by ingrid
~&~
The Bradbury's gem auction was the highlight of Metropolis social calendar, an event not even an exiled Lex Luthor would miss. A portion of the proceeds went to charity and if Lex wanted his fledgling corporation, LexCorp, to stand well with the movers and shakers of the big city he had no choice but to attend.
That didn't mean he had to enjoy it.
Chocolate diamonds, huge black pearls, emeralds the size of his fist -- it was all old hat to Lex. His mother had owned an impressive array of gems some of which he'd lost after a band of tattooed thugs so unceremoniously robbed him a few months before. He wouldn't have missed them if not for the sentimental value -- hoarding piles of jewels in a cavernous castle was more his estranged father's style, not his.
But there was Lex, sitting in a primly appointed room, listening to the auctioneer ramble on in the Queen's English, his paddle tightly held against his lap as a precaution against accidental bidding. It was rich, it was polite, it was boring as hell but none of that seemed to matter to the person seated beside him.
Clark Kent looked enraptured. Eyes as big as saucers and Lex had to repress a grin at Clark's gawks which were as charming as they were amusing. A twenty inch rope of flawless pearls came up for bid and Lex nearly made a move for them if only to present them to Mrs. Kent for her upcoming 50th birthday. It could even be a gift from both Clark and him and Lex sighed deeply as he stayed his hand.
Pearls. From him. That would go over real big. She could wear them to the morning milking while Jonathan Kent fired shotgun blasts after Lex's hastily retreating form. Oh joy.
A whisper in his ear pulled him out of his glum reflection. "Those are beautiful."
Awed voice, and Lex smiled. "Yes. You're right." He held up his paddle.
The auctioneer noted his bid. A moment later he was the proud owner of a $25,000 pearl necklace. "Think your mother will like it?" Lex whispered to Clark who responded with a facial expression so hilariously shocked, Lex wished he'd a camera to record it.
What the hell. Let Jonathan Kent blow his butt off. "Lex, you can't possibly be ..."
"Shhhh," Lex cautioned as the next item came up for bid. He peered closely at the stage as the auctioneer described the shining red rock in detail.
"A highly unusual item, ladies and gentlemen, number 28472, lot number 34. This beautiful crimson gemstone is a one-of-a-kind find, discovered in the rural mountains of nearby Lowell County. It's been studied now by countless laboratories and they all agree ... this stone is utterly unique and without equal. It's part of a private collection which has gone up for bid in its entirety and this is by far its owner's most prized item. The bidding will start at $100,000."
Lex's paddle shot up into the air so fast, it made a breeze. "We have $100,000."
The bidding continued furiously and for the first time, Lex didn't try to psyche out the competition. The scientist in him was screaming, the little boy in him was stamping his feet and the businessman in him had given up the ghost at the sight of a "completely unique" shining red rock from Lowell County, where a meteor strike twelve years before had deposited lots and lots of one-of-a-kind rocks for miles around.
What if ... "We have $200,000."
Out of the corner of his eye, Lex could see Clark's jaw hanging open as if dangling on a rusty hinge. "Thank you. Do we have $250,000?"
Yeah, it was a lot of money. But what if ... "$250,000, thank you. Do we have $275,000? Going ... going ... sold to Mr. Luthor."
A smattering of applause and Lex rose, a thin trickle of sweat rolling down his back. He wasn't as carelessly rich as he used to be and he prayed that his co-owners, his employees, wouldn't hear too much about the big, red, quarter of a million dollar rock he'd just purchased.
But he had to have it even if Clark was shaking his head as they left the auction house and slid into Lex's parked limousine. "I thought you weren't going to buy anything today."
"I lied." Lex poured himself a generous glass of Scotch. "To self-indulgence."
An appropriate toast but Clark wasn't amused. He knew the plant's financial health was teetering on the precarious side. "Pearls for my mom she won't accept and an ugly rock that nobody even knows what it is? Come on, Lex. That's not self-indulgent, that's ..."
"Watch it, Clark, or your ice cream budget is going to get cut."
The green eyes widened. Silence descended with impressive speed. "Talking about ice cream, can we ..."
Lex laughed aloud as he pressed the intercom. "Richard, please make a stop at the gourmet shop. Tell them to pack up our usual."
"Extra hot fudge," Clark whispered furtively.
"With extra hot fudge. And plenty of nuts," Lex added as an afterthought.
Again, it was appropriate.
~&~
Lex's purchases arrived at the hotel room just as Clark tucked away the last spoonful of Snickers, chocolate chip, mint raspberry, green tea, hot fudge sundae. He grimaced at the remains, shaking his head when Clark halfheartedly offered him a soupy spoonful scraped from the bottom of the container.
