FIC: The Voyeur
Title: The Voyeur
Pair: Clex
Rating: G
Summary: AU. It’s a rainy day in Metropolis and someone is watching Lex on his way home. Lex and Clark enjoy being out of the cold.
Word Count: 2067
AN: mpreg. Written for jlvsclrk for help_haiti.
Thanks to lexalicious70 for the positive feedback, and herohunter for the beta.
The mists of midmorning had become an outright downpour by one pm, causing the skies of Metropolis to darken so thoroughly that its famous cityscape resembled Gotham’s more than its own. By five, it was practically night. Regardless, the busy Metropolites continued on about their business- shopping, working, meeting one another in busy cafes and wine bars.
A lean man wearing a Fedora came out of the subway carrying a sturdy sack of groceries. He paused for a brief moment to look up at the dark, drizzly sky, and he touched his abdomen while his fellow subway riders split around him like salmon rushing downstream.
He knew he was being watched.
There was nothing odd about that. Lex Luthor was roughly as observant as Sherlock Holmes even on a bad day. Chances were, though, that his conclusion in this moment was more the result of intuition than his keen intellect. Few people on the planet could match that.
Lex tipped his hat forward and resumed his path, walking hurriedly along the wet sidewalk. His long black coat flapped around his legs as he went. The Fedora kept the water off of his head, but he had no umbrella- a bit short-sighted since it had been gloomy out all day long.
After rounding the corner, Lex slowed, shifting his bag in his arms and breathing a bit heavily. His eyes rolled, probably at himself, and then he made an obvious effort to keep going. His apartment wasn’t very far now.
Finally reaching a tall, well-kept building, he grumbled when he found the door locked, and then dug in his pocket for his keys.
“Dammit,” he muttered as the keys dropped onto the building’s welcome mat. Groceries balanced on his hip, Lex widened his stance and bent over. His fingers brushed against the keyring as he leaned into the door, and before he could grab them, the bag of groceries tipped over.
In a split second, a blur of primary color flashed in front of Lex, catching the items falling out of the bag and then repacking it, before Lex could look even look up. When he did, a mountain of a man in dark blue and black spandex, with a dark red cape and an S on his chest stood beside him, holding the bag of groceries and smiling fondly.
“The bad guys too depressed by the weather to do anything? I figured it must be a slow day, if you’re watching me run errands.” Lex straightened up slowly and smoothed a hand down the front of his shirt as he looked up at Superman holding his groceries, the bag looking absurdly small against Superman’s enormous chest.
“It’s very slick out there, citizen,” Superman replied.
“Hm.” Lex turned and unlocked his door. He motioned for Superman to follow him and gave his doorman George a smile and a wave when he spotted the man coming back downstairs. Likely Mrs. Deloria had needed some help up the stairs. He turned his head to find that Superman had disappeared.
“Wet enough for you, Lex?”
“I think I’m drenched,” Lex grumbled, shaking his Fedora before he stepped away from the mat at the front door.
“How’s sabbatical going? You’ve just started that, right?” George approached Lex with a smile.
“Not bad. I’ve gotten some work started on my next book. It’s good to keep to a schedule when you have large stretches of time on your hands. I’ve known folks who went on sabbatical and were still trying to finish their research when they were back teaching classes,” Lex told him. He peered up the stairs, assuming that Superman’s disappearance meant he was waiting at the apartment.
“That’s good to hear. Better go get out of those wet clothes before you catch your death, hm?”
Lex shrugged his head to the side in agreement and headed for the stairs. “Have a good day, George. Tell your wife I said hello.”
George made a little salute, and Lex headed up the stairs, hoping the elevator managed to get fixed by next month.
When he reached his door, Lex could see a light under the door already. He opened it up. “You’re going to have to stop appearing at my apartment. People will talk.”
“I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t want your eggs splattered on the stoop, or your apples splattered in mud,” Clark replied. He’d changed while Lex was downstairs, a gray t-shirt and lightly colored blue jeans. He also had apparently put away Lex’s groceries.
“Not exactly, no.” Lex pulled off his wet coat and hung it and his Fedora by the door. With the jacket off, and his soaked clothes clinging around his newly rounded belly, it became obvious. He’d only recently begun to show, but Clark had noticed that Lex had found numerous ways to hide it when he was out.
