Title: Karma Kills

Author: Meghan (strangefancy) meghan_leary2004@yahoo.com

Rating: NC-17

Pairing: CLex.

Disclaimer: If I owned, you would never know they existed because I’m greedy.

Thanks: Thanks to my OTB Val who pushed, prodded and made me work hard for this. Thank you to my betas KitKat3979 who was invaluable in her help, tailtha78 who made me feel like I’m humorous,

Elle E’Trois for her speedy and awesome work and kit Sear for the offer. Also thanks to Raijahn for cheering me on. Dedicated to the CLFF list because this is my first time.

Notes: Written for CLFF, wave 10 with the challenge of ‘Parent Visit’. This story takes place in an AU where Lex is only two years older than Clark and was never sent to Smallville.

***

Parents weekend - Day One (Thursday)

The alarm clock read 8:37 when he rolled over and opened his eyes to look at it. Silently, he thanked whatever deity gave him his 11:35 Romance Lit class and slowly sat up, letting his eyes adjust to the darkness of the bedroom he shared with Pete. Usually, the someone who lived with him would leave the blinds on the windows open for a morning energy boost before he left, but one glance told Clark that it would be raining intermittently that day. He’d have to remember an umbrella.

Clark sat up and swung his feet over the side of the bed, running his hands over the pillow next to his to see if the head shaped indentation was still there. He yawned and used the pillow to push him to his feet, stepping on a Met U t-shirt, a textbook on genetics, three broken pencils and a bear that squeaked loudly as he made his way to the bathroom. There was a hint of steam decorating the edges of the mirror over the sink and the tiled floor had wet spots on it.

The shower was perfunctory and quick. Stumbling back into his room still half asleep, he pulled a pair of jeans and a t-shirt blindly out of the closet before opening the door that lead out into the common room he and Pete shared with Chloe and her roommate, Sophia. The four had chosen to become suite mates after their freshman year, now sharing two bedrooms that were joined by a rectangular living room and a small kitchenette. Utter banality that was marred by the fast food containers in the refrigerator, movie posters on the walls and fingerprints covering every surface that would hold them.

“Don’t speak to me until you’ve had coffee.” Chloe’s back was to him as she rooted through the refrigerator, her arm sweeping aside old milk cartons and a single apple.

He picked up the mug that sat next to the coffee machine and took a long drink. It had become a ritual of theirs, Chloe set out his coffee in the morning and they talked before she had to scamper off to her Journalism Ethics class. Or she talked and he pretended to listen while waiting for his brain to click the ‘on’ switch.

“Bad night?”

“Jacob.” She spat the name but it was slightly muffled, as her face was obscured by a white container that she took a long sniff from. The corners of her mouth turned down as she thrust the box at Clark. He threw it in the trash.

“What’d he do now?”

“I’m pretty sure he told Yancy that my article on steroid use wasn’t researched, even though I gave them all the documentation.”

Jacob Hansen had been out for Chloe the minute she had barged into the Metropolis University Harold newspaper office, shoving her portfolio under the Editor’s nose. They had liked what they had seen. Jacob Hansen, their golden reporter, hadn’t and had been itching to take Chloe down ever sense.

Personally, Clark thought that Hansen had been trying to go down on Chloe since she had told him to eat her in the Quad after he had scooped her. It wasn’t an opinion that he was ever going to share.

“Did you talk to Yancy?”

She snorted, and craned her neck around to face him, her body still bent over in front of the refrigerator. “Yes, I talked to him. He’s an ass. I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Sorry.” Clark mumbled and took another drink of his coffee, his toes curling away from the frigid tiled floor.

“It’s fine. I didn’t like the article anyway. I’m scrapping it.” The door on the fridge slammed shut and Chloe turned to him, her eyes wide and coy, her hands on her hips.

Somedays she changed moods so quickly, Clark’s head ached from the turn around time. “What?”

“Clark.” Chloe reached for him and wrapped her arms low around his waist, pulling her upper body back so she could stare into his face. “I hate you.”

“What?” He dropped his voice to a monotone, not wanting her to see his fear although he was pretty sure that she could smell it. Chloe using that voice was enough to make your dick shrink back into your body; that’s what Pete always said and today, it was so true.

“Nothing. Just hate you.” Her hands were caressing his back, probably looking for a place to stick the knife.

There was a sudden deep rhythmic beating vibrating from the walls of the girl’s room. Clark used the distraction to pull gently back from Chloe and take another sip of his coffee. That Chloe voice was best to stay away from until she redirected her anger somewhere else. Sadly, he was still drinking his coffee or he’d have already been out the door already. Priorities were important and caffeine always came before classes.

Chloe frowned at him as he retreated into their living room. “Sophia.”

“Yeah.” Clark put his hand on the wall to see if it was really vibrating or if he just imagined that it was. It was really amazing that no one beyond their suite ever complained about the pounding base line blaring so early in the morning.

Chloe came up next to him and put her ear to the wall. “‘Sober’. She’s in a good mood this morning.”

Sophia Govern liked to get ready to gracelessly loud rock music one song was always on repeat. Chloe was used to it, having experienced it from their first morning freshman year. The boys had heard of the proclivity but had never experienced it until the morning after they had first moved in and when Tricky had woken them up. It had been funny when Pete had rushed out of their bedroom with a baseball bat, sure that they were under attack. And it had been really funny when Pete had started to mimic Sophia by playing equally loud Celine Dion songs during his morning preparations.

They hadn’t let him do that long.

The door to the girl’s room slammed open, sending the poster of the cast of *Saved By The Bell* on it into the wall. When Pete was home to see this particular entrance in the morning, he would laugh loudly and declare at it was only fair. Zack Morris had ruined his dating curve in fourth grade.

“Morning.” Sophia’s hand was over her mouth to cover a wide yawn as her other hand smoothed down the bright green ruffled skirt she wore.

“Morning, Sophie.” Chloe pushed off the wall and kissed Sophia’s cheek before walking back into the kitchen and opening the refrigerator again.

