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If someone asked Clark Kent when all of this started, he probably couldn't tell.
Well. That's a lie. Clark can tell exactly when "all of this" started, but it would be embarrassing to say that it was love at first sight - Lois had already laughed at him about it. Especially after he told her it was about Batman. Y'know, the same guy that has contingency plans for his contingency plans? The guy that has kryptonite stashed somewhere in case Superman goes rogue and tries to kill everyone? The guy that's also Bruce Wayne, a man who creates at least one public scandal a week? Yeah. That guy.
The thing is, contingency plans and a life of a billionaire aside, he was... Kind. Under all that gruff and coldness he was Bruce. Not his public persona everyone likes to call Brucie Wayne. Not even Batman. Just... Bruce.
Clark thinks how lucky he is to get to know that side of him. To have Bruce lower his walls like that. To have him laugh at something Clark said, to be invited to the Wayne Manor on a regular basis. To have him as his best friend.
And Clark may be selfish for that, but it doesn't feel like enough. Their friendship - that fragile bond between them - it's way more than Bruce was willing to give to anyone and yet, Clark wants more. He wants so much more. He wants to get to kiss Bruce every morning. Clark wants to tell him how much he loves the Bat. He wants to be able to touch. And that's asking for a lot, Clark knows, but sometimes when he can't sleep he can't help but think about how it would feel to be in a relationship with Batman. With Bruce.
It would feel like bliss, Clark thinks. Obviously there would be ups and downs. They do have a tendency to fight about the littlest things, but they always make up. They might even laugh about it later down the line.
Not to mention Bruce's kids. Clark has always been a family man at heart, Ma made sure to make him appreciate how good it is to have a family at your side, whether you're joined by blood or circumstance. And Clark? Clark considers Bruce and his kids family. He helped raise Dick and Jason and Tim and all the others. He was there when Jason died, having to physically stop Bruce from outright killing the Joker.
He can remember it like it was yesterday. Him and Bruce sitting in the middle of the Batcave, Clark holding Batman down and speaking softly, reminding him of his morals.
"Bruce. Bruce listen to me. If you go out there, if you kill the Joker, you won't be better than him. You know that." Clark kept saying, desperately trying to keep his voice steady even if he could feel tears burning at his eyes, "I know he took something more important than your morals from you. I know it hurts, Bruce. But would Jason really want you to throw away everything you worked for?"
Clark smiles at the memory, sometimes. Apparently Jason would've liked that very much. Clark doesn't approve, but he can understand it, in a way.
Point is, Clark has been there with Bruce since the beginning. He has seen him at his best and worst. He's Bruce's emergency contact on his release form. He's always tuned in onto Bruce's heartbeat, he's there when Bruce whispers his name in the dead of night and he's proud to say that the kids call him "Uncle Clark".
And well. All of this is making it difficult for Clark to hide how he feels as the time goes by.
(1 - Metropolis, The Daily Planet building)
Clark runs into the Planet building, pretending to be out of breath. He's running late, he has an article to finish before 12 and God, Lois is gonna kill me and she won't care about that earthquake in Nicaragua-
Clark stops in his tracks when he sees Bruce Wayne and his kids sitting at his desk.
He doesn't know if he should be overjoyed or annoyed. Maybe both. Clark can do both. He does both often, whenever Bruce's public persona is involved.
"Clint!! There you are, I was looking for you!" Bruce flashes him his Brucie Wayne smile and Clark can feel his eye twitch, which the billionaire obviously notices. Clark thinks the man enjoys tormenting him a little bit too much at times, and the kids aren't making it any better - he can see Tim trying not to burst out laughing, Dick is jumping between cubicles with all the grace of a former acrobat/vigilante, Jason is laying on the file drawers without a care in the world and why the hell does Damian have a snake on his shoulders??? Clark thanks his lucky stars that Duke, Babs, Steph and Cass aren't here, too. That would be way too much and he's assuming Bruce knows that, too.
"It's Clark, Mr. Wayne." Clark says with the tone of an exasperated, sleep deprived reporter that's trying to keep a bit of decorum in front of the guy that owns this entire building.
Clark still hasn't gotten used to that fact, by the way.
Bruce sighs dramatically, "Yes, yes, of course. My apologies, I'm terrible at remembering names." He turns to look at his kids and points at Damian, "I called my youngest 'Tim' the other day. He still hasn't forgiven me for that."
