Mates: Book Three: Chapter Seven

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Blood.

Gushing over his hands, sticky in substance. So much...too much.

Hand...his hand?

No..

Not his hand.

No. Don't go. Don't die.

Come back...

Don't...

DON'T DIE! NO!

J'onn wrenched himself awake with a strangled sound, trembling too much to do more then stare for a few seconds. He managed to turn himself over onto his left side before his stomach decided to empty it's contents on the ground. The image...burned…engrained in his head, playing itself over and over again. Blood. So much blood...

Out. Getitoutgetitoutgetitout! It refused to leave, choosing instead to stay, playing before his eyes over and over again, taunting him.

Is this how Bruce feels? He wondered bleakly, pushing himself into something resembling a sitting position. "Unng..." His body throbbed wildly in protest, causing him to wonder just how long he'd been out. It had to have been a few days...why else would he be so damn sore?

Well, at least he wasn't alone; the others were sprawled out in varying positions nearby. J'onn smiled softly at seeing Flash and Diana curled up together next to a pile of leaves. They looked peaceful together. He felt a spike of envy; Bruce was far away from him...

Next to Superman.

Golden eyes narrowed sharply, only to widen several seconds later as he realized...

None of them were breathing.

No.

No!

The Martian dashed forward, only to grunt as his body collapsed on itself. He gritted his teeth painfully as he was forced to crawl inch by torturous inch toward his mate's body. Yes, Shayera was closest, but he didn't care about her at all. All he cared about was Bruce.

Who wasn't breathing. Who was too far away. Couldn't make it. Just a little further.

Centimeter by torturous centimeter he moved, until he couldn't move at all. He lost consciousness as he was half-way there, reaching his hand out towards his mate.

()

When he woke up again, it was only for a few seconds. The world was hazy and the most he was able to make out was the purple sky and the fact that it was snowing.

Couldn't move. S-so cold...There was ice over all of them and he grimly wondered if any of them had even made it through the ride or if their bodies simply hadn't been strong enough.

Hated them for that...hated that they were able to die right off, unaware, while he had to su...

Something twitched in his hand.

Unable to lift his head up to see, he had to resort to squeezing whatever it--hand. There was a hand in his. It was cold and it was stiff, but it was a hand.

This time he did lift his head up, and what he managed to see for the few seconds he'd been able to focus made his spirit soar.

Sometime during his blackout, Bruce had grabbed his hand, and was still holding it with a frightening intensity.

There was a pulse. Slow as it was, it was strong and it was there, beating beneath his cold, stiff fingers.

J'onn smiled as the snow piled on top of him, before fading away again.

()

There was a something crackling nearby, blazing orange through his eyelids.

Fire, his mind supplied not-so-helpfully, and he cringed, instinctively moving away from the flames. He had barely gone a few inches when his body sent sharp twinges of pain through his limbs and he hissed, eyes springing open.

The snow was gone, leaving in its wake annoyingly bright flowers that waved next to his head, showing off their colors. A hand appeared in his vision, adding another log to the fire. Gloved. Black. Batman.

"Ba..t..mann..." Hurt to talk. Felt like he hadn't moved in ages. Which, now that he thought on it, was probably true.

"You're awake this time?" his mate's emotionless tone shouldn't have brought him such relief, but it did. So much...

"Nnn."

Batman sighed, and moved towards him, limping heavily but managing it all the same. How could he move? The pain was nearly blinding him after the few minutes he'd been conscious. How long had he been awake? He gasped as the dark knight grabbed onto his arm and started moving it around. Took him several minutes, about until the pain finally evened out, but he realized what his mate was doing. Exercising the muscles.

"Hateyou...unnn...hateyouhateyouhateyouuuuuuuuu Bruce! Stop it!" Damn that hurt.

"Join the club," Shayera muttered from the sidelines, and that was when he finally noticed she was awake as well. The way she moved...choppy and entirely stiff, as if she wasn't quite used to doing it yet. So she'd waken up after Br--

"HATE Y--NN!" As soon as he could move, he was going to kill B--ahhh!

When he was finally able to tolerate moving his left arm, first thing he did was claw at his mate's face. Something, anything to make him stop. Batman batted his hand away impassively, and J'onn noticed there was a faint outline of a bruise on his jaw, along with the nice scratches he'd added. "W-who..?"

"Stupid bastard doesn't understand the word stop," another voice came from his right, which he managed pinpoint as Flash's.

White slits narrowed slightly. "You can move now."

"Because that's such an improvement," came the scathing reply.

"Yes, I think I would have preferred it if you couldn't move, much less talk," J'onn growled out before Batman could answer, glaring heatedly at Flash. He hated the way he was talking to Bruce. And he'd struck him? He'd dared to hit his mate?!

Flash was lucky he couldn't move anything other then his left arm right now. As if sensing his thoughts the speedster scowled at him, before walking off, limping even more than Hawk Girl had. Which was wo--

J'onn let out a sharp hiss as stern fingers prodded rather harshly, sharply bringing him out of his thoughts. Blindly, he went to claw at Bruce again, only for the prodding to ease up slightly.

That was when he realized that the pain hadn't spiked ever since he'd growled at Flash. Was...? Yes. Batman *was* prodding more gently.

