Chapter Text
“I don’t know if this is the best idea,” Pete said. His eyes kept darting from Clark to the bathroom door. He hoped that no one clocked how he had practically dragged Clark into the private space.
Clark could smell the beer on Pete’s breath.
He wasn’t trying to be some boyscout - not tonight - so when Lex mentioned his abundant collection of alcohol and Pete grinned and darted for it, he didn’t say anything.
Pete had a beer. Chloe poured herself a whiskey straight from Lex’s collection. Lex and Lana had been laughing over at Lex’s opulent bar as he mixed a virgin martini for her. It was homecoming in Smallville and the game was electric. The dance was sappy.
The ‘popular crowd’ had tried to snatch Lana after the festivities, but Chloe was quicker. Clark’s truck wouldn’t start and the only person he could think to call was Lex who, unsurprisingly, showed up in the very limo he’d offered him earlier. He was dressed in a suit, having just returned from Metropolis where he rubbed elbows with the elite.
It should have been awkward, when he invited everybody back to the mansion because, according to him, “the night was still young.” But it wasn’t awkward at all. Lex, Chloe, Clark, Lana and Pete joked and laughed as the decked out vehicle traversed the darkened Smallville roads, headed to the Scottish castle fortress.
“Truth or Dare mixed with spin the bottle?” Pete was grasping Clark’s biceps. “This could go so wrong for you in about ten million different ways,” he tried to keep his voice down but the alcohol had affected him.
“How so?” Clark looked at him incredulously.
“What if they ask about…you know…your secrets?” he hissed.
Clark shook his head. A sear of anger rushed through him. He just wanted to be normal and do normal things. He’d never been at an after-party or played these silly, yet somehow important, games. Wasn’t it a rite of passage?
And instead, he was in a gorgeous marble bathroom with his ex-best friend who had moved away two years ago when they were sixteen.
It was great to see Pete but it also meant that there were two people who knew Clark’s secret. Part of why Pete moved was the pressure. Knowing Clark’s secret had seriously screwed up his life.
“Uhm are you two coming out any time soon?” Chloe’s chipper voice cut through their impromptu meeting and turning beet red, Clark bolted for the door.
“You know, I always figured if I found you in an enclosed space with another man…that it would be Lex,” she smiled with a devilish grin as the words slid from her glossed lips. Clark and Pete exited the restroom as she walked in. Clark’s blush deepened and from the corner of his eye he caught a shadow out of the corner of his eye and realized it was Lex.
His heart stuttered in his chest as he wondered if Lex had heard what Chloe just said. Shoot, Kent’s own mind ran wild with the implications.
Why had she said that? What did it mean? Well…he knew what it meant but…
“Man, she’s sick,” Pete shook his head as if to dislodge the unpleasant notion and walked down the hall back to their ‘afterparty’ in Lex’s study.
The problem? Pete’s words were just as shocking - if not more shocking than Chloe’s.
Was…was it sick?
That’s not how Clark’s body was reacting to the notion.
‘So fucking cliche,’ he thought, shaking his head. Now? Now, with one comment from Chloe, he felt the foundation of his identity shudder with uncertainty. Was he really that much of a trope? Had he really not…thought about it…before?
Lex…
He followed the trail of Lex’s cologne and ended up in the study with the rest of the group. There was no overhead light on, only the flickering glow of the fire. The couches had been pushed out of the way and Lex’s dress shirt was unbuttoned, his tie loose, his eyes glittering in the dimness. Lana was next to him on his left. Clark sat on the floor to his right. Pete sat to Clark’s right, and when Chloe returned, she sat to the right of Pete, also next to Lana.
“Uhm Earth to Clark?” Pete nudged Clark’s shoulder with his own. “Ready for the games to begin?” he said as he took another swig of his beer.