Chapter Text
Clark had cheated.
He was only in Gotham for one night, and he hadn't even brought his suit, but he would be damned if he was going to pass up an opportunity to see Bruce, especially given the prolonged Gotham gang war that had just come to a rather explosive end. So, he walked the streets, senses primed, and figured out the route Batman was taking. Oh, he climbed a fire escape just like any normal human, just in case someone saw him (well, maybe more like a normal human in peak physical condition with above-average strength. Clark really needed to stop basing his imitation of humanity on what he'd seen members of Bruce's extended family do.) but the fact remained that he had used superpowers to figure out where Bruce was going to be, and it felt like cheating. Clark felt a little guilty; he had a vague idea that Bruce would have been very impressed with him if he had figured it out using technology or algorithms or several nights of stakeouts or something.
But that feeling vanished immediately when Batman dropped onto the roof from the taller neighboring building and Clark heard Bruce's heartbeat shift from the relentless thrum of a soldier's march to something a little faster, a little more like improvised jazz when he recognized who was waiting for him. Clark felt his own heart leap to match, accompaniment and counterpoint, as Batman straightened from his landing, his cape falling around him like liquid shadow. To anyone watching, he was the implacable Batman, standing on a roof talking to a civilian in off-the-rack khakis and a button down that was a little snug across the shoulders. Clark could see the tiny wrinkle to the left of his mouth that meant he was worried, though.
"Is everything all right?" Batman asked. Despite what the public could see, the gang war he'd wrapped up last night still had a lot of loose ends. Unanswered questions. Potential consequences. Batman was hoping it wasn't one of those that had brought Clark to this rooftop tonight, though the lack of cape and suit suggested it wasn't business-related.
"I should be asking you that," Clark replied. "The Planet sent me on assignment – the abduction of that Iranian botanist is going to be in every major news outlet tomorrow, especially since it was part of a gang territory war and a drug trafficking bust."
"Please tell me you're not asking me for a statement."
Clark snorted. "My copy's already written and sent in. Papers are probably already printing. What I'm asking is whether you're okay." Clark hesitated. "I heard Red Hood was involved."
A line of anger and another for stress joined the worry-wrinkle around Batman's mouth. "He was."
"Is he—"
"He's fine. Everyone's fine. It's taken care of." It was. And Jason was fine. He'd abducted that botanist for her own protection, even if he'd ended up working with Poison Ivy to do it. This time Ivy's goals aligned with the side of right, but Batman hated that he could never be quite sure how far Red Hood was willing to go to stop crime. And the drug trade was a particular hot-button issue of his. "How long are you in town?" Batman asked, deliberately changing the subject. A distraction would be quite welcome when he was done with tonight's investigation.
"It was just for the day. I'm leaving first thing," Clark said.
There was a question in that statement, one that Bruce wanted badly to answer. Stay the night at the manor. Gotham can wait for one night. Distract me. All potential answers. But… the roots of this recent conflict might not be able to wait. Delay a night and they might slither out of his grasp. There would be other nights with Clark.
Clark read all of this in a glance and smiled, understanding completely. "It's okay. I really did just want to see if you were all right. Now that I see you are, I'll just take this to tide me over." Two strides took Clark into arm's reach of Batman. He grasped the front of Batman's cape and pulled Batman's mouth to his in a kiss determined to eliminate that crease of worry and maybe at least smooth the others.
Batman's lips remained a hard line under Clark's for an instinctive moment as his body tensed in trained reaction; someone grabbing his cape was almost certainly bad news, as was letting anyone this near the unprotected part of his face. But it was only an instant. This was Clark, and Batman was not at his mercy, superstrength or no. Clark would never lose control of that strength to the degree that he wouldn't let Batman go if Batman wanted to be gone. And even if he did, Batman had ways of dealing with him. He relaxed, his mouth softening into what was definitely a small smile. His arms remained at his sides under the cape; Batman did not cling, would not lose himself fully while in uniform, but he did allow himself to enjoy the kiss before stepping deliberately back with the barest of sighs.
Clark grinned at him and reached out to smooth Batman's cape where his fist had rumpled the heavy fabric. "I should go. Do good tonight," Clark said with a dazzling smile before turning and walking back to the fire escape.
"Believe me, I want to," Batman said under his breath, his voice as low as he could make it. He switched his mask to infrared vision just to watch Clark's body temperature rise as he climbed back onto the fire escape. Superhearing was fun to play with. Clark shook his head at him with a wistful smile, mouthed Later, and was gone down the ladder.
Batman blinked, re-focused, and swung off into the night. He had work to do.
Meanwhile, in a tiny apartment with an unobstructed view of that rooftop…
Jenny Greene slammed the door to her studio apartment shut behind her, flicked the lock, dropped her bag, and kicked off her shoes. It was five steps to the freezer to grab a frozen mac and cheese, zero steps to toss it in the microwave, and five steps to the bathroom where she splashed the workday off of her face, shed her adult-person clothes, and relaxed into the bra-less comfort of pajamas. By the time the microwave dinged, she'd powered up her computer where it sat on the narrow desk at the foot of her bed (seven whole steps from the kitchen, if you started at the back of the kitchen) and connected it to the telescope that pointed out the apartment's one window.
She checked the forums while she flirted with tongue-burn. Nothing particularly exciting had happened while she was away, but then, that was the life of a batwatcher. She was pretty sure most of them were just in it for the company at this point – though some of them were definitely there for the Nightwing pictures, of which there was no shortage. It was like the guy knew when there was a camera around and deliberately tried to find the best angles to show off. She scrolled down.
Someone thought they had maybe caught a picture of Robin, but it was just a blur of red so… who knew. Then there was someone who said they definitely had gotten Red Robin but by the time they went to upload the file it was mysteriously missing. Hm. Sure.
There was a new picture of Batwoman, her red hair streaming as she kicked a mugger in the face. Now there was a lucky case of right place, right time. Jenny left her regards. Batwoman was rare.
Not as rare as Batman, of course. No one ever got pictures of Batman – not that could be proved to be him, anyway. It was like getting pictures of Nessie: either too blurry and shadowed to be taken seriously, or else quickly exposed as fake.
Jenny switched from her browser to the window displaying her telescope's camera, then got up to adjust the telescope. She must have bumped it this morning getting out of bed, because it was pointing at a brick wall. She watched the computer screen as she carefully maneuvered it across the span of rooftops visible from her window.
Then she stopped.
Blinked.
Checked the scope with her own eyes.
Hit the shutter button so fast she thought she might have damaged the keyboard.
"What, what, whaaat?" she muttered, sliding back into her desk chair. "Nuh-uh." She snapped the shutter a few more times, rapidly adjusting the focus. Two men were standing two rooftops away and one of them was definitely Batman, or else a really dedicated cosplayer. The other one just looked like some guy, albeit one who knew his way around a gym.
And then the guy grabbed Batman by the cape and kissed him. "Oh my god!" Burst mode, now. She held it down until the two of them broke apart, her heart thudding wildly. And then Batman fired off a line into the night and she pounced on the button again because that proved it was really him. Who else did that?
Jenny stood up. Then she sat back down again. Then she stood up, paced the length of her apartment twice (fourteen steps), and sat back down again. "Okay," she breathed. "Okay, okay, okay." She sifted through the dozens of photos she'd just snagged. The first ones were too blurry. The rest were pretty good. She picked out five of the best – of the kiss – and saved the rest for proof. Her mouse hovered over the forum post button.
And paused. Posting this on the forums would bring her a certain level of internet notoriety but… a girl had to eat. She pointed her browser toward Google instead.
Submit photos, she typed. Gotham Gazette.