Title: Fixing Things
Rating: NC-17 - Words: 45,079
Type: drama, adventure, romance, angst
Warnings: none
Summary: Lex Luthor is his father's fix-it man for failing companies. But when Lex unexpectedly comes across Clark Kent again, can he fix what went wrong between them eight years ago? And will Clark let him? Between the meteor mutants trying to kill them, Clark and Lex try to find their way again.

Notes:
AU set 8 years after mid-season 3. Rest of season 3 is a canon muddle – I use some of what happened (Lex investigating his memory loss), but in this world it didn't happen in the same way.

Written for

ficklefeline for the Help Japan auction – this fic was over a year in the writing. She requested futurefic, Lex angst, and a story that ends with Clex. And porn too ;D Thank you so much for your donation for Japan, and for being so patient with the story. ^^

Betas by Ronda and Sue. Thanks; I know it was a lot to get through!

Cross-posted to AO3.

Fixing Things

Part One of Five

Lex stepped out of the helicopter, breathing in the dry New Mexican air. Of all the places he travelled for LuthorCorp, New Mexico had to be one of the most contradictory landscapes. Desert throughout most of it, and then just inside, the rich vibrant growth of the caldera.

LuthorCorp facility #259 was an industrial plant manufacturing HVAC chillers. It was located north-west of Santa Fe, also an easy drive to Los Alamos. Being near a government testing laboratory was not a normal requirement of chiller manufacturing process, however, Lex thought the location was not coincidental.

Nominally, Lex was here because the product output level had dropped 20 percent in the last year and the workmanship was below quality standards. Companies that used #259 chillers in their air conditioning systems were reporting inefficiency and stabilization issues. Yet just three years prior, production had been off the charts and companies had been begging to be on the list to get a #259 system. Lionel had sent Lex out to fix the situation.

Since he'd left Smallville eight years ago, Lex had been his father's "fix-it" man. Travelling from LuthorCorp plant to LuthorCorp plant, reorganizing them, turning them into effective parts of the company again. He had done it for the Smallville fertilizer plant in his time there, and he had done it for many others since. Half the time, it was as simple as contradicting his father's earlier draconian pronouncements of "lay them all off!" When Lex was fixing, he had complete authority to do anything he wanted and his father did not interfere; it was part of their deal.

In working for his father, Lex and the elder Luthor had come to terms that neither of them liked, but life was a compromise. Lionel had wanted Lex with him, however one rule that Lex had held firm early on about was that Lex would never enter Metropolis or be sent to within a 500 mile radius thereof. Anywhere within the state of Kansas was too close. Smallville had left him with a bitter taste in his mouth and a revulsion for even the idea of running into any of the people he'd known in it.

Lex told his father that it was a revulsion against him. That after being electrocuted and falsely accused of insanity, he never wanted to see his father in person again; which was true enough. Lionel's agreement to that part of the bargain was that Lex never tell anybody about the details behind Belle Reve. An agreement, and a warning that Lex heeded. As Lex traveled, he kept nobody around him for long, and he didn't stay in any one place long enough for a slow poison to work upon him. A precaution after the fact, yet his travelling served his other purposes well enough.

Lex paused on his way to the plant, looking at the sign that proclaimed it LuthorCorp #259. Every time he walked into a facility for the first time, he remembered the Smallville Plant. He had been so young then. He hadn't thought he was young – he'd been 21 and the world would be his. He'd been given a second chance at life, and a friend as well, and nothing would stop him. So little Lex had known back then.

Suited managers poured out of the building like a swarm of disturbed bees, confusedly heading for Lex. Lex didn't falter in his approach.

"Mr. Luthor!" the businessman in the lead called. Probably the Plant Chief, Mackerson. Muscular and fit, the man looked like he worked out on a regular basis, more concerned about the looks the muscles gave him than the health benefits.

"We thought you were coming next week." That was the one panting behind him, considerably less fit. Probably the one who did the actual work.

Lex walked through them and continued into the building. "My last project ended early." Not true, of course; giving people time to prepare was never wise. Lex liked to take his projects by surprise, and if the people had researched him, they should know that. This group was complacent, not worried, despite their lack of productivity and Lex's visit. He wondered if they really thought his father would protect them. Who did they think had sent him?

"Show me the manufacturing process." Lex turned right, away from the offices and towards the guts of the chiller factory, where the compressors and evaporators were made and the parts assembled.

"Would you like to review the books first?" The Plant Chief, who still hadn't introduced himself, though Lex knew who he was, tried to divert their path.

The other one shot the chief a look in disbelief and then glanced away before the chief could see it. "We would be happy to accommodate you, Mr. Luthor. I'm Tim Matthews, Plant Engineering."

Interesting. Efficient and a knowledge of when to bend. This one might be a keeper, except Lex had a feeling that he was one of the problems.

The followers settled themselves around and behind Lex, the chief, and Tim. One scurried ahead. Lex didn't worry about it. There wouldn't be anything obviously wrong in the daily routine work. This little stroll was meant to show his dominance and for him to get an eye over the workers before he was shuffled off to an office. To show everybody that he was the Luthor on the scene and his will was supreme.

They passed through the first few stages with nothing of interest. General details about manufacturing, the vast machinery churning out complicated parts with humans guiding and aiding the process. Watching the way things were put together, an alien could think it was the machines who ruled and people were but the lowly subjects; the worker bees to the queen. All in its order, all in its time.

There were also people working on the more complicated parts; adjusting the installations inside their casings, welding tricky spots machinery couldn't get to; programming the computer packages that would allow the machinery to run.

On the level below, which Lex wouldn't get to on his initial stroll through the plant, was the chemical refrigerant mix to be pumped into the chillers. That was the part he was particularly interested in, yet he couldn't get there without a protection suit. While he could likely commandeer one from the lockers, the minions of the plant would squawk most ferociously if he went there without proper channels, properly so. Safety was not something a manufacturing plant should fool around with. Tomorrow, Lex would visit it. At which point, he would still see nothing, for there would be nothing to see in the open, and yet it would give him the information he would need to dig further in.

In the assembly room, Lex came to an involuntary halt. This was the low level worker zone, where they were paid minimum wage and were either new, incompetent, or without sufficient motivation to move on. Not much was generally of interest in an assembly room. And yet, there was.

His back was mostly to Lex, only a small portion of profile showing at the angle Lex was standing. Hunched over the conveyer belt, his attention was on the moving parts, not on the horde of people who had walked in.

Dark hair. Large frame filling the blue construction overalls. A certain way of standing that was ultimately familiar to Lex, though he hadn't seen it in eight long years. Obviously, a 500 mile radius was too small of an exclusion zone. Lex should have stayed in Europe instead. Or Japan.

