FIC: The Subtle Joys of Interior Decorating, PG Clex, Part One
Title: The Subtle Joys of Interior Decorating
Pairing: Clex, Chloe/other
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: futurefic, AU after S3
Spoilers: S1-S3
Summary: After a long rift in their relationship, Lex and Clark have come together at last, but domestic bliss isn’t always happily ever after. Lex moving into Clark’s place is unacceptable. Clark moving into Lex’s place… is going to mean some changes for both. Guest starring Augustine the Hairless and Wonton-El.
betaed by the lovely miche_connor :D
“Ma, stop crying.” Clark set down a box in the doorway and walked over to hug his mother. “You knew I’d be moving into a bigger place eventually.”
“Isn’t this awful fast to move in, son?” Jonathan narrowed his eyes behind his thick bifocals. “You need to think things through. Give it some time.”
“Some time to fall apart.” Clark finished. He sighed and released his mother, but kept a hand on her shoulder. “Lex and I have known each other for fourteen years. We’ve been dating almost a year now. I don’t think that’s too soon.”
“Yeah, and you’ve been bitter enemies for how long o’that time? I don’t buy this turn around.” The aging man crossed his arms stubbornly. “I wish you’d think about this some. Y’never went after a guy before Lex…”
“And I never went after a girl before Lana. I’m not human, Pa. I don’t really understand why it’s such a big deal for me to date another gender and not another species.”
“Hon, we just want you to be happy.” Martha gave a little sigh. She waved her hand and took a tissue to dab her eyes. “Oh, Clark. I just want you to be happy. Moving the rest of your stuff out makes it feel like you’re never coming back.”
Jonathan wrapped his arms around his wife, quietly supporting her. “You can always come back here. You know that?”
“I’m fine.” Clark picked up his box and took the box his father had been carrying in his other hand easily. “Lex isn’t going to hurt me. I’ll be back for dinner on Sunday like we talked about-“
“Will he be coming?” Jonathan demanded. Clark rolled his eyes.
“Lex doesn’t feel welcome here. I can’t imagine why.”
“Clark-“
“He didn’t say anything negative about you. He just said that I should take the opportunity to ‘spend some idyllic quality time with the family and assure them I have not coerced their dear boy scout to the dark side against his super-will.’” He enunciated the last words, drawing out the vowels and opening his mouth wide in an impression of Lex that made his father grin a little. Clark zipped outside, set the boxes in his car and returned just as quickly. “I’d like Lex to be able to come to dinner with us someday without feeling like you guys are judging him.”
Martha wrung her hands. “Are you going now? Can you stay for some coffee? I have a pie baking?”
“You’re just trying to delay me. It’s a long drive, Ma. You’ll still see me. You’ll see so much of me you’ll get sick of me.”
“That’s not possible, hon.” She sniffed. “Oh, my boy is all grown. Finally moving in with someone.”
“Someone.” Jonathan muttered under his breath. Martha regained her wits and smacked his arm.
”Stop. This isn’t our decision to make.” Her mouth quivered, as though she were about to cry again. “Tell… oh….”
“Ma, it’s okay. Please stop crying?”
“I’m your mother! I’m supposed to be upset when you go out on your own.”
“You didn’t cry when I went to MetU.”
“Yeah, well that apartment y’ve been livin in…” Jonathan shared a smile with his wife. “We kinda knew you’d be back on weekends to wash your clothes and get a meal.”
“Living in Lex’s penthouse, I don’t think you need me anymore,” Martha whispered.
“Would it make you feel better if I brought you some dirty clothes every once and awhile?” Clark joked. His cell rang with Vivace. “Oh, that’s Lex. Hold on.”
“Can’t let Clark on his own for a moment,” Jonathan complained.
Clark rubbed his mother’s arm as he answered and gave his father a stern look. “Lex, I-“
”Take the pie.”
“What?” Clark sounded so incredulous that his parents looked concerned. He scanned the room for surveillance devices.
”Your mother is anxious about you moving out the rest of your things, right? And she baked something. Probably pie, or perhaps cookies and is asking you to stay awhile with her. Take it. Stay with her.”
“Uh… did you bug my house?”
”No, I just know your mother. She’s upset. She bakes. Comfort her a little.”
“Are you sure? It means I won’t get home until after you’re in bed. And you’ll be alone at the house all night.”
”I doubt it. I’m not at the penthouse. I’m at the office.”
“The office? Are you serious?” Clark’s voice raised in pitch a little angrily. “You’ve been there since yesterday morning! You said you’d go home at lunch!”
”I said I’d go home. And I did. And now I’m back. Take the pie. I won’t be alone.”
“You need some sleep. I’m suspecting that you won’t get any unless I fly over there and put you in bed myself.”
”Kinky.”
“I’m serious!”
Lex sighed audibly. ”Call me when you’re almost back in town. I’ll come home then, okay? Just do me a favor and comfort your mother, alright? She needs it, and they hate me enough as it is.”
Clark spoke softly. “They don’t hate you, babe.”
”You’ve never been a good liar. Call me?”
Clark paused and looked over to his parents. “Sure. I’ll call. If you get a break, though, please head home. Hm? I’m staring to worry that you actually live in the office.”
Lex laughed. ”Well, I’m starting to agree with you. God, I can’t wait for this deal to go through.”
“You and me both. Love you. Bye.”
”Bye.”
“Clark, sweetie, we do not hate Lex!” Martha protested as soon as he’d ended the call.
“Yeah, I can’t really convince him of that. I’ve been trying. He called to tell me to stay for whatever baked good you had for me and to be a good son and comfort you.”
Martha gave a warm smile and reached for Clark’s arm. “Things will work out. There’s been a lot of pain between all of us, but Lex has a good heart. He doesn’t always know what’s best to do, but none of us do, really.”
Jonathan followed them with a closed look. After Martha had poured the coffee, he began to serve the pie and asked, “Does Lex work like that all the time?”
“Lex never stops working.” Clark stirred his coffee. “Ah… heh. Neither do I, actually.”
“So are you going to mostly be living alone there?”
“What? Oh, no, Lex usually goes in to the office for meetings, but he does a lot of work in his office at home. He usually doesn’t like to leave Auggie alone for that long.”
Jonathan frowned. “Auggie?”
Clark pursed his lips and forked his pie. “Augustine the Hairless. Lex’s cat. … I know. He has to get in good with you guys, and I have to get in good with the hairless king of the world.”
“Lex?” Martha asked, confused.
“The cat is hairless?” Jonathan curled his lip in disgust.
