proper job there when he was done studying.

"You liked it?" Leo asked, nose wrinkling just a little. There were faint freckles over the wrinkles, and they seemed to add to his smile. "They're usually cutting edge on the news, but... I don't know. I suppose I like the trashiness of the Inquisitor."

"The Inquisitor has its own appeal I guess...If I don't get a job at the Planet or the Star I'll probably be begging on my knees for the Inquisitor to give me a place," Clark grinned. "Scruples tend to erode under the necessity to eat and live."

"Scruples eroding? I'm going to pretend you didn't just say that about my favorite paper," Leo grinned smoothly. "So, you're of a higher mind than that?"

"Well it's not so much that as... well, I know people who've had first hand experience with the sort of methods reporters from the Inquisitor have used and they pretty much broke every ethical rule we've been taught." Clark shrugged casually, not wanting to disagree violently but not willing to say something he didn't believe. "I'm just not. Well... comfortable with that. Who knows, maybe they've changed."

"Maybe not," Leo shrugged, mimicking his response. "After all, it's owned by one of the Luthors, isn't it?"

"That's not necessarily anything to do with the way the paper is run," Clark replied immediately and a little defensively. "Those sorts of decisions should be made by the individual reporters themselves."

Leo just never missed a beat with his smile and his almost sly sips of coffee. "But the owner could make a mass call on ethics, right?

"Yeah...well I guess. But that would kind of defeat the object. Having a morality imposed on you would kind of...well, it would make it a false empty gesture," Clark drawled, warming to his subject and waving his hand, complete with coffee cup rather eloquently.

"Do you think they could weed out the immoral ones? Like the Planet does?"

"I think there are going to be immoral reporters in every paper like it or not. I guess they could but... well..." Clark shrugged again "I think the owner is more interested in veto rights than actually running things. The Inquirer ran some pretty damaging stories about the Luthors before they were acquired." He looked into his coffee mug, remembering some of them and how much it had affected Lex, even if his friend had tried to brush it off. If he hadn't known him, he would have thought it really meant nothing, but he knew otherwise, and truth be told, that was probably the more genuine basis for his dislike of the Inquirer, as well as his own brushes with them.

"And now, of course, only the Planet runs those stories," Leo said with a wink, and a smooth smirk in his voice. Expressive, he was damned expressive -- there were nuances to every word, subtext probably lurking behind every 'hey' that Leo gave.

And mocha-colored froth on his upper lip.

Clark was about to make a comment in reply to that and spotted the froth, and just couldn't help the quirk of his mouth upwards into an amused smile. "Man, I've never seen someone get a moustache that quickly before. You must have to shave a dozen times a day growing hair at that speed." He couldn't help himself. Leo was so smooth, calm and sure of himself that seeing him sport the city version of a milk moustache gave him a desperate urge to laugh.

"Wha--" Leo licked his top lip, a quick dart of tongue, and then his cheeks tinged a faint red while he grabbed a napkin to swipe it off. "Yeah, and I've been told it tastes oddly like coffee." He dropped the napkin onto the table, and secured the lid onto his cup, chuckling quietly to himself all the while.

Clark allowed some of that laughter to escape as well. "Sorry," he said. "Thought you'd rather know than face your public like that." His eyes drifted to the napkin and he paused a moment, taking in the fact that there seemed to be a smear of something not unlike lipstick on it. Nothing outrageous, but a definite tinge of color. Still, it wasn't like Leo had been hiding his preferences, but... yes now he looked a little more closely, there were the signs he was wearing discrete makeup. Not that this was a big problem as such, there were worse on campus, but he had to make another reassessment of his new friend to accommodate that information.

It was just a little... odd. Not that Clark wasn't used to odd, but it seemed starkly out of place with the preppie frat-boy look that Leo had. "Clark, I think the world would come to an end if I had a 'public' to face. You now... Fresh-faced young journalist, I bet when they let you loose at the Planet, you'll be able to coax interviews like that." And he snapped his fingers on the word 'that', taking another sip of his coffee. "I could walk around the lab all day with a coffee fluff mustache and I'd be stylin'."

"In biochem... yeah, maybe. What're you working on in the lab? See, witness the fresh-faced young journalist coaxing an interview."

"Organometallic compounds -- specifically, Grignard's reagent, to make certain alcohols. It's kind of dull, but I like it," Leo told him blithely, toying with the coffee cup between the palms of his tidy hands.

"Mmmm is that what you are really interested in?" Clark asked studying those hands, and fingers absently. There were no calluses except for a pen callous on his left hand, and a few odd stains that had to be from chemicals. Perfectly manicured nails.

"Well, I've spent the last couple of years self-teaching myself while I was working. So, I know everything that's being taught, but I probably don't know the most conventional means of doing it, and... Well, of course it'd be nice to have that all-important sheet of paper to back up my knowledge. My father has his doctorate, and that leaves me feeling pretty dumb that I've never graduated from college." He took another sip and started to stand up. "Hey, you want a sandwich? You said you were hungry."

"Well yeah... but I should get this. You got the coffee -- sorry, the mint mocha's," Clark said, standing up hastily. "You want something?"

"Just a brownie," Leo said, and looked fleetingly sheepish. He sat down at Clark's hasty stand.

"A brownie it is," Clark nodded, and headed off to the counter. A brownie for Leo. He ought to taste some of the Kent family special brownies if he liked them, there was nothing like them sold anywhere in Metropolis and... And, he had to stop himself and look at what he was thinking. He had met this guy, what all of a couple of hours ago and here he was planning to get his mom to make him brownies; he just seemed very aware of him, his presence all the time. He hadn't had this sort of rapport with someone so swiftly since Lex, and that had occurred under a life or death circumstance. However exciting a psychology class was, it could not be described as life or death. Unless it was really dull of course.

Thoughtfully, he got himself a sandwich and then the required chocolate brownie making his way back to the table. "There we go," he said, putting the plate down in front of him. "Metropolis's finest."

"Well, I know some places that'd argue that title, but they're fresh and warm. Almost like home-cooked, you know?" Leo took another nursing sip of his coffee, then started to break the brownie into bite-sized pieces. "So, assuming Prof. Bullock goes through a chapter a week... when would be the best times for you to get together for studying?"

"You want home cooked you should try my mom's," Clark said absently, watching Leo break the brownie apart. "Studying... yeah." Of course that had been the whole point of this coffee meeting, he had to remind himself of that fact. "Well, I don't have much in the way of anything that can't be shifted around. Wednesdays are my best day, but if that's a problem, I can manage pretty much any time."

"Mmm." Leo's brows drew together in thought, and then he popped a piece of brownie into his mouth. "Wednesday isn't really good for me. I've got lab first thing, and then two classes, and then I have a little time to get lunch and get to work."

"So... when's your best time?" Clark asked patiently. "I don't have to work like you do, so I'll work around your schedule."

"That's really great of you," Leo smiled, taking a sip of mocha again. "Fridays are usually good for me, except when I have to work late. Uh, Tuesdays are usually pretty steadily do-nothing days."

"I'm pretty much free from early afternoon on Tuesdays so... yeah, that would be fine," Clark replied, taking a bite of sandwich as he considered this arrangement. "You on campus at all day on Tuesdays? I mean... would it be better to come to mine, or me come round to yours -- or somewhere on campus or something?" He realized halfway through what he had been saying that he was babbling and covered it with another bite. The sandwich had met its match and was nearly gone already.

Leo didn't even laugh at his bumbling, just smiled and there was thought darting through warm brown eyes. "Depends -- when on Tuesday? I get off work around five."

"Well any time really. Straight after, early evening, late evening. Whatever's best for you?" Clark was dimly aware that he losing his semblance of anything remotely resembling casual interest. He sounded like he was trying to set up a date or something, for Gods sake. "Name the time and place and I'll be there," he said trying for casual.

"You have a roommate? If he's one of those loud obnoxious ones, I know a few places around campus we could go to study, but if he's not..."

"No... No, I have a single room," Clark replied "So no problems with a room mate. You want to come on over whenever is convenient?"

"Six or so, counting for traffic? Of course, there's nothing to study for tomorrow, except the advance reading." Leo polished off the brownie, pressing the crumbs into an absent ball of dough with his right hand. "Actually, I probably have to eat dinner with my father tomorrow, so that's a no go. Starting next Tuesday work for you?"

"Yeah... that would be great." Clark felt a pang of disappointment, but then he would see him in the classes the rest of that week. He got out a piece of paper from his notebook and ripped it off, hastily scribbling his room number on it, and contact details. "Here, if you can't make it you can get a message to me or something - and that's my room. It's not too hard to track down, though it's a bit out of the way."

"Thanks." Leo shifted in his seat, and pocketed the slip of paper immediately. Then he seemed to take in the scraps of food and almost finished drinks. Where others took that as a sign of time to pack it up and leave, he oddly enough settled back down, and leaned forwards towards Clark. "I'll make a point to pencil you in for Tuesdays."

"Into your busy schedule," Clark smiled, nodding in agreement. "Seriously, if you've got something on you can't get out of, you just let me know. Sounds like you have a lot on your plate. Studying, working... doesn't sound like you get to have a lot of time for yourself in there."

"Would you believe me if I said that studying is time for myself?"

"What about going out? With your friends?" Clark asked, his expression quizzical. "You can't spend all your free time studying... can you?"

Leo's good-natured smile faltered a little, even as he rested his chin on his hand and leaned into the wall a little. "I wouldn't call the people I know from work friends, and the people I knew from college are probably all dead by now, living the way they did. Or, let me say that they should be dead, but, drunk's luck, druggie's luck, it's all the same."

Clark's expression softened a little and became concerned. "I'm sorry Leo, I didn't mean to put you on the spot or anything. It's not like I've got a massive group of friends myself and I don't have the commitments that you do." He felt a little awkward; part of him felt he should be offering to pull Leo into his group, and another part wanted to keep him as his friend. He smiled again, "And after introducing me to mint mocha you've got at least one new friend." He said it lightly, jokingly even but he was watching Leo's face as he said the words, looking for something, even if he didn't know what it was.

A tip of that smile, crooked but definitely there, and Leo seemed to roll back into motion. He sat back, and then started to stand, grabbing his messenger bag. "Yeah... Hey, I'll see you on Wednesday -- we could try Starbucks then, my treat."

"Yeah, that'll be great," Clark replied getting up as well. "I'll see you then Leo. Glad you bashed my knee this morning," he said grinning boyishly. "Twice in fact."

"You're in a world of trouble if you play sports, then -- I'll probably do it at least once a week." Leo gave Clark a brief wave as he shouldered his bag, and murmured 'See you' before heading for the door.

Clark watched him go and with his departure, a peculiar sensation of 'absence' unsettled him slightly. It was the sort of sensation that occurred after he had been so in tune with enjoying the moment that he hadn't actually realized how much easy enjoyment had resulted from the chance meeting.

It was only a coffee, he reminded himself shouldering his bag and leaving Mocha Joe's. After all, how well could you really know someone or want to know them just from having a solitary mint mocha with them.?

Except Leo seemed familiar and had done a little open flirting with him, and they'd talked about... really nothing at all. Just scraps and things here and there, but it was comfortable. The first steps people took when they were first getting to know each other.

It was definitely strange. And Chloe, of course, would have an opinion about it when he told her.

Clark generally tried not to contemplate anything meaningful when he was due to meet someone -- but Chloe was late meeting him for dinner. As he sat waiting, he found his mind roaming over a vast range of topics that seemed to run off at a tangent all over the place. Currently the main topic under discussion in his head, as he sat doodling some notes in his room, was how he felt about the fact that Leo had blatantly flirted with him. With the distance and objectivity provided by a gap of time, he was starting to realize that not only had Leo flirted, but also on some strange level he had responded. And quite possibly flirted back. Well, in his own stunted manner.

It was a bizarre realization. He might, under threat of torture with Kryptonite, have admitted there was the possibility that Clark Kent, one of Smallville's finest, might possibly be just a little bit... ga- bisexual. After all, he was definitely still attracted to women. Most definitely he was attracted to women, and the only reason why he might have admitted to being just a little on the bisexual side was because of Lex Luthor. There had been an attraction between them -- there was no denying it. It was just, well, THERE, lurking like a hidden mysterious secret in a certain set of caves. Nothing had ever happened, something that had been a source of constant mixed frustration and relief to Clark at least, and he had thought that was a unique experience. An aberration in his staunch heterosexuality.

But now there was Leo, and that same attraction was there again, only now...now he was old enough to actually do something about it if he dared.

If he dared.

And Lex was still, in his own distant way, around Metropolis. But phone calls and email wasn't the same as dropping off a load of vegetables and heading home four hours later after a history lesson cum rambling discussion and six or seven games of pool. Freshman year, Lex had been there to settle Clark into Met U, show him some sights, but... still not the same. Things were always a little strained by secrets that weren't really secret. A little strained by Lex's own internal strain.

And Chloe was really late. That meant there was enough time to check his mail and see if the other reason to question his sexuality had contacted hi--

"Knock, knock, Clark -- how were classes?"

Clark startled a moment, wondering how long Chloe had been standing there, as the door behind her swung closed and she made herself at home in his room. "Pretty good. I was just about to give up on you, Chloe. Get sidetracked?" he asked, trying to sound a little annoyed.

"Sort of. I almost got hit by a car this afternoon when I tried to cross to get to class, and that pissed me off pretty badly. The bastard kept on driving, too." She crossed her legs at the knee, leaning back on her hands from her spot on the edge of Clark's bed. "But other than that, it was a really good day. I got all of the good professors."

Clark's expression shifted into one of instant concern, feeling guilty suddenly. What if the car had hit Chloe? And he'd been off having coffee, not giving her a second thought. "You're okay, aren't you?" he asked sounding distinctly worried.

"Oh, yeah, I'm just fine. I just got a gravel shower and his license plate number. Not sure what I'm going to do with it, but I have it." Even shocked and angry, Chloe had been able to get that piece of information -- disgustingly Chloe-like, if the fact that it had happened hadn't scared Clark.

That was why he had so few friends. What if something happened to one of them, and he could've been there and hadn't been because he was chatting with someone else? He had found it hard enough to keep track of the people he knew in Smallville, let alone here in the big city.

He relaxed a little, having reassured himself she really was okay. "I'm glad Chlo. You reckon it was another student?"

"Pretty spiffy looking Honda, so probably. I was going to hunt down who owned it when, well, I remembered we were going to call out for a pizza and catch up." Catching up with Chloe meant a recap of the day's events, last year's events, reminiscing and pondering on the future. Or lack of one. Or the last book either of them read.

"If anyone can track them down it'll be you," Clark replied with a faint smile. "So. Good Professors, yeah? Who've you got?"

"Blake, Williams, Snyder, and Lipscomb. She is a great professor. The first thing out of her mouth was 'I am a lesbian -- if you're a bigot, get out of my class. I can grade subjectively, and I grade bigots of any type straight to a failing grade.'

"And two guys got up and left." Chloe was grinning, the pretty, sharp smile she almost always had for Clark when she was excited. She'd been a lot freer with that look since coming to Metropolis, or maybe it was leaving Lana in Smallville.

"Professor Bullock was nowhere near as exciting, but she seemed okay." Clark nodded smiling right back, "I can't believe they actually left because Lipscomb was a lesbian, though."

"Better that they walk out of that ethics class than stick around and do a lot of unethical lying."

"Well, yeah," Clark grinned, acknowledging the point. "Anyone you know in those classes?"

"Jennifer -- you remember her from non-print Media in print? We've already decided to do the big Ethics project together. I wish you had gotten into our section, Clark." Chloe was at ease in Clark's dorm, reaching past him for his phone. "Anyone in your psych class?"

"No one I know... but I got talking with this guy who was sitting next to me," Clark said, tilting his head casually. "Called Leo. Damn, I've forgotten his last name... anyway, we had coffee and we're going to be study partners with any luck."

"Leo, huh? Jenni's having a party next Friday -- maybe you should tell him? The more the merrier." Just like that party Clark had thrown when his parents had been out of town. Oh yeah, the more the merrier. Then her attention was on the phone, while she ordered a pizza that would be big enough to feed Clark and maybe spare her a slice or two.

That suggestion gave Clark a bit of a dilemma, though he wasn't entirely sure why he was reluctant to introduce his friends to each other. Leo had given him the definite impression that wild parties were not something he liked that much anymore. "Well... I'll ask but... I don't think he's into parties that much. He had some bad experiences apparently."

"But this is just some loud music, beer and sodas, Clark," Chloe laughed. But there was a spark in her eyes, and Clark knew he should've expected her next words. He should have, just from having known her for years and years. "You must be some weird magnet for guys with L names who used to be party-freaks."

"It's not like I make a habit of it. Two is a coincidence. Now three -- three I would call a conspiracy," he replied, settling back. "So they've got some things in common," he shrugged, to show it wasn't that unusual or a big deal. "Maybe that's why I got on with him. Already experienced in dealing with guys with L names who used to be party-freaks."

She looked at him with almost pity, and gave a little nod. Pity from Chloe was enough to make Clark want to forget he'd even mentioned Leo. "You miss him, don't you? Kind of like how I miss Lana. Sort of miss her." Like she'd miss a sucking leech -- not that Chloe said it, but it was there in her smirk.

Clark gave her a skeptical look. "Your sincerity does you credit," he commented dryly, "And yeah, Lex is my friend and yeah, I miss him. You can't play pool worth a damn after all."

"Well." Chloe sat upright, puffing up like a rooster in mock offense. "Maybe Leo can play pool with you instead of me."

"He probably doesn't even play. Anyway, that was something Lex and I did. I'll wait until he's back in town again. If he ever gets back into town again before I graduate at this rate."

"Clark... We've talked about this before. You two are friends, and I'll never be able to wrap my mind around why, but he's out there making his billions, Clark, and I don't think you're that high up on his priority list." She stretched back on his bed, arms reached out over her head. "I think the first thing is 'world conquest before thirty'."

The automatic denial that Clark usually responded with was a little sluggish to come to his lips. How long could you go without contact before you got the message that the other person wasn't interested in what you were doing? "I... just worry about him. You know how often he managed to get into trouble in Smallville. "

"Maybe, but has Metropolis been anything like Smallville was? Come on, Clark -- our 'hometown' is weird central. In Smallville you'd get a pizza delivery guy who'd been bitten by a meteor infected rat. In Metropolis, you get a college kid who wants a tip."

"Either one would take your hand off quick enough," Clark quipped and looked down a bit, fiddling absently with the pen he still had in his hand. "I'm sure Lex is just... busy or something. Like you said, I'm not high in the priority list." His expression was unguarded for only a brief moment, but it was long enough to glimpse the swift flicker wounded shadows, before he looked up and smiled as if it wasn't a problem. "So... what other news have you got for me?"

"Oh, just news. Hey, do you want to get a head start on the assignment that's in the syllabus for 420?"

And thus it began. The humdrum roll of the semester, that Clark was getting more than happily used to. Pizza arrived, and Chloe paid for it; books were pulled out and sprawled on the bed, along with limbs. Somewhere in there, between eating and reading and laughter, Chloe insinuated herself against Clark's side. Toying at him, tempting him to push the envelope a little farther each time.

Leo had said he'd known girls, and guys like that. Hot one minute, cold the next. Maybe it wasn't Chloe who had the problem of hot and cold, but Clark?

It was comfortable being that way with her. Warmth, companionship, and he had to admit it, there was a spark of something there. The main problem was that he had never, in all their long friendship and forays over the edges of the boundaries of friendship, been able to work out what the particular something was. But right now, there was a little bit of a reactionary element to his behavior. The attraction to Leo and the thoughts it stirred were prompting him to respond perhaps more positively than he normally did to Chloe's teasing. It was a mistake, it always was a mistake, but Kents were optimists at the core and tended to go ahead anyway in the face of good common sense.

A tease turned into a kiss, turned into Chloe pressing against him, and his rational mind screamed for the brakes while his body was screaming for the gas pedal. But he wasn't human, and had never had a chance to test how careful he needed to be with people, and Chloe was a ball of fire, and--

And the jangle of the phone cut through the haze of hormones, and Chloe pulled back, running a hand through her hair to hastily straighten herself out.

Clark swallowed and grabbed for the phone, very much aware of his flushed features and the attention of other parts of his anatomy "Uh... hi? Clark here." Even to himself his voice sounded a little ragged.

"If this is a bad time, I can call back, Clark." Lex, it was Lex and his smooth voice and a sly, almost knowing smile in his words. It was Lex, and if he was in China, it was what time in the morning there? Too damn early to hang up on Lex.

"Lex!" Clark sat up suddenly. "No, no it's okay, it must be early over there. You okay? I was starting to think you'd been abducted or something, but then Chloe reminded me you weren't in Smallville anymore."

"I'm doing just fine. I'm actually just up early to watch the first test run of a new work of engineering that I'm toying with. It starts in half an hour, but I realized that it's actually a decent hour in Metropolis, and it's the first day of a new semester for you. How've you been?" Clark could hear footfalls. It was easy to imagine Lex pacing at a comfortably slow pace over marble tiles.

"Pretty good. Signed up for Psychology as a minor," Clark replied. "Should be interesting. How's business going out there? Going to make it back here any time soon? You owe me a rematch."

"Hopefully when I come back for Christmas this year, it'll be for good. Business is expanding, of course. A few more months, and I'll have a strong hold in the Asian technology market." Lex laughed softly, a low purr of a chuckle. "Sony, meet LexCorp. I'll bring you back a prototype, Clark, and whip your ass in pool for Christmas if you do well this semester."

"Wow, man that sounds like really big stuff." Clark felt a little ashamed of his self-pitying sense of neglect by his friend. The fact that he was even bothering to call him at all was impressive enough when put into context against deals that could make Sony nervous. "Like I'd jeopardize my scholarship by not working, but that's not going to mean you get to beat me that easy." He grinned down the phone at his absent friend, totally oblivious to Chloe momentarily. "I'll look forward to catching up then. I... know you're busy Lex."

While he chatted, Chloe was composing herself, straightening her clothes, and building a little wall of books around her that declared that Clark's moment of optimism was a dead and worthless thing.

"I'm sorry about that. I really called to tell you my new Email address. Some shit in the company leaked my main one to the media, and it's been nothing but interview requests and spam for the past month. Do you have a pen so you can write it down?"

"Yeah... yeah, sure... go ahead." Clark grabbed a pen and scribbled, feeling a lightening of his concerns. At least that explained why he hadn't responded to his emails. If he accepted the explanation at face value. Not that anything Lex said could be accepted at face value, and that was most of the trouble between them. Lies and more lies all stacked and shuffled together, but somehow they managed to stay friends. If there weren't all of those lies, why...

"Napoleon2@lexcorp.co.jp. So, how's Chloe, and the rest of them?"

"Chloe's great." Clark glanced across at her, meaning the words, and smiling as he said them. "She's taking her teachers by storm and making me work hard to keep up. She had a pretty good internship at the Star. Sounded much more exciting than my deal at the Planet."

"Way more exciting," Chloe chimed in, leaning forwards so Lex could hear her through Clark's phone. "Drug bust reporting!"

"Tell her it's good to hear that. So, what did you think of the Planet?"

"It was great!" Clark replied -- knowing he sounded enthused, but it didn't matter, not with Lex. "They've got some really top rate journalists there. There was one, not sure when she started but she's already up there doing headliners... Lois Lane I think. Anyway, her articles are sharper than hell... real cutting edge stuff. Sort of like Chloe's but pumped up some." He grinned and ducked away from Chloe as he said that.

"Don't make me throw a book at you, Clark Kent."

"Lane, Lane... Sounds a little familiar," Lex mused. Mused on a cell phone that was probably hooked up to a satellite and cost who knew how much a minute. Well, Lex knew, but he'd never tell Clark anything like that. "She probably--" Silence for a moment, and a quirk spate of what Clark could only assume was Chinese from Lex. "Clark, I have to go -- mail me?"

"Yeah... yeah sure Lex. And thanks for calling," he said, feeling a bit deflated at the cut off. He had just begun to feel like they were swinging into one of their old conversations and it was over. "I'll mail you the rest of the news, and the Smallville gossip."

"I'd appreciate it, Clark. I've missed our talks. Keep up with your studies." And then Lex was gone, with little more than the beep of the phone disconnecting. It wasn't too different than Lex had ever been. He never liked to say 'goodbye'.

"Okay, remind me that if he ever dies I'm never to mention his name," Chloe said seriously.

Clark put the phone back. "What?" he asked looking at her.

"He's the topic d' jour, and he calls you out of the clear blue, Clark. Do you have any idea how... creepily coincidental that is?"

"It's just a coincidence, Chloe," Clark shrugged. To be honest it often happened with him and Lex. He would be talking about him, and he would call. He'd often wondered if it worked the other way around when he called him. "He was due to call or something anyway, it just happened to be now. What, you suggesting that he knew he was being discussed and then phoned just to freak us out?"

"Maybe I am." She seemed deathly serious, then wriggled her eyebrows. "He has horrible timing, Clark."

"Ah..." Clark blushed a little recalling exactly what they had been doing when the phone rang. Getting a little carried away actually and pleasantly, too. "Yeah, I guess you're right," he muttered a bit lamely, not knowing whether he should apologize or invite her to carry on or just pretend it didn't happen. "Uh, I'm sorry about that."

"It's okay." But it wasn't, and some of the spark was gone from Chloe's eyes as proof of that. Hot one minute, then cold, cold, cold, and confused, all for him. "I'm going to take off early, Clark. It's been a long day, and..."

"...the mood's gone," Clark apologized again. How did this happen? Every time, every time they got close to making that spark catch a flame, something just managed to quash the moment. It always came down to this, and always he let her go and things went back to their hot and cold, to and fro. Maybe... He was feeling a little reckless, still unsettled and the warmth of what they were doing before lingered long enough to prompt him to lean forward again and give her a soft kiss and murmured, "Thanks for coming over, Chlo."

"My pleasure..." And she blushed as she swayed closer for a moment, and sighed, "Clark. Are we... what are we, Clark?"

"I...don't know Chloe," Clark replied, looking at her as if trying to fathom the answer from her expression, from her eyes. "Always friends. And maybe, that's the problem. I've never wanted to lose that...Never wanted to risk going too deep just in case... well, y'know." In case he lost the friendship in screwing up a relationship that would have to be based on a lie.

"I know." Chloe looked so hurt, as she slipped her papers away into her bag. Hurt because of him, because he wanted to be friends with extras when she wanted more. She deserved more, too, he knew that but was just as afraid that denying her what she wanted would lead to the same result. "I'll see you in class tomorrow morning, Clark. 'Night."

"Night, Chloe." Clark said that helplessly as she turned to leave. God, he was completely hopeless when it came to anything remotely resembling a love life. She did deserve more, but he'd never been able to shed the nagging feeling that when she got what she wanted, she'd find it wasn't what she needed and he would have lost her completely, as a partner and as a friend. But he couldn't keep on hurting her like this, not forever. He'd have to eventually put his foot down, or let her have what she thought she wanted. But the wavering he was doing was going to drive a stake of unexplainable angst right between them.

It didn't help that she slammed the door on her way out.

It always came down to this. Sitting alone in his room at the end of a night. Smallville, Metropolis... same difference. Lana, Chloe, Lex... whoever always walked away at the last, and he, more to the point, let them. He could look at how he treated Chloe and he was ashamed of himself. Admittedly, it hadn't on the whole been deliberate, but it was almost as if fate had designed a specific template for him to rub in at every turn how much he had wanted Lana as opposed to her. She never seemed to see the other side, however hard he tried to explain it. That she was one of his best friends, and he hadn't walked away from that whereas he had walked away from Lana.

Girls. Some days it seemed like his mom was the only one he understood.

"Knock, knock -- anyone alive in here?" Seven o' clock on the dot, so there could be no one other than Leo could be the one knocking on his door on a Tuesday night.

Class had been going smoothly, but there was a 'minor' -- or so the professor dared to call it -- test on the first chapter on Wednesday. So the all-encompassing importance of studying that night was there, along with a chance to talk with Leo.

Leo had done 'lunch' with him after every class period, talking about anything that seemed to catch Clark's attention. Or anything at all. He flirted smoothly, but not as subtly as Lex ever had, gave a lot of slow, appreciative smiles, and was touchy without crowding Clark or making it uncomfortable.

And Clark was slightly discomfited to discover how much he enjoyed that simple attention. There were no complicated histories involved, no expectations or strange behavior to work around; just two guys who seemed to be getting on really well. Remarkably well considering the short period of time they had known each other.

Clark blurred rapidly around the room, giving it a split second cleaning and then opened the door. "Come on in Leo," he said smiling at his new friend. "You had a chance to eat yet? I can order something for while we're studying."

"I grabbed a coffee on my way over." Leo gestured with it, and immediately glanced around Clark's room. Coffee had already proven to be a sixth food group for Leo. "Damn, this place is really clean. How dare you have a clean dorm room, Clark. Where's the underwear that's supposed to be tossed over the headboard?"

"Stuffed hastily in a closet, if you must know. Surface impression, I'm not a neat freak or anything. Most definitely not."

