LLAR 2 Update
Aug. 24th, 2004 09:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
serafina20Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
The next few days flew by so quickly, Lex hardly had time to breathe. Clark was wrapped up the next few days with a monsoon in India. A huge scandal broke in City Hall; because Superman was busy, Perry and Lex put Clark out on sick leave, leaving Lex to write the story alone. He was buried so deeply in backdoor dealings and bribes and laundered money, it was three days before he remembered to tell Perry and four before he remembered to get on Clark about calling his parents.
Of course, Clark was Mr. Responsible and had called them somewhere in between pulling people out of mudslides and scrubbing the mud out of his suit. "They're thrilled. And we're supposed to have dinner with them in a couple weekends. Okay?"
"Yeah, sure," had been Lex's indifferent response as he wrote his article. Not that he would have refused if he'd actually heard Clark; after all, he loved Martha Kent and was always looking for an excuse to drive down to see her.
It took a week and a half before he collapsed, but considering everything, he thought that was pretty good. After Lex turned his last article in, neatly tying the mayor to Morgan's new fall guy (although he was sadly unable to implicate Morgan) and then to a subsidiary of Lane Enterprises (but not Lois, dammit) and then to the governor, Perry got him a cab and said curtly, "Don’t come back until next Monday."
Lex had simply made a noise of general agreement on him, forcing Perry to repeat himself, this time loudly and on the news floor. It would have been embarrassing if Lex had been conscious, but the truth was, he didn't remember anything after printing out the final article. The next thing he knew, it was Wednesday morning.
He woke up on the couch, which was never a good sign. His mouth tasted like death, and there was a crick in his neck. Clark's quilt, which Lex had co-opted when Clark had moved in, was draped over him, and there was a glass of water and his medication the coffee table.
Every muscle screamed in protest when Lex sat up. "Shit," he groaned. The pain concentrated in his back.
"You okay?" Clark called from the kitchen.
"Yeah." Despite the pain, Lex's mood immediately lightened. The catastrophe must be over if Clark was home and making breakfast. "Just my back."
Clark came into the living room with a cup of coffee and handed it to Lex. "I tried to get you to roll off your stomach," he said, his large hands clamping over Lex's shoulders. "I put you on your back about a dozen times, and every time I came in, you were on your stomach again."
Lex laughed and leaned forward so Clark could work on his muscles further down. "Were you practicing for when Lana brings the baby over for us to sit?"
"Yeah, that was exactly it." He tapped Lex's spine. "Come on; let's do this right." Coming around the couch, Clark slipped his arm under Lex's armpits and half-supported, half-carried him to the bedroom.
"How long have you been home?" Lex asked. He stood, leaning against Clark, eyes closed.
Clark's arms came around Lex and he unbuttoned his shirt slowly. "Since about five last night. You were unconscious when I got here."
"What time is it?"
"Ten-thirty. Perry told me you left yesterday around one, and I can only assume you've been sleeping since then." The shirt came off, and Clark gently pushed Lex onto the bed. "Lois called three times yesterday."
"Oh?"
"Yeah." There was silence as Clark went into the bathroom; when he emerged, he straddled Lex's hips. "The first call was about some kind of charity bachelor auction later this month. The second time, she asked if you might get Superman instead of you, and the third, she suddenly remembered you were engaged."
Lex could feel his muscles relax in reaction to the sound of Clark opening the cap of the massage oil. He was trained; even on the rare occasions it was he giving the massages, he just felt calmer when he heard that sound. "So she asked to bring you?"
"No, she asked if you could invite your fiancee, Ken Clark."
"Ken Clark?" He sighed when Clark's warm, oil slicked hands smoothed over his back. Clark gave the best massages of anyone Lex had ever known. He was even better than the professionally trained people he used to hire to do it for him. Whether it was because Clark had natural talent, used some sort of alien technique, or if it was just because Lex trusted him more than anyone else, Lex didn't know nor care. All he knew was he always felt fantastic after Clark's hands worked their magic.
"I'm guessing the Ken comes from Barbie's boyfriend--it's close to Kent, you know. And she's pretending she can't remember my last name, now. "
Lex snorted into his pillow. "She should get used to it; I'm thinking about changing my name."
