FIC: Ten "Subtle" Ways to Tell Him He's Getting Fat 3/3
Title: Ten "Subtle" Ways to Tell Him He's Getting Fat 3/3
Category: fic
Prompt(s): Clark reads a relationship article that causes nothing but trouble.
Warnings: Discussion of weight issues, therapy, and mental disorders
Summary: Clark notices that Lex has gained weight, and through the help of a savvy internet article, tries to subtly tell Lex that he needs to shed a few pounds. Things are always more complicated, however, as both of them are keeping secrets.
Author’s Notes: The glorious article is HERE.
I suppose I should alert readers that there's some BDA!Clark (although he has his reasons!!), and Oliver has some of his S8ish characterization
Part Three
Six weeks. It had been six weeks since Lex had left. Four since Clark had actually talked to Lex. He figured that clogging up Lex’s voicemail didn’t count, since Lex was probably just deleting the messages.
He sat at his desk, typing up a report on local parents and their involvement with their kids’ soccer teams. Apparently one mother had punched out the coach for repeatedly calling her boy by girls’ names, and they were mutually suing one another, for assault and harassment respectively.
“Hey, Chlo,” Clark said as she walked passed him with her cell phone to her ear. “Could you check this when you’re done? I don’t want to sound too biased against the coach.”
Chloe held a hand up as she took a seat at her desk. Shaking her head, she set her phone down. “What now?”
“What’s wrong?” Clark forgot about his article and moved to her side.
“Nothing. Lex... I’m sorry. I know you don’t want to hear about-”
“I always want to hear about Lex. Even if he doesn’t want to hear about me.” Clark crouched beside her and poked her side a few times.
“Stop,” she murmured. After clearing her throat, Chloe looked at him. “I haven’t been able to reach Lex for a few days.”
“What? Isn’t he living with you?”
“Yeah, he is. And he hasn’t been back to the apartment, or to your apartment. I checked.” She bit her lip.
“You should have told me. Have you asked around his work? Have you told the police?”
“I called the police and put in a missing person’s report, but you don’t understand.” Chloe licked her lips, leaned over and lowered her voice. “I can’t get into Lex’s work because ownership of the lab has switched hands, and the police aren’t going to investigate because of the new owner. Oliver Queen.”
Clark’s entire back and shoulders tensed. “You think his boss had him kidnapped? Why would he do that?”
“I know you don’t like to think about this, Clark, but Lex is a metahuman. He’s done experiments in his lab with his own blood, hoping to transfer his healing abilities to others. Queen has all of the data on his work now. It isn’t that far of a leap to guess that he’s taken Lex, just like he took me. Only he won’t let Lex go. He’ll find something worth having with Lex.”
She pushed her hand into the side of her hair and her eyes went to the ceiling. “I’m out of resources here. I’m asking everyone I know, but Queen’s just too high profile. I can’t get anyone to roll on him. I was just going to go to Cadmus tonight and see if I can’t slip inside.”
Clark grabbed her arms. “Chloe, that is a stupid plan. You think this is the guy who kidnapped you, and you’re going to sneak into a facility he owns? Alone?”
“I’m running out of options here!”
Clark rolled his eyes and gestured to himself. “Hello?”
“Forgive me if I don’t treat you as my trusty hound. I don’t want to use you for your powers. It’s not fair. This is my vendetta.”
“Well. It’s happening. And I’m sorry I wasn’t paying attention to it before now, but if he has Lex... Don’t think of it as using me. I want to help.” Clark frowned. “I can’t believe that you’d think I wouldn’t want to help Lex.”
“It’s not that. I just wasn’t sure you’d believe me.” She sighed and twisted her fingers. “And it’s my fault. I should have told him to just leave Cadmus, but he offered to stay and get information on Queen. If he’d left, he’d be safe.”
“Lex is stubborn. He wouldn’t do it if he didn’t want to.” Clark straightened up. “Let’s just get him back.”
Chloe nodded and hopped up. Together they hurried out of the bullpen.
***
Lex groaned deep in his throat. He couldn’t tell if the splitting headache he had was from withdrawal from his meds or from the loss of blood. He was lying on a cold table, and had been for days, attached to sensors. Faceless workers kept coming in and taking his blood, so much so that he’d passed out a few times. One had waved a gun around and interrogated him about his ‘powers,’ ranting in between about dangerous people like him, who should all just be rounded up in camps away from the general population.
After receiving a shot to the leg (and acknowledging that he was lucky not to have been shot in the groin), Lex realized that keeping his smart mouth shut would be a really good idea.
Now, Lex rolled his head to the side and watched as someone in a lab coat came up to him.
“Please... Where am I?” Lex’s voice was hoarse. He needed some water. And he needed his damn blood, if he was going to deal with a gunshot wound.
The person in the lab coat ignored him and tended to his leg wound. Lex looked to the ceiling again and focused on taking deep, cleansing breaths. He wished he hadn’t been so bitchy to Clark the last time he’d seen him. He wished he’d answered some of Clark’s voice messages, instead of just listening to them and saving them.
“How’s our patient doing?”
Lex’s eyes popped open at the clear, smug voice of Oliver Queen. He slit his eyes as he looked at the man. Oliver seemed relaxed, his hands in his pockets and his shoulders loose. What casual business this must have been to him.
“What do you want from me?” Lex demanded. “I don’t have any powers that anyone could want.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that. I think you underestimate yourself, Lex. You always had such low self-esteem.” Oliver drew closer to Lex, and his phony smile fell away. “Anyway, what we’re doing here has a lot less to do with how useful you are, and much more to do with how dangerous you are.”
“But I’m not dangerous.”
“You see, Lex...” Oliver raised his hands and smiled. “I’m a hero. I protect the innocent from people like yourself. Maybe the authorities are too weak to do something about this, but I’m not.”
