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When Bruce decides he wants to reveal his marriage (and, consequently, his identity) to the Justice League, it's four in the morning.
"Clark, it's time," he sits up in bed, jostling the man beside him.
"Mm?" the other man hums, eyes closed in near-sleep but eyebrows still furrowed at Bruce's words.
"It's time. We need to tell them."
"Mkay," Clark peeks an eye open to glance at the clock on their bedside table. "'S too early. We'll talk 'bout it in th'morning."
He nuzzles his face into the pillow, reaching a broad hand out to clumsily run the length of Bruce's upper body before finding his hand and sleepily grasping it.
Bruce brings their joined hands to his lips, pressing tender kisses to Clark's knuckles as he feels the man drift back into sleep.
He, however, does not go back to sleep. Instead, he basks in the warmth of his husband's arms, ruminating on possible ways to go about their reveal.
When the clock hits five-thirty in the morning, Bruce is selfish and turns Clark's alarm off before it can begin blaring. As a replacement, he wakes the man by raking a gentle hand through those soft curls, rubbing a thumb over the soft skin beneath his eyes.
"Mmm," the Kryptonian smiles as he blinks awake, revealing those beautiful blue eyes. "G'mornin', honey."
"How did you sleep?" Bruce asks softly, stroking his cheek.
"Good," he stretches, causing his pectorals and biceps to flex deliciously. "Especially well after you woke me up with your scheming."
"It was pressing information," Bruce huffs out a laugh.
"Speaking of," Clark's eyes are more aware, now. "Did you mean that? That we should tell everyone?"
"Yeah," he smiles slowly. "I think it's high time, don't you?"
They discuss the logistics over a poppyseed muffin breakfast—the two are just going to rip the bandaid off, not give themselves too much time to overthink it and change their minds—and decide to do it at the next League meeting. The next League meeting that is in three days.
They've had thirty years to prepare for this. It'll be fine.
That doesn't stop the nerves from coming, though.
Three days passed, and it was suddenly the day of the meeting.
Batman leads as he always does, making it through a mission debrief, the new month's schedule for monitor duty, and a mission briefing. Superman's hands are shaking the entire time, pressed hard against his knees under the table. He gets a few concerned looks, but waves them off with an attempt at his usual smile.
"Well, unless there are any questions, we'll move on to announcements," the Bat segues, far too casual to be anything but abnormal.
There's an increase in energy across the conference table—they never had announcements. There was an "announcements" section in meetings for purely symbolic purposes. No one had ever used it.
"Superman," the Dark Knight nods, beckoning him to stand up.
All eyes turn to the Kryptonian. He visibly gulps as he makes his way from his seat to the front of the conference table, right next to Batman. One pair of anxious eyes meets a lens-covered (though no less anxious) one, and Bruce's heart is pounding. He somehow breaks through his own carefully-crafted shell to intertwine his fingers with Clark's.
"Batman and I have an announcement," he starts. Someone audibly gasps.
"We're... together. Romantically," Bruce gets out, motioning to where their hands are connected. "And we have been since the formation of the Justice League."
"We apologize for keeping this from you for so long, but we just thought it was too risky, given our identities. And our family's identities."
Three people began speaking at once.
"Since the formation of the-"
"I literally called-"
"Oh my god-"
"Hold on, hold on," Superman lets out an airy laugh, clearly still fighting nervousness. "One at a time."
"Flash, go," Batman grunts, though his lips are slightly quirked up.
"Who said 'I love you' first?" Barry asks, pure wonder in his tone.
"Are you serious? That's what you're asking?" Hal groans under his breath to the man beside him, but there's a fond undertone to his words. "Pick something you don't already know the answer to, Bear."
"...I was the first," Batman answers, albeit tentatively, and it cuts through the room like a knife.
"What?" Dinah's voice sounds through the room, genuinely shocked.
"Mr. Doom and Gloom is married to Mr. Sunshine and Rainbows and he confessed his love first? Is this a weird dream?" Hal laughs in disbelief.
"Hold on, Hal, no one said anything about marriage. Just long-term partnership," Aquaman raises a hand in a halting gesture.
"No, he's right, Arthur. We're married," Clark smiles dopily, the way he always does when he speaks about Bruce or the kids. His husband gives a faint smile and squeezes his hand.
