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Chapter Text

Lex Luthor hated Superman.

Like hate hate. Not a certain kind of dislike, not a desperate act to cater public attention; just pure hate.

And he thought that he had made this very clear to the public eye.

Then what the fuck was he looking at?

Oooh When you wake up next to him in the middle of the night…

The clips of Lex Luthor with various pretty women he dated once followed one another on the screen of his phone.

With your head in your hands, you’re nothing more than his wife.

A clip of him holding his head in disbelief in a particularly heated talk show...

And when you think about me-

And now a mesmerizing clip of Superman turning to the reporters' microphone after saving the day once again. Ocean blue eyes squinted as he was smiling -like he always does- his dimples, again, on sight. Oh how Lex hated his face, especially those stupid stupid dimples.

All of those years ago…

A few clips from Lex Luthor’s hateful speeches appear in chronological order…

You’re standing face to face with “I told you so”.

This part made him audibly groan. It was edited, obviously. Him and Superman, shot from profile, facing each other and that was the last straw for Lex. He quit the app with a rageful swipe.

*****

“EVE!”

  As his assistant was expecting this mental breakdown it didn't take her long to rush into Lex’s office.

“Mr. Luthor?”

Oh he was red, the baldness made it more clear but again there was no doubt Lex Luthor was fuming with rage. Eve was thinking of ways to calm him down since the moment she watched the edit. To be honest it was a good edit, too good even. Good enough to turn Lex Luthor bright red.

“It’s not that bad.” she managed to say with a calming tone.

“Oh that is a relief!” he spoke mimicking the calm tone of Eve and then shouted.

“Are you fucking kidding me?! Who the hell made that video?!”

“Just some fangirl Mr. Luthor! You know Gen-Z! Everything is a joke for them...”

“It is not a joke for me! It is certainly not a fucking joke for me Eve! Did they do this to humiliate me? To-to make fun of me? Belittle me?”

Eve shook her head, she desperately needed to stop her boss from overthinking.

“I’m sure it’s not that serious Mr. Luthor. Teens… they like that kind of stuff, you know? Real life romance stories, enemies to lovers trop-”

“Enemies to what ?” 

His voice was cold and low. Eve gulped.

“N-nothing. I’m just saying don’t worry too much about it. This will be forgotten in no time.”

 Lex gripped the corners of his desk tightly and spoke through his gritted teeth.

“Have you seen the amount of views it got? Everyone is watching it!”

“Oh that is just not true!”

 Suddenly the bridge of Good Luck Babe echoed from the corridor. Lex's eyes grew as he opened his mouth to say something. A "Sorry!" came from the corridor. And Lex managed to get out a sound that resembled a squeak.

"Okay, the thing is-" Eve started but was interrupted by her boss.

“Get out.”

“Mr. Luthor-”

“GET OUT!”

***

It will fade out in no time, Eve said.

Well… Eve was wrong.

Now it was 3 am, Lex Luthor was overcome with insomnia all because of his anger, and was scrolling through the ever-increasing comments under the video.

It was…sickening.

supermannoticeme : Omg I thought i was the only one shipping these two

br00wnie007 : Ikrrr they give divorced dads so bad😩

anabanana._ : I mean Lex Luthor’s obsession with superman can be read veryy homoeroticly 👀

No it can not! It was a perfectly good reasoned hate towards his arrogance, limitless authority and non surveillanced power. It was not at all homoerotic! These people had no idea what they were talking about!

moonyschocolate🌔 : Y’all I might actually write a fic for them

xx.arson.xx : please do!!!

What the hell was a fic? He did not give consent for such a thing to be written. What were they gonna write for him?! Was it a legal document? Should Lex be lawyering up?

lenoredovesgoose: What will be the ship name… SuperLex?

thisvexesme: Omgg superlex for the win!!!

He scoffed, that was a lame name.

reputationtv : are they lovers?

lola🧚✨ : worse.

What the hell was this supposed to mean?!

  He locked his phone, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He had to control this anger within or he was going to burst into flames that was for sure. He had to use his common sense and reassure himself that this was just a tiny video edit. One video in a sea of contents, that is probably gonna get forgotten in a few days.

  That made him relax a little bit and finally sleep. Afterall it was just a stupid video that would have no impact on reality.

  Boy, was he wrong...

Chapter Text

“Good morning everyone! How are we doing? Ashley I need the reports for the new building before the meeting, tremendous dress by the way!”

  Lex entered the company building cheerfully. He had black gym clothes indicating he was just returning from his morning run, a freshly purchased iced Americano in his hand, but strangest of all, a relaxed smile on his face. Those of his employees, aware of what he'd experienced the day before, looked at him with bewilderment.

“Has he seen the-” started the guy from the finance department that Eve was just talking to but got interrupted by Eve.

“Sush. Mr. Luthor! Good morning.”

  Lex removed the straw from mouth and greeted his assistant with a smile.

“Good morning Eve.”

“You are in a particularly good mood today Mr Luthor.”

“I am Eve, I really am. Slept like a carefree infant!”

“You mean… like a baby?”

Lex pointed his finger at her face.

"Exactly. And this morning, I checked the video and saw that the views had finally stopped increasing. You were right, this stupid trend was over in no time." took a sip from his iced Americano as Eve gulped nervously.

“So, Mr Luthor, the thing is-”

"I can’t believe I let this thing get in my head. Of course it was bound to fade away like any other internet trend!"

“I really need you to listen to me-”

“Afterall it was-”

“Mr Luthor! Mr Luthor!”

 Both of their gazes turned to where the voice was coming from, and Eve's eyebrows rose as the curly-haired woman from HR came towards them, she muttered an "Oh no." under her breath.

“Oh hi Olivia.” Lex said with a genuine smile and Eve whispered.

“Olivia no.”

“Mr. Luthor I just wanted to say I admire how you’re handling this situation.”

“Olivia, Olivia no.”

“Hold on a minute Eve, she’s not saying anything wrong. Thank you Olivia, I do pride myself in my masterful skills in crisis management.” Lex said with a proud expression again and Eve added,

“Yes, Olivia, thank you very much. Now if you’ll excuse us-”

“I mean for a minute I really thought you would lose it over those edits. But I’m very glad to see that you do not have a fragile masculinity and you can indeed take a joke!”

  Lex’s smile froze on his face.

“I-I’m sorry for a moment I thought you said edits. It’s just one edit, you know? No need for that ‘s’ right there.” chuckled and playfully hit Olivia’s arm with his ice americano but the curly haired women seemed a little confused.

“One edit? Oh no Mr. Luthor, there are lots of them, you haven’t seen the new ones?”

  Eve closed her eyes and took a deep breath. To no one’s surprise the plastic coffee cup dropped to the ground.

“He hasn’t seen them?” Olivia whispered to Eve and she shot her a glance as cold as death.

“I-I should go and do… something. Um… have a nice day!”

“Mr. Luthor, I was going to tell you but-”

  Her words were cut by a sharp movement of his finger. 

“Show it to me.”

*************

“Why the hell would I want to guess the colour of his underwear you idiots HE WEARS THEM OUTSIDE OF HIS COSTUME I CAN OBVIOUSLY SEE THAT IT’S RED!”

  The situation was not getting any better. Apparently, the Good Luck, Babe! edit was a pioneer, as the new video edits were endless. Lex, hadn't even changed out of his gym clothes, found himself scrolling through the For You Page on the TikTok account Eve had created for him. And every time he thought it couldn't get any worse he was proven once again wrong.

  Eve, wanting to peek through the door to see what was going on, decided she had to intervene and ended up before his desk.

“How many of those have you watched?”

  Lex ignored her question.

“Do-do these people don’t have a job? Any work? Literally anything else to do? How-how-how do they have this much time to do thousands of these videos overnight?!”

  Eve shrugged.

“They’re teens, it’s vacation time, they are numerous...”

  Lex dropped his shoulders in defeat as the sound of the new edit on his computer filled the room.

“ I Think He Knows ? Oh come on! Everyone knows if Superman and I were a Taylor Swift song it would be Bad Blood ! Or- I don’t know- This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things ! Not I Think He Knows ! “ he exclaimed with disgust and added enthusiastically.

“I am going to comment that.”

  Eve’s eyebrows furrowed.

“You have been commenting on people’s edits?”

“Oh yes, all of them.”

  Eve shook her head from disbelief and reached over to close Lex’s computer.

“Hey!”

“Okay, you need to stop this. We have a meeting about the new building in half an hour and you haven’t even showered yet! We have actual work to do Mr Luthor.”

“How can I work efficiently when I know those filthy pieces of media wander around, making me look like a fool, Eve?”

“I don’t know and I don’t care. We have a job and you've already damaged the net worth of the company by talking bad about Superman all. the. time. So you are going to figure out a way to cope with this before we lose more money!”

Lex listened to Eve's angry words with wide eyes and a mixture of anger and chaos on his face. It was easy for her to say. It wasn’t she who was being made the butt of the joke. Eve’s eyes softened with empathy.

“I will make sure to let you know if there is any update on the situation. Now shower before the contractors come.”

“Thanks.” he mumbled with a displeased voice. She was right, Superman had ruined enough in Lex's life already. So he got up in frustration and left his office to take a shower. Eve closed her eyes with a tired sigh, few moments later the door creaked open.

“Eve, a quick question; does he know about the fanfic or…”

“No Olivia… He doesn’t know.”

“Okay, got it.”

  It was going to be a long ride for Eve.

Chapter Text

“So the contractors for the windows will arrive in two weeks and during this time I’ll have to pick everything for the interior design… from lamps to tiles… am I getting it right?”

“Basically… yes.” said the young man with green eyes. He was the one doing the talking today. Mr.... Miller? Mr... Brown? Lex was not particularly good with names.

“Eve, tell them why they’re being ridiculous.”

  Eve, whose bubblegum pink outfit stood out like a highlighter among a handful of men in well tailored suits, nodded and spoke.

“Mr Luthor is rightfully curious why he has to be the one doing this considering we have already hired an architect, rather overqualified one, for all this.”

“The Board has decided to not pursue their working relations with Mr Rashid.”

“Has The Board thought about letting us know that?” Lex asked with annoyance.

“Yes. You see, we are letting you know, right now.”

“Not now . Before firing an employee that I myself hired! I mean what was your reason to fire him?”

“He has posted several tweets condemning Barovia and showing people of Jarhanpur his support.”

  Lex rolled his eyes.

“Oh political issues, how original! He was the most qualified applicant for the work.And I've never been satisfied with less than perfect in my life.”

“If we let him work with us then we could bid farewell to our sponsors who are pro-Borovia.”

  Lex nodded

“So you found the solution in firing my employee behind my back.”

“Money beats ethics Mr Luthor.” the young man said with a stiff smile.

“Um, correct me if I’m wrong but…” Eve started with an unsure voice but still continued.

“Won’t we be risking people boycotting us with this move?”

“No darling we won’t, because most of the ‘woke’ part of the Metropolis people are teens and they are busy making lovely content for your boss and his dear Superman.” other men snickered with this comment as Lex Luthor froze. Mr… Martin continued.

“I’m not saying this in any negative means. In my opinion it’s a great opportunity, if not the best. We could do whatever we want and won’t be cared for or punished by the people all thanks to your ever ending obsession with that alien. People look at you and see a character for their stories, fantasies even! You could kill a man and still be edited with some badass song cause you are now a quirky villain for their pleasure. So in the end, the board should be thanking you Mr Luthor for creating the perfect shield for the corporation. For becoming… people’s princess.”

  The words were sharp as a knife; hurtful, yet so on point. Lex realized that the humiliation he'd felt up until that moment was nothing compared to what he was feeling now. Yet he maintained his impassive demeanor. Those who didn't know him fell for this act. Except for Eve, who kept an eye on him, checking up on him with quick glances.

“Is that all for today gentlemen? I have tons of work to do. Let the rest of the board know that I send my regards. Oh Eve…” Lex said as he got up and straightened his jacket.

“Yes Mr Luthor?”

“Call Mr Rashid and tell him the job is his if he wants. Good day gentlemen!”

******

“I still think there should be a better way to deal with this.”

“Please. Board member who inherited daddy’s money overnight and became too arrogant with too few qualifications. I basically wrote the manuel for this, Eve. The only way to deal with these pricks is to just spit in their faces and remind them who they are... My god the shadowing is awful in this!”

  After a rough day at the corp, Eve and Lex sat on opposite armchairs in Luthor's office; sipping red wine and browsing through the "SuperLex" fan art on their phones. Lex would never admit it, but this thing he had with Eve was the closest thing in his life he had to a friendship. He turned his screen to her.

 “Oh stop being mean, they clearly tried.” she said as she giggled.

 “My head looks like a giant pearl!”

 “Okay look at this one, I’m pretty sure there is a hint of Pollock here.” she turned her screen to him and Lex leaned forward to get a better look.

“Yeah yeah yeah, with splattered blood all over the place, I see it too.”

After a few minutes of being immersed in their own phone screens, Eve broke the silence.

“I think you did right by hiring Rashid back.”

“Just a few moments ago you were telling me there should be a better way to solve this. Make up your mind Teschmacher!” he said playfully.

“There should be a better way for us . This move was and still is a great risk for our careers. But there is no doubt that what you did was honourable. “

  Lex rolled his eyes.

“Please, I only did it to punish the board. No need to give it big names. And by the way what is omegaverse? People say I’m “straight out of Omegaverse” and give “self hating omega vibes” .”

  Eve shrugged, she genuinely didn’t know. Then her phone went off with the sound of a notification.

“Oh uh.”

  Lex’s eyes darted to her.

“What? What happened?”

  Eve froze for a few seconds then looked up to meet his ice blues.

“Appereantly a reporter asked Superman about SuperLex. The video is everywhere… oh god look at the number of the quotes.”

  Lex could swear his heart had skipped not only one but two beats.

Chapter Text

“So thanks to Superman no one was harmed during the helicopter crash that took place on the roof of Metropolis Hospital. How are you feeling, Superman?”

“I feel great, thank you very much. Couldn’t be happier that everyone is safe and sound.” he was indeed looking good, not a single scratch from saving the day.

“Now that the rush is over and the danger is gone, let’s ask you some more magazine questions.”

“Oh god.” he responded with a shy chuckle and the reporter lady laughed.

“Oh god indeed. If you’ve been following social media there is a crazy trend going on recently. It seems like the people of Metropolis “ship” you with the famous CEO Lex Luthor who happens to announce his hatred towards you… very often. You’re aware of that?”

   Superman laughed. His broad shoulders shook lightly as the dimples got more visible. That fucker… that fucker with his stupid smile and stupid blue eyes.

“I’ve seen some stuff.”

“Some stuff? Care to elaborate? What kind of stuff?”

“Oh you know video edits, a couple fanarts. A friend actually sent me a paragraph from a fanfiction.”

“My oh my! What do you think about all this?”

“I-I honestly find it quite amusing. People are so creative, it’s impressive on so many levels.”

“So you’re not mad?” 

“Mad? No, not at all.”

“I mean Lex Luthor has stated his hatred towards you on so many occasions. I wouldn’t blame you if you were mad that people are shipping you with a person who had called you racial slurs in the past.”

