SV Fic: "The Comfort of Adversity" 4/4 (NC-17) - Clark/Lex, Conner, Mercy
Title: "The Comfort of Adversity" 4/4 
Fandom: Smallville
Pairing: Clark/Lex, Conner, Mercy
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 33,722 (broken into four posts for length)
Spoilers/Warnings: Future, post-Rift fic, so only vague spoilers through S5. Also, the existence of Conner and Mercy in the Superman comics.
Summary: They say that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, yet expecting different results. Lex had become resigned to this maxim, until a family emergency brought Clark and Conner to him for help, perhaps this time to stay.
Notes: See part one.
***
“Mmm, Clark?”
It was rather difficult to speak when one had an alien with the most perfect cocksucking mouth in the galaxy sucking on your lower lip. There were times Lex didn’t even know why he bothered to try. His only excuse was that he’d always been permanently, hopelessly curious. Really, there were days he considered it miraculous that he’d never shot himself in the foot, just because he had to know what it was like. This was quickly falling into that category.
“Clark…” he sighed again.
“No talking,” Clark grumbled, clearly aware of the fact that Lex was about to make everything a hundred times more complicated than it needed to be.
And Clark’s request made so much sense, except:
“Aren’t you supposed to hate me right now?”
Clark gasped against Lex’s lips, breathing hard and heavy. “Conner was right; you are being really stupid.” And he began trailing kisses down Lex’s neck, his body dipping and undulating as he went.
“I’m confused,” Lex admitted, using his hands’ prime position to pull Clark’s hips up hard against his own, grinding their cocks together through sweatpants and silk robe.
“What’s there to be confused about?” One of Clark’s hands found its way inside his robe, and the heavy weight of Clark’s palm traced his chest slowly downward.
“Excellent point,” he conceded. “Conner…” He felt the need to point out.
“You worry too much,” Clark concluded. “He’s grounded, remember? Can’t leave his room.”
“Ulterior motives?” Lex’s mouth closed over Clark’s collarbone and bit hard enough to elicit a moan.
“And you say I’m not devious enough…” Clark grinned, although his grip on Lex suddenly tightened, there was a dizzying rush, and when Lex opened his eyes again, they were safely in his bedroom, door shut.
“Show off.”
Clark gave him a little shove, and he fell back onto the bed in a lazy sprawl, robe wide open and not covering much of anything, least of all his straining erection.
Clark stood above him and looked just stunned by this turn of events. His lips were thick and wet from kisses (invulnerability, Lex’s ass…perhaps literally, in this case), he was panting for breath, and the white button-up shirt he’d changed into after the rain had mysteriously become unbuttoned. Clark suddenly seemed to notice this last fact, and Lex blinked up at him innocently. There were times he was so good, it impressed even him.
Standing there, disheveled, breathless, half ravished, Clark looked like a tanned god, and the most enticing part of it all was that Clark still didn’t realize what he did to Lex. Rather, he was fixing Lex with a look that expressed all too well that Clark thought Lex was the gorgeous one. The difference was Lex knew how good he looked.
He shifted his hips slightly on the mattress, causing the robe to slip around and off his body entirely. Clark followed the movement, rapt in attention. Clark’s eyes looked almost inhumanly green in that moment, as though they were glowing.
“If you blow me up with your heat vision,” Lex said with a calmness that he certainly didn’t feel, “I will sue you.”
Clark gulped and blinked. “Lex…” he whimpered helplessly.
“You might try losing the clothes,” Lex suggested, voice husky. The sweatpants still covered the parts of Clark that he really wanted to see. “And then joining me.”
Clark, in typical Clark fashion, immediately tripped over his own feet. Lex snickered to himself as he lay back on his bed, staring up at the ceiling, and listened to the rustling and cursing sounds from the floor. And then Clark emerged, in a slow crawl that stretched each muscle to its fullest extent, finely toned steel flexing under sun-kissed skin. Lex watched the play of light across Clark’s torso, abs, and then - with only a hesitant pause - Clark’s cock came into his view for the first time, long and hard, curving against Clark’s belly.
Goofy grin on his face, Clark crawled up the bed until he was beside Lex, before blushing bright red. “Hi.”
“Hmm,” Lex agreed contentedly, sitting half up so that he could join Clark in a slow, lazy meeting of lips. Tongues and teeth gradually came out to play before Clark moaned, and Lex pressed the advantage, pushing his tongue deep inside Clark’s mouth.
They pulled away for a brief moment.
“Tell me something first,” Lex requested softly, running his good hand through Clark’s hair.
Clark all but purred in response. “What?”
“Tell me you’re not attracted to Jimmy Olsen.”
Clark gave him a look like he was crazy. “Hell, no!”
Lex sighed. “Thank God…”
Clark bit his lip, fluttered his eyelashes shyly, and then looked up at Lex anxiously. “What about you and Mercy?”
Lex let out a bark of laughter. “You have got to be kidding me.” It was somewhat reassuring, really, that they’d both been worrying about the most idiotic things.
Clark laughed too, and then they were kissing again, and all else was forgotten.
From there, it really wasn’t very hard for their bodies to twist together in a tangled mass, cocks rubbing for friction against whatever they could reach. Clark was making strangled little sounds, like he was about to die, and Lex decided to take pity on him and forced Clark back onto the bed so that he could actually do this properly.
“I would tie you down,” Lex commented in a voice that sounded breathless and raw even to his own ears, and he guided Clark’s hands up to the headboard, “but I doubt you’d even notice. So I’ll just have to trust you not to move.” His eyes met Clark’s pointedly.
“Oh, God!” Clark exclaimed. That was the problem with not having sex enough; when it actually happened, one inevitably turned braindead.
“Your promise,” Lex demanded, lips brushing Clark’s once more for a liquid, seductive kiss.
“Y-Yes.” Clark swallowed when Lex’s mouth moved down the side of his throat. “I promise.” And his hands tangled in the sheets by the head of the bed, as immobile as Lex had demanded.
Lex took a moment to study the body splayed out before him. Clark’s chest was heaving, slick with sweat, his legs fallen open wantonly, and his cock straining upward, brushing frantically across Lex’s abs in search of some sort of rhythm. Pretty much every fantasy Lex had had since he was twenty-one had featured this exact image, but the reality was so much sweeter.
Clark had begun whimpering, desperate for more, even if he didn’t know more of what he wanted exactly, before Lex carefully leaned in to explore. Propping himself up on the mattress with his prosthetic hand, he pressed his left hand down onto Clark’s shoulder in a reminder, before his mouth began to play. He brushed his lips down the line of a collarbone, tongue flicking out to taste the sweat that pooled at the center of Clark’s chest, salty and hot, and finally placing a wet, opened-mouthed kiss over one dark nipple that caused Clark to buck clear off the bed. Lex almost fell off, but for the fact that his body was mostly sprawled over Clark’s.
“Clark,” he chuckled slightly to himself, “you’re hovering.”
“Huh?” Clark blinked down at him, confused. And then he suddenly realized that he was, indeed, about six inches off the bed. “Oops. Sorry.” He fell back down to the mattress with a satisfying thump. “Don’t stop…”
“Yes, I’d gathered.” Lex was still horribly amused by that particular effect; he’d never literally made a lover weightless before. His mouth moved lower, teeth scraping across tight stomach muscles and feeling Clark’s heartbeat flutter with anticipation at the direction his mouth was headed.
He teased Clark mercilessly, moving to the paler flesh of Clark’s thighs first, licking and sucking until Clark was a whimpering mess beneath him, his eyes fallen shut with agony/ecstasy and his lips pursed, forming silent little pleas.
And then he wasn’t silent any more: “Please, please, please…”
Lex had always known he could make Superman beg. His own cock twitched at the sound, and he rubbed it carefully against the silk of the sheets, careful to provide just enough friction to take the edge off but not so much that he lost control himself.
Clark’s increasingly frantic cries were finally rewarded, and Lex’s lips closed around the head of Clark’s cock, spreading the wetness he found there with swirling, deliberate licks. Clark’s hips shook, but he didn’t buck, and Lex leaned in further, taking Clark fully into his mouth, cheeks tight for friction and moving up and down carefully for a few strokes.
Clark let out an exquisite-sounding sigh and lolled back on the bed, hips rocking lightly with the movements of Lex’s mouth, head turned to one side and eyelids closed. Lex watched his face before slowly pulling back and demanding, “Look at me.”
Clark didn’t react at first, but the lack of warm mouth around him caught his attention quickly enough. “Huh?”
“Look at me,” Lex repeated.
Clark managed to frown. “Are you always this bossy during sex?”
“Always,” Lex assured him. “I know what I want. I know what you want, too.”
Clark just nodded numbly at that.
Lex took that for agreement and returned to his task. This time his and Clark’s eyes met and locked as Lex wrapped his lips around the head of Clark’s cock and sucked him in deeper than he had yet. Clark’s mouth fell open, and his eyes darkened until they were almost black. He kept looking, however.
