lady_bug_kay | Supermanfic: Time Out (Clark/Lex) (Reply)

Title: Time Out
Author: ladybugkay
Fandom: DCU and Smallville
Pairing: Clark/Lex
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 353
Summary: Clark discovers apathy.
Disclaimer: DC and Gough & Millar and others own the characters. I'm writing for fun and intend no copyright infringement.
A/N: So I wrote this a long time ago, and I was going to go somewhere with it (back when I was still a big Clark/Lex fan), but I think the apathy got to me, too. I'm posting it as the abandoned story idea it is, because I don't know if I'll ever come back to it, but I want it off my hard drive. Consider it a drabbley thing.

Superman is delivering one of his patented morally indignant, self-righteous lectures to Lex Luthor over some nefarious device or other—the edges all seem to bleed together—when he realizes he honestly doesn’t care.

Clark closes his mouth in the middle of a word—he thinks it might be ‘irresponsible’—and sits down suddenly on a smoking bit of whatever he’s just destroyed. He’s given this speech, or some version of it, countless times to who knows how many villains, and Lex can probably recite it backwards by now. Clark should really be getting some kind of royalties from these things. Not that they do any good. Lex never actually seems to go to jail for any of the crimes he commits, and it won’t be more than twenty-four hours before Clark finds evidence of some new scheme he has to thwart.

Looking up when he notices the silence on the rooftop, Clark sees Lex has stopped shouting imprecations and death threats and is staring at him with his mouth hanging open slightly. Clark flushes a little, but doesn’t move.

There is a rather obvious and awkwardly long pause before Lex says something.

“Taking a break from the vitriol, Superman? Who knew the Man of Steel was so lazy?”

And it’s clear Lex is more than a little rattled, because that’s not even a playground-worthy insult. Clark breathes in and out a few times and tries to care enough to come up with some kind of response, but there’s nothing he really wants to say.

“I’m tired, Lex.” And he is. Clark hasn’t needed to sleep for years, now, even if he does enjoy doing it when he gets the chance, but lately, he’s just so tired. Exhausted, really, and it never seems to go away. He’s a goddamned superhero who can fly, but every move he makes these days feels like wading through setting jello.

Before Lex has the chance to respond, Clark decides ‘to hell with it’ and flies off, leaving behind a very confused and slightly disappointed villain on a rooftop, surrounded by the wreckage of his latest evil invention.