Chapter Three by Nora Charles
"Why don't we go down to the food court?" said Clark. Lex smiled and shrugged, and with a lingering, sideways glance at Clark, started slowly strolling down the aisle. Clark fell back a half-step, so for once he was the one with a clear view of his friend's assets - if he had to walk through the entire mall with Lex's eyes on him, he feared he'd embarrass himself.
They stopped in front of the Pizza Hut, looking up at the menu. Lex stuck his hands in the pockets of his slacks, bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet. Clark's gaze snapped to the tightened fabric like iron filings to a magnet. "How about the sausage lover's, Clark?"
"Wha', huh?" said Clark. Lex pulled one hand out of his pocket to gesture, turning his smirking face to Clark's bright red one. "Sausage, Clark? ...On your pizza?" Clark felt overwhelmed. For a second there, the perfectly innocent question had led his mind down another track. He needed to distract Lex. "What's on it, besides sausage I mean?"
Lex looked back up at the impractically angled menu, and it was as if he could breathe normally once again. 'Get it together, Kent, no wonder you always suspect Lex is checking you out if your mind is always in the gutter. He's just being nice', Clark thought, as his eyes once again were helplessly drawn to his friend's backside. His tight, well-formed - red manicured nails? Clark was so stunned at the disjointed images entering his dazed mind, he just stood there gawking as the woman carefully slid Lex's bill-fold out of his backpocket, slipped it in her large leopard-print purse, and sashayed away.
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Lex turned back to Clark, another ambiguous quip on his on the tip of his tongue, only to see the beautiful young man's attention riveted to the swaying curves of a woman in a tight, short skirt, walking away from them. He had a truly unattractive, slack-jawed statement on his horny, teenager face. Annoyed, Lex pulled both hands free, and folded his arms over his chest. 'All for nothing, God damnit'.
"Clark!" he snapped, too sharply. Clark tore his attention back to him, with a guilty, startled look. Lex smiled tightly. "Would you like to get a pizza?" he annunciated slowly, then softened slightly as Clark leaned into him, putting one hand on his shoulder, pointing across the food-hall at the Chinese place's menu with the other. "I dunno, I kinda feel like Chinese dumplings, can you see if they have any?", Clark said, his warm breath puffing in Lex's ear. Delicious little tingles raced up and down his spine, and he had to shake his head a little to clear it, squinting to read the small, fake-calligraphy print.
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As soon as he had distracted Lex, Clark zoomed out of the food-court after the thief. Letting her pick Lex's pocket like that, because he was "distracted", was unforgivable. And no way could he explain to Lex that he'd seen her do it, without admitting where his attention had been. Hopefully he could retrive the wallet without Lex ever noticing he'd been gone. Zig-zagging in and out between the shoppers cluttering the aisle took almost all his concentration, but finally he spotted her. She was standing casually at an aisle intersection, leaning against the low fountain rail, studying a lady with a loosely grasped purse discretely.
Clark silently sped right up behind her, quickly sticking his hand in her purse, fumbling around for Lex's wallet. There were two down there, as far as he could tell. One was crocodile, huh, definitely not that one - smooth calf-skin, oh yeah. He got ahold of it, and withdrew his hand, all in so fast a blur, he knew from experience he'd be virtually invisible to anyone watching.
The lady with the light grip on her purse, handed it to her husband, who was already heavily-laden with shopping bags. The thief shrugged, and turned, searching for another likely looking victim, and Clark jumped back to avoid touching her, unfortunately putting too much effort in it, and vaulting clear over the railing, into the fountain. Before the thief could even react to the splash that soaked through her blouse - ooh, no bra - Clark was speeding back to the food-court, back to Lex.
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Lex couldn't see any dumplings on the menu, but it was a little hard to tell from this distance. Maybe they had won-ton soup, he was kind of in the mood for that. He leaned forward slightly. He felt a cold blast from the air-conditioner, then the body-heat from Clark was seeping nicely through him again. He leaned back slightly. '- Huh?!' Was that a hand on his ass? He froze. The hand froze. "Clark?" he asked huskily, his mouth oddly dry. Clark stood stiff as a board, his hand still cupping Lex's right buttock firmly. '- Too bad my wallet is in the way,' Lex thought wildly. Clark's deathly pale face suddenly flushed redder than Lex had ever seen it before, the heat palpably rolling up his body.
"I, uh, I was just trying to get your atte-attention," Clark stuttered. "You got it, Clark," Lex whispered throatily. "I don't think they have any dumplings," said Clark, misery streaming out of his every pore. 'Oh.' Lex felt chastened, once again he'd read too much into a simple, friendly gesture, and now he'd made Clark uncomfortable. The disappointment settled heavily in his gut.
Lex smiled reassuringly at him, and gave a slight shrug. "There's still pizza", he said, glancing quickly at Clark to check his reaction. Clark was staring studiously at his feet, his face still burning red. His shoulders were hunched, hands stuck in the back of the waistband. The wet, red sleeveless T was clinging deliciously to his defined six-pack, the wet jeans outlining his package very nicely - 'wait a minute...' "Clark, why are you all wet?" Lex felt genuinely puzzled. What had he missed?
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Shelly, the wet, clinging shirt is dedicated to you.
The sausage lover's is for Ximeria, because she said "You are *not* writing that!" in a most outraged tone.