“You should have brought an umbrella.” Clark walked up to Lex and started to unbutton his shirt.
“I suppose I should have. It must have taken an inordinate amount of willpower not to bring me one. Or blow the clouds out of the sky.” Lex leaned his head forward.
Clark’s hands moved over Lex’s cold skin, warm and firm. He dropped the shirt on the floor and cupped both hands over Lex’s little belly and kissed Lex’s lips gently. Clark knew that Lex was like a cat. Like the little black cat that was now meowing at them plaintively from the kitchen. He needed his space, but he also needed affection. Clark had to be attentive to both to keep a happy Lex.
Of course, Lex would have protested being compared to a fluffy little kitty.
“We need to get you into something warm.” Clark murmured before nibbling along Lex’s cold, clammy neck. The cat began to rub around Clark’s legs. Clark was less likely to feed him, but Lex’s pants were wet. “Not now, Archie.”
“Archimedes,” Lex corrected. He pulled away from Clark’s hands and began to unbuckle his pants.
“He’s too little a cat for such a big name.” Clark had a hard time keeping his hands to himself as Lex pulled his pants down. When Lex collected his wet shirt and headed for the bedroom, Clark followed.
“Are you going to give her a big Greek name?” he asked, watching Lex drop his clothes in the hamper and stand naked in front of his closet.
“I might. Unless you have a suggestion that doesn’t sound like Jor Zor Por Tor Or.”
“Now you’re just being hurtful,” Clark joked. He smiled as Lex chose a pair of cashmere track pants that he had gotten last Christmas. Clark tried to keep lies out of their relationship, but Lex still had no idea how much Clark had actually paid for those. “I can come up with a good name.”
He walked around behind Lex and put his arms around his waist.
“You’ve been watching me all day?” Lex asked. He looked down as Clark hand slipped under the waistband of his pants to cup a hand over his abdomen. “Watching us, I guess?”
“I listen for you, always. And I watch sometimes.” Clark paused and kissed the back of Lex’s neck. “I’m trying not to smother you.”
They both knew the argument. The one that had raged since before Lex had discovered that he’d become pregnant. The one that kept Clark from asking to move in, even though he was staying over almost every night now. Lex had a strong sense of independence and self-control that he had a difficult time giving up, which had been true since they had met as teenagers. Clark’s protectiveness (or overprotectiveness), Lex’s need for control-- balancing these issues had been the longstanding struggle in their relationship. Not that Lex was inflexible and didn’t try, but that particular tug-of-war was not something Clark was willing to pursue at this particular moment. He had faith in them, had faith that they would remain together come what may, so the specifics of their arrangement was less important at the moment than Lex’s ability to relax and cope.
In any case, Clark was proud of Lex just for arranging time away from work. He’d press for a nursery later on. He wasn’t even sure where Lex would put it, in this small apartment.
“I know you are.” Lex turned his head and gave Clark a soft kiss. “Mm. You’re warm.”
“Yes, nice to have a heated body pillow for a boyfriend.”
“I love you for your warmth,” Lex joked. He turned a little more to squeeze Clark’s bicep. “But I assure you; you aren’t soft.”
“Nah, I’m the big softie in this relationship.” Clark looked up at the closet and picked out a long-sleeved purple shirt out to pull over Lex’s head.
Lex pulled the shirt down, then fussed with the sleeves until they were at an appropriate length. “You’re not busy right now?”
“I have an ear out.”
“Always the hero,” Lex murmured, hanging his arms over Clark’s neck.
“Not always. Sometimes I’m a boyfriend. Sometimes I’m a reporter.” Clark walked them over to the dresser and grabbed a pair of socks. “You bored already?”
Lex held onto Clark as they headed for the den. “A little. I had errands to do. I wrote some this morning.”
“And now?”
“... I could write some more.”
“But...?”
“I’m tired.” This was said with such disdain; it was almost as though napping were morally questionable.
Clark chuckled and sat down on the sofa with Lex and pulled Lex’s feet into his lap. “You’re not used to this yet.”
