"Ah, Miss Sullivan. Punctual, as usual."

Chloe stood in the doorway of Lex's extravagant study, carefully trying to act unimpressed by its grandeur. "You're ready for the interview? Hi, Clark," she added, unsurprised to see her friend lazing in the chair next to the billionaire.

"Hi, Chloe," beamed Clark, fidgeting with a traditional Aztec ornament on Lex's desk that he certainly wouldn't have touched had he known what its original function has been. He half-rose from his chair as he realised Chloe seemed to be waiting for him to leave. "I should go..." he said, more as a question than a statement. 

"No, please stay," Lex replied quickly, not willing to ruin his entire afternoon's pleasure by having his best friend leave so soon. Clark was his only reason for leisure time, as it was certainly a break from thinking to spend time with the boy.

"Shall we start?" asked Lex, as Clark settled back down in his chair. "Though if I might ask, what line of questioning are you planning on following?"

"Business," replied Chloe, as she settled in the chair opposite Lex and took out her notepad. "Inspirational moments that can help my fellow students become motivated towards their goals. The usual." She was becoming skilled at reading the billionaire's subtle expressions, and the flicker of boredom seen in the glazed politeness of his smile was no exception. "Unless you want to talk about something else...?" she asked, taking the hint.

Lex looked at her, surprised at her perceptiveness. "What else could your 'fellow students' be interested in hearing about me?"

A smile flickered on Chloe's face before she turned to find a serious line of questioning. 

"What?" Lex asked quickly, noticing the fleeting expression. "I'm in the mood for something light, so if you have an idea, I'm up for it." He smiled encouragingly.

"I don't think you really mean that, Lex," replied Chloe, teasingly. My fellow students have different interests than what you're willing to talk about. More private interests."

"Shoot." Lex relaxed back in his chair, lifting his hands to clasp them behind his skull. "You don't mind hearing about my private life, do you Clark?"

"No, not at all, whatever," shrugged his friend with a grin. "Should be interesting."

"Lex..." started Chloe gently, "They're more interested in the details and the private thoughts. I don't think you're wanting to talk about that..."

"Shoot," repeated Lex, obviously very much in the mood to accommodate her. He hadn't had one interesting interview in recent years. It would be amusing to annoy his father and answer all the questions, preferably if it revealed harmless details he father thought were anything but that.

Chloe shrugged, clearing indicating that it was his own fault if he wanted to change his mind after she began. She switched smoothly into her interviewing voice. "Mr Luthor-"

"Call me Lex." Lex smiled professionally, though Clark noticed the slight glint in his eye as he spoke.

"Lex," said Chloe with a grin, correcting herself. She paused, returning to her normal voice. "Are you sure I can ask *anything*?" 

"Anything," confirmed Lex, grinning slightly as he inconspicuously rubbed the edge of his shoe against Clark's ankle. Clark jumped slightly in his chair, confused.

"Ok," Chloe replied, returning the grin. "Remember - this was your idea." She settled back in her chair and looked directly into Lex's eyes. "Are you or Clark bigger?" Her eyes flickered back and forth over both boys' laps. 

"CHLOE!!" Clark quickly crossed his legs and blushed a beautiful shade of beetroot. "You didn't just ask...you didn't...about... *Chloe*!"

"What?" she replied innocently. "If you would rather not be here, Clark, I can continue my questioning with Lex alone." 

Clark stared at her, mouth hanging slack. He turned to Lex who had what could only be described as a gleeful expression on his face. "Lex!"

Lex composed his features and stared at Clark for a moment before responding. "It's a fair question, Clark." He turned his attention back to Chloe. "I presume you want to know as your readers are interested, yes?"

"Oh, they're certainly interested, yes," she replied. "It's all I hear them talking about in the corridors all day."

"They do not!" interrupted Clark, still having trouble controlling the blood flow to his cheeks. "I've never heard them!"

