Disclaimer: Smallville and all related elements, characters and © Tollin-Robbins Productions and Warner Bros. Television, All Rights Reserved. This is a work of fiction, no infringement is intended, no profit is being made.

Authors Notes: Response to Libby's 650 word drabble which was to write a short story about Lex Luthor as a child spending Christmas in a closet and meeting someone who could or could not be his match in every which way possible. Alternate Universe, Madeline Sawyer is a product of my warped imagination. 654 words… sue me.

Read and Enjoy and leave some feedback to satisfy my insistent cravings…

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He hates Christmas, hates Christmas Parties, hates the stupid outfits his mother makes him wear even more. But he wears them because he loves his mother, more than anything else in this entire world he loves her, and he doesn't want to disappoint her in any way.

So instead of sulking in the corner like every other kid at the party he makes his way over to the coat closet, shielding his unhappiness from her. Because even at the tender age of six he'd rather die than disappoint her. So he ducks behind the coats, where there is just a little bit of space between the discarded coats and the wall and he sits in the corner and wonders if anyone will notice if he's missing.

The door creaks open, and the little boy inside immediately backs further into the corner concealing himself from the ray of light that interrupted his solitude. The door was closed just as quickly as it was opened, and he could feel his breath quicken as he felt someone sit down beside him. Blindly, he reached into his pocket for his inhaler, the ability to breathe becoming harder and harder with each passing moment.

"Who's there?" a young voice asks, scared and frightened, scrambling in the dark to the other side of the room, which was in reality only a few spaces away.

"Who are you?" the little boy returned quietly, grabbing onto a coat to pull himself up his breathing no longer labored as he reached for the light switch.

"Who are you?" the girl repeats, eyes squinting against the harsh light. "This is my closet," she told him, frowning as she shoved a piece of blonde curl out of her face.

"I was here first," he insists, sitting back down in the corner, watching with interest as the little girl angrily crossed her arms over her chest.

"Well," she begins, stretching her white tight covered legs and crossing them at the ankles, right above her black and white saddle shoes. "I guess we can share."

He nods, the other person in the room causing the it to grow smaller, the coats hanging on the rack becoming bigger, more threatening as they rustled when the door open and closed various people grabbing their belongings.

"It's okay," she whispers, "They can't see us behind the coats."

"I know," he shoots back, glaring at her as he took a deep breath, feeling his breathing quicken. He hated it when people talked to him like that, like his father, telling him things he already knew, and he hated her for being there because this was suppose to be his place, his solitude.

"What's wrong with you?" she asks, eyes narrowing in on him as he inhaled from his inhaler.

"Asthma," he tells her, taking a deep steadying breath before returning the object in his hand back to his pocket.

"What is that?" she inquires, and he rolls his eyes. He'd never met anyone who asked so many questions before. When he didn't answer, she continued, "I'm Maddie. Maddie Sawyer," she told him, crawling in her frilly flowered dress over to him to stick out her hand.

She has a twang in her voice, an accent that told him that she wasn't from Metropolis. She looked prim and proper, just like every other little kid here, the bow in her hair perfectly tied, not a spot to be found on her shoes, not a run in her tights. He looks at her outstretched hand and couldn't help but wonder if she felt as suffocated in her outfit as he did in the suit his father had made him wear despite his mother's protests.

"Alexander Luthor," he shakes her hand, smiling just the slightest, the smile turning into a grin as she beamed at him.

And for a minute he starts to think that he wouldn't have to be alone anymore after all.

(End)