The Memoirs

Clark yelped, loudly, nearly biting through Lex's thigh as he grabbed the blanket, tugged it over his still-filled ass, and crawled up to his lover's side, panting and wide eyed. "Victoria!"

"Uh huh." She yawned. "I wokeded up and nobody was there so I come over here." She crawled up the bed and plopped down on Lex's other side. "Baldy, why you got no clothes on?"

Think fast, Luthor, Lex thought to himself. "Because Clark and I are getting ready to take showers, and we got cold. So, we got in bed together to get warm." Lamest fucking excuse in the world.

But she bought it. "Okey."

Clark had long since buried his burning face in Lex's neck, the dildo rubbing against his insides and uncomfortably full in this position, but he didn't dare move as Lex talked to her. "We were cold," Clark reiterated from the heat of his lover's neck, not daring to even look up. "Why don't you go to your room, okay? Lex and I will be done in a few minutes."

Victoria pouted. "Why can'ts I stay wif you?" she asked through a yawn, already cuddling up to Lex's naked hip and laying her head on his shoulder, wiggling so that his arm went around her.

Lex melted, and looked imploringly at his lover.

"Because we don't have clothes on," Clark glared at Lex, before looking across at Victoria. "You can go sit with the puppies, would you like that?"

"I can take my clothes off too!" she said.

"Uh, no!!" Lex shouted, and then calmed down. "Tell you what. You want to be a big girl and do me a big favor?"

She peered up at him. "What?"

"Why don't you run downstairs and see if your things have been delivered from the store yet?" he asked calmly.

Dildo digging into my spleen, Clark squeaked in his thoughts, even as he gave the little girl a winning smile. "Sound good?"

Squeeze it out, Lex answered back. "You can go downstairs and see if your stuff had been delivered, and if it hasn't, then you can go to my office like a big girl and wait for me, and we can pretend like we're working. You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

"I get to play with you!!" She squealed it, and popped up, all traces of tiredness gone. "I'll go down and check for you, Mr. Baldy, and I will lets you know when you comes down, kay?"

Lex gave her the most serious nod he could, under the circumstances. "That would be lovely, Ms. Hardwick."

"YAY!!!" She did a little twirl as she got off the bed, and she raced out of the bedroom.

Lex fell back against the headboard. "Clark? we're locking the doors next time."

Yeah. His sentiments exactly. He didn't say a word, just reading under the blanket and tugging the dildo out of him with a squelching pop, and winced before sighing and rubbing his backside. "Ow." But he grinned, lips twitching and dimples winking on, at Lex. "You're king of the play dates, Baldy. You may want to wear loose pants." Clark very carefully stroked his fingers over the enlarged balls. "My dad said this might happen. They might get a little bigger before this passes."

"Rico did always call me a big-balled son of a bitch," Lex admitted, thudding his head gently against the headboard. It was kind of soothing, in a strange way.

"Now, he's right," Clark murmured, and with a glance at the closed door, leaned down to lick the enlarged sacks, sucking softly on them though he knew no way in hell was the cock rising again until at least later. "You're gonna be raw," he murmured, kissing the tip, then his lover's thigh and belly, even as he grinned down at the mess he'd made himself on the bed.

Lex whimpered. "They're already sore," he murmured. "This is going to take some serious getting used to," he commented, sighing softly. "My young assistant is not going to wait forever, you know. She has the attention span of a fruit fly with attention deficit disorder."

"I know," Clark murmured, kissing him once more before smiling. "I'm gonna shower, and since Ms. Birds off, I'll order a pizza or eight. Okay? Would...you mind if Whitney and Chloe come spend the night?"

Lex literally pounced on the idea. "I wouldn't mind at all. I think that it would be a very, very good idea, in fact, if Whitney and Chloe came over tonight. And stayed for a week or four."

Clark's lips twitched. "Doesn't work on them, baby. You're my mate... the cramps will only go away if its from you. Dad was adamant about that."

Lex's face fell slightly. "Well, I don't really mind having your mouth... all to myself," he said, tracing his thumb gently over Clark's lower lip. "There could be worse things, after all."

If it were possible, Clark would have blushed the other ten colors of the rainbow. His eyes widened and his dimples winked on, shyly, as he kissed and licked his lovers thumb. "You won't be saying that in a week when your cock's bruised and sore," he reminded, eyes twinkling. "To take a break from it, you know, you could jack off, and I'll just... get in position when... you know." Ohh. There was the rest of his blush. He lit up red like a Christmas bulb, and ducked his head as he grinned.

