A bright rush in the room brought Lex instantly awake. He squinted in the darkness towards the foot of his bed at the figure that stood there taking up so much more space than should have been possible for a seventeen-year-old kid.

"Clark?"

"Hey, Lex." The words were soft and dry like the rustle of leaves and Lex wondered why Clark was whispering.

"Is something wrong?" He didn't ask how Clark got into the mansion at this hour when everything should have been locked up and alarmed. In the two years that he had known the boy, he'd never gotten a straight answer on that and while he still wondered, he wouldn't humiliate himself by continuing to ask.

"Come on," Clark held out his hand. "I want to show you something."

"Clark, it's-" He glanced at the digital clock on his bedside table. The glowing red numbers made him raise an eyebrow even though Clark couldn't see his expression to appreciate it. "It's 3:30 AM. What's going on?"

The outstretched hand dropped. There was a shrug of the silhouetted shoulders and a sound like a sigh cut off. "You're leaving."

Lex sat up, letting the covers fall to his hips. He ran his left hand over his face and scalp. "I told you that weeks ago."

He had.

He'd told Clark in his study, not wanting to do so in public at the Talon or in the semi-private loft. He'd wanted to tell Clark on his own ground. He'd hoped for some reaction. Some truth, but there had only been interest, a crooked smile, and vague promises made to visit and send e-mails. Black curls had fallen over green eyes when Lex had tried to pin Clark down on specifics.

"I know." Clark's voice was deeper than usual. His face was invisible in the dark, but Lex knew his friend's eyes were sliding away seeking the corners of the room. "There were things I had to figure out. Think about. Anyway, come on and get dressed. There's something I want to show you and we don't have much time."

Lex shivered. Was this it? And did he really want to know? "Clark, I'm not-"

"Please?"

That was really all it took. Revelations always came on Clark's schedule, whether Lex wanted them or not.

By unspoken agreement Lex didn't turn on the lights. He went to his closet to change, locating his clothes by touch and ending up in wool pants and a light cashmere sweater. He found his socks and shoes, slipped them on, and he was ready for whatever Clark wanted to show him. Or at least as ready as designer labels could make him. Lex smirked in the dark.

"Okay, Clark, lead the way."

Clark paused. He picked up the a corner of the down comforter that Lex had left rucked up on the bed, and started gathering it up.

"Do you mind if this gets dirty?"
Lex watched as the king-size comforter rolled up into Clark's shadow.

"Apparently not." At his dry tone, the shadow hesitated. "Joke, Clark. Bring the damn comforter."

Why was it he could feel Clark's smile in the in the dark?

Their walk through the sleeping mansion was like a walk through a different space entirely. In the daylight, this was a seat of corporate power, draped in fine fabrics and technology, humming with the quicksilver decisions of modern finance and industry, but now, in the dark of pre-dawn, Lex sensed only stone. It rang up through the soles of his shoes and chilled the Kansas air until it tasted like the Scottish moors. Ancient, solid, and true, the granite was stronger than any disguise he or his father could hang on it.

Still, Lex had always known the history of the mansion: a castle ripped from the soil of Scotland and set down in the cornfields of rural America. It didn't matter. The memories of the last two years were part of these stones now, and far more important to Lex than any historical reference that might bolster the Luthor line's claim to fame and legitimacy.

They got to the kitchen door and Lex paused; the garden was a panorama of black on black. There was no moon.

He felt Clark's fingertips run down the back of his arm to the elbow and grip lightly. "I've got you. I can see well enough."

Clark's words breathed across his cheek and he shivered, but nodded. He let Clark lead him across the invisible paths of the garden and up through the terraced beds to the top of hill behind the mansion.

"Are you ready to tell me what this is all about?"

"Here." Clark stopped and let go of his arm; Lex stood up straighter and did not allow himself to lean after the touch where the fingers had lingered. It was easy. He'd been denying that impulse since his first day in Smallville.

Clark sighed and then moved to spread the comforter on the ground. "Come on, Lex. Sit down and watch or you're going to miss them."

"Them?" He should sound annoyed. Exasperated. Pissed off. Not-

Confused.

But Clark just sat down, so Lex followed and settled next to him. His elbow brushed against Clark's arm and he wished he'd worn a short-sleeved T-shirt like Clark's, although off the top of his head, he wasn't sure he actually owned one. He looked around and tried to identify a reason for being there. They were sitting at the top of the Luthor estate. The view of the gardens would have been beautiful in the daytime, but it was nothing but vague shapes and shades of gray on a moonless night.

