rivkat: Chloe: Here to cheer on a mission from God (chloe cheers)
rivkat ([personal profile] rivkat) wrote2008-12-23 08:06 pm

Eight Crazy Nights, night three

Several of my Smallville stories have been translated into Chinese. This makes me unreasonably happy.

for [livejournal.com profile] melisande431
Clex, Lex takes Superman to court over property damage. Happiness ensues. Note: I couldn’t get all the way to happiness, but maybe some of the way there?

Vi et Armis

Clark didn’t understand what had happened. In the movies, the well-funded, slick lawyers of the rich company were always doing well right until the end of trial, at which point the messy, failure-til-now guy with an office in the bad part of town and a snarky-but-cute assistant pulled a great speech out of nowhere, all about the common man and what people owe to each other, and the jury went for the good guy and the rich company slunk off with its (metaphorical) tail between its (metaphorical) legs, and possibly somebody from the rich company got mad and threw things or, even, went to jail.

Clark’s trial hadn’t been anything like that. To be sure, his lawyer had been messy, with an office in the bad part of town, and his main experience was in divorce cases, because Clark couldn’t afford anything more. But Lex’s lawyers hadn’t seemed all that slick. They’d seemed like regular folks too, even though that was a lie—they were just so expensive that they knew enough to pretend to be normal, like Lex himself had finally learned. And at the end, Lex’s lawyers had been the ones talking about fairness and ordinary people, and Clark’s lawyer had just made sweeping statements about how good Superman was and how he never meant to destroy eighty million dollars of LuthorCorp property.

Which was true: Clark hadn’t ever given much thought to the property. He’d always concentrated on the people.

Unfortunately, the jury hadn’t seen it that way.

He really thought that if Lex had been asking for money, they would have been on Clark’s side. But Lex was too clever for that. He had enough money that he could live with a moral victory.

“A draft of the proposed injunction, your honor,” Lex’s main lawyer, a tall brunette with heels so spiked that she was definitely sleeping with Lex, said and handed over a sheaf of paper. “The defendant to stay at least eight hundred feet from any and all properly marked LuthorCorp properties.”

Clark consulted his mental map of Metropolis. That would put more than sixty-five percent of the city off-limits to him. Sex offenders had more freedom of movement. He made a protesting noise, but the judge waved him silent. They’d had a conversation about how the lawyer was the one who ought to speak to the judge early on, and Clark had followed the judge’s instructions even as his confidence in his attorney had waned. He poked his lawyer in the arm, and the man snapped to attention. “We’ll, uh, be filing objections.”

“I’ll hear argument tomorrow,” the judge agreed. The case had moved Flash-fast, driven by its high profile and Lex’s money.

The awful thing was, Clark didn’t think Lex had suborned the jury. Those people really thought he was unjustified. Of course Lex’s lawyers had twisted things, but still, he should have been able to convince them that it was all okay in the service of the greater good.

As soon as the judge dismissed them, he sped out of the building, avoiding the cluster of reporters waiting for him. Lex hadn’t attended any of the trial; apparently his testimony was considered unnecessary.

Eight hundred feet meant he wouldn’t even be able to show up to the Planet as Superman, because it was too near LuthorCorp Tower.

That night, he flew over to the penthouse, figuring that he deserved one last run at Lex before he was ordered to stay away.

Lex was at his desk, working, the remains of dinner still beside him, along with an empty bottle of wine. He’d switched to brandy by the time Clark arrived.

Lex sighed and pressed a button on his desk, opening the door to the balcony where Clark stood with his hands on his hips. “You might as well come in.” He didn’t look up.

“I wouldn’t have destroyed all those buildings if you hadn’t been conducting illegal activities,” Clark began.

Lex didn’t look up. The light from his monitor reflected in his eyes, glimmering blue-white and unfriendly. “I didn’t think you were doing it merely on behalf of my competitors, whatever the effect. And I’ll even spot you the roughly one-third of the damages due to you pursuing other evildoers. But if you could have proven the illegality, you wouldn’t be here right now, asking for … what is it that you’re asking for, again?”

Clark frowned. He’d come because—because confronting Lex was part of the ritual, or had been until now. He didn’t really have any requests of Lex. He hadn’t tried asking in years, and he was pretty worn-out when it came to demands as well.