“No, I get what you mean and you’re not wrong. Lex Luthor, whom I’ve never personally met by the way, has said some hateful things in the past. But I just think it’s great that people are finding ways to interpret his behaviour in a positive aspect. Trying to find love in hate. Especially in younger people, this indicates that the youth is choosing to try, try to see more love in the world. Love beats hate. And nothing could make me happier than seeing the younger generation choosing love over hate.”

“Powerful words Superman, very powerful. Thank you very much for sharing them with us. Do you have any other messages for the people of Metropolis?”

“Just stay safe and also free Jarhanpur, don’t stop showing your support for the people of Jarhanpur in the name of humanity. That’s all for me.” and smiled.

  The reporter who clearly got more tense with Superman’s last phrase forced a smile.

“Yeah, that's Superman for you, everyone. We’re back to you Jimmy.”

“What a showoff.” Lex murmured and turned to Eve for some kind of confirmation but instead found her twirling her blond hair with a dreamy look on her face.

“Oh you've got to be kidding with me!”he exclaimed with betrayal.

  That brought Eve to herself.

“Yeah!.. Showoff!”

“He is an alien Eve, you can not possibly be finding him attractive!”

  Eve took a deep breath.

“He is cute.”

“No he’s not cute .”

“He’s kinda cute Lex.”

  Lex straightened up his posture.

“He’s an alien . It’s like wanting to fuck a dog!”

  Eve’s eyebrows flew up.

“Ew! That’s disgusting!”

“Exactly my point!”

“He’s a metahuman , that’s totally different from a dog.”

  Lex rolled his eyes.

“Tomato, tomahto… What is a fanfic by the way? I've also seen it in the comments of an edit. Show it to me please.”

****

   Superman’s hot breath brushed Lex Luthor’s lips as Luthor squirmed to escape from his grip. He couldn’t. Superman was far too strong to be pushed around.

“I hate you.”

  Superman chuckled and pulled him even closer by his elbow.

“"You hate me… or do you hate the fact that you can’t hate me, no matter how hard you try?”

  That was the last drop for Lex Luthor. He leaped forward and started kissing Superman with all his hate, passion, lust and love. As he bit the bottom lip of the bigger man, Superman couldn’t help but moan -

“What-WHAT the fuck is this?! We have to sue whoever wrote this-this filth! Eve, who wrote this?! ” Lex asked with pure horror on his face.

Eve put on her glasses as she looked over the screen.

“That’s… Underneath The Moonlight by… Moonyschocolate69 .”

  Lex grimaced with confusion.

“What kind of a name is that? That’s a pen name?”

“A nickname, yes.”

“Alright, let’s sue them!”

  Eve yawned as Lex read more and panicked more over the words that appeared on his phone screen.

“We can’t. Freedom of speech.”

“I am being kissed and god knows what else by Superman over there! Fuck freedom of speech! I did not give any consent for that.”

  Eve shrugged. It was getting late and she was getting more and more tired.

“You're a public figure.”

“This has to be a nightmare… What does this E symbol mean?”

  Eve got up and stretched as she yawned again.

“Come on Lex, you gotta sleep. Today was a long day.”

  Sleep? Sleep?! How could he sleep when he was the subject of such an humiliation?

  He was having a meltdown, a perfect meltdown. Luckily Eve was experienced in handling his meltdowns.

***

  3 am.

  So far Lex Luthor had been kissed, seduced and fucked by Superman more times than he could count. There were many fanfics, and the platform was confusing at first. Luckily he was a genius so he figured out the filtering system pretty quickly. And almost all of them had the same tags.

#bottomlexluthor  #omegalexluthor 

  He was fuming . He was a powerful man for god sakes! He has built various machines to beat Superman up, some of them succeeded even,  he raided his shelter in Antarctica, stole that message and harmed his public image with that harem speech.

  He was able to hurt Superman.

  So why the hell Lex was the one getting fucked by that alien everytime?!

  There were many fanfics, 20 pages of it. But there was one fic that was very, very popular. It was called after the song "You're Having My Baby" and it was an omegaverse fic. 

  So yeah Lex Luthor finally learnt what omegaverse meant.

  It meant everyone in Metropolis was seeing him as a bitch in heat.

“This is a nightmare… this is a nightmare…” he murmured as he took another sip from his whiskey and scrolled down on the fic.

  It was embarrassing.

“Fuck me Superman, I don’t want anyone else in your harem. Please, I want to have you babies.” Lex Luthor confessed as he caressed Superman’s neck, the naked metahuman towering over him. 

“I would never say that!” Lex yelled as he threw his phone away with fury.

  He should just die. Just crawl in a hole and die in agony. Nothing, nothing in the world could save his public image from now on. He was going to be remembered as Superman’s whore. He should just di-

  The sound of a notification filled the room.

  He groaned and got up, not rushing for anything. He took his phone, which now has a cracked screen, and threw himself to the couch. Took a huge sip from his whiskey and immediately spat it out as he read the title.

  BREAKING NEWS :  Lex Luthor, the CEO of Luthor Corp, has taken a great initiative and showed his support for Jarhanpur. Details are now on our site!

Chapter Text

4 am

  There were 5 of them in the meeting room. 

  First was Dove; a seventeen year old girl, the youngest hire of Luthor Corp and a tech genius. She was sitting with one knee up, her blue hair tied in a messy bun, her septum piercing moving slightly as she took deep breaths. She was typing on a sticker-covered laptop.

  Then there was Eve. She wore pink sweatpants, had no makeup on, and dark circles under her eyes. Like everyone else she hadn't had time to prepare for the meeting. She scrolled anxiously through her phone, her face tensing with every swipe.

  Henry Riggs, head of the finance department. He was quite old, or experienced , as he would say. He leaned over Dove’s computer, squinting as if narrowing his eyes would somehow help him understand what she was typing.

  James McCoy whom Lex had no idea what he actually did, but he was often on calls to salvage the company’s reputation. Now, he was scribbling furiously onto a piece of paper.

  And lastly Lex, who had the back of his chair reclined and just watching the ceiling with utter defeat in his eyes.

 So yeah, that was them:  the emergency crisis management team of Luthor Corp.

“All our security systems are intact, this is not a leak from our information systems.” Dove said as she stopped typing and leaned back.

  Eve’s eyes darted to her.

“That can not be possible. No one knows we hired Rashid back except Lex and I.”

“And The Board.” Lex added as McCoy interrupted.

“Okay hold on a minute. We don’t know if this is about you hiring Rashid back or not! For all we know it can be just a rumor. Let’s hear what they know first.”

  Dove cleared her throat.

“Yeah about that.” and a video started playing on the large monitor mounted on the wall.

   Okay y’all so I’m here with some hot tea. This is coming from a pretty trusted source so walk with me.

   It was a woman talking. She had a silk bonnet on and the lighting in the room made it very clear that it was night time.

  Recently the board of Luthor Corp has fired Omar Al Rashid, an architect who was initially hired to work for the new building of the corporation. Just because he stated on his social media accounts that he was supporting Jarhanpur and the people of Jarhanpur.

  Now I hear what you say, let’s boycott Luthor Corp! But wait a minute cause there is more. This man…

  A photo of Lex looking rather discontented (he was probably speaking about Superman when this photo was taken) appeared on the screen.

  The CEO of Luthor Corp denounced the decision of the board and hired Omar Al Rashid back. 

  I myself would like to thank Lex Luthor for his honorable take on the situation. Let me tell you this, it is not easy to do this in the business world. We need more-

   The video got paused with a click and Dove spoke.

“This goes on for like three minutes.”

“Okay so they do know… a lot.” McCoy stated with a calm demeanour.

“How-how do people have already created these videos? We work here and we’ve barely managed to call in a meeting.” Mr Riggs said with a sleepy voice and Lex laughed sarcastically.

“Oh you have no idea.”

“Okay so maybe… there is a bug in the meeting rooms-”

“Oh for fuck’s sake Eve! You know it’s that prick on The Board who tipped them off!!” Lex exclaimed as he got up.

  Eve’s eyes got wider.

“ Language ! There is a child over there.” as she pointed at Dove with her head but the younger girl scoffed.

“Nah, it's okay. He’s right by the way, It’s totally that Brown guy.” she said as she took a sip from her energy drink.

“Careful now young lady, time has changed, we no longer call them that.” Mr Riggs corrected her as she frowned with confusion.

“But why would he do it? He’s on the board!  If we lose money, he loses money! That makes no sense!” Eve asked as she looked over to Lex who was now standing before the grand window with his hands in his pockets.

“ Please . He didn’t work a day in his life, it’s all daddy’s money. He used that money to solve his problems all through his life, and now he’s solving yet another problem.”

“So he’s willing to lose money just to see you suffer from it?” McCoy asked with disbelief and Eve murmured.

“Money beats ethics.”

“And revenge beats money.” Lex added as Dove gave a slight nod.

“Great alternative for rock, paper, scissors.”

  Lex turned around and gripped the back of the chair as he stood and looked over at the girl. He was angry; angry, tired and very irritated. And this immature kid was not taking the situation seriously. It was unbelievable! They were fucked, really fucked and she was cracking jokes.

“Aren’t you a little past your bedtime?”

“Age-shaming? Very unlike you Mr Luthor.”

“I should have never hired you.” Lex said with frustration but Eve intervened.

“Okay enough you two.”

  Dove rolled her eyes.

“Please you begged me to work for you.”

“That’s true, he did.” Riggs confirmed, reaching for the plate of cookies in the middle of the table.

“You shouldn’t have caved in then. Not very “socialist” of you to work with a billionaire, huh?” Lex said smiling as he pointed a political sticker on her computer but she just smiled back.

“Well luckily it turns out I am working for the most ethical billionaire of all time. Or should I say… people’s princess?”

  Lex’s eyes widened with horror as his mouth fell open with that... word. That was not supposed to be known. She was not supposed to know this. It was again Eve who tried to calm the atmosphere sensing Lex's fury.

“Okay, chill out, you guys. It’s an emergency meeting, go easy on the back and forth.”

“How does she know about this?!”

“Oh please, everyone knows it.” Dove murmured.

“Eve?!” 

“Relax, She’s just trying to make you loosen up a bit.”

“Well she’s not, she’s just being childish.” Lex whined with an ironic, childlike behaviour.

“She is a child .”

“Hey!”

“Okay, I’ve finished our public statement. Mr. Luthor, post this on your twitter and we’ll call it a day.” McCoy said as he handed over a paper to Lex.

  Lex grabbed the paper with his full force and started reading. A couple of seconds went by with total silence.

“Yeah, I am not saying this.”

“Mr Luthor-”

“ We are deeply saddened to witness that internal matters of our company are being interpreted within political contexts. We would like to emphasize that our company does not stand behind any political ideology whatsoever. We assure you that the circumstances which may have led to this misunderstanding will be addressed and resolved as soon as possible. ‘ Will be resolved’? What will be resolved?”

“You have to respect The Board’s decisions Mr Luthor, you have to fire Mr Rashid.”

“I am not giving that dickhead the satisfaction.” Lex hissed and Dove added.

“Yeah also it’s called wrongful termination but who cares about labour rights?”

“This is a major threat for company Lex, we are being put behind a political idea. And let’s be honest, it’s a political idea that you don’t even particularly support! So what exactly are we fighting for here?”

  A few seconds passed and no one dared to speak. Until a phone rang. It was Riggs’. He answered it as everyone stared at him, holding their breaths until the moment he ended the call.

“That was the legal representative of Vernon Lockhart... He’s dropping us.”

  And just like that everyone knew, this was only the beginning.

Chapter Text

9 am

Lex was in his office, reading the latest chapter of the most famous SuperLex fanfiction. He was trying to drown out all the noise in his head, the weight of his responsibilities still haunted him.

The emergency meeting had ended with him refusing to share the public statement that McCoy had prepared for him. “Make up your mind, Lex,” McCoy had said. Lex had to make a decision, and instead, he was reading fanfiction. 

  Just as he was finishing the chapter, there was a knock at the door. 

“Come in.”

  It was Dove, she came in holding a bag of candy.

“Hey, how are you?”

“Pregnant, apparently.” Lex said, turning his phone screen to her.

“Is that You’re Having My Baby ? Dude, spoiler alert next time! I was saving that chapter for tonight.” and asked as she handed the package to him “Skittles?”

“These stuff you consume will kill you one day, I hope you know that.” Lex said, still got a handful of them and gave the package back.

“Meh. We’ll all die in 10 years because of the climate crisis anyway.”

“Great, can’t wait. You’re here to tell me that? Or is there a problem with our systems?”

“Nope. Security systems are working flawlessly. Turns out I’m a tech genius.” she grinned and sat on the chair that was in front of his desk.

  Lex scoffed sarcastically.

“Yeah who’d guess… So you’re here for?..”

“Eve sent me. She nagged me to apologize to you. Something about me not knowing the time and place.” 

“It’s not needed. I was looking for someone to snap at, not your fault.” Lex admitted without shame. His eyes were still on his phone, scrolling and eating the tiny chocolates every once in a while.

“Okay.”

“That’s all?” it was clear that he wanted her out. He was sulking, too bad they had no luxury to sulk.

“What are you doing?” Dove asked, straightening her posture. 

“Right now? I’m considering purchasing a baby goat.”

“A… baby goat?”

“Yes. Yesterday while I was scrolling on tiktok I came across a video of baby goats and it played a few times in the background cause I was called from the lab. And now they’re all over my feed thanks to the algorithm. I mean it’s either an edit of Superman and I or baby goats. And it started to grow on me. Oh what the hell, I’ll buy one. Worst case scenario I send it to a farm when they grow up. Do you know a good goat breeder?” Lex asked and looked at her.

  Dove searched for irony or sarcasm in his eyes but no, he was completely serious. So she shrugged.

“Ah sorry, I got my goats from the local shelter.” 

“Oh, really? I never guessed they had goats over there.” 

“I was… Nevermind. I was actually asking what are you doing today ? Like your plans for the day. Lab work… or paper work?..”

“Oh, I don’t have plans. I’ll probably stay in my office.”

“Okay, okay. Social media research day, that’s cool too. You’re looking at what people are saying about Corp tho, right? You know, to help make up your mind for the public statement we’re gonna make.”

“No.”

  That was the last straw for Dove. Everyone was trying to be helpful in a way but this man was acting like a child! They had no time to act like a child.

“Dude! Are you seriously gonna sit here, read sappy fanfiction of yourself, watch baby goats and mope around all day?”

  This finally made Lex put his phone away.

“You’ve got a better idea?”

“Yes! Just stop acting like a kicked puppy. I mean can’t you at least enjoy this while it lasts?”

“ Enjoy ? My company is bleeding out. Sponsors are dropping us like we’re the plague, our net worth declining second by second and I’m supposed to enjoy this?”

“Bohoo, you’re gonna lose a few millions! Do you know what is happening out there?” She asked, pointing to the window, the city of Metropolis to be exact.

“For the first time in forever people actually like you. Not ‘like’ as in shipping you with another public figure or calling you ‘iconic’ for your weird behaviour. People genuinely started to root for you .”

