Author's Note: Please excuse my crappy pool playing scene, but because this is a story people can't be standing in space and talking. I had to set up some sort of scene.
Oh and while there is some implied slash in this chapter and possibly in later ones you can look at them as either being very close friends or more. It depends on if you think its okay for a guy to hug his friend when he needs to be comforted.
"I can't do this all on my own, no I know, I'm no super man," Lazlo Blane
Maybe forty-five minutes had passed since Clark had begun his little fit about the tights thing. O far they had finished two games of pool with each of our boys tied at one win a piece. Lex leaned across the table, aimed carefully and took his shot. The ball he was going for missed by only centimeters. He swore, under his breath. Clark stood behind him, shifting his weight nervously. Lex looked at his friend.
"Your turn, Flannelboy. Seriously, though, you've been whining and complaining all afternoon."
"Come on, Lex. I mean how would you feel if I asked you to run around in a pair of tights?" Lex blushed at the question.
"Do you really want me to answer that one? Flannelboy."
"Okay, bad example. And quit calling me that, but really Lex, tights?" Clark rolled his eyes and took his own shot. He sank two of the remaining four balls with only one hit. Lex acknowledged this accomplishment with a nod and a smile.
"Okay, no tights, at least not right now, but that's not the point. We need to have a plan. Do you think that Bruce just woke up one day threw on some black spandex and a mask and called himself a crime-fighting hero?"
"Maybe," Clark spat. He took another shot, sinking the 6 ball. Lex sighed.
"That kind of thing takes weeks of planning. Maybe even a couple of months. He had to design the uniform, create and then he had to figure out which situations needed his help. He had to," Clark cut the Luthor off sinking the eight ball, smiling and patting older man on the back.
"Fine. We'll talk about it. Oh and one other thing. I'm not doing that floating thing. That still scares the crap out of me."
"First of all, you don't float, you fly. Do you have any idea how cool that is? Flying; god! Only like four comic book superheroes in all of comic book history could fly. And you can just do it."
"I don't care how cool you think it is. I don't care what you call it; flying, floating, whatever, it's scary as all Hell!" Lex was grateful that the walls of his office were soundproofed, and that he had Clark check for bugs before they began this conversation, earlier that morning.
"I'm not going to force you to do it. However, I do think that this flying thing is a problem and that you should work on it. I'll be there for you what ever you decide." Lex hugged Clark very gently, and slightly awkwardly. This was a good day for him. Clark placed a hand against Lex's shoulder.
"Okay. Maybe someday I might try it, but not now, alright?" The Kent boy looked up at him with those large doe eyes. Lex ran a hand down his back.
"I got it. No flying; no tights? Any other demands your majesty, or are we finished negating? Jesus I've had smoother corporate takeovers than this." Clark shook his head and broke the hug. Lex grabbed the rack and started setting the balls up again.
"I believe that makes two games in a row," Clark chuckled, looking at the table. "Which means that I'm up first." Lex nodded chalking up hiss own cue in anticipation. "Flannelboy strikes again." Lex coughed loudly just as Clark was about to shoot. Unfortunately it didn't stop his friend from making a clean break.
"Hmm," Lex sighed. He watched the young man carefully. "I guess I'm going to have to stop letting you win then, won't I? Anyways. Back to superheroes. It is a good idea," Clark cut him off, again.
"Except for the whole wearing tights thing."
"Except for the whole tights thing.' He admitted. Clark missed his next shot. Lex made two shots and was going for a third before Clark spoke up again.
"If you really think about it; I'd basically be doing what I do now except on a larger scale, right?"
"Right, but that isn't the point. "
"I guess I'm just not seeing your point," Clark said nervously. Sometimes when Lex got going like this he just assumed everyone was intelligent as he was. He just thought they could keep up with him, even when they couldn't. So, sometimes Clark had to remind him.
"The point of the Superhero is not what they do or even why they do it. If it were just about save it then they would just become cops. Bruce wouldn't need a makes and you could really be Flannelboy. The point, Clark, is to protect yourself and the ones you care about. If people knew whom you were and what you were capable and how to reach you they would call on you for every little thing. You would be," Clark cut him off, again. He only did this because he knew how much it bothered his friend. He also know that he was the only person Lex would ever allow to do that to him, Lex did not, would, put up with anybody else interrupting him like that.
"You're quoting from one of those comic books of yours aren't you?" Lex made what Clark had begun calling the pouty face. This was that thing where he turned his head and his eyes looked away. At the same time he puckered his lips to a point so pouty that it looked like he was waiting for a kiss.
"I'm not quoting, I'm paraphrasing. And it's not from a comic! It's from the movie," he said matter-o-factly.
"Anyway, how exactly am I supposed to go about keeping who I really am a secret from everybody? I have a hard enough time doing that in Smallville. How am I going to keep my identity secret to all of Metropolis or even the world?"