Work Text:
“Supergirl.”
“Oh! H-hi, Batman.”
“What are you doing up here, Kara?”
“I- it’s…”
“Is it the trial? Or something else?”
“A little of both, I think?”
“Tell me.”
“I didn’t know he was so… popular. No, wait, that’s stupid. I knew that. It’s just, I didn’t know how many people’s lives he really affected, you know? I mean, Diana told me about it, but… hearing about it and now seeing it in person, it’s a different experience. Does that make sense?”
“Yes.”
“I mean, I hear all these people talking about K-Kal, and who he was and I just… I don’t know what to think. It’s hard to imagine who he was ‘before’ when all I’ve seen is…”
“His brutality?”
“Yes. Yes, exactly. Although I suppose this must be strange for you too… I mean, you were friends, right?”
“He was my best friend.”
“I… Diana talked about that, a little.”
“Heh. I doubt she told you the truth.”
“I… I don’t know. She seemed pretty candid about it— the past. At least—”
“At least you thought so until you came here.”
“Yeah. She told me… she told me you all were friends, before. Could you… do you mind—”
“Well, she wasn’t lying about that, at least. I don’t know what else she told you, but that much is true. I… it’s hard to explain, to really understand, unless you were there. Things were different, in those days. Not necessarily more hopeful, before the Justice League, at least. But they were… fresher. Nobody had ever done what we were trying to do, and the world was watching. Pressure like that either creates bonds or breaks you. I don’t trust easily, and in some ways, even less back then. But, yes, we were all friends.”
“Even you and Green Lantern? Diana told me some stories.”
“Hn. I didn’t say best friends.”
“I suppose. So. You and Kal-El? How did that happen?”
“Hh. His stubbornness, mostly. I was determined to work alone. Though he was a naïve, over-powered prick who’d wreck the world before he even knew what he was doing— heh. I was right, in the end… Anyway, we met because, in those days, it was really just us; Diana hadn’t come into the picture yet and the others, if they were active, didn’t have experience. So it was really pragmatism that made me interact with him at all.”
“What changed? I mean maybe it’s just me, but ‘pragmatism’ to ‘best friend’ seems like a pretty big leap, Bruce.”
“Time. Time changed everything. I worked more and more with him— I figured that if nothing else, I could keep an eye on Superman by letting him stick around— and then, eventually, I met… met—”
“Met Clark?”
“Yes. I met him and realized how much more there was to him than Superman. How much he cared, and why. Then Diana showed up, the league formed, and, as they say, the rest is history.”
“I’m sorry.”
“… you and me both. If he’d— well, if a lot of things had gone differently, you couldn’t have asked for a better cousin. He would have adored you. Hell, Lois probably would’ve too. But Clark always felt like there was something missing from his life. I never really asked about it, but I always suspected that he felt incomplete, because he knew so little about Krypton.”
“I thought— didn’t he know about Krypton?”
“Some. He had the Fortress. The AI. His rocket. But that was it. And there’s only so much an AI can teach somebody, even one as advanced as Jor El’s system was. You, with all your lived experience, would’ve been like a Rosetta Stone for Kal.”
“Oh. I guess Diana lied about that…”
“I guess she did.”
“Can— were you friends with Lois?”
“In a way. She and I never had the best relationship; we were very similar— too much, maybe. But she put up with me and understood me, even if she didn’t always agree with me. I appreciated that. And how happy she made Clark…”
“I was going to be the godfather.”
“Oh. Bruce. I— Diana never told me that.”
“No, I’m not surprised she didn’t. Not many people knew. I suppose she might not have. Perhaps, after… after everything, he never told her.”
“We need to go.”
“O-okay. I think I’m ready now. Thank you, Batman.”
“Thank you for listening. I… I miss him, but—”
“But he can never be set free again?”
“Exactly.”
“Alright then. Let’s go make sure of it.”