Lex turned his attention to making Clark come hard and fast. He wasn’t sure how long he could trust Clark to be this compliant, and he wanted Clark to see this, have it burned into his memory forever. The tip of Clark’s cock brushed his throat, but Lex had learned how to deal with that long ago, swallowing, taking every inch of Clark into his mouth, down his throat.
Clark had obviously never experienced anything like this, and Lex heard something rip where Clark’s hands were still over his head at the headboard. This was one act of destruction that Lex felt should be strongly encouraged.
He pulled back so that he could swirl his tongue around Clark’s sensitive head, and it only took three more shallow pulls before Clark was coming with a strangled cry. Lex’s hands pressed down hard on Clark’s hips which, of course, should have been entirely useless, but Clark’s shakes and tremors almost felt weak - defeated - as he spilled down Lex’s throat.
Lex swallowed it all, kissing and licking patiently as Clark came down, muscles relaxed and liquid, onto the bed. He was pleased to note that Clark’s cock was already stirring with interest once more; it really would be a shame if Superman didn’t have better stamina than that.
With one parting lick - a promise that, even if it took another fifteen years, he’d find a way to ravish Clark again - Lex crawled up Clark’s body in a deliberate slinking motion until they were side by side once more.
Clark just blinked at him dazedly for a moment, grinning like an idiot, before asking, “My turn?”
“That would only be polite,” Lex sighed wistfully, his lips covering Clark’s with a hunger that he’d kept largely restrained until now. If he’d refused to lose to Clark in all their battles over the years, he certainly wasn’t going to lose to Clark in sex. That was clearly his domain.
Of course, he’d expected Clark to fight him on this, tooth and nail. He was quite taken aback when Clark did the opposite.
Rather than tackling Lex back onto the bed and doing wicked things to him, Clark twisted them slightly so that they were on their sides, facing each other, and then tentatively reached out to touch Lex’s chest. It was a ghosting touch, at first, no more than that of a gust of wind, and there was something about the strongest being on the planet caressing him that gently that was more erotic than anything Lex had ever conceived of.
The movement of Clark’s fingers continued to be so very shy, even as he moved lower, tracing the line of Lex’s hipbone down until…
“Fuck, yes!” Lex’s head fell back on the pillows, eyes squeezed shut tight, and Clark’s lips brushed his ear.
“I have no idea what I’m doing,” Clark admitted nervously. “So you’ll tell me if-?”
“Again,” Lex insisted vehemently.
Clark, thankfully, did it again. His hand wrapped around Lex almost too gently, so that Lex was surrounded more by impossible warmth than actual flesh. If one could fuck the sun, this is what Lex imagined it must feel like.
Clearly, Clark was trying to kill him with lust.
“More…” he choked out, voice breaking.
Clark’s hand became a solid conduit of pressure all around him, moving slowly up and down, relentless and just perfect. “Like this?” Clark’s lips were everywhere now, and Lex couldn’t tell if it was due to his powers or whether he was so lost in sensation that he couldn’t keep track of Clark’s movements anymore.
“Y-Yes…” Lex’s voice was shaking, and this was still oh-so-innocent, nothing more than sweet kisses and caresses and Clark’s hand wrapped around his cock, pulling slowly.
“God, Lex, you feel incredible…” Clark’s awed voice was breathing directly against his ear in hot, tantalizing caresses.
Lex moaned and laughed at the same time. Because, honestly, he felt incredible? Did Clark have absolutely no idea what his hand was doing to him? Lex caught Clark’s jaw with his good hand, held those perfect lips in place while he plundered them, thrusting wildly into Clark’s ever-tightening fist all the while.
“I…I want to…” Why on earth Clark was the one babbling during this was beyond Lex, although it probably had quite a lot to do with the fact that Lex had lost all faculty for human speech. Well, almost all faculty…
“Anything,” Lex promised.
And then Clark’s hand and body were gone, and Lex let out a little whimper of protest, opening his eyes to discover that Clark was propped up over him, panting hard, looking at Lex all over like he didn’t know where to begin.
It was just so rare to see Clark hesitant or unsure these days. The Superman persona left no room for doubt, and most days Lex could see no sign of the Clark that had once called him ‘best friend.’ But this… This brought his Clark back, and Lex had the sudden, irrational urge to do whatever it took to keep him from transforming back into the cold, judgmental Superman.
“I think we might have waited too long,” Clark laughed sheepishly. “I want to… God, I can’t even decide!”
Lex was faced with a similar conundrum. Over a fifteen years of fantasies compressed into almost paralyzed inaction: Superman on his knees in surrender as Lex took everything he wanted from behind; Clark apologetic and conciliatory lying back on his desk at the Planet and spreading his legs wide; a younger Clark - brighter and more playful - sneaking into the banquet for Lex’s latest merger and pressing Lex against the wall with promises that all his dallying with Lois had just been experimentation gone wrong; even further back to Clark’s graduation where the second meteor shower never happened and Clark had come to the mansion to whisper all of his secrets into Lex’s ear in reconciliation before they proceeded to completely demolish the pool table in their desire for each other; and then those nights back when Clark had smiled at him like he was everything, and they stayed up late in the barn watching the stars until Clark finally dropped to his knees and slowly unzipped Lex’s pants; until finally they were back to the bridge at their first meeting, and this time Clark’s mouth didn’t just give him life but kissed him again and again in pleasure that they’d finally found each other.
“Y-Your mouth…” In the end, that was the most important. Domination over Superman was nothing compared to every fantasy he’d had about those full, red lips.
“God, yes…” Clark breathed, like he’d just reached the same conclusion.
And then Clark’s large, hot hands were on his hips, and those succulent lips closed around Lex’s cock, and Lex thought that this was it: Clark was finally going to kill him through pleasure.
He couldn’t tear his eyes away, watching the way Clark’s mouth wrapped around him, sucking and pulling and - oh, God - moaning. He knew in that moment that nothing would ever be the same between them. The image of Clark’s lips around him would be forever burned into his retinas, the heat of Clark’s mouth branded into his skin, Clark’s palms tattooed against his inner thighs. None of it would ever leave him, and things would just have to be different for them. Not even Lex knew whether they’d be better or much, much worse…
“God…Clark…” he breathed instead, because there was nothing else now except Clark and pleasure.
Clark was sloppy, unrefined, but the way he looked up at Lex from under long lashes, so fucking demure, was the most carnal thing Lex had ever seen. Everything about Clark - the confidence and coyness, his resistance and compliance, his eyes and tongue and cock and body - was an aphrodisiac, and Lex swore, head flung back, as he came hard, and it was so…
“Good, good, good, good…”
A hiss and a sudden break of clarity, like the eye of a hurricane, and then:
“Clark!”
And he was lost.
***
‘Content’ was not a word Lex often used. Everything he wanted - all his whims, desires, and fancies - had always been his for the taking. He coerced and conquered and manipulated, and he was Lex Fucking Luthor, so he always won. He had everything any reasonable person could ever want, and it was never enough. He was never content.
Except at that moment, when he awoke, sticky, sweaty and stiff, to find Clark’s cumbersome weight pressing him down into the mattress and Clark’s lips only inches from his ear, snoring loudly. It was quite possibly the most uncomfortable position Lex had ever slept in.
He didn’t even bother shifting Clark’s weight off of him before he fell back to sleep.
***
“Lex?”
Lex’s second awakening, clearly in the late morning if the light from behind the drapes was taken into consideration, brought with it the return to sanity. “Clark.” Lex opened his eyes to find Clark staring down at him, smiling. The smile wavered for a moment at how suddenly and completely Lex had woken up, before making a hasty return.
“’Morning.” Clark’s lips caught his for a quick, wet kiss.
Lex returned the gesture, but didn’t endeavor to prolong it. When Clark pulled away, he took the opportunity to announce, “We need to negotiate.”
Clark’s face paled at that, and he gulped audibly, Adam’s apple bobbing in a mesmerizing way. “W-Why?” he asked nervously, eyes wide and almost scared. “What’ve I done now?”
Clark was half-teasing him, of course; Lex was notorious for being the most dangerous negotiator on the planet. He’d made the CEO of Exxon-Mobile break down into tears on three separate occasions. Hell, even Bruce Wayne had a twelve-point system set up to avoid ever having to deal with Lex directly. When Batman was wary of your negotiating skills, then you knew you were seriously hardcore.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Clark,” Lex said, trying to put Clark at ease. “Last night significantly redefined our relationship. We’ll have to rework all our treaties and alliances to incorporate the new-”
Clark, in one last desperate effort, ground his hips down onto Lex’s and kissed him hard.
Lex allowed the kiss for a few moments and then pulled away. “Exactly my point,” he went on. “The first order of business should, I believe, be a temporary cease-fire - or should that be ‘cease-sex’? - while we work out a schedule and itinerary.”
