Omiai

Fanfiction
Title:	Omiai
Author(s):	rose_emily
Date(s):	February - April 2004
Length:	104,000 words
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Smallville
Relationship(s):
External Links:	Omiai
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Omiai is a Clark/Lex story by rose_emily. It was originally posted as a work in progress on LiveJournal from February to April 2004.

Summary (from Delicious): Marriage of convenience. To prevent his folks from taking out another loan to pay for his education, Clark accepts a scholarship from LexCorp, with an unusual condition- he is to marry its CEO in secret so that he can access a fund set up by his mother.

Reactions and Reviews

So the premise is a cliche: Lex needs to get married for a year to get access to his inheritance from his mother and Clark agrees to go along with the subterfuge in exchange for a college scholarship. The backstory is also different from canon: Lex never lived in Smallville, so he and Clark had never met before; Clark and Chloe dated for a couple of years in high school; Lucas has replaced Lex as Lionel's favorite son; and Lana Lang's role is reducted to a single line wherein she thinks Clark's name is Cliff (heh). Still, the story itself is well written, and I'll forgive a lot when it results in 600 K of marriage-of-convenience goodness. Plus, the altered backstory really works well with the plot and, frankly, makes a hell of a lot more sense than canon (not that that is saying much -- who else thinks the first two seasons of Smallville were the only ones worth watching?) The best part of this story is the characterization of Lex: rose_emily nailed his arrogance, his uncertainty, his mercurial moods, and his desperate desire to do good while holding back the darkness in his soul. Clark is also well done: goofy, dorky, earnest and yet not at all stupid (hello, canon? You should be taking notes) and his relationships with Pete and Chloe are excellent, especially as they change as the characters grow up in their first year of college. The attraction between Lex and Clark develops in a beautifully organic and understated manner, and all of the conflicts thrown in their way never seem forced. Actually, considering the strange Clark/Superman/Lex/Luthor dynamic, these issues (mostly centered around trust) are inevitable. Thus, the glory of Smallville fanfic. Enjoy!

This is an alternate universe story that has Clark and Lex not meeting until Clark goes to college. Clark is having a hard time find money to go to college until he applies for the Lexcorp scholarship. Well, the scholarship doesn't come without conditions. Lex wants Clark to enter into a sham marriage with him so that Lex can get an inheritance from his mother to help his failing company. (Same-sex marriages are legal in this universe.) All Clark and Lex have to do is live together to keep up appearances, keep the marriage quiet, and stay married for a year. Seems simple enough. This story starts off sounding like every cliche' fic of this type out there. They guys start out strangers, become friends, and then fall in love. Which they do, but there is a dark secret lying beneath it all that makes it that much richer. That sort of sneaks up on you and stuns you even though there had been clues to it all along. Lex is still very much the Lex from canon despite all appearances. This is a really long fic so plan to have a lot of free time handy when you go to read it, you won't want to "put it down" so to speak. It's wonderfully rich and well told, all those lovely secrets unfolding naturally.

I love this story so! Celery salt and Elijah Wood and Clark and Lex and just, yes. So much yes.

I don't really read this pairing. Nor do I watch the show. So I guess I can't really speak for characterization and realism. But what I can vouch for is the sheer enjoyability of this piece. It is SO LONG, but still a fairly quick read because it's not that emotionally-heavy. It's mostly just fluff. :) And that is totally fine by me. A great way to spend a few hours! God, that sounds bad. This fic is really very good! It's a fantastic feel-good story, shameless in what it wants to be. (Which is to say, marriage of convenience fic.)