Ley Lines

by Basingstoke



Ley Lines.
by Basingstoke (bas@yosa.com).

*

Lana's standing on the balcony. The breeze plays through her hair and flirts with the light curtains in the balcony door.

She isn't home for long. She's flying to Gotham tomorrow. Bruce Wayne is having a charity dinner, and she's representing the Luthors--Lex and his father are too busy. They're at quiet war again.

She loves the new Metropolis house. It's set into a hill, so that the third story in the front is ground-level in the back. It makes her feel vaguely elfin. Protected by the earth. The front looks over a stand of trees and a creek, sculpted to look wild.

In three weeks she goes to school in New York. Lex told her the Luthor name would be more inconspicuous there. Hopefully, he's right. He usually is about these things.

A freshman again at twenty. She hadn't thought she wanted to go to college at all, but...things change. She hasn't decided on a major.

She resettles the shawl and listens to the muffled sounds of conversation behind her. Clark visits often, Lex said. He's going to Metropolis University--on a full scholarship; smart boy--so it's only natural.

She can't hear what they're saying, but it doesn't really matter.

The balcony is old-fashioned, wide across the entire front of the house. It connects her study, Lex's study, their bedroom, the guest room. Sounds are carried by it rather well. She finds it comforting to hear her husband's stereo or the mechanical screams of the latest computer game he's found to blow off steam. He hasn't said, but she imagines he feels the same way about her own small sounds. Sometimes she looks up and sees him standing on the balcony outside her doors, looking out over the city, a black shadow against the blue sky.

She wonders what he's thinking then. He wouldn't tell her, even if she asked.

She hears Clark laugh in Lex's study. Lex's voice is low; he's charming Clark, or possibly telling him a joke.

Metropolis is bright. She can see traffic flowing through the Plaza, even if she can't quite make out individual cars. The lights pour over the surrounding hills in ley lines and spirals around the central henge of downtown. The wind changes for a moment, carrying the sound of a police car, before shifting away again.

She hears Clark sigh, a soft sound. The wet sounds would be her husband.

She tries to imagine her husband with a penis in his mouth and can't. He always looks elegant during sex, no matter how enthusiastic it is, and no part of her body is big enough for her to mentally compare. So it's like picturing Lex with his fist in his mouth. Ridiculous. Still, the soft sounds are Clark and the wet sounds are Lex.

She always thought Clark would sound like that.

Gotham tomorrow. She'll stay there for a while. Bruce is charming, if strange, and always tells her amusing stories of Lex as a schoolboy. They've known each other since they were toddlers.

Movement catches her eye--a limousine creeping up the hill. If it doesn't turn off at the Remertons' drive, it's her father-in-law, and there will be a fight. She can't decide if she wants to stay and see Lex through the aftermath. Her Porsche is parked in the back beside Clark's old pickup truck; she could slip out the side drive. She wonders if Clark would stay.

Footsteps behind her. Lex joins her at the railing, resting one hand on her waist. He doesn't speak.

Inside the house, a door closes.

"We were talking earlier..."

"Yes," he says.

"I want to finish school before we have children. And I think I want two."

Lex smiles. "An heir and a spare?"

"I want to put a dent in the long tradition of only children," she says. "But I don't think I can handle three."

Lex nods. "I'll trust your judgment."

The limousine did not make the turnoff. "Your father is coming," she says. "He's halfway up the drive."

Lex flattens his mouth into a hard line.

"I'll be in my study," she says. She turns his face toward her and kisses him, tasting Clark on his lips. "Come by later if you need me."

"I will," he says. He closes his eyes and presses his cheek to her hair before retreating to his study.

She walks back to her room. Gotham tomorrow; New York soon. When she gets to New York, she decides, she's taking a lover.

end.



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