Title: Evergreen

Author: Keikokin

Pairing: CLEX

Rating: PG

Summary: Written for CLFF Wave 29. Martha steps in to ring in the holidays for Clark and Lex with a present that can’t be left under the tree.

Setting: After Jonathans death. After Lana leaves and then goes AU from there because I am hopelessly fluff and bunnies. If you are diabetic, skip this. Really.

Authors note: I’m singed from a recent event and have decided to be unbound or betaless in this one. Any errors therefore are mine. Also, in direct retaliation for the comma overuse I see everywhere I’ll barely use any at all. Happy Yule.

Clark hung his head and tried not to get a headache. But he sensed it was useless. He morosely moved the food around his plate as he sat at the breakfast table in the sunny kitchen of the farmhouse. It was something his mother, Martha Kent, instantly picked up on. “Clark honey, what’s wrong?”

“I was trying to figure out a present that I could get for Lex that would say I’m sorry for everything and could we at least be friends again?” He looked sadly toward their tree with its twinkling lights. If the look in his eyes was anything to go by he wanted to buy the biggest, shiniest gift in the world to put under that tree for Lex.

Martha mulled over her possible answers while she got up for another cup of coffee. Clark and Lex had certainly been to hell and back. Hell being, the car accident or indeed, even the meteor accident that brought their paths together. Back being, the bridge the two young men had been trying to construct ever since Lana left Smallville for parts greener and richer. She’d burned them both and left their friendship in tatters. Martha sighed. Her late husband had been a wrench in their way as well. Perhaps it was time to see what would happen if they were as Clark put it, “at least friends”.

It was interesting that he chose that wording, she thought as she sat back in her seat. Did Clark want more than friendship from Lex? Was that the seed of discontent with Lana Lang from day one? First Clark noticed Lex, so Lana stole him away. Then Lana spotted a brighter light and was gone, leaving Lex twisting in the proverbial wind.

Clark never could handle watching people in pain.

“What can I do to help?” Martha asked in resignation. It was the holidays after all, she reassured herself.

The instant smile that lit up Clark’s face was worth her time. She smiled back and placed a hand over Clark’s.

Let’s see if I can get Clark to admit his feelings. He’s so far back in the closet the mothballs are going to get him before any Kryptonite does.

“It’s hard to want to get something perfect for the people we love at this time of year, isn’t it?” She smiled comfortingly and Clark fell for it hook, line and sinker.

“Oh mom, you have no idea.” The smile was gone and his head hung once again. Then as if realizing what he’d said he looked up in horror. “Mom! I meant –“

“Life goes faster than you think Clark, especially with you.” She chuckled and took a sip of coffee.

Clark hasn’t blushed like this since I gave him The Talk!

“Honey, does Lex know how you feel about him?”

“Mom! It’s not like –“

“Pfft,” she waved a hand negligently in his direction. “This is me, Clark. You never could lie to me.”

Clark stared down at his hands. There was a lengthy silence during which Martha drank more of her coffee and watched her son try to get his thoughts together. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t have any money to get him anything.”

“I think what you could give him, can’t be wrapped.” She tapped on Clark’s chest with one finger, indicating his heart.

“Aw mom. I’m just some backwoods farmer with hopes of a journalism career. What could he possibly see in me?”

“Could you live with never letting him know and wonder ‘what if’ for the rest of your life?” Clark was shaking and Martha steeled herself to go on. “You know I happen to know several young ladies in town think you’re a pretty good catch. Tell Lex it’s a merger of sorts.”

“Mom?”

“I think a Christmas ceremony would be nice. We could have one of those Unitarian sorts come out and give you a commitment ceremony. Isn’t that what they’re called these days?”

“MOM!”

“Start by bringing over some home baked goods to him. That will get him in the right frame of mind. Then you should bring him over to the farm. Ask him in the Fortress, he’d probably like that. The bridge might be a little too much. Yes, definitely. It would be nice to have another man around here. The family has seemed a little small of late don’t you think so?”

