The Christmas Wish
By J.C. Vascardi

Disclaimer: All characters and places featured in this story that relate to the television show Smallville are the property of its creators. I am not profiting from this story and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. The only things about this story that I own are the storylines, places, and characters that are not featured on the show.

Pairings: Clark/Oliver

Summary: Sad and lonely following his breakup with Lana, Clark longs for someone to love, who will love him back. Sitting in the loft on Christmas Eve, looking at the stars with his telescope, Clark makes a wish, never expecting that it'll come true...

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Chapter One of One

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Four months. That's how long it had been now since Clark Kent and Lana Lang had called it quits, permanently. It had hurt like hell. Clark still loved Lana, but she was consumed with wanting revenge on Lex and while Clark could understand that the bald billionaire had made her life miserable, he thought it was best for Lana to forget and move on. She couldn't do that, however, and it had driven a wedge between them. Finally, they ended up parting ways and now Clark was feeling sad and lonely.

It was Christmas Eve. And he was alone. His mother had tried to get home from D.C. for the holidays, but a blizzard had stranded her in the capital. This would be the first Christmas that Clark had ever spent alone. Well, technically that wasn't true. Considering that he'd spent his first two Christmases alone in a spaceship bound for Earth, but Clark chose not to count them - especially since he didn't know if the people on Krypton even celebrated Christmas, or something similar at least. He supposed he could probably ask Jor-El, but then he liked to avoid him as much as possible.

The temperature outside was a fairly cold thirty degrees and there was over a foot of snow on the ground, so, to the casual observer, Clark probably looked like an idiot who wanted to catch his death of cold, since all he was wearing was a red athletic shirt and a pair of blue boxer-briefs. The loft window was wide open, as usual, so that he could look out with his telescope, which had been facing the sky for awhile now, rather than being pointed at the neighboring property, which was where Lana had once lived. But, of course, the temperature didn't bother Clark.

Clark figured that if he was going to be alone, he might as well spend his time in the loft – his Fortress of Solitude, as his dad had called it – so, he'd been sleeping on the couch for the last two nights. With all the snow, Clark was sure that he probably wouldn't have any visitors and thus hadn't bothered with getting dressed in anything more than his underwear. Besides with his speed and hearing, if someone did come, he could easily get dressed in plenty of time. Another reason for spending his time in the loft was because unlike the house, it wasn't decorated for Christmas and all the decorations just made the brunet even sadder and lonelier. He definitely wasn't used to being alone on Christmas.

Chloe was in Metropolis with Jimmy, her father, Lois, and the General for the holidays. Oliver and his team were off destroying Lex's 33.1 labs - last Clark had heard, they were headed for the Falkland Islands. He wasn't really surprised that they had decided to work through the holidays. 33.1 had to be stopped and it's not like any of them had any family to spend the holidays with. Well, at least, Oliver didn't. Clark wasn't completely sure about the rest of them, but, as far as he knew, A.C., Victor, and Bart didn't have families either – of course, Clark didn't know any of them all that well, so, just because he didn't know if they had any, didn't mean that they didn't.

His father was dead and his mom was stranded in Washington D.C. because her flight had been cancelled due to the blizzard. She had wanted to come home despite the weather, but Clark had insisted that she stay put, because he didn't want her getting hurt on the icy, snow-covered roads. He'd briefly considered going to D.C. to be with his mom, but with all the snow on the ground, that wasn't really a good idea, because he'd learned a long time ago that when he ran through snow, the effect was similar to that of a snow blower, only the snow would go flying in both directions. It probably wouldn't have been a problem during the blizzard, but since it had subsided, he figured it was best not to do it, because while nobody would see him running, they'd certainly see the snow flying up in his wake.

Getting up from the sofa, Clark super-sped into the house to use the bathroom and grab some food, arriving back in the loft in about three minutes. Sitting back down with a cold turkey sandwich, some chips, a slice of his mom's apple pie, and a can of Coke, Clark ate in silence. Not like he had anyone to talk to anyway. This being alone for the holidays thing was really starting to get to him. He wasn't used to it and he didn't want to get used to it, to be honest.

Finishing his dinner, Clark stood and for lack of anything else to do, he walked over to his telescope and started looking at the stars. Since finding out about his alien origins, Clark had taken a greater interest in astronomy. In fact, when he enrolled at Met U, majoring in journalism, he decided to minor in astronomy. Clark couldn't help but grin at the thought of his classmates' reactions if they knew that they were learning about the stars and planets with an alien. Of course, then again, it probably wasn't a grinning matter because he didn't doubt that some of them would rather dissect him or see him locked up in a government lab somewhere because they'd see him as a threat. The world was full of narrow-minded people, after all, who oftentimes were afraid of the things they didn't understand and, unfortunately, plenty of those people were unwilling to try to better understand those things.

