Superman for Sale - Chapter 12
Sorry this took so long, but real life has been beating me senseless, so hopefully posting two updates at once will help smooth things for people....
Update 13 will be posted as soon as possible...
Title: Superman for Sale
Author: D.M. Wyatt
Pairing: Clark/Lex
Rating: Mostly R, some chapters are NC-17
Warnings: Physical and Emotional TC, graphic descriptions of adult sexual content, BD/SM, future fic, post rift
Spoilers: None
Word Count this chapter: 7.060 - both parts (Story, thus far: 59,789)
Short summary of this chapter: Clark has a nice visit with his mom and tries to figure out what to do about Lex. (cover thanks to danceswithgary)
One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Seven | Eight | Nine | Ten | Eleven A | Eleven B |
Part 12 of possibly 15...
~:::~
Lex heard the sonic boom of Clark leaving Metropolis for Smallville before he'd even gotten on the elevator. He tried to not react to the quizzical look on Mercy's face and stepped inside to stand next to her. He looked quietly at the door as he waited for Mercy to push the button.
She didn't push it right away.
He looked at her and arched an eyebrow.
She blushed slightly, abashed, and quietly pushed the button and avoided looking at Lex as the elevator descended. Lex was glad of the quiet and that Mercy's attention had shifted to her perfectly manicured nails, her only nervous habit, but he was relieved too.
The pain he'd felt, an echo of what Clark had been feeling, was now gone. He resisted the urge to sigh. Lex limited himself to quietly clearing his throat and straightening his bow tie.
Before the elevator reached the ground floor, Lex knew that Clark was already home and wrapped in his mother's arms. The sense of Clark he felt through their connection, the comfort, warmth and love the other man was feeling, was just that strong. He knew Clark felt safe and loved.
Lex's heart clenched at the thought. Clark felt loved and safe at home in Smallville wrapped in his mother's arms, but didn't feel the same with Lex. While he was in the apartment, whenever he was awake anyway, he knew that Clark felt on edge and defensive. He never let his guard down.
However, he'd had that one night. After Clark had come home after the horror that must have been the devastation following the tsunami, after he'd quieted following his nightmares when Lex had comforted him before he had woken up, Clark had relaxed and had felt loved.
Lex knew that as sure as he knew the sky was blue or the earth round or that Clark was the most handsome man on this, or any other, planet. As Clark had cuddled with him Lex knew he had felt safe and loved and comforted. Lex knew that being with him was something Clark wanted, deep down.
Yes, Lex knew that he hadn't really been awake. If he had been, he would have pulled away like he had later that same day. However, it was the unconscious feelings that Lex was sure Clark had felt which convinced him that he could make Clark happy. If only Clark would just let himself give into his feelings, Lex knew that he could make Clark happy even while awake. However, Superman was being too stubborn and self-righteous to even see that as a possibility.
Lex finally gave into the sigh he'd fought to release as Mercy tried to act like she hadn't noticed. He scowled at her as she held open the door that exited out to the street for him.
They walked out to the limo where Hope waited in the idling car.
Lex was convinced he'd made the right decision, despite the pain it'd caused him to see Clark go. He had to let him go home to see his mother. Lex knew Clark depended on his mother for emotional support more than a man his age probably should, but he had no other significant other so perhaps it made sense. She would talk with Clark and help him get his thoughts worked out. Martha would help Clark figure out what it was he really wants.
After that, who knows? He might decide he doesn't want Lex and there'd be more uncomfortable silences, but maybe Clark might decide to give him a chance. Maybe Clark will see that he's really changed. However, with (by then) only a little more than a week left in the thirty days to get Clark to see reason, Lex was really going to have his work cut out for him.
He was hopeful, as Mercy held open the limo door for him, that Clark would be happier when he came back.
He sighed again as Mercy slid into the front seat next to Hope and the car pulled away.
Despite the uncomfortable silences that have dominated his interaction with Superman the last week or so, Lex was going to really miss Clark.
~:::~
Clark spent a long time, too long probably, just holding his mom in his arms.
She didn't ask why he was there, she hadn't needed to. She knew something was wrong and that it was more than what had happened in the wake of the tsunami.
He'd let her lead him to the couch and sat next to her, but he wasn't ready to talk just yet. So he just quietly sat with her and listened as she talked about what she had done that day and what she'd heard about his high school friends he'd lost touch with. She also talked about some of things coming up for her in the Senate, the important votes on laws that would help people she represented. She didn't pry or try to get him to talk, she just talked and he only asked an occasional question.
She hadn't been expecting him, and it was late by the time he'd gotten hungry, so she just warmed up some leftovers for him.