A sudden tension radiated through Clark, freezing his hands on Lex's skin. "Really?" he asked after a short pause. He resumed the massage.
He shrugged. "I don’t know. Maybe. Or maybe Luthor-Kent. I mean, why not? It's not like I’m a real Luthor anyway."
"Do you want to be?" Clark asked wryly.
Lex didn't answer, preferring instead of sigh silently. Because, quite obviously, Clark had hit the nail, and Lex still didn't know what to think about it.
There was a long silence. Lex didn't feel uncomfortable, exactly, but he felt as if he should say something. He just didn't know what.
Luckily, Clark was giving him the best massage ever, and his brain was close to shutting down. Besides, Clark didn't expect him to talk when he didn’t want to. It was one of the things Lex loved about him.
"Anyway," Clark said after a moment. "I saved the messages for you."
"Thanks."
More silence. Lex could hear the easy rhythm of Clark's breathing. His hands were smooth and strong and his fingers kneaded expertly into tight, taut muscles. He knew every inch of Lex, inside and out, better than anyone ever had before.
Lex shifted. "Up," he said.
Clark raised himself off Lex obligingly, but sat back down when Lex rolled onto his back. Damp, oil-covered hands massaged up Lex's chest, tweaking his nipples gently. "Better?"
"Of course," Lex replied, voice husky. He ran his hands over Clark's and threaded their fingers together. "Can I ask you a question?"
"Anything, babe."
"Why did you ask me to marry you?"
"Why did you say yes?"
"Because I hoped you knew what you were doing. I figured you did, and trusted that this was right."
Clark rolled his eyes and tweaked Lex's chin. "Was that supposed to be romantic? Because I can't decipher it."
He lowered his head and caught Clark's thumb in his mouth. It tasted faintly of almonds. "Not really. It's just that, you asked me to marry you, and I love you. Now you go."
"Well," Clark said, rubbing his wet thumb over Lex's lower lip, "it felt right. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want to see your face when I wake up, every day. I want to see a ring on your finger and know that *I* put it there, and have a ring on mine that *you* put there." He shrugged. "I know that marriage and happiness isn't something in your lexicon, but my parents were happy for the most part. As far as I know, the only time that their marriage was in danger was when I ran away, and the managed to work through that. They completed each other, and you complete me, as cliched as that sounds. But, I love you. You're my best friend and my lover. I want to make it for keeps."
His stomach twisted slowly, and his heart was fluttering a mile a minute. "I want to marry you," he said hoarsely. Even if every week is like the last couple, I want to stay with you." He reached for Clark's hands and squeezed them again.
"I want to stay with you, too." Clark bent over and kissed Lex. He cupped the back of Lex's neck with one hand, the other hand stroked up and down Lex's cheek. "I love you," he whispered. His teeth sank into Lex's bottom lip.
Lex kissed back, opening his mouth to draw Clark in. He wanted to be aroused, but, the truth was, sex was the furthest thing from his mind.
"Fuck," he swore, ripping his mouth away.
"What?" Clark sounded breathless, but it was probably an illusion; he was Superman after all.
"I'm not... I can't..."
"Shhhh," Clark soothed, dropping kisses over Lex's skin. "Don't worry, Lex. You need to eat, anyway. It feels like you lost six pounds this week."
"I want to want to have sex." It was the stupidest thing to say, but it was true.
He tried again. "It's not you."
"I know."
"You're so fucking hot. When I saw you on the news, dirt streaked across your forehead, uniform showing your rippling muscles..." Lex ran his hands over Clark's chest, feeling the muscles under the loose tee shirt. "I wanted you then."
"That was before you worked yourself half to death." Clark kissed him again. "Lex, the doctor told us that there might be some sexual side effects to the drugs. I'm not saying that that's what this is, though. You could just be too tired."
"Or too depressed." Lex licked his lips and shifted. "You know, I saw Lois the other day. Before we got engaged." He realized that he'd never told Clark about running into Morgan at the cemetery. Or Lois. Or realizing how much of his past he'd forgotten. "She, um, said some weird things. For Lois, I mean."
