Toxic Ambitions
PG-13
One-shot
Disclaimer: I own nothing except Sabrina ballerina and Viper.
Distribution: I have posted these stories and have control of them on this site. I don't want them to be posted anywhere else unless I'm the one posting them. Please take down my stories if you have them posted on another archive site. I understand I can't stop you from doing this but I hope by asking politely you'll respect my work and my wishes. If anyone has more comfort and convenience saving the text of a story to their own computer, I have no problem with that.
Spoilers: None.
A/N: This is pretty random. Someone wanted interactions between a teenage Chlex son and Lex. Here it is.
Toxic Ambitions
When he was a little boy, Lex Luthor wasn't given the choice of what he would become when he grew up. He was a Luthor and that was a loaded description in his father's mind. He would be a strong leader for the business empire, marry a suitable woman and have children to inherit from him.
The reality was a little more complicated. Various disastrous starter marriages led to increasing bitterness and an unwillingness to compromise himself to anyone. Which then led to Chloe Sullivan Luthor, who routinely made him compromise and demanded he appreciate the opportunity to subjugate himself to the best interests of his family.
He wasn't sure how that translated into endless repetitions of road rules, but he had been effectively brainwashed to the point where it seemed essential. He pushed down anxiety and hid the keys of the sensible four-door sedan in his pocket. It was time to be a hypocrite again.
Lex faced his son and said, "When your grandfather was alive he tried to kill me every second week, but I didn't complain. I bided my time and put him in prison, with hard work."
His son glared. "I heard Mom did that."
Lex stiffened. "She helped. I did a lot of it. Grampy Lionel put poison in my scotch," he said intensely. "You don't have a hard life in comparison."
His pierced, dyed and nearly fatally sarcastic boy scowled and said, "You never had to beg to use your own car and Mom got blown up."
Lex threw up his hands. "Then you should listen to HER! I don't care which one of us you listen to, but you're our baby and we're trying to keep you safe!"
"Look Dad, do I get the car or not?! I have to cancel all my plans and tell my friends I'm not allowed to do anything if you won't give me the damn car!"
His father narrowed his eyes. "You know my mother smothered my little brother and let me take the fall for it, all we ask is that you occasionally drive your little sister who loves you to ballet."
Defeated, the teenager slumped and mumbled. "And don't say damn, your mother would cry if she heard you. Now tell me how fast you are going to drive," Lex demanded.
"Fifty, and no more, slowing down when necessary for safety."
The bald billionaire nodded. "Good. Now give me a hug so I know you won't go off plotting my demise." He held open his arms and the boy squirmed and twitched before throwing himself briefly into the embrace and ducking out of it almost as quickly as his father had patted his back.
Once he had the car keys safely in his hand, the boy turned back and sniped, "I know mom used to go around licking meteor rocks when she was my age."
Lex gaped at him in insult. She never would have been so dumb. She handled them with bare skin, but not licking them. "Don't say that about your mother! She was investigating and doing her job. I can only hope you find a calling as important as her writing. It would do wonders for your perspective." He sighed and rubbed his bald head. "Okay, we just yelled, so we have to hug again."
He stood more awkwardly with open arms and the second hug most resembled a light tackle. His son's arms crushed around his ribs and then the leather and metal studded boy was rushing out to be with his friends. "Call us if you'll be late!"
He didn't know when he'd become such a nervous father, but Lex suspected it occurred just about the time the stick turned blue and Chloe pushed back his offered hug to double over and vomit on his shoes.
Lex heard the tell-tale slapping of ballerina flats heading his way, and pushed out from his desk in preparation. He put his pen down and set the paper shredder to off. He hid the letter opener and its sharp edge in a drawer and locked it.
He took off his watch, since the last time he had hefted his growing daughter into his arms it had caught on her taffeta skirt and Chloe had to curse and rant through a skirt mending operation only she was trustworthy enough to perform.
The slapping of feet was closer, rounding the corner, approaching his door. When the little blond headed girl finally appeared in his door, Lex was ready with a big smile and a sugar-free lollipop.