Feeling the weight of the stares, perhaps, or just finally aware of the mass of people who had entered and were now milling about uncertainly, Clark turned around.

No glasses. That was interesting. And the name tag read 'Leo'. But it was Clark, most definitely.

Their gazes met and held for a long moment. Clark's eyes widened and a very familiar looking fear appeared there, intensifying the longer the moment went on.

With a snort, Lex turned and walked out of the room. He spoke loud enough to be heard, without seeming like he was projecting. "Nice ass."

As the minions scuttled behind him, one of them dared to protest. "Mr. Luthor!"

Lex glanced at her badge but couldn't make out the name immediately. No matter, he'd find out. "Above all, you'll find that I am an equal opportunity..." he paused for a moment, drawing it out before the last word, "employer."

He turned towards the offices, ready now to settle into the mundane work of plowing through files. "Which does beg the point, Mr. Mackerson; where are the women in your managerial ranks?"

The plant chief snorted, not concerned. "We manufacture HVAC chillers. It's not a field women get into. If a competent one showed up, I'd hire, but none have."

"Mr. Mackerson, I worked in a crap factory that produced fertilizer. They had more women managers than you." At industrial work, women were just as competent as men. It was true that fewer of them entered into it in general, however, a certain percentage usually did and this company was not lacking for the women at the lower ranks. It was the upper ranks that were deficient.

Which was not the problem Lex had come here to solve, but it was a nice distraction from Clark. Both for him and for them.

...

As part of the paperwork to know a new plant, Lex made it a habit to interview people working there. Two managers, two mid-levels, and two lower-levels, with a mixture of employees who had been there for years and others who had recently come in. He was glad he had long ago settled this as a routine as he went through the personnel files with the admin to pick out his interviewees.

"Ms. Oakhust, yes," Lex said. The lady who had protested. She worked in human resources, which wasn't normally an area he delved into, but he liked her spirit.

"Also, one of the assembly workers. Perhaps that tall one..."

Judy, the administrative assistant who had been assigned to work with him, snorted. "You mean Leo Brown. He's new. Only been here for a week. He's a looker, I'll give you that, but I don't know how far your luck will go, he's got a girlfriend."

"Money and the Luthor name will often open doors where there are normally none to be seen," Lex remarked casually, hiding his own bitterness at the fact. "However, it's also often enough just to look. Touching is not necessary."

"Did you want to see Ms. Oakhust before or after you see Mr. Brown?" Judy asked archly.

Lex grinned. He liked the spirit here. They weren't all beaten down by the problems in the plant. There was enough for the company to regrow on once he was done.

...

A knock at the door flung Lex back into the past. Clark hadn't knocked at the mansion doors often, but when he did, it was always with the expectation that he would be let right in. A bare acknowledgement of the courtesy, though with a firm fist.

"Come in," Lex said, steeling himself. Their fight had been in the past; eight years in the past. Time heals all wounds, or so it was said. They could be courteous to each other, talk about things like adults and come to a mutual working agreement with the situation.

Clark walked in and shut the door behind him. "Damn it, Lex! You're behind this!"

Or not.

Outrage and memory held Lex quiet while he flashbacked to eight years ago with accusations thrown in his face and not even the question of why.

Some of the things Lex had done, some he hadn't. Either way, he'd been condemned and tried without even the courtesy of asking for a trial or an explanation. If Clark had ever told him why he didn't want Lex involved in this, that, or the other thing, Lex would have backed off. Maybe. But Clark had never said, only accused.

"Two Jitter deaths of maintenance men who worked with chillers from this plant. Other mutations that can be indirectly traced to units produced here. And you. You right here in the midst of it."

Lex thought it would be useless to point out that Clark had been here a week before Lex had arrived. Eight years, and not a thing had changed.

"How dare you?" Lex hissed, his anger boiling over. "You know nothing about me! You never did. God damn you to Hell, Clark! This was a waste of my time. How could I possibly think—" Lex cut himself off and came around his desk, detouring around the defiant Clark to the door.

"Get out." Lex said, his hand on the handle. "Get the fuck out and—. God Damn It." Lex enunciated the last bit slowly and carefully. He closed his eyes, fighting for control. He hadn't lost it this badly for a long time.

Clark turned to leave. "Gladly!" He hesitated at seeing Lex still in front of door and the door still shut.

"Don't leave," Lex said wearily. He let go of the door handle and walked back to his desk, sitting down again. "You haven't been here long enough. If you leave now, they'll know something is up. For both our covers, you'll have to be here long enough for the interview."

Lex ignored his sudden headache and flipped open files. "Leo Brown. Employed one week. So tell, me, Mr. Brown, how do you find things at the plant?"

Clark stared at him. "What do you mean, both our covers?"

"One presumes that you have not actually changed your legal name to Leo Brown. Therefore, you are here investigating those things you have accused me of, and you do not want me to walk around the plant calling you Clark Kent." Lex marked a note on the file. "Your supervisor is Howard Thomas. Did he take you through the plant when you first arrived? What was your impression of the company?"

"Do you seriously ask people this?" Clark walked back to the desk and hovered before sitting.

Lex looked up with a glare. "I would be a poor manager if I came in and started changing things without finding out what the working conditions are. Talking to people is the best way to find that out. Yes, they'll lie. All people lie. But they also tell the truth. Sometimes that truth is subjective, and I have to compare truths. Finding out what is lie, truth, or subjective truth is all part of knowing who to fire, who to promote, and how to change the plant methods to increase efficiency."

Clark snorted. "Efficiency. Firing people."

"Just answer the question," Lex sighed. He would never get away from his father. One Luthor was the same as another. Yes, Lex fired people – people who weren't good at their jobs. He did not, however, ever condone mass layoffs, unlike his father. Clark wasn't the first to mix them up. "Even if you are here for other reasons, you've still been working here for a week. What is your general impression of the plant?"

They actually made it through most of the standard script without eruption into further hostilities. Clark looking more and more puzzled as they went on, but answered as honestly as he could. For things not related directly to him, Clark could usually be counted on for fairly accurate observations. Or at least he always had been, and it seemed his years of investigative reporting had honed those skills.

Lex glanced at the clock. "Alright, that's enough. You can go now." He didn't rise from his seat.

Clark did, slowly. "Lex..."

"Don't go there," Lex warned. He could feel the anger and bitterness hovering just a bare layer under his control; the pain of his expectations had shattered a wound never completely healed, just ignored.

"I'm sorry, Lex." Clark ignored Lex's warning. "I told myself the whole way up here not to accuse you like that, but when I opened the door..."

"The truth of what you felt came out," Lex finished, the bile rising in his throat. "Better that than the lies. Get out, Clark. Don't interfere with me, and I won't interfere with you. Do your story, write what you will... just leave me alone."

