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Ohgodohgodohgodhecouldhavediedhecouldbedeaddeaddeadandicouldn'tdoadamned thingicouldn'tstopthebastardicouldn'titrieditriedpleasegoditried -

Lex's thoughts whirled Clark-fast through his mind as the events of the past hour caught up to him. Smallville had thrown yet another meteor-mutant at them, and once again Clark had prevailed . . . but it had been a very near thing. The blood in Darin Bishop's veins was so saturated with the green radiation that going within a 50-yard radius of the man had caused his friend to get sick. Closer than that, and Clark got steadily worse until he could barely stand upright much less effect a rescue. But he had kept coming, ignoring the poison choking the life from him, because Bishop had one of the few things that Clark simply wasn't prepared to let go.

Lex Luthor.

Seeing that his friend wasn't going to stop, Lex had struggled madly against the vines and vegetation holding him hostage, but Bishop's pet plants held him as securely then as they had the past five hours. He'd started screaming then, at Clark to stay back, at Bishop to let the boy be, at God for allowing something like this to happen. Not surprisingly, he was ignored by all three until all that was left for him to do was helplessly watch what he'd been certain would be Clark's last moments.

But the Kent luck had held out once more. Chloe and Pete had shown up right behind Clark, and while he distracted Bishop, they managed to set up the hose with their own special brand of Round-Up. A couple of steady blasts of the herbicide, and Bishop had gone down for the count. Chloe had cut Lex down while Pete dragged a nearly unconscious Clark away from the mutant.

As per normal, as soon as Clark was far enough away from the green stuff, he recovered just fine, even managed to cluck at Lex like an overanxious hen when he finally got to the younger man's side. Lex didn't know whether to kiss Clark or pop him one for making him worry so badly. He settled for a quiet thank you and a subtle lean into Clark's one-armed embrace before his friend dropped the arm from his shoulders and went to see what they could do about Bishop.

An hour later, Bishop, along with the remains of his mutated plants, had been collected and carted off to the same medical lab that housed Earl Jenkins. Lex had been declared bloodied but unbowed by the paramedics, Pete and the cops had left for home, and Clark and Chloe were a few feet away from the troubled billionaire, urgently discussing . . . whatever it was teenagers discussed after a night like this one. All in all, it was just another crazy misadventure in the wilds of Smallville, and it really shouldn't have bothered Lex as much as it did.

But it did. Lex found himself staring at the spot where he'd been trapped for so long, and without his permission, he was suddenly reliving it all over again. Not the part where he'd been taunted and tormented for hours, but the last ten minutes of the ordeal, when the certainty of his own helplessness in the face of his best friend's need had choked off the last of his screams. When he saw the sick, determined look on Clark's face and knew that the boy wasn't going to stop. Wasn't going to stop because of Lex. Was willing to die if it meant that Lex would live.

Oh God. Oh my God. He didn't deserve that much trust and loyalty. He couldn't live with that kind of knowledge. CouldntdidntsweetmercifulGod whyareyoudoingthistomepleaseitried . . .

Lex's body reacted to the inner turmoil as it hadn't in years. His lungs seized violently, and suddenly Lex was nine years old again and he couldn't breathe. He choked on a reflexive indrawn breath and forcefully expelled the unused air back out his throat. Both hands instinctively clapped against his chest, trying futilely to force his lungs to relax, to suck in precious oxygen. He coughed again, and staggered drunkenly when the first sharp spikes of pain skewered him between the ribs. God, God, he couldn't breathe!

Clark!

Clark looked up a bit distractedly from his conversation with Chloe at the first cough. He really didn't want to invent a plausible story for his extreme reaction to Bishop, so it was almost a relief to have a distraction from the budding reporter's relentless questions. That relief quickly turned to horror when he saw Lex stumble. Damn, he knew he shouldn't have trusted those paramedics. This was Lex, a man good at hiding just about everything he felt. It wouldn't be anything for him to hide pain from strangers. He should have checked up on him sooner.

He made it to Lex's side just as another series of airless coughs wracked the other man's body, and he nearly collapsed to the ground. Clark reached out a supporting hand and found his arm caught in a vise-like grip. Staring down at his friend, he met wide, panicked eyes with a shocked gaze of his own. What was going on?! What was happening to him? Was this some weird side effect from Bishop or his plants? If so, why had it taken so long to kick in? And what exactly was it doing to Lex to make him look so scared?

"He can't breathe," Chloe's frightened voice supplied from the other side of Lex. She frantically wracked her brains for a reason. "Were there some kind of spores or something that maybe got into his lungs?"

Clark shook his head. "Didn't see any," he answered choppily, willing himself not to lose it now. Lex needed him, and he'd never felt more helpless.

