Archive of Our Own ^beta

Honestly, it all boiled down to a mistake he made in the disguise of ‘ good parenting ’.

Or maybe it was just pettiness blinding him from thinking this through all the way.

Lex was first and foremost a planner. Having a child, while a decision that could be planned for, brought many things impossible to plan for. Hence why Lex did not plan a child, but rather a clone instead. Those were much easier to plan for, considering that a clone was an asset, not a child. 

What Lex had not planned for was to be wrong . Because Lex was never wrong. Foiled? Yes, more than he’d care to admit. But wrong ? Never.

Except it was not a part of the plan for Superboy to go rogue. It was not a part of the plan for him to join a band of superhero teens. And with both of those unplanned events as catalysts, a series of other unplanned events had cascaded.

Such as having his building spray-painted, for one. With glitter. A lot of glitter.

Having his Superboy go rogue was unplanned for, yes, but in theory, entirely manageable. Lex’s entire thing was having ways to defeat superheroes; he has a plethora of counter measures against most of their attempts to well and truly defeat him. Having a knock-off Superman wouldn’t be a problem in the least. But what he does not have countermeasures against, is petty vandalism. At least not to this scale, because when he says spray-painted, he means the entire building is now neon orange, covered in B5 pink glitter. Every. Single. Inch.

Usually he was dealing with adults as his adversaries. So, no, he did not have countermeasures for these childish acts of rebellion. Honestly, it was rather insulting, more than a bit humiliating, and maybe just a tad bit impressive.

How the hell had they even done this in a night? How had no one noticed? He knows that Superboy is now friends with a speedster, not to mention the other team members which he didn’t bother to build profiles for - before , he was definitely building profiles for them now, because they just made this personal . Sure, he had some intel on Wondergirl and Robin because of their predecessors, but those were sidekicks and rather redundant ones too. They both didn’t stray far from their mentor’s professionalism and grace that Wonder Woman and Batman were known for. He doesn’t bother to pay attention to the children because they were hardly worth his effort, but still this seems excessive.

In any case, he had decided if Superboy was going to act like a rebellious child with a fuck-you-dad-you-don’t-know-me attitude, then Lex could give him the curtesy of treating him like one. After a long-winded lecture that left him more than a little hoarse, he grounded the boy. The teenager just rolled his eyes, like Lex’s threat wasn’t very real.

“Yeah, and how do you plan to keep me here? Call Superman ?” He snarks at him, with almost a sneer, disinterested act slipping for a moment into a disbelieving insecurity that Lex wrinkles his nose at. Lex is too offended to pry open those cracks now, though. He does not need Superman to help him parent his child. Although he’s kind of curious why the man hasn’t made an appearance yet- he knows that the alien knows, Lois Lane had published an article about the entire incident - which must’ve been an absolute riot for her.

“I can have Mercy issue a statement publicly claiming you as my son, Superboy. You will have to stay here, as I will be your legal guardian.” He tells him, a hint of smugness creeping into his tone. 

In hindsight, a Kryptonite collar would be a much better solution- but ever since starting to train with his new little super friends, he’s built up a bit of an immunity to the substance. Whether that was from his half-human genes or Robin’s training - because the Bats were actually insane when it came to known weaknesses - he doesn’t know. But he wants to give a fuck you to Superman anyway. He knows the boy was living in Smallville with his ‘grandparents’, but Clark Kent hasn’t officially adopted him yet. He knows that there was a birth certificate made for the boy, but technically he was a child of the state until someone could legally claim him. Luckily, Lex could prove that he was related, because they had the same DNA, so getting custody would not be hard if he had to fight a court case for it, but Lex wouldn’t have to go to that extent, he could just pull some strings and do this subtly.

This would mean that Lex got to him before Kent. And Lex already publicly claimed Superboy, but when the Justice League had recruited him, that slipped from Lex’s hands. Conner Kent , however, was still free game it seemed.

To his surprise, the boy seems shocked but doesn’t verbally protest the idea. He also doesn’t seem particularly pleased with the notion - neither was Lex - but it’s not like he says much more besides “whatever, it’s summer break anyway,” whatever that means. “And it’s Conner, Lex. ” He tells him pointedly and Lex rolls his eyes. Batman’s prodigy must have gotten into his head about the whole ‘secret identity’ thing. He said as much, and the teenager seemed more offended than anything; just sat there and pouted like a child. Lex stalks away, believing that the situation was handled.

Everything that transpired after, that was the part Lex didn’t plan for.

OoOoO

Conner had been grounded for that last stunt Young Justice pulled.

Which was a weird concept, Lex being able to ground Conner like he was a normal teenager.

Tim, however, does not know what the definition of grounding is. He doesn’t even think that Tim knows what the concept of parenting is as a whole. It made sense- his parents sucked, and so does Batman a little. So when he shows up at his window, asking why he wasn’t at the tower like usual, it makes sense - because Tim also has a weird sense of boundaries Conner hasn’t exactly cracked yet. Because seriously, the guy could just text him. He’s also not gonna question how Tim managed to scale a high-rise with no outdoor fire escape in civvies. Bats. 

They didn’t have a mission, so Conner can’t go out as Superboy. Because he had found a loophole in the grounding thing, Lex can’t ground Superboy, because then that would be preventing him from saving people, which would then be construed into Lex capturing Superboy and holding him hostage. But Mercy found a loophole in the loophole, saying that he wasn’t Superboy unless he was saving someone and that going to the tower when there was no mission did not count. 

It sucked . Kon thinks he’ll take the kryptonite collar over this anyday, it was so boring .

“What do you mean he grounded you? He can’t ground Superboy .” Tim says to him, baffled. He’s sitting on the windowsill like it was his perch, balancing delicately between the floor and the 36 story drop.

“Yeah, but he can ground Conner Kent.” Conner grumbles, and then looks at Tim curiously  “He publicly claimed me. There was a statement and everything, I’m surprised you didn’t know.” Kon raises his brow and Tim just shrugs half heartedly.

“I’ve been busy.” He says, like that explains everything. Kon rolls his eyes, far too used to vague answers at this point- honestly, he thinks he does it to be annoying rather than secrecy. Tim had revealed himself not too long after Clark shipped him to Smallville, at first he tried this stupid fake name of ‘ Alvin Draper’ - which honestly, what teenager decides to name themselves Alvin? They all knew it was bullshit though, and just called him ‘Rob’ in civvies - to the shorter boy’s disgruntlement. It wasn’t until he met Ma and Pa for the first time where he introduced himself as ‘Tim Drake’ finally dropping the charred. Kon teased him about it endlessly and Tim had replied that he wasn’t going to lie to Ma and Pa, that they already knew who Dick and Bruce - who were apparently Nightwing and Batman - anyway. 

“Of course.” He drawls “Well, are you too busy to hang out? I’m about to melt out of my own skin, I’m so fuckin’ bored .” Of course he gets grounded just in time for summer break too. He really regrets not taking Anita up on her offer to borrow some video games, he can only play Animal Farm so long before he’s had enough. Logically, Conner knows that the grounding really has no effect- besides Mercy, but he could get past her if he really tried.

“Why’d you even let him do it in the first place?” Tim asks, cocking his head like an honest to stars bird . Kon almost snorted.

“Beats me. Honestly, I’m actually considering playing Stardew Valley at this point.” Kon says, hiding a smirk at how Tim’s face scrunches.

“Stardew is superior, how the hell-?” he huffs. 

“You have questionable taste, Wonder.” Kon hums and Tim looks almost genuinely offended at that.

“Beats playing Animal Farm . Bart’s taste isn’t any better and,” he sniffs a bit “my taste isn’t bad.” he says and Kon actually lets out a string of disbelieving laughter.

“You put grape jelly on your carrots!” he accuses and Tim pouts a bit. It’s honestly kinda cute.

“Only steamed ones, those are gross.” he grumbles and then looks back at him “My taste aside, I actually meant, why’d you let him take custody of you?” now he was back to looking at him with pure curiosity, his gray-blue eyes boring into him unblinkingly - it used to freak him out, the way Tim never blinked and just stared , but he learned that was just his way of saying he was paying attention to someone and only them. 

“Not like I had much of a choice. I’m a minor with no legal parents.” He grumbles looking away, because the truth was, he didn’t know. Like by all accounts this was a bad thing to let happen, but…he wasn’t the only one who was letting it happen either.

“You could’ve asked Mr. and Mrs. Kent.” Tim points out, and that…Tim hasd a point. But the thought of Ma and Pa getting custody over him as actual legal guardians left some heavy feeling in his stomach. It’s not like he didn’t like them, he loved Ma and Pa, but…the fact that Clark hadn’t taken custody kinda stung, even if Conner never expected him to. Then again, he expected Lex to even less. It was kind of weird that Lex had claimed Superboy, but hadn’t taken custody of Conner. Then again, Lex hadn’t even named him, Lois had. Lex thought of him as an asset and Kon was starting to think Clark was in a much similar thread. Sure, Clark gave him a Kryptonian name, but he suspects that was also because of Lois’s needling, even if he had no concrete proof (and he was named ‘ abomination’ at that. He hadn’t cared if Lois made Clark do it, he was just happy to have an actual name that tied him to something ; gave him a past. But all that excitement went out the window when he had asked to Fortress what it meant. He hadn’t told anyone, he couldn’t bring himself to, far too ashamed in himself and he already worried about Ma and Pa’s opinion too much. Tim somehow found out, or maybe Bart did - because there was no hiding anything from those two. Bart was sad and comforted him, Tim was absolutely livid in a way that Cassie noticed and even after Kon begged them not to tell anyone, Cassie had still found out. She was not pleased. And he suspects that she is the reason Clark hastily apologized and asked if he wanted to take his name back. Kon refused, he wouldn’t give up his name, even if it meant something shameful.) The situation was weird and messy, but he didn’t want Ma and Pa to adopt him, even when they treated him like their own. He didn’t want Clark to adopt him only if Lois was forcing him to. He wanted Clark to choose him. 

And… he didn’t want Lex to adopt him, but…he also didn’t want him to not adopt him. 

“I dunno.” He presses the heels of his hands into his eyes, very aware of Tim staring at him. The other boy was biting his lip, in the way he does when he has a theory but isn’t sure if he’s right, or doesn’t know what to do. He cautiously came down from his perch at the window and over to the bed where he hesitates before sitting down on the edge, just shy of his feet. There’s another beat before he feels an awkward pat on his calf, and he cracks open his eyes to see Tim, looking very emotionally constipated but determined nonetheless. It was both heartwarming and hilarious and makes a laugh burst out of him and Tim glares. “Dude, are you trying to…to comfort me?” he asks between giggles and Tim glares at him.

“Shut up.” He says, a bit of color dusting his cheeks as he looks away. “I’m not as good as Cassie is.” He mumbles and Conner’s eyes soften. ‘ But he’s trying,’ Conner finishes in his head. And honestly, that means a lot more than Tim will ever give himself credit for.  

Conner knows that Robin can be gentle. He’s seen him around victims, after a battle. Talking in a low careful voice, guiding them through exercises to ease anxiety or shock, and being patient while they talk, not letting any irritation or negative emotion get through. The thing is, he never let any emotions come through, not that Conner has seen anyway. It was hard for him to express himself with an audience, Kon finds that Tim is much more emotional when he knows where he stands. 

And usually, rigid process has an odd sense of comfort in it, especially when Robin - Tim - does it. But when Tim can relate to someone, it’s like a whole different situation. It was a small odd assortment of things that Tim knows how to handle unflinchingly and without process: working girls who had bad pimps, children who take care of themselves, children who have someone else to take care of, animals that have been abandoned and hurt, people who are about to jump(he’s only seen Tim handle that once, and he didn’t hear what they said to each other but he got the guy down), lost kids . He doesn’t know how Tim knows how to handle those, how he relates to some of them, it scares Kon sometimes though, that he knows how to handle some of the things he does. But Tim was always patient, always soft spoken, always gentle. 

He did that with his team sometimes too, when something triggered them on the field. Suddenly the rigid edges and cold sharpness were replaced by soft and gentle patience. It boggled Kon when he first saw it, and then a few times after that. But he soon got used to it. Robin was a strong rock, and weirdly comforting.

Tim, on the other hand, was very much not the same. When he was Robin he was more confident and sure of what people needed, but as Tim? It’s like all that confidence slipped away from him, he was shy, awkward fumbling mess. Kon had seen him a few times going to comfort a teammate, but he’d always second guess himself and get someone else - namely Cassie or him. But he wouldn’t leave, even once they were there, he’d stay until they asked him to go; watching with laser focus that meant he cared . Kon knew what it was- Tim wasn’t used to being personal. It was easier when it was just a stranger, when the relationship was nothing but hero and victim. When he was Robin, he was used to saving people, but when he was Tim? He wasn’t used to other people being vulnerable around him; he was used to looking out for himself. It was frustrating, and in the early days they had gotten into a lot of fights over it, because to try and help them, he’d act like Robin and treat them like victims and that just rubbed all of them the wrong way. It felt demeaning, like he was looking down on them and their capabilities. But once Tim handed the reins to Cassie, that’s when things started to be clearer.

After the vote, Kon had overheard Tim take her to the side and tell her that it wasn’t just because of the secrets he had to keep from them that he agreed with this decision. It was also the fact that he couldn’t connect with them like Cassie could. He wasn’t used to telling people his plans, he wasn’t used to asking for permission and he wasn’t used to being vulnerable around people. But Tim hadn’t wanted to make anyone uncomfortable, or make them do anything they didn’t feel like doing, or not tell him that they didn’t feel comfortable doing something because they thought he was too intimidating to talk to. He acknowledged to her that being personal was something he was working on, and that he’d think Cassie would make a great leader regardless if he was good at it. Cassie had hugged him so tight he heard some bones creak and promised to not let him down. 

Kon had silently vowed to help him.