"Like what?"
Lex swallowed. "She said I should go into therapy."
Clark's eyebrows hit his hairline. "Stop the presses," he said shakily. "Lois and I are in agreement about something."
"That's just it, I'm not sure you are. Lois doesn't believe in therapy. She barely believes that I’m clinically depressed. Whenever she gets fed up with the way I'm acting, she tells me I should just call her when I'm over my 'mood.' And then, suddenly she's saying maybe I should go into therapy. It made me think that something was up."
"Seriously, Lex, with friends like her..."
"Shut up," he said sharply. "You used to fuck Morgan Edge. You have no room to talk."
"Don't compare them," Clark shot back, anger tingeing his words. "Morgan has his faults, but at least he's not Lois Lane. God, Lex, I swear to God that Lois has abused you at least as much as your father."
Lex sat up, pushing Clark off him. "And what about what Morgan did to me?" he asked. "Why the *hell* do you think I've been like this all year, Clark? I'm not ... not *like* this." Shit, he was shaking. Shaking and cold and it hurt to breathe.
Clark saw it, and his face changed. "Lex..."
"No, Clark," Lex cut him off. He cradled his head in his hands, feeling nauseated. "Clark, don't you... don't you get it? I’m not like this, not so bad. I've had... episodes in the past. Brief ones. They last a month or two, and then they go away. Perry makes me stay at his house until I start getting up every morning on my own, and his wife makes all my favorite foods and forces them down my throat until my weight stabilizes. The blackness goes away, and then I manage to go on with life, not quite sure of what happened. But ever since I found out, I can't shake it. It's never gone, and I feel like I'm going insane."
"You're not going insane," Clark said patiently. "What you're feeling is normal, Lex. Your entire life was turned upside down and shaken. It was traumatic."
Lex pulled his knees into his chest. Forehead pressed tightly against them, he whispered, "You can't imagine what it's like."
"Lex, I know what it's like."
The weight behind his words startled Lex. He lifted his head; Clark's face was serious and composed, eyes steady.
"What?"
"I know what it's like. Hearing something like that. Something that completely changes the way you see the world. The way you see yourself. I get it."
Lex licked his lips. "But finding out you were an alien... you didn't get depressed."
"Yes, I did. And, in retrospect, I see it for what it was. Mom is the one who actually pointed it out. After I found out that I'm an alien, I didn't know what to do. I tried to ignore it, I didn't *want* it. I just wanted everything to go back to being normal. But I wasn't normal, and the knowledge kept weighing on me. Picking at me. And with every person I saved, and every friend and loved one who was threatened because of who I was and what I'd brought to earth with me, the cuts in my soul got deeper. I got out of control, trying to deny I was unhappy and angry with my parents, and myself and hurting everyone around me more and more. I tried to make it all go away, and instead I ended up hurting my mom. And her baby." Clark's eyes closed and a muscle in his jaw twitched. "I, um, drugged myself and ran away. I couldn't be killed, so I just did stupid things, not caring and pushing myself beyond even my endurance. I honestly think that if I hadn't found Morgan, I would have found a way to break myself. Because that's what I wanted to do."
He opened his eyes again and shrugged. "So, yeah, Lex, I know what it's like to lose who you are, and then have to put the pieces back together. I was lucky. I was raised in an atmosphere of love and support, and by parents who wanted me to be happy. I know that wasn't your experience, and that's one reason it's so hard and so painful for you." He took Lex's hands in his and squeezed. "You are not alone, Lex, not anymore. Whatever you need, I'm ready to give you. But you're going to have to make the ultimate decisions here, Lex, not me. I can't decide that it's time for you to go into therapy, or that you need to take a leave of absence, or that you want to move across the country. You have to decide what you need for you. All I can do is follow."
Despite himself, Lex's lips twitched, then formed into a smile. "Where you lead, I will follow."
"Anywhere," Clark replied, grin on his face.
The smile faded from Lex as he sighed. Aching and weary, he leaned against Clark and closed his eyes. "I'm sorry," he whispered into Clark's chest.
"What for?"
"Getting angry at you."
