Author's Note: So, it's been a lot longer than what I usually hope, but with this story, as I've said before, it taks a backseat to my Aftermath story, so yeah. It's been hard writting, I gotta say. i know exactly where I'm going, I just don't know how to get there, or put all down in my word document. Ah, well. I've been watching Batman/Superman: Public Enemies as inspiration because god knows they were totally gay enough in that film. Seriously! Anywho, I've really been trying to make this romance, not just senseless lust and whatnot. I feel like I've been doing a good job, but really I have no idea and may just be ignorantly assuming so. Well, enough with my ramblings. Enjoy!
Bruce had never actually liked the Opera, yet he found it almost amusing that it had been his father's passion and not his mother's. The billionaire sat up in his balcony seat all alone, having rented all ten of them just for himself. It was the pompous, selfish thing that Bruce Wayne was known so well for. He smirked from underneath the back of his hand that his strong chin was resting heavily upon while his mind began to drift again, though he'd been doing it a lot, spacing out. During the meeting at Wayne towers, Bruce had barely even been there, his mind simply wandering, just as it was doing now.
Clark had been primarily consuming his thoughts, leaving him in a stupor for nearly a week now. J'onn had asked him when he planned on rejoining the league and for once Bruce didn't have an answer, and merely lied, saying that there'd been a sudden out break in back-alley crime due to the supposed drop in Gotham PD efficiency. The lie, admittedly, was horrible, and the dark knight knew that the Martian Man hunter didn't believe it even for a moment, though thankfully didn't call him on it.
In truth, Bruce felt almost uncertain, indeed something he was not accustomed to, and the worst part was he couldn't even get his hands around the emotion, couldn't beat it out of himself, unlike rage – that was at least something he could use – but this was just pathetic.
The Opera singer hit a particularly high note, shaking Bruce from his thoughts for only a moment. The performer on stage was a beautiful woman, tall and golden and proud. She reminded him of all the loves he'd ever had – Victoria, Andrea, Selina, Diana, Talia, and the other women who fell for Bruce Wayne's dashing good looks and charm. With each of his love interests, something had always seemed to go wrong, likely because of his double life and unwillingness to let anyone in. With Clark, things were strangely different, as if he wasn't worried about scaring him off – in fact he had a hard time getting him to leave. Plus, Clark was always in the cave, never exactly unwelcomed (until recently), and Bruce considered that to be the most amount of trust he could ever place in anyone. Letting someone see behind the mask, be in the cave, and still spend alone time with was more than he'd ever gotten with any of the women in his life.
But still the fact remained that he couldn't even begin to compete against Lois for Clark's affections. She had instantly captured the Kryptonian's heart and there was no denying that sort of love. Bruce sighed for the umpteenth time that day, realizing heavily that by telling Clark just to forget everything that he'd made the right decision. It was insane to even entertain the idea of a relationship with the other hero.
Bruce suddenly found himself unable to sit in that booth, locked in with his own treacherous thoughts.
Alfred's going to be mad that I skipped out on another event, the billionaire mused for a moment before leaving his seat. After a brief change of attire, Bruce was ready for his night life.
Batman jumped from roof to roof, spinning and flipping dangerously through the air and landing precariously each time. The night air was chilled, hinting to the upcoming winter, but also it cleared the dark knight's head, bleaching him mind into just white nothingness. He was all action, no thought. Without any sign of hesitation, Bruce threw himself from a building's edge, falling faster and faster, cape billowing behind him madly. Just before splattering himself all across the pavement, he whipped out a grappling hook, firing it at the top of an opposing building. Using all of strength, he pulled up, arching through the air and coming so close to the sidewalk that he could have reached down and scraped a boot against it. People cheered and gasped in shock as the dark knight disappeared over the rooftop once more.
A small beeping in Batman's ear brought him back down to reality, alerting him that someone was trying to get in touch with him. He prayed it was anyone else but Clark and pressed one finger down on the intercom button.
"Hey, Bats, been a while, huh?" came Flash's detached voice over the link. A wry smile twisted itself over his lips and Batman was suddenly glad that the younger hero could see him now; torn apart and at his wits end all because of the last person he thought he'd be involved with.
"Indeed, Wally," Bruce replied simply.
"…Well, uh…we were all kind of wondering when you were coming back, because, I mean, Superman came back and now we all sort of curious if you were going to be coming back anytime soon…so, yeah…?" Flash stumbled, his words coming out in awkward jumbles that were tinged with earnest innocence and concern. However, Bruce hadn't really been listening, lost in his own thoughts at Flash's mentioned Superman. On the other end of the line, Flash cleared hi throat, jarring Batman from his own inner monologue.
"Sure." Again with the one word response, Bruce continued to try and cut their conversation short. In truth, the last thing he wanted was to see Clark especially after his humiliating rejection. So much had been said to where even if he ever saw Clark again before he died, it would've been too soon, and now being stuck in a watch tower in space and having to go one missions with him, it'd be too weird. It was incredibly selfish, putting off his own duty's to avoid the discomfort of a reunion of sorts with Clark, but Bruce didn't care, not now at least.
