Lex encountered very few barriers in Claire's transition into a leadership role in the pharmaceutical division of LexCorp - his word, after all, was law, and his word had been that Claire was to be welcomed without question and allotted the amount of respect appropriate to her station.
Her first assignment had been to conduct a needs assessment for her proposed program, and for nearly a week, she had been up to her eyes in reports on common causes of death in Metropolis, and on the most in-demand medications. As Lex had promised - or, perhaps more appropriately, threatened - he and Claire had commuted into the office together every day, and he had admittedly taken note of her valiant efforts to do well on this project.
This was among the things he valued about her - whatever her initial motivations were that got her into situations, she never took them lightly. Duty was duty, and that, Lex decided, was an honorable value to possess. The immediate consequence of her undaunted dive into her new assignment, however, was that she ended nearly every day utterly exhausted. There'd been multiple instances that she'd been so soundly asleep in the passenger seat that Lex took the long way home, if only for the purpose of being around her peacefully in a manner he had not been able to since their return from Central City.
He had missed this.
One of the added benefits of this circumstance, however, was that when Claire slept, she slept heavy, which left an opening for Lex to conduct his business as he pleased without involving her in it. Their relationship was still without a doubt tenuous, and he certainly saw no need in making her privy to anything she could not yet handle.
This evening in particular, Lex was waiting by the front door, watching for the arrival of a familiar car - he opened the door to greet the new arrival, rather than running the risk of the doorbell going off and waking Claire. Lubrano stepped out of his beat up, blacked out Nova and walked up to the door, strangely cautious. He tilted his head in a half-bow as he stepped lightly up the steps to meet Lex Luthor, shaking his hand.
"Thank you, thank you, good sir," Lex said in a sing-song voice, gesturing Lubrano inside. "So good to welcome you to my humble abode. Come in."
"I don't think that's necessary."
"Well, that's where you are incorrect, Mister Lubrano, which is why you should allow me to do the thinking, hm?" Lex chuckled, cocking his head to one side. "Come in. I insist."
Lex showed Lubrano to the room he favored for important interactions - the study - and gestured for him to have a seat. While getting to pouring Lubrano a glass of bourbon, he hummed quietly to himself before glancing back over his shoulder at his guest. "I hope you brought the information I requested."
"For my contact in Cape Verde who's handling the shipment? Yes," Lubrano said, taking the drink offered to him by Lex Luthor, only taking a sip after Lex did first. "But as discussed, this information comes at -"
"A price, of course," Lex said with a laugh and dismissive wave of his hand before reaching into the inner pocket of his jacket and pulling out an envelope. Lubrano eagerly, almost hungrily snatched it from Lex's hand and opened it to thumb through the hundred dollar bills inside. Five stacks. Fifty thousand dollars. Lex kept his hand outstretched and made a come-hither gesture, irking his eyebrow expectantly. Lubrano hesitated slightly before reaching into his own pocket and handing a slip of paper to Lex. He immediately took it, and pulled out his phone to dial it. He couldn't, after all, let the man get away with providing him false information. "Hello, hello - Alexander Luthor Junior. I hope you were expecting my call?"
Lubrano waited with gritted teeth, watching as Lex exchanged a few words over the phone on the number provided. Finally, Lex hung up and looked back at Lubrano with a vague grin. "Very good, my friend. Very good."
"I don't see why you couldn't just leave it to me to handle the transaction, Mister Luthor," Lubrano said shortly, taking another drink from his glass. "I'm handling affairs as quickly as possible."
"Don't be silly. This benefits us both - don't act like I've put you out of business," Lex snickered, tucking away his phone and the slip of paper. "I've paid you handsomely for this information and made your job infinitely easier, Mister Lubrano. Double the profit on half the work."
The two men stared one another down for a few moments in uncomfortable silence before Lubrano took the last swig of his bourbon and got to his feet. "I should be on my way, Mister Luthor."
"Are you sure?" Lex asked with a tilt of his head. "I'd hate to send you on your way if you've had a bit much to drink."
"I'm a grown man, Mister Liuthor," Lubrano chuckled smugly. "I can handle a drink."
"I'm sure you can, sir. I'm sure you can," Lex said, his smile twisting into a smirk, his eyes glinting slightly as he eyed Lubrano's movements. "I'll be in touch. Drive safe, now."
