A.N: This will eventually be Clark/ Bruce when he's older and I think I might do another story if 'Gotham' is any good.
Alfred came half an hour after Clark called with fresh clothes and a hug. He agreed with Bruce that they should act as if nothing out of the ordinary happened and that Bruce had been with Clark for most of the afternoon. He allowed Bruce to stay over after some argument but gave him a stern talking too when Clark showed him his scratches. It was made worse when Clark had jokingly said "it's like he attracts trouble what with what happened in the barn and then again today."
Bruce hadn't told Alfred about the barn so there was another thing that he was being reprimanded for. He stayed only for an hour though and left with parting words for Clark that Bruce wasn't privy too since he had been exiled to the living room.
The adrenalin that had kept him animated since his escape had left him quickly once he had sat down in the Kent's living room so when Alfred left Bruce was almost comatose with exhaustion. His knuckles hurt from when he punched the guards, as did the rest of his body that wasn't used to forcing back more than a wooden stool for breakfast. He was also exceptionally cold as his trek through wintery Smallville had been forgotten until he sat in front of a warm fire. Now it felt like he was burning alive with the heat. All of this prevented him from drifting off.
"How are you feeling?" Concern and a warm hand was smoothing away his hair. Bruce only had the strength to moan his response which gained a laugh out of his companion. "You can sleep in my bed tonight and I'll take the sofa."
He didn't think he would make it to the bed. Clark turned on the TV and started sorting through his movies before putting in something or other. Bruce's eyes were starting to close at the titles but again the day wasn't through messing with him as he started shivering soon afterwards. The motion caused his teeth to chatter and his aching joints to scream in frustration at the lack of rest.
As he was trying to calm his body down he didn't hear as Clark got up from his movie but he did feel himself being picked up by him a couple of minutes later. Bruce tried to give a glare to him as he didn't appreciate being manhandled.
"It'll help with the shivers." Was the only explanation Clark gave.
He soon dragged Bruce into the bathroom where Clark had drawn what would normally be a pleasant thing. However Bruce had long experienced a bath right after playing in the snow when he was younger and could only see the inviting water as one of Lucifer's cauldrons. He tried to struggle to get away but his already motion filled limbs were busy clinging onto the warmth of Clark. So Bruce was forced to endure Clark prying off his arms as well as his shirt and pants before unravelling the bandages he had previously tied.
"Think you can get your undies off yourself?" Bruce only whimpered which he would later argue was because Clark had pulled hard on one of his bandages and not because he couldn't get his voice to work.
Bruce managed to peel them off after some coercion but was still reluctant to get in the bath. In the end it took three attempts of firstly getting Bruce off the toilet seat away from Clark again and stopping him from clinging onto the sides to keep him suspended above the water before he was submerged in fire. White hot fire that was meant to help but for what felt like two hours of peeling his skin away from him. Clark helped a lot by dumping more water over his head so by the end of it he lost his vision as well.
"You're dead to me Kent." Bruce managed to bite out as Clark playfully tipped more water onto Bruce's head.
He splashed Bruce before replying with "You're speaking again. I think I should be resurrected for that." He reached across for the shampoo and set to work on cleaning the sulking eleven year old. "Here" he passed the soap "be careful with your arms especially but try and get your arms moving. It'll help in the long run."
He complied and after a while the water started to feel pleasant as it soothed the aches and pains. It also got rid of the disinfectant smell that had been on his arms before so Bruce slowly relaxed under Clarks hairdressing hands. Soon enough he was as clean as he could get and Clark was satisfied enough with his posture to let him out of the bath. He left the room but shortly returned with the pyjama's Alfred had brought over and more bandages. Clark helped him out but forced him back on the toilet seat so he could see where else Bruce was hurt. He checked the bruises on his legs as well as some on his chest from when he fell down before he re-wrapped his arms and hands and allowed him to put the rest of his night clothes on.
"Wanna go watch the rest of the movie or go to sleep." Clark asked moving around to pick Bruce up again.
"Bed." He didn't struggle, the bath had made him sleepy again and he clung onto Clark's warmth. "You're really warm. Is that another one of your powers?"
