The House of the Earth Part 2 (3/8): Learning to Bluff
Title: Chapter Three: Learning to Bluff
Pairing/Characters: Kal-El, Bruce Wayne, Kara Zor-El
Notes: " The House of the Earth" is an AU in which a few thousand Kryptonians escaped the destruction of Krypton to flee to Earth and enslave its people.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1800
Summary: Bruce and Kara try to teach Kal how to play poker.
Bruce was laughing, helpless gusts of laughter that he couldn't seem to stop. He was laughing at Kal, but it was such a wonderful sound that Kal couldn't find it in himself to mind. "You're pathetic," Bruce pointed out cheerfully. "But we'll make a good double-agent of you yet."
The two were sitting on the floor, playing poker. Bruce had an impressive pile of toothpicks in front of him. Kal liked to imagine he was starting to get better at bluffing, but Bruce still seemed able to read him like a book. It was uncanny and more than a bit unnerving. "We didn't play a whole lot of games like this in college," he said, trying to sound sullen instead of oddly happy.
"Oh?" Bruce was shuffling the cards again. "What did you do in your spare time?"
"I didn't have much spare time," Kal said as he picked up the cards. "I was always either studying or preparing for a debate. Now and then I'd get together with some friends to play some pick-up frkrk--it's a sort of casual sport where you toss around a set of balls that shift their center of balance at random so you can't catch them easily."
Bruce was studying his cards. "So you had friends? People you were close to?"
Two aces and two fives; not bad. "Oh, you mean anyone I think might be a good contact to help in the cause?" Kal tossed another toothpick in the pot and stared at the cards unseeingly, his mind going over the people he had known in school. "Mirla and Magh--they're a brother and sister from Winath--I debated them often and they were fiercely and openly opposed to the Kryptonian actions. They didn't like me much, though," he added ruefully. "Kilisen of Orando was a friend of mine, but there were times I got the impression he didn't approve..."
Bruce was looking intently at the cards in his hand. "Actually, I...didn't mean in a strategic sense. I just wanted to know..." He hesitated and lifted one shoulder in awkward shrug. "If you had friends. What your life was like."
"Oh. Well, I...no. I didn't have a whole lot of friends. Most people don't like Kryptonians--'always floating around with their noses in the air,'" Kal quoted from rather bitter memory. "I...guess we mostly are, of course." Kal sneaked a look at Bruce's face, trying to read how strong his hand was by its expression. No good. Kal called him but chose not to raise the bet at all.
Bruce showed his hand: a pair of sixes. He looked over at Kal's cards and frowned. "You should have raised that bet; two pair is really good."
"I know, I just didn't want to take the risk."
Bruce tsked. "Some things are worth risking, Kal." He started to deal again. "So, did you have any Kryptonian friends?"
"There was one other Kryptonian being educated at the same school as me. Syra Rafe-Em." Kal shifted uncomfortably. "It's kind of assumed we'll marry someday. The pool of available mates is pretty small."
"You two dated?"
"Nothing so...organized. To be honest, we never got along well." Syra had spent most of her time attempting to lord it over the "lesser" races at school. Even then Kal had hated it, but now he grimaced in distaste, remembering how he had avoided her rather than confronting her.
"And yet you might have to marry her?"
Kal snorted. "What's friendship got to do with marriage?"
"What indeed?" There was a glint of humor in Bruce's voice.
Kal frowned, his mind wandering, staring at the cards unseeing. "I'm surprised Kara isn't married yet."
"She hasn't tested fertile." Bruce's voice was matter-of-fact. "With such a small number of Kryptonian survivors, they can't waste potential marriage partners until they've been proven to be fertile."
Kal stared at Bruce, taken aback at his casual mention of such taboo topics. "Has Kara spoken to you of such things?"
"Of course. Kryptonian reproduction habits are of vital importance in any discussion of the political situation." Bruce's voice was abstracted. "Your race is barely at a replacement birth rate, even taking into consideration the longer lifespan you have here on Earth. It probably wasn't even at replacement rate on Krypton. Much crystalline technology was lost in the Arrival, including the great birthing matrices. Since then, Kryptonians have had to give birth without matrices, and it hasn't been easy."
Kal felt, despite his best efforts, a thrill of horrified disgust at the idea of Bruce and Kara sitting around and talking about such base subjects, things that no good, well-bred Kryptonian ever should say out loud. He swallowed hard and focused on his cards for a second, trying to step back from his visceral reaction. This was important strategic information, and all information was valuable. With some surprise he realized he had drawn into a straight. "Oh. I'll bet five toothpicks."
