"Jesus Christ, put some clothes on!"

Claire stepped out of her room to see Barry and Iris dressed to go out as well, but she clearly felt uncomfortable with her own attire - a short, tight silver dress that dipped low in the back, exposing enough skin so that the ends of her long hair brushed the curve of her spine. Barry wrinkled his nose slightly at the sight of her. He'd come to see Claire as a very good friend, practically an older sister, and as he put it when they were at the same events, no one wanted to see their older sister with her chichis showing.

"I'm going to a club, I'm not gonna wear a potato sack and a veil," Claire said, rolling her eyes. "Where are you two off to?"

"We're going to a club too!" Iris said with a grin, swiping something off of the kitchen counter and holding it out in Claire's direction - Claire tensed slightly when she realized that Iris was showing her a flyer for Club Desaad as well. After sharing a brief glance with Barry, communicating with a brief jolt of her eyebrows that she didn't think this was the best of ideas, Claire was able to regain her composure.

"She really wanted to go - supposed to be all the rage," Barry said with a slight roll of his eyes, snaking an arm comfortably around Iris's waist. "I know, I know. New place, really trendy, gonna be crazy - we'll be fine, she's got me!"

"Well," Claire said apprehensively, unable to come out and simply say that there was something unusual about the event for fear of Iris learning something she shouldn't have. It was only the first night, Claire convinced herself. Surely the illustrious Mister Desaad wouldn't try anything too big right out of the gate. "I'll be there too -"

Before Claire could finish her statement, there was a knock on the door, and she flinched in realization - she hadn't specifically mentioned to Lex not to come upstairs, and she that more than anything, Lex Luthor never bypassed the opportunity to make a point. Clenching her teeth briefly before excusing herself to the door, she inhaled and exhaled deeply before opening the door and seeing Lex leaning with his forearm on the outer edge of the doorjamb.

"Impressive," he said with a smirk, looking Claire up and down and relishing the blush that quickly flooded her cheeks. "Can I come in?"

Lex strode in past her without waiting for her answer and placed his hands on his hips when he caught sight of Barry and Iris. "Mister Luthor," Barry said with a snicker, cocking his head to one side. "Funny seeing you again, isn't it? Been a while."

"Ah, right. Mister Allen, was it?" Lex said, feigning difficulty remembering as he strode over and offered his hand for a handshake - Barry knew full well, of course, that Lex Luthor's memory was working just fine. "Always a pleasure to see a familiar face."

"Let's go," Claire said shortly, raising her eyebrows and nodding towards the door. Lex glanced over once more and Barry and Iris and gave a fake two-finger salute accompanied by a smirk.

"Sorry to cut this short - the lady's itching to get our night on the town started."

"Come on."

Claire had now looped her arm through Lex's and practically pulled him out the door, hurriedly mumbling something to Barry and Iris about locking up when they left.

Suffice it to say, Lex appreciated the sight of Claire Branigan in her short silver dress sitting in the passenger seat of his Rolls Royce Wraith. His appreciation was not even necessarily lascivious in nature, just a sense of victory at the fact that Claire and her vanilla shampoo and her excellent legs had come back to him after all. Even though she made a point of looking away and not saying a word for the entirety of the drive to Club Desaad, Lex still could not help but smugly call this a victory.

Once the valet had taken the car off to the VIP lot, Lex caught Claire gently by the crook of the arm and stopped her before she could head into the club.

"Admit one thing - this isn't your scene," Lex said with a smirk.

"You know it isn't," Claire said with a frown. "But I'm here on business."

"Well, should business grow tiresome — here," Lex said, closing something into Claire's palm which she realized was a room keycard. She read the word on it, realizing that it opened the door to the Metro Bayfront penthouse suite, the five star hotel across the street.

"What's this supposed to be?" Claire said, yanking her arm out of his grasp. "Lex —"

"If this was a ploy to get you into a hotel room, I'd get you liquored up and take you there myself. Much more efficient," Lex said, raising his eyebrows. "That's the only room key."

At the uncharacteristically trustworthy gesture, Claire eyed Lex suspiciously for a good few seconds before tucking the key away into her clutch purse and turning on her heel towards the entrance to Club Desaad without another word. Lex followed her in and, seeing her hesitation upon reaching the edge of the large crowd of guests inside, took advantage of the opportunity to sling an arm around her waist.

"Stay close," he murmured, his mouth close to her ear. He grinned at the fact that he could hear her inhale sharply and gulp before taking a step away from him.

"I need a drink!" she said in a slightly shrill voice. "I'm gonna grab something to drink, and then I'm going to try and find this Desaad guy - you coming?"

And again, she scurried off into the crowd towards the bar without waiting for an answer. Admittedly, this was becoming less and less amusing for Lex, but he knew he needed to play along - especially now, when he could tell he was so close to victory.

