Chapter Text
Standing in front of Lionel Luthor was daunting enough. Just the man’s cadence, his thousand dollar suits, his rich curls framing his face, made Kent nervous. He was never “summoned” by Lionel. Never. Until now.
The whole way there, dread clawed at Clark’s chest. His mind ran rampant with scenarios and none of them were good. What had he done wrong? What had he done to garner the attention of the multi-millionaire? Billionaire? His breathing sped as he walked towards the older man awaiting him in Lex’s study.
For being inhuman, he certainly felt fragile. Small. Scared.
Lionel greeted him as if it were a normal Thursday. His expressions, his gestures, his tone - none of it belied the shock that he had in store for Clark. He knew he was in true danger when Lionel sat on the black sofa and beckoned Clark to sit across from him.
Reaching into his jacket pocket, he pulled out a stack of photos and slapped them down on the table. Clark didn’t even have to move to see them to know what they were.
Clark’s heart sank. Descending lower and lower until it felt as though it had fallen right out of his body and through the floor.
He tried to work up some excuse, some workaround. Mentioned something weakly about Photoshop, but Lionel only roared with laughter in his face.
“It’s adorable that you try so hard to deny it,” Lionel said. “But do you really think that I’d come to the table with any sort of accusation without proof that my proof is legitimate?”
And with that, he reached forward and unfolded a piece of paper. It vouched for the authenticity of the photos and remarked on the fact that they were - in no way manipulated or altered.
Clark’s mouth was dry, and his hands were shaking. His eyes were huge and his body felt heavy and clumsy beneath the weight of his terror. Still, he managed to reach out and scoop up the pictures, and he thumbed through them.
“What do you want?” he breathed, unable to even look through the entire stack. He handed them back with a shaking hand and Lionel re-deposited them in his suit jacket.
Kent’s entire life hung in the balance - suspended by Lionel’s devious hands.
“I’ve thought about that question a lot since discovering your little secret. Hell, I thought about it even before,” Lionel began. His eyes were warm despite him being such a cold beast. “You may not know this but I was in the field that day that Jonathan and Martha found you. The day of the meteor shower,” he went slowly, letting every word sink in, letting implications linger. “Lex and I hitched a ride with Jonathan, Martha and...you.”
Clark’s eyebrows drew together and he swallowed but had no spit to ease the gulp. “W-what?” He had no memory of that day - he was too young.
“That’s right. I was there. I actually helped facilitate your adoption - in exchange for Jonathan getting the Ross' to give up their land,” Lionel pushed off from his seat and moved to stoke the fire. “Why do you think your father hates me so much?" he retold the story as if recounting a well-worn fishing or hunting tale. "I could have adopted you myself,” he said bitterly.
“You know Clark, there isn't much I regret in life but I can safely say that I will spend the rest of my life regretting not having adopted you myself. It would have been too easy to pull one over on the Kents and keep you,” he said wistfully - a non-existent form of a parallel universe playing behind his eyes.
Clark wasn’t sure whether to take what Lionel was saying at face value, but what would he gain from lying about this?
The implications were indeed…enormous. What would Clark’s life have looked like if he had been taken in by Lionel?
He tried and failed to suppress a shudder at the thought.
“If you’d grown up with Lex…” Lionel started.
“Then we’d hate each other and you probably would have had one of us kill the other,” Clark finished sourly.
“I think we all know who would have won that fight,” Lionel simply laughed. Actually fucking laughed at the idea of Clark taking out his own son.
“An alien…mmm” he shook his head and put his hands in his pockets as he drew nearer to Clark.
“Would you keep it down?” Kent said in a strained whisper, looking around scared.
“Oh don’t worry, your secret is safe with me…as long as you do what I ask.”
And there it was.
Clark could hear a pin drop ten thousand miles away as his blood ran cold. He seriously considered just standing up and running away. Running and running and never returning to Smallville. But he couldn’t do that to his parents.
He felt so trapped. The once warm sanctuary of Lex’s office turning into a den of nightmares and how dare Lionel do that.
“I will not be blackmailed,” he took a bold step by standing and moving into Lionel’s sphere of personal space.
“Oh yes, you will,” Lionel pulled a thin flat box out of his back pocket and opened it. Inside was the sickly green glow of Kryptonite. Clark stumbled back a few steps and Lionel put a hand to the middle of his chest and pushed him hard onto the wooden study floor. He fell flat on his ass and ached with pain. Lionel knelt to his level.
“I know your weakness. And more than that, I know every single person that you love or care about. Your parents, Chloe, Lana, Pete, even Lex…” he pushed on one of Clark’s shoulders until he was flat on his back. “Imagine if they all knew. If the entire world knew. The government would probably have you in Kryptonite chains at a black box site peeling your skin off with lasers,” he grinned widely. “You and I both know that your secret getting out would destroy your life and the lives of everyone you care about. And Lex? God, he'd look at you with disgust and horror,” he let his eyes drag down Clark’s body as if he were repulsed by Clark even though both of them knew he wasn’t.