“Please, that is not at all what’s happening.” Lex said with a tired sigh.

“Yeah, it is. They support you. You literally have a whole city behind your back. And that’s something even billion dollars can’t buy.”

  Silence settled in as she finished talking. Lex played with the pen he was holding, observing its movements.

“Even if what you're saying is true, how could that possibly benefit us right now?”

  Dove took a deep breath.

“It won’t, not right now. But it will. But then again, maybe it shouldn’t. Doing the right thing rarely comes with conveniences. Yet we choose it, constantly. Cause we don’t do it for the conveniences.”

“I told you that, that was a power play to The Board. I was not trying to do the right thing.”

"Oh, please. You're a businessman, Lex. You know when to back off on your power plays. This is you doing something right… maybe even kind."

  Maybe. It was mostly out of spite, there was no lie in that. But at the same time he really didn’t want to fire an employee, a highly qualified employee, because of his political views. Two things could be true at the same time.

“Well no good deed goes unpunished.” Lex said and Dove grinned.

“Welcome to the light side.”

“You sound like him, you know.”

“Well you’ve never seen Superman and me in the same room.”

  That made Lex genuinely smile.

“Go work.”

“Go out .”

“Fine… Bye.”

“Bye dad!”

  Lex rolled his eyes. Gen-Z… was something else.

******

  Dove was right… ish?

  People really were talking about them. In fact they were on trending topics of Twitter. 

I love my pro-Jarhanpur dads. #lexluthorisnotalone

Guys all jokes aside we really need to support Lex Luthor right now so we can have more billionaires like him #lexluthorisnotalone

Luthor Corp will be dropped by so many sponsors. @lexluthor tell us their names so we can boycott their companies #lexluthorisnotalone

  He sent the last tweet to his lawyer, adding a “can we do that???” afterward. Then there was TikTok, where he had seen edits of himself, just himself this time. And apparently, he was in demand.

Guys hear me out… Lex Luthor? Like he’s rich, tall, has blue eyes and he supports Jarhanpur? I’m afraid I’d fold. Yeah he’s bald but nothing a trip to Turkey won’t fix.

wellie🐳: You WEAKS i can love him bald

    kryptofanacc: Superman is that you???

aliasaf51: TURKEY MENTIONED 🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷

zaeisonfire: lex luthor being pro jarhanpur was not on my 2025 bingo

cole🦕:  loverboy literally came out as pro-jarhanpur in this economy just to impress his crush... mad respect

  Yeah the public was pretty much on their side right now. But it would change, like everything in the media does. This was an internet crowd, nothing more. They had no equivalent in the real world, he thought as he chewed the straw of his coffee aggressively.

“Mr. Luthor! Mr Luthor!”

  Someone was calling him, a male. His head automatically turned to the voice then he realised how absurd it was. He was sitting on a bench, in a public park…  who would or could recognize him there?

  But the man calling his name was no doubt looking at him, approaching him even. A man with thick black hair, a beard and a smile like he was looking at his friend whom he had known for decades and not Lex. He had a white bag in his hand.

“E-excuse me?” Lex said as he stood up, what was in that bag? Was it a bomb ?

“Hello sir. I’m Malik Ali, I have a falafel shop over there!”

  Lex looked over where the man was pointing at and saw a few other men waving at him.

“Um- okay.”

“I brought some falafels for you, it’s the best in town.” he said as he handed the bag to Lex.

  Lex skimmed the bag. It was indeed some kind of food and not a bomb. Well that was a relief.

“That was not needed, I…-”

“As a thank you! Thank you for standing with my people. I’m sure things are complicated right now and they are punishing you for doing this but you have no idea what this means for us. Thank you.”

  Lex stood there not knowing what to say. Luckily Malik Ali was not expecting any answer. He just smiled, said something about how he should come to his shop one day when he’s not busy and then left saying he wouldn’t want to bother him anymore. So Lex sank back to the bench, this time holding the white bag, warm with the food it contained.

  He stayed still for a few minutes. Then slowly got the burrito out and took a hesitant bite. It was good, different from what he was used to and very good. Then he took a bigger bite, and another one.

  He then fetched his phone out of his pocket and quickly found McCoy’s number from the guide.

“Yes, I did make up my mind… No, quite the opposite. We are going all in.”

Chapter Text

  The past few weeks were… wild.

  The headlines of various newspapers, in chronological order, went like this:

CEO of Luthor Corp Lex Luthor stated in their public statement that he stood by his decision : “Our company is committed to upholding workers’ rights and under no circumstances would we consider terminating someone’s employment based on their political views.

CEO of Luthor Corp, Lex Luthor has announced the severance of its existing business ties with TerraX. Luthor Corp will no longer source its raw materials from the Borovian company.

Anonymous witnesses had sourced evidence of Lex Luthor bringing a medical student from Jarhanpur to Metropolis with her family and providing financial assistance for the remainder of her education. 

Lex Luthor attend a charity gala for cancer research and made a generous donation: "Healthcare should be for all of us" says the famous businessman

Breaking news: Lex Luthor donates over 1 million dollars to the women's shelters all over Metropolis

Lex Luthor shows off his new running gear at this year’s March for Our Lives!

 “Honestly Matt, Lex Luthor has been doing things none of us would imagine him to do.”

“That is true and I gotta say Mike, I have no idea what is the reason for all this. He did a whole u-turn from an obsessed evil billionaire to a woke philanthropist."

"Maybe the evil billionaire was visited by the Christmas ghosts, huh?"

"That is the most logical answer I have ever heard. I mean look at him, look at how he's being loved by the public!"

“The man has become everything that Elon Musk wanted to be in just a few weeks.”

  Turns out it was easy to be liked. He helped and donated and spent all that money and yet it still didn’t cost him financially more than a failed attempt to clone Superman. On top of that, there were new sponsors coming in. New people who wanted to support someone with ethics.

  So things were going fine, better at least. He was still being ‘shipped’ with Superman but at least it wasn’t the only thing people were talking about. After a sharp decrease in their net worth they finally started to climb; baby steps, still steps.

  And now, after weeks of attending different charity events he was the one getting an award. The Most Influential Businessperson they said to him. Yeah, Lex Luthor was getting that award. His first award from an actual charity organisation.

  He took a big sip from his drink as he skimmed the room. It was the opening reception, people were scattered around the room talking, greeting each other, meeting new people. He tugged at his shirt collar uncomfortably, not that it was too tight. No, it was quite the opposite. The shirt, the whole suit actually, was a little too loose. His stylist told him that the whole old school, black suit and tie image was making him look cold and unapproachable. So he was wearing a new suit, a shade of green, olive? , he wasn’t sure. All he knew was that he looked different.

“Okay that guy? With the hideous wig.” he whispered to his guardian angels.

  Eve leaned in and whispered.

“Thomas Eden. A priest. Gay priest.”

  Eve and Dove were with him, one well dressed lady behind each of his shoulders. Lex was terrible with names, even the names of people that he had already met would slip out of his brilliant mind. So he made Eve memorize the guestbook, and Dove insisted on coming saying she too would help him.

“Okay got it… Mr Eden, pleasure to finally meet you.” Lex said as he shook the man's hand and continued smiling till he left. Then quickly continued.

“Okay that guy?”

  It was now Dove leaning into his left ear and whispering.

“She’s not a guy. Her name is Caroline Vasquez, head of Metropolis Hospital of Children. Wife's name is Alison Heard.”

  In a few seconds they too came over and shook Lex’s hand.

“Mrs Vasquez, lovely to meet you. You too Mrs Heard, looking great tonight.” 

  Lex was used to attending receptions like this, faking smiles and compliments. Although he gotta admit the receptions in his past had way more different people in it. He was used to older people, older… whiter and male-r.

“I love it. It’s like our own Devil Wears Prada.” Eve said with a gleeful voice and Dove agreed.

“Yeah, Lex is our Miranda Priestly and we are Emily and Andrea.”

“I am Andrea tho… right?” Eve asked, eyebrows rising and Dove frowned.

“Girl, no way. I am Andrea.” 

“Oh please, it’s so obvious that if one of us had to be Andrea it would be me. I dated a chef once too, you know?”

“Lex, tell her I would be Andrea.” Dove said as she nudged him lightly with her elbow but she was ignored by her boss.

  For a brief moment the world had stopped moving for Lex Luthor. His surroundings went quiet, lights became less bright, every single person just stopped moving and it was just him at the moment… just him and… it .

  Cause he was right there. Entering by the door like he was just fucking supposed to do that; like a normal human being, like a man . 

  And he sure looked like a man. He was not wearing that stupid suit for one thing. He was wearing a navy, two piece suit… with a ridiculous tie with that fucking S symbol on it. His hair was curly, that one perfect curl again falling on his forehead and those dimples were already out. What could he have found so amusing already? He had just entered the room god dammit.

  Lex felt his heartbeat quicken with... anger, and his cheeks reddened with fury. He really hated that thing, so much that even his body seemed aware of his one-sided vendetta.

“Okay, relax. Just breathe and act normal.”

  That was Eve, the only person who could read him like a book. Not that she needed to at the moment, cause he was turning red second by second. Dove grabbed his shoulders and turned him to face her.

“Lex, you gotta keep your cool man. We’re here trying to market you as someone likable, it won’t work if you jump on Superman like a rabid animal.” and Eve added,

“Especially when all of the cameras are on you two. Act normal, I am begging you to act normal cause he is coming over here right now, just don’t insult him or-or- oh he’s here. Hi Superman.”

  Lex didn’t need her announcement to know that, he could feel his presence. Like a weird tinglement on the back of his neck. His breath hitched as he slowly turned around and found the bluest eyes in the room on himself. 

“Mr. Luthor.” He   said extending his hand.

  Holy shit, it was him. All the sleepless nights watching videos of him, edits of him, edits of them… Analyzing his every move, listening to his every fucking interview, hating every bit of his presence… And now he was here, in front of Lex . Not an image, not a hologram but him, in flesh and blood.

  His knees felt wobbly.

  Was it fear ? It couldn’t be anger that’s for sure. But even the tiniest possibility of him being afraid of that alien made his rage ten times bigger.

  He cleared his throat and took the hand offered to him. Even that simple action made him sick, shaking this alien’s hand as if he were his equal. That stupid, stupid -

  His thoughts were cut off by the sudden realization that he was touching Superman at that very moment.

 His grip was warm, a little firm, and nothing like what Lex had imagined touching an alien would be -not that he’d ever thought about touching Superman; no, that would be weird. The handshake felt strangely human and … long.

“Really happy to meet you Mr. Luthor.”

“Superman.” Lex managed to get it out with his clenched teeth.

 A flash went off. Then another, and another. It was like they were trying to capture them from every possible angle. In that moment, Lex understood,  this was why that monster had kept the handshake going so long. It had been Superman’s plan all along to get them photographed by the press. That freak must be getting a kick out of this!

  Lex pulled his hand away immediately with disgust on his face.

“I should go and greet some more people. See you in there.” Superman backed away with a stupid grin on his face and winked… winked?!

“He’s flushed, Eve he’s flushed.”

“Stop panicking. Lex, come here let’s splash some water on your face.”

***

“That son of a bitch did it on purpose! The lingering, the winking… all for the cameras!” Lex yelled as he splashed more water to his face.

  Eve was waiting for him before the restroom door, tapping a nervous rhythm on her purse. Fortunately, this single-person restroom was located outside the hall, in a secluded spot, so the only one to witness Lex’s meltdown was her. A few moments later, Lex stepped out -after struggling with the restroom door for a while, as it was stubborn about opening- his face less flushed and his phone in hand. The quote tweets on Superman and his photo were brutal.

Look at their hands… the size difference is killing me guys 😩

“You’re feeling any better?” she asked.

“I am fine Eve. It was you two who decided that I needed to cool down. I was handling it all quite well. Where is Dove by the way? I hope you didn’t let a 17 year old roam on her own without any supervision. The last thing we need is a drunk minor and her angry parents.”

“Dove had a phone call, so I let her step out for a few minutes. She is not drinking. Not that her new foster parents care, she told me that they are very chill . It means ‘laid back’ … I think.”

“We can’t take any risks by trusting her parent’s ‘chillness’. I brought you guys here to help me, you’re not taking your eyes off of her, not even for a second, we are not getting into any more PR crises."

“Copy that Mr. Luthor.”

“The ceremony has started?”

“It’s starting in half an hour. Now, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I don’t want you to freak out but-”

“For god’s sake what now Eve? What else has gone wrong?”

“Your award is gonna be hosted by-”

“Do not finish that sentence.”

“Superman.”

  Lex punched the wall as Eve calmly watched him.

“Sorry.”

“Why don’t they just kill me? Wouldn’t it be easier? For all of us.”

  Eve nodded slowly, Lex mimicked her and leaned his back against the wall. 

“Here take this.” Eve said as she took a folded paper from her purse and handed it to him.

“What’s that?”

“McCoy’s speech for you.”

  Lex took the paper and played with it a little.

“Let’s go.” Eve patted his shoulder and Lex huffed out.

“Let’s fucking go.”

Chapter Text

The way he’s blushing is making me go crazyyy😩

Superman is such a flirt!

You guys saw the wink too right?! The ship has already sailed

Seriously guys flirting? Right in front of my salad??

I love my middle aged men yaoi

  And the tweets went on and on and on… Shippers were swooning over him blushing and Superman openly flirting with him. Lex was angry, with Superman but also with himself.. Normally he was good with this stuff, controlling his reactions and masking his feelings. But when it came to Superman he felt weak as an unprofessional teen.

  Lex quitted Twitter with an annoyed swipe and went to check his mails. 

One new chapter for You’re Having My Baby  

   He glanced around. He was at the auditorium, sitting at his assigned seat. The seat on his right was occupied by an old man who seemed to be sleeping and the other seat on his left was still empty. So he had no one spying on him. He quickly lowered the brightness of his phone and started reading the chapter.

  It was cringy, out of character and very, very inappropriate but still he had nothing better to do… and he was kind of wondering whether the story Lex was going to tell Superman about his pregnancy or not.

  He was only a few paragraphs in when a deep voice beside him made him jump in his seat.

“You chickened out at the last minute.”

  It was him . Of course it was him! He had settled into the seat next to Lex’s as if there were no other seats left in the entire hall! Lex stayed speechless for a few seconds, this was the closest he had been with Superman, even during the handshake there was more distance between their bodies. He felt like he was on fire .

“What?” he managed to say.

  Superman was holding a few appetizers from the reception earlier. He tossed one of the little pastries into his mouth. Lex watched him with bewilderment, he was still not used to having Superman in his presence.

“Oh I was talking about the latest chapter of You’re Having My Baby . You were so close to telling me about the baby but then I said something kinda rude so you got mad and decided to not tell me about the baby.” and he chewed with a stupid face as Lex went redder.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“You didn’t finish reading it? Sorry for spoiling it. You want a quickie?”

  Lex froze with that question. Then noticed the pastries the alien was holding.

“It’s called a quiche you moron. And I would shoot myself rather than eat your food.”

  Superman shrugged as he sat more comfortably in his seat.

