1: Lead

The sharp knock at the door surprises Lex. He's new to Smallville, and the only visitor he's had so far is Clark Kent, life-saver and teenage enigma, coming to return Lex's clearly inadequate "thank you for saving my life" gift of a brand-new pickup truck. The only other visitor Lex can imagine is his father, come to gloat about Lex's banishment from Metropolis, so upon hearing the knock, he tenses.

But it's not his father. Instead, the person haunting his study doorway is a slim, blonde-haired girl, probably eighteen or so. She's got a sly-but-nervous smirk, like a straight-A student experimenting with breaking the rules, and her hand rests confidently on the strap of a messenger bag, a ballpoint pen threaded through her fingers.

"Can I help you?" Lex asks mildly.

"Hi." Her smirk melts into a smile that's a little too wide and charming. The kind used for brown-nosing or playing innocent. "I'm Chloe Sullivan, a friend of Clark's. He told me I'd find you here."

Interesting.

Lex steps in front of his desk before leaning against it, crossing his arms but keeping his tone light. "How did you get past my security?"

At that, a pink blush takes hold in her cheeks, faint but noticeable. So she isn't as confident as she wants to pretend.

"I sort of . . . snuck in." Surging forward, she enters the room at last, dodging his chairs to stand right in front of him. She's shorter than he'd thought, falling about seven inches shy of his own height. "Look, I'm not here to cause any trouble. I'm a senior at Smallville High and Head Editor of The Torch. I would love—"

"A reporter." Lex's shoulders droop, and he turns away, curiosity killed. "Ms. Sullivan, was it? Feel free to show yourself back out."

He pours himself a brandy, swirling the glass once, but he doesn't hear her footsteps recede. After a sip, he turns back, eyebrows raised in silent question.

Chloe's smile has grown strained, but she keeps it plastered on with clear determination. "Mr. Luthor, I'm not some sleazy tabloid slinger at The Inquisitor or cutthroat columnist at The Daily Planet. I run a high school paper. I'm doing a piece for seniors about places here in town they can get jobs after graduation. Now, LuthorCorp provides the majority of jobs in this town—at the plant you now run. If you could spare just ten minutes, I would love to talk to you about what makes someone a good fit for LuthorCorp."

Despite himself, Lex softens. Most reporters come to him shouting accusations or oozing compliments, trying to trick him into personal interviews. If she's being honest, her plight isn't a threatening one, since she isn't trying to spy out the big exposé on Lex Luthor that will make her career. It's a big if—he has yet to meet any reporter with a shred of integrity.

But his curiosity has returned, and there isn't much to do in Smallville. Perhaps today is the day.

Lex makes a show of checking his watch, then lifts his eyes to meet hers. "Ten minutes, Ms. Sullivan."

Perhaps the most surprising thing thus far is how her smile relaxes at that, how it transforms from a false expression to one that lights her face and makes her green eyes sparkle. It's not very often that Lex does something to garner a genuine smile from someone else, and for just a moment, it steals his breath.

With his brandy glass, he gestures toward the sitting area next to his fireplace, and he takes a seat to be interviewed by Chloe Sullivan.

Lex Luthor. Man, myth, and mystery. Chloe tries not to show how her hands are shaking as she draws her notebook out of her bag. Not that she's intimidated by him—far from it. She's excited. The journalist in her is burningto know the secrets of the man sitting three feet away on a leather sofa. She can't believe Clark just happened to save the life of the heir to LuthorCorp's grand dynasty, and once again, she sends a silent thank you to her favorite plaid-clad farm boy for this golden opportunity.

She settles in her seat, clicks her pen. "Let's start with the basics. Mr. Luthor, are there any job openings at the Smallville plant, and if so, what kind of workers are you looking for?"

They go back and forth on easy questions like that, and he gives her rote answers—the standard propaganda any company uses to attract new hires. He delivers it charmingly, at least, with a slight drawl in his voice and an easy confidence to his tone. Clearly, he's accustomed to interviews, to pressure, and to being the authority on a topic. Every now and then, his lazy fingers rotate his brandy glass on its coaster.

"Do you play piano?" Chloe asks while still jotting down his response to the previous question.

Lex raises his eyebrows. He's very expressive, yet surprisingly hard to read. If Chloe had to hazard a guess, she would say his expressiveness is a natural side-effect of his appearance. Lex is bald and clean-shaven. His eyebrows are the only hair on his head, and they're thin and pale, easy to miss. So there's nothing at all to distract from the long lines of his face, his straight nose, his piercing eyes. All his strongest features on display like steel armor. Would she say his eyes are blue or gray? It's hard to tell in the light.

