The Memoirs

Finally.  Ms. Bird sighed deeply.  The Luthor's were her family--perhaps not by blood, but she felt they were, at any rate--but between Lex's sudden hair growth, Lionel's accident, Dominic's obsessive clucking over Lionel, and Clark's odd behavior... well, it was needless to say, they were going to give her a heart attack.

 

Old bones creaked as she moved around the kitchen, pouring a half quart of milk into a teakettle and setting it on the stove as she pulled the quilted robe tight around her waist.  Freshly baked cookies sat in the jar in the middle of the table, and she opened it carefully, extracting three of the treats as she settled at the table, waiting for the kettle to whistle.

 

He'd jacked off.

 

Had to. No other way to possibly get through the night without it. Hot and heavy in the bathroom... five minutes worth, but the quick, hard orgasm was enough to sate him for another two days... and bring his break down back under bay for another time.

 

Dominic had slipped into warm pajamas and a ratty old university sweatshirt...socked feet peeking out from his too-long pajama bottoms. Jack and cookies. Just what he needed to get to sleep.

 

Dominic walked quietly through the silent house… already knowing which creaking floor boards to avoid, and padded silently down the back hall, to the small doorway that led into the kitchen from the bedrooms upstairs.

 

And blinked at who he saw. "Ms. Bird?"

 

"Ja, Herr Dominic."  She waved a weary hand at him.  "Vhat can I do for chu?"

 

"Nothing." His voice was soft, and he stepped onto the cool marble, pulling the sleeves of his sweater down in the cool air. "What’re you doing awake, Ms. Bird? Its two in the morning."

 

"I chould ask chu de same queschun, but I tink we both know de ansur already."  She nodded back to the teakettle.  "I am having varm milk.  Vould you care to join me?"

 

Dominic smiled just a little bit and ran his fingers through his short cropped hair. "I would yes. Stay sitting down… I'll get it when its through." He slid into the stool in front of hers...a corner of the countertop between them. "Are you feeling alright?"

 

She nodded.  "Ja, I am good.  Merely vorried about chu all."  She sighed, and nodded gratefully again at his offer to get up and get the kettle.  "Chu, Herr Lionel, Herr Lex, Meester Clark... chu are all in serious danger of giving me heart attack."

 

He couldn’t help it. He smiled, and pat her hand gently. "Oh yeah. If you like, we could schedule it and spend a week in the hospital together." The kettle went off beside them, and he rose to his feet, opening the cabinet with the cups...and staring. Everything was so... where the--

 

Aha!

 

Behind all the stately, matching coffee mugs with gold trim was his huge, ugly cup with a fat baby boy on it with angels wings, and he grinned brightly, pulling that and the matching baby girl one down for their milk. "Have Lex and Clark been giving you trouble?"

 

"Terrible boy, Herr Dominic," she clucked severly.  "Chu are part of the problem," she continued, wagging her finger at him.  "Chu get so busy nagging after Herr Lionel to take care of himself that chu do not take care of churself."  A heavy sigh.  "Herr Lex nearly killed me the other morning wit de hair... I thought I had seen the... ghost, yes.  Ghost."

 

His classic, gorgeous smile crossed his face, a flash of teeth and innocence before he turned to fill the mugs with the warm milk. "Yes...the sudden hair was a bit of a shock, wasn’t it? I’ve not laughed that hard in a good long while."

 

She held her hands out to accept the warm mug.  "He vas in his mudder's room vhen I saw him, him and Meester Clark.  His back vas to de door, and the sunlight in de hair... I thought I had seen a ghost."  She raised the mug to her lips, and sipped slowly.

 

"He does look surprisingly like Lillian, doesn’t he?" But his words were preoccupied, because Lillian wasn’t the only person he looked like. Not at all. Dominic knew, and it was all the worse because the resemblance was so uncanny.  Dammit. He took his own mug and slid back onto his stool... feet dangling happily as he sipped.

 

She laughed softly.  "He looks like chu now, vith the goatee instead of de beard.  That vas a good choice."  Another sip of milk.  "Chu know, I thought chu vere killing him vhen I heard de screaming, but vhen I cleaned... I found de vax."

 

He giggled, very sweetly and innocently, and glanced at her over his coffee mug. "Ms. Bird, would I be a bad man to admit that I had a ball doing that?"

 

Ms. Bird offered a conspiratorial grin.  "I vould have expected no less from chu.  I svear, I think chu two are trying to kill each udder."

