Gift for Itsaslashything: Pancake Love
Title: Pancake Love
From: To Be Revealed! tallihensia
For: itsaslashything
Type: Fic, 7536 word count
Rating: R
Warnings: mpreg
Request: I love MPREG! Love domestic Clex. Realization of pregnancy. Any domestic type of scene.
Summary: A slice-of-life in the lives of Clark and Lex. From their reunion to life together, they are very much a couple. But when Clark gets sick, they need to figure out the next steps in their lives
Notes: AU future fic. Splits from Smallville canon at Season One, Stray (1.16). Takes place nine years later. Hope you like it! :)
Pancake Love
White skin, golden skin, the patterns of each overlaying the other. Broad hands caressing smooth flesh, full lips sucking on slender ears. A clever tongue licking the expanse of golden skin, tracing across muscles. Hands clasped together then released for more exploration. Bodies coming together, then apart, then together again. Bare flesh rolling over cotton sheets. Light through the window turning to darkness, yet a corner lamp continuing to flicker on the sweaty skin. Sighs and cries of pleasure, gasps and moans of desire, laughter and gentle joy of satisfaction. Movements slowing until there was stillness.
"Clark," a voice stated, rich with the joy and satisfaction, a simple name to encompass all they'd had.
Held loosely in the slighter man's arms, Clark stiffened and started to pull away.
The loose hold tightened and sleepy blue eyes sharpened and then grew exasperated. "Oh, come on." With a sigh, the arms released, freeing Clark if he wished to go. "I don't make love to just any superhero that comes along. I recognized you, the same as you recognized me."
A moment more of hesitation, then a chuckle and Clark settled back within his companion's arms once more. "And I don't sleep with every genius scientist who helps me save the world. You're right, as always, Lex. I'm sorry, that was just reflex."
A slender white hand stroked along the broad expanse of golden skin, coming to rest on Clark's hip. "I suppose we should have talked about it first."
"No we shouldn't've." Clark kissed Lex gently and then more deeply.
When Lex regained his breath, a smile curved his lips. "I'm only human, Superman, and not good for more tonight."
"In the morning, then," Clark replied. "I've found you again, Lex, and I want every minute we have together."
They settled together, resting as the sweat dried upon their skin, then sleeping the slumber of contented sex. The darkness outside changed to light. And when they woke, they did it again.
... ... ...
"I really should check on some of my experiments," Lex said as he ate the buttered toast Clark had made to hold their hunger at bay while he prepared more substantial pancakes.
"And I should get back to Metropolis, though I don't particularly want to." Clark flipped the pancake over and glumly contemplated the golden-brown of the cooked side.
Lex slipped his hands around Clark's waist and kissed the back of his neck. "Fly back to me when you want, my hero."
"I'm going to burn the pancakes if you keep that up," Clark warned, though he turned in Lex's arms and returned the kiss hungrily enough to make up for the food.
Lex took the spatula from him and transferred the finished pancake onto a plate. "Let's not burn the pancakes, and then have the fun afterwards."
Clark grinned and poured the next one. "I really should check. What with saving the world and all, it's been awhile since they've seen me."
"Then they can wait another day," Lex said firmly. "And so can my experiments."
Agreeing, Clark leaned in to kiss Lex again. Lex's arms went around Clark's back. The spatula fell to the floor.
A quite thoroughly burned pancake later, they finally got back to the kitchen and had breakfast.
... ... ...
"Come to Metropolis with me," Clark urged as he dressed in his costume.
Lex grimaced. "I haven't been there in nine years, not since I was twenty-one. I don't want to go back now."
Clark well remembered the day that Lex had left. A month before that date, Lex had left Smallville at his father's summons. One month under his father's rule had been too long, though, and the whole of the state had known when Lex had renounced his father and disappeared so completely that he was never found again. Everybody had thought that Lex was dead, including Clark. "Your father is dead, Lex. Has been dead for five years."
"I do read the newspapers," Lex said dryly. "I just don't feel like going back. I'm perfectly happy here and I have a new home without a Luthor name. Why would I want to go back?"
Clark had to admit, the island hideaway was pretty close to paradise. Friendly locals, full internet, lots of room for Lex's experiments, and no law to interfere. It had taken a world crisis for Lex to come out and join his research with Superman's efforts. "To be with me?" Clark tried tentatively.
Lex looked at him in exasperation. "It takes you less than five minutes to fly here. A normal commute takes longer than that. There would be no difference in me being in Metropolis to me being here."
"You want me to?" Clark asked, surprised in spite of himself.
"What? You thought this was a one... two night stand?" Lex grabbed Clark's hair and pulled him in for a bruising kiss. "I told you," Lex whispered with his lips brushing Clark's, "I don't fuck just any superhero."
Giddy with delight, Clark didn't let go of Lex and kissed him back. The costume was removed again and it became a three night stand.
... ... ...
"Hey, Honey, how's your day going?"
Superman snorted and reached up to touch the microphone in his ear. "Doing just fine, Sugarplum. And yours?" He adjusted his grip on the missile and flew up, getting into the upper atmosphere. With all the satellites in orbit, he couldn't just throw explosives outside the atmosphere anymore, but he could detonate them where there would be no fallout.
"Interesting, that's for sure, Chipmunk. I don't suppose you'd want to give that missile to me as an early Christmas present?"
Clark let the missile go and then flew back a ways before he exploded it with his heat vision. "Nope, Snookums, sorry. How about if I come home early instead?"
Lex sighed through the microphone. "I suppose that will have to do, Fuzzy Face."
"Fuzzy Face?" Clark laughed as he flew back to Earth.
"You've been working since yesterday afternoon," Lex remarked calmly. "Unless you stop for a shave, which you better not, I think you're going to be a bit fuzzy."
Clark put his arms around Lex's waist and rubbed his chin on the back of Lex's head.
Unsurprised, or at least not showing any signs of surprise, Lex clicked off the microphone and leaned back into Clark's arms. "Welcome home."
"Mmmm..." Clark breathed in the fresh smell of Lex in his arms. Well, the smell of various chemical compounds. "Shower?"
"Sounds good." Lex purred, and they went off to get clean.
... ... ...
Superman broke the gun with one hand and grabbed the criminal by the back of his suit with the other. He flew up, breaking through the ceiling a few seconds before the mis-timed explosion. Out in the clear air, he hovered for a moment, his stomach protesting the sudden moves. Unable to hold it anymore, Clark threw up on the criminal he was holding.
"Hey!" The man started scrubbing himself with his hands, gagging as he did. "Oh, yuck!"
Served the guy right, Clark thought blurrily, considering how many people he could have hurt or killed in that poorly planned robbery.
Looping a little in the sky, Clark actually felt a bit better now that he'd thrown up. He looked for the nearest police van and dropped the criminal off. He didn't stay around to give a statement, but flew instead to the river and dove in.
Swimming at the bottom, Clark disturbed fish in his dash through the river. When he came out at the city limits, he felt cleaner, and not so sick anymore. With a quick spin to dry off, Clark changed to his suit and went into work.
"Huh," Lois said. "Space germs?'
She was pouring over all the witness reports and the few videos there were of Superman puking in mid-air.
Clark shrank in his seat. "Maybe it was the explosion?"
Lois snorted and gave that the distain it deserved.
"Something he ate?" Never mind that he'd skipped breakfast altogether that morning.
"Superman eats?" Lois blinked. "Humm... something to ask. What are his favorite foods? Why don't we see him at restaurants? What would he like on a moonlight picnic?"
Oh, not that again. Clark sighed. Lois was obsessed with Superman. She was a good woman, and Clark had been on his way to falling in love with her once, but now...
The phone rang and Lois answered it, then handed it to Clark. "It's your mysterious boyfriend, Smallville."
Hearing that, Clark both relaxed and tensed at the same time. He should have known Lex would have found out, if Lex hadn't actually been watching at the time. However, just to hear Lex's voice relieved so many of his worries. "Hey," Clark said into the phone, feeling the connection through the line.
"Are you okay?" Lex's voice was soft yet fierce, protective and wanting to do something about it.
"Yeah." Clark closed his eyes. He honestly felt fine now. "It was nothing."
"Nothing doesn't do that. Come home."
Clark smiled, wanting to but knowing it would just be playing hooky and there was too much work to do that. He'd already taken too many spontaneous days off while he flew to the island. "Do you remember Lana?"
"What about her?" Lex's voice dipped down to a growl. It had been years ago, but Lex still remembered the obsession Clark once had for her. Clark had used those memories for a few good nights of possessive sex, Lex pounding into him to mark his claim.
"She had a pretty necklace." A necklace that had caused Clark quite a lot of trouble.
There was a pause on the line. "You think it's related?" Lex wasn't going to say anything about kryptonite on the phone.
Clark shrugged. "Must have been." He really couldn't think of anything else considering how good he felt now. His trip through the river would have washed any kryptonite off.
"Humm... I'd still like you to come home."
It felt good to be so cared about. Clark was just about invulnerable and Lex still worried. Sometimes, to be honest, a little too much for Clark's tastes, but Clark knew enough to just take it in and accept it as the love it showed.
"I get off work at 6 p.m. tonight," Clark said, laughing inside.
