I know it's been a long time since I updated this. Life got in the way. I want to thank each and everyone of you that have followed, favorited or reviewed this story. One great thing about fanfiction is the community. And to my amazing Beta Mrs. Thor Odinson. You always do a great job fixing up my chapters.
Of Twisted Hearts - 3
Chapter 3
Silently sitting across from Bruce Wayne, Lana couldn't help but notice he was handsome. No wonder three of her friends had gone out with the neighboring city billionaire. He turned on his charm and Lana rolled her eyes. Her mind wandered to how Lex had managed to charm her. She felt heat raised to her cheeks. Bruce must have mistook her actions because his smile brightened and he winked at her. He was a tall man at six feet, three inches, broad shoulders, defined chest. His eyes were a light brown, his dark hair, that was styled perfectly showed the first signs of grey at the temples. True, he was handsome. But Lana thought he looked too much like her ex boyfriend Clark Kent. She had gone out with him in high school. Both men were tall, broad, even had a cleft in their chins. The biggest difference Lana could notice was that Bruce had light brown eyes, whereas Clark had blue eyes. She couldn't recall what color eyes Lex had. He was a smaller guy, but in no way less manly. To be honest it was like compare apples to oranges, neither better, just your own taste.
"I am continuing my parents work, Miss Lang," Bruce said, pulling her out of her thoughts.
"And what does that mean for you, Mr. Wayne?" Lana asked.
"I'm trying to fix my broken city. Make it a better place. I give money to the Martha Wayne foundation, which mostly involves a children's hospital and orphanage. I run my father's business, Wayne enterprises. The company works on programs, research, stocks, technology, the works, Miss Lang," Bruce explained.
Lana wrote down his words fast. But her mind kept going back to the beginning of his speech.
"Why are you trying to fix it, Mr. Wayne. I am aware that Gotham is a bit shader then Metropolis. But why not build something better?" Lana asked. Her mind going back to what Lex had said before.
"Don't get me wrong, Miss Lang. I want a better city. I just think working with what I have and adding a few new things is more up my alley then build something new entirely," Bruce explained.
Lana wrote it all down. She didn't know how much she would or wouldn't write in her piece yet. But she thought every word he said was important.
They talked for an hour. About his business, things he was able to share with the public that he was excited about. She looked up at the clock which read six o'clock. She was starving. So she stood up, went to shake Mr. Wayne's hand, but her notebook fell onto the ground. Bruce leaned down and got it for her, it was open to a page. Bruce casually looked down at it.
"I see you already interviewed Lex Lurthor," he remarked.
Lana snatched it from his hands, closed it and held it tightly to her chest.
"I wasn't reading it, I just noticed the name," Bruce clarified.
"Well thank you for returning it, Mr. Wayne," she snapped back.
"Of course," he said in confusion. "Hey it's late, would you like to join me for dinner?" he asked politely.
"Thank you, Mr. Wayne. But I already have plans," she lied.
"Oh okay," he replied quickly. "Another time maybe," he suggested.
"Maybe," Lana said with a tight lipped smile.
They shook each other's hands and he saw her to the door of his office. As Lana made her way to the elevator she thought of how she had acted when he picked up her notebook. She thought she shouldn't have snapped at him. But he in turn shouldn't have been noisy about her business. As the elevator made it's way to the level floor she thought of how different Lex Luthor and Bruce Wayne were. Not only did they look entirely different, they also seemed to have different points of view on how to run their companies.
Bruce seemed to want to build upon and fix the company that was left to him. Whereas, Lex wanted to build something new. He wanted to take the old company he had and make something new. She saw that both sides had their own points and made sense. To her though, Lex's idea of the future of his company sounded better and more world changing then Bruce's fixing what you had. Strange, two billionaires, two different ways of thinking.
#
Lana sat down at her computer as soon as she finished eating two slices of pepperoni pizza. She sat comfortably in her black computer chair and placed her hands on the keys. She wrote out most of what she had written. Letting the words flow out of her. She looked over at the finished work, saved it and shut off her computer. Tomorrow she would take another look at it before she sent it to Perry. Lana got up from the computer seat and went to go get dressed for bed and watch an episode of Full House.
