"No - no, we have to play," Claire said, waving her hand dismissively. "I can't believe you've never played before. Mister! Excuse me!"
Claire was in the process of sweetly but somewhat loudly getting the attention of the bartender at the hotel bar after having already had a couple of shots. She had offhandedly mentioned that the last time she'd had more than one shot of Patron was back in college when she was living away from Metropolis, playing Never Have I Ever with some of her old roommates. It was another time, she explained, and she had been so excited to get out from under her mother's thumb that she'd gone the whole nine yards.
So that was where the tattoo came from, Lex was able to conclude - and he had a brief, fleeting moment of curiosity wherein he very much wanted to see the tattoo again.
When he'd offhandedly dropped the fact that he'd never played Never Have I Ever before, though, Claire - after two shots already - was unable to let it go and was now in the process of flagging down the bartender. As much as she was the level-headed voice of reason under normal circumstances, Lex quickly realized that a few drinks made her considerably more difficult to keep up with.
And here they were now at a hotel bar with a line of shotglasses in front of them, with Claire looking particularly pleased with herself - likely amused by the fact that she had gotten high, mighty entrepreneur Lex Luthor to indulge in something so lowly as a frat drinking game.
"So this is how it works," Claire said with a bright grin on her face that left Lex with an unshakeable sense of unfamiliarity. He had never seen her smiling like this - certainly not with him.
No one had ever smiled like that just being with him. Lex Luthor had come to terms with the fact that he was an unsettling person, and had come to regard it as both an inevitability and an asset. Now, to have someone seem to actually be happy in his presence - because of it and not in spite of it - was foreign and unsettling itself.
"So first, I say," she drawled, looking upwards in thought and resting her elbow on the bar so she had an arm to hold up her head, "Never have I ever..."
"I don't want to play this game," Lex said abruptly. It wasn't that he wasn't familiar with the game - he hadn't been raised underneath a rock. It was that he never had people to play games with. It was that there were a great deal of things that he had never done. Claire's brow knitted questioningly, but she shrugged, seeming none too bothered.
"Fine," she said, reaching over and taking a shot herself. "Then we can just talk."
"We can talk about you," Lex suggested, glancing over at the shots almost hesitantly before reaching out to take one himself. This certainly wasn't something within his usual zone of comfort. He knew how to take a casual drink in the study - bourbon, neat like his father. But this casual, free, unrestrained kind of frivolity with someone close to his own age, performed with the intention of letting go of his meticulously maintained persona was a different beast entirely. "Didn't you say before that I knew nothing about you?"
"I was wrong," Claire said, rolling her eyes. "I get it, you know everything. Lex Luthor is all-knowing, all-seeing -"
"No, I think it was a perfectly valid observation. Perhaps I don't know what really matters about you, Claire," he said. Claire's expression fell, even through her inebriated haze, at the possible insinuation of the statement, but by the looks of it, there was no sense of suspicion or incrimination. "And if we're going to be working together for a long time, I think I should."
"Fine," Claire said yet again, grinning and shifting her weight on the barstool so that she was now facing him, leaning into their conversation with one hand resting on his leg. "Ask away."
"Tell me more about your mother," he said, tilting his head to one side and gently narrowing his eyes in scrutiny, testing what kind of response it would elicit from her. He saw her upper lip curl gently into a sneer as she gently pulled away from him, now resting her hands on either side of her own bar stool and crossing her legs.
"About my mother?" she scoffed, shaking her head in confusion. "Like how... how sometimes I still feel like I can hear her voice in my head? What do you think you're doing, Claire? Stop being so childish, Claire. Don't you see how hard it is to be your mother, Claire? It's for your own good, Claire," she rambled in a nasal, mocking, bitter tone. Lex's eyebrows jumped slightly in surprise at her sudden candor, but he made no move to stop her disclosures. This was what he wanted - to see that she was human - and yet he felt wholly unprepared for it. "That's why I left Metropolis - I couldn't wait to get away from her. I couldn't stand her anymore. That's why I wasn't around when my father got out..."