Bruce tossed his cards down. "I fold. Kal, if you're going to let your eyes bug out when you look at your cards, you'll never trick someone into staying in the hand long enough to fleece them."
There was a flicker of movement, and Kal saw the door to his quarters open. He leapt to his feet and into the air, hiding his cards--but it was Kara, in a white dressing gown. She smiled when she saw him and her lips moved, but he couldn't hear anything; he gestured for her to come into the bedroom.
"I hope I didn't startle you," she said as she walked into the room. "I knew you wouldn't be able to hear my knock."
"I'm schooling your cousin in the ways of poker," Bruce said from the floor.
Kara laughed, a delighted chortling sound, and she dropped gracefully to the floor with a light thump. "Can I join you?"
Kal followed suit as Bruce nodded, sliding downward more slowly than Kara until he was also sitting on the floor. "Bruce seems to think I need some practice in bluffing."
Bruce started to deal and Kara picked up her cards. "Cousin, there are few people I know who need it more." Her smile was affectionate, but it slipped away and she sighed. "I hate to put this weight on you, in some ways."
Kal felt rather stung. "Do you think I can't handle it?"
Kara and Bruce exchanged a quick glance before Kara answered. "I think you'll be fine. But I'll be honest with you, Kal. You're hotheaded, passionate, and not accustomed to hiding your feelings. I love that about you, but it's not going to make this easy."
Kal looked at his cards, trying not to show his dejection. He was pretty sure he failed. They all anted up
"We're both in trouble now," Bruce noted to him. "Your cousin is without a doubt one of the best liars I've ever encountered."
Kara chuckled again. "You flatterer."
"Flatterer? I speak only the bare truth, as I always do. Tell that guard in Tokyo I'm a flatterer."
Kara held her cards in front of her face to hide her grin. "I still can't believe I got away with that."
"It was the way you held yourself--that imperial ice queen stare you do so well." Bruce shook his head. "That was the moment I knew you were the real thing."
Kal glowered at his cards. He tried to tell himself it was because they were really bad cards, but down inside he knew it was because he didn't like feeling like the outsider, didn't like hearing Kara and Bruce talk like old friends. "I still can hardly believe we're the only two Kryptonians involved," he said. "How can everyone else be so blind?"
His cousin looked uncomfortable. "Kal. In part it's that people in power want to stay in power. But..." She paused as if debating something with herself, then squared her shoulders and continued. "I was fifteen when Krypton was destroyed. I remember there being lots of debates and arguments about colonizing Earth. When it was discovered what the sun's radiation would do to us...there were a lot of people opposed to the idea of invading. They wanted a peaceful settlement, an agreement with the humans." She looked at Kal warily above her cards. "Jor-El and Lara were two of the most outspoken opponents of invasion."
Kal stared at her. All this time he had been berating himself for failing his parents...and they had opposed slavery? "Why did the anti-slavery people stop arguing after the Arrival?"
Kara shot another swift glance toward Bruce, who was studying his cards. "The planet destabilized more quickly than expected. The Gates had been constructed to open at certain set places around Krypton. Some of the Gates...failed to open. And the pro-slavery Kryptonians...happened to be at the Gates that did open." There was a long silence. Bruce bet three toothpicks into the stillness. Kara tossed in her three toothpicks; Kal put in three and after a moment's hesitation, added three more, raising the stakes. "I was staying at your place. Jor-El was out in the field, investigating some anomalous readings his instruments had picked up. When the quakes started to happen, Lara insisted on going looking for him, said she wouldn't ever leave him behind. I...waited as long as I dared before grabbing you and running." Her eyes were shining with tears. "I adored my aunt and uncle, and I failed them. You were all I had left."
Another very long silence in which Kal looked at his cards and put many things together. Bruce saw his bet and raised another five toothpicks. Kara saw it and raised it three more. Kal saw that and raised it five more.
Bruce and Kara looked at him. He stared back at them, seeing in his mind's eye his father being called away at just the wrong moment, seeing the crowds of anti-slavery Kryptonians waiting in vain for the Gates to open as the world crumbled around them.
Bruce's eyes narrowed, studying his face. "I fold," he said at last.
Kara tossed in her cards as well. "Me too."
Kal raked in the little pile of wood splinters. Bruce raised an eyebrow. "Are you going to tell us what you had?"
Kal held up the cards wordlessly. A single nine was his best card.
Bruce whistled and Kara snorted. "You bluffed us. Nice."
Had his father and mother found each other at the end? Or had they died alone, still searching for each other? Had they realized they had been betrayed and their efforts for peace had come to nothing?
