When he was ten, he'd never guessed that he'd ever be described as 'Kind of weird, but a nice guy'. The idea that he'd ever be some eccentric guy that was generally well tolerated had been a foreign concept to him.

A lot of things were foreign concepts to him, and a lot of things were equally too-well known by him. Both categories were full of things that people just didn't expect. He didn't talk about it, didn't dwell on it, tried hard to not let it get to him. After all, he worked with great people who respected him.

Even if they did have him go toy shopping for their little sisters and stuff. That had been Clark. He'd been there in the department for a year, maybe more, but Lex wasn't too much of a social animal. He'd been talking to Chloe -- who'd also only been full-time for a year, but she'd interned there and been a gopher forever, bubbling with intense native curiosity -- about how he was going to run to the big overcrowded Toy store in Metropolis, the three story one, and get some more LEGOs and Erector sets that weekend.

Somehow, because Clark was working Saturday and he wasn't, because Clark needed to go home to Smallville on Sunday for his little sister's birthday, Lex had volunteered to pick up a couple of things for her. Since he was headed that way, anyway.

Things like that were half the reason why he was considered 'eccentric' along with nice. You were eccentric if you spent equal parts of your salary on building toys and electronics for fiddling with. You were eccentric when you decided not to join into a multinational corporation that was your birthright, and instead held onto the voting share of stock, showed up for the odd meeting, and donated a lot of money to children's charities and women's shelters. You were eccentric when you didn't live in a lofty castle in the sky, but a sort of quaint, nice apartment that was a bit away from the nonstop go-go-go of the Downtown and the Central Business District.

Sure, Lex Luthor was eccentric. He was also happy to be scraping DNA off of bones and dirt and testing blood, and making latex molds because it was a good job, for a good purpose. Getting scum off of the streets with his scientific mind. He was happy being just a nice guy, too.

Even if the checkout line seemed miles long, and he had an armful of toys. He really should've gotten a cart.

It didn't help that Clark had wheedled him into going down the Aisle-O-Pink, either. Lex was pretty sure that somebody had puked that color up after having too much Pepto one night and then thought it was a great idea to use it for packaging on items for little girls. Mostly, Lex figured it just sent them colorblind at a very young age, thus perpetuating a vicious cycle of pink that little girls would inflict on their children. But he'd gotten her the couple of girly girly things that Clark had mentioned, and a LEGO set of indeterminate gender.

There was something to be said for spending too much time trying to foster gender rolls. And everybody liked pirates, right? Right. Pirates were great. He wished he had a fleet of them to storm the woman who was trying to do some screwy cash back transaction two people ahead of him, because his hands were going numb.

"Excuse me..." A hassled lady behind him nudged forward a little, looking extraordinarily guilty. "I'm so sorry, but I'm going to be late for my niece's birthday party, and I just got off work and... would you mind terribly...?"

Sure, since he... really didn't have a life. He couldn't even claim lack of a life sarcastically, so he just nodded. "Yeah. Go on. I'm not in a hurry," he smiled faintly as he shifted so she could get past him, while trying to not knock over the candy and gadget laden display behind him. It was the little things that mattered in life, made it bearable.

Kindnesses.

Lex's life was made up of kindnesses, outside of work. Small things, really, things a lot of people didn't notice. He worked nights, but that didn't stop him from bringing Mrs. Katze the paper when he came in every morning so that she didn't have to try and navigate all of the steps to their little delivery box. He usually had free time if he wasn't on his way to work, so if someone was in more of a hurry, he let them break in line if they looked desperate.

Well.

Except in coffee shops, but Lex was serious about his coffee.

It was just one thing that he put his foot down on, and people never needed coffee in a desperate 'let me cut in front of you' way. Everyone in line was probably suffering alike, so it just didn't make sense.

When he'd started doing it, it had taken a lot of thought. Everything had taken a lot of thought at first, but now he did things without having to really struggle with them. And life was better that way. After all, it was a little kindness, a guy on his way home who stopped his car, and jumped into the river after him. Kind words, a kind act...

Yeah. That was what made life.

And really, that had changed... everything. It had changed the world and the way that Lex looked at it, a bright-eyed new sensation of things changing, shifting, becoming different. Something else. Something other than what he was becoming, and what he was afraid might have been the worst thing in the world. Maybe even the eventual destruction of the world, because as much as Lex didn't like to consider the possibility that he held that much sheer wickedness....

No one related to Lionel Luthor could possibly be the receptacle of anything else.

Particularly given what had been poured into that receptacle during the previous ten years.

Lex shifted his hands, and rocked back on his heels a little, trying not to look at the candy right beside him. They had those little candy dots on paper, and he always wanted to throw up at the smell of them. No, look at the gadgets. They were always putting another version of those cool old time and watch Mario games out. He would've fiddled with it if he'd had a free hand.

Life was pretty good. All because one guy did a nice thing -- other than saving his life -- and took the time to sit down on the river bank and talk to him until the paramedics came. He'd been grateful for that ever since. It had just changed so much, and made Lex a better person. He'd come to believe that everyone had a chance to change their path in life. Some people took it, and some people didn't.

His job now was helping to keep the people who didn't, who kept walking down that dark unlit way, from getting away with whatever crimes they might have committed. And it was only a little because he wished someone had done it for him. That was the reason that a lot of cases broke his heart.

Lex's mouth thinned out a little, and he started to concentrate on looking at the hair of the woman he'd let cut him. She was stepping up to put her purchase down, so he could step past the evil candy dots and more closely peek at the key chain games. That was more interesting than hair.

"... and would you like to donate a dollar to the Lillian Luthor Children's Charity, for a paper heart?"

"Ohhh," the lady said, frowning. "I really can't today, but... Well, wait, let me check my change purse..."

And that was Lex's doing, too. Somebody, somewhere, had to protect the children. Sometimes, parents did their jobs.

Sometimes, they didn't.

Sometimes, they... did what they shouldn't. Did the taboo. There was a line where neglect turned spiteful, turned to a blind eye, and... well. Someone had to step in. Lex smiled a little wider when he saw the woman fish out that dollar in coins. Maybe she'd only bothered because he'd let her cut. Maybe she would've done it anyway, but the little nice things were great.

"Thank you, Ma'am -- you have a nice day. Hello, sir..."

"Hi." Lex gave another smile, setting the small pile down on the counter. He was sort of a regular -- at least once a month he raided the 'boys' toys'.

"Looks like it's going to be a really busy day on the good ship Potter. Those really make great toys for parts since they've put all the sets on the sales aisle, don't they?" The clerk grinned at him and began ringing things up. "I love the little castle windows, myself."

"Stocked up on those last month," Lex smiled, eyebrows going up with pleasure as he got his debit card out, and ID. "Sales aisles sets make the best parts. I'm trying to make a feudal town in the next couple of weeks."

"Are you going to bring pictures?" she asked, showing him the total and repeating it dutifully. "Because you know we love to see what you've done. And would you like to donate a dollar to the Lillian Luthor Children's Charity, for a paper heart?"

She knew he would. He did every time he came in, usually five or ten, never mind the fact that he funded a vast majority of the Charity himself.

"Add ten. Please," Lex said, and waited for her to do it before he swiped his card and tried to sign on the line with the electronic pen. It never went onto the line properly. "I'll bring pictures next time -- a friend at work's borrowed my camera for a couple of weeks, so..." Eyebrows up again, as he set the pen down into its holder.

"Work, work, work. I think you do more of it than I do." It was good to come somewhere people knew you and where they were nice. Where someone could tease you, and it would be okay. It was good not to be afraid all the time, and even better not to flinch away from every little touch. "Maybe we could blow it up. Make a big poster and show it off." She handed him the little heart so that he could sign his name.

A scritchy flourish of pen marked it Lex Luthor. All of his letters spiked, like little knives. He couldn't change his signature -- and he'd tried, too. He grinned at her, and handed the heart back, then he stuffed his cards away into his wallet. "That... would be cool. I'll have to make it extra detailed, just in case." Then he waited for her to bag things, helped a little himself, and waved when he left.

He liked toy stores for just that reason. They felt... safe. Or at least they would until some gunner ran into it and shot the place up in a robbery. Lex rued the day, because he knew he'd be the one processing the evidence. And he hoped it never happened.

Especially not at this one.

Well. He wasn't going to think about it, not right now. There were enough gruesome possibilities lined up on his plate at any given moment, and right at this particular one, he had better things to do.

Like find some pinkified Barbie wrapping paper or something. Then, he could take everything back to the lab and hand it off to the appropriate party, namely one CSI 3 Clark Kent, who could then take it home to his little sister the next day.

Clark was sweet on his little sister in a way that Lex classified as distinctly not-creepy. In little bits of conversation, Lex had figured out that Clark was adopted, and that his parents had always desperately wanted a child. Biological, adopted, whatever the world gave them. Well, they had one of both, and it seemed like neither was favored at the cost of the other. That seemed nice to Lex.

It sort of made it okay that the girl was getting a veterinary Barbie set -- with real working 'X-ray' -- for her birthday. Sure it was Barbie, but it was 'I don't need a man, I've got a career' Barbie. Not 'I'm knocked up and so happy' Barbie.

Lex made his way to his car, and popped the trunk of his BMW. Toys were so much easier to lug around when they were in big brightly colored plastic bags. Next time, he was at least going to pick up one of the hand baskets at the door and...

His cell phone rang.

Lex laid the bag in the trunk quickly before making a grab for his cell and flipping it open, shutting the trunk simultaneously. "Luthor."

~"Ah, son. So good to hear your voice."~

So not-good to hear his father's voice. The phone always gave his father a sort of mysterious, tinny demonic sound. Or maybe that was Lex's mind doing it, while he popped open the driver's side door and paused to make sure that no one was watching him. "It's nice to know that you're still alive. Hi."

~"We haven't seen you lately. You spend so much time buried in that hole you refer to as your 'job'."~ The mockery came clear over the line, implying that what Lex did was nothing more or less than useless. ~"You ought to at least come to meetings once in a while, even if you've been a failure in the corporate department. Your brother, Lucas, is doing quite well."~

Lucas was different than he was. Lucas had had a different life -- though no less fucked up, if Lex thought about it for long -- and... Lex wasn't one to step in when he wasn't going to be listened to. Even if he tried pretty often. "Have your secretary leave the meeting times on my answering machine, and I'll come if I'm not working. I don't set my hours, Father." Lex closed the door behind him, sagging back into the bucket seat as he closed the car door.

~"You could, if you would just come back to us, Lex. Set aside these childish notions of working elsewhere, stop giving all of your money away. You're a Luthor. You have responsibilities. You can't keep blaming me for everything that goes wrong in your life."~

Ah.

The weekly pep talk.

There wasn't anything he loved more in a week than the weekly pep-talk. Except when his father completely forgot to call at all. He'd been having a fantastic day, and... well. Maybe he still could. "I'm living up to my responsibilities, Dad. I'm not blaming anyone -- I'm simply out in the world, earning my own way."

~"Well. Lex. You're certainly not doing your all, are you?"~

Quiet click.

End of conversation.

Just like that. His father had probably had another call on the other end of the line. Lex sighed to himself, and snapped his phone shut before he started the car. Life was so much easier when his father was out of it. Why did he want to get involved with his father's business when all the encouragement he'd be getting was his nerves wracked up?

Besides. There were dozens of other reasons not to involve himself in anything his father did, reasons that went far beyond the torture of bad nerves and Diazepam prescriptions. Reasons that had to do with why Lex didn't keep liquor in his house, why he only drank bottled water, why he didn't eat out in restaurants, why...

Why.

Why he didn't go to board meetings.

Ever.

Voting meetings, sometimes. Sometimes. The regular day to day grind, the shit, the... things that would've given him panic attacks? Never.

It took Lex a minute to pull himself together. He had things to do, like buying wrapping paper and heading back past the department. Then going home and playing with his toys. It was a world away from the universe his father wanted him to be in, and he liked to keep things that way.

It made life easier.

It made the days okay, and made it easy to breathe. Easy to actually find a reason to go on with... well, everything.

He took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh, reaching up a hand to turn on the radio before he put his car in reverse and backed out of the space nearest the security light in the middle of the lot. It wouldn't take too long to get downtown, he'd be able to get everything to Clark, and then.... Well, he could go home.

Maybe there would be something about Superman on the evening news.

That always gave him hope. And it would maybe help him sleep easier that night.

Because there was nothing like a 'pep talk' to make him turn to sleeping pills.

"Hey, Chloe! Hold up!"

There was just something about Clark Kent that got the attention of every single person within hearing distance. He didn't really look like the kind of guy who'd be doing police work of any sort. In fact, he looked more like someone who would be found bumbling along in volunteer association devoted to saving children, or maybe small mammals.

Chloe figured it was the glasses... and the way that Clark dressed. He'd always been that way, as far as she knew. Sort of down-home, geeky, and sweet. You could just picture him standing in front of a TV camera, cuddling the pet of the week.

Instead of trying to find the criminal of the week with blood evidence.

"Hey, Clark."

Clark grinned at her, that goofy look that just made her want to pat his messy head and ruffle it like she might if she had a dog. "I've got some stuff for you. Couple of masks and some duct tape from that Feldman case. I don't think there's going to be a lot to be found, but... There's a shirt with some blood stains that I dropped off at DNA." His nose wrinkled, a cute sort of expression. "Lex isn't in, so..."

"So you can't wait a day?" she asked back, leaning against the wall for a moment and crossing her arms . "It's my day off tomorrow, you know. And he'll be back, so..."

"Pleaaase, Chloe?" Puppy eyes. She really couldn't take the puppy eyes. "If you find something in trace, then he might have something to match it with in DNA, and I really really don't want Whitney to do it. He doesn't like me," Clark pouted. "He's always giving me that look when I take things in to him..."

"Clark? I know you're sort of weirdly naive, but that look says that he wants to bend you over that table and get some action," Chloe winked. "I'll take it, and maybe I can squeeze it in. Maybe."

Oh. Blinding grin. "Thanks, Chloe. Even though we both know what he really wants is to kick my butt because Lex is getting something for Calli for me. You're looking at the wrong guy for who Whitney's after."

"Lex Luthor?" Chloe moved towards her little section of the lab. "Waste of his time, and I think even he knows that. Lex doesn't swing that way or my way, or any way but in weird ways. You know? Toys and good deeds. Santa Claus without hair, and a weird sense of humor." Her lips pursed as she eyed the box that was laid out for her. It seemed to warn that there was more than some tape and a 'couple' of masks.

A couple of masks didn't constitute a whole store of them. What were the guys doing, wearing them on their knees?

"Yeah, well. A guy can hope, I guess." Clark was just smiling, and Clark was really a weird one, too. After all, Clark didn't make any overtures towards dating, or accept passes made at him, and there were quite a few. After all, he was really cute, and sexy in a bumbling geek kind of way. "You think it'll be long, Chlo?"

"Couple of hours to get it all done and written up?" she offered him, hands moving to rest on her hips. "Go on, I'll get started."

"Hey, Clark!"

Ahh, there was Lex, and the wattage on that smile when it turned to a grin was enough to put out somebody's eye.

"Lex! Did you find the right one?" Clark asked, turning and hurrying towards the bald DNA tech. "I really hated to ask you to do that, but I just won't have time between tonight and tomorrow, so..."

"Clark, it wasn't any trouble," Lex said as he held out the bag. It swung a little, from the weight of the toys in it. Vet set and the accompanying doll, just like Clark had asked for. And that LEGO set. And the wrapping paper, still in package. Chloe tried to not grin as she craned her head to look at them through the glass. "I was going there anyway, like I said."

"I really appreciate it, man. It's great of you, anyway." The way that Clark peeked at him through black lashes was enough to make a girl roll her eyes, and the way that Whitney glared at both of them with irritated jealousy would have made her laugh if she hadn't wanted to keep from getting caught. "So, um, you really busy tonight, then?"

"No." She could see him sort of sway back a little, still smiling all innocently like when he did it. "I was thinking of going home, watching some tv, burning something in the microwave... you know."

"Yeah. Nights off are nice like that. Ordering in Chinese is better than the microwave option, but..." Clark gave a little laugh. "Um. I guess, I... I just want to say thank you. You know, for picking this up and everything. And while I don't get off until eight, I thought maybe we could meet for breakfast...?"

"I, uh..." He gave another hip shift, sort of bouncing slowly on the balls of his feet. "I'm not much of an eating out guy. It's okay, Clark. Really."

"Well..." Clark shrugged a little awkwardly. "I scramble a mean egg."

Damn. Clark didn't seem to grasp what she'd told him, and Lex looked really off kilter for a minute. It was weird enough to see him standing there without a lab coat on, just a sweater and some boots and pants, but that look didn't belong on his face either. Lost dog look, confused kid look. "Uh. I guess so." Then he laughed, a sound that was pretty nervous. "I guess I'd go for that."

"Cool." Kid-in-a-candy-store was the only way to describe Clark's look. "Uh, if you still want to meet me here, I could make you breakfast. Or, um, maybe we could manage it Monday morning instead, if that would be better for you. I just... I mean, I really appreciate it. You're a good guy."

That made Lex smile, a slow real smile. "Thanks. It's not that I don't want to see what kind of egg you scramble, Clark, I'm just sort of... weird." He shrugged, still smiling disarmingly. "So. Tomorrow morning. I'll see you then."

"Okay. Great."

Clark looked fabulous when he blushed.

And Whitney looked really great in that shade of green.

Lex turned on his heel with a last inclination of his head, and walked off down the hall, hands tucked into his pockets. He'd probably go home and do whatever geeky things he did on a night off. And then Clark went to go find their Supervisor, and stow the bag of stuff for his sister in his car. 'Cause that was just what Chloe knew would happen.

Just like she expected Whitney to stalk in there to help her and vent. It was what he did. Men were so predictable.

"Did you see that display in the hall?"

Oh, yeah. Predictable didn't even begin to cover it. "'Oh, Clark. I did you a favor. Oh, Clark. Thank you for making me breakfast.'" Whitney was outright pouting. "Kent's completely snowballed."

"Snowballed by what?" Chloe pressed, carefully taking each mask out of the box, and noting down what they were and in what order. Then she'd start getting anything off of them that she could.

"The blinding glare off of Luthor's bald head," Whitney sulked. "I've got his DNA processing. You'd think he'd at least hand it to me, but noo~oo, Lex isn't in the lab." He heaved a sigh. "Need any help?"

"Maybe a little." Anything to keep him ranting at her, because background noise had always made her brain work better. Music, TV, bullshit emotional stuff. "So, you think Kent's hot? I don't know why you'd be jealous of Lex..."

"Oh, like you haven't noticed." Whitney sniffed, snapping on a pair of latex gloves. "He hasn't got eyes for anybody else, that's for sure, and I know that you've looked a time or two."

She smirked a little as she pulled at a gruesome dragon mask. "Maybe once, twice. He's got a cute butt. And the other but is that Clark'll get discouraged, probably pretty soon. Lex is a nice guy, but I've seen him gently shoot down a lot of people."

The look Whitney shot her way as much as declared that she was dreaming. "It's been six months. Kent just made the first pass, and Luthor caught it like a receiver heading wide open for the end zone."

Chloe rolled her eyes as she lifted another mask out. "You're crap with body language, Whitney. You scare Kent. He thinks you hate him, and that you want Luthor. And Lex... well, Lex was doing the backwards 'let me get out of here' jitter when he was talking to Clark."

"So..." Whitney went for the duct tape with tweezers. "I should come on stronger, or what? I mean, I practically drool when the man walks in the door. Last time we went to a forensics convention, half the techs in the whole ribonucleic acids table discussion snickered every time they saw him afterwards because I made the mistake of saying something about how I really wish I could take a look at some of his epithelials. I mean, the man must loofah twice a day. He never sheds on anything he lets me take a look at."

"Not that you've tried or anything," Chloe mocked a little, taking out the last mask. "How about you come on to him more... clearly, maybe? Other than being all manly and prowling. Particularly since you think he's interested in Lex. Lex doesn't come on to anything. Maybe Clark just likes nice guys." Emphasis on guys, since he didn't go for nice girls.

"Clark just likes Luthor," Whitney sniffed, and that was more or less that.

Oh, well.

That was okay.

Chloe had hairs for Whitney, anyway.

It had been a relatively bad night. Sure, his mac 'n cheese had been good. And so had his roast beef. And he'd de-packaged all of his LEGO pieces while sitting cross-legged in front of the TV set, then he'd sorted them out into the clear plastic craft divider bins that he used. It was mindless, relaxing. He liked to keep his hands busy, his mind either spinning wildly or at full stop, and his ears and eyes filled with bits of information. Book on tape, news, whatever. Whatever suited the purpose.

And even all of that hadn't gotten him a good night's sleep. The thoughts of board meetings gnawed at his mind, and so did nervousness about breakfast. It was just breakfast. What the hell was wrong with him?

Well. He knew what was wrong with him. And about one am, he'd buckled in and taken a sleeping pill. He tried not to, didn't want to be addicted or dependent on them, but he also needed to be coherent the next day at work.

He completely forgot about breakfast.

Luckily, he had set his alarm when he came home, just to be sure that he'd be up in case he fell asleep. Unluckily, he'd slept through the first forty-five minutes of its ringing and had to pull on jeans and a wrinkled t-shirt while he was grabbing for his tennis shoes and heading for the door.

God. He hated having to do that, but it was better than nothing at all. It wasn't until he got into his car that he really realized what time it was, and... shit. It was going to be a bad day, he knew it. Wasn't going to waste much time looking at it like a bad day, but he was definitely thinking it for a minute as he looked for his cell phone. Maybe he could call to the office and find him. Apologize.

Something.

Anything.

The receptionist who answered said something about Clark having already left and she wouldn't give Lex his number. Still, he had a few resources, and even if he still felt hung over from the sleeping pills, he managed to dredge up Clark's pager number from the depths of his half-awake brain.

Two minutes later, Lex's cell phone rang.

He shouldn't have been driving and on the cell phone, or hell, even driving and hung over on the sleeping pill like he felt, but he answered it anyway. Probably wasn't Clark. Clark had probably decided he was a bastard. It was probably Perry, calling to see if he could come in sooner. "Luthor."

~"You rang?"~

Oh. It was Clark. Lex wasn't sure if he felt relieved or grateful or... or worried. He couldn't say, exactly.

~"I was getting worried. I mean, you get everywhere half an hour early, so..."~

"I really overslept -- I'm sorry," Lex apologized immediately, easing off the gas a little so he was doing the speed limit. "And you're probably on your way back home, right?"

~"Um, no. I just got into the apartment, I had to pick up some things before I went home. You know, you could always just come on. By the time you're here, I'll have bacon fried and I could pop in some biscuits, or maybe English muffins if you like that better..."~

"Biscuits? I'd really appreciate that," Lex asked a little hopefully. "I'm on Saint Street right now. How can I get to your place from around there?"

~"Oh, uh, let's see. You haven't passed Houston yet, have you?"~

"Mm, no. It's two blocks up."

~"Okay. Take Houston down to Pierce. Pierce branches off into Inglebrook about three miles down, and I've got a duplex just off of Forsyth, about four blocks down Inglebrook. It's a dead end, kind of turns around and goes back out, and there's a sign. And, hey, Lex? I'm... really glad you called."~

Lex smiled into the phone, which was the stupidest thing in the world. "Thanks. I felt bad about oversleeping and just not showing up. I mean, in our line of work you just don't... do things like that." Which was probably why Clark had been worried in the first place. You see enough bodies of people who'd been missing for months, and...

Lex really wasn't going to think about that.

~"Sure thing, man. I'll have breakfast when you get here. Be careful."~

And then Clark was gone, and there was just the short drive between here-and-there for Lex to keep his mind on.

He'd probably feel like shit all day, thanks to that brief, cryptic 'pep talk'. And he could justifiably blame it on his father. Not that he was going to think about it. No, he was going to coast down Houston, zip down Pierce Drive, and idle along Inglebrook looking for Forsyth, a dead end, and Clark's somewhat junky car.

Clark made enough money so that he didn't have to drive anything that looked like such a death trap. Lex wondered what he kept the thing for. He could afford something better, and if he called in late because it wouldn't start about twice more, Perry was going to chew him up and spit him out.

Maybe Clark just liked rust buckets. Or Bondo mobiles, which was definitely a step below the Batmobile. Unquestionably a step below. Still, when Lex found the supposed 'car' he parked behind it on the street, and then got to guess which side of the duplex was Clark's.

One side looked a little flowery -- there were ladybug solar lights on each step, and a variety of small plants on the opposite side of the steps. Lex was pretty sure he saw a frog holding a round gazing ball, too, and so he decided that obviously that wasn't Clark's side. There was even a small bench made out of ornate iron with a few cushions.

The other small porch looked faintly neglected, the handrail in need of paint, and a small plastic chair just to the right of the door, covered in detritus.

Yep.

That was definitely the house of a bachelor.

So he started up towards the more tattered half of the duplex, giving the odd sidelong glance at the decorated one as he lingered just over the doorbell before ringing it.

No answer.

Maybe he had the wrong duplex. There were a couple of others on the street, but it just didn't seem quite right. He rang again, feeling self-conscious, and then stepped away from the door, taking a deep breath.

The sound of the door from the flowery side opening made him jump.

"Lex!"

No way. Just... No. Way. Lex took a step backwards, and almost tripped off of the other 'porch' as he stared to see Clark peeking out at him from the other doorway. Maybe, maybe yeah. "Oh, hey. Clark. I, uh... guess I made the wrong guess at what apartment was yours."

"Uh." Oh. Wow. It was just interesting to see a grown man blush like that, wasn't it? "Calli wanted to be sure that I didn't trip coming up or down the stairs at night, so. The lady bugs. And she really likes frogs. And, uh, Mom wanted to be sure I had some aloe in case I burned myself, and since there were three steps, she went out and bought a couple of other plants, and... uh, things just kind of grew. Come on in?"

"Yeah, but the curtains?" Lex grinned a little. It was sort of soothing -- and it wasn't at all what Lex expected as he mounted those stairs. It didn't make his skin crawl so much as he'd thought it would. After all, not only was he 'not much' of a restaurant guy, but going to other people's homes or letting them in his was pretty high up on the list of things he had trouble doing.

Perry knew that from the one time he'd invited himself into Lex's house, and Lex had almost gotten himself fired, back when he'd first joined the lab.

"It's nice, actually. I hope I didn't wake up your neighbor."

Clark fumbled a little, flustered. "Um. Yeah. I was really homesick for a while, so. Cow curtains. And nobody lives next door, so..." He laughed, moving into the house to let Lex inside. "Come on. The bacon's done, the biscuits are getting there, and I was just waiting on you to start the eggs. So, I, uh, guess you've at least gotten some sleep, huh?"

Damn, was it that obvious? "Yeah," Lex agreed, just a little dismissive. "Sometimes I have trouble. Sleeping pills are hell to wake up through." And that was sort of normal, when you usually worked second or third shift. Mornings were for sleeping and nights were for working.

The dark-headed man gave a sympathetic nod. "Tell me about it. Mom and Dad used to swear that nobody slept as much like the living dead as I do, even without any kind of assistance." He shut the door firmly and moved towards the kitchen, a wide archway open and showing yellow walls with white curtains and a white tile-top table. "Come on. I'll get you some milk or orange juice if you want."

Milk, orange juice. Milk or orange juice. Either one could mask things, and he... was paranoid. Clark was a good guy. Lex just had to keep reminding himself that as he pulled out a chair at the little kitchen table, and sat down, looking around idly. "Orange juice, thanks. You have a really nice-looking place, Clark."

"All thanks to my mom," Clark admitted as he pulled two glasses from an overhead cabinet. He began rummaging in the refrigerator next, pulling out eggs, shredded cheese, and the orange juice. "If she left it up to me, it would still look like some nineteen year-old's college dorm room. Calli wanted to spend a week or two here for summer vacation a while back, though, and Mom said that I should stop sending money home long enough to at least buy some decent furniture. She even came up and helped me shop for it." He shrugged a little sheepishly and gave Lex a glass of juice before drinking from his own.

Same jug.

Glasses came from the same place.

Clark's a good guy.

Lex took a sip, and felt sort of relieved that it tasted like good pulpy orange juice. And that Clark had drank first. "Then your mom did a good job. It feels... like a little part of the country in Metropolis?" While his own apartment was decorated in dark, warm enfolding things. He liked to sink into corduroy chairs, liked warm wood-like walls, liked browns and yellows, soothing colors. Clark's kitchen was pretty soothing, too.

"My mom rocks," Clark asserted with a grin, placing a frying pan on the stove and turning it on with a flick of his wrist. "I know you'd love her if you met her. How many eggs do you want?"

"A couple?" Lex grinned a little as he kept sipping. "I'm used to just cooking for myself. So this... is a treat." And a vast difference from a granola bar or some pre-sealed foodstuffs. Or cereal.

Even cereal made him a little nervous sometimes. He wasn't about to confess to having taken a sample of Special K into the lab and testing it just to be sure nobody had slipped anything into it when he wasn't looking.

"Hey, and I hope you like them with cheese. My scrambled eggs are pretty rotten on their own, but once I add cheese, they're the best ever. I promise." Clark was free with the cooking spray, and then he started cracking brown eggs into a bowl. Organic. That was nice. "If you want, I'll go ahead and get the bacon and biscuits out of the oven. They're just keeping warm in there."

Clark was a nice guy. Lex nodded, then got up, leaving his glass on the table. "Do you want help? I'm not much of a cook, but I can get plates out if you tell me where they are."

"Sure. I've got disposable plates in the microwave. Uh, I know, it's kind of goofy to keep them there, but they're out of the way, and I don't turn it on without putting something in so I always remember to take them out. And there's silverware in the drawer underneath that. If you want a real plate, though..."

"Paper's good," Lex assured as he moved past Clark to pop open the microwave door. Half of blending in with the general population was accepting 'normal' things. Like paper plates, plastic cups, paper napkins. And it hadn't really taken Lex much effort to get used to that, not when he'd had a degree to finish up, when he'd decided to set his life on a different path.

"Excellent." Clark grinned at him, and that was sweet in so many ways. Sweet and good, and maybe it made Lex soften. Just a little.

Clark's a nice guy.

It's okay to trust Clark.

Because Clark? Clark wouldn't hurt anybody. Clark was no Superman, but... He wouldn't hurt anybody. Lex's sixth sense told him so, and it didn't tell him that about many people. Perry was good, too. Chloe, but sometimes he wondered. Whitney set him on edge, Jimmy did sometimes, Lois all the time...

Not Clark. No one he'd ever trusted with that sort of surety had ever hurt him -- probably because there were so few.

"Do you want me to put the biscuits on a plate, too, or...?" He got them, then started to look for an oven mitt.

"Sure," Clark agreed easily, working on scrambling egg and cheese into a cohesive form. "I, uh. Well, I really hoped you'd be coming even though you didn't show up at work, and..."

And Clark was blushing.

"Anyway," he continued, "I went ahead and made them. From scratch. Because, I mean, biscuits like that, they're even good cold, and I thought maybe... you know, I could heat them up. Tomorrow morning. If you didn't come this morning. Or. Whatever."

"That's... really nice of you," Lex murmured as he opened the over, and used a nearby the pot-holder as a sort of an oven mitt to pull out the tray. Oven fresh biscuits. Maybe he'd been avoiding normal food for way too long, because it was making his mouth water.

"The buttermilk's from home, anyway. Mom always sends some if somebody comes this way. The milk's from there, too, and she leaves the cream on." Clark grinned a little sheepishly. "She always sends two bottles. One for me, and one for company, in case I get any. I, uh. Tend to drink out of the bottle. Drives her nuts. Oh, the eggs are about done..." He shifted out of the way of the oven door, and a sudden click of domesticity made Lex shiver.

Even if there were worse things to dread in the world. Lex grabbed the baking sheet, and set it on the counter, then got the bacon out, too. It wasn't hot, just warm. Frankly, it felt like one hell of a 'thank you' breakfast.

"I usually settle for milk from the grocery store," Lex teased a little as he moved the biscuits carefully to one of the paper plates he'd grabbed. Soft and warm to the touch, and he sort of felt bad about 'mauling' them all just to move them. "Thanks for inviting me over, Clark. I appreciate it. I probably would've ended up at the office seeing if I could get away with putting in more than one shift." Or going home and playing with his LEGOs. But since the village layout was still in planning stages, sketches, he wasn't sure if he would've gotten it finished anyway.

Sometime that month.

"Well, uh. I kind of had an ulterior motive," Clark admitted, fumbling the pan with the eggs just a little. "See, I knew that if I didn't invite you, that's what you'd be doing. So, I thought... maybe it would be nice to eat together. Or something. And, you know. Calli's birthday is today, and it looks like you got her a present..." Green eyes darted his way, almost apologetically. "Mom's making fried chicken and rice and butter beans, and I think I heard some mention of caramel apple pie with fresh milk for dessert. And since you haven't got to be at work until ten, and you've had some rest, and, uh, it's okay if you say no, but I thought, maybe..."

Thought, maybe, to drag Lex out somewhere. To Smallville. And Lex... wasn't sure what to say. Sure, it sounded nice. Real nice. Too nice, and even if it was the little things that made life bearable, made it good...

Lex couldn't help but go quiet as he pulled the bacon out of the oven and moved to set biscuits and bacon on the table. "That's real nice of you to offer, Clark. I just..." He had his meds in the glove compartment. In case it got to him. Still... the mere fact that he was wavering was probably a sign. He usually said 'no' flat out, no hesitation. Lex wanted to go, viscerally, but his common sense was digging its heels in. "I don't want to encroach. It is your little sister's birthday, after all."

"Well, yeah, but Calli likes new folks. Especially," Clark rolled his eyes, "folks who come bearing gifts." He smiled a little sheepishly. "It's okay to say no if you don't want to, just..." Broad shoulders shrugged. "I don't know. I really... We've been working together a long time. You know? And we don't spend a whole lot of time together, but... I like you."

'I like you' came up a lot of Lex's life. At least in recent years. Usually proceeded by 'you're a nice guy' and possibly 'a little weird, but'. But not with that tone. That tone that implied that being more than friends was a possibility. And he just didn't know what to do when that tone got into things, except to put his foot down, or turn tail and run. People were okay at a certain distance, but things got needlessly, painfully complicated when they got close. Or could, if Lex let them.

That didn't keep his mouth from twitching. "I don't see why. I'm just the guy that taunts all of you guys about how good I am with DNA."

"Well, yeah, but... you're smart," Clark said, dishing out eggs. "And you... I don't know, but I get the feeling that you're doing this... not for money, but with a purpose. To help people, maybe. To try and make things right for the people who're hurt by somebody else. The survivors. And... it's one of the big reasons I do it, and I just... I like you." He shrugged and moved to put the pan in the sink before coming back to the table and sitting across from Lex.

Lex watched him. Watched his every move like a hawk watching a smaller bird or something. Or one animal looking back at another of its kind. Maybe... Clark was a lot like him? In it for the survivors, trying to make things better in a world that just didn't behave? Lex picked up a biscuit, and put it on his plate, quiet for a moment. "Well... you're right. I'm not in it for the money. I have... sort of have money. It's a really long story. But I like working in the lab because I can help."

Clark nodded, picking up his fork and promptly digging into his eggs with all the passion of a starving man. Clark's plate held twice as many eggs as Lex's. "I thought so. I mean, you just seemed like that's what you had on your mind. I, uh..." For a moment, Clark chewed another bite, and then swallowed. "My mom and dad always said that a person should do what they can to help those less fortunate than themselves. They helped out a lot where we live, when they could. You know, they didn't say anything, but I've caught Dad sneaking out to neighboring houses when folks were too broke to afford groceries and dropping off stuff from the garden. Trading work to keep everybody's pride from getting hurt. That kind of thing. And Mom..." He laughed. "She's the bake sale queen. Just last week, they had some kind of cake raffle for a family whose house burned down. I think she made half of the cakes herself. So. I send money home a lot. There are folks who need it here in Metropolis, but..." He paused thoughtfully. "There are bigger organizations here. And Superman's here. There's not that kind of thing at home."

"Little things count... a lot," Lex said, picking up his fork slowly. It was all right that he'd waited to make sure that Clark was eating his own eggs okay, and with a relish, first. "There are bigger organizations here in Metropolis, and we do have Superman, sure. But little things make more of a day to day difference in people's lives."

"Yeah. That's why I do what I do," Clark agreed. "You know, right at first? I wanted to go into investigative journalism." That sounded like a dirty little secret, and the confession was accompanied by a sheepish, flirtatious sort of glance. "But once I got into the whole investigative part, and took a couple of science classes... that was it. Lost to forensics."

"It does get under your skin." Sometimes, in a very literal way. He really wished that Clark would stop giving him those flirtatious glances, because he just didn't know what to do with them anymore. "You're really good out on the field, even if Perry's spare with the compliments."

"Perry's spare everywhere," Clark agreed. "Whitney gives me looks when I go in the DNA lab. It's scary when you're not there."

"I think Whitney likes you?" Lex ventured carefully, putting equally careful emphasis on the word 'like'. Just as Clark had earlier. He ate a little of the biscuit, pulling the top off with his fingers. He still hadn't accepted Clark's offer to drag him to Smallville, but he'd think about it while they ate and talked.

Clark snorted. "I think Whitney looks at me like he'd rather grind my bones to make his bread. You won't catch me anywhere near that guy's mortar and pestle. Just in case," Clark tacked on, reaching for bacon and laughing. "Seriously. I don't know. He just... I don't think he likes me. And that's okay."

Because I like you, Clark didn't say.

But Lex guessed. And it really made him nervous. Because nothing like that had ever worked out, even during his wild teenage years, where he'd equated rough fucking to love. Or something like it. He just wasn't meant to cope well with people. "Suit yourself," Lex shrugged a little. "Maybe you should talk to him. After all, who'll you work with come Christmas, huh? I take all my leave then."

Clark paused in his eating and gave a groan. "Maybe I can take mine then, too. You know. Run away and hide from him in Smallville. He likes Chloe. And he's nice to Lois." The brunette seriously considered that statement. "Probably because she scares him as much as she scares the rest of us, though."

"Lois likes to pry into things that aren't cases. Sometimes, I worry that she's too curious, and she doesn't know that she isn't Superman." It was easy to talk and eat, about coworkers, about work. Not specific cases, because you couldn't just eat breath and sleep it. Not all the time.

"No," Clark disagreed. "She knows. And I don't think she wants to be Superman. She just wants to catch him." A shudder rippled through his frame. "And believe me. If I find that creepy, I'll bet he's sitting on a polar ice cap trying to hide from her right now. You gonna eat that bacon?"

He shook his head a little. "Nah. You want it?" He turned his plate so that Clark could take it. "I'm sort of weird with bacon. But the biscuits? I haven't had something this good in a long long time. And the eggs are good." Scrambled always had been best, despite that his father had spent many a breakfast trying to convince him that sunny side up was the best way.

His father's ideas, after all, were a far sight from being Lex's own.

"Thanks," Clark laughed, reaching out to take the bacon. "Mom says it's a wonder they didn't go broke trying to feed me when I was a teenager. She swore that all of my limbs were hollow, and that if they weren't filled up each meal, I'd probably keel over of starvation."

When Lex was a teenager, he'd lived off of junk food, whatever he happened to shoot up that day, liquor, and the odd thing that the chefs made. The concept of being teased by a mother... Foreign. Wildly foreign.

Lex still smiled at Clark, pulling his biscuit apart a little more before he ate some of it again. "But it sounds like they have a farm. That had to help, right?"

Clark laughed. "Yeah. Dad used to slaughter two cows every year just to keep me fed, he swore. When I was little, it was just the one, and they shared sometimes. Everything's organic." That explained the eggs, and why Clark's mom sent him milk-with-cream to drink. "It's not a great moneymaker, but it's really good for you."

And Clark looked like he'd grown up tall and fit and strong, and... healthy. Jesus. Lex ducked his head for a minute, under pretense of playing with his eggs to get them on his fork. Breath. "Do they have a lot of competition in Smallville?"

"Well, not a lot, I guess. Smallville's kind of a dying place."

Lex knew that. Of course he knew it. His father had closed the factory when Lex had gone back to school, blamed it all on him without his ever setting foot in the place more than once.

"Still, they do a fair amount of business in Granville and some of the surrounding counties, so they do okay. Most folks aren't organic around there, and Mom and Dad keep their prices competitive." Clark cast a sneaky look at him from beneath his lashes. "You could help me feed the chickens today."

Still avoiding that one. He needed to think, somewhere behind the veil of comforting banter. "Maybe. You know, I was going to live in Smallville once."

"Really?" The way that Clark's head tilted implied openness, implied interest and a willingness to be receptive to Lex. It made him nervous as hell. "You know, that could have been really interesting."

