Stigmatized
            by Nymph Du Pave

            PROLOGUE:
            Out of Desperation

            He sat next to Lex, smelling Lex, hearing Lex, wanting Lex.  He wondered…  He wondered if Lex felt the same.

            Maybe it was time he found out.

            The older boy ran his hand over the familiar smooth palate.  "You're acting as if I really have a choice, Clark."

            "Lex, you do.  You always have a choice."

            "Clark-"

            "Just say 'no'."  He said this with a humored smile, well aware of the implications and not caring.  Lionel Luthor was the worst kind of drug there was.  "You don't want to go, so tell him no."

            "You don't understand the influence my father has on my future."  Lex pushed himself off of the back of the creaky, blue truck.  They were in the middle of one of dozens of cornfields.  Lex looked like he just wanted to get lost here.

            "I-"

            "He could make me miserable, Clark.  He could fire me, falsify statistical reports… plant evidence that would force me back into his open fucking arms."  The bitterness in this last option told Clark that Lionel had already resorted to these means at least once.

            He felt rooted to the truck.  Lex was going to leave.  Lex was going to leave him for Lionel and the city if he didn't do something about it now.  "So quit working for him entirely.  You said that your mother left you an inheritance that he can't touch."

            "Millions," Lex said absently.

            "So invest, do what you want." Clark said softly.  "Be Lex Luthor instead of Alexander Joseph Luthor, son of Lionel."

            He saw that he was, for a moment, getting to Lex and he wasn't going to lose his chance.  "It’s just life, Lex, but on the same token, what else is there?  You have to break away from him eventually.  You have to take your chance now."

            He wasn't sure if this last sentence was said for his own good or Lex's but it didn't matter.  He slid off of the back of the truck.

            Lex turned to face him, hands in his heavy black coat, breath pluming out into the night air.

            So damn gorgeous, thought Clark.  He licked his lips looking at Lex's and slowly treading forward.  The boy was his best friend; dark and needy and mysterious.  Wise and caring beyond what others saw.  And Clark was in love.  He knew that everything could be better, that he could make Lex so happy…  If only the older boy allowed it.

            "Maybe I don't know how to break away, Clark."  Lex's voice was choked with emotion.  He swallowed, not bothering to blink away the tears welling up.  He knew he didn't need to hide anything from Clark and that touched Clark deeply.  "What if I-"

            "You won't, Lex."  He stepped within a foot and a half from Lex.  "You're nothing like him, you'll never be anything like him."

            Lex's breath hitched and he looked over Clark's shoulder.  "I love the trust you have in me, Clark-"

            "Love.  I want to talk to you about that."

            "-but you're only fifteen and I-"

            "I really need to talk to about-"

            "-and I'll betray you, Clark," he finished harshly.  He turned from Clark to survey the darkened sky, stars bright, absent was the dilution that city light's enforced.

            "Lex, you would never-"

            "I have to go.  End of story."