Nexus: For Eights cont'd

[hero_farmboy]

Clark is sleeping. Not entirely peacefully, stressful Lex encounters will do that, but he is sleeping. The rest of the farm is quiet as well, with only the occasional moo audible in the late night air

Comments

[downsidedarling]

Lex should get used to bafflement.

The next thing the surveillance minion ought to notice is Anna descending nimbly from the roof, having awakened at midnight with a serious case of restlessness.

She knows the place is likely being watched, so she's careful not to injure herself getting down from the roof; on the other hand, she knows the place is likely being watched, so she glides down the ladder four rungs at a time, alighting at the bottom with regal grace.

A walk seems like just the thing to clear her head.

[downsidedarling]

Calmly: "Let me the fuck go, Clark, I have an ass to kick."

[hero_farmboy]

"We're leaving. You can either walk, or I'll carry you." Clark is not calm. He's pissed off. There may be some Kal to him right about now.

Lex is all but forgotten. Clark knows he won't let it go, but it'll have to be dealt with later. He doesn't want to be around when the ambulance arrives, which it will be doing any second.

"Let's go. Now."

[downsidedarling]

There's an edge to Anna's tone as she responds. "Clark Kent, you're going to take your fucking hands off me right the fuck now, or we're going to have a problem."

[hero_farmboy]

"Then we have a problem," Clark replies, shortly, still glaring and not letting her go. "Which we can talk about at the house. Now move."

Lex, for his part, has managed to back up into a sitting position leaning against his car and is watching this little exchange between Clark and Eights with utter fascination.

[downsidedarling]

Eights gives Clark a look. It's a look he might be familiar with; he's held it himself in his time, once or twice. It's the look that says I am angry beyond belief and really don't want to hurt you, so please don't make me.

After a moment, however, she acquiesces grudgingly, and begins walking homewards.

The glare she directs Lex's way as she walks could not say this isn't over any more clearly if she accompanied it with a large, flashing neon sign.

[hero_farmboy]

Clark doesn't care how she looks at him, or how angry she is, so long as she's headed to the house. They can have it out once they get there.

He shoots Lex a look over his shoulder.

"Get fixed up, Lex, and then go home. Sleep it off. Oh, and call off your guards. They're on my land and I'll have them hauled in for trespassing if I have to."

And then he turns and follows Eights back home.

[downsidedarling]

The instant Clark takes his hand off her arm, Eights freezes up for a moment and almost turns back. But then she sighs, and continues walking.

The first action she takes upon reaching Clark's house is to punch a wall. Hard. The wall takes no damage; her hand, by contrast, makes the kind of unpleasantly broken crunch one might associate with several broken knuckles.

This doesn't appear to improve her mood any.

[hero_farmboy]

Clark slams the door behind him, seemingly unconcerned at any damage she's just done to herself.

"What the hell were you doing?"

[downsidedarling]

"Taking a fucking walk! Is that a crime or something?"

She runs her hands through her hair; the left, recently damaged, leaves behind smears of blood up her face and across the top of her head.

"I wasn't exactly expecting Lex fucking Luthor to fatally injure me with his fucking car in the process, okay?"

[hero_farmboy]

"That's why you're supposed to stay here." Clark is all but yelling back at her, though he does wince a little when he sees the blood.

"You'll need splints on those, or something."

[downsidedarling]

"At this point," she says with a glare to her hand, "I think we can dispense with the pretense of normality." And with a tiny flicker of flame, her hand is renewed.

A heavy sigh issues from Eights' lips, and she wraps her arms around her waist as though catching a sudden chill, then begins to pace.

[hero_farmboy]

He watches her fix herself and sighs.

"Well, if I'm lucky I'll be able to put enough doubt into Lex's mind as to what he actually saw - I've been doing it for years - so don't give up on it quite yet. The last thing I need is him thinking he's right about you."

[downsidedarling]

"Don't kid yourself, honey, he saw me torch with his own two eyes. I tried to hold it off, but-- I'm really not at my best."

This couldn't be more true. Eights is jittery and incapable of standing still; she paces, nibbles her fingernails, and swings her arms, her movements sharp and stattaco, her usual grace subdued if not entirely absent.

[hero_farmboy]

Clark just stands off to the side, arms folded across his chest, and watches her.

"He was drunk. I don't expect he'll just let it go immediately, but once you're gone, he'll lose interest eventually if he thinks there's a possibility he was hallucinating."

[downsidedarling]

"Does he often hallucinate corpses coming back to life and beating the shit out of him?" she asks sharply. "If so, I gotta say you really know how to pick 'em."

She's raking her fingernails down her arms, now, in a vague attempt to calm hreself down. It doesn't work, and she's beginning to bleed on Clark's nice clean floor.