"Dad, I did a jetty! I did a jetty!" She yelled it and he had long since stopped reminding her of her inside voice. She was Chloe's daughter and she had the kind of energy that had driven him insane before he realized how to cope.
Skidding to a halt next to his chair, she put her arms up in a leftover gesture from her toddlerhood. Lex picked her up without hesitation, hugging her to his chest and letting her scrub all the dirt from her shoes onto his suit. "Hi sweetheart, I think you might mean a jeté. A jump?"
"A LEAP!" She unwrapped her candy and stuck it in her mouth, slapping at his arm repeatedly. "An' uh gah a new parner, hiss name is Chrissh."
"Very nice, I"m looking forward to the next recital. I think it's going to be the best one I've ever seen," Lex said, brushing at her tangled locks with gentle fingers. "Your partner is a boy? Don't you still think boys are yucky?"
She wrinkled her nose like her mother and shook her head. The wheels turning in her mind spun and made a conclusion. "Yuh uh boy," she said, taking out her candy. "And I like you and Mama likes you. And Viper is a boy."
Lex flinched at the name his son had chosen upon his fifteenth birthday. Viper, after one of his pets. His son, the same dear, sweet, kind boy who had wept over the death of a pet spider not very long ago, had decided to refer to himself as a venomous snake.
He inwardly cursed Chloe's creative naming, but their original name for their firstborn seemed right. Griffin was an unusual but not a cruel name. It was dignified. Griffin Luthor could run a multi-billion dollar company. Viper could work as a bouncer.
Unfortunately it was a small step from an unusual name to a truly menacing nickname. Lex couldn't bring himself to use it, though Sabrina barely remembered her brother by any other name but Viper. Chloe cringed but used the name because she respected their son's struggle for identity.
Of course it was easier for Chloe. One hint of disappointment or sadness and Viper was taking out the garbage and picking up last minute groceries. If his mother pouted, he was cleaning up his room and bringing Sabrina to her extra-curricular activities.
"Daddy," Sabrina asked, her tone uneasy.
"Yes, my poppet?"
"Can I get real earrings for my birthday?"
Lex raised his hand and rubbed the heel of it over his heart, fearing a minor attack had just taken place. She wanted pierced ears and she was only seven and a half. Next she would be calling herself Twilight Orchid and buying leather corsets. He teared up a little. Chloe would know how to handle this but he was ill-prepared. Griffin had been Griffin one day and seemingly Viper the next.
His heart couldn't take watching his baby girl gradually turn into a gothic vampire mistress who ran the Smallville coven out of the wine cellar. Maybe he could talk Chloe into having another baby, one who never understood that anything on the human body could be hole-punched.
He swallowed painfully, and his little girl turned on his lap to wait for his answer. He was coming up blank, wanting to say no but afraid that would set off a string of rebellion that would only be stopped when he was bribing her way out of a jail in Thailand.
Pulling her lollipop out of her mouth with a pop, Sabrina said, "I know I'm not 'llowed to have pierced ears until I'm thirteen, but I want the clippy earrings. Mom said I could cuz they don't go in my ears."
Clutching her close, he breathed a sigh and thanked the universe for Chloe. She had pre-negotiated five and a half years in advance. She was an excellent mother.
Not thinking, he blurted, "Oh, good. Your mother never would have agreed to have another pregnancy."
"Pregnancy is how babies pop out, right," Sabrina asked innocently.
His vision blurred, and Lex nodded. He had put his entire right leg down his throat, and there was room left for the other leg. "Yes, but you can forget I said anything," he told the little girl. "I was just talking to myself."
She nodded, and leaned back into his chest, resting after her ballet class. "Okay, Daddy."
His two favourite words. Lex smiled in contentment. It was a good day. He was a lucky man. He wouldn't be sleeping on the sofa. He had such a headache. Maybe if he hugged her again Sabrina would forget she had asked anything. Lex leaned his head down and squeezed her gently, welcoming the guileless return hug.
"I missed you today," he said. "It's a little bit lonely being at work."
The smack of her sucking on her candy paused, and he waited for one of her famous non-sequiturs.
“Daddy, how would you and Mama have another baby,” she asked.