It was Lex who replied. "Well they're hardly going to say it around you, Clark. Be sensible." He shook his head as though it was a shame Clark was not more intelligent. "Well, Chloe, I can actually answer that question as I have seen Clark naked," Lex said suddenly, after clearing his throat.

"Lex!" Clark squeaked. "You have not!"

"We had a shower together once. You might have some strange habits, but showering with clothes on isn't one of them," replied Lex, raising an eyebrow teasingly. "Last Summer. You were staying the night and neither of us wanted to miss the start of the Slayerfest and so deciding we didn't have time to shower separately, we both took one together." He turned back to Chloe who was scribbling quickly on her notepad. "It was hardly the most constructive shower. We kept pushing each other out of the water stream so we could each get a turn. Which reminds me - I never did get that shower head enlarged." He picked up a pen, wrote a quick note and placed it on top of a pile of work papers. "It was rather...homoerotic, in recollection..."

Clark gasped and quickly kicked him under the table, jolting Lex out of his momentary retrospective. "No, it wasn't!"

"Ah, yes," Lex continued, raising his eyebrows, "it certainly was." After smoothly ignoring Clark's frantic motions to silence him, he continued. "The fact alone that two men showered together is somewhat homoerotic, Clark. Yet I believe we also were touching every time we shoved each other, however platonic it was in your mind. Furthermore," he quickly added, noticing Clark's mouth opening to declare denial, "I kissed you."

It was Chloe who gasped this time. For all her professionalism, she had hardly expected *this* amount of frank admittance. "Really...?!"

Lex grinned and she winced. She had a feeling that her reaction was exactly what he had been playing for.

"It wasn't serious!" cried Clark, extremely flustered as he bounced slightly in his chair in a desperate attempt to clear his name from allegations of homoeroticism. He wouldn't admit it but he wasn't sure he even knew what the word meant, but it didn't sound like something he should admit to doing with Lex. "We were just joking about how it was weird showering together, and, I mean, we were laughing and stuff, and then you kissed me, like, quickly and that was all!"

Lex shrugged his shoulders. "We were both naked, wet...I pressed you against the wall and kissed you. And..." he paused to effect, "you enjoyed it."

Chloe stared at Clark, triumphantly. "I knew it!"

"No, you don't!" denied Clark, staring at Lex with a pleading expression on his face. "I did not enjoy it!"

"There was *movement*, Clark," shrugged Lex, a slight grin on his face. 

"That was *you*!" retorted Clark, desperately.

That gave Lex a cause for thought. "Was it?" Silence fell a moment while he gave the matter consideration. "I don't think it was me. I think I could tell. I'm almost certain it was you..."

"It wasn-"

"Yes, it was *definitely* you: I saw it," declared Lex with confidence, speaking over Clark's denial. 

"I...You *saw* it?" gasped Clark, looking down at his own lap incase it could still be seen. "You could not!"

"I could to. I looked down and you were...half at attention."

"I was not!"

Lex sighed as though patiently suffering the endless nonsense of a child. "Clark. I don't see your reason for denial. I saw it quite clearly."

Clark gaped and changed tactic. "You *looked*?!"

"Of course I looked," replied Lex, quite surprised that there could exist a person in his situation who wouldn't.

There was more silence as Clark felt his mind quickly lose track of his argument. "Oh," he said finally. "Oh."

"And...who was bigger?" prompted Chloe, quite intrigued with the interaction before her. 

Clark jumped; even Lex flickered his eyebrows slightly, having momentarily forgotten they had an audience.

"I am," Lex replied suddenly as he turned to face her, an absolutely feral grin spread over his features. 

"No, y-!" Clark began, automatically, but then quickly flushed and ducked his head. "Only by a little bit," he grudgingly mumbled to his feet.

Lex nodded, looking at Chloe. "That's true. He's a whisker shorter, much to my surprise. I would have thought, judging his height and build, that I would have been the lesser one. We live and learn."

