The Memoirs

Clark was flipping out. Just... flipping out. He'd stopped midway on the run home when he realized Lex wasn't in Smallville anymore. He said he'd be going for a ride, but when Clark reached out, really reached out, their link, still fragile and young, could feel him moving, fast, further and further away.

Kidnapped. Dead. A hundred billion trillion thoughts and he was almost in tears as he screamed. LEX!

Lex nearly jumped out of his seat on the airplane as the equivalent of a foghorn blasted in his head. Clark!!!

Oh, GOD! Where are you! LEX! Oh God, are you hurt??? AUSHNA'! Arquala salush, arquala salush! Vectantith on' trenk! Clark was hysterical, and as he was attracting a bit of attention from passersby, began to walk quickly down main street, keeping his head down.

Lex blinked. Clark, I'm fine. Calm down, beloved, please. I'm fine. I feel... happy.

You, you are not in Smallville anymore! Where are you aushna'?? Are you hurt? Please, talk to me, tell me if you're alright!!!

I'm on my way to Gotham; I'm going to have dinner with Bruce. That's all. I wanted to tell him about the baby, and my drive... sort of turned into a flight. I'm sorry, Clark.

Lex had left him in Smallville alone. The first time they'd been separated since they'd bonded and he trembled, all over, with fear, anger, distrust... MORE anger. You left me alone. Why, why didn't you tell me?

A quizzical frown passed over Lex's features, and he sent the feeling back to his lover. I thought you could tell; I didn't think to tell you.

I couldn't tell, I couldn't tell, I was with Whitney trying to help him and trying to keep Chloe from losing it. Alright, more anger, and Clark was going to have some choice words for him. Yes, his lover was under a lot of pressure, but... Christ. If I leave tomorrow and don't tell you where I'm going, how would you feel?

I'd be having a fit.

He could be calm. He could be... very calm. Yes. Calm. I'm sorry. I was just worried. Be careful, Lex. You need this, and I understand.

I'm always careful, Clark. He paused. Do you want to come and have dinner with Bruce and I?

No. He was needed in Smallville, to take care of Whitney and Chloe in their time of need, and yeah, he was pissed, but it was his aushna', so he couldn't be too pissed. Be careful. I'll see you in a few days.

I'll be home tomorrow night, don't worry. He sent along a firm push of love along their link. I love you, Clark.

Bite me. Be careful. I have to pull away... it takes too much energy to keep the link up. It was sapping his strength like he couldn't believe, his muscles burning with the effort to keep moving. Come home to me soon.

I will. Lex let his lover go, and then picked up the cabin phone, whistling as he called Clark's cell phone, which he hoped was still in his lover's pocket.

Clark let go and sighed, deeply, sinking onto the bench in front of the Talon as he rested quietly. It had hurt to link, and he was infuriated, and then the buzzing.

"BEEEE!!!!!"

He shrieked it and leapt off the bench, gasping as he stared around... then blinked, and burned nearly maroon as he unhooked his cell, coughing and opening it up. "Hello?"

"You never just call me anymore."

"I'm going to wring your pretty neck." He muttered, and slid back onto the bench, rubbing his face softly.

"No, you won't. You love me too much." Lex was humming dance music under his breath.

"What happened, Lex? Why didn't you tell me you needed my help?" Clark asked quietly, eyebrows furrowed. "Why didn't you tell me you needed to get away?"

"I didn't exactly realize it until I was on the way." He sighed. "I know it sucks. But I just had to go; I mean, everybody's depending on me for something, everybody got what they needed, I just... needed to take a break myself."

Clark just... he didn't say anything to that, rubbing his face again as he shifted a leg. "Whitney settled in at the Sullivans'. He wouldn't let go for a while, and I put him to sleep after a while."

"I'm glad you were there for him. Clark... I'm sorry. Please don't be angry."

"I'm pissed as hell and plan to stay that way." Clark retorted, and this time he let the anger shine through. "I'm sure you'd have some colorful words for me if I took off."

"Yeah, of course I would." Lex rubbed a hand over his head, still humming softly. "Just don't be too angry, then."

"No, no, let me rephrase that. Not only would you have colorful words for me, you'd grind it in and you'd never let me live it down, or if you did, it would take months. So no, I'm not okay with it. But I can see you're barely listening to me, so just… go. Be careful."

Lex frowned. "I--I'm sorry, Clark. I just--I'm sorry." Lex hung up the phone in the cabin, and put it back on the wall beside the drink cabinet. He pulled his knees up to his chest, tucking them in close as he wrapped his arms around them and squeezed.

Oh, no fucking way was his lover going to make him feel bad. He snarled at the phone, brought it down, made an assumption, and dialed star sixty nine. He was being the prickiest prick that ever did prick, and he knew it. Damn it. Lex would kill him, but Clark couldn't yell at his chosen mate without feeling... well, Exhibit A and the prickiest prick thing. He sighed, deeply, and rubbed his face as his jaw clenched and he waited.

Lex cocked his head at the phone on the wall, and almost didn't answer it. Because he knew it was Clark, and he knew that Clark was going to yell at him. And he didn't like it when Clark yelled at him. So he dragged his hand over his face, then got up and picked up the phone.

"I'm sorry." Clark said, as he heard the receiver lift. "I'm sorry for yelling at you. I'm sorry I didn't see how hard you had it, aushna'. It was wrong of me to yell at you."

Lex just sniffled silently. "It's okay," he said, voice quiet and lacking the exuberance he'd had when talking to Bruce earlier.

Clark heard it. He wasn't completely cut off from his lover, and he felt his pain. "Lex... aushna'. I'm sorry for yelling."

"It's okay, Clark. Really. I shouldn't have gone. I just needed to get out. I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry, Lex." Clark answered, quietly, and wanted so badly to hug his lover as he spoke to him. "Don't be sorry to me, baby."

He shrugged again, though he knew Clark couldn't see it. "I didn't mean to worry you. I was just... tired, and everything."

Now he just felt even worse. "Tell me what I can do, aushna'. Anything, tell me. I'm so sorry."

"Just don't be angry at me. Don't yell at me. I don't like it when you yell at me."

Crap. Crap. Crap. "Lex, I was just angry with you. Please, do not be angry with me, aushna', don't feel badly." Crap! "I'm so sorry for yelling at you, I was just mad. You're not alright, and I don't want you to think I'm not here, Kenep."

Lex rubbed his hand over his face again. "I'm not angry, Clark. At all."

