Disclaimer - WB and DC own 'em. Dang!

It's a SV fic! *Just* a SV fic. Wow. And it's Clex! Future fic, humour, silly *g*.

Feedback would rock.

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The irony of it was, Clark didn't even realise he was in love with Lex until it was announced that Lex was getting married.

Again.

Clark didn't know why this particular announcement had done the trick; made him realise the truth. Maybe he hadn't been in love with Lex throughout his earlier marriages, but Clark knew now and he was determined to do something about it.

The frustrating thing was that it would have been so easy to break them up. All he had to do was say that he didn't like her, didn't trust her, and Lex would have dropped Elaina like the skanky ho she was - provided she hadn't already pheromoned her fiance into Lusty Lex.

But he couldn't do that, because he was supposed to be a moral compass, an example for others to always do the right thing. And though hardly anyone knew about his secret identity, *Clark* would know he'd done the wrong thing and his conscience would never let him hear the end of it.

God, sometimes it really *sucked* to be Superman.

It might have been easier if Elaina had shown any incipient tendencies towards homicide, but the woman was a saint. Almost literally. She'd visited the Pope, once, and Clark wouldn't have been surprised if she'd been canonised.

She was always so friendly to Clark, never seeming at all threatened by his friendship with Lex, and if anyone ever needed help with anything she was always the first one to volunteer. She was unrelentingly nice, friendly, and helpful.

Bitch.

As it turned out, Clark needn't have worried. Four days after his own revelation, Elaina was implicated in a plot to kill Lex that involved six mice and a rabid snake.

Arriving to console his betrayed friend, Clark unfortunately greeted Lex with a hug and the words, "I'm so glad she tried to kill you!"

He spent the next few minutes fumbling over an explanation before finally giving up and executing the pout. As anticipated, Lex caved under the power of the pout and told Clark to forget all about it.

The good news - Lex was single again.

The bad news? Clark had to make sure he stayed that way.

*

When Clark finished devising his plan, he headed straight for Lex's office. He could have run up to the top floor of LexCorp long before the elevator would have arrived, but he took his time, building his courage as the elevator slowly made its journey.

By the time Lex's secretary - Joanna, this week - said he could go in, Clark was almost calm.

Until he saw Lex. Lex, who was leaning back in his ergonomic chair, smiling.

"Clark!" he greeted cheerfully, the way he always did after a close brush with a murderous potential spouse. "To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?"

Having it all planned out, Clark sat in the chair on the other side of Lex's desk, cleared his throat, and hoped his voice wasn't about to break. "I have a proposal for you."

Still smiling, Lex nonetheless frowned slightly. "A business proposal?"

"Not exactly," Clark replied as calmly as possible. Okay. He could do this. "Lex, you know you're my best friend."

Lex's smile broadened again. "Of course, Clark. And you're mine."

"And more than anything I want the best for you."

"I want the same for you," Lex nodded.

This was good. Now came the area they never really talked about. "But I know you worry about being alone. That you want a relationship with someone, long term. Something that will last for the rest of your life."

The smile on Lex's face was fading, dammit, but Clark had to press on.

"You can't deny it," he continued, before deciding some teasing may be in order. "How many wives have you had now? Eighteen?"

Lex rolled his eyes. "Five." He paused, considering. "And a half."

Ohhh, right. Rebecca.

Yuck.

"Right," Clark agreed, "but as much as I admire and respect you, Lex, you have *terrible* taste in women."

Shifting in his chair, Lex grimaced. "No, I don't."

"Yes, you do," Clark argued. "Every single one of your wives or even potential wives has tried to kill you. What else would you call it?"

Appearing nonchalant, Lex shrugged. "Bad luck?" At Clark's hard stare, he gave up the pretense and sighed heavily. "Fine, what would you suggest?"

Here it went.

"Marry me."

Lex didn't blink. In fact, Lex didn't even breathe, so Clark quickly kept talking before someone suffocated.

"I know, I know, it sounds crazy. But think about it - we're already going to be there for each other forever. We love each other, even if it's not romantic love," on Lex's part anyway, and Clark was really hoping that was gonna change, "and of course there'd be a pre-nuptial agreement in case - God forbid - anything should happen to you. You know I've never been interested in the money, Lex. And," Lex was breathing now. Or was that hyperventilating? "it's not like I've been lighting it up between the sheets myself lately. Um." He suddenly realised how that sounded. "Not that I think of you as second best or anything! You're a *great* catch for anyone, Lex, man, woman or," he grinned, "alien. And yeah, yeah, I know there's the whole 'straight'," he made quote marks with his fingers, "thing, but you know, given time I'm sure we can find some kind of-"

"Clark."

Silence descended like a...like a...thing that descended really silently. "Yes?" Wow, where did all the saliva from his mouth go?

"Are you in love with me?"

Clark was not panicking. Clark was not panicking at all. "I don't see what that has to do with anything."

"Clark, you just asked me to marry you," Lex pointed out, being all *reasonable* or something. "I believe I have every right in the world to know if you're in love with me."

Dammit. And after that afternoon when he'd told Lex the truth about his origins, he'd promised he'd never lie to him again.

God, being Superman *sucked*.

"Yes," he said quietly.

Processing this information, Lex nodded calmly. "And are you attracted to me? Sexually?"

Clark felt oddly like he was in the Principal's office. Not that he'd *ever* been attracted to Mr Reynolds. "Yes."

"I see," Lex replied, then stared down at his hands which were clasped together as they rested on his desk. After just a few seconds - seconds in which Clark fervently wished someone was about to die horribly so he could go rescue them - Lex looked back up. "Very well, Clark. I've thought over your generous offer, and have decided to accept your proposal."

The moisture that'd been missing from his mouth earlier was now missing from his eyes as he stared, unblinking, at Lex. "You are?"

"Yes."

"You're going to marry me? You're really going to marry me?" This had been way, way too easy. God, he really hoped Lex didn't think it was some big joke. "*Why*?"

"Because," Lex responded, smiling quite possibly the biggest smile Clark had ever seem him produce, "I feel exactly the same way about you as you do about me."

Feeling ridiculously like laughing, Clark just sat there, unable to move until Lex came to his side of the desk and gave him a really good reason *to* move.

This proposal stuff was *easy*. Why hadn't he ever tried it before?

~FINIS