“H-Hey.” Tim snaps him out of his thoughts and punctuates the statement by poking his head “You’re thinking too much.” Kon just scoffs and tries not to think about how close their faces were. Tim really has a weird sense of personal space, he thinks Bart is rubbing off on him a bit too much. Still Conner doesn’t push him away.

“That’s your job, Wonder.” He snarks. Tim rolls his eyes and leans back, tilting his head up to the ceiling again. Suddenly, a grin spreads over his face and Conner sits up a bit.“What’s up?” he’s not sure if that look should make him feel uneasy or not.

Tim turns to him with a wicked grin on his face. “I’ve got an idea.”

OoO

Lex looks at the scene for all of 5 seconds before turning around to walk away.

He is not dealing with this today.

He is unfortunately stopped by Mercy, who just turns him around and walks him back in with a stoic face. Lex kind of wishes he was a generative AI because then he could ignore the situation entirely and actually get work done; Mercy does not thank him enough. And what pisses him off more is that he actually has work to do today. There are merger deals he needs to go over that he has been putting off because his latest plot had taken too much time. Which then it had been rendered useless anyway because Superman had broken into his lab for a different reason thinking he was responsible something Braniac put together - which was honestly just insulting - and put a stop to it. He was still frustrated over that, but Mercy wasn’t living up to her name and had dragged him to the office because he had an actual company to run instead of wallowing from his latest failure. Honestly, LexCorp was trivial side hustle, but it funded his actual passion, so sacrifices must be made. With the incompetence he has to deal with daily, it’s not hard to believe that CEOs of big corporations are evil, it was maddening .

Maybe that’s why these two geniuses had decided now would be a good time to mess with him.

Because Timothy Drake, also known as Robin, is on a pole that’s attached to his ceiling and slowly spinning around in a loose cropped t-shirt and bright red biker shorts that resembles the first and second Robin’s uniforms as Conner films Lex . With music playing from a tiny cat-shaped bluetooth speaker. 

Needless to say, it was very inappropriate for an office environment and Lex is pretty sure he has a meeting in here in 20 minutes, so even if he could get the kids out he’d have to explain the pole, which where had they even gotten that? And how did they get it in here?  

He’ll add that to pile where ‘ how did they manage to paint an entire building in a single night without anyone noticing’ was 

“Must you do this here?” He asks in disdain, suddenly very tired. Canner flips the camera to pan what his reaction was of, and Drake changes positions to hang upside down, then back to him.

“Yes.” He says as he finally completes his transition, locking his pose.

“ Why? ”

“Training.” Drake says, and does a little spin to get into an upright position “Gotta stay flexible.” He smirks and Lex just knows that he’s really messing with him, because in no feasible situation would this technique be put in practical application, even if it was for undercover, Robin is a minor and he doubts heroes would put him in that situation.

“Of course Nightwing taught you that.” He says, and then looks distastefully at his clothes. They weren’t inappropriate or revealing, per say, but they also weren’t something that a person would wear in an office. “Did you have to wear that?” Drake’s smirk is wiped off his face, and suddenly he’s sliding down a little, shoulders hunching just the slightest as Lex narrowed his eyes. Conner seems to have gotten some sort of signal, because the phone is turned off and he’s blocking most of Lex’s view of the other boy.

“Didn’t think this was in your taste.” He nearly snarls and Lex snorts. Of course they wouldn’t, they wouldn’t have pulled this stunt if that thought he was, and they were right . It isn’t in his taste, quite honestly he had better things to do with his freetime. He only goes to strip clubs because of business dealing in his more shady affairs. He never went for pleasure, and even if he did, minors disgust him entirely . 

“Please. I am not that type of villain.” He waves them off and picks up a document, because Mercy was giving him the evil eye for not starting any work yet, despite there clearly being an obstacle that he had to address. “I am way too intelligent to need to resort to vulgar, barbaric tactics such as those. I will destroy you with actual strategy, thank you very much.” He says, and despite the threat, they both seem to relax a bit. Lex resists the urge to snort. 

“Grip.” Drake pipes up after a beat. Lex looks up at him from where Conner had stepped slightly to the side, and Drake grabs the pole again, hoisting himself up and flipping himself upside down and wrapping the inside of his knee too keep a grip as he lets go of the pole. “To answer your question. Having more skin exposed helps with grip, fabric slips easily. It’s more of a safety thing than anything.” He tells him nonchalantly, not looking at him. Lex honestly couldn’t care less, he’s just annoyed that this was happening at all rather then Drake’s choice of clothing.

“I don’t care what you do or what you wear. Just do not do it in my office. It is inappropriate.” Lex growls at him and the boy just shrugs.

“Actually, pole dancing isn’t inherently sexual. Just like any dance style, but most people believe that it is because the mainstream of performance is in Pink Districts.” Drake drawls, like he’s judging him, narrowed eyes boring into him lazily. Conner definitely looks unimpressed and…disappointed? “It’s actually a good workout that focuses on flexibility, balance, and strength.”

“Honestly, kinda a dick move to stereotype, Lex.” Conner shakes his head. Which pisses him off more because he’s supposed to be a dick. He’s a rich successful CEO of a big league international company and a supervillain. Being an absolute jackass basically in the job description. But here these two were, acting like they expected better of him.

“I never said that it was sexual, I said it was inappropriate .” Lex says, frustrated “Any form of dance is inappropriate here, this is an office .” he emphasized. Honestly, these boys were a PR nightmare. 

“It’s only inappropriate because society said it was.” Conner sighs in disappointment, this time it was not directed at him. Drake gives a wolfish grin from his adjusted position. Lex is suddenly so done with this.

“I have a meeting in 10 minutes. Get. Out.” He growls at them and they just laugh and ignore him.

They don’t end up leaving until Mercy says that his appointment has arrived, and suddenly they just… disappear. Completely vanish, and the only indicator that they left was the now open window that they didn’t bother to close behind them.

Mr. Wentworth does not stop glancing at the pole the entire time, and Lex is more irritated by that than anything else.

OoOoO

Lex is once again just minding his business.

He knew these kids were absolute menaces with no sense of boundaries and entirely too much free time, and a distinct lack of supervision, but he did not think that they would be so blatant as to mess with him outside his office.

Obviously, he underestimated their boredom. Because as he was waiting in the lobby of a potential business partner, scrolling through his email.  He suddenly felt someone come up behind him at a fast pace, and the chorus to ‘ Diamonds ’ by Rihanna plays through a tiny speaker and is startled by as he feels a cloth smooth over his head. 

He looks up quickly to Drake holding two phones, one playing the music and the other filming him. There’s a slight tip of his lips indicating he’s amused. He could only guess the person polishing his head was Conner. 

Lex grits his teeth, very aware of the other people watching the entire ordeal. He can’t blow up here, not at them, and not right now. He also doesn’t know what kind of prank this is, other than confusing, but he’s guessing it was either an inside joke or some trend. His knuckles turn white, and he gives them a scathing glare. For all the public knows, he does not know these kids; they don’t recognize Conner yet, because the clone pointedly did not make a public appearance- it doesn’t matter anyway, Lex does not want to be connected to Conner Kent in any public way in any case; as long as Superman knows that he has him and the alien doesn’t . But then again, it’s not like Lex stands for people messing with him in public anyway. Except they aren’t in a public area, they are in a secure building, and people around them must be wondering how a couple of kids had gotten in.

Drake just scoffs and turns off the music as Conner stops rubbing his bald head with a cloth and comes to stand next to him. He glares at them both, silently promising his vengeance for this humiliation. They look back at him challengingly, unfazed, amused even; like he wasn’t an actual very really threat . He was totally a threat, he had so much  Kryptonite, they don’t even know.

“Aren’t you supposed to be maintaining a cover?” Lex says through gritted teeth. Conner just shrugs.

“Honestly, I don’t see the point if I’m living with you until school starts again.” Conner smirks at him. “You grounded me, remember?” Drake snickers coming to stand next to the taller boy.

And that… is a good point.

Oh man, these children were going to make themselves a pain.

OoO

Lex should be annoyed.

He keeps telling himself that he should be irritated and not concerned for the child that had been ranting about Batman’s work environment for the better of an hour and a half. He should be annoyed that he can’t get work done - evil or otherwise - because the child keeps making statements that make Lex do a double take. Not worried about the gross neglect or the fact that a child seems to be the only thing managing Batman’s mental health.(And seriously, who let a child this small be Robin? He goes out a crime fights and yes, Lex has seen first hand how capable Robin - especially this iteration - is, he has been a constant thorn in his side since befriending his ward, but jeez  And that speedster kid was even smaller.-Seriously, who let children this small be heroes?) Like weren’t heroes supposed to protect kids? Take care of them? Not use them as a way to keep them from crossing a line? This all seemed very backwards and it makes something uncomfortable grow in Lex’s stomach that he tries to squish down.

What’s worse is that Timothy put himself in this position and no one stopped him . Seriously, who was monitoring this child? In fact, how was he even in Metropolis right now without anyone noticing? Wasn’t it a school day? Kids did that didn’t they? Like normal human kids. Timothy was a normal human kid, or so the tests say Lex doesn’t quite buy it. Regardless, he poses under a normal civilian identity, which is a minor, which presumably goes to school.

But those were all questions Lex would ask if he cared, and he resolutely did not . No, really, he didn’t…

But-

“-and yeah, I know he was just trying to like make me stronger or whatever, but seriously he couldn’t have told me it was a test? I guess that would defeat the purpose of it though, but like he had me paranoid for weeks, like I didn’t go home at all. Honestly, it was kinda worse than that time he sent me to Lady Shiva-” Lady Shiva? Batman sent an untrained, scrap of a child to one of the most ruthless, merciless, blood ridden woman in the world? Was he trying to kill the kid? Lex did not know what to say. Between the gaslighting, child-therapist and overall every hands off way to mentally abuse a child, then wrapping it all up in a pretty bow saying that it was part of ‘training’ or the ‘job’ or ’professionalism’ some shit (also now that Lex thinks about it, it’s pretty fucked up to put children in tights and send them to fight crime in the first place. Which is only worsened by the fact that they are just left unsupervised and unprotected. Like that is something he, and every other villain would do, but heroes? Kids makes mistakes sure, but usually those mistakes don’t have the potential of getting them shot, blown up or tortured. Or, ya know, dead .) and getting Timothy - one of the most intelligent people Lex has ever met, not that he’d ever openly admit that - to actually believe that. Honestly, Lex was mildly impressed.

… or maybe…maybe Timothy wanted to believe that. Maybe the boy was just that desperate for, what? A parental figure. He’s pretty sure Jack Drake is alive, even if Janet is gone in the wind.

Lex has a sinking feeling that this is just the surface of it. 

“That sounds…” concerning? Worrying? In need of CPS intervention? Lex knows CPS would probably make things worse though, especially Gotham CPS, but still. He’s sure Timothy would have no moral qualms about raising hell there, unlike where he was currently stationed - he’s surprised that Batman isn’t constantly rolling in glitter paint for his treatment of the boy “troublesome.” he settles on, making his tone flat.

There must have been a lit of unwanted concern colouring his voice, or something equally indicating that Lex finds this entire situation worrisome - which he does not want to feel, thank you very much - because Timothy snaps his head towards him with a shocked look on his face - like he couldn’t believe Lex was actually listening to his morbid ramble - before he schooled it with a nonchalant expression.

“It’s whatever.” It was not, in fact, ‘whatever’  but Lex lets it slide because he already cares way more than he should already “I was just rambling cuz Kon said to annoy you while he was at school.” he said breezily, waving him off and looking away.

Lex’s forehead twitched and he promptly did not ask why his son was so committed to making his life a domestic hell, or if Timothy should’ve been in school as well. He didn’t even know Conner went to school - must’ve been something the Kents employed, he should look into that.

He also does not question how Timothy virtually disappeared while Lex never took his eyes off him.

Fucking Bats .

OoO

It was over once the speedster was brought in.

Because the pranks had ranged from small scale inconveniences to semi-illegal exploits that, of course they got away with. They were more irritating than life threatening, and completely insolent. It doesn’t matter how much Lex threatened Kryptonite or government intervention, they just kept going unbothered. It was becoming a normal occurrence, but he made the mistake of thinking: at least it’s just them two.

Idiot mistake.

Because while he was getting used to a half-Krypotionian and Bat scheming as a daily fixture in his life, he did not account for a hyperactive speedster. Although Lex doesn’t think, even if he remembered Impulse, he couldn’t account for him regardless. Because unlike other speedsters, it seemed this one also played fast and loose with morals as he pleased. Sure, he was mischievous and optimistic, as most speedsters tend to have in their personalities - but what he didn’t have was a functional moral compass. Sure it existed, but no matter where he turned the needle always pointed north.

He didn’t really notice it at first. The other twos antics had become a irritating blur that Lex pointedly did not keep track of for his own sanity, so he didn’t notice the shift. He just thought the other two had moved all his stuff and inch to the left again, and rolled his eyes band planned to continue on with his day without acknowledging it. 

But then the next second everything was two inches to the right. Then three to the left. Everytime he turned around, something was slightly rearranged and Lex was perplexed. He calked it up to Conner’s superspeed, or even his TTK, probably a mix of both.

Lex resolutely decided that the drawl of business life was not worth it and left his office all together.

Then he started to see the tiny babies. 

They were small and creepy and scattered everywhere and the thing is, he doesn’t know if they actually exist because everytime Lex saw one in his peripheral, when he’d turn to look at it, it was gone. Maybe he was actually losing his mind, because who in their right mind would make such a useless creation, a tiny plastic baby that couldn’t be more than a centimeter and also were they…naked?

He was convinced he was losing it. Tripping over things, seeing tiny babies, having all his food in his fridge gone even though he swears Mercy just got groceries not even an hour ago-

Then he sees a tiny child, munching on a mango, with the peel still on sitting on his countertop after the third fridge raid. His red hair defied every law of physics and he just looked content to sit in his kitchen, carelessly surrounded by empty food packages. Lex couldn’t do much more than stare at the bizarre sight.

