Hey, guys!

So, idk if there will be another chapter this week, so Merry Christmas! I hope you all have a great Christmas, and if you don't celebrate the holiday, I hope you have an amazing day.

I hope y'all enjoy!

Chapter Twenty Three.

After a week of recovery, Lex went back to work.

He had wanted to wait longer, but he knew how running business worked. He couldn't. Not if he wanted to have his business turn a profit.

He decided to work slowly at first though, while he got used to a full day of work again. Phone calls and emails mainly, but he still did some of the budgeting too.

Clark sat in the floor of the office. Lex knew it wouldn't work once he started having in-person meetings again, but it would for now. Right now, he still wanted Clark close to him.

Clark walked up to him during a phone call and climbed into his lap.

Lex wrapped his arm around Clark, but continued to talk to the person on the other end of the line. He would talk to Clark once the call was over, but right now, he needed to focus on this.

Once the call was over, he looked down at Clark. "Clark, we need to talk," he said.

Clark looked up at him, his sleepy blue eyes shining with exhaustion. Suddenly, Lex didn't want to scold him. He wanted to hold him close and cuddle with him instead of dealing with all of the stuff he had missed in the past few weeks.

Still. It needed to be done…

"Clark, when I'm on the phone, you can't bother me unless it's an emergency, okay?" Lex said.

"Why?" Clark asked.

"Cause I have work, bud," he said. "When I'm on the phone, I have to focus on work."

"Don't pick up the phone then," Clark said as he crossed his arms.

Lex sighed. If he didn't know Clark's age, he would have guessed that he was in the middle of his terrible twos. "I have to. It's my job as their boss."

"But Clark, you can't interrupt, okay?" He said.

Clark nodded. "Okay…"

Clark leaned his head against Lex's chest and any frustration left Lex. Clark was like that. Just his presence soothed Lex.

Lex looked at the time, then sighed. It was getting late… He had no idea what they were gonna do for dinner or what their plan for that night was. He really needed to get better at juggling his work with his life…

He pressed a kiss to Clark's hair and picked up his cell phone. He sighed when he realized that he had missed a call while it had been on silent.

He clicked on the voicemail that had been left, then smiled as Martha Kent's sweet voice filled the room.

"Hey, Lex," she greeted. "I was just wondering if you were still planning on coming over for dinner tonight? It's okay if you aren't cause I know you and Clark are still getting back to normal life after everything that happened, but just give me a call when you hear this."

Lex adjusted Clark in his arms as he dialed Martha's number.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Martha," he greeted. "Sorry about not getting to you sooner, I had my phone on silent while I worked through some files that have piled up."

"That's okay. I have enough dinner for the four of us in the oven if you still want to come over," she offered.

Lex smiled. "Clark and I will be over in an hour."

Lex picked up Clark, then knocked on the farmhouse door.

Even from outside, he could smell the mouthwatering food that Martha had in the oven. The smell of cooking onions and potatoes made his stomach rumble. Martha's cooking surpassed even the best of gourmet chefs.

Clark wrapped his arms around Lex's neck and buried his face in Lex's shoulder.

"You sleepy, bubba?" Lex asked before pressing a kiss to the side of Clark's face. Clark just buried his face further into Lex.

"Hey, Lex!" Jonathan greeted, and Lex turned around as Jonathan walked out of the barn. "Hey, Clark!"

Lex smiled. "Good evening, Jonathan," he said.

Jonathan pulled off his gloves, then ruffled Clark's hair. "How is he doing?" He asked. "Is he readjusting well?"

Lex hesitated. There were moments where Clark did so well and was thriving, and others where he would be as closed off and hesitant as he had been when Lex had first met him.

"I hope so," Lex finally decided on. He couldn't be sure that Clark was adjusting well, but he could hope that it was true.

"C'mon in," Jonathan said as he opened the door. "Martha is finishing up with the chickens."

Lex followed Jonathan inside. As soon as he walked in though, Clark tightened his hold on Lex. It wasn't enough to hurt Lex, but it was tight.

