stands_for_hope | for knightbynight: For now and hereafter...

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for knightbynight: For now and hereafter...

[some time after the events here]

Superman and Batman were partners in more than a work sense. Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent were an adorable (if mildly ridiculous) couple. Kal-El of Krypton and a man who defied any definition outside of the single letter 'B' made time on weekends, worked around world crises and teenage tempers, and occasionally fell into bed together when the stars aligned. Thankfully, they aligned relatively often.

Wayne Manor received a delivery of organic produce and baked goods once a week from a small, independent farm in the heartland. Lois Lane was a little less likely to agree with snide comments about the uselessness of Bruce Wayne, especially after seeing the utter madness that was Clark's desk after a few weeks. The texting habits of a certain blond teenager in Kansas rose sharply... and in parallel to that of a certain former street punk in Gotham.

Life was... well, it was good, even if it was also Life. Until it wasn't. Until everything changed.

They all had enemies, of course. But the problem with Superman's enemies was that they were coherent enough to decide to team up. And crazy enough to use the kind of weaponry that could make whole cars just vaporize into nothing.

Crazy enough to point that weapon at a somewhat-pinned Batman and a Wonder Woman who was digging him out from the rock. Crazy enough to point that weapon at Batman.

Bruce.

B.

Clark didn't even make the choice. His heart made it for him. The beam shot out of the Toyman's mechanical monstrosity and Clark flew, the pain of the beam itself nothing on the fact that he was leaving Bruce behind. That his vision of them as old men together would never happen. That he was leaving behind a world that needed him.

The guilt that, if it meant saving them, saving him, he didn't regret a thing.

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"I explained it to her," Clark said, just as quiet, but a little less stiff. "So she knows. She understand."

She always understood. It was one of the many reasons she was amazing.

"A few days. The incident with Jason... as much as I'm not happy it happened, it at least gave me something to work with."

"Something to work with, how?" He could often predict where and how Clark's mind was going, how it was working. He understood right up until that particular remark, but that one-

It wasn't what he expected.

"I knew I was... prone to overreact," Clark explained, pausing to unlock the outside of his apartment building. "But I didn't know what it would feel like as I am now. How fast. How much control I really had."

He turned to look at Bruce.

"Now I do. I know where my baseline is. I know what I'm working with."

His gaze went back to their path as they made their way in and towards the stairs.

"And how does that baseline compare to your expectations?" Just that, as he mounted the stairs and worked his way up toward Clark's apartment.

He paused on a step.

"Worse," he admitted, letting it hang in the air before continuing up. He was on the fourth floor of the walk up, but the walk was usually pretty pleasant.

Bruce paused when Clark did, looked back and considered. He snorted roughly and somewhat derisively. "Funny. It was better than I expected."

He'd known his expectations would be lower, because he didn't expect Clark to be perfect. Clark's expectations of himself, were...

Impossible.

They had that in common.

He turned to look at Bruce as he started to unlock his own front door.

"What were you expecting?"

Because he was curious. A little more than curious.

"Property damage, at least," Bruce admitted, deliberately blunt. "At least some physical damage to whoever was stupid enough to ignore warnings."

"I didn't look. To see if I'd hurt him. I was just--" he swallowed, "I was just glad I hadn't snapped his neck."

Bruce walked in, took off his cap and tossed it onto the couch. "Also possible, but not someone you knew and not in the house. Certainly not Jason, though as much because of his reactions as yours."

Clark didn't say anything for a moment, just watched Bruce, listened to him. He breathed in and out a few times before a wry smile curled on his lips.

"You have no idea how comforting you can be sometimes, Bruce."

How much you make me a better person just by believing I am.

Bruce raised his eyebrows at Clark and gave a soft snort of incredulity - except not really. "You know, most people would have called that anything but comforting."

Clark got him. He got Clark. It all worked out in the end, even if it didn't look like it would.

"I'm not most people. And for that matter, neither are you," he pointed out before breathing out and putting his own hat onto the hanger.

"Ready to go home?"

"You weren't as worried about it as you think you were, either." He walked over to Clark, wrapped his arms around Clark's shoulder and one leg around one of Clark's. "If you had been, you wouldn't have been willing to put your teeth in my throat." Not that he was Jason and he knew that. "Get your bag and take us home."

