capable_of | For Roger

It was nearing the end of the school term and Lex felt the need to celebrate. Teaching had given him a surprising rush since it gave him the opportunity to talk about all the history he'd loved to study as a child and not just while trying to make a point to Clark. He'd never considered teaching before, not that he'd even been giving the choice, but he was glad he'd given it a try. He hoped his students had enjoyed the term as much as he had and he was honestly looking forward to doing it again next term.

With the end of term, Lex wanted to celebrate. Normally celebration meant a night in with vodka and chess but Lex wanted to take Anatoly out instead this time. Anatoly had mentioned a friend of his played at the Willows Room so after leaving Aeneas with Ms. Sandsmark and dressing Anatoly in a proper suit, they left for a night at the club. They'd secured a table amid the small gathered crowd and settled in to listen to Anatoly's friend play. Lex had to admit, he was rather good, even if it was far cry from the music he would normally listen too.

After the first set, while Anatoly was getting them drinks from the bar, Lex moved to head upstairs quickly to say hello to Helen, knowing she wouldn't forgive him if he'd been there and didn't say anything to her, even if they weren't in her part of the club. As he returned, the musician was mulling around the performance space and if he was a friend of Anatoly's, Lex figured he should be polite. "That was quite a performance." He said with a friendly smile as he walked over.

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Lex chuckled as he followed Roger to the bar. He'd spent much of his life around people who loved to have their ego's inflated and wouldn't mind talking about themselves all night. It amazing how much information appeasing ego could divulge. It even worked on his father occasionally.

"I'd like to think so." Lex said as he leaned casually on the bar with one arm, glancing over at Anatoly to make sure he was alright. The Russian was engaged in a polite conversation with someone so Lex remained at ease. "I've been lucky to make such friends here on the island. It was a luxury I didn't often allow myself back home." Then he swept his free hand in an idle gesture at the crowd. "And you seem to have gotten yourself quite the following."

Good Christ, how did some people make living look so... easy? Of course it wasn't easy in the slightest for him, because his cost of living was very simply not dying, but Lex... who he was on the outside, who comic books and Metropolis newspapers said he was, looked like a man who could have and do anything, that seemed to be congruent. Eerily so. Was this what comic books called 'evil?' A man with a life and charm that got a bad rap in a story spin?

Oh, Jesus Christ. Five minutes in and he was writing an expose on how Lex Luthor was Really So Alright. Have another drink, Davis, he chided himself, you clearly need one.

Once he'd secured his beer, he turned to mirror Lex, facing him and facing out, glancing to where Anatoly was for a moment, then to a few staff members working. "Oh, shit, no, they're all club followers. Regular customers, my roommates..." There were a few, though...

"Yeah. You know what yeah. I have. It's pretty cool. Like you said, living how you can't at home." He raised his bottle as if in toast and drained about half of it.

There were times Lex wished his life really was as easy as he's manners suggested. While many people would begrudge him having any hard feelings about growing up in a rich and influential family, with the best of everything money can buy, Lex would only suggest they grow up as Lionel Luthor's son and they would see the abuse really wasn't worth the price. Not to mention the reputation of his name. It was a hard shadow to escape from, but Lex liked to think he'd been doing pretty well at home and was enjoying his complete escape on the island.

Nodding to acknowledge the toast, Lex too looked out again at the crowd. "It's amazing the camaraderie and kinship this island forces on it's residents. The people it brings together." He couldn't helping looking once again at Anatoly and just smiling, pure and simple, for just a moment. "Even over a simple love of music, like tonight. Or a simple love of flesh." He pointedly glanced at the ceiling with a pointed smile.

As Lex looked to Anatoly, Roger followed his gaze, and then immediately dropped it. Whatever inappropriate, carnal, capricious thought Roger had ever had about Anatoly, he pushed it down. He'd looked at Brian like that, he was sure of it, and in hindsight, he could recall times he'd caught Brian looking at him like that.

More than that, he was jealous -- that he didn't feel that way about anyone, that no one felt that way about him, and that the one that did had been taken from him.

Oh. Conversation. Right.

"Uh, yeah, no, you're right," he said, snapping back to the present. "Met some'a my favorite people here." Like Dean. Like Serena. Like Anatoly. Like Brian.

It wasn't often Lex allowed his emotions to show in public, but he was just so happy and content at the moment that he couldn't help himself the small luxury. A luxury that was becoming a habit after Clark had kidnapped him and the revelations it had caused.

Though he was perceptive enough to catch Roger following his gaze and the immediate drop. That was interesting. "How did you meet Anatoly?" He asked with polite curiosity. "If you don't mind me asking."

"He seems to be everywhere I am," Roger said, shrugging noncommittally. "He talks about chess and I... laugh that he's talking about Chess." Roger chuckled. "I've seen you lots of times. Surprised we haven't talked until now." This talking thing was getting easier. And he wasn't even drunk.

Lex couldn't help a small chuckle as well. "He does think of only Chess sometimes." He said, unable to hide the fondness in his voice. Then he added with his own amusement, "we're...working on that." Then he nodded at Roger's comment about have seen him, wanting to gauge his reaction to what he said next. "Yes, Anatoly has pointed you out before. Your the one who looks like Trumper."

Roger snapped his fingers. "That's how we met!" he recalled. "He rounded on me. Called me 'Freddie.' I was freaked out because like... you know the clone thing exists but when you find out there's another you." He shook his head. "If he'd been a dick about it, I probably wouldn't cope."

"Believe me, I've had experience with it." Lex couldn't help the dark note in his voice. Of course, he'd been accused of being a clone of himself, which was different then what Roger was talking about it, but the sentiment was the same. And that didn't even touch on this completely 'other' Lex Luthor who those spandex heroes thought he was. He tried not to think about it. "it's not pleasant to think about, I know."

It was then that Roger wondered what kind of Lex this one was. He was... well, he was cute. And not gnarled. And not evil except for some eerie kind of power that radiated from him like warmth did from Anatoly. Maybe he was just Lex before all of the evil. Or maybe Lex Luthor as he was written was vastly misunderstood -- like Elphie.

"Weird fucking place," Roger mused, looking down to discover his drink was empty. He swirled the empty glass. "I like it, though."

At that Lex, smile relaxed. "Yes, so I do." He paused for a moment, before admitting with a small laugh. "I've never felt more free."

He glanced over to see that the person who had been talking to Anatoly had left and the Russian was looking around the crowd. Figuring he had better rescue him, Lex stood up from where he'd been leaning against the bar. "I think I better return to Anatoly before he thinks he's been abandoned. It was nice to meet you Mr. Davis."

For Roger

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