Clark sighed, as he abandoned looking at the stars through his telescope and just looked at the stars with his eyes. That was the one advantage to living on a farm – you could see more stars than one would think possible. On the nights that Clark had spent in Metropolis, he knew that with all the lights of the city, the stars could barely be seen. Of course, there were times, such as the summer he'd spent in Metropolis after his mom lost the baby, that he was glad that he couldn't see the stars, because at the time they had only served as a reminder that he was different. That he didn't really belong on Earth and he couldn't help but wonder if everyone's lives would be better if he had never come.

He had spent some time thinking about that. Lana's parents would probably still be alive, because if Clark hadn't come, there probably wouldn't have been a meteor shower and they wouldn't have died. He was sure enough simply from the time that Jor-El had shown him what the world would have been like if he hadn't been a part of it that his parents would have been happy – they would have adopted another boy, a human boy, and named him Clark. Chloe had also seemed so happy with her fiancé, although, she also seemed happy with Jimmy, so, it didn't really matter that Jimmy wasn't as good looking as the fiancé she had in that alternate reality of Jor-El's.

That was something else that had occurred over the last four months, as Clark was forced to finally reconcile and get over his feelings for Lana. Once Lana was out of the picture, Clark allowed himself to look at other people in a romantic and sexual way, and he realized that he didn't limit this to just women – he'd found quite a few men attractive, as well, and found himself thinking about what it would be like to be with them. It had been something of a shock, at first, but then Clark was used to being different by now, so, he got over it quickly enough. He knew, of course, that there were plenty of bisexual men in the world, he certainly wasn't the only one, so it didn't really make him different – at least, certainly not as different as the whole being born on another planet thing. However, Clark didn't – as far as he knew anyway – know any bisexual men. So, in that respect, it still made him different from everyone else he knew.

Clark knew, of course, that it was a good thing to be different. If every single person on the planet was exactly the same, then the world would be a very boring place. But, Clark did sometimes wish that he wasn't quite as different as everyone else. He only had to look down at his state of dress to know that he was definitely different, because with the exception perhaps of Kara who was off trying to find the city of Kandor, he was certainly the only person he knew that could stand around in his underwear in front of an open window when it was only thirty degrees outside and not even shiver. Yeah, he was definitely different.

At the moment, however, he didn't find himself wishing to be more like everyone else, as he usually did. No, at the moment, he found himself wishing that he wasn't alone. He really didn't like it. He was used to having people around him and having somebody other than himself to talk to – especially at Christmas. Looking up at the night sky and all the shining stars, Clark's eyes fixed on one star in particular. It was the brightest and largest star he could see and he wasn't exactly sure why, but in that moment, he spoke aloud, "I wish I had someone here to spend Christmas with, but more so that that, I wish I had someone here to love, who loved me in return. Someone – I don't care if they're male or female – that I could spend my life with and be happy with. Someone who would do everything they could to ensure that I'll never be alone again."

Clark sighed. Turning away from the window, he walked over to the sofa and lay down. Within moments, an uneasy sleep consumed him, as he dreamt of Christmases past and wished again, silently this time, that he wasn't all alone.

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Oliver Queen was used to being alone for the holidays. That didn't mean that he enjoyed being alone, but he was used to it. He didn't really have much choice, since he was an only child, and his parents died when he was nine. Since then, he'd gotten into the habit of being alone for the holidays. While his friends at school would leave and go home to be with their families, Oliver would always stay behind and putter around campus with the very small handful of other students who didn't go home for the holidays.

Once he'd graduated from Excelsior, he'd decided to take a gap year traveling around the world, rather than starting college immediately. That was, of course, when he found himself stranded for two years on a deserted island. That was when he really got used to being alone, because he had no other choice. Even at Excelsior, he wasn't technically alone because there were a few other students and staff members around, but, on the island, there was nobody around, except for the wild animals that he quickly learned how to defend himself against or hunt for food.

Having watched the movie Castaway, Oliver was just glad that he hadn't descended so far into madness during his time on the island that he began talking to a ball like Tom Hanks' character had – not that Oliver had a ball to begin with. Though he likes to think that even if he did have a ball, he wouldn't have gone that far.