As she worked on that, Clark went up to his room to change. He pulled off his glasses since he wouldn't use them at home. He folded them and put the spectacles down on top of the nightstand. He looked down at his suit, tattered beyond repair by the turbulence of his supersonic flight. It was a complete loss. He really should have changed before flying home so fast. He sighed as he took it off and stripped from his other suit too. Clark pulled on a pair of boxers and opened the drawer to pull out one of the pairs of the spare jeans he always left there.
Even though his mom hadn't expected him, his jeans were all freshly laundered and smelled of lavender. Clark didn't know how she did that, but he really appreciated it. He associated the floral smell of the fabric softener with his mother and it made him feel more at home than just being there did.
He pulled on a t-shirt and took out a flannel shirt from the closet. He finished dressing and turned to hang the Superman suit in the secret compartment he'd built into the back of his closet. Opening that hidden door made him think of Lex's bedroom closet back in Metropolis. He hadn't seen the state of the closet since Lex had been so drunk that one morning.
Without really thinking about it, he idly figured that Lex had probably finished the renovations on the ruined closet by now. He sighed at the thought that he would have to step into Lex's room to see the closet because of all the lead in the walls, but he was curious how it had turned out. He smiled when he thought of how well his suits would fit into that secret closet.
He scowled when he realized he was mentally moving back into Lex's bedroom.
He sighed and quietly went back downstairs to eat.
~:::~
Even leftovers at his mother's house were delicious, every bit as scrumptious as what Mrs. O'Hara had ever made even if his mother's cooking wouldn't ever be considered "gourmet." As they drank coffee and his mother watched him devour the last piece of apple pie, his third, it was like his world was normal again. He felt better.
He still hadn't felt like talking afterwards, he was tired, so they just watched a movie. They watched one of his mom's favorites, Singing in the Rain.
It was funny and it came from a far more innocent, and seemingly less-complicated, time. It was familiar and helped him relax as his mom gently held his hand and they laughed together. As the film went on, he leaned against her shoulder like he used to when he was a kid. It was an extremely long film, so Clark fell asleep even before the credits rolled.
He didn't wake up until the next morning when his mom was moving around in the kitchen making breakfast. She had covered him with a quilt and put a pillow under his head. He just listened to her moving around in the kitchen as he lay there. He breathed in the smells from kitchen, she was making blueberry pancakes with bacon.
After the delicious breakfast, Clark retreated to his old Fortress of Solitude as his mom cleaned up the dishes. She refused to let him help, so he had little choice.
She came up to the loft and sat next to him on the couch. She got right down to it, direct and not at all subtle. "Can you tell me what's wrong?"
Clark sighed.
He just talked quietly as he explained. His mom just listened, only asking questions to clarify points Clark had made.
He'd explained it all, only leaving out the phantom fingers (even though he still felt them in Smallville) and the incident in the City Hall bathroom. She hadn’t judged him or lectured, but at the end of his recitation she did ask only one question:
"Do you love him?"
"How can I? He's done so much, so many things have happened... He'll never change."
"He told you that he loves you and you said he sounded sincere. It seems like he's taken at least one pretty big step toward changing. "
"I haven't seen proof of him changing in any other way."
He was surprised when his mother glanced at him with a mild look of surprise. "Don't you and Lois ever talk anymore?"
He scowled at her. "Yes, of course we do. She's my partner..."
She arched an eyebrow and, skeptical, asked, "Really?"
Clark shrugged. "Well, we haven't talked a lot lately. I haven't really had a chance with everything that's been going on." He looked more critically at his mother. "Why do you ask?"
She sighed, "I think you need to see something."
~:::~
Clark couldn't believe what he was reading.
His mother had taken him back into the house and showed him the Saturday morning paper that lay on the butcher block island in the middle of the kitchen.
Friday had been a slow news day, but why was this story a front page story? The Saturday morning Daily Planet had a huge above the fold front page spread on Lex's surprising philanthropy during the recent crisis following the catastrophic tsunami. It was an article written by Lois, no less.
Lex had apparently spent millions on helping the victims. He had shipped food, supplies, and needed medicine to the affected areas. The surprising part about it was that he'd done it without any publicity or press releases. He hadn't announced a thing and hadn't told a soul.
Him.
Lex Luthor.
Lex.
And he'd done it on the sly, quietly, and without generating any publicity of any kind. Clark had been living with him for the past week since he'd gotten back and Lex hadn't even mentioned what he'd done. He hadn't brought up the tsunami at all, except when he'd told him about the benefit dinner the night before.
