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Title: Thanksgiving Activities
Pairing: Clex
Rating: PG
Summary: Lex isn’t invited to Thanksgiving dinner, but he has his own plans.
Early Season One
A familiar rap on the kitchen screen door brought a smile to Martha Kent’s face. Lex looked all the world like an eager ten-year-old popping by for a visit.
“Come on in, Lex,” she chimed.
He slipped his hands into his pockets as he strolled in. “It smells great in here.”
“Well, I like to get started early. The bird takes the most time, so I can reasonably do most of my preparation in advance.” She turned from the stove and smiled. “Clark will be back in a few minutes. What are you doing for Thanksgiving, Lex?”
The boy was such a skinny little waif that Martha would have loved to invite him to dinner tomorrow, but Jonathan would never have it.
“Nothing special.” Lex shrugged and leaned back against the counter. “Can I help with anything?”
“I think I have my moves down by now.” She looked over her shoulder and smiled softly. “How are you at chopping vegetables?”
“Surprisingly deft. My boarding school didn’t spank. They gave us KP duty.”
Martha chuckled and found a knife for Lex. “And you were in there every night, hm?”
“Not... every night.” Lex took the knife and began to chop up the celery in quick, even motions. “Do Clark and Mr. Kent help out with dinner at all?”
“Jonathan doesn’t, but that has more to do with a fire during our... was it the second? Thanksgiving together. I think it was the second one. I didn’t know how to cook when we got married, so I had to learn, and he helped with what he could.”
Lex nodded thoughtfully. “I don’t think my mother knew how to cook at all. She certainly knew her way around Metropolis catering, though.”
Martha chuckled. “Well, I won’t judge. My mother didn’t cook either. She had her career.”
“Well, mom had her charities. Organizing those things took an amazing amount of time... And patience. Not for the people they were helping so much as the other volunteers.”
Martha set down her spoon and covered her mouth as she laughed and nodded.
Lex moved the chopped celery to the red bowl by the cabinet. “What else you got?”
Martha wiped her hands on her apron and looked around the kitchen thoughtfully. At that moment, Jonathan and Clark came stomping in.
“Hey, Lex!” Clark’s face lit up.
Jonathan gave Lex a look up and down before leaning over to give Martha a kiss. “You puttin’ the boy to work here?”
“I thought it was more appropriate than making him go muck out the horse stalls.” Martha gave Lex a smile over Jonathan’s shoulder.
“Are you really cooking?” Clark looked at the knife in Lex’s hand with disbelief.
“Just helping out.”
Clark took a cookie from the table and sat down. “What are you doing tomorrow? You’re not having Thanksgiving with your dad, are you?”
“Heh. No. My father and I haven’t had a Thanksgiving together since my mother died. It didn’t seem right. She was always the one who liked the holidays the best.”
“Oh.” Clark pouted. “So you don’t have anyone to be with tomorrow?”
Martha caught the look passing between Clark and his father. Lex seemed to catch it, too, without even looking.
“I’m not celebrating the holiday, per se, but I do have plans. I appreciate your concern.” Lex flashed an easy smile at Clark then took a towel to wipe his hands. “Don’t worry about me.”
“Well, we’ll have to save you some pie, then.” Martha avoided Jonathan’s gaze. The man would have sooner taken in a drifter with a grizzled beard and an eyepatch than this young man.
“I look forward to it.” Lex gave her a warm, grateful glance.
After he and Clark had gone outside to talk, Martha turned to Jonathan.
“What happened to the big-hearted man I married?”
“What? He said he has some place to be!” Jonathan went over to pour himself some coffee. “Thanksgiving is family time.”
“And the family he has is psychotic.”
“I won’t disagree with you there.” Jonathan stirred his coffee, glaring at the light reflected from the dark surface as though it were being reflected from a bald head.
“He’s been nothing but good to Clark, and to us.”
“He tried to buy our son, Martha. Am I supposed to let that go?”
Martha rolled her eyes and handed him the peeler. “He tried to put money into our farm so we can keep living the life we want and still send Clark to college. It was a generous offer, and you said no-”
“Because he’s just like his father, and he’s planning to take over!”
“Oh, please. You’re terrified that Lex might actually be exactly what he seems.” She turned to the stuffing and began to add seasonings. “He’s twenty-one. He’s a kid. And Clark looks like he’s Lex’s age, and sometimes acts it, too. Clark’s never shown an interest in any of his female friends, and it scares the hell out of you that Clark gets more excited about Lex coming over than he has any of his friends.”