Lex licked his bottom lip, a touch nervous, and lifted a fork full of eggs to his mouth. "Maybe. It was about ten years ago, in October. I was heading into Smallville to..." Take on a business burden that he didn't want in the first place. His father's idea of how he should spend his life. "Deal with some family stuff. Speeding, blaring music... A truck passed me on Loeb Bridge, and a roll of bailing wire fell in front of my car. I swerved, hit it anyway, and my car went off the bridge."

"Hey!" The surprise on Clark's face was visible, telling. "I remember that. I mean, it wasn't in the paper or anything, but... my dad stopped. He was on his way to town, and he stopped and pulled you out of the car. He swears he still doesn't know how he managed it."

Lex dropped his fork, and lifted his head to stare at Clark. "Your dad was the guy in the red truck? Jonathan...?" No way. The world was a god-damned small place, but...

Suddenly it struck Lex that if Clark was... really that guy's son, then he needed to go to Smallville. No matter how heavily he probably would have to sedate himself first. Because he'd still been dazed and hurt and thinking too hard to have thanked the man properly, and... he needed to do that. Needed to do it very badly, in a way that made his heart flop. "He really changed my life that day."

"Yeah," Clark said slowly, looking at Lex very seriously. "Dad's like that. In a lot of ways, I think my parents are almost too good for this world. That... kind of scares me sometimes. And all of a sudden, I'm SERIOUSLY grateful that he stops and helps people. I won't yell at him the next time I hear he's stopped to change somebody's tire, just because..." Clark gave a crooked grin. "Obviously it led to saving you, and... I'm really glad for that."

There was saving his life and... saving his life. And maybe Clark couldn't ever understand that, maybe Lex would just never say it, but changing the direction he'd been headed in was so much more important than just pulling him out of the car. "He hung around until the paramedics came," Lex told him, reaching for his orange juice. "Talked to me. Listened to me. It... seems like a little thing, Clark, but that was what really saved me. I'd like to go to Smallville with you today. Just to... really give him a thank you."

"You know he never has expected one," Clark said solemnly. "He talks about it sometimes. When it's just me and him. I think..." Clark bit into his second biscuit, contemplating it for a moment. "I think my mom and dad should have had a household full of kids. Sometimes, I thinks he wishes he had brought you home with him."

"Not in the creepy way?" Lex joked. He knew it was lame, but that was the first thought that popped into his head the moment that Clark had said that. He'd been twenty one at the time. A sick, tired, bitter individual who didn't want to do what he'd been told to go do. And pretty malleable to suggestion, too, because just a little time, some few minutes of words, had given him the push to get a taxi back to Metropolis. Tell his father where to shove it. And then to go back to finish his degree.

Clark laughed at that suggestion, obviously thinking it was one of the funniest things he'd ever heard. "Definitely not. Not my dad." He shook his head. "He's not, you know. Prejudiced or anything. But he doesn't run that way. He just... he's got a soft spot for orphans, throwaways, and anybody or anything that's lost or hurt. I get the feeling that you were maybe close to a whole lot of those that day...? It's okay not to tell me so. Just... he always seems like he's regretted not bringing you home, anyway."

He didn't talk about it. Not more than what it took for his therapist to know he had problems sometimes and to give him a nicely balanced dose of drugs for his nerves. Still, the edge of his mouth tugged up a little. Throwaway. Yeah, that was what he'd spent a lot of his life as. Who he was didn't matter so much as what blood was pumping through his veins. "Nah. I was twenty one. Once the paramedics were sure I was okay, I got a taxi, and went back to school. I finished my masters degree in a semester... and here I am." Instead of probably dead from alcohol poisoning in a haunted mansion.

"The most brilliant DNA tech in Metropolis," Clark teased. "I heard they were going to ask you to give a short talk on mtDNA at the next conference coming through. Something about that case with the seriously degraded bone content that they found down in Suicide Slums, and the lack of reliability in hair samples?"

Good topic change, and Lex grinned a little after a sip of orange juice. "They asked, and I said yes. The topic shouldn't be out -- I'm still trying to work it so I don't compromise the usefulness of hair samples. They are useful, but when there's something better, well..."

"Why not use it. Right?" Clark grinned right back at him, and for a moment, there was such a feeling of complete and utter rightness that it nearly startled Lex right out of his chair. "Anyway. I'm going to go grab the presents and get a bag to carry them in, okay? I'm pretty sure the dishes can wait until tonight..." He gave the scrambled egg pan a dirty eyeball.

Lex finished his biscuit, and drained his juice as he got to his feet. "I'll get that soaking. You get your sister's gifts." It was... suddenly easier, knowing that Clark was Jonathan's son. Since the apple seldom fell very far from the tree and all of that. That last year of interacting with Clark in the lab, acquaintance-like but never getting to know him, had assured him already that Clark was a good guy.

And Lex could deal with that.

He could.

He just wasn't sure he could deal with everything else.

"It's okay," Clark promised. "Just 'wash' our dishes into the trash can. I'll take care of the pan when I get home."

"Right." He picked up the dishes, and the extra biscuits, and moved to look under Clark's sink for the trash can. Maybe he could find saran wrap and cover the biscuits or something. "Do you want to go in my car?"

"I'll drive," Clark called as he slipped down a hallway. "I promise, it's safer than it looks, and besides. You can nap on the way there and back. I know you've got to work tonight."

"Yeah, but..." Lex trailed off. Okay. It was going to be two little yellow pills instead of one. Because while he wasn't panicking or having trouble yet, it did take about an hour to get into his system.

Because Lex knew that he was the car passenger from hell for a reason.

"I promise I'll take good care of you. I mean, if you're one of those folks who can't stand for somebody else to drive, it's okay, Lex..." Clark came back in with two well-wrapped packages in a plastic grocery sack. "Whatever makes you comfortable."

Lex closed the door that hid the trash can, sort of hesitating as he did so. "I sort of feel the need to warn you that I'm sort of..." Hell. Weird? He should've just changed his last name to Weird instead of kept it Luthor. "Just let me get my meds out of my glove compartment. I'll be fine." He kept a bottle in his desk -- it wasn't like it was a dirty secret that he went out of his way to hide. It was just a dirty secret that he didn't like to talk about. Not many CSI guys were comfortable with a lab tech that took Diazepam. Like it lowered his standard of skill or something.

"Sure. No problem," Clark told him cheerfully enough, reaching for his keys in a bowl by the front door. That was just... incredibly well-organized of him. Hopefully his car would be as clean as the house seemed. At least that wouldn't make Lex freeze up in the hour it would take for his meds to kick in.

The last time he'd let someone drive him anywhere, the floor of the passenger seat had been littered with condoms and McD's bags. A less than lovely image that he was sure was burned permanently on a cluster of cells in his brain. It had probably been the highlight of that... week.

"So, what's your car made of? Steel, fiberglass, or Bondo?" Lex grinned, making himself grin as he followed Clark and pulled his own keys out of his pocket.

"Steel, duct tape, and baling wire," Clark teased him, and... Lex was enjoying it. Enjoying himself. He didn't feel threatened, just vaguely happy and almost comfortable. It wasn't anything even remotely familiar to him.

That in and of itself was almost enough to set off warning bells in Lex's head. But it didn't. He smiled as he walked down to his car and unlocked it. "What year is it?"

"Uh, actually?" He looked a little sheepish. "It's an '84. I finally had to buy a second one to use for spare parts. It's parked in the garage around back. But... the thing's made out of steel. It's one serious car. Those fiberglass things make me nervous. I don't like the idea of driving around in a car made by RubberMaid."

"So get a BMW," Lex quipped as he leaned in through the driver's side and unlocked his glove compartment to get the bottle. While he was already in an awkward position, he opened it, somewhere in there procured a sealed bottle of water, and took two. No reason to not make the best of having his thigh stuck against the steering column.

"But that would cost money," Clark pointed out, waiting patiently, "and so long as I've got plenty of spare parts and I can work on it myself, it's cheaper and easier to drive this one. Plus? The insurance rate on something even older than me is just incredible."

Lex was taking one more swig of water while he shifted back out of the car, and relocked the door. By the time they got to Smallville, he'd probably say 'hi' and then run to the bathroom. "How incredible?"

"Incredible enough that I put the hundred bucks difference between that and a car twenty-five years younger in a fund for Calli's college education every month," the other man admitted. "Is there anything else you want before we go?"

He'd just slipped his pill bottle into his pocket, he had his water with him... Wallet in back pocket. Lex shook his head as he meandered over towards the passenger side of Clark's car. "No, I've got everything."

"Great." Clark leaned down, keyed open the door. "Sorry the car's so small. And, uh, the air doesn't work, but I think we'll be okay with just the vent today. I mean, the heat works, and that's the really important part, I guess, but I haven't figured out what's wrong with it yet. Or if it's just never worked. So..." He shrugged a little shyly and hurried around to the other side of the car.

"There's probably a leak in the lines, and you've dripped out all of the very old, illegal polluting freon," Lex told him grimly while he opened his door and took a peek inside. Except for an old paper coffee cup, it was blessedly clean.

"Well, when I realized that it wasn't functioning, I went ahead and removed all of the very old, illegal polluting freon," Clark laughed, opening his own door to slide inside. It was funny to see that extraordinarily tall frame squished into such a small space, and Lex considered whether the seat could be moved further back to make driving easier for him.

Lex even leaned back a little, peering to see if anything could be done. "So, Clark, do you drive with your knees?"

"I try to avoid that, actually." Clark flushed a little. "But I promise I drive kind of like somebody's grandma, so if you wanna lean the seat back a little and close your eyes..."

He wasn't leaning the seat back, because he knew the moment he did, his memory would slip into some fucked up sepia vision with a cloudy summer sky and a thick hand crushing his crotch in a painful attempt to make him... something. Lex's eyebrows went up a little and he just shook his head. "I think I'll just see if I nod off. But thanks."

"Sure." Clark tilted him another of those inviting smiles. "You can be in charge of the radio, too, if you want. That does work."

"Oh, you're definitely going to rue that suggestion..." Lex leaned for the dial, smiling back as the car started back out of Clark's driveway. Yeah. He should be just fine on that car trip.

By the time they reached Smallville, Lex had been dozing for the better part of the entire trip, carrot-tipped lashes brushing against his cheeks in a way that made him really hard for Clark to ignore. He hated to wake him, but he figured it was better to give Lex a few minutes to pull himself together before introducing Lex to his entire family.

He'd seen the prescription label, knew Lex was a little funny around people, and he'd put things together pretty quickly. He was a CSI, and he was Superman. Clark Kent might look like he bumbled his way through life hit-or-miss, but that's what people were supposed to see.

He pulled off the side of the road at the local coffee shop and reached out to very gently nudge Lex. "Hey. We're in Smallville," he said quietly. "You want some coffee before we head on to the house? It's almost time for lunch. Another hour or so."

Lex stirred quietly, his expression groggy and clouded enough to make Clark wish he had seen how many pills Lex had popped before getting in the passenger seat. "Nn?"

"You want a cup of coffee?" Clark asked him quietly, smiling. "I'm stopping for just a minute. We're in Smallville, so I thought you'd appreciate a little time to wake up."

His eyelashes fluttered, and a faint sigh left his lips before he opened his eyes. Lex also mumbled a little in his sleep, and none of it had sounded very good. Calli mumbled about fish and pets, ferrets and homework she'd forgotten about. That was the okay sleep mumbling.

"Coffee...?" Lex sat up a little, stretching his hands out. The joints cracked, and then he flipped either wrist to crack that. "Coffee sounds really good, Clark."

"Great. They've got a bathroom you can use if you need to." Clark pulled the keys out of the ignition and pocketed them as he opened the door. "Anything specific you want to drink?"

Lex popped his own door, and moved to get out before he seemed to realize that he'd forgotten to un-seatbelt himself, and laughed. "Something sweet. If they have something espresso and caramel, that would be perfect, thanks." He was still laughing when he got past the seatbelt, and actually to his feet. Even if it was a sleepy laugh.

"I'll take care of it," Clark promised, waiting for him by the front tire. "I never quite get used to the whole awake-during-the-day thing, either. It's pretty impressive we're still standing."

A muzzy grunt was agreement enough as Lex shut the door, paused, reopened the door and made sure that this time, the seatbelt wasn't hanging out. "And my dad wonders why I skip his meetings. This is like being up at three am for a normal person, you know?"

Clark laughed. "Believe me. Former farm kid. Being awake when everybody else sleeps seriously sucks, but having to be awake when you ought to be asleep sucks even worse. Come on."

It was cute, in a way, how Lex seemed to cautiously puppy dog after him. He wasn't sure if that was the best term, but Lex kept both close to him and at a distance, all at once. He hung back for a moment to hold the door open for the lady who was coming in just behind them, and followed Clark up to the line for a second to scope out where the bathrooms were. The signs were pretty obvious after a minute, though, so Lex looked at Clark and grinned, "I'm trusting you to get good coffee, Clark. I'll be back in a second."

"No problem," Clark said softly, watching him as he turned to walk towards the bathroom. He sighed once Lex was gone, and turned back towards the counter.

"Clark! Hi! What are you doing here this morning? You never come home," a voice declared, full of laughter.

"Lana!" It was nice to see her, and funny, too. The little apron that she wore declaring herself the manager was kitschy and a little fun. "It's Calli's birthday. Well, yesterday was, but I couldn't get any time off. I'm off tonight, so."

"So you're home to see your family," Lana smiled. She was still as radiant and pretty as she'd been when they were kids, except that she'd matured. Maturity didn't make her smile any less bright than it had ever been, though, white teeth gleaming as her delight at seeing him really hit her eyes. "I just saw your sister on Friday -- she's growing up so fast! She'll be grown up before we all know it."

"Yeah, I know. I feel like I miss so much. She's ten already, and the next thing I know, Dad's going to be calling and sound all gruff about how she's got a boyfriend and she's giving up her dolls and she wants to take over the Fortress of Solitude," Clark chuckled. "Lex and I are on our way to take her a few birthday presents."

Lex and I.

It just sounded so right somehow that Clark never thought about explaining it any further.

Didn't think he'd have to, except that Lana, whom he hadn't seen since he'd joined Metropolis' CSI department, lifted an eyebrow at him. "So you went to the big city and found a boyfriend, huh? We do balloon-donations at the holiday for his kid's charity."

That brought a startled little expression to Clark's face, mouth opening slightly, eyes going round. "Wow. Uh. Well, we're not dating. Actually." Lana could hear the yet tacked onto the end, just like she'd always been able to do. Lana could tell almost anything about Clark inside of five seconds. "But he did get Calli a gift, and he's a really great guy, so... We stopped to get some coffee before heading home. His only requests are espresso and caramel." Clark grinned at her. "And I'll take one of whatever you make him, too."

That mind-reading trick of hers was half the reason he really wished that he was straight. Because she was still the perfect girl next door. Even if she was the 'got happily married' girl next door, now. "Espresso and caramel, huh? Mmm, that's a hard one..." She was teasing him, just from the tilt of her lips. "I'll make them myself. You'll like it. It's a type of macchiato."

"And that means....?" Clark asked. "Too hip for you, you science nerd. Right?" He chuckled and shifted to rest a hip against the counter and watch her work. "See, I know the secret language that passes around here."

"Oh yeah?" She grinned over her shoulder as she poured milk into a metal canister. "Go on, tell me what a Macchiato is. Prove that you know our secret, ancient tongue."

"A macchiato is..." Clark put both index fingers to his head, making a pretense at reading her mind. It was an old game, one left over from childhood and still a lot of fun. "Mmmm, a little macchio. Which is secretly a small coffee gnome that lives in that big silver thing that I never have figured out how anybody can run. So, the little macchio runs around and spins magic coffee out of thin air and you call it macchiato so he feels impressive and keeps making them."

She giggled, pretty much still the same way she did when she was thirteen, and looked back at him again as she started to steam the milk. "Okay. You get points for creativity. Do you want the coffee gnome to make two shots, or three?"

"Two for Lex, three for me," Clark decided. "He's got to work tonight, so maybe he'll manage to get in some nap time on the drive back. I wouldn't want to be responsible for filling his caffeine level and making him jitter, considering. Now, me, on the other hand..."

"You have no reason not to be wound up?" Lana bubbled the milk up to some consistency that only she was sure of, and then poured it into two sturdy-looking paper cups.

Lex had been in the bathroom a long time.

"Exactly. Hey, I'll be right back, okay? Gonna..." Clark indicated the men's room with his thumb. "Won't take a minute."

"Sure. They'll be ready when he gets back." She didn't seem concerned, but all she knew about Lex was that he was some guy who... apparently had a hand in some children's charity? Clark was suddenly wondering about his investigative skills, to have missed that one.

Well, he guessed he just hadn't thought about it. LuthorCorp was really big in Metropolis, and Lex wasn't the only Luthor in town. In fact, since he'd abandoned corporate business for criminal science, Clark had kind of figured that he'd abandoned all of the money-type dealings with it, too. Somehow, though, it didn't surprise him a lot that Lex would give money to children's charities.

He quietly pushed open the men's room door and moved towards the urinals, giving a quick x-ray peek around, being careful not to invade the privacy of the stalls from, oh, about shoulder-height-down... IF someone happened to be sitting.

There wasn't anyone in there just then -- bit early for a crowd on a Sunday -- except Lex. Sitting in the far stall to the wall, eyes closed. Not in a 'resting or thinking' way, no. In a 'passed out in sleep' way. And he'd been planning to see if he could get more work in? Sure. Su~ure he was.

Well... right. Okay. Lex's pants were down around his ankles and he was asleep in the stall. And okay, Clark shouldn't have been NOTICING the pants thing, but he did, and so... He had to figure out something. Maybe if he blew in some of that icy breath trick, that would wake him up, but...

Clark really didn't want to do that.

"Hey, Lex?" he called quietly, hoping that would do the trick.

Startled right out of his skin. It was as if he'd both realized that he shouldn't have fallen asleep, and that he shouldn't have fallen asleep in a bathroom all at once. "Oh, hey, Clark! I'll be out in a sec." That was the voice of a man trying way too hard to pretend he was awake.

"Cool. Your coffee's ready." And okay, now a little puff of icy breath was enough to maybe tilt Lex over the edge into more-or-less awake.

Clark saw him shiver sharply, and it really did seem to jump-start him for the moment. Next thing Clark knew, Lex was reaching for the toilet paper, and it was definitely time for him to leave and get coffee.

Super job accomplished.

It made him smile just a little, so he washed his hands quickly and stepped back out into the coffee shop to pay Lana.

She had coffee ready for them both, tall paper cups with cardboard wrappers. Like Starbucks, but at least Lana's wrappers really did keep the hand from burning. At least, from what Clark had seen of other people reacting when they picked up and held their coffee cups. Lex came back just when Clark was getting his wallet out, and stopped Clark.

"I'll pay for it."

"You're the boss," Clark agreed, giving him the most gorgeous smile Lana had ever seen him throw anyone's way. "I'm sure it'll be great. Lana and I have known each other since we were old enough to walk and talk, so I can guarantee you that it'll be good right down to the last drop. And that it isn't Maxwell House. Promise."

"Thank God," Lex grinned as he pulled a ten out of his wallet and handed it to Lana. "Maxwell House is... it's the worst coffee ever. I think it'd only be good to the last drop if there was LSD in it."

"Well, I promise that mine is better than that," she laughed, quickly making change and handing it back to him. "And if you don't like it, drop back by on your way out of town. Clark says that you have to work tonight, so I'm sure I've got a thermos here in the back, and I promise I'll make you something that you will like, and it'll stay hot all the way to Metropolis and through work."

"And all you have to offer her for eternal caffeinated goodness is your immoooortal sooooul," Clark teased.

Lex dropped all of the change in the tip jar, mouth curling into a real, warm smile. "She'll have to get in line, but it seems like a good deal to me. Thanks." And Clark knew that Lex would appreciate it, sipping coffee over in a corner before going to test more blood spatters or bits of tissue.

Maybe he could get some of Lana's coffee with every milk-delivery from now on. "Anyway, we'd better get a move on. If I'm not home by noon, Calli'll think I've abandoned her, and then I will be in trouble."

Lex picked up his cup, and smiled at Lana again. "You have a good day. And we'll get a move on now, Clark. Didn't mean to delay you..."

"It's okay. I know how it is when you're a little groggy and moving kind of slow," Clark agreed. "See you later, Lana. Hope you have a good day."

"You, too, Clark. Hope to see you again, Lex." She waved a little, even as she moved to take the customer behind the one that the other girl was helping.

Lex took a sip of the drink before they were out the door entirely, and made a really sexy, soft sigh of enjoyment. "Oh, this... this is good coffee. It's not just caramel flavoring, Clark -- it's the real stuff!"

Clark laughed. "I promise we'll get you some more on the way out of town." Yeah. Definitely adding coffee delivery to his flying trips home. Wow. "It's Smallville. And Lana makes the best coffee in six surrounding counties."

"So why doesn't she franchise and expand?" Lex asked as he moved to the passenger side of the car. It was as if that one sip of coffee -- and probably the icy breath in the bathroom -- had brought the keen-minded Lex back to coherency land.

"Not enough capital yet," Clark explained, opening his door and climbing in. "But she's got it in the works. I think she might ask Mom to manage the one here when she goes to branching out, and I'm sure Mom will be happy to have something else to do."

Lex hesitated as he watched Clark just climb on in, then he peered at his own door before cautiously pulling at it. Clark hadn't expected him to be so wary about already unlocked doors. "Yeah, I bet she would," Lex said a little distractedly, craning his head for a second like he was checking to see that there wasn't anyone in the back seat.

"It's okay," Clark promised. "We just forgot to lock them. And we're parked right out front, so Lana kept an eye on the car when I stepped into the bathroom."

"Oh..." Not that she had, because she'd been making coffee, but Lex seemed to buy it, and pulled his door open a little more before he slipped in. Nervous. Clark couldn't even guess why Lex had agreed to come along if he was so nervous about things like that -- maybe he'd just lucked out and caught him off guard enough when he'd asked?

Lex took another sip of his coffee, and grinned as he buckled up his seat-belt, holding the cup between his knees like an expert. "Onward!"

And, with a laugh...

Clark did as he was told.

It didn't take long to reach the farm and pull in. It was early November, and a little chilly, but all of the doors and windows were open in the house. The minute they parked, Clark could smell dinner on the wind, and that was enough to make his nose tilt upwards appreciatively. "Mmmm, chicken."

"CLAAAARK!"

Lex was staring a little at the girl that bounded out of the nearest house door. "I guess they heard the car pulling up," Lex decided as he popped open the door, and moved so he could stay out of the way of a reunion between a man and his little strawberry-blonde sister.

Calli ran across the yard with a single purpose in mind, and Clark met her halfway, raising her high into the air and flying her around his head. "Ohhh! You're getting so heavy! Pretty soon, you'll have to fly around my knees, because I'm getting ooold!"

Lex leaned against the roof of Clark's rust bucket, smiling faintly to himself as he sipped at his half-finished caramel macchiato. That was cute. Movie happy ending sweet, the sort of things he liked to watch on TV and yearned for when he read it in books. Calli was laughing, just exuding a feeling of delight when she squealed and flung her arms around Clark's neck. "You're home! You missed all my friends yesterday, Clark! Sarah says you're cute and she was sa~ad..."

"Well, I tell you what. I've brought somebody with me to make up for being late. How is that, Miss Calli?" Clark asked her, kneeling down to settle her on her feet. "And I promise we'll stay until a whole five o'clock. How's that?"

"That's neat," she grinned at him, arms still around his neck. "Mom's missed you -- who's he?" She seemed to finally notice Lex, and he smiled at her and waved his free hand a little, still staying where he was leaning.

"I'm just someone who needs the car keys to get the trunk open so you can get your birthday gifts."

"This," Clark introduced, "is Mister Lex. Now, be polite and go introduce yourself." His hand on her back gently sent her in Lex's direction.

"Hi, Mister Lex," she greeted dutifully. "I'm Calli Kent. That's short for Callista, because Mom let Miss Lana pick out my name. Miss Lana says that she was young and silly back then, but I kind of like it. What kinds of presents are in the trunk?"

Sweet kid. Lex always worried about the sweet ones more than the cantankerous ones. He smiled, and moved a little away from her to get the keys from Clark. "I guess you'll have to wait until I get them out of the trunk and your parents say you can open them. But your brother put a lot of thought into what you might want."

She laughed and rolled her eyes. "Clark called Mom," she confided in an almost whisper. "Want me to go and get the keys from him? There's pie. He's probably not gonna come back until he's had some."

"Yeah -- I'd appreciate that," Lex grinned back just as confidently. "Or else I'll be camped out here until we go back to Metropolis. Wa~aiting for keys." He winked at her, then took a sip of his coffee. It was okay to be standing outside, actually. He needed just a little more time to pull himself together, and think of what he was going to say to Jonathan.

Other than 'thank you'. He'd sort of spilled his guts to the guy that day, a broken down, half-drowned mess of a human being that had just needed someone to tell him that it wasn't bad to have a gut instinct, a desire not to do what his father said. To be a man and make his own decisions. That deserved more than a 'thank you'.

"I'll be right back, Mister Lex!" Calli promised, turning to run back to the house. "I'll bring the keys! Daddy, Daddy! Say hello to Mister Lex!"

"Hello, Mister Lex." That voice was deep, filled with a tender amusement that Lex's own father had never shown. "It's nice to meet you again."

It wasn't right that Lex's mouth went dry just then -- not when he had coffee and really no excuse for the sudden silence that gripped at him. He wasn't ready, but things seldom waited for him to be ready. Just had to roll with it. That was the sort of thing he had to remember, that the world didn't dance to the tune of his hopeful planning. "Jonathan. Mr. Kent..."

Lex left his coffee sitting on top of Clark's trunk, and walked towards the older man. His hair was more grayed, his face more lined, but he was definitely... definitely the same person who'd saved Lex that day. He offered his hand. "I just wanted to thank you, Mr. Kent."

Jonathan's left hand met his own, the grip less certain than Lex remembered it. His smile was no less gentle, though, nor his eyes any less serious and concerned. "You don't ever have to thank me," he said for the second time in Lex's life. "I take it you've come to visit with Clark....? And that you decided not to work for your father after all. That's good."

"Yes. It... I listened to you, Jonathan, the day you pulled me out of the river. I went back to school, finished my degree. I'm in the Metropolis crime lab testing DNA. And I'm very very glad that I listened to you." He shook Jonathan's hand, maybe a little awe slipping into his eyes.

"I had a feeling you'd do something to be proud of, son." And that... that was worth everything, wasn't it? Worth the weekly pep talks. Worth the anxiety of riding to Smallville in Clark's ancient Ford Escort. Worth it all.

Just because one almost complete stranger was proud of him. It was only that Jonathan Kent had changed his life, risked his own life for Lex, and... Lex was glad that he hadn't disappointed the man. It was hard not to smile as he drew his hand back, still looking back at Jonathan. He didn't even have to mention the other things he did -- it was enough as is, warm and simple. "Thank you. I... can't really figure out how to express the gratitude I feel towards you." A faint, nervous laugh left him. "Sorry."

"No need to be sorry, son. Why don't you come in and have some pie?" the older man offered. "I don't see your car anywhere. I'm guessing you haven't wrecked it...?"

"No." Lex grinned a little as he picked up his coffee cup. "Clark drove me. Thank you for not minding that he's dragged me along..." He looked past Jonathan for a moment, wondering where the keys had disappeared to. It wasn't a rush -- somehow, Lex guessed that the car and Calli's presents wouldn't be going anywhere from the inside of the trunk.

"Always glad to have company. Come on inside. I'm sure Martha's cut a piece of pie for you, too."

Today was obviously Lex's day to be fed by the Kent family. And he wasn't going to complain, because clearly someone had to teach Clark how to cook. Lex grinned as he let Jonathan subtly lead him towards the house. "At this rate, I'm not even going to need a snack when I go on shift... If you wife is as good a cook as Clark, sir..."

"Ahhh, well. He, ah, learned it from the best." And Jonathan was looking at him with obvious curiosity now, making Lex feel a little flustered. "Clark doesn't invite a lot of people home to cook for."

"He, uh..." Lex was sure that he wasn't just flustered, but that it was showing in his eyes. At least it was too cool out for his face to burn or anything silly like that. "I had yesterday off shift, so I volunteered to go to the toy store to buy gifts for Calli. Breakfast this morning... was a thank you."

"Hm." Jonathan didn't seem to be falling for that, but he let Lex get by with it. "Clark's a good boy, too. Come on in," he said, climbing the steps a little more slowly than Lex and opening the screen door. "Look what I found in the yard, Martha!"

It was a shame that Jonathan hadn't bought it, because that was the truth as far as Lex saw it. Still, he smiled a little as he stepped in -- the kitchen was almost surprisingly just like Clark's had been. Wooden furniture, warm, yellowish walls, nicknacks as far as the eye could see, and the smell of fresh warm food.

"Jonathan, what did I tell you about -- Oh! Hello!" Martha turned, looking surprised as she put plates on the table. Apparently Clark hadn't warned her about him. Where had Clark and Calli run off to?

"I know. Wipe my boots before I come in. Martha, this is Lex Luthor. You remember me telling you about him," Jonathan told her with a smile. "Clark's brought him to visit. Where do you think he's got off to with Calli? That boy..." And never mind that Clark was grown. That didn't seem to matter much when it came to his parents. Parents always thought like their children were eternally ten. And maybe in Clark's family, it wasn't such a bad thing to put up with.

"Hello, Mrs. Kent. Is there anything I can do to help...?" He was willing, and it might soothe his own awkwardness to be put to work somehow. Just like he'd done at Clark's that morning.

"Ohhh, no. I have everything under control. I, ah, just hope that you like mashed potatoes and fried chicken. I made peas, and I know Clark won't eat them, but..."

"I'll eat your peas, Martha," Jonathan smiled, sneaking close to kiss her temple.

Lex wished he could have had parents like that. Just for a day.

"Vrooom!" Calli cried, running down the stairs with Clark right behind her. He caught her at the bottom and lifted her up to sit on his shoulders. Where did he get the energy? He'd been on shift all night, made breakfast, drove to Smallville... Clark was an amazing piece of work to even still be on his feet, let alone hefting his sister around. They felt... felt like the perfect family. Maybe Lex could absorb a little of their warm happiness while he was there.

He set his coffee cup down on the table, and gave Martha what he hoped was a disarming smile. "Clark, any chance I can get the car keys from you so I can pop the trunk? Then you can really tease your sister..."

"Ohh, hey, yeah. There are prizes in there," Clark taunted. "I don't know, Lex. Maybe we oughta just leave 'em and take 'em back with us..."

"I WANT MY PRESENT!" Calli yelled, laughing and squirming so that Clark would put her down. He gave a violent 'coff', and put her carefully on her feet, 'accidentally' dropping the keys beside her.

Lex didn't lunge for them. He was too... careful to do that. He just grinned a little more, watching them be happy. It was about the best he could do in a situation like that. Sort of flail internally and hope not to fuck up things too badly externally. "Quick, toss me the keys."

"I've got them! I've got the keys!" Calli squealed, grabbing them and moving as if to run away from Clark. She dodged one way, he dodged the other, and then she was out the door with Clark still standing by the table and grinning at Lex.

"Why don't you catch up with her, Lex? I think she likes you," he said with a wink. "She wants to know why I haven't brought you before now."

"I'll tell her that I was afraid of your car," Lex winked, and turned to leave. Someone needed to keep her from maybe peeking at the packages the way that most kids did. Right?

By the time he got out to the car, Calli was staring at the key ring with a serious expression of pure concentration, picking out the key she wanted to use to open the trunk. "Mister Lex, do you know which key it is?" she asked. "Both of these ones say 'Ford', but one is round and one is square!"

"Well, since the square one was the one that Clark put in the ignition..." And he paid attention to things like that, just in case. Just in case his sixth sense had been wrong, and something had happened and he'd needed to know what key started the car. "I'd say try the round."

"Right." That little look of determination was really familiar, and it amazed Lex that Calli and Clark had it. Environment obviously had a lot to do with the way people turned out.

It made him even more grateful for being rescued by Jonathan Kent.

He watched her patiently as she got the key in, and then pressed in while turning it. Since she seemed determined to do it, Lex was just going to supervise. He did enough work with kids to know that they liked to do things for themselves, and they'd ask for help with either their eyes or their words, but if they wanted it, they'd ask.

"So how old are you now?"

"I'm ten," Calli announced with a great deal of pride, getting the trunk open. The lid was heavy, and it didn't want to push up, but the pneumatic pumps finally kicked in and held the thing up enough for her to pull out the bag. "Ohhh! I have two presents!"

"Two people coming usually means two presents," Lex said carefully, moving to catch the trunk if the pneumatic parts suddenly gave, so her hands wouldn't get hurt. He grimaced at his own words, but kept it internal. Two people with two presents for a ten year old could mean a lot of things that he really hoped would never happen to Calli. Then again, she had a good family, and Lex was pretty sure that Clark would kick ass for her.

It still made him want to herd her around like a baby chick that needed to be protected.

"Thanks, Mister Lex!" she declared happily, clutching the bag tightly to her chest. "Can we go inside now, so that I can open my presents? Mom says Clark's looking thin. She wants to send pie home with him. Would you like pie, too?"

He shut the trunk carefully, and locked it. "Mmm, just a slice. I have to work tonight, and I wouldn't have anywhere to put pie at work. Run in -- I'll be in there in a second."

"Okay," Calli told him, "but Mom will send you pie, anyway. To share, probably," she said, and then scampered for the porch.

She was sweet, and a lot like her brother for not having blood ties to him. And it made Lex sick inside that his head was popping with morbid thoughts that didn't usually plague him like that. It had to do something with sleep deprivation and nervousness. He knew it. And once he got the nerves under control, he'd be fine. Just... fine.

A deep breath later, and Lex jogged back up the steps and into the house.

The Kent household seemed a lot like some sort of organized chaos by the time he walked into the kitchen. Martha was dancing with a bowl full of mashed potatoes between Clark, who held plates, Calli, who was counting silverware, and Jonathan, who was trying to put glasses full of ice on the table.

"Hi!" Clark said cheerfully. "You're just in time. Grab those paper towels, please?"

He did it in a snap once he'd closed the door behind him, but he couldn't help but gawk. Just a little. "Are they paper towels, or napkins?"

"Paper towels, Mister Lex!" Calli laughed. "Momma has napkins, but they're linen, and not for playing tea with, ever."

"That's right, miss. You have your own set of napkins for playing tea, and if you ask nicely, I'm sure your brother and his friend will probably let you serve for them before they go home," Martha assured, somehow magically placing beans and corn and peas and fried chicken on the table in the blink of an eye. At least, it felt that way to Lex, because he was moving in some weird, fascinated slow-motion as he got their paper towels, and then on a whim folded each one into a four part triangle, like they were really fancy napkins, the kind that stood up on the table like origami.

"Make sure she got the paint water out of the 'tea pot' before you drink it, son," Jonathan warned in a 'whisper', reaching past him to set down a glass beside his mostly finished cup of coffee. "She's bad about that."

"DAAADDYYYYY!"

"No yelling at the dinner table."

"Here, Lex. There's an extra chair here... ah. Yeah. There. You want to sit next to me?"

Clark looked so cute and so hopeful, and Lex couldn't quite breathe.

Couldn't quite breathe because there were all sorts of expectations in a hopeful look like that, and Lex... wanted but didn't want to want and fuck. Fuck, it was a mess and life was really easier when he avoided people. Still, he moved, or his body made him move to sit beside Clark. "Yeah, that'd be great."

Beautiful smile.

Beautiful man, and oh, God, Lex hoped Clark was as good as he thought he was. Prayed, even.

"Hey, you all right?" he murmured close to Lex's ear as they sat down, the rest of the family buzzing on around them.

"Yeah, just a little..." He grinned over what he'd been about to say. "Apparently awestruck by the feasts that your family puts on." And still faintly nervous, and really suffering from a bad case of over-thinking.

That made Clark grin again, and shake his head. "Mom still cooks for six every meal," he teased.

"That's because you used to eat for four, sweetheart."

"Eight the year he turned fourteen."

"Yeah? Lois always does wonder who empties the snack fridge," Lex smirked as he eyed his plate and waited for some sort of signal from the rest of the family. Calli looked like she was all but bouncing in her chair.

"Hey, buttercup," Jonathan said, reaching out to tousle her strawberry-blonde head. "Why don't you say the blessing for us?"

Primly, she went still, folding her hands and closing her eyes. "God is great, God is good..."

Lex closed his eyes a little, looking down as he listened. The fabric of Clark's jeans looked really soft.

"Let us thank him for our food. By his hands, we are fed..."

Faded, too, and he knew that Clark had a slight habit of rubbing the front of his thighs. Enough of that had probably worn them that soft, at least on the top. He wasn't going to touch, though. Just imagine.

"Give us all our daily bread. Amen. So mote it be."

"So, Lex," Jonathan said, clearing his throat. "Would you like a leg or a breast?"

His eyes snapped up, and he realized that Jonathan was sitting pretty much right across from him at the comfortable little table. And had probably seen him peering down at Clark's jeans. But that was just to distract himself. That was all! Except he couldn't plead innocence to an accusation not yet lobbed. "Uh, leg, please."

Wordlessly, the older man provided him with the requested chicken even as the rest of the table broke out in a rash of reaching and passing that looked like something out of an insane rugby game.

"Here," Clark said, "try some of the potatoes. And Mom makes the best gravy to go with them, too!"

Lex grabbed the serving spoon and plopped a scoop onto his plate beside the two legs he'd been given, then got himself gravy, and... made an effort to get some of the peas, too. They looked good, even if he was going to have to chase them around his plate. "This smells so good..."

"Thanks." Martha preened just a little, and from the smell of things, it was obviously well-deserved preening. "I really hope you enjoy it. I'll send a plate home with you boys, so you'll both have something good and nutritious to eat for supper. Oh, and I have a couple of pies..."

Supper, such as it was, was usually skipped by Lex. He was sort of a two meal a day guy, particularly since the third meal usually would've occurred sometime between bloodstain one and semen stain five or epithelials twelve. Or roughly that. "Which also smells good," Lex grinned, picking up his fork once he had a little of everything on his plate. Then he just sort of waited for everyone else to start. It wasn't a precaution with the Kents, so much as a habit.

Clark dug in like a dying man, humming before the fork ever got fully into his mouth. He nearly moaned by the time he swallowed, and it made Lex shiver. "I forget how good this is..." he sighed.

That was a really good sounding moan. The sort that made Lex wonder if it had been on purpose and for him. But it was just... crazy to think that. He scooped up a little of the gravy-splashed potatoes, and tried it. No, that moan was definitely for the food. Hot and not too salty, and Lex was ready to swear that there were little bits of the skins still in and that it only made things tastier.

"My Martha's still the best cook in the county," Jonathan said with no small amount of pride in his voice.

"Momma made brownies for my birthday party, and Lauren ate so many that she got sick and her momma had to come and get her," Calli offered. "I told her not to eat so many. Only Clark can do that."

"Clark's a full-grown man, so of course he can do that. And then he spends all night running around with a flashlight. He'd put that many brownies to use really quickly," Lex decided after another mouthful of mashed potatoes. It was like heaven. And a lot better than the mashed potatoes in a box that he made himself sometimes. There was definitely milk and butter in them. And maybe some spice or another. And he hadn't even gotten to the chicken.

He was going to be tick-full before he ever got up from the table. Lex sincerely hoped that he had hollow legs. He was going to need them before long.

The table was quiet for several minutes. The business of eating was obviously a serious thing in the Kent household, and the amount of food Calli put away was just as astonishing as Clark helping himself to seconds before Lex could finish his first plate.

If there was pie to save room for, Lex would stick to just the one plate, and dawdle while he chased his peas onto his fork. And contemplated whether or not he could get away with gnawing on the bones from that fried chicken.

It turned out that he could, because Jonathan was doing it, and Clark was eyeing the last pieces of that chicken like a starving man who had just been thrust into a grocery store. There was no way Lex was brave enough to reach out and take that final leg, but Calli was apparently a lot more courageous than he was.

"Hey!"

Lex elbowed Clark gently as he smushed a pea between the tines of his fork. "Hey yourself. She's the birthday girl, Clark. Have a little heart and spare that piece of chicken."

One heavy, regretful sigh fell from the big man beside him. "You win, Calli. Make your brother go home hungry..."

"Don't worry, Clark," Calli giggled. "Momma has more chicken to fry to send home with you."

Martha nodded at Clark at that, and made a tsking noise. "You should know better, Clark..." Lex finished his peas, grinning to himself just a little at that teasing scolding tone.

