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 Four

While he was on the phone his mother apparently decided Cyrus was hers now because when he got back to the kitchen the kid was being fed like a king. He had a huge sandwich and a tall glass of milk with a slice of her apple pie sitting off to the side and his eyes were huge as he looked at the meal in front of him while Martha chatted on about his 'snack' and seeing about having something waiting for them when they got back from the game that evening.

He interrupted with a grin.

"So Chloe will be here in about thirty minutes. Will you have time to eat all of that by them?" he chuckled and kissed his mom's cheek as she passed him an equally large sandwich and glass of milk.

"I think so..." Cyrus offered hesitantly before picking up half of his sandwich and attempting to open his mouth wide enough to get a bite.

Clark shook his head laughing silently as he started on his own food. When he was done poor Cyrus was only finished with the first half of his sandwich and Clark just grinned before heading out to find Jonathan who handed him the keys to the truck left by Lex. Clark would drop them off after the game while Chloe and Cyrus were at the dance. It would give them time to talk before he had to get back. Chloe had agreed to bring Cyrus back to the farm after the dance.

Just a few minutes later his oldest and best friend pulled up his long drive in her old beetle and she popped out with a grin.

"So the front page of Monday's paper is going to be an amazing snap-shot of the teams star players in flagrante'. I don't know if you had anything to do with that but if you did it was amazing." she gushed.

"I might have had something to do with it but I'll never tell. You might as well come in to collect Cyrus, I don't think mom will let him go otherwise."

When they got in Cyrus was just finishing his pie and milk with a smile on his face. Clark let Chloe say her hellos and then the three of them took off to the high school and the game. It went much like Clark had remembered hearing but the team was oddly subdued and he caught the 'scarecrows' rubbing their shoulders and arms a few times. He kept his laughter to himself but he caught both Chloe and Cyrus smirking more than once. When the game was over and the students headed into the school to the dance he bid his farewells and headed off at a run in his speed to the castle in the corn.

When he got there he paused for a moment to x-ray the castle and just as he suspected he caught sight of Lex in his office. A few more sweeps deeper and he caught no less than five surveillance bugs including two cameras hidden around the room. Grinning to himself he kicked back into super-speed and jumped the fence before rushing through the castle and int Lex's office. He grabbed the two cameras first crushing them between his thumb and finger and depositing them on his desk, pausing long enough for Lex to jump at the sight of him and raising his finger to his lips.

Lex raised an eyebrow and looked down at the tiny electronics as Clark winked at him and one by one gathered the other three bugs, moving slow enough so Lex could see him move but still much faster than anything Lex had seen before. He finally stopped before Lex's desk again with the remaining bugs and handed them over.

"How did you know these were here?" the bald billionaire questioned as he stared at the now destroyed bits of metal.

"I am much more than simply invulnerable Lex. I found these through x-ray vision. I couldn't talk to you with them here because I can't allow your father to find out about me. Though he might already suspect he has no true proof and until I can render him unable to interfere with me and my own I can not allow him to gain any."

"What is it my father suspects of you?" the Luthor questioned as he stood and moved to his bar, grabbing a bottle of ty-nat and offering one to Clark.

Clark took the offer of the chilled water and settled on one of the black couches by the fireplace, lex sitting on the other.

"You probably don't remember because you lost most of your early memories in the meteor shower but your father belonged to a group led by Doctor Virgil Swann that called themselves Veritas. Their purpose revolved around a being they called the traveler who Dr Swann had found and decoded a message about. The traveler was a child, a boy child who was being sent from a distant planet on the brink of destruction. His parents planned for the child to find a home on Earth and to lead the humans into an age of enlightenment. Veritas was formed to find and aide the traveler but they didn't hold to that path for long. The Queen's and the Swann's both held true but your father and the Teagues both decided they would rather use the traveler for their own ends." he paused as Lex made a noise of amusement.

"Who ever thought my father would be willing to let someone else lead." he chuckled sadly and motioned for Clark to continue.

"Part of the supposed prophecy was of a way to stop the traveler and control him if he didn't fulfill his destiny and instead became a danger to the inhabitants of earth. Your father and the Teagues both believe that this device will make me biddable, a puppet with my powers but the orb won't make me biddable it will make me controllable by taking my powers and making me human. Granted my powers would come back over time but whoever activates the orb will die in the process so they still wouldn't be able to control me."

