(FIC) Sucker Love
Here's the Brex monster in all it's Placebo-filled glory. Happy Birthday, victoria_wayne! I know this isn't exactly your cup of tea, but... I don't have many muses right now! *makes humble offering and huuuuugs*
Fandom: DCU
Pairing: Bruce/Lex, Azzarello style. But never mind continuity, who needs that?
Rating: R
Word count: 4127
Sumary: Lex and Bruce are true children of their cities, and almost not too different. Almost.
AN: Inspired by Christine, Nadia, Azarello and Placebo. Beta by tmelange, thanks T!
Started on November 17th 2006 at 5:10 pm
Finished on November 18th at 12:43 am
Sucker Love
My heart’s a tart, your body's rent.
“Bruce, I’m flattered to see you here tonight,” Lex said, radiating charm and confidence. The boyish looking man in front of him took his hand without a pause. He had obviously forgotten about Lex’s latest attempt to take over Wayne Enterprises.
So pretty and so young. He couldn’t be but a couple of years younger than Lex himself, and yet he looked so carefree,
completely untouched by the world. Crystal blue eyes reflected everything around him like a mirror, unmarred and content.
“I wouldn’t have missed it for the world, Lex. We don’t see enough of each other, don’t you think?”
The mischievous grin that was flashed his way was tempting, an invitation to correct what the billionaire saw as a mistake.
“I agree, my friend. We should get together more often. After all, we have a lot of common goals, don’t we?”
The lust-filled look that appraised him from behind the glass of champagne told Lex they indeed had common goals: Bruce wanted to be fucked senseless, and Lex wanted to mark the man as his.
A curvy brunette walked past them, draped in a disgustingly loud red dress. Bruce’s eyes were lost in a point just behind Lex’s shoulder for a fraction of second before they strayed to the red clad woman, and he looked back at Lex with a grin that was almost apologetic. Almost.
“Perhaps the next time you’re in Gotham, eh?” Bruce said, turning to follow the new object of his attention. Lex reached out and grabbed his shoulder, stopping his retreat. A flash of something hot and dangerous -Lex would call it anger on a harder man, but Bruce Wayne was too soft for such a withering emotion- flashed in Bruce’s eyes, then disappeared. The spark gave Lex a heady rush. It wouldn’t take much time to be able to play this man like a well tuned instrument.
And then they would play brutally beautiful music together.
“Call me the next time you come to Metropolis,” Lex said amicably, patting his shoulder and sending him on his way to his next beautiful contest.
Bruce grinned. “You got it.”
It didn’t matter who he was pursuing that night, Bruce Wayne was already his.
---
Instead of stressed, I lie here charmed.
Lex turned over, burying his face in the pillow, his arms crossed under it. His harsh breathing echoed obscenely in his ears, and he felt strangely vulnerable lying on his stomach, though he feared his vulnerability had more to do with the company he found himself in.
Lex had gotten involved with a lot of dangerous people through the years, and he had brought a good amount of those to his bed. Yet, none of them seemed quite as dangerous as the man lying next to him, a man who shouldn’t be as rough as he had been, who shouldn’t taste so bittersweet or smell like danger and temptation. The hands that had overpowered him were soft but almost clinical in their precision, yet their touch had burned with untold tales of repressed passion.
Most worrisome had been his eyes, pools of blue that Lex had thought to be a looking glass into the soul of a beautiful but vapid man, and which later had been spiked with hunger and smoldering fire, burning down every barrier that Lex had constructed over the years. Barriers that shouldn’t have been breached tonight, because Lex had brought home a beautiful man willing to be taught and be defiled, not an old wolf who knew pain and danger and could match Lex’s cruel games with an easy smile, a smile that pierced Lex’s chest like a dagger and kept him pinned to the bed like a butterfly. He was being dissected by those eyes, held down by that smile, and all done by this creature he had thought empty and tame.
He turned his head to the man next to him only to find those blue eyes had never wavered in their examination. Lex frowned, uncomfortable, and his wary look was met with a cold knowing smile. It wasn’t that his companion hadn’t been a good sport -Lex was having trouble finding his voice, he never lost control the way he had lost it tonight- it was that he had obviously miscalculated this encounter. He had underestimated the dark-haired man, and he wasn’t sure of yet by how much.
“There’s more to you than meets the eye, Bruce,” Lex said, wincing at the sound of his hoarse voice.
“I have a reputation to maintain, Lex. I thought you would understand the need for subtlety,” Bruce said, giving him a mock disappointed look. He crossed his hands behind his head, the sheets pooling on his lap as he leaned against the bed board. Lex knew he had been fooled by the man’s act as well as his reputation. The real Bruce hid behind a wall of urban niceties and empty conquests, a dark creature within a dazzling shell, a true child of Gotham. Lex reached from under his pillow, tracing the muscles on his companion’s stomach, burying his nails in the hardened flesh of a scar on his side.
“You talk about subtlety, yet you openly display your scarred past to me. You want me to know… what?”
Bruce leaned over him until his lips -those warm, soft lips that shouldn’t be able to make such a thin, sharp smile- were brushing against Lex’s ear shell. “I want you to realize that the most harmless of men can break you, Lex. You are too sure of yourself… and I want to make you doubt,” Bruce whispered darkly, and bit down Lex’s earlobe almost viciously. Lex gasped at the unexpected spike of pain, his breath shaky as the bite was quickly replaced by playful sucking.