Lois looked across the desk at him with a raised eyebrow. They didn't really have set hours, working on stories and deadlines more than tied to a time clock. Clark didn't care. If 6 p.m. rolled around tonight and he wasn't done with something, well, then, he would take it home with him. He wanted to be with Lex this night.
... ... ...
There weren't any inept robbers the next morning, which was good.
What was bad was Clark worshiping the porcelain deity regardless.
After he'd flushed the toilet and rinsed his mouth in the sink, he stepped out of the restroom, only to face something more scary.
"You're an acquaintance of Superman's, aren't you?" Lois stood there, tapping her foot.
Clark put a hand on the wall and balanced himself. "Yes..." he answered warily.
"Just how close are you?"
Clark felt bad enough at the moment, he couldn't deal with this too.
"Kissing close?"
Throwing a hand to his mouth, Clark turned around and ran back to the toilet. He'd thought he'd already emptied his stomach before, but somehow it managed to turn itself inside out and produce some more acid to throw up.
"Seriously, Smallville," Lois' voice came from behind him. She'd followed him in.
With a moan, Clark rested his head on the porcelain.
"I think you might have caught something from Superman. This is just what he was doing yesterday."
Actually, it was. Clark felt just as bad and just as sick. Sicker, actually. "I'm going home."
"How's your boyfriend? Is he sick too? Maybe we should get a blood sample and send it to the alien biology lab."
There was no way Clark was staying around now. "Bye, Lois. Tell Perry I'm taking the day off." He stood up, swaying only a little.
"Don't flush the toilet! I can get a sample---"
Clark flushed the toilet with a firm press of the handle. He staggered out of the men's room and tried to figure out how he was getting home.
Finally, he took a taxi out to his apartment. He hadn't been there in weeks. It hadn't changed much. Out of curiosity, he opened the refrigerator. A few minutes later as his stomach finished turning over again, Clark thought that may not have been the smartest idea.
He wasn't sure if he could fly all the way to the island, but he really wanted Lex. Compromising, he crawled onto the couch and picked up the phone.
Some time later, Lex was there. Clark blinked his eyes open from his nap when he felt the hand on his forehead. "Lex?"
"Shhh, I'm here." Lex moved his hand from Clark's forehead down to his neck, feeling for the glands.
"I'm feeling a lot better," Clark said, though he didn't move away from Lex's touch.
"No fever, and you're not swollen. Did you swallow or breathe anything that might have kryptonite in it?"
"I might have been wrong about that yesterday," Clark admitted. He sat up, testing his senses to see if the movement would reawaken the nausea. He felt okay and stood up the rest of the way.
"It was a good hypothesis." Lex stepped back to give Clark room to stand yet hovered closely in case Clark needed a steadying hand.
"Lois thinks I've got space bugs."
Lex grimaced. He didn't like Lois working so closely with Clark. "Wait, does she think Superman has space germs or you?"
"Both of us." Clark grinned and explained Lois' theory that Clark and Superman were having an affair.
Lex's expression was somewhere between amused and annoyed. "She's projecting."
With a laugh, Clark agreed. He started to go for the kitchen and then stopped, remembering his earlier experience.
"We'll go out to lunch," Lex said after he became aware of the problem, "and we'll get somebody in to clean your place while we're out."
Clark was rather amused that Lex didn't offer to do it himself. Some things hadn't changed at all since Smallville. Though Lex wouldn't let anybody touch his laboratory other than himself and, with time, Clark.
"Steak?" Clark suggested hopefully. He was starving and didn't want anything complex.
"All right," Lex said, then tugged his hat a little more firmly into position. Despite his abandonment years ago of the Luthor name, he still didn't like to be in Metropolis. "You could just be sick because of your habit of not eating breakfast and flying out on an empty stomach every day."
"I drank some coffee," Clark protested.
"I like coffee as well, however coffee is not breakfast."
There had been a time, years ago, that for Lex coffee had been that way. Clark liked his scientist Lex much better than the businessman-in-training stress bucket that he'd been back then. Scientist Lex sometimes forgot to eat, too, yet he had no problems in nagging Clark about the same.
"Are you sure you're feeling better now?" Lex asked, again reaching up to touch Clark's forehead.
Clark covered Lex's hand with his own and then brought both hands down clasped together. "Yeah. Just hungry now."
"Then let's get you filled up."
... ... ...
Lex didn't, of course, leave it at that. They flew back to the island in Lex's aircraft as Lex wouldn't let Clark fly on his own. Back at the island, there was a barrage of tests. Mouth swab cultures, pee in a cup cultures, even a blood-draw with a kryptonite-tipped needle.
There was also a lot of cuddling and making sure that Clark had all the blankets he needed, that the room was warm enough, and that all the snacks he wanted were there for him.
It would have been almost perfect except some of the snacks made Clark remember exactly why he was staying here at home curled up on the couch in the first place. The jalapeño nachos almost got tossed out but Lex claimed them for more experiments.
"When was the last time you had a cold? Has your throat felt sore at all?"
Clark tried an experimental swallow. "Not really. A few years ago."
Lex blinked. "You get colds?"
"Just because my skin is impenetrable, doesn't mean my immune system is." Clark shrugged. "If it helps, I seem to avoid the nastier things."
With a sigh, Lex leaned into Clark and relaxed. "Okay, I'll keep looking but I'll stop worrying."
Clark kissed the side of Lex's head. "I doubt that, but it'll be okay." The one good thing was that he could accept all of Lex's help without worrying that Lex himself would catch the cold; Lex's mutation kept him safe. Knowing that, it was much easier to relax into the care.
... ... ...
None of the cultures showed anything wrong with him. Clark stayed home for two days and then went back to work. He took Lex's aircraft to get back to Metropolis as flying on his own still made him nauseous. He saved that for his emergencies as Superman. He kept a clenched mouth during rescues and Lois started quoting people as saying Superman was really mad about something. Luckily, though, she dropped the alien disease story when he didn't throw up on any more robbers.
Two weeks later, nothing had changed. Clark mostly controlled his sickness by eating smaller meals more often and avoiding the foods that smelled bad, which unfortunately for him included most of the spicy Indian dishes he loved. The remaining sickness he tried to ignore, pushing through it to put out his usual work and saving his intense moments for Superman. Though he didn't like it, Clark got used to being sick and the anger he'd seemed to gain along with it. Everything rubbed him the wrong way, and the least thing could set him off. He felt guilty when it was Lex, so he mostly took it out on criminals. Lois ran a byline speculating on Superman's sudden temper and what could be behind it.
Lex, on the other hand, was getting more and more frantic the longer Clark was sick. None of his tests were showing any clue as to what was causing Clark's nausea. Every night, Clark was poked and prodded and more samples were taken, but it was balanced by extra cuddling and an alert tentativeness to presenting Clark with delicacies that wouldn't make him sick. Clark nibbled almost constantly now and when he wasn't eating or working, he was napping. Lex hovered and spent long hours in the lab and travelling in search of things to make Clark better.
Lovemaking in the nights was tender and sweet. Lex probably would have foregone it completely, worrying about Clark, but Clark didn't feel that bad, was actually rather horny, and he pulled Lex to him every night, kissing him with intent until Lex responded in kind. His body responded to Lex's every stroke, every caress, and he cried out as Lex sucked on his nipples. There was no sickness at all when Lex was inside him, only pleasure.
A month later, the sickness abruptly stopped. Clark almost didn't notice, as used to it as he'd become. Lex was the one who stared when he asked about the nausea and Clark absently replied there wasn't any. Clark was promptly subjected to a new battery of tests and when that was done, he dragged Lex out to a Indian restaurant where he had the hottest vindaloo curry they had.
Also to celebrate, Superman went out on a major crime-fighting spree. He flew around the world three times, doing loops and spins, and dropping by whenever he saw an accident or crime. Lex had to call him home after the first twenty hours, reminding him of the time and that there was a warm bed waiting for him. By that time, Clark was tired enough to come straight home. The nausea was gone, yet it seemed he hadn't gained all of his strength back yet.
He came into work the day after, whistling and happy. However, he faltered as he got to the desk and saw that Lois had pictures of Superman spread out all over it and was frowning. The pictures, he'd expected, what with his dash across the world. The frown, though, roused his warning instincts.
"Hey, Smallville," Lois barely looked up, intent on her photos. "Do you think Superman is getting fat?"
Clark blinked. "Ahh..."
Lois pulled out an earlier photo from the year before and put it next to one from yesterday. "Hey, Jimmy! Get over here. Cat, you too."
Oh, lovely. Clark put a hand over his stomach and then dropped it and sucked his stomach in instead. "I don't see it," he said defensively.
"Oh, come on, Clark! You're a gay guy with a crush on Superman. I know you want to defend him, but it's pretty obvious."
"I do not have a crush on him!"
"Uh huh," Lois nodded sagely and then went back to the photos, handing some over to Cat as she came up to them. "Hey, Cat. Do you think Superman is getting fat?"
"He is a little pudgy," Cat said thoughtfully. "Maybe it's the angle?"
Jimmy shook his head. "That was the best of that set - he was even worse in some of the others. I was trying to keep it from showing in the article."
Lois straightened up. "You have more photos? Share!"
"Sure," Jimmy agreed and then wandered off, coming back a minute later with a folder.
"Whoa, you're right," Cat said, holding one of them that was taken from the side.
