Title: Cancelled Session

Author: Keikokin

Fandom: SV Pairing CLEX

Challenge: Use *"I love him because he's the kind of guy who gets drunk on a glass of buttermilk, and I love the way he blushes right up over his ears" - Ball of Fire – 1942

Summary: Lex’s weekly session, Feb. 14.

Beta: Dawn to whom I owe my many thanks and appreciation for her patience! I’d actually LOST this piece and bless her, she waited until I found it again. Thank you so much Dawn and all my apologies for the inconvenience!

It was the sound of a throat clearing from across the room that snapped Lex back into his weekly therapy session. He squirmed in his seat and tried to regain his train of thought. But it was hopelessly lost. Lex’d spent countless hours daydreaming and today was proving to be no different. He sighed.

“You seem particularly distracted today, Lex.” came the monotonous voice of his therapist, “You pay me good money to listen to your problems, and even better money not to tell others, so if you want to waste it all, that’s up to you. We can talk about business again.”

“No, no. I guess I’ve been a bit preoccupied.”

The older man took off his glasses and cleaned them before putting them back on and trying again. “What’s her name?”

“What?” Lex blinked in confusion. The doctor knew the signs and waited. “Oh, well maybe there is someone.” Lex looked away. “Just not the way you think.” He was glad that he had enough blackmail and greenbacks going the way of this therapist to trust him. Obviously, it was needed in his world, just that bit of added security. “Ah the paranoia that came with having Lionel for a father.” He thought with a grimace. Nevertheless, the fact that Lex Corp was the single manufacturer of the medicine the doctor needed to live was an added ace in the hole.

After an extended period of silence, his doctor began again. “I’ve read your folder and know your preferences run both sides of the fence. So what’s his name?”

A dreamy distant smile crept over Lex’s face. “Clark. Clark Kent. Clark Jerome Kent.”

“Hmm,” the doctor replied. “What makes him so special?”

“He’s a hero.” Lex laughed making the edges of his eyes crinkle. The good doctor was stunned by the transformation in his patient; he’d never seen Lex Luthor this happy. He suspected few had. “A real hero and I’m so damn proud of him, but I worry myself sick that one day we’ll find ourselves so far on opposite sides of the fence that we’ll never recover what we have right here and right now. He’s so stand-up and I’m destined to be -” Lex trailed off with a heavy sigh.

“Where does Mr. Kent live?” the doctor asked.

“Back in Smallville, but he’s left for college and I am really proud of him. Yet, it’s changing him too. “Lex frowned.”I miss him being here in Metropolis. It seems like he’s a million miles away. There was just always something so fresh about him, so real, for lack of a better term. The world I deal with doesn't even touch his for value even though I deal in millions of dollars on a daily basis. He shouldn't even exist with us lower class beings. Do you know he actually gave back a truck I gave him for saving my life and he returned it because his father told him to and it just "wasn't right"? That's the kind of home spun innocence he exudes, it’s simply intoxicating in its brilliance.

“So you met him in Smallville?”

“Yes, I did. I’ll never forget it either. I hit him with my car and he saved my life, thus the truck.” The doctor nodded remembering notations about it in Lex’s file.

“Are you friends?”

“That doesn’t begin to cover it for me. But I suppose on a good day Clark might still see me as a friend. We kind of had a falling out.” Lex shrugged. "Actually we sort of have a history. In the beginning Clark had a bit of hero worship for me, I represented the other side of life. I introduced him to so much, the classics, concerts, city life and then we were driven apart by our secrets. We each had them and eventually things turned bitter. Of late I'm not sure where we stand. He should be back from school soon for break and I'm hoping -

“What would ‘cover it’ for you?”

“Obsession, maybe worse.”

“What’s worse than obsession?” the doctor quietly asked, as if he might break this outpouring by being too loud.

“Love.” Lex stared down at his hands which were clenched tightly in his lap. He was sitting on the edge of the wingback chair now, his back stiff. “I have a tendency to make the people I care about want to kill me, drug me or lock me away. They want my power, my money or simply bragging rights that they got one over on a Luthor. From anyone else it was to be expected but he’s so different –“

“Different, how?”