It was completely out of character for Lex. It had been especially out of character since, according to Lois' article, Lex had been the one to organize the benefit.
Clark was surprised she had kept him in the dark on the article, but then he thought about it he realized that it probably wasn't surprising. He hadn't been exactly running on all cylinders when it came to Lex lately, but that was probably the story she'd been trying to talk to him about yesterday when he'd been so distracted.
He sighed and looked down at his mother. Her face creased with worry, she looked up into his eyes. "I think he has changed, Clark... I don't know why or how, but maybe this is thanks to you."
"What do you mean?"
"After only a few weeks of you staying with him, he starts helping others when it doesn't benefit him directly at all. He even went out of his way, spending millions. He hired ships and planes when he didn't have enough at his disposal to get the job done. He never would have done that before. You know that better than I do. Is it a coincidence he did all this after you started living with him?"
"What's changed? I sleep in the same apartment with him and then he's changed? It doesn't make sense."
"I don't know what to tell you, sweetheart..."
Clark scowled. "He did say something weird last night. Right before he told me to come home, he said that he didn't know how I could stand feeling the anger, confusion and grief. He said that he couldn't stand it another minute." Clark suddenly realized what Lex had meant. "I thought he'd been talking about what he could see about what I was feeling, but maybe that wasn't it. Maybe he somehow could sense what I felt."
His mother looked thoughtful for a moment, then added with a slight nod, "Maybe the spell didn't just change you; maybe it changed him too."
Clark shook his head and scowled at the paper laid out in front of him. "I don't know how that could be. He wasn't the one under the witch's control. How did a spell she cast on me change him?"
His mother looked down at the picture of that Lexcorp ship's hold filled with food and supplies on the front page of the Planet. "I don't know why or how it happened, or even if the witch's spell was to blame, but the proof he's changed is in your paper, on the front page, and in an article written by your partner. Lois isn't exactly Lex's biggest fan. What other proof do you need that he's changed?"
Clark picked up the paper and looked at the picture of all the pallets stacked high with food, bottled water and medicine. He looked down at his mom. "Even if it's true, even with this, I'm not sure that I can trust him."
"Can you see him for what he seems to be becoming? Maybe forgive him for what he's done wrong? Do you think you can you learn to trust him?"
"I don't know..."
His mother looked up at him and asked quietly, "You didn't really answer me before, Clark. Do you love him?"
Uncertain, Clark shook his head. "I'm not sure."
"I think you need to figure that out, Clark."
He nodded, but didn't otherwise reply. She was right. He did need to figure that out, but he was so confused by everything he wasn't sure what he was feeling from one minute to the next... How could he figure it out?
She patted his hand affectionately and quietly added. "Whatever happens, you'll do the right thing."
"I'm not so sure I know what the right thing is."
"You'll know it, when you see it."
"How can you be so sure?"
"I'm sure because you always do."
Clark sighed, exasperated, as his mom smiled warmly in return. She affectionately kissed his cheek. As she moved away to dry the dishes, he wasn't certain she was right.
He wasn't sure if he would do the right thing because he didn't know how he felt. So how could he possibly know what the right thing was?
Clark sighed as he looked at the image of the Lexcorp ship's hold. He hoped he could figure it all out before Monday night and dinner with Lex.
~:::~
He spent the rest of the day working around the farm. He put in some new posts in the south pasture, and ran barbed wire to the new poles. He then repaired a broken chair. He lathed down a replacement leg then sanded the chair and replaced the leg. He finished by painting the chair. Even going normal human speed, Clark quickly ran out of things to keep him busy before dinner. His mother had made him his favorite meal, baked ham with sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, warm homemade bread and fresh apple pie with vanilla been ice cream. It was like a holiday.
After they'd eaten, they'd gone for a walk and had just talked about nothing. His mom had wanted to hear what else was going on in his life, what Chloe and Lois were up to. Whether he'd heard from Lana since she'd moved to Paris.
Later, after his mom had gone to bed, he hadn't been tired so he went back up to the loft and stared out into the night sky. As he brooded, the soft summer breeze softly blew through his hair.
The fingers were still there, but they'd lost their erotic feel and Clark wasn't sure why. The touches were light and caressing, comforting. The thought occurred to Clark that Lex was thinking about him, but his thoughts weren't lustful ones.
Maybe that explained why. He was still unsure of what to do, but he found his thoughts wander toward Metropolis and Lex.
His hearing stretched out as he searched for the sound of Lex's heart beat. He found it, relaxed and steady. He didn't try to listen to anything else Lex was doing, there was a brief clink of ice in a glass, but he sat down on the couch and just listened to the steady thrum, thrum of Lex's heart.
