CHAPTER SIX

Lex's head was pounding through the rest of the morning. He had some familiarity with what a woman might wear when doing housework, since he'd seen plenty of washer -women in the Luthor homes. He chose Betty-Sue's least pretty dress. A drab grey cotton thing, that hung very snugly around his derriere. He found an eggshell white colored bit of canvas cloth that was obviously meant to be an apron and threw that one on over his dress. Then he glided carefully down the stairs towards the kitchen.

Clark had been thoughtful enough to light a couple of lamps for Lex to see by.

Lex struggled in the kitchen getting acquainted with it. It was a fairly modern kitchen with a pump, so he wouldn't have to go out to the well or creek and gather buckets full of the cool, chilling water, for general clean up and food prep needs.

Strangely Lex didn't feel like an outsider with Clark's house so modernized. He'd heard horror stories about the Sod Busters and their houses. Living in barbaric conditions without an ounce of civilization amongst them. He was glad the stories were very wrong in this case.

The Kents seemed well off in comparison with some of their neighbors, it was obvious the Kents had a big farm and heavy production. They were leaders in their community and their opinions were always sought after.

In a whimsical mood, Lex was glad that he'd actually married into a well thought of and well-connected family. It was all most laughable and Lex appreciated the joke his life had suddenly become.

Imagine a Luthor and a Kent in wedlock? Lionel would have a conniption if he ever found out or a coronary, or one would hope anyway.

After exploring the pump and counters he then turned his attentions to the cupboards and pantry and cellar. He found tons of canned fruit's, jars and jars of fruit lined up perfectly on the shelf, Lex shuddered at all of the doily coverings and again counted the jars on the wall, shivering, how had Martha found the time?

Jars of vegetables, jars of fruit, and jams, canning, knitting farming housework, needlework, how had she found the time for it all? And was Lex going to be expected to do the same? It was a mind-numbing question.

Bags of flour lined the walls next to stacked bags of salt. Perfect orderly piles finishing up what little room was left along the walls in the pantry and cellar.

It was obvious Mama Kent had a hand in this. She lovingly stocked these shelves so her only son would not starve when he was out on his own. Lex was grateful for the food stocks. As Lex fingered one bag after the other he decided on hash and hot fruity-oats (his own invention).

Lex had always hated oatmeal and then one day alone in his travels he'd decided to take brown sugar and canned peaches and what little bit of cream he had left from the kindness of a farmer's daughter he'd run across the day before, he mixed them together in the stew pot. He'd made something very edible and very warming.

He'd show Clark that he knew how to cook. Sure it wasn't going to be gourmet, but it would do.

As Lex rummaged in the kitchen preparing their repast while Clark was outside beginning the chores. He cursed as he almost burned himself on the stove. It was a wood stove, therefore it needed kindling, getting the wood burning was a pain, then to watch the water heat up took another half hour and trying to avoid Clark's all seeing gaze, as he would come in from time to time to check on his Betty-Sue's progress. Lex had some pride and he would not bend it any further for Clark's help in the kitchen.

"Clark, out! Until I call you, get out. You're distracting me."

Clark being a good well-brought-up obeying son knew not to argue with a woman in the kitchen. He still shot a few looks of concern Lex's way though. Lex glared at him and Clark scampered out in to the yard, trying hard not think about visions of blazes and burning timber and dying Betty-Sue.

Lex fixed the door with an evil eye then satisfied Clark would not be in to bug him again until called. He returned his eyes to the stovetop and the small cauldron of boiling water. Happy, he stirred the contents, oats, cream and jar of peaches, into the pot. While on the other burner his chopped potatoes cooked in a pool of sizzling fat from equally chopped up meat. Breakfast was definitely going to be interesting. He just hoped Clark's stomach as well as his own stomach would survive it.