“Lex,” Clark said, his tone kind and almost indulgent, “I’ve made my decision. I don’t want to be alone anymore. You love me, and I love you. That’s all that really matters. Writing our own personal Treaty of Versailles really isn’t necessary.” And the worst thing was that Clark really was still that naïve.
“Oh?” Lex moved to sit up, and Clark pulled back so that they were both seated on the bed, facing each other warily. “Then, I suppose, you no longer have any objections to my work on Project Thebes?” He smiled with false politeness. “Or, really, any of a dozen or so projects LexCorp is working on at this very moment.”
Clark frowned at that before reaching out and resting his hand on the sheet above Lex’s thigh. “Lex, you have to give all that stuff up.”
Lex snorted and carefully removed Clark’s hand. “I’m not just going to ‘give it up’,” he retorted. “I would have thought all of our interactions over the last decade would have taught you that. And did we not declare a cease-sex?” He narrowed his eyes at where Clark’s hand was inching over in the direction of his foot.
“You decided that, not me,” Clark retorted. “And there is no reason for you to keep pulling all that illegal crap!”
Clark said ‘crap’; for Clark, that meant that he was downright furious.
“Then,” Lex concluded, “when I say there’s no reason for you to be Superman, you should just give that up as well.” He crossed his arms over his chest, although the effect was probably lost due to the fact that he was naked. At least the sheet concealed his least diplomatic bits, for the time being.
Clark scowled at him, his body language shifting abruptly from playful and conciliatory to defensive. “That’s different. I’m saving people’s lives.”
“You’re turning humanity into a bunch of dependant invalids!” Lex retorted. “Not to mention the fact that you could lose it and destroy the entire planet-”
“I would never do that!” Clark cut him off, yelling now. “And why on earth are we even having this argument again?”
“Because,” Lex retorted, voice suddenly deadly calm, “if you’re going to bring your grievances against me into this conversation, then it’s only fair that I should reciprocate.”
“What?” Clark demanded. “Is this your way of sending me away? ‘Thanks for the blowjob, Clark. Here, have a Kryptonite bullet in your chest on the way out’?” Clark’s eyes were all but smoldering with rage.
Actually, it was quite attractive. Lex tried to ignore that. “No,” he corrected mildly, “it’s simply my way of pointing out that we have quite a lot of issues-”
Clark snorted at the understatement in that word.
“-And that we’re never going to get anywhere if you’re not willing to concede that I have terms, as well,” Lex concluded.
Clark blinked at him. “Wait, let me get this straight: You’re the supervillain, and you’re telling me that I need to change?”
“I’m telling you,” Lex tried very hard to keep the anger from his voice, but it still came out rather like a growl, “that we both have to change. And, as long as you refuse to listen to me, we won’t get anywhere.”
Clark looked stunned by that for a moment. And, then: “You’re willing to change?” It came out almost impossibly hopeful.
“I’m willing to arrive at a compromise, yes,” Lex agreed with a grimace.
Another pregnant pause. “Why?” Clark finally asked.
Lex leaned back against the headboard and sighed. “Last night changed things,” he repeated. “If we don’t come to an arrangement now, we will destroy each other.”
“But-” Clark began.
Lex cut him off. “No matter what else I might feel, a part of me still hates you quite a lot.” Clark looked rather like Lex had slapped him. “And a part of you hates me too. Don’t bother denying it.”
Clark looked sheepish at that. “Conner…” he offered up hopefully.
“This country is all but overpopulated with parents of messy divorces who will claim that loving their children isn’t enough to hold any kind of relationship together,” Lex concluded.
Clark actually seemed to think about that, bringing one knee up from the tangle of bedclothes around his waist and resting his chin on it as he considered what Lex had said very carefully.
Lex gave him his moment’s respite and tried not to think too much about how absolutely stunning Clark looked like that, naked, in total disarray, and so very intent.
Finally, Clark very carefully opened his mouth and said, “You have to stop with the Cadmus Labs experiments.” The negotiations had officially begun.
“Not that. I have far too much invested in that project. Pick something else.”
“Lex…” Clark warned.
“Project Thebes,” Lex informed him with narrowed eyes, “is a safety net to guarantee that, if anything should ever - heaven forbid - go wrong with Conner’s genetic make-up, I’ll have the resources to cure him.”
“That wasn’t one of the reasons you gave on the roof,” Clark accused.
“Those are valid as well. I didn’t want to reveal to Conner how much I worry about the genetics involved in his creation.”
“So you lied?”
“Not at all. Everything I told him was true.”
“You just left some things out,” Clark glared at him. “Have you ever heard the term ‘sin of omission’?”
“Do you really want to start that line of accusations again?” Lex asked, eyebrow arched.
Clark just shook his head, conceding the point. “Fine, not the Cadmus thing. Then, give up…” He thought for a moment. “Death rays.”
Lex blinked. “I don’t…”
“Come on, Lex. There is no way you can justify building death rays. Other than…”
“But they’re so…cool.”
Clark glared at him.
Lex glared back.
“Lex…”
In the end, Lex really didn’t have an argument there. “Fine.” He considered for a moment. “Those projects will take a while to disband…”
“How long?” Clark gave him a suspicious look.
“A six-month time-table to phase out the fiscal support and reassign the laboratory staffs.” Lex continued to think. “And, really, it all depends on how you define ‘death ray’.”
“Lex, you’re been a supervillain for how many years now? You know what counts as a death ray and what doesn’t.”
“It’s like pornography in that, is it?”
“Exactly.” Clark’s lips were in danger of quirking into a smile at that for the first time since the conversation had turned serious.
“What about military contracts?” Lex asked curiously. “Some of those could fall into the ‘death ray’ category…”
“Unbelievable,” Clark sighed.
“What?”
“Already you’re trying to weasel out of this!”
“Well, it’s a valid point!”
“Do you have to make everything complicated?” Clark demanded.
“Everything is complicated! Especially with us.”
Clark took a long, deep breath. “Okay.”
“Okay, what?”
“Okay, I finally agree that you’re right: We are going to need very long, drawn-out negotiations about this.”
Lex could feel his entire body relax. “It’s about damn time…”
Clark scootched across the mattress until he was sitting right beside Lex, their thighs brushing. The heat from his body was like some kind of narcotic, making Lex feel confused and hazy and relaxed all at the same time. “We’ll just have to start out slowly, then,” Clark murmured, the vibrations of his words rumbling through his chest and then, through the contact of their skin, into Lex’s. “How about this? I’ll give you your six months to get rid of all the death rays.”
“What about military projects?” Lex persisted.
“If you’re offered any legitimate military contracts for anything resembling a death ray,” Clark said it skeptically, like he honestly believed that the US military wouldn’t want any such weapon, “then you have to tell me first before you agree.”
“No secret death rays, then?” Lex concluded.
“Exactly.” Clark’s lips were on his cheek now, moving downward.
“And what do I get in exchange?” Lex demanded.
Clark lifted up the sheet so that he could see Lex’s erection and licked his lips.
“I’ve already got that,” Lex pointed out.
“Yeah, but you’ll get it sooner if our first round of negotiations is already over.” Clark fluttered his eyelashes in a way that was almost coy.
“Clark, I’m hardly going to make concessions just because you’re an exceptional cocksucker,” Lex said a bit defensively. After all, hadn’t he very clearly made the point that he had legitimate grievances, as well?
“All right,” Clark agreed, kissing him again. “What do you want?”
The question was meant to be loaded; Lex chose to take it otherwise. “No more raids on LexCorp facilities.”
“Lex…” Clark looked at him like he was asking for the whole world.
“Do you have any idea how much you’ve cost me in property damage, in the last year alone?” he asked rhetorically.
“Well, yeah, because you were doing crazy, illegal experiments!” Clark retorted.
“Would you rather that I asked that you not fly around the city wearing that ludicrous costume?” Lex countered.
“People depend on me,” Clark shot back. “Which is why I destroy your labs and fly around in the ‘ludicrous costume’.”
“Destroying my labs doesn’t ‘help’ anyone,” Lex insisted. “It’s pointless vandalism.”
“Tell that to the people you’re experimenting on.”
“They’re well-compensated.”
“Lex!”
Lex was already quite tired of hearing his name inflected with that particular disapproving tone. Why was he agreeing to any of this, again?
Just then, Clark’s thigh accidentally rubbed against his.
Oh, yeah. That was why. God, his father had been right; he was too emotional…
Clark took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and was muttering some mantra under his breath. When he looked at Lex again, he seemed to have calmed. “How about this?” he said carefully. “In the spirit of compromise, I won’t cause any property damage to any of your facilities, unless I find out that you’re hurting people there.” A pause. “Or, if there’s some city-wide crisis and it happens by accident. I mean, your property is kind of everywhere. It’s hard to avoid while having a drag-out fight with Metallo in the middle of downtown Metropolis.”
“Conceded.” After all, there was very little Clark could do about that last point.