Lex made a bit of a show of walking Lubrano back to the front door, opening it for the man and waving him off into the night, watching as the old sketchy Nova departed from the driveway and down the hill outside of the wrought iron front gate. As Lex turned away from the door after Lubrano's departure, however, he saw Claire standing in the hallway just outside of her suite and staring at him questioningly - he tensed only momentarily, not having expected her, but quickly resumed his previous, casual stance.
"I've been watching the whole time. I was worried you'd poisoned the guy," Claire said honestly, taking a few small steps towards Lex, but maintaining a cautious distance.
"Oh, I did," Lex said offhandedly - almost brightly - as he walked over to Claire, crossing his arms and nodding as though he were proud of the fact. "He's just going to go into cardiac arrest on a secluded road somewhere between here and Gotham, and not on my kitchen floor. I certainly don't want to have to clean it up. I have work to do."
Lex reached into his pocket and looked at the slip of paper that Lubrano had given him with the contact information of the particular business associate he was trying to reach through Lubrano, gently holding up for Claire's scrutiny. "Sometimes you need to literally eliminate the middle man," he said.
Claire fought back the curling of her upper lip into a sickened sneer. She knew all along what kind of person Lex Luthor was, but she had never yet seen herself as being part of it. It had always been something she knew happened outside of her watch. Now, however, he proudly shared it with her. Like an accomplice. A partner.
She had everything she asked for - Lex had been true to his word of providing her with all the resources she needed to get her project under LexCorp Pharmaceuticals off the ground. The cost, however, was knowing that she received all of this in return for her willingness to turn a blind eye to the other aspects of his business, to not ask questions.
"Claire," Lex said, gently shuffling closer to her and crossing his arms again. "You know the world isn't a fair place. You said it yourself. We're just ants -"
"Don't use what I said against me, Lex. I know what I said," Claire said stiffly, as though physically holding back nausea.
"You," Lex began, reaching out and gently tapping his index finger on Claire's forehead, "are one of the most intelligent women I've ever met. You understand. If you don't want to be stepped on, then you need to be the one doing the stepping," he said in an almost sing-song tone. "Lubrano was going to bleed us dry. Us," Lex said, leaning his face in so that he was only about a centimeter from hers. "I protect what's mine. That's why you're here, isn't it?"
Because, Lex thought to himself and Claire practically saw through his eyes, you're mine.
Claire jolted slightly, taking a step back and staring at Lex, unsure of whether she felt confusion or anger at the thought of being his - or if she felt something else entirely. She opened her mouth and attempted to speak, to respond, but when words didn't come, she was surprised when Lex reached out and grabbed her by the hand, pulling her down the main corridor of the mansion towards the stairs to the utility kitchen - to the door next to the server room. Claire remembered this spot well - it was the door that he'd instructed her not to go past on her very first day in the mansion. It was time for a token gesture... and another test.
"I'm getting the impression that you have some... unanswered questions," Lex said offhandedly, reaching into his inner coat pocket and pulling out a key and opening the door. "And I want you to be nothing less than a full partner in my monkey business, Claire. So..."
He chuckled a little to himself before pushing open the door and revealing a computer control room with a large screen and an extensive panel of controls. He laid his palm on the panel and a light came on while it scanned his handprint.
"...welcome to my inner sanctum," Lex said with an almost dreamy grin, his gaze fixated and his face illuminated by the large screen, which immediately powered up to reveal the LexCorp logo. The door automatically shut behind Claire, which caused her to jump slightly in surprise and wheel around with the brief consideration of trying to walk out of the room until she thought better of it.
As angry as she was with Lex, Claire understood what was happening. Bit by bit, he was showing his most valuable secrets - he was still testing her, and always would, but only did so out of two emotions: first suspicion that she would not pass the tests, and second, hope that she would.
"This is why Bruce Wayne sent you to keep an eye on me - because he knows that I'm very good at doing my homework on people," Lex said casually, still standing as he used the navigation pad on the control panel to pull up a certain folder in particular. "I've made great strides in compiling data on potential metahumans here on Earth. Where they're hiding. What they're capable of. He got his hands on what I had, months ago..."
The screen began flicking through a summary of files contained within the folder, and Claire felt her chest tighten at the sight of a few familiar faces. Clark Joseph Kent, deceased. Diana Prince, the woman from inside the car when she'd first encountered Batman. Barry Allen, the young junior CSI that she'd met at Wayne Manor. Claire felt a little sick, realizing how far Bruce Wayne's plans had reached without her knowing she was a part of them.