“Hey Clarkness.” Sophia caught his eye and grimaced, her head nodding to Chloe who was oblivious to everything except finding breakfast.

Clark raised her eyebrows in question. Sophia opened her mouth and then thought better of it, shrugging her shoulders in a ‘sorry’ gesture.

“You guys miming about me?” Chloe asked, turning away from the refrigerator to add another take-out box to the already staggeringly large pile at her feet.

“Yes.” Sophia walked into the tiny kitchen and sat down, picking up the cartons and throwing them into the trash.

Chloe watched Sophie for a moment before setting her eyes on Clark again. “You are a dead man, Kent, I hope karma kicks your ass.”

Clark managed to give her a wan smile, slightly puzzled as to what he had done this morning. The aggravation of figuring it out may have not been worth his morning cup. “Okay?”

“Glad you agree.” Chloe nodded once before picking up her laptop case by the door and waving once. “I’m starved. Gonna go grab a muffin at the cafeteria.”

The door had barely clicked shut before Clark told Sophia “If I find another pair of wet panties in my bed again, I’m blaming you.”

Sophia shrugged from the floor, spreading out her skirt around her like Alice in Wonderland. “No panties.” she paused “Chloe has the weirdest concepts of revenge.”

“Then what did I do this time?”

Dark brown eyes met his own, “Parent weekend.”

Clark paused “Yeah?”

Sophie’s gaze changed to exasperated. “Her dad called last night. He’s coming in.”

“And that’s my fault how?”

“You’re the only one getting out of torture by lecture. Ergo, all of her anger and frustration will be taken out on you until further notice.” Sophia slowly got to her feet, instead of her regular bounce. The upcoming visit had taken a lot out of everyone.

Clark leaned against the wall, fingering the ‘Theater Majors Do It In The Round’ mug he held. “I’m not the only one whose parents aren’t coming.”

Sophie stalked towards him, her skirt swishing around her knees. “We take our anger out on you because we don’t technically live with him.”

Clark pressed hard into the wall, feeling another poster start to crinkle under his back as she neared. For such a tiny thing, her aura exuded gruesome death.

“I can’t help it if I have better powers of persuasion than you guys.”

Sophie pressed into him, her hands coming to rest on the wall over his shoulders. “You didn’t tell your parents. You cheated.”

“Pete came up with the idea. I just utilized it.”

“I think Judge Ross is enough to punish Pete with.” She pulled back from him and smiled brightly. “Now if you’ll excuse me, the abject terror of having my parents in town has made me nauseous.” There was a whoosh of green taffeta and Candie perfume before he heard her bedroom door click shut.

Clark sighed. It wasn’t like he liked lying to his parents; there were just aspects of his life he wasn’t ready to share with them. Like why the genetics book in his room wasn’t his or Pete’s.

***

“Hey man, what’s up?”

Pete tapped his fingers on the table, his head bent over a textbook. He held up one finger and Clark sat down across the study table from him and waited until Pete was done reading his page. Chloe had found this corner of the third floor of the library in October. For some reason, it didn’t seem to be visited often; the top of the books lying on the shelves were always covered in a thin film of dust. Then again, titles like *The Psychological Argument of Cerebellum in Animus Genus* would have frightened him away too.

“I’m hiding from Mom.” The tapping had stopped and Pete was looking expectantly at him, his head lying on his fist.

“She here already?” Clark pushed his blue back pack to the right so he could stretch his arms across the table, pulling the muscles in his back out.

Pete scratched at his eyebrow, his face filling with a calmly passive look. “She showed up at lunch. Thanks for making sure my stuff looked used in the room.”

The second week of the spring semester, Pete had borrowed some notes from a girl in his advanced Economics class and had accidentally set them on fire when he had set them too close to a Bunsen burner in his chemistry class. He had offered to buy her dinner as an apology and they had been dating ever sense. Deeana Frost made Pete oddly mellow. Clark figured that it was the regular sex.

Clark grinned at him. “Still not going to tell you mom that you practically live with Deeana?”

Pete leaned forward and narrowed his eyes, “Not going to tell your parents who you practically live with?”

Clark’s grin grew. “My parents aren’t here.”

Pete sat back in his chair and pulled on his green sweater. “And don’t think that we all don’t hate you for it every chance we get.”

He ignored the funny turning in his stomach and turned his gaze down, studying his feet through the table top. Clark didn’t enjoy lying to his parents and this particular untruth had been slowly eating at him for more than half a year.

Pete’s voice was tight but edged with sympathy “Look Clark, man. We’re all a little frustrated. Chloe’s dad got here this morning and insisted on sitting in on her noon class. Sophie’s parents have been rooting through the theater department’s costume closet all day and my mom tried to give me a talk about cows and milk and... something. We all hate your parental free status.”

“I don’t want to lie to them.” Clark said simply, tracing complex patterns in the tabletop with his fingers.

“So a lie by omitting...”

“Makes me feel better.”

Pete huffed, looking down at his book, the middle finger of his left hand tracing the textbook’s cover in a vaguely insulting way.

Clark tried another tactic. “Pete, you know my dad would freak if he knew and would drag my ass home, probably screaming about” he lowered his voice “alien issues.”

Pete’s head shot up. “Look, if you and your boyfriend want to play ‘Little Gay House on The Prairie –“

Clark’s hand shot out before he was aware of what he was doing and smacked down over the top of Pete’s book. Pete didn’t jump, just raised his eyes and gave Clark a bored look. This wasn’t right. People should be afraid of Clark; he had superpowers. At the very least, Pete should be afraid that Clark would get mad and make him into a pretzel. It was only right.

“That’s not what I’m doing.” He grit out.

“Yes, it is.” Pete stood suddenly and started to shove his notebooks and pens into his blue messenger bag. “You’re lying to your parents about something that is so damn important, or so you say, and you seem to be embarrassed about telling them the truth and you want everything to be good but you don’t seem to realize that eventually, they’ll find out Clark.” Pete slung the bag over his shoulder and looked down at Clark, his face filled with pity. “Eventually they will, and they’ll be upset. But they’ll be more upset that you didn’t tell them earlier.”

