Title: Visions Of A Different Future
Author: me_ya_ri
Email: me_ya_ri@yahoo.com
Rating: PG (at worst)
Challenge: CLFF Wave 31: Prompt # 31 – It's destroying what's left
Notes: Thanks to Val for her excellent beta services—I can always count on you to improve my writing!
Summary: Lex uses a device Tess created for destruction to create a new future for himself and Clark.  All it took was a secret room, some strategic kryptonite and complete honesty.

 

+++++

 

Lex studied the monitor, gravely watching Superman 0981 battling with Lex Luthor 0981.  Lex 0981's hair was so dark an auburn as to be almost brown.  The flashes from his blaster highlighted his hair with blazing red.  The only effect the blaster had on Superman 0981 was to set off showers of sparks.  Superman 0981 mouthed something pretentious and trite, but Lex didn't hear it.  He'd turned the sound off about thirty seconds into Lex 0981's blowhard speech announcing Superman 0981's doom.

 

Lex shook his head and turned the dial one click.  The screen shivered into static for a moment and then the machinery homed in on world 0982's Superman and Lex Luthor.  They were cuddled together in bed, watching the sun set outside the penthouse window.  This Lex had hair too, sandy blond with curls.  Superman, or more accurately Clark, had blue eyes and looked nothing like Lex's Clark.  Another click and the 0983 versions were fighting.  Another click.  Their counterparts on 0984 were watching a movie together and laughing.

 

Lex kept on checking alternate universes until he hit 1000.  The pattern seemed perfectly clear, no matter how far out he went or how long he observed each pair.  In any universe that had a Superman or a Clark Kent, there was a Lex Luthor.  In every one of them, they were tied together by either bitter enmity or by love.  Lex nodded slowly as he typed his observations into his laptop.  The screen flickered above him displaying the various versions of himself and Clark that he'd studied.  He didn't consider it voyeurism.  He was exploring the perennial question 'what if?'

 

What if he hadn't gone crazy?  What if he hadn't killed his father?  What if he hadn't lost Clark's friendship after the whole Obsession Room incident?  What if, what if, what if.  The what if's had haunted him during the two-and-a-half years of his descent into insanity that ended at the destruction of Clark's Fortress of Solitude.  They'd nearly destroyed him during the month or so that he'd had amnesia.  They followed him while he wandered the Earth over the next couple of years after that.  They hounded him once he returned to Metropolis and discovered the mess that Tess had made of his company during his absence.  They continued to bother him to this day.  He'd made so many mistakes since the day that Clark saved his life on the banks of the Loeb River.  He'd received so many second chances.  How many did one person get?  He must have used up far more than his fair share.

 

"Well, that's enough for tonight," Lex sighed, stretching and cracking his neck. "A little more data gathering and I think this will be finished.  The only question is what to do with it."

 

Lex headed upstairs into the mansion, rubbing the back of his neck.  A huge crash at the far end of the hallway made Lex sigh.  This was all too familiar after spying on the alternate universes.  Clark in his brand new Superman suit glared at him (not that he'd been named Superman yet in this universe), his eyes somehow altered from green to blue and his face subtly different.  It was still quite obviously Clark, but Lex was sure that no one else would recognize him.  They'd be far too focused on the suit and the way it hugged Clark's body.  Lex supposed that was part of the reason for the coloring, too.  It was too bright for anyone to focus on Clark's face.

 

"Luthor!" Clark shouted, doing his best to look dramatic.

 

"Yes, yes," Lex sighed, pulling a small box with a tiny chunk of kryptonite out of his pocket.  It wasn't large enough to do anything other than make Clark wince and hesitate.  He didn't want to hurt him, just slow him down.  "Evil plans, won't permit it, going to stop you.  I know.  I suppose the Justice League will be coming shortly to smash the mansion as well.  You really do need to find someone else to pound on.  I'm not the villain that you want me to be."

