Reborn

Disclaimer - DC and WB own them. No infringement, yadda yadda.

Set after 'Covenant', so definite spoilers. Will no doubt be rendered completely AU.

Rated R. CLex. Very very short. Feedback makes me happy.

*smooches her smoochie*

Things are different when he comes back.

Chloe's dead; it shouldn't be a surprise and it isn't. Her grave is next to her father's. The lilacs there died some time ago. He wonders if Lana brought them, though he knows he'll never get a chance to ask.

He can fly. It's not what he thought it would be.

His parents are remarkably unchanged, the farm is doing well. Even the cows.

Martha cries for a long time. He knows Jonathan does too.

He wears the flannel, sits in the barn, drinks milk from the bottle, until one day he sits down with them at the kitchen table and tells them he's not sure he's their son anymore. They argue, like he knew they would, but it's something they can't comprehend.

On a Sunday afternoon when he should be putting out the hay, he finds himself going somewhere else. He looks over Smallville as he flies, confused as to why he used to be so worried about doing this.

Lex is in when he arrives and Clark goes straight into his office, not waiting for anyone to take him there because he never has. Not once. That never struck him as odd.

Lex is by the fire that's always on regardless of temperature, a poker in his right hand. He's not surprised to see him - this is Smallville - and the poker moves, oxygen causing the flames to leap.

They sit opposite each other on leather sofas, and despite the bitterness he can see on Lex's face (or perhaps because of it) Clark asks if the table has changed.

He tells Lex about Krypton, about the space ship; his powers, everything he can do. He doesn't mention kryptonite.

He wishes he'd told him earlier, the expression of realisation on Lex's face being something he's going to remember until the day he dies. If he ever does.

Lex stays very very still for a very long time.

When they fuck later on Lex's bed (he's a little disappointed at his own lack of inventiveness), Clark tells him what he didn't say before: why he came back. Why he came back to *him*.

Lex always wanted to rule the world.

It's something they have in common.

~FINIS