Even after finding his way back to civilization, Oliver continued to spend the holidays alone, because while he had no shortage of friends, as anyone who is a billionaire several times over would, he'd gotten used to it. And, given the choice, he'd rather spend the holidays alone then with friends who only really liked him because of the size of his bank account. And as he got older, Oliver got past the point where he found one night stands to be enjoyable. Sure, in a physical sense they were still enjoyable, but in an emotional sense, he wanted more. Honestly, he was ready to settle down, get married, and have a family.

At the height of his one-night stand days, before he got to the point where they were no longer enough, Oliver often employed the help of a woman named Madam Valeska to hook up with women. Not that he really needed the help, because he could easily go into just about any bar and pick someone up, but, Valeska had many famous Hollywood clients who required absolute discretion, something which Oliver had come to like, because he was tired of seeing his name in the tabloids. It was the main reason he'd started using her services, because he'd been burned one too many times by his one-night stands selling information about him to the tabloids. The last straw had been when one of his flings had secretly video-taped them having sex and tried to sell the video – thankfully, Oliver's lawyers managed to intercept it and make sure it was never published.

Anyway, one night, he was feeling particularly horny, so he went to Madam Valeska's to take care of his libido. However, it was a very busy night and there were no female companions left. Being horny enough and having had just enough to drink to be buzzed, Oliver decided that if it meant getting off, he'd gladly go with a guy. Since there were a few male companions left, Valeska took Oliver's money and gave him a room key, telling him that his companion for the evening would be up shortly.

Making himself comfortable in the room, Oliver briefly had second thoughts. He had never been with a man before and had never had any desire to be. But, Oliver was the type of person who was willing to try anything once, so, since he was so horny that he felt as if he would die if he didn't get off, and was long past the point of finding hand-jobs pleasurable, he decided to go through with it. His companion for the evening turned out to be a young man named Nick, who couldn't possibly have been older than nineteen, with jet black hair, green eyes, and a muscular frame, who matched Oliver in height.

Mentioning that he'd never been with a man before, Nick smiled and told Oliver that he was more than happy to teach him all the ins and outs of man on man sex. Going into it, Oliver wasn't sure what to think, but, after experiencing it, he came to the realization that it was definitely enjoyable. It was as if a completely new world opened up to him in that one evening with Nick. Oliver began to look at other men in a sexual way and found quite a few that he liked, and even a few that he could admit he thought he could actually fall in love with. He still preferred women, but he was now open to the idea of being with a man.

It had been about five years now since Oliver had made use of Valeska's services, however. It just didn't have the same appeal anymore now that Oliver's heart yearned for someone to love. He was tired of being alone and he knew it was time to try and find the right person to settle down with.

At the moment, Oliver stood in the doorway of his balcony, staring out over the darkened city of Metropolis. The city was darker than usual tonight, because the snow storm had knocked out some power lines. Looking down at the city streets, Oliver could see the plows and salt trucks trying to clean up the mess left behind by one of the largest storms the city had seen in a few years. He wasn't really all that interested, of course, because he was lost in his own thoughts.

Since it was only thirty degrees outside, he was sure that if his mother was still alive, she would have a few choice words for him, since he was standing there in the open doorway shirtless, wearing only a pair of hunter green track pants. He could just hear his mom's voice in his head. "Oliver Jonas Queen, are you crazy? Get inside before you catch your death!"

The cold didn't really bother him though. In training to become the Green Arrow, Oliver had spent time inuring himself to both heat and cold, so, that temperature would not affect him during his patrols. Since his costume was sleeveless and he couldn't operate a bow while wearing gloves, it was necessary training. That didn't mean that the cold didn't affect him at all, but he could handle thirty degree temperatures without flinching. It was only when it got down into single digits or below zero that the cold really affected him. As for heat, well, spending two years on a tropical island had done wonders for his ability to withstand it.

Leaning against the doorframe, his head cradled against his left arm, Oliver stared out into the night. In his right hand, he held a glass of brandy, which he idly sipped, as he thought of his life thus far.

He had originally planned on working through the holidays with Bart, A.C., and Victor on taking down 33.1, but, after taking out the lab that Lex had setup in the Falkland Islands, Oliver got a call from his secretary saying that he needed to come to Metropolis because a multi-million dollar deal was on the verge of collapsing and the point person from the other company refused to deal with anyone other than Oliver. So, hopping back onto his jet, he dropped Bart, A.C., and Victor off in Rio, before continuing on to Metropolis.

Bart, A.C., and Victor didn't have families to spend the holidays with, so, they decided to spend them partying on a beach in Rio. Oliver was supposed to join them after his business meeting, but the snow storm had closed the airports, so, he was stuck in Metropolis. Not that he really minded it, though, because while he still enjoyed a good party, he knew that his younger friends, especially Bart and Victor, would be into the more wild parties that Oliver had given up as he got older.