"And I never will." Damian huffs. Clark knows it's not true. If anything, Bruce is too good at names. It's kinda scary, sometimes, Clark thinks.
"And, uhm... Why are you here, Mr. Wayne?" He asks, "You rarely grace us with your... Ah, presence."
"Can't a man check on the building he owns?" Bruce smirks and something in Clark's stomach warms up. It wasn't a Brucie smirk. It was a Bruce smirk. The bastard was enjoying himself and Clark, like the idiot he is, found it fucking endearing. Because of course he did.
"Excuse me if I find that hard to believe, Mr. Wayne." Is all Clark says to that because anything else would result in something along the lines of 'god you're so fucking annoying you're lucky I love you' and Clark can't have that. Not today. Maybe not ever.
The billionaire chuckles and gets up from Clark's chair and oh god is that a new suit? Oh, he looks good in it. It would look way better on the floor though-
Bruce pushes his glasses up his nose and Clark feels like he's about to fucking explode.
"Damian wanted to see what's so exciting about your job that you keep it up despite... You know." He whispers, loud enough only for Clark to hear. Clark takes this as his que to look mildly uncomfortable as Bruce fiddles with his tie. "If I didn't come with him he'd get in here alone somehow. Then Dick, Jason and Tim decided they want to come too. I couldn't say no. It would only create more problems." He looks towards Jason, "And I couldn't refuse Jay willingly spending time with us."
God, Clark's this close to kissing this man, right here, right now, in front of his friends and colleagues.
"You could've texted me." Clark whispers instead of acting on his desires which are getting ridiculously hard to ignore. "Or called."
And Bruce smiles playfully and lightly pats his cheek, the Brucie Wayne mask back on, "Now, where's the fun in that?" He asks and looks Clark up and down, "I do so love surprises. Especially when it's me surprising others, often in more ways than one." He winks and Clark's brain freezes.
Now, Bruce flirts with Clark as Brucie Wayne a lot and honestly? Clark got pretty used to it. Sometimes he even plays along. But something caused his brain to just stop every single thought that wasn't Bruce and fuck I need to get a grip on myself or I will kiss him and I can't deal with that-
That's when Dick, after around 10 minutes of jumping around, falls onto the water cooler and Clark loves this kid, he really does and that was a nasty fall but thank Rao for the distraction.
Once Bruce runs off to check on Dick, Clark takes a deep breath and ignores the way Lois and Jimmy are looking at him.
(2 - Gotham, The Wayne Manor The Batcave)
Just a few years ago, Superman being in Gotham would be met with wide, shocked (or excited, on Dick's end) eyes from the Robins and a stern talking to from Batman.
These days Clark has full access to the Batcave (with some exceptions, of course) and, if he comes in uninvited, the worst that can happen is Bruce grumbling quietly and rolling his eyes as Clark starts talking about his day, rambling about Cat asking him to cover for her again at a gala, Perry asking him to take a break (or, more accurately, go into hiding for 2 weeks) after uncovering a huge scandal about some important person that he doesn't care to remember the name of.
In turn Bruce will complain about his cases, or the kids, or the life of a socialite. Sometimes even Alfred will join in on the conversation while he brings them either tea or coffee.
Today was one of those days.
"...And look, not that I have anything against your fundraisers, I really don't, but this is the third time she's done this to me." Clark rambles from his place in a chair, shoulder to shoulder with Bruce, "I hate the galas! All of them! Rich people are so annoying sometimes, you know?"
Bruce raises his eyebrow as he takes a sip of the black coffee that has way too much sugar in it, "Are they now?"
"Yes!" Clark exclaims and as silence falls between them there's a moment of realization on Clark's end. "I mean, not you. You're not annoying. I love y- I mean spending time with you." He says quickly and wow that was a nice save, Kent. Definitely not suspicious to the World's Greatest Detective. Not at all.
"Hrn." Is Bruce's response to that and there's something in his eyes, something that Clark has no time to investigate properly because the man turns towards the Batcomputer and great, now I'm going to be overthinking this aren't I.
Lois would laugh so hard at him right now.
(3 - Gotham, Wayne Foundation building)
He's going to kill Cat.
Not literally, of course, Bruce would shove all the kryptonite he has down his throat if he ever killed someone, but still.
"Look, I have a really good angle that I can't pass up!" Cat had said to him a day prior, "I promise I'll make it up to you, Clark."
