title: headlines
author: jessica
mail: thegirlinglasses@illuminatedtext.com
date: november 26, 2002
notes: "... the words I try to force out die on the air and dissolve into kisses whose chemicals are even more deadly if undelivered." - the elizabeth smart challenge
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They warn him. Everyone does.
And now that it's in the papers, it's not just his friends and family anymore.
They get caught in the tabloids - cozy dinners and sweaty dances. Headlines in 72 point with words like 'boytoy' and 'cradle robber'.
Lex has always ignored them. A lifetime of press attention has taught him distance and separation.
Gossip columns report discretions that Clark knows are false. He has to believe they're false.
Underneath the tweed suits, Clark is more than everyone knows. A paradox in a pair of black rimmed glasses.
After the years, the newspapers, magazines, late night punchlines, they're all become easier to swallow. Because they don't know Lex, and they don't know Clark and, though they may see them holding hands, they still don't know Lex and Clark when they're together.
It's the words from the people who do them that matter.
From his father there were words like trust and betrayal.
"I taught you better than this, Clark."
"You taught me isolation, Dad. You taught me to hide myself."
Lex doesn't let him hide. Even when Jonathan and Martha worry that the red cape isn't enough, Lex tells Clark why he need to be himself.
"Because Superman can't not be Clark Kent," Lex tells him. "You can't lose Clark."
There are words that Clark expects. These are the words that, when spoken aloud, could stop the words in 72 point font on the top of a newspaper.
Lex tries to say I love you. He's not there yet and Clark understands.
There is more to them than cozy dinners and sweaty dances. They're more than Lex Luthor of Lex Corp and Clark Kent of the Daily Planet.
When they're Clark and Lex, they don't miss the words because the kisses are there to take their place.