 

A deep chuckle, and he rearranged himself on the stool, eyes shining. "Come now, Ms Bird...you know how much fun it is to irritate Lex. He always has such a cow... or tries to run them over, anyway. He gets all red, the veins begin throbbing... I swear, sometimes I make him angry just to see him try to rein it in." Another wicked snicker and he sipped his milk... peering at the cookie jar and going in for a chocolate chip.

 

"Ja, he does throw fits," she admitted.  "The vein in his forehead especially; it throbs and pounds like a marching band."  She settled back in the chair, gazing at him.  "Chu are not making any points vit him vhen chu do det.  It vould be easier in de long run ef chu were not always at each udder's throats."

 

"I think we made some progress. Had a razor to his throat, and he trusted me." He smiled a little, looking at his hands. "I think its finally clicked in his thick brain that his father and I are really... you know." Blush.

 

"En loofe?" she supplied softly.  "I tink perhaps et is going around."

 

"Yes." Another smile, and he glanced up. "Going around? What do you mean?"

 

Ms. Bird merely smiled enigmatically.  "Nothing, Herr Dominic.  Ramblings of a tired old voman."

 

He waggled a finger at her chidingly, but didn’t press. "Ms. Bird...I had something to ask of you."

 

"Chu can ask anything, Herr Dominic."

 

He reached out and cupped her frail, capable hands in his, and rubbed the backs as he looked into her eyes. "Lionel and I are going to get married in Venice sometime this month. Would... would you come be our witness?"

 

Ms. Bird stared hard at Dominic.  "Chu... chu are serious?  Herr Dominic, thet chould be done by femily!"  She squeezed his hands gently.  "I vould be honored to witness for you and Herr Lionel."

 

"You are family, Ms. Bird. You're like the grandmother I never had… or, alright, the really wonderful aunt who buys chocolate and sneaks it to me from her purse." He was smiling.  Just hugely, and he reached across the counter to hug her tightly. "It would mean so much to the both of us, and I thank you."

 

Ms. Bird hugged back, tears forming in her eyes.  "It means a lot to me too," she said, voice rough.  "Chu, and Herr Lionel, chu are like family to me too."

 

He kissed her cheek softly, and alright, yeah, he was a little misty eyed too, and he grinned at her as he took another chocolate chip cookie. "We're going to get married on the beach...where my parents got married."

 

"That sounds beautiful, Herr Dominic."  She sniffled quietly.  "Chu... are chu going to tell anyvun else?  I am tinking dat since you've asked me at two thirty in de morning dat it is a secret?"

 

"It's a secret." He nodded, and smiled a little. "Id rather not... not get my family involved. After everything is finalized we'll have a big party, but... Ms. Bird, I cant picture having my five brothers and sisters, my mother, Lionel, Clark and Lex, the Kents, Marie's six kids, Ellie and Shane in Italy. Can you?"

 

"Chu can count on me," she said firmly, draining her mug.  "I vill keep chur secret, and I vill be honored to stand up vith you both."

 

"Thank you, Ms Bird." Another soft smile, and he squeezed her hands once more as he finished his cookie. "I really can’t sleep. I’m going to have to find something to do. Maybe I'll surf the web for a while."

 

"Vould chu like me to read to chu?"  She sighed.  "I vill be reading for a few hours anyvay, it vould not be trouble to read out loud."

 

"I’m not a good person to read for." His grin was priceless. "I ask a thousand questions, interrupt every other minute. Ask Graham, he stopped reading me bed time stories after I learned how to talk… and never shut up."  He paused.  "What’re you reading?"

 

She held up a battered purple Harlequin romance novel.  "It is called, Jewel of de Continent."

 

Oh, man. He grinned, eyes dancing, and kissed each of her cheeks. "I think I'll pass this time, beloved." He rose to his feet, mug in hand, fourth cookie too, and winked at her as he strolled out. "Read Tears Of The Earth, after. Great book."

 

And he was gone.

 

Or actually, he strolled through the cold house...fires in each room spilling out into the hall, but it didn’t take away from the cold stone of the walls. The office, however, was nice and toasty...and he figured Lex wouldn’t mind if he surfed the web on his laptop for a while.

 

So maybe it wasn’t as busted as he'd thought. Thank God.