“I wanted to see you,” he said at last. “If—I won’t see you once this injunction goes into force, will I?” Lex was perfectly capable of staying within an eight-hundred-foot radius of his own properties, or if he needed to move somewhere new buying enough land to create a path for himself, insulated from Clark’s intrusion.

Lex’s fingers stopped moving on his keyboard. “Your vision extends for miles when you tune it properly,” he said.

Clark closed his eyes, just for a second. “It’s not the same.”

Lex stood, moving until he was only a few feet in front of Clark. He held his arms out, aggressive and martyred at once. “Here I am.”

Clark looked.

After a few minutes, Lex started to get uncomfortable, which Clark could tell from detecting his pulse and his occasional reflexive swallows, but he didn’t move.

“Well?” Lex snapped after five more minutes had passed.

“It’s not enough,” Clark admitted. “I’m never—we’re never going to be done with each other, Lex.”

Lex swallowed again and dropped his arms to his sides. “I washed my hands of you years ago, Clark.”

It was, Clark realized, the first time Lex had ever said his name while he was in costume. Lex’s surprised jerk suggested that Lex had just realized that as well.

“Get them dirty again,” he suggested, and Lex’s skin heated four degrees, which was—interesting information. Then Clark processed what he’d said, and his own blush made it hard to keep from lifting off and zooming away. But he was committed now, and he might as well try for more. “Invite me to dinner tomorrow. You can tell me how I can stop your illegal experiments without destroying your buildings. You’re the planner, after all.”

Lex blinked a couple of times, then took a breath. His shoulders were as tense as a suspension bridge. Clark kind of wanted to touch them. “I’ll have my lawyers modify the injunction so that you can come to the Tower.”

“I don’t want to fight you, Lex,” Clark told him, his voice softening into tones he remembered from years back, in the mansion in Smallville.

Lex gave him a small, not quite unhappy smile. “Yes, you do.”

Clark nodded, because even back then they’d sparred, tiger cubs heedless of their own nascent powers. “Yeah,” he agreed. “But not like this.”

Lex took a deep breath. “Dinner?”

Clark grinned, feeling like a lead box had just slammed down on a chunk of Kryptonite. “I’ll be there.”

And he`was, with pizza from Naples, because he was smart enough now to know that it wasn’t the gift, but the giving, that mattered. Lex didn’t smile, but he sent the chef’s carefully prepared meal back to the kitchen with a wave of his hand.

Nothing was fixed, but maybe, just maybe, they were a little less broken.

for [livejournal.com profile] meret
SPN Dean/BTVS Faith, first time

“How long until your friends can dig us out?” Dean asked, resting one hand on his knee as he drew his other leg up, changing position. He was going to be cramped as shit when they got out, but he’d probably be able to walk if he didn’t let his muscles freeze in place.

The superstrong hot chick made a noise, and her leather-clad thigh slid up against his. “Couple of hours at least. You had to blow up the building?”

“Hey, you had another idea to destroy twenty-six zombies, I was all ears.”

“I coulda taken ‘em.”

Dean snorted, and something sharp jabbed him in his lower back. “Lady, I’ll give you six, ‘cause what you did back there I never saw before, but that’s all.”

“Lady?” she asked, amused and annoyed at once.

“You prefer ma’am?”

Hot hands slid over his stomach, and Dean grinned into the darkness. “Actually,” she said, “ma’am sounds about right, coming out of your mouth.” She started flicking buttons open, and not on his shirt.

“I could do other things with my mouth instead,” he suggested. “Ma’am.” There wasn’t that much room to maneuver, but she seemed pretty flexible.

“Oh, you will,” she told him, and then they were done talking for a while.

for [livejournal.com profile] svmadelyn
Smallville - Clark/Lex - darkness descends on Metropolis

When the dome grew up over the city, an opaque soap bubble, Lex was on the phone to Japan. The dome cut the call, along with every other electromagnetic signal of note, along with the light.

Lex went to his window and looked up at the place where the sky had been. Lights were coming on all over the city, people flicking the switch to replace daylight, but that wouldn’t last long; Metropolis only generated 34.5% of its own power, and the powerlines would have been severed by this event.

Mercy was already through the door, holding a flashlight for herself and one for him.

“Get me to the labs,” Lex told her.

