Summary: Love is the limit.
Rating: PG
Pairing: Clark/Lex
Disclaimer: Fannishness knows no bounds ;)
Inspiration and Reference: Music - "Mad World" from the Donnie Darko Soundtrack and Sarah McLachlan's "Angel"; Movies - Superman II.
Spoilers: Bound
The soft notes of a grand piano filled the ballroom as Lex stood on the balcony with his champagne glass in hand. The superficial surrounded him, the drudgery of a socialite routine. It bored him, pulled him into that false sense of security again. Nevertheless, he kept turning his eye away from every woman who cast an interested glance in his direction. When he kept his attention focused elsewhere for long enough, they left him alone. He turned his back and closed his eyes, and like a nightmare, when he opened his eyes and looked again, they were gone. They vanished into the crowd, and he was relieved to be rid of their temptation.
The bowtie Lex wore tightened around his neck, and that seemed a sign that the night was wearing thin on him. He raised the champagne flute to his lips and gulped down the last of it. As a waiter passed by, Lex placed the empty glass on his tray. As Lex turned toward the stairs, his eyes swept across a sea of strangers. Suddenly, his eye caught on a familiar face. Lex blinked as he saw Clark, looking sophisticated in a tuxedo and standing at the top of the staircase, staring back at him with a soft smile of recognition.
Some people passed between them, obstructing Lex's line of sight, and when they cleared out of the way, there was nothing but empty space ahead of him. Lex searched the crowd, finding no sign of Clark. There was no tall head of rich brown hair peaking above the others, no voice calling out to lead him towards the person he had lost. He stepped to the railing to peer down onto the main floor, and there, at the bottom of the steps, he found Clark staring up at him.
Like pursuing a siren's call, Lex followed Clark's path. He descended the stairs, searching for that comforting presence, drawn to it like a ray of light in a dark cave. As Lex wandered the main floor, he could sense Clark's warmth; it burned like a torch, and illuminated everything around the farmboy. Lex's eye settled on a lonely figure in the corner, and immediately he felt safe.
Lex approached the railing and leaned against it, only a few feet away from his savoir-faire. Clark continued to peer out the tall glass window, looking down onto the city. His smile broadened slightly.
The last thing Lex wanted to do was interrupt this moment. The tranquility of it, the contentment that enveloped him. He let the perfection of their silence stretch, his stare drifting between the night outside and the beautiful young man beside him. There was something different about Clark. He seemed more mature, more relaxed, and more confident. He simply seemed like more. More than Lex ever had the right to ask. Unable to put forth any of the questions that obsessed him, he started with a much simpler one. "What are you doing here?"
Clark watched the cars in the distant streets below. His voice was gentle in forming his words. "I came to save you." His eyes shifted to meet Lex's, a profound serenity in them. His face seemed angelic in the faint white light from the strings of little bulbs that dangled against the windowpanes.
"From what?" Lex's voice sounded so calm and casual to his own ears. The simplicity and natural ease of this moment was surreal, like a dream.
"From yourself." Clark's mellow expression did not change, and his tone was smooth and kind.
Normally, Lex would have been amused by that dubious sentiment, but instead, he was seduced by it. "By all means, please do. I've always wished you would." Perhaps it was the champagne that made him so bold, but he reasoned that his words sounded more like a joke than an invitation.
Jade green eyes locked with his, suddenly taking on a congenial gravity. "I know why you were with those women. I understand now. I know why you shared a bed with women whose names you never knew, and why their names didn't ever mean anything to you."
Slightly raising an eyebrow, Lex could not hide his intrigue. "Enlighten me."
"You were looking for something." The soothing hush of Clark's voice was so low that it didn't even echo in the vast space between the marble walls.
"What was I looking for?" Lex asked, genuinely curious to hear Clark's answer.
"Me." Such a small word for such an immeasurable truth.
Lex did not even blink. He stared at Clark with veiled shock, mild sorrow flooding his pale gray eyes.
The corner of Clark's lip curled. "You've been missing something, and you've been looking for it in all the wrong places. You know where I am, but you don't come looking." Clark used his voice to caress Lex, touch him in a way no one else ever had without laying a finger on him. "I've been waiting for the day you come looking. But you never do. I've always wished you would."
Dumbfounded wasn't a look Lex usually wore well, least of all in formal attire, but with the right touch of wonder in his eyes, the feeling suited him. "You... You mean..."
Clark grinned, almost bashfully. "You once were lost, but now you're found."
The ability to speak would have abandoned Lex completely if he were not so enchanted by the heavenly creature before him. "I don't know what to say..."
A cheerful gleam crossed Clark's eyes in the incandescent glow of the Christmas lights. "Just say that you love me."
A smile dawned on Lex's lips, the first sign of true happiness he had exhibited in a more time than he could remember. The words were a whisper. "I love you."
Suddenly a voice from behind. "Excuse me, would you care for a drink?"
The interruption made Lex turn his head for a second to wave away the unwelcome waiter. "No."
When Lex turned back, he was alone. Confusion overwhelmed him as his eyes searched the main floor frantically, but the grand foyer was deserted except for a few scattered groups and couples. Clark was not there. It was as if he never had been there at all.
Lex peered out the window, his eyes scanning the streets below. Snow started to fall. The first few flakes of the season were fluttering down on Metropolis. It was cold outside, but Lex still felt warm. There was a residual heat swathed about him, lingering from his reverie, like the echoes of a dream clinging to the mind as it wakes.
He wanted to close his eyes, but he kept them open. He simply stared out into the night as specks of white filled the air.
After a few moments passed, he couldn't stay still any longer. He walked away from the railing and headed for the door.
The party was dying, and the main floor was virtually empty. The only people standing around on the lower level were couples and friends who were about to leave together. A lone figure in the distance faced the window, remaining completely still for several minutes. Finally, the figure turned and left the view of the snowfall behind him. As Lex walked toward the exit, Clark watched him from the balcony, gazing down upon him with wet eyes. Clark took a deep breath, and his small smile caught a tear that had escaped. "I love you too."