Day Fourteen
Hungrily kissing his lovers mouth, Clark loudly reveled in the sensation of their bodies gliding against each other with only a thin layer of sprinkling water separating them from total contact. Lex gladly joined in with his celebration shouting out Clark's name. Holding Lex up against the ceramic wall, Clark pounded into his willing body thinking about how this was the only way he should have a shower from now on. Fucking Lex senseless.
Opening his eyes as he was about to come, Clark was mystified as he watched Lex's face and neck become discolored. First little brownish dots marred his beautiful skin, and then Lex was completely saturated by the contaminated water that was suddenly coming out of the shower head. Lex began to hiss in discomfort as the chemicals burned his skin. Clark roughly pulled out of Lex in desperation to turn the water off. They were trapped; the door and knobs had disappeared. 'Noooo!' Fervently grabbing the shower head, Clark ripped it out of the wall causing an overwhelming flood of purple water to gush onto their exposed bodies as Lex's howls of pain grew louder and louder.
Clark woke up in a cold sweat with his stomach still dully rolling along. 'Must still be Friday.' Sadly, he'd now gotten used to constantly feeling sick. Yesterday, his mom had mentioned that what he felt could be similar to what it was like to have the stomach flu. He vowed never to want to be normal again. Normal meant the chance of getting stomach flu, chicken pocks, broken bones, appendicitis, or any other ailments he'd heard from friends and acquaintances as being too horrible to bear.
Fumbling to turn off the alarm, Clark grunted at what felt like an overexertion of energy. Maybe his parents would remember that he wasn't feeling well and his mom wouldn't bother him by asking whether he was going to school or not. Maybe his dad would remember how fruitless it would be to change the tractor tire and go smoke some good weed instead. Maybe Chloe and Pete would say to hell with school and go elope in Vegas. Maybe Lana would declare that she was forever going to give up men and would be joining a nunnery. Maybe Lionel would hang himself because he just couldn't take this cruel world anymore. Maybe Lex would come over today and play kids games with him while confessing his undying love for him. Maybe Clark's body would explode and end his suffering.
Lex hadn't remembered. Sure, he'd called and asked about him, saying he had a weird feeling that there was something wrong with Clark, but Lex hadn't remembered what Clark had actually said to him. Clark had told Lex on the phone not to worry and that he'd visit him on Saturday. 'Saturday, what a laugh.' And what was with that fucked up dream he'd just had about Lex? Clark felt really guilty about not seeing Lex yesterday. He'd wanted to, but had opted out of asking because he'd let his pride get in the way. Lex seeing him that pathetic wasn't something Clark was looking forward to. At the Talon, two days ago, he didn't have a choice, but damn it, pathetic or not, Clark really wanted to see Lex today. And, at some point, he might actually call Lex and invite him over.
Pete and Chloe had come over to visit Clark last evening just bug him, and once they saw how sick he really was they'd been quite nice. Overall, it hadn't gone too badly. But he wasn't in love with Pete or Chloe.
Running his hand through wet hair, Clark moaned at how gross he felt. A bath sounded like less of an effort then having to stand up in a shower, but getting up out of bed was still too much of an exertion at the moment. 'Shower? That dream really had some freaky shit in it.'
"Clark, are you feeling okay?" His mom stood somewhere on the other side of his door.
Trying to sound normal he answered, "Why?" Clark was interested to know what she would remember on her own without him purposely trying to coax any memories out of her.
"I seem to remember you're not feeling well. It's strange really." Her voice sounded closer.
Clark laughed weakly, "Strange as the cows getting into a conga line and doing the full Monty dance?"
Yesterday's déjà vu occurrences were more prominent than the day before, but not enough to cause world wide panic or anything that severe. The little things just kept getting marginally bigger, and more memories were being retained. But the more people remembered, the crappier Clark felt. At times it felt like he was dying, which from Clark's point of view, most likely meant that Elizabeth was in danger of perishing under her own free will. She was practically killing herself. From that, he'd come to the conclusion that as Elizabeth got weaker her powers were beginning to flounder, and consequently everyone's memories were being affected less by her as well.