"I've seen your book bag," Leo agreed, "so I guessed not. Can I just toss my bag down anywhere, or will that start an avalanche?" He closed the door behind him mindfully, smiling easily as he looked around the room again and, yes, seemed to be taking note of every damn little thing. Cataloguing it. Leo did that sometimes in class -- he blamed his scientific side.

"Anywhere you want. Sorry, the room's not that big. I tend to use the bed as my main study area." Clark decided to prove the point by sitting up at the top end, his back against the wall, leaving enough room for Leo if he wanted to sit there, but there was a chair and table available as well if he wanted to take that instead.

Leo set his bag on the floor, and knelt with it to unzip his ever-present laptop free. For all that he had a pen callus on his fingers, Clark had never seen him actually use a pen. "Are you going to introduce me to everyone?" he grinned a little, and gestured to the photographs on the wall.

"Yeah, sure." Clark was mildly surprised and a little self conscious as he leaned across and gestured to the pictures.

"This is my Mom and Dad on our farm. In the middle of nowhere even in Smallville," he smiled, fleetingly remembering he had to call them sometime this week. It was the picture of the three of them, taken by one of Pete's older brothers.

"This is Lana Lang and Pete, one of my best friends. Man, I had it bad for Lana most of the way through high school." He shrugged looking a little pained. "It didn't work out. I mean... seriously it really didn't work out... and Pete is at college way across country." Then he pointed at a more recent photo that had him in amongst a group of other students. "That's me with Chloe, my closest friend here... the blonde one, and her group of friends. And that's me with one of my other best friends, Lex." He smiled as he looked at it. It was one of the rare photos when his friend actually looked genuinely relaxed as they played pool. "That's the lot really."

"Cue-sticks -- very Freudian," Leo chuckled softly, standing up, but only after he'd plugged his laptop into Clark's wall socket. Then he did the same double-take that picture had been getting since Clark had hung it up on the wall, and the next words from his mouth were predictably, "Wait, Lex Luthor? Whoa."

"Well, yeah," Clark said, still getting a twinge of embarrassment. He could almost see the mental comparisons that people did when they saw the picture. Clark Kent, farm boy nobody, Lex Luthor, billionaire playboy. Yeah, let the imagination run riot. How well do they really know each other?. "He started off his own company in Smallville. I... kinda got to know him when he arrived."

"Wow. That's pretty cool." Leo twisted to look at Clark, his warm brown eyes looking appraising. "Pretty cool, too, that you don't use his name. Because in Metropolis, it's as good as waving gold in someone's face. You're really a great guy, Clark."

Clark shifted a little bit uncomfortably. "Well, it wouldn't be right. I mean, we're friends and..." Damn, but it was difficult to explain how he felt about the money thing with Lex. Early on, he'd half resented the fact that his parents had stopped him from accepting Lex's generosity, but now in some ways he was glad. It was almost like he had passed a test somewhere along the line. "Our friendship has never had anything to do with his money... and I'd kinda like to keep it that way." He felt a bit awkward spelling it out like that but he had found that there were some people who saw his connection to Lex as a potential funnel to unlimited wealth.

Leo just smiled, deflecting awkwardness like some of his mom's pans deflected crusty bits. "And that's really great, Clark -- I knew you were a clean-nosed sort of guy, and I was right. Okay. Have you had dinner yet?"

"Well, you know me. My capacity for food is legendary." Which was a polite and indirect way of saying no he hadn't. "Changed your mind about food?"

Leo shifted to sit at the end of Clark's bed, balancing his laptop on his lap as he settled cross-legged. "No? Maybe. What'd you like to have -- my treat."

"They do a pretty good pizza around here." Clark suggested getting the books out and picking up the phone. He smiled, they'd already settled into a pattern of give and take; if Leo bought this, Clark would pick up the tab next time they had lunch. He didn't even argue it now. "Want anything in particular?"

"Whatever you like on your pizza. I'll probably only have a slice or two." Leo was a light eater, and a heavy coffee drinker; it probably wasn't healthy, but he seemed healthy enough. A hum broke into the room, his laptop buzzing to life. "You know, your friend Chloe looks pretty familiar."

"Yeah?" Clark queried as he dialed the pizza place and ordered hastily. He barely had to tell them the order, after he'd given them the name and he looked a little sheepish as he put the phone down. "You know her? Or seen her around? She's pretty active on campus."

"Actually, I think I almost hit her with my car," Leo admitted, scuffing a hand through his hair sheepishly. "Probably wasn't her."

"Man...you didn't? Last week? She said she had a near miss just after we had coffee."

Leo's face blanched, a sure sign that he had. "Damn, yeah, that'd be me. Fuck. Was she okay?"

"Yeah, she was a little steamed about it though. Had your license and everything," Clark said relaxing a bit. "How'd you nearly hit her?"

Leo looked a little shaken talking about it, which was proof to Clark that it had been entirely an accident. Not that Clark hadn't been around maniacal drivers before. "I was coming around a corner -- I was a bit late to a meeting with my father, wasn't thinking. Can I get her number so I can apologize to her sometime? I feel really bad about this..."

"Well, she'll be okay. Actually, she sort of invited you to a party on Friday this week," Clark shrugged. "I told her I wasn't sure if it was your thing or not any more."

Leo looked thoughtful, but still nervously pale. He leaned back against the footboard of Clark's bed, and idly opened a couple of files on his laptop. "I'm not sure. Are you going to be there, Clark?"

"Well, I thought I might go for a bit," Clark replied. "But, like I said, I'm not a big party guy. I sort of do the... looming in corners thing quite well, so Chloe tells me."

"Wall flower. Sounds like fun." Leo shifted a little, and stretched one leg out in a comfortable stretch. "I'm not sure what I do at parties anymore, but if it's going to be a quiet one, I suppose we could find out...?"

"Well look, if you do come and you don't want to stay, I'll make it clear to Chloe that as I invited you, I'll leave with you okay? Jenni is her friend after all... so once I've made an appearance we don't have to stay." Clark realized that he actually wanted to see more of Leo, and the studying was great but they did actually have to work. He might be different when he wasn't being so serious and in a different atmosphere.

He might be more relaxed? Leo was relaxed, sure, but there was calm and easy going, and then there was relaxed. Clark still didn't know much about him -- he had a job, and it was pretty time-consuming, and he had a father, and had admitted that Leo was the nickname he'd taken on because his father had named him Napoleon.

For a week of pretty constant conversation, it wasn't much to know about a person.

"Okay, that'd work. So I'll meet you here on Friday?" Leo was shifting to sit by the headboard with Clark, so he could see the screen of his laptop.

"Yeah. Sure. About eight then. We better actually do some work here as we've got that test tomorrow. I don't want to flunk psych before I've even had chance to get off the ground."

"There's not a chance in hell I'll let you flunk psych, Clark." Leo settled beside him, shifting so his laptop was in his lap, and he was leg against leg with Clark. Touching, flirting with an open-handed offer that never got offended when Clark didn't take it. "Okay. So in the first part of chapter one..."

It became obvious to Clark as they studied together that Leo was very intelligent. Almost scarily so. He didn't need anyone to help him study, that was for sure. Clark knew he wasn't a slouch either, and his ability at speed-reading and increasing memory helped a great deal, but he did begin to wonder exactly why the studying was necessary for Leo. Not that he was going to say anything to jeopardize it, but it did the beg the question of what reason was there for him to be there? Eventually, after Leo breezed effortlessly through the section dealing with principle abnormal personality traits, he exhaled a mock sigh and said mournfully, "Man, you know this stuff already!"

"Maybe," Leo admitted, glancing to the side at Clark with oddly unreadable eyes. He looked like he hadn't expected anyone to call him on it. "It's all sitting in the back of my mind, pretty unused."

"Not that I'm objecting Leo, because there's plenty in it for me," Clark said meeting his eyes and holding the gaze with his own. "But what's in this for you? I mean, it's not like I'm able to help you much."

For a moment, Leo had that tightly studious look that Lex wore when he was dancing at the edge of a lie, dancing at it and deciding against it. The wheels of diplomacy creaking uneasily, weighing the moment. "I think you're great to talk to. And it does help me review the class."

"Well I'm glad to see I'm partially useful," Clark smiled a little. "Just try not to hit me too hard when I'm being dense about something okay?" He felt unaccountably warm. The guy had pretty much admitted he was doing this to see more of him, which would mean he was interested. Most of the time, it was all he could do to get Chloe to stay a few hours, or get a phone call per month out of a friend. He had to admit that was pretty flattering and certainly fuel for that endless internal debate that hadn't stopped since he had first met Leo.

"Hey, maybe I'm doing a scientific study on stupidity, too?" Leo laughed softly, edging against Clark with his shoulder. "Do you want that last slice of pizza?"

"You come to the right place for that then," Clark said all too easily. "No, go ahead have it. My Mom would be horrified anyway."

"Horrified why?" Leo asked as he reached past Clark, stretching over him, to grab the slice from where they'd tossed the box earlier.

"Total lack of healthy food," Clark replied looking at the empty pizza box, and then stole the crumbs out of the bottom. "Bad habits."

"Part of the college experience. Since I see no kitchen, and the cafeteria food is inedible, pizza ought to be a way of life." Leo leaned too close to Clark as he sat back and then he was beside Clark once more, neatly eating that last luke-warm slice.

"Yeah, well, Mom is the cooking queen," Clark smiled. Pulling away would be rude, it seemed. So he didn't and the contact was comforting. More than comforting. Downright stimulating, not to put to fine a point on it and receiving votes from his body that this was a good way to spend an evening. Inwardly of course there was a small Clark voice asking what the hell he was doing -- hadn't he been on this very bed kissing Chloe not that long ago?

But Leo wasn't giving off any of Chloe's vibes of expectancy -- expecting everything from a kiss to marriage years down the line. Leo was just a guy in a t-shirt and jeans who was eating pizza after a study session that he'd stopped in for on his way home from work.

Not that he looked like he'd been at work.

"Really? Stereotypical farm-cooking?"

"Well she's pretty adventurous, but Dad doesn't go in for anything too fancy." Clark relaxed a little, doodling on his notes randomly. "Got a favorite food aside from lukewarm pizza?" he asked at random, his thoughts straying from work now they were nearly done.

"Mmm. Let me see..." Leo closed his eyes, mouth tipped up in a smile as he paused in his eating. "Warm bread. When I was little, me and my parents used to stop in a bed and breakfast out in the country, and they had the best warm bread -- fresh and everything."

"Mom does good fresh bread. Except I practically eat the whole thing myself." Clark leant back, folding his arms behind his head and contemplating the ceiling. "You'll have to try it sometime; though I doubt Smallville would appeal to you, being a Met... what do you call someone who's born and bred in Metropolis anyway? Metropolite? Metropolitan?"

"Metropolian." It was hard to tell if he was joking or not. "Don't know. Hell, Smallville might've been the city we stopped in."

"Metropolian. Hmm, sounds like a flavor of ice-cream." Clark mused deciding he liked the sound of Leo laughing. "You have a secret hankering for plain farm produce?"

"Oh, I might. Grass being greener on the other side, all of that. I mean, you guys have got grass where you come from. We've got a couple of parks, but I've never seen anyone mow them. They're probably Astroturf." Leo closed his laptop, simultaneously polishing off the crust of the pizza.

"Grass, corn, animals... dirt. We've got dirt, lots of it," Clark reminisced, amused by his memories. "I used to do the deliveries for Mom and Dad. I'd end up at Lex's and be embarrassed to go in because I might track mud in everywhere."

"Bet he didn't care," Leo supplied easily. "It was probably fascinating to see real dirt."

"Hey, I'll have you know that Lex was pretty good at shoveling dirt," Clark protested. "He stayed for a while and my dad, well he's not that keen on the Luthor family, and he gave him every shitty job he could find. Mom was a bit annoyed with him actually for doing that, but in the end he had to admit even he was impressed."

Leo's smile grew to a grin, and he shifted to better face Clark, still grinning. "Really? I would've paid for pictures of that. Lex Luthor and I were in sort of the same party circles. I could never imagine him shoveling anything."

"You know Lex?" Clark turned and glanced at him and exhaled, thinking back to the all to brief phone conversation and the email he sent that was still waiting a reply. "Well, he's not what a lot of people think he is."

"Most people aren't, Clark," Leo said in a perfectly agreeable tone. He laid his laptop on the bed, and drew one leg comfortably up to his chest. "I don't know him any better than you knew anyone on the rich kids party-circuit. I probably had sex with him a couple of times, but..."

That startled him. Perhaps it should have occurred to him, but he hadn't even considered the possibility that they might have known each other like that. "Y-you had sex with him?" Clark turned to look at Leo more closely. He bit off the next part of what he was going to say, if only because it was ranging from questions such as, 'what was it like?' to the 'Was he good?' and all the variants in between.

Leo's eyebrows were quirked up, but his nod was serious. "Club Zero. It's closed now, but... Good memories, bad memories, all in one."

Clark nodded slowly. "Yeah, I'm guessing that's what Lex would think, too." His eyes darkened, shrouded by the memories of a nearly too late rescue connected with Lex's past and that place. It terrified him. It was a thought that constantly haunted him that one day he would be too late to save him, or Chloe, or his parents; that Cassandra's vision of him alone in a graveyard of his loved ones was a prophecy waiting to be fulfilled if he slipped up. He belatedly realized that he must have looked unnaturally solemn for a moment and he forced a half smile. "Leo, uh, you mind if I ask something?"

"Sure, shoot."

Clark chewed his lip a moment, wondering whether he could really ask this, and then he considered the fact that who else could he ask? Chloe would fly off the handle, Mom - well she would probably be okay, but asking this sort of thing of your parents was hard. Chewing on a meteor rock would probably be more comfortable. Lex might see it as leading to something more complex, and he didn't know if he was ready for more complex, and Pete would get weird on him. No, Leo was at the right balance of openness and distant enough to ask without it getting too difficult. Even so. "What's it like?" he blurted out having screwed his curiosity up into a point, and then clarified, seeing Leo's quizzical expression at his vague question. "With a man?"

"Wow, right for the million dollar question," Leo chuckled. He stretched, then let his expressive hands settle folded in his lap. "It depends on the guy. It's like any sex in that aspect -- it can be really good, or it can be really shitty. But by default, most guys can suck cock better than a girl could hope to."

"Why? I... mean is there a reason for that?" Clark felt himself practically setting light to the furniture with the embarrassment flushing up his body, but he kept his voice level. God, he didn't want to sound like an idiot here, but it was practically going to happen however he played it so he might as well be honest about how ignorant he was of the whole thing. In earlier days, he probably would've caught Leo on fire with his heat vision. Thankfully someone was taking a moment to stop fiercely spiting his life.

"Well, you know how you like things, right? Who better to know a guy's anatomy than another guy?"

"That does make a strange sort of sense," Clark agreed, chewing over the thought with more than a hint of interest. "Is that...well is that the best thing?"

"Clark, you look kind of nervous. Would you prefer I tell you this from a chair, say, over there?" And Leo pointed towards the other side of the room, smiling only a little -- he was being dead serious.

"No, I think I'd be just as nervous wherever you are." Clark gave a short laugh at the understatement, already hearing his thoughts chasing each other. It was funny to be panicked by the mere act of discussing it with someone aside from his internal monologue. "I can't actually believe I'm asking it to be honest."

"It's all right -- everyone has a little curious streak to them." Leo seemed to relax at that, smirking at Clark a little. "Okay, yeah, I'm a blow-job man. Giving, getting, it's all great. Anal sex... I like giving and getting it, but it's got its own set of complications and most guys aren't too careful."

Clark frowned "How so?" he asked cautiously.

"How so what?"

"Guys not being careful?" That was one thing he did constantly worry about in any sex, that he would inadvertently hurt the other person. He couldn't bear the thought of that, and that natural reticence had limited his sexual experience to a minimum. What if he lost control during orgasm or something? What would that do to his partner? It would be very difficult to have sex with anyone without letting him or her in on his secret first if he was going to be fair to them.

And did he really just think 'him or her'?

"Well, you know the back-end is pretty much a one way path, right?" Leo's cheeks colored a little, presumably at the topic they were discussing. "Sometimes the other guy doesn't take enough time to loosen it up, other times they do, but it doesn't matter since they go wild. Which can be good, sometimes."

"Yeah, but it could hurt the one receiving. Not so good," Clark replied thinking hard about it. He couldn't chance losing it like that with someone, it would have to be him on the receiving end if. He inhaled sharply, shocked by the fact that he had just actually given serious consideration to that as a possibility, and then quashed the thought hastily.

"Maybe, but..." Leo squinted at Clark for a moment, looking thoughtful. "You okay, man?"

"Yeah... yeah." Clark was trying very hard to hide the nervous tremor in his voice and cleared his throat. "No big deal right? Just curious. I mean, you... and Lex seem pretty happy with it so, I guess I wondered what all the fuss was about."

"Well, it's sex, and I think you understand the fuss about that," Leo winked. "But also... I don't know. I like women and men, but it always feels like I can get closer to guys than girls. I know how they think, and it's less 'the game of love' than being comfortable."

"Man, I could do without games," Clark agreed fervently. "I just feel... totally confused all the time. I do something I think is the right thing and then I'm told I'm being hurtful or something, as if I planned it. It's like being put in a room full of glass ornaments and there's no room to even breathe without upsetting one of them - and when you lunge to save one, somehow you upset another, so you try to catch that one, and another goes down... and it never seems to stop, you spend all your time running from one crisis to another but you know if you stop the one you miss will... shatter."

Leo only had a sympathetic nod. "Some relationships... some people are like that. Like they expect you to be able to read their mind and know what they want -- what they need. That's not really a gender specific thing. Some people are just high maintenance, even when you do love them..."

Clark laughed. "I expect most of my Smallville friends would say I was high maintenance. That I mess around with them, demand a lot of them."

"But do you? You seem pretty low-maintenance," Leo mused.

"I demand their trust," Clark replied with an audible sigh. He glanced at Leo and shrugged a little. "That's it. But it's a pretty big thing."

"Trust is a pretty big thing. But it's good to have. I mean, the last thing you need is someone prying at you when you only have the best intentio--"

A cell phone rang out, Ride of the Valkyries sounding in the room. Leo grinned, and slid to his feet, to retrieve it from his bag. "Sorry about this, Clark -- it's probably work."

Clark nodded, feeling a peculiar sense of resonance with the past as he watched Leo take the call. That always seemed to happen with Lex. Business called, friendship was secured firmly into the back seat. Thinking about it though, didn't he do something similar to Chloe? In one of their not so good moments, she'd yelled at him that he needed to get his priorities straight, that she was sick and tired of being second choice...

But there were people dying out there, and it was bad enough that he couldn't save them all. All he asked was that she trust him that she wasn't second choice, that first choice wasn't a choice at all.

"Saturday, right, inspection -- yes, yes, I'll be there. I'll be there." Leo cupped his free hand over his mouth as he spoke into the phone, as if that would somehow make it more polite.

Clark could tell the signs from experience. Leo was going to have to go now, business and success called and such things as hanging out with his friends became minor considerations. Clark halfheartedly packed up the books on the bed into tidy piles, just for something to do as the phone call continued. Things had been going so well, and here he was sliding into depression because the guy had other things to do than stay here him. Which was a stupid thing to think, as he had been the one to point out that Leo didn't actually need to study with him. He should just be grateful that he decided to have anything to do with him at all. Like the whole situation with Lex, where he had learnt to be grateful for what contact he might get as and when it came on Lex's terms. And then again, he was also aware that he seemed to spurn Chloe's offers of more.

God, he was a mess, and now the easy atmosphere that had allowed him to ask such controversial questions had soured.

Leo cut the call easily, and dropped the phone back into his bag. "Now, where were we-- oh, I guess we're done." He glanced at Clark's tidying job with a bit of a puzzled expression.

"Uh yeah. I mean, we've done the chapter right? And you've had a call...so." Clark shrugged a little as if it didn't matter to him.

A frown tugged at Leo's mouth, but he nodded and moved to put his laptop back in his bag. "Yeah, I guess so. It wasn't anything urgent, but..." But he could take the hint from the signals Clark was giving out -- time to go signals, even if that wasn't what Clark had meant. He'd just assumed that Leo would leave anyway. "I'll see you tomorrow, then."

"Yeah. Thanks for coming round Leo," Clark said, getting up to politely see his friend out. "And putting up with all my lame questions." He smiled a little at that -- the fact they had managed to discuss it without too much mutual embarrassment was a good sign. "I really appreciate it."

"No problem. Any time you want to ask me anything..." Leo stood up, shouldering his bag. He headed towards the door, too, and left after he said, "Just ask."

At least that was normal for Leo. He never said 'goodbye'.

Clark closed the door, sat and then lay back on the bed. It was a sign of how disturbed he was, that gravity slipped his leash and he floated a few inches above the surface as he closed his eyes.

Leo had left. It had produced a bittersweet taste to the evening, which was ridiculous.

Of course he was going to leave at some point, it wasn't like he would have stayed all night...and that really was a possibility he should not be thinking about. Those questions were just curiosity finding a source from that tiny part of attraction that he experienced for Lex. Okay, okay and a little bit for Leo as well, though it was easier to be more open with Leo. Less history, less trust issues, not expectations of pulling a miracle save out of the bag and then having that second guessed as well. In a strange way, he felt that the fact that he experienced something for Leo validated what he had been suppressing for Lex. Which was just typical considering the man wasn't even in the country.

He sighed as he opened his eyes and accidentally looked through the ceiling before he reined in his vision. Out of the options of exploring a totally new issue of whether he might be interested in guys or whether to go further with women. Wouldn't it just be easier to give Chloe what she wanted? What would that do to them if he did?

More games, and then he'd have to explain to her who... what he was.

And as funny as he was about trust issues, he just had an inkling of a twitch that he couldn't tell her. He'd known her too long now to tell her, and what if she ran cold on him one day and ran all the way to the government?

Man, he'd be her Holy Grail. The Wall of Weird would topple under the weight of revelation and he had a vision of Chloe sitting on the resulting pile of rubble typing the headlines of "Aliens Among Us". Perhaps that's what it came down to in the end. He knew Chloe. He knew that a story such as 'Clark Kent, He Came from Beyond Space!' in 32 point bold type would always win out over, 'Clark Kent, the Love of My Life' in small discrete and forever-secret font.

That pretty much said it all. There were some people he could trust with his secret -- Pete, his Mom, his Dad. He knew they'd die rather than give him away, and that made it worse. That meant that that was the standard everyone else had to live up to when it came to earning his trust. It was strange really, everyone was always so pissed off over his secretiveness that simple things like saving their lives were dismissed without a second thought. Even the bits that were acceptable, that could be remembered or admitted to were brushed off because Clark Kent wouldn't spill all his secrets.

That hurt, but it was a hurt he could never take anyone to task over because of those same damn secrets.

He dropped to the mattress again as he sat up, his thoughts racing, determined to exhaust themselves chasing around the inside of his head. There was no way that he'd be able to sleep that night, exam the next day or not. It seemed like a good day to sneak outside of the dorm and do a patrol over the area. It wouldn't be out of the ordinary.

The other people on his floor were used to Clark Kent's late night walks. Besides he was a student, and students didn't need a reason to be out late.

Patrol had successfully occupied his mind for a large portion of the night. He even got to bust up a fight and stop a potential attack, which had helped to settle his mind somewhat. Things like that were simple, dealing with right and wrong, black and white rather than tangled messes of emotion and speculation. However, when he did get back and get some sleep, his dreams were obviously not ready to let go of the subject he'd broached with Leo, leaving him with some serious business to take care of when he woke up, unaccountably warm and flustered.

Or very accountably flustered and aroused. He woke up with that falling sensation that meant he'd been floating, and was glad that the frame of the dorm's bed was steel.

That didn't solve the problem of his erection or his dreams. It was Leo's fault that he had the lingering image from that dream of Lex on a dance floor, Lex and then Leo on the dance floor, and positions that he'd only seen while surfing porn. Leo was easier to imagine dancing, fucking, anything, than Lex was. Lex was aloof, cool and suave. It was hard to imagine him as a wild teenager, at least o the frat sort.

Clark got up carefully, wondering if he had time to try and let it fade. A morning hard on for him could be a genuine problem, having the resilience to rip cloth or hammer in nails if it came down to it. A sharp turn at the wrong time, a rip in his pants and the world would be saying good morning to Clark's impressive erection in all its glory. These were things that he had unfortunately learnt from experience, even if it had left his Mom and Dad laughing hysterically in the kitchen as he hit the super speed upstairs to take care of the problem. That left him with two options: checking his mail and hoping it would fade, or jerking off now and then going to class.

But would he be able to go to his classes, and see Leo later, after having jerked off to thoughts of him?

His desktop, shiny and decently fast when turned on, beckoned to him.

Mail -- as opposed to male -- it would be then. He sat at the computer, listening to the hum and whir of the machine booting up, going through the start up login automatically. As he did so, he absently made bets with himself to see if Lex had responded to his mail telling him a bit about Chloe, and then about Leo as well. If not he could at least write and say that he thought that Leo might know him.

In the biblical sense of the word.

That really wasn't a thought that was helping his self-imposed mission. Of course, there was a large part of his mind telling him what an alluring picture that would make -- same part, he guessed, that had influenced his dream.

Geeks Gone Wild?

No, no, even though it might've been true...

Outlook dutifully reported that 10 new messages had arrived -- some automated messages from the campus, spam to extend his penis by real inches -- as opposed to fake inches? -- and one mail from Lex.

Awesome.

He found himself grinning as he clicked on the mail, absently noting it was a reasonable size, so maybe Lex had managed to catch up with his news all in one. It seemed an age since he'd seen him though, email couldn't make up for that.

Napoleon2@lexcorp.co.jp wrote:

It was good to talk to you on Tuesday (Monday night, your time); sometimes I forget what you sound like, and it's refreshing to hear a familiar voice like yours.

Business is going well, and you'll probably see LexCorp in some of the bigger electronics shows next month. The latest project will break ground in January, and I fully expect it to revolutionize the world.

But, tell me what you think about rodents -- Mice, or gerbils, Clark? (Don't make that face. This is a serious question.)

You really pick the girls, Clark. Lana Lang was a beautiful lady, and I remember that Chloe is a sharp reporter. But have you ever considered that maybe all of the trouble you've been having with them is a celestial sign that neither of them are right for you?

I'm probably not the man to come to for romance advice any longer. You know -- Desiree, Helen. I actively recommend brain-dead one-night stands right now, and you're certainly in the right city for it.

Tell Napoleon that I say 'hello' and to congratulate him for dodging prison and being employed. We used to bond over our fucked up father-son relationships, way back in college.

Sorry this is so short -- I have a meeting to get to. But write back, Clark.

LL

Clark grinned and clicked on reply, letting his fingers fly in a blurring rattle over the keyboard, almost too fast for the computer to keep up with;

Was beginning to think you'd done something drastic like lost your laptop Lex - thanks for the mail!

It was great to hear from you too, but I think I'm repeating myself there so I'll move on to more interesting things before you delete the mail out of boredom.

Glad to hear things are looking good with LexCorp. If I had money, I'd be investing in shares about now. Maybe I'll get to hear about what you are going to wow the electronics shows with sometime? Anything you've designed?

Gerbils or mice? Do I really want to know why you are asking that? Okay, okay I can practically see you smirking over there. Hamsters are my preference for nice rodents. I always wanted one after Pete got one when we were young but Dad had this tendency to regard rodents as vermin. I could never persuade him that they were any different than the rats in the barn.

Yeah, I know... the stuff with Lana is over. She made that really clear last time we spoke. Remind me to fill you in on the details of that one day. Lets just say, it wasn't that pleasant. I've written a couple of times to her and she's blanked me. I think that relationship died before it ever had a chance to live. As for Chloe... I still don't know. I mean, there is something there Lex, more than just being really good friends. Still confused about that and now there are other things coming into the mix.

Not sure if I'm the one-night-stand type Lex, but... right now I'm getting so screwed up over it all I might just go with that advice. See you are helping after all!

I'll tell Leo 'hi' from you - I've managed to persuade him to drop into a party with me for Jenni on Friday - Maybe I'll get some stories about you out of him, practice my journalistic ambition! He's a great guy -- you two have a lot in common, more than comparing parents and all. Maybe that's why I find him easy to get on with. I better get going; I have an exam in about 15 minutes for Psychology. If I hurry I can cram.

Write back when you can - but I know you're busy over there so don't stress over it

CK

He hit send, and made sure his outbox kicked it out to the server before starting to shut down the computer. He probably wouldn't hear from Lex for a couple more days, but he did have things to think over from Lex's letter.

The advice about one-night stands was probably a joke, and the thing about mice or gerbils was just insane. Or inane. Or Lex might've been perfectly serious. Out of the two...okay make that three, but only two of them were accessible, people he was interested in, a one night stand was vague potential with one of them. But that would be more than just casual sex, that would be lapsing into a whole new and terrifying area of sex completely, so it might just be best to stick with what he vaguely know. And...

