The devastation that the Twisters had left in their wake very nearly reflected the devastation that could have occurred if Nixon had gotten his way and managed to bodily drag off Clark and kill Jonathan in the process of his abduction. When it came down to it, Martha could not say she liked the fact that Nixon had been killed or that she regretted it. Most of all she hated the fact that Lex had been forced to pull the trigger, but in doing so he had saved both Jonathan and Clark. It was hard to condemn an action that saved members of her family.

It worried her what effect it might have on him. Jonathan had worried her as well and right now he was a little grumpy from the pain in his ribs, and swelling up in all colors across his face where Nixon had caught him with an iron bar. Facing the fact that someone was willing to kill over Clark's secret, even if they weren't willing, had shaken all of them, so the anger and disappointment she thought she would feel had faded to an internal realization that Nixon's death had to occur. She was grimly accepting of that fact, and perhaps that was the thing that disturbed her most of all. They were all carrying on at the moment as if it hadn't really happened and she knew at some point suspension of disbelief would fail and there would be an almighty emotional fallout.

And Clark... Clark was still out there somewhere. She could barely conceive of what he had been doing as he tried to single-handedly fix the damage that had occurred in the tornados. Even now he was desperately trying to find his ship before someone else came up with it, which would cause all sorts of additional problems. To be brutally honest, the events of the past couple of days made her feel like the ground had been taken from beneath her and she was currently plummeting through the day in a sort of free-fall. She didn't even dare think on her own experience too much in case that strength she was using to prop up the family started to crumble. She was run ragged, and hadn't she been brushing Clark's lapels and pushing him off to the spring dance with Chloe just the day before? Everything had seemed so happy and smiling then and she and Jonathan had kissed, remembering their own formals together, even if they were college events.

Lex had been busy, too, horribly busy, but there was a difference from the tiredness of keeping a grasp on his empire and the tiredness of being taken down to the police station for murder. Self-defense, but even that might bring charges against him and she couldn't bear to think of him facing that for any of them. It would destroy Clark, even as the fatal shot had saved him. She'd made him promise that they would come down if they needed statements since she had Jonathan to bring home from the hospital and he really wasn't in the condition to be sitting around in the Police department. But it had been hours and still no word. With Jonathan a little laid up, it had taken her most of the rest of the day, even after Clark's lightning quick rush-around tidying of the farm, to put things back together and dinner was late. It was going to be more like a midnight feast by the time the electricity had come back on and she had tidied things away.

Jonathan kept trying to be helpful and eventually he had been threatened with a brush until he retreated back to the living room even as the simple dinner cooked. She was sure she should feel more grounded, more settled back here in her domain, in the kitchen, but she didn't. She felt... different somehow. She hadn't dared say anything to Jonathan about the energy from the ship, but she had the distinct impression of a change in herself. It was a most peculiar sensation. Maybe it would be a good change and she certainly didn't want to bring on the worst by calling it up in her mind. Maybe it had been nothing at all, just her overactive imagination ticking away in the stress of undue circumstances. There was no denying that her imagination was overactive. She'd heard a car pulling up into the drive no less than four times, and each time it had been, of course, nothing at all.

There it was again -- the rough purr of a fast engine idling down nothing. Maybe Jonathan was watching a movie with car chases on the TV, or the evening news. Still, as she had done the other four times, she turned on the coffee machine and went to look out of the window, just in case.

It was a mud-smeared Aston Martin, gleaming pale dusky tan even in the faint light from the farm. Lex's car, and after a moment, Lex got out of it.

Well, thank God for that. Martha moved to the door and pushed it open, spilling welcoming light outwards towards him. "Lex sweetheart... they've kept you there all this time? Come on in." She fussed a little and a manner that was instinctive now.

"They're not going to press charges," he declared a little triumphantly as he started up to the house. Lex was walking slower than he usually did, limping a little as he mounted the steps. "How's Dad?"

"Being about as good a patient as I was... and that's wonderful news," Martha said dryly and smiled. "Lex, how much of a hit did you take up at the castle? You're limping. I thought you said everything was fine?"

"One thing at a time." He lurched into the kitchen, and let out a relieved sigh to just be in a familiar place. "If building inspectors took a look at the castle right now, they'd condemn it."

"Sweetheart, sit... coffee and food on its way," Martha said immediately glad just to be able to do something. "You need to stay here tonight? Your room is made up for you." It always was. She rested a concerned hand on his shoulder and back a moment, feeling for the tension in him. "You sure you're okay?"

"Fine," he reiterated, and it was pretty clear that he was lying as he sat down. "I can't stay long, maybe a couple of hours. It skirted the edge of the plant, and there's been some damage to a couple of the tanks. We've had to call in cleanup, and I want to authorize repair spending before tomorrow morning."

"You will eat and rest, Lex," Martha said firmly. "Delegate if necessary. You're looking tired, sweetheart, and it's been a rough couple of days for you..."

She really had no idea how rough. Lex smiled a little, shook his head. "No, it's all right. I really need to get all of this done while I still have the energy. Where's Clark?"

"Out looking for the ship," Martha replied with a faint sigh. "I can't seem to get him to stand still. I don't think he's stopped at all. He wanted to try and find the ship under the cover of dark, least that was what he said."

Lex nodded to that, and closed his eyes as he leaned his elbows on the table. "I'd help him right now, but I think I'd just slow him down."

"Any of us would at the moment," Martha replied quietly. She shifted closer, bending a little to look at him, seeing with a mother's gaze the hurt ingrained in him. "You did all the right things, sweetheart. We're both proud of you."

He looked sick, ashen and grimy instead of his usual warm paleness and cleanliness. "I did what I had to do."

"I know, sweetheart. I'm just sorry it had to be you who had to do it," Martha said her voice rich with compassion, leaning close again to comfort him.

He didn't move from his slump over the tabletop, frowning a little. "It's all right. Everyone's safe, so..."

"That doesn't mean it hasn't hurt you, Lex," Martha replied cutting through to the heart of the matter. "Just because it was the right thing to do doesn't mean it's any less difficult for you... or that you might not feel shaken by all of it."

"Honestly, Mom? Nixon was scum. I'd do it again without hesitation." And that, that was the part that left him shaken up, she could tell.

"If I had been there, and it had been you, Clark, or Jonathan, I would have done the same," Martha replied, knowing now that she was saying the truth. She hated the thought that she had that in her, but God help her, she was sure that she would do everything that she could to save any one of her family. There would be no turning away from Lex for doing what needed to be done. "There are a lot of things I would do for this family. The secret alone isn't enough reason, and we know that. It would destroy Clark to know people died to protect his secret, but Nixon was trying to kill your father, and you saved him. "

"When I realized he had the key..." Lex had always been painfully honest with Martha, but what he wanted to say wouldn't be easy. "When I realized he had the key, I knew I was going to have to kill him."

"How so, sweetheart?" Martha murmured quietly, keeping this between the two of them. Jonathan probably heard them talking, but not the topic. Thank God for network news.

"It was in my desk drawer, in a paperweight. And I knew when it went missing that he had the key, I knew what he meant to do."

"I did wonder what it was..." Martha replied, nodding slightly, "But when the ship came to life and.... well...." She avoided that subject hastily not wanting to get into details. "He did this to himself, Lex, Nixon had his chance to walk away. Lord knows Jonathan was fit to tear him limb from limb."

"I threatened him before that. He tried to blackmail me with photographs... and I called his bluff." Lex moved a hand to rub at his temples. "Not that it matters. The man's dead, and it's over with."

Martha stroked his back gently and then gave him a light kiss sensing a need for reassurance that Lex probably wasn't even aware of himself. "And we love you for it. But seriously, Lex, you need a break. I know you heal fast but you've been too busy recently, and now this? You need some time out."

"Actually, when Clark gets back, I need him to re-break my leg," Lex murmured wryly. "Then I'll really need a vacation."

"Oh Lex..." Martha was quietly horrified. "You go and lie down now. That's an order from your mother... go on. I'll bring the food over. If you're going to do that then you need to eat."

"I'm comfortable here," he told her stubbornly, eyes still closed as he leaned on the table. The phone in his pocket started to ring, and he gave a quiet curse before he answered it.

It was Gabe, all but begging for Lex to make a statement about the plant, written or public, something. Lex told him he'd be there ASAP. Martha stole his phone and told Gabe to start earning his pay for once, and Lex would be available when he had had a minor injury dealt with and not before. If anyone wanted a statement, it would be that everything would be fixed as soon as possible.

Lex stared for a moment after Martha had hung up on the plant's manager, dumbfounded by what she'd just done. "Mom, you just..."

"I just created a situation where you get some time to yourself and Gabe gets to prove himself either worthy of your trust or worthless and fit to be fired," Martha said succinctly. "If he can't cope now, what happens when there's no opportunity for him to go running to you, hmm? Besides, I know Gabe -- he'll do anything to prove he can. He's that type of man when he's alone at the sharp end."

Lex sighed as he took his phone back, and turned it off. "I'm not going to argue with you about this, but in the future, please don't touch my cell." It had been a good idea, but he'd been willing to go over there sooner than he'd planned, and now he was just hoping that Gabe hadn't recognized the woman on the phone as his mother.

Because yeah, that was a good impression to leave when one was the CEO of a company.

"In the future, don't be such an idiot about your health and own welfare and I won't have to," Martha replied not the least bit remorseful of her interference. "You are not indestructible you know."

"I'm close," he countered, and lurched to his feet to pour himself a cup of coffee. "Today's been a learning experience."

"You could say that," Martha replied and was about to quiz him again when a clatter outside indicated someone else had returned, and was wearily stomping up the steps.

Clark pushed the door open. "Hey, Mom," he said tiredly and then focused on Lex being there. The concern and anxiety in his expression told Martha clearer than anything that her boys were deliberately 'protecting' her and Jonathan from the seriousness of what had happened at the Castle. "Lex... how are you feeling? You've been to... uh... you got Helen to see you yet?"

"I'll go when the hospital isn't slammed with people who could die, thanks," Lex drawled, and added cream and sugar to his coffee while resting his weight mostly on one leg. "You found the ship?"

"Yeah, eventually," Clark said still looking concerned. His green eyes were focused on Lex a moment and scanning him from the inside out. "I think you should be lying down."

Lex clutched at his coffee cup for a moment, but finally succumbed. "All right. Mom just finished telling me the same thing. Is Dad taking up the sofa?"

"He's in the chair," Martha nodded. "Go on, Clark help your brother out and I'll bring food over."

Clark nodded to his mother, murmuring in a low voice, "Better do it, Lex, or I'll have to tell her how you really were when I found you."

"You didn't seem to have any protests when I was running through the woods trying to find Dad..." Lex kept that quiet, then fell silent and swallowed a sip of his coffee as he started towards the living room. He could just crash on the couch, maybe doze for a couple of hours.

"I protested plenty beforehand and you told me where to stick it," Clark replied helping him over to the couch. "Told me you knew best, I seem to remember." Clark's smile was all too brief and swiftly gone, the stress etching into his frame.

"Hey, and I managed to operate the shift stick from the police station all the way back here..." Lex fell to a whisper as he sat down on the sofa, still clutching as his cup. Jonathan was asleep, and Martha was still in the kitchen... good.

Clark was giving him a look, a close and thorough look at that with an intensity that was disconcerting.

"I know my leg looks like hell," Lex murmured. "Feels like it, too. Hip, too. Did I mangle much else? Everything hurts so I can't tell." That was the last time he would ever try to force a healing to go so fast when he had so little ability to concentrate.

"At the time... yes. Looks like you got the internal injuries healed." Clark took his cup, trying not to remain focused on the memory of how he had found his brother up at the Castle. Half crushed under a pillar, unable to move with blood everywhere: at death's door and halfway through it. "You said you wanted me to help you with that... the leg and hip. You sure you don't want Helen to do it?"

"It'd probably be better if I had her do it," Lex admitted tiredly. He'd just poured that cup; he hadn't been willing to just hand it over like that. It'd be cold by the time he got back to it, but he did let Clark take it. "Let's go on vacation, Clark."

"What?" Clark was a bit thrown by that. Lex seemed to be wandering a little. "A vacation? And was that a yes you want Helen to do it, or me?"

"I think I'd rather have Helen do it... since I've already healed myself lame once today," Lex chuckled a little, still tired. It just wasn't going to go away, and he had the image of Clark just turning his hip into powder by accident, and as much has he loved his brother, he wasn't willing to risk that. "And yes. A vacation."

"Where would you go?" Clark asked not comprehending exactly what Lex was saying.

"Not sure. Just think about it. Bahamas, Hawaii, Switzerland... anywhere in the world." Lex let his eyes close slowly, and if he was confusing his brother... oh well. Later, he'd try to make sense of it. Later when he hadn't been hurt badly and had to kill a man, and his home wasn't such a wreck.

"Why... would I think about it?" Clark said a little confused. "It's your vacation... you go where you want to go, Lex." Clark was close next to him and pulling the throw over his brother carefully.

"I want you to come with me. You need a break. The farm could survive a week without you." He let Clark tuck him in, didn't bother looking at his brother as he talked.

"Actually go away?" Clark was astonished at the thought of it. He'd never been away before, not further than Metropolis. "But what about Mom and Dad?"

"They'd have the house to themselves for the first time in years?" Lex smiled a little loosely. "Think about it. And wake me up in a couple of hours, okay?"

"Okay, Lex." Clark nodded, still a little stunned at the thought of it. "You rest." It was probably an intriguing idea and, the thought of it would be somehow scary and wonderful for all the same reasons. What might happen without him? There was both the worry and the motivation for taking up that suggestion. But now it had been mentioned, Clark wouldn't be able to stop thinking about it.

Which was just what Lex had hoped would happen.

Everyone seemed to be busy after the Twisters. The hospital had been overrun and was on extra shifts so Helen had been busy -- as busy as Lex was in trying to organize the rebuilding of the plant and the Castle. Enough money translated to speed, so by the time Helen actually got to get up to the Castle, the place was swarming with builders almost visibly rebuilding it before their eyes. Usually it was a place of calm but right now it seemed far from it. Scaffolding, and one whole side of the place seemed to be a total loss. And that was the part of the building that Lex all but lived in. His study, his Library, his lounge...

"Helen -- this way." Lex spoke from behind her, and he sounded exhausted.

"Lex." She turned and took a look at him. "I know you said the Castle took a hit but I didn't realize how bad it was. And you look like you've had as little sleep as I have."

"Every time I drop by the farm, Mom makes me nap," Lex grimaced a little, half-turning to guide her down a hallway that was free of debris except that associated with construction. "I'm sorry I haven't done more than call."

"It's not like I was that available for you, for that matter. I'm not going to guilt trip you on this when I'm just as guilty," Helen said walking over and kissing him lightly. "I missed you though."

"I've missed you, too." He leaned in, took another kiss, and then started down the hallway with his hand lightly on her back, limping slightly. "I have a temporary study set up down in my lab. You're going to have to forgive the setting..."

"I think I need to take a look at you," Helen interrupted, noticing the limp. "It's not like you to show signs of injury."

"It's been a novel experience," Lex drawled dryly, leading the way down the long hallway. "I was in my study when the tornado's hit. I'd just finished buying Cadmus Labs and sinking the Hardwick empire."

"You got Cadmus?" Helen seemed genuinely pleased. "They have an excellent team there." She seemed to recall the other part of his comment. "You were in the study? The nonexistent, transformed into a heap of rubble study?"

"Whose wall supports fell in, yes. The second story didn't crumble down into it until I was at the police station, thankfully." Lex smiled, still more grimace than expression of pleasure. "It's been a hell of a week, Helen. I was just lucky they died out before reaching Metropolis. How have things been at the hospital?"

"Frantic," Helen replied succinctly. "Finally taken us all off double shifts. I haven't even made it home in days. I want to look at that leg though. I don't have to have years of training and experience to know that you're in pain and that's just not right for you."

"It's a waste of your time," Lex shrugged honestly. "I think I need it x-rayed..." He paused at a panel of wood, and then pulled it aside to reveal a heavy metal door. The pass code for it was familiar to his fingertips, and the door eased open for him once the lock was disabled. "Welcome to my lab."

This was new territory for Helen and she looked around curiously. It was spacious and better equipped than many institutions she had known, including some instruments that she didn't recognize. "Impressive Lex... very impressive. The home of all your self-research, I'll guess? And you mean you don't have an X-ray or ultrasound in here somewhere with all the high-powered equipment? An electron microscope I see as well."

"Actually, I do have an ultrasound." Lex let her move past him down the short steps, and then closed the two layers of doors behind them. "I was incoherent and rushed when Clark got me out of the study. Dad was missing... so I healed things up hit and miss, far too fast."

"Lex, your talent isn't inexhaustible you know." Helen located the equipment with admirable speed. He kept the lab well organized. "Before I get completely out of work mode, lets get you dealt with," she said in her brusque Dr Bryce tone. "Otherwise I won't be able to sleep for worrying about you." She softened the last with a smile. It had been a bit of a revelation to find that Helen was, now she had let him in past her outer defenses, as enthusiastic a lover to lend spice to even Lex's jaded appetite.

Lex moved towards a table that bore an exquisite tablecloth, and pulled it off. Table no more, it was obviously for examining people or things larger than something on a microscope slide. He shifted to sit on it, hissing pain as he moved his hip. "I ended up healing myself lamed. Good irony."

"Too much healing can be dangerous, Lex, I told you that. There are a lot of conditions caused by over-efficient healing..." She said tugging his pants off and switching on the ultrasound. "I've been trying to get one of these for the hospital- gives a fantastic clarity of resolution." Helen murmured as she switched it on, fetching the gel on the side with it. "This might feel a little cold."

As if sitting in his boxers on a metal table wasn't cold. Lex just smiled, and acquiesced to her. It wasn't as if he had any hair that would get in the way of the ultrasound. "I'd been doing some investigating of the local wildlife. So -- conditions like what? Fill me in on this."

