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Under The Red Shadow

Title: Under The Red Shadow
Author: Meyari - email
Rating: PG-13 at most
Challenge: CLFF Wave 42 – The Answer!
Notes: Many thanks to elf for her beta work!
Summary: When Lex returns from a two week trip to Japan for business he's startled to discover Clark Kent lurking in his mansion. Discovering what happened to Clark leads to the answers to questions Lex has never dared to ask and that Clark has been forbidden to answer.

Lex sighed as he let his servants take the luggage from his Japan trip. He wished that he could go straight to bed and sleep for hours but in Smallville it was early morning. While Lex's body might think that it was bedtime, it was time to work here. Unfortunately, he didn't dare take the day off to deal with the jetlag. There was simply too much to do after having been gone for so long.

"I wonder what treasures Father left me," Lex mused as he entered his study. "The number of bugs in the mansion must be off the charts by now."

Someone was there.

He could hear someone breathing in harsh pants. The fire was out and the lights had been broken. Lex reached to his pocket and cursed Japan's anti-gun laws under his breath. His little pistol was securely locked into the safe, not in his pocket where he needed it to be.

"You…"

"Clark?" Lex asked, startled.

The darkness hid Clark from Lex's eyes for a long moment. When Clark finally stepped closer, Lex barely recognized him. The cheerful farm boy he knew had disappeared into a ragged, wild-eyed man who eyed the furniture as if it would attack him. Clark's transformation made a shiver of fear run up Lex's spine.

"Have you come back to mock me again?" Clark asked. His eyes flitted from Lex to the door to the windows as if looking for people leaping out to attack him.

"Mock you?" Lex asked. "Clark, I've been in Japan for two weeks. The last time we spoke I promised to watch movies with you. When have I ever mocked you?"

"No," Clark said with a head shake that seemed more like an effort to shake something out of his hair than mere disagreement with Lex's words. "You've been here. You've been here for days. First Chloe turned against me, then Pete. And then you laughed when I told you about it. You said that I deserved it, that I was a freak. You threatened to have your men take me away and experiment on me."

"Clark, I've been in Japan," Lex said. He took a careful step forward and then froze when Clark glared at him and his eyes flashed red. "I literally just got back. The car is still hot. If someone said those things to you, it wasn't me. Have you talked to your parents?"

Clark's breath caught in his chest and he backed away, retreating into the dark corner of the room between the fireplace and the stairs to the upper level. Even though he could barely see Clark in the unfamiliar darkness of the office, Lex could tell that he was shaking so hard that it was surprising that Clark was standing.

"No," Clark said, the single word somewhere between a growl and a whimper.

"Why?"

"I, I saw… saw Dad," Clark said, the panting more distinct now. "Saw him talking to Lionel. He took money from Lionel, a lot of money. I heard them. Heard Lionel saying that there would be even more money if, if Mom and Dad gave me to him."

"Clark, there is absolutely no way that your parents would ever sell you to Lionel!" Lex exclaimed. "They love you and your father loathes my father. He wouldn't take a single red cent from Lionel, even if they were about to lose the farm."

"You're sure?" Clark asked. His voice had slid into a little boy register that had so much loss and confusion that it broke Lex's heart. "Lex. God, Lex. I, I, I can't, can't tell what's real anymore."

Lex took a deep breath and came over to kneel by Clark's side. He'd slid down to the floor and sat huddled with his arms around his knees. When Lex took his hand, Clark started and then seemed to stare at Lex's hand wrapped around Clark's broad palm.

"I'm real," Lex said. "I haven't been here. I haven't and would never hurt you, Clark. You're my friend. Please, let me help you. Let me find out what's happened to you."

It took what felt like six years for Clark to hesitantly nod at Lex. Convincing him to let Lex start the fireplace again took even longer but eventually they had light and heat, which Lex was grateful for. His office was always on the cold side. Clark looked even worse in the flickering light of the fireplace. His eyes were sunken and his skin had a strange reddish cast to it, as though he was feverish. When Lex cautiously put one hand on Clark's forehead, he was burning hot.

"Clark, when did you start noticing strange things happening?" Lex asked. "When did people start 'betraying' you?"

"It's been… three days I think?" Clark replied. "I mean, I think it's three days. It's Wednesday, isn't it? The tenth?"

"Clark, it's the morning of Tuesday, the ninth," Lex said. He tried not to let his alarm show. "If this hit on Monday then you've been delirious for just over one day, not three."

