AN: The astute reader might notice a bit of a difference in Kal's speech patterns in this chapter as opposed to previous ones. That's because when Kal-El is on Argo speaking to Kryptonians he is, of course, speaking in Kryptonian, but on Earth Kal speaks English. The formal vs. casual speech patterns are just a reflection of this.


Two and a half weeks was far too long to spend looking for someone, especially in a town as small as, well, Smallville. Admittedly, Lex was a bit more used to hiring professionals to do his finding for him, but given that his best description was "a dark-haired, green-eyed invulnerable – or tough enough to survive getting hit by a car going at sixty miles an hour at any rate – angel capable of either disappearing or moving at incredibly fast speeds and with a penchant for saving drowning billionaires," it seemed prudent to handle this one himself.

Lex sighed to himself and parked his car in front of The Beanery. The best that could be said for the place was that he hadn't yet heard of anyone contracting food poisoning from eating there, but if Lex wanted to make nice with the locals, and he did, both because his life would be a lot easier if nearly everyone in town didn't instinctively scowl when they saw him and it was the best chance he had of finding the person who saved him, then he had to be seen frequenting the local businesses. So, pulling off his driving gloves, Lex walked inside and prepared himself for some of their nearly undrinkable sludge that paraded itself as coffee.

And froze. There, right in the middle of the room, eating a muffin and sipping at a mug of coffee, sat the man Lex was looking for. True, Lex had only gotten two brief glimpses of him before, the first time when Lex's car had been barreling down on him and again when Lex had woken up on the riverbank, but Lex was sure it was him. There could be no other explanation for the sudden pull that had lodged itself in Lex's chest and was drawing him over to where the man sat. Appearing to sense Lex's presence, the man looked up and – God, the look on his face. Smile so bright and eyes lit up like he had been waiting here just for Lex.

"Lex Luthor," he said, having discarded the opening line of 'so we meet again' as too cliché. He offered his hand to shake, having again discarded his first impulse – to reenact the riverside mouth-to-mouth that he vaguely recalled – this time for being too forward.

The man's hand was warm and solid against Lex's own, and his grip firm, but not so excessively strong that it seemed like he thought he had some point to prove by it. "Kal El," he said, with a strange overemphasize on the space between the words.

Lex's next words died in his mouth when he saw the bandage on Kal's arm. "What happened?" Because if Kal escaped from being run over by Lex's Porsche apparently unscathed, then Lex shuddered to think of what could actually damage him.

"I, ah… well I didn't realize the coffee was so hot," Kal stammered.

Lex felt the presence of destiny drop out from beneath him. Kal wasn't the man who had saved him; he couldn't be if he was being burned by coffee, and any sense of inevitably and connection Lex had felt had just been him letting his own sense of drama get away with him. He should leave, now, before he made a bigger fool of himself.

Kal seemed to sense the change in Lex, and in turn he became more hesitant. "Would you care to join me?" he asked, flushing slightly and gesturing at the empty seat across from him.

So, obviously not too hesitant then.

"I think will," Lex said, sitting down, without having been aware of having any intention of doing so. Oh well, it's not as if it could really hurt to stay a little while longer; most of the townsfolk had a fairly low opinion of him anyway, and considering how remarkably like the man who saved him Kal looked, maybe Kal could help Lex find him.

"Are you from Smallville? I don't think I've seen you around before," Lex said lightly. Even a little flirty, but then Kal was very attractive, and a little flirting never hurt either. Aside from the occasional stalker it attracted, but Kal didn't seem like the stalker type – not that they ever really did – and besides, his security people needed something to keep them busy while Lex was stranded out in the ass-end of the middle of fucking nowhere anyway.

Kal's eyes seemed to dim a bit, and Lex really hoped that Kal wasn't one of those good God-fearing, Kansas-farming homophobes. "No, I guess you wouldn't have." Then he, quite literally, shook off whatever thoughts had been bringing his mood down, and said in a mock-whisper, eyes twinkling, "I'm not really from around here."

"I'm afraid I missed the punch line," Lex replied.

"It's kind of an inside joke," Kal explained. "I'll tell you about it sometime." That was pretty presumptuous of Kal, assuming that Lex was going to keep him around that long. Lex liked it, a lot.

"You do that," Lex said. "So if you aren't from Smallville, then what brings you here?"

