Fic: ...Clark Is Actually Pretty Ok With This, Thanks (Part 2, 3/3)
Title: ...Clark Is Actually Pretty Ok With This, Thanks (Part 2 -- Lois Gets In On The Bromance)
Author: josephina_x
Fandom: Smallville
Pairing: Clark, Lex
Rating: R (because it sort of has vague references to themes of BDSM *shrug*)
Spoilers: References season 6 and previous, general spoilers for early season 7 and all prior. Diverges at the end of Wrath (7x07) when Clark goes to talk to Lex.
Word count: 20,000+
Summary: What if Lex decided to be a little more... evil... at the end of Wrath? What if he decided to punish Clark, for Lana's transgression? ...What if Clark agreed to sacrifice himself for her sake? Would Clark break? Or would he... bend?
...Hey, that would be a totally crazy fic, am I right? --Unfortunately, this is not that. (Oops.) Here, Lex kind of goes the other route. You know, the whole brotherly-love one.
So, instead, you get Lex being pissed about Lana treating Clark like her own personal bitch, Clark's "sacrifice" isn't so much of one, and everybody else is left standing around scratching their heads while Lana ends up doing screechy-harpy things which we don't have to hear too much about -- you're welcome. (Chloe does, though. Feel sorry for Chloe, and send her emergency chocolate cake, stat.)
Warnings: Un-beta'd. An ungodly amount of Lois POV. A little character-bashing (screechy!Lana).
Disclaimer: Not mine, not-for-profit.
Comments: Yes, please! :)
Author's Note: At this stage, Lex is still totally uninitiated in the fine arts of BDSM, especially the dominant-submissive... stuff.
Also, I was kind of all over the place for awhile with possible story threads/forks, until canon decided to kick me in the head. (*ow* for damn headshots) But I at least know how this one's gonna end, now. --I'm not sure if my canon-fu is going to work out when I get there, but I'm sure gonna try! :)
Lois' explanations are more or less my own understanding of things, a la reading other fics, a couple wikipedia pages on all that 'safe, sane, and consensual' stuff ^_^ ...and one CSI episode. *facepalm* I'm definitely going to be playing fast-and-loose with the idea of 'pet'itude due to lack of knowledge and for the purpose of Necessary Sacrifices upon the Altar Of Plot. If I'm wrong about anything, I apologize -- no offense is intended. I'll be happy to put corrections in author's notes at the bottom of the fic to clarify if and/or where I'm wrong or very far off base on anything, if anyone would like to let me know.
...Whew, wow, ok, and just a quick heads up: this installment ended up a lot more SRS BSNS than I originally intended. (And so will the next one, for a bit.) I swear that it's kinda necesary for the boys and girls for the sake of future, more happy-fun-time shenanigans, though, or things would've fallen through at a later date in a very bad way. ...But sometimes you gotta break down before you build up, y'know. *shakes fist at plot*
The first part of this fic is here on LJ.
Also posted to AO3 here (includes all chapters to-date).
Previous piece of Part 2 is here.
~*~*~*~*~*~
By the time Lex's driver got them into the city, Lois had the general outline of a plan.
...Well, more like a few recommended venues.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"Ok," Lois said, after having roused Clark and Lex and gotten them out of the limo. She had them waiting on the sidewalk, not wanting to bring them inside until she was sure they were prepared -- or not, and she'd have to think of a plan B. "Here's what we're gonna do." She took a deep breath.
"I asked around, and I found a few places that, uh, cater to... stuff. There's one nearby." At the confused and amused looks she got from Clark and Lex, respectively she sighed. "Ok, maybe I should just start from the baby steps, since I don't want either of you freaking out if you see something that weirds you out, because a lot of this stuff can be mix-and-match."
"...Okay? What stuff?" Clark said. Lex nodded at her to continue, watching Clark.
"Right." Lois steeled herself, because this was a pair of Kansas boy on her hands. "Soooo, show of hands, who here has heard of BDSM?"
Lex rolled his eyes.
"Oh, that stuff. What about it?" Clark said.
Lois stared at him, while Lex did a double-take.
"Uh, Smallville, you do know what BDSM means, right?" Lois said, once she got her voice back.
"Sure. It's like a portmanteau acronym or something," he said.
"Uh, sure, Smallville," she said, not sure what 'portmanteau' meant. "But it stands for--"
"Bondage-discipline, dominance-submission, sado-masochism," Clark said without missing a beat or going cross-eyed.
She wasn't sure what the look on her face was, but Lex's eyes just about bugged out.
"How the hell can you say that with a straight face and can't get out the word 'sex' without stuttering?!" Lex demanded, practically glaring at him.
"What?!" Clark exclaimed. "That's not--! I don't-- It's a totally different thing!" he said as he turned bright red.
Lex made a choking sound, and Lois just couldn't take it.
She leaned against the side of the limousine and started laughing hysterically.
Lex gave Lois an unamused look, before turning to Clark with an expression that clearly said 'I'm going to regret this, I just know it...' and then asked, tiredly, "How is it different, Clark?"
"It's weird!" Clark said, crossing his arms. "And, you know, stupid. It's all... all... ropes and getting tied up and... and chains and handcuffs and bits in people's mouths and, well ...gay stuff too, I guess," he frowned. "It's not, you know ...you know?" he ended, blushing again at the last bit.
Lex sighed and rubbed at his forehead.
Lois still couldn't stop giggling, not for the life of her. This was just too funny.
"So, just to be clear," Lex said patiently, "The sorts of things that would have you turning tail and running, or blushing up a storm, would be...?"
Clark shifted uneasily. "Um... I don't know. People, um... naked? Or all tied up? Or... doing... things..."
"So, no exhibitionism, voyeurism, open-air sex, visible bondage, or large stretches of bare skin," Lex summed up. "That probably leaves out most gathering places, and a few of the shops, but many of the stores should be... acceptable."
"...Are you gonna be ok?" Clark asked.
Lex blinked at him.
"I mean, if they've got handcuffs or straightjackets and stuff on the walls..." Clark trailed off.
Lex took in a breath, then sighed. "It won't be a problem."
"That's not-- I don't want you feeling... uncomfortable," Clark frowned.
Lex stared at him for a bit, then said in a low tone, "I'll be fine."
Clark bit his lip, staring down at him intently, then frowned, but backed off.
"Um... did I miss something?" Lois said, finally able to calm down when the mood shifted downwards, practically off the edge of a cliff.
Clark looked at her. "Lex and straightjackets shouldn't mix," he said matter-of-factly.
"Is this about Belle Reeve?" Lois asked. She ignored how Lex straightened and his jaw clenched.
Clark just blinked at her and frowned a little. "Well... yeah, I guess. I was thinking about Club Zero, but, yeah, I guess you remember some of that, too?" Clark said to Lex with a wince.
"Most of the time I remember there wasn't in one," Lex said noncommitally, looking away and sliding his hands in his pockets.
"Club Zero?" Lois asked, glancing between them.
"We are not discussing that," Lex said blandly.
"Ok," Clark shrugged amiably.
"Uh, right..." Lois said, seeing a closed subject when she heard one. "Ok, so, what's the big deal with bondage and gay love?" she asked. "You aren't gonna be welcome most of these places if you're judgmental," she warned.
"If a bunch of gay guys--"
"--or women--" Lex interjected.
"--can't handle me thinking that stuff's icky, then that's their problem, not--"
"--'Icky'?" Lois repeated, stifling a laugh.
"What? It is!" Clark frowned. "I mean, for guys not gay. I'm not gay. I'm allowed to think that it's icky!" he proclaimed, throwing his hands up.