"Bones replicates rather rapidly even for normal injuries." Helen frowned as she looked at the pictures on the ultrasound and took captures of them. "Occasionally, it doesn't stop growing back. I treated a man in his mid twenties a few months back. Looked like he had a winged scapula... you know, a shoulder blade dislocated a little. Turned out he'd had a shoulder injury and because of the required motility of the area it hadn't stopped growing. The X-rays showed it not only growing outwards but inwards towards the heart. We had to go in, and file it down and scrape it all out. It's rare but with your unique physiology, speed healing might be a bad idea and have a similar effect."

"At the time..." Lex trailed off, careful not to move too much as she was doing that. "At the time it was necessary. When you feel like you're dying, and then you're told that someone you care about is missing, well. Logic has no place."

Helen looked at him pausing a moment. "I understand," she replied. "I heard about that... some man trying to kill your foster father. Can you turn a little so I can get to your hip?"

He turned, and tugged down the edge of his boxers for her. "I shot him. In the back."

Helen didn't seem overly concerned about that. "I'm sure you had your reasons, Lex. You're not the type to indulge in whims." She looked at him. "Was it really necessary?"

"I keep telling myself that it was. He was going to bring a pipe right down on father's skull. It would've unquestionably killed him." He looked down at Helen, lips thinning. "But I played God. Someone was going to die there, and I chose."

"Welcome to my life Lex." Helen answered with a curious mixture of wry understanding and sympathy. "Doctors do that every day. And sometimes not even for the right reasons. The choosing makes you feel responsible, too, and it doesn't matter if it was necessary, justified or... whatever, the responsibility is still there. A life is no longer there because of you. But making that choice is something that has to be done. It's what makes us different."

"I knew you'd understand," Lex drawled, watching with half a gaze as she went about doing the ultrasound on him. "The police seemed to understand, too. Jonathan is an upstanding citizen in Smallville, always willing to lend a hand, a cow, whatever he can to help someone else in town. And Nixon was a blackmailer and ready to kill him and would've killed Clark." Lex shifted, grimacing again.

"It begs the question of... why?" Helen asked pressing another capture picture on the ultrasound.

"Because he'd been investigating me. He'd found out what I was, and I told him where to shove it."

"And went after Clark and your father?" Helen asked. "Nearly done Lex, last one."

"I told him he couldn't touch me, and to a point... he couldn't. Not directly. Dad had the ill luck of running into him during the tornado, and it just... went to hell from there. How do those things look?

"Like a four year old tried to fix you with crazy glue," Helen said succinctly. "The bone needs re-breaking here and here." She gently placed her hand over the spots. "And the hip is currently trying to attach itself to a point outside of its socket. I have no idea how you're walking right now. You have two options. One, you have something down here something capable of breaking bones, or two, we get Jonathan or Clark to help out. You are going to have to have a large dose of relaxants."

"Drugs. Lovely. About the hip, ah... what would you suggest be done with it?"

"Well, with the relaxants it can be pulled back into place," Helen said clinically. "On you it can be done... on a normal person the sort of muscles tearing involved would be... well, lets just say major surgery would be involved. Your ability gives us an amazing degree of latitude."

"Always good to know." He grimaced a little, tugging up on his boxers. He slipped gently past her picking up his trousers to fish his cell out of his pocket. "I'll get Clark to do it. I figured I'd need something re-broken but didn't know what. Helen... Thanks. For working when I know you're off duty."

"You're in pain, Lex. I'm not going to make you wait, though your personal physician will demand some perks when you're feeling up to it," Helen replied with a smile, "You calling him now?"

Lex rested his weight on his good leg, and leaned against the tabletop as he dialed. "Yes. I'm trying the house first, then his cell. He's got a habit of leaving that up in the barn's loft..."

His mother answered the phone. "Kent residence."

"Afternoon, Mom," Lex greeted her pleasantly. "Is Clark around?"

"He's putting up the stripped up fences. I think he's nearly done. He wouldn't stop for a break until it was finished." Martha sounded mildly disapproving of that. "He's got his cell with him, I made him take it in case we need to get hold of him. You want to call him on that or just mention you called?"

"I'll call him. Helen's here, and I, ah... need to steal Clark away for a few minutes."

"Okay, sweetheart," Martha replied. "I'm sure Helen can keep you both in line... make sure you rest some more okay? Don't make me come up there and make you." The fact she was smiling as she said it could be heard over the phone.

"Don't worry, I won't make you. You've put the fear of... you into Gabe, you know. I never thought I'd see him quite that shaken. And I'll call Clark on his cell. Thanks, Mom."

There was a slight chuckle from Martha. "Okay, Lex. See you soon, sweetheart," she said before she hung up.

Lex hung up, and stared down at the phone for a moment before he gave Helen an apologetic glance and hit three on his speed dial. There was the sort of pause that came from someone fumbling around looking for a phone might take and then a slightly stressed tone of voice sounded. "Clark here."

"Clark, are you busy? It's Lex."

"Hey, Lex. Just about... uhn... done." The words were punctuated with the thud of a fence post hitting the ground hard "There. What is it, Lex?"

"I'm not about to ask you anything that's going to be comfortable. Helen's over, and she looked at my leg for me. It needs to be broken in two spots, and I was wondering..."

There was an intake of breath before a slightly uneasy but definite. "I'll be right over. Where are you? The Castle?"

"Down in the lab. Sorry to do this to you, Clark, but Dad's still not up to something like this..." Lex continued to lean casually against the table, and finally just set his trousers beside himself on it.

"S'okay Lex," Clark replied. "Won't be long... just long enough for... well you know, appearances and all." Meaning of course he would have to have pretended to have driven straight over rather than run. But it wouldn't be long. "See you in about ten minutes." And the phone clicked off.

"He's on his way then?" Helen asked who had been rummaging through some of the pharmaceutical stored in a glassed fronted cabinet.

"Ten minutes." Lex flipped the phone off, and shifted to sit on the table again. "Is there anything in there that catches your eye?" Anything too illegal, he wanted to ask.

"This will do as a relaxant." Helen picked up a vial. She didn't seem bothered by the rest of the contents. If anything, her eyes were rather bright and interested. "I'll just set it up for when Clark gets here. This is a wonderful lab, Lex."

"It's well organized, and in the event of an emergency, I think I can handle just about anything out of it. Lead-shielded walls, too." He watched her move about the space, and finally gave up and lay back on the table, using his pants as a pillow. "Which is my personal nod to paranoia."

"I can understand that with the meteor rocks and their potential radiation." Helen nodded finding a hypodermic and filling it, before coming over. "You're strong enough to heal this when we do it aren't you?" she asked touching his hand gently, "Don't bluff this one through. Lex."

"If you'd asked me that two days ago, I would've been lying when I said yes. Today... I can handle it. And who knows what's going to go wrong tomorrow, so I'd like to get this taken care of while I can." He looked at her, trying to will his sincerity to come through his eyes.

She leaned over and kissed him on the lips. "Best to think about the here and now," she murmured still looking at him closely, studying his face for the truth.

"Sometimes we can't do that," he countered easily, flippantly. "Because if I followed the here and now, I have you, right here... so beautiful and so close, Helen."

"Now what would young Clark think if he found us having sex, hmm?" Helen smiled and kissed him again. "It's a promise for later."

"I'll call it a co-pay." Young Clark was all of fifteen, and with girl-troubles that made Lex's head spin, but he didn't need to mention that to Helen. Older brothers weren't supposed to pay that much attention to their little brothers.

Helen smiled again and was about to kiss him again when the door swung open. "Hi, sorry I took so long." Clark said as he came in, looking like he had just come from the fields to be with them.

Lex glanced at a subtle clock on the counter, then back at Clark. "You must've been doing eighty, Clark. You got here in plenty of time."

"Don't tell Dad. He swears the truck can only do sixty," Clark grinned, a little abashed. "I just jumped in and came right over. I guess I should wash my hands or something?"

Helen nodded. "Please do, Clark. I'll just give Lex the relaxant before we get started."

Clark looked a little worried even as he did so and returned. "Relaxant? Aren't you going to put him out for this? So he doesn't feel it?"

Helen shook his head. "Most anesthetics are mild toxins, Lex's body clears them out too quickly for them to be reliable but the relaxants will make him really mellow." She picked up the hypodermic and approached Lex. "Ready?"

"Ready as ever." He was already laying back, eyes half-closed in a conscious effort to be mellow before the drugs hit his system. "Just break the points that Helen tells you to, Clark." Because Helen didn't know Clark's secret, and that was the best way to keep things.

"Okay, Lex." Clark sounded nervous, and he cleared his throat a little before coming to stand next to the damaged leg.

"Thanks, Clark. If you weren't willing to do this, I have no idea what I would've done..." Lex waited for Helen to inject him, and give Clark the go-ahead.

Helen gave Lex the injection and made sure he was settled down. "What we're going to do first, Clark, is get his hip back in its socket," she said looking at him carefully. "That will mean you pulling his leg out a little and then down. The resistance will be difficult but you look like you have the muscle to do it if I hold him steady, okay?"

Clark swallowed and nodded placing a gentle but firm grip on Lex's thigh.

"Lex, how are you feeling? Woozy yet?" Helen asked softly as she went around to take a grip on his shoulders.

Lex shook his head, but a moment later, murmured, "Drifty. Hm..."

Helen checked his eyes a moment and then straightened. "Okay, Clark. Let's do this now before his healing starts to get rid of the drug. You ready?"

Clark nodded, looking a little grim and took hold. "Try and lift the leg horizontally out just a little to try and clear the edge of the socket," she instructed clinically. "Whatever you do, don't let go, don't drop his leg... once you start you have to keep up a slow easy pressure... right, start now."

Clark did so, terrified, but focused on what he was doing. There were awful ripping and tearing sounds as the old and new muscle ripped apart to allow movement and he felt like he was going to throw up. It sounded and felt like he was slowly ripping his brother's leg off. The sweat on his brow was more to do with his reaction than the effort, though Helen seemed to interpret it as the latter as she pinned Lex still. "That's it, that's it... now down."

It wasn't Helen that was pinning Lex still so much as Lex's own fingers wrapped tight to the edges of the metal table that held him still, as he strained not to twist or jerk, or fight Clark's motions. It was hard to do when he felt so drifting, and it mellowed the pain, but every bit of shredding and tearing that Clark heard was echoed for Lex, amplifying right through his body with pain.

The endorphin rush, he hoped, was going to be fantastic.

Clark was trying to pull and grip without hurting Lex more than necessary. He had a major advantage in being able to 'see' where he was aiming for, but he still nearly jumped at the sudden very solid 'thunk' and the hip ball rotated into its socket and settled.

"Son of a fucking bitch!" Lex's howl was strained, and he jumped as much as Clark had wanted to, muscles tensing for a moment. His eyes were closed tight, but it had been the first time in years that he'd seen Lex with damp eyes.

Clark snatched his hands away as if they had burnt. "Did I do something wrong? Is he okay?" He asked immediately backing away as if he had done something dangerous.

"He'll be fine." Helen said pleased at the swiftness and comparative ease of the process. Lex truly was an amazing example of human potential. "That was well done. It can sometimes take upwards of an hour to do this. Could use someone with muscles like you at the hospital." She patted Lex soothingly. "Lex, how you doing, love?"

A few strained exhalations were answer enough, and then Lex gritted out, "Can't we just collapse the roof on me again?"

"Lacks in surgical precision." Helen responded gently. "You want some of the painkiller? I know you react a bit strangely to it... but...?"

"No, it's okay," Even if it wasn't okay, Lex was going to say it was, eyes still squeezed tightly shut. "It's okay, C-Clark. Do the next part."

"You sure Lex?" Clark's voice sounded a bit rough and very uncertain. "Maybe we should wait?"

"I'm sure. Don't make me wait, Clark... Before this stuff wears off." Heaven help them if it was working and hurt that much.

"Do it, Clark." Helen came around to look at the leg. "Here is the lesser break." She pointed to the area with precision. "Position your hands here and here... and then try and make the break clean and quick. Hold them apart and try and feel the end of the bone settle against the other. I'll be here with you, don't worry."

Don't worry, with Lex in pain and him about to break his leg? Don't worry, right. Clark took a deep breath and took hold barely hearing the reassurance as he focused and with what seemed to be the simplest flex of muscles rebroke the bone like most people would snap a pencil. It was appallingly sharp and loud in the crack, like a branch padded in cotton wool snapping apart and the impact of what he had done hit him right in the pit of his stomach harder than a boulder of meteor rock.

He heard a muffled, "Oh, Christ," and it was hard to tell if it was the pain or the sound that got to Lex. The first accident had happened all at once, and he hadn't had time to think though the actual happening of the injuries.

"That's it... that's it, now guide the edges together." Helen guided him, focusing his attention just as Clark was hoping this was some hideous nightmare. He managed to stop his hands shaking and used his X-ray vision to carefully align the bone.

"Perfect!" Helen exclaimed in surprise, impressed at the skill he was demonstrating. "Just perfect, Clark. Now let's do the second. It's the femur so it will be more difficult. Be careful, same again."

Clark looked like he was going to bolt, but for once he didn't. He stood his ground and found the spot and repeated the process, looking pale and intensely focused as he did so, trying not to hear Lex, to hear anything at all. Even then, the splintering snap seemed to echo through him as he finished up, not even daring to look at Lex. He felt sick to his stomach and it showed in the drained pallor of his face.

Not even a curse came with that one, but Lex made a scrabbling motion, letting go of the edge of the table to ham-handedly open up the lead vents on the underside of the band he was wearing. He should've thought of it before, but he hadn't, hadn't been able to think until something in that last snap of pain broke him into motion and to be healing during the breaking would have been counter productive.

"All done, Lex, all done," Helen soothed as Clark reached to touch Lex's hand for comfort and reassurance to them both, and then literally did turn a shade of green as the hint of meteor rock was enough to tip his nausea into sickness.

"I.. uh..." He turned and half ran to the discrete bathroom tucked at the back of the lab and slammed the door shut behind him.

"Oh dear." Helen followed him with her eyes, but remained with Lex. "How's it feeling now?"

"I liked being shot better than this." But he didn't move, or open his eyes, or anything else that would've taken concentration. Slowly, more careful than the last time, he started with his hip, concentrating on knitting muscle tightly back into place. Slowly, slowly.

Helen knew better than to interrupt, but made the most of the opportunity by doing ultrasound and picture captures as Lex was healing himself. She wouldn't miss this at all! Not for anything. Actually watching the flesh bind and knit in real time was fantastic! And not anything as simple as just flesh, but muscles and veins, capillaries, networks of nerves. They all simply grew as tight and firm as they would've been if they'd never torn. There was no weakness, no telltale signs of injury.

And then Lex concentrated on the breaks in his leg.

"Unbelievable..." Helen whispered half to herself scanning over each area, watching the bone link and seal visibly in both places, and the swelling in tissue bloom and subside. Their experiments together had been minor injuries at best -- to see Lex's talent work on something major was like a medical miracle and Helen's expression was a glow by the end of it. "You are... simply wonderful," she murmured, kissing him lightly.

"I feel like I've been hit by a brick," Lex chuckled a little, lifting his head wobbling a little after the kiss, and him looking up and around. "Where's Clark...?"

"I don't think he has much stomach for this type of rough and ready operation," Helen replied sounding more amused than anything else. "Last seen diving into your bathroom, presumably to lose his lunch. There were a few points when I thought he might do that midway..."

"Not everyone is cut out for the medical field," Lex defended vaguely, lurching a little as he sat up. "Christ..."

"Hey, hey... I think that's a bit premature, even for you, " Helen cautioned. "You know you'll need food, especially after that. In fact, I might have to be the one to go find some for you if Clark isn't fit to run errands."

"There're some cookies down here." He half-sat up, still swaying uneasily for a moment. "Clark...?"

There was a silence before Clark answered. "I'll be out in a minute," drifted the muffled answer to the accompanying sound of splashing water.

Helen had discovered the cookies and was pressing them on Lex. "Eat. I'll get the cooks to make us something. Any requests?"

"Just something simple." Lex lay back down, still using his trousers as a pillow while he nibbled. "Helen... thanks."

"Anything for you love," Helen smiled at him brilliantly before heading to the lab exit just as Clark emerged from the bathroom.

"You want something to eat as well, Clark?" she asked pausing at the door.

"Uh, no thank you. I'm not hungry, thank you," he replied politely, the rather pale look to his face making it obvious why.

She flashed another smile and left him standing awkwardly in front of his brother.

Lex almost immediately offered him a cookie, waving it vaguely. So maybe the muscle relaxants were still working. "C'mon. Sit down."

Clark did so uncomfortably taking the cookie but not even attempting to eat it. "You feeling okay, Lex?"

"Like I want to go to bed for weeks and never get up." Crisp and awake enough to clash sharply with his words. "I'm sorry I put you through that."

"It's okay. It's not your fault," Clark replied trying to shrug it off, "It needed to be done. It's fine."

"But you're not okay with it."

"I'm fine." Clark insisted stubbornly. "You're the one who had his leg broken again and then half torn off. I should be finding out how you are... not have you asking me." He didn't want the fact that he very nearly failed to see it through to come up. He wasn't entirely sure whether that would have hurt worse than what had happened. He glanced over the leg. "It looks better?"

"It feels better. And I won't be limping any more." He reached a hand to lay it on Clark's shoulder, looking at him fuzzily and appraisingly for a moment. "You look burnt."

"I'm fine," Clark insisted again "I just... I just thought I could be matter of fact about it, but I couldn't." It was an admission made quietly and with no small amount of shame.

"Clark..." Lex's hand idled, rubbing a little. "Clark. Honestly? You couldn't be matter of fact if you were doing that to a cow."

