Summary: (DCEU/ Post BvS Canon Divergence) When Bruce goes to visit Martha Kent eighteen months after Clark is killed, he discovers that Clark is back from the dead... and is now raising a baby who looks suspiciously like a mix of the two of them. As the two of them learn to co-parent, they must ask themselves if what was between them is really all in the past.
Her hands shook as she looked out at the endless fields of corn.It was endless and to her it was a different world but it was something he had loved. She thought of him. She thought of him being there with her and having that light in his eyes. He wasn't here now and he wasn't going to be. Lois took a ragged breath as she closed her eyes. She saw him beside her and felt his hand in her's. He was smiling. He was happy and the memory was more than two years ago. She opened her eyes and half hoped that'd she'd wake up from the nightmare she had been living and see him standing in front of her. He wasn't. The woman's heart only broke more.
"Clark..."
His name was a mere whisper on her lips as the tear slipped down her cheek. She had come to get away from the city and the pain but the trip to Kansas didn't seem to do her any good. He haunted her every thought and every action. There was no Superman to save her now if she got into trouble. There was no hope flying in the sky. There was no one to hold her at night and no one for her to love more than anything. He had told her that she was his world but hadn't he known that he was her world too? She had fallen in love with Clark Kent slowly but she knew there'd never be another like him. He was it for her. Lois didn't bother to wipe the tear that slipped down her cheek away as she looked up at the sky and prayed that he heard her if he was up there.
"Didn't you know that you were my world too, Clark?" She whispered quietly as the wind blew and a small part of her believed it was his way of saying he knew.
Wonderbat prompt: Diana finds out she's slowly losing her immortality the longer & farther away she is from Paradise Island. She & Bruce discuss the implications for Diana and whether or not she should return home versus a possible future for them together.
“I can’t believe it’s still here.” That haunting voice found her just as it had the day they met, the way his breath crept along the bare skin of her neck however was something much newer, more tantalizing than she would have found it a year ago.
Diana could not look away from the ‘Sword of Alexander’ as it rested in its glass case, for she feared that Bruce would see her to be just as fraudulent as the artifact they had been standing next to when they spoke for the very first time. Instead, she hardened her voice when she answered him, “I can; the pride of a collector diminishes over the years, and the hubris of man takes its place.”
“I hope you don’t think of my gallery in the cave like that.” The Batman quipped at her – joked at her otherwise sullen response. She wasn’t a fool, she knew why he was trying to be sociable and create a pleasant air around them before carrying on with the conversation she had abandoned earlier that night. The gala was just as crowded as she remembered and the air was just as posh as she expected, which is why she had tried to escape from her world as a superhero and return the alias of Diana Prince, in order to find some reprieve from the calamity that intended to curse her no matter which façade she wore.
She had worn a dazzling black and blue dress that seemed to represent her battered soul.
She had driven herself to the event, taking care of herself as she always had done.
She had hoped she could sample the artifacts at the party – authentic or otherwise – and find peace in the history of worlds she had never participated in.
Regardless of her wishes, Diana wasn’t at all surprised that Bruce had found her. His detective skills made him quite the expert of hide and seek, especially with those who wished to remain hidden. So, as a kind gesture of acceptance to being discovered, Diana softly gazed over her shoulder at her partner and conceded, “Your gallery is worth more with all you have collected from your one lifetime of adventures than this gala has, all together.”
The unashamed compliment caught Bruce off-guard, for she managed to chip away at the socialite persona he was wearing rather easily. In silence did they stare each other down, Diana feeling both small and tall as she observed the proudest man she knew. Wonder Woman could be one of the strongest beings on Earth, and she would always demonstrate herself with grace as well as power, but there was something about the Batman and the man beneath all of that armour that managed to prey upon the indestructible Amazon.
Her heart was in his hands, whether he wanted it or not.
Unable to stand the silence, Diana swiveled her body and took merely two steps away from him before his hand found her arm, just as it had the last time she had tried to escape him. If only she had been successful the first time. “Bruce, not here.” Diana warned.
Without taking a moment to breathe, Bruce shot back in her ear, “Then let’s go home.”
“My apartment needs a thorough cleaning.”
“You know that’s not what I meant.”
“I don’t think you want to visit Themyscira.”