"Icky," Lois repeated. She caught a glimpse of Lex biting his lip slightly, looking away and trying not to smile.
"Right, ok, fine, that's fine Smallville, forget I said anything," she backed off before she burst out laughing again. "Uh, but what's wrong with getting tied up?"
Clark turned and looked at her full-on. He stared for a moment, then gave her a look like he thought she was out of her flipping mind.
"You--" One eye started twitching. He glanced over at Lex, who gave him a bland look, then turned back to her, rubbed his hands across his face, blew out a breath, and said, in careful tones, "Lois?"
"Uh, yeah?"
"If you're in Smallville, and somebody looks like they want to tie you up or something, I want you to promise me something."
"...Okay?" she said, wondering where this was going.
"I want you to call me, immediately, and tell me where you are, so I can get over there and punch out the meteor freak who is about two seconds away from eating your face," he said in a level tone. Then he paused, and added, "Or maybe melting it off by spraying acid from his mouth, or something. Whatever. Don't do it. Getting tied up is bad, ok? Bad," he repeated like he was talking to an idiot.
Lois scowled at him.
"It never ends well," he repeated, for good measure.
Then she tilted her head, crossed her arms, and began, "Metropolis--"
"--has it's own set of problems, and it's just as stupid to get tied up here," Clark said. "Seriously, just--" he turned to Lex, "Isn't this one of those Darwin things?"
"Darwin Awards?" Lex supplied calmly.
"Yeah, those."
"Maybe," Lex said with a thin smile.
Clark sighed.
Lex's smile twitched up at the corners.
Lois glowered at the two of them, then rolled her eyes and said, "Fine, whatever. Don't blame me if you get in an argument about bondage ties with somebody and a fist fight starts."
"Who's gonna argue over not doing that?" Clark said like it was the most obvious common sense thing in the world.
Lex made a strangled sound that was suspiciously laugh-like.
Lois eyed the both of them. "Ok, fine, let's get to the first store then," she said, turning and leading the way.
"You know," she shot back over her shoulder. "I don't get how Clark seems to be better acquainted with gay sex stuff than you are, Metropolis Boy," she directed at Lex.
"Are you kidding?" Clark said. "I grew up on a farm with livestock. My life was the Discovery Channel several hours a day, every day."
Lois nearly tripped over her own feet, and Lex started laughing out loud.
"What?" Clark asked, frowning and not getting it. "You have to keep the bulls from--"
"--Right, uh, never mind that, then!" Lois said, quickly, not wanting to know, and changing the subject to, "So, how do you know about BDSM stuff? The internet?"
"Oh god," Clark groaned, "Are you kidding me? Chloe has mad search history fu; I'd've never lived it down."
"Then how?" Lois asked.
"...I was in Metropolis for a summer, ok?" Clark finally said.
"What?" Lois said. Then: "--You bastard!" Lois exclaimed, punching him in the arm.
Clark flinched away, and his mouth dropped open. "I-- what--"
"What the hell were you on, ending up in that cornfield--!"
"Cornfield?" Lex echoed, frowning between them.
"What...?" Clark said, confused. Then his eyes widened. "Hey, no wait--" he said, holding up his hands as Lois readied another punch. "Wrong summer! Wrong summer!" he said. "It was the summer before that!"
"The summer--" Lois stopped. "What?" Then she frowned as she thought. Her head swiveled to Lex. "Were you in on this?" she asked, pointing at Clark.
Lex sighed. "No," he said flatly. "I was planewrecked on an deserted island in the Pacific at the time."
Lois opened her mouth to respond and stalled out. "--Huh?"
"Ex-wife number two," Clark supplied.
"To be fair, I didn't even realize that she was alive, let alone that it was her murder attempt, until well after I was rescued from the island," Lex said blandly. "At the time, I thought someone had sabotaged the plane trying to kill us both."
"This... this is an actual thing?" Lois said, trying to wrap her mind around it. He wasn't just kidding around yesterday, when he said--??
"The first one -- Desiree -- was a black widow. Meteor freak with pheromone powers. She'd pheromone-zap rich guys to make them marry her, then meteor-power other men into killing the husband for her and taking all the blame, while she got all the money," Clark told her.
Lois' jaw dropped.
"You--" she started, then pinched the bridge of her nose. "God, I don't even-- This is your life?"
Lex chuckled quietly, but tiredly.
Lois gritted her teeth. "Ok -- question for you Smallville," she said, rounding on him, because, since he was awake and here... "What's the deal with Belle Reeve?"
"Lex owns it now; meteor freaks go in and they don't come out; and if they do, then they don't survive a week on the outside before they're murdered."
Lois started, not having expected that at all.
"For fuck's sake, Clark, as soon as I found out about Knox, I--!" Lex wheeled on him, stopping in the middle of the road -- and thank god they'd been taking an alleyway shortcut, or they'd have had an audience for what followed.
"It's not just him, Lex!" Clark spat back. "Alicia--" he visibly forced himself to stop there, breathing hard. He restarted with, "I know about Level 3, and Level 33.1, and all of it! I'm not stupid, Lex. Nobody who goes in there ever gets better!"
"You don't know a damn thing!" Lex hissed back, fists clenched, standing at full height and getting in his face. Lois backed up a step at the vitriol that was practically steaming off them in waves.
"I know enough!" Clark ground back. "About those so-called escapees, who were real talkative, and about Chloe's mother!"
"Christ, Clark, I can't wave a fucking magic wand and make it all better!" Lex yelled back, so furious he was shaking. "Once they're in Belle Reeve, they're ultimately my responsibility, under my charge. I can't just shove those mutants in a cell, lock it, throw away the key, and call it a day. I can't just snap power dampeners around their wrists, wash my hands clean, and say that's enough -- and even getting that far was a goddamn uphill battle, and half the time they don't even work and the poor bastards have to be drugged to their eyeballs with sedatives instead!"
Clark rocked back, looking shocked, but Lex kept going. "The psychosis is from their powers, you idiot. They have to learn how to control them properly, and how to consciously stop, before they can make any mental health progress at all, if they can, and they've got fucking miles of trauma to work through, because even getting them halfway sane isn't enough, because then they have to deal with the fact that they killed people. That doesn't take days, or weeks, or months, that takes years or decades, if they ever improve at all!"
"Moira would have been a fucking godsend if I could have used her," Lex continued. "They can't learn control with the damn dampeners on, and half the time they need to have their powers boosted before they can even begin to get a feel for what's actually going on inside their own damn heads. If I had her for when they got out of control, she could have forced them to stop without anyone getting hurt -- primarily themselves above all others."
"Used her?!" Clark shouted back. "You didn't give her a choice! You threatened her! You--"
"If I have to play the fucking villain to help those poor bastards back to sanity, then by god I will do so!" Lex spat back. "If I-- christ, do you really think I wouldn't just do what Knox did before he sent them out, to all of them, if I could? My people can't figure out how he did what he did to reproduce it! They don't understand why what little they do know about what he did worked for those that did! I can't just have them randomly cut into people's brains in fucking trial and error to see if they can guess at what works without any regard for--"
"Oh, but drilling into them is just fine?!?" Clark shot back.
Lex bristled at the comment, and god damn it, Lois had had--
"ENOUGH!!" she yelled, shoving between the two of them. "That's fucking enough out of the both of you!" she screamed, levering her elbows in and forcing them apart. "You don't get to-- Goddamnit, Clark--" she said, starting with him, "You don't get to do this while I'm right here and-- I have my own fucking shit, too, ok?! You don't see me fucking screaming at him about Wes and-- and him dying in my arms," she choked. "So don't you dare--"
"--What?" Lex said quietly, before rocking back on his heels in shock. "You... You were the anomaly," he breathed out, eyes wide as he backed up a step.
