slinkling: (69 love songs)
[personal profile] slinkling
Holy wow, I've completed another Thing A Week. I believe I have now exceeded my creative output for all of 2008. (Not counting my procreative output, which is different.) And this one revives my long-defunct 69 Love Songs project. Anybody remember that? No, I didn't think so.

Title: Love Song #19: A Pretty Girl Is Like...
Author: [livejournal.com profile] slinkling
Fandom: Smallville
Rating: PG-13
Length: 700 words
Notes: For [livejournal.com profile] ladydey, who prompted me with "Smallville - Lex/Clark, runaway bride." The title corresponds to a Magnetic Fields song, which you can listen to over here, thanks to [livejournal.com profile] disprove, who uploaded them for me eons ago. All italicized lines are by Magnetic Fields.


***
A Pretty Girl Is Like…


A pretty girl is like a minstrel show.

The first time Lana agrees to marry him, Lex goes all-out. He hires the most expensive wedding planner in Metropolis, books the entire classical wing of the Metropolis Art Museum for the reception, and gets Vera Wang to design a spectacular meringue of a dress exclusively for Lana. Almost the entire population of Smallville, or at least the non-incarcerated portion, gets invited to what the press has dubbed “the wedding of the century.”

Clark is there, seated towards the back, wearing an uncomfortable suit and, in his opinion, exhibiting tremendous restraint in not setting anything on fire.

Lana doesn’t show. Lex announces this fact about an hour after the ceremony was supposed to begin, and graciously encourages everyone to enjoy the party anyway.

Clark has to admit that Lex handles it extremely well, all things considered. But Superman isn’t exactly shocked, later that night, when a disused LexCorp lab building blows up for no reason anyone can see.
---

A pretty girl is like a violent crime.

The second time Lana says she’ll marry him, Lex opts for more of a stealth approach. Nobody is told the date or the venue in advance. A friendly judge is put on alert, warned to be ready at a moment’s notice. The grand honeymoon suite at the Metropolis Continental is reserved for two solid months, just so it will be available when they want it. This time, Lex is determined, their wedding will be more of a surgical strike: quick, unexpected, and utterly efficient.

And yet, when he arrives at the judge’s chambers at the appointed time, only a slightly embarrassed Superman is there to meet him. Lex takes a moment to compose himself, and then raises an eyebrow.

“Lana’s on a flight to Singapore,” Clark informs him. “I told Judge Crawford he could go home.”

Lex takes a breath. “I see.”

“For the record, I had nothing to do with Lana going.”

Lex walks to the open window and looks out at the city. “Much as it pains me to say so, I believe you.”

Clark suddenly doesn’t know what to do with his hands. He resists the urge to twist them in his cape. “You know, planning your wedding like it’s a bank heist probably should have been a clue that something was wrong.”

Turning to face him, Lex looks almost amused. “You’re giving me relationship advice?’

Clark sighs, then tries to adopt a more Supermanly posture. “I'm sorry it didn’t work out,” he says gravely. Then he steps through the window and takes to the sky, resigned to waiting for the inevitable explosion.
---

A pretty girl is like a pretty girl.

When Clark Kent and Lana Lang announce their engagement, Lex sends them an exquisitely wrapped gift box. Inside, nestled in several layers of tissue paper, is a silken lasso.

“Oh, ha ha. Very funny.” Lana walks away in a snit.

Clark watches her go, wondering if it was even intended as a joke.

A few hours after their hastily cancelled wedding, when Lana is on a plane to Paris and Clark’s at home by himself, wishing he could feel just a little bit surprised, there’s a knock at his door. He opens it to see Lex standing there with a bottle of whiskey. Clark lets him in without a word.

“A few things have occurred to me,” Lex begins.

Clark goes to get two glasses.

“First,” Lex says, “it’s time to accept it. Lana really wouldn’t be much of a wife.”

Clark shrugs. “Yeah. I'm way ahead of you.”

“Second.” Lex pours them both generous shots. “You and I might not be well suited to marriage ourselves.”

Rather than acknowledging this, Clark throws back his drink in one belt.

Lex watches him appreciatively, and takes a sip from his own glass. “And third,” he says, loosening his tie, “I believe you have a very fine lasso somewhere in this apartment.”

