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by Hergerbabe

Sequel/Series: hope not

Pairing: Clark/Lex

Rating: NC-17

Category: first time, romance, angst, h/c

Archive: list archive

Notes: Not the most original of ideas, and if it wanders close to anyone else’s territory, I apologise, it’s unintentional

Warnings: not yet

Disclaimer: not mine

Summary: Clark saves Lex again, but with odd consequences

As always for Christine, Clark dipped in whipped cream for ya hon :)

 

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by Hergerbabe

Clark was speeding home from school when he heard it. An engine over-revving, gears crunching painfully, then the squeal of tires on the road. It was one of Lex’s cars, he was sure of it, and he changed direction, running even faster towards the noise.

He reached the road just as Lex’s car left it, and Clark swerved after it. The only thing he could think of at that moment to stop Lex hitting the hill was to get in front of the car. He ran forward, putting himself between the car and the hillside, meeting Lex’s shocked eyes as the car slammed into him.

He grimaced at the slight twinge as he hit the wall of rock, and the car hit him. Then the car stopped, and Lex flew through the windscreen into his arms.

“Lex,” Clark gasped, “Shit, are you okay?”

“Yes, yes, God! Clark!” Lex gasped, shaking his head in shock and horror, “What the hell? I hit you, I fucking hit you!”

“Um,” Clark swallowed, “Yeah, see, oh…” Clark trailed off feeling distinctly queasy all of a sudden and his legs started to hurt.

“Clark?” Lex frowned worriedly, his friend had just turned an interesting shade of green. Then he was dropped onto his car as Clark fell forwards. “Shit, Clark, what’s wrong?”

“Get me away from the hill,” Clark managed to whisper. He could feel the meteor rock in the hillside behind him leeching away his strength. Lex stood up on the bonnet and grabbed Clark under his arms, heaving him out from between the car and the rock with difficulty.

Clark attempted to help, but he was weakening fast, there must be a *lot* of meteor rock. Starting to panic a little, Lex dragged Clark over the car and onto the ground.

“Come on, Clark, you’re too heavy for me to carry,” Lex grunted.

Away from direct contact, Clark was able to help Lex haul him to his feet and they staggered away to the other side of the road. Clark felt like he could breathe again and he straightened slightly, feeling a little stronger.

“What the hell was that, Clark?” Lex snapped, mostly out of fear and shock, but Clark still flinched, “And don’t tell me adrenaline this time!”

Clark swallowed and looked down at the ground, “Lex, I wanted to tell you, really, I just…”

“Couldn’t trust me,” Lex snorted bitterly.

“No!” Clark exclaimed, wincing at the hurt he could hear in Lex’s tone, “No, Lex, if I could have told anyone it would have been you, but no one knows, no one. Because I’m not just some meteor rock mutant, Lex.”

Lex raised an eyebrow, ”Oh? What are you then, because withstanding not one, but two, and don’t even try to tell me I *didn’t* hit you that time, car hits at over 60 miles an hour isn’t exactly normal!”

“I don’t know.”

Lex blinked, Clark still wasn’t looking at him, but his voice had a different quality to it, not just nervous and apologetic as it had been, but full of sadness and loneliness, something Lex understood all too well. He stepped forward and reached out to gently pull Clark into a hug.

Clark clung to his friend, trying desperately not to cry as several things overwhelmed him all at once. The fact that Lex had nearly died *again* being the worst, but also that he still hadn’t told his friend how he felt about him, and the fear of rejection for both what he was, and what he felt, for the lies and secrets.

“Lex, don’t hate me, please,” he whispered.

Lex almost laughed. Hate Clark? Couldn’t ever happen. “Of course I don’t hate you, Clark,” he whispered back, still holding his best friend tightly, stroking the soft, soft hair soothingly. He urged Clark over to a copse of trees and sat down. “Just talk to me, okay? You know you can trust me, right?”