“What are you implying?”
“I’m implying that you don’t want to invite Lex to our family dinner because you’re afraid he might actually be part of our family one day.”
Martha jumped as Jonathan slammed his mug down on the table. She turned around with a look scathing enough that he actually seemed a little embarrassed.
“That isn’t going to happen! Where do you get these ideas?” he grumbled.
“It might not happen. But it might. And if it does, how are you going to treat your son? Are you going to be like your father and deny that your son is his own person until the day you die, or are you going to be like mine and cut off all contact with your child when she falls in love with the ‘wrong man’?”
“That isn’t going to happen,” Jonathan repeated stubbornly. He grabbed his mug and headed out of the kitchen. “And Clark can stick his hand in a wood-chipper and pull apart cars with his bear hands. I’ll love him no matter what.”
***
“Uff.”
Jonathan dropped down onto the sofa with a grunt and turned on the television. After a wonderful dinner and helping Martha put the food away, it was time to sit down with his son and watch the game. Martha eventually came in with a cold beer for him, and sofa for her and Clark, and watched with them. Together they cheered and shouted at the game and the players and the refs.
They barely heard the excited knocking on the door. Clark bounded up to see who it was.
All of a sudden that ball of energy Chloe Sullivan was inside in her odd coat and upturned blond hair, chattering about a ‘scoop’ of the century.
Jonathan scowled deeply and watched as the kids went over to the family computer.
“God, Clark, I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen the file with my own eyes. But with the internet these days, you can’t really hide a secret identity. Not that he’s fooling anyone.”
“I don’t know...” Clark leaned over her as the computer slowly booted up.
“C’mon, c’mon,” Chloe chanted.
Jonathan looked to Martha, who just smiled and shrugged. She was being particularly spirited today. Sometimes she got into moods, and he hated it, even if it usually made him better for it in the end.
Behind him the kids started to gasp and laugh.
“Oh my GOD,” Clark said.
Chloe laughed loudly. “Well, when you lead a double life, you need a disguise!”
Jonathan sighed and turned the television up a bit.
“He looks cute as a strawberry blond.” Chloe leaned back in the chair and bit her thumb.
“Stop objectifying him,” Clark protested.
“I can’t help myself. He’s so delicate-looking. He should have just disguised himself as a girl.”
“Stop!”
***
Clark rapped on the doorframe of Lex’s study. He had been replaying the image he’d seen on that website in his mind all night. It was hard to get the it out of his head.
It was obviously Lex. Clark knew Lex the moment the camera had panned over him in that red wig and apron. Incognito, Lex doled out Thanksgiving dinner to the less fortunate who had stopped by the brightly colored soup kitchen.
Now, Lex was sitting at his desk with his fingers on his bald temple and looking like he might have a headache. Instead of the slightly too big, and worn, shirt and pants, he was wearing one of his expensive, and snug, black sweaters and dress pants. The dark colors made him seem at once striking and vulnerable, whereas the disguise from before had made him seem... soft. Kind.
He looked up and favored Clark with one of those restrained smiles of his. “Come on in, Clark.”
“Hey.” Clark’s lips curled to the right. “I didn’t recognize you without your hair.”
Lex looked up, then closed his laptop and met Clark’s eye. “Was it a fetching look? Sometimes I think the red is over the top, even though it is my natural hair color.”
Clark laughed in surprise. “Is it really? Well. It doesn’t look bad on you, but I like your head the way it is.”
“Oh?” Lex came toward Clark. With that slow stroll he did.
Clark flushed. “It’s uncompromising.”
“I’m not uncompromising. I think... having to wear a disguise to do charity work unhindered speaks to that.”
“I think it...” Clark dipped his head, then looked at Lex with a smile. “I think it’s great that you do that. I’m glad I found out, though. I wish you’d told me, though!”
“I didn’t intend to lie to you, Clark.” Lex held up his hands. “People tend to think that anything I do is for the media benefit it brings to LuthorCorp. Even before I started officially working for the company, that’s been true. But I didn’t start the shelter there for the accolades it would bring, and whatever my intentions were... If you let folks gush all over you for your good works, you may find yourself doing it for the wrong reasons.”
Clark’s brows rose. “You started that shelter?”
“I don’t generally talk about this, but I used to go clubbing a lot, and I know people who live in that neighborhood.” Lex tightened his lips and frowned, looking at Clark thoughtfully.
