The Artifact

Title: The Artifact

Disclaimer: Not mine. No money made.

Pairing: Clex, Lexionel

Warning: AU, Incest, Slash

Spoilers: Sort of Lineage, but my own very, very AU take on it.

Summary: Clark tells Lex his secrets as a wedding gift before Lex marries Helen. True feelings are revealed, but Clark's blood is tested and shows that he's human and a Luthor. Then a mysterious artifact is found and Lionel is killed and Lex is suspected. Did Lex kill Lionel to protect Clark? Or was it the other way around? Or did something else altogether happen?

CHAPTER TWO: LOSING YOU

Two months before Lionel Luthor’s death …

Clark’s POV

It was a month before Lex was to marry Helen. One single, solitary month. And April had only 30 days rather than 31. That single lost day seemed to morph into a symbol for all Clark felt he was going to lose once Lex tied the knot for the second time. He supposed he should be grateful that it was April rather than February separating this moment from the wedding. Twenty-eight days would be even less bearable than thirty.

Clark pressed harder on the accelerator of the truck. He was delivering produce to the Castle, his last scheduled stop on that spring Saturday. He hoped Lex would be free to see him. They hadn’t had Saturday plans, just the two of them, for what seemed like forever. Lex was always with Helen and she made it clear that Clark was a third-wheel. Lex’s eyes would narrow and their color would become flinty when she acted that way, but he never said anything to correct her belief or protect Clark from her icy barbs. And that hurt. God, did it hurt.

Helen had chipped away at all the things that Clark had come to depend on and cherish about his relationship with Lex. Since she had moved into the Castle, Clark had lost the right to come over any time he wanted to talk with the older man. And there hadn’t been any movie nights in weeks where they stayed up till dawn, laughing and dissecting films they loved to hate, as they ate themselves sick on junk food. And Clark could hardly remember the last long drive they’d taken together in one of Lex’s cars with the music too loud, not having to talk, because just being together was enough.

Clark supposed that Lex did those things with Helen now. After all, they seemed to mean so much to the older man when he and Clark did them, he couldn’t imagine Lex giving them up altogether. Yet it was hard to envision Helen discussing the technical merits of the fifties sci-fi flick It Came From Beyond while rummaging around in the pantry for Skittles and Doritos. She seemed too … sophisticated … for that sort of thing.

Maybe that’s what Lex really wanted: sophisticated. Which was not what he and Lex were when they were together. They were casual, funny, or goofy. And other times they were intense, volatile, and … passionate. Clark swallowed at the last adjective. He hadn’t understood for a long time what it meant when two men had a passionate relationship with each other. He only knew that being with Lex was like having electricity skating over his skin and that he wanted to be in the other man’s presence all the time.

But no matter what rumors were whispered about Lex’s sexual proclivities in Metropolis, no matter the heated glances that Clark had finally picked up on, Lex had never, ever indicated that he wanted anything more than friendship. If only that knowledge had mattered in the end in regards to Clark’s feelings. Clark had watched almost as an outside observer might as he had fallen in love with his best friend. He could do nothing to stop himself. And now … now he had given up any real hope of having Lex as something more than a friend … instead, he was fighting to keep that friendship alive.

“I’m losing him,” Clark said to the muddy road and a tight feeling seized his chest.

His eyes blurred with tears. He tried to blink them away, but it didn’t work. Luckily, the turn off for the Castle was right there so he didn’t have to stop the truck by the side of the road or risk the truck lurching off the road into a cornfield. Clark sat in the cab for a few minutes while he concentrated on breathing. Two questions circled in his thoughts: Why was Lex drawing away from him and why was he marrying Helen?

Clark snorted. The answer to the second question was easy. Lex was marrying Helen because she was beautiful, successful and intelligent. She was the perfect blueblood and that meant she would fit into Lex’s world. Helen would know which fork to use at dinner without being told and how to speak to the people at those galas that made Clark’s mouth go dry and caused him to toe the ground like a child. But as to the first question, he didn’t know the answer or maybe he was too afraid to guess.

He tightened his grip on the steering wheel. He must have put a little too much strength into it and the wheel squeaked in warning. Clark quickly released it, but he’d left finger-shaped indentations in the wheel’s surface. He stared at yet more physical evidence of his freakhood and maybe the reason that Lex was pulling away from him.

Because maybe the reason that Lex was drawing away was because Lex was just tired of the lies. Maybe he’d decided a life without a deceitful best friend who asked him to ignore the impossible was a better alternative. If that was the case, Clark was going to fix that this evening. He was going to stop the lying and tell Lex the truth. Hopefully. He’d heard from Chloe that Helen was working late at the hospital that night so Lex would be on his own. Plenty of time to confess everything. This had to work. Clark squeezed his eyes shut as he felt the now familiar sense of panic the thought of Lex not being in his life brought.

“Well, are you coming in or is hanging out in my driveway the new hip way for teenagers to spend their time?”

Clark started at the sound of Lex’s voice by his ear. Lex was leaning on the open truck window, a smile on his face and his eyes glittering with laughter.

“Lex! Give a guy a heart attack why don’t you!”

Clark’s heart rate sped up even further and his palms began to sweat as he caught Lex’s clean, masculine scent. Thankfully, he didn’t feel nauseous, which he always associated with liking someone as more than a friend since the third grade and his crush on Lana with her dreaded meteor rock necklace.

“It’s good to see you too, Clark.”

