Lois's heels clicked ominously on the marble floor as she approached the main reception desk of the LexCorp building. "I'm here to see Lex Luthor," she said to the polite, but bland, women behind the counter.

"Did you have an appointment?"

"Just tell him that Lois Lane is here to talk to him, for personal reasons. He'll see me," said Lois, smiling. Things always went smoother when you played nice with the little people.

The receptionist looked at her skeptically, but picked up her phone and called. After she had hung up, she smiled brightly at Lois and told her, "You can go on up. The elevators are right over that way." Lois nodded at her and then walked off in the direction indicated.

Unlike the lobby of the building, the floor Luthor's office was on had wall-to-wall carpeting, which muffled the sound of Lois's shoes. Oh well, she didn't actually need any accessories to be intimidating, even if they had been a nice touch.

Rounding the corner, Lois was greeted by a sour look from a positively Amazonian blonde woman lounging by the door to the office and a professional one from Luthor's pocket-sized secretary. "You can go ahead in Ms. Lane; Mr. Luthor is expecting you." Lois flashed the secretary a slightly too sweet smile – she didn't trust anyone who worked that close to Luthor – the bodyguard a glare, and stalked her way into Luthor's office.

"Ms. Lane, what an unexpected surprise," Luthor said, dripping with courteousness. It made Lois shudder, like slime across her skin.

"Cut the act Luthor. We both know I don't like you, and you don't like me," Lois said.

Luthor relaxed his expression from the overly polite one he had when she walked in, to something of a more neutral distaste. Which was good, because the other one had quite frankly been creeping her out. "What do you want, Lane?"

"I hear Clark and Conner are moving in with you."

"Yes," Luthor said. "But I really don't see how that's any of your business."

"You're right," Lois agreed and Luthor, almost imperceptibly, started. Lois preened inwardly; catching Luthor off-guard was always an accomplishment. "Clark's a grown man capable of making his own decisions and mistakes, blah, blah, blah."

"And you think this is a mistake," Luthor surmised.

"Honestly? I don't trust you. At all," Lois told him. "But Clark trusts you, and I trust Clark, so I figure there's at least the slightest chance that you might not be a total immoral megalomaniac."

"Your faith in me is touching," Luthor said dryly.

"More importantly," Lois continued, completely ignoring Luthor, "you make Clark happy. And Conner." Lois may not be ready for children for another five or ten years, at least, and she may not always be able to completely suppress the instinctive fear and anger that wanted to well up when she saw Conner – despite the fact that she knew it was unfair and unwarranted – but he was a good kid. And all kids, good or otherwise, deserved to have parents who were there and looked out for them. (Parents, with an s, because while Lois didn't think Clark had figured out what was going on in his head just yet, she was neither blind nor stupid.) "So if this is what they want to do, I'm not going to try and stop them."

Lois slammed her hands down on Luthor's desk and leaned in close. "But know this. Even though Clark and I are over" – it had broken her heart to do it, even if it had been necessary, but she had worked through her five stages of grief and six pints of mint chocolate chip and this moth was ready to find herself a new flame – "I still care about him. So if you hurt him, or the kid, I will hurt you. And if you decide to use them to restart your old favorite pastime of running fucked up experiments on live people, they will never find your body. Do you understand me?"

"Perfectly." Luthor posture was still completely relaxed, but in his eyes there was a glint of… something that definitely wasn't rage or anything in the vengeance family, and that was all Lois needed to know her message had gotten through.

"Good," Lois said, standing up straight and brushing herself off. "I'm glad we had this little chat."

Luthor made a noncommittal noise. "At the very least," he said, "it's good to know that, despite all that's happened, you're still looking out for the two of them." And dammed if he didn't seem like he meant it. Maybe Clark knew what he was talking about after all. "Now, if you're finished, please leave."

But then again, probably not.

Sequel is "(We Are) More Than You Think You Are" (Story ID: 8785323)