And damn if he didn't get moving, super speed or not, he'd be late!

Thursday morning breakfast with Chloe was less relaxing than usual; she was giving off vibes of expectancy for some reason, all the while discussing everything but the reason for that. She'd chattered to him about the psych exam, their project for 420, her project with Jenni, and finally it swung towards the Party just around the time that they settled into a table at the student center.

"So, did you talk your mysterious Leo into going to the party?"

"Yeah, well at least for a drop in." Clark nodded and drank down his juice, grimacing at the fact that it was a little pulpy. "I promised if he came and he felt a bit weird I wouldn't leave him hanging out to dry. "

Chloe took a stab at her French toast, looking at him with something between a frown and a curious look. "Would you do that for me, Clark?"

"Well, yeah Chloe." Clark glanced up at her a little uncomfortably, knowing she was thinking of at least one occasion when he had appeared to ditch her. He was in a tornado at the time, which would have been a good excuse if he could have admitted to it. "Let it not be said that I don't learn from my mistakes."

"I sometimes wonder if you do, Clark." Chloe edged towards a smile, thoughtful as she ate her rubbery breakfast. That was one of the more interesting parts of meal plan food early in the morning. "But I'll let you off the hook about that. I know that I won't need rescuing from the party, not this one."

"Yeah? Know something I don't?" Clark asked, poking at a fried egg suspiciously to see if it was fake or not. He decided to eat it anyway, even if his testing hadn't been conclusive. It wasn't like it was going to kill him even if it was fake.

"Well, of course. It's Jenni's party," she said as if that explained it all. Maybe Chloe was bisexual, too. She seemed to talk about Jenni an awful lot... Or maybe that was just Clark's ever-hopeful head voice chiming that idea in. "Hey, think you can help me with some research after class?"

"Sure. What on?" Clark asked, still distracted enough by the mental image of Chloe and Jenni to respond without his normal caution. Normally he knew better than to agree to help Chloe just like that without finding out what it all about. Because wouldn't it be great if the research were Chloe and Jenni and--

"I tracked down the tags on that car. They belong to one 'Napoleon Byrne', aged 26. He had a Met U parking tag on his car, so I'd bet anything he's a student here -- help me track him down."

Clark paused, forkful of wobbly white plastic looking fried egg partway to his lips. Oh, man yes- Leo nearly running over Chloe, he'd forgotten about that!

"Uh... yeah. That'll be... Leo. Napoleon, is Leo," Clark replied, aware that he sounded as if he had been involved somehow. He could see Chloe's expression and realized that stopping there would be tantamount to admitting he was involved in some sort of 'accident near miss' cover-up conspiracy.

"He saw a picture of you in my room and said he'd had a near miss...and I told him about you nearly getting run over on the Monday and we realized it had been him probably. And, well he asked me to give him your number so he could apologize and I... well I used the fact he could apologize in person to get him to come to the party." He cleared his throat nervously, trying to hide from the urge to duck behind the table for protection.

"Oh, good. I can scream at him in person, then." Chloe was blinking at Clark, leaning towards him across the table. "Because your new friend can't drive for shit, and is there any reason why you didn't TELL me this?"

"I didn't find out until late Tuesday night, yesterday I had the Psych exam and that essay due in... I forgot, Chloe. There's no big conspiracy to uncover here. If you'd said something about researching this yesterday it would have jogged my memory then. Sorry, it slipped my mind."

It was nothing but the truth as well, although a lot of the distraction had been other thoughts about Chloe and Leo entirely. And his constant hesitant questioning of himself about what he really wanted.

"Oh." Chloe still managed to look thoughtful and offended in one fell swoop, but went back to eating her breakfast. "One more really weird coincidence, Clark..."

Clark surpassed a flicker of irritation as he swallowed down his next mouthful. Wasn't there anything he could do that was just normal? "So now it's Leo on the Wall of Weird is it?" he asked sounding as amused as he could.

"Maybe," Chloe admitted. "But come on. Napoleon? And he drives like a maniac."

"Yeah, I noticed Chloe," Clark replied patiently "They knew each other, and I think their parents moved in the same circles. Similar trends and all that." Mind you, it had been a thought that prickled at his awareness every now and then. He frowned slightly. What was Lex's new email address again? Napoleon2 which was a hell of a coincidence, but he'd always had a dictator fetish, and random numbers usually kept media from guessing his address.

It was still hard to forget the month that Clark had gotten mail from Stalin69@lexcorp.co.jp.

"Oh, they knew each other? Okay, that just moves Leo from the Wall of weird to the wall of wary."

Still, it was a bit of a coincidence, but it was just a coincidence. He sighed and put down his fork. "Okay, so the story is what this time? Leo's someone Lex has hired to keep tabs on me? He's ...uh...a robot sent to tutor me in psychology against my will?"

"Maybe," Chloe grinned, but she sounded half-serious. "You know the rumor mill is that LexCorp has made some major breakthrough on robots, right?"

"Well I didn't, but I do now," Clark said, interested despite his slight annoyance at Chloe's suspicion of anything remotely Lex connected. "Though it makes sense from what Lex has said."

"Wow, young billionaire spills corporate secrets to college student." Clark could hear the 72 point font in her voice, her lipstick coated lips framing a toothy, pretty grin when she said it. "What'd he say?"

"Nothing much. Just that LexCorp would be big at some electronics shows next month. I don't think that's news as such, not if you know about robotics breakthroughs," Clark replied , brushing off the importance of the information. "How do you know that anyway?"

"Because my father was bitching about Lex abandoning the plant in Smallville for his pet projects." She popped part of a biscuit into her mouth, and washed it down with a swig of coke.

Clark suppressed a snort and shook his head. "After how many years of just wanting the Luthors out of there, now they want him there with his finger on the pulse?"

"It is pretty funny, isn't it? I mean, the only reason that plant's still probably open is because it makes money." She shrugged her shoulders, then smiled at him -- a real smile. Cold to hot, in under five minutes, that was his Chloe. "But care to make a bet on your Leo friend?"

"Whenever I bet with you Chloe, I end up losing money." Clark protested but he found himself smiling in return. When she smiled like that at him, he did just want to be with her, even if she did confuse the hell out of him sometimes.

"So if I want to bet ten bucks that Leo is less than innocently connected to Lex...?" Chloe quirked an eyebrow at him.

"Define 'less than innocently'," Clark replied with an indulgent expression. Yeah, it was possible Leo might be passing information back to Lex - as an old time friend, but he wouldn't define that as weird. That was pretty normal - it happened all the time, meeting mutual acquaintances.

Nothing odd about that, no~o.

"Something worthy of the Wall of Weird," she defined for him, mouth quirking. "What other 'less than innocently' could there be?"

"There are sometimes perfectly sensible reasons for secrets," Clark said finishing his juice and draining the gritty remains. "Not everything is down to a meteor mutant weird level."

"But a lot of things come really close on the weirdness scale. I think I'll do a little research on this guy..." Chloe smirked a little, and then her ethical side -- and Clark was sure it was damn tiny -- added, "If you don't mind, that is."

Clark shrugged, "It doesn't really matter if I mind or not does it?"

"Well, come on. Wouldn't you want to know if he was some guy working for Lex?"

"As you keep telling me Chloe, Lex is a billionaire with a lot larger fish to fry that to keep tabs on one of his small town friends," Clark said carefully, looking down as he poked around the remains of his breakfast. "If it turned out he was, I think I'd be amazed."

"Does that mean you're willing to bet ten bucks against me?" she prodded, taking another sip of soda.

"Ten bucks it is then." Clark's tone was resigned to the bet. "That Leo has no Wall of Weird type intentions."

"Testing ground being the party?"

Clark looked up slightly alarmed at that tweak in the tail of their bet. "I'm not going to drive off one of my first new friends for the sake of a bet, Chloe. I don't want him feeling uncomfortable being there."

"Okay, okay," she acquiesced, but at least had the dignity to look sullen about it. "I won't do a thing. I'll just research -- from a distance."

"Thanks Chloe, I appreciate that," Clark replied, his smile much more genuine

He'd no doubt be told all of the gory details of anything she found out, and face insinuations until Chloe deemed Leo harmless.

"Great. Now that that's settled..." She fiddled with her soda can, smiling at him. "Any chance that you and I could, uh... you know, be a date at the party? I mean, just as friends..."

A date. Okay, a date was reasonably harmless and he might actually get to see a little more of the Chloe that actually made him want to put all his paranoia to one side and go for it. "Well, yeah....okay, as long as you don't mind about Leo? I did sort of promise him that I wouldn't ditch him."

"No, I'll just hold a grudge against him for wussing out on a bad music and beer party," she only half-teased, giving Clark another smile. "Great -- well, come on. Let's get to class, Mr. Punctuality."

"Just as well you're here to keep me in line huh?" Clark replied getting up, clearing up his mess hastily. "How many times today do you think on the 'Incongruity' phrase, or is one bet in a day too much for you?"

"Just one -- I like to make the bets I know I'm going to win, Mr. Kent. So, does your Bonaparte hold study sessions in the Ritz?" She swung her book bag over her shoulder, shoving trash neatly onto the tray to dump on the way out.

"He came to my room actually. Haven't been to his yet...somewhere off Vine I think," Clark frowned as he sorted his tray out. He'd written it down somewhere for reference. "Somewhere like that anyway."

"I bet he's a gadget person. All guys are, even you, but the rich ones can indulge in it," Chloe teased. "Like girls and makeup, you know."

"Well he's got a got a good laptop," Clark replied, conceding the point. "I feel a bit like one step up from a Neanderthal with my pen and paper next to him."

"My God, don't start me on people and their laptops. There was a guy over in the lounge Friday morning who was just typetypetyping. You know, with enough of a pause to really make it hard to ignore that he's typing? Pissed me off, and I was trying to read." Chloe led the way through sheer force of her personality, dragging Clark without a touch towards the trash where they dumped their trays.

"Ah, Leo's obviously has a stealth function," Clark chuckled a little. "You can hardly hear it."

"Interesting." Chloe's mouth quirked a little oddly, eyebrows drawing together -- but she obviously wasn't going to let Clark in on it. "Huh. Very interesting."

"Mmm, Chloe, I hate it when you do that." Clark tried to get her to meet his eyes. "What now?"

She kept walking, but glanced over her shoulder at him with a perfectly innocent expression. "Nothing."

"Chloe! Come on, give. You're just doing this to wind me up aren't you?"

"Absolutely. Come on, Clark -- you want to be a reporter some day? Figure things out for yourself." And with that, she wrapped a hand around Clark's hand, and tugged at him to head to class.

But she never did explain what she'd thought.

On Friday, all through the Psychology class, Clark was still trying to work out why Chloe thought the fact that Leo's laptop was quiet could be significant, which resulted in a lot of sideways looks at said laptop as the lecture went on. Or even if that was what she had been talking about at all. Maybe it was just the fact he had a laptop and used it a lot that was feeding into her Lex conspiracy scenario -- which she was taking such relish in developing to new and convoluted heights. He was actually starting to regret agreeing to go to the party as it had gone from a simple get together into a strange sort of challenge between them.

So much for uncomplicated. Still, he wanted to make sure that Leo was still on for that evening and he turned to look at him hopefully at the end of class as everyone was packing up to go. "Free now or have to rush off?"

"Nah, I'm free -- Starbucks?" Leo liked to make it clear that coffee was his addiction, and that he'd get whoever put up with it a cup for going along with him. Or at least that was how things worked for Clark. "I have to run by a pet store sometime before five, but I have the afternoon off."

"A... a pet store?" Clark couldn't help but query that. That was hard to imagine.

"Uh, for an experiment," Leo admitted after a moment of silence as he secured his laptop away in his bag. "They usually end up pets."

"Oh for biochem?" Clark filled in the missing details. "And yes, Starbucks would be great, only I've got a class at four... so..."

Leo laughed as he started down the aisle and towards the door, half-waiting for Clark. "I hope your next sentence was that you had homework to do, because there's no way in hell I'd spend almost five hours in a Starbucks."

"Well, yeah. I'd like to be able to go out tonight with a clear conscience," Clark said, though his grin made it clear he'd stay around as long as Leo did, homework or not. "That was what I wanted to ask actually. You still on for the party?"

"'Course I am. My only question is if I should just show up, or if I should meet you at your dorm?" Leo's brown eyes were glinting as he looked sideways at Clark.

"I've managed to complicate things a bit," Clark replied apologetically. "Chloe managed to persuade me that I should be her date for the evening." He looked at Leo ruefully, hoping this added news wouldn't put Leo off from coming at all.

"Really? She's your girl but not girl?" Leo looked thoughtful, with really no reaction to Clark's words. It was the antithesis of a reaction. "I definitely don't want to complicate that -- just tell me around when I should get there, and when we get to the Starbucks, give the address or directions."

"I will. But I did make it clear that if you felt uncomfortable, that I wasn't going to ditch you since I invited you," Clark said, and glanced at Leo uncertainly. "It was the best compromise I could find."

"You don't have to compromise on account of me," he promised. "Anyway, you don't seem like you're the sort to go to raves and clubs. I don't think you'd be going there if it was going to turn into a party that ends with the police coming in and everyone fighting to slip out the back door."

"Well some of Chloe's friends can be a bit wild, but nothing to upset the local law enforcement about," Clark said looking a bit anxious as they made their way across the road towards Starbucks. "I just want you to have a good time."

"That's really... damn good of you." Leo's mouth was quirking into a crooked smile that definitely belonged on a frat boy. "How come?"

Clark shrugged, relieved that Leo still seemed intent of going to the party. "I invited you and ... lets just say that after a few incidents of being accused of bailing out on various people at parties and events I try to take that seriously. Besides, you're a friend of mine." He shrugged again feeling a bit lame talking about it, but he felt he was responsible for the evening somehow and for all the expectations that seemed to be wound up in it. Already he was getting a headache thinking how he was going to try and keep both Leo and Chloe happy- so much for a simple night out. But that was the world of Clark Kent. Nothing was ever as simple as it should have been.

"But still, friend or not..." Leo gave a rolling shrug, mouth thinning a little. "I can honestly entertain myself, so you don't have to worry about bailing on me, Clark."

Clark gave a half-smile in response. "Habit I guess. I have a tendency to feel responsible for things. I know you can, but... well just... don't want you to have a bad impression, I guess."

Dark eyebrows rose as pulled open the door to the store that was little more than an over-sized Kiosk. "Do you want to hear some horror stories about bad impressions?"

"Sure." Clark's mood had lost some of its anxious edge. "If it's likely to make me think, well it won't be THAT bad."

"A bad impression is throwing up on someone after jet lag. A bad impression is having your first meeting with someone be thanks to a car accident -- like Chloe. Is she a screamer, by the way?" Leo glanced at the Menu on the wall out of habit, but moved unerringly towards the cashier to place his order.

"She goes for sarcasm usually," Clark admitted. "Slice and dice rather than loud."

"Good," Leo said with some relief, before turning to the cashier and ordered two 'grande' cappuccinos. He paid with almost exact change as always, and barely paused in his conversation with Clark, as if it were all important. "I can handle slice and dice."

"I sort of thought you might. Though I warn you, she's the curious type," Clark said hesitantly, trying to subtly give Leo a heads up on Chloe's agenda without scaring him off. "She's certainly curious about you."

"Really? Should I be flattered or pissed off?" Leo headed for the red light to await the order, smirking at Clark in that same slow way that Lex had sometimes smirked. Flirtatious, but quiet about it.

"I should wait until tonight before you decide." Clark followed automatically, still continuing the conversation. "But to be honest, it's her best friend Jenni's party. The odds are that she be occupied after the first obligatory grilling session. That's what usually happens." He couldn't really say he minded, even when it did hurt him, but it would be hypocritical to make a fuss considering what he did the night of the Twisters. He'd never lived that one down. He'd probably be paying for that until the day he died one way or another.

It was always that way -- little things came back to bite at him. Leo had a sympathetic look on his handsome, relaxed face, and nodded. "Well, if she ditches you, I'll be around. You can consider me back up company."

"You're never back up company," Clark replied immediately, and then blinked having startled himself with that observation "I mean, I don't want to you to think that.....aw hell, you know...."

"It's okay, Clark -- I get what you're saying," Leo chipped in softly. He took a moment to thank the woman behind the counter, taking the two cappuccinos. "Go on, grab a seat."

Clark obediently slid into a seat nearby, folding his long legs under the table carefully all the while trying to work out what he had been trying to say to Leo, or at the very least what Leo had understood from something he wasn't sure of himself. There was always the chance that Leo just hadn't wanted to hear him babble on any longer. But he was still smiling as he slid down into the chair across from Clark, and passed him his drink.

"Okay, I either need this girl's address or directions, and a time to arrive there."

Clark hastily got out a piece of paper and scribbled Jenni's address down. "I don't think it's too far from where you live," he said passing it over. "You probably won't have to drive."

"Hey, it's on Vine," Leo grinned once he'd glanced over it, and then pocketed it. "That's great -- I'll just walk, and I won't have to worry about your girlfriend sneaking out to pour something into my gas tank."

"Girlfriend might be a little premature," Clark said dryly "But that's great. Chloe and I will be getting there for around 8. Well actually, I'm meant to be picking her up around 7 but I know Chloe. We'll be there around 8 if we're lucky."

"I'll wander up there around 8. Uhm..." Leo closed his eyes, taking that first, all important sip of coffee. "Casual?"

Who the hell asked if a party was casual? Obviously the sort of person who presumably attended business parties as well as less formal ones. If Leo had a job working for his father or something, then he would have to attend those soiree's that all people in business seemed to despise but felt compelled to attend.

"Yeah, student casual. Well, I won't be wearing flannel on pain of extended torture tonight, I think." Clark quirked a grin. "So smart student casual."

"Dunno, you look pretty good in varying shades of plaid." Leo sat back in his chair, and for once the effervescent grin seemed to sink away to a more tired smile. But he was still smiling at Clark, as he toyed with too-hot coffee. "So what we were talking about on Tuesday -- why're you curious about that?"

"What? Oh -" Clark was taken aback, unprepared for that topic to raise itself again. "Uh." His mind momentarily went blank of any sensible thing to say. "Well." He took a deep breath. It was a bit late to deny that there was some implied interest there in Leo after having asked how sex was with another man. In his more lucid moments he had begun to wonder if he'd been under the influence of something.

Lust probably.

"It's just...something I've wondered about. For a while," he answered hesitantly, but truthfully. He was trying to avoid lying to Leo as much as possible.

"Due to, ah, certain friends?" Circumspect words, as if Leo were being particularly respectful of Clark's privacy.

There was a long, long pause as Clark struggled to come up with an answer to that. He could lie. Which would be pointless and something he didn't want to do. He could run. Which wouldn't solve the problem either. Fuck.

It was only words.

Or even just one word. Yes. One simple word. How hard was it to open your mouth and say a word? Cop out then Kent, forget words and just nod.

Clark finally heeded his internal monologue and nodded just a little, watching Leo desperately for some sort of reaction. Disappointment maybe? Amusement? What?

It was disappointing to get a nod, and to see Leo's eyes narrow in comprehension. "Trying to better understand him, or... Or maybe I should stop asking?" And his cheeks tinged a little with something like embarrassment.

"Well that and.." Clark coughed to clear his throat, plunging forward recklessly before his rational mind could catch up with him. "Um. We're good friends, have been a long time and... I'm pretty sure he's been interested in me -- though I don't know why....and..."

Dammit he just couldn't quite say it!. Well, Leo, I have these dreams, and ever since I met you, I've been having dreams about you AND him, and I think it's going quite some way beyond the realms of casual curiosity now...and, man you should see the problem I have in the morning now...

That was probably a good example of why he couldn't say anything, but Leo was looking at him closely and seemed to be reading the thoughts as if scrolling across the back of his head.

"You're interested in him," Leo murmured for him, his tone one almost of mild surprise. "Think he knows that?"

"Probably not." Clark looked into the swirls of his cappuccino, studying them intently. The flecks of froth were particularly interesting today compared to looking up and actually admitting what he was saying was real. "You know those sections on repression and denial? I'm surprised the text books don't have a picture of me next to them."

"At least you're not doing it on a grand scale where it ripples through your daily life." Leo sounded wistfully thoughtful, but that might've been Clark projecting his own impressions over Leo's actions. "It's never too late to tell someone, you know. As long as you're honest."

"It's not that I've lied about it," Clark said trying not to sound as desperate as he felt. "It's more... that I've never even really considered it as a possibility until I met you and you.. uh...sort of reinforced the evidence."

"Really?" Leo grinned, and took a sip of his coffee. "How did I reinforce it?"

It was just as well that one of Clark's superpowers didn't involve amplified heat from his skin when he blushed otherwise Leo would be microwaved by now. "Lex and I have this...thing, a bond maybe. Least I feel we do, I don't know about him. It's complicated but it wasn't until I met you that I realized that at least part of it was attraction and that it wasn't an isolated... um... incident."

The implication of that phrase was very clear, if only by the way Clark was acting; trying to remain calm and discuss this like an adult and yet inside feeling like a teenager dancing around the edges of discussing a forbidden subject.

Leo was at least being sympathetically gentle about reacting to things. "I'm, uh, flattered that I helped you realize that." His friend looked oddly on the verge of laughter, but his eyebrows were drawn down and together in thought. "Hell, you might as well tell him when the chance comes up."

"It's not as simple as that Leo," Clark said with a barely audible sigh. Nothing ever was. "It's... well, this whole thing is scaring the shit out of me to be honest. There's still everything with Chloe and the chance may never come up with him. " He shrugged disconsolately, pushing his hair back from his forehead absently. "I don't have anything to offer that he can't already get a hundred times over and better. Hell, I'm just glad when he finds time to write or call, but realistically...I know where I rate in the grand scheme of things."

"Do you?" Leo challenged lightly. "Have you ever thought that you have yourself to offer him? You're a pretty one-of-a-kind guy. That's the whole concept behind dating, you know -- finding a person you like."

Clark went silent a moment. "I don't know what to do anymore, Leo." He fiddled with one of the spoons on the table as if it was vitally important it be placed just so. "And I'm being unfair to you, too. Using you as a sounding board like this."

"How's it unfair?" Leo challenged him, leaning forwards a little and taking another sip of coffee. "I'm not protesting, am I? It's been a while since anyone asked my opinion on things like this; I've sort of missed doing it. Of course, that was advising someone how to get the girl of their dreams, not the aloof and slightly eccentric guy of their dreams."

X-rated dreams at that, graphic, vivid and leaving him with fantasies that nudged at him throughout the day. Clark drank some coffee, belatedly remembering the cup was in his hand. "Only that I can't help feeling I might be doing what I did with Lana and Chloe, but on the other side of the fence."

"Other side of the fence? How so?"

"On the male side, not the female." Clark looked anxious. Oh God, maybe he had misjudged Leo's interest in him after all. "Forever focused on the unobtainable and missing... the obvious."

"Ah, I thought you meant the unobtainable, but highly stalked after," Leo chuckled. "We're mixing metaphors. Maybe he thought you were untouchable, and maybe he still does, Clark -- would that make you really on the other side of the fence?"

"I guess... not," Clark frowned. Why would Lex think he was unobtainable? His friend was used to getting whatever he wanted, they joked about it often enough. He had always assumed that if Lex had been really interested he would have made more of a move. Been a little more like... well, Leo was.

But where had Leo gotten by making moves? Sounding board of the year.

"Well, think about it -- maybe you were giving him mixed messages. And maybe he holds your friendship in high enough esteem that he didn't want to chance being wrong? Happens all the time."

"Well, yeah... I guess." Clark looked very thoughtful at that, though there was doubt evident in his expression. "I'm still not even sure about this whole... sexuality thing anyway."

"You're going to throw your coffee at me if I offer to help with that, aren't you?" Leo chuckled softly, faking a backwards wince.

"I... no." Clark shook his head and tried to suppress a subtle quiver of excitement and interest at that joking suggestion. "But it wouldn't be right Leo, that would be using you."

"I suppose in the most moral and Smallvillian definition of the idea, you're right." It didn't help that Leo had a wicked smirk on his mouth. "Just think about it. Here in Metropolis, fuck-buddies can sometimes be a way of life."

"Well... Let me think about it," Clark temporized, retreating from the tempting suggestion for the very fact that it was tempting. "I-it's a very generous offer... but I don't want to screw up us being friends."

"Sometimes the best lovers are friends. I mean, do you have that outlook towards Lex? And Chloe? And... Whoever that other chick you mentioned is?" Leo asked seriously. "Or do you only sleep with people that you don't know well enough to feel like you're screwing something up with them?"

Clark gave a short laugh. "Like I've ever even really got to that stage to worry about it," he admitted, beyond embarrassment now and far into the realms of helpless openness. "Which might be part of the problem. Things always get complicated before anything happens."

"Complicated?" Leo quirked an eyebrow a little. "How?"

"Just... man, Smallville is the center of weirdness you know? Something as ordinary as dating becomes fraught and dangerous. The thing with Lana and Chloe -- a case in point," Clark said, his hands emphasizing how he felt with wide sweeps. "If it had just been a case of me having an unrequited crush on Lana and Chloe being jealous I could probably have worked through that. But no, there was a fianc, and then other men and when I tried to look out for both of them, they thought I was being jealous. Every time I tried to help them do something, I was considered to be jealous, or interfering. If anything progressed on one of them, some disaster would strike the other, and I'd end up trying to bail them out and lose whatever ground I'd made with the other." The words tumbled out somewhat incoherently, but that was pretty much how he felt. Turmoil was a good word for it, emotional confusions and turmoil

"So getting to sleep with anyone was pretty much not an option."

"But how about here?" Leo didn't even question Smallville weirdness, probably assuming Clark to be exaggerating. "In Metropolis. Chloe's going here, right? The way is paved and clear..."

"And filled with hidden pitfalls and traps," Clark replied with utter certainty in his voice. That's what it felt like. Say one thing one time and get a smile, say it again another time and get a 'you're SO stupid, Kent' glare. Presumably there was a difference in what he did, but he'd be damned if he could see it.

"Sometimes when I'm with her, I think 'yes, yes this could work!' you know? And then the next moment she's shut down on me. I can't really tell what she wants from me -- sometimes I get the impression that I'm expected to be in love with her, that she has this passion for me. And then the next it's like I'm the lowest form of life around. She's got me off balance all the time," he confessed, unable to stop some of his confusion showing.

Leo was just smiling, and glanced playfully over his shoulder for a moment. Like he were looking for a gunman, or maybe worse -- shifty, but playfully paranoid. "Okay, I'm not misogynistic, Clark, but... sometimes that's just how things are with women."

"So they really do only remember the bad things and not the good things?" Clark sounded depressed at the thought of it. "I don't stand a chance."

"Well, no, though there is a human tendency to dwell on the negative than the positive. We all fall prey to that." Leo had been steadily drinking his coffee as he chatted, and there were faint lipstick marks on the edge of his cup's lid; he didn't seem to notice. "But think about it. Chloe... she's probably a real thinker, right? Probably reinvents herself on a regular basis. How can you know what you want if you don't know who you are."

Clark considered the statement. That was a good point. A very good point actually. "You get deep when you have coffee don't you?" he grinned a little, that insight giving him something to work on. Something was better than nothing. "Maybe that's part of the problem. I tend to look for permanence, stability. It's proving hard to find."

"Who do you think of as permanent? And are you looking for it as..." Leo looked up at the grated ceiling for a moment. "As a counterpoint to who you are?"

"What, in terms of a social life? Or in general?" Clark responded, wondering what Leo was getting at.

"Either -- sometimes they can be one and the same," Leo shrugged, and then tossed Clark a smile to ease the moment. "Maybe coffee does make me philosophical."

"I guess... Mom, Dad, my friends. They're the most permanent things going for me," Clark admitted after some thought. "I guess that's why I get so involved in people's lives, so quickly -- I want friends to add to my, uh, stability."

"It's not a bad thing. Now, how do you think that plays in your love life or lack of one?"

"That I'm not likely to ever have a love life unless it's with someone who is a very good friend," Clark said thoughtfully, the pieces clicking together. "Which brings me back to my original choices, and explains why the attractive signals tend to only come from people I like as friends."

"I knew you'd follow that," Leo murmured smugly. "Which leads you also back to your fear of... what, losing some of the stability you trust your friends to give you?"

Clark shifted uncomfortably. "Yeah. I don't want to jeopardize the stability I've already got. Screwing up." He paused again, still thinking. "But sometimes it seems that doing nothing achieves the same result." He shook his head at himself. "You're pretty good at this Leo."

"Knack for psychology and years of useless self-help books." Leo fiddled with his cup, smiling like the cat that drank the proverbial cream. Or, possibly, who bought the whole damn cream factory. "So take some risks."

Take some risks. Damn, it sounded so easy when someone else said it. Clark knew enough about himself that he had always equated taking risks not with physical danger which was not so much a concern for him, but with getting too close and revealing too much. And yet it was the thing that he craved the most, that intimacy that he saw all around him, all the time. That he saw in his parents even, that he saw in the people at college, on the TV... everything. That capacity to share everything without reservation or fear, to trust someone absolutely.

