TITLE: What Are You Doing New Year's Eve? [Chapter Three]
AUTHOR: Nymph Du Pave
FANDOM: Smallville
PAIRING: Lex Luther/Clark Kent.
RATING: PG-13
POSSIBLE AU WARNING:  In this story Clark's grandfather [Jonathon's dad] was still alive when Clark was a kid.

Chapter Three
 

He landed solidly on his feet, perfectly balanced and stable, but Clark's hands still shot out to grab his shoulders. He suppressed a smile when he felt Clark's grip tighten reassuringly, the boy's thumbs moving up and down in what Lex was beginning to notice as a habit. "Thanks."

"No problem." Clark then let go, walked down to the hood and jumped off. Lex followed and walked to the porch, waiting as Clark drove the truck to the other side of the house, then ran back to Lex carrying the three binders under his arm.

"Come on," he said and took Lex's hand, pulling him inside and letting the screen door slam behind them. As they went up the stairs, Lex's stomach did flip-flops leaving him a little disoriented from Clark firmly holding his hand. Once again he caught himself wishing that the kid was a little less self-assured and, well, physical in his expressions of friendship. Not that Lex didn't want the contact- he did. He was just a little too emotionally involved to not want to read something like attraction into every grab, every touch, every smile and every look. Attraction that he knew was not there.

His head suddenly filled with an image of being pushed into the nearest wall, pictures raddling with the vibrations caused by forceful passion, his mouth suddenly and hungrily covered by Clark, whose wandering hands were finding their way down Lex's back to grab and squeeze. He could hear himself moaning into Clark's mouth, and could feel the boy push harder against him.

Christ. He shook his head, clearing the image from the widescreen inside his head, but unable to rid himself of the sensual residue left over from his libidinous jolt.

As they approached Clark's room and the boy still did not let go of his hand, Lex became flustered. Going into Kent's room while holding his hand was a little intimate, at least to him, and though he liked it, he wasn't sure that it was the best idea for his heart's sake. Lex subtly pulled his hand away, both relieved and disappointed at Clark's lack of protest or even acknowledgement.

Opening the door to his bedroom, Clark walked in and Lex stood in the doorway, leaning against the frame. He looked around in amazement at his friend's tidy room. When he had been Clark's age, he had also been as naturally organized, but thanks to his rebellious nature and his inability to reach his father directly, the maids ended up cleaning more and more elaborate messes until they had quit, one by one, on his father. Of course Lionel refused to let Lex win these little battles, always hiring a new maid only days after the last quit. Finally he hired a particularly unique woman that on one rainy day absolutely refused to clean up Lex's room by herself.

He smirked to himself remembering the tiny blonde fireball. He had respected her the moment she told him to get off his seditious, anarchistic ass and help her clean it up. Now, she had said, and Lex had jumped off the bed laughing.

Clark turned to find the smile on Lex's face. "What's so funny?"

Lex shook his head. "Nothing. You're very neat."

Clark smiled, depositing the binders on his desk and moved into his closet to take off the blue sweater he'd been wearing.

It was warmer in the house, warm enough that Lex had an itch to take off his heavy, black winter coat, which reached from his neck to his ankles in nothing but pure cozy heat. He watched Clark put his sweater away, noticing that the boy's thin undershirt- a short-sleeved, brown tee- wasn't obscenely tight, but it hugged his shoulders and arms nicely, and the dark color brought out the brightness of his eyes, the rich black of his hair.

Lex looked to the floor, letting his hand glide over his bald head as if trying to wipe away any currently unwelcome thoughts.

"Thanks for the present, Lex."

He looked back up and shrugged. "Well, I know you like space... among other things within a telescope's reach." He grinned a grin that felt like it took on the expression of wry confidence, and hoped his jealousy at the girl next door was well concealed.

Clark turned to look at him and the countenance of the kid's face threw him for a loop. It was the first time Lex had ever seen Clark look like he was trying to hide something, like he for once seemed as confused as Lex sometimes felt.

He was on the verge of an epiphany when the gorgeous boy smiled, completely obliterating any thought from his mind.

"Right," Clark said walking over to his bookshelf where Lex was surprised to see the antique box he had given Clark. The boy grabbed it and walked over to Lex, standing there for a moment, staring at the lead case and collecting his thoughts before he spoke. "Do you have any idea how hard you are to shop for?"

Lex nodded, wondering why Clark was currently refusing to meet his eyes. "What do you get the rich kid with everything, right?"

"Right. So you being, well- you... It made it difficult on me. I had to think about it especially hard."

"I'm flattered I got the delivery boy to think," Lex said with a small smile. It was true; he was a little thunderstruck that Clark had put so much thought into a gift for him.

Clark ignored his humor. "I mean what exactly does Lex Luthor need?"

Only the angel in front of me.

He cleared his throat. "What was the conclusion?"

Clark shifted his weight between his feet, and scratched the back of his head with his free hand, endearing him even further into the heart of the young man before him. Looking down at the lead box, Lex found himself impatiently curious as to what it held, and was not afraid to break one of the codes of 'Luthordom' and show that impatience. "Clark?"