Lex turned over, fisting a handful of raven black hair, pulling Bruce’s head back. “You’re most definitely not harmless,” Lex almost snarled, his eyes darting from the laughing blue eyes to the parted lips. “And only knowledge can quench my doubts.” Lex threw himself into the kiss that followed, biting and sucking and battling for control, but he knew he was in no position to win that fight. Bruce had known who they were all along, and Lex had known himself but he hadn’t had a clue about this man.
“What are you?” Lex asked, breaking the kiss and pushing Bruce down. He straddled his hips, his hands traveling down his chest, scratching and touching, pinching and pushing. Bruce’s hands were firmly set on Lex’s waist, rocking him slowly against him.
The question got a low laugh for an answer as Bruce brought Lex down towards him, his hands sliding up from his waist to his back, until their lips were half an inch apart again, their bodies rocking lazily, like there was no need to hurry. Lex’s skin was burning, and the slow pace of their encounter was maddening -a pace that Bruce hadn’t slackened at all, a pace that Lex had had no way of changing through the night- but he refused to give in without an answer this time.
“What are you, Bruce Wayne?”
Bruce bypassed his mouth, licking his way up to Lex’s other ear. Lex was drowning in the sweet smell of cologne, sweat, danger and temptation, his hands gripping Bruce’s waist, every muscle tense and waiting for the cue to release his pent up desire. “What am I, Lex?” Lex could feel the smile in the lips so close to his skin. “I am the night.”
Lex bit down the playboy’s neck, his body shivering in a thrilling spasm as he let his control go for the second time that evening. It was a rush, to blindly plunge into the dark depths of the unknown, unheeding all doubts and fears, hearing only the mysterious whispers of the night.
---
Another love I would abuse
Lex walked into the CEO’s office of Wayne Enterprises unannounced. He had been in the office enough times to come and go as he pleased, though that was a secret that only Bruce’s secretary knew, and she was saving it for a later book deal.
The door slammed closed behind him, and he strode towards the man behind the desk. Bruce never looked up, staring intently into his papers with a look that was half concentration and half boredom. Lex wasn’t sure if the look was a charade or if it was real, and that only infuriated him more. He walked behind the desk, grabbing the billionaire by the lapels of his suit, pulling him up and pushing him against the shelves behind them in a swift move.
Bruce remained impassive, the concentration lines leaving his features, leaving only boredom in their wake.
“You have been lying to me,” Lex said through gritted teeth.
“So?”
“I saw you with the alien. I know who you are.”
Bruce raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow at him, the corner of his lips tugging with the ghost of a cold smile. Lex’s insides were churning with the feeling of betrayal.
“Lex, I told you who I was from the very beginning. I thought you were smarter than this.”
Lex banged him against the shelves again, growling. “I saw you with him, like I’ve seen you with him a hundred times before, only this time there were no masks for you to hide behind… and if that alien thinks he’s fooling anyone with those stupid glasses-“
“He fooled you for a long time,” Bruce pointed out.
Lex slammed him again, a couple of books falling around them from the shelves. “You knew. You lied to me!”
Bruce quickly maneuvered himself out of Lex’s grasp, and straightened his suit jacket. “Are you really this surprised that I didn’t trust you with a full disclosure of my life, Lex? God forbid you’re this naïve.”
Lex picked up one of the books from the floor, trying to collect himself. “Of course I didn’t expect you to tell me everything, Bruce. You’re not capable of that kind of trust.”
Bruce frowned at that, the smile disappearing on the hard set of his jaw. “I’m quite capable of trust. I’m just mindful of where I invest it.”
“You know how dangerous he is. All this time, you were by his side when you weren’t by mine. You’re the other half of his romance with heroics, you betrayed me for that… creature.”
“I know he is dangerous, Lex. So are you,” Bruce said with an eerie calm.
“… so this,” Lex gestured to the space between them, “this has been your plan to keep me under control? Is this how you monitor him, too? Are you fucking him behind my back, Batman?”
Bruce lowered his eyes for a moment. When he looked up again, Lex shivered. The blue gaze was so sharp in its determination -was there a hint of sadness?- that Lex had to make a conscious effort not to look away. “I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t call me that, Lex.” Lex smiled, ready to start turning that knife; he had him with that, his precious secret identity, but Bruce continued talking. “And I’m not sleeping with him. He didn’t want you, what makes you think that he would want me? We’re not that different after all.”
Lex froze at the mention of the yearnings of his youth. He hadn’t thought Bruce would know, but then, he hadn’t known that Bruce was Batman until that morning, when he saw his picture in the papers with the disguised Kryptonian, and who could tell what Batman knew?
“Does he know?” Lex asked after a couple of minutes, almost as an afterthought.
“That I’m a whore?” Bruce had on one of his almost apologetic looks, the one that, if he tried just a bit harder, would be really trying to ask for forgiveness. But he never really tried.
“That too,” Lex said with a small smile, almost willing to forgive him. Almost.