Clark's slick hands slid up Lex's back and squeezed his neck. "I'm sorry I got angry with you. I just wish you could give Morgan a chance."
"I wish I could remember the Morgan who apparently loved and protected me. I can't. It's all blank." He moved so he could look at Clark. "Do you think therapy might help with that?"
"It couldn’t hurt."
"No," Lex said contemplatively. "It couldn’t."
TBC...
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
The next few days flew by so quickly, Lex hardly had time to breathe. Clark was wrapped up the next few days with a monsoon in India. A huge scandal broke in City Hall; because Superman was busy, Perry and Lex put Clark out on sick leave, leaving Lex to write the story alone. He was buried so deeply in backdoor dealings and bribes and laundered money, it was three days before he remembered to tell Perry and four before he remembered to get on Clark about calling his parents.
Of course, Clark was Mr. Responsible and had called them somewhere in between pulling people out of mudslides and scrubbing the mud out of his suit. "They're thrilled. And we're supposed to have dinner with them in a couple weekends. Okay?"
"Yeah, sure," had been Lex's indifferent response as he wrote his article. Not that he would have refused if he'd actually heard Clark; after all, he loved Martha Kent and was always looking for an excuse to drive down to see her.
It took a week and a half before he collapsed, but considering everything, he thought that was pretty good. After Lex turned his last article in, neatly tying the mayor to Morgan's new fall guy (although he was sadly unable to implicate Morgan) and then to a subsidiary of Lane Enterprises (but not Lois, dammit) and then to the governor, Perry got him a cab and said curtly, "Don’t come back until next Monday."
Lex had simply made a noise of general agreement on him, forcing Perry to repeat himself, this time loudly and on the news floor. It would have been embarrassing if Lex had been conscious, but the truth was, he didn't remember anything after printing out the final article. The next thing he knew, it was Wednesday morning.
He woke up on the couch, which was never a good sign. His mouth tasted like death, and there was a crick in his neck. Clark's quilt, which Lex had co-opted when Clark had moved in, was draped over him, and there was a glass of water and his medication the coffee table.
Every muscle screamed in protest when Lex sat up. "Shit," he groaned. The pain concentrated in his back.
"You okay?" Clark called from the kitchen.
"Yeah." Despite the pain, Lex's mood immediately lightened. The catastrophe must be over if Clark was home and making breakfast. "Just my back."
Clark came into the living room with a cup of coffee and handed it to Lex. "I tried to get you to roll off your stomach," he said, his large hands clamping over Lex's shoulders. "I put you on your back about a dozen times, and every time I came in, you were on your stomach again."
Lex laughed and leaned forward so Clark could work on his muscles further down. "Were you practicing for when Lana brings the baby over for us to sit?"
"Yeah, that was exactly it." He tapped Lex's spine. "Come on; let's do this right." Coming around the couch, Clark slipped his arm under Lex's armpits and half-supported, half-carried him to the bedroom.
"How long have you been home?" Lex asked. He stood, leaning against Clark, eyes closed.
Clark's arms came around Lex and he unbuttoned his shirt slowly. "Since about five last night. You were unconscious when I got here."
"What time is it?"
"Ten-thirty. Perry told me you left yesterday around one, and I can only assume you've been sleeping since then." The shirt came off, and Clark gently pushed Lex onto the bed. "Lois called three times yesterday."
"Oh?"
"Yeah." There was silence as Clark went into the bathroom; when he emerged, he straddled Lex's hips. "The first call was about some kind of charity bachelor auction later this month. The second time, she asked if you might get Superman instead of you, and the third, she suddenly remembered you were engaged."
Lex could feel his muscles relax in reaction to the sound of Clark opening the cap of the massage oil. He was trained; even on the rare occasions it was he giving the massages, he just felt calmer when he heard that sound. "So she asked to bring you?"
"No, she asked if you could invite your fiancee, Ken Clark."
"Ken Clark?" He sighed when Clark's warm, oil slicked hands smoothed over his back. Clark gave the best massages of anyone Lex had ever known. He was even better than the professionally trained people he used to hire to do it for him. Whether it was because Clark had natural talent, used some sort of alien technique, or if it was just because Lex trusted him more than anyone else, Lex didn't know nor care. All he knew was he always felt fantastic after Clark's hands worked their magic.