Kal smiled slightly, without humor. "I think I'm starting to get the hang of it."
Pairing/Characters: Kal-El, Bruce Wayne, Kara Zor-El
Notes: " The House of the Earth" is an AU in which a few thousand Kryptonians escaped the destruction of Krypton to flee to Earth and enslave its people.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1800
Summary: Bruce and Kara try to teach Kal how to play poker.
Bruce was laughing, helpless gusts of laughter that he couldn't seem to stop. He was laughing at Kal, but it was such a wonderful sound that Kal couldn't find it in himself to mind. "You're pathetic," Bruce pointed out cheerfully. "But we'll make a good double-agent of you yet."
The two were sitting on the floor, playing poker. Bruce had an impressive pile of toothpicks in front of him. Kal liked to imagine he was starting to get better at bluffing, but Bruce still seemed able to read him like a book. It was uncanny and more than a bit unnerving. "We didn't play a whole lot of games like this in college," he said, trying to sound sullen instead of oddly happy.
"Oh?" Bruce was shuffling the cards again. "What did you do in your spare time?"
"I didn't have much spare time," Kal said as he picked up the cards. "I was always either studying or preparing for a debate. Now and then I'd get together with some friends to play some pick-up frkrk--it's a sort of casual sport where you toss around a set of balls that shift their center of balance at random so you can't catch them easily."
Bruce was studying his cards. "So you had friends? People you were close to?"
Two aces and two fives; not bad. "Oh, you mean anyone I think might be a good contact to help in the cause?" Kal tossed another toothpick in the pot and stared at the cards unseeingly, his mind going over the people he had known in school. "Mirla and Magh--they're a brother and sister from Winath--I debated them often and they were fiercely and openly opposed to the Kryptonian actions. They didn't like me much, though," he added ruefully. "Kilisen of Orando was a friend of mine, but there were times I got the impression he didn't approve..."
Bruce was looking intently at the cards in his hand. "Actually, I...didn't mean in a strategic sense. I just wanted to know..." He hesitated and lifted one shoulder in awkward shrug. "If you had friends. What your life was like."
"Oh. Well, I...no. I didn't have a whole lot of friends. Most people don't like Kryptonians--'always floating around with their noses in the air,'" Kal quoted from rather bitter memory. "I...guess we mostly are, of course." Kal sneaked a look at Bruce's face, trying to read how strong his hand was by its expression. No good. Kal called him but chose not to raise the bet at all.
Bruce showed his hand: a pair of sixes. He looked over at Kal's cards and frowned. "You should have raised that bet; two pair is really good."
"I know, I just didn't want to take the risk."
Bruce tsked. "Some things are worth risking, Kal." He started to deal again. "So, did you have any Kryptonian friends?"
"There was one other Kryptonian being educated at the same school as me. Syra Rafe-Em." Kal shifted uncomfortably. "It's kind of assumed we'll marry someday. The pool of available mates is pretty small."
"You two dated?"
"Nothing so...organized. To be honest, we never got along well." Syra had spent most of her time attempting to lord it over the "lesser" races at school. Even then Kal had hated it, but now he grimaced in distaste, remembering how he had avoided her rather than confronting her.
"And yet you might have to marry her?"
Kal snorted. "What's friendship got to do with marriage?"
"What indeed?" There was a glint of humor in Bruce's voice.
Kal frowned, his mind wandering, staring at the cards unseeing. "I'm surprised Kara isn't married yet."
"She hasn't tested fertile." Bruce's voice was matter-of-fact. "With such a small number of Kryptonian survivors, they can't waste potential marriage partners until they've been proven to be fertile."
Kal stared at Bruce, taken aback at his casual mention of such taboo topics. "Has Kara spoken to you of such things?"
"Of course. Kryptonian reproduction habits are of vital importance in any discussion of the political situation." Bruce's voice was abstracted. "Your race is barely at a replacement birth rate, even taking into consideration the longer lifespan you have here on Earth. It probably wasn't even at replacement rate on Krypton. Much crystalline technology was lost in the Arrival, including the great birthing matrices. Since then, Kryptonians have had to give birth without matrices, and it hasn't been easy."
Kal felt, despite his best efforts, a thrill of horrified disgust at the idea of Bruce and Kara sitting around and talking about such base subjects, things that no good, well-bred Kryptonian ever should say out loud. He swallowed hard and focused on his cards for a second, trying to step back from his visceral reaction. This was important strategic information, and all information was valuable. With some surprise he realized he had drawn into a straight. "Oh. I'll bet five toothpicks."
