Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original characters and the situations I put all my poor victims in.

A Dangerous Pastime

As soon as the door closed behind Bane, the man's footsteps audible in their retreat, Blake let himself collapse back onto his pillow, grabbing another with his good hand to pull over his face to muffle his groans a little. Shit his arm hurt like hell. And shit but the son of a bitch had scared the hell out of him. He'd seen, in those steel blue eyes, how little effort it would take the other man to squeeze the life out of him or snap his neck like a toothpick. Holy Shit.

Blake let himself wallow in that for a while and then forced himself to move on to what Bane had said once he'd let his throat go and backed off. Apparently, once he was able, he would be allowed out of the room he was in and would be free to wander throughout the house with the exception of the west wing. When he'd asked what was in the west wing Bane had growled that it was forbidden and then left.

Once he was up to defending himself that wing was numero uno on his places to visit.

But right now he could barely get out of bed and he had to accept that. Pushing himself before he was ready would just get him dead faster than you could say the current master of the house's name. So for the time being he had to concentrate on what he could do, Blake told himself firmly, which was try to figure out why the hell he interested Bane and how that translated to the man suddenly wanting him for a pet.

After twenty minutes the detective couldn't come up with a single reason why he would interest Bane and moved to the second part of the question.

He didn't remember having a pet before he'd been orphaned, and after that he hadn't been placed anywhere that kept animals. At least not four legged ones, Blake corrected with a flash of dark humor, before pushing the darkness back where it belonged. That aspect of his personality wasn't useful…at the moment.

As a workaholic he'd never thought it fair to have a pet, and to be honest he'd always figured that taking care of one was too much of a commitment and not worth the trouble. But he did know people who owned pets and why they did so. They wanted the animal for companionship, for the unconditional love animals seemed to manage when humans tended to fail epically most of the time.

Did Bane…want him around for company? Was the Big Bad Bane lonely?

It seemed ridiculous at first thought, but he'd also studied all the info Bruce had sent him before disappearing, as well as the info he and others had gathered during their occupation. The man was currently at the top of the bad guy food chain, and leaders tended to be surrounded by ass kissers, subordinates, and people attracted to what that leader could get them. Bane only seemed to value his main lieutenant, but talented, loyal help was hard to find, especially in the criminal underworld.

Personally it would drive him nuts to be surrounded by people who kowtowed to him all the time, even more so when many of them would probably tear into him like rabid hyenas at any sign of weakness. He knew what it was to have people tell you what they thought you should hear rather than the truth. To be lied to so that it would make it easier on the people who were supposed to be understanding and helping him.

But this wasn't about him, this was what he might have to offer that the other man wanted. He knew he was expendable in Bane's eyes, the man probably didn't figure that it would matter what he did or didn't tell Blake about himself or the situation they found themselves in. Bane saw him as weak, easily disposed of, and helpless.

The hell with that, Blake thought as he threw aside the pillow, grinching his teeth determinedly against the searing pain in his arm and head.

He was many things, but first and foremost he was and always would be a survivor.

And he'd been wearing masks like Batman and Bane for a very long time, thank you very much. He knew how to alter his behavior to get him what he wanted, to disguise his real thoughts and intentions. When Bane came back…he'd find out what mask he needed to survive this until he could get out.

)

Blake was ready for the man when he returned that evening. He was a little surprised to see the man playing waiter, guessing that the bowl of soup was for him since Bane would have to take off that mask of his to consume it. The man never took that hideous mouthpiece off according to their intel. Whether it served a purpose other than to terrify and make Bane appear that much less human…well that was open for debate and not one of the questions he intended to ask.

When the tray was set down on his lap he thanked Bane politely, picking up his spoon without hesitation. Yes the man might have put something in it, but he was going to risk it. He needed nutrition more than he needed caution at this point. The others would have moved from headquarters already anyway, just to be on the safe side.

A little amused by the man's thanks, it had been so polite and proper, Bane took his earlier seat on the side of the bed, watching the man eat his soup until Blake asked him a question.

"So what do you want to know about me?"

He preferred to be blunt, and saw no reason to beat around the bush so to speak. The sooner he understood Blake the sooner he could get rid of him. "You have great darkness in you, yet you control it and wear the mask of the good and righteous. Why?"