"Whoa, kiddo," he said as he pulled Clark's arms away from his neck. "That's a bit tight."

Lex slipped off his shoes, then walked over to the sofa. "What's wrong, bubba?" He asked as he brushed Clark's hair away from his eyes.

"Is he tired?" Jonathan asked as he popped his head into the living room. "I'll be in there in a sec, Martha asked for me to check on the roast."

Lex frowned. Clark didn't really seem tired. He just seemed clingy, but it was different from his normal clinginess. If he had tightened his grip any more, Lex wasn't sure that he would have been able to breathe.

He stroked Clark's hair and let him lean against his chest. He hoped that he would be able to calm him. The last time they had eaten dinner with the Kents, it had been cut short. Lex didn't want that to happen twice in a row.

"Hey, Lex!" Martha greeted as she walked into the living room. "Hey, Clark!"

Clark looked up at her, then over at Lex. After a second, he buried his face in Lex's chest again.

When Martha frowned at the action, Lex could only shrug. He wished he was psychic cause then he would at least have an idea of what was bothering Clark.

Martha sat down on the floor and gently placed her hand on Clark's shoulder. "Have you ever made a paper snowflake before, sweetie?" She asked.

Clark looked over at her, then shook his head.

Martha smiled. "Wanna make one?"She asked. "It'll look really pretty on your Christmas tree, won't it, Lex?"

Lex felt himself smile back at her. "It will be perfect for our tree."

"We can sit at the table in the kitchen and make it. How does that sound, Clark?" Martha asked. "And maybe your daddy can make one too."

Clark hesitated for a second, then nodded. "Okay."

Lex wasn't sure how Martha did it. There was something about the way she talked to Clark where she could always defuse a situation or make it better. Why couldn't he do that?

They sat down at the table and Martha folded two pieces of paper into perfect triangles. Then she grabbed two pairs of scissors and handed them to Clark and Lex.

"Okay, so, you can cut wherever you want, but don't cut the edges," Martha told them. "You can also unfold it as you go to get more details in the snowflake."

Clark looked up at Lex, then back down at the small paper triangle. He pulled his hands into little fists and pressed them to his tiny chest.

"Want some help, bubba?" Lex asked.

Clark nodded, and Lex grabbed the scissors, then began helping Clark cut tiny little triangles out of the paper.

The snowflake came out more square than Lex had expected it to, but Clark's eyes lit up when he saw the finished product.

He grabbed it in his tiny hands and sticking his fingers in the holes or running his fingers across the project. "Whoa," he said in awe. His voice was hardly above a whisper though.

It dawned on Lex in that moment though that Clark had never seen a snowflake before. This wouldn't just be his first Christmas, but it would be his first time experiencing a lot of what happened during winter.

Lex had to make it perfect for Clark. He couldn't let Clark's first Christmas be anything less than perfect.

Lex stroked Clark's hair as Clark cut the other snowflake. He hadn't really expected Clark to like crafts as much as he did, but he would never be mad at a handmade snowflake on the Christmas tree or a picture hanging on the fridge if his son enjoyed it. He was just happy that Clark had found something he liked doing, even if he hadn't expected it to be crafts.

Martha looked up from the stove and smiled at Lex. "How's he doing?" She asked as Clark continued to clip away at the snowflake.

"Much better," Lex said. "How did you know that would work?"

Martha shrugged. "I didn't. I just figured that we needed to distract him from whatever is going on in his head."

Lex nodded. He hadn't really thought of that very much. Changing the conversation always helped, but he hadn't tried to distract Clark with an activity much.

Lex watched Clark for another minute before Martha turned back around to face him.

"Hey, you boys go wash up," she said as she placed the roast on table. "It's dinnertime."

So, there's chapter 23! Paper snowflakes and visits to the Kent Farm! I hope y'all enjoyed! Please follow, fave, and review! I would love to know what you thought!

Thanks for reading! Love y'all!