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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"Good rule," he agreed with a nod before breathing in and giving him a bit of a crooked smile.

"We planned for everything but after."

A part of him wondered if that was because some part of their minds hadn't been able to handle the idea of 'after'.

"We should also try to decide how we feel about combining sex with this. Expectations."

Bruce didn't think his mind could have coped with after. He didn't really believe it would happen, not ... truly. He'd been avoiding this for so long. He still wasn't sure how he was handling after, except by trying to impose order on it.

While still pretty much clinging to Clark.

Clark nodded in agreement. It was a line and one that they had to negotiate beforehand.

"Are you against it in general?"

"I think the aftermath would have been... easier today, " the come down smoother, "if it had involved an orgasm for one or both of us by making disengagement less abrupt." He was - "But I'm flying blind here, Clark. This isn't... the sort of thing I do with anyone else."

"Then I think the question is still whether we both want it, or even need it," Clark pointed out, "or if we just think it's... something to help deal with the aftermath."

He held up a hand.

"I agree with you. I do. But since we are flying blind, I want to make sure we're sure about it."

He looked at Bruce.

"Does the idea appeal to you? Sex with that dynamic in place?"

Bruce's eyes widened minutely and for just a moment there was something startled in them. Like for all this discussion he hadn't been thinking sex with that dynamic in place.

Because he hadn't been.

He hadn't thought about the dynamic at all.

Not even in the midst of what they'd been doing.

Maybe. Depending.

"Define the dynamic," he all but demanded. Before he put a single toe out onto what could be thin ice.

One eyebrow cocked thoughtfully at that reaction.

"The dynamic where I actively do what I want, including harming you, within a set of parameters with the intended result of giving us both emotional and physical pleasure while you gain a sense of release from the passive position while still ultimately holding control over the situation?"

He turned his hand.

"I told you ages ago, Bruce. I'm not a sub."

Edited 2016-01-05 03:44 (UTC)

That was effectively what they'd just done, anyway.

Bruce knew it. Bruce recognized it. Bruce also recognized that Clark was carefully reiterating that Bruce had all the ultimate control and only using the wording in reference to himself. Those were all things that illustrated just how intelligent Clark was, particularly when it came to handling veritable land-mines named Bruce Wayne.

That was very, very thoughtful, considerate, and compassionate as well as just being smart.

It didn't really resolve the issue where Bruce had in no way been looking at this as a dominant-submissive dynamic (even though it applied perfectly well), or finding the idea of applying those labels to them or their sex life threatening.

"Neither am I." Yes, he actually kind of was at least as it pertained to Clark and this, but his back was up in a totally irrational way. "Orgasm Clark. I'm just suggesting we have orgasm, either alone or together, as part of the interaction we've agreed on."

"Then I'll admit that I would be interested in adding orgasm to the proceedings as well," he admitted with a shrug.

So basically... yes.

"Are there any particular acts or positions that you would prefer to avoid?"

Clark was suddenly in danger of being the 'owner' of one slightly rabid Batman with something to prove, and it wasn't because of something he'd done wrong. It was because Bruce had just realized that maybe this wasn't entirely about sadism and masochism and was processing that poorly.

Fortunately for Clark, unfortunately for Bruce ,he wasn't being given a real reason to start 'proving' things. He was being somewhat disarmed by... well Clark having a PhD in Bruce's Bullshit.

He narrowed his eyes very slightly at Clark. "We have sex all the time. Why would the rules be different."

"Some acts may pull you out of the state that's ultimately the point of what we're doing," he pointed out. "While you may want to reserve other acts a separate from anything we do here. Sacrosanct."

He turned a hand palm up.

"For instance: I countered gentle touch with pain, but you may find that extended tenderness during things gives your body a chance to dull the pain to an extend that would be counter to the point. On the other hand, you might find rough sex to be too much of a good thing and blur the edges of things in ways you don't enjoy."

He looked up at Bruce.

"It's like anything else in that situation: there are parameters. So I'm asking what, if any, parameters there are."

He honestly went from nearly snarling at Clark to nearly laughing at him over the course of the answer.

Of course Clark would take the time and actually spell this out for him, the same way he'd describe a menu. There was nothing there to get angry at, and Clark was doing it on purpose. Clark spent a lot of time managing Bruce, and while that could have been enormously threatening and was incredibly annoying....