His lovely little daughter had unknowingly delved into the most horrifying knowledge she could have asked for. He dreaded the day when her beauty was a draw for young men, and rued the moment he had agreed to allow her a life outside a nunnery. He should have built a house in the Alps within walking distance of the nearest religious order. The real world was optional for the wealthy.
He shook his brain into action and came up with the only answer vague enough to be spoken to his 7 year old's ears. "To make a baby, a mommy and a daddy use parts of themselves to mix together who they are, so the baby they get is partly like one of them and a little bit like the other one. Then the baby has to grow big before it can be born," he gasped.
Mistaking his shortness of breath for whispering, Sabrina whispered, "Does Viper know where babies come from?"
Lex nearly roared. "He'd better not," he growled. "Viper has never asked me or Mommy, so he probably doesn't. I'll tell him about it if he asks." She nodded her sweet little head, accepted his answer, and looked at her tights. They started out white and were grey with dust and dirt .
"I'm a grub," she observed, using her mother's phrasing. "Will you help me?" He stood up, carefully balancing his little ballerina. She chattered on the way to her room, as he set her on the bed and while he peeled her out of the tights. He was okay with little boy's clothes by the time Sabrina came along, but tights and hair styling would probably always escape him.
Sabrina chose her jeans, shirt and socks, and presented him with a hairbrush. She sat down with her back to him, leaving him with an impressive collection of tangles. Lex patiently started working through the knots, wincing when some strands came away in the brush. He barely remembered hair, and felt insecure dealing with hers. She never complained, simply hummed and ate her candy as she waited.
When he had her hair in a ponytail, she burst into action, slipping off her ballerina clothes and putting on her play clothes. After washing her hands and face, Lex laced up her sneakers and walked with her to the entryway. Chloe would be home any minute. The minutes bounced by as she tested the rubber in her shoes with little hops and skipping around him. Viper arrived a few minutes later, trying to look uninterested in his mother's return.
"Sabrina, did you thank your brother for taking you to ballet," Lex asked her. She shook her head and raced over with her arms up. Left with little choice, Viper leaned down to accept a brief hug, his punk dignity obviously wounded by the concession.
Towering over his little sister once again, Viper glued his eyes to the doorway. Lex took both of Sabrina's hands and swung her gently off the floor. She giggled and squealed until she'd had enough. "Stop it, Daddy, I'm gonna be sick, I'm gonna be sick," she yelled. He put her on her feet and patted her back as she held on to his leg. Lex shot a tentative smile at Viper and the look in return was soothingly mild.
"We'll have to take a shopping trip soon for your mother's birthday," he said idly. "What do you think she'd like?"
Viper shrugged, his taciturn demeanor easing a little as Sabrina turned to look at him. “Mommy wants me to make her a picture for her about anything I want. I'm going to paint you.” She grinned and waited for her brother's reaction. He twitched self consciously.
“Mom wants something from the store,” he said. “She wants that new kind of coffee machine with the mug that reheats itself.”
“Nuh uh,” the little blond corrected. “She loves all three of us best and she said you're getting to be a man more every day, so I'm going to paint a picture of you before you get to be a man.”
The teenager flushed and half-turned. “I don't have time to sit for you to paint me. Get Dad to do it. Mom would like that,” he suggested.
Sabrina scoffed. “Mommy looks at Daddy all the time. She looks at him all through dinner, and while she helps me with my homework, then when I go to bed they have their special time to look at each other.”
Both father and son were scarlet now, shuffling feet and desperate for a change of subject.
“Sweetie, maybe all three of us could take a picture together and you could use that to paint your picture,” Lex said hoarsely.
She put her fists to her sides and gave him a huffy look. “Viper changes his hair all the time. It won't be right once I've finished it,” she complained. “And he's getting bigger every day. He'll look funny if he won't let me paint him on the same day.” Lex smiled politely. She was right, of course, but there were only so many ways Griffin would humour his family ties before losing patience.
"Half an hour while I'm studying," the boy relented. "And I listen to loud music, so bring your earplugs if it bothers you."
She rolled her eyes. "It's going to take ALL day, because I need you to smile for Mommy."