Most of his life he had been removed from this possibility, because of who and what he was, forever watching as that which he wanted happened to people around him. It was pretty much like being in paradise, observing the happiness while being the only one locked in a cage.

Take a risk. With Chloe, with Leo, with Lex... He'd have to sometime, he knew that. Clark was reaching the point in his life where secrets and lies were starting to choke him. He'd have to allow someone to unlock the cage at some point, or stay trapped in isolation. Who did he trust? The newcomer Leo, who he barely knew? Chloe, who might sell him out to her ambition if she swung from hot to cold one day? Or Lex, with whom lies formed the foundation of their entire friendship?

Put like that, the risks were definite risks.

He nodded again slowly and deliberately, deep in thought.

"Of course, you open yourself up to all sorts of danger. Betrayal, hurt, but... Even the worst moments are sometimes worth it all. I was affianced a few years ago..." Leo's eyebrows drew down sharply together, and he muttered down into his coffee cup, "That bitch. See, I'm even still bitter. But there were a lot of wonderful moments in there that made it... almost entirely worth it."

"Almost?" Clark's expression shift to sympathetic "You still sound pretty hurt by it."

"Oh, it's a pain like nothing else -- but that's the human urge to dwell on the negative." He looked sideways, towards the floor, and drained the last of his coffee, adding, "Never mind that there's a lot to dwell on."

"You sound like your relationships haven't gone so well either." Clark observed, heartened that Leo seemed to be opening up to him too. "All that negativity is coming from somewhere?"

"Casual versus serious. People I'm casual about usually can't hurt me, while people I'm serious about... have a sick habit of going right for the jugular." His mouth thinned, but he was still smiling, and then just sighed, "But you really don't want to hear about any of that, and I've got to get to that pet shop."

"I do want to hear about it," Clark replied in a softer voice, meaning it. "But if you have to go, we'll do it another time. It's not meant to be just you listening to my screwed up life. I'd like to at least return the favor," he emphasized the words by daringly moving his hand to touch Leo's on the table. The first time he had initiated contact, as opposed to seemingly just tolerating it.

And something in Leo's easy eyes smiled back at Clark. Then he was standing, and of course had to pull back from Clark's hand, but his eyes were still smiling. "I'll see you at the party, Clark."

"Yeah, looking forward to it, man," Clark said, smiling in return, for a moment all thoughts of Chloe and even Lex vanished as a warmth seemed spread from the center of his stomach all around his body. For a moment, all his ambitions in life were subsumed and replaced by the desire to preserve and keep recreating that smile in his eyes. Changing the world was nowhere near as satisfying. Changing the world, after all, got him yelled at, and angsted at, and questioned and never ever thanked. It was a thankless job, and comparatively, seeming to make Leo's day was a thank you all by itself.

He inclined his head on the way out as a sort of 'bye', and then left, veering only long enough to drop his cup in the trash.

Clark sat for a moment watching Leo walk away and for once didn't feel a hollow sensation of abandonment. What had started as a simple coffee with a friend had for once ended with his dilemma coming more into focus rather then stirring into deeper confusion. He smiled again, for himself this time as he got up to leave. Perhaps tonight wouldn't be so bad after all.

Chloe was on time.

It was remarkable mostly for its oddity -- sure, Clark was late to almost everything, but Chloe was always late to social events because she spent the last few possible moments stressing over everything. In fact, despite her knock on his door and accompanying holler for him to open up, there was every chance she'd find his mirror and fret there in his dorm.

A blur of speed and his black jeans were on, and one of his tighter fitting tops that always drew admiring glances whenever he wore it. For once Clark was making a real effort and it was at least partially successful with plaid well and truly out of sight and the darker colors making him look quite unlike his usual self. He glanced at himself in the mirror, brushed back his hair into a tidy soft style and gave a slight smile, his green eyes gleaming with anticipation as he wondered if the new look would meet his friends approval.

"Door's open, come in!" he called out.

"Hey, Clark, are you... oh, wow." Chloe's face lit up as she came into the dorm, closing the door behind her. "Okay, turn around for me, Clark. Where're you hiding your farmer clothes?"

"In the laundry. I can get them out if you prefer," Clark replied grinning at her reaction. Yes, that had been pretty much the idea of dressing this way. Taking those risks, getting a reaction.

"No, hold the presses, don't bother," Chloe grinned, pacing slowly around him. Like he were a steak, or an ice-cream truck. "It looks like you've gone all out -- any particular reason?" Baiting him, gently, but grinning at him too. She was pretty in a lime-green tank and brown cords, colors that less confident people couldn't and wouldn't dare to wear.

"Decided that I ought to start taking a few risks," Clark said easily, trying to suppress the niggling feeling that Chloe might just suddenly pounce on him and eat him alive. Not that this would be entirely a bad thing tonight. He was holding out great hopes for this night one way or another. "Besides, Jenni's friends are... a different crowd. Wouldn't want my date ashamed of me."

"Clark, have I ever been ashamed of you?" Chloe laughed quietly. But she sounded like she meant it -- she'd always meant that when she said it. "Come on. Is your friend coming?"

"He's going to meet us there. I didn't think we'd be getting there until nearly 8," Clark replied, looking a bit sheepish. "Besides, he lives pretty close so I think he's going to walk there. You won't have to worry about cars and him this time."

"Hey, and if it's not his thing, he won't have far to go," Chloe reminded him, looping her arm through his in a gentle but sure motion. Clothes were officially a success -- at least with Chloe. Probably would be with Leo, too, and then what would he do? Still, that was the point of this whole exercise. Maybe Chloe seeing him in a different light would help get her focused on what she wanted and that might make it easier to make a choice rather than having to guess as to other people's motivations.

"Won't we be early if we get there so soon?" he asked accepting the arm easily and comfortably.

"We could stay here..."

Her voice went soft and low, and she leaned into him, the prettily arranged chunks of her hair pressing against his cheek as soft as her voice. Her move was too fast, even for the experimenting risk taking Clark, but it did stir his interest. "Jenni wouldn't be happy if we were late." He murmured and glanced at her, drawing back but his arm did slide around her waist.

It seemed he'd lucked upon the gesture to placate her. "Well, then we'd better be going." She was smiling and quiet as they left his dorm.

It wasn't meant to last, of course.

"Lana actually wrote me a mail today, Clark. Maybe she sent you something...?"

Clark had checked his mail that afternoon and frowned a little and shook his head. "Not unless she's sent it since about 4 or so?" He gave her another glance, reading the implicit warning that there was news in that contact. "Anything interesting?"

"She's talking about marriage -- I mean, aren't we all young for that, or is this when it starts?" Chloe glanced up at him, looking for something in his face.

His expression had shut down at the sound of those words. They might as well have been a death sentence for the way they felt, leaden and solid. The death of something that might have been, that he wanted to be...

"Marriage." It was said flatly and there was a sudden echoing void in the pit of his stomach that seemed to suck the warmth from him. Oh yeah. Kick in the teeth, Lana. Couldn't trust Clark Kent after however many years of looking after you, being your friend, of being there all the time for her, even through all her 'issues' - and yet she was talking about marriage with this guy, what was his name? Mark, or something, who she hardly knew.

"So soon?" he asked keeping his voice level.

"They're engaged," Chloe said seriously. She ended up one step ahead of him as they wound down the dorm's stairs to head out to her car. "Isn't this the age that everyone's friends start to marry off? I mean, even Lex went through that brief weird spurt of trying to marry. Actually, marrying and then having them try to kill him. But whatever. It's just that we both know that that is the topic for the next ten years. 'When're you marrying and having kids?' Bah."

"Yeah. My parents did it, I guess," Clark said distantly. God, he hadn't expected it to hurt so much. It wasn't like he actually thought there was any remote possibility they would ever get back together again. The final fight had been very, well, final. He hadn't even told Chloe some of the things that Lana had said, because as least some of them were about her, and he was damn sure that Lana wouldn't have passed them on, but...

Marriage.

It seemed so final. Chloe was right, marriages connected with the people he knew were bad examples of the noble institution.

"Of course they did," Chloe laughed quietly. "But... how does anyone know if it's a good idea?"

"I guess sometimes you just have to take the chance," Clark replied, his voice softening a little, as he made a point of guiltily telling himself to get over his own pettiness. "If it's going to make her happy then I'm glad for her," he said sincerely.

And he was sincere, even if it hurt; he did genuinely want her to be happy. He'd spent most of his teenage life devoted to that aim, why should it have changed now? Selfishness wanted it to have been HIM that made her happy, but... it obviously wasn't going to be him. He'd get over it, he didn't have much choice in the matter.

"Maybe she's working on a mail to tell you, Clark," Chloe said gently, and pulled away from him to slip into the driver's seat.

"Maybe," Clark replied getting in the passenger side, and then looked straight ahead before trying to lighten the depressed mood that had settle on him with that news. "Somehow I doubt I'll be called to do best man duties for this one though."

"You wouldn't want to be, would you?" she grinned as she buckled her seatbelt and settled in. Even when she was driving, Chloe took her time in settling comfortably into the car. "You used to complain, before..."

"Speeches. Hated the speeches," Clark said succinctly. "And the tux."

"Not just any tux, but a fancy one," Chloe started the car. "You probably won't wear one that expensive to your own wedding, Clark."

"Maybe not," Clark replied, "Unless I get very well paid indeed at the Daily Planet." He grinned a little. "Win a few awards, that sort of thing."

"Clark, have you seen the car that the main editor drives?" Chloe was a careful driver -- careful to not ram her beautiful little red number into any other cars, and careful when she took out onto the street, chewing her bottom lip all the while.

"By choice." Clark said, watching her, regaining some of his equilibrium. He wasn't going to spend his night thinking about Lana Lang. No... he had other things on his mental agenda, one of who was not far from him at this moment in time.

"If my car were a beat up old Buick, I'd say it was by choice, too!"

It would've been easy to dwell on Lana, though. Dwell and never let go of her, because it was easy and everyone expected it of him.

Clark smiled a little at her comment, drawing his thoughts back to the present. "Who else is going tonight?"

"Oh, everyone. It's almost an all journalist party, you know? Well, except for the friends and boyfriends who'll be there. Jenni's new toy Tim is going to be there. He's a physics major. Do you think we can pawn Leo off on him?"

Clark stiffened imperceptibly, reacting instinctively to the thought of 'pawning' off Leo on anyone. It took him a moment to realize it probably wasn't meant that way, "Oh, I'm sure Leo will do fine with all of them. He's a pretty personable guy. Have I met Tim? I thought Jenni was with Simon?"

"New one every week -- you know her. She finds a guy she likes, and keeps him until she finds a trait she doesn't like. It seems pretty flighty for a reporter, but that's just how she is." Chloe took a turn sharply, and added conspiratorially, "I think her interest in this one is between his legs, you know?"

"I think I feel sorry for him already," Clark said, bracing himself on the turn. "I give him two weeks."

"Maybe two weeks. Unless it's really something." Chloe's nose wrinkled up for a moment, then she glanced over at Clark for a brief second. "Don't you ever just want to get laid, Clark? Just... I mean, one night stand, something inconsequential... Just to get it off of your mind and make it easier to concentrate on school."

Clark hesitated, struck by the parallels with the suggestions in Lex's email earlier in the week. "You know Chloe, I'm starting to buy into that conspiracy theory of yours... only now you're working for Lex too. That the second time someone suggested that to me this week." Third, actually, if he counted Leo's offer of being a fuck-buddy.

"You mean I have competition for you, Clark?" So much for hesitating supposedly being a sign to others that you were uncomfortable. Chloe just plowed forwards.

"Maybe," Clark replied, wondering if that one night stand statement had been aimed at him. Well pretty obviously it had been but for what purpose?. It could be a 'Hey Clark, that's all I really want is a one night stand from you' or a 'Make a move Kent or I'll be getting laid elsewhere.' way. "What's got you thinking about one night stands Chloe?"

"I don't know -- can't I think about things like that?" A slip closer towards serious, and she had that faintly 'touchy' tone in her voice. "I just... am thinking about it. It sort of goes along with everything else I've been thinking about since before the semester started."

"Which is?" Clark prompted getting a prickling sense that told him that he probably wasn't going to like the answer.

"That I feel like you must've felt when you were playing cat and mouse with Lana."

She tossed that out without hesitance, and didn't stop there -- although it probably would've been better for Clark if she had stopped there. "I just need to know where we stand. Because we're not standing right now -- we're dancing in circles."

Clark just looked at her silently for a long moment. He could lose her here and now. It was why he hated risks, they took you to the edge of a precipice and dared you to fall. And everyone knew Clark Kent was afraid of heights -- at least this type of heights if nothing else.

"What do you want me to say, Chloe?" he asked uncertainly.

"I want you to say that you have some... intention -- either way. Seriously, if you tell me you're not sure what you're doing, fine, I can handle that. Just tell me, so I know what to expect." Having that discussion with her driving probably wasn't one of the better times for it, not with how her turns sharpened and her use of the gas pedal grew heavier.

Clark remained silent a long moment before answering as truthfully as he could. "I'm trying, Chloe. I really am. Truthfully, I don't really know what I'm doing right now, only that I've made a decision to actively try and do something about the options in my life. "

"Jesus, Clark, you'd think you were an alien the way you approach things some times. Okay. Don't make me an experiment for you, though." There was anger on her face, frustration in her voice, but she sounded like she was appreciating the absurdity of the moment as she turned onto Vine and started to wind down towards the house where the party was.

It was only half past seven, and there was already a crowd of cars clogging the street. Little party? Not by half. Scanning the street, he could see a familiar figure -- too familiar, too easy to pick out under the last filters of sunlight -- walking towards the party. Leo, spiffed up from Frat-boy chic to city-boy chic. A shiny shirt and pleather pants, hands shoved deep in his pockets as he slowly walked.

Clark nodded and gestured out of the window. "That's Leo," he pointed out grateful for the distraction.

This was obviously a day for deep emotional revelations and issues. Clark was willing to bet that whatever astrological sign he had been born under (bearing in mind he had probably been traveling through it or something at the time) its horoscope today would be something along the lines of; 'You lose all sense of caution and start delving into emotional mysteries that you've wisely left alone until now. If you are lucky you might get laid, but more than likely you are going to fuck the whole thing up. Have a nice day'.

"Great -- wow, doesn't look like a science geek. Looks very much like a Luthor-ite," she teased softly, pulling her little red convertible over towards him. "Hey, Leo!"

He jerked a little, looking back and forth to see who was calling him. "Hey, Clark!" Not Chloe, who had called him, but Clark. He trotted over to the car casually, giving a vague wave to Chloe. "And you must be Chloe? Heard a lot about you."

Clark felt that tug of attraction again. Leo looked good. Chloe looked good. He really didn't want to think about it too hard, but thank God denim was reasonably stretchable. "And I still didn't manage to scare him off," he said lightly.

"Nah. I don't scare easily." Leo ruffled a hand back through his curly dark locks, and leaned carefully against the side of Chloe's car.

"Hop in the back, Leo," she invited, and he didn't waste a second waiting. "So, was any of it flattering?"

Those pants couldn't have been pleather. Fake leather didn't stretch so perfectly when moved that quickly. Leo swung a leg over the door, then slipped into the passenger-side seat in the back. "All of it was flattering," Leo grinned. Chloe started the car forwards towards the glut of vehicles again.

"I'll pay you later for that," Clark smiled as they pulled away, looking for a place to park. "I think Jenni's gone all out tonight," he commented looking at the cars littering the street.

"Could be just the usual traffic," he grinned, settling in the middle and leaning forwards. Clark felt a whisker-like tickle at his ear. "Say hi to Smokey."

Clark startled, jerking back "What the... Leo?" he stared at the fuzzy rodent in amazement.

It was a smoke-colored little gerbil, cradled in Leo's tidy hands. "I told you I was going to go to the pet store."

"You brought a pet?" Chloe laughed. "Wow, carrying your own entertainment. Is it your date for the evening?"

"Sure."

"Cheap date Leo," Clark said, twisting around to see more closely. The gerbil twitched its nose at him, sniffing carefully as he moved. "Smokey's a pretty cute guy, or girl."

It twisted away from Clark and tried to run down the end of Leo's cuffed sleeve. "Ah, ah... can't go that way -- Chloe, what do you suggest I say to a girl who just doesn't take no for an answer?" Leo cupped both hands over Smokey, head down for a moment as he carefully put it into his top shirt pocket.

"I don't know -- bad mouse, no cookies?"

With his muscles and the cut of his shirt, it was impossible to not notice that Leo either had a small rodent in his pocket or a pretty nasty tumor on his chest. "I'm trying to teach her to be personable, but there went that idea."

"How on earth are you going to keep her under control tonight?" Clark asked, eyes fixed on the wriggling pocket.

"Oh, she'll nap," Leo assured, sitting back and absently patting his pocket. The squirming slowly stopped. "I figured if I had at least some responsibility to keep in mind, I wouldn't get drunk."

"It's not going to be a hard-core party. Just... hell to find a parking space." Chloe backed up towards a driveway suddenly. Double parking?

"They won't mind us parking here?" Clark asked looking around. Not that there was anywhere else to park, the whole street was packed full.

"Probably not," Leo assured as he moved to spring out of the back seat again.

"I'm with him," Chloe nodded as she put the car into park, and pulled the key out of the ignition.

Clark was obviously outvoted and with a faint sigh, capitulated and joined them. "Well, if they take a dislike to your car and we find it barged onto the road it won't bother you," he teased as he got out.

"I'll sic Smokey on them," Leo said solemnly as they started towards the party. There seemed to be some unspoken communication that they were going to share Clark, because Chloe took up residence at Clark's left, and Leo fell into step at his right. "So did you get all of your homework done, Clark?"

"Yeah, clear conscience Clark at your service," he said, not knowing whether he should be so amused over the positioning of his friends as he felt. It bizarrely put him in mind of police flanking a criminal or orderlies escorting a mental patient -- though thinking about it, maybe the latter was more appropriate.

He was already pretty clearly close to barking and raving mad.

And he felt like he had two dates -- pretty Chloe on one side, and quirky, unquestionably handsome Leo on the other. Dark hair, gentle dark eyes, wild wide smiles that sometimes even touched his eyes. Blonde hair, brilliant blue eyes, wide knowing grins and smirks.

If he could have both of them, why... Clark could die a happy man. Or at least lose both types of virginity.

"Hey, I see Jenni at the door -- I'll be back, Clark!" And then Chloe was gone like a flash, running up the stairs of the narrow townhouse.

Clark exhaled, not having expected the desertion to occur quite so quickly. It made him doubly glad to have persuaded Leo to come along. There was nothing worse than walking into a place on your own. "What did I tell you?" he said rhetorically to Leo, glancing over as they walked up the stairs a little more casually.

"She'll be back -- you've got to play things cool but steady with girls," Leo advised lightly. He was still patting occasionally at his pocket, until Smokey settled with her nose and eyes peeking over the edge, quiet and no longer squirming. Strains of thumping music escaped through the open front door, and Leo seemed to catch onto the tune with familiarity, bobbing his head faintly. "Quadraphonic. Can't fault the girl's taste."

"Cool and steady," Clark laughed aloud. "Oh yeah, I'm cool and steady. Absolutely." He sounded a little brittle even to himself as he flickered back to the news about Lana. That had been one of her criticisms; that she couldn't rely on him, that he was too unsteady for her to rebuild her life on. Never mind that he had always been there when it counted. Never mind he had risked more for her than she would ever know. You didn't run out into a tornado for just anyone. And now he was annoyed with himself for letting the news of her impending marriage get to him when he was trying to enjoy an evening out.

There was no question it was bothering him; the only question was how much he let it show that it was bothering him.

"Come on, Clark -- tonight can be the night you change everything." Leo gave a nod to a buff guy lolling in the door, who looked three sheets to the wind already. "Hey, man."

"Wow, Nap himself has graced the party with his regal presence!" So drunk, and Clark could smell, something, spices on his clothes and whiskey on his breath from where he stood.

"Fuck you," Leo laughed as he ducked inside and into the sea of swarming people and throbbing music. "Come on, Clark, let's go find your girl."

"Someone you know?" Clark asked, following Leo in. "I thought the Nap part of your name was off limits?"

"It is," Leo said, giving Clark a smile that was full of gritted teeth. "You ever meet people who insist on rubbing you the wrong way? Who find your buttons and shove at them for the hell of it? That pot-head back there is one of those."

"Ah." Clark had considered teasing Leo a little about it, but decided that he didn't want to annoy his friend if it wasn't going to be taken in good part. He absently gave Leo a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "We'll steer clear of him. I thought Chloe said this was going to be mainly a journalism party - but there are loads of people I don't know here."

"Crashers and dates, Clark -- crashers and dates." Leo's mouth tipped up again, and that teeth-gritting, jaw-clenched look faded. "Wait -- I think I see her a couple of rooms over." And Leo had to have had special sight or something to spot anything in a crowded town-house that was lit only by dim lampshades and backlights. He grabbed Clark's hand, and started to tug him through the milling people who were just talking, and towards where the music was centered.

Clark exchanged a few half shouted greetings with a few people from his class as he was dragged through the warm mass of people, trying hard not to barge any of them as Leo dragged him on. He would have used his X-ray vision to navigate if it would have helped, but frankly one female skeleton looked much like another, and he found it easier to do the concentrating whilst standing still. Leo wasn't giving him opportunity for that as he plunged them deeper into the heart of the party action.

The music steadily crawled to something above a listenable range, and at some point Clark felt a Coors shoved into his hand. And Leo was right, Chloe was right there with Jenni and her handsome-looking boyfriend, standing by iced coolers of beer and one thumping subwoofer.

Chloe waved, and beckoned them over.

Clark put on a public smile and joined them, responding to the habit to be polite. "Great party Jenni," he complimented and then looked around. "Have you met my friend Leo? " he said introducing the man by waving his beer at him

"No." She smiled, reaching past Chloe with a grin to shake Leo's hand. And Leo hesitated, before returning the grin and shaking her fingers gently.

"Nice to meet you. Clark's dragged me along tonight..." He seemed to be doing a mental head count. Two couples made him a fifth wheel, and there were visibly wheels of politeness that made him back away with that grin still in place. "Great party -- hey, Clark, I'm going to join in on some of the dancing. See you around." And he shifted smoothly past Clark, pausing only long enough to whisper, "Good luck!"

"Here and gone," Chloe sighed, shaking her head. "Well, that was Leo, the ever-moving flash, so let me introduce the space that Leo had been standing in to Tim -- Tim, meet Leo, ever-moving flash."

"Flame much?" Tim laughed. "I've met him before -- he almost set the TA on fire in one of my friend's grad-level labs."

Clark had been glancing over his shoulder to make sure Leo was all right and looked back. "Oh yeah?" he commented trying not to appear too interested. Leo looked better than all right. He took a deep swig off of a beer bottle someone had passed him, and then slipped off into the crowd of people dancing.

"He was doing some fancy trick with Ethynol, and... something like that. Pretty advanced stuff even for a grad student like him, and the TA got hella pissed off." Tim was using his beer to punctuate his words as he talked, and was swaying against Jenni.

"Didn't you say he was getting his Bachelors?" Chloe asked with a curious quirk of her mouth -- that 'AhHA!' look of hers.

"Uh yeah, but he is really smart and he said he... studied a bit before, had some problems and re-enrolled." Clark explained, "He's bound to be a bit ahead."

"Sure, Clark." Chloe shook her head at him, at his words, and then looped an arm around his waist lightly. "Come on, let's dance?"

Ordinarily he might have made his excuses, but the thought of being left with already drunk Tim, and probably well on her way there Jenni was enough to overcome his reticence. Besides he had promised Chloe to make an effort, and Leo seemed to be doing his best to throw them together. It couldn't hurt.

"Sure," he replied smiling at her, fixing his eyes on her and striving to kindle one of their sparks.

It wasn't really there yet, which disappointed him because when they were in sync, things just... happened. But she was warm against him, and the music had changed to something fast and throbbing that Clark couldn't name.

Leo probably could, and Leo was god-knew-where in the party by then. Leo and his gerbil.

Chloe tugged at him again, pulling him out into the middle of the crowd, grinning and laughing. Clark let himself go toward her; it was easier than resisting, and he would have had to question himself as to why he was resisting. A beautiful woman dragging him onto the dance floor and he didn't want to go? That would most definitely run counter to all common sense and expectation. They would dance and then he'd make sure Leo was doing okay. He seemed to be perfectly happy with the party atmosphere, but he didn't want to be seen to ditching his friend especially after all the fuss he'd made about making sure he would be okay earlier.

He wasn't that good at fast dancing, because he had to concentrate a little too much to stop moving into super speed accidentally, or hitting someone for him to take to it naturally, but he did enjoy losing himself just a little to the deep thump of the bass and the music. Or losing himself as much as he could.

Chloe was a good dancer, but not extraordinary, and sometimes she fell out of sync with Clark. And sometimes she fell too much into sync with him, rubbing suggestively and touching him with too-eager hands. Her hair kept catching flashes of light, and the jostle of other people certainly wasn't helping him.

And the sudden feeling of someone sidling up close behind him when the tempo changed to slow and trance-like again was startling, too.

Clark blinked a little having to draw himself back from the effort of moving with Chloe. It was almost dizzying, the whirl of music, the burn rising to the surface of his skin where she rubbed against him and fading when contact drifted. Signals? There were no lack of them, she was practically inviting it, here and now on the dance floor and he would be lying if he said that he didn't want to... relieve that physical ache and that maybe, just maybe it was time to take that risk.

But presences behind him made him nervous and he glanced around to see who had stepped that close.

Almost black brown curls, and a flash of familiar dark eyes, before hands settled lightly on his hips, and a kiss pressed to the back of his neck. Chloe was oblivious of the other person until her hands ghosted over his, and that didn't make her pause for but a moment. There was no backing away from her, not without backing into Leo.

Clark had to dispel the urge to laugh at himself. This was what he wanted, wasn't it? Both of them? And look, that was exactly what he had received, his neck tingling from the brush of lips there, the hands, so many hands pressing on his skin. He'd never managed to get drunk before but he was beginning to wonder if there had been something different about his beers because he felt intoxicated, trapped in the moment, not willing to move away from either of them, not towards one more than the other.

What was he meant to do? Expectations started to tug at him from both sides holding him in place more surely than any ropes or chains. He was the center of their attentions, but there was some dynamic he was missing, and he knew it. Because Chloe pressed closer, and Leo rocked against him, and then Leo was gone. It wasn't a fast thing, just a slow disentangling.

He felt his brow crinkling into a protesting frown. No... he didn't like that withdrawing, that feeling of an emptiness behind him at all. It was an almost palpable hollow chill of loss and he looked around wildly. "Where... where'd he go?"

"Where'd who go?" Chloe asked, voice raising a little to be heard over the thrumming of the music.

"Leo, he was..." He was right behind Clark, pressing against him in a way that was making him ache hard with wanting."...here."

"Really." She looked dubiously at him before she draped her arms over his shoulders. "Sure, Clark." And there was no getting away, not with her coaxing him into another too-smooth dance mix, back into the motions that were suggestive of more than just dancing. Chloe shifted to grind against his thigh, one hand trailing down his side.

It felt good, but it didn't feel right. It felt as if he was playing a role that he had memorized, even as he leant forward to kiss her because that was what he was meant to do. Even as he moved his hands because that was what was meant to happen, the moves automatic, propelled by the thought that stopping now would mean Chloe would hate him. The heat now was sharp and bright but didn't reach deep inside, but fear of being alone pushed him onwards. This had way too much momentum to stop now and a part of him wanted to be carried away into the easy solution, to do what everyone expected, everyone wanted. Hell, even Leo had pushed him together with Chloe -- he couldn't have been too serious in his interest to do that could he?

There were days back in Smallville where Lex, half-drunk on whiskey and watching a movie with Clark, or playing pool, would go on about External Pressures. The crushing weight of external pressure, the unavoidable actions that demanded they be taken.

It'd sounded like so much morose cynical bullshit, which Lex had always been a trader in. But it didn't feel like that when Chloe kissed him back, swayed closer, slipped hands under the edge of his T-shirt and beneath the waistband of his jeans. Right there on the dance floor, but probably most of the party was drunk already. No one would notice.

Clark leaned into the kiss, having to remember not to squeeze his hands in reaction, remembering not to thrust hard against those hands, remembering to try and give Chloe what she wanted. This had to be what she wanted, it was what she had pushed for so long.

And now she had everything she wanted in the palm of her hand. Literally.

It didn't have to be complicated, did it? He could ignore all the fears that held him back and not make it complicated for right here and now. It could be easy, just like rocking into her hand, rubbing against her and having her rub against him. Juvenile, frantic public half-sex, but he could feel her kisses warm against his mouth, then fall to his neck when she pushed against his thigh, when she wrapped her fingers around him through his underwear, sending jolts of pleasure and tight need through him.

And then Clark had a sudden feeling of Something Not Right.

