L&C Do Europe--Part 6!
7/11/05 01:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
roxyPart 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
All thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mecurtin for helping me out--any boo-boos and big honking "wazzats!" are entirely mine!
VIII I’m Watching You
A week had passed; a week in which Lex had a surprisingly good time introducing Clark to a completely different style of life. Clark rewarded him by being enthusiastic and willing to try nearly everything. He learned that he really liked French food, and Lex felt rather proud of him—he was certain most guys Clark’s age and background would have required a pry bar and heaping handfuls of valium to try something like escargot. And the day he’d challenged Clark to let him order for him, un-translated, unexplained…Lex grinned fondly at the memory.
*********
“Clark, let me order for you—try this…”
Clark looked at him a little dubiously and Lex countered with, “Didn’t you like the escargot? It was good, right?”
Clark nodded slowly, “yes…” and the look on his face said, ‘It couldn’t get weirder than snails.’ “Okay Lex, though I’d just as soon it not be something Mom tries to kill in the garden, okay? Not saying they weren’t interesting--” he leaned forward and whispered, “But mostly I didn’t want to look too, you know, touristy in front of that waiter guy.” Clark looked darkly at their current waiter, who couldn’t have cared less.
Lex agreed. “Promise, I won’t order something your Mom would want to drown in a saucer of beer.” He ordered Rognons de Veau, and Clark was less then thrilled to find he was supposed to enjoy a meal of veal kidneys…but he ate them and claimed to find them tasty and Lex really wanted to feel bad for teasing Clark but there was a twelve year old deep in side of him who was crowing ‘Clark ate kidneys for *me*!’
*******
Lex laughed softly at himself and Clark lifted his head from the book he was reading, and smiled. Lex smiled back and again as he did every day, prayed for strength. It was getting harder and harder to be…good…and only seven days had passed and he had eleven more weeks to go. God. Something was going to give, and it was probably going to be his mind….
Lex brought himself back to the business at hand--Clark was promised a day visiting the Tower, and lunch at the Jules Verne restaurant, for which he’d neglected to make a reservations, but that was what Marlene was for, and she was just a phone call away.
He folded his cell with a feeling of satisfaction. He knew they’d get a reservation even if the woman had to go in and kill someone to get a table. That’s why she worked for LuthorCorp—she had the looks of an elegant saluki combined with the tenacity and fearlessness of a pitbull and if she proved to be as capable and efficient as he suspected she was, by summer’s end she’d be working for LexCorp. In the mean time, Lex had decided that Clark needed something different to wear, something a little more au courant—so they were on their way, window-shopping as they strolled along the street on Clark’s insistence.
The streets were an odd mixture of the old and the modern, as if the modern world had in parts been pasted slapdash over the centuries…Lex rather liked the effect. He glanced at Clark to see how he liked it and Clark seemed delighted by every little thing. He made a beeline to a pastry shop, and looked longingly at the confections in the window—he gaped at the healthy and unclothed models on the kiosk ads, laughed out loud at the motor scooters chugging through the streets
Well, Lex granted that if you were used to a Harley or whatever his dad’s bike was, a motor scooter must seem a ridiculous sight. Clark looked back at Lex, and said, “See, this is why we shouldn’t take the car everywhere. You miss such great stuff that way!” he bounded off again as Lex nodded and reminded himself that everything was shiny new and fresh to Clark. He sighed. He could barely remember being that young, that excited by life—damn, was he *ever* like that? And how pathetic was it that he was thinking this way and he was only six years older than Clark—shit.
He allowed himself the luxury of looking at Clark, really looking, watching him…the way he tossed his hair back from his forehead, the way he got a little crease between his eyes when he concentrated, how green his eyes were in the afternoon light and how red his cheeks because he blushed so easily--from embarrassment, from pleasure, from excitement… Lex was so wrapped up in enjoying Clark’s enjoyment that it took a moment for him to register that his name was being called.
“Alexander! Alexander—is it really you?” A handsome couple ran up to him and embraced him, as Clark stood by open-mouthed.