"No, thanks. I'll poison myself in a less painful way, if that time ever comes," Lex sniffed as he surveyed his acquisitions. One box was a slim black velvet case -- the pearls. He popped it open and Clark peered over his shoulder at them, eyes sparkling.
He reached out to touch them. "Wow. Mom would look great in those. Maybe if we tell her they're not real ..."
Lex snapped the case shut on wandering fingers. "Lex Luthor never fakes it."
"Ow!" Clark pulled his hand away, pouting. "That's what they all say," he mumbled.
"Are you being a smartmouth? If so, stop it. You'll hurt yourself." Lex picked up the larger box, made of a surprisingly heavy metal -- lead, perhaps? He let a little chill of anticipation rise up his spine and shiver down again. It was the big tease, sure to disappoint upon examination but the whole point of material possessions was in the wanting.
The waiting.
A philosophy Clark obviously didn't subscribe to. "Are you gonna open that? Or just stare at the box? Hurry up."
"I'm savoring the moment, Clark."
"You just don't want to look at some rock you spent your raise on."
How sweet of Clark to assume the money was coming directly out of Lex's pocket. In honor of his faith maybe it eventually would. But not this year. "Quiet." Lex opened the box and pulled away wads of tissue paper. "Damn, it's smaller than it looked on the ..."
A groan to his left and Lex let the rock drop onto the table as Clark clutched at his stomach. "Oooh," he moaned as Lex reached over and eased him back into a chair.
"What's wrong?"
Clark panted harshly, arms crossed tightly at his waist. "I ... I don't know."
"I"m calling a doctor." Lex yanked his cell phone from his pocket.
Terrified look and Clark shook his head frantically. "NO!"
The dial tone buzzed in Lex's hand. "Clark ... you're sick."
"Yeah, I ... I think it was the ice cream. Maybe if you could help me lay down for a few minutes, I'm sure it'll pass," Clark gasped. "Please, Lex."
Lex flipped the phone shut, everything within him humming with misgiving. Clark looked awful and if he didn't bring Smallville's favorite son back in one piece ...
Pleading green eyes made up his mind for him. "Okay, put your arm around my shoulder." Lex hoisted Clark up and grunted at the effort. The boy was no lightweight, that was for sure. "Up ... okay, that's right. Come on, one step at a time."
Somehow they made it to Clark's room and Clark plopped onto the bed with a heavy sigh. "Thanks, I feel better already."
Lex sat down besides Clark, whose eyes were tightly shut against some unknown pain. Pushed a lock of damp hair away from his forehead and couldn't help feel guilty for whatever was ailing his friend. Just his luck, the minute he takes Clark away from his natural environment, everything falls apart. "Can I get you anything?"
The eyes opened a slit. "No, thanks. Don't worry, I'll be fine. I just have to watch what I eat I guess."
"Yeah. I've been there." And Lex had been there, just not with food. Drugs, drink, too many fists in the face ... yeah, he'd been there all right. "I'm going to let you rest for a little while, okay? But I'll be listening, so call if you need me."
"Thanks." Clark shut his eyes. "You're the best, Lex."
He wished he could believe that. "Rest," he said gently and closed the door behind him.
~&~
Three hours and two dozen phone calls later, Lex was ready to check up on Clark. The pearls and mystery rock were safely locked in the penthouse safe, away from prying eyes and possibly puking boys. He hadn't heard anything, not even a peep from the spare room but felt confident Clark would have called if there had been any problem.
He knocked on the door. "Clark? How you doing in there?"
No answer.
A harder knock and Lex wrapped his hand around the doorknob. "Clark? Hey ... I'm coming in, all right?" His heart was racing for some strange reason, he didn't know why, it wasn't as if anyone could actually die from an ice cream overdose but ...
He flung the door open and saw an empty bed.
An empty bed except for Clark's T-shirt, jeans and socks, laid out in the perfect outline of a sleeping body. It was as if Clark had melted away and wasn't it perfectly ridiculous that Lex was actually becoming paralyzed with fear, crying out Clark's name as if his life depended on it. "CLARK!"
The clothes shifted.
Lex couldn't move. Something was very, very, very wrong -- Smallville wrong -- and he couldn't think of what it might be. All he knew was that Clark was disappeared, leaving his clothes behind, clothes that were moving, damnit, and ...
He held his breath as the jeans wiggled, as something dark and furry emerged from beneath the blue cotton. Lex took a stumbling step back, hardly daring to look as whatever it was, shook off the clothing and stared right at Lex, straight into the eyes of fear.
Lex returned the stare. It was ... it was ...
It was a cat.
A large cat, perfectly black with the most astonishing green eyes Lex had ever seen on any creature except maybe for a certain farmboy with certain secrets and oh dear God in heaven if his first, insane, instinct was right ...
