Filler

Disclaimer - riiiight. DC and WB really own these two. Uh huh.

It's Plex and Clex! After writing that little Plex ficlet I posted earlier, this stupid little bunny leapt into my head and wouldn't go away. So, yeah. Feedback would rock.

Rated R purely for bad language. Ultimately an AU. I played a little bit with Lex's age.

Big smooches to fromward. Thanks!

It's Lex Luthor's 22nd birthday and Pete doesn't know why he's there.

That's not exactly true though - the why is standing a few feet away, wearing his best jeans and talking to Lana Lang. Clark knows Pete doesn't like Lex but then he does that pathetic wheedly thing Pete is convinced will actually be unmasked as a power some day, and all Pete can do is grumble and say something about maybe showing up for five minutes when they both know he'll be there however long Clark is.

He's just surprised Lex invited him at all.

Clark being there is par for the course - he's Lex best friend, as Lex likes to irritatingly point out at every opportunity. To Pete's mind there's something kinda scary at just how *seriously* Lex takes his friendship with Clark.

Lana's to be expected too. She's Lex's business partner (and who would have seen that coming when Lex's car first went off the bridge?) and Chloe is just, well, *Chloe*. She's everywhere.

There are a couple more people Pete doesn't know real well, and he half suspects this whole thing was more Clark's idea than Lex's. Still, Pete's invitation had definitely come from Lex, personally from Lex, and they're long since passed the point where Pete would be welcomed along just because he's one of Clark's closest friends. Lex used to do everything he could to make Pete like him.

It didn't work.

He's grumbling at the counter of the Talon when Lex slopes over to him, and his frown only gets worse. He hates the way Lex moves. It's like he doesn't belong in Smallville, like he never should have come here.

"Pete," Lex greets, and it's not a word he hears coming out of that mouth a lot, "enjoying yourself?"

It's damn clear that he isn't. "Why am I here, Lex?"

For just a second, he can tell Lex is planning on playing with him, on saying he's only there because Clark insisted when they both know that's not what Pete asked.

He doesn't.

"I realised I have a great deal of respect for you, Mr Ross."

Pete stares. This has to be the weirdest moment of his entire life so far, and that includes finding out about Clark. "*Why*?"

Lex shrugs. "You don't like me. And you never pretend otherwise. Unlike certain people in this town, I know I can count on you to tell me the absolute truth. No bullshit."

That's something else about Lex. He curses, but only when the 'grown-ups' aren't around. Like he's trying to fit in.

But there's no one else in Smallville anything like Lex, and the people he chooses to hang around with are nothing like the cool kids.

"So..." Pete tries to get it. Doesn't really succeed. "You invited me because I don't like you?"

Lex nods, like it makes any kind of sense at all. "Yes."

Pete shakes his head. "That's fucked up, man."

He forces himself not to smile when Lex laughs.

Nothing annoys him more than being indebted to Lex. He'd always suspected that and after today he knows it's true. So when night crawls in - that seems right - Pete arrives at the mansion with his words already planned, betting he'll be in and out within five minutes. Maybe four. They never talk longer than they have to.

Lex answers the door himself which is kinda surprising, and he looks surprised himself to see Pete standing there. Pete's mouth gets ahead of him, and he's thanking Lex for saving his life before he's even in the building.

Amusement touches Lex's mouth as he steps aside to let him in. "You're welcome, Mr Ross."

And he wouldn't even be here if it hadn't been for the kryptonite rendering Clark useless.

But then he wouldn't be here at all without Lex.

One drink. He'll stay for one drink.

iii

He's not going to say sorry. Because he'd been *right* dammit, absolutely everything had pointed towards Lex being involved and anything that put Clark at risk couldn't be left alone.

But then Lex had shown him the 'proof'. Shown him how it'd been twisted, how Lionel had been the one screwing over his own son.

And Pete doesn't seem to have any other choice. He believes him.

He's not apologising when he takes the drink Lex offers, and he's not apologising when his hand stays in one place longer than it should. Pete has known - Pete has *always* known - that Lex will hurt Clark eventually. Regardless of how he may act or the things he has and hasn't done, one day Lex *will* hurt Clark.

Pete can't let that happen.

Clark has always been too much of a boy scout to figure out what really needs to be done.

But Pete knows this. He hasn't done it with Lex - or with any guys at all - but he's been here before. He knows mostly what to do, and the rest he can guess at.

"Not an apology," he says.

Lex smiles. "Never assumed it was."