"Leeeex...!"

Chloe laughed. "May I ask another question or would Clark like a moment to recover?" She looked over at her friend who was still stubbornly blushing at the floor.

"Ask away," replied Lex, grinning back, answering for them both, much to Clark's disappointment. 

Chloe cleared her throat and turned her head from Lex to Clark and back again. "How would you respond to the allegations that you and Clark act slightly more 'friendly' than best friends usually do?"

"I think they're substantiated."

"They are not"! Clark almost shouted. "We've never...done..." His eyes were bulging out of their sockets in shock and embarrassment, "anything friendly." He winced.

Lex turned to his friend with an expression that clearly reflected his thoughts about his own higher intelligence. "The question wasn't whether we had done anything 'friendly', Clark," he explained slowly, much to Clark's annoyance. "Miss Sullivan just asked whether we acted that way."

Clark glared at him. "I'm not dumb, Lex," he muttered, sulkily. 

"I never said you were, though I could recommend an excellent psychiatrist is you believe you need to explore your fear of having a lesser intellect."

"Not funny, Lex," grumbled Clark, though his expression showed he had forgiven his friend.

Lex flashed him his fleeting grin, reserved only for their teasing conversations. "I apologise. Obviously it was a sore point."

Chloe interrupted before Clark could retaliate. "Perhaps you want to expand on your comment, then, Lex, as Clark believes it has no merit."

"We flirt," admitted Lex. "In a harmless way, certainly. But the evidence is there. For example, Clark often brings me flowers, asks if we want to live together, and becomes extremely jealous over any girl I date."

"I do n-"

"Yes you do," interrupted Lex, with a grin and a nod. "Really, Clark, are you going to deny everything I say? It's becoming quite repetitive."

"I didn't say I was going to deny it," replied Clark stubbornly, before he thought through what he had just admitted to. "It's just that I don't bring you flowers-"

"Entire displays. Every week."

"They're not for you! They're for..." he paused, suddenly realising Lex was distorting his words. "Well, yeah, they're for you, but not *for* you. For the mansion. Because you order them." He stared back, defiantly. "And I never invited you to live with me."

"Yes, you did. You left the Kent Farm, told me you'd had it with Smallville, and invited me to live in Metropolis with you."

"Oh," said Clark, remembering awkwardly the effects of the red meteorite. "But! *You* invited *me*. You offered your apartment in Metropolis." He grinned back smugly.

Lex shrugged. "My apartment, following *your* offer of companionship."

"Well..." Clark continued, not wanting to argue the point further incase he lost. "Then, I don't become jealous of your girlfriends. It's just that they're all after your money or else trying to kill you." The smug expression returned, full-force.

Lex winced slightly in acknowledgement. "Yes...well, I do see your point, but there's jealously underlying your actions. Since we can hardly prove it now, I suggest moving on."

"Oh, noooo," drawled Clark, quite uncharacteristically. "You're not getting away with losing that easily!" He desperately tried to think of a retaliation to Lex's accusations of their supposed 'friendship'. "You're the only one who flirts!" he blurted, instantly regretting it as it hardly supported his argument that there was no sexual tension between them.

"I do?" asked Lex, calmly. Clark failed to note the twitch of his upper lip.

"Yes! You talk to me with that voice like you're...you're..." he faltered, suddenly very unsure of whether he was the type of person that could say phrases like "inviting me to bend you over the pool table". He settled for paraphrasing his thoughts. "Like you're *interested*."

"I do...?" Lex purred.

"YES! Like *that*!" Clark pointed at him accusingly. "Like *that*, Chloe!" he yelled, spinning his head around to face her. "Did you hear!"

Chloe nodded. "Uh huh, duly noted." She grinned at him. "So, Lex, does this mean if you were...otherwise inclined, you would be interested in Clark?"

"Yes. Definitely." 

"What?!" yelped Clark, not expecting such a clear confession.