“Kon said that he needed to spice things up.” Impulse said, mouth full. 

And, oh hell no. 

Lex hadn’t met any of Conner’s other teammates yet, only Robin. He’s heard about them, and done his research, but he’s never actually met them face-to-face. And he did not want to. Timothy was already enough, he couldn’t imagine a whole gaggle of superpowered teenagers with a knack for making amess wherever they go.

He was shutting this down immediately. No amount of anything was worth putting up with this. Usually, he’d take the challenge head on, but Lex has dealt with too many inconveniences for too long at this point. And this wasn’t a challenge, so much as an annoyance, one that he has no real way of stopping. These kids proved to be virtually unstoppable, unflappable, and as Lex was learning merciless.

Conner and Timothy were already a nightmare, there was no way he was dealing with their little hyperactive speedster too.

“Conner, your grounding is lifted!” he yelled out immediately, forgoing any formaily for this trivial turn of events. He didn’t even know if Conner was in the house, but he knows Conner has heard him regardless of where he is currently.

“ Finally . Tim was actually debating on sending all your left shoes to space.” he heard the boy groan from his room, so he was in the house. Lex felt his forehead tick.

“Get your speedster out of my kitchen.” he growled, glaring at the small child with mango juice dripping down his face, his fingers undoubtable sticky.

“I’m Bart by the way.” he said with a cheeky smile, mouth full. “Nice to meet you Mr.Kon’s-evil-dad.” he said far too quickly for Lex to actually comprehend any of it, before shaking his hand and speeding off. Leaving his mess of wrappers and fruit stains in the living room, and Lex’s hand uncomfortably sticky.

“I am not cleaning that sir.” he hears Mercy’s voice before she is walking away. Lex groans and pulls out his phone for a cleaning service.

Oh well, at least this whole childish ordeal was over .

He could finally have peace.

OoOoO

He regrets giving Conner a credit card.

Even as he was giving him the card, he knew he would regret it. The boy had this look in his eye  that was nearly giddy and the ever present mischief was ramped up by 20. Lex should’ve backed out then, but honestly, the boy was so needy . He needed food all the time - super metabolism plus teenage metabolism made an absolute nightmare - and he needed clothes for school, for going out, for literally every event, and he needed this and needed that and wanted that, and Lex got fed up so he just gave him a card to shut him up and so he wouldn’t bother him with trivial things anymore. 

Honestly, children were so much work .

But now he was regretting it because he kept getting weird, random charges from credit card companies. Charges that were decidedly not what he told Conner the card was for - necessities only , but he knows that the boy probably doesn’t use it like that, just to spite him. So he wouldn’t normally care about them, except that the bank keeps calling because of ‘suspicious activity’ with his account. 

Lex keeps forgetting that while he publicly announced Superboy as the Lexcorp’s Superman - which didn’t end up panning out because apparently the moral gene leaned in Superman’s favor and he had a defecting clone on his hands. He had not formally announce that he had a son, and it’s not like Conner had a birth certificate, he was born in a lab as a teenager. There weren’t really any adoption papers to sign, just the fact that Lex had his shadier contacts put the boy in his custody - he should probably forge some documents that predate the experiment, lest his darker operations have light shed on them.

Point is, Lex Luthor would logically not be purchasing video games in droves, so it makes sense that the credit card company calls sighting credit fraud when charges from various gaming, comic and thrift stores come up, and in large amounts at that. Lex reviewed the history and was frankly a bit pissed, not so much at the cost or the charges but more so that it was reflection on him and he was being bothered about it.

“I gave you the card for necessities.” Lex had sat him down and yelled at the boy who was sitting down on the pristine couch, looking bemused and completely indifferent, if not bored by the situation.

“I did use it for necessities.” Conner said with an attitude that was entirely too disrespectful for something so utterly false; Lex’s anger flared again.

“What could possibly be necessary at Gamapoluza ?” he asked rhetorically, checking the paper of printed charges for the pronunciation before looking back up to glare at the current reason for his high blood pressure.

“Well I never said it was just necessities.” he said just to piss him off, a smug smirk on his face that made Lex crumple the papers in his hand. “What does it matter? It’s not like you can’t afford it.”

Lex barley held himself back from screaming something stupid like that he was grounded - because he learned his lesson at that the first time - or the fact that cost wasn’t the point so much as reputation - Conner couldn’t give less of a shit about that either. It was just further serve to frustrate him. So he just growled frustrated, summoned all the self restraint he could,  and cut up the card in front of Conner and stomped away, huffing and puffing.

There problem solved. If Conner wanted something he could ask Mercy.

Turns out it was actually too late, because Timothy had already had all the information he needed from the card to access the rest of Lex’s money in not only that account but every other one too. He couldn’t deactivate all his accounts because that would bring attention to his more shady income and funding to projects that were very much not public knowledge or even legal, so his hands were tied. All he could do was fume at the childish charges and ignore the bank entirely until they gave up. 

They did not. Calls, texts, emails, even letters, all telling him of fraudulent charges and threatening to pause his accounts, which he had to reopen personally. Even when he did switch his company cards, they would get fraudulent charges within the week. An article was even published in the tabloids about him going through a midlife crisis, because Vicky Vale was an absolute vulture and Lois Lane found it funny as shit - the only time those two demon women teamed up for something and of course Lex was the scapegoat. It didn’t ruin him so much as humiliate him and eventually had to have a press conference addressing mental health issues of all things.

He ignored it for the most part though, he ignored the actual charges - all it usually was was just thrift shop or game purchases that he couldn’t care less about - but then a charge that peaked his interest came up as he was mindlessly skimming his credit reports, which had become a weekly thing rather than monthly.

It was for various electronic and military grade parts, which was in his ballpark so it wasn’t flagged, but he did not have a specific project that needed those kind of resources at that moment. And even if he did, it wouldn’t be charged to his company card. 

A giddy sort of feeling came up at the realization for what this meant, because Superboy did not use gadgets that would require these parts. Meaning that his team needed them, and for some reason, they weren’t using Justice League funds for it. So that either means that the Justice League rejected the project and they were doing it anyway, or they were hiding the project from the Justice League for some reason. Still in this industry, secrets between allies didn’t keep.

At first glance none of the parts matched up, it was just a mismash of highend bits, but nothing that would be of any use on it’s own - mostly power supplies but there were other highly sought out material that would cost a pretty penny. Still, most of them were useless even when put together. But Lex was smart, smarter than these kids for sure. If they needed outsourced odds and ends Lex could know what they bought and deduce what they had from it and what they needed it for; ‘he’ bought it after all. Even if it wasn’t to stop his plans specifically, it was still knowledge that had the potential for blackmail.

But even after he figured out the parts and spent countless hours running simulations, all he got were just normal everyday items - well normal for teen superheroes at least - that the Justice League already funds them with. Going through Lex’s accounts to get the parts implied they were making something unregulated. Young Justice was smart, he’d have to think outside the box, but even then, they were missing key components that they could not possibly have. The parts were essentially useless to them and for some reason that made him even more paranoid, because if Lex couldn’t fathom why on earth they needed them, and those kids have proven on multiple occasions just how resourceful they could be.

He was missing something.

OoOoO

“One sec Cassie, gotta blast.”

He heard just before he walked into his living room with a whoosh of papers flying around and a disinterested girl lounging on the floor with her back against the couch, a paused game on the massive screen. The girl had dirty blond hair with a shaggy pixie cut and was wearing ripped jeans, armored boots, a tank top and leather jacket - looking all like the punk girl she was.

Lex recognized her Wondergirl immediately, leader of Young Justice, despite media opinion of just assuming Robin was the leader again . Then again, everyone always default to Bats being the one calling the shots. That’s one of the reasons why no one really takes their team seriously, because they are unorthodox and don’t follow the status quo. Lex underestimated her once, and not only did she single handedly smash his indestructible doomsday device to little pieces, but also gave him the most unforgettable ass whooping of his life. 

He never underestimated anyone who trained under Wonder Woman since. That woman had already knocked the misogyny out of him enough as is. Though Cassandra Sandsmark, was an entirely different type of intimidating, where in she will actively pummel equal rights into people. She was headstrong, ruthless and unmovable. She had no trouble or qualms with putting people and even her team in their places. Usually Amazonians took things at face value, having too much integrity and tradition in both their demenor and fighting style, but Cassandra took after her predessor rather than mentor when it came to being able to being suspicious first, it seemed like the girl didn’t trust anyone she didn’t already know. She had a nasty attitude and wasn’t afraid to weaponize it; and there was something to be said about being mocked by children, and it was not to take it lightly, children were awful horrible creatures that would look into your soul and use you're deepest insecurities against you.

Lex would never admit that a teenager scared him, even an Amazonian one, but he will acknowledge to himself that he is wary of her.

Thus, him immediately turning around as soon as the girl wasn’t distracted by his ward. 

“Where ya goin Lex?” he was stopped by the disinterested drawl and Lex silently cursed to himself. He wanted to ignore it, but the last time he did that, he ended up in an atomic wedgie that he could still feel. He had never really interacted with Cassandra outside of Wondergirl, even if she did come by to hang out with Conner on occasion. Lex finds it most effective to not really acknowledge the teens eating through his pantry and making a mess of his penthouse; he knows better than to engage, even if it was annoying to go on a whole separate grocery trip every time they show up and their music is far too loud to get any semblance of work done. At this point he’s just grateful that they don’t spend every waking moment here.

Thank god for Titans Tower .

“Hello Cassandra.” he says and tries not to let any annoyance show as he turns around, indifference is best in these situations. The girl just raises a brow at him. “Pleasure to have you here. If you’ll excuse me I have a lot of-”

“Actually, I wanted to talk to you.” Cassie cut him off and turned to him fully, a steely lok in her eye that for some reason Lex was almost afraid to look away from. “About Kon.” Lex refused to gulp.

“I’m sure you know where he is more than I d-” he started, keeping his face even.

“He told me about that stunt you pulled. The custody thing.” she says as if to remind him, as if he’s not reminded everyday that he sees a new wrapper or hears disgusting pop culture music blasting in the room down the hall. None of the other members of Young Justice have actually directly confronted him about it, which mildly surprised him after finding out how close they were to eachother. They were…different from other teen superhero teams he’d seen. Lex can’t quite put his finger on what exactly that difference was, but they were undoubtedly not like other heroes, not even like the Justice League; yes, they were less professional, but they were…closer. “Or well, Tim told me.” she amends.

“Losing trust in the team Wondergirl?” he couldn’t help the shot, a smugness entering his tone. This might be something, if there was in fighting within the team. Young Justice’s whole integrity was based off their trust in each other, which unlike other superhero teams, they were quite literally a sum of their parts. Any clogs in the cogs would completely crumble their entire structure. Which would make Lex’s job much easier.

“Nah, he woulda told me.” she waves off like she wasn’t worried about it, “Tim just got to me first.” she does glare at him for the ploy he was going for, seeing right through him. “We are just fine Lex, and in fact it’s because we are fine that I wanted to talk to you. Without Kon.” she says and she slowly gets up, and honestly it shouldn’t be as intimidating as it was, she was a good 6 inches shorter than him…she also could probably snap him like a twig “My team trusts me, I’m their leader. You know that. And as leader I have to make sure everyone is okay. On and off the field.” she tells him in an even tone and slowly steps toward him, Lex fights the urge to take an instinctive step back. “And Tim doesn’t tell me things about the others that they could tell me themselves unless he’s worried. Even so having a Supervillian take custody of one of them? Yeah, I’ve been keeping an eye out.” 

“Superman could’ve gotten custody at any time.” he manages to say evenly “and technically, I am his father. Always have been.” he says with some bite. Cassie huffs.

“DNA means shit. And Superman ,” she says the name with a little venom “is a separate issue, one which Robin seems happy enough to deal with.” Cassie says and she seems more than a bit irritated with that but also like she’s resigned to that fact, Lex once again feels like he’s missing something.

“I thought you were the leader.” he says slyly. Cassie gives him a look making his almost regret saying it.

“There are things I am good at and things Robin is good at. That’s why we agreed that I’m the best fit to lead. Besides, he’d be doing something about it either way, it’s best not to get in his way.” she tells him. Hmm interesting “But this isn’t about Robin. This is about you and Kon.” she says and now she is stepping toward him again “cause I don’t know what your plan is, but trust me, if you hurt him in any way…” a dark look comes across her face, a look that would never be called heroic in any dimension, because it was downright sinister . “Well you’ll see just how good Robin is at somethings, and you’ll see just how good I am at others.” she says as a whisper right to his face. “And I’m not talking about hurting Superboy. I’m talking about Conner Kent. Kon-el .” the Kryptonian name really brings home a point. None of his team had ever called him by it, for some reason having an almost resentment to the name, especially Timothy. 

“Rest assured,” he says like he’s not about to shit himself “I have noth-” he was cut off by Conner flying into the window and suddenly the tension in the air dissipated, so quickly he could barley catch his breathe. Stars, did this girl take lessons from Robin in intimidation?

“Hey Ca- uhm what’s up here?” Conner asked, wagging a finger between the two with a confused look. Cassandra just shrugged and backed off.

“Nothing.” she said breezily walking back toward him “Just a chat.” she said almost sweetly.

That was not a chat. It was a threat. Lex was being threatened in his own home. By a punk girl who had a pension for crack skulls as much as egos.

“O-kay?” Conner said and Cassandra yanked him down so they could start their game again. Lex turned around to briskly retreat to his office, he was not running away.

“So what did Tim want?” he heard her ask and Conner bristled.

