Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to either Batman, Superman, or anything else within the DC universe, it is all owned by DC Comics, the creators, Warner Bros. and what have you. Not making any profit, just writing for enjoyment.

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Warning: Strong Sexual Content. Apologies if anyone seems out of character.

AU where Clark and Lois were never together.

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Reaching Out and Falling Hard

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It was late night over the city of Metropolis, with the skies clear and the moon full and bright. The air was crisp and clean in Clark's nostrils as he breathed in deep and hovered high above the bright city he called home. His crimson cape billowed about him in the high wind, but Clark paid it no mind for his clear blue eyes were not focused on his own city so far down below him. No, his eyes were trained across the dark blue bay, where an older, darker city skyline loomed.

Gotham City.

The Gothic, old-world city that was the polar opposite of Metropolis and its silvery modernity. As he gazed at the far off city, Clark's mind soon turned to Gotham's most famous and feared resident.

Batman. The Dark Knight, the vigilante who branded criminals and as good as sentenced them to death once they reached the iron walls of prison.

Gotham was his city.

These last few weeks, with everything that was going on with the debacle of Nairomi and the crap being piled onto his shoulders as Superman, Clark had delved into his research of Gotham's enigmatic protector with gusto, for it was a nice reprieve from hearing just how much Superman was a fuck up, an alien who had no place here on Earth, who did plenty of damage but never enough good.

With a sigh, Clark shook away the melancholic thoughts and instead reached a decision about something that had been bugging him all week.

" Leap of faith now, trust later... maybe." Clark mumbled under his breath, remembering the Smallville reverend's words before he rose up a little higher into the air and the shot forward with a light pop of the air.

He soared through the air, Metropolis passing beneath him fast as he made his way across the city, and then the bay, the darker skyline of Gotham rapidly approaching. As he flew, Clark felt his heart pounding. Despite the belief that he was indestructible, it wasn't true that Superman never felt nervous or unsure. He felt nervous about a great deal, from Perry chewing him out for not getting an article in on time, to letting Lois down even if they were no longer together. Right now he felt nervous about essentially invading someone else's city and then coming face to face with said protector.

Clark was not going to underestimate someone who's been at it for so long.

Clark came to a stop and hovered high up just within Gotham City limits. Closing his eyes and focusing his super-sensitive hearing, Clark cut through the ever present din of the world and began his search by listening for anything that might lead him in the right direction.

There were the usual criminal grumblings, and crimes that Clark forced himself to ignore, and regular civilian chatter.

Then, towards the North of the city, Clark caught the sound of a slow, steady heartbeat that appeared to be resonating from a great height. Deciding to start there, Clark smoothly soared further into Gotham. As he followed the heartbeat carefully, Clark pinpointed it to a tall, imposing tower of old-world design, with snarling Gargoyles adoring its battlements.

Taking a deep breath, Clark slowly began his descent.

Meanwhile, at said tower...

" Surprisingly quiet evening, wouldn't you say Master Wayne?" Came the forever sophisticated voice of Alfred Pennyworth through the com-link.

From where he stood atop the head of one of the huge, roaring Gargoyles that adorned each of the eight corners of the octagon shaped towering, Batman gazed down at Gotham with his long, black cape billowing about his in the wind.

" Surprisingly." Bruce replied, his voice an electronically masked growl as he concurred with his longtime friend. It had indeed been a quiet night, with Bruce having to only foil an attempted bank robbery on the South side and thoroughly trounce an escaped Mad Hatter before sending the lunatic back to Arkham.

As he stood there, ever the watchful sentinel, Bruce's mind inevitably turned to the target of his wrath and rage.

Superman.

Bruce felt his insides boil at the very thought of Metropolis' shining hero, the so-called God on Earth.

Bruce knew different, the survivors of Wayne financial knew different, now the people devastated in Nairomi knew different.

Superman was no God, no savior, the alien was a destructive menace, a ticking time bomb, a being who could destroy every single person on the planet if he wanted to, and they was nothing stopping him from one day wanting to. The alien was docile now, helpful according to those caught under the spell. Bruce saw him for what he really was.

Superman is a destroyer who brought other aliens to their world who nearly destroyed it all, he was a threat, he was...

Floating just a few feet away from him.

" Well, shit." Bruce thought eloquently, his years of training helping him keep his face neutral as the very man he had been so heatedly and hatefully thinking about had suddenly materialized right in front of him.

" Hi." Clark said as he stared at the tall, imposing figure standing on the head of a Gargoyle, looking every bit as menacing as his reputation held him out to be.

" What the Hell are you doing here alien?" Bruce growled, his earlier surprise quickly replaced with hot displeasure.

Clark bristled at being called an alien with so much venom, but instead forced himself to stay calm as he spoke.

" I am not here to cause any trouble, I just wanted to talk to you." Clark said quietly.

Bruce wanted nothing more than to throw one of his biggest grenades at the alien's face and make his escape, but something about the way Superman looked made him pause. As he scrutinized the alien, Bruce was reluctantly intrigued by what he saw.

He was young, almost painfully so, but there was a weariness in his features, a sadness that seemed out of place. While still feeling on high alert, but quashing down the urge to leave, Bruce decided to go out on a limb.

" Talk." He growled simply.

Clark blinked before he shook himself of his surprise and scrambled to speak.

" You know about Nairomi? Wait no, of course you know about Nairomi. Everyone does." Clark muttered before he shook his head and floated closer to Batman.

Bruce's eyes narrowed in suspicion as Superman drew closer, but he stood his ground and stayed silent as Clark continued.

" I didn't kill those men, someone else did and made it look like I decided to be judge, jury, and executioner with my heat vision." Clark said seriously.

" Isn't the temptation there?" Bruce drawled.

" Says the guy that likes to full on burn his mark into people's flesh." Clark countered sharply crossing his arms.

The pair glared at each other, both of the their heckles raised, the tension hot and coiling between them. But then just as quickly, Clark deflated, and Bruce was not above admitting the abrupt change in Superman's demeanor startled him a little.

" This is it, this is exactly it." Clark muttered more to himself as he reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose.

" What?" Bruce barked in annoyance.

" This, us hating each other and being at each other's throats." Clark replied as he looked back up.

" Start making sense alien, or we are done here." Bruce demanded sharply.

Clark glared momentarily at Batman for yet again calling him alien, but quickly quashed the anger as he spoke.

" Someone set me up for the massacre in Nairomi, and now I think they're setting you up too." Clark said finally.

" Prove it." Bruce replied bluntly.

" I don't have anything concrete, but the last man you branded, Cesar Santos. I am sure you know he was killed in prison." Clark said, feeling anger as the man's grieving wife's face flitted across his vision.

" What about him?" Bruce growled, feeling maybe a small twinge of guilt over Santos' fate.

" I looked into the prison records, he was originally placed in solitary confinement in Gotham Central, then for no reason he was moved to Metropolis Corrections and placed back into general population. He got shivved only a day or so later." Clark explained.

" That's not anything out of the ordinary. Prisoner's get moved." Bruce challenged.

" I know, but Santos' death, moving him from Gotham all the way to Metropolis where I am, got me thinking I should look deeper and I discovered that six other men who you branded and put away to different prisons ended up getting killed in similar fashion, all of them moved from Gotham to Metropolis." Clark said.

Now this definitely struck Bruce's interest.

" So you think there is a pattern." Bruce stated gruffly, the cogwheels in his own head turning.

" Yes, one designed to make you look worse than you actually are, because I believe that's what happened with me regarding Nairomi." Clark said with a nod before he sighed and floated the rest of the way down so that he came to land on the Gargoyle. He stood arm's length from Batman now as he spoke.

" Believe me or don't, but something just doesn't feel right, about any of this. Someone framed me for something terrible and a whole lot of people have written me off as this alien threat that shouldn't be here." Clark said, before he let a humorless smile quirk up the corners of his mouth as he looked Batman square in the eye as he continued.

" I get the feeling you've written me off too."

Bruce met Clark's gaze with unapologetic dark eyes, but he did feel the tiniest twinge in his gut as he remained tellingly silent.

Clark shook his head and continued to smile humorlessly as he spoke.

" Well I am not going to do that with you." He declared with surety.

" Cause you're such a saint." Bruce hissed as his glared balefully at the Kryptonian.

Clark clenched his jaw, needing to use all of his will power to keep his eyes from flaring with heat. Instead he just sighed and shook his head as he spoke.

" No, it's because I'd spare anyone from going through what I am going through right now, from feeling what I am feeling, even you." Clark said, something inside himself finally crumbling a bit.

Bruce blinked and felt his insides freeze in cold shock at these words. The pair stared at each other in silence, the air between them charged. Bruce had been expecting bravado, arrogance, the alien telling him to hang up his cape or something. Instead, all he could see before him was an otherworldly being looking both painfully young, and sad to his very core.

" Well that's it I guess." Clark said with a light shrug before he turned, preparing to take flight.

Bruce snapped out of his inaction quickly.

" Wait." He said, holding up a gloved hand, as though reaching out to Superman.

Clark turned and sent Bruce a look of curiosity. Feeling a little off balance, Bruce kept his expression neutral even with his cowl firmly in place as he spoke.

" If you're so sure that there is something going on, why did you come to me rather than just taking care of it yourself?" Bruce asked as he stepped closer to Clark.

Clark just shook his head.

" That's the thing, I don't have anything solid to go on, just my own suspicions and a string of dead men." Then Clark ducked his head and almost looked shy.

" And I came here to talk to you because I didn't want to just jump to conclusions. You've been a vigilante for decades and I only got my cape a couple of years ago. I looked up some of your earlier escapades. You weren't always this brutal towards criminals and... you didn't always work alone." Clark said softly, knowing he was headed into dangerous territory.

Bruce felt his heart grind to a dead halt inside his chest at Superman's words. It took all Bruce had in him not to just turn tail and run. Superman's words, and the way the alien was gazing at him with non-judgment and understanding in his clear, striking blue eyes had Bruce feeling like he was flayed open, exposed. Staying calm, Bruce took a small step forward and spoke.

" You don't know me." He growled menacingly.

Superman stood his ground and kept his gaze squarely meeting Batman's as he too took a step closer and spoke.

" You're right I don't, we only just came face to face, and your recent actions haven't earned you any favors." Clark began, before he deflated a little and continued.

" But I don't think you're the bad guy here, I just think-"

" That I am just a bloodthirsty brute? Well that's rich coming from the guy that wrecked almost all of Metropolis and got thousands of people killed." Bruce sneered hatefully, not wanting to here any more of Superman's honeyed words.

Bruce was hoping to goad, hoping to push the alien over the edge despite that rational part of him screaming that he was seriously outmatched and outgunned at the moment. Instead of Superman getting angry, Bruce watched as he smiled at him sadly yet again and shake his head.

" No, you're the one who just called yourself a bloodthirsty brute, not me. And before you so rudely interrupted me, what I was going to say is that I think that when you started out being The Bat, it was because you wanted to make a difference, you were the good guy who wanted to make Gotham better."

Bruce clenched his jaw and felt his heart racing a mile a second as he glared balefully at Clark through his ever-frowning cowl.