"At least a cow could have had some anesthetics or painkillers or something," Clark said. "I hurt you, I know I hurt you. I know it was what was needed and what was right, and I know that in my mind, but... here..." and he gestured towards his heart and gut, "...aren't convinced."

Lex sat up again, mindfully slow, and tugged at Clark to half-hug him. "And that's why you're a damned good kid, Clark."

Clark responded to the embrace, a lot of his fears fading as he understood that way of communicating, even if he were trying to be mature and controlled. "I'm sorry I was kind of a wuss about this," he said, clearing his throat and lingering over the hug.

"Not a damned thing wrong with that. Sometimes we have to do things that we don't really have a stomach for, because it's necessary." Like breaking bones or shooting people: not pleasant, no, but necessary. "Have you thought about my suggestion?"

Clark let go of Lex reluctantly, stepping back. "What... oh the vacation. Well, it would be nice but there's the farm and you'll be busy getting everything put back together," he replied acknowledging the sort of obstacles that usually stopped things like this from going ahead.

"Things function without me," Lex pointed out. "Look, if you're just trying to back out of it, that's okay. But you get off for the summer, when, a week and change?"

Clark nodded. "Where... where did you have in mind?" he asked a little uncertainly.

"How about..." Lex settled back on his arms, looking mischievous and relaxed as he looked at Clark. "Bruce has a cabin at a ski resort that he'll let me use. And I know you've never gone skiing before."

Clark smiled. "Skiing? That would be..." He seemed to pause as he contemplated the fact that this wasn't just a possibly-could-be. "You think I really could have a break? There's been so much happening recently, what happens if something happens while I'm not here to stop it?"

"I don't know. Do you plan on staying in Smallville for the rest of your life, policing the general oddities?"

"Well... no, it's just... I don't mean to, it just seems to happen. Over and over," Clark said sounding weary. "Lana and Chloe." His expression sank. There was no reason to think that they might need him. Chloe had given him the 'lets just be friends' speech and had been angry because he had gone to try and save Lana, and Lana was fresh in missing her fianc, not knowing what he had risked for her. "I guess there's no reason not to... that won't be bothered right now."

"You need a break, Clark. Get out and live a little. There's life outside of Smallville," Lex counseled gently, "and the drama of your fellow freshmen."

"I am pretty... tired," Clark replied and it was obvious he wasn't talking about physically. "You and me?"

"Just you and me." Lex shifted to get to his feet, and unsteadily shook out his trousers so he could put them back on. The muscles ached, but god, they were moving without pain even though Lex wanted to pass out. "I'll call Bruce tonight."

"I'll make sure the farm is fixed up for Dad," Clark replied enthusiasm starting to creep in as he thought more on the idea. "You can teach me how to ski." There was a hint of the long lost Clark smile there as he automatically moved to support Lex.

"Ski, and how to chat up women, if you want," Lex teased. It was good to have Clark at least smiling a little. He was too damned old in the eyes, and Lex was determined that even though he himself hadn't been much better at that age, Clark was going to have a chance at something normal.

Well. Normalish.

There was comfort to be found in taking a transcontinental flight with another person who really hated heights. First class seating had been something Lex had insisted on, and he kept the plastic blind pulled down despite having a window seat.

Lex had no urge to see the Atlantic Ocean come rushing up at him. He and Clark had already navigated the comparably short trip from Metropolis to Atlanta, and their baggage hadn't gotten lost. The second leg of the trip was the long leg, the part where Lex settled into his plush seat and fiddled with his blackberry.

Clark had initially been full of the novelty of the trip, some of his natural tendency to smile coming back with the excitement of doing something different that didn't seem to involve life or death. He had settled in the seat, watching the movie stretched out and somewhere mid-Atlantic, his body had seemed to realize that it didn't have to be on constant alert for danger or peril and he relaxed.

He also promptly fell asleep.

It wasn't noticeable at first, but the first Lex knew of it was when Clark's head settled against his shoulder. Sleeping on a transatlantic flight was perfectly acceptable to Lex, and Clark had been tired, but he'd gone off like a light. Kind of surprising to him, but Lex didn't say anything or jostle Clark much as he slipped his blackberry back into his laptop case.

It felt good to have Clark trust him that much that he could just pass out against him. And it was comfortable, so Lex gave his attention to the in flight movie instead of anything that could take concentration. He had his headphones turned up a little loud so he couldn't hear the engines, and it took him a moment to notice the stewardess with -- ah, in flight meal.

"Will you be requiring dinner? You and your... companion?" The attendant asked with impeccable courtesy even if her eyes glanced over Clark making the sort of assumptions that people were bound to make seeing the pair of them together.

And for a moment, Lex faltered and wanted to say 'no' and point out that he was his brother. That wouldn't have made circumstances any simpler, so he just slipped his headphones off and nodded, jostling Clark gently. "Yes, we will."

Clark stirred and blinked as if suddenly realizing he wasn't at home, and then sat upright looking a little sheepish.

The attendant smiled. "Have you had opportunity to look over the choices?" she asked, handing them both a copy of the menu just in case they hadn't.

Even the fanciest of airline food wasn't exquisite, but it could definitely be good. "Ah, I'll have the chicken," Lex told her, declining the menu. He was still leaning into Clark, but that was excusable; Clark had the aisle seat, after all.

Clark looked at Lex and decided there might be things about airplane food he didn't know and it was best to follow the expert. "Uh...yeah... the same please," he said handing back the sheet.

"Any drinks to go with your meal?" She smiled at him and her expression was clearly saying 'What a waste!' even if Clark couldn't read it.

Clark was oblivious to things like that, though: ever, sweetly oblivious to it all. Lex folded his hands in his lap, and looked thoughtful for a moment. To drink or not to drink...? No, soda or coffee was best on plane flights. "Just a coffee, cream and sugar, please."

This was duly noted down and Clark added "Coffee for me too, without the sugar please," before the attendant gave them a charming smile and left them to it.

Clark turned and looked at Lex. "Man, how long was I asleep? I don't even remember dropping off."

"An hour or so," Lex drawled easily, and shrugged to work the crick out of his neck. "You didn't miss anything, and I figured you needed it."

Clark settled back. "Is this where I get to annoy you by asking if we're nearly there yet?" He grinned. "Have you been to this cabin before?"

"Oh, once or twice," Lex grinned back at his brother. "It's Bruce's personal retreat, and though we're not as close as we used to be..." Still. Still friends, still talked, still sometimes made love. Bruce was entirely devoted to his personal project -- research and design of things that seemed maddening and frivolous to Lex, but... but Bruce had an end goal, and Lex could only wish his friend the best of luck.

"I like Bruce," Clark said suddenly. "Though... I was pretty jealous of him for a fair time when I was a kid."

Lex settled back in his comfortable seat, and nodded. "Why?"

"Well, he got to see you all through the week for a start," Clark said easily. "And there was that Christmas." He gave a small laugh at himself. "I seriously thought you'd decided that an older brother would be better than a younger one. Before you explained everything."

"I only half-remember that. What I really remember, Clark? Is being freaked out that you, my cute little brother, wanted me to do that to him. I'm really glad you listened when I explained that," Lex smirked. While he talked, he unplugged the headphones, and folded them up to tuck them in front of him.

Clark blushed a little at that. "Well hey, seemed like a good idea at the time," he replied and then shrugged casually. A little too casually, but that was lost as he said, "But you're not seeing Bruce any more. There's Helen."

Lex's pale eyebrows went up a little, but he nodded vaguely to Clark. "I know. But you know as well as I do that sometimes... you waver on things."

Clark seemed surprised. "I thought you two were getting on really well?" he asked. "Not like me and my disaster of a social life."

"Actually, Clark... between you and me, some days I'm not sure about Helen. She's fascinating, beautiful, and intelligent, the sex is great, but... There's just a but. It could just be that I'm nostalgic for what I used to have with Bruce."

"What did you have with him?" Clark asked in the harmless disarming fashion that seemed to get him answers even if it wasn't his brother being grilled.

"Relaxation. Bruce... had absolutely no expectations, Clark. I mean, he had expectations, but he didn't..." Lex trailed off with a quiet chuckle. "I'd never thought it was so hard to put into words. Bruce and I just were."

"I wish I had that," Clark said a little wistfully. He shrugged. "Doesn't seem to work that way for me. I'm envious all over again," he said lightly.

"I don't know. You sort of have it with Chloe, don't you? There's a lot to be said for having a friend with benefits," Lex murmured.

"Not anymore," Clark answered, looking down a moment. "Friends and not likely to be anything else. I blew it at the Formal. I did everything right and then... I left. It could have happened and if I had been, if things had been normal it would have."

"Don't blame yourself for that," Lex scoffed sharply, and elbowed his brother gently. "If she weren't so wrapped up in herself, she'd forgive you."

"She told me she had a fear I would just run off and declare my undying love for Lana and leave her standing dumped at the dance," Clark replied "That's pretty much what I did and I can't even explain why I did it. "

"But you saved Lana's life." Lex twisted to look at Clark, voice still pitched low and conversational. "Doesn't mean anything to her? Hell, if you hadn't left the dance, I'd be dead. And so by default would Dad."

"Somehow it seems to get lost somewhere. And I can't draw attention to it," Clark replied sounded frustrated and tired. "I know Mom says I do this sort of thing because it's right, not for acclaim, but it would be nice to get a thank you every now and then. If you didn't, Lex, and Mom and Dad, I don't know how I could keep going."

Lex sighed, and patted Clark's knee. "We live in a town of absolutely blind fuckers, Clark. Don't ever forget that. Just because Chloe's decided to swamp herself in veritable teenage angst, fine. Don't let yourself get mired in it, though."

"Too late I think." He smiled at Lex with good humor. "Sorry, I haven't been that much fun to be around recently," he apologized. "Coming up to the Castle and just crashing out on the couch... not exactly sociable."

"Hey. That's part of not having expectations of your friends. My couch is always open to you, Clark. So's my DVD cabinet, and I don't think I need to remind you that the kitchen is, too. The Chef's going to miss you this week, you know. We might actually have some food go bad."

Clark chuckled a little. "I feel kind of bad about leaving Mom and Dad alone though. You know what Dad is like."

"Clark, now... this will probably be a shock to you. But I doubt they're sitting up worrying about us. In fact, they're probably enjoying their first time alone in years. Maybe they'll relax for a week, too." Lex trailed off as the stewardess came back with the drinks tray, coffee ready for them.

"Yeah," Clark said accepting his drink. "Thank you," he said smiling at the attendant and getting a faint flush of color to her cheeks as she smiled back and passed Lex his coffee.

"Dinner will be here in a moment," she informed them. "Will there be anything else?"

"No, I don't think so. Thank you." Lex turned up his charm as he accepted his coffee, smiling at her.

She responded to him as well, smiling sweetly. "Just call if you need anything," she said and moved on.

Clark was looking at his brother in amusement. "You make that look so easy," he teased.

"Make what look so easy?" Lex asked as he settled back again, clutching his coffee cup in hand.

"Getting her interested in you. You smile and... there she is, interested." Clark grinned and settled back. "I need lessons."

"I can give you lessons," Lex told him seriously, contemplatively. "Do you want me to?"

"Yeah... well... yeah, that and the skiing," Clark replied. "I think I could use some confidence before I go back and face Lana and Chloe again."

"Who would've thought small-town girls would be so damned demanding?" Lex took a slow sip of his coffee, looking at Clark while he drank. "You have every reason to be almost strutting with confidence, Clark, but you don't. And you should."

Clark seemed amazed at the thought of it. "I do too many things wrong, you know that," he said honestly. "I make a lot of mistakes. I have to keep questioning everything I do... just in case."

"But you're right. You know when you're right Clark, you have that innate sense..." It was hard to explain to Clark. There had to be some parable, some story that applied. "You just need faith in yourself."

"That's why I have you." Clark smiled as if it were a joke, but his green eyes seemed clear and serious as he held his brother's gaze for a moment... and then broke away as dinner arrived, the moment stolen back from them both.

It was probably for the best, too. Lex couldn't quite pinpoint what he might do, and maybe going to Switzerland with Clark had been a bad idea... but no, no, there would be rich boys -- and girls -- at the lodge that the cabin was near, and plenty of opportunities for stress relief. Besides, there was always the possibility his younger brother might be too busy discovering his own stress relief that the subject of his concerns might never come up.

Lex, with his overwhelming sense of needing to do something, didn't see anything wrong with immediately renting equipment once they arrived at the lodge at noon, despite the two long flights across the time-zones and the feeling that they'd been up for hours and hours.

He'd promptly given Clark his first skiing lesson, laughing and teasing as Clark got the hang of it -- got the hang of it and quickly mastered it with a natural athleticism that easily bested Bruce's natural talent. They didn't do any challenging runs, because Lex knew tiredness would claim them on anything more dangerous than the beginners. They hadn't even unpacked in the cabin yet, because he'd been eager to get out and burn off some steam in the sharp snow of the mountains.

Clark was grinning as he stomped the snow off of his ski boots and looked across at Lex. "Now, if I'd known how much fun skiing was I would have persuaded you to make me some skis rather than a go-cart," he said, his breath huffing out in faint clouds as the air chilled towards evening.

It was so quiet and calm, even though they were standing on the long front porch of the lodge, knocking their equipment gently clean. "Are you trying to tell me you didn't like the go-cart?" Lex teased. "It was great fun until the incident with the cornfield."

"Hey, I loved that go-cart, but me pushing it to get up speed probably was a little bit of a... um... bad idea." Clark grinned. "When you said a lodge, I was imagining a little log cabin type place. This is probably bigger than home!"

"And full of other skiers," Lex added. He carefully set his equipment with all of the other skis and poles that were out. He'd take his damned hat off once they were inside and unlikely to freeze to death. "Now, I've warned you. This resort is pretty upper class. You might actually recognize some of these people."

"They won't know me though," Clark replied as he waited for Lex to open the door.

"Oh, give it a few hours. I bet they will." Lex winked, exuding the ease he felt. Albeit exhausted ease, but it was still good to have a chance to do something fun and invigorating instead of the sometimes painful day to day routine of LuthorCorp.

Lex pulled the door open, and waited for Clark to go in first.

After the chill and blue edge of light bouncing off of snow, the contrast of the soft golden warmth of the Lodge was rather startling. Clark looked around, seeing the young, the beautiful and the powerful mingling together -- and felt more than a little intimidated by the time they turned around and gave him a curious glance. Then he felt Lex's presence come up behind him, bolstering him even as he closed out the chill of the snow.

"Go on, Clark. Get a table with someone, and I'll get us a couple of drinks." All of the tables were made to have many people at them. Two or three people took all of them up at a time, plenty of space for the guest who wanted to make new friends or mingle only Clark didn't know who any of them were. Sure, there were familiar faces, some from magazines that Lex himself had been in a few times. Beautiful women, well kept men, all of them in some form of skiing clothes, or with their jackets and zip-off pants tossed over the back of their chairs. Clark looked around a little bit nervously, finally settling on a table that seemed to have a guy who looked not that much older than he was with another man who was older, but who seemed to be laughing and joking genuinely, rather than networking politely. "Mind if my brother and I sit here?" he asked tentatively to them both, minding his manners.

"Not at all," the younger one smiled at him. He had a mess of dark hair, just like Clark, but was far leaner than Clark, and shorter. He was pretty, and couldn't have been any older than Clark was, not from the way he was hugging at a cup of hot cocoa with lean hands. "I'm Dick Grayson. Who're you?"

"Clark Kent," Clark replied not recognizing the other's name, but then he didn't pay that close attention to the magazines. The other person sitting at the table seemed remotely familiar, with his styled blond hair and that same Lex type way of looking at someone that seemed altogether amused by his presence. Clark flashed a smile at the older man, a little uncomfortable.

He smiled back in a manner that made Clark feel as if he was being sized up and he turned to glance after where Lex would be hopefully before looking back at his new acquaintance. "Good to meet you, Dick."

Dick smirked a little, and took a not entirely polite sip of his drink. "Are you a nobody, too?" he asked a little seriously, a little teasingly.

"Most definitely." Clark grinned back. "I have no idea who any of these people are, and I guess I should."

Like the rakish blonde man who was sizing him up and looking too, too amused. He hadn't even introduced himself.

"You'll learn pretty fast," Dick said, and glanced at Clark's jacket. "You can take your skiing stuff off if you're going to stay a while unless you're not wearing much under it. I made that mistake my first day here. Long underwear just doesn't cut it."

Clark chuckled and unzipped his jacket carefully and then said pointedly to the older man. "I'm sorry, I don't know your name?"

The blond haired man looked even more amused at the direct and very unsophisticated approach, but it got an answer. "Oliver Queen." he replied diffidently looking to see if that meant anything to the young man.

Evidently not as Clark just nodded and smiled, "Nice to meet you too. I hope I wasn't interrupting anything."

That got a flick of dismissal from the fingers holding the brandy glass. "Not at all... not at all, Clark."

"So where're you staying?" Dick asked, leaning in a little. "I've got a small room here at the Lodge. I'm in town with the circus, and some of my friends thought it'd be a good idea if I took some skiing lessons from Old Experts like Oliver while we were here." He looked over at Oliver with a smirk when he mentioned his name.

"Less of the old... kid," Oliver said grandly. "You may be good on the trapeze but you have something to learn about the slopes before you tackle the expert's course."

Clark looked almost transparently surprised by the fact that Dick Grayson was with a circus. "I uh... I'm with my brother. He's borrowing a cabin of a friend of his but I have no idea where it is. We got off the plane and he dragged me right up onto the slopes."

"Really? That's pretty mean of him if you guys flew in from stateside," Dick snickered, looking towards the bar for someone who could possibly be Clark's brother.

"Oh no, it was pretty cool. He's a good teacher," Clark said hastily. "Besides, he doesn't get to vacation often so I think he likes to make the most of it."

