"Come early, and wear something nice. Black, if you have it. Black, if you don't have it."

Thanks to Lex Luthor's parting words to her on her first day as his nurse, Claire had been forced to actually rummage through the depths of her closet - which, to be fair, was not very deep at all - to pull out a little black dress that she hadn't worn in ages. Because, he had emphasize, every woman was supposed to have a little black dress. It was not that he had been wrong, but that he had been so presumptuous that grated poorly on Claire's nerves.

Saturday morning had been productive enough. She had just enough time to agree to a short shift at the clinic where she worked on-call when they were short-staffed. The Thomas Wayne Memorial Free Clinic never had any shortage of patients, so Claire's volunteerism there was always well-appreciated. Dr. Leslie Thompkins, the clinic's founder, knew that Claire wanted one day to open up a clinic of her own and as such had taken a liking to the girl. So, even at the end of a particularly busy weekend shift, Claire felt surprisingly upbeat as she returned home and stepped into the shower to clean up for Lex Luthor's big event.

After getting out of the shower and running a comb through her hair a few times, she realized that she hadn't opened the windows - a deadly sin in a cheap apartment. The last thing she needed right now was to be displaced by management having to get rid of mold. She wrapped herself up her short grey flannel robe and left the bathroom, walking into the living area to open the window only to find that it was already wide open. She paused, and immediately reached a conclusion of what to expect.

"Miss Branigan."

"You address me so formally for someone who just broke into my apartment."

"I see you've survived your first day with Luthor," he said. Claire turned around with expression akin to that of an annoyed teenager, her arms crossed tightly over herself.

"Yes. I did," she said shortly. "After you got me let go from my job and left me hanging for a month and a half, I did exactly what you asked of me. And now, I have to squeeze myself into a little black dress per his demand on my day off to attend -"

"A party at the manor. I'm aware," the Bat interrupted. "He's overfond of them."

"I've worked for him for one day and he thinks he's in a position to tell me how to dress," Claire said with a roll of her eyes, backing up so that she was close to the wall next to the window. "If I had a choice, I wouldn't be here of all places, so I hope you know that."

"Keep an eye on who he speaks with at this gathering," he answered, and Claire felt a mild sense of disappointment at the fact that he wasn't engaging with any of her complaints - perhaps she had expected her feedback to mean a little more, which was a fairly unreasonable expectation, she realized, of someone who was using her as a puppet to begin with. "Parties are a lot of noise. The perfect cover."

"Will do, boss man."

Normally, Claire would have been curious how Batman managed to disappear out the window and scale the wall of her building without being seen - that was the kind of thing that evaded your notice in a place like Gotham, not in Metropolis. Now, however, she simply made her way back to her room to finish getting ready.

"Mister Wayne. Bruce Wayne!"

Lex Luthor made a point of greeting one guest in particular with a particular loud, wide-armed gesture, waving him over to join him in the group of guests. "I'm so very glad that you made time to attend. I was worried that recent events might have... kept you away."

"Anything to support a fellow businessman," Bruce said with a disarmingly civil grin, heartily shaking Lex's free hand that wasn't holding a glass of red wine. Lex looked slightly nonplussed at the fact that Bruce Wayne didn't seem to find their action the slightest bit unsettling, but he quickly bounced back.

"Speaking of business - how is yours doing? I haven't heard a thing lately about Wayne Enterprises," Lex quipped in his best attempt to be undermining. "Nothing new? No new... projects?"

"Nothing of interest to you," Bruce said, drawing himself up to full height and tilting his head, narrowing his eyes gently as he made eye contact with Lex. "Just business as usual. Actively recruiting a few new... experts. Expanding the team, I guess you could say."

"Is that so?"

So, Lex realized, tensing slightly - he fought back against his upper lip curling into a sneer at the implication. Batman was putting together a team. Lex was well aware that he'd already found one of the metahumans that Lex had worked so hard to find. No doubt, this team would consist of even more. And here he was - Bruce Wayne, Batman - shoving his exploits into Lex's face. It was... unacceptable.

"Well, please, make yourself at home! Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow..."