"You fucking son of a bitch--!" she yelled at him, eyes tearing up. It took all she had not to rail into him.
"Jesus," Lex said, putting a palm against his forehead.
"You-- what you did to him--" Lois said, her voice shaking with rage.
"--is most likely something that, if I had done whatever you are claiming, that I most certainly would not be talking about in the middle of the fucking street with people who would have no clearance for a nonexistent project I know nothing about," he rattled back, and Lois hated that her jaw slammed shut at that, that her military upbringing had given her that automatic reaction to 'classified'.
"You--!" Clark started angrily, taking a step forward, but he stopped abruptly when Lois slammed a fist into his shirt and clenched it.
Because what Lex had implied had caught up with her.
She stated at him, pale-faced.
"Did you know him?" she whispered.
"Lois--"
She clenched her fist harder in his shirt, and Clark shut up.
"Not well," Lex said, watching her with a dark gaze. "I only became acquainted with him at your father's recommendation and through his introduction."
The bottom of her stomach dropped out, and Lois felt like her feet were encased in the concrete below them.
"He was a fine military man with an outstanding, impeccible record, who wanted to serve his country to the best of his ability," Lex said, then paused. He licked his lips, and seemed to choose his next words very carefully, measuring them out slowly. "I am sure that whatever task he chose to apply himself to... He would know exactly what he was doing, what he was getting himself into, and would make the right decision, a fully-informed one, before deciding whether to become involved and see it through." He paused again, then added, more heavily. "It would be my... personal belief, that if he chose not to harm an... old friend in the course of his duty... that that was not wrong."
Lois shook her head, over and over, vision clouding with tears. She didn't want to believe it. He had to be lying, but she'd heard that tone so many times before, from her father... when she'd had a friend on a dark ops mission... explained in just that sort of way... and how they briefed people on how to say, without saying, what they couldn't say, just like that...
...he couldn't have ever wanted them to do, what they'd done to him, could he?
...he hadn't really known before, had he? they must have had to lie...
Lois felt Clark sway slightly under her fist as he seemed to start to, almost, get it. "Lex, what the hell..." he said lowly. Lex shot him a 'be quiet' look.
"So help me god, Luthor, if you are lying to me..." she said shakily.
"I am not," he said. "But, on an unrelated note," he said, glancing down at his fingernails, "if you ever get the authorization for something you need help in tracking down to view, as a friend of you father's I would of course be happy to help you retrieve such records, assuming that my own clearance level affords me sufficient standing to have some influence in that regard."
Lois had to choke down a sad laugh, because she knew full well that Luthor could have made up or changed any documentation he wished.
...Except that she'd read enough military documents to know by now what should and shouldn't be there, and what would be out of place, and Project Ares had been a military-funded project.
And she also had a feeling, when he glanced up at her, that he knew that she could.
She sucked in a breath and raised her head. "Don't think I won't hold you to that," she said.
"Oh," Luthor breathed, "I plan on it."
"That doesn't make it right."
Lois turned slightly, and looked up at Clark.
"That doesn't make it all right," Clark repeated, fists stll clenched. "Things like that-- It never should have happened."
"Sometimes it is necessary--"
"No," Clark said. "No, it isn't." He gritted his teeth, trying to stay calm. "You keep doing these crazy things--"
"I'M NOT CRAZY!!!." Luthor screamed up at him, stomping forward.
"THAT'S NOT WHAT I SAID!!" Clark bellowed back, meeting him halfway.
And then they both froze, staring at each other.
Luthor, up at him in utter disbelief, turning dead pale and reeling backwards.
"What?" he whispered.
And Clark, suddenly looking scared, opened his mouth--
Lex took a step forward and, eyes blazing, mouth a thin line, still pale as hell, slapped his hand over Clark's mouth.
"Don't you dare," he demanded. "Don't you dare," he repeated shakily, eyes wide, and Lois heard in his voice what she'd been feeling in her heart about Wes.
Except for him, it was his sanity that was on shaky ground, about to break if--
"Don't you dare lie to me and take it back, you-- you--"
Lex took a step back looking down, body hunched inward like he was almost in pain. "You don't know, you don't--"
He cut a hand across his body in front of him. "I have to-- someone does-- I can't--"
Angrily, scared, "I can't let him-- not again, I can't-- again-- You don't know, you don't--" he said, looking up at Clark with a pained, tortured expression. "You don't-- know, you-- you-- no," he breathed out, flinching back at something in Clark's face. "You-- no, you... know... you--"
He shook his head and his brow furrowed, taking an involuntary step backwards. "You-- How...?"
"Lex--"
"No," he said, shaking his head, standing there. "You--"
He laughed slightly.
"You know. I'm not crazy," he said, his eyelids lowering as he rocked back slightly, looking tired and worn, and Lois saw half that weight that had been on his shoulders suddenly slip off, like it hit the sidewalk hard enough to crack it.
Luthor swayed slighly and laughed uncertainly, his mouth working but at a loss for words, unable to get anything out.
Why is it so important to him that Clark think he wasn't crazy--? and then Lois was derailed as she remembered what Lana had said he'd been crazy about earlier the previous day. ...Aliens? --No. No way... Aliens?!?
Clark looked scared as hell right then.
He swallowed hard. "Lex..." he said carefully, too carefully, and started to take a step forward.
"No!" Lex said, backing up a step. "No," he repeated, shivering. "I--" he raised a trembling hand to his forehead. "I--"
"I can't-- I can't do this. Not now. I-- I can't listen to you--"
He turned around and walked away.
Clark looked scared and stunned and completely lost. He turned and stared after Lex. Suddenly, it was like he was waging an inner battle with himself.
He opened his mouth, then dropped his chin and clenched his jaw, lifting a hand to his head.
Then his head snapped up and he took a step forward in the direction Lex had gone.
Lois grabbed his arm.
Clark jerked to a stop, and his head swiveled around to her, wide-eyed and shocky.
"Clark--" she started, suddenly afraid for him and not even really sure why.
"I have to go after him," he said desperately and he almost balked at his own words. He shook his head. "Lois, I--" He bit his lip. "Please, please just stay here and let me--" The next words almost seemed to cause him pain. "I have to do this."
"...Ok," Lois said, letting go. "Ok."
Clark took a sudden breath in, leaning back.
Then he turned and was off like an arrow show from a bow, straight towards the sun.
~*~*~*~*~*~
He raced after Lex, trying desperately to catch up with him.
He was scared as hell, frightened beyond belief that maybe, somehow, Lex had realized in that moment that he...
...what he was, not just what he'd been lying about.
Not just that one lie, but all of them.
He was scared to death, but even more so of Lex's leaving.
He had the horrible feeling that if he didn't go after him, right then, that somehow, he'd never see him again.
So he ran after him, and saw him, and slowed.
Lex wandered the half-deserted alleyways and sidestreets, at a slow uncertain walk, and Clark followed a few paces behind him.
Finally, too tired to go on, Lex staggered to a stop.
So did Clark, a step late, and Lex whirled and stared up at him like he didn't recognize him.
"...Clark?" he said, wavering. "Why are you... here?"
"I--" Clark wasn't sure. "You ran," he said. "I... followed you here."
"...Why?"
"I..." was worried. "You left. I--" He frowned. "I'll go where you go. I--" He straightened a little, and said, with more certainty, "I'll come with you, where you go, I'll follow."
"You shouldn't..." Lex said uncertainly.
"Why not?"
"I..." Lex laughed. "I don't know where I'm going." He looked around and wrapped his arms around himself. "I don't even know where I am anymore."
