Hurray for fic!
Jan. 20th, 2006 12:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabinetzinTitle: Symphony, Part IV
Summary: Lex decides.
Fandom: Smallville
Word Count: 781
Rating/Warnings: PG-13, future AU (takes into account series up to Lexmas), soul-crushing angst
Pairing: Lex/Lana
A/N: So. Yeah. Computer won't work for more than five minutes at a time, so you should all thank![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gunstreet_girl that I have the newness. If you like it, that is. If you don't... well... don't tell me.
Lex needs, as he as always needed, to examine things, to break them apart and nail them down. He needs to understand progressions and trends. So he sits at the desk of his cold Metropolis office tracing out the pattern of his marriage, how it started and how it is… he can’t say to himself that it is ending. Not yet. How it goes on.
It was the dream- vision, hallucination, whatever it had been- that finally decided it. From the moment he woke up, his path had been set. He would have it all- power, influence, and Lana. If he couldn’t rise to meet her, he was going to orchestrate her fall. If he couldn’t protect her by making the right decisions, he was going to do it by making all the wrong ones.
It had been stupidly easy to win her. He had let Clark do most of it for him. With his penchant for privacy, Clark ever so slowly pushed her away. Lex simply waited in the wings with coffee and commiseration, drawing her in. True, he watched the both of them- he had always been watching Clark, that was old habit- to predict his moment. If it had been done by anyone else, it would have been stalking. But when Lex Luthor watched someone without her consent, it was strategic surveillance.
The courtship had been planned carefully. The plan, which involved sweeping Lana off her feet and becoming her hero, fell apart within approximately two weeks. He could manipulate anyone else in the world, but it only hurt him when he tried it on her. He loved her more than he had loved anyone since his mother died. And the best, most unexpected part of the whole thing was that she loved him too, really loved him, not his money or his power, with or without hair. He found that he couldn’t help but tell her the truth.
The meeting with Chloe and Clark after their return from Paris? Now that had been planned. He hadn’t talked to either of them much since he and Lana had begun dating. Clark still made regular visits to accuse him of every crime to occur in a hundred mile radius. Chloe was becoming just another faceless member of the press, the kind of person Lex paid lots of money to have kept away from him.
Still, Lana had at least made an attempt to keep them as friends, and Lex acquiesced. It was yet another opportunity. He dressed her to meet them himself, covering her from neck to toe, wrapping her in the same fine fabrics and rich colors he preferred. The effect was stunning. She looked at least five years older, and… powerful, somehow.
They were late to dinner, her hair slightly mussed, his lips swollen, a calculated maneuver. Chloe wasn’t fazed. Lex had always liked that about her; anyway, it wasn’t meant for her. Clark looked like someone just kicked his puppy into traffic, though Lex noted with pleasure that he and Lana were chilly to each other.
So it passed. Clark and Lana stopped talking, for all he knew, and Chloe only ever called when she thought she could get inside information. And all was happy.
Ah, but that was where black doubt started creeping in. It was too good. She was making him a better person. Was he going to go down the right- wrong?- road? It seemed so clear at the time, when their romantic, fiery stage was fading; the only way to keep her safe was to keep her away. The only way to keep her away was to hurt her. Not physically- he’d rather die. Push her away emotionally; give himself reasons to keep her back. She had only damned herself more when she started talking to Clark again, probably out of loneliness. That had added jealousy to the mix.
Eventually, Lex came to use her like he used everybody else. He manipulated her and ordered her about and withheld the truth. It hurt, badly, but in time, it hardened him. Some flailing part of him knew he was a bad, possibly an evil person. But that same part of him, that tiny voice that was decreasing, knew he could turn it back. But did that mean…
Lex’s head is throbbing. He has given up trying to understand, because every explanation makes him a bastard or a fool. His past is full of discord, and the only theme is Lana.
His hand hovers over the untouched bottle of scotch on the credenza, but he reaches and grabs the phone instead. He dials the number of his driver.