Lex frowned in disbelief. “I haven’t done anything to you!”
“Oh... That’s not true.” Oliver fixed his gaze on Lex again and strolled over to him. He ran his and over Lex’s chest and abdomen. Lex shuddered. With a smirk, Oliver commented, “You’ve lost weight.”
Lex made a noise. He’d had about enough of the unsolicited commentary on his body, one way or the other. Praise about his weight loss felt like a boot to the teeth right now, considering it had come from feeling horrible for the last few weeks as his body adjusted to new medications. It was like telling him that his pain had been good for him.
Oliver left his palm on Lex’s stomach. “Your father murdered my parents. They were in his way, and he snuffed them out like they were nothing. Your father!”
“I’m sorry, Oliver. I am. My father hurt a lot of people, but I’m not him,” Lex said firmly.
“You’re exactly like him,” Oliver snapped.
“So you just kidnap whoever you feel like it? Tie them up and torture them? How is that any kind of justice?”
“Don’t be histrionic.” Oliver tilted his head to the side. “Some I recruit. Those who are useful, reasonably sane, and good at taking orders. Others are I let go after getting a good scan of their bodies, like your tiny little friend Chloe? Cute, but useless.”
Oliver strolled around Lex slowly. “But some, like you, are too dangerous to be let go. I have a special facility for people like you. Hope ya didn’t love the sunlight, Lex.”
“Because I heal quickly, you’re going to lock me in the dungeon forever?” Lex pursed his lips.
“Nope. That’s not it. Although we’ve tested a healing serum made from your blood on a few people,” Oliver said thoughtfully. “They all went crazy with rage. Wonder what that’s about. No, what I’m interested in, baldshine, is this.”
Oliver rapped his knuckle against Lex’s skull. Lex pinched his eyes shut and tried to cope with the resultant throbbing in his head and nausea in his stomach without letting on how much discomfort that caused him.
“You’re smart. You’re frighteningly smart. Inhumanly smart. I’m willing to bet that if you hadn’t doped yourself up with anti-depressants your brain would be in overdrive. There are no records of anyone with the kind of intelligence that you have. Who knows how much damage you could do?”
Lex peeked his eyes open to give Oliver a squinty glare. “I don’t really know what it says about you that you find intelligence so damn threatening.”
“Shut the hell up, Luthor. Not all of us need to whine to a shrink about our problems.”
“Is this really about me being a Super Nerd or is it about something else? I wasn’t the one who killed your parents!”
Oliver grabbed Lex’s chin. “Do you have any idea how awful it is to lose your parents? There’s nothing worse than your parents not coming home.”
Lex’s lips pressed into a flat line. “I imagine having your parents obliterated by a meteorite. Or having your parent blown away in front of your eyes. Or watching your parent waste away from illness. That might suck a little more. A lot of people lose their parents, Ollie. Not everyone has someone they can punish for that. You can’t take a meteor rock to jail. I can’t punish God for taking my mother. And someone already got Lionel. You can’t punish him again by torturing me.”
Oliver’s grip was probably bruising Lex’s chin, but he held it a moment longer. “If people only knew what I was saving them from by keeping you down here, they would throw a celebration in my honor.”
“Praise is important to you, isn’t it?” Lex turned his head to the side. He couldn’t rub the bruised flesh, even if he itched to do so. His hands were strapped to the bed. “You need people to tell you how amazing you are.”
“Get comfy, Lex. You’re gonna be here a long time.”
***
There was no keeping track of time. It was always bright there. Sleep was difficult, and rest was impossible. When the door opened, Lex kept his eyes closed. All he could do right now was refuse his captors the pleasure of seeing him upset and wait for an opportunity to escape.
“Hey, watch the hands, perv!”
“Chloe?” Lex lifted his head as much as he could, and saw his friend being stripped down by the lab coats.
“Lex?” Chloe tried to cover herself, but then they pushed her onto the table and began to tie her down.
“You shouldn’t have come,” Lex said. He pulled at his own restraints, but he knew he didn’t have the strength to break himself free.
“It’s okay, Lex,” Chloe assured him. He could see her eyes widening in panic, and yet she repeated, “It’s okay. It’s okay.”
“You get Queen in here, you sick fucks!” Lex yelled. “You get him in here and tell him to let her go! She’s not a threat to any of you or anyone else!”
“Lex, just stay calm,” Chloe urged.
“I can’t let them do this to you again,” Lex argued.
One of the lab coats came by and slammed his head back on the table. “You don’t have a choice.”
He turned to attend to Chloe once again, and then was suddenly, and inexplicably, swept into the wall. Lex blinked in disbelief as all of the sensors and tubes connected to him magically seemed to disappear. Sitting up weakly, he watched as the other lab coats dropped to the ground, and Chloe’s restraints also disappeared.
Before he knew what was happening, the world was blurring around him, and all he understood was that there was a warm, strong arm holding him safe. He leaned into the warmth. He was too tired to ask logic of the situation right now.
When they’d stopped, Lex fell to the ground, and Chloe knelt beside him, grumbling, “You could have grabbed my clothes.”
“Sorry, I was a little distracted.” Clark leaned over and gave her his jacket, then he turned to Lex.
Lex could only stare up in abject incredulity. Clark. Clark had done that. Pushed those men aside, taken the sensors off of him, and gotten Chloe and himself to safety. They were in a field, somewhere. Centennial Park. It was nighttime. The moon was almost full again.
“Clark,” he whispered. “I didn’t... I didn’t know you were a freak like me.”
“Like us,” Chloe corrected. She reached into Clark’s pocket and took his cell phone.
“I’m not. Not really.” Clark’s eyes moved over Lex’s body. “You... You look so...”
Lex closed his eyes and swore to himself that he would be punching Clark somewhere indelicate if he told him that he looked good.
