Fic Update: Lian and Clark
Hey, guess what? I'm actually posting something. I know, it's hard to contain the shock, right?

First part here.
Main index here.

VI.

Clark had been welcome in the castle for as long as he could remember. Mrs. Beth had been meeting him at the back door with a plate of cookies by Lian’s first week in Smallville, and barring a handful of epic fights where they’d refused to speak to each other ever again for at least a week, Clark had been doing pretty much the same thing ever since.

He was pretty sure he’d remember if there’d been security guards at the gate before now.

“Uh, hello?”

The bigger and more threatening of the two guards frowned at him. “State your name and purpose.”

Clark leaned out the window and pointed at the truck bed. “Clark Kent, sir,” he said, figuring politeness couldn’t hurt. “Delivery from Kent Organic Farms.”

“Please wait here,” the guard said- definitely an order, not a request- and went back to the other guard to confer. They muttered into their earpieces for a minute, while Clark managed not to eavesdrop by sheer force of will, and then the big one came back to the window.

“You can go on in,” he said gruffly, and Clark just nodded, wondering what the hell was going on.

He dumped the crate of vegetables on the kitchen counter the moment he got inside, and went hunting for Lian.

“My dad died,” Lian said grimly, when Clark found him in the media room. “Fatal heart attack.”

“God, Lian, I’m sorry,” Clark said, his arm going automatically around his friend’s skinny shoulders. “Are you sure it was a heart attack? I mean, your Dad wasn’t exactly the most popular guy around.”

“No, it was definitely a heart attack,” Lian said positively. “The man was over fifty and ran on whiskey and nerves. It’s a miracle it didn’t happen sooner. But try getting Lex to believe that. He’ll be convinced when he sees an autopsy report.” Lian grimaced. “Maybe not even then.”

“I’m guessing that’s why there’s guards all over the place, then,” Clark said. “I don’t exactly blame him for being paranoid.” Lionel Luthor wasn’t the sort of man who just keeled over. Clark could imagine how hard it must be to believe that it wasn’t all some sort of elaborate plot. “Are you holding up okay? I mean, I know you two didn’t really see eye-to-eye on everything, but-“

“He was a prick who screwed with my life every chance he got but yes, he was my father.” Lian sighed. “I’m dealing. Mostly with the fact that he’ll never get on his knees and beg for forgiveness over the stuff I just mentioned.”

Luthor Family Values were one of those things that Clark would just never understand. “Well. As long as you’re facing the problem, I guess?”

Lian made an amused noise, and started to lean away. Reluctantly, Clark his arm drop away, since forcing hugs on people (even if they really, really needed them) was kinda rude. And probably creepy.

“Chloe’s been quoting self-help books at you again, hasn’t she.”

“Yeah. It’s like she just can’t help herself.”

“Well, this is Chloe we’re talking about; she probably can’t. She has secondhand advice to give, and she must give it.”

“Even when I can’t actually understand what she’s saying?” Clark asked plaintively.

“Especially then.”

It was all starting to feel blessedly normal, and that tight, Luthor-ish look was starting to fade from around Lian’s eyes, but then a voice came bellowing from the kitchen. “Lian! There’s a truck parked outside!”

“I know!” Lian yelled back. He rolled his eyes and said, “The paranoid thing was mentioned, yes?”

“You didn’t tell me he was here,” Clark hissed back. He’d heard Lex’s voice before, when Lian was on the phone, and seen him from news clips and pictures in the paper and that vaguely creepy portrait that was hanging in what Lian called the “sitting room,” but he’d never actually met Lian’s older brother. Lex didn’t get out to Smallville much; he seemed to think that it was easier to make Lian come to him. And Lian, of course, being Lian, basically never complained, because as far as he was concerned, Lex was the coolest person on the planet.

“Where else would he be?” Lian asked, genuinely perplexed, as if Lex had ever gone out of his way to demonstrate family togetherness before, but Clark didn’t really have a chance to offer any alternate suggestions (Metropolis, Gotham, the moon, anywhere but Smallville, really) the doors were flung open and in walked the man himself.

Clark almost swallowed his tongue. Pictures just did not do the man justice. There was an energy about him, an electricity to his presence that made ever hair on Clark’s body stand on end. He’d never met anybody like Lex before, not even during that Red K-soaked summer when he’d met billionaires and drug lords alike. He knew what power felt like. Lex was something else.

And then he opened his mouth and ruined the illusion. “I assume that you’re the owner of that rolling junk heap that is currently taking up space in our driveway?”

Okay, yeah, nevermind, definitely a prick. Well, he had just lost his father, who he might have even loved. He deserved a little leeway. “Yes sir,” he said evenly. “I was just making the produce delivery for Mrs. Beth-“

“Are you waiting for payment?”

No, Clark was going to go with his first impression, which was that Lex was a less-evil version of his thankfully-deceased father. Lian deserved better. “No,” he said, gritting his teeth and managing a kind of forced politeness. “Mrs. Beth had an account with Kent Farms.”

Lex regarded him with what seemed to be genuine confusion. “Then why are you still here?”

“Lex,” Lian said with shocked horror, but Clark just shook his head. He needed to get out of here, no. It had been months since he’d been on the Red K, but his control over his temper was still less than perfect, and he’d always hated being treated like a lowly peon. Lex was pushing just about every button he had.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said, over the roaring in his ears. “I was just leaving.”

“Clark, you don’t have to-“

Clark put one hand on Lian’s shoulder, shutting him up. From the wide-eyed look on his friend’s face, Clark’s eyes were glowing more than a little at the moment. Yeah. He really needed to get gone, before he accidentally set something on fire. “I’m sorry about your dad.”

“No, you’re not,” Lian said, and in his eyes was the knowledge of experiments, and threats, and an unprovable connection to Morgan Edge. “But thanks for saying it anyway.”

Clark gave him a small smile and then left, ignoring Lex as he went. Punching Lian’s brother in the face on the day of his father’s death would probably count as shitty best friend behavior.

Halfway out of the castle, his hearing kicked on without his permission and picked up Lian’s voice. “Lex, you could have been a little nicer. That was my best friend you just insulted.”

“Then you need better friends,” Lex said briskly. “When you move back to Metropolis-“

Clark had heard enough. He ran, and kept running till he couldn’t see cornfields anymore. Anything to shut out the words echoing in his ears.

tbc.