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M.F. Luder Written for the CLFF at kardasi.com. Thanks to nortylaK, who totally rocks, and betad the story. *g* Title inspired by Pablo Neruda's One hundred sonnets of love, sonnet LXIX Lex tilts his head, hands stilling a second before resuming his typing. "Hmmm...." Blue eyes lift from the monthly report on the laptop to stare at the boy sitting on the couch, book on his lap, frowning. Lex chuckles under his breath. Clark has a project to finish, and needed as much aid as possible, requesting access to the library. Lex was happy to comply. Lex presses alt and tab, shifting the program to last month's report, going through some details he's sure are mistaken. Clark groans, sitting forward on the couch. Lex sighs. Had he ever been worried only of school projects? Maybe, a long time ago. Lex calculates the rightness of the numbers in his mind, coming up with a decimal difference. He will have to go through the whole report again, to find the mistake. "Oh, god." With a sigh, Lex gazes up at the boy. Clark's leaning over, elbows on his knees, fingers tangled in his hair. The glass center table before him is covered with books. Clark looks despaired, and Lex knows he'll need all the help he can get. Giving up on actually concentrating on his report, Lex stands up, lowering the screen of his laptop. "Problems?" Clark looks up, apparently oblivious to his own cries of complaint. "Huh?" Lex lets himself smile. "Are you having trouble with your project?" Clark seems to weight his options, and Lex knows Clark's worrying about imposing. Lex's touched by Clark's thoughtfulness. "Well..." "I can help you, if you want me to." Green eyes shift from his books, opened and almost meaningless, to the laptop on the desk, needing Lex's attention. "I have time. That report is almost done." A white lie, for Clark's peace of mind. The young boy smiles, making Lex's stomach flutter, and he wonders for a moment about the last time he had felt like that. Oh, right, last time Clark was around. "I just... I'm having trouble with the dates, and the facts. I mean, I know them, but I'm not sure I'm following it." Lex sits down by Clark's side, picks up one of the books, and looks at the title. The Roman Empire. Lex stops himself from smiling. This's something he can certainly help Clark with. "Okay, first of all, lets remember, History is always easy to follow if you try to picture it around you." Clark nods, following every word Lex speaks, and Lex likes the attention. He likes the undivided attention. ***** Lex blinks. "What is this?" Clark smiles at Lex. "My baby." Lex turns around, blue eyes wide. "Excuse me?" Clark chuckles as he picks up the egg in its small box, cradling it to his chest. "Lex, come on, I'm sure you know about home ec." "Yes, but I imagined they teach you how to sew, knit, and all those domestic things." Clark shakes his head. "They also teach us about safe sex and teen pregnancy." "And, if I may ask," Lex crossed his arms on his chest, eyeing the egg doubtfully, "what does that have to do with an egg?" "Well, we learn that taking care of a baby is far too much trouble." Lex raises a thin eyebrow. "Really?" Clark nods enthusiastically. "Yep. I'm supposed to keep this from breaking, and taking it with me everywhere--" "But it doesn't cry, wet its diaper, keep you up at night, bother you constantly--" "Well, it's not a perfect science." Lex thinks about it carefully, a slight frown on his face, then the corners of his lips curve upwards. "Lex?" Clark has learned to be afraid of Lex's ideas. Lex shrugs nonchalantly, even though Clark buys none of it. "Nothing. I just have an idea that will improve your view on teen pregnancy." Clark really doesn't want to know. ***** This sure is a Luthor's idea. Only a Luthor would borrow a day care center to teach Clark a lesson. Clark looks around the plant's day care center. Lex implemented it to keep his workers happy by allowing them to work only feet away from where their children played. And Lex, in his infinite wisdom, asked all three teachers to leave for the day, so that he and Clark can take care of the toddlers. This definitely isn't Clark's idea of homework. "Lex--" He knows he's whining, but, really, he doesn't care. Taking care of twelve toddlers between the ages of one and five is entirely different than taking care of an egg. Lex turns around and smiles at Clark. "This is what the class should be about." Clark looks around before sighing. Two kids, no older than two, are sitting on a checkered rug, playing with teddy bears and balls. Four kids, the oldest of them, are painting and drawing on a circle table on the side. There are toys everywhere, kids picking them up and then leaving them behind. Clark knows he won't be able to handle all that commotion. "No," he says, and he hopes he sounds confident enough, "Lex, I swear, I don't think we'll be able to actually take care of thirteen toddlers." Lex waves it off with one finely manicured hand. "Your teacher wanted you to learn what it meant to take care of an infant, and to do that with an egg leaves something to be desired. However, taking care of children will give you a more realistic view of things." "Lex, I know, it's one thing to take care of one, but thirteen?" Lex crosses his arms, eyes gazing upon the children sitting at their round table, big eyes blinking. Clark tilts his head, looking at Lex as the older man assesses the situation like it was a business deal. He's sure Lex will realize children are anything but business-like. "Well, where