The Glitter Jungle:
Fiction:
Modification
Lex has a secret, Lionel finds out
Lionel stopped short upon entering the bathroom, stunned.
Lex stood before the mirror, his head covered in foam. As Lionel looked on, Lex lifted a razor and with a sure hand grazed it across his scalp.
Lionel noticed the soft, ginger-coloured hair on his son's chest. Noticed, when Lex raised his hand again to shave another stripe, that Lex had hair under his arms.
Noticed the cold, concentrated way his son stared at himself in the mirror.
***
It had started when Lex was about 13.
His mother had just died. His father, who was always cold and remote, became even more unapproachable.
His hair started growing.
The hair he'd lost when he was nine. Bright red and soft, it was growing again; on his head and chest, under his arms and around his genitals.
His father was away on a business trip. Lex didn't know what to do.
He didn't like it.
Lex was used to being the freak, the odd kid, the bald kid, the rich kid. Now, the orphaned kid.
He found his strength in the insults he heard behind his back. He found even more strength when they said it to his face. Freak. Alien. Weirdo.
He snuck into his parents' suite. Took his father's shaving cream and spare disposable razor, used them for the first time and caused some bad cuts.
The guidance counsellor noticed the cuts. Thinking he was hurting himself on purpose, she sent him to a therapist.
Lex didn't tell the therapist about his hair.
***
In time, he learned how to shave perfectly. By the time he was fifteen, he was shaving nearly every day. All of his head, face and scalp alike.
He took to wearing long sleeves. Buttoned his shirt all the way up.
When he needed for some reason to be naked - doctor's appointment, pool party, sex - he shaved his entire body.
The first time was exciting.
Lex locked the bathroom door, even though he was alone in the house. He slathered the shaving cream - it was now his. He'd bought his own bottles, same brand as his father's, and hid them at the bottom of his closet - all over his legs, and then ran the razor experimentally up one leg.
His own gasping reaction surprised him. The erection surprised him even more.
After he was done, he stood in front of the mirror and watched. Entirely smooth body. He even shaved his genitals. He told himself it was 'just in case', but he knew.
He did it because it felt good.
***
The disgusted look on his father's face.
His father, with his carefully cultivated mane of impressive, gorgeous hair. Looking at his son's never-changing bare head. Angry, maybe, or just disappointed.
Lex is glad.
He knows what he's doing. He has complete control over his body. He knows every part of his body, ritually christens every part. He took to shaving his entire body at least once a month, whether needed or not.
The amounts of body lotion he consumes are immense, but the staff chalks it up to masturbation, no doubt. They think he's a very lonely young man at sixteen. Always hiding in the bathroom.
They don't know he goes clubbing and cruising every weekend on vacation from school.
They don't know what he does *at* school.
***
He's 23 now. He's so accustomed to this. It's his ten-year anniversary.
He's never seen his own hair, never let it grow beyond the first stage of stubble.
Lionel is blind, and keeps touching his face. He'd notice the stubble much sooner, and Lex has to shave twice a day now. Or avoid his father, but that's easier said than done.
He looks into the mirror.
Every time he does that, it's the same. He thinks about letting his hair grow.
He knows he can't do that without giving up control.
And so the ritual begins.
He spreads the cream on his head. His hand doesn't shake as he holds the blade near his eye. He smirks.
Shaving. Smooth cheeks. Smooth throat, careful of that Adam's apple. Smooth scalp, and the back of the neck.
Lex is looking at his chest in the mirror, wondering if he should do something about it.
He's not planning on anything, but it's better to be safe than... caught.
He reaches for the shaving cream again. He starts working on the upper part of his chest when he catches a glimpse of his father behind him in the mirror.
The shock is clear on Lionel's face. Beneath the beard, the moustache, the long, wavy hair.
Lex's hand misses a beat. A droplet of blood appears near his collarbone.
He swallows.
***
Moments pass.
Two men stare at each other through the mirror, eyes wide in shock.
"Lex..." Lionel reaches to touch the pale, smooth arm. "What are you doing, son?"
Lex's reaction is violent. He shakes his father's grip, and pushes the man away. They're both not ready for the sharp movement. Lionel stumbles back.
"You can see." Lex's voice is icy, but there is burning hurt and anger behind it.
"I..." Lionel hadn't even thought about his charade. He has no excuses. He was too engrossed in his son's actions.
"You lied to me."
"And you lied to me." Lionel found his footing. "How long has this been going on?"
Lex only now feels the burn of the cut on his chest. He turns to the mirror, and touches the blood. He picks a tissue, wipes the little red smear.
He doesn't answer.
"Lex..." His father sighs.
But Lex just shakes his head. Still staring at the mirror.
Eventually, Lionel turns on his heel and stalks out of the room.
Lex doesn't look.
***
When Lex enters the office, his father is sitting there by the fire, holding a glass of brandy, staring at it swirling, reflecting the flames.
"We have to talk, Lex."
Lex sits across from him, but says nothing.
"What the hell were you doing in there, and for how long have you been doing it?" Lionel doesn't exactly raise his voice, but the barely restrained rage is there, in his tone and body language.
Lex remains quiet, smiling. It infuriates his father even further, he knows.
"Answer me when I talk to you!"
Lex runs a provocative hand over his soft, hairless cheek. If it wasn't for the meteors, his skin would probably not be this satiny and flawless after all this shaving. He knows that, and it makes him smile even more.
"Lex, damnit!...." Lionel rises and paces around the room. It feels odd, doing it without the cane, without having to pretend. Feels somehow easy. Free.
And he's sick of pretending.
"Why would you do this?" He asks, quietly. Tiredly.
Lex isn't sure how to answer, but he knows intuitively that Lionel isn't asking this to control him, or to figure out his secrets, or to break him. He's just asking, because he truly doesn't understand.
He wonders if he should be honest.
"I started one day when you were on a business trip..."
Lionel looks just a few years older. Knowing he was away a lot, knowing his son never really had a father.
"After mom died."
And this just hits him like a blow to the chest, the pain he felt after his beloved wife had passed away, not being able to be there for his son when he most needed him.
"My hair started growing." Lex swallows. "I know how you felt about me, dad. When I was nine and older. How you felt about having this bald freak of an heir."
Lionel starts shaking his head, as if to deny the accusation, but he doesn't say a word.
"I guess it was puberty. New hair starts growing in new places," Lex smiles humourlessly, "And in some old places as well, it seemed."
Lionel looks at his son and the pain is clear in the lines around his eyes.
"I shaved it all off. Every time it grew, I cleaned myself. Made myself... what *I* wanted to be, dad."
Lex's eyes sparkle. He takes vicious joy in telling his secret.
"No one knew, dad. No one *knows*. Except you. And you can't *know*, because, aren't you blind?" And Lionel knew Lex would bring that up, of course he would, but does it have to be now?
"We all have... our reasons to keep secrets, Lex."
Lex walks calmly to his father. He takes the glass from his hand, and slams it into the fireplace. The flames grow momentarily, consuming the alcohol.
"Your lie makes no sense, dad."
"Neither does yours." Lionel retorts immediately.
They look at each other and an understanding shines on their faces.
"You fake a weakness..."
"Because it gives you strength."
And who said which part of this? They don't know.
Info:
Sequel was removed from site.