Neverland
A pair of deep blue eyes, staring them like he is staring into ten thousand foot down the ocean or cosmos, feeling something silent and large and unable be fathomed speak direct to his soul.
Like all other dreams he has, Clark couldn’t remember how nor why he gets here, except staring into that pair of blue eyes. He also doesn’t remember why he is staring at the other man across the room and through the ocean of people, and how long. The only matter he knows is that he is looking at none other than Bruce Wayne.
The matter of fact starts to bring more to Clark. He has met Wayne a good handful of times in public as Daily Planet report and certainly browsed his photo a million times.
People like Bruce Wayne is unforgettable, especially when he tends to hit the front page of newspaper every couple of months even in Metropolis, no matter how. Wayne is not only famous because of his money, his company, his fame, his date, but also his beauty.
Clark is painfully aware of Wayne’s beauty right now. That pair of blue eyes, he could certainly drown in them.
However, time seems finally starting to tick after Clark admit his defeat. Other things, lights, noise, surroundings, correspondingly start filling in into the ridiculous large and luxury Rococo style bathroom Clark and Wayne currently share.
Wayne is volunteered for filming a short commercial for a new cologne product named with some fancy foreign name that Clark never pays attention to. He is the solo actor in this film, and whoever the director is, got some idea of mixing fine-tuned and perfect edited clips with black white filtered behind the scenes together to create some shocking contrast.
It turns out amazingly good, as Clark recalls. Wayne is luring as a siren. Nobody could move their sight from him once they stare into that pair of deep blue eyes. The close-up of Wayne is not helping. Might be that’s the reason why Clark keeps dreaming about the commercial plot with himself inserted as a witness.
But just seeing, is not everything Clark desires.
Clark stands in the background of people, watching Wayne steps into that cold bath. He lays there, with some kind content, innocent, and almost childlike smile. His simple white dress shirt and blue jeans are not preserving enough heat for him. The color slowly drained from his cheek and lips, even though they are as white as sheet to be begin with.
Wayne doesn’t look well, though he is smiling to the camera. Staff dumping big chunk of ice into bath. Wayne does not flinch nor shake. He acts as he was lying on the beach and under the sun, happy and relaxing, which is rather eerie and surreal, but nonetheless beautiful.
Filming goes on.
The floating ice surrounding Wayne like he is drowning in another world Atlantic Ocean. Clark observes that pair of deep blue eyes gradually turning into ghost and pale blue, distancing, and alien. Feels like they are slowly losing him. Wayne’s smile is the only constant in this two-minute commercial, always so carefree, so charming, so pure, like a sweet dream descending from heaven, also like a narcissus blooming too close to Styx.
It’s painstakingly beautiful and breathtaking. It drives Clark crazy to know what’s the shadow hiding under this smile and buried so deep down in that darkness of irises of blue eyes.
When Wayne steps out of the bath, the magic surrounding him breaks (or takes effects, it’s really depending on how people think about it). He becomes a ghost only Clark could see.
Wayne blends into people with an easy of breathing. Everyone sees him but not look at him. He walks away with easy, and Wayne can leave this world so naturally if Clark does not catch him.
So that he does, one of sudden, Clark catches Wayne by wrist when he is passing by.
It’s pure instinct, Clark would say. He is more surprising than Wayne for what he is doing. On the other hand, Wayne is not surprised at all, like he is waiting for this to happen and waiting for a long, long time. It makes Clark feels guilty and pushes him to get close.
That’s the moment the faint bittersweet of burnt sugar and complex cinnamon spice scent with a touch of icy chill hit Clark head on. A more primitive and ancient urge raise up, compelling Clark to smooth the pain, the sadness, the tiredness he is looking at and hugging, kissing, protecting the other until whatever causes this distress all melt away.
Once upon a time, Clark felt the same primitive compulsion, so he is no stranger to his own feelings. The question is why, why he feels this way toward to a mere stranger?