He knew that some people would chastise him for that. He wasn't even thirty yet, so, he should be out having fun and going to wild parties, but, they really just didn't appeal to him anymore. And, after spending last Thanksgiving and Christmas at the Kent farm, experiencing a real family holiday for the first time since his parents had died, he just didn't think of a wild party being the right way to celebrate the holidays anymore.

Speaking of the Kent farm, Oliver had found lately that he couldn't get a certain occupant of it out of his mind. Ever since that first time with Nick, Oliver had always had a thing for black hair and green eyes. He'd been with plenty of men and women since that time, but, he found that ultimately his tastes in men always came back to black hair and green eyes – something which a certain farm boy had both of.

Thinking of Clark, Oliver's cock twitched and began getting hard despite the cold. Oliver knew that he was attracted to Clark and despite their differences of opinion at times, he genuinely did like him. If he was honest with himself, he'd group Clark into the 'I could see myself settling down with this person' category. In fact, if he was going to be truly honest, Clark would be at the top of that list.

As an orphan, it was true that Oliver wanted to have kids, but, that didn't make Clark any less viable an option to settle down with. From what he'd seen, Oliver thought that Clark would be a wonderful parent and he knew that if they did get together, they could always adopt or hire a surrogate, so, children were certainly not beyond the realm of possibility. Although, the logical side of Oliver's mind told him that a relationship with Clark was beyond the realm of possibility, considering that as far as he knew the brunet was straighter than his arrows.

Standing there looking out over the Metropolis skyline, not really seeing it because he was so lost in his thoughts, he suddenly had the urge to head out to the Kent farm. A part of him thought it was rather rude to show up on Christmas Eve without being invited, but, if he knew the Kents, they wouldn't mind. So, finishing off his brandy, Oliver set the glass aside, closed the balcony doors, and headed up to his bedroom to get dressed. Within fifteen minutes, he was stepping off the elevator in his private parking garage under the Clock Tower and heading for his metallic jade green Mercedes-Benz ML350.

He didn't usually drive an SUV, opting instead for his Porsche or Maserati, but, he knew that while the streets of Metropolis were probably pretty well cleared by now, the same might not be true for the streets in Smallville, especially the roads leading out to the various farms, which were not very high traffic roads and as such were not considered to be high priority to be cleared. So, he figured taking a vehicle that was higher up and had four wheel drive, was probably a good idea, because he didn't much care for the idea of getting stuck.

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Coming to a stop near the familiar yellow farmhouse, Oliver took a moment to thank whatever higher power was looking out for him and had given him the foresight to take the Mercedes. He was sure that had he taken one of his sports cars, he would have been stuck, because as he had suspected, many of the streets in Smallville had not been plowed yet. Being a small town, they had a grand total of two snow plows, only one of which had a salt spreader mounted. Between the two trucks, they had so far managed to clear the main street and had started work on some of the connecting streets, but, many of the side streets in the residential areas and the roads leading out of town to the outlying farms were still covered in snow. And due to drifting, it was deeper than a foot in some places.

The driveway of the Kent farm was cleared, but then Oliver rather expected that. With Clark's abilities, he probably had the driveway cleared within two or three minutes of the blizzard ending. Looking up at the house, Oliver quickly realized that there were no lights on and he wondered for a moment if the Kents had already gone to bed. Looking at his watch, however, Oliver realized that it was only six pm, so, he was relatively sure that they would not be asleep yet. Looking over towards the barn, Oliver noticed a light coming from the loft, however.

Exiting his car and walking over to the barn, Oliver entered and headed up the stairs. He was about to call out to announce his presence when he spotted Clark on the sofa, fast asleep. Looking down at the brunet, the first thing that Oliver noticed was that Clark was only wearing his underwear. This was the first time the blond had seen Clark wearing so little clothing and he immediately felt his cock twitch at the highly attractive sight of Clark's nearly naked body covered only by a red athletic shirt and a pair of blue boxer briefs.

Oliver's first thought was that as much as Clark loved red and blue, he wasn't the slightest bit surprised to see that even his underwear were those colors. That thought, however, was quickly followed by thoughts of a much more lewd nature, as he drank in every inch of the flesh that was normally covered up. Being as quiet as possible, Oliver walked over to the sofa and knelt down beside it. Watching Clark sleep for a minute, Oliver was suddenly overcome with the desire to touch the brunet's muscular body and reached out his hand to do just that.

