Chapter 4
Super-villains had no right to be so damn sweet, Steph thought with frustration later that night.
Lex had fussed over their dinner choices, worrying about what might upset her stomach. Then, he'd asked her all kinds of wonderfully personal first date kind of questions while they ate, the things they'd skipped over at the gala in favor of snarking about Tim and playfully flirting up a storm for Steph's faux-revenge.
And Lex was interested in her responses - and engaging - and caring - and supportive - and - and - and -
Steph was in deep shit.
Because how could she help falling for someone who looked at her with sincere adoration in his eyes, and told her what an amazing physical therapist she'd make because she'd get all of her patients to smile and feel comfortable and relaxed when she worked with them? Not to mention the fact that Lex Luthor never looked impressed with anybody, ok? So excuse Steph for tumbling a little harder down the rabbit hole when Lex seemed genuinely proud of her and impressed with her passion for her field.
She was falling for him and it scared her and it was tearing her apart inside, because he wasn't a D-level rogue like her dad. (And even D-level rogues made terrible life partners. Steph had the receipts.)
He was Lex freakin' Luthor, megalomaniac, attempted Superman-killer, evil genius, former Legion of Doom leader …
And sure, legally, he'd been cleared of many a crime, and he'd been flying lower under the radar than he used to, especially after Conner had come along, but it wasn't like Lex wasn't villaining just as hard. The whole reason Steph had met him in the first place was because the Justice League suspected him of creating metahumans in the bowels of LexCorp that he was unleashing for trial runs on Metropolis.
So Lex had no right whatsoever to be so absolutely, fabulously, butterfly-inducingly, dreamily, attentive and kind and devoted and completely, genuinely likeable.
Steph felt like she might cry.
They were curled up on the couch after dinner now, admiring the Pollack together, both with champagne glasses filled with ginger ale, because Lex had said that he wouldn't drink wine since Steph couldn't, which was another reason to love hate him, and Steph had never felt so miserably happy in her entire life.
"Tell me, Stephanie, what made a child want to spend countless hours of her life at the Gotham Modern Art Museum?" Lex eventually asked her thoughtfully. Steph bit her lip.
"I'm sure you ran a background check on me as soon as you gave me your number," Steph said. "Can't you guess?"
"I didn't," Lex said gently, allowing a few of his fingers to play with the strands of Steph's hair that were falling over her face. "I found you so delightful at the gala because you were unexpected and unusual. I didn't want to risk becoming bored with the first person I've ever met that truly sparked my interest by looking up every detail of your life instead of learning it from you first."
"Lex," Steph said, beginning to blush. "Really? I'm - you've never been - I'm not that special," she spluttered out, feeling the scenery shift around her from Metropolis to Wonderland. Lex chuckled, low and sexy.
"I intend to show you for the rest of your life exactly how special you are, sweetheart," he said, bending his head to press a tender kiss to Steph's very confused lips.
"But you're Lex Luthor," Steph managed to get out, when Lex lifted his head but kept looking at her like he wanted to eat her up like Alice's cake. "And I'm - me."
Seriously, this could not be happening. She was Stephanie Brown! From the Narrows! Cluemaster's daughter! Not to mention, a Gotham vigilante!
And Lex Luthor was falling for her so hard that he didn't even Google her? What. The. He-
"I like you precisely because you're you," Lex said, and then he was kissing her again, deeper this time, and cradling her face in his hand, and Steph didn't mean to sigh into it and lean in closer, but it ended up being a long time before Lex came back to his original question, and Steph was slightly less dressed and more flushed than she had been.
"So… prodigy art aficionado? Do I get an explanation?" Lex said playfully, nosing Steph's hair and pressing little kisses to the side of her face that made her giggle from her cozy seat in his lap.
"Well," Steph sighed, wrinkling her nose up, "my family was really poor. I grew up in the Narrows. I don't know if you know that neighborhood," she started to say, but Lex nodded. Steph took a deep breath and continued.
"My dad was pretty abusive," she said softly, and a low growl started to rumble out of Lex's chest. "Mostly to my mom, physically, anyway," she said. "A lot of rage outs and yelling at me, though, and he used to lock me in a closet for hours and hours at a time…"
She trailed off, fiddling with Lex's shirt so her fingers would have something to do instead of shake, and Lex squeezed his arms around her tighter.
"They had put the Modern Art Museum in Burnley," she said eventually. "Yuppie revitalization, new Arts District, blah blah," she said. "Which made it doubly unpopular, that it was weird art and in a bad neighborhood, so apparently Bruce Wayne ended up subsidizing it sometime before I was born and made admission free, to try to encourage people to visit."
"Bruce, Bruce, Bruce," Lex chuckled under his breath. "The Gotham Do-Gooder."