“Who said it was Tim?” she just raised a brow at him and Conner’s shoulders slumped “Yeah, it was Tim. He needed an excuse to get outta a shift with his dad.” Cassandra’s face scrunched up at that and even Conner had a sour look. “He’s good though.” that seemed to make her relax a bit and they went back to their video game.

Huh, yeah he was definitely missing something.

OoOoO

“Is your plan to stop my next scheme starving me to death?”

Lex was irked as his penthouse was once again trashed by wrappers of his supposed freshly bought groceries. He was used to teenagers with hyper metabolisms cleaning him out within 24 hours, but honestly this was kind of getting out of hand. Seriously, it hadn’t even been an hour since Mercy had arrived with them. Now it was all gone, in Impulse’s little speedster stomach. The boy blinked at him.

“That would be a pretty shit plan, even if you weren’t rich, it would take too long.” he cocked his head to the side contemplatively, and continued munching on the raw carrot. At least it wasn’t raw meat, he had found the boy raiding his fridge with an entire raw beef patty in his mouth. He had screamed and Conner had heard and zoomed in. He took one look at the scene before the panic in his eyes dimmed and he just looked sadly at Bart, who looked ashamed and bit like he was going to cry. Conner had herded him to his room and locked the door, completely ignoring Lex, who stood in his panicked shock for a few moments longer.

He had been missing something . Lex didn’t ask, and decidedly did not think about the entire ordeal.

It was a regular occurrence, since then, for Bart to speed by for a snack. Or, he supposes, it was always an occurrence, just that Lex hadn’t known about it. Now he does. He didn’t think about that too much either.

Nonetheless, it was irritating. Conner wasn’t even at the penthouse today, he had gone to visit Martha and Johnathan Kent in Smallville for the week (the arrangement was never agreed upon by either party, or at least Lex had never had a conversation with either of the elder Kents. Co-parenting or not, he thinks Superman would want to be present, even if the supposed conversation would be about someone he wanted virtually nothing to do with. But Conner seemed to have a routine and he hadn’t had any small town hicks banging down his door so Lex just lets it happen.) Lex had only bought groceries for himself this week. He wasn’t expecting any of the hellions that don’t seem to take his very prestigious title of ‘supervillain’ very seriously, despite the amounts of times he’s attempted to blast them out of the sky and threatened bodily harm. Yet here this one was, lounging on his couch, eating all his vegetables.

“Regardless, can’t you bother your little bird. Don’t Bats accommodate speedsters?” says through a grimace. Bart doesn’t seem to pick up on his irritation, or if he does, he ignores it splendidly.

“He’s on a top secret mission with Batman.” Bart informed casually, and Lex has learned by this point all of them, as open as the seemed to be, were incredibly tight lipped about any actual important information. They were very good at giving the bare minimum despite talking for hours - it was kind of impressive, even moreso that it seemed to be a shared trait; the amount of nothing they could talk about.

“So?” Lex raised a brow. He’s pretty sure Bats were more used to this treatment from speedsters than Lex is, although he was slowly becoming reluctantly used to it to his utter chagrin.

“Well breaking and entering would be rude.” Bart says and crunches down on his carrot. Lex’s forehead irks as he tries not to let his agitation show, he’s learned that that only encouraged them. 

Bart gives him a cheeky grin and Lex decided that walking away would be his best course of action.

He’d ask Mercy to increase the amount of food with each order.

For convenience reasons, of course.

OoOoO

They’ve invaded his office now.

It has been long since made clear that his living area was going to be infected by puberty ridden parasites. He’s accepted that, adapted to that, and Lex had taken refuge in his office, where… they also weren’t shy about breaking into, but they didn’t do it so often so it became the closest thing to peace that Lex had found. There was the occasional pop by to annoy him with some sort of childish endeavor, and then leaving with a snarky comment like “Good luck with your evil plan .” Before leaving in much the same fashion they came, i.e not  the door. Never the door. But since he lifted Conner’s abysmal attempt at grounding, there haven’t been so many incidents.

But now, it seems, he will never get an ounce of peace, because Arrowette and Empress decided that his office would be an amazing place to hold target practice. 

Lex tried to ignore it, he found that that was the best way to get them to leave quicker. He thinks that most of what they do to purposefully annoy him is an obvious attempt at attention grabbing, and he isn’t sure if it’s catered to just him or if they are like this all the time yet. In either case, not acknowledging them is the best way to handle the situation, even if they can see it annoys him despite his efforts in remaining indifferent, lack of reaction quickly dampers their fun.

However fruit splattering against his wall, puncture marks from where the arrows stuck out in his walls and furniture, and shattering of fragile objects at they were impaled were quickly starting to irk him. 

“ Must ,” he starts with gritted teeth garnering the two’s bemused attention “you do that here ?” 

“Yes.” Cissie King-Jones snarks immediately and looked back to him with a smug glint in her eyes “we must .” she says almost like a challenge.

“Gotta practice to take you down mate.” Anita Fite says, not even bothing to look at him, closing one eyes and pulling back her bow aiming at a lamp. She released her arrow and it went straight through the lamp shade, shattering the bulb and instantly snuffing out the light. “Hell yeah.” she praised to herself in victory with a satisfied smirk.

“Nice!” the blonde says and then looks back at Lex, then the bag of fruits. Then a wicked grin came on her face. Lex was confused and she bent down to retrieve an apple looking at him with something that Lex definitely does not like.

“Oh hell no.” he tells her, Fite looks back at them, same mirthful glint in her eye telling him he’s already lost.

“I’ve got an idea.” King-Jones says like she needed to, tossing the apple and catching it quickly. Fite immediately understands and a wolfish grin spreads across her face. 

“Oh hell yeah.”

There is not much he can do, because as Lex tries to get up, Fite had both produced bolas out of literally no where but also threw them at him and he fell back into his chair, trapped and unable to move as he was wrapped  and strung to the chair tightly. 

“I’ll call Mercy.” he warns.It was an empty threat, Mercy was currently running an errand in R&D and she would not be making it back in time. They immediately called his bluff, as the blonde tossed an apple to the brunette and she came over as King-Jones prepared her bow. 

Fite delicately put the apple on his head, so slowly and carefully that it was almost mocking, and took four large paces away, outside the known error zone. Which Lex was most definitely not in.

“Now hold still.” King-Jones muttered as she made a show of lining up her shot, closing one eye and sticking out her tounge in faux concentration. It was only to make him freak out more, she had been very confident in all her other shots. And for good reason, her margin of error was near 0. Now she made a show of adjusting her shot, even if he’s certain that she knows her exact shot from the first moment.

She finally let go of her arrow and Lex yelped and ducked his head as much as he could - he doubts she was actually aiming to hurt, but it was a reflex. He heard a thunk behind him and when he opened his eyes again the apple was on the floor, arrow cleanly through it, leaking a bit of juice from the puncture wound, getting his floor all sticky - which is something he’d be annoyed about later, when his heart rate went down to a sensible pace. King-Jones looked satisfied with herself and then picked up another apple from the bag.

“My turn.” Fite grinned ferally as the other girl handed off her bow as they passed each other, switching places. They prepped much like they had before and the brunette lined up her shot. Lex’s heart rate sky rocketed once more, maybe even faster than before, because while Empress was a much more skilled fighter hand to hand than Arrowette, sharp shooting is something the other girl beat her in by bounds . Lex flinched again when the arrow was released and it just nicked the apple. “Aw man he moved!” she whined, pouting a bit as Lex took in lungfuls of air; he wanted to yell at them, but breathing took priority

“Don’t worry, try again.” the blonde said placing another apple on his head and gripping his shoulder firmly, making him look up at her. “Don’t move.” she told him sternly, Lex refrained from rolling his eyes.

“This is ridiculous.” he muttered through gritted teeth.

She shot another arrow, and it missed the apple this time, but hit the painting on the wall behind him, making it crash down into all his shelves with a loud clatter.

The girls tensed up, looking like kids who were caught doing something they weren’t supposed to do; waiting with baited breath. Lex only sighed though, surprising himself at the fact that he didn’t yell at them and vow to destroy them, but he was suddenly so tired, adrenaline fading quickly.

Whatever, he needed his office refurbished anyway.

OoOoO

He can’t even look away for a second.

Because if he does, he’ll just end up finding a decapitated head on his desk where his paper work should be. Or rather, not decapitated but… he doesn’t even think there is a word for what was happening right now.

The first time he found Secret’s head was on his desk instead of his paperwork, and nothing else, he understandably freaked the fuck out. It was the only sensible action, because while these kids were menaces and would not put them above homicide, senseless murder is not really their thing. Of course he didn’t notice there was any blood, or if he leaned back in his chair  he could see her entire body, except her neck which phased through his desk. 

He didn’t even have time to calm his racing heart when he realized, much less open his mouth before Bart came phasing in through the wall behind him, scaring the shit out of him once more. Neither child paid any mind to him attempting to not die of a heart attack - one would think he’d be used to the feeling by now.

“Did she do it?” the speedster asked quickly to him and then turned to the ghost child before waiting for an answer and asking her “Did you do it?” his eyes ablaze with excitement and anticipation; it would be cute if the child wasn’t a natural disaster, and nothing good came from that look.

“Well what else would he freak out to.” Greta Hayes huffed standing up and letting the top half of her body phase through the desk, it was slightly disturbing, but less so than before. “Okay, prank over, you owe me a churro now.” she tells him and floats up and through his ceiling, not even paying Lex any mind.

“Oh hell yeah, churros!” the red head cheers, megawatt grin already finding a new interest to attack to. He proceeds to leave the way he came. Via wall . Seriously, don’t these kids know how to use doors .

The answer to that is a resounding no.

“Stop going through my stuff!” he shouts fruitlessly at nothing; they are long gone and his blood pressure still unhealthily high, but now for a different reason. He swears, he’s never felt so much irritation and resignation at the same time. Is this what parenting is always like? He shook that thought from his head immediately, he was not a parent. These kids just had nothing better to do than to harass him for kicks. They’d get bored eventually…

He should know better by now.

Because he then had two teenagers that could phase through walls popping in just to scare him shitless, one of which has absolutely no sense of boundaries - and would not be learning them anytime soon, with the way his team not only enables but encourages him in the matter - so he has scared Lex while he was in the bathroom… more than once. And Lex knows, he knows giving them a reaction is only encouraging them, that’s the worst part; it’s hard not to give a reaction when a disembodied hand grabs you and holds you against the wall suddenly, or legs are casually hanging from your ceiling right above your head - it’s a wonder that it hasn’t happened during one of his meetings, but maybe just thinking that has jinxed the matter already.

Unfortunately, phasing seems to be a natural thing for these two, and not just something they pull out for pranks or to raise Lex’s resting heart rate. He understands Hayes, she is an actual ghost, there is no need for walls or doors or windows. Sometimes he even catches her phase through things that she doesn’t mean to, getting a brief surprised look then something akin to grief before she smooths it out - he would say that was the trick of the light for how fast she goes through her realization and mourning her death(?) but it’s happened far too many times. She has to focus on making herself tangible, Bart, on the other hand, was slightly more disconcerting, in the fact that he need to purposely vibrate his body at inhuman speeds so he can shift through the molecules. Still, it seems, for him, it’s just how he moves through the world, not bothering to go around things, phasing when he can’t jump over or run up them. He lived his life on different time. 

It’s an odd sensation Lex has the displeasure of knowing, being familiar with the way these kids went through the world; disconcerting that he was so used to, and understanding of it - or was it resignation? He’s not sure at this point but he’ll just go with that. It was just another tidbit of why his life was the way it was, or had become that way at least. Sure, they startled him with their quirks, but he was becoming used to them - not as surprised by their audacity and fearlessness.

Still, he will never be more disturbed than that time when he was in his office, Conner and Hayes were also lounging there, for some unfathomable reason, just doing a lot of nothing. He was irritated by this, of course as he has told them multiple times that his office was not a place they could ‘hang out ’, that it was a place of business and professionalism. They, of course, did not listen to him and continued doing as they pleased. Mercy, the traitor, did not remove them when asked, deducting that it would be inefficient and useless. He seriously needs to get her programs checked, she was becoming a bit too rebellious - it was probably the kids’ influence.

“Hey Bart, come check this out.” Conner laughed, not looking up from the video he was watching on his phone. Lex thought he misspoke because Allen wasn’t currently in the room.

Except he was , he was behind Lex and Lex found this out by Bart poking his head out of his chest . 

And Lex responded as anyone would when a teenager’s head was poking through their chest.

“WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL!!”  he yelled, flinching backwards and the kid craned his head to look up at him confused, Conner and Hayes had looked up to the commotion. Conner, to his credit, also seemed to be slightly disturbed, Hayes, on the other hand, was hiding her sadistic giggles behind her hand.

Allen looked confused for a moment and looked down at himself “Yeah, I can see where this could be seen as wrong.” he hummed casually, his tone giving a understanding agreement.

“Ya think?” Conner cocked a brow, now looking a little more amused, smirking a bit. Then he heard a click of a phone shudder and looked to Hayes who was already tapping on her phone, snickering to herself.

“I am so making this the server profile picture.”

“Do not -”

OoOoO

Something had shifted.

Lex isn’t quite sure what or when, but he thinks it had been slowly shifting for a while. He just started to notice now. Between the new additions to his life since his petty custody claim to Conner - which Superman had been furious about, but in a quiet sort of way, in a way where he wasn’t actively seeking him out - because, for once, Lex hadn’t technically done anything wrong…besides the unethical experimentation and nonconsensual cloning - but he wasn’t holding back on Lex as much, in a physical sense (Lex had made a point to drive it in, because Conner still seemed like a sensitive subject to the Man of Steel. More of a confusing topic than anything, because apparently the great Kryptonian didn’t know how to feel. Conner refused to comment about it, but he made a face that said that he had had this talk before, with Clark or Lois or his grandmother or something . He was too tight lipped about it telling Lex that it bothered him more than he wanted it to.) But unfortunately he hadn’t just claimed custody of one teenager. He got dogpiled by a bunch of other teens that also happened to be superheroes because apparently his clone was a pack animal and in lue of any viable or willing options for a family, he found the most feral, hypercompetent group of teenagers to claim undying loyalty to - he swears there was a blood ritual at some point.