He didn't think about whether he should listen, or even why he was, but he felt better knowing that Lex was okay and he was comforted by the sound of Lex's heartbeat. Clark leaned back, closed his eyes and fell asleep as he listened to the constant beat.
~:::~
Lex took a sip of his drink as his thoughts drifted to Clark. He could feel the confusion and doubt Clark was experiencing. Lex felt concern wash over him for Clark. He wanted to hug Clark, make him feel better, try to comfort him, but he had to depend on Mrs. Kent to do that for her son.
He took another sip and he felt Clark calming, relaxing. He could tell when Clark fell asleep.
Lex smiled as he stepped out onto the patio. He walked to the wall and looked toward Smallville. The farm was too far away to see from there, but it was a warm night so he imagined that Clark slept up in the loft. He smiled as he imagined that a soft breeze coming in through the open hay loft door gently blew his hair away from his face as he slept peacefully.
~:::~
Clark slept late the next morning. He woke and was surprised by how late it was. He pushed the blanket off and sat up.
He looked at it the warm Indian blanket. He hadn't pulled the blanket over himself, so his mother had must have tucked him in the night before since his shoes sat neatly by the side of the couch.
He pulled his shoes on and went down to the house. He poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down to read the morning paper.
"Would you like something to eat? It's closer to lunch than breakfast, but I could make you some eggs."
He looked up at his mother walking toward him. "Yeah, that sounds great..."
She kissed his cheek and looked into his eyes. "You slept a long time. I can't remember the last time you woke up this late."
"I haven't been sleeping well, I guess."
She smiled. "No, it doesn't seem like it." She started to put together a big breakfast, more than just eggs, as Clark read Lois' follow up article from the one the day before. Lex had refused to make any comments or to disclose what he was going to announce the next day and the tone of her new article was a bit cranky because of that. Clark smiled.
Lois always got cranky when her sources couldn't deliver anything substantive, and she had some terrific sources inside Lexcorp. However, it looked like Lois would have to learn what was going on the same time everyone else did: at the scheduled press conference the next day.
His mom gave him a huge mound of food and he quickly devoured it. He was hungrier than he'd thought.
She sat down and drank a cup of coffee as she watched him eat. She smiled at him warmly whenever he looked her way.
After he ate, his mom cleared his plate and refilled his coffee for him before sitting back down. She looked at him levelly.
"A thought had occurred to me..."
His eyebrows raised in response as he halted raising his cup to his lips. "What?"
"If it weren't for the money, the money you insisted on paying back even though Lex didn't even ask you to, combined with Lex's threat to the witch's life and him manipulating you to stay with him. Without all that, would it be easier to figure out what to do?"
Clark started to speak, opened his mouth, but thought better of it and closed it again. He frowned at his mom, confused.
"Think about it, sweetheart. If Lex did the same things, helping all those people without publicizing it, without the witch or the money or your agreement to stay with him being factors, would you consider seeing him romantically? Would the signs that he'd changed combined with his sincere confession that he loved you be enough for you to give him a chance?"
He looked down at his coffee and replied quietly, "I don't know."
She kissed his cheek. "You'll figure it out, sweetheart, I know you will."
~:::~
Clark worked the rest of the day doing chores around the farm. He did it all without using any speed, mostly because he didn't think he had enough to do if he sped things up and he didn't want to have more free time to think about things. He had enough free time as is, without making more.
He ended the night the way he'd ended the one before, alone listening to Lex's heart beat. However, this time it didn't bring him the comfort he needed. He had too many thoughts tumbling around in his head that confused him and he was still unsure of what to do.
Not even the comforting thoughts, which had become caressing, affectionate touches from Lex, helped.
~:::~
Clark woke early the next morning and did some more chores before he went in to shower. As he dried his hair with a towel, he scowled at the flannel shirts in the closet. The suit he'd worn on the flight down had been tattered beyond repair. He'd have to go back to Lex's apartment to change.
He didn't want to do that. He wanted to put off seeing Lex until he finally had to at dinner. A thought occurred to him, he still had a spare suit hidden in the stairwell that led to The Daily Planet's roof. It would be wrinkled and dusty after being stuffed inside an access panel, but it would do.
He dressed in the uniform he'd pulled from the secret closet and then covered that with a soft cotton flannel plaid shirt and jeans. They smelled of lavender. He smiled with the warmth of the feeling the familiar smell gave him.
His mother had breakfast ready for him as he came down the steps. Instead of sitting down to eat he just wrapped her up in his arms and hugged her.
"I love you, mom."
She kissed his cheek and replied softly, "I love you too, Clark."
