Fic: Timeshared (Part 1) (3/3)
Title: Timeshared (Part 1)
Author: josephina_x
Fandom: Smallville
Pairing: Clark, Lex
Rating: R
Spoilers: general for the entire series; follows canon up through season 7 and a little of 8x01, but events and particulars diverge (at times rather drastically) from that point onward
Word count: 24,900+
Summary: The explicit use of the Orb actually did work the way everyone thought it would... more-or-less... and Clark discovers that he isn't who he thought he was...
Warnings: Un-beta'd. AU. Darkfic-ish. Rating for violence, nonconsensual enslavement and torture (both physical and mental). It, uh, gets better, though, making its way towards H/C. *coughs*
Disclaimer: Not mine, not-for-profit.
Comments: Yes, please! :)
Author's Note: I really don't know why more people don't play around with this basic premise. Should I leave out carrots and chocolate, or something? (Or did I miss a bunch of fics? Does anyone have links? I'd be forever grateful! *bigeyes*)
Also posted to AO3 here.
Previous part is here.
~*~*~*~*~*~
After Lex had calmed down enough to explain what was so funny about Clark saving people... not that she got the joke... Tess was frowning her way through understanding everything he'd told her.
"So you think he's been a Phantom all along, and just never knew?" she said incredulously.
Lex cocked his head and rubbed at his temple absently. "Possibly. Or something went wrong with the Orb." He grimaced. "But if Kent wasn't lying, then it would make an odd sort of sense, what happened. I wanted Kal-El depowered, having to listen to me, and unable to affect the destiny of the human race on any large scale." He paused. "And I did want to keep him close..." he mused.
"You give new meaning to the phrase, 'Keep your friends close and your enemies closer,' sir."
Lex rewarded her with a smirk.
"But sir, that's still only three of the four. He doesn't listen to you," she pointed out. "In fact, he seems to spend most of him time unable to listen to you." Quite possibly on purpose, she didn't voice. And maybe only two of the four, instead of three, if he took over Lex and had access to LuthorCorp's resources... she realized. She also decided to keep that to herself. For now. Lex sometimes seemed borderline-paranoid enough as it was, or at least took risks that were far in excess of the proportion of risk she felt was proper for him to be taking in trying to forestall those worst-case scenarios.
Lex seemed to think for a time on what she'd said out loud. "The Orb was made to control Kal-El," he said slowly. "But the English meaning for 'controlled by another' in Kryptonian is actually closer to 'does as one's superior strongly desires'." He turned and looked at her. "I haven't exactly been trying to give him direct orders to interpret. All I've ever written him are questions, and I've only ever tried indirect means by which to communicate."
"So how can you communicate with him directly?" Without losing control of your body, she wondered.
"I'm not sure," he said, sounding almost amused, as he looked over the Orb, which they had retrieved from the Arctic. He picked it up and rotated it in his hands slowly. "This didn't exactly come with an instruction manual, you know..."
Tess sighed softly. She hoped this wouldn't involve more car crashes. Or trips to desolate, snow-filled landscapes. She'd had more than enough of both.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Clark grumbled, and rolled over.
Then he slowly blinked awake, because that was odd. Rolling over.
Then he realized he had eyes to blink awake.
He stared up at the ceiling of the library. He was laid out on the sofa closest to the staircase.
"Damnit, Lex," Clark grumbled, sitting up. Then he realized that he felt... odd. Something else was wrong. Off, somehow.
He frowned, and pushed himself up on the sofa. ...The sofa didn't feel right.
Which was weird in and of itself, because Clark wasn't used to Lex's sense of touch yet -- or at least he shouldn't be -- and his own sense of touch... hadn't...
Then he realized that he couldn't smell anything.
And his vision was off.
The colors weren't quite right, and... his hands were his hands.
Not Lex's. His. His-as-Clark. His hands.
Clark looked up.
He wasn't asleep. His dreams weren't like this anymore.
He had an odd suspicion.
He rose and walked over to the bookcases, and looked at the titles on the spines.
Backwards.
He shivered, and had a fleeting sense of 'Through The Looking Glass' as a few lines of it spooled through his head, almost like a song to absent music.
His head swiveled like a compass to true north, to the mirror in the library.
Lex was standing on the other side of it, smiling, eyes staring in, arms braced on either side of the mirror.
Then he leaned forward and Clark felt more than heard the 'tink!' of the Orb against the other side of the glass, as Lex raised it above his head and it impacted lightly.
Lex's smile widened slightly. His eyes darkened.
Clark felt an almost physical pull towards the mirror and didn't fight it. He stomped over, his rage growing. How dare he, Clark thought. How dare he stuff me in a box, stare in at me like a pet bird in a dollhouse, an animal in a cage! Like I'm here for his amusement, to play with!
Clark lips curled back from his teeth, and when he came to a stop in front of the mirror, opposite Lex, who looked up at him with that same self-satisfied look he'd had when he'd placed the Orb in the crystal control panel at the Fortress.
Clark glared down at him. I'm already dead and gone; I shouldn't have to put up with this crap anymore.
...So why the hell should I?
Clark looked at the Orb and let the rage build, then looked Lex straight in the eye and gave him a dark sneering smile in return.
Like hell I'm going to dance for you, human.
He pulled back his arm and slammed a fist forward. He shattered the mirror.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Lex jerked and fell.
Tess caught him on the way down. The Orb dropped from his grip and rolled off to the side.
Lex's breathing went sporadic. His eyes blinked open, dazedly.
What did you see with your eyes closed? Tess thought. He'd stood at the mirror and had his forehead pressed against it for hours. He'd closed his eyes a few minutes ago, and pushed the Orb up against it, right before he'd collapsed.
"Are you all right, Lex?" she asked.
Lex took a shaky breath. "I don't think he was happy about the Orb. I shouldn't do that next time." He took another breath. "Though it was helpful in getting his attention in the first attempt."
"Sir? What happened?" she finally dared to ask.
"I tried to visualize him in the library." He licked his lips. "It took awhile to get everything right, and then to try and image him already being in it. Then he was there." Lex slowly sat up. "He woke up confused. Then he saw me. Then he saw the Orb and got very angry. He came over like I wanted, but he attacked me at the mirror and I lost my concentration."
"Sir!"
"It's all right, Tess. I think he just wanted me to go away. I wasn't exactly being nice about it. Or giving him a choice," Lex ended in a mutter. "He's never really liked being forced to do things. Or not do them. Or having to confront things he doesn't like."
"I'd noticed that he seems to be inclined to run away from things, myself," Tess added dryly.
Lex nodded, thinking hard.
"Sir, after what happened with Belle Reeve... I don't think you should be going easy on him."