Lex smirked. He had the same trouble with smiling. He could do it in the presence of his family – spontaneously. When asked to smile his face froze in a grimace. He couldn't keep it natural or appealing. Supposedly he had walked around smiling many days in the last decade, but never being aware of it was the only reason cameras caught him beaming.
The door opened as Chloe stepped inside, shivering. Her face lit up at the greeting of both her children and her husband. She put her arms out and Sabrina swooped in to be lifted up. She was her mother's little exercise routine, thriving on being picked up and cuddled. They laughed and made faces at each other as Chloe spun them around. When she finally placed her daughter on her feet they were both dizzy. Lex was right there for his welcoming hug, and he whispered, “Don't mention your birthday, we were mid-surprise.”
She turned from her husband to their son, and received that fleeting glimpse of a tender smile he had once lived every moment wearing. Chloe knew he was still her sweet boy, but he was developing the shell he needed to survive. He was a Luthor, though not the kind of Luthor who had to fear for his safety and sanity. He was just aware of himself in the view of the world. She smiled and held out her hand for the quick squeeze he was willing to give in lieu of a hug. She almost looked forward to yelling matches because their conclusion meant being able to hold her baby for a few seconds.
“Hello, dears,” she said fondly. “What do you say to a pizza night?”
She came home to slamming doors and Sabrina with her head down and tears leaking out of her eyes. Lex was seething in the corner and Chloe picked up their daughter with a quick kiss to her forehead.
“What happened,” she asked curtly.
He shrugged. “I asked Grif-Viper to pick up after himself and his pets and he decided it was really a request to denounce everything I am.”
Viper had an outburst, which was only the first half of the drama. Chloe knew that, and rocked her little girl with her as she stared at her husband. Lex sighed. “I called him an emo brat and he took off to his room. He said he's moving out . . . and I told him to go for it,” he confessed.
The two blonds were staring at him coldly, and Lex rubbed his head. “He was being a brat, and the things he said to me were much worse than what I said. Which is no excuse, Sabrina, honey. You shouldn't be mean and you shouldn't yell, but sometimes you lose patience.”
His wife wiped their daughter's tears and put her down. “Go to your room and wash your face. I'll be in soon,” she told her. “Lex, you're the adult. You're not allowed to lose control of yourself with him. He's going through something and you have to have patience.”
She put her hand against his temple and the ache there receded. "You have to have patience that doesn't quit, and if you think it might you have to be able to shut things down so you can get your patience back. I'm going to go talk to him. Is there anything else I need to know?" Lex sighed and looked away.
"He called me a criminal, Chloe. He thinks I'm a white collar crook like Lionel. I overreacted."
She shook her head. Both her men were so emotional at times. They were more alike than either of them would admit. Her lips landed softly on Lex's mouth and she patted his chest. “I'll go talk to him. Can you keep Sabrina company until I get there?”
Chloe waited until he was headed for their younger child's room before she went to Viper's door. One knock got a raw “Go away!” She knocked softer a second time. “Mom?”
Her heart ached at the need in his voice. He was just a boy, even with the toughness.
“It's me, can I come in?” The door opened to reveal her son, his shamrock-green hair and red face vibrant in the black painted walls and gruesome posters. She looked him over and he seemed physically okay except for residual trembling. He had likely scared himself yelling at Lex the way he had.
“Do you believe your father is a criminal? You honestly think he'd run the risk of having to go to prison and leave us,” she asked mildly. The pile of clothes on his bed was next to an open duffle bag, and she sat down to start folding.
“No,” Viper said sullenly. “I was mad. He told me he should make me get rid of my snakes if I wasn't going to take care of them. I was going to, Mom!”
She nodded, meeting his eyes. “I know you were. You're a good pet owner, and you wouldn't want them to suffer. So how did that lead to you insulting your father?”
Viper shuffled his feet and stuffed a stack of CDs into his bag. “He said he'd make me work for him and learn how to do something useful, so I told him I knew what he did,” he mumbled. “That he polluted lakes and did experiments and had people killed.”