“It’s a devil. And it hates me.” Clark shook his head. “If Lex won’t come home when I get to the office, I’ll tell him Auggie misses him. I’m sure it’s true. That beast won’t eat if Lex isn’t there.”
“How’s he going to react to…?”
“My dog with his cat? Who knows.” Clark rolled his shoulders and tried not to think what would happen when Auggie met his new roommate.
***
Just as Clark had suspected, despite promising when he called to come home, Lex still wasn’t at the penthouse when he arrived. He assured the butler Domovoi that he would be able to get the final boxes himself and left them stranded in the foyer with the other piles of his stuff to be moved in and somehow integrated in this pristine palace. Clark walked into the room with his final boxes and slowly surveyed what was to be his new home. Wide, black eyes bore into him, catching him off guard and causing him to stumble backward.
Augustine the Hairless was perched regally atop his boxes, glaring at him as though he were an intruder.
“Uh, hey Auggie.” Clark put down the box and shut the door. Tentatively he reached over to let the cat sniff his hand. Augustine was completely hairless, but his coloring was a blue black, and his eyes were light-absorbing pits of death. Augustine tilted his head, considering the situation, then leaned forward to sniff Clark’s hand. Clark wished he’d brought some treat for him. Auggie turned his nose up disdainfully. At least he hadn’t hissed and swiped at him, the way he usually did. Especially when he caught him fooling around with Lex.
Clark knew that it was ridiculous for Superman to have so much trepidation around a naked, neutered animal with Soft Paws and a heart murmur, but that thing still made him nervous. Especially since it was likely he might say something about how uncanny the creature was and offend Lex. He’d done it before.
“Come here you ugly thing,” Clark had teased Auggie one day when he had begun to just hang out around Lex’s penthouse between work and his duties with the League. Lex had looked up from his laptop with an arched brow.
“Do you really expect anyone to come to you if you call them ugly?” he’d asked in an even, disinterested tone.
“Come on. You have to admit it’s weird. He’s bald. It’s kinda freaky,” Clark had replied without thinking.
“Of course it is,” Lex clipped. He’d set his laptop aside and in one motion, scooped his hairless baby up into his arms protectively and turned away from Clark.
Clark had been able to feel the ice for the next three days.
“Has he eaten?” Clark asked Domovoi when the man came into the room.
“I put his food down. He simply yowls at me, as though complaining that I am not Mr. Luthor.”
“I’ll go get him. He’s probably caught up in work.”
“It would be much appreciated. We’re starting to place bets on whether you’ll be the new master of the house and the rest of us will merely be relocated to the LexCorp building.”
Clark chuckled and walked out to the balcony. Either Lex would be driving home, or he’d be flying home.
***
Lex wasn’t sure how long Clark had been watching him from the window. He was pretty sure that before they’d started dating, Superman had been playing Peeping Tom on him in this office often enough to warrant some kind of police charges. All he knew was that he’d been working with the lights dimmed for hours and suddenly while pacing around his desk trying to think of some way out of this mess his ex-employees had created for him he’d caught a glimpse of someone outside and jumped so hard he’d almost fallen over.
And of course, that bastard Clark started laughing as Lex put his hand to his chest, reeling from the shock.
Lex regained his composure and stormed over to the window and unfastened the clasps to let Clark in. “For fuck'ssake, Clark!”
Clark’s grinned so innocently it was hard not to forgive him immediately. Asshole.
“You said you would come home.”
“I know, I just want to finish this one thing.” Lex turned back to his laptop to point. Clark’s arms were around him and a hand was snaking across his crotch. “Oh.”
“Oh,” Clark breathed against his neck.
“Just… no… hang on, okay.”
Clark pouted and refused to stop hugging him from behind. Lex started to close files then came along a proposal he’d meant to look at earlier.
“Don’t even think about it,” Clark warned. Lex sighed.
“This all has to be done.”
“Yeah, but not all by you and not tonight.”
Lex could feel the annoyance coming off of his boyfriend, and it was starting to make him feel guilty for not being home the night when Clark had finally moved in. They had been talking about this for two months. Fifty-three days, from Lex’s recollection. Lex hadn’t really let himself think about the possibility until Clark had brought it up. Or rather, hinted around that he spent so much time there he might as well start forwarding his mail.
“Plus, Auggie won’t eat his dinner unless you come home.”
Lex saved and closed the file and clicked on the shutdown icon. He missed Clark’s eye roll. “Are you hungry? Have you eaten?”
“I ate…” Lex was now packing up the laptop and collecting a few things to work on at home when he felt up to tackling this mess again.
“When?”
Lex thought about it. “What time is it?”
Clark sighed. “We can pick up some Chinese?”
“Could do…” All packed up, Lex looked for his keys. “Or we could have them deliver it to the penthouse.”
Clark reached over and plucked Lex’s keys out of the organized disarray on his desk. It was obviously a sign that Lex was incredibly busy right now, if everything in his personal space wasn’t in order. Lex took the keys, pocketed them, and took out his cell phone.
Realizing how hard it would be for Lex to multitask one-handed, Clark took the briefcase and laptop from Lex so he wouldn’t have to ask Clark for help. Clark knew he hated to ask. Lex mouthed a thank you and began speaking in fluent Chinese into his phone.
“How hungry are you?”
“Not starving. My mom pushed pie on me three hours ago. I can eat, though.”
Lex turned back to the phone and continued to order as they stepped into the elevator. Shortly after, he clicked it shut.
“I really apologize. I meant to come home-“
Clark cut him off by cupping Lex’s face in his large hand. “I know. I believe you. I just know sometimes you need someone to remind you that you’re human and you need a break and a personal life.”
“Funny it would be you that reminds me of that,” Lex said dryly. Clark grinned.
“I don’t think so. It’s you who reminds me.” He kissed him lightly on the lips. Lex kissed back and reached down for Clark’s belt buckle. “No… wait. We have a penthouse to christen.”
Lex smirked. “That we do.”
That didn’t stop him from teasing Clark in the car all the way home.
Unfortunately, christening involved Lex falling asleep on him in the television room before the Chinese even arrived and Auggie curling up in Lex’s lap with a proprietary look at Clark.
Clark sighed in frustration and held out a shrimp for Auggie. The cat sniffed it and accepted the offering graciously. “What do you think, Aug? Should I wake daddy and make him eat?”
Auggie’s ears turned on their axes, and he began to lick one of his paws so that he could properly wash his face.
“Crazy animal.” Clark trailed his fingers along Lex’s scalp, hoping that would wake him. “Babe? Food’s here.”
“Brrroaw!” Auggie contributed loudly. He began to knead Lex’s leg, despite the plastic caps on his nails that prevented him from really digging in.
