Twist Upside-down

by

Kelsey

Disclaimer: SV and Superman belong to so many people I'm not going to list them all here, okay? Just be assured they don't belong to me.

***Author's Note: If you're confused, this is how it goes: Prologue, chapter 2, etc... are in current time. Chapter 1, etc, (odd number) will be flashbacks for a while. If it says '_ weeks ago' at the top, it's a flashback. If not, it's in current time.***

Author's Note 2: There is fun-making of the Bible in here. I think fairly mild, but you've been warned.

Summary: When a deadly illness befalls Lex, Clark will stand at his side. But what will the effect be upon their relationship with each other and the rest of their loved ones? Clex.

Rating: Will change as we go. This chapter: PG

Chapter Three - Bloody

3 weeks earlier:

"Lex!" Clark called as he entered the kitchen. "You here?"

Though Lex ran a plant and a business, he was never prone to being an on-site kind of manager, and could often be found in the castle, despite it being during work hours. Therefore, Clark often stopped by after school to talk and sometimes... not talk with Lex.

He'd worried for a while that he was interrupting Lex, and had stopped coming quite so often. Lex had then started showing up after school every day to pick him up. Clark hadn't complained about that, and Lex was smart enough to realize that if he showed up at the school, Clark would spend as much time with him as he liked, but if he didn't, Clark frequently didn't show up at all.

He forced the confession out of the teenager, and then told him to stop by whenever he wanted, because Lex was frequently in the middle of incredibly boring work. Clark had protested that 'incredibly boring' didn't mean 'not important,' but Lex had told him that 99% of it could wait, and if it couldn't, he'd tell Clark. With this assurance, Clark had started showing up every day that he could, again.

Now, Clark entered the kitchen, nodded at the cook, who had her head in a cookbook, appropriately enough, and dropped his backpack at the table. Heading into the main part of the house, he called out again, and this time, Lex answered.

"Up here!" Lex looked at him from the top floor, leaning over the rail. "Just a second, I'll be down." His words were slightly muffled because he had his finger in his mouth, and Clark frowned, a little confused, but nodded in response.

A moment later, Lex appeared, this time with his finger by his side, wrapped in a piece of kleenex. "Hey," he greeted Clark, walking with him to the study. "How was school?"
Clark groaned, and threw himself onto the sofa. "Boring. And then hard. And then more boring. And then lunch. And more boring."

Lex grinned. "Ah, the wonders of a public high school education. I remember it fondly."

Clark raised an eyebrow. "You went to public school? I thought the great Luthor heir would have gone to the most elite private schools during his teenage years."

"I went to private school at first. Then I got kicked out, went to boarding school for a while. Ran away from that, and Dad brought me home so he could keep an eye on me personally. But none of the private schools would have me, so I got to experience the joys that the masses of teenagers are forced into."

"You got kicked out of two schools?"

Lex smirked. "More than two, Clark. One private school, three boarding schools and one public school. In that order."

"What did you do?"

Lex shrugged. "Drugs, mostly. The headmaster's daughter a couple of times, but that didn't get me expelled, just suspended. The dean's son, once. Now that got me expelled." He grinned mischievously at a fond memory. "It was a Catholic school. And I broke every rule I could find. It was kind of a hobby during my rebellious teenage life."

"Boring rule-breaking, or fun rule-breaking?"

Lex shrugged again. "Both. Sometimes it was boring rule-breaking, and it was just breaking a rule for the sake of breaking a rule. Like, not wearing a uniform. Then there was fun rule-breaking. But most of those involved either drugs or the headmasters' daughters, and I already told you about those."

Curious, Clark queried as to something that he'd always wanted to know. "What was the best rule-breaking experience you ever had?"

Lex leaned back, and seemed to think. "I don't know. Including or excluding sex ones?"

"Excluding."

"Well, then I guess it was the time I and a couple of my classmates tied a package of the boring, stodgiest teacher in school's edible underwear to the flagpole."

Clark laughed. "Did anyone know whose they were?"

