FIC: 36 Views of Mt. Fuji: Fall (3/9)
Title: 36 Views of Mt. Fuji: Fall (3/9)
Pairing: Clark/Bruce
Disclaimer: The boys belong to DC and to each other, but not to me.
Series Notes: 36 Views of Mt. Fuji is a series set early in Batman and Superman's careers, shortly after the S/B annual #1. The full series can be found here.
Rating: PG
Summary: The fledging JLA and Batman deal with Superman's injury; Bruce deals with Clark being injured somewhat differently.
Word Count: 1800
The autumn cicada
Dies beside its shell.
--Naito Joso
The Yoru dojo was in chaos. Green Lantern set Superman's barely-breathing form down on the mat prepared for him, the green glow holding him as gently as a child might hold a kitten. The Martian Manhunter knelt by the Kryptonian's side, placing his hands on Superman's temples. Flash appeared in the hallway holding the limp body of Katana, feverish and raving about souls and power. Yoru's elder foster-daughter, Kaori, went up the Flash and tentatively touched him on the arm. "We have prepared a bed for her in another room. This way, please."
As the Flash moved down the hall, the Martian Manhunter was murmuring words in his own tongue, still concentrating. Green Lantern narrowed his beam to a laser-sharp focus and applied it to the wound, cleaning and cauterizing it in emerald radiance. The force field filled the room with a faint electromagnetic buzz, the Martian's chant rising and falling through it.
Batman stood unmoving in the middle of the commotion, staring at Superman. Kaori brought him a steaming damp cloth and he wiped his black-gloved hands on it absent-mindedly, then held the red-soaked cloth as if he didn't know what to do with it, looking down at the blood and then back at Superman. Kaori took it from him gently. "Forgive me, Komori-san, but...your face," she said, reaching up to wipe away the tiny bloody mark on Batman's cheek.
Batman jerked away from her as if she held an adder instead of a white washcloth, growling. Kaori flinched backward a bit. Then she followed his unwavering gaze to the still body on the cot and her face softened. She patted him gently on the shoulder and left the room.
Yoru-sensei and the Flash re-entered the room after a moment. "How's the girl?" Hal asked.
The teacher frowned. "Katana is a great warrior, but the poison is strong. The loss of the sword has wounded her spirit as well. She will live, but it will be a struggle."
"And Superman?" Flash said.
Yoru shook his head wordlessly, glancing at Batman. Each time the Kryptonian exhaled, there was a pause, a long moment before he started the next slow, dragging inhalation.
At each pause, the Dark Knight held his breath too, waiting to hear Superman draw breath again.
The Martian Manhunter raised his head, his crimson eyes dull and weary. "His material condition has stabilized. Thanks to Green Lantern, his physical wound is not the issue," he said. "Soultaker is a magical sword, one that devours the souls of its victims. The blow that struck Superman would have killed a human. Though it has not yet killed him, the rules of magic are arcane and unpredictable, and I do not pretend to be an expert on them. The situation is complicated by the fact that Superman lacks a human soul."
"How dare you--" Batman spoke for the first time, snarling. He broke off as J'onn met his gaze.
"Surely you know I do not mean that as a slur, Batman. It is merely the truth. His soul is not human, it is Kryptonian. Soultaker has never encountered such a soul before and it slowing the process."
Hal chuckled grimly. "You mean it's giving the soul-eater indigestion? Give 'im hell, Superman."
Flash's face was still solemn. "You said 'slowing.'"
"Indeed." J'onn touched Superman gently on the temple. "I can sense his life essence, but it is ebbing, being drawn away. He is still tied to this plane and his soul struggles to return to his body, but the bond frays even as we speak. I am afraid the loss of his soul is gradual, but still inexorable." The Martian shifted his gaze to Batman and addressed him directly. "He is dying. And when he dies, I fear his soul--human or not--will be trapped forever in the blade."
Flash inhaled deeply. "There has to be something we can do. If we at least had the sword here, we could...test it, find out how it works..."