"Are we sure they're not playing a massive prank on us?" Green Arrow looks around frantically. "J'onn?"
"What they're saying is true," J'onn nods at the pair, smiling. "Much belated congratulations, Batman and Superman."
"Why couldn't you tell us?" Hal furrows his eyebrows. When he gets a few pointed stares, he continues: "Like, I know you said it would be complicated with your identities and everything, but we would have been supportive. And kept it on the DL."
"It was just too much of a risk for many reasons," Clark explains, gripping Bruce's hand a bit tighter. They both hate this topic. "By the time we were even able to have a civil union, we had been raising our eldest son for seven years. When we got married we had two children together. And our civilian identities were not quiet on this front—it would have given us away. Even if it was only to you, our teammates, we couldn't take that chance."
There's a moment of silence, like everyone is stewing over what he just said—and the implications of what he just said. They had been together for so long. They had children.
Quietly, hesitantly, Dinah speaks:
"Does that mean we'll be finding that out today, too? Your identities?"
For well over a decade, all members of the Justice League have been well-versed in everyone's civilian identities. That is, everyone except Batman and Superman. It's a divisive topic. And it's clear the entire room is hanging off every micro-expression on both Batman and Superman's faces to gauge the answer.
"Yes," Clark nods, reaching to grab something from Batman's suddenly outstretched hand. As he brings the item (...a pair of glasses?) up to his face, Batman reaches for the top of his cowl.
Within a split second, the two men standing in front of the Justice League are not Batman and Superman. They're...
"Bruce?!" Oliver sputters out.
"My name is Bruce Wayne, and this is Clark Kent, my husband," the man is smirking slightly, and Clark subtly jabs him in the side to make him quit that.
"Sweet baby Jesus," Dinah sighs next to Oliver, whose jaw is nearly on the floor.
Everyone else's eyes are rapidly darting between the two of them, but tending to linger more on Clark. Taking in the way his self-presentation switched.
Bruce wondered what was going through everyone’s minds. Perhaps a fraction of what he felt, the first time he discovered that Superman led the rest of his life as a bumbling reporter. How much he must have to hide, how much he couldn’t have other people knowing. Because he was kind, and considerate, and so achingly good. He would prefer a life of loneliness for himself in favor of protecting those around him, because that’s who he was. Distantly, Bruce was ecstatic he had married the man next to him. Superman—Clark—wasn’t lonely, because he had Bruce. And Dick, and Jason, and Tim, and Damian. And, more recently, Roy and Lian.
Or maybe they were thinking about him.
How someone who seemed so... untouchable could be the Batman. How a billionaire with an addiction to adopting orphans with his husband could put his life on the line every single night. He was such a family man.
How could he do this knowing he might not come home one day?
"Mind my language, but holy fucking shit," Wonder Woman is the first to speak after the initial shock.
"Yeah, you're telling me that Superman," Hal vaguely gestures to Clark. "Has been married to Bruce Wayne for the past thirty years, and no one knows?"
"Well, that's because Superman isn't married to him. Clark Kent is," the man himself grins. "And people know about that."
"Oh my god, wait," Barry is all but vibrating in his seat. "Don't you guys have, like, a million kids?"
That gets a few chuckles from around the room. Bruce begins to open his mouth, lips twitched up in a small smile, but he's cut off before he can start.
"Wait, do they know?" Oliver inquires, brows furrowed.
Bruce's small smile leaves his face as he fixes the man with a signature Batman glare, though this time without the cowl on. It's still terrifying.
"Of course they know, Ollie. They're our children," he sighs.
It hits Clark, then, that there's a nonzero chance Oliver might not know that Jason, the man practically married to Roy and Lian's second father, is their son. Bruce seems to have the same realization because his eyes begin to sparkle, but (thankfully) Aquaman speaks before he can terrorize Oliver more.
"I must not be well-versed in the details of your life. How many children do you have?"
"We have four boys. Dick, Jason, Tim, and Damian, from oldest to youngest. We also have a granddaughter from our second eldest," Bruce smiles to himself as he answers. "And quite a few pets from our youngest."
"Forgive me, but were these boys all Robins?" Diana asks gracefully.
"Yes," Clark responds for both of them. "Dick was the first, then Jason, then Tim, and now Damian is the current one. The other three have all taken up their own identities in the meantime."
There are a few exhales of appreciation and some muttered 'wow's from the team, then silence.