Looking over her shoulder, Clark winced. "I am not---" He cut himself off and then finished up, "convinced."
Lois shoved two photos in his hands. "Eat your words, Smallville -- Superman is fat."
"Well," Jimmy said judiciously, "he's got a bit of a belly on him. I wouldn't call that fat. Not yet."
"True." Lois tapped a fingernail on her chin, thinking. "Maybe we should keep watching and not break the story yet until he's gained a few more pounds."
"Story?" Clark burst out, horrified.
The other three reporters looked at him in disbelief.
"Superman just rescued 500 people all over the world in twenty hours! That's a story, not about whether or not he's getting..." Clark choked on the word, "fat."
"Superman rescues people all the time," Cat dismissed that argument, waving a manicured hand. "He's never been fat before. That skin-tight suit he wears... it shows everything! He wouldn't have dared wear it if he wasn't so fit. I can get a really good speculative article on this. Can you imagine the number of people who will write in? It's going to be awesome!"
Lois nodded. "It's not one of our investigative stories, true, but it's still news!"
Clark rubbed the side of his face with his hand and gave up.
... ... ...
The thing was, Clark never worked out. He'd grown up working on the farm, and he'd always worked hard. He'd had his strength from childhood, but all that meant was that he worked harder to use his strength efficiently. He'd grown up tall and he'd grown up muscled. That hadn't changed as he got a job and started on his superhero career.
The pictures were evidence, and Clark didn't know what to do about it.
"Lex, do you think I'm getting fat?"
"What?"Lex blinked and looked up from his magazine.
Clark glumly handed over the most egregious of the photos. "They're going to do an article about how fat I'm getting, but first they're going to wait until I get fatter so it'll make more of a story."
"You're not fat," Lex said automatically in reflex and then he looked at the photo. His eyebrows rose and he looked back at Clark again, obviously comparing the two.
Self-consciously, Clark shifted from foot to foot, trying not to put his hands in front of his middle.
"Um," Lex stumbled as he tried to find something to say.
That, more than anything, told Clark it was true. He sighed and sat down on the couch. "I don't know what to do. I've never been fat before."
"Um," Lex said again, most of his elegant vocabulary failing him.
"I've been snacking like crazy while I was sick. Maybe I just need some time to get better?" Clark put a hand on his stomach. He didn't feel fat. "Most people get skinny when they're sick," he observed glumly. "Why do I have to get fat?"
Lex opened his mouth and closed it again. He looked at the photo and frowned. "You don't look fat."
"Lex, my stomach is bulging!"
"It's a little bump," Lex argued, "but the rest of you hasn't changed. A little bulge doesn't make you fat! For most of the world, it just makes you normal. What regular person has such a wonderful perfect body without doing anything?"
"So I'm not perfect anymore. You won't want to touch me." Clark mourned.
Lex winced, obviously sensing a wording mis-step. He stood up from the armchair, crossed to the couch, and sat next to Clark, leaning in to him. "I love you, Clark, not your body. Well, not just your body. It's never been about your perfection, but always about the person you are inside. A little belly bulge, though, doesn't mean you're not perfect. It just means you're a person and you've got a healthy body."
"Healthy?" Clark asked skeptically.
"Healthy," Lex insisted. "Look at history! Skinny is dead. A bit of extra layering is healthy and good for the body."
"Uh huh," Clark said with the same amount of skepticism.
Lex sighed. "Want to join me on my morning workouts?"
Clark perked up; now that was practical. "Sure!" He sometimes watched Lex anyhow just because it was wonderful to watch that lean sinuous body twist and turn in the exercises, and lift the weights making muscles bulge.
"Should we get up earlier or would you like to go into work later?"
Clark grimaced. He didn't like either way, but with how tired he'd been lately, "I'll switch my hours. I saw too many sunrises when I was a kid."
"Okay. Tomorrow." Lex leaned into Clark and curled up on his chest. "Did you want to watch tv?"
Clark smiled and kissed the top of Lex's head. "Sure."
... ... ...
Not surprisingly, a lot of the morning workout sessions ended up in sex. Two sweaty bodies, twisted in aerobic turns, with Lex's hands guiding Clark through pilates leg lifts, yoga downward dogs, and abdominal crunches. Who could possibly resist those hands, those strokes, the attention and love included with the instruction?
The Daily Planet got used to Clark coming in late.
Even with the exercise, though, Clark still kept gaining weight. He was also tired. He shouldn't have been tired, he wasn't doing anything that strenuous, not like normal. He was just tired.
One of the odder things, though, was that the more tired he got, the less gravity held him. At random times, he would find himself walking a few inches above the floor. He'd be sitting on the couch, then Lex would be tugging him back down. He'd wake up in the morning to look at Lex who was standing up and watching him at eye level.
"If you keep this up," Lex said mildly, "I'm going to have to start making bad Ghostbuster jokes."
Clark looked puzzled as he floated himself back to the bed.
"My boyfriend sleeps above the covers. Four feet above the covers..."
That really was a breaking point. Clark decided to take a leave of absence from his job. Being tired was one thing, but random floating was just impossible in a real world situation. For Superman, not so bad. For Clark Kent... no.
Perry looked relieved and promptly said yes. He gave Clark two months and told him to not touch a keyboard until he was better.
Lois grumbled about the extra work she'd have to do, but the grumbling was punctuated with concerned looks when she thought he wasn't looking. "Don't worry about us, Smallville. We'll do just fine. You just... well, uh,..."
Clark rescued her with a smile and a nervous adjustment of his glasses. "Keep the stories coming."
He went home and slept the rest of the day.
... ... ...
"Uh oh."
At the sound of Lex's worried voice, Clark looked up from his book. Reading about the history of rise and fall of crime lords in the Suicide Slums wasn't technically touching a keyboard, and he couldn't do nothing between Superman emergencies. "What's wrong?"
"Cat's article came out."
Clark blinked, then remembered what they'd been talking about a few weeks ago. He involuntarily put a hand on his stomach, then forced it off and stood up to walk over.
"No! You don't want to read, stay away." Lex looked up and stopped Clark in his tracks with a glare. "I'll read it and let you know if there's anything you need to know."
Meekly, Clark sat back down. He didn't really want to read it anyhow. He really didn't need to be told he was getting fat, he just didn't know what to do about it.
"Heh."
"What?" Clark couldn't sit still.
"There's a couple of new costume designs in here, with a contest for readers to submit some as well."
Okay, Clark had to admit that while his skin-tight suit was aerodynamic and aided him in battles and explosions, it really showed everything. It wasn't so much of a problem early on, but once he and Lex had started their relationship, Clark had become aware of inappropriate thoughts at inconvenient moments. Now there was also this. "Maybe it's time for a new costume, but I think I'll let you design it. Last time I let the newspaper do anything, they stuck me with the name of Superman."
"But you are a Super Man," Lex purred, looking over the top of the computer screen with his eyes hot and lids dropping down.
Clark rolled his eyes and went back to his book. "What else do they say?"
Lex sighed and went back to the article. "Well, there's also a nice commentary on how this will improve the general body image and not have such an idealized view of people."
"Who really believes it when people say something like that? All they really do is stop watching that particular celebrity and go on to worshiping the next too-skinny model."
"Does Batman pad his suit?" Lex wondered.
Clark glared at him.
"It's something more people should be aware of," Lex said more seriously. "That and the fact that even the top models still get airbrushed, which is beyond ridiculous."
"Well, I never actually did anything to stay in shape in the first place, and even trying now, I don't seem to be able to do anything, so it's not like I deserve any praise for anything anyhow."
Lex again peered over the top of the monitor. "That was about as muddled a sentence as I've ever heard from you."
Clark grimaced. "What else is in there?"
"I'm on to the comments now. Don't read them. Whatever you do, don't read them."
Clark had plenty of experience with the bitter vitriol poured out in newspaper article comments. The search for the few gems of intelligent thought was often overlaid with the spitting out of anonymous hatred on all sides. It often made him wonder why anybody let the comments be open on articles. He had absolutely no intention of reading them on this.
"Asshole. Bitch. No-brain Neanderthal." Lex was muttering as he read, his fury barely restrained.
"Neanderthals were actually fairly intelligent," Clark remarked mildly.
"All things considered, yes, but these posters..." Lex trailed off and then burst into laughter.
Clark sat up, putting his book aside. He wasn't going to be able to read anything more today. "What?"
"Oh, this is good," Lex chuckled. "Somebody actually thinks you're not fat, you're---" He broke off and looked up, his eyes slightly wide and no longer amused.
"What?" Clark asked again, starting to panic a little.
"Um, no." Lex shook his head, then looked back to the screen. Slowly, he looked up again. "No."
Giving up, Clark stood and started for Lex's computer, ignoring Lex's protest. Lex reached for the keyboard, and Clark superspeeded over before Lex could either close the browser window or reduce it.
"Pregnant?" Clark blinked. "They think I'm pregnant?" There were always jokes in the comments. What was more disturbing was the way Lex had stopped laughing. Clark took a closer look at the details, absently putting his hand under Lex's so Lex couldn't reach the keyboard.
There were pictures of a pregnant woman, an overweight man, and Superman. Put side by side by side... Clark had to admit that the shape of his belly resembled the first more than the second. But there was a lot of variation in people's shapes. This could just be coincidence.