“No. What I do, and why I do it, is no one’s business but my own,” he walked the couple of steps between them, and reached out to straighten Lex’s crooked tie. “Let it go, Lex. You can’t change who I am any more than I can change you.”
Lex pretended to let it go, and that seemed to be good enough for Bruce.
---
Too much poison come undone.
Lex was working on his penthouse, tie undone and cuffs pulled up, the table full with CDs and paper sheets, the soft glow of the laptop screen and the cold white light of the counter area the only lights in the room. Outside, the Metropolis night shone with the brightness of progress, one light for every soul, and thousands more left in the dark.
He heard the grapple line outside, and disconnected the penthouse’s alarms from one of the laptop’s control panels. He heard the window open and the step of heavy boots on the wooden floors.
“I wasn’t expecting you tonight,” Lex said, absentmindedly.
Batman didn’t say a word, he just stood in the middle of the living room awkwardly, an absurd vision in the lavish surroundings, all leather and Kevlar and darkness.
“You want to slip into something more comfortable? You look ridiculous,” Lex said without turning, waving a hand vaguely towards the bedroom.
When after a few minutes he didn’t hear him move, Lex finally turned his chair to face the vigilante, an exasperated look on his face. “What? What is the matter with you tonight?”
“I’m sorry, Lex.”
The words were whisper soft, but in the empty apartment they sounded clear enough. Lex recoiled, wary. “Sorry for what?” No answer was forthcoming, and Lex started to worry. “Sorry for what, Batman? What did you do? Should I be evacuating the building and taking with me all incriminatory evidence?”
Batman sighed, or at least it looked like a sigh to Lex. “No, you don’t have to evacuate. I’m just sorry for being a bastard. I wish I wasn’t, for your sake.”
Lex smiled, standing up. He walked towards the dark clad figure in his living room. “If you weren’t a bastard, I don’t see how we would be together in this mess.”
“Perhaps it would be better if we weren’t,” Batman said, looking away.
Lex circled the vigilante like a prowling cat a couple of times, each time getting closer until he was touching him with his fingertips as he walked. “My, Batman, are you breaking up with me?”
After a tense minute, Batman gave him a small wry smile. “No, Lex, I don’t think I am.”
Lex stood in front of him and grinned dangerously. He knew Batman couldn’t leave him and it was good to see him realize it. “Good. Go change then, you’re leaving mud stains in my living room.”
Batman snorted softly, his shoulders slumping in defeat. He turned and walked into Lex’s bedroom, his cape billowing behind him.
---
There's never been so much at stake.
“What did you do, Lex? What the hell did you do?”
Batman had him against the wall, a gloved hand pressing his windpipe and a furious snarl in his lips. Behind the mask, Lex knew those steel blue eyes would be crackling with rage.
“Take… a guess,” Lex managed, gifting Batman with an accomplished smile despite the lack of oxygen in his lungs.
“He’s going to die, Lex, and I swear I’ll bring you down in the worst way possible if that happens.”
“So… you turn… from me… my love?”
“Fuck you.”
Lex gave him a strangled laugh. “You do.”
With an angry growl, Batman threw Lex across the room. They were alone in the building’s construction site, Superman lying prone on the concrete floor, shivering uncontrollably, sweating and moaning in pain. Batman kneeled by his side and took off the cowl, discarding it. He grabbed the Kryptonian’s hands, holding them in his own, and beckoned him softly. When Superman didn’t respond, he let go of his hands and caressed one damp pale cheek, pleading softly for the alien’s help.
When the alien actually responded, Lex stood up, his annoyance at the boy scout’s resilience quickly overcome by his annoyance at his lover’s tender care.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with you, Kal, you have to help me find out. I need your help, and you need mine. Come on, Kal, work with me, tell me what’s wrong, tell me what to do.”
“Kryptonite…” The alien whispered, closing his eyes with a pained frown.
“There’s no kryptonite here, Kal, it has to be something else…” Bruce pleaded. Bruce, not Batman. Batman was Superman’s partner, and Lex could… perhaps not accept, but at least overlook that, but Bruce was Lex’s lover, and therefore his, and no stupid alien was going to lay claim over the heart that couldn’t be owned by any man. Bruce and Batman already had Gotham, and Lex had whatever was left of Bruce, and there was simply no place for the Kryptonian in that equation.
“Synthetic kryptonite, serial 40591. Oral intake,” Lex said dispassionately.
“You have been poisoning Clark?” Bruce turned to him, his hands still all over the alien. Lex stood behind the playboy vigilante, looking at the prone figure of Superman. “Damn it, Lex! What has gotten into you?” Bruce tapped his earpiece, turning away from Lex. “Watchtower. Pick up for two. Have the Kryptonite detox equipment ready, Superman is in a bad shape.”
Not two seconds passed before the glimmer of the teleport set over the two costumed men. Before he disappeared, though, Lex saw Bruce hang his head down, and the echo of his tired ‘Thank you’ remained with him in the empty room.
---
It's only comfort, calling late.
“So they kicked you out from the Justice League,” Lex said, unable to hide the amusement from his voice.
“Of course they did. I am sleeping with the enemy, after all. They think I have betrayed them,” Bruce said, his attention focused on a broken communicator on the workshop table. Lex had never had much love for Bruce’s cave -it was drafty and cold- though it was obviously a work of the man’s genius and tenaciousness. Lex liked that about Bruce the most, how he pushed himself to be something almost inhuman with nothing but human gifts. Batman was, in a way, a validation of his hopes and dreams.