“Your loss, it’s very well made.”

“What the fuck are you doing here?!” Lex exclaimed finally, not being able to stand this weird interaction any further.

“I am hosting this event.” Superman said with a calm demeanor, very much like a patient kindergarten teacher which drove Lex more mad.

“No, not that you idiot! Here, in this seat? Go sit somewhere else.”

“That’s my assigned seat, Lex.”

“It doesn’t make any sense. It should go by alphabetical order. L and S are not together!”

“Well apparently they didn’t arrange it by alphabetical order. The fans probably have a lot to do with it.” 

“Oh you love it, don’t you?”

“Excuse me?” Superman asked, laughing a little. His stupid dimples made Lex want him to just lean in and bite his cheeks off!

“Nothing.” Lex murmured and folded his arms, facing forward, implying the conversation is over.

  A few minutes passed without them talking. An announcement was made telling there had been a technical issue and the award ceremony was gonna start a little delayed. Lex still didn’t look away from the empty stage. As the situation grew out of his control he held on to his stubbornness. But despite how much he tried to ignore him he could still feel Superman move uncomfortably next to him.

“So… you watched the new season of The Bear?”

  What an absolute idiot. Trying to make small talk with his arch enemy. Lex glared at him with a look cold enough to freeze him up.

“Okay.” Superman huffed and leaned back still unable to sit still, moving every once in a while.

“Oh for god’s sake! Do you have ADHD or something?! Just sit still .”

“I was never diagnosed! And the reason I can’t sit still is that the seats are too small and I’ve been trying to not take up your arm rest.” Superman whined as he again moved uncomfortably.

  Lex looked over at him without turning his head and saw Superman in an indeed very crumpled position. The moron was too big for the seats, he rolled his eyes.

“For god’s sake, just take the armrest.”

  That surprised Superman.

“Really?”

“Stop talking.”

“Okay… thanks.”

  Two of them again returned to their state of silence. Until Dove appeared out of nowhere. She came over, holding the skirts of her beautiful blue dress and crouched down in front of them. Her face was puffy, eyes a little red.

“Mr Luthor I… I gotta go, family emergency, sorry for not staying longer.”

  Lex frowned as Dove averted her eyes while speaking.

“Have you been crying?”

  Dove shrugged.

“Psh, I stopped crying at 5 years old. I just wanted to let you know… Eve too had to leave.”

“Eve left?!” that was not good, Eve-less Lex never made good decisions.

“She is coming back. Apparently Jolene made a mess in your house and Eve had to go over there before she damaged your work.”

“My work? Has she reached the lab?!”

“I guess. But it’s fine now, she’s on her way back here. She’ll be on time for your speech… But I gotta go.”

“Call the Headquarters, call yourself a car. No, do not give me that look. It’s late . Do you wanna end up dead? No Superman out there to save you either; oh no, he’s too busy suffocating himself with cheap appetizers. Eat like a human if you’re dressed like one!” Lex exclaimed and faced Superman as he said his last sentence.

“I skipped dinner for this event. I am hungry.” Superman said as he chewed the last quiche.

“Fine. Good luck with your speech and also… congratulations on the award. I’m proud of you.”

  Lex nodded not really knowing what he should be saying, it wasn’t always he heard those words. She got up and left without saying anything else. And once again they fell back into their silence.

“Who’s Jolene?”

  Lex didn’t respond… for a minute. His stubbornness was getting weaker as he got older.

“My goat.”

  Lex didn’t face him but he could feel Superman turning his head to him. Apparently what he said made the alien cheer up. That singleheadedly made him hate himself two times more.

“You’ve got a goat?”

  Lex cleared his throat.

“A baby goat, yes.”

“That’s amazing. It must be hard to find one in Metropolis.”

  Lex shrugged, was he really engaging in small talk with Superman?

“I bought her from a dairy farm.”

“You saved a goat?”

“I didn’t save a goat. I simply bought her.”

“And saved her from a future full of the misery of dairy farming.”

“See, this is your problem.” Lex started as he turned to Superman with his full body. “You ,and people who like you, are trying to make heroes out of everyone, constantly . You see one positive side of a situation and immediately assume that’s everything! I didn’t buy the goat because I wanted to save her.I  bought the goat, because of my selfish urge to own a goat! ”

  Superman’s face softened.

“Outcomes matter too.”

“ Please ! Humankind's ever ending search for heroes , for-for gods and leaders is just so stupid and could be so easily manipulated! And-”

  That was when the lights got dimmed and Lex noticed that he was practically nose to nose with Superman, having a heated talk with him… like he was talking to an actual person. And Superman… he was listening with curious eyes and a serious face. The stage light made his blue eyes shine a little darker and for a moment Lex felt his heart skip a beat.

  When the event organizers started speaking and called Superman to the stage, the spotlight turned to two of them with a loud applause. The bright white light found the two of them but Lex still couldn’t take his eyes from him.

“I gotta go, but we should continue it some other time.” Superman said with a soft, very low voice; there was no irony in that voice.

  He got up and went to the stage, leaving Lex alone with a quickened heartbeat and an utter confusion. He felt high, he felt stupid, he felt… preyed. 

“Sorry, sorry, sorry!”

  Lex looked up and saw Eve coming, bumping into people’s knees and smiling at him when she finally threw herself to the seat Superman got up from.

“I made it!” she whispered and asked.

“You’re okay?”

“Yes… fine.”

  So the ceremony began. Superman presenting the awards, people representing different communities coming over, delivering their speeches about goodness, being on the right side of history, having a spine…

  Then it was Lex’s turn. The moment his name left Superman’s mouth he couldn’t help but feel a strange tinglement in his stomach. His hate was making him feel actual physical symptoms now.

  Lex got up, walked over the stage, walked over to him . He tried to not look at those blues, those blues never made him feel sane things. He took the award and went to the lectern. When his breath echoed in the room he took a step back and took his speech from his inner pocket. The applause quieted down and Lex cleared his throat.

“Good evening everyone. I feel honoured to be here, in your presence… accepting this award.” he looked up to the room. Every single eye was on him, listening to him with pure concentration, just like he did.

“People are talking, wondering about my shift in politics. The truth is I have always felt this feeling…” this was not true, Lex again looked over to the room, were they really buying this?

“ calling almost, to be… someone inspirational who stood on the right side of the history- god   is this really what I’m paying a PR guy for?”

  He froze, that was not supposed to come out loud. He again looked up with a fearful look on his face. He definitely wasn’t expecting what was coming next.

  Giggles. Like lots of them.

  People found him… funny? He looked at Eve for feedback, she was smiling too, then mouthed: all in

“I apologize for this sorry excuse of a speech, Eve please remind me to fire McCoy when we get back.”

  Laughter. Actual laughter.

“Okay the truth is I am flattered, and happy to be here. This is my first award… that I didn’t pay for and it is nice.”

  Oh he was killing it, the crowd loved him.

“People are talking about why I do this, I know, I’ve heard. And I know you’re expecting me to say something like I’ve seen the truth, I’ve gained a conscience…”

  He toyed with the paper where his supposed speech was written, glancing over the room. Fold the square diagonally, corner to corner.

“I’m not a saint. I didn’t go ‘woke’ overnight. I don’t represent any community here and I am definitely not the class treating hero Gen-Z is trying to turn me into. I have not changed, not that much… I mean I still hate Superman, that didn’t change.” Lex said as he pointed Superman with his thumb, laughter continued.

“I am a businessman at heart. I’ve always been, I was born into this world. This world with its weird powerplays, meticulous calculations and huge investments.” he continued to fold the paper; his fingers were moving on their own, muscle memory, from his childhood.

“I am not doing this out of nobility. This is an investment. Investment in people.” 

   Pull the top part down and press the crease.

“I want you to know that I am a good businessman, I know where to invest. So if I say that you people have something worth investing in, that means your fight….”

   Press the folds and gently pull the wings apart.

  Lex looked down at what his fingers had made for him, a tiny curve forming at the corner of his mouth as he huffed out. He held up the paper crane to show the others.

“is gonna succeed. Thank you.”

Chapter Text

Cheers chanted, cause they said

There was no chance, trying to be

The greatest in the league

  A clip of the audience, clapping.

Where's the trophy?

  A clip of Lex taking the award.

He just comes running over to me

  And finally a clip of Lex walking towards Superman to get his award.

“This is chronologically wrong.” murmured Lex as he swiped.

  It was after the award ceremony. Everyone was back again at the cocktail room, talking and congratulating each other. Lex got his fair share of those fancy phrases of praise. Mr Luthor, your speech was very inspiring!  Mr Luthor, you are a natural public speaker!

   He was now sitting on a bar stool, hiding from the crowd in plain sight, and looking over social media. Apparently people in the auditorium weren’t the only ones who loved his speech. He was trending on every media platform.

  On twitter a picture of Superman looking at him -rather affectionately if he had to admit- while Lex was delivering his speech got thousands of likes and comments.

Ladies, find yourselves a man who looks at you the way Superman looks at Lex Luthor

He is down baddd #superlexforthewin

Such a proud husband 😭

  His little crane stunt was also trending on the political side of social media. Apparently someone had made a crane emoji as soon as his speech was televised and now all the socialist accounts had that little, ugly crane emoji in their nickname. He had created a symbol for international solidarity… without even trying.

  He took another big gulp from his whiskey and looked around the room, eyes searching for a familiar face. Dove was long gone and Eve was over there, flirting with a quite handsome man. Lex couldn’t help but sigh, his team was too quickly distracted.

  Then his eyes caught him. It wasn’t on purpose, he was simply too huge to miss. Lex’s stomach flipped, confirming how much he hated the sheer size of Superman. He had a smiling, bubbly baby in one hand, while other kids clung to his arm and climbed his back like monkey bars. He spun around, and a wave of laughter followed. Lex rolled his eyes, kids these days were far too easy to entertain, and then went back to his phone.

  He had watched a few thirst edits of himself when he heard that deep, annoyingly cheerful voice.

  “Hey Lex!”

  Lex rolled his eyes without turning to him. 

“Remind me when did we get the first-name basis with you?”

  But Superman ignored him with a chuckle and addressed the bartender.

“A virgin mojito please.”

“A virgin mojito? Just when I thought you couldn’t get any dorkier… What the hell is that on your shirt?” Lex asked with disgust, pointing at the wet spot on Superman’s chest.

  Superman glanced down and laughed.

“Gosh! I didn’t realize that. Winston’s kid probably threw up on me, I was just holding him and spun way too much.”

  Lex grimaced.

“That’s disgusting.”

“It’s baby puke, just some milk. See, it doesn’t even smell.” he said as he got closer to Lex to prove his point.

“Get off me you imbecile!”

“Okay, gee you’re nervous.” Superman murmured with a tiny pout.

  The bartender handed Superman his drink and he thanked him with a dimpled smile. Lex bit the inside of his cheeks with annoyance. He was like a sick man, he hated everything about that alien, yet he still couldn’t help stealing quick glances at him.

“I really liked your speech by the way, you were amazing up there.”

  That was the last straw for Lex. He couldn’t take it anymore, this unreasonable kindness felt like mockery. 

“Why are you doing this?” he asked as he turned to Superman with his full body.

“Doing what?” Superman responded, the straw of his drink was still in his mouth.

“This… this being kind to me and-and pretending that we are fine and friendly when it’s obvious that we are each other’s arch enemies.”

  Superman’s brows shot up.

“Lex… you are not my arch enemy.”

“Oh please !”

“No, I’m being serious. You are not my arch enemy. I mean I… I don’t even think that much about you to be honest.”

  That didn’t trigger the reaction Lex had been expecting. He should have rolled his eyes, he should have snapped back with a sarcastic come back… but none of that happened. His cheek must have been stinging, because it had felt like a real slap to the face. And his heart… it was as if someone had taken it into their fist and was squeezing it. Humiliation, he thought, the sheer humiliation of being belittled like this by an alien .

  He parted his lips, wanting to blurt out a childish retort: “Well, I don’t think about you that much either!” But it would have been a lie. Lex did think about Superman. Lex thought about Superman constantly. The man never left the background of his mind during his days, nights and dreams. The sting of humiliation grew sharper, and he looked away.

  I don’t think about you that much. I don’t care about you. You are all alone in this useless obsession. I don’t give two fucks about your presence. 

  Superman slowly realized he must have said something wrong as he watched the reactions play across the man’s face.

“Lex-”

“Fuck off.” he said with a sharp voice and got up.

  He didn’t know where he was going, he couldn’t look up. Cause he knew, he knew if he’d see those blues he would lose it. So he walked away till he bumped someone and the familiar smell of a sweet perfume filled his lungs.

“Lex?” great, he had found Eve.

“Wrap it up with Micheal B Jordan, we’re leaving.” Lex said with a voice as cold as ice which surprised the blond woman and kept walking.

“I-I’ll call you later.” she managed to say to the man and quickly rushed to catch her boss.

“Lex, is everything okay?”

  Oh everything was okay. Everything was more than okay. He did it well, he did everything by the book and everyone loved him. Which made him even more furious. He should have been feeling joyful, somewhat satisfied and yet he was feeling…

  No, not that word. He was not heartbroken for fuck’s sake. He was humiliated, yes that was the right word. Those things that sting his eyes were tears of shame, nothing more. 

“Lex?”

“It’s Mr Luthor during work hours. And you are not my babysitter, so shut up and call us a car.” he spitted out and Eve froze for a moment.

“O-okay.” she managed to say with sad and confused eyes and walked away to make the call, Lex didn’t look at her.

  He wanted to step outside, but the camera flashes bursting through the big glass gate made it very clear that he wouldn’t be able to breathe out there either. So he crossed his arms and waited. Not going back in to face him, and not going out to face the world. Just in the middle, alone.

  Everything was fine. Everything was just the way it was supposed to be.

Chapter Text

“Overall, things are going well. The lighting is all done and the mechanics are working on the elevator, it should be ready in three to four days. I have people out there attaching the glass panels and, yes, the tiles too, of course.”

Rashid explained to Lex and Eve as they walked through the dusty halls of the new building. Workers were everywhere, shouting at each other in at least three different languages. And the noise from the machine, god , it was all too chaotic.

“How many months?” Lex asked, closing his eyes as a man yelled at someone right behind him.

“Four… tops.”

  Eve fixed her yellow hard hat which contradicted her purple outfit and looked at her notepad.

“Okay we have seen the garden -which we’ll need a landscaper for. We have seen the ground floor, five different meeting rooms, the kitchen -you’ll need to fix the freezer door by the way, we don’t want anyone to pull a Carmen Berzatto over here- annnnd the kindergarten room -very cute wall paintings- Okay, are we all done?”

“My office.” Lex said coldly.

“The top floor it is then.” Rashid said as he opened his one arm to escort them out of the window.

  Lex got out and stepped on the scaffolding surrounding the building then reached out and took Eve’s hand, her high heels made it hard to do it on her own.

“Jimmy Choo’s on the field work day, how reasonable.” Lex murmured, annoyed.

“I didn’t know we were going to come here, you literally told me this morning. Hey…”

  They were walking toward the construction elevator when Eve reached out and grabbed Lex by the shoulder, making him turn to face her. It wasn’t exactly the best place for a confrontation, but it would have to do.