Except right below it, somebody also had pointed out that Superman had been sick the months before. And the mood swings. And the tiredness. And he was an alien... "Oh shit." The pictures were pretty well evidence in themselves. That roundness... Clark gulped.
"Clark," Lex asked carefully, his hand resting on Clark's. "When you were sick and you went up to the Fortress and asked it what was wrong with you... what, actually, did it say?"
Clark swallowed. "The problem is, uh..., well, when I disabled the Jor-El personality from the Fortress AI, it doesn't volunteer information anymore. It answers what it's asked and no more than that." Clark sighed. "I didn't ask it what was wrong with me, I asked it if I was sick and it said I was fine. I did ask in a few other ways, but nothing broad enough to have caught, uh..."
This was ridiculous, even if he was an alien, he was still a guy, and there was no way he could be pregnant. Women got pregnant. Clark twisted to try and see through his belly.
"No!" Lex scrambled up from his chair and plastered himself against Clark, putting his hands up over Clark's eyes.
It couldn't really have stopped him, but Clark gave up the uncomfortable attempt. "Why not?"
"What you do may not actually be literal x-ray, but we haven't established yet if there is any risk, and I don't want to take the chance if..."
Clark looked into Lex's eyes and saw fear, disbelief, and a weird glimmering of hope. Clark's stomach twisted, not unlike his earlier sickness, and he swallowed. "We're going back to the Fortress, right now. You get to ask the questions."
"We'll both ask the questions," Lex said firmly. Then he swallowed in a similar manner to Clark, and he reached his hand out. Clark clasped it and they stared in fear at each other until they left for the Fortress.
... ... ...
Back home, they sat together on the couch in stunned silence.
"Well," Lex finally said.
Clark nodded numbly.
They sat in silence a while longer.
"I'm going to be a father," Lex said, disbelief and fear intertwined in his voice.
"I'm going to be a mother!" Clark's voice broke in his hysteria.
Lex turned into Clark and wrapped his arms around him. "We're going to be parents."
"Oh God." Clark returned the embrace but continued his wild-eyed exclamations of panic. He'd been repeating variations of the same since the Fortress had confirmed their guess.
"It's okay, we'll make it," Lex repeated numbly.
"Easy for you to say! I'm the one whose having a baby!"
Lex's face turned green and he swallowed. "I... we'll get through it, we will."
There was a pause.
"We're going to be parents," Lex said numbly.
Clark agreed.
... ... ...
The next day, they were still at it, though the reality had set in somewhat better.
"I'm going to have to quit my job," Clark said glumly as he flipped pancakes.
"No, you don't," Lex said absently as he surfed nursery websites. "Perry would let you work from home." He paused suddenly and lifted his head cautiously. "If you want to, that is. If you don't want to work, you don't have to. You can do whatever you'd like to."
"I'm having a baby, there's no choice in that!" Clark's voice rose again and he forced himself to concentrate on the pancakes and calm down.
"Um," Lex started, then faltered and fell silent, recognizing there was no real answer to that.
When the pancakes were done, Lex left his computer and they sat together to eat, still both quiet and stunned.
"What do you think of lavender for the nursery?" Lex finally asked.
Clark blinked. "For a boy?"
"For a girl. The Fortress last night said 'she' when talking about the baby."
"The Fortress said 'he' when I asked about the movement in my stomach!"
They looked at each other for a moment as they thought through just what the AI had said. Then Clark's fork clattered to the table. "Oh God."
Lex started cursing the Fortress AI, using different languages and multiple adjectives.
"I'm going to have twins," Clark moaned, and for the first time in a few months ran for the bathroom to throw up.
... ... ...
"We are not going back to the Fortress!" Lex insisted. "We can't trust that hunk of junk, and we shouldn't have to. We can figure this out the way parents have for generations."
"By waiting until they're born?" Clark asked hysterically.
"By getting an ultrasound," Lex replied practically.
"I can't go to a hospital!"
"Then I'll have one brought here! I can use it. I've used them before. I can teach myself what I don't know already. There are people we trust. We can bring them in to help. We don't have to do it completely alone."
The repeated use of 'we' and all the things Lex said he'd do calmed Clark immensely. The babies were in his belly, but Lex wasn't abandoning him. Lex hadn't even considered it from what Clark could tell.
"I don't know what to do," Clark admitted, pacing back to Lex and opening his arms in invitation.
Lex moved into them, holding Clark closely. "I don't either," he said softly. "We'll figure it out."
Clark suddenly pushed away, tilting his head. "Flood in India."
"You can't go!" Lex blurted out, his arms tightening around Clark.
Clark blinked, then was stricken. "I... I have to." But he couldn't. There were two little children growing inside of him and it wasn't just himself he was risking anymore. He'd been risking them for four months without knowing it. "People are dying." But he didn't take himself out of Lex's arms.
Lex let him go and stepped back, his face torn. "Go. It's a flood, not a monster. Go. I'll figure something out."
Nobody was holding him anymore, but Clark couldn't move. His hand went up to cover the bump in his stomach.
"I'll figure something out," Lex promised. "A flood isn't going to hurt them. Go."
His heart torn, Clark left.
... ... ...
"A new costume is your brilliant idea?" Clark asked, looking dubiously at the drawing of a padded suit.
"It's a component," Lex said, not looking up from the computer where he was typing furiously. "It will help protect you, conceal your shape, and it will allow for other people to wear it without knowing you're not in it."
Clark pursed his lips. There was so much wrong with that last supposition that he didn't even know where to begin.
"I've got three robots being built right now that can be controlled remotely in a projection room; they'll do anything you think of doing."
"But they won't have my powers," Clark stated the obvious.
Lex nodded, hitting the return key and turning to face Clark. "I can do strength and laser vision and cold breath and fairly near invulnerability to routine things, but obviously that won't stand up to some of the things you do. It's meant to ease people into seeing the new heroes in the area with your other suit, and to ease you out of the general eye."
That made a certain amount of sense, though Clark's heart was still torn at the thought of not being able to get out and help. At some point, though, he'd have to. He couldn't risk his children, he just couldn't. In a move that was becoming habitual, Clark put his hand over the bump.
"I've also started reaching out to the other heroes around the world, making a sort of hero-network."
"You haven't told them---"
"No!" Lex quickly reassured. "No, that's our business and too close to home. We don't know them. We know of them, but don't know them. But with this contact, we can both start getting to know them, and we can call for aid for later on, when we might need it. They can call us too, and I've got plans for helping them in other ways. You may not be able to fly out as Superman, but there is a lot more you can offer and a lot we can do together."
Clark relaxed. It seemed Lex really had thought it through, and what had seemed like an insurmountable problem in which he would have to choose between his unborn children and other people... Clark could feel his heart straining just thinking of the choice none should have to make. Thanks to Lex, though, his understanding, and the support of his love, Clark wouldn't have to. He prayed he would never have to. "How about if we decorate the nursery in shades of blue and lavender?"
Walking to Clark, Lex reached up and kissed him soundly. Clark returned the kiss with interest. Then he laughed.
"Was that...?" Lex asked wonderingly, looking down to where their bodies were pressed up tightly against each other.
"I think so," Clark said, closing his eyes to try and feel any more movements.
"They're supposed to be butterflies at this age, not something I can feel through you."
Lex had obviously been doing his internet research. He had, however, forgotten one important fact.
"They're our children, Lex." Clark could feel himself starting to float off the ground and forced himself back down. "And I think they've inherited some of my strength."
Instead of looking pleased, Lex instead looked alarmed. "The ultrasound comes tomorrow. And we're heading out to talk to that damn Fortress of yours again. This time, it better not sulk about its personality having been disconnected, and it better answer our questions including the ones we don't ask! Is there a back-up personality in there somewhere?"
"My birth mother," Clark admitted. "Considering what my birth father was like, I've been afraid to put that one on."
"I don't think that was really what Jor El was like," Lex said thoughtfully. "The ship took a lot of damage getting here to Earth, protecting you against the radiated Kryptonite rocks. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the crystal circuitry wasn't compromised under the constant attacks."
Unlike most reassurances, Lex's was based in science and logic, and so it had a greater impact. Clark felt an ease of a long-standing hurt, and he thought it might again be time to try for another connection to his homeworld. It would be particularly important in learning how to raise his children. His parents had learned with him by trial and error, and Clark loved them dearly, but his children could also learn about both heritages.
It was funny how Clark had gone so quickly from disbelief to planning out the next twenty years. Clark hadn't expected this, certainly hadn't planned for it, was, in fact, still rather freaked out by it, and yet it was now the most precious thing in his life. He was pregnant. He was an alien on Earth, pregnant with his lover's children, and they were going to raise those children together.
Clark took Lex back into his arms and kissed him again. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," Lex said when he could breathe again, "but what---"
Clark cut him off by kissing him again. He kept that up for awhile and then took a brief break. "For getting me pregnant."
Lex laughed. "We'll see if you're still thanking me five months from now."
"Maybe not then, but in five months and a few hours, I definitely will be." Clark couldn't imagine anything else, with the birth of their children. Theirs. His and Lex's. Children. It was amazing to think about.
"Come to bed," Clark whispered in Lex's ear.
With a smile that also showed Lex's wonder with the same situation, he caressed Clark's rounded stomach tenderly and agreed.
