Chapter Text
When Superman finally visits Lex in prison, the other man doesn’t look how he’d expected. He seems almost…sharper somehow. Like he’d lost some weight and gained some venom. It was an open visiting room and other prisoners and their visitors were abjectly staring at the caped superhero and the billionaire just casually sitting at a metal table like everyone else.
Should he have gotten a private room? Yes. But he didn’t want to appear as though he was giving special treatment to Lex so he hadn’t.
That was mistake #2. Mistake #1 was visiting at all.
Superman began talking but Lex wasn’t appearing to be listening. Lex’s lips were parted, his eyes blown wide, his body remarkably still.
“Are you even listening to me?” Superman said, exasperated. He had been talking for ten straight minutes about reform. About Lex’s image and reparations to the city. About the future. And Lex had just let him…drone on?
Lex swallowed thickly. Sweat was gathering at his temples and a bead ran down his face. “I need you to listen to me,” he said hoarsely.
“Oh forget this,” Superman slapped his hands against the table and moved to stand but Lex’s chained hand darted out and caught his arm. The guards moved towards them but Superman waved them away.
“I need you to get us a private interrogation room,” Lex had grit out. His body seemed to be trembling. More sweat was shining on his forehead and he was licking his dry lips. He looked like a startled animal caught in a trap, considering whether he ought to gnaw off a leg to get out.
Superman was growing increasingly concerned.
“I…I don’t know if I can arrange for that now. Maybe tomo-”
“Now,” Lex said - nearly begged - and that’s when Superman knew this was very, very serious.
“O-Okay, okay,” he soothed. “Let me go ask a guard.”
“Tell a guard.”
Superman’s brows furrowed. “Right. Tell a guard,” he said, before slipping away.
Lex twisted his body and watched him go. He saw him talk to a guard, and then another, who then used his radio to purportedly ask the warden. “Don’t be a pussy,” Lex said, seeing Superman’s head shift. He knew with his super hearing he could hear him. “I need you to insist. This is important.”
+Twenty Minutes Later+
“IN HEAT?!?!” Superman shrieked.
“The prison ran out of suppressants a week ago,” Lex said, his voice barren of it’s usual bite. “Seeing you…well…”
“I set off your heat?” Superman said that more quietly.
They were in a private room. The fluorescent lights glaring overhead. Lex was breathing heavily, the collar of his shirt was now soaked in sweat.
Now that they were in an enclosed space, Superman could clearly scent him and it was…overwhelming. His own head was beginning to feel fuzzy despite being on blockers himself.
“Wh-I-I thought you were an…an alpha?” Superman squeaked, very un-superman like.
“Everyone thinks I am. I’m imposing. I’m a billionaire. I should be an alpha, but I’m not. Don’t get me started on how disappointed my father was to find out…” his tone soured.
Clark was panicking. He felt himself growing hard. He was scared that this was just another plot of Luthor’s. To put him in this position, to cry sexual assault or worse when he would never - ever assault anyone.
“I…I have to go,” he began backing up.”
“Please, you can’t…” Lex leaned forward, visibility distressed at the notion. His scent twisted with fear and Clark felt his chest clench.
“I have to…I…I have a girlfriend,” he said sheepishly.
“I could die,” Lex grit.
“You should be taken to sick bay.”
“All they’ll do is chain me to a bed to ride it out. They won’t give me anything, not even a toy. I can’t make a nest here. I’ll be left chained to a bed for a doctor or a nurse or a passer by to come by and take advantage of me,” his voice shook with fear and Superman felt shock roll through him. It was an alarming thought.
“I don’t give a fuck about Lois Lane…” Lex spat.
“Y-you know about Lois?”
Well he did now.
“She’s an alpha and you’re an alpha, it wouldn’t have worked anyway.”
“Same designation couples can work,” he found himself saying. “I’m not having this discussion with you,” he held his hands out in a stopping motion. “I have to go. I…I’m so sorry Lex.”
Luthor stood, his hands and feet still chained, even in this private room with a steel table. He was going to plead to Superman but the red and blue Man of Steel had already super-sped away.