WARNING: SLASH AS IN MALE AND MALE SEXUAL SITUATIONS OR TALKING DO NOT READ IF THIS OFFENDS YOU PLEASE!

Day Five

Someone slightly shorter than Clark was standing behind him, their breath barely tickling the back of his neck. Glancing around, he could see that they were in a desolate open field in the middle of nowhere. He felt the pleasant sensation of covered arms as they wrapped around his waist in a sweet comforting manner. Clark looked up into the navy blue sky, watching as the millions of tiny stars flickered in and out above him. The person softly told him that they would give him anything he wanted, anything he yearned for. A beautiful falling star caught his attention. It streaked across the night sky showing off all its wonderful glory. As the person hugged him closer, Clark felt like crying.

This time, Clark thought it would be fun to see just how far he could throw the alarm clock. Sticking his head out the window and watching as the small black dot turned into a tiny little speck before winking out of existence he smiled and thought, 'Pretty damn far.'

He was not going to do any research today. 'NO!' The last two days of pointless research had gotten so mind numbingly boring that Clark could barely stand it. Everything that had been done those two days had helped zip, zero, and zilch. No new facts, or any for that matter, had shown up. Even if he had found anything, it would have disappeared the next 'day', and he had to deal with explaining all the annoying details to everyone yet again. His parents, Pete and Chloe had gotten on his nerves so badly that he had almost told them to 'screw off and leave him the hell alone.' And after those two days, he still hadn't gone back to visit Lex, which pissed him off even more.

It would be a great temporary solution, seeing Lex. 'Yes.' Having decided that Lex was going to take him out and they were going to have some fun today, Clark grinned as he finished up in the bathroom. Today was going to be Saturday whether they, meaning everyone, liked it or not.

He had just finished eating his tenth pancake while dialing on the cordless phone, when he impatiently hung up after hearing the busy signal yet again. 'Why was Lex's phone still busy? He had three lines, call waiting and who knew what else.'

"Clark, you'd better hurry up or you're going to be late for school."

Was it so wrong to want to tell your own mother to shut the fuck up? "Mom, I'm going out after school and I won't be home for supper."

"Oh? Well, your father needs you to change the tire on the tractor, so don't be too late." She seemed to not mind that he hadn't told her where he was going or with whom. His parents were giving him more freedom lately, which he thanked God for. They could be much too sheltering and suffocating even at the best of times, and he was planning on being a bit bad today.

"I'll do it now."

Clark didn't go to school. Instead he went straight to his currently most desired destination.

Standing outside of the Luthor mansion, Clark took several deep breaths, trying to hype himself up to what he was about to do. Yes, you can do it. A small wave of dizziness made him even more nervous. You. Can. Do. It.

Quickly, he let himself into the archaic atmosphere that was Lex's somewhat unwanted domain, and located him in the main office.

"Lex! I would love to go out today and do something relaxing, exciting, whatever… but fun with you. So are ya game?" Clark hoped the shock value would get Lex to say yes faster. Because, at the moment, he was in some serious discussion on the phone and it looked like his friend had planned on doing it for a while longer.

Lex was shocked, he stopped talking and then his mouth moved in tiny little jerks like it wanted to form words. Clark would have laughed if he wasn't feeling so terrified. After a count of three, his friend swiftly ended the conversation on the phone and hung up.

"May I ask what that was all about?"

"First off, I swear this is the normal Clark Kent." He walked into Lex's personal space. "I think we should go to Metropolis and have the day off. Let's play hooky! It will be fun. I'll make sure of it. And we can do anything you want!"

"I don't think-"

Clark quickly cut him off, "Exactly. Don't think. This is a brilliant idea. We both miss spending time with each other and it's not like one day is going to kill you. Trust me. I'm not missing anything at school today." Gripping the sides of Lex's arms, he continued passionately, "I need this. We both need it."

The arms under Clark's hands felt like granite. "Clark, are you really sure that this is such a good idea?"

"Yes. Please." Shit, even he couldn't pretend there was no whine in that last word. And wow, did Lex look constipated or what?