From: To Be Revealed! tallihensia
For: itsaslashything
Type: Fic, 7536 word count
Rating: R
Warnings: mpreg
Request: I love MPREG! Love domestic Clex. Realization of pregnancy. Any domestic type of scene.
Summary: A slice-of-life in the lives of Clark and Lex. From their reunion to life together, they are very much a couple. But when Clark gets sick, they need to figure out the next steps in their lives
Notes: AU future fic. Splits from Smallville canon at Season One, Stray (1.16). Takes place nine years later. Hope you like it! :)
Pancake Love
White skin, golden skin, the patterns of each overlaying the other. Broad hands caressing smooth flesh, full lips sucking on slender ears. A clever tongue licking the expanse of golden skin, tracing across muscles. Hands clasped together then released for more exploration. Bodies coming together, then apart, then together again. Bare flesh rolling over cotton sheets. Light through the window turning to darkness, yet a corner lamp continuing to flicker on the sweaty skin. Sighs and cries of pleasure, gasps and moans of desire, laughter and gentle joy of satisfaction. Movements slowing until there was stillness.
"Clark," a voice stated, rich with the joy and satisfaction, a simple name to encompass all they'd had.
Held loosely in the slighter man's arms, Clark stiffened and started to pull away.
The loose hold tightened and sleepy blue eyes sharpened and then grew exasperated. "Oh, come on." With a sigh, the arms released, freeing Clark if he wished to go. "I don't make love to just any superhero that comes along. I recognized you, the same as you recognized me."
A moment more of hesitation, then a chuckle and Clark settled back within his companion's arms once more. "And I don't sleep with every genius scientist who helps me save the world. You're right, as always, Lex. I'm sorry, that was just reflex."
A slender white hand stroked along the broad expanse of golden skin, coming to rest on Clark's hip. "I suppose we should have talked about it first."
"No we shouldn't've." Clark kissed Lex gently and then more deeply.
When Lex regained his breath, a smile curved his lips. "I'm only human, Superman, and not good for more tonight."
"In the morning, then," Clark replied. "I've found you again, Lex, and I want every minute we have together."
They settled together, resting as the sweat dried upon their skin, then sleeping the slumber of contented sex. The darkness outside changed to light. And when they woke, they did it again.
... ... ...
"I really should check on some of my experiments," Lex said as he ate the buttered toast Clark had made to hold their hunger at bay while he prepared more substantial pancakes.
"And I should get back to Metropolis, though I don't particularly want to." Clark flipped the pancake over and glumly contemplated the golden-brown of the cooked side.
Lex slipped his hands around Clark's waist and kissed the back of his neck. "Fly back to me when you want, my hero."
"I'm going to burn the pancakes if you keep that up," Clark warned, though he turned in Lex's arms and returned the kiss hungrily enough to make up for the food.
Lex took the spatula from him and transferred the finished pancake onto a plate. "Let's not burn the pancakes, and then have the fun afterwards."
Clark grinned and poured the next one. "I really should check. What with saving the world and all, it's been awhile since they've seen me."
"Then they can wait another day," Lex said firmly. "And so can my experiments."
Agreeing, Clark leaned in to kiss Lex again. Lex's arms went around Clark's back. The spatula fell to the floor.
A quite thoroughly burned pancake later, they finally got back to the kitchen and had breakfast.
... ... ...
"Come to Metropolis with me," Clark urged as he dressed in his costume.
Lex grimaced. "I haven't been there in nine years, not since I was twenty-one. I don't want to go back now."
Clark well remembered the day that Lex had left. A month before that date, Lex had left Smallville at his father's summons. One month under his father's rule had been too long, though, and the whole of the state had known when Lex had renounced his father and disappeared so completely that he was never found again. Everybody had thought that Lex was dead, including Clark. "Your father is dead, Lex. Has been dead for five years."
"I do read the newspapers," Lex said dryly. "I just don't feel like going back. I'm perfectly happy here and I have a new home without a Luthor name. Why would I want to go back?"
Clark had to admit, the island hideaway was pretty close to paradise. Friendly locals, full internet, lots of room for Lex's experiments, and no law to interfere. It had taken a world crisis for Lex to come out and join his research with Superman's efforts. "To be with me?" Clark tried tentatively.
Lex looked at him in exasperation. "It takes you less than five minutes to fly here. A normal commute takes longer than that. There would be no difference in me being in Metropolis to me being here."
"You want me to?" Clark asked, surprised in spite of himself.
"What? You thought this was a one... two night stand?" Lex grabbed Clark's hair and pulled him in for a bruising kiss. "I told you," Lex whispered with his lips brushing Clark's, "I don't fuck just any superhero."
Giddy with delight, Clark didn't let go of Lex and kissed him back. The costume was removed again and it became a three night stand.
... ... ...
"Hey, Honey, how's your day going?"
Superman snorted and reached up to touch the microphone in his ear. "Doing just fine, Sugarplum. And yours?" He adjusted his grip on the missile and flew up, getting into the upper atmosphere. With all the satellites in orbit, he couldn't just throw explosives outside the atmosphere anymore, but he could detonate them where there would be no fallout.
"Interesting, that's for sure, Chipmunk. I don't suppose you'd want to give that missile to me as an early Christmas present?"
Clark let the missile go and then flew back a ways before he exploded it with his heat vision. "Nope, Snookums, sorry. How about if I come home early instead?"
Lex sighed through the microphone. "I suppose that will have to do, Fuzzy Face."
"Fuzzy Face?" Clark laughed as he flew back to Earth.
"You've been working since yesterday afternoon," Lex remarked calmly. "Unless you stop for a shave, which you better not, I think you're going to be a bit fuzzy."
Clark put his arms around Lex's waist and rubbed his chin on the back of Lex's head.
Unsurprised, or at least not showing any signs of surprise, Lex clicked off the microphone and leaned back into Clark's arms. "Welcome home."
"Mmmm..." Clark breathed in the fresh smell of Lex in his arms. Well, the smell of various chemical compounds. "Shower?"
"Sounds good." Lex purred, and they went off to get clean.
... ... ...
Superman broke the gun with one hand and grabbed the criminal by the back of his suit with the other. He flew up, breaking through the ceiling a few seconds before the mis-timed explosion. Out in the clear air, he hovered for a moment, his stomach protesting the sudden moves. Unable to hold it anymore, Clark threw up on the criminal he was holding.
"Hey!" The man started scrubbing himself with his hands, gagging as he did. "Oh, yuck!"
Served the guy right, Clark thought blurrily, considering how many people he could have hurt or killed in that poorly planned robbery.
Looping a little in the sky, Clark actually felt a bit better now that he'd thrown up. He looked for the nearest police van and dropped the criminal off. He didn't stay around to give a statement, but flew instead to the river and dove in.
Swimming at the bottom, Clark disturbed fish in his dash through the river. When he came out at the city limits, he felt cleaner, and not so sick anymore. With a quick spin to dry off, Clark changed to his suit and went into work.
"Huh," Lois said. "Space germs?'
She was pouring over all the witness reports and the few videos there were of Superman puking in mid-air.
Clark shrank in his seat. "Maybe it was the explosion?"
Lois snorted and gave that the distain it deserved.
"Something he ate?" Never mind that he'd skipped breakfast altogether that morning.
"Superman eats?" Lois blinked. "Humm... something to ask. What are his favorite foods? Why don't we see him at restaurants? What would he like on a moonlight picnic?"
Oh, not that again. Clark sighed. Lois was obsessed with Superman. She was a good woman, and Clark had been on his way to falling in love with her once, but now...
The phone rang and Lois answered it, then handed it to Clark. "It's your mysterious boyfriend, Smallville."
Hearing that, Clark both relaxed and tensed at the same time. He should have known Lex would have found out, if Lex hadn't actually been watching at the time. However, just to hear Lex's voice relieved so many of his worries. "Hey," Clark said into the phone, feeling the connection through the line.
"Are you okay?" Lex's voice was soft yet fierce, protective and wanting to do something about it.
"Yeah." Clark closed his eyes. He honestly felt fine now. "It was nothing."
"Nothing doesn't do that. Come home."
Clark smiled, wanting to but knowing it would just be playing hooky and there was too much work to do that. He'd already taken too many spontaneous days off while he flew to the island. "Do you remember Lana?"
"What about her?" Lex's voice dipped down to a growl. It had been years ago, but Lex still remembered the obsession Clark once had for her. Clark had used those memories for a few good nights of possessive sex, Lex pounding into him to mark his claim.
"She had a pretty necklace." A necklace that had caused Clark quite a lot of trouble.
There was a pause on the line. "You think it's related?" Lex wasn't going to say anything about kryptonite on the phone.
Clark shrugged. "Must have been." He really couldn't think of anything else considering how good he felt now. His trip through the river would have washed any kryptonite off.
"Humm... I'd still like you to come home."
It felt good to be so cared about. Clark was just about invulnerable and Lex still worried. Sometimes, to be honest, a little too much for Clark's tastes, but Clark knew enough to just take it in and accept it as the love it showed.
"I get off work at 6 p.m. tonight," Clark said, laughing inside.