“Well, I thought you were betraying me and I forgave you.”
“Excuse me? Please, Lex. Don’t bullshit a bullshiter.”
“We’re still together, aren’t we? I’m down here today,” Lex said, picking up a spot welder.
“Hand me that,” Bruce asked, biting the inside of his cheek as he held the communicator closer. “And yes, you are. If we weren’t together, they wouldn’t have kicked me out of the Justice League.”
“Like you care.”
Bruce straightened up, staring at Lex for a long moment. Slowly, a wicked smile overtook his features, and he nodded, going back to welding. “I’ll be back soon enough. It’s a love/hate relationship.”
“You have a weakness for those.”
“It would seem so. Here,” the playboy said, handing Lex the communicator. “Try it out.”
“Batman, this is Lex Luthor. I am in dire danger, my lover is holding me hostage in a drafty cave, and there’s not a decent chair in sight.”
Bruce laughed. “The computer womb chair is an excellent one, mind you.”
Lex turned and started walking towards the monitor womb, Bruce shortly following, curious. Lex sat back in the throne-like chair, crossing his hands behind his head, his winged tip shoes barely touching the ground. “This looks like a perfect place to ravage your hostage.”
Bruce raised an eyebrow, a dangerous glint in his eyes, and he walked over to the chair, looming over Lex. He grabbed Lex’s hands, pushing them over his head and dipping his head for a kiss, biting playfully the other man’s lower lip, and kissing a route down his throat. Lex’s breath was shaky when Bruce pulled away, looking at Lex’s cuffed hands appreciatively. “There are days, Lex, when you amaze me with how right you are.”
Lex pulled at the cuffs, but they were securely hooked somewhere at the tall back of the seat. When Bruce sank to his knees, Lex decided to play along. Some things weren’t worth fighting over.
---
I know I'm selfish, I'm unkind.
Lex sat in the monitor womb alone, waiting for Batman to come back from patrol. At least that was his story; he was easily bored and Bruce couldn’t expect him to stay in the empty manor when there were so many wonderful toys down here.
He stared for several minutes at the program he had written. Bugging the bat-computer was a dangerous thing, chances were Bruce would notice. But then, Bruce’s reaction to something as natural Lex bugging his computer would probably amount to the rolling of his eyes. Bruce couldn’t change the kind of man Lex was, no more than Lex could change him. That had been their safety net, the constant keeping them from doubting each and every move they took together and apart.
Lex rewrote a line in the program, tweaking it a little. It was an elegant solution, and he was happy with it. Bruce could throw a fit if he wanted; Lex wasn’t going to stop himself from doing what he wanted to spare his feelings. Bruce never did.
He ran the program, waiting for the system notifications to go off. Nothing happened. Lex smiled and headed up the stairs, back to the master bedroom.
He would wait for Bruce there, make up for hacking the computer in some other way.
And while he waited, he could plant some bugs in the room. You could never know what might prove to be useful information down the road.
---
There's nothing here but what here's mine.
Lex was sitting in the dark, a glass of red wine in one hand and his cell phone in the other. Outside the floor-to-roof windows of his penthouse, Metropolis gleamed like a jewel, each light a soul, thousands left in the dark. It was a comforting thought, one that came to his mind often. Among those lights, he decided to stay in the dark, but not unknowing, not alone. He was changing the world, one day at a time.
It was the achievement of a lifetime, and there was no better proof of how much Lex Luthor had had to do with the events of the new century than his city, this city that he loved too much and who was a traitorous bitch. A city he gave his heart to, and who loved another, one that didn’t belong to her. That perhaps was the nature of humankind, to desire the things they couldn’t have.
Lex had forgiven Metropolis many years ago, or at least he told himself he had. Metropolis couldn’t help herself anymore than Lex could; she loved Superman as much as Lex loved his dreams for her future. And his dreams, those were untouchable. The Kryptonian had no power over them; they were his and his alone.
The phone rang, and Lex picked up. “You’re late.”
“Excuse me for almost getting my arm torn off by Killer Croc,” the gravely voice answered.
Lex was about to make a ribbing remark, but thought better of it. “Poor baby. Get something for the pain before you go to bed.”
The line stayed silent for a moment, it was obviously not the answer Batman had expected. Lex rolled his eyes. “I don’t want to hear you whining tomorrow. Take some meds.”
The annoyed reply seemed to put the vigilante at ease. “Are you home?”
“Yes. Metropolis is quite beautiful this time of year, especially at night.”
“You would say so.”
Lex chuckled. “How is Gotham?”
Lex could almost see the loving smile of the vigilante, and he could hear it clearly in his voice. “Beautiful.”
“I expected her to be so,” Lex said, his voice full of a knowledge and understanding that he could share with no one else.
“Take care of your city, my Knight.”
“I will. Enjoy your own, Lex.”
Lex hung up, bringing his glass to his lips. The few people -with the exception of Bruce, but Lex was getting used to making exceptions for him- who had seen his penthouse always commented on how empty it was. They had no idea, of course. The penthouse was filled with Metropolis, just like the rest of his life. It would appear to others that there was nothing here, but what was here was his.