He held her tighter and wished he never had to let go.
~:::~
Continued HERE...
Update 13 will be posted as soon as possible...
Title: Superman for Sale
Author: D.M. Wyatt
Pairing: Clark/Lex
Rating: Mostly R, some chapters are NC-17
Warnings: Physical and Emotional TC, graphic descriptions of adult sexual content, BD/SM, future fic, post rift
Spoilers: None
Word Count this chapter: 7.060 - both parts (Story, thus far: 59,789)
Short summary of this chapter: Clark has a nice visit with his mom and tries to figure out what to do about Lex. (cover thanks to danceswithgary)
One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Seven | Eight | Nine | Ten | Eleven A | Eleven B |
Part 12 of possibly 15...
~:::~
Lex heard the sonic boom of Clark leaving Metropolis for Smallville before he'd even gotten on the elevator. He tried to not react to the quizzical look on Mercy's face and stepped inside to stand next to her. He looked quietly at the door as he waited for Mercy to push the button.
She didn't push it right away.
He looked at her and arched an eyebrow.
She blushed slightly, abashed, and quietly pushed the button and avoided looking at Lex as the elevator descended. Lex was glad of the quiet and that Mercy's attention had shifted to her perfectly manicured nails, her only nervous habit, but he was relieved too.
The pain he'd felt, an echo of what Clark had been feeling, was now gone. He resisted the urge to sigh. Lex limited himself to quietly clearing his throat and straightening his bow tie.
Before the elevator reached the ground floor, Lex knew that Clark was already home and wrapped in his mother's arms. The sense of Clark he felt through their connection, the comfort, warmth and love the other man was feeling, was just that strong. He knew Clark felt safe and loved.
Lex's heart clenched at the thought. Clark felt loved and safe at home in Smallville wrapped in his mother's arms, but didn't feel the same with Lex. While he was in the apartment, whenever he was awake anyway, he knew that Clark felt on edge and defensive. He never let his guard down.
However, he'd had that one night. After Clark had come home after the horror that must have been the devastation following the tsunami, after he'd quieted following his nightmares when Lex had comforted him before he had woken up, Clark had relaxed and had felt loved.
Lex knew that as sure as he knew the sky was blue or the earth round or that Clark was the most handsome man on this, or any other, planet. As Clark had cuddled with him Lex knew he had felt safe and loved and comforted. Lex knew that being with him was something Clark wanted, deep down.
Yes, Lex knew that he hadn't really been awake. If he had been, he would have pulled away like he had later that same day. However, it was the unconscious feelings that Lex was sure Clark had felt which convinced him that he could make Clark happy. If only Clark would just let himself give into his feelings, Lex knew that he could make Clark happy even while awake. However, Superman was being too stubborn and self-righteous to even see that as a possibility.
Lex finally gave into the sigh he'd fought to release as Mercy tried to act like she hadn't noticed. He scowled at her as she held open the door that exited out to the street for him.
They walked out to the limo where Hope waited in the idling car.
Lex was convinced he'd made the right decision, despite the pain it'd caused him to see Clark go. He had to let him go home to see his mother. Lex knew Clark depended on his mother for emotional support more than a man his age probably should, but he had no other significant other so perhaps it made sense. She would talk with Clark and help him get his thoughts worked out. Martha would help Clark figure out what it was he really wants.
After that, who knows? He might decide he doesn't want Lex and there'd be more uncomfortable silences, but maybe Clark might decide to give him a chance. Maybe Clark will see that he's really changed. However, with (by then) only a little more than a week left in the thirty days to get Clark to see reason, Lex was really going to have his work cut out for him.
He was hopeful, as Mercy held open the limo door for him, that Clark would be happier when he came back.
He sighed again as Mercy slid into the front seat next to Hope and the car pulled away.
Despite the uncomfortable silences that have dominated his interaction with Superman the last week or so, Lex was going to really miss Clark.
~:::~
Clark spent a long time, too long probably, just holding his mom in his arms.
She didn't ask why he was there, she hadn't needed to. She knew something was wrong and that it was more than what had happened in the wake of the tsunami.
He'd let her lead him to the couch and sat next to her, but he wasn't ready to talk just yet. So he just quietly sat with her and listened as she talked about what she had done that day and what she'd heard about his high school friends he'd lost touch with. She also talked about some of things coming up for her in the Senate, the important votes on laws that would help people she represented. She didn't pry or try to get him to talk, she just talked and he only asked an occasional question.
She hadn't been expecting him, and it was late by the time he'd gotten hungry, so she just warmed up some leftovers for him.