"...Do you want to go back?"
Lex looked back at him, looking as uncertain and lost and alone as Clark felt.
"I, uh," he smiled and looked like he was going to cry. "I don't know the way."
Well, Clark did. He turned his body slightly, and pointed his arm like a compass. "That way."
Lex laughed slightly, in nervous reaction.
"I--" He took a shaky breath. "I--"
His smile slipped on and off his face.
"Ok," he said quietly. "Ok."
He swallowed. "Let's go back."
So they walked together, next to each other, neither really leading or following the other, back to where they'd first begun.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Lex leaned against Clark a little as they walked.
After awhile, Clark put an arm around his shoulders.
...That just made it easier to lean on him. Lex felt ashamed.
He'd gotten lost in his own city.
Lex took a shaky breath in.
...and didn't pull away.
He didn't have the energy.
They finally made it back to Lois, who had apparently decided to wait there for them.
That was a surprise.
"You ok?" she asked.
Clark nodded once, twice.
It took Lex a moment or two to realize she'd been asking the both of them.
...also a surprise.
Lex generally didn't like surprises, but...
--he opened his mouth to say, 'I'm fine,'--
...too tired to care...
--fuck it--
"No," he said lowly. "No, I'm not."
He felt Clark shift. He was probably looking down at him.
He lifted his eyes to Lois, who was frowning slightly.
"Is this place close by?" he asked. "I would like to sit down for awhile."
Lois nodded. "It's just over there," she gestured.
They moved down the alley, walked another half-block, and Lois pushed open a side entrance to what looked like an old converted warehouse.
Lex was just grateful for the elevator. He probably could've managed stairs, but he wouldn't have wanted to find out.
Up the elevator to the third floor, down a hallway, and through a door into a large open waiting area, brightly lit, with no chairs, just one long bench in the middle of the room and no other furnishings, in front of a large, long desk.
It didn't look comfortable.
Lex grimaced slightly, and leaned against Clark. They remained standing, leaning a little on each other, as Lois talked to the receptionist behind the desk.
A piece of the wall-to-wall desk counter was raised, and they were waved in past the break.
A door, seamless in the wall, opened inward at the push of an invisible button under the counter by the woman receptionist.
She smiled serenly at them, and Lex blinked as he caught the flash of a thin silver choker at her neck, with a tiny padlock at the base of her throat, before they stepped through the door.
They walked down the dimly lit corridor for a minute or so, then came to a door at the middle.
Lois glanced down at a business card in her hand -- from the receptionist? -- and knocked on the door three times.
The door opened.
They walked in.
Lex started at a cacophonious burst of laughter to his right, flinching into Clark's side.
Clark hugged him slightly closer for a moment, then relaxed.
As they walked down the winding maze of corridors, following Lois, who was frowning down at the card and not paying too much attention to the surroundings they were passing.
Lex, on the other hand, felt like a bird, cocking his head and craning his neck this way and that. There were many gaps of doorways along the twists and turns as they walked, and he caught a glimpse here of an opening into a large area filled with natural sunlight -- a break in the roof? a park filled with grass around a pond? were those ducks? -- there of a lounge with cushions littering a carpeted floor -- people lounging about in colorful costumes, feathers and sequens and leather and lace but walking too fast to really see -- over further a line of carts and stalls and shops -- like an underground city, sunk under a street, paved above with cobblestones, with gaudy clockwork men and women in Victorian dress gilded with gears and ipes and all sorts of odd machinery, mechanical gloves, rocket boots -- he wanted to stop and stare.
It was exotic and strange and not unlike some things Lex had seen, perhaps in scattered pieces here and there beyond, but yet like nothing he had ever seen before. It made him feel oddly out of place, that all this was in his Metropolis and he'd never known--
It reminded him of a dream.
He glanced up at Clark, who was looking about with open curiousity, but Clark kept a steady gaze, his head slowly swiveling about. He seemed to be just as enthralled with the dark, patched walls as with what he could see between the gaps.
The walls were a bit interesting, actually, papered over with layers upon layers of old antique posters on one stretch, LEDs and copper wire and ribbons shot through the bare concrete of another, old peeling rose-patterned wallpaper, Van Gogh like murals ceiling-to-floor, flowered vines like a curtain along another stretch...
"It's like a painting," Clark said quietly, his eyes alight. "A living painting."
"A work of art in progress," Lex murmured back, feeling a small smile come unbidden to his lips.
Soothing piano accompaniment drifted from another doorway, from what looked like a ladies' solar room. A harpist joined in as they walked by.
Lex felt relaxed somehow, in the strange fey surroundings. His hands itched for his sketchbook and pencils.
He leaned a little more into Clark, and didn't feel any guilt or shame this time.
He was nearly asleep on his feet, his eyes blinking slowly closed. Alice In Wonderland. Dorothy and Toto and Oz.
"We're almost there," Lois said, pausing momentarily and taking a step back as a few children ran by in front of her through a five-way crossing. "The receptionist said that this is the most direct route."
Another three yards down their streetch of hallway, a right, and a left, and they pushed open a door. A bell chimed over their heads as they walked into a plain-looking store...
...that would not have been out of place on the main street of Smallville as an antiques shoppe, with wood paneling and layers of old Oriental rugs criss-crossed over every square inch of the floor.
The contents and arrangement, however, were not.
The walls were lined with every sort of fastening and tie and rope imaginable, leather- and cloth-work, belts and straps and gags, cloth squares for blindfolds dangling like dozens of handkerchiefs from a turntable rack in the corner.
The shelves were spaced well out from each other, between the stacks and to each other above and below. One could easily see between them, making the aisles almost seem more like walkways or paths from the open area at the front of the store -- with plush armchairs surrounding a large window and loveseat -- to the middle -- where a slightly larger circular indent into the floor was surrounded by arabian sultan-like cushions to sit or lay upon -- to the back -- where there apppeared to be another open space for lounging, and curtains to dressing rooms past that.
The back seemed to open into another area, in an L-shape. Clothing racks bursting with strange merchandise were visible, even from the front.
Lex paused at one shelf and reached out a finger to touch a leather-and-lace collar. There were many of them, of different materials, no two alike.
He realized Clark had drifted a little further on, his solid and warm weight no longer at his side.
Lex sighed softly, and moved forward a step, two, to catch up. Clark hadn't gone far.
When they made their way to the back, a woman in librarian glasses, perched on a stool, stood to greet them with a soft smile.
She escorted Clark and Lois into the clothing section -- not an L-shape but a U-shape, at least, there seemed to be another turn at the far corner across from Lex's vantage point -- and Lex gratefully sank into a very plush armchair just inside the open entryway and stretched out his legs, leaning back into the light musty scent of cinnamon and orange cloves with a long, untroubled sigh.
His breathing slowed and his limbs felt suddenly heavy.
He slowly smiled, then grinned to himself, even as the woman slowly made her way back, delighting in introducing the two younger adults who had accompanied him some of the wares to be found on the racks, with muted light motions removing and displaying certain pieces, explaining their strong and weak points, what else they might best match, with an eye on the tastes that might suit them each best, in preferences and coloring.
He heard the soft chiming of small tubular bells, sounding in intriguing tonal sequences behind him, though he'd seen no windchimes and felt no wind. It wasn't a recording, though.
He took his time, stretching in place, all his muscles in turn bunching up, tensing, then relaxing luxuriously.
He closed his eyes and breathed out a deep calm that only came to him with a bone-tired fatigue, body and soul. He wasn't going to be moving for awhile.