Friday couldn't possible last much longer.
His mom came into his room to check his for dirty laundry. Glancing at Clark, she was stared at him in shock. 'I must look as bad as I feel.'
Quickly moving to sit on the side of the bed, his mom whispered, "Oh my, it wasn't a dream. A woman was here… and she hurt you?"
"Yes and no." Clark rolled onto his side to give her more room. "But, it's such a loooong story, and I'm really not feeling very good. Can I tell you later?"
His mom appeared distressed at his condition, but gave a slight nod. Giving him a tender hug, she asked, "Can I get you anything?"
"Yes please, I wanna sleep for a bit more. And, I might need a bucket nearby just in case."
"A bucket?" Comprehension dawned on her face as his mom left the room and bought back a clean blanket and a small trash can that usually sat in the bathroom, a few minutes later. "I'll bring you something to eat around lunch time."
"Thanks, Mom."
Clark doubted that he'd be able to keep anything down today, but, for his mom, he'd at least try to eat whatever she gave him. Making himself comfortable, he soon dozed back into a fitful sleep.
Waking up a few hours later to a literally gut wrenching experience, and Clark was quite glad that he'd remembered to ask his mom for a bucket this time. Yesterday, he'd been a little less fortunate. Gathering enough strength to go to the bathroom was yet another chore, but his bladder demanded attention. Unfortunately, once there, both ends of his body fought on which would get to use the toilet first. His bladder lost. 'God, is this what morning sickness feels like?' Sadly, laughing at that idea, Clark stayed sitting on the floor on his knees with his head almost in the toilet for a good ten minutes.
Shivering in a cold sweat, he decided to run himself a hot bath hoping that it'd temporarily help him feel better. It almost did. At least he felt cleaner anyway.
Making his way slowly downstairs on his own, Clark could hear his mom talking on the phone in the living room, "He's still resting, but later, if Clark's feeling up to it, I'm sure he'll call you. It was very nice of you to phone. I hope you guys have a good day as well. Bye."
Once he was within normal hearing distance, Clark asked, "Who was that?"
His mom looked surprised to see him, "Pete and Chloe. They wanted to make sure you were feeling okay. They told me that they both remembered visiting you yesterday when you hadn't shown up for school."
"Yeah, they did." Clark was having problems standing up. "Did anyone else call?"
"Lana did a while ago, and Lex. But I told them that you were sleeping and that it would be best if they didn't come over and bother you." His mom appeared unhappy at having to send his friends away.
"Oh." His parents most likely didn't want anyone to come over and see how bad he was. If any of his friends saw him they'd question his parent's sanity at not taking Clark to a doctor. And seeing any doctor was definitely out of the question. 'Secrets and lies.' Sometimes, Clark thought that his family was almost as bad as the Luthor's when it came to deception.
"Clark, Sweetie, why don't you stay downstairs for a while on the couch, I've made up a nice bed for you there. You can watch TV or read if you want to, or if you really want to you can go back to bed upstairs. Where ever you will be most comfortable. But, I was just making you some lunch as well, and it seems like a shame to go back up when lunch is almost ready." It was pretty sweet how motherly she was being towards him. 'I wonder if she ever missed doing that in the past?' Being a perfectly healthy growing boy all those years might have made up for all the problems his special abilities would have caused, but it might have also denied his mom some of those motherly moments when she could feed him chicken soup and spend quiet time alone when he couldn't be expected to go to school or help his father with the farm.
The couch sounded great. Going back upstairs felt like way too much work. The guardrail had a few more fingers sized dents in it than before from the trip down, mostly because Clark had been gripping them too tightly to keep from falling. Falling down the stairs probably wouldn't have hurt him, despite how bad he already felt, but it would have scared his mom to death. "I think I'd like to stay down here."
Mentally exhausted, he took the bowl of offered tomato soup. Clark tried to eat it while lying down on the couch, turned, make shift bed. A half an hour went by and Clark gave up after he'd only succeeded in eating a dozen or so small spoonfuls. His mom then brought him some grape Jell-O. 'Irony can be funny.' The cool purple substance seemed to soothe his stomach a bit as he was able to eat all of it pretty fast. A few minutes later, his dad came inside to check up on him after doing a few outdoor chores. Clark wondered whether his dad had bothered to change the tire or not, but didn't care enough to ask.