" Just what the hell are you playing at?" Bruce growled, a part of him thrown completely off kilter by Clark's unexpectedly gentle words.

" I'm not playing at anything, I just wanted you to know that I believe someone else is trying their hardest to make us into enemies and it almost worked too, but like I said, I am not going to just write you off like everyone has written me off. I think that deep down, you're still one of the good guys, but that somewhere in all the years that have gone by, you've lost your way. I mean, the way you've been acting and the way you've been treating people, you've got so much rage in you it's almost like a fever that's burned away the hero and turned you cruel." Clark said firmly.

Bruce was stunned where he stood, his heart slamming to a stop as Clark's words, almost exactly like Alfred's, rammed into his psyche.

Swallowing thickly, Bruce steadied his nerve and spoke.

" You should go." He said, his earlier growl now a low rumble.

Clark blinked, but then stood up straighter and nodded. He then turned and looked up towards the night sky, the air around him vibrating as he prepared to take off.

" Hold on." Came Batman's low grumble behind him.

Clark turned back around to gaze at Batman, who stood just as tall and menacing with his silky black cape billowing about him in the wind.

Bruce stepped closer to Clark, his mind racing after their highly charged encounter. Doing all that he could to look outwardly neutral and not give away his underlying intention as he subtly reached into one of the compartments of his utility belt, Bruce spoke.

" This was not how I pictured we would come face to face." Bruce began, watching as a humorless smirk quirked up the corner of Superman's lips as he spoke.

" Were you thinking of something more along the lines of a knock down, drag out fight to the death in the pouring rain or something just as equally melodramatic?" Clark quipped.

Bruce pursed his lips in an effort to keep the chuckle that bubbled up inside him from coming out. He was Batman after all. He allowed a small quirk of his own lips as he stayed pointedly silent. Then after a beat, Bruce spoke.

" Maybe, but you did bring some things to my attention. I'll look into it." He said, subtly flicking his wrist, sending the minuscule tracking device he had taken out of his belt flying towards Superman's billowing red cape.

Clark blinked and then nodded.

" Thank you for listening."

There was a beat of silence that quickly grew awkward, both men trying not to fidget. It was Clark who finally broke the impasse.

" I'll get out of your hair. See you later." He said quickly before he turned his gaze up to the heavens and shot off the roof with a loud sonic boom.

Bruce watched as Superman became a smaller and smaller dot in the sky heading back across the bay towards Metropolis until finally disappearing entire.

Bruce then reached into another pocket of his belt and pulled out a rectangular device that looked about the same size as an iPhone. He flicked the screen open to reveal a light blue geographic background with a little red dot that was blinking as it moved.

" Interesting conversation, wouldn't you say Master Wayne?" Came a knowing and slightly smug British accent in Bruce's ear.

Alfred, and it appeared that he had heard everything.

Bruce just grunted in acknowledgment.

" Well, your so called harbinger of doom and destruction seemed a rather polite and thoughtful fellow. I take it you are currently tracking the young man's movements and planing on invading his privacy as we speak sir?" Alfred asked flatly as he watched the red dot's progress as well, the data from Bruce's hand-held device streaming to the Bat cave's main computer.

" You know me Alfred and besides, he's the one who said 'see you later', implying that he's left the door open." Bruce said with smirk as he heard Alfred snort. He could almost see the older man rolling his eyes back at the cave.

" Well Mr. Alien Menace, you said you'd see me later so... you will." Bruce promised, anticipation, excitement, and perhaps a little trepidation coursing through him as he watched the red dot finally come to a stop at an address in Metropolis.

Meanwhile, at said address in Metropolis...

Clark touched down lightly onto the roof of his apartment building and then sped down the stairwell and into his apartment, shutting the door behind him.

Then he stood in the middle of his living room and let out a deep, profound breath of relief. His leap of faith seemed to have worked, the Bat, though truly as terrifying as the stories and legends made him out to be, had heard him out. Clark was especially proud that he had not risen to the Bat's obvious needling and insults and had kept his cool.

Feeling lighter than he had felt in days, Clark made a b-line for his bedroom, shedding his cape and tossing it on a chair he kept by the bedroom door, unaware of the tiny bat-shaped tracking device that was clinging to the red alien fabric, hidden within the folds.

Clark sat down at the foot of his bed and started pealing off his red boots next when he paused as a noise caught his sensitive ears.

It was a soft buzzing sound followed by a light, minuscule pop. Clark pinpointed that the sound had come from somewhere near his cape. Frowning, Clark got up and padded across the room to his cape. He picked it up and held it out spread to get a better look. Everything looked in order with the red, otherworldly fabric. Clark even used his x-ray vision for a more thorough look and found nothing. With a shrug, Clark draped the cape over his arm and went back over to the bed to continue divesting himself of his uniform. He didn't see the minuscule pile of ash and twisted plastic the size of a dime on the floor. The remnants of the tracking device Bruce has planted earlier. Bruce had designed it as such that once the device had reached a final destination, it was set to quietly auto-destruct once its full data intake was received by the main computer.

Clark took off his suit and neatly folded everything up so that the gold and red crest of the House of El was front and center. Then Clark reached out and pressed his index and middle fingertips to the center of the chest. The alien material began to glow softly before it started to smoothly morph and retract. Within a few seconds all the way left was a miniature version of the "S" shield about the size of a card holder. Clark picked up the little talisman and placed it on his nightstand before he headed to the bathroom for a quick shower. About twenty minutes later he was crawling into bed and asleep before his head hit his pillow.

His first meeting with the Gotham Bat may have gone better than he had expected, but he still had work in the morning and Perry was going to chew him out, as usual.

Meanwhile, back in the cave beneath the lake house...

" With all due respect Master Bruce, but could this not have waited until morning?" Alfred Pennyworth asked with all long sufferance as he eyes Bruce where the billionaire vigilante was currently all but glued to his state of the art computer screens, still wearing his costume sans his signature cowl.

" You know it can't, not when I know exactly where he lives." Bruce said without looking away from the screens as he typed away at his keyboard.

Bruce has just arrived home and no sooner had he parked the bat mobile he had all but flown out of it and head straight for his computer to access the data his tracking device had collected. Once he was sure he had the right address, Bruce's google search led him to a midtown apartment complex on 344 Clinton street. Now he was expertly hacking into the buildings records to look up the current tenants.

Alfred shook his head disapprovingly and then turned away to head back up to the main house. He had a feeling Bruce would be at his computer for a while, so a late night dinner was in order.

Bruce allowed himself the barest smile as the list of tenants finally came up. There were about 130 people living in the building in total. Now he went about narrowing his search to all of the males in the building. This left him with 60 names. He narrowed this list down further to those men who were in their 30's, leaving him with 28 names.

The light clearing of a throat had Bruce looking away from the list of names to see Alfred with a tray in his hands, a simple dish of chicken and salad with water and a fresh, steaming mug of coffee. The older man sent Bruce a look that spoke volumes.

Eat first, hunt later.

With a small sigh and a smile, Bruce took a lingering look at the list on his screen before he got up and made his way to one of the work tables as Alfred set the tray down. About twenty minutes later, Bruce sat back down in his chair in front of the monitors. He had eaten everything Alfred had presented to him and then finally changed out of his suit and into a pair of his favorite sweatpants and a plain black Henley. It was time to get back to business.

Bruce pulled up the list of his 28 potential suspects. He typed in another command and had all of the names alphabetized. Bruce sat back and settled in as he clicked on the first name, Christopher Allen.

He was looking for someone tall and young, with dark hair, chiseled features, and the most gorgeous blue eyes he had ever seen and... wait what?

Bruce felt a small jolt go through him at his own inner though. The word gorgeous associated in any way with the alien menace? Bruce forced his pounding heart to slow down, but he could;t stop his ears and his cheeks from feeling warm with embarrassment. Bruce clenched his jaw and turned such thoughts from his head as he focused on seeing whether Christopher Allen could possibly be Superman in disguise.

As soon as Bruce pulled up said man's DMV photo, the answer was no if Mr. Allen's greasy looking blond hair and rather rotund face was anything to go on.

On to the next one then, a Mr. Enrique Almeida.

About half an hour later, Bruce found himself going bust on name number twenty, a Mr. Dylan Kellerman, a young man of about thirty who looked so frail and skinny that a stiff wind could probably send him flying several feet, and he had green eyes so no go there either.

Bruce sat back and groaned, rubbing at his face with his hands and feeling the now constant pull of sleep. It was nearly two in the morning and he actually had an important conference call in the morning.

Still there were just eight names left. Bruce sat up straight and shook off the fatigue as he looked to number 21 on the list.

Mr. Clark Kent who resided in apartment 12H on the very top floor.

Bruce clicked on the name and pulled up Clark Kent's DMV photo, and when it came up he felt the breath leave his body. There before him, bespectacled and under the guise of an ordinary man, was Superman. It was him, those eyes behind the bulky dark frames, those clear, otherworldly blue eyes.

" Holy shit it's you." Bruce whispered before his face broke out into a slow, triumphant grin.

All thought of sleep quickly vanished as Bruce gazed on the face he had been searching for, the face of Superman's civilian alter-ego. Lucky number 21.

Clark Joseph Kent.

As Bruce began to read Kent's DMV records and also started to pull up everything and anything he could find on the man, he paused for a moment.

" Hailing from Smallville, Kansas. Country Boy Scout, go figure." Bruce muttered to himself before he delved head first into his research.

Needless to say, Bruce didn't get much sleep that night, but he did make it to his conference call and broker a new deal with a prominent British company thanks to a mug-full of Alfred's strongest coffee and sheer will.

A few nights later in Metropolis...

The night skies were clear over Metropolis and everyone was going about their evening after a long day.

In his apartment, Clark sat in his living room with the TV droning on some random sitcom, using chopsticks to eat from the takeout box of chicken lo mien he was holding.

It was the end of a very long and arduous day. That morning, Perry had ripped him and everyone else a new one and warned them of what would happen if they missed their deadlines like a few people had the week before. Then that afternoon a gigantic oil tanker had lost power in the Arctic ocean and a strong wave had led to it capsizing. The sailor had thought that they were done for until a certain red cape wearing individual had arrived on the scene and simply dragged the tanker out of the water and onto the ice by its large anchor-chain. Once he had made sure that the sailors were safe, Clark had hurried back to the Daily Planet where Perry had basically skinned him alive for disappearing yet again.

At least he had been able to turn in his articles on time. He may or may not have used some super-speed when no one was looking.

Now it was the end of the day, there was nothing on tv and his chicken lo mien was a bit too soggy with grease. Clark sighed and grimaced as he shove another chopstick-full of noodles into his mouth.

Inevitably, Clark's mind soon turned to the events of a few nights ago, when he had formally introduced himself to Gotham's Batman. Now that he was clear across the bay and safe in his apartment, Clark could dwell on his memories of the Bat. He was tall and that wasn't padding and armor under that dark gray and black suit, that was just the way that man, that mortal man was built.

The Bat was darkness, he was the stuff of nightmares, he was the bringer of unimaginable pain, he was... magnificent.

