Lex hurt. He hurt everywhere, but his ass hurt most especially. His throat took a distant second place. It was a strange sensation. Normally, he didn't hurt at all. With all the treatments he'd taken to improve his hardiness and recuperative abilities, he required serious abuse before he could even noticed pain. And when he did get hurt, usually it only lasted for a few minutes before it became nothing more than a memory, like it had earlier, the first time Kal had penetrated him.
This time, he'd apparently ventured far beyond his normal physical tolerances.
"Fuck," he cursed, the word scratching painfully in his throat. He must have screamed more than he remembered screaming.
A glass of water was pushed into his hand and someone helped him sit up. Lex gratefully sipped at the cold liquid, letting it numb his burning throat. "I meant for that to be slow and tender sex," Kal said, sounding chagrined and guilty. "I am so sorry I lost control, Lex."
"You weren't the only one," Lex dismissed then took another careful sip of his water. They were still in Kal's room, and the clock said just under an hour had passed since they came upstairs. That was promising. It suggested x-ray vision hadn't found anything worth bringing to the Emergency Room.
"No, but you can't kill me if you do."
Lex shrugged, not letting his thoughts linger on that one too long. "If I remember my less-than-brilliant reasoning while under the influence of extreme lust, I asked for everything you gave me and I wanted you to lose control, too."
"You could have been seriously hurt, Lex. I don't think -"
"Do not finish that sentence." Lex's body wailed in agony at him as he swiftly twisted to cover Kal's mouth with his hand. "It is not my fault I have a crappy fragile human body that can't do anything. It is not your fault that you have a gorgeous Kryptonian body that can carry me all over the house whether I want to be carried or not."
"Which you do," Kal couldn't refrain from pointing out, much as Lex had intended.
"Exactly," Lex agreed, willing to admit to it just this once under these extreme conditions, "Which I do because you're beautiful and rippling with muscles and impressively strong and I get off on that, Kal, just as much as I know you do. You love it that you're so much stronger than me and you can indulge in the male mating rituals that your Kryptonian females no longer appreciate, and I love it that you show off for me." He took a deep breath and this was the critical moment, "And I might be in a shitload of pain right now, but I fucking loved the sex that caused it because you didn't hold a fucking thing back and that's the way I want it. That's the whole point I'm trying to make with this entire scheme. I am not a lesser being to be coddled or artificially held back. I can take every fucking thing your fucking 'superior' species can throw at me. I am human, shut the fuck up and hear me roar."
Kal was more than a little taken aback, Lex decided, judging by the astounded look on his face. It took three or four minutes before his fingers brushed over Lex's face. "I don't know if you're headed for a Councillor position of your own or an early grave, but I think my father actually will approve of you as a son-in-law, if you survive long enough to graduate."
The doorknob turned, stuck as it hit the lock, then popped out of the doorframe entirely. The knobless panel swung inward, revealing both of Kal's parents on the other side. Kryptonian superhearing practically guaranteed they'd been eavesdropping. "Is that his angle? He wants to marry you?" Jor-El asked, stepping into the room. He moved to the side of the bed and grabbed Lex by the arm, pulling him off the bed and onto his feet. Lex barely managed to bite back a pained cry as every muscle in his body cramped and howled. He made himself stand up straight and blinked back the tears that tried to collect in his eyes. "Let's get a look at him. Kal, hand me that robe."
Kal handed him the robe that had been pushed off the side of the bed sometime during the festivities earlier. Lex let himself be dressed by the Councellor. Jor-El pursed his lips and turned Lex's head from side to side, then nodded. "He has a face that will look good on television," he decided. "The El colors aren't his best ones, but he can wear them well enough, especially if we maximize the blue and minimize the yellow."
"You aren't seriously considering this, Jor, are you?" Lara asked in dismay.
"As Kal said, he needs to survive to graduation first, and I give that, at best, a fifty-fifty chance. Lex, if you wish to continue this relationship, I'm going to need you to sign some documents that will not hold us or Kal responsible for wrongful death or injury resulting from intimate acts." That sounded not only ominous but potentially dangerous should they ever decide they'd rather have him dead. Lex nodded anyway because that was the least he could do if they really were going to pave the way for him to get into Kryptonian inner circles. Besides, of all the ways to be murdered, that had to be the best way to go.
"Father, is that really neccessary?" Kal protested.
Jor-El just gave him an even look. "If a human, even a Traitor, turns up dead in my home with physical evidence of violent sexual intercourse, there will be riots unless we can give solid proof he understood the risks he was taking." To Lex, he continued, "To be safe, I think I also want your father to sign the releases. Two impartial witnesses as well. With a notory present." He nodded slowly to himself, "That should be sufficient to satisfy even the most doubtful humans."
Lex might be willing to do whatever Jor-El asked, but Dad would not be so easy to convince. "My father will want concessions before he'll sign anything of the sort."
Lara frowned distrustfully. "What sort of concessions?"
