Hands (SuperBat)

8 Evidence

The next day, Aquaman was the one to send Bruce the message: 'I think I found something of Vandel Savage floating in the waters.'

Bruce left quickly to see what it was. When he arrived at Watchtower, Wonder Woman was there with Aquaman.

Batman knew exactly what it was. It was a chip that held data. He wanted to see what it was. He suggested, "I'll look through this, and see what's on it."

Wonder Woman asked, "Mind if I come along?" She was just as curious as Bruce.

"Go ahead," he said.

Wonder Woman and Batman came to the Batcave to the batcomputer. He began scanning the chip. It was mostly corrupt.

She asked, "What do you think could be up here?"

Bruce said, "Anything. Plans, codes, f-." Just before he could say the word 'footage', a video file was revealed. He didn't think twice before clicking on it.

Five seconds barely went by before he quickly turned it off.

There was a stunned silence.

Wonder Woman had her hand over her mouth as he looked away pained.

Batman gulped before saying, "I guess this was Vandel's fourth part of the plan, of we hadn't captured him."

She asked, "You can destroy it, right?"

"Of course," he replied. He was never going to get those five seconds out of his head, and no one else was going to see it, if he could help it.

They didn't see much of the video, but the few seconds set the tone for the whole video. It seemed to be somewhere in the middle. The beginning must've been corrupted.

Superman's arm was clearly broken behind his back. Blood was in his mouth. He was laying on his stomach. His eyes showed that he was barely conscious, but in distress, grief, and pain. His clothes were already ripped up, but the bottoms of his uniform was down. Behind him was no one other than Vandel Savage, who was messy with the blood of his family. His bloody hand clawed Superman's mouth open as he plowed into him from behind.

Bruce shuddered.

Wonder Woman asked, "Can I see Kal, please? He's alright, right?" She was anxious after what she saw.

"He's... Let me see." Even Bruce was rattled. He wanted to see how Kal was holding up, despite already having seen him earlier.

Bruce left Diana in a room in the manor as he went to Kal's area. He found Kal in his bedroom.

Kal was sitting on his bed staring at the book. This time, he was quicker to notice Bruce standing there. He nodded a hello.

Bruce wasn't sure what to do.

Kal noticed that. He furrowed his eyebrows, concerned. "Something wrong?"

"Diana, wants to see you. Is that okay?"

He thought for a moment before nodding. Maybe talking to Alfred actually softened him up some to have some more interaction.

Bruce left and came back with Diana.

As soon as Diana saw him, she ran over and embraced him in a hug.

Kal flinched a little from feeling her hands on his back.

Aware of his reaction, she pulled away and said, "Sorry. Do you not want to be touched?"

"No..." He struggled, "It's just... Hands."

"Oh... Sorry."

He said, "Nothing to be sorry about. It's good to see you again, Diana."

She said, "Yeah... Me too." She took a deep breath before asking, "How are you holding up?" She obviously wanted to reach out to him, but she restrained herself. She was aware that he didn't know she knew what happened to him. "If there's anything you need, I'll be there, okay?"

He nodded.

She couldn't help but look at him with remorse. She didn't know what to do for him.

Bruce wanted to make sure she didn't give anything away from what just happened. Kal was already fragile enough about the whole thing.

"I'm so happy to see you again," Diana said, again. "Really."

Nervousness and guilt grew on his face. He nodded as he avoided eye contact.

She noticed and said, "I should go. I probably overwhelmed you after so long without contact with people."

He only nodded.

She held her urge to touch at bay. She said, "I hope to see you again in the near future."

He nodded once again.

And then she left with Bruce.

Bruce decided to come back to Kal's bedroom to see how he was doing.

Kal was in bed. His back was to the door as he was curled into a ball.

Bruce walked into the bedroom to the window. He could see that Kal was awake with a melancholy look on his face. He asked, "Are you okay?"

"I don't know."

"Do you need anything?"

"...I don't know."

"Are you okay if I lay in bed with you?"

There was silence as Kal thought about the answer. Then he said, "Heart... I want to listen to your heart, but I don't..." He stopped as he got choked up.

"You don't want our bodies to touch?"

Kal nodded. "I know that we avoided anything intimate for so long because of me-."

"No," Bruce interrupted. "Don't start blaming yourself because of that." He went to the bed. He grabbed the pillow that Kal wasn't using. "None of this is your fault, so don't think of blaming yourself at all." He got on the bed and laid down beside Kal. He placed the pillow between them, but made sure it stopped below the stomach. Then he opened his arms and said, "Come here."

Kal scooted forward until his head reached Bruce's chest. His head rested on Bruce's arm. His body rested against the pillow that separated them.

"How's that?"

"It's okay."

"Good... You know, if you had your abilities, you wouldn't have to make contact with me to hear my heartbeat," Bruce hinted.

There was no response. His arm reached around Bruce's waist. His hand balled up his shirt. "But you're the only one I want to try to hold."

"Oh."

"I mean, I do miss being able to hear your heartbeat when you are gone, but I just can't do it, right now," he said. "Just let me be unimportant, right now."

"Okay," Bruce near whispered. Whether he liked it or not, he would do anything for him, even the most questionable things.

Kal was so important to him.

Bruce almost moved his hand to Kal's back to rub it, but he stopped himself. The last thing he needed was an incident, but he wanted to show how much he cared for him. How much he...

Before he could think of anything, he placed a kiss somewhere in his unruly hair.

Kal's breath hitched in his throat.

Was that the wrong move?

Then a small chuckle was heard. Kal whispered, "I love you too."