"Well, if no one else has any questions, then-" Bruce begins.
"Obviously we have more questions, Batsy," Hal sits up. "Can we all get another question, then you can go home and canoodle or whatever?"
"Watch yourself," Bruce grunts, but nods nonetheless. Clark can tell he wants to laugh at that, but he still has somewhat of a reputation to uphold.
Diana starts, since she's nearest to the head of the table.
"You say you've been romantically involved since the formation of the League, but we all know you two were friends for a few years before that, as well," she tilts her head. "What changed?"
Clark looks at his husband and it is so, so tender. "Well, I was pretty bad at hiding it. I'd been trailing him like a lost puppy since the second we met."
"I knew his identity the entire time, but he didn't know mine. So, after two years, I called him to the Manor under the guise of an interview, then made him look through the floor into the Batcave," Bruce adds. "We both confessed shortly after that realization."
"How sweet," Diana smiles at them. "I am very happy for you two."
They nod their heads at her in tandem, matching smiles on their faces.
"Um, I'm sure it hasn't always been easy, given our line of work," Barry softly says. "How have you, well... stayed strong throughout everything together?"
Bruce feels Clark's eyes on him to answer this question, so he clears his throat. These were his friends, his friends who now knew his true identity and that he had a family life. He could answer them truthfully.
"You're right that it hasn't always been easy, especially raising our boys. But we're a team. And remembering that is what keeps us as strong as we were on day one."
"So, when you fight, how does it go down?" Dinah asks from the other end of the table.
"Honestly, we haven't fought all that much," Clark smiles. "Not that we're perfect, obviously, but we handle it the way you're supposed to, I think. Listening, saying sorry, not going to bed angry, all that. I don't think we've had an argument last more than a day, right, honey?"
Bruce hums in agreement, and then pointedly ignores the flush rising to his face at the reactions to him being called something as sweet as "honey."
"Does this mean that we're going to be subjected to you two being all lovey-dovey now?" Oliver teases, before his face pales a bit. "Wait, that wasn't my question. Don't answer that. It was rhetorical."
Clark laughs at that, a joyous, full-body reaction that has everyone in the room sinking into their chairs in reassurance, smiles of their own gracing their faces.
He tended to have that effect on people.
Even Bruce can't help the smile that grows to stretch his cheeks.
"Okay, my actual question is... how do your kids feel about having Batman and Superman as their dads?" he grins, somehow always coming off cocky even while being genuine.
"Well, you'd have to ask them that," Bruce sighs, as though disappointed in Oliver's question.
"Come on, you don't even have an idea?" he exclaims, incredulous.
"You can ask them, is what he means. Our children are vigilantes as well, and you've already met them all. Probably their civilian identities as well. So, it's really up to you," Clark shrugs, wrapping an arm around Bruce, who doesn't even move to shrug him off. If anything, he leans into the touch. Hal and Barry look at each other in disbelief as though they had just started fucking on the conference table.
"So, your kids are okay with their identities being revealed?" J'onn questions, respectful as ever.
"Yes," Superman smiles, squeezing his husband's shoulder before rubbing a hand up and down his arm. "They encouraged it, actually."
"Okay, I'll bite," Hal says after a split second of silence. "Who's who with your kids?"
"Our eldest, Dick, is Nightwing. He works mostly out of Blüdhaven now, if you recall. Jason, our second son, is Red Hood," Bruce answers. "Tim, our third, goes by Red Robin now. Lastly, our youngest, Damian, is the current Robin."
"Still no civilian names in costume," Clark pipes. "This isn't an excuse to start."
"Sir, yes, sir," Hal mock-salutes.
"I think I'm the last," Arthur clears his throat. "My question is... when are we invited to a family dinner at Wayne Manor?"
They're both quiet for a moment, looking into each other's eyes in a silent conversation.
"How does next Sunday work?" Bruce cocks his head in question, the same way they've seen him do so for thirty years, but the first time they're witnessing the mannerism without a cowl covering his face. It's almost surreal. Arthur mutters something about 'joking around.'
"Okay, that was scary," Barry chuckles airily. "Are we subject to those lovey-dovey wordless conversations now, too?"
"Get used to it, Allen," Clark mocks, kissing Bruce's temple to punctuate his statement, and the room erupts once again.
Despite the chaos, no one misses the way Batman smiles.