"Hey, Mark," Rhone walked into the kitchen of Lex Luthor's castle. There was another man there. He was wearing all white and a chef's hat. The industrial style kitchen was large and had any kind of food preparation necessity that one could imagine.
"Rhone, how did you find your way down here?" Mark asked with a smile.
Rhone knew where to go. She had seen the blueprints of this place. They shipped it over from Scotland piece by piece. They certainly had to have a way to get it back together. Her recon had also been beneficial in memorizing the layout of this place. "Lucky guess," she returned his smile.
"This is Kevin, Mr. Luthor's personal chef," he said to introduce Rhone. He gestured to Rhone and said to Kevin, "This is the one I was telling you about."
Kevin smiled widely at Rhone, "It's a pleasure to meet you."
They shook hands and she explained that she had been invited to dinner. Neither of them seemed to mind. Rhone realized that there must be a lot of wasted food in this castle. "Do you guys need any help?" Rhone asked, smiling politely.
"And what does that have to do with me?" Lex asked, not trying to hide the impatience in his voice.
"I won't be in the country the first week of November and I need you to meet them here in Metropolis," Lionel Luthor said on the other end of the line. "It's routine, Lex, just an exchange for research information," the elder Luthor said lightly.
"And why are we exchanging information with -- who is the other party involved in this?" Lex didn't like this. Luthor Corp. didn't need some third rate researchers that couldn't even get a grant.
"This information could pertain to a new chemical compound that just may improve the effectiveness of fertilizer. This could directly benefit you, Son," Lionel said smoothly. "Or your employees," he added as an afterthought.
Lex leaned back in his chair and thought for a moment about what his father had just said. "What time and where?" he asked flatly.
"11 pm on the roof of the Metropolis Plaza," Lionel said briefly.
"That seems a little odd for a business transaction," Lex pointed out.
"They have something we want, Lex, just take the money there and get it," Lionel said lightly.
Lex really didn't like this. Aside from his misgivings about the group they were dealing with, he didn't like the odd meeting place or the after hours meeting time. It also put him on alert that his father was speaking lightly about -- anything. "Alright," Lex was about to hang up.
"How is the invoice check going, Son?" Lionel asked.
"Fine, no problems," Lex didn't elaborate. He and Rhone had worked out that one small problem.
Lionel gave a small chuckle on the other end of the line, "Didn't I tell you they would be some of the most boring people that you would ever meet?"
"That you did, Dad," Lex said, thinking about how wrong his father was. It made him smile to himself.
"Since I have you on the line, I wanted to go over those fall projections for Plant Number Three," Lionel began.
Lex thought about where Rhone might be or what she might be doing alone in his mansion. He checked his watch, 3:15. He wanted to cut his conversation short with his father. However, he never wanted to give his father any reason whatsoever to check up on him. He let out a small sigh as his father began talking about the fall projections.
Lex opened the door to yet another room. It was empty. He checked his watch, 4:50. He had just gotten off the phone with his father a few moments ago and now he was looking adamantly for Rhone Chade. She was a guest and he had ignored her for over an hour and a half. He had really wanted to use that time to get to know her better. She was a difficult person to get to talk about herself. Most people only wanted to talk about themselves. It was -- backwards. He wondered if she was hiding anything important. Why did he always think people were hiding things from him? Maybe he was just paranoid. Being a Luthor can do that to you.
He heard faint laughing. He followed it. It was odd that he associated laughing with her; he had never heard her laugh. There could be any number of people in his house at any given time. Still, he followed the voices to the kitchen. He hadn't been in this part of the house in -- had he ever been in this part of the house?
He slowly opened the door but realized it was his house and just walked through it. He looked up to see Rhone sitting on one of the counters, smiling and holding a glass of water. She was with Mark and Kevin, having a good time despite his abandonment of her. He looked at her for a moment and thought of his mother. She always treated the help so nicely. She would rather sit and talk with them than the business people his father brought home.
It took Mark and Kevin a moment to realize he was there. Rhone, however, heard him coming down the hall. She just wanted to hear the end of a good kitchen mishap story. Mark and Kevin immediately began to look busy.
"Mr. Luthor, I thought you were -- lost," she jumped down from the counter smiling.
"I'm sorry it took so long, my father…" he began.
She held up a hand, "You don't have to explain yourself to me. Besides, I was having fun." She was walking towards him maintaining a small smile. Mark brushed past them with table settings. "Hey, do you need help?" she asked as he walked by. Lex noticed she put a hand on Mark's arm.
"You have been more than enough help already, Rhone," Mark said with a large grin.
"Yeah, thanks for that tip," Kevin pointed to the oven.
"Anything to spend time with men of such high caliber," she said smiling at them.
Lex was surprised that she had won them over so quickly. But then, it didn't take her too long to win him over either, even with the whole terrorist accusation thing. "You cook?" he asked.