"And Mister Wayne is already well on his way to gathering up quite a posse - but this is old data," Lex said with a knowing smirk before navigating to a set of files contained on a different server - one that Bruce Wayne had not managed to access on the night he infiltrated the Luthor Mansion server room. "It turns out that you don't become all powerful without making a few enemies."
And now, a new flurry of names and faces began tiling in the folder on the screen. Leonard Snart, Central City. David M., Cape Verde. Priscilla Rich, Washington D.C. The first name, Claire realized she recognized from their night in Central City - a night that she now could no longer think of without some lingering sense of turmoil. Lex turned to her and adjusted himself so that they were facing one another directly.
Claire could see, beneath the facade of the evil genius, he was desperately clawing for her acceptance - she could see that he would not have shown her to this room without the expectation of trustworthiness. Lex, in turn, saw the softening of her expression as her gaze flicked back and forth between him and the screen.
"I had initially meant to expose these metahumans for the threat that they are," Lex said offhandedly. "But it now appears that Mister Wayne has his own intentions for the use of that information - and I cannot leave myself unprotected."
"Cape Verde," Claire repeated with a deep breath. "The shipment from Cape Verde was never an antique, was it?" she asked. "It was a person. This... David M."
"Precisely. And because Lubrano got greedy, the arrangement of the arrival of this particular shipment has been woefully delayed," Lex said with a gesture of his forefinger. "But that will soon be remedied."
"Lex, you just murdered someone -"
"No, I just killed someone," Lex corrected, closing his eyes and holding up a hand to silence Claire. "It's only murder when you're convicted and I never will be."
"Is that so?" Claire asked, her eyes narrowing in disdain. "Because for someone as afraid as you are of prison, you're playing awfully fast and loose with the possibility of going back, Lex -"
"Lubrano is going to die in a car crash, and he's going to have a blood alcohol level well above the legal limit. The real cause of death is going to be a special synthetic toxin formulated by yours truly that no one has knowledge of or means to test for," Lex interrupted, rambling rapidly. "So the only way I could go from being a killer to being a murderer is if someone in this room sings like a little bird. Does that sound like something that you would do, Claire?"
"No, it does not sound like something I would fucking do, Lex," Claire sneered, leaning close to Lex to make sure the point was made - it made no sense, because telling would be without a doubt the right thing to do, but it deeply offended her that he would accuse her of being willing to do it. "But I'm scared for you, alright? You're getting in over your head and you're not going to be able to dig your way out -"
"I don't need anyone to be scared for me -"
"Well, too bad," Claire interrupted with a slicing gesture of her hand, now clearly having had enough. "The past few months, I have done nothing except do what I could to keep your safe and you've been down here trying to play mastermind because it gives you a little bit of a power high -"
"A power high?" Lex asked, his eyes narrowing - he took a few steps forward so that he was again hovering over Claire's more petite form, staring her down questioningly. "You think this is that menial? You think I would waste my time on something that was not on the level of earth-shattering," he asked in a near-snarl. "This is about balance. Every force requires an opposing force to keep it in balance. That's what protects the powerless - and there is to date no force that opposes the conglomerate of power that Bruce Wayne is putting together, just like there was no force to oppose Superman. And that is where I come in. Because I'm the only one who sees it, Claire."
Silence settled between the pair as it frequently had in recent days - they stood on thin ice, poised precariously between the intimacy of what they'd shown of themselves in Central City and the reality of the lives they led at home in Metropolis. Claire opened her mouth and was prepared to try to speak, but found herself interrupted - she was forced to brace herself onto the table when she felt the ground beneath them begin to shake - first subtly, then violently.
Claire reflexively dropped to the ground and made her way under the table as the ground continued shaking - the monitors mounted on the walls and the tower-high shelves of server equipment groaned and clinked as the violent shaking of the ground continued prying them loose.
The next few moments felt as though they were moving forward in slow motion - Claire quickly realized that Lex had frozen in place without any idea of what to do, his eyes darting around at the unsteady fixtures around him. The overhead light fixture came loose at one end, and, seeing the other side beginning to give way as well, Claire came out from under the table, getting to her feet slightly to grab Lex's arm and pull him down to the ground so they could take cover underneath the table.
"Didn't they teach you what to do during in earthquake in kindergarten?"
"I had a private tutor, I didn't go to kindergarten!"
