Following their first meeting after Clark saved Lex from drowning, the two quickly formed a surprising but generally close friendship, Clark believing that Lex could be a good person despite his father's own history while Lex saw in Clark a friend who could be trusted to just be his friend without any agenda behind it. Although Lex occasionally carried out secret investigations into Clark's abilities, his investigations were often halted or delayed after he witnessed Clark suffering from all-too-human weaknesses during periods when Clark had either lost his powers or being overwhelmed by particularly powerful meteor freaks.