sue_dreams
in
sv100
Team MetaHumans // 6 Drabbles
Team: Metahumans
Title: The Ruse of Pie
Challenge: 32. Past Prompts - 01. Pie, 11. Cookies, 25. Lunch, 27. Tease, 20. Children, 01. Pie
Rating: PG-13, for innuendo
Characters/Pairings: Clex, Lex, Clark, Martha, mentions of Jonathon, Lionel
Author's Notes: These are a set of related drabbles, so one summary
Summary: Love is a game two can win and both can play. Assuming they're playing the same game.
"I'm being haunted by pie."
Martha stills, then carefully puts her oven mitts on the counter before turning to the young man standing in her doorway. "I'm sorry?"
Lex's eyes are wide, blood-shot. He looks like he hasn't slept in days, and his clothes show wear; shirt wrinkled and unbuttoned at the neck, tie askew. His pants seem normal, except the stripe of bright red down the right leg. It looks like cherry pie filling, but she doesn't ask.
"Would you like to come in, Lex?"
He starts to open the door, hesitates. "You're not baking, are you?"
"Not pie."
*
Lex eats through a dozen snickerdoodle cookies before he slows down enough to talk about pie. "There was pie in my office, which is unusual, but neither Enrique or Beatrice knew how it got there.
"Then it was pie in the car, pie at the office. Pie at the Talon, the moment I walked inside." He pauses, staring into the distance. "All of it cherry. And Clark, at the Talon, he kept trying to get me to have a piece."
He looks at Martha suddenly.
"Not that I don't love your pie."
"Of course you, do, Lex." She assures him.
*
"That's all before breakfast, of course. There's pie at lunch, pie in the limo. Pie everywhere!" His voice breaks a bit on the last word and he slumps in his seat. His milk glass is drained, the cookie plate is clean, and Lex looks like he's finally remembered how to breathe.
Martha stands up and pulls the next sheet of fresh cookies from the oven. "Well, you're lucky today, Lex. I haven't baked a pie in days." She doesn't mention Clark taking over her kitchen for a weekend baking project, or the dearth of cherry filling in her cabinets.
*
Lex is napping on the sofa when Clark arrives home, the willing victim of a cookie coma. Clark bypasses her with barely a look, some sixth sense (or x-ray vision) alerting him to Lex's presence.
Martha puts a hand on his elbow and pulls him into the kitchen. Low-voiced, she asks, "Do you want to tell me why you were teasing Lex with pie?"
Clark looks as haunted as Lex did when he arrived, his face flushing. She doesn't need a mother's instinct to know 'tease' is not the right word. The longing glance he turns toward Lex is confirmation.
*
Martha waits on the porch for Jonathon, the children inside. Lex was waking up when she excused herself and Clark had a familiar, determined look in his eyes.
There are things she could say, obstacles she could place between them, but she was there once. She remembers the need to bare your heart, and she can't protect from this particular kind of danger. No one can.
Lex is not safe, but neither is Lana or Chloe or anyone else. Clark is smart enough to know that, and to have made his choice anyway. Martha will put her faith in him.
*
She wraps her arms around herself and closes her eyes. Lex has affection for all of them, Martha knows it, but he covers it too well. His emotions are so hidden and twisted by the games he plays with his father.
He knew, yet he let Clark play out his game. Then he played his own hand, forced Clark's, by coming to her.
Lex used a different kind of subterfuge, but Martha isn't fooled. No more than he was by the ruse of pie.
She'll let Clark rewrite the rules of the game, until it's one they both can win.
Title: The Ruse of Pie
Challenge: 32. Past Prompts - 01. Pie, 11. Cookies, 25. Lunch, 27. Tease, 20. Children, 01. Pie
Rating: PG-13, for innuendo
Characters/Pairings: Clex, Lex, Clark, Martha, mentions of Jonathon, Lionel
Author's Notes: These are a set of related drabbles, so one summary
Summary: Love is a game two can win and both can play. Assuming they're playing the same game.
"I'm being haunted by pie."
Martha stills, then carefully puts her oven mitts on the counter before turning to the young man standing in her doorway. "I'm sorry?"
Lex's eyes are wide, blood-shot. He looks like he hasn't slept in days, and his clothes show wear; shirt wrinkled and unbuttoned at the neck, tie askew. His pants seem normal, except the stripe of bright red down the right leg. It looks like cherry pie filling, but she doesn't ask.
"Would you like to come in, Lex?"
He starts to open the door, hesitates. "You're not baking, are you?"
"Not pie."
*
Lex eats through a dozen snickerdoodle cookies before he slows down enough to talk about pie. "There was pie in my office, which is unusual, but neither Enrique or Beatrice knew how it got there.
"Then it was pie in the car, pie at the office. Pie at the Talon, the moment I walked inside." He pauses, staring into the distance. "All of it cherry. And Clark, at the Talon, he kept trying to get me to have a piece."
He looks at Martha suddenly.
"Not that I don't love your pie."
"Of course you, do, Lex." She assures him.
*
"That's all before breakfast, of course. There's pie at lunch, pie in the limo. Pie everywhere!" His voice breaks a bit on the last word and he slumps in his seat. His milk glass is drained, the cookie plate is clean, and Lex looks like he's finally remembered how to breathe.
Martha stands up and pulls the next sheet of fresh cookies from the oven. "Well, you're lucky today, Lex. I haven't baked a pie in days." She doesn't mention Clark taking over her kitchen for a weekend baking project, or the dearth of cherry filling in her cabinets.
*
Lex is napping on the sofa when Clark arrives home, the willing victim of a cookie coma. Clark bypasses her with barely a look, some sixth sense (or x-ray vision) alerting him to Lex's presence.
Martha puts a hand on his elbow and pulls him into the kitchen. Low-voiced, she asks, "Do you want to tell me why you were teasing Lex with pie?"
Clark looks as haunted as Lex did when he arrived, his face flushing. She doesn't need a mother's instinct to know 'tease' is not the right word. The longing glance he turns toward Lex is confirmation.
*
Martha waits on the porch for Jonathon, the children inside. Lex was waking up when she excused herself and Clark had a familiar, determined look in his eyes.
There are things she could say, obstacles she could place between them, but she was there once. She remembers the need to bare your heart, and she can't protect from this particular kind of danger. No one can.
Lex is not safe, but neither is Lana or Chloe or anyone else. Clark is smart enough to know that, and to have made his choice anyway. Martha will put her faith in him.
*
She wraps her arms around herself and closes her eyes. Lex has affection for all of them, Martha knows it, but he covers it too well. His emotions are so hidden and twisted by the games he plays with his father.
He knew, yet he let Clark play out his game. Then he played his own hand, forced Clark's, by coming to her.
Lex used a different kind of subterfuge, but Martha isn't fooled. No more than he was by the ruse of pie.
She'll let Clark rewrite the rules of the game, until it's one they both can win.