"I'm guessing the Ken comes from Barbie's boyfriend--it's close to Kent, you know. And she's pretending she can't remember my last name, now. "
Lex snorted into his pillow. "She should get used to it; I'm thinking about changing my name."
A sudden tension radiated through Clark, freezing his hands on Lex's skin. "Really?" he asked after a short pause. He resumed the massage.
He shrugged. "I don’t know. Maybe. Or maybe Luthor-Kent. I mean, why not? It's not like I’m a real Luthor anyway."
"Do you want to be?" Clark asked wryly.
Lex didn't answer, preferring instead of sigh silently. Because, quite obviously, Clark had hit the nail, and Lex still didn't know what to think about it.
There was a long silence. Lex didn't feel uncomfortable, exactly, but he felt as if he should say something. He just didn't know what.
Luckily, Clark was giving him the best massage ever, and his brain was close to shutting down. Besides, Clark didn't expect him to talk when he didn’t want to. It was one of the things Lex loved about him.
"Anyway," Clark said after a moment. "I saved the messages for you."
"Thanks."
More silence. Lex could hear the easy rhythm of Clark's breathing. His hands were smooth and strong and his fingers kneaded expertly into tight, taut muscles. He knew every inch of Lex, inside and out, better than anyone ever had before.
Lex shifted. "Up," he said.
Clark raised himself off Lex obligingly, but sat back down when Lex rolled onto his back. Damp, oil-covered hands massaged up Lex's chest, tweaking his nipples gently. "Better?"
"Of course," Lex replied, voice husky. He ran his hands over Clark's and threaded their fingers together. "Can I ask you a question?"
"Anything, babe."
"Why did you ask me to marry you?"
"Why did you say yes?"
"Because I hoped you knew what you were doing. I figured you did, and trusted that this was right."
Clark rolled his eyes and tweaked Lex's chin. "Was that supposed to be romantic? Because I can't decipher it."
He lowered his head and caught Clark's thumb in his mouth. It tasted faintly of almonds. "Not really. It's just that, you asked me to marry you, and I love you. Now you go."
"Well," Clark said, rubbing his wet thumb over Lex's lower lip, "it felt right. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want to see your face when I wake up, every day. I want to see a ring on your finger and know that *I* put it there, and have a ring on mine that *you* put there." He shrugged. "I know that marriage and happiness isn't something in your lexicon, but my parents were happy for the most part. As far as I know, the only time that their marriage was in danger was when I ran away, and the managed to work through that. They completed each other, and you complete me, as cliched as that sounds. But, I love you. You're my best friend and my lover. I want to make it for keeps."
His stomach twisted slowly, and his heart was fluttering a mile a minute. "I want to marry you," he said hoarsely. Even if every week is like the last couple, I want to stay with you." He reached for Clark's hands and squeezed them again.
"I want to stay with you, too." Clark bent over and kissed Lex. He cupped the back of Lex's neck with one hand, the other hand stroked up and down Lex's cheek. "I love you," he whispered. His teeth sank into Lex's bottom lip.
Lex kissed back, opening his mouth to draw Clark in. He wanted to be aroused, but, the truth was, sex was the furthest thing from his mind.
"Fuck," he swore, ripping his mouth away.
"What?" Clark sounded breathless, but it was probably an illusion; he was Superman after all.
"I'm not... I can't..."
"Shhhh," Clark soothed, dropping kisses over Lex's skin. "Don't worry, Lex. You need to eat, anyway. It feels like you lost six pounds this week."
"I want to want to have sex." It was the stupidest thing to say, but it was true.
He tried again. "It's not you."
"I know."
"You're so fucking hot. When I saw you on the news, dirt streaked across your forehead, uniform showing your rippling muscles..." Lex ran his hands over Clark's chest, feeling the muscles under the loose tee shirt. "I wanted you then."
"That was before you worked yourself half to death." Clark kissed him again. "Lex, the doctor told us that there might be some sexual side effects to the drugs. I'm not saying that that's what this is, though. You could just be too tired."