"Even when you're half asleep you don't quit do you?" Clark huffed out a laugh "I don't know. Maybe. It might be because I can shoot heat from my eyes so my core temperature is higher than a humans." He pondered his response "It's the best explanation I can come up with. I'm sure you can come up with a better one tomorrow."
"You're letting me see your powers?" Bruce asked with sleepy excitement.
"Yeah. There's no point in hiding them from you if you know." He got a better grip on Bruce while opening his bedroom door and deposited him on the bed.
Bruce wriggled around "Don't suppose you could warm your bed up?"
Clark laughed again "No. Last time I did that my dad had to go get a new mattress for me." Bruce pouted before mumbling "night" and turning his body away from Clark silently dismissing him.
Bruce woke up at four the next morning. He was still achy and would be for days but the realisation that not only does he get Clark to himself for a whole day because it was the weekend but that he had promised to show him his powers. It was definitely something to get up early for. So quickly getting dressed Bruce jumped on the still asleep Clark waking him up with a start.
"Wha-!"
"Wake up! You promised to show me your powers." Bruce said shaking and jumping on him.
"What time is it?" Clark whined
"Time to get up. Come on you live on a farm, getting up early is what you do." He managed to wedge himself between Clark and the back of the sofa and was trying to push Clark off it. Clark only sighed and groaned when Bruce managed to get some leeway on pushing him off.
"This is the last time I'm letting you sleep over." He complained before getting up. Bruce let out a cry of joy and followed Clark as he retreated to his room.
"So what are we doing first. Are you going to lift a tractor over your head? Laser eye some scarecrow? Ooh can we go remove all the screws in Lionel's chair so he sits and falls. He'd probably think it was a ghost and if you travel fast enough he'll get really freaked out because there won't be any tape to prove someone did it."
"Huh." Clark said pushing Bruce around his room as he gathered his clothes for the day "So this is you actually excited. You're rather cute when you act like a real boy." He ruffled Bruce's hair and forcefully pushed him out of the bathroom locking the door behind him. Bruce was rather confused at that last comment.
"What do you mean when I act like a real boy. I am a real boy." He yelled through the door.
Instead of Clark answering he got a sleepy Mr Kent emerging from the bedroom nearest the bathroom. He took one look at Bruce and rolled his eyes before going down stairs "Try not to wake Ma Bruce. Not everyone's as energetic as you in the morning," he called back.
Bruce went silent and sat at the door that was currently housing Clark. He heard the water running inside and was only out there for two minutes before he grew impatient and went to wait for him downstairs. Jonathon usually left the cooking to his wife but Martha was having a rare lie in and he didn't really want to disturb her making him in charge of breakfast. Bruce was still uneasy around the man he was both kind and intimidating at the same time having mastered the ability to give you a compliment with a stern look that warned of boasting about it. He hadn't really seen the man since his incident in the barn and he hadn't been that approachable then either. Adding in the fact that Bruce had uncovered a dangerous family secret it was no wonder that he was reluctant to journey further than the living room sofa to wait for Clark.
"So what do you boys have planned today?" Jonathon asked leaning against the door to the kitchen whilst keeping an eye on the pancakes that were baking.
"Erm. Clark was going to let me help with his chores." He tried hoping that willingly doing manual labour might make him more likeable to the farmer.
"Was he now? Well don't let him make you do anything with sharp objects. I don't want to send you home with a missing limb." Bruce laughed at the joke and hoped telepathy was one of Clarks powers. "That wasn't a joke son. Things on this farm will kill you so be careful." Bruce nodded with wide eyes and thanked God that Clark was done with his shower. "Hey Clark. Pancakes are for breakfast and your mini billionaire is over there."
Clark huffed a laugh at his dad and gave Bruce one of those 'isn't he great' kind of looks. Bruce grimaced some kind of smile and followed Clark into the kitchen. Hopefully with a barrier in the way Jonathon would focus attention elsewhere.
"Bruce tells me you're letting him help with some of your chores this morning."