“Well, I’m glad you’re doing it. I don’t think people give you enough credit when you do good stuff. I wish more people knew.”
“I’d appreciate it if you kept my identity secret. The publicity wouldn’t necessarily be a good thing for the people living in that area.”
“Hm. I guess I can do that.” Clark bit his lip. “Do you want to come over later for some pie? I know you didn’t get a home cooked meal yesterday.”
Lex grinned. “I had Chinese takeout after I got done at the shelter. I’d be up for pie, if that’s okay with your parents.”
Clark nodded. “Mom said you could. You could also come over for... dinner, if you don’t mind leftovers. We’ll be eating Thanksgiving stuff for a few days.”
“Your parents said I could come over for dinner?” Lex narrowed his eyes. “I find that a little difficult to believe.”
“Dad... wasn’t exactly thrilled with the idea, but he didn’t say no.”
Lex smirked. “That’s progress. I’d rather not rock the Kent boat, though.”
“Come on, Lex. You can’t say no to Kent pie.”
“I could.”
Their eyes met.
“But I don’t think that would make me very happy.” Lex smoothed his hands over his sweater then frowned softly.
“I want you to be happy.” Clark shoved his hands in his back pockets. For some reason his ears were starting to turn red.
“Thank you.” Lex’s voice always sounded heavy with import, and now was no different.
Clark licked his lips. “Since you probably didn’t get it much yesterday for what you did... Thank you.”
“You’d be surprised. People will thank you. But it’s better when you can just talk to them. One doesn’t deserve thanks for basic human decency.”
Clark nodded, and it was quiet for a minute. “I want to do that sometime. It seems like it’s really worthwhile.”
“It is. We don’t have to wait until next year to help out. As it grows colder, people need the help more,” Lex offered. “You can go incognito, too. I have just the disguise in mind.”
“Me?”
Clark smiled at the thought of going undercover to help people with Lex. He still wished his parents knew about Lex’s Thanksgiving activities, but at the very least, Clark could make sure that Lex got a little something good for himself this weekend. Even if his parents didn’t seem to want to share, and Lex seemed to brush off how important it was to him, Clark already thought of Lex as his best friend. And he deserved to be a part of a family, too.
Pairing: Clex
Rating: PG
Summary: Lex isn’t invited to Thanksgiving dinner, but he has his own plans.
Early Season One
A familiar rap on the kitchen screen door brought a smile to Martha Kent’s face. Lex looked all the world like an eager ten-year-old popping by for a visit.
“Come on in, Lex,” she chimed.
He slipped his hands into his pockets as he strolled in. “It smells great in here.”
“Well, I like to get started early. The bird takes the most time, so I can reasonably do most of my preparation in advance.” She turned from the stove and smiled. “Clark will be back in a few minutes. What are you doing for Thanksgiving, Lex?”
The boy was such a skinny little waif that Martha would have loved to invite him to dinner tomorrow, but Jonathan would never have it.
“Nothing special.” Lex shrugged and leaned back against the counter. “Can I help with anything?”
“I think I have my moves down by now.” She looked over her shoulder and smiled softly. “How are you at chopping vegetables?”
“Surprisingly deft. My boarding school didn’t spank. They gave us KP duty.”
Martha chuckled and found a knife for Lex. “And you were in there every night, hm?”
“Not... every night.” Lex took the knife and began to chop up the celery in quick, even motions. “Do Clark and Mr. Kent help out with dinner at all?”
“Jonathan doesn’t, but that has more to do with a fire during our... was it the second? Thanksgiving together. I think it was the second one. I didn’t know how to cook when we got married, so I had to learn, and he helped with what he could.”
Lex nodded thoughtfully. “I don’t think my mother knew how to cook at all. She certainly knew her way around Metropolis catering, though.”
Martha chuckled. “Well, I won’t judge. My mother didn’t cook either. She had her career.”
“Well, mom had her charities. Organizing those things took an amazing amount of time... And patience. Not for the people they were helping so much as the other volunteers.”
Martha set down her spoon and covered her mouth as she laughed and nodded.
Lex moved the chopped celery to the red bowl by the cabinet. “What else you got?”
Martha wiped her hands on her apron and looked around the kitchen thoughtfully. At that moment, Jonathan and Clark came stomping in.
“Hey, Lex!” Clark’s face lit up.
Jonathan gave Lex a look up and down before leaning over to give Martha a kiss. “You puttin’ the boy to work here?”