"So you are the traveler?" Lex questioned, excitement lacing his voice as he leaned forward with his elbows resting on his knees.

"Yes I am. My birth name is Kal El. I am the son of the elite scientist Jor-El and his wife Lara Lor-van from the planet Krypton."

"So there is other life out there, we are not alone."

"There is quite a bit of other life out there. Hundreds of species and planets and galaxy's teaming with life of all types and forms. I intend to send word to the Green Lanterns, which are basically the galactic police and special agents, that I am alive and on Earth. They will come here and observe and if they think Earth is ready they will open up trade and communications between us and a few other planets. But I intend to swing things in Earths favor. I have access to a set of data files from the Krypton Archives. The Kryptonians were the knowledge keepers of the universe. They had been alive and existing for thousands of years before Earth ever formed. They had technology that you would consider 'green' which prevented pollution and helped grow crops and clear existing pollution. They used crystals and sound and light wave to run engines instead of using precious natural resources. They had science that was thousands of years ahead of anything currently on Earth and I have the knowledge and capabilities to recreate it all. With that behind us we will certainly be ready for galactic trade and communications."

"Are you certain it will work?"

"Yes. I am. But before I explain it to you I need to finish what I was originally speaking about. " He took a drink of his water as Lex waited for him to continue.

"It comes back to the orb. Dr Swann found an artifact that had been sent to lead the way to the orb which had been hidden on earth. He hid the artifact and then hid clues on how to find it in a safety deposit box in Switzerland. The box requires two keys to open and he kept one and gave the second to the Queens. If you remember the Queens plane was lost and they with it the day before the meteor shower. There was no malfunction Lex. Your father had the Queens killed and their key stolen because they all knew that the meteor shower was coming and me with it. Your father brought you to Smallville not to buy the plant, though he used it as an excuse, but to be able to find me and capture me before the others. He had one key and was determined to capture me and get the other key to control me. The only thing that stopped him was you. When you went missing in the corn field during the shower it allowed Jonathan and Martha Kent to find me before he and his mercenaries could. In order to get you to the hospital and save your life I had to be seen with the Kent's in public by dozens upon dozens of hospital workers and towns people and by then it was too late. There were too many people who had seen me with them and if he had them killed and me taken there would be too many questions."

"So I saved your life."

"Yes. But I have no doubt the whole reason you were sent to Smallville was so he had a reason to be here more often. After all he has hundreds of businesses all over the world and him spending a significant amount of time at a crap factory in the middle of no where would draw a lot of attention. However if his only son and heir was banished there due to his own actions and Lionel went to visit and gave it more focus as a caring parent trying to led his son to being more mature and clean up his act well that is good publicity and a convenient excuse."

"I am not sure how to feel about that. On one hand I get his obsession but why haven't the others done something to stop him? How is it that no one knows he killed the Queens? How do we stop him, and why are you telling me all of this?"

"I am telling you because I can not do otherwise. My people were very evolved Lex, they had grown past racism and violence against there own. In doing so they had evolved to an enhanced state that allowed them to find what humans call soul mates and Kryptons called soul holders or 'mirror's in slang. They knew that it wasn't necessarily sexual but more a perfect partnership. Each group of mirrors decided for themselves if they would pursue a romantic relationship or a more platonic form such as best friends or siblings. It was rare but not uncommon for them to find their mirror in another race and often depending on their decision they would move to their mirror's home world. The issue being that different worlds brought out different facets of my people. You have to understand on Krypton I would be just like you, human. But my world had a red sun. On earth due to your yellow sun I have gifts and abilities so far beyond anything you can imagine. But like my physical form my psychic and emotional abilities are enhanced. I do not have a choice in my mirror being romantic or friendly. For good or ill I am yours and have been since I acknowledged the pull. Acknowledgment triggered my mind and body into tying me to you forever. You of course can refuse but I can't understand why you would."

"Wait, you are saying your my soul mate, or mirror?" Lex leaned back his face going blank as he thought over what he had just heard.

"Do I have any choice? What happens if I reject you? What happens if I accept you?" he questioned suddenly, his eyes sharp and his demeanor steady. This was Lex Luthor at his most dangerous, this was the man who had become president and made Lex-corp the single greatest company on Earth.

