Myst continued hold her in his strong arms as the princess's tears fell. The town herald had come and gone, shedding some light on what had upset his love so completely, but why had King Lionel taken this step? Surely, his proposal had not prompted such an extreme reaction. He had feared the king might banish him for his presumption. The king knew, after all, that Myst been born a farmer's son. He was stepping far above his station, even as a knight of the realm, to seek a marriage with the king's only legitimate child. He had known that, but he loved her, and it had seemed worth the risk at the time.

Now, with her tears soaking his tabard and her royal circlet conspicuously missing, he wondered if perhaps he had made a mistake. It did not make sense though. Her father was the king. Had he wished to void the engagement, it was within his power. Why had he disowned Alexandria instead?

"Shh, love," he spoke softly, trying to sooth her. "We will get through this. He hasn't forbidden our marriage, has he?"

She shook her head but she was swept by another fresh wave of tears. "He said I was your dishonor to deal with."

"I don't understand, Lexia. You will always be my greatest honor."

She began crying in earnest then and Myst was left to comfort her without any notion of what had upset her so. "Tell me what the matter is, love," he begged of her, "I cannot make it better unless I know what is wrong."

"I carry your child, Myst," she cried out in despair. "Soon, I will become heavy, and all will know what we have done together."

But Myst felt no despair. He looked down at his future bride and felt only wonder. If he felt any fear, it was only on behalf of Alexandria and what she must face over the next months. He wrapped his arms more tightly around her as a wash of powerful emotions swept through him. This was his wife. This was his child. He would protect them both with his life. "Let them know. I love you, Lexia. All this means is that our babe will arrive a little sooner than we originally planned."

He held her face and brushed away her tears with his thumbs. He leaned in and kissed her. "Everything will be all right, love. We'll make it through this together. I'll keep you safe. Both of you, forever."

Perry put down the copy and frowned at Cat. "I can't show this to Luthor," he told her in a tone that suggested she was an imbecile if she thought otherwise. "Him looking over the articles is a formality, not an invitation to push the envelope far beyond decency." He poked a finger violently at the printout, "He's crying through the whole piece, for one thing, but even that pales beside the fact that you just made Lex Luthor pregnant. I don't care if the princess is the obvious way to bring the kid into the story. This is a parody with a very powerful man behind that character. I will not permit you to put a baby inside him."

"Actually, Chief," she drew out the words with irony, "Myst did that." She waved two fingers toward the sheet in her boss's hand. "As far as I can tell, that account right there is more accurate than anything else that's been printed about the disownment. We're not permitted to admit that until he starts showing, though, and even then he'll probably deny crying."

Perry stared at her for a long moment. He discounted the possiblity of crying out of hand, but there had been a slow but unmistakable rise of metahumans in the world over the last few years. There was the blue skinned guy who could breathe underwater in Florida, the flying bat and a few other oddballs in Gotham, as well as a handful of others that he couldn't remember the details of elsewhere. "You're not pullin' my leg? Lex Luthor is pregnant?"

"As surely as Princess Alexandria is."

Perry hrumphed and put the page aside to await Luthor's review. "Let's see the interview then."

Unmasking Clark Kent, the Mysterious Suitor
by Cat Grant

In the last few months, every Metropolite has heard of Myst, the Mysterious Suitor. He is the man dating Lex Luthor. But what do we know about him really? In one of the first statements Lex made about him, he was described as 'Tall, Dark, and Handsome.' He's been seen at Lex's side for almost every public appearance since they came out together, and Lex has stated they'd been dating for months before that. We have observed his protectiveness, his dedication, his love, and even his jealousy for Lex. However, it was not until this week that we learned something as simple as his name.

Who is this Mysterious Suitor? We got our first clue two nights ago when he stated Lex's married name would be Alexander Kent. There are hundreds of Kents in Metropolis, however, and there was no guarantee our Suitor was even from the city. Some sophmore journalism majors at Metropolis University may have put it together, but for most of us, Myst's identity remained a mystery.

In an exclusive interview with the Daily Planet, Lex Luthor revealed more details. As it turns out, the Mysterious Suitor is not a new face. His name is Clark Kent and he's been involved in Lex's life for almost five years, including such highlights as saving his life after a near-fatal car crash and being the best man at his first wedding.

They met in Smallville, Kansas, when Clark was a freshman at the local high school. A near collision when Lex's Porshe went out of control introduced them. "Destiny" is what Lex calls it. The local newspaper called it "reckless driving".

For four years, they called each other best friends. Lex made him his best man. They appear together in multiple Smallville Ledger articles. Clark's young sisters, now three, even call Lex their uncle. It was likely not coincidence that Lex returned full time to Metropolis only when Clark began to attend the University here last fall.

Their friendship went under the radar when they began dating officially last November. It seemed to disappear entirely when Lex went public with 'Myst'. Afraid classmates and teachers might respond poorly to Clark's homosexual relationship with Lex, they used everything from gag orders to having Clark dress and even act differently when they went out in public, in order to protect his private identity. These efforts have lessened considerably since Clark officially moved into the LexCorp Towers penthouse at the begining of this summer semester, but most of his classmates remain unaware of his public life.