Clark’s hand moved to cup Lex’s face, and when Lex’s eyes opened, worry was written all over Clark.
“Did that asshole feed you at all? Are you okay? God. We should get you to... to a hospital...”
To Lex’s surprise, tears seemed to be brimming in Clark’s eyes, and Lex didn’t have it in him to push Clark away when he pulled Lex close. Clark was more emotionally available than Lex was... but he didn’t cry.
“I’m okay. Clark?” Lex touched Clark’s thick hair and rubbed his back. “I’m okay, now. Thank you.”
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” Clark pleaded. “We would have gotten here sooner, but he’d moved you to some other location.”
“You saved me. I don’t think he would have ever let me go. Hey.” Lex touched Clark’s face and gave him a tense smile. “Thank you. I mean it.”
“I was so scared we wouldn’t find you in time. That you’d die, thinking I didn’t really love you,” Clark murmured. He bowed his head into Lex’s neck, and Lex pet the back of his head.
“Well, to be fair, I was kind of an asshole the last time we talked.”
“I don’t care. I don’t care about that, or how fat you are, or how skinny, I just...” Clark met Lex eyes. “There are things you don’t know about me, and I’m... I’m just terrified of you dying. I don’t think I could handle it, and it... I know that everyone else around me is going to die, and I’m getting to be okay with that, sort of. But not you. I don’t know... if I could still be me, without you. I’m sorry for projecting all of this onto you. It isn’t fair.”
Lex creased his brow, but didn’t stop petting Clark. It felt too good to be touched by Clark again. “I don’t understand. You acted that way because you’re afraid I’m going to die?”
“Sounds crazy, doesn’t it?” Clark admitted. “I am crazy. I go to therapy you know. But I didn’t realize at first what this was all about. I’m not a freak... Well, I am, but not like you. I’m an... I’m an alien. And I don’t age like everyone else does, and I know that everyone else has to grow old and die.”
“And that terrifies you,” Lex whispered. He was still mentally processing “alien,” but the rest was beginning to make a little sense. “You and I have some work to do.”
Clark pouted, took a breath, and nodded.
“My therapist does couples therapy,” Lex offered, his voice trembling slightly.
“You... you go to therapy too?”
Lex nodded. He found Clark’s big hands both cupping his face ever so gently, and Clark’s lips pressing to his forehead, like he was precious, and Lex was falling, falling, falling in love with Clark once again. This time, not just for all of his wonderful positive energy and his perfect smile and perfect teeth, but for his huge, gaping flaws, some of which Lex knew he shared more than he wanted to admit.
“Let’s go home,” Clark suggested.
“I let Pete know we’re all right,” Chloe said. “I want to get something to wear.”
“I can put you in my skinny clothes,” Lex told her.
“Pfft.” Chloe tightened Clark’s jacket around her. “As though I can fit into those.”
***
It was sometime early that morning when the news story broke. Chloe had called it in, with as much hard evidence as she had. Perry had argued with her over it, but they managed to get the scoop. The next stories, however, were on the news, because Oliver Queen himself had given a statement about his ‘rogue’ scientists, who were now being held in custody for their unsupported experiments on people:
“It’s difficult to keep track of all of them, but I came into town originally because I had a hunch something was going on under my nose. I don’t like that, and I don’t like dishonesty. I expect all of my employees to be honest with me, and I’ll do the same for them.”
Lex pressed the mute button and stared grumpily at the television set. He and Clark were back in their apartment, which was... strange. But it was home, and Lex felt most comfortable there. He needed to marshal his energy and recover. Apparently Clark’s mother was going to have him fetch dinner from the farm in a few hours. Lex could only imagine.
“He makes me sick,” Lex murmured as he stared at Oliver’s face on the television screen.
Clark came up beside him and pressed a mug of cocoa into his hands. “I don’t know what to do about him. What was that talk about him being a hero, you said? I don’t understand.”
“I don’t expect you to, Clark. Everyone rationalizes their behavior. They have to. He feels righteous about what he does, and that’s why he does it.”
Lex sipped the cocoa, then looked hesitantly at Clark, and leaned on him. Clark put his arm around Lex and kissed his head.
“I guess you do rationalize things, while you’re hurting someone.”
“Don’t compare what he does with what you did. You had an emotional, irrational reaction to something that really scares you. You hurt my widdle feelings.” Lex eyed Clark. “He kidnapped me, stripped me, took readings on my body and my brain, stole my blood for experimentation, and-” Lex sighed and growled a little. “-and he groped my chest.”
Clark’s other arm went around Lex’s chest protectively. “I’m scared that he might be doing this to other people.”
“He is, Clark. He told me so. He gloated about it. And he’s not exactly the only person out there with a grudge against metahumans, or the only person who is willing to hurt people to achieve their goals.”
Lex found himself smiling, almost involuntarily, as he was folded even closer into Clark’s embrace, as though he could protect Lex from the world by shielding him with his body. Maybe he could shield him from a good portion of it, from what Clark had explained about his own powers.
“Then I guess I have to make sure that I get in his way,” Clark said stubbornly.
Lex peeked up and watched Clark’s serious expression. He wasn’t sure he’d ever seen that look on Clark before. It wasn’t too friendly, but it wasn’t anger, either. Lex reached up to trace the lines on Clark’s determined jaw. Clark looked down at him, then pressed their foreheads together.
“Sorry. I know that you and I have a lot of ground to cover before everything is okay. I just... I really missed you. And I need to be close to you.”
“Don’t think about pulling away. We can still love each other and realize we need to work on our relationship.” Lex kissed Clark’s lips. “I’m pretty sure, anyway. I’ve never pulled off a relationship for this long. Be it romantic, or platonic.”