“And anything Clark Kent does against LexCorp is fair game.”
“So long as he didn’t find out about it while Superman,” Lex insisted.
“Oh, be reasonable, Lex!”
“I am being reasonable. Turning Superman to a life of corporate espionage is hardly my goal.”
“But Superman can still stop by and yell at you when I figure out what the hell you’re doing this time?”
“Of course.” Lex’s lips quirked into a seductive little smile. “I’ve never tried to stop your infamous little visits, Clark. Surely, you’ve noticed that the weapons system is never armed when you drop by?”
Clark gulped, and his eyes darkened. “I’ve noticed.”
“Are we in agreement, then?” Lex asked huskily. “For now, I mean. We should set a date - maybe some time late next week? - for round two of our little treaty.”
“Whenever you want,” Clark agreed. “Just…”
“Yes?”
“Can you fuck me? Like, right now?”
Those were terms Lex was more than willing to agree to.
***
“Sound-proofing, my ass!” Conner exclaimed later that day at lunch. Lex and Clark had entirely missed breakfast, due to their rather intense negotiations.
Clark blushed horribly at Conner’s comment. “I thought I told you to stay in your room.” Parental authority was a weapon of last resort.
“I did stay in my room,” Conner insisted, making a face.
“The enhanced damping is designed to prevent conversations inside the building from being detectable outside,” Lex commented thoughtfully. “Between the rooms inside, sound is only muffled a tenth of that…”
“You need more sound-proofing,” Conner repeated. “I’m traumatized for life!”
Mercy coughed pointedly. “It might, er…be a good idea, sir,” she offered before taking a bite of her tofu, red bell-pepper, and sprout sandwich on no-additives whole wheat bread.
Lex gulped, whether at Mercy’s choice in lunch or that fact that, apparently, she could hear them all the way down in the north wing of the penthouse. “Can you arrange for Ryerson to have all the rooms sound-proofed?” he asked, voice sounding slightly hoarse.
“Gladly.” She took a sip of her high-protein shake before turning away to talk into her cell phone.
“Thank God!” Conner sighed. “Now I just need years and years of therapy…” He grumbled under his breath.
Clark blushed even more and stared down at his very normal BLT with extra mayo, as if consuming his lunch required every last one of Superman’s abilities.
Lex’s hand snuck under the table to brush against Clark’s thigh.
Clark, subtle as always, practically jumped out of his seat in surprise before giving Lex that goofy grin.
Conner choked on a Dorito.
“Need any help?” Lex offered lightly as Conner continued hacking.
“I’m fine!” Conner insisted hastily, looking anywhere but at them. Slowly, his coughing fit subsided.
Mercy, having returned from her phone call, glanced suspiciously at Conner’s chips. “It’s undoubtedly all those preservatives,” she informed him with a superior air, brandishing her own bag of unsalted, baked carrot chips.
Everyone paled in horror.
“So,” Lex finally said nervously, “now that that’s all settled.” He turned back to Clark. “Can I assume that the two of you will be spending the rest of the weekend?”
Conner, all trauma aside, looked hopeful at that.
Clark, blushing aside, seemed to be debating whether or not it was a good idea.
“Until you sign your new lease, I imagine your old apartment is quite cramped. And LexCorp Towers is closer to Metropolis Southwest, anyway,” Lex commented casually. “Not the choice I would have made, by the way. But if you had to go with a public high school, at least Southwest has an excellent International Baccalaureate Program.”
Clark glared at him. “I didn’t tell you about any of that. And neither did Conner.”
“True.”
“You’re spying on me again?” Clark just sounded weary.
“You just did the same to me.”
“That wasn’t my fault,” Clark insisted sullenly.
“But you blame me for being invested in my own son’s future?” Lex left the question very open.
“This is so going into round two of negotiations,” Clark grumbled.
“Perfectly within the parameters of our agreement,” Lex responded evenly, meeting Clark’s eyes determinedly.
Conner watched their back-and-forth warily, as if preparing for a fight to break out any second. All the time, Lex’s hand never left Clark’s thigh. Mercy took her bag of carrot chips and wandered off, completely unconcerned.
“We’re going to kill each other within a week, aren’t we?” Clark sound so weary and so resigned.
Conner snorted. “I bet two days; Mercy said five.”
“Mercy’s faith in me seems to be increasing,” Lex commented blandly.
Clark sighed and looked at them both. “How can you two be joking about this?”
Conner took a sip of his Pepsi and shrugged. “It’ll be fine. I mean, I’m pretty much living, breathing proof that it’s possible for the two of you to coexist. It’s not even all that confusing most of the time. Mostly I just listen to both of you and tell you when you’re being stupid.”
Really, it was quite a profound statement.
Clark still looked unsure, but of course he hadn’t been overthinking these matters for years. Clark was more of a doer than a thinker, when it came down to it. Countless heroic incidents from their youths came to Lex’s mind, where Clark had jumped right in and only considered the consequences of displaying his powers after the fact.
However, on this matter, he was more than willing to speak Clark’s language. Fingers tangling in Clark’s hair, he leaned in and kissed him slowly, cleanly yet passionately. After a moment’s pause, Clark seemed to understand and kissed him back for a few glorious seconds.
Conner did them the favor of not screaming out his trauma to the world, for once.
“All right,” Clark agreed lazily, licking his lips as he slowly pulled back, eyes still heavily lidded.
Lex was confident he’d have to do quite a lot of coaxing over the next few months, but then he supposed Clark would be doing the same. “So you’ll be here when I come back from the office?” he asked softly.
Clark blinked at that. “Lex, it’s Sunday.”
“So?”
“You’re not ditching us to go to work,” Conner concluded.
“Oh?” Lex raised an eyebrow. “Then what am I doing?”
“Well, I’m not sitting around the penthouse bored after you people”-oh, good, here it came; Lex was starting to worry-“traumatized me!” Conner crossed his arms over his chest.
Clark and Lex exchanged a look.
“Museum?” Lex suggested.
“State Fair?” Clark said simultaneously.
Conner stared at them both like they were circus freaks or something. “Okay, you both suck. You so belong together.”
The words were clearly meant to be innocent. Lex suspected he was a pervert for even thinking of the alternate meaning. Of course, given Clark’s blush, he obviously went there, too.
“Okay: EW!” Conner made a face and got up. “I’m the traumatized one, so I say where we’re going. Baseball? Is that going to start World War III?”
Clark and Lex considered it.
“Sounds like fun!”
“I’ll call ahead to inform Enrique that we’ll be using my box.”
“Plus,” Clark added with a wicked smile, “you’d look really cute in a baseball cap, Lex.”
Lex tried really hard to spontaneously develop his own heat vision and blow Clark up. It didn’t work. “I’ve changed my mind. I hate you, and I want to be enemies again.”
Clark just grinned. Infuriating man.
Conner whistled jauntily and headed for the front door.
In the other room, Mercy was rearranging their entire security complement for the outing.
Lex sighed. Really, it was a better outcome than he ever could’ve imagined.
Epilogue
“What on earth were you thinking, Lex? Have you lost your mind?”
“For Christ’s sake! It’s just a zoning violation! Is everything a moral crisis of faith with you?”
“It’s a zoning violation involving illegal alien bio-tech in a residential neighborhood!”
“There are safety protocols! And it’s a contract with NASA, so you can hardly complain it’s illegal!”
“It is the way you do it!”
“You think everything is illegal!”
The sounds of shouting were followed by a thunderous splash.
And then: “Oh, real mature, Lex! I can see how well those anger management classes are working. Again!”
Conner sighed, pulled off his headphones, and gave Lena a knowing look where she sat on the floor, playing with her building blocks. “They’re so meant to be together,” he informed his little sister conspiratorially.
Lena giggled, brushing a long lock of dark auburn hair out of her face and then, using her TK, placed the last block at the top of her makeshift castle.
Across the penthouse, which still needed more sound-proofing, the yells had taken on quite a different cadence. Conner shuddered and put his headphones back on, returning to his video game.
All was normal in the Kent-Luthor home once more.
Except for the suitcase full of Clark’s belongings that had been thrown into the koi pond during Lex’s latest fit of pique.
Later that afternoon, Lex asked curiously why Clark’s things were still sinking slowly into the pond’s murky depths.
Mercy raised one eyebrow. “Because you haven’t gone in and fished them out yet.” A sarcastic pause. “Sir.”
“Fine. Then have someone else take care of it,” Lex insisted. “I can always buy Clark more clothes…”
Mercy rolled her eyes, called Hope, and made her deal with it.
Hope called Charity.
Charity called Grace.
And Grace called Constance, who was still incompetent because she really had only been hired for her name and thus completely dropped the ball.
That evening, the koi were still happily munching away at Clark’s flannel, and Clark was glaring daggers at Lex because of it.
Conner finally rolled his eyes, went in, and cleaned up the mess himself.
“See?” Lex concluded, arm wrapped around Clark’s waist. “It all works out.”
