Chapter 124: Flights of Fancy
Clark let out a hoarse cry, grasping at the wood before he toppled out of the open window. He saw the ground rushing up to meet him a moment before he impacted, and let out a soft mmph after a moment. It hadn't hurt, but the jar of it had knocked his noggin about a bit. He swallowed, clothes dusty and dirty, and turned to look up at his second floor balcony window. And stared.
Lex was shaking his head sadly. "You can fly, Clark."
"...Did you just push me out of a window, Lex?" He snarled it, climbing to his feet, dusting his pants off, and racing back up the steps, coming to stand beside his lover with a glare. "Did you just shove me out of an OPEN WINDOW?"
"Yes, I did." Lex wasn't at all repentant. "It's the fly or die principle that mother birds use to teach their young--successfully, might I point out--the principles of flight."
"Except you missed one vital concept, babe." Clark pointed at his unmarred self. "I can't die. Sure, you can squash me, but I can't die. So really, can't fly."
"Mmm... but I can." Lex started for the ladder that led up to the hayloft over the Fortress window. "Question is... can you catch me?"
"What?" His heart stuttered in his chest, following Lex quickly. "What?"
Lex started climbing the ladder as soon as he got to it. "You can't die, Clark, but you can fly. But you're scared to fly. What I'm counting on? You're more afraid of what will happen to me." He looked back down at his lover. "I have faith that you'll catch me... I believe in you."
Clark's mind was calculating, frantically. The ladder was on the other side of the fortress, and there was no way he could get down in enough time to save his lover. Oh fuck, and he shook his head, his chest stuttering. "Lex, no."
Lex got to the top of the hayloft and threw his strength into flinging the sliding door open. "I believe, Clark... do you?" There was a slight breeze that came in through the window, and Lex straddled the ledge of the window. "I have faith."
And then, went out the window.
Clark let out a ferocious cry of dread, racing up the hayloft and out the window with his lover. He fell...bulleted down, nearly past his lover, and grasped him, tucking him to his chest as the ground impacted on his back. Another jarring fall, his body wrapped around Lex's as they rolled to a stop.
Silence.
"I told you so." Lex clung tightly to Clark, his heartbeat racing. "If you can't fly... how did you make that dive so fast?" Adrenaline poured through his veins, and his entire body was cold from it, chilled like a block of ice. His arms wrapped firmly around Clark's shoulders, legs around his waist, and it would have taken a crowbar to pry him off.
Clark didn't let go, holding him tightly to his chest even as he raged his anger in his head. Stupid, dumb aushna! STUPID! Putting yourself in danger, DO NOT EVER DO THAT AGAIN!, and he tucked Lex closer to his chest, his neck, rocking him gently as he sat up, making sure his lover was in tact as he snarled. "Stupid. Stupid."
Lex nodded his acceptance of the rage. I will not. But Kal-El, you were there. You saved me, and you did not lose faith. I love you, and together we will find your flight. Lex just curled tighter to Clark. "I'm all right, Clark, thanks to you."
"I cannot fly Lex. I can't. I can run, and jump," and fly. "But I cannot fly dammit!" He was furious, and sick with worry, checking over his lover with x-ray vision. Nothing, no--oh.
Oh.
Ohh.
His eyes widened, considerably, and he blinked, shifting Lex down so his butt thumped the ground... and he kept x-ray vision on, his fingertips moving to Lex's chest. "Youre not going to believe this."
"What am I not going to believe, Clark?"
"You have the third lung."
Lex blinked. "That's certainly a new development."
"Because... because you had my powers, maybe?" Clark brought his palm along Lex's back... shadowing the lung with his palm so he could see it more clearly. "It's formed, all the way. Didn't you say... it hurt, when you did the ice breath?"
Lex nodded. "It did. It hurt when I inhaled, and exhaled. It also froze my mouth, and I remember being vaguely surprised that I felt it. Though at the time... I wasn't aware of much."
"My powers never hurt me, Lex. It must have been..." Clark rubbed the skin gently. "It must have been then, baby. Are you alright?"
"I'm very good; you can see for yourself I'm all right." Lex's mind was already whirring. "That's nearly an unheard of situation, Clark. Do you realize what that means?"
"That you're now a freak too? Lex, I feel so close to you now." Clark deadpanned, though his eyes danced in pleasure.