He couldn’t have it any other way.
Fandom: DCU
Pairing: Bruce/Lex, Azzarello style. But never mind continuity, who needs that?
Rating: R
Word count: 4127
Sumary: Lex and Bruce are true children of their cities, and almost not too different. Almost.
AN: Inspired by Christine, Nadia, Azarello and Placebo. Beta by tmelange, thanks T!
Started on November 17th 2006 at 5:10 pm
Finished on November 18th at 12:43 am
Sucker Love
My heart’s a tart, your body's rent.
“Bruce, I’m flattered to see you here tonight,” Lex said, radiating charm and confidence. The boyish looking man in front of him took his hand without a pause. He had obviously forgotten about Lex’s latest attempt to take over Wayne Enterprises.
So pretty and so young. He couldn’t be but a couple of years younger than Lex himself, and yet he looked so carefree,
completely untouched by the world. Crystal blue eyes reflected everything around him like a mirror, unmarred and content.
“I wouldn’t have missed it for the world, Lex. We don’t see enough of each other, don’t you think?”
The mischievous grin that was flashed his way was tempting, an invitation to correct what the billionaire saw as a mistake.
“I agree, my friend. We should get together more often. After all, we have a lot of common goals, don’t we?”
The lust-filled look that appraised him from behind the glass of champagne told Lex they indeed had common goals: Bruce wanted to be fucked senseless, and Lex wanted to mark the man as his.
A curvy brunette walked past them, draped in a disgustingly loud red dress. Bruce’s eyes were lost in a point just behind Lex’s shoulder for a fraction of second before they strayed to the red clad woman, and he looked back at Lex with a grin that was almost apologetic. Almost.
“Perhaps the next time you’re in Gotham, eh?” Bruce said, turning to follow the new object of his attention. Lex reached out and grabbed his shoulder, stopping his retreat. A flash of something hot and dangerous -Lex would call it anger on a harder man, but Bruce Wayne was too soft for such a withering emotion- flashed in Bruce’s eyes, then disappeared. The spark gave Lex a heady rush. It wouldn’t take much time to be able to play this man like a well tuned instrument.
And then they would play brutally beautiful music together.
“Call me the next time you come to Metropolis,” Lex said amicably, patting his shoulder and sending him on his way to his next beautiful contest.
Bruce grinned. “You got it.”
It didn’t matter who he was pursuing that night, Bruce Wayne was already his.
---
Instead of stressed, I lie here charmed.
Lex turned over, burying his face in the pillow, his arms crossed under it. His harsh breathing echoed obscenely in his ears, and he felt strangely vulnerable lying on his stomach, though he feared his vulnerability had more to do with the company he found himself in.
Lex had gotten involved with a lot of dangerous people through the years, and he had brought a good amount of those to his bed. Yet, none of them seemed quite as dangerous as the man lying next to him, a man who shouldn’t be as rough as he had been, who shouldn’t taste so bittersweet or smell like danger and temptation. The hands that had overpowered him were soft but almost clinical in their precision, yet their touch had burned with untold tales of repressed passion.
Most worrisome had been his eyes, pools of blue that Lex had thought to be a looking glass into the soul of a beautiful but vapid man, and which later had been spiked with hunger and smoldering fire, burning down every barrier that Lex had constructed over the years. Barriers that shouldn’t have been breached tonight, because Lex had brought home a beautiful man willing to be taught and be defiled, not an old wolf who knew pain and danger and could match Lex’s cruel games with an easy smile, a smile that pierced Lex’s chest like a dagger and kept him pinned to the bed like a butterfly. He was being dissected by those eyes, held down by that smile, and all done by this creature he had thought empty and tame.
He turned his head to the man next to him only to find those blue eyes had never wavered in their examination. Lex frowned, uncomfortable, and his wary look was met with a cold knowing smile. It wasn’t that his companion hadn’t been a good sport -Lex was having trouble finding his voice, he never lost control the way he had lost it tonight- it was that he had obviously miscalculated this encounter. He had underestimated the dark-haired man, and he wasn’t sure of yet by how much.
“There’s more to you than meets the eye, Bruce,” Lex said, wincing at the sound of his hoarse voice.
“I have a reputation to maintain, Lex. I thought you would understand the need for subtlety,” Bruce said, giving him a mock disappointed look. He crossed his hands behind his head, the sheets pooling on his lap as he leaned against the bed board. Lex knew he had been fooled by the man’s act as well as his reputation. The real Bruce hid behind a wall of urban niceties and empty conquests, a dark creature within a dazzling shell, a true child of Gotham. Lex reached from under his pillow, tracing the muscles on his companion’s stomach, burying his nails in the hardened flesh of a scar on his side.
“You talk about subtlety, yet you openly display your scarred past to me. You want me to know… what?”
Bruce leaned over him until his lips -those warm, soft lips that shouldn’t be able to make such a thin, sharp smile- were brushing against Lex’s ear shell. “I want you to realize that the most harmless of men can break you, Lex. You are too sure of yourself… and I want to make you doubt,” Bruce whispered darkly, and bit down Lex’s earlobe almost viciously. Lex gasped at the unexpected spike of pain, his breath shaky as the bite was quickly replaced by playful sucking.
