Fic Draft: Legends
Dec. 7th, 2002 03:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
out_thereWell, I finally got back to writing that ficlet. Man, it's been ages, and I've been reading too much current tense SV stuff. My tenses used to be very good, and now they're suddenly jumping back and forth between paragraphs. Very dodgy.
Anyway, it's set somewhere in S1.
Legends
Legendary. Lex had said that their friendship would be legendary. Technically, Lex had said that their friendship would be the stuff of legend, hadn't he? Clark supposed that they pretty much meant the same thing. Something epic. Something well-known across the lands.
He couldn't help smiling at that thought. Living in a town as small as Smallville, it was a given fact that their friendship would be known. Combine a small town and a rich family, and anything Lex did would immediately become gossip. It didn't surprise Clark that his mom had always sworn that Smallville gossip was the rural version of the Inquisitor; both got the story circulated the day it happened, and both were just as likely to get the story wrong. Still, gossip wasn't the same as legend, was it?
Generally, Clark spent his hours in the loft stargazing or Lana-gazing, which used to be a hobby in its own right. He certainly didn't sit around trying to define comments made in passing by friends. Pete and Chloe both teased him for being oblivious, and he guessed they must have always thought he was a bit slow, but he just didn't think about things a lot.
Or he hadn't, until Lex came along at ninety miles an hour. Clark was well aware it wasn't all about Lex, per se. It was just that all roads led to Rome, and all musings tended to eventually bring him back to Lex. To how Lex had acted, how he'd looked, what he'd said. Even if the phrase in question had just been a passing comment weeks ago after another bout of Smallville strangeness and another group of lies.
And these days, he was telling groups of lies. There were too many to count individually, so he grouped them together like some strange algebraic set. Some groups were partly truth (I shouldn't have been able to pull you up at all, it must have been adrenalin), some that were merely polite (I didn't want to pry) and some that were necessary (I'd be dead if you'd hit me, of course I'm normal). He could group them by the amount of truth they contained, the intention in telling them, or by what kind of weirdness had caused them, but generally they all belonged in the group of lies he shouldn't or shouldn't have to tell.
That was where it got confusing. Lies started spreading, like milk spilt across the table, and they soaked into everything around them. The problem was that they become too easy, and if it's this easy, everyone could do it. Now Clark wonders where the lies start and stop. When does not saying something become lying about it? People do it all the time, a quick avoidance of eye contact and change the subject. Clark does it when his parents ask about Lex. He hears the hints, and as old-fashioned as it sounds, his parents suspect Lex's intentions towards him.
His dad doesn't believe a Luthor is capable of friendship and must be watched twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Luthors can't be trusted and the apple never falls far from the tree. His mom worries about Lex and acts as if Lex is just a confused kid with too many opportunities for mischief. As if Lex doesn't know what he's doing, that he means well but the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Clark's certain that their both wrong. Mainly wrong, at least. Lex can be trusted, but he doesn't trust easily. Lex is aware of what he does. Clark has suspected for a while that a good deal of Lex's actions are purely for show, to give a certain impression or to find out what someone else knows. He knows that Lex is always on the watch for an advantage, for that extra piece of information, whether or not you want Lex to know it.
This is where it gets complicated for Clark. Lex does and says things for effect, not because he means them. Clark doesn't quite know how to tell what's true and what's just for impression. He keeps trying to work out if Lex's intentions, and he did roll his eyes at thinking that phrase, are just friendship or something more. This is why he has ended up sitting in the loft, thinking about legends.
Legendary. Heroic quests are legendary, filled with tales of gods, villains and heroes. Romeo and Juliet are legendary. So are Mr Walman's prize pig, and the bogeyman, but Clark doesn't think that Lex was thinking of their friendship in those terms. But the other types of legends are full of death and glory, all complicated tales of human triumph in one form or another. Clark doesn't want a friendship like that. He's saved Lex's life enough times already, and he'd be perfectly happy if he never had to again.
Clark wants something... uncomplicated. Something completely unrelated to legends and destiny. He wants to be a fiteen year old with a crush, not someone who has to constantly lie, and constantly wonder how honest everyone else is being. Clark wants it to be simple and easy, and unspoken. He wants Lex to walk up the barn stairs, in expensive shoes that never seem to make quite enough noise, with black suit rumpled and pale shirt partly unbuttoned for the increasing spring heat. For Lex to just sit beside him in the shadows, or stand and wrap an arm around him, in silence. To forget about thinking and worrying, and just be that strange mixture of content and apprehensive that being around Lex always causes.
But Clark's known for a long time that he can't always get what he wants, no matter how hard he wishes for it or how much he wants it. Lex isn't a fifteen year old kid who'd be content with hand-holding. Lex doesn't like things to be undefined and floating along. Everything has to be defined, dissected and noted in black and white. Any venture is either a success or a failure, and any action is either a game or a war. Every person is either for Lex or against him, on the side of angels or the devil. And Lex will be great, either in darkness or in light. But either way, it will be definitive and complete.
Clark wants something uncomplicated, but Lex is complicated. Clark doesn't want to become part of a legend, but Lex will be Legendary, with a capital 'L' whether Clark wants to or not. So Clark spends hours analysing passing comments, trying to work out what he wants most, and what would be harder. Losing Lex or living the legend.