Lex's face twisted with pain, and this time the agony of the horrible, wheezing coughs dropped him to the ground so suddenly that it was all Clark could do to break his fall. Wrapping his arms around his friend's body, he tried his best to support him against the coughing, but even with his strength, it was incredibly difficult to hold onto the bucking body.

"Panic attack?" the desperate girl suggested next as she fell to her knees beside the pair, but she immediately waved it off as impossible. Lex Luthor just didn't do fear. "Is he allergic to any kind of plants?"

"Attack?" Clark muttered, missing the last question as a half-remembered conversation tickled at his brain. The answer hit him with the force of a freight train. "Asthma! Lex said he had asthma attacks as a child, but that he mostly outgrew them."

"Not far enough," Chloe said darkly, hands reaching out to touch Lex, but drawing away before she actually did. "Does he have an inhaler?"

Lex shook his head frantically, his terror-filled eyes rolling between the two teenagers as if they could magically produce one between them. The wheezing had gotten worse, and his lips were starting to turn blue. What precious little air Lex's lungs could absorb was quickly being lost to his panic. Something had to be done and soon, or they were going to lose him, and dammit, Clark did not just rescue the man to let him die now!

"Chloe, go call the paramedics back. Quick! They can't have gotten too far, and there has to be oxygen or something on the ambulance."

"What are you going to do?" Chloe demanded, even as she rose in response to Clark's command.

"Whatever it takes," he answered grimly. "Just go!"

Not waiting to see if she'd obeyed, Clark focused all his attention onto the man in his arms. As carefully and as swiftly as he could, he maneuvered Lex into a semi-seated position between his outstretched legs. Wrestling Lex's still-scrabbling hands from his chest, he pressed them down onto his own jean-clad thighs, holding them there until he was satisfied that Lex wouldn't move them from that spot. With one hand, he then rubbed at the solid chest wall in small, massaging circles, trying where brutal pummeling had failed to coax the tortured organs to relax. He wrapped his other arm around the smaller man's waist and pulled him closer until his back was firmly pressed against Clark's torso.

Then Clark began to speak.

"Okay, Lex, listen to me now, all right?" he commanded softly, firmly. "I know this is going to be hard, but hey, you've never backed down from a challenge, right? I need you to breathe with me, Lex. Nice and easy now, just let yourself feel my chest rise and fall against your back and match me."

Lex's head fell back against Clark's shoulder and rolled restlessly. The pale hands picked up the same restive need and plucked jerkily at the denim beneath them. Clark fervently wished he had an extra set of hands so he could give Lex something to hold onto, but that was a power he didn't possess. He settled for channeling as much strength and comfort he could through his voice.

"Easy as cake, man, I know you can do it. Just relax and let the rhythm take over. Don't think about it, don't worry about anything but breathing. There's nobody else here but you and me and we're going to get those lungs working again. Even if I have to breathe for you again, you understand me?"

The hands on his thighs tightened suddenly, grabbing fistfuls of loose jeans and twisting viciously as their owner writhed in pain. Clark nearly cried out in despair, but somehow managed to keep his voice low and steady with a Herculean effort. He leaned forward a bit until he was speaking directly into Lex's ear.

"I swear to God, Lex, I will, I'll breathe for you all night long if that's what you need, but I'd much rather you do it. I'm not going to leave, Lex. I swear it, you and me, we can do this. Just fall into the rhythm, in and out, in and out, c'mon, baby, I know you can do it. Just breath with me . . ."

Eventually, enough of the soft, urgent words filtered through Lex's terror for him to be able to respond. His hands continued to grasp and twist and his head still lolled against Clark's shoulder, but he wriggled his back further into the younger man's chest and made a supreme effort to match the breathing pattern he felt behind him. He nearly choked on his first try, but with the force of will that had gotten him through a childhood with Lionel Luthor, he doggedly took a second breath, then a third, and a fourth. It hurt like hell, splinters of pain tearing through his ribcage with every motion until he couldn't stop the tears from streaming down his face, but Lex kept trying to breathe. He could do this, he would do this, for Clark.

Clark felt it the moment Lex started to move with purpose instead of pain. He felt it in the too-rapid heartbeat under his palm and in the shuddering yet determined rise and fall of the chest encircled in his arms. He reined in his shout of relief, knowing that he had to keep a steady pace of inhalations and exhalations if he was going to get Lex to breathe on his own again. So instead, he again whispered encouragement and reassurance into his friend's ear, unaware of how much of his affection for the other man his words betrayed.

"That's it, nice and slow and easy," Clark murmured, one big hand continuing to soothe circles across the straining muscles. "You're doing just fine, baby, you're doing great. Just a little while longer now, and everything will be okay. Just a little longer."