Oliver seemed to nod in agreement to that. "Tell me, would you like a drink or is your... ah... brother getting one for you?" he asked laconically.

"Oh, he's getting something," Clark replied, half picking up on the strange tone and nearly frowning in puzzlement. "But thank you for the offer."

"Dick? You want another hot chocolate?" Oliver offered again. He seemed to be looking at the pair of them, a slight smile playing around his lips as he watched them.

"Mmm, maybe when I'm done with this one. Are we going to hit the slopes again?" Dick waved his mug a little as he mulled over it.

"Clark, I figured you'd had enough coffee on the plane, and...." Lex paused beside the table, taking in Dick only briefly, and then dropped his eyes to Oliver.

He smirked sharply as he took his knit cap off and moved to sit across from his brother. "Oliver Queen. I don't believe I've ever had the pleasure of meeting you before."

Oliver gave a rueful grin at his expectations being so outmatched by reality. "Lex Luthor. A pleasure indeed. I'm afraid your... ah... brother here had me confounded of trying to think of a notable called "Kent"." He glanced at Clark and then at Lex. "I was just in the process of asking Clark if he wanted a drink. Perhaps I could extend that invitation to you?"

"Thanks, but I'm afraid I beat you to it," Lex smiled, and gestured to the two mugs he'd just set down. He started to unzip his coat, stretching out slowly before he extended a hand to Oliver, a rare thing for him to do to another businessman. Lex was notable in the business world for spurning touch or even the common courtesy of a handshake. "It really is a pleasure to meet you. I take it you're escaping your work, too?"

Oliver recovered from his surprise and returned the handshake. "I am indeed among other things. This is my skiing protg of the moment, Dick Grayson." He introduced the other youth at the table.

"Good to meet you, Dick," Lex greeted, and reached to shake his hand, too, leaving Clark to wonder if one of those playful falls Lex had taken on the slope had damaged something in his head. Dick exchanged the gesture, and then Lex settled properly into his chair, coat draped over the back of it. "And you've both met Clark Kent, my brother."

"Is this part of the mysterious upbringing that is so well hidden from the media?" Oliver sipped the brandy glancing at Clark, leaving him to wonder why he was so fascinating.

Maybe Lex on vacation was just more relaxed than Lex doing business, Clark decided as he looked back at Dick who seemed to be studying Lex. He did his habitual fading into the background a little that he had perfected to cover his secrets.

"It's mysterious?" Lex cocked an eyebrow at Clark, and shook his head. "I'm not sure how mysterious it is. Small town outside of Metropolis, and the Kents raised me. And I went to school with Bruce -- Wayne. I know Queen Industrial works with Wayne Industries on the occasional technological leap."

Dick leaned back a little, too, and glanced over at Clark trying to catch his eyes.

"Oh yes, we have done -- a very profitable arrangement," Oliver replied and started talking relaxed business gossip with Lex that meant nothing to Clark, for all he listened.

He caught Dick looking at him and leaned forward saying in a low voice. "Do you have a clue what they're talking about?"

Dick rolled his eyes, and shook his head as he leaned into Clark. "Not a one. But they look pretty happy talking about it, don't they?"

"Lex lives the business sometimes," Clark replied. "So... really a circus? Seriously?"

"Trapeze artist," Dick grinned. "Seriously. I'm really good, but any physical sport that hones concentration is a good one. What do you do?"

"Me? Nothing much. Just help around the farm, and with Lex sometimes and go to school. Lex decided I needed to see a bit more of the world I think, than Smallville and Metropolis," Clark replied, not mentioning how it was meant to be a break for them. "Pretty dull compared to a trapeze artist. You really need lessons?"

There was something about the curve of Dick's smile that said 'not really' even as he nodded. "To get better, you know? So you're a real... I mean, a real farmer? That's pretty cool."

Clark might be oblivious to some things, but not to that and the flush was a little bit betraying even as he shook his head. "No, it's not. People only want to hear about farming if they're insomniacs and need to go to sleep," he said self deprecatingly. "Tell me about this place. I'm completely out of my depth here."

"You think I'm not?" Dick grinned again. "It's like one huge soap opera, Clark. I've been here three days, and I've seen more catfights, petty arguments, and romantic circles than a trash novel has. It's great, and then you add in the snow, and great becomes awesome," Dick grinned.

"Anyone I should steer clear of?" Clark asked "I think Lex has a plan to make this be an experience for me." He smiled back, warming to Dick and his easy manner.

"Well, that all depends on what you don't like in people. But for general scumballs..." Dick's voice dropped a little on that last word, even though he was still smiling. "That big huge guy in the corner? Don't piss him off. He's from the Roman family. Big Gotham mafia sorts."

Clark glanced across and hastily back. "Somehow I don't think we'll be crossing paths," he admitted "So this is your first time up here?"

"Yeah, and it's been pretty fun," Dick grinned. "We might be in Switzerland, but this place gets all sorts. Lots of fellow Americans."

"This is my first time. Lex has been up here with Bruce before. It's his cabin we're going to be staying at. He's a really nice guy, used to see him a fair bit when I was younger and he used to visit Lex," Clark said. He grinned at Dick just speaking the random thoughts that were popping into his head. "I think he could use someone like you around, he was always just a little too worried about having fun. Shame he's not here with us."

"It is. A lot of people come here to take time off, but end up doing nothing but business." He glanced at Oliver and Lex, and bit the inside of his cheek with a smirk. "If they weren't smiling, I'd be tempted to kick one of them."

Clark glanced at Lex. "I don't think he's just talking business for all he's discussing mergers," he said following up that smirk with one of his own.

"No?" Dick quirked an eyebrow at Clark for a moment before looking at the two older men from the corner of his eyes. To him, they looked like they were chatting business, so... "Are you sure?"

"I know Lex," Clark said simply. "Besides, he shook both of your hands. That's... a pretty big deal for him. There's people he's known for years he won't do that to."

"Oh, wow." Dick chuckled. "See, if I'm ever here again, I'll have to read up on the different eccentricities of people who run in these circles."

"I think I was offending your friend Oliver earlier," Clark confessed. "Did I do something wrong there?"

"No?" Dick leaned back in his chair, and stretched his lean legs out beneath the table. "Why do you think you were?"

Clark shrugged. "Just the way he was looking at me, like I was something suspicious."

"Or something he wants to eat whole?" Dick winked, whispering that quietly. He had a mellow, playful voice that fit his face well.

Clark blushed a little. "Uh... really? I mean I'm not... well... I don't know exactly... um..."

"Um can sum up a lot." Dick took another sip of his drink, and nodded at Clark as if he'd said something really, really deep. "Hey, how old are you?"

"Sixteen," Clark replied seizing on the subject change. "You?"

"Disappointed to still be the youngest guy in the lodge." Dick shifted his legs, crossed them at the ankle while he looked back at Clark. "Fifteen."

"Not by much," Clark smiled. "Besides, no one would know. I bet you come across a lot older." He'd thought he was older when he had first seen him.

"You look older. No one cards you here, you know. Oliver's even bought me a few real drinks." And Dick wasn't suave about that fact -- he had a tone that nearly announced he was being bad.

Clark grinned. "Yeah? What did you have?"

"Some really good liquor last night. You should try it. It is getting late. You're not going back on the slopes tonight, are you?"

"I doubt it. Not after the flight and all," Clark replied. "You reckon you will be?"

"Probably not. My thighs are burning and for me, that's pretty extraordinary." He mock-grimaced. "You'll probably get a little of that, too, even if you are a farm-boy."

Clark smiled, "Not so far, but I'm only a beginner. You think we might see you out there tomorrow?"

"Oh, without question. Oliver'll be pretty easy to spot, too. Bright bright green jacket and pants, sort of as..." Dick glanced at Lex for a moment, and then twisted to look at Clark again. "About as easy to spot as the grey and purple one over there."

"Hey, he likes grey and purple." Clark smiled. "He teased me about wanting plaid before I took the red and blue. Between the four of us I think we could find each other."

"Yeah... you said you're in Bruce Wayne's cabin? That's... that's pretty cool. Your brother went to school with him? He's actually been to see the circus a couple of times when we've been in Gotham."

"You ever met him?" Clark asked. "Lex and he are like best friends, or they were at school at least."

"Just once in passing. But the circus's next stop is Gotham, so... yeah. Maybe. They'd have to be close to let him use his cabin, right?"

"He's worth getting to know," Clark replied. "Though he and Lex aren't as close as they used to be. It's a shame in some ways, he really looked out for him." Clark shot a worried glance across at his brother. As far as he was concerned, the more people who looked after Lex, the better. The family talent for getting in the way of trouble was too tenacious for them to turn down anyone.

"What was it like growing up with... you know, someone like that? Someone who pretty much has no choice but to end up either drinking themselves to an early grave, or end up on headlines for vast things they do?" Dick sounded genuinely curious, glancing over at him for just a moment.

Clark considered a moment. "Lex is the best. Seriously. I was adopted when I was about three and at the same time his father died. And then a couple of months later his real mom died, too, and named Mom and Dad as his legal guardians which surprised, well practically everyone, especially Mom and Dad. Maybe it's because both of us were adopted or fostered or whatever, but considering he's six years older than me, he's been the coolest older brother I know. Spending time with me when he can, both of us being... I guess as normal as we can. He's had his moments, I guess... and maybe without Mom and Dad being the way they are, he might have ended up the way you say, but he's something special even without the money behind him. And that's what I think of when I think of my brother. The person who's special, not how successful he is, or rich he is. That's never mattered to any of us."

Dick scooted his chair back a little, grinning at he looked at Clark. "That's pretty damn cool. I kind of wondered, since not many guys I know would take their little brother on a trip with them."

"Yeah, I know. Sometimes I wonder why he doesn't mind me tagging along, too," Clark replied. "But I guess it's because we're totally honest with each other. If I think he's doing something wrong, I'll tell him. Then he'll probably tell me why I'm wrong to question him, but I think he gets enough of yes-men with agendas out there in the world of business. And they keep doing it even when he can see right through them." He shook his head, "He's got the brains of the family, that's for sure."

"Not that you're actually related by blood," Dick pointed out. "Lots of adopted kids fall out with their family. It's some unspoken rule."

Clark shook his head definitely. "Not with our Mom and Dad. Not with each other. I mean we argue, stomp off and sulk and occasionally yell and get angry with each other but... no matter what, I know Lex would be there, and he knows the same from me." At least Clark hoped he did. Maybe he should make a point of telling him at some point soon since he was just reaching the point where he might be useful to his brother rather than just being the annoying kid. "Most people never see the real him," he said quietly. "They don't even know what they're missing."

It was a miracle that Dick seemed to miss or ignore the depth of emotion in Clark's words. He just smiled, and cocked his head curiously over towards Lex and Oliver. "You sound like you're worried."

"I spend a lot of my time worrying. It seems to be my nature," Clark said frankly with a smile and a shrug. "He needs time off. He doesn't get it."

"Oliver's sort of the same way, except..." Dick's eyes narrowed in momentary concentration, and he tipped his chair back onto the two back legs for must a moment before settling down. "They're both, heh, relaxed."

"That's good. He must like Oliver then. What do you know about him?" Clark asked curiously.

"He's sort-of a friend of my dad, big industrialist, and -- oh, he does really cool stuff with arrows. There's an archery range not far from here, and he's fantastic. And he's pretty sarcastic, but I don't mind that at all." Dick glanced down into his mug, and then started to stand. "Do you want me to get you something while I'm up?"

"No, no I'm fine. Thanks though," Clark said. Cool stuff with arrows? Sounded interesting. Maybe he had taken up archery in the same way as Lex had gone for fencing. Something to do to work off stress and keep them honed. Lex took pride in the way he looked, and Mr. Queen obviously was the same way -- suave and crisply cut.

Dick meandered off towards the bar with his mug, and the motion caught Lex's eye. "Clark... hey, are you hungry?"

"I usually am," Clark replied. "But I can wait until you're done talking," he offered politely in front of Lex's new acquaintance. If Lex was getting on with someone, he wasn't going to throw his chances by being a demanding younger brother.

"How about it, Oliver? Let me pay for dinner for you and Dick if you want and we can eat here. Unless you have a pressing engagement..." Lex always liked to give people an out, just in case he was being too presumptuous.

"Well as you seem tolerably good company, Lex. I believe I might take you up on the offer," Oliver answered smiling with more genuine warmth for all there was a dry edge of sarcasm to his words. "But only if you allow me to return the favor at some point."

"It's only fair." Lex rose smoothly, eyes still on Oliver. "Are you coming up with me, or should I just surprise you and young Mr. Grayson?"

"Oh a surprise will add a certain piquancy to the evening. I'll trust in your renowned impeccable taste," Oliver replied quirking a smile

Impeccable taste? Lex lifted both eyebrows and pivoted away. The social sphere of the lodge had fodder to amuse him for far longer than the week they were spending.

The vacation was going even better now they had some people to associate with. Sometimes it was a few others Clark didn't know, and didn't need to know, though he was always polite, but they seemed to drift back to the company of Dick and Oliver quite frequently. Both of them proved to be very good at skiing, and Clark took some pleasure in keeping up with all of them, as their expectations were high enough that he didn't have to tone down his level of competence. The evenings often ended up with them eating together. Sometimes, though, Lex and Oliver went off to talk business where they wouldn't bore the youngsters, leaving Dick to lead Clark astray around the Resort. Not that he did that much, but they did have a laugh and it was Dick who pointed out one of the resort beauties who was sending Clark so many signals she could have doubled as a communications satellite.

Clark was almost embarrassingly backwards, but with some egging on from Dick he managed some in depth kissing with 'Chantelle' the first night they were out alone, and that made him hungry for more.

The second night, it looked like he seemed to have been ditched by Dick somewhere in the course of the evening, though his attention was well and truly distracted by Chantelle who plainly had more in mind. She was a tourist like he was, and she had a beautiful cabin that Clark had, of course, been invited to see. It might've been something about the way she clung to his hand when she held it, but the message had been clear -- when she wanted him there around 'sixish', she was going to be all alone.

And hadn't Lex told him to live life out to the fullest, to experience things that he'd just never learn in Smallville?

Clark knew he must have been sending out virgin vibes. He'd blushed uncontrollably when the suggestion had been made and that had just made her smile even more. She wasn't that interested in him as such, he could tell that so this would be no strings attached learning experience. He also knew he couldn't go there as he was. He was nervous and when he was nervous his control sometimes slipped, and he couldn't do that during sex if it got that far. He needed the meteor band. He needed to go back to the cabin and get it... surely Lex wouldn't mind him interrupting though there was a tacit understanding that he would stay clear. Just long enough to get the band and a condom. And maybe ask if it were the right thing to do

After assuring Chantelle that he would be there, he sped up to the cabin, leaving it reasonably late and walked into the luxury lodge that had been their base of operations. Oliver and Lex weren't in the lounge area. Perhaps they had gone back to his, which would be awkward. On the other hand, maybe Lex had left the band in his room after a shower or something. He did that occasionally. Quietly, he padded over to his brothers room, just in case he was in sleeping.

Bruce really knew how to lay out a place. The decorum could almost put Lex's penthouse to shame, just for pure lavishness. And it maintained silence well enough; Clark had had to strain to hear the shower running when he'd rolled out of bed that morning. He could hear faint noises, conversation or something, echoing to his ears. Whispers and murmurs, and the slight squeak of the expensive mattress moving.

If Clark had thought about it, he would have looked through the door, but he was thinking of other things and quietly pushed the door ajar to interrupt the soft conversation.

He didn't find himself interrupting soft conversation.

It was a lucky thing that he had only cracked the door a little, and that it didn't squeak. Otherwise he would've disturbed the strange tableau on the expansive bed. There was Dick, and there was Oliver, and there was Lex; there were clothes on the floor, haphazardly removed and strewn.

Clark had certainly seen Lex naked, but there was a difference between naked fresh out of the shower or naked got out of the pool without shorts, or even naked in bed with Bruce and the naked he was looking at while he stood in the doorway. Lex was between the two other men, seated on Oliver's lap, rising up and down on a visibly thick erection, while Dick had smiling lips wrapped around his cock.

It hadn't been whispers Clark had been hearing, but moans.

Clark felt his own throat go dry and a strange hot pricking behind his eyes that had him blinking rapidly. He couldn't take his eyes off of any of them and a flush was gravitating into his groin as he watched, his own mission temporarily interrupted.

He wasn't sure what he felt aside from an ache...

Or possibly left out...

Lex flung his head back onto Oliver's shoulder with a long, low groan, arching back against him and up to Dick's mouth. "Fuck, yes, yes, almost almost there, come on and fuck me hard..."

Oh God.

Clark's eyes widened at that, the words from Lex hitting something almost unbearable in him. He needed to see more, he needed to run away. He was as horny as all fuck now and.... His eyes were burning with staring.

And there was the band on the side, and if he hadn't been sure about sex before, he most definitely wanted it now. The heat inside was growing and if anything he needed relief.

He blurred in, grabbed the band and in the slowness between times he turned and looked at his brother, seeing every bead of sweat glittering, his pleasure frozen in that eternal moment of pre-orgasm...

.... and he blurred out, filled with a bright flame of lust and envy.

Some days there was little in life that was better than curling up with a good book. By a horrifically clichd warm fire, with an equally clichd mug of, well, liquored coffee wasn't a clich, but it was a personal touch for Lex as he lolled on the sofa. Bruce had left remnants of books in the cabin, so Lex had the added good feeling of a timeworn copy of Thus Spake Zarathustra laying in his idle hands.

Of course, it had all been heightened by the sensation of having his brains fucked out of him, but Clark didn't have to know that when he came back to the cabin.

It was pretty late by the time Clark actually returned. He actually looked a little weary and as if he had taken a dive into the snow somewhere when he got back in. He looked a little flushed when he entered and glanced over to his brother, and a blush of color rose to his cheeks automatically. "Hey, Lex."