"Can I have extra pie?" Clark asked with an expression so pitiful that Lex almost believed that no matter what he asked for... he'd definitely get it.

"That'll have to depend, son," Jonathan intoned. "We'll see." And at the same moment, Martha answered, "Yes."

Calli laughed. "Clark always gets extra pie," she said, shaking her head. "Clark? Can I open my presents now?

"Well, I don't know, now. I mean, you laughed at your big brother..."

Lex leaned past Clark a little, grinning, "What he means is 'yes', if it's all right with your parents."

"Daddy?"

Oh, it was obvious. She had her father wrapped around her fingers, and it made Lex happy. It made him happy, and it brought a sharp pang in his chest all at once. It was unavoidable, he supposed.

"Weell..." Jonathan looked at Clark.

"Okay, squirt. Go get 'em!"

He watched her run to get them from the living room, Lex guessed, and he sat back in his chair, still smiling to himself. The pang was all right, because it was bitter sweet. At least there was that bit of sweet in with the bitter.

"I hope she likes it," Clark said a little nervously. "I mean, I know you said she's been talking to the vet and how she wants to be able to take care of the animals and everything when she grows up..."

"Should be fine," Lex chipped in, sotto voce. After all, Clark's little sister still served play tea-parties. Barbie would be fine for her, and it was heartening to see that one little girl in the world hadn't grown up too damn fast. Martha probably wouldn't let her.

"She'll adore it, Clark," Martha whispered just before Calli came back.

"Hey, squirt. Come over here so Mister Lex and I can watch you open your presents, okay?" Clark invited, shifting so that one long leg stuck out. He pushed his plate away, and Calli obeyed, placing her presents on the table before climbing to sit in Clark's lap.

"Okay," she said, most stern, "but you can't help. At all."

"So much for wrapping it with super-glue, Clark," Lex drawled, keeping his eyes on Callie's hands as she hovered over her two toys. Everything else had probably been savaged through the day before.

Ten year old girls could be full of surprises, though, and Calli was definitely one of the most delightful children Lex had ever met. She took great care to peel each corner of the paper up on her first gift, trying her best to separate tape from paper without causing damage, right up until Clark leaned down and whispered something in her ear. Then, she laughed, and paper went flying everywhere. "Oooooh!"

Eye-bleeding pink was revealed, but the look on her face was priceless as she stared at it, intently studying the packaging.

"Clark, how did you know that Calli's been talking about this for weeks?" Martha beamed.

"I guess it's just my natural good brotherliness," Clark declared, tickling her a little. "Well, squirt?"

"I LOVE it," Calli declared firmly. She obviously wanted to take it out of the box right now-fifteen minutes ago-yesterday, but she also had another present to open, and the curiosity was overwhelming.

Lex was... pretty sure that she'd be disappointed, but that was all right. He'd gone somewhat generic out of safety, and maybe a little hope that she'd like it. Maybe just a little. He kept quiet, watching.

He really wasn't expecting that kind of high-pitched squeal. "COOOL!!! MISTER LEX GOT ME PIRATE LEGOS!"

"Ow. My ears," Clark mourned.

"Thank you thank you thank you!" Calli cried, squirming out of Clark's lap to throw her arms around Lex.

Sort of, no, really startling, but Lex half-hugged her, a hand patting her back briefly before he leaned back away from her in his own chair. "I'm glad you liked them -- it was kind of a guess. But you can't go wrong with pirates, right?"

"Pirates are cool. I want to be like Jack Sparrow when I grow up!" Calli declared before whispering, "Clark says I hafta wear a dress, but I want to be a pirate, not a girl."

"To a proper pirate, gender doesn't matter," Lex grinned as he shifted her down carefully. "You can ask Clark's work-friend Lois. She'd tell you as much." She'd also fill Calli full of scary feminist propaganda, but Lois was cool that way.

"Clark says Lois is a feminazi. What's a feminazi, Mister Lex?"

"All right, then," Martha said, clearing her throat. "How would you boys like pie? There's homemade peach ice-cream to go with it, too."

"Martha, have you thought about opening a restaurant...?" Lex asked seriously, smiling. "I'd love to have some pie." Any excuse to not tell Calli what a feminazi was, since his first instinct was to say, 'the exact opposite of a professional victim.'

"If I did, I'd never manage to bring anything this good to the table," Martha replied, standing from her chair. "Cooking is all about love." She put a hand to one hip and gave a wry smile. "And tasting."

Jonathan reached out and put a hand on her waist. "There's nothing wrong with tasting. I'll be your professional taster any time."

They were sweet. Heartwarmingly sweet, like something out of a TV show, and it made Lex feel a little like a voyeur as he reached out to grab his coffee cup and finish it off.

"Ew." Calli's nose wrinkled, and she laughed, reaching up onto the table to grab her box of Barbie veterinary bits. "I think that Barbie and pirates need to meet. Do you want to play after pie...?"

"Tell you what. After pie, if we aren't collapsing and falling asleep, we'll play Barbie and pirates. How's that?" Clark offered.

"Yay!" She carted her two prizes with her back to her spot at the table, and set them beside her plate while she climbed back into her chair. "Mister Lex, do you play with LEGOs?"

"I play with LEGOs," Lex admitted, smirking a little. "I made some huge spaceships last month, and this month I'm trying to make a feudal diorama."

"A dio-rama?" Calli's nose wrinkled, a cute little motion. "Can I see sometimes? Will you take pictures? Clark comes home sometimes and brings stuff with him. And takes back milk."

"I'll take pictures sometime. They're really neat..." Lex cleared his throat, and shifted. "Martha, can I help you clear the table of anything?"

"Oh, no, sweetheart. Why don't you and Clark go play with Calli? I'll bring pie out to all of you with ice cream," Clark's mother offered, smiling at him.

So nice. So... so worth having been nervous about being the passenger in a car, just to hear things like that. Lex smiled, and scooted his chair back carefully. "C'mon, Clark, Calli. Hopefully your brother can get your Barbie set together."

"Yeah, c'mon, squirt. Let's go play for a while. I'll even let you be Barbie."

"I want to be the pirates!"

"Well... we can talk about that out in the loft. Coming, Lex?"

There was no way Lex was going to miss this.

"Well, that was a little surprising..." Martha's tone of voice didn't indicate that it was a bad surprise, but Jonathan couldn't quite disagree with her. After all, they'd met a lot of Clark's coworkers. Lois more often than once, but she was... Lois. Wired and energetic and nervy, the sort of person Clark probably needed to counteract him on the job.

"It's amazing to see how people change over the years," Jonathan agreed, lifting his coffee cup and drinking deeply. "That boy was a real mess when I met him. I think maybe he still is, but... it's better."

"He seems nice," Martha decided as she moved to sit down beside him at the now cleared off table. It was her right to want a rest after all the cooking and baking she'd done, even if she'd been showered with heartfelt thanks from everyone. Even being appreciated didn't speed recovery quite like just taking a load off of her feet. "A little nervous -- you never did tell me everything about that day, Jonathan."

Her husband heaved a deep sigh. "That's a very troubled boy," he said solemnly. "I guess we should have known, after everything that happened the day we found Clark. He was coming to manage the plant just before it shut down. I'm guessing that his father planned to make him the scapegoat for closing it. Anyway, you know about the accident..."

"Of course." Martha's smile was gentle as she sipped her own cup of milky coffee. She remembered both 'accidents' -- the one where they'd found Clark -- or Clark had found them -- and all three of them had found the Luthors, and the accident where Jonathan had been late coming home, and almost got himself pneumonia because he'd jumped off the bridge to help the driver of the car. And she knew that he'd been a young man, a Luthor, and that Jonathan had saved his life.

"Well." Jonathan cleared his throat. "The boy was... obviously in trouble. I don't just mean the car, but you know, when you see a young man and he looks like he would have rathered I didn't pull him out of the water, something's just not right, Martha. It's not. So, we sat by the bank while we waited for the EMTs and talked a bit. He didn't like what he was doing, didn't want to do it. Didn't want to disappoint his father, either." The look on her husband's face said a lot about what he thought of that. "I told him there were worse things. Like disappointing yourself. And we talked about that some, too. Seems that did him a fair amount of good."

Martha reached her hand to grasp Jonathan's. "That's good, Jonathan. He seems... to have turned out all right." Certainly didn't seem like the kind of person who would rather not be rescued from a crashed car, at least not anymore. "And apparently Clark likes him enough to cook breakfast."

"Yeah, well. Has Clark even cooked breakfast for Lois?" Jonathan asked a little suspiciously. "And I caught him peeking at our son when Calli was praying."

"Which means that you were peeking, too, but I think I'll overlook that." Martha's lips tugged into a faint curl, and her eyes stayed on Jonathan. "You don't think that..."

Jonathan's broad shoulders shrugged. "Well. Clark hasn't ever done anything flat-out normal, Martha. And you know I always kind of wondered about him dating Lana but never... ah, asking any of the questions a boy usually asks his father. In those circumstances."

"Still, it's a little far to guess that..." Unless it wasn't, and Martha's lips pursed. "At least he brought him home to show us?"

Jonathan shook his head slowly. "Well. We weren't really expecting grandkids from Clark, anyway, were we?"

And Martha laughed.

All in all, Lex guessed that he'd spent the day being treated like a king. Food and snacks, company and conversation. By Lex's standards, that was right next to being treated like a king. Clark's parents were great. Calli was sweet. Clark...

After a day spent with Clark, Clark was twice as appealing as he'd been at first. He was a nice guy, thoughtful, warm... They'd hesitated when they'd parted ways at Clark's apartment, but Lex was pretty sure that they'd both been nervous. That maybe Clark had wanted to kiss him.

Funny how that made him feel warm and fluttery in his chest, and not scared to death in a way that made him grab for his Diazepam. Kind of like knowing that he had a cherry pie neatly tucked away in a Tupperware pie keeper that would hold out the smells of any weird experiments Lois might try to tuck into the break room refrigerator.

Warming thoughts. Thoughts to just really steel him as he got to work, peering through the things that were backlogged for him to look at. Lex Luthor liked to work in a good mood. He had music on, he had a closed thermos that he was going to ration himself coffee from and--

And someone had been in his desk. He knew it the moment that he pulled open the top drawer. What the fuck?

Okay. Obviously whoever it was had to be from the lab. Even his father could only invade this particular domain so far, money or no money. So, if it wasn't his father, and it wasn't Clark (because Clark had been with him)... who did that leave?

Chloe, because of her natural curiosity. Lois, because Lois was scary-curious. And Whitney, because he was in the lab all the time.

Lex automatically decided it wasn't Chloe. If she wanted to know something, she just asked. Simple as that. Brash as that, too, but simple as that. She was in your face, but... in your face was better than sneaking behind your back. Lex's mouth compressed as he peeked into his drawer. Okay. His bottle of Diazepam wasn't there. Half of his prescription for the next three months was not supposed to just up and walk away.

That sort of nerviness screamed Lois. Lex took a sip of the nice, hot caramel macchiato that he and Clark had stopped by Lana's coffee shop to get, then set his jaw before he stepped into the hallway, head craning as he looked for her.

"Oh. Hi, Lex," Chloe greeted absently, walking out of the ballistics lab. "What's that look all about? You seem a little twitchy...?"

"Someone has been in my desk, rifled through it, and took something," he muttered, still looking for Lois as suspect number one. "Did you see anything? It's not something I can exactly replace."

Chloe's brows knit tightly together. "I haven't seen anything. Maybe we could dust for prints. Not like everybody here doesn't walk around in latex gloves or anything, but it'd be worth a shot."

Heck, even Lex had already put his latex gloves on. He frowned a little. "That's okay -- I'll get to that after I stalk down Lois and Whitney. Had to be one of them. Thanks, Chloe."

"Welcome. I haven't seen Lois since I came in. I think she's got a DFO up in the club district. Some bigwig, last I heard. The betting pool's pretty high for it being homicide. Apparently nobody liked him much."

Great. That meant he'd be processing a lot very soon. Even if it was some slime bag, which sort of pleased Lex to think of. Not that murder was good or anything, and slime killing slime was usually pretty weird to watch unravel. "Okay. Thanks. I'll just hunt down..."

Whitney. Right there, stepping out of the break room. "Hey, Whitney!"

"What?" Short, sharply spoken, and accompanied by a frown. Okay. Tonight was obviously not going to be the best night in the world, at least not in the lab, and not when Whitney obviously had his drawers in a bunch.

Even if he had taken it, Lex was pretty sure that Whitney wasn't going to tell him. He wasn't the sort of criminal to just confess, if one could consider Whitney as a criminal type. "Have you been in my desk?"

"Why? Are you missing stacks of porn?" Whitney asked, and Lex could almost see a green wash of jealousy come over him in a pall.

Which didn't make any sense at all. Lex flashed teeth at Whitney -- it was always better in the long run to take the highroad. "No, I'm missing a prescription."

That threw Whitney for a minute, or seemed to, so maybe it wasn't him. "Sorry, man. I think I saw a bottle floating around in the lab earlier. Did you look under your desk? Maybe it got knocked off."

"Yeah, but it was in..." Lex trailed off. "Okay. I'll take another look. It's an orange bottle, if you happened to see it."

"Like I said. Check under your desk," Whitney drawled, and then he headed back towards the lab ahead of Lex.

Lex just stood there for a minute, scowling and frowning. WHY would his bottle be under his desk? It smacked suspiciously, but Lex still turned and headed back to check under his desk. After all, the worst thing that could happen would be that it wasn't there, right?

Right. It was still going to be a long day in the lab, apparently.

Especially if Whitney was that jealous.

Lex decided that he wasn't going to share his pie. At least not with Whitney.

Chloe, yes, Perry because he wouldn't have any other choice. But Whitney? No. What did Whitney have to be jealous of him about? Just because the rest of the lab liked Lex better. And that was entirely attributable to the fact that you could catch flies better with honey than vinegar. If you were bitter, people tended not to like you. And Whitney...

Well. He just didn't try.

Or maybe he tried too hard. Lex wasn't sure. It was kind of like Clark being nervous because he thought Whitney didn't like him, except that Whitney adored him and wanted to have his babies.

Which was just... really wrong, even hearing it in Lex's head.

"Yo! Luthor!"

Once he was done talking to Lois, he was going to hide, do his work, and drink his nice coffee. And seriously look for his pills. "Yeah?" She didn't get more than a yeah because he never got more than a yo Luthor. But she did get a smile because she was grating but she was also very easy on the eyes.

"Look. I'm in a hurry. This is pronto, okay? We've got more coming in, but this guy... he's a real scuz, and I need to know who did him. Could you maybe, I don't know... put it ahead?" The way she looked at him as good as said that she knew he WOULD.

"It'll go to the top of my stack," he promised her. "Just hand it over."

The way she grinned at him was almost worth having to make that promise. "Thanks, Luthor. I knew I could count on you. Oh, hey, I heard you went home with Kent...?"

Nosy.

"Really? Who'd you hear that from?" He too the sample bag from her, glad that he already had his gloves on, and made a back step towards his little part of the lab.

She rolled her eyes and grinned. "Hello. I saw the pie-taker. Only Kent ever brings in pie-takers, and since he's not here tonight, and you guys had breakfast..."

"Yeah. It was a thank you. He's a nice guy." And she was nosy -- there was no way that she should've figured it out so fast, except that she was a CSI and noticing things was what she was paid to do. "So any idea what went down with this guy?"

"Well, from the looks of it, he was into kiddie porn. Had tons of pictures and stuff when we checked his car," she confided. "And I have a feeling he had more of it at home. I'm betting that's probably the basis for his murder. The restaurant swore he was a DFO, but my bet's on some kind of poison exposure, if not there, then at a previous appointment."

Jesus.

Lex kept his muttered remarks of 'couldn't happen to a nicer guy' to himself. They were just supposed to work the evidence, not influence it or feel too much about it. But they did. They all did. And Lex had trouble with cases like that. And cases where he had to process semen off of children's underwear.

"Great." He set the evidence bag on the counter, mouth tight. "When you bring the photos through? I don't want to be around."

"Sure thing. We'll take those over to AV, anyway. I know how you are about kids, Luthor. So, you get on your end of the ball, I'll take care of mine, and maybe we can keep Perry from giving himself a stroke." The smile she gave him was disgustingly competent. "Page me when you get the Senatori stuff worked up."

Senatori.

Nothing had hit Lex like that since he'd driving off of Loeb Bridge in Lowell County, Kansas.

"D... Dominic Senatori?" Lex swallowed. It couldn't be...? Dominic was his father's right hand man. Dominic...

Lex closed his eyes for a second, feeling sick. Dominic had been the one to take him on a two week 'road trip' that Lex had never really recovered from. Outside, sure, but inside, no. You just didn't forget and get over shit like that, didn't forget a minute of it.

"Yeah. You know him? Maybe I should give the stuff for processing to Whitney..."

"Yeah." Lex swallowed. "Could you? I... It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy." He laughed, maybe a little hysterical. Just on the edge of the noise, and he was allowed. Someone had done what he'd never been able to. Not when he was thirteen, not when he was thirty. And he knew, knew he'd be getting a call from his father. "He's on the... LuthorCorp board."

"Huh. Yeah. Your dad..." And Lane was not giving him the dirty eyeball. She wasn't. Because if she was, Lex was going to have to slap her and run off to find the meds in his car since the ones in the lab were missing.

It'd be a valid excuse, right? "I don't want to talk about that." Maybe it was a little sharp, but it was suddenly as good a time as any to go over to his desk and look under it. Or at get a little more coffee.

"Huh. Okay," she agreed, and that went a little too easy, didn't it? Yeah. "Anyway. I'll go talk with Fordman. See you later, Luthor. Save me some pie, willya?"

"Yeah. Will do." Maybe his pills were under his desk. He'd feel pretty stupid jogging out to his car to get them out of the glove compartment, but he knew, knew, that he couldn't go the next eight hours like that. Sure it'd take time to kick in, but he couldn't function when he was wound so tight, when his hands shook while he pushed the chair away from the desk, and he bent to look underneath of it.

Dominic was dead.

Dominic.

Ding Dong.

Dominic's Dead.

It was a steady little refrain in the back of his head, and by the time he found his pill bottle against the wall behind his desk, his hands were shaking worse and he was near tears.

"Dude."

That startled him so much that he hit his head against the bottom of the desk. God, couldn't Whitney fuck off?

"Are you okay? You look like you're gonna hurl under there..."

"Can't you just -- god-dammit, fuck off for once!" That snap made him feel better, and closer to crying. But he was going to be fine. He just needed to shake out a couple of his pills, toss them back, and sit down for a couple of minutes with his coffee. And he'd be great. Because Dominic was dead. It didn't matter that he knew his dad would call him about it the next morning when he was trying to sleep. Or that he wouldn't sleep, or any of it.

One down.

"Jesus. Are you... what is that stuff, anyway?" And maybe the guy really WAS concerned, but Lex couldn't think about that right now. Right now, he was all about keeping himself from falling apart. "Hey. Hey. What is that? Don't go taking whatever that is. You're definitely not okay. Hey. Hey, Chloe!"

Fuck. He'd been fine for years. He'd held it together for years, and he was good, really tough at work, and just... fuck. It didn't matter that Whitney was telling him to not take it. He took three, and then started to struggle to get to his feet, bottle still held in his hand. "'m okay, I just need to be alone for a, j-just for a second..."

"Lex?"

Jesus. Oh, God. Chloe. Chloe and Whitney, and didn't they know it was... really fucking hard to breathe under here with them hovering around sucking up all of his air.

"Lex, sweetie, come out from under there. Tell me what's wrong."

"He just started freaking out," Whitney asserted. "Totally bizarre."

"Lex..."

Dammit, all he wanted was his coffee and to sit down and not, not think about Dominic. Dead Dominic. Good old dead, fucking Dominic. He clutched at his prescription bottle, and made a move to try and get out, if they'd just back the hell away. "'m f-fine, just go away..."

"Lex, you've gotta come out from under there. C'mon. Come out and we'll go down to the break room, get you some coffee and some pie. I could call Clark, 'cause I know you seemed okay earlier..."

"I'm trying to get out, but you won't move so I can! I w-wouldn't even be under here if someone hadn't been in my f-fucking desk, and knocked my presc-scription out..." He wasn't going to cry, but he was going to have a hell of a time trying to catch his breath.

Because Dominic was dead and it was a relief and a horror all at once.

"Hey, can you go get Perry? I don't think he's gonna come out, and..."

"Uh, guys...? What are you doing at Lex's desk?"

Clark.

Oh.

Clark.

What was Clark doing there? Clark should've been at home, sleeping. Clark definitely wasn't on duty. Clark being there made Lex want to go back under his desk, because it was bad enough to be breaking, but worse to do it in front of someone he actually didn't want to embarrass himself in front of.

"Luthor's just... freaked, Clark."

"Okay. Everybody back away from the desk. Um. Out of the lab is good, Chloe. Just... give him room to get his breath. Hey, Lex..? I was just dropping by to pick up something I need tomorrow. You wanna come out and maybe get some fresh air or something?"

"Oh~h ka~ay..." Chloe backed up, and Lex scooted forwards, finally standing up. He was going to have a bruise where he'd knocked his head under the table. And he was having trouble breathing, and he just needed to... to calm down. And not think.

It was almost a relief when he finally stood up, still clutching the pill bottle.

"Okay. So, you've taken your meds, right?" Clark was very matter-of-fact, careful as he grabbed Lex's big coffee thermos. "Come on, let's head outside for a few minutes. Did you eat anything with it?"

And, God. Clark was taking care of him, just like he had when Calli skinned her knee that afternoon and cried.

Lex shook his head, half aware that Chloe and Whitney were lurking outside still, puzzled. He just... needed to not think. "S-someone killed Dominic, and, and... he's dead." It wasn't normal to smile after saying something like that, but he was. Couldn't help himself.

"I know." Except how could Clark possibly know? "I figured you might know him, but... Come on, let's step outside for a little while. It'll be okay, Lex."

He let himself be led out. There just wasn't any sense in fighting it, not when he wanted to calm down and Clark was doing better than asking him what was wrong and telling him to calm down. Lex was only half-aware of the stares he was getting, instead looking at the big coffee thermos of his that Clark was carrying, and Clark's hands.

Clark's hands weren't like anyone else's hands that he'd ever looked at.

They were smooth, remarkably so, maybe from all of those years of wearing latex gloves, or maybe, maybe an accident, or...

And Lex wondered. He wondered, because he'd never noticed it before, but there didn't seem to be any lines on Clark's hands. But... they'd taken his fingerprints, hadn't they? Maybe whatever it was had happened before Clark had clear memories. Before he was Clark. Before he was a Kent.

The things a man would latch onto in times of desperation were really funny. Funny-weird as opposed to funny-ha-ha. Just. Strange.

Lex latched onto a lot of strange things, because it tended to keep him distracted. After all, the next thing he knew, he and Clark were in the parking lot, leaning against the back of Lex's car. It was cool outside, and that brought a shock of sense back to him, made it easier to breathe. And even with the lights and the traffic, it was somehow quieter.

"You gonna be okay?" Clark asked him, and he was handing Lex the lid of his thermos, giving him a little worried smile that seemed... It was so sweet. Everything was all to pieces today. He really liked Clark, and they'd had such a good time, and he'd napped on their way home only to find...

God.

What a mess.

Kiddie porn, Lois had said.

And it had been... a really long time, but what if...?

Nah. He was just a little freak. The son of the guy's boss. He'd never been anything to any of them... but a little freak they could fuck, could hurt and get away with it. They always got away with it.

Lex took the lid, and took a sip before he murmured, "Yeah. I'll be okay."

"So, uh. How many did you take? Or maybe I should ask how many you can take, since it's not like I've seen the label. I... I'm not asking for any reason except that I don't... Well, it'll worry me. Not knowing."

"They're five milligrams a piece," Lex murmured. "I can take 40 milligrams a day, total. I've only taken 25. Two... this morning, three just now."

Clark heaved a breath that was obviously relieved. "Okay. Cool. I'll stop worrying, then. But, look, maybe you should have something to eat with it, all the same. How about I go in and get some of that pie? It always makes me feel better. But, uh, maybe you're not an eater that way. So... if you don't want pie... Maybe you wanna talk about it?"

Lex shook his head in a stutter of motion. "I'd... just rather not. I want to be able to work today. And if I talk about it, Perry'll find out, and I'll get sent home, and I don't want to go home right now. I'd rather work."

"Keep your mind off things, huh?" Clark nodded. "Okay. But..." He drew in a deep breath. "But I want you to come by? I'll make breakfast again. Whatever it is, you really... I think you ought to at least let it out. Even if you don't say anything about it. And Lex?" One big hand curled faintly around Lex's elbow, a slightly proprietary gesture, protective. "I can take whatever you need to dish out. Okay? I mean, we're friends, right?"

And it was obvious Clark wanted more.

Except Lex couldn't think about that just then. He didn't want Clark to know about the Lex that was, the little Lex, the... He didn't want anyone to know. And if he couldn't handle something as simple as news, who the hell was he to think that he could handle dealing with another person, up close and... doing the things that were expected of that? He hadn't in years, because he just didn't deal with it like a normal person.

Because he was still a freak about things. Lex didn't answer, just sipped more coffee. "Yeah, Clark. We are. Thanks... for today. I had a lot of fun, and your family is great. And I'll come by after work if you promise to sleep, okay?"

"Cross my heart," Clark promised him, and Lex got the impression that Clark would have ruffled his hair if he had any. "I'll be a good boy. You more or less got it together for now?"

"Yeah." Lex gave Clark a shaky smile, and lifted his free hand to rub a little dampness from his eyes. "You'd think... for a bunch of people who've been here long enough, they would've figured out to not get loud and crowd people when they're 'freaking out'. Thanks for coming to the rescue."

"You're most welcome." Clark smiled back at him, head tilted downwards. "Don't know why I stopped by, actually. I'm glad I did, though. I mean, what I needed could have waited until tomorrow. Maybe... I guess I just had a feeling."

"Even if you hadn't, I'd have pulled together eventually." His heart was starting to settle down at last. Warm liquid and cold cheeks went a long way to soothing him. And Clark. Clark just had a way about him. "I should probably go back in now. I'll have to explain a little to everyone..."

"Not if you don't want to," Clark said. "Perry at most. Everybody else can wait until you feel like you've got it all together to tell. You know?"

"Yeah." Lex's mouth twitched a little, and he drained his coffee cup. "I know. It's just... I'll come up with something. And I'll see you tomorrow... did you get what you were looking for?"

Clark nodded, curls tumbling into his face a little. "Yeah," he said softly. "I think I did. See you in the morning, Lex."

Sort of funny. That made it sound like Clark was looking for Lex, but... No. Lex's mouth twitched a little, unsure as he screwed the cap back onto his thermos. "Hey, Clark?" He stepped close, and hugged him. Quick, a little unsure, but he did.

"Yeah," Clark said quietly against the side of his head. Clark hugging back was... it was incredible and warm and it felt right, like nothing ever had. And when a kiss brushed just over his ear, Lex didn't mind it. Not really.

It sort of told him that he wasn't crazy and hallucinating it, even if he still didn't know what he'd do about it. He was grinning lopsidedly by the time he stepped back from Clark, and clutched onto his thermos. "I'll see you later." Then he turned, and really had to leave or else he'd just linger out there until dawn.

Besides.

He had a lot of creative lying to do in a very short period of time. He could see Clark tomorrow.

But really...

He wondered where Clark had parked?

He hated having to sidestep and vaguely imply things. It ended up amounting to fifteen minutes of his time to assure Perry -- who seemed both stressed and sure that Lex was lying -- that it came down to him not having gotten his meds at the right time, and the news that one of his father's associates was dead.

Which was true, but it wasn't. It was actually centered on Dominic's death, not vaguely linked too, and unless he had a time machine, there was no way he could've taken his meds in time enough for a dose to have stopped that from happening.

A few minutes in the break room, nursing his coffee and a piece of the pie Martha had sent home with him, and Lex felt as good as new. Ready to tackle... any case but that case. Whitney could process it. He was going to have enough trouble merely not thinking about it.

"You're not going to freak out again, are you?" Whitney asked him suspiciously as he stepped back into the lab. "Because, you know. I could put Kent on speed dial or something."

Whitney, Lex thought, was a real bitch.

Lex took one last sip of his coffee -- the last of it, he thought mournfully -- and set it off to the side. "Hah hah, Whitney. I just... needed to get my meds, and you scared me when I was trying to get them. Hit my head on the underside of the desk. That stings pretty bad since I don't have all that fluff on top of my head to protect it. So. What other cases have rolled in?" He liked to give 'live' things priority, but if there wasn't anything else 'live' he could just catch up on his backlog.

"There's some DNA from the missing persons case. The little girl," Whitney told him, and he was giving Lex a look, one that seemed to ask questions that made Lex queasy. "You want that?"

"Yeah. Sure." What the hell. Whitney had no right to be giving him that look. "I'll get to it." Even if he didn't particularly want to. No, he was going to take it just to spite Whitney.

So there.

At least that way, he had something to laugh about in his head, and something to occupy him for a while.

Maybe if he was lucky, he'd be busy straight through until morning, and he wouldn't have to think about breakfast, or Clark. Sure, he was going to go. It was that or skulk around the house, have a toaster pastry and fall asleep on the couch watching old movies.

Lex was fine as long as he was processing, taking droppers, putting them into the containers, working the centrifuge... Once he hit his stride, it seemed like he'd be able to salvage something from the day.

Until Lois wandered back into the office. "Hey, we've got semen on these photos -- need a DNA."

"I'm busy with these other things," Whitney said automatically. He didn't look that busy to Lex, but then... Lex was trying to avoid the Senatori case like it was a case of the plague.

"Yo, Luthor, think you can handle these?"

"Sure." What was he going to say? 'No'? 'Hell no'? He set up to extract from that, and moved to look at what she was offering him.

The urge to lean over and puke in his wastebasket was really just... overwhelming.

There were some things that ought never to be captured on film. Fear like that. Shame.

Bruises.

Bleeding lips. Semen on them, and Lex knew how that burned. Like salt on a wound. And there was semen on the picture, a few dried globs on the glossy surface. That was what he had to test. That was all he had to look at, pay attention to, not... not the picture. Not the things that he knew, knew too well...

He swallowed, mouth watering in that way that warned of the possibility of impending vomit. he set it down on the desk, and closed his eyes for a moment before he got the swab. "So... you guys trying to ID the... kids?" Victims, except he didn't like that word. It never went away. Once a victim, always a target.

"Yeah. A lot of 'em, he's got sheets on. Details. Whole notebooks. The guy's a victim, but he's complete slime. Still. A job's a job. We haven't gotten into any of the older stuff yet. He's got it organized by year, so we're focusing on the more recent periods. I mean, whoever's killed him probably isn't somebody he had it on with twenty years ago."

You didn't 'have it on' with a kid. You took. He wanted to correct her, tell her how bad her words were, but "Wouldn't rule it out," Lex murmured stiltedly, as he wiped it off the photograph carefully. They had to maintain the integrity of the picture, too. Even if Lex just wanted to set it on fire, or dip it into a dissolvent. "Kids that age... don't fight back. But they don't forget when they're an adult." He hadn't. Anyone else wouldn't have either, not the way that Dominic treated people. He... couldn't handle hurting another human being, but if someone else, another kid like him, had the balls to?

Good for them.

He really hadn't thought on the file, notebook, records comment. They... they'd find him. He'd be in there, and then what would he do? Not be sick. He couldn't be sick in the lab. "Dude, you're turning green again," Whitney sniped from across the lab. "You and all your kiddie charities having issues over there?"

No one really brought that up in the office. It was just something he did, did instead of having a personal life past a couple of things. Extended his days for, and did fundraising for. It made him happy to give back to the community, to help people, and people just didn't try and throw it back in his face like there was something bad about it.

He decided that he would've stomped over there and throttled Whitney if his hands hadn't been busy. "Fuck you, Fordman. It's not something to sneer or laugh about. This is someone's life being scarred, on film."

And he knew that. In an irrevocable way, he knew it. Believed it. Lived it every day of his fucking life.

His fingers slipped when he shifted to add the pipette with detergent and salt to the container, the stress rising again. Anxiety.

Tears.

God.

"Look, you don't have to tell me that. I'm dealing with the rest of it," Whitney bit out. And maybe that was all it was... stressful materials for process, whatever.

"I'm just tired of your goddamned lip," Lex muttered. He had to take a deep, calming breath, needed to steady his hands. If he didn't, they could lose evidence. And they needed that to maybe convict someone, if it wasn't... Dominic's semen. It was useful.

That calmed him quite a bit, but he still said more to Whitney. "I don't know why you have a problem with me."

"Don't you?"

Simple as that. Quietly spoken, deadly angry, and what was Lex supposed to do about it, anyway? It wasn't his fault.

"Go back to work," Whitney muttered. "There's tons of this shit to go through."

"It's not my fault." That there was so much to process from one case. Or that... well. Clark liked him better. It shouldn't have been so simple, but it was. Clark just liked him better, Clark... Lex didn't know. But he'd been happy with the hug and the faint brush of lips that made his heart thud in his chest. He hadn't made the first move, Clark had. Clark had started it. And Whitney scared Clark.

That wasn't Lex's fault. Just like it wasn't his fault that D... No, He wasn't going to think about that. Had to stay calm during all of the things he had to process.

As the minutes went by, they started to trickle in. He and Whitney were going to be processing swabs, scraps of fabric, everything, for days.

The more the evidence trickled in, the more it became obvious that Senatori had collected everything. He'd been at it for years, he had souvenirs from everyone he'd ever touched, and it was starting to seriously pile up.

"Two of us aren't enough. We need some help," Whitney finally said. "This place looks like Christmas." They had been centrifuging samples pulled from cloth, photographs, dozens of little remnants of children whose lives were destroyed. Lex knew that from experience. The Nuclear Fast Red and picroindigocarmine stains turned the head of the sperm red and the tails blue-green.

Dominic had obviously spent a lot of time with his souvenirs. That had made their primary murder scene secondary, both to Lex and to Whitney. If Perry came in, he was probably going to ream them for not concentrating on the primary case.

But there was only so much evidence for them to process. The blood on the tablecloth had been Dominic's, dripped from his nose. The fingerprints were being processed elsewhere, fibers elsewhere...

The key was that the semen was from all sorts of people. Peeking into it through slides made it seem less real, but the DNA of it was a smattering. There were other people involved, and Perry would want to know that. He'd want every last detail, and God, maybe they should call in the girl from dayshift and her partner, because there just wasn't enough of them. Couldn't be. Not even if they called the guys on swing.

And Perry was coming towards the lab with both of the dayshift people behind him, so maybe he agreed.

"Luthor," he said the second he stepped into the DNA lab, "you're off this case. Now."

"Uh..." Lex stopped what he was doing, and stepped back from the table. "Okay." He'd sort of been waiting for it. He knew Dominic, even if they never found out that... Even if. He didn't want them to find out, but they probably would, and he didn't know what he'd do.

It was really easier not to ask why. "Uh, Amber? I've got a couple of samples in the centrifuge right now... Perry, what's going on?" He asked that even as he started to gather his stuff up to leave. Take his coffee cup and his thermos, then he'd go past his desk.

"You know what's going on," their boss said with a sharp frown.

"Ha. I knew he was into that sick kid stuff," Whitney muttered.

Lex hadn't ever seen Perry turn on anybody so fast. "Shut your fucking trap, Fordman!"

He was lucky that Perry had said it and not him. Because if Perry said it, he didn't have any reason to. Just... as long as he didn't think. Because he knew. They'd found him somewhere in there, and he just...

Lex had to steady himself on the edge of his desk for a second, concentrating to stay calm. He could take another pill, but he wanted to be in some semblance of a condition to drive home. Maybe they'd just... let him leave. Not ask anything. Just not talk about things, like usual.

"Lois is waiting for you," Perry said quietly, nodding his head. "You should have told us to start with."

Yeah. Maybe he should have. But... He had hoped. He had honestly hoped that it wouldn't have been anything Dominic would have kept.

Lex should have known better.

"I didn't think..." He shrugged his shoulders, and reached to open up his desk drawer. Lois. Jesus, he didn't think he could handle it. Lois. That was worth a couple of pills in and of itself. But it wouldn't kick in fast enough, and he knew he wouldn't be in any shape to get home whenever they let him leave. So he left the drawer alone, and just moved to leave the lab.

After all, Lois was waiting. And if Whitney decided to get in any more smartass comments, Lex didn't care. Didn't want to know, didn't care. Let Perry ream him out.

God.

Why couldn't Clark have been on duty tonight?

Clark, Lex could face. Lois made him want to go hide in the smelly staff locker room, preferably in one of the toilet stalls. With the door locked. And both feet against it.

"We're going to send the evidence to Las Vegas," Perry told him. "At least the stuff that concerns you. They're the second best crime lab in the country, and they've got a link to this case there. If you need anything...."

A therapist. Drugs. Something to halt the nervous breakdown his life was turning into?

He was waiting for his cell phone to go off. That would've been like taking the failing breaks off of the runaway train, Lex knew it, and he wanted and didn't want it to ring. He just wanted to get it over with.

Lex shoved his hands in his pockets, more than a little aware that Perry was going to shadow him every step until he got to Lois. What he wanted was for none of them to know. For him never to have been found, and maybe for Whitney to just go on thinking that he was like that. Fucked up like that, but at least in control, a little. Not a victim. Because that never went away, and he'd always tried hard to not think about that. "No." He knew he sounded raw. "I'm okay."

"Right. Well..." That word implied that Perry was waiting, so Lex reached out and snagged his prescription bottle to take with him. Even if it wasn't going to kick in, he'd probably need it by the end of the night, and he wasn't about to leave it in the lab with three other people who were probably all going to talk about him the minute that he left.

And then he let Perry lead him to his relative doom. Lois's 'office', one of the quieter interrogation rooms. He hated the places. Gray and cold and he knew why they were so fucking gray and sterile, but it didn't make things any better. Not when someone's nerves were already on edge.

So he just sort of stood in the doorway and waited to be acknowledged. And half-wondered just how much thirteen year old him looked like him now, that they'd picked him out so quickly. Or maybe it had just been a 'notebook'.

"Yo. Luthor."

At least Lois didn't ever change.

"Come on in. Have a seat. Tell me why you didn't say something, oh... four hours ago."

"I didn't want to be sent home." He'd done a lot to Lex, but that was years ago. He just... hadn't thought that Dominic had held onto anything. He wasn't even sure what they had, so he was going to hedge his bets for vagueness as long as possible.

"Because you wanted to see what was going on, or...?" The way those blue eyes looked at him were steadfast and deeply curious. "Did you think maybe we wouldn't find out? I mean, this... it's got to have been twenty years ago."

"I was eight to thirteen." Lex shifted, pulled his pill bottle out of his pocket and clutched onto it with both hands. It was something to do, to keep him from fidgeting. "I didn't think that... you'd find out." Twenty years. The way she said it made it seem like a long time, but he could still remember it sharply. Had remembered it just that morning, getting into Clark's car. McD's bags and condoms, the seat that went all the way back...

"You were the first he documented," Lois told him quietly. "Your case is too old to prosecute, but any information we get is gonna help. Did you tell anyone? At the time?"

Documented. It didn't matter, since you couldn't prosecute the dead. Lex's thumb rubbed over the face of the sticker beneath it, and he sighed quietly. "No." Who could he tell, when his father had... had let him, made him go with Dominic. "My... father knew. I think. I don't know." He didn't want to think about it. There had been others other than Dominic, and he just didn't want to think about it. He wanted to go home and watch old movies and play with his LEGOs. Or look over the stuff for the charity. Anything but sit there and talk about that.

"So, was there anyone else? I mean, this guy is part of a ring. If you're the first he documented, chances are that you met some of the others."

"Yeah. I... met them." Met, if pubic hair in his nose was meeting. If choking was meeting. If... His cell phone went off, a little buzzing jingle of 'Devil Went Down to Georgia' telling him exactly who it was. He shifted to pull it out of his pocket, looking at Lois with strained eyes. "Do you mind if I...?" Answer the phone. At least he wasn't going to be alone when he got the call. Jesus. It was five am.

Lionel Luthor never slept.

"Go right ahead," Lois said, watching him quietly. They weren't supposed to take calls in interrogation rooms but... he was a part of the team. Things were different.

"Thanks." Even if it was just to get 'Devil Went Down to Georgia' to stop playing. Lex flicked his phone open, shifting restlessly to his feet. "Luthor."

~"Lex."~ Tinny, scary father-voice. ~"Just calling to check in with you, son. I'm sure by now you've heard about Dominic."~

"Yeah. I've heard. And I'm not working the case. It's a little early for you to be up, isn't it?" He turned his back to Lois, almost cupping the phone to his ear. In the interrogation room, his voice echoed to his own ears.

