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It's a Saturday evening in Metropolis, the light breeze is refreshing in the summer heat, and Clark is out for drinks with Lois and Jimmy from work when he gets a call from Bruce.
It's not like it's unusual that they talk on the phone.
It's just that, it's usually Clark who calls Bruce.
Usually they text, in fact they text alot. They are still new to dating each other and are trying to figure things out.
So far they had only kissed a handful of times, held hands, and hugged etc.
Nothing with sex yet, but Clark new that Bruce was interested and so was he.
When Bruce calls Clark (which is almost never) It's usually because it has something to do with the League, or If Clark (or rather Superman) has "trespassed" into Gotham and Bruce/Batman want to scold him,
Or because something is wrong.
One time he did call to ask him out for dinner, so that could happen too.
Clark excuses himself from the present company and picks up the phone.
"Bruce? Is something wrong?"
"Does anything have to be wrong for me to be calling?"
Clark can hear the ekko when Bruce answers, and it tells Clark that Bruce must be in the cave. "No i suppose not. Sorry. What can i do for you?"
Bruce clears his throat before answering, "Its nothing really.. Wait where are you?"
Lois and Jimmy are laughing and Clark supposes that Bruce can hear them. He steps further away as he answers "Just out with Lo' and Jimmy. But that's not important. Do you need help?"
Theres a moment of silence where Clark seriously considers flying straight Gotham and into the cave, but then Bruce answers; "No no. Im fine. It's fine. Don't worry. I was just checking inn i suppose"
Clark frowns at that, Bruce never just "Checks inn", so Clark listens out for his heartbeat, but finds that he can't hear it. Bruce must be in his suit.
The suit he build lined with lead.
Clark waits a minute as he listens to Bruce's breathing over the phone
"Are you sure? i can easily stop by?"
Bruce is quick to answer this time "I'm fine. Go back to your friends. It's nothing. Forget i called" then he hangs up on the phone.
Clark opens his mouth to argue back, but Bruce has already hung up, and when Clark tries to call back it goes straight to voicemail. He sends a quick text, not that he expects an answer, but still.
Clark stands for a moment with his phone in hand. He's not entirely sure what to do.
If he goes to Gotham and sees that Bruce is fine, then Bruce will get mad at him for coming to "his city" without permission, but if Clark doesn't go, and later finds out that Bruce might need his help with something, then he'll feel guilty for not being there for his friend/partner/ man he's so desperately in love with. He never said that to Bruce out loud. Of course they had a long talk where they had talked about their obvious feelings for each other, but Clark had never said he loved Bruce.
Not yet, it was too soon and he didn't want to scare off the usually brooding bat.
Clark sighs and goes back to Lois and Jimmy "I'm sorry guys, something has come up and i have to go."
They both says they understands, it's getting late and they were thinking about going home anyway.
Clark tries a smile, but he can't stop that feeling that something is wrong.
He really needs to go to Gotham.
They exchange their farewells and as soon as Clark is sure he's alone he changes into his costume and flies to Gotham.
Once he's at the cave the smell of blood is thick in the air, and Clark frowns as the smell is almost too much for his enhanced senses.
Clark scans the cave and soon his eyes lands on Bruce's form at the medical unit in the cave. Bruce is barely sitting on the chair next to the table where various tools and surgical instruments are layed out, many of them very much covered in blood.
Clark speeds to Bruce's side and tries to figure out where the blood is coming from.
Bruce isn't much of a help as he's barely conscious, and struggles to stay awake.
When Clark picks him up and starts to carry him towards the examinations table, Bruce makes a small grunt and immediately starts to struggle in Clark's arms. Clearly, even when he have almost been bleeding out, he still tries to fight and stay in control. Clark obviously doesn't want to hurt him, but Bruce keeps twisting and turning and tries to get out of Clark's grip.
"It's okay Bruce, it's just me. It's Superman"
That seems to calm him down, and he turns his gaze to Clark and just stares at him for a moment, before he tries to say something, but even with Clark's hearing, he can't understand what it is that Bruce is saying.
"I'm going to help you B. Just stay calm okay?" Clark gently puts the nearly unconscious Batman on the table and starts to take off his armour so he can find out where Bruce is bleeding from and how bad it is.
It turns out it's pretty bad.
Bruce has a stab wound to the thigh, and a deep laceration just below his ribs.
