While We Match (Slex)
A quick Slex fic featuring some injury/comfort and fluff! Lex gets hurt while working in the lab and that leaves Slade to play the nagging partner role.
Slade shouldn’t have been shocked to hear the string of grumbles coming from the passenger seat as he drove himself and Lex back home. Given that he’s only got one eye and has to keep it on the road, Slade couldn’t sneak a glance at Lex who was angrily looking out the window. A small paper bag with a pharmacy logo is angrily clutched in Lex’s hand as he scowls. Taking the quick second he has while he brakes for the redlight, Slade turns to look at Lex before he speaks.
“It really isn’t that bad, Lex. The doc said you’ll only have to wear it for about a week so your eye can heal.”
Lex lets an annoyed tongue click out before he actually responds. “It’s not bad, Slade. It’s fucking terrible…”
“Pffft! Calm down, it’s not that big a deal.” Slade has to turn back to the road as he starts driving again but continues. “Besides, this will be a good reason for you to stay home and actually get some rest.”
“I can’t just stay in the apartment all week!” Slamming his fist against the door panel, Lex snaps his head to the side to look at Slade before his borderline tantrum resumes. “ I have way too much work to do! I was supposed to have two meetings with another investment group, meet another batch of developers, and finalize four new weapons but now, on top of every other damn thing I have to do I’ve got a fucking eyepatch on! I can’t see out of my left eye!”
Lex’s auburn hair is more tucked behind his ears than he would normally have it. A black eye patch covers his left eye. Lex isn’t wearing his glasses right now, the thin metal frames are folded and resting in the center console as Slade drives. The white haired man goes to interject but is cut off by Lex’s fairly shrill sounding voice before he can.
“So of course this is absolutely fucking terrible! That quack fucking doctor has the fucking nerve to tell me that I have to stay home and keep this stupid eyepatch on for a damn week…” Lex crosses his arms over his chest while he looks forward, a scowl once again present on his face.
Slade rolls his eye as he comes to another stop before he turns down the street that leads to Lex’s apartment building. “You know I have an eyepatch too ya know? You’re sounding a bit insensitive, Luthor.” Feigning hurt, Slade doesn’t bother hiding his smirk knowing damn well Lex can’t see it.
“Stop acting like I hurt your feelings…” Scowl softening only slightly, it reads more pout than scowl after a while.
“Lex, chill. It’s not the end of the world.” Slade pulls into the parking garage and Lex flinches slightly at the shift in light around him. The overcast day had made it easier for Lex’s still healing eye(s), but the sudden harsh artificial orange glow of the garage lights was a shock.
“F-fuck…” Lex reaches for the sunglasses he got from the doctor’s and quickly puts them on, the now muted light no longer aggravating his sensitive eye.
“I told you to put those on when we got in the car.” Slade chides, his tone a bit harsher than he meant it to.
Lex mumbles under his breath but says nothing loud enough for Slade to hear. The car now parked, Lex waits for Slade to get out first and walk around to his side to collect him. The door makes a familiar click before Slade opens it, Lex’s bag slung over his left shoulder as he waits for Lex to slide out of the passenger seat. Grabbing his glasses and his pain meds from the pharmacist, Lex gets out of the car slower than he normally would. The sunglasses he’s wearing aren’t actually to his prescription so he can’t see all too well.
Lex doesn’t have to say anything, Slade can see the disorientation plain as day on his boss/partner’s face. Slade a little too roughly drapes an arm over Lex’s shoulders and tugs him close as he starts walking, Lex squawking a bit in indignation before he begrudgingly accepts.
“T-thanks…” Lex’s low, barely audible as he casts his head down as they walk, trying to shield his still sensitive visible eye from the abrasive lights.
“Why are you thanking me? You couldn’t see three inches ahead of you right now if your life depended on it. You need me to take the lead…as per usual.” Slade taunts with a soft grin before he presses a quick kiss to the top of Lex’s mildly disheveled hair.
Lex grumbles again, tossing his head to the side quickly to shake off any unwanted affection Slade might offer him right now.
“Knock it off! Now isn’t the time…I’m not in the mood to do anything tonight…”
“Who the fuck said I was!?” Slade jeers, his voice echoing off the concert walls as they near the elevator. “First off, the Doc said you need to take it easy for a few days and fucking rest! No fucking your brains out for…atleast 3 days, which honestly will be hard but I think I can power through it. Maybe.” He pauses briefly for comedic effect before continuing “And second, I want you to rest! Fuck what the damn doctor said! The only reason you even got hurt is because you’re too damn stubborn to let the people you PAY to do all that science shit actually do their fucking jobs!”