"Well." He rubbed his hand through his hair "I was going to show him some of my powers later but I guess if you really want to help I can give you small tasks while showing off when I do mine." And he flashed his dazzling smile at Bruce. The boy himself was watching Jonathon's reaction to his son talking so openly about his abilities. Apart from a minor wince he didn't seem that bothered about it.
"Just be careful son." was his only reply before he set their breakfast in front of them.
It was stifling silence after that and Bruce was thankful when they all got outside. Jonathon made his way to the tractor to try and get it running again while Clark herded Bruce over to the stable where his horse was.
"Your father doesn't seem that bothered that I know." he tried
"He was. But then Ma talked him down telling him that no one would really believe an eleven year old traumatised boy."
"Charming." It was always good to know how people thought of him.
"Hey you should be honoured that's the most complimentary thing I've heard you been called this week." Clark joked
"What do you mean? What do people think of me?" Bruce asked worriedly. He'd been on his best behaviour (for the most part) and hadn't made anyone (for the most part) upset.
"Well" Clark started picking up bails of hay and shoved oats at Bruce's bandaged hands gesturing for him to feed the horse. "Most people call you 'an adorable boy' which I suppose is a good thing if you're a girl. No boy wants to be adorable." He laughed nudging Bruce towards the pitchfork. "Then there are my friends. Chloe hasn't really met you but she's done some digging and believes that you're some kind of demon which was happily accepted amongst my other friends. Lana brought up your conversation with her and said that it was evidence of something being wrong in you. Chloe said that you shouldn't have even known about her boyfriend since you've never met him and I've never mentioned him. Pete happily piped in that you have an intimidating gaze. Then it all came to a conclusion when Lex remarked that he couldn't remember half the night you were there but he's pretty sure that he wasn't entertaining an eleven year old boy." He sounded amused as he told all this and helped Bruce here and there with mucking out the horses stall.
"So they think I'm demonically possessed?" He asked unsure of it. He had never been called that before
"Well I may have also mentioned that you got expelled from your last school and Chloe. She's really good at computers and pulled up your last record. Did you really pour acid on a kid and break his leg." Bruce only lifted his eyebrows and pointed to his scratches. "Wow. Anyway I would avoid them for the rest of your visit since I'm pretty sure Pete's going to try and holy water some of your food."
"It was to be expected I suppose."
"You don't sound upset." They moved onto the rest of the animals with Clark giving Bruce the feed and watching him from the fence or barn door.
"I'm not. If anything it gives me something to play with."
"I don't like the sound of that. Or the look on your face." Bruce schooled his features "Are you some kind of demon?" he asked earnestly
"No. Your mothers observation while probably said as a comfort to your father is more truthful. I am just a traumatised eleven year old. One who has a mission in life which I work towards every day I live."
"World domination." Clark mumbled. Bruce scowled
"Rather the opposite. I want to put fear into those that would install it in others and bring justice to those who believe themselves outside the influence of the law. That night in the alley awakened something in me that saw the vile pit Gotham had become and changed me into something that would do anything to cure it." He was rather winded after his speech. He always knew that was what he was doing but to say it out loud was cementing it in reality. That was who he wanted to be.
"I wish I was like that." Bruce had almost forgotten Clark was there. When he turned towards him he saw bewilderment on his face along with a hint of longing.
"Like what?"
"Sure of myself." He said like it was obvious. "I know you think that it's incredible that I have all of these powers but you don't have to live with them. If you did you never grew up like I have so your feelings wouldn't be like this. Bruce I don't even know who I am." he looked at Bruce almost begging him to understand "I was sent here by people I don't know and for reasons they refuse to tell me. They put me on a planet where I'm an outcast. I can't be part of this world because of my powers but I can't be part of theirs because I don't know them. What I'm trying to say is that I've never felt like I've found my calling like you have. I wish I had but..."
"But you have. I've read the articles Chloe writes and heard the stories. You're doing what I hope to do. You're helping people who need it."
"For purely selfish reasons. Usually the people are only in trouble because I put them there or it's because of the rocks that come from my planet that have changed them into that." he argued
"Mine are selfish too you know. I'm an eleven year old with a hero complex. I want the glory of being able to go home and sleep because I know that it was because of me that someone's day is better. You're just like me Clark, it's only that you haven't realised it yet."
