I've never really been good at finishing fics (I don't wanna talk about the number of wips or just ideas I have floating around), but I really wanna get back into writing and to at least get to it semi consistently. So, I've been inspired by @pearlypairings and have very sporadically decided to do this little prompt game!
Please send me some asks with whichever characters (however many you want) and the first sentence 😊
"It's not that I don't agree," she said, "but why now?"
(for the first sentence game. no context, do whatever comes to mind!)
I'm so sorry this took me so long! I honestly couldn't think of anything at first, then I got into a writing slump, and then I forgot about it. I can't apologize enough, but I hope this is good! I may have written this in one sitting. I got a Smallville kick going right now, and I found this ask again, and suddenly, inspiration hit. So here you go!
~~~~
“It’s not that I don’t agree,” she said, “but why now?” Lana paused, trying to choose her words carefully. “And why him?” Why not me?
And Clark, honestly, didn’t have an answer to that. Not one that he fully understood, anyway. But he tried to put it into words that maybe could help her understand. “Because he’s my best friend. Because I owe him this much. Because I feel like if I don’t tell him now he’s gonna hate me.”
To be fair, Lex is still gonna hate him. Clark has been lying to the man for two years. He’s already told Clark time and time again that once someone lies to him once, it’s hard for him to trust them again. He’s given Clark so many chances to come clean, and he just keeps lying.
In Clark's defence, he’s been told his whole life by the people he trusts the most, the only two that knew his secret, to never tell it to anyone. If one person finds out, then they’re gonna tell the wrong person and take him away from them. He’ll be turned into an experiment or a weapon, probably both, and he’ll never see his parents or friends again. Never have the normal life he dreams of.
But then, he told Pete. More as a defence, to protect himself from Chloe finding out and posting an article about the spaceship front and center on the Torch. But he’d be lying if he said that was the sole reason for telling Pete. That he hadn’t ached for a reason to tell someone.
Lana’s face fell for a moment before she seemed to find something interesting in Clark’s face. She was studying him, trying to figure out how the gears were turning in his head, like if she only found the one that was snagged she could finally find the cause of Clark Kent’s weird behaviours. He sees that look on her a lot. “No. There’s something else you’re not telling me.”
There’s a lot I’m not telling you, Clark wanted to say. But he couldn’t, because then she would push for answers, and Clark is already having to deal with enough. Like the fact he’s very seriously considering telling Lex his secret. And the fact that, somehow, Lana knew what he was thinking.
Well, not exactly what he was thinking. But she could tell Clark wanted to tell Lex what he’s been hiding from everyone. She said it was the way he kept looking at him. Something about his gaze. He wasn’t aware he was so readable.
He already worries about her knowing he’s hiding something from her, now this?
Clark sighs, weary of how to explain himself. “I thought he died, Lana.” He was quiet. Quieter than she’d ever heard him.
Lana reaches out and rests her and on his forearm, empathy in her gaze. “We all did.”
“Yeah, but-” He stops himself, the words are going too fast in his head for his brain to send them out of his mouth. He has to take a breath and actively slow his thinking before he continues. “You don’t understand. I didn’t even know he was missing. If I wasn’t so set on running from and ignoring anything and everything Smallville, I would have helped looking for him.”
Lana shook her head, “Clark, you can’t blame yourself for every bad thing that happens. Lex washed up on a stranded island in the middle of nowhere. There’s no way you could’ve found him if his father couldn’t.”
Clark looked down at the floor, maybe making his disagreement on the statement clear. Maybe she’s right, maybe he couldn’t have found him, but at the very least he’d be trying to find him. He’d be doing something other than running around in clubs and expensive cars, and stealing from ATM machines. God, why did he think red kryptonite was a good idea?
Clark also doesn’t know when Lex became higher on his friends list than Lana, the girl he’s in love with. Based on how she’s been acting around him lately, she's figured that out as well. But the fact became so clear to him yesterday. When Clark was helping load up the farm onto the truck, he heard that all too familiar voice, Lex.
Clark turned and saw him. He looked a little rough, scraps and sores covered his face. But it was Lex, actually Lex, talking and breathing and smelling like himself. Shock turned into relief, turned into shock, turned into sheer excitement. If there was ever a time Clark would use the word ecstatic for his emotions, it would be then.
