for knightbynight: For now and hereafter...

[stands_for_hope]

[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.

Comments

[knightbynight]

"If tonight isn't great, then today being good won't make it any better." He actually - snapped that one, though it was somewhat moderated in deference to the fact that Clark had just come through literal hell.

"The rest of my plans today are paperwork. If you want to work on the computer I can take my work down there. If you would rather do it alone I can work in my office."

[stands_for_hope]

Clark didn't look like he minded the fight in Bruce's tone. He just (clearly) disagreed.

"I'd rather you come down with me," he decided, leaving the first part alone other than his unspoken agreement. "Especially since that way, I can ask you if I have a question of preferences while I'm programming."

[knightbynight]

If they didn't disagree about things at least three times a day, they wouldn't be them.

"Then I'll gather my things up and join you down there, shortly. I'll even try not to give you my opinion before you ask for it."

[stands_for_hope]

"Please don't," he said absently as he started pulling himself together to head down, "I've learned the rhythm of your interruptions. If you break it, you'll just throw me off."

Was he kidding? Was he messing with him? Hard to say. He was smiling either way.

[knightbynight]

For some reason seeing Clark smiling at the moment gave Bruce pause. Or maybe it was the 'joke' that might or might not have been, but either way he stopped and studied Clark. He looked at him intensely, and in a way that was blatantly assessing.

Whatever he saw seemed to be good enough.

"Unfortunately for you, I have enough work to get done that I may actually be too distracted to keep a steady rhythm for you." He didn't. He was a hell of a multi-tasker.

And control freak.

[stands_for_hope]

"I'll believe it when I see it," was all he said to that before making his way down towards the entrance to the cave. He knew his way around now; he could get there easily enough. And he was in a pretty good mood, grumpy paranoid (aka situation normal) partner aside.

Bruce would come down to see him typing almost too fast to see on one of the consoles.

[knightbynight]

Bruce came down and spent a second or two staring at Clark typing with a faintly pained expression. He recovered soon enough, and moved on to take a position at another station entirely, set up his laptop - the business one - and tried to get to work.

He kept being distracted by Clark - and wanting to know what he was doing as he did it, and that was made worse by not being able to follow the typing at that speed.

Also the noise.

[stands_for_hope]

Clark's only response is, eventually, a faint 'hmm?' as he catches one of those absent distracted looks. Just a headtilt. Something up, Bruce?

[knightbynight]

"Nothing," he says, tersely. Then he forces himself to try to pay attention to his own work, that is in front of him. He's about half an inch from developing a tic, and this is the worst idea he has ever had in his life. "How much longer do you think this will take you?"

[stands_for_hope]

"Honestly, at this point, I'm done," he admitted as he leaned back in the chair, "but I was adding some notation and running a couple of bug fixes."

He tilted his head again.

"Something's bothering you."

It's not a question.

[knightbynight]

The question is really whether he's going to continue to try and pretend he's not being bothered and see if Clark will let him get away with a bald faced lie, or if he's going to admit that Clark is driving him absolutely, pun intended, batshit nuts.

By existing in his vicinity, while he's trying to get work done.

The obvious answer is that, yes, he's going to lie about it until he can't anymore because he did it for years with loving Clark. The reality is that eventually broke and Clark was just dead so far as Bruce knew, and has been through hell and he deserves better than Bruce getting steadily crankier.

That's not obvious, either, because he's still Bruce.

"I'm not used to working with anyone else." Which is different than 'the sound of you typing makes me want to break the keyboard over your head.

[stands_for_hope]

He considered where he was, how much impact he could possibly be making, and then looked at the keyboard thoughtfully. He hadn't thought about it since he had a tendency to simply filter noises out once they became regular enough (with obvious exceptions) but--

"Would it be better if I bring an interface from the Fortress down? Your keyboards are a bit... well, loud to use."

[knightbynight]

"They aren't actually loud. They're loud when someone else is using them against what would otherwise be near silence." Difference. "Bring the interface down if you want and are willing - or don't since you're nearly finished with the job and while you're fuel efficient it's still a heck of a trip for what amounts to a keyboard."

He was going to be reasonable.

