Disclaimer: If Smallville including all of its characters belonged to me... well, I wouldn't be here writing fanfics. I'd be in my big expensive indoor pool 'cause I'd be rich as hell.

Rating: K+ imo but: dears kids, smoking and drinking is not cool. (cough) Neither is doing dangerous stuff on rooftops.

Other random notes: This is not my mother tongue, so feel free to point out any violating of the English language that I managed to come up with. Basically, this story is based on my opinion that if Clark had just told Lex his secret, Lex wouldn't have become such a frustrated evil schemer :D

Knowledge

He tried to supress the trembling in his hands while he lighted a cigarette, the first one since he came to Smallville to work for Lionel.

His father annoyed him.

Genevieve annoyed him.

LuthorCorp annoyed him.

But most of all he was annoyed by himself.

He was incredibly obsessed and a control freak, and offending friends and others that he actually cared for seemed to be his newest habit. Constantly, he found himself being pressured to do things that made people dislike him even more - by Lionel, Genevieve, various business partners. Sometimes by his own imagination.

Lex inhaled deeply and ignored the burning in his lungs that weren't quite used to smoking anymore. He sat on the roof of the mansion where no one would look for him since he felt no desire of being found by his servants or – heaven forbid – Lionel.

He didn't go out much lately, not even on his balcony, in the garden or at any other place of his huge property. His unhealthy skin tone, being even paler than usual, was his witness.

Clark had called. Either he needed him to get information or to pull a few strings as usual. Or maybe for accusing him of having ulterior motives, it was becoming the norm by now. Whatever he wanted to stop by for, his tone didn't quite sound like he felt the desire to play a nice, relaxing game of pool with his on-and-off friend.

Well, at least it was nice to be informed of his visit for a change. Usually Clark just stormed through the doors leading into Lex's study at some point and totally caught him off guard while he was busy with work (and most certainly not having a single clue what the reasons for Clark's bad mood were). Revelling in these thoughts, Lex's mouth twitched into a lopsided smirk, his very own trademark expression. But this time it wasn't on purpose like so often when he utilized it as the completion for the mask he put on when dealing with others. It was unintended and lacking any life whatsoever.

However, a plan had been developing in his mind after Clark's sudden phone call, a rather stupid plan to say the least. Maybe a bit unfair, too.

Most certainly very chancy.

In case he failed he wouldn't have to worry about that, though, since worrying required being able to do anything at all – in other words, being alive.

He couldn't stand the lies, the poor excuses and the fake innocent looks anymore. And if Clark told him another one of his far-fetched stories about "being at the right place, just at the right time" Lex was pretty sure that he would experience a mental breakdown and slap Clark right in his puppy-eyed face. He couldn't go on and pretend all this didn't bother him – he was Lex Luthor after all. An insane thirst for knowledge was just another free service that came with being a Luthor, Clark really should know that by now. Especially after all the strange encounters with Lionel...

Half a year ago, he had almost destroyed everything when Lionel gave Clark the key to a certain room in his mansion – how did the manipulative bastard get his hands on it, anyway? Lex made sure that he never got the chance to snoop around on his own ever again, since – and he had obviously failed to find all the right words to stop Clark from running away and sulking for weeks.

Maybe having a secret collection of information on Clark and his family wasn't quite appropriate. But Clark never answered his questions, at least not without obviously lying to him, and his urge to discover the final truth, the missing piece of the puzzle, the key to the mystery that was Clark Kent (and most probably the one to keeping his sanity as well)... it was just too strong. He was sick of endless hours of brooding and pondering, resulting in getting drunk on expensive scotch and feeling guilty for doubting the explanations of his best friend.

So here he was now, ready for operation and most probably a little bit mental. It didn't matter if it ended well. If he failed he wouldn't be driven insane by his never-ending search for the truth, at least.

He looked at his watch. Clark always arrived in time. Always. Well, at least when there wasn't another catastrophe happening in Smallville that required him to save the day yet again. Lex grimaced and hoped for the best. He finished the cigarette and threw it away, inwardly apologising for what he was about to do.

With one last glance towards the sun, he turned around, closed his eyes and simply let himself fall down.

Clark arrived at the mansion and stopped using his super speed in order to avoid looking suspicious. He was planning to enter the mansion the regular way today, passing the main entrance and the securities and all. He noticed that lately, he appeared in the building without being seen before way too often, and couldn't continue blaming it on open backdoors forever.

Today was certainly not his lucky day, mostly because Clark finally discovered that trying to keep Lana happy and content was pretty much senseless. Thus he had decided to call Lex after a long and mostly depressing day at school. He never really figured Lex or his thoughts out, but at least he didn't demand attention all the time when it was most unfitting. Instead, he always listened to his average teenage problems and dropped hints for possible solutions despite being quite busy on his own. Sometimes he put himself into life-threatening situations or did something incredibly stupid due to his own weird definition of 'the right thing' or to fix mistakes he had made previously.