"You have a choice. If you reject me romantically I will not be able to be with anyone else my choice has already been made but you could continue on as you are and find some one or some many to share your bed and life. I hope if your choose that path you will at least allow me to remain your friend and I will welcome you as a business partner in RAO industries which I am going to build and use to introduce the technology and science to the Earth. If you accept me however you will have a loyal, faithful life time companion who will never betray you or leave you. You will be my only and I will do everything I can to make you happy. That is not to say that we will not disagree from time to time but our disagreements will be kept private and respectful instead of public and violent. If you choose to accept your mind and body will also begin tying you to me so you would cease to feel attraction to anyone else and you would find peace and comfort in my presence. You would also gain some physical enhancements from me. Your healing factor would speed up more than twice what it is now. You would gain a few inches until you at least matched me and you would be a bit more heavily muscled. You would be about twice as strong as you are and you would be faster than any human. You will not match me because you would remain mostly human but you would be more than a match for any human and more durable besides. You would also gain my longevity and I warn you I will stop aging at about twenty-five and I am unsure of just how long I will live but it will be a few centuries at minimum."

"That is a lot to think over Clark. Or do you prefer Kal?"

"I prefer Clark. It is more common and I don't want anyone to know about me just yet. You understand what the government would do to an alien I am sure."

"Could they do anything to you?"

"If they figured out my weakness they could. But I have no intention of giving them that amunition."

"Alright. You mentioned RAO Industries. I have never heard of them before. How do you plan to start a company with, well not to be insulting, but with your families finances?"

"You missed the x-ray vision part didn't you? I can see through anything but lead and indeed have already gone digging for gold. I have approximately five million in raw gold that I dug up from unprocessed government land. It is from a national park but I didn't damage anything. I will sell it and use the funds as start up for Rao Industries. I already have several of the plans for the machines figured out I simply have to put them to paper and create the prototype. I intend for us to remain private with no board of directors or share holders simply because I already know the direction I want us to go and I don't want to have to fight anyone about my vision for my own company. You are of course welcome to half of the company as what is mine is yours even if you reject me. I would like to purchase the Smallville Luthor Corp plant from you for three million and simply convert the facilities to what I need them. It will create seventy new jobs as a minimum and using the Kryptonian tech it will also heal the damage cause by your fathers illegal dumping and the general pollution from the plant. Within a year Smallville will be the cleanest, healthiest town in the world."

"That is a lofty goal. What makes you think my father will sell. And what makes you think I want anything to do with your company."

"Your father will sell because I am offering twice what the plant is worth and you will want involved because it will infuriate your father and allow your name to be leading edge in technological and medical advancements. I will not just be releasing Kryptonian tech but also reworking and even inventing new things. You are a scientist Lex, no matter what else you are. Plus within a year Rao Industries will have matched and surpassed Luthor Corp, Wayne Industries, and Queen Industries."

"That is certainly incentive. How long do I have to decide?"

"I will be selling the gold tomorrow, I know where to go for the best price. It will be set up as an inheritance from my fake birth parents that a lawyer from a prestigious firm will come to me on Monday about. By Friday at the latest I will have an offer ready for your father. You need to be ready by then."

"Do I have to have a relationship with you to be a part of Rao?"

"No. It would be best if we were at least friends but its not necessary."

"I do have to wonder how you know just what to say to make me want to agree."

"I will tell you if you like but it must never be mentioned anywhere that we are certain is not one hundred percent private."

"I would like you know." Lex decided his silver-blue eyes burning.

"Then I shall tell you. I met you for the first time in my memory the same way I did yesterday. For six years we were best friends, brothers, because I could not allow myself to admit that I was even more different than just an alien. I lied to you about whether you hit me with your car and I lied to you about a lot more than that as well. I saved your life a lot over those six years but with my lying and refusing to trust you with my secrets you eventually stopped making excuses for me, and you were right to do so. We eventually became enemies mainly, to be honest, to keep each others attention. I eventually created a false identity called Superman and acted as a real life Warrior Angel and to keep my attention you became my very own arch enemy. Honestly if you had actually wanted to you could have stopped me at any time. You knew my weakness and my true identity. You could have told the world, captured me, killed me but you never did.