“Don’t play games with me right now,” voice firm, grip tense, Bruce’s ability to banter was suddenly lost to him, easily replaced by his scolding nature. “You can’t just fly out of the cave because you don’t like what you’re hearing and expect me to—”
Ripping her arm away from him was child’s play due to her strength and therefore looked effortless and unproblematic to anyone nearby. The fire in her eyes, though, were clearly not to be trifled with. “How dare you. It was you who did not wish to hear me. And when I give you the space you so clearly desire, you follow me regardless. There is nothing I can do for you, Bruce. If you wish for me to accept your choice, then respect my decision to end a conversation where neither of us are willing to give in to the other.”
This time, Bruce stumbled in keeping pace with her conversationally. In all honesty, Diana did not expect herself to snap at him with little to no effort, but there was something eternally vexing about Mr. Wayne that no amount of time in his presence could cure. Bottling up her emotions as she had ever since she had learned the wretched news had done wonders to her patience and she could think of no one better than Bruce to release her fury upon.
When he seemed to recover from her tongue lashing, the bat glowered as he motioned with his now empty hand toward a doorway that was off to her right. “Perhaps we could discuss this somewhere more private?”
“I think we have discussed things as much as we possibly can. This is now my decision, Bruce, as the consequences no longer affect you—”
Diana was silenced, not by words, but by Bruce’s expression. His eyes grew wide while the rest of his face turned to stone before his heroic instincts could compel his body to move. “Everybody, RUN!” He bellowed loud enough to shatter the peaceable tone of the event. In the blink of an eye, the cold brush of a winter’s breeze ran over Diana’s skin for a reason she could not comprehend as she pulled behind an artifact stand. There was no explosion, no bullet or laser to avoid. Instead, a sickening cackle floated on the wind and sent a fierce chill down her spine.
“No…”
“Don’t cause too much of a fuss, everyone,” chided the intruder, the volume of his voice growing louder even though there were no steps to warn of his approach. As the guests of the gala scattered without reform, there was not an ounce of concern to be shown. “After all, I’m not here for any of you.”
From their crouched position behind the massive stand of ancient weaponry, Bruce tapped his ear piece almost as quickly as Barry might have. “Victor, come in. I need you to take down the security cameras here. We have a situation.”
While Batman focused on the covert angles of their operation, Diana decided to peak out of their hiding spot to assess the damage that had been done, and the perpetrator who was more than likely willing to cause more. To her momentary surprise, the wall she had been standing before just moments ago had seemingly vanished without a trace. That chilling air had flooded the party like a spilled glass of wine, spoiling the festivities. But that wasn’t the reason that Wonder Woman had gasped when she had heard that sickening laughter as the intruder let himself in. Her bright eyes scanned the room and upon finding her target, she bit out a name that she had hoped to never utter again, no matter how many years more she had to live. “Faust.”“You know this man?” Bruce inquired, but his question fell on deaf ears. Instead of satisfying his curiosity, Diana leapt to her feet and glanced down at her signature gauntlets. Ever since she had agreed to become a hero again, she had never taken them off. Fighting Faust would be a perfect example as to the benefit of always being prepared.
Stepping out from behind the display, Wonder Woman sized up her opponent while his back was turned to her. The room had indeed emptied of all other guests – Bruce’s warning and the levitating man to follow were enough motivation for the upper class party goers to flee – and therefore, there would be no causalities when they fought.
A perfect outlet for her frustrations, this night was turning out to be.
“What sort of deal did you make with Hades this time?” Elegant as always, Diana sneered at the sorcerer. His cliché cape fluttered about his body while he stood before the Sword of Alexander, fixated on it so much so that he did not even turn to look at her when she addressed him.
“Ah, Princess Diana. I was wondering where you were when I visited Themyscira.” Faust found everything funny, or so it appeared, given that he could not keep himself from chuckling for more than a moment or two.
Refusing to be baited by his cruelty, she bypassed his claim and rephrased her question, “What are you doing here?”
The old man sighed and finally decide to acknowledge her, his boredom with their interaction plain to see on his face, let alone to hear it in his tone. “Relax, child. I came here for this sword alone, the one that is said to cut through the Gordian Knot. I am trying to conduct myself much less…aggressively, I promise you. Had I known you’d be here tonight I would have rescheduled my intrusion.”