Lex turned over, fisting a handful of raven black hair, pulling Bruce’s head back. “You’re most definitely not harmless,” Lex almost snarled, his eyes darting from the laughing blue eyes to the parted lips. “And only knowledge can quench my doubts.” Lex threw himself into the kiss that followed, biting and sucking and battling for control, but he knew he was in no position to win that fight. Bruce had known who they were all along, and Lex had known himself but he hadn’t had a clue about this man.
“What are you?” Lex asked, breaking the kiss and pushing Bruce down. He straddled his hips, his hands traveling down his chest, scratching and touching, pinching and pushing. Bruce’s hands were firmly set on Lex’s waist, rocking him slowly against him.
The question got a low laugh for an answer as Bruce brought Lex down towards him, his hands sliding up from his waist to his back, until their lips were half an inch apart again, their bodies rocking lazily, like there was no need to hurry. Lex’s skin was burning, and the slow pace of their encounter was maddening -a pace that Bruce hadn’t slackened at all, a pace that Lex had had no way of changing through the night- but he refused to give in without an answer this time.
“What are you, Bruce Wayne?”
Bruce bypassed his mouth, licking his way up to Lex’s other ear. Lex was drowning in the sweet smell of cologne, sweat, danger and temptation, his hands gripping Bruce’s waist, every muscle tense and waiting for the cue to release his pent up desire. “What am I, Lex?” Lex could feel the smile in the lips so close to his skin. “I am the night.”
Lex bit down the playboy’s neck, his body shivering in a thrilling spasm as he let his control go for the second time that evening. It was a rush, to blindly plunge into the dark depths of the unknown, unheeding all doubts and fears, hearing only the mysterious whispers of the night.
---
Another love I would abuse
Lex walked into the CEO’s office of Wayne Enterprises unannounced. He had been in the office enough times to come and go as he pleased, though that was a secret that only Bruce’s secretary knew, and she was saving it for a later book deal.
The door slammed closed behind him, and he strode towards the man behind the desk. Bruce never looked up, staring intently into his papers with a look that was half concentration and half boredom. Lex wasn’t sure if the look was a charade or if it was real, and that only infuriated him more. He walked behind the desk, grabbing the billionaire by the lapels of his suit, pulling him up and pushing him against the shelves behind them in a swift move.
Bruce remained impassive, the concentration lines leaving his features, leaving only boredom in their wake.
“You have been lying to me,” Lex said through gritted teeth.
“So?”
“I saw you with the alien. I know who you are.”
Bruce raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow at him, the corner of his lips tugging with the ghost of a cold smile. Lex’s insides were churning with the feeling of betrayal.
“Lex, I told you who I was from the very beginning. I thought you were smarter than this.”
Lex banged him against the shelves again, growling. “I saw you with him, like I’ve seen you with him a hundred times before, only this time there were no masks for you to hide behind… and if that alien thinks he’s fooling anyone with those stupid glasses-“
“He fooled you for a long time,” Bruce pointed out.
Lex slammed him again, a couple of books falling around them from the shelves. “You knew. You lied to me!”
Bruce quickly maneuvered himself out of Lex’s grasp, and straightened his suit jacket. “Are you really this surprised that I didn’t trust you with a full disclosure of my life, Lex? God forbid you’re this naïve.”
Lex picked up one of the books from the floor, trying to collect himself. “Of course I didn’t expect you to tell me everything, Bruce. You’re not capable of that kind of trust.”
Bruce frowned at that, the smile disappearing on the hard set of his jaw. “I’m quite capable of trust. I’m just mindful of where I invest it.”
“You know how dangerous he is. All this time, you were by his side when you weren’t by mine. You’re the other half of his romance with heroics, you betrayed me for that… creature.”
“I know he is dangerous, Lex. So are you,” Bruce said with an eerie calm.
“… so this,” Lex gestured to the space between them, “this has been your plan to keep me under control? Is this how you monitor him, too? Are you fucking him behind my back, Batman?”
Bruce lowered his eyes for a moment. When he looked up again, Lex shivered. The blue gaze was so sharp in its determination -was there a hint of sadness?- that Lex had to make a conscious effort not to look away. “I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t call me that, Lex.” Lex smiled, ready to start turning that knife; he had him with that, his precious secret identity, but Bruce continued talking. “And I’m not sleeping with him. He didn’t want you, what makes you think that he would want me? We’re not that different after all.”
Lex froze at the mention of the yearnings of his youth. He hadn’t thought Bruce would know, but then, he hadn’t known that Bruce was Batman until that morning, when he saw his picture in the papers with the disguised Kryptonian, and who could tell what Batman knew?
“Does he know?” Lex asked after a couple of minutes, almost as an afterthought.
“That I’m a whore?” Bruce had on one of his almost apologetic looks, the one that, if he tried just a bit harder, would be really trying to ask for forgiveness. But he never really tried.
“That too,” Lex said with a small smile, almost willing to forgive him. Almost.
“No. What I do, and why I do it, is no one’s business but my own,” he walked the couple of steps between them, and reached out to straighten Lex’s crooked tie. “Let it go, Lex. You can’t change who I am any more than I can change you.”
