Red Paper Hearts
Title: Red Paper Hearts
Fandom: DC
Pairings: Clark/Bruce
Characters: Clark Kent/Superman; Bruce Wayne/Batman,
Word Count: 1,773
Rating: PG
Warnings: Romance, SAP (complete and total)
Synopsis:
"He eyed it skeptically, reaching out to take the frail red thing between his fingers.
A red paper heart."
Written for bradygirl_12's 2011 DCU Fic/Art Valentine's Day Challenge.
Prompts: Traditional- Red/Roses/Red Velvet/Hearts and probably some others. ;)
Confession: I wrote this really quick. It hit me harder than I thought it would....the sap...romance...that eats at me. :) I'm a romantic at heart.
Red Paper Hearts:
It had been sitting on his nightstand when he woke the next morning.
It hadn’t been there before, knowing the layout of his bedroom apartment before he’d closed his eyes.
He eyed it skeptically, reaching out to take the frail red thing between his fingers.
A red paper heart.
The urge to yawn got the better of him. He did so, taking in the form of the crudely cut thing, jagged and missing a piece on the very edge of it. It was taped together on another side, and it looked like it had been crumpled in someone’s hands before being smoothed back out. The red was faded, stained, and there was a black blotch sitting on the outside of it; the words “Open me” in Black Bold Marker.
He opened it, glancing at the scrawl written on the inside.
The fragile life
of a paper heart
doesn’t end
when it is torn apart
It folds so easily
It tears just as such
It fades in the sun
It doesn’t mean but so much
Yet when it’s in your grasp
That fragile heart shines so
Because only you know
How this simple heart beats so.
There was something more on the dresser. His phone was flashing beside it. He bypassed the flashing lights to grip the stem of a single white rose tinted with the softest blue he’d ever seen. It was a lovely flower, and it smelt heavenly compared to the laundry scented sheets mingled with the missing scent of his lover.
He sat forward, admiring the small gift in his hands.
The morning slipped by with Clark Kent smiling.
“What’s got you in a happy mood Smallville?”
Lois swiveled around in her chair, eyes glittering with the thirst for gossip. It wasn’t everyday that Clark came into the office whistling softly, a small smile on his face and his face glowing with a blush he couldn’t rid himself of. Despite this, and the workload waiting for him on his desk, he was in too good of a mood to let Lois’s soft prodding get the better of him.
Jimmy snickered in passing as Clark just smiled her way and said, “I can’t be a in a good mood?”
“Not without a good reason, no,” she quipped. “Something happened. Something big from the red in your face.”
“Oh leave the man be,” Jimmy said. “It’s V-day. Let him have a moment. I bet he got a nice little gift or something.”
Clark smiled his way, thinking of the usual red paper heart sitting aside the vase holding that rose in it. “You could say that,” he admitted. “It was…rather sweet.”
“I thought you didn’t do V-day,” Lois said.
“I didn’t…at least…not until now anyhow.”
Valentine’s Day. He’d nearly forgotten it with the way things were running these days. Running or flying from place to place left him with little time to remember the days let alone what time it was. It tended to be like that some weeks, and then it tapered off long enough for him to breathe a bit before it all started up again.
But this particular holiday was one he didn’t used to think about. Not until this morning. It was just another day…another day littered with roses, proposals, people running around hyped up on candy and the jewelry industry raking in a cool amount of cash. It was a day of awkward admittances, uncomfortable gestures, and red flaming cheeks…and he for one didn’t enjoy being the only half of it that would go to such lengths.
The day came and went last year…neither one of them really doing anything for the other until that midnight. On the cusp of February fifteenth, his lover had given him a half eaten box of chocolates.
He’d picked out the ones with coconut…because Clark didn’t like them.
This year was different it seemed. Clark wasn’t expecting breakfast in bed or romantic words or soliloquies of love sung to him in Italian. He was expecting to wake up with his lover beside him, but early morning meetings tended to…make that impossible. That was why his phone was flashing. His lover texted him a good morning…and that he wouldn’t be back until late.
Work was work…and one had to work to earn the money needed to live. He did enjoy his simple gift though…it said more than normal words could.
He settled into his desk and prepared to tuck into his workload, but the shadow of a man kept him from it.
“Can…I help you?”
The man tipped his hat lightly. “Clark Kent?”
“Yes Sir?”
“Got something for you. Sign here please?”