~"Mm. You know, I haven't slept well since your brother died."~

Julian.

Julian and all the trouble with Lillian, and then his mom had died and... everything had just gone straight to hell. All of it.

~"I'm sure you've heard what they're saying, though. Seen some of the mess he's made."~

In other words... don't involve Lionel, or Lucas, or LuthorCorp.

"Mmhm. But I'm not on the case. It's none of my business. Look, I'm at work right now and this is... a bad time." As long as he kept the upper hand. After all, it was his father's mindset -- don't involve Lionel or LuthorCorp -- that had kept Lex quiet. It was easier when he knew his father could sweep things under a rug with ease, make him feel like it was his fault. He'd half-suggested what was going on, once. Couldn't even remember who it was about.

But he remembered his father all but calling him a whore. And he'd been little. It... Lex turned back towards Lois, twisting open his pill bottle. He'd just call a... a taxi, or Clark, or maybe get someone to drive him home at the end of the shift. Whenever they let him go.

~"Hm. Yes. A bad time here, too. Poor Dominic."~

Poor Dominic. It made Lex's brows knit. God. His father had never loved him. At least... not after Julian died. Before then, who could say? Lionel's love, it seemed, was something entirely prone to make one suffer.

~"Well, Alexander, do be a good boy. I'll talk to you soon."~

"Sure. Have a good day." And because he couldn't keep talking, couldn't put up with hearing Lionel say 'Poor Dominic' one more time, Lex shifted the phone from his ear and shut it. Took a little wrangling with the pill bottle in his hands, the lid already opened, but he shut it and Lionel went away.

For the moment.

Lex sat back down heavily, let his phone fall to his lap, and started to shake out two pills. That'd still be 5 mg short of his max. He'd be fine. "Where were we?"

"You were about to name a few more names for me."

Names.

Faces.

Men and women who had...

"This is just bizarre," Whitney mumbled to Chloe in the break room. They'd been working the murder victim's apartment for hours, and it seemed like a never-ending kind of job. "And we're down a lab tech. This is so not working."

Chloe had heard murmurs. There wasn't any such thing as a secret in the department, not when there was a nosy person with an itch to know. "So, what happened when Perry took Lex out?" Chloe asked after she chewed her mouthful of cookie.

The way Whitney scowled said a lot. "We backed up even more. At first I thought maybe he was on the user side of things instead of the victims, but..." A faint shudder worked down his spine. "I helped pack up some of the stuff they're sending to Vegas. Not pretty."

"Wait." Chloe let a pause settle while she picked up her cup and took a sip. "You mean Lex was...? Wow. If he was, that really explains a lot. Like the whole nervous breakdown thing earlier."

"Yeah..." Whitney's gaze skittered to the side. "About that..."

"... Uh-huh?" Chloe gave him a look, waiting for him to go on. 'About that' wasn't ever good to hear from a person.

"I didn't mean to send him into hysterics. And I definitely didn't know any of this stuff." A wave of the blond's hand encompassed the lab as if that said it all. "I just wanted to razz him a little."

"Uh-huh." Chloe lifted an eyebrow a little, still looking at Whitney. He was smart, but he still always struck her as Smalltown Jock. Maybe that mentality was just impossible to shake. "So, what'd you do that you haven't told me about?"

"I rifled his desk drawers. Took his pills, slid them under the desk. I mean, I didn't realize he was going to freak out on me or anything." At least he looked guilty, eyes dropping low.

"Okay. Did you ever think that maybe there's a reason why he kept them in his desk drawer? It's a prescription, Whitney, and you just don't mess with people's stuff. We're not twelve. Why would you even go through his desk?" She hadn't asked why he'd think Lex would be doing criminal things, but Chloe figured that'd come out eventually.

"Well, he's kind of creepy, and he's always doing stuff for kids, like... like some bald Michael Jackson or something. It's just... weird. And Clark..."

Clark.

That was the root of the problem.

Clark. Jesus, Clark was cute, but... god. Chloe shook her head at Whitney. "So, you wanted to harass the competition? You know, people can like kids without being freaks. He's just... sort of weird. Lex never struck me as creepy." Which to Chloe meant that he just wasn't. Weird was weird and creepy was creepy, and they were two separate categories that didn't meet.

"I know. I mean... I know it's stupid, okay?" Whitney scowled at her. "Look, though. I mean, I've got more in common with Clark than he does. Even if we moved away from Smallville when I was a kid, I'm from the same place and I really like him and I didn't realize that giving Lex a hard time was going to be on a traumatic night, okay?"

"Okay, okay." Chloe held her hands up in mock-surrender. "I'm sorry that you're having bad luck on love's rocky road, okay?" The urge to roll her eyes a little was almost irresistible as she turned away from him a little to add a touch more sugar. She stopped when she saw Lex passing by the window, coming into the break room.

He looked... tired. Fragile. Broken. It wasn't a very pleasant thing to see, especially not in somebody you liked. Somebody you considered to be a friend, even if a weird and distant one.

"Hey. Yo. Dude." God. Whitney. "You, ah. You want some coffee?"

Lex just sort of stood there, and vaguely shrugged his shoulders. He looked... out of it. Drugged out of it, to be exact. Like some sort of sedated critter, which Chloe figured was a damn good comparison. Then he moved to sit down. "Nah. I'm just going to crash in here until the... taxi I called for shows up."

Taxi. Riiight. "Let me drive you home," Chloe offered. "I mean, there's no point in you taking a taxi or anything like that, and you don't look like you're in any shape to drive. It's on my way home, anyway..."

"No, it's okay." He looked at her, pretty much... ignoring Whitney. Which Lex usually didn't do, but Whitney must've said something to him. Or maybe Lex just couldn't handle him just them. "I'm not going home."

"Oh." So... where was he going? It was a perfectly logical question, right up until Clark Kent came strolling down the hallway, tripping over his shadow on the way. Well.

Chloe really hoped that Whitney would never turn that particular shade of green again.

It just didn't go well on him, and... there didn't seem to be anything to do about it. Workplace romances happened, or whatever was going on. Hell. Given Lex's history, Chloe wasn't even willing to bet money on that. Clark was the kind of guy to have a big heart for strays. That was probably all it was. "Hey, Clark! What're you doing here?"

That got Lex's attention a little, and he actually looked up and over, almost focused.

"Uh, I just turned on the news. Heard about, you know. What was going on and everything. Figured I'd come check in..." He gave Chloe that little guilty smile that said he was lying.

"Uh-huh," she said. "Well, I think you'd be of more use if you took Lex to wherever it is he's heading."

"I called a taxi, since..." Lex got up, giving a half-stretch. "Perry didn't want me to drive home. So I leave my car here, it's not like it's going to get broken into."

"Yeah, well, it's okay. I mean, I don't mind giving you a ride." It was obvious that Clark meant it. "Plus, you look like you could use some breakfast before you fall out."

Chloe had long since decided that food was a mating ritual amongst men. Or at least, with those two men. Lex was moving towards Clark like some really tired, desperate sort of zombie. "Fall out where? Hey, bye Chloe. Whitney. Don't work too hard."

"Yeah," Whitney sighed, slumping back against the counter. "Don't worry about us. We're all good."

Right.

Clark's arm was out, steadying Lex, and he was leading him away like that was something he did every day. And Lex didn't even flinch, so whatever that scrip was, it was serious shit, Chloe decided.

"Well, Whit. I'm still available," she teased him a little.

That got a smile out of him. Yeah. Once she got him out of his funk, he'd be okay for the day. Maybe guilty feeling, but he deserved that. It was self-inflicted.

"You look kind of rough," Clark finally offered quietly once he had Lex settled down at his kitchen table. The drive to Clark's house had been quiet, giving Lex time to pull himself together.

He'd realized as they sat down at the table that he hadn't even inspected the car before he got in it.

Now, he had a stack of pancakes in front of him and a huge glass of milk, obviously part of the stuff Clark had brought back from Smallville the day before. He was starting to wonder if Clark EVER slept.

Somehow, he'd made pancakes. Really nice, fluffy thick-looking pancakes. And it'd be a waste not to eat them, except Lex didn't think that he could. His stomach was still in knots, and he felt... off. Maybe it was too much medicine on an empty stomach.

"Yeah. I guess I must. Spent two hours talking with Lois."

"Yeah. I, uh, kind of heard. I think half the office stopped me on my way in to give me an 'update'." Clark gave a little grimace. "Hey, if that's too heavy for you, I'll make you some toast..." Sweet offering.

Lex's mouth pursed as he picked up his fork, carefully. As long as he didn't make any really fast motions, he was pretty sure that he could keep all the bits of himself knit together into one thing. One being that was going to enjoy some homemade pancakes. "So. What was the update?"

"Oh, just that the murder victim wasn't such a nice guy, that you were under a lot of stress. That they'd pulled you off the case. Pretty much what you said when you called this morning." It probably wasn't all of the truth, but Clark was nice. Clark didn't want to hurt him.

Thank God.

They probably knew everything. Everything that Perry knew had probably gotten all over the place, and Lex... just didn't want to know. Clark didn't want to hurt him, and that... was something. Because he could just imagine that his father's limo was lurking outside of his apartment, waiting for him to come home. Just to reinforce that he wasn't to taint the company. Even by accident.

"No one told me when I should come back," Lex shrugged a little helplessly as he cut through three layers of soft fluff with his fork, making a triangle-like point of pancake to spear.

"Yeah, well. I have to go in tonight, so we'll call before then, if that's okay? I've, ah. I've got an extra bed, Lex. I'm thinking maybe you shouldn't go home and be alone today."

Green eyes. So sweet. Repetitive sort of term, but Lex wasn't able to think of anything else, wasn't able to differentiate. Sweet.

And of all the myriad pairs of eyes that had looked at him during those years, none of them that he recalled had been so beautiful and green. They looked like... some bright piece of cut gem. Two of them. There wasn't any darkness in their depths, not a bad darkness at least. There wasn't anything worse in Clark than was in any CSI agent. Worries, fears, depression. That was the normal darkness, and Lex was okay with that. But he'd seen things in eyes, even in green eyes, that could make a stomach turn. "Thanks, Clark." He only said that once he'd chewed -- a dry throat was a good precaution against tears, against rawness. "I... really appreciate that."

Beaming smile. God. It was like sunshine, it was so good. "Great. I'll go make sure the guest room's ready, 'cause you look like you're about to fall over where you sit."

That made his mouth twitch a little. "I took my dose limit today. I'm not really tired. Just... drifty. Most people pay good money to feel like this." He hated it, but it was better than the alternative. So stressed and panicked that he couldn't cope. He was pretty sure that doing that was how people gave themselves heart attacks.

"Think you'll be able to sleep?" Clark asked him, expression quiet, and serious, and beautiful. "Because I'll keep an ear out for you. Just in case."

Well. He could lie. Sleeping, not sleeping -- the only difference was closed or open eyes tilted towards his pillow, curled in. "I don't know." That was honest. Maybe it would suck him under, and maybe it wouldn't. "You make really good pancakes, Clark."

"Mom's Secret Recipe." Clark's little grin was funny. "Krusteez. Comes in a gigantic package at Sam's. She swears by it, especially when I was a teenager. A stack of six was just the beginning." He shook his head. "If you can't sleep, I'll warm up the milk. Add a little vanilla. That helps me, sometimes. Of course, sometimes nothing helps and all you do is stare at the ceiling. When I was a kid and had nightmares, or nights when I couldn't sleep like that? Mom would come in sometimes and sleep next to me until I could close my eyes. I'd be willing, if that would help. The bed's big enough."

He knew it was a sweet offer. Well intentioned, and maybe... just maybe Clark didn't know what was going on. Even if Lex was pretty sure that he did and that the whole place knew. Worse, Lex wanted to do that. Wanted to pretend that he could get in bed with someone without fucking it up royally. Either he freaked or he fucked them then and there, it was column a or column b. Lex ate a few more of his pancake 'slivers', liking the way they settled sort of heavily, like they weren't going to be coming back up, which was what he needed.

"I don't really know if I can... handle that right now."

"Whatever you need."

And honestly, he believed that. He believed, and for the longest time, there hadn't been anything to believe in.

"I hear they might be asking somebody to go and check out what's going on in Vegas. A lot of the stuff Senatori had is being shuffled through in mass production over there," Clark said softly. "I just... Lex, I know you're hurt. I want..." The way that Clark's fist balled up, his breath faintly heavy, went to the pit of Lex's belly and stayed there with his pancakes. "I just want to help you be okay. I mean. You know I... I like you. Okay? I like you. A lot."

"I know." Lex looked up at Clark, and he wasn't sure what his face was telling the other man. It probably didn't matter, since Clark could read him like an open book. "I... I like you, too? But I've never... not fucked things up, Clark. Even on good days. And tod--tonight hasn't been a good day." He almost wished that Dominic were still alive, even if it was a sick relief to know that he was dead. Because there was just so much that he'd had to process. And every face was a familiar face, every child hurting with an ache he knew.

And the growing knowledge that... if he'd been the first, then he could've stopped it. Somehow. Told someone, said something, and... He didn't know.

"You know that none of this is your fault, too, right?"

So serious, Clark's face honest as he looked at him. "And I want you to know that I'm not the kind of guy to hurt you. Not ever."

He knew. Or at least, Lex wanted him to know. He hoped, more honestly, and hoping was almost the same as knowing. Hope hard enough, and things happened that way, right? "I work hard to try to... fix things. To try to help people. But I've known about this for years. Guessed what was going on and I... I never did anything about it. That makes it my fault."

"That's like saying it's your fault you're bald, Lex," Clark pointed out to him. "Look. You know, there's this thing about guilt. About taking on responsibility. There's a point where you start taking stuff that you're not responsible for anymore. I mean..." He sighed. "Look. Believe me. I'm the king of guilt and angst, and thinking that... It's no good. Because it's not true, and there's nothing you could have done about it then, and there's nothing you could do about it now. He worked for your dad." And, God. That was the reason Clark was CSI. The evidence was supposed to do all of the speaking, but Clark made jumps in logic sometimes that were just astounding. "I get the feeling that you never could have done anything about it at all."

Lex gave an almost nervous laugh then, smiling a little crookedly at what Clark had said. He was right on. At least with the jumps he made, so maybe the rest, too. Lex didn't know. He'd been told the same thing a lot, by his therapists, by people who wrote self help books, advice columns, whatever. It never sank in. "Dad called me this morning. Five a.m., calls me like I... I can or I would do anything about Dominic's case. To keep LuthorCorp out of it."

"Yeah," Clark said softly. "I can see where he'd do that. You know, I met him. A long time ago. He helped my parents when they adopted me." He paused, took a deep breath. "Got Dad to talk to his neighbors, convinced them to sell to him. And then he screwed them over. I get the feeling he's done that to you, too, one way or the other. Thing is..." Clark started cutting up his own pancakes. "Dad always felt guilty about it. And I felt guilty because they did that for me. To keep me. That's the kind of guilt you're holding onto. Stuff you can't help. Stuff you're not responsible for, not really." He looked directly at Lex. "I can't tell you how to get rid of it. But I can tell you this. It's not your fault."

"I've been picking that up in things for the past... fifteen years. I think my therapist says it every time I see her. I..." Lex shrugged his shoulders a little. It was weird that as long as they were talking circles around the subject, Lex was fine. Or as close to fine as he got when cutting pancakes took a godlike act of concentration.

"Mmm. Well, maybe you oughta listen to her." Ah, Clark was smiling at him again, and. Wow. He had finished the better part of his plate full of pancakes. "Tell you what, I'll go see about the guest room now. I'm pretty sure it's still got Calli's Barbie comforter on it from her last visit. I don't want you going blind the second you walk in there. I'm pretty sure you're gonna need pjs, too."

Maybe the smiles were a diversionary tactic that Clark used while he stuffed his pancakes into his pants. "It's okay. I can sleep in my clothes."

Lex's head was swimming with exhaustion. Pancakes in his pants? Geeze.

"It's no trouble. I mean, you'll be swimming in them, probably, but it gets kind of cool in there." Clark smiled. "Be back in a minute." And then he was gone, quiet and efficient and easy as that.

He left Lex alone with his pancakes and his home-fresh milk. And as curious as Lex was, he kept picking at the pancakes, eating a bit more, and then drank the milk. That left him with a sated feeling, and he finally got to his feet.

If he wanted to get any semblance of rest, he was going to have to turn his cellphone off.

It was probably... noon, or maybe two by the time that he heard the doorbell ring. Just... one ring, which was pretty strange since most people leaned on any buzzer and just jammed it. It was an almost ominous ring, and that was what woke Lex up in the first place.

Clark's guest room was really small. And his old flannels were really warm. It had taken a little work, but Lex had gotten to sleep after a bathroom trip, and some hot milk. And just a few words here and there with Clark. He was pretty sure that Jonathan Kent had gotten into Clark's bloodstream through osmosis and stories. Or that Clark's biological parents had been genetically great people, too. Or both.

But that doorbell buzzer yanked him right out of his comfortable sleep, and left him peering blearily into the hallway. He really hoped that it was Girl Scouts.

One way or the other, he wasn't getting out of bed. He decided that right off. Even if it was his father. Even if it was Perry.

Lex could hear Clark's bedroom door open, big feet padding down the short hallway towards the living room. He could just imagine the sizable CSI scratching his butt, which meant that he was totally exhausted and still on the verge of sleep. His waking brain didn't supply such totally goofy visions.

He was sure of it, because his bleared vision didn't give him that good a focus until he actually bothered to rub the sleep out of them. And that was akin to admitting that he wasn't going back to sleep. Still, Lex could hear the front door open.

"Mr. Kent? I was informed that my son might've come home with you today. I was wondering if I could have a word with him..."

Oh, Jesus. Lex crushed his eyes shut, and started to seriously think about pulling the pillow over his head.

Even if he had, he got the feeling that he would have heard Clark's response. It made him think of this stupid email picture he'd gotten a couple of weeks back, with a little girl and a polka dot dress. About the time he got to the twelfth dot, a vicious tooth-filled snarl popped out of the picture and made him jump.

He still hadn't forgiven Bruce for that.

"No. You can't. Get off my property, you sick fuck."

Wow.

Lex didn't even know that Clark could say that word.

"There's no reason to be rude -- I'm simply concerned for his well-being. His cell phone is off, he hasn't gone home... Can I at least assume that he's here?"

Concerned for his well being. Sure. For LuthorCorp, and Lionel was just making things worse. Lex didn't want anything to do with them. He held onto his stock share for what he could do with it, and maybe to piss off Lucas. That was all. If the whole thing went down in flames, he wouldn't care.

"He's being taken care of by the Metropolis CSI division. We take care of our own, unlike Luthors. So why don't you just back off of my porch, and get out of here? Have a quarter. I think you know the rest."

"Oh, very funny." Lex could just hear his dad's smile, the sound seeping into his ears. He shifted a little, contemplating getting up and just getting it over with. "I see that my son still has questionable taste in his companionship. I was told that he'd gone home with his 'boyfriend' by one of your coworkers."

"Then they told you wrong," Clark said, and the sound of the door shutting firmly in his father's face actually made Lex feel just a little bit better. Clark muttering something about how he should have been drowned the morning after Lex's birth was pretty good, too.

He could hear his father pounding on the door after that, but it didn't seem to matter as much as the pad-pad-pad of Clark walking down the little carpeted hallway. "Hey... Clark...?" Lex asked that carefully -- after all, maybe he was really just dreaming it all. Stranger things had happened.

A momentary silence passed between the question and the quiet squeak of hinges as the guest room door opened wider. "Hi." Curls stuck up all over Clark's head in adorable little corkscrews. "Sorry. Did I wake you?"

"Doorbell." Lex shifted up onto one elbow, looking at Clark in the daylight that framed him so prettily. He'd been sleeping, too, and that was good to know. It soothed the vague worry that Clark was going to overwork himself. "You ran him off.... thanks."

"Yeah, well. You kind of did me a favor," Clark said, reaching up to rub one hand against the top of his head. "I've wanted to say that to your dad for years, and I've only met him... uh, this makes twice, I think. You gonna be able to go back to sleep?"

"Probably not..?" Lex could try, though. He got his other arm free of the sheets, twisting a little to look at Clark. "So what'd he do the last time you met him to merit that?"

"Really long story," Clark offered quietly. "If you promise to try and go back to sleep, I promise to try and tell you all about it."

"You're trying to bribe me with a story," Lex mused as he shifted, laying back on the pillow a little. Clark was good to look at from any vantage point, even somewhat upside down. "Okay."

With a slight smile, Clark sat on the edge of the bed, propping one shoulder against the headboard. "I ran away from home once. I was a kid, and things were kind of stressful. Looked like Mom was going to lose Calli, and... I felt like it was my fault, so. I did a lot of stupid stuff, and ended up here in Metropolis. A guy named Morgan Edge... I know you know the one. He wanted me to do some work for him. I was broke, and... Well..."

Well. Working for Morgan Edge could mean a lot of things. A lot of things that made Lex's chest seize up -- Clark just didn't seem the type, and that he had made Lex suddenly fear that maybe his sixth sense had failed him after all, and that things were going to go wrong very very quickly.

Lex swallowed, and repeated, "Well?" Maybe there was an explanation. Or something. Maybe he'd just done petty crime for Edge.

"He wanted me to steal something out of your dad's safe. It was really kind of freaky. I mean, I was sixteen and... doing a lot of petty theft to keep myself from sleeping on the streets. It took forever to make up for all of it." And Clark looked... really really sorry. For all of it. "Anyway. I didn't get caught, but... later on, it was weird. Edge actually introduced me to your dad, and he was... It was just all weird. I couldn't figure out what they were up to, and I felt like such an idiot anyway."

"Scum calls to scum," Lex sighed, feeling his pulse rate slowly start to slide back down. Just petty crime. He knew that Clark hadn't ever done worse than petty crime for Edge. "Probably by introducing you to my father, E... Edge was hoping that they'd both come to the same conclusion -- that you were of their caliber."

And had decided against it, because Clark had told his father off, which made Lex desperately proud of him. His hand moved a little, the one he wasn't leaning on, half towards Clark. Lex didn't know what he was doing, wasn't thinking, but. It seemed the thing to do.

Clark gave a little laugh, his own hand finding Lex's. It wasn't a funny kind of laugh. It sounded more like something that hurt to bark out. "I was just a kid. A kid involved in a lot of stupid stuff, and I should have known better, known better about all of it, but.." His free hand reached up, rubbed at his face. "But I didn't. I mean, I just... and it took forever to get them to leave me alone. I was scared to go home when I finally wanted to. It was a mess."

"I... can imagine." In the 'been there before' sort of way. Lex's fingers moved a little, and even though he still felt pretty blearily, Clark was close enough to contemplate up close. "No one 'knows better' when they're a kid. You just... think that you should when something stupid happens."

He let out a little shaky breath -- yeah, he'd really been there himself.

"Yeah," Clark agreed quietly. "You're a kid. And it's not your fault." It was obvious that he meant that, completely and totally, and that he was letting Lex know it, too.

Somewhere deep in the pit of Lex's belly... belief of his own stirred to life. It was funny -- he'd told Clark that he'd been told that probably a hundred times, and it had never sunk in. And it hadn't. Except it felt like it was. Lex closed his eyes a little. "You were what, sixteen? They... should've known better." And Lex laughed a little, rough. The phrase sounded so twisted coming from his own mouth. "Thanks, Clark. You're a good guy."

Clark gave a little laugh, and this one didn't seem quite so hurt. "Yeah. Maybe. When I'm asleep and not having bad dreams," he teased. His thumb stroked the area of thin skin between Lex's own thumb and forefinger. "You think you could go back to sleep?"

It wasn't a question of whether he needed the sleep or not, particularly if he was looking at showing up to work at ten that night. If they hadn't decided to fire him or who knew what else. If they didn't decide to 'suggest' that he take vacation time. Worst case scenario, he could go in to the foundation and offer to help as much as they'd let him. "Not sure. Probably... not," he admitted. "Still, your story was good, Clark. A little explanation can go a long way to making things easier."

Jesus. Did he have to keep saying things that applied too closely to himself?

"Well..." Clark grinned. "If you're not gonna sleep, we might as well get up and make something for lunch."

Food.

Clark was seriously into food.

Lex shifted a little, still not breaking the contact of hand to hand that they had, and started to sit up slowly. "Clark. You... really like food, don't you? I guess you're not on the 'eat when I remember' diet that the rest of the department is on, huh?" But for all that Clark really liked food, he was also really fit. Overamped metabolism?

Maybe. Maybe. It did make Lex wonder.

"If I don't eat every four hours, I turn into the green-eyed monster from Smallville," Clark teased him. He didn't remove his hand from Lex's, either. "Mom used to cook herself into a frenzy. My friends all kept snacks in their bags, just in case they saw me getting antsy."

"Metabolism thing," Lex decided as he stretched a little, and finally pulled away. He had to pull away, or else he'd... he'd do something. Say something. Crack up. And Lex didn't want to crack up again. It was exhausting, and he didn't feel like he'd really recovered from Lois and the incident with his pills yet.

"So... what would you like for lunch?" Clark was still smiling at him, not offended that he had moved away. "I could go out, get some stuff. We could picnic in the back yard. There's a fence."

A fence. Clark was really really mindful of him, wasn't he? "That doesn't sound bad," Lex told him, moving a little so he could slip off of the guest bed. "I should probably go home and get a change of clothes, in case I'm working tonight..."

"We can go by on our way," Clark offered. "I'm going in, and I'm sure there'll be other cases to work. Plus, your car's kind of still at the office." He seemed a little sheepish, giving Lex a smile that apologized and encouraged all at once.

"Well, can't argue that." And it should've freaked him out that he was stuck there, pretty much at Clark's mercy. Only. It was better than being at his father's mercy, and he felt things about Clark. Things he could only explain as wanting. He hadn't wanted anyone in a long, long time. "Thanks for taking me home with you, making me sleep, and force-feeding me. Something tells me that that's not normally how you spend your time."

"Well, aside from the occasional stray cat..." And God, Clark enjoyed smiling, teasing him. "No. Not usually. But the ways I usually spend my free time aren't nearly as interesting or as pleasant. I mean, on my days off, I sleep, order Chinese delivery, and watch a lot of Animal Planet."

Lex was pretty sure that his eyes crinkled when he smiled back, sliding off of the bed. "I like watching Animal Planet, too. It's sort of mundane, but... We get a lot of excitement at work." More than most people. After the job they did, who wanted to go home and party? Not Lex, but Lex had done enough partying as a kid, and enough...

Enough of anything exciting to kill most people. "Hey, I'm going to go change back into my clothes, if we're going to do a picnic in your back yard. I'll be back."

"Sure thing."

And it was just as easy as that. Clark didn't come after him, didn't try to touch him, didn't make him uncomfortable. That knowledge made Lex feel a little lightheaded when combined with the fact that Clark had protected him from his father earlier in the day.

Maybe there was a human as good as Superman. A human Warrior Angel. Just a guy. A guy with a big heart, and maybe some reasons for being that way, but hey. Everyone had their reasons, and Lex knew that. Didn't matter how you reached where you were, just... where you where. So it was easy to change clothes in Clark's bathroom, take a leak, and rinse his face off. There weren't any skin-crawling feelings dancing up his back.

Maybe he could salvage something from the last twenty four hours, after all. It hadn't been a total loss, anyway. There had been a lot of good moments, and Lex was man enough to admit that most of them had been because of Clark.

If Clark hadn't dropped by and calmed him down, he wasn't sure what would've happened at work. If... Clark hadn't picked him up, he was pretty sure he would've scared the taxi guy, completely by accident. And then his dad... his dad would've known if he was home.

And he wasn't up to having that conversation, ever. Even if it was going to have to happen.

For now, though, he was going to wipe his face dry, and he was going to leave the bathroom. By the time he got to the kitchen, Clark would be doing something with sandwiches and pickles, and he would tease Lex, and maybe offer him a cookie, and he would smile, and Lex would want to kiss him.

And that would be okay.

"The next time someone uses the expression 'bloated tick', I think I'll be able to empathize with that tick."

Laying back on the flannel blanket Clark had laid out in the living room was almost as fun as the plan to sit outside. Even Clark couldn't make the sky not open up with thunder and lightning. It wasn't cloud-watching, but the flashes and flickers on the ceiling were certainly appealing in their own right.

"Told you I make the best sandwiches in Metropolis," Clark assured him with an idle chuckle. It turned out that there was a cat, one that Clark let come in out of the rain. It was sitting on his belly as they laid on the floor, and Lex thought it was the cutest thing he'd ever seen.

"Can't argue with that." Even stray cats liked Clark. The cat had taken a little while to dry off -- a mottled calico with a dark smear of fur over its nose. Just then it was purring richly and kneading Clark like Clark was the biggest pillow it had ever had. "I can't remember the last time I had a Ruben like that."

Clark grinned, not even trying to fake modesty. "That's what I like to hear," he declared, gently ruffling the cat behind its ears. If anything, that fat purr became even more delighted. "And if you're really good?" he teased. "I'll even make something to take to work with us."

Another flash of lightning. It was probably going to rain all night, and Lex didn't envy Clark the work he'd have to do in the rain all night. It made cases harder when nature tampered with the evidence. "You're going to spoil me. I should try to make something for you sometime... Like an unburned cake." He shifted, refolding his arms under his head. "About work. Whitney... is really head over heels for you."

"Whitney?" Clark turned his head, looking at Lex as if he'd lost his mind. "Whitney is the kind of guy who would have made me the Homecoming Scarecrow in Smallville, Lex. I think he wants to put my head on a spike."

Lex's eyebrows went up a little, and he let his head turn a little to look back at Clark. "No, really. He likes you. I... heard him and Chloe talking in the break room." Even if it had been echo-sounds and he'd felt like Lois had hollowed him out with an ice-cream scoop.

"Hm." Clark frowned, considering the matter. "Whitney's okay, I guess. Kind of scary. But..." He took a deep breath and let it out. "I don't like Whitney, Lex. Not like that, anyway."

Yeah well. Lex was a mess. And while he was pretty sure of what Clark wanted, Lex... was a wreck. Didn't think he could ever do that again, at least functionally. He shifted a little, still looking at Clark and moving slow so as not to spook the cat. "I guess as much, from the hazing remarks. But, uh... he does like you. And to some people, the easiest way to get to the person they want is to see if they can, uh, smear the competition. He thought, maybe hoped, I was on the acting side of the case, and... Perry ripped him a new one."

"Good." The way Clark's jaw clenched implied that he would have liked to do the same. "God, Lex. Anybody can see that you wouldn't do anything like that. I mean, you commit yourself to so much, and... and Calli adores you. She called this morning before school to tell me you had to come see her again..."

"I'll bring one of the big pirate ships next time," Lex smiled a little. "She's a good kid. I don't think your parents are going to let her grow up too quickly, and that's... good." After having looked at too many pictures of kids who'd been made to grow up, kids who were thrown into a world where they didn't belong. "Before we go back, can I make a couple of calls? I need to check in with the foundation, since I have my cell off."

"Sure. It's not a problem," Clark agreed, his fingers brushing against Lex's as he shifted. "Calli's a blessing. She taught me how to laugh at myself. It was pretty hard to do that before she came. Maybe it was the whole 'being a teenager' thing."

"Running away from home, getting in trouble, general rebelliousness... Yeah, I remember being a teenager." Drugs, boozing, and a lot of sex. Lex turned his head a little, peering more at the cat sleeping on Clark's stomach than at Clark. It let him subtly peek at Clark's stomach. "Laughing at yourself is important. You have a really good family, Clark."

"Yeah. Hey, I'll share, if you like." Clark was smiling at him, and that was... really incredibly good. "I mean, there's plenty to go around. Like Mom's chicken."

"Might take you up on that offer," Lex decided, turning a little, and reaching one hand out to carefully pet the cat. If he looked out over Clark, he could see the VCR clock. It wasn't even six yet. That made it early, with plenty of time to kill.

"I'd be glad to share. My mom and dad should have had a dozen kids instead of just two. Instead, they got me, trouble enough to have been a dozen kids, and Calli... and she's a great kid, at least. I'm sure they'll adopt you right off. Mom wanted me to take extra cookies for you. They're on the table, I just forgot to give 'em to you."

"That's okay. You took me home to your family, fed me, got me coffee, you're still feeding me..." Lex's lips quirked, and he carefully tickled the cat behind its ears. "And now you're letting me pet your stray. I'd trade cookies for all of that, you know."

"That's just because you haven't had my mom's pumpkin spice cookies," Clark informed him, watching Lex with a little smile on his face. "You know, I like having you here. It's nice."

"Yeah." His voice when he replied that was a little husky, a little low. "It's nice being here. I really... didn't want to be alone in my apartment today."

"You know you're welcome, any time you need to get away," Clark offered.

Clark really didn't mean that the way that Lex hoped he meant it. No one sane would say a thing like that to him. It might inspire Lex to pack his bags and move in, but... he'd lived alone for a while now. A long while. And life had been calm and comparatively stress free. "Hey. What're you doing the Friday before Christmas?"

"If I'm off?" Clark contemplated it. "Nothing that I know of." A quick glance at a nearby calendar verified the date for him. "Mom, Dad and Calli will be coming up that Saturday..."

"Do you want to maybe join me? It's uh, the foundation passes out toys from their toy-drives, and I like to go to some of the area shelters and help." It wasn't a coincidence that they always did it the night that the LuthorCorp Christmas party was. Usually that gave him an excuse to miss the whole damned thing.

"I'd love it," Clark agreed. The sheer warmth of his gaze made Lex flush and glance away, but he continued to pet the rumbling cat on Clark's belly all the same. "That sounds wonderful."

"Great. The kids would love you. I make a really crappy Santa," Lex told Clark, the cat and the ceiling. God, he was so nervous, but it wasn't a bad nervous. He didn't want to medicate it away to a dull twitch of feeling. It was good. Butterflies? Yeah. Just butterflies. "So, is this cat homeless?"

"Yeah," Clark told him. "I think so, anyway. I started feeding him, and he started living in the back yard. I'm thinking about taking him to the vet and adopting him. What do you think?"

"I think it's a good idea. If you can't afford him, I can." Lex tickled behind his ears. "He's not feral. He just needs a place to be. Or she."

"He," Clark said with a little grin. "I'd roll him over, but the last time I did that, he thought I was a scratching post. That got him... two days of not coming inside."

Lex's lips twitched. He could almost imagine the cat sitting outside, mournfully peering in. "Hey. Cat's got a right to protect his private parts."

The way Clark laughed pleased the cat, and getting his head ruffled a little probably didn't hurt, either. "Yeah. I guess so. He doesn't have a name or anything..." A sly peek of green eyes captured Lex in a glance. "Got any suggestions?"

Keep me and the cat wasn't a name or even something Lex wanted to say aloud. But it was on the tip of his tongue, weirdly desperate. He'd been lonely for too long, and then this... whirlwind of a human being had showed up in his life. Invited himself in, but it was one door Lex was glad he hadn't slammed. "Pinky. Have you seen that movie on the internet...?"

"Uh... No?" Clark admitted, shifting so that the cat tumbled gracefully between them. For a moment, his ears flattened, but then he seemed to decide that two humans were better than one could ever be. "What movie?"

"You haven't seen it?" Lex stroked his fingers down the cat's back, walking them slowly. "You have a computer, right? I'm sure I could find it. They showed it at the last forensics meeting I went to -- it was for a panel about animal DNA."

"Sure. There's, um..." And was Clark BLUSHING? Yes. Yes, he was. "I've got Alienware," he mumbled a little sheepishly, and the geek in Lex spasmed faintly with joy. "Wireless. It's, ah, in the bedroom..."

He grinned, sitting up a little. The cat could cope with one human for just a little while -- he was going to get ideas from them, anyway. "I'll get it. That's cool, Clark. I'm a Mac guy myself, but... Alienware. Do you game?"

"I'm addicted to The Sims," Clark admitted. "But really? I just thought it was cool. I mean. Alienware. With a name like that, how could I resist?"

"And it's sleek and very functional," Lex agreed as he stood up and turned to pad back down the hallway. It gave him an excuse to peek into Clark's room, too. Just quick-like, but.

"But mostly, it's just cool," Clark laughed after him. "Just bring it back here. I'm not ready to get up yet."

"Okay." A little motion went a long way to shaking off the feeling of being a bloated tick, and Clark's room was pretty easy to find given that his apartment was small. Lex felt against the wall for a light switch to hit.

The faint feel of one of those funny big switches, like something in a kid's room, came under his fingers. He pushed, revealing a room that as good as declared that Clark really was a grown-up kid of sorts. Lex could see glow-in-the-dark stars scattered over the ceiling, moon-and-stars curtains at the windows, a navy blue comforter over the sleigh bed. In one corner stood a telescope that probably didn't get a lot of use, and the pictures on the wall seemed to all be framed pictures of night in a variety of places.

It made Lex relax. Not half as bad as he'd half expected. Clark was... funny. Sort of like he was. After all, he had LEGOs and bins and erector sets and little electronic experiments set up. Nothing that screamed 'swinging bachelor pad', same as Clark's.

He only had to find the laptop in among all of those distracting things.

"It's by the bed," he heard Clark yell, and another few minutes revealed a laptop half-buried beneath a book, one in Conspiracy Blue, highlighted with black. The sight of the little alien head on the back of it made Lex's heart skip a beat.

It was good to be a geek.

"Found it!" Clark could've gotten it himself, but Lex really appreciated the opportunity to prove to himself, once more, that Clark was as good as he seemed to be. A kid at heart, like Lex was. Sometimes, you just had to embrace the things that made you feel good -- be it building toys or a space and stars fascination. Lex lingered just a little while longer, then moved to press off the overhead light on his way out.

The faint gleam of stars on the ceiling warmed his heart.

"I should have gotten up," Clark offered from the floor as Lex returned. "But I don't think Pinky was ready to give me up yet. Maybe another one will wander up. Then I can have a Brain to go with, you think?"

"I'd be afraid to leave the two of them home alone every night. They'd try to take over the world," Lex grinned back, trying to sound sage and stern as he padded back to the fleece blanket and sat down cross-legged. "I'll just Google it, but you have to see it."

He didn't flinch as Clark moved closer, peeking over his arm. "Yeah, but they'd be so cute that no matter how hard they tried, nobody could resent them for it. They'd just be in awe of the adorable mutt cats."

"Who had somehow become their evil overlords?" Lex grinned back as he loaded up Clark's computer, watching as the screens came up. He wasn't concentrating on that. He was paying attention to the way he could faintly hear Clark breathing, the sound of the odd sporadic purr from 'Pinky'.

It was so good. And even if it seemed like every good turn in his life was sharply followed by a bad one? It was worth it, just for the good.

"Hey, Lex?" Clark asked quietly, very seriously. "Would you be... really mad with me if I kissed you now?"

He hadn't been expecting that question, but he turned his head a little, mostly out of shock. "No?"

"Good," Clark whispered. He leaned in just a little closer and brushed his mouth across Lex's so delicately that it was almost something Lex could have missed.

Almost.

Lex exhaled quietly, and licked his upper lip where Clark's lips had brushed his. "That's nice."

"Yeah," Clark said a little breathlessly, smiling at him. "That's one way to put it. I might like to do it again sometime."

"Maybe... now?" Lex leaned in again. Just one more. Just one more little brush of mouth against his. And then he'd show Clark the silly cat video. And maybe he could get Clark to show him his Sims. Or anything Clark wanted to.

"Now would be good," Clark agreed, and kissed Lex again.

And again.

And one more time, all soft lips and the faintest touch of something deeper that made Lex's pulse beat a little faster in the butterflies way. He'd been kissed before, he'd been kissed a lot. Brutal kisses that bruised his mouth, split his lips, made him bleed against the other person. Biting, eating kisses, chewing gnawing... Lex exhaled against Clark's mouth, eyes closing for a moment. His therapist was always telling him to be in the now, and to stop weighing moments against each other. But it was hard not to do that. He wanted to pull up all the reasons why Clark's kiss was good, to really solidify it, but memories of all the other ways pulled him out of the good moment.

Catch twenty two, but he was still smiling when Clark pulled back.

"Hi," Clark whispered, almost as if he'd never seen Lex before that moment. Maybe he was looking at Lex that way, too, as if Lex was something new, something good, something beautiful.

Maybe Lex was hoping too hard, but he grinned a little. "Hi. That was really nice." And he sounded like an idiot, but that was what Lex was known for in the lab. Over-stating things. He could've been subtle, but subtle took thought and effort, and that was best applied to work.

"Yeah," Clark agreed with him, nudging his head against Lex's just a little. "It was. And I'd like to do it again. But right now... why don't you show me this cat?"