Clark has always been weak to Cat's puppy eyes. Curse his goody two shoes, Midwestern manners. Ma really raised him too well, didn't she? He'll have a word with her about that, her birthday's coming up soon anyway.
A mildly drunk socialite bumps into him, and Clark's reminded why he's here.
Bruce branched out the Martha Wayne Foundation towards helping LGBTQ+ community, mostly the youth that has nowhere to go. In the past months a bunch of shelters appeared around Gotham and Clark was supposed to interview Bruce, maybe Lucius too, about this.
It's no mystery to anyone that Bruce Wayne, the notorious playboy who had more casual flings than anyone bothers to count at this point, is queer. He never really specified his sexuality and when Clark asked him about it off the record, back when their relationship could be described as acquaintances and not friends, he just said he likes to keep people guessing.
Clark doesn't even know why he's here. He literally could have called Bruce or went to the Batcave or even joined him for family dinner the Waynes held on Saturdays and ask him about it then; afterwards ask if he can use some of the conversation as quotes for the article, then the kids would add their two cents too and Clark would have a banger of an article.
And yet he's here, in his ill-fitting suit Bruce tried to get rid of in secret many times, and amongst rich people that were looking at him as if he didn't belong. Not that he did, but they could at least be a little nice about it instead of literally shoving it in his face with their stares.
He's mostly keeping to himself near the snack table, helping himself to hors d'oeuvres as he waits for Bruce to come onto the stage and give his speech, Clark's notepad at the ready to get some quotes. He's fiddling with the pen, stress eating the snacks and he keeps nervously looking around because it's Gotham and it's only a matter of time before Penguin or Two-Face will crash the party.
When Bruce finally comes onto the stage, Clark is rendered speechless.
Bruce was an attractive guy, everyone on this damn gala could agree on that, but today Bruce has a genuine smile on his face. It's not his signature Brucie smile, the one he uses almost exclusively simply because he musts. Right now his eyes are crinkled at the corners and his eyes are shining with pride he so rarely feels these days. This LGBTQ+ fund is really important to him, it shows so clearly on his face, and Clark feels like he's falling in love with him all over again.
Everyone here knows only Brucie Wayne, a nepo baby with no brains or brawn, an oblivious idiot that too often fucks around and doesn't even find out. But Clark knows the truth. He knows the love Bruce feels for Gotham and her people. Only he knows about how Bruce cried when one night, Gotham was free of any crime for the first time in decades.
"You're drooling." He heard a voice to his right and looked down, only to find Dick standing next to him, "Man, you really aren't slick you know?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Clark sputtered, looking away as Dick grinned at him knowingly. Clark's always been bad at lying.
"Hey, I'm not judging!" Dick laughed, lightly punching Clark's shoulder, "If you're gonna make a move on my dad, I'm rooting for you! No better time to do that than now, y'know. It is a fundraiser for the queers after all."
Clark's brows furrow as he thinks about it. Dick's right, he could make a move tonight. He could make a move at any time, actually. With Bruce no moment feels wrong. But Clark's also scared of rejection. He's scared of ruining what he has with Bruce, of wasting all the years he spent getting Bruce to trust him.
Clark looks at the man he loves with years of longing in his eyes. Bruce notices and smiles.
And Clark feels a smidgen of hope.
(4 - Metropolis, a nondescript shopping center)
Clark did not want to be here.
Not that he had anything against shopping sprees, quite the contrary actually, but when he had 10 kids in tow and a billionaire whose public persona was really annoying, shopping sprees could get tiring.
Conner was staying with him this week and he asked if he could invite Tim. Clark agreed without hesitation. That's when it spiraled out of control because Jon asked if he could invite Damian and how could Clark say no to those puppy eyes? Then Dick heard about it, decided that he's coming too because he wanted to go shopping in Metropolis anyway and then everyone else suddenly decided that they wanted to go too. They also dragged Bruce with them, which Clark couldn't be too angry about, not when Bruce is wearing his turtleneck (even though it's the middle of summer) and well. Clark might have a thing for Bruce in turtlenecks. Not that he'd ever admit that.
Anyway, what started as Dick looking for new clothes because his got "mysteriously destroyed", ended up as Bruce taking Clark to the tailor to get him a new suit. Clark, of course, tried to protest, but he had 10 kids agreeing that his wardrobe needed an upgrade and well. He was smart enough to not fight them on it, even if it felt weird to have Bruce spend so much money on him so openly.