Clark watched Pete march out of the section, his own mouth hung open.

***

Clark turned his key in the lock, plastering a smile on his face fully expecting to face a room full of excited mothers and fathers. Instead he found Chloe sat on the counter in the kitchen, absently eating an ice cream bar as she read the *New York Times*.

His back pack made a satisfying thump on the dingy glass of their coffee table as he looked around. “Where is everyone?”

Chloe turned the page, her eyes scanning the headlines, before answering. “Sophia is taking a nap while her parents check into their hotel and my dad had to go into the office for something.”

He bent down to untie his shoes, his eyes drifting to a dark spot on the dingy brown carpet that seemed to fester everywhere at Met U. “Chloe? Why’s the carpet wet?”

Another page turned. “Ice fight.”

“Ice fight?”

She nodded, as if that was a perfectly reasonable excuse. In retrospect, it might have been.

“Who won?”

“I did.” The voice from his bedroom doorway didn’t startle Clark and he made a show of untying his other shoe and removing both before looking up slowly and smiling at the man leaning against the door frame.

“Hey.” Even after all these months, the honey of his own voice startled him. Before this relationship, his first ever really, he had never known that such dulcet tones could roll out of his throat.

From the kitchen, Chloe let out an amused snort as another page was turned. It always struck Clark as odd that every time Lex walked into the room, his other senses decided to magnify. As if something that exuded from Lex that controlled the superhearing and the x-ray vision and the buzzing that warmed his insides. Was buzzing one of his powers?

“How was your day?” Lex slid into the living room, his hips moving from side to in a slightly exaggerated motion that probably for Clark’s enjoyment. It was a walk that Clark had gotten use to but not something that he was completely immune to.

“Fine.” He lifted his head up and closed his eyes against the glare of the over head light.

Lex leaned down and softly touched his lips to Clark’s. Clark’s own lips felt too moist against Lex’s dryer ones, so Clark parted them, his tongue darting out to help with the lubrication problem. Hands braced themselves against his shoulders as he was pressed back into the couch, the other man’s body held above him probably by sheer will alone. Lex Luthor just did not crawl into his (eye roll) boyfriends lap when other people were present, no matter how much making out the other party had witnessed.

Clark figured out that by now, Chloe had seen enough to officially qualify her as a peeping Tom.

Agile lips caressed his own, before parting them and allowing Clark’s tongue to slip in briefly. He did not whimper as Lex pulled back, soft breath against his face.

“All hail the conquering hero.” Clark muttered, smiling at the answering chuckle before opening his eyes again. Lex’s eyes shone with mirth, an emotion sorely lacking on his face when they had met at a fraternity party last year. Clark had gone for Pete’s sake, dragging Sophie and Chloe for back up. He hadn’t realized that he had been drooling over slim hips covered in black pants until Sophia’s finger hand had pushed at his chin, closing his mouth.

It was a very good thing that he had only glimpsed Lex’s hips through the crowd first, if he had seen the rest of Lex, drooling would have been the least of his problems.

The idea of being attracted to another man in that way had not even crossed his mind until that night at the Pi’s. Clark hadn’t been exposed to much gay culture in Smallville, the extent of it being Mr. Kane, the man who helped in Nell’s flower shop, raised Shelties and had a ‘life partner’ named Barry.

Metropolis University had changed that somewhat. Sunday nights were *Queer As Folk* nights on the third floor of Matthews Dorm, the tradition started by Sophie and Chloe on their first week at school. For four months he had been able to convince himself that the only reason he joined the girls was that well, there were girl’s in their pajamas shifting in their chairs and sighing over the naked boys on the television.

After convincing someone at the party (and he could never remember who that was) to introduce him to Lex, he was able to convince himself that he watched the show because he was also sighing and shifting in his chair over the naked men. The realization came about three seconds after he pressed himself into Lex, sliding his hand down to cover the other man’s crotch.

It was possible he’d had a lot to drink.

The rest of the semester had passed quickly, time spent with Lex, classes, and his work at the paper. Before he even had time to digest it, he was packing to go back to Smallville for the summer with Lex sitting in the middle of his dorm room, hands neatly folding t-shirts. Lex had looked up at him suddenly, hands tightening in a red Met U fencing shirt when Clark realized that he had told Lex he loved him.

Clark had panicked, Lex had panicked and they both realized that they had never fully discussed their relationship. Lex was two years older than Clark, a chemical engineering student who liked to dabble with a double degree in Business. He had a Fortune 500 company to inherent when his father decided to hand it over (which would be about three days after the man died) and a shining future. He had never had anything outside of a fling, although he had been quick to admit that Clark was not just a mere fling.

“*Stuff of Legend*.”

The phrase made Clark roll his eyes now as it had then, despite the brief flutter in his chest and the sudden rolling in his stomach as he realized just how big of a geek Lex really was. Although, looking at the *Saved By The Bell* poster on the wall, the complete collection of *Star Trek: The Next Generation* on DVD sitting next to the TV and the subscription to the *New York Times* sitting on the coffee table, Clark was willing to admit that he was just as big a geek as Lex.

“All hail me.” Lex had moved away, stepping gracefully around the wet spots in the carpet and into the kitchen. Clark cocked his head to the side and sat forward to watch Lex’s ass for as long as he could before the counter obscured the view. The sound of Chloe’s throat clearing made him set back and pick at loose threads in the couch. Mentally he reminded himself that she probably deserved the shot. Just like he had probably deserved it from Pete earlier.

***

“Clark, when did you realize that you were a homosexual?”

French onion soup burned a path down the back of Clark’s throat as his head snapped up, his eyes wide as she stared at the smiling Anita Govern, who was nodding her head encouragingly at him. Quickly Clark looked around at the table, hoping that no one had noticed the question but seven pairs of eyes were turned to him their expressions ranging from amusement to exasperation to shock.

