January 5, 2011

The Justice League Chronicles: Undercover (1/14)

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Banner By: Kyra_And_Co

Chapter 1

‘The Trade in the Favor’



Oliver stood leaning against Chloe’s desk, arms crossed lightly over his chest eyebrow raised as she spoke a mile a minute. He was holding a Styrofoam cup in his hand waiting for the petite blonde to actually glance in his direction.

“So since you’re all about doing good deeds and personally I think this is a really great opportunity--”

“Chloe.”

She paused in her tirade and turned towards him, he waved the coffee sitting in his hand and she grinned.

“You brought me coffee.”

“I did. I figured you’d be due for another boost about now. In the interest of saving time since some of us have board meetings to attend, what exactly is it that you’ve spent the last seven minutes trying to talk me into?”

Chloe chuckled and made her way over to him taking the coffee from his hand with an appreciative look.

“I was talking to Lana this morning, don’t make that face, and she’s working on this amazing charity Gala to raise money for the Metropolis General Children’s Oncology Ward and well we were thinking how much of a difference it would make if Luthor Corp and Queen Industries partnered up to do the benefit together! Doesn’t that sound great?”

She gave him one of her 100 watt smiles and he sighed. It most definitely did not sound great. It sounded like he’d have to spend a night with hundreds of snooty people, Lex and his wife Lana Lang who despite the fact that she was best friends with Chloe, he couldn’t stand.

He was about to tell her there was no chance in hell he was doing any kind of work with Luthor Corp when he saw the pleading look in her eyes as she bit her lip while waiting for his answer. He inwardly sighed at his inability to say no to her.

“Lex never does charity work Chloe. Not the real kind anyway.”

He watched her nose crinkle slightly and she frowned.

“That’s not entirely true. Ever since he and Lana got married Luthor Corp’s charitable contributions have gone up forty-five percent. I think Lana is a somewhat calming influence on him and until I can prove to her that he’s bad news I’ll encourage her spending his money for a good cause whenever I can.”

He pursed his lips together and she could tell he was caving. Oliver was usually pretty good with her requests. He always listened to her ideas and most of the time took her advice, but she knew he wasn’t crazy about Lana, not that she blamed him.

They hadn’t exactly made the best first impression on each other and unfortunately the intense dislike on both their parts had only grown over the past two years. His voice knocked Chloe out of her thoughts about Lana as she focused on the man in front of her.

“I have a bad feeling about this. Lex never gets involved with these things out of the goodness of his heart…you know that.”

Chloe rolled her eyes.

“It's a charity gala, Oliver, not a firing squad. It will probably be the best thing Lex ever does, even if he doesn't care in the slightest he’d do it for Lana. Besides, it would mean a lot to Lana which would mean a lot to me. Please? For charity and justice and friendship.”

Oliver shook his head a small smirk appearing on his face at the grinning blonde in front of him. How could he say no to that? Chloe Sullivan was a force of nature when she wanted something so he might as well say yes now to avoid further harassment from her later.

“Fine.”

“Yes! Thanks Oliver I promise you won’t regret it!”

He pointed in her direction as he spoke.

“Not so fast Sidekick. There are conditions.”

She nodded.

“Lay them on me.”

“One, since this is your idea you will help Lana organize the event.”

“But--”

“No buts. Lana and I don’t exactly see eye to eye on a lot of things, neither do Lex and I so I’m assuming we’ll be using you two ladies as our go between’s to communicate what we want happening for the event.”

Chloe frowned.

“Basically what you mean is you and Lex will give us company credit cards and have us plan the event ourselves while the two of you do have absolutely nothing to do with each other?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.”

She sighed.

“Fine, next condition?”

“Second, since this is going to be a joint event I assume we’ll have to co-host and since you were so instrumental in getting me to agree, I’ll be expecting you to attend with me to help host.”

“Well of course I’ll be going.”

“As my date.”

“What?”

He nodded as he glanced at his vibrating phone.

“Well you know what I mean. A friendly date. It just makes the most sense since your organizing the event for Queen Industries. Listen I need to head out, but I’ve got one last request.”

He glanced up and she arched a brow at him.

“There sure are a lot of conditions for one little charity event.”

“A charity event with Lex and Lana Luthor. Two people I can’t stand. You’re just lucky I happen to like you Sidekick. Listen Mia’s got this…date.”

He took a deep breath and pinched his nose before continuing.

“She’s in town for a couple of days and she’s been complaining all week how she has a date on Saturday, a real date where he’s going to come to the penthouse and pick her up and what not and she wasn’t happy with the selection of clothes she has here so I told her I’d take her shopping.”