"I wasn't planning on it," Lex shot back dryly. He slowly stood up, then stumbled.
"...But maybe you should take a break," Tess amended, but Lex waved her off.
"I had him before; I shouldn't stop now." Then he glanced at her. "You didn't see anything in the mirror, did you." It was almost a question.
"No, sir. Should I have?"
Lex smiled. "No reason you should," he said carelessly, turning back to the mirror and leaving the Orb where it was on the floor. "No one ever saw Louis this way, either," he said softly, bracing his hands on either side of the mirror again.
Tess wondered who Louis was, and tried not to worry about her employer becoming unhinged from all this. Whatever this was.
"Clark," Lex said to the mirror patiently, quietly, staring into it, eyes slowly growing unfocused. "Clark. Clark."
~*~*~*~*~*~
"Clark."
...Oh, god. Not again.
"Clark."
"Clark."
"Clark."
Clark put his hands over his ears, feeling worn down and worn out. His anger hadn't lasted very long, not when up against Lex's brutal, incessant, unrelenting efforts at communcation and control. Now all he really wanted was for it to just stop.
"Clark."
"Clark."
He was sitting next to the mirror, off to one side of it, back against the wall and his legs drawn up, too close to be seen. He did not want to be seen.
"Clark."
He'd tried hiding behind the couches earlier. That hadn't worked because they'd disappeared and reappeared elsewhere on him. He'd tried slinging pool balls at the mirror from farther 'away'; chairs, too. Whenever he broke the mirror, the room just reformed again, and he found himself dragged from the nothingness right back into it. He'd tried bracing a table up in front of the mirror sideways. That hadn't worked any better than the couches.
"Clark."
He'd found he couldn't remove the mirror from the wall to lay it face-down on the floor, either. He'd tried prying it off. Repeatedly.
"Clark."
There was always a delay from when the room first started forming to when Lex appeared. If he let himself get drawn in and didn't fight it, he found he had some time to work within before Lex started exerting his influence within the interior.
"Clark."
If Lex didn't know where he was in the room, he couldn't do things to the room to draw him out, somehow.
"Clark."
Sooner or later, Clark ended up having to smash the mirror to get him to stop.
"Clark."
He couldn't just smash it repeatedly, though, because while the sensations were off, and not right, and just made him want to shudder sometimes... being in the unreal room was still better than being cut off from everything and not-drifting in the not-darkness.
"Clark."
Until he couldn't stand hearing Lex call him anymore and he had to smash the mirror.
"Clark."
Why the hell can't he just leave me alone?
Clark smashed his hands against his ears even harder to try and block Lex out.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Lex was leaning sideways against the glass, sitting on the floor, and just breathing. He wasn't even calling Clark's name anymore, and Tess was grateful for that.
It had been horrible to watch. And listen to.
If Lex was attempting to drive Kal-El insane, he was probably doing a pretty good job of it.
He'd been calling Clark over and over. Every so often he'd flinch, and collapse a little, and come back to his senses enough to tell Tess with a smile that he was making progress -- as though he needed to assure someone of this -- and then he straightened, resituated himself by the mirror, and went right back to whatever he'd been doing before.
Over and over and over again.
He'd missed lunch. And dinner. Even Kal-El would be pissed about Tess not taking care of Lex at this point. Lex only seemed to be half-present now as it was, barely muttering time to time in almost a whisper, completely unintelligible.
Tess figured she must be crazy to try this. If anyone asked, she blamed Lex for this, because anyone would lose track of reality after watching Lex at this for twelve hours, so completely sure and seemingly, supposedly sane.
So Tess knelt down next to the mirror, and said into it, "Clark, or Kal-El, or whatever the hell you call yourself. You come out here right now and talk to him so we can get some food and some sleep or, so help me, I will shock Lex to force you out of him and then kiss you again."
"Nnnn-hrmmm," said Lex quietly, gaze unfocused, and tilting his head slightly further into the mirror.
Tess blinked. "What?" she said, then nearly bit her tongue.
"nnn-t ccc--" Lex sighed as he breathed out, his eyelids drooping.
"What?" she said, talking to the mirror but surreptitiously looking down at Lex.
And then, as though from far away, Lex said quietly, but clearly, "Not coming out. Make him stop."
Son of a bitch.
"Where are you?" Tess asked.
"Not--"
"Where are you?" Tess pressed. Lex started to stir. His eyes focused slightly.
"Where?" Tess asked again, sharply. Lex had said something about not being able to see him earlier, but him hiding in the room somehow.
Lex's head came up. "Oh. He's next to the mirror," he said slowly, shoving himself upright and turning in place. "Blind spot. Damn."
Then Lex swayed slightly and said, "Go away."
"No, you come out where I can see you and talk to me, Clark," Lex demanded. "Now."
"No, go away." Tess could almost hear the difference in Lex's voice when Clark talked, now. Tired, halting. Unsure. "I don't like it in here. Feels wrong. Let me out."
"Come out and talk to us," Tess said, resigning herself to 'insane' status.
Lex... looked startled, his head jerked upward as though struck from behind, and he glanced up at her, his eyes coming into instant focus. "Out here... to us? I... I hadn't thought of that," he said speculatively. "That might be better, actually." He turned further, staring two feet out from the wall next to him, then closed his eyes and concentrated. Then he swayed and blinked open his eyes with a short gasp.
Then he grinned triumphantly.
~*~*~*~*~*~
::What the hell?:: Clark said, glancing down at his hands, then looking up at Lex. He'd felt a sudden sinkening wrenching feeling as the world spun... and now he wasn't on the wrong side of the mirror anymore.
Things didn't feel nearly so off, over here.
On the minus side, he was now sitting right next to Lex.
"Nice of you to join us," Lex chatted amicably. Clark stared at him. "I got a good lot of practice at this sort of visualization with Alexander... but I suppose you wouldn't know about that," he waved off.
::Your little-conscience-you, pre-meteor-shower?:: Clark asked, and then it was Lex's turn to stare.
"How did you--" Lex started hotly, sitting bolt upright.
::Detroit, needed to know where Kara and Lois were,:: Clark said. ::Had to use one of your stupid mind machines.::
But he'd been half-dead, comatose from the bullet to the head, and the only machine they could possibly have used to get any information out of him like that back then would have been...
"You son of a bitch!" Lex exploded, irate. "You were inside my head!"
::I'm inside your head now,:: Clark ground out. ::And, in case you hadn't noticed -- you jerk, leave me alone -- I'd very much rather like not to be!!!:
"That's besides the point!"
::No, it isn't!:: Clark glared. And then he looked a little nervous. ::-- oh shit! -- That white-suit-you isn't going to show up, is he?:: he said, glancing around.
"Who?" Lex asked, frowning furiously.
