BIRTHDAY GIRL
by Christie 


Email: tinamishi@yahoo.com
Genre: Smallville; Lana/Lex
Rating: PG
Summary: Lex gives Lana her birthday present.
Spoilers: Craving, X-Ray
Improv: #3 plastic, calendar, gloss, end
Disclaimer: Alfred Gough and Miles Millar created Smallville, the 
WB, DC and other corporate entities own the rights. No profit 
made.
Distribution: List archives. Envision. Else people, ask.
01/22/02 

*

There were cups scattered about the floor. Those small, clear 
plastic cups that stood in columns next to punch bowls and always 
looked like they were about to topple over at any moment. They 
were now on the floor. Some with remnants of red liquid still 
inside. That annoyed Lana.

Who would leave a cup on the floor in a house like this? The 
ornate rugs were probably worth more than her aunt's house, 
property and flower shop all rolled into one. The gleaming gold 
threads she could see woven through the intricate pattern was 
probably real gold.

Why would anyone drop a cup as if they were outside at a football 
game? And not just anyone, Lana counted fifteen cups. Fifteen 
different someones who had no idea how to behave inside an actual 
castle.

She was sprawled out on the sofa, her new blue party dress 
wrinkled and probably stained beyond even the best dry-cleaners 
capabilities. Miles Johnson had spilled punch on her. That was 
very early on. Clark hadn't shown up, and the evening had gotten 
progressively worse.

"I bet you're thinking you're glad you only turn sixteen once."

The voice was familiar, low in octave and quiet, even in the 
silence of the room. She could hear her aunt in the kitchen, 
chatting with Lex's enormous but never seen staff, probably 
helping them clean up. But it was still quiet; quiet enough 
anyway, in the big room with the ornate rugs and fifteen punch 
glasses scattered around.

Not to mention the napkins. The cups weren't alone. There were 
napkins too.

Lex walked through the mess as if he hadn't even noticed it. He 
navigated a space on the sofa next to her and sat down.

"You look exhausted."

Lana smiled, lifted a heavy arm to push renegade tendrils out of 
her face. "Next time my aunt tries to plan a party at your place, 
do me a favor and tell her to shove off."

A crooked, barely-there smile twisted his lips, and Lex raised 
his eyebrows in surprise. He chuckled low in his throat and 
stood, moving toward a cherry wood armoire and keying the lock.

"I'm a little disappointed to hear the birthday girl talking like 
that," he scolded, pulling open the intricately engraved door and 
reaching inside. He looked back at her as he pulled something out 
and smiled. "I'm thinking you need another present to cheer you 
up."

The box was wrapped in silver paper, every edge perfectly 
creased, not a piece of scotch tape in sight. Lana wondered who 
in the world knew how to wrap with double-sided tape so that 
there was nothing visible on the outside? Not that it surprised 
her that if there was one person in the world that could do that, 
Lex Luthor had him or her at his disposal. The bow on top was 
purple, complete with those little curly ribbons spilling out the 
sides and over the edge of the box.

Once the astonishment at the beauty of the wrapping subsided, 
shock settled in that Lex had bought her a gift. She turned her 
eyes up to him and blinked. "You bought me something?"

He tilted his head down toward the box with a 'where have you 
been since I pulled this out of the armoire' look. She smiled at 
him, took his hand when he held it out to her and allowed him to 
help her off the couch.

"Where are we going?"

"Back outside to the balcony," Lex told her, offering no other 
explanation and pulling her through the immense ballroom toward 
the French double doors that led outside.

It was the kind of night where people went out for ice cream and 
strolled along the shop fronts downtown and boys played football 
at the lakeside until well after dark. The summer kind of night 
that came unexpectedly when the calendar said it was late fall, 
and reminded everyone that the bitter cold of winter didn't last 
forever and the warm days would be back, in time.

Lana smiled up at the moon, the stars, thanking them for the 
warmest night of early winter coming on her birthday. She stepped 
up to the stone wall, braced her palms on it and leaned outward, 
breathing in the air.

Hay and corn and something sweet, all mixed in and made this 
place Smallville. She felt Lex come up behind her, heard his 
shoes scrape against the ground and stop, just inches back and to 
her left. She could smell him too; equal parts soap and brandy, 
and it really was kind of pleasant, standing there, experiencing 
the moment.

Finally, Lex lifted the box, Lana saw it glint out of the corner 
of her eye and she turned around, resisting the urge to grab for 
it and rip the best wrapping job in the history of wrapping jobs 
to shreds. The kid in her wanted to do that -- finding out what 
in the world would Lex Luthor buy her for her sixteenth birthday 
was the kind of curiosity that had to be satisfied if the chance 
ever arose.