The Martian hesitated and Yoru-sensei spoke into the silence. "There might be options if we had the sword. Perhaps. If we gained control of the sword before..."
Green Lantern smacked a fist into his hand. "Damn it! All the bastard needs to do is hide long enough and he wins! He doesn't even need to face us, the coward!" Frustration etched his voice.
"It is the way of the ninja, to hide in the shadows," Yoru said sadly, and Hal snarled, his ring flaring emerald.
"Well my way is to make sure there aren't any shadows to hide in." He beckoned to the other heroes as he opened the external doors, preparing to take to the air. "Let's move out."
J'onn rose from Superman's form and moved to stand next to Batman. He almost raised a hand to touch him, then appeared to think better of it. "Wonder Woman is on Monitor Duty, but I shall contact Aquaman to see if he can find any intelligence of use."
Batman's laugh was harsh and low. "Yes, if any goldfish spot Kyodai I'm sure he'll be the first to know."
J'onn frowned. "You are too quick to dismiss our newer members, Batman." The other man didn't meet his look, still staring at the bright-clothed body. J'onn sighed. "Will you join us in searching?"
"You're not going searching, J'onn," said Batman. "You're going to Metropolis and patrolling as Superman."
Green Lantern, Flash, and the Martian Manhunter all stared at him. J'onn frowned. "Surely we should be focusing our energy on--"
Batman cut him off with a slashing hand motion. "Think pragmatically, J'onn. If Superman dies, we'll need time to come up with a strategy to deal with the loss, and the moment it becomes suspected something is wrong, every criminal from the two-bit mugger on the street to Lex Luthor is going to take advantage of the power vacuum. We need to delay that moment as long as possible, and we can do that best by making sure Superman is seen in public. If it confuses Kyodai, so much the better."
Flash shook his head, his blue eyes narrowed. "That's pretty cold, Batman." But Green Lantern nodded approvingly.
"No. He's right, we can't get emotional about this. This isn't the time for mourning or revenge. We all knew the risks when we signed up, and right now we've got a job to do." He nodded again. "Good call, Batman. Someone's got to make the cold, hard decisions."
"Cold. Yes." Batman's voice was entirely flat.
The Martian's form blurred and became a match for the unconscious man on the matting, but gloriously healthy and vibrant. Brilliant eyes filled with compassion met Batman's impassive gaze. "I understand," J'onn said in Superman's resonant voice, and the three superheroes were gone into the night.
Yoru focused on Batman. "Will you not go with them to search?"
Batman shook his head, very slightly, as if to move more would be to lose sight of the red and blue figure on the tatami. "Give me a moment."
The aged sensei bowed more deeply than was strictly necessary and left the room.
: : :
With the room finally empty, Batman knelt next to Superman, listening to his breath rise and fall, waiting through each gasping pause. The Kryptonian was deathly pale, an almost pearly sheen on his skin, his brow damp with sweat. Bruce took a cloth and wiped Clark's forehead carefully, then sat for a long time as the sunlight faded into darkness.
He wanted to take the cowl off, he realized, to be here as Bruce and not as Batman. It seemed...wrong, somehow, to be the Dark Knight at the deathbed of his friend. But there were too many people in the dojo that he didn't want to burden with overt knowledge of his identity.
Clark would understand if he didn't, he thought. Clark knew who he was whether he was wearing a mask or not.
He took the heavy black gloves off, at least, and clasped the lax white hands in his.
They were cold.
"Clark," he began, then stopped, shocked at the pain in his own voice. He swallowed hard and started again, aiming for a more casual tone. "I was going to tell you, you know. That I love you. Hey," he said defensively in response to a non-existent answer, "I was getting there. It's not every day I make a confession like that. I...don't think I ever have, actually." He stopped again, hearing his voice twist and cramp.