Clark nearly spit out the lo mien in his mouth as this particular thought registered to him. Clark felt his cheeks heat up with embarrassment. Was he really that lonely that he'd find himself attracted to someone like Batman? A man capable of doling out so much pain and disregarding who got hurt? He might not have written Batman off as totally irredeemable but the Bat sure made it clear how he felt about him, the alien.

Clark sighed as his embarrassment quickly faded into dull hurt and sadness. Was he really so horrible?

Clark shook his head and focused on finishing his dinner. On top of everything else that had happened today, Clark just couldn't shake the feeling that he was somehow being watched. Clark just brushed it off as his senses overwhelmed and on edge still after such a long and complicated day.

However, Clark should have given his senses a bit more credence. Outside, on the roof of a building several streets across from Clark's apartment complex, a tall and imposing figure sat hidden among the shadows.

Bruce lowered the high-powered binoculars he had been using to observe his prey from afar. The billionaire vigilante frowned behind his cowl. For that last couple of days, Bruce had used all of his skills and training to carefully observe the quiet and unassuming alter-ego of Superman himself, Clark Joseph Kent.

For all of Superman's awe-inspiring extraordinariness, Clark Kent on the other had was just extra ordinary. The man always paid his rent on time, didn't have a single parking ticket, and actually wrote some very insightful articles. Bruce was still a bit stunned that all it took for the world's resident super being... no alien menace, to blend in with the human race were a bulky pair of thick framed glasses and clothes that were just baggy enough to hide that inhuman, perfect body and...

Bruce felt himself jolt and choke on his own spit for a second as his mind was bombarded with images of that aforementioned body, accentuated by that figure-hugging blue alien suit.

Damn him, damn him for getting under Bruce's skin.

Bruce clenched his teeth and willed the memories away as he instead brought his binoculars back up and looked through them across the half-a-football field's distance between his perch and the unobscured windows of Clark Kent's apartment.

Through the lenses, Bruce watched as Kent finished the his dinner and cleaned up after himself. He wasn't wearing his glasses and had on a simple white t-shirt and gray sweatpants. Bruce watched as the younger man went about shutting off the lights and ducking into the bathroom. He came out a few minutes later and promptly climbed into bed.

Bruce lowered his binoculars and resisted the urge to pout. For days he had been tailing Kent, as both Batman and under various disguises. For all of Kent's super abilities he had thankfully not noticed that he was being followed. Bruce's observation, or "stalking" as Alfred had flatly called it in his disapproval had yielded nothing save for the fact that the alien, when not doing the impossible all over the world, was a quiet, unassuming young man from the mid-west who actually seemed like he was just... that nice... and always by himself.

Bruce probably would have continued to sit there on that roof, scowling at yet another night where his belief that Superman was a threat was proven wrong when a familiar voice sounded in his ear piece.

" Master Wayne?"

" What is it Alfred?" Bruce replied.

" If you are quite finished with you're clandestine harassment, there's been a new development regarding the Russian and the White Portuguese that may interest you." The British gentleman stated with his signature nonchalance.

Bruce felt a smirk turn up the corner of his lips. Leave to Alfred to make the night he thought was a bust suddenly become interesting again. With a lingering look back at Clark's apartment building, Batman melted into the shadows and disappeared back to Gotham.

Back in Clark's bedroom, Clark lay beneath the covers with his bad to the window appearing for all intents and purposes to be asleep, but he was wide awake and his hear was pounding. Just as his head had hit the pillow and everything was quiet, an all too familiar heartbeat caught his sensitive hearing.

Batman.

That strange feeling wasn't just a feeling, Batman had been watching him for who know's how long. Clark felt a cacophony of things. He was stunned that someone was keeping tabs on him without him noticing. Even the United States government with their billion-dollar drone couldn't escape his notice, but a guy dressed like a bat now knew where he lived, and most likely figured out his civilian alter-ego.

And the Bat wasn't alone, there was a British someone named Alfred, who called the Bat "Master Wayne." There was a Russian and what the hell was a White Portuguese?

Clark's astonishment was soon replaced by confusion, and the feeling of being violated. A part of Clark wanted to get in his suit, fly to Gotham with all the speed he was capable of, and confront Batman right then and there.

But as he sat up against the headboard of his bed and looked out the window at the clear night sky, his thoughts on the looming dark city across the bay from Metropolis, Clark sighed as he felt his anger deflate into defeat. This was Batman he was dealing with, he should have known the seasoned vigilante was more than capable of tracking him down.

It was like the old man in Gotham had said when he had gone there looking for Kahina Ziri at her apartment building. There was a new mean in the Bat, he was angry and he was hunting, and he was damn good at it too. Clark knew full well that he was the reason for the anger. Feeling tired to his bones and knowing that going after Batman would only confirm what the insufferable prick believed about him, Clark lowered himself back down under the covers and forced himself into a restless sleep.

He still had another day of work and Perry's reaming to look forward to.

A week later...

Clark trudged up the stairs all the way to the twelfth floor, his arms laden with grocery bags and his laptop back slung over his shoulders. It had been another long and arduous day at the Daily Planet, even without some epic disaster happening someplace in the world. On top of that, Clark heard that there had been some kind of explosion at the Gotham City docks a couple of days ago, cars and men left mangled, along with a truck that had been rumored to have been carrying a bomb of some kind. No one knew what happened, who blew up what, and what was taken from the truck. Clark however, had a sinking suspicion that this was the work of a certain Dark Knight. He had wanted to look into the matter further, but received a solid reaming from Perry at the suggestion. Perry wanted him to stop with the bat hunting or else there would be hell to pay.

Well at least the Bat was busy doing other things and not covertly spying on him.

Clark stepped through the stairwell door once he reached the twelfth floor and then trudged down the hall to 12H. As he neared the door, Clark dexterously fished out his keys, but just as he was about to use them he stopped dead in his tracks.

There was a strong, steady, all too familiar sound filling his ears and it was coming from inside his apartment.

A heartbeat, where none should have been.

Taking a moment to relax as much as he could manage, Clark then went forward opening the door and stepping into his apartment. No sooner had he crossed the threshold, Clark's eyes went to the tall figure standing in the shadows across the room.

" Evening Mr. Kent." Came the electronically enhanced growl.

Clark stood silent for a moment before he sighed and spoke.

" Mind if I put these away?" He asked casually.

" Make it quick, we need to talk." Batman said bluntly.

Clark sent Batman a glower before he used his speed. Within the blink of an eye all of his groceries were packed away and he was standing in the middle of his living room with his arms crossed and his eyes hard as he gazed at Batman.

" Fast enough for you?" He asked flatly.

Bruce kept his face carefully blank, all the while trying not to gawk in awe. He shook himself of his amazement at the simple display from Superman and focused on the task at hand.

" I found Kahina Ziri." He said as he stepped out of the shadows.

" Is she alright?" Clark asked immediately.

Bruce did his best not to let his lips quirk and instead just eyed Clark wordlessly. Boy Scout through and through.

" She's fine, somewhere safe. As you know, she testified before Congress about the destruction you brought down on her village in Nairomi. How you massacred everyone including her parents." Bruce began, pausing as he watched the sadness that flitted across Clark's face before he schooled his featured. Bruce then continued.

" Well, when I found her in the motel she was hiding in, I didn't even have to press her before she confessed."

" Confessed what?" Clark asked, sounding and looking wary.

" That it was all a pack of lies. Ms. Ziri's parents are alive and well and those villagers were murdered by a group of Russian mercenaries who used flamethrowers as a final touch. Ms. Ziri was given a script she was to follow verbatim when it came time for her to testify or her parents would be killed. She was blackmailed."

" I figured as much, just couldn't prove it." Clark said with a sigh before a thought occurred to him.

" Lex Luthor is the one who hired the mercenaries, isn't he?" He stated.

" Yes he did, how did you know?" Bruce asked as he took another step closer.

" Lois. When everything went to hell during her meeting with General Amajagh, one of the bullets that was fired got lodged in her journal. It's unlike any other bullet out there. She went to Washington and called in a favor, had the bullet analyzed. It was a prototype designed and manufactured by Lexcorp." Clark explained.

Bruce grunted in acknowledgment before he plowed ahead.

" Luthor has gone to great lengths to frame you, but he's planing even more trouble. You need to come with me." He said firmly, his tone leaving no room for argument.

Clark opened his mouth to protest anyway when Bruce cut him off.

" Do not make me repeat myself." He said slowly, with all menace.

" Give me a second." Clark said through gritted teeth.

" I'll be up on the roof." Batman said as without further pause he stepped through one of the windows and up the fire escape, disappearing in a swirl of black fabric.

Clark glared in Batman's wake but then reached into his pocket and pulled out the miniature "S" shield. He undid the first couple of buttons on the dress shirt he was still wearing and then pressed the shield to his bare skin.

In an instant the shield expanded and morphed, pushing aside Clark's clothing and taking on his shape. Within the span of a few seconds, Superman stood fully dressed and ready. With all sped, Superman shot out of his apartment, closing the window behind him and materialized on the roof where Batman stood, cold and silent as ever.

" Follow me." Was all Batman said before he pulled out his grappling gun and shot it straight up into the heavens. Clark heard a metallic clunking sound as the hook connected with something that was hidden in the sky. Then the next thing he knew, Batman was shooting up into the air, disappearing into the clouds thanks to the long zip line. Clark quickly shot into the sky himself, ascending head first into the dark night clouds. When he cleared them, Clark stared at the formidable, futuristic looking aircraft that Batman was currently climbing into.

Bruce gracefully sank into the cockpit of the batwing, satisfied to see that Superman was there with him in the sky. Once the glass shield had slid into place, Bruce switched off the drone mode and because to expertly pilot the aircraft through the sky with the outskirts of Gotham being his destination. Clark flew along side the aircraft. Both he and Batman would keep glancing at each other, the tension mounting with each mile that went by.

About twenty minutes later the lake house came into view. Clark watched in amazement as the calm lake waters swirled and parted to reveal a steel doorway. Bruce lowered the batwing down through the doors onto its landing pad, Superman diving down and coming in after him.

Clark touched down lightly onto the concrete floor of the Bat Cave and looked around in slight awe at everything, from the many screens and gadgets, to the insane looking armored car that was parked a few feet away.

Just who was this guy?

Clark turned his attention back to Batman as the vigilante climbed out the batwing and jumped down, his black cape billowing about him. Clark could see why the criminal world of Gotham feared this man.

Now Clark wondered just what kind of hospitality he was in for.

The sound of approaching feet had Clark turned to see an older gentleman with gray hair and glasses walking towards them. He was sharply dressed in a gray button up shirt with a deep navy blue vest, and had this air of warmth mixed with steel about him that Clark instantly liked.

" Good evening gentlemen." The man said with a pleasant British accent.

Clark felt a jolt go through him as he recognized the voice. This was the mysterious Alfred Batman had conversed with.

Batman stepped between then and gestured.

" Clark Kent, meet Alfred Pennyworth. Alfred, meet Clark Kent, otherwise known as Superman." He grumbled.

