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Thread: The Rules of Enmity: NC17

  1. #1
    NS Full Member zelda's Avatar
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    The Rules of Enmity: NC17

    Disclaimer:
    I own nothing; this is purely entertainment.

    This is about the ways two people punish each other and themselves.

    "Show me." The words gave Lex a tingle of both dread and excitement. He hadn't known she was there, but the voice in his ear was unmistakable. He shifted slightly and saw the blonde head behind his shoulder in the reflection of the stainless steel doors in front of him. There were at least five other people in the elevator with them, but it didn't matter, rules were rules.

    Ignoring the covert looks of curiosity from the other passengers, Lex placed his briefcase on the floor and unbuttoned his suit jacket. Then he carefully removed the gold stickpin in his tie and flipped the expensive silk over his shoulder. He began unbuttoning his shirt, starting with the third from the top, and finished when he could comfortably part the edges of the garment enough to reveal a patch of his bare chest.

    Lex paid no attention to the horrified gasp of the elderly woman standing next to him. She was looking at his reflection in the doors.

    "'Fraid I can't see that," came the coy remark behind his shoulder. The smugness in her voice made the corners of his lips twitch. "You know the rules," she prompted.

    Lex turned around and faced all of his fellow occupants of the elevator car, and was relieved not to recognize any of them. Still holding the edges of his shirt apart, he looked down at Chloe Sullivan. She wore her hair up in a french twist, and looked professional and sharp in a navy suit with low-heels that kept her a good four inches shorter than he was. He met her cool gaze through the blue-tinted glasses she wore and she smiled.

    "Can you see it now or do you need to get closer?" he asked. He was certain that everyone had an unobstructed view of the couple of inches of naked, Luthor chest that bore, in simple, blue script "Chloe"; just under his left pectoral muscle.

    "I can see it fine, thanks." She nodded at his shoulder. "Nice tie."

    Lex took his time re-buttoning his shirt and adjusting the violet silk tie. There was no point in hurrying now; everyone had had a free show. With his very noticeable, bald countenance, it was pretty likely that at least one person recognized him. He'd managed to keep the tattoo a secret from most of the general public until now, but in Metropolis, in the middle of a court case, it was unlikely that news of a woman's name tattooed near his heart would go undocumented.

    But rules, as she'd said, were rules, and he couldn't refuse.

    He was glad that the elevator was going to the top floor and he was buttoned back up before the doors opened again. As he stepped out onto the office floors, he noted that Chloe didn't follow. She must have been on the elevator with the sole purpose of playing show-and-tell. Well, she re-started their little game, so be it. He could be just as strict with the rules of enmity.
    *
    Chloe left the building with a smile on her face. Granted, she’d have to be careful to avoid him over the next few weeks, but since she was working more in the evenings and overnights, she didn’t think it would be difficult. She checked her watch and decided that she had time for a cup of coffee before her court appearance. She was giving testimony in a divorce case; not one of her favorite things to do. As a private detective, it went with the territory; but working for one of the upscale agencies in the city, she rarely had to chase wayward spouses.

    McEvoy and McEvoy was a private investigation firm run by a husband and wife team of former police Detectives. They often worked with the Metropolis P.D. and their clientele list was impressive. The C.E.O. of a large company, who regularly hired the firm to do in-depth background checks on employees and clients, was in the middle of a messy divorce and had asked Chloe, as a professional courtesy, to follow her husband around.

    Chloe had agreed since the client was a friend of hers. Sheri Benson and Chloe had become friends through mutual acquaintances and the acquisition of Sheri’s business had given Chloe a lot of credibility in her firm. The two women, though about ten years apart in age, had developed a rapport over their common love of obscure cinema. Since their jobs were completely different, as well as their lifestyles, they found each other’s company to be quite refreshing.

    Chloe entered the designated courtroom and made brief eye contact with Sheri. The fortyish woman was tall, with a handsome, strong face that wouldn’t win any pageants, but aged very well. Chloe was happy to be her friend’s ace-in-the-hole, but sad that it had to be under such a painful and uncomfortable moment.

    “How do you feel?” Chloe asked, accepting the glass of wine that their waiter brought them. She and Sheri were seated in a fine restaurant, at a well-placed table in the center of the room. As a woman, Sheri was under more personal scrutiny than any men in her position; she took it in stride but tonight she seemed a little upset. Chloe noted the signs that would have been well-hidden from anyone who didn’t know her.