"I'm angry with myself." Clark answered, softly. "I'm so sorry for not helping you as I should have, Lex. I'm sorry." Crap. Now he felt like shit. "Be careful, and return to me soon, aushna'."

"Don't you feel bad either, Clark. It's not your fault. You had a lot of things to deal with too. Suddenly finding out you misplaced a couple of years, then Whitney's mom dying, then Dad's thing with the baby... you just handled it better, that's all."

"Bullshit." Vehemently said. "You were wonderful, and had a calm head. I didn't. Lex… baby, I love you."

Lex perked up at that. "I love you too, Clark. I love you so much."

"Just...come home soon. Come home soon. Please."

"I will. I'll come home tonight. After dinner with Bruce. I proise. I'll be right back."

"Okay." Clark answered it, quietly, and smiled a little. "See you later, Lex."

"See you later tonight, Clark." Lex smiled a little too. "I'm glad you're not mad."

"I'm plenty mad. But not at you, so don't worry. I love you, aushna'."

"I love you, my aushna'."

Clark quietly pushed the off button and lay his head back on the bench to close his eyes.

Fuck.

- = - = -

Wayne Manor was impressive. Not just because Bruce owned it, of course, but because of its sheer size and beauty. It lay out in the late evening winter sun like a beckoning lover, with arching towers and lovely marble. Twin horses made of marble roared at the entrance of the gates, which led right into the beautiful orchard Bruce had sprawling in front of the home. In the warmer months it was full of ripe apples, lotus blossoms, oranges and trees, but right now they lay dormant and asleep in the cold snow that had blanketed Gotham just the night before. It had been cleared by Bruce's staff around the parking way, and Bruce waited, in coat and mittens, as he saw the Royce coming in through the main gates.

He had slipped into his thick coat and matching scarf and stood, shivering, on the front stoop.

Lex was sitting in the back of the car, looking out the windows. He hadn't been to Gotham City in years, hadn't been to Wayne Manor since he was eighteen, in fact, and had crashed through the living room and then stolen the boat.

The outside of the house was exquisitely old, exquisitely beautiful, and classy in a way that Luthor Mansion could never be. Just like Bruce himself, standing there all in black, had class that Lionel Luthor couldn't even touch.

The car rolled up to a stop in front of the house, and instead of waiting for Alfred to come around and open the door, Lex opened it himself and picked up his duffel bag, smiling softly as he got out of the car. "Honey, I'm home."

"Bitch." Bruce took two steps down and embraced Lex tightly, hugging him close to him for a long moment. Just because he wanted to. "Come on, come in. How was your trip?" He took the duffle bag from Lex's hands and started up the rustic steps, shaking the few fallen snow flakes from his shoulders.

Lex hugged tightly back, squeezing hard as he could. "The trip was great, and I'm not a bitch. At least, not yours anymore." Wide grin, as even seeing Bruce was enough to drive off his blahs.

"Bull. You'll be my bitch until the day we die, and its sad how we both know it." Bruce set the bag down by the steps for Alfred to take up later, and shrugged out of his jacket, setting it on the old coat hanger beside the door. "Come on, come in. Nothing much has changed, you'll see. Dick! You still upstairs?"

"Master Bruce." He'd left the car parked outside, just in case, and Alfred stepped into the house, pocketing the keys easily as he rose a brow at the intercom system.

Bruce blinked back at him for at least ten seconds, before turning and bellowing again. "Dick!"

"I heard you the first time!" Dick bellowed back, from the top of the stairs. "Christ if those Senatori people haven't been a bad influence on you!!"

Lex left his arm around Bruce's waist as he walked in with him, pulling his coat and scarf off, hanging it by the door beside Bruce's. "Hey, Dick. How are you feeling?"

"Hey, Lex." Dick was slowly negotiating the stairs. "Didn't we just get rid of you?"

Bruce snickered for a half moment as he let go of his long time friend and took the steps, to help his lover with his crutches. "That's what I said, but no one ever listens to the dark and broody one."

Alfred cleared his throat. "Master Lex, will you be staying the night sir?"

"Course we don't listen, Bruce. You're dark and broody. Nobody listens to a brooder."

Lex shook his head. "I'd been planning on it, but i think I'm going to end up going back to Smallville after dinner with Bruce. Clark's not exactly thrilled with me taking off, and I promised him I'd come back home."

"Figured you took off without a word." Bruce rose his voice. "Alfred, set him up in the Orchard room, alright?"

"Yes, sir." Alfred bowed his head and off he went with Lex's things.

"I'll call Clark and explain to him that everything's fine." Bruce told his younger friend as he helped Dick down onto the main floor, rolling his eyes at Lex as he motioned for the both of him to follow him. "Come on, lets go have a brandy while Lex tells us just why he lost his marbles."

"But--" Lex sighed as Alfred disappeared. "I should know by now not to argue with you when you get high-handed."

Dick just snickered madly at that. "High-handed, yeah, that's one word for it." He grunted as his cast hit the floor, but he was used to the crutches now and he knew the house like the back of his hand, and he started moving quickly, keeping up with Bruce. "Lex, it's okay. We all know you never had your marbles in the first place."

Lex flipped his middle finger up at Dick. "Bite me, Boy Wonder."

"My job, Luthor." Muttered as large oaken doors that shined like a new penny opened, and he waited for two of the three people he loved more than the world to enter. "And don't you forget it, either."

"I won't." Lex snickered as he followed into the study, and took one of the oversized plush chairs for himself. He kicked his shoes off, and pulled his feet up under him, settling comfortably into the soft puffy chair.

Dick shuffled in behind Lex, and took the other oversized chair, grinning up at Bruce. "Big. Broody. Badass."

"Lets look at my previous "don't you forget it" statement." He busied himself by making sure his lover had an extra pillow for his leg, and walked across the room like he owned this palace, which he did, taking out a thirty two brandy from the large oaken cupboard around the small bar beside the piano. He poured a finger for each of them and took the bottle and the three glasses back over to where his friends were sitting. "So, Lex, why the drive? Come on, dish it out."

Okay. "Okay. Let's see... where am I going to start... oh, I know. I assume the two of you watched my dad's interview?"

"Uh huh," Dick said, humoring Lex.