“Mm?” Lex’s hand moved to softly stroke the cat’s skin. He looked up at Clark groggily. “Didn’t make it, did I?”
“S‘okay. We’ve got some time to get the christening done. I just want to make sure you have a meal.”
“I eat, you know. I do.” Lex tried to sit up a bit more. He was ensconced between Clark’s legs, and with Auggie on his lap, it was difficult to move much. “Can we just go to bed?”
“Okay.” Clark planted a kiss on Lex’s head bump. “I’ll put the food in the refrigerator.”
Lex pried Auggie from his lap. “Mmm. Breakfast. Come on, baby. Move it. I’m tired.”
Clark tried to fight off a laugh. The cat did not want to be moved. He reached over to give a helping hand and Auggie favored him with a sharp hiss. “Okay, okay. I won’t touch you!”
Lex kissed along the naked head of his cat and slipped his arms underneath Auggie’s sides, scooping him up a little bit before he simply stood and the cat slipped off onto the floor, glaring at him indignantly. “I told you to move. Do you want to come sleep with us?”
Clark’s eyebrows raised high. “Sleep with us?”
Lex turned. “If we’re going to be sleeping, then… yes?” He waited a few moments, watching Clark’s surprised face. “Is that okay? I promise to shut him out if we start anything, but I don’t think that’s happening tonight. I have a meeting tomorrow morning.”
“I uh… sure. It’s fine.” Clark flushed a little bit. He stood and put a hand on Lex’s back, guiding him to the bedroom. This would be the first time Lex had ever let him sleep with him. He didn’t really want to share him with a cat. He imagined that Auggie would somehow sprawl in the perfect way to keep him away from Lex. He left Lex to change into his nightclothes and moved the Chinese to the refrigerator. When he returned, Lex was already asleep in the huge king sized bed, sleeping adorably on his side in his black silk pajamas that made him blend into the black silk sheets. He didn’t see Auggie at first, but was pleased to see that he had decided to curl up under Lex’s arm, leaving Clark room to cuddle up behind him.
He changed quickly and eased into the bed, scooting up close to Lex. Lex sighed softly in his sleep and stretched against Clark.
Clark couldn’t stop smiling. This was perfect.
***
“ZODDAMMIT!!”
Clark moved back so hard the headboard cracked. Auggie tilted his head and looked at him as though he were certifiably retarded.
“What?” Lex shot up and blindly reached over to the end table, probably for his gun.
“It okay. Just Satan giving me a wake up call.”
Lex sat up and stared at Clark for more than a few minutes trying to figure out what he was talking about.
“Cats watch you sleep. They watch you piss. It’s what they do,” Lex grumbled, throwing back the sheet and starting to get out of bed. Auggie settled on Clark’s crotch so that he couldn’t get up.
“No, Lex, come back to bed! I’m sorry I woke you.”
“I’m up in an hour anyway.” Lex motioned to the silver rimmed clock on the wall.
“Are you going to take a shower?”
“That would be a yes,” Lex said shortly, heading into the bathroom.
“Uh…” Clark hesitated. It figured that Lex wasn’t a morning person, but what was that about?
After about ten minutes, Auggie had decided to go bother someone else in the house, so Clark got up and headed to the bathroom with the intent of surprising Lex. He cracked the door silently, which hardly mattered since Lex had a version of Dies Irae playing from somewhere. Having never been in Lex’s master bathroom before, he looked around and noted the huge tub separate from the shower. This bathroom was bigger than the room he’d grown up in. Blue and cream seemed to be the color scheme in this room. He walked up to the sink, which stretched almost across the wall and looked into the circular mirror. He drew his and Lex’s names intertwined in Kryptonian and added a few little hearts before he looked down at the items on the sink. His toothbrush, which he had only put there the night before, was lined up perfectly next to Lex’s electric toothbrush. He hadn’t heard anyone come in. Lex must have done it before he got in the shower. There was nothing for shaving. No hairbrushes or combs. It made sense, but Clark had never thought about it before. No shampoo. No trimmers. Several face care products that Clark wasn’t even sure, really, what they did. His bathroom stuff would look so odd in here.
Then he saw the black object on the sink… Clark’s brows raised when he realized it was Lex’s fake hand. Before he knew it, Clark had picked it up and was looking at the thing. His chest tightened, remembering Lex’s pale face, his dry lips… he’d come so close to losing him because of the cancer. Because of the Kryptonite. Because Lex had felt the need to protect himself from Clark…
“Can I have that back.” Lex’s unamused voice cut sharply into him.
“Lex…” Clark turned in surprise to see Lex standing dripping and naked before him. Lex snatched it with his right hand and fixed it to his stump quickly without looking Clark in the eye.
“I’ll be back early today,” Lex announced, grabbing a towel and walking away as he quickly dried himself off.
“You shower quick.”
“I don’t have a lot to do in the shower.” He wrapped the towel around his waist and was gone. Clark closed his eyes. Was this supposed to be so hard?
Clark tried unsuccessfully to find places for his stuff until noon then called the office to see if Lex had left for the penthouse yet. His secretary informed Clark that he’d abruptly gone on location to a lab in Canada and wouldn’t be back until much later that evening. He put the phone back on the hook, walked calmly out to the balcony, and decided to fly over to Chloe’s apartment before he broke anything too expensive in frustration.
Chloe came home wet from the rain and looked into two sets of puppy dog eyes, as Clark sat on the floor scratching his dog’s ears. “Let me change, then you can tell me what happened, okay?”
She slipped out of her heels and padded towards her bedroom quickly. Clark sighed heavily waiting on her, and after a moment she came out in a white t-shirt and what looked like a pair of Mercy’s jeans.
“Was it hard moving in with Mercy?” He asked immediately. Chloe walked over to the small kitchen and started hunting tea bags.
“Well, she moved in here with me. I’d been settled here in Gotham for a while when we decided to move in, and this place has rent control. So… you’d have to ask her, I guess. What do you mean by hard?”
“I mean…” Clark watched his dog trot over to Chloe. He was a brown collie and lab mix with large white paws, who he had picked out from the local shelter. Saving the world on a regular basis got you love from the populace, but it was still lonely coming home to a one-room apartment every night. Clark had decided to let him stay with the girls for a little while until he was settled at Lex’s place. Chloe patted the dog’s head and put on the teakettle. “Did you guys fit together right away?”
Chloe turned to him with a faintly alarmed expression. “You should go easy on Lex if you don’t fit. He’s only human.”