Lex's mind mused over the events of his life, including the many adventures he'd had in his travels all over Europe, and the known settled states of the North American continent. He'd had many experiences on steamboats and trains and ocean liners. Bored with his life he'd gone to gambling tournaments, been in taverns and whorehouses, kicking up his heels in the worst dens of iniquity he could find.

He'd dabbled in opiates, and gun fights, he'd earned his name as a feared gunslinger and gambler, all for a word of pride or praise or something. Something that said to him from his father, "Yes, I know you exist."

Maybe things wouldn't have spiraled so out of control if Lionel had been less egotistical. Lex would always wonder about that.

Sighing he sniffed the air and noticed his Hash needed stirring, it was beginning to smoke and burn. So he stirred, using arm muscles that ached from the unusual usage. He'd never scrubbed spuds or chopped them up before, nor sliced a haunch of meat off the rack. The hash was hard to stir and put more aches in his muscles.

If any one had told him a year ago, while he'd been in France, or better yet even a three weeks ago, when he'd been visiting New York's entertainment district, that his life was going to take a turn towards the absurd. He would have laughed at them. If they had told him he would be facing a conspiracy and attempts at assassination on his life, he would have told them to go jump, take a swan dive, in the Pacific.

He cursed as the oatmeal began to boil over. He had to scramble to contain the flow and keep it from getting worse. He also had to alternate between the hash and the mash. He knew he should have kept his mind on the task at hand.

If a fortune teller had told him in his childhood that he would meet three women and that he would in turn fall in love with each one of them and that they would each in turn try to kill him, he would have locked his heart against those pit falls and would have fought even harder against the emotions which had made him vulnerable to such attacks.

And if that same Fortune-teller had told him that he would meet a young man, at the end of that line of failed marriages, and that this same young man would be his destiny, what would Lex have done? He wondered if he would have run for the hills or embraced it?

Lex knew he was being way too philosophical and whimsical but he was exhausted and still suffering from indulgences from the night before and Betty-Sue had still to come out of her hiding place inside his mind. He wondered what was taking her so long. She was supposed to be the one doing all of this work not him.

Feeling this unsettling depth of emotions within his breast towards the barely known youth was driving Lex to the end of his rope. Perversion was not unknown in the Luthor blood-lines, but Lionel had made it quite clear to each one of his sons that if any one of his sons ever took that path they would be left to die a slow painful death as a pauper. Cast out from the Luthor home, hearth, power and influences.

Lex screamed as his hash caught fire and the oatmeal simultaneously exploded. Clark heard the scream outside, he thought at first it was Betty letting him know that breakfast was ready, but as he entered the house he spotted Betty running from the kitchen in total panic. Her apron was on fire. Food was everywhere on her chest and on the floor and on the ceiling.

The house was about to be set a flame.

Clark used his secret powers then, speedily smothering the flames engulfed Hash. He prevented the fire from spreading from the grease to the wooden floors and bright yellow-checkered curtains above the sink near the stove. The cauldron's contents were not on fire but they were boiling. He quickly blew on it and it cooled instantly to room temperature.

With Betty he covered her in a blanket and carefully patted her down. Betty was crying. She had mild burns on her arms and neck, luckily her clothes managed to keep most of the flames from touching the skin beneath the many layers of womanly under things. Of course, it helped too that Clark had gotten to her in less then a second.

Betty clung to him, sobbing, while profusely apologizing for the disaster. She had only wanted to show him that she could cook. Her pride had been stung. She sobbed for what felt like hours. Carefully Clark nursed her injuries, putting cream and aloe on them, and wrapping her arms in soft linen bandages.

"There, there, Betty-Sue, it's all right. I shouldn't have pushed you. I knew you weren't feeling well and that you were still out of sorts from the wedding and the alcohol. I'm sorry Betty."

"No, Clark, I should have been paying better attention. I'm sorry. I nearly burned our house down." Wept Lex.