Chloe hid her smile as he continued.

“But the truth is I don’t have time.”

“You mean you don’t want to take a teenage girl shopping.”

He rolled his eyes.

“Fine I don’t want to take a teenage girl shopping. So I was hoping maybe you’d do it. This condition is a deal breaker. She needs to find something because if I have to spend one more day hearing her stomp around the penthouse whining about how she has nothing to wear I’m going to either pull out my hair or shoot her with one of the tranq arrows. Neither of which would really be considered conductive behavior.”

Chloe laughed as she took a sip of the now lukewarm coffee he’d brought her and walked back over towards the main frame of computers.

“I think that’s something I can handle doing.”

“Thank god. Alright I’ll let her know. Maybe you can come by and get her tonight say around six?”

“Sure. I’ll stop by when I leave Watchtower.”

“Great.”

He pushed himself off the desk and headed for the double doors that led to the hallway and elevator. He was halfway out the door when he paused spinning to face Chloe who had already went back to typing.

“Hey and uh…you know if you could get his name out of her and possibly do a background check…that would be okay too.”

Her face never left the monitors, but he saw her lip turn up at the corner.

“Goodbye Oliver.”

“Goodbye Chloe.”

Out of the corner of her eyes she watched him leave with a grin on his face. She knew it wouldn’t take much to get him to agree. Oliver was a good guy and even though he hated Lex he enjoyed doing things for the community around them. Now all she needed to do was meet with Lana so they could start planning. So far the day was looking good.


_______


“It’s for a good cause.”

Lex glanced away from his laptop and at the woman in front of him. He loved Lana more than he’d ever loved anyone else, but sometimes she drove him up a wall with her need to support every charity in a 50 mile radius. And he had no doubt that Chloe encouraged it just to piss him off.

“I just don’t think it’s the best idea. You know Oliver and I aren’t exactly friends.”

She nodded.

“I know, but he’s already agreed.”

Lex raised an eyebrow and she huffed lightly.

“Fine, but he will agree. Chloe’s talking to him about it today and I have the utmost confidence in her ability to persuade him to team up with Luthor Corp.”

He sighed.

“Why is this so important to you?”

“Because Lex, those kids at the hospital…they need more care and you have so many connections with deep pockets as does Oliver. We could do some real good with this and it will be good for business too.”

“How do you figure?”

She shifted so she was sitting against the inside of his desk right next to him.

“Well the quarterly numbers for Luthor Corp have gone down recently, not a lot, but slightly. And I’m pretty sure it has to do with this whole war you having going with Queen Industries. I swear you and Oliver are like children both trying to grab for the same toy.”

He went to cut her off but she shook her head and continued speaking.

“An alliance between your two companies for this event will show the shareholders along with prospective business partners that you can work together and you don’t actually hate each other, but are just competitive companies. It’s a win, win situation.”

He watched his wife tick off her points on her fingers and he couldn’t help the grin that settled onto his face as he leaned back in his chair.

“You Mrs. Luthor are quite the negotiator.”

She laughed as he reached out pulling her onto his lap as she wrapped her arms around his neck, voice soft as she spoke.

“I learned from the best.”

He chuckled against her neck, warm breath making her skin tingle as he placed a small kiss there. She shifted moving closer as his hand slid up and down her back, silence settling around them.

“Well…is that a yes?”

“Mmm you’re lucky I love you. But I have conditions.”

Lana gave him an amused look as she leaned back while fixing his tie.

“Of course you do.”

“I assume you and Chloe will be working on the gala together?”

“You assume correctly.”

“I’ll give you the company card I trust you don’t need me for the actual planning.”

She shook her head.

“Nope you’re off the hook for that. You will have to attend though.”

His hands settled on her hips as he pursed his lips together.

“That’s fine. Make sure Oliver is nowhere near our table for the dinner portion of the evening I’d like to enjoy my meal.”

Lana made a face, her voice holding a slightly haughty tone as she spoke.

“Trust me he won’t be by us.”

Lex smirked.

“Still angry with Mr. Queen I see.”

She snorted.

“He was less than kind to me on more than one occasion and I don’t care what anyone says I’m sure he’s the one who kidnapped you last year and when I confronted him about it he spoke to me as if I was just one of the many women you’d had gracing your arm instead of your wife. It was rude and completely unacceptable.”

Lex knew better than to argue with her when it came to Oliver. The truth was he’d had pretty much the same thought during his kidnapping, but they were never able to prove it, something that still made his blood boil.

He rubbed her hips to get her attention and when she glanced at him, eyes angry, face slightly flushed he gave her body a once over.