"Of course. What fun would it be if we didn't humiliate him while we were at it?"

Clark shook his head. "And the best sex-related rule you broke?"

"I don't know. That one's harder, cause sex is always fun." He looked slightly concerned for a moment, an expression that Clark knew was as close as he was going to get to a 'oops, messed up' look from Lex. "Not loving, or earth-shattering, but just fun."

"I knew what you meant, Lex."

He looked a little relieved. "I just didn't want you to think what we have isn't special to me. It is, Clark. I promise."

"I know."

There was silence for a moment, during which Lex pulled the kleenex out of his hand and off his finger. "Damn it!"

Clark stood up and walked over to him. "What did you do to it?" He asked.

"It was a paper-cut. A damn nasty one, from a piece of cardboard, but it should have stopped bleeding by now." He frowned. "Can you go get me a band-aid? They're in my bathroom cabinet."

Clark nodded. "Sure. Just a sec." And, indeed, the teenager could have returned within a second, but he didn't, because Lex didn't know about his abilities. Well, he did, Lex wasn't stupid, but he hadn't specifically told him, yet.

When he returned bearing band-aids, he also brought some antibiotic ointment he'd found next to it. "This should help stop the bleeding, too," he told Lex, and held it out.

Wrestling the cap from the ointment and refusing Clark's help, Lex smeared it over his finger. Then, he allowed Clark to put the band-aid on, and wrap it smoothly around his finger and over itself. He wiped the excess ointment on the bloody kleenex, and put the band-aids on the table next to him. "Where were we?" He asked.

Hesitantly, Clark answered. Lex was right, the conversation made him a little uncomfortable, but he did want to know. He wasn't that kind of person, he'd never have Lex's exploits, and he wanted to know about what the billionaire had done as a wild and crazy teen. "You were telling me about the best sex-related rule-breaking you've ever done."

Lex leaned back. "Yes, I was, wasn't I." It wasn't a question. He paused.

"I'm not really sure. Maybe it was when I was a sophomore at this prep school, boarding school of course. We had this gym teacher who told us to do something, and then would read his book or the newspaper of something and never look up unless he stopped hearing the proper noises. So, of course, we'd all goof off the entire time, and take turns hitting the ball or swimming laps or whatever it was, so that he wouldn't look up and see what we were doing.

"I met this girl that year, Elizabeth. She had quite an exhibitionist streak- and I was a teenage boy. As long as it was sex, I was up for it. So, we were in this gym class together, and our teacher sat in this lounge chair that was maybe two or three feet high. It was a weird chair. Anyway, everyone else was in the pool, and they all thought we were just pressed up against the wall, kissing, but if the teacher had looked down, he would have been able to tell... how much more we were doing."

"Oh, god, Lex." Clark was grinned. "I can't believe you did that."

Lex grinned back. "Neither could I, after it was over. The teacher never did look up from his book, though."

"You really had sex in a swimming pool with an entire gym class in the water, and your teacher sitting on the side."

"Yep." Lex sounded quite proud of himself.

As soon as Clark could get his laughing under control, he queried Lex again. "You said you weren't sure, maybe that was the best one. What about the other one you had in mind?"

"Ones," Lex corrected. "And I'll tell you about one of them."

"Why not both?"

Lex grinned. "You'll understand in a few minutes." He paused again and reached over to pour himself a glass of scotch or brandy or whatever it was he kept in that incredibly fancy crystal bottle on the table at the end of the couch. "This one was senior year. I was younger than the class- I skipped third and fifth grade when I was little. So I guess I was your age."

"Wait. So you were only thirteen when that thing with the girl, Elizabeth, happened?"

Lex thought for a moment. "Fourteen. It was after my birthday that year."

Clark didn't respond, he just looked surprised, and Lex grinned at his reaction before he continued.