"Right. Knew you would have. Anyway, I had to tell Clark something that upset him; he's actually nineteen years old, because of how he was found? Jonathan and Martha apparently deducted a couple of years off his age so that he'd fit in with the rest of the people in his supposed age group, though you can look at him and tell he's nowhere near seventeen." Another sigh. "He's nineteen--just turned it, actually. Not to mention, that bitch outed Clark and I to the entire civilized world, which is precisely what we didn't need. On top of that? The media attention sent the surrogate mother running back to Canada. So yesterday dawned with no surrogate mother, Clark worked up over turning nineteen suddenly and being on national television, and oh yes, mustn't forget that Whitney's mother died. And that's just the abridged version."

"Its that fucking hick town." Bruce glared darkly at the corners of the room as he listened to Lex speak. "There's bad mojo going on over there like I haven't ever seen. Cursed, evil, a little... more cursed." Bruce just shook his head slightly and crossed his legs easily. He'd known something was going on with the mother, and he gave Dick a knowing look before gazing at Lex for a moment. "Did you find a mother?"

"Yeah, we did. At the last minute. A doctor friend of Dominic's--Toni Braxton. She volunteered literally at the last minute."

"So that's one problem taken care of." Bruce raised a brow. "As for the nineteen year old thing, give him a week. He'll be singing his praise to the angels. How many of us wished we'd be nineteen at seventeen? Me, for one." He tipped his head slightly. "You've been outed. Do you not follow the news?"

"No, no, Bruce... you don't understand. This is Clark. Who's tried all his life to be... normal. And now, he's missed one of the normal milestones. He never got to be eighteen."

"He was eighteen for a year. He lost his son, he nearly lost you, his life changed. He'll get over it, Lex. All of us try to be normal...but we're not. You're not, Dick's not, I sure as fuck am not. It isn't a milestone... its a pain in the ass. I hated being eighteen. I hated being nineteen too, come to think of it, but he'll get over it, Lex."

"You're not from another world, Bruce. Neither am I, and neither is Dick. Dick... you remember eighteen, don't you?"

"Yeah, and it wasn't all it was cracked up to be. I gotta go with Bruce on the whole "he's gonna get over it" thing."

Lex didn't argue it. "Why should I be following the news?"

"Because people have known you were a fag and dating some young buck in Smallville for months." Bruce raised a brow. "Lionel did cut out all news transmissions into the mansion though, and I'm glad he did. You and your step father lived in blissful ignorance for as long as he could pull it. But you've been on the news for months. Its like you went into hiding, and people are always crazy over shit like that."

"Jesus fucking Christ!" Lex tossed his empty glass down. "Bruce, why didn't you tell me this before? They're going to be beating down the door to get to Clark, and do you know how dangerous that is? For him??"

"They didn't beat down the door because your dad has threatened lawsuits." Bruce said it, calmly. "I found out by deducing… CNN worked in the Cayenne, but didn't work at the mansion. I tracked it down… your father told me everything. Clark is safe."

"Fuck, fuck fuck fuck fuck FUCK!" Lex growled it. "Son of a fucking bitch."

Bruce raised a brow. Didn't say anything else as he had his temper tantrum. "Would you like to beat your fists against the floor?"

"If I thought it would help!!"

Dick rolled his eyes. "Lex, baby... damn. You're two or twenty two?"

Heeeeeee. "Just calm down, alright? Finish your brandy... I've got something to show you that will make you feel better."

"I'm calm. I'm calm." Lex breathed deeply. "Goddammit to hell. Dad should have fucking told me, should have told me what he was doing so I could protect Clark!"

"He was protecting you, too, though I think sometimes you'd wish he didn't." Bruce answered cheerfully, and threw back the rest of his brandy, sighing softly once the amber liquid slid down his throat like ambrosia.

"I'm not the one who needs the protection, Bruce. Clark is. Clark's the one who's going to be under the fucking microscope now." He sighed. "What in hell's name convinced him this was a good idea??" He sighed again. "I'm calm. I'm calm."

"He wasn't thinking clearly. He told me all he wanted to do was to protect Dominic, because he saw how Dominic got when the press started poking into their lives. Something about folding in on himself more." He nodded it, brow raised. "And you, and Clark."

"Christ. Fucking bastard. He should have consulted me." He refilled the glass from Bruce's bottle, and sighed. "Fuck."

"Yes, because consulting you is what he should have done to keep you safe from the media." Bruce rolled his eyes and humphed back into his chair, scratching a chest where his scratchy wool sweater snuggled his skin.

"I don't need to be kept safe! I can take care of myself! It's Clark that needs my help!"

Bruce rubbed his eye carefully, trying not to roll them around in his head anymore as he offered his lover a sigh. "Dick, the kid doesn't understand."

Dick just snickered. "No, no, he don't. Not a bit. And he's not gonna; come on, Bruce, the man rivals you in the stubbornness department. Give it up, and move on. Although, I'm amused off my ass watching you two butt heads over it."

"Gee, thanks." Christ, neither would ever learn. Bruce climbed up to his feet, setting his empty glass on the table top, and motioned to the door. "Want to come help me work on the suit, Dick?"

"Yeah, of course. I've been dying to get my hands on the new mini-welder ever since Al told me about it. The design of that thing's gotta be phenomenal to pack all those PSI's into microcircuitry!"

Lex's attention was suddenly riveted. "Microcircuitry?"

"it's amazing what Waynetech did while we were in Smallville." Bruce said it conversationally, helping his lover to his feet and grasping him around the waist, the enormous cast clunked out in front of them. He glanced back, bored, and raised a brow. "Micro circuitry. The smallest welder known to man--it works with a laser one eighteenth of an inch long... roughly the size of a pin head. And its powerful enough to repair even the most delicate of gizmos... but I understand that you need time to yourself, to brood, to think, to call your dad. We'll just be downstairs in the cave."

"You can get inside microcircuitry now?" Lex pushed up out of his chair. "How did you get the crystal to focus the laser so precisely? What grade of crystal are you using? What's the power source like? Is it self contained? Is it portable? How long before I get one?"

"I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, yes, yes, and another year and a half. Unless..." Bruce raised a brow.

"Unless what?" Lex was halfway to the door, and he stopped and looked back over his shoulder at Bruce.

"You want to... take the prototype with you." Another half bored shrug of his shoulders cause yeah. Bruce had snagged him, hook, line, and sinker.

"You'd give me the prototype? How long before you'd get another one like it? What do the schematics of it look like? What kind of components does it use?" Clear thought, straight out of the blue. "Can you open it up and let me look at the focus crystal? Because if I can replace it with Kryptonite, that might be just what I need to incise Clark if anything should happen to him."