Lex's voice trailed off, and the end of the sentence lingered in the silence, causing visible discomfort among the handful of people who had ventured to converse with him here. He could tell that they were forced only out of propriety, that this was not like before. No one cared about impressing him, he realized. They were here to be seen by others - and per his expectations, none of them truly had any concern for who was hosting the gathering or what it was for, just that it was the place to be seen by all of the right people. Lemmings. None of them were worth their weight in sand.

"Only joking, of course," Lex said with a smirk, cocking his head to one side and locking eyes with Bruce Wayne. "Did you think that I wasn't?"

Truth be told, Lex Luthor did not love these gatherings. He hated them. He hated the scrutinizing stares, the smalltalk, the eyes on him. It grated on his nerves. It made him paranoid. Now more than ever, there was a sense of being constantly watched, of being surrounded. He hated it, but it had to be done. A point had to be made. His superiority could not be forgotten by the plebeian new money of Metropolis - it simply could not be allowed.

From the corner of his eye, he saw the door open again, this time to reveal someone who had not appeared before at a Lex Luthor gathering.

Claire Branigan, he realized, cleaned up well. Clad in a little black dress with lace sleeves and an open back, her dark hair let down into loose curls, she had most definitely followed his instructions. He raised his hand and made a graceful, grandiose gesture of calling her into the midst of the group, and immediately all eyes were drawn to the attractive woman now standing next to Lex Luthor. While his father before him had made a habit of being seen regularly with lady friends at public gatherings - people were quick to forgive it as an inability to commit after the death of his wife soon after the birth of Lex Jr. - the younger Mister Luthor had never regularly been seen with anyone except for his former assistant, Mercy, who had so tragically perished in the Superman Hearing Bombing. People recognized that Lex Luthor was strange, that he lacked the public graces of his father, and so, having him accompanied by a woman, having his hair shaved clean off, his suit pressed, was what Lex hoped would signal them to realize this was not the same Lex Luthor. He had returned. He had transformed.

"Perfect timing," he said with a sudden lilt to his voice as Claire arrived in their midst, glancing around sheepishly at the conversation she was coming into the middle of. "Everyone, I'd like you to meet Claire Branigan."

"Your lady friend?" one of the guests Lex had been speaking to asked. Lex turned to him and shook his index finger in the man's direction.

"My private nurse," he corrected. "Summa cum laude. Top of her class at Metropolis Polytechnical University, master's degree in biochemistry."

Claire's head turned to him questioningly, and he merely flashed her a brief smirk - of course he had done his homework on her after his release, especially after finding out she was going to be his nurse again. He made a point of being well-informed of how his staff could be optimized as assets to him.

"Looks like you got your hands on quite the gem there, Mister Luthor," Bruce piped in, taking a glass of wine from one of the passing catering waiters with trays of beverages. "Biochemistry, you said?"

"In another life," Claire corrected with a surprisingly gracious grin - it was only in this moment that Lex realized that on top of having been, he grudgingly admitted, a trustworthy nurse who had never done him wrong, she also made him look very good indeed. He allowed a smug grin to tug at his lips and, as their conversation with the small crowd continued, he rested his hand on the small of her back, casually now leaving his arm to hover around her waist, daring anyone to challenge him in doing so with his nurse.

No one would dare, he thought smugly to himself. Because he was still Lex Luthor. He still did as he damn well pleased. He allotted a small glance at the expanse of bare skin and gave a quirk of a grin at the sight of the edge of the tattoo he'd had a glimpse of before - the Jabberwocky. The fearsome beast seemed such an unusual choice of imagery to be emblazoned on the skin of such a delicate creature, he mused as made the tiniest of movements with his fingertip along one of the tattoo's ornate lines. For a brief moment mid-conversation, he briefly met her gaze, and though there was a glint of annoyance at the positioning of his hand, it was reserved only for him - she played the game, turning back to laugh and rub elbows as though she truly wanted to be here... as though he'd not had to practically force her to attend.

His priorities shifted, however, at the moment the clock changed to a quarter past nine - the mingling was in full swing, but Lex's eyes darted over to a man in standing by the refreshments table. He drummed his fingertips on the small of Claire's back to get her attention as she was still speaking to the group, though the gesture quickly caused her to turn her face to him.

