Sacred series:  Within these words they speak of kings and gods.  Glory could never be known greater by these characters if they were to be Steinbeck, Shakespeare, or Proust himself.  The scarceness of virtues is not to be overlooked by any which one and is so lost on a path of vindication so forth until the blessing of love is set in stone between these souls. Bonds of destiny allow us to collide into a beautiful swirl of fiction and our interpretation of what could have been.  This focus could have never been more sacred than our right to breathe or press our lips to the one we worship

“Lex!” Clark shouted as he busted through the old Club Zero warehouse door.  Something ached inside of Clark the moment he saw Lex tumbling, falling from the balcony of the club.  It brought him back to a memory of the day on the bridge…

He had never been more content in his life as he watched a Porsche tumble towards him.  At that moment he couldn’t have cared less whether he survived his tragic location.  But it all changed.  The driver’s eyes bore into him and he saw the hope that was worth more living for than an ideal existence…

Clark could see now why he happened to always be there just in time to save Lex’s life—it was something of fate.

Lex had already landed on the sofa that “just-so-happened” to end up usefully and thankfully underneath him, “Get down! There's a man with a gun up there!” Clark stood over him now.

“Where?” There was the contractor, laying aimlessly halfway down the stairs.  Lex didn’t know half of it. “You mean that guy? What happened?”  Clark was getting better at playing coy.

“I have no idea. How'd you find me here?” Lex looked at Clark with something next to bewilderment and amazement.

“With a little help from my friends,” subliminal messages be damned.

By the week’s end, the Talon had its grand opening.  Lex drove up in his sleek, silver Porsche and approached the door of the old theatre.  He could see Clark through the windows, handing a gift to Lana.  Something in him twisted—it felt like an abiding jealousy, slowly growing from nothing relevant, or so he wanted to believe and tell himself so he could sleep better.  Lex entered as soon as Lana was within restrictive distance.

“I get the feeling you're avoiding me, Clark,” he said as he approached the tall khaki-clad farm boy.

Clark turned slightly to acknowledge the wealthy man now beside him, “I just realized there's a lot I don't know about you.”

“You think my dark past is gonna rub off on you?” Lex attempted to cover the unintentional message quickly, “I was trying to protect Amanda. My father wouldn't have raised a finger to help her, but I knew he'd do anything to save his only son.” Cover complete.

“So you took the fall and everything was covered up. Is that really what happened? Is it the truth?”  Truth was something even Lex couldn’t afford and it was something Clark could never tell—no matter how much somebody cared about him or he likewise.  His parents were the only ones to know of Clark’s origins, and at this time, with Lex standing there, truth was a sensitive subject matter.

“The truth is, I'd do anything to protect my friends.”  Was Clark actually allowing himself to believe the words of a man he knew for only a few months who would slowly chink in his armor of deceit? 

Lana came up at that moment with a tray full of cappuccinos, “Hi Lex.  First one’s on the house.  Here you go, Clark.” They both thanked her and she turned to negate her way through the crowd, bestowing caffeine amongst the patrons.  

“You know, I’m very proud of her,” Clark threw out there as Lex wiped away crème from his nose.  The twinge of jealousy seemed to veer its ugly head again.  He had to change the subject matter quickly.

“I wanted to thank you Clark, or at least I think that I should,” Lex let that hang in the air.

Clark looked at him puzzled and responded, “Your welcome?”

“I don’t know how to repay you, what for the car accident, Earl Jenkins’ jitters, my domestic help incident, the telltale tattooed thieves…”

“Okay, okay, I get the picture Lex,” Clark countered with a grin and a sip of his cappuccino.

Lex smiled back and saw his opening, “Why don’t you stop by for dinner?”  He didn’t hesitate; there was no form of insecurity in his voice, “I can let you in on what happened that night three years ago—I don’t want there to be any secrets or scandals between us.”  That was his bait.

Clark wasn’t quite biting, “I don’t know Lex.” But his mock indecisive face was a dead give-away.

“Come by after the opening settles; have a real dinner besides coffee and crumpets.”