Beginning to get extremely bored, Clark heard the afternoon news played in the background, and was mildly surprised at its differences.
"The earthquake early this morning measured as high as 8 on the Rictor scale, killing as many as 3,000 people in the area of southern Russia, Northern China and Japan.
In a related story, there have been a startling number of people phoning in to this station and many others, claiming that this earthquake already happened yesterday and that we are reporting it a day late. I have been told that it did in fact happen early this morning and not the day before. We are uncertain were these false accusations are coming from.
Strangely enough this station has also had a high number of prank phone calls today concerning individuals believing that they have been abducted by aliens or have been given the gift of sight. And for this reason the station's automated answering system will be shut down until further notice."
'Wow, people thought that their memories were being altered by aliens? How sad.' Clark grinned as he watched his mom and dad talk quietly to each other outside as they began to walk away from the house. They were slowly putting most of their memory pieces together, like a giant jigsaw puzzle, by themselves, which was quite new for a change. Everyone seemed to be having the same problem as well, only his parents and other experienced vets in Smallville would be more inclined to go hummm? then aaaaah! like most everyone else seemed to be doing.
Was it possible to get so sick that you felt giddy? His mom had the flu one time so bad that she been talking like she'd been drugged. All sweaty, stuffed up and moaning. She'd said and done some of the oddest things. Then again his mom has taken lots of DayQuil…
Crap, he was really freakin bored.
Staring at the room that he'd already memorized every single inch of, Clark gritted his teeth. 'What to do, what to do.' Using his x-ray vision he found an old stash of board games hidden in one of the living room chests. 'Risk,' 'Monopoly,' 'The Game of Life,' 'Trouble,' 'Snakes and Ladders,' 'Clue' and 'Scrabble' all seemed to be saying to him, 'Play with me!' Wow, he was seriously delusional as well as bored.
That was when the phone decided to ring. And ring and ring and ring. His parents didn't seem to hear the damn thing. 'Maybe they went into the barn for some quick nookie?' Snorting out loud, Clark struggled off of his bed-couch, and was able to make it to the telephone just as it stopped ringing. Staring at it in horror, Clark wanted to curse whoever had the audacity to hang up at the same time he'd picked up. Hearing a click and then a dull nothingness in his ear made him quite cranky. Wanting to know who had just called, and angry at whoever it was for making him get up, which was a really big accomplishment, for nothing, Clark pressed the star button followed by a six and nine.
"We're sorry; the last number called on your line is not available at this time."
That's great, a waste of time and money. Clark rolled his eyes. 'Not available? So, the operator is being lazy?' Putting the phone back onto the receiver, Clark held his stomach as he went to get himself a glass of water.
'Not available?' Wait, wouldn't that mean that it was a blocked or an unlisted phone number? The only person he knew, who'd have their phone number blocked from call display, was Lex. Lex, of course. Excitedly, he rushed back to phone momentarily forgetting about his nausea.
Picking the phone back up, Clark stared at it, afraid to dial the seven numbers that would let him hear Lex's suave voice again. It'd been a whole day; he'd lasted one long crappy day, survived the infinite feeling of 24 hours of no Lex. Why the hell should he go through that again?
It was time to stop being a coward, and be a man. A man who could phone his friend and ask him to come over and play the 'Game of Life' with him, because he was bored and lonely and wanted Lex's company more than any one else's. And, gee, that didn't sound pathetic or needy whatsoever.
Clark didn't even realize he'd actually dialed the number as he put the phone to his ear when he was suddenly hearing a voice say: "Lex Luthor."
Clark was barely able to stutter out a lame, "Hi?"
"Clark? Is that you?"
"Yeah, it's me." Clark's voice was raspy, even to him.
Lex's sensual baritone asked, "How are you? Martha said you weren't feeling well."
"I think I have the stomach flu. That or my stomach has decided to wage a civil war against the rest of my internal organs in its quest to become its own sovereign nation." Clark joked, trying to sound better than he felt.