“I thought it was more appropriate than making him go muck out the horse stalls.” Martha gave Lex a smile over Jonathan’s shoulder.
“Are you really cooking?” Clark looked at the knife in Lex’s hand with disbelief.
“Just helping out.”
Clark took a cookie from the table and sat down. “What are you doing tomorrow? You’re not having Thanksgiving with your dad, are you?”
“Heh. No. My father and I haven’t had a Thanksgiving together since my mother died. It didn’t seem right. She was always the one who liked the holidays the best.”
“Oh.” Clark pouted. “So you don’t have anyone to be with tomorrow?”
Martha caught the look passing between Clark and his father. Lex seemed to catch it, too, without even looking.
“I’m not celebrating the holiday, per se, but I do have plans. I appreciate your concern.” Lex flashed an easy smile at Clark then took a towel to wipe his hands. “Don’t worry about me.”
“Well, we’ll have to save you some pie, then.” Martha avoided Jonathan’s gaze. The man would have sooner taken in a drifter with a grizzled beard and an eyepatch than this young man.
“I look forward to it.” Lex gave her a warm, grateful glance.
After he and Clark had gone outside to talk, Martha turned to Jonathan.
“What happened to the big-hearted man I married?”
“What? He said he has some place to be!” Jonathan went over to pour himself some coffee. “Thanksgiving is family time.”
“And the family he has is psychotic.”
“I won’t disagree with you there.” Jonathan stirred his coffee, glaring at the light reflected from the dark surface as though it were being reflected from a bald head.
“He’s been nothing but good to Clark, and to us.”
“He tried to buy our son, Martha. Am I supposed to let that go?”
Martha rolled her eyes and handed him the peeler. “He tried to put money into our farm so we can keep living the life we want and still send Clark to college. It was a generous offer, and you said no-”
“Because he’s just like his father, and he’s planning to take over!”
“Oh, please. You’re terrified that Lex might actually be exactly what he seems.” She turned to the stuffing and began to add seasonings. “He’s twenty-one. He’s a kid. And Clark looks like he’s Lex’s age, and sometimes acts it, too. Clark’s never shown an interest in any of his female friends, and it scares the hell out of you that Clark gets more excited about Lex coming over than he has any of his friends.”
“What are you implying?”
“I’m implying that you don’t want to invite Lex to our family dinner because you’re afraid he might actually be part of our family one day.”
Martha jumped as Jonathan slammed his mug down on the table. She turned around with a look scathing enough that he actually seemed a little embarrassed.
“That isn’t going to happen! Where do you get these ideas?” he grumbled.
“It might not happen. But it might. And if it does, how are you going to treat your son? Are you going to be like your father and deny that your son is his own person until the day you die, or are you going to be like mine and cut off all contact with your child when she falls in love with the ‘wrong man’?”
“That isn’t going to happen,” Jonathan repeated stubbornly. He grabbed his mug and headed out of the kitchen. “And Clark can stick his hand in a wood-chipper and pull apart cars with his bear hands. I’ll love him no matter what.”
“Uff.”
Jonathan dropped down onto the sofa with a grunt and turned on the television. After a wonderful dinner and helping Martha put the food away, it was time to sit down with his son and watch the game. Martha eventually came in with a cold beer for him, and sofa for her and Clark, and watched with them. Together they cheered and shouted at the game and the players and the refs.
They barely heard the excited knocking on the door. Clark bounded up to see who it was.
All of a sudden that ball of energy Chloe Sullivan was inside in her odd coat and upturned blond hair, chattering about a ‘scoop’ of the century.
Jonathan scowled deeply and watched as the kids went over to the family computer.
“God, Clark, I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen the file with my own eyes. But with the internet these days, you can’t really hide a secret identity. Not that he’s fooling anyone.”
“I don’t know...” Clark leaned over her as the computer slowly booted up.
“C’mon, c’mon,” Chloe chanted.
Jonathan looked to Martha, who just smiled and shrugged. She was being particularly spirited today. Sometimes she got into moods, and he hated it, even if it usually made him better for it in the end.
Behind him the kids started to gasp and laugh.
“Oh my GOD,” Clark said.
Chloe laughed loudly. “Well, when you lead a double life, you need a disguise!”
Jonathan sighed and turned the television up a bit.
“He looks cute as a strawberry blond.” Chloe leaned back in the chair and bit her thumb.