“Slade! That wasn’t something I wanted the scientists working on, you know that! That solution was highly classified, emphasis on the WAS considering that all that I had developed blew up in my fucking face…” Lex points at his wounded eye with as much of a glare as he can muster before he finishes. “As is evident by this bullshit!”
Slade rubs the side of Lex’s arm gently, pressing another soft kiss to Lex’s head as the elevator doors close and it starts its ascent.
“I really want you to relax about this, Lex. You just need a few days with the eyepatch and to take those pain meds if you need. The doctor said you won’t have any long term problems, which you’re lucky for by the way you little shit.”
“I know I’m lucky…I’m wildly aware of how bad that whole fiasco could’ve been.”
“Good. So, since you know you’re lucky and you know I’m gonna get on your ass if you even try to leave the apartment and go to work, you’re pert little ass is gonna listen to the doctor— and more importantly me —and fucking rest, right?” A pseudo-commanding tone laces his words as he tilts his head to the side to look down at Lex.
Lex sighs and nods softly, resting his head on Slade’s shoulder gently as they near their apartment. “I wouldn’t have much of a choice anyway would, I?”
“Oh not a fucking chance in hell. You aren’t leaving the apartment till you get my say so.”
Entering their shared apartment, Lex makes his way to the couch before he splays himself out on the furniture as Slade throws Lex’s backpack onto the kitchen table.
“You did bring my laptop from my office, right Slade?” Lex calls from the living room, his eyes closed as he settles onto the couch.
Yes, Slade did bring Lex’s laptop home, but he isn’t about to tell Lex that, not right now. Ignoring the question, Slade goes to the fridge and grabs two drinks, a beer for him and a water bottle for Lex. Shutting the fridge with a soft kick, Slade slips out of the kitchen and sits beside the injured male on the couch. Sitting at the edge, Slade lifts Lex’s legs and plops them over his lap before he takes a sip of his beer.
“Here babe, I got you a water.” Slade says as touches the cold bottle to the small sliver of exposed skin between Lex’s pant hem and the top of his socks that he still hasn’t taken off.
Flinching at the cold, Lex lets a soft chuckle out as he gently kicks away the touch. “Quit it! Aren’t you supposed to be taking care of me, not teasing me?”
A strong hand rubs the lower part of Lex’s leg as Slade brings the beer bottle to his lips and takes another sip before he speaks. “This is me taking care of you. I brought you a drink, didn’t I?” Lex misses it, but Slade does flash the smaller man a quick smirk as he reaches out his hand for the bottle of water Slade just taunted him with.
“I know you said I’m not leaving the apartment, but you can’t stop me from working from home, Slade. I need to be able to contact the department heads at the very least.”
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say bossman. Whatever you say.” Slade dismisses with a wave of his hand.
He doesn’t have the heart to tell the injured man that while Lex was being looked at by the specialists that he went back to the building and threatened everyone of Lex’s direct subordinates that if they tried to contact him while he was home resting, that Slade would personally put each of them in various sized parcels and drop them in dozens of different mailboxes scattered around Metropolis so that their families would have to do jigsaw puzzles if they wanted an open casket funeral… Yeah, he may have gone a little far there but at the moment? It just felt necessary, and truth be told he didn’t really regret it.
“Lex, I really want you to rest. I’ll have the department heads call me if they need to get a hold of you, alright? I don’t think it’s good for your eye to be staring at a laptop screen or your phone for upwards of 10 hours right now.”
Begrudgingly Lex doesn’t argue. Instead he pulls the thin blanket off the back of the couch and throws it over himself, snuggling into the couch after he takes a sip of his water.
“I’m not getting anything better than that, am I?” Lex questions, not expecting the mildly humorous answer Slade gives him.
“Nope. Not while we match.”
“Match?” Lex opens his one eye, despite not wearing his glasses he can still faintly make out a smile on Slade’s face.
“Yeah, we match!” With his fingers still curled around the neck of the beer bottle, Slade points to his right eye — one that’s firstly covered by a black/orange patch then his long white hair—with his thumb before he snickers softly to himself. “And while we match, you’re gonna do what I tell you to, got it?”
A throated chuckle leaves Lex’s lips before he shuts his eye again, tucking the blanket loosely under his chin while cuddling deeper into the couch, smiling softly as he feels Slade’s hand begin rubbing his leg again without being asked. Much like Slade, Lex always feels like he has to have the last word. The excitement and pain of the lab accident and subsequent hospital visit seems to finally be catching up with the injured party, so as Slade turns on the tv and flips through the channels trying to find something Lex wouldn’t have to look at to follow, Lex let’s out a heavy yawn before one last line leaves his lips before he falls asleep.
“Sure, fine…While we match.”