Clark blinked at Lex’s uncertain tone and winced again at the amount of hurt he’d caused his friend. “Yes, I know, Lex, I do trust you. God, my parents are going to kill me,” he sighed, “Or rather,” he looked at Lex, “They could try, but they’d fail.”

Lex raised both eyebrows questioningly.

“I’m uh, I’m not human, Lex, I arrived with the meteors apparently,” Clark took Lex’s hand, “Please understand why I couldn’t tell you, tell anyone,” he said pleadingly.

Lex took a deep breath and stared at his legs while he tried to gather his thoughts, then he squeezed Clark’s hand. “Yes, I understand, God, do I understand. You should never have told me.”

Clark frowned, “What?”

“I, God, Clark, do you have any idea what I could do to you?” Lex was almost hyperventilating, suddenly panicked by the implications.

“Stop channelling your father,” Clark snapped angrily, he was fed up with people constantly thinking Lex was bad person just because his father was, and that included Lex himself, “You are not him, you said I could trust you, and I believe you, so, damn it, why don’t you?”

Lex reared back slightly under Clark’s vehemence, then he started to smile. Clark was the only person in the world who could do this to him, make him feel special and stupid all at once.

“I’m sorry,” Lex sighed, “The scientist in me went insane for a moment.”

“Well, you know actually,” Clark paused thoughtfully, maybe Lex’s scientific knowledge could be helpful, “Seeing as how I know almost nothing about where I come from or why I can do the things I can do…”

“Oh God are you serious?” Lex grinned, realising what Clark was getting at, “That would be… well, that would be cool!”

Clark snickered, “Jeez, Lex, you’re a closet geek, aren’t you?”

Lex pouted, “I’m a closet many things, Clark, geek is not one of them.”

Deciding to ignore the implications of that statement for the moment, Clark settled on teasing, “Oh, you’re a geek all right, you didn’t see your face, you looked like one of those guys in the comic book store when they find a rare copy of something or other.” Lex flushed lightly and Clark crowed loudly, “Oh no way! You *are* one of those guys!”

“Shut up!” Lex punched him, trying not to laugh, because he *was* ‘one of those guys’. “It’s not funny, Clark, it took me years to lose that reputation.”

Clark grinned, “Don’t worry, Lex, I’ll never tell.”

“Neither will I, Clark,” Lex smiled, Clark squeezed his hand. “Now what the hell do we do about my car?”

“Don’t you have your cell?” Clark frowned questioningly.

Lex sighed ruefully, “No, it’s in the Porsche.”

“Give me your keys,” Clark said, standing up, with a grin.

“Huh?” Lex frowned in confusion.

“Give me your keys,” Clark repeated, “I’ll be back in about five minutes.”

“Okay,” Lex said uncertainly, handing his keys to his friend. Clark winked at him, and disappeared. Lex blinked, then he grinned, “Cool!” He quickly checked his watch.

“Hey.”

Lex jumped when Clark suddenly reappeared in front of him smiling broadly and holding out his cellphone. “Well, shit, Clark, you got to mine and back from here in just under four minutes?!” he exclaimed.

Clark nodded, trying not to laugh at the mixture of blissed out geekiness and sheer shocked disbelief on Lex’s face. “Lex, you might want to breathe.”

Lex stared at him, then grinned and took a deep breath. He hadn’t forgotten to breathe from excitement for years, “This is just, wow, Clark. Was that your top speed? How far have you run before?”

“Whoa, Lex, before you get carried away, don’t you think you should phone for some help?” Clark snickered at him.

Pouting, Lex dialled the emergency services and then his assistant. Clark tried not to stare at the protruding bottom lip. When his friend switched off the phone, Clark indicated that they move to the field opposite the crash site and sit. Lex waited expectantly, almost forgetting to breathe again.

“I can move faster than a bullet,” Clark said quietly. “Once, I was so mad, I went for a run and ended up in Mexico. I got home before my parents even realised I was missing.”