The young woman smacked Lex lightly on the arm. “You naughty thing! How could you come and not tell us?” she made a pout at Lex, but checked Clark out from head to toe. Lex knew that Clark had just gotten the most thorough visual examination he was ever likely to receive--He was willing to bet she could tell him if Clark was cut or not…the man with her looked almost exactly like her, he grinned happily, and opened his mouth to speak, eyeing Clark as intensely as his sister had--shit!
Lex hastily tried to draw attention away from his defenseless young friend. “Please let me introduce you to Clark, a young, *very* young, friend of mine—his parents asked me to keep him *safe* as he travels.” Lex shrugged and smirked and shook his head in a dismissive way.
“Ah!” they said together, and Clark disappeared from their notice.
Lex hoped that later he’d be able to make Clark understand what happened, because right now, he looked pretty angry and he knew how much Clark hated it when he treated him like a kid, and he knew how hair trigger his mouth was when he was angry. Damn it. He managed to turn the conversation back to introductions.
“Clark, this is Alain and Yvette, I went to school with Alain. I’m so surprised to see you two,” he said, and Clark scowled. Lex felt sympathy with Clark, he wasn’t sure whether he was glad to see them or not. Sure, the twins could be awfully good fun-- he felt an awakening tickle of a long dormant itch—ah, but they could be terrible trouble too.
Maybe they’d matured somewhat since last they met. Anything was possible.
After coming along on their shopping trip, and totally ruining Lex’s fantasies of Clark and dressing rooms in little boutiques, they also invited themselves to dinner, of course, and monopolized the conversation, of course, with awful stories of Lex’s misguided youth that, thank God, didn’t involve any of his sexual misadventures. It was bad enough to see Clark go from mildly interested to amused to outright shock, he kept sneaking looks full of horrified amazement. Lex could feel himself blushing—shut up, shut up—shut up! Outwardly he smiled and laughed and affected a world-weary attitude, he shrugged and totally ignored any questions Clark had.
After dinner, Alain and Yvette somehow managed to also invite themselves along for the tour of the Eiffel—all the while laughing at how adorably touristy Clark was, how delightfully simple and unaffected—pretty much code for stupid but hot.
Yvette seemed mildly interested, but Alain…Lex caught him staring several times at Clark with a look he knew all too well. He’d have to let him know that Clark was not on the menu—and let his sister know as well—Clark was not about to become this season’s cat-toy.
He got rid of them at the hotel amid a flurry of kisses and hugs that left Clark visibly dizzy, promised to catch up with them again the next afternoon.
The two rode the elevator in silence, giving Lex plenty of quiet to hear the grinding and creaking of vintage machinery as the elevator ground to their floor. He huffed something to Clark about the injustice of paying through the nose for atmosphere and gaining discomfort as part of the bargain, waiting for Clark to leap on the bait he dangled and tease him about being cheap, but Clark ignored him.
He didn’t seem angry, just preoccupied and—and a little sad. Maybe jetlag was just catching up with him—even Clark had to have a limit to his energy. Maybe he was a touch homesick…yes, that had to be it, Lex thought, he was homesick.
He let them into their room. ‘Their room. ’ It made him smile and sent a shivery little lick of contentment down his spine.
Once inside, Clark seemed to shake off his mood somewhat, enough that he smiled back and squeezed Lex’s shoulder before heading to his room with a wave and a “Good night.”
Lex stood next to the balcony, feeling oddly disappointed. He’d been looking forward to talking to Clark about the trip so far…what he’d thought of the flight and the city, how it felt to be in Paris…
He watched the sun set, lighting the Eiffel Tower from within, so that it stood like a web of black steel against the gold sky.
Clark should be here, watching it with him—like they had every night since they’d been in Paris. Clark loved watching the lights blink on across the city, loved watching lights illuminate the Tower and the streets below and Lex loved watching Clark, the changing light’s effect on Clark’s eyes, how it made his skin glow…he sighed and listened to Clark wash up for bed and tried not to think of him standing in the bathroom, maybe dressed in nothing but a towel or maybe he was in the bath tub, embraced by nothing but water, clear, lovely water…he groaned and nearly ran to his room, locking the door behind him.
He lay on his bed and just—gave up. What the hell, his door was shut, it was dark, and the hotel provided the silkiest, finest lotion as a gift for their guests, right in a little fabric lined basket on the bedside table. He’d dig that lube out of his kit bag tomorrow.