A shadow crossed Clark's unconscious face, his eyes moving as if in dreams, his breath catching for an agonizing moment. Bruce lifted a hand to the other man's brow, drawing the glossy black curl between his fingers gently. "It's a momentous thing, Clark. Don't think I don't know it. Not only am I crazy enough to say I want to be with you, only you...I'm crazy enough to suspect you want the same thing." He smoothed one of Clark's dark eyebrows with his thumb. "So you have to come back, Clark. You have to come back so I can tell you I love you."
Clark's face was like marble, like the moon, pale and remote, fading away. On an impulse--vague memories of fairy tale lovers, wakened with a kiss--he bent his mouth to Clark's cool lips. "I love you," he murmured against the other man's mouth, feeling his breath warm on Clark's lips. "Wake up, love."
Nothing happened. Clark's breaths still labored and struggled, Clark's eyes stayed closed.
"Well," said Bruce out loud, feeling extremely foolish, "the odds of that working were infinitesimal. I knew that. I did. But I thought, it's a magic sword, maybe--if there were any chance at all, maybe--" Horrifyingly, his voice broke. "Talk about pathetically desperate."
He felt his throat close up, felt the backs of his eyes burning in impotent rage that threatened to be something else, pain and yearning boiling inside him--
Torchlight on shining stone. Smell of brimstone. Torchlight.
Bruce sat upright, catching at the sudden flicker of image, but it was gone, if it had ever really been there.
He remembered the caves dug into the side of the volcano to the west, the warren of passages in which the ninja had found that ancient parchment two years ago.
Could Kyodai have gone to ground there?
Bruce gripped Clark's hands tighter, his mind racing. He should contact the rest of the League, tell them...tell them what? That he had a hunch about where Kyodai might be? Ridiculous. Illogical.
But he couldn't just sit here and watch Clark die any longer.
He touched his lips to Clark's brow. "Keep fighting," he whispered. Then he slipped out of the dojo and into the gathering night.
As he made his way through the forest toward the volcano, the rational detective in him railed at his actions. He was following a whim. Following a crazy impulse.
But something deeper, something truer, spoke beneath it.
Following my heart.
Pairing: Clark/Bruce
Disclaimer: The boys belong to DC and to each other, but not to me.
Series Notes: 36 Views of Mt. Fuji is a series set early in Batman and Superman's careers, shortly after the S/B annual #1. The full series can be found here.
Rating: PG
Summary: The fledging JLA and Batman deal with Superman's injury; Bruce deals with Clark being injured somewhat differently.
Word Count: 1800
The autumn cicada
Dies beside its shell.
--Naito Joso
The Yoru dojo was in chaos. Green Lantern set Superman's barely-breathing form down on the mat prepared for him, the green glow holding him as gently as a child might hold a kitten. The Martian Manhunter knelt by the Kryptonian's side, placing his hands on Superman's temples. Flash appeared in the hallway holding the limp body of Katana, feverish and raving about souls and power. Yoru's elder foster-daughter, Kaori, went up the Flash and tentatively touched him on the arm. "We have prepared a bed for her in another room. This way, please."
As the Flash moved down the hall, the Martian Manhunter was murmuring words in his own tongue, still concentrating. Green Lantern narrowed his beam to a laser-sharp focus and applied it to the wound, cleaning and cauterizing it in emerald radiance. The force field filled the room with a faint electromagnetic buzz, the Martian's chant rising and falling through it.
Batman stood unmoving in the middle of the commotion, staring at Superman. Kaori brought him a steaming damp cloth and he wiped his black-gloved hands on it absent-mindedly, then held the red-soaked cloth as if he didn't know what to do with it, looking down at the blood and then back at Superman. Kaori took it from him gently. "Forgive me, Komori-san, but...your face," she said, reaching up to wipe away the tiny bloody mark on Batman's cheek.
Batman jerked away from her as if she held an adder instead of a white washcloth, growling. Kaori flinched backward a bit. Then she followed his unwavering gaze to the still body on the cot and her face softened. She patted him gently on the shoulder and left the room.