Lex Luthor knew that Claire was afraid - he that she was afraid of facing another affiliate of Darkseid, given how the last encounter had gone. He also knew, however, that Claire Branigan reacted poorly to her own fear - she regarded her own fears with obstinance and anger, running into them head first. That was why she was so eager to get a drink, to gather some semblance of courage. Lex took pride in how well he knew her, because she was his.

Claire already had her first vodka and tonic in hand when Lex caught up with her at the bar. He leaned on the countertop next to her and glanced over her face with a scrutinizing expression of his own. Claire, however, moved her gaze away from him and over towards a visible balcony area, cordoned off and considerably less crowded. Taking a sip from her drink, Claire placed her free hand on Lex's arm and nodded for him to look in the direction of the balcony. From where they stood, they could see plush couches that appeared to be inhabited only by couples, visibly enamored with one another and intertwined on the couches. A large man in all black, most likely a bouncer, approached a couple and interrupted them only to escort them towards a door at the back of the area, gold-trimmed red door that opened to a staircase. Giggling and still all over one another, the couple hurried up the staircase and had the door closed behind them.

"The bouncer," Claire said, having been squinting to get a good look at the lounge. "I was trying to read his lips, I think he said something about Desaad. Getting into that lounge might be the way to the guy."

"Astute as always," Lex smirked as the bartender slid him a glass of Schnapps on the rocks. Lex smirked and reached over, tapping the tip of his index finger on the tip of Claire's nose. "I do like them clever."

Claire reddened, clearing her throat before taking another deep sip from her drink. She paused and swirled the contents of the glass for a few moments before nodding resolutely. "The lounge is a couple's area. They're only bringing up couples getting hot and heavy," she said quickly as though ripping off a band-aid. "And we need to get up there."

"Miss Branigan," Lex said with a lopsided grin, "that sounds an awful lot like a proposition."

"All I'm proposing is that we do whatever is necessary to get the information we need from this place," Claire snapped defensively. "I don't like it here, and I know you don't like it here. We just have a job to do."

Claire was, of course, correct - this place was loud and overloading, and far from where Lex otherwise would have wanted to spend his time. Indeed, he considered himself above this kind of place. Hearing this from Claire, however, only cemented in his mind that she belonged with him. She belonged to him, because she and only she knew him this well.

"Then by all means," Lex said, leaning closer to her and pausing, lingering before again snaking an arm around her waist and resting her forehead against hers. Briefly, he relished the closeness to her before stating, "let's get to work."

And without protest from Claire, he brought his lips down onto hers, using the arm around her waist to press her body close to his.

The familiarity of it all seemed to drown out the rest of the sound and the smoke of the club surrounding Lex. This, at the very least, was something that had not changed. He knew she would later say that it was all for show, that this was part of the ruse to get the information they needed tonight, and he would let her tell this lie all she wanted. It quite frankly was of no consequence to Lex.

"Can they see us?" Claire asked, pulling away from Lex just enough to be able to speak. Lex smirked against her lips.

"We're us. Of course they can."

"Good."

Lex couldn't help but relish in the wave of haughtiness that washed over him when Claire's kisses became more fervent - when her nails raked over the back of his neck, when her breaths became audibly ragged as their embrace continued.

For a moment, he thought in the heat of the moment that perhaps he should have told her that he'd never laid a hand on Priscilla Rich - that the woman was a business associate whom he quite frankly considered too far below him to dirty his hands on. He had known what Claire assumed when she saw them in his receiving room, and he'd admittedly enjoyed seeing her squirm, but the fact of the matter was that the thought of Priscilla Rich's skin on his skin repulsed him in a way Claire never could. He could tell her, he thought - and it would be a strategic disclosure. It was a concession of vulnerability that would bring her back to his side.

Before he could speak, however, the sight of movement in his peripherals distracted him, and distracted Claire as well so that they both stepped apart, though hesitantly, and turned to see a large-figured man in all black approaching them.

"Enjoying your evening, you two?"

The way he regarded them gave Claire the inkling that he didn't know who they were - something refreshing when it came to being spotted with Lex Luthor in any case. Willing to play along for whatever reason, Claire gave a believable giddy laugh, leaning into Lex's said. "Definitely," she said with a grin, nuzzling Lex's neck affectionately in a way that admittedly caused a familiar pulling sensation in the pit of his stomach.

He knew this wouldn't work. As clever as Claire could be, Lex had to admit this was not one of her brightest schemes. They could be who they were with the history they had and expect not to be noticed - they especially could not expect for someone like Desaad, someone with a plan who would take definite precautions to ensure its success, to let them sneak by.

But it didn't matter, Lex decided. He would let her think anything she wanted if it kept her this close.