Of course, Lex agreed. Except for that one strange time for Pete, Lex always agreed. The one thing that Clark felt he could always be sure of was his power of persuasion over his wealthy friend. Life sometimes had little perks like that.

Just before they left, Lex changed from his tight, black, long sleeved pullover into a flattering dark burgundy shirt. Staring through the shirt Clark got to see his friend's hairless muscular chest, the fact that he had removed the FBI bug was as extra benefit. The wire couldn't have been very comfortable to wear, plus it bothered Clark to think about it being there at all. Giving his friend one last quick look over, Clark approved of the shirt change. The new shirt brought out the color of Lex's eyes.

He watched as Lex smirked at him. Hey, it wasn't like he'd given him a wolf whistle.

"I'm glad to see you approve. I wouldn't want to be wearing something you didn't like."

Clark couldn't help but blush, "Yeah, because then I'd make you change and model your whole wardrobe to me. And that would take up the rest of the day."

Posing with one of his hands on an elegant hip Lex's smirk grew, "But I always thought my ass looked rather hot in a dress." Tilting his head to the side while batting his eye lashes, Lex continued, "I'm a size eight you know." Stunned into silence, Clark watched as Lex actually laughed and turned to leave the room. 'Cruel evil man.'

It took the usual few hours to drive to Metropolis. He was so happy being in Lex's Mercedes he thought he would burst. His feet tapped on the car floor, fingers drummed on the window, and head banged against the headrest in time with the blaring music and sometimes in time with his own non-stop talking. He talked about everything, Chloe and Pete's relationship, Lana's Paris trip, sports, music, movies, TV, weather, meteor mutants, his parents, Lionel, school, the future, and how he hated time.

Lex engaged in the conversation whenever there was a break in Clark's ranting; there was definitely no uncomfortable silences this trip. Somehow, the strange wardrobe exchange had broken the ice, and it felt like they had time warped back a year or so. Clark loved how often he made his friend smile and laugh in those few hours. 'Yes, this is fun. Now, where is Lex taking me anyway?'

"Microsoft Research's Annual TechFest: Microsoft employees only." Clark re-read the sign out loud for the second time.

"Lex, I gave you the word fun and this is what you came up with?"

His friend, looking way too smug and innocent, replied. "Clark, you said we could do anything that I wanted to, right? This is a Microsoft Research 'science fair' it offers a glimpse into their technology's future. It's highly entertaining, with over 150 demonstrations, and I can get a good look at some of LexCorp's upcoming competition from the inside. I honestly thought that this would be a fair trade considering I was supposed to be working today."

Clark could practically see Lex 'geeking out' beside him. Deciding to humor him, Clark retorted, "Oh please, tell me more."

"TechFest is Microsoft Research's yearly gathering of its researchers from around the world. The company now has researchers in Redmond, Silicon Valley, Cambridge, England, and Beijing." It was 'almost' cute how passionate Lex appeared during his speech, and Clark couldn't help smiling. "This event gives the researchers a chance to show their work to the various product teams at Microsoft, and as such, it's an indication of work that may someday move beyond the research stage and into the hands of businesses and consumers."

'When did Lex have time to breathe?'

"I'll give you an hour and if I'm not having any fun, we're leaving. Then it's my turn to choose." Clark was quite sure that Lex was playing a joke on him. Even though he secretly liked the idea of being able to get into some high scale place that he and most other people shouldn't have been able to get into, he had to set down some ground rules first. Everything in Lex's life was controlled by this intense passion; science was just one of them.

Walking around the impressively designed room that had many colorful banners and flags all over the place that reminded him of a circus, Clark soon got lost in all the excitement. The first interesting thing they came upon was: Google your life a computer vision for storing, searching and retrieving any memory from one's life. Lex thought it was the coolest idea ever- Clark didn't. The idea of something poking around in his brain made him severely uneasy. Then again, once he had a closer look it appeared to be a rather stupid looking thing that you had to wear around your neck that took pictures, or was that entirely something else?

Lex pulled him over to the next exhibit before he could find out.