On the inside Lex was calling himself a wimp. He was shaken more then he'd thought to keep on crying like this. He'd suffered worse injuries in his life. These burns were nothing to the whipping he'd taken at his father's hands when he'd been ten. By the next morning the burns would be gone, just as had been the wounds his father had given him. Another miracle ability bestowed upon him by the falling stars, all those years ago.

Meanwhile Clark was being very kind to him, very understanding and forgiving. This wasn't something Lex was used to at all. Luthors didn't forgive they got vengeance. They made people pay for their mistakes.

Luthors were ruthless, petty individuals. Luthors were never weak, never kind and never were they at the mercy of others.

Lex was in another's mercy, in another's debt. Clark had just saved his life and Lex had the feeling that this would not be the last time that Clark would be the salvation of his life. Clark put him to bed and refused to let him help with the clean up.

"Betty-Sue, just stay in bed, all right? I'll take care of things until you're up for ... things. Okay?"

Thought but unspoken (farm work/ house work, chores etc.)

"I don't want you killing yourself to make me happy." He chastised, even as his heart wouldn't stop beating in terror. He had almost lost Betty-Sue.

That was a frightening realization for them both.

Lex tried to coax a protest up from the bottom of his heart but none was forth coming. He knew Clark was right. He'd almost killed himself and almost burned down the house. He wasn't going to argue the point or deny that maybe some bed rest would do his nerves some good.

CHAPTER SEVEN

- BRUCE WAYNE -

His hopes were dashed but he could feel that they were indeed getting closer. He could feel it. That same feeling that had told him to look after Lex, to look past the name and bad reputation. He knew something was wrong with Lex knew that Lex was taking too long in getting in contact with him. He hoped this discovery would help him to help his friend and help them ultimately with their goal.

He sat back in his tent writing in his journal. The tomb was elegant and the artifacts more then he had dreamed but the elusive thing he was looking for was not yet found and he could feel his time slipping too quickly through his fingers. Lex needed him. He never should have allowed their paths to diverge in Ireland. He never should have let his friend, his brother, his beloved go.

Further ruminations

- - Memories/flash back- -

- School Room Mates -

Given more time to think about it and after having the young Luthor for a roommate during the second half of the school year, allowed Bruce to observe Lex Luthor in a different way and he had come to the conclusion that having Lex for a roommate had its pluses, but that Lex was also a little odd. He hadn't expected to be rooming with the social outcast. He hadn't expected to grow fond of Lex or think of him as more than a peer.

Each was quiet and introspective. Each had bright ideas and deep bonds to the sciences and history. They were evenly matched in mind and wit if not in inner strength. Lex was tidy and cleanly to the point of obsession.

The first night was strange. Bruce recalled Lex didn't seem to like to sleep. He sat by the window gazing out into the night sky. The only illumination in the room was his pale skin reflected by the translucent light of the stars reflected by the sun onto her brother moon. Lex sat still as alabaster stone, a statue with wide violet eyes that seemed to change from green to purple depending on his moods. Right now the color was dark, his cheeks hollow, eyes glassy with something, which Bruce was startled to recognize as fear.

What was the little Luthor afraid of?

He hadn't thought he would grow to care quite as much as he had for Lex. He had begun to think of the kid as a brother to him. He hadn't expected to grow from strangers to close friends in mere days of meeting each other. Spending hours in each other's company studying or relaxing, he hadn't expected their personalities to blend as they had. But over the days he observed other oddities in his roommate's behavior and he believed fully that Lex perhaps needed some psychological evaluation. Maybe Freud or those in his science of the mind profession would help Lex but getting Lex to realize that was not a task easily done.

Bruce and Lex had one other thing in common besides their brilliant minds and passion for the sciences, they were both orphans or rather both had suffered great losses. He eventually, through the build up of clues, over the many months, put the pieces together and figured out that most of Lex's problems stemmed from his family or rather his lack thereof.

