So, this one is slashy- one sided, and a little unexpected when I was writing. I know slash can make some people uncomfortable, so if it's ever blatant I'll make sure to put a little warning like right now. And aside from the slash undertones, there is a heterosexual sex scene… sort of. Nothing too graphic. I'm sure you've seen more on TV. Just another warning. Oh, and Language. Bruce is only 17.
Warning: Men attracted to other men and whatnot. And some straight sex. And three F-Bombs… But I really like this story. And I don't quite think it's M, because you can see it all on TV.
Prompt #9, Too Much.
Okay. Before we begin, this one is based around the idea that for Rachel to be working for the DA when Chill was getting released (which I thought she was, but I need to rewatch Batman Begins) she'd have to be older than Bruce to have already gone through law school. And also on the fact that I'm pretty sure Rachel dated her boss (twice? Both district attorneys?)That's a little naughty. And also, if I remember correctly Nolan said TDK was six months after Batman Begins.. so… she did meet and get engaged to someone in under six months after promising someone else she'd be there for him. Oh. And Maggie Gyllenhaal was in Secretary. And Katie Holmes was in Thank You For Smoking.
Stylistically as far as italics go it's thoughts and emphasis. You're bright kids. You can figure it out.
Also. It's one in the morning and there is an owl outside my window. It's weird.
Too Much
Bruce should know better than to just walk in. He knows he is supposed to knock, but he and Rachel have been best friends for so long it just sometimes slips his mind. Like right now, like when his headphones are drowning out the noise and he opens the door and sees (aside from a Turkish dwarf dancing a top an elephant while juggling ) one of the last thing he expects.
He just stands there and his eyes widen. She doesn't see him. Her head is tossed back and she's gasping for air. Her neck is exposed and the guy on top brings his mouth down and bites.
She screams and moans, Bruce supposes, but he can only vaguely hear it over his music.
This isn't happening. This there is absolutely no way this is real.
He sees skin and hands and Rachel's nails are dragging red marks down the man's back. He arches. He can see the sweat glistening across the muscled shoulders. His eyes trace the curve of the spine.
This isn't happening.
Bruce takes a step back.
This is too much.
This isn't happening.
The man turns his head slightly and Bruce knows that he sees him and more than that he recognizes him, because the bastard smirks.
Bruce just looks shocked and confused.
This is too much.
"….Bruce?" He's sure he hears over the music that is still playing. He feels like an idiot, standing there with his eyes wide and a backpack slung over one shoulder. He wanted to see if Rachel wanted to explore Metropolis with him.
Looks like she was exploring something else…
This is too much.
He turns and bolts. Well, he doesn't really bolt; he walks out slowly and closes the door firmly behind him.
He thinks he hears his name, shouted now, over his music, but he doesn't stop.
This is too much.
Rachel finds him fifteen minutes later on the balcony of his hotel room.
"Bruce." She says.
"Hi, Rachel."
"Look Bruce.. I…" her face is flushed red and Bruce glances up at her through the corner of his eyes. He can see the purplish red mark on her neck.
"It's okay, Rachel. I should have knocked."
"Look. It.. it wasn't what it looked like."
"…I'm pretty sure it was exactly what it looked like, Rachel."
"Bruce!" She protests and brushes her messy brown hair back.
"Rachel, please."
"Bruce, I'm sorry…"
"You have nothing to apologize, you can sleep with whoever you want. I mean he is a bit old for you, but that hasn't stopped you before."
"I know, I know. I'm old enough to make my own mistakes... but with our… history... I just... Look it must have been embarrassing for you... and because of that I'm sorry."
"Well, it wasn't all that embarrassing. I mean out of the three of us I was the only one fully clothed," he replies dryly.
"Bruce!" Rachel says again and Bruce rolls his eyes and in a practice high-pitched voice he parrots back "Rachel!" in the same tone.
She looks at him. Despite the awkwardness she feels, she smiles.
"Are we… okay, then?"
"Yeah, Rachel, we're okay."
"Good... I'm going to go shower and I'll see you later tonight, alright?"
Bruce doesn't say anything back he simply flips to the next page of the books he isn't really reading.
When he knows she's gone he leans his forehead down on cool metal of the railing. He closes his eyes and does his best to forget what he just walked in on.
This is too much.
"Fuck." He mumbles bitterly under his breath.
"Fuck." He repeats louder. And he remembers the look in the guy's green eyes and the smirk on his lips.
"FUCK." He screams out as he turns tosses the book he was pretending to read at the closed sliding glass door.
Except the door isn't closed anymore. And the man standing there catches it.
"Well, Bruce, just as charming as ever I see."