 

He pulled the desk out from the glass… plopped down, and booted up the computer. His milk and cookie were set beside him... and he forgot about them as the wallpaper popped up. It was a picture of a tiny, tiny kitten laying in the middle of red velvet, with a little Santa hat on her head.

 

And Dominic just grinned. He clicked up AOL...signed in under a guest, his rapid fingers over the keyboard like home.

 

He was a pro at surfing the web, so he immediately pulled up his stored links and hit what he was looking for.

 

Fast and the Furious slash. Ohhh yeah.

 

And the thing was, he meant to read it. Really, he did. But his head sort of ended up on his arm, milk and cookie forgotten, and he fell right to sleep.

 

Lex couldn't sleep.  Could not.  Beside the bed he was sharing with his lover was a fifty-page high stack of notes he'd taken, and the rest of them were still down in the lab.

 

His brain was itching to go over the notes, rewrite them, redraw some of the diagrams, and study several of the molecular chains that seemed to make up the proteins of Clark's biology.

 

Sleep was, unfortunately, a lost cause.

 

Sadly, so was waking his beloved up for sex, which would have put him right to sleep.  Clark had continued to reassure that he was all right, but Lex all but refused to touch him until the new skin had had a chance to heal. 

 

He gathered the notes in one arm, rolling out of bed and slipping into a thick robe with the other, and headed downstairs, to his office.

 

He opened the small door to the private staircase, and sighed.  Dominic.  Was asleep.  On his computer.  He walked over quietly, sat the papers down well out of the range of the milk cup, and gently shook Dominic's shoulder.  "Dominic... come on, it's time for bed."

 

He muttered something absently and shifted... and his eyes fluttered before closing again.

 

Lex rolled his eyes and shook again, a little harder.  "Come on... let's get you to bed.  If Dad wakes up again and you're not there, he'll have a fit and that can't be good for him."

 

He mumbled again but this time his eyes opened... bloodshot and exhausted. But when Lex woke him... he wouldn’t be going back to sleep. Three thirty in the morning. Fuck. "No...i's a'right." He swallowed, coughed, and climbed up from the seat... yawning heavily and picking up his lukewarm milk. He walked around the desk and instead plopped himself into one of the seats in front of the desk, yawning once more.

 

"Dominic... you're exhausted," Lex said quietly, crouching in front of him.  "You need to sleep, and not at my desk."

 

He shook his head, rubbing his eyes with the heel of his palm. "No... I’m too worried to sleep. Its alright." He nodded and smiled reassuringly at him… coughing softly and shrugging a shoulder up to rub his neck. "What’re you doing awake?"

 

"What are you worried about?"  Lex pulled the other chair close.  “My Dad?"

 

“Amongst other things." He shrugged again, trying to get a kink out of his back. Damn he was getting to old to sleep the way he had.

 

Lex sighed.  He was not good at this.  "Dominic... if you want to talk about it... I will listen.  And I'll even be... not my usual obnoxious self about it."'

 

He snorted, but his eyes danced, even as tired as he was. "Highly unlikely, that." But he shrugged. "Just some business things...some life changing things. The next month is to be an eventful one."

 

"How so?"  Lex pulled himself up and sat on the corner of the desk, facing Dominic.  "What's going to be happening that I don't know about?"

 

"Remember… what I was telling you about the board members, last week?" He sighed. "It was true. You must have heard about the porn ring bust, already...there’s drugs, money laundering, possibly some thievery going on among the accountants. Its just a mess."

 

"Yes, I heard.  I'd meant to talk to Dad about that, but I wanted to wait until he was in slightly better health before I hit him with all that."  Lex hitched himself up more comfortably.  "You want a drink?"

 

"Please." Another sigh, and he rubbed a palm over his face. "He all but beat it out of me earlier tonight. You know your father. Buy him a long, pointy implement, and he threatens to light saber your head off unless you share everything."

 

Lex chuckled as he walked over to the small table where the drinks were kept.  "I knew buying him that walking stick would be a very bad idea."  He unstoppered the crystal decanter, and poured two glasses of brandy, and then carried them back over, handing one to Dominic as he hitched himself back up on the desk.  "I take it my father wasn't pleased with the news."

 

He took the glass and straightened, but just a little, tugging a leg up underneath him and shaking his head. "Displeased... angry... disappointed. But... your father and I have discussed something, and I’m not sure if he'll be happy with my telling you before we can all get in a conference and sort it out."

 

"I gather that this... whatever it is, is something fairly important?"  Lex sipped quietly, his butt resting on the notes he'd brought downstairs. 