Lex wasn't entirely an orphan but he might as well be for all the love Lionel seemed to show him, which was little enough. Lex would have been far better off in Bruce's opinion if his friend had been raised by a total stranger than reared up by the cold, standoffish, cruel individual that was Lionel Luthor. His father was cold and distant, imperious and glowered from afar.

Due to this rearing Lex seemed manic at times and contained at other times. It was like there were two or three different persons who inhabited Lex. The quiet shy Lex, the brash and reckless Lex, and the scientist Lex who wrote theory and math on the walls and stayed up through the nights plotting things of such frightening brilliance that even Bruce Wayne couldn't imagine.

Bruce was nowhere near as gifted as Lex was when it came to the cold art of science. Bruce was more into the social sciences, the soft sciences as some in the circles described it. The last aspect Bruce noted of his friend was the feminine mothering Lex (though this Lex only seemed to come out when Julian was visiting or vice versa.)

Julian was a sweet child but under his father's influence would soon be as much of a wreck as Lex was. Bruce was very certain of that.

Bruce had never had to worry about anyone else before and this was so new to him. He didn't know what to do, how to help. He was helpless to help his friend. In times of great night terrors Lex would not be comforted. The child would tremble and lash out if Bruce even tried to get too close to him.

Bruce was in pain for his friend and not sure what he could do to help Lex, to make Lex feel safe. Bruce was thrown back to his own childhood witnessing the death of his parents, murdered in a mugging in some dark alley outside the Opera House they'd been visiting. Alfred had just barely escaped death while protecting his young charge.

Bruce felt that uselessness and helplessness all over again every time Lex suffered.

Bruce would lie still through the night and listen as his friend was wracked by torments of the soul hoping some clue would be given and he could eventually help Lex. The night terrors never seemed to end. Little noises during the night, words spoken in terror, clued him in to Belle Reve Asylum and other things, much worse things in the Luthor household. So those rumors had been true and it also explained why it was that Lex was so reluctant to discuss getting treatment for his illness of the mind.

Bruce learned early on that he would have to be very careful about mentioning hospitals or doctors. Lex hated them with a passion. It was the first emotional display Bruce had ever witnessed from his roommate when he carefully and somewhat delicately advised seeing a doctor. He'd watched the eruption in morbid fascination.

Enraged, Lex hissed. "I do not need a doctor."

All the while Bruce quietly shook in his chair and watched Lex break the teacart and the bone china within with deliberate force. Then as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred Lex went back to discussing their recent history paper. This was not sane behavior. Yet it seemed though as time passed that the ailment grew less and less so perhaps it was not as serious an isSue as Bruce had first thought it was. Or perhaps he was just telling himself that so he could feel better about his inadequacies in helping Lex.

It was time to visit the graves of the ones they loved. Lex was contained he held a bouquet of lilies. Lilies were a symbol of and represented death though they were a beautiful flower they were very morbid. Bruce had a rose bulb he was going to plant into the ground next to his parents' graves so that their souls could be comforted by the gentle scent. Roses were a symbol of love. He wanted his parents to know that he still loved them and carried them in his heart.

"They were murdered and one day I will be revenged. They're souls will be avenged and they will eventually know peace." Bruce muttered darkly, avowing again what he always vowed every time they came to observe the anniversary of his parents death, as his man servant and guardian Alfred stood by his side hand on his little master's shoulder.

"I'm sorry Master Bruce." Whispered Alfred stoically, but in his eyes there were tears. Bruce nodded his feelings kept stoic inside as well. Lex clumsily offered his own hand to Bruce. Bruce hugged him carefully. Lex was delicate like the lilies in his arms. Bruce was always conscious of that fact.

"Thank you Lex." He whispered. Then placed the bulb into the ground by his parents' grave. Lex observed them giving them his support.

He wanted Bruce to know, finally, a little something about his own pain. "My mother died painfully and slowly Bruce. Sometimes, I think I envy your parents. Their deaths were quick, and though I am sure they knew some pain, their pain was a blink of an eye in a moment of time compared to the months my mother lingered on. I am sure they even looked past that pain, and hoped, I am sure, that you lived, and that you would be well taken care of."