“Uh... when did I realize?” He muttered and looked down, trying to figure out a way smooth things over. Mentally, he traced the gossip line: Pete had moved away from Smallville when he was sixteen, following his parents divorce, and as far as Clark knew Judge Ross never talked to either one of his parents. Gabe had moved back to Metropolis the summer after their high school graduation to take a promotion at LuthorCorp and god, he only hoped that the Governs never discovered his parents number and called them with some advice on how to deal with a gay son. Sophie had warned him about that.

“Anita...” Sophie almost slammed her fork on the table and turned to look at her mom. “This is the least appropriate place to talk about this.”

Anita looked to her left, smiling at her husband. “Sophia, there is nothing wrong with being homosexual. Your uncle Patrick is and you adore him. We’re just trying to get in touch with Clark’s spiritual center to discover the root of his self and understand when he came to the realization. It’s always a fascinating thing when one takes a good look at oneself and gains the knowledge that we’ve know these things, like our sexuality, all along. We just cover it with subterfuge and masks. Wouldn’t you say so, Abigail?”

Judge Ross blinked twice, face having gone pale under the low lit over head lights. “I didn’t know that Clark was... gay.”

“Gay? Clark is gay? Man, why didn’t you tell me that?” Clark shot a dirty look at Pete who smiled innocently and went back to picking at the walnuts in his salad. They were sitting in Entropy, one of the nicest restaurants in Metropolis, and so far the Govern’s had managed to talk about politics, the stock market, naked communes on the east bank of Maryland, a new rapper out of Dallas who went by the name ‘Sir Comes A Lot’ and now Clark’s sexuality.

They hadn’t even gotten past the soup and salad.

“Anita,” Sophia shot an apologetic look towards Clark “I don’t think that this is something Clark really wanted everyone to know.”

Ronald Govern leaned across his wife to pat his mortified daughter’s hand. “But Sophie, we’re just trying to help Clark to accept who he is. You said that he had a problem with being completely honest about it.”

Chloe’s low snicker was missed by everyone but Clark. “It’s Kansas, Mr. Govern. With all due respect, we lynch people here who ‘taste the rainbow’.”

Clark frowned hard at the wall to his left, trying to concentrate on the reprint of Monet’s ‘Le Point Jaopnais’ instead of listening to the arguing going on behind him about gay stereotypes, *Will and Grace*, homophobia and Nathan Lane going on behind him. It wasn’t that he was ashamed exactly or that he didn’t want people to know, it was just that he was unsure if he was ready for the general public to have the information. It was the easy out to say that the secret had something to do with the years he spent hiding his alien heritage crossed with the fact that he hadn’t been the coolest person in high school. Maybe somewhere, in his little alien brain, he just wanted to be treated normally for once before everyone knew that he spent his nights curled against Lex Luthor’s left side.

“Well, sexuality is a fluid thing. There are amazing studies going on at Harvard about the sociology of this generation and their ambiguous nature. It’s something like a seventies revolution with condoms. Why back in ‘76, I had a girlfriend named..”

Clark turned back to the conversation just in time to see Sophie clap a hand over her mother’s mouth. There was several minutes of deep breathing amongst the group, eyes dropped to laps before Sophia dropped her hand from her mother’s mouth.

Gabe cleared his throat, eyeing the knife to the right side of his plate. “Chloe, honey, didn’t you go on several dates with Clark back in high school?” His face was nothing but an expression of concern as he looked up at his daughter who groaned loudly.

“Yeah Chloe, didn’t you use to date Clark?” Pete leaned across the white table cloth and touched Chloe’s wrist with his fingertips. Concern dripped like honey from his mouth. “Chloe, you don’t think you turned Clark?” He paused. “You don’t think that you dated him because... you’re a lesbian?”

She looked up at Pete and glared at him for a moment before smacking him hard across the bicep, the noise echoing throughout the restaurant and startling several of the patrons. Her hand raised again but before she could deliver another slap, their waiter set her dinner plate in front of her.

Crises momentarily diverted, Clark stared down morosely at his own plate of baked chicken and caramelized beets before Anita’s low voice drifted over to him.

“Clark, the waiter is very cute and I think he might have an eye on you.”

***

“I’ve never felt the overwhelming need to apologize for someone else’s parents before.” Pete opened the refrigerator and shoved his foil covered leftovers next to the other three packages that Chloe, Clark and Sophie had squeezed in.

“Gee, thanks Pete. I’ve been apologizing for them all my life. Nice that someone else is taking up the slack.” The TV was flipped on and muted as Chloe and Sophie flopped backwards on separate ends of the couch at the same time.

Pete stumbled over, falling in between them. “I just didn’t realize. I mean, I thought when you were talking about them, you were joking.”

Chloe glanced over to Clark who was standing in the kitchen, head against the freezer door and snorted. “Clark deserves the pain. Remember when I told you about Freshman moving in day, Pete? When Anita told me that experimentation with controlled substances was a natural thing?”

Pete slowly shook his head. “This weekend will be... fun.”

“Of course it will.” Clark muttered, opening his eyes slightly and focusing on the picture of him and Lex that was hung by a magnet. Hesitantly, he pulled it down and shoved it in his pocket next to the waiter’s number that Anita had managed to get him at the end of dinner. Shaking his head, he wondered if the dinner had was his bad karma for this particular lie.

***

Parent’s Weekend - Day Two (Friday)

“Do you see my notes on particle equalization?”

Clark looked up, rolling his eyes slightly. “If I understood what that was, I’d still say no.”

Lex frowned and sifted through the stack of papers to his left on the couch. Clark set his pen down as Lex worried his bottom lip with his teeth, fingers gracefully flipping through the stack of neat pages with tiny looping handwriting almost completely filling the page. This was Lex, organized quiet chaos that still held touches of delicateness. It wasn’t softness because there was too much steel in Lex’s bones, but it was something innate and comforting.