 

He flipped the box open and tossed the little chunk of kryptonite at Clark, turning and running back down the stairs to his carefully-prepared basement lab.  Lex waited until he heard Clark get up and follow him down the stairs before darting into the room with his alternate universe viewing equipment.  Clark predictably followed.  Lex hit the trap's trigger and the door slammed shut behind Clark.  The kryptonite-coated bars that Lex had carefully designed to be uncomfortable but not dangerous to Clark separated the room into two diagonal halves.  Lex had his alternate universe viewing equipment and the now securely locked door in his half of the room.  Clark had a comfortable couch, table, and small refrigerator with refreshments, plus a wall safe with the only key to the door in his half.

 

"What is this?" Clark growled, wincing at the coating on the bars when he reached for them to break them.

 

"I was certain that you'd come after the mansion eventually," Lex said as he sat in the chair by the console. "You and the Justice League seem determined to make me into your ultimate enemy.  So I set up this room.  I think that after everything that's happened this is the only way that we could sit down to talk.  There's water, soda and your favorite beer in the refrigerator, Clark.  And some sandwiches if you're hungry."

 

"You won't get away with this," Clark declared, wincing at Lex's use of his name.

 

"Get away with what?" Lex said, raising an eyebrow.  "All I want to do is to talk to you.  The only time we talk is when you come to smash my labs and equipment or when you're reporting on me and spinning what I'm doing to make it look bad."

 

"It's not spinning!" Clark protested.  The changes to his face and eyes faded as he apparently lost his concentration.

 

Lex snorted and shook his head, making Clark blush brightly.  Lex sometimes thought that his sale of the Daily Planet after his return had been a mistake.  He'd thought when he sold it to his old schoolmate Bruce Wayne that it would be okay but, once under new management, the editorial direction had done a strong U-turn.  Instead of being LexCorp sycophants they were now his sworn enemies.  He hadn't seen an unbiased article come out of the newspaper since long before he sold it.  The only question was which way the bias went.  Clark looked as if he knew perfectly well that his paper had lost its objectivity but wasn't willing to admit it.  He stared at the walls as if he was thinking of smashing his way through them.

 

"Before you do that," Lex said with a tired sigh, "the walls have a layer of kryptonite powder between sheets of lead.  So do the ceiling and floor."

 

"So you're going to keep me locked in here then," Clark said, glaring at Lex.

 

"We're both locked in here, Clark," Lex said.  "Look at the door.  Use your X-ray vision.  It's locked and needs a key to be opened.  Then look on my side of the room.  Scan me.  I don't have the key.  You do.  There's a little cabinet built into the wall above the refrigerator that holds the key to the door.  Only you can unlock it, but I won't raise the bars until after we've had our talk."

 

Clark did as Lex directed, scanning the room and Lex's body.  Lex was grateful that he was exhausted and not reacting as normally would to Clark being near.  To have Clark see his body's reaction would have been unnecessarily embarrassing.  Clark sighed and checked the cabinet, obviously surprised to see the key.  He picked it up and frowned, wiping his fingers on his thigh automatically.  A dark streak was left behind.

 

"Why is it sticky?" Clark asked, setting the key back down and using one of the napkins to wipe his fingers.

 

"I covered it with a poison that's fatal to me and harmless to you," Lex said, laughing quietly at Clark's gasp of horror.  "I meant it when I said that only you can unlock that door, Clark.  If I try it, I'll die."

 

"Why do all of this?" Clark demanded, throwing down the crumpled napkin.  "Why go to all this trouble to trap the two of us together?  You know that the Justice League is going to come and save me, so why bother?"

 

"To talk to you," Lex repeated.

 

Clark huffed, clearly still not believing a word Lex said.  Lex turned to the console.  He flipped it on and settled back into his chair to watch the screen silently.  He had so many scenes of thousands of alternate universes recorded.  He'd recorded all the way out to 10,982, where there were no longer any Clarks and Lexes that were even vaguely like the two of them.  He stared the playback, watching them flip between friends and enemies, loved and loathed.  He heard Clark draw a sharp breath behind him but didn't turn around.  There was no point.  Clark had to be willing to listen and apparently he wasn't yet.

 

"What is that?" Clark demanded.  He was glaring when Lex swiveled his chair and looked at him.

 

"It's a device that Tess had my scientists create," Lex said.  "It's designed to look at alternate universes, worlds where events went just slightly differently from our own.  She was having the scientists work on finding ways to go to those other worlds but I shut that down.  It's too dangerous.  My equipment only views and cannot interfere in any way."