But she demurred, taking the present when he offered it and 
sitting down with it, sliding her fingers over the wrapping, 
fingering the little curlies around the bow and, just once, 
holding it up to her ear and shaking it.

It sounded heavy, muted thunk-thunk against the sides of the box.

"I can't believe you got me a present."

Lex shrugged and, looking up at him now, Lana noticed he looked 
almost ethereal, silhouetted in the pale glow of the moonlight. 
It made him seem farther away, but closer, exotic, but ordinary.

"Are you going to open it or just look at the wrapping?"

When Lex spoke, his eyes darkened. Lana had noticed it a while 
back, but had never ceased to be amazed at the hundreds of subtly 
different shades of blues his eyes took on depending on his mood.

"I've never seen a gift wrapped so perfectly," she finally said, 
turning it over to inspect the back. Surely there was a flaw 
somewhere.

There wasn't.

"I wrapped it myself."

To say that Lex Luthor was full of surprises was two things: an 
understatement, and a widely known fact. That Lex Luthor not only 
knew how to wrap a gift but how to do it perfectly, precisely and 
with double-sided tape was something Lana was willing to bet was 
known by few, if any.

It was like one of those little get-to-know-you games they played 
on the first day of summer camp. Tell three things about yourself 
and everyone has to guess which one is not true.

The castle I live in was brought over from Scotland, stone by 
stone, I've never lost a game of baccarat, I can wrap a gift 
perfectly.

The entire population of the world would bypass the baccarat, no 
matter how implausible it sounded, and go for the gift, every 
single time.

"I cannot believe you wrapped this."

Lex slipped his hands in his pockets and pushed off the wall; no 
relaxing when on the defensive.

"I can do some things on my own, Lana."

She reached out and touched his arm. "I didn't mean it like that. 
I meant -- it's perfect."

"Doesn't everyone use a ruler, a t-square and double-sided tape?" 
Lex asked. He was smiling now, and Lana could have sworn the moon 
glossed over -- three shades brighter.

She smiled back, and finally began tearing the paper apart on one 
end. She wasn't usually one of the careful present-openers. That 
was Aunt Nell. Aunt Nell had saved every piece of wrapping paper 
-- including the December 23, 1990 Sunday comics -- that Lana had 
ever wrapped a gift in.

Tearing presents open was really more her style. Nell argued 
about how much time went into wrapping gifts and that they really 
should take more than a few seconds to open. Lana figured it was 
what was inside that counted -- that's why it was the gift -- and 
the wrapping was just a clever way to say surprise!

Plus, at three bucks a roll, it was a marketers dream, even if it 
was just a means to an end.

Lex, she learned, was the tear off the wrapping kind. He got so 
impatient watching her carefully peel the paper back that he 
finally reached over and gave one edge a tug.

A plain white box, like a clothes box, was on her lap once the 
shiny silver paper and purple bow with the curly ribbon were on 
the ground. It was heavy though -- not clothes -- and Lana was 
glad.

Lex had great taste -- expensive taste -- but she still wouldn't 
trust him to pick out her outfit. Handmade Italian leather boots, 
maybe. But she was pretty sure that's not what it was either.

As she went to lift the lid, Lex put a hand on her arm to stop 
her. He knelt down near where she was sitting and looked straight 
into her eyes. It was weird seeing Lex kneel on the ground, and 
she wanted to remind him that he was wearing expensive pants, and 
maybe he should get up. But he stayed there, looked at her 
seriously, so she stayed quiet.

"If you don't want it -- for any reason -- just let me know, 
okay? It won't be any big deal, you won't even have to say why."

Lana furrowed her brow, more curious than ever at what was 
inside. He seemed so serious, like he was delivering the world, 
not a birthday present.

Inside the box, nestled in white tissue paper, was the most 
beautiful photo album Lana had ever seen. It was deep red 
leather, almost wine colored, a frame on the front edged in 
silver and a thin silk ribbon that matched the book to tie it 
shut. The photo in the frame was of a man and a woman, smiling at 
each other on their wedding day.

Lana's fingers trembled as she traced the slender line of the 
woman's face, followed the dark flow of her hair down the photo 
and across the incredible dress and it's train that seemed to go 
on forever until it finally edged out of the picture. She knew 
that woman. Knew the picture intimately because it was the same 
one Nell kept on top of the piano in the living room. It was the 
only picture -- her mom and dad on their wedding day.

Except this copy was more clear, it's color sharper, edges 
cleaner. She looked up at Lex, eyes brimming with tears.

"How did you...?"

