(Untitled)

[downsidedarling]

It's Sunday, which means Anna has a day off today.

This is good, because after helping herself to some free flowers last night, she's... shall we say... disinclined to get up.

Incapable of it, one might say.

She's also running quite the fever, and it's rather lucky all things considered that people in comas are not, on the whole, given to

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[downsidedarling]

Lex puts a hand to his heart in mock-dismay, inclining his head. "You wound me, Clark."

Idly, he removes a pocket-knife from his jacket and starts flicking it open and shut.

"Have you ever heard of the Gordian knot?"

[hero_farmboy]

Clark sighs. "Still trying to impart wisdom through history on me, Lex? I'm not fifteen anymore."

[downsidedarling]

"Humour me."

He shuts the knife, weighs it in his hand for a moment, and continues.

"According to legend, the city of Gordium kept an ox-cart in their palace tied up with an intricate knot."

Flick. Now, as he speaks, he studies the point of the tiny blade.

"It was prophesied that the man who untied the knot would go on to rule over all of Asia."

Turning the pocket-knife over and closing it again, Lex smiles briefly.

"Naturally this interested Alexander the Great, so he gave it a try. When he couldn't find an end to the knot he took up his sword and - " Smirking, he flicks the knife open once more. " - sliced it in half instead."

Lex looks up from the pocket-knife to Clark almost triumphantly.

"An elegant solution to the problem, don't you think? Instead of wasting resources on a gentler method, he simply took the quickest route that presented itself. Admirable, really."

[hero_farmboy]

Clark snorts. "Yeah, and maybe if he'd played by the rules and worked to untie it instead of taking the easy way out, he might've actually fulfilled that prophecy. What's your point, Lex?"

[downsidedarling]

"Oh, he did."

Lex snaps the knife shut and tosses it casually to Clark on his way out the door.

"Alexander the Great conquered every inch of land that prophecy said he would. And today, people still use 'cutting the Gordian knot' to mean finding an easy solution to a difficult problem."

A pause in the doorway, and he casts a look back at Clark.

"Well, some people."

[hero_farmboy]

The knife, naturally, is caught easily enough. Clark will ignore the very, very minor temptation to throw it right back. At Lex's head.

"Get out, Lex."

Beat.

"But since there apparently is no moratorium issued on concern for one's friends, you'll be sure to tell Lana I hope she's doing all right, won't you?"

[downsidedarling]

"Oh, of course," he says earnestly, just before the door shuts behind him.

Anna, for her part, remains as quiet and still as she has been throughout this conversation.

[hero_farmboy]

Well, hasn't that visit just done wonders for Clark's mood. He watches the door for a minute and then, sighing, moves to sit back down near Anna's bed.

[downsidedarling]

Time passes.

At 4:23 PM, exactly twenty-four hours of Anna's personal time after she picked up a certain bouquet of flowers in the Nexus, so does she.

"...Why the fuck am I in a hospital?" she asks when the flame clears.

[hero_farmboy]

Clark looks up from his seat, wide eyed, but not entirely surprised.

"Hey. ...what happened?"

[downsidedarling]

"I was poisoned," she says shortly. "Going to try to figure out what did it. I may end up blind, paralyzed, or hallucinating, just to warn you. Don't let anyone visit my apartment, because they might die."

And with that brief but unpleasant message, she flickers, burns, and is gone - exiting the room through the window.

[hero_farmboy]

...

Clark stares at the window for a few minutes before heaving yet another sigh and heading out to try and explain this to the nursing staff.

[downsidedarling]

The advantage of fire-moving back to her apartment is that when she arrives she can see all of it at once.

The disadvantage is that she can't pay attention to all of it at once. She notices the bouquet of flowers she got at the Nexus yesterday - notices, more particularly, the fact that each flower has something not quite floral about it - but fails to similarly respect the lone purple bloom that sits atop a stack of books in the corner of her living room.

So when she disposes of the larger mass of flowers by taking it to her sink and setting it on fire, she misses one. And when she moves to retrieve a book from one of those stacks, she misses it again.

It, however, does not miss her.

[hero_farmboy]

Somehow, Clark manages to smooth things over with the hospital administration. It's possibly one of the very few times in his life he's deliberately tried to be charming. He's just amazed it worked.

That done, he heads immediately to Anna's apartment. After all, he's not 'anyone.'

[downsidedarling]

Anna is on the couch, with a book.

The purple flower lies forgotten, unobtrusive, overshadowed by the stacks of books on either side.

When Clark enters, she waves, gives a tired smile, and yawns.

"I'm going to call the place tentatively clean. Found a bunch of flowers with some bizarre shit on them. Remind me not to take free things from the Nexus. Fucking Nexus."

[hero_farmboy]

He frowns, closing the door behind him and pocketing the key.

"That's usually rule number one: Don't take anything from anyone you don't really know."