I helped create the Justice League which was a group of superheros. Not all of them had powers but most did and together we helped clean up natural disasters, stop crazy mad scientists and alien dictators and invasions. Most of us had a designated city and helped the others if we were needed and of course if there was a super powered bad guy we joined forces. I had Metropolis, Batman has Gotham. You have heard of him right, he has just been around a couple of months. Star City had Green Arrow and Auqa Man had the oceans. There were others as well. You eventually became the president and did a wonderful job at it, by the way. But eventually one by one the founding members of the Justice League fell. They were killed or died of old age and the younger members were to in awe of me to be my friends. It was awful especially since we were fighting. When we were both over a hundred you still didn't look a day over thirty, but you came up with a scheme to match me. You had collected quite a bit of my blood over the years and you found some way to inject yourself with it in hopes of gaining all of my powers. You didn't take into effect the fact that over the course of the years you had experimented with massive amounts of kryptonite, which is my only weakness, and you had absorbed quite a bit of it. To you it wasn't harmful but when you transitioned to Kryptonian it became deadly. You had enough time to call me to you and we spoke for a bit but a couple hours later I had to watch as the last person who knew me and the man I had been secretly in love with for almost all of my life died. It took me two months before I found a way to come back and I woke up the morning that you hit me with your car. By that point I had already accepted that you were my mirror and decided that this time I would do it right. The biggest change I could think of was to admit you had hit me with your car. Once I did that I knew everything had changed. I won't lie to you now, not when it lost me so much before."

Lex was stunned for a few moments before he moved to his bar and poured himself some scotch.

"So time travel is possible?" he finally turned back to Clark.

"Not regularly no. I used every bit of power in my fortress and erased that entire time line to come back. My fortress won't be capable of that level of power again for over five hundred years and even then it will only be able to go back about ten years at a time."

"How do you know that things will go the way you want them to this time around? You could have done all this for nothing."

"Tell me honestly Lex, do you want Victoria Hardwick or one of the other society girls your father would push on you, or even one of the society boys?"

"Well no but I want children and I can't have that with you."

"Actually you can." Lex goggled at him for a moment before moving to sit down.

"How do you plan that Clark."

"When Kryptonian's discovered soul holders they realized that around forty percent of the matches were of the same sex and they wanted for males to be able to have biological children if they wished to. A scientist developed a serum that the bearer of the couple could take which would allow for their body to form a womb and which shifted their sperm into an egg. It took a few generations but it eventually became a basic part of kryptonian genetics. I am capable of conceiving and carrying a child now. I have the blue prints for the virus which requires only a few key components adjusted for the human body but I already figured it out my first time around. I remember it all and within two weeks of gathering all of the necessary ingredients we could have a batch ready for testing. Within a year we will have moved onto human testing so when we eventually get around to having a child it will be, maybe not common but certainly not unheard of."

"That is groundbreaking medical science. Are you certain the government would give you the green light to test it or even to produce and distribute it?"

"Yes. They already did once. Besides spreading a few rumors about a new miracle drug will prevent them from covering it up and they will be forced to acknowledge and allow distribution once it passes medical trials. Either way its millions of dollars for something that costs about forty dollars in ingredients and even less to actually process and create."

"Not to mention the demand for male birth control once the child is born, unless the womb destroys itself."

"Exactly."

"You said you know Batman. That means you know who he is?"

"Yes I know exactly who he is, I also know you know who he is. I would enjoy you inviting him over for an introduction, but I can make one myself if you don't want involved."

"He wouldn't be available until Wednesday at the earliest. His weekends are full."

"I know. I have a busy few days anyways. I have to change that gold which is going to take me all day tomorrow.." Lex interrupted him.

"I can do it for you. If you have the raw gold available I can have a man from the international treasury here by dawn and you can have a check or a direct deposit within an hour." he offered, nonchalantly.

Clark smiled at him getting a quirk of lips back. "I would appreciate it Lex. I have my laptop and can create the appropriate background for my wealthy yet reclusive European parents who died tragically while on vacation during the meteor shower. It will only take a few minutes to falsify the actual physical records in New York. There is a law office there that is international and can have conveniently misfiled the paperwork for a few years. I used them a few times in my past life when I needed to conveniently inherit some money. Once the Justice League was a known entity it was no longer an issue and I could simply sell the gold and gems I found as my Superman persona but he is not established yet."

"Well just be here by six in the morning then. Do you have a convenient account or can you create one by then?"

"Yes. I have had over a hundred years to learn technology and have hacked systems much more advanced. If all else fails I can use my ships computer."

"You actually have your space ship?"