Clark returned Lex’s kiss, sucking a little on his lower lip, then licking under the upper. When Lex opened his mouth, Clark sighed softly and let their mouths melt together. The two of them seemed to be buzzing with energy. When Clark broke the kiss, he planted on one Lex’s nose. “Why don’t you tell me about that?”
“About... what?” Lex’s mind was still a little wrapped up in kissing Clark, and it took him a moment to remember what they had been talking about. “Oh. You don’t want to hear about my past relationships.”
“You’ve heard about mine,” Clark pointed out.
“That’s different,” Lex replied flatly.
“Lex. I want to hear about...” Clark kissed Lex’s nose again. “...whatever it is you are comfortable talking about.”
Lex creased his eyes and looked up at Clark curiously. Then he smirked. “You got that in therapy, didn’t you?”
“I realized I didn’t know enough about your past. And I let you hide it because I can’t stand to think about you hurting. Nothing’s worse than seeing you strapped to the table, though. I don’t want you to have to hide things from me anymore.” Clark shrugged. “And you know all of my secrets, now.”
“They’re not secrets. They’re just not... particularly pleasant.” Lex laid his head on Clark’s shoulder and let Clark pull his leg up over his larger ones. He didn’t think they could have been physically closer right now. “I don’t really want to talk about my relationships, though.”
Clark squeezed him a little as he nodded in understanding and kissed Lex’s head.
“But... when I was in foster care...”
***
There was nothing greater in the world than coming home, to his home, to the home that he and Lex had created together and would hopefully be stronger than ever. He set down his briefcase and set his glasses on the table where they kept their keys. He’d habitually worn them since high school, but there wasn’t much point anymore to wear them around Lex, who knew that Clark didn’t need them.
“Honey, I’m home!” Clark sang.
“Um, in here!” Lex called back. His voice sounded a little muffled. What was he doing?
Clark cocked his head to the side and moved into the living room. There was a DVD playing, and he blinked when all he could see of Lex was his feet, hovering in the air. Clark took a few more steps and Lex came into view. He was on the floor, partially on his back, but with his hips in the air supported by his hands, and his legs extended over him. Slowly, Lex lowered his legs until his knees were near his forehead.
“Um...?” Clark loosened his tie and came to sit on the arm of the sofa.
“It’s yoga. My therapist recommended it for stress relief, especially anxiety.” Lex drew in a deep breath, then let it out as he extended his legs into the air again. “I can’t remember what this position is called, but I’ve come to fondly think of it as Arse over Tits position.”
Clark threw his head back and laughed. “I guess I should have figured out what yoga involved before suggesting that we try it together.” “To be fair, I think yoga for weight loss is a little different. More moving, less stretching in place for twenty minutes.”
Clark kicked off his shoes and laid down beside Lex. Lex arched one brow high and watched as Clark tried to emulate the move. He kicked off the floor at first. Then fell. Then he tried to put one leg up and then raise the other. Then fell again. After a few more tries, Lex was done with that stretch and had paused the DVD to watch Clark trying it. Eventually, his legs flipped up and his feet landed over his head.
“Oh, oh my God. Ow!” Clark couldn’t stop laughing, eve if he knew that laughing didn’t make his predicament any better. He wasn’t used to pain of any kind, but he guessed he wasn’t the most flexible person in the world. “Help!”
“Stay still.” Lex smacked Clark on the ass, then stood to help Clark get his legs back on the floor. By the end, they were both laughing and panting.
“Okay. Uh, I’ll leave you to the yoga. Even in the interests of relationship togetherness, I’ll find something else we can do together,” Clark decided. He got up and ran a hand through his hair.
Lex smirked up at him from his mat. He was wearing yoga pants and a tank top, and looked impishly cute. He probably didn’t know it. “Maybe you’d like it. I couldn’t do this position at first either. There are some less intense moves. Like the ones where you just lay on the ground.”
“That’s my speed,” Clark agreed. He leaned over to give Lex a kiss, then headed into the bedroom to check his email.
Over the last couple of weeks, things had just kept improving. Now that Lex knew Clark’s secret, Clark could insist that his parents see them every Sunday for dinner, and he could just run them there. Lex still had to be prodded occasionally to open up, but Clark was learning when to push and when not to, and Lex was learning that who he was didn’t hurt their relationship. They’d both made a greater commitment to cooking, and Clark tried to make sure there were foods around the house for the days when Lex had an upset stomach, although those were fewer now that he was less stressed and more used to his meds. Clark was even happy to be involved in the Windmill Tilting Society with Lex and Chloe and whoever else they picked up on the way, and it helped him to know that while Oliver Queen probably still wanted to dissect Lex’s brain to get at the seed of his genius, they were all working toward a better and safer tomorrow for them all.
Clark felt more balanced, and more productive, and he didn’t even mind the sessions with Miranda. He’d been afraid that she would attack him or side with Lex all the time, but she wasn’t that kind of person. He didn’t know why that had been a fear when Pete didn’t do that, but still, he’d never been to couples’ counseling before. In his head, that was the next logical step before breaking up for good. Instead, she listened and pressed on whatever issues they had together, and she had decided that they really only needed to see her every couple of weeks, and could work on things themselves in the meantime. It was encouraging.
Sitting in front of his computer, Clark scanned through his online sites. It wasn’t yoga, but it did help him decompress from work. When he flipped onto Twitter, one of his Tweeps posted a link to an article, with the commentary, “Yet another one from these douchebags.”
Clark narrowed his eyes. Was she the one...? He clicked on the link.
“Top Ten Signs That Your Partner is SETTLING for You!” it read in huge, melodramatic text. Below the text was a picture of a girl rolling her eyes as her boyfriend, who needed a shave, tried to kiss her.
Clark glared at his computer screen. He closed the browser and picked up his cell phone.