For whatever reason they wouldn’t leave him alone, even as Lex does the exact bare minimum, and for the longest time he just thought they were an annoyance.

But it was as he was working late at night in his office, having a group of teenagers puppy piled on each other, eating various snacks and watching Luca on a souped up laptop, that he notice something shifted.

The recent changes in his life were trivial things, to him at least. The credit card companies that he sent to a personalized automated voicemail that told them the fuck off and mind their own business in the most professional way he could think of. The extra groceries that he bought on a daily schedule and the added items he would never eat. The blankets that he kept in his office even though it was sorely unprofessional. The stim toys he took to keeping in every nook and cranny. 

But these were all things he did for his convenience. The calls were getting redundant and irritating. The groceries were to combat the pests that had raided his fridge. And the blankets were just left there by the children and he didn’t bother to remove them. And the stim toys were just so they could keep themselves entertained…

So what if the voicemail said the words “...and I also have a new charge” , or he got Chicken Wheezies, which he detested the smell, shape and color of - seriously, that was beyond unnatural orange - or the basket he bought for his office that now holds all the blankets. Or his deepdive research on what stim toys helped with what the best.  It was all calculated. It meant nothing .

These kids were an irritation. He could remove them very easily if he wanted to. But he was playing a long game. Because these kids were working for the Justice League, no matter how unsupervised they were, and they’d let something slip soon - they’d never trust him, not with their track record with adults letting them down, nevermind that he is a literal supervillain no matter how much they ignore that title. That’s why he resigned himself to the children that were taking over his life with senseless pranks, childish jokes, and heartfelt Pixar movies. This was all apart of a bigger picture

Nevermind, that he didn’t know what the picture was yet.

OoOoO

Lex did not care about his ward’s sexuality.

What he did care about was the obviousness he displayed while being utterly oblivious to it. It was not only an irritation but also Lex was getting second hand embarrassment at this point.

After being immediately introduced to the world as Superman, Conner had took on a very arrogant womanizer personality. He dialed up his charm, and made people swoon at his feet. It was a stark difference from Superman, and one of the factors - besides his obvious youth - that dubbed him ‘Super boy ’. It was a display of immaturity rather than charisma. He flirted with a few pretty girls he saved and some he didn’t. He would flirt with them on patrol. He’s even flirted with some villains mid battle. 

As soon as he was able to have any control of his wardrobe, it was very apparent that he was anything but straight - even if that’s what he cast himself as, but Lex doesn’t really think that Conner gave sexuality much thought. No one mentioned it, the media blatantly ignoring it - as assumed sexuality wasn’t something any news outlet was willing to share unless their arms were twisted - because he had joined an associate group of the Justice League and didn’t want any scrutiny on the new hero, which was utter bull even if he was openly out.

Anyway, Lex had quietly suspected, and didn’t really care for a long time. It wasn’t any of his business and Conner didn’t say anything. But what had really nailed the coffin shut was how he and Robin interacted.

Moreso, how Tim and Conner interacted.

Because the two were distinctly different. Superboy and Robin had this friendly rivalry about them. They were competitive with each other, and at first there was real tension, the two seemingly unable to stand each other, not listening to each other, arguing in earnest and getting under each other’s skin. But they had evolved into something much more amicable; it was both something that happened suddenly and slowly, somehow. It was clear that they were just teasing, or just not serious about any of the things they ‘fought’ over. Trading quips and punches that sometimes just bordered on a little too intimate to be distinctly ‘ friendly’ . 

Young Justice was a touchy group as a whole. They were always touching, hugging, even kissing each other in some way; attached at eachother’s hips, linking arms as they walked, always making sure their presence was known to the others, like a reassurance or an anchor. But the way Timothy and Conner interacted in each other’s spaces was distinctly different . By all means, they did everything that they did with all the other members, but with them it just seemed like there was something more to every action. More intimate, more meaningful . It’s like they understood each other in a way no one else did, not even the rest of their team members.

No one ever talked about that either.

They were always around each other, always with each other, even if they weren’t physically with each other.

It was like they didn’t even need words to just get what the other was feeling, like they shared emotions with each other as if it was their own. Timothy just somehow knew if Conner was uncomfortable, even with his facade - even if it was well known Timothy is bad with understanding social ques. Like how he’d pull Conner away from something that got him mad, or held his hand whenever Conner froze until he’d unfreeze. And it was like Conner could predict if something was going to bother Timothy, how he’d handle all of Timothy’s quirks quietly and always in the right way - even if Timothy had never said anything about. Like how he’d pass Tim food and not pass other food to him that he knew he wouldn’t like or couldn’t eat at the moment, or how he’d drape his jacket over the smaller boy when he needed an anchor and they’d both pass it off as him being cold. They knew how to make eachother comfortable without being instructed on how to do so; like they had some sort of instinct for each other. 

They made each other happy in a way no one else did. At least on Conner’s end, he seemed to always be thinking or talking about Timothy in someway or another. Whether it be Robin, or with the team or just Tim. It was a constant in almost 90% of all the things Conner talked about. Lex doesn’t even think that the boy notices he’s doing it.

And when they were together, they would go about normal activities, but sometimes, they got too close. Most of the time they didn’t notice, how they basically fused together. They’d share  a blanket, Timothy would end up in Conner’s lap, they’d sleep on eachother, Timothy’s would hold the corner of Conner’s shirt as they walked down the street or Conner would sling an arm around the shorter boy’s shoulders.

Sometimes they’d slip into a position suddenly and then gain a moment of awareness that would have them only focusing on that. They would shoot a look at Lex to see if he noticed. Lex always played the blind eye card and pretended like he hadn’t - he can’t help but wonder what happened when that happened when Lex wasn’t there. 

They never did anything explicit to announce their relationship; he doesn’t even think that they have a term for what they were. Last he heard Robin and Spoiler were suspected to be in a relationship, but it was never confirmed and he’d be damned if he asked teenagers about their petty gossip, it was just something that he picked up through the grapevine. The way Conner and Timothy interacted with each other said otherwise, even if they weren’t in an established relationship with each other, it would be bizarre for them to be in a meaningful one with anyone else; frankly, those two being together made more sense to Lex - he doesn’t know who this Spoiler girl is.

But they never said anything, so Lex never pushed. But honestly it was getting ridiculous with how they tiptoed around him like he doesn’t know. Insulting even, in more ways than one.

So him launching his new LGBTQ kids youth centers project around Metropolis for a test run of a larger scope, was purely a gain to make this childish sneaking around stop. If they were worried Lex was going to blow up at them because of sexuality, they were wrong - he didn’t think his opinion on that subject matter to them really. 

When he had announced it, the look Conner’s face was entirely worth it.

“Why would you do that?” he asked incredulously, Lex only raised a brow, not giving anything away.

“Supporting minorities is good business. Showing that you care about youth is good for PR. It was solely for that reason.” Lex lied easily, Conner narrowed his eyes skeptically at him.

“But not even Wayne Enterprises launched an LGBTQ specific campaign, or even announced one that isn’t already associated with the Martha Wayne foundation.” Lex raised a brow at Conner, silently asking how he even knew that, Conner just shrugged in response “That’s what Tim said.” he mumbled as an explanation. That made more sense than his ward suddenly taking an interest in his competitor. Lex could hope…

“Well, then it looks like I’m ahead of Wayne for once.” That was just another bonus point in his book, he refused to smile. “Speaking of Timothy, don’t you have to pick him up.” he said idly, indifferently as he looked back to his papers. He doesn’t actually know that for a fact, but it was a good guess.

He saw Conner open his jaw a little, close it and work it as if he was thinking. Then a wary unsure smile quirk at his lips before shaking his head. “Right, don’t wait up for me.” he says and then pauses at the window. “We’ll be in Star.” he says and blasts off. 

Lex pointedly does not think about how that is the first time Conner gave him his whereabouts without him asking.

OoOoO

He should’ve guessed they’d raid the lab eventually.

He’s honestly surprised it took this long.

They’ve been taking more money for mission related stuff recently, and Lex hadn’t thought too much of it, figuring it was just easier for them to get them all from one source rather than feel out whether or not the Justice League would actually fund them or not. He knows that they know that he knows what they are doing, and they also know that he can’t stop them. He’s stopped trying to figure out why they needed certain parts for what gizmo or gadget, seeing as they only get generic - high powered but still generic - parts from him, and the rest they quite literally go dumpster diving for. They were resourceful, and they could build virtually anywhere - seriously, he’s seen Robin flip around a battle putting together a gadget with parts he pilfered as he was fighting, it was kind of impressive.

He knows with proper equipment they would be virtually unstoppable - tech wise - seeing what they could do with actual trash; he was kind of tempted to offer them one just out of curiosity, but considering that they’d probably use what they made to destroy him, he voted against it with far more reluctance than he cared to mention. But seeing both Tim and Bart in one of his more private and highly secured - not that that meant anything more than a challenge to these kids apparently - R&D labs - sans uniforms - was more than a bit mind boggling. They’ve taken over his living space, and his office, and now his lab . 

He thinks it’s crossing a line, they’ve been able to access his lab this whole time, been able to sabotage him this whole time, and Lex hadn’t even thought of it because he was too busy thinking he pulled one over on a bunch of teenagers. But it was even more than that because his lab was his safe space, any inventor worth their gears knows that, and he’s willing to bet both Timothy and Allen knew that more than the average inventor. 

Once again, he was a fool.

His ego wasn’t helped any with the fact that these kids seemed to be casually creating some sort of technology that Lex hadn’t had the imagination to think of much less engineer. It seemed to be regular patrol devices, but with far more advanced functionality than the normal tools they use. These kids were creative and resourceful and smart . They had deft hands and an even defter sense of application. Lex has never encountered anything like it before.

Allen was building some energy conservation devices that attached to the sole of his feet. Kinetic energy it seemed to store while he ran and would release upon an offensive maneuver. Timothy seemed to be creating some sort of elastic substance trained through some sort of dark matter. He had no idea what the uses would be for that, and he kind of wants to peak in the brain to see what it’s for, he knows that it’s going to be a pain in the ass to deal with, because he will have to deal with it one way or another. Is it bad that  he’s kind of excited? 

(He doesn’t know when fighting Superman and outsmarting the Justice League in increasingly vexing ways had become boring; probably around the same time he got forcibly enticed to babysit a pack of feral superteens. But they were just so much more interesting than their mentors, so much more unpredictable. Sometimes they even seemed more unbeatable. They don’t just punch their way through, they outsmart him, turn his own tricks against him. It’s like playing chess rather than a battle royale; they play his game and actually put up a fight)

Lex didn’t say anything the first time, just let them do whatever it is that they were doing - which is the usual tactic he used whenever the gremlins invaded his space. They seemed content to ignore him as well. There was a difference though, Lex could tell; they were too engrossed in their work to actually bother to annoy him.

Then they came back the next week and the week after that, then twice a week. Then they came sporadically, but their visits were increasingly frequent. Eventually after a few months of this routine, Lex made occasional commentary on the devices and experiments that he had watched them slowly develop - they never really worked on anything all the way through, taking back to wherever they squirreled away to tinker with the gadget more - seeking to improve it, which was a tactical folly, he knows, since these devices would be used against him in combat eventually - but he just couldn’t help himself.

In the grand scheme though, the devices they made in the lab were fundamentally practical and had already been created in one form or another for the most part. It’s the application, however, that got Lex so intrigued in their work. Impressed even. 

He knows these two are kind of the tech whizzes for their group, they had often had a small project they were tinkering with when they lounged around the penthouse or office; always writing equations or code or design notes on random pieces of paper or napkins or  newspapers or even on their hands and friends hands. But seeing them, completely emersed in their element, was very different from seeing them use what they created on the field. They were resourceful and insightful, and if Lex wasn’t absolutely sure they would laugh him out of the room if he offered, he’d extend his hand to mentor them. 

But as it were, he would be laughed out of the room, and while the Young Justice team seem to be more comfortable around him, for whatever reason, he has noticed that they never come around individually for very long. Besides Conner, who lived with him, and even then it was like there was a rotation for him and when they weren’t here, more often than not Conner wasn’t either. Even with their nasty habit of bothering him without his ward present, they always came in at least pairs.

Still, there was some level of unfathomable trust for them to actively be building weapons in his lab. It’s why he was so surprised to see them doing it, especially Drake and Allen, who he knows have been used for their intelligence before.

“The League regulates what we build.” Timothy had muttered one day, when Lex had joked that the League’s resources were lacking and that’s why they invaded his lab - something he mentions offhandedly and never really gets a response. He wasn’t needling for information, maybe a broad inquiry though.

Lex blinked “What, you building some doomsday device?” he says dryly, he wouldn’t put it past them. Not because they’d want to destroy the world though, but just to see if they could do it - they do that often, creating these absolute fantastical inventions only to completely destroy them because they ‘just wanted to see if it was possible’ - the first time they did that, Lex almost wept.

“Nah that’s your thing.” Allen waved off, and it was . He’s glad that they know that, even if he suspects they could probably build one out of a hotwired car and calculator in under an hour, if that. “But they don’t really…look at our requests.” he says averting his eyes. Lex raised a brow and Timothy huffed.

“They always deny our requests for resources for unsolicited projects.” Timothy clarifies bitterly “that or they’re too slow.” he mutters, going back to what he was working on before.

“We just have too many ideas.” Allen smiles, trying to chipper up the mood. Timothy huffs again, staying focused on his soldiering. “But…we can’t always explain those ideas so they can’t give us stuff because they can’t regulate it.” Lex blinks as he processes the information.