"I, I remember, remember three days," Clark said, obviously confused. "I remember watching the sun rise while hiding in the woods after you threatened me with being experimented on. And, and there was another sunrise when I was hiding from Chloe. And then a third just before I snuck in here."

"Your time sense is obviously off," Lex sighed. He kept his grip on Clark's hand, reluctant to let him go when Clark was so obviously unbalanced. "Did you eat or drink anything different before this began?"

"Um, no?" Clark said while thinking about it. He fidgeted under Lex's hands, still staring at the furniture and fire as if they were enemies that were out to get him.

"Do you remember what you did on Monday?" Lex asked. Whatever had happened to him had to have started then, unless it was something with a longer exposure which was uncommon in Smallville.

"Mrs. Demsey gave me some apples from her new apple tree," Clark said and shuddered violently. He swallowed hard and then thumped his head back against the wall as if he'd suddenly remembered something. "I ate one of those. And, and there were… I walked back through the fields and found some strange red flowers in one of the fields but that was it. When I got home, C-Chloe was there and she, she asked all these questions. At the end she asked how I thought I could hide it, said that I was a freak and I should turn myself in."

Lex let out a slow breath and blessed Smallville's strange events for training Clark to notice odd things and file them away in the back of his mind.

"Okay, it's either those apples or the flowers," Lex said. "The Chloe I know would never say something like that to you. Me, maybe, but not to you. Do you think you can take me to those flowers, Clark?"

Clark nodded but when he stood, his legs gave out from under him and he collapsed back to the floor. His temperature was even higher than it had been. Lex cursed and got one shoulder under Clark's arm, maneuvering him towards the door. One of his security guards gasped when he saw Clark and Lex.

"He's very ill, delirious," Lex snapped. "I'm taking him upstairs and trying to get him cooled off. I think that he was exposed to something toxic on Monday. Check with Mrs. Demsey and get a sample of her new apples. They may be the source of the toxin so handle them with appropriate levels of care. Then take a team with full hazmat gear and follow a walking path back to Clark's house. You're looking for strange red flowers. Their pollen may be toxic as well. Do not allow yourselves to be exposed to either possible pathogens."

"Yes sir!"

The guard ran away to get the rest of Lex's staff. It took a fair amount of effort to get Clark from the first floor up to Lex's bedroom and then into the bathroom. Clark whimpered as Lex pulled his clothes off. A sparkling red powder that looked rather like pollen hid in the crevices of Clark's red jacket, nearly invisible until it rubbed off on Lex's hands.

Lex cursed as he stripped Clark of all his clothes and then shoved him into the shower. He stripped to his underwear and then joined Clark. As the sparkling red powder washed away, Clark started to look better. He blinked and then stared when he realized that he was naked in the shower with Lex.

"No, don't," Lex told him as Clark tried to get away. "You've been exposed to something toxic, Clark. We need to get it off of your skin."

"I was?" Clark asked.

His eyes were still a bit dull, as if he were only vaguely aware of what was going on. Lex's supposition was confirmed a moment later when Clark groaned and slid down to his knees while holding his stomach. One of Lex's servants came in and stared.

"Get hazmat protection and take our clothes for analysis," Lex snapped at them. "There's some sort of red dust on them. I think it's part of what's affected Clark."

"Yes sir!" the servant said. "Um, we found the apple tree. It's… Sir, your father sold it to Mrs. Demsey with the strong suggestion that she give the apples to Martha Kent to make pies once they got ripe. She commented that she wasn't sure how it set fruit so quickly after planting but… the tree appears to be meteor affected. He also gave her special fertilizer that appears to be largely meteor based."

"Fuck," Lex sighed and then had to grab for Clark as he slid to the floor of the shower. "Find out everything my father did in the last five days and report back to me as soon as possible. Notify the Kents that he's here and ill."

"Yes sir!"

Clark's skin was burning under Lex's hands so he turned the water to pure cold. It was so cold that he gasped and immediately started shivering. The water seemed to feel good to Clark who moaned and then rolled so that more of it hit his torso. Lex pulled down the shower wand and tried bathing Clark's chest. Less water hitting Lex was a blessing, given how cold the water was.

"So hot," Clark whimpered.

"I know," Lex said through his chattering teeth. "I'm trying to cool you off."

"Gonna… gonna be sick," Clark moaned a few moments later.