Kal bit his lip thoughtfully and Lex really, really hoped that Kal wasn't a homophobe. "I guess you could say it was a family thing?"

"Family thing, like you're here with your family, on behalf of them, or in spite of them?" Lex asked. Because in the case of the latter, Lex would be more than willing to hand out some tips.

"In spite of, I guess?" Kal said. "It's like, my father and my cousin have certain things they expect me to do with my life. And it's not what I would have chosen, but I understand why they expect it of me, and I'm okay with it; I get why it's necessary. But that doesn't mean that they always know what's best for me. So I'm kind of… running away for a week to prove that I know what makes me happy too."

"And so you decided to come to Smallville?" Lex said, disbelievingly. That wasn't exactly what Lex would qualify as rebellion.

"Smallville has certain attractions," said Kal, looking straight at Lex.

"If you say so," Lex drawled. "I've been here about two and a half weeks, and I haven't found anything of interest." Nothing save a mysterious dark-haired savior by the riverbanks and a green-eyed man in a coffee shop, that was. "So where are you staying during your wild and crazy week away?"

Kal blushed. "I, uh… I don't know. I was so caught up with the idea of getting here, I forgot to make any plans for what I'd do once I arrived."

"Worst case scenario, I suppose you could sleep in your car," said Lex. People did that, right?

"I don't have I car. I got here… on the bus," Kal said.

Lex closed his eyes for a second. "So let me make sure I understand this, you wanted to run away from home for a little while to prove a point, so you came to Smallville with no car, no luggage" – Lex quickly glanced under the table to confirm that Kal didn't have any bags by his feet – "no place to stay, and no idea of what to do when you got here." Kal made a vague noise of protest at the last one, so Lex amended it to "only a vague idea of what you want to do." Lex had spent too many years with no plan besides 'piss off Dad' to completely dismiss the validity of Kal's goal out of hand.

"When you put it like that… I'm hopeless aren't I?" Kal said, ducking his head and flushing.

"I don't know about hopeless, but I've never seen one of our customers burn themselves like that on their coffee." Lex looked up startled – distressingly so, because when was the last time he had been that unaware of his surroundings – to see they had been approached by one of the waitresses. She placed a slightly too friendly hand on Kal's shoulder and gave him a perky smile. It matched her perky attitude and her perky ponytail and her perky breasts and her perky... perkiness. Lex didn't like her.

"I wasn't expecting it to be so hot," Kal protested, all wide eyes and innocence.

The waitress laughed delightedly. "Coffee usually is, Kal. How's your arm, feeling any better?"

"I don't heal that fast," Kal said with a little frown, as if he thought his body was failing him somehow by not healing preternaturally fast. "But thank you for asking and helping with the bandages." There was that big sunny grin again, and Lex was seriously considering buying The Beanery, just so he could fire this girl.

"I'm going to go," Lex said, standing abruptly. Lex would leave Kal here to flirt with his perky waitress and Lex would go find his savior. Everybody wins, even if it didn't feel much like winning to Lex right now.

"You're leaving already?" Kal asked, distress ringing in every syllable and big green eyes fixed solely on Lex.

"I'm afraid so," Lex said to a pair of large pleading eyes and a slightly pouted lower lip – God dammit! "I was thinking though, if you need a place to stay for the week, I have plenty of room up at the castle."

"Really? I can stay with you?" Kal asked, his eyes gone even wider, which Lex wouldn't have even thought possible, and his grin looked like every single birthday and Christmas he'd ever had had all come at once.

"I wouldn't have offered if I didn't mean it," Lex said casually and probably not entirely truthfully, given the way a part of his brain was rapidly trying to figure out what had gotten into him to make him invite a total stranger to come live with him, even if it was only for a week.

"That's really nice of you, Mr. Luthor, isn't it Kal?" the waitress said, touching Kal's arm again in an effort to regain his attention. Right, that was what had gotten into him.

"Amazing," Kal agreed, not glancing back at her even once. Lex felt unaccountably smug.

"I'm heading back there now, I could give you a ride," Lex offered, fairly certain that Kal would take it.

Not one to disappoint, Kal jumped out of his seat with all the grace and enthusiasm of an overgrown puppy. "That would be great! Thank you!"

Lex, being a mature twenty-one year old adult, did not smirk back at the waitress as he left the Beanery, Kal in tow.

Well, not much anyway.