"Well, you look like you've been having fun," Lex smirked. He didn't look up at Clark, not yet. He reached the bottom of the paragraph first, then casually dog-eared the old book. "What did you get up to today?"

"I uh... saw Chantelle again." He mentally added in a whole lot more. It had been a good experience and Chantelle certainly seemed to enjoy it and so had he, but the thought occurred to him he shouldn't have been so successful with her for the reason he was imagining his brother, Dick and Oliver together. That probably wasn't normal, human or alien normal.

"Did you?" Lex's eyebrows were almost dancing at Clark, and it was maybe a little cruel that he smirked at his brother like that. "You're blushing right up to your hair. I take it you took my advice?"

Clark blushed again, his eyes starting that prickling again. "Yeah. Yeah, I did," he admitted rubbing at his eye absently even as he grinned.

"I figured." Lex held his hand out towards Clark. "I noticed the band was missing. A smart precaution, for your first time."

Clark slid off the band and handed it over. "Yeah, well I could have hurt her... I did pretty much say I didn't know what I was doing," he replied, the burning sensation in his eyes increasing even as his fingers just accidentally touched Lex's hand. "So I just did what she said and.... she enjoyed it a lot. Noisily, too." He was trying not to look at his brother's body, imagine his groan, to picture lips around his cock.

He rubbed at his eyes again, irritably.

"Hey..." Lex always noticed things, probably since he was the family's master eye-rubber. Tired, irritated, pissed, exhausted, he mauled over his eyes and the bridge of his nose. He took the band from Clark and slipped it into pocket of the pants he'd changed into after his little 'adventure'. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Clark's gaze inadvertently followed Lex's hand to that pocket and a flash of fantasy about what else he might be touching there was enough to tip him over the edge. His eyes burned... and to his horror he noticed smoke and a brief flash of flame where he was looking at Lex's pants as he hastily covered his eyes with his hands. "Shit!"

Lex was probably echoing him with curses, and he dumped his coffee automatically on himself before the flame spread. So much for relaxing with his liquored coffee -- Lex quickly thanked god that there was a lot more coffee in his mug than brandy. "The fuck was that?"

"My eyes!" Clark sounded half panicked half embarrassed, standing there with his eyes closed. "I was... uh... thinking about... tonight and... uh... Oh crap, Lex! Did I hurt you? I can't see!"

"I'm fine, but you caught my pants on fire, Clark," Lex muttered, setting aside the mug as he approached Clark from the side. "What happened?"

"Shit, sorry Lex. I didn't know that was going to happen. My eyes have been getting prickly hot when I've been uh... thinking about sex and... What am I going to do? I can't set fire to something every time I think about sex!" He stood there with his eyes resolutely closed wondering if he was going to have to spend the rest of his life like that.

"And hopefully you won't burn a hole through your eyelids." Maybe it was a poor attempt at humor, but Lex needed a laugh as he stood there in damp scorched pants, and tugged Clark's hands down from his closed eyes.

"Well yeah..." Clark steadied himself on Lex's hand. "You're okay aren't you? I tried to stop it as soon as I could." He was shaken and it showed. The prospect of setting fire to all and sundry, particularly his brother, made him shudder. Lex was strong, but he wasn't invincible, and he healed fast, but probably couldn't heal that fast, not fast enough to heal burn wounds as they happened.

Lex's fingers, which were somewhere between farmhand callused and office-worker soft, rubbed at his shoulders for a moment in contemplation. "Maybe it's another manifestation of your abilities."

"Well... as abilities go, it sucks," Clark said vehemently. Lex's touch was making other things respond which shouldn't, and his eyes burned again behind his closed lids. "Damn."

He rubbed at them again.

"You'll just have to learn to control it," Lex assured him firmly, still rubbing at his shoulders. "Tell me what you're thinking about."

"Sex," Clark replied sheepishly. "Uh..." The burning was getting intense the more his shoulders were touched, "Lex, I've got to open my eyes. It's burning... please?"

"Let's go outside, behind the cabin. Stand still and I'll get my jacket." Hands left Clark's shoulders, and Lex moved, gone from comfortable to quick but un-panicked in less than thirty seconds. He had his coat on and hastily zipped up in moments, and then he reached to grasp Clark's arm. "You're going to have to trust me."

Clark gave a nervous chuckle. "I always do, Lex."

"I know."

Lex pulled at Clark's wrist gently, murmuring as he led him towards the door, "Just follow my lead. There's a step down in two more steps..."

Clark steadied himself against Lex even as the coolness of the outside air hit him. His eyes were burning now, stinging badly so he could feel moisture starting to leak from them even as he resolutely kept them shut. "Tell me when, Lex, please?"

He tromped through snow, half-dragged by Lex who was doing the only thing he could think of to keep the damage to a minimum. "Think of non-sexual things, Clark."

"That's kinda difficult." Clark replied. He couldn't help it. With his first experience of sex wakening his sexual appetite and the memory of what he had done and what he had seen exploiting the rush of hormones that had accompanied everything, even Lex's voice seemed unbearably erotic. And Lex was his brother!

"Think of Mom. Think of factory sludge, or mucking out the barn. Pine-trees aren't sexual, right?"

"You trying to give me some sort of weird complex? I can't think of Mom like this!" Clark gave a strained laugh. "Pine trees... pine... no sorry, that's no good. Even they're sounding pretty attractive right now..."

"Teenagers," Lex snorted. To be quite that horny again... Well, not that he wasn't always that horny, but age gave the benefit of learning how to control it better. He moved a hand to lift Clark's chin as they stopped walking. "Open your eyes."

"You're not in the way?" Clark asked hesitantly. "I think this is a big one..." He swallowed nervously.

"Believe me, I'm out of the way. I'm not fond of having my pants catch fire."

Clark allowed himself to open his eyes and the coiling heat that had been suppressed shot out, sizzling in the snow and scoring deep into a hapless pine tree that had the misfortune to be in his line of sight. The blasting continued until the urge passed and he blinked rapidly and wiped at his trickling eyes with the back of his sleeve.

They were standing a way out in the snow, illuminated now by a flickering firelight from the burning tree. "Thanks, Lex," he said gratefully.

Lex just stood there, hand on Clark's back, watching the tree, narrow and thankfully small, char up too quickly. "No problem."

"It feels a little easier now." Clark confessed. "I just wasn't expecting that at all. I'm sorry about the pants... really."

"They're junk pants, anyway," Lex excused as he moved in front of Clark to inspect his eyes. "Do you think you can control it?"

"I... I think so." Clark wasn't sure what he was basing that response on, but he just seemed to know. "It's a bit like the X-ray thing, I just have to find the right thing."

And Lex trusted him, trusted that he knew and partially understood it just like Lex understood his own strangeness. "Probably. You want to stay out here for a while?"

"Yeah. Yeah, that's a good idea." He was so close that he could smell his distinctive pleasant scent, and he had opportunity to try and master his new ability again. Yes, he could blink it back. It could be restrained as long as it didn't creep up on him. "Maybe I can do it deliberately. If I can do it deliberately I can stop it, too," he said hopefully.

"Good. Let 's try to limit it to setting snow on fire, though. I think if you light any more trees, we'll end up drawing unwanted attention." Not that any attention was good attention when Clark was trying to learn how to control another 'oddity' along the bumpy road of growing up. Lex stayed close to him, gently twisted him so he'd target at another pile of snow.

Clark narrowed his eyes and called the image of Lex pre-orgasm to mind and the pile of snow didn't just melt but evaporated and boiled away as steam. He grinned a little. "It worked." He tried again looking at a different spot ...and another... and another... until the area around them was denuded of snow.

"Got it." he said smugly, "Got it."

"Are you sure?" Lex pressed for safety's sake.

"Yeah," Clark said careless with relief. "Just don't make me horny when I'm not expecting it."

Funny, how there were days where Lex wanted to make the same demand of his little brother. "Somehow, I don't think that's a problem." He clapped Clark loosely on the back. "Let's go in, I'm freezing."

"I could warm you up," Clark replied sounding a lot happier. "You know... lightly toasted Lex... mmhmm."

"I'd probably pass out and stop breathing if you did that," Lex drawled as he started to walk back towards the cabin. "You'd have to resuscitate me again."

"Oh yeah?" Clark paced alongside him, "I think I'd be at the back of the line way behind Oliver and Dick on that one." He grinned, not thinking that he had just let slip that he knew that they had been all together or what his clever brother might make of that.

Lex reopened the cabin's door, pausing to let Clark in first. "I wondered when you picked up the band."

"Ahh... yeah." Clark cleared his throat, abruptly aware of what he had just admitted to seeing. "I didn't mean to," he said looking embarrassed.

Lex pushed at Clark a little, to get him into the cabin so he could shut the door. "Hey, no problem. You were fast enough that I didn't notice at the time, so... It doesn't bother you, does it?"

There was a brief hesitation before Clark shook his head. "No, not at all. I seem to be making a habit of it, though," he said, trying to laugh it off. It did bother him. He was trying not to look at the reasons why too hard, because he was pretty sure it wasn't prejudice or distaste. It was something more akin to jealous and envy.

Morbid curiosity pushed Lex to ask while taking off his coat. "What, exactly, did you walk in on?"

Clark blinked a little to try and dispel the itching. "Uh, you and Oliver and Dick." He rubbed his eyes, unconsciously holding back the heat, the motion signaling he had been far from unaffected by the scene. "You were... sort of in Oliver's lap and Dick was... giving you a blowjob." He actually felt quite proud he could say that aloud.

It was every one of Lex's wild fantasies and nightmares all packed together. And as well as he could read his little brother, some days Clark contradicted himself, and some days Clark sent mixed signals, and most days Clark needed a neon sign over his head declaring his intentions.

Of all the things for Clark to see, it had to be that. "I see," Lex murmured gravely. "And, ah... sounds like you liked what you saw?"

It was a strange thing, but Clark was not in the habit of not answering his brother or lying to him. When it came down to a situation where he desperately wanted to do both, he did neither. "Well, it looked pretty interesting." Again he had to rub his eyes and squeeze them shut a moment before trying to continue normally. "You all appeared to be enjoying yourselves."

It was making Clark -- Lex wanted to kick himself for the thought that came to his mind -- hot. And if he was being honest with Lex, then he owed Clark the same courtesy. "We were," Lex admitted slowly, slipping his coat off.

"I guess that means you're not that serious about Helen after all," Clark said walking over to the couch. "I could tell you liked Oliver when you met him."

"It's nothing of consequence," Lex pointed out. "He reminds me of Bruce. And we both wanted to unwind. Helen never needs to know that I swing both ways."

"She doesn't know?" That astonished Clark. "But she's been going out with you... forever! How is it she doesn't know?"

"Luck?" Lex suggested as he sprawled out beside Clark on the sofa. Languid and graceful, tempting for some of those possibly mixed signals that Clark was sending out. "It's not polite to mention it in the newspapers, and my fellow businessmen know it and don't comment on it -- again, impolite."

There was no doubt about it. Clark was looking over Lex in a completely different way. Without x-ray vision he was still looking in his imagination down to bare flesh and he shifted a little to cover evidence of what he was thinking. "You're good at secrets, Lex," he said with a smile looking at him directly a moment.

"Not really. If you're smart enough and know me well enough, everything lays out in the open." Clark would forgive him for anything, Lex knew. Anything he dared toss out, Clark could repress and deny if he wanted to. Just... how to broach it. He shifted, stretching languidly, watching Clark.

Clark seemed to sense that he was building up to something and a flicker of panic crossed his expression. "I think... I think I better have a shower," he said hastily, pushing the moment away so he wouldn't have to deal with it. "I won't be too long. Really." He got up hastily backing away from the change he felt looking between them. He'd managed to lose his virginity, discover he was really turned on by watching gay sex, and develop a stare that could turn a forest to toast. Those were more than enough changes for one day.

Maybe it would never happen, Lex decided as he watched Clark run off. He swung his legs up onto the sofa, and stretched out for a long nap.

He bet Clark's shower wasn't going to be a short one.

Oliver examined the cognac with a slight smile. "Bruce has impeccable taste, it would appear," he said as he sprawled in his borrowed robe on the couch in front of the fire. "I do hope he won't mind that I have laid siege to his rather comprehensive alcoholic supplies."

"Bruce doesn't actually drink." Lex was sprawled just as languidly across from Oliver, eyes half-closed in mild relaxed bliss. Clark was out on the slopes with Dick, which was fine since Lex's shoulders were angry with him for too much exertion too many days in a row. "Unless you count ginger ale and club soda. Watch him some time at a party."

"I will if I get the opportunity, and thank him for being a considerate if absent host." Oliver was watching him over his glass. "You have that look, Lex. The one that says you want to ask me for a favor."

"I didn't know I had a look like that," Lex drawled after a relaxed sip of his own glass, "or that it was so easy to learn."

"I've seen that look frequently over the past few days always as a prelude to an exotic sexual suggestion," Oliver replied. "Like asking me to arrange for Dick to join us... I'll admit. These are the sorts of favors I can live with."

"It was easy to tell that Dick slept with you and that he was willing to try new things. It's the new things in particular..." Lex stretched out, and his robe fell partially open as halfway invitation to Oliver. "My brother walked in on us yesterday."

The industrialist leaned forward to take advantage of that. "I can't say that I noticed. I was a little... preoccupied fucking you senseless at the time."

"I didn't know until he made some offhand joke that gave him away. I'm not sure how long he watched, because I was just as preoccupied as you were."

"And your point is what?" Oliver felt his way over Lex's stomach muscles carefully moving downwards

"That my previously assumed to be heterosexual brother has a healthy interest in dick. He seemed quite jealous..." Lex twisted, and in the motion started to shrug off his robe. Oliver had a beautiful muscle structure, and fascinating pale body hair to explore.

Oliver paused and then chuckled. "Dick as in my protg of the slopes or dick as in what we appear to all have quite prominently?"

"Both Dick and Dick's dick. He's always been honest with me and sounded jealous when he mentioned how 'fun' it looked..." Lex glanced at Oliver's face, lines and sardonic expressions that were easy to learn so close up. Maybe it was something that they'd both leave behind them when they went their separate ways, but Lex had a feeling that Oliver was going to be an ally he could count on.

"Could it be that you're encouraging me to corrupt the young?" Oliver leaned in and kissed at Lex's jaw line. "Wherever did you get the idea I might be into that sort of thing... even by proxy? Well aside from Dick. And the threesome... well okay fine, you've come to the right place," he murmured. "Young Clark's sexual horizons need to be broadened. I've never know Dick to back down from a challenge." He smirked as he gave the matter some thought. "I find that information invaluable, especially when it leads to me saying, 'You'll never fit it all in you know.' Works like a charm."

"You said the same thing to me. You certainly know how to work the stubborn..." Lex tipped his head a little so Oliver could keep kissing, while he stretched over the other man and slid a hand over his chest to twist one flat nipple. "So how to present the challenge to him?"

"Oh, I think if we mention to him that it couldn't be done, that would be reason enough," Oliver replied. "There doesn't have to be any great elaborate scheme with Dick."

"That's too simple," Lex protested. "Just like that? And you think it'd work?"

"It worked to get him into bed with the both of us. I simply suggest it would be something he wouldn't dare do," Oliver replied. "His family exists their whole lives on an edge of daring... it's how he works."

"I know people like that." Lex rubbed his fingers a little firmer, looking back into Oliver's eyes. "Shall we set him to the task when he gets off the slopes, then?"

"I'm sure... we can entice him somehow." Oliver leaned over him, desire wakened in his eyes once again. "You seem very adept at catching people's attention."

Oliver had been most impressive so far in his ability to keep going and going and going. He had a libido that was worth being jealous of, and Lex wasn't going to let it go neglected while he had the opportunity to use it. "Flattery."

"Outrageous flattery, but only the truth." Oliver pushed him back gently, but firmly against the cushions. "I need to fill my time off with reasons to remind myself that life is good. And right now, it doesn't get much better."

The robe slipped open more, and Lex continued to make no effort to hide that fact. He was hard, and a shift of his hips proved that fact to Oliver when he rolled against his thigh. "Not much better at all. It's damn good to relax..."

Oliver had a very direct route when it came to sex, he tended not to hesitate about reaching for what he wanted and his fingers curled tightly around Lex's erection. "Any special requests? It's only manners after all, and your imagination holds things even I haven't managed to experience." It was a fact that plainly delighted the blond industrialist.

Lex groaned low in his throat, and hitched his hips up against Oliver's fingers. "Oh, I can think of a few things..."

"Good, I'll take that as payment for my part in your scheme," Oliver replied leaning in finally to stop the talking and begin the more important task of kissing.

"So you go back home... in two days?"

Dick had dragged him over to a two-seater table in the corner of the lodge for dinner, since there was every chance that if they went back to the cabin, Lex and Oliver were there.

"Yeah," Clark replied. "I'm sort of looking forward to it, but this vacation has been great. What about you?"

"I get to fly out to Gotham tomorrow evening," Dick smiled. "Meet up with the rest of the circus."

"So this is your ... last night?" Clark looked suddenly slightly upset by that news. "I didn't realize you were going so soon!"

"It sort of slipped my mind," Dick admitted as he toyed with his fork. "I've been having so much fun."

Clark looked at him. "It's was really great that you were here though... and you didn't kick me off the table the first night," he admitted. "I've really appreciated your company and skiing tips. Even if I did hit the tree on your instruction." He grinned at his new friend.

"I still say you just weren't listening," Dick scowled a little. "And I'm a good skier, but not nearly one of the best. Me showing you things is like the blind leading the blind."

"Now you tell me." Clark chuckled as he pushed away the remnants of the 'snack' he had just eaten. "We should do something since it's our last night."