"You could get in position and swallow when I come?" Lex grinned gently at his lover. "You're so cute when you blush, baby. I hope you don't ever stop."

Clark cleared his throat, blushing even worse at that, and nodded, shyly. "Yeah. Erm... for... when you… get sick of my mouth sucking you off," he whispered, sure even the roots of his hair were red. "Or when my jaw's finally had enough."

Lex slid down just a little bit, and kissed his lover softly. "I'll never get tired of your mouth, Clark." He stroked over Clark's wet lips with his thumb again. "I'll never get tired of you."

"Again. Say that two weeks from now, when I'm milking off of you like a cow three times an hour," Clark answered, eyebrow arched.

Lex made a face at that. "Don't tell me you inherited Jonathan's fixation with his cows. It's unnatural, Clark."

Clark's lips twitched. "Dominic would call him a cow fucker right about now." He stopped for a moment. "We should call them."

"Yes, he would." Lex looked at the phone by the bed. "Did you call Dad and let him know what was going on?"

"Yeah, but that was before I knew I wasn't molting." Clark leaned over Lex's legs and picked up the receiver, lounging over his lovers naked thighs, blankets pulled up thank you should Victoria come bounding back in, and dialed Lionel's cell phone from memory.

Not everyone's cell phone had call waiting. Most people's didn't, actually, but then again, most people weren't Lionel Luthor, either.

He heard the distinctive chirp of another call, and he didn't hesitate to put his lawyer on hold, taking a deep breath before switching over, and ran his fingers through his hair before he put the earpiece back on as he settled in front of the computer. "Luthor."

"Hey, Lionel, it's me."

"Clark, how are you doing? You sound well." He paged quickly through the document he was reading, using the strikeout and highlight on the word processor to make several amendments and rewordings as he spoke.

"I'm… actually okay," Clark answered, lips twitching at Lex. "There's some stuff I gotta talk to you about later, when I see you. How's Dominic doing?"

Lionel looked up at his still-drowsing lover. "Still a little loopy, unsurprisingly, but I'm unsure if that's the medication or simply his natural personality coming through." A small quirk of his lips. "Is everything all right? If this matter is urgent, I can return to Smallville within the hour, once I arrange to have Dominic taken care of while I'm gone."

"No, everything's fine. In fact, I'm sure you're going to have a good laugh out of it--my father did," Clark smiled. "We just wanted to check in. I'll be around tonight, alright?"

Lionel nodded. "That's excellent news. I'll be available to you whenever you need me, Clark."

"Wonderful. Have the doctors given you any estimates about when they can release Dominic?"

Lionel actually laughed at that. "Due to Dominic's vehement insistence, he will be discharged on Monday to finish his recuperation and therapy at home."

"Hey! That's wonderful news!" Clark cried, and his eyes danced. "Fantastic. Let us know if theirs anything at all we can do, okay? It... might be a little difficult for us to leave the house for the next few days, but we'll get out as much as we can, kay?"

Lionel shook his head. "Don't worry, Clark. We have everything under control and planned out; Dominic is going to be sedated and brought by Medivac to the west lawn, where Eduard is going to meet us and whisk Dominic inside for his first therapy session, which is going to be a complete and total reassessment of his condition and a new schedule."

"Oh. So you mean complete and total harassment and annoyance for Dominic, right?" Clark asked, with another grin, and sat up off of his lovers legs as he swung his feet to the ground. "We miss you, Lionel."

"Something like that," Lionel admitted. "You have been missed too, Clark. Dominic has asked repeatedly about seeing the both of you, in fact, and I have had to threaten him with sedation." He hoped that Clark could read between the lines.

Clark, being Clark, didn't, and cheerfully smiled. "Tell him we'll see him soon. Want to talk to Lex?"

"Clark... I missed you too," Lionel said softly. "And yes, please, I have several things I need to discuss with him."

"Okey." Clark handed the phone over, then jumped up from the bed, and as quickly as he'd done it before, walked into the bathroom, wiped himself off with a towel, made sure he didn't look like he'd just been fucking, and after scrubbing his teeth with some toothpaste and his brush, left the room where his lover was talking to his father and jumped down the hall and down the steps.

And then reality crashed down on Clark Kent as he stopped in the doorway of Lex's office, and saw the tiny girl, her feet swinging, sitting at the desk playing with the paint desktop program Lex had.