As she worked on that, Clark went up to his room to change. He pulled off his glasses since he wouldn't use them at home. He folded them and put the spectacles down on top of the nightstand. He looked down at his suit, tattered beyond repair by the turbulence of his supersonic flight. It was a complete loss. He really should have changed before flying home so fast. He sighed as he took it off and stripped from his other suit too. Clark pulled on a pair of boxers and opened the drawer to pull out one of the pairs of the spare jeans he always left there.
Even though his mom hadn't expected him, his jeans were all freshly laundered and smelled of lavender. Clark didn't know how she did that, but he really appreciated it. He associated the floral smell of the fabric softener with his mother and it made him feel more at home than just being there did.
He pulled on a t-shirt and took out a flannel shirt from the closet. He finished dressing and turned to hang the Superman suit in the secret compartment he'd built into the back of his closet. Opening that hidden door made him think of Lex's bedroom closet back in Metropolis. He hadn't seen the state of the closet since Lex had been so drunk that one morning.
Without really thinking about it, he idly figured that Lex had probably finished the renovations on the ruined closet by now. He sighed at the thought that he would have to step into Lex's room to see the closet because of all the lead in the walls, but he was curious how it had turned out. He smiled when he thought of how well his suits would fit into that secret closet.
He scowled when he realized he was mentally moving back into Lex's bedroom.
He sighed and quietly went back downstairs to eat.
~:::~
Even leftovers at his mother's house were delicious, every bit as scrumptious as what Mrs. O'Hara had ever made even if his mother's cooking wouldn't ever be considered "gourmet." As they drank coffee and his mother watched him devour the last piece of apple pie, his third, it was like his world was normal again. He felt better.
He still hadn't felt like talking afterwards, he was tired, so they just watched a movie. They watched one of his mom's favorites, Singing in the Rain.
It was funny and it came from a far more innocent, and seemingly less-complicated, time. It was familiar and helped him relax as his mom gently held his hand and they laughed together. As the film went on, he leaned against her shoulder like he used to when he was a kid. It was an extremely long film, so Clark fell asleep even before the credits rolled.
He didn't wake up until the next morning when his mom was moving around in the kitchen making breakfast. She had covered him with a quilt and put a pillow under his head. He just listened to her moving around in the kitchen as he lay there. He breathed in the smells from kitchen, she was making blueberry pancakes with bacon.
After the delicious breakfast, Clark retreated to his old Fortress of Solitude as his mom cleaned up the dishes. She refused to let him help, so he had little choice.
She came up to the loft and sat next to him on the couch. She got right down to it, direct and not at all subtle. "Can you tell me what's wrong?"
Clark sighed.
He just talked quietly as he explained. His mom just listened, only asking questions to clarify points Clark had made.
He'd explained it all, only leaving out the phantom fingers (even though he still felt them in Smallville) and the incident in the City Hall bathroom. She hadn’t judged him or lectured, but at the end of his recitation she did ask only one question:
"Do you love him?"
"How can I? He's done so much, so many things have happened... He'll never change."
"He told you that he loves you and you said he sounded sincere. It seems like he's taken at least one pretty big step toward changing. "
"I haven't seen proof of him changing in any other way."
He was surprised when his mother glanced at him with a mild look of surprise. "Don't you and Lois ever talk anymore?"
He scowled at her. "Yes, of course we do. She's my partner..."
She arched an eyebrow and, skeptical, asked, "Really?"
Clark shrugged. "Well, we haven't talked a lot lately. I haven't really had a chance with everything that's been going on." He looked more critically at his mother. "Why do you ask?"
She sighed, "I think you need to see something."
~:::~
Clark couldn't believe what he was reading.
His mother had taken him back into the house and showed him the Saturday morning paper that lay on the butcher block island in the middle of the kitchen.
Friday had been a slow news day, but why was this story a front page story? The Saturday morning Daily Planet had a huge above the fold front page spread on Lex's surprising philanthropy during the recent crisis following the catastrophic tsunami. It was an article written by Lois, no less.
Lex had apparently spent millions on helping the victims. He had shipped food, supplies, and needed medicine to the affected areas. The surprising part about it was that he'd done it without any publicity or press releases. He hadn't announced a thing and hadn't told a soul.
Him.
Lex Luthor.
Lex.
And he'd done it on the sly, quietly, and without generating any publicity of any kind. Clark had been living with him for the past week since he'd gotten back and Lex hadn't even mentioned what he'd done. He hadn't brought up the tsunami at all, except when he'd told him about the benefit dinner the night before.
It was completely out of character for Lex. It had been especially out of character since, according to Lois' article, Lex had been the one to organize the benefit.