Clark wanted to vomit and barely managed to swallow it down.
“Now you see, if I had raised you…” he stood and sauntered around, “and you didn't want to be blackmailed…” he snapped the Kryptonite shut in its lead box. “You would simply snap my neck when I least expected it and be done with it.”
Clark heaved in a breath but remained on the floor, getting up slowly.
“Sadly, you weren’t raised by me - you’re soft and weak and vulnerable despite being the most powerful creature on Earth. Tsk tsk,” he shook his head, his shining locks swaying with the movement. He pocketed the box and extended a hand to Clark who did not take it. Kent stood and glared at him.
“You haven’t even heard what I’d like in exchange for keeping your secrets and you’re already up in arms. At least hear me out,” he put a solid hand on Clark’s upper chest.
Clark wanted to get away from the touch but it was as if his body were frozen.
“Fine. Let’s hear it,” he grit through clenched teeth. “What do you want?”
At that, Lionel smiled the way a shark would.
“I want to train you. To teach you. Give you a sort of…crash course in being a Luthor if you will,” his tone dropped and Clark fought to not let that affect him.
Instead, he looked at him confused, as if he’d just grown three heads.
“Right now you’re a great farmhand, I’m sure,” he said sarcastically as if Clark were a demi-god who had been asked to count beans for a living. “But you’re uncultured, unskilled in fighting, naive, you’re a mess,” he waved with a ringed finger. “And there isn’t time for you to be a mess because in three years, you’ll be out of high school and out in the real world.”
“I don’t get it…how does this benefit you?”
“The benefit to me is that you’re going to become a Luthor.”
Clark’s lips parted but no sound emerged.
“You will be my enforcer when need be. Whenever I call upon you to complete a superhuman task, you do it. And in the interim, I’m going to teach you how to learn, how to fight,” he paused and drew even nearer, his face next to Clark’s ear and added… “how to fuck.”
“What…what do you mean, how to f…well…what do you mean?”
Lionel laughed, the sound rich and deep and echoing off the hardwood in Lex’s study. “You can’t very well be the most powerful being on the planet and be a terrible lay, now can you? It would reflect so poorly on the Luthors.”
“I’m not a Luthor.”
“Oh you are now, a de facto Luthor of sorts. My little private project,” he let his hands run down Clark’s arms and Kent shuddered. “People will see you as an extension of me. They’ll assume that I’m grooming you… to take over Luthorcorp… or at least be my and Lex's right hand.”
“But you’re actually grooming me to take over the world,” he said bitterly.
“Oh hardly,” he chuckled. “No need for the dramatics, Clark,” he extended a hand to Clark but Kent just swatted it away. “I’m not interested in you ruling the planet. I’m interested in you taking the Luthor’s to new heights. To the stratosphere and beyond,” his eyes glittered in a dangerous way that Clark had also witnessed in Lex’s gaze. “In you adding to our empire and becoming a part of it.”
“And who's to say that I won’t take it over entirely?” he shot.
Lionel ducked his head and looked up at him incredulously as if he’d just said the most ludicrous thing ever. “Somehow I don’t quite think that you have the stomach for business. No, that’s Lex’s department. You have a different set of skills. And I think that your skills nicely compliment Lex’s.”
Clark lurched over to the couch and dropped heavily to sit, putting his head in his hands. Lionel was right - if he had been raised by him, he would just snap his neck and leave. But that wasn’t who he was. He wasn’t a murderer. He moved to knot his hands under his chin and despite a rising stomach ache he voiced his concerns.
“I’m not going to kill for you, you know,” he said into his fingers, “and I’m not going to let you experiment on me. And…and…” he looked up with a furious blush on his face, “I’m not going to s-sleep with you.”
“Again with the theatrics,” Lionel bellowed. He sauntered over to him more than walked and placed a hand on his shoulder once he was across from him, seated on the coffee table. “You have a lovely cock from what I’ve heard,” he let his eyes linger on Clark’s crotch before he continued, “but I’d never make you do anything against your will.”
Clark was beet red from the face down. Lex had taught him…a little…enough to where he could read between the lines. “So that means… you're saying that you think I’d do something sexual with you because I WANT to? I wouldn’t hold your breath.”
Lionel just smiled. A silent, devious smile that sent a full body twitch rolling through Clark.
“Oh believe me, I know that I’m not the Luthor you want to fuck,” Lionel purred.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Whoopsie, is it supposed to be a secret?” he brought a finger up to his lips as if he’d made a mistake. “You’re just full of secrets aren’t you little Clark? Brimming to the top with them,” he put his hands on the top of Clark’s thighs and Kent froze.