"Yes. It is technically a pod, it was only big enough to transfer my baby and toddler self while in stasis. I will be moving it to my fortress as soon as I have it triggered to build. If you are helping with the gold I will have time to collect all the parts tomorrow at super-speed and it will be up and operational by Sunday."

"May I see it once its built?"

"Yes. It will be in the arctic but I can adjust the temperature to suit you until your physiology changes, if it changes."

"What are you building it out of?"

"Technically it is all ready built. It is stored inside a crystal and is a building made of crystal technology. It is a repository of the Kryptonian Archives, it holds all of the knowledge of the universe. The crystal of knowledge was separated into three pieces and sent back in time and spread through the earth I know the exact coordinates of two of the stones and once I have them I can set off a resonating frequency and follow it to the third. Genevieve Teague has been searching for the stones for years as has your father. It is going to be amusing watching them scramble to find them even more when they get my summons."

"What summons?" Lex leaned back, curiosity shining in his eyes.

"The one I am going to give to Veritas once my fortress is built. I will demand each of them and their children come for a meeting. No doubt they will attempt to circumvent me, to outsmart me so they can gain control of me but they will fail."

"My father is going to be very displeased. I would wait until after you gain control of the factory."

"I will. I have a few more people to recruit first as well."

"What do you mean?" Lex leaned forward again.

"Well I am sure you realize the kryptonite is capable of altering people. It gave you a healing ability that is frankly astounding. It has altered others as well. My best friend ever is capable of bringing people back from the brink of death but she pays a price. Every time she heals someone it makes her sick and if the injury or sickness is life threatening it kills her for a little while. She doesn't know it yet though. Cyrus another gifted is also capable of healing anything so I want him as the Justice League healer. I have him staying the night at my place and he and Chloe will be back there soon. There is a girl Alicia who can teleport through anything but lead. Tina can shift into anyone or create someone new. Another boy from class can move things with his mind. He is in the hospital now so I intend to take Chloe and Cryus to him to heal him so he is up and around and no longer suffering.

The only issue with them all is the kryptonite while giving them powers also causes an imbalance in the chemicals in their brains. There is a type of kryptonite that cures the imbalance while leaving them their powers. It is blue and I know where a huge deposit of it is, and my fortress will have even more. All that is needed is to run some purified water through it or let it soak in it and then they can have a glass of water. One dose is enough to cure them permanently."

"Do I have the imbalance?" Lex questioned.

"I am not sure. Your father drugged you into a mental breakdown once. You were unstable but kept yourself under control well enough a few times in later years. A dose won't hurt you if you aren't unstable so it might be a good idea to try it. Besides it tastes really clean and fresh. I can't drink it often but there were times when I just needed a break and would mix up some and drink it for about a week strait for a vacation from hearing everything in the world. It only takes a few hours to wear off on me so it was a nice break."

"If you tell me where the deposit is I can send someone to collect it now. They don't have to know why. I will just tell them I want it."

"It is better if you send a team. The area where the deposit is has some crazy deliverance type quakers who live there. They believe that the blue K is stones from god and if they give god a human sacrifice each year their crops will continue to grow. Its because their crops were failing them and their people were sick until the day of the meteor shower and the rocks killed one of the girls in the middle of town. Since then they haven't had any trouble with crops. They think its the human sacrifice but in reality its the blue k."

"Alright I will send an armed team to collect enough to fill a barrel. How long does the water need to soak?"

"About twenty-four hours." Clark gave Lex the directions for the quaker settlement and Lex called the head of a team that worked in his science department but was actually loyal to him. He ordered a twenty man team to get enough of the blue K to fill a truck. Clark smiled, he had almost forgotten how quickly Lex acted when he decided to get something done.

"Alright. If you are here in the morning they should be back by then. I will have clear plastic bottles purchased by then and the rocks will be back. I can have a filtration station set up by then. I will have the water processing and it should be ready by Monday. At least a hundred bottles."

"Alright. I will get a few of the first batch to pass out to those I can think of off the top of my head. If you make enough the next Saturday will be a farmers market and I will pay you for what you have and pass out free bottles of ice cold water. More than half the town is gifted in some way so the faster we can get them all treated the better."

"That sounds admirable. I can have a few hundred bottles done by then. If I get help I can have a couple thousand."

"It depends on if you trust your help. I am sure Cyrus and I could help. My mom could for a bit each day, but she also works at delivering the produce for the farm so she can't help all the time. Chloe has the 'Torch' and I can get her to make a discrete announcement about the drink. Everyone who actively knows about their gift reads the Torch. It is the freak pride paper." he chuckled.