    “Well, there’s the huge feeling of relief that it’s finally over,” Sheri admitted, lifting her glass in a slender, dark hand. “I mean, how many women can drop two-hundred pounds in one day?” She smiled thinly. “I’m just a little smothered by my sudden freedom.” She lifted her own glass in a toast. “To new beginnings, and ending feuds.” Chloe clinked her glass to her friend’s and was lifting it to her lips when she heard a familiar voice over her shoulder.

    “Good advice, if you can get her to take it.” Chloe froze as Lex Luthor strolled past, following the maitre’d to his own table. He was seated facing her and Sheri turned slightly in her seat to look at him.

    “You two know each other?” She jerked her head behind them.

    “We’ve known each other for many years,” Chloe said, not looking at Lex. He wasn’t quite within earshot if she kept her voice a little low. “Back from my days in Smallville.”

    “That’s right.” Sheri cocked her head to the side. “He ran a plant there for a couple of years before his father died. Then he came here.”

    “Do you know everything about everybody?” Chloe took a large swallow of the fruity wine. The waiter returned and took their dinner orders. It was going to be a long meal.

    “It benefits me to keep up with the other power players in the city, Darling.” She raised an ebony brow. “Especially the sharks.”

    “You say that as if he were somehow different than all of the other rich, powerful, unscrupulous men in this city.”

    “If you know him, then I don’t have to tell you that he is different.” Suddenly looking a little more cheerful, Sheri leaned forward eagerly. “So, did you two have a torrid affair? Maybe some kind of kinky little cornfield rendez-vous?”

    “You have a sick and twisted imagination,” Chloe said. Sheri just wiggled her eyebrows lasciviously.

    “That’s not a denial I’m hearing.”

    “Then listen close,” Chloe said with a little smile of her own. “Cause we didn’t and wouldn’t, and won’t.”

    “Just asking, cause there was some definite tension in that little shared moment of yours.” She turned her head slightly and smiled at Lex who nodded his head in what would be considered a greeting of equals. While Sheri was still looking at him, he turned his gaze back to Chloe’s averted face and started to smolder. “There is some serious history going on there, you’d better spill.”

    “Well,” Chloe started. “I suppose you might as well know, people may start asking questions now that I’ve thrown down the gauntlet.”

    “What is going on?” Her dark eyes were bright, “You’re killing me with the suspense.”

    “It all started back in Smallville.” Chloe rested her chin in her hand wearily. “Before Lex left, we’d had a sort of…alliance.” She sighed. “It’s complicated, really. We weren’t exactly friends, and sometimes, we really felt like enemies, but we had a common goal at one point and had a mutually beneficial partnership. He needed something from me and I needed something from him.” Seeing the look on her friend’s face she added, “Not that.”

    Chloe glanced up when Lex was joined by an attractive couple dressed for business. She didn’t want to catch his gaze so she stared at her glass. “Well, things got a little rough for my dad and me after Lex fired him and Lionel Luthor blacklisted him to get back at me for something I didn’t do.” The statement came out in a rush, like ripping off a band-aid. We were struggling when I went into college, and Dad had to move. He eventually got a job working night security for a warehouse just outside of town.” Her stomach twisted as she thought back to her father, taking the worst shift in a horrible job so that he could be close to her.

    “Is that were he was working when…” Sheri’s face smoothed into a sympathetic expression. “When he was shot?”

    “Yeah,” Chloe said. “Lex had promised that he’d protect us from his father, but he couldn’t. He just blew us off and wouldn’t even give Dad his old job back. He just stood there while we lost our house; I had to sell my car, and go into enormous debt for an education.”

    “So I know why you hate him, but why did he give you such a dirty look.”

    “At my father’s funeral, he showed up,” Chloe said. She closed her eyes and could almost smell the soggy ground in the graveyard.

    “Chloe, I can’t tell you how sorry I am for your loss.” It had stopped raining just before Lex had shown up. Chloe didn’t look at him, just at the coffin and the empty chairs around her. There hadn’t been many people at the service. They’d all gone home when it had rained, but Chloe just sat, letting the cold water run over her, soaking the white blouse and dark suit she wore. The coffin was being lowered into the ground now, per her father’s request, no one but she would be present for the actual burial.

    “Go away, Lex.” The silence was filled with the low hum of the hydraulics that lowered Gabe Sullivan into the ground. The ground made noise, even where there weren’t any feet. It was a passive squishing sound of water soaking into the earth and releasing the blades of grass with a nearly inaudible sound that she’d always thought sounded like the crispy rice cereal she used to eat. Snap. Crackle. Pop.

