Balance
"So that's it then? Off to your new life as savior and messiah for a new age?"
Clark smiles warmly, and Lex could almost believe he meant it, if he didn't know that this would end with "goodbye" and "I'll miss you" and "promise me you'll never tell".
"Lex, don't be ridiculous. You're more vital to my new life than you can even imagine. You do remember what you swore, don't you? That you would do anything for me? Be anything for me?"
Maybe Lex doesn't know how this will end after all. "I remember."
"Does the offer still stand?"
Like he needs to ask. "Of course. Always."
"I'm glad." The illustrious sum of the glorious English language at his disposal, and Clark still gets away with whatever is simplest, whatever would sound flat coming from anyone but him. "You see, it's all well and good for me to go flying around the world in some silly outfit, saving lives. I'll be glad to do it. The problem, really, is that the scenario is incomplete. It doesn't make any sense, because the counterpart is missing."
"Meaning?"
Clark sits beside him, looking as earnest as he did at fifteen, his eyes still shining with all the trust Lex still doesn't think he deserves. "Every hero needs a nemesis, Lex."
It takes your breath away, sometimes. You think you know every possibility and permutation, think you have solved every equation, and a new variable comes in to collapse every hypothesis. A scientist's life. "A nemesis?"
"Just think- you could be my mission, the same as always, only now I would be trying to stop you."
"Instead of saving me?"
Clark laughs. "Didn't I already do that?"
Lex stands and walks over to the fireplace, his mind working furiously. New data, new functions, new constants- "How bad?"
Clark furrows his brow. "What?"
"How bad would you like me to be? Shall I become my father?" He manages to keep the revulsion out of his voice. He has promised to be anything, after all. "I can make the world hate me."
Clark shakes his head, a dreamy smile on his face. "Oh, no. The world will love you. Lex Luthor, the billionaire, the genius, the philanthropist. Everyone will look at you and see the most successful and desirable man on earth, but they will adore you too much to resent you for it. Your last name may be Luthor, but Lex will be the name on everyone's lips. You'll be the hero the world has been waiting for."
"I'm not sure I understand what you're saying."
"The world and I will switch places. Everyone will look at you and see your glory, and no one will believe the farmboy reporter when he claims that Lex Luthor is a criminal mastermind. No one will listen to his warnings, because Lex Luthor will be like a god to them. Like a prince. Superman can stop all sorts of devices of mass destruction, but Lex Luthor will never be directly implicated. Clark Kent can argue that his ability to maintain the appearance of legitimacy is part of his skill, but no one will listen. Lex will be the only person they want to hear talk about Lex."
Had this been his dream all along, then? To show the world the man he had always believed in?
"So we'll both be heroes, then?"
"Of course," Clark stood and walked toward him, and Lex could almost see the cape unfurling behind him as he strode across the room. "But you'll be all theirs. They know where you came from, and the fact that you escaped your upbringing to become their patron makes you more miraculous than any alien in a shiny costume."
"Your nemesis."
"The solution to my equation, Lex. My missing half. My reason."
Lex strummed his fingers on the mantel. "You do realize you're telling me to break the law? You, Clark Kent, are inciting me to commit crime."
A laugh in response. "Lex, you hardly need any encouragement in that department. I'm just giving you a safety net so you can never go too far."
"You'll catch me if I fall, then?" He smiled, and his tone was teasing, but he knew Clark would hear the real question.
"Don't I always?"
Lex had honestly believed that the day Clark had given him every last secret would be the best of his life. He had thought nothing would ever be sweeter than such faith, and expected some sort of tapering off would follow. This, though, was headier and more intoxicating than that first incident of disclosure. This wasn't the acknowledgement of something he had already suspected, but the creation of a new contract he would have never even imagined, let alone proposed.
A hand on his arm reminds him that he still hasn't answered, but Clark doesn't look nervous. Not that he is confident that Lex will say yes, just that he can work with whatever Lex decides. It's what he does- Clark has been breathing life back into him every day since the first, and his strong hands have never wavered for a moment.
"Business magnate and criminal mastermind, hmmm? I always did want to rule the world. As long as you don't object, of course." The perfection of Clark's offplanet origin is that he is not of this world, so Lex can rule this planet without ever cramping his unearthly beautiful style.
Bright smile Lex won't ever have to miss. "Like you said, Lex. We're going to have a future together. I don't want anything to get in the way of our friendship. Not truth or justice."
"What about the American W-"
Oh.
Nothing would be getting in the way, apparently.