Fortress

Pebble

A/N: I don't own Smallville or any characters and places in the DC universe. Nor do I own the episodes that these chapters are based and contained from.

I also don't claim to be a writer. My inspiration is simply to get a creative outlet going.

I only own Tyla Nevin and what pertains to her character story.

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After the holidays, Tyla had finalized her last months' notice with her landlord and started to move things slowly to Lex's mansion. She spent the days, going back and forth to Metropolis, decluttering. She managed to organize what needed to be sold, what was going to be kept and what she felt like her mother could have for safekeeping. With her and Lex's new work agreement, she insisted that she would not work weekends, something that was denied before although she was too tense to ask about beforehand. She felt a little apprehensive even now as she pulled up her new driveway with her jeep with a few more boxes shuffling in her trunk. Everything was mostly cleared out, save for the things in her bedroom and bathroom. Here in the manor, she had her own set of rooms to maintain her own sense of freedom. She liked her space, but she was also under the impression that Lex preferred his own peace as well although this was his idea. She had noticed lately that he was always agitated when security or a visitor came barging in.

It seemed that Lex was not around. He had said something about preparing a presentation. Though she was not officially his personal assistant as of yet, Tyla felt awkward that he hadn't spoken to her about any of his projects. It felt unnerving to be out of the loop. For now, she would have to settle with her boxes in the study as she organized her newly spacious office quarters up on the second floor.

The room was down the hall from her new bedroom and nestled a door away from Lex's own bedroom. Inside, the room would have engulfed the office and guest bedroom in the old apartment. Here, she blended the area with furniture from her living room space. She didn't want to part with her couch and entertainment unit even if Lex had insisted that his home theatre was much better. For him, this was probably an enjoyable competitive moment for who had the better home space. As often as he felt like bragging, Tyla would merely remind him that she made the space homier as opposed to the cold bachelor atmosphere that she noted when she first set foot in the mansion.

Her desk, along with the rest of the furniture stood in front of the large gothic windows. The room already came with a large bookshelf in which she would never admit to the millionaire's face that it was much better that what she had previously. The black shelves and storage spaces screamed to be furnished and the desk still laid bare as she started to set up her computer system. This was where the boxes came into the picture.

She came down and walked into the study to see Lex, hovering over one of her now opened boxes. "It's an impressive collection," he started to say. "Miguel de Cervantes, William Shakespeare, Virginia Woolf. Victor Hugo" He picked up her copy of Les Misérables. "You even have a collection of poetry from the medieval greats. I didn't know you read."

"How do you think I have such a way with words?" She said, walking towards him. "You wanted me to write your wedding vows after I cleared your wife from scandal." She sighed, apologetically as Lex flinched at the mention of Helen. "Sorry, ex-wife." She reached out and took the book from Lex's hands. "Anyways, it's just light reading."

"Hugo is not light reading." The book was practically 1600 pages.

"It is if you want to escape. I wanted to be Eponine in a way."

"I can see that" he said, chuckling. A woman strong to her world but took to strides the fact that she had her education when most of the women in her social standing could not even read. He could see how Tyla placed her education and literacy dearly. It was commendable. "Literacy for you is more than an asset. You have made it into your raison d'etre. Just as she in French society, it is the difference between life and death, achieving versus struggling to survive."

"Life is more than just surviving, Lex. Life is about loving it and the people that surround it."

Lex moved away as she spoke, helping himself to some scotch from the cart near the large stained-glass windows. "That's rather naïve." Lex said. "People are not worthy of it half the time and when they are, it's because they have something that you can move forward with if only for a short time."

Tyla frowned. Something told her that he was speaking from experience. She knelt in front of the box and started to take out some of the books to take to the office. She found her book of William Blake poems, opening it and couldn't help but laugh softly. "Luthor, you're such a pebble," she joked. She looked up to see Lex stare at her in confusion. She raised her hand, waving the paperback towards his direction. He nursed his drink and walked over to grab the novel from her. He noted her finger held the book open to reveal "The Clod and the Pebble." He smirked, remembering the poem from whence his mother read to him.

"Love seeketh only Self to please. To bind another to its delight: Joys in another's loss of ease. And builds a Hell in Heavens despite." He rehearsed and looked to her. "It has a point."

"And maybe that's why this mansion always seems so somber," she smirked.

"I suppose that makes you the clod," he replied, closing the book, to thumb its edge. "You would give yourself to someone else so completely, even if it meant being used?"

"When have you seen me so downtrodden?" She exclaimed, getting up with an armful of books. "If it makes me believe that love can brighten even the darkest of days then so be it. I just don't think of it as something to be only beneficial for yourself."

He took a sip from his scotch. "Being a Luthor means that others find you beneficial to their gains so you must find something for your own."

"Again...probably why this mansion is the way it is and now it explains why none of your relationships ever work out." Tyla said, walking around the box and shifting the books that she carried so she held them easier. She tapped the book. "There's no single right answer for how to go about love but both the pebble and the clod seem to be happy with what they think love is like. And I think there lies the secret. Happiness." She gave him a warm smile. "So, Lex Luthor, are you happy?"

Lex looked into her eyes, never noticing the lightness in her brown eyes. Then again, he had never been this close. Not close enough to see that she had gold flecks in them. A small smile appeared, and he looked down at the pile of books in her arms. He gave a short, soft laugh and placed the William Blake book on top before gingerly taking the now second book from her grasp.

"I'm going to borrow this," he simply said, showing her Nicolo Machiavelli's The Prince. He had not read it in a long while and he was almost positive that his father had taken back his copy.

Tyla blinked, turning around as he started to walk out of the study. "Wait. You're not going to help?" She asked. She looked around at the five boxes and bit her lip. She may have been overzealous with her goal.

"No. I came here for Clark, not for you. I'll send Brady over to help you." He turned the corner, leaving Tyla to mutter a few choice words as she made her way towards the stairs.

"Typical."