Lex watched Lois Lane drive away and followed Jonathan and Clark back to the house, walking slowly and turning back to make sure that the reporter wouldn't double back and return. Sometimes she was that unsubtle. But she'd ceased to be a minor nuisance and a major amusement now that Clark was in the picture. He filed that thought to be dealt with later as he entered the house.
Clark was standing against the table, bristling. At least he was in Angry Sulk mode. That, Lex could deal with far better than with the fear and flayed vulnerability he'd anticipated. Martha's expression of relief overlying her concern indicated the same reaction. Jonathan was himself still in Angry Father Bear mode.
"If I'm going to make an idiot of myself each time somebody asks a question, then maybe I was right about not going anywhere." Clark bit out the consonants as he shouted.
"Son-" Jonathan began, but Lex cut him off.
"Clark, you were having a flashback. Somebody was partially recreating some of the circumstances," he couldn't think of the right words, or at least ones he could use in front of Martha, "you were in before. It happens with soldiers, Clark, hardly a sign of idiocy." He hoped that the calm, appraising tone would be easier for Clark's wounded pride than the verbal stroking he wanted to administer.
"But what if it doesn't stop?"
"I doubt that the circumstances will repeat themselves. You handled Pete and Chloe just fine, didn't you? She was trying to trip or catch you, she's an experienced and suspicious questioner, and while I don't think she was aware of what it was doing, there was a meteor right there."
Some of Clark's anger seemed to sag and Lex felt a clench in his gut as he realized just how much fear was under the anger. Didn't Clark know that all three of them would do anything, give anything to keep him and his secret safe? Or perhaps he did--and didn't think it would be enough.
"Lex is right, son." Now those were words Lex hadn't anticipated hearing from Jonathan any time in this life. Enough to let him shove his own fear and anxiety aside.
***
As Lex and Clark sat on the sofa that afternoon, physics textbook sitting on both their laps as Lex used light pencil lines to sketch a diagram to show acceleration as an object passed into a vacuum, Clark tried to concentrate. Instead, he kept thinking back to the morning's encounter with Lois Lane. He bet he made a real impression on her. Not just lying, but a nut case.
Lex tapped the eraser end on the paper. "Clark, the object is going into space, but you don't have to follow it." If Lex hadn't also picked that moment to reach back and run a finger along the nape of Clark's neck, a feather's touch against the short ends of hair there, Clark would have found something to retort, but instead, he craned his neck to expose more skin to the caress and closed his eyes. He idly wondered why Lex's voice sounded deeper when his eyes were shut as Lex murmured, "All right, you're very persuasive. Study break."
Clark couldn't help a grin as he opened his eyes enough to push the book and pencil onto the floor, and with a long, satisfied sigh, brought his legs onto the sofa so that he was sprawled across Lex's lap. He knew from experience that Lex would seize the opportunity to bury his fingers in Clark's hair and luxuriate in the feel of it, and his prediction was accurate. Clark looked up at the softness in Lex's eyes that he knew was reserved just for him. Well, just for him and sometimes when Lex said something about his mother or Julian. But he knew that Lex only let the affection for his lost family show when he was talking to Clark. Even Lex's nose seemed to become less arrogant. He reached up and passed his hand from Lex's nose to his cheek to the side of his head, where he fingered an ear. Lex chuckled as Clark said, lazily, "I like your earlobe."
"My earlobe?"
"Uhm hmm." Clark continued to stroke and squeeze the tissue between his fingers, adding, "It's the only part of you that's...squishy."
It must have sounded as silly to Lex as it did to him, once it was out of his mouth, since Lex snorted. "You've got a real flair for just the right romantic words, Clark," he answered, then, to Clark's satisfaction, caught his breath as Clark leisurely ran a finger along the folds of cartilege, then returned to fondling and squeezing the lobe.
As he ran his fingers down Lex's throat to slip under his shirt and nestle in the hollows of the collar bone, he watched the blue of Lex's eyes begin to be eclipsed by the dilation of his pupils. That, too, was just for him, now. His, his, his. Clark lifted his head from Lex's lap to tease Lex's parting lips with his, and then press hard in a kiss, watching the eclipse continue as Lex grasped his back, pressing him closer, and, when he pulled back to let Lex breathe, it was his name that Lex exhaled on that first breath, in a whisper.