He almost told Lex that day. Wanting his best friend to be able to know and understand everything about him. To understand why he didn’t find him. To know the reason of everytime he was acting weird. To know that every time Clark lied to him, it felt worse than anything he’s ever had to do. That he was scared that when Lex did find out, it wouldn’t be because Clark told him, and that everything that made them, well, them would all be ruined in a heartbeat. That Lex would never forgive him, and Clark would never see him again.
That Clark not telling him had nothing to do with trust, because honestly, Clark trusted Lex more than any of his friends. He’d trust him with his life, he has. But every time Clark even has an inkling of wanting to tell him, he hears his parents' voices warning him about every bad thing that could happen. And they’re just so loud.
That Lex would die in some horrible accident before he knew the truth.
Then he almost did. And finding that newspaper, during one of the few moments he wasn’t wearing the red kryptonite, made him grieve harder than he ever had before. Made him almost find the farthest cave he could trap himself in, so he could suffer like he thought he deserved to. Like he still thinks he deserves to.
Clark backs away from Lana, “I’m going to talk to him,” because if he doesn’t do it now he’s going to chicken out.
Lana doesn’t understand, he knows she doesn’t. But neither does Clark, and honestly, he’s okay with that.
When there was love and devotion, but in the end it didn't matter. I loved you and you loved me, or you didn't love me at all, it's all in the past. You hate me and I hate you, let's see who hate best. Even if I need to kill you with the shards of my broken heart.
There was so much love, but I can't tell if you loved me at all. I thought you did, I was sure of it. And now I hate you. Now you hate me. Did you always? I can't tell anymore. And even worse, I still love you. I've never stopped. And nobody understands why I hate you and love you so. They don't understand how I could feel both for one person. I don't even think I know.
Random thought: Mighty Med and Henry Danger crossover fic.
I just thought of it, so I haven't really come up with any headcanons for this, so if anyone can think of any, let me know.
Though, in my brain, Kaziver and Hensper are couples in this universe. Also, do we think Skyler and Charlotte would get along/get together? I kinda think they'd be cute.
I've decided to try and come up with headcanons to make me feel better.
~ Kaziver telling Henry and friends™ how they got their powers and Henry immediately going, "Aw, man! Why couldn't I have found a space rock!?" And flopping in the nearest seat.
(More under cut)
~ Kaz and Henry high-five a lot.
~ Charlotte is tired of the boys™ but finds Skylar interesting
~ Captain Man getting jealous when Henry, Charlotte, Jasper, and Schwoz find Kaziver's powers cool and excitingly ask them questions about them
~ Jasper immediately gets excited when meeting the mm gang, but on the first Kaz & Henry high-five, he gets all jealous and moody
> (to Charlotte) "Why's he high-fiveing him? He usually high-fives me!"
~ Skylar finding Charlotte cute/pretty at first sight
~ Skylar wants to be friends with Charlotte at first sight and does her "trying too hard" method
~ Captain Man constantly showing off his power in his definitely not subtle way.
I just finished The Long Game (I've read no other Game Changer books btw), and the writing reads so much like a fanfic that my brain can't differentiate between canon and what I've read on ao3 for Heated Rivalry
Don't be an idiot! Download and read these Hollanov fics before AO3 goes down tonight or I'll come after you
Hollanov Fics you would read immediately if you trust me and why wouldn't you I have impeccable taste (my favorites in red):
Free Rein by Anonymous - FUCKING READ IT JUST DO. This is the best one I have read so far. Mind the tags.
enforcer by moonlitgarden - some lovely prose on racism...uh...I don't really know how else to put that
clear to a hedgehog by magneticwave - knocked me off my feet with the light touch on smut, wonderful world-building in just one chapter
so close by sweetiejelly - You don't need a lot of words. Big brown eyes will do. Short, but devastating.
The Night Shift by thecouchsofa - a story about slowing down, and we're happy to do it with the fine eye for details
green mark by radialarch - the BEST take on the Vegas suite scene I have read
make much of time by leiascully - I like fics that focus on these two in intimate ways like this
Too ripe not to split by Charlotte_Stant - my favorite The Dildo fic
don't leave me high (don't leave me dry) by emonlispenardstreet - The plot-heaviest of all my recs; balanced in every aspect imo.
grindstone kaleidoscope by TheMalapert - the best time loop fic I've read for...really...any fandom
+Hudcon RPF: Carterhaugh, Ontario by Charlotte_Stant - if I wrote Hudcon RPF it would look something like this