 

"Why?" Clark asked, frowning in confusion at Lex and the screen.

 

"You know how I am about questions," Lex said, smirking at Clark's rolled eyes.  "Well, after the destruction of the Fortress I had amnesia for about a month.  I ended up in Paris, standing on the tomb of Lady Isobelle.  I had no idea how I got there, no idea who I was, and no identification.  I was taken to a hospital and, after about a month, finally remembered who I was.  By that time, Tess was already in charge of LexCorp, which was apparently what I had planned."

 

Clark frowned, cocking his head at Lex.  Lex looked back at him, not bothering to raise an eyebrow in question.

 

"What do you mean 'apparently'?" Clark asked, frowning at the screen and then going brilliantly red as one of the scenes where they were lovers came up.

 

"I mean apparently," Lex said with a tired sigh.  "Clark, I went crazy on that island the summer I married Helen.  Dad gave me electroshock therapy, which isn't very good for the brain.  And then after the whole Obsession Room debacle I started sliding into paranoia and insanity.  I'm not sure if I should be flattered or appalled that no one seemed to notice it.  I suppose that it's a compliment to my intelligence that even when I was a raving lunatic I was quite functional and able to run a multi-million dollar company.  It's rather sad that I had no one close enough to me to realize that I was quite insane."

 

Clark winced and looked away, going to sit on the couch and put his head in his hands.  Lex blinked watching the bowed head for a long moment.  He nodded slowly.  That made sense.  Clark had known.  He hadn't done anything about it but he'd known.  Clark looked up and his eyes were filled with regrets.  Lex wondered what he didn't remember that was haunting Clark, but he had little desire to go digging into his psyche to find those memories.  Having descended into the darkness twice, Lex wasn't sure that he'd be able to climb back out again a third time.  Escaping it last time had taken nearly killing the man that Lex had loved from first sight.  He wouldn't do anything that would risk that happening again.

 

"I confirmed that Tess was in charge, assuming that she was doing a reasonable job running the company," Lex said, nodding to Clark's wordless apology.  "Unfortunately, I didn't think about the fact that she was following the agenda that I set down while insane.  Adding that to her own agenda meant that LexCorp went in directions that I consider to be quite…harmful."

 

He sighed, watching as the monitor flipped to a world where they were enemies, fighting and trying to kill each other.  In this one they looked totally different and were much older, but they were still Superman and Lex Luthor.  Clark made a quizzical noise, standing up again to approach the bars as closely as he could without discomfort.

 

"The farther away from our universe you get," Lex explained, "the more different we are.  But no matter what world I looked at if there was a Superman then there was a Lex Luthor."

 

"Superman?" Clark asked.

 

Lex started laughing.  Clark's expression hovered between horror and mortified embarrassment.  His blush made Lex laugh harder.  After a minute or so, Lex managed to get himself under control, nodding at Clark while grinning.

 

"Yes, Superman," Lex said, smirking.  "Your ever so dear friend Lois Lane is going to dub you Superman in the very near future, Clark.  That's what you get for plastering a huge 'S' on your chest and not staying to answer questions.  You're Superman, the Man of Steel, or the Man of Tomorrow in every universe I've looked at."

 

"I think I need to change my uniform," Clark groaned.  "Superman?  What sort of stupid name is that?"

 

"You had a better name lined up?" Lex asked, snickering at Clark's embarrassed shrug and headshake no.  "Only you, Clark.  Only you."

 

Clark growled at him, giving him a glare that held a lot less heat than it had when he'd broken into the mansion.  Lex smirked at him, turning back to the monitor.  They watched in silence for a while as the recorded sequences slid from very far away to very similar worlds to their own.  Clark made a little grunt that sounded curious so Lex turned at looked at him.  He was frowning, staring at the screen.

 

"They alternate," Clark said, waving at the monitor.  "It's like there's a pattern.  Did you set it up that way?"