Bruce has put in stitches on his leg and tried to stop the bleeding on his side, but apparently he had lost too much blod and therefore didn't get to secure the wound properly.
Clark works quickly and gets to stop the bleeding, and puts in stitches himself. It's not as neatly as he would have liked it to be, but it's definitely better than nothing. Afterwards he makes sure that Bruce's wounds gets bandages, and he secures an IV to make sure Bruce gets fluids and a blood transfusion.
Clark stays by Bruce's side as he sleeps and waits for Bruce to wake up, so Clark can give him a piece of his mind.
It's been a few hours but finally Bruce wakes up. He groans as he slowly tries to sit up, but quickly abandons the idea and lays back down.
Bruce feels a bit confused, because he does remember getting to the cave last night, and he remembers putting in stitches in his leg, and did he manage to stop the bleeding at his side?
He can't really remember that.
But he definitely knows that he didn't put in an IV, and started a transfusion, someone else had done that. But who?
Alfred was in England to see his pregnant niece, and even if the man was fast, there was no way he could have made it back to Gotham from England that fast.
Bruce felt with his hand over the clean bandages over his waist and wondered who had made it in here, who had seen his face? Who knew?
Suddenly there was movements to his left and he turns his head to see Superman standing close by with a disapproving look on his normally friendly, kind and happy face. The face he was used to seeing, usually filled with love.
Right now he looked disappointed, angry even, and Bruce wanted nothing more than pretend to be asleep so he didn't have to face Clark, but it was too late for that.
Clark had seen that Bruce was awake, and they were having this conversation, wherever Bruce wanted to or not.
Clark walked up to the table where Bruce were laying and crossed both arms over his chest before he spoke. "Well? What do you have to say for yourself?"
Bruce took a minute, before answering, as he knew no matter what he said, Clark was obviously mad at him and there was nothing he could say to make Clark stop looking at him like that. "I don't have to answer to you" Bruce knew it was a risky move, but Clark was already angry, Bruce might as well pretend to be angry too.
"You don't.. Bruce I know that. But you can't just go through being stabbed and not say anything! What were you thinking?!"
Bruce closed his eyes as he took a deep breath, before he slowly sat up on the table.
Clark was by his side immediately and helped him to a sitting position "You should stay down Bruce. You've lost a lot of blood"
Bruce made a small grunt in reply, ignoring the man Infront of him. "I'm fine. I don't need your help"
Clark huffed and took a few steps back as he glared at Bruce. "You don't need my help huh? You sure seemed to need it last night when you were bleeding out on the floor!" Clark shouted and pointed to the spot where he had found Bruce. He then started to walk back and forward as he scolded and yelled.
"Do you have any idea of what could have happened?! Why didn't you call me?!"
Bruce shrugged and with a small voice he spoke without looking up at Clark "I did call you. You were busy"
Clark stopped pacing ands glared at Bruce. "You didn't tell me you were stabbed! I would have been with you in an instant!"
Clark threw his arms out to the sides and started to pace again. "God you are so.. What would have happened if I didn't show up?! Alfred's not home, so he's not here to save your sorry ass! God you are so stupid sometimes." Clark shook his head as he yelled, totally oblivious to the way Bruce had started to shake and how he held his arms around himself, while avoiding looking at Clark.
"I mean, Thank all the gods that I didn't believe your shit, otherwise you'd be dead by now! You know, we're supposed to be a team Bruce. You're supposed to call for backup when you need it. Not when it's already too late!"
Clark turned on his heel and pointed at Bruce "And don't even get me started on... Bruce?"
Clark went from being angry and yelling to being concerned and with a quiet voice. He stopped pacing and looked at Bruce, really looked at him.
Bruce was shaking and.. and was he crying?
Clark got big eyes and immediately felt guilty.
Sometimes Clark forgot that beneath that dark cowl, hidden away behind anger and violence, there was a 20 year old someone, still learning about life.
Clark realized that Bruce must have felt really scared when he stumbled into the cave last night, especially when no one else was there to help him.
And despite having Alfred, Leslie Thompkins and the entire league to call, and he chose to call for Clark.
Because Bruce knew that Clark was a safe choice and that Clark could get to him sooner than anyone else.
Clark also knew that Bruce had trouble reaching out and ask for help.
Bruce did call for Clark, at least he tried and that's what's counting. Right?