He took a breath to ask Clark one more time what he was supposed to be seeing when he felt the heat of his friend's hand press into his shoulder and Clark leaned close to bring their heads together and point with his other hand.

"Watch."

They were so close that Lex could actually feel the muscles in Clark's cheek contract and release to form that one word, which paradoxically just made Lex want to close his eyes.

Then he saw a streak of light.

And another.

"Meteor shower?" Lex knew it was just cosmic dust burning up in the atmosphere. He knew it. But his heart sped up anyway.

This was Smallville.

"It's the Perseids." Clark confirmed. He was breathless. The hand on Lex's shoulder flexed more than a little, and Clark leaned in until his hand slipped to Lex's waist and his chest was against Lex's back. He pointed again. "The radiant is just about there: at the top of-"

"The constellation of Perseus." Lex finished for him.

"Yeah." Clark breathed his smile around Lex's neck. "They're peaking right about now. We should see around fifty an hour, I think."

Lex leaned back into Clark's warmth and thought about truths. "So are we making wishes tonight?"

"If you want."

He looked up at the Milky Way, something he'd never see as clearly in Metropolis, and wondered if this was it. He saw a spate of meteor trails travel out from Perseus all at once and smirked. Warmth, acceptance and shooting stars: wasn't that what everyone wished for. Everyone who wasn't a Luthor.

"I only have one thing to wish for," he said, turning away from the stars and facing Clark, because he couldn't accept what was offered without taking what was held back.

But Clark just put his fingers across Lex's lips, silencing him with heat and pressure and the taste of ivory soap on skin.

"Shhhh. A wish won't come true if you tell anyone."

"Clark-" He tried to pull away, but Clark wouldn't let him go.

"Do you know the story?"

"What?" Lex stilled, and tried to clear his head of anger and desire because this was going to be something he needed to focus on.

"The story of Perseus." Clark loosened his grip and stroked his hands along Lex's arms.

"His grandfather was afraid Perseus would destroy him so he sent the baby into exile, but it didn't work. Eventually Perseus grew up and returned to fulfill his destiny. He killed his grandfather and became a king in his own right." This wasn't one of the myths Lionel had drilled him on, but it was one that Lex had found and taken to heart.

"He wasn't just exiled." Clark was tense and when he gripped Lex again it hurt a bit this time. "They put him in this box and set it out on the ocean with just him and his mother. He was raised by the people that found him, and he didn't know anything about a prophecy or killing his grandfather or what he was supposed to do. It was like this big secret that just pushed him along and controlled his life, but he didn't really understand it himself. And maybe people told him things, and tried to make him fit their idea of hero or a king, but he didn't know! Not until he went out and did it, and found out who he was for himself."

Pressure like a thunderstorm weighed down the night, and suddenly allegory just wasn't enough. "Clark, dammit! Just tell me!'

"I can't explain what I don't understand, Lex!" But it wasn't frustration in Clark's voice. It was fear. The chill of the early morning seeped into Lex's bones.

Wishes were for children.

"Then leave, Clark."

"I am."

That stopped him. Clark wasn't supposed to leave. Not unless Lex took him.

"When?"

"Tomorrow."

"Where?"

"North."

So he sat back down, because if he left now there would be no chance to make it up. No walking up the steps to the loft in Kent's barn and asking Clark if they were okay. No half smile answered by a grin full of promises that Lex had never taken Clark up on. He'd never wanted to risk losing the grin by calling in the promises, but he was losing it all now, anyway.

Clark drew him close and Lex felt the warmth teasing him again, pulling him down with a scrape of flannel against cashmere and warm hands on wool. "Let me give you what I can. Please?"

It wasn't enough. 'Now' wasn't enough. He needed forever. He buried his hands in Clark's hair and hauled him up until they were face to face, and even in the dark, Lex sought out his friend's eyes.

"Will you come back?"

"Yes."

"When?"

"I promise, Lex. You'll be the first to know."

And maybe that would be enough. Lex loosened his grip and stroked Clark's hair as his head moved down Lex's chest.

Lex breathed deep as he moved to grasp Clark's shirt and tugged at it until he found skin.

Clark never broke promises.

At least not to Lex.

Not without a good reason.

Lex shivered and Clark murmured something and drew the comforter up around them. There was another burst of meteors radiating out from Perseus, burning up so fast the eye only had about a second to catch them.

Lex made his wish.