“Quit staring.” Lex muttered, looking up and smiling slyly at Clark. Six months ago when Lex would catch Clark staring unabashedly, Clark would stammer denials, his face going hot. Now, he just smiled back and handed Lex a purple highlighter that had rolled off the couch. Lex took it with a nod and went back to trying to find his notes, this time moving on to the stack of notebooks on his lap, humming slightly to himself.

Clark had to smile as he recognized the tune. ‘Laura’ was the last thing that Sophie had played this morning before she had dashed out the door, already late to her Principals of Stage Movement class. It always warmed some part of Clark when Lex did something accidental like this, just another piece of proof of how close they had gotten. It was undeniable proof and although it wasn’t something he could show the rest of the campus, it made the secrets and the subterfuge worth it.

“What are you doing Clark?”

“Mmm?” He looked down at the textbook opened in his lap. “Psychology 1201.”

Lex popped the cap off of his highlighter and ran it neatly over an notebook in his lap. “Have you gotten to Freud and his daughter yet?”

Clark glanced back down at his lap again, “Anna Freud? The one with the theories about... transference?”

Lex nodded, his head bobbing slightly. “Just remember that Freud had inappropriate feelings towards his daughters. Puts a lot of his theories into a different light.”

Clark made a face and quickly turned the page in his book, eyes running over the face that someone had doodled in the margins next to the section on ‘Dream Analysis’. It was in pencil, the sketch slightly smudged by what he assumed was time and perhaps a thumb swiped along the soft lead drawing. Things like this were common in used textbooks, drawings made by a boring student in class, phone numbers with three lines slashed under them and a ‘Call me!’ next to them, small notes made about the class, what would be on the test, guesses to whom the professor was doing, things like that. It amused him endlessly, a moment in time that someone would discard and sell back to a smelly bookstore.

Sometimes, it saddened him too.

“Judge Ross didn’t ask you about the extra clothing in your room? The chem books?” Clark looked up at Lex from his position on the floor again, quiet for a moment before answering, waiting to see if Lex would look up.

“No, she just glanced in long enough to see all of Pete’s stuff and then closed the door.”

Lex’s voice was full of sly amusement, “Maybe she’ll take a better look after last night.” Clark groaned and swatted Lex’s shin.

“You’re damn lucky you didn’t have to go.”

“Yes, I am very lucky in that respect.” Lex’s voice got quieter as he went on. If Clark had been anyone else, he would never have caught the uttered sentence. “Because they would have known right away.”

He opened his mouth to respond but was thrown when the front door was slammed open, the door nob breaking through the cheap plasterboard of the wall.

“Chloe, what the fuc-“

“Jesus!” Chloe swept past the two of them and into Clark’s room, reappearing moments later with an armload of assorted shades of purple and black clothing and running across the living room to toss them into her room.

“There’s no Jesus here.” He snickered before really noticing what she was doing. “Uh... Chloe?” Clark watched as she hurried back into his room, textbooks flying out and landing with loud thumps across the carpeted floor. Clark stood up and peered wryly into his room just in time to catch a half empty box of condoms in the face.

The box dropped innocently to the carpet and Clark glanced down at them, wondering when he and Lex had used Lifestyles last. He shook himself as a CD player went whizzing past his shoulder, followed quickly by jewel cases.

“CHLOE!”

There was the sound of rummaging and then a loud sigh before Chloe stuck her head out of the door, her blonde hair reminding him of Albert Einstein, eyes wild, mouth trembling in what looked like a suppressed smile.

“Hello, Clark.” The calmness of her tone belittled her frantic movements as she ducked back into his room.

A hand dropped on Clark’s shoulder as Lex pushed him aside gently and peeked into the room. “Chloe” he said in a calm voice “if you wanted me to move out, all you had to do was to say so.”

There was a snicker as a framed picture of them came screaming out like a bullet, the edge of it hitting Lex in the shoulder. “I don’t want to move you out, Lex. Just in with me.”

Clark and Lex exchanged a confused look before Clark looked back to the door and called out cautiously “Chloe, why do you want that?”

Again, there was a pause before a calm and collected Chloe came walking slowly out of the room. “Fate and karma are twisted freaks and you want to know why? Because you parents are downstairs, Clark. They’ve come for parents weekend and you can’t say I didn’t warn you.”

***

“It’s okay!” Chloe huffed as she ran past Clark, another load of Lex’s things in her arms. “Sophie was going to distract him while I got up here.”

“How long, Chloe? How long was she going to distract them for?” Clark grabbed a box of test tubes off of his desk and ran them into the girls room, barely noticing Lex as he rushed past him.

“God, Clark! Watch out, those things break!” Lex cringed at the loud shattering sound that echoed as Clark ran again out of the girls room and back into his own calling over his shoulder “So, what’s the story? You’re dating Lex?”

Chloe stopped in the middle of the living room, a couple of Lex’s CD’s in her hands and twirled around to glare at Clark. “We’re hiding Lex’s stuff until your mom does her routine inspection of you room and what’s with the incredulous tone farmboy? I couldn’t date a gabillionaire? Cause let me tell you, a year ago there was no way in hell you’d date one, let alone suck cock.”

Clark glared back at Chloe and crossed his arms over his chest. “Don’t even start with me Sullivan. I was asking because Lex is a Luthor and you’re dad is a LuthorCorp employee.”

Lex sighed at the mention of his last name and rolled his eyes up to the ceiling. The relationship he had with Clark was something he had tried to keep quiet, despite the fact that his apartment was never used and he wasn’t, for all intents and purposes, seeing anyone. In fact it had been months, almost the same amount of time he had been with Clark, since he had graced the front pages of the *Inquisitor*. Soon, he had a feeling, he was going to have to explain his absence from the seedier side of Metropolis to his father. The idea of having to explain that their son was the reason for his lack of being a regular cover to a different set of parents didn’t delight him.

Then again, Lex hated to hide.

“Chloe, we can’t just let him stay with you. We’ll just have to move his stuff out.”

Chloe turned and threw the CD’s into her room, both landing on Sophie’s bed. “When do we do that, Clark? Because if you haven’t noticed, your boyfriend has managed to accumulate a lot of shit here and somehow I doubt we can sneak the boxes past your parents.”

