1000 words challenge entry
Title:Apostasy
Fandom:Smallville
Characters:Lex, Clark
Rating:Safe for All
Summary:The day Lex accepted the nomination he dreamed of fields of sunflowers again.
Word Count: 1000
Author's notes: Thanks to lypstyck for the quick beta. You totally enable me BWE. This can be considered gen or preslash depending on how you read it.
Disclaimer: Not mine-no profit made, but if they're ever up for grabs....
The day Lex accepted the nomination he dreamed of fields of sunflowers again. He walked through them with his father. The sun beamed down on him so hot that it scalded- with light so bright that his eyes hurt. Then a cooling rain came, red drops hitting like tiny pellets against his skin. His father laughed as they stood there awash in blood.
&
The wedding invitation came in the mail with no fan fare. His secretary shepparded it through without hesitation-the kind of bomb it contained lethal only to Lex’s emotions.
The day Lana agreed to marry him, Lex was sure he’d triumphed over fate. He’d managed to keep the money and power and still get the girl. Only this time, he wouldn’t lose her. And he didn’t, not to death anyway. Not even to lies and dishonesty. He’d kept his promise to her, offered her one thing Clark never would, and still it wasn’t enough.
“Power is your true love Lex. Your only loyalty. I need someone who puts me first.”
He stood on the bride’s side and watched as she walked down the aisle swathed in pale pink, toward the man whose ambitions she didn’t mind indulging. Clark stood on the groom’s side, a small smile on his face as he watched the ceremony. The smile faded to a blank mask as his eyes met Lex’s.
The personal note inside the invitation hadn’t been needed. It would have looked very bad for him not to attend his campaign manager’s wedding. He wondered if Clark had received the same sweetly worded plea-come, but don’t make a scene- all couched in polite terms.
The obligatory posing extended well into the reception. At one point Lex found himself in a group with Clark on one side and the bride and groom on the other. He had his own copy made and carefully filed it away with the photos from his own weddings.
&
His people didn’t have to put much spin on it for the press to view it as terribly romantic. The candidate making a return to his childhood home, running his campaign from there. Only Lex hadn’t been a child when he lived in Smallville-though he’d felt like one again for a brief period of time. He’d believed naively in goodness and honesty, miracles and heroes all embodied in the shining green eyes of a fifteen year old boy.
Lex hadn’t been to the castle since his father’s death a few years before, when Metropolis had become his city. It hadn’t changed. Walking through the halls, he heard the echoes of his life. He’d been found here and then lost again.
He stood on the bridge, staring out over the water. He could feel Peterson’s eyes on him. They no doubt had the same half worried, half pissed off expression they’d carried for the past few weeks. Lex knew he was wondering if he’d hitched his cart to the wrong horse, one that was in the process of imploding in front of his eyes. Lex reached into his pocket and pulled out a quarter tossing it over and watching the tiny ripple it made as it disappeared in the murky water.
“Boss?”
He glanced to the side. “Once upon a time I had a second chance. I’m just wishing for another one.”
&
Lex holed up in the castle with a security force large enough to keep the media away. It wasn’t unprecedented for a candidate to pull out of the race, but never one with the nomination in hand. He made both public and private apologies to his campaign staff, to the party members and the public. Bewilderment, pain and anger shone back at him from thousands of eyes. There was a pause of shock-the blink of an eye, and then the speculation started. Twenty-four hours a day somewhere, somebody was talking about it. Every aspect of his life from birth to what he’d eaten for breakfast was open to discussion. He knew they’d find the test results soon enough-was surprised they hadn’t surfaced already. Apparently Dr. Rees and his staff deserved more credit than Lex had given him.
He waited a week after the big cancer revelation, before allowing one reporter to have an audience. Clark watched him speculatively throughout the whole thing, green eyes almost as cynical as Lex’s.
“Why grant an exclusive interview with The Planet, Lex? There are much bigger venues out there that would welcome the chance.”
“You have a reputation for being unbiased and honest in your reporting. I trust you to tell my story accurately. Besides, you’ve known me for a long time, and even though we’re no longer friends, I hope that counts for something.”
“So you were hoping for what? Sympathy?”
“Yes.”
Clark stopped, surprised at Lex’s ready admission. He stared intently at Lex’s hand for a moment.
“You can skip the x-ray vision, I’m not making the cancer up Clark.”
Shocked eyes stared into his.
“I’ve known for a while. Look, I could have hidden this until after the election. But it’s not the reason I dropped out, it’s just a good excuse.”
“Lex…”
“Clark.” Time dropped away for a moment, twenty years gone, leaving them the way they were. It was just a moment, but Lex knew that Clark felt it too.
“I don’t understand.”
“If you want to come back for dinner, I’ll explain it to you-off the record of course.”
“What the hell are you doing Lex?”
“I’m changing my destiny.”
&
He still dreams sometimes of those fields. Sunflowers as tall as his waist, bend gently on their stalks as he passes through them. When he walks through them now though, his mother is at his side, and the sun’s warmth caresses instead of burns. He doesn’t need therapy to get the symbolism. Sometimes Clark is there, floating just ahead, beckoning to him with a smile that rivals the sun. He’s always just outside Lex’s reach, but Lex gets closer every time.
This was my challenge picture