"Yeah, um… Okay. When I was younger my grandfather always wore a chain around his neck that had this little gold symbol on it. It looked like a- like a Greek letter and one day I asked him what it was. He told me it that was this Norse rune, Thurisaz." He opened the lead box and pulled out an eighteen-inch silver box-chain with a silver medallion dangling at the end. "He told me it was for, among other things, opening gateways in life, getting the hand of fate to help you out, and, uh…" Clark finally met his eyes and Lex's heart stopped at the depth of devout fondness he found there. "Protection."

Clark looked away before he could see Lex's eyes close in intense desire and love.

Concentration. You need to concentrate. It was all he could do not to pull the boy to him and kiss him hard, needing to feel their breath mingle. The care, the concern, the friendship. It all meant so much to him. Too much to just be ruined by a callous and selfish act such as that.

I'm so fortunate that I even know him like I do.

So Clark couldn't be his. Fine. At least he had the farmboy's friendship. That was what mattered, and Clark's gift proved the extent of the emotions was more than mere comrades. They were companions of a sort.

He heard the heavy, metal lid close and opened his eyes to see apprehension in the turquoise eyes before him, immediately grasping that Clark misunderstood Lex's reaction.

"No, Clark, I-"

"I understand. It was kind of stupid."

Lex grabbed the lead box and, finding no surface near him on which to put it, bent down to place it on the floor. He then stood, grabbing the boy's hands- one still holding the argent adornment- and held them in his own.

He waited for Clark's eyes to meet his. "You can't fathom how much this means to me, Clark. To know you care enough to… to-"

"To want to protect you?" the boy supplied softly. God how Lex just wanted to take him in his arms and hold him.

"Yes," he whispered, not trusting the sound of his voice to carry without shaking. There was something in Clark's gaze that was setting his soul aflame, something that he knew had to be merely reflecting from his own on to Clark's, because otherwise that meant that the kid felt… That Clark possibly…

Lex, without thinking, pushed Clark's hands to their respective sides, making room for him to move forward.  He saw that Clark didn't recoil at the closeness, didn't step back, and his fingers increased the tightness of which he held the boy's hands. Lex took another tiny step closer, clearly invading personal space now, and started to lean into Clark.

Those lips are so close.

The slam of the screen door from below startled both of them, and they each pulled away looking elsewhere. Lex could see Clark's uncomfortable frown from his peripheral vision.

Idiot! his mind screamed. What have I done? Shit.

"I, uh…" he panicked, his mind blank. "I gotta go."

He looked to Clark and thought for a moment that he saw disappointment there.

You also thought you saw love, moron.

He winced and turned to leave. A hand, brief, unsure and not at all like Clark's previous contact, stopped him. He cringed at the thought of all of the pats, nudges and touches he had just forsaken by trying to take heaven as his own kingdom. By going too far.

"I'll walk you out." The voice was careful, monotone and he merely nodded, grim at heart, not turning to look at Kent for fear of what he might or might not find there.

They walked down the stairs, Lex a few feet in front of Clark, and to the front door.

"Leaving, Lex?" called Martha from in the kitchen. He could smell butter cookies and more hot cocoa heating up. He was suddenly wishing that he had grown up here, in a loving gentle environment, with nothing but the opportunity to turn out as wonderfully as Clark had. To be able share your every thought and be anything in the world that your heart desired.

He wondered what Clark's heart desired.

"Yes, Mrs. Kent. Thank you for having me."

"No problem."

He headed out the door, listening with some surprise as the footsteps behind his continued. He reached his car door, grabbing the keys from within his pockets.

"Lex?"

He forced himself to look back to his friend and saw anxiety there.

Damn, damn, damn. God, what he wouldn't do to remove it, to take away what he had just done.

Tried to do. Tried. You didn't actually do anything.

He almost kicked himself hard in the ass, because what he "hadn't" done had forced the beginnings of a rift to develop, and he knew rifts all too well.

Clark looked up to the roof of his house and Lex's gaze followed, surprised to find that Jonathon was still up there.

Then Clark's eyes were on him again. "Come back tomorrow. Please?"

He wasn't sure he heard right. Was Clark actually asking him to return?

"Huh?"

Smooth, jackass.

Clark shoved his hands deep inside his pockets. "Dad and Mom and me are gonna spend all day Christmas Eve putting up the lights. We would have done it earlier, but things around here got so hectic…" he trailed off. "Come back tomorrow night and watch with us as we turn them on."

Lex looked at the man on the roof.

"Please, Lex."

He wished his name didn't sound so right coming from Clark. He looked up at the boy, and was amazed to find the loyalty, the puppy, was still there, despite the confusion Lex had caused.

Stop looking at me like that, damn it!

He shook his head and turned back to the car, unlocking the door. "Your dad might have been pacified with that automobile part-"

"It was more than that."

"-but he still doesn't like me, and-"

"Lex."

"- he wouldn't want me intruding on your night as a family. I-"

"Luthor."

The stern but humor-filled tone surprised him, as did the hand on his shoulder, not as skittish as when Lex had turned to leave Clark's room, but not as comfortable as it had once been.

The hand turned him around until he faced Clark, who handed him the medallion. He saw in the moonlight that the Norse rune was embossed into the sterling plate, drawn in gold leaf: a straight line down and a triangle protruding from the middle of the line.

Protection.

"Dad will be fine with your company. Unless you have other plans?"

Lex shook his head, not looking up from the necklace.

"Good. Then consider yourself invited. Drive safe, okay?"
 
 
 
 
 

...To be continued [will be finished before X-Mas, I PROMISE!!]