do we being?" Clark's about to propose to Lex that maybe they should make the kids play a game, when one of them, a little girl who can't be more than four years old, starts crying for no apparent reason. Clark sniffs. There's something in the air... He doesn't need any super power to know that one of the kids had dirtied his/her diaper. Clark sighs, closing his eyes for a moment. When he opens them, Lex is smirking, and then points to a chest drawer on the right, to where Clark can find diapers. Clark groans. That is the moment when all hell breaks loose. ***** Clark opens his arms and falls down onto the couch, his bones aching, tired in places he had no idea he could be tired. He knows exhaustion is psychological more than physical, but he's tired all the same. There's a chuckle somewhere above him and Clark snorts in response. "You're overreacting." Another snort from Clark's part. "Oh, yeah? Well, you weren't the one who got thrown up on." Clark shakes his head, looking down at his shirt. He smiles at the memory of Samuel, the two year old who didn't like grape juice. His shirt has been damaged beyond repair. Lex chuckles, crossing his arms as he takes a seat on Clark's desk chair. "Well, at least now you know what being a teenage parent implies." "Yeah, I know too much." "One never knows too much." Clark rolls his eyes. Leave it to Lex to say something as... philosophical as that. "Well, I have puke on my shirt, and the smell of dirty diapers to prove it." Lex chuckles, and Clark tilts his head. He wonders when was the last time he saw Lex that relaxed, that young, and he doesn't remember. At least, something good has come out of their incursion into the Rugrats' world. Somehow, the lines around Lex's eyes had eased, and a smile has been present on his lips since early this morning, and Clark smiles, joining Lex in the unwinding of the night. "Did you like it?" The question surprises Clark, and he thinks for a moment before answering. He remembers Andrea, a pretty little girl in a purple dress throwing up her mashed bananas all over his favorite red checkered shirt; Stella, four years only and counting all the way to five, red after two and house as a five, her chocolate milk falling between her chubby fingers; Matthew, two years old, dropping his pants, sitting on the carpet floor and doing number two. And what makes the memories even fonder is that he experienced all this with Lex. "Yeah," Clark turns around, big grin on his face, lips curling on the corners and boyish charm pouring. "I loved it." Lex recognizes the Kent smile, the same one that would make girls go weak in the knees and causes his heart to seem lighter and heavier at the same time. A smile that seems special, private, given only for Lex; that seems to whisper sweet nothings in his ear. That seems to mean much more when they are in the study, sitting on the rug over candlelight dinner that consists only of Chinese. Lex wonders if he wishes for that smile to mean much more. He smiles back, pleased, and is grateful he's sitting, because his mind feel fogged and clouded. "So did I." ***** Clark tilts his head, wondering what exactly this equation is supposed to provide, and half certain he's missing some vital information as he sighs. He lets his pencil fall down, rubbing his eyes with his palm. He's tired; he's been studying for his Calculus final for over five days, and still feels like he doesn't know anything more than addition and subtraction. Frustrated, and feeling slightly stupid, Clark looks out the loft and into the star filled night. He wonders what Lex is doing at the moment. Lex, who would have been eager to help him in his most needful time, like this moment, and would have gotten out a book he probably used in Princeton, and opened it before him, showing him the easiness with which one can operate, and making him feel like the sharpest crayon on the box. Lex, who would have tilted his head and waited for Clark's most naive and obvious question, would have only smiled back, never putting him down, and answered easily and truthfully. Lex, who would have offered cookies and milk after the study session, asking him to stay for dinner, just because he likes Clark's company. Clark thinks it might be because Lex doesn't like to have dinner alone. Lex, who would have told Clark they can take their plates upstairs, to his room, and put on any action film just for Clark's delight. Lex, who Clark hadn't seen in over eleven days. Clark sighs, wondering what Lex is doing. He's probably working, like he had been doing for the past eleven days, too busy for Clark. Clark snorts. He knows that's not true. He's never too busy for Clark. Clark knows Lex has left reports unattended to help Clark with homework. Lex had left the plant early to pick up Clark, just to spend time with him. Lex, who had always put Clark and Clark's family first. But his father -- evil Lionel, for Lionel can't be anything but evil -- has been after two companies Lex wanted for LexCorp, therefore forcing Lex to work double, triple, just to achieve it and not have another aspect of his life for his father to complain about. So Lex has been working, and Clark knows that, and he told Lex not to worry, that he could handle himself for however long it took Lex to take care of business, that he'd be waiting for him when Lex is done. That was twelve days ago. He hasn't called Lex, he hasn't gone to the castle to visit, he's been there only to drop the produce, and then leave. That doesn't mean he hasn't been thinking about Lex. He's been wondering if work