Clark had given up yelling to get her attention and was sitting with his mouth agape.

“You know my father never approved of your father and we were together for many happy years. Lionel will never approve either, so that’s just one more incentive for Lex! Tell him it’s a family tradition.”

Shaking his head, Clark blinked repeatedly at her but still couldn’t say anything. It was probably because he was so stunned at what was coming out of her mouth, that he didn’t hear Lex’s car.

Martha smiled broadly. “I think we have company.”

“What?” Clark half-whispered.

Martha looked at Clark seriously. “I never knew how short a time I had with Jonathan. If I had, I never would have wasted even a second of it. Don’t let love get away, Clark. It’s a rare treasure. Life ends too soon, Clark honey. I think we’ve both learned that, haven’t we?”

His mouth turned into a firm line and his eyes brimmed at the memory of his dad. Too emotional to talk and still reeling, Clark nodded and gulped back the wave of sad feelings.

Martha got up and let Lex in, offering coffee and some holiday cookies before saying she had wrapping to do and excuse herself to go upstairs. She winked at Clark encouragingly.

Lex looked awkwardly at Clark. “Did I make your mother mad?”

“No, you didn’t.” Clark didn’t offer any more than that and it set Lex on instant edge.

“Look, if I came at a bad time –“

Clark inhaled deeply and looked Lex in the eye. “I was talking about what to get you for Christmas. But all I have is me, if you want that is.”

“What?” Lex asked sounding shell-shocked himself. Clark knew that feeling. He smiled. It was nice to know he had the power to make the normally composed Lex Luthor off balance.

Deciding to present this the way his mom had seemed to be the ticket. Lex wouldn’t know what hit him either and that might make him stunned enough not to say ‘no’ right away. “Mom seems to think a commitment ceremony on Christmas would be nice.” Clark cursed the blush he knew was causing the heat in his face. “I am starting to warm up to the idea. How about it Lex?”

“Are you proposing to me Clark Kent?” Lex asked in a hushed tone.

Clark slid to one knee in front of Lex and grinned. “I’ll understand if you say ‘no’ but please think about it. Mom said it would be like a merger. Your father won’t be happy, but that’s a bonus right? Actually, it’s a family tradition for us Kent’s, since Grandpa Clark never liked dad.”

Looking hard into Lex’s blue eyes he added, “I want to be with you. The best part of my life was when we were friends. I’ve missed you. I don’t want to lose you again. You won’t have to worry about me murdering you either.”

Lex shook his head hard and got up. “I don’t know how much egg nog you’ve had to drink but –“

Clark shot to his feet. “The present I give you this year is me, Lex. I – I love you.”

“What?” Lex swayed on his feet and was grateful for the steel like embrace in which Clark quickly enveloped him. “But you like girls.”

“So do you.” Clark shrugged. “Neither of us do well in that department. Maybe there’s a reason for that. Dad used to keep us apart and I always wondered why. Sure he said it was because you were a Luthor. But now it all makes sense. God, is my mother ever wrong?! I hate that!”

This broke the tension between the two as Lex started to laugh. “So you say I should just risk my father’s wrath and have a romantic ceremony with you and spend the holidays just having my wicked way with you? This is insane Clark!”

“You haven’t said ‘no’.” Clark decided to risk it all by picking up Lex using his super power and zipping him over to where a sprig of mistletoe hung and gently put him down while giving a nervous kiss to the Luthor scion.

Lex was shattered by the brilliant pinpricks of pleasure that burst throughout his body at Clark’s firm lips. He shuddered at the out-of-this-world feeling. No one had ever wrung that reaction from him.

Mistaking it for revulsion Clark quickly pulled away. But Lex grabbed him around his neck and dragged him down for a second round. This time Lex put all his feelings, fears and love for the young man in front of him into the kiss.

If this was the road to hell, Lex suspected he was going to get a speeding ticket. He was not letting Clark go. There might never be a second chance. He was starting to really get into it when there was a cough from the stairway.