“You can ice me out and snap at me as much as you want, I can take it, I have been working in the service industry since I was seventeen. But it won’t help whatever you’re going through. I know it has been a stressful week-”

“ Stressful?!  We had our ground floor flooded, I haven’t been able to reach my head of IT for over a week and-and…”

“The thing with Superman.”

  Lex rolled his eyes, they both started walking again. Rashid opened the elevator door and they went in. Lex took off his hard hat with a shrug.

“Nothing happened.”

“Oh come on, you’ve been moping around ever since your little chat. It’s obvious that he did something to offend you. Was it something he said? Did he say ‘ew’ when you mentioned the Superlex thing, cause that hurts. I know, that happened to me. I had a crush on a guy named Jimmy back in highschool, our friends said that we would be a cute couple and he said ‘ew’. I was crushed-”

“Eve.” Lex cut her off with a simple hand gesture.

“I’m just saying… you can tell me.”

  Lex sighed and looked out of the elevator, to the city. It was a beautiful sight. The truth was he was still bitter; dealing with humiliation had never been his strong suit. He tried not to think much about it… of course he wasn’t too successful. This past week, for the first time in a long while, he had tweeted a few hate comments about Superman. He couldn’t help it, the pain in his chest made him angrier than ever. But of course ‘shippers’ adored his hate tweets and the SuperLex wave which was momentarily distracted with him being a socialist icon again became a huge thing. People were real suckers for a toxic ship.

  The beautiful scenery was soothing…  until he saw a vague blue figure up in the sky. Great, and now it was ruined. He glanced back at Eve, a slight pang in his heart. They slowly began to move upwards.

“Have you been able to reach Dove?”

  She shook her head.

“No. I even tried snapchatting her, and still no answer.”

“Who does she think she is? This is a serious workplace for god’s sake.”

“You don’t think something bad happened to her, right?”

“I don’t think so. I called every hospital and police station twenty four hours after she went missing.”

  Eve hit his arm playfully.

“You are a big softie.”

  Lex rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Okay that’s it, we’re here. Please be careful, there is a corner without a guardrail so we can do the material transfer easily. Do not go near it.” Rashid said as he opened the elevator door and they stepped out one by one.

  The office was nice; big, with plenty of natural light.

  “Oooh, look at the size of this wall, we can hang your Maja Ruznic over here!” Eve was enthusiastic. Some of that excitement should have been shared by Lex, but no… when he looked at that giant wall, all he saw was a wall.

  When they had finished inspecting every wall and corner of the room, they finally decided their work there was done. So they stepped out again through the window. That was when Eve’s heel got stuck in one of the holes in the metal plate.

“Oh God!”

“Relax, just step out of it and I’ll take it out.”

“O-okay.”

So she did as he said, and Lex leaned down to free the expensive shoe.

“It’s really stuck.”

“Be careful, don’t break the heel.”

“I’ll try my best!” he said sarcastically, and with one strong pull the shoe came free.

  Funny thing about Newtonian mechanics: when you pull with your whole body and the immovable object suddenly comes loose… you keep moving.

  Backward.

“Oh my God, Lex!” Eve screamed.

“Will you relax for a second, fuck!” Lex snapped as he straightened up from where he had fallen and reached for the guardrail, putting his entire weight on it.

  Except there was no guardrail to hold.

  Oh right… the corner. Fuck.

   A bloodcurling scream reached his ears. 

  So yeah… He was falling. He was 300 meters up in the sky -  which he knew exactly because he was the one who busted his ass to get the permit from the zoning board-   and he was falling. He couldn’t think of a single thing that could get him out of this situation. Shit , he could hear his own heartbeat pounding in his ears.

   I’m gonna die.

   He looked at the pink shoe he was holding and then the sunset before him. It was pretty, a pretty mixture of pink and orange. He took one more moment of looking at the scene and closed his eyes.

  He was gonna die. It was fine, it’s not like he had any plans for the future. Honestly there was a time he couldn’t even imagine coming this far. He was falling, so be it.

  Until he wasn’t.

  He understood it the moment the air hitting his bald head moved from y axis to x axis. 

“Going somewhere Cinderella?”

  He blinked his eyes open and saw Superman… dimples of Superman to be exact. Because he was looking straight ahead, flying wasn’t all that different from driving, Lex guessed. His touch was so faint Lex could barely even realize that he was being held. 

  The reason he hadn’t let out a scream, because he would rather die than get saved by him, was holding him, great ! He must have heard Eve’s screams.

“Yeah, cause I am holding a shoe, ha ha.” Lex murmured and looked away with a childlike petulance.

“You fell?”

“No, I have an undying passion for throwing myself off skyscrapers. Moron .”

  Superman chuckled. Lex could punch him… if only they weren’t 200 meters up in the air.

“Still mad at me, huh?”

“Mad at you? Why would I be mad at you? I hate you, if that’s what you mean,” Lex spat out. The line could have landed much more effectively, if only he weren’t being carried by Superman… in a bridal style, no less.

  That made Superman look at him, his smile slowly turning into a more tired one. They were close, too close . Why did he keep finding himself this close to that alien? Lex could almost feel the metahuman’s warm breath on his… never mind.

“Put me down,” Lex whispered, realizing there was no need to yell; even without the super-hearing, the lack of distance made it impossible not to hear him.

  Superman’s blues flicked down to his lips as Lex spoke, then immediately back up to his eyes. His Adam's apple bobbed and he nodded slowly.

“Hold on to me,” Superman murmured, his voice deeper than Lex had ever heard.

  Lex hated the damsel-in-distress situation he was in, but he wasn’t in a position to oppose him. He just wanted the whole thing to end as quickly as possible. So he wrapped his arms around the metahuman’s neck and closed his eyes, as if that could repress his humiliation.

  Within a minute, they were back on the ground. Superman gently set Lex down, and Lex stood up on wobbly legs. He quickly fixed his tie and jacket as if he had just come back from a regular car ride, not a near-death experience.

“You’re okay?”

 Lex turned to face him, nodding slowly. He should be thanking him now, shouldn’t he?

“I am not going to thank you.”

“Okay.” he was not expecting any gratitude anyway.

“Cause I didn’t ask you to… save me.” he looked away.

“Yes, I know.”

“Yes.” he waited a few seconds then turned and started walking away.

“I could, you know?”

  Lex froze, he had no idea what the hell he was talking about. He turned around.

“What?”

“I could… think about you more.”

  Lex’s breath hitched at that simple sentence. No way he had understood it. No way Lex had let his guard drop enough for him to see the hurt he’d caused. His heartbeat quickened; funny enough, it was beating faster now than a few seconds ago when he thought he was going to die. Pity from his arch enemy, who didn’t even consider Lex his arch enemy, took his humiliation to a whole new level.

“Why… why would I want that?” he managed to say, not nearly as threatening as he’d intended.

  Superman shrugged.

“I don’t know.” Oh but he did, Lex could see that from the way he averted his eyes and touched his hair.

  Lex cleared his throat.

“Whatever you have in mind… about me , it is not true. Know that.”

“I have nothing in mind Lex. That’s what I’m trying to say. If-if you want we could get to know each other… more.” he was nervous, a blush crept up his neck.

   Is he mocking me? Is he trying to trick me? Of course he was! Why else would he be nervous like that?!

“And why would you want that?”

“You are a nice guy, a little mean but still nice. I would love to get to know you. I don’t have many friends in Metropolis, not that I’m suggesting we should be friends - okay here.” he reached the back pocket of his suit.

“He’s got a gun!” Lex yelled, taking a few steps back. Superman just held up the pen in his hand, giving him a disbelieving look.

“It’s a pen Lex .”

  He got closer and took Lex’s right arm by his wrist, then took the cap of the pen with his mouth. Lex was watching him with utter shock. The image of this Neanderthal with the pen cap between his teeth made his stomach jump with disgust. Superman quickly wrote a number on his skin, Lex’s wrist was burning despite the fact that the metahuman’s touch was as gentle as any normal human being’s, if not more.

“Here, that’s my number- work number . Call me or text me and we’ll meet up wherever you want… not my place tho, I have my cousin’s dog with me and he, uh… he plays kinda rough so… yeah. Call me.” he said the last phrase with a phone gesture with his hand.

“W-whatever.” Lex managed to say, face flushing with… anger. Anger towards his arrogance.

  He turned away and started walking away. Not knowing where to, just away from the weirdness of the situation. A few seconds later he was hit by a purple blur.

“LEX!”

  He found himself being hugged, violently, by Eve. Slowly, hesitantly, he wrapped his arms around her waist.

“I’m fine.”

 She stepped back, oh she had been crying. Her whole eye makeup was ruined.

“I can’t believe you were going to die because of my stupid shoe!”

  Lex reached into his inner jacket pocket and pulled out the pink shoe.

“The heel is unbroken.”

  That made Eve laugh and sob even harder as she threw herself into another hug. They spun in a full 180, and Lex saw him there, far away, but still there. Watching them with a sad look on his face.

   Now what? A minute ago he had been as cheerful as ever, offering meet-ups, and now he looked like a kicked puppy. Lex sighed.

“Come on, let’s go.”

Chapter Text

“I checked the security cameras, no sign of her… She somehow got in without being seen, dropped this on HR’s desk and disappeared.”

  Eve’s voice was soft, almost empathetic, as if she were scared of his reaction. Lex didn’t look up at her; his eyes stayed on the paper he toyed with between his fingers, even though he had already read it three times.

“Okay, let’s not waste any time. Acknowledge it and put it into process.” Lex said, expressionless, holding the paper out to her.

“Lex… I have a bad feeling about this.”

“I don’t know why you’re being so emotional about it, Eve. It’s a simple resignation letter, just acknowledge it and get the termination done.”

“It’s not just any resignation letter, it’s Dove’s resignation letter!”

  Lex scoffed, like that changed anything. Why was Eve expecting him to give more of his precious time to discuss this? Why would he care whether it's Dove's resignation or any other employee's? He had people quitting quite often, why would Dove get a different reaction than his usual careless shrug.

Dear Lex Luthor,

I am writing to formally resign from my position as the head of chief information officer…

  Lex felt a sudden pull in his chest when he saw that strange curve of the L’s in his name written in her handwriting. He was getting older; older and softer. He looked away from it, a sharp sting in his eyes.

  It was okay. It had to be okay. People left; he had learned that much by now. And more often than not, they left without saying anything; silently erasing their presence from other people's lives, as if they had the right to do that.

“I’m worried about her. She wouldn’t do this if something wasn’t seriously wrong.”

“It’s not our business. She delegated Dana for her position in the letter. Give Dana her works and put the god damn letter into process. I don’t know why we are still talking about this!” he exclaimed and opened his computer with rage.

He didn’t have anything to do on it; he had already checked every email he received that morning, and he had just left the lab, so they didn’t have any updates for him. So he just switched tabs to look busy. A few seconds of silence and Eve was back at it again.

“Dana is not qualified enough for Dove’s position. Sure she’ll manage to keep the systems working for a while but sooner or later we’ll need Dove back.”

“No one is irreplaceable, we’ll find someone else eventually.”

“So you’re not worried about her.”

  Lex finally teared his eyes away from the computer.

“Why would I be worried for her? I’m not her fucking dad, I’m her boss- actually not even her boss if only you could get up and put that letter into process.”

  Eve settled back and got more comfortable in her seat, showing she was not getting up anytime soon with a stubborn look on her face and Lex rolled his eyes.

“You’re a child.”

“No, you are the child. I am trying to talk to you and all you do is keep ignoring me and trying send me away with that letter because you cannot bear to see it.”

  Lex laughed sarcastically.

“Yeah sure, I will be crying my eyes out the moment you step out of my office. Believe it or not Eve, this is not the first time an employee quits.”

“Oh come on! Everyone knows you loved that kid! Why are you acting like this doesn’t bother you?!”

  He was getting angrier. She was poking him, she knew better than to poke him.

“Okay, fine! You want to know how I feel? I am feeling angry, I am fucking pissed because she and I had a good deal. I was going to give her a job and write a recommendation letter to Caltech and she was going to fix every fucking problem I had with those goddamn information systems. And now she broke the deal, and I’ll have to find and hire a socially clueless fucking techbro just to keep the company from collapsing all while trying to tolerate his smell and idiotic opinions in every meeting!”

  Eve was listening to him without a reaction. Lex was a quick speaker when he was having meltdowns; for some people, he wasn’t easy to follow, but not for Eve. No, Eve specialized in keeping up with him.

“You’ll miss her.”

  Lex rubbed his face.

“I’ll miss her work, and the convenience of her employment.”

  They fell into their silence as Lex turned back to his computer, this time not even switchin the tabs to look busy.

“I called social services.”

  A tiny pause, a bit of curiosity Lex didn’t let escape from his eyes.

“They said they do not have any girl named Dove in the Metropolis system.”

  Lex laughed sarcastically.

“Great. So she was a liar too. Nice work to us, really. Employing lying traitors…” he muttered under his breath.

“So the letter…”

“Put it into process.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.” sharp and certain.

  Eve got up with a tired sigh and headed for the door, stealing one quick glance at him. She knew. She understood. First Superman, then Dove… his heart was being broken by the few people who surrounded him. So she held onto the piece of paper that now felt like it weighed a ton.

  Just a little more time. Yes people left, but sometimes they came back too! Maybe Dove too would come back. Would it be the end of the world to keep the letter away from the system… just for a few days, giving Dove a chance to come back? She bit her lip, no it wouldn’t.

  She stepped out and closed the door behind her.

  Lex spent a few minutes blankly looking at his computer screen. An advertisement of a coffee brand was playing at the corner of the screen he was staring at. The woman in the ad took a sip from the coffee and had an euphoric reaction to it. Lex despised it, he felt almost nauseous at the look of joy on the woman’s face. He wondered, what would his life be like if he was that kind of a person, a person who would be smiling and feeling satisfied over a cup of good coffee.

  He took a deep breath and closed his eyes; they were burning with fatigue. For the past two days, he had barely stepped out of his lab; no sleep, no food, hardly any breaks. He was exhausted.

  His phone buzzed with a notification. He reached over and grabbed it, already knowing what awaited him. And yes, he wasn’t wrong with his assumption. He was tagged yet in another edit. 

You make me wanna make you fall in love

Oh, late at night, I'm thinking 'bout you, ah-ah

Wanna try out some freaky positions?

  Him and Superman, again, usual clips of them standing close and eyeing each other from the award ceremony. 

Have you ever tried this one?

  Oh… that was new. A clip of Lex being carried by Superman. His heartbeat quickened as blood rushed to his face. He was absolutely thrilled that his near-death experience was now being enjoyed by the shippers.

GUYS you think they’d done it up in the air??👀

        i think they did it but i just can’t prove it

Supes go save your man!!!

Why are they so yaoi proportioned 😭all jokes aside im glad lex is safe hes my emotional support billionaire

He quickly quit the app with shaky hands and got on twitter. Rage was already coursing through his body, his fingers were itching to write a hate tweet about that alien. Oh how Lex hated the way he was making him look like a fucking damsel in distress!

