hackthis_archive | SV - Clark/Lex - The Sixty-Fourth Time

It's so early my sarcasm is still asleep, but you know it's all okay because

nestra and

shrift have updated Poly Recc's to keep my eyelid-prying-open ass company. Right now I've got new Batfamily, due South, SV, HP, A:tS and X2 to read, and that's just the fandoms I know.

There was something else I was gonna say, but frankly I can't remember what it is. That happens a lot.

This has a happy ending *squints* Really.

Smallville

1.

Clark has Chinese takeout for dinner every Tuesday from the tiny place on the corner of Elm and 5th because they deliver. There's a much better place over on Crescent and Park, but that's not in his part of the city, and after the last break-up they agreed that maybe things would be easier if they just divided Metropolis between them.

2.

Sometimes he thinks about picking some Kung Pao Chicken on his way home from his *other* job, but it would be a wasted trip to stop in Peking just for him. Every now and then though, he'll make the detour and find himself hovering around outside the Penthouse with takeout in his hand and war waging in his head.

So far common sense has won out sixty-three times, but there's always the next time.

Maybe his heart will win the sixty-fourth battle.

3.

If he's not working through lunch, Clark takes his brown paper bag to the park and feeds the ducks the crusts of his peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches; he's never liked the crusts but Lex never seemed to mind them. Of course, when Lex made Clark sandwiches, he always made sure that the peanut butter and jelly were spread to the edges of the bread instead of leaving them dry and tasteless.

The sandwiches that Clark makes for himself don't taste as good as the ones Lex used to make.

They don't taste as good as the ones his mom used to make for him either.

4.

Sometimes he can hear the Lex Corp helicopter taking off several blocks over and if he squints a little when he looks up in the sky, he can tell what color shirt Lex is wearing that day.

5.

He's not a big Led Zeppelin fan. Actually Clark's not a Zeppelin fan at all, but Lex used to play their music really loudly after a bad day to cover up the sound of him breaking things in his office; and when Superman finds a huge crate of vinyl waiting for the garbage man outside a warehouse in Tokyo, he tucks Led Zeppelin IV into one of those hidden cape compartments that Lex insisted were so important to any superhero's wardrobe.

6.

When he gets home, he puts the album on the crumbling mantelpiece in his living room. It sits right above the television that only gets three channels, and when Clark's tired of game shows and telenovelas, he turns off the TV and just stares at the album. If he closes his eyes, he can hear Lex cursing the penthouse down until he realizes Clark is home, and when he licks his lips he can taste the sweat and orange juice from Lex's kiss when he welcomes Clark home and says, "I‘m sure you love coming home to this."

7.

He tells himself he made the right decision when he wakes up in the morning and before he goes to bed at night.

He reminds himself that there were trust issues during press conferences as City Hall.

He hesitates every now and then when pursuing a lead with Lex's name on it -- and then he reminds himself that Lex was the one who said 'enough.'

He knows he doesn't smile as much as he used to, but sometimes the effort is just too much.

8.

It's monsoon season in India and there's flooding in the Amazon, and a very long time ago, if Clark worked all night, he would stop in Italy to get espresso from the trattoria in Positano that Lex was so fond of. But it's only midnight in Metropolis, so Clark flies a little bit further east to pick up dinner instead.

Now is as good a time as ever for the sixty-fourth try.

9.

The penthouse lights are a blazing beacon for Clark, and he can hear Led Zeppelin from half a mile off. He's on the balcony and through the French doors before he can begin to think about what a bad idea this is, and he has to shift dinner around to open the door to the office.

There are lines around Lex's mouth now that weren't there six months ago, and his eyes look hard; he‘s got a stapler in his hand, but he doesn’t throw it at Clark's head which is a good start.

"I heard the music," Clark says by way of explanation. "And I brought dinner."

"Dinner was three hours ago," Lex points out putting the stapler down.

Clark would wager the stapler was about to go crashing through the floor-to-ceiling windows and make a ten foot dent in the sidewalk 78 floors below, but they can argue about that later.

Lex‘s eyes narrow. "You're late."

"I know, but I was hungry, and I thought you might be up."

There's a long moment when their conversation could go either way, and for some reason Lex's Mu Shu Pork is very heavy in Clark's right hand and Robert Plant's giving him a headache. "I miss you," Clark blurts out. "I don't have anyone to make my sandwiches anymore."

"You want me back to make your sandwiches?"

Lex does incredulous very well, and Clark sets down the food to stifle his laugh. He ducks just in time when the stapler goes sailing past his head. "No,” he says, approaching Lex very carefully, “I want you back because I'm tired of hovering outside your window and wanting to come home."

-end-

Title and ficlet inspiration provided by Matthew Good as pointed out by

dirty_diana. I expect this isn't the fandom you were hoping for, but it's what I've got, so.