Disclaimer: don't own them... wish i did... Mmmmmmm...

Lust vs. Guilt

The next morning Clark awoke feeling happy and not really knowing why. Perhaps it was because it was Friday? He'd all but forgotten about the photograph, until he opened the drawer to retrieve a pair of socks for the day. He smiled lazily as he remembered it and rummaged to the bottom of the drawer to pull it out. As his gaze fell upon it again, he frowned. It had changed again. He and Lex were both fully clothed and stood a respectable distance from one another, unmoving. The look they seemed to be sharing was the only indication that things were not quite as they were in reality…

The photo looked quite boring compared to how it'd looked last night, Clark thought.

"Clark! You're going to be late for school!"

He dressed at super speed and rushed downstairs, ate breakfast and was out of the door in seconds.

School past uneventfully, as his mind kept wondering back to the photograph – maybe not that uneventfully, because he got into a bit of trouble for his lack of concentration, but he didn't really notice. He couldn't decide if the photo had changed or if it had never been different in the first place: perhaps he'd dreamed the whole thing… but if he had then there should be no photo at all. And who had sent it? And why? And how? None of it made any sense.

He sighed, as he left his final class. Chloe drew level with him and walked with him. She was speaking, he could tell, but was unable to decipher her words through his haze of concentration only on the thought of the image. Then Clark snapped out of his daze as Chloe slapped his arm lightly.

"Clark! Are you okay?" she looked concerned "You've been zoning out all day."

"I'm okay. Just tired." he lied

Chloe groaned. "Clark, did you take lessons in being a crap liar? Whenever anyone says they're just tired, they probably are tired, but only because something else is worrying them: which is the part they are not telling me!" she said the last part in a tone that said quite clearly: 'spit it out!'

"I… umm…" Clark began, trying to quickly come up with a better lie "I, sort of, had an argument with Lex last night and I need to go sort things out." He said slowly, thinking it wasn't entirely a lie so he might get away with it.

Chloe frowned: it was possible. Clark and Lex's relationship could be a little… temperamental.

"Okay" she smiled comfortingly, having decided this really was the truth "That wasn't so hard, now, was it?"

He snorted and said his goodbyes before making his way to the Luthor mansion.

He was let in and asked to wait in Lex's study, as Lex was in a meeting. He sat for a short amount of time in the room, on a comfortable couch, waiting for his friend to finish being busy. It wasn't long before Lex entered the comparatively small room and almost walked towards Clark, who was seated as far as possible from the door. However, Lex stopped in the doorway: someone back in the corridor was speaking to him.

He half-turned, his back against the doorframe, looking back the way he'd come and speaking quietly. Clark stared at him, comparing him to the beauty of the monochrome Lex, wondering why it had turned him on so much… and if Lex really could do that to him. Transfixed, he wondered why he hadn't actually noticed how pretty Lex was before. The beautiful curved line of his mouth extended, oh-so pinkly, upwards and downwards, into luscious padded lips, with the pale scar cutting in, like snow streaked across a plush carpet, from some stray traveller intruding on the halls and hearths of heaven on a bitterly cold night: the scar marred flawlessly… a perfect mistake. The line of his jaw, shadowed so gently, curving down to his neck so beautifully, and his eyes careening their bows across his creamy-

Wait! This was Lex! Not some girl he'd seen across a crowded room, not Lana… not even a boy he'd seen briefly crossing a path in his mind- Lex, for goodness sake! Actually his best friend…his best friend who he'd wanked about last night, his mind added treacherously and Clark felt his pulse speed up dramatically… then Lex finished his conversation and turned…

Lex smiled. But not just any smile: it was that same serene, yet almost euphoric smile that Photo-Lex had displayed right before he licked up Photo-Clark's cum. Clark felt himself growing hard just from that. 'Shit!' he thought 'I shouldn't have come here'

Clark was consumed by a strange mixture of guilt and lust. His blush was half from the bulge in his pants and half from the memory of what he'd done while thinking of his friend the previous night.

"Are you ok Clark? You seem a little distant… and a little flushed." he added with the hint of a smile.

Clark looked up at his friend's concerned face and felt his guilt clearly and strongly overpowering his lust.

'I'm sick!' he thought, hating himself for doing this to Lex 'Someone is trying to blackmail us and all I can do is jerk off over my best friend! I need to get a grip: I'm not even gay!' Clarks mind raced 'I'm not gay, I'm not gay, I'm not gay!'

"Yeah," he answered after the long pause, trying to reassure his friend with a slight smile "I'm just thinking about that photo… I mean about who might have sent it, not about it."

Lex smiled with amusement. "It's ok Clark, I knew what you meant: I don't think you're gay or perverted" Lex chuckled: the thought of Clark being either was ludicrous… mores the pity…

Lex was slightly shocked that the relief Clark must have been feeling didn't show on his face, but then he did have more important things to worry about than making sure Lex knew he was straight and innocent.

