Title: "Clark the Gay Blade"
Author: Pirate Turner
Dedicated To: This is the thirteenth story in my annual 13 days of Halloween series dededicated with endless love to my wonderful, beloved Jack and our darling children.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Clark's secret is revealed on Halloween night.
Warnings: Slash, Established Relationship
Word Count: 2,657
Date Written: 23 October, 2011
Disclaimer: Clark Kent, Lex Luthor, and Smallville are ﾩ & TM DC comics and all other respective owners, not the author, and are used without permission. Zorro and all other characters and titles are ﾩ & TM their rightful owners, none of whom are the author, and are used without permission. Everything else is ﾩ & TM the author. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.

Nervous, blue eyes traveled slowly up the magnificent building as the valet let him out of his boyfriend's luxurious sports car. A tight ball formed in his throat, but he forced it down. He had saved the world almost more times than he could remember; it was getting to be a nearly daily occurrence for him now. He could handle rubbing elbows with Metropolis' rich and elite, especially from behind the mask of his disguise.

His lover stepped into place beside him and took his sweating hand in his calm, reassuring hand. "It's not too late," he whispered, noting the anxiety disturbing his younger love's handsome face. "We can always go to your school's costume ball instead."

"No." The brunette was quick to shake his head. His classmates would never understand his arriving with the wonderful, though poorly accepted, Lex Luthor on his arm, and there was nowhere else he'd rather be on Halloween night or any other day or night of the year than with the man he loved. "I'll be fine," Clark said determinedly though his hold on Lex's hand tightened. These were their kind of people, even if they were rich. The people at this LGBT gala would not turn away from them. Why, they'd barely bat an eye at seeing them enter side by side whereas their appearance alone would bring any other party in the county to a screeching halt!

Knowing Clark was determined, Lex began to lead the way up the red carpeted entrance while still holding on to his sweetheart's hand. Clark's long, black cape swirled around them, and Lex decided to change the subject to try to ease Clark back into his normal self and out of the dire urgency to run that he felt building to a rising roar in his lover. It was the same feeling he'd had more often than not when facing these fund raisers and still felt at most parties he was required to attend. At least here, the sharks would not be swimming as they were at all the other events Lex attended. He paused them, bringing Clark even closer, as the reporters' cameras started snapping. "I'm still surprised you chose that costume," he whispered next to Clark's ear.

Clark's widened, blue eyes peered at him from behind his black mask. "What, Zorro?" he asked. He could feel Lex's sword sticking against his side and wondered idly if it, indeed, was a real sword. A normal person would never dare to bring such a weapon into public, but his beloved was decidedly, and deliciously, not normal. Further more, Clark knew that Lex enjoyed fencing, and it would have been nothing for him to bring along one of his fencing blades to complete his Alexander the Great costume.

Lex smiled sweetly up at him. "Yes. I just have trouble picturing you as a rogue."

"Zorro and I have a lot in common," Clark said. As the line began to move again, he stepped boldly and proudly beside his love in an imitation of Zorro's prancing walk and had Lex laughing by the time he swept his cape around him. "Besides, he's far more than a rogue. He's a lone hero." Plus, he'd found his love's Zorro collection hiding in his DVDs the last time he'd picked out a movie for them to watch. Lex had a more complete Zorro collection than any he'd ever seen before, including the golden, silent movies; Disney's classic show; George Hamilton in a rendition Clark had not even known existed, Zorro the Gay Blade; the more recent TV series starring Duncan Regehr; Antonio Banderas' version; and almost everything in between.

Lex's blue eyes sparkled up into Clark's baby blues as he twirled inside his cape with him and held him tightly to him. "You're not alone any more, Clark."

The mirth vanished from Clark's handsome face as he gazed down into his love's searching eyes. He cupped his face and began to lower his lips to his. "And neither are you, Lex." He had just started to kiss his love's sweet lips when complaints rose from the others standing in line behind them.

"Aw, come on!"

"At least wait until you're inside!"

Another made kissing sounds as he added, "Save some for me!"

"Aw, come on, guys!" a more feminine man declared. "Leave them alone!"

"Ah, young love!"

"How sweet!"

Clark blushed. Grasping both of his hands in his, Lex deserted the red carpet entrance and pulled him to the side, allowing the others to go on ahead of them. His blue eyes cut glaringly into the reporters and the other party goers who hesitated to watch them. His gaze alone sent chills sweeping through them, and they finally hurried on about their business. "Now," he asked, turning back to his love, wrapping his hands lovingly around his handsome face; and curling his fingers into his soft, black hair, "where were we?"