Lex pretended to let it go, and that seemed to be good enough for Bruce.
---
Too much poison come undone.
Lex was working on his penthouse, tie undone and cuffs pulled up, the table full with CDs and paper sheets, the soft glow of the laptop screen and the cold white light of the counter area the only lights in the room. Outside, the Metropolis night shone with the brightness of progress, one light for every soul, and thousands more left in the dark.
He heard the grapple line outside, and disconnected the penthouse’s alarms from one of the laptop’s control panels. He heard the window open and the step of heavy boots on the wooden floors.
“I wasn’t expecting you tonight,” Lex said, absentmindedly.
Batman didn’t say a word, he just stood in the middle of the living room awkwardly, an absurd vision in the lavish surroundings, all leather and Kevlar and darkness.
“You want to slip into something more comfortable? You look ridiculous,” Lex said without turning, waving a hand vaguely towards the bedroom.
When after a few minutes he didn’t hear him move, Lex finally turned his chair to face the vigilante, an exasperated look on his face. “What? What is the matter with you tonight?”
“I’m sorry, Lex.”
The words were whisper soft, but in the empty apartment they sounded clear enough. Lex recoiled, wary. “Sorry for what?” No answer was forthcoming, and Lex started to worry. “Sorry for what, Batman? What did you do? Should I be evacuating the building and taking with me all incriminatory evidence?”
Batman sighed, or at least it looked like a sigh to Lex. “No, you don’t have to evacuate. I’m just sorry for being a bastard. I wish I wasn’t, for your sake.”
Lex smiled, standing up. He walked towards the dark clad figure in his living room. “If you weren’t a bastard, I don’t see how we would be together in this mess.”
“Perhaps it would be better if we weren’t,” Batman said, looking away.
Lex circled the vigilante like a prowling cat a couple of times, each time getting closer until he was touching him with his fingertips as he walked. “My, Batman, are you breaking up with me?”
After a tense minute, Batman gave him a small wry smile. “No, Lex, I don’t think I am.”
Lex stood in front of him and grinned dangerously. He knew Batman couldn’t leave him and it was good to see him realize it. “Good. Go change then, you’re leaving mud stains in my living room.”
Batman snorted softly, his shoulders slumping in defeat. He turned and walked into Lex’s bedroom, his cape billowing behind him.
---
There's never been so much at stake.
“What did you do, Lex? What the hell did you do?”
Batman had him against the wall, a gloved hand pressing his windpipe and a furious snarl in his lips. Behind the mask, Lex knew those steel blue eyes would be crackling with rage.
“Take… a guess,” Lex managed, gifting Batman with an accomplished smile despite the lack of oxygen in his lungs.
“He’s going to die, Lex, and I swear I’ll bring you down in the worst way possible if that happens.”
“So… you turn… from me… my love?”
“Fuck you.”
Lex gave him a strangled laugh. “You do.”
With an angry growl, Batman threw Lex across the room. They were alone in the building’s construction site, Superman lying prone on the concrete floor, shivering uncontrollably, sweating and moaning in pain. Batman kneeled by his side and took off the cowl, discarding it. He grabbed the Kryptonian’s hands, holding them in his own, and beckoned him softly. When Superman didn’t respond, he let go of his hands and caressed one damp pale cheek, pleading softly for the alien’s help.
When the alien actually responded, Lex stood up, his annoyance at the boy scout’s resilience quickly overcome by his annoyance at his lover’s tender care.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with you, Kal, you have to help me find out. I need your help, and you need mine. Come on, Kal, work with me, tell me what’s wrong, tell me what to do.”
“Kryptonite…” The alien whispered, closing his eyes with a pained frown.
“There’s no kryptonite here, Kal, it has to be something else…” Bruce pleaded. Bruce, not Batman. Batman was Superman’s partner, and Lex could… perhaps not accept, but at least overlook that, but Bruce was Lex’s lover, and therefore his, and no stupid alien was going to lay claim over the heart that couldn’t be owned by any man. Bruce and Batman already had Gotham, and Lex had whatever was left of Bruce, and there was simply no place for the Kryptonian in that equation.
“Synthetic kryptonite, serial 40591. Oral intake,” Lex said dispassionately.
“You have been poisoning Clark?” Bruce turned to him, his hands still all over the alien. Lex stood behind the playboy vigilante, looking at the prone figure of Superman. “Damn it, Lex! What has gotten into you?” Bruce tapped his earpiece, turning away from Lex. “Watchtower. Pick up for two. Have the Kryptonite detox equipment ready, Superman is in a bad shape.”
Not two seconds passed before the glimmer of the teleport set over the two costumed men. Before he disappeared, though, Lex saw Bruce hang his head down, and the echo of his tired ‘Thank you’ remained with him in the empty room.
---
It's only comfort, calling late.
“So they kicked you out from the Justice League,” Lex said, unable to hide the amusement from his voice.
“Of course they did. I am sleeping with the enemy, after all. They think I have betrayed them,” Bruce said, his attention focused on a broken communicator on the workshop table. Lex had never had much love for Bruce’s cave -it was drafty and cold- though it was obviously a work of the man’s genius and tenaciousness. Lex liked that about Bruce the most, how he pushed himself to be something almost inhuman with nothing but human gifts. Batman was, in a way, a validation of his hopes and dreams.