“You mean they are too stupid to understand the ideas you make, so they don’t sanction it.” Lex clarifies. He knows that’s only part of it, most of their ideas are born from lack of stimulation. Lex knows the feeling of getting an idea and obsessing about it until he knows it’s possible, he imagines these kids are the same way. He could also imagine that their mentors recognize that, just as they do in their enemies and fear it - especially Batman. Being an unsupervised asocial kid genius with mental health problems in Gotham has never bred anything good. He thinks it’s stupid that they don’t utilize their gifts, but he thinks it’s even stupider that they think they can stop them; that ignoring the problem will just make it go away if they don’t indulge them - if anything that probably just encourages them.

“Well, not in so many words.” Allen confirms as Timothy says “Yes.” without looking up from his project.

“Jokes on them, we could probably do this in a junkyard and get the same results.” Drake says, Lex knows this is true - he’s seen it.

“So why don’t you, instead of invading my lab.” Lex’s forehead ticks in annoyance. Drake looks up a grins, and Allen matches it. He already regrets asking.

“Because this is so much easier when you have a portable particle accelerator.” Drake smiles at him wickedly. Allen giggles and nods, going back to tightening bolts on his own project. 

Lex feels the years of his life shaved off.

OoOoO 

The first time one of them comes alone, it’s surprisingly King-Jones.

Barring Conner, and occasionally Sandsmark or Drake, he’s never been left alone with anyone of the Young Justice for more than a few minutes. They might pop by individually from time to time to give him a heart attack or steal his food, but those were only momentary and only to shock him. For the most part they traveled in pairs or more. He would understand if it was just something they did with him, however it seemed to be that’s just how they were in general. He doesn’t know if it’s just a weird teenage thing or a comfort thing, but it wasn’t a secret that these kids were incredibly codependent - almost worryingly so. And yeah, when someone who didn’t know their situation would look at them, they’d probably be concerned, knowing even a little of their circumstances or assumed circumstance, it was understandable - still cause for concern but for a different reason.

So imagine his surprise when Cissie King-Jones comes storming into his office, in civilian attire and a duffle bag that was so full of her Arrowette arsenal that it couldn’t even zip up all the way - and it was slightly concerning that could be an identity leak, it wasn’t even packed properly, like she had thrown anything she could grab and stuffed it into her bag. But Lex knew better than to lecture her on that especially since she seemed to be in a mood . 

She stomped in and threw her bag down near the couches that he had in his office, where it hit the floor with a thud and the contents inside clattered, and plopped down in a huff, clearly cross about something Lex didn’t even try to guess - it was always a waste of time to do so because it could either be very serious or very trivial and the reaction would still be the same. Lex waited a moment for anybody else to follow in after her, unsure what the atmosphere would be like but prepared for a long vent session of some kind - he thinks he can almost figure out the code they sometimes speak in when they get heated about a topic or secondary party. It could go one of two ways, the member who showed up after her could either try to calm her down, let her vent and try to make her feel better, or they could match her energy as they both got more and more worked up while she vented and it will inevitably lead to them finding a petty, ill advised scheme that would vary on subtlety depending on what/whom they were pissed at - Lex does not envy whoever that would be - making his an unwitting accessory; it ended with the latter 63% of the time.

But…no one followed in after her. She just dumped the contents of her bag out so that a random assortment of objects were strewn across the glass table, some arrows some collapsible bows or staffs or other compact gadgets, and smaller bits falling off the table all together, feeding Lex’s theory that she did just grab whatever she could stuff in her bag. 

As she sorted through her arsenal, Lex tried to ignore her, but the air was too stagnant and it the tension in the room was only building (and what is it with these kids and being able to change the temperature of a room just by entering it? Was it a teenage thing or was their presence just that potent? He doesn’t think they do it on purpose half the time, but there were also times where their presence wasn’t noticed at all - which he thinks they do on purpose just the same amount. Was it about intent?) Lex could not feasibly concentrate in it, but he also did not want to be the burnt of her ire - Arrowette, he knows, may not have any powers, but is a beast not be trifled with. 

But this was getting ridiculous, and Lex refused to actually be intimidated in anyway by a teenager , so he forced his voice to drawl “Why are you here?” disinterestedly, trying to resist the urge to look up. An age old question for him it seems, one that was his automatic response at this point, to which he rarely got any serious answer to, if he got an answer at all. 

“Oliver is pissing me off.” she spat the name with more vitriol than Lex thought she was capable of, and was mildly impressed by. 

“Should I expect any other interruptions to barge into my office than?” he half asked, forcing himself not to glance at the door. Not that the blonde would see it, she was still aggressively performing maintenance on her gear and hadn’t looked up. Usually when they vented about their mentors, it was a group event…sometimes a monologue, but that was mostly from Drake and Allen when he was deep in a project - although Allen rarely vented about his mentors, sometimes got sad because of his predecessors, but he seemed to have nothing but praise for Max Mercury.

“Don’t wanna talk to them right now.” the blonde says, and… that was a first. She sighed, must’ve feeling Lex’s mild shock, letting the arrow and cloth she was cleaning with fall into her lap and some tension bleeds from her shoulders but the rigidness still remains “They didn’t do anything, so there is no ‘team dispute’ or whatever, if that’s what you were thinking. I just…they’d either calm me down or hype me up and I dunno I just kinda wanna stay pissed for a bit.” she says not looking at him and then grips her arrow a little tighter “I deserve to feel pissed.” she grimaces, eyes flaring with quiet fury, although Lex thinks it’s more to herself than to him.

Lex looks at her for a moment, simmering in her irritation and anger, and a bit of hurt that she was trying to not let through; she’s frustrated and resentful in way that’s been pent up for a while, a way Lex knows all to well, and then he sighs. He can’t believe he’s actually doing this. “What did Queen do?” trying to keep his voice as dry as possible. 

If the girl was shocked by his question, she didn’t let it show. She just snorted. “What didn’t  he do.” she muttered, then scoffed with a bitter smile “I mean, I don’t come home after school because I had to meet up with Anita for training after school, and then when I get home from patrol and I get grilled? I told him I had training with Anita, and the school is closer to her flat so what's the point in wasting 30 minutes there and back when I could just stay at school and finish up some homework in the library? It’s not like he didn’t put fucking trackers on me, he knew where I was.” she was starting to get worked up and aggressively started to clean again “And then he didn’t believe me. He searched my bag like he thought I was fuckin-” she cut herself off, tears pricking her eyes as she forced herself to take a breathe. 

Lex was slightly astonished, he hadn’t actually expected an answer, much less one that detailed and with such little prodding; it was like she was an overfull water balloon and all Lex needed to do was poke it. Usually King-Jones was more level headed than this, she knew the time and place to blow up, and it was never around Lex; so Lex very much feels out of his depth here, but he was here so he had to do something. 

He knows that she cut herself off before she could reveal a deeper seeded Arrow family issues, but Lex does know a bit about the failure that was Green Arrow’s previous sidekick. And who doesn’t know, anybody in this community worth their salt knew, even if they tried to keep it quiet, Speedy left in a rather explosive way. He doesn’t know much about the details, Star City isn’t his usual playground, but he does know that Oliver Queen’s ward was caught with illegal substances, and that whatever the situation was ultimately lead to the boy being estranged and Speedy essentially being erased from the hero world.

It seemed whatever unresolved fallout of the situation came down on Arrowette’s shoulders and King-Jones was now the one who had to pick up the pieces.

“I would think Canary would step in.” was the only thing Lex had thought to say. Queen could be an absolute nincompoop but at least Lance was moderately better intellectually. Wasn’t she a therapist or something? King-Jones snorted, she hadn’t shed any tears, but the tip of her nose and corner of her eyes were red, like the tears evaporated at their source.

“She’s gone. Got her own shit to do apparently. She’s barely ever around.” she grumbles and sounds resentful of it. Understandably so, it seemed she left the girl to deal with Queen on her own - a mess that was more Lance’s than King-Jones’ “I just…” she breathes in deep and lets out a long breathe, furrowing her brows “I just wish that he wouldn’t look at me and see an automatic failure. I’m not him . Sometimes I think he sees me as a do over, like…like he’s trying to prove that what happened with him and Ro- Speedy wasn’t his fault.” she says, bitter and resigned like she had more to say.

Lex hummed in understanding “Do you think it was his fault?” King-Jones’ eyes snapped up to him in surprise at the question but she didn’t answer so Lex repeated himself “What happened to Roy Harper, do you think it was Queen’s fault.” she looks back down contemplatively and fidgets a bit.

“Oliver…was the adult.” she says carefully. “Roy…he made a mistake.”

“Do you hate him for it?” she shakes her head automatically.

“No…no. I’m not saying it wasn’t his fault he…he knew better. But I just…I just hate how Oliver responded to it. How he treats it. Like he did nothing wrong, like it was all Roy’s fault.” she murmurs not looking at him but glaring at the arrow.

Lex hums and leans back in his chair “Well, Harper was a child.” he says “Children do stupid things. Frankly, it is Queen’s failing for what happened to him.” He’s surprised he has such an opinion about this. He doesn’t think he did at the time it was happening, but since meeting Queen’s new ward, he’s started to form opinions.

“I think…I know how he’s feeling. I mean I know the expectations Green Arrow has, and it’s a lot but I…I’m more used to them…the expectations.” she says and sighs, it almost sounds defeated “But…we- I am supposed to be better. I’m not him, I haven’t failed yet .” she says frustrated, Lex noted the slip up of ‘ we ’ and he studies her for a moment. She’s letting a little of her confused desperation slip though, like she doesn’t know what to do. Lex sighed.

Because he knows . He’s been around superheroes for almost as long as Superman has been around, since the Justice League formed. He may not be a hero, but he knows heroes. He knows and he’s watched what has happened with the previous generations. He’s always noted it in the back of his mind even though he doesn’t dabble in the sidekicks and protegees. He still keeps tabs on the rebellion, or the tensions that run deeper - more personally. It used to be a weapon, a string to pull at, to taunt - he never imagined that it would be used for something like this. But he has seen how the heroes crumbled in a way that no battle could achieve: how Robin’s death nearly destroyed  Batman, how Speedy’s addiction isolated Green Arrow, how Donna Troy’s passing was mourned by Wonder Woman. Mentors and Proteges. Heroes and Sidekicks. It ran deeper than any bond, and the pain it caused when it was lost was unimaginable. He’s seen how each one changed the hero community, how they mourned and grieved and forgot. How it hit harder than any enemy they’ve ever faced. Going on as a hero seemed impossible after that, moving on was unthinkable. So what happened when the next generation came through? How were they supposed to deal with that when all their love wasn’t enough?

“Your generation came at a very…vulnerable time for most of your mentors.” Lex starts carefully “They failed, most of them, but not how heroes normally fail. They failed their partners, which is an immeasurable blow that they will never recover from.” he tells her and she looks up at him like she’s never seen him before, he looks her dead in the eye as he says “They are incapable of doing so, because that is just their nature.”

Her eyes widen a fraction more and she turns a little to him, maintenance forgotten “So you…you know they treat us this way? Like we aren’t even worth the effort to try and succeed?” she asks, and more of that desperation slips through; hungry for answers.

“Not in so much detail.” Lex admits, he’s pulling half of this out of ass - all based on educated guesses and assumptions that have formed since making Conner his ward. He didn’t have any real answers for her, and somehow, for the first time in his life, lying felt wrong “But I did expect a sort of…wariness for taking on another partner for most of them.” still Lex didn’t expect them to completely give up on them from the start. Heroes were supposed to rise above, and these were children . Children who idolized them, followed in their footsteps. Trusted them to take care of them and teach them, to support them and help them grow. But all Lex has seen so far is their negligence and their expectance of the worst of them, their ignorance and unjust limitations - if these kids were anyone else, they would have long been husks before they even made it past 18. All because they failed and now they couldn’t get their shit together enough to even try again. They chose to give up long before the next generation came around, and now they had to deal with the fallout on top of the usual high stakes expectations that came with the job. They were set up to fail, because their mentors wanted them to give up too, and then resented them when they didn’t; because after all, if their protogees didn’t quit then neither could they. “It is not your fault Suzanne.” 

She snorts wetly, turning her head away but he could still see the redness in her eyes “Did you seriously just call me Suzanne? Gross.”

“It’s your given name.” Lex says flatly.

“Never use it. Call me Cissie.” she says and then quieter “Please.” That’s a thing with them too, all of Young Justice were very particular about names, nicknames and anything they are called. Like Conner could be called ‘ Kon ’ but never ‘ Kon-el ’ - Tim gets mad whenever that name was used. Timothy is rarely called ‘Tim’ or any variation of his given name, them forgoing even ‘Robin’ sometimes, it was always a variation of ‘Rob’, ‘Red’, ‘Boy Wonder’ and various other pet names or inside jokes - he didn’t respond badly to being called by his given name or official moniker, but he suspects it’s a secret identity thing. Cassie hated being called ‘Cassandra’, but preferred that anyone that isn’t her friends call her ‘Sandsmark’ or ‘Wondergirl’ - and sometimes she doesn’t like ‘Wondergirl’, he’s caught her team calling her ‘Stars’ on multiple occasions which she seemed more at ease with the name; she also was never called ‘Cass’ because that name was Tim’s supposedly adopted sister - he has yet to find proof Batman has taken in a new protege, so the supposed new ‘Batgirl’ remains elusive. Greta is called ‘Suzie’ as her civilian identity and sometimes gets upset when she is even called ‘Greta’ - she prefers ‘Secret’. Anita prefers being called by her last name or by ‘Empress’, like Cassie - however whenever Cissie or Greta call her anything other than Anita outside the field, she gets upset. And then there was Bart. They were just Bart , they didn’t mind being called anything - it was more their team that minded, but usually it was okay as long as whatever they were called was respectful. 

