out_there | SV Ficlet: Dream of You (Unbeta'd)

Title: Dream of You
Fandom: SV
Pairing: Clark/Lex preslash
Summary: Clark hums. Lex recognises the tune.
Rating: G
Disclaimer: The whole universe belongs to DC. Really.
Notes: Short fic written to amuse myself. Unbeta'd.

Dream of You

Clark woke up in a good mood. He showered, dressed and packed his school bag, humming a cheery little tune to himself as he went. He went downstairs, two steps at a time, and quickly kissed his mom good morning as he grabbed a bowl of cereal. He sat down to eat at the kitchen table.

"Well, you’re in a good mood. Any particular reason?" his mom asked, as she put a plate of toast down in front of him.

Finishing his cereal, Clark picked up the piece of toast, took a big bite, and shook his head. "No reason. Just," he paused, and shrugged, "In a good mood, I guess."

"Okay." She looked at the clock, and then said, "You’re going to miss the bus if you don’t get going soon." He stood, picked up his bag, and ran out the door. Then he doubled back for his last slice of toast, and made it to the bus stop just as the bus arrived.

***

When he got on the bus, he saw that Pete had saved a seat for him right at the back. Making his way down the aisle, he couldn’t help grinning. "What’s up with you, Clark?" was the first thing out of Pete’s mouth as Clark sat down.

"What do you mean?"

"You’re acting like Chloe. As if mornings are a good time to be awake. Normally, you miss the bus, and if you do get it, you barely do much more than grunt. And you don’t hum."

"That’s not true." Well, maybe it was a little true, but there was nothing wrong with being happy.

"Yeah, it is. So, what’s the reason for the big grin?" Clark shrugged. There really wasn’t any reason. "Did you forget about the maths test today?"

"I remembered it. Studied all my notes last night."

"Well, it’s just a normal Tuesday. You don’t have some excuse for getting out of history, do you?" Clark shook his head, and Pete continued. "You finished the chemistry assignment early?" Pete raised his eyebrows in disbelief. They both knew how much Clark disliked science in general and chemistry in particular.

"No, but Lex said he’d give me a hand with it this afternoon."

Pete rolled his eyes, but didn’t say anything about getting a Luthor to help him. "So, you’ve still got one math test today, two periods of American history, and a chemistry assignment to finish by tomorrow?" Pete counted it out on his fingers for emphasis.

"Yep."

"So why the good mood?" Pete looked sceptical, as if this there was something he hadn’t told Pete.

"I have no idea, Pete," he said, laughing.

***

History was just as boring as ever. Sitting in stifling room, reading the textbook in pairs. The only good thing about it was that he was paired with Lana. Clark couldn’t help smiling to himself as they worked on the comprehension questions the teacher had set for them to complete. Six down, four left to do. They were both skimming the text for the answer when Lana interrupted him.

"Clark?" she asked softly.

"Yeah?" he whispered back.

"Why are you humming?"

He was humming? Well, now that Lana mentioned it, he realised he had been, for a while actually. "Sorry. Hadn’t noticed."

He stopped, but fifteen minutes later Lana was raising an eyebrow at him, and whispered, "You’re doing it again."

"Sorry," he replied, and made an effort to be quiet.

***

At lunchtime, he went over the Torch office to help Chloe proofread some of the articles submitted by other students. He was sitting on one of the office Macs, and adding in the much needed commas, when Chloe asked, "What are you humming?"

"I was humming?" He hadn’t noticed he was doing it.

"Yeah. You’ve been humming this happy melody to yourself for the last half hour, Clark. Over and over. So, what is it?"

"Actually, I don’t know. It’s just been stuck in my mind all morning. Sorry."

Chloe looked sideways at him, then rolled her eyes, and got back to working out the layout for this week.

***

That afternoon, they had the dreaded math test. Clark had spent most of last night studying for it and the questions weren’t difficult, so it really wasn’t that hard. He didn’t understand why Pete kept glaring at him.

It wasn’t until they were walking out of the room that Pete hissed at him, "So, is uncontrollable humming during tests another alien power?"

Wincing, all Clark could say was, "Sorry."

***

That evening at Lex’s office, Lex spent most of an hour going through the theory behind his chemistry assignment. When Clark had started taking notes, Lex just said, "Clark, relax. Listen and learn. If there’s anything you don’t remember, we can go through it again."