“What? NO. No, I don’t mean sex!!” Clark put his hands over his reddening face. Chloe leaned back and poked him with her toe and looked concerned.
“Baby. What is it then?”
“None of my things fit with Lex’s things. Everything in his apartment is in perfect order. Even that cat of his fits in perfectly. I don’t know that I’ll fit into his life.”
She sighed and sat next to him on the floor. “Give it some time. Look, Mercy and I… well, no, I guess we didn’t fit at first. But when she moved in, we found places for her things together. We talked about it before she came, you know? And we picked out that couch and some sheets together. Our schedules didn’t mesh perfectly right away, but she had been staying over here a lot anyway, so…” She shrugged. “You two just need to talk this out. Did you have a fight?”
“No. I… he got mad at me this morning. He didn’t say anything, but he got mad.”
She frowned, clearly demanding more information.
“He was in the shower. I came in to surprise him.”
A light, knowing smile touched Chloe’s lips.
“Then I found his prosthetic on the sink.”
The smile dropped.
“And he caught me looking at it.”
“God, Clark,” she whispered.
He threw his hands in the air. “I know. I’m an idiot!”
“He’s not mad at you. I think…” She rubbed his shoulder a little. “Don’t you think he was probably just mad in general?”
“Maybe?”
“Relax. When he gets home, apologize and don’t demand anything from him. Say, ‘I’m sorry I got in your space this morning’ or something like that. He’ll understand. Lex is crazy about you, and he always has been, but he’s been through such a hard time with the cancer, and it wasn’t that long ago.”
“You think he’s just still sensitive about it.”
“And it could still come back. I’m sure the whole thing freaks him out. He can’t drive his cars the way he used to. He can’t play the piano. He can’t do mundane things like tie his shoes with two hands! It’s a big change, and it’ll take some getting used to.”
Clark nodded.
“Just don’t make him feel like a freak about it.”
“I won’t!”
Chloe stood to take the tea off the burner. “I know you won’t mean to. I trust that… you know, really. You guys have been through so much. You’ll get over this bump. It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours, has it?”
“No. And I thought Lex was the impatient one.” Clark stood and opened the cupboard to get them some snacks to go with the tea.
“Rubbing off on each other already.”
“When did you and Mercy start getting…?”
“Horizontal?”
Clark dropped a package of biscuits on the counter. “Why is everything sex with you!”
Chloe laughed. “We experienced a little lesbian bed death about three months ago, but honestly, between our jobs and her ‘evening activities’ life is never boring. Although, we do finish each other’s sentences. It creeps out Bruce like you wouldn’t believe. Which is, admittedly, mostly why we do it.”
“You are evil.”
“All the more reason you should be talking to Mercy, and I should be talking to Lex.” She poured the tea and shook a little. “Brr. Then again, you should be talking to Lex more than any of the previously mentioned talkings. When are you going to be taking the mutt over?”
“I’m not sure. I’ll ask Lex when a good time will be. He gives a weird vibe when I mention it, though.”
“I don’t blame him. Remember how Shelby didn’t like him? And how the last time he came by your parents’ place their new dog- what’s her name?”
“Daisy.”
“She bit his leg. That was crazy. He was just standing there! Lex isn’t exactly a dog person.”
“If he hates dogs so much, why would he let me bring him?”
”Come on, Clark. You know the answer to that one.” She handed him his cup of tea. Clark looked down at it and realized that he did.
“The same reason I put up with that bald bitch he calls a cat.”
***
When Clark returned to the penthouse, Lex was in the den, eating leftover Chinese and working on his laptop.
“Hi,” Clark said sheepishly as he walked into the room. Lex looked up with interest.
“Where did you go today? I thought you’d be unpacking.”
“I went to Chloe’s.” Clark sat on the floor with him. He offered him an egg roll on the end of his chopsticks. Clark took it with his teeth and was rewarded with a light twitch of Lex’s lips. This was hard. He could see how Lex had to juggle between the chopsticks and typing. Lex must have been incredibly frustrated learning to do it this way. “Sorry I got in your space this morning.”
Lex frowned a little at the screen. “What? What do you mean?”
“Um.”
Lex regarded him quizzically, likely playing that morning out in his head. Clark was sorry he mentioned it. But Lex never forgot things? Or was this a game or a test?
He could see when Lex reached the incident in his mind. The light expression of amusement disappeared, and Lex’s face closed. He went back to his work. Then, a moment later, “I’m sorry I’m so oversensitive about that.”
“Uh, I don’t think you’re oversensitive.” Clark scooted behind him and tried to work on his shoulders. “It must have been hard-“
“I don’t want to talk about it, Clark. You are forgiven.”
Clark tilted his head curiously.
“Just, please don’t stare at my deformities from now on. You never used to.”
“Your… Lex you’re not deformed!”
“What doesn’t kill us makes us stranger.”
Clark sighed and tried to wrap his hands around Lex. He was rebuffed and pushed to the side. He opened his mouth to protest, and Lex deftly shoved another egg roll inside. He ate it sulkily. Lex was pretty swift for a guy who used to be a lefty. Though Clark remembered Lex shooting with his right hand before. He was dying to ask about that but figured it was better to just change the subject. He grabbed the sweet and sour pork and a pair of chopsticks. Lex must have figured he was coming home, if he heated this up. Lex didn’t eat pork.
“So, um, when can I bring Wonton over?”
“They’re by the extra sauce.”
Clark actually grabbed the box containing them and offered one to Lex, who bit it delicately out of his fingers. “I was talking about my dog.”
Lex stopped chewing and got… well it was such a strange look. He set down his chopsticks and reached for the water he had sitting beside his laptop. After taking a long drink, he said, “The dog’s name is WONTON?”
“Uh, yeah. Wonton-El.”
Lex rolled his eyes.
“What?”
“Of course it is.”
“Well, we can’t all be Augustine Constantine Caligula-“
“Maybe should have named the cat Caligula.” Clark could hear the wry smirk in his voice.
“He’s… a sweetie.”
“Don’t lie, Clark. You’re horrible at it.”
“So?”
“So what?”
“So when can I bring Wonton over?” Clark could feel Lex stiffen. He took a deep breath.
“Maybe we should get some of your things unpacked first, hm?”
“Uh, yeah. About that.”
“Yes?” Lex shut his laptop and turned around so he was snuggled between Clark’s legs face to face.
“Um.”
Lex seemed to be getting impatient. Clark wondered if he wanted to touch on another touchy subject. Maybe Chloe would be right. Maybe he wouldn’t mind Clark’s clutter amongst the neat… pristine….
And now Lex was unbuttoning his shirt. Clark beamed like a schoolboy.