Lois looked across the desk at him with a raised eyebrow. They didn't really have set hours, working on stories and deadlines more than tied to a time clock. Clark didn't care. If 6 p.m. rolled around tonight and he wasn't done with something, well, then, he would take it home with him. He wanted to be with Lex this night.
... ... ...
There weren't any inept robbers the next morning, which was good.
What was bad was Clark worshiping the porcelain deity regardless.
After he'd flushed the toilet and rinsed his mouth in the sink, he stepped out of the restroom, only to face something more scary.
"You're an acquaintance of Superman's, aren't you?" Lois stood there, tapping her foot.
Clark put a hand on the wall and balanced himself. "Yes..." he answered warily.
"Just how close are you?"
Clark felt bad enough at the moment, he couldn't deal with this too.
"Kissing close?"
Throwing a hand to his mouth, Clark turned around and ran back to the toilet. He'd thought he'd already emptied his stomach before, but somehow it managed to turn itself inside out and produce some more acid to throw up.
"Seriously, Smallville," Lois' voice came from behind him. She'd followed him in.
With a moan, Clark rested his head on the porcelain.
"I think you might have caught something from Superman. This is just what he was doing yesterday."
Actually, it was. Clark felt just as bad and just as sick. Sicker, actually. "I'm going home."
"How's your boyfriend? Is he sick too? Maybe we should get a blood sample and send it to the alien biology lab."
There was no way Clark was staying around now. "Bye, Lois. Tell Perry I'm taking the day off." He stood up, swaying only a little.
"Don't flush the toilet! I can get a sample---"
Clark flushed the toilet with a firm press of the handle. He staggered out of the men's room and tried to figure out how he was getting home.
Finally, he took a taxi out to his apartment. He hadn't been there in weeks. It hadn't changed much. Out of curiosity, he opened the refrigerator. A few minutes later as his stomach finished turning over again, Clark thought that may not have been the smartest idea.
He wasn't sure if he could fly all the way to the island, but he really wanted Lex. Compromising, he crawled onto the couch and picked up the phone.
Some time later, Lex was there. Clark blinked his eyes open from his nap when he felt the hand on his forehead. "Lex?"
"Shhh, I'm here." Lex moved his hand from Clark's forehead down to his neck, feeling for the glands.
"I'm feeling a lot better," Clark said, though he didn't move away from Lex's touch.
"No fever, and you're not swollen. Did you swallow or breathe anything that might have kryptonite in it?"
"I might have been wrong about that yesterday," Clark admitted. He sat up, testing his senses to see if the movement would reawaken the nausea. He felt okay and stood up the rest of the way.
"It was a good hypothesis." Lex stepped back to give Clark room to stand yet hovered closely in case Clark needed a steadying hand.
"Lois thinks I've got space bugs."
Lex grimaced. He didn't like Lois working so closely with Clark. "Wait, does she think Superman has space germs or you?"
"Both of us." Clark grinned and explained Lois' theory that Clark and Superman were having an affair.
Lex's expression was somewhere between amused and annoyed. "She's projecting."
With a laugh, Clark agreed. He started to go for the kitchen and then stopped, remembering his earlier experience.
"We'll go out to lunch," Lex said after he became aware of the problem, "and we'll get somebody in to clean your place while we're out."
Clark was rather amused that Lex didn't offer to do it himself. Some things hadn't changed at all since Smallville. Though Lex wouldn't let anybody touch his laboratory other than himself and, with time, Clark.
"Steak?" Clark suggested hopefully. He was starving and didn't want anything complex.
"All right," Lex said, then tugged his hat a little more firmly into position. Despite his abandonment years ago of the Luthor name, he still didn't like to be in Metropolis. "You could just be sick because of your habit of not eating breakfast and flying out on an empty stomach every day."
"I drank some coffee," Clark protested.
"I like coffee as well, however coffee is not breakfast."
There had been a time, years ago, that for Lex coffee had been that way. Clark liked his scientist Lex much better than the businessman-in-training stress bucket that he'd been back then. Scientist Lex sometimes forgot to eat, too, yet he had no problems in nagging Clark about the same.
"Are you sure you're feeling better now?" Lex asked, again reaching up to touch Clark's forehead.
Clark covered Lex's hand with his own and then brought both hands down clasped together. "Yeah. Just hungry now."
"Then let's get you filled up."
... ... ...
Lex didn't, of course, leave it at that. They flew back to the island in Lex's aircraft as Lex wouldn't let Clark fly on his own. Back at the island, there was a barrage of tests. Mouth swab cultures, pee in a cup cultures, even a blood-draw with a kryptonite-tipped needle.
There was also a lot of cuddling and making sure that Clark had all the blankets he needed, that the room was warm enough, and that all the snacks he wanted were there for him.
It would have been almost perfect except some of the snacks made Clark remember exactly why he was staying here at home curled up on the couch in the first place. The jalapeño nachos almost got tossed out but Lex claimed them for more experiments.
"When was the last time you had a cold? Has your throat felt sore at all?"
Clark tried an experimental swallow. "Not really. A few years ago."
Lex blinked. "You get colds?"
"Just because my skin is impenetrable, doesn't mean my immune system is." Clark shrugged. "If it helps, I seem to avoid the nastier things."
With a sigh, Lex leaned into Clark and relaxed. "Okay, I'll keep looking but I'll stop worrying."
Clark kissed the side of Lex's head. "I doubt that, but it'll be okay." The one good thing was that he could accept all of Lex's help without worrying that Lex himself would catch the cold; Lex's mutation kept him safe. Knowing that, it was much easier to relax into the care.
... ... ...
None of the cultures showed anything wrong with him. Clark stayed home for two days and then went back to work. He took Lex's aircraft to get back to Metropolis as flying on his own still made him nauseous. He saved that for his emergencies as Superman. He kept a clenched mouth during rescues and Lois started quoting people as saying Superman was really mad about something. Luckily, though, she dropped the alien disease story when he didn't throw up on any more robbers.
Two weeks later, nothing had changed. Clark mostly controlled his sickness by eating smaller meals more often and avoiding the foods that smelled bad, which unfortunately for him included most of the spicy Indian dishes he loved. The remaining sickness he tried to ignore, pushing through it to put out his usual work and saving his intense moments for Superman. Though he didn't like it, Clark got used to being sick and the anger he'd seemed to gain along with it. Everything rubbed him the wrong way, and the least thing could set him off. He felt guilty when it was Lex, so he mostly took it out on criminals. Lois ran a byline speculating on Superman's sudden temper and what could be behind it.
Lex, on the other hand, was getting more and more frantic the longer Clark was sick. None of his tests were showing any clue as to what was causing Clark's nausea. Every night, Clark was poked and prodded and more samples were taken, but it was balanced by extra cuddling and an alert tentativeness to presenting Clark with delicacies that wouldn't make him sick. Clark nibbled almost constantly now and when he wasn't eating or working, he was napping. Lex hovered and spent long hours in the lab and travelling in search of things to make Clark better.
Lovemaking in the nights was tender and sweet. Lex probably would have foregone it completely, worrying about Clark, but Clark didn't feel that bad, was actually rather horny, and he pulled Lex to him every night, kissing him with intent until Lex responded in kind. His body responded to Lex's every stroke, every caress, and he cried out as Lex sucked on his nipples. There was no sickness at all when Lex was inside him, only pleasure.
A month later, the sickness abruptly stopped. Clark almost didn't notice, as used to it as he'd become. Lex was the one who stared when he asked about the nausea and Clark absently replied there wasn't any. Clark was promptly subjected to a new battery of tests and when that was done, he dragged Lex out to a Indian restaurant where he had the hottest vindaloo curry they had.
Also to celebrate, Superman went out on a major crime-fighting spree. He flew around the world three times, doing loops and spins, and dropping by whenever he saw an accident or crime. Lex had to call him home after the first twenty hours, reminding him of the time and that there was a warm bed waiting for him. By that time, Clark was tired enough to come straight home. The nausea was gone, yet it seemed he hadn't gained all of his strength back yet.
He came into work the day after, whistling and happy. However, he faltered as he got to the desk and saw that Lois had pictures of Superman spread out all over it and was frowning. The pictures, he'd expected, what with his dash across the world. The frown, though, roused his warning instincts.
"Hey, Smallville," Lois barely looked up, intent on her photos. "Do you think Superman is getting fat?"
Clark blinked. "Ahh..."
Lois pulled out an earlier photo from the year before and put it next to one from yesterday. "Hey, Jimmy! Get over here. Cat, you too."
Oh, lovely. Clark put a hand over his stomach and then dropped it and sucked his stomach in instead. "I don't see it," he said defensively.
"Oh, come on, Clark! You're a gay guy with a crush on Superman. I know you want to defend him, but it's pretty obvious."
"I do not have a crush on him!"
"Uh huh," Lois nodded sagely and then went back to the photos, handing some over to Cat as she came up to them. "Hey, Cat. Do you think Superman is getting fat?"
"He is a little pudgy," Cat said thoughtfully. "Maybe it's the angle?"
Jimmy shook his head. "That was the best of that set - he was even worse in some of the others. I was trying to keep it from showing in the article."
Lois straightened up. "You have more photos? Share!"
"Sure," Jimmy agreed and then wandered off, coming back a minute later with a folder.
"Whoa, you're right," Cat said, holding one of them that was taken from the side.