“Jesus,” Lex blinked, shaking his head. Then his heart stopped, “Wait, how do you know you can move faster than a bullet?”

Clark looked down and bit his lip, “I’ve been shot at more than once, hit too.”

“Really?” Lex asked quietly, frowning because while he knew it was ridiculous to be concerned, he couldn’t help it. The thought of someone shooting at Clark made him feel physically sick. “When? Who?”

Clark cringed, he’d always promised himself that he wouldn’t tell Lex what he’d done under Rickman’s influence, but Lex wouldn’t need to know these things if he wanted to study him. And that was a weird thought, Lex studying him. But it would be a mutual thing, Clark wanted to know what he was just as much as Lex now did. And it was a perfect opportunity for them to spend more time together.

Lex watched Clark with a growing sense of apprehension, “Clark?”

“When Rickman influenced your mind, you uh, you shot me,” Clark said quietly.

“I sh-shot you?” Lex stammered in shock, “I *shot* you? Jesus fucking Christ Clark, why didn’t you *tell* me?!” Lex found himself unable to breathe for a completely different reason this time. He’d shot Clark! What the hell would have happened if his best friend weren’t invulnerable? He’d have killed him. Dear God! The thought made his chest constrict painfully, in a manner reminiscent of his asthma.

Clark immediately grabbed Lex’s hand, “Breathe, Lex, please.” When he was certain Lex was breathing normally again, he continued, “I’m sorry, but I never intended to tell you that, I didn’t want you to feel bad or guilty that you hurt me. It wasn’t your fault, any of it.”

“Easy for you to say, Clark. Do you have any idea what that would have done to me, if you were human? To realise that I’d killed you, but to not remember it, or why or how it happened?!” Lex gasped. “You’re every…” Lex just managed to stop himself from going too far, “You’re my best friend, Clark.”

“I’m sorry,” Clark whispered, both horrified and touched by how badly this had affected his friend, “Really, Lex, please, I’m okay, I was okay.”

“I know that!” Lex snapped. Clark flinched and Lex sighed. Taking a deep breath and closing his eyes momentarily, Lex forced himself to let it go. Clark was right, it’s not as if he could have told him. “You know I didn’t mean it if I said anything bad, right, Clark?”

“Yeah,” Clark said quietly, shifting closer to lean against his friend’s slim form. “I know.”

Lex sighed quietly and dropped his head onto Clark’s shoulder. “What’s taking them so long?”

“You eager to go?” Clark teased.

“No, eager to think about what you’ve told me so far. I don’t suppose you can think of an excuse to come round more often can you?” Lex grinned at the thought of not only getting to study an alien, but to spend plenty of time with his best friend, who he just happened to be in love with. Of course there was always the problem that too much time together might reveal that particular secret.

“You know, my Dad shot me too,” Clark said quietly.

Lex raised his head to stare wide eyed at his friend, “Wha-what?!”

“Point blank in the chest with a rifle,” Clark continued just as quietly.

“Your Dad?” Lex frowned in confusion, racking his brain for *any* reason that could happen.

“Yeah,” Clark sighed, “Just before he had to go to hospital from those flowers.”

Oh fuck. Lex squeezed his eyes shut and pulled away from Clark, tempted to get up and pace. How many other times was it his fault that Clark could have been killed?

“Lex?” Clark frowned in confusion.

“Clark, I,” Lex sighed, “I think you should know, that I lied to you. About Hamilton.”

Blinking in confusion, Clark slowly realised what his friend was saying, “You… my Dad nearly died, *you* nearly died, and you *lied* to me?!”

“I didn’t know he was going to do that, I swear, Clark,” Lex whispered, “I had him studying the meteor rocks, I just wanted to know… you know, about me, the other mutants.” Sighing, Lex stood up, “It wasn’t a huge secret, except that I’m… I’m stealing money from my father to fund his research.”

“Stealing?” Clark gasped in shock.

