Chapter Text
Clark can’t put his finger on it, but there’s something... weird about Lex. His initial feelings toward Smallville’s resident billionaire had been what’s to be expected after saving someone's life; a sort of protectiveness, ongoing concern, a pleasant little fluttering of relief every time he sees Lex and notes that he is still very much alive. He’d had nightmares where the outcome had been different, where the CPR hadn’t worked (he’d learned how to do it in health class but never actually applied that knowledge before), and Lex had just died there on the bank of the river, where he’d accidentally pushed too hard while doing CPR and crushed Lex’s rib cage, where he’d for some reason lost his powers when the car hit him and they had both died. So, yeah, seeing Lex had felt good and this had been coupled with his being sort of... dazzled by Lex. First, there was the truck that probably cost more than every piece of equipment on the farm combined and Lex had just sent it to him like it was a muffin basket and when he’d gone to give it back (feeling like an ass hole) he’d found Lex... fencing?
Clark hadn’t known that anyone fenced anymore outside of movies and, speaking of movies, Lex TALKED like... like there was a script but only he had read it so everyone else was left adlibbing while only he actually KNEW his lines. Lex’s every gesture looked like he had practiced it for hours in a mirror beforehand. Lex regularly used words in casual conversation that Clark would have to go home and look up in the dictionary later. Lex quoted from books that Clark only heard briefly mentioned by the AP Lit. kids in conversation in the lunchroom and told historical anecdotes in a way that made them seem interesting and applicable to real life (a skill none of the history teachers at Smallville High had ever mastered.) Lex lived in a house that the town's entire population could easily fit inside and among that population, Lex felt... alien.
Clark realizes the irony of him of all people describing someone that way. Still, the fact is that, in his admittedly brief life in Smallville, Clark had never met anyone who was so overwhelmingly ‘of the outside’ as Lex. Maybe this was why no one in town seemed to like him, maybe this was why Smallville chafed against him like a body trying to push out a splinter...
Anyway, that’s why it was weird that things didn’t start to get well... weird until Clark stopped being dazzled. Don’t get him wrong, Lex was still charming and sophisticated and probably the smartest person Clark had ever met but as they got closer Clark became more and more conscious of the fact that underneath all that there was a... flesh and blood person and that that person was... really... attractive. It had taken Clark a LONG time to admit to himself that that’s what that feeling was. The first time he felt it was the first time he saw Lex with his suit jacket off and the sleeves of his shirt rolled up to his elbows. Clark had felt a twinge of... something like... arousal... but he’d told himself that it couldn’t be that because Lex is a guy and even if Clark were gay, which he isn’t... who gets turned on by somebody’s forearms?
Clark briefly considers asking Chloe if she’s ever been turned on by a guy's forearms but... well, he can’t think of a natural way to slip that into a conversation, not without eliciting questions from Chloe that he definitely wouldn’t want to answer. Questions like ‘Why are you asking?’ and ‘Have you?’ So Clark winds up chalking that particular incident up to a misfiring of teenage hormones. Lex is always all covered up, right? Clark has never even seen him in a t-shirt, so it was just... weird seeing that much of his skin... that’s all... yeah.
The thing is... it keeps getting worse. After the whole forearms thing, every time Lex so much as pulls up his sleeve to check his watch, it gives Clark a little... twinge. Then there’s the gloves... Lex’s leather driving gloves. There's this one time, just one time, when Lex takes one of them off by biting the index finger and pulling the glove off with his teeth. It’s a quick, thoughtless movement, but it gives Clark a little twinge.
After that, the gloves become innately sexy. When Lex puts them on Clark can’t help but wonder how it would feel to have Lex touch... him with them on and when Lex takes them off Clark can’t help but just think of it as Lex abruptly revealing skin that was previously covered and that... but that’s stupid because they’re just HANDS. Most people never cover their hands and it does not affect Clark at all. Like, how would he even function in his day-to-day life if HANDS were a turn-on for him? But it’s not everyone’s hands, it’s just... Lex. On several occasions Clark actually finds himself fighting the bizarre compulsion to grab Lex’s hand and stick Lex’s fingers in his mouth and... what even is that?
Then there’s the little scar on Lex’s upper lip. Clark barely notices it at first but then, just once, Lex licks his upper lip, drawing his tongue back into his mouth just as it touches the scar. It’s another quick, thoughtless movement that gets Clark’s blood moving south. After that, he keeps finding himself looking at Lex’s mouth and imagining tracing that scar with his own tongue, pressing his lips to it... Does Lex have scars anywhere else on his body?