"Very ingenious of it. By your past eating habits, I'd already come to the conclusion that your stomach was leading a highly successful dictatorship." Lex seemed so nice and caring, but way too far away. Clark needed more.
"Well, it's more like a revolution now." Clark laughed weakly.
"Is there any-"
"Would you mind coming over?" Cutting off the question that was most likely to be an offer of help, Clark continued with, "I can't leave the house. And my parents are tippy-toeing around me like I'm going to break. I think they're just not used to me being sick. I'd love for you to help get my mind off of how crappy I feel."
"Of course. I'll be right over." Lex sounded pleased.
"Great!" 'Thank you, thank you thank you.'
Ending the call quickly, as his parents came back inside the house; Clark tried to get back to the couch as fast as he could. Being able to only move as fast as a human sick person had its many drawbacks. He was less then halfway there when his dad asked, "Clark, what are you doing up? You should be resting."
"The phone rang." Sitting down, Clark couldn't believe how happy he was feeling at that moment. There was now the small task of explaining the impending Luthor visitation, so Clark decided to just come right out with it, "I asked Lex to come over."
His dad looked genuinely baffled, "Why did you do that?"
"Why not? I want to see my best friend. You do remember that he brought me home recently from the Talon when I was sick, don't you? Because that's what good friend's do." Clark wasn't absolutely sure his dad recalled that or not, but he was now going to find out.
"I- maybe." Glancing at his mom, his parents did their psychic mind meld thing, before his dad continued with, "He can stay here as long as you're feeling up to company, but if you get any worse I'm going to have to ask him to leave."
Clark frowned, "I'm not agreeing to that." His parents shocked looks weren't unexpected. Closing his eyes as the room shifted and unnaturally spun a bit, Clark said, "I know why you feel that way, but I think I'm old enough to make that decision for myself. And, if I fall unconscious to the floor while Lex is here, I want him to stay." It felt so good to say that.
Now it was his mom's turn to annoy him, "But… Why, honey? You don't know what he'd do in a situation like that."
"I have my reasons. Please, just leave it at that." The thing was he did know. Lex would be able to take better care of him than his parents, plus when he woke up, Clark needed Lex to be there telling him that everything was going to be alright. Because, if Lex said that, then it had to be true.
His parents sat down at the table for a bit and talked to each other, while Clark tried to conserve as much energy as possible. He'd go insane if the rest of this monotonous day didn't get any better. As soon as Lex walked through the main door, Clark would be one cheerful sick person, instead of a big old grumpy one.
Clark groaned, trying hard to concentrate as his body continued to be a nuisance; he tapped his fingers on the wooden table in front of him as he watched the little evil wheel rotate to another perfect number. It wasn't fair, life just wasn't fair. He'd ridden the ups and downs, and turned left instead of right, along that dumb symbolic road filled with fake happy people. Sure, maybe going to college first hadn't been the best idea, but here Clark was alone, almost penniless and behind his nemesis who had a white car full of people which was currently landing on 'Millionaire Estates.' 'Did Lex have a lucky silver spoon shoved up his ass?'
Grumbling again, Clark looked at his friend with mock irritation before spinning the little wheel. It landed on the ten. 'Score!' Even though he'd already technically lost, Clark let out a little whoop of glee as he'd hit the magical number that enabled his little blue man in his little red car to move to his final place of retirement. It was the quaint yet peaceful 'Countryside Acres.' Poor guy would be living the rest of his life as a hermit, but at least Clark hadn't killed him by accident like the first time they'd played.
"Do you want to play again?" Lex smirked.
Pouting, Clark tried to hide an extra queasy body shake, before replying, "Not really. Failing twice to make it to the biggest and bestest house with the most money was enough."
It was nice to share a quick laugh together.
Lex's eyes were full of merriment when he asked, "What do you want to play next?"
"Something that requires the least amount of brain power as possible? An age requirement of 3 should be good." Clark grinned.
Watching Lex sift through the pile of games next to them was sweet, but having a pounding headache, not so much.