Bruce's lips thinned and jaw tightened but he understood what Lex was saying. Lillian's death hadn't been a pleasant one. This was the first time Lex ever volunteered information about his mother. It was a subject that was painfully closed between them. It was in one of those unspoken rules Lex had.

"Never discuss Mother." Period.

From what little Bruce had been able to discover with help from Alfred in his investigations of the matter. It had taken months to track down the doctor who had treated Lex's mother and get the full story from him and of course Lex's nightmares were another clue entirely to how his mother's last days on earth had been like and what affects they'd had on his friend. He found out that Lillian had died by inches, losing her health as well as her mind. It was slow and truly horrifyingly painful, a cycle that had gone on endlessly for close to a year and then one day when Lex had dozed off sitting by his Mother's bedside, medical books in his lap, Lillian had slipped away to her other child's room, dragging herself into that room where she breathed her last.

When she was found she was still on the carpet on her stomach. No one knew why she went into that room or even what her motivations had been.

That her feelings had been so powerful and had driven her to such a desperate act there was no doubt, but the why of it, that was unknown. Why had she been so desperate to get there, that she would expend her last mortal ounce of will to get into that room? What were her intents and purposes for it? No one knew.

However, Bruce believed that Lex knew and wasn't going to tell anyone, ever.

It took careful arranging like a delicate surgical operation to get Lex to break away from his family and the sickness inherent in its members. Bruce's plans were devious but not malicious not meant to do harm. It took months, years to get Lex to cooperate and look past his father's dogma to think on his own. It had taken many painful emotional conversations to get Lex to start seeing things more clearly.

One very explosive argument stood out most because not only had Lex lost his temper and so had Bruce. He had been careful to plant the seeds of doubt in Lex and booster those doubts Lex already had in his heart about his Father and his life outside of the college, yet Lex was still fighting him stubbornly clinging to lies his father told him and to lies he told himself about his father.

Frustrated Bruce had finally lashed out. "You know already that your Father's plans for you aren't what you want in life Lex. He controls you, threatens you when he thinks he's losing you. He's abusing you. He doesn't love you. You're just a thing he can control, an extension of himself, a thing that he wishes to be. You have more brains, more heart than he does. He hates you, Lex because you're everything he wants to be and he can't be. He doesn't love you. He doesn't love anyone but himself. He can't even stand the idea of you."

Lex was like a powder keg with a short fuse. A lot of the times his temper was unpleasantly explosive when he was running along the razor's edge between mental collapse and emotional turmoil. Bruce's own explosion only served to bring about Lex's own and their discussion turned into an argument that then finally turned to fists.

Lex was swift like a snake but Bruce had years of training and was built like a boxer. He took every blow and returned it with controlled strength. He wanted Lex to understand that there was no way he would defeat Bruce. He wanted Lex to understand that Lex already knew the truth of his family and he had to start facing that truth.

"Stop being blind!" Bruce screamed as he feinted with his right and came about with his left pointedly using the flat of his hand so he wouldn't bruise Lex.

Maybe it was stupid and maybe it was truly terrible that he decided to take lessons from the art of Lionel Luthor, but maybe this was the only way Lex would learn. Beat someone into submission, totally destroy them, crush their spirit to fight, so you can win. Maybe that was the only way, maybe for Lex being under that thumb of oppression, that by using that tactic maybe Bruce could finally reach Lex.

He was so stubborn! Lex really could try even the most patient of souls and Bruce wasn't the most patient.

Suddenly, Bruce felt sick, realization dawned on him, comparing his motives to Lionel's he knew what he was doing was wrong. He needed to stop. Violence was not going to be the answer. Lex hated Lionel and yet craved the man's love. Realizing what he was doing he stopped hitting Lex and just wrapped his arms around his friend, his bleeding sobbing friend who still struggled to hit him back.