Lena just giggled and clapped.
Feedback is most appreciated.
All Chapters
Fandom: Smallville
Pairing: Clark/Lex, Conner, Mercy
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 33,722 (broken into four posts for length)
Spoilers/Warnings: Future, post-Rift fic, so only vague spoilers through S5. Also, the existence of Conner and Mercy in the Superman comics.
Summary: They say that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, yet expecting different results. Lex had become resigned to this maxim, until a family emergency brought Clark and Conner to him for help, perhaps this time to stay.
Notes: See part one.
***
“Mmm, Clark?”
It was rather difficult to speak when one had an alien with the most perfect cocksucking mouth in the galaxy sucking on your lower lip. There were times Lex didn’t even know why he bothered to try. His only excuse was that he’d always been permanently, hopelessly curious. Really, there were days he considered it miraculous that he’d never shot himself in the foot, just because he had to know what it was like. This was quickly falling into that category.
“Clark…” he sighed again.
“No talking,” Clark grumbled, clearly aware of the fact that Lex was about to make everything a hundred times more complicated than it needed to be.
And Clark’s request made so much sense, except:
“Aren’t you supposed to hate me right now?”
Clark gasped against Lex’s lips, breathing hard and heavy. “Conner was right; you are being really stupid.” And he began trailing kisses down Lex’s neck, his body dipping and undulating as he went.
“I’m confused,” Lex admitted, using his hands’ prime position to pull Clark’s hips up hard against his own, grinding their cocks together through sweatpants and silk robe.
“What’s there to be confused about?” One of Clark’s hands found its way inside his robe, and the heavy weight of Clark’s palm traced his chest slowly downward.
“Excellent point,” he conceded. “Conner…” He felt the need to point out.
“You worry too much,” Clark concluded. “He’s grounded, remember? Can’t leave his room.”
“Ulterior motives?” Lex’s mouth closed over Clark’s collarbone and bit hard enough to elicit a moan.
“And you say I’m not devious enough…” Clark grinned, although his grip on Lex suddenly tightened, there was a dizzying rush, and when Lex opened his eyes again, they were safely in his bedroom, door shut.
“Show off.”
Clark gave him a little shove, and he fell back onto the bed in a lazy sprawl, robe wide open and not covering much of anything, least of all his straining erection.
Clark stood above him and looked just stunned by this turn of events. His lips were thick and wet from kisses (invulnerability, Lex’s ass…perhaps literally, in this case), he was panting for breath, and the white button-up shirt he’d changed into after the rain had mysteriously become unbuttoned. Clark suddenly seemed to notice this last fact, and Lex blinked up at him innocently. There were times he was so good, it impressed even him.
Standing there, disheveled, breathless, half ravished, Clark looked like a tanned god, and the most enticing part of it all was that Clark still didn’t realize what he did to Lex. Rather, he was fixing Lex with a look that expressed all too well that Clark thought Lex was the gorgeous one. The difference was Lex knew how good he looked.
He shifted his hips slightly on the mattress, causing the robe to slip around and off his body entirely. Clark followed the movement, rapt in attention. Clark’s eyes looked almost inhumanly green in that moment, as though they were glowing.
“If you blow me up with your heat vision,” Lex said with a calmness that he certainly didn’t feel, “I will sue you.”
Clark gulped and blinked. “Lex…” he whimpered helplessly.
“You might try losing the clothes,” Lex suggested, voice husky. The sweatpants still covered the parts of Clark that he really wanted to see. “And then joining me.”
Clark, in typical Clark fashion, immediately tripped over his own feet. Lex snickered to himself as he lay back on his bed, staring up at the ceiling, and listened to the rustling and cursing sounds from the floor. And then Clark emerged, in a slow crawl that stretched each muscle to its fullest extent, finely toned steel flexing under sun-kissed skin. Lex watched the play of light across Clark’s torso, abs, and then - with only a hesitant pause - Clark’s cock came into his view for the first time, long and hard, curving against Clark’s belly.
Goofy grin on his face, Clark crawled up the bed until he was beside Lex, before blushing bright red. “Hi.”
“Hmm,” Lex agreed contentedly, sitting half up so that he could join Clark in a slow, lazy meeting of lips. Tongues and teeth gradually came out to play before Clark moaned, and Lex pressed the advantage, pushing his tongue deep inside Clark’s mouth.
They pulled away for a brief moment.
“Tell me something first,” Lex requested softly, running his good hand through Clark’s hair.
Clark all but purred in response. “What?”
“Tell me you’re not attracted to Jimmy Olsen.”
Clark gave him a look like he was crazy. “Hell, no!”
Lex sighed. “Thank God…”
Clark bit his lip, fluttered his eyelashes shyly, and then looked up at Lex anxiously. “What about you and Mercy?”
Lex let out a bark of laughter. “You have got to be kidding me.” It was somewhat reassuring, really, that they’d both been worrying about the most idiotic things.
Clark laughed too, and then they were kissing again, and all else was forgotten.
From there, it really wasn’t very hard for their bodies to twist together in a tangled mass, cocks rubbing for friction against whatever they could reach. Clark was making strangled little sounds, like he was about to die, and Lex decided to take pity on him and forced Clark back onto the bed so that he could actually do this properly.
“I would tie you down,” Lex commented in a voice that sounded breathless and raw even to his own ears, and he guided Clark’s hands up to the headboard, “but I doubt you’d even notice. So I’ll just have to trust you not to move.” His eyes met Clark’s pointedly.
“Oh, God!” Clark exclaimed. That was the problem with not having sex enough; when it actually happened, one inevitably turned braindead.
“Your promise,” Lex demanded, lips brushing Clark’s once more for a liquid, seductive kiss.
“Y-Yes.” Clark swallowed when Lex’s mouth moved down the side of his throat. “I promise.” And his hands tangled in the sheets by the head of the bed, as immobile as Lex had demanded.
Lex took a moment to study the body splayed out before him. Clark’s chest was heaving, slick with sweat, his legs fallen open wantonly, and his cock straining upward, brushing frantically across Lex’s abs in search of some sort of rhythm. Pretty much every fantasy Lex had had since he was twenty-one had featured this exact image, but the reality was so much sweeter.
Clark had begun whimpering, desperate for more, even if he didn’t know more of what he wanted exactly, before Lex carefully leaned in to explore. Propping himself up on the mattress with his prosthetic hand, he pressed his left hand down onto Clark’s shoulder in a reminder, before his mouth began to play. He brushed his lips down the line of a collarbone, tongue flicking out to taste the sweat that pooled at the center of Clark’s chest, salty and hot, and finally placing a wet, opened-mouthed kiss over one dark nipple that caused Clark to buck clear off the bed. Lex almost fell off, but for the fact that his body was mostly sprawled over Clark’s.
“Clark,” he chuckled slightly to himself, “you’re hovering.”
“Huh?” Clark blinked down at him, confused. And then he suddenly realized that he was, indeed, about six inches off the bed. “Oops. Sorry.” He fell back down to the mattress with a satisfying thump. “Don’t stop…”
“Yes, I’d gathered.” Lex was still horribly amused by that particular effect; he’d never literally made a lover weightless before. His mouth moved lower, teeth scraping across tight stomach muscles and feeling Clark’s heartbeat flutter with anticipation at the direction his mouth was headed.
He teased Clark mercilessly, moving to the paler flesh of Clark’s thighs first, licking and sucking until Clark was a whimpering mess beneath him, his eyes fallen shut with agony/ecstasy and his lips pursed, forming silent little pleas.
And then he wasn’t silent any more: “Please, please, please…”
Lex had always known he could make Superman beg. His own cock twitched at the sound, and he rubbed it carefully against the silk of the sheets, careful to provide just enough friction to take the edge off but not so much that he lost control himself.
Clark’s increasingly frantic cries were finally rewarded, and Lex’s lips closed around the head of Clark’s cock, spreading the wetness he found there with swirling, deliberate licks. Clark’s hips shook, but he didn’t buck, and Lex leaned in further, taking Clark fully into his mouth, cheeks tight for friction and moving up and down carefully for a few strokes.
Clark let out an exquisite-sounding sigh and lolled back on the bed, hips rocking lightly with the movements of Lex’s mouth, head turned to one side and eyelids closed. Lex watched his face before slowly pulling back and demanding, “Look at me.”
Clark didn’t react at first, but the lack of warm mouth around him caught his attention quickly enough. “Huh?”
“Look at me,” Lex repeated.
Clark managed to frown. “Are you always this bossy during sex?”
“Always,” Lex assured him. “I know what I want. I know what you want, too.”
Clark just nodded numbly at that.
Lex took that for agreement and returned to his task. This time his and Clark’s eyes met and locked as Lex wrapped his lips around the head of Clark’s cock and sucked him in deeper than he had yet. Clark’s mouth fell open, and his eyes darkened until they were almost black. He kept looking, however.