“Fine.” Clark huffed. “Your father will never go along with it.”

Chloe rolled her eyes and gave Lex a look that plainly screamed ‘You date him?’. “My father will because he’s a nice guy, Clark.”

Lex watched as indecision colored Clark’s features before he slowly turned to Lex. “It’ll only be temporary, Lex. I... I don’t want you to leave.”

Lex caught Clark’s eye and smiled reassuringly, or so he hoped. “It’s alright, Clark. I’ll just go now and I’ll stay at my place while they’re here. No need for them to know anything.” As soon as the words dropped out of his mouth, something in Lex turned painfully. It wasn’t the idea of having to keep a new secret or having to lie, it was just another thread of proof of the hard truth that he really didn’t belong here.

Clark bit his lower lip and frowned. “Are you sure? Because... dammit.” He looked down and toed the ground in a painfully and annoyingly innocent way that usually made Lex hard. This time, it just left him annoyed.

“I’m sure Clark.” He clipped out. “They don’t have to know anything. No harm, no foul.”

Clark nodded and turned to Chloe who had moved to glance into her room at the hurricane of Lex’s stuff. “Chloe, I’ll just clean all that stuff up...” He trailed off as a loud and patient knocking sounded on the front door.

There was a moment of pause before Clark went to open it, his movement heavy as if he was under water. Lex managed to cock his head enough to see a nice looking ash gray haired man grin at Clark before reaching out to hug him, one hand slapping him on the back.

“Dad!” Clark managed, before a small red headed woman pushed her way past Jonathan Kent and wrapped her arms around Clark’s right side.

“Mom!” There was a pause as the family reacquainted before breaking apart. “I... I didn’t know you were coming!” Clark’s ‘cheery’ voice was sounding far less cheery as his parents looked up at him adoringly.

“Well son, we decided to surprise you. Pete’s dad mentioned a few weeks ago that was parents weekend was coming up and we knew it was mainly for freshmen but since you haven’t been home much this year...” Jonathan Kent trailed off, his voice and stance admonishing Clark.

Lex watched as the lean line of Clark’s back hunched slightly. “I know dad, I’ve just been busy.”

“It’s alright Clark.” Clark’s mother reached out to smooth a hand down his arm. “We know that you’re busy, your father just misses you.” She finally managed to pull the two men fully into the apartment, an amused looking Sophie following the group.

“Well, you know classes and stuff...” Clark sounded like his father as he trailed off and turned around, his eyes opening wide as they settled on Lex again, as if he had forgotten that the bald man had been there all morning.

“Hello.” Lex managed, taking a deep breath and smoothing his hands down the front of his shirt. He immediately noticed the look of distaste that flushed Mr. Kent’s face, followed shortly by the look of confusion flowing over Mrs. Kent’s.

“Uh mom, dad, this is Lex Luthor. Lex this is my mom and dad, Martha and Jonathan Kent.” Lex took a step forward and held out his hand to the older man who looked down at it before taking it and pumping once, dropping the hand as quickly. Mrs. Kent just nodded at him before moving past the uncomfortable foursome to glance at the notes that littered the floor.

“Lex, do you... study with Clark?” Mrs. Kent bent over and picked up one of Clark’s blue covered notebooks, setting it on the coffee table, her gaze resting on the two half empty water bottles sitting on the table top.

“Sometimes.” He answered truthfully before looking over at Sophie who was having a silent conversation with Chloe across the room. Understanding bloomed on her face and she darted quickly for her and Chloe’s bedroom door but was cut off as Mrs. Kent glanced inside the cluttered room.

“Oh, I remember this from the beginning of the year when we helped Clark move in!” Mrs. Kent’s voice dropped in confusion. “But weren’t Pete and Clark in this room?”

“Yes ma’am.” Sophie answered, politely trying to nudge Clark’s mother away. “But the neighbors on the other side had some ah, noise complaints, so Chloe and I moved over here.” She smiled up at the woman and shrugged.

“Noise complaints but what... oh, something is broken. You should be careful as you try to clean that up. What on earth are you two doing with test tubes and beakers?”

Sophie looked up and shot Chloe a vaguely guilty look, causing all the other occupants of the room to turn to Chloe in curiosity. “They’re Lex’s.” Chloe shrugged and looked down at the floor. Mrs. Kent cocked her head to the side, her gaze going from Chloe, to Lex, to the girl’s bedroom, eyes roving over the man’s clothing littered on the floor and beds.

“They’re Lex’s.” She repeated slowly before her eyes narrowed in understanding. “Oh, *noise complaints*.”

***

Pete stared at Clark, Sophie and Chloe in shock. “Let me get this straight, the Kents showed up and instead of telling them the truth, the half-truth or some pretty but comprehensible lie, you told them that Lex is Chloe’s boyfriend. They think that Chloe and Lex have some nasty, noisy sex and that’s why we changed rooms, and that myself, Clark and Sophie are okay with all of this?”

Sophie, Clark and Chloe nodded miserably.

“God, you three put the people from *Three’s Company* to shame.”

Chloe took a long sip of lemonade before turning to Sophie and muttering “Remind me to cancel Nick At Night. Pete’s not allowed to watch it anymore.” Sophie nodded and ran a hand down her face before turning to Clark.

“Clarkbar, maybe you should just tell your parents. Or tell your mom. She seems pretty cool.”

Clark slumped over the kitchen counter top. “Tell them after we already told them that Chloe was dating Lex, without me getting any time to plan the best way to tell them, after my dad almost puked after seeing Lex standing in the living room? My dad would probably have a heart attack and my mom would be so pissed at all four of us for setting out to deliberately trick her and then causing my dad’s heart attack.”

Pete turned to Sophie, handing her a bottle of Tylenol. “Yeah, man. After the winter formal junior Clark and I were having a snow ball fight Clark was wearing his suit. It got soaked so he stuck it into the dryer when he got home and ruined it. Heh, Clark put his suit back on a hanger and tried to pass it off like he didn’t know anything, but the big pussy” Pete elbowed Clark, hitting him in the shoulder “eventually told his mom and she gave me disapproving looks for a month.”

