Clark rested his elbows on the wooden windowsill, forgoing his telescope for once to look up at the stars with his own eyes.

It had been nice to have Sam around for an evening, but in some ways, it made the loneliness worse when he was gone. Pete had been acting strange around Clark ever since he'd found out about Clark's history with Lex; Lana was too painful to be around, since she spent so much time talking about her boyfriend; Chloe was nice to spend time with, but she wasn't going to be around for much longer, now that the plant was closed and her father was having to move out of town. And Lex was great, but he was busy with his work so much of the time, now more than ever.

But Clark was getting used to loneliness. Over the past year, he'd pushed a lot of people away by telling them lies about things he'd done, how he got from one place to another so fast, and, sometimes, how they'd managed to survive a near-death experience. Clark had lost count of how many times he'd lied to Lex. He doubted he would ever come back around to trusting Lex if he'd been lying for so long—but then again, Clark had a good reason to be keeping his secret. Clark was sure if Lex lied to him with as good a reason, Clark would understand and forgive him.

Not that it mattered. Clark couldn't tell Lex, anyway. Clark's dad had freaked out when he'd found out that Clark told Sam his secret. He'd yelled at him and grounded him for two weeks, though he'd ended up letting him go after five days—apparently his mom had convinced his dad. For a month after that, his parents had been weirdly nice to him, as if they were trying to make it up to him or something. That awkwardness was almost more uncomfortable than the grounding.

He sort of understood where they were coming from. He knew it hadn't been safe to tell Sam his secret back when he was ten. At the time, he hadn't known Sam nearly well enough to know whether he would turn out to be a trustworthy confidante; Clark had just gotten lucky. It wasn't safe to tell just anyone his secret. Lex was his best friend; he'd been like a brother to Clark for years, and he would never tell anyone, but it just wasn't safe for him to know. Not while his father still had so much of a hand in his life.

Maybe when Clark was eighteen, he could make his own decisions about who to tell and who to lie to. Right now, though, he had to trust his parents' judgement.

"Doing alright, Clark?"

Clark whirled around. He'd been immersed in thought and hadn't heard anyone come in, and he wouldn't usually have expected Lex this late, anyway. "Hey. How are things with the plant?"

Lex sighed. "Just when it looked like we were going to be able to reopen, my father threw another wrench in the gears."

"What happened?"

"He bought up the Smallville Savings and Loan."

"Why does it matter if he buys the bank?"

"Because he owns my employees' mortgages, and he has the power of foreclosure if they ever miss a payment."

Clark's mind was spinning a little. Lex talked about his business plans from time to time, but they never made a whole lot of sense to Clark. "Why would he close the plant in the first place?"

"As an act of control. Over me."

Clark swallowed hard. He'd listened to his dad for long enough about how the entire town's economy was being ruined because of the plant closing. His dad didn't blame Lex, exactly, but he did say that whatever issues Lionel and Lex had with each other were affecting everyone in the town. "Why now?"

"Who knows? I'll never understand how my father's mind works."

Clark frowned. For some reason, he couldn't help but get the feeling Lex wasn't telling the whole story. But he wasn't going to press. He knew this had been hard enough on Lex without people blaming him for everything that had happened. Apparently, enough of the town was already doing that.

"I just hope I'll be able to keep anyone from getting hurt," Lex said.

"It's not like anyone's going to die."

"Probably not. But bad economic times have their casualties."

"I mean, don't those hard times happen anyway?" Clark took a step closer. "You can't control what your father does, Lex."

"Yeah, but this was my plant. I'm responsible for my people."

There was a long silence, and Clark decided he might as well ask. "You really don't know why your father closed the plant?"

Lex's jaw pulsed, and he stared past Clark's face. "He was punishing me."

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

Clark blinked. It wasn't exactly surprising, but it wasn't what he had expected to hear, either. "For what?"

"For something I did when I was sixteen."

"But . . . now?"

"He punished me back then, by sending me to your house for the summer."

"But you loved that summer."

"I pretended I hated it. And he found out."

Clark swallowed. "How did he find out?"

"He always finds out."

Clark turned again toward the window. "That's really rough."

"Yeah," Lex said, and he came to stand beside Clark.

Clark's parents had worked hard to make sure he had a normal life. He would never really feel like he fit into it, because he would never be anything resembling normal, but his life was ordinary, for the most part. Sure, he ran into monsters and meteor mutants now and then—a lot more often than he ever had, recently—but those were breaks from the monotony of a fairly safe life. His parents cared about him, the farm work was easy for him, school was predictable, his friends cared about him and each other. He sometimes worried about exposing his secret or hurting someone with his powers, but he'd had a life's worth of practice controlling them, and he didn't usually have to worry that someone was trying to come after him personally.