~*~*~*~*~*~
AN2: More coming soon-ish (had to break this up because it started getting way too long; also, huge 'mood shift' between the end and the next bit ;)
Next fic in the series starts here.
Author: josephina_x
Fandom: Smallville
Pairing: Clark, Lex
Rating: R (because it sort of has vague references to themes of BDSM *shrug*)
Spoilers: References season 6 and previous, general spoilers for early season 7 and all prior. Diverges at the end of Wrath (7x07) when Clark goes to talk to Lex.
Word count: 20,000+
Summary: What if Lex decided to be a little more... evil... at the end of Wrath? What if he decided to punish Clark, for Lana's transgression? ...What if Clark agreed to sacrifice himself for her sake? Would Clark break? Or would he... bend?
...Hey, that would be a totally crazy fic, am I right? --Unfortunately, this is not that. (Oops.) Here, Lex kind of goes the other route. You know, the whole brotherly-love one.
So, instead, you get Lex being pissed about Lana treating Clark like her own personal bitch, Clark's "sacrifice" isn't so much of one, and everybody else is left standing around scratching their heads while Lana ends up doing screechy-harpy things which we don't have to hear too much about -- you're welcome. (Chloe does, though. Feel sorry for Chloe, and send her emergency chocolate cake, stat.)
Warnings: Un-beta'd. An ungodly amount of Lois POV. A little character-bashing (screechy!Lana).
Disclaimer: Not mine, not-for-profit.
Comments: Yes, please! :)
Author's Note: At this stage, Lex is still totally uninitiated in the fine arts of BDSM, especially the dominant-submissive... stuff.
Also, I was kind of all over the place for awhile with possible story threads/forks, until canon decided to kick me in the head. (*ow* for damn headshots) But I at least know how this one's gonna end, now. --I'm not sure if my canon-fu is going to work out when I get there, but I'm sure gonna try! :)
Lois' explanations are more or less my own understanding of things, a la reading other fics, a couple wikipedia pages on all that 'safe, sane, and consensual' stuff ^_^ ...and one CSI episode. *facepalm* I'm definitely going to be playing fast-and-loose with the idea of 'pet'itude due to lack of knowledge and for the purpose of Necessary Sacrifices upon the Altar Of Plot. If I'm wrong about anything, I apologize -- no offense is intended. I'll be happy to put corrections in author's notes at the bottom of the fic to clarify if and/or where I'm wrong or very far off base on anything, if anyone would like to let me know.
...Whew, wow, ok, and just a quick heads up: this installment ended up a lot more SRS BSNS than I originally intended. (And so will the next one, for a bit.) I swear that it's kinda necesary for the boys and girls for the sake of future, more happy-fun-time shenanigans, though, or things would've fallen through at a later date in a very bad way. ...But sometimes you gotta break down before you build up, y'know. *shakes fist at plot*
The first part of this fic is here on LJ.
Also posted to AO3 here (includes all chapters to-date).
Previous piece of Part 2 is here.
~*~*~*~*~*~
By the time Lex's driver got them into the city, Lois had the general outline of a plan.
...Well, more like a few recommended venues.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"Ok," Lois said, after having roused Clark and Lex and gotten them out of the limo. She had them waiting on the sidewalk, not wanting to bring them inside until she was sure they were prepared -- or not, and she'd have to think of a plan B. "Here's what we're gonna do." She took a deep breath.
"I asked around, and I found a few places that, uh, cater to... stuff. There's one nearby." At the confused and amused looks she got from Clark and Lex, respectively she sighed. "Ok, maybe I should just start from the baby steps, since I don't want either of you freaking out if you see something that weirds you out, because a lot of this stuff can be mix-and-match."
"...Okay? What stuff?" Clark said. Lex nodded at her to continue, watching Clark.
"Right." Lois steeled herself, because this was a pair of Kansas boy on her hands. "Soooo, show of hands, who here has heard of BDSM?"
Lex rolled his eyes.
"Oh, that stuff. What about it?" Clark said.
Lois stared at him, while Lex did a double-take.
"Uh, Smallville, you do know what BDSM means, right?" Lois said, once she got her voice back.
"Sure. It's like a portmanteau acronym or something," he said.
"Uh, sure, Smallville," she said, not sure what 'portmanteau' meant. "But it stands for--"
"Bondage-discipline, dominance-submission, sado-masochism," Clark said without missing a beat or going cross-eyed.
She wasn't sure what the look on her face was, but Lex's eyes just about bugged out.
"How the hell can you say that with a straight face and can't get out the word 'sex' without stuttering?!" Lex demanded, practically glaring at him.
"What?!" Clark exclaimed. "That's not--! I don't-- It's a totally different thing!" he said as he turned bright red.
Lex made a choking sound, and Lois just couldn't take it.
She leaned against the side of the limousine and started laughing hysterically.
Lex gave Lois an unamused look, before turning to Clark with an expression that clearly said 'I'm going to regret this, I just know it...' and then asked, tiredly, "How is it different, Clark?"
"It's weird!" Clark said, crossing his arms. "And, you know, stupid. It's all... all... ropes and getting tied up and... and chains and handcuffs and bits in people's mouths and, well ...gay stuff too, I guess," he frowned. "It's not, you know ...you know?" he ended, blushing again at the last bit.
Lex sighed and rubbed at his forehead.
Lois still couldn't stop giggling, not for the life of her. This was just too funny.
"So, just to be clear," Lex said patiently, "The sorts of things that would have you turning tail and running, or blushing up a storm, would be...?"
Clark shifted uneasily. "Um... I don't know. People, um... naked? Or all tied up? Or... doing... things..."
"So, no exhibitionism, voyeurism, open-air sex, visible bondage, or large stretches of bare skin," Lex summed up. "That probably leaves out most gathering places, and a few of the shops, but many of the stores should be... acceptable."
"...Are you gonna be ok?" Clark asked.
Lex blinked at him.
"I mean, if they've got handcuffs or straightjackets and stuff on the walls..." Clark trailed off.
Lex took in a breath, then sighed. "It won't be a problem."
"That's not-- I don't want you feeling... uncomfortable," Clark frowned.
Lex stared at him for a bit, then said in a low tone, "I'll be fine."
Clark bit his lip, staring down at him intently, then frowned, but backed off.
"Um... did I miss something?" Lois said, finally able to calm down when the mood shifted downwards, practically off the edge of a cliff.
Clark looked at her. "Lex and straightjackets shouldn't mix," he said matter-of-factly.
"Is this about Belle Reeve?" Lois asked. She ignored how Lex straightened and his jaw clenched.
Clark just blinked at her and frowned a little. "Well... yeah, I guess. I was thinking about Club Zero, but, yeah, I guess you remember some of that, too?" Clark said to Lex with a wince.
"Most of the time I remember there wasn't in one," Lex said noncommitally, looking away and sliding his hands in his pockets.
"Club Zero?" Lois asked, glancing between them.
"We are not discussing that," Lex said blandly.
"Ok," Clark shrugged amiably.
"Uh, right..." Lois said, seeing a closed subject when she heard one. "Ok, so, what's the big deal with bondage and gay love?" she asked. "You aren't gonna be welcome most of these places if you're judgmental," she warned.
"If a bunch of gay guys--"
"--or women--" Lex interjected.
"--can't handle me thinking that stuff's icky, then that's their problem, not--"
"--'Icky'?" Lois repeated, stifling a laugh.
"What? It is!" Clark frowned. "I mean, for guys not gay. I'm not gay. I'm allowed to think that it's icky!" he proclaimed, throwing his hands up.
"Icky," Lois repeated. She caught a glimpse of Lex biting his lip slightly, looking away and trying not to smile.