Bruce tossed his cards down. "I fold. Kal, if you're going to let your eyes bug out when you look at your cards, you'll never trick someone into staying in the hand long enough to fleece them."
There was a flicker of movement, and Kal saw the door to his quarters open. He leapt to his feet and into the air, hiding his cards--but it was Kara, in a white dressing gown. She smiled when she saw him and her lips moved, but he couldn't hear anything; he gestured for her to come into the bedroom.
"I hope I didn't startle you," she said as she walked into the room. "I knew you wouldn't be able to hear my knock."
"I'm schooling your cousin in the ways of poker," Bruce said from the floor.
Kara laughed, a delighted chortling sound, and she dropped gracefully to the floor with a light thump. "Can I join you?"
Kal followed suit as Bruce nodded, sliding downward more slowly than Kara until he was also sitting on the floor. "Bruce seems to think I need some practice in bluffing."
Bruce started to deal and Kara picked up her cards. "Cousin, there are few people I know who need it more." Her smile was affectionate, but it slipped away and she sighed. "I hate to put this weight on you, in some ways."
Kal felt rather stung. "Do you think I can't handle it?"
Kara and Bruce exchanged a quick glance before Kara answered. "I think you'll be fine. But I'll be honest with you, Kal. You're hotheaded, passionate, and not accustomed to hiding your feelings. I love that about you, but it's not going to make this easy."
Kal looked at his cards, trying not to show his dejection. He was pretty sure he failed. They all anted up
"We're both in trouble now," Bruce noted to him. "Your cousin is without a doubt one of the best liars I've ever encountered."
Kara chuckled again. "You flatterer."
"Flatterer? I speak only the bare truth, as I always do. Tell that guard in Tokyo I'm a flatterer."
Kara held her cards in front of her face to hide her grin. "I still can't believe I got away with that."
"It was the way you held yourself--that imperial ice queen stare you do so well." Bruce shook his head. "That was the moment I knew you were the real thing."
Kal glowered at his cards. He tried to tell himself it was because they were really bad cards, but down inside he knew it was because he didn't like feeling like the outsider, didn't like hearing Kara and Bruce talk like old friends. "I still can hardly believe we're the only two Kryptonians involved," he said. "How can everyone else be so blind?"
His cousin looked uncomfortable. "Kal. In part it's that people in power want to stay in power. But..." She paused as if debating something with herself, then squared her shoulders and continued. "I was fifteen when Krypton was destroyed. I remember there being lots of debates and arguments about colonizing Earth. When it was discovered what the sun's radiation would do to us...there were a lot of people opposed to the idea of invading. They wanted a peaceful settlement, an agreement with the humans." She looked at Kal warily above her cards. "Jor-El and Lara were two of the most outspoken opponents of invasion."
Kal stared at her. All this time he had been berating himself for failing his parents...and they had opposed slavery? "Why did the anti-slavery people stop arguing after the Arrival?"
Kara shot another swift glance toward Bruce, who was studying his cards. "The planet destabilized more quickly than expected. The Gates had been constructed to open at certain set places around Krypton. Some of the Gates...failed to open. And the pro-slavery Kryptonians...happened to be at the Gates that did open." There was a long silence. Bruce bet three toothpicks into the stillness. Kara tossed in her three toothpicks; Kal put in three and after a moment's hesitation, added three more, raising the stakes. "I was staying at your place. Jor-El was out in the field, investigating some anomalous readings his instruments had picked up. When the quakes started to happen, Lara insisted on going looking for him, said she wouldn't ever leave him behind. I...waited as long as I dared before grabbing you and running." Her eyes were shining with tears. "I adored my aunt and uncle, and I failed them. You were all I had left."
Another very long silence in which Kal looked at his cards and put many things together. Bruce saw his bet and raised another five toothpicks. Kara saw it and raised it three more. Kal saw that and raised it five more.
Bruce and Kara looked at him. He stared back at them, seeing in his mind's eye his father being called away at just the wrong moment, seeing the crowds of anti-slavery Kryptonians waiting in vain for the Gates to open as the world crumbled around them.
Bruce's eyes narrowed, studying his face. "I fold," he said at last.
Kara tossed in her cards as well. "Me too."
Kal raked in the little pile of wood splinters. Bruce raised an eyebrow. "Are you going to tell us what you had?"
Kal held up the cards wordlessly. A single nine was his best card.
Bruce whistled and Kara snorted. "You bluffed us. Nice."
Had his father and mother found each other at the end? Or had they died alone, still searching for each other? Had they realized they had been betrayed and their efforts for peace had come to nothing?
Kal smiled slightly, without humor. "I think I'm starting to get the hang of it."