" Pleasure to make you acquaintance Mr. Kent." Alfred said as he held out his hand, not batting an eye at being in the presence of Earth's greatest hero.

" Likewise Mr. Pennyworth. And please, call me Clark." Clark replied as he reached out and shook the offered hand with a smile.

There was only warmth and perhaps a bit of curiosity shining in the weathered eyes as Alfred spoke.

" Mr. Pennyworth was my father, Alfred will suffice aptly Mr. Kent."

Clark looked like he wanted to protest the formality but then deflated, while Bruce sent Alfred a veiled look of warmth.

" I would like to offer you my most sincere apologies for the invasion into your privacy. You were the one who took a leap of faith and reached out to Master Wayne over here and in return he planted a tracking device on you and also spent several days after making covert observations without your knowledge." He said with a sigh as he sent Bruce a reproachful look.

" I figured he'd planted something on me, thanks for confirming." Clark said with a humorless smile as he too sent Batman a withering look.

Bruce was glad he still had on his cowl, but it took all that he had in him not to squirm under both gazes. He just hoped that bringing Alfred and Clark together didn't prove fatally disadvantageous to him. Now though, they all needed to focus on why he had actually brought Clark back to the cave with him.

" Since you both know my real name, you gonna ever tell me yours?" Clark asked as he crossed his arms over his chest and sent Bruce a scathing look.

Again, Bruce did his best not to squirm and frowned at how Clark hadn't figured out who he was by now as he spoke.

" I thought you'd already figured out who I am." Bruce stated.

Clark just blinked at him and fidgeted lightly as he spoke.

" I just know Wayne is either your first or last name, I still have no idea who you are." He said finally.

Alfred was gawking at Clark at this point while Bruce did his best to hide his own incredulity.

Was this guy for real?

Bruce quickly shook himself and turned to Alfred.

" Alfred." He said simply.

" Yes sir, I shall retrieve the item." Alfred said as with a final nod he turned and headed further into the cave, leaving Batman and Superman to each other's company.

" What's going on Batman, why did you bring me here?" Clark asked as he pinned Batman with his clear blue eyes.

Bruce met the sharp gaze head on an spoke.

" You reached out to try and talk to me, you took a leap of faith so I decided to take one too." Bruce said before he sighed and gestured for Clark to follow him as he headed further into the cave as well, towards the computer area.

" Like I said, Lex Luthor was the one behind what happened in Nairomi, and he's the one who has been subtly spearheading the smear campaign against you. You're guess is as good as mine as to why he's got such a vendetta against you. All he lost during the Black Zero incident was one tanker truck." Bruce explained.

" Since when do people need a direct reason to hate me? For some people my existence is all they need. Guess he could just be one of those." Clark said with a nonchalant shrug.

For some odd reason, Bruce felt sadness bloom up in his gut at these words, knowing their truth for himself. Bruce quickly refocused and made his way over to the computer bank where he pulled up some pictures.

" Be that as it may, once I learned the truth from Kahina Ziri I decided to look more deeply into Luthor's activities. I found the leader of the Russian mercenaries that were in Nairomi, Anatoli Knyazev." Bruce said as he gestured to the picture on the screen.

Clark committed the face to memory, and could not help but think that the man aptly resembled a vulture. Then suddenly a though occurred to him.

" This Knyazev is the Russian, but what about the White Portuguese, is that Luthor?" He asked.

" You heard Alfred say that?" Bruce asked with a frown beneath his cowl.

Clark just sent him a look, so Bruce continued.

" In a way yes, the White Portuguese isn't a person, its a large cargo ship that Luthor inherited from his father. Two nights ago, this ship came into port in Gotham Harbor after it had picked up something from the New Mangalore Port in India."

It was here that Clark jolted with realization. India, meaning the Indian Ocean, where the remnants of a horrible day, a horrible machine may in a watery grave. The World Engine, the monstrous terraforming machine Zod had unleashed to bring about the rebirth of a new Krypton through the destruction of Earth and all of its inhabitants.

" What the Hell is going on here Batman, what does Luthor want with that machine?" Clark demanded, just as Alfred returned to them, wheeling in a large metal box.

" At first I thought that Luthor was smuggling in a dirty bomb. It's why I ambushed Knyazev and his men at the harbor and stole the cargo. Turns out it wasn't a dirty bomb, it's not of this world entirely." Bruce said as he and Clark both turned their gazes to the box.

Feeling his own blood rushing loudly in his ears, Clark took a step closer to the box, despite a gnawing feeling in his gut telling him he shouldn't go near it.

Bruce looked to Alfred, who nodded reluctantly before he leaned down and undid the clasps on the metal box. There was another second of silent impasse before Alfred gripped the box's lid and pulled it back to expose the box's contents.

The lid fell away to reveal a large, glowing, poison green mass.

In the blink of an eye Clark felt the breath knocked from his lungs as wave after wave of boiling hot agony spread through him. It was an inferno through his every vein, his every nerve ending felt like they had been forcibly peeled back. He couldn't breath, couldn't think, his vision was blurred and everything sounded like they were miles away. With a strangled cry Clark vaguely felt his knees collapse from under him.

Instead of feeling the cold hard impact of the concrete floor, Clark dimly felt a pair of strong arms wrap around him and gently lower him the rest of the way down. He sluggishly heard someone shouting " Shut it Alfred! Shut the lid!"

A second later the agony was gone, he could feel his body and he could draw in air with ease. Clark gasped and sucked in oxygen hungrily as his senses cleared.

" Good lord." He distantly heard someone say softly with a British accent.

Clark shut his eyes and breathed, feeling warm, calloused fingers press against the side of his neck, checking his pulse.

There was a ringing in his ears that drowned everything out, but then an echoing voice started to cut through the din until Clark could finally hear it.

" Kent? Can you hear me Kent?... Damn it Clark snap out of it and tell me you're okay!" Bruce demanded with his bat growl still in place, sounding both concerned and menacing.

" Stop yelling at me, I'm right here." Clark muttered as he groaned and finally opened his eyes.

He was laying half on the floor with Batman holding on to him, the other man's hulking, black and gray armor clad frame seeming to almost be curled around him protectively, as though trying to shield him from whatever the hell that was that had so thoroughly incapacitated him. One of his black gloves lay forgotten on the floor beside them. The very thought of it was startling, but Clark didn't get a chance to dwell on it as Batman rose to his feet and firmly, yet gently pulled Clark up with him.

Still not letting go of Clark, even when the younger man was standing steadily enough on his own two feet, Bruce turned to Alfred, who seemed mostly recovered from his own shock.

" Alfred get him upstairs." Bruce growled as he pulled Clark with him towards the staircase that led up to the elevator.

" Right away sir." Alfred acknowledged before he rushed forward and gripped Clark's wrist.

Clark watched in stunned silence as the older British gentleman slung his arm over his own well-dressed shoulders and wrapped his other arm around Clark's waist to support him.

" This way Mr. Kent, it's best you don't linger here at the moment." Alfred said as he proceeded to lead Clark the rest of the way towards the stairs.

" Mr. Pennyworth I can walk on my own, you don't have to trouble yourself, I feel okay now I swear." Clark said quietly.

" It's no trouble, and what was my request regarding how you are to address me?" Alfred asked lightly.

Clark felt a smile tugging at his lips as he ducked his head as he spoke.

" Yes Alfred."

Alfred sent Clark a small warm smile, but it quickly left his face, replaced by a concerned expression as they started climbing the stairs. When they had cleared the first flight, Alfred and by proxy Clark turned to see Batman still standing by the computers and the metal box, eyes glued to them.

" Do join us upstairs presently sir." Alfred called before he continued to lead Clark away, the pair of them disappearing up the stairs, leaving Bruce by himself.

Once he was sure they were gone, Bruce let out the breath he had been holding and then blindly reached out and pulled his aerodynamically designed chair to him so that he could promptly collapse into it. He felt boneless and shaky for a moment, his eyes glued to the metal box. Bruce reached up and pushed his cowl off his face, letting out a shaky breath and wiping at his face with his hand.

As he continued to gaze at the metal box, Bruce could only think of one thing to say.

" Oh Shit."

Twenty minutes later...

Bruce rode the elevator up to the main house, now dressed in a simple dark blue button up shirt and black jeans. With an every increasing sense of dread, Bruce got off the lift and then headed for the secret door that led into the main house.

He slipped in through the door that looked like regular part of the wall and then made his way inward. His eyes zeroed in on the kitchen area where an otherworldly being was currently sitting at the kitchen counter with a steaming cup of tea in front of him. Alfred Pennyworth then came into view holding a small plate of what appeared to be pieces of biscotti.

" Alfred, you didn't have to, the tea was more than enough." Bruce heard Clark say quietly.

" Nonsense. Where there is tea, there must be the accompaniment of biscuits. No exceptions." Alfred said firmly as he set the plate down in front of the Kryptonian.

" Thank you." Clark said as he sent Alfred a shy smile.

Bruce felt so off-balance at the sight of Clark Kent, dressed in his full Superman regalia, sitting in his kitchen having a cup of tea and his former butler now "assistant's" company. Bruce didn't have long to dwell on it though as Alfred inevitable caught sight of him.

" Ah, so good of you to finally join us sir." Alfred called.

Clark set down the teacup in his hand and did his best to steel himself as he slowly began to look over his shoulder. He had a feeling he was about to finally meet the man behind the fearsome mask.

Clark turned his gaze and finally beheld him.

Crystalline blue eyes met those of deep, earthy hazel brown. These dark eyes belonged to an individual who Clark could say with absolute certainty was the most breathtakingly handsome man he had ever seen.

Chiseled features and dark hair graying at the temples, even his marks age made him look good.

Clark still had no idea who this man was.

Bruce felt something inside him grow hot as he saw the way Clark was looking at him, with quiet wonder and interest shining in those other-worldly blue eyes. However, Bruce also noticed that there was still no recognition in those eyes. Bruce slowly but surely crossed the distance between them until he was a few feet away from Clark, who rose to his feet and took a few small steps to meet him halfway. They stared at each other in silent impasse for a few moments until Bruce finally spoke.

" Well, here I am." He said, thinking now that they were face to face for real, Clark would recognize just who's house he was in.

Bruce's words were met with silence. Both Bruce and Alfred watched, quietly stunned in their own ways as Clark's face started to grow quite red with embarrassment. It was Bruce who finally spoke.

" You still have no idea who I am, do you?" He said, resisting the urge to laugh through sheer force of will.

" Sorry no." Clark said with a shake of his head, a crooked, embarrassed smile spreading across his face.

This was so humiliating. Here he was in someone's highly expensive fish-tank of a house and his host was standing before him free of his terrifying alter-ego and Clark still had no idea as to the man's civilian identity.

" But I am supposed to, aren't I?" He asked knowingly.

Bruce rubbed at the back of his neck, feeling a bit awkward himself. This really was a first, someone in his own backyard not knowing him when he was renowned by many and also reviled by some the world over. With a small huff, Bruce stepped forward and held out his hand.

" Bruce Wayne, nice to meet you." He said casually, while feeling his heart speed up as Clark reached for him.