"No no no." Lex got up and started pacing in a small circle around his lover. "That if a single use of one of your powers caused that mutation in my physiology, there could be other mutations that brings my physiology closer to your own. I used nearly all of your powers, Clark; sight, hearing, speed, breath, strength. What I wouldn't give to be able to look inside myself."
Clark just... he grinned. Watched his lover, tipped his head, and set his chin in his palm, propped on one half raised knee. "You're adorable when you get like this. I can almost forget you just tried to commit suicide." He climbed to his feet, taking Lex's hand. "Come on, bird boy. You're going to teach me how to fly, as you ponder the conundrum that is our existence."
"Clark... if we used our link; if I could somehow see myself through your eyes as you looked at me, then I could actually see inside myself," Lex continued as Clark tugged him to the ladder and he started climbing on autopilot. "There have got to be other physiological changes."
"Of course." Clark climbed through the hayloft. "I dunno how at the moment, because I have more adrenaline in my blood then blood."
"Give me time to think, and I'll come up with it." Lex leaned against the hay bales as he thought. "Okay. I'm going to shove you out the window, and will yourself not to fall."
"You are not shoving me out of the window. You are going to demurely give me a push, but if you shove me, I'm shoving back. And when I learn how to fly, I'm not taking you to Kokomo with me. I'll go alone, and get some hot Kokomo ass." Though Clark was grinning.
"Push, shove, it's all the same thing." Lex grinned back. "Come on. Let's strike while the iron's hot. Still adrenalized? And do you need me to jump again?"
"No." Clark said immediately, shooting his lover a discouraging look as he poised himself in front of his barn window, climbing up on the sill and crouching a little cause he was a little too tall. He crouched low, hanging onto the sides of the barn.
Looked down. Groaned, and shook his head, stumbling back and almost falling on his ass before he caught himself with his hold on the barn walls, grunting and setting his forehead on his upraised knees. "Can't do this. Can't. Lex."
"Yes, baby. You can." Lex walked over and crouched beside his lover, stroking his hair. "It's inside you, Clark. I felt it when your powers were inside of me. There is nothing that you can't do, do you understand me? You have... you have the ability to do anything in this world that you set your mind to. And that includes breaking the law of gravity. You did it just now when you saved me. You float. You can fly."
"I can't jump." Clark lifted his head, shaking his head again as he looked at his lover in almost desperation. "Lex, me, heights, we're not friends. At all. I can't jump out the window anymore. Okay? can't. I can run, I can jump really high, and I don't want to do anymore."
Lex took Clark's hands in his own. "You can. I'll jump with you. You'll follow me, and we'll learn together."
"Lex, I don't want you to hurt yourself." The thought of his lover hurt, because of him was almost unbearable, and his fingers viced tightly around his lovers hands. "I can do this. I can. I'm a man. A MAN. I can fly! I can leap tall buildings! I can DO this!"
"I won't get hurt, Clark. I'll hold your hand, and you will protect me." He got up and pulled Clark with him, towards the window. "Come on."
"I can do this, Lex. I can. Yep." Knees? Wobbly? Yes. "I can do this. Yes. Me? Doing this? Yes."
And without another word, as his courage was up, Clark backed up, let go of his lovers hand, and raced towards the sill. One foot up, propelling him out....
Weightlessness, for a fraction of a moment. Concentrating, as hard as he could, his entire mind on two winters before, when he'd rescued a tiny swallow. She'd been beautiful, an orphan but lovely, and he'd nursed her back to health every day.
And when the day had come, when it was time for her to move on, Clark had set her in his palms and whooshed them upwards... and smiled, when she bat her wings and flew for the first time. And that's what Clark thought at this very moment, of being that little bird, of weightlessness, of hollow bones and the air underneath his body. Despite his terror of it, it was oddly thrilling. Of course, only for the second he stayed up, before the loud thud of a body hitting the dirt echoed all the way out into the field.
Lex leaned out the window, and smiled down at his lover. "Come on back up, baby. We'll try that again. Just remember... will yourself not to fall."
Clark groaned, rolled over, and stared up at his cheerful lover. Flipped him the bird, and let himself sprawl out on the gravel, sighing.
"Either you come up, or I'm coming down." Lex sat on the window sill and started swinging his legs like a little kid.
