Depended on the story. Some had him waiting until Clark had whatever the magic age of consent birthday was (16? 18? I seem to recall 16). Some had him getting seduced by Clark (the alien made me do it, officer!) and some had him swept away by desireTM.

All true (and I remember a lot of people doing frantic research to justify what they were gonna do anyway before saying "Oh, PHEW, the age of consent is 16...") But even in the stories that did worry about the underage thing, the vibe was definitely mature-for-an-adolescent/barely adult -- just brushing up on both sides of the line, rather than grownup/kid.

I think I've kept my memories of the good stuff and ignored everything else.

Obviously I have to check out the Clex fic.

woo hoo nubile hairless boy-body.

From the (relatively small number of) stories I've read, I'd say that most of the nubile hairless bodies were Lex's, no matter how many times people are reminded that he still has eyebrows and thus probably other body hair.

I'd say that most of the nubile hairless bodies were Lex's,

Mm-hm. I remember one story (not the author or the title or anything that would let me find it) where Lex remembered a long, annoying (to him, the plot point was pretty well integrated IIRC) procedure of getting hair implants for his eyebrows and lashes. Which went a lot further in explaining the whole hairless except for brows/lashes thing than the show has done.

no matter how many times people are reminded that he still has eyebrows and thus probably other body hair.

They make that poor guy get waxed at least twice a season, for his Designated Shirtless Events. I suspect he's actually quite hairy, and it's too incongruous for a bald guy to be hairy everywhere else (80% of the bald guys I know notwithstanding), so out comes the hot wax.

All things considered, one has to look at the setup of the Smallville show, and guess that they created the Lex character as a 21 year old (rather than, say, making him 25, or 30) for the express purpose of decreasing the creepy-factor in his being excessively social and/or intimate with high school students.

it's too incongruous for a bald guy to be hairy everywhere else (80% of the bald guys I know notwithstanding

Well, if you're bald for traditional reasons, it's weird. But he's bald for reasons that seem to make sense for it to be all his hair, and it's meta that gives him eyebrows and eyelashes.

Most of the guys on TV are waxing their chests anyway.

But he's bald for reasons that seem to make sense for it to be all his hair, and it's meta that gives him eyebrows and eyelashes.

This is logical, but I think the logic is dictated by "what looks right/wrong" in this case (probably, as in most cases).

I blame David Hasselhoff for the spate of male body wax. On Baywatch, he was the only guy allowed to be hairy, and after all, who wants to look like David Hasselhoff? But, ow. Talk about suffering for art.

The Lex/Clark stuff never bothered me. Partly because I would always forget how young Clark was supposed to be. Tom Welling just looks too much like his age.

It was the Lex/Lionel stories that squicked me out the most.

I should not be surprised that people write Lex/Lionel, yet somehow I still am.