From where he stood, Alfred did his best not to snort and went about fixing Bruce a cup of coffee.

" Hi." Clark said, feeling lamer than lamer as he clasped Bruce's warm, calloused hand.

If either of them felt a definite spark at the contact between them, they did their level best to hide it. While Clark noticed Bruce's callouses, Bruce noticed Clark's gentleness. The same hand that could rip apart steel like it was tissue paper now held his hand with only warmth and care. When they let go of each other, both felt the loss of the other quite keenly. Bruce gestured for Clark to sit back down and took a seat himself.

A couple of minutes later, Clark was on his second cup of tea while Bruce was enjoying a mug of freshly brewed coffee, black with one sugar. They shared the biscotti at Clark's insistence. Bruce could scarcely believe that this was his life right now. Here he was, sitting at his kitchen counter drinking coffee and sharing biscuits with Superman, the being he had been gunning for, for two whole years. There was an almost companionable silence over everything, but the tension was ever present. It was Clark who finally broke the silence.

" I take it that you are someone very prominent and I as a member of the press I am coming off as a very uninformed hick?" He asked shyly.

" You would be correct, I am Bruce Wayne, son of Martha and Thomas Wayne, owner and CEO of Wayne Enterprises. Billionaire playboy by day, vigilante by night." Bruce explained, feeling just the slightest bit exhilarated at being able to reveal his full identity.

He watched as Clark's face took on a look of awe and he waited for the inevitable question of just what the Hell he was doing as a man who dresses like a bat at night and goes after the criminal element of Gotham.

" In what fields does your company operate Mr. Wayne?" Clark asked instead, once again throwing Bruce for a loop.

" You're not going to ask me why I do what I do? What led me to lead the life I lead?" Bruce asked incredulously.

" I'll admit that I am extremely curious, but your reasons for why you do what you do must be something very personal, I didn't want to pry." Clark said quietly.

Bruce ignored the warm way Alfred was looking at Clark. He wasn't going to fall for the charm, there was no way this gorgeous man... no! alien menace, was just that pure hearted... no way?

" But you're a reporter. It's your job to pry." Bruce said incredulously.

" True, but I clocked out hours ago and you didn't invite me here in my capacity as a journalist. You invited me here to share what you discovered about Luthor and his conspiracy against us both right?" Clark countered.

Bruce was stunned silence for a moment, while Alfred had warm respect shining in his dark eyes as he gazed at Clark, who was quickly proving to be so very different from Bruce's pre-conceived notions.

Clark quickly grew sober as he remembered what happened downstairs not even an hour ago.

" What was that thing in the box downstairs Mr. Wayne? It made me feel like I was melting from the inside out." Clark asked slowly.

Bruce set down his mug of coffee and shared a glance with Alfred. There was no way to go but forward.

" Luthor was the one who specifically paid people to go to the Indian Ocean and retrieve pieces of that machine that you destroyed. Naturally, he's the one who would know what it is and what it does. I broke into LexCorp and stole encrypted data from the company's mainframe. It took me a few days but I finally cracked the code and looked through the files. That glowing green rock, it's a piece of your world that became extremely irradiated when you destroyed the machine. Tests show that the rock doesn't have any significant effect on humans, but the data indicated that Luthor has possession of General Zod's corpse and he tested that thing on it. The radiation actually caused substantial damage to Zod's cells. It obviously is far beyond the periodic table and they even came up with a name for it." Bruce said soberly.

" W-What's it called?" Clark asked, his face pale and drawn.

" Kryptonite." Bruce answered.

Clark nodded mutely, and then his expression grew cross as he sent Bruce a scathing look.

" If you already knew this irradiated rock could effect Kryptonians, why did you even open the box downstairs and expose me to it?" He frowned.

" I had to be sure of its effect. Zod may be Kryptonian, but he's a dead specimen and-" Bruce began when Clark cut him off.

" You needed a live one, and I just so happen to be the only one around." Clark said with a humorless smirk, his eyes like two chips of ice.

Bruce couldn't really say anything to counter that, and Alfred just looked on sadly. There was a beat of charged silence before Clark spoke.

" So what this basically means is that the pieces of my home world can kill me in a painful and slow manner." He stated.

" Yes." Bruce said quietly, not at all feeling the triumph he though at one time that he would feel.

" Well, that's just great." Clark said in a deceptively light tone as he lightly slapped his hands over his thighs.

" Just fucking fantastic." He said under his breath, but still our enough for Bruce and Alfred to hear.

Bruce was a bit shocked to hear such language come out of Metropolis' extraterrestrial boy scout, and by the looks of it so was Alfred. But before either Bruce or Alfred could say anything, they watched as Clark suddenly sat up ramrod straight, the color draining completely from his face leaving him paler than the whitest sheet, a haunted look spreading across his features.

" Clark what?-" Bruce began to say when Clark abruptly shot to his feet and paced a moment before he turned and eyed Bruce intensely.

" Wayne Enterprises... as in Wayne Financial at 845 Moore street in the Metropolis financial district?" He asked softly.

Bruce felt his heart slam to a dead stop in his chest as Clark's words registered to him. He knew about Wayne Financial, the building that got decimated during the Black Zero Incident, right down to its exact address.

" Clark..." Bruce tried again, getting up and stepping towards Clark, freezing when Clark flinched away from him almost violently.

He and Alfred watched as Clark's shell-shocked expression literally crumbled before their very eyes, a look of quiet devastation taking over as Clark's blue eyes grew over bright.

" That was your building that went down, your people who died when Zod's heat-vision came out while we were fighting." Clark all but whispered before he turned away and let out a shaky breath.

Then he turned back to Bruce, his expression turning into one of resignation, of quiet agony as he spoke.

" Of course you would want to hurt me." He whispered.

Then he looked around rapidly until he spotted the doors that led out onto the patio and pier that was attached to the lake house. Sensing what Superman was about to do, Bruce rushed forward.

" Wait!" He shouted, but with a flutter of air Clark was suddenly outside standing on the patio.

Clark sent Bruce one final, resigned and distraught look before he turned his gaze up towards the heavens and shot into the air with a loud boom. By the time Bruce and Alfred made it outside, Clark was barely a speck on the night sky heading back to Metropolis with all speed.

Bruce and Alfred stood side by side in disappointed silence. Bruce felt completely numb as he gazed at the now clear night sky, long after Clark had disappeared from view. It was Alfred who finally broke the silence without looking away from the skies.

" Pardon me for saying sir, but maybe, just maybe, you misjudged that young man just a bit." He said lightly before he turned and headed back inside without further preamble.

Bruce still stood there, an unreadable look on his face. He did finally speak to himself though, and his words were quite accurate.

" I am an idiot and I don't deserve you Alfred."

About a week later...

Clark did his best not to stare directly at all of the flashing lights coming from the many cameras going off as more and more people arrived in style to the gala. Clark turned away from the red carpet arrivals to look at the sleek, modern building were the charity gala was being held.

LexCorp.

This was it, this was the kingdom of the man that was trying so desperately and deviously to destroy Superman. When Perry told him he would have to cover this event, Clark had nearly punched a hole straight through his computer. Instead he had ducked his head and did as he was told, now here he was, dressed in his best suit and knowing he was completely out of place.

In the week since that night where he had finally met the man behind the Bat, Clark had delved deep into research about Lex Luthor.

Alexander Luthor Jr. was born in 1984 and inherited LexCorp Industries after his father's death. After he became CEO, Lex took the company to soaring heights in the tech field, raking in billions. For all of his accomplishments, there was a general consensus that Luthor was a little on the eccentric side.

Thanks to the intervention of a certain other billionaire who moonlighted as Gotham's legendary vigilante, Clark had come to know that that what people viewed as eccentric was actually just a front for a dangerous malevolence. Tonight Clark might be meeting the man that wanted his dead and had gone to great lengths to see it done.

Speaking of billionaires, while Clark had researched as much as he could about Lex Luthor, he hadn't been able to bring himself to even pull up a single picture of one Bruce Wayne. Maybe it was the shame or the guilt, but he just didn't want to think about the man who had almost become his most bitter enemy. Now he didn't know where he and Bruce stood. The other man was completely absent. He had not heard that distinct heartbeat or the ever present British accent that accompanied it. Even the Bat had dialed down his escapades in Gotham.

Clark was broken from his musings about the limbo his life had become by the sound of a commotion back on the red carpet, the paparazzi were abuzz at the latest arrival to the gala. Clark felt a jolt go through him as a familiar, steady beat filled his ears even before the sleek black Aston Martin DB Mark III had pulled all the way up to the carpet.

" Crap." Clark thought as the driver's side door to the sleek black sports car swung open and Bruce Wayne climbed out in all of his dapper glory.

Clark felt his mouth go dry as he took in Bruce Wayne the Billionaire. Dressed in a sleek, well-tailored black suit with a black dress shirt and silk tie, the man was a sight to behold, a vision straight out of the most sinful dream.

And then there eyes met over the flashing lights and demanding shouts. The rest of the world faded to the background and there was only the two of them. Bruce looked stunned to see him, but they he quickly schooled his features back into the debonair smirk and nodded at him before turned his gaze away, smiling professionally for the cameras.

Letting out the breath he hadn't even realized he was holding, Clark swiftly turned and headed inside building. He weaved his way around the many upper crust guests, smartly dressed waiters, and fellow reporters from other papers and news affiliates.

Old jazz music filled his ears, along with the chatter as Clark navigated his way through the room, doing his best to avoid people and not knock over any of the very interesting and astronomically expensive modern art work. He finally found a corner that was relatively clear and stood before a piece of art that looked like a mangled tree made out of black glass.

As he stared at it, Clark couldn't help but relate. He felt pretty mangled on the inside too. Clark's hopes of simply blending into the corner were quickly dashed as a familiar heartbeat filled his ears. The sound was emanating from behind him, but Clark stayed resolutely facing the art.

" I know you heard me coming." Came the deep, knowing baritone.

With a small sigh of defeat, Clark slowly turned around and faced the bane of his thoughts.

" Good evening Mr. Wayne, I should have realized a man of you prominence would get an invite here." Clark said with as much pleasantness as he could muster.

He literally wanted the ground to swallow him up.

" Good to see you as well Mr. Kent." Bruce said with his practiced tone as he held out his hand.

Clark was a bit surprised by the gesture but quickly reached out and grasped the offered hand. Yet again he felt that jolt of want go through him at the simple contact. Then remembering a certain special someone, Clark drew closer. Bruce frowned in confusion for a moment until Clark spoke.

" Hello Alfred, are you well?" He asked quietly.

Bruce instantly relaxed as a chuckle sounded in his ear-peice.

" Good evening Mr. Kent, I am quite pleased to hear from you considering that last time Master Wayne and I saw you did not go so well. How are you sir?" Alfred asked, assured that Clark could hear him.

Clark cast a looked at Bruce who was listening intently. With a sigh he shook his head.

" Been better if I were to be completely honest." He said truthfully.

Before either Bruce or Alfred could say anything, the arrival of Lex Luthor was announced. Bruce and Clark both turned their attention to the white stage as a skinny, short man with wavy reddish hair came up on stage.