 

"No," Lex said, smiling at Clark.  "The universes do alternate.  My working theory so far is that there's a wave function of some sort.  I'm unable to see any worlds between the peaks and troughs of the wave.  They might exist.  The equipment may not be sensitive enough to allow me to observe them.  At the peaks of the wave—or what I've designated as the peaks—we're friends or lovers.  At the troughs, we're enemies.  Interestingly enough, we're only enemies when we're heterosexual.  If one or the other of us is bisexual or gay, then we're not enemies though we might have fought in the past while one or the other of us was insane."

 

"I went insane in some of these worlds?" Clark asked, astonished.

 

"I consider it insanity when you've been reprogrammed to be Kal-El the uber-Kryptonian," Lex said with a shrug.  "There are universes where you truly went insane, though you seem far more prone to catatonia and panic attacks than my megalomania and paranoia.  There are worlds where I was the farm boy and you were a rich inventor.  There are worlds where Krypton wasn't destroyed and you were Earth's conqueror.  There are worlds where we're both poor, both rich, where we never meet until adulthood, where we've known each other since small childhood.  All sorts of worlds with all sorts of histories.  The only constants are if there is a Superman then there is a Lex Luthor.  If we're straight we become enemies once my obessive jealousy overwhelms me..  If either of us isn't straight we have a chance of being friends or more.  It's as though…the strait versions of me have to own you and when you won't allow that we become enemies.  The bi or gay vesions of me seem able to see more options than 'join me or die'."

 

Clark's face went blazingly red as he looked away.  He sat on the couch again, looking every bit the old farm boy Clark that Lex used to know.  He'd matured a lot over the years that Lex had been insane.  He'd grown even more assured since he started working at the Daily Planet, but Clark was still a shy Kansas farm boy at heart.

 

"Why are you doing this?" Clark asked, waving his hand to make it clear that he meant the cell as well as the machine.

 

"What do you think?" Lex asked, curious what Clark's response would be.

 

Clark looked at him, studying him for a long time.  Lex felt like Clark was looking straight through him, that he wasn't seeing Lex as he was now.  He was seeing Lex when he'd been insane or Lex when they'd first met.  It wasn't a surprise.  It hurt, but it wasn't a surprise.  Clark and his friends in the Justice League hadn't been seeing Lex clearly for quite some time.

 

"Either to destroy me or to rule the world," Clark said, eyes intent on Lex.

 

"No," Lex said, shaking his head.  "We don't have to be enemies, Clark.  We never had to be enemies.  There were so many secrets, so many lies between us, but they're all gone.  You know about my father's treatment of me, and all the experiments. You know about my insanity.  You know about my failed love life.  You know pretty much everything about me.  I know just as much about you, from your origins to your future identity to your secret identity.  There's no reason for us to be enemies other than that we have been for the last few years.  It's destroying what's left of my soul and I want it to stop."

 

"What about your wave function theory?" Clark said, waving at the screen where an older bald Lex was stabbing a different looking Superman in the side with a chunk of kryptonite.

 

"I'm not straight, Clark," Lex said, looking at him calmly.  "I always wanted kids and my father made it perfectly clear that men were not an acceptable choice for me, so I rarely acted on my attraction to males.  It was there between us all along.  Neither of us acknowledged it."

 

Clark made a little squeaking noise that would be far more appropriate coming from a mouse than from a man of his size.  This time his blush extended down under his suit and when Lex looked he could have sworn that Clark's fingernails were blushing along with his cheeks.  He couldn't help chuckling.  He supposed that it was a bit much for straight-arrow Clark to accept, especially given his upbringing.

 

Clark got up and opened the cabinet, using a napkin to pick up the key.  Lex sighed and turned off the monitor, shutting the system down again.  He opened the bars, gesturing for Clark to go ahead and unlock the door.  Clark hesitated for a second and then tried to give the key back to Lex.

 

"No, thank you," Lex said, holding his hands up and away.  "I'm quite serious about that poison.  It will kill me to touch it, Clark."

 

"I don't understand you," Clark sighed, unlocking the door and putting the key back where he'd gotten it.

 

"I know," Lex said, letting Clark go first.  "That's a step in the right direction.  You've obviously been convinced that you knew everything about me but I've changed.  Or maybe returned to who I used to be before everything went wrong."

 

"When did it go wrong, Lex?" Clark asked, his voice wistful and sad.

