Fic: Burning Away the Past | DCU/SV | Clark/Lex | PG-13 | 2/3
Title: Burning Away the Past - Part 2
Fandom: DCU/Smallville
Pairing: Clark Kent/Lex Luthor
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2,001
Prompt: For bradygirl_12's 2008 DCU Fic/Art Mood Ring Challenge - Haunted
Summary: Clark wakes up in Lex's penthouse, and everything's changed. After an epiphany, the truths between them come out.
Disclaimer: DC and WB own it all. I own nothing. Darnit.
Author's Notes: *glances up at the subject line* Yeah, this is going three parts. ^_~ I can't help it - I wanna write it! XD
Part 1
Burning Away the Past - Part 2
Clark awoke feeling like he'd had the crap beat out of him, which, while possible, didn't make much sense. He hadn't had the displeasure of fighting anyone with kryptonite or superhuman abilities in a few months, at least. So why did he feel like a planet had landed on his head?
"Thought you were gonna sleep all day," came an all too familiar voice, and Clark winced. There it was. His memory of the previous night came back at the sound of Lex's voice, painful and cathartic as their confrontation had been.
"Lex?" he rasped, blinking his eyes open to find his - former? - nemesis standing next to the bed with a glass of what Clark hoped was water in his hand, afternoon light pouring in through a window behind him and illuminating him with a warm halo. "You have to be kidding me," he managed, groaning at the irony and the pain still throbbing in his side.
"That's what I said when you burst into my office last night, if I recall correctly. Maybe the universe is playing an enormous cosmic joke on us. Here," he said, handing the glass and two aspirin to Clark, who sat up to take it and drink the water and pills down greedily. God, but his throat felt like it'd been scraped by steel wool. Damn kryptonite.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, Lex watched him drink, eyes looking sadder to Clark than he'd seen them in many years. "I sent a courier to your apartment to bring you some clothes. Hope you don't mind," the billionaire went on. At Clark's narrowed gaze, he added, "Your secrets are safe, I promise."
Clark stilled at that, unsure whether he could accept that. When had Lex ever made him a promise that he'd kept?
But he supposed that was neither here nor there at this point, considering the previous night, so all he could do was nod absently, his eyes finding the neatly folded stack of clothes that had been set on the opposite corner of the bed. The stained remains of his uniform sat folded next to them.
"I assume you have more," Lex cut into his thoughts. "Uniforms, I mean. That one's a total loss, unless you have the means to get out heavy blood stains and repair the material," he finished sardonically.
"Yes," Clark nodded again, gazing at the ruins of the suit. "That's the second one this week." The admission surprised even him, but he let it slide. It wasn't like Lex didn't know everything anyway. Turning his face back up to the other man, Clark said in a low voice, "We have a lot to talk about."
"We do." Standing, Lex crossed his arms over his chest, looking awkward and uncomfortable and darkly serious all at the same time. "I have some business to finish up, a few more ventures to shut down. You'll want to get a shower and change, and we can talk after, maybe have something to eat. Oh, and mind the bandages. I don't think that one's healed up yet. Took a while for the bleeding to stop, anyway."
Glancing down at himself, Clark finally saw the broad swath of bandage covering his side, protecting the wound that could very well have cost him his life, the wound that Lex had caused. That Lex had patched up. His gut tightened a little as he realized for the first time the lengths his old friend had gone to, to help him. It was... more than he'd ever done, without throwing his money and influence around. To have personally taken care of him... It was simply more than Clark's brain could handle at the moment, and he wondered what he'd done to deserve this kind of treatment from the man that had been his enemy for more years than he cared to count.
When he looked up again, the offhand question poised on his lips, Lex had gone, shutting the door to the bedroom behind him.
* * * * *
The western sky was lit up with brilliant oranges, pinks, and reds by the time Clark emerged from the bedroom, clean and dressed in an old pair of jeans and a t-shirt. He wasn't sure how Lex had known this was practically his favorite outfit, but he could make an intelligent guess.
And again, that didn't matter anymore. If Lex had been spying on him all those years, it made them even, at least. Clark probably knew just as much about the billionaire in return...