Lex's life, though—that was dangerous all around. Not life-and-death dangerous, necessarily, but he always had people who were sending personal attacks, on his life or on his business. He didn't have a safety net of friends and family who cared about him. And his father was the most unpredictable of all. Throwing Clark's secret into the mix wasn't safe for anyone. If Lionel ever found out Clark's secret because Clark had told Lex . . .

"It's not anything new," Lex said. "My relationship with my father has always been build on secrets and lies."

Clark felt his cheeks growing warm.

He gave Clark a pointed look. "Lucky we don't have that problem."

"Yeah," Clark made himself say. "Lucky us."

Lex let his breath out. "Look. It's better if you hear this from me than from my father, and he's . . . planning something, to . . . punish me. I want to clear the air between us, just in case he comes after our friendship."

"What are you talking about, Lex?"

"It's easier if I show you."

"Okay . . ."

"But it's back at the mansion."

"Um." Clark glanced in the direction of the house. "Can't you just tell me?"

"I can try. But you might still want to see it." Lex took a deep breath. "You know how we've encountered a few different monsters who were infected by the meteor rocks? People, too?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, I've been doing research. Investigating."

Clark frowned. He couldn't stop people from looking into the meteor rocks, but he hated it when they did. It always made him nervous that they would somehow expose his secret. "You obsessed like Chloe?"

"Maybe." He shoved his hands in his pockets. "There's a room in my house dedicated to my findings. It's about a year's worth of work."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I'm afraid my father will see fit to give you a key, and you'll find out about it, and I won't get a chance to explain. And I didn't want you to know about it, because . . . a lot of the research has to do with you."

Clark's breath caught. "Y-you were investigating me?"

"It's not about you. It's about the meteor rocks, and about me, and—"

"You think I'm connected to it? And you didn't talk to me?"

"I did, Clark, but you lied to me every time I brought it up."

Clark could feel his pulse in his ears. "Did you ever think maybe those things weren't any of your business?"

"I assumed you had a good reason to lie, I thought maybe you were in danger, or—"

"If I had a good reason to lie, I didn't need you to be snooping behind my back!"

"I know, Clark, I should have told you, but—"

"You shouldn't have done it in the first place!"

"You're right, I'm—" Lex stopped himself short, shaking his head.

Clark raised his eyebrows. "You're what, Lex? Sorry? For lying to me and invading my privacy?" Clark had just been feeling guilty about lying to Lex, but he'd done it to protect him. Lex had gone being Clark's back and endangered him.

"No." Lex set his jaw. "Actually, I'm not sorry, Clark. I'd do it again."

Clark's pulse pounded in the whites of his eyes. "You went behind my back, you could have put me in danger, and you're not sorry. This is you trying to preserve our friendship?"

"Clark, there's something going on in this town. If you know what it is, you could always save me some trouble and clue me in."

"What makes you think I know anything?"

"Clark . . . you're there almost every time one of these incidents go down, and—"

"So are you!"

"And my investigations include myself, too. This isn't all about you."

"It's enough about me you felt the need to warn me in advance."

"I just . . . wanted to be able to protect you."

"No." Clark took a step closer, fuming. "You put me in danger. You investigated me behind my back, and now your father's gotten involved. What's going to happen to me now?"

"Are you involved with the meteor rocks or not?"

"Either way, I'm dead if your father comes after me!" His parents were right about not telling people his secret. He never knew when one of them was going to stab him in the back.

"Not necessarily. If you tell me the truth, I can help you."

"What makes you think I could ever trust you after this?"

"Clark . . . you're like a brother to me."

Those were the words that did it. Lex was like a brother to him. They'd been close for years, and then Lex had done this.

"Please—"

"Get out."

A short pause, then Lex took a step toward Clark. "Not until you tell me the truth."

"Get out!" Clark didn't mean to shove hard, but his anger got the best of him, and his hands struck roughly against Lex's chest.

Lex stumbled back, eyes widening in fear for just a second, before he straightened up. "Clark, just come with me—"

Clark's fist flew and connected with Lex's jaw.

Lex whirled around, gasping, then he ran out of the barn without so much as a glance back.

Clark's heart was still pounding. He looked down at his hand and turned it over to find blood on his knuckles, and he felt sick to his stomach.

He turned back to the window. Clark wouldn't have said that enhanced sight was one of his powers, exactly, but he'd always been able to see better than his parents or friends.

Watching the ground below instead of the stars above, he saw Lex get into his car, rest his head back on the headrest of the driver's seat, and tap it a few times. When he opened his eyes, they glistened.

Clark's eyes stung, too.