Clark took the clipboard and signed his name. Perhaps it was a parcel of some sort from a source.
It wasn’t.
The delivery man winked at him. “Looks like someone wants to wish you a nice V-day,” he said. Clark blinked, jaw working itself open a little as the man handed him a folded heart shaped card about the size of his head. The outside was trimmed with white lace; the paper made of red card stock and expensive looking. On one side were the letters L and O, and on the other the letters V and E. The glitter upon it made it shimmer in the florescent lighting of the office and caught the attention of his coworkers breaking their necks to see.
There was a long white box wrapped in red and black ribbon placed upon his desk alongside a square box of red and pink. Clark chuckled as he picked that up. The pink hearts had bat wings protruding from their heart shaped bodies and in the midst of them was a little cupid and a little devil smiling or smirking up at him.
“You have a good Valentine’s Day Mr. Clark.”
“You too,” he called absently. He was too busy looking over the card to notice the looks half of the office was giving him.
He opened the frilly thing, expecting something just as sappy to be written in it.
The beauty of a paper heart
lies in the eyes of the beholder.
It could be covered in diamonds and gold
or perhaps covered in luck filled clovers.
But in the end when the day is over
it’s nothing more than simple decorations
A moment to tell you what should be said
Without a moment’s hesitation
That I waited so long to tell you this
Is beyond what I could have ever hoped for
In this shining paper heart sitting in your hand
It’s only you…I’ll ever say this for.
I love you.
When he was sure that his heart had come back from its sudden high, and he was sure that his vision had stopped blurring itself from the unexpected tears, he opened the white box to find a set of roses similar to the one sitting in his apartment. He eyed them for a long time, the day slipping by with him smiling once more.
He opened the square box of chocolates a little later only to laugh at the half eaten box sitting in front of him.
His lover had picked the coconut ones out.
Coming back home after a long day was always tiring, more so when you happened to have saved a wayward train of filled with explosives from slamming into another passenger filled train. Clark stretched and cracked his neck. All in a day’s work he supposed.
The darkness of his apartment looming as he opened the door, he was a bit shocked to see the living room lit in the soft lighting of well placed vanilla scented candles all around the room. He’d been looking forward to just plopping down in the bed and not waking up until his lover swung by, but this was nice as well.
He opened the door a bit more, glancing over at the coffee table.
The simple piece of furniture was holding the vase with his first rose, with nine red roses bunched around it.
In front of the warmly lit glass was another red paper heart…this one covered in velvet and simple in nature.
He walked forward, the door closing soundly behind him. He didn’t hear the other set of footsteps lingering behind his, so focused on that card.
He picked it up with trembling fingers, barely able to open in as this morning’s words rang with the melody of the card he’d gotten at work.
The velvet outside was nothing compared to the inside it held…and it wasn’t quite a card.
There was another paper heart inside of it, fluttering gently over the gift hidden inside that remarkably thin little box. He plucked it from the white plush, arms coming to fold around his middle as he read the simple note to himself. It was only a few words, nothing worth noting the New York Times best sellers list for, but the words hit home and left Clark wondering what he’d done to finally be gifted something so priceless.
“You loved me…when I didn’t know how to,” came the answer. Clark turned, the soft light of the room reflecting his lover’s face as it truly was when it was at ease. There was no mask of aloofness, no jovial smile to mask the inquisitive mind hiding under such simple measures. It was an open unguarded look, one full of hope and wonder, and a soft unbreakable love he’d harbored on his own for quite some time.
“Bruce…”
“…you’ve done a lot for me…and I don’t think I know how to…live without it now.” He moved a bit closer, eyes closing as he pressed their heads together, his body shaking with the open admittance of a truth he would never voice easily if he didn’t mean it. “I don’t…think I want to.”
Clark breathed in the scent of him, lips pressed against his own as an answer to the question sitting on that paper heart still in his fingers.
This simple paper heart
is a reflection of mine;
So we were both wondering
Would you always be mine?
His heart screamed yes and he eventually said it as well, though the answer was obvious long before. Clark added the missing two roses to the other ten to make it an even dozen, sitting lovingly on the simple glass coffee table that reflected them twined in the rising moonlight of the night.
The night passed them by with Clark lying in Bruce’s arms, knowing he was truly and deeply loved.
Only Bruce would eat the coconut chocolates Clark so hated and make them taste heavenly when he kissed him.