"How do you like your eggs, Clark?" Lex called from the immense kitchen on the far side of the living area.
Making his way across the penthouse, Clark fought down his confusion. Lex was cooking?
"Sunny-side-up," he replied as he stepped around the wide counter to find the other man with his sleeves rolled up, cracking eggs into a bowl. The image was... amusing, and he couldn't keep a snicker off his face. "You're really cooking," he said, eyebrows raised.
"Is that so hard to believe?" Lex shot back with narrowed eyes, dumping the eggs into a pan that sizzled and hissed immediately. "I have done it before, you know."
Schooling himself, Clark replied quietly, "I know," and when Lex didn't respond, focusing on the eggs, he turned to face the brilliant, glowing sunset streaming through the picture windows. After a time spent listening to Lex cooking behind him and the city going about its evening, he mused, "This isn't exactly how I imagined this would go down."
Lex chortled softly. "Oh? I suppose you imagined some variation of carting me off to prison for the rest of my life, then shaking your head at me, telling me how disappointed you were in the man I'd turned into."
Clark sighed at the barb. The truth was, that was how he'd imagined it, only with the world on fire around them. Funny, but the sunset seemed to fit that vision, but without the crushing of humanity to accompany it. "How did we let this happen?" he asked after a moment.
"Same way we let everything else happen, Clark." His voice quieted, "We didn't trust each other."
Turning back to find Lex carrying their plates over to the table, 'breakfast' ready, Clark shook his head. "Is it really that simple?"
"Probably not," Lex admitted, gesturing for Clark to join him at the table.
As he sat, Clark thought about the way things had evolved between them, all the lies and secrets they'd kept in their paranoia and obsession. He knew Lex didn't realize how naked that obsession had been, and he chided himself for never addressing it properly, never owning up to his own--
But he refused to follow that line of thinking. He'd trailed Lex's path of death and destruction for too many years, trying to keep the world safe from the man he'd--
Again, he stopped himself. The man he'd what? Known could destroy the world? Feared? Loathed? Been jealous over?
The last thought derailed him altogether, and he paused with a forkful of eggs halfway to his mouth. Setting it back on his plate, he remembered Lana, her sham marriage to Lex, and the slow descending spiral they'd all headed into because of it. It was Lana he'd been jealous over. Wasn't it?
"Something wrong with your breakfast?" Lex asked over the table.
"No. It's..." But he couldn't finish, couldn't voice the can of worms he'd opened with a single thought, all the things that had haunted him for so many years. His guts twisted with the mere suggestion that he could... that it really was Lex. Suddenly nauseated as he looked across at his friend/nemesis/rival/object of obsession, he pushed back from the table and retreated into the living area to find another window to gaze out of. Across Metropolis, lights were coming on, winking into existence like the fire that seemed to be growing in his chest at his frightening epiphany.
Had he really always been this blind to himself? Jeezus.
He became so wrapped up in his personal meltdown that he only barely registered Lex moving up behind him until the hand on his shoulder seemed to sear into his skin through his t-shirt.
"Was it really that bad? I can send for takeout..."
"No," Clark breathed, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment. "It was good. Better than good, actually." Indeed, the eggs had been heavenly, almost as good as his Mom's, he'd noted with surprise.
"Then, what--?"
Clark felt Lex shaking his head behind him, and turned, slipping out from beneath the hand. "I... didn't realize. A lot of things."
Unsurprisingly, Lex smirked darkly at him. "What? That I once had feelings for you? How else do you think I went from zero to obsessed in the blink of an eye?"
The admission threatened to bowl Clark over once again, but he held himself together. That much he'd known, but for Lex to admit it...
"Or is it that you might have once felt the same way?"
This time Clark visibly wilted. Chloe had always told him he wore his heart on his sleeve. Maybe she'd been right. Maybe he hadn't hidden the feelings he'd denied all these years as well as he hoped he might have. The thought was depressing, to say the least.
"I..." he started, but again, he failed to produce anything coherent. Shaking his head, he tried again, "What are we doing here, Lex?"