Clark sat up, and glared up at him, speed running back through the barn and up the steps, before snagging Lex around the waist and nuzzling his neck.
And he laid a hardy bite along his neck, sucking it until the blood welled under the surface, and turned Lex's face with his thumb on his chin to raise a brow. "Don't you dare."
Lex leaned forward and nipped the thumb that turned his face. "You need me with you, Clark. Because you won't do it. You know you can't get hurt. You need that extra impetus, Clark. You do. And I have faith that you won't let me get hurt." He still sat on the windowsill, though Clark was pulling him away from it.
"I have a better idea." He tenderly pulled his lover off the sill, slipping his arms around his lovers body. One under his thighs, the other around his back, and he lifted him into his arms. "Hold on to me, handsome lover." He gazed at him for a moment, in pure adoration and love, before racing down the steps and out the door.
He raced across the Kent fields at breakneck speed, his lover tightly in his arms. The wind was low, the sun was shining on his skin, and he felt so free. His shoes ate grass as he ran, Lex's legs and torso close to his body as he did it. He let out a whoop of the wild and young, bearing down and running even faster...before he took off.
He leapt over the small fence, at least ten feet in the air... and didn't come down for a long moment. Gravity got the best of him a moment later and he raced on, holding Lex tightly to him as he infused his lover with his power with each pounding step. Stopped, only a moment to put him down, and took off again.
With his lover at his side.
Lex held tightly to his lover as they ran, howled when they hovered as they jumped the fence, and then his entire body jolted as he felt Clark's power flowing back into his body. He grabbed Clark's hand in his own and pulled away as the next leap came up. The wind buffeted his face and his body and he didn't feel it, instead pulling out of Clark's arms and taking the leap himself.
And hovering. Without falling, he just hovered, arms out in front of himself as his brain willed himself not to fall.
Lex... was flying. Clark crashed to the ground on the leap, so intent on watching his lover just floating there in the air. He smushed through a fence of metal and barbed wire, tumbling face first towards the ground.
And kept falling.
He broke through the ground, and saw more rock coming up to hit him as he stumbled, falling head over heels to land with a whoosh of heaved air on a stony, smooth ground.
"Clark!!!" Lex's attention was torn from not-falling, and he started to fall himself until he put his hands out and willed himself away from the ground. The fall stopped, and Lex slowly inched his concentration back until he was falling normally, and he landed on his feet beside his lover. "What happened? Are you all right?"
His eyes were shocked... and he blinked, letting out a cough of dust as he slowly sat up. Groaned, and rubbed at the back of his head as he looked around him. "Yeah... yeah, baby, I'm fine." He looked up at Lex with a sheepish expression, smiling shyly at him before glancing around him. "What is this?"
Lex's hands started sweeping dirt and stone shards out of Clark's hair and off his clothing. "If I had to guess, I'd say you discovered a network of catacombs under Smallville."
"Yay." He joined Lex's hands, dusting off rocks and sticks out of his hair and shirt as he oomphed to his feet, dusting off his jeans and now mucky yellow t-shirt, eyes glancing around the rocky caverns. "Wow. Suddenly having a Buffy flash back. I always wanted my own catacomb."
"It's actually not a good idea for you to be down here, Clark. For all we know, these caverns could have been caused, or at least deepened, by the impact of the meteors when you landed. Since we know those rocks aren't very nice to you, it's not a good idea for you to be here until we've had this place investigated."
"Lex? I love you. But these are my catacombs, dammit. I have the concussion to prove it." But he was only joking, as he pressed a kiss to Lex's dusty cheek. "If I start feeling like I'm going to cave in, I'll let you know. And I think its the head trauma causing bad puns." He cracked another smile, taking Lex's hand in his as he gazed into the darkened cave. There were shafts of light from everywhere, and… oh, it was lovely. The cave walls were bare but smooth, and a deep shade of gray and earthy orange. "So," He said conversationally, as he ducked over a lizard having itself a sun bath. "You could fly before me."
"I wasn't exactly flying, Clark. Just... not falling. There is a difference," he answered dryly, keeping an eye on his lover. "You shouldn't have a concussion or head trauma; if you do, let me know now so I can get you home and check you out. He peered at his beloved carefully.
Clark peered back, gazing at his blue laces of electricity and grinning as he reflected the image back on his lover.
