jumpscares | Closed

▶ WHO: Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent
▶ DATE: 7-28 (I think?)
▶ WARNINGS: Only if you need warned for excessive snark.
▶ SUMMARY: Superman meets Batman.

Bruce had done a remarkably thorough job of removing himself from either sense of identity he had, between the lack of money, lack of Gotham and having killed.

It was really the last that he couldn't reconcile. The fact that what he had killed was already dead and in defense of someone who was fully alive was... irrelevant to how he viewed the action. He had become the merciless thing that Ra's had tried to turn him into.

By and large he 'handled' that by not handling it at all. By working harder to be a useful presence here. To find supplies, to work on technology and development of what they needed and by making sure that if he left the compound he left alone.

He was just back from one of those excursions when he saw Superman. He was still wearing his body armor, gauntlets, boots even, but he wasn't bothering with the cowl. The cowl was Batman, and Batman didn't kill. He had, therefore -

Yeah, he was a little mentally fucked.

All his reasoning about identity still applied. Most of the people here who knew Batman didn't know him anyway.

He stopped, tilted his head and narrowed his eyes. "Can you be infected by what is happening here? Do you know?"

He was great at small talk. He also had an idea.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"You can help by hauling it back. Until then you can work on coming up with a less insulting and patronizing analogy." God damn affable man. "Maybe something that doesn't imply other people are incompetent or ignorant."

He wasn't really much insulted, but he was a little. Mostly he was - well, still defensive and on edge about the powers, but he was trying not to show that one. He was also heading more or less where he thought they should be going.

"Not incompetent or ignorant, no. You're smarter than I am." He really had no problems admitting that.

(Honestly, he did. A little bit. But he tried to be the better man.)

"But I am faster and stronger. What's wrong with admitting that?"

"I didn't say you weren't faster and stronger." Though that galled him to no end. "I said you were a patronizing dick and that disappearing without warning was rude."

That was better, right?

Sure. Right.

Clark pursed his lips. But it would be stupid to keep on pushing it: whatever Clark's feelings were on the matter the point was that Bruce considered it rude so he should stop doing it. Period.

"Fair enough." He took a couple of quick steps to end up in front of Bruce, guiding them. "But I still think my powers make you feel uneasy."

"Of course they make me feel uneasy," Bruce said, without a single hint of defensiveness or apology. "I don't know their limitations, if they have limitations, or enough about you to trust you with them. You could conceivably be able to kill every person here without a moment of hesitation or effort and nothing could stop you. For all practical intents and purposes you are a bigger threat than the zombies, because you can think, plan, interact and deceive."

That wasn't an accusation. It was a statement of fact.

"Ah."

It was like a very deep cut. He didn't even know the guy that well, even Clark wouldn't call him a 'friend'. But having someone put his deepest fears, his darkest thoughts and the one thing his father had always feared so plainly had sliced him like a knife. And yet it was completely his fault because he'd been the one pushing it.

He had been looking at Bruce, but now he was simply looking to the front, shoulders tense..

"We should get there in 10 minutes tops. We're going fast so probably earlier."

Bruce took in the set of Superman's shoulders, the lack of argument and protest and quickly came to the obvious conclusion. That had hurt, and the issue was something that mattered to the man. He wanted to be seen as he was and trusted, in spite of but not because of it.

Bruce wasn't all that trusting, but he both had a means of manipulation (for positive and negative) and more trust than he'd had.

"If it's repairable you can take it back to the compound and save us the slow trip back." Was that a concession? Kinda. "You've been... enormously helpful here." So far.

"Sure." Sadly, the damage was now done. Clark might be trusting and eager to form bonds but he was also able to hold a grudge and the cut was far too recent. So all he saw at the moment was a man who was trying to put a potential threat on his good side.

"Will you be able to tell i it's repairable right away?"

Clark will live through it. Bruce has found the spot and made the cut, he can make it again or ignore it, depending, but meanwhile he's just going to move on.

"It shouldn't take longer than a minute or two, to know. If there were structural problems you'd have mentioned it, and the working mechanism isn't complicated."

Clark frowned, looking back at the man.

"I'm not an engineer, I only know the very basics because my mother's fridge was old and had an annoying tendency to break down. I don't think I could tell what's wrong with it from so far away."

Bruce actually smiled when Clark walked back to him, but he kept walking. "What I'm saying is that if the box that holds the cold in was broken you would have already noticed and told me, and that if the mechanism is broken it will be easy to fix."

Clark nodded, guessing he could give him that much. The fridge looked just fine from where he was standing, if a little old.

"It doesn't look broken, and we're only like 5 minutes away now." He makes a face. "I wish using a bike was safer around here."

"Good." Bruce kept walking, for a few seconds. He was focused on his project, but he was caught out by the remark - just a little belatedly. "A bike? As in bicycle?"

Clark raised an eyebrow, amused at the slow reaction.

"Yes? I used it all the time. Though I guess it's different in a big city."

Bruce stared at Kal-El, and the suit, and the cape, and thought about the floating and was pretty damned clear that he was still being disbelieving - because he wanted it to be clear. "You rode around on a bicycle. In Metropolis."

The fuck? "You can fly."

He shrugged.

"So? Just because I can doesn't mean I do it all the time. I like using a bike. I also like walking."

"And yet you gave me shit for suggesting you walk instead of float around behind me." A bike? Really? What adult rode a bike? And walked? Even without the ability to fly? Even in a city? "Do you even own a car? Do you take public transportation?"

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