"Clark?" he croaked. "Is that you?"
"Meow," replied the cat, shooting Lex the most woebegone expression imaginable.
Or at least that's what Lex thought before he fainted dead away.
~&~
Luthors didn't faint. It was undignified, it was clumsy and usually signaled weaknesses no man of business in his right frame of mind would ever want made public. No matter what the situation, no matter what sort of stress was involved, fainting was not an option.
That's why when Lex awoke stretched out over mass-produced hotel carpeting to wet scratching licks tickling along his nose and cheeks, he chalked it up to a drug flashback and mentally moved on. So what if Clark had disappeared into thin air, leaving behind nothing but sweatsocks and there was some mangy cat pawing at him frantically as if trying to wake him from a faint that never happened.
Big deal. Happens all the time. Nothing to see here so let's move on.
He peered up groggily at the blurry furry mass sitting on his chest. "You're not really Clark are you?" he asked the cat, not really talking to the cat, because sane men didn't talk to cats and when the cat actually nodded at him with a tiny plaintive mew, he slowly lowered his head back down.
Okay. Maybe there was something to see here.
Lex took a deep breath. The cat teetered on his chest then sunk down, emerald eyes regarding him closely from a very close vantage point ... cold cat nose to human nose and Lex had to sit up.
"All right then," he said, clutching his head as the worst migraine of all time loomed on the horizon. "Okay. I can deal with this." To his horror, a sob escaped from somewhere deep inside his gut and the jig was up. "No, I can't deal with this. This ... this ..." He jabbed an accusing finger at the cat who lay hunched down on the carpet looking as terrified as Lex felt. "This is unacceptable, Clark! I mean, when the hell were you going to tell me about this! How hard would it have been to say ... to say ..."
He thought for a moment. To say what? //Well, Lex, just so you know, I sometimes change species without warning. So don't mind me and by the way, do you have any cans of tuna lying around?//
Yeah, that would have gone over swell. He would have nodded, smiled and shipped Clark to the nearest mental hospital so fast the boy's head would have spun. It would have been for his own good of course and who knows what would have happened after that? The Kents would have grabbed their son and his litter box and run for the hills, never to be seen again.
As aghast as Lex was at this new and unlikely development, he couldn't honestly say that he'd ever want to give Clark up entirely, no matter what form the boy ended up taking or how many more strange things happened in his orbit. He loved him, at least loved the human part of him, but Lex couldn't help but be disappointed in the true nature of Clark's secret.
Because if loving him wasn't illegal before, it sure as hell was illegal now.
Lex chewed on his lower lip, both tears and laughter stinging ridiculously close to the surface. His life was crazy at its start, it would stay crazy to the end it seemed, so he simply held out his arms, love proving stronger than anger.
"Come 'ere," he said softly.
The cat hesitated, then jumped into his outstretched arms and he pulled the creature close. It was trembling and he soothed it with long strokes down its back and sides. "It's okay. It really is and we'll figure this out. I just hope your parents understand why I'm bringing home a cat instead of their son." He peered into bright feline eyes. "They do know about this, right?"
A shake of the tiny head and Lex groaned. "Oh great. Just freakin' great."
~&~
Room service hadn't questioned his request for an array of fresh raw fish, turkey and cans of the best cat food they could procure. They balked slightly at the prepared litter box but he was Lex Luthor after all and if anyone was allowed to be eccentric, it was the son of the town billionaire.
"Um, is this for your use, Mr. Luthor?" asked the timid concierge.
Lex didn't even bother to roll his eyes. "Yes, it is," he said smoothly and hung up.
"Idiot," he grumbled then turned to Clark who sat on the table, sniffing suspiciously at a crystal goblet filled with cat food. "Listen, don't get picky on me now. If you don't want the sushi or the turkey, this is all she wrote." He picked up the can and recited from the label. "Fancy Feast. For the discerning feline. Liver pate flavor. See? Liver pate. Even I don't get to eat liver pate every day. You should consider yourself lucky."
A tail whisked out and smacked Lex in the chin.
"And watch that," Lex warned. "I'm not a cat person."
Another whisk, this time hard against his nose.
"Hey!" Lex cried but was interrupted by a knock at the door. He rose to answer it. "It seems your facilities have arrived." He made a sour face as he reached for the doorknob. "God, I'm so not a cat person."
The knob had only turned partway in his hand when two men pushed their way into the room, their black ski masks indicating that they were neither from room service nor The Cat Fanciers Club. Lex gasped in surprise, then in pain as he was quickly grabbed and turned around, his arm twisted to an ugly angle behind his back.
"What the hell do you want?" Lex ground out, suddenly very sick and tired of being mugged every other week. Indoors at that.