The waves of anger that had been surrounding him for as long as he could remember (how sad was it that he couldn't remember a time before this?) lifted ever so slightly. Enough that he was able to gently caress his mate's jaw line. "My apologies," he murmured softly, managing a smile when Bruce's body relaxed.

Suddenly, the world around them dimmed. There was no anger, no hatred. Just a feeling of peace that wrapped its way around them. Batman leaned over, pressing their lips together. No lust, just a show of affection. A way of saying he appreciated that J'onn had defended him. He felt his eyes shut of their own accord as he savored this moment. So nice...

Just as quickly, it was gone, the world extending again, and J'onn blinked, sitting up painlessly. It was gone. No stiffness whatsoever. He felt his lip twitch as he noticed the stiffness in Batman's movements had eased as well. Flash was definitely not going to like this at all.

Flash. All of a sudden the anger had returned, surging through his body as he swiftly stood up, intending on putting that bastard in his place. Yes, he was going to kill the speedster for what he'd done—

"You did the same thing." The previous warmth had left, cold aloofness returning and J'onn scowled, hating that it was back. "I'm allowed to strike you. He is not." This made perfect sense to the Martian in his current state of mind.

Apparently Batman also agreed, for he said nothing but stared at him with those ridiculous white slits he called eyes. He hated that cowl. Hated not being able to see whatever emotion was flashing in those blue orbs.

"I don't wear it to please you J'onn." More importantly, he hated how Bruce had no concept of personal boundaries and continued to invade his thoughts. Speaking on annoying creatures…

"Oh. It's awake." Superman's voice was full of disappointment and scorn as he entered the campsite and sat down next to his Bruce.

J'onn felt his brow furrow in annoyance, only to smooth out as he took in how that the oaf was limping. "Does it hurt Kryptonian?" Uncharacteristic scorn laced the words.

"Much more now that you're awake, Martian."

Sat up, and began dusting his cape off, noting with smug satisfaction at how it didn't hurt him to move at all. The smugness disappeared as the oaf continued, "Nice to see you finally awake. Of course, since I woke up first, I was the onewho got to—"

"Shut up Clark," Batman cut in, monotone voice carrying a silent warning.

Golden eyes narrowed. What had the oaf been about to say?

since I woke up first, I was the one who got to…

To what?

What would possibly make Superman wear that insufferable smirk, as if he'd had something over J'onn? The answer came to him and he felt his rage boil even more. Batman. Something to do with his mate, he was sure

since I woke up first…

If Batman helped the others get moving again, then who had helped...?

The last of the puzzle fell into place and with a snarl he launched himself at Superman. They landed to the ground with a slight 'thud', his hands wrapping around the kryptonian's thick neck, his vice grip not letting up no matter how many punches he received.

"I'll kill you! I SWEAR TO H'RONMEER I WILL KILL YOU!" Each word rang with a chilling clarity.

Batman ignored them and continued to stoke the fire. Eventually, J'onn and Superman would tire themselves out. All he had to do was simply wait it out, and --

"GET OFF HIM J'ONN!" Suddenly the Flash was trying to pull the Martian off, which resulted in him starting an assault on the speedster, clearly having not forgotten his earlier assault on his mate. With vengeance in mind, J'onn launched an attack on the only body part he could reach while still strangling Clark, and he was proud to say that he bit hard enough to draw blood.

"Son of a--!" Flash jerked his hand away, which was now bleeding profusely.

That of course, blew the last of the meta's patience as he gave out a shrill war-cry and proceeded to bite back, resulting in a firm kick to the groin. Before long, the other three members had joined in the brawl and Batman was left on the outside, watching with impassionate eyes as his teammates proceeded to beat the shit out of each other. He knew he should try to stop them…but he didn't care enough to. They would stop eventually…probably.

Let them beat each other to death for all he cared; it just made things easier for him. Fewer team mates meant fewer people. Fewer people meant less noise. Less noise meant that he could finally concentrate

J'onn let out a pained yelp.

Before Bruce was even aware of what he was doing, all the battling parties had ceased their fighting, clutching at their heads in pain.

"DAMNIT Bats!" Lantern shouted above the piercing shrill that was currently running through his mind. "Knock it off!"

When the pain finally eased up, they had all been dragged off each other and Batman was pulling his mate towards where the pond was, no doubt to clean off all the blood the Martian was covered in.

Superman smirked. He was about to project a very loud and crude thought when a firm, "Don't even think about it," echoed in his mind.

He scowled. "The Martian started it."

Shayera rolled her eyes, giving her ankle an experimental wiggle. No breaks, just sprained. "I didn't see you trying to stop it."

"He had his hands around my throat!" the blue-clad man cried indignantly.

"Unless his hands were made out of kryptonite, you really don't have a firm argument," Lantern pointed out, giving a gash on his arm a prod. Not that deep; wouldn't need stitches.

Clark averted his eyes, rubbing his throat tenderly. The strange thing was, J'onn really had been suffocating him. His punches had been fueled by a very real desperation to get the Martian off, because for some reason, he hadn't been able to breathe. Not that he needed to, he could survive without air for a very long time, but damn if it didn't freak him out. He wasn't used to being strangled. Hadn't been expecting that at all.

I'll kill you! I SEAR TO H'RONMEER I WILL KILL YOU!

Maybe…it would be for the best if I just…didn't mention Bruce around him?

He smirked, anger drowning out what little common sense might have been brought to the surface. Nah.