Lex had to giggle. "All right, all right. I get the point. You're okay."
The shafts of sun made it so warm and cozy, yet cool at the same time. The walls were very cool to the couch, with cracks and crevices. Artifacts... small bowls, and cave paintings, littered the ground, and Clarks eyes widened as he crouched down to what appeared to be.. "Lex? This was their refrigerator." He pulled his lover down with him, gently moving a rock to show him. There were bones set in precise rows, five altogether. What appeared to have been slabs and sides of meat, of an animal. The small hide away was extremely cool and comfortable, and Clark gazed in shock, amazement, and pleasure. "That.... wow. Lex... this is the coolest thing ever. How has no one ever seen it?"
"I'm guessing that no one's ever explored this far out before. It's all farmland above, and I'm guessing we'll have to explore and find the exit to the surface, instead of crashing through the roof again." He knelt by Clark. "Look; tools. Knife, scraper, something like that." His fingertips skated over the chipped stone. "I wonder what kind of people lived here; usually the indigenous tribes of this area didn't go subterranean like this."
"You have to do what you have to do." Clark murmured, still giddy with pleased surprise as he gently fingered a small clay doll, with woven horses hair and a little tan dress. With each touch he pictured why so much had been left behind...why it had been left here, and his eyes shifted over the artifacts, the tiny doll in his hand. "Something happened. In the earth?" He looked up, sniffling softly as his brain worked, eight times more then any human, fitting puzzle pieces together with each visual piece of information. Scratches on the wall...depicting the hurried scrawl of someone... "A volcano. The fire and heat came really fast..." He turned a corner up further along the cave… and gasped softly. "Lex."
"Yeah?" Lex turned from the wall he was gazing at, and turned to look at Clark, who had wandered up the corridor. "Clark?"
Clark crouched down low, next to the skeleton. A small girl... what appeared to be, who had fit herself into the wall and gotten caught. The skeleton lay on small jutting rocks, skull caught between two rocks, and Clark looked at the doll, to the skeleton. She'd had long, deep black hair, and had hit from the fire that had destroyed her home. She'd been stuck... and had died here, of starvation and thirst. "Do you think someone can come preserve this stuff, Lex?"
Lex knelt beside his lover, and stroked the hair on the doll for a long moment. "Yes. I know someone can, in fact. The state preservationist society will be very interested in it, and if Dad'll agree, we can negotiate that LexCorp will be given custody of the caves in as far as maintaining and preserving."
"They were Indians. Cause it got so hot in the summer they'd put their food down here. Look." Clark crouched lower, reaching out gently to the small necklace the child's skeleton wore, and he tenderly unhooked it from around her neck, holding it up. Pure turquoise, shiny and beautiful, and Clarks sharp eyes picked out the six tiny child rings, the head dress hidden behind mold and rock, and the bracelets on one small arm. When he was done, there was a priceless set of jewelry in front of him, laid out in the dirt. Turquoise, silver, amazingly crafted. It was amazing, and Clarks eyes were wide as he looked up. "Oh boy."
"Oh boy is right. This... this is one hell of a find, Clark. Anthropology experts would love to get into these caves; do we even know what tribe they belong to?" Lex ran his fingers over the jewelry. "You could finance your entire education with what you have sitting right here in front of you, Clark. The Metropolis Museum will be hounding you to turn it over to them for study and display."
"Its not mine." Clark said softly, gazing up at the little girls skeleton, before back down. He flipped his x-ray vision on, and swept over the cave. There were hundreds of artifacts every place he looked, buried in the walls through small passageways. There were also several skeletons, one wrapped in clothes. "Oh, Lex. Oh, wow. Okay. You have to see this."
His lovers hand was cool in his, and he sent the images through their link, moving as he looked through the cave.
Lex tightened his grip as he looked at the images Clark sent him. "This is an incredible place, Clark. And yes, it is yours. You found this place; whatever is done with it, that's up to you. Excavations, studies, displays, anything. It's yours, because you found them. You're going to have custody of these caves, especially if I have anything to say about it. And believe me, I will." He looked up at the ceiling, staring at the paintings that reached all the way up.
"Lex. Lex, look." Clark let go of his lover, motioning for him to follow as he slipped further down the cavern. There was...yes. He very gingerly, and gently, pulled a slab of stone set deeply into the ground. It was heavy, but not heavy enough for two normal men to move, and Clark ducked down, slipping through the small doorway.