"So, it was senior year, and the class wanted to pull a really crazy prank. There was even this counsel where we talked about what we should do, and it got really crazy. Anyway, we decided if we wanted to do something really insane, we'd have to do it after graduation, so they couldn't kick us out, which actually worked, since we were supposed to stay one day after graduation and listen to an 'inspirational reading' of poetry. Our parents were all going to be there, too. It was the perfect setup.

"The reading was on this stage that was used for all the plays and stuff, too, so there was this platform that could be lowered by a rope, and it was meant for one person. I was the smallest guy in the class, I had just turned sixteen, and since there were going to be two of us, and I was already known for my willingness to do... outrageous things, I got picked.

"This school was not particularly... open to gay relationships. It was a public school, and we do live in Kansas, and most of the guys were homophobes themselves, but they thought it would make a great senior prank and have the added benefit of making them look sensitive about 'alternative lifestyles' to the girls, so they went along with it.

"Then we heard they were going to recite a piece from the Bible last, and it was just too perfect an opportunity to miss. So, right as they were starting their Bible-worship, I and this classmate of mine, Chris, climbed onto the platform and started kissing. I mean, really kissing, and groping each other up, and a bunch of the guys who were upstairs lowered us down until the audience could see us.

"It was such a laugh! They couldn't stop gasping, and my father got up and bellowed out 'Alexander James Luthor, what in God's name do you think you're doing?!' at the top of his lungs, and I broke away from Chris long enough to say 'Not in God's name, Dad,' and then the guys pulled us up again."

Lex was grinning, almost laughing by now, and Clark was looking more and more incredulous. "You really did that?" He asked.

"I did."

"What happened?"

"The school threatened to kick us out, or put it on our records or something, and Chris and I reached into out backpacks and pulled out our diplomas and waved them in their faces."

"What about with your dad?"

Lex sobered. "That was not fun. But it was worth it."

Having been picking at the bandage the whole time, he had finally pulled it off, and he swore again. "Damn it!"

"It's still bleeding?"

He nodded. "Why won't it stop?"

Clark grabbed the kleenex and pressed it to the wound, a little harder than he would have normally, and Lex flinched just slightly. Clark apologized, but didn't back off. "You need to stop the bleeding," he said. "Something's wrong."

Lex shook his head. "I'm fine, Clark." He pushed Clark's hand away and pulled the tissue away gently. "Look, it finally stopped. It just needed a little more pressure than I put on it." He motioned to the band-aid box. "Hand me that, will you?"
Reluctantly, Clark handed him the band-aid box and sat back in his chair. "Are you sure you're okay, Lex? You've been really tired, lately, and now you're bleeding a lot harder than you should have over a paper-cut."

"I'm fine."

"You should see a doctor."

Lex laughed, a little bitterly. "Clark, my doctor doesn't even know who I am. He gets paid to be here and make it look like I take care of myself. I haven't been sick since the meteor shower."

Clark furrowed his brow. "Then you should be more worried about it, shouldn't you?"

"I promise, I'm fine. Now, leave it, please?"

Clark knew that tone, and he also knew if he kept pressing Lex to see his doctor, all he would get was himself kicked out of the house and a pissed-off boyfriend, who still wouldn't see his doctor. "Okay."

Changing the subject, the remarked on the first thing that came to mind. "Why won't you tell me about the third contestant for best sex-related rule-breaking?"

Lex laughed. "Are you telling me you really want to know?"

Clark grimaced a little. "On second thought, no. Thank you."

Lex grinned. "That's what I thought."

"Look, I have to get home, okay?"

Lex nodded. "Yeah, I know. Do you want me to come get you after school tomorrow?"

Clark shook his head. "No, that's okay. I'll come by myself. And I'll tell my mom I'm gonna do my homework here, so I can stay longer."

Lex smiled. "Good." He stood up and walked with Clark to get his backpack, and then head out the door. "I'll see you tomorrow, then."

"Take care of yourself, Lex." He glanced pointedly at the bandaged finger, and Lex rolled his eyes.

"Good-bye, Clark."

[Prologue] [Sleepy] [Scared] [Bloody]