Not too far. Clark was being so careful with him, but not in the 'quick, wrap him in cotton before his shatters' way that he'd been treated at work.

Lex smiled, and then showed Clark the most badly named cat in the world.

"So," Lois said that evening, eyeing her cousin as she tossed her sandwich into the community break room fridge. "What odds are they giving?"

"Fifty to one that they did it today, twenty to one that they'll shack up before the year's over, three to one that Whitney will become an unbearable bastard about it, and, uh, two to one that they'll be really weird and geeky over each other and inflict it on us between cases," Chloe declared. She had a way of phrasing things playfully without really pissing too many people off.

Lois nodded, seriously considering it. "Huh. Well. I'll put twenty on shacking up before the year's over, especially after last night. Two to one's good odds, but it's too much of a certainty to be worth betting over."

"It's not fun to bet on a sure thing?" Chloe teased her. "So. What happened?"

"When Clark came to pick him up, you mean, or...?"

"Either? Before? He looked... pretty wiped when he came into the break room before Clark showed up," Chloe murmured. "I know it had to do with that case."

"And you know I can't talk about it. But it's rough. You know we sent a lot of stuff to the crime lab in Vegas..." Everybody was talking about that, so it wasn't new information. "He called a taxi while we were talking. One never showed up, though. Just Clark."

"Strange," Chloe murmured. "I wonder why Clark showed up without being called?"

"Who knows why Clark does anything?" Lois rolled her eyes. Clark had a habit of magically showing up and magically disappearing. Everyone had given up on trying to figure out the hows and whys.

Except Chloe. Sometimes, she still wondered. It wasn't much of a wondering day, though. It was a choose a creamer quick sort of day. "Okay. That's true. None of us do. So what do you think they did all day?"

Lois considered the matter. "I think they played DOOM online. In separate rooms. On separate laptops. And considered that interaction."

"Doom, huh? Shooting evil demons from beyond?" Chloe's lips twitched as she added milk to her coffee. "Cute. I'll have to ask. Lex is coming back today, right?"

"Perry's got him on schedule," Lois said with a shrug. "So long as he's not dealing with the Senatori case or the porn ring, he's good to go. Perry's striking Smallville from 'em, too."

"Oh. Because... of Lex?" They didn't usually strike people's friends from cases that people had been struck from. That made Chloe look curiously again.

"Because he's Smallville," Lois explained patiently, "and while he's okay with murder, and he doesn't seem to mind no matter how long the DB's been rotting, kid stuff makes him go all scary Incredible Hulk."

"He does have a little sister," Chloe reminded. "Okay, so that still leaves us seriously over-stretched on those two cases. But Perry makes the calls, so..."

"So what'd Perry call?" Lex smiled a little at them both as he stood in the doorway, lingering in the way that only Lex could -- after sneaking up on them like a stealthy ninja. He looked better than he had just the day before, Chloe decided. Well. Same day, but the shift before. The end of the last shift. Yeah.

"Perry," Lois said, "called that you get your ass back in the lab, Luthor, and that Smallville better scurry right on along to a rape-homicide case in Suicide Slums."

Lex smiled a little as he walked into the break room with his coffee cup. "I'm getting, I'm getting. Is Whitney in today?" That was asked a little tentatively, a little uncertainly.

"Yep. And he's fully aware that I'll kick his ass if he razzes you, so go on. And hey... make some of that coffee you brought yesterday," Lois told him. "Just the smell makes me swoon."

"Yesterday?" Lex looked over his shoulder at her. "The stuff in my thermos? I picked that up in a coffee shop in Smallville. I have no idea how she made it taste that good."

Lois rolled her eyes over to Chloe. "I'll take that fifty to one, now."

He got out the can of Melita that he liked to brew pots from, and put a new filter in the coffee machine. "Fifty to one on what?"

"Nothing," Chloe smiled as she moved to leave. It was rude to take the last cup of coffee and leave it empty, but Lex was taking care of it, so her job was done. "You two have fun with coffee. Bye~e."

"You know," Lois said conversationally, "it should really be illegal to be so... I don't know. PERKY as soon as you wake up. I'll bet Clark's perky like that, too."

Lex shook his head a little as he measured out three scoops of the pre-ground coffee. "No. He's like a sleepy grouchy cat. Someone rang the doorbell earlier today and when he walked past the guest room he wasn't perky at all."

If Lois didn't know better, she almost wanted to guess that Lex had clarified that extra bit just so she wouldn't jump to the conclusion that she wanted.

"I'm surprised," she laughed a little. "I figured he'd be an angel when he woke up. You know. All feathers and halo. That's why you guys get along so well, isn't it?"

He slid the filter bag into place, then picked up the water reservoir to fill it up at the tap. "Maybe. He's... a really good guy, Lois. But you know that. He's your partner. I can trust him." And given the interview that she'd had with Lex just the shift before, it was no surprise that the man had trust issues.

"Yeah," Lois agreed quietly. "Yeah. You can trust him. I'll be back in five shakes for that coffee, Luthor."

"Maybe you'll get lucky and it'll have brewed by then." Lex put the reservoir back, and seemed to be prepared to wait for it to drip.

"Hallelujah. Just don't let Smallville come in and take it all with him before I get back," she yelled, hurrying away from the break-room and leaving Lex alone.

He was all right with being left alone. In fact, if he had to guess, he was pretty sure that most everyone would leave him alone all day. And who could blame them, after the show he'd put on yesterday?

Lex wanted for the coffee to finish brewing and wondered how long it'd take them all to forget.

After all. He'd been trying to forget for years and hadn't managed it yet.

"You look like you've got the weight of the world hovering somewhere around your left ear."

He hated people sneaking up on him, but there was something about a comforting voice that kept him from shooting through the ceiling. It only took a faint turn of his head to see that Clark was standing there. "Hey, Clark. I'm thinking and waiting for the coffee to drip. Its hazelnut, if you want to wait around."

"Oh, hey! That's great!" Clark declared, moving closer to him. Lex could see a tinfoil covered plate in one hand, but the other was held behind his back. "They'll go great with the brownies, Lex!"

And when had Clark managed to bake brownies?

Clark could warp time some-days, and he was better at squeezing extra hours into the day than any of them, but making brownies since the last time Lex had seen him "Brownies?"

Wow. Blushing. That was... really cute. "Well, I was on my way here, and there was this little old lady and this dachshund, and she was yelling up the tree. Turned out the neighbor's dog had chased her cats up the tree, and one of them was a momma cat, and... well, I couldn't just leave them there, Lex!"

"So you... got the cats from the tree?" Sweet, and it made Lex wonder if he'd missed seeing the wings and Halo when Clark had been scratching his butt when he padded down the hallway. He smiled at the other man, and reached to take the brownies. There was no way he was going to eat them all himself. Everyone would probably like one.

"Mhm," Clark agreed. "And she gave me brownies. That was sweet. But..." The ridiculous emotional equivalent of ducking one's head and shuffling one's feet was strange in a man Clark's size who was holding completely still. "I got another prize, too. For you." And he pulled his hand from behind his back.

Lex went silent for a moment, opening his mouth. It was a pretty small, squirmy kitten, wearing a bright teal bow that looked like the leftover ribbon from wrapping Calli's birthday gift. "... Clark, Perry's going to kill you for bringing an animal into the lab..."

And then he felt stupid for saying it, because that was one hell of a bad 'thank you'.

"Well, it'll be worth it. If you like him. You can even call him Brain." Lex hadn't seen such pretty begging eyes in... well, ever.

Lex's lips twitched, as they tried to curl past a smile. "That's great, Clark. I didn't mean to freak, he's..." Lex laughed as he reached to cradle the kitty. "Perry is going to have my ass, because I like this little creature."

Clark beamed, the sweetest of smiles ever. "Perry will yell at me instead of you. You, he'll just kind of twitch at."

"KENT!"

"See?"

Lex held the kitten against his shoulder for a minute, grinning to himself. "Okay. Coffee should be done by the time he's done yelling?"

"Don't let Lois drink it all?" And then Clark was gone in a flurry of sighs and brownie munching.

Sweet. Sweet Clark. Lex jostled the kitten just a little, and half-heard Perry chewing Clark out. He wouldn't chew Lex out, and Lex knew that. And was going to abuse it just... just the once. He'd put the kitten under the desk and make sort of a box around it so it would have space but wouldn't run free in the lab.

Not it. Brain. Maybe things were moving way too fast for Lex, but he liked how they were moving.

For the first time in forever, everything seemed to be... It was just good. Clark made it good. Clark made everything... better. Even this, this travesty of information heaped on Lex's head. He made it...

Clark made it bearable.

Not quite a little thing. A big thing, that was really making things bearable with the weight that had fallen on his head. He poured the coffee, three cups -- one for himself, one for Clark, one for Lois. It was going to be a busy night and he was going to make the best out of it.

He was going to keep his spirits up. With a little help from Brain, that shouldn't be too bad, right?

"Um. Lex."

This was obviously walk-up-on-Lex night.

"Whitney, hi," Lex said a little warily as he added sugar to his cup. "You're going to have to cope with a cat in the lab tonight."

"Okay." And that was... way easier than Lex had expected it to be. "Look, about last night. I was a jackass. And, I'm sorry."

He jostled Brain just a little, and picked up his own coffee cup. Mutty cat with a calico's M on its head, coffee that was fresh and burning hot, Clark... somewhere getting yelled at by Perry. And now Whitney apologizing.

"It... emotions were running high last night. It's no problem."

"Yeah, well. I shouldn't have been picking on you. Especially..." Whitney shifted, glanced around to be sure they were alone. "...since I'm just... having issues. With the Clark thing. Not your fault."

He knew it wasn't his fault -- he hadn't been exactly sending off 'fuck me now' vibes like Whitney had. "Yeah. I know. Like I said, it's all right."

"Yeah, well... uh. I'll be in the lab. If. You know. Anything comes up."

It was almost funny to see Whitney shifting like a nervous teenager, especially when Lex realized that it was because Clark was coming back up the hallway, Lois on his tail.

Awkwardness. Time for Lex to split it at the path and then cut out to the lab himself. He stepped out after Whitney, and smiled at them both. "Hey, got coffee for you guys."

"Thanks, Luthor," Lois said cheerfully, snagging hers on the way by. "I'm heading back out to see about a couple of links that came up after you left. Fordman, don't forget those stains, okay? And Kent..."

"Yeah, uh, Suicide Slums," Clark said, ducking his head.

"I'll see you later," Lex smiled at Clark. "Good luck." It was weird. Maybe things had moved too fast, but he was nice to pretty much everyone and it wasn't so weird for him to be nice to Clark, too.

Maybe if he was nice enough, he and Brain would get to go home with Clark again tonight. And that would be... really grand.

"I get the feeling I'll need it," Clark agreed, taking his coffee and heading out. "Um. Want breakfast? After work?" he called back.

"Sure," Lex called back. "Maybe... my place?" Because that... wow. Just the thought of Clark taking up space in his apartment was incredible.

"Sure thing," Clark yelled, waving.

It was Sunday.

Clark hadn't made it to Lex's place for breakfast yet.

That was completely and totally Lex's fault. Lex could admit it. He kept panicking about taking Clark into a space that was completely and totally his own. Private. Safe.

And he'd apologized profusely, of course. Every time. Clark was probably getting tired of it, and that made Lex feel bad, but... He felt bad about things already. Clark was sweet and thoughtful, and fun. And things were moving way too fast for Lex, but he didn't have brakes.

That was why he didn't date.

And why he never, ever took anybody home. Anymore, anyway. It just made his whole life more complicated than he could bear, and taking someone home... Well, that really broke his own sanctuary. Lex wasn't up for that.

Except he'd volunteered for it. And since their days off were ever so slightly staggered, Clark worked Saturday which Lex had off, and Lex worked Sunday, which Clark had off. So that made Sunday morning perfect for him to... finally do it. A day, home alone, contemplating the next day. And catching up on charity things, which worked a miracle for his nerves.

It was a good thing for everybody involved that Lex had learned to put all of his attention and focus into charities as opposed to ripping himself wide open with deeper and deeper acts of self-destruction. Self-hatred.

Maybe Kents were just meant to save him from himself. He wasn't good at saving himself from himself. Lex was pretty bad about self-saving. But he was... really ready for Clark to show up at his apartment. Whenever he got off shift. Lex couldn't pick him up because unlike Clark, Lex needed time to conjure food out of thin air.

And he figured he'd done a pretty good job about not burning breakfast.

Well.

He had burned the first batch, but by the third, he'd gotten it down to a fine art, right down to rolling the crepes delicately around the sugar-sweetened cottage cheese. Everything was in the oven, warm and ready, and he'd gone out to get organic sour cream. He'd made the strawberries himself, and...

When Clark knocked on the door, it nearly gave him a heart attack.

That was, what, the maybe tenth time he'd heard it in almost as many years? Usually the mail guy leaving him something. Or if he had to sign something certified. That was it. Sometimes, the neighbors, and he'd help one of them, but... Not anyone from work.

That didn't keep him from grinning when he answered the door.

Clark looked like a drowned rat, hair drenched and dripping in little droplets on the floor. He obviously hadn't even had time to shake himself off, but it didn't really matter. There was something so totally gorgeous about a rain-wet Clark that it stole Lex's breath away.

"I'll completely understand if you won't let me in, but.... could I at least get a towel?" Clark asked with a sheepish little smile.

He reached out to grab Clark's arm instead of backing away from the door, and maybe that was the first sign that Lex was really getting comfortable with Clark. One of them. The first sign that Lex noticed, really noted as being outside of his norm. "Towel, sure, yeah. Stay there and drip on the tile, and I'll get you one."

"I think it's coming down buckets out there. I really feel for the guys coming in from Vegas."

The week had continued to be a complete and utter mess, the case with Dominic Senatori exploding all over Metropolis. One that was combined with Morgan Edge, a missing twelve year old in Las Vegas, and a child pornography ring that was sickeningly spread between the two cities. Lex tried to not think about it. Really hard. Because somewhere, the Vegas people were looking at pictures of him, eleven year old him, getting fucked, hurt. By men, women, whoever, because Dominic had been pretty indiscriminate when it came to getting a buck.

It made Lex's head hurt to think of, and it made him want to crawl under the sofa. He didn't, though -- he ducked into the bathroom and grabbed a big purple towel to wrap Clark up in. "They're sending a couple of their guys over here?"

"Uh-huh," Clark said, letting Lex toss the towel on top of his head and ruffle. "Something about a poisoning there, and transfer of evidence. And I think the kid that's missing belongs to somebody pretty high up in the food chain there. Not sure."

Lex's mouth was tight as he buffed Clark's head, then shifted the towel to dry off Clark's shoulders. "The kid's... probably on a road trip."

"That's kind of what they're guessing. All evidence points to the girl being on her way to Metropolis." Clark was adorably ruffled and, at the same time, so desperately serious. "I think the whole office is really glad you've got two more off, and I've got three. Is it just me, or are they nearly dancing around us every time we walk past?"

"They're nearly dancing around us every time we walk past," Lex assured him as he watched Clark's expression, toweling his arms off. "I'm not sure why."

"Well, I guess they'll get over it." Clark lifted his face a little and sniffed. "Breakfast smells incredible, Lex. What have you made?"

"I accidentally cooked Brain, and then I covered him in strawberries." Lex's smirk assured Clark that he was lying as he backed up from the doorway, letting Clark come into his abode. Some mornings it was pretty tempting; Brain seemed to forget what house he was in at any given day, and had spent most of yesterday running in wild circles looking for his play-friend.

Lex could empathize. But he'd teased the kitten with a LEGO robot instead, and had then had to tolerate an exhausted purring ball of fur kneading his lap when he'd been trying to do charity work.

"No, actually, they're cheese blintzes. And the kitchen dining room is in here."

"Your apartment is... really just incredible," Clark said, following Lex towards the food. He peeked around as they went, curious. "I love this part of town. The whole renovation of a lost era thing, it makes me happy."

"I moved here just for that reason. They wanted to sell them instead of rent them, and since I had the money free..." A small home that was all his own. Only Lex Luthor, not the Luthor Family's. He'd decorated it just how he liked, and it had come with those paneled wood walls, which was half the reason he'd fallen in love with the place.

Lex walked half-backwards, watching Clark take in the state of his apartment. Brain was drowsing on the sofa, and lifted a curious head at them.

"I especially love all of the paneling. That's just incredible, Lex." Clark sniffed again. "And... I'm REALLY starving here. Think Brain'll let me get past the couch and in to breakfast?" He grinned.

Brain loved Clark. Brain wanted to go home with Clark. As often as Lex went home with Clark, Brain meowed to go, too. And usually, he got just what he wanted... mostly because he had a playmate at Clark's, and Brain didn't like to be a lonely kitty. Lex didn't like to be a lonely human, himself, so he understood that. "Oh yeah. Just pick him up and don't let him eat too many scraps." Lex ducked into the open doorway that was the kitchen, and started to get plates down.

He could hear Brain meowing at Clark.

"Good kitty. There you go. Yeah. Just... ow! Don't bite Uncle Clark's fingers..." Clark said ruefully behind him. "God, Lex. And you've been cooking? Just the smell is making me squirm."

"This is the third try," Lex grimaced a little as he opened the oven door and pulled out the prepared blintzes. Now to just drizzle a little of the hot strawberries over them that had been kept warm on top of the stove. "So if it's bad, be honest."

"Trust me. Anything that smells that good can't be bad." Clark put Brain on the floor and moved to the kitchen sink, washing his hands there quickly. "God, Lex. I'm incredibly impressed." He sniffed again. "Wow."

Brain trotted around their feet, doing his best meow impression of a doorbell while Lex plated two of them for himself, and four for Clark, just because he knew how Clark could eat. Then he poured the strawberries over both plates worth, grinning under the praise Clark was giving him. "My mom wasted quite a few years trying to teach me how to cook. I guess maybe some of it rubbed off subconsciously." It was okay that he hadn't picked up everything he should've.

He'd been a little preoccupied at the time by other things.

Clark gave a little sigh. "This is a whole lot like heaven," he declared, taking his plate when Lex offered it. "It was a long night, and this... is really really nice to come home to."

Home. Clark probably couldn't guess both how weird that sounded and how much it meant for Lex, but. It definitely worked. "Yeah?" Lex pulled out his chair, and sat across from Clark at his small table. It was big enough for one man and his work, or two people if it was just them. "How bad was it?"

"Uh..." Clark grimaced, picking up his fork. "Let's put it this way. If I didn't have a cast iron stomach and a desperate need to be fed, I'd need help holding my hair out of my eyes. It was... really nasty. I'm glad you weren't there, and I'm glad I don't have to go in tonight."

Lex waited a little expectantly for Clark to take his first bite, even as he moved to cut into his own with his fork. "Ugh. What kind of case?"

Clark thought about it for a moment, then dug into his blintzes. "Uh, to be real honest? Why don't we talk about it after breakfast."

Oh.

One of those.

Clark got assigned to those a lot, because he had a knack for it. One week or six months, no matter how long the body had been rotting, Clark almost always managed to figure out who they were and what happened to them.

In those cases, DNA pretty much served to confirm Clark's suspicion. It was uncanny. "Gotcha. Hey, did I tell you that Lois wanted me to run DNA on her yappy dog Friday? She doesn't think she's a purebred."

"I told her about buying from puppy mills. Doesn't matter how clean the place is, you're never really sure what you're getting, and it's not good for the dog." Clark was just as indignant over the maltreatment of animals as he was over humans. It was sweet.

It verified all of the things that Lex thought about him. And, God help him, Lex knew he was falling in love. Knew it. Knew it just because it wasn't something he'd ever felt before. It wasn't the same as it'd been with other people. It was something quiet and warm that sat in the pit of his stomach almost all the time. That made him do funny things like stare at Clark's hands. "Well, I had a little free time, so I ran it. A Scottie and a Yorkie. I told her to just call it a product of the British Isles and move on."

Clark threw back his head and laughed. "And she didn't automatically try to eat you alive? Take you out and blow cigarette smoke in your face? Wow. That's... really impressive. She must like you," he teased.

"Lois has always liked me, as long as her stuff gets priority," Lex grinned. And since right now Whitney was processing everything that he didn't, couldn't handle processing, he had enough time to process Lois's dog.

It made him have to think pretty hard about how busy they all were with Dominic's case. No one said anything to him about it, and Lex didn't ask. It was better not to know. That way, when his dad finally did catch up to him -- and Lex didn't doubt for a moment that he would -- he wouldn't have anything to say because he wouldn't know anything. That was a-okay with Lex.

It was a-okay with Clark, too, because Clark had slammed his front door on Lionel Luthor twice while Lex had been having breakfast with him.

"Riiight. I get it. Well..." Clark tossed a sly little glance in Lex's direction. "I'm easier to get along with than Lois, and I promise not to bite your head off if she goes first."

"You're much easier to get along with than Lois." Lex swabbed his cheese and crepe bite through strawberries, then ate it. He'd done a really good job, if he had to pat himself on the back. Worth those first two fails, and the time he'd burned the filling to a crisp that even Brain wouldn't touch. "When she first came to the department, she tried to get me to go out with her. It was... sort of funny."

"Well, she's a pretty woman." Even if Clark seemed a little noncommittal about that. He was peeking up at Lex and eating breakfast like he was never going to be fed again. "I'm... really kind of glad you didn't."

Sweet.

Blushing.

Wow. Lex didn't know grown men could blush like that.

"She... just didn't drive me to break my personal rule against seeing people. It... gets complicated, and I don't know what to do with people." Lex swallowed, a little nervously, and got to his feet. He knew what he wanted to do with Clark, or at least, what he hoped he could do with Clark. He hadn't tested himself in years, and he was probably worse than rusty. Jittery. "I forgot the juice, hold on. Orange or apple? Or coffee? I've got an espresso maker."

"Coffee. Please," Clark asked politely. "And apple juice, but I can get it myself." He stood after Lex, putting his napkin down. "I don't think you have so many problems with what to do with people, Lex. You know what to do with me."

"You're an exception," Lex smiled over his shoulder before he grabbed a last bite of his blintz. Then he grabbed one of the sealed containers of coffee beans, the good stuff. The Tiramisu.

"Yeah, well..." He could hear Clark gearing up to ask him a question. Probably the question. "I'd like to be the exception. I mean. One day. If you're not totally uncomfortable with that."

"I... am really comfortable with that idea." Lex was talking almost into the burr grinder that he was dropping a few scoops of beans into, but he was definitely smiling. Comfortable with it because... "You're the first person in years that I... I really couldn't bring myself to shoot down before anything started. Because you're just.... you."

"Would you mind if I kissed you ? Right now?" Clark asked him, shifting to stand beside him. They were close, hip to hip, and it made Lex's pulse pick up.

Lex rather mindfully turned the grinder off, with the same motion that he used to turn into Clark. The other man was deliciously mindful of him, and hip to hip was a good feeling when he turned his body into Clark's, brushing Clark as he moved to start the kiss himself.

Delicious.

Sweet.

Clark tasted like breakfast, crepes and cheese and sour cream and warm, fresh fruit. His hands were carefully kept away from Lex, not holding him down, but... available, if Lex wanted them, just like the tongue that tentatively touched his lower lip.

Maybe it was so sweet because it hadn't ever been that way with anyone else. It was... it was rape, it was pain, or it was hard and shoving, touch everywhere, too much for him to control. Clark let him move his hands freely, resting against the fabric of Clark's jeans, thumbs pressing against his pockets. His lips parted, inviting that tongue.

Soliciting more kisses, enticing deeper penetration.

He got it, the most incredibly tender motion Lex could remember feeling in his entire life. It was almost as if Clark didn't want to scare him, and at the same time, he wanted to treat him the way he should be treated.

Equal. Same. Man.

The only thing Lex was glad he'd learned was remembering to breathe through his nose, because it gave him the best chance to deepen it himself, turning his head just a little as he slipped his own tongue against Clark's. His right hip bumped into the counter's edge, and for a moment he wasn't sure whose mouth was whose while the warmth surged through him. He wanted Clark right then, right there. Up near the coffee grinder, wanted to feel all of him, wanted to be on the countertop under him.

It was a scary prospect, and a really fucking hot one.

Lex couldn't decide if he was glad or completely miserable when Clark pulled away from him slowly.

"Wow," the dark-haired man whispered shakily. "You... wow. You really know how to kiss, Lex." And it was deeply obvious that it had turned Clark on, obvious when Lex peeked down between their bodies, obvious by the way Clark's pulse was beating wildly, visibly, at his throat.

He leaned in a little more, a stutter of motion. Lex really wanted to kiss the moisture from Clark's mouth, wanted to feel that warm dampness again. Or just to feel that pulse beneath his mouth, to make sure that it wasn't a trick of his eyes. "So do you."

"Yeah. Well. Uh. Part of that... whole. Teenage rebellion thing." Clark was watching him just as closely as Lex was watching Clark, and Lex could see his fingers twitching. "Lex? How would you feel if I suggested waiting on the coffee and, um. Making out on the couch instead?"

It was going to be a really nice day off. Letting Clark into his sanctuary was a good step, because it had apparently opened all sorts of doors to other things. Other activities. "That sounds great. I... haven't done anything like that in a long time, but..." If it was... just making out, kissing, feeling, groping, he'd be all right. It was sort of like learning how to ride a bike, and maybe this time Lex would spend less time crashing headfirst into a wall.

"Mreow!"

"Uh. I think Brain is eating our breakfast," Clark said, grinning. "So, why don't we... move all of that out of his way, and adjourn to the living room...?" The suggestion was accompanied by a slow movement of hand, one that caressed over Lex's arm and made him shiver.

Made him wish that he didn't have a shirt on so he could feel the ridges of Clark's fingers against his skin, the motion of his muscles. Lex laughed a little, and dragged a lingering touch of his own over the edge of Clark's hip. "Yeah. Brain, c'mere... No, don't put your paw in that!"

Too late.

There was a cat covered in strawberry compote and sour cream in the middle of his table, and all he wanted was to make out with Clark.

Clark... who was laughing like crazy over the cat's antics. "Tell you what. You take care of breakfast and I'll brave giving him a quick bath. I've kind of gotten used to avoiding claws with Pinky."

"Good luck. He's got claws like needles, and I just trimmed them yesterday." Kittens were supposed to be like that, though. Lex had looked it up online to be sure that his cat didn't have mutant claws or something. "Okay. I'll clean up, and you keep him from eating his fur. The bathroom is the first door on the left off the hall." And the other two doors were his toy room, and his bedroom, respectively. But he didn't tell Clark that. If things adjourned to the bedroom, it was for one reason and Lex wasn't sure he could manage that.

One step at a time was easier.

The couch wasn't threatening in the least.

By the time Lex managed to brush breakfast into the trash and load the dishwasher, the howls from the bathroom had tapered off into miserable mewls every so often. He hadn't heard any of those from Clark, so maybe Clark was really good at bathing cats. Clark was a farm boy, so maybe it just came with the territory -- an innate knowledge of how to bathe fierce creatures, like kittens.

Curiosity got the best of him, because peeking in on Clark was better than jittering on the sofa and waiting. There was no reason for him to linger awkwardly, not in his own house, so Lex did check in on Clark and Brain, cracking open the bathroom door. "Hey, do you need any help? Maybe an extra towel?"

"MROWR!"

"Shut the door if you want to save your eyeballs," Clark asserted, and from the way his hair was once again dripping, Lex thought that might be good advice.

"Right, I'll be... outside." He shut the door quickly -- it was like Brain had seen him and decided he was a magical rescuer. Which he wasn't. No, he was one of the bad guys who wanted Brain not to run around the house wearing breakfast.

By the time Clark opened that door again, Brain shot out in a wild puffball of pure kitten fury, flinging himself onto the rug by the front door and rolling himself about in a failed attempt to make himself completely dry.

Brain, Lex thought, wasn't as bright as he had looked at first.

Still. Clark came out, stripping off his shirt as he went, and that was enough to make Lex's tongue go still, his heart pick up in a steady, quick tattoo. "Sorry," he apologized. "Brain kind of drenched me. Managed to avoid his claws, though." Clark seemed pretty cheerful about that.

They were already by the sofa, or at least Lex was from trying to follow his kitten and see what it was doing, and now... Clark. Clark without a shirt. Clark without a shirt was the most beautiful thing that Lex had laid eyes on in a long time.

"Don't apologize..."

Clark gave him a shy little smile. "So. Um. About that kissing thing. Would you like to do it some more? I think there's plenty of room on your couch, if you want to lay on top of me..."

That idea had a lot of appeal to it. So much appeal that Lex reached, grabbed Clark's wrist, and pulled at him, moving back to the sofa. "Yes. You're so gorgeous, Clark. I bet people stalk you when you go to your locker to change..."

Back to that blush again. It was so sweet, so Clark. "No," he said shyly, following Lex, settling down onto the wide couch when Lex wanted him to. "Nobody. Not ever. I mean, you know. I was a real geek in high school. Never really dated or... Well, nobody ever looked, and now... I'm. You know. Me. Nobody's interested, except, I hope... you."

Lex followed Clark onto the sofa, over the top of him, because keeping close body to body was probably the only way Lex could force himself to go past kissing. Even if it kept him from ogling the muscles of Clark's chest too much. "I'm interested. You're... you're so perfect. Thoughtful, sweet, funny, sexy." Everything he wanted. And Clark was letting him be on top. it made it easy for Lex to lean back a little to take off his own shirt. Not half as impressive as Clark, but.

The way that it seemed to embarrass Clark to hear those words just reinforced the statement itself. "Just for you," Clark asserted, and he lifted his flushed face to reach for Lex's lips.

"That's all that matters to me," Lex said, just before Clark's mouth found his. Clark was a dream guy, like something out of a movie, just for him. If he hadn't gone home with him, hadn't been saved by his father, Lex would've decided it was too good to be true. As it was, he was just counting himself very lucky that no one had caught Clark yet for themselves. Flushed kisses started sweet, but deepened quick, made better by the shirtlessness.

Made better by the skin.

Clark was hot to the touch, burning up beneath Lex's hands, and he kept Lex warm by default. He didn't remember ever feeling so... so pleasantly heated, at least not since he had lost all of his hair so long ago. Kissing Clark was like being drawn into the mouth of a furnace, and touching his skin was pure unadulterated pleasure for the radiation of heat that passed through him.

"Gorgeous," Clark whispered against his lips. "Sweet. Perfect. Lex..."

His fingers against Clark's back traced muscle and veins of heat, keeping him close while they kissed just by clinging onto his shoulders blades. It had been... a very long time since he'd done anything like that, and maybe never since it had felt so good, so hot. He was hard and Clark was hard, but that didn't seem to be the point of it.

"Mmm."

The point of it was... hands. Lips. Tongues. A faint rocking of hips that made Lex's mouth fall open with a little sound that seemed impossibly sexy to his own ears. He couldn't imagine what it sounded like to Clark, but if response was any indication, Clark liked it a whole lot.

"Please..."

"Please... what?" It should've come out sounding seductive, but it ended up sounding strained, a bare whimper as he pulled at Clark's bottom lip with his own, tasting Clark.

"Please, God, anything, Lex," Clark groaned, tugging faintly at Lex's hips to drag him closer. "You taste...." Mmmm, yeah, so good, and that was not Brain on the back of the couch, it was not, because if it was, Lex was so going to put him in the travel case he kept by the door. Except if he did that, Lex was pretty sure he'd have to move, and then Brain would just meow at them.

Yeah, those were wet cat paws on his back. "Oh, God..." He twisted to get Brain off of him, when he wanted to be kissing Clark. When he wanted to be pressing groin to groin, when he wanted to be luxuriating in Clark's heat.

"I've got him," Clark reassured, and Lex could feel a hand scooping the kitten off of his back, gently settling him on the floor. "Kiss me again, Lex," he asked nicely, rocking up so that their cocks brushed against each other through double layers of clothing.

Nice words and pressure against his cock. Lex almost melted back down into Clark, shifting to sprawl over top of him better than he'd been before. "Mm. Didn't want to try that with a cat on my back..." He'd probably made a pretty funny picture for a second, but Clark hadn't laughed at him

Clark, Lex figured, wouldn't ever laugh at him. It wasn't Clark's style. The only guy who could possibly be nicer than Clark Kent was Superman, and Lex was really starting to think even he couldn't manage it.

"I'll do anything you want," Clark promised him, voice rough around the edges. "Promise, Lex. Anything. Whatever you say..."

He leaned down to kiss Clark, mouth lingering only idly against Clark's lips. It took him a moment of gathering internal steam to say it, but it needed to be said. At least... he needed to hear it back from Clark, even if he knew that Clark wouldn't do that to him. "Just don't hurt me. That's all. You feel so fucking good..."

"Never." Never. More than a vow, a guarantee. Assurance. "God. Lex. No. I would never hurt you, I don't know how anybody could..." And... trembling lips, faintly damp eyes, definitely not the time for that. "I could never..."

Kisses turned shaking, desperate as he slid his arms tight around Clark's shoulders and did sink against him. Maybe it wasn't the best time for it, but there wasn't a best time for it. Clark was... Clark was it. Lex knew how people could, and that Clark wouldn't, that he knew Clark wouldn't was a sweet miracle.

"Beautiful," Clark whispered against his mouth, one hand coming up to cradle the back of Lex's head. "You're so... God, Lex..." The way Clark kissed him was like being eaten alive, and the best thing that Lex could ever remember happening to him. Their legs were entwined, and Lex could push against him just enough so that it felt... really incredibly good.

Better than sitting down with his hand and lube and fantisizing. Fantasies went wrong, or they didn't feel good enough, and reality was, could be, so much better than a pipe dream. He rubbed, pressed back down against Clark, kissed him and sucked at his tongue.

Lex couldn't remember the last time that he'd come in his jeans. But today was definitely going to be the first time in a long time. He really hoped it wasn't the last.

Clark's hands were on him, stroking him, from the back of his neck down to the small of his back and up again, careful not to touch anywhere that might upset Lex. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Lex noted that, but for the most part, he was too busy seriously enjoying every minute of what was going on.

Fingers, heat, kissing and soft sounds passed between them. There was a faint mew from the end of the sofa, but Lex didn't pay it any attention. He broke the kisses to kiss along Clark's strong jaw, breathing hard and trying not to lose too much control when he came. He could feel it, welling somewhere beneath Clark's fingers, inches away but caused by those touches, ready to burst free.

He buried his damp face against Clark's hair.

"Yes, baby. Yes, baby. Yes!"

Clark's fingers tightened infinitesimally on Lex's waist, his entire body rocking up for a moment as if he was going to somehow break free of gravity, even with Lex on top of him, and then... Then Clark was still underneath him, too.

It was the best Sunday ever.

Lex stretched one leg out, lazily checking that Clark's legs were still there, too. Felt good, even if they were both wearing jeans and shoes. "Uhn. Clark...?"

"Uh-huh?" That delirious answer was utterly blissful.

"I think I'm falling in love." Bliss for bliss, and Lex shifted his head a little to brush a dazed kiss against Clark's cheek. It felt incredibly real to lay there atop Clark. He'd... laid atop other people. Faking enjoyment or at least tolerance so he could slink away relatively unharmed.

"Good," Clark sighed, nuzzling into him. "Because I think I fell in love with you the first time I saw you."

Lex gave a faint faint laugh, shifting his arms so he wouldn't lose feeling in the one hand that was beneath both of them. "When I had the... that coffee cup glued to my hand?"

"And Lois was yelling about touching stuff that she'd fumed, especially after she had just put it back together with about fifteen tubes of superglue," Clark agreed dreamily, tenderly moving Lex just a little to be sure that he wasn't going to fall off.

Lex had to squirm a little to reposition himself, but it wasn't hard to find a comfortable spot on top of Clark, legs sprawled loosely between his, cheek against cheek. Brain seemed pretty sure that they were settled in, because he sprang from the end of the couch to explore and find the best place to settle down.

"I was lucky I was wearing gloves, or I'd still be getting it off."

"Well, if we don't get up and wipe ourselves off, we'll be lucky to get our clothes off," Clark pointed out to him with a little laugh. "Um. I haven't done that since... high school, Lex. Wow. You're just... Wow."

"Yeah." Lex lifted his head a little, and a faint flush crept over his cheeks, while Brain decided to knead needle-sharp claws against his ass. "You... You're just... wow, too. I guess we'd better move before I become a pillow."

"Or before Brain claws your butt," Clark agreed a little sleepily. "Lex? It would be worth it not to move. Even waking up sticky."

Shower then, or later? It'd have to be done... Lex pressed a kiss to Clark's mouth, smiling a little as he tried to unseat the kitten without moving him outright. "Yeah. Whatever you want to do, Clark. We can stay here, or we can wash off, then come back here and rest. I have an old sleeping bag that I'm pretty sure fits two...."

Because Lex wasn't ready to invite anybody into his bed. Not yet. Not just yet. Not even Clark.

"That would be perfect," Clark murmured.

And it would be. Close and dozing off their weird hours in a sleeping bag. Once they both got the energy to get up, at least.

But they had two whole days together. It was going to be the best weekend Lex had ever had.

By the time the weekend had ended, it was still the best weekend Lex could remember having. It ranked even better than the last vacation to the ranch in Montana with his mom, just because there wasn't anything to mar it, no sad knowledge that his mom was dying and that that was going to be the last time he spent with her.

It was just mundane, and relaxed. Sunday had been napping, and lazing, and more making out. He'd showed Clark his LEGOs and they'd fiddled with them a little before taking a box back to Clark's place. And Brain, but he hadn't been in the LEGO box. Monday had been a nice, sunny day and they'd relaxed outside in the sun, and Lex had dragged over some DVDs to watch with Clark. Tuesday had been good, too, even if he had to show up that night for work. Clark had that staggered day off, and Lex was trusting Clark to not ruin the Spanish fort in his absence.

Work was going to be great. Even if people were still going to be dancing around him like he was a man with a bomb strapped to his chest. Work was...

Lex pulled his BMW to a stop in his favorite parking space, and glanced in the rearview mirror. Was that a limo over there?

He decided very firmly that it wasn't. There was no way there could be a limo over there, just waiting to destroy the relaxation of such an incredible weekend. That would be cruel and unusual and...

It would be just like his father.

And there was no Clark to protect him right now. It was... just, just his father. He didn't need protecting from him, right? Maybe. Lex took his time getting out of his car, locking it behind him and spilling away his keys while obviously eyeing the Limo. He wasn't going to just approach it. If it was Lionel, then he was going to have to go to Lex and not the other way around.

He knew better than to get too close to strange cars.

"Son."

Ah. The old sneaking up through shadows trick. It still worked far too well, because Lex jumped despite himself, skin prickling up in a warning that came much too late.

At least he didn't curse or yell. Just sucked in a sharp scared breath of air, and tried to not frown too hard. "Dad. What a surprise to meet you here." He almost asked if Lionel was there to bail someone out.

"It shouldn't be. I've spent the better part of the last week trying to see you, Lex." Ah. His father sounded so deeply grieved, as if Lex had caused him injury somehow. "Your... friend, however, has been most adamant that I not speak with you."

"I know," Lex said carefully, slipping his hands into his coat pockets as he moved a little closer to Lionel. "And I know what you wanted to talk about. I didn't want to discuss it."

Hadn't been up to it.

Still wasn't up to it.

"So you agreed to this... person keeping you away from your rightful family. Lex, Lex." Lionel sighed. "It's disgraceful."

"Disgrace happens," Lex muttered, glancing at Lionel's eyes. "I have to go in pretty soon. Say what you want to say."

"Dominic was a good man. It's shameful, the way you people are muddying the waters of his life. All because you can't keep secrets, Alexander."

His jaw clenched tightly as he stared back at his father. "Secrets. I kept my goddamned secrets. What's being dug up is evidence of his crimes. Hard, cold evidence. I have nothing to do with that."

"Of course. And you never did, flaunting yourself so disgustingly before every associate who ever came to our home. You have too much of your mother in you. I should have beaten it out."

He was going to be sick. Right there, standing in front of the department, he was... going to be sick. No, he was going to be calm and focus. "I was eight, you... bastard."

That almost seemed to startle his father. "You weren't. You were twelve. You aren't recalling things properly, Lex."

"I was eight. I remember and Dominic kept pictures. And that... That is what's being investigated." He shouldn't have even said a thing. "And I'm not on that case. It's been sent elsewhere."

"Elsewhere?" If he didn't know better, he'd think that he had actually managed to shock his father. Maybe even hurt him.

Maybe...

Maybe Lionel hadn't known. Not until after Julian. Maybe...