Clark looks up with a start. “You want it back?”

“On the contrary,” Lex says, removing his cufflinks. “I just think it’s a shame to let it go to waste.”

Clark’s wedding night is nothing like he’d expected, but it’s actually pretty great even so.
***



Date: 2009-01-14 02:23 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kassrachel.livejournal.com
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Oh, this is FANTASTIC. I have such a big dorky grin on my face right now, you don't even know. I love the Vera Wang meringue of a dress, and Clark not setting anything on fire, and then the second time Clark resisting the urge to twist his hands in his cape (oh, CLARK) and then the whiskey and Lex being suave and snarky and the very happy ending. \o/

::twirls you::

(ETA: I think you might not have included the link to where the love songs are? fyi.)

Date: 2009-01-17 11:02 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] slinkling.livejournal.com
Thanks so much! It's kind of nice to drop in on Clark and Lex from time to time.

Oh, and thanks for the note about the link, which is now fixed.

Date: 2009-01-14 02:35 pm (UTC)
danceswithgary: (Default)
From: [personal profile] danceswithgary
It's great to see another one of these. I love the laid back style. :-D

Date: 2009-01-17 11:04 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] slinkling.livejournal.com
Thanks! The whole thing-a-week premise seems to encourage a breezy style, like everything needs to be short and sweet. Which is not a bad way to be, really.

Date: 2009-01-14 02:35 pm (UTC)
ext_2583: "Lady Agnew" by John Singer Sargent (Default)
From: [identity profile] mskatej.livejournal.com
Hee! Awesome.

Date: 2009-01-17 11:06 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] slinkling.livejournal.com
Many thanks. :-)

Date: 2009-01-14 03:25 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kcobweb.livejournal.com
Hee. I don't really know anything about Smallville, but I like this. Great last line.

Date: 2009-01-17 11:07 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] slinkling.livejournal.com
Thanks! I can't really recommend Smallville, as it's a ludicrously silly show. But in the first couple seasons, the characters of Clark and Lex are both so much fun. They really do invite a fanfic treatment.

Date: 2009-01-14 03:34 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] roxymissrose.livejournal.com
Ahahahaha! That was *fabulous*!!

Date: 2009-01-17 11:08 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] slinkling.livejournal.com
Thank you! *bows*

Date: 2009-01-14 03:54 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rosy5000.livejournal.com
Yay! Glad to see these again. :D

hehe Wonder what they got up to with that lasso? ;)

Date: 2009-01-17 11:09 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] slinkling.livejournal.com
I'm sure they had a most lovely evening. Lex is nothing if not creative. :-)

Date: 2009-01-14 04:26 pm (UTC)

Date: 2009-01-18 12:25 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] slinkling.livejournal.com
Glad you liked. :-)

Date: 2009-01-14 06:22 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] norwich36.livejournal.com
Hee hee hee! I love the lasso. (Though I was thinking at first the first wedding was the canonical one, so I was a little confused).

Date: 2009-01-18 12:26 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] slinkling.livejournal.com
Yeah, I decided to completely disregard canon. Probably I should have mentioned that going in.

But anyway, I'm glad you liked it. :-)

Date: 2009-01-14 06:50 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ladydey.livejournal.com
HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!


I love the images of Lex blowing up buildings in fits of peak and planning stealth bank job like weddings.

*sigh* Lana is so not worth that much effort; now Clark.. he very well may be.

Date: 2009-01-18 12:28 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] slinkling.livejournal.com
Thank you! Yeah, Lex has some anger management issues...

Date: 2009-01-14 08:55 pm (UTC)
ext_9263: (Default)
From: [identity profile] kristiinthedark.livejournal.com
\o/ You got me to read Clark/Lex for the first time in... well, A WHILE. And it was totally worth it. YAY!

Date: 2009-01-18 12:32 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] slinkling.livejournal.com
Woot! And thank you! Clark and Lex are always worth another visit. :-)

Date: 2009-01-15 12:27 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] isilweth.livejournal.com
Hee! This is awesome! I'm glad you're writing again! :)

Date: 2009-01-18 12:34 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] slinkling.livejournal.com
Thank you! And man, I'm glad I'm writing again too. That was just way too long a dry spell.
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