"I've got two prototypes." Bruce raised his brow again, side glancing at his lover with a near wicked glance that came and went in a moment. "That is, if Dick would be alright with it, you can have one, no problem. You should be able to replace it with kryptonite... you can even use the laser itself to make the kryptonite crystal."

Dick just rolled his eyes to himself, and grinned at Bruce. Ubergeek Lex was just too much fun to tease. "Oh, I don't know... It'd be kind of nice for us each to have one, Bruce." His eyes were twinkling. "Buuuuut... I could be persuaded."

"Would you let me be the one doing the persuading?" His eyebrows waggled as he got his lover on his feet carefully, helping him get his crutches before sneaking in for a kiss so he wouldn't crack up. "Come on, lets get downstairs."

"Oh, of course." Dick took the quick kiss that Bruce offered and then another one as he let Bruce pull him to his feet, and buried his snigger in Bruce's shoulder.

Lex was standing in the doorway, shifting his weight from foot to foot, jigging impatiently and trying not to hurry them along.

Yeah, Bruce saw it. Yeah, he was damned amused. Yeah, he couldn't hide it. He snuggled Dick close for a moment before letting him go to hobble along, and raised a brow at his long time friend as he slid his fingers into his pockets. "I also have one of the nine worldwide build Cam computers, that were built for DNA institutions. There's so much ram and memory that it can hold four million strands, entire strands, of DNA. I needed something like it for the cave, and all my toys that go along with it. Its so fast that it does what you want simply by speaking to it."

"You know, if you weren't such a bastard, you'd have shown me this already instead of torturing me with it. And if you weren't already taken, I'd marry you just for your toys." Lex sniffed, but he couldn't hold the indignant face for long. "I'm dying to see the equipment!"

"I know. That amuses me like I'm sure you'll never know." Bruce answered back with not just a little amusement, winking at Alfred as he came down the steps, and Bruce led his troop out into the front foyer again. Around the enormous stair case and around to the second hallway. He rubbed a boot mark off one of the marble pillars, sparing Dick a glare, and pulled his set of keys out.

"Don't look at me, man. I haven't been able to wear boots since I came home, much less do the kind of acrobatics necessary to leave that mark there." He snorted. "Yell at Al for not scrubbing it down."

Lex bounced on the balls of his feet. "You know, I don't think I've ever been in this part of the castle before."

"Of course you haven't." Bruce answered, rooting through his key ring until he laid his fingers on a tiny, unmarked key, and slid it into the lock of the door, turning and pushing it open.

The room was lined with glassware. Gobs of it. Pitchers, glasses, wine and champagne coolers, flutes and squat ice cream bowls. Hundreds of plates and silverware on another wall, shining, gleaming ceramic, and Bruce smiled as he lifted one of the glasses that looked like it could have cost three hundred dollars alone, and tossed it at Lex. "Dummy glass. All of it."

Lex caught it easily. "It's Waterford crystal." He turned it over in his fingertips. "It's not crystal--it's not heavy enough. Christ, Bruce... where did you find this stuff? It's amazing; it looks real!"

Dick coughed softly. "Don't I know it. First time I barreled in through here, I thought I'd broken a hundred years worth of family heirlooms; Bruce didn't tell me until six months later that it was all cheap shit. I coulda kicked his ass for that."

Bruce snickered, evilly over Lex's shoulder at his lover, before winking at Lex. "Secrets of the trade. When Clark needs his own secret hole in the mansion, I'll tell you." He slid the keys in his pocket and shut the door behind Dick, before pushing a button hidden behind a 'ceramic' plate, and the lights went out, before neon green lights shot out and began to scan. "Sorry. Have to make sure there aren't cameras or listening devices."

Dick was well used to it; he just shrugged and let the scans do their thing.

Lex was enraptured, Geeker at his heart and soul coming out to the forefront and he rocked on his heels as he waited for the scan to stop. "This is so cool!"

"You haven't even seen the door yet, Lex." Bruce snickered it, rolling his eyes as the scan ended with only bringing up Lex's cell phone. "Alright, its kind of cool down here, so don't get shocked." He stepped around to the front end cabinet, where he pushed a button and all the bottoms of glasses and plates magnetically attached to the wood, and he pushed the cabinet over easily. A solid door, and he punched in his numbers before it opened with a whoosh of air. "Here we go. Watch your step."

Dick knew the layout of the cave as well as he did the back of his hand, and it was easy for him to slide through, and into the cave proper. He made his way to the workbench, and dropped down gently onto it, smiling at the array of gizmos on the table.

Lex stepped over the threshold and just... stared.

When he'd heard cave, he'd expected dark and dank. It was dark, but only because the lights were on low, and carefully picked his way through. It was a real cave, but you couldn't tell it; there was not a damp spot to be seen. There was a steep chasm to the side, and Lex could hear what he assumed to be the rustling of bat wings. In front, all around, spanning catwalks, there was an amazing amount of stuff.

"Oh my God."

Bruce glanced down at his young friend and chuckled softly, motioning a hand. "This is the cave. Watch your step. I never built hand rails, though there's a net down under each walkway, just in case. The cave goes down for five miles, so...if you fall, you'll be falling for a while." He motioned a hand. "Come on down."

"I won't fall." Lex just looked around in sheer awe. Screens and cameras monitored every section of the house, God only knew how much memory and processing capability was built into the huge computer. The chair in front of it was vaguely throne-like, with wide spires at the top that suggested a spreading wing. Lex dropped heavily into the chair, turning around in it to just stare. "Jesus Christ, Bruce."

He was proud. Indecently so. He'd built this entire place by himself, with Dick helping him put the finishing touches on certain things. And he wasn't beyond a little showing off. "The hub is my computer station. I have tabs on fifty different sections of the city going at all times, and the computer tells me when something is amiss. I also have constant surveillance of the house and a two hundred mile perimeter." He pointed again, at the Batmobile, sitting silent and shiny on its platform. "The bat mobile. Off to the left in the shadows you should be able to see one of the planes... its hanging upside down. The boat is off at the pier down to the north of the cave." He kept pointing. "Down there, the metal long oval thing? That's where I have all the suits, four but there will be more, and all the gadgets."

"Holy Christ. How long did it take you to put this place together?" Lex ran his fingers gently, almost worshipfully, over the console.