"Yeah, we should," Dick agreed, and his mouth curled into a slow smirk. "You know... Oliver told me you walked in on us."

Clark looked a little aghast and then blushed. "Uh yeah, just a little," he confessed, not thinking to deny it. He should have known that Lex would share that.

"Does it bother you?" Dick asked after a moment. He leaned on his elbows, swaying forwards just a little towards Clark as he asked.

"That I walked in on you? Or what you were doing?" Clark replied not moving away, but looking directly into Dick's eyes. "No, I guess not. It's not like I don't know what Lex does. It's not even like I haven't done it before."

"You've done that before?" Dick asked, and tried not to sound crestfallen.

Clark burst out laughing. "No, no! Shit, the first time at anything was this week, Dick," he admitted frankly. "No, I've walked in on Lex once or twice."

"I think your brother's an exhibitionist," Dick smirked, and winked at Clark, and his relief was palpable when he answered that. It felt for a minute like Oliver and Lex had set him up for some massively cruel joke.

"I know he is," Clark replied smiling. "Lets just say he got an early start to sex. I'm practically remedial compared to him."

"Never mind that most people don't get any until they go off to college." Dick gestured a little as he talked, but mostly smiled and took little sips from his mug. "How early?"

"I walked in on him and Bruce... when he was about thirteen." Clark grinned. "And me so young and impressionable."

"You were... " Dick countered mentally for a moment. "Seven or so?"

Clark nodded. "And convinced my brother had found a replacement for his bratty younger brother." He smiled again. "I didn't understand then. I do now."

"Still, that's..." Dick shook his head. "Pretty young. I've only been doing it for a little while, you know? When I was thirteen, I'm not even sure if I had fuzz down there."

Clark grinned. "You seemed pretty comfortable for someone who hasn't been doing it long," he said a little wistfully. "I wish I were that confident."

"Just look at yourself. You have every reason to be confident."

Clark sounded surprised. "I do? But I don't know anything."

"Well, someone should've taught you by now." Dick stretched a little, and tilted his head to better look at Clark. "It's a damn shame no one has."

"Like who?" Clark replied shrugging. "When it comes to a love life I have an unerring knack for disaster. I manage to get cold shouldered a lot. Practically on a daily basis. I managed to screw up one promising relationship before I got here."

"Mmm... just what'd you do to screw it up?"

"Uh... I took her to the school formal, showed her a good time. We were really getting on and then a cluster of tornados hit the area. I ran out to warn one of our friends since she'd be heading right into it. I left my date alone, and she'd already told me that she was most worried I would run off and leave her."

"And that fucked things up for you?" The other young man was staring at Clark a little gape mouthed. "How?"

"Well this other friend is someone she knows I have a thing for. Only there's no... well, there isn't anything because the reason she was out there was to see off her fianc. The twisters tossed her truck, and I found her and took her to the hospital, and then rushed over to see if Lex was okay, and he was a little hurt... and then we went to see Mom, and she was a bit battered but okay, but Dad was missing. Some reporter had been after Lex and went after Dad instead. He... tried to kill him and... well me, too, I guess, but Lex stopped him. I guess in all of that, I didn't go back and explain myself to either of them." Clark looked at Dick as if asking for him to tell him what he was doing wrong. "Chloe, the one I went to the dance with decided I wasn't around for her, that she wasn't going to be second choice and told me it was going to be friends only, and Lana, the one in hospital... She's pretty much keeping the home fires burning for Whitney. They didn't want much to do with me afterwards so... like I said, I screwed up."

"Fuck 'em. I mean... You did the responsible thing, and if they can't see past their own pettiness, then forget them. Stop trying. Find someone else."

Clark smiled. "I have been. And got further here than anywhere." He sipped at his drink. "I guess I'm sort of testing the waters you know?"

"Best part of being our age. Test the waters before you get old and responsible." He winked, and finished off his coffee.

"Not going to have much more time to be irresponsible before I get home, though," Clark said following suit with a smile.

"You should seize the moment. I have a room here, you know."

Clark paused, looking at him questioningly. "What... what are you suggesting?"

Dick's cheeks colored a little. "I don't know... Maybe if you're interested in the other side of the equation..."

Clark went silent a moment, flushing a little. Was he interested? Hell yes. But here was someone offering and... He was trying not to panic. But it was Dick. Dick was nice, he was fun and more importantly he wasn't so experienced that he would feel chronically embarrassed. Well, more embarrassed than he was now. "Uh, what did you have in mind?" he asked cautiously.

"Just... whatever happens? Whatever you're comfortable with." Dick was flushing a little, right over his cheeks and the bridge of his nose as he watched Clark's expression carefully.

"I... I don't know, Dick," Clark said hesitantly. "I mean, I could make a complete fool of myself."

But he wanted it, even he could hear that in his voice and he blushed even more as he remembered Dick working so enthusiastically on his brother's cock. Okay, now he really was interested in it.

"Somehow I doubt you could," Dick prodded gently. "I don't think you will, Clark. Really. You're a fast learner, you ski great..."

Clark smiled a little shyly. "You really wouldn't mind? It's just... I can't get the thought of it out of my head," he said barely above a whisper.

"That's usually a good thing," Dick smiled slyly, and his face lit up with a sudden rush of confidence as he started to stand. "C'mon."

Clark got up so rapidly he nearly hit the chair over and then smiled at Dick. "Lead on" he said, feeling the meteor rock band in his pocket. He thought Lex had probably thought he was going to go back to Chantelle, the way he reminded him to take it just in case. He wasn't going to get this chance again so it was best to try it and see in a place where no one knew him. If it didn't work out for him, then at least he'd tried it once. He'd given it, as appealing as the idea was, a chance. No repercussions to face, either.

And if he liked it... then he'd take that road when he came to it.

"Just up this way," Dick grinned as he fished in his pocket for his key, and started towards a doorway that opened into steep stairs.

"I'm probably not meant to admit this, but I'm pretty nervous," Clark said, feeling his tension and anticipation rise. "I don't want to do anything wrong."

Dick waited until they were up the steps, but he reached back to grasp Clark's hand lightly. "Hey, it's okay. I really doubt you will, all right?"

Clark looked down at their hands and settled into the contact. "Just tell me if I am," he said. "I'd rather know than think I'm doing something right and you're too polite to tell me."

"Hey, where'd you get the idea that I'm polite?" Dick smirked over his shoulder as they turned down the hallway.

"That's good point," Clark replied as they made their way to the tucked away room. He was suddenly eager to get there and it made his eyes itch a little. Thank God he could control that now.

Thank God Lex had taken the time to make sure he could. "Now, be careful -- when I say it's a small room, I mean it..." Dick flipped the lock open, and the door almost hit the side of the bed when it swung open.

"Cosy." Clark commented as he slipped into the room. "I can see why you preferred staying out."

"Yeah. And I've been staying at Oliver's, but at least it's a place to store my stuff." He closed the door behind Clark, and moved to turn on the single light in the room.

"And some place where you can be alone if you want to be," Clark replied, looking around stepping over a half empty bag towards more space. He slipped his hand in his pocket and slid on the band and then turned and smiled nervously. "Should I... uh... sit down?"

"Please," Dick gestured to the bed vaguely, taking a minute to shuck off his thin jacket, tossing it atop his heavier coat. "You don't have to be nervous. I promise I'm not going to bite."

Clark settled onto the small bed leaning back as was his habit. "Is that something to be pleased or disappointed about?" he asked, aware that he almost sounded like his brother when he spoke like that. Way too much time spent around Lex and his too-knowing ways.

"I guess that's up to you to decide," Dick murmured, and he moved closer, set a knee on the bed. "Just what part of what you saw did you like the look of best?"

A good question. The immediate answer probably would not be a good one to admit to. "All of it. It was... just hot, seeing you all like that," Clark admitted and nearly smiled at the unintentional joke. Hot in more ways than one. Hot in ways that only Lex could appreciate if he ever dared to make that joke in his brother's presence.

"Yeah? Really hot?" Dick slid closer, hovering near to him as he sat on the bed.

Clark laughed a little. "Yeah. I only caught a glimpse but, man, it's stayed with me... you with your mouth around... well... yeah."

"Go on," he goaded, near enough to kiss Clark. "Say it."

"With you mouth around Lex's... cock." Clark blushed at even saying the word in this context. He hadn't remembered feeling this nervous before going to his 'meeting' with Charlotte.

"Do you think you like cock?" Dick was smiling at him before he leaned in and laid his forehead against Clark's, mouth pressed to the edge of Clark's lips.

Clark smiled in return, the curve of his mouth brushing Dick's own with a tantalizing promise. "I'm hard just from talking about it," he murmured. "Yeah. I think I do."

"I bet yours is fucking huge," Dick leered a little as he shifted, pressed the brush of mouth to mouth into a proper, full kiss, a stroke of mouth against mouth before he parted his lips for Clark.

Kissing, after the initial moment of thinking too much that this was with a guy, was the delight Clark always enjoyed whenever he got an opportunity. His soft full lips seemed to naturally know how to stoke the passion between them, his tongue hungry and seeking Dick's even as he surreptitiously slid the band onto its lowest setting.

There was a difference. When Dick shifted to sit in his lap, there wasn't a press of breasts against his chest. There was the weight of a hard cock pressed low against his belly, narrow hips atop his thighs. He continued kissing even as his hands explored Dick's back, marveling in the whipcord lean muscle that seemed so defined beneath his fingers. He had one advantage over Dick -- he didn't seem to have to pause for breath, and Dick didn't do much pausing. Dick kissed and breathed through his nose, all the while wrapping fingers over Clark's sculpted shoulders, rocking and swaying slightly as he twisted to better ply Clark with eager kisses.

Clark tugged insistently at Dick's shirt, the subtle movements in his lap going a long way to stoking his need and impatience. Somewhere along the line, the strangeness and reservation of being with another man had vanished and he was reverting to his normal nature, wanting to give what he could without reservation Even if he didn't have much of an idea what exactly he'd be giving.

"Mmmm..." Dick pulled away slowly, looking back at Clark with eyes that were almost glowing with glee. "You have a great mouth."

"I do?" Clark looked direct at him and smiled. "This is a good thing?"

"Yes, unless you don't want to be a really hot kisser."

Clark practically beamed. "You're not just saying that?" he asked thriving on the small bits of positive feedback he was getting, that were so frequently missing from his Smallville encounters, what few of them there had been. No girl had ever quite smiled at him like that, or said something like that with such assurance to him.

"Of course not." Dick chuckled a little, squeezed his shoulder comfortably. "I think you're fishing for compliments."

"Sorry, didn't mean to." Clark looked a little shamefaced. "Just... not used to people thinking I'm any good at anything... well except Lex of course, and he can't really give me an indication on this sort of thing."

"He could, but you two don't strike me like the kissing cousins sort." Dick shifted against him again, smiling as he leaned to kiss against his jaw. "Help me get your shirt off."

Clark discovered it was actually quite awkward trying to do that while kissing and trying not to laugh at the thought of Lex and himself as kissing cousins. Eventually he managed it, revealing his muscular body in all its glory and he settled back a little.

Dick sat back, still straddling Clark's hips, and let out a low whistle. "You could pose for soft core porn with a body like that."

Clark looked up at him with a slight smile. "Farming does this sort of thing to you. Muscles on your muscles."

"They'd get in your way if you were a gymnast," Dick decided with a slight smirk as he rubbed hands teasingly over Clark's chest.

"You're... all lean lines and hard muscle," Clark replied half lidding his eyes at that touch. That felt good. Very good.

"You have to be to do what I do. Like you have to have muscle on muscles to -- what, pitch bales of hale around?" Dick slipped his fingers down, and one rubbed a lazy circle around Clark's right nipple

"Yes, and shovel shit. Hey... uh..." Clark swallowed. "That feels pretty... good."

"This? I take it no girl's ever bothered to try this on you?" Dick teased.

Clark shook his head. "Chantelle was more interested in what I could do for her... which was good, too. I liked the fact she enjoyed what I did. I want you to feel that way."

"Give and take," the other boy convinced him softly, laying his other hand on Clark's other nipple to roll it between two fingers with thoughtful skill. "It's best when it's equal."

"I can handle that... ah!" Clark looked surprised. He was sure he'd never realized that his nipples were that sensitive before.

"Good, isn't it?" Dick stopped for a moment, and shucked his own sweater off with guileless ease of motion.

"Very," Clark replied his eyes wide at seeing Dick's physique up close and personal. He had a whole new appreciation of the male body now; it was deeply intimate with him, and Dick didn't disappoint as he reached up to touch the firm smooth skin.

"Mmm, just like that. Touch me... anywhere, any way you like," Dick goaded gently, leaning forwards to put his hands on Clark's shoulders.

Clark mimicked Dick's motion, smoothing his thumb in towards the tight nipple. Much harder than Chantelle's had been he noted as he stared intently, and then nearly startled back as he dipped into Dick's skin with his x-ray vision, seeing the pulse of blood rushing to where he touched.

"You okay?" Dick asked a little warily at the inexplicable startle, his fingers pausing in their absent rubbing.

"I wasn't expecting it to feel so hard." Clark flicked his fingers over the nub and watched with fascination and amazement as he 'saw' the way the blood vessels contracted and expanded as it tightened up even more with arousal. "That's incredible." His beaming was somewhat inappropriate to the action but his delight was definitely genuine. It was like watching trails of fire behind his fingertips as blood rushed to the skin to respond to his touch. He could literally see what effect he was having.

Dick shivered, and breathed out a moan. "Isn't it? That feels good, do it again..." He canted his hips downwards gently, smirking just a little.

Clark did so and then leaned forward, stricken with an inexplicable urge to taste the skin. "Mmm...."

"Oh..." A soft, heady came exhalation from Dick, a shiver of delight when Clark's mouth contacted with his skin. "Oh, shit that feels good."

Encouragement only made Clark more assertive in his explorations. Dick tasted faintly of salt and a more visceral masculine musky undertone than he remembered from Chantelle's skin. He liked it, and showed that enjoyment with his mouth and tongue, sucking over the nipple area and then mouthing at the muscle around it, exploring the trails of muscle with his tongue. He could quite happily spend a long time lost in this sort of past time.

And Dick was willing to let him. "Jesus... sure you've never done this before?" Dick laughed happily, rocking his hips down against Clark's meaningfully.

"Does my imagination count?" Clark smiled up at him. "It feels good?"

"Really good. Let me show you?"

Clark paused and then nodded "Please," he agreed looking eager. He was actually emboldened by the fact he had been at least a little bit successful in pleasing Dick, even if he was probably being nice about it. That didn't change the fact that he wanted to know how it felt to be on the receiving end.

"Lay back," Dick instructed softly, hands pressing to Clark's chest as he started to slither down. "Get comfortable, and you can probably stay that way. Bed's not too small, is it?"

"No, no it's fine." Clark wasn't going to say anything to jeopardize what was going on and he lay back with a forced casualness.

"Don't be nervous," Dick urged as he pressed a kiss in the center of Clark's chest. "No reason for it..."

"You mean you weren't nervous your first time?" Clark replied. The soft lips did feel good against his skin and he relaxed a little.

"Really nervous," Dick chuckled, and his laugh reverberated against Clark's chest. "I came all over the guy's pants."

"I could end up doing that at this rate." Clark found he couldn't keep still whilst he was being touched like this and his hands just had to move. Move all over every available inch of Dicks' body with exploring caresses.

"Maybe I should get my pants off," Dick chuckled, and kissed a line down Clark's stomach before he knelt over Clark's knees and laid fingers on his belt. "And yours?"

Well, this was where the line would be crossed. If he got naked with Dick that would be him committed to whatever happened. He wanted it. He definitely wanted it. "Sounds like a good idea," he agreed, clearing his throat. The presence of him so close to his groin was enough to override any doubts he had.

"You've used condoms before, right?" Dick leaned down, pressing a kiss just over the edge of his jeans.

"You know the full extent of my experience, Dick. Once pretty much sums it up." Clark flushed red with arousal and a tinge of embarrassment.

"Not even to jack off? They're really good to keep the mess to a minimum..." Almost sage advice as he fingered open the top button and kissed the skin he revealed by pulling the taps of cloth back.

"You buy condoms in Smallville and the entire place knows," Clark replied nearly squirming under those kisses and breathing a little faster in anticipation.

"So where does your brother get them?" Dick winked, and started to slowly roll down Clark's zipper.

"Metropolis, I bet," Clark replied a little nervous about what Dick was going to think of him. Lex and his dad said he looked human normal and had nothing to be ashamed of, and Chantelle had seemed delighted with his ... assets, but Dick was most likely to be honest.

Not that Lex wouldn't have been, but Lex was a social liar of the highest degree, and usually sensitive of what people thought or would think. Dick slipped Clark's jeans down around his hips, and mouthed a kiss over the outline of Clark's cock through his boxers. "Mmm."

Clark yelped, and his cock practically twitched. "Jesus!" He hadn't been expecting quite so violent a reaction.

"Have you named it?" Dick chuckled and pressed another openmouthed kiss over top of it.

"Should name it after one of Lex's Ferrari's if I'm going to be this quick off of the mark... God, Dick..." He groaned a little as his boxers tented up very satisfactorily.

"Not sure about my deism..." Dick smiled, and pressed another kiss over the fabric before he slipped off the bed to pull Clark's jeans off of his strong legs. "My god, you're gorgeous."

"I still don't believe you," Clark said smiling. "And there's a good chance I might get to worship your dick later."

"Whatever's wrong with those girls in Smallville? There's absolutely no reason for you not to realize how hot you look..." Dick knelt on the bed again, and wrapped a hand around Clark's cock through his boxers.

Clark pushed up automatically. "Higher standards than me, I guess." That felt unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable.

And then Dick slipped his hand beneath the fabric, and pulled it down, letting Clark's cock bob free. "My luck, then."