On the other side, Clark just about lost his little history buff mind.
It was a room out of 1700's England. A small, ornate desk, with paperwork still on the desk...a pen, and a primitive pencil. A shelf had been caved out of stone, and on it sat at least three hundred books, all dealing with primitive peoples, with civilizations, with traveling. There were at least six different editions of the Holy Bible, and a small statuette of Christ sat amongst Rosary beads tossed onto the shelf until next service. There was a small trunk, open, layered with dust and grime... and clothes. Women's clothing as well as a man's, and Clark didn't dare touch anything as his heart fought to take it all in.
"Holy Christ." Lex pushed his lover out of the way, and went to stand in front of the desk. "It's written in Middle English. It's going to take time to translate, but here, listen." Lex squinted as he remembered his Chaucer lessons at Excelsior. "Here lies a perfectly preserved example of a primitive culture. Tribal impulses at their worst show families abandoned at the first sign of catastrophe." Lex looked back up. "That doesn't gel with what we've seen here, but the English of this period were notorious for their desire to civilize all cultures not their own."
A bed, made for a couple. with pillows still indented and blankets still tossed aside when they'd had to flee. The mans slippers still lay beside the bed, a woman's bed coat tossed over the foot board. A large, beautiful mirror hand crafted with gold hung over a small table covered in woman's things. A bone wire corset over an enormous dress that had probably once been blue, sitting there for the lady to adorn the next day. Except for these people there had never been a next day, and Clark gently fingered the white lacy short sleeves. Lotions, perfumes, cosmetics and powders were all aligned in military little rows, and a small diary lay open, pages dark yellow and ugly, though they'd once been satiny and beautiful. A flute feather pen and ink lay next to it, the feather and a bit of lace keeping it open. And Clark... Clark was in it. He was seeing it as it had once been, down to the ladies shoes down next to the lovely dress, and his eyes were wide as he glanced around him. Portraits had been hung on the walls, apparently to give it a homey glow.
"They were scientists." Clark whispered, looking around the room. "Anthropologists hiding under the guise of missionary."
A small ruffled curtain was hung with a bar across another small door, and Clark moved it open enough, peeking inside.
It had belonged to a young boy. The bedroom was simple in its tastes, bed clothes tossed back as well in their haste to escape. A ball made of sheep's gut lay on the floor, nearly empty of air. Books all along the wall... Shakespeare, and Dante'. A tall dresser, which had to be filled with clothing, and Clarks eyes followed the room around, from small toss carpet that the woman must have knit, to the silver glasses lying next to a clay cup that had once held water.
Jesus. Clark walked back out, gazing at his lover in just...in shock, shaking his head as he joined him at the desk. "This is unbelievable."
Lex looked through Clark's eyes at the room behind the curtain. "That could have been my room, Clark," he said softly. When I was as young as that boy would have been. The books and the carpet, the water pitcher always full for me, only there were no toys. The books are mine; the same ones I had." He just shook his head as he fingered the jade rosary beads.
"Lex? We've made the discovery of the decade." Clark said quietly, his fingertips tracing over the small lamp, candle still inside it as he shook his head. He pulled out the desk from the chair....the scrape of good wood solid and secure, and gingerly sat down in it. The desk was made for a smaller person but he didn't mind, his eyes sweeping over the tender sheets of paper. He carefully lifted one, folding it over onto its front to look at the ones in back. "The Apache. That's who they were...this man, he named them, Lex. The apache. Look." He pointed to a letter, made out to the king of England himself. He couldn't read it, but "Apache" immediately jumped out at him, as he folded another page over... and gazed up. "Lex? No one can find this place until your people get in here."
Lex nodded in agreement. "I agree, but the best way to let people know there's something to be found is to make a big production out of it. These caves have been undisturbed for the last two hundred and some years; I think they'll survive another week without armed guards."
"Me too." Clark agreed, as he gently rose, pushing the chair back in carefully. "Okay. I've got to say... this is cool." And distracting you enough from getting me to fly. "Should we take the jewelry from that little girl? Or leave it here?"
"Leave it here. We don't want to disturb the site any more than we already have." He rubbed his fingertips over the curtain again. "Come on. We need to get back to your flight practice, and I need to talk to my father."