It was also not really new, even in the realization.

He gave a huffy sigh and then shook his head. "I think this is something we're going to have to play by ear. What's acceptable and what works is going to vary depending on what we've been doing. Where your head is, where my head actually is, what I'm physically capable of, and whether we're in the thick of things or where we're coming down. It's against the commonly accepted rules and most common sense, but we're just going to have to see what works. If you want to play it safe for a while we can avoid actual fucking. Reassess in a few months."

"I'd be more inclined to go with what feels right and adjust as necessary," he admitted with a spread of his hands as he looked over at Bruce. "Or I feel it's more realistic to think of it that way."

They could both be terribly impulsive, especially about each other, and the intensity level of things between them had led to any number of wonderful things. Better to aim for something that incorporated that instead of pretending it wasn't likely.

"You've always got your safeword and if I'm honest, there are very few times I feel as completely in control like I did earlier."

"That's right. I have a safeword." like he'd just remembered. He looked Clark in the eye, dead on and said, "I'm willing to go with what feels right." And trust Clark - he already trusted Clark.

A pause and then. "Chill." As in: End this conversation. He was being pushed to assess things about himself and his life with Clark and who he was and what he was doing and what control he did and didn't have and various illusions and realities that he wasn't quite prepared to deal with the implications of.

He needed some room and time with that.

"Not," he added, "about you feeling in control. You looked better than you have in a while."

Edited 2016-01-05 14:24 (UTC)

"The street noise isn't making me twitchy anymore," he admitted quietly. It had helped. It had let him sieze control of himself, of the situation, and he'd reclaimed part of that time directly from Bruce's skin.

Bruce traced his thumb along Clark's lower lip, paused in the middle and tugged down very gently. It was profoundly affectionate, possessive and intimate in ways that went beyond sex and Bruce's usual means of showing any of it.

"I can tell." He was quiet in the admission, too, largely because Clark was. "Your reactions are more reasonable all around, and there's something around your eyes-"

"I'm not staring at everything like it might attack me," he offered before dipping down to kiss Bruce's hand.

"That's a goo deal of it," he admitted, "but you also carry tension around your eyes and mouth. It's faded."

He leaned in a little as he nodded, kissing at Bruce's wrist, the inside of his arm. This was nothing but tenderness. He paused after a moment and looked up at Bruce.

"You look better too."

Bruce didn't have a single moment of hesitation or doubt that Clark was going to be anything but tender with him, now. He waited until Clark looked up then carded his fingers through Clark's hair, brought them together at the end of the stroke and gave a quick, light tug before letting his hand rest on Clark's shoulder.

"I feel better. I needed to..." He paused and searched for fairly unloaded terminology that was still accurate. "blow off some steam."

He nodded and smiled up at Bruce a little.

"This was good for us," he reiterated. "It needs some polish and we fumbled in the dark a little, but it was still good for us."

He tilted his head towards the door, the outside.

"You going out tonight, you think?"

They'd see if it continued to be good for them, or if it was good for them in response to unusual circumstance. Bruce was - a cautious man in some regards and relationship things and Clark were two of them.

It had seemed to be, though.

"Yes. With Jason." Because he was still trying, desperately, to make that work. To give Jason - something he so clearly needed.

"I'll stay home with Dick," he said, and he definitely sounded almost... pleased with the prospect.

"It's been a while since I spent any time with the kid. I'm almost glad it'll be after this, though. I feel... better."

"...I'd forgotten that Dick was staying at the Manor. Yes. Stay home with him. Don't let him be an idiot. Watch a movie, play a game, eat popcorn or ice cream or do whatever it is normal people do on their downtime."

Yes, he had forgotten Dick. Christ, he'd had too many balls in the air lately. It was amazing he hadn't literally, actually, dropped anyone so far. He really had needed this time away. "I'll take him out and do something with him tomorrow." Patrol, maybe not, but something.

"I'll try to make sure he doesn't poison himself with an overage of cereal," Clark assured him with a faint smile.

"And I'm sure he knows you've got your hands full. Hopefully, though, not too full at this point."

for knightbynight: For now and hereafter...

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