  He was in the middle of a particularly good paragraph when he suddenly froze and his shoulders dropped. 

  That was a loop.

  He was in a loop. He was in a fucking loop.

  People would ship them, Lex would get furious, so he’d write hate comments, which only made people ship them harder, and then he’d get even angrier and-

  He got up and started pacing back and forth in his office. His whole body felt so hot and uncomfortable. His chest was feeling not big enough for his heart which was beating like he was being chased by a wild dog. He had to control it, the rage within. He had to find a way to repress it, even destroy it. Because it was destroying him. 

  He couldn’t handle it, not all of it, not so many emotions at once. Why couldn’t he give some of them to Eve? He was sure that she could manage them, untangle them just like one of her necklaces. 

  He suddenly stopped in the middle of his office, feeling a strange warmth on his left arm. No, that was not a heart attack but rather the memory of a faint touch.

  The number of Superman.

  It had obviously been washed away in the shower, but of course Lex had written it down beforehand. He wasn’t about to let such important information about Superman go down the drain, literally.

  And in that moment a wild idea struck him, almost forming a cartoonish light bulb above his head.

  The thing was, he knew himself. He was painfully aware of his strange quirks and habits, every little flaw people found annoying or unbearable. And one thing about him was that Lex hated things he didn’t know about. Sure, knowledge was power but for Lex it was much more than that. It was a need. He had to know every little thing about something before he could even begin to tolerate it.

  And he didn’t have the tiniest clue about Superman.

  Sure he knew about metahumans and even Kryptonians but Superman as an individual? Not a single clue. Maybe that was why he had such a deep obsession with him. And maybe, just maybe, if he could get Superman to reveal his secrets and truly know him, the strange hateful monster inside might finally calm down. Then, at last, he could put an end to this whole “shipping” thing.

  He rushed to his desk and got the yellow notepad from the first drawer, turned a few pages and there it was. As his fingers typed the number on his phone his heart was beating in his throat. That is a bad idea, that is a very bad idea.

  Well unfortunately it was the only idea he got. And if he saw one more fan edit of them-

  Before he could acknowledge it he typed a quick message and sent it.

Superman. Tonight, my place. 

 He nodded. That was clear enough. They were going to talk, at a place where Lex held the advantage, surely Superman was not going to decline this offer, that man was a sucker for peace with discussion. And then he would finally put an end to this obsession. If America wanted to bow down to an alien god, then let them bow! He was not going to be the butt of the joke trying to open their eyes anymore.

 He threw himself into his chair, reassuring himself that he had indeed made the right decision. A few torturous moments later, the sound of a notification filled the room, and Lex jumped so suddenly he almost fell out of his chair.

I don’t know how you got my number and although I’m flattered I don’t do one night stands. Thanks for the offer!

“Oh you son of a-”

  He went red. Like completely, angry red.The message was crystal clear; how could that moron not get it?

It’s me, Lex Luthor.

  Lex was a slow typer. He was used to his computer’s keyboard and had barely spent any time on his phone before this whole shipping trend. So he tried to keep his messages short and clear.

Oh hi Lex!

  Superman was typing another message. Lex took a deep breath in and sinked into his chair.

I was hoping you’d write :)

 Lex grimaced. A smiley face, really? The smiling he did in his real life was not enough already? He quickly typed, hitting wrong letters every now and then so after thirty seconds of battling with his phone he sent the following message.

Yes come

“No, don't send yet! Fuck!”

  He was supposed to write come over to my place but his fingers had other plans.

Sure

May I ask what’s the occasion?

“How the fuck you type so fast?!” Lex yelled as he barely controlled the urge to throw his phone to the nearest wall. After cursing out the autocorrect, he gave up with a sigh and surrendered to one-word messages.

Talk

  Superman took longer to respond to that. Lex’s heartbeat got slower as he watched that three dots dance. He couldn’t believe he had actually texted him… just like Superman had asked him to that day.

Gotcha. See you tonight then ;)

“Oh fuck you and your winky emoji… dick!” Lex murmured and threw his phone away.

As he took his eyes away from his phone and looked around the office, he realized that he was alone. That was weird; all that rage towards the alien and talking to himself made him feel like Superman was in the room with him. But that was not true, the office was quiet.

  Superman was not talking to him, he was not really winking at him. Eve was not there nagging him about a personal issue, she probably already left to go to her apartment. She did mention something about having a date with that guy at the award ceremony. And Dove was certainly not there. She was not sitting on the beanbag chair Lex put in the corner of his office for the late nights they pulled, reading every line of code of a not working program. She was not there making jokes full of Gen Z references, and she was not there offering him any full-of-preservatives candy.

  No, none of them were here. He was alone.

  It was alright though, because to answer Sabrina's question he had in fact tried this before. And it didn’t kill him.

Chapter Text

  It was late. 

 Well, not too late. But still, it was later than he usually expected his guests to arrive. Lex took a sip from his glass of whiskey, never breaking his stare at the penthouse’s giant window. At any moment, he thought, the metahuman could emerge from the city lights and land on his balcony. Any moment. And he didn’t want to get caught unprepared.

  Baa!

  That certainly managed to break his gaze. Lex turned toward the source of the voice and saw his goat on the top of the kitchen counter. Her tiny legs were shaking as she barely managed to stand up on the smooth surface of the marble counter. He got up with a tired sigh, that was the fifth time today.

“What have I told you about climbing on the counter? It is not allowed, Jolene. And absolutely not hygienic.” Lex spoke as he grabbed the tiny animal.

“Look, your legs are all wobbly again. If you are afraid of heights you shouldn’t climb on things… I’m afraid you should have learnt this after the fifth time.” Despite his cold tone he was gentle as he picked her up.

“You’re quite a stubborn little thing… you’re lucky that you are cute.” Lex was a firm believer that an owner should talk to their animal. He had spent a few years studying animal behaviour and conducted enough experiments to know that even though animals could not understand words they understood the effort to communicate; therefore they bonded a lot easier and stronger.

Baa!

  She had a squeaky, high-pitched voice that could be called annoying, but Lex was used to unpleasant sounds, so it didn't matter much to him. Lex traced his fingers through her black and white fur. He wasn't usually one for showing affection. He preferred to watch from afar. A vague sparkle in his eyes and the slight crinkles at their corners were usually the markers of his affection, pride or happiness.

  So this little act, which felt very foreign to him, didn’t last long. He put the goat down, hoping she wouldn’t try to climb anymore.

  He chuckled at the sight of the goat bounding toward the couch. He had to admit she looked ridiculous, yet oddly amusing; hopping around with a diaper on. But the distraction faded quickly. He made a mental note to lock her in his bedroom when Superman arrived, then sank back into his armchair. His gaze drifted to the window once again, scanning the sky, searching for a familiar figure.

  Nothing.

  That must have been another mind trick. Or maybe his way of mocking him, his way of overpowering him. Look at poor Lex, waiting like a desperate housewife at the window, expecting me to show up.

  Lex clenched his fist in anger as Superman’s voice echoed in his head, taunting him with the very sentence Lex himself had created.

“Aw!” Lex exclaimed as he flinched, the fingers of the fist he had just made were bitten by Jolene.

“Don’t do that,” he murmured, shoving the goat away… lightly, he wasn’t that heartless.

  He continued his night watch, scanning the Metropolis sky for a familiar figure. God, the light pollution in that city! It looked pretty, but still it was chaotic. That was when the sound of the doorbell broke through. Lex sighed; it must have been someone from the lobby notifying him of yet another problem in the building.

“I should have lived in a place I built. Problem after problem in this goddamned- Yes?” he asked, opening the door and finding himself face to face with none other than the great Superman.

“Hi! I’m so sorry, I know I’m late. My boss really pushed me to finish that… work before I called it a day and well, it took way more time than I imagined it would. On top of that my phone died and I couldn’t text you. The only day I didn’t bring my charger and-”

  Lex stared at the man in front of him: messy hair, white shirt rumpled, sleeves rolled up, a briefcase hanging loosely over his left shoulder, with glasses tucked into the front pocket of his shirt. His cheeks were reddened, and his was neck slightly damp. A sight that looked… oddly human.

“You took the stairs?” He was impressed by the fact that he managed to voice out a phrase, because with the dryness in his mouth, he was sure he was going to sound like a dying seal.

  Superman took a deep breath to steady himself and nodded.

“Yeah.”

“This is the 60th floor.”

  Superman grinned, his stupid dimples making their first of many appearances that night.

“I mean, it’s not like I’d get tired… although I gotta admit the last three floors kinda got to me.”

  Lex looked at him as if he were looking at an absolute idiot. Superman’s shoulders dropped.

“I didn’t have the passcode for the elevator, and I didn’t want to fly up to your balcony because I didn’t want people to get ideas. So here I am! Are you gonna invite me in or not?”

  Lex crossed his arms. After a few seconds of consideration, he nodded and stepped aside. Here you go, Lex. You wanted this, so enjoy it.

  Superman followed him with a triumphant grin, and Lex wanted nothing more than to punch that look off his face. He reached into his briefcase and took out a box. This time, Lex didn’t flinch. Baby steps.

“This is for you.”

  Lex glanced at him and the box he was holding.

“What is this?”

“A gift. Nothing much- chocolate actually.”

That had to be a joke. But the metahuman’s face didn’t look like he was joking.

“Why?”

“Ah, old habits. When I was little, whenever we went to see someone in their house for the first time, my ma would make sure to bring a gift. Housewarming kinda thing.”

“I am warmed up to my house,” Lex said, not uncrossing his arms as he took the present, which only made Superman’s dimples go deeper. Lex’s cheeks flushed red with fury. That psycho was actually into being shoved around.

“Okay, fine. I’ll just leave it on the counter then- oh hello there, you must be Jolene.”

 Lex’s eyes flew open at the softly spoken last sentence. He had forgotten about that! He turned toward the kitchen counter and found Superman already petting his goat. The stupid goat and the stupid alien had found each other.

“Get off there, you stupid animal. How many times do I have to tell you that?” Lex brushed past him and picked her up.

“It doesn’t matter how many times you tell her, she’ll keep climbing.”

“Oh why is that, Mr. Goat Expert? Care to share?”

“Because that counter is the highest surface she can climb to. Goats climb, you know?”

Lex shot him an angry look, holding the goat against his chest.

“Of course I know that. But she’s not good with heights. She shakes like a leaf, and I’m the one who has to get her down from there!” At the end of the sentence, he had to stop himself because he couldn’t bear the absurdity of the situation. He was chatting with Superman… about goats.

“She shakes because she’s tiny, not because she’s afraid.”

“Get out of my kitchen,” Lex said as he turned his back on the metahuman and walked into the living room.

“Right.”

  The house was one big penthouse, just as anyone who had ever heard of Lex Luthor would imagine his home to be. Decorated in whites, greys, and high-quality walnut wood. It was tasteful, yet very cold. Like something straight out of the first page of a high-life magazine.

  And it was certainly the largest living space Superman had ever been in. It was a loft: four rooms upstairs on the second floor and several other doors visible on the lower floor. The kitchen was open-plan and situated at the base of the loft. Then came the living room, with large couches, a giant TV, and magnificent bookshelves everywhere. Everything was huge, yet somehow Superman still managed to be the biggest presence in the room.

  It was bothering Lex; the way he was so big, moving around and sitting on the couch only for it to give under his weight, looking like the odd one out in his home. Lex took a sip from his glass as his eyes lingered on the face of the metahuman, illuminated by the dim golden lights.

“You’re not a big lamp guy either, huh?” Superman said, trying to break the uncomfortable silence. Well, uncomfortable for him, Lex was perfectly happy observing in peace. It also gave him an opportunity to calm whatever the hell was going on with his blood pressure.

“Excuse me?”

“I mean there are tons of little lamps but you didn’t turn on the ceiling lamp, you know the big one.”

  Lex tilted his head slightly.

“You would have preferred I did??”

  A genuine question, probably the first thing Lex had said to him not containing any anger. That baffled Superman.

“No,no,no! On the contrary, I hate the big lamp! Makes things too shiny. Especially if they are white. Yeah, no white light for me.” he chuckled, shoulders tensing with discomfort.

  Lex kept his silence so Superman continued, clearing his throat.

“Another thing we have in common… right? Both of us are… perfectly happy with dim lights. That’s… good. Neat.” Superman gave himself a mental slap, who the heck even said neat?!

“Have the 60 floors of stairs somehow given you brain damage?”

  His shoulders dropped.

“I’m trying to break the ice. In case you haven’t noticed we’ve been sitting in complete silence, staring at each other for three full minutes.”

  Lex played with his drink, the metahuman’s discomfort was obviously pleasing him.

“I didn’t take you for someone who couldn’t bear silence. What’s wrong, can’t handle being alone with your own mind?”

“Is this why I’m here? For you to poke me until I break? I gotta say Lex, I don’t break that easily. And honestly I don’t have that much time to waste, so if you-” Superman spoke, it was obvious that he was tired and slightly disappointed with Lex’s behaviour but still he didn’t make any move to get up and leave.

“Oh for god’s sake, just shut up.”

  He did. No fight, no nothing. Lex raised his eyes from his drink to the man sitting before him. His stomach jumped and Lex swallowed, trying not to throw up his guts.

“I’m not going to beat around the bush. I called you here because I wanted to talk.”

“Talk?”

“Yes, talk. I know you are aware of what’s happening on social media. This trend… of us.”

“Oh.”

“Yes. Well, it’s not nice. Not for the business, not for my reputation and certainly not for my dignity. I’m sure it’s the same for you.” Lex grimaced; the words tasted wrong in his mouth, as if putting his own feelings on the same level as an alien’s was a humiliation in itself.

  Superman took a deep breath in and leaned back, expensive couch making some noises by his movement.

“No, not really.”

“You… you’re comfortable with this?” in response he got a shrug.

“I don’t really mind it. And on the bright side, my media visibility has gotten pretty high. My medical aid links to Jarhanpur have been receiving more donations than ever. I’m quite content with the situation.”

  That sly smile on Superman's face made it very clear that this was going to be a negotiation. Lex uncrossed his legs and, imitating the man across from him, spread them slightly apart.

“That’s basically sex work.”

“No, it’s not.”

“It is. You’re giving your body, your image, to people for them to use freely in exchange for money. That’s the definition of sex work.”

  Superman laughed.

“That’s the definition of any kind of work, Lex. And besides, I’m fine with it.”

  Lex squeezed the glass in his hand, almost breaking it into pieces.

“Well, I’m not. I do not consent to being the object of something so humiliating!”

“What do you want me to do about it, Lex? They don’t stop. It’s not like you haven’t tried to tell them. Those tweets- I mean, they made it pretty clear you’re not consenting to this trend… and they still didn’t care!”

  Lex set his glass down on the wooden coffee table and stayed silent for a moment. Superman continued after a few seconds’ pause, his voice calmer this time.

“Every time it feels like they’re stopping, something happens and we go back to the start. The award ceremony, you falling off a building, your hateful tweets- many, many hateful tweets. It’s like you’re obsessed, Lex! If you just give it some time, it will fade out. But you can’t let it go.”

