Christmas

By

Tayoni

~*~ Part Eleven ~*~

Lex borrowed Clark's jacket and he and Steve went out the back door through the kitchen and into the remains of late afternoon wintery daylight.

"Surprised it's still light out."  Lex said, and shivered.  He stuffed his hands into the pockets of Clark's jacket and found a pair of thin gloves and put them on.  "Cold."

"Yeah, it is.  Good farting weather though."  Steve said, and let out an enormous and obnoxious noise.  "Ahhhh..."

Lex didn't hold his laughter back this time.  It took too much effort.

"So, let's move and warm up."

Lex followed him along a cobblestone path.  "Smells like it wants to snow."

"I can tell you live in Smallville."  Steve said.

"You got a ride home?"  Lex wondered.

"Yeah, I got a car.  I might just follow you out to Smallville anyway, that is if Uncle Bill doesn't offer to let me spend the night.  I don't get to see Aunt and Uncle much since I got outta high school and I got the next couple days off.  Been wanting to see Aunt Martha."

"You spend a lot of time with the Kents?"

"More than a lot.  Aunt Martha was my surrogate mother."

"Mrs. Kent raised you?"

"Well, partway."  He said.

"Do tell."  Lex said.

"Okay."  He said.  "I've never seen my real father.  I've heard passing comments that he was already married, and a few whispers about him.  Not enough to ever be able to find out who he was.  Anyway, my mom was sixteen when I was born, and if he was old enough to be married then, he probably kept his distance to keep out of prison.  My mom left I was ten months old."

"Oh."  Lex said and felt horrendous hurt for Steve.

"Don't feel bad for me, baldee man.  I don't."

"You ever seen her?"

"Only in pictures."  He said.  "Doesn't matter.  I never felt motherless.  Quite the opposite.  Had Aunt Martha, Gram, and Uncle Bill and his wife too.  I was the only kid in the family until Clark had to come along and screw it up."

Lex chuckled at that.  "Not like you had to live with him all the time."

"True."

"So, what do you do?"

"Part-time security man for the Hudson building, and I'm looking forward to the last semester of my masters right now."

"Really?  Masters?"

"Yeah."

"I didn't think you could be more than twenty."

"Twenty-three."  He said and grinned.  "You?"

"Twenty-two."  Lex said.

"Oh yeah?  Not that you look it, but I thought you were older cause Clark said you graduated from somewhere already."

"I don't know if you'd call me gifted exactly, because I don't think I am.  My dad pushed me to double up on classes and take higher subjects, so I graduated high-school early."

"Oh, the infamous Luthors and their desire to push their kids into a mid-life crisis by the time they're thirty."  He preached and then gasped.  "Oh, sorry, man.  Bad thing to say."

"True though."  Lex said with a grin.  "I noticed Clark's quite gifted, but he's still in the grade he should be in.  Can't help but to envy him for that."

"Aunt Martha's a wise woman."  He said.  "He could probably have graduated college by now with a Ph.D."

"If he's so gifted then why's he in Smallville High?"  Lex wondered.

"Cause Aunt Martha's a wise woman.  Clark's smart, but he's got no business outside the world of teen angst right now.  He might be able to out-equate a military computer with his brain tied behind his back, but he's so dam stupid about things that go on around him in every day life, makes me wanna clobber him."

"I noticed."  He said, and walked along with Steve at a moderate and comfortable pace.

"What's he done that makes you want to clobber him?"

"You must have seen it by now, Lex."  He said.  "He believes in people to much.  There's this one kid who was around us one year.  Some little bastard so ugly, made me want to puke just to look at him.  He came up behind Clark a half dozen times, and he'd hit him, then break his stuff, push him around, bully him, play mind games with him.  That kid'd say things to Clark like, he didn't mean it, wouldn't do it again, let's be friends.  Clark would believe him, and that little bastard would do the same freaking thing within an hour, and then play the same line.  Clark kept buying it over and over.  He still does that.  I've seen people look straight at him, lie to his face, but Clark just nods and goes along with it."

"He probably doesn't believe them."

"I don't know if he does or not, Lex.  That's not the point.  Point is that he doesn't say anything.  He accepts the same apology repeatedly and then takes the same abuse.  Every time I look at him, I know someone new's taking advantage of him."

Lex let Steve's look slide on by.  He understood the look, because he gave it to people quite often on Clark's behalf.  "What about this ugly little bastard?  He didn't mess with Clark too much, did he?"

"He pushed Clark over a small cliff one time.  Good fifteen foot drop.  Pete Ross and some other kid who was always staring at bugs were around and they saw it.  Two a them took off after that ugly little bastard.  I didn't watch what they did to him, but I know the little bastard never came back.  At least not while I was around."

"Was Clark okay?"

"Luck of a rubber boned baby."  He said.  "He was shaking so bad he couldn't walk.  I had to carry him home and he had a hell of a bruise on his butt."

"Oh, he fell on his butt."  Lex laughed.

"Yeah, not the greatest thing to land on, but it beats your head."  He said.  "Anyway, he hasn't changed.  He's still just as stupid as that.  He's always gotta get hurt real bad before he sees certain kinds of people for what they are.  I'm afraid he's gonna end up with one of those women who likes to whore around, play head games, and then leave it up to him to take care of the bills, the house, and kids who aren't his.  Or she won't have any kids.  He'll sit there and let her convince him that she's doing her share just by letting him sleep in a seperate bed in the same room with her.  If he was a girl, I'd be afraid he'd end up the victim of some serious domestic violence."

"Something about Clark though..."

"...makes you want to look out for him, huh?"

"Yeah."  Lex said.

Steve paused, and he gave Lex a long hard look, and then grinned.  "Hope he brushed his teeth that day before he kissed you."

"WHAT?"

"You heard me."

Lex stared at him, then scowled.   "What're you talking about?"

"I meant when Clark gave you CPR, I hope he brushed his teeth first."

"You're a sick bastard!"  Lex said dully and wapped him upside the head with a gloved hand.

Steve laughed out loud, and then made kissing noises at him.

Lex glared, and now he understood why Clark got so annoyed with Steve.

MORE TO COME…

My most profound gratitude to everyone who posted a review.  I worship the grungy shoes you threw in the garbage.