And Clark felt even guiltier… he wasn't gay! But perverted, he must have been… and Lex had no idea… and suddenly he felt a little indignant: Lex had just inadvertently called him gay and perverted! Of course he couldn't defend himself, because Lex had already done that, which only made him feel worse! Plus, really, his actions last night couldn't be classed as anything, but gay and perverted. And Lex didn't suspect a thing…

Then he felt a little hurt; if Lex thought being gay and perverted were bad things, and Clark was both gay and perverted, according to Lex's statement, he wouldn't want anything to do with him… which also meant he didn't like him like that… and Clark realised, with a sinking feeling, that he felt very disappointed that Lex didn't want him.

"Oh yeah… I almost forgot: there's something odd about the picture-" Clark began trying to change the subject his mind was dwelling on, after that overly long silence.

"Really?" Lex said sarcastically

Clark rolled his eyes "Apart from all the obvious you-and-me-and-fake thing, it also… umm…well, it also moves."

"What?" Lex looked a little confused "You mean like a recording of some sort? I thought it was just a bit of paper"

"It is just a bit of paper. I don't think it's a recording or anything like that: sometimes they stay still, sometimes they move… they look at the… umm… they look at you if you look at them sometimes, too."

"What, you mean like they can actually see you?" Lex scoffed.

Clark suddenly felt as though ice cold krypto-needles were being pushed into his skin "I hadn't considered that… I guess they might be able to." He said looking quite unsettled.

Lex gave him an odd look "what exactly were they doing in this moving picture?" he asked suspiciously and Clark's face reddened up again instantly. He didn't add 'And what were you doing that you're afraid they might have watched?' He suspected Clark was merely worried that they'd seen him undress or that they'd discovered one of his secrets: the ones he was always keeping from Lex.

Could Clark's face get any redder? "I would of thought," he said, not looking at Lex "that you could figure it out, since I told you what the picture was of."

"Oh" Lex said, also not looking at Clark and trying not to smile. "Did they keep you up all night?"

Clark discovered he could get redder and Lex assumed Clark was more innocent than he had first assumed and was merely blushing at the implication, so he clarified. "I mean, there was probably…" then he realised that what he'd meant was probably just as dodgy as what Clark had thought he'd meant…and now he'd started a sentence he really didn't want to finish, but he was a Luthor and Luthor's were not cowards so he continued valiantly: "…a lot of noise."

"Actually there wasn't any noise;" Clark began nonchalantly, as though thinking aloud "I'm not sure why they move but don't make a sound…not that I'm complaining. But it is strange to see them moan rather than hearing it…" Clark stopped, mortified and wishing he, too, was mute right now.

Lex was suddenly glad Clark was too embarrassed to look at him: firstly, he was blushing and he never blushed! And secondly, his mouth was hanging open in surprise: very un-Luthor-like… Plus, he found the thought of making Clark moan was very… stimulating… and it showed.

"Well, this is Smallville;" he began brusquely, moving to a more comfortable and discreet position "if anywhere is likely to get strange, silent-moving-fake-photographs, it's here. Now we just have to figure out who sent it, how they did it and how to castigate them for it!" Lex was only half joking.

"How to what them for it?" Clark looked up at Lex, confused.

"Punish."

"Oh. Okay, I understand now." Clark smiled "don't kill anyone though, Lex." Clark, too, was only half joking. "You know, it's not the end of the world…" he actually felt hurt again: Lex was so repulsed by the thought of someone even suggesting he and Clark were… Lex was so angry, he would hurt someone for creating a photo of him and his, very underage, best friend seriously getting it on, when neither of them were gay or interested in one another and Lex could be in serious trouble with the authorities… okay he could see where Lex was coming from, but somehow he would almost have preferred Lex to say 'You and me, Clark? Hmm, I' would say it's a something I've never considered, but that really would be a lie… I think about it all the time: I want you, Clark.'

Clark really tried not to imagine Lex saying that and to focus on what his friend was actually saying…

"Do you still have the photo? You haven't destroyed it or anything?" Lex changed the subject back, after a slight pause.

"I haven't destroyed it. It's at home though… I didn't really wanna carry it around in case it fell out of my bag and someone saw it or something." Lex clearly thought the idea of the two of them was repulsive enough for Clark to want to destroy the image right away and Clark felt guilty that he hadn't: he felt like to should have an excuse for keeping it.

Lex nodded and said "hmm…"

"Why do you ask?" Clark asked, half worried half… hopeful? Why was he hopeful?

"Umm, Clark, don't take this the wrong way, but…" Clark began to get self-conscious and a little nervous at that "…the photo is the only clue we have so far, so I'm going to need to see it, if… you know… if I'm going to help."

"Yeah, of course." Clark said amicably, then added "But you won't show anyone else, will you?" it was almost pleading and a little scared. Clark wasn't exactly sure why, but he didn't want anyone else looking at that picture- he guessed he was just embarrassed of it.

"We'd probably progress faster if I got a team working on it-" but noticing Clark's saucer-shaped-scared eyes, he amended "But we don't have to: we can work on it without help, it just might take longer… I think I have all the resources we'll need."

Clark looked pleased, hopeful, relieved… and really cute: the smile really did it for Lex, and so he tried not to focus on it and offered Clark a ride home.

"We could get the photo and start work tonight." Clark suggested shyly.

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