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Lex will be the first to admit that he doesn’t date well. His schedule is hectic at best, often leading to changed plans. Most don’t appreciate that level of spontaneity and that’s fine. Lex doesn’t care for it either, but needs must. The world won’t wait because he wants to spend an evening with some Omega who may or may not be there for his money anyway.
All that to be said, he had been slightly excited for tonight.
It was a blind date, something he’d had one of before and usually wouldn’t go for again.
But she was on Sydney’s recommendation and he trusted the man to know what sort of person Lex would be interested in.
He’s arrived at the hotel shortly before 7 and had made his way to the reserved table. At first it was five minutes and then ten which he could forgive because parking was sometimes a beast according to employees who drove and didn’t park with a valet. Traffic was also a consideration when it became twenty minutes late. He finally texted the number he’d been given at forty minutes and two glasses of wine in. At an hour wasted, he stood up and left the table. The restaurant has his card on file so he didn’t bother to ask for a check.
What he did do was go to the hotel bar.
Usually he wouldn’t bother. He had a well stashed bar at home that had liquor leagues better than anything they’d have here. However he had also cleared his schedule for two hours tonight with the potential for more and going home early seemed like defeat.
So he searched the bar for a seat and found the last one.
“Excuse me.”
The rather large man, dark curly hair, turned, “Hn?”
“Is this seat taken.”
“Uh… apparently not. You can have it.”
“You sound like it should have been,” Lex slides in.
“Yea… he uh…” the guy slides a nail down his beer bottle, playing with the condensation, “He didn’t show up.”
“That seems to be the going theme for the evening,” Lex replies before he can stop himself.
“You also get stood up?”
“In a manner of speaking,” Lex gestures for the bartender, “Your top shelf bourbon if you don't mind,” he waits until she walks away, “Did you know him…?”
“Not well. Apparently less than I thought,” the guy sips his beer, “You?”
Lex accepts the glass and takes a healthy swallow, “Blind date.”
“Oh…” the guy itches at a scent patch on his wrist and Lex catches a whiff of something like sunbaked earth and peaches.
Likely Omega.
Which was surprising since most male Omegas capped out just under six foot and this guy was definitely taller.
Definitely bulkier than your average Omega too.
“It probably wouldn’t have lasted anyway,” he comments, watches the hockey game on… Gotham vs Star City. He doesn’t follow the sport but the Gotham Blades at least sounded better than the Star City Stars… Who the actual fuck thought that name was ok-?
“Because she’s a gold digger or because you’re allergic to long-term commitment…?
“What are you? FBI?” Lex asks only half joking.
“Investigative journalist. Clark Kent. Daily Planet.”
Lex blinks, “No shit. I think I have an interview with your people later this week.”
‘Clark’ turns his head again and seems to actually look at him. And then his eyes bug, “Lex Luthor… ‘30 under 30’ a few years ago…”
“That would be me.”
Clark blinks, “And someone stood you up?”
Lex takes a sip, feeling amused, “It does happen.”
“Well that’s annoying.”
“How so? My dating life doesn’t affect you.”
“No but if you’re getting stood up, what hope do the rest of us have.”
Lex snorts, inelegantly, choking on his whiskey.
Clark offers a napkin, “Sorry ‘bout that.”
Lex waves it away, “Quite alright. I don’t recall that sentiment being expressed before.”
“Really?”
“Then again I’m not particularly open with my dating life.”
Clark seemingly drains his drinks, “I suppose I feel like I’ve heard more about it because of the gossip columns. Sometimes I get confused on what’s fact and what’s speculative and don’t have the time to verify it nor do I really care.” He goes to get up, “Well that’s me.”
“Can I-?” Lex gestures at the bar, “-buy you another one?”
Clark eyes him and slowly settles back, “I suppose.”
Lex gets the bartender’s attention, “Another one for me and whatever he’s having.”
“Just another Coors.”
“Are you sure? You can get something better.”
Clark smiles politely at the bartender, “Just the Coors, please.”
The drinks are delivered.
“Thanks,” Clark halfway toasts Lex, “Dare I ask why…? You’re not trying to make something of a busted evening, are you…?”
Lex sniffs, taking a sip, “I suppose I’m interested in knowing why an investigative journalist wouldn’t bother to check the sources before believing something…”
“It’s celebrity gossip,” Clark shrugs, “Unless I’m interviewing that celebrity, I don’t see much point in being that involved in their life. They don’t know me. I don’t know them. How and who they date isn’t my concern.”
“That’s… surprisingly refreshing.”
“So what do you do when you’re not working or being stood up…?”
Lex smirks a little, “Is this off the record…?”
There’s something of a smile, “I’m not interviewing you… unless that’s what you’d prefer.”
“I think not,” Lex takes another sip, watches Gotham score, “I don’t do much actually. Work takes up most of my time. Even things that most would consider ‘leisure activities’ have ties to work.”
“Well selfmade billionaires aren’t known for their time off,” Clark replies with a verbal shrug.
“What do you do…?”
“Nothing much. I work, go home… I can work from home a bit so I’ll take monthly trips to my parents’ to help them out…” he takes a swig, “I do some volunteer work when I have the time; cleaning out the rover or soup kitchen or whatever is happening when I can join in.”