That last came out worded differently than Lex had planned, making it about him and not about his work. Oh well.

Clark bowed his head, looking like a grown-up kicked puppy.

Given Lex's anger and pain, it shouldn't make Lex feel guilty. Maybe that was just reflex; too many years of giving Clark everything. He stayed silent, choking the impulse to apologize.

Clark partially opened the door, then turned back, his head up again and eyes gleaming with a bit of mischief. "You said I had a nice ass."

Lex eyed the partially open door and huffed out a laugh. "It is. A very fine ass. However, that was a simple observation, no need for anything more."

"Well, maybe I think you have a nice ass too." Clark grinned at Lex and then slipped through the door.

Ms. Oakhust walked in. "Mister Luthor!" Her hands were on her hips and her eyes angry.

"He started it," Lex murmured, his mind partially numbed by Clark's parting shot. Clark was straight. Wasn't he? And Lex hated him. Loved him. Something. Eight years and this meeting had not clarified matters at all.

"No he didn't, and that's not an excuse anyway! This is a respectful workplace."

Lex leaned back and let Ms. Oakhust yell at him while he puzzled over the mystery that was Clark.

...
...

Clark finished the rest of his shift in somewhat of a daze. It'd been eight years since he'd seen Lex, since they'd had their last fight and Lex had left Smallville for good. Clark hadn't expected to see Lex here, and he kept reliving their last encounter.

Lex had been investigating his memory loss and using meteor rocks to do it. At the same time, he'd been pushing his inquires about Clark when he'd promised to leave Clark alone. But he wouldn't. A day, two days, after asking Clark to forgive him, then Lex would be right back to the same old questions with that look in his eye that didn't believe a word Clark said. Lex had hurt people in his studies with the kryptonite, though he insisted it was an accident. Lex had too many accidents in his investigations, he was too careless of other people. And he was too insistent on finding out every one of Clark's secrets.

When Lex had left, Clark had been both relieved and scared, terrified that Lex or Lionel would come sweeping back to Smallville at any moment to take him away. Clark had also been lonely, though he tried not to acknowledge that part of the loss. First Pete, then Lex... Chloe was the only one Clark didn't drive away and that was only because she was in love with him, though it had never worked out between them. Lex... Lex was dangerous.

The danger had always been part of Lex, but early on, Clark had thought it wasn't the important part. Without their friendship, though... Clark realized how much he'd counted on Lex's friendship to protect him from the danger. Without it, the fear never quite went away, even as the years passed and Clark never saw Lex again.

Clark had spent his last year in Smallville worrying. He'd gone to Metropolis for college, watching behind him all the time. In a way, journalism was less of a career choice than a way of him being able to keep track of what Lex and Lionel were up to. Lex had faded into the background, never making the news, and Lionel had become the Luthor that Clark feared.

Or so Clark had thought until this day. Lex being here had taken Clark by surprise. All the old fears, all the worries came back. He had turned around with no expectations and instead seen his nightmare. When Lex had summoned him to the office... Clark had really thought Lex was here to get him, to finally claim the last of the secrets and find out the mystery behind Clark Kent. This would be it.

Instead, though, Lex was protecting him again. Keeping Clark's cover, telling Clark he could do what he wanted. It upset every view of the world that Clark had ever had, making him feel sixteen again and confused as hell. He was twenty-five, he shouldn't be this confused anymore.

And Lex thought Clark's ass was nice.

Okay, that had been a distraction comment, to cover their staring on the factory floor, yet it took Clark back to the early days of Smallville when people had whispered and Clark had wondered but Lex had never done a thing. Just the looking, and there had been less of that as they'd gone along, making Clark doubt his memories. Eight years later, though, and Lex liked his ass. How long had Lex been staring at Clark before he'd turned around? The gossip line had said it was minutes.

Clark hadn't meant to accuse Lex, he really hadn't. But the fear was still there and Lex had followed him here. This plant was producing some form of kryptonite and mutations and deaths were the trail Clark and Lois had traced back. Lex was here, managing the plant, and Luthors were not to be trusted. Lex had protected him, covered for him, let him go.

Clark's head ached.

...

"You said what?" Lois stared at him in shock. "Good God, Clark. That's liable. You don't tell the second-richest man in the world something like that unless you can back it up with a published story and facts! Not to speak of warning the subject of the investigation!"

Clark winced. "It just came out."

"It just came out." Lois sighed and sat down on the hotel bed. "Well go on, do we pack up and try a different angle, or can we keep pursing this one?"

Clark looked away. "He said he wouldn't interfere with us."

Lois eyed him. "You're a reporter, Kent. Report."

When Clark was done, Lois was watching him in a way that reminded him of both Chloe and Lex back in the day. Studying eyes, questioning, not quite believing what he'd said.

"Um, that's it?" Clark said uncertainly, his voice making a question of the statement as he wondered what else Lois was expecting from him. He'd told her everything. Well, almost everything. He'd left out the bit about Lex's remark about Clark's behind. And then Clark's remark back. Clark swallowed, not wanting to think about Lex's behind. It really was a nice one, though, now that Clark was thinking about it.

"Yeah, Lois... we were friends once, and then we were enemies, and that's all there is to it." Lois paraphrased Clark in a mocking voice. "Clark, you idiot..." She closed her mouth. "No, never mind. But I think we can keep going. Lex Luthor isn't going to be giving away your cover, and it sounds like he's here on an investigation of his own. I wonder..."

Lois turned to her computer and started accessing files. "All the LuthorCorp plants that Little Luthor has worked at. How much of what he does is making them more efficient, and how much of it is covering up what they do? If we track his work back, could we find more problems?"

Clark left her to it. His mind was still full of Lex rather than what Lex was doing. He went into his room in the little apartment they were renting and closed the door. He knew he should be out there helping Lois with the investigation, whatever new angle she was pursuing now, but he just couldn't.

When he had been a teenager, between his thoughts of Lana, he'd thought about Lex. Sometimes more often than Lana, truth be told. Lex, though, had been so much older than him that all it had been was dreams. Businessman, Luthor, best friend. The person Clark had failed the most, and also the one who scared Clark the most. After Belle Reve, Clark wanted his friend back, and he had him... yet Clark had even more secrets now and Lex was even more relentlessly pursuing the meteor rocks.

If there had never been Belle Reve, if Lex's father had never come to Smallville, if all they could have been was best friends with nothing between them...

Clark turned the shower on, leaving his clothes in a pile by the door and letting the steam warm the room and making seeing difficult. It didn't do any good for obscuring his thoughts. As he stepped into the shower, Clark's long-suppressed desires overwhelmed his fears. For this moment, he so desperately wanted the what-might-have-been that he let himself imagine it, standing in the steaming water and stroking himself roughly.