A little girl. He was responsible for. A little girl he had to take care of, and dress and feed, and if it came to it, send to school. A little girl who he'd signed his life away too.

Oh, fuck.

He felt his knees go weak even as he smiled, and though the anxiety nearly wore a hole through the lining in his stomach, he managed to sing down onto the thick leather couch. "Hey, baby!" he croaked, smiling at her.

"Hi Clark!!" She beamed. "Come see what I drew!!!" She had climbed up into Lex's desk chair, and her feet came nowhere near the ground as she clicked and moved the mouse, scribbling in a shock of dark hair on one figure as she bit her lip in concentration.

Clark climbed up from the couch after two tries and moved around Lex's desk, the glass desk he and Lex had...well...not thinking about that right now. Instead he crouched beside the little girl and looked at the computer screen, tipping his head. "What's that?"

She pointed to one figure with dark black hair and a big S on his chest. "That's Superman." She pointed again, to the little tiny figure hiding behind a lopsided boxy thing that had RIP MOMMY on it. "That's me. That's Superman saving me." She grinned up. "I'ma doing Baldy and you in the hospital next."

Okay, God.

He looked up. His moment of weakness, and... well. Who could have said no to this darling child? he looked back down and smiled at her, trying not to cry as he gave her little shoulder a squeeze. "Its beautiful. We should print it out, don't you think?"

She nodded. "Will you give it to Superman the next time you see him?" she asked innocently, going back to the drawing and finishing Superman's hair with a flourish.

"I sure will," Clark said, then almost gawked. "What's that curly thing on top of his head?"

"That's his hair," she said.

"Superman does not have a cowlick!" Clark cried in indignation, horrified as he brought a hand to the back of his head.

"Does too!!" She stuck her tongue out. "Cause I said so!"

"Well fine, Ms. Cowlick Drawing Person," Clark snorted back, wrinkling his nose at her. "Wanna go outside? We could go ice skating on the lake, if you like."

She frowned at him. "You can't go skatin' in the middle of summer!" she said. "You're teasing!"

"Am not," Clark smiled down at her. "The lakes frozen over." Cause I threw in a Krytpo freak and he got kinda stuck. "Pipe problem or somethin'. And I'm pretty sure my niece left her ice skates here... she's five, only a year older than you, so I'll bet the skates will fit.." he said, in a sing-song voice. "But if you don't wanna.."

"Course I wanna!!!!" She shot up out of the chair, but then, plunked back down. "But I can't. I gots to wait for Baldy. I promised I'd help him workin'."

Oh. Oh, Clark grinned. "We don't have to wait for him--I'm sure he wouldn't mind if we went skating. What do you think? We can help him work later after we come in--it is Saturday, after all."

She shook her head. "I promised I'd wait for him and tell him about the stuff not gettin' delivered yet. But as soon as I tell him then we can go skatin'?"

"You did promise, that's true," Clark answered, holding up a hand in a serious and solemn vow. "I'll go look for the skates and find some jeans and a sweater for you. Ellie left a lot of clothes here in storage. Okay?"

She gave a big nod. "Okay. Baldy should be down here soon after his showering and I can tell him they haven't come in yet and then we can go skate."

Lex, finish with your dad, come down here and tell Victoria we can go skate. I'm gonna go look for some of Ellie's old clothes, they might fit Victoria until her clothes get here, Clark murmured through his link, even as he winked at the little girl. "Be back in a flash."

"Okay!" Victoria carefully picked the save button and saved the picture of her and Superman, and then started to work on Clark, her and Baldy in the hospital.

In just a minute, Clark... Dad's working on some of the paperwork we need to take care of Victoria for a while and he's going to be emailing me soon as we finish rewording a few things.

Check.

Clark went up the steps of the library, but instead of going through the door to the second floor, he started up the steps. He passed the third floor, then the small forth that was used mostly for storage, before getting up to the enormous attic. Attics, as a general rule, kinda creeped him out, and this one, as he pulled the stairs down from the ceiling, was no different. He climbed the latter, coughing slightly at the small dust cloud that rose as he climbed up into the loft. It was filled to brimming with boxes, crates and chests full of things, and his eyes widened slightly as he looked around.

There was an enormous box named simply "Baby things, Lex" in marker on the outside, and further along it, a white rocking horse with a lovely brown mane. There were several seamstress dummies, coat racks and old mirrors, as well as a good sized amount of furniture.