Looking over her shoulder, Clark winced. "I am not---" He cut himself off and then finished up, "convinced."
Lois shoved two photos in his hands. "Eat your words, Smallville -- Superman is fat."
"Well," Jimmy said judiciously, "he's got a bit of a belly on him. I wouldn't call that fat. Not yet."
"True." Lois tapped a fingernail on her chin, thinking. "Maybe we should keep watching and not break the story yet until he's gained a few more pounds."
"Story?" Clark burst out, horrified.
The other three reporters looked at him in disbelief.
"Superman just rescued 500 people all over the world in twenty hours! That's a story, not about whether or not he's getting..." Clark choked on the word, "fat."
"Superman rescues people all the time," Cat dismissed that argument, waving a manicured hand. "He's never been fat before. That skin-tight suit he wears... it shows everything! He wouldn't have dared wear it if he wasn't so fit. I can get a really good speculative article on this. Can you imagine the number of people who will write in? It's going to be awesome!"
Lois nodded. "It's not one of our investigative stories, true, but it's still news!"
Clark rubbed the side of his face with his hand and gave up.
... ... ...
The thing was, Clark never worked out. He'd grown up working on the farm, and he'd always worked hard. He'd had his strength from childhood, but all that meant was that he worked harder to use his strength efficiently. He'd grown up tall and he'd grown up muscled. That hadn't changed as he got a job and started on his superhero career.
The pictures were evidence, and Clark didn't know what to do about it.
"Lex, do you think I'm getting fat?"
"What?"Lex blinked and looked up from his magazine.
Clark glumly handed over the most egregious of the photos. "They're going to do an article about how fat I'm getting, but first they're going to wait until I get fatter so it'll make more of a story."
"You're not fat," Lex said automatically in reflex and then he looked at the photo. His eyebrows rose and he looked back at Clark again, obviously comparing the two.
Self-consciously, Clark shifted from foot to foot, trying not to put his hands in front of his middle.
"Um," Lex stumbled as he tried to find something to say.
That, more than anything, told Clark it was true. He sighed and sat down on the couch. "I don't know what to do. I've never been fat before."
"Um," Lex said again, most of his elegant vocabulary failing him.
"I've been snacking like crazy while I was sick. Maybe I just need some time to get better?" Clark put a hand on his stomach. He didn't feel fat. "Most people get skinny when they're sick," he observed glumly. "Why do I have to get fat?"
Lex opened his mouth and closed it again. He looked at the photo and frowned. "You don't look fat."
"Lex, my stomach is bulging!"
"It's a little bump," Lex argued, "but the rest of you hasn't changed. A little bulge doesn't make you fat! For most of the world, it just makes you normal. What regular person has such a wonderful perfect body without doing anything?"
"So I'm not perfect anymore. You won't want to touch me." Clark mourned.
Lex winced, obviously sensing a wording mis-step. He stood up from the armchair, crossed to the couch, and sat next to Clark, leaning in to him. "I love you, Clark, not your body. Well, not just your body. It's never been about your perfection, but always about the person you are inside. A little belly bulge, though, doesn't mean you're not perfect. It just means you're a person and you've got a healthy body."
"Healthy?" Clark asked skeptically.
"Healthy," Lex insisted. "Look at history! Skinny is dead. A bit of extra layering is healthy and good for the body."
"Uh huh," Clark said with the same amount of skepticism.
Lex sighed. "Want to join me on my morning workouts?"
Clark perked up; now that was practical. "Sure!" He sometimes watched Lex anyhow just because it was wonderful to watch that lean sinuous body twist and turn in the exercises, and lift the weights making muscles bulge.
"Should we get up earlier or would you like to go into work later?"
Clark grimaced. He didn't like either way, but with how tired he'd been lately, "I'll switch my hours. I saw too many sunrises when I was a kid."
"Okay. Tomorrow." Lex leaned into Clark and curled up on his chest. "Did you want to watch tv?"
Clark smiled and kissed the top of Lex's head. "Sure."
... ... ...
Not surprisingly, a lot of the morning workout sessions ended up in sex. Two sweaty bodies, twisted in aerobic turns, with Lex's hands guiding Clark through pilates leg lifts, yoga downward dogs, and abdominal crunches. Who could possibly resist those hands, those strokes, the attention and love included with the instruction?
The Daily Planet got used to Clark coming in late.
Even with the exercise, though, Clark still kept gaining weight. He was also tired. He shouldn't have been tired, he wasn't doing anything that strenuous, not like normal. He was just tired.
One of the odder things, though, was that the more tired he got, the less gravity held him. At random times, he would find himself walking a few inches above the floor. He'd be sitting on the couch, then Lex would be tugging him back down. He'd wake up in the morning to look at Lex who was standing up and watching him at eye level.
"If you keep this up," Lex said mildly, "I'm going to have to start making bad Ghostbuster jokes."
Clark looked puzzled as he floated himself back to the bed.
"My boyfriend sleeps above the covers. Four feet above the covers..."
That really was a breaking point. Clark decided to take a leave of absence from his job. Being tired was one thing, but random floating was just impossible in a real world situation. For Superman, not so bad. For Clark Kent... no.
Perry looked relieved and promptly said yes. He gave Clark two months and told him to not touch a keyboard until he was better.
Lois grumbled about the extra work she'd have to do, but the grumbling was punctuated with concerned looks when she thought he wasn't looking. "Don't worry about us, Smallville. We'll do just fine. You just... well, uh,..."
Clark rescued her with a smile and a nervous adjustment of his glasses. "Keep the stories coming."
He went home and slept the rest of the day.
... ... ...
"Uh oh."
At the sound of Lex's worried voice, Clark looked up from his book. Reading about the history of rise and fall of crime lords in the Suicide Slums wasn't technically touching a keyboard, and he couldn't do nothing between Superman emergencies. "What's wrong?"
"Cat's article came out."
Clark blinked, then remembered what they'd been talking about a few weeks ago. He involuntarily put a hand on his stomach, then forced it off and stood up to walk over.
"No! You don't want to read, stay away." Lex looked up and stopped Clark in his tracks with a glare. "I'll read it and let you know if there's anything you need to know."
Meekly, Clark sat back down. He didn't really want to read it anyhow. He really didn't need to be told he was getting fat, he just didn't know what to do about it.
"Heh."
"What?" Clark couldn't sit still.
"There's a couple of new costume designs in here, with a contest for readers to submit some as well."
Okay, Clark had to admit that while his skin-tight suit was aerodynamic and aided him in battles and explosions, it really showed everything. It wasn't so much of a problem early on, but once he and Lex had started their relationship, Clark had become aware of inappropriate thoughts at inconvenient moments. Now there was also this. "Maybe it's time for a new costume, but I think I'll let you design it. Last time I let the newspaper do anything, they stuck me with the name of Superman."
"But you are a Super Man," Lex purred, looking over the top of the computer screen with his eyes hot and lids dropping down.
Clark rolled his eyes and went back to his book. "What else do they say?"
Lex sighed and went back to the article. "Well, there's also a nice commentary on how this will improve the general body image and not have such an idealized view of people."
"Who really believes it when people say something like that? All they really do is stop watching that particular celebrity and go on to worshiping the next too-skinny model."
"Does Batman pad his suit?" Lex wondered.
Clark glared at him.
"It's something more people should be aware of," Lex said more seriously. "That and the fact that even the top models still get airbrushed, which is beyond ridiculous."
"Well, I never actually did anything to stay in shape in the first place, and even trying now, I don't seem to be able to do anything, so it's not like I deserve any praise for anything anyhow."
Lex again peered over the top of the monitor. "That was about as muddled a sentence as I've ever heard from you."
Clark grimaced. "What else is in there?"
"I'm on to the comments now. Don't read them. Whatever you do, don't read them."
Clark had plenty of experience with the bitter vitriol poured out in newspaper article comments. The search for the few gems of intelligent thought was often overlaid with the spitting out of anonymous hatred on all sides. It often made him wonder why anybody let the comments be open on articles. He had absolutely no intention of reading them on this.
"Asshole. Bitch. No-brain Neanderthal." Lex was muttering as he read, his fury barely restrained.
"Neanderthals were actually fairly intelligent," Clark remarked mildly.
"All things considered, yes, but these posters..." Lex trailed off and then burst into laughter.
Clark sat up, putting his book aside. He wasn't going to be able to read anything more today. "What?"
"Oh, this is good," Lex chuckled. "Somebody actually thinks you're not fat, you're---" He broke off and looked up, his eyes slightly wide and no longer amused.
"What?" Clark asked again, starting to panic a little.
"Um, no." Lex shook his head, then looked back to the screen. Slowly, he looked up again. "No."
Giving up, Clark stood and started for Lex's computer, ignoring Lex's protest. Lex reached for the keyboard, and Clark superspeeded over before Lex could either close the browser window or reduce it.
"Pregnant?" Clark blinked. "They think I'm pregnant?" There were always jokes in the comments. What was more disturbing was the way Lex had stopped laughing. Clark took a closer look at the details, absently putting his hand under Lex's so Lex couldn't reach the keyboard.
There were pictures of a pregnant woman, an overweight man, and Superman. Put side by side by side... Clark had to admit that the shape of his belly resembled the first more than the second. But there was a lot of variation in people's shapes. This could just be coincidence.