Six hours later, they knew that the dome was impermeable to every chemical, biological, and physical attack reasonably available to Lex. There was always the tactical nuke in the subbasement of LuthorCorp, but Lex wasn’t going to try that in the first month. People wouldn’t be starving until the second month, and he’d need time to create some sort of radiation shielding.

Lex wasn’t sure whether the fact that Superman had been fighting a giant kraken down by Florida when the dome had appeared had represented a success or a failure for whatever had caused this. Was Metropolis a hostage? An accident?

Fifty sleepless hours later, he had a breakthrough. “Quantum tunneling,” he told the scientists assembled around him. “If we can punch through and then back, we can destabilize the structure. We’ll have to get everyone inside,” he told Mercy, who was waiting, “ideally underground, in case it collapses at the macro level.”

“But,” the smartest of his scientists said, “given the computational density of the dome, someone would have to construct the same apparatus right outside within six minutes of first penetration, or it’ll just reconfigure and that avenue will be closed to us.”

Lex nodded at Mercy, telling her to get started. “I’ll take care of it,” he promised.

They looked pale and nervous in the emergency lighting, but they didn’t dare disbelieve him.

Much later, when he’d managed put out the largest of the fires that had broken out in the wider world while the head of LuthorCorp had been unavailable, he raised his head from his desk—he hadn’t meant to nap, but even his body had limits—and saw Superman, standing not six feet away.

He blinked, unable to think of a suitably cutting remark. He blamed lingering fatigue toxins.

“How did you know?” Clark asked. “How did you know I’d be waiting right there?”

“Clark,” Lex said, forgetting that he wasn’t supposed to know, “you were on the other side of an uncrossable barrier from me. Of course you’d be waiting right there.”

Then he put his head back down, because his head was spinning and he was going to regret whatever else came out of his mouth.

If Clark said anything else, Lex missed it. But when he woke, he was in his bed, carefully tucked in, and the window was open, letting in the crisp Metropolis air and the distant sounds of sirens, the city crankily getting itself back to normal.

There was a sunflower in a glass of water on his bedside table.

Lex looked at it for a while, then turned his face to the sun.

for [livejournal.com profile] lomedet
Buffy - Willow Rosenberg - "Who can retell the things that befell us? Who can count them?"

"What is this?" Giles asked, holding up a perfect-bound printout, half an inch thick.

Willow raised her head from the pot she was stirring. "It’s my record of the past couple of years."

Giles stared at her in his bemused-British-guy way, the expression equal parts truly befuddled and warily gathering more data, though you wouldn't know about the latter until you knew him pretty well, maybe better than he wanted to be known. "Why have you been keeping a record?"

"You think a Watcher's journal is the only way to write history?" she asked, turning the flame down low so that the potion could simmer. "Sometimes it's a good idea to have multiple perspectives, especially at a critical time. And with the Council building gone, it's time to think about redundancy. Electronic archiving is the wave of the future, Giles."

She'd nattered on too much, like that shy teen Giles had met so long ago, bubbling over with enthusiasm when anyone seemed willing to listen.

Giles adjusted his glasses and did the thing with his mouth where he was disquieted but not angry. "Yes, of course, Willow, but you printed this out. I can only presume you wanted me to read it."

That was a leap, but maybe not a big one. Xander wouldn't fight his way through stories he already knew -- he got headaches looking at small print, and Willow was working on a spell to convert anything he wanted to read into graphic novel format. And Buffy wasn't around enough right now to read Willow's version of history. So Giles had a point: She’d wanted someone to know, and the only other person who was trying to make a record of what they'd done was a good candidate.

"It's just," she began, "these are the last Slayers. They aren't getting their own watchers. They’ll be footnotes, if they're lucky." And me, she didn't say. Not even a Slayer, just a witch who almost destroyed the world.

"You’re absolutely correct,” Giles said. "You and I have a lot of work to do."

She stared at him, waiting.

"I believe I have a supply of journals, but not enough to outfit all our slayers. Perhaps you could canvass them and find out which ones prefer to emulate you and write on one of those aggravating machines."

She had to look down, then. She should have known that Giles would understand. They could tell their stories the same way they'd lived them: overlapping and reinforcing and contradicting, and, in the end, together.