“Saving the planet one soup can at a time, eh?”
“Alot of it is take-out trash, but yea.”
“What sort of things interest you, Clark Kent…?”
“Hm…” Clark takes another sip of his beer. Lex pretends he doesn’t notice everything about that motion. “I like food. We weren’t very adventurous with it growing up because of budget all that, but I do like trying new things. I recently found a food vendor who does the best falafel.”
Lex finds himself smiling a little, “Really…? I’ve had that a few times: Cairo, Beirut, Athens…”
“Yea? How’d you like it?”
“It was fine,” Lex shrugged, “I didn’t particularly have strong feelings about it one way or the other. My sister was with me on the Athens trip and she seemed to like it.”
“Where else have you been? I’ll bet you’ve been able to try alot.”
Lex sighs, “I’ve been about everywhere a person can be in Europe, Asia… Most places in South and Central America… I’ve been a few places in Africa. We’re working on building connections there but it’s slower going than I’d like. Have you been many places…? Working for the Daily Planet has let you travel some I would expect.”
“Some,” Clark nods, “Not a ton. And my articles tend to be Metropolis-based anyway. Some of them, like Kat, get to go over to places like LA for her celebrity gossip pieces.”
“That’s a shame.”
“It’s ok. Really,” Clark downs more.
Lex takes a healthy swallow of his, “Where did you go to school?”
“Like high school or…?”
“I was asking more college but high school works.”
“Right. Uh- I went to Metropolis University actually. Journalism degree.”
“Really? What year?”
“Uh… that was… twenty… eighteen…? I think? Darn… It’s been almost a decade already…”
“I think we just missed each other,” Lex comments, “I graduated in Fifteen and graduated with a Masters in Seventeen.”
Clark seems to ponder something, “But you’re not that much older than me…”
“I took courses while in high school, got my undergrad when I was twenty.”
“Ah-! Right. That’s a thing people can do. We couldn’t afford that. Which was fine because I needed to grow up a little,” he finishes his bottle.
“Would you care for another one…?”
“I shouldn’t. I’ve had two already.”
Lex very much doubts two Coors would do a man like Clark in, “A water then?”
“I’ll take a Sprite?”
Lex waves the bartender over again and orders said Sprite. It gets delivered a moment later though they keep to their comfortable silence for awhile. Clark eventually asks about inane. Lex seems to remember it being something about… well he doesn’t actually remember. He does answer though and it slowly devolves into politics and the newest mayor and the current governor, both of whom Lex considered morons, and Lex’s foolproof plan to bring Delaware out of its deficit. Clark seemed impressed if not a little skeptical about how it would actually pan out. Lex then shifted the conversation to Clark’s ten-year plan to which Clark admitted that he had no such plan. He was taking it a year at a time, expressing some want for a mate and pups and unsure of how that would affect his career or if he even wanted to still have a career after having said pups. Prospects weren’t looking very good though so he wasn’t likely going to have to start thinking about rising in the ranks at work or moving on to a different company. Lex half-jokingly commented on needing a new writer for the Luthorcorp newsletter to which Clark laughed… though he didn’t outright refuse.
Before Lex knew it, he’d been sitting at that bar for over two hours. Clark broke it off, stated he should be getting home so he could get to bed and not be sleep-deprived tomorrow. Lex reluctantly agreed and followed Clark out.
“Can I drive you home? Or at least get you a cab? or an Uber?”
“I’ll be alright. Thank you though,” Clark smiled a little and stepped off the sidewalk, “Have a good night.”
“That Alpha was stupid to not show up tonight,” Lex said before he could stop himself.
Clark paused, blinking at Lex, and then snorted a little, “Well… for what it’s worth, I think she missed out too.”
Lex snorts himself, “You’re just saying that because I bought you a couple of drinks.”
Clark arches a brow at him, “I’m not that cheap. I did have a good time.”
Lex blinks at him, “Forgive me if I’m reading this wrong… but would you like to try this again sometime? On purpose.”
Clark smiles a little at him, “Yea… I think I’d like that.”
“I’ll have you know that my schedule changes on a dime. I will do my best to alert you if plans change, however, if I can’t, I fully expect you to enjoy yourself anyway.”
“Is that your way of saying that the place would already have your card on file…?”
“Perhaps.”
Clark nods and steps back on the sidewalk, “Well… My schedule is also flippant about what ‘off hours’ means.”
“So asking about dinner thirty minutes in advance…?”
Clark grins, "Spontaneity is the spice of life. How about we try for an actual planned first date and see if we can get to random meet ups for lunch…?”
“I think can we do that,” Lex flips out a card and writes his personal number on the back before offering it, “That one is to me directly. The one on the front is to my office. Either will work for most communication.”
Clark returns the favor, “I tend to forget that my phone is on silent because interviews… but I’m also out of the office alot which makes the office phone kinda useless but I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.”
“Understandable,” Lex nods, “Would you be amendable to that cab now…?”
“I actually have a lyft coming, but thank you,” He reaches, fingers tracing lightly over the back of Lex’s hand, “I’ll see you soon,” and walks away.