They were currently camped out in the living room, and Clark's parents had more or less let them have their privacy. Whenever his mom did show up to ask whether he wanted anything, she was always polite enough to ask Lex as well. His dad had quietly supervised them for the first hour by pretending to read a newspaper, which never left the entertainment section, before he'd felt comfortable enough to go back outside. His poor dad had looked shocked at how much fun Lex and Clark were having, and Clark had snuck in a random joke or two that made Lex chuckle, at his dad's expense. 'Quite entertaining indeed.'
It was now late afternoon, and Clark still loathed talking with Lex about any retained memories his friend might have. How could he bring something like that up? 'Hey Lex, do you remember blowing me off in your hallway? Or, wow Lex, do you recall how I destroyed your bed after you screwed me from behind? Hell, Lex, sex with you was the best, and as soon as I feel up to it let's do it again.' They would be brilliant discussion topics that would most likely end with Lex getting infuriated, maybe even swearing a bit at Clark, before leaving. No, playing board games was much safer.
Playing 'The Game of Life' with Lex had been much more entertaining than Clark had first anticipated, and the fact that Lex had so easily gone along with the idea of playing a board game at all made Clark extra giggly. Too bad Clark couldn't blame it on the DayQuil. It had been years since Clark had played with any of these games; heck, it had been years before he'd first met Lex, since that last time he'd ever played…
"Snakes and Ladders? Have you ever played that game before in your life?" Clark laughed as Lex opened the box and laid the board out in front of them on a table within arms reach from Clark's wonderful bed-couch.
"As a matter of fact yes. With my dad when I was three. But, he wasn't playing with me, he was teaching me a lesson about morals." Pointing at a couple of old buttons, Lex asked, "Which one do you want?"
Clark pointed at the big shiny red one. Taking a white one for himself, Lex placed the two buttons on the first square on the brightly colored board.
"How can 'Snakes and Ladders' teach a child about morals?" Clark still marveled at how Lionel's parenting skills seemed to utterly lack anything close to love or affection.
Lex fingered the dice for a moment in thought before answering, "Its origins date back to the 2nd Century BC. It was played in India, and was called Moksha-patamu. It was originally a board game used by religious leaders to teach children about the difference between good and evil. Climbing up the ladders representing good, and sliding down the snakes representing evil. During England's colonial expansion, the western world discovered the game and adopted it, and in the late 1890's the religious and moral aspects were removed and it was sold as a children's racing board game."
Clark stared at his friend amazed, "Wow, how can you remember so much?"
"Just one of my uncanny talents. Regrettably, being a genius has its drawbacks as well." Lex rolled himself a two before passing the die to Clark who rolled a five.
Clark knew what that meant. Children didn't like other kids that were different. That's one of the reasons why Clark's parents had drilled into him, at such a young age, to hide his speed and strength from everyone. On the other hand, Lex couldn't hide his imperfections, especially after the age of seven, and Lionel would most likely try to bully Lex out of his so called weaknesses. At school, Lex would have stood out like a sore thumb in front of the other students. Lex came from an unpopular wealthy family. He had red hair, bad asthma and was too smart for his own good. Then later, Lex had no hair at all. 'This is getting way too depressing.'
"I go first." Rolling another five, Clark moved the button slowly with his finger, and he stopped it at a tail of a snake. 'Oh, yeah it's so evil.'
After a couple of turns, Clark was still ahead by a two whole squares. It quickly became fun again. Being sick wasn't going to stop Clark from doing a little bit of casual flirting. And, getting some damn sexy looks back at him made Clark all the happier. At one point, Clark had purposely slid up a small ladder with the finesse and gracefulness of a male gazelle in heat, which meant Clark had almost poked a hole through the board.
When Lex asked, "Do you need help? I can move it for you if you want?"
Clark's mouth gapped open like a plucked chicken. Trying to sound cool and edgy Clark tried to smirk as he said, "Only if you what to." Thinking about it, Clark thought that Lex doing all the work wouldn't be nearly as much fun so he reiterated, "But, I like leaning over and stretching my arm as well, good exercise."
