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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For a long time, present was mostly what Bruce was. A heavy weight against Clark, a demanding presence in the kiss and a solid hand against his side. Varying intensity in the kiss, from barely there and soft, to almost punishing and hard.

When he eased back it was ended with a sharp nip to Clark's lower lip.

All those variations? Not inconsistency. Making sure Clark didn't zone out.

"Come on." He stood up.

Clark could feel the deliberateness of it; Bruce's deliberation felt very different from wild abandon, and while he enjoyed the latter, the former had it's own effect on him. When Bruce rolled out of bed and stood up, he dragged himself with comical zombie slowness out until he could stand up as well, still in the shark slippers.

"Ah yes. My battle vs. your car's programming."

"You versus my car, me versus Jason and Gotham." He was much more up and ready, but tolerating Clark's sloweness and even enjoying it. "It shouldn't be a long night."

Because you scheduled villains and crisis.

Clark siiiiiighed before slinging his arm around Bruce's shoulders and leaning in to nuzzle at his shoulder, nip his ear, and draw back with a sigh to look more like a functional person.

"All right, down we go. What's the quickest way from here?"

"The same way we came up. I'm going to go get Jason, before I head down." He kissed Clark, quick and on the jaw before he disengaged. "We'll be there soon. Take your suit down with you."

Clark couldn't help the little smile that brought out before heading over to the closet. Then it was just a matter of getting them all together, boots and all, before following behind Bruce to head to the elevator.

Bruce had to go talk to Jason and convince him that, yeah, they were going out still and no, Clark wasn't and really come downstairs and stop being a pain in his ass. Bruce 'convincing' meant a lot of ordering, but he did get it done.

"We're leaving the car here," he said, once he was downstairs and about half-suited up - hadn't said a word between the two. "If you can get that taken care of, it'd be great, but for tonight we'll use the bike."

And be in by dawn.

Clark shrugged. "I'll see what I can get done." He glanced between Jason and Bruce and gave what he hoped was a warm smile; it just felt worried when he looked at Jason.

Which was why he turned to Bruce.

"Point me at what needs doing. And be careful tonight. Both of you."

Bruce fastened his gauntlets and took hold of the cowl, while Jason mostly just... scowled and sulked. "Everything you need is on that counter." He nodded - and it was also in a box. "Help yourself and if you can't find something, Alfred will know where it is."

Cowl on, and his voice instantly changed. Hell, his whole demeanor changed. "We'll be back by dawn."

Jason added: "Whatever" in response to the concern, but then they were both on the bike and out of there.

Clark just watched the two of them until they were out of the main exit. Then he turned to the counter and sat down to start working.

...programming was actually rather soothing for him. Enjoyable, and it tended to put him into a zen state of a sort.

Once he was done with the required tasks, he started to look into the programming further, see if there were any bugs or spots in the code that could be better documented. There wasn't much; Bruce was brilliant. But he was also smart enough not to reinvent the wheel and some of THOSE pieces needed maintenance.

...nevertheless, he saved a copy of the code that was just the requested changes before he ever started on that.

They came back in about an hour before dawn, smelling of Gotham, blood, and gunpowder, but both apparently in one piece. Jason was moving... more or less freely and with slightly less tension, Bruce possibly moving with more.

Jason didn't say anything, just headed back to change and shower, while Bruce started taking off armor in the main cave.

Clark was actually so in tune with what he was doing that he didn't look up until they were at the main portion of the cave. He shook his head a little, clearing code from in front of his eyes, and gave them both a small, warm smile.

"How'd everything go?"

"It went."

He pulled the cowl off and put it carefully away, revealing sweat dampened hair and a thick ring of grease paint around his eyes. Then he started on his gloves and gauntlets.

"Jason pushed our... quarry off a roof. He didn't die, but that was pure accident." That was pure Bruce intervention.

"You got him to the hospital?" Because Clark is well aware that there is no such thing as 'accident' on a patrol out with Bruce.