“Hey, Lex. Let’s get pizza tonight!”
Author's Note: I'm hungry now. How about you?
Category: fic
Prompt(s): Clark reads a relationship article that causes nothing but trouble.
Warnings: Discussion of weight issues, therapy, and mental disorders
Summary: Clark notices that Lex has gained weight, and through the help of a savvy internet article, tries to subtly tell Lex that he needs to shed a few pounds. Things are always more complicated, however, as both of them are keeping secrets.
Author’s Notes: The glorious article is HERE.
I suppose I should alert readers that there's some BDA!Clark (although he has his reasons!!), and Oliver has some of his S8ish characterization
Part Three
Six weeks. It had been six weeks since Lex had left. Four since Clark had actually talked to Lex. He figured that clogging up Lex’s voicemail didn’t count, since Lex was probably just deleting the messages.
He sat at his desk, typing up a report on local parents and their involvement with their kids’ soccer teams. Apparently one mother had punched out the coach for repeatedly calling her boy by girls’ names, and they were mutually suing one another, for assault and harassment respectively.
“Hey, Chlo,” Clark said as she walked passed him with her cell phone to her ear. “Could you check this when you’re done? I don’t want to sound too biased against the coach.”
Chloe held a hand up as she took a seat at her desk. Shaking her head, she set her phone down. “What now?”
“What’s wrong?” Clark forgot about his article and moved to her side.
“Nothing. Lex... I’m sorry. I know you don’t want to hear about-”
“I always want to hear about Lex. Even if he doesn’t want to hear about me.” Clark crouched beside her and poked her side a few times.
“Stop,” she murmured. After clearing her throat, Chloe looked at him. “I haven’t been able to reach Lex for a few days.”
“What? Isn’t he living with you?”
“Yeah, he is. And he hasn’t been back to the apartment, or to your apartment. I checked.” She bit her lip.
“You should have told me. Have you asked around his work? Have you told the police?”
“I called the police and put in a missing person’s report, but you don’t understand.” Chloe licked her lips, leaned over and lowered her voice. “I can’t get into Lex’s work because ownership of the lab has switched hands, and the police aren’t going to investigate because of the new owner. Oliver Queen.”
Clark’s entire back and shoulders tensed. “You think his boss had him kidnapped? Why would he do that?”
“I know you don’t like to think about this, Clark, but Lex is a metahuman. He’s done experiments in his lab with his own blood, hoping to transfer his healing abilities to others. Queen has all of the data on his work now. It isn’t that far of a leap to guess that he’s taken Lex, just like he took me. Only he won’t let Lex go. He’ll find something worth having with Lex.”
She pushed her hand into the side of her hair and her eyes went to the ceiling. “I’m out of resources here. I’m asking everyone I know, but Queen’s just too high profile. I can’t get anyone to roll on him. I was just going to go to Cadmus tonight and see if I can’t slip inside.”
Clark grabbed her arms. “Chloe, that is a stupid plan. You think this is the guy who kidnapped you, and you’re going to sneak into a facility he owns? Alone?”
“I’m running out of options here!”
Clark rolled his eyes and gestured to himself. “Hello?”
“Forgive me if I don’t treat you as my trusty hound. I don’t want to use you for your powers. It’s not fair. This is my vendetta.”
“Well. It’s happening. And I’m sorry I wasn’t paying attention to it before now, but if he has Lex... Don’t think of it as using me. I want to help.” Clark frowned. “I can’t believe that you’d think I wouldn’t want to help Lex.”
“It’s not that. I just wasn’t sure you’d believe me.” She sighed and twisted her fingers. “And it’s my fault. I should have told him to just leave Cadmus, but he offered to stay and get information on Queen. If he’d left, he’d be safe.”
“Lex is stubborn. He wouldn’t do it if he didn’t want to.” Clark straightened up. “Let’s just get him back.”
Chloe nodded and hopped up. Together they hurried out of the bullpen.
***
Lex groaned deep in his throat. He couldn’t tell if the splitting headache he had was from withdrawal from his meds or from the loss of blood. He was lying on a cold table, and had been for days, attached to sensors. Faceless workers kept coming in and taking his blood, so much so that he’d passed out a few times. One had waved a gun around and interrogated him about his ‘powers,’ ranting in between about dangerous people like him, who should all just be rounded up in camps away from the general population.
After receiving a shot to the leg (and acknowledging that he was lucky not to have been shot in the groin), Lex realized that keeping his smart mouth shut would be a really good idea.
Now, Lex rolled his head to the side and watched as someone in a lab coat came up to him.
“Please... Where am I?” Lex’s voice was hoarse. He needed some water. And he needed his damn blood, if he was going to deal with a gunshot wound.
The person in the lab coat ignored him and tended to his leg wound. Lex looked to the ceiling again and focused on taking deep, cleansing breaths. He wished he hadn’t been so bitchy to Clark the last time he’d seen him. He wished he’d answered some of Clark’s voice messages, instead of just listening to them and saving them.
“How’s our patient doing?”
Lex’s eyes popped open at the clear, smug voice of Oliver Queen. He slit his eyes as he looked at the man. Oliver seemed relaxed, his hands in his pockets and his shoulders loose. What casual business this must have been to him.
“What do you want from me?” Lex demanded. “I don’t have any powers that anyone could want.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that. I think you underestimate yourself, Lex. You always had such low self-esteem.” Oliver drew closer to Lex, and his phony smile fell away. “Anyway, what we’re doing here has a lot less to do with how useful you are, and much more to do with how dangerous you are.”
“But I’m not dangerous.”
“You see, Lex...” Oliver raised his hands and smiled. “I’m a hero. I protect the innocent from people like yourself. Maybe the authorities are too weak to do something about this, but I’m not.”
Lex frowned in disbelief. “I haven’t done anything to you!”