“I suppose not. One would think I would begin to after months of this lethargy.” Lex drooped against the back of the sofa and let his eyes fall halfway shut.
Clark rolled the socks onto his feet and the began to rub them. “I think you’re doing better.”
“I have a whole year of this.”
“I think when our little girl’s born, you won’t be complaining of nothing to do.”
“Chances of that are probably good. All the more reason to get the bulk of the work on my next book done before that happens.” Lex’s eyes fell shut. “Mm. Nice massage.”
“I figured you could use it after walking all over town.” Clark brought one socked foot up and kissed it.
“If I’d know all I had to do to get Superman to kiss my feet was defy biology and logic and get pregnant...”
Clark chuckled and kissed the other foot. “I think you could have done it by putting whipped cream on them... Or chocolate. On second thought, we could put that all over your body...”
“You are a sick man,” Lex told him with no malice in his voice. He draped his arm over his head and sighed.
Clark bit the inside of his lip and reached over to pull Lex to his chest. To his surprise, he was rewarded by Lex snuggling into his embrace, curling further into Clark’s lap and once again, wrapping his arms around Clark’s neck.
“Hey. You okay?”
“Fine.”
Lex’s head rested on Clark’s shoulder, and Clark rubbed his arms and back, hoping to make his man warm. He kissed the top of Lex’s head, then pressed his cheek against it and enjoyed the uncharacteristically unreserved affection. Lex had trouble sometimes. They had been friends before lovers. He didn’t say “I love you” easily, partially because his father had been such a liar that words like that became sacred to him, not to be said frivolously. At times, Clark would come up to Lex and be brushed off, even when Lex was not in a bad mood. It had taken them years to get where they were.
Maybe it was the baby on the way. Lex didn’t fuss over Clark following him and watching him, when Clark knew that he would have done so when they’d first started dating. He accepted Clark’s attentive behavior and affection, returning it without protest. Clark couldn’t hope for every day to be like this. Lex had been snappish here and there lately, although he’d apologized soon after. Hormones.
As Archimedes jumped up beside them, meowing a few times and then flopping down to press his furry body against them, Clark couldn’t help but think that he was taming his little stray, at long last.
Pair: Clex
Rating: G
Summary: AU. It’s a rainy day in Metropolis and someone is watching Lex on his way home. Lex and Clark enjoy being out of the cold.
Word Count: 2067
AN: mpreg. Written for jlvsclrk for help_haiti.
Thanks to lexalicious70 for the positive feedback, and herohunter for the beta.
The mists of midmorning had become an outright downpour by one pm, causing the skies of Metropolis to darken so thoroughly that its famous cityscape resembled Gotham’s more than its own. By five, it was practically night. Regardless, the busy Metropolites continued on about their business- shopping, working, meeting one another in busy cafes and wine bars.
A lean man wearing a Fedora came out of the subway carrying a sturdy sack of groceries. He paused for a brief moment to look up at the dark, drizzly sky, and he touched his abdomen while his fellow subway riders split around him like salmon rushing downstream.
He knew he was being watched.
There was nothing odd about that. Lex Luthor was roughly as observant as Sherlock Holmes even on a bad day. Chances were, though, that his conclusion in this moment was more the result of intuition than his keen intellect. Few people on the planet could match that.
Lex tipped his hat forward and resumed his path, walking hurriedly along the wet sidewalk. His long black coat flapped around his legs as he went. The Fedora kept the water off of his head, but he had no umbrella- a bit short-sighted since it had been gloomy out all day long.
After rounding the corner, Lex slowed, shifting his bag in his arms and breathing a bit heavily. His eyes rolled, probably at himself, and then he made an obvious effort to keep going. His apartment wasn’t very far now.
Finally reaching a tall, well-kept building, he grumbled when he found the door locked, and then dug in his pocket for his keys.
“Dammit,” he muttered as the keys dropped onto the building’s welcome mat. Groceries balanced on his hip, Lex widened his stance and bent over. His fingers brushed against the keyring as he leaned into the door, and before he could grab them, the bag of groceries tipped over.
In a split second, a blur of primary color flashed in front of Lex, catching the items falling out of the bag and then repacking it, before Lex could look even look up. When he did, a mountain of a man in dark blue and black spandex, with a dark red cape and an S on his chest stood beside him, holding the bag of groceries and smiling fondly.