 

Lex shrugged.  He'd been trying to figure that out ever since his return to sanity.  He wasn't sure.  It could have been when Clark lied to him on the banks of the Loeb River.  It could have been when Lex decided he had the right to investigate Clark's life and powers.  It certainly went wrong when Lex decided to ignore his attraction to Clark in favor of marrying Helen.  It went wrong in a million places over many years.

 

"Long slippery slope," Lex sighed, leading Clark back out of the basement and upstairs to the hole in the wall that his people were already fixing.  "There have been too many little things that neither of us were willing to forgive.  You did things that I wasn't able to forgive.  I certainly did things that you couldn't forgive."

He looked at Clark, studying the man that his farm boy had become.  He was a good person, better than anyone Lex had ever known.  Every incarnation of Clark that Lex had studied had that same quality of goodness, honest and truth.  He smiled, shrugging his shoulders.

 

"I don't expect you to forgive the past," Lex said, not using Clark's name out of respect for his 'secret' identity.  "I only hoped to show you that I have changed.  If you look honestly at my actions since I returned, I know that you'll find that I haven't been the villain that you thought I was for quite some time.  Think about all of this.  Take as long as you need.  Whenever you want to talk about it, in whatever format you require, I'm here."

 

Clark opened his mouth, left it open for a long moment and then shut it.  His expression was fiercely troubled as he nodded.  Lex showed him out of the mansion and Clark flew away, his altered eye color and face back in place by the time he lifted off.  Lex smiled as he watched Clark fly away.

 

"That is still the coolest thing ever," Lex murmured, thinking of his Warrior Angel comics.  Who would have thought that someday he'd know a real superhero?  He shrugged and headed inside to grab a late dinner before bedtime.  Tomorrow was another day.

 

+++++

 

Clark didn't head straight to Chloe and the League.  His head was whirling from what Lex had shown him.  There was no way that he'd be able to explain why he hadn't arrested Lex on the spot, especially since Lex had admitted to doing the experiments that were making the others so nervous.

 

"But they're not the experiments that everyone thinks they are," Clark muttered, flying so high that he could see the curve of the Earth.  "He's not doing what they say he's doing."

 

He frowned, staring back at the ground.  He'd had his doubts about the Justice League's campaign against LexCorp for a while now, but he hadn't spoken up.  Ollie and the others were so convinced that Lex was evil that he'd buckled under, rarely speaking out against their plans.  Chloe seemed as convinced of Lex's villainy as Lois was, and Lois was one of the most outspoken critics of LexCorp in Metropolis.

 

Lex was right that the Daily Planet had started bashing him and his company.  That was another place that Clark had been bowing under.  He knew that his articles weren't fair, skirting the edge of libel at times.  Perry White had been strategically editing them so that they'd be slanted.  It consistently amazed Clark how little word choices, like including 'alleged' or not including it, could alter the tone of an article.  Mr. Wayne seemed to approve of the slant on the rare occasions that he visited Metropolis.  He never said much, but he would nod vaguely at the reports and head on his way.

 

"It bothers me," Clark growled. 

 

His lips went tight as he thought about what Lex had shown him.  He supposed that those visions of another world were the real reason that he wasn't reporting back to the League right away.  Clark had no idea how Lex had figured out that he was bi.  Clark had never acted on his feelings, not once, so there shouldn't have been any indication of it.  Obviously though, he had and now he was going to use that against Clark, too.  Except…Lex wasn't using it.  He said that he was bi, too, so maybe Lex didn't realize?

 

"I need to talk about this with someone," Clark sighed, rubbing his face with both hands.

 

Chloe would cast it all in the worst light.  Clark really didn't want to admit to the 'lover' visions to the League.  J'onn was asexual, so he wouldn't get it.  Mom was in the middle of a hugely complicated legislative session, so he didn't want to interrupt her.  He certainly wasn't going to talk to Lois!  Besides, this problem really needed an outsider's point of view.  Clark thought for a second and shrugged.  Batman hated it when he visited Gotham but there couldn't be a more outside point of view than his.  It only took seconds to fly there and less than a minute to locate Batman.

 

"Do you enjoy lurking on rooftops or is a strategic choice?" Clark asked, grinning as Batman glared at him.