It threw him for a moment, several actually, but Blake's logical mind pointed out that while there had been other reasons he'd suspected Bruce Wayne of being Batman it was meeting him, seeing the mask the older man wore in public, that had made him recognize a kindred spirit. Why shouldn't Bane be able to do the same?

Thinking through his answer Blake shrugged and did his best to appear at ease with it. "Not too long ago I told someone that few people understand being angry down to their very bones…and that's my darkness. The need to lash out at the people who took my parents from me, at the people who couldn't understand me or didn't even try to. At people who didn't actually deserve the crap I gave them but seemed to at the time. There's hate in there too but…even at my worst I always had lines I refused to cross. Lines that kept me from becoming like the people I should be out arresting instead of lounging about in here. I use my darkness, I don't let it use and control me. Not anymore."

Bane considered this. "You believe my darkness controls me?"

"No. No you use yours too. You use it to create more."

"It would seem then, that I am more successful in my goals." He understood why Blake couldn't see, couldn't understand. He'd known as soon as Barsad had drawn his attention to the tattoo that had been inked just below the man's neck that first night. Even before that he'd known of the man's fascination with the Batman, but he hadn't known the man's was so loyal he would brand himself with the vigilante's mark.

He'd been very tempted to order that removed, but his inability to understand why had made him keep his mouth shut.

"Darkness destroys." There was no doubt in Blake's voice as he absently stirred his soup with his spoon. "I'm a survivor. I want to live too much to destroy myself that way. But then…we're very different, you and I."

"You think I don't value my life?"

"I don't know you well enough to answer that. You'll have to ask me again later."

A slight cocking of his head was Bane's only indication of interest. "You believe I'll let you live long enough to know me? That I'm so easily cracked?"

Blake surprised himself as much as Bane when he outright laughed at that idea. "I could live a thousand years and not truly understand you. It would be…like the social workers or foster parents or shrinks…they all said they understood but they didn't and couldn't. You can't understand unless you know and…I know pain. I know anger and hate and a lot of other nasty shit…but I can't say, can't imagine what it's like to be you. To live the life you've lived. It's why I can't hate you…though believe me I've tried."

Boy had he ever tried.

Every muscle in his body tensing, which was saying something, Bane's eyes narrowed as they stared into Blake's. The look in them wasn't threatening per say, but they were sharp as a blade and sought to cut through the detective's shields to the explanation he wanted.

"What do you mean by that?" Bane said each word like a statement, prepared to use force if necessary to get an answer.

Well that's got your interest, Blake thought weakly as he forced himself to consume a little more soup to wet his suddenly very dry throat. Dammit, he hadn't even meant to say that last little bit outloud. It had just come out with the rest of the stuff because…well because there was something about the way the man looked at him that made him feel like he should be upfront about where they stood currently. Talk frankly and as equals so that he wouldn't be written off as too weak and pathetic to be interesting without betraying how strong he really was. Not to mention the fact that trying to lie or flatter the man wouldn't work; Bane was far too intelligent for that. Understood people too well and their tells.

"What part are you asking about?"

"Why can't you hate me?" Detective Blake was devoted to his city, his naïve ideals and beliefs. How could the cop claim not to hate him? Because it wasn't a ploy, he believed what he saw in those eyes that watching him just as closely.

"Why do you care?"

Bane leaned in a little. "Do you think it wise to push me? Especially twice in one day."

"If you want blind obedience and someone to parrot your ideas back to you go talk to one of your lemming lackeys."

The fierce light in the detective's eyes annoyed him, the strength and spirit in them. Detective Blake needed to be reminded of who he was dealing with, Bane coldly decided. And he knew exactly how to do that.

"I think you'd retract your statement of non-hatred were you to see what remained of your Batman once I'd finished with him."

As Bane watched the spoon hit the bowl and tumbled onto the tray, the muscles in the younger man's face and throat working hard while the detective's hands fisted despite the pain that must have caused the left arm. He couldn't see the man's eyes though, Blake staring down at the bowl instead.

Wanting to see what was in them now Bane was just about to order Blake to look at him when the man's head raised and the detective's gaze met his.

The Batman's eyes.

Not the color or the shape, but the look in them. Blake's were less tired, the fire still bright and passionate, but still... Just as he had been honed by blood and violence, shaped into a weapon of untold destruction, his adversary and the man who sat before him had been honed and shaped into shields. It wasn't their purpose in life to kill, but to prevent the blood of those they protected from being shed. Their only purpose in life.

