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Clark’s desk was smack dab in the middle of the bull-pen at the Daily Planet, so, people were constantly bustling and orbiting around him. Clark Kent is a noteworthy reporter, a rising star from a small town just outside of Metropolis, he appears meek and small, and at first glance it seems like he wouldn’t be the type of man to speak his mind. But everyone who knows Clark Kent knows that he is strong-willed, with an unwavering sense of justice, always ready to speak his mind, a strong worker who never turns down a potential story. That is why his coworkers were shocked when he turned down the chance to write an important story about the goings on of LexCorp.
After the mysterious death of Lionel Luthor, his son took over LuthorCorp before promptly renaming it to LexCorp, an action that many believe to be a perfect reflection of Lex Luthor’s inflated ego. Recently LexCorp announced a new project for improved solar power technology, a project that was announced to be overlooked directly by Lex Luthor himself, a rarity. The issue with the project was that for LexCorp to test their project they need land, and of course they won’t sacrifice current projects for a test, so they plan to expand somewhere easy, thus setting their eyes on Smallville.
Perry White called Clark into his office in the early morning, expecting a news assignment Clark stood dutifully in front of Perry’s desk, “I’ve got a big story for you Kent, with the recent project announcement from LexCorp, I’ve received info that they’ll have to expand into unused land as close to Metropolis as they can. All arrows point to Smallville, and I want you to write an unbiased column about it all, I’ve set up an interview with Lex Luthor for the column, all you have to do is head over to LexCorp. I expect the finished piece in four days.”
Perry waved Clark off to get him out of the office, but Clark didn’t leave, he stumbled over the words in his mouth and refused. Perry, of course, was shocked, in the year the Clark Kent had been working at the Daily Planet, he never turned down an offer, even if it was a meaningless article in the back—sandwiched between the word search and sudoku—that no one would bother to read.
“Excuse me?” Perry set his mug of coffee down looking at Clark over the top of his glasses.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t work on that article, as much as I would like to, I won’t interview Luthor,” Clark looked away guiltily, Perry huffed and handed Clark a file and waved him out of his office. On his way back to his desk, he passed by Lois Lane, who he hoped to chat with for a little before getting to work, but she was abruptly called into Perry’s office before Clark had the chance to open his mouth. Over the time Clark had been employed at the Daily Planet he has found that he has been gravitating towards Lois, but never quite was able to have a true conversation with her. They talked at work, which sure, was fun and nice for Clark, but they never went to get lunch, or drinks, or do anything that friends should do, not that Clark ever really had the time. In his thoughts, he didn’t register Lois approaching him until she tapped his shoulder.
“So I heard you turned down the LexCorp story, what’s up with that Smallville? It even concerns your hometown,” She held a larger file than what Clark currently had on his desk, a file that no doubt pertained to the LexCorp story that seemed to be so important. Clark smiled at her to convey that it wasn’t important, nothing is wrong.
“It’s nothing, I just didn’t feel particularly interested in interviewing Luthor.”
From the look on Lois’ face she didn’t buy it, “In all the time I have known you, I have never seen you turn down a story, did Luthor shoot your dog or something?”
Clark chuckled, “No, no nothing like that.”
“Well I should go, don’t decide to be jealous when you realized you’ve missed out Smallville,” Lois lays her hand on Clark’s shoulder, and then walks out towards the elevators, bag in hand.
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The LexCorp tower in Metropolis was the largest skyscraper in the city, like a pillar it split the sky, you could go nowhere in Metropolis without being able to see it, as it sat right in the middle. With LexCorp being one of the largest Corporations of the 21st century, the security was tight, upon entrance to the lobby Lois had to go through a bag check and x-ray machine, then her photo was taken as well as a thumb print—an ugly blue smudge adorned her right thumb afterward—and a press badge was printed. At the front desk a short lady with ginger hair brought into a complex spiral bun gave her the badge, “Wear this at all times while you are on LexCorp property. If it is found to have been abandoned, accidentally or not, we will use your photo and thumb print to report you to the relevant authorities and you will be charged with trespassing. This badge is only effective today until the end of your interview, and you are only allowed in the pre-approved areas, if you head to your right, you will be guided to Mr. Luthor’s office. Have a good day!”