 

"Your help is neither needed nor wanted, Superman," Batman growled at him, the glare perfectly clear despite his cowl.

 

"I'm not here to help," Clark admitted, blushing faintly. "I just received some information and I needed to talk it out.  It's about Lex Luthor.  Fawlkes is biased and the rest of the League hates his guts.  I needed an outside point of view to bounce ideas off of."

 

"You want to talk to me?" Batman said, disbelief so thick in his voice that he drawled the words.  "About Lex Luthor?"

 

"Ah, yeah," Clark said, rubbing the back of his neck as he blushed even brighter.  "Bad idea.  Sorry.  I'll leave you to your patrol.  My mistake."

 

Clark winced at the smirk that twisted Batman's lips.  This had to be one of his stupidest ideas ever.  He shrugged, waved and started up into the sky again.  Maybe Jor-El would have some advice.  He'd been a lot saner since the Fortress was rebooted.

 

"Wait."

 

The only reason that Clark heard the quiet word was because his ears were tuned to Batman, waiting for the laughter that he knew had to be coming.  Clark paused, staring down at Batman in confusion.  Batman looked up at him, what little Clark could see of his face expressionless.  After a second, Batman whirled and headed for the edge of the roof.  He looked back, that little smirk twisting his lips again.

 

"Follow me."

 

Clark blinked and then followed.  He'd never wondered how Batman did his patrols.  He'd somehow assumed that like Clark and some of the others, Batman had augmented abilities.  He felt far more awe for Batman as he realized that he was a normal human.  Batman had no special abilities, and it was only his physical conditioning (and his really cool gadgets) that allowed him do what he did.  Like Ollie, Batman was going out there with nothing but his armor and his training to protect him.

 

Batman led Clark across Gotham, outside of it and through a forest.  When the Batmobile plowed through a waterfall, Clark gasped and followed, afraid that he'd been hurt.  What he found raised his level of respect even higher.

 

"This is so amazing!" Clark said, grinning at the base of operations Batman had created in his cave.

 

"Says the man from another planet," Batman said dryly.  "I don't have all night.  What did you want to say?"

 

"Well, it's kind of a long, complicated mess," Clark said, landing next to him.  "Do you have somewhere to sit down?"

 

Batman led him to an area where he had a computer and a couple of chairs.  Clark sat, wondering how to explain his history with Lex.  He wasn't sure where to start.  If he wasn't careful he'd reveal his identity and that couldn't be a good thing.

 

"So," Clark said slowly as he formulated his thoughts, "I don't know if you're aware of it, but I've known Lex for years."

 

"I know," Batman said, completely impassionate.

 

"You do?"

 

"I know that you met him in high school when he ran afoul of some barbed wire, smashing through a bridge's guard rail and taking both of you into the Loeb River," Batman said, smirking at Clark.  "I know that you were friends all through high school, but drifted apart in your senior year.  As Lex descended into insanity, the two of you grew further apart, despite attempts to reconcile and to help him."

 

"You know exactly who I am," Clark said, laughing ruefully and shaking his head in amazement.  "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.  You are the world's greatest detective. All right, if you know that, then you'll know that he tried to kill me in my Fortress of Solitude, which is located in the Arctic, a couple of years ago."

 

"Most of it."

 

Clark smiled and continued his explanation, going over his loss of powers, Ollie finding him, and everything that had happened since then.  He covered all the damage that Tess had caused in Lex's name and the efforts of the League to stop LexCorp.  Batman sat and listened, occasionally adding a comment that indicated that he was aware of everything, possibly in more detail than Clark knew.  After about half-an-hour, Clark reached that night's revelations.  Batman straightened up at the description of the alternate universe viewing equipment and the basement room.  He started chuckling as Clark described the worlds that Lex had found.

 

"That explains a lot," Batman said with a wicked grin. "So what was his offer?"

 

"That's the thing," Clark said, crossing his arms over his chest.  He was still blushing, but not as badly as he would have expected.  "He just wanted to talk to me.  He wanted to show me that he wasn't who he had been."

 

"That he's sane again," Batman said, his face solemn again.

 

"Yes," Clark said, biting his lip. "But…I just don't know."

