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Title: Sharing Secrets
Author: MidKnight
E-Mail: MidKnightslair@juno.com
Spoilers: Kinetic
Notes: I think Lex could have pressed just a little harder and gotten his answers.
“Clark, tell me what’s going on?” Lex asked, standing in the middle of the Kent’s driveway. It was night and dark and the house was only a few yards away, but the billionaire was going to have the argument. He wasn’t going to let this friendship be torn apart by whatever skeleton the teen had in his closet.
In response the boy’s eye hardened in that way that meant he was almost there, that he almost had it. It meant Clark wanted to tell, that he wanted to say it and he just couldn’t; something tore in Lex’s chest, some fluttery, broken winged feeling. Clark turned away, his shoulders hunching protectively and he walked towards the barn.
“Clark!” Lex cried, following compulsively. He’d never done this before, never had actual friends enough to know the parts of a friend’s fight well enough to strategize. Now he was running on pure biological instinct. Mine, he thought, I can’t loose him over this.
“Lex…” The teen paused in his steps, voice choked. “I just…Theres…” He shook his head and hurried into the barn, feet thundering on the wooden steps as he retreated to the Fortress of Solitude. With a rueful sigh Lex followed.
“Lex…” The haunted blue eyes turned on him suddenly. “I just… Don’t know how to trust anyone with this.”
The older man nodded, his hands clenching momentarily. The thing fluttered inside him again. Suddenly he knew this could be a leap of faith, that it could ruin everything, and with shaking hands Lex pushed his coat off.
He folded the black material in half, then draped it over the couch back. Clark’s eyes were wide, just that shade of the sky before dawn, and they were painfully open. Lex let his eyes fall to his cuffs as he unbuttoned the midnight blue silk from around his wrists.
“I haven’t trusted anyone else with this, either.” The billionaire murmured, taking his time with the buttons and mustering his courage.
“I used to go to this sex club in Metropolis, Club Zero.” He sighed. “Really, it was about pissing Dad off. Things were pretty rough there,” Lex began unbuttoning the collar of his shirt. “Pretty dangerous, but it never got out of hand.” The button over his collarbone opened. “One night it did.” The next button came undone. “A drug deal went bad. Someone died on accident. I don’t really know; no one does.” Another button and the shirt gaped, mostly open and Clark got the impression Lex was carved from Alabaster. “People went mad, started dying. Shots rang out in the rooms below and everyone was screaming.” The last two buttons came undone and Lex had to clench his fists and close his eyes. With a burst of will Lex shrugged the shirt off, over his pale shoulders and it settled around his wrists like a restraint. It reminded him of that night, months ago, the darkness filled with strobe lights and the bitter metallic smell of blood and fear. He opened his eyes to slits and stared at the blurred figure of Clark a few feet away. “I can’t remember everything that happened, but people I knew died. By the time I got out my hands were covered in blood and-“ he faltered. “I’d been stabbed; I stumbled out into the street with my cell phone, which was a miracle and I called Toby. He didn’t think I’d live, but put me in his Porche anyway.” Lex let the shirt drop to the floor wit ha dry rustle and the midnight silk settled amongst the hay. One pale hand gestured across his chest to the shiny thread of a line running over his heart.
The scar was only an inch long and Lex turned, displaying his back where a matching scar lurked, slightly smaller but in the same place.
“I should have died.”
Clark’s fingertips burned him as they traced the scar, his lip caught between his teeth.
“What happened? “Clark asked when Lex faced him again.
“Toby took the knife out and sewed me up; the blade had been shaking because my heart was resting against it. Dad had the scene at the club cleaned up so it looked like I’d never been there and he told me to leave town.”
Clark looked perplexed as he studied the wound.
“This happened only a few months ago?”
“It looked like this within days.” Gray eyes met blue. “I’ve always healed quickly.”
In response Clark turned away, stalking to the barn loft window to stare out into the night. The shoulders that seemed to carry the weight of the world flexed and lightened.
“I’m not human.” The teen said to the darkness.
“The meteorite-“
“No.” Clark turned and he was suddenly right in front of Lex, making the older man jump. It reminded him of the scene in that vampire movie, where Clark would be Brad Pitt and he would be Christian Slater. “I didn’t get this way because of the meteorites.” He sighed, looking away. “I got here twelve years ago, during the meteor shower. I was always stronger and faster but I’ve gotten more powers in the last few months. When we went over the bridge you hit me dead on, when you were under Rickman’s whammy you shot me eleven times.”
Lex shook his head; no.
“I folded the roof of your car back like an accordion and pulled you out.”
Lex took a step back, shaking his head ‘no’ still. He’d suspected something was different about his friend, but never this. Clark grinned predatorily and stalked after him.
“You want to see it?” Lex tried to fight back but Clark just grabbed him by the belt circling Lex’s pale waist and led him down the wooden stairs. With a harsh bark of laughter Clark threw the door open and dragged Lex after him into the musty earth. Clark grabbed the cord hanging from the ceiling, turning on the single bulb overhead and he gave Lex a shove so that he stumbled into the metal ship. “This is it, Lex, this is my secret.”
With his palms flattened to the cool metal of he couldn’t deny the alien curves and angles of the ship. No way was this an old refrigerator or generator set up so Clark could laugh at him. This was as real and true and strange as the knife buried in his chest on that cool night months ago at the club. This was just as life threatening and Clark seemed to know it because when Lex looked over his bare shoulder the boy was shaking, eyes bright, and he looked like he was about to get hysterical.
Somehow the fact that he had stripped down to his pants and was in the same room as an alien and the alien’s ride to earth didn’t seem as strange as it could have.
“I can rip a car apart with me hands. I can see through things. I can run fast enough to flatten the fields-“
“Lex silenced the rising panic the best way he knew how, threading his fingers in the ebony hair and pressing his lips to Clark’s. The boy froze, his nervous shaking going still suddenly before the arms that could crush steel wrapped around Lex’s bare back.
Lex pulled back, gasping or air minutes later and rested his forehead against Clark’s, the taste of the other boy fresh in his mouth.
“You’re human.” Lex panted. “You’re just as human as I am.”
Then he smiled, and Clark smiled back, a little shaky but he knew things would be ok.