"Six years." He smiled. "And I'm not finished, not by a long shot. Want to see what we've got going on the suit so far? Alfred's been sewing it for a few weeks now, ever since I told him what design I wanted. He's got about four to chose from… they're all hanging in there. They'll be state of the art."

"The suit?" Lex looked at him blankly.

"Clark." Bruce grinned, crookedly at him. "Would you like to see it?"

Another long blink. "Clark's suit? You've been... already? Of course, of course I want to see!!!!!" He shot up out of the chair.

"Clark's suit." Bruce echoed, fingers still in his pockets as he shot a smile at his lover. "We have four designs to chose from, and all will be completely state of the art. Gizmo's coming out of his ass." He led the way down another thin walkway to the metallic, oval structure, and motioned him in. "Be careful, to your left. I installed a Blade Runner. You've heard about them... the things that can send someone hurtling two hundred miles an hour through a tube? I've got it connected from my office, down underneath the city, to that spot over there. I can get from the top of Wayne Enterprises to the cave in less than three minutes."

Lex blinked as he followed Bruce towards the vault. "I've heard of them; I didn't know they were open to the public." He ran his hands over the cold steel of the door. "Bruce... you've thought of everything."

"Of course they're not. Blade Runners *shouldn't* be. I bought mine on the black market." Bruce raised a brow as he pushed open the metal door, and nodded at him as he flicked the lights on. There were cases for each suit behind glass, and right now they housed eleven. Robin's first suit, and his up to date, modern one. Four of Bruce's, the newest one with a sleeker, faster style. And four others, sitting in the same case.

They were red and blue, because that's what Clark had wanted, only they weren't the geeky ones he knew Lex had envisioned. They were made of hard rubber, hard enough to protect his skin. An extremely thin layer of liquefied steel had been melted into the rubber itself, and though it was still extremely flexible, it was durable and protective as well. Four of them, in slightly modified versions. He'd attained Clarks measurements through Lex, before he amped into alien mode and after, the day that they'd decided to get Clark super-heroized, so each suit was flexible enough to allow for quick wear, thin enough to conceal, and easy enough to stretch to fit any new proportions.

The first was dark blue, with red strips from underarms to mid thigh, hugging each flank. A flowing, deep red cape flowed from the shoulders. The second suit was similar only it had a deep V cutting over the front, with red stripes veering off and going down the front of each leg. It had a red cape, like the first.

The third was the deepest of reds, blood red, with blue accents like the first and a flowing blue cape. The same was said for the last, which also had a hint of white in it.

Boots matched. Belts matched. There were also four different types of head harnesses, visors like Robin's, and head gear should it be needed. "There we go. All prototype, Lex."

"Oh my God." Lex walked up and touched each of the cases, studying each of the designs. "You did... you did all this, in just... just a few weeks? Hell, I don't even work that fast." He paused in front of the first suit after examining all four of them, and left his hand resting on the glass. "Clark's going to throw a fit when he sees these. These... this is amazing. I'm almost afraid to ask what's hidden away in the belts and the boots, knowing you, and the masks... he won't go for that, because of the vision and all. But..."

Lex was at a loss for words as his brain fought to assimilate everything.

Bruce smiled, then. "I've got molds. the suits, the bases of them, take about an hour to make, a weekend to dry. These all have steel melted inside of them, steel mixed with iron and aluminum so that the suits are flexible, very, very flexible... maybe even more than mine at the moment. They're strong... they won't tear. They're thin, almost like... think of a pair of wool pants. There are coolants installed that monitor heart rate and temperature, to fluctuate and make him comfortable at all times while he's doing his super manly thing." Bruce tipped his head slightly, and pushed a button on the side of the glass panel, so that the front of the case opened. "Here, you can see it. Its put on in four pieces. The bottom, the boots, the top, then the cape. The cape, by the way, was Alfred's idea. Its made of normal cotton... he added them last week, actually, after you told me that Clark can fly. they were originally made from the same material as the suit itself, but now they're cotton for easy maneuvering."

"Cape. Flying." Lex ran his hand over the material, expecting the rough texture of Kevlar or something like it but instead, the suit was almost slick to the touch. "You... you should patent the process, Bruce. What NASA and the NSA would pay for a polymer like this is unbelievable."

"I'm already rich. Who needs more?" Bruce waved a hand and removed the first suit completely from the stand. It was flexible, like clothing, but sturdy so not quite. He also took one of the metal stands out so it could be propped up, and he set it in the middle of the floor. "The cape will conceal a lot of his toys. Theirs a belt here, that moves around the side of his hips like this… see? He pointed at the belt, connected at each hip. "Stocked with stuff that Dick and I have just began this week, so I can't really tell you what they'll be."

Lex swallowed hard as the costume was removed from the glass case, and he walked around it. He could just imagine Clark in it--in all four them, actually--and he slid his hand over the belt as Bruce pointed it out. "This... he's going to be amazing, Bruce. You're going to make him that way."

"I don't want him amazed. I want him to live through the nights to wake up and do it all over again." But Bruce smiled it, and leaned his weight on one hip as he looked at the costume for a moment. "Masculine, but heroic. The peoples super hero."

"And not nearly anything I had feared. I had nightmares of underwear outside his pants and clashing stripes and an Indiana-Jones type bullwhip suck under the cape." He sighed, and couldn't stop stroking the new suit. "When can he come see it?"

Bruce choked on the laugh and rolled his eyes. "Whenever he's ready, Lex. This isn't something he can be forced or rushed into...let him make the decision to see them. He knows they're here, I told him. When he's ready to take up the fight, he'll come. In the mean time? We'll get it decked out. You said no, to the head gear?" Bruce tipped his head. "People are going to know its him."

Lex nodded. "No headgear. I know Clark, and he won't have it. He won't have anything on his face." He sighed. "Are you kidding? I wasn't sure it was him the first time I saw him all... adrenalized! Or whatever it is you call it. If I had the time, I'd see whether that reflex has anything to do with the k'rachta that infected Dick, because that's what they feed on. I'm not saying Dick's going to bulk up like Clark, but it's fascinating." A pinch to the bridge of his nose. "I sound like Spock. Fascinating."

"Adrenalized. That's the only explanation, because I measured it, Lex." Bruce tipped his head again, crossing his arms across his chest. "He bulks up almost two inches in every direction, and more in his chest. His thighs, his arms, his chest, his back, his calves and neck. Everything gets big."

"Even his face changes. Not a lot, I know, but enough. He looks--he looks almost like his father, when he bulks up like that."