"I believe," Clark managed to whisper despite the additional, blazing heat crawling up his reddened flesh, "I was about to tell you . . . " He took Lex's free hand in his and held it against his chest. " . . . that I was hoping to give you another reason to like the Gay Blade?" In truth, Clark had hoped that Lex's admiration for Zorro would lead them to a night full of even more passion than usual.

Lex couldn't help it. Hearing those words coming out of his love's sweet but naive lips caused a bark of laughter to escape him. His laughter was rich, deep, and dark but silenced immediately when Clark began to pout. "I'm sorry," Lex apologized, swiping at the tears that had sparked in his eyes. "I just can't believe you managed to say that line with a straight face!" He wrapped his arms around Clark again and pulled him so tightly against his body that there was no room left between them save for Clark's cotton costume and Lex's own golden armor. Lex caressed Clark's face and hair as he assured him, "Honey, I already like your Gay Blade far more than I ever liked Zorro's!"

As Clark promptly turned the brightest shade of red Lex had ever seen on him, Lex took full advantage, leaned up against him, and kissed him passionately. His tongue slipped into his mouth and trysted against his tongue, bringing an immediate moan from him. Clark wrapped his arms even more tightly around Lex, unconsciously almost crushing him inside of his armor, but Lex only continued to kiss him more deeply.

Suddenly, the sound of screeching tires penetrated the cloud of love that had wrapped around all their senses. The lovers broke apart, their eyes shooting wide and wild with fear, as a black car ran directly at them. There was no time to run! Clark did the only thing he could: He grabbed Lex again, wrapped himself around him, and turned his own back to face the car. It slammed into him at a hundred miles an hour but went no further. Its hood collapsed in on itself, and steam poured from the engine. The car crumpled against Clark, the driver being squeezed in by the impact until he fell unconscious at the wheel.

"Cl-Clark?" Lex asked shakily, gazing questioningly up into his love's eyes. He gingerly touched his face.

Clark winced as he heard people shouting and running toward them and cameras clicking like crazy. He stood, like a man frozen, his arms still held tightly around his love, and Lex saw the terror gleaming from his love's baby blue eyes and felt it in the pounding of his heartbeat against him. "Run," he whispered. "They do not yet know who you are. Run!"

Clark did exactly that, racing like the wind, still carrying Lex with him, and leaving every one else far behind. He zipped through the city so fast that Lex could not see anything around them. Even Clark's handsome face was a blur of which he could not tell even one detail. Clark didn't stop running until he'd reached a lake. He didn't even know which way he'd gone or where they were now, but as water touched his booted feet, he at last stopped running and fell to the earth, Lex still held protectively in his arms.

Lex rolled to his feet and stared at their surroundings. He, too, had no idea where they had gone. The silver moon reflected in drifting rivulets upon the dark pond, and the animals that had been drinking until they'd suddenly appeared in their midst gazed back at Lex. The deer were the first to run, breaking through the thickets and racing away with the same looks of terror as Lex had just witnessed on his beloved Clark's handsome face. Two raccoons had been washing their nightly catch in the pond. One of them released their fish so swiftly that the fish knocked into the other's face.

Lex's lips drew upwards with mirth at the raccoons as they began to slap each other with the fish, but then he heard his love begin to move behind him and turned his full attention instantly back to Clark. With the human's back turned to them, the rest of the animals, from the smallest rabbit to the mightiest panther and biggest bear, all fled. Though he couldn't see them, Lex heard their retreat through the bushes and thicket, and his heart ached. They ran as fearfully as his love had just fled, and now Clark stood, looking at him with the same fearful expression in his eyes.

"Clark," Lex's voice broke, "don't look at me like that. Please don't be afraid of me, baby." He reached his hands out for Clark. "You just saved my life! You didn't do anything more or less than that."

"You're . . . You're not afraid of me?" Clark asked, not yet allowing Lex to come close enough to touch him as he stepped back away from him.

"Of course not!" Lex's blue eyes shone with the truth of his words in the silver moonlight. "Clark, I love you! Nothing will ever change that!"

"You don't want to . . . to dissect me or study me or anything like that?"

