Lex was just sitting down to his morning latte when Stevens stepped inside. A solid looking aide he had brought with him from Metropolis, Stevens waited patiently for Lex to address him. “Yes?” Lex said expectantly, sipping the drink carefully. Still a little too hot for his tastes, he decided and put the drink down to cool.

“Bruce Wayne to see you, sir,” Stevens said quietly. Bruce peaked around the doorway and glanced into the office.

“There you are, Lex!” he said brightly, walking by Stevens without a glance. “I know I was supposed to show up later, but I just couldn’t wait to see the great Luthor Jr. holding court.” He smiled and glanced around the office, taking in the scenery. “Have to say I’m disappointed though, seems more like my dad’s study than a CEO’s office. You don’t even have that executive ball clicker thing on your desk. I love those.”

“I’m not CEO yet,” Lex remarked, waving Stevens away. “And it’s not as low tech as you might think.” He nodded towards a built in screen at the corner of the desk. Bruce laughed and sat down on the corner of the desk to get a better view. Lex frowned a little at this, but moved away so he could see.

“A built in computer, nice,” Bruce approved. “I’ll have to get myself one of those, someday. Of course,” he allowed, “I’ll have to get myself a job first though.”

Lex smiled and looked at him. “Well, you certainly have enough schools under your belt for that.”

“Yeah, but I never stuck around long enough to graduate,” Bruce said. “Finals are a bitch.”

“True, but from what I understand you impressed several professors along the way.” He opened a drawer and pulled out a file, tossing it across the desk at him. Bruce smiled at it and lifted the cover slowly.

“In Oxford you excelled at psychology, I believe the professor’s official words were, ‘He has an innate grasp of the thought process, so much to the point that he can seemingly predict a person’s actions based on a single conversation.’ Then we have your stint at Harvard where you studied law and forensic science. You went three years there, almost graduated early with a summa cum laude, but seemed to crash and burn in the last quarter. And those were just the major courses. You’ve also amassed a startling number of hours in chemistry, engineering, biology, pre-med, and sociology. All this and your statement that you and college didn’t mix… It didn’t make sense. Like Alice said, ‘Curiouser and curiouser.’”

Bruce pushed the contents around on the desk with his finger, glancing at them with an odd look in his eyes. For no reason at all, Lex shivered suddenly, sitting back in his chair. He forgot about it as Bruce smiled up at him, looking of all things, amused.

“Have you been spying on me, Mr. Luthor?” he asked almost playfully.

“I hate mysteries,” Lex replied. “I’m the sort who jumps ahead to the last page.”

“See, that’s one way we’re different, Lex. I love a mystery, as long as I can solve it.”

Lex laughed and sipped at his drink. “I’m sorry if you’re upset, and I apologize for the intrusion.”

“No, you’re not,” Bruce laughed again. For some reason, that laugh was really starting to bother him.

“You’re right, I’m not,” he said testily, then regained his composure. “I was actually pleasantly surprised at the results. I think I’d written you off as just another big money partier, I had no idea you could actually apply yourself.”

“Well,” Bruce smiled, sliding off the desk, “you’d be the expert on that wouldn’t you? A genius in the classroom, but no motivation to ever go any further with your studies? Making a mockery of your life and money just to spite your father’s big expectations for you. Parties, women, cars, money, even a bit of the stuff the tabloids love? Bomb the final, just to spite your old man? Wasn’t that your M.O.? Get transferred again, improve for a while, let him think you’re finally ready to turn your life around, and then get kicked out for knocking up the Headmaster’s daughter?”

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“Touché,” Lex said quietly. “But I guess I deserved that.” He picked up his latte and took another sip. “Can I get you anything?”

“V8 if you have it,” Bruce shrugged. Lex picked up the phone and relayed the order downstairs to the kitchen. “So, when are you going to show me around this illustrious Crap Factory of yours?”

“Be careful what you call this place,” Lex warned him, “I’ve actually grown quite fond of it.” Bruce looked surprised again and gave the office another look.

“I don’t see the Prozac jar, so where are you hiding it?” Lex laughed and shook his head.

“I’m serious. This place has taught me a lot; how to manage a business, how to take a dubious product like this and turn it into a strong seller, and how to pick up the pieces of a company in shambles. In the last two years I’ve been here, I’ve turned this place around.”

“I know,” Bruce said easily, walking to the sidewall and glancing at the bookshelf. “I picked up your PR fliers on the way in, and then I slammed five hundred dollars down in the palm of one of your cronies and asked him how things were really going. He was surprisingly truthful for so little.”

“Now why would you do something like that?” Lex asked him.

