Details.
Notes: Missing scene from "Radar Love," Lex's POV. Written for the POV challenge.
You always knew that Clark was different. Things between you started with a collision and a kiss, and on your second meeting you told him that you had a destiny together, and you believed it with every fiber of your being.
You always knew that there was something special about Clark. Not just his honestly good heart, one of the few you've ever encountered, or the way he turned your life upside down in all the best ways. Not just the way that he's made you a better man, and has spent the last few months putting you back together, while refusing to believe that you were broken in the first place.
No, you knew that there was something else special about him. Something different. Something dark. Something hidden. And while it wasn't too hard to figure out that Clark had some pretty neat powers, you never expected this.
And now it's hard for you to remember all of the things that you've always loved about him, because the sudden, shocking knowledge of what Clark truly is colors everything. You want to take it back, turn back time and make Clark not have told you, but you don't have that ability. You hope that it isn't one of Clark's, because you're not sure that you can take another shock.
You brood over it for two full days before something interrupts you- Chloe at the gate, requesting permission to enter. Not like Clark, who always gets in, though you'd never been quite sure how. You know now, though.
You almost don't let Chloe in, because you don't want to be reminded of Clark, but you've been thinking of no one and nothing else for days, so you know that it's a futile attempt. Chloe is buzzed up, and you settle back into your chair, staring at the fireplace and remembering the night that Clark had lain there, the night that things had almost started between you. Would Clark have stopped you and told you the truth then, or would he have waited until later? Or would he have told you at all?
Chloe comes in, looking much the same as she always has. She's already talking as she comes through the door, asking you about some decades-old robbery and your grandfather, but she stops the moment she sees you and sighs. "You and Clark," she says, "are way too alike for my peace of mind."
"I'm nothing like Clark," you say, and of course it's true. You're not even the same species.
Chloe just shakes her head exasperatedly. "You two are both moping around like someone killed your dog or something. It would be almost funny if it weren't so sad."
Chloe will never change. Still blunt in a well-meaning sort of way. "You don't understand," you tell her, and she doesn't. How can she?
"I understand that Clark told you his deep dark secret and you flipped," Chloe says. You look over at her sharply- she knows that Clark has a secret, and hasn't been pursuing the answer relentlessly? Very unlike her. "Of course, I figured that you'd have come out of it by now, but apparently I overestimated your maturity."
"Maturity has nothing to do with it," you snap. "It's a lot to deal with. Clark's not like you or me."
"No, he's not," Chloe says. "He's better than you or me, and we both know it."
You give up on tact and discretion. At the moment, you're not even sure that Clark deserves it. "He's not even human, Chloe. He's not even from this planet."
"I know," she says, looking sad, and you can't help but stare at her at that. You never thought that Chloe knew Clark's secret. Had he told her, too? How long ago?
"I've known ever since I researched his adoption," she says, unaware of the turmoil in your head, or at least ignoring it if she does notice. "He was adopted through a sham corporation a couple days after the meteor shower, and he's always in the right place even though he should logically be miles away, and he's always able to fight the mutants when the rest of us can't. Not too hard to put together, you know."
"Does he know?" you ask. When Chloe says it, you realize that you should have figured it out long ago.
"That I know? No, he doesn't. When he's ready to tell me, he will. Until then, I can keep his secret, even from him."
"And it doesn't bother you, what he is," you say. Chloe just gives you a little half-smile and shrugs.
"It did, at first," she says. "In fact, I was pretty freaked. But unlike a ceratin someone else I could mention, I didn't have a castle to hide in, and so I had to run into Clark sometime. And you know, the moment I saw him, the moment I heard his voice, it didn't matter. Because he's Clark. Everything else is just details."
You don't have anything to say to that, and Chloe tactfully changes the subject. You are intrigued by the mystery of your grandfather, but have nothing to offer. She leaves, and you think briefly of going to your father, of confronting him about the whole mess, but decide that it's not worth it. You have more important things to think about, and though you try to return to your previous state of shock and dismay over Clark's secret, all you can hear are Chloe's words, playing over and over in your head. And you can't help but wonder if it's true, if all it will take is your name, spoken in Clark's so-familiar voice, and everything will all go away.
He's Clark. Everything else is just details.
Well, there's only one way to find out.