 

"Very much so. I think you'll appreciate it, though." He smiled a little, and rubbed a shoulder again. "You didn’t tell me why you were awake."

 

"Just couldn't sleep; I've got some notes and formulas I need to work on, but they can wait for an hour or so."  He studied his glass.  "If you want to tell me, I have a very selective memory."

 

"You might kill your father for it." He shifted again, a yawn cracking his jaw, and he rubbed his palm through his hair. "He's thinking about moving LuthorCorp to Smallville."

 

Only Lex's reflexes kept his glass from hitting the floor.  "That's... that's definitely a big move to make."

 

He caught the jerk, and he couldn’t help the chuckle. "Yes. For a few different reasons… but the main being I think he just needs a fresh start, in more ways then one. After new year we're going to Metropolis and, once the numbers are figured up, he's going to start firing people left and right."

 

Lex nodded absently.  "Remind me to give him my list; there's a few people I've found in the areas I'm responsible for that you and my father might have missed; no more than thirty people, though."  He sighed as he sipped.  "Well... I can't say as I'd be against it, Dominic.  God knows Smallville could use the income--this whole town is about three steps from bankruptcy and poverty as it is."

 

"It would be an amazing shift...the town would become a metropolitan area within a few years. Give a few thousand people jobs they need... it would be an opportunity that comes around once in a blue moon." Dominic nodded as well, taking a sip of the brandy… and sighing as it hit the warm milk in his belly.

 

"The only problem is, a move and a mass firing like you're talking about would leave us dead in the water in the middle of some very, very hostile territory."  Lex drained his glass.  "LuthorCorp isn't exactly in the habit of building lasting alliances."

 

He sipped again. "That’s why your father’s going to merge with Wayne Enterprises." Another sip, and he didn’t dare glance up for a reaction.

 

"He's what?" 

 

He chanced that look. "Merge. Wayne Enterprises. If Mr. Wayne wants to, anyhow."

 

"Why in God's name would Bruce want to merge with us?"  Lex sat his glass down, and looked at Dominic.

 

"Ah, well, now that’s the kicker, right? Why? Well, do you recall a Mr. Winchester...over from Luxor Enterprises? He's had it in his mind to take over Waynetech Electronics for some time now...ever since I knew him when I first began my career with your father, in fact. Your father got in the way of him buying out Bruce a few years ago...so, basically, your young friend owes us one.  But not just that...we've got interests in Winchesters company. If we merge with Bruce, the threat for the electronics division basically is kicked in the bucket."

 

"Oh, I remember the Winchester fucker... I just didn't know Dad blocked the sale.  I don't think Bruce knows, either."  Lex listened quietly.  "Oh... you're right.  Bruce would love to get his hands on that.  He's been dying to kick Winchester in the balls for years."

 

"Exactly. It’s just a game of who’s got what, and who can rub what in who's faces. Talk, but rarely any show. That’s what’s so fun about business." He grinned, and offered a wink. "What do you think?"

 

"I think you'll have a lot better chance with Bruce if you don't go in there rubbing it in his face.  Make him an offer, present your facts, and for the love of God, don't let my father come off in his usual overbearing style."

 

"He's not overbearing." Sudden defense of his sweet lover were the first things out of his mouth... and he grinned, just a little. "Alright, he is a bit overbearing. But no, not really."

 

"Dominic... I know my father.  Overbearing is the nice word for it."  He leaned forward.  "Is he serious about this?  Because if he is..."  Lex leaned over and dug through the bottom drawer of his desk, and pulled out a folder of papers.  "I'm willing to merge my assets in with the main LuthorCorp body, including LexCorp, which is the small front that owns Cadmus and a few other projects here and there.  I'd like for LexCorp to remain a separate entity for now, but I'm willing to merge the assets to make the deal peachier to Bruce, because I know he's been dying to get his hands on some of the scientific research we've been funding through Cadmus and STAR."

 

Dominic just smiled at that... softly, shaking his head. "Ever the surprise, Lex Luthor." But he nodded and took another drink of his brandy...which had succeeded in warming him up nice and well, and chuckled again softly, shaking his head. God, they grew like one another every day that passed.

 

"What's surprising, Dominic?  That I want my father's company to succeed?"

 

"That’s the funny part, Lex. Its not surprising at all."

 

Lex shook his head.  "You're quite the confusing man, Dominic."