"You don't know anything." Screamed Lex. "You don't know. You don't know." He chanted. "I'm the monster. I'm the monster not him. He loves me. He's tried so hard to protect me and raise me to be a good businessman. You don't know. You don't know my Dad. He loves me, He does. He does. He loves me."

Bruce closed his eyes and held his friend tighter. "No Lex, you know he doesn't. You're not a monster. You're caring and so full of love. You're not a monster. You see what he has done Lex? He's playing games with you. Breaking your mind and will, he only wants a puppet not a son."

"Blood and family is everything next to business. Everything is done for the better good, the ultimate good. With money is power and ability to change the world." Lex whispered repeating his father's words. Wanting to believe, needing to believe.... To believe that somewhere in all of that, in all of the madness, were the words "I love you, son".

"Lex, do you see it? Do you see what he's done to you? He sent you to Belle Reve, for God's sake Lex, open your eyes."

"He thought I hurt Julian. I needed a lesson. He thought I had hurt my baby brother on purpose. He thought I was ill, he was only trying to look out for me and Julian."

Bruce scowled. "Say that second part again."

Lex trembled his eyes growing damper and wider. "He thought I was ill."

"No Lex, before that. Did you need such a lesson?"

"N-Y-ye-yes." Doubt crept into his words. He'd never spoken of his lessons out loud before, not to Bruce, not even to Julian, or even spoken them out loud to himself. Speaking them out loud gave them a different meaning. He felt sick. But hadn't it all been for the good? Didn't Lionel love him? Even a little?

"You wanted to say No, didn't you? You know already in your heart that such lessons were not all right, were not what a loving parent does to his child. You know Lex. So why do you continue to believe he loves you?"

"I was stubborn, I needed to learn. He was only doing what he thought was best for me." said Lex defensively, and stubbornly clinging to the delusion.

"He locked you in a room in the castle where you couldn't be heard, and you screamed for help, and no one came. He hit you. He locked you up in an insane asylum, instead of trying to help you, or give you love. He considered you worthless and a shame to him. Didn't he? He did do these things to you, didn't he?" Persisted Bruce.

"H-how? How did you learn about th-those things?" stuttered Lex in horror and fear. Was it written there on his face for every one to read? His sins for everyone to read and be revolted. Did everyone know his shame?

"No Lex it's not written there on your face, it's in your nightmares. Did you know you don't sleep peacefully? I think even laudanum wouldn't put you deep enough to keep you quiet in your sleep."

Lex's eyes widened even more with terror. How had Bruce found out about those things, his dirty little secrets? His times with the prostitutes, his adventures with opiates and morphine and laudanum for sleep. How had Bruce known? How had he found out about it all?

Bruce could read it all in his friend's eyes. "You need to stop walking down this path to destruction, my friend. You need to get away from your family and those sycophants you call friends. You're lifestyle is going to kill you some day. Is that what you want Lex, to die?"

Seeing the answers in Lex's fearful eyes, Bruce reached out a gentle hand caressed his friend's cheek. Whispering. "Then run away with me. Let me help you. Let me take you away from all of this. If you're not gong to make a stand against Lionel, if you are not going to fight him. Then please run away with me."

Lex couldn't keep eye contact. "I'm not like you Bruce. I'm not brave. I'm not a hero. I don't have any money of my own. He gives me an allowance so I can make myself happy with pretty things. "

"You're killing yourself. Didn't you hear me? Run away with me. Let me take you to see the world. Let me help you to get away from him, from this sick life you're living."

"Be my white night in shining armor Bruce?" Lex asked with his usual sarcasm and trademark smirk. He chuckled a little but it wasn't from mirth. "Am I a woman, Bruce, to need such a thing as that from you?"

