A Summer Of Broken Hearts
folder
Smallville › General
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
9
Views:
5,448
Reviews:
7
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Category:
Smallville › General
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
9
Views:
5,448
Reviews:
7
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own Smallville, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
5
Part I: A Summer of Broken Hearts
This was written for the Rhiannonhero Summer Title Challenge
Rating: R but will turn NC-17
Discalmer: Smallville belongs to DC comics and WB. This is non-profit entertainment. No infringement is intended so please don't sue me
Thanks to Rose7 for all her time and beta efforts. A big thank-you to Skuf also, for going through all of this and correcting my comma and grammar errors. Any remaining mistakes are my own. Please feel free to point them out.
5
When he heard heavy work boots echoing in the otherwise still house, Lex felt himself smile and his mood lighten. Though Lionel Luthor had always enjoyed taunting his son, berating him repeatedly for being over-emotional, Lex knew that his father’s opinion of him was not true. Well, maybe his control wasn’t up to his father’s standards, but compared to everyone else, Lex was exceptionally well disciplined.
He continued to stare intently at the computer screen as he reflected on how his father could make him lose his composure by intentionally pushing all his buttons. Clark seemed to bypass his emotional lockdown by his very presence. He shook his head bemusedly and flipped the laptop closed as he heard his friend enter the room. “Hey, Clark. I didn’t expect you this early. So, how did it go?”
“Like a bad virus. It’s out, now we just have to treat the symptoms and hope everyone survives.” Clark stopped in the middle of the room instead of falling into one of the chairs by Lex’s desk.
“Have you had dinner?”
“No, but I’m really not hungry. I just want to hang out and you know…talk about things.” Clark moved toward the pool table, suddenly embarrassed, wondering exactly how to tell Lex what had triggered his parents’ attempt to put obstacles in the way of their friendship. He felt the flush in his face and hoped Lex would either not notice his embarrassment or ignore it. “My parents have really gone out of their way to keep me busy and…well…”
“Away from me,” Lex finished for him. “I’ll make it easy for you, Clark. Your parents took the latest Smallville gossip to heart, and forbid you to hang around with the bi-sexual town pariah, lest you be contaminated.”
“Well, not exactly,” Clark said without meeting Lex’s eyes. “My parents are more subtle than that. They actually didn’t mention anything about the gossip, but they did ask me to spend more time with friends my own age…and…um…not to come out here so often.” Clark continued to roll the balls over the table as Lex left his desk to join him. “I knew what they were up to, though. I actually heard the gossip before they did.”
“Chloe.” It was a statement and not a question.
“Yeah. Well, you know Chloe. She gets a scent and she’s on it like a blood hound; I don’t think she can help herself. She sort of broadsided me with questions about it one night.”
Lex started racking the balls and motioned for Clark to pick out a cue. “Well, that’s our little reporter. So, what did you tell her?”
“The truth. That I had no idea and it was none of anyone’s business anyway,” Clark said as he watched Lex scatter the coloured balls over the table with one, powerful break. “We actually had a really big fight over it.”
“Well,” Lex said casually, as he moved with his usual grace around the table to line up another shot. “Aren’t you going to ask me?”
“Ask you what?”
“If it’s true.” Another ball rolled with precision towards the gaping target.
“Is it?” Clark asked quietly, not sure he needed to know, but pretty sure that Lex needed to tell him.
“Yes,” Lex answered. He turned to face Clark, his clear, blue eyes pinning him to the spot.
Clark simply shrugged. “Okay.”
Lex continued to watch him in silence, with the same intensity Clark recognised from hours spent watching him work.
“Do you seriously want me to believe that I haven’t just offended your all-American, Apple Pie sensibilities?”
“Don’t! Don’t do that to me!” Clark shouted, suddenly angry.
Lex was taken back by the vehemence in Clark’s voice and the unmistakable shine of tears in his eyes. What the fuck?
“Do what, Clark,” he asked quietly.
“Don’t put that image of me in your head! Don’t expect me to be that way – you’ll end up being bitterly disappointed.” Clark laid the cue on the pool table and closed his eyes, taking time to locate and absorb the calm that always radiated from Lex. He let it wash over him and soothe the emotions that were increasingly unstable, and so close to the surface lately. “I didn’t mean to shout at you, Lex. I need to sit down.”
Lex followed Clark to the seating arrangement in front of the hearth and watched as his friend dropped himself into a leather arm chair.
“Look, Lex, I can relax here, be myself. This is the one place where I don’t feel like I need to live up to someone’s hand-picked image of me…like some paragon of…I don’t know what. I just don’t want you having an absurdly skewed perception of me in your head that I can’t live up to. I am so far removed from being the typical Midwest teenager, you don’t even want to know.”