As she pulled on her PJs she saw in her full length mirror the scar that was on the side of her stomach. One of her battle scars, she thought to herself as she thought of the man who had put it there, her birth father. She winced at the memory. It hardly showed now after getting it at age seven. The reason she never let anyone in. The reason ultimately her and Clark had broken up. She was too broken to be with someone like Clark. He was too trusting, too naïve. She was kind of jealous of how he looked at the world. Everyone was good enough to change in his book. She wonder if after all these years his look on life had changed, she doubted it.
Lana's thoughts wander to Lex yet again. She wondered what he was doing at the moment. Did he have a girlfriend? Someone he was interested in? 'Why are you thinking that, Lana?' she berated herself. It wasn't like their was anything going on with Lex and her. Well, maybe there was. But she didn't expect to have him ask her out anytime soon. Or that she would even agree to it, yet.
#
A week after the piece was published. Lana pulled out a business card, but not just any business card it had the number of a very important person of Metropolis, Lex Luthor. However the fact that he was important wasn't why she dialed the number. To be perfectly honest she wanted to see him again. And when he had offered her a tour of LexCrop she had been excited.
Well now she was free. True it was a Saturday and Lex was probably busy, but this was her day off. If he couldn't do it then she would make other plans. She thought as she dialed the number.
Her hands started to shake. "Hello," she heard Lex's voice answer.
"Hi, Lex. This is Lana," Lana replied.
"Oh, Lana. I'm glad to hear from you," Lex replied eagerly.
"I was thinking of taking you up on that offer of touring LexCrop," Lana explained.
"I'm glad to hear it. When would you like to come? I'm free today if that helps?" Lex asked.
Lana can't help the smile spreading across her face. "That's perfect," she said excitedly.
"Really? I hope it doesn't interfere with your work," he said considerately.
"I have the day off. So no problems there," she explained.
"Great! Would three o'clock work for you?" Lex asked.
"Yes that would work," she replied.
"Good, good. I'll see you then," Lex said.
"See you then, bye," Lana said as a farewell.
"Bye," Lex sighed out.
Lana shut her flip phone and smiled wide. She was getting to go to LexCrop and was being given a tour by the CEO himself. Though there was a part of her that thought she would want to see Lex even if he wasn't CEO of LexCrop.
#
The taxi drive up to the gate. Lana told them her name and they said she was expected. Lana smiled to know that he had let his staff know about her coming. Though she was sure he did that with everyone.
Lex was standing right in front of the doors as she came in. "Hello, Lana," he greeted as he shook her hand.
"Pleasure to see you again, Lex," Lana replied.
"The pleasure is all mine, Lana. I'm so very glad you could make it today," Lex said.
"I am glad I could come as well," Lana replied with a blush.
A blush that didn't go unnoticed by Lex. He smiled back. He wasn't use to making young ladies blush. That was more of a Bruce Wayne thing. He was more of the one girl kind of guy. And ever since college he hadn't really had any serious relationships. He couldn't help but be happy at the fact that he could so easily make her blush.
"Well," he said clapping his hands together. "Follow me, I'll show you around," he said walking slowly.
She slowly caught up to him because he let her stand beside him. He wanted her next to him for this, not behind, he thought. 'But surely it's too soon to think things like this, isn't?' Lex thought as she walked beside him. When he looked over at her she was already looking at him in concern. He offered her a smile and she seemed to be less tense from the action. A small part of his brain wondered why she cared about if he was okay or not. The other parted hoped.
"I read your piece, Lana. I really enjoyed it," Lex praised.
"I'm so glad," Lana replied.
"Clearly I would have liked if you had just chosen LexCrop instead of Wayne enterprises. But I liked the fact that you weren't one sided. You gave all the facts and let the reader decided what he/she would prefer. I admire the way you write, Lana. I think you have a true talent," Lex complemented.
"Just doing my job," Lana replied with a cheeky grin.
"You say that, but I don't think your future is just as a journalist. I think you're the kind of person who wants to write novels. One that everyone in their right mind will want to read," Lex remarked.