Maybe still didn't make up for a lot of things. Didn't make up for things like Lionel had just said, didn't take back the implication that Lionel thought he'd been some sort of prepubescent slut. That he liked it. "Elsewhere. A different lab is following that case. Our duty is to find out who killed him... but he, he's been hurting people for years. Motivation wouldn't be a mystery."

"And where were you, Lex? The night that he died?"

His mouth tugged down into a tight frown. He should've known that question would come up, that was how his father worked. Chipped at him, somehow always always made it his fault. "I was at work. I was in the lab. This is always somehow about me, isn't it? Somehow it's my fault."

"Lex..."

He didn't want to hear it. Didn't want to, but his father was never going to stop, was he?

"I just wanted to be sure that you had a safe alibi, considering."

"Considering. Didn't you just... somehow try to imply that I, I seduced those bastards? Yeah, I was a real slut, Dad. I wanted to have sex before my balls dropped. Is that what you want to hear? I'm, I'm not sad that Dominic's dead. But I didn't do it. I don't need an alibi." He sucked in a shuddering breath, and turned his back to Lionel. "I need to get going."

And his father made no efforts to stop him.

Not one.

Lex wasn't sure whether to be horrified or grateful or just... numb. Lionel had never let him walk away before, not without getting in the final word.

Numb was it for Lex. His father's silence was either an admittance, or a threat. It was never good when Lionel Luthor went silent. As far as portents of doom went, that was pretty high up there.

And Lex just couldn't bring himself to give a shit. It was like the frosting on a large, well burnt cake. Maybe his father hadn't known; if he hadn't, that almost made it worse. Negligence rather than thoughtful pointed spite.

The first thing Lex did when he got to his desk was to open the drawer and look for his pills.

"Hey... you okay?"

The fact that Whitney asked about him these days, seemed concerned about his well-being, it just didn't sit well. It made Lex's nerves jangle a little bit.

"Sure. My father just took time out of his busy nighttime schedule of flying around the city and sucking blood from people, to accuse me of killing D-Dominic. I..." He jammed the side of his hand against the edge of the desk, stunning him for a moment before he got the pill bottle open. "It just never fucking stops. Tell me that you have a suspect or, or something..."

"We've got a suspect," Whitney told him, watching Lex carefully. "I mean, we haven't got hard evidence yet, but you know Lois."

Yeah.

Lex knew Lois. Lois would find a way to pin whoever it was so hard into the concrete that they'd never find a way back up again.

It made him smile as he tossed back two of the little yellow pills, dry. "Thank God. That's all I want to know."

"I hear that they're going to pin him and a lot of other folks for the, um. The pornography," Whitney said. "They're going to get them. Here and in Vegas. And once we've got them, maybe we can get everybody else they've dealt with."

Lex smiled, just a little, as he pulled his coffee cup out of his desk drawer. "It's funny... how Justice finds itself." It was a sick relief to think that they'd both found the killer, and that it was one of... their own. Scum killing scum, not a victim seeking revenge. Made it all the better.

"Yeah. He, uh, yeah. It is." Whitney paused, eyeballing him. "You gonna be okay over there, man? 'cause..."

"I'm all right," he assured Whitney pretty quickly. Even if he didn't really mean it like Whitney probably thought he did. He'd hang in just fine, and meet up with Clark after his shift. There wasn't going to be any need to call Clark in for him, because he was just fucked up. He wasn't a baby.

"Really. Just need to hit the break room, and... I'll be set for the day."

"Cool beans," Whitney said, and he smiled in a way that made him seem like he wasn't a science geek like everybody else in the lab.

Why Clark wasn't in love with him instead of Lex, Lex didn't know. He was incredibly grateful for it, though. He wasn't sure how he would've gotten through what was going on if he didn't have someone to turn to. Lex had always been okay alone, before, because it had been so quiet. Years of blissful quiet, no need to think or cope past simple things. Now...

Now Lex gave Whitney a matching smile, and headed to the break room. He had his old coping tactics. And when they didn't work, he had Clark.

Lex was in shock.

That was easy enough to say, or maybe difficult enough. Frankly, he was thinking of taking the entirety of his usual dose of meds and then adding another day's dosage on top of that.

They were searching his father's office.

His penthouse.

They didn't get warrants and search without, well, without good reason. But the Las Vegas lab said that the girl had been taken by a member of the ring, a suspect that they had identified. And sure there was an Amber Alert out for them, but it was past time to crack down on the whole thing.

And they were cracking down on his father.

Lex was thinking about just crawling under his desk, because evidence was pouring into prints, pouring into trace, and every so often something would pop up for DNA on that case.

He wondered what they had Clark working. Maybe on that case, just because it was threatening to swallow so much?

It was conflict of interest, though, wasn't it? Sort of, anyway. After all, Lex and Clark were dating. Well, they hadn't announced it or anything, but... everybody knew. It was...

Lex just couldn't think. Not solidly. Not reliably. His own father. Even after the conversation of the night before, he hadn't thought... and Lionel had looked so stunned. He'd let him leave without a word. Maybe he'd known, but not know what age. Or...

Lex didn't know. Except that he'd talk to Perry if Perry were actually in the office. At this point, though, everybody was out. All of the CSI staff, every CSI on call, and the day shift was getting pretty far into pulling a triple.

He seriously needed some Mylanta, and even seeing Clark walk past the lab didn't help that any.

"Hey, Lex."

Lex looked up from his desk, and dragged up a faint smile from somewhere. The only place it could've been hiding was the bottom of his heart, and that was definitely a Clark-inspired location. "Hey. It's pretty busy today, isn't it...?"

"Yeah. Kinda creepy, actually. Lois, um. Has your dad down in interrogation. I never thought I'd see anybody who equaled her for scary-evil," Clark said, reaching up and rubbing the back of his head. "It's a mess. Oh, uh, Mom sent some stuff to Grandpa Clark... so, he's gonna stop by with fresh milk, and with some coffee for you. It's in a thermos, and Lana sent it special."

Sweet. Lex's mouth twitched a little; even though he didn't feel much like trying to stomach anything, he was pretty sure he could handle caramel coffee. No, a hundred percent sure. Lex shifted a little, just wanting to... stand closer to Clark. That was all. He could feel Clark's warmth, smell his aftershave from where he was, and that was nice. "That's really nice of her. Uh... Do you think there's a chance once I'm caught up on processing that I can talk to him? Or is Lois going to bury him when she's done?"

"Uh, right at the moment? I'm thinking he'll be lucky if nobody cremates him." Clark's nose wrinkled apologetically. "But you can probably give it a shot. Want me to go with you?"

"When it's convenient for you," Lex agreed. "I... I don't think he knew what was going on. Just..." A faint laugh left him as he reached a hand to tentatively touch Clark's arm. "You should probably leave before I start to try to think again. I should really run those two guys they found out behind MetroCycle."

"They were pretty smelly. Not, you know. Been cooped up in a fertilizer vat for three weeks stench, but..." Clark sighed. "You know, if you think he didn't know anything... might be worth mentioning it to Lois."

"I could be wrong. It's not like I'm the most objective person." But, it might mean a lot coming from the guy who'd been in those pictures, bent in half, posing for other people's sick amusement. Hurt for their amusement. Or it could just be testimony that he was more messed up than he'd suspected. Lex dragged his eyes over Clark's face, then nodded faintly. "Yeah, maybe. I'll let you get back to work. And I guess I'll see if I can get Lois for a second."

"Sure you don't want me to go with you?" Clark offered, eyes fill of pure liquid support. Lex didn't think he'd ever gotten that in his whole life.

And he wasn't going to say no. Lex rubbed at the sleeve of Clark's shirt, then pulled back a little. "Sure. It'll help."

"Come on. Perry's out at LuthorCorp, so he can't yell at us for it."

At least, he couldn't yell yet. Lex nodded, and moved to slip out of the break room in front of Clark. "Lois will do it for him?" he suggested, voice a faint whisper.

"Maybe," Clark said, lightly putting one hand against Lex's back. It made Lex feel a little safer, somehow, a little more secure. "But I don't think she's gonna yell at you, Lex."

"Hopefully she won't yell at you, either." Lex kept close to Clark as they walked, not wanting to forgo that faintly comforting, warming touch. Clark was a boon to his existence, and he didn't want Clark going out of his way to catch all the flak that Lex was supposed to be getting from people.

"Yeah, well. Lois yells at me all the time anyway," Clark grinned. "It's not like it'll hurt me any. Or make me cry. Plus, I think she's kind of funny when she yells at me."

"Don't tell her that," Lex grinned a little, breathing out slower and with more concentration the closer they moved towards where his father was probably being detained and grilled.

That thought made Lex give a tiny smile, mostly because imagining his father stuck in a cheese sandwich and being flopped back and forth by Lois was... Well, moderately amusing. He'd take what he could get while he could get it, and be glad for it.

"I wouldn't dream of it," Clark agreed. "She'd just have to come up with new ways to scare me, then."

"I can suddenly picture her putting plastic spiders on the inside of your car dash," Lex grinned faintly.

Clark gave a violent shudder. "I can handle a lot of things, but... spiders? Not since I saw that Lost In Space movie when I was a kid."

"Never saw it," Lex grinned faintly. He would've liked to say that it scared him, but he sharply remembered seeing worse. What were mutant spiders when he could've been seeing himself being fucked? Mutant spiders lost all fear-inducing powers for him. He leaned back into Clark's hand a little as he spied Lionel through one of those all-showing interrogation room windows. And Lois.

Lois had a look on her face that promised hell, rising creek, and a severe lack of paddles. Even Lionel couldn't face that with total aplomb, surely?

"So, Luthor," he heard her say, "I think you're lying. There's evidence all over your penthouse that you knew what was going on. That you know your son was suffering. That you participated in Senatori's pornography ring, and you've got the resources to have had him murdered."

"Miss Lane, I can't deny that I'm a man of... resources, but I'm afraid that someone else beat me to killing Senatori. I was unaware of the... circumstances of my son's involvement with him until recently. If I had known..."

"You'd have had him killed sooner?" she asked, shifting to lean back in her chair and cross her legs. It was a motion that implied she was open, open for lies, open for truths, open for anything. It was a lie, all wrapped up in one little change of position.

Lex hung back, walking slower as he eavesdropped. "Very possibly, Lois. Can I call you Lois?" Oh, god. His father was putting on the schmooze; that wasn't the best coping skill to throw at Lois. Lex started forward, and knocked on the door.

"Lex," Clark whispered, obviously a little surprised at his boldness. Interrupting the interrogation at that point wasn't a good idea... for the interrogation, anyway. It was a great idea for Lex's father.

"Yeah," Lois called.

Lex hung back from the door a little, like he'd just realized what he'd done. "Lois, can I have a word with you?"

Uh... Lois didn't look happy. Actually, she looked like she might just eat him alive. "I'll be back, Luthor. Keep your slime to yourself in the mean time."

Lex stepped back, away from the door, and waited for her to -- He winced when she slammed it behind her.

"Lois, I'm 90% sure that he really didn't know what was going on."

"Yeah. Well, you interrupting my interrogation to tell me that shit? Not making me happy, Luthor. Kent! What the fuck were you thinking?"

"Lois..." Clark fumbled. "It's his dad. I mean..."

Never mind that Lois was looking at Lex like he'd just gone off the deep-end for probably the third time in as many weeks. Fuck, it sounded stupid to be saying anything at all, let alone with his timing. "Look, Lois... I can't remember him ever knowing what was going on. My father has a way of lying that I pick up on pretty well, and he's a bastard but he's not that much of a bastard."

"So... what? You think somebody came into his penthouse and planted all of the stuff we've pulled in so far?" Lois shook her head. "No way. There's no way anybody who didn't live there could be a part of this."

"Lex has a brother," Clark offered. "Lucas..."

"So bring him in, too. He lives in the penthouse." It was three stories at the top of a building, after all. Yes, it was possible that someone had planted it. It was what Lex wanted to believe, because it was easier to believe than that people had been... dealing with those things when he'd been out trying to live a pretty normal life.

It never seemed to go away. "I just... My dad though I was promiscuous and maybe started... a little sooner than most kids. But I don't think he knew what was going on."

Lois still wasn't happy with him. "Kent, get your ass out there and talk to Perry. And Luthor..." Wow. Dirty eyeball. "Don't knock on my door again. Got that?"

"Sure." It was a little hard for him to be cordial just then, and a lot easier to turn around. And pretend that his father wasn't watching him through the mirrored window. Pretend that Lionel couldn't know he was there, even though Lionel always knew. Even when he couldn't see Lex.

"And if you really want to see him," Lois said begrudgingly, "try back in an hour."

He dragged up a smile, more of a twitch of his mouth as he looked at her with grateful eyes. "Thanks. I'd better get going...." Results to process, all of that. He smiled at Clark, too. Clark was great for tolerating the stupid things he did, like interrupting an in progress interrogation.

"C'mon," Clark said, tugging gently at Lex's elbow. "I'll go get Perry. Um. Before Lois calls him and gets us et."

Lois's eyes rolled. "Up yours, Smallville. Get a move on."

After that, it was pretty damn easy to start off down the hallway at a good fast walking speed. Lex did, with Clark sort of half-dragging him along a little quicker than was natural. "Perry won't eat you..."

"He'll just throw me to the lions. The really dead smelly ones," Clark sighed.

Lex's lips twitched as they neared the part of the hall that branched off to the lab and off to the exit, which was where Clark needed to go if he was heading out to find Perry. "Well, if you're going to be thrown to Lions, the dead smelly ones won't put up much of a fight?" Lex leaned in for just a moment, brushed a kiss against Clark's mouth. "Thanks. I'll make it up to you."

The kiss alone seemed to have done that, Clark's expression so completely adoring that Lex almost laughed. Almost. "I'll see you later," he promised with a liquid smile that swore so much more than just that. It pledged love and adoration and understanding beyond anything anybody had ever given to Lex.

Even his mother. But maybe that was because he'd been just a kid at the time, and... Lex didn't know. Couldn't explain it as anything other than a gut feeling that Clark understood entirely. "Bye." So it was easy for him to turn away and slip back into the lab, and see what sort of DNA challenges were awaiting him.

Talking to his dad... It could wait until Lois was done.

"Yo. Luthor."

At least there were some constants in his life. For example, Lois. It never failed. He'd be right in the middle of something, and then he'd hear her say that, and it would steal all of his attention.

Lex wondered if Clark ever felt that way about her. Probably all the time, since he worked with her all the time. Still, it bothered Lex a little, even as he put down what he was doing. "Hi. Can I do anything for you?"

"I'm through with your creepy father," she told him, and Lex could feel Whitney's interest perking in their direction. "You wanted to talk to him."

"I did," Lex agreed. "Did you find out anything?" That she could tell him -- if she'd found out stuff that he shouldn't know, she'd simply tell him 'no'. And he'd been there long enough to know to leave well enough alone. "What room's he in?"

"Same one as earlier. Figured I'd leave you someplace comfortable until he had to go down to the holding cell. We can only keep him twenty-four hours..."

Lois wasn't going to tell him anything, but that they could only hold him for twenty-four meant that the interrogation hadn't yielded anything. It wasn't like his father was going to crack.

"Thanks." That DNA could wait a little while longer. Lex took a moment to steel himself, then walked to go into the main hallway.

The weight of hundreds of eyes seemed to fall upon him with every step. It was always like that when his father was involved, a faintly unnerving sort of feeling. Lex had honestly thought there would be safety from that in the CSI lab, that he couldn't be touched by it there. For the longest time, he had been right.

Not anymore.

Maybe he was just hallucinating it. It could've just been paranoia kicking in, because people knew what had happened to him. At least in the CSI lab. At least some people knew what was going on. Lionel was his father and he... he needed to talk to him.

Despite everything, he needed to talk. He paused for a moment outside the door, then nodded to the officer who was beside the door. "I won't take long."

"Take your time. He's only gonna be heading to the holding cell."

And God, wouldn't his dad love that?

Lionel would hold that indignity against Lex forever. He stepped forwards, pushing the door inwards and pausing to close it behind him before he actually gave any of his attention to his father.

"Alexander."

Oh, God. This was going to be one of THOSE talks, wasn't it?

"Alexander. I didn't know."

Or maybe it wasn't. Maybe his father was telling the truth about all of it. Maybe...

He didn't answer yet. He needed to mull the words over first, pull out a chair and sit down across from him first. "I... I'd guessed that you didn't," Lex ventured.

"I simply believed you to be... precocious. Attempting to draw my attention. I hadn't imagined that this..." If his father was struggling, Lex could only imagine what the average parent felt. "I swear to you. And you know that I would do many things, but I would not distribute something which could lead to my own downfall."

"I know." His father could've been evil, but he wasn't stupid. His father was too damned smart to get caught if he were going to be distributing that... filth. Lex sat back a little, mouth a tight line. "It didn't stop until after mom died. Then... after that, it was all me. So maybe I did end up precocious, because of what happened. But the pictures, the... the abuse happened first. I guess... Lois showed you?"

It wasn't fair that his father only looked sickened now, when it was much too late. "Yes."

Yes, and that was all he had to say about it. Lex wanted, deserved more. He swallowed, studying his father's features for something other than a little disgust. "Don't you have anything else to say?"

"What would you like me to say, Lex? That I'm sorry? That your mother and I should have noticed? You were a sickly child," Lionel protested, "and you always disliked being touched. You were always withdrawn and belligerent, and nothing changed that."

"You should have noticed," Lex muttered still watching him. "That's... what parents are supposed to do. Why did you always let Dominic take me places? Why did you let him take me on that, that g-god-damned road trip. I tried to get you to say no..."

"You tried to get me to say no about everything, Lex!" His father seemed silently explosive, somehow verging on detonation without ever verging from his path of quiet manipulation. It was something Lex never imagined would be so visible, or so frightening. "Everything was no, everything was I hate this or I hate that, or not the helicopter, Lex! How was I supposed to know the difference?"

"There wasn't a difference," Lex bit back. "I thought you were taking me someplace where I'd end up handed off to people I didn't know, and... I had a reason to 'hate' everything."

Watching Lionel deflate was... really, it was terrifying. "I can't believe that you thought I would allow such a thing to be done to you, Lex."

"I thought you were allowing it all along. Everything... seemed too convenient. You didn't notice things that I'd hoped you would. I... thought you at least condoned it. I was a kid, Dad. What was I supposed to think? No one noticed blood in my underwear. Or the bruises. I got lucky and never died at their hands, but I guess you would've noticed that. I..." He was wavering between extreme anger and sadness. Such misunderstanding. And he was the one who'd suffered for it.

"You were self-destructive, Lex!" And, yeah. In his teens, he'd taken that to a whole knew meaning, and probably come in looking just as ragged as he might have as a child. It was a vicious, hateful circle, and he wanted to scream, wanted to damn his father.

"I wasn't self destructive when I was ten. I wasn't self-destructive when I was nine, or eight! I was self destructive because those people, your supposed friends fucked me up so badly that it was the only way I could handle living!" It was more of a howl than an accusation, but Lionel wasn't going to make it his fault all over again. Not again.

"You can't make me say that I knew, Lex. I. Did. Not. Know." Cold, hateful statement. Might as well have said he didn't care.

"I know, I just..." Lex sad back, frowning at his father. "I want to know what you thought. How you explained everything. I just want to know how you didn't notice. I run a charity that deals with this stuff. Maybe I can, can make a list of warning signs you didn't know were warning signs. Or something." His skull was aching, and it was only by virtue of his talking that he kept himself from punching the table.

Or his father.

"You were a brilliant self-destructive child, Alexander." Lionel leaned back in his chair, one hand rising as if he planned to rub his forehead before it dropped back into his lap. That would be too much of a sign of weakness, Lex supposed. "I don't know. You spent most of your time with your mother or your nanny...."

God.

His father was pleading lack of exposure to Lex as a child and tainting the memories of his mother? "Just... once in your life, can you not shift blame, Dad? Just once. That's all I want."

"I sincerely hope that you aren't suggesting that any of the fault belongs to me, Lex, for this... travesty. Tragedy. Dominic is the truly guilty person."

"And he's dead," Lex pointed out quietly. "And I can't even get an apology from my own father. No 'I'm sorry, I should've paid more attention'. Just... 'it's your mom's fault'. Very classy, Dad. Very. Fucking. Classy."

"I'm sorry. I should have paid more attention."

Lex detested mockery. "It's no wonder that Lucas and I are so fucked up," Lex snapped. "You emotionally bereft bastard. You--"

Lucas. Oh, God. Lex jolted to his feet when the idea hit him, and he scooted the chair back. Lucas. Who else lived in the Luthor Penthouse? Lucas! God, it was so obvious, that it, it...

Oh god. His own brother.

Clark had mentioned him. Lex had thought of all the ways someone could have slipped into the penthouse, scattered evidence here and there and... and everywhere and...

The person who was making money.

Off of Lex's suffering.

It had to be Lucas.

"Lex?"

He'd even managed to startle his father.

"Lucas, he... I'll see you around." Lex swallowed as he moved to the door. "They'll be letting you out in twenty four at the most. Hang in there." He wasn't even sure why he said that much. Why did he try to comfort his father, when the old bastard didn't do anything for him?

No comfort. Just... more shock.

Lucas. Baby brother. Tormenter.

Replacement.

"Yo, Luthor. You look a little green around the gills." Lois. Right when he needed her. Or didn't need her. Oh, God.

"Lucas." What, no, he'd meant to say something like 'Hey' or 'yeah, I guess'. Fuck. "Lois, it's Lucas. It has to be."

"Lucas is small potatoes at best compared to the supersize fry!" Lois protested, but he could see her brain starting to kick over rapid-fire.

"Lois, I don't care. You're looking for the guilty party, not the biggest name you can snag." He snapped that, and almost immediately felt bad about it. But that was why Lois needed Clark working with her on cases. Someone needed to reign her in. "The only other person who has that much access to the penthouse is Lucas."

"And you think he's completely capable of this kind of thing." She was gnawing at her lower lip, a quick flash of teeth as she rubbed it against them in a thoughtful motion. "He's got access. He's got that kind of dirty criminal mind. Your father's definitely more upper echelon..."

"He didn't know," Lex insisted as he walked closer to Lois. He could see Lionel watching him again, eyeing him through the one-way mirror. "He's a bastard, but... he didn't know." He'd just thought that Lex was a slut. Huge difference. It still made Lex's head hurt.

Made his heart hurt. Made him wish for Clark, and the sheer importance of the other man was a little mind boggling, too. Lex hadn't been in love for a long time, but Clark...

Clark was a necessity now.

"I'll send somebody in to pick him up."

"Thanks." He wasn't sure why he was thanking her, or what for. His own brother, but he knew that Lucas was... capable of it. Lucas always seemed to think that one day, Lex would come back, like the prodigal son, and unseat him, when Lex didn't want to ever do anything like that. He wanted to be happy, be left alone. "If you need anything processed that's not... not for this case, you know where I am."

Maybe soon he could go back to being just the slightly goofy guy in the office. He'd bring in some of those wacky Potter spider LEGOs to watch Whitney twitch, and he could trade rumors back and forth with Chloe.

That would be just what Lex wanted in life. Things would wrap up soon, and he'd get to do just that. Life could go back to normal, and maybe he could finally put that chapter of his life behind him. He wasn't that kid who was being abused anymore. He'd made something out of himself. And as soon as all of those pictures were sealed away in a closed case...

He could concentrate on important things. Like the Charity's Christmas events. The big fundraiser and the much more enjoyable passing out toys to the kids.

Lex made a pretty shitty Santa when he dressed up, but it was still fun. Maybe this year, he'd get Clark to be Santa and he'd try for an elf. Or maybe he could rig up something for Superman like Batman had. The Supersignal? He wondered if Superman might agree to come see the kids. The thought made him flush a little, because he felt like a kid with a bad case of hero worship, but he couldn't help himself. He really was, kind of.

After all, how could a guy grow up with comic books and then not love the idea of a real life superhero? One who could fly without a rocket pack. Superman stepped in for all sorts of things that the police couldn't get to until it was too late. Until it moved from an attack to a homicide. That didn't mean that the police weren't needed.

Or that every day heroes, like guys who stopped to get cats down from trees and were mindful of people, weren't needed. Lex's lips twitched a little, a smile as he walked back into the lab. He had his own personal every day type of Hero in Clark.

Rescuer of cats.

Assistant to little old ladies with big bags of groceries.

Disaster and good things struck all at once, for maybe the first time in Lex's life. He had Clark, despite everything that was going on around him.

And that would be enough.

"Whadda you MEAN, we've got the wrong Luthor!?"

Super-speed really didn't help Clark much when it came to the Chief. If it would, he'd hightail it right out of there with a speed that would make Wally's head wrap around like something out of the Exorcist, but Clark knew better. Even with the cell phone at his ear, Perry had his eye on Clark.

As if Clark were directly responsible for everything Lois said or decided. He'd been taking a lot of flack lately, for just about everything. It was just a matter of waiting and seeing what it was this time.

"Uh-huh. So, his brother...?"

Perry listened for another few minutes before hanging up with a muffled curse. "Kent!"

"Yes, Chief?" Obedient enough, Clark reckoned, stepping forward and pushing up his glasses at the same time. A momentary fumble made him look off-balance, and satisfied Perry for the time being. Yep. Geeky, clumsy Clark Kent. It was funny how many people never saw through that. Or just dismissed him for being geeky.

"Your boyfriend has convinced Lois that we've got the wrong Luthor," Perry scowled. "So."

"So, uh..." Clark pushed up his glasses again. "I'll go get somebody started on a warrant, and we can go on to searching his part of the, um, penthouse?"

"I think that'd be the ideal situation. Technically I shouldn't be letting you do this, but..." He shrugged his shoulders. "We're stretched thin. It's not going to bother you, is it?"

"If it does, I promise I'll go see the department shrink before I tell you about it," Clark swore with a little smile.

"Right." He eyed Clark for a moment more. Perry wasn't a man for chitchat, but he seemed like he had a pile of questions to ask Clark and no way of breaching them without sounding bad. "Get going on getting that warrant rolling, Kent."

"Yes, Chief."

"And don't call me Chief!"

"Yes, Chief," Clark grinned, and hurried out before Perry could throw something at him.

Perry was still waiting for him, lingering, when the warrant came back in Clark's hand. He was pretty short when they reached the parking lot. "Get your kit in my car, we're driving over. I've called for two police units to escort."

Clark was sorely tempted to offer another 'yes, Chief', but he sort of liked having all of his parts in the right place. If he gave Perry many more answers like that this evening, he'd be lucky to ever get the smell of decomp off him. "Yes, sir."

Pinky really didn't like it when he came back smelling of rotting body and chemicals. Lex probably didn't like it much, either, but Lex was always willing to offer him a shower and a grin.

Perry still didn't look happy with him, even once they were in the vehicle and on their way. "I want to know what's going on with you and Luthor, Kent."

"We have breakfast," Clark said seriously. "And, uh. I'm asking him out. Well, I've asked him out. And I think... There's nothing against it, sir. I mean, dating out of the office isn't ever the best idea, but... Lex is Lex. And there's nobody like him. And, uh..."

God, he was sweating. He'd already considered this conversation, so he wasn't sure what the problem was. Nerves? Actually saying it? It should've been pretty obvious after he got Lex his kitten, but... well, someone should've done something like that before hand. It was pretty obvious that Lex did better when he wasn't all alone in his apartment.

"He's a good, hardworking tech," Perry noted as he drove. "He could've transferred to one of the national labs by now. God knows, they want him to transfer. Where do you get a tech with ten years of training that hasn't moved into the private sector already? I've been worried that he's going to leave because of what's going on with this case. And I don't want you to exacerbate his stress."

Huh. Clark figured he should have seen that coming. Perry was like a vicious poppa badger when it came to protecting his people. The mayor and city council twitched whenever his name came into conversation. Clark had seen it. "I don't think you have to worry about that. Lex... needs to talk about this. And he's kind of worried because if he talks about it, then his dad will get wind of things and use it against him or something later. He's pretty sure I won't do that. And he's right."

Perry gave him a sideways glance, which wasn't really safe even in Metropolis's night time traffic. It was still stop and start and swerve. "Has he talked about it?" Perry shot him a curious look, like he just hadn't expected that of Clark. "He was pretty tightlipped with Lois even when they went over the evidence."

"Some." Clark shrugged. "It's nothing that can be prosecuted, right? So. Mostly, he needs to talk to somebody just for himself, more than for the case. And he does that with me."

"Well. Good, I guess." Perry's eyes thankfully went back to the road. "I'd suggest that he needs to get a therapist that isn't a quack, if I thought he'd actually listen."

"He won't," Clark answered blandly. "But that's what makes Lex... Lex."

"I guess it does. You manage pretty well with Lois, Kent, so... Do a good job watching over Lex, huh? I'm trusting you on this."

"Yes, Chief," Clark teased, relieved that he could be trusted so much. Being entrusted with Lois was a chore. Lex... that was a gift.

It wasn't as if he was much trouble, even when he wasn't handling things very well. Usually he calmed down with something as simple as a hug and a few words. A little quiet. Lois took everything but a leash and a tazer to reign in. Luthor Towers wasn't far away, so Clark soon found them pulling to a stop in the parking lot. "We're going to let the police go on, secure the penthouse, and take him into custody. Then we'll search for evidence, all right?"

"Yes, sir." Yes, Chief, probably wouldn't be the thing to say when Perry was starting to buzz with repressed energy. If things got bad for the police, Clark could always make an excuse to go looking for a restroom really quickly.

They got out of the vehicle, and paused long enough for each one to grab their kits and their cameras. Clark wasn't sure he wanted to be taking pictures of anything they found there. Would he find more pictures of Lex being hurt? No matter what, they'd find pictures of somebody being hurt. A lot of them, if they were right that it was Lucas.

Well.

That was part of the reason he did this, though. Covering up after himself as Superman was part of it, sure, but.. helping people was a lot higher on that list. Clark had been trying to help others all his life, and being a CSI let him do that without drawing unnecessary attention to himself. Let him do it for a job. And that was a lot of the reason why Lex did what he did, too. His parents were proud of Clark for choosing to do that, and he could be both a helpful vigilante and helpful legally. And sometimes that meant seeing things he rather wouldn't. He and Perry hadn't even gotten into the elevator when the doors opened coming down with Lucas Luthor in tow of two cops.

"Fuckers! I didn't do it! I don't have anything to do with it! You've already got my dad!"

Clark watched with a blank face as Lucas kicked at one of them, his jaw tightening. What mattered wasn't who they had, but who did it. Sure, Lionel Luthor was a bigger catch. And sure, Clark wanted the guy behind bars for a hundred different things he'd never been able to properly peg on him. But you couldn't put an innocent man behind bars knowing the real bad guy could still be out there.

Perry hung back, scowling a little before he stepped into the elevator ahead of Clark. "Going up, Kent."

"Yeah," Clark said, watching Lucas for one more moment as they dragged him out of Luthor Towers. "Going up," he agreed. "Has anybody started on the other two floors?"

"The first floor and the third floor were Lionel's domain. The second floor... is where we're going to start." Perry grimaced, and added, "Of course, everything is going to have to be done over."

"Right," Clark agreed, looking up as if he was thinking. He was actually x-raying through the building to get an idea of what they'd be looking at, but that was okay. He'd rather be prepared, and sometimes x-ray got him a better idea of a person's little hidden spaces. It seemed to be the nature of the thing.

The bed seemed like a hidden space, for instance. He could see that the frame had some sort of hinged door at the foot end, and that it was crammed with things. And that was just the starting point, because he saw too many of those things. False drawers in cabinets, desks, everywhere.

It was going to be a really long night.

"You promised me a Superman t-shirt."

Lex was a little surprised to hear a grown man declaring that outside of the Metropolis crime lab at eight in the morning. Admittedly, the sun was up, and it was in his eyes. Admittedly, he'd nearly dropped his sunglasses on hearing that phrase. But...

Still. It was a little early for that sort of weird shit, right? Not that he thought wanting a Superman shirt was weird, but... they were standing outside the doors and he wanted to get out of them. He wanted to get out of them, go home, take his meds, and maybe curl up with Brain and go to sleep. Clark wasn't even back yet, and Perry had come in stomping and cursing every third breath. He didn't want to listen to some bizarre conversation when he had a plan to fall to pieces later.

"Come on, Nicky. You promised, and we might not even get to see him. I mean, we're gonna be here a day or two, and that's it, and..."

He had to say something. They were standing outside of the crime lab, after all. There was every chance that they thought it was one of the city's many fine museums, or... Maybe the library. They both sort of had the same steps. Kind of. If you were drunk and squinting.

Just one last good deed before he went home to hide. Lex pushed the doors open and stepped outside. "Guys? I don't know what you're looking for, but this really isn't the best place for tourists to hang out."

"Oh, uh..."

Yeah, he could see them clearly now. One guy with hair that looked like it hadn't been brushed in a month of Sundays and another one who didn't have anything but fuzz, but Lex would already bet there was a charming accent to go with that faint flush of skin and the little grin that shot his way.

"We're looking for the crime lab, and I think this is it, so..." the one with the crazy hair said cheerfully. "We're supposed to see... Who'd Grissom say? Um, Lois Lane or...?"

"She's kicking around the office. Would you like me to take you to her?" Grissom? The name didn't ring a bell, good or bad, for Lex.

"If it wouldn't be any trouble," the guy with the really short hair drawled. "We're here from the Las Vegas crime lab." He flashed his id, Lex catching his name just before he introduced himself. "I'm Nick Stokes, and this is Greg Sanders. He's just kinda excited about being in Metropolis and..."

"Dude," Greg groaned. "It's Metropolis. Home of Superman. Who wouldn't be excited?"

Las Vegas. Lex was all for the Superman fan-boying himself, but... Las Vegas. He knew what link Metropolis had with that city, and it made his stomach sink as he pulled the door open and turned to lead them back in. "It's understandable."

"See? Even the bald guy agrees. Hey, Nicky, maybe you should go ahead and shave yours off. It was a lot nicer when you, you know, had hair, even if it was scary Texas frat boy hair, and..."

God. Did the Superman fanboy (Greg, Lex reminded himself) stop to breathe?

He wanted the guy to stop to breathe, because the words 'Las Vegas' were hammering away in his head. That was where the pictures had been sent. Which meant that they were looking at them all, too. Lots of people being hurt, being flipped through, being dissected as evidence. He was there, in there, just another number. Another file. He really wanted to go home, make a bowl of cereal, and maybe let Brain drink the milk. Zone out on the sofa and try not to think about just how many people saw those pictures.

People who weren't even consumers of the shit. How many people needed to see pictures of him being double-teamed by old men with sick problems?

"Greggo. We're not here to talk about my hair," the other guy sighed, shaking his head. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name, Mister...?"

"Luthor. Lex Luthor. I'm the lead DNA tech here." The only good thing was that he'd been on his way out the door, and maybe he'd never see either of them again. Even if the one guy was babbly. They seemed like nice guys, and there was no reason for Lex to want them to just leave. No rational reason, at least. "Usually third shift. So's Lois, so I'll warn you that she gets cranky when she pulls a double shift."

"Can't be any worse than Sara after a triple shift," the one with all the spiky hair said cheerfully. "Sometimes I think she'd cheerfully strangle me about the time she starts one of those. Um... so. How often do you guys see Superman?"

Right.

Case obviously secondary to superhero right at the moment. Lex could feel his eyes roll before he could stop himself.

"Maybe once a month? He's a low key type of Superhero." Dressed in black and blue and red, he was a dark smudge compared to all of those other flashy superheroes. But he was Metropolis's. "Don't mention him around the head of third shift, he's pretty anti-vigilante."

Greg honestly looked disappointed when Lex glanced back, almost as if the whole trip had been about seeing Superman instead of a case. Lex's curiosity perked up when Nick reached over and ruffled that messy hair and said, "Don't worry, I'll buy you that t-shirt. And who knows? Maybe you'll get a chance to see him anyway."

"It's possible," Lex agreed as he turned down the hallway towards the interrogation area. He knew that was where Lois was going to be, but he didn't want to venture far down that direction. "Lois is down there."

He felt kind of like he was abandoning them to the unknown evil also known as Lois, but Lex wasn't stupid. He wasn't about to go see Lois in her current state of grumpy bitchiness.

"I've already interrupted one interrogation she was doing, so..." Lex raised his eyebrows at them both. "Good luck." Because he was getting out of Dodge, Clark or no Clark.

"Hey, Lex!"

Speak of the devil.

Well, angel, more like, Clark's hair curls all over thanks to morning dampness. "I got a... oh, uh. Hi. Sorry, I didn't notice I was interrupting something, or I..."

"Lex here was just showing us to Lois Lane. We're here from the Las Vegas crime lab." Nick patted the scruffy-haired guy's shoulder, and then sort of pushed him forwards like he was going to end up as Lois's sacrificial lamb. "C'mon, Greggo. Let's get to work -- then we'll see about your t-shirt."

"You're sacrificing me to some chick named Lois who scares that bald guy," Greg grumbled, moving forward with a sigh. "But if I get a t-shirt out of it..."

"Uh... nice to meet you," Clark offered, blinking as they moved on down the hallway. "Hi," he greeted Lex again. "I didn't think I'd get back in time to see you before you got off."

"I should've already been gone, but... got detoured." Lex shot the two departing guys a faintly nervous glance. Maybe they didn't recognize him from the photos. That was a really heartening thought as he turned to really look at Clark. "Long night?"

Clark looked desperately tired, so it wasn't a question so much as an offer to listen, if Clark needed him to. "Mm. Yeah. I... your brother's one seriously sick fuck, Lex," he offered hesitantly. "I don't think you guys are actually related. I mean, he's gotta be adopted or something."

"We have the same dad," Lex shrugged. So, he'd been right. It had been Lucas. He didn't really want to hear those words, didn't want to hear the exact phrase 'your brother sold you out'. Just... hearing that he was a sick fuck was all the confirmation Lex needed. Didn't want, either. "Are you coming off shift?"

Clark shook his head. "Just came back to drop some things off. Perry's still, uh, making his displeasure known. Back at the penthouse. So, I volunteered to bring stuff back. He doesn't even trust the regular Met police right now."

"Oh." That was just fucking great, wasn't it? Lex took a little step backwards, sort of looking for maybe an ominous box that Clark might be hiding. Never mind that he'd probably already dropped it off and had just gone on a quick hunt for Lex. "Okay. If you do manage to get off work... you know where I'll be."

"Um. About that..." Clark shuffled his feet, peeked at Lex shyly from behind bangs and lashes. He looked young, and sweet, and that was all Clark for Lex. "Uh, do me a favor? Go pick up Brain and take this." He held out his hand with a key. "Pinky thinks I've abandoned him, and I'd kind of feel better if you were at my place."

Lex took the key, then leaned in to loosely hug Clark. "Thanks. I'll do that." And maybe burn something in the kitchen for Clark that would keep in the fridge until Clark came back. And lay out in his living room while the cats played and relax. It was better than being home alone, and being at Clark's house was deeply comforting. Everything smelled good, smelled like Clark, and it helped Lex to relax. After the last shift, he was going to need to be able to do that.

It took him a while to pull back, looking up at Clark. "Good look with those guys from Vegas. And I'll see you when you get home."

"Yeah." He could see Clark shifting, moving in an antsy little way, and then Clark leaned forward and pecked him on the mouth, a sweet little boy kiss that tugged at his heart. When Clark pulled back, he was smiling, though, a huge beaming thing. "I'll see you soon."

"Whenever Perry lets you," Lex agreed. Clark was so sweet, so tentative... Lex really wanted to return the kiss, make it deeper, better, hotter. But that could wait until he got home. They'd broken in Lex's sofa, so Clark's was clearly next in line.

It was hard to walk away, but Lex made himself., After all, he wanted to get to the parking lot and out of there before the guys from Vegas started asking him about t-shirt kiosks.

Greg shoved his hands in his pockets and looked back over his shoulder. "He's one of them," he told Nick quietly as they looked for Lois Lane. "I mean, he's the chemo kid. The one in the pictures. I don't know if you saw them..."

"I saw a couple of them." He'd had to, when Greg had been out, sick. He'd just had to fill in, no matter how much he hadn't wanted to. "When you were in the hospital. I... He seems pretty together, you know? That's good to see."

"Pretty impressive." The stuff in those pictures had been horrific. "Looks like it's a strain on everybody here. You know, having somebody you know suffering like that." It figured that Greg wouldn't make the connection to his own troubles as being hard on the Vegas lab, but that he'd have a certain amount of sympathy for the people in Metropolis.

"Yeah, it's rough on a team when their own people are getting hurt," Nick agreed as he paused outside of a room with a one way mirror. There was a pretty woman with wild long dark hair, and a man with a unibrow who was handcuffed and flanked by two officers.