Lex would have been in his office as Clark dropped by. Sitting behind the glass desk, his attention on the laptop. Yet as Clark walked in, Lex's attention would have left the laptop and gone to Clark. His mouth would have dropped slightly open, his eyes widening as he took in Clark in the dark clothes and long jacket. Just as he had done at Clark on red meteor rock, yet this time there would have been no meteor rock, just Clark, acting upon his desires, confident in what he wanted.

Clark would have walked towards Lex, then detoured towards the pool table. The balls would have been scattered on the surface, left in disarray from Lex playing with himself. Clark would've pick up a ball, the six ball, and fondled it, turning it over and over as he turned again towards Lex.

By this time, Lex would have gotten up from the desk, his eyes carefully checking Clark out from all angles, making sure that it really was his friend and that this was what Clark wanted. There would be a joke upon his lips, the smile that was for Clark alone softening into something more. His gaze would be hungry, sharpening in intensity as he deduced that Clark was for real.

At a certain level of intensity, Clark would toss the ball back onto the table and walk towards Lex, as Lex stood confidently in front of his desk, waiting for Clark.

Clark's huge hands would be on Lex's shoulders, Lex's hands resting at his side as he tilted his head to Clark. Slowly, Clark would move forward the last few inches, making the moment last.

Lips touching. Pressure, moisture, lips parting as they moved. Tongues tangling, searching, darting as they stroked together. Lex's hands were now in other positions, one hand tangled in Clark's hair, holding Clark tightly to him, the other gripping Clark's hip, also pulling him closer. Clark's hands had moved around to Lex's back, holding him closely.

They ground together, bodies engaging in the same duel their mouths were in. At some point, Clark would heft Lex up onto the desk, stepping between Lex's legs and running a hand over Lex's zipper, feeling the hardness behind the pants, his own hardness straining the endurance of cloth.

Zippers down, pants off, somehow. Clark didn't bother envisioning that part, his focus now on Lex's dick revealed before him. Lex would have a nice one, slender and long, cut and leaking from the tip. Clark'd x-rayed it, he knew it. Clark would run his hand along the shaft, his thumb swirling around the tip, spreading the pre-come and making Lex groan. Clark would be making thrusting motions with his hips now, his need stronger than his desire to explore.

Lex would tilt back on the table, his legs spread in invitation. Clark would push forward. There would be no need for lube, there would be no pain, just the exquisite pleasure for both. Tight and hot around his flesh, feeling the stroke all the way in along his shaft, watching the open-mouthed expression of rapture on Lex's face. Doing this again, and again, each time bodies coming together. Their pulling apart was only an anticipation for the next meeting.

The pleasure mounted and Clark came. He opened his eyes to watch the white spurts wash off the wall of the shower, draining down as if it had never been. It hadn't been. Not then, not now. But Lex was here now, and Clark's body wanted him as badly as Clark's mind was confused about him.

...
...

There was definitely something wrong here. Lex studied his notes and looked at all the pieces. Three years ago, chiller production had soared rapidly, then dropped just as dramatically last year. The deaths that Clark, and presumably Lois as well, were investigating were part of it, yet only the most visible one. Morale among the employees was down. The Plant Chief, Samuel, was corrupt, however it was an ordinary sort of corruptness: some money skimming, paying little attention to the details, advancing himself and not his people. More interested in his gym and his things than his job. That wasn't where the main problem was.

The more Lex looked, the more he was sure the Plant Engineer, Tim, was the one. Competent and smart, he worked just below the Chief, promoting himself as the one people could come to while still upholding the Chief in his incompetency. There was a look in his eyes as he watched Lex during meetings that spoke of an underlying arrogance, a surety that his world was supreme and he was only going along with the motions of 'normal' trappings as a game.

It was a look that Lex had become familiar with over the years. Tim was a mutant, and becoming more unstable as time passed, not from any instability in the mutation, yet rather from the weakness of a human mind dealing with more power than they'd ever dreamed of having. Mutations in and of themselves weren't bad – many of them, in fact, could be beneficial to the recipient. It was how the person dealt with their new powers that usually broke them. Power corrupts, and mutants often felt they no longer belonged with the rest of the human race. For the arrogant ones, this led them to atrocities they would never have considered before.

There were also others who were involved in the problems with the plant. Assisting Tim in one way or another. Lex hadn't pinned them down yet and he was being careful not to show he suspected Tim. He wasn't ready yet.

Lex needed to explore the plant and do it without raising an alert. He was here to improve plant efficiency, only that, on the surface. Some of the factories he had been to in the past were careless, mixing their kryptonite experiments in with the regular work areas, easy for him to sniff out. This place was more careful, having only legitimate production even in the secured areas. The kryptonite chemical mix that was being shipped inside the production chillers was being made somewhere other than the regular factory.

Tapping his finger on the desk, Lex flipped through various spreadsheets, looking for a report that would be legitimate yet would also let him dig further in.

...

A knock on his door lifted Lex's head and drew his attention. Instincts. Old, old instincts. That wasn't the admin waiting to be let in, and Lex did not want to deal with this now. He had other things to do.

Lex didn't answer the knock, however the door opened anyhow and a body slipped through. How could a body that large be that graceful? Lex sighed, returning his gaze to his laptop, though not his attention.

"Hey, Lex," Clark approached the desk after closing the door.

"No," Lex didn't care what it was.

"Lex, I'm sorry."

"Aren't you supposed to be working right now, Leo?"

"I'm on break. Lex, I shouldn't have said that to you yesterday. I'm sorry."

Lex snorted. "I notice you aren't saying you didn't mean it." He highlighted a phrase in the report he was reading. There was potential there.

There was a pause. "Lex, will you at least look at me?"

"I'm busy, and you don't have an appointment. How did you get in?"

A creak of leather as Clark evidentially sat down. "You don't have the best of security. You never did."

Lex had meant Judy at the admin's desk outside, not security, but given Clark's previous experience, Lex'd give him the answer. Personally, Lex hated security, they only got in the way. When Lex did have security, they got themselves killed. It was better not to put people in that position if he could help it.

Clark sighed. "You got here after we did. While people were dying of Jitters, you were in Alaska, reorganizing the meat-packing plant."

That had been a heck of a job. Even with Lex's healing, he still had a yellow bruise on his side from the confrontation with the mutant there.

"Unless you've learned how to be three or four people at the same time, you didn't have anything to do with what is happening here."

Lex saved the report and minimized it.

"Your father is in charge of LuthorCorp. You haven't even been near Metropolis for eight years." Clark's voice faltered on the last part, his realization of what else Lex hadn't been back to leaking through.