Clark nodded, gently, making sure everything that they'd disturbed was as it had been, taking his lovers fingers in his own hand and walking out of the room. Clark gently replaced the rock, taking Lex's palm in his own again as he walked passed the small girl stuck in the wall, retracing their footsteps until he stopped at the spot he'd fallen in, looking up. "Lex?"
"Yeah, baby?" He had followed Clark wordlessly, his brain working on four or five different theories as he worked.
"We have no way out."
"Of course we do. You just have to fly us out."
"Of course, baby. I'm sure the pigs won't mind."
Lex grabbed Clark's lapels. "Give me your strength and I'll throw you out. Otherwise, it's up up and away."
"Up, up, and away? That's cheesy." Clark wrinkled his nose, sighing as he shook his head, batting Lex's hands away. He wrapped his arms around his lover, tightly and firmly, getting a little sniff of his skin as he did it.
And nothing happened.
"Cheesy, yes." Lex snickered. "Clark? Think flight."
"I'm thinking. Its just hard, when you smell like sin on toast." Clark gave another sniff, and arched, giving his lovers crotch a loving snuggle with his own. Flight. He could do flight.
He knew, in his heart, all joking aside, that he was capable of it. Known since his first wet dream. Since he'd dreamed of soaring over Smallville. It had been night, the moon full and the crickets singing... and the exhilarating feeling of being weightless had been beautiful. He'd felt free as a bird...had laughed at gravity. You are not bound by the rules of this planet. His father had told him. Not bound by any rule of the earth, and Clarks body rippled, adrenaline filling him. His chest widened, his arms strengthened and grew intensely muscular. His eyes closed tightly, for a long moment, and when he opened them they were nearly completely white, opaque as he locked eyes with his aushna'. Everything in his body was fighting gravities pull, and with a snap of all his bones, he grasped Oakenepel tightly, looked up, and flew through the hole at the top of the cave.
The sun was shining, the sky was blue, but Clark didn't stop, bulleting upwards until the trees were just a memory and the air grew thin.
Lex laughed throatily and snuggled his body closer to Clark's holding on tightly. He pressed very soft, very encouraging kisses to his lover's throat, whispering words of love and encouragement through their link.
He didn't stop until he felt Clark's body rippling and changing beneath him, and he just clung tightly to the rapidly broadening shoulders, watched as Clark's arms grew large and muscular, and then when he found Clark's eyes on him, completely white, he nodded. As Clark's arms wrapped around him, he locked his arms around Clark's waist, and turned his face up to the sun as they shot out of the cave and into the sky.
Soft laughter and he rubbed his hand on Clark's shoulders. "You did it, Kal-El," Lex said quietly. "You did it."
He was Kal-El. In every form of the name. But his smile of pride spread his lips, giving his lover a beautiful smile as he hugged him, holding him tightly as he closed his eyes, setting his head on Lex's forehead. A moment... two, before he grasped him tightly and took off, like a bullet. The clouds parted like butter as he shot through them, Smallville under him as they were high as the birds. He didn't know how he was doing it, in any capacity, but his arm was steel around the body of his life, protecting him easily as he soared down low. He didn't want anyone to see him, but the THRILL. It was so quiet up here, silent, nothing but clouds. Too cold yet for birds, but his mind wasn't occupied on that. At all. All he felt was the free, wild feeling of being able to soar, and his entire body erupted with joy and pleasure, letting out a masculine cry of pure happiness as he moved. He didn't know how the HELL he was moving but he WAS, his fathers voice over, and over, in his head. He was not of this earth... no rules applied to him. Gravity, included.
Lex moved in Clark's arm so that he was turned, his back to Clark's chest, watching the terrain fly underneath them.
It was so much like his out-of-body flight before Clark had brought him back that for a moment, a single moment, Lex was terrified that everything to this point had been a dream. But then the warmth at his back, the strong arm around his waist, and the cry of pleasure in his ear, all of those things reminded him that he was aware and alive. And that Clark was holding him tightly and he would never fall again.
Clark shot over Riley's field, the mansion passing by under them, small down below them as he shot down, changing his angle as they zoomed down towards the ground. The farm, all the cows and Clarks cries of pleasure turned to abrupt dread. He couldn't land. HE COULDN'T LAND.