“Satisfying my curiosity,” Bruce replied, still scanning the titles. “Philosophers, Conquerors, CEO memoirs, Historical texts,” he read, going down the shelf. “No comics,” he sighed, shaking his head. “You poor, sad man.”

“My father raised me on those,” Lex said.

“Comics?” Bruce asked hopefully.

“No,” he stated, “on the diaries of the great men of the past. Of course he never read them to me, just threw them at me every birthday and Christmas. I don’t think he ever expected me to pick them up though. I know he’s regretting them now. All that knowledge, he should have kept it to himself. Now I’m almost good enough for him to call me an equal, and you have no idea how much that scares him.”

“We reap what we sow,” Bruce said philosophically. Lex frowned as he caught the double meaning and glance at him, but Bruce was paging through one of the books quietly. “I read this one actually,” Bruce said. “The Prince.”

“Ahh,” Lex smiled, “everything you would ever need to know if you have to rule over people.”

“You ever think about that?” Bruce asked him with a grin.

“Me? Rule over people?” Lex shook his head and put his drink down. “I wouldn’t mind being President someday, but that’s the extent of my ambitions.”

“Lofty extent there,” Bruce said putting the book back. “So tell me. What’s really been keeping you here? You could run this company from anywhere in there world, why stay in Smallville?” The door opened and a maid stepped in, carrying a tray with a V8 on it. Bruce smiled widely at her and took it. He winked at her as she glanced down to find a folded bill on it where the drink had been. She smiled back and left the room quickly. Lex watched, amused, as Bruce sprawled down in a chair and twisted open the bottle.

“You might find it hard to believe,” he said quietly, “but I have friends here.”

“Please,” Bruce said, “I’ve got friends I’ve never even met, Lex. Every time I walk into a nightclub, everyone’s my friend. Hell, I can name ten people who hate my guts, but they’d still fly five hundred miles to be here if I gave them a call. What can the people here offer you that they can’t?”

“Real, honest friendship.” Bruce stared at him, surprise openly etched on his face.

“You’re being serious, aren’t you?” he asked. “Wow. Where’d you find that?” he asked after a moment.

“I had an accident on the road a few months back,” Lex told him. “I ran off the side of a bridge and into a river. The doctors told me my heart had stopped on impact with the water, but then someone pulled me back. Pulled me out of the water and revived me. Saved my life.”

“Who was your good Samaritan?”

“High school kid by the name of Clark Kent. He’s really a nice guy, honest, dependable, as well as being a lifesaver. In all the time I’ve known him, he’s never once tried to cash in on it either. You have no idea how much that puzzled me at first; I kept pushing gifts and money on him, but he just turned them all down. I couldn’t understand it and kept throwing more money at him, but he just wouldn’t take it. It’s amazing really; I think he’s the first real friend I’ve ever had.”

“Hmph,” Bruce said, taking a drink. “I’d like to meet him.”

“Maybe you will,” Lex said. “I was planning on showing you around town today, after we tour the ‘Crap Factory’ as you called it. But before that,” he said quietly, deciding something, “I was going to take you up on your offer.”

Bruce stared at him, confused. “What offer might that be?” he asked him slowly.

“When you complained that you didn’t have a job. How would you like one?”

Bruce stared for a moment and then laughed so hard he almost lost his grip on the bottle. “Now I know you’re not serious.”

“I’m always serious in business,” Lex told him. Bruce stopped laughing and stared at him again.

“You want me, to work for you,” he repeated.

“Of course not,” Lex said quickly, “I pictured it more as a partnership in this company. You buy a healthy share of the stock and I’ll teach you how to run a business. It wouldn’t be that hard.”

“And what do you get in return?”

“See, you’re already catching on,” Lex praised him. “I need money, Bruce.”

“There’s something I never thought I’d hear a Luthor say.”

“I’m not joking, Bruce. The company money is entirely my father’s, and recently he’s taken offense at how successful I’ve become down here. He’s looking for ways to make me fail, and it’s only a matter of time before he cuts off some, if not all, of my funding. I have what’s left of my mother’s stock and inheritance, but it’s no where near enough of what I need. With a separate capital source like yours, that he can’t touch, I’d, we’d be able to really turn this place around. You can’t imagine some of the plans I have in store for this town.”

“I don’t know,” Bruce said slowly. “This is very sudden, and it goes against my first Commandment, you know. ‘Thou shalt not sully thy hands with work’. But,” he said slowly, “it is a tempting offer. I’ve been thinking of using my money for something other than party favors and bail bonds. It might be fun.”

“Take your time to think it over,” Lex said. “In the meantime, why don’t we get to that tour and I can show you what you might be helping to run.”