"What do you mean?"

"Well to be honest Chloe is all but genius. She is able to piece together clues from little to nothing and her hypothesis are almost always correct. In my previous time line she was a journalist for a bit before due to our fights you had her blacklisted so she took up a job with the Justice League. She became known as Watchtower and she was our eyes and ears on missions and she found a lot of the problems we fought. She was also the person who found Batman and Wonder woman. She recruited half the JLA. She eventually married Ollie. Other than you her death hurt me the most. But she is the new editor of the student paper, The Torch. If the government actually kept up with her paper they would have a lot more understanding of what is actually going on. Everyone who actually realizes what is going on reads the Torch, or they will. The Jr High version was Chloe's but it only printed once a month. The high school version comes out weekly."

"So the gifted as you call them, they keep up with whats going on?"

"Yes, normally. Everyone thinks they are alone, and those that know of others don't talk. Chloe has a list or she will have a list and at one point it gets stolen by a guy who starts hunting them all. It also gets stolen by your father who uses it to kidnap several of them and experiment on them. For a bit there, while he is drugging you, you had your own experiments. After that you only took volunteers because the JLA caught on to what was happening and broke out all of the prisoners and blew up your labs. There was several billion in damages and lost information. You were pissed until your dad died and the drugs cleared and then you shut down the few we had missed and paid reparations."

"So we need to make sure she doesn't write a list or if she does that we can keep it protected."

"Yes I am going to talk to her tonight when I talk to Cyrus. My hope is that Cyrus can fix what is wrong in her that hurts her when she heals others. And every child that she had Cyrus is going to be at the birth." he finished the last part sadly.

"Is that how she died, giving birth?"

"Yes. With all the danger in our lives we all expected to be killed in battle and loosing her like that, in such a normal if horrible way was a shock to us all. Ollie stopped being Green Arrow because he didn't want to leave his children without at least one parent. He was killed four years later with both children. I drank Blue K water for three months after I caught and destroyed the guy who did it. I just couldn't handle saving people when I wasn't able to save her. Even your other self backed off for a while out of respect."

"Who is Ollie?" Lex questioned cautiously.

"Oliver Queen."

"He died almost two years ago. His yacht disappeared, they think it sank."

"It did, but he is alive. In about ten months he will be rescued, or well, rescue himself I guess. For about a year he will get back into the swing of things before he will join the Brotherhood, who are the best archers in the world and they will teach him a lot. When he finally gets away from them after about a year the Green Arrow will show up in Starling City. He is very vigilante for a while, or he was, but I intend to recruit him when he finally gets back for good. The JLA will already be up and running by then and having him back will be good. I know you two have your differences but you are going to have to get along. Especially if we are going to get your dad for the murder of the Queens."

"I can be polite, but don't bother expecting more than that."

"Well if it is the best I can hope for. I will handle all negotiations with Queen Industries for Rao then." he chuckled while Lex arched an eyebrow at him.

"It is getting late and I still have another conversation to have tonight so I need to go. One last thing though, everyone else, including my parents are being told everything I know is from a genetic memory so don't mention time travel to them. I don't want them to know everything that happened because I don't know quite how they will take it."

"Alright. Are you going to tell them about me, about what we might be to each other?"

"My parents know. I had to give them some thing for a reason that I wanted you around. My dad isn't happy but will tolerate you for me and my mom just wants me happy so expect her to try and feed you a lot. Its how she shows she cares."

"And your friends?"

"If you choose me they they will be apprised if not then they will simply believe we are friends or business associates if you choose not to have any sort of closeness."

"That is acceptable. Even if we do not become romantic I think I would like to be friends Clark."

Clark smiled as he stood. "I'm glad. Even if you don't choose me I want to be able to be close to you Lex." he shook the offered hand and headed towards the doors before pausing.

"Hey Lex?" he called causing the bald man to turn to him.

Lex looked up from where he had moved to his desk.

"Friends don't need thanks for saving your life." he smirked and tossed the keys to the older man. Lex looked at them in shock as though they were not what he expected and Clark smiled at him before taking off at full speed towards home.

AN: Sorry for the long wait guys. My muse abandoned me but she is back for now. I have another chapter in the works so we shall see how quick I can get it out.