[identity profile] serrico.livejournal.com 2008-12-24 01:37 am (UTC)(link)
The Willow bit: aww! *Willow*!

The Dean/Faith bit: *yes.* :D

Sadly--*truly* sadly--I seem to have lost all ability to read Clark/Lex anymore. Otherwise, I'm sure I'd have nice things to say about those snippets as well. *g*

[identity profile] rivkat.livejournal.com 2008-12-24 01:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Willow remains one of my red-headed favorites. And the only question about Dean/Faith is the number of minutes before they had sex, not the fact of it. Sorry about the Clark/Lex thing. I'm in the place where I can do futurefic, but nothing that is pure SV anymore.
ext_1890: (Default)

[identity profile] svmadelyn.livejournal.com 2008-12-24 01:40 am (UTC)(link)
Shinyyyyy. Oh *Clark*. Of course you'd be on the other side.

Also really loved the Willow one.

[identity profile] rivkat.livejournal.com 2008-12-24 01:58 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm glad you liked them!

[identity profile] samsom.livejournal.com 2008-12-24 04:00 am (UTC)(link)
You wrote some CLex! *twirls*

I love when you write CLex, and these two ficlets show why. I love how complicated they are in your hands, and how painful the history is between them. But oh, does the love shine through.

And the idea that Lex would sue Superman, whom everyone else in the world treats like a god, is brilliant. Love them.

[identity profile] rivkat.livejournal.com 2008-12-24 01:58 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm glad you enjoyed them! More to come.

[identity profile] norwich36.livejournal.com 2008-12-24 05:03 am (UTC)(link)
I have almost completely given up reading SV, but you still write the best Clex ever, so I am unable to resist.

I also loved the Dean/Faith story, and the Willow one. I *really* love when you write Buffy. Favorite line: Xander wouldn't fight his way through stories he already knew -- he got headaches looking at small print, and Willow was working on a
spell to convert anything he wanted to read into graphic novel format.

[identity profile] rivkat.livejournal.com 2008-12-24 01:59 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm glad you gave them a try! Buffy is always kind of scary because the dialogue bar is so high. Poor Xander--Willow would totally help him out with mission reports and the like.

[identity profile] dracunculus.livejournal.com 2008-12-24 06:05 am (UTC)(link)
I enjoyed all of these -- very much!

[identity profile] rivkat.livejournal.com 2008-12-24 01:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you!
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[identity profile] cryptoxin.livejournal.com 2008-12-24 06:18 am (UTC)(link)
These are lovely; I think the Willow story is my favorite, but it's a tough call.

[identity profile] rivkat.livejournal.com 2008-12-24 02:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks! These are fun exercises.

[identity profile] cellia.livejournal.com 2008-12-24 06:45 am (UTC)(link)
The Clark/Lex ones are just heartbreaking... (the little touch of hope just makes it sadder somehow for me).

"The superstrong hot chick"=awesome. Faith/Dean is an awesome awesome pairing.

[identity profile] rivkat.livejournal.com 2008-12-24 02:01 pm (UTC)(link)
At this point, a little touch of hope for Clark & Lex is all I have. But it's there! And they're both tough, so they might make it.

I will admit to a weakness for Dean/Willow; Faith/Dean is awesome, but futureless, which is fine by me when I have my Sam/Dean hat on, but can make me wistful.

[identity profile] ladyagnew.livejournal.com 2008-12-25 10:02 pm (UTC)(link)
“Clark,” Lex said, forgetting that he wasn’t supposed to know, “you were on the other side of an uncrossable barrier from me. Of course you’d be waiting right there.”

meep. If Lex manages to get drunk on exhaustion more, maybe they'd let themselves have a chance.

[identity profile] rivkat.livejournal.com 2008-12-26 02:04 am (UTC)(link)
We can only hope!

[identity profile] cellia.livejournal.com 2008-12-28 05:54 am (UTC)(link)
Faith/Dean is awesome, but futureless

This might just be my orneriness, but I can see them fighting/screwing side by side in a world where Buffy and Sam are not to hand. And there's always Sam/Dean/Faith.

[identity profile] lomedet.livejournal.com 2008-12-24 07:22 am (UTC)(link)
okay, I love all of these (the clex ones especially warmed my heart - your take on them makes me so happy), but the one you wrote for my prompt was just WONDERFUL. Willow! Recordkeeping! Giles! And the last line was just perfect.