Silence settled in as they both drifted into their own thoughts, not noticing Jolene quietly climbing up onto the sofa and starting to chew on Superman’s hair.

“I’m aware this… obsession consumes my every waking moment.” His gaze rose and crashed into those ocean blues.

“You think I like that? You think I like being painted as a sexually frustrated freak by the public? You think I don’t want to let you be and go on with my life, not giving two fucks about what you do- just like any other businessman in the city?”

“Then why don’t you just do that?”

“Because my obsession -the very thing people mock me for- is a calling! It is the sole hope for humanity! Because I don’t trust you.” Lex leaned in, punctuating every word of his last sentence.

 It would be a much more intense moment if it wasn’t for Jolene getting braver and stepping on Superman’s shoulders to get a better angle with his hair. Superman grimaced and without turning to her caught the tiny animal with one hand.

“Because where everyone sees a dreamy superhero with the heart of an angel, I see an untrustworthy man in a hideous suit; holding enough power in his hands to destroy the whole city if given the chance. A flying god with no restrictions, limitless authority-”

“I would never-”

“Your word means nothing to me! For the last time, I do not trust you. And for that, I am punished by society. For refusing to adore their beloved public figure!”

  A silence, one that made Lex aware of the power of his own heartbeats. Superman’s large hand moved over Jolene, petting the tiny animal that occasionally made cheerful noises.

“None of these were requests.” he finally said, looking up from the goat.

“What do you want from me, Lex?”

“I want you gone.” Lex had prioritized the greater option, knowing he wouldn’t accept it, but that way he’d have to settle for the next one.

“That’s not gonna happen,” Superman replied, now scratching the back of the goat’s ears.

“Then I want information.”

  Superman let out a breathy chuckle.

“About what?”

“What do you think, dumbass? You. Your identity, your life, your biology.”

“Right. And exactly what is that gonna do for you?”

“If you are, as they say, a ‘ righteous hero ’ , I will see that and therefore trust you. But if you are not and I end up being right, I will have enough power to take you down one day if you betray your angel disguise. There will be an NDA, of course. Prepared by the best lawyers you- no, I could find. Long story short, you’ve got nothing to lose… unless you’re lying.”

That made the dimples go deeper.

“Touché, Mister Luthor. You’ve put a lot of thought into this, huh?” his low voice and compliments made Lex shift uncomfortably  in his seat.

“It wasn’t that hard to come up with… What’s your answer then?”

  Superman gave Jolene one last pet and set her on the ground, her little legs momentarily slipping on the hardwood floor. He leaned in, elbows on his knees; one perfect curl fell onto his forehead. Lex’s fingers itched to brush it back. In his defense, it made him look very silly and unprofessional. Lex hated hair, hated how much of a mess it caused, hated-

“What’s in it for me?”

  Funnily enough Lex didn’t think about that part.

“If I find a way to control my rage toward you, I will no longer cause scenes that lead people to ship us. A chance to get our dignity back.”

“I’m quite happy with my life, and I have no interest in getting my dignity back.”

  Lex bit the inside of his cheek with anger. He was not enjoying this negotiation, unlike Superman, who was grinning cheekily in front of him.

“I’ll pay you?”

“Pay me?” his voice was amused.

“As much as you want.” Lex could tell the metahuman wasn’t very well off from the quality of that shirt- not that anyone who saw him would notice the fabric.

“No, thank you.”

“Fine. What do you want?” By asking that, Lex knew he’d made the wrong move because the metahuman’s face lit up. Like he was waiting for Lex to ask this, like he had something good in mind.

“I too want what you want.”

That made Lex freeze momentarily.

“What?”

“I want information… about you.” Superman smiled proudly.

“You do realize I’m a billionaire, right? And I said I could pay you as much as you want. And you’ve decided that... information about me is what you want?”

“Yep.”

“You are a moron.” Lex murmured, this was not what he had planned out. He wished Superman asked for money, any amount of money. Why the fuck he wanted to know about Lex anyway?! Still, he was sure about what he wanted so he held his head high and nodded.

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yes, okay. You?”

“Okay for me too.”

“I’ll contact my lawyers for the NDA’s. Come back tomorrow evening and we’ll start.”

  A content smile found its place on Superman’s face, which made Lex feel like he had lost the negotiation. But that was nonsense; he had gotten what he wanted, and that was what really mattered. Understanding their conversation had ended Superman got up, and thankfully the couch returned to its original shape. Brute.

He walked over to the door, not expecting Lex to escort him out. No, Superman had figured out quickly that Lex Luthor was not much of a good host.

“You were saying something about the passcode for the elevator?”

Lex rolled his eyes and got up, not bothering to go over, just leaning on the back of his armchair.

“Take the stairs. It’s not like you can get tired.” The challenge in his voice made it pretty clear: I do not trust you. That was fine, Superman could live with that.

Still, he gave one final smile -not a cocky grin, but a small, almost shy smile- and stepped out.

“Good night, Mister Luthor.”

  And he closed the door behind him, not waiting for a response. Lex’s heart did a funny thing at that last sentence. It must have been the nerves. He was getting old; bartering didn’t usually have these effects on him.

“Fuck you,” he murmured under his breath, then exclaimed in pain.

Jolene had just headbutted him… pretty hard.

“You two are ruining my life. Animals!”

Chapter Text

“You are all prepared?”

“Yep, let’s do it.”

  Lex stopped turning the pages of his notepad with Superman’s answer and slowly lowered it into his lap. That’s when he finally allowed himself to look up and fully perceive the man -no, the metahuman- sitting in front of him. He was right there; dimples already peeking out with a shy smile while still managing to look concentrated.

“Superman.”

“Mr Luthor.” he mimicked Lex’s serious tone as he shifted a little forward in his seat. Lex’s gaze immediately fell back to the notepad on his lap, he didn’t particularly need to read the questions he had prepared, he had already memorized them. But he was not feeling very well being the target of those eyes.

“Let’s start by your name. I doubt your father named you Superman.” he said, interlocking his fingers, his heart was beating ridiculously fast.

  They were at Lex’s penthouse, again. Superman was sitting on the sofa that had his back to the floor-to-ceiling windows, which meant he wasn’t able to see the majestic Metropolis view. But he was actually quite content with the arrangement, because it allowed him to sneak a peek at the open plan kitchen just a few meters away. That way he was learning more about Lex Luthor. For example the man had a La Cornue, the most expensive oven… like in the whole world. Superman knew that because that oven was his mother’s dream growing up, she was a very passionate baker. Maybe Lex was a baker too. He should ask that.

“My given name is Kal El.”

  Lex knew that. After all, he was the one who had leaked his parents' message to harm his public image. It was definitely not his fault that the plan had backfired completely and people started literally begging on every social media platform to join Superman’s so-called harem.

“That’s Kryptonian.” Lex pointed out as he scribbled some stuff on the notepad, not bothering for any eye contact.

“Yes”

“Then perhaps you’ve misunderstood my question. I was asking your name… the one you use in your daily life. Apparently you work-” Lex pointed to his briefcase with his pen, a slight disdain present in his tone given the fact that the briefcase was very old and cheap.

“I doubt they would hire someone with a Kryptonian name.”

  Superman took a shaky breath in, he was feeling nervous. The atmosphere was tense, much tenser than the day before. Probably because in two days Lex had gotten used to his presence and he wasn’t getting flustered so easily… and also Jolene was nowhere to be seen, she was clearly locked away in one of Lex’s rooms.

  His gaze fell on the NDA’s on top of the coffee table, he had signed it. It was probably a stupid move, signing without consulting a lawyer but how could he find a lawyer as Superman? And the document was pretty simple to comprehend. No lying and what is discussed in Lex’s penthouse is going to stay in Lex’s penthouse.

“Superman?”

“I can not tell you that.”

“We have signed the NDA’s there is no reason-” Lex started still not taking his eyes off from the notepad, flipping his ridiculously expensive pen in his fingers.

“Can I ask you to do something?”

  That made the flipping stop.

“What?”

“I don’t like this, I feel like I’m being questioned by the police… or in a shrink appointment.”

“Your turn of questions will come too.”

“Can you just… look at me?”

  Lex’s stomach dropped with the request. And that was the whole point of him avoiding eye contact. Looking at Superman had always made him do illogical things, say outrageous words, feel absolutely stupid and unnecessary feelings. So he had found the solution in not looking at him. But that request, that one single sentence with that gentle yet demanding tone made his eyes instantly fly up and crash his ocean blues.

  And here came the nausea. A wave that made his whole inner organs jump with revulsion.

“Thank you.” Superman said then gulped, Lex’s eyes dropped to his Adam’s apple reflexively but quickly pulled himself together.

“As I was saying… We have signed the NDA’s. There is no need to fear. I will not expose your secret identity.” 

  Superman nodded slowly and he leaned back, his shoulders getting more relaxed as Lex’s eyes stayed on him.

“You’re right, I know you’re right. But fear isn’t always rational. And I’m not even sure whether what I’m feeling right now is even fear or not.” his gaze started wandering around, he’s nervous.

“I… It’s just, this whole being a metahuman thing... It has been and still is the biggest weight of my life. I’ve been carrying this secret, ever since the moment I grasped the realization of my existence and it has been terrifying. I was a terrified child; staying up late, not being able to sleep, worrying that someone was going to learn my secret one day and take me away from my parents... my home, my life.“

  Parents. Superman had parents. Must have been adopted ones, clearly. Lex was not expecting him to blurt out that information so suddenly. His fingers itched to take that note on the yellow paper but he controlled that urge, letting the man in front of him speak.

“That’s why sharing my ‘secret identity’ as you say, does not come to me naturally. I’m all grown up and yet sharing this secret is still the single most vulnerable thing I can do in any kind of relationship I'm part of. So telling you my name, opening up my doors to you… that would be the most vulnerable thing I could offer to you. And I don’t want to do that… not right now.” 

  Superman’s cheeks flushed with a foreign colour, almost burgundy- no, no, it was more like... maroon.

  He is embarrassed.

  That made Lex frown and bite the inside of his cheeks. All that talk for what? To tell him “I don’t trust you!” Of course he didn't trust him! He would be an idiot if he did! That shouldn’t have stopped answering his questions, that was the whole point of their deal!

  He wanted to roll his eyes, mock him, push him, even manipulate him to the point where he finally gave him what he wanted. For god’s sake Lex did everything right! He played the nice guy, promised to keep his secrets and still he wasn’t getting anything back in return!

“So what, I can’t ask you about the man you are fifty percent of your time? Are you completely sure that you have understood the deal, Superman?”

  The metahuman shook his head.

“No, the deal was that you were going to try to learn about me… to understand me. To trust me. Right now you are not trying to understand me, you are trying to unravel my secret identity. Two very different things. You can ask about my normal life, just stop trying to disclose me.”

Lex tapped a nervous rhythm on the notepad, not the ideal treatment to a Namiki pen.

  So telling you my name, opening up my doors to you… that would be the most vulnerable thing I could offer to you. And I don’t want to do that… not right now.

“And in the future?” he asked instead, that got him a few seconds of the sight of his dimples.

“If you make me feel safe enough to be vulnerable around you… why not?”

  Lex wanted to puke. What the fuck did that mean? And most importantly how was he going to do that? He sure as hell wasn’t going to put an effort to make that alien feel ‘safe’ so he might as well learn how to successfully fake it.

“Okay, what do you need for that?” he asked, a little over-enthousiastic perhaps.

  That made Superman laugh. Like a real, loud, very loud laugh.

“What’s so funny, Superman?”

“No, I’m sorry, it’s not. It’s just the way you asked; it’s, it’s cute. Demanding my trust like asking for some fancy jewelry's price in a luxury shop.”

  Lex scowled as he unwillingly blushed. Getting called cute like he was some kind of a puppy! That man had the nerve.

“Stop laughing, you imbecile!” And here it was, the first insult of the night. That was a shame, Lex really did try to be nice tonight. Mostly to get Superman on board with his plan, but still.

“No, I’m sorry! Gosh I said I’m sorry don’t do that face.” Superman managed to get out between giggles. Grown men should never giggle.

“I am not doing any faces.”

“Actually you know what? I need something. The goat, can you bring her?”

  Lex frowned upon the request. 

“Why the hell do you need my goat?”

“She is a great emotional support animal. If you are going to be questioning me like that, I would like to have the goat please.” 

  Lex took a deep breath in, he wanted to ignore the request but Superman was looking rather serious with his demand. He rolled his eyes got up from the armchair with one sharp move.

“Do not move.”

*******

“Education?”

“University.”

“Which major?”

“Oh… I can’t tell you that.”

  Lex quickly scribbled a probably famous in his workfield on his notepad. This time Superman was not really bothered by the lack of eye content because he was busy playing with Jolene. And Jolene was quite pleased to have found someone she could headbutt as hard as she can and still not get scolded.

“Is it STEM?”

“God no, I hate maths.”

“What about family, do you have one?” he threw the bone; slightly looking up, not moving his head. 

“Well you know my biological family died on Krypton. I have an adopted family on Earth. I survived thanks to them. They took me in when I was baby and raised me as their son. Oh gosh-” another powerful headbutt from Jolene and he was holding his arm, like he actually got hurt.

“In America?”

“Yes.”

“In Metropolis?”

“Oh no, they visited one time for three days and to this day they still complain about how noisy this place is.”

  Lex quickly scribbled down the answers and a Parents live in somewhere quiet??? before putting the notepad down, taking a sip from his drink. It was obvious that he was not going to get any important details about Superman today. That was fine, he could wait. He could wait if that meant he was going to get what he wanted. 

  He watched the metahuman for a few seconds, Superman knew how to properly play with a goat; pushing her tiny forehead with his fist, lightly Lex assumed.

“How do you adjust your power level?” This question was the first one that wasn’t read from the notepad, it wasn’t pre-thought.

“Ah you gotta be careful, always in control. But honestly it’s not that difficult.”

“As the amount of power in the range increases, the range corresponding to normal human power shrinks. This means you have to make microscopic changes in this range to avoid causing damage to your surroundings.” 

“Yes, but it’s also not very true because using super power actually requires effort. Holding buildings up and keeping bridge wires from snapping… I usually sleep like a whole day under the sun after doing those things.”

“But still, your normal strength is so much more than a human’s.”

“Obviously. But honestly it’s not as complicated as you think to adjust it. Especially now, after 30 years.”

  He is 30 years old. Superman continued.

“I mean I don’t actually destroy someone’s hand when I shake it or break my whole leg when I stub my toe.”

“That is because your body is also super.” Lex said, taking another sip from his whiskey.

  Superman’s eyes found him with a surprised smile on his face, eyebrows high. That’s when Lex realised his mistake and coughed on the liquid.

“I meant super in superpower, like Superman. God… Grow up!” 

  That’s when Jolene got braver and headbutted Superman with a jump on top of it, immersing her tiny, almost invisible horns into the metahuman’s biceps. And Superman in return picked her up in a hug and took her ear in his mouth, mimicking a bite which angered the little animal and soon they were both baaing at each other.