"Yeah," Steph smiled. "He really is. But anyway, uh, kids in Gotham are allowed to ride free on city buses, and Burnley wasn't that far of a trip, so I'd go over to the museum a lot to get away from my dad," she finished explaining. "A whole lot," she added more quietly.
Lex hummed in sympathy, and his tone was far, far, too casual when he asked Steph, "Where's your father now?"
"He's dead," Steph said, and she felt Lex relax slightly. "Oh, I forgot to say, he was Cluemaster," Steph mumbled in embarrassment, because Cluemaster had already been less than nothing compared to the other Gotham villains - so low on the scale that even Batman hadn't bothered going after him until the time he'd unknowingly captured Steph as Spoiler - but Cluemaster compared to Lex Luthor?
Oh, God. The cringe of it all.
Lex had almost imperceptibly tensed at the mention of Clusmaster's name.
"You probably haven't heard of him," Steph said. "He was real D-list and local to Gotham."
"I'm sorry for what he put you through," Lex said smoothly, instead of replying to Steph's indirect question. "I think I understand a little better now why you're hesitant to move in with me too soon."
"You do?" Steph squeaked, because surely he wasn't implying that Steph knew he was a villain, right? Right? Her dad had never had anything to do with Lex, as far as Steph knew, and -
"It makes sense that you'd be more cautious after being raised by an abusive father," Lex said, and Steph could breathe again, but she took advantage of that ability to smile and poke Lex's chest.
"Not wanting to move in with someone after fucking them exactly once hardly makes me over-cautious," she teased. Lex scoffed.
"I'm Lex Luthor," he said. "I'm an open book."
Ok, Steph had to laugh at that, because it was about the most ridiculous statement she'd ever heard in her entire life, but as she'd been counting on, Lex misinterpreted the joke and chuckled along with her.
"You're over-eager, is what you are," Steph giggled.
"Can you blame me?" Lex said, suddenly more serious. "I've got an amazing woman in my lap who's pregnant with my child. Why wouldn't I want to make us a family as quickly as possible?" he said and whoa, Steph had not been expecting the f-word, and suddenly tears were choking her.
"Sweetheart?" Lex said in concern. Steph sniffed and shook her head a little bit before burying her face in Lex's shirt, gulping as he stroked her hair and cuddled her closer with an arm around her waist.
"Maybe it's the pregnancy hormones," Steph mumbled out. "That was way too sweet," she grumbled, sniffing some more and wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.
"You like thinking of us a family?" Lex said warmly, his eyes heating up, and Steph's tears started rolling down faster.
"Stop," she half-giggled, as her heart shattered inside of her.
It wasn't fair. It wasn't. It was her fault, but it still wasn't fair. She was pregnant with the last person on earth she should build a family with, and all she'd ever wanted since giving her daughter up years ago was to be married to her next baby daddy and raise their kids together, and Steph couldn't stop crying, which seemed to befuddle Lex a little bit, but he was trying to take it in stride.
"Don't worry," he was trying to soothe her, "we'll take our relationship as slow as you want, baby," he said, and that was also three times too sweet, and therefore still not helpful, and Steph was the world's biggest idiot, and she hated herself and she hated that she was pregnant and she hated that it was with Lex and she hated that she didn't hate Lex Luthor at all.
Not even a little bit.
Yeah. She'd have to work on that.
"Would you like a soak in the hot tub?" Lex was asking her, still looking concerned and tender and like everything Steph had ever wanted, wrapped up in the wrong packaging.
"Pregnant women can't use hot tubs," she sniffled as she tried to blink away her tears and give Lex a tiny smile. "Too hot for the baby."
"Oh," Lex said, sounding surprised. "I have a lot to learn," he chuckled ruefully. "Perhaps you can recommend some books…?" he asked her, and Steph nodded, grateful to be back on the solider ground of practicalities.
"What to Expect When You're Expecting is the classic go-to book," she said, "and I liked Pregnancy Day by Day because of all the pictures, but even though it's sexist and outdated, I gotta admit, I did really enjoy The Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy. It spills the tea on a lot of the grosser details that I totally appreciated being prepared for," she said with a little laugh. "Prepare to be horrified."
"I'll be amazed and in awe," Lex promised her, and goddammit it, he meant it, too.
"Your bathtub looked pretty big," Steph suggested with a fragile smile to cover the enormous cracks through her heart. "A bath would be ok as long as we don't make it too hot."
"And the tub also has jets," Lex said, perking up as he slid Steph off his lap so they could stand up. "Come advise me on the correct water temperature, oh mother-of-my-child," he said with an inviting smile as he offered her his hand, and Steph was never going to recover from him, was she?
And maybe deep down in the secretest place of her heart - she didn't want to.
A/N - Thanks for reading! More to come! Comments are much appreciated.
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