Claire panted slightly and held onto one of the bolted down legs of the table as the shaking continued, flinching with every clash and clang of the equipment falling down on top of the table. Lex followed suit in holding onto a leg of the table, but found himself puzzled by the fact that Claire had sounded genuinely fearful.
Releasing the leg of the table she was holding onto, even as the ground though the ground was still shaking, Claire crawled across the floor to him, her gaze focused - she reached out and pushed his hair away from his face, looking him over with great concentration and intention.
"Are you hurt?" she asked, grabbing Lex's hands and glancing them over as well, then brushing his shoulders which were smattered with flakes of paint and debris. It was only when the ground finally stopped completely in its shaking and the crashes stopped that both Lex and Claire realized that this was the first she had touched him again since they'd gotten off of the jet from Central City.
"I'm... fine," Lex said, and for a moment, Claire pulled back and the pair simply looked at one another. Fear and desperation brought out the side of people that was real, and this was real. Claire cleared her throat and got back to her feet, getting out from under the table, back to her feet. Lex came out from under the table and had the opportunity for a few seconds to survey damage - nothing drastic, nothing that could not eventually be replaced, but a definite inconvenience. However, before he could give a complete appraisal, he felt a swat on his shoulder - he wheeled around to see Claire eyeing him with annoyance. It was not anger - but more exasperation. Frustration.
"You can't just freeze like that - you scared me," Claire said in tight, higher-pitched tone, shaking her head fervently. "God, Lex..."
She gave a frustrated groan and moved past the fallen fixtures to force the door back open, striding out of the control room and back up to the main hallway, back into her room. Lex followed her out, admittedly confused by her actions, and realized she had left the door to the room open, having gone inside to turn on the television set to the news. Her actions left him again with that unsettled feeling of wondering why it seemed to matter so much what he did - what could have happened to him. She avoided eye contact with him as she turned up the volume of the television set.
"This just in from our sister networks in the Midwest," the newscaster said, her expression grave. "A series of earthquakes have been hitting across the country, in locations that are not connected by any known faultlines. The United States Geological Survey is currently investigating the conditions of these quakes, and we'll keep our viewers posted as details arise."
"It's happening..." Lex muttered under his breath. "It's finally happening."
Claire turned around to see Lex looking pale, but at the same time with a strange smile tugging at his lips - and seeing him this way was something that unsettled Claire immensely. Moments ago, she had been frustrated with him, but now, the familiar sense of worry washed over her as she walked back across the room to stand in front of him.
"Lex?"
The sound of his voice from her mouth, spoken in that tone, never failed in pulling Lex out of his dazes. He snapped to attention and stared at her questioningly - the only coherent thoought that formed in his mind was the thought of wondering where such an emotion was coming from.
"Why do you do that?" He asked through slightly gritted teeth, his brow furrowing. "Why are you looking at me that way -"
"Because I'm scared for you!" Claire said with a wide, frustrated gesture of her arms. "Because I'm worried about you!"
"Why?"
At this, Claire froze again - a small part of her, buried deep in her mind, had a very simple answer, but it was not an answer that she was ready to give him to use as a weapon for future use. Not now. Not yet. Her jaw clenched slightly, and she shook her head dismissively. Apart from this answer, there was nothing else she could offer - it was no longer a job. This was a choice, and one she could not explain why she was making.
"I don't want anything to happen to you," she said stiffly. "If I did, I wouldn't be doing any of this."
And that was all. Claire was not one to talk about her own feelings, and of all the places she could start, it wasn't going to be with Lex Luthor. Not now. She took care of other people's feelings, made other people feel safe. She didn't seek that out from others. It was just the way of things.
Lex may not have been the most receptive of individuals when it came to the feelings of others, but he was not blind. Claire didn't need to say any more. Lex again closed the space between them and walked over, placing his hands with surprising softness on either side of Claire's face, tilting her face up so she had no choice but to look at him.
And for the first time in what had been days but had felt like years, he briefly pressed his lips to hers.
"Every king," he began, raising his eyebrows gently and nodding slightly as he spoke after pulling back, taking advantage of Claire's stunned silence, "needs a queen. And you, Claire, are mine. Didn't I tell you that everything was about balance? It was something my father lacked," Lex added before he could help himself. He withdrew his hands, running one over his hair and then shoving them into his pockets. Claire saw the sudden shift in him - the sense of being overcome with agitation and fear, his eyes flitting around as though he could be heard by someone just for having mentioned his father.