They had permitted themselves kisses and touches before, but with a reserve that was now abandoned. Lex reached through the buttons on his shirt to brush a nipple with the tip of a finger, then the smoothness of the back of a fingernail, and the change of sensations made Clark whimper and clamp his mouth fiercely on Lex's again, hot and moist and with the supple tongue waiting for him. "God, Clark," he heard Lex whisper, and the sound went straight to his crotch. It felt so wrong to take his hands from Lex's body for even an instant, but he couldn't ignore the demand from the one part of his body that now seemed to hold an absolute veto. But when Lex saw what Clark's unaccountably clumsy fingers were doing, his own hands snaked under and undid the button and zip, immediately capturing Clark's length in their warmth. Clark bucked into their grasp, hissing and almost keening as the sensitive skin seemed to feel every whorl and indentation of Lex's fingers. When Lex writhed backwards to be able to lower his mouth to caress and kiss the base, his hands still engulfing the tingling shaft and head, Clark gave a last ecstatic half-groan and felt the release as he came into Lex's cupped hands.
In the luxuriant ease his body had nearly forgotten but now reclaimed, he murmured in sated satisfaction as Lex raised his head and kissed and lapped at the underside of his chin, slowly working his way back to Clark's mouth, as Clark fingered for his crotch. As the pupils nearly entirely encompassed the blue iris and shuddering and repeating his name, Lex came just as Clark caught at the head.
Even though they'd had sex only one other time, Lex's shivers and almost garbled exclamations were as familiar to Clark as if each of his fantasies during his imprisonment had been real, so the sudden jerk to alertness startled him as much as if Lex had leapt away.
"What?"
"Your parents just walked by and looked in. They were...a bit startled."
Clark instinctively reached to redo his jeans but then stopped. "Well, they know we're..."
Lex was calming down, too. "Lovers," he finished, firmly.
Clark still adored the term and rested his head on Lex's chest. "And it's not wrong, and they're okay with it, and so..."
"Still. A bit on the embarassing side."
"It shouldn't be," Clark said, definitively. "It's natural and normal and what we are and-"
"You're still blushing," Lex commented, but pulling Clark closer into his embrace. Clark pressed as close as he could, so that every inch of skin that could touch Lex was, and hoped that dinner was a long time off. A few days sounded about right.
Clark was standing against the table, bristling. At least he was in Angry Sulk mode. That, Lex could deal with far better than with the fear and flayed vulnerability he'd anticipated. Martha's expression of relief overlying her concern indicated the same reaction. Jonathan was himself still in Angry Father Bear mode.
"If I'm going to make an idiot of myself each time somebody asks a question, then maybe I was right about not going anywhere." Clark bit out the consonants as he shouted.
"Son-" Jonathan began, but Lex cut him off.
"Clark, you were having a flashback. Somebody was partially recreating some of the circumstances," he couldn't think of the right words, or at least ones he could use in front of Martha, "you were in before. It happens with soldiers, Clark, hardly a sign of idiocy." He hoped that the calm, appraising tone would be easier for Clark's wounded pride than the verbal stroking he wanted to administer.
"But what if it doesn't stop?"
"I doubt that the circumstances will repeat themselves. You handled Pete and Chloe just fine, didn't you? She was trying to trip or catch you, she's an experienced and suspicious questioner, and while I don't think she was aware of what it was doing, there was a meteor right there."
Some of Clark's anger seemed to sag and Lex felt a clench in his gut as he realized just how much fear was under the anger. Didn't Clark know that all three of them would do anything, give anything to keep him and his secret safe? Or perhaps he did--and didn't think it would be enough.
"Lex is right, son." Now those were words Lex hadn't anticipated hearing from Jonathan any time in this life. Enough to let him shove his own fear and anxiety aside.
***
As Lex and Clark sat on the sofa that afternoon, physics textbook sitting on both their laps as Lex used light pencil lines to sketch a diagram to show acceleration as an object passed into a vacuum, Clark tried to concentrate. Instead, he kept thinking back to the morning's encounter with Lois Lane. He bet he made a real impression on her. Not just lying, but a nut case.