"Boys!" Tess cut in. "Could you two please stop arguing long enough for Lex to get something to eat before he collapses?"
::You haven't been eating? Again?!?!:: Clark turned on Lex with a glower.
"Well, if you hadn't decided to play hide and seek all afternoon--"
"All day--" Tess cut in, correcting him.
::Well, if you'd just kick his ass and make him take a break like you're supposed to--:: Clark rounded on Tess instead.
"She can't hear you," Lex put in, standing slowly, with Tess' help.
::Oh, whatever,:: Clark said, crossing his arms and pulling his knees a little further up to his chest.
"You need to come with," Lex said down at where Clark was imagining himself to be. "I can't keep this up with you in another room."
::What if I stay here?:: Clark asked petulantly.
"Then I'll bug the hell out of you like I was before, only this time," Lex grinned evilly. "No hiding."
Clark glared up at him for awhile, but then he caved. :: -- Hate you so much -- :: Clark thought grumpily.
Lex wondered a little about how much was getting through that Clark didn't intend. For the worse-sounding, more private-seeming things, his mouth didn't move, like just now.
::At least you won't be able to do this all day, every day,:: Clark said as they passed into the hallway.
"Oh, no?"
Clark gave him a look. ::Well, not and want to not seem crazy talking to somebody who no one else can see -- who is dead and isn't really there -- so you'd better watch out.::
"Oh, on the contrary, it's actually harder to remember to talk aloud when I'm doing this."
::What??::
"Well, when I'm imaging this, I know I'm imagining this. I know it's not quite real. I see it as separate from physical reality, and myself as well." Lex stepped forward while leaning on Tess, and a slightly fainter image of Lex was left behind, then turned to face him. ::It's actually much easier like this,:: Lex grinned giddily, falling into step with Clark as they 'walked' down the hallway Lex was imagining for Clark.
Clark did a double-take, then side-stepped away from Lex, looking completely freaked out. ::You--!::
Lex took a step closer to him. Clark stepped back. Soon enough, Clark was against the wall.
"...Lex?" Tess asked as Lex stopped walking and stood still, closing his eyes.
::You can't get away from me anymore, Clark,:; Lex smiled nastily, ::so don't even try.::
Clark shivered. ::Fuck you,:: he stammered.
Lex leaned forward and bracketed Clark, hands on either side of him. ::You're not going anywhere,:: he said.
::Stop it,:: Clark said, unsteadily. Lex could feel him shaking.
::No,:: said Lex. ::You're going to tell me everything you know.::
::Stop, Lex--:: Clark breathing grew erratic, but he didn't really need to breathe here, did he?
::You're not going to lie to me anymore.::
::St--:: Clark pressed his hands against the sides of his head. A flash of pain crossed his face.
::You're going to tell me every last damn thing--!:: Lex pressed.
::Nnnn--!:: Clark was visibly shaking.
::And you are going to--::
Clark let out a scream and collapsed, and Lex looked down on him, watching him writhe in pain. He slowly grinned, because--
"Lex!" Tess cried out, shaking him, and Lex was in only one of two places at once for just a moment.
...And then something snapped back into place.
Then Lex looked down, horrified, and suddenly backed off.
Clark's screams turned to incoherent moans, and he twitched and curled in on himself.
Oh god, what did I just do?
But Lex knew exactly what he'd done. He'd said that he wanted Clark to tell him things, to not lie. He'd said all sorts of things.
But what he'd really wanted was for Clark to hurt.
And he had.
"This isn't what I wanted," Lex whispered.
Oh, but it was. You wanted control, control of him, and now you have it!
Shut up.
Doesn't it feel good?
Shut up.
Doesn't it feel good, to bring him low? To make him suffer? Didn't you enjoy it?
Shut up!
Silent laughter, fading.
"Lex," Tess said, and Lex realized that it hadn't been the first time. He -- in his physical body -- was kneeling on the floor firmly encircled by her arms, and he was grateful for the support.
"Why did you shake me?" he asked, hoarsely, bringing his hands up to hang onto her arm. Feeling Clark still hurting, lying there crying and shaking behind him, in his mind's eye.
"You were... grinning."
"Not in a good way," he asked flatly.
He felt her shake her head.
He closed his eyes again. "Thank you, Tess."
"...For what, sir?"
"Stopping me."
~*~*~*~*~*~
Lex couldn't get Clark to come into the dining room with him.
Actually that was incorrect -- Lex could have forced him to do it, but it probably would have had adverse effects on Clark.
When Lex tried to approach him, Clark curled in on himself further. He didn't even try to stand, let alone run. ...Maybe because Lex had told him he couldn't get away.
He flinched away from Lex when Lex touched him, whimpering.
Lex felt sick.
So he left Clark where he was.
He tried not to think about what the difference was between physical and mental pain. Whether one was worse than another. And whether there was an upper threshold for purely mental pain, or not.
Lex was deathly afraid that the answer might be "not".
When he realized that Clark seemed to do better recovering in whatever dark place he'd been in before, he stopped trying to hold onto the 'hallway' so hard, stopped trying to firm it up and pull Clark back every time he felt himself losing track of it.
It felt almost like a mental fugue state -- nebulous, dark and nonexistent, from what little he could sense of it. He couldn't see Clark being happy there, under normal circumstances, and he didn't like the implications of that.
Tess tried to press him to eat, but Lex wasn't hungry. How could he be, after that? It wasn't reasonable.
"If you don't eat, Clark will be angry," Tess tried.
Somehow Lex doubted that very much.
"You're both sharing the same body," she added. "If you don't eat, you're hurting him, too."
Lex hated her more than a little for it. Blatant, manipulative, completely blunt, and totally unrefined. But it got him eating.
It turned out it didn't matter. He threw it all up again later.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Lex gave him a day.
But the next day, he tried again.
"Clark."
::Go away.::
Clark was on the couch in the library. Lex was sitting on the other side of it, letting him hide.
Letting him. Because Clark didn't have a say in the matter.
"Clark."
::Go away!::
Lex could hear the tears he was crying.
"Clark."
::Leave me alone!::
"Clark--"
::Why won't you leave me alone?!?:: Clark shrieked, curling in on himself even tighter.
"Clark..."
::You can never just leave me alone!::
"Clark," Lex turned to get up, then stopped himself, barely. He'd promised himself he wouldn't push Clark that hard.
He'd promised himself. Not Clark. He hadn't even bothered to tell Clark. Hadn't thought to.
God knew what Clark thought.
Or if he'd believe him.
::I didn't do anything wrong!:: Clark cried out, desperately.
"Clark--!" Lex said harshly.
::I don't want to be here!!!::
Lex gritted his teeth. Was it really that bad?