“How thoughtful of you.” Diana mockingly answered. She did not show it on her face, nor in her stance, yet she couldn’t help but wonder where Bruce had gone off to or why he had not revealed himself. She did not want to move on Faust until he had given her reason to do so; magic was not something she was unfamiliar with, but rather, something she had learned not to trifle with if at all possible.
Unaware of her hesitations, Faust waved his hand at the sword and grumbled as if he was much younger than his deal with the devil had made him. “However, you yourself must know that this sword is nothing but a fake. And now I—…must find the original.”
Ignoring the hitch in his voice, Diana warned him, “I am sure the dark forces you work with would be more than willing to assist you, wherever it is that you typical contact them from.”
“Yes, they could. Or, I am sure you could help now, couldn’t you? Yes, you Amazons know a great deal about historical artifacts. If you are here, dressed as you are, attending the event of some mortal…then you must live among men now, don’t you, princess?” The sickening way that his grin curled was just as uncomfortable to witness as Lex Luthor’s speech about Zeus had been.
“Amazons are meant to protect all of mankind—”
“But Hippolyta had forced you all to forsake that duty a few millennia ago. No” – suddenly, he teleported himself so that he was standing directly before her, with no warning of any kind – “you’ve been banished, haven’t you? Princess Diana is a princess no more.”
Again, his blatant attempt to rile her missed the mark. Instead, the curious Amazon moved to ask the most important question she could think of, “What do you want the sword for, Faust?” She knew that he could easily harm her with a handful of different spells – to disembowel her, to flay her skin, to force her brain to implode – but Faust was one of her more reasonable villains, and she suspected that they both had something the other wanted before their encounter could turn violent.
Much more gracious than she recalled him to be, the sorcerer revealed rather effortlessly, “I need it to unlock the lost library of Tsar Ivan IV Vasilyevich.” Cut and dry, he admitted to be hunting for the legendary stronghold of Ivan the Terrible’s collected and translated books. Diana knew that such a myth held great weight in the world of historical finds, given that many original philosophical scrolls and multitudes of books that had been presumably lost to the world were said to be hidden in such a mysterious place. No one had ever found its location and before her now stood a sorcerer who claimed to need such a sword in order to reveal the location of the long lost library?
“You know where such a place is—”
“Diana,” he patronized her with the way he said her name. “I provided you with a great deal of information, have I not? My background in alchemy requires that I receive equivalency of exchange.” Then, expecting his reward thusly, Faust’s eyes glazed over with a disturbing shade of indigo, gazing deep into Diana’s mind to the point that she could feel his stare piercing the inside of her skull. It felt like immaterial, boney hands were digging through her memories, searching for whatever it was that suited the needs of their caster. The location of the real sword…
A gas bomb exploded at her feet, the thick fog rising with momentum and encircling her body. A signature of her missing ally, no doubt.
Thankfully, it also disrupted Faust’s mind games; he lost contact with her memories and violently ripped himself out of her head. Diana gritted her teeth through the inexplicable pain so as not to give the wicked man the satisfaction of harming her. She knew that the disruption wouldn’t be a great hindrance to the man, so Diana utilized her Hermes-inspired speed and galloped backwards until she was nearly on the edge of where the missing wall was supposed to be. A chorus of police sirens alerted her of incoming reinforcements, but she knew that this matter was not meant for ‘mortals’, as the sorcerer had referred to them.
However, it seemed as though there would be nothing for the police to do upon their arrival, for through the fog came a rather insidious voice. “Well now, that was our least dramatic interaction, I’d say. Let’s agree to make this the positive end to our tumultuous relationship, shall we?” And just like that, the man who made it his goal to ruin the night of hundreds of people came and went in the matter of minutes. The wall that was not reassembled upon Faust’s departure was the only true grievance of the random and unwanted encounter.
“Diana!” Bruce called to her while he ran through the remnants of the fog he had created. His silhouette looked much more intimidating than she knew the unmasked man to be, and a devilish part of her – that unapologetic heart of hers – welcomed his incoming presence greatly after what she had just endured. They were alone as the heavy dissipated, much to the Batman’s evident disappointment; scowling while he scanned the empty showcase of a room, he made is natural instincts appear so effortless, all while forgetting how miserable he looked when he was working.
How headstrong and surprisingly blinded he could be.
“The police are coming, and I imagine that all of the guests are scattered across the property—”
Before Diana could finish her own assessment of their predicament, the ruthless, blunt, questionably cruel Batman blurted out, “You need to fly us out of here. It’s the only way we can avoid being connected to this.”