“Clark, are you going to tell me what’s really going on? You’re upset now because I admire your values? You’re edgy, tense – you even had a fight with your dad in front of me today. I have never seen you lose control like that.”
“Now you sound like my parents, Lex, and you weren’t admiring my values just now. You were insinuating that I had made a negative value judgment about you, and that I was hiding it.”
“I sound like someone who is concerned about you…and I’m sorry if I jumped to conclusions.” Lex ran a hand over his scalp as he sat himself down on the ottoman facing Clark. “Are you going to tell me what’s wrong? I haven’t seen you this out of sorts since I found you on my back steps, in the middle of the night, this past winter.”
“It’s everything, Lex. I’m angry at myself for allowing my parents to control my life based on their well-meaning, but false concept of who I am, and what I need. I was so concerned with being the ‘good son’ and not making any waves, that I failed to see I was actually making things worse. I guess most of it is just the age-old child/parent conflict, but being adopted complicates things somewhat.”
“How?” Lex asked, surprised. Although everyone knew he was adopted, it wasn’t a subject Clark himself ever broached.
“Feeling that you always have to make things right to make up for not really being theirs; not wanting to turn into someone they will regret having adopted,” Clark sighed and leaned his head back against the chair. “Sometimes I wonder what my birth parents were like, and if I’m like them…if despite how I was raised I’ll turn out to be like them. Jesus, Lex. What kind of people would abandon a small child? They had no idea if I would live or die when they left me.”
“I really don’t know, Clark. Have you ever tried to find them, to maybe get some of the answers to your questions?” Lex asked gently.
“They’re both dead.”
“So, you found them?”
“No. Someone who knew them found me. My mom and dad didn’t want me to meet him, but I wanted to hear what he knew. I walked away that day with more questions than answers.”
Clark sat up wondering what he was doing babbling about his birth parents. Lex was still sitting, elbows propped on his long legs, and his hands under his chin, watching him with a look that made Clark think about the past four weeks. He had missed Lex, and in that look he recognized that Lex had missed him as well. Clark knew there were issues he had to resolve. He would have to find out what the changes in him were about, and why Lex’s energy worked to neutralize the negative effects of that change. For right now, though, he just wanted to make things right with him.
“Lex, I want you to know that it doesn’t matter to me who you sleep with. Not just because you’re my friend, but because I really don’t have any problem with the same-sex relationship issue. I’ve never understood why people get all hung up about it in the first place.”
“I didn’t think you would, but I wasn’t sure. I just don’t ever want you to be uncomfortable around me, Clark.”
“Fat chance,” Clark snorted. “What’s for dinner?”
This was written for the Rhiannonhero Summer Title Challenge
Rating: R but will turn NC-17
Discalmer: Smallville belongs to DC comics and WB. This is non-profit entertainment. No infringement is intended so please don't sue me
Thanks to Rose7 for all her time and beta efforts. A big thank-you to Skuf also, for going through all of this and correcting my comma and grammar errors. Any remaining mistakes are my own. Please feel free to point them out.
5
When he heard heavy work boots echoing in the otherwise still house, Lex felt himself smile and his mood lighten. Though Lionel Luthor had always enjoyed taunting his son, berating him repeatedly for being over-emotional, Lex knew that his father’s opinion of him was not true. Well, maybe his control wasn’t up to his father’s standards, but compared to everyone else, Lex was exceptionally well disciplined.
He continued to stare intently at the computer screen as he reflected on how his father could make him lose his composure by intentionally pushing all his buttons. Clark seemed to bypass his emotional lockdown by his very presence. He shook his head bemusedly and flipped the laptop closed as he heard his friend enter the room. “Hey, Clark. I didn’t expect you this early. So, how did it go?”
“Like a bad virus. It’s out, now we just have to treat the symptoms and hope everyone survives.” Clark stopped in the middle of the room instead of falling into one of the chairs by Lex’s desk.
“Have you had dinner?”
“No, but I’m really not hungry. I just want to hang out and you know…talk about things.” Clark moved toward the pool table, suddenly embarrassed, wondering exactly how to tell Lex what had triggered his parents’ attempt to put obstacles in the way of their friendship. He felt the flush in his face and hoped Lex would either not notice his embarrassment or ignore it. “My parents have really gone out of their way to keep me busy and…well…”
“Away from me,” Lex finished for him. “I’ll make it easy for you, Clark. Your parents took the latest Smallville gossip to heart, and forbid you to hang around with the bi-sexual town pariah, lest you be contaminated.”
“Well, not exactly,” Clark said without meeting Lex’s eyes. “My parents are more subtle than that. They actually didn’t mention anything about the gossip, but they did ask me to spend more time with friends my own age…and…um…not to come out here so often.” Clark continued to roll the balls over the table as Lex left his desk to join him. “I knew what they were up to, though. I actually heard the gossip before they did.”