::I'm supposed to be dead. Why won't you let me stay dead?:: Clark wailed.
Lex... didn't know what to say to that. He swallowed, hard.
::Just leave me alone! Why won't you leave me alone?!::
So Lex left him and let him be.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"I don't want to talk about it," Lex told Tess.
He felt her eyes on him. Measuring. Watching.
"I don't want to talk about it!"
~*~*~*~*~*~
Lex had nightmares where he walked up to the Kent barn and Clark Kent was standing there waiting for him.
"Got everything you wanted, did you, son?" he'd say.
Lex usually woke up screaming from those.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Then, one day, Lex walked into the bullpen of the Daily Planet, and straight into a gun.
Well, not quite, but almost.
Lex had stopped short at seeing the hostage situation. The criminal had swung it right around in his face and smiled at him from under the ski mask. It was only inches away from his nose, though.
"Hello, Moneybags," the man said. His three compatriots snickered for some reason.
Lex raised his hands slowly. He saw Tess do the same in his peripheral vision. "This doesn't have to end badly," Lex said slowly, looking the gunman in the eye, and wishing Clark was here. Wishing Clark was himself and separate, and here.
Wishing Clark was ok and himself again.
And maybe inclined to help Lex, just once more.
If wishes were horses...
...Lex hadn't gone riding in a long, long time.
"Oh, but what if we want things to end badly?"
"...Pardon?" Lex asked, his hands starting to lower in his confusion.
The man laughed, and Lex could smell his bad breath from three feet away.
"What if we want things to end badly?" he said slowly. "What if that's exactly why we're here?" And Lex took in the grins of the others.
Oh god.
And Lex knew he was going to die that day.
...What's going to happen to Clark if I die? he suddenly realized. Kryptonian Phantoms could usually choose their hosts, but Clark wasn't usual by any stretch of the imagination, and neither were his circumstances. And he was stuck in Lex, wasn't he?
The man raised the gun and cocked it.
No! Lex thought, turning pale, his heart racing.
The man's grin got wider.
Somebody HELP!!!
~*~*~*~*~*~
Tess wouldn't have seen it if she hadn't been watching, but she was and she did.
Lex's eyes rolled up into his head, and his knees went slightly loose. Then his gaze sharpened, he seemed to straighten and he looked slightly confused for a moment.
Then his hand snapped up -- fucking hell, he wasn't even moving that fast, really -- and he effortlessly snatched the gun out of the gunman's hand.
He made it look easy. (Tess knew better than that from her Checkmate training.)
Then he seemed to actually become aware of his surroundings, looking around.
Tess almost laughed herself sick on the spot. Who the hell has an automatic reflex for stealing guns from criminals? she thought with a widening smile.
The gunman stared at Clark-in-Lex, as did the other three. Clark stared back.
Then Clark stepped forward, punched the disarmed gunman in the face, grabbed him by the front of his vest, and pulled him forward.
He flipped the gun around in his hand and, using the man as a human shield, shot each of the other three in rapid succession. Both arms each.
Once the others were no longer capable of holding or using a weapon, Clark shoved the first man back, and pistol-whipped him across the temple. He went down like a sack of potatoes.
No-one other than Clark had managed to get off another shot.
Start to finish, it had taken Clark less than seven seconds.
Clark surveyed the scene and then, upon realizing that there was no-one else who needed shooting apparently, let out a long breath and relaxed all-at-once, dropping his gun hand to a neutral position at his side. But after that, he paused and tensed as he seemed to realize something, and slowly turned back to the one female redhead in the room that he knew.
"Tess," he said grimly. "What. The. Hell."
"Welcome back!" Tess said happily, grinning.
Clark glared at her.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"This better not have been a damn setup!" Clark started in on her once they were firmly ensconced in one of the Daily Planet's many soundproof rooms. This one was a conference room that Lex had had renovated recently.
"I'm glad you're feeling better," Tess chirped back.
"I mean, Lex has done some pretty fucking stupid things before, trying to catch me out at doing something, or trying to make me do something I usually wouldn't do, so if this is a setup--"
"You are feeling better, aren't you? Last time Lex said that you'd collapsed and weren't talking to him, and then he wouldn't talk about you at all," she continued.
"--Are you even listening to me?" Clark asked.
"No, not really. I'm just glad you're both in one piece!" Tess enthused, then stepped forward and hugged him.
"Oh god, did Lex put you on some weird medication, or something?" Clark asked, sounding a little panicked.
"Nope! Just glad you're back!" Tess said brightly.
"...Right." Clark sounded entirely unconvinced, but awkwardly wrapped him arms around her and patted her on the back nevertheless, not quite returning the hug.
Tess really was happy that he was back, though. Lex had been absolutely miserable without him. Foul moods, short temper, up and down like a yo-yo, running himself and everyone else into the ground for weeks at a time and then crashing despondently for days afterward; just out-and-outright horrible to deal with all around.
If she'd learned anything from the old guard of staff Lex still had around, it was that Clark had always brightened his mood and evened him out. He'd been pleasant, with Clark around.
Before Lex had learned about the whole alien thing, anyway. Before he'd learned about any alien things at all, actually. Back when they had still been friends. Long ago, years ago, before Lex had gotten involved with his third wife. And then uninvolved.
Generally, the staff from the mansion were of two minds on this. There were those who loved Lana, and hated Clark... although they freely admitted under further questioning that they had used to like Clark before. There were those who loved Clark, and hated Lana -- and those had been fired, and only hired back after the divorce, after no small apologies were exchanged.
And then there had been that eclectic few who had liked Lana, but really liked Clark. Because apparently it was of their rarified opinion that Lex had been a hell of a lot happier with Clark around then Lana, and where Lana was, Clark had not been.
Which Tess had found really damn interesting all around.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"Don't you tell him," Clark said.
"He's going to know," Tess pointed out.
"I don't care," Clark gritted out, then had to take a deep, hitching breath to settle himself. "Just don't tell him."
"You know he's going to know," Tess pointed out, again.
"Just don't tell him."
~*~*~*~*~*~
"...How?" Lex said as he sat up on the couch in the Planet's fifth floor lounge area a short while later.
"I'm not supposed to tell," Tess dutifully reported, with a smile.
Lex blinked up at her. Then he slowly brightened.
"I'm not supposed to tell," she repeated, for good measure.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Previous part is here.