"Sure," he said, and grinned. "Thanks Lex, I do appreciate this. I know you’re busy..." Lex had dismissed his comment with a wave of his hand, and got back to the topic.

Afterwards, Lex had asked if he needed any more help, and he wasn’t sure. He knew where to start on the assignment, he just didn’t know if he knew enough to finish it all. Lex had suggested that Clark stay and work on it there. Clark didn’t ask when or where Lex had got a spare laptop, he just took it and set himself up on the couch.

After ten minutes of typing, he looked up and found Lex watching him with a gentle smirk. "What?"

"You were humming." If anything, Lex sounded amused. It was better than annoyed.

"Sorry. I’ve been doing that all day. I didn’t mean to disturb you."

"It’s okay," Lex said, smiling gently, and turned back to the report in front of him.

It was almost forty minutes later before he got stuck again. Most of the assignment was done; he just needed to work out how to phrase the conclusion. It wasn’t until he stopped typing, and sat staring at the screen on his lap, that he realised that he was still humming that same tune. He stopped, feeling more than a little embarrassed, and found that he could still hear it, so soft that he could only just recognise the tune.

Lex was glaring intently at the papers on his desk, scribbling down notes on the pad of paper in front of him, looking every bit the serious young executive. And he was humming. Very quietly, but he was humming. Actually, Clark realised as he listened harder, Lex was singing under his breath. It was that moment that Lex realised he’d stopped working, and looked up at Clark.

"Is something wrong?"

"Just figuring out how to write the last bit," Clark paused, and then continued, "And you were singing." Lex nodded as if this was the most natural thing in the world. Of course Lex Luthor would be sitting at his desk, singing. "What were you singing?"

"You don’t know it?" Lex raised one eyebrow in curiosity.

Clark shook his head. "Not a clue. I just haven’t been able to get it out of my head all day."

"It’s from ‘Singing in the Rain’. Near the start, with the girls dancing around the cake." Then Lex sang the start of it, "All I do is dream of you, the whole night through..."

Clark couldn’t help smiling, as he realised that regardless of how accomplished Lex might be, he didn’t have a very good singing voice. Then Lex smiled, that same gentle smile that he’d had earlier, and looked down at his watch. "It used to be one of my mother’s favourites. She’d sing it to me as a child."

Clark didn’t point out that Lex had still been a child when his mother died. "It’s a nice tune."

Lex smiled again, and looked at him, "Yes, it’s very... jovial. Are you fine with the last bit?" Lex asked, vaguely motioning to Clark’s assignment.

"Yeah," Clark said, as he had a sudden idea of just how to end the chemistry assignment.

***

Within half an hour, the assignment was finished. Within an hour, Lex had proofread it and it was printed, ready to be handed in the next day.

"When are you expected home?"

Clark looked at the clock, and said, "I told my parents that I had to finish this assignment, so I’m not expected home for a couple of hours."

"Do you want to watch a movie?" Lex suggested as he tidied his desk, placing the reports away in folders and drawers.

"Any snacks?" Clark asked, and was rewarded with a smirk.

"There’s Coke, and microwave popcorn in the kitchen. Do you want to go get it, and I’ll get the tape ready?"

"Okay," Clark said, and walked down quickly to the kitchen. He found the popcorn sitting in the microwave, and two bottles of coke sitting on the bench. He heated up the popcorn, poured it into a bowl, and then picked both it and the bottles up, and returned to the entertainment room. Lex was already waiting for him, sitting on the couch with the remotes resting beside him. Clark handed him one of the bottles, then sat down next to Lex, resting the bowl of popcorn on his lap.

"Ready?" Lex asked.

"Yeah. What are we watching?" With Lex, there was no way way to be sure. It could be an action film, or science fiction, or fantasy, or something based on some historical person's life. Lex had a wide range of videos and DVDs.

Lex passed him an old video cover, asking, "Any objections?" The cover said ‘Singing in the Rain’.

"No objections at all," Clark said as Lex pressed play. As the video started, Clark couldn’t help wondering just what kind of best friends sat watching old Hollywood musicals together, sharing a bowl of popcorn. But as he looked over at the gentle smile on Lex’s face, he also couldn’t help thinking that this was a pretty good way to spend a Tuesday night.