With all his heart, want, and burning desire.
It’s hilarious.
Almost jump out of and falling from the sofa, Clark shocking awakes and pants. He drags his end of palm over his face and tries to calm down, both mentally and physically.
Till he feels his heart not going to jump out of his chest and his member not suffocating straggled in his briefs, Clark slowly rises and turns off the laptop laying on coffee table.
It turns out to be a bad idea to re-watch some clips you already dreamed about more than a couple of times and accidentally falling into sleep on sofa.
Clark could blame this for Cat since she couldn’t stop complaining about so hard to catch Wayne these days like he just vanishes from the earth. She was always in the hearing range of Clark so there is absolutely no way to not eavesdropping.
“You could always interview one of his boys. The oldest one is just back in town or something giving a speech for some fundraiser.”
A photo of the oldest adopted son pulled upon on the phone by an assistant from admin office, showing a young adult with genuine smile, handsome face, and good shape, “isn’t he charming? And he is an Alpha.”
“Oh, Alphas. They get attached and obsessed too easy. Working hazard.” Cat rolled her eyes somehow with grace, while girls snickering, “Beta is better. Brucie baby is much better.”
Cat made it sounds like dumped or getting dumped is another Tuesday for playboy Brucie Wayne. Might it be truth if tabloid is believed. Clark is not so keen to find out. But he may right now.
He really needs to find a solution to stop this wet dream continuing. He is not a teenager anymore and for certain Wayne is not his celebrity crash to begin with.
Clark doesn’t know what he feels about Gotham’s billionaire except he didn’t look as good as he pretended to be in the commercial. Wayne limped a little bit in the behind the scenes though it is only recognizable due to Clark’s superman level scrutiny of examine and extend of knowledge about human injury through the years’ experience as being a superhero.
That’s also may be caused by a reckless extreme sport activity, which is another kind of Tuesday norms for Brucie Wayne. Sometimes he looks like having a death wish when he is so bad injured and ended up labeled as dying in the tabloid and gossip.
Signing, Clark rises and goes take a shower. After that he changes and beamed to Watchtower. If he couldn’t get any sleep tonight, he better gets some work done.
-x-
“You are troubled, Kal.” Diana asks: “What’s bothering you?”
“Hard time sleep.” Clark murmurs, “not a big problem. I’m fine.”
He is, just, fine.
Clark was patching up damaged exterior of lower parts of Watchtower when Diana approached. The fight broke out two months ago on Watchtower dealt a ton of damage to the structure.
Watchtower has not been able to run on full capacity since then. Some League members are still recovering from the disaster of leaking of Batman’s contingency plans. The entire crisis is messy and painful, something even Clark has hard time to think back and talk about. People need their time to heal.
Diana hums an understanding tone, but she won’t let Clark off the hook so soon.
“Okay then, would you like to talk about Batman?”
The heat vision stops for a moment, making an uneven line between the alloy plates Clark welding together.
“Is there another problem rising about repair package shipment today?”
Another reason why Watchtower does not recover as it’s used to be is the limited resources. Might be due to the main supplier is Wayne Enterprises who also was under attack in Arkham break-out couple months ago.
Multiple major Wayne Enterprises factories either run on a lower capacity because the damages they received in that break-out or change their production line to other products to support the rebuild of Gotham. All the non-emergency request of Watchtower are waiting a longer time for fulfillment.
Watchtower is going to collapse or fall from the sky without some proper redecoration walls. It’s simply sad to see all the aftermath of deconstruction and damage left of a crisis. People need a more accommodated workplace to feel better and safer.
Cyborg finding some trackers and unidentified hacking programs installed in the last few shipments definitely not help improve everyone’s mood here. And there is also Lex Luthor publicly announces himself more than willingly to lend a hand on rebuilding and furnishing Watchtower, which, Superman has to step out and politely refused him due to unspoken security issues.
There is still some lingering media questioning about why Justice League refusing Luthor Crop since it’s clear that they can use some help but it’s not something Clark has enough patience to deal with.