Lex leaned back in his chair and stared out at Clark over the desk. He didn't say anything, just looked.

In the guest chair, Clark fidgeted. He was the wrong size and shape for it, really. Guest chairs were made for businessmen, some carefully fit and others carelessly overweight, yet neither category was that of over-large, farm-muscled, reporter-superhero. Women also had problems with the guest chairs most businessman provided, being over-delicate for them and looking out of place. It was either an unconscious psychological trick of man-on-top or a conscious one. Or just an accident. In any case, Clark didn't belong there.

"Lois told you to say that so I won't sue the Daily Planet for libel, didn't she?"

Clark grimaced. "Well, yes, but it's true."

"And you don't believe it." Lex twisted a pen within his fingers. "With the advantages of online communication nowadays, nobody ever has to physically be in the same room together to discuss something, and locations are irrelevant." Lord knew his father was able to harangue him from anywhere. The restrictions Lex had put on him for physically never meeting didn't stop him. Just look at what Lex was doing now.

"Lex..." Clark whined.

Clark was twenty-five, for pity's sake, he shouldn't be whining anymore, Lex thought. Unfortunately, it seemed that Lex was still susceptible to all of Clark's bag of tricks. The whining, the puppy-dog eyes, the droop of the shoulders, the way Clark ducked his head and then peered through his eyelashes to make the tall man appear as if he was looking up. The little crook of the mouth that said he knew Lex.

He didn't, though. Clark might know Lex better than any other person in the world, however he didn't really know him. Not if he believed that Lex was responsible for this. He was saying the right words, but Lex knew that Clark didn't believe the words. Likely, Clark was trying not to think about it at all, but that wasn't any better.

Lex sighed. "Clark, I'm busy. And if you're on break, your time is almost over. What do you want?"

Clark clasped and unclasped his hands. "Will you go out to dinner with me?"

Lex blinked. That was unexpected. "No."

Before Clark could protest, Lex raised his hand. "I'm having a dinner meeting with some of the plant managers."

Clark sighed. Then he frowned, "Which ones?"

"Tim Matthews, Orlando Diaz, Shawn Wilz." Lex saw no reason not to tell Clark, it wasn't exactly a corporate secret.

Clark's frown deepened. "Lex, they're the worst of the batch. I mean, not Tim, but Orlando and Shawn, they're... well, they're not very nice."

Interesting that Clark didn't include Tim in with that category. Lex knew very well who he was meeting with, and why. "It doesn't matter; it's business, not pleasure."

Clark's expression sharpened and then focused. His mouth with the pouty red lips twisted up and his dark thick eyebrows narrowed down. Lex had a hell of a time reading what it meant. With anybody else, he would have said... jealousy? Interest? Not, though, with Clark. Not now. Something, however, had gotten his attention.

Lex stood up. "Your break time is over, 'Leo', and I have work to do." He walked past Clark to the office door and went through without saying another word to Clark. Stopping at Judy's desk, he asked her to contact Martin for the last five years of preventive maintenance records.

Behind him, there was a weighty pause and he could feel Clark studying him. Judy kept glancing over Lex's shoulder, but Lex didn't turn around.

Finally, Clark moved. He walked behind Lex and Lex did his best to ignore Clark while being aware of him. A trick, yet one he'd learned to perfection under his dad's tutelage.

At the pinch on his ass, however, Lex jumped. A hand on his shoulder, he would have expected. Even a pat on the cheek. But his dad had never pinched his ass. Thank God.

Lex turned involuntarily, his eyes trying to return to their normal narrowness as he fought to calm his sudden heart-rate increase.

Clark grinned insolently. "I'll see you later... Lex." He walked off, his hips moving in a sway they'd never had in Smallville. Lex watched until Clark was out of sight, his heart unable to slow.

After a few minutes, Judy cleared her throat. "He is cute."

Honesty was sometimes the best disguise. "I'm wondering what he's up to." He turned back to the admin's desk.

Judy rolled her eyes. "I would have thought that was obvious."

Lex shrugged. "He's not really the type. I might have put it out there, but he didn't have to take it up, and I hadn't really thought he would." It had been a distraction, for pity's sake. Just a distraction.

"Money opens a lot of doors that are otherwise closed," Judy reiterated his former statement to him with a saucy wink.

Lex quirked a grin that wasn't a grin, accepting without being happy about it. Then he thought about that wink and raised an eyebrow at Judy in invitation.

It took her a minute to get it and then she flushed. "No!" She pushed her chair back but then thought better of standing up and folded her arms across her chest instead. "How is it you haven't gotten any sexual harassment claims placed against you yet?"

Lex's laugh was on the same scale as his grin. "They like the diamond earrings better, as either trophies or what they can sell them for." He glanced out the door. "Leo's ears aren't pierced. I wonder what he'd like."

Judy unfolded her arms, though still with an attitude of defiance. "Try a belt buckle," she sardonically suggested.

That would actually be... Clark would hate it. Lex loved it. His grin changed to real amusement.

"Is all this just a joke for you?" Judy asked.

Lex's gaze went to her in surprise. "How did you even get this job?"

Judy flushed, this time with embarrassment. "I'm sorry, that was out of line."

With a shrug, Lex dismissed it. He'd been out of line long before she was. "When I come into companies, usually the admins they give me are the spies for the bosses, and they can't wait to climb into bed with me and find out everything I'm planning." He eyed the mousey blonde, who was pretty but didn't wear makeup or dress herself up for the prowl. She was mostly just competent in her job. "You're a friend of Ms. Oakhust's, and you're not liked by Mr. Mackerson."

Judy's color deepened. "I... wait, usually?" Her voice rose a quarter octave, "They usually cli---" she shut her mouth on the rest and ended up balanced between horror and disgust.

"It's a time-honored way to raise in the ranks," Lex said softly, gentling his statement. "I don't get sent to companies that aren't having troubles, one way or another."

"And this is... your way to flush it out?" Judy was looking more thoughtful.

Not typically, but Lex might have to do it again in the future. His impromptu statement and action was having better results than if he'd planned it. In the plant, that is. Lex wasn't sure what was up with Clark. He looked again at the door, feeling the memory of Clark's hand on his ass. Clark had never wanted it before.

With a couple more comments to Judy about business, Lex let himself retreat to his office. He tried to concentrate on the reports he'd been working on, but his mind wouldn't cooperate. What was Clark up to?

Clark, so open, so beguiling, so dishonest and hurtful.

