Fortress

Auction

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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"Where do you want it?"

Lex glanced up from his desk in his study. She stood in front of him with one hand clutching the clipboard while the other hand rested upon her hip. She looked over at him, expectantly. "That's a loaded question," he finally said, amusement twinkled in his eye. He wasn't going to admit to her that he wasn't particularly paying attention.

"The gala," she clarified. An exasperated sighed escaped her lips as she caught his innuendo. "Which venue should I be looking into?"

It was the annual Luthor Charity Auction. Lex's father handed the assignment over to him which naturally meant giving the task to Tyla to deal with. She couldn't graciously leave like she had last time. Instead, she had been collecting the auction items for around a month and preparing for the long-anticipated event. Some of the items were from Metropolis University, others from business moguls and investors who had their hands in various projects. They were just putting together the last-minute touches but the venue decision was something that Lex needed to do. Unfortunately, because Lex was admitted to Belle Reve when it was originally going to happen, it meant that the event was postponed. Lionel would not have kept it up, instead, he was more for cancelling it if the money wasn't going into his pockets.

"Here."

"Really?" Tyla said in disbelief. She snapped herself away from her thoughts and hesitantly wrote the address on her clipboard. It wasn't that the mansion wasn't suitable, but she never thought Lex would be one to entertain so many guests.... in his private home.

Lex moved away from his computer to look at her. "The auction will take place at the garden and the gala itself will be on the first floor," he stated. "The second and third floor will be off limits of course."

Tyla scribbled quickly. "I-okay," she replied, slowly. "So what theme are we going for?" Last year, she remembered that Lionel Luthor went for Historical Greats, something appropriate for a museum venue.

Lex thought for a bit. "What is the collection like?" he asked.

"Most of the artifacts have a winter or ocean look to them." There were lots of blue-ish items from what the blonde had catalogued so far. She hadn't gone over the entire inventory yet but, it seemed like that was what chance had given them.

"Make it a winter theme of some sort. We can say The Frost of..."

"May?" Lex waved his hand, showing that he approved before turning back to his computer to look over updates on his latest projects. "So, the ice sculpture will be in your image then?" Tyla added with a slight smirk on her face as she wrote on her clipboard.

Lex raised an eyebrow and glanced at her. "Why?" His tone heeding caution to her.

"Your gala, your auction," she counted. "Your mansion-"

"Your doing," he interjected. She was putting together the event. He could give her the creative license mostly because he didn't want to be bothered with it anymore. "Make it an angel."

****

The mansion was completely transformed. The entrance into his home was decked out with blue and white balloons. Silky blue and silver ribbons filled up the hallways leading towards the ballroom, the study, the conservatory, and main dining area of the mansion. Each window was printed with frosted mylar as if Father Winter had come into the night and turned the place into a winter palace. Towers of white dotted the main floor with imitation snow. The main hub and dining area was rid of the grand table that once stood there. Instead, the room was filled with round tables, decorated with silver and white chairs. Icy blue crystal vases centered each table, adorning white bouquets of roses. The ice sculpture, a large angel about to take flight, sat at the middle of the ballroom atop a light blue miniature fountain.