More in part 6
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
All thanks to
mecurtin for helping me out--any boo-boos and big honking "wazzats!" are entirely mine!VIII I’m Watching You
A week had passed; a week in which Lex had a surprisingly good time introducing Clark to a completely different style of life. Clark rewarded him by being enthusiastic and willing to try nearly everything. He learned that he really liked French food, and Lex felt rather proud of him—he was certain most guys Clark’s age and background would have required a pry bar and heaping handfuls of valium to try something like escargot. And the day he’d challenged Clark to let him order for him, un-translated, unexplained…Lex grinned fondly at the memory.
*********
“Clark, let me order for you—try this…”
Clark looked at him a little dubiously and Lex countered with, “Didn’t you like the escargot? It was good, right?”
Clark nodded slowly, “yes…” and the look on his face said, ‘It couldn’t get weirder than snails.’ “Okay Lex, though I’d just as soon it not be something Mom tries to kill in the garden, okay? Not saying they weren’t interesting--” he leaned forward and whispered, “But mostly I didn’t want to look too, you know, touristy in front of that waiter guy.” Clark looked darkly at their current waiter, who couldn’t have cared less.
Lex agreed. “Promise, I won’t order something your Mom would want to drown in a saucer of beer.” He ordered Rognons de Veau, and Clark was less then thrilled to find he was supposed to enjoy a meal of veal kidneys…but he ate them and claimed to find them tasty and Lex really wanted to feel bad for teasing Clark but there was a twelve year old deep in side of him who was crowing ‘Clark ate kidneys for *me*!’
*******
Lex laughed softly at himself and Clark lifted his head from the book he was reading, and smiled. Lex smiled back and again as he did every day, prayed for strength. It was getting harder and harder to be…good…and only seven days had passed and he had eleven more weeks to go. God. Something was going to give, and it was probably going to be his mind….
Lex brought himself back to the business at hand--Clark was promised a day visiting the Tower, and lunch at the Jules Verne restaurant, for which he’d neglected to make a reservations, but that was what Marlene was for, and she was just a phone call away.
He folded his cell with a feeling of satisfaction. He knew they’d get a reservation even if the woman had to go in and kill someone to get a table. That’s why she worked for LuthorCorp—she had the looks of an elegant saluki combined with the tenacity and fearlessness of a pitbull and if she proved to be as capable and efficient as he suspected she was, by summer’s end she’d be working for LexCorp. In the mean time, Lex had decided that Clark needed something different to wear, something a little more au courant—so they were on their way, window-shopping as they strolled along the street on Clark’s insistence.
The streets were an odd mixture of the old and the modern, as if the modern world had in parts been pasted slapdash over the centuries…Lex rather liked the effect. He glanced at Clark to see how he liked it and Clark seemed delighted by every little thing. He made a beeline to a pastry shop, and looked longingly at the confections in the window—he gaped at the healthy and unclothed models on the kiosk ads, laughed out loud at the motor scooters chugging through the streets
Well, Lex granted that if you were used to a Harley or whatever his dad’s bike was, a motor scooter must seem a ridiculous sight. Clark looked back at Lex, and said, “See, this is why we shouldn’t take the car everywhere. You miss such great stuff that way!” he bounded off again as Lex nodded and reminded himself that everything was shiny new and fresh to Clark. He sighed. He could barely remember being that young, that excited by life—damn, was he *ever* like that? And how pathetic was it that he was thinking this way and he was only six years older than Clark—shit.
He allowed himself the luxury of looking at Clark, really looking, watching him…the way he tossed his hair back from his forehead, the way he got a little crease between his eyes when he concentrated, how green his eyes were in the afternoon light and how red his cheeks because he blushed so easily--from embarrassment, from pleasure, from excitement… Lex was so wrapped up in enjoying Clark’s enjoyment that it took a moment for him to register that his name was being called.
“Alexander! Alexander—is it really you?” A handsome couple ran up to him and embraced him, as Clark stood by open-mouthed.
The young woman smacked Lex lightly on the arm. “You naughty thing! How could you come and not tell us?” she made a pout at Lex, but checked Clark out from head to toe. Lex knew that Clark had just gotten the most thorough visual examination he was ever likely to receive--He was willing to bet she could tell him if Clark was cut or not…the man with her looked almost exactly like her, he grinned happily, and opened his mouth to speak, eyeing Clark as intensely as his sister had--shit!
