[There's hardly time to take in a breath before he finds himself blurting out,] He's still in high school. [But he'd met the bull of a man Clark was going to become some day-- or. Well. Not met, formally, but through this... network. And he'd been told his friend would marry and. He just hadn't been given a name and she.]

[It's like hours gone to waste when all the Clark he remembers would do is pine and long with Lana.]

[And maybe Lex wishes he could take back what he'd spat out earlier-- and no wonder she laughed at him, and there's this... shadow of meekness come over him, of embarrassed apology, and it's anybody's guess if it's genuine. He'll say it's not to save face, or to be honest. The woman's gorgeous-- who'd have thought. It's really too much for one day.]

[And Lex has to wonder, even now. Why the tension, the circling around? He swallows. Everything about this was uncomfortable, and he'd tried so hard to be happy for his friend.]

Forgive me for speculating, but it may still be a few years before he meets you at all.

[She's from Metropolis. Clark has no business there, and besides. There's Lana and Chloe before her, so far as Lex knows.]

Or. My "world" could blindside us both and spring its own surprises.