"Claire - would you mind keeping them company for a few moments?" he asked with forced calm - and Claire knew very well when his calm was forced. "Really must make the rounds with a few other guests and a host can only be in so many places once. At the moment," he added with a chuckle, removing his hand from her back and now putting both hands in his pockets. Claire's forehead wrinkled briefly - technically, she was a guest as well - but she knew well enough that now was not the time to initiate a confrontation.

"Of course, Mister Luthor," she said with a prim and proper smile. "Your guests are in good hands."

Claire kept an eye on Lex from the corner of her eye - his interactions seemed benign enough as he moved from person to person in greeting. She noticed, however, the way his eyes consistently checked the room in one particular area where he seemed to be making a beeline towards.

"Miss Branigan?"

She flinched a bit when she realized that Bruce Wayne had addressed her directly - Mr. Wayne, moreso than Lex Luthor, gave her a sense of answering to a boss. "Mister Wayne, I'm sorry," she said with a weak chuckle. "I think I was just a little distracted."

"Of course. These parties are incredibly distracting - awful for conversation," he nodded graciously before taking a sip from his drink. "You know, it's a pleasure to finally meet you. I've heard good things about you."

"You have?" she asked, her brow knitting in confusion. "From... Mister Luthor? I've only been his nurse for a day, I doubt he'd have a vast breadth of feedback yet -"

"From Doctor Thompkins," Bruce said with a brief chuckle at Claire's confused expression. "Doctor Leslie Thompkins? She has only praises to sing of her favorite volunteer at the Clinic."

"Really?" Claire asked, her attention suddenly yanked away from Lex and to this conversation with Bruce Wayne - there was a familiarity, Claire realized, as though this were not their first interaction, but she was quick to attribute it to the fact that she too had heard a great deal about him from working in the clinic he owned, named after his late father.

"Oh, absolutely. She's hoping you eventually bite the bullet and get your nurse practitioner license so you can start taking patients. Apparently, they love you," Bruce said with a quirk of his mouth on one side. "She'd like to see you as a full-fledged partner at the clinic before she retires. Doctor Thompkins would like to see the clinic left in good hands when that day comes, but I'm hoping it's not coming anytime soon yet."

"My time is a little occupied lately, I'm afraid," Claire admitted, shaking her head and laughing gently. "Mister Luthor is an intelligent man, but he's certified for a nurse for a very good reason."

"Well," Bruce said, impressed by her answer, "here's hoping that he'll be back on his feet again soon." He slightly raised his glass, and Claire followed suit, gently clinking her glass of sparkling water against his glass of red wine. "Speaking of which," Bruce piped in suddenly, "we're celebrating Doctor Thompkins's twenty years of service to the clinic. I'm having a gathering as well - I've already invited Mister Luthor, and I'm sure his private nurse would be his obvious plus-one, but just in case..."

He reached into his pocket and retrieved a business card, holding it out to Claire, who accepted it in slight confusion - this was, perhaps, the most important business card she had ever received.

"If there's anything you need assistance with, or if you're ever prepared to take on a larger role with the clinic, please contact me directly," he said with smile and a nod. "I'd be happy to see what I can do."

"Of course. Thank you," Claire said, slightly breathless - and Bruce, in the corner of his mind, was relieved the see the younger woman regarding him with something rather than annoyance and disdain the way she regarded the Bat.

"I'm sure this is only a stepping stone for you, Miss Branigan," Bruce said, and Claire seemed momentarily unnerved by the fact that there was an almost apologetic quality to his voice in the statement. "I'm sure you won't be Mister Luthor's nurse forever."

"Here's hoping..."

A/N

Holy cow, guys! The support and feedback you guys have given since my last update has been amazing. I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you to everyone who took the time to review/follow/favorite, and those who read that I didn't hear from as well. I started this story a little impulsively, and it's all still coming together. I'm grateful you guys are liking it so far, and as I've said to a couple of you in review replies, I'll keep trying to deliver good-quality stuff. And to AloaloKeiki who messaged me back and asked where the romance was, it's coming! I'd just really like to also build the larger storyline at the same time. Thanks for sticking with me! Until next update (which I hope to have ready for you all in maybe 5 days, depending on how work and school treat me), cheers!