A security guard, dressed differently than those at the front, received Lois and guided her to the elevator that would bring her up to Lex Luthor’s office on the 100th floor. The doors opened to a hallway with a set of mahogany doors directly across from the elevators, the security guard stepped forward in front of Lois and opened one door to let her in. The floor was composed of dark slabs of marble with a red carpet running from the door until the two chairs set in front of the dark mahogany desk. The door closed behind her, and when she looked back the security guard had stepped to the side of the door, to quietly monitor the interview.
“Thank you for meeting with me Mr. Luthor,” Lex Luthor stood looking over the city, his empire if you please, and replied without looking back at Lois, “Of course, what am I if not transparent with the public,” The irony of his reply was not missed by him or Lois, LexCorp—as well as the previous LuthorCorp—was notorious for blatant coverups and general avoidance of questions that asked too much.
Lex swiftly turned to sit in his office chair, unbuttoning his blazer, part of a professional black two-piece suit with a white button up and dark red tie that looked like a slash of blood across pale unmarred skin.
“Have a seat Ms. Lane,” he easily relaxed into the leather, leaning back in a way that showed comfortability and expressed feeling of superiority over whoever sat across from him. Upon Lois taking a seat and pulling out her recorder and notepad, she spent no time before launching into questions regarding the solar power test project.
“We at Daily Planet know that LexCorp’s plan is to improve the use of solar power and processing of it, but what is the plan to improve it, how are you so sure you can?”
Lex frowned at her brashness, “We have access to certain technology that no other company before us could ever dream of, technology that we can use in a vast number of ways. As of right now this solar project is a test run of that technology.”
“A test run, you’ll have to use a vast amount of land to properly test it correct?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Then do you plan to put current LexCorp projects on hold to use that land for the testing instead?”
Lex laughs a cruel laugh, as if insulting Lois’ intellect in even asking the question, “Putting an ongoing project on hold to use the area for a test is a foolish business decision, if the test fails we would be at risk of losing thousands in profit, as well as set back the goals for the projects. It would be better to buy a new plot of land to use until we deem the project worthy to continue or not.”
Lois leans forward, “A new plot of land where?”
Lex eyes her for a moment, “It would be best to be as close to Metropolis as possible, Smallville would be the most logical choice.”
“I gathered from my research that you lived in Smallville for a short period of time starting in 2001, yes? So, you would be aware that the majority of Smallville is farm land individually owned by families.”
“Yes, I am aware of that,” Lex looks at her coldly, never moving from his relaxed position, “You know Ms. Lane, the one thing I never quite liked about press interviews is that reporters love to jerk me around, always skirting around what they really want to ask. I think it’d be best if you just ask what you have been itching to.”
“Alright,” Lois sits up straighter and her eye contact does not waver, “Are you not aware that due to the large farming population in Smallville, no matter what piece of land you buy, you will be screwing a community over. The money that you give in the purchase will not be enough to compensate for the loss of income the family suffers, not to mention the surrounding community.”
“The loss of the community will not be as great as you are so inclined to think, as the test project is set in motion it will provide jobs to the people, thus recovering the loss of income.”
“Well then what if the project fails and hundreds are out of a job and farmland when you decide that the project was not worth the money and time you have sunk into it.”
“The project will most likely not be deemed a failure, we have already done extensive testing at our labs, this project and expansion is just a large-scale test. Most likely the test will be converted into a permanent project, employing more people. Ms. Lane, in the world of business every venture is an investment of time and money, but here at Luthor Corp failure is rare,” Lex shifts in his chair, spinning to turn his back and stare out towards the horizon, “Now if that is all Gary over there will escort you back to the lobby,” he waves his hand over his shoulder in the general direction of the security guard, Gary, still standing next to the door silent.