"Or too depressed." Lex licked his lips and shifted. "You know, I saw Lois the other day. Before we got engaged." He realized that he'd never told Clark about running into Morgan at the cemetery. Or Lois. Or realizing how much of his past he'd forgotten. "She, um, said some weird things. For Lois, I mean."
"Like what?"
Lex swallowed. "She said I should go into therapy."
Clark's eyebrows hit his hairline. "Stop the presses," he said shakily. "Lois and I are in agreement about something."
"That's just it, I'm not sure you are. Lois doesn't believe in therapy. She barely believes that I’m clinically depressed. Whenever she gets fed up with the way I'm acting, she tells me I should just call her when I'm over my 'mood.' And then, suddenly she's saying maybe I should go into therapy. It made me think that something was up."
"Seriously, Lex, with friends like her..."
"Shut up," he said sharply. "You used to fuck Morgan Edge. You have no room to talk."
"Don't compare them," Clark shot back, anger tingeing his words. "Morgan has his faults, but at least he's not Lois Lane. God, Lex, I swear to God that Lois has abused you at least as much as your father."
Lex sat up, pushing Clark off him. "And what about what Morgan did to me?" he asked. "Why the *hell* do you think I've been like this all year, Clark? I'm not ... not *like* this." Shit, he was shaking. Shaking and cold and it hurt to breathe.
Clark saw it, and his face changed. "Lex..."
"No, Clark," Lex cut him off. He cradled his head in his hands, feeling nauseated. "Clark, don't you... don't you get it? I’m not like this, not so bad. I've had... episodes in the past. Brief ones. They last a month or two, and then they go away. Perry makes me stay at his house until I start getting up every morning on my own, and his wife makes all my favorite foods and forces them down my throat until my weight stabilizes. The blackness goes away, and then I manage to go on with life, not quite sure of what happened. But ever since I found out, I can't shake it. It's never gone, and I feel like I'm going insane."
"You're not going insane," Clark said patiently. "What you're feeling is normal, Lex. Your entire life was turned upside down and shaken. It was traumatic."
Lex pulled his knees into his chest. Forehead pressed tightly against them, he whispered, "You can't imagine what it's like."
"Lex, I know what it's like."
The weight behind his words startled Lex. He lifted his head; Clark's face was serious and composed, eyes steady.
"What?"
"I know what it's like. Hearing something like that. Something that completely changes the way you see the world. The way you see yourself. I get it."
Lex licked his lips. "But finding out you were an alien... you didn't get depressed."
"Yes, I did. And, in retrospect, I see it for what it was. Mom is the one who actually pointed it out. After I found out that I'm an alien, I didn't know what to do. I tried to ignore it, I didn't *want* it. I just wanted everything to go back to being normal. But I wasn't normal, and the knowledge kept weighing on me. Picking at me. And with every person I saved, and every friend and loved one who was threatened because of who I was and what I'd brought to earth with me, the cuts in my soul got deeper. I got out of control, trying to deny I was unhappy and angry with my parents, and myself and hurting everyone around me more and more. I tried to make it all go away, and instead I ended up hurting my mom. And her baby." Clark's eyes closed and a muscle in his jaw twitched. "I, um, drugged myself and ran away. I couldn't be killed, so I just did stupid things, not caring and pushing myself beyond even my endurance. I honestly think that if I hadn't found Morgan, I would have found a way to break myself. Because that's what I wanted to do."
He opened his eyes again and shrugged. "So, yeah, Lex, I know what it's like to lose who you are, and then have to put the pieces back together. I was lucky. I was raised in an atmosphere of love and support, and by parents who wanted me to be happy. I know that wasn't your experience, and that's one reason it's so hard and so painful for you." He took Lex's hands in his and squeezed. "You are not alone, Lex, not anymore. Whatever you need, I'm ready to give you. But you're going to have to make the ultimate decisions here, Lex, not me. I can't decide that it's time for you to go into therapy, or that you need to take a leave of absence, or that you want to move across the country. You have to decide what you need for you. All I can do is follow."
Despite himself, Lex's lips twitched, then formed into a smile. "Where you lead, I will follow."
"Anywhere," Clark replied, grin on his face.