He tried hard it ignore it, pushing carefully against Chloe's hand as the siren song of pleasure beckoned, but the tugging of the feeling was as palpable as the fingers gripping him through fabric. It was sending terrifying jolts of fear up his spine suddenly that made him gasp and open his eyes wide as the utter certainty descended upon him sharper then it ever had before. Someone he cared for... someone he loved was in danger. Here and now, they needed him. Needed him badly.

And here he was, moments from orgasm and... no time!

"Fuck!" he swore aloud making his decision and starting to pull away

"Clark!" It didn't sink in until he pushed her back from him, until he shifted to pull her hand -- sticky with friction marks from the waistband -- out of his jeans. That fuck could've been a declaration of ecstasy, only it wasn't. It was something Chloe didn't understand, that 'click' in Clark's mind that said he was in the wrong place. That he had something to do.

And her eyes were wide with confusion as she backed up with him, straightening herself. "Clark?"

"I have to go! I-I'm sorry Chloe, I swear I'll make it up to you!" Clark had never felt so much like a shit as he did right now, but the feeling throbbed now in his blood, relentless in it's summoning as he stepped backwards, half turning to go, to leave behind this future that had stretched in front of him to a possible happy ever after.

It wasn't really a choice. He'd been fooling himself to ever think he'd have a choice.

No more words from her, just shocked anguish as she half-started after him. But then he was pushing through the crowd of people, through towards the front rooms and then outside.

It was dark as pitch and quiet except for the overflow of sound from the townhouse, and Clark was mildly surprised that so much time had passed since all three of them had entered the party.

The Something Wrong feeling was strong enough to fill him with a fear he had no way to define or focus. Looking around he stepped into shadows away from any hidden eyes, where he stood and tried to sense, to hear or see where that feeling was coming from. It tugged hard at him and his feet lifted from the ground as he concentrated, rising up into the cool night air to seek the source of his panic.

On the up side, if anyone had seen him in his incautious defiance of gravity, they'd probably put it down to drunkenness. He felt the rush from dancing with Chloe shift subtly to the adrenaline of flight and the nagging must help sensation. Just like doing a patrol, he flew low over the buildings, focusing his eyes at street level, knowing it was close whatever it was...

A block down, in a narrow alley, there were three men standing around a fourth who was slumped down against the wall.

Shit. Leo, that was Leo. Everything slipped into focus; Leo hadn't just disappeared into the party, he had actually left when he saw him making out with Chloe. Hot guilt poured through his veins as he set down carefully, praying he wasn't too late and trying to hear what was being said in case he might make things worse by rushing in.

"Not much cash... No credit cards, fuck, man..."

"This was a waste. Let's get out of here."

The third, smarter than the other two, was already running off down the alley to the opposite street. The first stooped beside Leo, and Clark could see a flash of the edge of a knife when it was pulled out of Leo's chest, the metal glistening with dark thick blood. The second picked up a couple of unopened beers that had rolled to the ground, and nudged his buddy to run for it.

Clark blurred in with super speed, panicked after seeing the blade withdrawn and realizing Leo wasn't just being threatened, he had already been hurt - and seriously at that. He was too late! Fuck, he was too late!

"Leo!" He bent down cold with fear, to reach for him, to protect him from any final attack that might come.

"Oh, shit!"

The muggers, startled by his sudden appearance, dropped Leo's wallet -- threw it -- back towards them and took off. Sure, he could've gone after them, but Leo was limp and panting, moving one hand to press over the spreading bloom of sticky red liquid on his shirt.

"Hey, Clark..." His voice broke, and he tried to lurch forwards and to his feet. "Shit..."

"Stay still, don't move." Clark pressed his hand over the wound, the metallic scent of blood cloying and thick in the air and the push of blood hot under his fingers as he tried to staunch the flow. "We need to get you to a hospital..." Oh God, this couldn't be happening! If he'd just been a bit sooner he could have stopped this. He was there with Chloe's hands in his pants and Leo was getting attacked - mugged, whatever -- stabbed right near his heart and the blood was pushing through his fingers, his life leaking away!

"Jesus, fuck, Not... not a hospital, okay?" Leo's eyes were wide in panic for a moment. "Okay? I can't... My 'partment's just... fuck, this hurts." He closed his eyes, and tears seeped from between his lashes, and he seemed to be trying to curl in on himself.

"You've been stabbed Leo!" Clark looked at him, frantically peeling back the ruined shirt to look at the worst of the wound. As he lifted his hand, he glimpsed the wound yawning chasm deep, dark and dangerous even to his amateur assessment. "Shit... Where's your apartment?"

"Half... half a block?" The blood wasn't light red, but deep crimson, almost black and thick as it seeped around Clark's fingers. And Leo's voice, smooth and low, sounded gurgled, jagged as broken glass. "318. Can't go to a hospital, 'll be okay, please... please don't take me t' one..."

Clark had no idea why he was listening to that desperate plea when all common sense was telling him a hospital would be better. Only that his experience with Lex taught him that most rich families had doctors they could get to the house faster they would be seen to in hospital. He scooped Leo up into his arms, holding him so his line of sight was into his top, and blurred with speed again, found the apartment and with a shove snapped the lock and opened the door. He supported Leo in one arm then, found a switch with groping fingers, leaving smears of blood as he illuminated the flat with dim light.

"You have a family doctor Leo... someone to come here?" he asked the man that he held cradled effortlessly in his arms. The light revealed blood everywhere, Leo's chest, shirt, his own arms, his top and his hands covered in the crimson fluid. Leo's blood on his hands -- god, his friend could die of this! His own expression was pale with fear as he tried to work out what was best to do. Why couldn't one of his superpowers, if he had to have them at all, have been something useful like being able to heal someone?

Leo's apartment was Spartan, but clean. Past the front door there was an open, mostly empty living room; decent older TV set, DVD player, stereo setup, his book bag and laptop on the coffee table, a pile of texts and notebooks full of tiny tidy handwriting spilled out in a circle on the middle of the floor. There wasn't time to pay much attention to that, not yet. The blossom of blood was spreading fast, and seeping into the pocket that Leo had put Smokey into. Smokey was still there, motionless except for Leo's ragged breathing moving that pocket. Clark spared a thought in amongst his frantic anxiety for the little creature and hoped that the fragile gerbil hadn't been crushed to death in the struggle.

"N-no, I..." Leo sounded like he was hyperventilating, panicking. "Put me on, sofa...? 'll be okay, I... please don't tell anyone? Please..."

"Fuck, man, you've been stabbed!" Clark laid him down gently, the fear evident in his voice as he settled him on to the sofa with extreme care and concern. "Leo... man, I'm no doctor... I don't know what damage has been done, but it looks bad..."

But he could look deeper than most. Squinting his eyes a little he focused his X-ray vision and scanned over the area and nearly startled back when his eyes ran over Smokey's tiny form.

Bones had a glow in his eyes, and metal a brighter glow; Smokey was a crisp gleaming glow of solid steel, or at least compacted metal and who the hell knew what else. Whatever the gerbil was, it wasn't natural. It was manmade. A robot...?

"I... I'm 't normal, I heal..." Leo sagged on the sofa, closing his eyes tight. "Jesus, d'n't tell, please... half an hour, I'll... fuck, be okay."

Clark barely heard above the sudden roaring sound in his ears as he stood up. His lungs felt as if all the air had been crushed out of them, his throat tight suddenly with the fierce clench of betrayal. When revelations hit, they packed a punch harder than a meteor rock.

Stupid. So fucking stupid! Unbelievably fucking stupid.

"I'll... just get something to clean it up a bit with," he heard himself say in a rough voice as his mind started gleefully pointing out all the coincidences, all the things he had dismissed. What had he been doing? Laughing at him? Why not... he'd given him plenty to laugh at hadn't he?

A robotic gerbil. A breakthrough in robotics at LexCorp. Oh yeah. The connection... that goddamned bond that he knew he had with Lex and had been surprised to find with someone else! He should have realized that it couldn't have been so strong for someone he had barely known two weeks. Strong enough to drag him out from his first time with Chloe? Strong enough to prompt him into spilling concerns and confusions that he had kept secret from everyone else. Little snippets of information floated back accreting to that tight knot of hurt; Reckless driver, party background, shit, even as Chloe had said, hating hospitals, the cologne from the very first day, fuck, yeah.

Farm boy Kent won't notice will he? And fuck it all, he hadn't! He hadn't wanted to!

Hastily he made his way to the kitchenette to boil water and find a cloth, picking up a mug and shattering it in shaking fingers as the roaring shock shook him again and again. He washed blood caked hands under the tap, fixated on the sticky clots stringing out under hot water swirling out in gobbets of black and deep crimson. Fuck, he look like he was washing up from a murder... and if he died... God no.

Leo was silent in the other room, and might not have heard the breaking mug. Or if he did, maybe he just decided to not comment on it.

It wasn't often that Clark had a mortally wounded friend and found himself wondering just what game was being played on him. All of those things he'd said... the humiliation of being trapped by that damn obvious snare of lies. Hell, trapped? He'd dived in eagerly, getting his hopes up, letting himself be lead deeper into deception. If this moment of revelation had occurred at any other time, he could hate him for this. Hate him with a fiery pain and hurt born of betrayal and utter humiliation. The icy fear that he would lose him was stronger though -- and in this moment born of pain and blood, it never once occurred to Clark to leave him like this. The thought didn't even enter his mind, for all he was filled with a roiling mixture of anger, humiliation and hurt that seethed restlessly.

Leo...no, Lex was hurt, badly hurt -- possibly dying and he was his friend. Nothing else mattered.

Heat ray eyes were faster than kettles, cloths were found and taken back with him to the sofa along with hot water in a random bowl pulled from a cupboard. He decided not to be subtle with Leo's shirt and ripped it practically off of his injured friend and started swabbing around the wound wiping it clean as best he could. Somehow, focusing on that enabled him not to lose it completely. Except for the blood, which he wiped away in great swathes, the wound was already looking remarkably better. 'Leo' however, was perfectly unresponsive as he worked, his eyes closed and breathing slow almost meditative breaths... Clark fleetingly thought he could've tossed him out a window and he wouldn't have noticed until he hit the bottom.

Now that Clark had the solution to the puzzle, his mind demanded that he had to backtrack and slip and snap all the pieces together. How was Lex managing to be in Asia and yet be in Metropolis all at once? The most obvious answer was that he never had been in Asia. The second answer drifted into Wall of Weird territory with robots or duplicates or something, but it was most likely the simplest solution that he had been faking his presence there all along. It wouldn't be hard for someone like Lex to set it up, not when it came down to it. All he had received had been phone calls and emails and they were easy to reroute or divert. Actual business negotiations could be done by video conferencing or even over the weekend trips with the sort of capability for chartering private jets that Lex Luthor could call upon.. Oh it could be done all right. He should have questioned why it was Lex was over there so permanently in the first place.

Money could do anything, and Lex had plenty of that.

He dabbed at streaks blood cleaning down to the smooth skin, and half-watched the edges of the wound creep closed by slow fractions. Science fiction movies had nothing on Smallville's 'natural' wonders. 'Leo's' eyes slotted open after a moment, blinking lazily. One brilliant blue eye, one brown eye.

Contact lenses, one of them obviously lost somewhere in the scuffle of being mugged.

So obvious if you were looking at it. Contact lenses and a wig and different clothes. It was amazing how that could transform a person. His fingers touched the sealing edges of the wound with a fascination, feeling them actually shift and move under his sensitive fingertips. He'd often wondered how Lex had managed to bounce back from his ordeals so swiftly, and he'd recognized the same evasion that he did when questioned about something he couldn't explain. But like Lex, he had always withdrawn rather than challenge outright what he knew could not be the case.

But now he had no words for anything anymore, they all died stillborn on his tongue for fear of making an ending between them. All he could do was look, watch, and try to help his friend live. And then... he didn't know.

Whatever game Lex was playing with him, he'd really gone out of his way with it. The scar on his upper lip was covered by... who knew what. Maybe some sort of putty. And lipstick, that faint weird lipstick he'd noticed Lex wearing. Makeup to cover familiar freckles, maybe? It had to be the hoax of the century, and it didn't say anything positive about either Lex or Clark. Clark had been tricked with retrospective ease -- of course, it was hard to imagine that Lex was leading some sort of fucked up double-life.

Still silent, his green eyes darkened by a perceived betrayal, he tried to force himself to think about what he should do. Confront him? Let the farce go on? Run? What was the point to any of this anyway? This morning he thought he had a direction, a goal to aim for and now all of his options had vanished in a moment. He'd ruined everything with Chloe; if she ever spoke to him again it would probably be to tear strips from him and his other two 'choices' turned out to be the same thing -- and a lie.

Always lies, always lies with Lex. The loss was tearing him apart, God, the loss of Leo who might as well have died from that mugger's knife. The warm, friendly guy, who listened and talked to him. If he thought about it too deeply he could feel his throat tightening and eyes burn again. Instinct clamored at him to run before he could be hurt any more. But he couldn't take his fingers from Lex's skin, that would be as good as saying goodbye forever.

All the while, Leo was watching him with those half-glazed, slowly blinking eyes. One blue, one brown, his chest slowly rising and falling, as if he were concentrating hard on something. "Hey..."

Clark glanced up to meet his eyes, his instincts to conceal, to avoid delving too deeply responding before he could make a decision. "It's healing fast," he said, his voice a little rough still.

"Yeah." Equally rough-voiced agreement, and 'Leo' closed his eyes for a moment. "Do you know where I'd end up... if anyone knew?"

"I can imagine," Clark spoke softly. All too well he could imagine, in the experimental lab right next to his, most likely. It explained Lex's aversion to hospitals all to well, just as he only went there under desperate circumstances. Damn, this was not the time to feel empathy with his... friend. "Don't worry, I'm good at secrets."

'Leo' slotted his eyes open for a moment, giving Clark a briefly fearful look. "You could be saying that... and then turn around and... I don't know, man. Please don't tell... anyone? You don't know what it's like."

Clark closed his eyes a moment. Irony, he was in that cage again and the bars were made of bitter irony.

Part of him wanted to tell, want to do so much that it hurt, but now he wasn't sure of what Lex was doing or why he was doing this or whether this whole near death had been part of some huge elaborate game.

"I won't. I promise. I'll never betray you," he said, aware of the bitter taste of the words even as he spoke them. He wouldn't, he never would for all it was evident that did not extend both ways. It was as if he couldn't without hurting himself so badly he wouldn't survive.

'Leo' was watching him again, and finally shifted on the sofa, bringing a hand up to lay over Clark's fingers that rested still on his healing skin. "Where'd Smokey go?"

"She was... in your shirt pocket." Clark snagged the item and carefully emptied the small form onto Leo's chest. "I hope she's alright."

The little grey form plopped loosely atop his chest, and stretched and started to sniff at the air. 'Leo' watched it scrabble up the back of the sofa, eyes approving. "Seems okay," Leo sighed, looking down at his chest and giving a shuddering sigh. "How... 'd you find me?"

"I don't know," Clark replied truthfully. He'd never been able to explain how it worked, it just did. "I... just had a feeling something was wrong... you were there and then you were gone so suddenly. Chloe will never speak to me again I suspect," he said seriously -- but it wasn't something that he could regret now.

"You didn't have to," 'Leo' murmured in response. "I... 'd've been okay. Go back to the party..."

Clark shook his head slowly. "Nothing to go back to," he murmured softly, looking down at their overlapping hands. He was going to live, Lex was going to live - and he needed to think and be alone so badly that he could hardly bear being touched. "And you need to get some sleep. It can't be easy healing like that."

Leo was silent a moment more, concentrating again. His eyes were still closed, and without the added distraction of eye color it wasn't hard to see how Clark hadn't seen it before. "Hey, Clark..."

"Yeah?" Clark replied softly, eyes seeking and finding the edges of the familiar under the subterfuge and disguise.

"Ever hear the tale of the prince and the pauper?"

"Probably, but... it escapes me right now," Clark replied, though he did recall the story and his pulse quickened. Was he trying to tell him?

"Sure."

'Leo' yawned, a process that made him lift blood-smeared fingers to cover his mouth, leaving streaks on the side of his cheek. "Smokey was supposed to be your Christmas gift... only you apparently prefer hamsters?"

"Mmmhmm." Clark made a noise of agreement, feeling a clenching of fear. Don't... don't... he could pretend it didn't happen... nothing has changed!

But he asked the question anyway.

"How did you know that?" he asked in a tired voice, his other hand still covered by Lex's

"Because the game 's up." Lex's mouth settled into a bitter smile, and he added slowly, "You know... how I know."

And again it was like a blow for all Clark had been expecting it, an emotional thump that had him holding his breath in reaction. He could deny it but he just couldn't face any more lies for the sake of lies. The night had broken down everything that he thought he could rely on, even the half-hidden secret hopes he had trusted in to carry him through, when the normal expectations failed. He'd lost everything and right now, he could feel the cascade of his mind-room of glass shatter piece by piece as he lost the will to save anything, least of all himself.

"Why?" It was barely more than a whisper, when he eventually managed to say it. It took everything he had, every lesson his parents had drummed into him to give Lex that chance, that opportunity to explain. Part of him wanted Lex to screw up so he could let loose a terrifying rage, and the other half was begging him not to screw this up, begging him to make things right again.

"I wanted to know if I could trust you." Lex took his time slitting his eyes open again, but looked hollowly back at Clark. Tired, hurt, and more than a little close to actual shock -- beer and stab wounds could have an understandably hazing effect on even the fastest of healers. "If there was any truth in all of the lies you've given me since day one."

"You... trust me?" Clark blinked, shocked and angered by that statement. This had all been some sort of test for him? "I've never lied about being your friend. Never, Lex," he said with emphasis, trying to abate the surge of guilt. How had they managed to be friends anyway, smothered in so many layers of deceit? How was it they seemed to dance all the time around trusting on one level and not another? If it had been a test, then obviously they had both failed badly.

"I should've trusted you." Lex shifted to try to sit upright, fingers still over Clark's. "Sorry."

Clark looked at him, the flash of the anger still lurking there in his shadowed eyes. "Did it amuse you fooling me this way? When I said everything I said...? When I thought you were helping me and all the time...?" he asked still in a soft voice, but his stillness betrayed how much he was struggling to control his reactions and his face flamed with humiliation.

"Look, when I re-enrolled at Met U, it wasn't my plan. Big campus, I wouldn't run into you anywhere..." His hand, unsteady and shaky, clutched at Clark's fingers almost desperately. His wound was still weeping blood, and the more he talked, the more the healing slowed. "I needed a break from being me."

Clark looked at him, struggling within himself. If he stayed and this continued, he would end up preventing Lex from recovering, because he would not be able to contain his hurt. He could feel a pressure building inside of him, a terrible force that needed to be let out, to seek a release ever since it had gone so wrong. And he couldn't do that here. He couldn't do that around anyone. He couldn't go to his parents or any of his friends when he was hurt this badly because when he cut loose he would be lucky if anyone in the vicinity would survive. And no one deserved to die simply because he couldn't take rejection or betrayal like a man.

"You need to rest," he said finally. "I... need to think." Yeah, for the first time in his life, he needed to really think. That would be a hell of a novelty. "I think I should put you to bed. And, we'll talk in the morning."

"You can... use my bed. 'll stay here. Can't sleep like this, anyway." Lex tried to smile, but it was crooked and faltered quickly.

"No, Lex," Clark said standing slowly -- needing to leave immediately but forcing himself to stay, moment by moment. "I... need to go out. Get some air. But I won't go until you're okay to leave."

It seemed like Lex... Leo... Lex was slowly shutting down, because even his attempt at smiling faltered to nothing. He closed his mismatched eyes and shifted to lay his head on the arm of the sofa. "Sure. I'll see you at Christmas?"

"I'll see you tomorrow morning," Clark repeated sharply, and then recognized he was taking out his own feelings on his friend unfairly, just as he had been worried about. He consciously softened his tone, the effort taking a lot out of him before he spoke again. "Please, just give me tonight to myself, before... I lose it. Too many things have changed, I've lost too many people tonight... including myself. Be here in the morning?"

"Sure." Lex stretched one leg out, eyes closed tight. Lex looked like a mess; still dressed up as if he were Leo, damp marks on his face, blood, the loss of his shirt and the mess of dried and fresh blood on his chest. It certainly wasn't the usual look for a Luthor. "Tomorrow."

Clark turned uncertainly, fighting the call that Lex needed him even now, and then knowing every line of his body bespoke his hurt and confusion he walked unsteadily away.

Out of sight then, he blurred with speed, fleeing outside and with scarcely a pause, he dived upwards into the midnight pool of sky, into the only place that would be safe for him to lose his grip completely. He plunged upwards, the chill of clouds unnoticed, the beauty of the moonlight sculpturing eerie worlds so high in the atmosphere masked by his hurt perception as he left the world beneath him -- just so he could safely succumb to that tearing pressure inside, and release his grip on his emotions.

He'd always been fascinated with the sky, but now he had more than fascination to content himself with. Clark could get closer than the telescope had ever brought him, flying up and up until he could simply cut free with his powers. And once he was above air traffic, he could let go with heat vision, with... everything.

And he did. It had been a matter of controlling it, repressing it and trying hard to hold it in, rather than forcing it to occur. The burning behind his eyes that could have become tears translated into coiling intense blasts of anger-fueled heat, that raked over the cloud cover as if were responsible for what had occurred.

The clouds around him heated violently and made satisfying thunderclaps of sound that shook him as the cold air rushed into the sudden vacuum, when he looked away, or closed his eyes to hang suspended in the dark void of the sky. The dramatic sound suited his mood, and he was aware that he was behaving as childishly as if he had stomped upstairs after some pathetic tantrum. And that made it worse, to know he was behaving so badly, so cowardly. He should have been able to stay and deal with this without losing control but he couldn't.

God, he'd messed up. He'd messed up big with Chloe, he'd messed up with Lex. How much of what had happened had been lies, how much truth? Why did it hurt so fucking much? If he didn't care it wouldn't hurt, but it did... it did... This planet was too small, there was nowhere he could run that was far enough away from his problem, there was nowhere he could not fly that was so far away that if there was some disaster he would not be drawn back to him faster than a shot fired from a gun.

Chloe would despise him, and with justification, he could admit that. But it would seem that somewhere his decision had been made for him. He had left her in the middle of sex -- well, near sex. Dropped her and left just like that, so what type of friend was he anyway? He had strung her along as she said. It didn't matter that it hadn't been deliberate, the effects were the same. He had managed to get her hopes up and then at the very moment she must have been happiest, he had pulled away and abandoned her...

Again.

Shit, if she didn't hate him, he could hate himself on her behalf. If someone had done that to Chloe with him playing big brother protector, he would be considering teaching the bastard a sharp lesson. Yet, it was all right for him to reject her so publicly, so finally, at her best friend's party?

A false thunderclap applauded him sarcastically for that amazing moment of judgment. So he'd abandon someone who wanted him, for a lie. Leo was a lie. He couldn't even be sure that Leo was anything more than acting, skillful acting, and who knew what Lex was playing at? Tests! Fucking tests... him wanting to see how much he could trust him? Playing games with him all the time, laughing at him, toying with him... he'd been set up, he'd taken the fall, and fuck, it hurt.

He found himself flying rapidly in circles, the Clark Kent version of pacing back and forth. He watched as the clouds he disturbed swirled and darkened, condensing inwards as the intense heating of the air and the swirling funnel of moving cloud interacted and shifted weather conditions.

Talk about weather reflecting mood. He'd managed to make his emotional state into an intense localized thunderstorm with all his rapid heating of air masses and swirling of cloud masses.

Way to go, Clark. One more little thing made into a huge deal...

Lex's words had followed him miles up above the surface of the earth. 'Prince and the pauper', hadn't planned it, wanted to trust... Lex's lies contrasted against Leo's easy smiles and his good listening skills and quiet advice. He'd advised, of course, that Clark go after Lex and tell him up front. And to do the same with Chloe... And hadn't that been his advice on Lana, too? Why? That didn't make sense if he were playing with him or testing him against some bizarre personal agenda.

Mentally, he replayed every conversation they had held since they had know each other as Leo and Clark, closing his eyes as the air picked up the slick crackling feel of electricity around him and the air pressure dropped hard. He was so humiliated, so ashamed of how desperate he must have appeared, pathetic, how much he had opened himself and then...

And then what? What had Lex actually done? Tried to give him a chance at Chloe. Why? WHY? It didn't make sense. None of it made any sense!

The coruscating heat and concussion impact of a real fork of lightening arcing near him buffeted him momentarily as the rain, bitter and cold, began to fall, drenching him in a moment. Not that he cared. He was soaked rapidly, and the flickering arcs that leapt from cloud to cloud illuminated arms streaming with Lex's blood washing out from his top in a seemingly endless river of crimson guilt. He'd nearly lost him tonight. He had nearly died.

Was that what he wanted? Was it?

It took a literal jolt to push him to alter his thinking, a bruising burn of intense lightning down his spine as it tried to earth itself in his body. It was a thumping hit from the universe, the fruit of his own thunderstorm biting him hard enough to leave a lasting mark and brand him an idiot.

It wasn't about him. Not everyone was trying to trap him, betray him. What sort of an ego did he have to assume that it was? What if Lex had been telling the truth? In all the time he was Leo, had he actually ever lied about anything save his name? What if... he was trying to help him be happy? Like he said he was willing to do for Lana. Willing to let her be happy with someone else, even though it hurt.

Lex had been the one to listen as Leo, and Lex lived in his own cages. How many times had he wished he could be someone else? That didn't have anything to do with Clark Kent, that was a personal issue and he had assumed it was some conspiracy to do with him which was the height of arrogance. How much easier would it be to start afresh somewhere with no history behind him, no 'destiny' before him..

Lex would crave that too... he could understand that. And what now?

Sometimes it boiled down to the simple questions. He nearly lost Lex only hours before. Lost him forever.

He could do again. The moment was balanced, 50/50 - succumb to hatred and protect himself, or sacrifice everything and risk it all. Win or lose - but which was which?

The thunderstorm raged around him, illuminating the suspended figure, the rain masking any tears of regret, understanding or hurt that may have shed from his eyes, the violent winds buffeting him back and forth mirroring his amidst the clouds as dark as the shadows in his eyes. Truth or lies, loss or gain....

He couldn't lose him no matter what happened, the emptiness that he felt now was no way to exist. With stark clarity, he realized he'd do anything, anything rather than feel the way he had this night, even if that meant ... taking a risk.

When the storm finally exhausted itself, the sun had risen and Clark's bedraggled, forlorn figure drifted back to earth to fulfill a promise and put everything on the line.

There wasn't an immediate answer to his knocking, so Clark let himself back into the building and then into the flat. It was Lex's property, and Lex had always had an open door policy with Clark. He might as well utilize it when the moment was urgent.

'Leo's' apartment was tidier than it had been the night before, with books out of sight, notes stacked neatly on the table and shoved into a LexCorp folder that bore rust-colored fingerprints.

Surprisingly, Leo... Lex was still on the sofa. He'd changed into a clean set of Leo's clothes, and done away with his disguise. And when the door opened he glanced up with a surprised expression.

"Uh... hi Lex. I knocked, but..." Clark shrugged awkwardly, ignoring the twinge across his shoulder blades as he did so. "I came on in."

"I noticed, unless my living room has suddenly moved out into the hallway. And if it has, I'm sure I'll be hearing from the landlord." Lex stood with a little unsteadiness, and pocketed whatever he'd had in his hand when Clark had come in. "Do you want something to drink? You look like hell."

"I can get it. You don't look that good yourself, Lex," Clark replied bluntly, looking over his friend carefully. He looked shocked at Clark's return, even if it had been covered with his usual poise. "Surprised to see me?"

"Greatly," he admitted, moving to presumably get himself a cup of coffee. "Have you cleared your head?" Okay, there was a difference between Leo and Lex -- speech patterns. Less use of 'hey' and 'man', but Leo had used them in excess.

"Somewhat," Clark replied following him into the kitchen, feeling the distance between them. "You didn't think I would ever come back did you?" he asked quizzically.

"Given the circumstances, Clark..." Lex gave a short lift of his shoulders, and reached for a mug. "This has obviously been an exercise in futility; I know that you're just here to tell me where to shove it."

Clark gave a weary smile. He knew that was coming. Lex always expected to be rejected -- he had plenty of experience on which to base that assumption. Hell, even from him, because he didn't even know most of the time Clark had saved his life. Even from him it would seem he had been hurt more than he had been helped. "You got to work on that trust thing a little more, Lex." He picked up a mug and put it down expectantly. "We need to talk."

"You busted my Snoopy mug," Lex said, as if that was what he thought Clark wanted to talk about. One last window of opportunity being offered to Clark to jump through and escape, if he wanted. It was almost considerate of Lex to do it.

Not this time though, there was going to be no withdrawing and pretending it hadn't happen, leaving a friendship to die a painful lingering death. Clark had realized something fundamental up there in the storm; what was the point in escaping if you had nowhere to run? "Uh yeah, sorry about that. I was... kinda upset at the time." He admitted.

