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It had been quite different back then, that was one thing Clark was sure about - it had been different.
He never really figured out what changed, why it had changed.
They had been friends, best of friends - or so he had thought. Had at the very least been colleagues, teammates.
But he wasn’t even sure he could call them that anymore, colleagues - in his opinion - should be able to make small talk with each other, should be able to talk, bond, and make a good working environment.
There wasn’t any of that present anymore though, not with Batman. And he had always been a part time member, that was one of his demands when he had joined. Probably because Gotham came first, was more important than anything else.
Not that Batman - Bruce - ever said that out loud. Everyone knew however, that he had started being Batman because of Gotham - for Gotham’s sake.
And he had tried talking to him, Clark had really tried. It just wasn’t that easy, it was harder than before, he didn’t react the same way anymore.
Because when Clark made sure they were alone, asked “Batman, can we talk after this meeting?” They did talk, he stayed behind.
Batman stayed, to talk to him.
But when he asked, “what’s wrong B? Are everything okay?” He brushed it off.
Not in the normal way either, not in the way where he said; “I’m fine”, or “it has no bearing on the team”, or “mind your own business Kal”.
No what happened instead was completely unexpected, Batman just asked, “was there any League business, you wanted to discuss with me?” And after that was met with a “no”, because Clark just wanted to talk with his friend, make sure he was okay.
Hoped for the reassurance that there was something taking up his time in Gotham, that he would be back to normal when it had passed.
And what he got afterwards, what Batman told him after that, was even weirder. Tore into him in a new way.
Batman said: “And don’t call me that, that’s only for family.” He didn’t want Clark to call him B, after all these years… had Batman always felt like that?
Then Batman turned around, stalked towards the exit, and Clark couldn’t stop himself from pleading: “Bruce, please just talk to me.”
There was no reaction however, it was like he didn’t hear it, like it didn’t register that it was him - Batman - Bruce - that Clark was calling for.
It became even rarer for him to show up after that, and even though they worked fine without him, it became… harder.
And he knew others had tried, like Clark did, to talk to Batman. However, nothing seemed to get through to him, nothing worked.
They tried to hold interventions, but he just seemed uninterested, uncaring, like it didn’t matter to him - like suddenly they didn’t matter to him.
And sooner or later one of his kids would stop by and take him home, and they couldn’t do anything.
The kids took priority, that was understandable.
They couldn’t just stop by in Gotham and ask, however. They weren’t welcome in Gotham, that was one of their deals.
They tried to go there anyway; it was getting out of hand. Jonathan told him that Damian had stopped showing up to meetings with his team.
Afterwards he called Conner, asked about his teammates, asked about Red Robin and Nightwing, it was the same answer.
They had all stopped coming.
Conner, however, wasn’t as worried as Jon. It seemed like it was a quite new thing, that they didn’t show up. He thought it was just some trouble in Blüdhaven and Gotham, it happened all the time - it had only been a couple of weeks since he last saw them.
So, they tried to go to Gotham, there had to be something wrong - something they could fix.
It didn’t work.
They were sent out of the city.
Clark didn’t know how they did it with everyone, how everyone woke up outside the border of the city.
With him, it was probably quite easy, he had known that Batman had a stash of kryptonite, he hadn’t thought this would be the way it got used.
They tried, they really tried, and they promised each other that they would keep on trying.
But Batman didn’t even react to Hals “Spooky” anymore, he didn’t really react to any of them anymore.
He reacted to his kids, perhaps even more than he did before.
But the kids were the only once he reacted to, and the kids - all the Bats and Birds - didn’t react to the League anymore either.
Even Nightwing didn’t seem to care for Clark, and he was the one who used to jump around, calling him “Uncle Supes”.
Used to.
They really tried.
They would keep on trying.
But he couldn’t even get into Gotham as Clark Kent, reporter of the Daily Planet. Couldn’t get an interview set up with Bruce or Tim anyway - both of them seemed to have retired from Wayne Enterprises.
The interviews that was possible to get, was with Lucius Fox, now officially the CEO.
That didn’t help him much, Mr. Fox didn’t seem to see a problem, wouldn’t divulge any information. Seemed like he found it all quite natural.
And the Waynes didn’t show up to galas anymore, and the manor was a no go - they had tried of course, but it didn’t go any better than going into Gotham.
As a last resort, they tried to lock Batman up… it didn’t end up well.
Or rather, they didn’t achieve anything by doing it.
Batman was too patient, didn’t really react all that much, he just sat there - in the cell they had put him in - waiting.
They weren’t sure what he was waiting for at first, but then his children came.
They let him out.
Nightwing walked up to the door, pushed the code in, opened the door, and told Batman that “they should go home, it would be time for patrol soon”.
Like that was the most important thing.
Like nothing else mattered.
Like it didn’t matter why Batman was in the cell to begin with.
They had to keep trying - the League had to keep trying.
Maybe at some point in time, they would listen.
Hopefully at some point in time, they could get their friends back.
Clark could get Bruce back.
Maybe… Perhaps… Hopefully…