"I told you, I do a little bit of everything," she took a sip of the water she was still holding.
"That you did," Lex held the door open for her.
She wasn't used to that. She looked at him opening the door for her and processed it. You shouldn't put your back so someone that you don't know. She touched the artist's tube on her back very briefly. He had behaved similarly when he was carrying her laptop case on Monday. He was such a gentleman. She walked through the door but then held it open for him.
Lex began leading her toward the dining room. "Do you ever take that thing off?" he asked before he knew where it was coming from. He didn't want to offend her, he was just curious, "Not that it isn't becoming…"
She knew he was referring to her artist's tube. "I'm not offended, Mr. Luthor," she said immediately. "I rarely take it off," she answered.
"Why is that?" he asked casually.
"I never know when I might need it," she said simply. That was a candidate for the Understatement of the Year Award, she thought to herself.
"I find it hard to believe that art supplies could ever be an absolute necessity," he said with a faint grin.
"Spoken like someone who only knows how to buy art and not make one's own," she quipped.
Lex thought about what she said for a moment. When was the last time he was creative or used his imagination? He hadn't done anything remotely close to that since his mother died. Ever since then, his time was spent on schooling or preparing to become the ultimate leader in business.
She was aware that he had been silent for a moment. Had what she said really affected him that much? It was only an observation. She had a million of them. She opened one of the doors that he was going to walk past while engrossed in thought.
Lex looked up when she stopped. How did she know where the dinning room was? He followed her inside. Mark hurried past them, back towards the kitchen. At least Mark had enough time to stop flirting and set the table for two, he thought to himself.
Rhone looked at the large table in the room; it had to be at least fifteen feet long. There were chairs all around it, but places were set at the heads of it. She began to walk over to one. Why was Lex following her? When they reached the chair, he stepped ahead and pulled it out for her. Oh, she thought to herself. "Thanks…" she said after a hesitation and sitting down.
"Don't men do this for you all the time?" he asked as he pushed her chair toward the table.
Yeah, but usually they don't live long enough to do anything else. "I don't want to insult you, Mr. Luthor, but I do know how to use a chair. I can usually manage on my own," she said with a small grin.
"I'm surprised that they don't," he took her response as a "no." His back was to her as he walked to the other end of the table.
She caught the compliment; she didn't know how to react. "Well, none as urbane as you," she said when he had seated himself at the other end of the table. It wasn't a compliment she told herself. It was just the truth. Walking into the mess hall was like walking in on a pack of wolverines that were being fed for the first time in three months. She was just one of the guys to them and she liked it that way. But she didn't mind it this way either, not coming from him. …What?
She was relieved when she heard Mark coming down the hall with a cart, presumably dinner. She got up and walked over to open the door.
Lex wondered where she was going. He also had analyzed her urbane comment and was pleasantly surprised when he decided it was without sarcasm. She was standing, holding the door open. A few seconds later, he heard Mark with the dinner cart. Some ears, Lex thought to himself.
"Rhone, please, you have been more than enough help already," Mark said with a laugh. Mark gestured for Rhone to sit in her seat once more. He pulled out her chair for her and took her hand as he guided her into the seat. Then Mark began serving dinner.
Lex watched Mark seat Rhone without changing his expression. He wondered if Mark could be that smooth while standing in the unemployment line.
Mark served Rhone first. When he was finished she caught his elbow and pulled him closer to her. She spoke so Lex couldn't hear, "It looks wonderful, Mark. Please tell Kevin thank you, incase I don't see him. …And Mark," she began still quiet, "am I really supposed to sit all the way over here?"
Mark smiled. He hoped Lex Luthor would be smart enough to keep her around for -- a long time. "There are plenty of chairs," Mark replied just as softly with a grin. Mark walked over to Lex and served him. He thought about conveniently forgetting something so he could check on the seating arrangement later. But when he saw the look on his employer's face and thought better of it. He exited the room quickly.
Lex wondered what they were talking about over there. He quietly began to eat. He looked up in a moment when he heard her stand. "Is there something wrong?" he asked puzzled.
"Yeah," she said picking up her plate, utensils, and glass of water.
"Do you need…" he began.
She walked towards him and set her place right next to him. "I was worried I was going to have to set your dining set on fire and send you smoke signals if we needed to communicate," she said with a raised eyebrow.
He smiled at her. The few people that he had eaten dinner alone with always sat opposite him, regardless of how far away it was. But then, they never spoke either. He should ask her to come over tomorrow.
"I had to ask Mark if it was proper dinning etiquette to destroy the symmetry of a table," she continued. She finally began to eat.
"You didn't have to ask if it was alright to sit next to me," Lex was still smiling at her. "Everyone usually just…" he began.
She stopped eating, looked him in the eyes, and said, "I'm not everyone."