“Stop objectifying him,” Clark protested.
“I can’t help myself. He’s so delicate-looking. He should have just disguised himself as a girl.”
“Stop!”
Clark rapped on the doorframe of Lex’s study. He had been replaying the image he’d seen on that website in his mind all night. It was hard to get the it out of his head.
It was obviously Lex. Clark knew Lex the moment the camera had panned over him in that red wig and apron. Incognito, Lex doled out Thanksgiving dinner to the less fortunate who had stopped by the brightly colored soup kitchen.
Now, Lex was sitting at his desk with his fingers on his bald temple and looking like he might have a headache. Instead of the slightly too big, and worn, shirt and pants, he was wearing one of his expensive, and snug, black sweaters and dress pants. The dark colors made him seem at once striking and vulnerable, whereas the disguise from before had made him seem... soft. Kind.
He looked up and favored Clark with one of those restrained smiles of his. “Come on in, Clark.”
“Hey.” Clark’s lips curled to the right. “I didn’t recognize you without your hair.”
Lex looked up, then closed his laptop and met Clark’s eye. “Was it a fetching look? Sometimes I think the red is over the top, even though it is my natural hair color.”
Clark laughed in surprise. “Is it really? Well. It doesn’t look bad on you, but I like your head the way it is.”
“Oh?” Lex came toward Clark. With that slow stroll he did.
Clark flushed. “It’s uncompromising.”
“I’m not uncompromising. I think... having to wear a disguise to do charity work unhindered speaks to that.”
“I think it...” Clark dipped his head, then looked at Lex with a smile. “I think it’s great that you do that. I’m glad I found out, though. I wish you’d told me, though!”
“I didn’t intend to lie to you, Clark.” Lex held up his hands. “People tend to think that anything I do is for the media benefit it brings to LuthorCorp. Even before I started officially working for the company, that’s been true. But I didn’t start the shelter there for the accolades it would bring, and whatever my intentions were... If you let folks gush all over you for your good works, you may find yourself doing it for the wrong reasons.”
Clark’s brows rose. “You started that shelter?”
“I don’t generally talk about this, but I used to go clubbing a lot, and I know people who live in that neighborhood.” Lex tightened his lips and frowned, looking at Clark thoughtfully.
“Well, I’m glad you’re doing it. I don’t think people give you enough credit when you do good stuff. I wish more people knew.”
“I’d appreciate it if you kept my identity secret. The publicity wouldn’t necessarily be a good thing for the people living in that area.”
“Hm. I guess I can do that.” Clark bit his lip. “Do you want to come over later for some pie? I know you didn’t get a home cooked meal yesterday.”
Lex grinned. “I had Chinese takeout after I got done at the shelter. I’d be up for pie, if that’s okay with your parents.”
Clark nodded. “Mom said you could. You could also come over for... dinner, if you don’t mind leftovers. We’ll be eating Thanksgiving stuff for a few days.”
“Your parents said I could come over for dinner?” Lex narrowed his eyes. “I find that a little difficult to believe.”
“Dad... wasn’t exactly thrilled with the idea, but he didn’t say no.”
Lex smirked. “That’s progress. I’d rather not rock the Kent boat, though.”
“Come on, Lex. You can’t say no to Kent pie.”
“I could.”
Their eyes met.
“But I don’t think that would make me very happy.” Lex smoothed his hands over his sweater then frowned softly.
“I want you to be happy.” Clark shoved his hands in his back pockets. For some reason his ears were starting to turn red.
“Thank you.” Lex’s voice always sounded heavy with import, and now was no different.
Clark licked his lips. “Since you probably didn’t get it much yesterday for what you did... Thank you.”
“You’d be surprised. People will thank you. But it’s better when you can just talk to them. One doesn’t deserve thanks for basic human decency.”
Clark nodded, and it was quiet for a minute. “I want to do that sometime. It seems like it’s really worthwhile.”
“It is. We don’t have to wait until next year to help out. As it grows colder, people need the help more,” Lex offered. “You can go incognito, too. I have just the disguise in mind.”
“Me?”
Clark smiled at the thought of going undercover to help people with Lex. He still wished his parents knew about Lex’s Thanksgiving activities, but at the very least, Clark could make sure that Lex got a little something good for himself this weekend. Even if his parents didn’t seem to want to share, and Lex seemed to brush off how important it was to him, Clark already thought of Lex as his best friend. And he deserved to be a part of a family, too.
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