Lex had been grateful for his life, but what really had brought Clark into his circle was the combination of mystery and acceptance. It would be a lie to say that Lex hadn't been intrigued by Clark's mysteries from the start – he had a crumpled Porsche in his garage still that was proof of that. Yet when Clark had liked him, had ignored the Luthor name and the Luthor money and had approached Lex as a person, listening to him talk and genuinely caring... that's when Lex had fallen. People didn't listen to Lex; they listened to the money, or the orders from above, or were just waiting for their turn to talk, but they didn't actually hear him and sympathize and ask for more.

Only fifteen and still too young, but Clark had been somebody who moved into Lex's heart and made a home there. Lex hadn't known how to react. There was his training and his instincts, and a mystery to search out – multiple mysteries within the Smallville town as well as with his friend. There was also what he was learning from Clark – how to be honest and open, to care, to not manipulate but to "do the right thing." And Lex had tried, he really had, for Clark.

The lessons, however, were marred by the deceit. The lessons, also, hadn't all been one-sided.

Clark lied. While teaching Lex to be open, he lied. He also disapproved of things Lex did, without actually telling Lex what was wrong. For the longest time, Lex had been bewildered by Clark's shrinking from anything meteor-related. When meteors were on the table, all of Clark's native goodness went right out the door. Lex had been knocked unconscious by his friend while trying to help him (security cameras showed it clearly, and Lex had the only copy), Lex had been lied to, Lex had been yelled at more times than he could count, and Lex's gifts were thrown back in his face.

After the lies, Clark would come back, waiting for Lex's apology. Lex often himself did have things to apologize for, he made no bones about that. Yet as time went on... Lex was always the one apologizing, and Clark never did.

Lex's friendship with Clark had always been built in need, and that friendship had turned to an obsessive love that he couldn't turn away from. Lex knew it, and had known he shouldn't go to that obsessive level even at the same time as he was building and expanding on secret rooms. Yet, he loved Clark still and couldn't stop.

Clark, though, didn't love Lex. Lex knew that. He'd always known it. Clark was straight, had girlfriend worries that kept him talking for hours, and he kept backing away from Lex. The more Clark got to know Lex, the less he wanted to be with him.

The final straw had come after Lex's stint in the asylum. He had come back with a gap in his memory but he still had his friend, he had thought. How wrong he had been.

There was a knock on the door. "Mr. Sarelli emailed over the reports you asked for."

Lex glanced at the corner of his computer and blinked in surprise at the time. He'd been sitting there wallowing in memories for forty minutes. That was a chunk of time that he couldn't afford. Clark was as bad for him now as he always had been.

"Thank you, Judy." Lex checked his email and opened the reports. His eyebrows raised up his forehead and he picked up the phone.

"Martin, it's Lex. About these reports. No? I see... On all the machines? Thank you." Lex hung up.

Well, that explained at least part of the rise in production a few years ago and also the drop now. Nothing to do at all with the kryptonite gas in the chillers, just basic stupid management techniques. Much like Lex's father. Lex sighed and dropped his head into his hands. All machines had had their preventive maintenance programs switched off and had been placed on a run-to-fail schedule. That run-to-fail was now at the end of the cycle and the machines were on the verge of failing. Not all of them, but enough that it was cutting into the production.

Mackerson was going to be a casualty. No doubt about it. The only question was whether to fire him now and bring somebody in while Lex was still here, or to let it ride while Lex finished his other investigation. Lex had enough to deal with. He would leave Mackerson until later.

This would, though, be a good opportunity to explore the rest of the plant without suspicion. Lex had Judy call both Martin and Tim into the office while they arranged for a day to shut down the entire plant for any sort of production and concentrate on repairs to all the machinery. Sooner would be better, yet they also had to get the additional repair personnel in and make sure their operations would be covered by the days lost. They settled on the upcoming Thursday and Friday so the repairs could continue through the weekend.

As the personnel left, Martin had a spring in his step as he likely was planning out new preventive maintenance schedules and thought about how many people he would be able to hire. Tim left with an outward smile that wasn't reaching his eyes. Lex had noticed several side looks during the meeting and a few frowns when Tim thought Lex was concentrating on Martin.

It was too bad, really. Tim was a good Plant Engineer and a good manager. He would have been a strong candidate for Plant Chief, if it wasn't for his side interest. There wasn't really anybody else in the plant with the same level of experience and competence. Lex would have to bring in outsiders to take over, and he hated having to do that.

Lex went back to work.

...

The restaurant was more of a bar. Lex sighed just a little, internally, as he walked in and looked around. Dance floor in the middle, bar stools all around, a few tables, not a lot of quiet. Many more men in the seats than women, though there were quite a few women on the dance floor and circling the grounds. This wasn't a business meeting, it was a prey stalking. The only real question was who was the prey in this case.

Lex sat next to Tim, deliberately placing his back towards the crowd. It wasn't the old gunslinger days; if he sat with his back to the wall, it would be a sign of either nervousness or a desire to scope out the crowd. Lex wanted to give the impression that he trusted them, though he didn't, and that he was here for business. It gave him the advantage. Supposedly. Lex didn't really think they particularly cared what he wanted. Normal business went to hell when mutants were involved.

They started off with the business, at least. There was enough control and enough illusion to mask their real purpose, and Lex managed to learn a little more about the plant facilities and about the people.

They would make their move afterwards. Lex was sure of this. Let them finish dinner, some drinks, and Lex would head out to his car and get killed on the way home. Tragic, but in no way their fault. Lex wondered just how stupid they were to believe his father wouldn't come and shut down the whole facility if that happened. It would be smarter to wait him out. Lex technically hadn't discovered anything yet, and from all surface appearances, he wouldn't if the stated purpose really had been his. Unstable mutants, however, were not often given to rational thought, and they were paranoid to boot. It had less to do with the actual mutations than the sudden emergence of powers and a god-like complex when they could do what others could not. Different mutants handled their powers in different ways, and absolute power was a bitch.

"Lex, want to dance?"

Hearing the voice over his shoulder, Lex groaned. Not out loud. But in his mind, he did. Speaking of god-like complexes… "Leo," Lex purred, leaning back into the hand that rested on his shoulder. "I didn't know you were going to be here." He smirked at Tim, implying that Tim had brought Leo here for him.

Tim quickly controlled his look of surprise and managed a return smirk that was only slightly spoiled by the anger imperfectly hidden under it.

"I was passing through and saw you here," Clark said, his hand drifting over Lex's shoulder and down the front of his shirt, his body edging close behind Lex. "Are you almost done?"

The look in Tim's eyes was almost murderous. "No, he's not done yet. Come back in an hour."

At which point, their 'business' would be done and Lex would already be gone, and dead, supposedly, but 'Leo' wouldn't know that. Or it would give the goons a nice convenient scape-goat to blame the death on, if they could rearrange their plans. Lex half-closed his eyes and waited to see what Clark would do.