I know, he thought to himself. They slowly ate as they talked. Lex had never talked over a meal before. At business dinners there were networking and typical dealings, but there was never just talking.
"What do you do around here all day?" she asked.
It was a simple question. "Usually I go to the Plant around…" he started.
She held up a hand as though she were physically stopping his words. Then she gave him a sideways grin, "I know that, not that it isn't fascinating. A better way to put it would be, what are your hobbies?" That was something that her extensive file on him was lacking.
No one had ever asked him that before. No one cared. Clark would care if they got to spend more time together. Yeah, they were friends.
She noticed a brief pause, "Please don't tell me you have to go in another room and check a file or something to find out what your hobbies are."
He grinned at her, "Billiards, fencing, collecting art." He thought about mentioning his comic book collection but that is something you say if you need to impress a thirteen-year-old boy, not a woman. Was he trying to impress her? She nodded in response. She was really listening to him.
"What else?" she said furrowing her brow at him.
"What do you mean? That was three. That's more than I know about you," he pointed out with a smirk.
"It just seemed like you were holding something back," she observed.
He thought he was good at reading people until he met her. "What about you?" he asked, genuinely interested in the answer.
Explosions, implosions, saving the world, vigilante justice, guns, knives, swords, kicking people in the head, jumping out of planes and helicopters, eating raw bugs, testing out my superhuman abilities, seeing how long I can last without sleeping…. "Art," she said simply.
"I know that one," he said. "And I would still like to see your work," he added in a prodding tone.
"I really don't think that it would be something you would be interested in," she said simply. "It isn't fine art," she concluded.
"You mentioned that before. In either case, I would still like to see it," he said. "What else?" he said after a moment. "I gave you three," he said and realized how childish it sounded.
She grinned at him, "Skating."
"Like in-line skating?" he needed clarification.
She got a mock serious look on her face, "No, not like in-line skating. Talking to a skateboarder like that could land you in a cast." Her grin returned.
"Skateboarding," he understood her very casual dress. "Isn't that a little…"?
"80's?" she finished his question.
"Yeah," he had a small smile on his face.
"Isn't fencing a little 3 Musketeers?" she smiled at him again.
He saw her point and chuckled.
She just watched him laugh. Granted, it wasn't an all out laugh, but he seemed to need it so much. He looked at her.
"I suppose you want the last one to be something you didn't know about, I kind of cheated on the first two," she admitted. He already knew about art and she had mentioned skating to him before. He nodded and leaned toward her slightly. She moved her empty plate to the side. She leaned in slightly and looked around as if someone else might hear, "Mystery Science Theater 3000."
He continued to look at her for a moment. That didn't even make sense. He shook his head very slightly, "What?" Maybe he didn't hear correctly.
"Mystery Science Theater 3000, the greatest television show ever made," she said leaning back again.
"Television is not a hobby," Lex said matter-of-factly.
"Then neither is taking someone else's hobby and hanging it on your wall," she said, she had had similar conversations before. "Listen, Mr. Luthor, I know that you probably don't watch a lot of television-I haven't seen one in this museum-but you really shouldn't judge something solely on how it reaches you," she said. She wasn't angry, just stating what she thought.
Lex nodded at this simplified but accurate description of his judgment.
"I will agree, that most television is a waste of time," she conceded. "I have a few episodes on my laptop. If you want, I could burn them to a CD," she said after a moment.
"Why don't we just watch them tonight?" he suggested.
"The episodes are pretty long and I have to work tomorrow," she said emphasizing the word "I."
"It's too early for that excuse to work," he pointed out.
"Why don't you show me some of your art collection?" she suggested. He was still looking at her. She knew what he wanted. "Depending on how long it takes, maybe we'll watch an episode or two," she added. Did she just cave? Yeah.
She was just having a good time. It was either that or return to the hotel and do nothing until it was time to meditate and train. That sounds a lot like rationalizing, she thought to herself.
They both stood and she began to stack their plates and silverware. "What are you doing?" Lex asked, genuinely wondering.
Rhone didn't understand. He didn't even clear his own plate for god's sake? "Before the roaches get at it," she said watching what she was doing.
He gave her a small smile, "Mark will do it." That didn't stop her. "It's his job," he clarified. She gave him a disapproving look. Well, it is Mark's job, he thought to himself.
Rhone realized that she was being judgmental. Lex had been raised a certain way and that was what he knew. She wondered if she was being any different than the people who judged him by his last name. If she did Mark's job for him, then he wouldn't have a job, would he? It still felt wrong. Her hands fell to her sides. "I'm just not used to…" she started.
He knew what she meant. From what he knew she came from a middle-class family and lived alone. Most people never had someone to wait on them. He glanced at the neatly stacked dishes and smiled. She gestured for him to lead the way. He started walking with her at his side.