They paused for a few moments, watching her closely. "Huh. That's a really different approach than you or Grissom. More like Sara. That's... actually pretty creepy," Greg said, a shudder working down his spine. "I think maybe she's gonna eat him alive."

"Oh, c'mon. I know you've watched Brass at work," Nick said quietly, turning to look at Greg. "Right? He's cold."

"Well, yeah. I mean, he is, but this lady's more..." Greg shrugged a little. "Maybe we should go ahead and bring everything in out of the car. Even though she's not waiting for it or..."

"Need some help?"

Nick turned around to look at who was offering help. It was the same guy who'd come up to Lex 'the chemo kid' as Greg called him. That seemed kind of off, because the guy was still stark bald, but he wasn't about to say a thing to Greg about that.

"Maybe? We've found Ms. Lane, but we've got evidence to give her. And she seems pretty damn busy."

"Yeah, Lois gets, um. Pretty intense. I'm Clark. Clark Kent," he clarified, holding out a hand to Nick. "We're kind of short-staffed just now, so the only one who's not on the case is Lex. Um. I guess... if you're from Vegas, you probably know why." He frowned, cleared his throat. "Um. But I'll help."

"Great. Our Supervisor has told us we can stick around for a couple of days and help, too. We've sort of got a... internal issue going on in our jurisdiction right now, plus there's been a girl kidnapped, and seen heading this way." And no matter how keenly they'd kept an eye out, they hadn't seen any Mercedes Benz that matched the description they were looking for.

Obvious curiosity danced across Clark's face, but he'd just as obviously been trained to be polite. "I'm sure we'll be glad for the help," he began, before Greg interrupted him.

"Plus," the CSI trainee said, "Metropolis. Superman. I mean, how cool is that? Coming just to turn around and go back... how could anybody do that?"

Nick rolled his eyes, and then sighed. "Right. Do you want us to bring the evidence in now?"

"Um. Yes," Clark agreed, obviously a little flustered. "You know Superman doesn't... uh, involve himself in things a whole lot? I mean, he doesn't show up here or anything..."

"Greg's just kind of excited. Big comic book fan and all that." Nick grinned as he excused Greg, and then moved to head back out the way they'd come in.

"But he's Superman," Greg said, trailing along behind Nick and Clark. "I mean, it's like Warrior Angel, except with no wings, and less gay. Because, let's be honest, black is a lot hotter than lavender, no matter what anybody says."

"I think I know what it's like to take a kid to Disney." Nick shook his head, laughing a little. It was cute, and he sort of understood why Greg was going on, but... mostly it was cute.

"Take my advice," Clark laughed suddenly, "and don't. My baby sister's just like that when I take her, and I'm not brave enough to try that more than once every couple of years."

"But it's Superman," Greg sighed again, shaking his head a little mournfully. "I need another comics fanatic. I'm sure somebody's got to understand."

Clark coughed. "I think Lex would be insulted about the Warrior Angel thing, but..."

"And he just hoofed it out of here," Nick added. "But he's a comics fan?" It probably wasn't the time to mention where they'd had their big break in Las Vegas. Or maybe it was, since the guy was on the case, right? "That's sort of ironic."

"Why ironic?" Clark asked, tilting his head back as he paused before pushing open the door that led out into the parking lot.

Greg cleared his throat. "The, um. Kiddie porn ring. In Vegas. They were operating out of a comics shop. Guess that's probably... you know."

Yeah. Clark knew. Perfect place to look for kids, and it was obvious that it made him sick to think about it.

Nick felt sick thinking about it, too, but it hit home in a different way. "Have ya'll caught the distributor on your end?"

"Lois is interrogating one of the people involved. We're hoping..." Hoping, but they couldn't be sure. Couldn't be rock-solid certain. "I think that he's high up on the list if not at the top. So..."

"That was the guy with the funny eyebrow, right?" Greg tossed that out, still trailing behind them as they headed outside and towards Nick's Tahoe.

"Yeah," Clark agreed. "Lex's brother. We've got his dad in a holding cell, but.." He bit his lip, shook his head. "It's all one heck of a mess."

"Whoa. His brother and his dad?" Nick lifted an eyebrow as he hit the button that unlocked his SUV, and moved to pop the trunk.

"Yeah. That's why Lois is so scary this morning. I mean, I'm pretty sure that Lex probably warned, you, right?" From the sound of it, warning people about Lois came standard in their office.

"Yeah, but I took that as a general warning about her temper. Maybe she won't be as bad when we actually meet her, huh, Greg?"

"Yeah, and Sara wouldn't like to stuff me in a magician's glass cage and have me disappear," Greg answered, raising both of his eyebrows. He wasn't supposed to know about that comment, but Greg somehow found out about a lot of things that he wasn't supposed to know about.

Nick paused, the sort of pause that Clark probably read as 'man treading careful waters'. It was universally recognizable, after all, as the sound -- or lack of sound -- of a man keeping himself out of the doghouse. "You would've had fun. It went down in a chute."

"I would have liked it before the whole going up in flames thing," Greg agreed, which left Clark completely in the dark.

The faint rub at Clark's forehead made them both pause, but even that motion couldn't hide the little smile on his face. They were really obvious, maybe as obvious as Clark and Lex. "Yeah, well. I'm sure that when Lex has had some sleep, he'll want to talk comics, and he'll want to know about whatever it is you're talking about. He's a great lab tech. It'll make him curious."

"That's how Greg started out," Nick grinned as he pulled out the first box and turned around with it to hand it off to Clark. "He had to badger Grissom to let him become a CSI trainee."

"I'm interested," Greg said as he took the next box. "Besides. After the first time you guys needed my help outside, the lab got to feeling kind of small. Not nearly as exciting. Although I do have to admit, it was a lot more fun when I could still dance around with showgirl headdresses on."

"Sounds like a pretty wild place," Clark noted, holding his own burden close to his chest. "Metropolis is pretty much boring."

"I don't believe that," Greg defended smugly. "You're probably just way too used to it to think it's wild. I mean, you've got Superman flying around up there. That's exciting!"

He didn't take it too badly when Clark chuckled, or when Nick joined in. "Yeah, well," Clark said, "maybe. But let's get this in to Lois, even if she's not out yet. Then, I promise. I'll show you where to get that t-shirt you want before I go back to the Luthor penthouse."

"So, are you guys going to put us to use for you?" Nick asked as he hefted his own box, closed the trunk, and tossed Greg the keys and button to lock it.

"We're glad for any help we can get. And who knows? I'm pretty sure if the child from Vegas has been taken here, Perry will need us all," Clark agreed solemnly.

"We know you guys have the Amber alert goin'." Nick eyed Greg for a moment, blatant and a little worried again, then turned to follow Clark.

Clark could hear Greg murmuring to Nick behind him, even though anyone else couldn't. "I'll be okay," Greg promised. "I'm feeling better. Honest. A little tired, but it's okay. I can help out."

"Yeah, but you still need to rest. How about you get something from the vending machines, okay? I've got a bunch of quarters in my pocket. Take a breather."

Interesting.

He'd have to ask about that.

"Fine, fine. Gimme all of your quarters. You want something?"

"Coke," Nick said, balancing his box momentarily and pausing to dig in a pocket. Clark paused with them, turning to watch.

"Um. Vending machines are down near where Lois is," he said a little hesitantly. "That's what the change is for, right?"

"Sure is." Nick lifted his eyebrows at Clark, even as he forked over enough quarters to finagle a meal from the vending machines with. "Don't get those powdered donut things, Greg."

"Don't get those powdered donut things, Greg," the younger man mocked faintly, taking all of the quarters. "The donuts in Metropolis can't possibly be arsenic-laced, but," he said, "I will defer to your desires, Mister Stokes. No donuts for Greggo."

"Arsenic?" Clark asked, startled.

Nick was quiet until Greg had headed down the hall in front of them a little ways. "Someone back in our department tried to kill him with arsenic."

Clark let out his breath slowly. "Whoa. That's... pretty harsh. Um. I didn't even think anybody did that anymore. You know. Seems kind of, uh. V.C. Andrews. Flowers in the Attic. Doesn't say much for the type of literature the, um, poisoner prefers, huh?"

It made Nick tip his head a little, and then look sideways at Clark. "No. No it doesn't. I'll have to mention it to the boss when I get time. The thing is, the striations had just started to grow out in his nails to where it was visible. But it was in the sugar in his coffee, and he drank a lot for a while there, and... He had to be hospitalized." Then he looked at Clark directly, and almost grinned a little. "I hadn't thought of trash books, you know."

Clark gave him a wide beam in return. "Yeah, well. Pop culture. Sometimes makes things kind of weird to work out, but sometimes, it's pretty helpful. I'd bet whoever did it? They've read something like that."

"A lot of our guys read the classics... or the less than classics." Nick's arms went tense, like the box was heavy, and that reminded Clark that yeah, the box was supposed to be heavy with stuff. His too, probably. "So, why don't you show me where I can sit all this down?"

"Sure," Clark agreed. "It's just this way..."

Double shifts weren't on Clark's list of fun things to do. Being away for a ten to eight shift all night was okay, but pulling a second shift until four in the afternoon that lapped over days was on his list of things not to do. Ever.

It wasn't like he could get tired. He couldn't. He probably didn't even need to sleep, but he'd grown accustomed to it, and the fact that Lex would be at the house certainly had its advantages. Even if Lex would be doing that whole sleep thing. Which Clark really missed. It wasn't that he needed to sleep, it was just that he liked it. It was the only time that he could rest sometimes.

Double shifts, he wanted to tell Greg, was why Metropolis didn't see Superman as much more than a blur when opportunity presented itself. Double shifts were why he was knocking on his own door, because he'd given Lex his only key, and didn't feel too much like popping out his own lock.

Well.

Okay.

He didn't feel like replacing his own lock. That was a whole lot of time and effort and having to explain it to Lex...

"You look exhausted."

Yeah, well. Even Superman got tired sometimes. "Long day," Clark explained, reaching up to rub his face as he walked past Lex and into the house.

"I can see. I made you some breakfast, but you probably aren't feeling breakfasty." Lex was standing there in a pair of loose sweat pants, socked feet, and a t-shirt, looking sleepy and as rumpled as he could get. Rumpled for a man without hair meant he had pillow and sheet lines all over his head. And the cats were nowhere to be seen, for the moment.

"I could eat," Clark smiled, leaning forward to kiss Lex. Just a little kiss, but it was so nice. "Mmm. Yeah. I could eat. And then sleep. Think you wanna lie down with me?"

It brought a smile to Lex's face, and he pulled back a little to dig through the fridge for the saran-wrapped plates that he was planning to microwave. "Yeah. It took forever to get to sleep because the cats were celebrating." And he sounded worried, and tired despite that he'd been there most of the day. "How was it?"

"Interesting." Clark slid into a chair and laid his head down on his arms. "The Vegas guys are helping out. The one with the funny hair? He likes comic books. I told him you were a Warrior Angel fan."

Once the microwave plate was spinning, and the room was being quietly bombarded by the same stuff that Lex joked about using to make Plasma, Lex moved back to the table, fingers finding their way into Clark's hair, stroking him. "That's good. They seemed like good guys." Okay guys. Not... not Clark types, but maybe close. Close, but not the same.

"Hmmm," Clark sighed, enjoying that touch. "Feels good. You know, somebody in their lab was poisoning that one. Greg. Yeah. Nick said that's why they got sent to bring the evidence back, really. So that there wouldn't be any more attempts. That's weird."

"I can't imagine how bad it must feel to have someone in your own department try to kill you. Do you think they'll figure it out back in Vegas while these two are here?" It was... a nice distraction, both stroking Clark and discussing someone else's tragedy.

It was a lot easier to handle somebody else's pain than to deal with his own. Better, somehow, and the way that Clark hummed and arched like one of the cats beneath his touch certainly didn't hurt. "Hope so. They're nice guys, even with the whole Superman thing."

"It's funny," Lex decided. He had to pull away when the microwave started to give the 'beep beep going to blow up' warning. "I've always thought that Superman was pretty neat, doing things the way that he does, but I also know that it's best not to mention Superman around Perry. Or Lois. They twitch, and it's not the kind that I want to get on camera."

Clark laughed, slowly sitting up. "I guess it's neat. I mean... He just does it because it's the right thing to do, you know? Perry and Lois see it as being a different sort of right thing to do, though. I mean, he's not licensed or anything, so that makes it wrong. Or something."

"Sometimes, the cops can't get to a place soon enough. I know we've processed a couple of assaults that could've been murders if he hadn't been doing his good things the way he does." Lex pulled the plate out of the microwave, and put another in, then turned around with the first while he pulled off the saran wrap.

"So... you more or less approve?" Clark asked, peeking up at Lex as the bald man handed him the plate. He leaned down and took a deep breath. "Wow. This smells good."

"I approve a lot," Lex grinned, and then ducked backwards to grab Clark a fork for his quiche. "I'm a comic book fan, after all. He's not Batman, so I don't see why Perry complains. He doesn't rough people up. He's a good guy."

Clark gave a deep sigh, obviously pleased. "You're a good guy," he told Lex, accepting his fork and taking a deep bite. Mmm. Bacon and tomato. "So, you'd know."

"You wouldn't say I'm good if you knew that I fed the cats some of this." Flippant, sure, but Lex never knew what to do with a really nice, sincere compliment like that. He sort of felt bad that everyone at work was being run ragged when he was only pulling one shift, one shift, one shift. And he'd gotten to stay in Clark's house. And he'd been dozing in Clark's bed, because it smelled like Clark and that was where the cats had kept heading.

"Hmmm...." Clark tilted his head to the side as if he was seriously considering it. "Well, considering I usually give Pinky a bite of whatever I'm making..." He grinned. "I'm pretty sure I don't consider you irredeemably evil because of it. Yeah. You're still a good guy."

"Will that opinion stay there if I tell you I was camped out in your room?" Lex asked, only faintly nervous. Clark's room was nice -- peppered with star things and blues and comfortable feelings.

"Mmmm. No," Clark confessed, shaking his head. "In fact, that will change my opinion entirely. Now, you're not a good guy. You're a great guy. A great sexy guy who might want to, um, catch some sleep with me?" And he really did mean sleep. He was obviously exhausted.

"Finish breakfast. Or. Whatever it is now." Lex insisted that, but he was grinning. Yeah. He'd love to sleep with Clark. He was semi-awake, but it'd be nice to just lay there and feel Clark. There was something appealing about just letting his cluttered head go blank and drift, and Clark made that easier.

Particularly since Clark never tried to get him to talk about work.

The yawn that split Clark's face as good as declared that he would sleep like the dead, anyway. "Okay," he promised, tucking into the bacon-tomato creation with the fervor of a man who loved to eat. "I'll..." Another yawn. "Finish."

Sleep like the dead would be good, too. He could drag Clark over him like a blanket and just enjoy it. Enjoy warmth and not being alone and knowing that he was safe. And that Clark made him happy. "I'll go set the alarm."

"Mhm," Clark agreed, swallowing. "Think you can shift the cats, too?"

Lex smiled a little, and wondered, really wondered, why they bothered having two separate houses. Apartments. Whatever.

Maybe it was just for the change of scenery. Lex's place was wood-paneled, aubergine carpeted, and packed full of LEGOs. Clark's apartment didn't have a LEGO room, and he needed a guest room for when his parents and his little sister visited, right? Right.

Even if Lex was going to go get the cats off the pillows. "I'll give it a shot," Lex promised as he left the kitchen.

"Hey, Lex?" Clark asked quietly, catching his attention. "Um. I'll ask when you get back. Or, hey, do you want your breakfast right now? I mean, yeah, you're probably hungry..."

And the green-eyed brunette was obviously out of it.

"Not too much, but thanks. I'll be back in a second." Sleepy muddled Clark was as sweet as wide awake Clark, albeit he had all the symptoms of having worked two back to back shifts. Pretty soon, Clark was going to run out of overtime and would get switched to comp time, which at least meant that he'd be resting.

By the time Lex managed to flush the cats from the center of the bed and come back to the kitchen, Clark's head was on the table, his plate pushed into the center so that he wasn't lying on it. The faint whistling snores were kind of cute, and Lex couldn't help smiling.

It looked like he was going to have to heroically drag Clark to bed. Pulling Clark's chair out a little was pretty easy, and from there all he had to do was get his arms around him. Right? Right. Except shifting him was harder than it looked. He weighed a metric ton, and when Lex almost had him up, Clark's head lifted violently. A shift of motion nearly knocked them both over before Clark caught himself, and Lex stumbled a little.

"Sorry. Sorry."

"I was trying to drag you to bed," Lex laughed faintly, stepping forwards to touch Clark again. "Sorry."

Clark gave him a sleepy smile and reached up, tugging Lex close and giving him another of those sweet kisses. God. Lex could live with nothing but those for the rest of his life.

Maybe someday, something else would be nice. Stroking was good, rubbing, feeling, sucking kisses, but... But maybe someday.

Until then, he had heat and kisses. "What was that for?"

"For trying to drag me to bed," Clark murmured, kissing his nose. "I know I weigh a ton." His hands settled so tenderly on Lex that it made the other man shiver. "Um. I wanted to ask you. Sorry I drifted off."

"You've worked a lot of double shifts lately. So." Emboldened, Lex settled his hands on Clark in turn, looking at his friend's eyes. "What did you want to ask?"

"Um." Clark was flushed, and it wasn't just sleep. He looked hopeful, and a little scared, and it made Lex's heart speed up a bit. "I was wanting to ask if... I know it hasn't been very long," he interrupted himself, "but I was hoping that maybe..."

No guessing, because Lex was bad at guessing. He was a scientist, and they weren't made to be effective guessers. "maybe?"

"Maybe... we've been spending so much time together, and..." Clark swallowed hard. "I was thinking maybe you'd like to come. To stay. I mean. Not, you wouldn't have to sleep with me if you didn't want to or anything, and, uh, if you don't like the duplex, we could... we could do something else. If you wanted. Or if you don't, it's okay, too, just..."

"I'd like to. It... I'd like to. We can figure out the logistics later." Lex shifted, trying to get Clark to move backwards, down the hall and towards the bedroom. "When you haven't worked four shifts out of five."

"Not that many," Clark protested, but he was shuffling, and he was yawning. Frankly, it was a miracle that he was on his feet.

"You worked two shifts yesterday," Lex reminded him, "and two today. With one 'break' shift in the middle of them, that's four out of five. You need to sleep."

"You won't go without me?" Clark yawned. To work, he meant, Lex was pretty sure. Of course, if he felt like Clark couldn't reasonably hold up for another shift in six hours, he might not wake him up.

"I'll try not to." He wouldn't outright lie to Clark, after all. But he would do what he could within the realm of honesty, even as he kept trying to walk Clark towards the bedroom and his bed,. Hopefully the cats hadn't re-nested, and if they had... well, he'd just have to shift them again.

After all.

Clark needed the rest. Pinky and the Brain could wait until evening to try to take over the world.

"I can get the evidence. They're going to know it's gone, though. And if I don't get everything..."

"You will get everything." It was a sharp insistence. "That's why I'm sending you in, aren't I? Because I know you can do the whole job."

"You're sending me in because I'm your last resort." They both knew it. It was obvious. "You don't have any other choices. What do you want me to do if somebody resists?"

There was a laugh. "Lunge, Robert? I know you can do it."

"Huh. Anything else you might want while I'm at it? Impossibilities aside, of course." As if such an absurdity as impossible existed for either of them.

"Oh, take any liberties you like," he shrugged simply. "Do what you do best. All that I require is that you destroy and steal the evidence back. Have them burn it themselves. I don't care."

"Including the original source? I know how you liked him, Morgan. He is exotic, isn't he? And I'm sure you love fucking your old partner's son."

"Mm, there's a certain allure to a boy who grew into a man but didn't grow up, or seem to hit puberty. Yes, I think I'd... like you to convince him to come here. Willingly of course. I can take care of him on my own."

"Oh, I don't doubt. You realize what this will cost you, of course."

"Yes, yes. I'm aware."

"Good," Bob Rickman said, and turned away to leave.

It was probably one of the best nights in the lab that Lex had had in a long time. Sure, he was extracting DNA from a toothbrush. But he had company, company in a lab guy who was.... pretty damn neat.

Lex had always wondered how many people owned the Warrior Angel music tribute album. Now he'd met at least one other person.

Greg Sanders had been a little weird, even for Lex, at least after working an entire shift. Especially after a shift which involved all living members of his family coming in for interrogation and possible jail time. Now, though...

"And Devilicus. They're so gay. So gay together. I mean, it's stamped all over the place. Nobody gets that pissed off if they're not sleeping together," Greg asserted, poking out his tongue as he carefully began a DNA replicating sequence. "And nobody just... you know, doesn't kill the bad guy if he keeps coming back. I mean, archenemy my rear end."

"Jilted lover," Lex agreed. "I've always thought that. A lot of characters have that going on. Warrior Angel has killed, so... why not Devilicus? Because he still pines for him." And wanted him in bed in his secret fortress. Lex liked to daydream about that -- the comics that would never get drawn, and damn well needed to be.

The lusty sigh Greg gave more or less implied similar thought processes. "Yeah. And he wants to tote him off and make him his oooown." Yeah.

Great minds.

Lex grinned a little. "I went to a comic convention once, when it came to Metropolis. And I bought a fan-made book with... just that sort of thing. It's pretty neat, even if the art was scruffy."

"They HAVE that kind of stuff?" Wow. Obviously the notion alone was sparking a whole new obsession. "I've got to see that. You're so lucky. All of that, the biggest Warrior Angel con ever, because I know it comes here, and Superman."

Lex's mouth twitched a little. "Yeah, I guess so. Metropolis is... a great city. I could've worked anywhere, but I came back here because it's, it is just that great. It's no Vegas, but it has its highlights."

"Vegas doesn't sleep. It's wide open, twenty-four seven three-sixty-five," Greg agreed, shrugging. "But it's a different kind of place. Metropolis is all... I don't know. Big. And neat. And clean. And, uh. Kansas."

"Drive three hours west and you're in the country. Clark comes from out there, and it's really scenic. Even with the corn and the cows." Lex shifted, picking up a tube. He was glad that his hands were nice and steady when it came to things like toothbrush DNA.

"I don't think I've ever, uh, actually seen cows. Not up close and personal, anyway. Probably a good idea to keep it... that... um, Lex?" Greg asked, peering towards the door. "That guy... he doesn't look like he belongs here."

Lex didn't look that way quite yet, but he finally shot a sideways glance. "Huh, you're right. Why don't you go see who he's looking for while I just finish this..."

"Right. Gotcha..." It was okay to leave the machine running, because Greg would be back in just a minute. Whoever it was, they'd probably just gotten lost and...

No, smiling like a used care salesman was pretty out of the ordinary.

"Lex Luthor."

Lex lifted his head a little, glancing over while Greg sort of edged towards the guy, looking wary.

"Uh, Lex is busy right now, but you can talk to someone at the front desk..."

"Oh, sure. Tell you what, why don't you take one of my cards..." Held out. So funny. There was something off there, something really wrong, and Lex had the sudden feeling that climbing underneath his desk and hiding was the best idea he'd had in months.

"Rickman Enterprises. Huh. Yeah, well, I'll give you a call if he comes in," Greg answered blithely.

At that point, it wasn't like anyone in the office would've found anything weird about him sitting under the desk.

Greg sort of stepped backwards, but hung around like he was going to wait for Rickman to get the hell out. "Thanks. Goodbye."

"Don't you want to show me to Lex?" the man asked, making a shudder rip through Lex.

"Not particularly," Greg answered. "Anyway. We've got work to do, so..."

"Whoa, man, put that down!" Greg's hands went up a little, and immediately he was thinking of what the other agents would do. Lex saw, and ducked down behind the desk, because that was suddenly the option.

"Luthor's here. And you're going to take me to him. In fact, I think you'll be going on a little ride with us..."

Oh, shit. This was all bad. Really incredibly bad. What was going on here? How was this guy managing to do that in the middle of the Metropolis crime lab?

No, no, Luthor wasn't there, Luthor was hiding under his desk and really wishing that he had a plan of action that would just put a stop to the man with the gun. God, wasn't there a cop to stop things?

"Uh.. no?"

"No..." God. Lex could hear the safety disengage, could hear Greg's breath catch. They were walking into the lab. "No, Mister Sanders, is not an option."

"How do you know my name...?"

"I know a great many things, Mister Sanders. I know you're here because someone is trying to poison you -- sadly, not one of us, though we certainly find ourselves grateful for the assistance. I know that you're a huge comics fan. And I know that you were in here with Lex Luthor talking about those things just a few minutes ago. Now. You can tell me where he is, or..." Lex heard Greg let out a stuttered breath. "...I can blow your brains out all over this lab, and still find him all the same."

Lex was pretty sure that he was a coward, but knew that he wasn't a jackass. He shifted, and then crawled out from under the desk. "That's... that's okay. You can skip that."

"Oh, thank God." The desperate way Greg expressed that made him feel like shit for not coming out sooner. "Jesus, Lex. You should have stayed hidden..."

"No," Rickman disagreed. "He shouldn't have. And since you had the idiocy to refrain from listening to me, I'll be taking you along, too. Maybe call it a two for one deal. How about that?"

"You have balls to be doing this right now, in the middle of a shift," Lex growled as he stepped forwards, hands up a little as he stepped towards Greg.

"Balls, maybe. But also a certain... magic. It's a shame your friend here didn't do as he should have." There was a clatter of metal, a handcuff settled on one of Greg's wrists. "Now yours, little Lex."

Little Lex. God. He hung back a little, eyeing the man, seeing if he recognized him from blurry hazy moment. "Why? Why are you doing this?"

"I owe a few favors. And a lot of us are going to have a sudden need to exit the country rather swiftly because of you and yours, Luthor. There's a man who wants to see you." The other shackle was firmly placed on Lex. "Now, your other hand."

Lex extended his latex-gloved hand, eyeing Rickman. And the gun. "No favor is going to be worth jail time."

"Don't worry about that, little Lex. Be good and quiet, like your friend here. You know, I've wanted to get one up on your dad for years. Having you walk out of here knowing what's going on, with your little lab-friend in danger, too... well. That just makes my day. I know it's going to brighten up the entire week of the gentleman I'm taking you to see..."

Lex worked his jaw, not willing to move an inch unless he was ordered to. "I don't want to brighten his week." Or anyone's week who wanted to kidnap him.

"And, really, it's perfectly okay with me if he doesn't get brightened any, either." Greg said, shuddering faintly as the muzzle of Rickman's gun pressed hard against his temple.

"I want both of you cuffed together. That simple. I think I'd rather have you fully aware of what you're doing." Well. That was confusing as hell. Why would they not be fully aware? He was holding a gun to their heads, kidnapping them from what Lex had always assumed was the safest place in the world.

Safe except when it wasn't, apparently. "Okay. Fine."

Fine. They crossed arms according to Rickman's further directions, nearly weaved together around the handcuffs. It was distinctly Not Fun, and that was the understatement of the year.

God.

Where was everybody? And why hadn't he been smart enough as to wake up Clark and make him go to work? Because Clark had been dead tired, and it just seemed better to let him sleep. He hadn't promised that he wouldn't go to work with Clark, only that he'd try, dependent on how wiped out Clark was. And Clark really seemed like he'd need that extra bit of sleep.

But what Lex needed just then was Clark. To do something.

"You're not going to get away with this," Lex reiterated as they were walked through the department and the chaos that was ensuing. The whole lab seemed to be alive around them, walking right past as if they didn't even see Rickman, as if he wasn't there at all.

As if they weren't there.

"Really."

"Linda? Hey, Linda, you--" Looked vacant, soulless. Lex stopped trying to get the attention of the front desk girl as he and Greg were walked out the front door and towards a vehicle. If they tried to run, he was pretty sure that either he or Greg was going to end up shot. And Greg was a pretty neat guy; Lex didn't want to put him at risk.

He hoped Greg liked him at least half that much. He didn't want to get shot, either.

"You know," Greg said conversationally as they were nudged towards the back seat, a man opening the door as they got closer, "Superman's going to catch you. And when he does, you're really gonna regret this."

The thunk that sounded when the butt of the gun met the back of Greg's head really wasn't a good kind of noise.

Lex twisted not to fall as Greg went limp into the backseat, saw the gun butt coming down at his forehead and.

Headache.

Throbbing, aching, all the way down to his toes.

"Good to see you're awake again. 'cause I... have no idea where we are."

"Uhn..." Lex lifted his head groggily, immediately stretching. Or, trying to stretch, since it was habit to see just what his range of motion was whenever he woke up. It used to be for different reasons, but lately it was to make sure he didn't knock Clark in the groin with his knee, or kick a cat. Or knock his hand against some piece of as yet unfamiliar furniture.

Just then it felt like one of the old reasons, because he was handcuffed to a chair, and when he tried to move, his ass stuck to wood.

Waking up naked was never good. Waking up naked, chained and in a stark room with Greg, and... a little girl in a similar position across from them was worse.

"Needless to say, nothing's looking all that good just now." Well. Wasn't that just the understatement of the decade. All things considered, it was only going to be getting worse. Lex knew that from experience.

As much as he hoped that little girl was okay, he really hoped she didn't wake up any time soon.

Lex closed his eyes, because it was almost like he wasn't stark naked if he did that. Clark hadn't even gotten him entirely naked yet. He'd been careful for years, and now it was just gone. "Thanks for the understatement."

"Would it have helped if I screamed like a girl? 'cause I'm really pretty tempted. This wasn't really in the plan for this trip. I mean, sex, yeah, hot sex, I hope, but..."

Yeah.

They definitely had the same thing on the brain as to whatever was planned.

Lex had twice the reason, though. He shook his head a little. "He's... We're going to be hurt, and then, if we're lucky, I think, I think we're going to die."

The shaky way Greg's breath hissed out said a lot about how that made him feel. "Hm. Well. I guess I should thank you for being honest. Uh. Would it be... completely not manly to have fits of hysteria now..?"

Lex pulled at the handcuffs, pulling his thumb in to his palm and pulling testingly. No, it was too tight. Not many people were familiar with his willingness to dislocate joints to save his own skin, which narrowed down where they were. Morgan Edge seemed a possibility, particularly when he opened his eyes a little to take in the room that seemed... yes, like it belonged in a warehouse. "He likes it when you scream. So. Not sure."

"I'm gonna assume that you know who it is, then, if that's any indication." Greg was shivering across the way, and yeah. Lex could see why Edge would keep him. They were similar body types, tall, slim, even if their faces were wildly different. If it wasn't for the hair, Edge could probably pretend he had two prepubescent boys at his mercy.

Never mind that they both had to be in their thirties or nearly there. No one had ever accused Edge of being sane, and certainly Lex wouldn't. "Yeah. I... I have a pretty good idea of who it is." He jerked at his hand again, feeling the metal edge of the cuff scrape skin. Hell, if he flayed a hand trying to get out, would it be so bad? Animals chewed their legs off all the time.

Greg was watching him closely, hopefully. "Are yours looser than mine? I think I've worked my wrists raw..."

"No. But I dislocate my thumbs..." Lex pulled again, grimacing as he tried to arch against them. Fuck, fuck that hurt, it hurt enough to make him want to cry. "Shit, and he remembered."

"Yeah." Yeah. It wasn't much of an answer. "The kid's not cuffed as tightly from what I can see, but her ankles are still wired to the chair. I don't think we're going to get anywhere, Lex. Maybe..." He could hear Greg swallow hard. "I'm guessing that Superman doesn't magically show up like Warrior Angel, since he's not here yet. Huh?"

"That would be correct, Mister Sanders."

Lex groaned a little, and closed his eyes as if that would make it all better. He still knew what Edge looked like, knew his voice, remembered too sharply what he felt like. Edge had been a more solidly built man twenty years ago, but he'd still engulfed Lex's body beneath his own. Lex still remembered how Edge had liked to do that, make sure that Lex knew how weak and victimized he was. He'd also liked to be on the bottom when he and Dominic had fucked him at once, so he could see Lex cry. He had fingers that seemed massive to a kid, and...

"Can't you just shoot us and get it over with?" Lex demanded, voice straining.

"Where would the fun be in that?"

"Well, if it's all the same, skipping the fun seems like it's okay to me," Greg hurried to assure Edge. "Or, you know, you could just let us and the kid go. I mean, they'd take it for the clemency it is, and we'd put in a good word for you..."

Ha. Ha.

"A good word, mmm? Would those words be 'Guilty as accused', Mr. Sanders?" He let a pause settle, and then went on, "Yes, I know who you are. And I'm going to know you very well very soon. I'm surprised that you're as old as you are. I bet you were a sweet looking child."

Lex could hear Greg's breath catch, see an overwhelming dread creep into his gaze. He knew that it was already in his own, a more hopeless version, perhaps.

"The kid hasn't seen you," Greg pointed out. "You could at least blindfold her. She doesn't deserve to die."

"Who said that she will? I let people live long lives if they keep silent. Alexander..." Morgan twisted to look back towards Lex, but Lex wasn't looking. The floor was more interesting. Anything, anything at all to keep him from panicking. "Twenty years is a long time to lease your life without making the appropriate payments."

"Go to h, hell."

Go to hell, burn and rot there, don't ever, ever come back. Except that he hadn't. Dominic was dead, but what good did that do if Morgan Edge still lived? How could he go back to feeling safe if...

"Mmm, I think not. You see, if my colleague hadn't left such a sloppy mess after his untimely death, I wouldn't have to make such a... sloppy mess out of you." Edge touched his fingertips to Lex's chin, forcing his head up slowly.

The blasting explosion of a window high on one wall shattered what was left of Lex's nerves, and sent a rain of glass down onto their heads.

"Shit!"

God only knew where that exclamation came from -- Greg, Edge, maybe from his own mouth, but there was a swirl of red and black and blue, and maybe the overwhelming belief Greg seemed to have in Superman wasn't wildly misplaced because he was there, and moving Edge and then... no. No, that wasn't supposed to happen. Superman wasn't supposed to show up and then stagger backwards onto the floor, gasping. While Edge triumphantly held out some kind of polished jade rosary.

"Ah, yes. Superman. I've been expecting you, Kal. You always were stupidly optimistic about getting yourself out of the trouble you managed to get yourself into." That shade of green didn't look good on anybody, but it looked completely horrific on Superman when Edge reached down to wrap the beads around his neck tightly.

"Fuck, You bastard!" Lex jerked again, and choked when he actually got his right hand free. Couldn't move it, but he was free to twist and try to lunge at Edge from behind. Sure, he'd take the chair with him, but it was a hope.

"Oh ho. You always did have a thing for heroes, didn't you, Lex? A desire for someone to save you, to love you."

Greg wasn't any more free than Lex, but he seemed to have more upper body weight, because he was wriggling frantically. Lex could see blood dripping from somewhere. "That's not right!"

Nail on the head with that shot, but Lex was in too much pain when the chair fell over, missing Edge completely. It was sad that all Morgan had to do was sidestep, leaving Lex to land on the arm that was still bound behind the back of the chair. "Goddamn you!" He could... maybe drag himself over and get that off of his neck. Because the city's hero looked like he was dying, choking to death right there.

And the city's hero...

The city's hero was CLARK.

It all made a weird, bizarre kind of sense. Love. True goodness. God. Sweetness. Desire to help.

The way Superman never slowed down enough to be seen.

Edge laughed while Lex flailed, dragged himself and the chair that he was chained and wired to over the glass-littered floor. "Oh, Alexander. You really are a creature of lost causes. This, Mister Stokes, is a sad sad creature. Do you want to touch greatness, Lex, before it dies? He'll strangle before you get there."

He couldn't.

Clark couldn't.

_No_.

"FUCKER!" Vicious sound, and Edge obviously wasn't expecting a couple of lab geeks to be even remotely likely to try and fight. Maybe he'd spent too much time molesting children to remember what it was like, because he was just a little too close to Greg, and when the chair tipped over, he was too busy watching Lex to get out of the way.

So he went down, and Lex tried to not marvel at the sight because there was something more important to do. He had to get there faster, and jerking his legs against the chair helped. Clark was still gagging and twisting at the beads with useless-seeming fingers when Lex got there, and slipped his own painful, bloody hand beneath the length, and yanked at it.

The beads caught. The string holding them together seemed impossibly strong, and then they were spilling all across the floor wildly, and Lex could hear yelling somewhere else in the warehouse, and God.

God.

His life couldn't be going right, could it?

Lex went slack for a moment, eyes trained on the very, very familiar face that he hadn't expected Superman to have. Maybe no one else would notice, but he had, he knew, and he really wanted to see those eyes open. "C'mon, you have to wake up..."

Had to.

Had to.

"Keep back, or I'll shoot them all!"

Edge had managed to disentangle himself, and they were in a true mess. Clark wasn't breathing, Lex was a bloody mess on the floor, and the little girl was waking up.

God. She was going to start crying, screaming, Lex knew it, then Edge would pivot and blow her body to bits with that fucking gun, and...

Lex dragged himself a fraction closer to Clark, breathing hard. He couldn't feel his left arm, his left side was a mess of pain, he didn't want to think about his ankles, but Clark wasn't breathing. And the best he could do was prod him.

It was a shock when one ragged, deep breath was followed by another, and then another, and then.

"GREG!"

His luck was getting so much better.

"I'll shoot!" Edge waved a gun at Nick, who was in the doorway, and almost absently kicked at Greg's side. "Goddamn you, I'll shoot!"

The girl started to cry, and it was all the perfect distraction for Clark.

Even with the glowing beads, he was fast, ridiculously fast. The gun was across the room, Edge was unconscious on the floor, and Clark...

Clark was gone.

"Wow," Greg said, a shuddering, hard gasp that sounded almost like a sob escaping him. "Oh. Shit. Wow."

Wow. Wow, they... they were all alive. He was still naked, bleeding a lot, but... They were all okay. Even if there was a kidnapped girl, and Nick was going to have to set them all free. He wanted Clark. He wanted to be home, either home, in bed, safe and hiding and...

"Get the girl free..."

"We just saw Superman," Greg mumbled. "And I was naked. Well. Hell."

Shock did funny things to people.

And then there was a warehouse full of cops, and crime scene investigators, and so many people that Lex really couldn't say what came next, or when, or why.

It just did.

One minute he was laying in glass and blood and wires and handcuffs and was cold, and the next he was warm and hazy and in what he really hoped was a hospital. He also hoped that he was covered in a lot of blankets, and that he wasn't naked beneath them.

"Are you awake?"

It was barely a whisper, a worried little sound accompanied by the stroking of gentle fingers.

Clark.

Superman.

"Hey." He sounded like he was on the good shit, and that was fine by him. The weight of warm blankets was almost crushing when he moved a little, trying to get a hand free to touch Clark. "You okay?"

"Thanks to you." Clark helped him get his hand loose. "You scared me, Lex. I... Wow. I was so scared I wouldn't be in time."

"I should've woken you up," Lex apologized hazily. His left hand was still in good shape, and that was what Clark had helped him move out. Almost immediately, he was reaching to touch Clark's face. "How did you...?"

"Went into work late. You weren't there. Everybody was all to pieces, evidence missing, crazy stuff, and..." Clark looked completely wrecked. "There was a guy. In Smallville. He could make people do things with just a handshake. It was like hypnotism. The signs were... really similar."

"I wondered how he did it." Lex barely mumbled that as he reached and stroked Clark's cheek. It felt good, really good to know that Clark was solid. "You scared me when you weren't breathing."

"Yeah," Clark said, leaning down close to Lex. "That stuff, it's... it's like poison. It does bad things to people, Lex."

"I saw." Maybe it did it to all people, or just to Clark, but it didn't matter. Lex sighed, looking back at Clark in an almost satisfied haze, "So we're all okay?"

"Yeah," Clark said. "Everybody's gonna be just fine. Especially you. Close your eyes, Lex. Get some rest. I'll be right here waiting when you wake up."

"'s my thumb where it should be?" He kept stroking Clark's cheek, looking at him, not asking questions. No questions about Clark being Superman, no questions about what happened to everyone in the lab. Not yet. He was scared to hear the answers to the last one, and probably not coherent enough to really process them.

"It's fine," Clark promised. "It popped right back in. The glass was easy to get out, and we even managed to patch up your new friend. He brought you a Superman plushy, by the way. It's a little disturbing."

"Bet it's neat." Lex's mouth twitched, and he stroked a hand through Clark's faintly unruly hair. "I'm pretty attached to the real thing. You're great, Clark. You're... my hero even without tights."

It was so nice to see Clark flush like that, peek at him in a way that was so adoring. "I love you," he promised, leaning over to kiss Lex's forehead. "Come on. Get some rest. I'll be here." And Lex could believe that.

Lex's fingers slipped a little, but he kept smiling faintly. "Okay. Glad we're all okay. The girl...?"