Lex had done that wonderful eye-brow raising thing before he made his next move, a roll of two meant he wouldn't be catching up to Clark any time soon. And it just kept getting fun and funner.
Rolling a three, Clark moaned and bit his lip lightly when he saw that he'd be sliding down one long snake. Just his luck to land on the biggest one on the board. Reaching out to move his red button, Clark clenched his hand into a fist as a blast of pain shot up his spine. 'Fuck, that hurt.' Still seeing stars, after opening eyes thst he didn't realize he'd closed, Clark had to lean back and lay his head on his pillow. He hoped that this episode would pass sooner rather than later.
"Clark? Is there anything I can get you? An aspirin might help with some of the pain. You look like you have a fever."
Clark opened his eyes again to see Lex hovering over him. 'God, his blue eyes are so hot. Kiss me.' Not being able to help himself, Clark decided to be a naughty sick person, "Oh?" Pretending to clear his throat, Clark made a noise before saying, "Maybe you should touch me and find out."
Shivering as a cool feeling hand lightly rested on his cheek before feathering up to his forehead, Clark had to swallow a few times to keep his Jell-O down. And, the feeling was steadily getting worse not better. This was impossible. His dick had lost the war against his body over two days ago, why wouldn't it just admit defeat and leave him alone?
A deeply concerned voice brought him back to reality, "You're burning up."
Feeling dazed, Clark muttered, "You should have let me win the mansion, I want my own mansion. I would have shared it with you. No, wait, we can have our own mansion together, and then we could have lots of fun. Race little cars together and put people in them. We'd be winners."
"Try to relax, I'll be right back."
Clark closed his eyes again; they felt so dry. It was like there was sand in his eye sockets rubbing against them whenever he moved his eyes. His mouth was just as parched, but he didn't trust putting anything in it, it all just came right back out anyway.
"Here, take this."
A small round thing was placed into Clark's hand, and he obediently put it into his mouth. Lex then put a glass of water to Clark's lips, but he could only take a small sip. 'That's what aspirin tastes like? Kinda chalky.' "Thanks."
"If it doesn't help- I really think you should see a doctor."
Clark opened his eyes to gaze at Lex's plush lips. Reaching out, he touched the small scar that would have perfectly split Lex's top lip in half. 'When did Lex get it? How much did it hurt and bleed? And, did I just say some of that out loud right in front of Lex?'
Lex stared at him with a lost and far away look on his face, "Scars remind us that the past was real… I should leave. You need to get some rest."
Terrified, Clark felt a small surge of strength come back, "No! Stay. You have to stay." Clark feebly grabbed onto Lex's arm, "You can't leave me. Please, I need you." He snuggled into Lex's arm as all of his power leeched away from him again.
Lex sat down on the floor in front of the couch. Now holding Clark's hand, Lex implored, "Please, tell me what's wrong with you. I know you're hiding something from me."
Clark whimpered not answering. 'Oh, God… I can't, you'll know. You'll remember everything. I don't know if I could deal with it once my life is back to normal.' And what form of normal will that be he had no idea.
"Clark, what are you afraid of? Is someone hurting you?" The cool hand was back, massaging Clark's neck and shoulder.
Looking at his friend, Clark felt a stab of guilt seeing Lex's expression that held more fear for Clark than what Clark was feeling for himself. He wasn't being fair to Lex, and he had to say something, "I'm afraid of life. It feels like whatever path I choose, I'll end up loosing something important."
"Sorry, Clark. Choice just isn't something you can get out of. Admittedly, some people try to by avoiding making any decision- even locking themselves away and never leaving their homes. But, that's still a choice… and one of the worst ones possible. In trying to protect yourself from being hurt, you could miss out on most of what life has to offer. I know what it's like to be afraid of where your decisions may lead you." Lex looked wistful, before continuing, "If only we could see into our futures. Regrettably, we don't have that kind of technology yet, and if we did it would be extremely dangerous-"
Clark agreed with that statement. With too much power and knowledge, an individual could literally rule the world. Like Elizabeth currently was. He had the power as well, and in the near future so could Lex. They could rule the world together as Gods. Kal-El would like that a bit too much. Clark shuddered at that scary thought.