There was barely enough time for Lex to grab Clark and turn him towards the shower drain before Clark's stomach emptied itself. Lex held him through the retching and then washed the remnants down the drain. Nothing was identifiable and if they had the tree, they didn't need the contents of Clark's stomach. To Lex's surprise, Clark's fever immediately started dropping.

He kept the cold water on Clark until Clark blinked and looked at Lex with enough awareness that it was apparent that he'd regained some of his senses. That he was coming back to normal was obvious when Clark realized that Lex was shivering violently. Clark immediately tried to change the water to hot.

"No, you've been delirious with a fever, Clark," Lex said, just barely managing to talk around his chattering teeth.

"You're freezing," Clark protested.

"Think you can handle showering by yourself?" Lex asked. "I'll get out and warm up if you can."

Clark looked down at himself and went beet red with embarrassment. He clapped his hands over his groin, which prompted Lex to laugh quietly. The urgent nod was enough reassurance for Lex to get out of the shower and dry off. By the time he was dry and wrapped in his warmest robe, Lex's assistant was outside the bathroom door with Martha and Jonathan Kent who must have gone eighty miles an hour to get to the mansion so quickly after they got the guard's call.

"Where's Clark?" Martha asked.

"In the shower," Lex sighed. He was still shivering but not so badly. "He was covered in some sort of red dust that my people are analyzing currently, and was quite delirious. He's doing better now that it's been washed off."

Martha pushed past Lex and into the bathroom while Jonathan glared at Lex as if he thought that Lex was responsible for the whole thing.

"Did my father visit your farm?" Lex asked. "Clark thought that he saw you taking money from Lionel."

"He did," Jonathan growled. "He tried to buy my silence on some project he wanted to develop across the road from us. I shoved the money back in his face and threatened to break his nose if he didn't get off of my property. What happened to Clark?"

"Damn him," Lex murmured. "I'm not sure what he's up to yet. I think you should take Clark home, Mr. Kent. He's been ill and needs his parents."

Clark came out of the bathroom, wrapped in a couple of Lex's towels with Martha supporting him. Jonathan moved to his side and murmured something that made Clark smile at him wanly. Rather than offer clothes or anything else in the face of the Kents suspicious attitudes, Lex directed his people to make sure that Clark got home safely.

"Um, thanks Lex," Clark said with an expression that was much more like himself. "I feel a lot better."

"Stay home for a couple of days, Clark," Lex said. "I think my father's up to something again."

Within the next hour, Lex was convinced that Lionel was behind Clark's delirium. His father had been all over Smallville during Lex's trip to Japan, paying people off while delivering strange gifts to virtually every location that Clark Kent frequented. Every single one of the items was infected with either red or green meteor rock. Some had some other dangerous toxins as well.

Lex had every single one of them destroyed after spending a huge amount of his own money to ensure that no one resented losing their 'gifts'.

It was Saturday before Lex felt secure in the knowledge that he had eliminated the immediate threats to Clark's wellbeing. Certainly, his father would make other attempts. He had never been the sort to give up, especially when he decided that he was on the trail of something he deemed to be of value.

The calls from his father had been ferocious the first two days but once Lex began destroying the gifts, they abruptly stopped. Lex hoped that it wasn't because he'd just confirmed whatever suspicions his father had. One way or the other, he was grateful for the indubitably brief break in verbal haranguing.

The Kent Farm looked completely normal when he drove up the lane on Saturday. Jonathan was working in one of the closer fields. He glared at Lex, which prompted a tired sigh from Lex but it was nothing new or unexpected. Martha's stern look when Lex knocked on the door was somewhat more surprising.

"Lex," Martha said. She stood quite firmly in the doorway with the obvious intention not to let him in.

"Mrs. Kent," Lex said as respectfully as he could, "I wanted to let you know that I tracked down everything my father did while he was in town last week. He left a lot of 'gifts' in the area. They've all been gathered up and destroyed, as my tests show that they were all contaminated with red or green meteor rock, among other things. As sick as the combination made Clark, no one objected too severely to having them summarily destroyed. It should be safe for Clark to resume his normal activities, if he's feeling better, of course."

She studied him for a long moment and then nodded. "Thank you for telling us, Lex. Clark has been feeling better. We're thinking that he'll go back to school on Monday."

"I'm glad," Lex said. "Let him know that I'll inform you if my father returns to town. Whatever he's up to, I won't allow him hurt people and make them so ill again."