Her voice trailed off, and her expression turned to one of pain and guilt for a moment before she reached over for another full shotglass, downing it before she could be convinced otherwise.
"I left because being home with her was too hard for me," she shrugged, grimacing slightly at the burn of the alcohol down her throat, though after having had a few already, the sensation was very much diminished. "I guess the apple didn't fall so far from the tree after all. I'm not that different from her and that's what sucks. You try to get away from what you are, but it's already what you are and that's it," she said with a slicing motion of her hand and a fervent shake of her head. "This is you and you can't do anything about it. You're an ant. You're an ant walking around in the world just trying not to get stepped on, but in the end, you almost always do."
Lex couldn't help but feel that he'd never heard anything more true from anyone else's mouth. This side of Claire - this humanity, this weakness, this vulnerability - seemed only to cement his concept of her as somehow being a necessary part of his existence. Mercy Graves had been a good assistant - dutiful, well-trained, and efficient in nearly every situation. But Mercy had never created this sense of symbiosis, of existing on the same plane as him, as though she were some kind of vessel to contain his thoughts when they became too much for him. She, too, felt like an ant in a world that was filled with bigger beings - and she, like him, felt resentment towards her smallness.
But simultaneously came the realization that he was also on a tight timetable, and some things took priority. He had come to Central City for a specific reason, and that reason could not wait - especially not now, when Bruce Wayne was so far ahead of him.
"I think you're drunk," he said, leaning over and placing a hand on Claire's knee. "You need to go lie down."
"No," she said, and Lex couldn't restrain a note of laughter at the fact that her face, usually calm like still water, had twisted into a slight pout. Vaguely, it registered in her mind that this was not the first time Lex Luthor had appeared to actually show concern for her, and in her mind, concern was the only form of affection she genuinely understood. "I don't think so. I'm not ready to -"
"I think you are," he interrupted. "I definitely think you are."
And without further waiting for any sign of agreement, Lex got up from his seat and gently pulled her to her feet - she stumbled slightly and nearly toppled until Lex caught her as she fell. He smirked, cocking his head to one side. "See? Like you said earlier. Lex Luthor is all-seeing."
"Whatever."
She struggled to brace herself again on her own two feet, but Lex admittedly very much welcomed her leaning gently into him as they made their way to the elevator, all the way up to the penthouse suite, far above the rest of Central City.
Even in her stupor, Claire stared around their surroundings in disbelief, strolling right up to the large bay window that spanned nearly an entire wall, gently resting her hands on the glass. "This is crazy," she said with a quiet laugh to herself. "We're staying here?"
"That would explain why all of our things are here, yes," Lex pointed out. Claire turned around and saw that the overnight back she had packed was indeed situated in a corner by the coat closet. "We have breakfast in the morning, so I'd advise you get started on your beauty rest before I'm dragging a hung-over Cousin It to breakfast in the morning," Lex advised, taking the liberty of walking over to her bag and producing her sleeping clothes, handing them over to her.
She deftly got changed, slipping an old t-shirt over her dress and putting on the cotton shorts before tugging the dress off from the bottom. And, just as Lex expected, within minutes she had curled up on her side in bed and fallen asleep.
Once she was surely sound asleep and definitely snoring, Lex checked the time on his phone and slowly hit the button to dial the last saved number from his messages, waiting for the answer - it came midway through the second ring. Good. Lex was not fond of being kept waiting.
"Lubrano," he said in a low voice, making sure not to speak loudly enough that it would wake Claire. "Kitchen entrance of the Waterfront Hotel, as scheduled. Be there."
He ended the call and cast another glance to Claire, who was still asleep and completely oblivious, before walking over to his own bag and pulling out a tightly stuffed mailer envelope and slipping on his coat, tucking the mailer into his pocket. His eyes darted around furtively before he turned off the lights in the room and made for the door once again, gently shutting it behind him.