“Oh... That’s not true.” Oliver fixed his gaze on Lex again and strolled over to him. He ran his and over Lex’s chest and abdomen. Lex shuddered. With a smirk, Oliver commented, “You’ve lost weight.”
Lex made a noise. He’d had about enough of the unsolicited commentary on his body, one way or the other. Praise about his weight loss felt like a boot to the teeth right now, considering it had come from feeling horrible for the last few weeks as his body adjusted to new medications. It was like telling him that his pain had been good for him.
Oliver left his palm on Lex’s stomach. “Your father murdered my parents. They were in his way, and he snuffed them out like they were nothing. Your father!”
“I’m sorry, Oliver. I am. My father hurt a lot of people, but I’m not him,” Lex said firmly.
“You’re exactly like him,” Oliver snapped.
“So you just kidnap whoever you feel like it? Tie them up and torture them? How is that any kind of justice?”
“Don’t be histrionic.” Oliver tilted his head to the side. “Some I recruit. Those who are useful, reasonably sane, and good at taking orders. Others are I let go after getting a good scan of their bodies, like your tiny little friend Chloe? Cute, but useless.”
Oliver strolled around Lex slowly. “But some, like you, are too dangerous to be let go. I have a special facility for people like you. Hope ya didn’t love the sunlight, Lex.”
“Because I heal quickly, you’re going to lock me in the dungeon forever?” Lex pursed his lips.
“Nope. That’s not it. Although we’ve tested a healing serum made from your blood on a few people,” Oliver said thoughtfully. “They all went crazy with rage. Wonder what that’s about. No, what I’m interested in, baldshine, is this.”
Oliver rapped his knuckle against Lex’s skull. Lex pinched his eyes shut and tried to cope with the resultant throbbing in his head and nausea in his stomach without letting on how much discomfort that caused him.
“You’re smart. You’re frighteningly smart. Inhumanly smart. I’m willing to bet that if you hadn’t doped yourself up with anti-depressants your brain would be in overdrive. There are no records of anyone with the kind of intelligence that you have. Who knows how much damage you could do?”
Lex peeked his eyes open to give Oliver a squinty glare. “I don’t really know what it says about you that you find intelligence so damn threatening.”
“Shut the hell up, Luthor. Not all of us need to whine to a shrink about our problems.”
“Is this really about me being a Super Nerd or is it about something else? I wasn’t the one who killed your parents!”
Oliver grabbed Lex’s chin. “Do you have any idea how awful it is to lose your parents? There’s nothing worse than your parents not coming home.”
Lex’s lips pressed into a flat line. “I imagine having your parents obliterated by a meteorite. Or having your parent blown away in front of your eyes. Or watching your parent waste away from illness. That might suck a little more. A lot of people lose their parents, Ollie. Not everyone has someone they can punish for that. You can’t take a meteor rock to jail. I can’t punish God for taking my mother. And someone already got Lionel. You can’t punish him again by torturing me.”
Oliver’s grip was probably bruising Lex’s chin, but he held it a moment longer. “If people only knew what I was saving them from by keeping you down here, they would throw a celebration in my honor.”
“Praise is important to you, isn’t it?” Lex turned his head to the side. He couldn’t rub the bruised flesh, even if he itched to do so. His hands were strapped to the bed. “You need people to tell you how amazing you are.”
“Get comfy, Lex. You’re gonna be here a long time.”
***
There was no keeping track of time. It was always bright there. Sleep was difficult, and rest was impossible. When the door opened, Lex kept his eyes closed. All he could do right now was refuse his captors the pleasure of seeing him upset and wait for an opportunity to escape.
“Hey, watch the hands, perv!”
“Chloe?” Lex lifted his head as much as he could, and saw his friend being stripped down by the lab coats.
“Lex?” Chloe tried to cover herself, but then they pushed her onto the table and began to tie her down.
“You shouldn’t have come,” Lex said. He pulled at his own restraints, but he knew he didn’t have the strength to break himself free.
“It’s okay, Lex,” Chloe assured him. He could see her eyes widening in panic, and yet she repeated, “It’s okay. It’s okay.”
“You get Queen in here, you sick fucks!” Lex yelled. “You get him in here and tell him to let her go! She’s not a threat to any of you or anyone else!”
“Lex, just stay calm,” Chloe urged.
“I can’t let them do this to you again,” Lex argued.
One of the lab coats came by and slammed his head back on the table. “You don’t have a choice.”
He turned to attend to Chloe once again, and then was suddenly, and inexplicably, swept into the wall. Lex blinked in disbelief as all of the sensors and tubes connected to him magically seemed to disappear. Sitting up weakly, he watched as the other lab coats dropped to the ground, and Chloe’s restraints also disappeared.
Before he knew what was happening, the world was blurring around him, and all he understood was that there was a warm, strong arm holding him safe. He leaned into the warmth. He was too tired to ask logic of the situation right now.
When they’d stopped, Lex fell to the ground, and Chloe knelt beside him, grumbling, “You could have grabbed my clothes.”
“Sorry, I was a little distracted.” Clark leaned over and gave her his jacket, then he turned to Lex.
Lex could only stare up in abject incredulity. Clark. Clark had done that. Pushed those men aside, taken the sensors off of him, and gotten Chloe and himself to safety. They were in a field, somewhere. Centennial Park. It was nighttime. The moon was almost full again.
“Clark,” he whispered. “I didn’t... I didn’t know you were a freak like me.”
“Like us,” Chloe corrected. She reached into Clark’s pocket and took his cell phone.
“I’m not. Not really.” Clark’s eyes moved over Lex’s body. “You... You look so...”
Lex closed his eyes and swore to himself that he would be punching Clark somewhere indelicate if he told him that he looked good.