He smiled, softly at the love in his friends voice, and shook his head as he glanced at the suit again. "There you have it, Lex." He lifted the stand the suit, light but sturdy in his hands, and maneuvered it back into the glass case once more. "Let me show you the gadgetry we've got so far."

"You do know now that you'll never be able to get rid of me, right?"

"Alfred's brought me dinner down here more than once." Was all Bruce said, as he snapped the case shut again, and made sure the air was vacuumed out of the glass case before clicking it into place. "Come on."

- = - = -

Bruce swore he was going to dismantle the telephone piece by fucking piece. He rolled onto his side and stared at the clock. Two fucking AM in the goddamned morning, on one of the ONLY nights he hadn't had to go out as Batman.

Of course.

"Answer. The fucking. Phone. I'm sleeping," Dick snarled from under a pillow.

Bruce was none too happy when he picked up the phone. "This had better be the end of the fucking world."

Two a.m. Yeah. Clark knew exactly what time it was, and since they'd closed their link off, Clark was... running out of his mind in fear and horror. His lover could be dead on the side of the road, in a plane crash, being held hostage by evil aliens, ANYTHING. Clarks throat bobbed tightly. "Bruce? Its Clark."

"Clark." The tone implied he could drop dead any time he so chose. "It's two in the morning. What do you want?"

"Lex. He's not home, and I'm worried. And very angry."

"He's sleeping downstairs in my guest room, Clark." Another sleepy blink. "Go to bed. He'll call you in the morning."

"Oh." Well. Here came more of that nifty anger, and his jaw ground tightly. "Is he alright?"

What part of he's asleep downstairs didn't you get? Bruce thought to himself. "He's fine," Bruce said slowly, as though speaking to a dull child. "He's sleeping. I can go wake him up if you want to talk to him but I warn you from past experience, sleepy Lex is cranky."

"Fine." He wasn't going to get any information out of cranky ass Wayne, and he growled softly. "I'm sorry to have bothered you. I won't call again--have Lex call me when he wakes up in the morning, please."

"Don't growl at me, Clark," Bruce said softly, sitting the rest of the way up in the bed. He was awake now, years of waking up at the slightest noise having trained him for that.

He growled again, anger, worry, fear all still crowded in his belly, and he rubbed his face softly. "I'm sorry."

"You're still growling at me, Clark." Bruce leaned over and pressed a kiss to the back of Dick's shoulder, and slid into his robe, going into the hallway so he wouldn't wake Dick up. "Look, Clark... not to sound rude, but what exactly is your problem?"

"My problem?" Clark answered it, carefully. "My problem is that my lover left town without saying a word to me, didn't say where he was going until I almost had to scream at him to tell me, and told me he'd be back tonight. That's all. Nothing, really." Sarcasm dripped from Clark's voice, something he never did unless he was furious. "So, you know, nothing really."

Which didn't set well with Bruce at all. "For your information, Clark... Lex had rescheduled a flight back to Smallville almost as soon as he got here. I wouldn't let him go back. You know why? Lex. Doesn't. Run. Never, in the years that I have known him, has he ever felt the need to retreat. But he did. He ran halfway across the country, in case you didn't notice, and that means he is a little more fucked up right now than either of us realize."

"Once before you treated me like an idiot in my own relationship, Bruce, but you aren't going to do it again. My affairs with Lex are that--my affairs. I know what's going on inside of him because I can see inside his head. I know he's lost it, I know he's worried, but he left me here to deal with them and I can't. I need him. So don't give me any of your sanctimonious bullshit, Bruce. He's been my friend going on three years, and I know him, just as well as anyone."

"You may see what's going on inside his head, Clark, but you don't understand it. I don't want to be the one to point this out to you, but you're actually not a human being, Clark, and as such? You're not quite qualified to understand what's going on inside the head of one. You need him? I understand that. Do you understand that Lex isn't quite in the shape to be needed right now?"

Low. Fucking. Blow. Clark winced softly, and didn't say anything for a moment. Fucking shit. He felt such anger and shame to be told he wasn't normal, but as it was, Lex wasn't normal anymore either. It didn't matter, though, not at all. "Look, tell him I called. I'll be home waiting for him whenever he's ready to come back."

"He's ready to come back now, Clark, but he's not ready for it." Deep sigh. "I'll tell him in the morning, all right?"

"Alright. Good night." Clark hung up on him, setting the phone in the cradle and the cradle to the side of the bed. The sheets and blankets were cold, his pajamas were cold, his pillow was cold, and he was alone. Again. He hated it, hated it more than he breathed, even if he understood why Lex had taken off. Maybe Clark wasn't a good aushna' for not being more understanding of him, more open to talking... instead, his lover had left to find comfort somewhere else, because he could not provide it for him.

And it was with that sick, heavy feeling in his heart that he slid under the sheets and closed his eyes, waiting for sleep to come.

Lex was tossing and turning in the comfortable bed that Bruce had given him. He'd lost track of everything down in the cave--time, phone calls, anything else--but he jolted awake, half-tangled in the sheets, and he looked at his watch in the moonlight.

2 AM. It'd just be midnight in Smallville, and he sighed, tucking his hands behind his head. Then, after a moment, he rolled onto his side, and opened the drawer by the bed, pulling out his cell phone and calling the private line in his bedroom at home.

Clark opened his eyes once more and stared out across the bedroom as the phone trilled beside him. A moment told him it wasn't ringing anywhere else, and he untucked the blankets he'd brought in close and lifted the receiver. "Hello."

"I didn't wake you, did I?"

"No." He rolled over, onto his back, bringing the cordless with him as he tugged the bed sheets in again. "How are you?"

"Tired, but in a good way. I could sleep for a week." A quiet sigh. "I'm sorry. I meant to come home. But arguing with Bruce is sort of like arguing with a brick wall. Only you'd have a better chance with the wall."

"Mmm. How's Gotham?"

"It's actually nicer than I remembered. They're still getting snow." He turned onto his side, and tucked his hand under his head. "I saw your suits tonight."

Clark couldn't work himself up to care in this moment. "I miss snow. Not the crazy Smallville kind... the good kind, with fat flakes and snowmen." He rolled over and tugged his pillow close. "How are you feeling?"

"Honestly? Like I could send the plane back for you and escape to the tropics for about the next six months."

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

Lex shook his head into the phone. "No. Not really. You can't... you can't make this crap go away. Dad... cut off the news broadcasts, to the castle. Apparently, the rest of the world already knew that I was having a very torrid affair with a young boy in Smallville."