"Right, ok, fine, that's fine Smallville, forget I said anything," she backed off before she burst out laughing again. "Uh, but what's wrong with getting tied up?"
Clark turned and looked at her full-on. He stared for a moment, then gave her a look like he thought she was out of her flipping mind.
"You--" One eye started twitching. He glanced over at Lex, who gave him a bland look, then turned back to her, rubbed his hands across his face, blew out a breath, and said, in careful tones, "Lois?"
"Uh, yeah?"
"If you're in Smallville, and somebody looks like they want to tie you up or something, I want you to promise me something."
"...Okay?" she said, wondering where this was going.
"I want you to call me, immediately, and tell me where you are, so I can get over there and punch out the meteor freak who is about two seconds away from eating your face," he said in a level tone. Then he paused, and added, "Or maybe melting it off by spraying acid from his mouth, or something. Whatever. Don't do it. Getting tied up is bad, ok? Bad," he repeated like he was talking to an idiot.
Lois scowled at him.
"It never ends well," he repeated, for good measure.
Then she tilted her head, crossed her arms, and began, "Metropolis--"
"--has it's own set of problems, and it's just as stupid to get tied up here," Clark said. "Seriously, just--" he turned to Lex, "Isn't this one of those Darwin things?"
"Darwin Awards?" Lex supplied calmly.
"Yeah, those."
"Maybe," Lex said with a thin smile.
Clark sighed.
Lex's smile twitched up at the corners.
Lois glowered at the two of them, then rolled her eyes and said, "Fine, whatever. Don't blame me if you get in an argument about bondage ties with somebody and a fist fight starts."
"Who's gonna argue over not doing that?" Clark said like it was the most obvious common sense thing in the world.
Lex made a strangled sound that was suspiciously laugh-like.
Lois eyed the both of them. "Ok, fine, let's get to the first store then," she said, turning and leading the way.
"You know," she shot back over her shoulder. "I don't get how Clark seems to be better acquainted with gay sex stuff than you are, Metropolis Boy," she directed at Lex.
"Are you kidding?" Clark said. "I grew up on a farm with livestock. My life was the Discovery Channel several hours a day, every day."
Lois nearly tripped over her own feet, and Lex started laughing out loud.
"What?" Clark asked, frowning and not getting it. "You have to keep the bulls from--"
"--Right, uh, never mind that, then!" Lois said, quickly, not wanting to know, and changing the subject to, "So, how do you know about BDSM stuff? The internet?"
"Oh god," Clark groaned, "Are you kidding me? Chloe has mad search history fu; I'd've never lived it down."
"Then how?" Lois asked.
"...I was in Metropolis for a summer, ok?" Clark finally said.
"What?" Lois said. Then: "--You bastard!" Lois exclaimed, punching him in the arm.
Clark flinched away, and his mouth dropped open. "I-- what--"
"What the hell were you on, ending up in that cornfield--!"
"Cornfield?" Lex echoed, frowning between them.
"What...?" Clark said, confused. Then his eyes widened. "Hey, no wait--" he said, holding up his hands as Lois readied another punch. "Wrong summer! Wrong summer!" he said. "It was the summer before that!"
"The summer--" Lois stopped. "What?" Then she frowned as she thought. Her head swiveled to Lex. "Were you in on this?" she asked, pointing at Clark.
Lex sighed. "No," he said flatly. "I was planewrecked on an deserted island in the Pacific at the time."
Lois opened her mouth to respond and stalled out. "--Huh?"
"Ex-wife number two," Clark supplied.
"To be fair, I didn't even realize that she was alive, let alone that it was her murder attempt, until well after I was rescued from the island," Lex said blandly. "At the time, I thought someone had sabotaged the plane trying to kill us both."
"This... this is an actual thing?" Lois said, trying to wrap her mind around it. He wasn't just kidding around yesterday, when he said--??
"The first one -- Desiree -- was a black widow. Meteor freak with pheromone powers. She'd pheromone-zap rich guys to make them marry her, then meteor-power other men into killing the husband for her and taking all the blame, while she got all the money," Clark told her.
Lois' jaw dropped.
"You--" she started, then pinched the bridge of her nose. "God, I don't even-- This is your life?"
Lex chuckled quietly, but tiredly.
Lois gritted her teeth. "Ok -- question for you Smallville," she said, rounding on him, because, since he was awake and here... "What's the deal with Belle Reeve?"
"Lex owns it now; meteor freaks go in and they don't come out; and if they do, then they don't survive a week on the outside before they're murdered."
Lois started, not having expected that at all.
"For fuck's sake, Clark, as soon as I found out about Knox, I--!" Lex wheeled on him, stopping in the middle of the road -- and thank god they'd been taking an alleyway shortcut, or they'd have had an audience for what followed.
"It's not just him, Lex!" Clark spat back. "Alicia--" he visibly forced himself to stop there, breathing hard. He restarted with, "I know about Level 3, and Level 33.1, and all of it! I'm not stupid, Lex. Nobody who goes in there ever gets better!"
"You don't know a damn thing!" Lex hissed back, fists clenched, standing at full height and getting in his face. Lois backed up a step at the vitriol that was practically steaming off them in waves.
"I know enough!" Clark ground back. "About those so-called escapees, who were real talkative, and about Chloe's mother!"
"Christ, Clark, I can't wave a fucking magic wand and make it all better!" Lex yelled back, so furious he was shaking. "Once they're in Belle Reeve, they're ultimately my responsibility, under my charge. I can't just shove those mutants in a cell, lock it, throw away the key, and call it a day. I can't just snap power dampeners around their wrists, wash my hands clean, and say that's enough -- and even getting that far was a goddamn uphill battle, and half the time they don't even work and the poor bastards have to be drugged to their eyeballs with sedatives instead!"
Clark rocked back, looking shocked, but Lex kept going. "The psychosis is from their powers, you idiot. They have to learn how to control them properly, and how to consciously stop, before they can make any mental health progress at all, if they can, and they've got fucking miles of trauma to work through, because even getting them halfway sane isn't enough, because then they have to deal with the fact that they killed people. That doesn't take days, or weeks, or months, that takes years or decades, if they ever improve at all!"
"Moira would have been a fucking godsend if I could have used her," Lex continued. "They can't learn control with the damn dampeners on, and half the time they need to have their powers boosted before they can even begin to get a feel for what's actually going on inside their own damn heads. If I had her for when they got out of control, she could have forced them to stop without anyone getting hurt -- primarily themselves above all others."
"Used her?!" Clark shouted back. "You didn't give her a choice! You threatened her! You--"
"If I have to play the fucking villain to help those poor bastards back to sanity, then by god I will do so!" Lex spat back. "If I-- christ, do you really think I wouldn't just do what Knox did before he sent them out, to all of them, if I could? My people can't figure out how he did what he did to reproduce it! They don't understand why what little they do know about what he did worked for those that did! I can't just have them randomly cut into people's brains in fucking trial and error to see if they can guess at what works without any regard for--"
"Oh, but drilling into them is just fine?!?" Clark shot back.
Lex bristled at the comment, and god damn it, Lois had had--
"ENOUGH!!" she yelled, shoving between the two of them. "That's fucking enough out of the both of you!" she screamed, levering her elbows in and forcing them apart. "You don't get to-- Goddamnit, Clark--" she said, starting with him, "You don't get to do this while I'm right here and-- I have my own fucking shit, too, ok?! You don't see me fucking screaming at him about Wes and-- and him dying in my arms," she choked. "So don't you dare--"
"--What?" Lex said quietly, before rocking back on his heels in shock. "You... You were the anomaly," he breathed out, eyes wide as he backed up a step.