I might have to do the untraditional prompts next...;)
Fandom: DC
Pairings: Clark/Bruce
Characters: Clark Kent/Superman; Bruce Wayne/Batman,
Word Count: 1,773
Rating: PG
Warnings: Romance, SAP (complete and total)
Synopsis:
"He eyed it skeptically, reaching out to take the frail red thing between his fingers.
A red paper heart."
Written for bradygirl_12's 2011 DCU Fic/Art Valentine's Day Challenge.
Prompts: Traditional- Red/Roses/Red Velvet/Hearts and probably some others. ;)
Confession: I wrote this really quick. It hit me harder than I thought it would....the sap...romance...that eats at me. :) I'm a romantic at heart.
Red Paper Hearts:
It had been sitting on his nightstand when he woke the next morning.
It hadn’t been there before, knowing the layout of his bedroom apartment before he’d closed his eyes.
He eyed it skeptically, reaching out to take the frail red thing between his fingers.
A red paper heart.
The urge to yawn got the better of him. He did so, taking in the form of the crudely cut thing, jagged and missing a piece on the very edge of it. It was taped together on another side, and it looked like it had been crumpled in someone’s hands before being smoothed back out. The red was faded, stained, and there was a black blotch sitting on the outside of it; the words “Open me” in Black Bold Marker.
He opened it, glancing at the scrawl written on the inside.
The fragile life
of a paper heart
doesn’t end
when it is torn apart
It folds so easily
It tears just as such
It fades in the sun
It doesn’t mean but so much
Yet when it’s in your grasp
That fragile heart shines so
Because only you know
How this simple heart beats so.
There was something more on the dresser. His phone was flashing beside it. He bypassed the flashing lights to grip the stem of a single white rose tinted with the softest blue he’d ever seen. It was a lovely flower, and it smelt heavenly compared to the laundry scented sheets mingled with the missing scent of his lover.
He sat forward, admiring the small gift in his hands.
The morning slipped by with Clark Kent smiling.
“What’s got you in a happy mood Smallville?”
Lois swiveled around in her chair, eyes glittering with the thirst for gossip. It wasn’t everyday that Clark came into the office whistling softly, a small smile on his face and his face glowing with a blush he couldn’t rid himself of. Despite this, and the workload waiting for him on his desk, he was in too good of a mood to let Lois’s soft prodding get the better of him.
Jimmy snickered in passing as Clark just smiled her way and said, “I can’t be a in a good mood?”
“Not without a good reason, no,” she quipped. “Something happened. Something big from the red in your face.”
“Oh leave the man be,” Jimmy said. “It’s V-day. Let him have a moment. I bet he got a nice little gift or something.”
Clark smiled his way, thinking of the usual red paper heart sitting aside the vase holding that rose in it. “You could say that,” he admitted. “It was…rather sweet.”
“I thought you didn’t do V-day,” Lois said.
“I didn’t…at least…not until now anyhow.”
Valentine’s Day. He’d nearly forgotten it with the way things were running these days. Running or flying from place to place left him with little time to remember the days let alone what time it was. It tended to be like that some weeks, and then it tapered off long enough for him to breathe a bit before it all started up again.
But this particular holiday was one he didn’t used to think about. Not until this morning. It was just another day…another day littered with roses, proposals, people running around hyped up on candy and the jewelry industry raking in a cool amount of cash. It was a day of awkward admittances, uncomfortable gestures, and red flaming cheeks…and he for one didn’t enjoy being the only half of it that would go to such lengths.
The day came and went last year…neither one of them really doing anything for the other until that midnight. On the cusp of February fifteenth, his lover had given him a half eaten box of chocolates.
He’d picked out the ones with coconut…because Clark didn’t like them.
This year was different it seemed. Clark wasn’t expecting breakfast in bed or romantic words or soliloquies of love sung to him in Italian. He was expecting to wake up with his lover beside him, but early morning meetings tended to…make that impossible. That was why his phone was flashing. His lover texted him a good morning…and that he wouldn’t be back until late.
Work was work…and one had to work to earn the money needed to live. He did enjoy his simple gift though…it said more than normal words could.
He settled into his desk and prepared to tuck into his workload, but the shadow of a man kept him from it.
“Can…I help you?”
The man tipped his hat lightly. “Clark Kent?”
“Yes Sir?”
“Got something for you. Sign here please?”
