Fanfic: "Reconcilable Differences 'verse" by Shalott . [Clark/Lex, others, kidfic] . [N8,5]
"Reconcilable Differences 'verse" by Shalott ( astolat)
Sequel 1: Vacation
Sequel 2: Lazarus
First read: 11.05.2009
Second read: 03.09.2009
Third read: 21.03.2010 (podfic)
Comments: 44w. Clark is "raising" his and Luthor's testtube baby, Conner (aka Superboy) but his methods involve too much saving the world in risky ways and too little comfort and earthly pleasures for a sixteen year old. When Conner suffers a spinal cord injury while saving the world with the other kid superheroes Lex Luthor decides he's had enough and that he has to get involved in his kid's life because Clark sucks at parenting. Conner is sullen but also desperate enough to accept Lex's help, even with all the stories about how evil he is he's heard from Clark&co. Clark is angry with Lex but loves Conner enough that he can't really deny him the best treatment available (or to be made available shortly).
Quotes(spoilery):
♦ Clark would let Lex pull him down to the floor; he'd let Lex have everything, anything he wanted, because it would feel just like this moment, his whole body tight with longing for what he'd never gotten to have, what he'd never stopped wanting. Lex would take him fast; then take him slow; and afterwards-
Lex's hand fell away. "And afterwards, you'd leave," Lex said. "You'd pull yourself together, and you'd apologize again, and then you'd go home to Lois, either to confess or to pretend it never happened, and either way, you'd blame me for it."
He turned away and walked to the bar: still stocked under ten years of dust with brandy and whiskey, Lex's favorite accessories of choice; he didn't like to drink half as much as he liked the dramatic punctuation of opening a bottle, holding a glass to catch the light in his hand; that was probably why he'd started on cigars, Clark thought, for the cinematic effect of smoke and its little rituals.
"You think I wouldn't take responsibility for my own actions?" he said. "It's not like you could force me."
"Actually," Lex said, in confidential tones, "I've got sixteen fantasies that say otherwise, and maybe half of them are plausible," which made Clark swallow in a mouth gone suddenly dry. Lex turned around, brandy golden in his glass, and came back towards him.
"When you blamed me, you'd be right," he said. "You'd realize that I'd been manipulating you, even if you were letting yourself be manipulated. And you wouldn't come back."
Clark wondered if Lex was right. Probably; it had the bitter, familiar taste of so many of their struggles. The anger ran out of him like water, leaving shame behind. Because he'd wanted that easy out. He'd wanted Lex to give him an excuse.
Lex held out the glass and waited for Clark to take it. "I don't respect your relationship with Lois," he said softly. "I'll interfere any chance you give me. And I don't just want your friendship"
♦ "Um," Kon said. "Okay, look, not that I want to talk about this, but am I supposed to have forgotten that I saw you guys making out?"
Clark got red. "It was one kiss!"
"Excuse me, who was the one getting scarred for life?" Kon said. "That was totally making out. You had your hand on his-"
"All right, all right, never mind!" Clark interrupted hurriedly. "It doesn't matter. The point is, it was a mistake, and it's not going to happen again."
"Fine, so you'll come hang out?" Kon said, pouncing. Lex always said to nail people down to specifics as soon as they showed weakness. "Just, you know, dinner once a week or something."
Clark groaned softly, under his breath. "Yes, all right," he said. It sounded faintly despairing.
♦ "Can we have dinner now?" Kon asked plaintively.
"Sure," Clark said. "You can help. There are some peppers in the fridge, why don't you get started chopping them." He looked at Lex pointedly.
Lex lifted an eyebrow. "Clark. You remember the last time I tried cooking?"
"Yeah," Clark said, "but since I'm not sixteen anymore, I've figured out that a guy who can make fireworks out of stuff lying around the farm can probably follow a recipe for salad dressing."
♦ "It is so worse!" Cassie said. "I mean, how much does it suck to be ditched for a supervillain."
"Hey!" Kon said, glaring, although he didn't take away his hand again.
"Come on, Kon. I know you don't want to deal with it, but Lex is a bad guy!" Cassie said, raising her hand to her headset as it beeped. "Okay, yes, he's cool and all, but he still wants to rule the world."
"Only because everyone else is so bad at it," Lex's voice came out of the radio, and she jumped and blushed bright red. "The emergency engineering crews will be there in five minutes. Don't go into any unstable structures until they get there."
2009, fanfic-2009, smallville fic, fanfiction, @read in english, 2009: smallville fic, smallville fic: clark/lex, smallville fic: others, *fanfic-novella-2009, smallville: kidfic, smallville fic: recs, author: shalott, fanfic: read3