Lex is fucking *obsessed* with Clark. There's not much physical proof - the only thing Pete has actually seen is some computer model of the crash on the bridge, and that was only because Lex didn't know he was there - but Pete has a different perspective on things now. Sees things differently. And he's convinced now that the crush he'd originally thought Lex had on Clark is complete adoration, addiction, and some twisted kind of Luthor love.

The kind that's never going to end well, because Clark's never going to tell Lex the truth.

Pete talks to Clark. Tells him his fears for his secret, makes leading comments about Lex's 'obsessive personality'. Doesn't tell him about the time Lex called out Clark's name.

If they were doing anything more than fucking, Pete might have been insulted. But they're not and nothing about Lex's feelings for Clark are a surprise anymore.

Clark doesn't listen.

That's not a surprise either.

Marriage isn't going to stop Lex from being a threat, but it can only be a step in the right direction. Dr Bryce seems like a good enough catch - and yeah, Pete has picked up on the similarity to Clark. All of Lex's women always had a similarity to Clark.

He wonders where he fits in.

Lex is nearly married just as Clark's biological father is being a complete dick, and Pete really hopes Jor-El doesn't do anything that'll stop the wedding. Not that Jor-El isn't a threat, but the disembodied voice of Clark's long dead father isn't exactly something he knows how to face down.

Lex Luthor? That he can take on.

Pete's secretly watching the wedding when the shit hits the fan, but he doesn't see Clark until later, at school, when his friend is ripping through drawers searching for the one thing that really makes him an alien.

Clark doesn't listen to him.

It's something else Pete's becoming used to.

The funeral was very nice, so Mrs Kent tells him. She knows there's no love lost between Pete and Lex, but she'd still never speak ill of the dead. Pete sits on the sofa next to her, as they go through papers searching for a hint of Clark.

He never says anything about the fact that Clark and Lex disappeared on the same day, and wonders sometimes if they're together.

Sometimes he thinks Mrs Kent wonders the same thing.

When Clark does come home - alone - he goes to see Pete last. After his parents. After Lana and Chloe.

After Lex.

Though the last one isn't Clark's fault - Lex was the one who went to see him, not the other way around. Lex doesn't come to see Pete at all. It's not expected.

Clark does.

"I'm sorry."

It's the pathetic voice again, only this time it isn't faked.

"We're cool, man. Just don't go taking that red shit again, okay?"

Clark promises. Pete nearly believes him.

vii

Two months after Lex goes insane, Pete's dropping some paperwork off at the mansion. Lana had been swamped at the Talon, had smiled sweetly (which she doesn't quite pull off anymore since getting arrested for grand theft auto), and thrusted her chest towards him (but at least she's getting better at that).

Lex barely says a word when Pete walks into the office/library/pool room and explains why he's there. He's nearly all the way out again when Lex finally does speak. Turning in the doorway at the sound of his own name, Pete looks back into the room and waits for Lex to speak again.

"Do you know what it is I can't remember?"

It's pretty much public knowledge that Lex can't remember some things, not since he had his treatment. Pete has been told what happened, but Clark didn't even think to involve him even when he involved Lana and Chloe.

Because Clark knows that Pete hates Lex.

It should probably hurt more than it does.

"No. I don't know any more than you do." Pete wonders if, before this, he's ever had to lie to him.

"That's a shame," Lex says, and for the first time Pete can remember, he looks vulnerable. He can't be, of course. He's Lex Luthor. He can be creepy, obsessed and fucking crazy, but not *vulnerable*.

"Yeah," Pete says, and stays for another two hours.

viii

"This won't be happening any more."

Lex says it like there's no doubt. Absolute certainty.

Pete doesn't tense. Doesn't freeze. He's learnt not to do that when Lex says something unexpected. "Okay." He wants to ask why, he's *dying* to ask why, but he doesn't want Lex to know how much he needs to keep doing this. How much Pete needs to protect Clark from people like him.

And Lex, who's been different, quieter, since he came back, walks into the bathroom and turns on the shower.

Pete's gone by the time he comes back out.

Something's different. He's been feeling it for days, ever since Clark came back from that Summerholt place. He doesn't know what, but there's *something*, and it's an old routine that sends him to the mansion.

It's when he's near the door to the bedroom that he hears the noises, familiar and different. And Pete knows.

He *knows*.

Clark has fucked everything up.

Clark told Lex the truth.

He runs to the one room in the mansion he's never been able to get into and finds that now, this time, the door's unlocked.

Turning the handle, he pushes the door open, and freezes.

There's nothing inside.

~FINIS