Her gaze turned down and Chloe blinked back tears. The near-truth of that would have hurt Lex terribly, and she was surprised he had restrained himself at merely encouraging the boy's departure. If Lionel had heard those words from his teenage son Lex would have been dragged out into the driveway to be dropped there. He might have taken a punch or two as well. Yelling was restrained. “
Your father is not a perfect man. I'm not going to deny things that happened in the past, but you don't bring them up this way. I have a past too, but you don't use it as a weapon against me. Your father is stoic, but he's not unaffected when you fight. He lost his temper but it sounds like you lost your temper first. He didn't mean what he said about your moving out.”
“All three of us would be devastated if you decide to leave like this,” she continued. “Where did you plan to go?”
He had a car of his own, and he was well-liked. Viper shrugged. “Grampy Gabe,” he said. “And if he wouldn't let me stay Jenna said I could camp out in her garage for a while.”
Chloe placed a folded stack of his clothes into his duffle and smoothed his green hair. “Do you still want to leave?”
He shook his head, blinking rapidly. “I never wanted to leave, but I said it and then I didn't know what to do. I take care of my snakes,” he insisted. “I'll apologize to Dad but he has to apologize to me.” The blond reporter nodded.
“Grampy Gabe would have let you stay, so you know,” she told him. “He would have been thrilled. He would have started calling and trying to get Sabrina to pick fights so she could move out.” She patted his back and smiled as he hugged her. “In future, if you hear something about your father or me, or our families, we will talk about it with you. But you don't store it up and stew over it until you blurt it out in anger. We can talk privately, not in front of your sister, without any fear of anyone getting thrown out of the house. Well, we might send Sabrina for ice cream with Grampy, but that's different,” she joked.
He looked guilty. “Is she crying?”
Chloe nodded. “She was for a little while, but I think she'll be fine once she sees everyone apologize. You know, this is partly inevitable. Your father doesn't understand you because you're like me. You puzzle him and he gets frustrated. He likes to think he's smarter than everyone else, and we outsmart him just by showing up. It's hell on his ego. What helps for me is explaining myself. He's very respectful of that.”
Her son fiddled with his over-long sleeves and pouted.
“Yeah, but that's you. He's not like that with me. He thinks you make the sun rise.”
She grinned. “Don't make me tell the story about that tabloid shot of him kissing your little baby butt, you know it embarrasses you. He loves you. He thinks you're a wonderful person, but he needs a lot of love back to feel safe to give it away. He's open with Sabrina because she tells him everything from her toe jam to her math homework. Tell your father about yourself and I know he'll feel better.”
She put an arm around him and led him into the hallway. “Do you want to talk to him alone or do you want me to be there?”
Viper looked at her with vulnerability. “Can you be there? I know he won't yell again, but you make it easier. And Sabrina can listen so she knows I'm not leaving,” he said thoughtfully.
Chloe smiled. “Okay. I meant what I said about cluing your father in. He won't quite get it but he'll try.”
Lex and Sabrina were cuddling on the sofa, a stuffed animal in her arms and one perched on Lex's lap. He looked between the two toys and said, “So when Yan and Uppins had a fight, you made them say nice things and hug until they were friends again. That's a good plan. I'm glad they can go to tea parties and movies.”
She nodded. “Yup, and they don't fight anymore, because it's too loud,” she informed him. “It hurts their ears.”
Father and daughter looked up as the rest of the family entered the room, Viper loping reluctantly behind his mother.
Climbing to his feet, Lex looked to Chloe and she gave him a nod that told him it was time to make amends. He met his son's meek gaze and smiled reassuringly. “Viper, I'm sorry I told you to leave. That's the last thing I want. And I'm sorry we yelled in front of Sabrina.”
The little girl flicked her brother's pant leg and he ruffled her hair. “Sorry.” She nodded up at him, then at her father, and took Chloe's hand. “Sorry Mom.”
She hugged Viper. “It's okay. We'll be in the kitchen fixing dinner.”
The two men waited until they were alone, then Lex put a hand on his son's shoulder. “I didn't do much to help you talk to me. I'm sorry. Chloe's much better than I am when the parenting gets tough.” He thumped Viper lightly on the back as the boy hugged him. Obligatory hug out of the way, Lex stood back and gestured to the sofa. “I promise I won't get upset, but I need to know if you think I'm a criminal.”