Lex turned his attention to making Clark come hard and fast. He wasn’t sure how long he could trust Clark to be this compliant, and he wanted Clark to see this, have it burned into his memory forever. The tip of Clark’s cock brushed his throat, but Lex had learned how to deal with that long ago, swallowing, taking every inch of Clark into his mouth, down his throat.
Clark had obviously never experienced anything like this, and Lex heard something rip where Clark’s hands were still over his head at the headboard. This was one act of destruction that Lex felt should be strongly encouraged.
He pulled back so that he could swirl his tongue around Clark’s sensitive head, and it only took three more shallow pulls before Clark was coming with a strangled cry. Lex’s hands pressed down hard on Clark’s hips which, of course, should have been entirely useless, but Clark’s shakes and tremors almost felt weak - defeated - as he spilled down Lex’s throat.
Lex swallowed it all, kissing and licking patiently as Clark came down, muscles relaxed and liquid, onto the bed. He was pleased to note that Clark’s cock was already stirring with interest once more; it really would be a shame if Superman didn’t have better stamina than that.
With one parting lick - a promise that, even if it took another fifteen years, he’d find a way to ravish Clark again - Lex crawled up Clark’s body in a deliberate slinking motion until they were side by side once more.
Clark just blinked at him dazedly for a moment, grinning like an idiot, before asking, “My turn?”
“That would only be polite,” Lex sighed wistfully, his lips covering Clark’s with a hunger that he’d kept largely restrained until now. If he’d refused to lose to Clark in all their battles over the years, he certainly wasn’t going to lose to Clark in sex. That was clearly his domain.
Of course, he’d expected Clark to fight him on this, tooth and nail. He was quite taken aback when Clark did the opposite.
Rather than tackling Lex back onto the bed and doing wicked things to him, Clark twisted them slightly so that they were on their sides, facing each other, and then tentatively reached out to touch Lex’s chest. It was a ghosting touch, at first, no more than that of a gust of wind, and there was something about the strongest being on the planet caressing him that gently that was more erotic than anything Lex had ever conceived of.
The movement of Clark’s fingers continued to be so very shy, even as he moved lower, tracing the line of Lex’s hipbone down until…
“Fuck, yes!” Lex’s head fell back on the pillows, eyes squeezed shut tight, and Clark’s lips brushed his ear.
“I have no idea what I’m doing,” Clark admitted nervously. “So you’ll tell me if-?”
“Again,” Lex insisted vehemently.
Clark, thankfully, did it again. His hand wrapped around Lex almost too gently, so that Lex was surrounded more by impossible warmth than actual flesh. If one could fuck the sun, this is what Lex imagined it must feel like.
Clearly, Clark was trying to kill him with lust.
“More…” he choked out, voice breaking.
Clark’s hand became a solid conduit of pressure all around him, moving slowly up and down, relentless and just perfect. “Like this?” Clark’s lips were everywhere now, and Lex couldn’t tell if it was due to his powers or whether he was so lost in sensation that he couldn’t keep track of Clark’s movements anymore.
“Y-Yes…” Lex’s voice was shaking, and this was still oh-so-innocent, nothing more than sweet kisses and caresses and Clark’s hand wrapped around his cock, pulling slowly.
“God, Lex, you feel incredible…” Clark’s awed voice was breathing directly against his ear in hot, tantalizing caresses.
Lex moaned and laughed at the same time. Because, honestly, he felt incredible? Did Clark have absolutely no idea what his hand was doing to him? Lex caught Clark’s jaw with his good hand, held those perfect lips in place while he plundered them, thrusting wildly into Clark’s ever-tightening fist all the while.
“I…I want to…” Why on earth Clark was the one babbling during this was beyond Lex, although it probably had quite a lot to do with the fact that Lex had lost all faculty for human speech. Well, almost all faculty…
“Anything,” Lex promised.
And then Clark’s hand and body were gone, and Lex let out a little whimper of protest, opening his eyes to discover that Clark was propped up over him, panting hard, looking at Lex all over like he didn’t know where to begin.
It was just so rare to see Clark hesitant or unsure these days. The Superman persona left no room for doubt, and most days Lex could see no sign of the Clark that had once called him ‘best friend.’ But this… This brought his Clark back, and Lex had the sudden, irrational urge to do whatever it took to keep him from transforming back into the cold, judgmental Superman.
“I think we might have waited too long,” Clark laughed sheepishly. “I want to… God, I can’t even decide!”
Lex was faced with a similar conundrum. Over a fifteen years of fantasies compressed into almost paralyzed inaction: Superman on his knees in surrender as Lex took everything he wanted from behind; Clark apologetic and conciliatory lying back on his desk at the Planet and spreading his legs wide; a younger Clark - brighter and more playful - sneaking into the banquet for Lex’s latest merger and pressing Lex against the wall with promises that all his dallying with Lois had just been experimentation gone wrong; even further back to Clark’s graduation where the second meteor shower never happened and Clark had come to the mansion to whisper all of his secrets into Lex’s ear in reconciliation before they proceeded to completely demolish the pool table in their desire for each other; and then those nights back when Clark had smiled at him like he was everything, and they stayed up late in the barn watching the stars until Clark finally dropped to his knees and slowly unzipped Lex’s pants; until finally they were back to the bridge at their first meeting, and this time Clark’s mouth didn’t just give him life but kissed him again and again in pleasure that they’d finally found each other.
“Y-Your mouth…” In the end, that was the most important. Domination over Superman was nothing compared to every fantasy he’d had about those full, red lips.
“God, yes…” Clark breathed, like he’d just reached the same conclusion.
And then Clark’s large, hot hands were on his hips, and those succulent lips closed around Lex’s cock, and Lex thought that this was it: Clark was finally going to kill him through pleasure.
He couldn’t tear his eyes away, watching the way Clark’s mouth wrapped around him, sucking and pulling and - oh, God - moaning. He knew in that moment that nothing would ever be the same between them. The image of Clark’s lips around him would be forever burned into his retinas, the heat of Clark’s mouth branded into his skin, Clark’s palms tattooed against his inner thighs. None of it would ever leave him, and things would just have to be different for them. Not even Lex knew whether they’d be better or much, much worse…
“God…Clark…” he breathed instead, because there was nothing else now except Clark and pleasure.
Clark was sloppy, unrefined, but the way he looked up at Lex from under long lashes, so fucking demure, was the most carnal thing Lex had ever seen. Everything about Clark - the confidence and coyness, his resistance and compliance, his eyes and tongue and cock and body - was an aphrodisiac, and Lex swore, head flung back, as he came hard, and it was so…
“Good, good, good, good…”
A hiss and a sudden break of clarity, like the eye of a hurricane, and then:
“Clark!”
And he was lost.
***
‘Content’ was not a word Lex often used. Everything he wanted - all his whims, desires, and fancies - had always been his for the taking. He coerced and conquered and manipulated, and he was Lex Fucking Luthor, so he always won. He had everything any reasonable person could ever want, and it was never enough. He was never content.
Except at that moment, when he awoke, sticky, sweaty and stiff, to find Clark’s cumbersome weight pressing him down into the mattress and Clark’s lips only inches from his ear, snoring loudly. It was quite possibly the most uncomfortable position Lex had ever slept in.
He didn’t even bother shifting Clark’s weight off of him before he fell back to sleep.
***
“Lex?”
Lex’s second awakening, clearly in the late morning if the light from behind the drapes was taken into consideration, brought with it the return to sanity. “Clark.” Lex opened his eyes to find Clark staring down at him, smiling. The smile wavered for a moment at how suddenly and completely Lex had woken up, before making a hasty return.
“’Morning.” Clark’s lips caught his for a quick, wet kiss.
Lex returned the gesture, but didn’t endeavor to prolong it. When Clark pulled away, he took the opportunity to announce, “We need to negotiate.”
Clark’s face paled at that, and he gulped audibly, Adam’s apple bobbing in a mesmerizing way. “W-Why?” he asked nervously, eyes wide and almost scared. “What’ve I done now?”
Clark was half-teasing him, of course; Lex was notorious for being the most dangerous negotiator on the planet. He’d made the CEO of Exxon-Mobile break down into tears on three separate occasions. Hell, even Bruce Wayne had a twelve-point system set up to avoid ever having to deal with Lex directly. When Batman was wary of your negotiating skills, then you knew you were seriously hardcore.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Clark,” Lex said, trying to put Clark at ease. “Last night significantly redefined our relationship. We’ll have to rework all our treaties and alliances to incorporate the new-”
Clark, in one last desperate effort, ground his hips down onto Lex’s and kissed him hard.
Lex allowed the kiss for a few moments and then pulled away. “Exactly my point,” he went on. “The first order of business should, I believe, be a temporary cease-fire - or should that be ‘cease-sex’? - while we work out a schedule and itinerary.”
