Summary: Clark watches the last person who truly knew him, Lex Luthor, finally die. Alone and adrift immortality looms ahead of him and he wonders why he must go it alone. Jor-el says it is because he turned against his soul holder or soul mate as humans would say. Turns out Lex wasn't meant to be his enemy but his lover. Clark is given the chance to go back and try again from the very beginning. Can he change the way things happened, can he truly give himself to the one man who could easily break him or will old insecurities hold him locked into a future he doesn't truly want.
Warnings: Male/male slash, strong language, less restrained Clark, murder, and spoilers.
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot, though I am sure someone has done something similar at least once before.
Chapter Two
He woke with the sun, a habit bread into him by Jonathan Kent and one he had never been able to break. He could hear noise around him including the crow of a rooster, which couldn't be right because he hadn't actually slept at the farm in over twenty years. He opened his eyes and was immediately shocked by what was around him.
His old bedroom and not old as in last year or even ten years ago, old as in the one he hadn't seen since his late twenties because he had been forced to rebuild the farmhouse because some wanna-be villain had actually figured out where he lived and had blown it up in an attempt to kill him. It hadn't worked but the explosion had destroyed half of the farmhouse and he had to rebuild it from the ground up. This room hadn't even existed in the new plans.
Then it came back to him, he had been complaining to Jor-El about missing Lex and then his fathers AI had given him the option of going back, the only question was how far back he had been sent. He jumped out of the bed and started looking around, finding clues before he finally spotted the calendar on the wall. He hadn't kept the calendar since the house had been damaged in the second meteor shower so he hadn't thought about it but now that it was there he walked over to check it out as he heard movement coming from around the house.
The calendar had the dates marked off every night and when he looked at it he couldn't help the momentary shock he felt at seeing the date. September 12, 2001. The day he met Lex the first time around. It was the day he had originally found out about his heritage and the day before Whitney and his group of jerk friends had made him the scarecrow and he had saved them all from the kid who had been scarecrow the day of the meteor shower. It was also the first time he had lied to his soul holder, or soul mate as humans called them.
That sure as hell wouldn't be happening this time around.
He heard the kitchen door creak and it reminded him of the old farm house, more importantly the old farm. Being back in time meant the farm was still fully functional which meant he was needed to work it. Besides at this point in time the farm had been in a lot of debt and only his gifts had saved it a time or two. He knew he had school in two hours so he super sped through getting dressed and heading out to work.
It only took a few minutes to do all of his chores at his speed and then he took the extra time to do extra. It would mean less they would have to pay others for until he could fix their money issues. After all what good was x-ray vision if it couldn't be used for his gain. Finding gems and jewels had been easy and had helped him in the past life to build up a fortune for the Justice League so they had the funds necessary for supplies and to live comfortably while they fought evil. He even remembered a few of the places where he had found huge catches of diamonds and even a place where he had found a whole lot of gold nuggets. He would go get most of the gold tonight to hurry up and pay off the farm and give his adoptive parents a nice cushion just in case.
At six thirty he headed back into the house to shower and change for school, which was honestly a waste of his time. He had gone to college three times, not to even mention all of the training on different races and alien tech from his fortress, each time having a new major just to stave off the boredom of waiting for something big enough to require his attention. High school was a serious under estimation of his abilities.
He was slightly shocked but hid it when he entered the kitchen and saw his mom making breakfast. He couldn't help but give her a hug before heading up the stairs to wash off the grime. When he was out he went to his room to dress and was a bit put off at his wardrobe choices of plaid and prime colors. He grabbed one of his few plain black t-shirts and the only black hoodie he owned, which had never been worn, along with an older pair dark wash jeans and an old pair of black boots. They weren't work boots, they were cowboy boots, they had been a Christmas gift and he had never worn them but they were better than the work boots. It was a different look for him, more like what the other guys his age wore, but it was also comfortable and looked good on him, fitting tightly all over and showing off definition that not even Whitney, the star quarterback had.
He looked good and it would be great for everyone to get their first new idea of him while he looked as far from the Clark they thought they knew as possible. When he made it back down the stairs his mom already had a plate waiting on him and the second shock of the morning hit him. He guessed he would have to get used to it as seeing people he knew were dead alive was going to hit him every time and he remembered the death of Jonathan Kent very well.
He smiled widely while his adoptive parents glanced at him with curious expressions because of his attire. They didn't say anything though so he pretended not to notice. Last time this day had happened he had tried to get his dad to allow him to join the football team but it held no attraction to him this time so he was able to prevent the argument.
"Hey dad, I did some extra work this morning cause I had the time."
Jonathan looked relieved at that and Clark couldn't help but feel guilty about how much he hadn't paid attention to his parents financial troubles the first time around. At least he had a plan to make it easier this time, if he had his way his adoptive parents wouldn't have to worry about money for the rest of their lives by the next morning. He left the house with plenty of time to catch the bus but he willingly allowed it to pass him by. His hearing which had activated early along with everything else when he went back in time allowed him to catch the exchange between Chloe and Pete as they exchanged the money on the bet of his lateness.