Batman is used to in charge of logistics. He strikes whatever deals necessary with the government and anonymous donors, screens, and picks all the vendors and suppliers, makes sure all the required items arriving their designation on time and in tacked. Clark couldn’t help but thinking if things are easier if Batman is here.
For sure that’s not every member thinking nowadays. Undeniable, it’s Batman’s contingency plans got them into this mess in the first place. People do not take it well when they realize their own teammate, the one who is supposed to on their side, not only distrust them but also use their trust to learn everything about them to against them.
Clark is disappointed the first too but later he came to an understanding that there were, and will be, times League is going to need these plans. But the Bats could always warn others ahead of time, if not politely asking permission first.
“If I am going to warn you ahead, how is that plan going to be effective?”
His brain immediately supplies an imaginary answer to Clark with a harsh and unamused voice from his fellow stoic colleague. He grimaces. It makes sense when elements of surprise are something relied on to make things work. That may be part of the reasons why Clark is not as angry as some other get. But there is no stopping someone feel hurt and be wary about the Bats for a while.
“Green Arrow’s volunteered for contacting new suppliers and arranging shipments for now and I have Cyborg monitoring both the new arrived packages and the media. There is nothing needed to worry about repair of Watchtower.” Diana calmly repeats, “I am asking if you would like to talk about Batman.”
A brief pause.
“He has not yet responded to any of our calls, ever since the crisis caused by his corrupted contingency plans.”
Clark drops whatever he is working on and descends to the ground to stand in front of Diana.
“We had a comprised comm during the crisis and he was with me meantime until things calmed down, then he left because another crisis broken out in Gotham. The entire Arkham was blown up and one-third of it forever sunk into the bay. The whole city was on fire, Diana, and he is only one man to handle all that disaster on his own.”
Clark wishes he could help but he had his own brand of troubles the same time as others did. Plus, the situation in Gotham losing control in just one blink of eyes. That city has its own breed of madness and craziness indeed.
“That’s more than two months ago, Kal.” Diana calmly readdresses. “It’s taking him too long.”
“I know.”
“People are asking questions.”
“I understand.”
“You need to do better than understanding.” As a leader. The undertone hints.
Clark signed. “So, what’s happening when I am busy fixing the storage walls?” Judging Diana’s firm expression, Clark adds, “or what’s your suggestion here?”
“A vote.”
Clark blinks. He didn’t see that coming… or, he did, somehow deep down in his guts. It’s understandable with what happened more than a couple of months ago, he is not happy, Diana is not happy, heck, nobody is happy. To make things worse, Batman never showed up after all of these to formally apologize, or, simply explain.
Well, considering he not showing at Watchtower at all this is no surprise.
But if there must be a vote to formalize the consequences of mistrust Batman brought to the team, Clark foresees where his vote will be.
He is not going looking forward to it.
But still.
“It’s not going to work, if I’m going to be honest.” Clark grimaces. “Batman is bonded to help himself in whenever he feels it’s needed even though we ‘vote’ him out. And we are not going to be able to stop him.”
He is a man with a mission, if anything Clark learns holding true about Batman, that’s he is not going to stop until he accomplishes it.
“Even the result of the vote eventually ends in vain, we could still use the closure it brings. A closure to settle the minds and doubts and unites the team once again. Think this not only for him, but for the entire League. For yourself. It’s time to end this unspoken doubt and debate.”
Diana firmly believes in her words and whatever the future they shall bring, but Clark is not so sure. He won’t be able feel any closure nor peace when they are putting on some funny twisted solitary confinement on to Batman, which a fancy way to say, kicking someone out of their little social circle. Are they high schoolers?
Guess that’s why he always gets headache with diplomacy. Men are child.
“Kal.” Clark envies how calm Diana calls his name.
“I know. I know.” Clark signs, again. “At least let’s talk this out with Batman first, okay?”