"That's different," Clark said, and it was one of those times when his tone didn't so much say that he was lacking the words as made it clear that in his mind, the two concepts were so diametrically different that trying to explain the difference would almost be impossible.

All the same, he reached over for the last of the bags, his little messenger, and slung it around his neck before holding out a hand to Bruce.

Bruce stepped back onto Clark's feet and took his hand.

It was very, very different in a way he didn't want to get into, but he was pretty sure that if that had fallen apart Clark would be in worse shape than he was now. Not worth arguing about, especially since for all of his... arrogance in knowing Clark, Clark still knew himself best.

"Let's go home."

He couldn't explain that for whatever reason, there was no way for that to go wrong. Of all the things that Clark worried about, his connection to Bruce, the strength of it, was not one of them. He could worry that it might be destructive to Bruce, or that it might make their professional lives more difficult, or the never-ending battle...

Bruce was his equal. Bruce was the one person who made him feel safe. Always.

"Right," he agreed as he leaned in, took a quick kiss, and wrapped his arms around Bruce. Then they were heading through the air as fast as was safe for the both of them.

Bruce didn't want to argue about it, anyway. It was something he was happy enough about, as much because it meant Clark felt safe somewhere as because of anything it said about them and the relationship between the pair of them.

He returned the kiss, a little bemused, held onto Clark tightly, protected his eyes and face and waited out the ride until they were back at the Manor and he could wiggle himself free again.

They were back in Clark's room, Clark's room with some fresh luggage and the towel placed somewhere more appropriate to dry (thanks Alfred?) pretty darn quickly. Clark put him down without much ado and pulled the bag off of his neck and it looked like he was going to propose something when his eyes went wide and he went utterly still.

Because he heard a job for Superman. Because he heard a mudslide beginning in a larger town in southern Vietnam where the rains had been particularly brutal this year and the town hadn't had the budget the year before to make the necessary improvements and repairs on the dam and the predictions had said that the rains would be lighter this year but of course, nature did what it wanted.

It was a job for Superman that no one else would even hear, even know about. But for the moment, he froze. Because he shouldn't go. He shouldn't go right now.

Bruce saw - felt - Clark freeze. Saw the fear in his eyes going wide - or maybe not fear, but. It read as close enough.

He stayed silent for a moment, then reached up and touched Clark's cheek. "What's going on?"

Not romantic, but direct and present and just a little bit demanding.

He snapped out of it a little and looked over at Bruce, trying to figure out how he wanted to say what he had to say.

"There's a village across the world. The dam is going, there's going to be a mudslide. It's starting. I'm not--" he breathed in "I should--" he clenched his hands into fists, his eyes closing tight enough that faint pricks of moisture showed at the corners. "They won't get there in time. Wally's busy, Kyle's off planet-- no one else will get there in time."

He breathed in deep.

"I could get here in time."

Bruce didn't need to hesitate or think. "Then for God's Sake Go. Secure the dam and then get back out."

He'd love to have believed he was doing it for selfless reasons but he wasn't. Clark clearly, obviously, wanted to go but didn't trust himself. That could become a habit, if Clark let it. Worse, it could become a weapon Clark used against himself.

Clark watched him for one more second, as if he needed to be sure he'd heard what he'd heard...

And then he was gone. For good or ill.

Bruce hadn't believed in God or luck since he was seven years old, but in that moment he wished he believed in either. Since he didn't and couldn't, he kept his breathing even and waited.

If Bruce chose to check the news, or had any kind of alerts set for his phone, he'd see a news report of the most amazing thing: Superman, alive, dressed in his familiar uniform even if he was wearing uncharacteristic facial hair, flying around and taking care of a sizeable village in southeast Asia. Some people were wondering if it was a fake or another clone or if the robots that had once taken his place had once more taken up the fight. Other people were just rejoicing at his return and calling anyone who doubted it...

Well, the names wouldn't be Superman approved.

But Superman was acting like he'd never disappeared, handling the dam repairs, pulling people out of harms way, and adding to structures to reinforce them for the rain. But when he would normally allow himself to talk to the press and reassure people, Superman stayed floating above for a moment before disappearing.

for knightbynight: For now and hereafter...

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