AN2: Working on more of this, hopefully soon-ish. I tend to bounce between fics a lot -- this one's been waiting around awhile for the first major post; far too long, actually. I finally sat down, did my own edit-check, and proclaimed it post-ready today (probably could've ages ago, oh well *shrugs*). This is another one of those ones which I feel like I could either split into a fic of its own as part of a series, or split up as chapters of a fic. I chose the latter in this case. *shrugs again*
Author: josephina_x
Fandom: Smallville
Pairing: Clark, Lex
Rating: R
Spoilers: general for the entire series; follows canon up through season 7 and a little of 8x01, but events and particulars diverge (at times rather drastically) from that point onward
Word count: 24,900+
Summary: The explicit use of the Orb actually did work the way everyone thought it would... more-or-less... and Clark discovers that he isn't who he thought he was...
Warnings: Un-beta'd. AU. Darkfic-ish. Rating for violence, nonconsensual enslavement and torture (both physical and mental). It, uh, gets better, though, making its way towards H/C. *coughs*
Disclaimer: Not mine, not-for-profit.
Comments: Yes, please! :)
Author's Note: I really don't know why more people don't play around with this basic premise. Should I leave out carrots and chocolate, or something? (Or did I miss a bunch of fics? Does anyone have links? I'd be forever grateful! *bigeyes*)
Also posted to AO3 here.
Previous part is here.
~*~*~*~*~*~
After Lex had calmed down enough to explain what was so funny about Clark saving people... not that she got the joke... Tess was frowning her way through understanding everything he'd told her.
"So you think he's been a Phantom all along, and just never knew?" she said incredulously.
Lex cocked his head and rubbed at his temple absently. "Possibly. Or something went wrong with the Orb." He grimaced. "But if Kent wasn't lying, then it would make an odd sort of sense, what happened. I wanted Kal-El depowered, having to listen to me, and unable to affect the destiny of the human race on any large scale." He paused. "And I did want to keep him close..." he mused.
"You give new meaning to the phrase, 'Keep your friends close and your enemies closer,' sir."
Lex rewarded her with a smirk.
"But sir, that's still only three of the four. He doesn't listen to you," she pointed out. "In fact, he seems to spend most of him time unable to listen to you." Quite possibly on purpose, she didn't voice. And maybe only two of the four, instead of three, if he took over Lex and had access to LuthorCorp's resources... she realized. She also decided to keep that to herself. For now. Lex sometimes seemed borderline-paranoid enough as it was, or at least took risks that were far in excess of the proportion of risk she felt was proper for him to be taking in trying to forestall those worst-case scenarios.
Lex seemed to think for a time on what she'd said out loud. "The Orb was made to control Kal-El," he said slowly. "But the English meaning for 'controlled by another' in Kryptonian is actually closer to 'does as one's superior strongly desires'." He turned and looked at her. "I haven't exactly been trying to give him direct orders to interpret. All I've ever written him are questions, and I've only ever tried indirect means by which to communicate."
"So how can you communicate with him directly?" Without losing control of your body, she wondered.
"I'm not sure," he said, sounding almost amused, as he looked over the Orb, which they had retrieved from the Arctic. He picked it up and rotated it in his hands slowly. "This didn't exactly come with an instruction manual, you know..."
Tess sighed softly. She hoped this wouldn't involve more car crashes. Or trips to desolate, snow-filled landscapes. She'd had more than enough of both.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Clark grumbled, and rolled over.
Then he slowly blinked awake, because that was odd. Rolling over.
Then he realized he had eyes to blink awake.
He stared up at the ceiling of the library. He was laid out on the sofa closest to the staircase.
"Damnit, Lex," Clark grumbled, sitting up. Then he realized that he felt... odd. Something else was wrong. Off, somehow.
He frowned, and pushed himself up on the sofa. ...The sofa didn't feel right.
Which was weird in and of itself, because Clark wasn't used to Lex's sense of touch yet -- or at least he shouldn't be -- and his own sense of touch... hadn't...
Then he realized that he couldn't smell anything.
And his vision was off.
The colors weren't quite right, and... his hands were his hands.
Not Lex's. His. His-as-Clark. His hands.
Clark looked up.
He wasn't asleep. His dreams weren't like this anymore.
He had an odd suspicion.
He rose and walked over to the bookcases, and looked at the titles on the spines.
Backwards.
He shivered, and had a fleeting sense of 'Through The Looking Glass' as a few lines of it spooled through his head, almost like a song to absent music.
His head swiveled like a compass to true north, to the mirror in the library.
Lex was standing on the other side of it, smiling, eyes staring in, arms braced on either side of the mirror.
Then he leaned forward and Clark felt more than heard the 'tink!' of the Orb against the other side of the glass, as Lex raised it above his head and it impacted lightly.
Lex's smile widened slightly. His eyes darkened.
Clark felt an almost physical pull towards the mirror and didn't fight it. He stomped over, his rage growing. How dare he, Clark thought. How dare he stuff me in a box, stare in at me like a pet bird in a dollhouse, an animal in a cage! Like I'm here for his amusement, to play with!
Clark lips curled back from his teeth, and when he came to a stop in front of the mirror, opposite Lex, who looked up at him with that same self-satisfied look he'd had when he'd placed the Orb in the crystal control panel at the Fortress.
Clark glared down at him. I'm already dead and gone; I shouldn't have to put up with this crap anymore.
...So why the hell should I?
Clark looked at the Orb and let the rage build, then looked Lex straight in the eye and gave him a dark sneering smile in return.
Like hell I'm going to dance for you, human.
He pulled back his arm and slammed a fist forward. He shattered the mirror.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Lex jerked and fell.
Tess caught him on the way down. The Orb dropped from his grip and rolled off to the side.
Lex's breathing went sporadic. His eyes blinked open, dazedly.
What did you see with your eyes closed? Tess thought. He'd stood at the mirror and had his forehead pressed against it for hours. He'd closed his eyes a few minutes ago, and pushed the Orb up against it, right before he'd collapsed.
"Are you all right, Lex?" she asked.
Lex took a shaky breath. "I don't think he was happy about the Orb. I shouldn't do that next time." He took another breath. "Though it was helpful in getting his attention in the first attempt."
"Sir? What happened?" she finally dared to ask.
"I tried to visualize him in the library." He licked his lips. "It took awhile to get everything right, and then to try and image him already being in it. Then he was there." Lex slowly sat up. "He woke up confused. Then he saw me. Then he saw the Orb and got very angry. He came over like I wanted, but he attacked me at the mirror and I lost my concentration."
"Sir!"
"It's all right, Tess. I think he just wanted me to go away. I wasn't exactly being nice about it. Or giving him a choice," Lex ended in a mutter. "He's never really liked being forced to do things. Or not do them. Or having to confront things he doesn't like."
"I'd noticed that he seems to be inclined to run away from things, myself," Tess added dryly.
Lex nodded, thinking hard.
"Sir, after what happened with Belle Reeve... I don't think you should be going easy on him."
"I wasn't planning on it," Lex shot back dryly. He slowly stood up, then stumbled.
