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]

That was... true enough.

"...Do you want to handle talking to Dick?" He should probably loosen up that death grip.

He didn't want to.

[stands_for_hope]

It's not so much the decision that takes him half a second as the phrasing.

"It'll probably be best if you do handle it."

Bruce needs control. He can't give him much right now, but he can let him have control. It rankles, to some degree. Part of the frustration, after all, is his own lack of control. But as long as the lines are clear, as long as he's handing that control to Bruce instead of having it taken away because he's incompetent or insane...

[knightbynight]

Bruce doesn't miss the phrasing he used or that Clark replied with, either.

"There's no reason you can't. In fact, Dick might even be more willing to believe it if you do." Otherwise it just amounted to Bruce asking for backup and was there any point in that.

Look at him, he's giving up control.

[stands_for_hope]

"Believe what? That we're making contingency plans?" he sighed just a little and gave Bruce a wry smile as he shook his head.

"Need to keep that 0 for 0 record for asking for assistance, eh?"

He knows very well that's not it. He knows Bruce knows that's not it. But it's a good thing to say, considering.

[knightbynight]

"In a sense," he admits. "If I go ask him to provide back-up he'll look for an ulterior motive. If you ask him to provide it for me, he won't." He ... is also not stalling leaving, exactly, he just hasn't gotten around to it, yet.

They're having an important discussion. Speaking of: "I don't want to take away your ability to have input in this Clark. I'm trying not to turn into a steam roller who is 'managing' you."

[stands_for_hope]

"We both know you wouldn't," he pointed out mildly, because he really wouldn't. Bruce, for all that people might call him a control freak, actually does not do well when people don't challenge him. Left to his own devices is not a good look on him, whatever he says.

"And we both know I wouldn't let you," he added. He gestured to where they were. "This was me speaking up." He gestured between them. "Going off the damn drugs was me speaking up."

He ran a hand through his hair.

"But whatever input I had while he was younger, that's still... Dick is still your boy. I'm going to defer to you when it comes to the boys, Bruce. And that has nothing to do with this situation."

[knightbynight]

Clark was right - left to his own devices was not a good look on Bruce. Bruce didn't care enough about himself for that, and he didn't even really have the desire to do anything about it. Which was unfortunate since he was a force to be reckoned with when he decided to care - at all.

At least it kept him busy, even if it was mostly other people who kept him....

Whatever it was he was.

He shrugged. "All right, then I'll talk to him when we go back." He was starting to get... whiplashy from trying so hard to be agreeable. Or maybe he was just getting cranky. "Though I think his relative opinion of each of us probably matters more to whether you think of him as mine or not."

Only sort of. Bruce was... well, he loved Dick.

[stands_for_hope]

He leaned over and kissed Bruce one more time.

"He's yours."

Then he leaned to one side, just a little.

"And a tiny bit mine." His smile got just that much wider.

"I'm still so proud he took the name Nightwing."

[knightbynight]

Bruce had many complicated and sometimes conflicted feelings about Nightwing, but it isn't something that he's going to get into now. Because feelings and also because he was being good, dammit.

...he was starting to think the sedatives might actually have been good for him. Maybe he'd take up drinking. (No, no he wouldn't, but he had the thought).

He returned Clark's kiss and snorted softly, settling back into the sofa. "We live together and share children. This almost sounds normal, Clark." Ie: Stop. Or not, but he was mocking the idea rather than embracing it.

[stands_for_hope]

Clark leaned over just a little and nudged Bruce's leg from his spot on the sofa.

"It sounds like something, all right."

And he's not calling it normal. Because it's better than normal. It's special. It's this... wonderful thing where regardless of where he is, how crazy things might have gotten, how terrified he is in general of the future, he at least knows one thing and that's that Bruce isn't going to leave him behind.

Possibly even if he should.

[knightbynight]

Bruce snorted inelegantly and responded to the nudge by draping one of his legs over Clark's lap and slouching down deeper into the sofa cushions.

"You're being ridiculous again."

Sweet, Bruce. That's the word you want.

[stands_for_hope]

He looked askance at Bruce.

"You put that foot there and you might get a foot rub. Just giving you warning now."

What? He'd been well goddamn trained years ago on that score.

[knightbynight]

"More cat, less dog."

He should explain, but he clearly wasn't going to. Just stayed draped there, like that, and relaxed into the couch. He liked this place more than he remembered. Maybe it was the company. Maybe it was just the exhausted collapse of a control freak trying not to be one.

[stands_for_hope]

Clark got it. Bruce was flopped over him to proclaim that this 'human' was his and because it was comfortable and less because he was looking for attention. He even smiled a little and let his hand rest lightly against that leg.

[knightbynight]

That got the first sincere grin out of Bruce that had been on his face since Clark had been missing. "I knew you weren't dumb." He swung his other leg up and around to finish making his proclamation. "And I didn't even have to hiss."

[stands_for_hope]

He'd missed that grin. He was going to do everything in his power to get more of those. They lit up his face and there was nothing better.

"I did own a cat for most of my childhood," he pointed out with a low, easy chuckle as he adjusted Bruce's leg just a little for both their comfort. His hands stayed once he had, though. Just a light touch.

[knightbynight]

Bruce stretched his legs a bit over Clark's and with his feet draped that way was leaned back against the arm of the sofa and just fine. He blinked at Clark, very, very slowly while holding eye-contact. Sort of experimenting with him.

Because he needed more hobbies or something.

[stands_for_hope]

Clark took the time to blink slowly back at him and gave one leg, then the other, a single slow pet before putting his hand down against the side of one of them and leaning back again.

[knightbynight]

Bruce - blinked more normally, then laughed and swung and then flipped around to rest his head in Clark's lap instead. "I think I may spend the night here. You don't have to."

[stands_for_hope]

He looked down at Bruce and rolled his eyes a little as he carefully let his hands sink into Bruce's hair.

"I know I don't have to."

[knightbynight]

Bruce kept his eyes open and intently, sharply, watchfully on Clark. He did not, however, utter a single syllable of protest for the hands in his hair.

"Then rephrase it as a question. I'm staying here tonight. What are you doing?"

[stands_for_hope]

"Staying here tonight," Clark said easily enough, smiling down at him. This was... nice. And easy. He was warming to the space entirely apart from what they'd come here for.

[knightbynight]

Good. Because warming to the space separately was the reason Bruce was sprawled on Clark's lap and the reason that he had opted to spend the night himself.

...As a bid to Clark warming to and relaxing within it.

"Take-out, or grocery run?" he asked, easily.

[stands_for_hope]

"I don't know," he admitted with a sideways look over towards the kitchen area. "It's a beautiful kitchen. Then again, I could certainly do with a bit of take out."

He looked down at Bruce again, his hands continually moving in light scritches and strokes.

"Do you have a preference?"

[knightbynight]

"I'll have some basic groceries delivered along with a take-out meal." It was a calculated decision. A relaxing, low key night and then Clark could cook in the morning or if he wanted and continue to make himself feel comfortable in the space.

And keep feeling more at ease within it, Bruce hoped. Normalize it, separate it from being a 'sex crib' or something... unsavory.