  Lex was at a loss of words. No one and no one had ever dared to act like this in front of him. That relaxed and careless and comfortable. Even his best friend had feared him a little.

“Can we focus please? On the questions, not on the goat.”

“Sure. But this is your fault mostly.” Lex frowned with that response.

“My fault?”

“You are raising one antisocial goat. And soon she is going to headbutt you the same way she headbutts me.” Superman said, petting Jolene's neck.

“Antisocial?” Lex was baffled, words used to mean something.

“Goats are social animals. They need other goats, kids- I don’t know humans, animals to interact with! You keep the poor thing here all day, giving no more surfaces than a kitchen counters to climb and now look at her! She thinks she’s the alpha. And believe me if you can’t handle baby goat headbutts, you are not going to handle the adult goat headbutts.” Superman said, and with the last sentence he looked up from the goat and found Lex looking with an intense concentration to him.

“Great point Superman, maybe I should kidnap several kids from the playground, that way we would solve Jolene’s loneliness.”

“I’m just saying goats are-”

“Take off your shirt.”

  Superman’s eyebrows flew up.

“I wouldn’t have guessed the goat talk was going to get you going.”

  Lex took the final sip from his glass and got up.

“Time for a checkup Superman.”

*****

“So you are a doctor?”

  Lex closed his eyes with annoyance and removed one end of the stethoscope from his ear.

“I can not listen to your lungs while you speak.”

“But I have a right to question you too.” Superman insisted; it was almost pouty his resistance, whiny even.

“I am a PhD, Superman. Not a medical doctor. But I do know the basics and I’ve worked with animals before so I know what I’m doing.” Lex answered and he put the stethoscope in his ear again.

“Breathe.”

“Kal-El.”

“What?”

“Don’t call me Superman, too formal. You can call me Kal El.”

  Lex laughed ironically.

“Sorry Superman is formal? It’s the most childish superhero name ever. What’s next? Mister Awesome?”

“Hey! It is a good name. And we already have a Mister Terrific.”

“Breathe, Kal El.”

  Kal El’s lip twitched in a mini smile as his name passed Lex’s lips. Beautiful voice that man had. It almost made him forget the fact that he was sitting half naked on a bar stool in front of the kitchen. He breathed as Lex directed him and let his eyes wander around. 

  There was a fireplace by the wall that was right next to the kitchen entrance, facing the grand second living room- no that was a reading room. It was one of those electrical ones, in Kal-El’s opinion they lacked the soul but still he could understand why city folk do not bother to get a real fire place. It was too damn hard to maintain.

  That’s when he saw two photo frames on the fireplace. That caught him by surprise because he was pretty sure those two frames were the only indication Lex Luthor lived there. There were no pictures or notes on the fridge attached by magnets from different countries, there were no his favorite flowers in vases, there were no mess in the kitchen waiting to be cleaned up or a half read book on the coffee table.

  The penthouse could have belonged to anyone.

  And also no one.

  Kal El thought, who could have lived that spotless? That markless. Especially Lex Luthor, the man who made a mark on everyone who has ever met him.

  Suddenly the cold metal on his back disappeared and in no time he found himself face to face with the familiar face. Kal-El gulped down, trying to moisturize his throat because the focused, professional look of the man in front of him was making his heart beat abnormally fast. 

  Lex’s cold hands touched his neck and his breath hitched. That got his attention.

“Your body temperature is higher than a human’s.” Lex stated as he touched his throat, possibly searching for his thyroid glands.

  It was easier to listen to his lungs, Lex didn’t have to look at those blues then. But now, the way Kal El tilted his head up to look at him, the way his skin was burning up and his neck tensing with each of Lex’s movements he couldn’t help but admit that they were rather intimate.

  Still, he was holding up better than he thought he would. It was no secret that being close to the metahuman had been messing with his head. Curiosity and professionalism must have had a big impact on his current behavior. He was used to concentrating on his specimen whenever he held his stethoscope, so Kal-El’s bare skin wasn’t that distracting.

“Am I gonna die doc?” Kal El managed to whisper, his breath hit the other man’s lips and Lex felt his hands go even colder.

  Lex’s hand went to his stethoscope and dragged the metal on metahuman’s chest. No not my heart, Kal El thought, not now. 

“Kryptonians' resting heart rate is also higher than human’s. That’s at least 120 beats per minute.”

  Resting, right.

  Kal El cleared his throat, gave a tiny smile.

“Well that’s Kryptonians for you.”

  Lex took the stethoscope off and went to his notepad, writing the precious discoveries.

“It’s getting late and I don’t have all my equipment with me so that’s all for me for today. I’ll contact you regarding the next session.”

  Kal El frowned and crossed his arms. Walking over to Lex who was still scribbling down and not bothering to look up to him.

“No, that was not the agreement. It’s my turn to ask questions.”

  Lex glanced up and immediately went red. Kal El was still in the position he had left him; his upper body was completely naked. And this time the details he had missed while observing his metabolism was right in front of him, waiting to be perceived. 

  For one, Lex hadn’t realized how defined his chest and stomach were. Not like a bodybuilder but strong, very solid. And the trail of body hair, growing thicker as it descended from his stomach toward his groin, made Lex’s own stomach lurch. Animal.

“Go put something on, god!” Lex yelled, still he couldn’t deny there was a few seconds of lingering.

  Kal El took a few steps forward and stood in front of Lex, towering over him -which was infuriating  because they were basically the same height, how the fuck was he able to do that?-  He was starting to get sick of always giving Lex what he wanted and never getting his part of the deal back.

“My questions.” he insisted.

“Just google me, pretty sure you’ll find what you’re looking for there… and so much more- Hey!”

  Kal El had taken the notepad with his super speed.

“That is unethical! You can’t use your superpowers to get your own way.”

“Of course I can, especially when you try to back down from a deal we both agreed to.”

  Lex’s shoulders dropped in defeat, Superman- No, Kal El was not as easy to control as he thought he would.

“Fine.”

****

“So what kind of animals have you worked with?” Kal El asked, shoving a spoonful of goulash into his mouth.

  They were in the kitchen, the dim yellow light of the range hood lamb illuminating the room. Kal El had finally given up his hopes of Lex being a good host and offering him food or a drink. That’s why he had put his manners aside and asked for something to eat.

  Lex didn’t usually eat at home, he wouldn’t cook, that much effort and for what? To feed himself? To enjoy a meal? Waste of time.

  But also he wouldn’t let anyone cook for him because he knew how to cook, so what was the reason for it? He also hated the restaurant food, even the richest ones. They had always felt kind of forced to him. Trying way too hard to be perfect, resulting in bland, tiny portions. 

  His mother though, now that woman could cook. She'd fill the entire house with magnificent smells and loud music as she made the kitchen her territory. Lex remembered the times she would just place them on the counter and they would watch her explain the most important details of the dish with curious eyes. Four tiny legs swinging from the edge of the counter as she chopped and battered and sang and drank.

  Her food was always so big.

  And now everything felt so small. 

  So long story short, he rarely ate.

  When he found that leftover goulash from a few days ago when Eve brought it to him as she came over for a little ‘gossiping session’ he knew it was Kal El’s lucky day. His fridge had rarely contained any food.

“Primates mostly.”

“Orangutans?”

“Orangutans? No, they are too big and impractical for the labs. Chimpanzees usually, and other tiny species.”

  Kal El gave big smile.

“I like those tiny guys with hot tubs. You know the videos of them? It snows and they go into hot waters. I bet it feels so good, like a natural spa!”

  Lex couldn't help but give the tiniest smile, barely a curve at the corner of his lips, but still he was grateful that there wasn’t much light and Kal El was very into the reheated goulash.

“Macaca Fuscata. Japanese Snow Monkey. They love thermal waters.”

  Kal El chewed with amazed looks.

“Gosh you’re so smart.”

  Lex averted his eyes. He could never understand why the alien was treating him like that. All the insults, hate speech and ambushes Lex threw at him and still Kal-El was looking at him… genuinely amazed by his presence. A tiny throe formed in his chest, Lex didn’t know why. Perhaps he overdrank tonight.

  Kal-El took one last big spoon and went to the sink to wash it. Lex just watched him. He was ridiculously big in his kitchen, just like he was ridiculously big in every single part of the house.

“Just put it there, housekeepers will handle it.”

“It’ll take a minute.”

  And it did. He patiently found the sponge in drawers and then the detergent, washed the bowl at a normal speed and set it on the counter. When he was done he turned to Lex and found the man already staring at him. Kal-El gave a soft smile in return, not saying anything.

“Well Kal El, it had been a long night. And for the past hour we have been conversing about monkeys and other insignificant things in my life and while I do appreciate your curiosity, would you mind calling it a day unless you have an actual question.”

  Kal El’s smile stilled on his face and he crossed his arms. Lex watched every emotion passing on that face. Spit it out Kal El.

 Everyone who had ever shown interest in his life wanted to know him like he was an ancient book, something full of hidden treasures, and they always craved more information, more power. Just like he did with Kal-El.

  So what was Kal-El going to ask him now? After all, they had signed a paper vowing not to lie. Lex was in his hands. Ah, his stupid, stupid lawyer,  insisting he was the second party’s lawyer too, that he couldn’t draft the agreement solely in Lex’s favor. Insisting that if Lex wanted that, the second party should get their own lawyer. And his stupid, stupid self, for being so impatient and agreeing to the equal arrangement.

  What’s your next investment gonna be? What are you planning with this social justice hero tactic? What exactly have you inherited from your father?

“Why didn’t you scream?”

  The question itself contained a lot of emotion. But Lex couldn’t understand why. Those words meant nothing to him. He stared at Kal El’s face blankly for a few seconds.

“Scream?.. What- when?”

  Kal-El tightened his crossed his arms, this time not averting his eyes but maintaining it like religion.

“When you… fell from that building. You didn’t scream. That blonde woman did. I mean if it wasn’t for her, you’d… I…” his voice got hoarse as his breathing got messy and Lex just watched at him.

  Oh.

  That did not cross his mind. The whole fall actually had been completely erased from his mind. And remembering it right now made his chest fill up with a weird emotion.

  Kal-El was waiting for an answer.

  What was he supposed to say? The truth? He went with the truth.

“Because I would rather be dead than be saved by you.”

  Kal-El pointed at him with his index finger, his face was tense and there was a burning anger- no something else behind his eyes.

“See, that I can’t believe. Screaming is a reflex. I save dozens of people every day. And everyone I save screams, everyone except…” the look on his face became agonized, it was painful to just look at it.

  Lex couldn’t help but admire it. He had never met someone who wore his emotions so openly. Lex could read him, not necessarily understand what he read, but he could read him.

“I didn't jump off a building Kal-El.” his tone was soft, soft enough to surprise himself.

“But you didn’t scream! You didn’t struggle, you didn’t move. I came to get you and you-you had your eyes closed, not struggling, just holding a stupid shoe.”

“Careful now, you kiss your mother with that mouth?”

  Kal-El’s sharp gaze made his skin tingle.

“You may have not jumped off the building, but you pushed the option to live away with the back of your hand. Hiding behind the hate you have for me!”

  Lex was starting to get angry.

“It is the truth!”

“No, you believe it is the truth!”

“When the fuck are you going to stop implying that I’m suicidal?!”

“When you stop acting like it! For the past year you constantly tried to get on my bad side, a metahuman who has the power to shoulder an entire planet-”

“Oh that is very humble of you.”

“Without even knowing me! Without knowing whether I would harm you or not! You tweet insults to the President of Boravia-”

“That's what people wanted me to do!”

“Boycotting and showing support for the people of Jarhanpur was what people wanted you to do! Not calling a dictator who can get you assassinated with a snap of his fingers a -I quote- ‘ lying pussy’!”

“He got it coming.” Lex murmured as he took a sip from his drink and Kal El continued without taking a breath.

“You throw yourself off of skyscrapers for shoes, drink enough alcohol to put down a horse and give your only piece of food to me! You don’t try to kill yourself but you don’t give a damn about whether you live or die!”

  Honestly Kal-El had no idea why he was getting that worked up over this situation. It was not like it was his place to give the billionaire a reality check. Lex was certainly surrounded by people who were checking up on him. But he couldn’t just ignore the tiny pang in his heart. His voice trembled.

“The only reason I could save you was that woman. I heard her screams, not yours. You would be… dead today if it wasn’t for her.”

  The silence was heavy, heavier than Lex’s chest. He swallowed and played with his glass, a finger tall of whiskey was staring back at him. He wanted to snap at him, mock him for this fucking excuse of a monologue. Instead he shut up, he was too tired for any of that.

“Do you still?” Kal-El continued.

“Do you still rather die than be saved by me?”

  Lex wanted to say yes, because he probably would. But then again he had just fed the man in his own house so apparently not. People who hate each other wouldn’t act the way they did. But Lex didn’t know how to accept that, accept that maybe he did hate him a tiny bit less.

“No, Kal El. I would scream.” his voice was low, eager to end this conversation.

“Yeah?” Kal-El asked, looking like a kicked puppy.

“You saved me one time and I was able to live with that. So, yeah.”

  Kal-El nodded as he messed his hair with his right hand. He felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders but the realization that he had just caused a huge scene hit him and his cheeks got painted with a lovely shade of maroon. Second time tonight.

“Sorry, I-”

“It’s not needed.”

“I should…”

“Yes.”

  Lex didn’t bother to get up and Kal El didn’t expect the escorting out. But he stopped just outside the kitchen.

“Lex?”

“Hmm?” the billionaire lazily turned his head to the metahuman. By doing that he caught the sight of Jolene silently laying on top of the counter. She had been listening to them in her favorite spot.

“Can I ask one last question?” he seemed fidgety.

“Yes?”

  Kal El swallowed and stood up in an awkward position not knowing where to put his hands.

“The woman, you know the blonde woman on the building that day…”

  Lex frowned.

“Eve?”

“That’s her name? Nice. So you and her… are you guys um… a thing?”

  Lex stopped and let himself think for several seconds. What the hell did he mean by that?

“A thing?”

“Yeah, you know… romantically?” as Lex made a funny, well funny for Kal El, face.

“No. She’s my assistant. And also my friend… my best friend. God, no.”

  The sudden look of pure joy on Kal-El’s face made Lex’s insides burn. Jumping on one emotion to another was one thing but he was not expecting metahuman's reaction to be that cheerful... at all.

  Then it hit him.

  That moron was going to make a move on Eve. Images of Kal-El holding Eve, kissing Eve, smiling at Eve flashed before his eyes. He could feel bile rising in his throat, a sharp pain striking his chest. There was no way in hell Lex would let that happen.

“But she is very much taken, she’s dating a man… very handsome I say… looks like Micheal B. Jordan. So don’t ever try to hit on her… ever.”

  Kal El’s smile turned into a shit eating grin and nodded.

“Okay, noted.”

“Yes.”

  Clark took a few steps forwards to the kitchen counter and placed a loud kiss on the goat's head.

“Goodnight Jolene. Goodnight, Lex.” The dimples, god the dimples…

“Goodnight… Kal El.”

  Kal-El gave him one last look and blood rushed into Lex’s cheeks. Apparently maroon was a highly contagious thing.