[identity profile] rivkat.livejournal.com 2008-12-24 02:02 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm glad you liked them! I was a little worried that not enough happened with Willow, but the prompt seemed to cry out for some recordkeeping.

[identity profile] meteordust.livejournal.com 2008-12-24 08:03 am (UTC)(link)
I enjoyed all of these. The Clark/Lex ones reminded me powerfully of why I used to love Smallville so much.

[identity profile] rivkat.livejournal.com 2008-12-24 02:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks! I would say that I still like SV, but in a distant kind of way. I will always, always love S1-S4 Lex.

[identity profile] lapetite-kiki.livejournal.com 2008-12-24 02:19 pm (UTC)(link)
It's wonderful to read Clex stories from you!

[identity profile] rivkat.livejournal.com 2008-12-24 02:24 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm glad you liked them! More to come.
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[identity profile] niciasus.livejournal.com 2008-12-24 02:35 pm (UTC)(link)
CLEX! Happy sigh. I miss reading your Clex stories. Complicated, unpredictable. Anyway, the injunction is on Superman, right. Clark Kent has free reign to go anywhere, I'm thinking. We must put a genuine smile on Lex's face.

[identity profile] rivkat.livejournal.com 2008-12-24 02:38 pm (UTC)(link)
I miss early SV! I'm glad you liked the stories; there are a few more to come. And yes, Clark Kent can go anywhere, and will.

[identity profile] counteragent.livejournal.com 2008-12-24 03:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Yay to Dean/Faith!

And I really love that Willow & Giles one! Love those two and their dynamic so much.

[identity profile] rivkat.livejournal.com 2008-12-24 04:53 pm (UTC)(link)
I have to admit, Dean/Faith strikes me as an easy get, but at least you know they'd totally do it even if they knew they were trapped in a fallen-down building.

I, uh, might have been a Willow/Giles fan once upon a time, though I doubt I ever did anything more than think about it.

[identity profile] meret.livejournal.com 2008-12-25 04:14 am (UTC)(link)
These are wonderful! Thank you so much for my story! RL is not good right now so this made my day. Thank you! :)

[identity profile] rivkat.livejournal.com 2008-12-25 04:19 am (UTC)(link)
I'm sorry that RL is rough, but I'm glad I could bring a little brightness in!

[identity profile] melisande431.livejournal.com 2008-12-25 03:39 pm (UTC)(link)
Clex! And happy, if you squint. I'm sure the pizza dinner is just the beginning. I love your Lex and Clark. Of course Lex's lawyer is a tall brunette. Of course Lex's skin heats up when Clark makes an (unknowing?) suggestive remark. Thanks so much!

[identity profile] rivkat.livejournal.com 2008-12-25 03:46 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm glad you liked it! The pizza could definitely lead to more.
jcalanthe: locke sitting on a beach (Default)

[personal profile] jcalanthe 2008-12-26 02:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Yay, these are all wonderful. Both CLex stories remind me why I was so obsessed with Smallville back in the day (nice that they both have the moment Lex admits he knows Superman is Clark). & Dean/Faith is hot by definition, and your take was not only hot but made me wish for the story around this event. The Willow one is my favorite, and perfectly in the spirit of the Buffy finale.

[identity profile] rivkat.livejournal.com 2008-12-26 02:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks! SV and I are still friends, though the passion has cooled substantially. Dean/Faith is a gimme; if I'm in the right mood it makes me a little sad for both of them, because they'll have a great time and then slide right off one another. I'm really glad you liked the Willow one! That was hard for me and I'm happy you felt the spirit of the show in it.
copracat: dreamwidth vera (Default)

[personal profile] copracat 2009-01-12 11:52 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, hello lovely Smallville stories, hello. *hugs*

The Willow story is wonderful, too.

[identity profile] rivkat.livejournal.com 2009-01-12 01:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Hee! Glad you liked.

[identity profile] kassrachel.livejournal.com 2009-01-28 03:29 am (UTC)(link)
Just read this Willow piece, and it's wonderful. That last paragraph! Yum.

[identity profile] rivkat.livejournal.com 2009-01-28 03:50 am (UTC)(link)
I'm glad you liked it! Oh Willow, you were so awesome.