Clark didn't look soothed by their conversation but disregarded it in favour of finishing his chores quickly. He showed Bruce his strength by hammering wooden posts later to be made into a fence into the earth with his bare hands. Bruce loved doing handstands on top of the ones that Clark had put in the ground and trying to jump to the next one. He showed him his speed by actually building the fence within five minutes. After that Clark told Bruce that he had X-ray vision which caused several rounds of guess what's in my pocket. The heat vision was experimented on bits of metal that Bruce asked him to write his name on.
Once they had finished all of Clarks chores he had nothing new to show him so he asked an eleven year old what he would like to do. Bruce naturally had some idea's.
"We are not messing with Lionel." Clark declared for the fifth time.
"Why not." Bruce whined
"Look at what he did to you." He said delicately picking up one of Bruce's hands "That was just because he wanted your company imagine what he would do if he actually had reason to hurt you."
"One thing." Bruce pressed "Please."
Clark caved "Fine. It better be good though."
Using Clark Bruce managed to install a few hidden camera's in the Luthor mansion which was mostly to watch the carnage of what Clark had done to the rest of the mansion. Bruce decided to go with his earlier plan of unscrewing Lionel's chair but took it a bit further.
"Quick you're gonna miss it." He called. Clark came and sat next to him as they both watched Clark's computer show Lionel walking into Lex's office.
He went for the chair first to probably do something important but the instant his body weight fell into the chair it collapsed underneath him. He tried to get up by holding onto Lex's desk only to find that it too collapsed on top of him. He heaved himself up and went to the brandy that was situated on a little table but when he removed it the table fell apart followed by the glass in his hand. That one had been achieved by replacing the one in it for a one that Bruce had bought and Clark warmed up until breaking point leaving it delicate. The slightest touch would make it shatter. Lionel not enjoying himself one bit made hilarious faces as he tried to comprehend what was happening leaving Bruce and Clark in stitches. He went over to the sofa and tested it with both hands before sitting himself on it but it soon came to pieces underneath him. He had obviously had enough when he ran towards the door and Bruce prayed that he would touch that too. His prayer was answered when Lionel grasped the door and made to close it on the scene he had left but it came off its hinges and into his hands pulling him down to the floor again.
"This is your cue." Bruce laughed out. "Quick Clark"
Lionel had went off in search of Lex probably hoping that he could explain or shout at him for his shoddy furniture. He found him walking down a corridor and cut him off exclaiming hilariously while Lex looked on with painful bewilderment. They both ran back to the office only to find when they opened the door that everything was as it should be. Even the brandy that Lionel had broken was back on its table. This was Bruce's part to play in their prank. He quickly hacked into the Luthor surveillance and deleted any footage that showed a blurry Clark running in and out of the mansion. All in all a job well done.
"That was brilliant." he grinned when Clark returned.
"Yeah." Clark grinned back "I'm going to have to plan all of my pranks with you from now on if this one pulls off."
"It already has he of little faith. I've wiped you off as well as any of Lionel being in the room. The footage will show Lionel going to the office turning around and sprinting off to find Lex. Making him look mad and making me feel better."
"You know Bruce. You're a bit of a genius." he laughed
"You're only just realising?" he funned back. "Now for the rest of the day I think we should add to Chloe's notion about me being a demon."
"What do you mean?" Clark asked confused
"Well now you're willing to use your powers we can mess with them a bit." Clark pulled a face and was ready to object "No. Don't worry we'll be smart and careful, I've been deceiving and messing with people for years no one will find out about you Clark. In fact." he put on his thinking face "they probably still believe you're mad at me. This could work to our advantage.
So with a plan and a couple of arguments later Clark ran Bruce (on his back super fast because it had to be done) to the café where Lana was working at. Chloe and Pete usually hung out there because Chloe and Lana were speaking more often and Pete just followed Chloe around like a lost puppy. Clark entered the shop first and joined his friends at their table which gained the notice of Lana Lang who quickly drifted over to their table. Bruce waited outside until Clark gave the signal which was a rise of his right little finger before venturing inside the shop.