As the blond's hand met the bare skin of Clark's exposed forearm, the brunet's eyes opened, as he said, "Ollie, when did you get here?" Before Oliver could respond though, Clark realized his state of dress and blushed almost as red as his shirt, which Oliver found very endearing.

Clark would have super-sped into the house to get dressed, but Oliver was still holding his arm and for some reason he couldn't bring himself to break the contact.

"I just got here a few minutes ago," answered Oliver, breaking the silence. "I don't know why, but I just felt the sudden need to come out here."

Clark smiled. "I'm glad you did. This is the first time I've ever been alone on Christmas Eve and I don't like it."

"Where's your mom?" Oliver asked. "She doesn't seem the type not to come home for Christmas."

"She tried, but her flight from D.C. was cancelled due to the blizzard," Clark explained. "So, with Dad gone, I'm all alone this year."

"No you're not," Oliver said, flashing the brunet one of his smiles that could light up the darkest of rooms. "I'm here with you."

"Yeah, you are," Clark said with a smile as he sat up. After a moment of silence, Clark added, "Um, I should probably go put some clothes on."

"I think you're fine the way you are," Oliver said. "Unless you're cold, at which point I'm willing to help warm you up."

Cocking his head to one side with the most adorably confused look on his face, Clark asked, "Oliver, are you hitting on me?"

"If I said yes?"

"I'd be very confused," Clark said. "I thought you were straight."

Oliver grinned. "You thought wrong."

"So, Lois, Tess and all the other women?" Clark asked.

"I'm bisexual. I do lean more towards women, but there are a few guys that have piqued my interest over the years."

Before he could stop himself, Clark found himself asking, "And am I one of those guys?"

"Yes, Clark," Oliver answered without any hesitation. "You are exactly my type."

Clark sat there in stunned silence for several minutes. Long enough for Oliver to worry that he'd just put Clark off and possibly done irrevocable damage to their friendship. Speaking up, Oliver said, "Clark, I didn't mean to offend you or scare you or anything. If you're not interested, then that's fine. I'm not going to push you into anything."

"No, you're fine, Ollie," Clark said with a smile. "I just never imagined that we'd be in a situation like this, but I'm not complaining."

"Clark, are you?"

"I'm bi, too," replied Clark. "Of course, I've never been with a guy before. I only realized I was bi after my break up from Lana four months ago."

"So, am I your type Clark?" Oliver asked with a hopeful look.

Smiling, Clark leaned forward and placed a chaste kiss on the blond's lips, before pulling back and asking, "Does that answer your question?"

"Yeah, I kinda think it does," Oliver said, before he grabbed the back of Clark's neck and brought their lips together in a kiss that was anything but chaste.

As the kiss ended, Clark said, "Maybe this is my wish come true."

"Wish?" Oliver asked, with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah. I wished for someone to spend my life with," Clark answered. "I didn't care if they were male or female, I just wanted someone to love and be with forever so that I'd never be alone again. Think you can make that wish come true, Ollie?"

Oliver grinned. "Hmm, let's see here. Forever with an exceedingly sexy, handsome, and totally gorgeous, super powered space alien from another planet. I don't know Clark, that's quite a hardship, but I think I'm up for it."

Clark just shook his head with an amused look on his face, before he said, "Ollie, what am I going to do with you?"

"I can think of so many things I'd like you to do with me," Oliver said.

"Well, it looks like we have forever," Clark said. "So, pick one to start with."

Instead of answering Clark, Oliver smiled as he pulled the brunet into their third kiss of the evening. As the kiss continued, Oliver soon found himself lying on top of Clark, as the brunet lay down on the couch, pulling Oliver with him. Not that Oliver was about to complain, because horizontal was exactly how he wanted to be with Clark.

It was horizontal that Martha Kent found them several hours later. With the blizzard having subsided, Martha was finally able to get a flight in to Metropolis and get back home in time for Christmas Day.

It was in the early morning hours of the 25th that Martha found them together on the sofa in the loft, both fast asleep and completely naked – their clothes strewn all over the floor. Thankfully, they were laying in such a way that Martha didn't see anything she either didn't need to see or hadn't already seen, such as Clark's naked ass. Shaking her head Martha tucked the boys in with the blankets she'd brought from the house when she realized that the house was empty.

"It's about time you boys got together," Martha whispered once they were tucked in. Kissing them both on the forehead, Martha said, "Merry Christmas, my boys," before heading back into the house to get a few hours of sleep before cooking breakfast for her son and her new son-in-law.

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The End

Chapter End Notes: Okay, so there you have it. Not exactly the way I'd originally planned for this story to go, but I think it turned out okay nonetheless. What do you think?