“Chloe.” It was a statement and not a question.
“Yeah. Well, you know Chloe. She gets a scent and she’s on it like a blood hound; I don’t think she can help herself. She sort of broadsided me with questions about it one night.”
Lex started racking the balls and motioned for Clark to pick out a cue. “Well, that’s our little reporter. So, what did you tell her?”
“The truth. That I had no idea and it was none of anyone’s business anyway,” Clark said as he watched Lex scatter the coloured balls over the table with one, powerful break. “We actually had a really big fight over it.”
“Well,” Lex said casually, as he moved with his usual grace around the table to line up another shot. “Aren’t you going to ask me?”
“Ask you what?”
“If it’s true.” Another ball rolled with precision towards the gaping target.
“Is it?” Clark asked quietly, not sure he needed to know, but pretty sure that Lex needed to tell him.
“Yes,” Lex answered. He turned to face Clark, his clear, blue eyes pinning him to the spot.
Clark simply shrugged. “Okay.”
Lex continued to watch him in silence, with the same intensity Clark recognised from hours spent watching him work.
“Do you seriously want me to believe that I haven’t just offended your all-American, Apple Pie sensibilities?”
“Don’t! Don’t do that to me!” Clark shouted, suddenly angry.
Lex was taken back by the vehemence in Clark’s voice and the unmistakable shine of tears in his eyes. What the fuck?
“Do what, Clark,” he asked quietly.
“Don’t put that image of me in your head! Don’t expect me to be that way – you’ll end up being bitterly disappointed.” Clark laid the cue on the pool table and closed his eyes, taking time to locate and absorb the calm that always radiated from Lex. He let it wash over him and soothe the emotions that were increasingly unstable, and so close to the surface lately. “I didn’t mean to shout at you, Lex. I need to sit down.”
Lex followed Clark to the seating arrangement in front of the hearth and watched as his friend dropped himself into a leather arm chair.
“Look, Lex, I can relax here, be myself. This is the one place where I don’t feel like I need to live up to someone’s hand-picked image of me…like some paragon of…I don’t know what. I just don’t want you having an absurdly skewed perception of me in your head that I can’t live up to. I am so far removed from being the typical Midwest teenager, you don’t even want to know.”
“Clark, are you going to tell me what’s really going on? You’re upset now because I admire your values? You’re edgy, tense – you even had a fight with your dad in front of me today. I have never seen you lose control like that.”
“Now you sound like my parents, Lex, and you weren’t admiring my values just now. You were insinuating that I had made a negative value judgment about you, and that I was hiding it.”
“I sound like someone who is concerned about you…and I’m sorry if I jumped to conclusions.” Lex ran a hand over his scalp as he sat himself down on the ottoman facing Clark. “Are you going to tell me what’s wrong? I haven’t seen you this out of sorts since I found you on my back steps, in the middle of the night, this past winter.”
“It’s everything, Lex. I’m angry at myself for allowing my parents to control my life based on their well-meaning, but false concept of who I am, and what I need. I was so concerned with being the ‘good son’ and not making any waves, that I failed to see I was actually making things worse. I guess most of it is just the age-old child/parent conflict, but being adopted complicates things somewhat.”
“How?” Lex asked, surprised. Although everyone knew he was adopted, it wasn’t a subject Clark himself ever broached.
“Feeling that you always have to make things right to make up for not really being theirs; not wanting to turn into someone they will regret having adopted,” Clark sighed and leaned his head back against the chair. “Sometimes I wonder what my birth parents were like, and if I’m like them…if despite how I was raised I’ll turn out to be like them. Jesus, Lex. What kind of people would abandon a small child? They had no idea if I would live or die when they left me.”
“I really don’t know, Clark. Have you ever tried to find them, to maybe get some of the answers to your questions?” Lex asked gently.
“They’re both dead.”
“So, you found them?”
“No. Someone who knew them found me. My mom and dad didn’t want me to meet him, but I wanted to hear what he knew. I walked away that day with more questions than answers.”
Clark sat up wondering what he was doing babbling about his birth parents. Lex was still sitting, elbows propped on his long legs, and his hands under his chin, watching him with a look that made Clark think about the past four weeks. He had missed Lex, and in that look he recognized that Lex had missed him as well. Clark knew there were issues he had to resolve. He would have to find out what the changes in him were about, and why Lex’s energy worked to neutralize the negative effects of that change. For right now, though, he just wanted to make things right with him.
“Lex, I want you to know that it doesn’t matter to me who you sleep with. Not just because you’re my friend, but because I really don’t have any problem with the same-sex relationship issue. I’ve never understood why people get all hung up about it in the first place.”
“I didn’t think you would, but I wasn’t sure. I just don’t ever want you to be uncomfortable around me, Clark.”
“Fat chance,” Clark snorted. “What’s for dinner?”