Clark took the clipboard and signed his name. Perhaps it was a parcel of some sort from a source.
It wasn’t.
The delivery man winked at him. “Looks like someone wants to wish you a nice V-day,” he said. Clark blinked, jaw working itself open a little as the man handed him a folded heart shaped card about the size of his head. The outside was trimmed with white lace; the paper made of red card stock and expensive looking. On one side were the letters L and O, and on the other the letters V and E. The glitter upon it made it shimmer in the florescent lighting of the office and caught the attention of his coworkers breaking their necks to see.
There was a long white box wrapped in red and black ribbon placed upon his desk alongside a square box of red and pink. Clark chuckled as he picked that up. The pink hearts had bat wings protruding from their heart shaped bodies and in the midst of them was a little cupid and a little devil smiling or smirking up at him.
“You have a good Valentine’s Day Mr. Clark.”
“You too,” he called absently. He was too busy looking over the card to notice the looks half of the office was giving him.
He opened the frilly thing, expecting something just as sappy to be written in it.
The beauty of a paper heart
lies in the eyes of the beholder.
It could be covered in diamonds and gold
or perhaps covered in luck filled clovers.
But in the end when the day is over
it’s nothing more than simple decorations
A moment to tell you what should be said
Without a moment’s hesitation
That I waited so long to tell you this
Is beyond what I could have ever hoped for
In this shining paper heart sitting in your hand
It’s only you…I’ll ever say this for.
I love you.
When he was sure that his heart had come back from its sudden high, and he was sure that his vision had stopped blurring itself from the unexpected tears, he opened the white box to find a set of roses similar to the one sitting in his apartment. He eyed them for a long time, the day slipping by with him smiling once more.
He opened the square box of chocolates a little later only to laugh at the half eaten box sitting in front of him.
His lover had picked the coconut ones out.
Coming back home after a long day was always tiring, more so when you happened to have saved a wayward train of filled with explosives from slamming into another passenger filled train. Clark stretched and cracked his neck. All in a day’s work he supposed.
The darkness of his apartment looming as he opened the door, he was a bit shocked to see the living room lit in the soft lighting of well placed vanilla scented candles all around the room. He’d been looking forward to just plopping down in the bed and not waking up until his lover swung by, but this was nice as well.
He opened the door a bit more, glancing over at the coffee table.
The simple piece of furniture was holding the vase with his first rose, with nine red roses bunched around it.
In front of the warmly lit glass was another red paper heart…this one covered in velvet and simple in nature.
He walked forward, the door closing soundly behind him. He didn’t hear the other set of footsteps lingering behind his, so focused on that card.
He picked it up with trembling fingers, barely able to open in as this morning’s words rang with the melody of the card he’d gotten at work.
The velvet outside was nothing compared to the inside it held…and it wasn’t quite a card.
There was another paper heart inside of it, fluttering gently over the gift hidden inside that remarkably thin little box. He plucked it from the white plush, arms coming to fold around his middle as he read the simple note to himself. It was only a few words, nothing worth noting the New York Times best sellers list for, but the words hit home and left Clark wondering what he’d done to finally be gifted something so priceless.
“You loved me…when I didn’t know how to,” came the answer. Clark turned, the soft light of the room reflecting his lover’s face as it truly was when it was at ease. There was no mask of aloofness, no jovial smile to mask the inquisitive mind hiding under such simple measures. It was an open unguarded look, one full of hope and wonder, and a soft unbreakable love he’d harbored on his own for quite some time.
“Bruce…”
“…you’ve done a lot for me…and I don’t think I know how to…live without it now.” He moved a bit closer, eyes closing as he pressed their heads together, his body shaking with the open admittance of a truth he would never voice easily if he didn’t mean it. “I don’t…think I want to.”
Clark breathed in the scent of him, lips pressed against his own as an answer to the question sitting on that paper heart still in his fingers.
This simple paper heart
is a reflection of mine;
So we were both wondering
Would you always be mine?
His heart screamed yes and he eventually said it as well, though the answer was obvious long before. Clark added the missing two roses to the other ten to make it an even dozen, sitting lovingly on the simple glass coffee table that reflected them twined in the rising moonlight of the night.
The night passed them by with Clark lying in Bruce’s arms, knowing he was truly and deeply loved.
Only Bruce would eat the coconut chocolates Clark so hated and make them taste heavenly when he kissed him.
I might have to do the untraditional prompts next...;)