The truth of his words were immediately overridden by the awkward and instant reminder of the very conversation they had had earlier that night, the one that made her exit the BatCave in a huff and attend such a stuffy event, the very one that forced him to hunt her down. The tension between them returned to the very intensity she had escaped of her own volition, yet she was immersed in it once again mere hours later due to the selfish unpredictability of the bat.
Her frown was deep and somehow transparent. Diana stood her ground, taking a powerful Amazonian-like stance, as the stress of the evening and the headache in her mind propelled her forward. Knowing their entire escape operation rested on her shoulders gave her the confidence to bite out, “Had you succeeded in sending me away tonight, you would have lost your means of escape.”
Beneath his heavy brow, Bruce’s eyes burned into hers like the very hellfire that her people protected Man’s World from. “I am not sending you away.”
“You brought me into your world – you made me into a hero again!”
“I know that. But had I known that your immortality would be put at risk in all of this, I wouldn’t have—”
She couldn’t barely stand before him without her anger causing her skin to tingle, let alone listening to him finish that sentence. “Wouldn’t have, what? Lived through our battle with Doomsday?”“Diana—”
“Used my abilities to help you build your Justice League?”
“Amanda Waller can’t know that we were here!”
“Allowed yourself to fall in love with a dying woman?”
It looked as if she had punched him with all of her goddess-esqe might, the way Bruce Wayne’s stomach looked as if it recoiled beneath his fancy, expensive, upper class suit. The respect she held for the man she had been romantically involved with for months – pining for unbeknownst to either of them for much longer – was no longer a barricade to shield him from the animosity she housed within her. If her encounter with Faust had taught her anything, it was that she had no genuine reason to desert her chaotically assembled family; they were the people who she had found and built a comradery with all on her own, for the first time in one hundred years.
How dare the man who claimed to love her expect her to leave this life of hers behind.
She had half a mind to leave him behind, as her astute sense of hearing immediately noticed the incoming parade of heavy feet, charging towards the very room they were having their stand-off in. But Diana was a hero, as she so easily accused him of forcing her into the role. Approaching him and grabbing hold of his waist easily enough, she braced her feet before shooting sky high. Her raised fist easily shattered a skylight she had spotted and she took off all too quickly for anyone on the ground to notice. The sturdy body she had pressed against her own was distracting in every sense of the word, only her ingrained responsibility as a trained warrior granting her focus while she tried to find a safe space to land.
And she did, on top of the Daily Planet building.
Upon releasing him from her grasp, Bruce reached for his face with both hands and scrubbed it with great frustration. He paced a few steps away from her and said not a word about the neutral territory in which she wished to conduct the rest of their conversation. Diana felt as though she was observing one of the many beasts that lived on Themyscira, the ferocious felines that she used to stalk and prey upon in the hopes of a different sort of challenge when the battle arena with her sisters had bored her once again; from left to right, Bruce skulked in each direction exactly twelve steps at a time, claiming a great deal of the rooftop for himself.
He also chose to claim the first word of their continuation, as he snapped at her, channelling the befuddled emotions that were buzzing between them. “How can you expect me to turn a blind eye to this? Huh? When your mother sends word to me about you losing your immortality the longer you are away from your home, how am I—”
Diana tossed her hand in front of her with the intent of dashing his mistake. “Themyscira is not my only home anymore!”
“Your apartment in Washington and the Manor aren’t tied to whether or not you can survive another battle like Doomsday’s!” A few of his once tidy strands of hair fell almost cautiously over his forehead. A jerk reaction, a tense hand shot upward in order to brush them away and it was almost as though he placed his CEO mask on in the process. “Whether or not you return to Themyscira, it won’t detract from the immeasurable value you’ve had in constructing the League.”
In that instant, the wind that had been taunting her at the party found her on that battlefield of a rooftop and rushed over her, almost as if it was trying to side with Bruce and blow her away. Nevertheless, it was the cruel dismissal in his words that stole the air from her lungs. “This isn’t about holding onto my mantle as a co-founder of the Justice League. Do not stand there and lie to me, avoiding the true issue we should be discussing right now.”
“The issue is whether or not I allow you to use the League as an excuse to die a warrior’s death!”
Allow?
Excuse?
A warrior’s death?
