Everything went to hell after Lana saw Pete again for the first time in years. Lex had known from the moment that the two had spotted each other at that charity event that Lana was no longer his. She was Pete's; the same way that she had been Clark's for so long and in the way that Lex could never touch. It didn't matter that Lex and Lana had been together for longer than he had ever been with anyone. It didn't matter that he was on the threshold of proposing to her. As soon as he had heard Lana call out, "Pete!" with her voice full of joy and her eyes laughing, he knew that things were going to change for him, and not in a good way.
Lex being a Luthor and all, he had done his best to prevent his foreboding from coming true. From that moment on, he spent more time with Lana than he ever had, brought her beautiful gifts that most women only dreamed of receiving, and showed affection for her in any way possible. It helped that Pete Ross lived in Wichita and couldn't exactly run over to Metropolis whenever he wanted to. Within a few weeks of the charity event, Lex felt secure that no one was going to take away from him what was his.
Maybe that was the problem.
If they hadn't been living together, he wouldn't have noticed how high the phone bills were getting since she had last seen Pete. He also wouldn't have noticed how sometimes she was on the internet for hours, and when she finally signed off, her eyes were full of that laughter that he hadn't seen directed towards him for as long as he could remember. She stopped talking to Lex, and their conversations were limited to the meaningless small talk that was usually only reserved for people who barely knew each other. He tried not to give up, tried to get her to realize that they were meant to be together. When he told Lana this, Lex felt like he was talking to himself. She always seemed to be somewhere else.
Things had mounted to their limit when one night Lex came home from a particularly hard day at Luthorcorp and he was stressed out past all human limits. There had been mass layoffs during the past week, and union rights activists were practically rioting outside his offices. The press, of course, was having a field day.
He had entered the mansion, only wanting to sit down, take a nap, and deal with everything that had happened during the day later. It didn't happen that way. Lex had walked into the bedroom to get his tie off and lay down, feeling like he was a one hundred year old man. The first thing that he had seen was Lana packing a suitcase of her clothes from the closet, her hair pulled back in a cute sporty ponytail. Her eyes were hard with determination, and she was wearing jeans and a pink t-shirt. It was probably the t-shirt that made hit him the hardest. Lex had never seen her wear it before, and couldn't even remember the last time that he had seen her with a t-shirt. Actually, yes, he could remember. She wore them in Smallville, when she was with Clark. This thought did nothing to help his mood.
"What are you doing?" Lex asked bluntly, standing in the doorway of the bedroom that they had shared for so many years. He didn't know what was going on yet, but he had a good idea of what it was. He had seen enough movies to school him on the subject.
She spun to face him with a sharp intake of breath, almost dropping her suitcase. He had scared her, that much was obvious. She hadn't expected him to be home for another few hours. Lex didn't feel guilty about it, on the contrary, he felt angry. He had left work early because it was hard to concentrate with people outside waving signs and he had wanted to be with Lana. It didn't strike him as funny that he wanted to be with her and she wanted to leave him.
Lana spoke carefully, "Lex…I'm moving out." It seemed like she had rehearsed the words, maybe even practiced the way that she was looking at him. The whole thing was too hollow for Lex to stomach, but he stared back at her like this didn't matter to him at all.
After a pause she continued, as if she wanted to make sure that there would be no misunderstandings, "I'm going to live with Pete for a while. I think that it would be best if we…saw other people." She studied him, looking for something that showed that he understood the situation. Lex's facial expression hadn't changed, but inside he was reeling and enraged. She turned away from him to shove some more items into her suitcase, one that he had bought her the last time that she had gone with him on a business trip.
When Lana turned back around towards him, he couldn't stop himself from saying, "Why?" What he had wanted to ask really was, "How? How had this happened to us?" but that would sound too much like pleading with her. He wasn't going to try to beg her to remain with him when she wanted to be with another man. Lex still had his dignity, and his pride. He wouldn't trade those for anything, or anyone, when they had helped him survive through things that would drive many insane.
A gentle smile graced her face, and she replied quietly, "When was the last time that you said that you loved me?"
"That doesn't answer my question." Anger was beginning to vibrate through his voice, but Lana either didn't hear it or she ignored it.
"Yes, it does," Lana lost her smile and she looked at him seriously, "You're so afraid of getting hurt that you don't love anything but immaterial things, Lex. Sometimes I felt like…" She seemed to almost lose her nerve here, but forced herself to continue. "I felt like the only reason you said that you loved me to begin with was because you wanted whatever Clark had."
Lex tried to make a joke out of it. "Lana, if I wanted whatever Clark had, wouldn't I sell Luthorcorp and buy a farm? Or go work at the Daily Planet and write lies about myself?"
"It isn't all lies that they write about you. Most of it, all of it, is the truth. You're turning into your father, and I'm not the only one to notice."
This was too much. The words that she said seemed to come from nowhere, from the awkward silence that had built up over the times that they had been together. He shook his head, trying to clear it and figure out what the hell was going on here.
" If you felt this way, why didn't you say something?" he demanded, lashing out at her with his voice and thoughts, "I would have changed anything for you. All this…bullshit about me not loving you isn't true and you know it. I've never done anything but prove myself to you and then you leave me for some boy that you had never had feelings for until now!"
She yelled back at him, her reserve broken, "How would you know how I feel? You don't know anything about what I feel or think!" The room was feeling too small for the both of them, hot and stifling. By the way that she was moving from foot to foot, Lana felt it too. There was a barrier between them that was killing anything polite that they could have said and prevented them from going their separate ways as friends.
Lex didn't even know what she expected him to say to her. "The only reason that I don't know is because you don't talk to me! I've done everything for you; I've given you anything that you could possibly want…" He trailed off, volume falling off into a soft whisper. All this fighting was useless and made him realize how truly tired he felt. He sat down on the edge of the four poster bed, looking at her neutrally once more, the anger still there but hidden away under the surface.
"This is both of our fault then," Lana admitted, getting such a tight grip on her suitcase handle that her knuckles whitened. "That still doesn't change anything. I love Pete, and I want to be with him. We were never enough for each other, Lex. You…you need to face that." Her eyes were starting to tear up, and Lex almost started shouting at her again. He restrained himself. Despite what she said, it wasn't her fault that she had to break up with him. It was his. It wouldn't lessen or change that fact to blame her for his shortcomings.
He smiled bitterly. "Would it change anything to say that I love you?"
"You don't mean it," she said, and he knew that she was right. "I'll…drop by again tomorrow to get the rest of my stuff. Goodbye, Lex."
He didn't say a word. There was nothing left to say. Lana stared at him, tears like rain trailing down her cheeks. After a moment's hesitation, she reached out and hugged him tentatively. Without even thinking about it, Lex embraced her back tightly. He breathed in the scent of her while he still could; that light lavender smell that always seemed to hang around her at the worst and best of times. She pulled away with a shaky smile, and strolled out of the door and out of his life.
Then, just like that, she was gone. Lex lay back on his bed, pulling the soft blue blankets over himself like a shield. Within seconds he was sleeping, fully clothed, not thinking about anything but dreaming of what could have been.