The way Clark's cock leapt to attention when release demonstrated exactly how much he was enjoying the experience. "Please Dick, touch me?" he asked. "Again?"

"I'll do better than touch you," Dick whispered as he leaned forwards. His eyes were staring at Clark's cock, like it was some hypnotic snake, or like he was trying to stare it down into submission. It left Clark worrying for a moment that there was something wrong with it, but then Dick darted his tongue out, and licked the very tip. "Mm."

There was no way that the tiny moist contact should have felt as electrifying as it was, but Clark felt his eyes go wide in surprise and hastily had to pull back from hastily letting loose with heat vision. "Fuck! That can't be normal!" He felt like he was going to come there and then.

Dick laughed, and pressed his lips to the side of Clark's cock. "I can't believe no one's ever sucked your dick, Clark! It's perfect; it's like... something out of a painting. You have the perfect penis."

"This is not a claim to fame I can shout from the rooftops, Dick." Clark blinked back the stinging hot itch of his eyes. "I swear, you do that again and I'm going to come, perfect penis or not!"

"Will that take the edge off of it for you?" Dick grinned, looking up at Clark. "We've got all night."

All night. All night with Dick and... "I'm definitely not going to last all night... please, Dick, help me out here," he practically pleaded.

Dick was grinning as he leaned down, gusting breaths over the tip. "All right, but you're definitely going to repay the favor. Do you think we can... You know, fuck?" he pressed mischievously, still not giving Clark that pleasure of contact.

"If it... feels... as good as this... hell, yes," Clark managed, and sure enough pretty much the moment that Dick's practiced lips finally deigned to touch his cock it was all he could do not to come.

"It feels that good," Dick assured. "You can, you know, be on top if you'd be more comfortable with it. That helped me my first time..." And then he leaned down to press another kiss to Clark's cock, sliding his lips down over the tip and engulfing the head. His tongue scraped sweet friction over Clark's foreskin, just behind his lips.

"Oh... my God..." Clark closed his eyes a moment as he was beginning to wonder if the fireworks in his head might translate into the real thing. Who knew with his weird alien development? "I don't want to hurt you." he managed, but it might be easier. Considering the only other sexual experience he'd had had been with him on top.

There wasn't an answer, though. Dick seemed pretty sure of what he was doing, and gave Clark a suck even as he moved further down to take more of Clark in. One hand squirmed down further, cupping and stroking Clark's balls.

Clark surreptitiously fiddled with the band since he really didn't want there to be any chance of harming Dick. The stroking was unbelievable; it made him prickle inside. He couldn't help it, he moved just a little, wanting movement.

"Mmm." Dick pulled back, pulling off of Clark with suction before just licking the tip again. "You like this?"

"Yeah, yeah, Jesus, Dick..." It was practically a gasp. "I'm right on the edge here." The tip was unbelievably sensitive and he quivered again.

"Go over it," Dick suggested slyly, before he slid his lips over the head again, tonguing at the slit while he went down further.

That was enough to do it. He pushed up and came at the same time as he let out a half-cry of surprise at what had just happened. He'd come. Not just that but in a guy's mouth!

And Dick... didn't mind. Dick was swallowing, still sucking at his tip even when he spurted, even when he stopped. Dick definitely knew what he was doing. He pulled back, grinning. "What do you think of this as a wrap-up to your vacation?"

"Best vacation EVER," Clark replied dreamily and then realized he should be paying more attention to Dick who was lavishing a lot of attention on him. More than anyone before, that was for sure. He shifted so he was sitting up "Can I... you know, try that on you? Is it hard?"

Dick licked his lips, and shook his head. "You just have to keep your teeth out of the equation. Want to switch spots and maybe finish getting undressed?"

"Yeah, no problem." Clark got up hastily and shed the rest of his clothes a little self-consciously. "No teeth. Right. Anything else I should know?"

"Nope." Dick shimmied out of his pants, and tight -- Christ, a pair of underwear that looked more like bikini bottoms than underpants, a veritable codpiece. "Wow, I was right about muscles on muscles. You're gorgeous," Dick declared as he sat down on the edge of the bed, legs loosely parted.

Clark still found that amazing, that someone could really think he was attractive. "You're the one with the whipcord model look," he pointed out, settling back on the bed so he could get to Dick's erection

It was smaller than his own, what Clark guessed was average size, and it had a little leftward tilt. The skin at the head was cut, and all of it was flushed a heavy, eager shade of red. "I think our respective looks suit us fine. You... really could have most of the civilized world eating out of your hands. Come here, sexy."

Clark leaned over to kiss Dick then, tasting a certain salty sweetness to his lips that had not been there before. That had to be him. That was a really weird thought. He drew back and unconsciously licked his lips thoughtfully.

"Yeah. That's what you taste like. Ever tasted yourself before?" Dick asked in sincere curiosity.

"No." Clark was surprised. Did normal people DO that? Taste their own jizz?

"Really? Wow, you're not much into experimentation, are you?" Teasing again, as Dick spread his knees a little more because Clark's shoulders were broad.

"Maybe I can change that," Clark replied glancing up at Dick before shifting back. He wasn't quit bold enough to dive right in there, so he started tentatively kissing at the inner thigh.

Dick slipped his fingers down into Clark's hair, smiling to himself. "I think you could. Inventiveness is self taught, after all."

"Just, uh... tell me if I do something you don't like." Clark murmured again, the words a little muffled even as he worked inwards closer to Dick's erection. His had felt so good he didn't want to let Dick down.

Dick didn't seem to think that he would, though. Fingers kept slipping through his hair. "I will, if you do. Just remember that what feels good for you, probably feels good for me."

Well, there was a place to start. Dick's tongue on the head of his cock had felt fantastic. And then the bit where he had tongued downs his length... Okay he could do that. Slowly. He took his time, working around the area, more as a way of getting used to tasting flesh rather than a deliberate tease and then paused, lifting his head a little and flicked over the top of the tip as Dick had done to him. It was a strange taste. Not sweet not sour but sort of... both. He tasted again, intrigued.

Dick let out a slow, sultry breath, and gave a pleased hum of noise to go with it. "Jesus, that feels good, Clark. That's the way to do it..."

Well, the best way seemed to be to learn what was going on with his tongue. He began a rather thorough exploration of the head, up and down the shaft, the underside, and the top, down to the balls. He probed around there, exploring with tongue and soft lips mouthing at loose skin experimentally.

Good sensations, from the way that Dick closed his eyes and humped his hips up to Clark's mouth, motions gentle. He groaned, too, hands never leaving Clark's hair. "Yes, kiss just like that, your mouth is so fucking hot, Clark..."

Clark nearly smiled to himself. He wanted to be good at this, and Dick was nice and had been a good friend and...

He played a little more before returning to slowly lower his mouth down over Dick's erection. He remembered the heat and how it felt engulfing him. Hmm, it wasn't that easy to keep teeth out of it. Dick had... blown out his cheeks a bit and folded his lips over his teeth. Okay...

More encouraging words came then, and Dick shifted his legs further apart to encourage Clark. "Suck just like that, Clark. Jesus, take it all!"

Take it all. Right.

He paused a moment as he tried to sort out where his tongue should go. The reaction to that was favorable enough that he did it some more and then tried a little bit of sucking and then released as he worked to take all of Dick in. A quick fiddle with the band made it a lot easier and comfortable on his throat, and he managed to have negotiated Dick's length down his throat without gagging. He felt absurdly proud of himself over that and had to remember not to smile. Swallowing was better.

Dick brought his hips up against Clark again, fingers spasming in Clark's hair. "Oh, god, I'm fucking your throat!" He sounded so surprised, so delighted as he started to try to hump into Clark's mouth. His balls started to draw tight, the twitching of his hips erratic.

That took a little getting used to, but Dick's reaction was everything he had hoped for so he wasn't going to give up on it now. It was just a case of moving, and trying to find an angle. He managed to do it in the end by leaning right over and slipping his hands in around the small of Dick's back to support him

Held up to Clark's mouth with nowhere to go but in, Dick gave in and shoved a few last thrusts up to Clark's mouth. Then Clark was faced with the surprising thing that was a burst of semen, right into his mouth.

It nearly ended up coming out of his nose because he was so surprised he nearly coughed at the wrong moment, but it seemed that it would be... well, impolite to allow the salty liquid to spill out all over the place. Dick hadn't done so and okay, it wasn't the nicest thing he had swallowed but then some of the cappuccinos he'd had at the Talon when the machine was on the fritz had been worse and he'd choked them down. It wasn't that hard to swallow really, even if it was awkward.

Dick slumped back, trapping Clark's hand between the mattress and the curve of his ass, and let out a slow, sated groan as he stroked Clark's hair. "That was amazing."

Clark withdrew, licking off his residue carefully. "It was okay?" He looked up over the trim body to gauge Dick's feelings.

His chest was heaving a little with slowing breaths, and the narrow body had a thin sheen of sweat covering it. "Clark, that was brilliant. No one else has ever done it that way before. I take back everything I said about you not being creative."

Clark beamed, relieved and happy. "I thought they did that sort of stuff in... movies," he said moving his hands over Dick with a little more confidence. Yes! He'd enjoyed it. For once he deserved a pat on the back for something.

Dick shifted lazily, pressing into Clark's hands. "Yeah, but movies are one thing. It's different when it's reality. You really took the edge off of me..."

"That was the idea. I want to have a lot of time to explore what else we're doing tonight," Clark replied. "Don't want you to forget me, even if we've only known each other for a week or so." He was going to miss Dick a lot, even more now. "Tell me what else I should know?"

"That depends on what you want to know, and what you think you should know," Dick grinned. "Come up here so I can kiss you, and we'll figure it out." Clark pushed himself upwards, canting off to the side a little and resting so he could kiss Dick's mouth gently. He was willing, if not eager to be given directions. It helped when Dick slid his bare legs against Clark, wrapping one over Clark's hips to bring him closer when they kissed. "You're so gorgeous, I can't believe I'm lucky enough to teach you this stuff."

Clark laughed a little. "Dick, you're the one who can have your pick of everyone. If you turned up in Smallville, you'd have everyone drooling over you. Like you do here."

"It should cut both ways. Looking like you do, the whole town should eat out of your hand," Dick grinned. And then he moved, grinding his hips against Clark's. "Have you ever put a condom on?"

"Once. The other night. With uh... Chantelle." Clark replied looking surprised at the movement, pleasantly surprised. "I can do that."

"Do you think that maybe... we can fool around a little? Let me see if I can get you hard again, and let's go from there?" Dick suggested slyly.

Clark looked at him "Me getting hard is not going to be a problem," he said with a grin. "And you want me to do something with it when I do, don't you? You want me to fuck you?"

"Yeah. You'll see it's sort of different than with girls," Dick grinned, shifting against Clark for a moment before he started to pull away. "Lay down again, and get comfortable."

Clark did so, wondering what Dick was going to do. He knew roughly what it involved but some books and porn took artistic license with what should be done. He'd already discovered that once tonight.

Dick moved off of the bed, grinning. "Okay, we need lube, which I just happen to have... Let me get the stuff out of my bag." Did Clark really want to think that Dick had it because he'd been having a minor orgy with Lex, Clark's older brother? From his body's reaction, it turned out that he did. That was sort of embarrassing and he tried not to think about it; but not thinking about 'fucked Lex' was on a par to the whole 'pink elephants' thing. Great, now he had that tune in his head with entirely different imagery and lyrics.

After all, it was pretty hard to forget how it had looked to see Oliver's thick dick up inside of his brother. Would Dick look like that, on top of him? He got a great view of Dick's ass as he bent to rummage through his suitcase, coming back with a condom and a large tube of half-used lubricant. "This stuff feels really good."

"That's good." Clark studied it a moment. "So... uh, yeah, the condom and lube. I know the principles but... how do I know when to do stuff?"

He was worried about hurting Dick, quite a lot. Without the band, it would be all too easy.

"When?" Dick laid it down beside Clark on the bed, still grinning to himself as he knelt on the bed, and nudged Clark's legs apart. He was already half-hard, which seemed to surprise Dick.

"So I don't hurt you or anything," Clark replied. "Fuck, I don't want to hurt you Dick,"

"You won't hurt me," Dick laughed as he kissed the side of Clark's knee. "Really. Put some lube on my fingers, and I'll give you a tiny taste of what it feels like."

A tiny taste. Right, sounded good. He picked up the tube and squeezed out a gloop -- and he decided this was the official measurement of lube in gloops -- onto Dick's fingers. "Enough?"

"Plenty." Dick shifted, almost laying down, and started to mouth Clark's cock again, teasingly kissing his balls and then the inside of his thigh, before sliding those slicked fingers back between Clark's asscheeks.

"Ooh that's cold and..." Clark swallowed whatever word came next as the slippery fingers pushed back. "Uh..." He looked stunned and his eyes unfocused. "Jesus! Dick!"

Just one slid in, though Dick slid it all in, lifting his head to look up at Clark's face. "How does that feel?"

Clark was having trouble focusing. "Pretty... amazing..." He shivered as his cock twitch upwards again. "Feels... large, but it's only one... what about... you know... size..."

Dick rubbed his cheek against the inside of Clark's leg, and drew that finger back to slip another one in beside it. "You're... really really tight. And lemme see if I can find your... huh. Your prostate gland is hiding from me."

"Feels pretty good as it is .." Clark huffed out. "Shit... Dick, that is ..good."

"That's sex," Dick smiled as he slowly worked those two fingers in and out. "Feels really good to you?"

"Hell yes." Clark could barely focus. "Like fire and... lightning when you move." He was definitely hard again now.

"Think you'd like me to do that to you?" Dick purred as he kept moving those two fingers.

Clark swallowed "I... don't know... maybe... don't stop." There was a hint of reservation in his mind that he couldn't pinpoint.

"You can do it to me, first," Dick offered as he gave his fingers a last few twitches. "If I take the edge off again, I don't think you'll be able to get it up again," he teased.

"Spoilsport. I'm sure I could manage." Clark quivered and then relaxed. "I think I'm going to take my time over this, give you chance to catch up."

"Yeah?" Dick wiggled his eyebrows at Clark, and moved his fingers slowly in and out. "So should I stop, or keep going?"

"Keep going... then I can spend a long time on you," Clark promised. It wouldn't be hard to come again, not now.

"If you can manage three times, Clark, you are indeed a wonder of the world," Dick murmured as he leaned in to kiss Clark's cock again, shifting a third finger to try to slip it in beside the other two.

"That isn't normal?" Clark drifted again at the new addition. "Oh... god, yeah, that's..."

Indescribable. The more pressure in there, the more it set him going. The thought of something larger up there was strangely frightening and appealing at the same time. He was going to manage to come again, he felt like he could keep doing this all night.

Maybe it was part of being an alien. Maybe his whole species was really really queer, and he'd had two dads instead of what he had with Jonathan and Martha. Weird thoughts to have, but... everything seemed to be setting him farther and farther adrift in sensation.

"Mmm." Dick was working three fingers into him, his pinkie finger ticking at sensitive skin just behind Clark's balls, and once more, he engulfed Clark down to the root.

He could have held on, but he chose not to. He would hold on with the next and this felt so good he felt it would be a waste of what Dick was doing to deny it. He climaxed again with a pleased cry, more comfortable with sharing the intimacy of that moment now.

Dick seemed to have trouble swallowing it all down, and finally stopped moving his fingers within Clark as he pulled back. "You know, I'm going to have to get you hard again to get a condom on you."

"Let me just... roam a little." Clark murmured, suspiciously fresh and still ready for action considering he had just come twice. "It'll be okay... a bit of exploring, you know? Doesn't take me much to get hard." Or to ejaculate by the looks of it; but he felt confident this time he could choose when to come, not come every time something new was touched.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say you were on something," Dick teased as he squirmed his fingers slowly free. "All right."

"Only sixteen years of celibacy and wishful thinking," Clark replied with a dazzling smile. "And presented with a body like yours... you're surprised?"

It was something to note for the future however; being too much of a 'super-stud' might attract attention. He shifted position and began to explore Dick's body all over again, using his vision to find the sensitive reactive areas and just learning the human body on as many levels as he could.

What Clark lacked in experience, and he did make a few mistakes that he could tell weren't exactly to Dick's taste, he made up for in terms of his other attributes. He was curious, thorough, he could 'see' where he was having an effect, and he had a peculiar stamina that allowed him not to run out of strength or get bored with a position until he was really done with it. He genuinely did seem to be willing to take all night over Dick.

Dick lay back, grinning to himself, as he grew hard again. Being kissed and licked and touched everywhere was good, even if Clark was learning. "This is going to be worth it even if you can't get it up again," he grinned, teasing again.

"I wouldn't worry about that." Clark glanced up at him. "You taste good enough to make me hungry again." It had to be the sex, but Dick genuinely did taste good. He reached for the lube, got another gloop onto his fingers and started to imitate what Dick had done for him. Knowing how good it felt made the difference in overcoming the thought of putting fingers ...there. It did feel tight though. He couldn't help the glance between his fingers and his half-mast cock. Big difference. Too big a difference maybe?

Dick groaned for Clark as he tried to spread his legs, one ending up right against the wall because the room was pretty small. "Fuck, yes. Work me over real good, Clark, I want to do you from above."

"From above?" Clark concentrated on the moments he could see his finger making inside of Dick and what seemed to be getting the best reaction.

"On top of you," Dick clarified as he humped his ass back against Clark's lone finger. "Go for two. That feels really good..."

Clark considered this. "Oh... Oh right!" Comprehension dawned. A bit like Lex had been with Oliver and... wow, that brought his cock twitching upwards. "Sounds good." And it was, he wouldn't hurt Dick in doing it. Yes, perfect. He slipped in the second finger and brushed over a mass he could 'see' protruding just a little.

"Uhm, that... feels perfect. Sometimes, mm, a guy's too sensitive there, but I'm not..." Dick stretched his arms up over his head, reaching for the low headboard for a moment so he wouldn't interfere with what Clark was doing.