Frowning Lex asked, "Clark, I enjoy having discussions about various ideologies with you, but what does this have to do with your failing health?"
"You're right. I know what's causing it. But, I don't think that I'm in any mortal danger." That thought of actually dying, had been slipping into Clark's mind off and on over the last few days, but he was unwilling to let it become a real possibility. 'No way am I going to die after putting up with all this bull-shit.'
"And I'm just supposed to believe that on what proof?"
Clark shook his head as his vision started playing tricks on him. Smiling, Clark was reminded of the psychotic 'Dumbo' song and dance 'Pink Elephants on Parade' as furniture and imaginary floating things started moving around the room… 'Walt Disney was funny!' "I guess you just gotta have faith. Believe what is in your heart, and a bunch of other mushy stuff- Bucket!"
"Bucket?"
"Over there! I NEED IT RIGHT NOW!" If he hadn't been feeling so desperately ill, Clark would have laughed at how fast Lex moved his tight ass across the room and back. When Lex held out the desired item for Clark, he heaved back up the water and some white chunky stuff and maybe a bit of soup. Clark hoped it was soup, because puking up blood would have to be a very bad thing.
Taking the bucket away, Lex went in to the bathroom to flush the contents down the toilet. It was sweet to see how motherly Lex could be. There was still no way Lex would ever become a kept man, just like Clark never wanted to become one, but the idea of being future equals or even partners was now a highly appealing one.
Swiftly coming back into the living-room, Lex sounded almost angry when he asked, "Clark, how many times have you been sick today?"
'Today? Was he referring to the yesterday today and the day before that today, as well as the actual now today?' Clark had no idea about anything anymore. "I'm not sure. I lost count."
An unpleasantly long silence came from Lex's direction. Struggling to see what Lex was doing, Clark pushed himself up on a shaky arm, only to become more concerned after seeing Lex's analyzing expression. "I remember this."
"What do you remember Lex?" Clark wanted to know. 'How far should I question him? Did I dare ask about our sexual liaisons at the mansion a few days ago?'
"I entered the Talon, and saw you lounging with your friends." Lex moved in a direction where Clark could see him better, "Chloe was telling me that time was being manipulated by a woman, and somehow the whole world was being affected." Lex appeared to be in discomfort while massaging his neck. Furrowing his brows together, Lex must have been concentrating on that memory further, "You seemed well enough to me at the time and then abruptly you were sick on the floor- I took you home."
"What else do you remember?"
Lex took a step closer to him, surveying Clark's condition. "You weren't making much sense, I thought you were delirious."
"I haven't been able to make sense of anything in quite some time. Verbally or in my head." Clark tried to make it sound like a joke, even though it was much closer to the truth than he would have liked.
"You sound perfectly comprehensible right now."
Clark laughed weakly, "This is one of my more lucid moments, and they don't last very long."
Lex pulled the damp blanket away from Clark's body, "You should get some sleep, I'll help you upstairs. I'm sure you'd be more comfortable in your own bed than down here."
"Whatever you say." Heaving a sigh of relief that the questioning seemed to be ending there, Clark was grateful for Lex's assistance off of the couch. It was starting to feel too confining for his large internally troubled body. Feeling and smelling Lex's wonderful body, Clark wanted to kiss and lick him all over. 'Spinning room, spinning Lex, spinning Lex around the room. Why spin alone? They could spin together in the room, and on the floor and ooooooh legs not working so good.'
Clark moaned into Lex's ear as the spinning got worse. 'Bed. Have to get to the bed.' Blindly following Lex's lead up the stairs, slower than a giant sloth, Clark vaguely heard some noise coming from the kitchen. His mom must have come back into the house and was most likely beginning to make supper, and the thought of food was not a good thought. Clark whispered to Lex that he didn't want to eat anything, the fact that he didn't want to smell food cooking was left unsaid. 'It's wouldn't be fair to stop others from eating, people got hungry all the time and had to like eat stuff, being human and all they'd die if they didn't eat. Eating was good. Good food- No food was bad… Bad food. Very bad.'
"It's going to be okay Clark. We're almost there."