Becoming instantly not interested in what Lex was so dazzled by, as his friend talked physics and maybe even algebra with the man at the booth, Clark noticed that the showcase next to the one he'd been dragged to had a cute little AI robot that recognized human speech. Greatly amused, Clark had a long discussion with it about cows and wheat- just to annoy that special someone who was annoying him.

"Isn't he the most adorable thing you've ever seen, Lex?" Clark petted the top of its head, which had scary curly red hair on it. "Wow, he already knows so much about me. You know, I would love for him to be my new best friend."

Lex had stated earlier, at first sight, that the robot looked simply hideous. Of course, at the time Clark had pretended not to notice. Now, he glared at Clark like he wanted to give him a hard friendly punch, which Clark knew would not have been a good idea. 'This is fun.'

"I don't know. But the thing does have you beat. How about I look into the new best friend part? Maybe if no-one wants it, the damn thing might follow you home."

It made a strange grumbling-like noise.

"Hey! You hurt its feeeelings. You're a big meanie, Lex!"

"Oh, waaa." Lex scoffed at seeing Clark's puppy dog eyes.

A few minutes later, he glanced around to take note of all the researchers, and architects, and psychologists… oh my, not to forget the all-important computer scientists. There were so many gadgets and doo-hickeys and wow, the smart wristwatch (Smart Personal Object Technology) Clark tried on was a Sci-Fi Geek's wet dream. No way did he like it at half a million dollars' worth, though. Sadly, he meant it when he later told Lex that he wanted one for his upcoming eighteenth birthday. It was not like Lex would get it for him, because of the forgetting and all. Hell, the look on Lex's face when Clark seriously asked for the 500 thousand dollar toy watch was simply… priceless. And well, it was really cool.

He was surprised when Lex showed him what the University of Washington's main venture was.

"Clark, this is a joint endeavor project that uses machine learning to isolate compact candidates for HIV vaccines. The number of HIV strains creates an impediment to effectively combating the disease. Thus, the experimenters here are applying machine learning to the task of isolating parts of the virus that are most important and consistent across variants." Lex stared at him like he was computing some sort of numbers in his head.

'Science can be such a magnificent thing. And Lex is an adorable nerd.'

"That's really great."

"In the near future, one can only hope that it can be inexpensive enough for the masses, so that all can benefit from this brilliance."

'What can I say to that?' Deciding a nod was good enough, Clark wandered off to the left while Lex continued to discuss statistics to one of the university professors.

An hour or so later, as Clark became engrossed with a highly intelligent phone, his stomach made a rather disturbingly loud noise.

"Are you hiding a small animal in there?" Lex had snuck up behind him to embarrass him some more.

Abruptly realizing that he was absolutely starving, Clark quickly glanced at his own puny watch and he was shocked to see that is was slightly past two o'clock. 'We have been here for over two hours?'

"No, but I am hungry. They have a food area over there." Clark pointed towards a tiny burger station in the far wall. "Would you mind?"

Lex glanced at the fast food station with distaste, "I've seen all I've wanted to here. If you want to, we can leave now and maybe get something a bit healthier to eat."

"Sure."

They turned and started weaving their way out through the mass of people.

"So, how torturous was it for you?" Lex gave him a knowing smirk.

"I'm still at death's door. Can't you see how pale and shaky I am?" Clark tried to make himself appear sick.

"You'll have to make sure to tell your parents how evil I was to you today. Not that they aren't already going to be pissed at me and my bad influence." Lex frowned.

Yup, the next day his dad would have been ranting and raving about how Lex had helped him skip a whole day of school, and maybe even have phoned Lex to tell him off. But, Clark highly doubted that would happen, due to tomorrow's remote likelihood of arriving.

"The devil made you do it!"

In another winning attempt to make Lex laugh, Clark started prancing towards the exit with his hands pressed against his forehead, fingers pointing out to look like horns, and overly swaying his hips back and forth to mimic having a tail. "And the day isn't over yet, tonight we can still do whatever you want. I like your surprises."

"Really?" Lex's face had that weird look again, "So, what do you want to eat?"

"Pizza!" 'Ah, the fifth food group.' Hey, it was Saturday and Clark wanted pizza.

"Oh, but of course. I know just the place."