Clark slipped his hand down further and caressed Lex's chest, running his fingers over Lex's nipple. Lex shivered, unable to help it. "He's done with you," Clark purred, and pulled Lex up out of his chair and towards him.

Lex went along. He went to the dance floor with Clark and they slid into the song. There were gasps from people around them, this not having originally been a gay bar. Both Lex and Clark ignored them, Clark with his large hands on Lex's hips, not letting him go as they moved to the music.

"Do you know what you're doing?" Lex asked, his eyes half-lidded as he watched Clark.

Clark's eyes were dark and his pupils wide. He licked his lips and leaned in close to Lex. "I do."

"Do you," Lex murmured, half a question without the inflection. He ran a hand of his own up Clark's chest. "Leo."

Clark gasped a little as he felt Lex's hand travel its path. He tilted his head down and kissed Lex's ear, whispering, "They're planning to kill you tonight!"

Ah, that was it. Lex sighed and moved a little back, turning with the music and letting the beat wash over him. Clark's rescue instincts coming to the fore. It wasn't about Lex at all, this was just the convenient excuse. "I know that." He barely moved his lips, sub vocalizing the words. "They weren't going to try until after I'd started home. Car accident. I've got it taken care of. Don't worry. You can go home with your honor intact, this was just a mistake." Lex hadn't actually meant to say the last part. It just slipped out with the bitterness.

Clark opened his mouth then closed it again with a sigh. He rearranged his hands on Lex, putting one possessively on Lex's back and drawing him in closer again. The other was cupped on Lex's ass, warm and fitting comfortably there. It didn't feel like somebody who was just there to rescue him.

The body fit into his. Strong, powerful, big. Farmer's body with muscles and strength and taller than Lex. There weren't a lot of people who were physically bigger than Lex, and none whom Lex had loved. Clark pulled Lex to him and held him, dancing through the slow song, protecting him from life.

Lex wasn't sure when Clark had turned to the gay side. But he ignored the voice in his head crying out that something wasn't right. For now, at least; Lex would listen to it later. Clark holding him was a dream he had put away a long time ago and hadn't thought would happen. It might be happening now for the wrong reasons, but Lex thought he might take it. It was improper of him, almost as wrong as his obsession in the past, but if Clark was offering, no matter why Clark was offering, Lex would take it.

He tilted his head back, looking into Clark's eyes. Clark met his steadily, a little fearfully, yet determined, and he kissed Lex.

Not a long kiss, not a deep one, but it was a kiss, a press of lips against lips with no flinching and an intent of more behind it. Lex swallowed as Clark moved away.

"I do know what I'm doing," Clark said in a normal voice volume.

"Be sure," Lex said, warning in his own. "Be very sure."

"I am," Clark kissed Lex again, then pulled him off the dance floor and outside.

As they passed by Tim and his confederates, huddled together in a tight knot of consternation, Lex waved briefly to them. "See you tomorrow, Tim. Thanks for dinner."

Clark laughed a little. "Yeah, tomorrow."

The look on the faces was priceless. They just didn't know what to do now that Lex was with Leo. Go through with their plans for a car accident and kill two, or wait until later.

Lex could appreciate the dilemma, even as Clark kept going.

At Lex's car, they stopped. Clark kissed Lex again, this time with tongue and putting his leg between Lex's. Lex rested against the metal of the car behind him and let himself be devoured. He didn't know where this was coming from, or why, but he wasn't going to stop it. Clark was kissing him. Clark was undressing him.

Just a little; the buttons on his shirt opened so Clark's mouth could get better access to Lex's neck. It was undressing, though, and they were in a parking lot. Lex fumbled for his keys without looking, his hand going into his pocket with little thought and less attention. Clark's lips were on his skin, his tongue licking along the curves, licking in that little hollow down under the jaw.

There was a hand at his waist, moving lower and in.

Lex groaned. He was going to die again, he knew it. But first, the keys. Lex got them out and tried to look at the car. The expanse of Clark before him was incredibly distracting.

Clark took the keys from him with one hand while continuing to pin Lex against the car with his body. He unlocked the driver's door but didn't open it. Instead he walked Lex sideways a couple of steps, moving him with his body, before he opened the back seat.

There was no objection from Lex. Not what he'd planned, in a parking lot with his employees roaming around the area, yet he hadn't planned this at all. Clark's tongue was back in his mouth and Clark's hand cupping his head tenderly and possessively. Clark guided Lex into the car without Lex ever seeing any of it. He ended up stretched out in the back with Clark looming over him.

For a brief period, Lex was left alone as Clark retreated to tend to the door. He stared at the ceiling in the car, the fuzzy cloth that wasn't quite a carpet but gave texture and color to the interior. What was Clark doing? Rescuing Lex by robbing him of his senses. Clark had never wanted this, yet Clark was instigating this, and Clark's body said he wanted it. Lex should probably check for red kryptonite or something, yet...

With the door closed, Clark returned to sprawling over Lex's body and there went the end of Lex's thoughts. He opened up his arms and welcomed Clark there.

Clark snuggled in, laying himself along Lex and reclaiming his mouth, his hands wandering over Lex's chest and sides, loosening Lex's shirt from his pants and going under to the skin. Lex lost himself in the sensations, twisting under Clark as he reached for one sense and then the other. He clung back at Clark, kissing the lush lips and nibbling them into redness, sucking all the tastes from Clark's mouth. Clark had last eaten hamburger, he'd last drunk coffee. Lex drank it all in and wanted more.

For once, Lex really wished he drove a full-size car. He wasn't driving the sports cars of his youth, but the back seat of his Lexus just wasn't big enough for an actively moving Clark. Lex was contorted into odd positions as they twisted around each other. Yet there was no higher bliss he'd ever experienced.

As they shifted onto their sides, trying not to roll off the seat, Lex put up his hand to steady himself. He felt it sliding along the car window, trailing through the steam that had built up there. At least people couldn't see through the windows anymore. Lex brought his hand down and stroked through Clark's hair. Rich, black, soft, the strands sliding smoothly through his fingers as he knew they always would.

The sound of a zipper going down was suddenly loud amidst the gasps and moans and skin slapping. Lex stilled the rest of his body in order to feel Clark's hand reaching in and stroking along his dick.

"Ah..." Lex arched his body, gasping out his sensation.

Clark stroked, his hand enveloping Lex in heat and tightness, his gaze intent on Lex's face.

Lex kept closing his eyes, then opening them again so he could see Clark. Clark's gaze never wavered, his own mouth slightly parted and desire there to match Lex's own.

Lex cried out. Then he slumped, boneless with the force of his pleasure, sliding partially off the seat before Clark shifted his grip and pulled Lex back.