"Putting an end to a spiteful, bitter relationship, I hope. Unless you want to keep destroying my office and getting beaten for it. But you said yourself that you didn't want to do that, so maybe we can find some different way to act around each other. I'd rather burn those times than keep walking down that road. It's exhausting and pointless, not to mention costly."
Clark could only look at him for a moment, breathing deeply. Then, "So, what do you suggest?"
"Anything that isn't another round of 'heroes and villains'."
"There are things I can't forgive you for, Lex."
The billionaire blinked slowly. "I know. I don't expect to be forgiven for them. And there are things I don't think I can forgive you for, either."
Clark let out a sigh. "I can accept that." And he could. He'd known for years that Lex might never forgive him if he knew the entire truth about him. Discovering that he did know had brought all that spite into perspective. It made so much more sense. He sighed again, "I wanted to trust you. You made it pretty hard to do that."
Lex smiled - actually smiled - at that. "I learned from the best. You and my father were experts at fostering distrust."
"Point made," Clark smiled ruefully in return.
"And for the record," Lex went on, "I never wanted to be your enemy. Certainly never wanted to be 'the world's most notorious super-villain', as Miss Lane so eloquently put it on the front page of the Planet."
"I didn't want you to be that person, either."
"Truce, then?"
Clark couldn't help nodding, as a weight seemed to lift from his chest. "Truce." Awkwardly, he stuck his hand out, as if to shake, but Lex caught his wrist lightly and pulled his arm out of the way, stepping close. Clark felt the fire in his chest spread to his belly as the other man tilted his head up to plant a chaste kiss on his lips. It was far softer than he'd ever imagined - he'd imagined this? - and tasted far sweeter than he'd expected. His head spun.
Lex pulled back slightly, both of them breathing a little heavier. "I want this, Clark," he whispered. "Please tell me you want this, too."
The singing in his veins couldn't be denied, the past falling away like so much refuse, so he didn't even bother with a token resistance. "I want this," he said plainly. "I... always wanted this."
Saying it felt so much like soaring through the sky that he wondered if his feet had left the floor.
Heaving a sigh of relief, Lex grabbed his other wrist, and began to pull him toward the bedroom, the sun finally sinking over the Metropolis skyline behind them.
* * * * *
Part 3
Fandom: DCU/Smallville
Pairing: Clark Kent/Lex Luthor
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2,001
Prompt: For bradygirl_12's 2008 DCU Fic/Art Mood Ring Challenge - Haunted
Summary: Clark wakes up in Lex's penthouse, and everything's changed. After an epiphany, the truths between them come out.
Disclaimer: DC and WB own it all. I own nothing. Darnit.
Author's Notes: *glances up at the subject line* Yeah, this is going three parts. ^_~ I can't help it - I wanna write it! XD
Part 1
Burning Away the Past - Part 2
Clark awoke feeling like he'd had the crap beat out of him, which, while possible, didn't make much sense. He hadn't had the displeasure of fighting anyone with kryptonite or superhuman abilities in a few months, at least. So why did he feel like a planet had landed on his head?
"Thought you were gonna sleep all day," came an all too familiar voice, and Clark winced. There it was. His memory of the previous night came back at the sound of Lex's voice, painful and cathartic as their confrontation had been.
"Lex?" he rasped, blinking his eyes open to find his - former? - nemesis standing next to the bed with a glass of what Clark hoped was water in his hand, afternoon light pouring in through a window behind him and illuminating him with a warm halo. "You have to be kidding me," he managed, groaning at the irony and the pain still throbbing in his side.
"That's what I said when you burst into my office last night, if I recall correctly. Maybe the universe is playing an enormous cosmic joke on us. Here," he said, handing the glass and two aspirin to Clark, who sat up to take it and drink the water and pills down greedily. God, but his throat felt like it'd been scraped by steel wool. Damn kryptonite.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, Lex watched him drink, eyes looking sadder to Clark than he'd seen them in many years. "I sent a courier to your apartment to bring you some clothes. Hope you don't mind," the billionaire went on. At Clark's narrowed gaze, he added, "Your secrets are safe, I promise."
Clark stilled at that, unsure whether he could accept that. When had Lex ever made him a promise that he'd kept?