Now that they were friends again Lex's mansion was the same stress-free relaxing zone it happened to be before their little angry outbursts and fights with each other. And Clark was definitely fed up with stress for today. So it appeared to be quite ironic that the first thing he caught sight of was Lex falling off the damn roof.

For a second Clark felt so paralysed that he just kept standing there, asking himself whether his eyes were playing a very bad prank on him or not, and what reasons Lex could possibly have to commit suicide – since he didn't see any other person who could have pushed him. Then he hurried to catch him before he hit the ground.

Lex squinted and stared at him with his mouth open while Clark gently put him back on his feet. Then he started laughing in a slightly insane way.

"Nice to know it cracked you up to give me the shock of my lifetime", Clark remarked with a faked cheerful voice and folded his arms.

"What you don't understand", Lex replied slowly and ran his hand over his head, "is that I'm... slightly overwhelmed, even though I knew I were right all along..." He eyed Clark like it was the first time he ever really saw him, judging by his expression sporting a pink dress as well as a Darth Vader mask. Clark ignored his urge to run away and wondered if Lex managed to have a psychotic break solely on his own this time, without drugs in his fave whiskey brand thanks to his 'loving' dad. Before he could ponder any more, though, his heart nearly stopped thanks to Lex's sudden explanation of his actions.

"You jumped off the roof in the very moment we were about to meet, just to clarify your doubts about me having superpowers", Clark repeated once more while he was pacing up and down Lex's study.

Lex went with preparing himself a scotch rather than begging for excuse (also, Luthors did not beg. Ever). He felt the predominant urge to drown his confused and mixed feelings. At least most of Clark's seemingly weird behaviour made sense now...

"You know", he interrupted Clark's nervous monologue with himself, feeling strangely calm all at once. "I'd really like to know how you plan to justify your every lecture about lies and secrets that you gave me now." He gulped down his drink in one go because he was afraid of not being able to endure the inevitable argument while being completely sober. "Well... we're kind of even now, don't you think?", he continued with the best innocent it-wasn't-my-fault look he could come up with.

Clark didn't really seem to listen for he still paced around the room with his arms crossed, sometimes muttering incomprehensible stuff to himself.

Lex sighed. They didn't really make progress that way, so he decided to speed things up a bit. "By the way, you could have just saved me and then disappeared as soon as you came, convincing me that Smallville's own private superhero had to be some other person later on. You wouldn't have to worry about me that way. But instead you reveiled yourself... which I somehow admire. So stop being afraid of me imprisoning you in my evil Luthor labs of doom to experiment on you in the most inhuman way possible, since I'm not planning to do such a thing."

Clark stopped in his tracks and turned around to look at him, cocking his head to the side and trying to sort through his thoughts. "For some reason you don't seem to be as afraid or disgusted as I imagined you to be", he stated after a while, slowly, and then allowed himself to drop down on the leather couch.

"Oh please, Clark. After all of my encounters with those meteorite-enhanced freaks you don't really take me by surprise anymore. - Not that I think of you as a freak, of course", he added hastily and started to pour himself another drink.

He didn't expect Clark to appear next to him and steal away his glass, though. "Stop it", Clark said with a weak grin. "I don't want you to be completely wasted, now that I'm telling you I'm not one of those 'freaks'. In fact, I'm not even born on this planet. And I really hate repeating myself in case you think it's all just a dream 'cause you weren't sober."

Lex didn't know if he would be able to close his mouth ever again, so he simply continued to stand there and gasp.

He was sprawled on the couch with the notebook in his lap and a tumbler of Brandy in his hand, playing with it occasionally while he stared at the screen. He didn't really notice what was going on there, though.

Learning Clark's secret had been a month ago now, and the excitement about this discovery still didn't let him go. Last week, he nearly ran into Lana in front of the Talon and he needed to supress the urge to run off and yell 'I know something you don't!' really badly, feeling like a stupid child when he finally got away from her. He still couldn't believe that Clark actually had been afraid of his reaction, either.

The doors of his study opened and Clark took up the room like a roaring storm. He was talking so fast, Lex only vaguely understood that his ranting was related to him saving Smallville from a huge threat once more.

"Lex", Clark remarked eventually, lifting his eyebrows and sitting down on the edge of the couch table, "did you even listen to a single word I said?"

"Sure" Lex retorted, leaning backwards and showing off a satisfied grin. "The reason why I'm smiling in such a dreamy way is just that I'm so very, very thankful because you don't ramble about Lana anymore since I know your secret."

For a moment Clark actually seem to sulk. But then his eyes focused on the notebook screen right in front of him and he smiled smugly. "If you don't stop bitching like that, I'll tell your father you fancy watching YouTube videos instead of keeping an eye on the stock exchange..."

In the very next second, a pillow hit his head.

- La Fin