Lois gathered her things and stood, she made to move towards the door before hesitating, “I have one more question, off the record,” Lex hums, a sign to continue, “Do you know Clark Kent?”
The air seems to thicken with tension, Lex’s leg propped upon his knee, stops bouncing, “Yes.”
Lois moves her weight from one foot to the other, “Well, how?”
“Ms. Lane, I’d appreciate if you would leave now,” over by the door Gary makes his way forward towards Lois, stands by her and gestures with his arm towards the door. Lois Lane leaves with no protest, out the mahogany doors and down the elevator, and she ponders just when two men from shockingly different walks of life could have made contact, a contact that had made such a lasting scar.
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A few days after Lois’ interview with one Lex Luthor, her column is ready, she hands the printed pages to Clark, “Hey if you have time would you consider reading this over before I send it in to the editor?”
Clark pushes his glasses up, and flits through the pages in the file, “Yeah sure, I’m free now, what’s the piece about?”
“Seriously Clark? It’s the one about LexCorp you turned down three days ago.”
“Oh! Yeah, I’ll read through it quickly and get back to you with any notes I have, I’m sure it’s great Lois,” with that Clark turned towards his desk to start reading the piece, and Lois headed back over to her desk to review her notes, triple, quadruple checking that she didn’t leave anything important out.
After a few minutes, Clark walks over to her desk, “Lois, when is this piece due?”
“Tomorrow, why?” Lois glances up at Clark questioningly, he’s holding the file in both his hands.
“Lois, I think this piece has way too much of your opinion on LexCorp leaking through, I mean, half these sentences are barely disguised insults about the company as well as the CEO. Didn’t Perry specify that the piece must be an opinion free fact-only article?”
“Yes… but it’s too late to change it, so Perry will be forced to run it.”
“You’re right,” Clark sighed and placed the file down in front of Lois, “Well I left some notes, fix up anything you can, it was great writing Lois.”
Clark heads back to his desk, a plan brewing in his head, it may be too late to edit the article, but there was one thing Clark could do, call Lex Luthor to warn him. Even though it’s been years since they last talked, Clark never deleted Lex’s number, he always held out the hope that it would come in handy, and it finally did. Clark picked up the receiver of his desk phone, and methodically typed in the numbers that he memorized from his phone, this number lined directly to Lex’s personal phone, a number few knew. So, shortly after Lex got back to his office and his phone rang loudly in the silence, he looked at the unknown number and debated whether or not he should pick up. But his concern got the best of him, it was better to know what the call was for than to worry over it if he didn’t pick up.
When the call went through, Clark exhaled a sigh of relief that gently led into a name he worried he’d never get to say again, “Lex, I’m glad you picked up, Theres something important I thought you should know.”
“Clark,” and the name came out like all the air was punched out of Lex’s chest, a note of awe and adoration in his voice, almost framed as a question, but not quite. Lex felt almost lightheaded, his traitor of a heart fluttered in his chest, “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“I thought… I thought that maybe I should warn you of the piece that Lois Lane wrote after your interview, it was supposed to be an unbiased piece, but well…,” he trailed off.
Lex quickly stepped in, “Edit it before it goes out Clark, or pull it.”
“We can’t, it’s too close to the deadline to edit it, and the piece is to important to pull, we wouldn’t have time to fill the hole it would leave either. And even if we did I don’t have the authority to make that decision.”
Lex sighs and drags a hand across his head, “Look, Clark, you’ve always been good at pulling strings, I’m sure you could come up with something.”
Clark feels his heartbeat increase, his face dusted with a light pink, he taps his fingers against his desk before answering, “There might be something I can do, though it would be another interview to grab a few more quotes to do a quick edit.”