Kisses were rained upon Lex's unresisting face, covering his cheeks, his eyes, his nose, his mouth even as he tried to breathe.

Then he was left with air as Clark raised up above him, a hand braced on the roof of the car, a knee on the floor, the other leg straddled over Lex as he pumped himself while staring at Lex.

"Lex," Clark groaned. "Lex, Lex... oh, Lex!"

White spurted out, landing between the folds of Lex's shirt and his bare chest, spattering him in a way Lex couldn't help but think reinforced Clark's claim on him. It was inevitable, it was frightening, it was natural, it was alien.

Lex closed his eyes as Clark settled down on top of him, Clark murmuring words in an exhausted slurred blur that Lex couldn't recognize. He sounded happy and possessive, protective as he pulled Lex into his arms. Lex kept his eyes shut as his breathing settled and his mind started to work again.

"Well, as far as ways to rescue me, I admit I prefer it over another concussion."

Clark opened his eyes and glared at Lex.

"No, really. Artificial rescues are even better."

"They were going to kill you!" Clark moved slightly away, resting his weight on his arms, and slipping a leg down to the car floor.

Lex shrugged as much as he could, crammed in the back seat with a giant on top of him. "Comes with the territory. They wouldn't have succeeded, they're amateurs."

Clark sat up, or tried to, squirming around as he realized he couldn't actually do that without squishing Lex. "Lex! Why do you have to make this so hard?"

With a snort, Lex stretched his arms out over his head. The pleasure was leaving his body, though the relaxed feeling remained. "You can drive me home now."

"What?"

"You have my car keys, you can drive me back. Then, if they try and drive the car off the road, you'll know who's responsible."

Clark stared at Lex for a long moment, trapped in his awkward position. "Lex..." He sounded betrayed, like he'd thought a quick fuck would have fixed everything between them and he was astounded that it hadn't.

Lex looked calmly back, not giving an inch.

"I..."

"Did you really think this would solve anything?" Lex asked slowly, trying to figure out what Clark was thinking. "You might want to rescue me, but you still don't believe me or trust me. What will I get next? An accusation that I've put Chloe in danger?"

"You did!" Clark tried to scramble away, constrained by the car. He ended up sitting on the edge of the seat, with Lex's legs sprawled behind him.

"I was performing research that wasn't safe. There were four locked doors, including a combination code on a biohazard portal. Only authorized personnel could get through the doors, and only I had the combination code. Yet somehow, you and Chloe ended up inside the research room just in time for it to blow up. I never did find out what caused it to blow up – forensics were undetermined. I will take the possible blame for putting myself in danger from an untested, illegal research project to retrieve lost memories. Putting yourself and Chloe in danger, though... there is no humanly possible way you two could have gotten in there, so I refuse to take that blame." Lex glared, the unfairness of it all as clear in his memory as if it had been yesterday. He'd tried so hard to make sure he was the only one who would be hurt, and still, people he'd cared about had been sent to the hospital. He was lucky Chloe hadn't died.

His fault. Not his fault. Lex growled a little, remembering it. "I might have apologized to you at the time, if I had been given a chance, just like I did for all things that weren't my fault in the three years preceding it, but I refuse to do it now. You were not asked to come and rescue me now. It was your choice, and the results are on your hands."

Clark opened and closed his mouth a few times, looking more and more hurt as he did it. Finally, he turned away and reached for the door handle.

"You might want to climb over the seats," Lex mentioned snidely, having a pretty good idea as to what was outside. The steam was starting to dissipate from the windows, though it was still fairly thick.

Ignoring Lex, Clark opened the door. After a second, he slammed it closed again.

Lex snickered. He might now have a reputation he would never ever get rid of in this town for as long as he lived, but it was all worth it for the look of horror and realization on Clark's face at this moment. The cheering and jeers from outside the car could clearly be heard from within.

Clark glared at Lex, then scrambled awkwardly into the front seat, zipping up his pants as he did so. Lex's car seats would never be the same again. May not quite require a trip to the mechanic, but the car had definitely never been made for giants crawling around in them.

There was a metal wrenching sound from the passenger seat as Clark accidentally bent it back, and Lex winced a little.

With a bit more fumbling, Clark was able to adjust the driver's seat and he started the car.

Lex didn't bother sitting up, nor did he arrange his clothing, however he did glance to the windows. People could be seen faintly outside the car, but the remaining steam made them blurry. The front windshield was probably clearer.

The car drove forward. Lex didn't hear the windshield wipers, so Clark either could see okay without them, or he was using his x-ray vision. Lex hadn't yet admitted to knowing about that, had he? He didn't think so. That last experiment that had blown up might have put Lex in the hospital, but it had restored his memory. The hurt of Lex's lost friendship with Clark had been even stronger when he had known what else he had lost. He had left Smallville the day he got out of the hospital and never went back.

"Lex?" Clark sounded annoyed, his voice tight and tense.

Lex realized that he'd missed a question somewhere in his ruminations. He reviewed his memory, however even though he had the lost memories there, he didn't have what he hadn't heard originally. "Sorry, I was sleeping. What did you ask?"

There was a little creak from the front seat, probably Clark gripping the steering wheel. Lex's poor car. "Where are you staying? The Hyatt?"

Given his father's tendencies, and his own history at the time Clark had known him, Lex figured that wasn't an unreasonable assumption. It still annoyed him. He rattled out an address while he stared at the carpeted ceiling.

There was a noticeable pause from the front seat.

With a sigh, Lex sat up, settling himself into the seat and looking to see what road they were on now. "Go left on Wayfinder Drive." He tucked himself back into his clothes, straightening out without making it a production.

He continued to give Clark directions until they arrived at his townhome unit.

The car stopped, and Lex got out. After a minute, Clark did too.

Silently, Lex held out his hand. "My keys?" he prompted after Clark looked blank.

"Oh, right." Clark hesitated again, then put the keys into Lex's hand.

There was a moment where Lex wondered if Clark was going to take Lex's hand, his fingers resting closer to the skin than just handing them over would have been. Lex hastily grabbed the keys and dropped his hand before that could happen.

"Thank you for a delightful evening," Lex said politely as he turned to the walkway. "If you desire, I can call a cab for you."

"Lex..." Clark's voice still sounded broken.

For a moment, Lex felt sorry for him. It was a good thing his back was already turned. "You want the cab?"

"No. No, I... Never mind."

In his mind, Lex could almost see the large shoulders droop. He started up the steps. "Goodnight, Leo. I'll see you at the plant tomorrow."

Lex opened his door, stepped inside, and closed it, ignoring everything that was outside. He was home at his temporary home. That was enough. For now, all he wanted and needed was a shower.

...
... ... ...

Part Two