Clark did not allow Lex's unassuming appearance fool him. As he watched Lex start his speech about the importance of books, Clark could almost see the venom radiating off of Lex in waves. Had he not know of what Lex had already done against him, Clark knew that he too would have probably dismissed Lex as well.

That was everyone's folly concerning Lex, underestimation.

As Lex rambled on in his disjointed words, Clark turned to Bruce.

" What's going on here Mr. Wayne? You already know what Luthor is up to." He asked quietly.

" I am not here for Luthor, I am here for her." Bruce said just as quietly as he pointedly at the gathered crowd.

Clark followed Bruce' gaze and saw that he was staring at this tall, statuesque woman wearing a deep maroon dress with a gold collar. She was absolutely exquisite.

Clark did his best to keep the annoying pang of jealous from showing across his face and focused on the task at hand.

" Who is she?" Clark asked.

" Diana Prince, antiquities dealer and someone Lex Luthor is very interested in." Bruce replied. Before Clark could say anything else, a high pitched voice sounded.

" Boys! Mm, Bruce Wayne meets Clark Kent. Ah, I love it! I love bringing people together! How are we?"

Bruce and Clark could only share a subtle look before they both gave their full attention to Lex.

After suffering through Lex's babbling and false pleasantries, both Bruce and Clark watched as Ms. Prince made her way downstairs. Bruce went after her while Clark followed in their wake so as to avoid suspicion. It looked like she was heading for the server room. Clark had just reached the bottom of the stairs when the spanish news feed caught his attention.

As he watched the drama currently unfolding at a factory in Mexico that had caught fire, Clark turned to see Bruce quickly approaching him.

" Go, I'll talk to her. Just come back to my place after, I need to talk to you too." Bruce said quietly.

A part of Clark wanted to refuse, but he knew that this was more important than his hurt feelings.

" Ok." Clark said just as quietly before he turned and headed off, his hand going to his tie.

Bruce watched Clark's retreating form for a moment before he turned and hurried to catch up with Prince.

He found her just as she was about to pull open the glass door.

" I think the bathroom's the other way." He said casually as he came up behind her.

The tall brunette turned around to eye him with mild annoyance shining in her dark eyes. Bruce paid that hard look no mind as he continued.

" Besides, I doubt you'll find what you are looking for in there." He said with a small practiced smirk.

" Oh, and how do know you that exactly Mr. Wayne?" Diana asked, he voice smooth and richly accented.

" Because what you want is back at my place. How would you like to discuss it with me and a special acquaintance of mine? You'll like him, he's out of this world." Bruce said with his most charming grin.

Diana looked at Bruce as if he were insane, until his words registered and her eyes widened in comprehension. After a beat Diana relaxed and sent Bruce a knowing smile.

Bruce returned the smile with a genuine one of his own as he offered her his arm, which she accepted. As they walked back up the stairs arm in arm, Bruce spoke.

" Follow me to my place, I'll be sure to have coffee on hand. But if you want something a bit stronger, I can always break out the stronger stuff. It's a good year too." He said casually.

" Well, who am I to refuse such generosity? As you probably know, I deal in antiquities, years are my business, so may I ask what year?" Diana asked casually.

" 1918, World War II era, I bet you'll love it." Bruce said with a smirk, that quickly turned into a light wince as Diana squeezed his arm, hard.

A sign that she possessed far greater strength than she let on.

Together the pair made their way out of the gala and retrieved their respective car before speeding off towards the outskirts of Gotham.

A couple of hours later, at the lake house...

" He is resourceful, I'll give you that." Diana said with a sigh as she took a sip of amber liquid from a crystal glass.

True to his word, Bruce had provided Diana with whiskey from 1918 once they had both reached the lake house. Half an hour later, Superman touched down onto the back patio and joined them in all his red caped glory.

The meeting between Clark Kent and Diana Prince would have been almost comical to Bruce had he not felt an unpleasant burning in his gut.

Jealousy.

Clark and Diana had taken to each other almost instantly. Clark was warm and eager to learn more about the woman now revealed to be a centuries old Amazonian princess. Diana in turn had smiled brightly at the last Scion of Krypton and asked him about his extraordinary abilities.

Bruce had witnessed it all and wondered how his and Clark's first meeting could have gone had there not been so much bad blood and baggage between them.

Now though, the three of them were all sitting in the Bat Cave with Bruce showing them the videos that he had unlocked from Luthor's encrypted files.

There had been a picture of Diana herself, dressed in armor, standing with a group of diverse men in a village in France circa 1918 along with a video of her carrying on in current times for facial recognition. After that, there was grainy footage of a tall, dark haired young man buying milk in a grocery store during a robbery, and they had all seen him do the impossible; blinking out and then back into the frame in the span of a few seconds, leaving the robber stunned and the place electrified. Next had been the video of an underwater team conducting a search on a sunken vessel. From the dark depths, a pair of glowing eyes had emerged, and they belonged to an incarnation of Neptune himself, complete with a trident. The man had floated towards the camera before he had promptly smashed it, then a secondary camera had capture his awe-inducing departure. And finally, the last video had been the most disturbing. It had shown a man named Dr. Silas Stone attempting to keep alive a young man who was literally in pieces. Then a strange alien box had come to life and begun to fuse with the young man. His agonized screams still lingered in their ears.

" Yeah, and we still don't know the whole story. Luthor's got Zod's corpse but what could he possibly be doing with it?" Clark asked quietly.

" Nothing good." Bruce said grimly.

The conversation then turned to the task at hand. Despite her initial reluctance to get involved in what was happening, Diana agreed that she would be there if they needed her to bring down Lex and his co-conspirators. Anatoli Knyazev had escaped Batman's wrath that night at the harbor, and there was no doubt in Bruce's mind that he was hunting for Kahina Ziri. Bruce made sure that Kahina was well hidden and well taken care of. Bruce had a feeling they might need her later. He was also keeping tabs of Knyazev, the hunter being none the wiser that he was being hunted by someone way more dangerous.

It was really anyones guess as to whether or not Lex was aware that they were on to him or whether he believe that his manipulations were still working to pit Batman against Superman. Either way, they all had to tread carefully now.

Alfred then came down and declared that dinner was ready, much to Clark and Diana's astonishment. They both tried to demure and tell Alfred that he needn't have gone to such trouble but the older gentleman would hear none of it. Bruce led the way upstairs to where the table was pristinely set. Dinner was nothing fancy, just pasta with homemade meat sauce, but it was Alfred's cooking so it was going to be absolutely delicious. It took some cajoling from Bruce, Clark, and Diana to get Alfred to join them but in the end he relented.

Sure enough dinner, though completely surreal with Clark dressed in his Superman outfit and Diana being a centuries old Amazonian princess, was a hit. Afterwards, when all of the dishes were cleared away, Diana took her leave, clasping hands with them both and telling them to be careful before she sped away in her sleek silver sports car.

This left Clark and Bruce alone in each other's company once more.

" I sense that there is much the two of you still need to discuss, so I shall take my leave of you. Good night Master Bruce." Alfred said as he sent Bruce a look that seemed to say " Don't screw this up again".

" Good night Alfred." Bruce said, nodding to the older man.

Alfred then made his way over to Clark.

" It was quite pleasing to see you again Mr. Kent, especially since your last visit did not end how any of us hoped. Either way, good night to you as well." Alfred said as he held out his hand to the Kryptonian.

" You have a good night too Alfred, and thank you again for dinner, it was wonderful." Clark said with a warm smile as he shook Alfred's hand.

With a final warm look, Alfred took his leave.

Bruce and Clark now stood in the former's living room, awkward silence between them. It was Bruce who finally broke it.

" I could use a drink, do you want one?" He asked as he made his way over to the liquor cabinet.

" No I am good, thank you." Clark said quietly.

Once Bruce return with a glass in his hand, he gestured wordlessly for them to take a seat on the plush leather sofa. They each sank down on opposite ends and once again, silence reigned between them. Again it was almost a whimsical sight. Superman in his red and blue and Bruce Wayne still looking debonair after having shed his expensive suit jacket and tie, leaving him in his black shirt, vest, and slacks, sitting together on the sofa. It was Clark who broke the silence this time.

" Do you still have the Kryptonite?" He asked.

" Yes I have it, why?" Bruce asked as he looked directly at Clark. The Kryptonian just shook his head.

" Relax, I am not going to ask you to hand it over. It's safer with you anyway." Bruce did his best not to start at this as he spoke.

" Well, I was expecting you to demand I hand it over immediately but what makes you think that?" He asked. Clark just shrugged.

" Well for starters I can't go near it without feeling like I am being skinned alive." Clark said flatly, Bruce barely keeping his own wince from showing on his face, before Clark continued.

" And second, while my apartment building is nice enough, it doesn't have a nifty steel vault in the basement."

" Wait, you know I have a vault down there?" Bruce asked with a frown.

" Yes Mr. Wayne, I took a look at the entire layout of your place as I flew back from Mexico. I know where the entrances and exits are." Clark explained.

" Just in case I change my mind." He asked with an almost smirk.

Bruce twisted his lips sourly before he nodded and took a deep swig of his drink before he spoke.

" Listen, about last week. I wasn't expecting it to go down that way. I never expected you to be so pleasant towards me and Alfred, or that you would get so upset like you did." He said quietly.

" Yeah, last week was pretty overwhelming." Clark said with a nod.

" Probably was a bitter pill to swallow." Bruce said with a smirk.

" What do you mean?" Clark asked, feeling his heckles rising.

" Come on Kent, you are the equivalent of a god on this planet. You can do things that the rest of us can only dream about. You can rip apart steel with you bare hands and fucking fly through the air. Then here I come along, a lowly human being and I bring you to your knees, show you your Achilles Heel, your weakness. It must be hard, getting knocked down a peg." Bruce said almost viciously.

For a moment Clark saw red, though he kept his heat-vision from flaring. Bruce was trying to goad him into losing his temper again. The man either had a serious death wish or was just that desperate to prove how awful Superman, and by proxy Clark Kent was.

Well, Clark decided he wasn't going to let that happen. Besides, Bruce actually was way off the mark.

" You're wrong Bruce." Clark said quietly, finally calling Bruce by his first name and feeling too tired to keep the walls up around how he was truly feeling as he continued.

" I am not resentful, I am just really sad. You showing me the Kryptonite was just a final confirmation of something I already knew in my heart."

" What?" Bruce asked, confused and maybe even a little concerned by the resigned look on Clark's face.

Clark sat back and smiled wanly as he replied.

" That my home world, Krypton, never wanted me and that even now that it is dead and gone it still doesn't." He said simply.

" What the Hell do you mean?" Bruce asked slowly.

Taking in a deep breath and finally having enough with keeping it all in, Clark began to tell his tale.

Clark explained how after finishing college and with his father's death still weighing heavily on him, he had started drifting aimlessly through the country. Hitch hiking and working menial jobs, never staying in one place for very long both because of his heroic exploits and because he never wanted any roots. He told Bruce about how he had ended up in the Arctic where he discovered the Kryptonian scout ship and met Lois in the process. He had taken the ship to some far off, icy and isolated place and had finally met his birth father's ghost.