“The bad guys too depressed by the weather to do anything? I figured it must be a slow day, if you’re watching me run errands.” Lex straightened up slowly and smoothed a hand down the front of his shirt as he looked up at Superman holding his groceries, the bag looking absurdly small against Superman’s enormous chest.
“It’s very slick out there, citizen,” Superman replied.
“Hm.” Lex turned and unlocked his door. He motioned for Superman to follow him and gave his doorman George a smile and a wave when he spotted the man coming back downstairs. Likely Mrs. Deloria had needed some help up the stairs. He turned his head to find that Superman had disappeared.
“Wet enough for you, Lex?”
“I think I’m drenched,” Lex grumbled, shaking his Fedora before he stepped away from the mat at the front door.
“How’s sabbatical going? You’ve just started that, right?” George approached Lex with a smile.
“Not bad. I’ve gotten some work started on my next book. It’s good to keep to a schedule when you have large stretches of time on your hands. I’ve known folks who went on sabbatical and were still trying to finish their research when they were back teaching classes,” Lex told him. He peered up the stairs, assuming that Superman’s disappearance meant he was waiting at the apartment.
“That’s good to hear. Better go get out of those wet clothes before you catch your death, hm?”
Lex shrugged his head to the side in agreement and headed for the stairs. “Have a good day, George. Tell your wife I said hello.”
George made a little salute, and Lex headed up the stairs, hoping the elevator managed to get fixed by next month.
When he reached his door, Lex could see a light under the door already. He opened it up. “You’re going to have to stop appearing at my apartment. People will talk.”
“I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t want your eggs splattered on the stoop, or your apples splattered in mud,” Clark replied. He’d changed while Lex was downstairs, a gray t-shirt and lightly colored blue jeans. He also had apparently put away Lex’s groceries.
“Not exactly, no.” Lex pulled off his wet coat and hung it and his Fedora by the door. With the jacket off, and his soaked clothes clinging around his newly rounded belly, it became obvious. He’d only recently begun to show, but Clark had noticed that Lex had found numerous ways to hide it when he was out.
“You should have brought an umbrella.” Clark walked up to Lex and started to unbutton his shirt.
“I suppose I should have. It must have taken an inordinate amount of willpower not to bring me one. Or blow the clouds out of the sky.” Lex leaned his head forward.
Clark’s hands moved over Lex’s cold skin, warm and firm. He dropped the shirt on the floor and cupped both hands over Lex’s little belly and kissed Lex’s lips gently. Clark knew that Lex was like a cat. Like the little black cat that was now meowing at them plaintively from the kitchen. He needed his space, but he also needed affection. Clark had to be attentive to both to keep a happy Lex.
Of course, Lex would have protested being compared to a fluffy little kitty.
“We need to get you into something warm.” Clark murmured before nibbling along Lex’s cold, clammy neck. The cat began to rub around Clark’s legs. Clark was less likely to feed him, but Lex’s pants were wet. “Not now, Archie.”
“Archimedes,” Lex corrected. He pulled away from Clark’s hands and began to unbuckle his pants.
“He’s too little a cat for such a big name.” Clark had a hard time keeping his hands to himself as Lex pulled his pants down. When Lex collected his wet shirt and headed for the bedroom, Clark followed.
“Are you going to give her a big Greek name?” he asked, watching Lex drop his clothes in the hamper and stand naked in front of his closet.
“I might. Unless you have a suggestion that doesn’t sound like Jor Zor Por Tor Or.”
“Now you’re just being hurtful,” Clark joked. He smiled as Lex chose a pair of cashmere track pants that he had gotten last Christmas. Clark tried to keep lies out of their relationship, but Lex still had no idea how much Clark had actually paid for those. “I can come up with a good name.”
He walked around behind Lex and put his arms around his waist.
“You’ve been watching me all day?” Lex asked. He looked down as Clark hand slipped under the waistband of his pants to cup a hand over his abdomen. “Watching us, I guess?”
“I listen for you, always. And I watch sometimes.” Clark paused and kissed the back of Lex’s neck. “I’m trying not to smother you.”
