I love the Bruce/Clark. So sweet. Clark is just what Bruce needs.
Thank-you babe!
You know, I HC that Sub!Bruce would need the most patient, calm Dominant to help him give up the mask enough to go down. I honestly think Clark would be the best bet.
I imagine it started out as Clark just like being his Service Dom, just helping out his best friend once he figures out Bruce is a Sub. He completely rolls over any of B’s arguments how no thanks, clinics under a pseud are fine.
“What if you’re in the Watchtower and you drop?”
“I’ll have to be careful.”
“Bruce, please. You know I would never hurt you when you’re in Subspace, I swear.”
“You’re also dating Lois, and that could...complicate things, Kal.”
“It won’t. Lois Doms Lena when she needs it. This wouldn’t be any different!”
“...”
I think they would finally come to an understanding once B has taken one hell of a beating after a glorious space fight between the JLA and Darkseid (since that guy is such a righteous douche), and they have him in the MedLab, use their tech to treat his injuries but Batman isn’t tracking well, isn’t answering their questions.
Superman shamelessly looks through the whiteouts and see how dazed B’s eyes are behind the cowl, recognizes the signs almost immediately.
“I’m going to take him to his room to rest. He probably lost too much blood for our resident squishy guy,” he hurriedly explains to Diana, Barry, Arthur, and J’onn, lifting their vigilante without even a pause.
“K-Kal...”
“Hold on, partner, I’ve got you.”
Once they’re locked down in B’s room, Superman has him out of the Batsuit and in a comfy sweats/t-shirt combo.
“D-dropping...Kal, I’m...”
“I know, Bruce, I know.” And he’s gentle when he tosses a pillow on the floor by the couch, whirls around get out of his own suit and just be Clark. “Here’s what we’re going to do.”
It ends up with Bruce kneeling, leaning into Clark’s thigh with a hand on the back of his neck clamped down tight. Some documentary plays idly on the nice television that gives them white noise.
It’s not enough to get Bruce to drop all the way, just skim the edges, which is where Clark wants him since they haven’t even talked about a contract or Bruce’s triggers or Clark’s preferences. He’s hesitant to use the Dom Voice as it is. After an internal struggle, he does use it to call B up enough to bring him back to himself.
“I can’t believe you!”
“You have to let me take you all the way down. You can’t wear the cowl like this!”
“The hell I can’t!”
“Bruce, please! You aren’t tracking, you’re shaky as hell even with the injuries, your blood sugar is nonexistent, and you’re blacking out!”
“Clark...”
“C’mon, you’re the world’s greatest detective, and you know I’m right.”
“I! Dammit. Dammit.”
“Bruce. Bruce, look at me.”
When the vigilante finally does, it’s with a snarl on his face.
“You know I wouldn’t hurt you, right? Bruce, do you think for even a second I would do anything you wouldn’t want?”
And oh, the conversation they would have babe because Clark would easily pick out how much it pisses B off to have to submit to anyone, how it conflicts with The Batman. And he would address all those insecurities and fears just by being the amazing hero he is.
“You don’t have to turn away from it, Bruce. This is who you are, and there’s nothing wrong with that.”
“Says you,” while they finally wind down and are sitting at the small table the kitchen.
“Says me,” Clark shrugs a little, watching B finally eat something with a calm satisfaction his best friend let him make the sandwiches (some day, I might get to feed him by hand, he would be so good for me, wouldn’t he?). “I’m okay being a Dom, but even if I wasn’t, even if I was a Submissive too, it would still be okay. Submissives hold all the power in the relationship. They’re the ones that balance us, keep us from Dom-Drops. Without a Sub, I’d be in a curled up in ball in the corner crying, super-strength or not.”
“Seriously, Clark–”
“B, enough studies show Doms literally go catatonic without a Submissive. I think it’s pretty obvious who has the real power here.”
And Clark can read past the sigh that lifts Bruce’s shoulders, can see the dark circles under his eyes, the way the cape weighs him down even when he isn’t wearing it.
“Let me try to take you down just once, Bruce. If you don’t feel more like the Dark Knight when you come back up, then I will never ask again, I swear.”
And, babe. Clark would be utterly enamored of Bruce when he’s in Subspace because he’s never seen his best friend so sweet, just falling in his arms, resting rather than being the JLA’s strategist, Gotham’s savior, Wayne Enterprises’ CEO. He gets to see B at his very basic instincts without the weight of the world thrown in.
It eases the Dom in him more than he’d thought possible.
(And, makes him crave to see it over and over again.)