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Clark winces as Conner splashes in the little tub, giving him a look as water drips down from his hair.
“Peanut, come on,” he begs.
Conner giggles, then splashes him again, getting his shirt even wetter.
“... I’m very glad you learned how to sit up by yourself, but I wish I didn’t have to suffer for it,” he mutters as he grabs the cup and fills it with bathwater. Conner giggles again as Clark covers his eyes, then flails his arms as he pours the water over his head, yelling when he pulls his hand away.
“Well, I’m sorry, Conner, but you can’t just have shampoo in your hair forever.”
Conner grumbles, and Clark sighs before grabbing the baby soap.
Quite a bit of splashing and grumbling later, Clark wraps Conner up in a towel.
“There you go. That wasn’t so bad, huh?”
Conner huffs. Clark laughs, then kisses him on the cheek, which does make Conner giggle.
“Okay, diaper, pajamas, then bedtime, yeah?”
Conner gurgles, and Clark kisses him on the cheek again, resisting the urge to blow a raspberry on it- it’ll rile him up too much, make it hard for him to sleep. Instead, he carries him off to his bedroom, and is halfway through zipping up his onesie when his phone rings. He gets it out of his pocket, smiling when he sees Bruce on the caller ID.
“Hey, Bruce-!”
“Jason is gone.”
Clark blinks.
“What?”
“Jason is- I got a call from the night guard, and he’s not in his room, and- and I don’t- I looked on the, the security cameras, and he left, I don’t know where he-!”
“Baby,” Clark interrupts, “baby, take a deep breath for me.”
He hears Bruce inhale on the other hand, then exhale.
“Okay, good. Now, did something happen that might have caused this?”
“I… he was upset, but I don’t- I don’t know why he would…”
“What did you argue about?”
“I told him that… that I was helping to fund the re-opening of the library in the Narrows. He got upset about it and yelled at me, then ran off to his room.”
Clark’s eyes widen, his expression softening as realization dawns on him.
“Alright, look, head down to the cave.”
“Right, I’ll- I’ll get on the suit and we can-!”
“Don’t put it on. Not yet, at least.”
“What? Clark-!”
“Just… trust me, okay?”
“... fine, but you better be here in the next five minutes, or I’m leaving to find him.”
“Got it. I’ll be right there.” Clark hangs up, then sighs, looking over at Conner. “You wanna hang out with Bruce tonight, peanut?”
Conner squeals, and Clark cracks a small smile before putting him down to change into his suit.
Three minutes later, Clark arrives in the cave with Conner in his arms and a backpack with clothes and his glasses under his cape. Bruce is sitting at his computer, eyes trained on the screen.
Clark inhales, then exhales.
“Bruce-!”
“Good, you’re here,” Bruce says, getting up from the desk. “I managed to figure out which way he was going thanks to Wayne Tower’s security cameras, but he seems to know to avoid traffic lights. We’ll need to fan out, check different areas for-!”
“Honey,” Clark interrupts, shifting Conner to one arm. “Honey, slow down.”
Bruce furrows his brow. Conner squeals and reaches for him.
“Clark, we don’t have time for that,” Bruce says, even as he takes Conner out of Clark’s arms. “Jason could be halfway across the city for all we know, and it’s going to be below freezing again tonight.”
“I know, but…”
Clark hesitates, thinning his lips.
“What?”
Clark inhales, then exhales.
“I think you should stay here and let me find and talk to him.”
Bruce stares at him for a long moment.
“... are you insane?” He finally asks. “Clark, he’s my foster child.”
“I know, Bruce, but I don’t-!” Clark bites his lip, thinking over his words carefully. “I don’t think you’re the best person for him to talk to right now.”
“What? What on Earth does that even mean?”
Clark takes another breath.
“Bruce,” he says quietly, “remember when I told you that I’d help you whenever you got a little ‘rich person’ about things?”
Bruce’s eyes widen, his face falling a bit as he realizes.
“... oh.”
Clark sighs, taking his hand.
“Look, you didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just… a lot, you know? It’s a lot for a kid, for anyone who didn’t grow up around it.”
“I know, I just… I thought it would make him happy.”
Clark smiles sadly.
“I know you did.”
He takes a breath.
“Look, you’re his guardian. If you really think it’s best for you to talk to him, then I will absolutely defer to your judgment and just bring him home.” He runs his thumb over the back of Bruce’s hand. “But I really think that it would be good for him to talk to someone who… who’s felt how he feels right now.”
Bruce swallows, then closes his eyes and exhales.
“... okay,” Bruce finally says. “But you need to take your phone and text me as soon as you find him.”
“I will,” Clark promises. He squeezes Bruce’s hand, then lets go. “In the meantime, can you do me a favor?”
Bruce furrows his brow, but nods.
“Can you put Conner down for the night? He needs to get to sleep.”
Bruce blinks, then almost smiles, nodding. Clark reaches over and touches Conner’s cheek gently, then floats up just enough to kiss Bruce on the forehead.
“I’ll be back soon,” he promises before flying out of the cave and into the night. He rises up high above the city, enough that he can see the whole thing, then takes a breath.
To be honest, finding Jason isn’t going to be hard. He memorized Bruce’s heartbeat six months after they met, added Dick’s a couple months after that, then Alfred and Dory sometime after he met them.
He’s had Jason’s heartbeat memorized for two weeks now. Just in case.
So, Clark takes a deep breath, and listens.
Ba-thump. Ba-thump. Ba-thump.