"Her dad's with her. Nobody touched her. It's okay."

"I'm glad." She was still probably traumatized for life, but hell. Bad was bad. and it could have been worse. Edge really could've shot her.

That made it easier for Lex to close his eyes. "Night."

"Good night," Clark whispered, and for a while, Lex didn't remember anything else.

Superman was a whole lot better at handing out toys than Lex-dressed-as-Santa. It was kind of funny to see -- Clark with his hair slicked back, contact lenses making his eyes blue, the use of some kind of alien technology sharpening his face and making it seem vastly different from Clark Kent.

The best thing of all was Santa, though.

Santa was all cotton batting stuffing and high-quality hairpieces that year, and it amused Lex like nothing else did as he stood off to one side a little, talking to the kids who were eagerly waiting their turns. Everyone was being so good, happy and good-natured.

Even Santa. Once Lex had done everything shy of making a PowerPoint presentation for his father about the benefits of doing a charity event, Lionel had actually conceded. And seemed to be enjoying himself.

It was the least he could do to start making up for everything.

The entire city was wrapped up in trials. Lucas's involvement in the porn ring had made a big dent in LuthorCorp's stock prices, and that hadn't helped any. His father had even asked him almost politely to come back to LuthorCorp, but... Well, Lex had other plans for his life.

Quiet plans. The sort of low key happiness that Lex had been steadily pursuing for years. The happiness of having a home, having a friend and a lover, having a job that he still loved, coworkers that were great, and making small impacts on the world and how it worked.

It was great that he could help those kids through a holiday that would otherwise be miserable. And help them the rest of the year, too, when he could.

He just had to remember not to ogle Superman.

"Ho ho ho!"

And to take plenty of pictures.

By the time all of the kids had their toys and Lex's father had gone home, Lex was even more in love with ever. The sight of Clark holding a six year old girl on one knee while a twelve year old boy declared that he wanted to be just like Superman when he grew up was incredibly sweet.

Yeah. The world needed more heroes. More good guys. Even if the kid couldn't fly, he could still be a really good guy, and that was what Lex hoped he'd give him the opportunity to be. Both kids that were sort of subtly checking to make sure that Clark was real and solid. There hadn't been one kid protesting that Clark wasn't the real Superman, not since he'd flown into the big decorated gymnasium.

It was sweet.

"Well, Mister Luthor," Clark said in that deep, firm Superman voice that made Lex want to laugh. "The party seems to be over. Would you like an escort to your home? I understand that your partner couldn't be released from his shift tonight."

Smokescreens were kind of fun.

He grinned, the goofy grin that the staff there had been seeing all night. And that was fine, since he was a known fan of comic books. He'd been as excited as the kids, and that made the smokescreen better. "I'd really appreciate that, Superman. Thank you."

"You're very welcome, Mister Luthor." And then he was lifted effortlessly, like some kind of heroine in a really bad gothic novel, and they were flying.

Lex really loved to fly. Superman/Clark had taken him on a few flights since he'd realized, and it was the best thing ever. Even better than when he'd flown for those few moments between dying and being born again. His nose went cold and Clark usually had to 'check' that nothing had frozen off after he let Lex convince him to linger just a little so he could see the city's lights.

'Checking' was really a very nice thing, especially now that Lex had bought the empty half of the duplex next to Clark's and they'd moved in together.

One full weekend had been spent redecorating. Clark had broken down walls as Lex had wanted them, and had plastered and painted everything until it was now one big house with plenty of space for them, their cats, Lex's LEGOs, and visitors.

Watching Clark use his breath to dry paint and plaster had sent Lex into giddy fits for days.

He guessed that the 'novelty', as Clark called it, would never wear off. Not as long as there was a Clark around. The cats had been amused as hell, too, even if Pinky had tried to attack the wall at one point. Lex hadn't figured out what the point of that had been.

While they flew back home --well, or while Clark's alter ego escorted him back home -- Lex appreciated it all. The city, the relative peace and quiet of it. He liked to do that every Christmas time, which was why he took most of his time off then. He didn't want to know who got knifed for a pair of shoes or who beat their spouse to death while drunk and what was in their blood streams when they did it.

He wanted to look at the lights, see happy kids, and look at the snow.

There wasn't much that Lex loved better than a white Christmas. He almost wanted to ask Clark if he had somehow managed to make one for him, but Lex didn't. After all, even aliens couldn't have that much power over the weather. Could they?

"Here we go." Lex was settled down in their back yard, and a whirling dervish moment later produced Clark out of Superman. "I'll make the cocoa if you'll start the fire?"

Yeah. Watching Clark build a chimney out of big rocks he'd brought back from deep in South America had been a lot of fun, too.

Putting a functioning flue in had been fun, too, and so had the mortar part. Lex loved to help on those projects, even if he was pretty sure that the neighbors thought they were insane. Getting the building permits was only half the fun as far as Lex was concerned.

"I'll put a log on," Lex agreed as he moved to unlock the back door. After all. By the time he got it settled and got the fat lighter going, Clark would be in with the cocoa, and any fire that tried to resist those laser beam eyes wouldn't last long.

And maybe he'd pause long enough to turn the Christmas tree on. Between that and the fire, they wouldn't need any other light, and the whole living room would feel really warm. Really... like what Christmas should be. Warmth and family -- they'd be leaving bright and early tomorrow for that -- and friends -- but the department's Christmas party had been three days earlier -- and... and Lex was so happy he'd ended up where he'd ended up.

It didn't even bother him when he tripped on a cat toy coming in the door.

"Mrow."

Brain was still up, though Lex could vaguely see that Pinky had settled in the chair that Clark liked best, nose buried in his tail. Hm. Okay. That was okay, because they were just cats, and even the cats couldn't change his mind for him. Not on a perfect white Christmas eve.

Lex grinned a little as he let Clark get past him, then closed the door, locked it, and took off his coat with a shiver. It was holding in the cold, while their home was pretty comfortably warm. It'd be nicer once he got the fire going. "You looked like you had fun with the kids, Clark."

"The kids were great. I can't imagine what it must be like..." Clark moved to the refrigerator, tugging out milk as Lex paused to hang his jacket. "You do a great job with them. And, hey, your dad..."

Yeah. His dad. That had been high entertainment, that had.

"Yeah. Santa Claus! I kept waiting for him to phone that there was an 'emergency' and duck out, so... I was surprised when he showed up in his own suit, already in character. It was great." Maybe it was his dad, in his own subtle way, trying to make things up to Lex. Lex wasn't sure of that, but with Lucas on the one way track to the wrong end of soap on a rope, Lionel was acting better towards him.

It was disconcerting and nice and really just plain weird. Maybe eventually he'd actually be able to understand it and they wouldn't practically jitter in one another's' presence anymore.

Maybe.

"Are you going to start that fire?" Clark teased him.

"In good ti~ime," Lex promised as he meandered over to the tree and reached into the branches to find the switch for the lights. It still turned on, which was a good sign about the cat's behavior. "I really love how the light hits the ornaments."

"You just like the ones the kids made and sent to the office last week," Clark teased. Several of the ones who'd seen Lex at Christmas year after year had gotten together and made a variety of brightly colored glass globes. Some of them were purple, and some were green, and some of them were Superman colored to match the 'officially released' Metropolis Charities Superman Christmas Ornaments that Lex had begged Clark to endorse. It went to a good cause, after all. And since people made them anyway... It hadn't been hard for Lex to convince Clark.

"I do. Even the flour clay ones that I had to move to the top so Pinky doesn't eat them," Lex agreed as he marveled at their tree for a moment. Fire. He was supposed to light the fireplace.

The quick zap of laser beam eyes set the log they'd left in the fireplace to flickering, and filled Lex with a deep private glee. There was just something so ultra cool about having a superhero for a boyfriend.

For a... lover, if he dared to say it.

It had taken some getting used to, to do more than sleep in a bed. He wanted to, but he also froze up or just faded out on Clark sometimes. Only sometimes. Nine times out of ten, he was as into it, kissing, stroking, rubbing, as Clark was. It wasn't a matter of want, it was a matter of timing, a matter of what sort of day it was, and where his mind was wandering. Clark was infinitely patient with him, because Lex was pretty sure that the contents of those photographs were burned into Clark's mind as much as they were a part of Lex. "I guess my fancy lighter's just for show, huh?"

"Yep," Clark teased him. "You've got your own fancy lighter, you know. Uh..." He paused, fidgeted. Lex recognized it as a sign that Clark had something on his mind, and so he waited. "What would you say to having a tradition of opening one Christmas present tonight and the rest tomorrow?"

"It sounds like a good idea," Lex agreed, smiling as he turned towards Clark and reached for his mug of cocoa. The night was just starting, and both of them were too used to being up in the middle of the night to be anything other than awake just then.

It was going to be the best Christmas ever. Lex was going to make sure of it.

"Good." Clark gave a relieved sigh. "There was something I wanted to give you tonight, so..." He reached out and lifted a box off of the mantel they'd settled into place, holding it out to Lex.

It was a smallish box, which made Lex immediately wonder what it was. And unlike Clark, he couldn't peek through the wrapping. "So I can open it now...?"

"Right now. If you wait much longer, I'll have to open it for you," Clark confessed, "because it's been killing me to wait so long, Lex."

Lex smirked faintly as he took it from Clark. "That's a lot of competition. I don't think I got you a Christmas gift that I'd unwrap for you. Then again, tinfoil and lead was hard to manage..." And he could bet that Clark still peeked in at the seams. Still.

It was easy for Lex to pull at the wrapping on the box, deft and efficient, before he slid it free of the wrapping, pausing before he opened it. He could sense the way that Clark was holding his breath, impatient and hopeful all at once, and it finally made him flip up the top of the box.

It was a narrow, polished gold half-band, with a sturdy gold chain and some sort of clasp. It took Lex a moment to realize it had to be some sort of Kryptonian bracelet, particularly since there were faint glowing symbols on it. "Clark..."

"It's just for you," Clark told him, a little flustered. "I... It's not like I can give you a ring, or anything that anyone would recognize, but I wanted..."

Lex was already putting it around his wrist, and fumbled in trying to hold onto the box at the same time. "Clark, it's great. It, you..."

Fantastic. It looked unobtrusive on his wrist once he had it fastened on. In fact, it looked rather manly. And it was glowing warm to the touch. "I don't know what to say."

"Say yes," Clark replied, looking at him hopefully. "Say you'll always stay with me. Please."

"I'd be crazy to say no, Clark." Lex leaned forwards to press a kiss against Clark's mouth. "Happily, Clark. You're my hero, with or without the tights."

"I love it when you say that," Clark murmured, wrapping an arm around Lex's waist and tugging him close. "I love it when you say yes. I love it when you love me."

"You make it really easy." Tugged close, sitting on the floor in front of the fireplace, Lex was happy. Getting the other half of the duplex was the best thing he'd spent money on in a long while. "I don't know what gift you should open from me. I didn't get you anything quite..." As nice or as sentimental as what Clark had gotten him.

"It's okay. I wanted you to have something special. So you'd always know that I love you. Want you. More than anything," Clark said seriously.

"I know." He shifted to lean into Clark more, and added, "You know, I do have something more special than your gift, from you. I never thought I'd find someone I can get close to."

One careful hand reached up, cradled Lex's skull. "You know they were betting on us," he teased a little, tugging Lex close and kissing him. "But I think we're the ones that won."

"Oh, yeah. I... Have you, a home, pets, you, work, you, and tomorrow I'll have your family and your mother's pie." He shifted Clark's shirt, fingers moving for his buttons.

"And anything else you want. Plus presents," Clark agreed, humming as Lex's fingers made short work of his shirt. "Tell me, Lex. Whatever you want, you know, I'll give you."

And Lex could be trusted with a promise like that. He didn't want much, either. Clark to show up to pass out presents was about the most far-flung demand Lex could think of. There was a closer demand than that. Closer to his heart, at least. "Clark, I want, I want to... see how far we get. I want you."

"You're sure?" Clark was infinitely tender with him, patient beyond anything. He didn't push at Lex to do anything.

And sometimes Lex actually wanted to be pushed. "Yeah. I'm sure. And hey... we've got the perfect situation right now, right? Roaring fire, atmospheric lighting."

"Tell the truth and shame the devil," Clark told him, peeking up at him in a way that made Lex's breath catch. "You just want to make it beside the Christmas tree."

"Yeah." He smiled back at Clark, back at those gorgeous green eyes that matched the color of those rocks that had almost killed him. "I do. And I think you do, too..." Or at least he hoped Clark did. Because Christmas trees were the one thing that hadn't been ruined for him, and there was a pretty long list of things that he had a lot of hassle to face to get around. And Clark was helping him, helping him a lot. But the act was going to be careful, so did the location have to be, too?

Lex liked the idea of Christmas tree lights and the fireplace roaring nearby. It was a little clich, maybe, but it was also deeply right. He was going to give himself, body and soul, to Clark. And Clark would always keep him safe.

Always.

"Yeah," Clark agreed, kissing him one more time, a hand settling on the buttons of his shirt. Big fingers fumbled lightly at the top one. "Yeah, I like it. I think you're even more beautiful in Christmas light. You glow, Lex."

"That happens when you're bald," Lex agreed, feigning smugness as he tried not to get caught up too much in Clark's mouth. There was a lot for him to concentrate on -- fingers, for example, the way they fumbled nervously but went on, down to the next button. It wasn't the first time that Clark had fumbled buttons, but it never lost the novelty. There was something sweet and shy about it, something that made Lex shiver with pleasure.

"No. That happens when you're Lex," Clark disagreed, twisting to settle a thigh between Lex's legs. Lex always found that irresistible, because Clark's legs were solid with muscle and it felt so good to rub against him when he offered.

"Lots of things happen when you're Lex. What a great night..." His own fingers moved to start on Clark's shirt.

"I hope it will be the best night ever," Clark offered, kissing the tip of his nose and then sneaking down to nip at Lex's mouth. He'd managed to get Lex's shirt nearly off of him, and his hands were tracing over the muscles there with a great deal of delight.

Lex didn't have half the muscles that Clark had -- and how could he? Clark had the benefit of being a sun-powered Alien being -- but he had enough that it felt really good when Clark teased him like that. The nip of lips brought him back a little, and he realized with a mental 'oh, yeah' that he'd been unbuttoning Clark's shirt.

This was going to be a really long night if he kept having these fuzzy moments of goodness.

That was pretty much all right with Lex.

"Love you," Clark murmured, tugging Lex's shirt off of him. He was so infinitely careful, so tender. There was no denying that Clark was made just for Lex. It didn't get any better than that.

Not better than a guy who seemed like he was made for him, who not only put up with his quirks, but seemed to really like them. They were good for each other, Lex decided for probably the hundredth time that week. "I can feel that you do, Clark. Every time I wake up, every time you smile at me in the hall..." He leaned into Clark once he'd gotten Clark's shirt off of him, and his fingers sought out familiar venues, stroking over muscles that he knew well by then.

Lex could feel Clark shift, felt him reaching out, and then shivered as a blanket was spread out over them. "Kiss me again," Clark murmured, and lightly tugged him close as he began to work on the clasps and zipper of Lex's khakis.

"I love you. And I -- oh, god, love when you do that." Just a brush of fingers over the fabric of his briefs, but it made him clutch at Clark and want to fall into those kisses. So good. It, finally having sex, with Clark, was going to feel so good. Making love. Yeah, they were going to make love, which was different than all of the hard, fast, and usually painful fucking he'd done. No one 'sharing' him against his will with people, no one making him do anything.

Just Clark, and Clark's warm fingers and careful body. Clark, hovering over him, almost floating. Clark's mouth, making his every nerve stand up and pay attention.

"Yes," Clark murmured, a deep, throaty Superman sort of sound that made Lex gasp. "Yes. Love you. Love you, Lex."

He'd never hear that quite enough. Or get enough of Clark's kisses, even if they were serving as a distraction while Clark eased his pants and boxers off. He wasn't going to be nervous, he wasn't, he was safe and comfortable and almost laughably coddled. His fingers clung to Clark, clutched loosely to hot skin, while he looked up at his hovering lover.

"All you have to do," Clark promised him, "is say stop. Any time. You know that, don't you?"

So much tenderness welled in those green eyes, impossible and wonderful and altogether too perfect. If Lex hadn't already been madly in love, he would have been now.

"I know." Lex drawled that, eyes stuck on looking into Clark's eyes. "Can I just... say 'slow down', instead? You feel really good, and I don't think I'll be saying stop."

"Whatever you want." And Clark meant it, God, meant every word. Lex didn't ever want to say stop, though, even when Clark settled lightly over him, their hips shifting into alignment so that they could stroke carefully together. "Hmmm..."

So good. They did that a lot, grinding, rubbing, stroking. And Lex and Clark did a lot of laundry, because it was usually in some form of being clothed. This was different, great. Skin to skin, and so slow that Lex let his head loll back a little, sighing delight up at Clark. "Hmmm?"

"Hmmm," Clark agreed, an unspoken, silly sort of sound that was buried in Lex's throat. It made him want to laugh, just a little, especially when Clark's thumbs stroked over his ribs. "Yeah. Laugh." And it was okay to do it.

Just like that.

Because sex, and sex with Clark, especially, should be fun.

Lex did laugh, a quiet sound as he draped his arms over Clark's back. "You're fantastic. Don't stop moving like that? It tickles in a good way."

"Hmmm, in a good way..." Just like Clark's tongue lapping over the hollow at the base of his throat did. Well, perhaps that was a different kind of tickle, after all, just like the one when Clark's hands settled on his hips as Clark slid just a little further down.

Oh.

A tickle as faint as a sledgehammer. His cock rubbed against Clark's, against his hair down there, and then slipped against Clark's stomach because Clark was scooting down slowly, kissing and licking gently. So gently. Lex didn't close his eyes, but let them fall lazily lidded so he could keep watching the dark head of hair move down, could see his hands on Clark's shoulders.

"You feel like no one else."

"There's no one else like me."

It wasn't arrogance; not really. It was simply truth. It was reality, because there wasn't anyone like Clark, nowhere else on earth, and Kal-El-cum-Superman had clearly stated that he was the last Kryptonian living, sent to Earth in almost Biblical style as the lone survivor of his dying planet.

Clark was Moses.

Lex really shouldn't be having such sacrilegious thoughts in the midst of sex.

Clark would've looked cute in a reed basket, though.

"Which makes me a lucky man," Lex whispered, pressing his thumbs to massage Clark's shoulders a little. He was sort of swept up in sensation, trying to keep his mind focused and in the now, the really damn good now.

"Hm?" That just felt so good against his skin, that little questioning noise, and it made Lex sigh. Maybe he could just ask Clark to do it over and over again. Especially once he found Lex's nipples, and... hm. Yes. Yes. That actually felt incredibly good.

Tongue teasing, squirming against him until each nipple perked a little, turned hard on his chest. Sure, guys didn't have breasts but it could still feel good. No teeth, because Clark... knew. And he wasn't going to think, not when every squirm of tongue, every pause-filled lick sent a shiver over to his spine.

"You taste good," Clark told him, nuzzling slowly over to his sternum. "I think I should be grateful to the kid who spilled his cider all over you." And Lex was even more grateful that the stuff had been cool. Hot liquid chest burns weren't fun.

"I'm getting a tongue bath," Lex sighed, laying his head back against the carpet. "God. I'm grateful, too. I should have cider spilled on me more often..." His dick was going to punch a hole into Clark's stomach any minute now.

Well.

Maybe not.

Clark was made of steel, after all.

Funny that it never felt like that. It always felt like smooth, hard muscles, baby soft skin, as if he was just as vulnerable as Lex or anybody else. Especially his hands.

That had been a fascinating conversation, finding out exactly how Clark had faked his fingerprints for the lab when he didn't have any, precisely. There were funny little indentations here and there, but no actual prints. It made his touch smooth, and that made Lex shiver. Clark had seen Gattica one too many times when he was younger. But that was okay, because there were no fingertip ridges dragging over his skin, no one leaving their whorls and ulnar loops on him. Clark was special, so his hands were special.

Particularly when they stroked over Lex's ribs and made him moan.

"So beautiful," Clark told him seriously, mouth devoting itself to every inch of skin Lex possessed with a sweetness no one had ever shown him. Ever. "Perfect," he felt Clark murmur. "Mine. Only mine. For always. And I'm yours."

"I like that better than the lights," Lex faintly teased, then sucked in a sharp breath when lips traced the bottom of his ribcage. Slowly, steadily, Clark was sliding down his body, making him tingle. Naked, they were both naked and it felt better than Lex expected it to. Hotter. It didn't quite matter that he was going to have carpeting imbedded into his ass, or that Clark's dick was pressed against his thigh. All that mattered was that they were together, that everything was right, for the first time in Lex's life.

In a sense, it was very like losing his virginity. It was the first time he'd loved someone enough to allow this, enough to let someone -- Clark -- touch him. Love him in return.

Want him.

"Oh, God," Clark sighed, settling at Lex's navel to suck faintly at the depression welling in his belly. "Oh, Lex."

"Uhn-huh..." It'd take him a minute to gather up his brain enough to actually say more than that, because the way that Clark's tongue lapped out made him shiver, the pulling at skin feeling so much better than he'd expected. Someone had probably done that, sometime, but he couldn't remember so the way it made him harder was new. And new felt really good, made him clutch at Clark's shoulders. "So good, you feel so good, Clark."

"Beautiful," Clark told him again, hands lightly clasped on Lex's hips as he slid further down. "I want to suck you, Lex." Fair warning, request for permission, whatever it was, it made Lex's breath catch. The words were accompanied by kisses that fell against the hollow there and moved to the smooth stretch of skin where his thigh met his body. Clark was... so close. God.

He'd be okay. Clark wasn't going to bite him, and Clark definitely knew how to make him come and make it feel good. "Please, Clark. I, I want you to do that." He shifted his legs apart for Clark, knees bumping against Clark's sides.

Lex wanted it. Wanted Clark to take him in his mouth, all soft, gorgeous lips and hot tongue, and... and Clark did, just the head, sucking at it so sweetly that Lex couldn't help crying out loud, one hand up flung, the other shifting to cover his mouth, almost as if that would make the intensity less real.

He couldn't help but look at Clark, smothering his own noises desperately as he strained not to move. Clark's lips were reddish, stretched out around him, and he could see Clark's cheeks hollow faintly before sweet suction bowled him over again.

So sweet.

It was so sweet, something none of it had ever been, and Clark was precious to him. Precious, and when Clark lifted his head and smiled, Lex wanted to cry.

"It's okay for you to make noise," Clark promised him quietly. "It's okay for you to move. If you want to touch my head, that's okay, too."

It took effort to move his hand off of his mouth, and right away, Lex groaned. Then he clutched onto Clark's shoulders. "I don't want to, disturb you or..."

The sound that Clark gave was... so sexy. "It won't disturb me, Lex. I think you're so hot when you make noise..." And then he went back to sucking, and Lex had never thought anything could feel so good. It was better than drugs and sex, better than anything he could remember. Maybe because he wasn't looking for the good feelings to fill a hole in him.

Clark had already helped him fix that emptiness, and sex was just proving to feel really good. He hitched his hips up a little, fingers pressing down on Clark's shoulders, feeling his hair. "Oh, God. God, Clark, your mouth is an oven..."

Hot and wet and perfect, tight around him, and if Clark kept it up, he was going to come, just explode. It was all so good, filling Lex with rising heat and dragging cries loose from the pit of his belly.

He started to let go, because Clark was goading him to. Shuddered and let those cries slide free, clutched at Clark to get him closer if it was possible. Farther onto his cock and deeper into sensation. "Uhn, I can't, I can't take more."

And then there was a thumb, and it stroked over his balls and just behind them, and...

O.

OH.

When he could think again, Clark was lying beside him, brushing kisses over his cheeks and forehead, one hand gentle on his belly. "Okay?" he murmured, petting Lex carefully.

"I think I blew my brains out." Lex twisted towards Clark, feeling the heavy warm fingers laying on his skin when he pressed up, so close to skin that was just twitching with sensation still. He couldn't have drifted off for too long if he felt that sensitive. "Better than okay, Clark. That was perfect."

"Hmmm." Wow. Clark kisses were just as good as Clark suckings, really. They all made Lex feel completely wonderful. "Thank you for letting me," he murmured, and Lex shifted slightly, feeling Clark hard against his thigh.

Step two, as Lex knew it. There could be all sorts of kinky wild things in between, but Lex was all for anything that simply felt good and involved him and Clark, heat and those lights. "Thanking me? Hmn, was there something funny in my semen?"

The way Clark laughed against his skin felt wonderful. "Hm. Well. I think I should be a little more careful about giving you fruit juices. You were kind of sweet," Clark teased, kissing his shoulder.

He groaned a little, laying his head back as he smiled back up at Clark. "It's juice or coffee. Which makes me wonder if you'd taste like coffee."

"Maybe," Clark answered, flirting with his eyes. "You want to find out?"

Or maybe...

"Maybe tomorrow." Lex offered that slyly as he reached down to wrap his hand around Clark's cock. He had strong fingers, but it still felt like a steel rod beneath so-soft skin to him. "Unless you can recover really fast?"

The faint hitch of Clark's breath made Lex's smile tremble just a little. "God. I. You... Lex, oh, Lex." And they were definitely on the same wavelength there, definitely thinking about the same thing. Clark was almost rigid with the desire flooding through him, but Lex trusted him, could feel the state of utter control in which his big lover held himself.

He could always feel that control, even if just then it was making Clark shiver a little like Lex's smile was already doing. "Are you... heh, are you thinking what I'm thinking, Clark?" He shifted his thumb carefully to the side, rubbing at Clark's pulled back foreskin.

"I.. uh, I'm thinking we're gonna be really lucky if the thought itself doesn't make me come all over you," Clark admitted reluctantly, shuddering a little. "God. Lex. Let me... I have to go get..."

Lex concentrated on the sensation of Clark's skin in his hand, then moved his fingers off of Clark and loosely clutched his hip. "Go on. I'll still be here." Maybe even looking at the baubles on the tree.

He watched as Clark moved to stand, multicolored lights combining with the flickering yellow-orange of the fire to dust him over with various sun-hued shades. Clark was so beautiful in the daylight, and he was beautiful here, too, making Lex's breath catch. And then he was there with a little tube in his hand as if he hadn't even moved, and that was really impressive, too.

There was only a little visual blur to even prove that Clark had moved, and that was sweet distraction from knowing what the tube was. One tube of the best lubricant known to man, because anything that made sex easier was fantastic. "That didn't take long." Lex reached an arm up, fingers brushing the hairs on Clark's leg, skating over the muscle beneath.

"There are, um, advantages," Clark said, kneeling down slowly to Lex. "You know. To being me. And being me, wanting you." He was obviously nervous, but that was sweet, too.

It wasn't anybody's first time, and it wasn't awkward because they both knew how things worked and what went where, but it was still sweet, and it was still their first time. His and Clark's, and there wasn't anyone else in the world that made Lex that pleased to be alive. Every little bit closer Clark got to Lex, Lex slipped his hands over more skin. the edge of Clark's ass, then his spine, full of firm ridges that were surrounded by super strong muscles. "There are advantages to being me today, then."

"Yeah," Clark said, sounding a little brittle. It was obvious that, more than anything, he wanted to please Lex, and he started by kissing him again, kissing and caressing in light, smooth strokes. "Lex. Just... promise me. If you want me to slow down..." Because they'd already had that talk. "Just... promise me again."

"I promise, Clark. I promise." He kissed back, trying to communicate through kisses that he wanted it just as much as Clark. Clark made him feel hot, Clark being in the same room as him made him feel sly and kind of over-sexed. "I want to do this, with you, because I know that you're going to feel good."

"Because I love you." The deep, rough edges on that voice made Lex's eyes roll back slightly. God. This was what he had been waiting for, hoping for, all of his life. He'd always thought that it was somewhere just beyond his reach, something he'd never get, but Clark... Clark made the impossible happen. He made it reality.

He was giving Lex a full packaged deal. Love and a home and belonging and a family and feeling like he was wanted. No. Knowing that he was wanted, that the roughness in Clark's voice was all for him and because of him. "Because I love you. It works both ways..."

Love begat Love, at least when it was between Clark and Lex. Lex was reserved about giving love to anyone, thanks to his father, to Dominic, to what sometimes felt like hundreds of people, but... Clark and any kind of restrictions didn't have anything to do with one another. With Clark, anything resembling a natural reservation went out the window and stayed there.

Because he loved Clark. Soul-deep and silly, sure, but Clark was the best human being he knew, without being entirely human.

"C'mere."

The press of Clark's warm body against his own felt wonderful, Clark's kisses falling sweetly on his brow even as one big hand worked its way slowly between his legs. "Love you," Clark promised him again. "I love you, Lex."

"Which is what makes this great," Lex smiled as he shifted his legs, still spread so he could feel Clark closer. He didn't want anything in the way of Clark's hand, knowing what the goal was going to be. He could feel the hesitation in Clark's touch, a pause meant strictly for him, and that made him love Clark even more.

"Good," Clark murmured, shifting so that his head was placed on Lex's shoulder at the same moment that his fingers slid back to delve into the crevice behind Lex's balls.

"Mm." Lex's mouth compressed, and he lolled his head a little, cheek resting against Clark's hair while he waited for a tease, a faint touch, to become more. Clark had already, if hazy suck-blinded memory served him correctly, along with the slight achy twinge, Clark's thumb had already ventured there once with great results. Still, Clark was a little tentative, and that was okay. It was better now that those fingers were slick, even if Lex wasn't entirely certain when that had happened, and when one began to tease at him.

Oh. Apparently his recovery time was really great, too.

He sucked in a breath, a little shaky that he was getting hard already. "It's not going to snap your finger off," Lex teased when Clark's finger looped a slow circle around his ring.

"Hm. No," Clark agreed, shifting close and comfortable. "But I want to be so sure that it feels good. Better than anything, Lex. You understand that, don't you?" There was faint pressure, yes, but still that steady, loose circling with it.

It took concentration just to hug onto Clark with his free hand, loosely holding and stroking him while Lex tried to not squirm too much. "I understand..." But it felt so good, and Lex was probably just rushing again. Clark always knew when he was rushing and made them slow down. "Mmm."

"You like that?" Clark asked him on a whisper, kissing his shoulder and peering up at him. "Want some more?" The look on his face obviously asked for it, and he got it, Clark's finger slowly pushing in and then back out, a tender stroke against the ring of muscle there. "Like that?"

So slick, so smooth and careful, even with Clark's thick strong fingers. Lex's eyes almost rolled back into his head as he shifted against the finger faintly. "Yeah..." His voice barely came out as a husk of noise. "Just like that."

"Like that?" Clark whispered, and the finger slid in deeper, teasing at him, and brushing... yeah. Oh. Oh. "Yeah. Like that, I think. Mmm, Lex. You smell so good when you're turned on." And Clark was sniffing him, taking in a deep breath.

"What... do I smell like?" Lex exhaled again, grinning faintly at last because the brush against his prostate, well, the skimming touch against his prostate had sent his slight frown skittering off.

"Like lust. Like sex," Clark declared, a husky sound that went straight to Lex's cock. "Like love." Yeah, and there was... oh. Another finger. Lex couldn't help the faint whimper that stole out of his throat. "Like always."

"Yeah. The, the last bit..." Especially. Lex closed his eyes again, and wiggled just faintly on Clark's fingers. "It's been so long..."

"I'm going to always make you feel good," Clark promised, shifting to press kisses against his mouth. They were sweet, and slow, and when Clark's tongue darted out in time with the pressure building in Lex's lower belly, it stole his breath away.

Kisses kept him from talking too much, and just let him relax and moan, kissing Clark back. When his tongue slipped into Lex's mouth, Lex started to suck on Clark's tongue, hazily. Every nerve in his body felt wired for, for sex, when the ring of his ass shivered around Clark's two fingers.

"Almost?" Clark asked him, the movement against his lips tickling faintly. "Almost ready," he whispered, shifting, tugging Lex up and over him. "I... Lex... um..."

Up and over was unexpected, and Lex wasn't sure how Clark did that and kept his fingers in him at the same time. Except one minute he was laying on the floor, and the next he was laying on Clark, and Clark's knuckles were brushing his ass. "Oh... fuck. H-hold on..."

"Holding." Holding, and wow, Lex hadn't expected Clark to go so still, to look so worried.

He cracked a shaky smile, tremulously putting his palms down on Clark's chest to steady himself. "Didn't expect to end up on top of you. It's okay. Your... fingers feel really good." Prelude to what was to come, but he wanted that, too.

"Okay," Clark said, releasing a breath that Lex hadn't even known he was holding. "Okay. I just. I should have warned you. I wanted you to... you know, have more control over..."

"This?" Lex laughed faintly, shifting his hips up carefully away from Clark's fingers, then back down. He could feel every knuckle, and maybe the edge of Clark's fingernails. "I... used to do this all the time." That didn't cheapen him and Clark, though, didn't make the good sensations any less real.

There came another hitch of breath, Clark's mouth trembling for just a moment. "Tell me what to do for you, and I'll do it. Anything. Always, Lex." And always was a big promise, anything was a huge one, and it all made Lex realize just what lay beneath him.

He exhaled slowly, and slipped forwards carefully, pressing down on Clark's hand more by sheer circumstance. "Just be you."

"Okay." Okay, and Clark could do that, could be himself with ease. "Tell me, Lex. When you're ready." The feel of Clark's cock bumping against Lex's thigh declared his own readiness.

"I'm ready if we go slow..." But they had to go. Because he still had fingers up his ass and they were starting to make him want to rock, made him want to move on them.

"Then shift up," Clark murmured, taking his fingers out slowly. There was a faint squishy sort of sound that made Lex want to laugh, but then Clark's dick was caressing across one ass cheek, and maybe laughing wasn't the best thing to do right now.

Lex shifted up, and then just shifted until the bobbing caress against his asscheek moved to bob against both of them. "You feel really good right now, Clark." Lex grinned crookedly, but his focus was starting to haze out and settle on the sensations of sex with Clark, sex that felt good.

"Kiss me?" It was a request, Clark's hand moving to press against his face tenderly, and when Lex leaned down, he felt Clark find him, find the center of him, and it was going to be so good. Kissing Clark, sliding down on him, all at once.

"Yeah..." He barely agreed before Clark pulled him in enough for kissing. Clark's mouth was hotter than usual, friction warm, coaxing him to stay relaxed while the fat head of Clark's dick pressed against him, pushing to be allowed entrance, and then slid in.

It was slow, so slow, and so hot. Lex could control the motion, and Clark seemed to want him to do just that, the loose hands on his hips nothing more than reassurance. Not moving him, just resting there, warm and keeping him steady while he shivered and worked to adjust. He was stretched out, clutching tight around Clark, and Clark was barely inside him. "Oh... God, yeah." He kissed Clark hard for a moment, then started to lower his hips, pushing back slowly. Every faint movement brought him more of the feeling of being stretched, more awareness that seemed to be pooling at the base of his dick.

More awareness that this was nothing but pleasure, not even remotely related to anything he'd done before, whether it was in search of forgetfulness or... or anything else.

"So beautiful," Clark managed to eke out, fingers tightening only slightly on Lex's thighs. "God. You... you're.. hot. Hot. Wonderful. Lex..."

"You... make me want to feel like this. God." Lex tipped his head back for a moment, rocking slowly. It was a tiny motion, but Lex knew it would build once things heated up too much more. For the moment, he was getting used to having a cock in him, and feeling good at the same time. It had never happened before, and he wanted to be able to identify this as something uniquely Clark.

"Because I love you," Clark murmured, one hand stroking over Lex's belly, sliding over his cock. "Because I want you. Lex..."

"Because you..." Lex's eyes shut tightly for a moment at the assailing feeling of twice the sensation. It felt good, and it made him want to arch his spine. It was like an electrical current surging from his balls to his cock and back to his ass. He had to get more, had to start moving.

The first shift made him gasp, a tug that seemed too much, as if Clark was going to be lost, taken from him. In response, he moved again, taking Clark in, and that... that was even better than sitting on that incredible, hard length. Moving was a good thing, and Clark's hands were helping him, incredibly gentle and tender.

Not holding him or making him move. Clark was sweetly careful about that, just giving a little help and balance while Lex started to rise up and press back down. His own hands fell to rest over Clark's, clutching at the back of his lover's hands while he settled into a slow hot motion. That was how sex was supposed to be, a slow aching pull out, a hot surge back in, with moans in the air that Lex couldn't place the origin of.

He was a little startled to realize they were coming from him, sounds that were pure pleasure, sounds he'd never made in his entire life. Clark pulled him close so that they were almost chest to chest, close enough to kiss, lips sweet, tongues busy.

"Love you," Clark promised him, and he meant it. "Love you, love you."

"You're letting me... uhn. Uhn, have my first time under Christmas lights," Lex grinned loosely. All it took was a little backwards shift of his hips to push Clark back into him properly, stealing his words from him. He meant that he knew, and Clark would just understand it. It was better to kiss than talk.

Better to feel Clark's breath stolen away by his words.

Better to feel Clark's entire body involuntarily thrust upward in reaction. "Unh!"

The sound startled the cats, Pinky suddenly skittering out from under the tree. Lex had never considered the possibility that laughter and sex would go together, but it was the most wonderful, natural thing in the world.

He laughed, and so did Clark, until the next thrust, until the next shift Lex made that seemed just as natural as laughing. Laughter turned into another groan, and Lex leaned forwards again, wavering between moaning and chuckling as he rode Clark, slow and careful. He half remembered some guy in a club claiming that he was a stallion, and that Lex was gunna have a great ride. It hadn't been, but...

But. The memory was there, and Clark was better. More like a carousel, or the little mechanical horses and trucks that Lex had seen outside of the grocery store that cost twenty-five cents to ride. That made him laugh again, squeezing tight around Clark and dragging a sound from him that Lex wanted to hear for the rest of his life.

"Ohhh, God!"

"Yeah..." Panted answer, but he was starting to get lost in the feeling of it. A little concentration, and at least his body remembered old lessons on how to squeeze, tighten up around something. No, someone. Someone like Clark, who was putting his hands on Lex's hips again, gentle still. Tender.

So unbearably sweet.

"Come on, baby," Clark encouraged, helping Lex to shift, move the way that he wanted to move. It felt... SO good, and the constant, steady spark of cock sliding in and out of his ass, striking all of the good places and none of the bad ones... It was incredible.

"Nn." He made himself keep his eyes open as he started to move, thighs bunching and relaxing as he lifted and then sank back down, slowly picking up speed and height. It was easier when he could look at Clark's face in the firelight and soft sparks of color that reflected off of the ornaments.

Clark...

Clark was perfect.

Everything Lex had ever dreamed of.

Everything he had ever wanted.

Felt so good. Felt so hard. Felt so...

Just like that. The moment he stopped thinking and started looking adoringly down at his Hero, his Clark, started to just feel and look, it hit him. The first shivers of orgasm that made his fingers clutch over top of Clark's, that made his legs shake, knees squeezing Clark's sides as he arched tight and came all over Clark's stomach.

The world was muzzy, fuzzy, just-this-side-of-real, as he held on tight. There were sparks behind his eyes, and Clark was pushing up into him still, and then, then, there was wet all in him, on him, and Clark was still... except his hands. His hands petted Lex carefully, loving and slow even when he was surely lost to pleasure.

It had to be hard-wired into Clark's brain by then. Lex stretched out on top of Clark and relaxed forwards. "Merry Christmas." Lex laughed a little once he'd said it, but it was true. It was a very merry Christmas, and he was never going to take that Kryptonian bracelet off, and he was never going to spend his life with anyone but his best friend, his colleague, his lover.

"... 's a cat walking on my back?"

"Hm? Oh. Brain." Clark shooed him off with one hand, shifting Lex atop him carefully. "Want to lie here for a while, or...?"

"This is nice." Lex felt as drifty as he sounded, resting his cheek against sweaty damp skin. "You're warm... fire's warm... no one is going to peek through our blinds."

"Hm-mm," Clark agreed, petting one hand down Lex's back. "You can close your eyes. You're safe here with me."

That made the edges of his mouth twitch up. Clark seemed to be goading him to sleep, and as much as he wanted a shower, sleep seemed really good to do first. "I know. And that's the best feeling."

"Best one ever," Clark murmured, kissing the tip of one ear. "Close your eyes," he encouraged again.

"Ho ho ho," Lex chuckled, closing his eyes for Clark. What a great night. What a great life he had.

The stroking of Clark's hands lulled him into sleep, and there on the edge, he knew that nothing could get better than this. Everything had worked out just the way it should have, and Lex was happy. He was going to be happy, happily ever after.

Even if five minutes later a cat decided that both of them made a wonderful place to sleep.