“Sorry Lex, I already ate.”

“Then how ‘bout a movie.”

“I thought you wanted to talk, tell me about your past.  You can’t very well ruin a movie with chatting.”  Clark was playing.  Lex knew this because Clark’s full attention was on him and there was an odd gleam in his eye.

Just then, a fellow patron bumped into Lex and caused him to pitch his drink completely across Clark’s dress shirt—one of few, Lex thought.

Clark remembered to feign shock of a hot beverage as Lex sputtered out apologies and grabbed plenty of napkins from the closest table.  He patted at Clark’s chest, slowing to realize Clark was allowing this.  They barely even touched, on accounts other than saving Lex’s life or brotherly pats-on-backs. 

Lex looked up to find Clark looking at him with something akin to curiosity.  As Lex finished up as best he could, Clark’s expression of curiosity changed quickly to confusion as Lex apologized once more and left.

“What was that all about?”  Lana again. 

Clark didn’t realize that he was holding his breath.  “I don’t know.  Sorry Lana, I got to go.”

Lana was the one now to be confused.

Clark ran outside just in time to catch Lex getting into his car, “Lex.”

Lex stood and leaned against his car, seemingly casually, “Maybe I shouldn’t have gotten into the coffee business.  One way or another the caffeine always turns to tragedy.”

“A movie Lex.”

“What?”

“I would love to come over to watch a movie tonight.”  Lex just looked at him like he was the town pariah.  “Can I get in?”

Lex snapped out of his reverie and stated quickly, “Yes!  Sorry, sure.  Hop in.”

The ride was generally quiet but short, given the speed at which Lex travels.  Clark didn’t know much of the man he was sitting next to.  At least it felt that way.  Lex even shifted the gears with a grace that was much like a man living out a inexplicably slow life.  Even Alexander the Great’s pride could not match the esteem riding on his shoulders.  Clark’s eyes shot down as Lex shifted into fifth gear on the main highway.  Corn never seemed so fast—to Clark’s humanized demeanor at the moment anyway.

They chose to watch Star Wars Episode Two: Attack of the Clones and got comfortable with popcorn and silent as soon the LucasArts logo faded to gold.

When the scene of Padme and Anakin came on—the scene where he makes her feel uncomfortable and she rightly tells him so—Clark found himself speaking out loud, “You always look at me like that.”

“What?”

Clark stared at the screen with wide eyes.  He had always thought but never concluded whether or not Lex had felt anything for him.  “Nothing,” he said—without even looking at Lex.

Lex grabbed the remote and paused the movie—Obi-Wan was telling Anakin to not do anything without consulting either himself or the Council.

“Do you want to tell me something, Clark?”

“No, not particularly.” 

“Look at me, Clark.  What’s going on?”

Clark finally sighed and turned to Lex, “Well, you do look at me like that—sometimes!  Not all the time!  Well, maybe.  I don’t remember.”

Lex just kept looking at him because he knew there was more to say.

“It’s like you want me and you know you can’t have me, so all you can do is look.”

Lex’s gaze seemed to fixate on the coffee table in front of them now; he said quietly, seemingly to himself, “Look but don’t touch.”

“That’s,” Clark tried to offer and found himself swallowing nervously as Lex looked at him intently, “that’s from a movie:  touch but don’t taste, taste but don’t,” Lex scooted closer to him, “but don’t…”

Lex was an inch away from his face and commanded, “Swallow,” he finished.

Clark gulped and licked his lips the second before Lex pressed his to Clark’s.

Clark was beginning to think that love was like a religion—you had the choice to believe in it or not only because it wasn’t necessarily proven fact yet.  But it was sad to think that he could already believe in this: love.  Pathetic.  Superlative.  Incomparable.  Was he in love with Lex after just a few months from meeting him?  Men of history, or maybe of Clark’s wanting to have faith that men of history have traveled over mountains and crossed impossible terrains within months and stumbled across an old religious sect of Buddhism or Hinduism only to have their faith converted. 