Lex called to make a reservation at some place called 'Altizio's.' Clark soon found out that it was a nice mid- to upper class Italian restaurant. Once they were politely seated by the waitress, near the front window, Clark quickly ordered a pizza without reading the whole write up on it underneath. When his food arrived it didn't look like any pizza he had ever seen. It was way too flat and just plain weird looking. Clark gawked at it for a full five seconds after it was placed in front of him before Lex interrupted his solitary tableau.

"That's how they make pizza in Italy, Clark. Most ethnic foods that you have encountered have been so Americanized that they're barely recognizable as the original article." Lex's eyes danced with amusement, "Try it. I swear it won't bite."

"Ha. Ha." Clark began to eat a slice, and it was amazingly very good. Lex's plate, on the other hand, looked like a work of art, different colors of sauces and spices, an assortment of vegetables, fettuccine, and pieces of chicken breast where arranged to look like a cuisine masterpiece. As Lex put a fork in it and started to twist some pasta into a really large spoon, Clark had to look away before the food went into Lex's mouth. 'Why did that image seem so, erotic?'

Happening to look towards the entrance, Clark watched as a beautiful blonde couple walked in, and he admired how they seemed totally engrossed with each other. The man wore a grey suit while she was in an exquisite blue dress. Absently, he observed how fit and tall they were. 'Why were rich people always so good-looking?' Clark wouldn't have normally noticed them further, but the woman, upon breaking her loving gaze with the man, had instantly let go of his arm and strode straight towards them.

She looked extremely freaked that they were sitting at that table and started yelling at them, "Who the fuck do you people think you are?"

The man, who had followed behind her, gave the impression of being physically slapped by her harsh words. Advancing forward, he put his hand on her shoulder, trying to gently remove her from their presence. Clark noticed their wedding rings just as the woman turned and glanced at her husband with a look of pure terror.

Turning back towards them, with a determined expression on her face, she continued in a snarl like voice, "This is our table, how dare you sit here. He proposed to me at this table. What right do you assholes think you have taking that away from me? You're not supposed to be here!"

The man tried to quiet her, causing the woman to almost break down in tears. "Today is finally starting to get better after enduring such misery, and you had to arrive and fuck everything up." She tore her eyes away from her husband to stare at Lex with a touch of recollection in her green eyes, "I don't care who the hell you are. No one is going to take him away from me. No one!"

She screamed so hard that Clark actually saw spittle come out of her mouth. He stared in stunned silence as she grimaced at them as if they had suddenly grown big red horns. He almost felt sorry for her. Was there something wrong with her mentally? Glaring first at Lex then at him, her eyes narrowed further into nasty slits as they stood up. She no longer looked pretty; instead her face was contorted with a slightly insane appearance making her quite ugly. Nervously, her eyes looked past them, seemingly darting around the room to search for more unseen enemies.

"Excuse me Miss, but I think that you are being rather rude. If you don't leave this establishment right now, with your unfortunate companion, I'll have you escorted out. Whether you like it or not." Lex looked like he wanted to stab or maybe even behead her.

It got worse. She actually lunged forward out of the man's grasp, and grabbed both of them with a look of desperation. Where she touched them, Clark saw a strange dim blue glow appear on his and Lex's lower arms and glancing up he noticed that her eyes now had a matching shade of blue. Clark was preparing to do battle if she turned out to be murderous or something, but just as suddenly she let go of them, turned and began to walk away. Tenderly, she led the horrified man with her out of the restaurant without looking back once.

The scariest part for Clark was when he heard her whisper to herself once outside the restaurant, "It's him."

He could feel Lex shaking with rage beside him. Clark turned to say something calming to him, but Lex was already on his way to the front desk of the restaurant demanding to know the name of the woman. The attendant scrambled into the back room to find out. Seconds were hours. Well, their luck had positively been ruined.

"Sir, I believe that we did make a mistake. Elizabeth and Michel Hoffman had reserved the table that we gave you, but we could have-"

Lex cut the man off with, "Has she always been such a vulgar bitch?" Clark decided that the grabbing thing is what had put him over the edge. His friend didn't like having people touch him. People other than Clark, that is.