"Perfectly understandable. I can only imagine what I would've broken if I had been in your position." Lex was looking down into his mug for a moment, and then poured himself a large cup of coffee. "I'm sorry I accidentally broke your illusion."

"Lex, you were nearly killed. No illusion is worth your life," Clark replied, tacitly acknowledging all the illusions that he'd gone through, judged and written off one by one. Lana, Chloe... Leo. When it came down to it, he had given them all up, let go of them for the person standing in front him now. And it had taken him until now to realize that was what he was doing and how much he needed to do it.

"Are you sure about that?" Lex looked at him from the corner of his eye, giving a dry almost-smile. "I thought it was a good one."

Clark gave a wistful smile, remembering the good times he had with him. "A very good one. I'm going to miss Leo," he paused for a moment as he received his coffee. "At least until I can find him again."

Lex shot him a sharp, questioning look, and took a sip of his coffee. "Congratulations, Clark -- you're not making any sense."

Clark gave short laugh that sounded a bit strained. "No, I guess I'm not. Man, I'm not surprised. Leo is a part of you Lex, even if he was an illusion. If I... get to know you better I might get really lucky and find the real Lex. You wanted me to take more risks, so I am."

"There's a problem with taking risks, Clark, when you don't have any goals. Or reasons why." He took another sip, rubbing his free hand over his left eye and temple. "And you now know one of my big secrets."

"I won't break that promise Lex, and..." Clark closed his eyes a moment. He had goals all right. He had reasons why -- virtually all of them standing in front of him. It was what was enabling to tear down these barriers bit by bit to allow everything he had hidden be revealed. It was a painfully slow process. "I won't because I do understand. Totally."

"I know. You never were a good liar." Lex brushed past him to head back towards his Spartan living room. "We could be vivisected side by side."

"They might actually find that a little difficult with me," Clark said with a hint of wry gallows humor. "I'm... still not ready to go into details on this yet Lex, only to say... I'm much more different than a lot of the inhabitants of Smallville. I never wanted to lie to anyone, least of all you, but do you understand?"

"Intellectually," came the murmured response, and Lex gave Clark a glance over his shoulder as he moved to sit down on the stained sofa. "I believe I've already worked through what you are, but I'll let you tell me in your own time."

"I'm still Clark. I've always been Clark," Clark responded, aware of a pleading tone in his voice. "That is who I am. That has never changed. All the things I said to Leo... I felt humiliated that you came to know them like that. But they're all true. All of it." Clark sat, a little uncertain of his welcome, on the sofa next to him.

"I know..." Lex leaned his elbows on his knees, eyeing Clark with solemn gaze. "Which is why I'm sorry."

"Only be sorry if what you said was a lie," Clark replied, eyes fixed on his friend. God, he was practically shaking even having revealed the little that he had. It was said and open now and there was no stepping back from it.

"I meant what I said. I didn't mean for you to think I was playing a game. I just... simply had to know." He took another sip of his coffee. "What was the tip off?"

"A combination of things." Clark was being automatically evasive, and then forced himself to clarify, "Smokey... when I was trying to help you. Up until then I was managing not to see things."

"How could you tell that it..." Lex bit down on the inside of his mouth, and shook his head. "No, never mind."

"I wasn't lying about the connection Lex. It confused me that I seemed to have it with Leo too." Clark looked at him and sighed softly to himself, considering that he was probably assuming too much. "But you probably don't know what I'm talking about do you?"

"Destiny," Lex murmured, and proceeded to salute some invisible figure with his coffee mug. "I was relieved to see you in that psych class, you know. What strange twist of fate that was."

"Yes." Clark was starting run out of words as the rush of determination that brought him here seemed to be barely touching Lex's defenses. All his energy was being deflected, allowed to exhaust itself against barricades that had been built up as long as he had even been on this planet; a novice at emotional chess battles barely touching the shields of the grandmaster. He resorted to what seemed like pathetic conversational gambits to try and cling to contact rather than slide away. "I've enjoyed being your study partner... a lot."

The irony was that all defenses were down last night, with Lex lying bleeding on the sofa. When there was still a visible blend of Leo in with Lex. And Lex hadn't expected him to come back, and who knew what else was going on in his head. Lex was a man who'd paid a private investigator to trail after his fianc to prove that she was trustworthy.

And he'd had the dubious pleasure of finding out that she wasn't.

"I know. Even though you were suspicious... I honestly enjoy your company."

"Suspicious?" Clark queried, having confused himself in his efforts to get through to him. "Why do you think I was suspicious?" he frowned a little, trying to remember how he had behaved.

"I meant of me." Lex took another sip of his coffee, turning a slow fraction to better look at Clark.

Oh. "Only that I couldn't figure why you wanted to be around me," Clark replied truthfully. "I told you that. Actually I told you that in reference to Leo and Lex. I mean, I still don't see what you get out of it that you couldn't get better elsewhere." It had been a constant mystery to him. Lex could have anything he wanted, he had the money and the power and yet he chose to be friends with a farm boy from Smallville. And even as Leo, he'd hooked up with him and there wasn't real reason that 'Leo' would benefit from the friendship.

"I can't. There isn't a person in the world I want more... And I'll never have you. I can't buy you. You honestly can't trust me after this stunt I've pulled. And now I've cost you your chance with Chloe." All very mildly, calmly said, and Lex was still looking at him with steady, aching eyes. "So, this is where I ask for forgiveness and you throw it back in my face. Or you give it only to get revenge on me later."

Clark froze a long moment, having to swallow against a suddenly dry throat. He did want him? He was back in that room of glass again, the shards glittering thirstily waiting for one slip up.

The wrong words could have terrible consequences. He met those eyes, feeling their emotion pull at him so much that he seemed to feel that pain as if it were a part of him.

"How about a third option?" he heard himself say.

"I'd be open to one, but I sincerely doubt it exists," Lex drawled, voice rough with bitterness; but even then he was stretching for a wry twist.

"How about the option where you get a chance to get what you want, and I realize that it isn't a case of me forgiving you, but you forgiving me?" Clark asked, eyes still fixed on Lex's begging him to let him in, to give him a chance. It was taking all he was to do this, to force himself to face these painful truths and what he really needed (which was someone to meet him halfway) just wasn't happening.

It didn't seem to be a reasonable third option, not from the way that Lex's blue eyes sharpened a little, studying Clark like he were holding a gun on him. "There isn't anything to forgive you for."

"No? All the times I... took you for granted? Let you take the heat for something?" Clark replied, sensing he had said something wrong but not understanding what. Desperate apology time then. "Was stupid enough to miss the fact that consistently you've tried to help me get what I thought I wanted even when it hurt you? You're telling me none of that mattered?"

"It didn't until you put it that way." Lex finally set his coffee cup down on the coffee table, and it was as if he were setting aside some great buckled shield. No prop for his hands to cling to. "I still think Chloe might be best for you. I can help you come up with an excuse, Clark, a reason why you ran, if you want to try that..."

An excuse? It was too late for excuses. "No, Lex," Clark said in a shaking voice, feeling failure suck him in, as the rebuff pushed him away again right over the edge. "No excuses." He looked down a moment, trying to hide the burn behind his eyes that could so easily become tears, or violent heat. "Why are you making this so hard?!" He was ashamed to hear his voice crack as he eked the words out.

"Because I'll ruin your life."

"You _don't_ want me?" Clark felt desperation smothering him. What did he say or have to do to get through to him? He was the strongest man in the world and he couldn't seem to make a dent on Lex's defenses. Not even a chink in that armor, for all he could see that Lex was listening to him, he wasn't reaching him. What did he have to do -- give up all semblance of dignity and beg?

"I do, but mark me, Clark -- I involve myself with you in that way, and your life will be ruined. I don't want that to happen to you." Lex swallowed and started to stand. "'Leo' is going to unenroll from classes and disappear. I'm going back to China."

"No!" The horror on Clark face couldn't have been feigned, not even by the best actor. It seemed begging was exactly what was required, and it came as a peculiar shock that he didn't care. There came a point where pride was damaging and the revelation was that he could just do what needed to be done when it really came down to it. "Stay... please. Please, Lex."

Lex paused just for a moment, glancing at Clark with intensity in his eyes. "Why?"

"Because... because I wanted Leo to help me as was offered, not because of 'him' but because I've been thinking over and over 'what if', and maybe if I'm good enough, or know what I'm doing... you and I could be more than friends. I didn't think you really wanted me." Clark was aware his words were stumbling over each other. "Shit, Lex, I'm not saying this very well... What do I have to say that will convince you that I want you? Even if it's taken me until now to realize this is what I've been wanting all along?"

He didn't care that he sounded desperate and confused; it was the truth after all, and if there was one thing that needed to happen now between them, it was the sudden emergence of the truth. Everything had crystallized into focus for him, driven by the dramatic events of the past day. Taking risks were inevitable, but the real decision had come into play over which risks that he was willing to take.

"All right." Lex picked up his coffee cup to go dump it into the sink. 'All right' -- just like that, so easy and nonchalant. "You should probably go back to your dorm and sleep -- unless you'd rather sleep here?"

"I... should apologize to Chloe." Clark was thrown off-balance not really knowing what that 'all-right' actually meant. In fact right now he wasn't really sure of anything and it showed. He did know that sleep probably was not an option until he had sorted some of this in his head and he was completely confused as to what had actually been decided here. He kept watching Lex, searching for some clue of what had been it all meant.

"Probably." Lex's voice sounded a little lighter, still calm and controlled. There was running water in the kitchen that turned off after a moment. "What do you think you'll be doing tonight, Clark?"

"I... I don't know... exactly," Clark replied, feeling a flicker of hope. "I hadn't made any specific plans so uh...if you had any idea's?"

"I might. Or, Leo might." Lex came out of the kitchen with a glass of juice, smiling just a little as he took a sip. "You see, you'll have to put up with that until after final exams."

Clark smiled in genuine relief. Thank God. He was going to give him a chance, he was going to stay. "You're keeping him?"

"So he's a pet, now?" Lex arched an eyebrow, still smirking just a little. "I'd like to finish my masters, and I've gone through a lot of trouble to convince the Dean to let me attend classes incognito."

Clark nodded. "You want to do something then?" he asked latching onto the possibility.

"Pizza and a movie? But seriously -- go home and sleep." He reached a hand down to Clark to help him off of the sofa. "I'll pick you up, say, seven? Swear I won't hit anyone on the way over."

"Okay." Clark nodded, feeling a little dizzy now the pressure was off. "If Chloe gets to me first can I least give part of the truth? That you were attacked?" It probably wouldn't be enough to save his hide, or their friendship but she might just feel a little bit of regret as she tore him apart.

"Tell her I was mugged -- it's true. I'm going to have to spend all day getting another driver's license, and the rest of my documentation." Lex was still smiling that odd, half-pleased smile. "I'm sorry, Clark. She should forgive you -- you did a good thing."

Clark shrugged wearily. Whether he did good things or not scarcely came into it; if he had been doing all these things over the years for thanks, recognition or even forgiveness he would have given up. a long time ago. The only thing he had given up was the expectation that what he did with ever be recognized, certainly not as Clark Kent. "I've done it to her too many times. This may be the one time too many... though usually it was with Lana, and that made it worse." He shied away from thinking about Lana too much and her impending marriage. "I'll just let her take her best shots."

"Friends shouldn't do that to each other. You didn't do it to spite her..." Lex's hand was still holding onto Clark's, warm, smooth fingers light in their grasp. "But go on. The longer you wait, the worse it'll be."

"Oh, I had to stay and see if Leo was all right. Silly idiot wouldn't let me take him to a hospital even though he'd been roughed up a little," Clark said savoring the touch of those fingers, his thumb stroking along the back of Lex's palm briefly.

And then Lex tugged at his hand, pulling him close to kiss. "I do trust that you won't tell anyone about that," he murmured, before he pressed his mouth against Clark's in a firm kiss.

He stiffened a moment and then relaxed as all the things that seemed to have been pulling him for as long as he had known, seemed to snap into alignment as he discarded the minor, fragile worry that had seemed so daunting a moment ago, that he was going to kiss a man, and more than that, wanted to kiss a him. He responded fervently, eyes closed and leaving no doubt to the fact he enjoyed the contact.

Mouth against mouth, hot and slick, with Lex plying at his bottom lip before he slipped his tongue into Clark's mouth for a brief moment, and pulled back with a smile curving his mouth. "Good luck."

"Wha... Oh yeah." Clark blinked a bit and then gave a bit of a dazed goofy grin, as his lips still tingled with the heat of contact. That had been a hell of a kiss, he never remembered having a kiss like that before. "I'll see you later," he said as he tried to reorient himself so he didn't walk out through the wall.

It was bad enough that he'd busted part of the front door's lock. Lex would've had a harder time explaining how a Clark-shaped hole had appeared in his wall.

That much concentration got really hard to manage, though, when Lex let his hand idle down to the edge of Clark's hip. "Go on. I'm going to rest and then go wait in line at the DMV."

"Right." Clark cleared his throat. "Seven, yeah?"

"Precisely, but if you're not ready, I suppose I'll bear it." He took another sip of orange juice -- juice that Clark could halfway still taste, along with an after tinge of coffee -- and moved to open the front door.

"I'll be ready." Clark promised and managed with effort to step away and leave, raising a hand in a casual farewell as he walked away from the building where so much had changed in such a short space of time. 'Maybe tonight you can change everything', Lex as Leo had said. He hadn't realized how much pain and revelation would be involved, but he wasn't going to regret a moment of it.

Clark headed back towards campus, for once not indulging in his speed or flying to get there any more swiftly. He walked back, watching the wet streets dry in the morning sunlight, trying to loosen his stiff muscles. Metropolis was wet from his thunderstorm and he felt a momentary pang of guilt at that. He was seriously going to have to find somewhere much more isolated to retreat to. Maybe when he was more comfortable with flying he could go somewhere like, uh, the top of some mountain.

But knowing his luck, he'd probably dump an avalanche on some climbers. No, it would have to be the North Pole -- which again was pretty crowded nowadays, or maybe Antarctica somewhere. Better than stirring up a storm and dumping it on all of Metropolis.

As he passed a ground floor shop window, a glimpse at his reflection made him realize exactly how much like shit he actually looked. He looked tousled, worn and his clothes ripped a little, face pale and marked with dark smudges under his eyes. Mysterious darker patches on his jeans, held the lingering traces of Lex's blood that had not washed from his clothes. No wonder Lex had commented; he'd probably hardly ever seen him this way. He decided that going back to change might be an idea before facing Chloe and for once he did actually feel very tired. Physical effort might not do it, but emotional effort could sap the strength out of him just the same as it would anyone else and judging by how he felt he'd been rearranging emotional mountains all night. A shower would clean him up, and maybe clear his head enough so he could face Chloe and take whatever she threw at him.

He reached his room eventually, responding to a few comments about late nights from a few people in his dorm that he bumped into on the way up. He fumbled for his key as he pushed at his door and was surprised as it swung open.

There was Chloe, flopped back on the edge of the bed as if she'd been dozing. Of course when the door opened, she started to sit up, and looked just as startled as he did. She looked tidy, so she'd definitely gone back to her dorm, but her makeup was streaked anew.

"Clark Kent, where the fuck have you been?"

"Uh, hi Chloe." He resisted the urge to step out of the room and run like hell away from the problem. Chloe deserved to get her own back, and he was intending to give her that, but he had enough of a survival instinct to unconsciously soften his voice to try and placate her. "I hope you haven't been waiting for me too long."

"Just a few hours," she almost snarled at him. "I was worried about you, Clark -- so where the hell had you been?"

"With Leo," Clark replied, shutting the door behind him and almost daring the reaction. "Look Chloe, I'm really sorry about last night... I was coming back to change then come over to your room and apologize..."

"You look like you spent the night in a dumpster -- what were you doing at Leo's that took so damn long, and WHY did you run off?"

"Leo was mugged," Clark replied. He wished he'd had time to think his way around the argument, but he just went straight for the blunt answer as he usually needed to work on subtlety "I... just knew something was wrong and only just got there in time." He looked at her, guilt shadowing his expression. "I'm really sorry, Chloe. I know it was unforgivable to do that to you."

"He was mugged?" Chloe sounded half-shocked and half-suspicious as she shifted to sit more upright. "How'd you know?"

"I don't know exactly. I just knew something was wrong," Clark said uncomfortably. Maybe he should have taken Lex up on that offer of creating excuses after all. Well, no hope for it now, he had to live with what he had said. "Look, he was a bit roughed up, but he wouldn't let me take him to a hospital so... I couldn't very well leave him until he was awake and okay. He was going to take a bit of a rest and then go and see about getting replacement license and cards." He hoped that the longer explanation would over shadow the evasiveness of the first.

"Couldn't you have told me? Fuck, Clark, you left me... Mugging or not, you could've called my cell phone, or called ME and left a message, or, or... I mean, I would've come over to help with him!" Chloe's expression was etched with anger as she remonstrated with him.

The astonished look on Clark's face showed clearly that he hadn't even considered that as an option. Not that it had been, considering the nature of the revelations, but even so he felt a bit of an idiot. "I... how could I explain it, Chloe? I've never been able to do it to anyone's satisfaction before," he replied, spreading his hands to indicate his helplessness.

Her eyes were wet with hurt, and her mouth, freshly lipsticked, was shaking with anger. "Well a shitty explanation is always better than none at all. At least a shitty explanation would've meant you gave a damn about what we were doing. Because you know what it looked like to me, Clark?"

Here it comes. "I think you should tell me."

"It looked like you liked having Leo grind up against your ass and took a while to figure that out. Because, yeah, I noticed that even though I didn't want to. Was that really it, Clark? Because even the mugging story doesn't explain why you look like a wreck."

Clark couldn't help the flush that came to his cheek, part of embarrassment, part of anger that he just couldn't explain what had really happened. "The mugging was the reason I left, Chloe. And it is why I look like a wreck, I've been up all night and a fair amount of it, I've been thinking I've probably screwed things up with one of my best friends because I'm pretty damn sure that you hate my guts."

"I don't hate you, Clark." But she looked like she did, anger hot in her eyes and drawing her face tight as she spoke. She was at least furious with him, and he expected nothing less. "I just want to beat some common sense into your head."

"I don't have any of that... I thought that was a given," Clark replied, with a slight smile trying to deflect some of her ire. "You have every right to be angry. I screwed up. I screwed up big time, I know that. I've never wanted to hurt you, Chlo, I... just wanted to be able to give you what you wanted and... I ended up making things worse."

He paused a moment just looking at her, seeing the hurt and anger radiate off of her and remembering afresh why he had spent so many years trying to avoid this moment. The fact he was responsible for her pain, made him feel almost physically ill inside but what was worse was the fact he was probably going to have to hurt her more before this was over.

"I... I wanted to make you happy," Clark added sadly, aware of how hurtful that sounded, "I didn't want to lose you."

"But you didn't want it," she said in a hollow tone. "What the fuck, Clark. I would've been happy to be just friends if you didn't want what you were acting like you wanted."

"I thought I wanted it... It was one of the hardest things I've ever done to pull away then." That feeling of emptiness from her spread to him. "I... wanted it to be with us. I wanted it to work between us... I thought last night would be the way to seal it..."

"So you only thought you wanted it, and then last night was the sudden realization of 'no, this is a bad idea' for you? What the fuck, Clark. Why even bother in the first place?"

"Because I do love you." He said quietly, meaning it with every fiber of his being. Why else had it been so difficult to decide? It wasn't a case of loving or not loving, but degrees of intensity. He would risk his life for her and had done, he would always care for her but... "I love you, Chloe, only... not like that. As a friend, as one of the closest friends I've ever had." And Clark had spent most of his life trying to please his friends and not all the superpowers in the world seemed to make a blind bit of difference.

"Jesus, Clark, you have such issues..." She stood up, edging first towards him and then away. "This is what happened with Lana, wasn't it?"

"Some of it." Clark looked away a moment. He wasn't going to bring up all of Lana's issues now, it was easier just to accept the blame; that was what Chloe wanted and probably needed right now. "Please, Chloe, don't think that I was actually... thinking one way and behaving another. I didn't know what I was doing. I believed in what was happening. I wanted to... I wasn't messing you around deliberately, I swear. I know I have, and you have a right to be angry, but seriously the last thing I wanted was to hurt you like this."

She gravitated towards him, mouth a tight line. Every edge of her body seemed to scream that she was going to either try to pummel him, or burst into tears. "Fine. Then we'll forget last night ever happened."

"And then what...? You going to hate me?" Clark stepped forward towards her, scared by her rigid stillness. He knew she might walk away from him forever, half expected her too, but he had hoped that their friendship at least was enough to give him hope. Maybe he'd been wrong. "Chloe?"

"Dammit, Clark, you have to make everything like a fucking maze!" Chloe nearly howled that, eyes tight as her mouth. "I just want to forget it happened, that you're such a monumental mess, and that I love you..."

"You... you love me?" Clark echoed, nearly stepping back. Not now, surely - he'd known she was interested but, that she was in love with him was something else entirely. Had he thrown away definite love with Chloe for a maybe of a something with Lex?

She jerked back from him and sat down heavily on the edge of his bed. "Lana was right when she said you were blind to the obvious. I just never saw that until now..."

He elevated himself to a prize shit. "Oh god Chloe, I didn't realize that you... I mean..." He thought it was 'Like' and a most definite 'Lust' but actual love? That hadn't been part of his reckonings at all

"You've been impossibly stupid, Clark. I've always wanted you just like you always wanted Lana. And then fucking Lex rolled into town and almost killed you, and whenever either Lana or me wanted you, really had a chance to... you were... fucking gone. I should've known you were gay."

He didn't deny it. He couldn't. But wanting wasn't love. Wanting wasn't the same as needing someone but those words did hurt and hit their target dead on. Right now he couldn't see beyond the fact that it was all his fault and everyone seemed to be agreed on that point. All of Chloe's problems, Lex's, even Lana's seemed to be down to being his fault, to him being 'impossibly stupid'. All he seemed to do was screw up their lives - maybe Lana had it right after all.

Clark couldn't even breathe for the hurt of it and if he had flushed before, now his face was draining of color. He needed anything but to have to answer right then, so in a violent movement he stepped over to his chair, with a plaid shirt hanging over the back and stripped off his ruined best top in an effort not to have to answer that statement.

If there was one advantage to that action which didn't even cross his mind, it was that his back still looked like someone had taken a steel bar to it from the lightning strike.

"My God, Clark -- you're hurt..." And then she was close enough behind him that he could almost feel her hovering fingers.

He had forgotten. Stupidly, he had forgotten he was bruise marked. It would fade within the day most likely, but compared to everything else it had seemed trivial, compared to trying to get through to Lex, and facing Chloe's wrath it literally was nowhere near as painful. "Uh yeah... happened last night. It's not too bad," he said reaching for the other shirt, his voice suspiciously rough. Clark wished in some ways she would go back to the shouting -- wrath he could face, that he expected. Sympathy might undo him.

She exhaled, "God," again, and he could feel her eyes on him. "I'm sorry... I should've believed you about, about the mugging."

He looked around suddenly, ignoring the stiff pull across his shoulder blades as he did so. "You... didn't believe me?" he said, eyes widening in surprise and hurt amazement. "Fuck Chloe, what must you think of me?"

It shouldn't have been a surprise, she and Lana always thought the worst of him, but to have her basically admit that she didn't believe anything he said and to know that she had been standing there thinking he was a lying bastard...

Lying to her face, hurting her even more with words that must have been discarded as worthless because they were based on and connected to the lie that Leo had been attacked. He was amazed that she could truly think that way about him, that he would ever be so calculating and cruel -- 'impossibly stupid' maybe, but not deliberately hurtful. Didn't she know him at all?

"You left in such a... such a hurry and without any warning, Clark!" Now her face was turning red in shame. "Sorry."

"Because there was no way to tell you that I just... knew something was wrong!" Clark looked at her with pain in his green eyes letting it show that she had hurt him. "So every time I do anything you assume I lie?"

"No! I just... You just left me at the party, Clark, left me like that, after..."

"After Leo had been there. And you assumed the worst." It was Clark's turn to sound a little bitter now. He had thought that theme of suspicion that had plagued his teen years had been eradicated.

Obviously not.

He buttoned the top slowly, controlling his breathing and trying to get some perspective, only finding it floundering under humiliation and guilt. "No... that's unfair of me. I hurt you, I left you in the middle of what could well have been my first real sexual experience with another human being -- what else would you think?"

"I'm sorry." She watched him button, then sighed, "Leo okay?"

"Yeah. Bit stiff and sore. A bit shaken up." Clark replied and echoed the sigh as he took the last and final step. "Chloe, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't... interested in him." He admitted quietly. "But that genuinely wasn't the reason behind why I left."

"I know." She brought a hand up to her mouth, silent for a moment before she leaned in to kiss his cheek. "It's really better if we're just friends."

His arms moved around her automatically. "I'm sorry, Chloe... for everything," he apologized finally, feeling that kiss soft and wistful against his skin "I hope you can forgive me."

"Forgiven," she sighed, and it sounded like she'd probably avoid him for a few days until she worked things through for herself. "Okay. But I'll find someone to bust your lights out if I see you doing this to anyone else."

"I'll hold you to that," Clark replied with a slight lopsided smile. "Looks like I need someone to clue me in."

"Maybe it's about time you hopped the fence," Chloe muttered. "At least a guy could stand a slim chance of actually knocking you out, Farm boy."

His faint smile wavered a little. He suspected it was going to take a lot longer than a few days for Chloe to really forgive him. "Who knows?" Clark shrugged a little. "Maybe it's my turn to be screwed over. 'sides, I'd let you hit me if I thought it would make things easier between us." His smile flickered again, his tone half joking, but half serious as he made the offer.

She only patted his chest, and drew back from him. "I'll have to pass. Are you, uh, going to be okay?"

"Yeah... yeah, I'll be fine. I'm always fine," he said automatically, even if it wasn't true. "You?"

"I'm good." Even though she so clearly wasn't. She veered towards the door, looking at him over her shoulder. "Do you want to try to work on our project tonight...?

"I... uh... I promised to see how Leo was getting on." Clark replied uncomfortably. "Tomorrow maybe? "

Her mouth twitched around words she didn't say, but she nodded. "Okay, tomorrow."

"I'll come by," Clark promised. "Afternoon. Call if there's a problem?"

"Sure, Clark." Sure Clark, she was just fine with what had happened and what they'd talked about. She was also never going to hold it against him, a sarcastic drawl that sounded a lot like Lionel Luthor sneered at him. "I'll see you tomorrow."

And she moved to open the door and slip out. Clark watched her leave with a peculiar sense of displacement and hollowness at her departure.

Things were 'okay' but they weren't going to be right for a long time. They might not be screaming and shouting at each other, but he had hurt her, and she had hurt him in this encounter. They had survived it, yes, but they certainly weren't going to be the same again, but that had been what everyone wanted hadn't it? For things to move on, for him to stop sitting on the fence. He sighed, sitting on his bed and putting his head in his hands, leaning on his knees. He was tired now, the mainspring of energy that had kept him going since... Friday morning, came up empty, sucked dry by that last encounter. His head hurt, his body hurt and he'd managed to turn his life upside down. Clark glanced around his room and resolutely decided that he ought to have a shower and maybe try and grab a few hours sleep at some point, if he looked as bad as all that. Wouldn't do to be still in the same clothes and look as rough as this when Lex... well, Leo came to pick him up.

Because this date with Lex held all the answers to how things were going to move on, or whether he had made a hideous mistake. Nothing like setting his expectations high or anything. He laughed out loud at himself in the empty room, and got up to pad to the shower and change.

Someone was petting his face. Maybe not petting, but stroking, and warm hands drifted over his shoulders to pet idly.

"Hey..."

Clark mumbled into his soft pillow and opened an eye. A blurred familiar face drifted into view. "Le -- Leo...you're early?" he blinked sleepily. He was sure he'd only just lain down closed his eyes for a brief moment, having showered and checked his email while semi-naked and then collapsed into bed

Lex had become Leo -- dark curls of hair and a smile curving his mouth, the narrow scar on his lip covered up again, warm brown eyes looking back at Clark. Contacts alone didn't lend warmth. "Actually, it's eight, Clark." He let one hand settle on Clark's chest, thumb rubbing slow circles. "Hope you don't mind that I picked your lock, but you sleep like the dead."

"Aw, man!" Clark tried to sit up a little, a little self-conscious. "I had no idea it was so late... I was only going to get my head down for an hour or so after Chloe left."

"Well, if she left at six, then you hit your sleep target dead on. But since you look pretty well rested..." Lex sat back, tugging at one of the sleeves of his long t-shirt. "Feeling better?"

"Yeah. Much, thanks. Give me a couple of minutes and I'll get changed and ready," Clark said, a little flustered by being late before they even started out. "Sorry about this."

"If you'd rather not go out..." Lex reclined comfortably in Clark's computer chair, but didn't scoot it back from the side of the bed. "I'm sort of worn out, myself."