“I’ll get to it tonight.”
What a glorious christening it was.
Pairing: Clex, Chloe/other
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: futurefic, AU after S3
Spoilers: S1-S3
Summary: After a long rift in their relationship, Lex and Clark have come together at last, but domestic bliss isn’t always happily ever after. Lex moving into Clark’s place is unacceptable. Clark moving into Lex’s place… is going to mean some changes for both. Guest starring Augustine the Hairless and Wonton-El.
betaed by the lovely miche_connor :D
“Ma, stop crying.” Clark set down a box in the doorway and walked over to hug his mother. “You knew I’d be moving into a bigger place eventually.”
“Isn’t this awful fast to move in, son?” Jonathan narrowed his eyes behind his thick bifocals. “You need to think things through. Give it some time.”
“Some time to fall apart.” Clark finished. He sighed and released his mother, but kept a hand on her shoulder. “Lex and I have known each other for fourteen years. We’ve been dating almost a year now. I don’t think that’s too soon.”
“Yeah, and you’ve been bitter enemies for how long o’that time? I don’t buy this turn around.” The aging man crossed his arms stubbornly. “I wish you’d think about this some. Y’never went after a guy before Lex…”
“And I never went after a girl before Lana. I’m not human, Pa. I don’t really understand why it’s such a big deal for me to date another gender and not another species.”
“Hon, we just want you to be happy.” Martha gave a little sigh. She waved her hand and took a tissue to dab her eyes. “Oh, Clark. I just want you to be happy. Moving the rest of your stuff out makes it feel like you’re never coming back.”
Jonathan wrapped his arms around his wife, quietly supporting her. “You can always come back here. You know that?”
“I’m fine.” Clark picked up his box and took the box his father had been carrying in his other hand easily. “Lex isn’t going to hurt me. I’ll be back for dinner on Sunday like we talked about-“
“Will he be coming?” Jonathan demanded. Clark rolled his eyes.
“Lex doesn’t feel welcome here. I can’t imagine why.”
“Clark-“
“He didn’t say anything negative about you. He just said that I should take the opportunity to ‘spend some idyllic quality time with the family and assure them I have not coerced their dear boy scout to the dark side against his super-will.’” He enunciated the last words, drawing out the vowels and opening his mouth wide in an impression of Lex that made his father grin a little. Clark zipped outside, set the boxes in his car and returned just as quickly. “I’d like Lex to be able to come to dinner with us someday without feeling like you guys are judging him.”
Martha wrung her hands. “Are you going now? Can you stay for some coffee? I have a pie baking?”
“You’re just trying to delay me. It’s a long drive, Ma. You’ll still see me. You’ll see so much of me you’ll get sick of me.”
“That’s not possible, hon.” She sniffed. “Oh, my boy is all grown. Finally moving in with someone.”
“Someone.” Jonathan muttered under his breath. Martha regained her wits and smacked his arm.
”Stop. This isn’t our decision to make.” Her mouth quivered, as though she were about to cry again. “Tell… oh….”
“Ma, it’s okay. Please stop crying?”
“I’m your mother! I’m supposed to be upset when you go out on your own.”
“You didn’t cry when I went to MetU.”
“Yeah, well that apartment y’ve been livin in…” Jonathan shared a smile with his wife. “We kinda knew you’d be back on weekends to wash your clothes and get a meal.”
“Living in Lex’s penthouse, I don’t think you need me anymore,” Martha whispered.
“Would it make you feel better if I brought you some dirty clothes every once and awhile?” Clark joked. His cell rang with Vivace. “Oh, that’s Lex. Hold on.”
“Can’t let Clark on his own for a moment,” Jonathan complained.
Clark rubbed his mother’s arm as he answered and gave his father a stern look. “Lex, I-“
”Take the pie.”
“What?” Clark sounded so incredulous that his parents looked concerned. He scanned the room for surveillance devices.
”Your mother is anxious about you moving out the rest of your things, right? And she baked something. Probably pie, or perhaps cookies and is asking you to stay awhile with her. Take it. Stay with her.”
“Uh… did you bug my house?”
”No, I just know your mother. She’s upset. She bakes. Comfort her a little.”
“Are you sure? It means I won’t get home until after you’re in bed. And you’ll be alone at the house all night.”
”I doubt it. I’m not at the penthouse. I’m at the office.”
“The office? Are you serious?” Clark’s voice raised in pitch a little angrily. “You’ve been there since yesterday morning! You said you’d go home at lunch!”
”I said I’d go home. And I did. And now I’m back. Take the pie. I won’t be alone.”
“You need some sleep. I’m suspecting that you won’t get any unless I fly over there and put you in bed myself.”
”Kinky.”
“I’m serious!”
Lex sighed audibly. ”Call me when you’re almost back in town. I’ll come home then, okay? Just do me a favor and comfort your mother, alright? She needs it, and they hate me enough as it is.”
Clark spoke softly. “They don’t hate you, babe.”
”You’ve never been a good liar. Call me?”
Clark paused and looked over to his parents. “Sure. I’ll call. If you get a break, though, please head home. Hm? I’m staring to worry that you actually live in the office.”
Lex laughed. ”Well, I’m starting to agree with you. God, I can’t wait for this deal to go through.”
“You and me both. Love you. Bye.”
”Bye.”
“Clark, sweetie, we do not hate Lex!” Martha protested as soon as he’d ended the call.
“Yeah, I can’t really convince him of that. I’ve been trying. He called to tell me to stay for whatever baked good you had for me and to be a good son and comfort you.”
Martha gave a warm smile and reached for Clark’s arm. “Things will work out. There’s been a lot of pain between all of us, but Lex has a good heart. He doesn’t always know what’s best to do, but none of us do, really.”
Jonathan followed them with a closed look. After Martha had poured the coffee, he began to serve the pie and asked, “Does Lex work like that all the time?”
“Lex never stops working.” Clark stirred his coffee. “Ah… heh. Neither do I, actually.”
“So are you going to mostly be living alone there?”
“What? Oh, no, Lex usually goes in to the office for meetings, but he does a lot of work in his office at home. He usually doesn’t like to leave Auggie alone for that long.”
Jonathan frowned. “Auggie?”
Clark pursed his lips and forked his pie. “Augustine the Hairless. Lex’s cat. … I know. He has to get in good with you guys, and I have to get in good with the hairless king of the world.”
“Lex?” Martha asked, confused.
“The cat is hairless?” Jonathan curled his lip in disgust.
“It’s a devil. And it hates me.” Clark shook his head. “If Lex won’t come home when I get to the office, I’ll tell him Auggie misses him. I’m sure it’s true. That beast won’t eat if Lex isn’t there.”