But he supposed that was neither here nor there at this point, considering the previous night, so all he could do was nod absently, his eyes finding the neatly folded stack of clothes that had been set on the opposite corner of the bed. The stained remains of his uniform sat folded next to them.
"I assume you have more," Lex cut into his thoughts. "Uniforms, I mean. That one's a total loss, unless you have the means to get out heavy blood stains and repair the material," he finished sardonically.
"Yes," Clark nodded again, gazing at the ruins of the suit. "That's the second one this week." The admission surprised even him, but he let it slide. It wasn't like Lex didn't know everything anyway. Turning his face back up to the other man, Clark said in a low voice, "We have a lot to talk about."
"We do." Standing, Lex crossed his arms over his chest, looking awkward and uncomfortable and darkly serious all at the same time. "I have some business to finish up, a few more ventures to shut down. You'll want to get a shower and change, and we can talk after, maybe have something to eat. Oh, and mind the bandages. I don't think that one's healed up yet. Took a while for the bleeding to stop, anyway."
Glancing down at himself, Clark finally saw the broad swath of bandage covering his side, protecting the wound that could very well have cost him his life, the wound that Lex had caused. That Lex had patched up. His gut tightened a little as he realized for the first time the lengths his old friend had gone to, to help him. It was... more than he'd ever done, without throwing his money and influence around. To have personally taken care of him... It was simply more than Clark's brain could handle at the moment, and he wondered what he'd done to deserve this kind of treatment from the man that had been his enemy for more years than he cared to count.
When he looked up again, the offhand question poised on his lips, Lex had gone, shutting the door to the bedroom behind him.
* * * * *
The western sky was lit up with brilliant oranges, pinks, and reds by the time Clark emerged from the bedroom, clean and dressed in an old pair of jeans and a t-shirt. He wasn't sure how Lex had known this was practically his favorite outfit, but he could make an intelligent guess.
And again, that didn't matter anymore. If Lex had been spying on him all those years, it made them even, at least. Clark probably knew just as much about the billionaire in return...
"How do you like your eggs, Clark?" Lex called from the immense kitchen on the far side of the living area.
Making his way across the penthouse, Clark fought down his confusion. Lex was cooking?
"Sunny-side-up," he replied as he stepped around the wide counter to find the other man with his sleeves rolled up, cracking eggs into a bowl. The image was... amusing, and he couldn't keep a snicker off his face. "You're really cooking," he said, eyebrows raised.
"Is that so hard to believe?" Lex shot back with narrowed eyes, dumping the eggs into a pan that sizzled and hissed immediately. "I have done it before, you know."
Schooling himself, Clark replied quietly, "I know," and when Lex didn't respond, focusing on the eggs, he turned to face the brilliant, glowing sunset streaming through the picture windows. After a time spent listening to Lex cooking behind him and the city going about its evening, he mused, "This isn't exactly how I imagined this would go down."
Lex chortled softly. "Oh? I suppose you imagined some variation of carting me off to prison for the rest of my life, then shaking your head at me, telling me how disappointed you were in the man I'd turned into."
Clark sighed at the barb. The truth was, that was how he'd imagined it, only with the world on fire around them. Funny, but the sunset seemed to fit that vision, but without the crushing of humanity to accompany it. "How did we let this happen?" he asked after a moment.
"Same way we let everything else happen, Clark." His voice quieted, "We didn't trust each other."
Turning back to find Lex carrying their plates over to the table, 'breakfast' ready, Clark shook his head. "Is it really that simple?"
"Probably not," Lex admitted, gesturing for Clark to join him at the table.
As he sat, Clark thought about the way things had evolved between them, all the lies and secrets they'd kept in their paranoia and obsession. He knew Lex didn't realize how naked that obsession had been, and he chided himself for never addressing it properly, never owning up to his own--
But he refused to follow that line of thinking. He'd trailed Lex's path of death and destruction for too many years, trying to keep the world safe from the man he'd--
Again, he stopped himself. The man he'd what? Known could destroy the world? Feared? Loathed? Been jealous over?