Lex sighed again and nodded, “I lied to you, because I didn’t want you to hate me for getting your father and Lana, and then of course Pete, hurt, and very nearly worse.” He glanced at Clark, trying to gauge his friend’s reaction.

Clark’s mouth worked soundlessly for a moment then his jaw snapped shut and he nodded. He couldn’t blame Lex for lying, if he’d been in the same situation, he’d have been terrified of losing his best friend. “I understand, not the stealing from your father part, but the rest. I get it.” Clark frowned, something occurring to him suddenly. “That disc those guys stole from you, did that have something to do with it?”

Lex bit his lip. Why everyone seemed to think Clark was a bit, well not slow exactly, but almost like people took his innocence for simpleness, was beyond him. “Not to do with the embezzlement no, but it did have information about my father and the LuthorCorp systems.”

Clark shook his head. While he knew that Lex didn’t have a good relationship with his father, he hadn’t realised it was bad enough that Lex could actually steal. From his own father! “Lex, that’s…”

“I know,” Lex sighed, “But I, I *want* to know. My hair is the obvious change, but I haven’t been sick a day since the shower, my skin heals fast, doesn’t scar. My I.Q. shot up afterwards too, not that I wasn’t intelligent before,” Lex smirked a little ruefully. “I just wanted to know why, you know?”

“Yeah, I do,” Clark nodded. They were so much alike in some ways. People thought it was odd that they were friends, but they both had secrets, loneliness, intelligence. Many things linked them together, not just the meteor shower and the crash at the bridge.

Of course he knew, Lex shook his head at the pointless question. “Sorry, Clark, I know you do. You know, I thought you were a meteor mutant, it was partly for you too.”

“Thanks Lex,” Clark smiled gently.

“Clark!”

Clark whipped his head round at the sound of his father’s voice, patting Lex’s arm as his friend tensed. “Over here, Dad,” he called back.

Jonathan Kent strode over towards the pair, glaring at the Luthor boy. He’d heard from the Sheriff what had happened and somehow had just known that Clark was involved in some way. His eyes narrowed a little more when his son whispered something in the bald man’s ear before getting up to meet him.

Clark leaned over,” It’s probably best my parents don’t know that you know about me, my Dad just refuses to trust you.”

Lex nodded silently and moved back so Clark could get up and greet his father.

“What happened?” Jonathan demanded, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, Dad, I’m fine. I was just lucky enough to be nearby when Lex crashed so I could get him out of the car and make sure he was okay,” Clark smiled at his father innocently.

“Speeding again were we?” Jonathan sneered, looking round his son to glare at Lex.

Lex stiffened and slowly got to his feet, “Actually, no. I crashed because I swerved to avoid a dog and lost control.”

“You crashed your car rather than hit a dog?” Jonathan was just a little disbelieving.

“Well, you know I didn’t plan on crashing,” Lex snapped a little harshly. Clark’s father’s continuing bad attitude to him was getting a little wearing. Warm pressure on his back nearly made him jump and Lex had to hide a smile when he realised that Clark was touching him. He smiled at his friend gratefully.

Clark smiled back, he knew Lex found dealing with his father difficult. He wasn’t surprised really. It didn’t seem to matter what he did, the older Kent never seemed to accept that Lex was his friend and a good one at that.

Jonathan glared for a moment longer. “Come on, Clark, I’ll give you a lift home. I’m sure Lex can manage.” His tone didn’t brook any argument.,/p> Clark grimaced apologetically at Lex.

“Thanks for the help, Clark,” Lex smiled, “See you later?”

“Absolutely,” Clark grinned, ignoring his father’s grumble.

Lex sat back down and watched his friend leave with the tiniest but probably most genuine smile he’d ever smiled. What a strange day it had turned out to be. He finally knew Clark’s secret, he’d finally stopped lying to his friend and hadn’t lost Clark because of it. What a great day.

TBC.