This had the effect of cold water rushing over their heated libidos. Clark and Lex jumped apart like two guilty children. “MOM!” Clark wailed in abject misery.

Martha laughed happily. “Does this mean I should expect a ceremony of sorts?”

“This sort of thing isn’t legal in Kansas, Mrs. Kent.” Lex was flushed but still matter-of-fact when needed. After all, he was Lex Luthor.

“Since when has that ever stopped you two?” Both men looked guiltier. “For now you could just have a quiet commitment ceremony. It could be just us. I’m sure I could write something up. No one but us will ever know.”

Lex threw back his head and laughed. “You are a force of nature Mrs. Kent.”

“If you say ‘yes’ to my son, you could start calling me ‘mom’, Lex.”

“So I could.” Lex smirked at Clark and touched his lips tenderly. “You got me under that mistletoe pretty quick farm boy.”

“Nothing I say is going to matter. How about we just table that for later?” Clark asked with a slight pout and a hint of exasperation around his eyes.

Lex blinked, he’d never seen that look in Clark’s eyes before. This was it. He could find out everything he always wondered about. Oddly enough, he wasn’t as excited about the prospect as he’d dreamt. But they were dead in the water if they couldn’t be totally truthful with each other. “No lies. No bad excuses?”

“Not anymore Lex.” Clark’s promise was golden. He was a good old country boy whose word was everything.

Sure Clark had kept him in the dark before, but maybe he had a reason. Lex suspected Clark would need someone who wasn’t faint of heart for the job of confidant. “But only if I say ‘yes’?”

“Call it added incentive,” Martha called from the stairs to be heard. Lex and Clark had gravitated closer again as if they were magnetic and the attraction was unstoppable. She supposed it always was.

“M-o-m!” Clark whined. “You make me sound like a prize heifer for auction.”

Lex laughed harder. When he stopped laughing he noticed the serious look on Clark’s face and it took him aback. Clark’s face was an open book. This was for forever. “You mean it don’t you?”

“That kiss wasn’t enough?” Martha laughed. “He’s not the cheating kind either. We both know that.”

Clark huffed catching Lex’s attention again. “If you’re going to just say ‘no’ I’d rather hear it now then wait if you don’t mind. That way I could start my new life as a hermit now. I knew this was a long shot gamble going in that you wouldn’t agree.”

“Hermit sounds like a good idea. But you can only become a hermit if you take me with you,” Lex added with a growl. He grabbed Clark’s flannel shirt by the front and pulled Clark closer to kiss him once more heedless of Martha’s presence on the stairs. The kiss threw off more sparks than the logs in the fireplace. When he pulled away Clark was shaking with evident need. “Let’s turn every light in the house on, fill the yard with flood lights. We’ll do everything in white lights. It would be a nice glow around the house. I’ll have a discreet caterer come in so –“

“Oh, I don’t think so Lex. This is my son’s big day. I’ll do the cooking, thank you very much!” Martha argued.

Lex conceded the point with a nod. “I don’t want to tick off my mother-in-law!”

“Smart man,” Martha giggled.

Clark’s smile was so bright it was like noon in the dead of winter. Even if every light in the house was on for the ceremony, it would never hold water against his smile at that moment. Lex knew then that he’d been secretly hoping for this moment for years. Trust Clark to get confused when Lex was just playing the game by their rules.

“Is that a ‘yes’?” Clark asked so eagerly it was almost hard to look at the open earnest face.

“Do I need to write a country song to accept?” Lex teased back. “I’m sure I could hire someone to tell you that I love you in a song and how much you’ve meant to me since the day I met you at the river and how I always will.”

Martha’s tears of joys were only a backdrop to the sizzling kiss that seared away years of pain and hurt.

Sure everyone was different, but that was especially true in the case of these two. Yet, they’d overcome so much that she knew they’d work the details out as long as they were still together.

The tree continued to shine its merry colors over the new family that Christmas and the newly christened love of two very special men as it would for years to come.

Happy Holidays.