"Hi, Lex." Bruce says softly and glances away from those laughing green eyes.
"Since we didn't really get a chance to talk earlier, because I was otherwise engaged, I thought I'd stop by so we could clear things up."
"There's not much to clear up, Lex."
"I think there is." Lex turns the book over in his hands and examines it like it's the single most important thing in the world.
"You're in love with Rachel." Lex says when he finishes looking at the book and sets it down on the small table near the doorway.
This is too much. Bruce laughs. It sounds a bit crueler than he intended, but he finds himself crueler around his socioeconomic equals.
"No, I'm not." Bruce replies evenly. He leans back against the metal railing of the balcony.
"Judging from your reaction, I'd say differently. You're in love with that girl."
"…I'm not." Bruce says and smirks an awkward half-smirk that makes it seem like he knows more than he's saying.
"Don't bother lying to me, Bruce. You're upset. You're in love with her. Why else would you be screaming obscenities and flinging your novel around?" Lex buffs his nails on his chest and looks at everything with very bored eyes.
"Maybe Tolstoy just brings out the worst in me?" Bruce replies. His boredom matches Lex's. It's a competition, he can tell, to see who can be the most uninvolved.
"Don't even try, Brucie. I saw the way you were looking at her. All that longing in your eyes. And I've had her now, so she'll never be the perfect little angel you thought she was, will she? You can't look at her without imagining what it was like for me to feel her, will you? You'll imagine her begging me for more, but you saw that already, didn't you? And you just stood there because there was nothing else for you to do…" Lex takes a step forward.
"I saw the way you were looking," Lex says, his voice low and husky. It makes Bruce's own chest tremble from the vibrations. Lex places his hands on the railing on either side of Bruce's body and leans in. He places his lips next to Bruce's ear and continues, his voice even lower, "Worshipful. Wishing, pleading, you were me."
Instead of doing their normal functions his heart and lungs shiver.
Wishing you were her.
"It's disappointing, to see my friends make terrible decisions. That's all." He says slowly and evenly. He turns his head to the side and closes his eyes. He can't look at Lex. It's too much.
"Oh, from what I could tell I was hardly the first terrible decision she's made, Wayne." Lex's breath is warm against his ear and neck and he holds back a shiver that threatens to run down his entire body.
"Rachel's an adult now. She can make her own mistakes." Nineteen-nearly twenty, just two years older than Bruce. Hardly an adult.
It'd been so long since he'd seen her, since she went off to college and seemed to forget about her best friend back home; Bruce had thought, had hoped, they could connect again, and things could be the same again. But, things hadn't been the same for a long time.
Things hadn't been the same since it rained pearls in Gotham.
"Let me guess, Wayne… You were just itching to be one of her mistakes, but she never let you, huh?" Bruce finally opens his eyes and glares at Lex with an intensity that surprises the older businessman, who simply watches him appraisingly with his green eyes.
"No, Alexander," he says slowly and with perhaps a bit more biting sarcasm lacing the words than he needs. "I never wanted to be one of Rachel's mistakes. And I am not in love with her."
"You so sure about that, Wayne?" Lex says with a devilish grin as pushes his body away from Bruce's.
Bruce closes his eyes again, for half a second while the other man moves towards the doorway, and remembers the arch of Lex's back and the look in his eyes when he turned.
"Positive." Bruce responds, almost breathless.
This is too much.
"Now. Get out."
"Oh, Brucie," Lex responds with a malicious grin in his eyes and a wicked tint to his smile, "that's no way to talk to me."
"You're nothing, Lex." Bruce responds. There is a desperation in his voice that makes it sound like maybe he's trying to convince more than just Lex.
"You're nothing. You're just a mistake that people will look back on and wonder how they could ever love someone as vicious and cold as you."
(Maybe he's trying to convince himself.)
"Love?" Lex asks with a laugh as he picks up the book he had set down earlier. "Love, really? You're so naive Bruce. Who said anything about love?"
I did.
"Sex and love rarely, if ever, go together in our world, Wayne." Lex tosses the book back to Bruce who catches it in his hands and looks at it like there is now something horribly wrong with it. Like it's been tainted, infected, ruined. "You would do well to remember that, Wayne." Lex says with a smile as he exits the balcony and presumably the room.
Bruce should probably lock his door. Rachel can knock. Knocking is probably the best thing to do. Yes, lock the door. Close his eyes. Forget about what just happened.
Lex was right. In their world sex and love rarely went together, but love and hate curled up nicely together, like a serpent warming itself in the cold night air.
It was such a fragile balance. All he could do was close his eyes and hope the logical side would weigh out and Bruce Wayne could hate Lex Luthor for all the things he had done and all the things he one day would.