Clark opened his eyes, and stared into the shadows of the room for a moment. "So?"

"They don't know who you are. At least that much as been kept a secret. But all the attention on you, Clark... that can't be a good thing. I want to protect your identity as long as I can, because the last thing we need is people putting you under a microscope."

"Again... I say so?" Clark blinked, a little, into the shadows. "You're my lover. Everyone should know it, should be aware that you are mine and I am yours. Where is the shame in that? I can protect myself, and hold my own. Even human beings will understand our bond, Lex, without even knowing it exists. Have faith in what we have."

"No, Clark, it's not that. I'm not ashamed of you, or of what we have. I just don't want anyone finding out that you're... alien." The word didn't frighten him anymore, he was just reluctant to speak it. "Because I'd lose my mind of anything happened to you."

"No one will find out." Clark answered it, brusquely. He didn't want to deal with more outsider issues, he'd had enough for one night, thank you ever so much. "No one will find out, and we'll be able to live our lives."

The tone caught his attention. "Clark?"

"What?"

"Are you all right?"

"I'm fine. Are you alright?"

"You don't sound fine," Lex said softly, ignoring the other half of the question for the moment, even though he didn't know how to answer it.

"You're evading."

"I'm concerned about you."

"I'm just lonely." Truthfully answered, even if he himself was evading. There were more important issues… like why Lex was. "I'll get over it. I'm worried about you, Lex, because you don't freak out like this." He turned more into the warming cushion of blankets. "Why didn't you tell me, aushna'?"

Lex frowned softly. "I'm sorry you're lonely; I'm sorry I'm not there with you." He slid his hand over the pillow, imagining Clark's warm, strong body there beside him. "I didn't tell you because you had so much of your own stuff to worry about."

"But you forgot something, that I don't think you've even learned, Lex. You are first and foremost my lover, first and foremost my aushna'. I take care of you before I take care of anyone else...I take care of you before I take care of myself. You come first, you come only. Then, only then, when you are safe, protected, sheltered and nourished by my love and by the things that we must do every day to live, will I go out and help others. It is you first, Lex. You. You are my first priority, my first everything. Which is why it angers me, hurts me, scares me, that when you were feeling like this you didn't come to me. You did it for me, when Mar died. Why won't you let me do it for you?"

Lex just dragged a hand across his nose, unconsciously curling up like a little child. "Because other people need you more. You're my only, Clark, the only thing that matters to me over everything else, and I know you have to help the people you care about. Whitney needs you right now, he needs you to help hold together, and I understand that."

"No, god, dammit, you need me to hold you together. Our sha'nauch mean a lot to me but you are my mate. My chosen mate. You are mine, and I'll be goddamned if I'm going to help others when you feel like this. Do you understand? I can't function if you don't function, aushna'. We are part of one another, and your pain is mine, like mine is yours. You are human still, for the most part, and I want and need to help you get through it. You... you have to let me in, let me help, Lex. I love you, so much."

Lex made a soft little choking sound. "You can't help me, Clark. You can't make everyone stop depending on me. I don't mind that they do, and usually I can handle it. It's just too much of it right now, things piled on top of things on top of situations, and everybody looks to me for answers that I just don't have. I can't bring Whitney's mom back, I couldn't magic up a mother for Dad and Dom, I couldn't make the bitch from Hell go away and I couldn't stop her from bringing attention to bear on you! I couldn't stop anything, couldn't do anything, and everyone keeps looking to me to make it happen."

"You do not have to handle Whitney and Chloe. I will be there for them. Your dad and Dominic have their mother, Diane Sawyer will go away, and I don't care if her attention is on me. It will be from now on, because you are my aushna', we are lovers, and the world will know. Stop. Take a deep breath, because I know you're panicking, lover." Clark waited for a moment and strained outward, covering the thousands of miles separating them, and gently touched his lover with his mind, even as the sweat broke out over his forehead. "I love you. Depend on me."

Lex could feel the strain of his lover trying to reach out to him, and he reached back.

Flickering in the back of his head, Lex could feel something washing through his brain, and then with a little unconscious push, he let it go.

A hard, nearly physical wash of something that racked his body and his mind. But even as it happened, he could feel the tenuous link with Clark sharpening, deepening, filling out and growing to almost explosive proportions.

It lapped at Clark's own consciousness, caressing softly, bolstering and meshing.

Clark fainted.

He couldn't help it.

It was like a dam opening, water flowing outwards, and though his body was unconscious his mind wasn't, and it reached out and grasped. It was almost like... before, seeing a pinprick of light, but now there was so much it almost blinded him. Going from a box to a cathedral, from a hole to the Grand Canyon. All he could do was watch, watch it happen, and let the joy in his heart sing. He knew his aushna' had been special. Knew it, knew it.

And now he was positive.

Lex's eyes widened as he almost dropped the phone. He couldn't control what was happening, but even as it happened he felt Clark's joy over it, brow furrowing as his mind seemed to grow, to expand, to encompass everything and everyone he was connected to.

Lionel Luthor stirred lightly in his sleep.

Martha Kent rolled back onto her back, and the child in her belly kicked gently.

Whitney Fordman tossed uncomfortably once in the bed before quieting down again.

Chloe Sullivan had been caught in the throes of a nightmare until a safe, quiet hand touched her dreams and quieted them.

He even felt the barest whisper of contact with Bruce, before the expansion stopped, and Lex just stayed in that bubble, linked to Clark and everyone he cared about, before it slowly started to retract back into himself.

NO! Clarks body jerked as his eyes flew open, and he flew through that connection and snagged the damn tightly open, pushing it, keeping it open as hard as he could. He was sweaty, shaking, overjoyed, but he couldn't... no! Kenep, you'll take their souls with you. Let go, let go of them, you have to let go!

I don't know how! But even as he protested, his mind and body seemed to be taking care of that for him, slowly letting each contact go until the only thing he was aware of was their existence.

Clark let go then, as soon as he felt them alone once more, and slumped back, exhausted onto the blankets. Holy fuck. He lifted the phone with shaking fingers, cleared his throat, and spoke softly. "Hello?"

Lex blinked, and heard the voice coming up from the telephone. For an instant, a split-second only, he almost forgot what the telephone was and how to use it, but by the time he'd raised it to his ear, the disorientation had passed. "Clark?"

"Oh, God."

"Are... are you all right?" Lex ran his hand over his head. "I felt... you straining. To hold onto the link. I don't... I don't get what happened next."