Sophie sighed and fumbled with the child’s safety lock on the bottle before Chloe took it from her and popped the top, shaking out two pills for herself before handing them back. “So wait, she gets mad because Clark did something stupid and puts blame on you?”

“Yep.” Pete nodded. “If we tell Mrs. Kent now, she’ll kill us.”

“I’m not her kid.” There was an audible gulp as Sophie swallowed the pills without water.

Chloe made a face at her and grabbed a clean glass off the drying rack, turning on the tap and filling her glass with water. “Doesn’t matter, you participated in the lie.”

Sophie turned to Chloe and have her an incredulous look “Hey, I only met her once!”

“Actually, five times.” Clark muttered from his position on the counter. “And that time we spent the weekend in Smallville last semester.”

“What are you? An abacus?”

Clark and Sophie traded hostile glares before Pete made a cutting motion in the air with his arm. “We don’t have time, guys. We need a game plan before Clark’s mom and dad get back from checking into their motel .”

Chloe sighed and leaned against the counter next to the fridge. “Well I need to find my dad before he sees the Kent’s, not that I think he’d say anything but I’m pretty sure that one of Clark’s parents might say something.”

“Okay, good.” Pete held his hand in the air and made a large ‘check’. “What else?”

“I need to find my parents, tell them and convince my mom that this doesn’t mean that Clark is slipping back into the jaws of closeted hell.”

Pete made another large check before adding his own. “I need to find my mom and explain. I’m sure she’ll be cool, just as soon as I mention it was dad who sent the Kents here in the first place.” He made a tiny face but quickly turned to Clark. “Where’s your bunny?”

Clark ignored the nickname and the snickering from the girls. “In class, he said he’s sleep at his place tonight.”

Pete nodded at that, “Don’t forget boyfriend damage control Clark.”

There was a grunt as Clark pushed himself up and looked at his three friends. “Damage control? What for?”

Chloe gave a sigh of exasperation, “Forget it, Clark.”

Clark was about to demand an answer but was cut off by Pete who looked around. “Okay, we’re got our assignments? Good team, *break*!”

***

The Bean was a small diner off of the west side of campus and made the best grease burgers in town, at least, by Chloe’s estimation. She ordered one with the works as her father asked for a cup of coffee. While she didn’t need the food, she wanted to eat as much as possible while her dad was footing the bill, like a bear saves for hibernation. There were worse theories out there.

“I didn’t mean to upset you or Clark last night or imply that...” Gabe broke of and looked away, clearly uncomfortable with this line of discussion.

Chloe swallowed a mouthful of meat and bun, taking a moment to savor the slide of grease down the back of her throat. “I know that dad, and no one was upset.”

Gabe took a sip of his coffee and frowned, reaching for a packet of Sweet n Low. “I just never expected for Clark to be... gay. Not with a father like Jonathan Kent.”

She frowned, ready to correct his reasoning but decided it could wait for another day. “I know dad, it’s a shocker. But listen, the Kents came into town.”

“They did?” Gabe looked up in surprise, the packet of sweeter in his hand forgotten as the sugar substitute spilled out over the table. “They don’t know, I take it?”

Chloe shook her head and sat her burger down, wiping the granules off the table. “Which is why I have to ask a favor of you but you kind of have to keep things quiet.”

***

“Sophia, where can we get Wensleydale cheese in Metropolis? Your father has a craving.”

Sophia sat at the end of the bed in her parent’s hotel room, fingering the taffeta that laced the bottom of her capris. “There’s a Central Market off of Garden Street. I’m sure that they’d have it there.”

“Fantastic, dear. So, we have the football game?” Anita’s voice came drifting out of the bathroom, where she was doing yoga. According to what she had told Sophie, it was the only place that was fung shui in the entire hotel.

“It’s tomorrow, mom. You and dad have tickets in the parents section and the guys and I have our season tickets in the student’s section.” Sophie explained patiently before flopping back onto the bed, resting her head on her hands.

There was a moment of labored breathing before her mother said, voice slightly strained, “Yes, dear. That sounds wonderful. Does that mean we’ll be sitting next to Mr. Sullivan and Judge Ross?”

Sophie grimaces and pushed herself to a sitting position again, eyeing herself in the mirror across the wall. “Yeah, Anita. But I have to tell you something.”

Another labored breath, “Yes?”

“Clark’s parents came today.”

There was a quick crash followed by a low grunt. Sophie had been to enough of her mother’s yoga and tai chi classes to know that it was better not to ask. “That’s wonderful Sophia! Clark can tell them and they can reconnect over the new understanding!”

She rolled her eyes. “No, mom. That means that Clark’s parents don’t know and you are not going to tell them.”

“But Sophia, the weight of the secret is weighing down on his soul. It’s dampening his spirit. I can see it, your father can see it and I know you can.”

“Anita...” Sophie sighed and trudged to the bathroom door, opening it. “It’s not our place to tell. Just like it wasn’t your place to tell Kyle that he had a black spot on his aura before prom.”

Anita waved her hand in a gesture of dismissal, as much as she could, from her downwards dog position. “Kyle needed to know that something was hanging over him.”

“Maybe.” Sophie crouched and looked her mother in the eye. “But this secret, Clark’s secret, is not yours to tell, okay?”

Anita considered her daughter for several minutes, the bright lighting in the bathroom highlighting the lines on her face. “Alright, darling. I wont say anything.”

Sophie gave a sigh of relief before sitting on the cold tile floor. “Thank you. But I need to tell you more about Clark and his boyfriend. And Chloe.”

***

“Clark did what?” Judge Ross asked her son, the vein in her head throbbing slightly.

“I know mom! Clark doesn’t think of others.” And I am a great son in comparison, Pete thought.

Judge Ross frowned slightly. “And you want me to lie to the Kents?” Pete nodded and was about to open his mouth to respond before his mom cut him off.