So Cissie forgoing her given name is not a surprise in the slightest.

“It is not your fault Cissie.” he repeats sullenly with the correction, needing her to know that, despite hating the sincerity of this moment and feeling very out of his element - he tries not to let his unease show though. “The wariness was born before you, not from you.”

Cissie deflates “Yeah, well that wariness got me grounded. Fuck that.” she huffs and turns back to her arrows and Lex raises a brow in silent question. She must feel the gaze because she snorts “Oh please, like I’m gonna actually listen to him. I didn’t do anything wrong.” Fair enough . These kids don’t do grounding very well. They don’t do authority well, and with the way that the authority figures in their life drop the ball and punish unjustly, it is expected that they don’t listen to any figure that assumes they have power over them; annoying, but understandable.

So Lex shrugs and contemplates for a moment before snorting “Frankly, it’s rather hypocritical if you ask me.” he says, Cissie looks to him with an inquisitive look “‘ Ollie ’ Queen has his fair share of scandals. He was quite the wild child, even before it was a cover.” He had no idea why he was telling her this, but the air was becoming less stifling than it was, finally.

Cissie blinked at him with wide eyes, and a look that he couldn’t quite decipher and was frankly making him uncomfortable. “Seriously?” she asked, almost giddy, and Lex snorted again.

“Please. Don’t even get me started on how he was during his teen years.” he said, thinking back to the tabloid articles. Even when Lex’s company took off in his 20s, Queen was still as brash and ill witted as ever, and while Brucie Wayne may have always been a front, Ollie Queen had not, before his sudden disappearance that is. He had come back to society virtually unchanged, but Lex could see through the cheap facade “I’ll have Mercy dig up the articles for you to use as blackmail.” Because while Queen may have his own tech whizzes burying all his more…unmentionable exploits, Lex was better at digging up lost information; also he was a blackmail hoarder, and it came in handy very often - especially when Oracle came on the scene. “But this hypocrisy is normal for those who grow up in the upper class. You are expected to be better than your elders without actually being too better. Failure is unacceptable, success is isolating.” Lex tells her the age old wisdom. Admittedly, it was a rather fucked up system, but one that he did not care much for in that regard. It had built Lex up, made his skin thick, and made him absolutely merciless, cutting out his soul and turning his heart bitter. Navigating high society was easy, even enjoyable to a super villain - but he became a supervillain when he was an adult, putting a child in that environment was equivalent to putting a deer in a lion den - they would be slaughtered.

“You have no idea.” Cissie mutters, and Lex suspects she’s not just talking about upper class frivolities “But how am I supposed to succeed, when he’s already written me off as a failure?” she asks more to herself than him. And because he is petty he advises her.

“Succeed anyway.” 

And when she did, Ollie Queen will choke . Lex can’t wait.

OoOoO

“Shit, I gotta go.”

The exclamation zaps Lex out of his concentration on the machine he was currently tinkering with, he was running simulations on to test it’s full capabilities to see how it could be implemented in his next big plot. He sure had been doing a lot of plotting and not alot of executing recently, but he decides not to think about that. He almost forgets he now had… lab partners as unwanted as they are. It probably isn’t a good idea to be building his plot in front of the very people that stop him occasionally, but it was more for their mentors than them - he still refuses to actually wrap himself up in having literal children as his greatest adversaries, although that was proving to be inevitable but not in any way he expected; he didn’t know domestic adversaries existed until he met them. But it turns out, they couldn’t care less - sure they didn’t give him tips like they do when they somehow know he isn’t working on a super villain scheme, but they don’t say anything about it either.

Speaking of, Drake is fervently shoving stuff into his taped up bookbag with too many patches and buttons on it. The thing was obviously old and ratty, just like his shoes, which were old and had doodles all over them; which was a very curious detail Lex had noticed as Drake spent more time in his civilian clothes around him, they all did, but it was especially jarring when he remembered that this boy’s mentor was Batman , paranoia extraordinaire. But as such, he’s noticed their style - when Drake wasn’t wearing someone else’s clothes, his jeans were always ripped even if it was freezing and he had an oversized worn hoodie a top a collared shirt, or oversize flannel with a faded graphic tee. Most of his clothes were just slightly too big on him, and Lex had always assumed it was just a preference, but he’s seen Drake’s variations of the Robin suit, and the kid didn’t not have a sense of style - better sense than Nightwing had at least. Maybe he just preferred comfort when he was off the clock, Lex could respect that.

“Is Kon here?” he asked Lex who snapped out of his reverie. An odd question from the boy, who often knew about his ward’s whereabouts more than Lex did - if Conner even deigned to tell him.

But Drake was looking at him expectedly and Lex does happen to know where Conner is right now “He is in Smallville.” he answers mostly out of sheer shock for the role reversal, he hopes it doesn’t show too much.

“Shit.” the boy swore, pulling out his phone and tapping at it - it was odd to see him so unprepared, usually Timothy had contingency plans on top of contingency plans, it was almost scary how unflinching he was, sometimes Lex truly believed that all of his plans went accordingly for how smoothly the boy adapted, he was mildly shocked to find out that none of his original plans were ever sought through without a divergence. So seeing him now reeling for something as simple as a ride was kind of jarring. “Maybe Bart is available. I’m so stupid.” he mumbles to himself, trying to figure out a solution.

“Lost track of time?” he asked, because of course he needs to take this opportunity, he doesn’t know if it will ever happen again in his lifetime - Drake was scarily good at learning from mistakes - and the boy sighed.

“Yeah, I’ve got a shift at the bar tonight.” he says bitterly, sounding like a child not wanting to do dishes after dinner “I usually work mornings and afternoons, ya know cuz of my night shift.” he tells him distractedly. Lex blinks, processing the information.

“Bar?” Lex doesn’t know much about the guidelines for employment, but Drake was 14, and people need to be at least 16 to work, even then there were exceptions for low income families - he realizes suddenly that he doesn’t seem to know the boy’s financial status, he had just assumed like the other Robins that he was living off Batman’s dime, but that seemed to not be the case with the third - who is an exception in more ways than one Lex is quickly learning. Even so he’s pretty sure 14 year olds can’t work in bars. Then again, he lives in Gotham, which plays fast and loose with laws on a good day and had much more pressing matters to attend to than children working behind bars, like the water poisoning or their countless psychotic, homicidal rouges with PhDs and were truly the best in their fields. Even so, doesn’t Drake work with Batman? As in Bruce Wayne .  Why would he need a job anyway? Didn’t he at least provide for his Robin enough that he doesn’t need a second job on top of vigilantism and school? Where does he even find time to… Wait-

“Yeah, my dad owns one.” the boy’s answer snaps him out of his musings “It’s 24/7 and completely about to go under if it wasn’t for gangsters claiming territory around it. He can barely get enough employment as is.” Drake says and then mutters “If he even cares anymore.” But Lex doesn’t think he’s supposed to hear that last part. It doesn’t matter, he has another, very pressing question.

“Wait. You said you work mornings and afternoons. What about school?” Because he still pretty sure 14 year olds go to school, Conner goes to school and they are the same age. At that one the boy actually snorts.

“Dropped out. I’ve gotta pull my weight cuz dad says. And if I don’t he’ll start to nose around to figure out why I’m not and ya know that can’t happen.” he says like it’s obvious. Lex refrains from saying something stupid like ‘Does Batman know about this?’ because of course he doesn’t. Lex is going to choose that it’s just an oversight as opposed to the second option which is that he does know and doesn’t care …he also wouldn’t put it past him. Does he even care to know?

“Your dad let you drop out of school?” he says instead of opening that can of worms. 

“It’s not like he cares as long as I’m working. School’s useless anyway.” Timothy snaps at him and then grumbles “He hasn’t cared about anything since mom left.” and shakes his head as if to get rid of those thoughts “Besides, I can’t do what I do if he starts to give a shit about me. And he’ll start to give a shit if I don’t fucking work so…” and that was all sorts of fucked up, Lex doesn’t even know where to begin. Probably with a CPS call, but knowing Gotham’s system, that would only make it worse if it did anything at all. So yeah, he doesn’t know where to start.

“But what about your future? How do you plan to get anywhere with not even a high school diploma?” Lex nearly demands, for some reason a scolding tone had entered his voice. He doesn’t know why he cares so much. Maybe because he refuses to see one of the few people that can outwit Lex squander everything and just settle in a pit. Timothy just snorts.

“Try middle school.” he mumbles, which is so much worse “And it’s not like I was ever gonna do anything big with my civilian life. It doesn’t really matter.” 

Except it does . Because Timothy can do something with his civilian life. Something amazing . He’s smart and capable and adaptable. He’s intelligent and it’s a waste that the adults in his life are letting him throw that away. He could very much change the world with his inventions and mind. He had so much potential and it was being ignored and squandered; like a light being snuffed out before it was fully lit.

“But-”

“Look Lex.” the boy interrupts with a steely glare and unwavering voice “I gotta work. Because working for my dad means I’ve got a place to sleep. And even if he didn’t have me work for that, he’s shit at providing for me anyways. I’d be working with odd jobs just so I can get some extra food or clothes and stuff, no matter what. I don’t have time for school and frankly it’s none of your business in the first place. So drop. it.” he says with a cold chill in his voice daring Lex to go against him. Lex snaps his mouth shut momentarily as Timothy’s phone pings and he checks it “Great Bart will be here in five.” he says to himself, shoulders still wound but slumping a little.

“Does Batman know?” Lex asks before he can think about it, and Drake just looks at him warily which is all the answer he needs. Yeah, he’s heard somewhere that this Robin was good at lying to Batman. Whatever. “Work for me.” Lex blurts out without thinking again,because apparently his brain is just not on today and he’s decided to run on pure stupidity alone. He’s just as surprised as Timothy is that it comes out of his mouth - and he wonders when he installed subtle parental instinct in his programming.

“Huh?” the boy tilts his head, pure confusion probably the reason he doesn’t have a witty comeback on the tip of his tongue “You’re not serious.” he says with a bemused deadpan and now Lex takes a moment to actually think about his absolutely absurd proposal but actually…

“Yes. I am.” Lex says, more confident than he actually feels. This all is too unplanned for how big a decision it is, but he still feels like it’s the right one for some reason. There is certainly potential, he’s known that for a while, but he never actually let himself believe Timothy Drake would actually work with him. The boy is too smart to try to pull one over and get him to join his side as his lackey - that would probably end up with Lex as the puppet for one of his petty schemes instead. No, he couldn’t get Timothy Drake on his side, but no matter what field the boy would revolutionize, and Lex would rather be on his side of that revolution. If he plays his cards right this could have potential. He just has to be subtle. “You said you did odd jobs.” he crosses his arms. The boy raises a suspicious brow at him but bites nonetheless, turning more towards him.

“Yeah, fixing up stuff at the junkyard and small repairs. And…” Timothy tenses up as he trails off “I’m not gonna be your lap dog, Luthor.” he seethes to him, eyes narrowing and Lex shakes his head.

“You’re too smart for that.” he scoffs and then shakes his head “Can’t hire you without a degree anyway.” he says flippantly to cover up that moment of give.

“Then why did you offer?” Now Timothy looks a little peeved, trying to cover up his curiosity.

“I can’t hire you as an employee, but I can hire you for commission.” he says and gives a little smirk at Timothy’s look of surprise.

“Seriously?” the boy deadpans, but this time he looks more wary than bemused “You know I’m a superhero right? I’m not gonna help you build one of your doomsday projects.” he says like he didn’t believe Lex was that stupid. And Lex wasn’t, he tried not to be so offended that Timothy would think that he thought that Lex could pull one over him. Like they weren’t close but Lex knew enough about the boy to know that that wouldn’t work.

“Contrary to popular belief amongst you're… community , LexCorp is an actual business that sells real, actual products people use everyday, thank you very much.” Lex huffs.

“It’s also a front.” Timothy points out, unimpressed. Lex grimaces.

“That is… also a purpose it serves, yes.” he relents and Drake rolls his eyes “But I’m merely suggesting I could commission you for one of the actual products we sell here to advance technology and innovation.” he says in a professionally suggestive tone. Timothy sees right through it.

“Are you… trying to give a pitch to me?” he asks almost disbelievingly - like he’s astounded by Lex’s audacity to even think that would work - and admittedly, yes that is what Lex was doing. Before he could respond, however, a zoom and flurry of wind burst into the room announcing their resident speedster’s presence.

“Ready to go?” he asked cheerfully, completely unaware of the weird tension in the air that the previous conversation brought.

“You have no idea.” Timothy grumbled, turning quickly and stalked his way over to the speedster, hiking his backpack higher and let out a sniff. 

As he got on the speedster’s back for a piggyback ride, Lex sighed “Don’t let your mind be a waste Timothy, is all I’m offering.” he says and that’s it. That’s all he has left. It’s not like he actually cares whether the boy was pouring his life down the drain, but Lex was in very short supply of actually competent minds and competitors, it made his whole ‘front’ rather dull, if you asked him; Lex is in dire need of a challenge, for something new and fresh to keep his mind from melting into insanity. That’s the only reason he’s offering, nothing more.

He thinks he imagines Timothy looking back to him for a second with a contemplative look, just as Allen speeds off.

OoOoO

He does not know how these kids managed to rope him into their adolescent whims.

But here he was, holding an abundance of shopping bags as the children tore their way through the many thrift stores of Upper Metropolis. Going from store to store, that are all full of hand-me downs and people’s rejected items. They try on the second rate clothes, model for each other, talk about plans to ‘reinvent’ them. It’s all so beneath him, Lex isn’t even sure that he’s actually there; he feels so out of place. 