“Well, I thought you were betraying me and I forgave you.”
“Excuse me? Please, Lex. Don’t bullshit a bullshiter.”
“We’re still together, aren’t we? I’m down here today,” Lex said, picking up a spot welder.
“Hand me that,” Bruce asked, biting the inside of his cheek as he held the communicator closer. “And yes, you are. If we weren’t together, they wouldn’t have kicked me out of the Justice League.”
“Like you care.”
Bruce straightened up, staring at Lex for a long moment. Slowly, a wicked smile overtook his features, and he nodded, going back to welding. “I’ll be back soon enough. It’s a love/hate relationship.”
“You have a weakness for those.”
“It would seem so. Here,” the playboy said, handing Lex the communicator. “Try it out.”
“Batman, this is Lex Luthor. I am in dire danger, my lover is holding me hostage in a drafty cave, and there’s not a decent chair in sight.”
Bruce laughed. “The computer womb chair is an excellent one, mind you.”
Lex turned and started walking towards the monitor womb, Bruce shortly following, curious. Lex sat back in the throne-like chair, crossing his hands behind his head, his winged tip shoes barely touching the ground. “This looks like a perfect place to ravage your hostage.”
Bruce raised an eyebrow, a dangerous glint in his eyes, and he walked over to the chair, looming over Lex. He grabbed Lex’s hands, pushing them over his head and dipping his head for a kiss, biting playfully the other man’s lower lip, and kissing a route down his throat. Lex’s breath was shaky when Bruce pulled away, looking at Lex’s cuffed hands appreciatively. “There are days, Lex, when you amaze me with how right you are.”
Lex pulled at the cuffs, but they were securely hooked somewhere at the tall back of the seat. When Bruce sank to his knees, Lex decided to play along. Some things weren’t worth fighting over.
---
I know I'm selfish, I'm unkind.
Lex sat in the monitor womb alone, waiting for Batman to come back from patrol. At least that was his story; he was easily bored and Bruce couldn’t expect him to stay in the empty manor when there were so many wonderful toys down here.
He stared for several minutes at the program he had written. Bugging the bat-computer was a dangerous thing, chances were Bruce would notice. But then, Bruce’s reaction to something as natural Lex bugging his computer would probably amount to the rolling of his eyes. Bruce couldn’t change the kind of man Lex was, no more than Lex could change him. That had been their safety net, the constant keeping them from doubting each and every move they took together and apart.
Lex rewrote a line in the program, tweaking it a little. It was an elegant solution, and he was happy with it. Bruce could throw a fit if he wanted; Lex wasn’t going to stop himself from doing what he wanted to spare his feelings. Bruce never did.
He ran the program, waiting for the system notifications to go off. Nothing happened. Lex smiled and headed up the stairs, back to the master bedroom.
He would wait for Bruce there, make up for hacking the computer in some other way.
And while he waited, he could plant some bugs in the room. You could never know what might prove to be useful information down the road.
---
There's nothing here but what here's mine.
Lex was sitting in the dark, a glass of red wine in one hand and his cell phone in the other. Outside the floor-to-roof windows of his penthouse, Metropolis gleamed like a jewel, each light a soul, thousands left in the dark. It was a comforting thought, one that came to his mind often. Among those lights, he decided to stay in the dark, but not unknowing, not alone. He was changing the world, one day at a time.
It was the achievement of a lifetime, and there was no better proof of how much Lex Luthor had had to do with the events of the new century than his city, this city that he loved too much and who was a traitorous bitch. A city he gave his heart to, and who loved another, one that didn’t belong to her. That perhaps was the nature of humankind, to desire the things they couldn’t have.
Lex had forgiven Metropolis many years ago, or at least he told himself he had. Metropolis couldn’t help herself anymore than Lex could; she loved Superman as much as Lex loved his dreams for her future. And his dreams, those were untouchable. The Kryptonian had no power over them; they were his and his alone.
The phone rang, and Lex picked up. “You’re late.”
“Excuse me for almost getting my arm torn off by Killer Croc,” the gravely voice answered.
Lex was about to make a ribbing remark, but thought better of it. “Poor baby. Get something for the pain before you go to bed.”
The line stayed silent for a moment, it was obviously not the answer Batman had expected. Lex rolled his eyes. “I don’t want to hear you whining tomorrow. Take some meds.”
The annoyed reply seemed to put the vigilante at ease. “Are you home?”
“Yes. Metropolis is quite beautiful this time of year, especially at night.”
“You would say so.”
Lex chuckled. “How is Gotham?”
Lex could almost see the loving smile of the vigilante, and he could hear it clearly in his voice. “Beautiful.”
“I expected her to be so,” Lex said, his voice full of a knowledge and understanding that he could share with no one else.
“Take care of your city, my Knight.”
“I will. Enjoy your own, Lex.”
Lex hung up, bringing his glass to his lips. The few people -with the exception of Bruce, but Lex was getting used to making exceptions for him- who had seen his penthouse always commented on how empty it was. They had no idea, of course. The penthouse was filled with Metropolis, just like the rest of his life. It would appear to others that there was nothing here, but what was here was his.
He couldn’t have it any other way.