    “I spoke to the funeral director and I’ve paid the bill.” She snapped her head around so fast, she felt a small pop in her neck. “I thought it was the least I could do.” His expression was tight, maybe a little pained, but controlled. Chloe got out of her seat and flung her wet arms at him, seizing his lapels in her fists. She pulled herself up onto her toes and he automatically held her shoulders.

    “Leave it to a Luthor to do the least,” she hissed in his face. “The least you could’ve done was keep your word, the least you could’ve done was give him a job, the least you could’ve done was give him a fucking recommendation.” She stretched herself up till her lips were close to his ear. “This is your fault!” she shouted. “You dropped us when you decided that you didn’t want your father to go back to prison and brought him back into your house.” She shook him violently, causing him to slip in his expensive dress shoes. Chloe took the opening and practically threw him into the mud, landing on top of him.

    “Chloe, stop.” He took her wrists and pulled them from his collar. She was sobbing now.

    ”I hate you so much just for who you are and how you live.” She punched at him ineffectually with her trapped arms. Lex sat up in the mud and the skies opened up with tears of their own and rain fell again in windy sheets, punishing the two people on the ground. He trapped her against his chest while she cried and cursed. Then he forced her to stand and they were seated in his limousine.

    Chloe took his handkerchief and looked out the window as they passed the cruddy houses that lined the streets in the bad side of town. She couldn’t even bury her father in a nice spot. It was too expensive to ship his remains back to Smallville.

    “I’m not in the habit of doing this, but is there anything I can do?”

    “Stop the car.” Her voice was quiet and she was focused on something outside. Lex ordered the driver to halt and Chloe grabbed his hand and dragged him out of the car. Seeing nothing but her own rage and need to cause pain, she asked him to do something that he’d have refused on any other day.

    “Is it about the pain?”

    “Yes,” She replied, watching him take off his shirt. “I want you to remember me and pain you caused me at least twice a day. I want you to have to explain what you did to the women you take to bed.” She shrugged. “Or, you can lie about it and know that I’m making you do it.” The artist got to work and was done in about fifteen minutes.” Chloe walked out of the tattoo parlor and away from the limo. She walked for several blocks before hailing a cab to take her back to the college campus.

    “Wow, you made him tattoo your name on his chest?” Sheri was staring at her with an open mouth. Their food had arrived, unnoticed. “That’s insane. I can’t believe he actually did it.”

    “Truthfully, I think I caught him in a weak moment and he accepted it as a kind of penance.” She shrugged, there’s a little more to it than that.” Before explaining any more, she excused herself to go to the ladies room. She needed a moment to compose herself. When she walked out, he was standing there. She looked around, there was a man talking on a payphone in the narrow hallway behind them. She was slightly relieved, if they’d been alone, it could have been worse. He was smiling at her.

    “I showed you mine, now show me yours.”
    Last edited by zelda; 8th July 2006 at 07:48. Reason: update

  2. #2
    Insane Troll logic girl lexchloe's Avatar
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    Re: The Rules of Enmity: NC17

    Glad you decided to write this fic. Very interesting start. Really want to see where this one goes. More soon please.
    I tried to drown my sorrows, but the little buggers learned how to swim.

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  3. #3

    Re: The Rules of Enmity: NC17

    ummm....got my attention....

  4. #4

    Re: The Rules of Enmity: NC17

    Ooh great start!!! I'm looking forward to your next update.

  5. #5
    NS Full Member
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    Re: The Rules of Enmity: NC17

    That was some start! I can't wait to read more!

  6. #6
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    Re: The Rules of Enmity: NC17

    it s excellent
    go on

  7. #7
    NS Full Member Shy Butterfly's Avatar
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    Re: The Rules of Enmity: NC17

    Great start! You really need to continue!

  8. #8
    An Accused Heretic Senior Member Kit Merlot's Avatar
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    Re: The Rules of Enmity: NC17

    Alright, a new fic by Zelda--Awesome!

    This story already has me intrigued--please continue
    KATHY

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  9. #9

    Re: The Rules of Enmity: NC17

    wow I really hate lex right now lol

  10. #10
    ~Hell On Wheels~ buddyfozzy's Avatar
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    Re: The Rules of Enmity: NC17

    Wow!! What a start! I can't wait to see what Chloe has to show.

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