Clark’s hand moved to cup Lex’s face, and when Lex’s eyes opened, worry was written all over Clark.
“Did that asshole feed you at all? Are you okay? God. We should get you to... to a hospital...”
To Lex’s surprise, tears seemed to be brimming in Clark’s eyes, and Lex didn’t have it in him to push Clark away when he pulled Lex close. Clark was more emotionally available than Lex was... but he didn’t cry.
“I’m okay. Clark?” Lex touched Clark’s thick hair and rubbed his back. “I’m okay, now. Thank you.”
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” Clark pleaded. “We would have gotten here sooner, but he’d moved you to some other location.”
“You saved me. I don’t think he would have ever let me go. Hey.” Lex touched Clark’s face and gave him a tense smile. “Thank you. I mean it.”
“I was so scared we wouldn’t find you in time. That you’d die, thinking I didn’t really love you,” Clark murmured. He bowed his head into Lex’s neck, and Lex pet the back of his head.
“Well, to be fair, I was kind of an asshole the last time we talked.”
“I don’t care. I don’t care about that, or how fat you are, or how skinny, I just...” Clark met Lex eyes. “There are things you don’t know about me, and I’m... I’m just terrified of you dying. I don’t think I could handle it, and it... I know that everyone else around me is going to die, and I’m getting to be okay with that, sort of. But not you. I don’t know... if I could still be me, without you. I’m sorry for projecting all of this onto you. It isn’t fair.”
Lex creased his brow, but didn’t stop petting Clark. It felt too good to be touched by Clark again. “I don’t understand. You acted that way because you’re afraid I’m going to die?”
“Sounds crazy, doesn’t it?” Clark admitted. “I am crazy. I go to therapy you know. But I didn’t realize at first what this was all about. I’m not a freak... Well, I am, but not like you. I’m an... I’m an alien. And I don’t age like everyone else does, and I know that everyone else has to grow old and die.”
“And that terrifies you,” Lex whispered. He was still mentally processing “alien,” but the rest was beginning to make a little sense. “You and I have some work to do.”
Clark pouted, took a breath, and nodded.
“My therapist does couples therapy,” Lex offered, his voice trembling slightly.
“You... you go to therapy too?”
Lex nodded. He found Clark’s big hands both cupping his face ever so gently, and Clark’s lips pressing to his forehead, like he was precious, and Lex was falling, falling, falling in love with Clark once again. This time, not just for all of his wonderful positive energy and his perfect smile and perfect teeth, but for his huge, gaping flaws, some of which Lex knew he shared more than he wanted to admit.
“Let’s go home,” Clark suggested.
“I let Pete know we’re all right,” Chloe said. “I want to get something to wear.”
“I can put you in my skinny clothes,” Lex told her.
“Pfft.” Chloe tightened Clark’s jacket around her. “As though I can fit into those.”
***
It was sometime early that morning when the news story broke. Chloe had called it in, with as much hard evidence as she had. Perry had argued with her over it, but they managed to get the scoop. The next stories, however, were on the news, because Oliver Queen himself had given a statement about his ‘rogue’ scientists, who were now being held in custody for their unsupported experiments on people:
“It’s difficult to keep track of all of them, but I came into town originally because I had a hunch something was going on under my nose. I don’t like that, and I don’t like dishonesty. I expect all of my employees to be honest with me, and I’ll do the same for them.”
Lex pressed the mute button and stared grumpily at the television set. He and Clark were back in their apartment, which was... strange. But it was home, and Lex felt most comfortable there. He needed to marshal his energy and recover. Apparently Clark’s mother was going to have him fetch dinner from the farm in a few hours. Lex could only imagine.
“He makes me sick,” Lex murmured as he stared at Oliver’s face on the television screen.
Clark came up beside him and pressed a mug of cocoa into his hands. “I don’t know what to do about him. What was that talk about him being a hero, you said? I don’t understand.”
“I don’t expect you to, Clark. Everyone rationalizes their behavior. They have to. He feels righteous about what he does, and that’s why he does it.”
Lex sipped the cocoa, then looked hesitantly at Clark, and leaned on him. Clark put his arm around Lex and kissed his head.
“I guess you do rationalize things, while you’re hurting someone.”
“Don’t compare what he does with what you did. You had an emotional, irrational reaction to something that really scares you. You hurt my widdle feelings.” Lex eyed Clark. “He kidnapped me, stripped me, took readings on my body and my brain, stole my blood for experimentation, and-” Lex sighed and growled a little. “-and he groped my chest.”
Clark’s other arm went around Lex’s chest protectively. “I’m scared that he might be doing this to other people.”
“He is, Clark. He told me so. He gloated about it. And he’s not exactly the only person out there with a grudge against metahumans, or the only person who is willing to hurt people to achieve their goals.”
Lex found himself smiling, almost involuntarily, as he was folded even closer into Clark’s embrace, as though he could protect Lex from the world by shielding him with his body. Maybe he could shield him from a good portion of it, from what Clark had explained about his own powers.
“Then I guess I have to make sure that I get in his way,” Clark said stubbornly.
Lex peeked up and watched Clark’s serious expression. He wasn’t sure he’d ever seen that look on Clark before. It wasn’t too friendly, but it wasn’t anger, either. Lex reached up to trace the lines on Clark’s determined jaw. Clark looked down at him, then pressed their foreheads together.
“Sorry. I know that you and I have a lot of ground to cover before everything is okay. I just... I really missed you. And I need to be close to you.”
“Don’t think about pulling away. We can still love each other and realize we need to work on our relationship.” Lex kissed Clark’s lips. “I’m pretty sure, anyway. I’ve never pulled off a relationship for this long. Be it romantic, or platonic.”