They both knew the argument. The one that had raged since before Lex had discovered that he’d become pregnant. The one that kept Clark from asking to move in, even though he was staying over almost every night now. Lex had a strong sense of independence and self-control that he had a difficult time giving up, which had been true since they had met as teenagers. Clark’s protectiveness (or overprotectiveness), Lex’s need for control-- balancing these issues had been the longstanding struggle in their relationship. Not that Lex was inflexible and didn’t try, but that particular tug-of-war was not something Clark was willing to pursue at this particular moment. He had faith in them, had faith that they would remain together come what may, so the specifics of their arrangement was less important at the moment than Lex’s ability to relax and cope.
In any case, Clark was proud of Lex just for arranging time away from work. He’d press for a nursery later on. He wasn’t even sure where Lex would put it, in this small apartment.
“I know you are.” Lex turned his head and gave Clark a soft kiss. “Mm. You’re warm.”
“Yes, nice to have a heated body pillow for a boyfriend.”
“I love you for your warmth,” Lex joked. He turned a little more to squeeze Clark’s bicep. “But I assure you; you aren’t soft.”
“Nah, I’m the big softie in this relationship.” Clark looked up at the closet and picked out a long-sleeved purple shirt out to pull over Lex’s head.
Lex pulled the shirt down, then fussed with the sleeves until they were at an appropriate length. “You’re not busy right now?”
“I have an ear out.”
“Always the hero,” Lex murmured, hanging his arms over Clark’s neck.
“Not always. Sometimes I’m a boyfriend. Sometimes I’m a reporter.” Clark walked them over to the dresser and grabbed a pair of socks. “You bored already?”
Lex held onto Clark as they headed for the den. “A little. I had errands to do. I wrote some this morning.”
“And now?”
“... I could write some more.”
“But...?”
“I’m tired.” This was said with such disdain; it was almost as though napping were morally questionable.
Clark chuckled and sat down on the sofa with Lex and pulled Lex’s feet into his lap. “You’re not used to this yet.”
“I suppose not. One would think I would begin to after months of this lethargy.” Lex drooped against the back of the sofa and let his eyes fall halfway shut.
Clark rolled the socks onto his feet and the began to rub them. “I think you’re doing better.”
“I have a whole year of this.”
“I think when our little girl’s born, you won’t be complaining of nothing to do.”
“Chances of that are probably good. All the more reason to get the bulk of the work on my next book done before that happens.” Lex’s eyes fell shut. “Mm. Nice massage.”
“I figured you could use it after walking all over town.” Clark brought one socked foot up and kissed it.
“If I’d know all I had to do to get Superman to kiss my feet was defy biology and logic and get pregnant...”
Clark chuckled and kissed the other foot. “I think you could have done it by putting whipped cream on them... Or chocolate. On second thought, we could put that all over your body...”
“You are a sick man,” Lex told him with no malice in his voice. He draped his arm over his head and sighed.
Clark bit the inside of his lip and reached over to pull Lex to his chest. To his surprise, he was rewarded by Lex snuggling into his embrace, curling further into Clark’s lap and once again, wrapping his arms around Clark’s neck.
“Hey. You okay?”
“Fine.”
Lex’s head rested on Clark’s shoulder, and Clark rubbed his arms and back, hoping to make his man warm. He kissed the top of Lex’s head, then pressed his cheek against it and enjoyed the uncharacteristically unreserved affection. Lex had trouble sometimes. They had been friends before lovers. He didn’t say “I love you” easily, partially because his father had been such a liar that words like that became sacred to him, not to be said frivolously. At times, Clark would come up to Lex and be brushed off, even when Lex was not in a bad mood. It had taken them years to get where they were.
Maybe it was the baby on the way. Lex didn’t fuss over Clark following him and watching him, when Clark knew that he would have done so when they’d first started dating. He accepted Clark’s attentive behavior and affection, returning it without protest. Clark couldn’t hope for every day to be like this. Lex had been snappish here and there lately, although he’d apologized soon after. Hormones.
As Archimedes jumped up beside them, meowing a few times and then flopping down to press his furry body against them, Clark couldn’t help but think that he was taming his little stray, at long last.