Clark couldn’t help the grin that crossed his lips. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to jump on you like that. You just startled me is all.”

“I figured. You did look to be a million miles away. Penny for your thoughts?”

“Only a penny, Lex? I’m insulted.”

Lex drawled, “Well, I would offer you a truck for each one of them, but then your father might have something to say about that.”

The famous Lexian smirk came out and Clark felt his stomach flutter, because unlike when used on others, the smirk had no edge to it when sent his way. Why had he not known this was love before? So much more than he’d ever felt for anyone, including his parents.

“How about this, you can have my thoughts for free so long as you can hang out with me tonight.” Clark fought with himself not to grip something else on the truck that could bend, break or shatter as he waited for Lex’s answer. ‘Please let say yes. Please. Please. Please.’

“I think that can be arranged. Movies and pizza for two?”

Clark could feel his smile stretching from ear to ear. “Perfect.”

As he was struggling with the ancient seatbelt release, Lex asked him, “So can you give me a preview of what haunts the minds of farm boys on a spring Saturday at twilight.”

Clark’s hands froze on the clasp. Should he lie or try to brush the question off? No, no more lying. This was going to be a night about truth. So without looking up at Lex, he mumbled, “I was thinking about you and … and me.”

“But you looked so unhappy,” Lex said softly and Clark wondered if Lex had meant to say that out loud. Somehow the honest answer made him feel bold.

“I guess, I was … am. Unhappy.”

“What? Why?”

Before he lost his nerve, Clark rushed out, “Because I’ve been thinking about how things are going to change when you marry Helen. How they’ve already changed … and that I don’t like it.”

Lex was silent for so long that Clark finally raised his head to look at his best friend. He didn’t know what expression he thought he’d see there, but the look of anguish mixed with anger was not it. Lex’s reaction was almost as if he blamed Clark for the difference between them, but that didn’t make any sense. Clark actually drew back slightly. Lex was clearly furious with him no matter what the reason. Why had he said anything? Why hadn’t he just kept his mouth shut?

“Lex, please, I’m sorry I said anything. I’m just … I’m not used to having to share you. I’ll get over it. Really. Don’t be angry with me.”

The fury of emotion seemed to just drain out of Lex and Clark realized how tense his friend had been recently. Just to see him deflate like this was revealing.

“I’m not mad at you, Clark. And don’t be sorry.” He ran one graceful hand over his bare scalp as he continued, “I knew how you were feeling before you said it. I’m just surprised that you brought it up. Normally we avoid conflict so well these days by just not saying anything.”

So Clark’s unhappiness had been obvious and Lex hadn’t done anything to fix it. Clark’s shoulders slumped. Lex’s words confirmed that he didn’t take first place in Lex’s life anymore. Helen came first and Clark just had to lump it.

“I’ve never wanted to hurt you, Clark. But sometimes a smaller hurt stops a larger one. That’s why … that’s why certain things just have to be how they are.”

Clark opened his mouth then shut it. He didn’t know what Lex meant. Instead he just looked at Lex. The older man swallowed deeply, his head turned to the side, showing Clark his profile as the last dying rays of the sun gilded his outline. Clark drew in a deep breath. Lex had never looked so beautiful and so … raw. Like an open wound. It was painful to see and Clark turned away.

Lex’s fingers were suddenly under Clark’s chin and he was tipping Clark’s head up to meet his gaze. All too quick his hand was gone from Clark’s skin though it still burned where Lex had touched him.

“You do know that there isn’t anyone more important to me than … than you, don’t you, Clark?” And again that anguish mixed with anger flashed in Lex’s eyes. “No matter if that’s right or good or … it’s just the way it is.”

Clark felt something warm in his belly even as confusion ate at him. “But you just said … I don’t understand, Lex. You let on that you knew you’ve been drawing away and that you meant to do it so … how can I be the most important person in your life if you don’t want me in it?”

“Because I have to do what’s best for you.”

“You are what’s best for me!”

Oh, God, had he just said that? Could he sound any more pathetic? But his honest answer was enough to keep Lex’s gaze on him with that old familiar intensity. Clark’s hands fisted in his lap as the older boy’s gaze seemed to take Clark apart piece by piece. Clark hadn’t meant for all of his feelings to come out this way. Certainly not in Lex’s driveway as the first thing they talked about. He wondered if he was ever going to get out of the truck that night or if Lex was just going to send him on his way home. Go away, kid, you bother me.

Clark forced himself to meet Lex’s gaze and he tried to put what he was feeling for the older boy into his eyes: love and trust and just a hint of pain. A shudder went through Lex’s body and he reached for Clark as if to comfort him. Clark held his breath, waiting for another one of those rare touches. Just as Lex’s fingertips brushed Clark’s shoulder, Lex seemed to realize what he was doing and jerked it away as if scalded. Then his back was to Clark and it was like this moment, whatever it was between them, was gone and had never been. Clark ached.

“C’mon, farm boy. It might be spring, but there’s a chill in the air once the sun goes down and I’ve got a fire lit inside.”

Lex slid his hands into the pockets of his tailored grey slacks and began to saunter towards the front doors of the Castle. Clark sat there numbly for a second. Should he be glad or agonized over Lex’s apparent decision to ignore what they had talked about? ‘The question really is whether I’m going to let him get away with shelving the subject. Not this time, damnit.’

Clark exited the car and jogged after his best friend, hoping after their talk that Lex would still want that title and Clark in his life.