Clark returned Lex’s kiss, sucking a little on his lower lip, then licking under the upper. When Lex opened his mouth, Clark sighed softly and let their mouths melt together. The two of them seemed to be buzzing with energy. When Clark broke the kiss, he planted on one Lex’s nose. “Why don’t you tell me about that?”
“About... what?” Lex’s mind was still a little wrapped up in kissing Clark, and it took him a moment to remember what they had been talking about. “Oh. You don’t want to hear about my past relationships.”
“You’ve heard about mine,” Clark pointed out.
“That’s different,” Lex replied flatly.
“Lex. I want to hear about...” Clark kissed Lex’s nose again. “...whatever it is you are comfortable talking about.”
Lex creased his eyes and looked up at Clark curiously. Then he smirked. “You got that in therapy, didn’t you?”
“I realized I didn’t know enough about your past. And I let you hide it because I can’t stand to think about you hurting. Nothing’s worse than seeing you strapped to the table, though. I don’t want you to have to hide things from me anymore.” Clark shrugged. “And you know all of my secrets, now.”
“They’re not secrets. They’re just not... particularly pleasant.” Lex laid his head on Clark’s shoulder and let Clark pull his leg up over his larger ones. He didn’t think they could have been physically closer right now. “I don’t really want to talk about my relationships, though.”
Clark squeezed him a little as he nodded in understanding and kissed Lex’s head.
“But... when I was in foster care...”
***
There was nothing greater in the world than coming home, to his home, to the home that he and Lex had created together and would hopefully be stronger than ever. He set down his briefcase and set his glasses on the table where they kept their keys. He’d habitually worn them since high school, but there wasn’t much point anymore to wear them around Lex, who knew that Clark didn’t need them.
“Honey, I’m home!” Clark sang.
“Um, in here!” Lex called back. His voice sounded a little muffled. What was he doing?
Clark cocked his head to the side and moved into the living room. There was a DVD playing, and he blinked when all he could see of Lex was his feet, hovering in the air. Clark took a few more steps and Lex came into view. He was on the floor, partially on his back, but with his hips in the air supported by his hands, and his legs extended over him. Slowly, Lex lowered his legs until his knees were near his forehead.
“Um...?” Clark loosened his tie and came to sit on the arm of the sofa.
“It’s yoga. My therapist recommended it for stress relief, especially anxiety.” Lex drew in a deep breath, then let it out as he extended his legs into the air again. “I can’t remember what this position is called, but I’ve come to fondly think of it as Arse over Tits position.”
Clark threw his head back and laughed. “I guess I should have figured out what yoga involved before suggesting that we try it together.” “To be fair, I think yoga for weight loss is a little different. More moving, less stretching in place for twenty minutes.”
Clark kicked off his shoes and laid down beside Lex. Lex arched one brow high and watched as Clark tried to emulate the move. He kicked off the floor at first. Then fell. Then he tried to put one leg up and then raise the other. Then fell again. After a few more tries, Lex was done with that stretch and had paused the DVD to watch Clark trying it. Eventually, his legs flipped up and his feet landed over his head.
“Oh, oh my God. Ow!” Clark couldn’t stop laughing, eve if he knew that laughing didn’t make his predicament any better. He wasn’t used to pain of any kind, but he guessed he wasn’t the most flexible person in the world. “Help!”
“Stay still.” Lex smacked Clark on the ass, then stood to help Clark get his legs back on the floor. By the end, they were both laughing and panting.
“Okay. Uh, I’ll leave you to the yoga. Even in the interests of relationship togetherness, I’ll find something else we can do together,” Clark decided. He got up and ran a hand through his hair.
Lex smirked up at him from his mat. He was wearing yoga pants and a tank top, and looked impishly cute. He probably didn’t know it. “Maybe you’d like it. I couldn’t do this position at first either. There are some less intense moves. Like the ones where you just lay on the ground.”
“That’s my speed,” Clark agreed. He leaned over to give Lex a kiss, then headed into the bedroom to check his email.
Over the last couple of weeks, things had just kept improving. Now that Lex knew Clark’s secret, Clark could insist that his parents see them every Sunday for dinner, and he could just run them there. Lex still had to be prodded occasionally to open up, but Clark was learning when to push and when not to, and Lex was learning that who he was didn’t hurt their relationship. They’d both made a greater commitment to cooking, and Clark tried to make sure there were foods around the house for the days when Lex had an upset stomach, although those were fewer now that he was less stressed and more used to his meds. Clark was even happy to be involved in the Windmill Tilting Society with Lex and Chloe and whoever else they picked up on the way, and it helped him to know that while Oliver Queen probably still wanted to dissect Lex’s brain to get at the seed of his genius, they were all working toward a better and safer tomorrow for them all.
Clark felt more balanced, and more productive, and he didn’t even mind the sessions with Miranda. He’d been afraid that she would attack him or side with Lex all the time, but she wasn’t that kind of person. He didn’t know why that had been a fear when Pete didn’t do that, but still, he’d never been to couples’ counseling before. In his head, that was the next logical step before breaking up for good. Instead, she listened and pressed on whatever issues they had together, and she had decided that they really only needed to see her every couple of weeks, and could work on things themselves in the meantime. It was encouraging.
Sitting in front of his computer, Clark scanned through his online sites. It wasn’t yoga, but it did help him decompress from work. When he flipped onto Twitter, one of his Tweeps posted a link to an article, with the commentary, “Yet another one from these douchebags.”
Clark narrowed his eyes. Was she the one...? He clicked on the link.
“Top Ten Signs That Your Partner is SETTLING for You!” it read in huge, melodramatic text. Below the text was a picture of a girl rolling her eyes as her boyfriend, who needed a shave, tried to kiss her.
Clark glared at his computer screen. He closed the browser and picked up his cell phone.
“Hey, Lex. Let’s get pizza tonight!”
Author's Note: I'm hungry now. How about you?