Human conversion is sometimes slow and the change is noticed over an entire lifetime.  These people seem to be patient and utterly understanding of everyone else’s problems that get placed upon their shoulders. 

Other times, though—it’s quick and seemingly instant and something next to beautiful.  A person is changed forever. And whether they know it or not they have become better than they ever could have been if they had followed a different path—never allowed themselves to change.  Sometimes people don’t allow themselves to change and therefore would never know what it would be like to allow someone else in, to hold someone dear and never let anything harm them, to seek their attention and let them talk about how their day went, to want to touch and hold and taste, to need to be with them and wonder how different their life would be without them—but it was the chance and change they took.

Clark was about to change and allow it.  He was about to believe that he could let Lex be held by him—he was about to believe that he loved the lips and the man and the philosophy and everything else attached to them.

But he wasn’t about to believe anything as Lex pulled away and said quite rushed, “I’m sorry—I shouldn’t have done that.”

There was nothing special about the fact that he was here but maybe the fact that he knew Lex was staring at him like he had been fasting like a saint and it was time he was blessed with a feast.  And still, Lex had apologized for what seemed like the millionth time today and he was becoming a master of faults.

He told Clark it was probably best that he left as soon as possible…

…Four years had passed since that day.  Most conversation was kept brief and suspicions slowly arose over time.  Lex looked at Clark with a more accusing eye and Clark lost his faith in Lex as he found out about the many women and inexplicable experimentations.

He didn’t lose his faith that he could love though.  He didn’t lose his faith in loving Lex.  Time and complications seemed to tear them apart and nothing was being said. 

Lex never explained to Clark that he needed him like the air he breathed or the water he drank.

Clark was choking on the oxygen of Earth and was drowning in temptation to unleash on Lex.  He wanted to yell and hit and cradle that man.  He wanted to kiss and hug and persecute his ostracized friend.  He couldn’t make sense of it anymore.  He wanted to hold the man and be as far as possible from Lex at the same time.

But whenever Lex looked at Clark all he saw was walking deceit, deception, and a beautiful person that had saved him from enemies and even himself.  Every time he knew Clark was lying to him, the young man became more and more a walking disappointment.

There was nothing more worthy than a friend with an understanding of discretion; Lex wasn’t about to be discrete with the facts that he knew—if not to everyone else than to himself and Clark when he had him cornered and terrified and begging.  But then again, there was nothing more sacred than a beauty unknown.  Lex wasn’t a patient man though—the billionaire wasn’t going to wait around for Clark to divulge his grand old secrets.  His curiosity had been too piqued in the past and now it interested him that Clark would still avoid his questions and litigations.  He hated Clark for that.

Maybe Lex didn’t know the difference between love and hate.

Clark couldn’t have known the difference between love and hate at the moment.  He felt so betrayed by Lex’s deception and lies and denial.  The fact that Clark had saved him multiple times and Lex would question him, knowing the nausea he was causing in Clark’s stomach—knowing all along that there was something to him, something to Clark that was unexplained.  He was researching it yet knew for all of poetic power that Clark wouldn’t break.  Lex knew still.  Lex tested him—seeing if his “best friend” would lie this time.  How many more times, Lex would ask himself.  How much longer is Clark going to keep this part of himself from me? It was Catch 22.  It covers the ridiculous situation but not to its direct façade. 

Their lives were far from together now.  Clark was deciphering his destiny through Jor-El and Lex decided his through a near-death abdominal and chest shot.  After Lex’s shooting, he kept himself from Lana—a deep and growing infatuation, the Talon, and all of Smallville; he tried his best to drop anything concerning Clark and found a woman to propose to.  Clark moved into the Metropolis University dormitories and attempted to forget is destiny for a moment. 

Moving back in from Christmas vacation was a hassle—well, for everyone else.  Super college student didn’t mind a bit; what got to him was that he was done unpacking before everyone else and was now helping everyone else he knew before break.  His residential assistant once said that the people that you know after break aren’t exactly the same you knew before—Clark hoped that it wasn’t the case with Andy. 