"...But maybe you should take a break," Tess amended, but Lex waved her off.
"I had him before; I shouldn't stop now." Then he glanced at her. "You didn't see anything in the mirror, did you." It was almost a question.
"No, sir. Should I have?"
Lex smiled. "No reason you should," he said carelessly, turning back to the mirror and leaving the Orb where it was on the floor. "No one ever saw Louis this way, either," he said softly, bracing his hands on either side of the mirror again.
Tess wondered who Louis was, and tried not to worry about her employer becoming unhinged from all this. Whatever this was.
"Clark," Lex said to the mirror patiently, quietly, staring into it, eyes slowly growing unfocused. "Clark. Clark."
~*~*~*~*~*~
"Clark."
...Oh, god. Not again.
"Clark."
"Clark."
"Clark."
Clark put his hands over his ears, feeling worn down and worn out. His anger hadn't lasted very long, not when up against Lex's brutal, incessant, unrelenting efforts at communcation and control. Now all he really wanted was for it to just stop.
"Clark."
"Clark."
He was sitting next to the mirror, off to one side of it, back against the wall and his legs drawn up, too close to be seen. He did not want to be seen.
"Clark."
He'd tried hiding behind the couches earlier. That hadn't worked because they'd disappeared and reappeared elsewhere on him. He'd tried slinging pool balls at the mirror from farther 'away'; chairs, too. Whenever he broke the mirror, the room just reformed again, and he found himself dragged from the nothingness right back into it. He'd tried bracing a table up in front of the mirror sideways. That hadn't worked any better than the couches.
"Clark."
He'd found he couldn't remove the mirror from the wall to lay it face-down on the floor, either. He'd tried prying it off. Repeatedly.
"Clark."
There was always a delay from when the room first started forming to when Lex appeared. If he let himself get drawn in and didn't fight it, he found he had some time to work within before Lex started exerting his influence within the interior.
"Clark."
If Lex didn't know where he was in the room, he couldn't do things to the room to draw him out, somehow.
"Clark."
Sooner or later, Clark ended up having to smash the mirror to get him to stop.
"Clark."
He couldn't just smash it repeatedly, though, because while the sensations were off, and not right, and just made him want to shudder sometimes... being in the unreal room was still better than being cut off from everything and not-drifting in the not-darkness.
"Clark."
Until he couldn't stand hearing Lex call him anymore and he had to smash the mirror.
"Clark."
Why the hell can't he just leave me alone?
Clark smashed his hands against his ears even harder to try and block Lex out.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Lex was leaning sideways against the glass, sitting on the floor, and just breathing. He wasn't even calling Clark's name anymore, and Tess was grateful for that.
It had been horrible to watch. And listen to.
If Lex was attempting to drive Kal-El insane, he was probably doing a pretty good job of it.
He'd been calling Clark over and over. Every so often he'd flinch, and collapse a little, and come back to his senses enough to tell Tess with a smile that he was making progress -- as though he needed to assure someone of this -- and then he straightened, resituated himself by the mirror, and went right back to whatever he'd been doing before.
Over and over and over again.
He'd missed lunch. And dinner. Even Kal-El would be pissed about Tess not taking care of Lex at this point. Lex only seemed to be half-present now as it was, barely muttering time to time in almost a whisper, completely unintelligible.
Tess figured she must be crazy to try this. If anyone asked, she blamed Lex for this, because anyone would lose track of reality after watching Lex at this for twelve hours, so completely sure and seemingly, supposedly sane.
So Tess knelt down next to the mirror, and said into it, "Clark, or Kal-El, or whatever the hell you call yourself. You come out here right now and talk to him so we can get some food and some sleep or, so help me, I will shock Lex to force you out of him and then kiss you again."
"Nnnn-hrmmm," said Lex quietly, gaze unfocused, and tilting his head slightly further into the mirror.
Tess blinked. "What?" she said, then nearly bit her tongue.
"nnn-t ccc--" Lex sighed as he breathed out, his eyelids drooping.
"What?" she said, talking to the mirror but surreptitiously looking down at Lex.
And then, as though from far away, Lex said quietly, but clearly, "Not coming out. Make him stop."
Son of a bitch.
"Where are you?" Tess asked.
"Not--"
"Where are you?" Tess pressed. Lex started to stir. His eyes focused slightly.
"Where?" Tess asked again, sharply. Lex had said something about not being able to see him earlier, but him hiding in the room somehow.
Lex's head came up. "Oh. He's next to the mirror," he said slowly, shoving himself upright and turning in place. "Blind spot. Damn."
Then Lex swayed slightly and said, "Go away."
"No, you come out where I can see you and talk to me, Clark," Lex demanded. "Now."
"No, go away." Tess could almost hear the difference in Lex's voice when Clark talked, now. Tired, halting. Unsure. "I don't like it in here. Feels wrong. Let me out."
"Come out and talk to us," Tess said, resigning herself to 'insane' status.
Lex... looked startled, his head jerked upward as though struck from behind, and he glanced up at her, his eyes coming into instant focus. "Out here... to us? I... I hadn't thought of that," he said speculatively. "That might be better, actually." He turned further, staring two feet out from the wall next to him, then closed his eyes and concentrated. Then he swayed and blinked open his eyes with a short gasp.
Then he grinned triumphantly.
~*~*~*~*~*~
::What the hell?:: Clark said, glancing down at his hands, then looking up at Lex. He'd felt a sudden sinkening wrenching feeling as the world spun... and now he wasn't on the wrong side of the mirror anymore.
Things didn't feel nearly so off, over here.
On the minus side, he was now sitting right next to Lex.
"Nice of you to join us," Lex chatted amicably. Clark stared at him. "I got a good lot of practice at this sort of visualization with Alexander... but I suppose you wouldn't know about that," he waved off.
::Your little-conscience-you, pre-meteor-shower?:: Clark asked, and then it was Lex's turn to stare.
"How did you--" Lex started hotly, sitting bolt upright.
::Detroit, needed to know where Kara and Lois were,:: Clark said. ::Had to use one of your stupid mind machines.::
But he'd been half-dead, comatose from the bullet to the head, and the only machine they could possibly have used to get any information out of him like that back then would have been...
"You son of a bitch!" Lex exploded, irate. "You were inside my head!"
::I'm inside your head now,:: Clark ground out. ::And, in case you hadn't noticed -- you jerk, leave me alone -- I'd very much rather like not to be!!!:
"That's besides the point!"
::No, it isn't!:: Clark glared. And then he looked a little nervous. ::-- oh shit! -- That white-suit-you isn't going to show up, is he?:: he said, glancing around.
"Who?" Lex asked, frowning furiously.
