"What are we doing?"

He stared into the ceiling with a wondering look, but his partner wasn't known for his conversation skills. Instead he just got up with a pragmatic remark.

"I for one am getting dressed."

"No, Bruce. Seriously!" Clark demanded, turning to his side in order to watch his friend search the room for his tights.

"I mean… What have we been doing all this time? … What are we going to say to people?"

"I have just spent the last 20 minutes getting probed by an alien. Nobody will believe me anyway, so why say something?"

He stopped in the middle of the room with his back to Clark on the stretcher. He placed his hands on his hips and put on a frown while he thoroughly searched the room with a long, single glare.

"You choose to have a sense of humor now?" Clark asked both surprised and irritated.

"I have lately been doing a lot of things I thought I would never do. Like you." He answered in a dry manner, gazing at the ceiling with the same thorough look as he had just searched the floor with. Finally having found his target, he pointed at an air went in the left corner. His pants had somehow gotten stuck in the grid. When he thought on how it happened, he let the crooked smile on his lips reach his eyes.

"Could you get those for me?" he asked politely, knowing Clark didn't like his usual orders.

Clark quickly flew up to grab them, hoping to get just a second of eye contact when he handed them over to his partner. But Bruce had already found his left boot and was gazing after its rightful twin.

"Bruce. Could you please talk to me for just a second?" He handed him the pants, which Bruce took without even looking up. Instead he threw the two boots in front of himself and immediately began to put on his newly retrieved attire.

"To be honest, Clark, this is perhaps the longest conversation I have had for weeks."

They both let the room get filled up with silence for the next 20 seconds or so while Bruce got to put on his pants, boots, shirt and his belt. He had just picked up one of the gauntlets, when Clark, still naked, chose to ruin the peace.

"I'm married for Christ's sake!"

Bruce neglected to bend down and pick up his other glove. Instead he finally looked at his naked friend who had wet eyes.

"I know. I was at the wedding – remember?"

They let the quiet take over the room yet again. Clark clearly saw Bruce's attempt to examine his expression, but he couldn't quite figure out what Bruce couldn't quite figure out.

"Please talk to me." Clark tried again, doing his best to keep eye contact.

Bruce let out a sigh and ran his fingers through his black hair. It had already gotten the first few strains of grey, but many would argue it only made him look distinguished. Clark had often wondered how somehow who gets hit in the face on a weekly basis was able to stay so handsome, but he had of course never asked. Had he, he wouldn't have gotten an answer anyway.

Bruce sat down on the stretcher with his one gauntlet still in hand. Once he put those and the mask on, Clark would lose him for tonight. He knew that. Once the suit was intact, the man behind would get swallowed. Or at least hide the best he could behind it.

"What do you want me to say?" he asked with an honest heart. "That I have a fetish for Kryptonians? That I have secretly been in love with you from the first day I saw you?" He shook his head. "You know I can't do that."

"Then why are we are here?"

Bruce looked down.

"I would be able to take this talk a lot more serious if you would put on some pants as well."

Clark cleaned the room in a split second, standing in front of his partner in full uniform, spit curl and all, before Bruce even had a chance to look up again.

"Well?" Superman demanded. But there was no answer for him.

"Let me ask you this, wedded son of Krypton – why are you here? I for one have nothing to be ashamed of. I have no strings attached. No creationist upbringing forcing me to feel guilty about desiring another man..."

But his clever comeback didn't get a chance to fill the room. Clark answered instantly:

"Because I want you! Because something inside of me, which I cannot control, wants to be with you so bad that even my moral codex can't resist the temptation."

Bruce smoothly put on the gauntlet while he countered Superman's attempt to throw him off balance: "Then let me ask you another question: Why do you need to change that?" He got up to gather his last things.

"Because this is wrong. Wrong in every way!" It was now his turn to look down. Not because he couldn't face Bruce, but because of his own anger and shame.

Bruce hooked the cape to his shoulder straps and pulled up his mask.

"Nice to know even you can be human once in a while."

He sent Superman a crooked smile as a final goodbye before the last piece of his costume was put in place and the conversation ended.