"I'm worried about Clark." Diana spoke, blunt and to the point. She had requested a meeting with Bruce and J'onn, and the three of them were once again together, in a private room at the Tower.
Normally, Bruce would be quick to dismiss something like this. Certainly part of him still did want to dismiss this, because the complaints were ones he himself was used to dodging and defending against.
Overworking. Lack of sleep. No balance. Really, Clark's behavior was alarmingly like his own. But that was the point and the difference, wasn't it. Because while many had come to accept Bruce the way he was, including Clark himself, Clark was not Bruce.
It was also why Bruce had deemed any criticism on his part hypocritical to the extreme, however he answered Diana honestly, because that was the only way to answer Diana. If you wanted her respect, anyway.
"So am I."
She nodded, as though he had passed her first test. Was he even worthy of discussing this with.
"J'onn?" She added. Requested really. His opinion.
"...Perhaps we all need to place some cards on the table." He reluctantly suggested, piquing Bruce's interest, and causing him to ask.
"What do you know?"
"...Things I probably shouldn't." J'onn admitted.
"While you two speak in riddles, I will say Clark held a memorial for his fallen foes. It did not bring him any peace, but he did it all the same." Diana began, breaking the standstill, and surprising and not surprising Bruce. Not surprised Clark would do such a thing, but surprised that Clark had successfully withheld this from him.
"He told you about this?" Bruce inquired.
"I was there." Another surprising answer, causing Bruce to add, despite how childish it sounded to his ears.
"He didn't invite me."
"He didn't invite me either, Bruce. He didn't invite anyone. And you two can be so blind to each other. Of course he wouldn't invite you."
"J'onn, what do you know?" Bruce changed subjects, allowing himself time to process what Diana had just said.
"Pieces of what Zod said to him."
Bruce had been thinking of what Zod had said to Clark as well. This went against all his instincts, but Diana was confiding in them, asking for assistance. And J'onn, in his own subtle way, had also requested for Bruce to reveal information. That in fact, he was waiting on him to, and, if Bruce was being truthful, he wanted their assistance as well. And if he could not trust these two, there were very few people he could trust, so he braced himself for a bumpy ride and asked.
"Did any of it have to do with me?"
"...Yes." J'onn said, not as reluctant as before. More relieved, than anything. Diana was still in the dark however, and demanded.
"Explain."
"Bruce." J'onn deferred, allowing him the final decision. He appreciated it, and then he came out with it.
"...Clark and I are sleeping together."
He had anticipated disgust, anger, or even confused laughter, but instead, all he received was stony silence, which caused him to speak again. A tactic he deployed often in his own interrogations.
"Speechless, Diana? Maybe we aren't as blind to each other as you think."
"No. You are even more blind to each other." She answered authoritatively, but also in a way that he could not tell how she felt about this, yet he had to concede her a point.
"...Touché. But what exactly are you inferring I'm blind to in this case?"
"...Clark wants what he's always sought from you, Bruce. Your respect. He did not want anyone, myself included, to see him so vulnerable. He would have done it on his own, just as he has a tendency to do everything on his own, a tendency I admit I have no solid ground to judge him about, since I am the same. I do not mind joining forces with you in a planet wide emergency, but it digs at me, to ask you all for assistance in my personal battles. I have swallowed my pride and done it, just as Clark acquiesced to my presence at his private memorial, because that is what allies do for each other."
"I am just as hypocritical here, Diana. I am the one who has publicly discouraged romance between League members. For good reason, I might add."
"...Things happen." She said, and in two words, granting him forgiveness and understanding.
"Is that all." He goaded, despite his relief, because he knew it couldn't be that easy. Things weren't finished.
"Professionally, I should leave it be. Personally, I have many questions. Wait… was it... it was when he stayed at the Manor, wasn't it. After he was injured. Bruce, you devil."
And there was the teasing smile, he was more comfortable with when dealing with Diana, and more comfortable responding with.
"You seem to enjoy painting me in a very bad light."
"You encourage it."
He gifted her a rare grin at that remark, to match her own, only to have J'onn speak up, most seriously.
