From the Depths of Heart & Soul
Pairing: Clex, JL
Summary: Batman gives Clark advice
Romance, drama, hurt/comfort
Disclaimer: Not mine
Feedback: Pleaseee
From the Depths of Heart & Soul!
Chapter 1
“Why don’t you kill him and just get it over with!!”, Batman was furious.
Superman was lying on the terrace of Lexcorp Towers, bleeding heavily, his costume torn up everywhere, exposing deep cuts in his golden thighs and arms. He was having trouble breathing and pissed-off Batman was not helping.
“You…think…I try…*cough*. Hes…kryptonite beams,” Superman said, his voice barely audible.
“You don’t try hard enough..!” The accusation angered Superman and he was pulling himself up, when Flash stopped him.
“Will you just shut up, Batman! We first need to take him away and get him healthy again. You can yell as much as you want later. Now, come here and help me get him to the chopper.”
Sudden burst of bossiness from Flash surprised Batman and he did as he was told. All the while he muttered under his breath, “…strongest being on earth…hell entire Justice League at his back…and what? He fails take down one, one, human…damn Luthor…with all his kryptoni…” he trailed off, no one was paying any attention to him anyway.
Three days later, Clark had recovered completely, but he was being kept at the JL HQ for one more day, just to be sure.
Clark was getting bored and was about to go find someone just to talk and catch up on all the News, when Batman entered.
“Well, well, well…you seem…healthy today..”
“Thanx, Bruce. I am as good as new.”
“Good. I guess we can talk then?”
Clark knew, he couldn’t avoid this, so sooner its over the better. He sighed deeply and resigned, “What about, Bruce?”
“About you and Lex Luthor,” he raised a eyebrow questioningly at Clark, who shook his head, lowered his lashes and smiled.
“There is no Me and Lex Luthor, Bruce. He is just one hell of an enemy. Smart, intelligent with a real destructive mind…its a lethal combination.”
“You know what I think?”
“I am sure you are going to tell me.. whether I want to hear or not.”
“I think, if you really wanted to, I mean from the depths of heart and soul wanted to, you could have stopped Luthor the first time.”
“And by ‘stop’ you mean killed him”
Batman/Bruce didn’t say anything, just small nods and continued, “Hell, you know what Clark, for that matter Lex Luthor would have ended you, if he..”
“…really wanted to,” Clark cut him off. “I don’t know what things keep running in your mind, Bruce, but surely you must have noticed, its not child’s play to kill me. Neither is it any less difficult to murder Lex. For God’s sake, the man emerged unscathed from like thousands of assassination attempts, most of which were by his own father!”
“You were friends in Smallville, right? I don’t think it was friendship.”
“You are so right Bruce, it was disguised animosity!”, Clark said sarcastically, glint of anger in his eyes, voice dripping with bitterness.
How the hell can he understand what we had, Clark thought
“Actually, I was thinking more on the lines of... ‘something more than friendship’?”
Or maybe he did…
Clark’s head snapped up, surprised, his jaw dropped open and mouth had suddenly gone dry. There is no way Bruce hadn’t noticed.
Bruce smiled as he watched thousand emotions wash over Clark’s face in matter of seconds.
“I take that as an ‘Yes’.”
That brought Clark back and he started blurting out denials immediately, “No! ofcourse not…it is…not like that…”
Bruce waved his hands to make Clark shut-up and said intensely, “Your battles are like lovers’ tiffs Clark, only on a very large scale. I mean look who we are talking about. You are Superman and he is the Lex Luthor. You both never do anything normal, do you?”
“Its nothing like that Bruce, really, trust me.”
“Really? Then why do you go make sure he is being taken care of when he gets injured badly? Why do you go hover around and X-ray to see if he is OK? Think I didn’t know?”
Clark didn’t say anything, just lowered his head.
“Don’t be embarrassed Clark. Your Lex is no different.”
Clark looked up, his eyes hopeful and eager. “Yes, he makes his people call HQ and get info on your health, under the disguise of a ‘Superman Fan’. Everytime. As if that would work, I mean who has the number to this place, except us? Besides, Lex has known Clark Kent is Superman since forever, but he has not disclosed your identity, Clark, guarded it like his own. Why do you think he does that? ”
“How would I know? His mind works in strange ways.”
“Well it definitely doesn’t work the straight way. No pun intended…” He watched, amused, as Clark twitched into what could only be called a smile, and blushed furiously.
Bruce shook his head, sighed and continued, “Anyway, when I tracked down the mystery caller, I took pity, and asked them to release limited information to this one person.”
Clark’s expression went from concerned to thankful. Bruce stood up to leave, “Huh..Think about it Clark, don’t let trivial things like pride and anger and… ego be the obstacles.”
Look who’s preaching.
Clark was looking at the floor all the time and was unable to believe what Bruce was hinting at. He mumbled, “He’s evil. What’s there to think about?”
Bruce stopped at the door, looked over his shoulder, “Maybe, all he wants…needs, is to loose his heart all over again.”
Clark really didn’t know what he was supposed to do. Almost ten years of being enemies..he cant just drop everything go over and declare, “What do you know Lex, I am in love with you. How about we fuck and call it a truce?” Ya, that would go down well! He had no idea how to proceed from here. But he guessed it was worth a shot…If there is any possibility that telling Lex about his feelings would save him, he had to do it…One last sincere effort to save Lex, to have a chance at happy-ending.