"I would certainly set my sights on you...if I were 'otherwise inclined'," replied Lex, his voice subtly deeper.

"Would *you*, Clark?" asked Chloe quickly, wanted to gauge a comparative reaction from her friend.

"What?" Clark asked dumbly, still staring at Lex in disbelief.

"Would you be interested in Lex if you were otherwise inclined?"

"No! I..uh...But I'm not otherwise inclined!"

"Do you even know what that means, Clark?" asked Lex, half teasing, half serious.

"Yes, I do," replied Clark stubbornly, without expanding with a definition of the phrase. 

Lex grinned. "Do you want to know why I'd be interested in dating you, Clark?" he asked, relishing the look of innocent denial in his friend's eyes. "I'll tell you." He shifted his his chair, staring calmly at his best friend. "It's because you're hot and don't know it, sexy yet don't flaunt it, and have just the right level of intelligence to have my ego approve of you thoroughly. And you look good naked."

"..." was the extent of Clark's response, having not developed the verbal skills to reply to such a statement.

"So Lex," asked Chloe after trying hard to hold back the laughter at her friend's expense, "after asking Clark out, how exactly would your father respond to you dating him?" 

"Certainly better than Mr Kent would," replied Lex without a pause. "Lionel would fax a prenuptial tome of legal headaches, while Mr Kent would just turn up with a shotgun." He shrugged as though such things were to be expected. "Come to think of it, Mr Kent's approach would be less painful and definitely quicker."

Clark snorted out a laugh, having recovered from his momentary shock. "Leeex, he wouldn't shoot you!"

"Oh, he definitely would," replied Lex confidently. "If I turned up at your door and declared our undying love for each other, I would be face down flat over the threshold within a second."

Clark giggled. "You would not! He wouldn't be happy, but mum'll talk him around and he'd have to accept us. I'm his only son, after all. He's not going to risk losing me just because I'm choosing to date you."

Lex carefully chose not to mention Clark's revealing choice of phrasing. "So if I came over for dinner on Friday, that would be fine?"

"Sure!" beamed Clark. "I'll talk to mum and get her to talk to dad, and I promise you won't be killed at, say, seven o'clock?"

"Seven, it is," agreed Lex, hardly believing his ears. He had to ask. "Clark? Did you just ask me on a date?"

Clark gasped. "Did I?" He had never looked more astonished. 

"I think you did," Lex prompted. "Are you taking it back?" He constructed a disappointed expression to suit the moment.

"No! I would never!" exclaimed Clark, shooting forward in his chair to grab hold of Lex's shoulders. "If I asked you out then we're going out and that's it. My dad said never to promise something to someone and then not follow through."

Lex winced. "Clark. As much as I respect Mr Kent, could you not mention him while declaring your intentions, please?"

"Sure," Clark nodded, completely unsure of what he was saying. It was all becoming a nervous, exciting blur.

"Would you like to go for a drive? Clear the air?" Lex asked him, sensing the need to be alone for further encouragement of this new development. "That is, if you don't mind, Chloe?"

"No, no problems here," she replied quickly, remembering to raise her hanging jaw before speaking. Never, in a million years, in any galaxy, had she thought Clark would be the one to ask *Lex* out.

Lex nodded his thanks, politely not mentioning that he would have left with or without her agreement. "Clark? You coming?"

"No! Oh, I mean yes..." Clark felt the blood flush through his face, and dipped his head in preparation. The fact he could sense Lex's knowing grin bearing down on him did not help matters. "Bye, Chloe!" he blurted quickly, before making an almost super-fast run towards the door. Lex chucked, tipped his head at Chloe as a parting gesture, and followed his soon-to-be boyfriend.

********

Chloe rose from her chair and placed the notebook back into her bag, turning to leave. She had never been more certain that reporting was a career that helped people open up. She would remember that point for her interview at the Daily Planet...as soon as she blackmailed Lex into organising one.


THE END.

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