"The auction items. We want the stone." Brusque tone, no nonsense and a gun was held against Lex's throat for good measure. "So open the safe."
"The safe is on a timer. I can't open it without setting off the alarm," Lex lied. His personal alarm was in the desk drawer. If he could stall long enough to get at it ...
"Bullshit." The gun was shoved coldly against the pounding pulse in Lex's neck. "Open it and maybe I won't blow your head off."
For the first time in a long time Lex utterly lost his cool. It had been just one of those days. "FUCK YOU!" he screamed and attempted to twist himself out of the burglar's grasp. It was pointless and it hurt like hell but he was damned if he was going to get pushed around again without fighting back. A sharp back kick to the groin did work and the man who'd been holding him fell down with a satisfying thud.
Lex wiggled himself loose and glared at the intruders before making a mad stumble toward the desk where the alarm and a handgun waited. "Get out, you fucks."
"I'm sorry to have to do this," the gunman said quietly, almost as if he meant it. He aimed the automatic at Lex's chest. "The boss won't like it, I think. He seems to like you, even if you are a shitty son."
Lex knew the gunman was going to fire, knew he was going to die and he wished he could have a last word with Clark before it happened. Something along the lines of "I love you. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me and I could have learned to like cats, no problem. Sorry to leave you. Don't waste those nine lives" but it wasn't to be.
Not the good-bye part nor the wasting of lives part. Because from the table launched something black, furry and furious. Howling, hissing, scratching and the gunman screamed as a clawed furball attached itself to his head, slashing and spitting with every hair on its back curled up into an ebony puff of rage.
"Holy SHIT! Get it off!" the gunman howled. "Get IT OFF!"
Lex lunged for his desk, hit the alarm and grabbed his gun. Leveled it at the intruder. "Clark, it's okay. You can stop now. I've got him."
As suddenly as it began it was over and Clark was back on the table, quietly licking his paws as if nothing untoward had happened. The intruders whimpered in unison as Lex kept the gun trained on them, fighting the urge to pull the trigger.
It had been a rotten day after all.
But the watch of soulful green eyes held him back and a few minutes later security burst into the room. "Just get them out of here," Lex demanded tightly, waving off security's request for an interview. "Tomorrow. I'm not dealing with this now. Here," he said, handing them a card from his wallet. "It's my lawyer's number. Talk to him. He'll get in touch with me and we'll work out what has to be done. Now thank you and get out."
The door was slammed unceremoniously in their wake and Lex plopped into a leather recliner in front of the penthouse picture windows, the ones that looked out over the great nighttime expanse of Metropolis. Stared at the huge neon purple LuthorCorp sign, remembered the gunman's strange words and didn't want to think anymore. Closed his eyes as something warm and soft climbed into his lap and he tried not to cry as he stroked the black fur.
He didn't succeed. "I love you, you know," he said, his breath hitching with tears. "And if we don't get you cured, I think I'm going to lose my mind, Clark."
A nuzzle that said more than words rubbed against his palm and Lex had to croak out a laugh. "Oh man, if our fathers could see us now." He sighed and scratched behind the velvet ears. "Let's hope yours isn't allergic. Is he?"
A meow that sounded resigned and Lex shook his head. "What a day. Wouldn't wish it on a dog."
And the tail swished up to hit him one more time.
~&~
Lex had the strangest dream that night.
He was in his bed with a human Clark, warm and soft against him. Curled into his curves, fitted perfectly and everything was right in his world.
His troubles with his father, his company, the world at large didn't matter all that much anymore. He could give or take a few battles here and there. Winning wasn't everything and losing ... well, losing didn't equal failure.
It didn't equal death.
He was happy. Normal. Sane.
It was the scariest feeling he'd ever known.
Lex woke up, heart thumping. The dawn was stretching pink fingers over the horizon and he tried to turn away from the coming light but something was holding him down. Something warm, soft -- and completely naked.
Completely naked and completely human.
He gaped at Clark who peered sleepily back at him, beautiful emerald eyes as green as ever.
"Oh my God," he gasped, and for the first time there was a possibility of a deity greater than himself and for the first time the thought was comforting rather than otherwise. "Clark is that ... are ... do you ...." He was hardly able to form the words that followed but they were as true and right as life itself. "I love you, you know," he whispered. "And without you, I think I'll lose my mind."
"Can't lose what's already gone," Clark replied sweetly before taking Lex's mouth beneath his own with what sounded like a contented and perfect purr.
~fin~
Note: The red rock in this story was Red Kryptonite which has the ability to produce various strange effects on Clark/Superman but only for a limited period of time such as 24 hours. It turned him into a girl once so I thought turning him into a cat wasn't that far of a stretch, I hope. :)