Lex tapped the eraser end on the paper. "Clark, the object is going into space, but you don't have to follow it." If Lex hadn't also picked that moment to reach back and run a finger along the nape of Clark's neck, a feather's touch against the short ends of hair there, Clark would have found something to retort, but instead, he craned his neck to expose more skin to the caress and closed his eyes. He idly wondered why Lex's voice sounded deeper when his eyes were shut as Lex murmured, "All right, you're very persuasive. Study break."
Clark couldn't help a grin as he opened his eyes enough to push the book and pencil onto the floor, and with a long, satisfied sigh, brought his legs onto the sofa so that he was sprawled across Lex's lap. He knew from experience that Lex would seize the opportunity to bury his fingers in Clark's hair and luxuriate in the feel of it, and his prediction was accurate. Clark looked up at the softness in Lex's eyes that he knew was reserved just for him. Well, just for him and sometimes when Lex said something about his mother or Julian. But he knew that Lex only let the affection for his lost family show when he was talking to Clark. Even Lex's nose seemed to become less arrogant. He reached up and passed his hand from Lex's nose to his cheek to the side of his head, where he fingered an ear. Lex chuckled as Clark said, lazily, "I like your earlobe."
"My earlobe?"
"Uhm hmm." Clark continued to stroke and squeeze the tissue between his fingers, adding, "It's the only part of you that's...squishy."
It must have sounded as silly to Lex as it did to him, once it was out of his mouth, since Lex snorted. "You've got a real flair for just the right romantic words, Clark," he answered, then, to Clark's satisfaction, caught his breath as Clark leisurely ran a finger along the folds of cartilege, then returned to fondling and squeezing the lobe.
As he ran his fingers down Lex's throat to slip under his shirt and nestle in the hollows of the collar bone, he watched the blue of Lex's eyes begin to be eclipsed by the dilation of his pupils. That, too, was just for him, now. His, his, his. Clark lifted his head from Lex's lap to tease Lex's parting lips with his, and then press hard in a kiss, watching the eclipse continue as Lex grasped his back, pressing him closer, and, when he pulled back to let Lex breathe, it was his name that Lex exhaled on that first breath, in a whisper.
They had permitted themselves kisses and touches before, but with a reserve that was now abandoned. Lex reached through the buttons on his shirt to brush a nipple with the tip of a finger, then the smoothness of the back of a fingernail, and the change of sensations made Clark whimper and clamp his mouth fiercely on Lex's again, hot and moist and with the supple tongue waiting for him. "God, Clark," he heard Lex whisper, and the sound went straight to his crotch. It felt so wrong to take his hands from Lex's body for even an instant, but he couldn't ignore the demand from the one part of his body that now seemed to hold an absolute veto. But when Lex saw what Clark's unaccountably clumsy fingers were doing, his own hands snaked under and undid the button and zip, immediately capturing Clark's length in their warmth. Clark bucked into their grasp, hissing and almost keening as the sensitive skin seemed to feel every whorl and indentation of Lex's fingers. When Lex writhed backwards to be able to lower his mouth to caress and kiss the base, his hands still engulfing the tingling shaft and head, Clark gave a last ecstatic half-groan and felt the release as he came into Lex's cupped hands.
In the luxuriant ease his body had nearly forgotten but now reclaimed, he murmured in sated satisfaction as Lex raised his head and kissed and lapped at the underside of his chin, slowly working his way back to Clark's mouth, as Clark fingered for his crotch. As the pupils nearly entirely encompassed the blue iris and shuddering and repeating his name, Lex came just as Clark caught at the head.
Even though they'd had sex only one other time, Lex's shivers and almost garbled exclamations were as familiar to Clark as if each of his fantasies during his imprisonment had been real, so the sudden jerk to alertness startled him as much as if Lex had leapt away.
"What?"
"Your parents just walked by and looked in. They were...a bit startled."
Clark instinctively reached to redo his jeans but then stopped. "Well, they know we're..."
Lex was calming down, too. "Lovers," he finished, firmly.
Clark still adored the term and rested his head on Lex's chest. "And it's not wrong, and they're okay with it, and so..."
"Still. A bit on the embarassing side."
"It shouldn't be," Clark said, definitively. "It's natural and normal and what we are and-"
"You're still blushing," Lex commented, but pulling Clark closer into his embrace. Clark pressed as close as he could, so that every inch of skin that could touch Lex was, and hoped that dinner was a long time off. A few days sounded about right.