He was fairly sure this could be considered a hostage situation actually, given that he was here unwilling and some how coerced into being present. And to make it worse, they weren’t even acknowledging him beyond the means to purchase and hold their stuff. He isn’t sure why he’s not walking out, or blowing the place up out of sheer spite.  He is, however, making his displeasure very known, but quietly, because everytime someone acknowledges his presence, they look at him like he’s an exotic zoo exhibit. He supposes he is in a way: Lex Luthor, CEO and founder of LexCorp, being carted around by a pack of feral teenagers to every goodwill in Metropolis.

“Seriously. I could take you to actual brand name stores.” He tried at the beginning of this whole expedition, as he distastefully looked into the hole in the wall they tried to - and successfully - get him to go into. Because if he was going to be kidnapped and unwillingly be apart of these shenanigans, he might as well be in a respectable establishment that didn’t sell shoes full of holes and dirty laces and fleas on the clothes. It was a fruitless endeavor, because these kids were actual heathens.

“Yeah, but those are no fun.” Sandsmark waved off, not even giving his offer a fair thought as she dragged him into the store. It was unfair that she was a head shorter and six times stronger than him, she could probably bench press him 19 times over.

“They have better clothes.” he tells her dryly and she only rolls her eyes in form of acknowledgement.

“Yeah, but do they have this .” Hayes beams as she holds up an atrocious sweater that has steamed carrot orange and puke green patterns. Lex thinks he actually gags. The little demons giggle at his misery. 

He wisely chooses to remain silently seething for the rest of the trip, falling to their whims rather than fight against it, because it was increasingly apparent that would be futile and he was trapped with them until they chose to release him - he’s not even sure why they wanted him to come, they have his card. Maybe as a form of torture and humiliation. He was so going to get his revenge though. Maybe a plasma attack on San Francisco, he had some energy emitters that he was saving for a rainy day. Maybe he’d even make it  a little messy by making some political maneuvers, obvious manipulation for consumer consumption seems to be an old hat trick he hasn’t used in a while. Yeah, that’ll show ‘em.

But before he could enact his planning phase of his master plot, he had to endure this tedious endeavor of watching the kids try on clothes and model them for each other. There was a tremendous pile still left, and half of them were silly, others were serious - it was a coin toss what they were actually looking for, if they were looking for anything. It was dull and uninteresting, watching them revolve through different pairings, discussing the clothes they already had in their closets, discussing alterations and customizations they would make. 

He was mildly surprised that the boys were so into it too. He isn’t quite sure why, it’s not like these kids had any sense of gender norms. They clothes shared with the girls all the time with no hesitation and really did not care what anyone thought - except maybe their mentors or predecessors, as much as they tried to hide it. But the boys were into it; hyping them up - in Conner’s case - giving light critique when asked - in Timothy’s case (he surprisingly had a good eye for fashion) - and sitting quietly in Bart’s case-.... wait…

Lex furrowed his brow as he looked to the small speedster. He was vibrating minutely, not in any way that was noticeable if you weren’t looking for it; it was impossible for the child to sit still for a second. Usually, Bart would be talking animatedly, flinging his arms around and flitting between his friends, but right now he sat quietly looking into space, his mind a million miles away.

That wasn’t right .

Lex followed the red heads line of sight to the clothes rack…the one where the girls had put their rejected options - it was a lot because again, they did this tedious endeavor for fun . The rack was full of flowy sundresses, frilly crop tops, short skirts, and sparkly tights. None of the options would be considered ‘male apparel’ by any stretch. And yet…

And yet Allen looked at the rack with a longing he had rarely seen on the boy. He’d seen the look before though. A sad resigned one, that he had seen flash across too many of these kids faces that they think he didn’t notice. When they wanted something they would never be able to get.

But these were clothes. Lex could get clothes.

“Try them on.” he told the small child as the girls went back in the dressing room for another outfit change, lowering his voice so not to catch anyone else’s attention. The speedster snapped his head toward him in surprise. Conner and Timothy also looked their way at the sudden movement, their chatter slowing slightly.

“Huh?” he asked eloquently, wide golden eyes staring at him in disbelief, confusion and a bit of worry. Lex rolled his own and tried to keep a blush from creeping up. Why did they have to make things a bigger deal than they were? It’s just clothes.

“The clothes.” he gestured to the rack, Allen tensed up. It was like a rubber band snapping, Conner looked like he’d be a little defensive, but Timothy narrowed his eyes and as Conner leaned forward to get between him and Allen and opened his mouth to say something. But then Timothy stuck out a hand and pushed it to his chest to stop him. Conner looked at the other boy, confused for a moment, Timothy just gestured to Allen and Conner looked in that direction to see a little hope shining in his eyes. Conner’s eyes widened and he looked at Timothy who looked back at him expectantly, there was a silent conversation that Lex didn’t bother to try to decipher going on between them.

“Yeah dude!” Conner finally said, a little too loudly but the energy was genuine, startling the little speedster a little to look at him. “Totally, you should try something on!” he encouraged and Allen’s eyes widened as he looked over to Timothy. Timothy just  glanced at the rack as if inspecting it.

“The maroon crop top would go well with the white skater skirt. I think it would look good.” he told him and then shrugged and looked away a little sheepishly “Or like, whatever you want.” he said clearing his throat but it was enough for their speedster to absolutely light up, all wariness and nervousness gone, just vibrating with excited energy of anticipation.

“Really?” Allen’s eyes sparkled, only breaking his excitement briefly when he shot a quick glance at Lex.

“Well, it’s not like we’re doing much else.” Lex leaned back and shooed him away with one hand, feigning indifference. He didn’t think a person could vibrate at the frequency Allen had as he sped over with slightly too fast speed to the clothing racks and went through them. Lex snorted “don’t just take their leftovers.” he grumbled and Conner perked up.

“Right! I’ll get something. Whatcha feelin’ Imp?”

“Pink!” Allen answered immediately, beaming at him before going back through the rack and Conner nodded and sped off like he was on a mission. Timothy watched the taller boy and snorted, turning to hid smaller friend.

“He has no sense of style.” he heard him grumble and started to head over to follow the other boy but paused and looked back at Allen and then to Lex for a moment then back to Allen. “Will you be okay?” he asked cautiously, keeping an eye on Lex. Lex could have scoffed but didn’t. He was a bit surprised when Allen didn’t even look up as he said a quick “yeah” and then sped off to the changing room without a care.

They ended up cycling through some clothes. Conner and Timothy bringing different pieces of clothing and Allen sorting through and trying them on quickly, blatantly utilizing his speed in a way Lex is surprised they didn’t get caught for. Lex almost rolled his eyes. 

Allen was showcasing a floral skirt and a pink cold shoulder when they encountered their first problem. 

A woman who had just came in to use a changing room looked at them and then at Allen who was receiving compliments from Timothy and enthusiastic support from Conner, and then hissed “I swear, you let your children flaunt around in those. Shame on you.” she sounded self righteous, and Lex knew self righteous, he invented self righteous. So he turns slowly and raised a brow at her and the woman immediately fumbles. “Oh uh…Mr.Luthor! I’m so uhm-”

“Keep walking.” he says in a flat dangerous tone and she scrambles away. He turns back to see all three boys staring at him, astonished, but before any of them could respond Sandsmark and Cissie walked out from the changing booth.

“Hey guys what do you think of…what’s up?” Sandsmark asked as she noticed the mood in the room, immediately more alert, scanning the room for threats. Her eyes catch Timothy’s for a moment and they start their own silent conversation. Any verbal answer the boys could give was interrupted by a squeal from Cissie, who was bounding up to Allen and grabbing his hands.

“Oh my gosh Bart you look so pretty!” she says excitedly and Sandsmark peels her eyes from Timothy after a silent gesture and takes in her blushing friends apparel and smiles, a bit strained but genuine.

“Holy shit dude. Sick.” she says with a grin and Allen fidgets.

“Tim helped pick it out.” he says shyly.

“Yeah, how are you so good at this stuff dude?” Conner smirks and nudged the other boy who looked bothered and shrugged in response.

“I’m good at a lot of things cl- farm boy.” Timothy smirked back at him, leaning in to nudge the other boy back. 

“Smartass.” Conner snorts. 

“Yeah, well at least I have more than two modes of flannel and leather.” Timothy shoots back. Lex agrees with the sentiment quietly.

“You love flannel.” Conner balks and Timothy makes a noncommittal sound, Conner looks faux betrayed for a second and props his hands on his hips “Besides, big talk coming from someone who’s entire wardrobe is either hoodies and collared shirts or stolen .”

“Stolen clothes are the best clothes.” Allen pipes up and Cissie nods sagely. 

“Sharing is caring, mate.” Fite calls from the dressing room and he could hear Hayes giggle from the same direction. 

“Whatever.” Conner huffs and crosses his arms.

“You act like you don’t do it too.” Lex drawls out, and Conner let out a shocked noise.

“Who’s side are you even on?!” Lex keeps his face controlled as the rest of the kids laugh and then chat more about customization and sparkles, which Timothy goes on a tirade about - he has strong opinions about glitter apparently.

Things settle back into the normal atmosphere so Lex settles back and prepares to plot again, but he’s pulled out of it as a quiet “thank you.” is floated in his direction. It’s Bart, who smiles at him and it’s not a megawatt smile that shines blindingly, it’s sunny and warm and grateful.

Lex doesn’t know what to do with that. 

OoOoO

It kind of hits him suddenly and in a mundane way too.

It was just a quiet day at the office, the kids were lounging around which has become a common thing - a few of them just coming by and working on their own things quietly, sometimes dropping by to bug him purposefully. He doesn’t think too much about it, and stopped questioning it all together because he kept getting useless answers. 

His mind had blanked out and he was just taring ahead over his untouched document that he had to review, watching as all the kids lounged. Timothy was typing on his computer, Fite and Cissie were doing light weapon maintenance, Bart and Conner were doing homework, and Sandsmark and Hayes were watching some movie on Sandsmark’s tablet with their headphone in. It was oddly domestic. That’s when it hit him. Not that the situation was weird, but rather that it wasn’t . This was his new normal.

His life had shifted, had changed in small ways that made themselves a routine. The weekly credit reports checks instead of monthly, the number to a trusted cleaner that didn’t ask questions, daily grocery runs rather than weekly, the dart board that was hung in his office, the extra tools that he doesn’t use, the encrypted harddrive he updates with petty blackmail, the lab in R&D he had cleared out, or the multiple craftstore membership he’s now apart of. 

He thinks he’s supposed to mind it more than he does. He thinks he’s supposed to have noticed before this. In a way that once he thinks about it a little, wasn’t noticeable to him, but he knows it was noticeable to everyone else. Because it was so fucking obvious but he was just in denial about it. It’s hard to deny it now though.

“Oh Tim, did you do the budget yet?” Sandsmark asks, Hayes pausing the movie as she looks at Timothy who looks up from his laptop.

“Yeah, just started actually. We need more supplies to build our explosives and smoke bombs. Some gadget supplies for Me, Cissie and Anita.” he answers her, she hums contemplatively.

“Don’t you guys get those from your mentors?” Lex asks, even if he knows the answer; has known the answer for months now, but none of them ever told him explicitly. Timothy scrunches his nose.

“Bats has been stingy after the Batmobile incident.” he mutters. Lex doesn’t know what the ‘Batmobile Incident’ was, but he thinks he needs to know now, he just does. There were a lot of little things like that, that they mention that Lex thinks he’ll never get clarification on; forever a mystery to him. He knows that these kids are really bad at telling people things that they probably should tell them, and have a nasty habit of assuming everyone knows the context to whatever they were saying - spoiler alert, they don’t most of the time. He can try though, but he’s starting to learn that if these kids didn’t want him to know something, he wouldn’t.  He doesn’t entirely accept that… yet .

“Ollie too, but he’s always stingy.” Cissie pipes up “Besides, Anita and Greta don’t have a mentor.” she points out, putting a chip into her mouth.

“Yeah mate.” Fite says, not looking up from where she was reassembling her tricked out escrima stick “That’s all the money I got.” she says it like a joke, Lex thinks she wants it to be more than it is.

Lex’s forehead ticks a bit, because how was this even a discussion? The Justice League should be providing these kids everything they needed, no questions, especially if they were sending them out to do missions that could get them killed, unsupervised for the most part at least. It was basic care, the bare minimum.

Then again, the Young Justice tended to come up with their own missions that they do under the Justice League’s radar. Those ones tended to be the more dangerous ones, but they were also the more personal ones. They didn’t trust their mentors with knowing; that’s also something Lex shouldn’t know but does. He’s supposed to feel good about that, for some reason it just makes him more worried.

It doesn’t even matter anyway, they have no qualms for embezzling money from Lex. And he’s been letting them do it for a while, although it was used more on frivolous shopping sprees, but he checked the accounts and sees some sparse out purchases that were more mission related hidden in between the massive thrift store and gaming charges. They didn’t hurt for anything, but still…they weren’t being provided for, Lex shouldn’t be their source of money.

Lex never said anything about it, he thinks they are trying to be sneaky by hiding it ‘fuck you Lex’ charges. It was a weak tactic, so they must not care if Lex knows, but they do seem to be methodical about it in a way that suggests that they don’t want to confront Lex about it. 

It was weird and frankly probably exhausting, on both ends. Lex would just rather them have them steal his money for resources outright instead of a weak ruse. It was honestly a little insulting that they thought he hadn’t noticed. They were sneaky, but they were still children.

“If you need funding, you can just ask.” Lex said in a monotone, wanting this little charade to end and seeing the opportunity to. The room went silent as they all snapped their heads to him. He rolled his eyes and looks back to his paper work “It’s not like you don’t already do so. Might as well be useful.” he says and they look like they had thought they got away with it. Lex fought to hide the fond smirk twitching his face.

Timothy broke the silence with a scoff “It’s more fun to steal.” he says in a deadpan tone, trying to look uninterested.

“It’s not really stealing if I let you do it.” Lex says in a deadpan. 

“It’s the principle of it.” Conner says with a huff. Lex holds back the urge to chuckle.

“Suit yourself.”