"Lex -"
"If my mother had been alive - if she'd balanced all of my father's roughness and power and..." Lex's voice trailed off, and Claire felt a slight chill as slowly, pieces of a theory she had slowly been piecing together in the time she had known Lex were beginning to come together. There was a reason he didn't understand the concept fo being cared for, there was a reason he did not sleep even in his own home, there was a reason he always tested and never trusted. And there was a look in Lex's eyes when he looked at Claire now, almost as though daring her to ask.
Not daring. Asking. Pleading. Some part of him wanted to be asked - a feeling Claire knew well. A feeling of just wanting an invitation to say everything and be rid of it, even when you know you would never actually be rid of it.
And Claire came close to complying until another abrupt buzz came from the television set which was still on, and both Claire and Lex turned to face it as the newscaster reappeared.
"This just in," she spoke up again. "The USGS has confirmed that the latest in the string of widespread earthquakes were centered in Central City, Missouri, and in Smallville, a rural town in Lowell County, Kansas that's known as the Meteor Capital of the World."
And again, Lex took pause in hearing the news, while Claire realized that she had missed the opening - but she stored her questions away in the back of her mind. Lex crossed his arms over himself in an almost defensive, protective stance while he regarded the television screen, and Claire immediately recognized how quickly the events of the evening were unraveling - how overloading it had to be for him, despite his insistence that he was in control of every moving piece.
By now, Claire understood that Lex needed to believe this, and she had more reason than ever to justify her actions. He did need her. Claire knew on some level that this cat-and-mouse, this ebb-and-flow, was something that couldn't last. She knew that straddling the line without choosing whether or not she was with him would only wreck them both. He was too vulnerable and she was too frank for these kind of games. A choice had to be made, and made soon. Made now.
"Listen," she said with a heaving sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose and gently shutting her eyes. "I'm really tired. I think I've had enough for the day."
Lex eyed her with a small amount of confusion at the fact that she had no more fight left in her - she had simply dropped the subject. Every subject. She no longer wanted to discuss what had happened to Lubrano, or what she had seen in the control room, or his near-slip about his father. She had nothing else to say.
For the first time, Lex felt a genuine sneaking suspicion that he was losing her. However, her resignation seemed to creep into him as well, and he gave a short curt nod, turning around and starting for the door.
He'd miscalculated, he started to think. Lex began to realize that if he was losing her now, after he had made her privy to the inner workings of his plans, things would need to become messy. Things would need to fall apart, and they would need to be cleaned up afterwards.
"Lex?"
He visibly flinched, having just stepped outside of the guest suite and placed his hand on the edge of the door to close it behind him when Claire's voice said his name - said it in that tone - again. He turned around and saw her sitting on the edge of the bed, gently wringing her hands in her lap.
"Maybe," she said, her face somewhere between frowning and peaceful blankness. "You - you know what, never mind."
"What?"
"I was just wondering. Maybe you could stay here?" she asked with feigned nonchalance, attempting to shrug but instead managing only to look forced and jerky in her movements. "I just... you know. In case something happens again. Safety in numbers."
Lex noted another first - the first time anyone had actually asked him to stay with them, rather than letting him leave with a sigh of relief, rather than openly wanting him to leave. He gave a cough-like, dismissive laugh but stepped back into the room, closing the door behind him. Claire managed a small, lopsided grin and nodded for him to join her on the bed.
Lex would be the first to say that he was wholly unaccustomed to people surprising him. However, once he was again pressed close to the warmth of Claire's small figure, his arm draped over her waist, the scent of her hair again filling his lungs as he breathed in, he decided that in some instances, being surprised by a person was not necessarily a failure on his part. Sometimes, in very rare, infinitesimally seldom moments, there were people who were perhaps worth trusting.
A/N
A lot of the reviews have said that they hope that Lex and Claire get somewhere more stable than the will-they/won't-they dynamic that's characterized their relationship up until now, and that's the direction we're going to take for a while anyway - it's still going to be a bumpy ride, but we're entering a new phase in the journey, so hopefully it's up to snuff!
I'm going to be gone for a while on vacation so I'm not sure when the next update will be. I might be able to get the next chapter out while I'm away - it is mostly setup and some interesting conversations that put things into motion for future big events. So, stay tuned! As always, thank you thank you thank you for all of your feedback and support! I'd love to hear from you while I'm on my trip, so feel free to reach out in the form of reviews or any interaction on Tumblr. Until next time, cheers!