“How’s he going to react to…?”
“My dog with his cat? Who knows.” Clark rolled his shoulders and tried not to think what would happen when Auggie met his new roommate.
***
Just as Clark had suspected, despite promising when he called to come home, Lex still wasn’t at the penthouse when he arrived. He assured the butler Domovoi that he would be able to get the final boxes himself and left them stranded in the foyer with the other piles of his stuff to be moved in and somehow integrated in this pristine palace. Clark walked into the room with his final boxes and slowly surveyed what was to be his new home. Wide, black eyes bore into him, catching him off guard and causing him to stumble backward.
Augustine the Hairless was perched regally atop his boxes, glaring at him as though he were an intruder.
“Uh, hey Auggie.” Clark put down the box and shut the door. Tentatively he reached over to let the cat sniff his hand. Augustine was completely hairless, but his coloring was a blue black, and his eyes were light-absorbing pits of death. Augustine tilted his head, considering the situation, then leaned forward to sniff Clark’s hand. Clark wished he’d brought some treat for him. Auggie turned his nose up disdainfully. At least he hadn’t hissed and swiped at him, the way he usually did. Especially when he caught him fooling around with Lex.
Clark knew that it was ridiculous for Superman to have so much trepidation around a naked, neutered animal with Soft Paws and a heart murmur, but that thing still made him nervous. Especially since it was likely he might say something about how uncanny the creature was and offend Lex. He’d done it before.
“Come here you ugly thing,” Clark had teased Auggie one day when he had begun to just hang out around Lex’s penthouse between work and his duties with the League. Lex had looked up from his laptop with an arched brow.
“Do you really expect anyone to come to you if you call them ugly?” he’d asked in an even, disinterested tone.
“Come on. You have to admit it’s weird. He’s bald. It’s kinda freaky,” Clark had replied without thinking.
“Of course it is,” Lex clipped. He’d set his laptop aside and in one motion, scooped his hairless baby up into his arms protectively and turned away from Clark.
Clark had been able to feel the ice for the next three days.
“Has he eaten?” Clark asked Domovoi when the man came into the room.
“I put his food down. He simply yowls at me, as though complaining that I am not Mr. Luthor.”
“I’ll go get him. He’s probably caught up in work.”
“It would be much appreciated. We’re starting to place bets on whether you’ll be the new master of the house and the rest of us will merely be relocated to the LexCorp building.”
Clark chuckled and walked out to the balcony. Either Lex would be driving home, or he’d be flying home.
***
Lex wasn’t sure how long Clark had been watching him from the window. He was pretty sure that before they’d started dating, Superman had been playing Peeping Tom on him in this office often enough to warrant some kind of police charges. All he knew was that he’d been working with the lights dimmed for hours and suddenly while pacing around his desk trying to think of some way out of this mess his ex-employees had created for him he’d caught a glimpse of someone outside and jumped so hard he’d almost fallen over.
And of course, that bastard Clark started laughing as Lex put his hand to his chest, reeling from the shock.
Lex regained his composure and stormed over to the window and unfastened the clasps to let Clark in. “For fuck'ssake, Clark!”
Clark’s grinned so innocently it was hard not to forgive him immediately. Asshole.
“You said you would come home.”
“I know, I just want to finish this one thing.” Lex turned back to his laptop to point. Clark’s arms were around him and a hand was snaking across his crotch. “Oh.”
“Oh,” Clark breathed against his neck.
“Just… no… hang on, okay.”
Clark pouted and refused to stop hugging him from behind. Lex started to close files then came along a proposal he’d meant to look at earlier.
“Don’t even think about it,” Clark warned. Lex sighed.
“This all has to be done.”
“Yeah, but not all by you and not tonight.”
Lex could feel the annoyance coming off of his boyfriend, and it was starting to make him feel guilty for not being home the night when Clark had finally moved in. They had been talking about this for two months. Fifty-three days, from Lex’s recollection. Lex hadn’t really let himself think about the possibility until Clark had brought it up. Or rather, hinted around that he spent so much time there he might as well start forwarding his mail.
“Plus, Auggie won’t eat his dinner unless you come home.”
Lex saved and closed the file and clicked on the shutdown icon. He missed Clark’s eye roll. “Are you hungry? Have you eaten?”
“I ate…” Lex was now packing up the laptop and collecting a few things to work on at home when he felt up to tackling this mess again.
“When?”
Lex thought about it. “What time is it?”
Clark sighed. “We can pick up some Chinese?”
“Could do…” All packed up, Lex looked for his keys. “Or we could have them deliver it to the penthouse.”
Clark reached over and plucked Lex’s keys out of the organized disarray on his desk. It was obviously a sign that Lex was incredibly busy right now, if everything in his personal space wasn’t in order. Lex took the keys, pocketed them, and took out his cell phone.
Realizing how hard it would be for Lex to multitask one-handed, Clark took the briefcase and laptop from Lex so he wouldn’t have to ask Clark for help. Clark knew he hated to ask. Lex mouthed a thank you and began speaking in fluent Chinese into his phone.
“How hungry are you?”
“Not starving. My mom pushed pie on me three hours ago. I can eat, though.”
Lex turned back to the phone and continued to order as they stepped into the elevator. Shortly after, he clicked it shut.
“I really apologize. I meant to come home-“
Clark cut him off by cupping Lex’s face in his large hand. “I know. I believe you. I just know sometimes you need someone to remind you that you’re human and you need a break and a personal life.”
“Funny it would be you that reminds me of that,” Lex said dryly. Clark grinned.
“I don’t think so. It’s you who reminds me.” He kissed him lightly on the lips. Lex kissed back and reached down for Clark’s belt buckle. “No… wait. We have a penthouse to christen.”
Lex smirked. “That we do.”
That didn’t stop him from teasing Clark in the car all the way home.
Unfortunately, christening involved Lex falling asleep on him in the television room before the Chinese even arrived and Auggie curling up in Lex’s lap with a proprietary look at Clark.
Clark sighed in frustration and held out a shrimp for Auggie. The cat sniffed it and accepted the offering graciously. “What do you think, Aug? Should I wake daddy and make him eat?”
Auggie’s ears turned on their axes, and he began to lick one of his paws so that he could properly wash his face.
“Crazy animal.” Clark trailed his fingers along Lex’s scalp, hoping that would wake him. “Babe? Food’s here.”
“Brrroaw!” Auggie contributed loudly. He began to knead Lex’s leg, despite the plastic caps on his nails that prevented him from really digging in.