Lana's mouth dropped and she couldn't say a word. How could this man know that she wanted to write a novel? She liked the fact he could figure that out about her. But there was this part of her brain that warned against it. It was the cynic part of her brain warning her to trust anyone. Looking at him he smiled. The seconds pass in silence and she noticed him grow nervous. "How did you know that I want to be a novelist?" she asked him in wonder.
"I don't know... you just strike me as the kind of person it takes to write a wonderful novel. Blunt, honest and great with words," he explained. "Don't get me wrong many people can write. But I think that it takes someone, with a way with words to write something like a novel," Lex clarified.
Again Lana was left speechless with Lex smiling at her. The cynic still warned against him, while another liked the fact that he could already understand that about her. She offered him an unsure smile, which he returned. And they kept walked side by side.
The front of the build was pretty plain and hardly had anything in it.
"This is the front. I know it's boring. One of these days I need to fix it. I'm not sure how but I do," Lex explained.
Lana chuckled at his remarks. "It looks big enough from a basketball court," Lana remarked.
Lex's eyes light up, "That's a good idea."
Then they walked to a room where they seemed to be working on armor suits and different guns.
"This is were me and my researchers work on different kinds of metal. I know it looks like we are only working on weapons, but we have plenty more ideas then just on those."
Lana smiled and looked closely at the figures that worked in the room. He surprised her by walk into the room. They kept away from the giant fire pit but other then that, she had a clear view on what they were working on.
They moved on to another part of the lab. Next was a large room with different liquids in different vials.
"This is where my researchers do chemistry," Lex simply explained.
Lana laughed at how blunt he was. "I see you don't sugar coat it, Lex," Lana remarked.
"Not things like this," he replied with a smirk.
This time they weren't as close to the tables. Not that Lana minded. She didn't really want to explode before her twenty-fifth birthday. She was twenty-four years old and she was looking forward to dying when she got old.
Room after room. Lana noticed amazing different inventions. The technology was impressive to Lana. Finally they made it to a room in which they tested the prototypes.
"And this, My Dear. Is where we play with our different toys," Lex joked.
Lana laughed and smiled at him. He smiled back, but then his face seem to turn a little dark.
"So what did you think of the enemy?" he asked.
Lana couldn't help but look at him in confusion. "What?" she asked.
"I was joking," Lex clarified with a humorless chuckle. "I meant Bruce Wayne. What did you think of him?"
"He was friendly and nice, I suppose," Lana replied.
Lex laughed, "Are you saying you don't think he is charming?"
"I suppose he was charming. To be honest, I'm not sure what's the big deal with him," Lana replied honestly.
Lex out right laughed again. "You are probably the first woman I've ever heard say that," he remarked after his laughter had ended.
"Well I'm not like most woman, Mr. Luthor," Lana replied coyly.
"I know, Miss Lang. That's why I find you so refreshing," Lex remarked.
Lex looked right into her eyes and was surprise how beautiful they were. Big, hazel eyes of brown and green. They went very well with the color of her hair. Or at least he thought so. She was a truly lovely woman. Petite, dark hair, hazel eyes, and her lips were bright red. He looked down at them longingly, wondering what they tasted like. Wait? He stopped himself. It was too early for thoughts like that. But that didn't stop him from biting his own lips at the thought.
Lana looked straight into Lex's eyes and was surprised to be met with blue eyes. Beautiful, bright, blue eyes. Lex was taller than her at five foot, nine inches. He was slender, had short, red, wavy hair. Lana thought he was very handsome. True he wasn't Bruce Wayne, but he sure cleaned up nice in a suit. Her eyes flickered down to his mouth. He had bow lips and Lana couldn't help but wonder if she would enjoy kissing him. Wait a minute, the cynic part of her brain shouted. Why was she thinking things like that? Her and Lex weren't even dating. She couldn't help but wonder if they ever would. He was after all a billionaire. And she knew she wasn't really the billionaire type. Though she didn't think Lex was the kind of guy who could ever be put into a box. He was just too different and brilliant to do that. No she probably wouldn't end up dating Lex Luthor. But that didn't stop the fact that she bite down hard on her lip thinking about maybe kissing him.
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