Lex hastily tried to draw attention away from his defenseless young friend. “Please let me introduce you to Clark, a young, *very* young, friend of mine—his parents asked me to keep him *safe* as he travels.” Lex shrugged and smirked and shook his head in a dismissive way.
“Ah!” they said together, and Clark disappeared from their notice.
Lex hoped that later he’d be able to make Clark understand what happened, because right now, he looked pretty angry and he knew how much Clark hated it when he treated him like a kid, and he knew how hair trigger his mouth was when he was angry. Damn it. He managed to turn the conversation back to introductions.
“Clark, this is Alain and Yvette, I went to school with Alain. I’m so surprised to see you two,” he said, and Clark scowled. Lex felt sympathy with Clark, he wasn’t sure whether he was glad to see them or not. Sure, the twins could be awfully good fun-- he felt an awakening tickle of a long dormant itch—ah, but they could be terrible trouble too.
Maybe they’d matured somewhat since last they met. Anything was possible.
After coming along on their shopping trip, and totally ruining Lex’s fantasies of Clark and dressing rooms in little boutiques, they also invited themselves to dinner, of course, and monopolized the conversation, of course, with awful stories of Lex’s misguided youth that, thank God, didn’t involve any of his sexual misadventures. It was bad enough to see Clark go from mildly interested to amused to outright shock, he kept sneaking looks full of horrified amazement. Lex could feel himself blushing—shut up, shut up—shut up! Outwardly he smiled and laughed and affected a world-weary attitude, he shrugged and totally ignored any questions Clark had.
After dinner, Alain and Yvette somehow managed to also invite themselves along for the tour of the Eiffel—all the while laughing at how adorably touristy Clark was, how delightfully simple and unaffected—pretty much code for stupid but hot.
Yvette seemed mildly interested, but Alain…Lex caught him staring several times at Clark with a look he knew all too well. He’d have to let him know that Clark was not on the menu—and let his sister know as well—Clark was not about to become this season’s cat-toy.
He got rid of them at the hotel amid a flurry of kisses and hugs that left Clark visibly dizzy, promised to catch up with them again the next afternoon.
The two rode the elevator in silence, giving Lex plenty of quiet to hear the grinding and creaking of vintage machinery as the elevator ground to their floor. He huffed something to Clark about the injustice of paying through the nose for atmosphere and gaining discomfort as part of the bargain, waiting for Clark to leap on the bait he dangled and tease him about being cheap, but Clark ignored him.
He didn’t seem angry, just preoccupied and—and a little sad. Maybe jetlag was just catching up with him—even Clark had to have a limit to his energy. Maybe he was a touch homesick…yes, that had to be it, Lex thought, he was homesick.
He let them into their room. ‘Their room. ’ It made him smile and sent a shivery little lick of contentment down his spine.
Once inside, Clark seemed to shake off his mood somewhat, enough that he smiled back and squeezed Lex’s shoulder before heading to his room with a wave and a “Good night.”
Lex stood next to the balcony, feeling oddly disappointed. He’d been looking forward to talking to Clark about the trip so far…what he’d thought of the flight and the city, how it felt to be in Paris…
He watched the sun set, lighting the Eiffel Tower from within, so that it stood like a web of black steel against the gold sky.
Clark should be here, watching it with him—like they had every night since they’d been in Paris. Clark loved watching the lights blink on across the city, loved watching lights illuminate the Tower and the streets below and Lex loved watching Clark, the changing light’s effect on Clark’s eyes, how it made his skin glow…he sighed and listened to Clark wash up for bed and tried not to think of him standing in the bathroom, maybe dressed in nothing but a towel or maybe he was in the bath tub, embraced by nothing but water, clear, lovely water…he groaned and nearly ran to his room, locking the door behind him.
He lay on his bed and just—gave up. What the hell, his door was shut, it was dark, and the hotel provided the silkiest, finest lotion as a gift for their guests, right in a little fabric lined basket on the bedside table. He’d dig that lube out of his kit bag tomorrow.
More in part 6
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