"Clark… doesn't remember much of what he said to you," Martha said. Her eyes searched his face as if she was watching for the slightest signs of lying. "He told me that he remembered being very afraid but that he thought that you first threatened him and then helped him."

Lex looked at her with a frown that he hoped wasn't too artificial or overly earnest. "He wasn't terribly coherent, Mrs. Kent. There is a good possibility that he interacted with my father and that my father threatened him but I've found no conclusive proof of that. There was a short stretch of security film mysteriously blanked out during one of my father's visits to the mansion but no one saw or heard anything. Given how delirious he was, he might have mistaken my father for me. I'd never do anything to hurt Clark. He's my only friend."

Martha didn't say anything, though she continued to stare at him, so Lex gave her a little bow and headed back to his car. Hopefully, the message would get passed onto Clark. Having had episodes of delirium back in his Club Zero days, Lex knew how disorienting and frightening they were. The last thing he wanted was to make Clark uncomfortable by reminding him of the strange dreams his mind had conjured up.

Several days went by without a single visit from Clark or Lionel. His father did begin calling again but the calls were exactly as they had been before Clark's episode of delirium had occurred. It felt to Lex as though he was waiting for the other shoe to drop, especially as the days stretched to two weeks and then three weeks without change.

By the end of a month, Lex's scientists had full reports on the tainted apples and bio-engineered flowers that Clark had encountered. From the testing that they'd done, the apple should have killed Clark. The flowers should have caused anaphylactic shock in any normal person. Lex immediately questioned them about dosage levels and they had to admit that the dosages they'd assumed was much higher than one or two bites of an apple and casually sniffing one flower, which is what Lex claimed Clark had done. He knew better, of course, but Lex wasn't going to allow them to confirm Clark's differences.

"I suppose at those levels the results would be different," the lead researcher said. "We can run the tests again if you want, sir."

"No, it suffices me to know that my father created deadly threats to the public health and set them loose in Smallville for some twisted reason of his own," Lex replied. "I will want to see the detailed results of the testing. I am quite curious what he was up to."

The details were fascinating. Every single item that had been tested had an initially positive effect on liver function that quickly led to liver failure, followed by catastrophic failure in other bodily systems, especially respiratory and digestive. The next time Lionel called, Lex had the files of information at the ready.

"Having problems with your liver, Father?" Lex asked before his father could do more than drawl Lex's name.

There was a moment of shocked silence that lasted just long enough for Lex to know that he'd hit the mark. "Of course not, Lex," Lionel finally replied just a hair too confidently.

"Really?" Lex said with just enough incredulousness in his voice that his disbelief should be clear as crystal. "How very surprising. Your 'gifts' had such interesting effects on the liver that I had to assume that something was wrong. I'm relieved to hear that I was mistaken."

The rest of the call went downhill, dramatically enough that Lex ended up yelling at his father and waving his staff off when they came in to see who was threatening him. No matter how annoying the call was, Lex counted it as a win for him. Something dramatic was wrong with his father's liver and he'd targeted Clark Kent to help heal whatever damage existed.

Once Lex calmed down, he went for a walk in the garden. As much as he tried to ignore it, mostly for Clark's sake, Lex knew that his friend was anything but normal. The only question in Lex's mind was whether Clark was a meteor mutant like so many others that he'd encountered in Smallville or whether he was something more.

In fact, given Lex's known regenerative abilities, it was something of a wonder that his father wasn't already experimenting on him or at least demanding a portion of his liver to implant in his own body even with their incompatible blood types. Unless, of course, Lionel suspected that Clark's regeneration was greater.

The thought made him frown and head for the Kent farm. He was surprisingly nervous as he drove up the lane. After more than a month of complete silence on Clark's part, Lex had to wonder if he'd been quietly dumped. Lex couldn't blame Clark if so. Being Lex's friend had always been a dangerous thing and Clark had experienced more than his fair share of Lionel's inappropriate attentions.

Jonathan's truck was missing, as was Martha's car. Despite the evidence saying that Clark was probably gone on an errand with one or the other of his parents, Lex got out and headed to the front door to knock. To his surprise, Clark opened the door and stared down at Lex as if he had never expected to see Lex again.

"Lex," Clark breathed, eyes so wide that he looked either awed or frightened.

"Clark," Lex replied with his best reassuring smile. "I hope you're feeling better. When I visited last your mother said that you were more or less back to normal."