“Clark is a good boy. I can keep the secret for the weekend.”

The Ross’s were very good at protecting Kentian secrets, Pete was sure that if there was any problems this weekend, they wouldn’t be from his mother.

***

Parents weekend - Day Three (Saturday)

Clark watched, mildly disgusted, as Pete poured ketchup from a tiny packet on his slice of pizza, rolled it up and took a large bite out of it. If Pete would even look at him, he say something about how disgusting his friend’s eating habits were (Coco Puffs in orange juice, french fries dipped in chocolate milkshakes) but Pete’s eyes were glued to the football field below them, elbowing Sophia ever so often when one of the Met U players did something impressive during their warm up.

Clark shook his head and glanced over to his left where Lex was sitting next to him, carefully avoiding anything that had to do with Clark. The five of them had bought student season tickets at the beginning of the year, Clark because he still loved football despite being able to play in college, Pete because he was a Met U fan from conception, Lex because he wanted to humor Clark and the girls because apparently, they loved the smell of sweaty, grunting males smacking the hell out of each other.

Not that they could actually smell the sweat or hear the grunting up in the student section but as Chloe often said, she had one hell of an imagination.

“So Clark, you *do* know where your parents are, right?”

Clark leaned over and stole a handful of popcorn out of Sophie’s bag “In section H, the row behind the rest of your folks and sitting two rows behind your girlfriend and her parents.” He mumbled around the corn, wiping the extra butter off his hands on a napkin she tossed into his lap.

Pete glanced over at the Deeana’s empty seat next to him before leaning over Sophie long enough to give Clark the ‘you are the dumbest motherfucker I know’ look, one carefully crafted and named after freshman prom at Smallville High. “You left them alone with my mom? With Mr. Sullivan? With Mr. and Mrs. key party, 1976?”

“Thank you for reliving that taxicab confession, Pete.” Sophie snarled, smacking Pete on the arm, sending the half eaten slice of pizza to the concrete ground, toppings side down. Pete followed the descent with his eyes and slumped over in his chair, arms crossed over his chest.

“Not your fault that your parents freak me the fuck out.” Pete muttered, reaching a hand into his pocket, searching for his wallet.

Clark sighed and glanced quickly over to Lex who was talking in low tones to Chloe before turning back and muttering, “Everyone promised and I’m not overly worried about it.”

Pete nodded, “Besides you can always,” he gestured to his ears, “you know, to check in.”

Clark frowned hard at Pete, trying hard not to notice Sophie’s confused look. It had been their senior year, saving Chloe from yet another meteor laced freak when Chloe finally figured out the truth and she had been nothing but tight lipped about it ever since. Her knowing had been such a relief to Clark, with Pete gone and his parents the only other people who knew. Moving to college had made it easier to blend in but no matter how much he cared and trusted Sophie, he wasn’t ready yet to tell her. Or to tell Lex for that matter, but that was more of an issue of blanket fear that it wouldn’t be accepted. Fruitless fear, he admitted, but he had only known Lex for less than a year. Was a year actually long enough to know anything and everything about a person?

“Clark, do you remember that game where the player from Edge City pulled off Joe Shine’s pants when he was running in for a touchdown?” Chloe was tugging at his sleeve and grinning at him.

He gave her a confused look. “Huh?”

Chloe turned back in her seat and smiled at Lex, “It was the third or fourth game of the senior year season, the one where Clark finally got to play, and he passed the ball to our wide receiver. When Joe got the ball, there was like, no stopping him. So the guy who was covering him somehow got a hand into his pants and ended up pulling them *off* of Joe as he was running into the endzone.” Chloe grinned brightly. “Didn’t stop him from scoring and from doing a victory dance in his jock strap. Only picture in the Torch that ever got censored.”

Lex’s low laugh slid over the dull buzzing of the crowd and into Clark’s ears, making him shift minutely in his seat. “So Clark was a good football player?” Lex turned and smiled at Clark, causing Clark to grin back, despite the tightening in his pants.

Chloe grinned brightly, “Clark was an amazing football player. We had a championship season and trust me, I didn’t know shit about the game until he started playing.”

“Why didn’t you play in college, Clark?” Clark groaned inwardly as Sophie leaned over in curiosity.

“Because I couldn’t go anywhere with it, so I didn’t see the point.” He muttered, the lie stinging more than the truth. Actually, he couldn’t give the blood test that any major university would require before he entered their sports program so he had backed out with the half ass excuse of never being able to go pro because he didn’t think he was good enough. He had considered faking an injury for awhile but realized that because he had never been injured or sick a day in his life, that might be a harder lie for the town to swallow. Instead, they called him a quitter behind his back and he pretended not to hear them.

It still hurt, even from hours away sometimes he could feel their disappointment. Their first hometown football hero since Whitney had died, and he didn’t want the title.

A cold hand slid over his and he turned, smiling down at Lex. “Thanks.” He murmured as Lex smiled and nodded once, turning back to Chloe to discuss more of Clark’s glory days.

**

14-7, the home team was losing and the student section was three beers away from rioting. Sometime in the last minutes of the first quarter, Pete had ripped off his shirt and was swinging it around like a lasso, screaming at the refs that they had sex with their mothers at night, while Sophie encouraged him by buying beer from every vendor that passed them, cups of beer splashing in the wire carriers they wore around their necks running up and down the stairs, like they were scared for their lives.

Half time came with a resounding sigh from the rest of the fans as the students took the time to go to the bathroom, emptying their bladders for the second half drinking game that had become legend at Met U.

Maybe that was the reason that they had all bought season tickets.

Sophie had led a staggering Pete to the bathrooms, cash in hand and promises to buy everyone a drink for the beginning of the third quarter, leaving Clark, Chloe and Lex comfortably relaxed and chatting about classes.

“*And now, for our half time enjoyment... the LOVE CAMERA!*” The announcer shouted over the loudspeaker and the crowd roared as Chloe rolled her eyes exaggeratedly at Clark and Lex.