On the first day of moving in he met Andy.  Upon giving Clark his keys to his room, it was the killer smile and warm eyes that welcomed the college freshman to the dorms.  He was Clark’s height with tanned skin and dirty blonde hair and knew how to make Clark feel special—with the exception of already being beyond ordinary human beings.  Andy was lovable, charming, and ordinary—always what Clark wanted to be and far from what he felt—and Andy fell for Clark.  Since move-in day they had been seeing each other.

Lex wanted to deny any feelings for Clark and proposed to a nice, modest girl named Sarah.  She was a homebody that grew up in Illinois and moved to Metropolis for a new beginning—where she met Lex and knew he had a grand future.  Sarah had thick dark hair and an excellent physique that Lex tried his best to convince himself that he wasn’t attracted to her because she reminded him of a homebody from Smallville.

Clark and Lex were not part of each other’s lives anymore—until one day.  Lex thought that he was in the safe zone to go to the Kent’s farm to invite Jonathon and Martha to his wedding but he was wrong. 

Back at Metropolis University Clark pressed Andy up against the wall and moved his hips slowly into him, “I’m sorry, I’ve got to return my parent’s truck by dusk.”

Andy moaned into Clark’s neck, “I guess I’ll see you later tonight then?”

“Yeah, I’ll be back by eight.”  He kissed Andy full on the lips and left with jingling keys.

Clark pulled up to the old farm later that afternoon to find a sleek Aston Martin in the driveway.  Maybe he could get out of there before anybody saw him—too late.  Lex was being escorted down the porch as he put the truck into park.  He groaned.  Martha’s face lit up as she saw Clark and Jonathon gave a knowing scowl to the situation that was about to be had.  He got out of the truck and greeted his parents, “The truck’s back by dusk as I promised and,” he brought his eyes to Lex’s sad ones, “it’s nice to see you Lex.”

The lost billionaire gave a small smile and walked slowly up to Clark like he was about to bolt like a spooked colt.  He held out his hand in greeting only to be surprised—Clark received it with measured enthusiasm.  “How’s college treating you Clark?”

“It’s going well.”  Clark gave himself a moment, “I met someone, you should met him sometime.”

“Him?”  Lex was beyond puzzled but then again he had come to realization that Clark didn’t back away that fateful day watching Star Wars.

“Yeah, his name’s Andy—I can actually tell you all about him and the rest of college if you’re willing to give me a ride back?”  He put on his best smile hoping that he wasn’t pushing too hard.  That’s what college does to most—it strips away inhibitions and makes you want to reconsider friendships and especially relationships that you’ve cut off due to distance or solvable problems. 

Lex didn’t know what to think and answered after a moment’s thought, “Sure, why not?”

Clark caught up with his parents for a moment and headed back to Metropolis in Lex’s Aston Martin.  Once again he watched Lex shift the gears but that invisible confidence was something he didn’t know if was overbearing or non-existent.  Clark talked and kept everything superficial while Lex informed him of business endeavors and of the wedding.

“Lex, that’s great!  I can’t believe it, you’re going to get married.  Well, I hope everything works out and that,” they pulled up to Clark’s dorm at that moment, “oh, here I am.”

With some unknown reluctance they parted ways that evening but not without Clark’s invitation, “Why don’t you have dinner with Andy and myself tonight.  It’s Saturday and we can get into Club Volatile.”

Lex didn’t even think otherwise, “Sure, I can get us into Le Encore for dinner, I know the chef there.  My driver can take us in an hour.  Be ready?”

Clark scoffed at how surreal even seeing Lex was and now he was going out to dinner with him, “Yeah, we’ll be ready.”

“See you then.”

Back in Clark’s room Andy was reluctant, “How can you even consider talking to this guy, he made you miserable!  Now you’re having dinner with him?”

“I can give him a second chance,” Clark rebutted.

“It’s more like the eighteenth chance.  Clark, I don’t think I should go tonight.”

“What?”

“Just catch up with your old friend, I don’t think I should go.”  Clark was about to make Andy change his mind but, “No, Clark, go.  Without me.  No more talk, just go.  Plus you look amazing.”  Clark smiled in his black sweater, dark blue jeans and styling shoes.