“What do you mean?!”
“I see the way you look at my son. And god…the way he looks at you. It’s like he’s fucking you with his eyes every chance he gets. I’m surprised he’s even waiting for you to be legal to fuck you.”
“W-what?” he whispered, shocked.
There had always been a sort of live-wire current beneath he and Lex’s friendship but it had honestly never occurred to him that it was sexual in nature.
“Sweet little innocent Clark,” Lionel put his hand on the side of Clark’s face and left it there. Kent was too shocked to smack it away or even move.
“You never realized before this moment that Lex wants to fuck you? Not even with all the hints and clues and looks?” he dragged a thumb over and down Clark’s plush lips. “This is why you need me my son, you’re so naive, so clueless.”
“Lex would have said something if he…was attracted to me or wanted a relationship or something,” he said around Lionel’s thumb.
Lionel huffed a laugh. “Silly boy, Lex doesn’t do relationships. He probably didn’t make a move because he didn’t want to scare you away. I doubt you’d even realized before today that men fuck each other.”
Clark was so embarrassed that he wanted to coalesce into a liquid and slide right off the couch and out the door.
“This is why I want to teach you about sex as part of your training. Can you imagine if you approached someone like Lex - an expert, a sex god - and then proceeded to fumble all over the place and come in your pants?”
“I told you I’m not sleeping with you,” he said hoarsely.
“We’ll see. It’ll either be me or Lex. Keep it in the family,” he purred.
“You’re…you’re sick,” Clark said but what truly repulsed him was the way his cock twitched in his blue jeans.
“True.” His forefinger and thumb were still on Clark’s chin.
“You’re too caught up in the sex aspect of all of this, Clark,” Lionel continued. “That’s not for a while. For now, we’re going to get you exposed to some culture and start on some combat training.”
Neither had heard the door to the study open. Neither heard that Lex had entered.
For a moment, Lex wondered if he'd entered an alternate universe. As he drew closer, he saw Lionel seated across from Clark, one hand on his young friend's face, the other on the top of his thigh, and his heart skipped a beat. Across Lex’s face, a darkened look of concern and horror flitted across his features.
Lionel stood. He was hard.
“Son, so nice of you to join us,” Lionel walked over to the mini bar and poured himself a drink. “We should probably get you caught up. Clark here has agreed to be my protege.”
Silence filled the study. At first, Clark didn’t even turn around, his back to Lex. His head lowered. More silence. Then he shifted and turned and looked at Lex…guiltily.
Lex stared at his father in disbelief and then at Clark.
“I don’t understand.”
Poor Clark who had come here to see Lex, who had been sucker punched by blackmail and was white as a ghost and couldn’t say a damn thing to his best friend about it.
“Clark? This Clark? Clark Kent?” he vaguely motioned. “Are you alright? Did you hit your head?” he asked the younger man.
“No…I think uh…I think it’ll be a good idea,” Clark stood and ran his sweaty palms over his jeans. He did what he did best - he lied.
Lex walked nearer to him with a thousand warning alarm bells etched into his face but there was nothing Clark could do. His gray eyes searched his best friend but found nothing more than questions.
“Hah…I don’t think so,” Lex added, turning to his father. “The Kents hate you, remember?” he said to dear old Dad who was lifting up a tumbler to his lips and drinking the amber liquid. Lionel pulled the glass away with a satisfied ‘ahh’ before answering.
“Oh, I have a feeling that they’ll come around.” He swayed back to where Clark and Lex stood and handed Clark a cell phone. “You’ll stay in touch with me this way. Your first assignment is to read Sun Tzu’s The Art of War and Psychology of the Unconscious by Jung. Your first sparring lesson is Tuesday,” and with that he clapped Clark on the shoulder and began walking out of the study. “Welcome to the family - son.”
The words hung on the air. Clark looked at Lex who appeared as though a dagger had just been plunged into his heart.
Lex didn’t even know how to react. So he didn’t.
He’d gone through hell his entire life only to be replaced as the prodigal son by his best friend?
“You can’t do this,” he said darkly, after an eternity. “It’s like selling your soul to the devil,” Lex was genuinely worried. Clark had never seen him so anxious before. “What did he offer you? Money, power?”
“It’s not like that…” Clark sighed and tried to walk past Lex but his friend put a hand on him and stopped him, swinging him to face him.
“He has something on you.”
Clark’s bottom lip trembled, just barely, but Lex saw it.
“I have to go Lex.”
“Let me help you, Clark. Let me get you out of this!”
“You can’t. You can’t,” he hurriedly walked to the study doors.
If Lex were to help him out of this, he would have to tell him his secret and even then…there’s no way he could get him out from Lionel’s thumb - not without killing Lionel. And Clark wasn’t so sure that Lex wouldn’t.