“Mm?” Lex’s hand moved to softly stroke the cat’s skin. He looked up at Clark groggily. “Didn’t make it, did I?”
“S‘okay. We’ve got some time to get the christening done. I just want to make sure you have a meal.”
“I eat, you know. I do.” Lex tried to sit up a bit more. He was ensconced between Clark’s legs, and with Auggie on his lap, it was difficult to move much. “Can we just go to bed?”
“Okay.” Clark planted a kiss on Lex’s head bump. “I’ll put the food in the refrigerator.”
Lex pried Auggie from his lap. “Mmm. Breakfast. Come on, baby. Move it. I’m tired.”
Clark tried to fight off a laugh. The cat did not want to be moved. He reached over to give a helping hand and Auggie favored him with a sharp hiss. “Okay, okay. I won’t touch you!”
Lex kissed along the naked head of his cat and slipped his arms underneath Auggie’s sides, scooping him up a little bit before he simply stood and the cat slipped off onto the floor, glaring at him indignantly. “I told you to move. Do you want to come sleep with us?”
Clark’s eyebrows raised high. “Sleep with us?”
Lex turned. “If we’re going to be sleeping, then… yes?” He waited a few moments, watching Clark’s surprised face. “Is that okay? I promise to shut him out if we start anything, but I don’t think that’s happening tonight. I have a meeting tomorrow morning.”
“I uh… sure. It’s fine.” Clark flushed a little bit. He stood and put a hand on Lex’s back, guiding him to the bedroom. This would be the first time Lex had ever let him sleep with him. He didn’t really want to share him with a cat. He imagined that Auggie would somehow sprawl in the perfect way to keep him away from Lex. He left Lex to change into his nightclothes and moved the Chinese to the refrigerator. When he returned, Lex was already asleep in the huge king sized bed, sleeping adorably on his side in his black silk pajamas that made him blend into the black silk sheets. He didn’t see Auggie at first, but was pleased to see that he had decided to curl up under Lex’s arm, leaving Clark room to cuddle up behind him.
He changed quickly and eased into the bed, scooting up close to Lex. Lex sighed softly in his sleep and stretched against Clark.
Clark couldn’t stop smiling. This was perfect.
***
“ZODDAMMIT!!”
Clark moved back so hard the headboard cracked. Auggie tilted his head and looked at him as though he were certifiably retarded.
“What?” Lex shot up and blindly reached over to the end table, probably for his gun.
“It okay. Just Satan giving me a wake up call.”
Lex sat up and stared at Clark for more than a few minutes trying to figure out what he was talking about.
“Cats watch you sleep. They watch you piss. It’s what they do,” Lex grumbled, throwing back the sheet and starting to get out of bed. Auggie settled on Clark’s crotch so that he couldn’t get up.
“No, Lex, come back to bed! I’m sorry I woke you.”
“I’m up in an hour anyway.” Lex motioned to the silver rimmed clock on the wall.
“Are you going to take a shower?”
“That would be a yes,” Lex said shortly, heading into the bathroom.
“Uh…” Clark hesitated. It figured that Lex wasn’t a morning person, but what was that about?
After about ten minutes, Auggie had decided to go bother someone else in the house, so Clark got up and headed to the bathroom with the intent of surprising Lex. He cracked the door silently, which hardly mattered since Lex had a version of Dies Irae playing from somewhere. Having never been in Lex’s master bathroom before, he looked around and noted the huge tub separate from the shower. This bathroom was bigger than the room he’d grown up in. Blue and cream seemed to be the color scheme in this room. He walked up to the sink, which stretched almost across the wall and looked into the circular mirror. He drew his and Lex’s names intertwined in Kryptonian and added a few little hearts before he looked down at the items on the sink. His toothbrush, which he had only put there the night before, was lined up perfectly next to Lex’s electric toothbrush. He hadn’t heard anyone come in. Lex must have done it before he got in the shower. There was nothing for shaving. No hairbrushes or combs. It made sense, but Clark had never thought about it before. No shampoo. No trimmers. Several face care products that Clark wasn’t even sure, really, what they did. His bathroom stuff would look so odd in here.
Then he saw the black object on the sink… Clark’s brows raised when he realized it was Lex’s fake hand. Before he knew it, Clark had picked it up and was looking at the thing. His chest tightened, remembering Lex’s pale face, his dry lips… he’d come so close to losing him because of the cancer. Because of the Kryptonite. Because Lex had felt the need to protect himself from Clark…
“Can I have that back.” Lex’s unamused voice cut sharply into him.
“Lex…” Clark turned in surprise to see Lex standing dripping and naked before him. Lex snatched it with his right hand and fixed it to his stump quickly without looking Clark in the eye.
“I’ll be back early today,” Lex announced, grabbing a towel and walking away as he quickly dried himself off.
“You shower quick.”
“I don’t have a lot to do in the shower.” He wrapped the towel around his waist and was gone. Clark closed his eyes. Was this supposed to be so hard?
Clark tried unsuccessfully to find places for his stuff until noon then called the office to see if Lex had left for the penthouse yet. His secretary informed Clark that he’d abruptly gone on location to a lab in Canada and wouldn’t be back until much later that evening. He put the phone back on the hook, walked calmly out to the balcony, and decided to fly over to Chloe’s apartment before he broke anything too expensive in frustration.
Chloe came home wet from the rain and looked into two sets of puppy dog eyes, as Clark sat on the floor scratching his dog’s ears. “Let me change, then you can tell me what happened, okay?”
She slipped out of her heels and padded towards her bedroom quickly. Clark sighed heavily waiting on her, and after a moment she came out in a white t-shirt and what looked like a pair of Mercy’s jeans.
“Was it hard moving in with Mercy?” He asked immediately. Chloe walked over to the small kitchen and started hunting tea bags.
“Well, she moved in here with me. I’d been settled here in Gotham for a while when we decided to move in, and this place has rent control. So… you’d have to ask her, I guess. What do you mean by hard?”
“I mean…” Clark watched his dog trot over to Chloe. He was a brown collie and lab mix with large white paws, who he had picked out from the local shelter. Saving the world on a regular basis got you love from the populace, but it was still lonely coming home to a one-room apartment every night. Clark had decided to let him stay with the girls for a little while until he was settled at Lex’s place. Chloe patted the dog’s head and put on the teakettle. “Did you guys fit together right away?”
Chloe turned to him with a faintly alarmed expression. “You should go easy on Lex if you don’t fit. He’s only human.”
“What? NO. No, I don’t mean sex!!” Clark put his hands over his reddening face. Chloe leaned back and poked him with her toe and looked concerned.