 

"So I've been told." He was relaxed, comfortable, and he grinned up at his young friend. "How's Clark doing?"

 

"He's finally resting well.  He's through the worst of it, I think."  He ran his hands through his hair.  "I still haven't found any answers about this, though."

 

"No...and you've not told us what exactly is going on with him. The last few days, what I’ve seen of him, he's seemed agitated...confused. I tried to talk to him a few times, but he just wasn’t himself." Oh, and his grin just winked into place like a light bulb. "You look like you had a misfortunate accident with a bottle of Rogaine, Lex."

 

Lex shook his head.  "He's been... molting.  Shedding his skin entirely.  The confusion and such?  Symptoms of that.  Including a high fever."  He ran his hand over the back of his head where his stitches were buried under all the hair.  "That's what happened here, too... he was in the middle of an episode, and he ended up throwing me against the wall in my bathroom.  God knows what Enrique thought when he cleaned up the blood."

 

"Ahhhh. That explains the scratching... and the nervousness when I got too close." Dominic nodded, as if a human being shedding his skin was perfectly normal. "How is he now?"

 

"Now?  He's back to normal, and sleeping peacefully."  He pulled out the sheaf of papers he was sitting on.  "This is just the first in almost hundreds of pages of notes I need to type up, annotate, illustrate and study.  I could work for the rest of my life on the molting alone."

 

"Ah, Lex. He's a fascinating creature, and a sweet, gentle boy, and I know that the scientist in you is utterly fascinated. But tread carefully, Lex. He loves you, and he wants to give you anything you like... and sometimes we can lose track of that, and take advantage." He said it gently, but nodded anyway.

 

Lex shook his head.  "I know, Dominic.  I already had that happen once tonight, and I ended up burning two pages of my notes before Clark stopped me." 

 

"Ahh, see?" He nodded, just a little. Then he got curious… and he glanced up. "Is he really that different from us?"

 

"He is.  You wouldn't believe it."  Lex started flipping through his notes.  "See here?  The basic protein-analogues are different, and I can't even figure out which of those are DNA strands and which are just chromosomes or what have you.  And his skin... it produces... some sort of shield that extends over his skin.  Nothing can penetrate it, nothing.  I tried acid... I tried knives, electroshock, everything.  Even the sliver of meteor rock didn't entirely wipe it out, it only lessened it as it radiated the cells, but even after exposure, the irradiated cells recovered almost instantly."  He ran his hands through his hair.  "That might explain this, somehow, if that bitter liquid somehow contains whatever it is that helps his cells to regenerate after exposure."

 

"Lex... a shield?" Dominic leaned over to look at the notes...and his eyes were wide. "That’s... that’s utterly astounding." And he was silent, for just a moment, as he watched his young friend. "An amazing life awaits him...you know that, right?"

 

"You're telling me."  Then Lex closed his notes and sat them on the desk.  "No, Dominic... an amazing destiny awaits him.  And I want to be a part of it, but... I'm also afraid.  I'm afraid that I will end up using Clark for my own ends, and I never want to do that."

 

"Lex...this boy...he's a gift, to you. He was given to you by whoever and whatever watches over us, to mold into a man. These gifts...he's going to realize someday that he can use them, to help people, and he's going to go out and do it. And its going to be because of you that he fights...that love you both share. Lex...he is your treasure, to do with it what you will. And I believe, in my heart, that you've led the life you have up till now because you needed that strength, that hard shell, to show him what he needs to know."

 

Lex shook his head.  "I haven't done anything, Dominic.  Clark's... Clark's the one that's turning me into a better man.  I haven't guided him, I haven't pushed him towards anything, hell, I'm still mired in the whole my lover is an alien concept."  Lex pinched the bridge of his nose.  "There are nights I wake in sheer terror, after he's gone home, because I've had nightmares of things that I could do to him, and I'm terrified that I could actually do those things."

 

"Don’t be afraid." He shook his head, and squeezed his knee tightly. "Lex, you're a better man then you could possibly fathom. You are. And its going to be until you realize that that you'll live in fear. And you know... you have guided him. If you think you haven’t, you're blind. I barely know the boy, and I can see it. The both of you are changing, and its a beautiful thing to see."