Anyway, it's set somewhere in S1.
Legends
Legendary. Lex had said that their friendship would be legendary. Technically, Lex had said that their friendship would be the stuff of legend, hadn't he? Clark supposed that they pretty much meant the same thing. Something epic. Something well-known across the lands.
He couldn't help smiling at that thought. Living in a town as small as Smallville, it was a given fact that their friendship would be known. Combine a small town and a rich family, and anything Lex did would immediately become gossip. It didn't surprise Clark that his mom had always sworn that Smallville gossip was the rural version of the Inquisitor; both got the story circulated the day it happened, and both were just as likely to get the story wrong. Still, gossip wasn't the same as legend, was it?
Generally, Clark spent his hours in the loft stargazing or Lana-gazing, which used to be a hobby in its own right. He certainly didn't sit around trying to define comments made in passing by friends. Pete and Chloe both teased him for being oblivious, and he guessed they must have always thought he was a bit slow, but he just didn't think about things a lot.
Or he hadn't, until Lex came along at ninety miles an hour. Clark was well aware it wasn't all about Lex, per se. It was just that all roads led to Rome, and all musings tended to eventually bring him back to Lex. To how Lex had acted, how he'd looked, what he'd said. Even if the phrase in question had just been a passing comment weeks ago after another bout of Smallville strangeness and another group of lies.
And these days, he was telling groups of lies. There were too many to count individually, so he grouped them together like some strange algebraic set. Some groups were partly truth (I shouldn't have been able to pull you up at all, it must have been adrenalin), some that were merely polite (I didn't want to pry) and some that were necessary (I'd be dead if you'd hit me, of course I'm normal). He could group them by the amount of truth they contained, the intention in telling them, or by what kind of weirdness had caused them, but generally they all belonged in the group of lies he shouldn't or shouldn't have to tell.
That was where it got confusing. Lies started spreading, like milk spilt across the table, and they soaked into everything around them. The problem was that they become too easy, and if it's this easy, everyone could do it. Now Clark wonders where the lies start and stop. When does not saying something become lying about it? People do it all the time, a quick avoidance of eye contact and change the subject. Clark does it when his parents ask about Lex. He hears the hints, and as old-fashioned as it sounds, his parents suspect Lex's intentions towards him.
His dad doesn't believe a Luthor is capable of friendship and must be watched twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Luthors can't be trusted and the apple never falls far from the tree. His mom worries about Lex and acts as if Lex is just a confused kid with too many opportunities for mischief. As if Lex doesn't know what he's doing, that he means well but the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Clark's certain that their both wrong. Mainly wrong, at least. Lex can be trusted, but he doesn't trust easily. Lex is aware of what he does. Clark has suspected for a while that a good deal of Lex's actions are purely for show, to give a certain impression or to find out what someone else knows. He knows that Lex is always on the watch for an advantage, for that extra piece of information, whether or not you want Lex to know it.
This is where it gets complicated for Clark. Lex does and says things for effect, not because he means them. Clark doesn't quite know how to tell what's true and what's just for impression. He keeps trying to work out if Lex's intentions, and he did roll his eyes at thinking that phrase, are just friendship or something more. This is why he has ended up sitting in the loft, thinking about legends.
Legendary. Heroic quests are legendary, filled with tales of gods, villains and heroes. Romeo and Juliet are legendary. So are Mr Walman's prize pig, and the bogeyman, but Clark doesn't think that Lex was thinking of their friendship in those terms. But the other types of legends are full of death and glory, all complicated tales of human triumph in one form or another. Clark doesn't want a friendship like that. He's saved Lex's life enough times already, and he'd be perfectly happy if he never had to again.
Clark wants something... uncomplicated. Something completely unrelated to legends and destiny. He wants to be a fiteen year old with a crush, not someone who has to constantly lie, and constantly wonder how honest everyone else is being. Clark wants it to be simple and easy, and unspoken. He wants Lex to walk up the barn stairs, in expensive shoes that never seem to make quite enough noise, with black suit rumpled and pale shirt partly unbuttoned for the increasing spring heat. For Lex to just sit beside him in the shadows, or stand and wrap an arm around him, in silence. To forget about thinking and worrying, and just be that strange mixture of content and apprehensive that being around Lex always causes.
But Clark's known for a long time that he can't always get what he wants, no matter how hard he wishes for it or how much he wants it. Lex isn't a fifteen year old kid who'd be content with hand-holding. Lex doesn't like things to be undefined and floating along. Everything has to be defined, dissected and noted in black and white. Any venture is either a success or a failure, and any action is either a game or a war. Every person is either for Lex or against him, on the side of angels or the devil. And Lex will be great, either in darkness or in light. But either way, it will be definitive and complete.
Clark wants something uncomplicated, but Lex is complicated. Clark doesn't want to become part of a legend, but Lex will be Legendary, with a capital 'L' whether Clark wants to or not. So Clark spends hours analysing passing comments, trying to work out what he wants most, and what would be harder. Losing Lex or living the legend.