"As different as the sun is to the moon. Clark is the sun, and I am the moon, reflecting his light. I don't deserve him I never could and it would destroy me if I ever hurt him. "Lex looked up. “I guess it’s too late now. I already love him. And do you know why?”

The doctor gestured for Lex to continue giving him a small smile of encouragement. "I love him because he's the kind of guy who gets drunk on a glass of buttermilk, and I love the way he blushes right up over his ears*"

“Sounds farm fresh.”

“Oh you have no idea. He was raised on a farm, complete with flannel shirts, homemade pie and chores to do by dawn. Clark is an innocent in a world where the last person he should have ever had the misfortune to meet is me. And yet he sees me differently. Didn't listen to what the town had to say about the devil and the Luthors being one and the same. He just wanted to be friends, honestly and truly. I sound stupid I know.”

“His parents?”

“Well the people that pretend to be his parents are very home grown. Although his mother, Martha Clark was raised in Metropolis, she gave it all up for Clark’s father. And Clark’s father lives by parables and sayings and superstitions. Mr. Kent believes I am the spawn of the Devil and that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. They are nice enough to have adopted him, but he looks nothing like them. Then again no one looks quite like Clark.”

The doctor nodded. Lex became silent and stared at the ceiling, seemed to laugh to himself and then admitted. “Clark is a mutant. For a while, I actually started to think he came from a science lab or another world.”

“Mutant, you say?” the doctor shivered, having read accounts of the many mutants Lex seemed to encounter and be attacked by. The file hinted that he too was a mutant who could heal himself. But the doctor didn’t want to dwell on it. It was too twilight zone.

“He’s the good witch in the Oz that is Smallville. As I said before he’s a real hero. I’m not the only one he’s rescued.”

“Does that bother you??”

Lex looked back at his hands. “It depends if it’s some girl that’s going to hang all over him again. They try to take advantage of him. They don’t even know him, not like I do.”

The doctor leaned back. “I gather you haven’t told him of your feelings.”

Lex rolled his eyes. “Clark is a man’s man. Every boy in the fifties wanted to be the farm boy he was. He’s got girls throwing themselves at him left and right. He carried a torch for a local girl for so long it became the butt of the small town jokes. I don’t have a death wish. Although I admit I've always enjoyed flirting with him just to make him blush. Oddly enough the last time I did that he didn't blush at all. But there was an odd look on his face as though he'd been distracted before and just noticed something.”

“But distractions can be dangerous on their own. What if you became lost in thought about Clark when you were driving? I called your name several times before you heard me.” Lex grunted then shrugged.

"I hadn't realised but you see that's what he does to me. And it's making me crazy just sitting, waiting, hoping and wanting him to realize what we could have if he just gave it a chance. I was wondering if maybe he has noticed and that's why he acted differently when I went to visit him on campus. I wonder if someone said something or if I let my guard down. Which is a problem in and of itself. I’m trying to keep my emotions in check when I'm around him. I don't know how much longer I can. "

The heavy silence which followed was broken by a loud knock at the door. The doctor glanced at his watch before commenting. “Our time is ended. I’ll see you again next week, Lex?” Lex nodded and rose from his chair. As he opened the door to usher the doctor out he noticed a letter waiting for him on the table.

He picked up the red envelope and smiled at it when he recognized the “For Lex ONLY” written on the front. It was from Clark! His heart lifted and he immediately went to his office. Taking the letter opener into his now less than steady hands he sliced it open and took out the card that lay within.

A glittery, garish heart held by a white squirrel declared, “Roses are Red. Violets are blue.” Lex slid a finger in and turned the single page to the inside. “This sounds nuts. But I think I love you.” A tiny “Clark” graced the bottom in shaky handwriting.

With a wicked grin, Lex ran out into the hallway after his doctor. “STOP! No session next week!” He held up the card triumphantly and the doctor grinned, tipped his hat and left with a smile. He loved happy endings….