Fic: A Certain Thought that Lingers - (6/20) (Clark/Bruce)
Title: A Certain Thought that Lingers
Pairing: Superman/Batman
Rating: R
Verse: DCU/DCAU
Word Count: 13,439
Summary: The decision to use a telepathic link to allow the Justice League to communicate during battle backfires, creating a special bond between Superman and Batman. Batman finds the situation...unbearable.
VI.
Two months after that exchange in the conference room, Clark was surprised to realize that Batman was actually making an effort to be less…Batman-like in their dealings. Even Wally commented upon the new détente between the Big Two, though jokingly. Whatever new day had dawned, team meetings were much less acrimonious, and for that, Clark was grateful, even though Batman’s overt hostility had changed to a sort of watchfulness that had Clark constantly on edge. It was unnerving to turn his head at any moment and catch Batman looking in his direction, studying him from behind the mask and those annoying white lenses that hid his eyes.
The team’s activities were limited to a series of petty incidents that hardly required their collected effort. The rest of their time was taken up by the planning around the new orbital Watchtower that would be their first official home base. The team gravitated naturally to smaller groups to handle anything that didn’t require their full strength, with Batman, Flash, Hawkgirl and Wonder Woman in one group, and Superman, Green Lantern and J’onn in another. Consequently, there was not much of an opportunity to further test the effectiveness of the link, but Clark did spend many days wondering why Batman could manage to be so positively charming to Diana, and why his relationship with Wally contained a tolerance bordering on amusement, and why Shayera’s opinion seemed to merit respect while other opinions were simply disregarded.
Like his own.
Thus, things had reached a sort of equilibrium-until the day Mongul attacked Metropolis.
Clark had to admit: Mongul always worried him. He was strong, and fighting him was never…easy. But when he placed himself between Mongul and his city and took the brunt of the alien's attack upon himself, he knew it simply had to be done, no matter what the cost. He was the only one who could survive the beating, and it gave the others time to-
There was an explosion-which was the least of his worries as he struggled to maintain consciousness, to break the hold around his neck. Not to drown in the blood pouring from his nose, the blood pooling in his mouth. Then he was free, and on the ground-and instead of Mongul moving in for the kill there was Batman, blocking out the sun.
Twenty seconds before everything faded entirely, Clark thought he had died for real this time. Batman-Batman-was by his side, amidst the smoke and the debris, pulling his head into his lap.
“Stupid Boy Scout. What were you thinking?”
Clark coughed, tried to respond but the pounding in his head overtook conscious thought, and the hand in his hair, gently smoothing it back from his face, made it impossible for his eyes to stay open. The very last thing he remembered before his vision faded to black was realizing, wonderingly, that Batman had taken off his gauntlets, and that his hands-his hands-were…
Pairing: Superman/Batman
Rating: R
Verse: DCU/DCAU
Word Count: 13,439
Summary: The decision to use a telepathic link to allow the Justice League to communicate during battle backfires, creating a special bond between Superman and Batman. Batman finds the situation...unbearable.
VI.
Two months after that exchange in the conference room, Clark was surprised to realize that Batman was actually making an effort to be less…Batman-like in their dealings. Even Wally commented upon the new détente between the Big Two, though jokingly. Whatever new day had dawned, team meetings were much less acrimonious, and for that, Clark was grateful, even though Batman’s overt hostility had changed to a sort of watchfulness that had Clark constantly on edge. It was unnerving to turn his head at any moment and catch Batman looking in his direction, studying him from behind the mask and those annoying white lenses that hid his eyes.
The team’s activities were limited to a series of petty incidents that hardly required their collected effort. The rest of their time was taken up by the planning around the new orbital Watchtower that would be their first official home base. The team gravitated naturally to smaller groups to handle anything that didn’t require their full strength, with Batman, Flash, Hawkgirl and Wonder Woman in one group, and Superman, Green Lantern and J’onn in another. Consequently, there was not much of an opportunity to further test the effectiveness of the link, but Clark did spend many days wondering why Batman could manage to be so positively charming to Diana, and why his relationship with Wally contained a tolerance bordering on amusement, and why Shayera’s opinion seemed to merit respect while other opinions were simply disregarded.
Like his own.
Thus, things had reached a sort of equilibrium-until the day Mongul attacked Metropolis.
Clark had to admit: Mongul always worried him. He was strong, and fighting him was never…easy. But when he placed himself between Mongul and his city and took the brunt of the alien's attack upon himself, he knew it simply had to be done, no matter what the cost. He was the only one who could survive the beating, and it gave the others time to-
There was an explosion-which was the least of his worries as he struggled to maintain consciousness, to break the hold around his neck. Not to drown in the blood pouring from his nose, the blood pooling in his mouth. Then he was free, and on the ground-and instead of Mongul moving in for the kill there was Batman, blocking out the sun.
Twenty seconds before everything faded entirely, Clark thought he had died for real this time. Batman-Batman-was by his side, amidst the smoke and the debris, pulling his head into his lap.
“Stupid Boy Scout. What were you thinking?”
Clark coughed, tried to respond but the pounding in his head overtook conscious thought, and the hand in his hair, gently smoothing it back from his face, made it impossible for his eyes to stay open. The very last thing he remembered before his vision faded to black was realizing, wonderingly, that Batman had taken off his gauntlets, and that his hands-his hands-were…