He gave a shout of warning, rolling in his fall downwards so Lex was protected against him, and surrounded his aura around his lover as he crashed to the ground.
Dirt and mood spewed upwards as they drove into the ground, the cows all mooing in fear as the rolled, tumbled, head over heels and side to side... until a moment later they thudded to a stop. Clark under his lover, arms vice tight, bruising around him... and his eyes, still opaque, fluttered open. Surveying, immediately, for broken bones and damage on his lover, gazing over him intensely.
Lex grunted softly. "Fly, yes. Land, no."
His body deflated, adrenaline slowly seeping away and bringing his body back to its normal contours. And Clark cracked open an eye... and grinned.
Lex just curled around his aushna'. "We still need to work on those landings. But Clark... you did it." He stroked Clark's hair gently, watching his lover's body deflate. "I'd love to know how you do that; I never went Schwarzenegger when I used your powers."
Clark grinned, wrinkling his nose at his lover a he blinked up at him from the dirt they'd plopped in. He needed to rest a minute, though, and here where Bessie's calf had walked over on her shaky little legs to peer at them was the best place in the world. "Chemicals. Hormones. They make me stronger then just the powers alone." His eyes danced, as he gently wiped away a smudge of dirt from Lex's face. "In the last two hours I've fallen out of a barn window, eaten my mother's lasagna, found a cave, tried to fly, fell more times than are healthy, and am currently sitting in a cow patty. Now, tell me the lives of Lex and Clark aren't exciting, and I'll kick your ass."
"I want you down in the lab when that happens one time. I want to record the changes in your body, inside and out. Physical and physiological." Then he snickered. "At least I didn't land in the cow shit. Come on, let's go to the house. You can shower and change, and I'll tell your parents what we discovered you can do."
"Lex?"
"Yeah, baby?"
"I adore you, aushna'."
Lex felt the idiotic grin spread across his face at that, and he didn't give a damn. "I adore you too, my auoo'makaa." He stroked his fingers over Clark's face, and then laughed aloud when they left dark trails of dirt on his cheek.
Clark grinned, right back, bright white teeth glinting from a dirty face, and he sat up, taking his lover with him. Then turned, when Bessie's calf got RIGHT into their personal space, her little baby snout about an inch away from Lex's chin as she peered at him. "Shh... Lex, she's curious. Don't scare her, okay? Cows don't see that well, and babies even less so. She wants to see who's sitting here." Clark gently reached out and rubbed her back, pleased with her little, high pitched moo, and grinned at Lex. "Be careful, though. She's a baby, but if you excite her you can get hurt. Those little feet are powerful little things."
Lex just held out his hand. "Hey there, little girl. How are you doing?" He didn't move, didn't try to scare her, just held out his hand and let her sniff him and nose at him. "I'm a friend, don't worry. I'm a friend of Clark's. I'm not going to molest you, little girl."
The little cow, proclaimed as "Annie", huffed on Lex's hand, and Clark smiled as he looked into big brown doe eyes, and then into big bright gray ones. "See? Already likes you." A soft chuckle, and he gently rose, making her little knees wobble even more as she fought to keep her balance, and Clark took her scruff, leading her gently back to her mama. A pet to Bessie's head, and Clark took Lex's hand, looking at him innocently as they crossed the field to the house. "You're a farmer born of a billionaire playboy's body."
Lex petted the little girl as Clark led her back to her mama and got to his feet while Clark walked back, and then threaded his fingers through his lover's. "Just because I might have worked a ranch in Montana in my youth does not a farmer make," he chastised softly.
"Are you kidding? Twenty four hours on this farm and you'd be putty in Bessie's hands." Clark replied easily, grinning at him and kissing their grubby, interlocked hands gently. Cow shit was on his left butt cheek, his hair was mussed, clothes impossibly filthy, and he could not. Have been. Happier. "As long as you didn't get into overalls and start singing about the heartbreaking Peggy Sue, of course." Chuckled as they trooped up the porch steps.
"You will never hear me sing anything about anyone," Lex avowed. "As I do not sing." He grinned up at his mussed up lover as they climbed the porch steps, and then he opened the door to the kitchen.
And Clark... he just sort of blinked, uncomprehending of the scene in front of him.