“Hera, give me strength!” The cry from her mouth was pleading, desperate and enraged before she stepped towards the man she had somehow managed to love as she threatened, “If I had my lasso, I wouldn’t be at all hesitant in using it on you!”
“You’d need to use it on yourself, first! Do not lie to me and pretend that losing your immortality isn’t something that scares you, Diana! Fight me up here, threaten to use your mythological arsenal on me, but don’t lie to me, either.” His voice was loud, forceful, all while tempered. It was the way he spoke to his villains when they were gifted one last chance to listen to reason, before he threw them into a cell at Arkham Asylum. The empathy he had scarcely shown her was no more and it provided a great deal of relief to the impatient Wonder Woman.
However, there was another part of her – one that had been cruelly uncovered by his proclamation – that was not at all pleased to see this side of him.
Never one to stagger, she stood her ground. She knew that the silence was a sign of weakness, of a partial forfeit, yet there were no words waiting on her once lashing tongue. She had been so intent on pushing her disgruntled feelings onto Bruce and his immediate favour to send her back to Themyscira that she had not given herself the opportunity to process her own emotions in regard to the prospect of…dying.
Of losing some of her invincibility.
Of saying goodbye to a portion of her strength that had allowed her to help a young Steve Trevor and the Allies, that gifted her the chance to play a major role in creating Man’s World’s greatest form of defence against evil.
Of joining her long-lost friends and soldiers in the ground, where they were laid to rest when their mortality stole them from this world.
Once more did the breeze whip her all over her body, despite the numbness inside of her that could not be ruled by such vicious treatment. She had been exposed to death her entire life – Diana’s people guarded the door to Hades’ realm, where all the world’s departed spent eternity – but to have the possibility of it claiming her when she least expected, while powerless and…no longer wondrous, was something that she could not bear to imagine.
“I” – a deep breath was required before carrying their conversation onward – “did not lie to you. I never once denied how frightening death can be.”
A guarded expression was Bruce’s answer to her personal assessment, a silent testament to his understanding of her words.
Placing a hand over her heart, Diana closed her eyes and tried to regain the stability she so typically housed within herself. Fear could be crippling if she allowed it to possess her, especially when the trauma of the first World War had haunted her all of these years and could still wake her in the middle of the night whenever it chose to rear its ugly head within her mind.
Her mind…
Faust had invaded her mind, looking for information that would help locate Ivan the Terrible’s missing library.
Instantly, her innate need to help, to hunt, to discover welled up inside of her and toppled the twisted knot of horror inside of her, cutting through it much faster than that infamous Sword of Alexander could have hoped to cut the Gordian Knot.
Diana fixed an awaiting Bruce with her brown-eyed stare and decreed, “But I will never return to Themyscira, and I think you know this. I have spent the last one hundred years wandering from place to place, pointlessly existing with these powers of mine, homeless since I left my people and entered into Man’s World. My immortality was not something I earned or forged – it was gifted to me, and I have used it to accomplish many great things.
“I stole my girdle and my sword to do what I felt was right. It is the same with you, Bruce, with your bat suits and your gadgets and your nightly patrols of your city: I cannot imagine ever doing anything else with my life, and I will continue doing what it is I was born to do until the day I die, just as I imagine you plan to do, too.”
This time, when her words attempted to impale him, Bruce Wayne looked as if he was ready to hiss at her in yet another protest. Unwilling to be denied any further, she sauntered over to her sullen partner, her hopefully permanent lover, and squared off against him face to face. Towering over him ever so slightly, she had to do her best not to smile victoriously despite the power play she had made in approaching him.
Taking a moment to pause, Bruce puffed his chest with a heavy inhalation of breath. “Fighting alongside an immortal goddess is less life-threatening than being with a mortal Amazon.” As true as his words may be, the implication that he intended to be with her still, that he knew he had lost, meant the world to Diana in that one blissful moment.
Then, the Batman whispered to her such tender words that she nearly missed on the wind, “Watching you die would have an…extreme impact on my mortality, as well.” Finally, after all of their heated words and avoidance of the main issue, the root of the matter was brought into play. It was a secret admission which possessed so much of Bruce’s own internalised terror in one short remark that it reverberated within Diana’s powerful body just as fiercely as her own worries had. In a very connective and yet inappropriate gesture, she couldn’t help but smile to finally hear the words that she had courageously been hoping to hear ever since her mother’s words somehow found the BatCave.