Yoru-sensei and the Flash re-entered the room after a moment. "How's the girl?" Hal asked.
The teacher frowned. "Katana is a great warrior, but the poison is strong. The loss of the sword has wounded her spirit as well. She will live, but it will be a struggle."
"And Superman?" Flash said.
Yoru shook his head wordlessly, glancing at Batman. Each time the Kryptonian exhaled, there was a pause, a long moment before he started the next slow, dragging inhalation.
At each pause, the Dark Knight held his breath too, waiting to hear Superman draw breath again.
The Martian Manhunter raised his head, his crimson eyes dull and weary. "His material condition has stabilized. Thanks to Green Lantern, his physical wound is not the issue," he said. "Soultaker is a magical sword, one that devours the souls of its victims. The blow that struck Superman would have killed a human. Though it has not yet killed him, the rules of magic are arcane and unpredictable, and I do not pretend to be an expert on them. The situation is complicated by the fact that Superman lacks a human soul."
"How dare you--" Batman spoke for the first time, snarling. He broke off as J'onn met his gaze.
"Surely you know I do not mean that as a slur, Batman. It is merely the truth. His soul is not human, it is Kryptonian. Soultaker has never encountered such a soul before and it slowing the process."
Hal chuckled grimly. "You mean it's giving the soul-eater indigestion? Give 'im hell, Superman."
Flash's face was still solemn. "You said 'slowing.'"
"Indeed." J'onn touched Superman gently on the temple. "I can sense his life essence, but it is ebbing, being drawn away. He is still tied to this plane and his soul struggles to return to his body, but the bond frays even as we speak. I am afraid the loss of his soul is gradual, but still inexorable." The Martian shifted his gaze to Batman and addressed him directly. "He is dying. And when he dies, I fear his soul--human or not--will be trapped forever in the blade."
Flash inhaled deeply. "There has to be something we can do. If we at least had the sword here, we could...test it, find out how it works..."
The Martian hesitated and Yoru-sensei spoke into the silence. "There might be options if we had the sword. Perhaps. If we gained control of the sword before..."
Green Lantern smacked a fist into his hand. "Damn it! All the bastard needs to do is hide long enough and he wins! He doesn't even need to face us, the coward!" Frustration etched his voice.
"It is the way of the ninja, to hide in the shadows," Yoru said sadly, and Hal snarled, his ring flaring emerald.
"Well my way is to make sure there aren't any shadows to hide in." He beckoned to the other heroes as he opened the external doors, preparing to take to the air. "Let's move out."
J'onn rose from Superman's form and moved to stand next to Batman. He almost raised a hand to touch him, then appeared to think better of it. "Wonder Woman is on Monitor Duty, but I shall contact Aquaman to see if he can find any intelligence of use."
Batman's laugh was harsh and low. "Yes, if any goldfish spot Kyodai I'm sure he'll be the first to know."
J'onn frowned. "You are too quick to dismiss our newer members, Batman." The other man didn't meet his look, still staring at the bright-clothed body. J'onn sighed. "Will you join us in searching?"
"You're not going searching, J'onn," said Batman. "You're going to Metropolis and patrolling as Superman."
Green Lantern, Flash, and the Martian Manhunter all stared at him. J'onn frowned. "Surely we should be focusing our energy on--"
Batman cut him off with a slashing hand motion. "Think pragmatically, J'onn. If Superman dies, we'll need time to come up with a strategy to deal with the loss, and the moment it becomes suspected something is wrong, every criminal from the two-bit mugger on the street to Lex Luthor is going to take advantage of the power vacuum. We need to delay that moment as long as possible, and we can do that best by making sure Superman is seen in public. If it confuses Kyodai, so much the better."
Flash shook his head, his blue eyes narrowed. "That's pretty cold, Batman." But Green Lantern nodded approvingly.