“Great, thank you Clark.”
Clark rushes over to Perry’s office and grabs Lois on the way, “Sir, me and Ms. Lane believe that the article written about LexCorp for next weeks issue may be a bit too biased and I think it would be best if we send a reporter to do a last minute interview and fix up the piece, of course leaving as much of Lois’ original writing as possible.”
Lois hands Perry the file, who silently flips through the pages, “Well Kent, you’re right, if you’re so sure that’s the best course of action, you should head over to LexCorp yourself to conduct that interview.”
“Me?! But sir, I don’t think that-”
“I won’t hear it Kent, go, quickly, Lane, you make as many corrections as you can in the time he’s gone.”
Upon the orders Clark and Lois hurry back to their desks, Clark gathers his notepad and recorder, stuffing it all into his battered over the shoulder bag, practically running towards the elevator to head towards LexCorp towers.
As soon as the elevator doors close, Lois turns to Jimmy who’s reviewing photos for the issue, the bullpen is in a panic around them.
“Jimmy,” Lois has a serious expression on her face, “What do you think is up with Kent? He refused to go do an interview that he said was the best course of action, but Perry made him leave for it anyway.”
“Maybe…,” Jimmy looked thoughtful, before a proverbial lightbulb went on, “He could have done an interview with Luthor before, and he was just incredibly mean.”
“It would make sense… but, it seemed like they knew each other, personally.”
“Woah, something deeper then?”
Lois nodded, then she remembered something from her research a few days ago, “Lex Luthor was sent to manage a LuthorCorp plant in Smallville in 2001, he was there for a few years and bought up property in the area. I think-”
“That Luthor maybe tried to buy the Kent farm! Even if they said no, Luthor is known for not giving up easily.”
“That would make the most sense, we should ask Kent about it when he gets back,” with that Lois went to her desk to continue to edit her piece in the column, hoping Kent would hurry back quickly to give her a few more quotes.
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“-if you turn to your right, you’ll be guided up to Mr. Luthor’s office. Have a good day!”
Clark smiled at her and headed over to the security guard by the elevator, when they entered the elevator the guard quickly pressed the 100, “Wow that high up huh?” Clark laughed nervously. The guard looked at him from the corner of his eye and didn’t respond, and a few minutes later stepped out in front of Clark to open the mahogany doors, stepping in behind him to close the door and stand watch.
Clark looked around the office curiously, it was so similar yet so different than the one Lex had had in the Smallville Luthor manor. Clarks steps were muffled by the carpet on the floor, and Clark wanted to believe that the shade of red was chosen to look like his cape on purpose, but he knew it couldn’t be.
“Clark, I knew you could find a way, please have a seat,” while Clark was lost in his thoughts, he hadn’t seen Lex turn away from the window and smile something small. He gestured to the chairs in front of his desk, a comfortable looking brown leather, a shade that matched his own chair. Lex didn’t sit down, instead he strode over to a set of cabinets with glass showing off many bottles of alcohol, he opened the cabinet and pulled out two glasses and a bottle of bourbon.
“Do you want something to drink Clark? I have a 4 year aged bourbon, it’s quite nice, not too strong,” Lex looks over his shoulder towards Clark who has placed his recorder on the desk and is watching Lex, fidgeting carefully with his pen. Lex gives him a wry smirk, “You’re finally old enough to have one.”
“No, I have to get back to the office after this, but thank you Lex,” he turns to look back at his notepad, listing a quick series of questions for the project. Lex returns one glass back to the cabinet, closes the doors and heads back to his desk, setting his drink down he waves at the security by the door, “Gary, if you wouldn’t mind,” and takes a seat.
Clark turns to look watching as Gary turns and leaves the office, leaving Clark and Lex alone, Lex speaks up, “So, shall we start?”