Bruce listened with ever widening eyes as Clark explained how Krypton had one been a far off planet that enjoyed a golden age before artificial population control was implemented, how the very fabric of Kryptonian society became a mess without any free choice with the a Genetic Codex determining everyone's role before they were even born. And the worst part was that for all of Krypton's advancements, they had slowly descended and brought about their own destruction by exhausting their natural resources and deciding that harvesting their own planet's core was the way to go.

" So you see Bruce, I am an aberration, a freak to my own people." Clark said emotionlessly.

Bruce opened his mouth but no sound came out. He had been prepared to hear anger and indignation, not this, not this resignation and quiet despair. Clark slowly rose from his seat and made his way over to the glass wall of the house that looked out onto the calm, shimmering lake. He crossed his arms over his chest and gazed out at the serene scene as he continued to speak.

" Because I accessed the ship, it sent out a distress signal that Zod and the other Kryptonian's followed it here. Even when we met, Zod and the others were just so cold, distant." Clark said before he turned back to look at Bruce with that awful, humorless smile.

" Turns out they weren't really interested in me either, just what's running through my veins."

Bruce slowly rose to his feet and made his way over to Clark so that they were at arm's length as he spoke.

" What do you mean, what's in you're blood?" He asked quietly.

" I told you about the Codex, it's a registry of every single one of Krypton's citizens. Well before my birth parents shot me off into space, my father stole the Codex and bonded its genetic information with my cells when I was a new born. So I've literally got all of Krypton's people running through my veins." Clark explained to a wide-eyed Bruce. Bruce could scarcely breath as the ramifications of this information dawned on him.

But Bruce could say anything, Clark turned away and continued.

" Zod and the others, they only wanted the codex, they just wanted to harvest it from me and remake Krypton. It never mattered to them whether I lived or died." He said coldly before he let out a humorless chuckle.

" My birth father's consciousness told me that he and my mother loved me very much, that was why they risked so much to ensure that I survived. It probably makes me even more horrible than I am but I think that even with that, I was also their giant "Fuck You" to Krypton's government, their little rebel moment. I bet if Krypton hadn't been set to implode, they would have been content with having a pod baby just like-." Clark said bitterly, but his words were abruptly cut off as large, warm hands grabbed him and turned him around so that he was face to face with a visibly distressed looking Bruce Wayne.

" Stop, please stop." Bruce said, not wanting to hear Clark awful diatribe against his own self.

Clark took in a deep, ragged breath and felt his eyes beginning to burn with salt as he spoke.

" You saw what the Kryptonite did to me Bruce, you saw. It's the remnant of my world, of Krypton and it can kill me. I am mortal now, just like all of you, but you don't want me, none of you are ever going to want me." Clark said softly with an awful, empty grin turning up the corners of his mouth.

Bruce shook his head, wanting to tell Clark that he was wrong when Clark suddenly started screaming.

" ALIEN GO HOME! ALIEN GO HOME! ALIEN GO HOME!" He yelled, his voice reverberating through the whole house.

Each shout was like a hammer to Bruce's insides and it took all he had in him not to cower in the face of such despair-filled rage.

Clark sucked in breath after breath, his anger, his hurt not abating as he continued in a more quiet fashion.

" What home is there for me? Metropolis? Where I have to hide in plain sight and listen day in and day out about how badly I screw everything up whenever I try to help? That I am a false god, the alien menace that almost got all of Earth killed. Smallville? Where all my life everyone treated me like a freak not only because of what I was hiding but also because I was adopted?" Clark said, his enraged expression crumbling for a moment as he remembered his Earth parents.

" Jonathan and Martha Kent, my parents here on Earth, even they didn't want me. Sure they wanted to adopt a child, but they just got saddled with me when my freaking spaceship happened to crash into their cornfield." Clark said softly, his voice finally cracking.

Bruce felt his heart give a painful, all-consuming lurch at the mention of Clark's parents. When he had read up on Clark, it hadn't been lost on him that Clark's mother's name was Martha as well. It had made him angry, resentful, how dare the alien have a loving mother that share's his own mother's name, how dare he have a mother at all. It humanized Clark and Bruce hadn't wanted him to be human. Now here he was, watching as the other man, yes man, was literally falling to pieces before his very eyes.

He had wanted to hurt this man? This frustrating, unexpected, amazing and absolutely wonderful young man? Who still found it in him to still keep trying and not just give up on all of them and walk away?

The shame that coursed through Bruce was like an acrid acid in his veins. But before Bruce could dwell on it further and perhaps even let it drown him like he deserved, Clark spoke again.

" Where am I supposed to go? Krypton's dead and Earth's made it really clear that it doesn't want me around. Where am I supposed to be Bruce?" Clark asked as he took a step closer to Bruce, a pleading look on his striking blue eyes.

Bruce's mouth worked but again, he couldn't get any sound to come out. He could only watch on in silent horror as Clark's eyes finally began to fill with tears.

" Where do I go Bruce? Please, please tell me and I'll go there... I'll go there but I'll always come back here to help, I just won't over stay my welcome, tell me, please just tell me where and I'll... Mmph!"

The rest of Clark desperate pleading was abruptly cut off as a pair of lips promptly sealed themselves over his own, effectively silencing him. Clark let out a muffled gasp, and a tear finally escaped one of his eyes as he stood there and realized that Bruce Wayne... the man who was Batman, was holding him in his arms and kissing him, and not just that, he was doing so with unheard of gentleness. Clark was so stunned he put up no resistance as Bruce pushed him backwards until his back hit the glass wall of Bruce's lake house.

They broke apart a few moments later with a light gasp.

" Don't go, stay, please stay here with me Clark." Bruce whispered almost desperately, his face mere inches from Clark's own stunned countenance as he reached up and gently cupped the sides of Clark's neck.

" Bruce?" Clark whispered as he in turn reached up and lightly gripped Bruce's wrists.

" I'm sorry." Bruce said, meaning it with all his heart.

It sounded so inadequate in the face of all the hurt he had just witnessed, but Bruce was never good with words when it came to such delicate matters as this. Instead he slowly leaned forward and pressed his forehead to Clark's.

" I was wrong, I was so wrong. I am so sorry. Stay please." Bruce said softly.

Clark could almost see Bruce's shame and guilt radiating off of him in wave. Just a few moments ago he had been yelling that he had no place to go, no place to belong. Now here before him, Bruce, who had every reason to despise him, who had nearly become his most bitter enemy was now asking him not to go, to stay here with him.

Clark knew he should refuse, that he should just go back to his empty apartment back in Metropolis and go on with his existence, but he was just so damn tired of being alone.

He wanted to stay, with Bruce.

" Ok." He whispered softly. " I'll stay, I want stay right here with you."

Clark then titled his head up and pressed his lips to Bruce's. Bruce let his eyes fall shut as he responded in kind and deepened the kiss. When they drew apart, Clark wrapped his arms around Bruce and buried his face into the older man's shoulder, his breath hitching slightly because he was still upset from before. Bruce, despite not being the most tactile of individuals wrapped his arms around Clark as squeezed him tightly enough that others would have bruised and lost breath. Clark just sighed and soaked up the warmth that was being freely given.

When they finally drew apart, Bruce pulled an emotionally spent Clark with him towards the bedroom, shutting the door once they were inside.

Half an hour later...

Bruce sighed as he gazed up at the ceiling of his bedroom, shadows and reflections of light from the lake dancing across the smooth surface. A light shuffling beside him had Bruce turning his gaze to his side, where they fell on the one he was sharing his bed with.

Clark lay beside Bruce, lightly dozing and looking like an ethereal dream under the pale moonlight that was steaming into the room from outside.

After they had come inside Bruce's bedroom, they had divested themselves of their respective garments. Bruce had marveled as he had watched Clark's alien suit retract and disappear into the miniature "S" shield that now lay on his bedside table. Clark had then pounced on Bruce, using his super speed to take Bruce's clothes off and even neatly fold them in the blink of an eye, leaving them both in only their under garments.

The desire to go all the way had been there, there was no doubt. But both Bruce and Clark had decided to forgo intercourse in exchange for something far more risky, intimacy.

They had laid together, heavily caressing and exploring each other. Bruce reveled in the softness of Clark's flesh, so unexpected of the world's strongest being, while Clark had been fascinated by Bruce's many scars, gently tracing them with his fingers and pressing his lips to them in dulcet kisses. They had brought each other pleasure they had never felt before, without even joining their bodies. One quick but sensuous shower later, here they were.

Now as the quiet stillness in which they lay with the sheets pooled around their waists. While Clark had dozed off, respite had proved elusive for Bruce as he turned his gaze back up to the ceiling and allowed the various possibilities for what could have happened had Clark not reached out to him that night assault his mind. His conscience was burning him with each breath he took. Bruce probably would have thought about the 'what ifs' all night, but a warm hand coming to rest over his heart served to shake Bruce from his fatalistic musings.

Bruce turned his head to meet the pair of crystalline blue eyes that were rapidly becoming his favorite. Bruce turned over onto his side and wrapped his arm around Clark, pulling the other man flush against them as they lay face to face.

Clark kept his hand over Bruce's hart, his thumb caressing the edge of the large scar that started just a few inches away, covering the older man's shoulder as he spoke.

" What are you thinking about?" Clark asked quietly.

Bruce leaned in without saying a word, pressing a kiss to each of Clark's eyelids and earning a soft, shy chuckle from the younger man before he spoke.

" Thinking about whether to take another leap of faith." Bruce rumbled quietly.

At Clark's warm smile, Bruce took a deep breath and began to speak.

" When I was eight years old, my parents took me to see "The Mask of Zorro" at the theater. It was awesome and I loved it. After the movie was over we headed outside and we were just walking home together when we passed this alleyway where a guy suddenly came out of the shadows, he had a gun and he pointed it right at us..."

Hours later, with the first light of the oncoming dawn breaking over the horizon...

Dark brown eyes fluttered open as sleep left them. Unlike the other times, when it was a horrible nightmare of graves, blood, and bats that would wrench him back into the waking world, this time Bruce returned to consciousness from a blissful dreamlessness with a soft sigh.

As he oriented himself, Bruce felt a small smile curl up the corners of his lips as he felt small puffs of warm air against the back of his neck, while a solid male chest was pressed up against his own broad back.

Bruce did his best not to disturb a still sleeping Clark as he turned over onto his side to face the Kryptonian.

Hours before, Bruce had finally shared with Clark the reason why the horrors of his murdered innocence, his reason as to why he was Batman. There was no words of condemnation, no looks of pity in those deep blue eyes, just acceptance and the quiet words urging him to go to sleep along with further assurances that Clark would be there when he woke up.

Now, with the light of the oncoming dawn approaching, Bruce gazed at Clark with his smile dimming. While things may have changed astronomically between them in a way that even Bruce could not have every contemplated, the many threats against them both still remained.

Luthor. The man was not to be underestimated in the least.

But as he continued to gaze at his sleeping, other worldly lover, Bruce felt something blossom in his chest, something he had not felt in many years especially after so many of the bad things that had happened.