Lex sighed. Continuing to hold his hands out toward his beloved, he stepped closer, "Never. I admit I've done some . . . questionable experiments in the past, Clark, but I'll never want to experiment on you. You're the man I love, and nothing's ever going to change that!" Finally, he managed to grasp him, and then he held on to him for dear life as he hugged him. "I already knew you were different, Clark. You just proved my theories right tonight."

Clark trembled inside the hold of Lex's arms that was meant to be reassuring to him. "Your theories? So, you were already studying me?"

"No." Lex shook his head quickly. "I've been watching you, examining you, true, but I'll never study you like that! You're not an invention, a tool, a weapon, a freak, or a monster. You're a man, the man I love!" he repeated again, smiling brightly up into Clark's fearful eyes.

He stole a quick and tender kiss before admitting, "But you are a mystery also." He again cupped his face inside the warmth of his gentle hands and stroked him. "I hit you with my car, Clark. You shouldn't have lived, but you did. I've always known from that night that you were different and wanted to know why. I tried asking you to tell me, but you wouldn't."

"I - " Clark's voice shook. "I couldn't - " he tried to explain, but his words failed him.

Lex nodded his understanding. "I understand now. You were afraid, but I promise you this," he vowed, brushing his thumbs gently over Clark's pursed and pouting lips, "you've never got to be afraid again."

"But, Lex, they saw me!"

"They saw what they thought was a man in a Zorro costume save my life. I'll hold a conference tomorrow and speak with the police. I'll offer a reward for information on the people behind this latest attempt to take my life - "

"People?" Clark interjected, still trembling though a little less now.

"We both know it's getting to be a bit of an annoying habit for people to try to kill me," Lex clarified, "and they're rarely in it by themselves. But I'll hold that conference tomorrow, and I'll show them my new bodyguard, a robot I dressed as Zorro last night. They'll never know it was you."

Clark's arms had slowly gone over Lex's shoulders, and now his fingers idly pressed against the smooth curve of the back of Lex's bald head. "Are you sure it will work?"

"It'll work," Lex vowed. "It will work, because I will never let any one discover the truth about you! No one is ever going to use you as an experiment, my love. You saved my life again tonight; it's getting to be almost as much of a habit for you to save my life as it is for others to try to take it. But from here on out, I will protect you, too." He gently caressed Clark's cheeks and realized, to his delight, that his love was no longer shaking. "Just promise me one thing?" he whispered.

"What?" Clark asked softly.

"No more secrets," Lex declared. "From this night on, we have no more secrets from each other."

The light of merriment finally returned to Clark's baby blues. "I'm not sure I can do that."

"Whyever not?" Lex demanded.

Clark ran his hands over his handsome face, his fingers playing over the curves in his bald head and his ear lobes and sending delicious thrills shooting all the way through Lex's body and soul. "Because sometimes I like to surprise the man I love." He had, after all, planned on coming to Lex in the midnight hour tonight and marking his sheets with a Z.

Lex threw his head back and laughed; his laughter echoed in the forest. His fingers twirled in Clark's jet black hair. "Just make sure," he warned him, "that they're good surprises!"

"Oh, I will!" Clark vowed, lifting him back into his arms. "I definitely will!" He kissed him again, the terror of this Halloween night having fled in the light of the beautiful love they shared together.

Clark's fake mustache tickled Lex's skin. Lex reached up and gently removed it, and Clark looked at him questionably. "I have and will always," Lex promised him in whispered reassurance, "prefer Clark Kent over Zorro."

"Well, this Gay Blade is still yours and always will be!" Clark had started blushing deeply again before he could even finish his declaration, and Lex laughed. Clark paused for a brief moment before joining in his love's laughter.

Lex stroked the smooth, black cotton over his love's muscular chest and made a mental note to have another Zorro costume made and kept for his love, this one of the finest of silks that his lover definitely deserved. His hand slipped into the blouse's opening and caressed Clark's bare, taut skin. "Happy Halloween, Clark!" he exclaimed as he leaned up to kiss him again. "I love you!"

"Happy Halloween, Lex! I love you, too!" Lex's lips had been hovering less than an inch above Clark's, and Clark closed what little distance had remained between them in a single thrust. Lex's tongue slipped into his mouth, and Clark's tongue met it and thrust wildly against it. Their hands roamed each other's bodies lovingly as they soared on the wings of love far pass the Halloween moon herself. The horror of the night was long gone, and all that remained was a love whose beauty would always outshine all other lights and loveliness and whose power would give them the might, strength, and courage to always successfully protect each other from all the horrors of the world as they lived and loved together happily forever more.

The End