"I'm alright, baby." The excitement came now, in waves, and through the link, deep, strong, powerful, Clark felt, for the first time, his match. And it excited him, excited him like he couldn't believe, and he stared down at the rock hard cock sitting on his belly before letting his head fall back. "I'm most definitely, definitely alright. I knew you were special the first day I met you... had to be that chrome dome, I knew you had special abilities, special gifts. Dammit, I thought I'd get to be the cool X-Man, but you are. You're like Professor Xavier."

Lex blinked, then chuckled softly. He'd gotten hard too, at some point, and he hadn't even realized it. "Professor X, hmm? I'm not quite to the point of being able to control people's minds, but... holy shit, Clark, what happened?"

"You're... whatever that word is. People, normal people, have brains, thoughts, feelings. Those things exist on the astral plane of human reality...we think, therefore we are, unlike animals who don't. Some people, the really cool people in my opinion, were born with two bodies... one on the normal plane of existence, and one on the astral plane of existence. There are like, four people living in the world who can do that… I know, because I can contact them on the astral plane. Understand? Now you're one of them. I knew it, when I first met you, that you were different, but I didn't even imagine, till just now, how different."

"You're talking about psionic projection," Lex said quietly. "You're talking about a completely new, completely metaphysical plane of existence and an entirely new chunk of reality."

"Of course I am. Duh. That's where I've lived my entire life, and now... now you live there too." A little emasculating squeak of joy. "You can do stuff like, take yourself to other places through the power of your mind. Connected to me, it makes us the most powerful of all...how you said it, psionic people. Or whatever. That's the room in my head, the one we go to sometimes, that I imagined. There isn't anything more powerful than your imagination, Lex."

Lex was quiet for a long moment. "I never knew I could do that. I mean, my mother always told me I was intuitive, but... I never knew what I was doing. Hell, I don't know what I'm doing now!"

"It takes a while to master it. I've been trying to control mine since I was about thirteen." Clark answered. "Or... well, fifteen, if we're thinking in that way. Right about the time I shot up three feet and my voice changed. I was bigger than most of the teachers in the seventh grade." Clark answered back, and caressed the link quietly, the shiver of pleasure and joy from it only making him surge harder, stone and purple against his belly.

He dropped a hand gently to stroke over it, soothingly, the ache and pain in it exquisite as he touched slowly, softly, carefully, to make the blood lower a little.

"H--holy fuck." Lex's entire body shivered, sensitized to the link, to everything that his lover was feeling. The light, soothing touch on his cock was like a heavy hand wrapped in sandpaper, arching his hips and hissing breath through his teeth.

Clark let go, immediately, and swallowed softly. "Lex?"

"Clark!" He let his hips fall back down on the bed, and he rubbed his butt against the sheet. "I... I could feel you. Touching yourself. Touching me."

"Oh God." Clark answered, softly, and his fingers came back up on his hips and grasped himself, firmly, slowly beginning to jack himself off. "Like that? Feel me, like that?" He answered, softly.

"F-fuck. Yes." Lex arched back up on the sheets, free hand digging into the sheets as his hips pumped. "Yes, please God, like that." So hard, so rough, everything was so sensitive and it was wringing every bit of pleasure out of him, tears in his eyes and choking his throat as he fucked into the invisible hand stroking him.

Clark wasn't doing any of it. None of it, none of it, and he whimpered as he stroked his cock harder, feeling his lovers pleasure. Inadvertent use of that power, Clark knew, but it felt so good, so good, and he stroked his cock under the blankets and sheets so that it rubbed against the blankets on every downstroke.

"Clark!" Lex was chanting his lover's name, one hand holding the phone, the other digging into the sheets, and he pushed up, aching to feel Clark's body pressed down against him, pounding into him. "Christ, please, Clark, please."

"Oh, God," He whispered it as he stroked harder, fucking his fist as fast as he could, tugging the foreskin down to rub the head with his thumb for a few long moments. He moaned, hard, rubbing it harder before stroking up and down again, free fingers keeping it pulled down. "Yes, yes, uhn."

Tight grip on his cock, fingers rubbing hard and fast, heat flying through his cock and his body, and he was rubbing himself in a frenzy against the sheets. "Please, please, baby, please, I need, I love you, I love you, fuck, fuck!"

He couldn't hold it back any longer, and when orgasm came, it exploded out of him.

Clark's orgasm was quieter, but no less intense. He stroked, hard, harder, squeezed and came as he rubbed the tip quickly, moaning quietly into the phone as his orgasm shot across his fingers and down his hand. He kept right stroking, stroking the pleasure out of himself as he made the quiet noises of need, happiness, pleasure, and he panted, deeply. Uhhhgphgnn.

A second after Lex's physical orgasm hit, his body was rocked by intensely sweet, almost painfully strong wave of pure ecstasy, shuddering with it as his cock jerked again, forcing out the last few streams of semen from his cock, fighting for breath.

Ohhhhh yeessss. Soft, long, deep purr of relief and pleasure, and Clark rolled over onto his side, rubbing his hand dry on his shirt, which he lifted and tugged off a moment later. He snuggled into the sheets then, phone by his ear, and he purred deeply, like a jungle cat.

Lex grunted, rolling onto his side and smiling into the phone. "I love when you purr."

"Mmmmmm." Soft, long rumble. "New toy. Gonna enjoy it." He muttered softly, and hugged Lex's pillow close, smelling the scent of him on it and sighing softly in joy. "I love you."

"I love you, Clark." He stroked their link again, bolstered by his new strength, and shivered.

"Heeee." A little giggle and he made kissy noises into the phone as he chuckled.

Lex found himself returning the kisses.

"I love you. Tomorrow. Come home. Please?" Clark asked with a snuggle into the warm bed.

"I will. I'll leave tomorrow afternoon--I haven't been sleeping well without you tonight. I've missed you."

"Miss you. The bed is cold."

"It is here too." He sighed. "Come sleep with me?"

"Seriously?" Clark asked it as he sat up on one elbow. "You don't think… Bruce?"

"I'll go downstairs and wait outside for you. We'll come back inside and come back upstairs."

"Okay." If he was excited, he wouldn't show it. "Give me... thirty minutes?"

"I'll be waiting with hot chocolate for you."

"Okay. Be there soon. I love you, Lex."

"I love you, Clark." Lex squeezed the phone tightly. "I can't wait."

 

-fin-

go on to the next part