“Baby. What is it then?”
“None of my things fit with Lex’s things. Everything in his apartment is in perfect order. Even that cat of his fits in perfectly. I don’t know that I’ll fit into his life.”
She sighed and sat next to him on the floor. “Give it some time. Look, Mercy and I… well, no, I guess we didn’t fit at first. But when she moved in, we found places for her things together. We talked about it before she came, you know? And we picked out that couch and some sheets together. Our schedules didn’t mesh perfectly right away, but she had been staying over here a lot anyway, so…” She shrugged. “You two just need to talk this out. Did you have a fight?”
“No. I… he got mad at me this morning. He didn’t say anything, but he got mad.”
She frowned, clearly demanding more information.
“He was in the shower. I came in to surprise him.”
A light, knowing smile touched Chloe’s lips.
“Then I found his prosthetic on the sink.”
The smile dropped.
“And he caught me looking at it.”
“God, Clark,” she whispered.
He threw his hands in the air. “I know. I’m an idiot!”
“He’s not mad at you. I think…” She rubbed his shoulder a little. “Don’t you think he was probably just mad in general?”
“Maybe?”
“Relax. When he gets home, apologize and don’t demand anything from him. Say, ‘I’m sorry I got in your space this morning’ or something like that. He’ll understand. Lex is crazy about you, and he always has been, but he’s been through such a hard time with the cancer, and it wasn’t that long ago.”
“You think he’s just still sensitive about it.”
“And it could still come back. I’m sure the whole thing freaks him out. He can’t drive his cars the way he used to. He can’t play the piano. He can’t do mundane things like tie his shoes with two hands! It’s a big change, and it’ll take some getting used to.”
Clark nodded.
“Just don’t make him feel like a freak about it.”
“I won’t!”
Chloe stood to take the tea off the burner. “I know you won’t mean to. I trust that… you know, really. You guys have been through so much. You’ll get over this bump. It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours, has it?”
“No. And I thought Lex was the impatient one.” Clark stood and opened the cupboard to get them some snacks to go with the tea.
“Rubbing off on each other already.”
“When did you and Mercy start getting…?”
“Horizontal?”
Clark dropped a package of biscuits on the counter. “Why is everything sex with you!”
Chloe laughed. “We experienced a little lesbian bed death about three months ago, but honestly, between our jobs and her ‘evening activities’ life is never boring. Although, we do finish each other’s sentences. It creeps out Bruce like you wouldn’t believe. Which is, admittedly, mostly why we do it.”
“You are evil.”
“All the more reason you should be talking to Mercy, and I should be talking to Lex.” She poured the tea and shook a little. “Brr. Then again, you should be talking to Lex more than any of the previously mentioned talkings. When are you going to be taking the mutt over?”
“I’m not sure. I’ll ask Lex when a good time will be. He gives a weird vibe when I mention it, though.”
“I don’t blame him. Remember how Shelby didn’t like him? And how the last time he came by your parents’ place their new dog- what’s her name?”
“Daisy.”
“She bit his leg. That was crazy. He was just standing there! Lex isn’t exactly a dog person.”
“If he hates dogs so much, why would he let me bring him?”
”Come on, Clark. You know the answer to that one.” She handed him his cup of tea. Clark looked down at it and realized that he did.
“The same reason I put up with that bald bitch he calls a cat.”
***
When Clark returned to the penthouse, Lex was in the den, eating leftover Chinese and working on his laptop.
“Hi,” Clark said sheepishly as he walked into the room. Lex looked up with interest.
“Where did you go today? I thought you’d be unpacking.”
“I went to Chloe’s.” Clark sat on the floor with him. He offered him an egg roll on the end of his chopsticks. Clark took it with his teeth and was rewarded with a light twitch of Lex’s lips. This was hard. He could see how Lex had to juggle between the chopsticks and typing. Lex must have been incredibly frustrated learning to do it this way. “Sorry I got in your space this morning.”
Lex frowned a little at the screen. “What? What do you mean?”
“Um.”
Lex regarded him quizzically, likely playing that morning out in his head. Clark was sorry he mentioned it. But Lex never forgot things? Or was this a game or a test?
He could see when Lex reached the incident in his mind. The light expression of amusement disappeared, and Lex’s face closed. He went back to his work. Then, a moment later, “I’m sorry I’m so oversensitive about that.”
“Uh, I don’t think you’re oversensitive.” Clark scooted behind him and tried to work on his shoulders. “It must have been hard-“
“I don’t want to talk about it, Clark. You are forgiven.”
Clark tilted his head curiously.
“Just, please don’t stare at my deformities from now on. You never used to.”
“Your… Lex you’re not deformed!”
“What doesn’t kill us makes us stranger.”
Clark sighed and tried to wrap his hands around Lex. He was rebuffed and pushed to the side. He opened his mouth to protest, and Lex deftly shoved another egg roll inside. He ate it sulkily. Lex was pretty swift for a guy who used to be a lefty. Though Clark remembered Lex shooting with his right hand before. He was dying to ask about that but figured it was better to just change the subject. He grabbed the sweet and sour pork and a pair of chopsticks. Lex must have figured he was coming home, if he heated this up. Lex didn’t eat pork.
“So, um, when can I bring Wonton over?”
“They’re by the extra sauce.”
Clark actually grabbed the box containing them and offered one to Lex, who bit it delicately out of his fingers. “I was talking about my dog.”
Lex stopped chewing and got… well it was such a strange look. He set down his chopsticks and reached for the water he had sitting beside his laptop. After taking a long drink, he said, “The dog’s name is WONTON?”
“Uh, yeah. Wonton-El.”
Lex rolled his eyes.
“What?”
“Of course it is.”
“Well, we can’t all be Augustine Constantine Caligula-“
“Maybe should have named the cat Caligula.” Clark could hear the wry smirk in his voice.
“He’s… a sweetie.”
“Don’t lie, Clark. You’re horrible at it.”
“So?”
“So what?”
“So when can I bring Wonton over?” Clark could feel Lex stiffen. He took a deep breath.
“Maybe we should get some of your things unpacked first, hm?”
“Uh, yeah. About that.”
“Yes?” Lex shut his laptop and turned around so he was snuggled between Clark’s legs face to face.
“Um.”
Lex seemed to be getting impatient. Clark wondered if he wanted to touch on another touchy subject. Maybe Chloe would be right. Maybe he wouldn’t mind Clark’s clutter amongst the neat… pristine….
And now Lex was unbuttoning his shirt. Clark beamed like a schoolboy.
“I’ll get to it tonight.”
What a glorious christening it was.