"We could beam you up now…if you want…," Flash offered, once again intruding on Bruce's own back and forth with himself.
"…Flash, there's been a lot of activity in Gotham recently that I can't afford to back out of now," Batman lied through his teeth for a second time. There was a long pause on the other end and Bruce had his fingers crossed that maybe the other hero had just given up.
"Bullshit, Bats," he replied softly, sounding quietly hurt. "That's a lie. You and I both know that."
Bruce didn't know what to say. He'd been caught, but there was no way he was going to tell anyone why he was too scared to board the watch tower, why he was terrified of running into a certain Kryptonian, why even thinking of the blue-eyed man made his knees tremble in a way that would make any Arkham inmate jealous. No way, but then again, he couldn't keep up the charade that Gotham was just that busy. The city had gotten along without him fine when he'd still been in the league, so it was reasonable to assume that he could leave again. Bruce had finally been trapped.
"Wally," he ground out between clenched teeth, "…go ahead…beam me up."
A sense of dread began forming in the billionaire's stomach as blue waves of light began to fluxuate around him, warning him of the watch tower that was no doubt awaiting him and in it Clark.
It'd been nearly a week since Batman had returned and it seemed like he was avoiding someone, or maybe just everyone, Flash couldn't be sure. What once had been the cool and indifference mask that was Batman had now digressed into something almost inhuman, or perhaps more human. Bats was almost considerate, being nice – such as opening doors, asking if everyone's okay, offering to take monitor watch, and not being completely antisocial, that is until it came to Clark.
Flash strolled down one of the many glass sided hallways in the large orbiting space craft, running over the things he'd been noticing recently. It was a rare event when he took a slow moment to just walk, but it always helped him think, and that was something he realized he'd been doing a lot more of. Anytime Supes had walked into a room, Batman was suddenly scarce, and they'd stopped arguing, which was also another bad sign. Usually they'd have a witty repartee or at the very least some slight banter, but now they didn't even speak, that is if you could ever get the two in a room together at all. Flash sighed again and pulled his mask back to run a hand through his hair – something he did quite often when stressed.
What was worse was that when he tried to bring the weirdness to anyone else's attention, each of them dismissed him. Shayera told him it was probably just some little argument that they'd gotten into and GL acted like it was news to him, as did Wonder Woman, but by far, J'onn's response had to have been the most painful. The Martian curtly told him that some people have private affairs that others shouldn't meddle in, and this time, that was the case. Flash knew that the Man Hunter was aware of something he was not, had somehow gleaned information of all of it, which was entirely possible, considering he was a telepath.
"Flash, where are you? We're going have a meeting today, remember?" Superman's voice chimed in on his thoughts, utterly disturbing his peace. Indeed Flash had remembered, but he didn't want to go sit through something so awkward, especially when he was on the outs of what was going on.
The speedster pressed down on the receiver in his ear, saying, "Oh, well it must've slipped my mind. You know how forgetful I can be."
"…," Superman's end of the line remained silent for a moment. Flash didn't expect a response right away, however, assuming the Kryptonian could pick up the blatant lie in his words, which obviously he had.
"…could you come anyway?" he asked slowly, carefully, leaving no tone in his voice to suggest frustration or anything otherwise. Flash resisted saying no, but merely grumbled out some type of affirmation before darting off to the conference room. He'd hoped that that they'd just let him off the hook, allowing him to skip the meeting, but obviously not.
Nope, they just had to have me come, didn't they? I cannot believe my luck sometimes, Flash mentally ranted. In a second, he was standing at the twin door leading to the room, and, taking one deep breath, he pushed them open.
The creak of the hinges interrupted the silence and as he walked in, the doors began to creak shut. All eyes turned to him, and it was anything but a warm welcome. Shayera shot him a nervous smile and the rest all began to look away, yet avoiding each other's gazes.
"So…," Flash trailed off, seating himself between J'onn and Supes, "what's up?"
"We were just discussing about new watch duties, considering the two weeks are up and I can't stand sitting up in that stupid room any longer," Shayera grumbled. "'sides, Christmas is coming up soon and I finally have plans this year."
"Got a hot date?" Flash joked at the Thanagarian, whose cheeks turned pink slightly as her gaze unconsciously flicked over to Green Lantern. Everyone knew they were dating, or at least Flash did from all the times he got to hear about their dates from GL, but they still didn't publicly say anything, like it was the elephant in the room or something.
"Anyway," Lantern moved along smoothly, "we need to decide who's going to take the two weeks over Christmas break."
"What about Supes and Bats?" Flash suddenly chirped up, and all eyes flew to him, two in particular with strange vehemence. The speedster felt smug as he launched into his reasonable explanation. "Well, they did take time off, in which we all had to pick up the slack, so it's only fair to the rest of us that they take watch and then we all get Christmas Eve and day off, like we've done the other years. I mean, we all have to share the load sometimes."
"Yeah, but what about my parents…and Lois?" Superman instantly negated, standing up. "I hardly get to see them as it is, so it would be nice to be able to spend that time with them."