The squirm into the back of the sofa told Lex Viper wasn't going to answer before he gave his silent shrug. “Mom said you're not, and I believe she wouldn't let y-she wouldn't want you to be,” he amended. “She said you won't be able to understand me unless I tell you stuff. She does this magic thing where she reads my mind and I hate it! But you can't do it.”
Feeling like a bad father, Lex did some squirming of his own. “I've never been great with people, son. I'm sorry.”
“It's really annoying when Mom does it,” the green-haired boy griped. “It's like she has no sense of privacy.”
Lex nearly chuckled out loud. She really didn't have any sense of leaving well enough alone, but it was good. He needed a bully to make him dig into his feelings and let them air out. It was a bonus that she didn't run screaming when she saw what he'd found in his psyche.
“She's better than she used to be,” he remarked. “Now, you wanted to tell me something.”
“I take good care of my snakes,” Viper said intensely. “I'm good at it, and they like me and they even listen to me a little bit. Snakes don't usually do that. It's what I want to do with my life.”
Lex blinked slowly and shook his head.
“You want to be a snake handler? Like you'd supply them for movies or . . . “
Viper leaned in and squared his shoulders. “I want to go to vet college and work in a zoo. I know it's not anything like you or Mom, but it's a good job and it's harder to get accepted to vet school than to get into medical school. I'd pay for it myself if you wanted.”
The bald billionaire nodded, his mouth hanging open. He had expected any number of horrible things and to learn that he shouldn't expect his male heir to run the business wasn't too bad. Sabrina had what he thought were killer instincts in her tea party seating arrangements.
“Well that's okay,” he said. “We'd support you in that. And we'd pay for it even if we didn't. School is too expensive to expect you to get loans.”
Viper hugged him impulsively, relief making him shake a little. Obviously he had been expecting a worse reaction.
“Thanks Dad.”
Half an hour later, Lex swaggered into the kitchen with a lightness in his steps. Viper followed with a scuffing of shoes that was habit more than mood. He picked at the fruit Sabrina was cutting up for a salad and peeked at the recipe his mother was reading. “No onions, okay, Mom, I don't like onions,” he said.
Chloe nodded. “You've been my son for ye these many years, my dear progeny. You don't like onions. You used to express that by throwing them at my hair. Now you just veto. It's a good thing he's president of dinner, isn't it, Sabrina?”
The little girl giggled. “He's not president! Daddy's the president!”
Chloe looked at her husband wryly, suspecting he encouraged his little ballerina fanclub in her misunderstandings of his importance to the world. She didn't begrudge Lex his ego, but Sabrina didn't deserve to be humiliated at school when her worship of her Daddy made her say he was President of the United States.
“Daddy is only president of LuthorCorp. There is no president of dinner. We are a gastronomical democracy,” she said. “Hands up for onions.”
Just to be difficult Lex raised his hand. “And against onions?” Three hands rose up, and the stubby paw of a stuffed toy. Chloe poked the bear. “Yan forget to register, so I can't count him, but it's still no onions.”
They made dinner and ate with cheerfully satisfied silence. Viper was smiling and helping his little sister as she sawed at a particularly stringy portion of her lasagna. Lex leaned over to his wife and kissed her cheek, whispering in her ear.
“He wants to be a vet. I don't know why it took so long to find that out.” She nodded and took a sip of her water. Lex's eyes narrowed. “You knew.”
She shrugged. “Only for a little while. He wants to get a doctorate in General Veterinary Medicine with a specialization in herpetology. Which is a good career, a nice living. Not a lot of money compared to Sabrina's planned world domination, though I'm sure she'd lend him some cash from time to time.”
Viper hugged his dad and leaned down to tug his sister's hair gently before he went to his room. Chloe nearly glowed with happiness. Her family was happy and whole. Maybe now Lex would stop mumbling for another baby in his sleep.
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ROTFLMAO!
It’s lovely to see Lex and Viper connecting with each other. I guess Chloe’s advice and explanation was VERY well applied and well received. Excellent!.jpg "tatie87's Avatar"){kind=avatar}
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