“Lex,” Clark said, his tone kind and almost indulgent, “I’ve made my decision. I don’t want to be alone anymore. You love me, and I love you. That’s all that really matters. Writing our own personal Treaty of Versailles really isn’t necessary.” And the worst thing was that Clark really was still that naïve.
“Oh?” Lex moved to sit up, and Clark pulled back so that they were both seated on the bed, facing each other warily. “Then, I suppose, you no longer have any objections to my work on Project Thebes?” He smiled with false politeness. “Or, really, any of a dozen or so projects LexCorp is working on at this very moment.”
Clark frowned at that before reaching out and resting his hand on the sheet above Lex’s thigh. “Lex, you have to give all that stuff up.”
Lex snorted and carefully removed Clark’s hand. “I’m not just going to ‘give it up’,” he retorted. “I would have thought all of our interactions over the last decade would have taught you that. And did we not declare a cease-sex?” He narrowed his eyes at where Clark’s hand was inching over in the direction of his foot.
“You decided that, not me,” Clark retorted. “And there is no reason for you to keep pulling all that illegal crap!”
Clark said ‘crap’; for Clark, that meant that he was downright furious.
“Then,” Lex concluded, “when I say there’s no reason for you to be Superman, you should just give that up as well.” He crossed his arms over his chest, although the effect was probably lost due to the fact that he was naked. At least the sheet concealed his least diplomatic bits, for the time being.
Clark scowled at him, his body language shifting abruptly from playful and conciliatory to defensive. “That’s different. I’m saving people’s lives.”
“You’re turning humanity into a bunch of dependant invalids!” Lex retorted. “Not to mention the fact that you could lose it and destroy the entire planet-”
“I would never do that!” Clark cut him off, yelling now. “And why on earth are we even having this argument again?”
“Because,” Lex retorted, voice suddenly deadly calm, “if you’re going to bring your grievances against me into this conversation, then it’s only fair that I should reciprocate.”
“What?” Clark demanded. “Is this your way of sending me away? ‘Thanks for the blowjob, Clark. Here, have a Kryptonite bullet in your chest on the way out’?” Clark’s eyes were all but smoldering with rage.
Actually, it was quite attractive. Lex tried to ignore that. “No,” he corrected mildly, “it’s simply my way of pointing out that we have quite a lot of issues-”
Clark snorted at the understatement in that word.
“-And that we’re never going to get anywhere if you’re not willing to concede that I have terms, as well,” Lex concluded.
Clark blinked at him. “Wait, let me get this straight: You’re the supervillain, and you’re telling me that I need to change?”
“I’m telling you,” Lex tried very hard to keep the anger from his voice, but it still came out rather like a growl, “that we both have to change. And, as long as you refuse to listen to me, we won’t get anywhere.”
Clark looked stunned by that for a moment. And, then: “You’re willing to change?” It came out almost impossibly hopeful.
“I’m willing to arrive at a compromise, yes,” Lex agreed with a grimace.
Another pregnant pause. “Why?” Clark finally asked.
Lex leaned back against the headboard and sighed. “Last night changed things,” he repeated. “If we don’t come to an arrangement now, we will destroy each other.”
“But-” Clark began.
Lex cut him off. “No matter what else I might feel, a part of me still hates you quite a lot.” Clark looked rather like Lex had slapped him. “And a part of you hates me too. Don’t bother denying it.”
Clark looked sheepish at that. “Conner…” he offered up hopefully.
“This country is all but overpopulated with parents of messy divorces who will claim that loving their children isn’t enough to hold any kind of relationship together,” Lex concluded.
Clark actually seemed to think about that, bringing one knee up from the tangle of bedclothes around his waist and resting his chin on it as he considered what Lex had said very carefully.
Lex gave him his moment’s respite and tried not to think too much about how absolutely stunning Clark looked like that, naked, in total disarray, and so very intent.
Finally, Clark very carefully opened his mouth and said, “You have to stop with the Cadmus Labs experiments.” The negotiations had officially begun.
“Not that. I have far too much invested in that project. Pick something else.”
“Lex…” Clark warned.
“Project Thebes,” Lex informed him with narrowed eyes, “is a safety net to guarantee that, if anything should ever - heaven forbid - go wrong with Conner’s genetic make-up, I’ll have the resources to cure him.”
“That wasn’t one of the reasons you gave on the roof,” Clark accused.
“Those are valid as well. I didn’t want to reveal to Conner how much I worry about the genetics involved in his creation.”
“So you lied?”
“Not at all. Everything I told him was true.”
“You just left some things out,” Clark glared at him. “Have you ever heard the term ‘sin of omission’?”
“Do you really want to start that line of accusations again?” Lex asked, eyebrow arched.
Clark just shook his head, conceding the point. “Fine, not the Cadmus thing. Then, give up…” He thought for a moment. “Death rays.”
Lex blinked. “I don’t…”
“Come on, Lex. There is no way you can justify building death rays. Other than…”
“But they’re so…cool.”
Clark glared at him.
Lex glared back.
“Lex…”
In the end, Lex really didn’t have an argument there. “Fine.” He considered for a moment. “Those projects will take a while to disband…”
“How long?” Clark gave him a suspicious look.
“A six-month time-table to phase out the fiscal support and reassign the laboratory staffs.” Lex continued to think. “And, really, it all depends on how you define ‘death ray’.”
“Lex, you’re been a supervillain for how many years now? You know what counts as a death ray and what doesn’t.”
“It’s like pornography in that, is it?”
“Exactly.” Clark’s lips were in danger of quirking into a smile at that for the first time since the conversation had turned serious.
“What about military contracts?” Lex asked curiously. “Some of those could fall into the ‘death ray’ category…”
“Unbelievable,” Clark sighed.
“What?”
“Already you’re trying to weasel out of this!”
“Well, it’s a valid point!”
“Do you have to make everything complicated?” Clark demanded.
“Everything is complicated! Especially with us.”
Clark took a long, deep breath. “Okay.”
“Okay, what?”
“Okay, I finally agree that you’re right: We are going to need very long, drawn-out negotiations about this.”
Lex could feel his entire body relax. “It’s about damn time…”
Clark scootched across the mattress until he was sitting right beside Lex, their thighs brushing. The heat from his body was like some kind of narcotic, making Lex feel confused and hazy and relaxed all at the same time. “We’ll just have to start out slowly, then,” Clark murmured, the vibrations of his words rumbling through his chest and then, through the contact of their skin, into Lex’s. “How about this? I’ll give you your six months to get rid of all the death rays.”
“What about military projects?” Lex persisted.
“If you’re offered any legitimate military contracts for anything resembling a death ray,” Clark said it skeptically, like he honestly believed that the US military wouldn’t want any such weapon, “then you have to tell me first before you agree.”
“No secret death rays, then?” Lex concluded.
“Exactly.” Clark’s lips were on his cheek now, moving downward.
“And what do I get in exchange?” Lex demanded.
Clark lifted up the sheet so that he could see Lex’s erection and licked his lips.
“I’ve already got that,” Lex pointed out.
“Yeah, but you’ll get it sooner if our first round of negotiations is already over.” Clark fluttered his eyelashes in a way that was almost coy.
“Clark, I’m hardly going to make concessions just because you’re an exceptional cocksucker,” Lex said a bit defensively. After all, hadn’t he very clearly made the point that he had legitimate grievances, as well?
“All right,” Clark agreed, kissing him again. “What do you want?”
The question was meant to be loaded; Lex chose to take it otherwise. “No more raids on LexCorp facilities.”
“Lex…” Clark looked at him like he was asking for the whole world.
“Do you have any idea how much you’ve cost me in property damage, in the last year alone?” he asked rhetorically.
“Well, yeah, because you were doing crazy, illegal experiments!” Clark retorted.
“Would you rather that I asked that you not fly around the city wearing that ludicrous costume?” Lex countered.
“People depend on me,” Clark shot back. “Which is why I destroy your labs and fly around in the ‘ludicrous costume’.”
“Destroying my labs doesn’t ‘help’ anyone,” Lex insisted. “It’s pointless vandalism.”
“Tell that to the people you’re experimenting on.”
“They’re well-compensated.”
“Lex!”
Lex was already quite tired of hearing his name inflected with that particular disapproving tone. Why was he agreeing to any of this, again?
Just then, Clark’s thigh accidentally rubbed against his.
Oh, yeah. That was why. God, his father had been right; he was too emotional…
Clark took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and was muttering some mantra under his breath. When he looked at Lex again, he seemed to have calmed. “How about this?” he said carefully. “In the spirit of compromise, I won’t cause any property damage to any of your facilities, unless I find out that you’re hurting people there.” A pause. “Or, if there’s some city-wide crisis and it happens by accident. I mean, your property is kind of everywhere. It’s hard to avoid while having a drag-out fight with Metallo in the middle of downtown Metropolis.”
“Conceded.” After all, there was very little Clark could do about that last point.
“And anything Clark Kent does against LexCorp is fair game.”