Clark was surprised she had kept him in the dark on the article, but then he thought about it he realized that it probably wasn't surprising. He hadn't been exactly running on all cylinders when it came to Lex lately, but that was probably the story she'd been trying to talk to him about yesterday when he'd been so distracted.
He sighed and looked down at his mother. Her face creased with worry, she looked up into his eyes. "I think he has changed, Clark... I don't know why or how, but maybe this is thanks to you."
"What do you mean?"
"After only a few weeks of you staying with him, he starts helping others when it doesn't benefit him directly at all. He even went out of his way, spending millions. He hired ships and planes when he didn't have enough at his disposal to get the job done. He never would have done that before. You know that better than I do. Is it a coincidence he did all this after you started living with him?"
"What's changed? I sleep in the same apartment with him and then he's changed? It doesn't make sense."
"I don't know what to tell you, sweetheart..."
Clark scowled. "He did say something weird last night. Right before he told me to come home, he said that he didn't know how I could stand feeling the anger, confusion and grief. He said that he couldn't stand it another minute." Clark suddenly realized what Lex had meant. "I thought he'd been talking about what he could see about what I was feeling, but maybe that wasn't it. Maybe he somehow could sense what I felt."
His mother looked thoughtful for a moment, then added with a slight nod, "Maybe the spell didn't just change you; maybe it changed him too."
Clark shook his head and scowled at the paper laid out in front of him. "I don't know how that could be. He wasn't the one under the witch's control. How did a spell she cast on me change him?"
His mother looked down at the picture of that Lexcorp ship's hold filled with food and supplies on the front page of the Planet. "I don't know why or how it happened, or even if the witch's spell was to blame, but the proof he's changed is in your paper, on the front page, and in an article written by your partner. Lois isn't exactly Lex's biggest fan. What other proof do you need that he's changed?"
Clark picked up the paper and looked at the picture of all the pallets stacked high with food, bottled water and medicine. He looked down at his mom. "Even if it's true, even with this, I'm not sure that I can trust him."
"Can you see him for what he seems to be becoming? Maybe forgive him for what he's done wrong? Do you think you can you learn to trust him?"
"I don't know..."
His mother looked up at him and asked quietly, "You didn't really answer me before, Clark. Do you love him?"
Uncertain, Clark shook his head. "I'm not sure."
"I think you need to figure that out, Clark."
He nodded, but didn't otherwise reply. She was right. He did need to figure that out, but he was so confused by everything he wasn't sure what he was feeling from one minute to the next... How could he figure it out?
She patted his hand affectionately and quietly added. "Whatever happens, you'll do the right thing."
"I'm not so sure I know what the right thing is."
"You'll know it, when you see it."
"How can you be so sure?"
"I'm sure because you always do."
Clark sighed, exasperated, as his mom smiled warmly in return. She affectionately kissed his cheek. As she moved away to dry the dishes, he wasn't certain she was right.
He wasn't sure if he would do the right thing because he didn't know how he felt. So how could he possibly know what the right thing was?
Clark sighed as he looked at the image of the Lexcorp ship's hold. He hoped he could figure it all out before Monday night and dinner with Lex.
~:::~
He spent the rest of the day working around the farm. He put in some new posts in the south pasture, and ran barbed wire to the new poles. He then repaired a broken chair. He lathed down a replacement leg then sanded the chair and replaced the leg. He finished by painting the chair. Even going normal human speed, Clark quickly ran out of things to keep him busy before dinner. His mother had made him his favorite meal, baked ham with sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, warm homemade bread and fresh apple pie with vanilla been ice cream. It was like a holiday.
After they'd eaten, they'd gone for a walk and had just talked about nothing. His mom had wanted to hear what else was going on in his life, what Chloe and Lois were up to. Whether he'd heard from Lana since she'd moved to Paris.
Later, after his mom had gone to bed, he hadn't been tired so he went back up to the loft and stared out into the night sky. As he brooded, the soft summer breeze softly blew through his hair.
The fingers were still there, but they'd lost their erotic feel and Clark wasn't sure why. The touches were light and caressing, comforting. The thought occurred to Clark that Lex was thinking about him, but his thoughts weren't lustful ones.
Maybe that explained why. He was still unsure of what to do, but he found his thoughts wander toward Metropolis and Lex.
His hearing stretched out as he searched for the sound of Lex's heart beat. He found it, relaxed and steady. He didn't try to listen to anything else Lex was doing, there was a brief clink of ice in a glass, but he sat down on the couch and just listened to the steady thrum, thrum of Lex's heart.