 

"I had him in my lab tonight, Dominic.  And I was so caught up in what I was studying that I didn't realize that I'd hurt him.  If I can get so entwined just studying what his skin is like... what the hell does that say about me?  What does it say about me when I ask Clark--who is obviously disgusted by his molting--to peel his skin into layers for me because I can't break it?  He is so disgusted that he refused to let me look at him, I knew that, and yet, I was so wrapped up in what I was learning I didn't THINK and I hurt him!"  Lex wrapped his arms around himself.  "How can I forgive myself for doing that when it means I could hurt him so much more down the road?"

 

Okay. This was more serious then he'd thought. Dominic reached down and set his glass on the floor, then leaned forward and ducked his head.... meeting Lex's eyes until he was looking at him. "You are a human being, Lex. Human. You have blood and bones and a mind. You’ve insecurities and a passionate heart... and your mind gets lost in that passion when you're doing things you love. It was a mistake, Lex. A mistake. You know, the things we do by accident. They’re not things you need to tear your life up over, love. They happen, because we are human. You made a mistake. And? Do you know how many mistakes I’ve made in my long time on this earth? Too many to count. But you learn from them, and you move on, and you don’t do them again. The truth is, you will hurt him, love. Over and over, just as he'll hurt you. That, unfortunately, is what love is. You'll hurt, and you'll make up, and your friendship...your relationship, will grow stronger with each passing day. Don’t fret about the tomorrow, when you can live today.  Don’t hurt over tomorrow, when today is yet to be over. Do you understand me? Lex, you're not perfect, as badly as that disgusts you to hear. You’re not. No one is. But we live, and we learn, and we move on."

 

"The truth is... Clark made a mistake when he trusted me, Dominic.  He never should have told me.  I never should have let him tell me."  Lex dropped his eyes down to look at the fire in the fireplace.  "I know the kind of man I am.  I never should have let him tell me.  And when he asked me to help him... I should have said no."  His fingers tightened on the papers.  "Jonathan Kent was right about me; Clark never should have gotten mixed up in my life."  Even as he said it, though, he knew it wasn't true.  "That's not true.  Clark should have gotten mixed up in my life.  He just never should have told me who he really is."  He looked at Dominic.  "I don't want to lose the relationship of my life because of my curiosity... I don't want to take the risk of hurting him and losing him, because I honestly don't know what I would do without him."

 

"Lex, it wasn’t your secret to tell, now was it?" Softly, and he cupped his cheeks a moment. "He told you because he trusts you. He loves you. As for Jonathan Kent, FUCK what Jonathan Kent thinks. The man has his head so far up his ass he can see china. Bugger headed piss brain. He knows nothing of who and what you are, so fuck him and his corn fed ass back to his farm." He wasn’t bitter. "And Lex, you've also got to remember one thing. Clarks very nearly an adult. If you’re making him mad, he'll tell you. You'll fix it...you'll move on. Just as if he does something that’s irritating you... he fixes it, and moves on. Do you honestly think I could still be with your father if this mantra didn’t work?"

 

Lex nodded in acknowledgement.  "I can't tell Clark this... I don't want him to ever think he can't come to me about anything.  But I'm just... terrified of myself sometimes.  But I have to trust Clark to keep me from becoming that person, just like he did tonight."  He squeezed Dominic's forearm for a moment.  "Thank you."  Ad then he blinked.  "Not that I'm Jonathan Kent's biggest supporter, but... what, exactly, brought that tirade on?"

 

Oh, yeah. Score one for the Senatori, he's still got it going on. He smiled, nodding to him and squeezing back...before his expression clouded and he glared. "I dislike that man with everything that is in me. It’s a hard think to do, but I think I’ve surpassed resentment and gone right into hatred."

 

"I gathered that much, but my question is why?  What has Jonathan Kent done to you?"

 

"He tried to take your father away from me."

 

What?  "What?"  Openmouthed shock.

 

"He tried to take your father away from me." And the open mouth would have been funny, any other time. "He went in, planted a kiss on him, asked him back. Your father, being your father, had to tell me....we had it out. When he left, that’s when he had...." He swallowed, and the guilt nearly ate him alive. "When he had the accident."

 

"Jonathan... kissed my father?  Asked... asked him back?  And... okay."  Another pinch to the bridge of his nose.  "This is making my brain ache.  You mean that Jonathan Kent is the one who caused my father's accident?  What in the name of God..."  Lex trailed off.  "Dominic?  Are you all right?"

 

"I’m the one who caused it. He wouldn’t have left, if..." He looked down. "If it hadn’t been for me."