was too hard, too much, even for a twenty-three year old genius/business man. He hopes Lex is taking care of himself, eating right -- he has a thing about forgetting meals --, getting enough sleep -- at least eight, though Lex claims he can live on only four. He stares at a star, wondering if Lex is still up, then snorts. It's only nine o'clock; of course Lex is still up. Lex probably still has a good six hours of work ahead of him, and Clark promises himself he'll take Lex out the minute he's done with his work. To a picnic, or to Metropolis, to have something nice for dinner and just relax for a whole day. He promises himself that, and doesn't wonder where the money will come from. He'll deal with that later on. ***** Three days later, on a Wednesday afternoon, at twenty past four, as Clark is finishing up his last paper due next day for Biology (a subject Clark prays he doesn't have to take next year), Clark hears an engine roaring, getting closer and closer. It's not the Porsche, because Clark would recognize the Porsche. It's not the Aston Martin either; he recognizes that one too. Two seconds later, the engine goes off, and Clark knows it's parked right before the Kent house. Clark smiles and saves his file, closing the computer in a swift movement of his fingers. He doesn't get down the stairs fast enough. He grins from ear to ear at the sight that greets him. There is a dark red Lamborghini on the driveway, Lex standing against it, arms crossed, sly smile on his lips. Clark whistles. "Whoa!" Lex chuckles, pushing himself off the car, dark coat flying behind him elegantly, purple long sleeved shirt underneath. "And here I thought you had gotten lost." Lex shakes his head, hugging Clark the minute he's close enough. "I missed you," whispers Clark into Lex's ear before he can stop himself, and he pauses. He expects Lex to tense in his arms. Instead, and to Clark's very own surprise, Lex relaxes even more into the embrace. "So did I," answers Lex. When they pull away, Lex turns around in a second, admiring his beauty, hand caressing the hood. "So?" Clark sighs, almost dreamily. He isn't looking at the car. "Gorgeous," he says after a moment. He frowns, turning around to look at Lex. "I thought you were working." "Done with it all. I arrived home after the plant, and I found this lovely sight in my garage." Lex smirks, gazing over his shoulder at Clark. "You father?" The idea in itself is confusing. Lex shrugs slender shoulders. "I assume, yes. He has a thing for giving me cars." "And you have a thing for them." Lex's chuckle is throaty, and Clark feels something warm in his chest. He tells himself it's summer coming around. "Wanna go for a ride?" "Sure." Lex takes a step forward, throwing the car keys over his shoulders. Clark catches them without missing a step. "Huh?" Lex opens the passenger door, looking at Clark as he climbs in. "Well?" Clark doesn't need to be told twice. ***** They have dinner at the castle, Italian take out from Metropolis -- Lex spoils Clark, but he refuses to have hamburgers -- with a glass of 1873 Chardonnay for Lex and Coke in a one hundred year old crystal collection glass. The fire is lit by their side, Lex's right leg is crossed over his left one, stretched on the Persian rug. Lex smiles and lifts his glass in a toast. Clark does the same, Coke bubbling. "To?" Lex tilts his head, pondering. There's only one answer that feels right. "To us." Blushing, Clark ducks his head, nodding. "To us," he mumbles under his breath. His cheeks are hot, his chest seems tight and he has trouble breathing. He doesn't understand the reason. Lex nods, barely moving, barely breathing, and takes a sip of the wine. It tastes almost bitter in his lips against a sweetness he recognizes as devotion. Drinking his Coke, Clark chuckles onto to his hand. He doesn't know the reason for his laughter. Lex looks up, somewhat intrigued, and he remembers the first time he heard that laughter, and every time since then. He recognizes the red tinge in Clark's cheeks, the meaning behind it, innocence in the reaction. He accepts having missed that face for the past two weeks, and admits he could think of nothing more, wanted nothing more than to see Clark. He acknowledges his own emotions regarding those traits, and feels more certain and comfortable in his skin since his first memory. It's because of those lips that he exists, and it's because of this person, of the boy sitting before him, making his life bright, that he wakes up. It's because of him, that he is. And he can do nothing more than express it. He leans over, placing the glass on the carpet, his other hand reaching for Clark's cheek, and he feels content when the boy doesn't pull away. Their lips meet in a simple, silent kiss, and it's perfect and home, and everything Lex has never felt before. It's the very reason he exists, he realizes. It's because of this kiss, of this moment, that he has been living his past twenty-three years. It's because of him. Lex smiles against the kiss, and Clark presses their lips closer together. Lex complies. When they pull away, Clark lets out a soft sigh, then smiles. Lex knows Clark's pleased smile reflects his very own. Clark swallows thickly, then sighs once again. "I've never been in love." Lex nods, his chest light, weightless, though filled with something new, something perfect, and it only seems to fit. "I know." Lex smiles tenderly, his reaching for Clark's cheek once more, caressing lovingly. Clark leans into the touch. Lex feels the same way. "For everything, there is a first time." << |