An agonizing eternity later, Lex's lungs began to expand and contract with only a little extra effort as he finally got his breathing in synch with Clark's. His hands twitched then relaxed against Clark's thighs, palms pressing down lightly. With something close to a sigh, Lex slumped back against Clark and closed his eyes. He almost sighed again when Clark remained silent and just held him close. He wasn't anywhere near ready to talk about this. He still couldn't believe he'd let his emotions run away with him so far that it had triggered an attack . . . but then, he really shouldn't be so surprised. Clark had an amazing ability to snake under Lex's defenses and make him do and feel things he would have thought impossible a year ago.

Even so, he was a Luthor, God damn it, and he should have better control than that. Christ, if Lex started acting like that in a boardroom, LuthorCorp would be forever beyond his reach. Unless his father laughed himself into a heart attack before he could change his will.

Any further recriminatory thoughts were completely derailed by the touch of warm lips to his temple. Lex's eyes popped open, shock keeping him immobile while those lips traveled from his temple down his jaw line. Strong hands whispered across his chest and down the length of his arms, gentling and arousing at the same time. Lex melted into the attention for a long while, hardly believing that he was finally getting what he'd wanted for so long. God, Clark, oooh God . . . Wait a minute - Clark. What was going on here?! Slowly, reluctantly, Lex turned his head and stared up into wide, hopeful eyes.

Clark had honestly had no intention to kiss Lex, but once he did, he had no intention of stopping. Lex tasted too good against his tongue and felt too good nestled against his body for Clark to ever want to stop. They were both alive and sound, and he knew it was partly pure relief that was making him react to Lex's closeness now, but only a very small part. Everything else was love and lust and affection and knowledge and all the confusing, contradictory, complicated things that made up their unlikely but oh-so-necessary friendship. No, Clark wasn't regretting a moment of this, and he sure as hell wasn't stopping.

Until Lex stiffened and slowly pulled away. Until he lifted his eyes to study Clark's face. In that one moment, Clark experienced terror on a level that homicidal, meteor-created mutants had never inspired. The fear faded in the next instant when he saw everything he felt for the man in his arms clearly reflected on Lex's face. Smiling brilliantly, Clark closed the last little distance between them and kissed Lex properly for the first time.

He meant to keep the contact light and simple, but when Lex's mouth opened under his, he couldn't resist getting closer. Lex moaned softly and turned more fully towards the younger man, his hands coming up to sink long fingers into Clark's thick hair. Clark slanted his head to seal their lips together in a more perfect angle, and for a handful of endless seconds, they blocked out everything but each other.

Clark pulled back first. He really, really didn't want to, already addicted to Lex's heat and taste from just one kiss, but he didn't want to take what little breath Lex had recently regained even more. Lex's low, rueful chuckle reassured Clark that he understood. With a happy sigh, Clark gently bumped noses with the other man then dipped down to nuzzle into Lex's warm, slightly damp neck.

The sharp squeal of the returning ambulance shocked the pair out of their sensual daze. Lex made a sound somewhere between a groan and a laugh and leaned back. He caught Clark's chin and tilted his face up so he could look into his bright, green eyes. "Soon, Clark Kent," he vowed, his voice hoarse from coughing but the promise coming through clearly. "Soon, you're going to be all mine without any distractions or interruptions."

"Very soon," Clark agreed, his own voice deep and husky. "But not tonight. Tonight, you're going to do what the medics tell you to do and let yourself get better." He settled Lex back into his original position before Lex could make any protest and resumed rubbing circles into his chest.

Of course, that didn't mean that Lex didn't try to protest anyway. "But - "

"No, Lex," Clark cut him off firmly. "I'm not taking any chances with you. Promise me that you'll do as they say."

"I-I promise," Lex answered quietly, a bit overwhelmed by Clark's obvious concern. No one had been so openly caring in . . . far too long. Half-lying, half-reclining in Clark's arms, Clark's breath warm against his neck, Lex decided all those hard, lonely years were a fair trade to be precisely where he was right now.

Clark heard Lex's surrender and nodded once in approval. "Good." He pressed a quick, tiny kiss to the back of Lex's head. "And since you're being cooperative for once, I'll even go back to the castle with you and tuck you in before I go home."

"Deal," Lex managed before an anxious Chloe and the paramedics descended on them.

He deliberately relaxed back against Clark and let himself be poked and prodded with far more patience than he normally spared the medical profession. It wasn't nearly as horrible as it usually was. He suspected that had a lot to do with Clark's presence. He suspected that a lot of things that had been arduous before would be a lot easier now with Clark by his side. And he wouldn't have it any other way, Lionel Luthor and Jonathan Kent and his destiny and Clark's destiny and everything else be damned. He wouldn't have it any other way.

The End.