Another typical Luthor affair.  Exquisitely perfect, down to the tiniest details, as only the ultra rich and the supremely advantaged can afford.  It was a testament to the finest the city had to offer, from caterers to interior decorators, proving that the “New York City of the Midwest” could indeed match anything found on either coast. 

Give her a dusty warehouse and a mob boss any day.

It wasn’t that she disliked mingling with high society.  No, never that.  With a general for a father and a socialite mother, she was high society where she came from.  The right look, the right bloodline, the right political connections, no one could deny that she belonged here in this room just as much as anyone else. 

No, her preference for grime and grit had nothing to do with the elite of the city.  In fact, she liked to think that she’d embraced Metropolis as her own.  A true city girl, who should be lost in the plains of the Midwest, yet finding a home among the shiny spires of the only slice of civilization found in this region of the country.  She knew this was where she belonged.

After all, the only reason she moved to such a nowheresville state like Kansas was the shiny gem that was Metropolis.  The Daily Planet had been fast becoming one of the leading papers in the Midwest, and Lois had always had a nose for where the leading trend would go.  From the latest shoes to the next big story, it was what gave her an edge in a career overpopulated with others of her ilk.  She knew what her audience wanted even before they did, and she bullied her way into writing those stories, even if it gave Perry gray hairs to let her go where all common sense said was a dead end.  She’d known back then that The Daily Planet would one day be competing alongside the New York Post or the Los Angeles Times, and she’d been determined to lead that rising star to its inevitable glory.

No, it wasn’t that either.  It was…the sheer perfection, which grated on her nerves.  The entire ballroom was awash in a sea of silver and soft greens, like a glittery underworld lagoon where the unbelievable happened.  The people around her were dressed to the nines, almost seeming to move in some prearranged pattern, an intricate dance that would awe any observer.  The soft swell of conversation moved like the tide, lowering and rising, as if in harmony to the orchestra tastefully tucked into the corner.

Narrowing her brilliant blue eyes, Lois took in the true source of her discontent.  Her bane.  Her curse.  Her-

“Oh, my God!” Chloe squealed in her ear.  “He’s here!  He’s really, really here!”

Lois snorted.  As if all the damn green in the room wasn’t a clue.

“He’s so gorgeous,” Chloe sighed wistfully.  “Maybe he’ll dance with me this time.  I hear he sometimes does-”

Gagging really wasn’t an option right now, so she took her next best option.  Elbowing her cousin in the side, hopefully hard enough to knock the repressed twelve-year-old inner child back into repression.  Deep, deep into repression.

Grunting at the contact, Chloe just sent her a toothy grin, amusement dancing in her own beautiful blue eyes.  “Oh, come on, Lolo, green-eyed monster aside, you have to admit CJ is an absolute dish of chocolaty goodness.”

“Too much Buffy is dangerous for the IQ,” Lois muttered darkly under her breath.  “Damn Uncle Gabe anyway.”

Chloe just glanced longingly to the far side of the room.

“You realize we’re here for a reason.”

“CJ watching?”

As if.  Sometimes, she really wondered why she bothered to volunteer to train in her baby cousin.  Everyone knew Lois Lane didn’t work with a partner, even five years after Perry announced he wanted his reporters to follow his warped idea of the buddy system.  Yet, she also knew Metropolis wasn’t all shiny high rises and baby ducks in Centennial Park.  How could she ever look Uncle Gabe in the eye again if she didn’t take Chloe under her watchful gaze?

Who knew that her baby cousin was a bit of a firecracker when it came to reporting?  After all, it should be against some sort of universal rule to have two reporting prodigies in one family.

Not that she minded the babysitting job that much after last year’s Pulitzer.

Chloe sighed again, her hand rising to cup her cheek.

Then again…

“Luthor?” Lois hissed out, eyes darting to make sure no one was listening.  “Ring a bell?”

“Yeah, yeah.”  Waving a hand in the hair carelessly, Chloe yawned.  “The other major hotness in the room.  CEO, blah, blah, blah.  Possible Gubernatorial candidate, blah, blah, blah.  Get a feel for what the uppity-ups feel about this new development, blah, blah…So totally kissing CJ at the moment!”

Chloe would have dived into the crowd, undoubtedly for a close and personal look, if Lois hadn’t grabbed her arm.  Seriously.  Does the babysitting never end?