"That is the trouble, isn't it."
Diana retained her humor regardless. "About Bruce? J'onn, I had no idea you felt the same." Only to be gifted an even rarer, albeit more bemused smile in return. Not many dared joking with Bruce, but even fewer tried with J'onn.
J'onn clarified though, "No. This… joking. The affection and knowledge of each other that lies beneath it. For professionally, I also feel I should leave this alone. Personally, however…"
"We care for each other. I am not afraid to say it." Diana declared. "And Bruce has no compunctions getting information anyway necessary, and neither do I. And I know if you truly weren't going to say anything, you would have said nothing at all. So what did Zod say, J'onn?"
"It was… very personal." J'onn hesitated.
"We're all adults here." Diana argued.
"I can even take a guess." Bruce jumped the gun. "He told Clark I didn't care for him. That I was using him. It's what I would do, if I needed him on my side. Plant doubts. Divide and conquer."
J'onn shook his head in dismay. "He went farther than that, I'm afraid. There is no easy way to say this. You were watched. In Metropolis."
"So Zod is not only a general, but a voyeur as well?" Bruce clarified, through gritted teeth, as Diana's eyes darkened.
"Though the two of you say you have no compunctions, even you have your limits…" J'onn added, reproachfully and regretfully.
"What else did he say?"
"From what I could gather, that you are jealous of Clark and his abilities. In finding out Clark's feelings for you, you discovered a way to overpower him."
"Keep friends close, and enemies closer?"
"That you are the one holding onto the kryptonite doesn't help matters."
"No it doesn't."
"He twisted facts, but left enough truth to make it sting?" Diana summarized.
"The best manipulations are the ones that make ample use of truths." J'onn confirmed.
"And how did Clark react to this?" Diana asked.
"Better than the two of you give him credit for. Nevertheless, afterwards, he was upset enough that I got a glimpse of it, when he contacted me, but, Bruce… he already had doubts."
"...I know that."
"In a relationship that after everything Zod took, is currently Clark's heaviest anchor."
"...I know that too."
"And you are…"
"Me?"
"...Yes."
"And I don't know what to do about it. It's what's so insidious about it. No matter what I do, it could be seen as evidence against me. Any gesture, any attempt to show I care about him, and he cannot believe me. I give him space, and it only proves I never cared in the first place. I keep him close to me at the Manor, and I am controlling him, keeping him under observation. If I… I continue my efforts to learn his language, and it is only more ammunition I have against him."
"You are learning Kryptonian?"
"...Yes. I wanted to surprise him."
"It will stay a surprise. It is a difficult language, though."
"It's going slower than I'd expected…. Diana, you've been quiet. Anything to add?"
"Clark may have doubts, as any of us do in any relationship, but he could never believe that about you, Bruce. He's always seen the good in you. Even when you've refused to see it for yourself."
"I agree, I believe his greatest doubt pertains more to… what he had to do. With Zod and the Kryptonians in the Phantom Zone." J'onn revealed.
"He's wondering if he made a mistake?" Bruce questioned.
"No. But he is grieving. What he sacrificed to save us. His people and his chance to be accepted by them. And though it is painful to witness, I think he is attempting to work it out. To make his peace."
"So let him wander?" Diana wrapped up reluctantly.
"There isn't really much any of us can do to stop him, is there?" J'onn replied, a hint of a humor, along with a large dose of reality, though Bruce added for good measure. "...No, there isn't."
"And you already knew that, didn't you J'onn. This conversation, it wasn't exactly for his benefit, was it?" Diana realized ruefully.
"Not exactly, no." J'onn confirmed.
"It was for us." Bruce finished.
"All of us." J'onn corrected. "On Mars, we didn't differentiate."
"Even though we're a human, an Amazon, a Martian, and a Kryptonian?" Bruce asked, slightly in jest.
"I feel better." J'onn stated, and Diana agreed.
"...So do I. We know you don't Bruce, there's no need to say it. But, all in all, nice talk, boys." Diana bade farewell with a smile, then added, "Oh, and Bruce? Despite everything, I'm happy for you."