"I managed to keep him from hitting the ground." Gauntlets off, gloves coming off, and still the steady sound of a shower from the back of the cave. "Barely."

Clark nodded and finally stood up, walking over to Bruce but not touching him, not even speaking for the moment. He was there, present, and Bruce could do with that whatever he wanted. Bruce had been through a hell of his own too, after all. And he was still functioning for his city. And for his kid.

As per usual, Clark let the quiet awe of his admiration for the other man fade into the back of his mind so it wouldn't spring up and piss Bruce off through some random compliment. Instead, he just collected the pieces of the suit as Bruce took them off.

Bruce actually threw the second glove at Clark, though not hard. More like a toss that also telegraphed some frustration at the situation by being a little too forceful and sharp.

He looked at Clark for another moment, then kept taking off the pieces of kevlar that made up the outside layer of the suit.

"How did you make out with the car?"

And Clark caught it without a word.

"Finished up with that about halfway through the night," he admitted as he tucked the last glove in beside it's mate. "Then started going through and cleaning up some of the code in there, adding some documentation for easier readability and maintenance, and did a little work on some of the algorithms for the automatic driving programs to give them better parameters for human detection and avoidance."

Beat.

"And don't worry, I saved a few iterations so that you can pick and choose what you like out of the work I did. Your car, after all."

Bruce started putting away his own uniform - and armor - rather than just throwing it to Clark.

"I'll look through and see what's there. I may very well keep all of it, but I need to know it's there." A lso he was irrationally possessive, but in part he was just casually agreeing with Clark. It was his car, he wanted to know what was changed. "Did you manage to-"

He trailed off when Jason walked through and headed upstairs without a word to either one of them.

Clark watched Jason for a moment before turning back to Bruce. Then, pressing his lips tight together, he put the pieces of the uniform away in a blink before following along after Jason.

"I know you're tired but I wanted to apologize."

If Clark were paying any attention at all - Bruce went to get into the shower and get changed himself, but his blood pressure and pulse both went up. He forced himself to trust Clark, but he didn't like this situation at all.

He got under the water and started washing, but he absolutely did not like it.

All Jason did, though, was snort and all but roll his eyes. "Yeah. Whatever. It's been made perfectly clear to me that you're not the one who should be apologizing."

"As far as I'm concerned, I am," Clark said. "It's not as if I'm unfamiliar with you, or him. And you're not exactly dissimilar.

"And you were absolutely right. So... I'm sorry. I never wanted to hurt him, and I certainly never wanted to hurt you."

His ear was on Bruce, and he appreciated that Bruce was unhappy, but if he was ever going to have a relationship with Jason, he had to handle the rough parts with Jason. Otherwise, they were just tolerating each other for Bruce's sake and that didn't really do anything good for anyone.

Unhappy for Bruce at the moment was code for worried and that was code for scared. He wasn't there to manage the interaction, and that meant it could all go straight to hell. If it went to hell again, he was going to be in a position that was worse than awkward. His partner and his kid at serious odds wasn't something he wanted.

And he didn't even have a way of listening in right now.

Jason meanwhile - his shoulders dropped and he shrugged. "Whatever. We all know you didn't go off and do it on purpose."

"That doesn't change the fact that I hurt you both," Clark said plainly. Then, moving very slowly, making his movements obvious so that Jason could slip away if he wanted, he reached over to give Jason's shoulder a squeeze.

"Now. Perhaps more importantly...

"Are you okay?"

A pause before--

"And remember I'm using to dealing with Bruce so... I'm just going to be annoying until I get a real answer."

Jason saw the touch coming, accepted it and the squeeze along with the words - and let it stay there for another second or so in silence before he stepped back. That wasn't personal, he was just less touchy than even Bruce.

"Yeah, well, unless we're going to start fucking, you've got some leverage with him you don't have with me, so you might not wanna push your luck." Blunt? Yep. Crude? Yep. "But the real answer's that you were right. I'm tired. Otherwise, yeah, I'm okay."

for knightbynight: For now and hereafter...

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