"Boys!" Tess cut in. "Could you two please stop arguing long enough for Lex to get something to eat before he collapses?"
::You haven't been eating? Again?!?!:: Clark turned on Lex with a glower.
"Well, if you hadn't decided to play hide and seek all afternoon--"
"All day--" Tess cut in, correcting him.
::Well, if you'd just kick his ass and make him take a break like you're supposed to--:: Clark rounded on Tess instead.
"She can't hear you," Lex put in, standing slowly, with Tess' help.
::Oh, whatever,:: Clark said, crossing his arms and pulling his knees a little further up to his chest.
"You need to come with," Lex said down at where Clark was imagining himself to be. "I can't keep this up with you in another room."
::What if I stay here?:: Clark asked petulantly.
"Then I'll bug the hell out of you like I was before, only this time," Lex grinned evilly. "No hiding."
Clark glared up at him for awhile, but then he caved. :: -- Hate you so much -- :: Clark thought grumpily.
Lex wondered a little about how much was getting through that Clark didn't intend. For the worse-sounding, more private-seeming things, his mouth didn't move, like just now.
::At least you won't be able to do this all day, every day,:: Clark said as they passed into the hallway.
"Oh, no?"
Clark gave him a look. ::Well, not and want to not seem crazy talking to somebody who no one else can see -- who is dead and isn't really there -- so you'd better watch out.::
"Oh, on the contrary, it's actually harder to remember to talk aloud when I'm doing this."
::What??::
"Well, when I'm imaging this, I know I'm imagining this. I know it's not quite real. I see it as separate from physical reality, and myself as well." Lex stepped forward while leaning on Tess, and a slightly fainter image of Lex was left behind, then turned to face him. ::It's actually much easier like this,:: Lex grinned giddily, falling into step with Clark as they 'walked' down the hallway Lex was imagining for Clark.
Clark did a double-take, then side-stepped away from Lex, looking completely freaked out. ::You--!::
Lex took a step closer to him. Clark stepped back. Soon enough, Clark was against the wall.
"...Lex?" Tess asked as Lex stopped walking and stood still, closing his eyes.
::You can't get away from me anymore, Clark,:; Lex smiled nastily, ::so don't even try.::
Clark shivered. ::Fuck you,:: he stammered.
Lex leaned forward and bracketed Clark, hands on either side of him. ::You're not going anywhere,:: he said.
::Stop it,:: Clark said, unsteadily. Lex could feel him shaking.
::No,:: said Lex. ::You're going to tell me everything you know.::
::Stop, Lex--:: Clark breathing grew erratic, but he didn't really need to breathe here, did he?
::You're not going to lie to me anymore.::
::St--:: Clark pressed his hands against the sides of his head. A flash of pain crossed his face.
::You're going to tell me every last damn thing--!:: Lex pressed.
::Nnnn--!:: Clark was visibly shaking.
::And you are going to--::
Clark let out a scream and collapsed, and Lex looked down on him, watching him writhe in pain. He slowly grinned, because--
"Lex!" Tess cried out, shaking him, and Lex was in only one of two places at once for just a moment.
...And then something snapped back into place.
Then Lex looked down, horrified, and suddenly backed off.
Clark's screams turned to incoherent moans, and he twitched and curled in on himself.
Oh god, what did I just do?
But Lex knew exactly what he'd done. He'd said that he wanted Clark to tell him things, to not lie. He'd said all sorts of things.
But what he'd really wanted was for Clark to hurt.
And he had.
"This isn't what I wanted," Lex whispered.
Oh, but it was. You wanted control, control of him, and now you have it!
Shut up.
Doesn't it feel good?
Shut up.
Doesn't it feel good, to bring him low? To make him suffer? Didn't you enjoy it?
Shut up!
Silent laughter, fading.
"Lex," Tess said, and Lex realized that it hadn't been the first time. He -- in his physical body -- was kneeling on the floor firmly encircled by her arms, and he was grateful for the support.
"Why did you shake me?" he asked, hoarsely, bringing his hands up to hang onto her arm. Feeling Clark still hurting, lying there crying and shaking behind him, in his mind's eye.
"You were... grinning."
"Not in a good way," he asked flatly.
He felt her shake her head.
He closed his eyes again. "Thank you, Tess."
"...For what, sir?"
"Stopping me."
~*~*~*~*~*~
Lex couldn't get Clark to come into the dining room with him.
Actually that was incorrect -- Lex could have forced him to do it, but it probably would have had adverse effects on Clark.
When Lex tried to approach him, Clark curled in on himself further. He didn't even try to stand, let alone run. ...Maybe because Lex had told him he couldn't get away.
He flinched away from Lex when Lex touched him, whimpering.
Lex felt sick.
So he left Clark where he was.
He tried not to think about what the difference was between physical and mental pain. Whether one was worse than another. And whether there was an upper threshold for purely mental pain, or not.
Lex was deathly afraid that the answer might be "not".
When he realized that Clark seemed to do better recovering in whatever dark place he'd been in before, he stopped trying to hold onto the 'hallway' so hard, stopped trying to firm it up and pull Clark back every time he felt himself losing track of it.
It felt almost like a mental fugue state -- nebulous, dark and nonexistent, from what little he could sense of it. He couldn't see Clark being happy there, under normal circumstances, and he didn't like the implications of that.
Tess tried to press him to eat, but Lex wasn't hungry. How could he be, after that? It wasn't reasonable.
"If you don't eat, Clark will be angry," Tess tried.
Somehow Lex doubted that very much.
"You're both sharing the same body," she added. "If you don't eat, you're hurting him, too."
Lex hated her more than a little for it. Blatant, manipulative, completely blunt, and totally unrefined. But it got him eating.
It turned out it didn't matter. He threw it all up again later.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Lex gave him a day.
But the next day, he tried again.
"Clark."
::Go away.::
Clark was on the couch in the library. Lex was sitting on the other side of it, letting him hide.
Letting him. Because Clark didn't have a say in the matter.
"Clark."
::Go away!::
Lex could hear the tears he was crying.
"Clark."
::Leave me alone!::
"Clark--"
::Why won't you leave me alone?!?:: Clark shrieked, curling in on himself even tighter.
"Clark..."
::You can never just leave me alone!::
"Clark," Lex turned to get up, then stopped himself, barely. He'd promised himself he wouldn't push Clark that hard.
He'd promised himself. Not Clark. He hadn't even bothered to tell Clark. Hadn't thought to.
God knew what Clark thought.
Or if he'd believe him.
::I didn't do anything wrong!:: Clark cried out, desperately.
"Clark--!" Lex said harshly.
::I don't want to be here!!!::
Lex gritted his teeth. Was it really that bad?
::I'm supposed to be dead. Why won't you let me stay dead?:: Clark wailed.
