Disclaimer: I do not own anyone or anything from Iron Man or Smallville!

When Chloe arrived where she agreed to meet Tony, he had yet to arrive, but Pepper had warned her of that and so the blonde reporter took a seat before pulling out her laptop. She had just started it up when a shadow passed over the table. When she looked up expecting to see Tony Stark, she was a bit startled and nervous to see Lex Luthor standing over her with a smirk on his handsome face. Her first instinct was to come off as defensive, but she squashed that urge the best she could because if she upset Lex so much could go wrong. Chloe realized that she had to play nice in order to make sure she did not lose her interview with Tony. Plus if she played this right she may be able to get a quote from Lex which would please Perry and when Perry was happy, everyone else was happy as well.

"Hi Lex." She greeted as politely as possible considering how much she hated the man standing next to her. "I didn't expect to see you here."

"The same could be said about you." He replied before sitting down across from her without asking her if it was alright, but she hadn't expected anything less from the likes of him. "Usually you would be invading Clark's personal bubble and trying to get him to notice the fact that you are a female. Did he finally get tired of you following him around like a lost puppy? Is that the reason you are sitting here all by your lonesome?"

"She isn't here alone." The voice of Tony Stark came from behind them as he headed to the table before sliding in next to Chloe. He offered her one of his charming smiles and she felt herself smiling back at the face of Iron Man. "I'm sorry if I kept you waiting Ms. Sullivan; there was some business matters I had to tend to and it took a little longer than I had anticipated."

"It's not a problem." She assured him with a bright smile of her own. "You are a very busy man and Pepper let me know you may be a little late. I was just checking my email before Mr. Luthor showed up. We both lived there and grew up together."

Tony nodded though he could sense she wasn't telling him everything. He had known they had grown up together and had mutual friends for a while, but they had never actually been true friends and only put up with the other for the friends they had in common. The billionaire also knew that Lex had protected her from his father Lionel when she had gotten on the bad side of the older Luthor man, but after that they had little to no contact. He suspected it had something to do with the fact it happened right around the time Lex had started to get in to the darker side of his research and started acting less than noble or respectful. To put it in simpler terms, it was when Lex had started acting like a Luthor.

"Well I am glad the two of you had a chance to catch up, but I have some business with Ms. Sullivan Lex and with the conference coming up, I am sure you have some things you need to do. Remember we have to meet up later to discuss some final points before tomorrow so I will see you then." The dark haired man made it clear with the tone of voice he used that he wasn't asking.

"Of course." Lex stated after a moment which included a short stare down with the other man. "I will see you later. It was really nice seeing you Chloe, I do hope we will have the chance to catch up later or if not, I am sure we will run in to each other back home. Tell Clark I said hello and as for Oliver, well you can tell him I will be seeing him again very soon."

"I'll be sure to do that Lex." Chloe told him in a polite yet clipped tone. Once he had left she let out huge sigh of relief. "Thank you for the save. Usually I can handle Lex, but I think I was off my game today because I didn't expect to see him here. As you could probably tell, we aren't exactly the best of friends. We could have been at one point, I was willing to try, but that time has long since passed. I'm sorry about unloading my baggage on you, it was very unprofessional on my part. I know you are a busy man Mr. Stark, but I was hoping that we could talk in a more private setting before I have to head back to Smallville. It has nothing to do with your company or anything like that. Actually it has something to do with your other job and I'm sure you would rather we talk about that in private."

Tony knew almost instantly what she wanted to talk about and he didn't have to be a genius to figure it out. She wanted to discus Iron Man and he also knew why. When he had Jarvas run her name through the computer data base, he had discovered many things about the blonde reporter. For instance, not only was she friends with Clark Kent who also seemed to be around in times of danger and he would also somehow save the day, Chloe also happened to be close to Oliver Queen who was a good friend of his. They hadn't spoken much in the last few years since Oliver had made it clear he did not agree with Stark industries making weapons, but they hadn't cut off all communication. He knew his longtime friend was also the Green Arrow, head of what they called the Justice League. Perhaps they needed help with a mission or maybe they wanted some of the technology he used as Iron Man. Whatever they wanted, it meant spending more time with the mysterious Chloe Sullivan and for that reason alone he would listen to what she had to say.

"How about we meet up for a late dinner after my meeting with Lex?" He suggested before taking a sip of the coffee he had ordered a few minutes earlier. "I would suggest we do it now, but I have some errands I have to run and I am sure you have something you need to do. I spoke with Pepper before I came here and if I was wrong and you are not busy, she would love to give you an interview and I gave her permission to give you a private tour of Stark Industries in a way nobody else has gotten to see it. I thought it might help you with your article if you were able to see a side of the company nobody else has. Is that something you would be interested in? If yes, I will call Pepper now and have her send a car for you."

Chloe felt her eyes light up and the prospect of a private tour. "That would be absolutely amazing and I can't thank you enough for this. Despite what everyone says about you, you are a good man, a true hero. I have met my fair share of heroes Mr. Stark, yet not a one of them is quite as fascinating as I found you to be."

Taking her comment as a compliment he winked at her. "If you find me fascinating now then you really are in for the time of your life and you can count on that because I am Tony Stark and I always deliver."

TBC...

AN: Hi everybody, I know that I haven't updated for a while and I truly am sorry for that. As most of you already know, I need a liver transplant and for those of you who did not know that, well now you do. i have had some very serious and life threatening complications because of my illness including an aneurism and some other things that would take forever to explain, but I will try to update when I can though it may be slow since lately I have been taking a few days off of writing since I get exhausted so easily these days. Anyways, I really hope you liked this chapter and I would love to hear your thoughts. Also, I would like to hear your ideas on who I should pair Pepper with. I was thinking Oliver or one of the JL, but if you have ideas I would love to hear them.

Please R&R like always!