He walked through it, passing through the cobwebs and dust clouds, to the small window that let in enough sunlight for him to flick the string with the light in the middle of the room on.

"Oh, wow," he whispered.

Easily the largest and most ornate item in the middle of the attic was a crib. Made out of heavy oak and maple, it was thick, sturdy, and everything a crib shouldn't be. The carvings and designs of asymmetric patterns and things that twisted back in on themselves were gorgeous and detailed, down to the smallest line or deepest curve.

The crib was still made up with light blue sheets, covered now with a thick layer of dust. The pillow was still perfectly positioned in the middle of the mattress, a blanket tossed haphazardly at the bottom, a mobile hanging askew from the headboard.

Clark frowned quietly at it as he walked past it, looking across the tiny headdress and looking away again. He searched for a moment, and found a stack of old sheets thrown atop an equally dusty box. He dusted the fabric off, shook it out, and covered the crib gently, rolling it carefully more back to the boxes by the darker corner of the room so it wouldn't get color stained.

He rubbed his dusty fingers over his hands and continued looking. There were hundreds of boxes, and Clark, being the curious boy he was, would have loved to peak into each one. He was an enormous fan of antiques and heirlooms, and this room was begging for him to peak, just a little.

So… well… he did. He opened one of the boxes by the window, carefully, that read on it simply "dress", and opened it. Inside were yards and yards and yards of slightly yellowed silk, and he knew at once this was Lex's mother's wedding dress. He closed it, not getting a speck of dust on it, and moved on to the next--a box filled with picture albums. He didn't want to pry, so he moved it atop the box of the wedding dresses for later when he brought his lover up here, and made a half hearted attempt in looking for Ellie's winter clothes that Enrique had stored up here.

The other layers of boxes were stacked neatly under the window, and had one letter across the front; J. When Clark moved one of the other boxes, the box marked J fell, and the contents spilled out over the floor and Clark's feet.

A faded red and yellow football jersey, a half-deflated football. The keys to an old car, a pair of grass-stained dress slacks, a brown leather-covered scrapbook with edges of yellowing newspaper sticking out of them. A stack of broken and scratched records, even a black leather jacket that still had a comb peeking out of the pocket.

Clark looked down at the things that fell, trying to catch most of them when they did...but then gasped as his knees hit the wooden floor along with the rest of the things.

J.

Jonathan.

He stared at the too-few things that had been pushed into the box… the football, the jersey that was so much like Whitney's that Clark's lips twitched. The scrap book as well, and the records, but there was also a small cigar box that was sealed with a length of leather. He carefully undid it, opening it, and looked inside... a stack of letters, with the address and yellowed stamps was peaking out. He picked one up, softly, and opened it.

Ly-

I've learned a valuable lesson. Opening your letters while sitting in class is a one way street to detention--you owe me two hours of my life doing something much more enjoyable then watching to Mr. Rekebauld fart and snore at the front of the class.

I miss you like crazy. Your father isn't letting the noose go even an inch, is he? These letters aren't enough--I wish there was a way we could call one another without my father losing his marbles over it.

I love you. Write me back, huh?

Jon

p.s. Won first place in the art contest--told you I would. Letter from the Dean of Admissions is enclosed--I just might get into MU after all!

Clark smiled at it, both overjoyed and saddened at the same time, as he carefully folded it and put it back in the envelope. He didn't dare look through any more--these letters weren't his, after all. So he folded the letter carefully, set it back in the cigar box, and pulled the rubber band around it before lifting his fathers jacket and smiling. It still even had a crumpled study guide to a history test in its pocket, and he lifting it to his chest, hugging it for a moment before setting it back in the box.

Out of the pocket of the leather jacket fell the comb, and a long box. Inside the box rattled a heavy metallic chain of silver links with no pendant on it. There was an inscription around the clasp, two sets of three initials, one on either side so that when the necklace closed, the names intertwined, LPL and JHK.

Clark lifted it quietly, looking at the bit of silver silently for a moment, before deciding, abruptly, that if Dominic ever saw these he'd have kittens. He fingered the chain for a moment before lifting it and setting the box itself, the leather jacket and the comb, setting it all back in the box and shutting the lid, before he pushed it back up to the spot it had been in and bit on his lower lip.

No. No use for Dominic to ever find it.

