Fic: Waiting for My Real Life to Begin

[xparrot]

My first non-darkfic dip into Smallville canon proper rather than futurefic, and my second time with Clark's POV. This is actually a distant prequel to the Subterfuge universe, but stands on its own without any obvious relation in plot or tone to those later fic. It's a 5th season episode tag, taking place an hour or two after the final scene of "Mortal," and might be the first of a sequence of AU ep tags. I quite enjoyed 5th season overall, but in a "what it could have been" way more than a "this is the way it was" way, and AUing it amuses me.

Title from the Scrubs soundtrack, a musical number far too lovely for a silly comedy, which is just one more reason why Scrubs rocks so hard; when I was deciding what to call this story, my playlist shuffled to this song, and I'm not one to look a gift title in the mouth.

Smallville: Waiting for My Real Life to Begin {5,136 words}
PG; pre-slash (hints of Clark/Lex; references to canonical Clark/Lana), ep tag to 5x02, "Mortal"
Clark runs home from the Talon; Lex is waiting for him.

Read it on AO3

Comments

Re: PS

[jakrar.livejournal.com]

Lex is deeply involved and has been since he was nine years old, and has every right to investigate the meteor rocks - or, for that matter, the time he could have died.

Not to mention Lex having every right to investigate the unearthly metal octagon he found in the same field where a spaceship may have crashed, and the apparently dangerous and extraterrestrial parasites found in the caves he's been safeguarding, and the seemingly alien writing in those caves, and...actually, aside from the photos of Clark and the Kents, I can't think of anything in that room that Lex didn't have a perfect right to be studying. I just wish someone had pointed that out to Clark! *growls at dense, self-righteous Kryptonian*

Re: PS

[gnine.livejournal.com]

What gets me, even more than Lex having the right to know, is that Clark is already AWARE that Lex has and knows about almost everything in the room. He knows Lex was aware and interested int he parasites, he knows Lex has studied meteor rocks, Lex showed Clark that he had picked up Clark's scribblings of the possible translations to kyrptonian. Hell, he even knows Lex had him and his family investigated way back when.

Also, Lex never promised to stop investigating, Clark didn't even outright ask him to, Lex just SAID he had, and I think at the time, he probably did..and then MORE evidence popped up and he started looking again!

Re: PS

[jakrar.livejournal.com]

Exactly! I agree completely! And I'd love to see Lex properly defend himself on the subject of that room, but of course AlMiles would never allow it to happen on SV. *growls at AlMiles and dense Kryptonian*

Re: PS

[gnine.livejournal.com]

And addendum. I wrote the above right before I ran off to work, and on my walk to the train, I was further contemplating it and was like. Wait, waaait, hold the phone, Clark!

You're accusing him of "investigating" when you are fucking standing, UNINVITED in Lex's personal room, doing, oh, I don't know...some INVESTIGATION!!!! Grr, fucking hypocrite!

Okay...better now...realllly! Don't worry, Clark, despite your asshattery, I still love you (though I do wonder WHY sometimes ^_-)

Re: PS

[jakrar.livejournal.com]

You're accusing him of "investigating" when you are fucking standing, UNINVITED in Lex's personal room, doing, oh, I don't know...some INVESTIGATION!!!!

Exactly! For all Clark's tendency to take on guilt that doesn't belong to him, he really ought to take on more of the guilt that rightfully DOES.

Don't worry, Clark, despite your asshattery, I still love you (though I do wonder WHY sometimes ^_-)

I still love Clark in (most) fanfic, but I'm liking him less and less on the show. I think I need to go back and rewatch some season 1, where -- despite too often criticizing Lex for doing things Lex has a perfect right to do -- Clark is still generally a pretty nice guy. *wistful sigh*