Bruce growled. "You're a kid who needs help and you're too stubborn to admit you need it." He took a calming breath trying to reach Lex through compassion and calm. "Please Lex. I'm your friend. I want you to stop trying to kill yourself and live a better life. Wouldn't it be a wonderful thing to see the world?"

Lex turned away from Bruce and slipped out of his arms walking steadily towards his desk he opened a drawer and then the false bottom and took out a small purse. "When did you find out Bruce about this drawer?"

"Lex, aren't you listening to me? I want us to go see the world. I want you to get away from your father and every Luthor there is in this world. I'm your friend and I... I love you."

Lex ignored Bruce's admission of his feelings. Lex's focus was clear and solely on solving the mystery of how Bruce had found out so much of his secrets. "Bruce, answer the question. When did you know? When did you find out?"

Bruce looked at Lex with grief in his eyes. "I'm a detective Lex. I also studied the medical sciences. I recognized the glassy eyes, the pupils dilating at odd times, your scary behavior. I knew you were slowly killing yourself. Because in your dreams you only have nightmares and nothing good in your life except me and perhaps Julian.

"You cling to your little brother so tightly and your father uses him as well as Bell Reve as leverage over you. I heard him threatening you a time or two. I watched you from the shadows make your way into town. You were itching at your arms almost to the point of drawing blood. You looked so broken when you went inside of that little hole in the wall and then you looked as if you were in ecstasy when you came outside of it. I looked inside and saw it for what it was, a poppy den.

"I've been so afraid for you Lex, worrying about you, trying to find a way to bring it up for weeks and to make you stop but it never seemed to be the right time and then today as we were in class I saw how your attention was focused on the maps of the world and what the teacher was telling us of the orient and Greece. I realized then that here was my opportunity, maybe a way to get you away from your family and to make you live.

"I know you want to Lex. I saw how your eyes lit up. You want to see the world. But you can't see the world - you can't live if you're doing drugs Lex. You have to stop."

"I can stop if I want to Bruce." Growled Lex defensively. "I'm not addicted to it. It just makes me feel better is all, like you, when you drink with the other boys and go out on the town."

"All right, then let's make a pact. No more drinking, no more drugs for either of us." Said Bruce determined.

"I can't sleep if I don't have the laudanum Bruce." Said Lex. It was hard to admit such a weakness and Bruce understood that. Bruce frowned for only a moment then nodded as if making up his mind for them both, which of course he was. Bruce was as much a control freak as Lex and Lionel Luthor was.

"Fine no booze no hard drugs like morphine or opiate, you need your sleep so laudanum will be okay. But if I catch you taking drugs or going out at night to some sleazy den I'll beat you bloody."

"And if I catch you going out with the boys getting stinking drunk again I will not go with you on your tour of the world." Lex smiled brightly.

Bruce took a moment to digest what he said then he too smiled. "Really? Lex do you mean it?"

"Yes. I want to see the world. I want to see Athens and Israel, the Great Sphinx of Egypt. I want to see all that we can see of the world and of America and Brazil and all the places on those maps we've been told about. I want to get away. I need to get away.

"But Bruce, how do I get away from him? My father controls all of my finances I can't trust him not to do something to Julian if I'm away for long periods of time. He controls everything Bruce. He wont let me get away. He wont let me travel to see the world. He wont let me out of his reach. You know he wont."

Bruce for a second third time in their friendship put his arms around Lex, then rested his forehead against the back of Lex's head and whispered. "Trust me Lex. I'll take care of everything. I love you as if you were my own brother. Just let me do this for you. Just let me help. Let me take care of everything. I promise you we will see the world and you will have your happy ending."

Lex shivered at the warmth he felt in Bruce's arms, goose bumps actually rose up from the light touch of Bruce's breath on his skin. What was this sensation that went through them both? It was a connection that took root and over the years would not be severed by anything, family influences or by romantic partners.

"All right Bruce. We'll do things your way." Said Lex giving in.

"You won't regret it." Promised Bruce.

tbc
svBride4