CHAPTER TWELVE

Disclaimers in Chapter One

Lionel Luthor swaggered into Lex's study in search for his son, only to find him brooding in his leather desk chair. He stopped to observe the younger Luthor for a moment, noting the noticeable frown and drooped shoulders. "Son, has anyone ever tell you that frowning requires more muscles than smiling?"

Lex half-heartedly snapped out of his thoughts. "Then I suppose that you and I have very well-defined facial muscles, Dad," he retorted weakly.

The Luthor patriarch raised an eyebrow. "Alright, Alexander, what's the matter?"

"Like you care," Lex mumbled under his breath. When he caught Lionel's glare, he rolled his eyes and surrendered, not wanting to escalate the situation into a confrontation, as he really had no energy for it.

"Chloe Sullivan is not going to the ball," he confessed. "She initially told me that she wasn't going to, but I thought after dinner the other night, things would be different."

Lionel smirked. Who knew that his son could be so..smitten? "So you bring the girl over to your mansion, impress her with gourmet meatloaf and expect her to fall for you?" he taunted. "Lex, Lex, Lex…how amateur of you."

Lex threw a glare in his father's direction for the rather crass comment. "Gee, Dad, thanks," he responded with much sarcasm.

"Oh, come on, Lex," the older man prodded. "I'm just painting the big picture here. And as much as you'd rather think that it is to discourage you, it isn't."

Lex was surprised at the candor his dad was displaying in this exchange. Afraid to say anything that would warrant Lionel's change of heart, he remained silent.

Much to Lionel's frustration. "Look," he sighed. "Just because she said so doesn't mean anything, son."

Lex grunted. "I'm not forcing her to do anything that she wouldn't want to do, Dad."

"And how would you know that she wouldn't want to come to the ball?" Lionel retorted.

Boy, Lex's previous partners did a number on him and hit the bull's eye pretty damn hard. His son seemed to be allergic to anything remotely emotionally intimate. Lionel knew that even his attempts to persuade Lex in taking action on this matter would be to no avail. The young man was clearly heartbroken at the outcome of his affections toward Miss Sullivan.

"She told me," mumbled Lex, breaking Lionel out of his thoughts. "She's not coming, Dad. Even Clark and Lana said so."

The older Luthor had to dig inside myself to avoid laughing at Lex's sources. Clearly, Mr. Kent and Miss Lang had an agenda for tonight's festivities, but Lex was more focused on Miss Sullivan's pending absence to notice.

Pity, thought Lionel. What wrath he would have expected Lex to summon upon his "friends", if he found out that they were really the cause of his current misery.

"If you say so, son," Lionel feigned surrender as he turned to the exit. "I don't expect that Miss Sullivan's absence would stop you from coming to the ball, right?"

Lex groaned at the implication of his father's statement. Lionel Luthor had just issued a command on Lex to be at the ball, and while brooding in his study until he fell asleep for the night was tempting, crossing his father was not on his agenda.

"Yes," he blurted his answer weakly.

With that, Lionel left him, closing the doors on his way out. Purposefully, too, as he pulled out his cell phone when he reached a good distance from the study. "Hello, it's Lionel Luthor," he greeted.