A series of vignettes about Lex and Lana, a few years after the current season we're in.
Hail to weird 'ships! These are glimpses, so don't except lots of cohesiveness.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer
--WB Yeats
I.
"I want you to leave him alone," she said firmly, wishing she were five inches taller and oceans braver. It was hard to stand before him, head up in the air as if she hadn't a care in the world or a single worry concerning the imposing figure behind the mahogany desk.
"Is this Lana Lang's dramatic stand?" he chuckled, amused as he always was by the slight girl in front of him. The mutinous expression on her face and the very idea of Lana protecting his ruthless son was the sort of delicious perversity that never failed to entertain Lionel. A former cheerleader from rural Kansas… he would never have guessed his son's tastes would run to the banal in the end. The ostentatious sapphire ring and platinum band glittering on the young woman's finger proved just how wrong that belief had been.
"I mean it. No more plotting, no more hints at another attempted takeover. It needs to end. This-this feud…it's becoming ridiculous." The words seemed inadequate and she frowned, flustered by her inability to communicate the extent of her disapproval of the way her father-in-law behaved.
"Fathers and sons…" Lionel mused aloud with a faint smile, "I can't expect you to understand, that history is as long as—"
Something snapped within Lana at this, "You and Lex are not figures in a Euripides play, Mr. Luthor. The Luthors aren't the House of Atreus." The flare of rage flashing through her hardened her resolve, and in that instant she stood a little straighter, squaring her shoulders in grim determination.
He laughed louder this time, delighted. "I'm relieved to discover that even second-rate public schools haven't forsaken the classics." Steepling his hands against his lips he continued to regard her. The crinkles around his eyes should have softened the steely gaze but Lana found that nothing about Lionel was capable of gentling, at least not in her presence.
She took a step closer to the desk, approaching it with a careful, measured pace. "I am not expecting some sort of cloying reconciliation, and I'm certainly not holding my breath for paternal affection—or even commonplace decency." There it was, the anger again, flaring up inside and causing her to lay her palms on the table before him, leaning in slightly as if challenging the man before her. Her eyes narrowed, her lips thinned, and for a moment Lionel could almost imagine someone finding her an intimidating sparring partner.
"No, Mr. Luthor, I'm not the naïve. I simply want a proper end to this imagined rivalry of yours, it needs to stop."
His lips twisted into something ugly. "Such a brave little defender. Standing up for that meek saint of a husband of yours? Do you believe Lex needs you to fight his battles?" He considered her for a moment, the normal flicker of disdain absent from his gaze. For a moment he almost looked shaken but it only lasted for a second and was quickly replaced by a faint smirk. "I have a present for you—for both of you. I never did manage a wedding gift, did I?"
She refused to break eye contact, even as he pressed a thick folder into her hand. Reluctantly, her fingers curved around it, accepting it from him. "What is it?" she asked warily, still not looking down at the object in her hand.
"I think I'll wait for you to unwrap it, my dear," Lionel announced, standing abruptly and sliding easily into the dark jacket hanging from the back of his chair. "You seem like a girl who enjoys surprises."
"This doesn't look like Tiffany's glassware." Lana said slowly, hoping her sudden feelings of unease weren't visible.
"A hackneyed gift like that would never suit my daughter-in-law, would it?" He looked up from buttoning the jacket, enjoying the surprise visible on her delicate features at that appellation. "You're a Luthor now, as my son keeps having to remind me… with all the special privileges that lofty name entails."
A meaningful look at the folder grasped tightly in her hand, a jaunty turn of the head and smile, and Lionel disappeared from the office.