Summary: For the LJ Icon Challenge.

Warnings: Rated R for violence. m/m.

Notes: This is from a challenge that was floating around LJ. People picked one of my icons, and I wrote a short little story about it.

The absence of fear, Lex is surprised to find, feels very much like the absence of gravity, weightless, empty.

When the Yakuza came for him, he'd been leaden with terror. The first day, they'd used intimidation, the next garden-variety torture. The third day, they took his hand to show him they meant business. It wasn't until the fourth day that he could finally convince them who really had their money.

Since his miraculous "escape," his father has been to see him a good half dozen times. He always wants to know the same thing.

"You never said how you managed your release."

Lex always shrugs. "Sometimes the tables just turn in your favor."

His father nods, but his fear is as ponderous as a dark star. When Clark arrives for his daily visit, Lionel makes his excuses and leaves.

Clark frowns at the suddenness of his departure. "Is everything okay between you and your dad?"

"It will be soon," Lex says in a dead voice.

If he feels anything at all, it is simply satisfaction.

For the first time that Lex can remember, Clark actually looks afraid.