“Then shall we go home?” Diana teased him quite openly. The insufferable weight of their bought had been laid to rest at their feet, and Wonder Woman was ready to take to the skies if it meant that they could resume their once peaceful private life, amongst the fury of their alter egos. Eagerly did she hold out her hand to him, choosing to be much gentler this time as she prepared to escort him back to the manor.
“You know, you were right, princess.” As if he hadn’t heard her question or seen her outstretched hand, Bruce reverted to a more common façade and appeared to be much more like the public version of himself; he wore a smile that tipped up in only one corner of his lips, just as he had grinned at her when she had poked fun at his boyish behaviour with Luthor’s hard drive.
“What about?” She felt it was appropriate to ask.
Reaching for her hand and allowing himself to be carted home by her metahuman ability to fly, the typically guarded dark knight gifted his partner, his lover with a rare compliment as he referred back to their very first conversation and said, “I don’t think I ever have or ever will know a woman like you.”
As she secured him against her hip, the lapping winds urging her to take flight, Diana’s full lips couldn’t keep from smiling as she ordered, “Hold onto me tightly.” And those words were meant to hold true for a great deal longer than their mere flight home.
((A/N: Aha! Did you think I forgot my promise already? Nay! I have been slaving over this one since Tuesday and I just needed it to feel like a full story before posting it, so it took more time than expected. Yes, they returned to the very spot where they spoke for the first time in Batman V Superman~ Aren’t I romantic? I feel as though I have touched on the issue of Diana losing her immortality in another story, but this one allowed them to have it out without it feeling inevitable, you know? Anyway, I hope you enjoyed and feel free to prompt me whenever you’d like! ~ Maiden
Well - I was supposed to be studying but I couldn´t stop thinking about how Dick telling Bruce about Tim knowing “the secret” would go and this happened. It´s just dialogue. I´m thinking of rewriting it as a full scene. Also English is not my first language so sorry if there are any mistakes. Plus this is the first thing that I´ve written that I´ve actually decided to post so sorry if it´s crappy.
Ages: Dick – 23, Bruce – 45, Tim - 16
“We need to talk.“
“ – “
“Somebody knows.“
“Who?“
“Timothy Drake – age 16, mother deceased, lives with his father and stepmother, a Gotham City High student by day and a Batman stalker by night. He´s known since he was five.“
“Known exactly what?“
“Everything – that you´re Batman, that I´m Nightwing. He even knows Barbara used to be Batgirl and is still in the game.“
“He also knows about Jason.“
“And how did you find out about all this?“
“He rang my doorbell. Came to ask for help. He thinks Batman´s out of control. He asked me to go back to Gotham – because apparently, Batman needs a Robin.“
“„Batman doesn´t need anyone. Especially not another Robin.“
“ – ”
“You said his name´s Timothy Drake? As in Drake Industries? They live practically next door.“
“Yeah. I remember the kid disappeared once and they asked if they could search your grounds. Couldn´t find him anywhere. Shocked his parents half to death when he came down for breakfast the next morning like normal. There was half the police force in the house waiting for a ransom call and there he stood in his pajamas asking what was for breakfast. The story was plastered all over the news for days. I remember thinking it was kinda weird.”
“I remember. It was winter. You were what? Fourteen, fifteen?”
“And little Timmy was eight. I asked him about it and apparently he was following Batgirl when he slipped on a ladder trying to get to a roof. Hit his head, passed out. Woke up midday the next day. By then everyone was scrambling around trying to find him. He avoided the police, slipped back into the house, slept the rest of the day and night and then got hungry.”
“He was lucky no one came across him when he was unconscious.”
“That he was. We never noticed, Bruce. How did we never notice an eight year old following us on patrol?“
“I don´t know, Dick.”
“So he did it regularly?”
“Yes. Here – let me. That´s all of his research. He gave it to me.”
“Jesus – he took photos?”
“Some of them are actually pretty good. Definitely better than anything you can find on the internet.”
“Did he tell you how he figured it out?”
“He saw footage of Dick Grayson doing the quadruple and then he saw Robin do one.”
“So he just connected two facts that were right in front of him? Doesn´t sound all that clever. And I told you not to do the quadruple when you first started going out.”