He was not going to tell Clark he should also stop breathing, moving, and possibly existing within 20 feet of him. It wasn't that bad, yet.

[stands_for_hope]

"But I might as well go get it if I'm going to be down here occasionally," he pointed out with a spread of his hands.

"Won't take but a minute."

Which was when he disappeared.

[knightbynight]

Bruce didn't get a chance to object to 'down here occasionally'. Instead he looked hopelessly around his cave for a moment and then bolted upstairs and into the Mansion.

He actually left his work on the table.

He kept bolting until he was at Jason's door, where he knocked loudly so as to not interrupt, frankly, masturbation sessions likely to be happening in any teenager's room.

He didn't wait for the answer, either. "Get dressed and get downstairs, fast. We're leaving early."

[stands_for_hope]

Jason had been working on his stupid homework, thank you very much. So the second Bruce tells him they're leaving early, he's moving.

"Guess the honeymoon's over..." he muttered with a low chuckle to himself.

[knightbynight]

"If by over you mean that if I don't get out of here right now I'm going to find a way to use a whole rainbow of kryptonite to stuff him in a trunk and throw him off a pier, yes, it's over."

He couldn't even object to Jason's remark right now. The kid's not 8, Clark isn't his father, and if Jason doesn't know Bruce has a limited capacity for togetherness and company, Jason's an idiot. Jason is not an idiot.

Meanwhile while Jason's moving so is Bruce and it's right back downstairs as fast as he can manage, and heading for his uniform. With the sort of haste usually reserved for saving Clark.

[stands_for_hope]

That was exactly what he meant and it gave him a visceral little thrill that whatever weird thing that was between the two of them now, the big blue boyscout wasn't allowed here. Patrol was for him and Bruce. Gotham was theirs.

Clark, for his part, was floating within the caves on his way into the main chamber, waiting for them to leave.

...he loved Bruce, he really did. But he'd start looking for a good spot to work and, if that didn't work, possibly a few nice apartments in Gotham.

[knightbynight]

Bruce loved Clark, too. He'd be just fine sharing the Manor with him, as long as they kept their own rooms and used them from time to time. He'd be okay with Clark in the cave when it was a combined project.

But he needed more space than he'd previously realized to work, and he absolutely needed the time with Jason - and just Jason - for all their relationship was screwed up.

He knew Clark should have been back by now, knew he was probably listening in somewhere, and he knew he was going to address this more maturely when he got back but first he took his adopted kid and went out into the night to have some space, some time with Jason, and to stop some crime.

[stands_for_hope]

By the time Bruce and Jason were back, Bruce would find Clark in his room with his familiar old laptop, working on an editorial on the state of medicine in the United States compared to his 'treatment' in Europe.

...it was something to do.

[knightbynight]

Bruce obviously got out of uniform, took a shower and got dressed before he went looking for Clark, and lightly knocked on his door. He wasn't about to talk about needing space and invade Clark's.

[stands_for_hope]

Jason had gone to pass out, and his behavior on patrol had been significantly better. Whether that was because he'd gotten the satisfaction of Bruce wanting to get away from Clark, or he'd enjoyed the time playing video games was hard to say, but it was definitely better.

Clark, for his part, pulled his hands away from the keyboard before looking over at the door.

"Come on in, Bruce," because who else would be knocking at this hour?

[knightbynight]

Bruce would take it, regardless of cause, because however inept he was at expressing it he did love Jason.

He let himself into Clark's room and closed the door carefully behind him. "I owe you and explanation and an apology."

[stands_for_hope]

He leaned back a little further and held up a finger.

"You were about three seconds from chucking a batarang at my head or, alternately, sticking an icepick in your ear," he counted off, "and all this time playing house with me got under your skin all at once and you needed to go out. Apology unnecessary."

He gave him a wry little grin.

"I'll accept a good morning kiss before you go to pass out for a couple of hours, though."

[knightbynight]

"Clark, if I deliberately seek you out to apologize to you, you do not get to preempt the apology and send me to bed." He was much more relaxed. He was still tired, certainly, but more relaxed and therefore his exasperation wasn't a flat out snap. "I will go to bed once we've discussed this."