He looked around the room for a moment again, sighing deeply, and began to search again for the clothes, trying like mad not to break glass lamps, precarious things sitting here and there just waiting to break by his snooping ass.

Lex just cleared his throat from the ladder. "A little girl who is waiting for her ice skates said you were going to look for clothes; I was sent with the message to tell you to hurry up."

Clark looked up, dust clinging to his curls from behind another box, and his eyes widened as a blanket of embarrassed guilt fell over him. "Sorry, I… uh. I… there's... it..."

"It's okay, Clark," Lex said quietly. "I never come up here; Julian's crib always makes me go back down the ladder before I get all the way up."

"It was covered in dust... I put a sheet over it. I hope you don't mind." Clark said, quietly, biting his lip as he straightened.

Lex shook his head. "I don't mind; if I were a good son, I'd get up here and go through these things. I just... there's a lot of memories up here, Clark, and not all of them are good."

Clark didn't know how much he wanted to tell his lover he'd been snooping, so he decided against it as he opened another box. "Enrique's done a good job of labeling all of this, its just so hard to find anything," Clark answered, as he pushed a box of old sweaters aside and kept looking.

"Because there's a lot of crap up here." Lex picked his way through the attic. "I shudder to think what all you've found."

"Great stuff," Clark smiled at his lover, shyly. "A box of your dad's and my dad's old stuff."

Lex let out a low whistle. "Let's hope Dominic never finds that."

"It's great... there are love letters and everything," Clark said, with a sheepish grin at his lover as he walked around one of the seamstress dummies and opened the box again. "Its so weird to think, but imagine if your dad and my dad had gotten back together later on. We'd be brothers." He looked up at Lex, then, with an almost indistinguishable expression on his face. "I don't think it would have mattered. You'd still be my aushna'… I still would have come to you."

"That's assuming your father still found you," Lex pointed. "It could have been that there was someone else that found you on that road, and we wouldn't have been related, but we still would have gotten together." He came to a standstill in front of Clark. "Or I might not have been born at all, if my father was with your father instead of my mother."

His lips twitched. "It was fated for them to break up... for us to have each other, and for the two of them to still be a part of each others lives. Isn't that weird?"

Lex nodded. "Sometimes I wonder what would have happened to me if I hadn't found you."

At the very softly spoken words something kicked in Clark's heart, and he leaned over the box to brush his lips gently over Lex's. "We would have. Aushna' find each other across galaxies, don't you know that?" he murmured, and gently kissed his lovers lips again, then once more.

Lex slid his hands up Clark's arms, then cupped his jaw gently and rubbed his thumbs along it as he kissed his lover gently. "I'm glad," he murmured. "Because without you, I'm afraid of myself, and what kind of person I could be."

"Without me you'd be taking an endless line of brunettes to the alter," Clark giggled, kissing his lover back. "Me? Without you, I'd probably be boring, or worse--straight."

Lex rolled his eyes. "Victoria. Desiree, though thank Christ you stopped me before I went through with that debacle, and I don't even want to think about anyone else." He slipped his arms around Clark's waist. "You'd never be straight, Clark. You'd just be in the eternal, endless struggle of trying to interest your cock in girls."

Clark's lips spread wide as he slid his own arms around Lex's back, as his lover was just a skosh shorter than him. "Like Lana, times forty?" Clark asked, as he slowly stroked his lovers back, which was incased in a light long sleeved sweater. "How can you wear stuff like this? It's got to be at least 90 degrees out."

"Something like that." Lex snorted. "You know, if we're not careful, Victoria's going to come and find us herself." He snuggled into Clark. "I stay cool all year around, Clark. Lack of hair on my skin or my head, and most of my body heat escapes that way."

"I hate you for it," Clark answered, and in answer rubbed a trickle of sweat that had dampened the side of his jaw. He suddenly stopped, squinted over his lovers shoulder… and beamed. "Found the skates."

"Don't you think it's a little morbid to be skating on somebody's tomb, for all intents?" Lex asked calmly.

"Naah. Ms. Bird does it all the time," Clark answered, smiling brightly... then stopped, eyes wide. "How do you know about that, anyway?"

Lex gave Clark the driest look possible. "It's my lake, Clark. It stays frozen year round. Your friend Kelvin? Froze several girls to death, attacked my ashikana, your mother, and my generator. There's not that much to put together."

Clark blushed crimson. "Oh. Did you... find out about that later, or... you know, recently?" He asked, eyes wide. "And the… others?"