Currently, he is a sophmore journalism major. He works for the school newspaper and is taking summer courses in order to graduate early. He has no interest in becoming involved with LexCorp and fully intends to continue his original plan of finding a job as a reporter when he finishes college.

He seems too young to be getting married and having a child already, but there you'd be wrong. Clark is, as Lex described it, 'a mature twenty'. It is not a coincidence that in the last three months nobody ever suspected Myst might be significantly younger than Lex. I fully believed I was being accurate when I placed Sir Myst's age as one year older than Princess Alexandria's. At no time during the private interview was I given to believe that either saw the age difference as anything more significant than an issue others might blow out of proportion.

Though Lex's age is common knowledge, it bears reminding. He is only twenty-six. That is well within the demographics of young men who play video games. The X-Box attached to their plasma television does have two well-used controllers. As a businessman and CEO, Lex Luthor is very mature for his age. Outside of the boardroom, the tabloids tell a different tale. It is only since last November, when he began dating Clark, that he's stayed completely out of the clubs, and only since announcing he was gay that he's stopped having a different date every time he goes out.

Has Clark Kent, a twenty year old jounalism major, really managed to tame Metropolis's most infamous playboy? Can he become Lex's own real life Sir Myst; guardian, husband, and co-parent? It certainly seems that this farmer's son from Smallville has done just that.

In Lex's own words, "When we did start dating, I tried not to get my hopes up too far, and to be honest, it was probably only a few days ago, when Clark asked me to marry him, that I really understood that this was forever."

Perry lowered the paper and gave Grant a sour look. "You're gotten biased."

She waved it off. "I've been biased since the start. This," she tapped the copy of the Courtship Chronicles with an overlong fingernail, "is a romance story. It is based entirely on that," she pointed at the page still in Perry's hand, "which is also a romance story." She moved her fingers back and forth, indicating the both of them, "Whether we like it or not, how we report this is going to determine how the story ends. We are not uninvolved spectators here. We're part of the drama. We have been for months."

Perry frowned doubtfully. They were a newspaper. They reported the news, that was all. He hadn't noticed a significant bias in any of her real life articles on this subject before. Not like this one.

"You didn't see them, Chief," she insisted. She picked up the Courtship copy and shook it at him. "Myst's part is almost verbatim. Lex is scared to death. So's Myst, but he's too busy trying to protect and reassure Lex to notice most of the time. They're both so focused on the pregnancy that they don't even recognize that Clark's unmasking could cause problems for them. Once they decided they were going to talk about it, they didn't so much as try to spin any of it. They just took it for granted that nobody would think Lex was taking advantage."

After how the two had carried on during the last three months, Perry wasn't sure it was a bad assumption. Still, the contrast between the myth and the reality of Myst's background was daunting enough to cause some doubt. "So you'll just provide the spin for them?"

Grant raised an eyebrow, "You make it sound so blasphemous."

"The Planet will not print anything this slanted."

"What do you think we've been doing for the last three months?" She slapped a palm against the Courtship article. "This is single handedly responsible for Lex not declaring bankruptcy. He's a flaming queer. Worse, he flaunts it. That's not even counting that he took it up the ass all but on the air during his disownment press conference. This is Kansas, Chief. If it hadn't suffered a hostile takeover, LexCorp stock should be worth pond scum at this point. The fairytale romanticizes it. Makes it acceptable, even favourable. Lex knows it. That's why he wants to introduce his pregnancy there first."

Now that she put it like that, he could understand why he hadn't been sued. Still, "But he's portrayed as a princess." Surely, that counteracted any good it did. "A bleeding damsel in distress."

"Exactly," she said as if he'd agreed with her. "It tricks people into thinking they're in a heterosexual relationship. Why do you think he's become so effeminate? He used to refuse to play along with Myst's gentlemanly behaviour, then he faked it, but now it's become second nature."

Perry's brain hurt. He rubbed at his temples as he sighed. "So how does he figure getting a fictional princess pregnant is going to prepare the masses for him being pregnant?"

"Because he is Princess Alexia. Even you read that draft and refused to print it because of the implication."

He grunted and went for his bottle of Advil. "Because I was afraid of getting murdered, not because I though Luthor was really pregnant."

Cat shook her head. "Nobody's going to think that. It's the subconscious mind that will make the connection. That's what Lex needs. A few clues here and there so when the news breaks it doesn't come out of nowhere."

"And you're proposing we just give him this."

"We already agreed we would." She tapped a too long nail against the Myst article. "He gave us this interview in exchange."

"So we're giving him the positive spin free of charge then?"

She rolled her eyes and made an expansive gesture as she sat back in her chair. "Chief, the Planet has never sold as many papers as we've sold since Lex and Myst started dating. Even if you don't like Lex, don't you think it's in our own best interest to have the courtship last as long as it possibly can?"