"Um, yeah, I'm fine now," Clark said distantly enough to make it clear that he didn't really want to be having the conversation. "Mom and Dad are gone. Was there um, something important?"

"Just…" Lex sighed and stepped back. His smile felt a bit brittle but he did his best not to let his certainty that their friendship was over show. "I spoke with my father and…"

He couldn't find the words to continue. Clark's expression had slid into a frown that held equal portions of concern and amusement, a mix that Lex found someone confusing. Add that to his father's actions and the thought that he might be targeting Clark as an unwilling organ donor, and Lex was left with truths that he didn't want to share in the face of the Kents obvious hostility.

"Get in here," Clark said.

He grabbed the front of Lex's shirt and hauled him bodily into the house. Clark checked outside as if scanning for people watching them and then firmly closed the curtains. When he turned around to face Lex again his face was so determined that Lex felt the need to take a step back. He stayed in place instead.

"I haven't been by because my parents said that you helped poison me," Clark declared.

"What?" Lex snapped. "I did no such thing! I… I told your mother that I'd destroyed all of Lionel's 'gifts' around town. All of them were laced with things that had effects on the liver. I think my father's liver is failing and as we have incompatible blood types he can't force me to donate part of mine to him."

"Would he… actually do that?" Clark asked with enough horror that Lex sighed.

"Yes, he would," Lex said. "I believe he had you targeted as his donor, Clark. Why, I have no idea, but it doesn't really matter. I would never let him hurt you."

Clark nodded slowly as a smile slowly bloomed across his face. After a moment, he grabbed Lex and hugged him so tightly that Lex's bones creaked. Lex leaned into the hug even though he knew he should pull away. It had been so long since he'd gotten to see Clark…

"I knew you hadn't hurt me," Clark whispered in Lex's ear. "Even when I was completely crazy I knew deep down that you wouldn't hurt me. That was why I went to your study instead of home. I knew I could trust you to figure out what was going on and to save me from it."

Lex's grip on Clark tightened convulsively. He literally couldn't remember the last time that anyone had had faith in him. Words wouldn't come so Lex just nodded as he did his best to get control of his emotions. When Clark finally let Lex go, Lex had regained enough control to be able to pretend that he was all right.

That control shattered as Clark leaned over and very cautiously kissed Lex on the lips.

The embarrassing whimper that sounded could not have come from Lex's throat. Lex leaned into the kiss, grabbing Clark's shirt to keep him from retreating. To his surprise, Clark pulled Lex closer instead of trying to escape. The kiss deepened as they both opened their mouths. Clark tasted like nothing and no one else, though there were hints of black coffee and cherry pie mixed with the indefinable something that was Clark.

"Wanted to do that for so long," Clark whispered once they finally let each other's lips go.

"Shouldn't," Lex murmured and then sighed as Clark hugged him again. The grip was almost painful so Lex squirmed.

"Too hard?" Clark asked.

"A bit," Lex admitted and then wondered if they would finally have the conversation that they'd danced around since the moment they met.

"Sorry," Clark said. "I can't… I'm not allowed to talk about it, Lex. It's not safe."

"I don't allow myself to ask," Lex replied. He set his forehead on Clark's broad shoulder and sighed. "Questions that my father might learn the answers to are hazardous to everyone's health."

Clark's hands slid down Lex's back and suddenly Clark lifted Lex into his arms. The expression on Clark's face could only be described as mischievous. When Clark lifted one eyebrow at Lex, laughter abruptly bubbled up.

"You can't tell," Lex commented as he noted just how easily Clark held him. "I can't ask."

"Yeah," Clark said with a room-brightening grin.

"But you can show."

The grin became a thing of beauty, like heaven come to earth. Lex allowed himself to trace Clark's cheekbone and drag his fingers down to the corner of his mouth. He'd never seen anyone so perfect in his life. Clark turned his head and kissed Lex's fingertips.

"Not… not all of it today," Lex said and then laughed breathlessly at the disappointment in Clark's eyes. "Surprise me, Clark. Never in the mansion or where someone can see but… surprise me with the answers to the questions that neither of us can ask or answer."

"Can I ask you one?" Clark asked with the most stunningly beautiful smile yet.

"Anything you want," Lex whispered. He hoped that the depth of his love showed in his eyes. It seemed to from the way Clark blushed.

"Never mind," Clark said, kissing Lex gently despite his grin. "You just answered it before I could ask. I love you too."

The End

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