 

Batman turned to his computer, pulling up files and videos that showed Lex at work, at home, interacting with people both publicly and privately.  Clark wanted to smash the thing.  The wave of pure, absolute jealousy surprised Clark.  He tried to justify it as he watched the screens, arms tightly crossed on his chest.  No matter who Batman was, Lex didn't deserve to have his privacy invaded that way.  The instant the thought entered his head Clark winced.  Was this any different from Clark's eavesdropping on Lex?  He had to admit that it wasn't, even though he hated it.  Besides, it wasn't so much the invasion of privacy that bothered him.  He was jealous that Batman obviously had some sort of relationship with Lex.

 

"I know him too, Superman," Batman said as he studied the monitors over steepled fingers.  He seemed unaware of Clark's jealousy.  "When he returned from his world travels, Lex visited me in my other identity.  He asked me to keep an eye on him, to ensure that if he started to go insane again that he would be stopped and helped.  I've done so.  I can give you copies of my files if it will help you make up your mind about him."

 

"What do you think of him?" Clark asked, now intensely curious about Batman's secret identity though he didn't dare ask.  He had to be someone rich and powerful (obviously), but Clark didn't know who.  He wanted to go to the Fortress or peer through his mask  to figure it out, but he was ashamed of himself for wanting to know if Lex and Batman had ever been lovers.  It was none of his business, especially since Batman was helping protect Lex.

 

"I think that he has a naturally obsessive personality that was cultivated by his father," Batman said, turning to look at Clark.  His blue eyes were very bright and calm as he studied Clark's reactions.  "I am quite certain that he went insane when he was marooned on that island after his marriage to Helen.  I know that he fell back into insanity after your graduation, but it was a gradual slide that only became obvious at the end.  He experienced amnesia for approximately a month after the destruction of your Fortress, and then wandered for two years.  He has since shown no signs of instability that I can detect.  He appears to be operating his company completely legally.  He treats his employees well.  He has returned to the man I used to know.  I think that he's doing his best to become the man he always wanted to be, instead of the man his father trained him to be."

 

Clark nodded slowly, biting his lip as he looked at the monitors again.  That was the impression that Clark had received.  He wanted to believe it.  The problem was that no one else wanted to believe it, except apparently Batman - who might be something more than a friend to Lex, but also might not.  Clark straightened up, firming his jaw.  He was being stupid.  He had a lot more checking to do before he let himself make any choices.

 

"I'll take copies of those files, Batman," Clark said.  "I need to do a bit more research of my own, but you've helped.  A lot.  Thank you."

 

"You're welcome," Batman said, making copies for Clark to take with him.

 

Clark took the CD's and left after expressing his gratitude again, which Batman seemed to find annoying.  Clark didn't think he was much for small talk.  He advised the League and Chloe that he was studying something on Lex and to back off, then spent the next several days reviewing the files Batman had given him.  After that, he spent several weeks studying everything the Fortress' monitors had on Lex.  After a month and a half of watching Lex covertly, he had to admit that it appeared Batman was right.  Lex was sane.  He was trying his best to cast aside the past and live a good life.  Everything that Lex had said was true.

 

That left the fact that Lex was bi and interested in Clark, which derailed any of Clark's attempts at contacting Lex. 

 

Clark fretted about it and hesitated for another month and a half before he finally got up his nerve to go visit Lex's penthouse during his nightly patrols.  It had been spring during his initial visit to the mansion.  The seasons had slid into summer during Clark's indecision, and the night air was warm around him as he roamed through the night.  Most people in Metropolis had their windows open or their air conditioning running, but Lex was standing out on the balcony instead, looking out over the city with sad eyes.  He was holding a glass of whiskey that looked as if it was going to be wasted.  The ice had already nearly melted away.

 

"Penny for your thoughts?" Clark said, hovering off to the side and just above the railing of Lex's balcony.

 

"Just pondering," Lex said, his face lighting up as he saw Clark.  "Life, the universe, everything.  You know how it goes."

 

"Forty-two," Clark declared with a sage nod, fighting the grin trying to break out on his lips.

 

Lex's smirk couldn't hide behind his glass of whiskey as he started laughing.  Clark let the grin win, and laughed with him.  Lex gestured with his glass for Clark to join him, so Clark flew over and sat on the rail.  Why be normal when Lex already knew?  Lex grinned at him, sipping his diluted whisky and gazing out over the city with a much more cheerful expression.