He moved her hand gently from the edge of the album, pulled at 
the red silk ribbon that held the book shut. "There's more," he 
said, letting it fall open to the first page.

There were indeed more, 30 in all, and Lana looked at every 
single picture, studying it, memorizing it, then turned back to 
the front and started again. She got through the entire album 
three times before tears had blurred her vision too much to see.

She closed the book and looked at Lex, laughed a little at the 
handkerchief he held out to her and used it to wipe her eyes.

"This is the most amazing thing anyone's ever given me," she told 
him, leaning down and putting her arms around his neck.

It was an awkward hug, with her sitting and him kneeling, but it 
didn't matter to her because she could think of no other way to 
express her gratitude.

"Thank you," she whispered in his ear, feeling like those were 
the smallest words on the planet and would no way let him know 
how huge this gift was.

The album spanned over seven years of her parents lives. Their 
wedding, their first tiny apartment, then the house on the day 
they brought Lana home from the hospital. Her baptism, first 
steps, first day of preschool. Every picture restored to near 
perfection.

Most of them, Lana had never seen.

When she pulled away, Lex's expression was somewhere between 
embarrassed and concerned. He took the album from her lap, 
settled it back in its box and placed it on the ground, pulling 
himself upright and taking the seat next to her.

"You okay?"

Okay in the sense that she had just received the most meaningful 
gift of her lifetime, sure.

"Yeah." She sniffled a little, then turned toward him smiling. 
"I'm great. This is -- I can't even describe how much it means to 
me."

Lex smiled. "I'm glad."

"How did you get those pictures?"

A long moment of silence settled between them, and Lana used the 
time to listen to what midnight sounded like in Smallville. 
Somewhere inside the castle, a clock chimed only once. Lana 
revised, figuring it had been a long time since she'd listened to 
what 1 a.m. sounded like in Smallville.

The trees rustled in the slight breeze, and leaves trundled 
across the ground near the dark space beyond the edge of the 
balcony that Lana knew was Luthor Lake.

When Lex finally spoke, he prefaced words with clearing his 
throat and when Lana looked at him, he kept his eyes focused out 
in the heavens.

"Nell has a few boxes stored here. They were in one of them so I 
asked her about them. She said she didn't want you to find them 
until you were older."

Unbidden, a surge of anger rocketed through Lana, starting at her 
stomach and ending with a buzzing in her brain. It was the same 
with her mom's diary and graduation speech. "Aunt Nell's never 
going to think I'm old enough to handle anything."

There was an edge to her voice, she knew, an edge that she rarely 
let anyone hear, even Aunt Nell. She felt Lex's eyes rest on her, 
at the same time he lifted one hand and covered hers where it lay 
between them.

"She told me I could do this for you," he said, keeping his gaze 
steady. It made her heart thump just a little harder, and she 
tried not to think about it too much. "I asked if I could restore 
them and put them in an album for you. She said I could -- and 
you could have it on your sixteenth birthday. That's partly why I 
offered to have your party here. As kind of a thank you."

The thumping in her chest grew louder and rumbled in her ears, 
and Lana briefly wondered, as she leaned closer to Lex, if he 
could hear it. She slanted her lips over his, barring any 
rational thought from her mind, at least for this one, tiny 
little moment. It was 1 a.m. in Smallville, and she decided 
things didn't count right now.

If Lex was surprised at her advance, he didn't show it, and 
relaxed into the kiss as her tongue quested into his mouth. He 
tasted like the brandy she'd expected, but also like chocolate, 
and possibly mint. His lips were softer than they looked, which 
was pretty damn soft, and he let her be the aggressor, all around 
shattering every stereotype she'd had comfortably in place 
concerning this man.

It wasn't the sweet, hay scented breeze that floated past them, 
or the sudden call of a night bird to its mate, but the sound of 
her aunt, still chattering as if it wasn't one o'clock in the 
morning, that forced Lana to pull away.

Lex only smiled, looking contented and a little cocky, as if 
just-turned-sixteen-year-old girls kissed him like that on a 
regular basis.

For all she knew, they did.

Lana smiled back, squeezed the hand that still held hers and 
finally let go. She stood, stooped to retrieve the box that held 
her newly most treasured possession, and walked to the doors that 
led back into the mansion. When she turned to look back, Lex was 
still sitting there, eyes trained on her, looking peaceful and 
otherworldly in the dim moonlight.

She pulled the doors open, loathe to leave him, but heard her 
aunt already starting to lecture her about how late it was. Just 
before stepping inside, she told him, low under her breath so 
only he could hear, "that was just kind of a thank you."

-end-