Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

~*~*~*~*~*~

Lex stared up at the handsome stranger above him, gasping for breath in an entirely different way than he had been the night before.

"You should be dead," Lex said, and what else was there to say to the handsome, strange, young, and far, far too familiar-looking man who'd pulled him out of the wreckage of his car?

The man had survived getting hit by a car -- his, Lex Luthor's car -- at something like 60 miles an hour, and a quick tumble into the cold, frigid river below it, thereafter. And yet a weird beam of light had downed him, left a smoking hole straight through him, and fatal blood-loss followed by a collapsing ceiling had finished him off.

...except that had just been a dream, right?

Was he asleep?

Lex shoved himself farther upright, then looked down at himself and pinched his own arm. Ow.

...oh. Oh, crap. He was awake this time. Well... well, okay then. Hit a big metal bale of wire with his car, went over a bridge, took someone with him, drowned, and resuscitated. Got it. Both of them were still alive somehow, despite all odds. Sure; why not?

Lex looked up at the young man in front of him, who appeared to be in some form of shock.

"You're not dead, Clark," Lex told the young man.

He looked up at Lex somewhat blankly.

He said, "Okay."

"That's a good thing," Lex said, trying to reassure them both.

"Okay."

Lex thought for a moment, then tried again.

"You're not asleep, either," Lex told him, then leaned forward a bit. "Look."

Lex reached out and pinched the young man's arm.

The young man watched this without comment, then looked up at Lex.

"See?" said Lex. "You felt that, right?"

The young man stared at him.

"No," he said.

Lex blinked. "No?"

The young man continued to stare at him.

Lex experienced a vague feeling of unease.

"You didn't feel that?" Lex asked him, to be sure.

"No," the young, strange man told him distantly, a little like he'd been asked to confirm that the sky was, in fact, really blue. "I didn't feel that."

"Oh," said Lex.

The both sat where they were, on the edge of the riverbank, soaking wet and facing each other.

"...oh," said Lex.