"Hi Clark," he could hear the smile "how are you?"

"Umm… okay, I guess, you?"

Lex laughed lightly "If you're going to lie to me, at least put in a little effort. That was pathetic, in more ways than one." then slightly more seriously: "what's on you mind?"

"Umm…" Clark wondered if telling the truth would be a very bad idea; he felt like it would, as the blush grew profuse, just thinking about telling Lex… but then, he wasn't guilty of anything; he had been sent the picture, and he and Lex had certainly never…

"Clark? Are you still there?"

He'd been silent a little too long. He decided he should probably tell Lex, but…

"I'm just a little tired-" he started, before Lex cut in

"Clark." The tone was deep and warning: Lex wasn't buying it.

Clark sighed and began tentatively "Someone sent me some photo's…"

"Uh huh…" Lex urged Clark to continue.

Uncomfortable silence seemed preferable to uncomfortable spoken facts.

"Of…?" Lex pressed, after too much time to maintain patience. His curiosity was weighing the silence down: he secretly hoped Clark might reveal something… anything, about himself. He wanted Clark to trust him with something real.

"You and me…umm… together." Clark said uncomfortably.

Clark could almost hear the frown in Lex's next words "So…? People see us together all the time." Then he added jokingly "You're not embarrassed of me, now, are you Clark?"

Clark ignored Lex's joke and answered seriously. "No, not just in the same place at the same time: Together."

"You mean…?" Clark could almost hear Lex's mouth hanging open in the very long pause, then; "Oh." And Lex stopped speaking.

Silence.

"You said photographs?" Lex said eventually.

"Well, a photograph." Clark corrected, not quite able to believe Lex was being pedantic at a time like this… but then, he supposed, everyone responded differently to crisis.

"Yes, but Clark, a photograph would require us to have actually done something whilst somebody photographed us… and since we never have, photographs of us doing… whatever" he sounded a little uncomfortable there "aren't possible." He finished matter-of-factly.

"Hmmm" Clark walked to the drawer and pulled out the picture. He stared at it again. He swallowed nervously as his eyes traced over the image.

"Well, if it's not a photograph nobody would be able to tell…"

"What do you mean if? We know we haven't done anything, so we know it's not real!"

"That's not what I meant… and it's not the point. The point is that if it's published we're the only people who will know it's fake." Clark reasoned.

"Does it say what they want?"

Clark had been so transfixed by the photograph he hadn't even checked to see if there were… demands? He turned the photo over and saw words written lightly in pencil, in squiggly cursive. He squinted slightly.

"It says 'I hope you enjoy…' what does that say? Oh! 'Getting' -stupid squiggly writing! … it says 'I hope you enjoy getting…'" Clark stopped abruptly "umm… never mind: it doesn't say anything useful." Clark finished quickly, thinking this was probably the most embarrassing conversation he'd ever had.

"Enjoy getting what?" Lex asked quickly. "It might be a clue."

"It's not." Clark said hastily, staring down unblinkingly at the words.

"Clark." Warning tone again.

"No. You don't want to know and it's really not important, I swear."

"hmmm…" Lex could guess the gist of the words Clark seemed so reluctant to reveal and decided not to press further "it's late. We'll speak more about this tomorrow."

"Okay. 'Night Lex."

"Goodnight Clark."

Clark held the phone to his ear for several minutes after Lex had gone, just thinking about all they'd said and staring at the photograph and the words on the back. He realised Lex hadn't said why he'd actually called. He wondered what he'd wanted.

He gently put the phone down and sighed, turning the photo over in his hands again. He stared at it; not really seeing for a moment, when he noticed the movement in front of his unfocused eyes.

He shook away his blurred vision and stared as Photo-Lex ran his tongue up Photo-Clark's neck and bit gently on his ear lobe. Clark felt something inside him stir and he shook his head again, trying to shake off the strange vision. He looked again; only to see Photo-Clark lean his head back on Photo-Lex's shoulder and open his mouth in a clear, but silent, moan.

Clark blushed once again as he started to get hard from the image. Unable to tear away his gaze, he sat on his bed and gaped. He couldn't believe seeing Lex doing those things to him was… such a turn on. And quite a shock.

It was then that he noticed the hand on Photo-Clark's peck had slid down to join the other hand in unbuttoning his jeans, and as he saw a hand slip into Photo-Clark's pants, he felt a hand slide down his own stomach to rest in his pants against his erection. Clark stared as Photo-Lex's hand moved slowly inside Photo-Clark's trousers and the two twisted into a heated kiss at the pace grew fiercer.

Clark's breathing hitched as he imagined the hand on his erection was really Lex's, like it was in the picture. It felt so good to think of Lex touching him like that…

Photo-Lex ground forwards against Photo-Clark and Clark could see both their mouths open into loud, but unheard, moans. However, his own moan was quite loud in his silent room. Photo-Clark's hips jerked forward and seconds later the hand withdrew from his pants covered in a thick whiteness, which was raised to Photo-Lex's lips. And as Photo-Lex licked Photo-Clark's cum off his hand, Clark came, with a loud moan against the thrusts and strokes that filled his senses.

Clark looked down at his hand covered in thick whiteness, raised it to his lips and looked tentatively, and somewhat guiltily, around the room, before slowly licking his cum from his strong fingers. It tasted… odd… salty.

Then he looked back at the photo, sitting motionlessly beside him. He stared, but they didn't move; they were once again locked in their previous poses. He rubbed his eyes and stared again at the unmoving couple.

And then it sunk in. He had taken the advice of the squiggly writing. He had just got off to Lex jerking him off… he had just fantasized about Lex… he wasn't even gay… this was wrong…

And that seemed to make it strangely more appealing: it felt good that he could do something bad and wrong and nobody would ever know. It felt nice to have a secret all to himself, which he could keep through choice, instead of necessity. It felt good to touch himself and imagine Lex was doing it… He smiled to himself and took the picture back to the drawer.

Clark lay in bed thinking about the photograph and trying to sleep. The sequence was repeating in his head, starting with Lex licking his neck and ending with Lex licking his cum off his fingers. He wondered if it had actually moved or if he'd just imagined it: he hoped it hadn't just been his imagination, because he'd never had any… feelings for Lex before, or at least not sexual ones. Or for any other guys for that matter; if he had just imagined it he wasn't really sure where the feelings had come from.

He'd never considered Lex that way; never looked at him that way. But in the picture he was looking at him that way… and Clark liked the way it looked on himself. They looked good together… really good, he thought, not sure whether to fantasise about himself and Lex again or think of naked, ugly, fat people having sex loudly in a vat of baked beans. He shuddered: he preferred the thoughts of himself and Lex more than just a little bit.

And as he fell asleep, dreams of a beautiful, toned body and a sweet and easy smile in monochrome, cascaded over him.