Much to Flash's surprise, Shayera defended him with, "Everyone wants that time off, but considering you and Bruce had shirked your responsibility, it makes that most sense, and it's even less fair to make the same people so it again this year."
"Which would be Hawkgirl and myself," Diana pointed out with mild bitterness in her voice. The two women briefly exchanged looks that bluntly said not again, no way in hell, or at least quite similarly.
"Fine, watch duty is fine with me," Batman said abruptly, not even glancing in Clark's direction. Maybe it was the way his jaw was set, or maybe it just Flash's suspicion, but it was a torture contest – who could outlast who? And Bruce was going all in. Superman's ice blue eyes flicked back over the vigilante, and so many emotions passed in that one glance, fear, wonderment, hope, anger, confusion, and something akin to determination or perhaps just dull defeat. And then the moment was gone as Superman's eyes trained back down on the metal table, so intently, one would've thought he'd melt a whole right through it.
"Then that's settled, now on with the …," Lantern's voice just became background noise as Flash watched the strange display between Bruce and Clark, as if they were having a mental conversation with each other that no one else could hear. Bats' mouth pulled into the slightest of smirks and his cowl pulled faintly as his eyebrows moved just so, barely noticeable. Superman's eyes however said everything, nothing else giving him away. The look of such desperation that Flash had never seen from the impervious man.
Superman groaned, laying his head down over his shoulders of the observatory desk as he was supposedly keeping watch. A day after the meeting and he was supposed to have taken it up the duty, but so far Bruce hadn't shown and not even God could've known where he was. What kept bothering the Kryptonian was why the mysterious billionaire would agree? The hate in his voice the last time they'd actually spoken seemed pretty resolute, and damned clear, so why this? Why now? Was it simply to rob him off his time with Lois – Clark couldn't believe that that would've been the case – or perhaps it was to apologize, or at the very least try and rectify things?
"I hate not knowing, and I hate it even more when I don't know enough about you," Clark agonized softly, letting his eyes drift shut. Suddenly, from behind him, he heard a faint scuffle.
"Am I interrupting something?" Batman asked humorlessly. Superman sighed this time, realizing that if he hadn't been so preoccupied with his thoughts that he would've heard Bruce coming and could have put on his cool face, however the billionaire walked in just as he was talking to himself. Fantastic, Clark thought bitterly, not turning his head to look at his new companion.
"No…" Superman opened his mouth to say more, hesitating yet unsure what else was left to be said but instead just settled with, "take a seat."
Again Clark found himself unable to look over at Bruce, too afraid that he may lose all his courage and just run out of the room under that intense arctic gaze like smoldering ice.
In retrospect, time passed quickly, but by having no one talk, two hours went by slowly, painfully so. Neither hero wanted to speak to the other, nor so anyone dared, yet the want was there. Each mind was having imaginary conversations with the other, gathering the will to speak, yet each time they saw the other, the will was lost, shattering back into little fragments sentiments – dust in the wind.
Two more nights, each passing like the last. Five heroes said their goodnights or goodbyes and beamed themselves back down to earth, leaving two people alone in the entirety of the enormous spacecraft. Christmas drew closer, though the two hadn't noticed, never leaving the ship. Another thing that hadn't changed was the silence. Bruce was admittedly impressed that Clark had been able to keep his mouth shut for so long, but the incisive fidgeting did not escape his watchful eye.
Superman had not come to the watch station yet, so Bruce found himself there that night early and, stealing a quick glance around, tugged his cowl back to run his gloved fingers freely through his tangled mane of midnight locks. His mind absently wandered over mundane things, such as the last time he'd gotten his hair cut, and why he'd let it grow out so much more than usual.
Beside him there was the faint clink of metal against glass, rousing Bruce momentarily as he glanced over to see Clark setting down two twin cups of coffee, both in creamy mugs with steam billowing off. He'd gathered one for himself and one for Clark.
"I brought you some joe," the Kryptonian joked, giving a nervous chuckle as he pushed Bruce's coffee minutely closer to him. It was black, just the way he liked it – no cream or sugar to disguise the bitterness. Bruce mumbled out some generic sort of thanks. The two began sipping their frothy beverages separately, again defaulting to silence. Before them the wide computer screen showed different maps of the world where everything seemed utterly peaceful, almost too peaceful.
"You know, I don't mind watch duty," Clark commented quietly, settling back into his chair. Bruce didn't bother pulling his mask back on because even though he and Clark were technically not on good terms, he still felt comfortable around him, safe even. His eyelids felt strangely heavy, as if the atmosphere alone was putting him to sleep.
This time the silence didn't feel stifling, but rather it felt calm and just open, allowing each of the heroes to just relax, unwind for a moment as they soaked in each others' pure company.
"Hey Bruce…?"
The billionaire glanced over at the man of steel, whose sky-blue eyes were lost somewhere else, looking beyond this room and this moment. "Hmm?"
Clark's eyes turned slowly, deliberately towards Bruce's, his gaze never faltering. A smile ghosted over his face, briefly exposing his perfect white teeth and making his skin seem to glow like sunshine for the briefest of moments.
"I'm sorry."