"You fucking son of a bitch--!" she yelled at him, eyes tearing up. It took all she had not to rail into him.
"Jesus," Lex said, putting a palm against his forehead.
"You-- what you did to him--" Lois said, her voice shaking with rage.
"--is most likely something that, if I had done whatever you are claiming, that I most certainly would not be talking about in the middle of the fucking street with people who would have no clearance for a nonexistent project I know nothing about," he rattled back, and Lois hated that her jaw slammed shut at that, that her military upbringing had given her that automatic reaction to 'classified'.
"You--!" Clark started angrily, taking a step forward, but he stopped abruptly when Lois slammed a fist into his shirt and clenched it.
Because what Lex had implied had caught up with her.
She stated at him, pale-faced.
"Did you know him?" she whispered.
"Lois--"
She clenched her fist harder in his shirt, and Clark shut up.
"Not well," Lex said, watching her with a dark gaze. "I only became acquainted with him at your father's recommendation and through his introduction."
The bottom of her stomach dropped out, and Lois felt like her feet were encased in the concrete below them.
"He was a fine military man with an outstanding, impeccible record, who wanted to serve his country to the best of his ability," Lex said, then paused. He licked his lips, and seemed to choose his next words very carefully, measuring them out slowly. "I am sure that whatever task he chose to apply himself to... He would know exactly what he was doing, what he was getting himself into, and would make the right decision, a fully-informed one, before deciding whether to become involved and see it through." He paused again, then added, more heavily. "It would be my... personal belief, that if he chose not to harm an... old friend in the course of his duty... that that was not wrong."
Lois shook her head, over and over, vision clouding with tears. She didn't want to believe it. He had to be lying, but she'd heard that tone so many times before, from her father... when she'd had a friend on a dark ops mission... explained in just that sort of way... and how they briefed people on how to say, without saying, what they couldn't say, just like that...
...he couldn't have ever wanted them to do, what they'd done to him, could he?
...he hadn't really known before, had he? they must have had to lie...
Lois felt Clark sway slightly under her fist as he seemed to start to, almost, get it. "Lex, what the hell..." he said lowly. Lex shot him a 'be quiet' look.
"So help me god, Luthor, if you are lying to me..." she said shakily.
"I am not," he said. "But, on an unrelated note," he said, glancing down at his fingernails, "if you ever get the authorization for something you need help in tracking down to view, as a friend of you father's I would of course be happy to help you retrieve such records, assuming that my own clearance level affords me sufficient standing to have some influence in that regard."
Lois had to choke down a sad laugh, because she knew full well that Luthor could have made up or changed any documentation he wished.
...Except that she'd read enough military documents to know by now what should and shouldn't be there, and what would be out of place, and Project Ares had been a military-funded project.
And she also had a feeling, when he glanced up at her, that he knew that she could.
She sucked in a breath and raised her head. "Don't think I won't hold you to that," she said.
"Oh," Luthor breathed, "I plan on it."
"That doesn't make it right."
Lois turned slightly, and looked up at Clark.
"That doesn't make it all right," Clark repeated, fists stll clenched. "Things like that-- It never should have happened."
"Sometimes it is necessary--"
"No," Clark said. "No, it isn't." He gritted his teeth, trying to stay calm. "You keep doing these crazy things--"
"I'M NOT CRAZY!!!." Luthor screamed up at him, stomping forward.
"THAT'S NOT WHAT I SAID!!" Clark bellowed back, meeting him halfway.
And then they both froze, staring at each other.
Luthor, up at him in utter disbelief, turning dead pale and reeling backwards.
"What?" he whispered.
And Clark, suddenly looking scared, opened his mouth--
Lex took a step forward and, eyes blazing, mouth a thin line, still pale as hell, slapped his hand over Clark's mouth.
"Don't you dare," he demanded. "Don't you dare," he repeated shakily, eyes wide, and Lois heard in his voice what she'd been feeling in her heart about Wes.
Except for him, it was his sanity that was on shaky ground, about to break if--
"Don't you dare lie to me and take it back, you-- you--"
Lex took a step back looking down, body hunched inward like he was almost in pain. "You don't know, you don't--"
He cut a hand across his body in front of him. "I have to-- someone does-- I can't--"
Angrily, scared, "I can't let him-- not again, I can't-- again-- You don't know, you don't--" he said, looking up at Clark with a pained, tortured expression. "You don't-- know, you-- you-- no," he breathed out, flinching back at something in Clark's face. "You-- no, you... know... you--"
He shook his head and his brow furrowed, taking an involuntary step backwards. "You-- How...?"
"Lex--"
"No," he said, shaking his head, standing there. "You--"
He laughed slightly.
"You know. I'm not crazy," he said, his eyelids lowering as he rocked back slightly, looking tired and worn, and Lois saw half that weight that had been on his shoulders suddenly slip off, like it hit the sidewalk hard enough to crack it.
Luthor swayed slighly and laughed uncertainly, his mouth working but at a loss for words, unable to get anything out.
Why is it so important to him that Clark think he wasn't crazy--? and then Lois was derailed as she remembered what Lana had said he'd been crazy about earlier the previous day. ...Aliens? --No. No way... Aliens?!?
Clark looked scared as hell right then.
He swallowed hard. "Lex..." he said carefully, too carefully, and started to take a step forward.
"No!" Lex said, backing up a step. "No," he repeated, shivering. "I--" he raised a trembling hand to his forehead. "I--"
"I can't-- I can't do this. Not now. I-- I can't listen to you--"
He turned around and walked away.
Clark looked scared and stunned and completely lost. He turned and stared after Lex. Suddenly, it was like he was waging an inner battle with himself.
He opened his mouth, then dropped his chin and clenched his jaw, lifting a hand to his head.
Then his head snapped up and he took a step forward in the direction Lex had gone.
Lois grabbed his arm.
Clark jerked to a stop, and his head swiveled around to her, wide-eyed and shocky.
"Clark--" she started, suddenly afraid for him and not even really sure why.
"I have to go after him," he said desperately and he almost balked at his own words. He shook his head. "Lois, I--" He bit his lip. "Please, please just stay here and let me--" The next words almost seemed to cause him pain. "I have to do this."
"...Ok," Lois said, letting go. "Ok."
Clark took a sudden breath in, leaning back.
Then he turned and was off like an arrow show from a bow, straight towards the sun.
~*~*~*~*~*~
He raced after Lex, trying desperately to catch up with him.
He was scared as hell, frightened beyond belief that maybe, somehow, Lex had realized in that moment that he...
...what he was, not just what he'd been lying about.
Not just that one lie, but all of them.
He was scared to death, but even more so of Lex's leaving.
He had the horrible feeling that if he didn't go after him, right then, that somehow, he'd never see him again.
So he ran after him, and saw him, and slowed.
Lex wandered the half-deserted alleyways and sidestreets, at a slow uncertain walk, and Clark followed a few paces behind him.
Finally, too tired to go on, Lex staggered to a stop.
So did Clark, a step late, and Lex whirled and stared up at him like he didn't recognize him.
"...Clark?" he said, wavering. "Why are you... here?"
"I--" Clark wasn't sure. "You ran," he said. "I... followed you here."
"...Why?"
"I..." was worried. "You left. I--" He frowned. "I'll go where you go. I--" He straightened a little, and said, with more certainty, "I'll come with you, where you go, I'll follow."
"You shouldn't..." Lex said uncertainly.
"Why not?"
"I..." Lex laughed. "I don't know where I'm going." He looked around and wrapped his arms around himself. "I don't even know where I am anymore."
"...Do you want to go back?"