"Land of the weird, home of the strange," he said, imitating Chloe's voice. "There's very little that goes on in this town that I don't know about."

"Tina Greer?" Clark asked, eyes scrunched. "Eric Summers?"

"Tina. Eric. Whitney and his difficulty, which directly involved me. Cassandra, though you had nothing to do with that. The Nicodemus flower, which was my responsibility. Bob Rickman, which again, affected me directly." Lex gave a crooked grin. "I could go on."

Clark's lips twitched. "You mean to tell me you knew I was involved every time, but never told me?"

Lex's eyebrow elevated in return. "And you were involved every time, saved my life I don't know how many times, and you never told me?"

Oh. He swallowed. "Well… there were... problems, back then. Lots of them," he hedged, unhappy with the way the conversation had turned and walking past his lover to the box of Ellie's winter clothes that were a few sizes too small. He went into it, looking for what he needed, and found a pink Barbie sweater, jeans he knew, with the rainbow belt he found deeper in the box, would fit, as well as socks, a jacket, a hair scrunchie, and of course, the skates.

Lex frowned, and followed his lover across to the box, and stopped him with a hand on Clark's wrist. "I'm not angry," Lex said softly. "It was hard to accept, at first, but I understand why you did it. And in your shoes, I'd have done the same thing. I just... waited for you to make the first move because I've always been raised not to tip my hand. I didn't know... I didn't know if I could love you without you being honest with me, but when you came to me that day last year and told me how you felt... I was lost. And you showed me the way. How to love you, how to be honest, how to get honesty in return."

Clark smiled a little, up at him, from the crouch on the floor. "It's not that I didn't trust you, Lex. I do trust you--I always have. But before you, my parents had never told anyone about me, and neither had I. I wasn't supposed to… it was engrained in me, you know? I couldn't tell anyone--I was deathly afraid of someone finding out, someone who was bad, and using me. Which actually happened a few times--that cop who threatened to kill my family and expose my secret, for one," Clark answered, as he reached out to stroke Lex's hand. "I've loved you for a very long time...I just didn't know how to tell you, how to express it, whether it was right. I think I fell in love with you the night before we had sex--when we were watching TV and eating popcorn and being stupid guys. I kept getting hard... I couldn't... I had to keep rolling onto my belly to watch the TV. I swear, I don't know how I didn't wear a hole in your mattress."

Lex tightened his grip on the box. "You should have told me about Phelan. I could have taken care of him for you. Nobody would have questioned it." Lex closed his hand around Clark's. "I have the tape of you running, in the museum. I took it so nobody else would see it. Clark... I asked him what he knew, and he wouldn't tell me." He squeezed gently. "I wanted you since we met; I wanted you to be happy more."

"You were already suspicious about me, weren't you?" Clark asked, looking up at him as he gently stroked his lovers thumb in his hand. "I thought you might have been, but I didn't know how to ask you." He smiled, quietly. "I love you."

"I'd had suspicions that something was different about you, yes, since I saw the schematics on the crash. Everything had pointed to me hitting you, but then, you were standing there in front of me telling me you didn't. And I saw, after Eric, that you were hurt. Able to be hurt. And I wrote it off. But then... after the incident with Earl Jenkins, I was suspicious again."

"Why didn't you ever ask me?" Clark asked, tipping his head as he stood with the clothes, and with a last glance around the attic, flicked the light off and led his lover back to the ladder. "Why didn't you just ask me? I probably would have told you."

Lex shrugged, and let Clark lead him away. "Because I thought that if you trusted me enough to tell me, you would. And it hurt that you didn't, so I didn't pry."

"For what its worth, Lex, I'm sorry," Clark said quietly, as the guilt settled in his belly like lead. "I never meant to hurt your feelings, you know? never."

"Clark, don't feel guilty. You barely knew me; I was a Luthor and the son of Satan incarnate. I understand why you didn't."

"Lionel's not Satan. He's much too--" he stopped.

Looked up, half way down the ladder, and frowned at the wall as he slowly, carefully, climbed down the rest of the steps. He frowned deeper, unable to understand what he was feeling… and then his lips twitch. "Lex?" he asked, softly, and reached out into his lovers mind, guiding Lex's thoughts to the threads of sha'nauch, and showed his lover, veering from the deep blue thread and the maroon thread--the new one. Gold, trembling with its first awareness, and he beamed so big his face almost split. "John," he whispered.

 

-fin-

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