The manager stammered out, "No."

"Well, I'd highly appreciate it if I were to never to have the misfortune of seeing her here, again." Lex's voice was full of an authority that demanded obedience.

"Yes, Sir." Lex must come here often enough to have garnered such a quick response. That, or the fact that he was Lex Luthor. They continued talking, but Clark had zoned out.

He was sure that Lex, if he had a tomorrow, would investigate one Mrs. Elizabeth Hoffman, and give her a good background check or even go as far as black listing her. Too bad, though that nothing would impact the rude woman in any real way. Clark never liked to wish harm on anyone, but that lady… something about her had felt very off and powerful. It made him shiver slightly in remembrance. 'Maybe I should look her up? No, not today.' Even as his inner warning bells continued to go off in his head, he pushed them back and ignored them the best he could. Today was his happy Saturday day, and he wasn't going to let some scary woman ruin it for him.

Now, that the restaurant no longer felt comfortable, Clark wanted to leave, "Can we go somewhere else to finish eating, Lex?"

"Yes, where would you like to go?" He friend was definitely on edge, and Clark wanted to go somewhere else in order to get him to relax.

He tried to think of a specific place, but he realized that he just didn't know the upper class part of the city that well. "I want to go somewhere quiet. Maybe just the two of us?"

"I do have a penthouse here in Metropolis that I visit whenever I wish. It's not too far from here, and we can have some fresh food delivered."

"What I was eating was fine. I'm totally happy doggy bagging it. But if you want to get something else, I don't mind." The thought of a quiet intimate picnic while watching a movie or having a mellow conversation sounded quite good, hopefully for the both of them. By the slight easing of Lex's frown, Clark thought that it would be the perfect solution.

"I'll get them to box it up for you and make you another one. I know what a bottomless pit you are."

Silently, Lex tossed a very large bill at the still apologizing manager; he gave Clark a nod and tersely ordered some more food that was to be delivered to his nearby residence. Hurriedly, they left the business establishment. His friend still had temper problems. After all the shit Lex had been through during the last year, even anger management classes couldn't help, especially since the first go around had introduced his friend to a murderous now MIA ex-wife. 'Why were women so moody anyway?' Clark would never be able to understand them.

On their way to the car, Clark tried to hide a strong wave of dizziness, as he was forced to grip onto the side of a building.

"Is something wrong?" Lex studied his strained expression.

"No, I was just wondering what kind of marble this is. The colors are very unique."

His friend's eyebrow rose a tad before closely inspecting the surface near Clark's hand, "Looks like Bordeaux."

"Thanks. I don't think I could have continued on living without knowing that." Finally, Clark could see straight again, straight into Lex's mirthful gaze.

"Glad to have been of service." Lex grinned then turned and continued on towards his car.

Still distracted by his body's sudden weakness, Clark speculated on whether he was just over-hungry. 'That could be it, right?'

Soon after getting into Lex's posh silver Mercedes, his friend's cell phone rang. Lex looked at the caller ID and scowled. "Yes?" His friend unknowingly sped through a red light; well Clark hoped that he did it by accident.

"I'm engaged right now in a matter of great importance."

The car jerked quickly around a left corner, causing Clark to slam into the car door. He stared horrified after seeing an elbow sized dent now embedded into it. Lex was still pissed off, but engrossed with his own personal conversation, continuing to talk into the phone totally unaware of his car's new flaw.

"No, I don't think I can make it."

At the next set of red lights Clark was almost happy when Lex slammed on the brakes, fortunately Clark's seat-belt was barely able to stop his head from hitting the dash-board. 'That would have been bad.' At least, Lex hadn't continued to endanger himself and others with his scary driving.

"Really? How industrious of you." Lex turned to look at Clark, a hint of desperation lurked underneath his now imperfect mask. "Your resourcefulness is highly prized in the business world, but I'd like it if you made your continuous interferences in my life a tad less obvious."

The car moved from zero to sixty in less than six seconds. Crap, Clark thought. 'Why did Lionel have to call now?' He really hated that man.

Lex hung up after snarling, "I'll be there in twenty minutes."