The slight sounds of the door, however, succeeding in doing what Lex's brief phone conversation had not. Claire gave a small, quiet groan, rolling onto her other side in the dark and glancing around the room which was only illuminated now by the city lights through the bay window. Her face shifted into a slight frown as she realized she was alone. Her mind vaguely registered that whatever the reason was for Lex's sudden absence was the ultimate reason they had come to Central City, and there was some vague inkling of disappointment, but she could spare no other reaction before once again succumbing to sleep.
Lex, meanwhile, was making his way out of the hotel, taking the elevator down only a few levels before exiting and moving to the back staircase that was generally only for staff or for emergency escape. Descending the rest of the way on foot, he made his way to the back exit and around the back alley to the kitchen door, standing under the single flickering light mounted on the outer wall, his hand resting on the envelope in the inner pocket of his coat.
When a figure turned the corner at the end of the alleyway, despite the fact that Lex was reaosnably certain who it was, he felt a strong pull of caution, of defensiveness - he only relaxed slightly at the visual confirmation that it was, in fact, Lubrano.
"You know what to do," Lex said simply, handing the mailer envelope to the tan-skinned Lubrano, who nodded and tucked the parcel away in his own pocket. "I want this to be clean. Seamless," Lex reminded him, grabbing a hold of Lubrano's wrist and making certain that he had eye contact to emphasize the fact that failure to comply would be unacceptable. "And make sure Mister Snart - only Mister Snart - is informed that it came from me."
"Consider it done, Mister Luthor," Lubrano said in his accented tone, nodding in what almost resembled a bow - Lex couldn't say that he didn't enjoy the gesture a little bit.
"Good," he said with a Cheshire Cat grin. "And then you can get back to acquiring my Cote d'Ivoire shipment."
"And the matter of compensation?"
"Deposited in your account as we speak," Lex replied quickly. "Impatient, aren't we?"
"Just a matter of security," Lubrano said matter-of-factly. "I do good work, Mister Luthor. And it comes at a price."
"I'll keep that in mind," Lex said, grinning with a smile that did not reach his eyes - his gaze was steely and determined, like drills boring holes into the man in front of him. Lex Luthor was happy for pay handsomely for the goods and services he needed, but he had no patience when his associates became too greedy. It appeared that Lubrano had just entered these murky waters. "You may go."
Now divested of the goods he had handed off to Lubrano, who took off as quickly as he came, Lex started along the circuitous route back to the penthouse suite. He entered slowly and stealthily, relaxing as he found Claire still sleeping in the bed but having adjusted herself to take up a good amount of space. He smirked slightly to himself and slipped off his shoes and jacket before coming around to the other side of the bed. He first sat on the edge, then swung his legs onto the bed as well, turning his body to face Claire as she slept.
This encounter tonight with Lubrano had served as a reminder that trustworthy allies were hard to come by - that people came together out of utility and betrayed one another out of utility. Men were disloyal by their very nature, and Lex had structured his entire approach to the world on this tenet. Claire was one of the few people that he would admit did not seem to abide by these same rules, and for this, she was perhaps his most valuable asset.
He paused and stared for a short while, his face twisted into a pensive frown. He raised his hand and ran it over her hair with an uncharacteristic, feather-light touch. Lex was coming to see her as being so... vulnerable. So human. And moreover, these vulnerabilities were things he felt perhaps only he was privy to, as though her secrets were slowly becoming his as well, as though she were starting to belong to him.
If to Claire, caring meant concern and protectiveness, to Lex, it meant possession. Caring about someone was an obsession - a need to wholly have and own them. Control was one thing, and Lex was no stranger to being in control of others, but never had he experienced having someone. Claire was, he realized, rapidly working her way towards being the first.
A/N
Short chapter, but again, the next one will be posted soon to make up for the lack of length. And, for those of you who are rooting for Lex and Claire to really make the leap, you will likely be pleased with next chapter. Again, thank you as always for your amazing feedback - it was particularly enthusiastic and detailed this time around and gave me a really good glimpse at what's working. You all are the best!
Until next time, cheers!