Lex... didn't know what to say to that. He swallowed, hard.
::Just leave me alone! Why won't you leave me alone?!::
So Lex left him and let him be.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"I don't want to talk about it," Lex told Tess.
He felt her eyes on him. Measuring. Watching.
"I don't want to talk about it!"
~*~*~*~*~*~
Lex had nightmares where he walked up to the Kent barn and Clark Kent was standing there waiting for him.
"Got everything you wanted, did you, son?" he'd say.
Lex usually woke up screaming from those.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Then, one day, Lex walked into the bullpen of the Daily Planet, and straight into a gun.
Well, not quite, but almost.
Lex had stopped short at seeing the hostage situation. The criminal had swung it right around in his face and smiled at him from under the ski mask. It was only inches away from his nose, though.
"Hello, Moneybags," the man said. His three compatriots snickered for some reason.
Lex raised his hands slowly. He saw Tess do the same in his peripheral vision. "This doesn't have to end badly," Lex said slowly, looking the gunman in the eye, and wishing Clark was here. Wishing Clark was himself and separate, and here.
Wishing Clark was ok and himself again.
And maybe inclined to help Lex, just once more.
If wishes were horses...
...Lex hadn't gone riding in a long, long time.
"Oh, but what if we want things to end badly?"
"...Pardon?" Lex asked, his hands starting to lower in his confusion.
The man laughed, and Lex could smell his bad breath from three feet away.
"What if we want things to end badly?" he said slowly. "What if that's exactly why we're here?" And Lex took in the grins of the others.
Oh god.
And Lex knew he was going to die that day.
...What's going to happen to Clark if I die? he suddenly realized. Kryptonian Phantoms could usually choose their hosts, but Clark wasn't usual by any stretch of the imagination, and neither were his circumstances. And he was stuck in Lex, wasn't he?
The man raised the gun and cocked it.
No! Lex thought, turning pale, his heart racing.
The man's grin got wider.
Somebody HELP!!!
~*~*~*~*~*~
Tess wouldn't have seen it if she hadn't been watching, but she was and she did.
Lex's eyes rolled up into his head, and his knees went slightly loose. Then his gaze sharpened, he seemed to straighten and he looked slightly confused for a moment.
Then his hand snapped up -- fucking hell, he wasn't even moving that fast, really -- and he effortlessly snatched the gun out of the gunman's hand.
He made it look easy. (Tess knew better than that from her Checkmate training.)
Then he seemed to actually become aware of his surroundings, looking around.
Tess almost laughed herself sick on the spot. Who the hell has an automatic reflex for stealing guns from criminals? she thought with a widening smile.
The gunman stared at Clark-in-Lex, as did the other three. Clark stared back.
Then Clark stepped forward, punched the disarmed gunman in the face, grabbed him by the front of his vest, and pulled him forward.
He flipped the gun around in his hand and, using the man as a human shield, shot each of the other three in rapid succession. Both arms each.
Once the others were no longer capable of holding or using a weapon, Clark shoved the first man back, and pistol-whipped him across the temple. He went down like a sack of potatoes.
No-one other than Clark had managed to get off another shot.
Start to finish, it had taken Clark less than seven seconds.
Clark surveyed the scene and then, upon realizing that there was no-one else who needed shooting apparently, let out a long breath and relaxed all-at-once, dropping his gun hand to a neutral position at his side. But after that, he paused and tensed as he seemed to realize something, and slowly turned back to the one female redhead in the room that he knew.
"Tess," he said grimly. "What. The. Hell."
"Welcome back!" Tess said happily, grinning.
Clark glared at her.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"This better not have been a damn setup!" Clark started in on her once they were firmly ensconced in one of the Daily Planet's many soundproof rooms. This one was a conference room that Lex had had renovated recently.
"I'm glad you're feeling better," Tess chirped back.
"I mean, Lex has done some pretty fucking stupid things before, trying to catch me out at doing something, or trying to make me do something I usually wouldn't do, so if this is a setup--"
"You are feeling better, aren't you? Last time Lex said that you'd collapsed and weren't talking to him, and then he wouldn't talk about you at all," she continued.
"--Are you even listening to me?" Clark asked.
"No, not really. I'm just glad you're both in one piece!" Tess enthused, then stepped forward and hugged him.
"Oh god, did Lex put you on some weird medication, or something?" Clark asked, sounding a little panicked.
"Nope! Just glad you're back!" Tess said brightly.
"...Right." Clark sounded entirely unconvinced, but awkwardly wrapped him arms around her and patted her on the back nevertheless, not quite returning the hug.
Tess really was happy that he was back, though. Lex had been absolutely miserable without him. Foul moods, short temper, up and down like a yo-yo, running himself and everyone else into the ground for weeks at a time and then crashing despondently for days afterward; just out-and-outright horrible to deal with all around.
If she'd learned anything from the old guard of staff Lex still had around, it was that Clark had always brightened his mood and evened him out. He'd been pleasant, with Clark around.
Before Lex had learned about the whole alien thing, anyway. Before he'd learned about any alien things at all, actually. Back when they had still been friends. Long ago, years ago, before Lex had gotten involved with his third wife. And then uninvolved.
Generally, the staff from the mansion were of two minds on this. There were those who loved Lana, and hated Clark... although they freely admitted under further questioning that they had used to like Clark before. There were those who loved Clark, and hated Lana -- and those had been fired, and only hired back after the divorce, after no small apologies were exchanged.
And then there had been that eclectic few who had liked Lana, but really liked Clark. Because apparently it was of their rarified opinion that Lex had been a hell of a lot happier with Clark around then Lana, and where Lana was, Clark had not been.
Which Tess had found really damn interesting all around.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"Don't you tell him," Clark said.
"He's going to know," Tess pointed out.
"I don't care," Clark gritted out, then had to take a deep, hitching breath to settle himself. "Just don't tell him."
"You know he's going to know," Tess pointed out, again.
"Just don't tell him."
~*~*~*~*~*~
"...How?" Lex said as he sat up on the couch in the Planet's fifth floor lounge area a short while later.
"I'm not supposed to tell," Tess dutifully reported, with a smile.
Lex blinked up at her. Then he slowly brightened.
"I'm not supposed to tell," she repeated, for good measure.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Previous part is here.
AN2: Working on more of this, hopefully soon-ish. I tend to bounce between fics a lot -- this one's been waiting around awhile for the first major post; far too long, actually. I finally sat down, did my own edit-check, and proclaimed it post-ready today (probably could've ages ago, oh well *shrugs*). This is another one of those ones which I feel like I could either split into a fic of its own as part of a series, or split up as chapters of a fic. I chose the latter in this case. *shrugs again*