Lex looked back at him, looking as uncertain and lost and alone as Clark felt.
"I, uh," he smiled and looked like he was going to cry. "I don't know the way."
Well, Clark did. He turned his body slightly, and pointed his arm like a compass. "That way."
Lex laughed slightly, in nervous reaction.
"I--" He took a shaky breath. "I--"
His smile slipped on and off his face.
"Ok," he said quietly. "Ok."
He swallowed. "Let's go back."
So they walked together, next to each other, neither really leading or following the other, back to where they'd first begun.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Lex leaned against Clark a little as they walked.
After awhile, Clark put an arm around his shoulders.
...That just made it easier to lean on him. Lex felt ashamed.
He'd gotten lost in his own city.
Lex took a shaky breath in.
...and didn't pull away.
He didn't have the energy.
They finally made it back to Lois, who had apparently decided to wait there for them.
That was a surprise.
"You ok?" she asked.
Clark nodded once, twice.
It took Lex a moment or two to realize she'd been asking the both of them.
...also a surprise.
Lex generally didn't like surprises, but...
--he opened his mouth to say, 'I'm fine,'--
...too tired to care...
--fuck it--
"No," he said lowly. "No, I'm not."
He felt Clark shift. He was probably looking down at him.
He lifted his eyes to Lois, who was frowning slightly.
"Is this place close by?" he asked. "I would like to sit down for awhile."
Lois nodded. "It's just over there," she gestured.
They moved down the alley, walked another half-block, and Lois pushed open a side entrance to what looked like an old converted warehouse.
Lex was just grateful for the elevator. He probably could've managed stairs, but he wouldn't have wanted to find out.
Up the elevator to the third floor, down a hallway, and through a door into a large open waiting area, brightly lit, with no chairs, just one long bench in the middle of the room and no other furnishings, in front of a large, long desk.
It didn't look comfortable.
Lex grimaced slightly, and leaned against Clark. They remained standing, leaning a little on each other, as Lois talked to the receptionist behind the desk.
A piece of the wall-to-wall desk counter was raised, and they were waved in past the break.
A door, seamless in the wall, opened inward at the push of an invisible button under the counter by the woman receptionist.
She smiled serenly at them, and Lex blinked as he caught the flash of a thin silver choker at her neck, with a tiny padlock at the base of her throat, before they stepped through the door.
They walked down the dimly lit corridor for a minute or so, then came to a door at the middle.
Lois glanced down at a business card in her hand -- from the receptionist? -- and knocked on the door three times.
The door opened.
They walked in.
Lex started at a cacophonious burst of laughter to his right, flinching into Clark's side.
Clark hugged him slightly closer for a moment, then relaxed.
As they walked down the winding maze of corridors, following Lois, who was frowning down at the card and not paying too much attention to the surroundings they were passing.
Lex, on the other hand, felt like a bird, cocking his head and craning his neck this way and that. There were many gaps of doorways along the twists and turns as they walked, and he caught a glimpse here of an opening into a large area filled with natural sunlight -- a break in the roof? a park filled with grass around a pond? were those ducks? -- there of a lounge with cushions littering a carpeted floor -- people lounging about in colorful costumes, feathers and sequens and leather and lace but walking too fast to really see -- over further a line of carts and stalls and shops -- like an underground city, sunk under a street, paved above with cobblestones, with gaudy clockwork men and women in Victorian dress gilded with gears and ipes and all sorts of odd machinery, mechanical gloves, rocket boots -- he wanted to stop and stare.
It was exotic and strange and not unlike some things Lex had seen, perhaps in scattered pieces here and there beyond, but yet like nothing he had ever seen before. It made him feel oddly out of place, that all this was in his Metropolis and he'd never known--
It reminded him of a dream.
He glanced up at Clark, who was looking about with open curiousity, but Clark kept a steady gaze, his head slowly swiveling about. He seemed to be just as enthralled with the dark, patched walls as with what he could see between the gaps.
The walls were a bit interesting, actually, papered over with layers upon layers of old antique posters on one stretch, LEDs and copper wire and ribbons shot through the bare concrete of another, old peeling rose-patterned wallpaper, Van Gogh like murals ceiling-to-floor, flowered vines like a curtain along another stretch...
"It's like a painting," Clark said quietly, his eyes alight. "A living painting."
"A work of art in progress," Lex murmured back, feeling a small smile come unbidden to his lips.
Soothing piano accompaniment drifted from another doorway, from what looked like a ladies' solar room. A harpist joined in as they walked by.
Lex felt relaxed somehow, in the strange fey surroundings. His hands itched for his sketchbook and pencils.
He leaned a little more into Clark, and didn't feel any guilt or shame this time.
He was nearly asleep on his feet, his eyes blinking slowly closed. Alice In Wonderland. Dorothy and Toto and Oz.
"We're almost there," Lois said, pausing momentarily and taking a step back as a few children ran by in front of her through a five-way crossing. "The receptionist said that this is the most direct route."
Another three yards down their streetch of hallway, a right, and a left, and they pushed open a door. A bell chimed over their heads as they walked into a plain-looking store...
...that would not have been out of place on the main street of Smallville as an antiques shoppe, with wood paneling and layers of old Oriental rugs criss-crossed over every square inch of the floor.
The contents and arrangement, however, were not.
The walls were lined with every sort of fastening and tie and rope imaginable, leather- and cloth-work, belts and straps and gags, cloth squares for blindfolds dangling like dozens of handkerchiefs from a turntable rack in the corner.
The shelves were spaced well out from each other, between the stacks and to each other above and below. One could easily see between them, making the aisles almost seem more like walkways or paths from the open area at the front of the store -- with plush armchairs surrounding a large window and loveseat -- to the middle -- where a slightly larger circular indent into the floor was surrounded by arabian sultan-like cushions to sit or lay upon -- to the back -- where there apppeared to be another open space for lounging, and curtains to dressing rooms past that.
The back seemed to open into another area, in an L-shape. Clothing racks bursting with strange merchandise were visible, even from the front.
Lex paused at one shelf and reached out a finger to touch a leather-and-lace collar. There were many of them, of different materials, no two alike.
He realized Clark had drifted a little further on, his solid and warm weight no longer at his side.
Lex sighed softly, and moved forward a step, two, to catch up. Clark hadn't gone far.
When they made their way to the back, a woman in librarian glasses, perched on a stool, stood to greet them with a soft smile.
She escorted Clark and Lois into the clothing section -- not an L-shape but a U-shape, at least, there seemed to be another turn at the far corner across from Lex's vantage point -- and Lex gratefully sank into a very plush armchair just inside the open entryway and stretched out his legs, leaning back into the light musty scent of cinnamon and orange cloves with a long, untroubled sigh.
His breathing slowed and his limbs felt suddenly heavy.
He slowly smiled, then grinned to himself, even as the woman slowly made her way back, delighting in introducing the two younger adults who had accompanied him some of the wares to be found on the racks, with muted light motions removing and displaying certain pieces, explaining their strong and weak points, what else they might best match, with an eye on the tastes that might suit them each best, in preferences and coloring.
He heard the soft chiming of small tubular bells, sounding in intriguing tonal sequences behind him, though he'd seen no windchimes and felt no wind. It wasn't a recording, though.
He took his time, stretching in place, all his muscles in turn bunching up, tensing, then relaxing luxuriously.
He closed his eyes and breathed out a deep calm that only came to him with a bone-tired fatigue, body and soul. He wasn't going to be moving for awhile.
~*~*~*~*~*~
AN2: More coming soon-ish (had to break this up because it started getting way too long; also, huge 'mood shift' between the end and the next bit ;)
Next fic in the series starts here.