He could hear what they were talking about as he waited in line to order his milkshake and just as he planned Clark was spouting off some tale about him "Chloe the kid knew what we had been talking about when we were in school on Monday."
"That's it I'm calling an exorcist." Pete joked gaining laughs from the other three teens.
"Oh my God there he is." Lana pointed out
"So do you think he's planning world domination now or after he's took over the political world" Chloe said to the group.
"I don't know but he's kind of creeping me out" Lana said
"But he's just standing there" Clark put in.
Bruce had reached the front and paid for his milkshake. One of the waiters would bring it to him when it was ready and he really wished that he was back in Gotham for a moment. They couldn't wait to see the back of you over there where as here they wanted you to stay in forever even if you didn't buy anything. Small towns were constraining. Bruce ventured over to Clark and his table putting on his woeful face.
"Can I sit with you," he asked
Clark only responded with a glare as he was meant to. Bruce sighed and went into his apology "Look I'm sorry for investigating you (that was what he told people. That Bruce had asked about his real parents and he had gotten upset at the breach of privacy) it was wrong of me. I just felt unnerved. I'm used to having people around me that I know everything about and I never should have done the same to you. You don't work for me and I'm sorry."
Clark pretended to think it over before pulling up a chair and declaring that "So long as you don't pry again I guess it's alright." Bruce beamed at him and with his acceptance to the table Lana left to go and get his and Clark's drinks.
"So Bruce, Chloe Sullivan from Smallville's 'Torch' mind if I ask you a few questions." She asked shaking his hand and already getting her notepad out. Clark muttered a warning at her. "Pay no attention to Clark he's just cranky that Lana's gone. So what are you doing in Smallville. How do you like the town so far? What on earth happened to your hands?"
"I'm here on business. Alfred has to talk with Mr Luthor a lot so I spend a lot of the time on my own but Clark has shown me a lot of Smallville and I really like it. It's quiet and everyone knows each other. It makes me feel safe. As for my hands I fell from a tree."
"A tree?"
"Yeah I found this route that leads to the lake and saw a robin. I thought I could try and capture it but as soon as I got up there it flew off I fell down and the branch cut my hands. Alfred has banned me from climbing them." he muttered sullenly bringing a laugh out of the table.
Lana chose that moment to bring the drinks. It had been at least five minutes since she had left. Bruce was not leaving a tip. "What's so funny then?" She asked setting the drinks down and making sure to brush Clark as she did so.
"Just Bruce's climbing abilities. Hey didn't you climb Clark's barn too?" Chloe inquired
"Yeah but I got stuck."
"I don't know how you got up there." Lana interjected feeling the need to explain "I mean the beam was right in the middle of the barn there was no safe way to get up there without going up to the hayloft"
"I'm a good climber but I can't hang on that well once I'm up." he explained
"Well maybe you should stop. You could hurt yourself" She was back in mother mode.
"Maybe you should get back to your work before you get fired" he said politely
She could detect the scorn in the words though and snapped "You should really be more polite to people. Just because you have money is no excuse to treat people the way you do."
Bruce kicked Clark in the shin as he scowled and soon all the glasses on the table were broken with a sudden smash. Lana stood in shock as did Chloe and Pete whilst Clark just gathered the scowling Bruce up and dragged him out of the coffee shop. He didn't let go until they were in one of the many fields that Smallville had.
"That wasn't how it was meant to go." Clark started
"Sorry."
"It's not your fault" was his reply before he sat down and pulled Bruce with him. "Well it is but you're a kid she's usually more patient with children."
"I'm not that young," he answered wryly "besides who's to say that you haven't been viewing her through rose tinted glasses. A crack has formed and you've started to see the real her."
Clark just gave him a look before leaning back on his hands. They were silent for a while with Clark pondering Lana's behaviour and Bruce picking at the grass and Clarks clothes. "So what are you doing tomorrow then?" He finally asked
"I have to spend the whole day with the Luthors. It's going to be fun." He smiled remembering the joke they played on them. "You?"
"I might go pay Lex a visit."
They smiled at the idea of spending the day together tomorrow as well and started making plans on how they could mess with Chloe and Pete for the remainder of their Saturday.