“Has anyone ever told you that when you’re angry you’re incredibly sexy?”

Lana moved against him so she was straddling his lap, eyebrow arched as she spoke.

“Is that so?”

“Indeed.”

“How much time do we have before you need to leave for Metropolis?”

“Enough.”

He weaved a hand into her hair and pulled her head down, crashing their lips together. She moaned against him and as he deepened the kiss Lex wondered and not for the first time, how he’d gotten so lucky.


_______


“Smallville, hurry up! I swear for someone with super speed you’re the slowest person I know.”

Clark came clomping down the steps and emerged from around the corner, hands adjusting his tie as he frowned at Lois.

“Someone called for help; I needed to put out a fire. I don’t know why you’re complaining it’s not like we don’t have time to get there.”

She glared at her boyfriend and pointed to the clock on the stove.

“We’re running late. We’ll never make it to the office in time for my meeting with Perry.”

Clark rolled his eyes as he grabbed a piece of toast and squinted, lightly browning the edges of it.

“You realize I can run us there in second’s right?”

“Yes Clark, but I thought we were going to start taking the car because people were becoming more nosey than usual in regards to our form of transportation or do you not remember the conversation we had about this yesterday.”

He bit into his toast and leaned against the counter as he watched her toss several loose papers into her purse.

“I did not, but you can’t always get what you want. We’ll take it tomorrow I promise Lo’ if it’s that big of a deal I’ll leave early today, come back here and drive the car back to Metropolis.”

She stopped what she was doing and raised her eyebrow. She knew how much Clark hated traveling the human way. Why waist two to three hours when he could get anywhere he wanted in a few seconds.

“Really, you’d drive it all the way back for me?”

He let out a heavy breath at the softened look on her face. He hated lying to Lois. Ever since he’d told her his secret there weren’t many things they kept from each other.

“Fine I’d probably fly it over, but I’d still bring it so that should count for something.”

She placed a hand on her hip, eyes turning to slits.

“Real nice. Whatever let’s just head out and make sure when we get to the Planet that I don’t look windblown like last time. I’m meeting Chloe and Lana for lunch and the last thing I need is to look like I took a two hour trip in a convertible.”

Clark finished off his toast and brushed off his hands as Lois shrugged into her jacket. He and Lois had been living together for the past year and it had definitely taken some getting used to. But things between them had been a lot better ever since she found out about his secret.

He was finally in a relationship where he didn’t have to hide half of who he was and though Lois tended to get peeved slightly that he went to Chloe with all his ‘superhero problems’ she let him off the hook as long as she was the only reporter who got exclusives with Metropolis’s greatest hero.

She looked up and caught him staring at her and she looked down at herself before speaking.

“What?”

He shook his head.

“Nothing. You just look really nice today, that’s all.”

She gave him half a smirk.

“Flattery will get you everywhere Smallville.”

He chuckled as he pulled her into his arms and placing a soft kiss on her lips.

“Don’t I know it.”

He lifted her up as her arms wound around his neck like they’d done a hundred times before.

“You ready?”

She nodded and hid her head against his chest, breathing in his scent as her body relaxed against his.

“All aboard the Smallville express…up, up and away.”

He chuckled and placed a kiss on the top of her head before speeding out the door and then zipping up into the air when he was halfway down the driveway. It had taken him close to a year and Lois almost dying to get over his fear of heights.

But ever since he had, his ability to fly had come like a second nature to him making his life a lot easier than he ever imagined it could be. He heard Lois grumbling something about her hair as he sailed through the clouds and chuckled. Leave it to his girlfriend to be thousands of feet it he air and worry about her hair.

Chapter Two: The Bonds That Form

2 comments:

  1. I love this fic so far! I haven't read a Lexana, Chlollie, and Clois fic that often if ever so this is pretty awesome. I love Lexana and I really think that Lana would totally help keep Lex soft and convince him to do good things like donate to charties and she could bring goodness out of him. I think Lana really fits into the role as Lex's wife really well.

    I love the idea of Lana and Chloe still being BFF's while Lana is married to Lex and that she could kind of see Lana good influence on Lex. Ilove the thought of them both working togteher to have an event lke this.

    Such an awesome job! I can't wait for an update.

    -Sally

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  2. This is wonderful! I love Chlollie and Clois to death, but Lexana was my original Smallville ship from way back in Season One. I always thought they had wonderful chemistry and had the potential to become a really interesting couple - but obviously the writers thought two more years of Clana would be better (they were really wrong).

    Anyways, wonderful start and I'm off to read the rest!

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Feedback is always appreciated! :)