Except right below it, somebody also had pointed out that Superman had been sick the months before. And the mood swings. And the tiredness. And he was an alien... "Oh shit." The pictures were pretty well evidence in themselves. That roundness... Clark gulped.
"Clark," Lex asked carefully, his hand resting on Clark's. "When you were sick and you went up to the Fortress and asked it what was wrong with you... what, actually, did it say?"
Clark swallowed. "The problem is, uh..., well, when I disabled the Jor-El personality from the Fortress AI, it doesn't volunteer information anymore. It answers what it's asked and no more than that." Clark sighed. "I didn't ask it what was wrong with me, I asked it if I was sick and it said I was fine. I did ask in a few other ways, but nothing broad enough to have caught, uh..."
This was ridiculous, even if he was an alien, he was still a guy, and there was no way he could be pregnant. Women got pregnant. Clark twisted to try and see through his belly.
"No!" Lex scrambled up from his chair and plastered himself against Clark, putting his hands up over Clark's eyes.
It couldn't really have stopped him, but Clark gave up the uncomfortable attempt. "Why not?"
"What you do may not actually be literal x-ray, but we haven't established yet if there is any risk, and I don't want to take the chance if..."
Clark looked into Lex's eyes and saw fear, disbelief, and a weird glimmering of hope. Clark's stomach twisted, not unlike his earlier sickness, and he swallowed. "We're going back to the Fortress, right now. You get to ask the questions."
"We'll both ask the questions," Lex said firmly. Then he swallowed in a similar manner to Clark, and he reached his hand out. Clark clasped it and they stared in fear at each other until they left for the Fortress.
... ... ...
Back home, they sat together on the couch in stunned silence.
"Well," Lex finally said.
Clark nodded numbly.
They sat in silence a while longer.
"I'm going to be a father," Lex said, disbelief and fear intertwined in his voice.
"I'm going to be a mother!" Clark's voice broke in his hysteria.
Lex turned into Clark and wrapped his arms around him. "We're going to be parents."
"Oh God." Clark returned the embrace but continued his wild-eyed exclamations of panic. He'd been repeating variations of the same since the Fortress had confirmed their guess.
"It's okay, we'll make it," Lex repeated numbly.
"Easy for you to say! I'm the one whose having a baby!"
Lex's face turned green and he swallowed. "I... we'll get through it, we will."
There was a pause.
"We're going to be parents," Lex said numbly.
Clark agreed.
... ... ...
The next day, they were still at it, though the reality had set in somewhat better.
"I'm going to have to quit my job," Clark said glumly as he flipped pancakes.
"No, you don't," Lex said absently as he surfed nursery websites. "Perry would let you work from home." He paused suddenly and lifted his head cautiously. "If you want to, that is. If you don't want to work, you don't have to. You can do whatever you'd like to."
"I'm having a baby, there's no choice in that!" Clark's voice rose again and he forced himself to concentrate on the pancakes and calm down.
"Um," Lex started, then faltered and fell silent, recognizing there was no real answer to that.
When the pancakes were done, Lex left his computer and they sat together to eat, still both quiet and stunned.
"What do you think of lavender for the nursery?" Lex finally asked.
Clark blinked. "For a boy?"
"For a girl. The Fortress last night said 'she' when talking about the baby."
"The Fortress said 'he' when I asked about the movement in my stomach!"
They looked at each other for a moment as they thought through just what the AI had said. Then Clark's fork clattered to the table. "Oh God."
Lex started cursing the Fortress AI, using different languages and multiple adjectives.
"I'm going to have twins," Clark moaned, and for the first time in a few months ran for the bathroom to throw up.
... ... ...
"We are not going back to the Fortress!" Lex insisted. "We can't trust that hunk of junk, and we shouldn't have to. We can figure this out the way parents have for generations."
"By waiting until they're born?" Clark asked hysterically.
"By getting an ultrasound," Lex replied practically.
"I can't go to a hospital!"
"Then I'll have one brought here! I can use it. I've used them before. I can teach myself what I don't know already. There are people we trust. We can bring them in to help. We don't have to do it completely alone."
The repeated use of 'we' and all the things Lex said he'd do calmed Clark immensely. The babies were in his belly, but Lex wasn't abandoning him. Lex hadn't even considered it from what Clark could tell.
"I don't know what to do," Clark admitted, pacing back to Lex and opening his arms in invitation.
Lex moved into them, holding Clark closely. "I don't either," he said softly. "We'll figure it out."
Clark suddenly pushed away, tilting his head. "Flood in India."
"You can't go!" Lex blurted out, his arms tightening around Clark.
Clark blinked, then was stricken. "I... I have to." But he couldn't. There were two little children growing inside of him and it wasn't just himself he was risking anymore. He'd been risking them for four months without knowing it. "People are dying." But he didn't take himself out of Lex's arms.
Lex let him go and stepped back, his face torn. "Go. It's a flood, not a monster. Go. I'll figure something out."
Nobody was holding him anymore, but Clark couldn't move. His hand went up to cover the bump in his stomach.
"I'll figure something out," Lex promised. "A flood isn't going to hurt them. Go."
His heart torn, Clark left.
... ... ...
"A new costume is your brilliant idea?" Clark asked, looking dubiously at the drawing of a padded suit.
"It's a component," Lex said, not looking up from the computer where he was typing furiously. "It will help protect you, conceal your shape, and it will allow for other people to wear it without knowing you're not in it."
Clark pursed his lips. There was so much wrong with that last supposition that he didn't even know where to begin.
"I've got three robots being built right now that can be controlled remotely in a projection room; they'll do anything you think of doing."
"But they won't have my powers," Clark stated the obvious.
Lex nodded, hitting the return key and turning to face Clark. "I can do strength and laser vision and cold breath and fairly near invulnerability to routine things, but obviously that won't stand up to some of the things you do. It's meant to ease people into seeing the new heroes in the area with your other suit, and to ease you out of the general eye."
That made a certain amount of sense, though Clark's heart was still torn at the thought of not being able to get out and help. At some point, though, he'd have to. He couldn't risk his children, he just couldn't. In a move that was becoming habitual, Clark put his hand over the bump.
"I've also started reaching out to the other heroes around the world, making a sort of hero-network."
"You haven't told them---"
"No!" Lex quickly reassured. "No, that's our business and too close to home. We don't know them. We know of them, but don't know them. But with this contact, we can both start getting to know them, and we can call for aid for later on, when we might need it. They can call us too, and I've got plans for helping them in other ways. You may not be able to fly out as Superman, but there is a lot more you can offer and a lot we can do together."
Clark relaxed. It seemed Lex really had thought it through, and what had seemed like an insurmountable problem in which he would have to choose between his unborn children and other people... Clark could feel his heart straining just thinking of the choice none should have to make. Thanks to Lex, though, his understanding, and the support of his love, Clark wouldn't have to. He prayed he would never have to. "How about if we decorate the nursery in shades of blue and lavender?"
Walking to Clark, Lex reached up and kissed him soundly. Clark returned the kiss with interest. Then he laughed.
"Was that...?" Lex asked wonderingly, looking down to where their bodies were pressed up tightly against each other.
"I think so," Clark said, closing his eyes to try and feel any more movements.
"They're supposed to be butterflies at this age, not something I can feel through you."
Lex had obviously been doing his internet research. He had, however, forgotten one important fact.
"They're our children, Lex." Clark could feel himself starting to float off the ground and forced himself back down. "And I think they've inherited some of my strength."
Instead of looking pleased, Lex instead looked alarmed. "The ultrasound comes tomorrow. And we're heading out to talk to that damn Fortress of yours again. This time, it better not sulk about its personality having been disconnected, and it better answer our questions including the ones we don't ask! Is there a back-up personality in there somewhere?"
"My birth mother," Clark admitted. "Considering what my birth father was like, I've been afraid to put that one on."
"I don't think that was really what Jor El was like," Lex said thoughtfully. "The ship took a lot of damage getting here to Earth, protecting you against the radiated Kryptonite rocks. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the crystal circuitry wasn't compromised under the constant attacks."
Unlike most reassurances, Lex's was based in science and logic, and so it had a greater impact. Clark felt an ease of a long-standing hurt, and he thought it might again be time to try for another connection to his homeworld. It would be particularly important in learning how to raise his children. His parents had learned with him by trial and error, and Clark loved them dearly, but his children could also learn about both heritages.
It was funny how Clark had gone so quickly from disbelief to planning out the next twenty years. Clark hadn't expected this, certainly hadn't planned for it, was, in fact, still rather freaked out by it, and yet it was now the most precious thing in his life. He was pregnant. He was an alien on Earth, pregnant with his lover's children, and they were going to raise those children together.
Clark took Lex back into his arms and kissed him again. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," Lex said when he could breathe again, "but what---"
Clark cut him off by kissing him again. He kept that up for awhile and then took a brief break. "For getting me pregnant."
Lex laughed. "We'll see if you're still thanking me five months from now."
"Maybe not then, but in five months and a few hours, I definitely will be." Clark couldn't imagine anything else, with the birth of their children. Theirs. His and Lex's. Children. It was amazing to think about.
"Come to bed," Clark whispered in Lex's ear.
With a smile that also showed Lex's wonder with the same situation, he caressed Clark's rounded stomach tenderly and agreed.