So right now, he, Bruce and the kids were at a ridiculously expensive tailor and Bruce is picking up suits that he believes will look the best on Clark because apparently Superman himself cannot be trusted with fashion choices.
How the mighty have fallen.
"See, I think this one will really bring out the color of his eyes." Bruce says to Dick and Tim, showing them a deep blue suit with a barely visible copper-colored pattern.
"Mm I dunno," Tim tilted his head and ran his hands along the material, "Clark doesn't really seem like a pattern kinda guy."
Dick grabs a light grey suit with a deep red shirt to match, "How about this?"
"Red isn't really his color, I don't think." Bruce murmurs.
"You're just biased towards the blue."
"Maybe I am. He does look good in blue."
Clark's brain short-circuits. Bruce just said he thinks he looks good in blue. Maybe he should consider buying more blue flannels?
Rao, he really is down bad, isn't he?
"You could just buy a simple black suit. Can't go wrong with that, and most shirts will look with it." Jason shrugs and Clark nods in agreement.
Bruce sighs but grabs one of the many similar-looking suits he apparently deemed good enough for Clark and hands it to him, "If you like it just hand it to the tailor. Then we'll go to the back room so she can take your measurements."
"Bruce, are you sure-" Clark starts saying but stops when he sees how Bruce is looking at him, all the authority of Batman contained in just one stare and Clark's knees suddenly feel weak. "Okay." He croaks and enters the dressing room, barely stopping himself from doing so at super speed.
He stares at himself in the mirror and exhales softly. Sometimes he thinks Bruce knows Clark can't say no to him and abuses that weakness greatly. He really wouldn't be surprised.
As he puts on the suit, he can't help but wonder how else Bruce would use that weakness against him. Then he curses under his breath and chastises himself internally because fucking hell there are children with them and Clark's pretty damn sure Bruce would not appreciate him thinking like that.
He takes a deep breath, checks himself out in the mirror one last time, and leaves the dressing room. He's got to admit, the suit is nice. Bruce seems to think so too because, as he comes into view, Clark can hear Bruce's heart stutter momentarily and see his shoulders tense for just a second before he's controlling himself again.
"What do you think?" Bruce takes a step closer and fixes Clark's collar and tie, his heart stuttering again.
And if that's the reaction this suit has on Bruce, Clark can only smile and say, "I think it's perfect."
(5 - The JL Satellite)
Today is Clark's turn to be on monitor duty.
Not that he minds, he actually quite enjoys it. Sometimes Diana will keep him company, Barry will bring him some snacks and Bruce will check if he's definitely doing his job (unless he's busy with his civilian job, of course). All in all, it was nice. Peaceful.
Except for today, it seems.
Some cameras on the Satellite started glitching out and Clark reported it to Bruce, thinking that maybe he'd tell Victor to take a look at the wires. What Clark didn't take into account was that the Satellite was almost fully designed by Bruce, so of course he'd be the one insisting on taking a look at it.
It led to Clark desperately trying to keep his focus on the monitors while Bruce (who's wearing an obscenely tight shirt, by the way) is laying on his back under one of the panels, letting out an occasional grunt here and a sigh there and Clark is going (Ma forgive him) fucking insane.
The man has to be doing this on purpose. Clark's sure of this.
Clark's fiddling with his cape, takes a deep breath and says, "Any progress?" And he's genuinely proud for keeping his voice steady.
"Hn." Is Bruce's response and Clark really doesn't know what he expected. Bruce doesn't speak much in general, especially when he's in the zone, though from the tone of the grunt Clark can tell that this is the closest he will get to Bruce saying "Good but could be better."
"You could take a break you know." Clark turns to look at Bruce and he's definitely not staring at his chest thank you very much. "I could make us some coffee, if you'd like."
Bruce makes an affirmative noise and Clark beams, running out of the room at super speed.
When he comes back 10 minutes later (he was not going to speed through the process of making Bruce's coffee, the man can tell everytime he does that), Bruce is sitting in Clark's chair. His sleeves are rolled up and he has some sort of grease on his hands and face. He looks positively stunning and Clark has to pause.
"Everything alright?" Bruce raises his eyebrow and Clark's jumps a bit.
"I uh- yeah. Yeah everything's fine." He moves towards Bruce and hands him his coffee, "You've got uh- on your face." He stutters and before he can think about what he's doing, he reaches his hand out toward Bruce's face and tries to wipe the bit of grease that stains the other man's cheek, but it only results in the stain getting smeared.