Lex met her gaze. If he blamed it on his father, he might be able to get it without incurring her wrath himself. "Formal, public, and binding announcement of my betrothal. If I do end up dead, he'll want it known that I was engaged and not some human toy."
"This would be much easier were you female," Jor-El remarked. "A political marriage between a human and Kryptonian would be very advantageous, but the homosexuality adds complications in both racial arenas."
"I'm not putting on a dress and pretending to be a girl," Lex stated unequivocally before anybody tried to make the suggestion. By the looks he was getting, the idea apparently hadn't occurred to any of them. No matter, it would have come up eventually. Best nip it in the bud before one of them thought they had a stroke of genius. "I'm gay, not transgender," he insisted despite the lack of contention.
"We never said you were," Kal told him, giving him a strange look. Lex decided he better shut up before Kal started thinking he was trying to convince himself instead of them.
Jor-El ignored the interchange and continued as if he had not been interrupted, "A domestic partnership might work, except that it's considered less than a legal marriage among humans. Gay marriage is still outlawed by the human local governments and I can't revoke that under the Treaty of 1995 since its an intra-human cultural law."
"I'm not bound by local human law. I'm a Traitor. I'm bound by Kryptonian law."
He shook his head. "As Kryptonians do not experience homosexuality, we define marriage as a union between a man and a woman."
"Kal's bi," Lex pointed out.
"Kal will top a human male," Jor-El corrected. "No Kryptonian will ever bottom as you do. We are not built that way."
Lex shook his head, not finding the point worth arguing. "You have ten thousand years of recorded legislation, much of that time after you had contact with alien species. Surely, somebody, sometime, made it legal for a man to marry someone other than a Kryptonian female."
Jor-El opened his mouth and then closed it again, thoughtful. "You may be on to something there. I will research it. In the meantime, it is getting late. I trust you two can go to sleep without any further shouting or injury?"
They could. Kal even found them both pajamas to sleep in for the rest of the night. Lex fell asleep with Kal's arms wrapped around him and Kal's breath on the back of his skull. Kal had looked like he wanted to say something just before they settled in together, but then he had just sighed, shook his head, and pulled Lex in close. If the arms were tense and a held him little too tightly for comfort, and the breaths were sharp and jagged and not remotely lulling, it didn't matter, because Lex was exhausted so maybe his slumbering body could help lead Kal into sleep instead.
When he woke in the morning, all his pains were reduced to small protesting twinges from his ass when he sat up too quickly. By the end of the school day, he estimated, he'd be as good as new. He looked to the side of the bed and found that Kal was already up and gone. Shrugging at that, he got up and went into the bathroom, where a towel and a full set of Kyptonian clothes were laid out on the counterspace beside the sink. A small placard with his name on it indicated they were for him.
He showered and dressed and stared at himself in the mirror. The clothes fit and looked new. They also made him feel strange and oddly nervous. He was going to wear this to school. The colors were blue, purple, and black, his three favorites, not the El primary colors, but people were still going to notice. Not once had Lex ever worn anything but human styles to school. He'd gotten the distinct impression that it was a rule that he was supposed to dress like his race. Given that the Els were dressing him in Kryptoian clothes, he assumed it must have been a Lionel-rule instead of official policy. He twisted his braclet around his wrist, the only outward clue (except, possibly, his bald head) that he was less than Kryptonian.
Finding his way down to the kitchen wasn't difficult, and Jor-El looked up from the morning edition of the human newspaper, The Daily Planet. "Ah good, I thought I heard you up and about." He folded the paper and stood up. Lex let him have a thorough once-over, then went to collect a plate of pancakes and eggs from the counter. "You have a good bearing," Jor-El told him. "Your father trained you well."
Lex was pretty sure that was meant as a compliment, so he nodded and agreed, "My father believes I have a destiny to be a great man."
"And you? What do you believe?"
Sitting down at the table with his breakfast, Lex shrugged, trying to figure out how to say it without sounding too horribly egotistical or disdainful of his own race. "He could be right."
Jor-El also sat back down, but continued watching Lex instead of picking up his paper again. Assuming his table manners were being assessed, he ate quietly, being careful to be neat and proper while doing so. "You're comfortable being watched," Jor-El observed, "that's good because you will be, once this comes out."
Lex put his fork down and finished chewing before he stated, "I've been bald since I was nine years old. I'm the only human still matriculated into the Kryptonian classes. My father sold out more national secrets than anybody else in the United States. I'm watched already."
The look Jor-El gave him sent a foreboding feeling through his gut. "That is idle curiousity. Second glances at something strange and unusual, but harmless. Alexander, if you insist on going through with this course of action, you will be stalked. You will be followed and hounded and asked personal questions that will be insulting and demeaning. You will have no privacy. You will need a body guard at all times, including at school. There will be no semblance of a normal life. Are you sure you are ready for that?"
Put like that, Lex realized more clearly than he ever had before that this wasn't going to be all sex and priviledge. He held Jor-El's gaze and nodded. "I can handle it."
Jor-El pursed his lips for a long moment, then nodded. "Then your father and I will meet you and Kal after school today to sign the insurance papers."
