There are fingerprints around the mouth of Clark's photos, papers worn until they are replaced, warm from dry, reverent lips.
Clark is...not what he seems.
Clark is...always polite. Even warm. Genuine smile and good intentions. Concern for the well-being of everyone, a messiah complex in the making, Lex fears. Clark who doesn't hesitate in trying to be his friend and giving him all the things emotionally that Lex has never gotten before. All that wholesome organic goodness raised on a Kansas farm with the least amount of additives possible in this twenty-first century world. All those slow smiles that brighten to blinding intensity like a sunrise; sunrises were a mythical concept that Lex had never experienced firsthand before he met Clark and thought to compare. Watching the sky and waiting for it, treasuring it the way he did Clark's smiles--not at all infrequent. Not meant for Lex in the way that he wants, maybe, but he's the one who said that some people are meant to be alone.
Lex is content to watch and admire as if it were merely a special natural phenomenon. That's what he tells himself, even as that garage containing the dead Porsche becomes a room locked with only one key that he keeps to himself, fills with everything he has of Clark Kent. Computer simulations playing on multiple screens, multiple scenarios of destruction, failing to explain why he's still alive. Files, folders, security videos and everything a rich man with too much time and money can get his hands on if he tries. Clark's smiles captured. He tells himself it's just research; satiation of curiosity. A need to know the truth. For protection--of himself as well as Clark. He has killed to protect Clark before, after all. Lex collects the pieces of the puzzle that is Clark Kent and tries to put them together because he knows it's necessary. Not because he has daydreams of Clark's smile leaning close and big not-so-clumsy hands touching his skin, pulling him close and telling him what really happened. That Lex is still alive because Clark wants him to be and that miracles do exist. Can be explained. Can be named.