Chloe squealed, practically clapping her hands.  “Tongue!  I see tongue!”

Clearly not.

“Get a grip, Chlo-chlo.”  She definitely wasn’t forgetting the mention of that stupid nickname in public.  “Lex and CJ making out isn’t exactly new.  In fact, it’s so old, it’s boring.”

That got her a quiet Chloe, as well as a raised eyebrow.

“Boring,” Lois insisted strongly.  “Like this party.  So perfect, so unnaturally artificial, it’s beyond boring.  More like staid.  Stagnant.  Utterly dull…”

“Okay, Ms. Thesaurus, I get the picture.”  The dry tone in the blonde’s voice clearly indicated her sentiments on the issue.  Of course, Chloe being Chloe, couldn’t leave it there.  “Just because CJ stole Lex right from under your-”

“Don’t say it.”

“As if my saying it makes it any less true,” Chloe finished smoothly.  “Yeah, so you had a fairy tale relationship with Lex.  And yes, you’d even gone ring shopping, proving to all of Metropolis you have what it takes to be the Queen Bee to Lex’s King.  But his falling head over heels for CJ should make you happy.  At least you knew you didn’t belong together before the marriage.”

As if.

“Seriously, Lois,” Chloe said, dropping a hand on her cousin’s arm.  “Just look at them.  CJ and Lex…if that isn’t true love, than nothing is.  Would you really have wanted to get in the way of something that miraculous?”

“I thought you wanted Clark all to yourself.”

“Maybe for a night…or a week.  True lust is a powerful force, too.”  Chloe’s smirk lessened into a gentle smile.  “Seriously, Lolo, CJ Clark and Lex Luthor, they’re like…destined or something.  You can see it in the air around them.  When they look at each other…” 

Lois rolled her eyes at the latest sigh in a long night of sighs to come.  It was always the same whenever CJ deigned to show himself in public.  The crush her little cousin had was unbecoming in a reporter.  And her ridiculous notions about Lex, CJ, and herself were outlandish.

No, her nose was telling her that CJ wasn’t what he seemed.  Looking at him, she couldn’t see whatever it was that had Chloe enraptured.  6’4”.  Raven dark hair.  Chiseled face.  Decent body, if you like the beef cake type.  Freakish green eyes.  Had to be contacts.  No way those were real.  In the looks department…he was okay.  Nothing like Lex, but then, no one was.

But other than any visual appeal he might have, as little as that may be, he was…boring.  Boring, boring, boring, with a side dish of boring!  Sure, he was dancing smoothly with Lex, but with Lex leading, anyone would.  Sure, he was striking enough in his tux, but then, what man didn’t clean up nicely in one.  In the end it didn’t change what he was.

An accountant.

Who in the hell falls in love with an accountant?

Not Lex Luthor.  Lex Luthor fell in love with brilliance.  With ferociousness.  With the strong willed.  Lex Luthor demanded the best of the best, the most beautiful of the beautiful, the wittiest of the wittiest.  He deserved a true equal.

Not some two-bit bean counter.

Watching CJ rub an oversized paw along Lex’s spine, she narrowed her gaze, eying her prey.

She didn’t give a damn if he was some twice-blasted orphan.  Three times, if you count his grandfather’s recent death.  He was the perfect sob story for the saps in this town.  It still galled her to know that the city loved the damn SOB.  Even if he was a boring, dead-end, nobody, they couldn’t get enough of their own Little Orphan Clarky.

Clark Clark.  She didn’t care if his grandfather raised him, and thus had been the one to change his name.  What kind of man actually keeps something like that for his name?

No, there was something off about CJ Clark.  Something not right.  She couldn’t quite pin it down.  Yet.  But it would come to her.  Watch him enough.  Wait long enough.  Whatever it was that CJ was hiding, she’d discover it.

Hell, if CJ was as dangerous as she believed, she might even have to find a way to get Superman on this.

After all, someone like CJ, nerd-accountant, didn’t win the heart of someone like Alexander J. Luthor.  Someone like CJ, uninteresting and tediously dull, didn’t marry the Alexander’s of the world.  Someone like CJ, the ultimate loner from all accounts, didn’t bedazzle people like her Lex.

She’d find out the real scoop on CJ and free Lex in one fell swoop, or her name wasn’t Lois Lane.

END