Being severely dehydrated didn't help matters either, but somehow Clark convinced Lex to stay with him in his room and not alert his parents to how unwell he was, then again he could have been hallucinating some of his conversation as well as the whirling rainbow of colors that followed Lex around Clark's room.
Clark was sure that he was muttering some pretty strange shit, and realizing how crazy he must sound he started to giggle. It was oddly funny. Clark could say anything he wanted to Lex, and later he could blame the sickness on it or just say he didn't know what his friend was talking about. Sobering up from those horrible thoughts of deceit, Clark looked into Lex's worried eyes as he was helped into his bed. These past two weeks Lex hadn't done a single thing to not deserve Clark's undying trust. And yet, Clark had easily thought about going back to his lying ways once everything was back to normal. 'What kind of person did that make me?'
"Lex, thank you. You have no idea how much this means to me." Lying mostly on one side of the twin bed, Clark offered, "Would you mind keeping me company for a while? It feels nice when you're touching me." Feeling a slight movement as Lex sat down on the bed, Clark smiled. No, he'd only tell Lex important stuff when it wouldn't be easy to lie about later. Then, he'd have to make sure that he meant every word of what he said to Lex. He was going to be a good friend for a change. Trust. Clark trusted Lex; he just didn't quite trust himself with Lex yet.
Clark snuggled pleasantly into the warmth of Lex's body. Soaking up the love for him coming from Lex, Clark tried to send his own feelings as best he could back towards Lex. In the comforting darkness, Clark finally let himself relax again.
At little while later, Clark was pleasantly surprised to hear Lex barely whisper to either Clark or himself, Clark didn't know, 'I've learned that you cannot make someone love you. All you can do is stalk them and hope they panic and give in.'
Filled with pure joy, Clark was finally able to go sleep.
Around midnight, when Clark's mom had come to change his drenched sheets, Lex had insisted on taking Clark's temperature. At that point, Clark had been feeling so hot that he had stubbornly kept throwing his clothes off. Only to amazingly wake up later to find that he had somehow acquired underwear and a t-shirt again. 'No. Hot. Too hot.' Clark didn't know where Lex had gotten the thermometer from or where Lex had put it in him to get its readings. 'It could have been in my ear?' But, when his friend saw its display announce a temperature of over 110 Fahrenheit, Lex went ballistic; roaring and pacing around the room like a caged tiger. It was magnificent to watch. Once Lex could think straight, he quickly called a medical emergency line to ask for help.
Clark was impressed that he was able to make himself to coherently form a couple of complete sentences, but fear can make miracles happen. Clark wailed, "No! You can't tell. They can't find out about me. I'll be in more danger from them than what I'm in now. Please, if you love me don't!"
It was so sad to see tears in his friend's eyes, and Clark wished that he could move to wipe the one that had escaped down the side of Lex's face, but he couldn't. As his body was racked with shivers, Clark could only think to himself, 'At least I don't feel hot anymore.'
Lex brought him more blankets, before going in to the hallway to start bickering with Clark's parents. Clark had no idea how upsetting this must be for them, but he didn't want to hear the people he loved fighting with each other- no he wanted them close to him, hugging him and telling him how much they loved him.
The loud noises became duller to Clark's ears as he began to drift to sleep.
He was floating in a foggy haze between the realms of dreams and consciousness. It was nice to not feel his body, which for the first time felt more alien to him than he could ever have imagined. The nauseous feeling in his stomach was gone, and Clark felt reassured that he was no longer alone. Someone was watching out for him. Clark wanted to reach out and touch them. Touch the sky. But all good things come to an end.
"AAAAAAAARRRGH!"
Clark sat straight up in his bed screaming so loudly that it may have badly damaged the eardrums of anyone who was unfortunate enough to be too close to him.
Grabbing the sides of his head and squeezing hard, Clark thought that he should be passing out from the massive amount of pain that was stabbing into his brain. This was it, this was the end. He was going to die. God, he didn't want to die. But even someone as powerful as him could take only so much pain before-
There was an eerie snapping noise in his ears, and then all went silent as Clark fell into a deep unconsciousness.