For around half an hour, Clark asks a few of the same questions that Lois had previously, and a couple that she hadn’t, and though Clark would never know, Lex gave him more in-depth answers than he had to Lois previously. And eventually the interview was over and Clark had asked all he needed to, he grabbed his recorder off of the table, turned it off, and stuffed his things into his bag that laid at his feet. Lex stood from his chair, empty glass sitting forgotten, he slowly rounded the table, dragging his hand gently across the wood. His head is tilted down, gazing gently at Clark where he sits below him.
“Clark,” Lex purrs.
Clarks head shoots up, craning his head up as he realizes that Lex is now standing above him, Lex had left his blazer folded haphazardly over the back of his chair and the sleeves of his button up were rolled to his elbows. Neither move, and Lex’s smile grows wider, “You could stay for longer.”
“I- um, I really should get this written up…,” Lex lifts his right hand, his left still resting on the corner of the table, and strokes down Clark’s jaw, tilting his head up with a finger on his chin.
“Stay.”
Lex leans down and kisses Clark gently on the lips, he gives him time to pull away, but Clark leans in and he can taste the expensive bourbon lingering in his mouth. He blindly reaches for Lex’s hand on the table to hold him, and Lex moves his right to cradle Clarks face and urges him upward as he straightens his back, Clark follows dutifully, their kiss never breaking. Lex steps forward, a foot between Clark’s and corners him against the desk, their mouths move in rhythm, Clark lifts his left hand to hold Lex’s waist gently, caressing his thumb over Lex’s stomach. Lex pulls back, biting Clark’s bottom lip, he removes the glasses from Clark’s face, “What do you need these for?”
Then Lex is mouthing down his jawline, his hand moves from his cheek to caress up and down his back, finally resting his hand in Clark’s thick hair.
“They’re for-” Lex nibbles on his earlobe, Clark huffs a breath, “my secret identity Lex.”
Lex hums and moves lower, Clark moans as Lex bites harshly into his jugular, he drops his face into the crook of Lex’s neck, kissing it gently and loosening his tie to get better access. Lex lets go of Clark’s hand to push his hands under the front lapel of Clark’s blazer to push it off, Lex throws it behind him, and it falls onto the chair in a heap.
“Oh Lex,” Clark sighs, his nose nuzzling into his neck, “I worried I’d never see you again, never -uhh,” Lex pulled his head back by the hair, sucking at Clark’s neck, “Never touch you again.”
Clark’s face was pulled away, he whimpered before it was muffled by Lex’s lips on his once more, Lex pushed himself to Clark as firmly as he could, as if he wanted them to meld into one. Lex shoved his thigh up between Clark’s leg, grinding against him.
“I’ve missed you as well Clark,” he whispers gently and pulls away, bringing both of his hands up to cradle Clark’s cheeks, “You’re just as handsome as I remember,” Clark’s face turns a shocking shade of red and Lex moves forward once more-
*BRINGGGG-BRINGGGGG-BRINGGGG*
Clark looks over Lex’s shoulder to where his blazer was tossed, reluctantly he moves from out of where Lex had backed him into the desk, Lex easily moves to the side to watch him. Clark picks up the phone—an old model with scrapes and a cracked screen—Lex scowls, “Hello? Oh, yes I’ll be back shortly. Yes, yes, I’m sorry,” Clark pockets his phone and quickly puts on his blazer, picks up his bag and shoves his glasses back on. He blushes as he looks over at Lex and then down at his shoes.
Lex reaches and grabs the press badge that still sits around his neck and pulls Clark forward, “So was that Perry, calling to pull you back to work?”
“Uh yes, I really should go,” Lex reaches up and straightens Clarks collar and tightens his blue tie.
“Alright then,” he smooths over the blazer gently before pulling his hands back away, he moves to head back to his desk but Clark grabs his hand firmly. Before Clark can think through his actions he leans forward to peck Lex on the lips.
“I hope to see you later, bye Lex,” And Lex watches his retreating back, until his office doors close and he can see him no more.