“Vincent? I need a car immediately.”
Summary: Lex decides.
Fandom: Smallville
Word Count: 781
Rating/Warnings: PG-13, future AU (takes into account series up to Lexmas), soul-crushing angst
Pairing: Lex/Lana
A/N: So. Yeah. Computer won't work for more than five minutes at a time, so you should all thank
gunstreet_girl that I have the newness. If you like it, that is. If you don't... well... don't tell me.Lex needs, as he as always needed, to examine things, to break them apart and nail them down. He needs to understand progressions and trends. So he sits at the desk of his cold Metropolis office tracing out the pattern of his marriage, how it started and how it is… he can’t say to himself that it is ending. Not yet. How it goes on.
It was the dream- vision, hallucination, whatever it had been- that finally decided it. From the moment he woke up, his path had been set. He would have it all- power, influence, and Lana. If he couldn’t rise to meet her, he was going to orchestrate her fall. If he couldn’t protect her by making the right decisions, he was going to do it by making all the wrong ones.
It had been stupidly easy to win her. He had let Clark do most of it for him. With his penchant for privacy, Clark ever so slowly pushed her away. Lex simply waited in the wings with coffee and commiseration, drawing her in. True, he watched the both of them- he had always been watching Clark, that was old habit- to predict his moment. If it had been done by anyone else, it would have been stalking. But when Lex Luthor watched someone without her consent, it was strategic surveillance.
The courtship had been planned carefully. The plan, which involved sweeping Lana off her feet and becoming her hero, fell apart within approximately two weeks. He could manipulate anyone else in the world, but it only hurt him when he tried it on her. He loved her more than he had loved anyone since his mother died. And the best, most unexpected part of the whole thing was that she loved him too, really loved him, not his money or his power, with or without hair. He found that he couldn’t help but tell her the truth.
The meeting with Chloe and Clark after their return from Paris? Now that had been planned. He hadn’t talked to either of them much since he and Lana had begun dating. Clark still made regular visits to accuse him of every crime to occur in a hundred mile radius. Chloe was becoming just another faceless member of the press, the kind of person Lex paid lots of money to have kept away from him.
Still, Lana had at least made an attempt to keep them as friends, and Lex acquiesced. It was yet another opportunity. He dressed her to meet them himself, covering her from neck to toe, wrapping her in the same fine fabrics and rich colors he preferred. The effect was stunning. She looked at least five years older, and… powerful, somehow.
They were late to dinner, her hair slightly mussed, his lips swollen, a calculated maneuver. Chloe wasn’t fazed. Lex had always liked that about her; anyway, it wasn’t meant for her. Clark looked like someone just kicked his puppy into traffic, though Lex noted with pleasure that he and Lana were chilly to each other.
So it passed. Clark and Lana stopped talking, for all he knew, and Chloe only ever called when she thought she could get inside information. And all was happy.
Ah, but that was where black doubt started creeping in. It was too good. She was making him a better person. Was he going to go down the right- wrong?- road? It seemed so clear at the time, when their romantic, fiery stage was fading; the only way to keep her safe was to keep her away. The only way to keep her away was to hurt her. Not physically- he’d rather die. Push her away emotionally; give himself reasons to keep her back. She had only damned herself more when she started talking to Clark again, probably out of loneliness. That had added jealousy to the mix.
Eventually, Lex came to use her like he used everybody else. He manipulated her and ordered her about and withheld the truth. It hurt, badly, but in time, it hardened him. Some flailing part of him knew he was a bad, possibly an evil person. But that same part of him, that tiny voice that was decreasing, knew he could turn it back. But did that mean…
Lex’s head is throbbing. He has given up trying to understand, because every explanation makes him a bastard or a fool. His past is full of discord, and the only theme is Lana.
His hand hovers over the untouched bottle of scotch on the credenza, but he reaches and grabs the phone instead. He dials the number of his driver.
“Vincent? I need a car immediately.”