“You know me, I just couldn´t resist. Also – he was five. And he´s known since then and never told anyone. Mapped out our patrol routes, hacked the GCPD so he could listen in on the radio. He knew within two days of Nightwing´s debut that it was me and he was there the day you found Jason stealing your tires – there are photos. He knew Jason was Robin before even I found out. He knows it was the Joker who killed him. He knows Selina Kyle is Catwoman. He knows Barbara Gordon is somehow still connected to us and that she used to be Batgirl. He knows Clark Kent was Superman. And he knows you tried to kill him. That you have killed people in the past year and a half. Not on purpose, not straight up murder, but because they were just collateral damage to you and you couldn´t be bothered to reign yourself in. And instead of going to the police to have you arrested, he came to me. To ask me to help you.”
“Is that what you´d do if it wouldn´t be giving away your own secret identity. Have me arrested?”
“Now? Probably not. Two months ago? I was considering it.”
“So if you already know he´s not going to tell anyone, and you´re definitely not going back to being Robin, why exactly are you here? We haven´t spoken in months.”
“I think he´s right. I think you do need a Robin. It makes you better. A better Batman. A better man.”
“I don´t need another death on my hands. And that´s how it would end. With him dead.”
“Superman wouldn´t have died if you had just let someone in after Jason.”
“You mean you.”
“I was too angry with you. I mean Alfred. Or Selina.”
“I wasn´t ready. I´m still not.”
“He´s got problems with his conscience as well. He thinks his mother´s death is his fault. Being Robin - it would help him. It did help me. And it did help Jason.“
“It killed Jason.“
“Do you honestly believe he would have survived on the streets if you hadn´t taken him in? I know he was more resourceful than most but sooner or later Gotham would have swallowed him whole like it does everyone. You gave him a better chance at surviving than anyone else.“
“And evidently it wasn´t enough.“
“Alrigh. But he might contact you himself if there´s no new sidekick on the scene in the upcoming months. Not that he´d ever consider himself for the role. He´ll just follow you around like a lost little puppy until you promise him to find yourself a new partner.”
“Thank you for the warning.” (read: sarcasm)
“Oh and would you mind me patrolling in Gotham once in a while? I miss Gotham´s buildings. They´re so much taller than anything in Bludhaven. There´s no way of swinging all the way across the city with just the grapple line there.”
“Just let me know when you´re around so I´m not chasing an unknown masked criminal across the city only to find out it´s you”
Lois had heard people say that the hardest part of losing someone you loved was first thing in the morning, before you remembered they wouldn't be there. She tried to prepare for this, but interestingly enough, it was never that way for her. She never forgot for even a minute what had happened… what she had lost. She'd be hard pressed to call anyone else's brand of suffering a luxury, but there were times where she'd have welcomed some forgetfulness. It was weeks before she slept through the night, not used to being in a cold lonely bed, but she didn't wake up expecting his arms around her… she opened her eyes knowing it was another day without him. Every part of her life reminded her of him, because they'd shared everything – work, home, the Chinese restaurant on Eye Street, the cable bill that came in his name. She couldn't forget him, not for a damn second, even had she wanted to. He had brought so much beauty into her life, even when things were complicated and difficult, they were together and it was beautiful… and knowing she didn't have that anymore, that she never would again, left her with a dull ache she couldn't help but equate to a phantom limb. So no, she didn't forget. Not when she drifted between asleep and awake… not when she dreamed… not when she begged God, or whoever was listening, for some way to have him back. The hardest part was knowing that he was gone and that was her reality… and there was no way to get away from that.
The sentence caused the woman to hike her brow up as she turned and looked at him. “I have news.”
“You couldn’t have called?”The smirk on Diana’s face is all Bruce needs to know that she is proud of herself for getting under his skin. “You wouldn’t have answered and this is important. If we are to be a team, we need to act like one and that includes being in each other’s presence.”
The words made the man brood and he narrows his eyes at her. It’s not so much that he’s angry that she’s in his home, he’s angry because she’s in his cave and he knows that Alfred let her in with the greatest pleasure. Bruce grunts a response and sits down in the chair beside her. She was in his chair too.
“What’s the news?”
The smile that’s on her lips reminds Bruce of a warrior who had just won their greatest battle and it causes him to sit up a little straighter as he listens to her and he knows that they’ve finally got the break they’ve been needing.
“I know where to find Arthur Curry and if we want to catch him soon, we need to leave tonight.”