"Excuse me?" Lex drawls.

"Do you play piano?" Chloe finishes her note with a flourish and uses her pen to point. "You have piano hands. Long fingers."

Lex looks down at his free hand, resting on his knee, and gives a quiet, amused snort. "Yes, Ms. Sullivan, I do."

"You do have long fingers or you do play piano?"

"Yes," he repeats, sipping his brandy. "What does this have to do with LuthorCorp?"

"Now that I know about the plant's capacity, needs, and purpose, I'm turning my attention to its supervisor." She poises her pen to write again. "Mr. Luthor, what are your hopes for your position here? What do you want to accomplish in Smallville?"

Lex is silent. She's finally provoked actual thought with a question rather than an autopilot response. Everything inside Chloe tingles as she waits.

This is the thrill of journalism. Truth is an unknown that has to be chased down, discovered, sometimes even wrestled into the light. That truth could be as big as a scandal that brings down a corrupt senator's entire career, or it could be as small as a billionaire playing a common instrument. Every tiny truth is a piece of greater understanding.

The tip of her pen presses into the paper, waiting.

Lex smiles. It's a hollow expression. "I'm only here to improve the town. As supervisor, I intend to make the Smallville plant the most successful it's ever been, which will open even more job opportunities to benefit the town."

Chloe frowns. Maybe there are seeds of truth in that—something about ambition and success—but it's buried deep. It's a façade.

"Are you happy to be here?" she asks.

"Of course," he says, far too quickly. She can see the strain along his jaw as he takes his next sip. He hates it here.

For some reason, that makes her smile. The big-city billionaire hating his new small-town life—meanwhile, he lives in a mansion at least six times the size of the next-biggest house in Smallville. Life is all about perspective.

"I'm glad you're here," says Chloe.

Something flashes in his eyes. He holds his expression carefully, as if afraid to reveal what he's thinking. "Why is that, Ms. Sullivan?"

With an impish grin, she taps the back of her pen against her notebook. "This is the most high-profile interview I've ever conducted, and I think it would have been much harder to sneak past the security at LuthorCorp headquarters in Metropolis."

Lex shows his amusement in a quick smile and a puff of exhalation. She's coaxed his sense of humor out a few times, but she has yet to hear him really laugh. Does he not like to laugh or is it forced composure?

Everything inside her itches to know the truth.

"How old are you?" she asks, intending to follow up with things like, Is this your first supervisor position, and such, before his answer stops her cold.

"Twenty-one."

"Twenty-one?" Her voice pitches too high. She clears her throat. "That young?"

The skin around his eyes tightens; she's offended him. After pursing his lips, he separates them with a quiet pop. "I'm sure I look much older. It's the baldness."

"It wasn't a comment on appearance," she rushes to clarify. "It was a comment on capacity. I mean, you're supervisor of an entire agricultural plant providing thousands of jobs to a community—you're poised to inherit what amounts to a corporate empire—and you're only three years older than me." She shakes her head, not at him but at herself. "I think, in three years, I'll be lucky to work in the basement of some newsroom, trying to prove I can do more than answer phones."

Lex relaxes again. "Well, at least no one will think you got that job through nepotism. Every step you climb on the journalistic ladder, people will know you earned."

Chloe moves her jaw, chewing on his answer, sifting out the truth. Nepotism—he's desperate to prove his personal worth, separate from his father's legacy. No one will think—he's afraid of how people perceive him. Maybe Lex Luthor left the big city because he's looking for a chance to be a new person.

"Well, Mr. Luthor . . ." She smiles. "I promise to keep a close eye on what you accomplish here in Smallville. If it's noteworthy, I'll make sure to report it."

"In your highly read school paper," he drawls.

She stiffens in her chair. Reality comes crashing back in, taking the three years between them and stretching that gap as wide as a lifetime—he's a billionaire playboy, heir to an empire, and she's a newspaper nobody, pouring her heart into articles she knows very well that nobody really reads.

Chloe clicks her pen. She snaps her notebook shut.

"Thank you for your time, Mr. Luthor. I have everything I need."

Leaving him with the perplexed look on his face, Chloe exits the Luthor mansion.

Note: This story is fully written and just needs to be edited, so I should have all of it up quickly. I'm in season six of Smallville, and I just couldn't stand the pain in my heart anymore, so I had to write an AU that allowed Lex a happy ending because my favorite boy was ROBBED. I really enjoyed the chemistry between Lex and Chloe at the end of season three, so everything unfolded from there.