crack_van | Web of Lies by Hope Roy (NC-17)

Fandom: Smallville
Pairing: Clark/Lex, Clark/Lana
Length: Approx. 70,600
Author on LJ:

Author's website: Archived on LJ

Why this must be read:

This is simply the best characterization of Lex post-rift I have ever seen written. He is captured so well here and is so believable. He is so ruthlessly practical that it takes my breath away. The other characters in the story, Clark and Lana, were just as well written, but Lex's intensity just stole the show for me. This is not a story to be read passively, or at least neutrally, either. At some point you will want to smack each of the main characters upside the head in the hopes of knocking some sense into them, you will also feel sympathy for each of the three at some point (some more than others), you will by turns feel shocked, surprised, relieved, happy, maybe even turned on once or twice, but what you won't feel is bored or lackadaisical.

"You know what I'm doing, Clark."

"No, I don't!" Clark shouted, moving towards Lex with all the force of a freight train. "I don't know why you're trying to make me lose my childhood home!" he bellowed, raising his voice enough that it echoed off the walls of the room. "I don't know why you're trying to put me out on the streets! And I sure as hell don't know why you don't want me to be at all happy!"

By the time he'd finished yelling, Clark was breathing hard and his hands were clenched into such tight fists that his knuckles were white. He could feel himself shaking with anger.

Time seemed to stand still as they looked at each other, their gazes unflinching. There was a strange expression on Lex's face, but Clark was too far gone in his rage to understand what it was. He didn't even want to understand.

It was hard to choose a section to include because there is so much leading up to and away from every other part that I was afraid of loosing some of the quality of the intensity that this story is told with. This one works pretty well, but there was quite a bit that led up to the outburst from Clark. If you want to read all about it the links are below.

Web of Lies, part 1

Web of Lies tag page - all 15 parts of the story are linked here.