 

"You kind of threw me for a loop that day," Clark said, breaking the silence after a few minutes.  "With the whole other worlds thing."

 

"I know," Lex said, shrugging and studying the last little chips of ice in his glass.  "It was a bit of a shock for me, too.  I hadn't expected such a clear pattern.  When I saw the initial reports that Tess compiled I assumed she was…reading things into our alternate versions interactions based on her personal issues and her knowledge of me."

 

"Like the fact that you're bi," Clark said, nodding.

 

"That was part of it," Lex said, nodding slowly.  "She focused more on the enemy universes than the friends."

 

"And privately went all voyeur on the lovers?" Clark suggested, wondering if he could get Lex to blush.  "She seemed like the type to do that from what Lois said of their interactions at the Daily Planet."

 

Lex didn't blush, but the familiar smirk appeared.  He raised an eyebrow and looked at Clark with that quirk of his lips that implied so many things that Clark had been very careful to never acknowledge for years.  Clark's face went blazingly red. Lex's smirk deepened until he was hiding another grin behind the rim of his glass.

 

"You are so good at that," Clark said, rubbing the back of his neck.  It was hot, as if the blush had extended there too.

 

"You're a piece of cake," Lex chuckled. "Making my father blush, that was hard."

 

"Ugh, so don't want to go there," Clark sighed. 

 

Clark leaned back, lying down on thin air and putting his hands behind his head as if he was lying in the grass back home, and looked up at the night sky where the stars were hidden by occasional clouds.

 

Lex raised an eyebrow and then grinned at Clark.  "You do realize that's seriously cool, don't you?" Lex asked.

 

"Yeah," Clark said, grinning at him.  "One of the very few benefits of overcoming my fear of heights and learning to fly.  I'd still rather stay on the ground but the flying and floating thing can be fun." Switching subjects in mid-air, Clark blurted, "Um...so...did you know that I'm bi?"

 

Lex's mouth opened but nothing came out as he stared at Clark.  Clark looked at him, deliberately blinked twice, and then started laughing.  Lex blushed, which made Clark laugh harder.  He grinned as Lex huffed and tried to get angry with him.

 

"I made you speechless!" Clark crowed.  "I don't think I've made you speechless since the cow patty incident back on the farm."

 

"You…" Lex started to say and then laughed, shaking his head at Clark.  "You are…one of a kind, you know that?"

 

"Mmm-hmm," Clark said, nodding as he sat up.  "And having thought about this for three months straight, I'm just going to say it.  I do want to be friends again, for real this time.  You're right.  We do know everything about each other.  We do know the secrets that caused so much trouble.  I don't know if we'll ever be more than friends, but I'd like the friendship back.  If you're interested, of course."

Lex's smile was one that Clark had only seen a few times since they'd met.  It was the perfectly open, utterly happy, delighted in everything about you smile that made Lex seem like anything but a Luthor.  Clark grinned back, surprised that it was that easy.

 

"I'd love that," Lex said, reaching out a hand to Clark.  "I'll take whatever you're willing to give me Clark, and I'll wait for you to decide what you ultimately want as long as it takes."

 

"Let's start with friends," Clark said, taking Lex's hand and shaking it ceremoniously.  "I kind of tend to screw romance up, so I think letting anything more wait might be smart."

 

"You're talking to the divorce king," Lex said, smirking at Clark.  He raised his glass in a mock toast.  "I completely understand.   Done with patrol?"

 

"No," Clark sighed, listening in to the city and world again.  "I've got a few more things to take care of, unfortunately.  Stop by later or tomorrow?"

 

"Anytime, Clark," Lex said, his eyes warm as he smiled.  "Anytime."

 

Clark grinned and nodded goodbye before taking flight towards the robbery he could hear in progress.  Along the way, Clark wondered if it was possible that Lex had given both of them back their souls with his basement room and alternate universe equipment.  He guessed that it didn't matter.  They had a chance at peace when Clark had thought that there was no hope of it. 

 

Whatever the future might bring, Clark wasn't going to repeat his mistakes.

 

The End