A/N: Set after BvS and before Justice League. I hope you all enjoyed! - Vanna
Sure babes! They may seem a little OOC but I’m also trying to get back into the hang of wonderbat. Enjoy!
10. Spilled your wine down the front of my dress at a fancy party AU
Diana was full of grace and confidence. She always took pride in the way she held herself and moved with the grace only a goddess could possess but that didn’t seem to be coming into play tonight at a gala for Wayne Enterprises. The Amazonian didn’t know why but she found herself distracted by the host, Bruce Wayne himself, she hadn’t been this attracted- no, that wasn’t right, well it may be but Diana was not going to admit it- intrigued by a man since Steve Trevor. There was something about the way he held himself that screamed confidence and power but there was also something dangerous about him. Diana liked it. She also must have liked the day dreaming a bit too much because before she knew it, wine was covering her chest and a hand reached out to steady her. Diana had never noticed running into the host himself and the Princess cursed herself for being distracted.
“Are you alright?” his voice was deep and Diana never swooned but she almost did as her eyes looked up and met that piercing gaze of his.“Yes. I wasn’t watching where I was going, are you alright, Mr. Wayne?” she asked and Bruce chuckled as he nodded and motioned a waiter over.“I’m not the one with wine on my dress. Let me take you to the second floor. We can get you some dry clothes.” he suggested with a kind smile and Diana was hesitant to agree but he was right. She did have wine on her dress and she was growing bored. “Will you be staying with me, Mr. Wayne?” She asked and the smirk he gave her made her swoon. Now she understood why he had women falling at his feet. “If you’d like, I was never one for these events anyway.” he told her as he placed his hand on the small of her back and led her out of the room. Diana would only realize later that it would be then that she had fallen for the man.
13. Helped you pick out clothes to wear on a date with someone else AU
Did Bruce think he’d be spending the day helping Diana pick out clothes for a date she had later that night? Yes. Did he want her to go on a date with a diplomat from another country? No. Did she listen to him when he said that he should at least go and accompany her? No, but both knew that he would be watching. While Bruce knew Diana could take care of herself, that didn’t stop him from worrying about her. Bruce wasn’t sure when it had started but it had and he found himself thinking about and worrying about the Amazonian princess.“What about this one?”
Bruce was brought out of his thoughts by her voice and his brown eyes studied the dress in question. It was a deep blue that complimented her eyes and showed off her figure in a subtly sexy that screamed sophisticated. She looked stunning and he knew it would wow the diplomat just like it had wowed him.
“It works.”
The words made Diana smile in triumph. It was the most Bruce had spoken since they had started their mission to find her a suitable outfit. She knew that Bruce despised doing this but it had to be done and besides, she could always make it up to him later. It did please her to know it got under his skin though. It seemed that the big bad bat wasn’t as emotionless as every one made him out to be.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 1/?
Fandom: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Man of Steel (2013), DC Cinematic Universe
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent & Bat Family
Characters: Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Lois Lane, Diana (Wonder Woman), Martha Kent, Barry Allen, Victor Stone, Arthur Curry, Hal Jordan, J'onn J'onzz, Bat Family - Character
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Alternate Universe - Canon, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Spoilers, Post-Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Rule 63 Clark Kent, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Minor Memory Loss, Temporary Character Death, Female Clark, Mental Health Issues, Everyone Needs A Goddamn Hug, Alfred Is Meddlesome, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Other Additional Pairings to be Added
Summary:
Turn your face to the sun, and the shadows will fall behind you.
She's still not sure how she ended up at the Batman's house, or why. All she knows is that it's a safe haven where she can recuperate from her ordeal, regain the powers she burned out, and maybe recover her badly-shaken balance.
And it sounds crazy, but there's something comforting about Gotham, even with a new fear drug loose on the streets and rumors of the Scarecrow coming out of retirement. There's something peaceful in the shadows and the night, the quiet and the darkness. There's something reassuring about knowing the Dark Knight is there, watchful and vigilant.
She can't hide forever, she knows. The longer she waits, the more difficult it will be. The world has claimed her now, a fallen champion and their native child, but she knows too well how easily that can turn back to hatred and venom, assassination attempts and a body count of the innocent around her.
She flourishes in the sunshine, grows strong and joyous, but she doesn't want the sunshine anymore. Good thing the sun rarely shines in Gotham.
Coming back to life is way harder than staying dead.