Right now Bruce had his head turned to the side, with his jaw tense trying to keep his lips from trembling as the tears slowly streamed down his cheeks.
Clark licked his lips nervously and swallowed as he tried to find out what to say, how so salvage this.
"I'm sorry." Clark said and stepped forward.
"Bruce I'm sorry. I didn't mean to... Look I was scared okay. When I got to the cave and I saw you there.. I couldn't hear your heartbeat because of that lead in your suit, and you were so pale and there was so much blood. I thought.... God I thought you were dead Bruce." Clark stopped and took a moment to look at the man Infront of him.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell at you. I was just so, so scared. I don't want to lose you Bruce" Clark stod and watched as Bruce slowly shook his head, before he reached up a hand and tried to dry off his tears.
Bruce sniffled and cleared his throat, he knew he should have said something, but he didn't want to interrupt Clark's evening out. Clearly Clark had other things to tender to, he shouldn't waist his time to come running just because Bruce got careless. Bruce really liked Clark, actually he was sure that he loved Clark.
Bruce had never been with someone like Clark, someone who was patient, so kind, someone who never made Bruce feel bad about himself.
Clark stopped Infront of Bruce and reached out to cup Bruce's cheek.
"I'm sorry Bruce" he whispered and dried a tear away with his thumb.
Bruce swallowed and turned his head slightly towards Clark, but still didn't meet his eyes. "I didn't know about the lead.. I can remove it" Bruce talked just above a whisper, trying to keep the tremple out of his voice.
Clark smiled and nodded and now cupped Bruce's face with both hands, making Bruce face him directly "Thank you" Clark whispered and looked at Bruce with a warm smile.
Bruce sniffled and tried a small tired smile in return. Clark kept holding his face as he leaned in and kissed Bruce on the forehead.
"You can always call me B. It doesn't matter where I am, or what I'm doing. You can call me. Please."
Bruce nodded and leaned into Clark's touch. "I'll try" he whispered and closed his eyes.
Clark smiled as he let go of Bruce's face, before he slowly sneaked both hands around Bruce and hugged him.
They stayed like that for a while before Clark helped Bruce getting upstairs and to bed. Of course Clark had seen Bruce's mansion before, but he had never made it to the bedroom before and even though he knew nothing was going to happen, he still felt nervous.
Bruce guided them through the giant building, and eventually they made it to his room.
Clark didn't know what to expect, but it wasn't this.
Bruce's room was surprisingly simple.
A big bed, a small table with two chairs in the corner, a couch at the wall, a door that led to a bathroom and another that led to a walk-in closet. There was no pictures on the walls, nothing to make the room personal. The dark curtains blocked out the sunlight, and left the room dark.
Clark let Bruce walk on his own once they made it to the room, and soon Bruce disappeared into the closet.
A few minutes passes and Bruce returns in sweatpants and a loose t-shirt, he looks at Clark like he wants to say something, but doesn't know how to.
"I um.. do you.. i mean.." Bruce gestured to the bed and the closet before clearing his throat. "You can stay. If you want" Bruce didn't look up at Clark, but stared at the socks in his hand.
Clark couldn't help but smile, Bruce wanted him to stay with him, but before he could accept Bruce shook his head and turned towards the bathroom "It's fine if you don't want to. You have your own bed" he disappeared into the bathroom and closed the door behind him.
Clark didn't want to overstep by going through Bruce's stuff to find something to sleep in, so using his super speed he flew home, got some clothes and flew back before Bruce knew he was gone.
He just managed to change out of costume to his shorts and t-shirt, when Bruce made it out from the bathroom. Bruce stoped in the doorway and stared at Clark in surprise, as if he had expected Clark to be gone when he came back to the bedroom.
"I want to stay. If you want me here" Clark sendes him a pointed look, and smiled big when Bruce nodded in silence.
Together they made it to the big bed and under the covers, though Clark couldn't help but notice that Bruce seemed a little uncomfortable.
"Bruce I can leave if you don't want me here. Or I can sleep on the couch or something"
Bruce immediately turned his head towards Clark and shook his head, "No. No you can stay. Please stay" Clark smiled and nodded.
"Okay, I'll stay" Bruce returned the smile and got comfortable under the covers.
Together they fell asleep next to each other. Sleeping soundly as they knew the other was safe at their side.