Clark worries about how fast he’s going to have to write the edits to this piece, because there was no way he was going to dump all of this on Lois. He runs—at a normal human pace even though he wants to go faster—towards the Daily Planet and up to the bullpen, he thinks the elevator would take too long so he runs up the stairs. He swings by Lois’ desk to grab her edited copy and types as fast as he can get away with so the article will be done by the end of the day. After a few hours of listening to his recording with a blush on his face and reviewing his notes, finally he has finished the edits, shows it to Lois for approval, and hands it in to Perry.
“What took you so long at LexCorp, you were there for an hour.”
Clark blushes, pushing his glasses up, “The interview didn’t go as I planned.”
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The next day the bullpen is back to normal operation, Clark had gotten a new assignment that morning, and was currently sitting at his desk working on it. He distantly wonders, will Lex come back to him? Will they be close once more? And Clark almost wants to cry thinking that maybe it won’t happen, and what will he do then.
He hears Lois and Jimmy approaching his desk and turns his seat to meet the both of them, “Kent, I’ve been wondering. When Luthor was in Smallville did he try to buy your family’s farm, hit you with his car? You were so avoidant about going to conduct an interview.”
Clark lets out a little laugh, “No nothing like that.”
Jimmy leans on his desk, “Well we know that Luthor is a pretty mean guy, I mean, Lois was telling me how he barely wanted to answer any questions and he practically forced her out of his office.”
Clark frowned, “Really? He isn’t usually-” Clark stopped himself, reconsidering, “Well I haven’t spoken to him in a few years now, so I guess I wouldn’t really know anymore.”
Lois raised a brow and smirked, “What? So you used to know him well?”
Clark cleared his throat awkwardly, “Well, yes, in fact we did. Me and Lex were close friends when he moved to Smallville, we actually met when I pulled him out of a car wreck. We eventually,” Clark hesitated, “we eventually began to date, we were together for a few years until we had a pretty bad falling out.”
Lois and Jimmy stared at him in shock, Jimmy slammed his hands down on the Clark’s desk, and Clark would never admit it, but he jumped a little.
“You can’t be serious,” Jimmy exclaimed, “You dated the egotistical owner of LexCorp?”
“Well, he wasn’t the owner when I dated him, before that it was LuthorCorp, and his father owned it.”
Lois grinned and placed her hand on her hip, “That’s why you didn’t want to write that piece! You’re more biased than me!” Lois tried to continue accosting him but was interrupted.
“Excuse me. Mr. Clark Kent?” Lois and Jimmy whirled around to find a stern looking man had somehow quietly snuck up behind them. He wore a fitted black two piece suit and wore thin sunglasses perched upon his nose, he silently placed a black box with a bright red ribbon and note down on Clarks desk, “I work for Mr. Luthor and he wanted this brought to you immediately.”
And Clark distantly noted once more that the ribbon color was in the same shade as his cape. Clark looked back up to thank the man, who had bowed his head, “Have a good day Mr. Kent,” before promptly turning to leave towards the elevators.
“What is it, a thank you gift from Luthor for bending to his will? Perhaps a box of chocolate?” Lois said sarcastically, eyeing the box.
Clark gently un-did the bow and opened the box revealing the newest phone model in a sleek professional grey, and Clark knew it must have been the same color and model as Lex had. He closes the box to grab the note attached at the top.
To Clark Kent
For your exceptional work in the interview and
published article, I thought you would appreciate a new
model after I saw the one you were carrying around with
you. Don’t ask me to return it like you did with the truck I
bought you before, because I will refuse. I would also
like to invite you to have dinner with me tonight, I’ve
made a reservation at Dorsia for two at 6pm, it would
please me greatly to see you. I’ll pick you up at 5:20
at the Daily Planet, if you aren’t out in 5 minutes,
I’ll come up myself to get you.
Best Wishes,
Lex Luthor