"Mister Desaad'll be happy to hear it," the bouncer said with a nod. "I have instructions to invite couples upstairs to the lounge to make them more comfortable. Can I tempt you two?"

Claire briefly locked eyes with Lex, and he again saw the familiar glint of mischief and determination that reminded him that this was the woman he knew. Pulling her closer and holding her more tightly to himself and smirked at the bouncer before replying, "Consider us tempted, pal."

"Right this way, then."

Lex smirked in amusement upon seeing Claire very subtly tighten and pump her fist in hidden victorious gesture behind her back as he placed a hand on her waist, ushering her through the crowd behind the usher.

"We're in," she leaned over to speak in Lex's ear as they made their way through the crowd in the space cleared by the bouncer. "Now, we just need to get close to Desaad."

As they were allowed pass the velvet rope and up the stairs to the lounge, Claire took a seat next to Lex on one of the plush couches and reached over for a pair of crystal champagne flutes on ice in a recessed, LED-lit icebox in the center of the table, pouring each of them a glass of the pink champagne kept chilled among the glasses.

As they did a mock toast and drank their champagne, Claire's eyes darted around, affirming with some relief that at the very least, the other patrons were too occupied to look at them. Her gaze then moved over to the gold-trimmed door, just as it was opening once more.

"We need to get wherever that door leads," Claire said, once again assuming the admittedly convincing ruse of being unable to keep her hands off of Lex. She leaned over him, resting her hand on his knee and allowing her hair to drape over her shoulder on one side. Lex managed a sidelong glanced towards the door and noticed the sight of a figure, just out of sight, speaking directions to the bouncer - an olive-skinned, mustached man in a nice suit, who seemed to be pointing out a couple on a couch across the way before disappearing back up the dimly-light stairs.

"I think," Lex said, reaching over and placing a hand on Claire's face, tracing his thumb over her bottom lip, "we've found who we came looking for."

Momentarily, both Claire and Lex were transfixed, seemingly frozen in the moment as they stared at one another. For a moment, something about this contact felt real again. Briefly, it was not merely a means to an end.

Unsurprisingly, it was Claire who tore her gaze away first, leaning back onto the couch and retrieving her glass of champagne. This action, though she had done this very same thing before, felt strangelt like a denial.

"We need to get up there," Claire spoke up after a long sip, though it was beginning to sound more and more like she was saying this, Lex noted, to convince herself of something. She leaned over to kiss him again, fervently but now palpably forced. Something about it sent a visceral sense of disapproval through Lex. The sensation right now of her skin on his, of her lips on his felt like everyone else's, and this was wrong. Though the entire night up until then had been for show, it had only now come to feel false. His Claire was not meant to be false like others were. This was not acceptable. This was not the way his Claire was meant to feel.

Lex gently pushed her away, garnering a perplexed expression from the woman. Lex Luthor was not a sentimental man, but he was a particular one, and while he very much wanted Claire Branigan back at his side where she belonged, there were limits. There were standards. He did not want her like this.

"Lex, did you hear me?" Claire asked in a low voice. "We need to get up there -"

"When did you become like them?" Lex asked with a strange sneer of a smirk, tilting his head to one side and chuckling darkly at the confused expression on Claire's face. "Since when did you start playing God like your little friends?"

"Lex, we don't have time for this right now -"

"Because you're on a crusader, and the crusader will do anything it takes to get the job done," Lex interrupted in an almost sing-song voice, the volume lowered to a near-whisper. "Even if it means taking advantage of someone to do it -"

"I'm not taking advantage -"

"Whose idea was it to get us up here?" Lex asked, moving suddenly, almost ominously as he shifted his weight. He was now sitting up, and he had caused Claire to jump and nearly fall until he caught her by the waist in a strangely intimate position, as though he were dipping her as they danced. "You knew very well I would comply."

Claire found that she could not protest. There was a small amount of truth. She knew Lex Luthor better than perhaps anyone. She knew that her plan was playing on his weakness for her, but she couldn't bring herself to see it as taking advantage. Hadn't coming here at all been his idea? Hadn't he manipulated her into coming in the first place?

"Good evening."

Normally, neither Claire nor Lex were to sort to be easily snuck up on, but in moments such as these where things were boiling over, both apparently made exceptions to the rule. They turned to find a man - the man from the staircase who had to have been Mister Desaad - standing by them and eyeing them intently.

"You must be Mister Desaad."


A/N

Happy New Year, everyone!

I know, there are a lot of party scenes in this story, but I can assure you that this one will be one of the last, and it's a very important one. Next chapter, we'll get to know a little more about what Desaad has up his sleeve. We'll also dig deeper into where Lex and Claire currently stand and where they go from here on out. The next chapter is going to be a pretty eventful one, so stay tuned. Short note for now so I can get back to finishing other things, which in turn will free up more time to write and post updates! Until next time, cheers!