“So long as he didn’t find out about it while Superman,” Lex insisted.
“Oh, be reasonable, Lex!”
“I am being reasonable. Turning Superman to a life of corporate espionage is hardly my goal.”
“But Superman can still stop by and yell at you when I figure out what the hell you’re doing this time?”
“Of course.” Lex’s lips quirked into a seductive little smile. “I’ve never tried to stop your infamous little visits, Clark. Surely, you’ve noticed that the weapons system is never armed when you drop by?”
Clark gulped, and his eyes darkened. “I’ve noticed.”
“Are we in agreement, then?” Lex asked huskily. “For now, I mean. We should set a date - maybe some time late next week? - for round two of our little treaty.”
“Whenever you want,” Clark agreed. “Just…”
“Yes?”
“Can you fuck me? Like, right now?”
Those were terms Lex was more than willing to agree to.
***
“Sound-proofing, my ass!” Conner exclaimed later that day at lunch. Lex and Clark had entirely missed breakfast, due to their rather intense negotiations.
Clark blushed horribly at Conner’s comment. “I thought I told you to stay in your room.” Parental authority was a weapon of last resort.
“I did stay in my room,” Conner insisted, making a face.
“The enhanced damping is designed to prevent conversations inside the building from being detectable outside,” Lex commented thoughtfully. “Between the rooms inside, sound is only muffled a tenth of that…”
“You need more sound-proofing,” Conner repeated. “I’m traumatized for life!”
Mercy coughed pointedly. “It might, er…be a good idea, sir,” she offered before taking a bite of her tofu, red bell-pepper, and sprout sandwich on no-additives whole wheat bread.
Lex gulped, whether at Mercy’s choice in lunch or that fact that, apparently, she could hear them all the way down in the north wing of the penthouse. “Can you arrange for Ryerson to have all the rooms sound-proofed?” he asked, voice sounding slightly hoarse.
“Gladly.” She took a sip of her high-protein shake before turning away to talk into her cell phone.
“Thank God!” Conner sighed. “Now I just need years and years of therapy…” He grumbled under his breath.
Clark blushed even more and stared down at his very normal BLT with extra mayo, as if consuming his lunch required every last one of Superman’s abilities.
Lex’s hand snuck under the table to brush against Clark’s thigh.
Clark, subtle as always, practically jumped out of his seat in surprise before giving Lex that goofy grin.
Conner choked on a Dorito.
“Need any help?” Lex offered lightly as Conner continued hacking.
“I’m fine!” Conner insisted hastily, looking anywhere but at them. Slowly, his coughing fit subsided.
Mercy, having returned from her phone call, glanced suspiciously at Conner’s chips. “It’s undoubtedly all those preservatives,” she informed him with a superior air, brandishing her own bag of unsalted, baked carrot chips.
Everyone paled in horror.
“So,” Lex finally said nervously, “now that that’s all settled.” He turned back to Clark. “Can I assume that the two of you will be spending the rest of the weekend?”
Conner, all trauma aside, looked hopeful at that.
Clark, blushing aside, seemed to be debating whether or not it was a good idea.
“Until you sign your new lease, I imagine your old apartment is quite cramped. And LexCorp Towers is closer to Metropolis Southwest, anyway,” Lex commented casually. “Not the choice I would have made, by the way. But if you had to go with a public high school, at least Southwest has an excellent International Baccalaureate Program.”
Clark glared at him. “I didn’t tell you about any of that. And neither did Conner.”
“True.”
“You’re spying on me again?” Clark just sounded weary.
“You just did the same to me.”
“That wasn’t my fault,” Clark insisted sullenly.
“But you blame me for being invested in my own son’s future?” Lex left the question very open.
“This is so going into round two of negotiations,” Clark grumbled.
“Perfectly within the parameters of our agreement,” Lex responded evenly, meeting Clark’s eyes determinedly.
Conner watched their back-and-forth warily, as if preparing for a fight to break out any second. All the time, Lex’s hand never left Clark’s thigh. Mercy took her bag of carrot chips and wandered off, completely unconcerned.
“We’re going to kill each other within a week, aren’t we?” Clark sound so weary and so resigned.
Conner snorted. “I bet two days; Mercy said five.”
“Mercy’s faith in me seems to be increasing,” Lex commented blandly.
Clark sighed and looked at them both. “How can you two be joking about this?”
Conner took a sip of his Pepsi and shrugged. “It’ll be fine. I mean, I’m pretty much living, breathing proof that it’s possible for the two of you to coexist. It’s not even all that confusing most of the time. Mostly I just listen to both of you and tell you when you’re being stupid.”
Really, it was quite a profound statement.
Clark still looked unsure, but of course he hadn’t been overthinking these matters for years. Clark was more of a doer than a thinker, when it came down to it. Countless heroic incidents from their youths came to Lex’s mind, where Clark had jumped right in and only considered the consequences of displaying his powers after the fact.
However, on this matter, he was more than willing to speak Clark’s language. Fingers tangling in Clark’s hair, he leaned in and kissed him slowly, cleanly yet passionately. After a moment’s pause, Clark seemed to understand and kissed him back for a few glorious seconds.
Conner did them the favor of not screaming out his trauma to the world, for once.
“All right,” Clark agreed lazily, licking his lips as he slowly pulled back, eyes still heavily lidded.
Lex was confident he’d have to do quite a lot of coaxing over the next few months, but then he supposed Clark would be doing the same. “So you’ll be here when I come back from the office?” he asked softly.
Clark blinked at that. “Lex, it’s Sunday.”
“So?”
“You’re not ditching us to go to work,” Conner concluded.
“Oh?” Lex raised an eyebrow. “Then what am I doing?”
“Well, I’m not sitting around the penthouse bored after you people”-oh, good, here it came; Lex was starting to worry-“traumatized me!” Conner crossed his arms over his chest.
Clark and Lex exchanged a look.
“Museum?” Lex suggested.
“State Fair?” Clark said simultaneously.
Conner stared at them both like they were circus freaks or something. “Okay, you both suck. You so belong together.”
The words were clearly meant to be innocent. Lex suspected he was a pervert for even thinking of the alternate meaning. Of course, given Clark’s blush, he obviously went there, too.
“Okay: EW!” Conner made a face and got up. “I’m the traumatized one, so I say where we’re going. Baseball? Is that going to start World War III?”
Clark and Lex considered it.
“Sounds like fun!”
“I’ll call ahead to inform Enrique that we’ll be using my box.”
“Plus,” Clark added with a wicked smile, “you’d look really cute in a baseball cap, Lex.”
Lex tried really hard to spontaneously develop his own heat vision and blow Clark up. It didn’t work. “I’ve changed my mind. I hate you, and I want to be enemies again.”
Clark just grinned. Infuriating man.
Conner whistled jauntily and headed for the front door.
In the other room, Mercy was rearranging their entire security complement for the outing.
Lex sighed. Really, it was a better outcome than he ever could’ve imagined.
Epilogue
“What on earth were you thinking, Lex? Have you lost your mind?”
“For Christ’s sake! It’s just a zoning violation! Is everything a moral crisis of faith with you?”
“It’s a zoning violation involving illegal alien bio-tech in a residential neighborhood!”
“There are safety protocols! And it’s a contract with NASA, so you can hardly complain it’s illegal!”
“It is the way you do it!”
“You think everything is illegal!”
The sounds of shouting were followed by a thunderous splash.
And then: “Oh, real mature, Lex! I can see how well those anger management classes are working. Again!”
Conner sighed, pulled off his headphones, and gave Lena a knowing look where she sat on the floor, playing with her building blocks. “They’re so meant to be together,” he informed his little sister conspiratorially.
Lena giggled, brushing a long lock of dark auburn hair out of her face and then, using her TK, placed the last block at the top of her makeshift castle.
Across the penthouse, which still needed more sound-proofing, the yells had taken on quite a different cadence. Conner shuddered and put his headphones back on, returning to his video game.
All was normal in the Kent-Luthor home once more.
Except for the suitcase full of Clark’s belongings that had been thrown into the koi pond during Lex’s latest fit of pique.
Later that afternoon, Lex asked curiously why Clark’s things were still sinking slowly into the pond’s murky depths.
Mercy raised one eyebrow. “Because you haven’t gone in and fished them out yet.” A sarcastic pause. “Sir.”
“Fine. Then have someone else take care of it,” Lex insisted. “I can always buy Clark more clothes…”
Mercy rolled her eyes, called Hope, and made her deal with it.
Hope called Charity.
Charity called Grace.
And Grace called Constance, who was still incompetent because she really had only been hired for her name and thus completely dropped the ball.
That evening, the koi were still happily munching away at Clark’s flannel, and Clark was glaring daggers at Lex because of it.
Conner finally rolled his eyes, went in, and cleaned up the mess himself.
“See?” Lex concluded, arm wrapped around Clark’s waist. “It all works out.”
Lena just giggled and clapped.
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