Jonathan's back was to the door, though it would have taken more than the opening of the screen to have disturbed him. His grubby jeans were down around his ankles, his flannel shirt had been tossed over the chair, his t-shirt and undershirt thrown to the side as his mouth was buried in the sweet-tasting, beautiful smelling skin of Martha's breasts. The beautiful long legs of his lovely wife were wrapped around his waist as he thrust gently into her, one hand braced on her back as he moved carefully into her. His tongue was lapping at a firm nipple as he moaned her name softly.
Clark just... stared, as his mother tossed her auburn hair back, baring her throat and chest to her husband's gleeful mouth. Stared, as his father thrust into his mom, where she was perched, up on the counter, legs spread wide.
Stared, as they held one another, moaning.
"WHAT IN NINE HOLY HELLS IS GOING ON HERE?!"
Lex just stared. He blinked, and then stared again before turning his back and blinking one more time. "They're.... they're having sex, Clark. You should know that by now."
Jonathan didn't hear anything at first, he was so focused on his wife's pleasure as he looked up at her. He smiled widely before changing sides, sucking the other nipple into his mouth, sucking just like their child would in a few months.
"OH my GOD!" He nearly screamed, unable to stop staring. "STOP! STOP IT NOW!"
Martha arched her throat, her heavy breasts privy to Jonathans lovely, hot mouth. He was sucking at her nipples like they were candy, his hard erection moving in and out of her. His mouth was talented, his heat, his strength, making her feel protected as the cookie jar scraped with each thrust. The counter top was cold on her thighs, jeans tossed to the side and her swelling womb all the more obvious as she arched into her husband....then gasped, and let out her own cry, scrabbling to hold onto him as she caught sight of Lex and Clark at the door. Her vision was hazy but she wasn't BLIND, and she shrieked, burying her face in Jonathans shoulder.
Jonathan stilled his motions inside of her with a harsh cry as he turned around, and glared at his son still standing in the door way. "Get... the fuck outta here, boys!" His fingers held tightly to her hips, stroking over the swell of her thighs.
Lex still had his back to the whole scene. "Yeah, I think that'd be a very good idea. Leaving."
"This… and… YOU AND I WILL HAVE WORDS!" Clark bellowed, turning, grabbing Lex, and dragging him to the porch. "I cannot... and...I move out, and suddenly the kitchen becomes the champagne room?! WHAT THE FUCK?! I... MOM is always bellowing about sanitation! THAT IS NOT SANITARY!"
"Clark... breathe. Deep breaths. Calm. In and out." He put his hand on his aushna's chest. "I know how your mother cleans, and we are hardly ones to talk considering the last place you and I had sex was on Ms. Bird's kitchen countertop." He stroked slowly, trying to calm his outraged lover. "This just isn't your day."
"MY PARENTS WERE FUCKING ON THE COUNTER TOP!" Oh my GOD and he moaned, burying his face in his hands. "My sex life is over. I've been ruined. I'm marred. I'm done for. Orgasms? I might as well become a priest. DID YOU SEE THEM?!" Hr shrieked it, giving his lover a desperate shake. "OLD PEOPLE DON'T ENJOY SEX!"
"Tell that to my father and Dominic," Lex pointed out dryly. "Or did you think the screaming was completely unrelated to sex?"
Jonathan stroked once back into his wife, pulling her tight against him. "Think we broke 'im, darlin'." His arms slid around her waist and he held her. "What you wanna do? Face 'im now, or later?"
"Mmmm." Martha murmured, though her fingers were right on his neck, her legs squeezing his waist once... twice, pleased with the contractions around his hard erection. "Later. We're busy." She smiled, this side of wicked, bringing his face down to her for another kiss.
"I don't know!" Clark let out a sound of pure horror, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his palms before he grasped his lover. "We're going back to the mansion. We're going to shower. We're going to go to the party. And we're going to forget that we ever saw my parents making nookie."
Jonathan nodded his agreement. "I c'n live with that." He kissed his wife again sweetly, then yelled over his shoulder to Clark. "Close th'door on your way out, son!" Then he moved his mouth back down over to the hard nipple he'd had to abandon. "Now... where were we?"
Lex just laughed. "I will remind you of this the next time you tease me about my reactions to seeing Dom and Dad in bed together.
Clark let out a wail, and the door to the Kent house slammed shut.
~ * ~ * ~
-fin-