Eight Crazy Nights: Five (SV)
ladydey: SV, Clark/Lex - People always assume that Clark is the "light" to Lex's "darkness." They have no idea how many ways or the number of times Lex has gladly saved the world - from Clark. Note: this didn’t go the way I meant it to, sorry.
To date, Lex had found 3,287 barren (or good-as) parallel Earths, usually accompanied by galaxy-spanning swathes of destruction. Cause of death, so to speak, was established for 2,356. His responsibility was running about 50%, higher if you counted the 23% of times it was the Justice League, or variants thereof, that he failed to stop.
A lesser man might have considered these poor odds. Lex preferred to think of them as practice runs.
Sixteen percent of the time, Clark had directly triggered the end times, usually by pissing off some intergalactic enemy with his sense of justice, justice being a highly culturally specific concept.
So far, Lex had managed to head off fourteen such confrontations, mostly by bribery, a few times by subterfuge, and twice with gravity bombs. He felt no regret; in the other universes, those solar systems were cleansed of life anyway.
The dead Earths were easy to handle. Figure out what went wrong, then fix it. Lex didn’t like the more successful ones nearly as well. There was usually technology he could borrow-see aforementioned gravity bombs-but that didn’t entirely compensate for the twist in his stomach when he saw another Superman standing triumphant beside another Lex Luthor.
Occasionally he thought about devoting more resources to the quantum mirror, to enable living beings to pass through and not just information. He could step into one of those other LuthorCorp towers, or Watchtowers, or mansions, or even the farmhouse (rare, but existent as a home base); he could quietly dispose of the Lex; he could have what he wanted.
But that seemed too much like failure. If there was one thing that united the Lex Luthors across the universes, it was that they knew how to commit.
He had this fantasy, ridiculous really, about sitting down with Clark and explaining. Unfortunately, he was fairly certain that even with documentary proof of what the alternatives were-and weren’t-Clark would still find some way to blame him for the costs he hadn’t managed to avoid.
He watched the histories, when he could stand to, trying to figure out where they went wrong. A handful of the Lex Luthors had been sent to Smallville by their magnate fathers and still managed to avoid mortal enmity with Clark.
He never could find the moment, though.
runpunkrun: Maybe you could take Clark and Lex and recast them in a romantic comedy? Note: So, very very AU.
Clark fled outside as soon as he could, Lionel Luthor’s accusations of gold-digging still burning in his ears. Lionel was wrong, except that he was completely right that Clark was here under false pretenses, and he’d never be able to explain himself. When he’d said, still in shock from the suddenness of the attack by Doomsday and his narrow escape from having his secret identity revealed, “we were just talking about marriage,” he’d only meant that he’d been interviewing Lucas about his activism on the Metropolis gay marriage initiative. Who would have expected the EMTs to misinterpret him so badly?
If he told the truth now, after Lionel’s contemptuous dismissal, the only reasonable conclusion the Luthors would be able to draw from the situation was that Clark really had been trying to exploit the Luthor wealth, ingratiate himself with the family while Lucas languished in his coma. Clark sighed and stared out into the night, grateful that at least he wasn’t shivering. If only Lucas had used his father’s last name instead of his mother’s, thus triggering the warning that had been burned into Clark’s bones (once almost literally): approach anything Luthorian with caution.
The mansion’s grounds were gorgeously dressed for the holidays, white lights sparkling like diamonds through every tree, heavy red velvet ribbons gracing the stone pillars at each end of the patio. It looked like a fairy wonderland.
“Hard to believe that the same stars shine over Metropolis, isn’t it?” Lex Luthor asked, inches away from his shoulder, and Clark jumped.
“Uh,” he said when he’d recovered his equilibrium, and turned to face Lex, “there are a lot of things it’s harder to see in Metropolis.”
Lex stared at him with the same intensity that had been freaking Clark out all day. “You really didn’t know Lucas was a Luthor, did you?” Lex asked at last, his mouth quirked like he was making fun of himself more than of Clark.
“Believe me,” Clark said heavily, “if I’d known he was a Luthor I would have been a lot more careful.”
“Not too careful to rescue him, I hope,” Lex murmured, and Clark blushed even more furiously. “I’m sorry, that was unkind. Of course you would have rescued him.”
Clark swallowed and thought very hard about how to change the subject. “You have a beautiful home.” He smiled, hoping that Lex would dismiss him quickly, given how much like an idiot he sounded; Lex Luthor’s reputation was not one for suffering fools, gladly or not.
Lex looked around, eyes not lingering on anything until they came back to Clark. “It’s not actually my home,” he said. “But you grew up here, didn’t you? Is that how you met Lucas? My father claims they’re estranged, but he’s not exactly a reliable source.”
And of course Clark had walked right into that one. “Uh, no, I never-I don’t think Lucas ever came to Smallville.”
Lex nodded as if he’d expected nothing different. “I spent the afternoon reading your stories,” he announced, still staring at Clark with those intense eyes, blue-grey like the ocean seen from space. “I wanted to get to know the newest prospective member of our family. You’re a very compelling writer.”
Clark realized that he was swaying forward, like Lex carried around his own extra gravity. He straightened and tried for another casual smile, still as nervous as if Lex were wearing a Kryptonite necklace. “Thanks?”
“In fact, you’re the whole package,” Lex continued, almost as if he were musing to himself. “Heroic, attractive, both articulate and deeply knowledgeable. Typically Lucas has the worst possible taste; whenever he managed to steal one of my girlfriends, I always presumed he’d just saved me from a lawsuit or a trip to the hospital. But apparently he was just waiting for Mr. Right.”
Clark’s protective smile was in hiding now, and somehow he’d ended up staring down at Lex like they were the only two people on the planet. “I wouldn’t say-”
“Clark,” Lex said and put his hand on Clark’s shoulder, “you should know that poaching is endemic in the Luthor family. I once vowed that I wouldn’t play those games any more. I’ve tried to be a better man. But if you don’t leave right now, I’m going to try to get you to betray my brother.”
Clark’s heart hammered in his chest. Just the touch of Lex’s hand, and he was-he was-
He was supposed to be engaged to Lex’s brother. “I’m sorry,” he gasped and pulled back.
Turning, Lex ran his hand over the back of his head, pale in the glow of the lights around them. “Don’t apologize for my weakness,” he said. “Goodnight, Clark.”
Clark watched Lex return to the party-that suit was tailored to perfection, and oh God he was in trouble-and wondered how his life had gotten so much more complicated in just one day.
END
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