He could break Blake, Bane knew in that moment, but not bend, warp, or brainwash him.

Detective Blake would have walked away from the League of Shadows just like Wayne.

)

He'd known that Bane was responsible for Batman's disappearance. Kyle had been skimpy on the details when he'd caught her, she hadn't wanted to talk about it and was more afraid of Bane than anything he might have been able to threaten her with legally. But he knew enough to know that Bruce had been hurt, bad, to the point where the injuries had likely been life threatening. Hadn't he spent many a sleepless night wondering if it was his fault, pushing his idol to step up again before the man was ready? Making the older man act before he'd trained enough to be up to the task of facing Bane's men, much less Bane himself. It had been all he could think about the week after his hero had vanished.

The man watching him so closely would know the depth of his loyalty, he'd gotten his Batman tattoo for that reason. That Bane was throwing Bruce in his face now was no accident. Did the man want to see him truly angry, see him lose control and let the darkness take him?

Well you're going to be disappointed, Blake told Bane with his eyes. Because he would honor Bruce Wayne the only way he knew how, and that was by continuing to follow his example. He would never let the anger and pain blind him to his purpose in life.

It was strength of his convictions that kept him in line as Blake asked the question he'd needed an answer to since Batman had disappeared. "Is he still alive?"

"I should answer your question when you won't answer mine?" Bane returned, refusing to let what he saw in those brown eyes throw him.

"A trade then. I'll answer your question if you answer mine. On my word."

Bane considered this, weighing the pros and cons. Even if he did allow Blake to return to his men for some reason it wouldn't matter that the detective would tell others that the Batman still lived. It would just give them false hope that their savior would come. It might even make Wayne suffer more, if he were to see to it that it reached the man's ears that Gotham's people though he'd simply abandoned them to their fate.

"He lives until Gotham dies."

Closing his eyes Blake gave himself just a moment of relief, of joy and thankfulness before opening them, having given his word. They needed to establish the validity of his word for future discussions and demands.

"In my line of work most everyone has an excuse for what they do. It wasn't my fault I beat my kid half to death, my old man did the same to me when I was little. My mom was a druggie, it's her fault I got hooked and killed that old man for his wallet. Broken home, no money, got fired…the list goes on and on. Bad beginnings justifying bad behavior." Pause. "And that's bullshit, total bullshit, but a lot of them don't see that. Don't realize how much worse they could have had it, can't see that they made choices, had choices, and chose to stay in the muck rather than haul themselves out. It always comes down to choices."

Blake paused to take a calming breath and sent a quick prayer up to heaven that he wasn't about to cross a really big, death causing line. The Batman had sent him everything he'd learned about Bane and in the other man's place he wouldn't want people knowing, reminding him. But he'd given his word, so he gave Bane the answer he sought.

"I can't hate you because you never had a choice. Of all the real criminals I've come up against you're the only one I can truly say that about and mean it. I don't know all of it, but I know you grew in in a place that could probably double as hell, and that you were put there just after you were born. They put you in a prison, a pit full of criminals who had to be barely human, if for no other reason than the situation they were-."

"How do you know about The Pit?"

Flinching at the harshness of that mechanical voice, not to mention the muscles that continued to bulge and flex like a predator preparing to spring, Blake cursed his reaction even as he swallowed hard. "A friend of a friend. Al's one hell of a hacker apparently."

Or at least he assumed Wayne's butler was, since the man had found out more about Bane than the reporters on the news had.

"Where is this Al?" He didn't like the idea that this Al person could publicize the existence of The Pit, potentially leading people straight to Wayne. The Batman was going to remain right where he'd left him unless he found the strength to get out himself. That was acceptable, others meddling was not.

"He got out before you took over and I have no idea where he is. I only met him once."

And it would be better for him to hurry up and finish his explanation while Bane mulled that over, Blake decided. "I figure being surrounded by those people, having only them to learn from…you couldn't have learned to make good choices, there wouldn't have been any to make anyway. Just varying degrees of bad and worse. To survive…I can't imagine what that costed, what you had to pay in body and mind to do that. Monsters made you what you are, and I can hate them. Frankly, I hope they know a hell even worse than that pit they put you in for what they did to you and those other poor bastards. And I hate the things you do just as much…but I understand why you'd think violence is the only way to change things. Violence is all you know."