Clark sat up a little more. He wasn't actually sure what he had planned mentally for this evening, or whether they would actually get to do anything about it, but he had a certain amount of reticence about doing what he hoped they might end up doing here. He wasn't entirely sure why, but he was conscious of a lot of people in the rooms around him, and he just wanted it to be, well, just the two of them.

"How about we pick up something to eat and head back to yours?" he suggested hopefully.

"Sure. Want to go by some place and rent something? The TV isn't the big wide screen in the penthouse, but it works," Lex told him ruefully.

"Sure. Sounds like a plan," Clark said getting up, a little stiffly because of his back still, but he just put that down to sleeping awkwardly as he grabbed a pair of pants and pulled them on half hopping into them

"Hey, Clark... What happened to your back?"

Damn, because it was nearly gone, and fading fast, he had forgotten, and the useful story he'd used with Chloe wouldn't work. "Just... something stupid I did last night," he said a bit vaguely. "It'll be gone soon."

"I bet it will," Lex drawled thoughtfully. He was watching Clark intently as he dressed, that absent intensity that Lex had always used when he wanted to stare without being questioned about what he was doing. "Do you scar? Just a random, curious question."

Clark shook his head. "Not so far," he replied. The fact that it took something as ridiculously powerful as a bolt of lightning to raise a bruise on him now, indicated that he was probably still getting stronger. He'd been hit before and had ached like hell - but that had been when his powers had seemed to transfer and he'd spent most of that time feeling like a wreck anyway. "You?" he asked as he slipped on another clean top, one of his favorites.

Lex licked his top lip, eyes smiling at Clark almost wickedly. "Only the major things. This one would've left me looking like I had a cleft palate, if I didn't heal so quickly."

"Man...." Clark eyes followed the flicker of tongue to where the scar should be and smiled, suddenly eager to get the evening underway. "Hope you don't have too many. Ready to go?"

"Oh, I've been ready since I came in here and picked the lock on your door," Lex chuckled softly, and rolled smoothly to his feet. "I'm trusting you to not let my secret slip. I'm 'Leo' until this semester is over."

"Of course, Leo." Clark replied with a grin. So much for the privacy of his room -- that made two people who had let themselves in just today. But right now he didn't care. He felt much better, he even felt anticipation about a simple evening out, something he had done many times with Lex but tonight hopefully would be different.

"Just don't remind me how much I miss driving my cars," Lex smiled as he edged towards the door. "Grab a jacket, it's a little cold out tonight. And I think my heat's busted."

Clark grabbed his jacket automatically and followed, still half not believing that this was actually happening. It was just over twenty-four hours since the party, and in that time, so much had changed. Oh, it might have been brewing for years but that didn't make the moment of transition any less shocking and sudden. Right now, he was more than content to follow Lex's lead and see where it took them both. "Sure, man. I'm sure it won't be a problem," he said with a half smile.

"You're good with secrets," Lex agreed, mouth tipping up as he opened the door for Clark. There were people out in the hallway, students with doors open, general chatting and loud music starting to fire up for a long Saturday evening.

Clark waved at a few of them giving the obligatory smile and 'hi' as he went past. "Yeah, learned from the master," he quipped lightly.

"My dad? No, there's no way you learned from him..." Leo winked at Clark, pulling a pair of leather gloves out of his back jeans pocket as they walked. Driving gloves, apparently one thing that Lex hadn't given up for his facade of Leo.

"Nope, sorry, my mom beats him hands down." Clark grinned, liking the softer feel to talking things over with this side of Lex than with what he privately thought of as his Luthor persona.

At some point, Lex was probably going to have to work through what felt like some serious personality issues. Masks and layers that even he seemed unable to control...

But he was smiling at Clark from under contacts and makeup and hair, absently sliding on driving gloves as they dodged through the hallways and towards the stairwell. "That does explain a lot, then."

Clark's smile remained and he felt more relaxed then he thought he would be by letting that information slip. "Really? She'll be mad I've ruined your opinion of her," he said, not even thinking about how he was going to tell his parents about all of this. That could wait until he was sure of what he was doing.

Until he was sure that the trouble he'd get into would be worth it.

"No, no, I have the highest of respect for people who've worked for Dad and not been accused of attempting to murder him."

Clark laughed at that as they made it outside and he followed Leo toward their car. "So... what you in the mood for tonight?" he asked, and then felt the need to clarify. "Food wise?"

Eyebrows raised at Clark, and Lex smirked as he veered towards the light-blue Honda. "How about not pizza?"

"Well, I don't know...the pizza level in my blood is getting low," Clark joked, and shrugged to show he wasn't that worried. "Seriously, I don't mind. You know me, I'll eat anything."

"I know you'd probably eat molding bread, but that doesn't mean you'd like it. What else other than Pizza?"

"Chinese... Mexican... Thai... anything really," Clark replied, realizing he was very hungry now he had woken up properly. "I haven't eaten... hell, I haven't eaten since we were out at coffee yesterday thinking about it. I'll probably end up eating the cartons and all."

"So, Mexican? I know a great place that's coincidentally inexpensive." Lex unlocked the car door, and then slipped into the driver's side.

Clark folded himself into the passenger side with a degree of difficulty -- there were disadvantages to being tall. "Always a plus point," he commented feeling a fizz of anticipation and excitement in his blood. Not over the Mexican.

Mentally he was way beyond the food and movie.

"My treat," Lex insisted, watching Clark contort himself to fit somewhat comfortably. "Bet you miss the Ferrari already."

"Yeah... leg room would have been nice." Clark replied ruefully as his knees butted up against the dash. "But if you're buying then I'll tolerate it."

"The interior of your stomach seems to have a direct call line to your brain, my friend." Lex shifted his hands on the steering wheel, keyed in the ignition, and then promptly proved to Clark that he drove even a small Honda like it were an expensive sports car.

Fortunately, Clark was at least used to the way Lex drove, even if was usually in a car more man for the job. "Well, at least you seem to recognize the desperate nature of my stomach's need," he said taking a grip on the side, to stop him ripping half the car apart when they went round corners.

"You're going to have to tell me just how much food you want," Lex told him as he blew cleanly past a 'no right turn on red' sign.

"Probably about double what you'll eat." Clark glanced across at him, amused. "You have eaten today, yeah?"

"Coffee and some cookies." Lex's smile was crooked as he drove towards his destination, not looking over at Clark. "Coffee is a proven food group, you know."

"So I am led to understand," Clark replied, remembering his and Leo's shared addiction for caffeine. "You better buy double for you as well... you've got to need the energy after yesterday."

"Then we're lucky it's affordable," Lex drawled with a smirk. "I need to thank you for what you did yesterday, Clark. You saved my life again."

Clark looked at his friend and shook his head, wishing he could accept the all too rare thanks, but it was one time he really felt he had failed his friend.

"I was... too late. If it hadn't been for, well you know, your abilities, I could have been too late." He'd been trying to push away that guilt to deal with after some of the Chloe issues and it came back to assault him suddenly.

"No, Clark, I mean just by showing up you saved my life. If I hadn't gotten someplace I could concentrate..." Lex's mouth thinned out a little. "It was right through my heart."

Clark felt the impact of those words, and the horror of the night before descended upon him all over again. He'd half convinced himself it hadn't been as bad as he had thought, that he had been scared by the blood and over dramatized the seriousness of the wound. And now he discovered he hadn't, the fear came back. In a dramatic rush. "Oh God Lex! Shit, if I'd known, I'd never would have left you last night. Shit -- I should have left the party, should have found you quicker.."

Lex took a hand from the steering wheel -- Lex driving an automatic instead of a manual transmission was some sort of sacrilege -- and waved it vaguely. "Clark, I didn't realize it right away myself, and you were a wreck..."

"But... your heart, man." Clark had to try and swallow down the panic, which was all too late. "I could have waited. You sure you're okay?"

"I don't think I can die, Clark -- I sort of realized that last night... who gets stabbed in the heart and lives?"

"Maybe it wasn't as serious as... that Just slight damage or something to the heart?" Clark asked, looking a little wild around the eyes as he tried to absorb that news. Lex couldn't die?

"I can't be sure of the specifics, of course. But I felt that same rush I've felt a hundred times. Like I was flying, and then..."

"And then what?" Clark queried trying to settle down his reaction. Losing Lex wasn't an option, it was never going to be an option, he decided that.

"I came back. It was the same as when I crashed my car off of the bridge."

"Don't remind me." Clark looked worried, remembering that fateful day. "I didn't think you were going to make it."

"But I did, with nothing worse than a cut and broken ribs." Lex eased up on the gas a little and slowed as he turned down a one-way street.

"Man, that's... just... well, just what I should expect from Smallville I guess," Clark admitted helplessly.

"The meteor shower giveth, and the meteor shower taketh away." Lex smirked a little, patting his realistic-looking hair.

Clark didn't want to think about that too hard, not when he was convinced that the meteor results and deaths had been down to him. Well he knew it was directly to do with him, it didn't matter what anyone said. How would Lex react to that if-- or perhaps when he knew? After all he had gone through as a result of losing his hair, not to mention nearly dying on the day. Would he blame him when it came down to it? "Yeah," he said in a slightly subdued tone and hastily said "You know, that hair totally fooled me."

"That's really sad to hear, Clark -- It's probably the most superficial thing I could've done, and it worked."

"Yeah... so much for being observant, hey?" Clark replied chuckling at himself. "Though thinking about it, from the start I had something tickling at the back of my mind. Your aftershave or cologne. I knew I'd smelled it before.."

Lex started to laugh at that because there was nothing else to do but laugh. "Shit, I never thought anyone would notice that..."

Clark shrugged laughing too. "Yeah, well, to pick up on that would have meant I would have had to admitted to getting close enough to smell and enjoy the smell of both Lex and Leo. You might have noticed but I wasn't quite ready to do that then."

The smirk in sharp eyes agreed with him. "What changed that...?"

"You did." Clark glanced at him as he drove them. "Like I told you... yesterday." Only yesterday? It seemed an age ago. "My attraction to you as Leo happened at the right time to convince me that my attraction to Lex was not an anomaly. And once I had it brought to my awareness, I had to start thinking about it more seriously." Which was what he had spent the last couple of weeks obsessing over, one way or another.

"Since I am Leo, though... is it really such an anomaly?" Lex smoothly parallel parked, and turned off the car.

Clark shrugged again. "I don't care what it is... I just know that it's what I want now." And he looked away and opened the door to get away from that uncharacteristically bold statement.

Some day, Lex would probably make him stand still and say things like that.

"How do you know that...?" It wasn't accusatory -- just curious, the usual tones as Lex pried, even as he got out of the car and closed the door.

"Lets just say last night my priorities got a definite kick in the ass." Clark replied with a smile. Literally, courtesy of a party, a mugger's knife, a robotic gerbil and being struck by lightning. When he put it that way, it seemed that he had carried essence of Smallville to Metropolis. You can take the farm boy out of Smallville, but you can't take Smallville out of the farm boy, he considered wryly.

"I'm not about to question my good fortune." Lex led the way up to the store-front's facade, watching Clark over his shoulder. "Got a movie you want to see?"

Clark smiled, privately hoping that he wouldn't get to see much of it one way or another. "Something that doesn't require a lot of attention," he suggested, hoping he was sending out enough of the right signals. He wasn't exactly sure how to do that with another man, but Lex was pretty good at reading between the lines.

"Well, cable is always good for background noise, if that's what you want." Hell, Lex had almost written the lines that Clark was trying to make him read between. So his answer was heavy with implication.

Clark grinned. "It would mean we got back to yours quicker." No more games. Lex wanted him to show clearly what he wanted and that's exactly what he was trying to do. Maybe overdoing it, and unnecessarily underlining the point, but he wasn't taking chances.

"You sound eager, Clark," Lex laughed as he edged up towards the counter. "I think... no, I'm sure we should take this slowly so you have time to process everything and don't freak on me."

"Sorry, it's just... I feel I have a lot of catching up to do," Clark replied, pleased that the message was being heard if nothing else. "I'll try not to freak." The smell of the potent Mexican food distracted him a moment and he did consider it was possible that he could react badly to this new situation. If even a part of what his graphic imagining occurred, then it would be a hell of a lot to process, but something he would like the chance to have an introspective dilemma about rather than not.

"So, you know... I'd rather have a movie or something else to do just in case you need some time." Lex was grinning, and almost said something more, but then he was giving the man their order.

Clark smiled. Part of him most definitely did not want to be waiting, but considering Lex was most definitely more experienced, he guessed it would be sensible to listen. "Then lets get that movie that involves someone stealing a lot of very nice cars. Gone in 60 Seconds or something. A classic," he said trying not to grin too much as he poked fun at one of his friends foibles.

"How about The Italian Job? Equally classic," Lex countered over his shoulder as he fished through his wallet for cash enough to cover their meal.

"Fine, whichever one of them is in." Clark replied easily. "Got enough cash on you? I have some," he offered almost facetiously.

"I've got the cash, just..." He reached into his back pocket and pulled at a fifty, a grin spreading over his mouth. "See? I don't need your help."

Of course, the man behind the counter started to eye it immediately to see if it were counterfeit.

"You sure about that?" Clark replied, smiling tolerantly as he watched with amusement at the server's suspicious appraisal. "Might have to end up paying after all at this rate."

"This is really a new sensation for me -- having people not want my money," Lex sneered a little as he looked at the man behind the counter.

"Come on man, there are people about to pass out from hunger here," Clark cajoled hopefully. "It's real."

"Where do two college kids get fifties?" The man groused as he put it away into the cash register all the same, and started to count out change for Lex.

"That's not really any of your business," Lex drawled flatly, leaning on the countertop. "It came from the bank that way."

"Hey I could give it to you in quarters if you wanted." Clark offered helpfully.

That seemed to lighten the man behind the counter's mood, and he went back to see that their order was made.

Or possibly to spit in it. People could be spiteful that way.

"We should try that sometime."

"Paying in quarters?" Clark chuckled as he leaned against the counter. "Might just have finished paying by the time the order was done." He glanced across at Leo and, smiled again. It was like one of those illusion pictures where if you let your perception shift you could see another image hidden within the original picture. Now he knew, he could see Lex within the Leo disguise whereas before he had been oblivious. But then he'd been oblivious about quite a few things by the sounds of it.

"I did that once in a music store -- bought a CD in nickels. It was past time to clear out the change from around the apartment." Penthouse, or maybe the mansion, but Lex didn't say that. He just continued leaning back against the counter, smiling at Clark.

"Hope it was worth the trouble," Clark replied, letting his eyes wander curiously over the other man. He really didn't want to screw this up, but he was painfully aware that for all his eagerness he really didn't have the faintest clue what he was doing. A little niggle of doubt crept into the back of his mind. Lex was very experienced; it wasn't a boast, just a fact that cropped up in conversation every now and then. Whereas Clark Kent's sexual experience rating was at a big fat zero. Well, maybe a half if you counted what had happened with Chloe the previous night. Okay, so Lex had been right, he might well freak out.

But conversely, he was going to be in the, er, hands of a very experienced man. Who was mellow, and self-assured about sex, and didn't brag... and absently licked his top lip while looking at Clark. "The CD was pretty good, and the look on the clerk's face was more than worth it."

Clark chuckled again, feeling the almost tangible pressure of the weight of Lex's attention on him. He looked around wondering whether it would be possible to go in the kitchen and volunteer to cook so they would be out of here faster, and at the same time hesitant of committing himself to that privacy together. "Man, I'm hungry," he said deliberately leaning further on the counter.

"Yeah? Just how hungry, Clark?" Lex leveled a smoldering look at him, heavy as a touch despite that Lex's hands were entirely to himself.

Hungry enough to ask to do it then and there on the counter. "Uh... I was just contemplating whether volunteering to help cook would get it done any faster," he said, wondering if it was as obvious to Lex as he felt it was, what he was really thinking.

"Good things, Clark, take time. If it's not worth waiting for, how do you know it's worth wanting?" Lex shifted with a smug air about the motion, eyes catching and holding Clark's. "If your dad's ever told you that one, forget I said it."

"I'm sure I've had some variant on the theme," Clark replied, fascinated by the difference that the warm brown of the contacts made to Lex's eyes. "I've got farmers' wisdom coming out of every pore. Can't be a Kent without having an answer for everything."

"Any others that apply to this situation?" Lex smirked. "I've always found farmers' wisdom fascinating."

"How about 'All good things come to he who waits?'" Clark suggested and then in a softer voice, "Or... 'You don't always know what you've got until its gone.'" He paused a moment and cleared his throat amending that phrase, "Or nearly gone."

"Always a good one," Lex agreed softly, leaning into Clark. "But you didn't almost lose me."

"It felt like I was going to," Clark replied quietly looking down at his hands, remembering them covered in blood and then touching the edges of that deep wound livid over Lex's heart. Try as he might, those images and feelings of loss were going to be embedded in his mind for a long time to come." Last night... and... this morning."

"I only want to do what's best for you, Clark..." He trailed off when the cashier approached again, with two large paper bags of food.

"I know." Clark looked up, grinned and reached for the bags. "Mmm yeah. Thanks, man."

"Have a good day."

"Thanks -- you too." Lex waved briefly and pushed off from the counter to head to the door again. "This stuff is great, Clark. Seriously -- you'll like it."

"Right now, it could be plastic and I think I'd eat it," Clark replied inhaling the aroma, with relish. It made his mouth water just thinking about it. "Smells great."

Lex pushed the door open, and held it open for Clark. "Warm meat, spices, cheese... I lived off of this stuff when I went to Met U the first time."

"It'll make a nice change from pizza," Clark admitted striding eagerly to the car.

"Do your Journalist professors know that you're living off of pizza? I'm pretty sure your department has all kinds of social events with free food..."

"Yeah, but usually cold stuff." Clark nodded in agreement, smiling to himself. "Not quite such a well supported department as Biochem obviously."

"It all depends on the alumni. So, of course Biochem is well funded in Metropolis. Lionel is an alumni." Lex unlocked his car door, and then moved back to the passenger side to open the door for Clark.

"But of course." Clark got back into the comparatively cramped seat, not relinquishing the food, but starting to poke around in the bags optimistically. Tortilla chips at the top, and everything else was wrapped in mysterious but good smelling tinfoil.

"I could've gone back to school as myself, but..." Lex closed the door firmly behind himself, still smiling easily. "It would've been like the coming of Jesus. No challenges, and the professors wouldn't have dared to argue with me."

Clark stole some of the tortilla chips and crunched on them. "I can understand why you did it. Once I'd gotten over myself as being the center of the universe of course," he replied, offering Lex a chip. They were good, very addictive and he ate another one happily.

"Clark... even on a bad day, you can't best Smallville's very own fairy princess for the ability to be a black hole," Lex reminded him as he slid the key into the ignition.

Clark went quiet for a moment, a chip going half eaten in his hand. "Chloe told me on the way to the party yesterday that Lana's going to be getting married soon," he said, looking straight ahead as the car started up.

"Still hung up on her, aren't you?" And unlike when Chloe suggested it, Lex didn't sound angry or edgy.

Clark shook his head; it wasn't like that, it was more like things left unfinished, unsaid, wounds still tender even if this happened before he came to Met U. "No, no, I know it's over. It just...well surprised me how much it effected me to hear that." He shrugged again, trying to show it wasn't that big of a deal." It just seemed...I don't know, sort of unfair that I spent all that time trying really hard and...she never really wanted me when it came down to it. " He winced, appreciating the ironic parallels. "Kinda what I've done to Chloe in a way."

"It hurts like hell," Lex agreed softly. "Everyone feels it sometime in their life. When that first really special person to you moves on to someone else."

"Helen?" Clark asked sympathetically. Though that wasn't really a case of moving on as such.

"I said the first one, not the twelfth," Lex half-laughed as he pulled the car into traffic.

"Not someone I know then," Clark probed gently

"You remember Victoria, don't you? And how I said I went to school with her..." Lex looked lost in the memory. "Excelsior held a lot of distractions for me."

"It was her? " Clark asked. He had a new appreciation of how that must have hurt for his friend to be betrayed later on like he had been.

"Well, first girl I tangled myself up with like that. She was all knees and elbows when I met her." Lex smiled a little sourly, "Then again, I was the gangly bald kid. It cut both ways."

"I find it hard to imagine you as gangly, Lex," Clark commented truthfully, "You're always so... poised."

"I'll find pictures," Lex decided easily. "I felt gangly. And I had eyes only for Victoria... well, and Bruce. Who hasn't yet slept with my father, that I know of."

"Bruce?" Clark queried. That was a name he hadn't heard before, or if he had he didn't recognize it in this context.

Lex almost blew through another red light, and then took a turn sharply. "Surely you've heard of Wayne Enterprises?"

"Bruce Wayne? Gotham City's finest?" Clark felt himself gaping like an idiot. "You know everyone Lex."

"Better -- I know everyone's dirty secrets." Lex was smiling that shark-like smile that others would've called predatory. But Clark knew Lex better than that. Gloating was a better word for it.

"Mmhm. Some of mine, too," Clark replied, and then almost wished he hadn't said that aloud.

Some days he wished he could read Lex's mind. There were thoughts going on behind those bright eyes, wheels of thought turning without mercy. Words being weighed...

"Yeah, Area Fifty-One would love to get their hands on you."

Clark fought a moment of shock. Part of his instinctive reaction was to bolt, the other part to lie. And he couldn't do that any more. If they were going to survive, he couldn't do that. But neither could he just come out and admit something he had been trying to protect for all his life just like that, when the consequences of people knowing had been reinforced over and over. He opted instead for silence and didn't answer and just looked out of the window at the blurred streets as they drove past.

"Well, we're gaining ground. At least you didn't lie to my face and tell me I was wrong this time," Lex half-smiled. "C'mon, forget I said it."

"Is it that important to you?" Clark said quietly. It was important to him, it was a secret that had consumed his life, his parents -- even a brother who he'd never got to know because of that simple fact. If it was mere curiosity then it could wait.

"I don't want to force it out of you, Clark -- but... I know. I know what you are, some of the background to that..." Lex shifted his hands on the wheel, and he looked like he was regretting not having his driving gloves on. "I want you to know that I know so you can relax with me. We have enough defenses on our own without that, Clark."

It was at once frightening and a relief to be told that. "Maybe later I'll be able to... talk about it," Clark said sincerely hoping it was true. If he didn't have to come out and say it, God, yes that would be a relief. When he told Pete, the look on his best friend's face had hurt him so badly he didn't know what to do. He'd realized in that instant why his parents had been so insistent that he not tell anyone, for all that it turned out well. The risk of seeing that expression on Lex's face was just not something he wanted to contemplate. But maybe if he showed him how much he knew, Clark could to reveal secrets by default, which would be a lot easier from his perspective.

"Nothing wrong about being... relatively a freak," Lex smiled a bit more genuinely. "But never mind. So, who's Lana marrying? Are you invited?"

"That Mark guy," Clark replied catching a hint of bitterness in his own voice at the name." And I haven't been officially told about it yet. I think Chloe doesn't really know how badly it went wrong between us. She seemed surprised I didn't have an email about it. Either that or she just likes to probe at it to see if I'm going to have a sudden relapse." He looked straight ahead again and finished the chip he'd been holding all that time. "It's entirely possible that I won't be invited to this particular Smallville wedding."

"Well, you have to admit that for a while there it seemed like you were the bad-luck charm for weddings." Lex was teasing Clark about his own ability to be the bad luck charm at his own weddings, and apparently without any shame from the way his mouth curled. "Give it a few years. Soon, when any Kent shows up at a wedding, one or both of the betrothed will leap out a window to escape the curse."

"Thanks, man, just what I needed, another problem," Clark replied dryly

"C'mon. Lana is probably waiting... for the best time to tell you."

"Probably." Clark didn't even dignify that with a shrug. "Or perhaps she doesn't want that Kent curse anywhere around now she's blissfully happy." That was a little bit too close to what she had said to be entirely flippant in tone.

Lex turned his car onto main, and shook his head to himself. "Blissfully happy? What makes you sure of that?"

"Because one of the things she said when we broke up was that ever since I'd been interested in her, her life had been one long succession of misery and disaster and that my leaving to go to college was probably the nicest thing I could do for her," Clark said in a tightly controlled voice, annoyed at himself that those words still had the capacity to get to him even then. "Blissfully happy if only by comparison I think."

Lex hissed out a sympathetic breath. "Maybe that's just because she could never come to a firm decision."

"Oh, no... that was me as well apparently. Never around when she needed me... lack of commitment," Clark replied flatly. "It was pretty shitty as break ups go really. I felt like such an idiot over it, I just... didn't really bother talking to anyone else about it, because everyone assumed it was about me going away to college anyway. Not that any of them would have believed it of course."

"I would've." And Lex would've -- Christ, with some of the most horrifyingly dramatic break-ups in the world. Victoria had slept with his father, but it was sort of 'okay' since Lex had helped buy out her father's company around the same time. Desiree had set him on fire. Helen had officially disappeared, but that plane crash... Lex didn't have to put that one into words.

He turned down Vine, easing up on the gas. "It's a shame she wormed out of that smelling like a rose."

"Well I did mess her around," Clark replied, obscurely finding himself defending her. "Wasn't myself for a bit... after my mom lost the baby. It's not really her fault, I do have a talent for screwing up."

"You faced abnormal problems. Most kids just have acne and dating melodrama." Lex pulled the car smoothly to a stop in front of his apartment building. "I wasn't much support at the time, and I'm still sorry about that."

"Lex, you weren't even around..." Clark said shaking his head to deny that apology. "Neither was I... until I came to my senses. And then it took Dad to confront me and get me home."

"And I'm glad he did," Lex pulled the keys out of the ignition, but didn't yet get out of the car.

Clark nodded, not liking to remember one of the worst times in his life and all too aware he should have been there for Lex as much as Lex apologized for not being there for him. "Me, too." It had been a particularly difficult time for them, and he knew for Lex too. But then Lex had good cause not to be around.

Lex exhaled in a soft huff, then smiled to himself as he popped open the door. "Right, that's fucking depressing, isn't it? C'mon, let's go."

"You mean we're not going to sit here all night?" Clark lightened his tone. "And I was just getting ready to unpack everything here and now." He took care to be getting out of the car as he said it, just in case Lex might take him at his word in a quixotic moment.

"I think you'll find my sofa -- which will never unstain, I don't think -- much more comfortable. You wouldn't happen to have any cures for dirty upholstery, would you?" Lex slipped to his feet, and closed the door behind him, pausing to wait for Clark. As if he actually had to wait.

Clark was right behind him, eager to get inside. "I'm sure it involves something slightly weird with baking soda. But I wouldn't try it unless you don't mind having holes in it...I could be wrong," he commented.

"Clark, which one do you think is easier to explain to anyone who might come in?" Lex laughed quietly, opening the door into the building, and then starting up the polished wooden steps.

"You could always say it was red wine," Clark suggested, smiling as he followed him up to Lex's apartment

"Five or six bottles of it," Lex agreed in a good-natured whisper.

Clark smiled but he couldn't help but feel a slight chill at that. How could Lex be so casual about it? It had scared the living daylights out of him and all he had done was carried him there, and mop him up a bit. "A good vintage then," he quipped and covered his discomfort with a grin

"No, not really. 1980 wasn't a good year in the vineyards." He slipped the key into the front door of his apartment -- fixed from when Clark had broken it -- and swung it inwards.

Clark looked around, having time now to actually see the place he had hurtled into in the middle of the night, somewhat distracted by his best friend bleeding all over him. Then in the morning, he hadn't had opportunity to look around before they had hit the emotional roller coaster and ridden the rails all the way around the track. It was most definitely a Leo apartment not a Lex abode. "Not a historical artifact in sight," he commented as he set foot inside and lifted the bag "You want this heated up?"

"Yeah, it's probably gone cold. I trust you to not blow up the microwave or the oven." Lex closed the door behind him, and then brushed comfortably past Clark to turn his stereo on. "I honestly wouldn't want to have anything that had a historical value in this apartment."

"It's not that bad a neighborhood," Clark called out as he disappeared into the kitchenette and alternately heated some in the microwave and others using his heat vision, and then cheating with x-ray vision to find plates and cutlery without having to fumble around too much. Man, he was actually here and he was probably going to end up having sex with Lex... if he was lucky! The anticipation wavered between nervousness and excitement as he mulled over what might occur, ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous, so he was appreciating the grounding aspects of the mundane things right now. Stopped him getting too carried away in his own imagination and possibly scaring himself off, for all his bold words.

"I'm sure the guys who mugged me last night would be delighted to agree." Some wordless trance beat broke to life in the living room, low background noise that would be easy to tune out.

"Man, yeah, didn't think of that." Clark came out with all the food and plates and then asked a bit self-consciously. "Where do you want everything?"

Lex was clearing the top of the coffee table, and gestured to it. "We can eat here. There isn't enough space for a proper table, and I haven't had to entertain anyone yet."

Clark nodded and juggled everything he was holding to put it down carefully, making one more trip into the kitchen to get the silverware he had forgotten to actually pick up and bring in. "Finally," he said sitting down, prying open the nearest container and then belatedly moving up so there was plenty of room next to him to sit down.