One day, they’re in Lex’s office, discussing a topic that Clark won't even remember later and Lex takes a sip of brandy and then catches Clark looking at his mouth. He misinterprets the look and offers Clark a sip (“Just a sip, though, I don’t want to wind up on the business end of your father’s shotgun.”) Clark laughs in a way that he hopes doesn’t sound nervous and takes the offered glass. He puts his lips right where Lex’s had been and lets the liquor in the glass just barely touch them. He’s probably imagining it but he’d swear that he could taste Lex’s spit on the rim of the glass and heat spreads through his mouth with the taste of the liquor. As he hands the glass back he finds himself thinking that it’s almost like they just kissed and blushing furiously. He makes up a lame excuse for having to go home and is out of the castle before Lex has the chance to offer to drive him.
Then there’s the evening that he and Lex are playing pool and Lex is offering him advice on how to line up his next shot. While he’s talking, Lex puts a hand on Clark’s shoulder, and then Clark can’t pay any attention to what Lex is saying because he’s so distracted by the weight and heat of that hand. At some point, Lex must have asked him a question because when he doesn’t respond Lex squeezes his shoulder to get his attention. He feels just the slightest hint of Lex’s fingernails through his shirt and jumps and feels his dick twitch in his jeans and has to bite his tongue to keep from making what would probably have been a very embarrassing sound. Lex asks if he’s alright and Clark assures him that he is and then makes another lame excuse.
When Clark gets home, he’s so grateful that his parents aren’t there that he doesn’t even question why. In the blink of an eye, he’s up in his room and his pants are around his knees and he is FRANTICALLY masturbating. It’s never been like this before, it's RIDICULOUS, it feels like he’ll die if he doesn’t cum within the next few minutes, and when he does he bites his fist to keep from screaming just in case he isn’t actually alone in the house. He falls back onto his bed and has to just lie there for a while. He’s not sure how long he lies there.
When he hears movement downstairs, his head instantly clears. He runs to the bathroom and wets a rag to wipe his semen off the floor and then goes and gets into the shower. He washes in ICE COLD water and is extremely thorough because he feels like his parents are going to be able to tell what just happened like it’ll be written on his face or something. When he's finally feels clean enough, he towels off, gets dressed, and goes downstairs.
During dinner, he hopes that he’s acting normal. He’s not good at lying to his parents but he definitely doesn’t want to tell them that he’s freaking out because he just almost came in his pants when Lex squeezed his shoulder. Even in a world where he’d tell them what happened, he wouldn’t tell them that it was another man, and even in a world where he’d tell them it was another man he DEFINATELY wouldn’t tell them that it was Lex. He finds himself remembering Lex’s half-joking remark about his dad’s shotgun. Of course, he doesn’t want anything bad to happen to Lex... he just wants to find out what’s going on.
When he’s finally alone in his room again, he lies on his bed in the dark and tries to think. Could this maybe be a... meteor freak thing? Lex has been exposed to meteor radiation so maybe he has... superhuman... pheromones? Or... or the ability to turn men gay? Yeah, it sounds ridiculous, but this is Smallville, it’s not like a bunch of ridiculous stuff hasn’t already happened. The problem is that he can’t bring any of these theories up to Chloe without having to explain why he suspects them and if he’s not right then... But, if it’s a meteor power, it wouldn’t affect just him, right? So all he has to do is go around town asking men who regularly come into contact with Lex if they’ve ever found themselves inexplicably aroused while in Lex’s presence... Great plan, Clark.
Maybe... maybe he could get ahold of some of Lex’s sweat and have it chemically analyzed? But he’d have to go through Chloe for that and also... how do you discretely collect someone else’s sweat? Thinking about Lex’s sweat sends his mind off thinking about... well, Lex sweating... and the potential contexts in which that might occur...
Clark takes slow, deep breaths and tries to clear his mind before those thoughts can start having the predictable effect on his body. Ok... so... if it’s a meteor power, it’s clearly still affecting him right now, the pheromones or whatever are still in his system. So step one to figuring out if this is a meteor power would be to see if the effects ware of over time... So he just needs to stay away from Lex for a while. Right, he’ll just avoid Lex for... like, a couple of weeks and see if he stops feeling... this way. If he does, then he’ll bite the bullet and bring up his theory to Chloe. If he doesn’t... then... then...