The smile faded from Lex as he sighed. Aching and weary, he leaned against Clark and closed his eyes. "I'm sorry," he whispered into Clark's chest.
"What for?"
"Getting angry at you."
Clark's slick hands slid up Lex's back and squeezed his neck. "I'm sorry I got angry with you. I just wish you could give Morgan a chance."
"I wish I could remember the Morgan who apparently loved and protected me. I can't. It's all blank." He moved so he could look at Clark. "Do you think therapy might help with that?"
"It couldn’t hurt."
"No," Lex said contemplatively. "It couldn’t."
TBC...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Aww, this felt right
Date: 2004-08-25 12:06 am (UTC)You portray Lex's distractredness well. Just living life while in shock is not something we realize we're doing until we collapse.
Also, the meds reactions came across very realistically.
This was well done. And I adore Clark in this. He admits what he doesn't know or understand. But he also lays out what he does get and see and without being heavy handed about it.
Obviously it does not mean that they won't push each others buttons as they did here and it felt organic. Good stuff.
The make up made sense too. It wasn't a big fight so much as both people in this partnership fighting for the same thing; clarity, truth, happiness.
I love the way Clark and Lex love each other in this story, in this entire universe.
Man, trying to be patient for the next part is going to quietly drive me insane.
Thanks for posting it, hon.
{{hugs}}
Re: Aww, this felt right
Date: 2004-08-25 09:18 am (UTC)Carol King did a concert around here recently, so there were three of four articles in the paper that my mom read. We were talking about the lyrics and the anti-femenist sentiment that King changed to a mother/daughter thing later. It just popped into my head while I was writing it. :)
Obviously it does not mean that they won't push each others buttons as they did here and it felt organic. Good stuff.
Yeah, life is one of those things that, no matter how understanding you are of where the other person is coming from, there are times they just hit the wrong button. And poor Clark has the disadvantage of knowing that Morgan isn't Satan and gleaning exactly how much he really does care for Lex without Lex understanding any of it. Poor boys. *kisses them*
I love the way Clark and Lex love each other in this story, in this entire universe.
Me too. It's just one of those, my best friend, my lover loves. And Clark being an actual grown-up really helps his own reactions to Lex. I love writing this.
Man, trying to be patient for the next part is going to quietly drive me insane.
I'm going to work on COTW tonight andthen hopefully get back to this in teh next few days. So hang in there! :)
I get more hooked with every new chapter
Date: 2004-08-25 12:37 am (UTC)Love.
Cyberwitch
Re: I get more hooked with every new chapter
Date: 2004-08-25 09:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-25 01:49 am (UTC)I love Clark's empathy with Lex, and the realisation that they've gone through similar experiences with their identities. I'm loving this entire fic.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-25 09:36 am (UTC)Yeah, Clark has a lot in common with Lex in the life-altering realizations. Clark's reaction didn't look quite as extreme, but he had better base of emotional support than Lex did. But the similarities are there.
Thanks for the feedback.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-25 04:56 am (UTC)awesome!
no subject
Date: 2004-08-25 09:37 am (UTC)He just sort of did taht one his own, too. I'd never really thought of it until I got to the end of this scene, and then went, "Oh, yeah." :)
no subject
Date: 2004-08-25 03:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-26 08:41 pm (UTC)Me too. But Clark will take care of him; I promise. :)
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Date: 2004-08-25 04:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-26 08:42 pm (UTC)Isn't it though? They really should hire me to write an AU mini-series for SV. To please the Rift-free fans. :)
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Date: 2004-08-25 07:29 pm (UTC)Yay for more. I'm continually impressed at how you're able to build on the story so that it feels like the action is elevating towards something as opposed to spinning around in circles.
And Clark and Lex dealing with the issues head on. A very, very good thing.:-)
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Date: 2004-08-26 08:44 pm (UTC)Thanks. When i got to the end of this part, i wondered if I was just spinning my wheels, not moving anywhere. I'm glad to hear I'm not. :)
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Date: 2004-09-12 11:40 pm (UTC)Man, oh man. That will be trouble. Shouldn't even Superman know better than to say something like that?
This story continues to be wonderful!