I'll Defend You | BruDick

5

“What the fuck was that?” Clark spat furiously.

Bruce knew that Clark was mad. He could count the number of times he had dropped the F-Bomb on one hand.

He sighed lowly and muttered, “Clark-“

“Because it looked to me, Bruce,” Clark spat his name like it was poisonous, “that you have a romantic and sexual relationship with your child!”

Bruce gritted his teeth and growled, “I don’t need to explain myself to you.”

“You fucking better unless you want me to call the police on you for molesting a child!” Clark shouted.

“There’s no need to yell,” Bruce spat, heart pounding furiously.

He was glad that Dick had chosen to leave. He didn’t want him to have to deal with this. He would take it personally. He would get offended on Bruce’s behalf and that wasn’t what would help the situation.

“Jesus, Bruce,” Clark croaked, pressing his palms into his eyes and shaking his head, “please tell me that it’s not… That you’re not…”

Bruce looked away from him for a long moment before meeting his eyes again and saying lowly, “He approached me-”

“Oh, my god.”

“-I’ve never done anything that he didn’t want.”

“He’s a child!” Clark hissed.

“If he’s old enough to risk his life-“

“You’re the only one that decided he was!”

Clark usually did a very good job of keeping his head. He didn’t have much of a temper. He liked to think he was pretty easy-going. He had to be to put up with Bruce’s grouchiness. But this? This was enough to set his blood boiling.

“Clark, you know me-“ Bruce started to say, but was cut off before he could finish.

“I thought I did! But now? I’m not so sure. I mean, Jesus, Bruce!”

Bruce closed his eyes for a long moment and then asked, “will you give me a chance to explain?”

Clark clenched his jaw, crossing his arms, and said lowly, “I thought you said you didn’t owe me an explanation.”

Bruce gritted his teeth together and hissed, “I am not a child molester.”

Clark opened his mouth to respond, but Bruce raised his voice before he had the chance, “Goddammit, Kal, just listen to me for two fucking seconds!”

Clark stayed silent so Bruce continued, swallowing hard, “I have never. Ever. Done something that he didn’t want. He approached me. And I know that’s no excuse for this, trust me, I know. I’m the adult here. I’m the one that’s supposed to tell him no. But I…”

Bruce shook his head weakly, pinching the bridge of his nose, “But you try telling that boy no, Clark. You tell me how I tell him no. You tell me how! After… After he lost… everything.”

Clark had never seen Bruce cry. Ever. There had been horrible missions. Devastating missions where the number of those they had lost was catastrophic. And he had never cried. But now? He was weeping.

“He’s so good. He’s so good, Kal. He deserves…” Bruce trailed off shaking his head and blinking hard. He hadn’t been prepared for this. He had a difficult time explaining his feelings for Dick to Dick, let alone to fucking Superman who had just accused him of child molestation.

“He deserves the fucking world,” Bruce whispered, voice breaking, “and I know how this looks. I do, alright? I’m the man that has contingencies for everything. For every possible situation! And that boy out there?”

Bruce gave a small rueful smile, “I didn’t have a plan for him.”

Clark was still silent and Bruce was going to use that silence to his advantage. He would have liked just a moment to unscramble his thoughts, but he didn’t want to throw this away if it was the only chance he had to save the best thing in his life.

“I never thought that he would…” Bruce stopped himself before he could continue, clenching his jaw and then starting again on a different thought, “Dick is the best thing that has ever happened to me. He… He is light and he is sunshine, and he is everything to me. He is everything, Kal. And I don’t deserve him. Jesus, of course I don’t! He deserves so much more than me. But I make him happy. I love him and I care for him and I make him happy.”

Bruce stared at Clark, and Clark couldn’t remember ever seeing Bruce look this desperate or this close to breaking down.

“If you don’t believe me, then ask him. Ask him whatever you want and he’ll tell you the truth. He hasn’t learned how to hide his lies yet so you’ll hear the fluctuations in his heartbeat. So if you don’t believe me, then ask him. He isn’t a helpless child. He is strong and independent and perfect. And he deserves far better than me.”

Bruce looked away from Clark then, clenching his jaw and glaring at the wall to the left. Clark took the opportunity to study him, to really look at him.

He knew that Bruce had learned how to master and control his body functions years ago. He knew that he could lie with the best of them and get away with it almost one hundred percent of the time. But seeing this reaction from him? This raw emotion? That wasn’t something Bruce could manufacture.

Clark knew Bruce well enough to know that he didn’t do emotions and talking about his feelings. And seeing his hands shake, seeing his eyes get wet and hearing his voice tremble and break? That was raw and unfiltered Bruce. Clark knew in that moment that everything Bruce had told him had been the truth.

He swallowed hard, trying to wrap his head around all of the things that had come to light in the last ten minutes, and when he felt the anger simmering down, Clark found his voice.

“I’m sorry for calling you a child molester.”

Bruce froze and then turned his head towards him, blinking in surprise.

That’s what the boy scout decided to talk about?

“It was a reasonable accusation,” Bruce admitted lowly after a long moment of silence.

Clark rubbed at his face, trying to figure out where he wanted to start, and Bruce said, “I know you have questions. So ask them.”

Clark dropped his hands and searched Bruce’s eyes, asking, “how long?”

“He began hinting at it when he was 15, but nothing happened until he was 16.”

Clark swallowed audibly and managed to say, “so it’s been…”

“It will be a year in February.”

Bruce was met with a single nod and more silence. He was sure that Clark had a hundred more questions, but before he had the chance to ask any more of them, there was a timid knock and then Dick was peeking his head in.

“Uhmm… Bruce?”