 

"What?"  And Lex had thought he couldn't be shocked any longer.  "You... no.  I know my father.  He drives worse than I do.  If he was running from anything, it was for space to think."

 

"Because he thought I didn’t want to marry him." A solid nod, and he reached down, taking a swig of what was left of the brandy. "I took his ring."

 

"I need a drink."  Lex walked over and brought the decanter back, filling both their glasses and moving to sit in the chair across from Dominic.  "Why did you take his ring?  And if I'm prying, let me know, but... why?"

 

"You're not." He watched Lex move, and took a sip of the refilled glass, sighing softly. "I took it because when he told me...I thought he wanted to have a go at it again with Jonathan. And I'd...Lex, as long as your father is happy, I don’t care where he is or who he's with. I want nothing but joy for him. And when… he came to me, I just... I jumped to conclusions I shouldn’t have."

 

Lex shook his head softly.  "Welcome to the club," he said softly, holding his hand out.  "I'm guilty of making assumptions too, you realize."  He closed his eyes.  "When you and I found Clark, after the red meteor incident... I assumed that I wasn't enough for him, that I wasn't who or what he needed, and he thought that meant I was saying he wasn't good enough for me."  He still held his hand out.  "Welcome to the I'm An Ass Club... I'm not only the president, but I'm also a client."

 

He couldn’t help it. He lay his head back against the chair, laughed, and squeezed the offered hand, hard. "If you're the president, then I must be the brute trying to take you over." A heavy, soft sigh. "Mistakes come at a price, sometimes.  And other times... they can be the best thing that could have ever happened to you."

 

"I think in both our cases, it was a little bit of both."  He raised his glass.  "To the asses... because we all know what happens when we assume."

 

"To the asses." he rose his glass, clanked it to Lex's...and downed it in a single swallow.

 

Lex finished his drink, and swallowed, looking down at his watch.  "Three fifteen in the morning; we should both go back to bed before we're missed."

 

"Of course." He chuckled. "And I’m a bit tipsy, now. I might be able to pass out for an hour or so before I’m up again." He rose...bones creaking, back popping, and sighed. "Christ, I’m such an old man."

 

"No, my father is an old man.  You're a spring chicken, and I'm a mere hatchling."  Lex offered his hand to steady his tipsy friend.  "Do you need help up the stairs?"

 

He shook his head… wry grin on his face. "I’m old... I’m not that old.  Nor am I that drunk." And he wasn’t, not really, as he set the glass on Lex's desk. "Try and get some rest, Lex."

 

"I'll try."  He leaned against the door.  "Get some sleep, Dominic.  Don't let the old codger wake you up, either."

 

"He will. Asking for water." But in his voice, there was a thick, beautiful love, and he padded his way up the steps silently before he disappeared into the quiet shadows.

 

Lex watched as Dominic disappeared, and shook his head.  Maybe... just maybe... over three AM brandy... he and Dominic could be friends again. 

 

Lionel was half awake and half asleep, watching the door for his lover's return.

 

He was as silent as he could be...opening the closed door quietly, and shutting it once more. He waited a moment until his eyes adjusted to the light and lack thereof... and as he waited for them to focus, stripped off his clothes. His pants and sweatshirt fell aimlessly… his socks soon after, and he padded silently across the thick carpets and around the bed.

 

The bed dipped a little as he crawled back under the sheets… and he yawned, ever so softly. The blankets and pillows were soft as silk and cozy, and he snuggled under them...and close to his lover, spooning him warmly from behind. His arm looped about his lovers waist, and he snuggled in, laying his cheek on a warm neck, and his nose softly next to an ear, pillowed in that rich hair.

 

"Welcome back," Lionel said quietly, pressing back against his lover.  "Sssh... go to sleep.  You can tell me all about it in the morning."  His hand traced lightly over Dominic's arm, and then he laced their fingers together.  "Rest, Jiminy."

 

His fingers moved...locked tightly around his lovers, and he whispered just barely. "I love you with my entire heart, my lovely one."

 

Lionel's fingertips gently rotated the ring on his lover's finger.  "And I love you, Jiminy Cricket.  With everything that I am."

 

He smiled, just a little, into warm skin… because dreams already tugged. Dreams already wanted to bring him in, and he was so exhausted, he was going to let them.

 

And the last thing he did, before he allowed himself to rest, was to press his cheek against a warm back, and listen to the heart beat under his ear.

 

 

 

-fin-

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