Not that Lex took that plenty of room. He settled down beside Clark, close beside him, and reached to unwrap a package of enchiladas. "You look like you're starving."

"Well, you know me," Clark replied, unwrapping the crackling tinfoil. "Not known for my picky eating." He picked up an innocuous looking item and munched on it carefully. "Spicy," he commented. "Nice -- no idea what it is.". He liked Lex sitting that close, he was definitely comfortable with that. Whenever they got that close the attraction seemed to tug at them inexorably, making his concerns about not responding to Lex seem ridiculous.

"You've never eaten Mexican before?" Lex asked with an arch of his eyebrow. "Not even from Taco Hell?"

"It never looked anything like this - and tasted a lot different," Clark shrugged, randomly helping himself and sitting back as he ate ravenously. His gaze lit on the dark stains on the couch upholstery and he paused mid-mouthful, disturbed by the flash of memory that brought blood and an echo of his panic back to him.

"You all right?" Lex asked after swallowing a mouthful of taco.

"Yeah... just, remembering, you know?" Clark said swallowing hastily. He shifted a little closer to Lex in an effort to banish that discomfort, reminding himself the person he was panicking about was sitting next to him, talking, breathing, warm and very much alive. And eating a spicy taco.

"That depends on what you're remembering, Clark," Lex murmured mildly.

"Just... still a little freaked about last night," Clark admitted. "But that's just me, and we've talked about it so, there's no need to bring it up again." The food provided a very useful distraction at that point as he leant forward and grabbed an enchilada.

"We can bring it up gain if you think talking about it will help you, Clark." Lex got up, but only to wander towards the kitchen again. "Coke, or a beer?"

"Beer please," Clark called out. He didn't get drunk but beer did relax him a little, and he decided he needed that right now. "No, man, it's okay... I'll deal with it."

"Really? Are you sure of that?" There was a clinking of glasses, and Lex came back out with two opened bottles of beer.

"Yeah. I'm used to dealing with things. Um, I do appear to be eating most of the food though," he said apologetically as he demolished a fajita.

Lex took a swig of his beer, and sat back down, close beside Clark once more. "Leave at least a little for me? There's some Chinese in the fridge that you can reheat if you're feeling particularly ravenous..."

"I'm not that bad," Clark protested, slowing up some as he sat back with the beer and drank some down, feeling his hunger slow as the offering of food made it to his stomach. "That feels much better." He was aware he was practically radiating expectancy and nervousness and tried to relax some more. No freaking out. He was on a date with a guy, and not just any guy but Lex, and freaking out was not an option.

"The beer, or...?" Lex set his bottle down on the coffee table, then leaned back onto the cushions, sliding an arm idly over Clark's shoulders.

"Well, that's making it feel a lot more comfortable too," Clark said and glanced at Lex, and leaning a little in towards him and gave a tentative warm smile. "I've eaten, I've got a beer and I have you here. I'm pretty much set for life now."

The arm over his shoulders was lean and warm, and Lex's fingers moved to idly massage his shoulder. "Are you sure about that, Clark?"

"Right now?" Clark looked at Lex a moment considering his response. "Yeah... I am." It wasn't the most romantic declaration of love and affection; it fell into silence instead of into some orchestral swell of music overlaying a movie scene. But it was sincere for all his lack of eloquence, and the massage on his shoulder was feeling... good.

"Good... Great. Look, do you want to watch TV or fiddle with the stereo for a second?" Lex pulled back, stopping in his massage, and picked up his beer as he started to stand. "I'd like to feel like myself again, or else I'm going to severely creep myself out."

"I'll put the TV on," Clark replied, though he doubted he would be watching it that much. Too busy thinking.

"All right." With his free hand, Lex reached up to pull his wig off, walking off towards the door that led off of the living room.

Clark fiddled with the remote and flicked through channels, unable to really settle on anything. In some ways, they should have gone to get The Italian Job or something, because at least it would have stopped his nervous channel hopping. He wanted more of what had been promised in that kiss that morning. Not just the physical pleasure, because there was all that, but that rare sense of rightness and certainty. The anticipation was killing him, and he picked at the food, sprawled back on the couch and waited hopefully. He wanted it to be Lex that this happened with, not Leo, he had decided that. Leo was easier to talk to, but Lex was.. .well, who he wanted to talk about and be with.

Wow, but thinking that way was weird. It was probably weird for Lex, too, and Lex already had enough loopholes and mazes in the way he thought. It wasn't any wonder that he wanted to make out with Clark as himself.

And he was taking his time, wherever he was.

Clark clicked on another channel finally finding something that looked remotely interesting and having succumbed to the nervous urge to clear things up a little he sprawled back on the couch and then propped himself up by the arm with cushions. He turned and carefully stroked the bloodstains speculatively, before covering them with his own form. He didn't want Lex seeing that tonight.

The door finally opened again, and it was Lex that came back -- washed face, scar visible once more, no hair, and sharp, hungry blue eyes that settled on Clark before he closed the door behind him.

Clark smiled and propped himself up a little. "Thought you'd changed your mind," he said lightly, taking a last swig of beer and putting the bottle down.

"No -- silicone putty is hell to get off." Lex licked his top lip absently, as he strolled towards Clark with his smile firmly in place. "And make up. I can't understand why women bother doing it every day."

"I admit that I was a little curious as to the lipstick when I noticed it," Clark replied, and watched the flicker of tongue with a quiver of expectation.

"Unfortunately, the putty dries clear," Lex shrugged as he eyed Clark carefully for a moment. "You seem to be taking up all of the sofa... which leaves me with little choice." And he moved swift and smoothly to straddle Clark's hips, kneeling straight above him far enough to not touch.

"That was pretty much the idea," Clark said, through a suddenly dry throat looking up at Lex. Fast moves, but the warmth was enough to get his attention "Um." His brain was starting to shut down coherent thought and he resorted to fixing his gaze on Lex's eyes as an anchor point.

Slowly, Lex sat back into Clark's thighs, pressing his groin ever so slightly against Clark's. "Are you all right?"

"Uh... God yes..." Clark breathed, the frisson of contact setting a warmth burning. Yes, Houston, we have contact! Fantastic contact, man, if it was this good with material in the way, what would it be like skin to skin...? "You?"

"Perfect." Lex leaned forwards, holding Clark's eyes with his own as he laid his hands on Clark's chest. "You can tell me to stop at any time, and I will."

"I-I won't. Tell if I do anything wrong?"

"I honestly doubt that could happen," Lex drawled, leaning down with feline grace to kiss Clark.

Kissing made it easier. Kissing he knew about, understood and was practiced in. He felt that same surge as he had that morning, and he didn't want to break that contact at all. He'd been waiting all day, all his life for this and he wanted it to be good.

Lex was methodical about it; pressing lips first full against Clark's mouth, then slipping his tongue in to tease at Clark's bottom lip, more sweet friction, and then the slick press of tongue seeking his actively. Hands vacated Clark's chest, curled in his hair.

Clark moaned a little, hungrily chasing that tongue, closing his eyes to revel in the sensation as taste vanished to overriding stimulation that shut down their need to breath or do anything save kiss. God, but it was better than any other kiss he'd had before and he'd thought some of them had been pretty spectacular.

His hands crept up over Lex's back, stroking over the smooth skin at the back of his head with exploring fingers. Perfectly hairless, smooth except for the bump at the back of his head -- Clark could feel the delicate texture of bones under his fingers, a flesh and blood map of another world. Lex moaned into his mouth, pulling back for a moment before pressing another one, teasing at Clark's lower lip. His fingers moved restlessly through Clark's hair for a moment more, then slid down to pull at the edge of Clark's t-shirt.

The younger man shifted, trying to assist and yet not lose that contact with his lips. It was addictive; it suddenly seemed as necessary as breathing to him and all the while his hand caressed that satin texture of skin, fascinated by the difference, the feel, everything. How could anyone not appreciate the complex wonder and its sensitivity to his touch?

Somehow, while keeping his attention on kissing Clark, Lex pulled his t-shirt up, and slid his palms smoothly over his chest, exploring. He finally broke their kisses to murmur, "Let me get this off of you..."

Clark nodded eagerly, raising his arms back so the garment could vanish easily over the top of them, though he then hampered that action by trying to steal kisses from Lex. His doubts had vanished again with Lex's proximity and he was working on instinct as the muscles of his torso were exposed. Clark was pretty sure that Lex threw his shirt at the TV set. But even then, the kisses didn't deepen properly, and Lex's hands left him because the older man was struggling smoothly out of his own shirt. Clark reached up to help but found his fingers distracted by the feel of fabric on the skin.

The wound on Lex's chest was covered with a sterile patch, and medical tape, a blotch of white that was dabbed with rusty red against his toned, smooth skin.

His hand sought around that area with guilty touches, tender and gentle. Lex was still hurt, and he was asking him to do this? "Is it... okay?" he murmured as the shirt came off.

"Hasn't stunted my libido," Lex assured in a low laugh, dropping the shirt to the floor. Then he sat back, pressing his crotch against Clark's with a firmer pressure than he had the first time, as if to back up his words.

Clark made a low guttural sound of surprise, knowing he was growing harder by the moment. "Man..." He resisted the urge to push back, not wanting to lose control. "Hasn't stunted anything"

"Lex, not 'man'. I really do like to hear my name, but if you're set on assuring yourself of my gender, I can help you there..." Teasing tones, smooth voiced, no offense meant or taken -- and Lex rocked again, rolling his hips in a slow circle like lap dancers did on TV. "Tell me, Clark, have you ever had a blowjob before?"

Clark eyes widened a little. "N-No." He damned himself for the quaver that signposted his innocence so clearly.

"I'm both heartened and saddened to hear that. You're how old again, and you've never had that particular pleasure?" Lex leaned down again, looking into Clark's widened eyes, and then leaned down as if to kiss him, but veered ever so little to brush his mouth against the edge of Clark's jaw.

"Certain... ah... considerations... have held me back.." Clark turned his head a little to expose his neck to Lex's soft lips. He would never have realized the jaw line could be so sensitive -- score one for discovering a potential new erogenous zone.

Lex was starting to take things slower, coaxing Clark to do the same after the first feverish kisses had been exchanged. "Considerations such as?" Lex asked between idle nips and kisses.

"Hurting someone..." Clark admitted softly and paused a moment. "I can't do that, I won't."

Oddly that gave Lex a moment's pause, before he kissed a slow path up to Clark's earlobe. "Hurting someone how...?" he whispered.

"Losing control. Being who... being what I am, Lex." Clark closed his eyes, trying to summon the courage to tell Lex here and now and wavering. "You know why."

"But you trust yourself with me...?" Lex asked carefully, sliding a hand down between Clark's legs, cupping over the bulge in his jeans.

"I trust you enough to give myself to you, Lex." Clark stiffened, trembling slightly, then relaxed into the strange feel of that intimate contact. He'd reasoned that would be safe, after the discussion with Leo. He couldn't hurt Lex that way, not ever, but he couldn't be hurt.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get that far down the road," Lex assured softly. Then he tugged at Clark's earlobe with lips and mouth, pulling back to blow a thin stream of cool air over it. "You taste like sunshine feels."

Clark shivered and was unable to hide a slightly amazed smile at those words. "No one has ever said anything like that about me before." He smiled and then teased, "Even if you've used it before... I like it."

"I am not a man of trite lines, Clark," Lex promised, and gave Clark's groin another firm squeeze. Then he trailed his fingers up along the line of the zipper, up to Clark's waistband and belt.

Clark instinctively arched and found himself acutely aware of even the touch and movement of fabric in that area. He turned his gaze to look directly at Lex, mouth suddenly dry. "No... you would never be trite."

"Glad you agree." Lex pulled back, shifting again. That time it was to press kisses to Clark's chest, slow open-mouthed kisses while his deft hand opened Clark's jeans and started to rub him through his boxers. "Mmhm, always knew you dressed to the left..."

"You... you were looking?" Clark managed, pushing up against those lips and that hand. It reminded him of dancing with Chloe, only then the touches had not shot heat right to his stomach with every rub. His hands opted to explore Lex's back, tentative and delicate, fearing his strength on more fragile skin.

"You thought that I didn't?" Lex smirked against his abdomen, fingers pushing through the front of Clark's boxers to palm him lightly.

"I wasn't completely sure," Clark smiled, back closing his eyes a moment as heat poured and curled to his cock. "Oh, Lex... that feels... pretty good."

"Pretty good?" The kissing paused, but if anything, the tugging at his cock grew more steady, more deft. "I should be insulted..."

"...how about fucking fantastic?" Clark gasped out, responding to the firmer strokes. The proddings from his conscience to warn Lex were being drowned out by his instinct to sink into that pleasure. How could it feel so different being touched by someone else's hand than from his own?

"Much better." Lex kissed down to his hipbone, sliding down bodily, and using both hands to mold Clark's dick upright. He ran light fingers through the hair at the base, smiling to himself. "Gorgeous."

And he'd never thought about that before either. It was not something he was used to being described that way, or being touched this way. "Should I... be doing something?" he managed, feeling a pang of conscience at just lying here enjoying himself while Lex did all the work. It seemed... rude.

"Whatever feels natural, Clark," Lex murmured graciously. He gave a suggestive twitch of his eyebrow at Clark, and then bent his head to gust his slow, steady breaths over the flared head of Clark's cock. "Don't worry -- I want you to enjoy this."

Clark groaned a little to himself over that tickling sensation, and automatically shifted his legs further apart to maximize contact. "No... problem there Lex," he said. He wanted the cautioning voice to shut up in his head, but it was pestering him with all his paranoid worse-case scenarios insistently enough to prompt him to attempt a warning. "Lex, oh God, don't stop... but," he swallowed again as that breath seemed to caress every nerve of his cock all at once. "Careful."

"I won't hurt you." And there was some deeper meaning in Lex's words, a deeper intent than just 'I won't hurt you'; but there wasn't time to reason it out before he lowered his mouth, warm and suddenly sucking, onto Clark.

That wasn't what he had meant but oh God, he'd take those words and hold onto them as desperately as he was trying to hold onto his control. There was no way a hand could ever compare to that moist heat. The words he'd been about to say degenerated into a wordless gargle of sound, as fire pounded up through his veins, pure sparks of electricity and flame inside his blood making him shudder.

Lex didn't offer him any respite from sensation. Those first sucks turned to slower ones that took him in deeper, Lex's cheeks hollowing out as he worked with an odd sense of pleasure at his task. He stroked Clark's balls, massaged and rubbed them at the same time he sucked, but off-beat so that it was just one more sensation in a sea of them.

"No... oh God... I'm going to come!" Clark gasped out, having waited so long for this that he couldn't last. The flame he had tried so hard to kindle with Chloe was here as wildfire, consuming arousal. He'd never really understood how deep and intoxicating passion could be and he rushed headlong towards climax. "..Lex... don't..." His coherence kept drowning in that ocean of sensation, heady and engulfing him into it's depths.

There was one last perfect burst of sensation for Clark, a nudge of pressure against his stomach, a squeeze around his cock, and then he was there. Shuddering, almost drifting on it, breathing hard.

No do it yourself session had ever brought this sort of sensation, this concentrated intensity of pleasure. He floated a moment in complete bliss before his thoughts coalesced into sense again and his green eyes flew open as the clamoring warning could finally be heard. "Fuck! Lex? Are you okay?"

Easy grey eyes looked at him with solid amusement, then dropped to the side as he nuzzled at Clark's hip. "Yeah."

"You... swallowed?" Clark looked and sounded worried, as his nightmare scenarios of how alien substances could effect someone rose up even as the passion eased. "I should have... stopped you.."

"Some guys like to swallow -- less of a mess," Lex said easily, but he was watching him -- watching the concern in Clark's voice, watching his face even as he licked his lips.

"It... was it any different?" Clark asked brushing fingertips over Lex's face with tender care and anxiety. "It hasn't hurt you?"

And something shifted under his fingers, a sudden tension in Lex's face. "Okay. We need to talk if thoughts like that are even crossing your mind."

Clark looked stricken. Shit. That tore it. "I'm sorry Lex, I really am -- I... oh God," he was shaking a little as he deliberate tried to force himself to talk about this, to tell Lex the truth. "Help me... I don't know how to explain this."

"I'm not going to beg you to tell me," Lex murmured, shifting back and away from Clark, but he tucked him away into his boxers first. "I know. I know a lot. But if there's some risk to me, I think I damn well need to hear that from your mouth rather than make my health a guessing game."

Clark looked at him and if he'd felt worried before, that subtle shifting back triggered desperation. Enough desperation to push him that little extra to make the admission. "You know what I am, Lex. You probably know more about what I am than I do." He avoided his eyes then, not wanting to see the look of rejection or revulsion. "I'm more than a meteor mutation... Mom, Dad, they found me that day the meteors hit. It was pretty obviously I came with them... rather than just affected by them."

Dammit, it was all he could do to stop himself from bolting just so he didn't have to see the reaction. He felt like he had handed Lex a knife of Kryptonite and put the point of the blade over his heart. He'd never felt so vulnerable to anyone, ever.

"I thought so." Lex didn't move farther back, and that was at least something. "And this could've come up under worse circumstances. Just cut to the chase -- do I need to go get syrup of ipecac and throw up?"

"I... I don't know." Clark watched him, his emotions rebounding hopefully. "Mom thought not. She uh... tested for adverse reaction. There weren't any apparently." Clark distinctly remembered the mortification of sitting though his version of the sex talk. His had a few added features; including the fact that his Mom had skin tested certain bodily fluids. Neither he nor his Dad had been able to look her in the eye for days. "Hasn't stop me worrying about it though. A lot.."

Lex cracked a smile, and shifted forwards, struggling to not choke on his laughter. "I suppose that if your mom hasn't dissolved yet..."

Clark smiled a little, seizing on the lighter mood. "Dad went off muttering about headlines in the Torch of 'Smallville Mom dissolved by Jizz!'. Mom told us to stop being over dramatic about it and that someone had to be responsible and think of these things." He paused a moment, serious again. "You're... not... freaked out by this?"

"I'm more freaked out by the idea that your dad would say that," Lex said, sounding intense in his sincerity, as he leaned in to kiss Clark. He was still tense, but trying to work past it. "I am, I admit."

"I knew I should have persuaded you to fuck me instead." Clark replied with a small sigh, kissing him in return privately amazed that Lex was not running screaming from the room. "That would have been safe."

"Considering that our first kiss was less than forty-eight -- maybe twenty four -- hours ago, that's a bit of a fast jump, even for me." Another slow kiss, and Lex shifted to get Clark to move over a little so he could lay atop Clark and beside him on the couch.

Clark looked at him again, relaxing a little. "I'm sorry, Lex, I meant to tell you before hand, I really did. I just got caught up in the moment, I wanted it so much.."

"Perfectly understandable." That was a dismissive murmur, and Lex turned Clark's head to kiss at his mouth. "And we're moving way too far, too fast. Who knew that Clark Kent was easy on his first date?" Lex teased lightly.

Clark smiled. If this was Lex's definition of easy, then easy he was, though if the whole Leo thing, near death, massive arguments, and confessions of deep dark secrets constituted easy, Clark decided that a Lex's definition of a difficult relationship was something to avoid at all costs. "Got a lot of catching up to do." He savored those lips again. He decided he could kiss Lex forever and not get tired of it. "Besides sometimes I feel we've been dating ever since we met..."

"Because chasing things around Smallville, and hunting down murderers are really romantic dates and good, solid bonding experiences." Lex tucked a hand into Clark's hair, threading agile fingers through his hair. "And shit, you're not human. That really hasn't sunk in yet."

Clark looked at him with more than a tinge of anxiety, as his own arms curled around Lex hopefully. "No, I'm not. I knew I was different, for a long time. Smallville different at least. It wasn't until later Mom and Dad told me about... the ship." He grimaced ruefully. "After the bridge would you believe."

"I'd believe it," Lex murmured, kissing him again. He had slow, luxurious kisses for Clark, as if he were the only person in the world worth kissing. "Come on, sit up -- I can't do this, lay here, and not push you too damn far at once. You might be fine with it right now, but I'd bet money that you'll freak out tomorrow that I've sucked your cock."

"But... what about you?" Clark murmured. "You haven't... and I haven't done anything for you Lex. And I won't freak, not about that."

Lex shifted back, but tugged Clark with him this time. "Are you insisting because it's fair, Clark, or because you want to?"

Clark looked at him again and smiled encouragingly. "If you knew the sort of dreams I've been having you wouldn't have to ask that," he hinted with what he thought was the right amount of serious intent.

It must have work because Lex shifted back entirely, sitting on the sofa, and then stretched his legs out, open and inviting Clark to try anything. "Really?"

Clark nodded, pleased at that reaction. If he was going to spend all this time having his thoughts intruded on by random daydreams and fantasies he wanted to at least try some of it. "Oh yes, definitely." He smiled again, moving carefully to nudge in between Lex's legs this time.

"What do you like Lex? I want to do what you'll enjoy," he asked softly. He wanted this experience to be as special to Lex as it was for him. For him it was a first time so he'd never forget it even if it hadn't been mind-blowing, but he wanted so much not to make a mess of it for Lex. He wanted Lex to want him - so much so he had considered taking 'Leo' up on his offer of showing him what to do and then...what? Perhaps he was planning to offer Lex a special Christmas present, he wasn't sure. But circumstances had shifted and he had to do the best he could with the inexperience and enthusiasm he possessed now.

"Let's keep it simple tonight. Your hands on me, Clark -- I want to feel that..." Lex almost right away lifted his own hands to rub at Clark's shoulders, stroking along the line of his spine.

Clark tried to think of what he had enjoyed, a trailed his touch up the inside of Lex's thighs first, over the material and smoothed his palm over the evident bulge firmly but gently, looking up at Lex for approval.

A slow exhalation from Lex, and he nodded gently. "Feels good, Clark..." He shifted, spreading his legs a fraction more to rock minutely up against Clark's hand.

Clark smiled even more, and rubbed again slowly and deliberately. He flashed back to the party and what Chloe he done to him and consciously imitated the rocking motion, before unbuttoning Lex's pants and sliding his hand down into the hidden depths, exploring by touch onto warm slick skin.

When Lex had said he was completely hairless -- years ago, while scuffing his hand over his bald scalp -- he'd really meant it. Mostly smooth skin, and silken fabric rubbed against Clark's hand when he touched Lex's dick, and the older man let out a slow hiss of pleasure. "Fuck, yes, touch me..."

Clark had never realized how arousing it could be to do that to someone else, watching them react with pleasure to what was happening when they were touched. All of a sudden he could understand why people would think to try different things, to receive that turn on and jolt that came with seeing desire dilate in their partner's eyes. What had Leo said when he asked? That men knew what men wanted most of all. Oh yes, so .. first of all, a firm grip. Fingers wrapped around the heat of Lex's cock, tightly and stroked hard but slow, even as he pulled at the waistband, to expose what he was doing.

Lex's hands never stopped moving on him, but they paused, jerked, shook in response to Clark's motions. Clutched at his shoulders uselessly and rocked his hips up faintly to meet Clark's stroking. "Feels so much better than my own hands... I've imagined you doing this so many times, Clark."

Clark smiled, pleased by that, by the fact that he had featured in his Lex's fantasies. "Like this? What else did you imagine?" he asked even as he slipped pants over the lean hips, and tweaked them down. His right hand remained tight around Lex's erection, feeling the pulsing heat in the palm of his hand with a sense of wonder. He was really doing this... he was actually... doing this...

"Your gorgeous mouth on me... you naked in my bed, yelling out my name, just for me..." Lex was breathing in half-controlled pants of air, clutching at Clark as if to ground himself; and all the while rocking up to meet Clark's strokes. He was cut, and the flared head Clark was almost stroking was weeping pre-come, clear drops. "Jesus."

"You sure we haven't been having the same dreams?" Clark murmured shifting down a little, smiling at the reaction. His mouth on him? Okay, he could manage to do some kissing down here, try it out. He leaned over, dropping soft kisses on Lex's abdomen, tasting the skin with growing enthusiasm. Lex had been right, there came a point where you couldn't describe the taste of your partner as a taste, but where you had to resort to other sensory terms to describe the complexity of sensation. Lex tasted like... music, the hypnotic exciting epic trance music that he played, a 'music' he could abandon himself to safely.

His hand stopped moving, but his thumb rubbed languidly over the head of the weeping cock as he liked to do for himself.

He could feel a groan resonate against his mouth, and Lex's lean muscles tightened and released with every breath. "Maybe we have," Lex laughed softly, rocking his hips up against Clark's thumb and hand like it was the most desperate thing in the world. "Please, Clark..."

Hearing his name spoken like that, made him ache as well. God, he loved hearing the fact that Lex needed him, it was an affirmation of his hopes in that tone. His soft lips moved downwards boldly, finding nothing in himself that would stop him. In fact the images of taking Lex in his mouth were vivid and demanding in his head even as he hesitated, more to decided how to do this rather than whether he could...

He removed his thumb and paused over the head of Lex's cock and then licked at it experimentally, tasting some of the musky sweet/sour liquid on his tongue.

Some soft, wild sound left Lex's mouth, a grunt and a startled moan and a protest wrapped together. "Close, Clark... you shouldn't... " Lex's smooth voice, firm and still mostly in control, wavered fractionally, fingers going tense.

Clark grinned. Okay... this was it. It wasn't so bad, besides he had certain advantages that most people didn't have. The ability to hold his breath, no damage to his mouth or throat... if Lex couldn't last then he wanted more than anything to make his first orgasm at Clark's hands...or mouth, a memorable one. That desire was more than enough to override his natural nervousness.

Licking his lips, and making his mouth as smooth and wet as possible - and thanking God for the porn movies that gave him some idea of what to do - he removed his hand and in a smooth movement took Lex into his mouth, surprised at how hot he was even as he slid him in deeper and deeper, swallowing vigorously.

"Fuck!" Lex's voice broke, hands coming up to curl into Clark's hair, and he made a few last stuttered thrusts into Clark before he spilled. Semen in Clark's mouth, and he was pretty lucky that he could hold his breath because there was little chance that he was going to breath just then.

Lex was deep enough in that Clark could do little else but swallow, convulsively if truth be told and if he'd been 'normal' there was a good chance he might have succumbed to the gag reflex. But he wasn't normal, so to him, it was a sudden burst of salty liquid in amongst the musk, hot and not entirely unpleasant as he swallowed it down, sucking everything clear before he withdrew. He wondered what all the fuss was about spitting and swallowing. It wasn't that bad, but then if he'd had to breath he might have thought differently. But that didn't matter because he'd done it! He smiled, resting on Lex's thighs. He'd done it and Lex at least seemed to be enjoying it. He certainly had.

"I think that I'm dead," Lex murmured after a quiet moment, fingers stroking lazily through Clark's hair. Touch for the sake of touch, and he hadn't bothered to pull his pants up from where they were caught around his knees.

"Was it that bad?" Clark tilted his head up, with a half smile as he looked at him. He wanted this... this closeness, this intimacy forever.

"Terrible," Lex murmured softly, smiling through his words as he tugged lightly at Clark. "No, it was wonderful, and you looked so gorgeous, Clark..."

Clark shifted up, sampling a few random spots on Lex's chest as he did so, before settling, tangled next to him. "I did?" He sounded surprised "You looked wonderful from where I was. I wanted you to look like that forever."

Lex tipped Clark's head a little, and pressed a firm kiss to his mouth, then softened it to pry at Clark's lips, delving into his mouth. Hot, and demandingly slick, and arms tangled around him like Lex's tongue did. Then he broke the kiss and murmured, "We'll work our way to that."

Clark smiled, a little dazed from how simple everything seemed now. "I'll make it my new ambition in life."

It's certainly admirable," Lex drawled, kissing Clark again. "Hold on a sec..." He pulled back just long enough to pull his pants back up over his ass and tuck himself, away, but he didn't bother with the zipper or buttons.

Clark watched him, and then settled down where he was lying. Right now he was aglow with post-sex contentment, and he would have sworn that no one on earth was as beautiful as Lex in that moment as he looked down at his zipper and then back up with eyes so sharp and bright that he inhaled at the sudden impact of them. Was this what it was like? Was this how you fell in love? That even the most common movement or gesture, filled you with a sense of wonder? Like looking up and seeing a star blaze in the night where none had done so before? He never remembered feeling like this about anyone else even when he thought he had been in love. The way he saw the world had never been changed by how he felt before.

So, Clark stared at Lex, wondering if there was any way he would be able to convey the rightness he felt now, whether Lex would ever believe it. That this was where he was meant to be, and nothing else mattered. This was a new feeling, this had grown somehow out of the fertile soil of change. This was more than friendship, more than sex of that he was sure.

And Lex seemed to be adrift in that ease, too. He settled back down with Clark, then reached a lazy hand to turn the TV on as low background noise. Easy kisses, and idle conversation -- Lex pressed no further than they'd already gone, mindful that come the next day, there was every possibility of a temporary freaking out.

But that was then, and the comfortable now of the moment was assurance for Clark that they would work themselves to that goal Clark had vaguely mentioned.

An eternity, taken one easy step at a time.