The last thought derailed him altogether, and he paused with a forkful of eggs halfway to his mouth. Setting it back on his plate, he remembered Lana, her sham marriage to Lex, and the slow descending spiral they'd all headed into because of it. It was Lana he'd been jealous over. Wasn't it?
"Something wrong with your breakfast?" Lex asked over the table.
"No. It's..." But he couldn't finish, couldn't voice the can of worms he'd opened with a single thought, all the things that had haunted him for so many years. His guts twisted with the mere suggestion that he could... that it really was Lex. Suddenly nauseated as he looked across at his friend/nemesis/rival/object of obsession, he pushed back from the table and retreated into the living area to find another window to gaze out of. Across Metropolis, lights were coming on, winking into existence like the fire that seemed to be growing in his chest at his frightening epiphany.
Had he really always been this blind to himself? Jeezus.
He became so wrapped up in his personal meltdown that he only barely registered Lex moving up behind him until the hand on his shoulder seemed to sear into his skin through his t-shirt.
"Was it really that bad? I can send for takeout..."
"No," Clark breathed, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment. "It was good. Better than good, actually." Indeed, the eggs had been heavenly, almost as good as his Mom's, he'd noted with surprise.
"Then, what--?"
Clark felt Lex shaking his head behind him, and turned, slipping out from beneath the hand. "I... didn't realize. A lot of things."
Unsurprisingly, Lex smirked darkly at him. "What? That I once had feelings for you? How else do you think I went from zero to obsessed in the blink of an eye?"
The admission threatened to bowl Clark over once again, but he held himself together. That much he'd known, but for Lex to admit it...
"Or is it that you might have once felt the same way?"
This time Clark visibly wilted. Chloe had always told him he wore his heart on his sleeve. Maybe she'd been right. Maybe he hadn't hidden the feelings he'd denied all these years as well as he hoped he might have. The thought was depressing, to say the least.
"I..." he started, but again, he failed to produce anything coherent. Shaking his head, he tried again, "What are we doing here, Lex?"
"Putting an end to a spiteful, bitter relationship, I hope. Unless you want to keep destroying my office and getting beaten for it. But you said yourself that you didn't want to do that, so maybe we can find some different way to act around each other. I'd rather burn those times than keep walking down that road. It's exhausting and pointless, not to mention costly."
Clark could only look at him for a moment, breathing deeply. Then, "So, what do you suggest?"
"Anything that isn't another round of 'heroes and villains'."
"There are things I can't forgive you for, Lex."
The billionaire blinked slowly. "I know. I don't expect to be forgiven for them. And there are things I don't think I can forgive you for, either."
Clark let out a sigh. "I can accept that." And he could. He'd known for years that Lex might never forgive him if he knew the entire truth about him. Discovering that he did know had brought all that spite into perspective. It made so much more sense. He sighed again, "I wanted to trust you. You made it pretty hard to do that."
Lex smiled - actually smiled - at that. "I learned from the best. You and my father were experts at fostering distrust."
"Point made," Clark smiled ruefully in return.
"And for the record," Lex went on, "I never wanted to be your enemy. Certainly never wanted to be 'the world's most notorious super-villain', as Miss Lane so eloquently put it on the front page of the Planet."
"I didn't want you to be that person, either."
"Truce, then?"
Clark couldn't help nodding, as a weight seemed to lift from his chest. "Truce." Awkwardly, he stuck his hand out, as if to shake, but Lex caught his wrist lightly and pulled his arm out of the way, stepping close. Clark felt the fire in his chest spread to his belly as the other man tilted his head up to plant a chaste kiss on his lips. It was far softer than he'd ever imagined - he'd imagined this? - and tasted far sweeter than he'd expected. His head spun.
Lex pulled back slightly, both of them breathing a little heavier. "I want this, Clark," he whispered. "Please tell me you want this, too."
The singing in his veins couldn't be denied, the past falling away like so much refuse, so he didn't even bother with a token resistance. "I want this," he said plainly. "I... always wanted this."
Saying it felt so much like soaring through the sky that he wondered if his feet had left the floor.
Heaving a sigh of relief, Lex grabbed his other wrist, and began to pull him toward the bedroom, the sun finally sinking over the Metropolis skyline behind them.
* * * * *
Part 3