He grinned as the bus headed out of sight and then tried to make his decision. He could hide everything from everyone like he had last time or he could let select people in this time. Chloe was definitely in and Lex as well but the world needed to get used to the idea of real life superheros before he let his identity out to the masses. With his mind made up he shot up into the air.
He took the time to fly by the farm that Lex had found the ship key in and using his x-ray vision he quickly found the key. He shot down and not even bothering to dig he stuck his arm down about a foot and came back up with the disk and headed back up into the sky and off to the school. He had enough time to stop at a small stream on the way to wash his arm off before speeding to the school on foot.
He would invite Chloe over that night along with Pete and tell them everything then. Besides Chloe needed to know to keep the list of the meteor gifted protected. To many issues had come about because of failure to do so the first time around. He arrived just as the bus did and headed to greet Pete and Chloe.
"Clark!" Chloe looked at him in shock. Obviously wondering how he had beat them there. He just smiled at them.
"Hey guys. How was your weekend?"
"Dude, I know you missed the bus, how did you beat us here?" Pete's voice was shocked, obviously not going to let this pass. Clark smiled at his friends.
"Took a shortcut. So how was your weekend?"
"It was great, spent the last warm weekend out at crater lake. So did your dad agree to sign the permission slip?" Pete asked.
"I decided against it. I have no desire to become another sports statistic. I was thinking if you were willing Chloe, that I might join the torch?" he phrased it as a question and was gifted with a beautiful smile from Chloe.
He would have to do something about her crush, and he knew just what was needed. After all, Oliver needed to settle down and he knew they were good for each other. The only issue was that Ollie was Lex's age and that meant six years older than they were. Statutory was a very real threat at this age.
"That would be great Clark. What do you want to cover?" she asked.
"Anything you want me to. Sports and agriculture for the area and some minor investigative journalism if you need it." he smiled what he had come to think of as his Superman smile.
"Alright, that is great Clark. I will divide up a few pieces for you and once we see what you write best we can set you up covering it full time."
"Sure thing Chlo. Just let me know. Now I do believe we're going to be late if we don't head in now." he grinned and turned to lead them in.
He saw Lana and more than that he saw her kryptonite necklace and made sure to twist himself around and walk backwards while chatting with Pete about the Crows chances of winning while giving a wide berth to the girl and her poison necklace. He had no desire to make a fool of himself or draw the attention of Miss Lang. After all the farther she stayed away from him the less she could worm her way into his life. The only reason Lana Lang had ever caught Lex's attention was because he had pointed her out in the first place.
He stopped off at his locker and passed the morning in in a blur of English and high school science that was mind numbingly boring after years of highly advanced alien tech and studying biochemistry and particle accelerators not to mention everything he had needed to know to beat Lex's genius traps. He didn't know if he would be able to make it through the next three and a half years of high school. He might have to look into graduating early. He would talk to Lex about it once he reconnected with him.
After all it might be to suspicious since he had spent a life time easily passing classes with A's and B's. If he suddenly got bored and aced everything it might draw the wrong type of attention. But on the flip side he didn't think he would be able to bring himself to under preform to get his normal grades and only hoped the teachers would simply think he was studying more than he had in the past.
At the very least he would easily be getting a college scholarship.
Lunch was spent in the Torch office seeing Chloe's 'wall of weird' and getting his first assignment to cover which would be the next nights homecoming game and Chloe would be covering the dance after the game. He would also be covering the farmers market that weekend.
During his free period he took some time to interview a few of the football players and cheerleaders, skipping Lana but getting Whitney, just for a bit of public opinion for his piece. The comments were appropriately droll and consisted mainly of 'we are gonna win cause the Crows are the best'.
The end of the school day couldn't have come fast enough and instead of wasting time he ran strait out to Leob bridge and set himself up perfectly. He had debated it all day and while he fully intended to tell Lex everything, the full truth including his time travel, it would only work if he could get his attention in the first place. This was the easiest way that he knew of to get Lex's attention. After all hitting someone with a car at sixty miles an hour was not something even the great Lex Luthor did every day.
It took much longer than he remembered for the truck with the bales of wire to pass and while he could have moved the wire the truck wasn't far enough away and Lex was too close for him to do it without the truck driver seeing it. Sure enough moments later Lex's Porsche came screaming down the road and he watched as the car hit the wire and Lex lost control. He saw the shock and regret as Lex noticed him less than a second before the car hit him at more than sixty miles an hour and crashed through the bridge behind him.
He didn't waist any time ripping the roof open, and pulling Lex's unconscious body out of the car. Lex had hit the steering wheel and knocked himself out and had managed to breath in a lungfull of water while he was at it. Clark froze for a moment seeing Lex so still and pale, the image of the last time Lex had died flashing through his mind but just as quickly he pushed it away and started CPR. Like the first time so long ago Lex choked out the water and began breathing again rather quickly.
His blue grey eyes looked up at Clark in shock and confusion before the damning words left his lips.
"I could have sworn I hit you with my car..."
Clark knew this was the deciding moment, the moment that would change the course of his fate but thinking back to the frail pain wracked body of Lex dying from kryptonite and he couldn't bring himself to lie so he answered Lex truthfully sealing his fate of being bound forever to this man.
"You did"