He didn't think about whether he should listen, or even why he was, but he felt better knowing that Lex was okay and he was comforted by the sound of Lex's heartbeat. Clark leaned back, closed his eyes and fell asleep as he listened to the constant beat.
~:::~
Lex took a sip of his drink as his thoughts drifted to Clark. He could feel the confusion and doubt Clark was experiencing. Lex felt concern wash over him for Clark. He wanted to hug Clark, make him feel better, try to comfort him, but he had to depend on Mrs. Kent to do that for her son.
He took another sip and he felt Clark calming, relaxing. He could tell when Clark fell asleep.
Lex smiled as he stepped out onto the patio. He walked to the wall and looked toward Smallville. The farm was too far away to see from there, but it was a warm night so he imagined that Clark slept up in the loft. He smiled as he imagined that a soft breeze coming in through the open hay loft door gently blew his hair away from his face as he slept peacefully.
~:::~
Clark slept late the next morning. He woke and was surprised by how late it was. He pushed the blanket off and sat up.
He looked at it the warm Indian blanket. He hadn't pulled the blanket over himself, so his mother had must have tucked him in the night before since his shoes sat neatly by the side of the couch.
He pulled his shoes on and went down to the house. He poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down to read the morning paper.
"Would you like something to eat? It's closer to lunch than breakfast, but I could make you some eggs."
He looked up at his mother walking toward him. "Yeah, that sounds great..."
She kissed his cheek and looked into his eyes. "You slept a long time. I can't remember the last time you woke up this late."
"I haven't been sleeping well, I guess."
She smiled. "No, it doesn't seem like it." She started to put together a big breakfast, more than just eggs, as Clark read Lois' follow up article from the one the day before. Lex had refused to make any comments or to disclose what he was going to announce the next day and the tone of her new article was a bit cranky because of that. Clark smiled.
Lois always got cranky when her sources couldn't deliver anything substantive, and she had some terrific sources inside Lexcorp. However, it looked like Lois would have to learn what was going on the same time everyone else did: at the scheduled press conference the next day.
His mom gave him a huge mound of food and he quickly devoured it. He was hungrier than he'd thought.
She sat down and drank a cup of coffee as she watched him eat. She smiled at him warmly whenever he looked her way.
After he ate, his mom cleared his plate and refilled his coffee for him before sitting back down. She looked at him levelly.
"A thought had occurred to me..."
His eyebrows raised in response as he halted raising his cup to his lips. "What?"
"If it weren't for the money, the money you insisted on paying back even though Lex didn't even ask you to, combined with Lex's threat to the witch's life and him manipulating you to stay with him. Without all that, would it be easier to figure out what to do?"
Clark started to speak, opened his mouth, but thought better of it and closed it again. He frowned at his mom, confused.
"Think about it, sweetheart. If Lex did the same things, helping all those people without publicizing it, without the witch or the money or your agreement to stay with him being factors, would you consider seeing him romantically? Would the signs that he'd changed combined with his sincere confession that he loved you be enough for you to give him a chance?"
He looked down at his coffee and replied quietly, "I don't know."
She kissed his cheek. "You'll figure it out, sweetheart, I know you will."
~:::~
Clark worked the rest of the day doing chores around the farm. He did it all without using any speed, mostly because he didn't think he had enough to do if he sped things up and he didn't want to have more free time to think about things. He had enough free time as is, without making more.
He ended the night the way he'd ended the one before, alone listening to Lex's heart beat. However, this time it didn't bring him the comfort he needed. He had too many thoughts tumbling around in his head that confused him and he was still unsure of what to do.
Not even the comforting thoughts, which had become caressing, affectionate touches from Lex, helped.
~:::~
Clark woke early the next morning and did some more chores before he went in to shower. As he dried his hair with a towel, he scowled at the flannel shirts in the closet. The suit he'd worn on the flight down had been tattered beyond repair. He'd have to go back to Lex's apartment to change.
He didn't want to do that. He wanted to put off seeing Lex until he finally had to at dinner. A thought occurred to him, he still had a spare suit hidden in the stairwell that led to The Daily Planet's roof. It would be wrinkled and dusty after being stuffed inside an access panel, but it would do.
He dressed in the uniform he'd pulled from the secret closet and then covered that with a soft cotton flannel plaid shirt and jeans. They smelled of lavender. He smiled with the warmth of the feeling the familiar smell gave him.
His mother had breakfast ready for him as he came down the steps. Instead of sitting down to eat he just wrapped her up in his arms and hugged her.
"I love you, mom."
She kissed his cheek and replied softly, "I love you too, Clark."
He held her tighter and wished he never had to let go.
~:::~
Continued HERE...