Bruce doesn't move away, he doesn't even look at Clark. He just lets it happen and Clark marvels at how warm Bruce is. He lets his hand linger, his thumb gently caressing the man's face and Bruce looks up at him, those blue eyes briefly glancing at Clark's lips and oh God, it's happening isn't it, Bruce is about to kiss me okay Clark don't panic-
Suddenly there's the hiss of the monitor room door opening and they jump away from each other.
"Hey Clark, it's my turn to-" Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow, stops in his tracks and looks between Clark and Bruce, "Am I... Interrupting something?"
Clark opens his mouth to respond, but Bruce is faster, "No. You're not." He says as if nothing just happened and Clark deflates.
(+1 - The Wayne Manor)
It's quiet at the table.
One would be expecting screams of joy, maybe some tears, but everyone is so, so tired.
Everyone is happy, of course. They just got Bruce back after months of thinking the man was dead. Of course they're happy.
There'll be another day for celebration. For now, Alfred is taking the kids to their respective beds. Even Jason is staying at the manor tonight, and so is Dick. Clark assumes they just need this bit of normalcy and he gets it. He really does.
When all the kids are gone, it's just him and Bruce left at the table. Clark hovers over Bruce and gently places his hands on his shoulders, ignoring the way Bruce flinches slightly.
"C'mon, Bruce. You need sleep." He whispers and supports Bruce as he gets up without a word. He leads the man upstairs; Bruce's steps are heavy and lacking the grace that's usually in them. His back is slumped and he grunts with every step he takes up the stairs.
Once they're in the bedroom Bruce unceremoniously plops onto the bed and lets out the most blissed-out groan Clark has ever heard him make.
Clark just chuckles and sits down on the edge of the bed, "Bruce, I know you're tired but you should at least get changed. You're uh... Honestly kinda filthy. You'll ruin the sheets."
Bruce groans again and Clark interprets that as Bruce saying "I can buy more. It's fine." And he sighs.
"C'mon, Bruce. For me?" He says and smiles when Bruce lifts his head to look at him.
Bruce sighs heavily and sits up with a groan, sluggishly taking off his, quite frankly, beyond ruined shirt, "God, you're lucky you're handsome." He grumbles and Clark raises his eyebrows.
"You... Think I'm handsome?" He asks with a small smile and laughs when Bruce freezes and looks at Clark with wide eyes.
"That was not supposed to come out of my mouth." He says and throws the shirt onto the floor before moving onto taking off his pants.
Bruce is struggling. It seems he can't lean down far enough to take them off and after a quick check with his X-ray vision, Clark can see that Bruce has a few broken ribs, not to mention all the bruises on his midsection, painting his skin in sickly shades of purples and yellows. At least his organs are fine. Small mercies and all that.
After a minute of watching Bruce struggle Clark sighs and kneels in front of Bruce, wordlessly helping him take off the offending piece of clothing. After he's done he doesn't move. He just looks at Bruce's face, the fact that he's here and alive finally properly registering in his brain.
He cups Bruce's face in both of his hands gently - he was always so gentle with Bruce - and blinks back tears as Bruce sighs and relaxes under his touch.
"I thought you were dead." Clark whispers with a teary smile and Bruce grins.
"You know taking me down isn't that easy." He says and Clark launches at him and kisses him, pouring all the years of longing into it and Bruce freezes.
Clark is about to pull back, scared he crossed a line, scared that he just ruined everything but then Bruce is kissing him back and it's heated and full of want and it's perfect.
Clark slowly moves up, never breaking the kiss and pushes Bruce onto his back, running his hands over his chest, his stomach, making sure he doesn't press too hard because he could never hurt Bruce, not on purpose.
Bruce pulls back only when he needs to breathe. He breaths heavily and wraps his arms around Clark's shoulders. "Took you long enough." He says with a smile and Clark's jaw went slack.
"And what the hell is that supposed to mean?" He asks, realization dawning on him as Bruce just smirks, "You knew! You bastard, you knew!!"
"In my defense you weren't really subtle about it." Bruce laughs and Clark gently slaps his shoulder, though there isn't any real heat in the gesture.
"You could've done something about it!"
"Clark."
"All these years Bruce!"
"Clark."
"I cannot believe-"
Clark's rambling is cut short with Bruce's lips.
"Shut up, Clark. I need sleep." He says and pulls Clark's shirt off before pulling him under the covers and wrapping his hands around his torso.
And well. Clark could never stay mad at Bruce for too long.