"That's... a good place?" Clark asked stroking him carefully there with the tips of the fingers. Was that the mythical prostate he heard about?

Dicks' dick gave a bobbing jerk that time, and the younger man just groaned. "Yeah. You can do that to you... oh, god, yourself, but it's not the same..."

It wasn't something that Clark had ever given much thought to, but he would now. "Well at least I know roughly where to find it now," he murmured. "My fingers fit better now," he observed with slight surprise as if Dick had performed a minor miracle all on his own.

"Yeah. Try another finger? Just not your whole hand," Dick half-laughed, pulling his legs back towards himself to give Clark better access to his ass.

"You can DO that?" Clark paused in shock even as he followed the suggestion. He hadn't managed to find ALL of Lex's porn stash after all, it seemed.

"Some people can," Dick grinned, closing his eyes. "I know a couple of people who could, just out of sheer determination... Not me, though."

"I... uh... wow." Clark nearly blushed at the thought. Three seemed big enough and Dick was practically purring with happiness. He could get addicted to that. Someone that happy because of what he was doing. That was enough of a novelty in his life that it was a more potent motivation that anything. He used those fingers and sucked Dicks cock some more, gaining in confidence.

"Mmm, yeah... Suck it a little more, Clark, just like that... I'm ready now, I think I can take your big dick in if you're hard enough." More teasing, and Dick moved a hand from the headboard to stroke through Clark's hair for a moment.

"I think so." Clark shifted again so a hot length pressed against Dick for a moment. "Good enough?" he teased back.

"Oh yeah," Dick breathed, eyes widening a little as he shifted to lean up and kiss Clark. "Let's switch positions, so I can lube you up."

Clark lingered to the kiss and then withdrew his fingers and shifted to the side so Dick could get up, and then laid back propped up again, looking at Dick with hungry interest.

Dick retrieved the lube from where it had rolled to the floor, and the condom he'd grabbed. "I can't believe you're hard again. It's really... This is going to take forever," he grinned and kept grinning as he opened the plastic wrapper on the condom.

"I think I can last as long as you can on this." Clark responded to the challenge, his green eyes dark as he challenged Dick. "Got good stamina... it's that shit shoveling again."

"Shit shoveling leads to better sex lives?" Dick snickered as he kissed Clark's dick one more time, then unrolled the condom slowly down over Clark. "You're just lucky I have condoms for 'oversized' guys with me. You'd snap a normal one."

"I would?" So, many people lied about their size then? He really didn't know. "I thought I was maybe a little bigger than normal or something." That felt... strange. A little like when he dropped a notch in the kryptonite. Just an edge off of sensitivity.

"Comparing in the locker room?" Dick teased as he rolled it down, leaving space at the tip. Then more lube was slicked over it.

That felt good. Maybe not as good as skin on skin, but good. "Maybe if I'd been on any sports teams I might have had more opportunity to compare." Clark replied.

"Still. Gym class?" Dick teased as he shifted to kneel over Clark's hips.

"Oh, I'm usually out of there before most of them get in." Clark replied looking up at him

Dick had smooth motions, and he reached between his own legs to grasp Clark's dick as he sat over Clark's hips. "That's really a shame."

Clark jerked a little in reaction to that. "How... how so?" His mouth had gone dry suddenly.

"Well, if you had hung out in the locker room, I bet you would've gotten a lot more experience. Still, Smallville's loss is my gain. How do you like that?" Dick rubbed himself against Clark's cock, smiling.

"'s good." Clark glazed over a moment as his attention gravitated to his cock.

"Good. Try to hold still for me," Dick murmured as he shifted his hips forwards, leaning back a little as he positioned the head of Clark's dick against himself. It felt, to Clark, like it just wasn't going to work. How was he going to end up in there?

Holding still was proving to be difficult. Tight didn't even describe it. Chantelle hadn't been this tight, hadn't pressed on him like a vice. "Don't... Don't hurt yourself, Dick," he said, feeling he needed to warn his lover.

Dick had his head bent down, a concentrated look on his face. "I won't. I just... here, put your hands on my hips."

Clark did so, sensing he was meant to give him some measure of support. "Like that?"

Dick rocked his hips a little, pressing against Clark's hands to get comfortable. The motion rubbed Dick against Clark's cock, still just held to push into him. "Now just push your hands down. Makes it easier for me..." Concentrating on that and the wild sensation going on in his erection was almost more than he could handle to start with. But he did so, slowly and gently, barely exerting even himself

Dick drew a sharp breath, and bent his legs out as they both felt a burst of sensation that was like a jolt. "Jesus, you could plough fields with a head like that... You. You're in me now. How's that feel?"

The expression on his face must have said something of how it felt because words were failing him. His first reply was a sound only, nothing coherent, and it was a moment before he could speak. "Tight... good, very good." It was the most speech he could manage.

"Just good?" Dick teased, panted, as he held still. Clark could see the rest of his cock protruding from Dick, and it looked like it would never get any further than it was.

"Can't... think of words," Clark replied starting to feel the start of that urge to move that had carried him through his experience with Chantelle. His skepticism showed in his eyes as he looked down and then up at Dick.

"Think I can't take it?" Dick leaned back against Clark's legs, and started to push himself down with some effort. "Mmm."

"Ahh... ahh... Jesus, Dick!" Clark had to try very hard to get used to the sensation. Condom or not, he could feel the warmth and tightness in a way that no movie or magazine could have described. Thank God they'd had such a productive night already, otherwise he would have been coming again.

"Yeah..." Dick's eyes closed tight in ecstasy, and he finally lowered his ass down to Clark's hips. "I can feel you in my throat..."

Being encased in that grip and flesh was enough to make him wonder if he had been a little hasty in saying he could last as long as Dick did. "Can feel you... everywhere. Want to move," he admitted but holding still nonetheless.

"Okay." Dick leaned forwards, still kneeling over Clark's dick, on Clark, and tried to kiss him. "Move."

Not as easy as the wanting would have him believe. He could only manage gentle small movements from this angle, which was probably just as well. The difference being was that he could keep that going a long time past when someone else would have given up on the effort.

"This will... uhn. Let me get used to you," Dick murmured, moving into Clark's motions with ease that showed he was the one in control.

"..'k" Clark managed varying his movement to try and assuage the need that was growing.

"Feels good?" Dick half-asked, still grinning to himself. "You're so fucking huge, Clark. If I didn't know better, I'd say you... uhn, grew."

Now there was something he hadn't considered. "Maybe... you.... shrank," Clark said half nervous as he nearly laughed.

It actually did get a laugh out of Dick, as he worked his ass back. "If you want to switch positions, we can. Dare you to try it and not pull out..."

"No... no, this is good," Clark replied settling down and reaching a plateau where he was used to what he was doing. "I could shift so I supported you some more, maybe?" He suggested, nothing he had the strength to do so.

"Yeah, that might help," Dick murmured, voice a little breathy and unfocused.

Okay, so how did he DO that? Clark curled his arms underneath Dick and then lifting him with apparent ease managed to hold him up so he could get to a kneeling position. It was the way he could think of so that Dick could use his arms behind him to support him, or his shoulders to help him move. And of course, they could kiss too. This seemed like a good plan, and it was for him as he could kneel that way indefinitely.

It ended up being a lot like how Lex had looked on Oliver, except facing the other way.

"Oh, fuck me, you're strong," Dick moaned, wrapping his arms around Clark's shoulders as he started to work himself onto Clark with more urge in his shifts. "God, this feels good." Particularly since Dick's cock was trapped between their bodies, rubbing against Clark's stomach as Dick shifted his legs again to wrap around Clark's hips to better work with him.

That was ideal, Clark got to nuzzle and kiss at Dick's neck, face and hair, feel the heat of him against his body, and flex a little muscle to lift and rise as Dick indicated until he was following his directions almost instinctively. It was just as well because coherent thought was vanishing. They could have been like that for hours for all Clark knew. It certainly felt endless. There was definitely something about it, something to the feel of the way Dick's muscled arms clutched at him every time a really good spot got hit, something about the feel of his body and the way that Dick reacted, that made it better than the night he'd had before.

"Oh, yes, fuck, yes, now, harder, I'm almost there..."

Dick seemed to respond more when he rose up as he came down; the last few times he knelt up into the thrust, tilting the way that Dick clutched at him, back or forward, losing himself to the moment. "Dick!" He arched his back and threw his head back with abandon.

Clark felt a tightening, a spasming around his cock for just a moment, and Dick slumped against him exhaustedly, still squirming and shifting a little. A steady stream of murmured words left him, most of them incoherent or just noises. Clark took that as a point to push Dick backwards and finish for himself in a dozen or so wild thrusts, still holding Dick close as he cried out with the sheer joy of it.

"Mmm," he managed as he tumbled them together.

"Uh-huh..." Dick sounded dazed, and the hands draped over Clark's back seemed lethargic and slow to move. "You're good."

"I think that's more to do with you," Clark murmured even as he shifted out of him awkwardly. He guessed he was meant to do that at least. "I was so lucky you were here."

Smallville seemed a very long way away in that moment.

And so close. He'd have to go back soon...

Dick gave a quiet moan, and stretched his legs out slowly. "Then I was lucky I was here when you were. I... think I'm spent."

Clark nuzzled at him a little. "I'm gonna miss you," he said a little wistfully. "You promise to drop by if you ever come anywhere near Smallville?"

"Definitely," he grinned sleepily. "We're going to Gotham next, and that's sort of close..."

"Metropolis is closer and I might be able to persuade Lex to take me, or lend me a car." Clark was bouncing back quicker and he kissed Dick again. "You leave early, don't you?"

"Not too early." Dick's expression was a sly one as he kissed Clark back, and then drew him close for a good, long kiss. "Stay here for a while."

Clark smiled at him then. "As long as I can," he promised as he settled down beside him. Lex would either know where he was by now or suspect him to be with 'Chantelle'. And right now, this was closest he had been to anyone for a long, long time outside of his family. He wanted to savor that feeling for as long as he could before it faded away.

Such things couldn't last forever.

It was good to be home, time-zone issues or not. Well, driving home again, driving Clark home. It was night, and Lex was strung out on his choice of substances to abuse: coffee and adrenaline. It was still early in the evening, but technically it was the middle of the morning to their biological clocks. Lex was just glad for a vacation well done, stress free, and the aversion of disaster that was Clark's new power manifesting itself.

Those pine trees had never seen it coming.

"So, we've got a couple of hours drive, Clark. What're we going to tell Mom and Dad?"

"About what?" Clark was still wearing the faint smile that had seemed permanently glued there since his last night with Dick. "We did some damn good skiing?"

"Mount Grayson and Mount Chantelle, in no particular order?" Lex asked, with an eyebrow arched. They had done a lot of skiing, that was true.

Clark blushed immediately. "Lex, c'mon, give me a break. I'm beginning to wish I hadn't told you."

"This is what older brothers are for," Lex grinned. "You could tease me, but are you going to?"

"Are you kidding me? How can I tease you? You're totally... unrepentant," Clark pointed out. "I'm the one who's going to get killed by Dad here."

"Didn't I promise to be responsible with you?" Lex reminded him. "We have to decide whether to be honest or lie, first of all. Or lie through omission."

Clark grimaced a moment. "You think Mom and Dad aren't going to know? I mean, there are times I swear Mom's got telepathy or something. I don't know if I can lie to them any more than I could to you."

"How about we try the vague tactic, then? Through safe-sex, you explored your sexuality?" Lex glanced at Clark in the rearview mirror, still grinning a little.

"Tell Dad I got laid and leave it at that," Clark grinned back. "Does it show? I mean, is anyone else likely to guess?"

"Yeah. You 're glowing like a fluorescent light, Clark." Lex looked a little sympathetic. "Don't worry about it. Our parents are pretty understanding people. After... well, everything I've put them through, I know this for sure."

"Oh God. That will mean Chloe will know for sure, " Clark replied with groan. "If she even cares," he muttered a little to himself. "It was just... so much less complicated there."

"I wouldn't stress over it. Do you think Helen will be able to guess what I've been up to? Not likely."

Clark glanced at him a nameless concern surfacing again. He just wasn't sure about what Lex was doing with Helen. It didn't seem like he was in love with her, not after what had been doing in Switzerland. "Don't you feel a bit... well, you know, if you don't want to be with Helen then why are you with her?" he asked seriously.

"Keep your friends close, Clark, and your enemies closer." Lex shifted his fingers on the steering wheel, drumming a little to the music Clark had turned down. "She worries me."

Clark frowned. "In what way? She really likes you. I can see that."

"She has an intense interest in the local freaks of nature," Lex murmured. "Too much scientist for her own good."

Clark was a bit uncomfortable with that, uncomfortable with the whole situation. "But... that makes knowing her risky, right?"

"Yes," Lex admitted. "But the benefits of being intimately aware of what she's doing, and also of extending my own research through her is... outweighing it."

"Hope you know what you're doing, Lex." Clark replied sounding a bit uncertain. "Me having my ass kicked by Lana and Chloe would be nothing compared to what Helen might do to you if you upset her. After all, she knows about your healing."

"I know." Lex was quiet for a moment, still drumming his fingers a little bit. "I just needed a week to unwind and blow off some steam. The same as you did."

Clark was back to grinning again. "Yeah, lots of steam. If the Circus comes near Metropolis can we go see Dick in action?" he asked hopefully.

"I think you've seen dick in plenty of action," Lex joked him again ignoring his grimace at the bad pun. "Yeah, we will."

"Cool." Clark leant back. "So I get to have dick jokes forever now do I?"

"Absolutely. In fact, you're making me jealous. You lost both kinds of virginity in a two day period. That has to be a Kent record."

"Hey, you encouraged me," Clark replied. "Second type was best though." He smiled to himself, nearly smirking.

"News which will no doubt over-joy Dad," Lex chuckled. "'Hey, dad, I'm bisexual leaning towards gay, just like Lex!'"

Clark laughed easily and mimicked Jonathan. "Lex, what have I told you about setting examples for your younger brother?"

"At least you've followed my footsteps only in the harmless ones," he returned seriously.

"That's why having an older brother is the best," Clark replied only half joking. "As Dick pointed out, it's not exactly many older brothers who'd willingly have their younger brothers even trying to walk in those harmless footsteps. Especially dealing with ones that nearly toast them accidentally." He patted Lex's arm even as he said, "Thanks, Lex. Really. You were right, it was a good idea."

"Thank Bruce. It was his cabin we stayed in," Lex reminded him. "I just... figured you needed some time away from things."

"I did. I really did, after everything. I hope Mom and Dad have been okay," Clark replied bit just a hint of concern. "I can't help but worry, what with everything."

What with Smallville still being Smallville. "I know. Sometimes I wish I could be there all the time to help with things. But they didn't call or..." Lex laughed darkly. "The authorities didn't call, so I think we're all right."

"You're not reassuring me, Lex," Clark chuckled. "Anyway, odds are Dad will be freaked out enough about the whole eye heat ray thing. "

"On the checklist of revelations, heat-ray vision ought to top out 'had gay sex with circus performer'." Lex couldn't help but smile when he said that. "Look at it this way -- at least the terrain was a good place to figure it out."

"In an ordinary family it might," Clark replied smiling. "Skiing was good, too. The whole thing was great."

"And you'll get to gloat to your friends about what you did at the beginning of your summer."

"I'm getting the impression that I shouldn't reveal ALL the details," Clark replied. "Dick seemed surprised about the three times thing."

"It could very well be part of your anatomy." It was also a testament to Lex's steadfastness of personality that he'd withstood Clark telling him all of the details. He didn't tell Clark about Oliver, and everything else he'd done, but Clark had just been so concerned about it, that... It had all spilled out onto Lex's lap, when all Lex really wanted there was Clark himself.

"I think there are some differences in my anatomy after all," Clark replied. He shrugged. "We nearly there yet?"

"Why, do you have to take a piss? I told you to let me finish off your coffee from the airport..." Lex flicked his eyes to the clock on the dashboard. "Another forty minutes. You can go to sleep, if you want."

"I might do that." Clark said settling back in the seat. "If you don't mind."

"I don't mind." Lex minded so very little, but he did turn the music up a tiny bit so he could keep awake on the last leg of the drive. "I bet you can't wait to sleep in your own bed."

"My own bed sounds good." Clark murmured shutting his eyes. "And Mom's food. She'll have made dinner. You're staying for dinner, right?"

"Yeah. I think I might just crash on the sofa tonight," Lex whispered as he gently applied a little more acceleration. "Sleep. I'll wake you up when we get there." There was no reply, only a sleepy mumble as Clark settled into a happy and relaxed sleep, wringing every last bit of enjoyment out of his first real vacation. It wasn't going to be his last, Lex decided. Maybe next time they could go to somewhere in the tropics, a nice hot island for swimming and lounging in the sand. Hopefully Martha and Jonathan had enjoyed their time alone for the first time in... years. It was sort of ironic that Clark had cleared his head and Martha and Jonathan had no doubt done that, too, but he...

Lex felt like a mess inside, and he probably was. At least the week had been enjoyable. Helen was such a puzzle for him; he had feelings for her, just not nearly intense as his feelings for, say, Clark. He probably hadn't done himself any favors by encouraging his younger brother's sexual development. He would just have to find other ways to distract himself in the future, and try and forget about the trusting way his brother had confided exactly what had happened to him.

In explicit, arousing detail.

That was the closest he'd ever get to Clark. Sex by the proxy of Dick. Lex just needed to settle himself to that idea and try to move on in his own quirked way.

He made a mental note to have the latest line in cold showers installed at the mansion and with a barely audible sigh, fixed his sights on the just visible lights of Smallville and home.

Half an hour and some acceleration later, Lex coasted into the driveway of the Kent farm.

Home again, indeed.