Hope. Plain and simple, but no less profound.

He had hope.

As he leaned in and pressed his forehead to Clark's, earning a sleepy smile from the younger man who tightened his arms around him, Bruce could not help but feel glad despite his ever present trepidation.

It was hope that had made Clark decide to reach out to him and talk rather than just writing Bruce off as just a barbarian shrouded in darkness. Clark had been the one to reach out, but Bruce had been the one to fall hard.

They would get through whatever came next. Together.

Epilogue

Clark sat back in his chair and stretched with a sigh. It was another day at the Daily Planet, people bustling about and phones ringing left and right. As Clark took a moment to look around, his eyes fell on a certain red head who was sitting in her cubicle typing away.

Seeming to sense eyes on her, Lois looked up over he shoulders and met his gaze. Their eyes met and they shared a warm smile across the room. With a quick nod to his dear friend, Clark turned back to his work. It had been about a month and a half since Clark and Bruce had spent that highly charged night together, and a lot of things had happened.

To Bruce's rage, he discovered that Lex Luthor had set his sights on Wallace Keefe. On top of making sure that the poor man never received any of the benefit check from the trust Bruce had set up for the people who had been terribly effected when Wayne Financial had gone down and taunting the man, Luthor had paid a visit to the man, presenting him with a new, state of the art wheel chair.

Bruce in his ever constant vigilance had set up surveillance on Keefe's residence, just to keep tabs on him. When he had seen one Lex Luthor leaving Keefe's place with Mercy Graves, Bruce had nearly gone berserk and went after Luthor right then and there. Alfred had been able to talk him down and get him to focus on just why Luthor would pay O'Keefe a visit.

Lo and behold, it was then that Bruce found out that Keefe was going to the congressional hearing that was to be held. Naturally, Bruce paid Keefe a secret visit himself, asking if it would be alright if he could trade the man the wheelchair Lex gave him for one of Wayne Tech's own far more superior models.

Bruce had taken the damn thing apart with Clark, Diana, and Alfred in observance. They had all been chilled to their core when Bruce found the bomb that was hidden behind the lead-lining.

On the day of the hearing before Congress, Bruce made sure that one Kahina Ziri reached the capital building and Senator June Finch unharmed, thanks to a private escort overseen by Gotham Police Commissioner Jim Gordon himself.

Instead of the death and destruction Luthor had intended, a different sort of chaos erupted in Congress as a stoic Superman had stood before the committee and listened on with everyone else as Kahina Ziri stepped forward and confessed that her harrowing story of the destruction Superman had wrought in Nairomi was all one giant lie, the product of blackmail that terrified her into compliance.

All of which had been conducted by none other than Alexander Luthor Jr.

Luthor, who had been in attendance was no where to be found, and his ever faithful assistant Mercy Grave's proved very unwilling to say anything even when she was taken into custody.

Senator Finch and the rest of the committee had sat red-faced as Superman spoke to them and to the masses. He had said quite simply that while he possessed extraordinary abilities, he was no god and had no desire to be one. He reiterated that he did what he did because he cared more about helping people, saving them even when they feared and doubted him, than being loved by all. He had ended his address by simply promising that no matter how bad things got, he'd never give up on humanity, he'd never walk away.

After that he had sent Senator Finch a sad little smile and then walked out of the room with his head held high. From where he had watched on, hidden in a corner Bruce couldn't have been more relieved and maybe even a little bit proud.

A lot of people began to view Superman differently after that day, even Wallace Keefe. The man would never, ever be a fan of the Man of Steel, but he had decided that being consumed by his hate, his resentment, was not the way he wanted to spend the rest of his life. At least he got a cool new state of the art wheelchair to help him get around, and Mr. Wayne had gone so far as to get him all the money he was supposed to have received from the check Luthor had messed with.

With Luthor on the lam, Congress had naturally found out about a certain underhanded deal between Lex and one Senator Barrows regarding the remnants of the Kryptonian ship and the corpse of General Zod.

Needless to say, Senator Finch had been well and truly pissed when she brought down the hammer of God on the idiot Barrows. Afterwards, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman had entered the remnants of the Kryptonian ship, heading to the dark and lopsided genesis chamber.

It was there that they were greeted by Lex's as of yet unborn atrocity. With tears of horror streaming down his face, Clark had been the one to pull the plug and kill what was once Dru Zod for the second time.

After that a very angry and despondent Clark had take Zod's mutated body and the Kryptonian ship and flew the whole thing as far away from human hands as possible. When some members of the Government had tried to raise a fuss, Clark had gone before them again very quietly and succinctly torn them all a new one for every even allowing Luthor anywhere near Zod and the Kryptonian technology. The pictures of Zod's body that had been anonymously sent to the senators also helped to make them pipe down rather quickly.

Clark smiled as he remembered Bruce's self-satisfied little smirk at that particular little stunt.

But the smile quickly left his face as he remembered what had gone down after.

Luthor, in a desperate attempt to regain the upper hand had sent Knyazev and his horde of mercenaries to kidnap both Lois and Martha.

On the same night, one team had gone after Lois in Metropolis while the other team, including Knyazev himself had gone to Smallville for Martha.

At the downtown Metropolis Metro Station, Lois had found herself cornered and out numbered by a bunch of dangerous looking men. One of them had just roughly grabbed Lois' wrist when the man's own hand had been snapped like a twig and he had then been sent flying into a nearby concrete wall.

Everyone had turned to see Diana Prince, decked out in her full armor with her lasso glowing golden and fury glittering in her dark eyes.

In Smallville, Knyazev and his men had staked out the diner that Martha worked part-time at only to be frustrated when she didn't show. They had driven out to the Kent farm, where they assumed the little old lady would be while her alien-freak son was busy saving his little red-headed girlfriend.

Knyazev and his men had charged into the Kent farm house, only to come to a dead stop when their gazes fell on kitchen and just who the occupants were.

There sitting at the kitchen table was Batman in all his dark, menacing glory with Martha Kent serving him a slice of her famous apple pie with some chocolate ice cream on the side. When Martha's eyes had fallen on Knyazev and his heavily armed men, some of whom looked ready to piss their pants, she sent them all a sweet little smug smile before gracefully ducking away into the basement.

Batman had calmly pushed his chair back and slowly rose to his feet. There had been a beat of terrifying silence, and then all Hell had broken loose. Batman had descended on Anatoli Knyazev and his men in a flurry of black cape and unbridled rage. Batman had sent man after man flying, shattering bones and drawing blood. After watching Batman decimate more than have of his men all on his own, Knyazev had decided to to the smart thing for one and finally run.

He had managed to get outside and down the front steps before a certain red-caped individual smashed down onto the Earth right in front of him. Knyazev could only stand there as Superman stood to full height and glared down at him with his eyes flaring bright red. With Batman at his back and Superman before him, Knyazev did not hesitate to give up the location of he one behind it all.

Superman had shot off into the night to do some hunting of his own, leaving Bruce with his mother, who was already insisting that he sit down and eat his pie first before he cleaned up the mess or else. Bruce hadn't stood a chance against her.

Clark had found Lex, speeding towards the Metropolis docs on his motorcycle, no doubt one of the many ships docked there was his planned means of escape.

Lex had turned a corner on the road, only to find the Man of Steel himself glaring at him with his red cape billowing about him. Before Lex could stop, his motorcycle was colliding with Superman and bouncing off of him like a rubber ball would a stone wall. Lex had leto go of his bike in the nick of time, skidding across the asphalt while he bike careened into a steel railing and promptly burst into flames.

Lex had floundered on the ground, letting out a hysterical giggle as Clark had seized him by the collar of his white jacket and yanked him clear off his feet.

Clark still remembered the insane smile on Lex's face as he had ranted and raved.

" Oh. Look at us. This is how it all caves in. Civilization on the wane, manners... out the window. Hmm. But even if you do turn me in to the authorities, who would believe me? I-Ahh... Any judge will take one good look at be and have me declared insane. I won't even be fit to stand trial."

Lex's smile had them dropped off his face.

" Your little team up with the flying rodent man changes nothing. I cannot let you win. I was going to give the Bat a change to do it but he wasn't strong enough, and you killed my beautiful Doomsday. I will not lose to you!" Lex had shrieked.

Clark had forced himself to not even bat an eye as he had gotten right into Lex's face and spoke.

" You'll learn."

Lex had simply sneered and slobbered as in inanely babbled.

" Oh But the bell's already been rung. And they've heard it. Out in the dark, among the stars... ding dong, the god can be beaten. The bell cannot be un-rung. He's found us. AND HE'S COMING!"

Clark was abruptly snapped out of his reminiscing when Perry appeared in the bullpen.

" Hey everyone listen up, there's been an interesting development!" He yelled, looking displeased but resigned.

Clark and Lois shared a looked before they got up from their desks and joined the gathering crowd.

" What's going on Perry?" Lois asked curiously.

Clark was curious too, but before he could think about any of the possibilities, the sound of a familiar, calm and steady heartbeat filled his ears and made his own heart stutter.

Sure enough, Bruce Wayne emerged from around the corner, dressed sharply as ever in a deep charcoal gray suit with a black shirt and silver tie. His dark black hair, graying at the temples was stylishly coiffed and he had a few days worth of stubble gracing the lower half of his face.

Everyone was stunned, especially Clark as he watched Bruce casually saunter into the bullpen and come to stand next to Perry with one of his practiced smug billionaire smiles plastered on his face. Perry then spoke.

" I'm sure you all recognize Mr. Bruce Wayne. It's come to my attention that some months ago the owners of the Daily Planet were in dire straits, so Mr. Wayne quietly bought the paper and Wayne Tech began running the financial end of things, keeping us in the black I am happy to say." Perry explained as he clapped a hand on Bruce's shoulder while others were looking at Bruce with awe or admiration.

Still with that slightly vacant smile on his face, Bruce looked to the crowd and spoke.

" It was nothing really, I just though it would be fun to add running a newspaper to by vast repertoire. Make no mistake, Mr. White here is still in charge of busting your chops, so don't disappoint him." He said as he smiled at Perry who just huffed and smiled despite himself.

As people started clapping and gathering around Bruce, Clark stood their stunned. Bruce Wayne was not only his secret lover and ally formidable ally Batman, he was now technically his boss too?

What the ever loving heck?

But before Clark could dwell on it any longer, Bruce was suddenly right there in front of him.

" Hey I know you, what was it Clement? Carson? We met at that gala Lexi held before he went crazy." Bruce declared as he held out his hand, all the while gazing at Clark with a veiled warmth in his dark eyes.

" Oh yes, yes we did Mr. Wayne, and it's Clark, Clark Kent." Clark replied, doing his best not to laugh out-loud as he reached out and gripped Bruce's hand. Lois just eyed them weirdly for a second as she walked passed them, but otherwise no one really noticed as Perry started shouting at the lot of them to get the hell back to work.

Clark subtly stroked his thumb across Bruce's, earning a widening of Bruce's grin into something much more natural as he spoke with a bright grin of his own.

" Well Mr. Wayne, welcome to the Planet."

The End.