"No. He's right, we can't get emotional about this. This isn't the time for mourning or revenge. We all knew the risks when we signed up, and right now we've got a job to do." He nodded again. "Good call, Batman. Someone's got to make the cold, hard decisions."
"Cold. Yes." Batman's voice was entirely flat.
The Martian's form blurred and became a match for the unconscious man on the matting, but gloriously healthy and vibrant. Brilliant eyes filled with compassion met Batman's impassive gaze. "I understand," J'onn said in Superman's resonant voice, and the three superheroes were gone into the night.
Yoru focused on Batman. "Will you not go with them to search?"
Batman shook his head, very slightly, as if to move more would be to lose sight of the red and blue figure on the tatami. "Give me a moment."
The aged sensei bowed more deeply than was strictly necessary and left the room.
: : :
With the room finally empty, Batman knelt next to Superman, listening to his breath rise and fall, waiting through each gasping pause. The Kryptonian was deathly pale, an almost pearly sheen on his skin, his brow damp with sweat. Bruce took a cloth and wiped Clark's forehead carefully, then sat for a long time as the sunlight faded into darkness.
He wanted to take the cowl off, he realized, to be here as Bruce and not as Batman. It seemed...wrong, somehow, to be the Dark Knight at the deathbed of his friend. But there were too many people in the dojo that he didn't want to burden with overt knowledge of his identity.
Clark would understand if he didn't, he thought. Clark knew who he was whether he was wearing a mask or not.
He took the heavy black gloves off, at least, and clasped the lax white hands in his.
They were cold.
"Clark," he began, then stopped, shocked at the pain in his own voice. He swallowed hard and started again, aiming for a more casual tone. "I was going to tell you, you know. That I love you. Hey," he said defensively in response to a non-existent answer, "I was getting there. It's not every day I make a confession like that. I...don't think I ever have, actually." He stopped again, hearing his voice twist and cramp.
A shadow crossed Clark's unconscious face, his eyes moving as if in dreams, his breath catching for an agonizing moment. Bruce lifted a hand to the other man's brow, drawing the glossy black curl between his fingers gently. "It's a momentous thing, Clark. Don't think I don't know it. Not only am I crazy enough to say I want to be with you, only you...I'm crazy enough to suspect you want the same thing." He smoothed one of Clark's dark eyebrows with his thumb. "So you have to come back, Clark. You have to come back so I can tell you I love you."
Clark's face was like marble, like the moon, pale and remote, fading away. On an impulse--vague memories of fairy tale lovers, wakened with a kiss--he bent his mouth to Clark's cool lips. "I love you," he murmured against the other man's mouth, feeling his breath warm on Clark's lips. "Wake up, love."
Nothing happened. Clark's breaths still labored and struggled, Clark's eyes stayed closed.
"Well," said Bruce out loud, feeling extremely foolish, "the odds of that working were infinitesimal. I knew that. I did. But I thought, it's a magic sword, maybe--if there were any chance at all, maybe--" Horrifyingly, his voice broke. "Talk about pathetically desperate."
He felt his throat close up, felt the backs of his eyes burning in impotent rage that threatened to be something else, pain and yearning boiling inside him--
Torchlight on shining stone. Smell of brimstone. Torchlight.
Bruce sat upright, catching at the sudden flicker of image, but it was gone, if it had ever really been there.
He remembered the caves dug into the side of the volcano to the west, the warren of passages in which the ninja had found that ancient parchment two years ago.
Could Kyodai have gone to ground there?
Bruce gripped Clark's hands tighter, his mind racing. He should contact the rest of the League, tell them...tell them what? That he had a hunch about where Kyodai might be? Ridiculous. Illogical.
But he couldn't just sit here and watch Clark die any longer.
He touched his lips to Clark's brow. "Keep fighting," he whispered. Then he slipped out of the dojo and into the gathering night.
As he made his way through the forest toward the volcano, the rational detective in him railed at his actions. He was following a whim. Following a crazy impulse.
But something deeper, something truer, spoke beneath it.
Following my heart.