“Alright.”  He kissed Andy, “There was a reason why I knew I loved you.”  He slipped on a black pea coat and went to wait for Lex.

Over dinner, stories of college pranks and Excelsior flings were shared.  Nothing seemed awkward until the club.  Clark was only nineteen and ordered a coke; Lex got a seven and seven.  They sat at a booth watching the dancers grind and bump and thrive out on the floor.  To keep attention in the friend zone, Lex began to speak of his fiancé, “So I actually met my future wife here.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Nope, she came to me out on the dance floor and held my hand—completely avoiding any other contact.  Far from risqué.  It wasn’t until the end of the night she introduced herself and said that she was going to marry me.  I couldn’t believe how blunt she was, considering that after we started dating she’s so conservative and keeps to herself.”

Clark found himself looking at Lex’s scar on his upper lip as he spoke about Sarah.  “Stop staring Clark.”  It was like a role reversal of that day back at the mansion watching that damn movie. 

Clark squinted slightly, considering his question, “Do you want to dance Lex?”

Lex tilted his head slightly and stood up, heading to the dance floor.  He realized he was alone and turned to see Clark still in his seat, “Well come on, what’s the matter?”

The darkly-clad younger man got up and joined Lex, “Sorry, it’s just that I can’t believe we’re here.  Together.”  He had to practically yell over the thumping music. 

“Neither can I,” Lex whispered to himself—little did he know was that Clark actually picked up on it.

They began dancing but shortly into it Clark grabbed a small girl with brunette hair while two blonde women wearing barely-there tops thwarted Lex.  Clark couldn’t help but watch as Lex moved with grace and women groped him in places where he could only imagine. 

He couldn’t stand it anymore, the older man that was once his friend was attracting him in no way he would have thought possible during high school.  Turning his small brunette toward another male dancing, Clark came up behind Lex and wove his fingers into Lex’s.  Lex turned to see Clark looking at him with want and unpractical need.  “Clark, don’t do this.”

He pulled Lex closer with their laced fingers behind Lex’s black buttoned up back.  Breathing down his pale neck, Clark brought their bodies into alignment—feeling how hard they both really were.

“This?”

But all thought was lost as Clark grazed his lips across Lex’s slowly and oh so agreeably.  The teasing came to an end as Lex gave in and opened his lips and delved his tongue into Clark’s hot mouth.  Shaking from want was underrated.

They soon found themselves back at Lex’s penthouse in the center of Metropolis’s financial district. Groping and grinding and heavy breathing filled the foyer as the door closed and two men of extraneous pasts that wanted to believe in futures came together.  Lex silently thanked Sarah for being home with her parents for the weekend.

They couldn’t even wait for the bedroom as Lex pushed Clark into a nearby wall and crushed his erection into Clark—wanting something more than this.  Clark groaned for more as Lex unzipped his jeans and teased the warm flesh of his lower abdomen.  “You only live once Lex.”

With that, Lex pushed down the boxers and freed Clark.  He sucked at the young man’s neck as he held him and pumped him of anything far from grace.  Clark tried to control his hands and balanced himself against the wall behind himself as his knees gently gave way and the world spun.  Instead of Clark falling to his knees Lex did and took him into his mouth. 

Gasps and restrained breaths escaped Clark as Lex took him in completely, bumping the back of his throat.  Finding leverage by holding Clark’s buttocks, Clark found his by holding gently to Lex’s head.  Speeding up the tempo, Clark was losing sanity in the situation and gave into his spasms of ecstasy, pumping fluids down Lex’s throat—who swallowed greedily. 

Lex sat back on the floor and looked up at a panting Clark.  “I guess that’s it.”

“If you want.”

Lex shook his head but deduced, “Not exactly—but will you be my best man.”

“Definitely.  I hope you got what you want.” Nothing close to vehement. 

Nodding, Lex watched as Clark left his penthouse without another word. 

Love and want is complicated and sometimes a person’s hate can be confused for need.

End