This is chapter is straight-up fluff with a side-salad of angst, but from next chapter onwards, shit will go down, Zack Snyder-BvS style.
When Lilian opens her eyes to the bright sunlight, it's 7 AM, and she can feel his face buried in her hair.
"Are you up?" A small nod, ruffling her already a rat's-nest of hair. "Do you want to get out of this bed?" A small shake, and lean arms gently close around her frame. "Too bad, because I need to go and brush my teeth."
"No," she can barely hear the word through her hair. "Stay."
"Lex, come on," she groans. "Stop being a baby."
"Look at us, squabbling like an old married couple," he quips, sitting up with a silly grin. "You look like a child with candy," she has to point that out. "I would eat some Jolly Ranchers to certify that fact," he begins, "but I cannot, because I haven't brushed and -"
"Hoe don't do it," she knows where this is going.
"Because I am a baby," he finishes.
"Oh my god." She throws a pillow at his face and gets up to leave, but he catches her wrist as she's almost off the bed. "Let go."
"Say please." She sticks out her tongue - if he can be immature, so can I.
"Nuh-uh."
"Say please."
"No."
"All right." He leaves her, but she's pretty sure there's something in the works behind this. She's carefully inching her way off the bed, when a pair of hands start tickling her sides. "Oh-gods," she says between laughs, "stop," but he's relentless. "Okay - please." He stops after that, the two collapsing into laughs. "This is the most childish thing I've done in aeons," he comments, and she grins at him.
"Same."
A few minutes later, she's in front of the mirror, looking at the hickey on her neck. It looks bright and vivid after the shower, and she runs her fingers over it. It doesn't hurt, but she'll have to cover it from Lois and everyone else to keep her privacy and peace undisturbed.
"I hope it doesn't hurt," he murmurs against her ear, putting his arms around her waist as she makes breakfast in the West Wing's kitchen. He's playing with the hem of her Star Wars T-Shirt ( his, she mentally corrects herself, reminded of the borrowed sleepwear), and she's trying not to let herself get distracted.
"That bruise? Nah - I just need to keep it away from prying eyes so that no one makes assumptions. Especially Lois - I don't want her assuming the worst."
"The worst?" His tone is more curious than accusatory or hurt.
"Well… I am demisexual, and being a very persnickety person, take time to actually fall in love with a person and move past all those stages. I don't want her to assume I've been stupid and gone and done things without thinking them through." She speaks fast, feeling strange as she says this aloud for the first time.
"Well, I respect your choices and will gladly acquiesce to whatever restrictions you set up."
"You will?" She's quite surprised by the reaction.
"Of course - you have as much say in this as I do, and that would be equal in all measures for any and all issues." She is happy and relieved and gods I love this man. But she won't tell him that - not yet, not when she's so unsure of it. So she settles for kissing him for the meantime. "Don't you think that brownie will be burning?" He murmurs against her lips when they pull away, her seated on the counter, legs wrapped around him.
"No - I pretty much planned for this," she smiles against his lips, pulling him in once again.
This is the laziest he's ever been.
But not in a bad way.
He mulls over the previous moments in bed, Lilian lying with her eyes closed beside him - she's not asleep; I can tell by her breathing patterns . He hadn't meant to lose control of himself, but the strength of his mother's memories combined with all his emotions (he has never been good at repressing them once they leak out) motivated him to do so.
Her breathing becomes slow and steady, and the way her body relaxes is an indication that she's shifted into deep sleep. He waits for a few minutes before allowing himself to run a hand through her hair, focusing on her features in an effort to calm himself down. "Mine," he murmurs as he presses a slow kiss to that bruise on her neck. She's dressed in one of his oversized Millennium Falcon T-Shirts and plain pajamas, and the clothes makes her look even smaller.
He's up at six and waiting for her to wake. Or not, he decides, pressing his face in her hair and breathing in the scent of pines and juniper, wishing that they can stay like this for what relatively feels like forever.
Lex looks at the marks on her wrists and arms, and loathes to have injured her so, leaving a rather prominent bruise on her neck. The hickey is a marker, a proof that she belongs to him and him alone. He tries to not to equate that with his abuse by his father, which has no relation to this whatsoever, but they make him feel guilty, having made a promise to never be responsible for any of her wounds.
"I'll try to be more careful with you," he murmurs, gently rubbing the red marks on her wrist, kissing the places where he's hurt her so.
She wakes up in an hour, asking him whether he wants to get out of the bed, and that's such a tease, because she knows the obvious answer is no. Lex tries to keep her in, but it seems like gentle coaxing is not a trick that will work, and they sound so much like a happily married couple that he wants to both grin and throw up. The tickling is effective to a level, but she gets out anyway, and he takes that as a cue for him to go and complete his daily routine of a run.
Lex is looking for her when he returns, finding her in the West Wing kitchen preparing walnut and dark chocolate brownies. He wants to know from her whether he's hurt her, knowing she's the kind to call him on his shit.
"Nah - I just don't want Lois assuming the worst." Lex is curious, and he wants to know why she sees extreme physical intimacy as the worst.
"Well… I am demisexual, and being a very persnickety person, take time to actually fall in love with a person and move past all those stages. I don't want her to assume I've been stupid and gone and done things without thinking them through." Her answer is rushed, and he can feel her cheeks heat up - this is something she's never shared with anyone , and he delights in the fact that he's the first to know so.
He has always had issues with physical closeness, and it is no surprise, given his past. So he agrees to abide by whatever restrictions she sets up, because letting her go will be the biggest mistake he is capable of making.
The answer takes her by surprise, and he has to remind Lilian that he is not one of those idiotic males who prefer to put themselves above their partner simply because of the social preference historically given to them.
Her reply is much more sweeter than the brownies.