Clark exhales in relief, following the sound of Jason’s heart towards the Narrows. He floats down toward the rooftops, scanning the area for him. He spots a familiar red hood under a heavy brown coat a second later, and Clark watches as he makes his way into an alley.
“Okay,” he hears him murmur, “gotta be a good box around here somewhere.”
Clark swallows the lump in his throat, then flies over, floating down silently so as not to scare him off.
“Jason.”
Jason all but jumps out of his skin.
“Shit!” He yells, scrambling to his feet and pulling something out of his pocket. “S-Stay back, or I’ll-!”
He blinks, then sags a bit.
“Oh. It’s you.”
“Language,” Clark says.
Jason rolls his eyes as he slips the knife back in his pocket.
“Whatever, man.”
Clark bites back a sigh.
“Where did you get a pocket knife?”
“Why would I tell you?”
Clark gives him a look.
“... Alfred’s room,” he mutters.
“Jason,” Clark chastises lightly. “You can’t steal things from Alfred. Or- or anyone, but you especially shouldn’t steal from Alfred.”
Jason scoffs.
“Like it matters. I’m never going back there, anyway.”
Clark sighs.
“Jason-!”
“You can’t make me,” Jason says defensively. “I’ll scream if you try, and then people will think Superman is some kind of weirdo!”
Clark winces, then takes a step forward.
“Well, I’d prefer to avoid that,” Clark says, kneeling down, “so could we maybe just talk instead?”
“Why would I talk to you?”
“Because I think I understand what you’re going through.”
Jason huffs.
“You don’t.”
“No? So you didn’t just really understand how rich and powerful Bruce is and got freaked out about it?”
Jason blinks, mouth falling open a bit. Clark smiles wryly.
“Yeah, I get that better than you think.” Clark takes a breath, then takes off his backpack. “Look, how about this- I’ll get changed, and then I’ll take you to a diner a few streets over and buy you something to eat. I’d be happy to listen to anything you have to say while we’re there.”
Jason hesitates, then, slowly, nods, putting Alfred’s pocket knife away.
“Okay. Wait for me at the entrance to the alley, alright?”
“... you know I could just run away, right?”
Clark shrugs, standing up.
“Yeah. But if you do, I’ll just find you again. Besides, it’ll only take me a second- you won’t get very far.”
Jason grimaces, then sighs.
“Fine, I won’t run. But you have to buy me whatever I want, got it?”
“So long as it’s not a whole pie or something, yeah,” Clark agrees before signalling for Jason to go. He does, and Clark uses his superspeed to change into regular clothes before getting his phone out.
Sent/ 08:09 PM
Found him. Taking him to dinner so we can talk.
Less than a minute later, his phone buzzes.
Bruce/ 08:10 PM
Thank you.
Sent/ 08:10 PM
Of course. We’ll be back soon.
Clark puts his phone away, then walks to the entrance of the alley, where Jason is waiting with his hands stuffed in his pockets.
He smiles at him.
Jason doesn’t smile back.
Clark resists the urge to sigh, jerking his head toward the sidewalk.
“C’mon, let’s go find somewhere to eat.”
Ten minutes later, Clark and Jason walk into a diner that Clark is… pretty sure won’t give Jason food poisoning. It looks clean, at least. They sit down at a booth on the windowed side, and a waiter comes by with menus a few minutes after.
“Get you anything to drink while you order?” He asks.
“Oh, just water for me,” Clark says.
“Can I get the cookies n’ cream milkshake?” Jason asks, peering up at Clark over the menu. “With extra whipped cream?”
Clark figures he’s testing him. He says nothing- he did promise anything short of a whole pie.
(Though Bruce might not be thrilled.)
“Sure thing,” the waiter says. “Be back with that in a bit.”
He walks away, and Clark turns to his menu.
“So, anything look good to you?” He asks.
“I’unno,” Jason mumbles. He’s mostly hidden behind his menu now.
“Well, whatever you decide, I’m sure it’ll be good.”
Jason hums noncommittally.
Silence falls between them. They don’t speak at all for a while, Clark not wanting to push Jason too much.
Eventually, after about ten minutes, the waiter comes by with Clark’s water and Jason’s milkshake.
“You folks ready to order?” He asks.
“Just some fries for me, thanks,” Clark says.
“Can I have the kid’s cheeseburger? With bacon on it?” Jason asks, staring at Clark over his menu again.
Clark just smiles at him. At least there’s vegetables on this one.
“Sure thing. Fries with that?”
“Yes please.”
The waiter nods, then walks away with the menus.
“... you really meant it,” Jason murmurs.
“I said I would buy you whatever you wanted outside of a whole pie. I keep my word, Jason.”
Jason makes a face, then looks away.
Clark sighs.
“Look, if you really don’t want to talk about it, then that’s fair. But I really think it would help.”
Jason shifts around in his seat.
“You’re not… gonna be mad?”
“No, I won’t be. And for the record, I don’t think Bruce would be either.”
Jason swallows, then takes a deep breath.
“I didn’t,” he starts, stops, then starts again, “It’s like you said. I didn’t get it. How rich Bruce really is. Like, I know I’ve been living in his big fancy house on his big fancy building with his butler and his housekeeper and all that stuff, but I- I didn’t get it til now, til Bruce told me he donated a whole bunch of money and now the library around here is gonna reopen.”
Jason looks down at the table.
“He said it like- like it wasn’t hard. Like that much money didn’t even mean anything to him and- and it doesn’t, cause he’s got so much of it, and I just…” He shifts. “I dunno, I just- it freaked me out, y’know?”
“I do know,” Clark says. “Like I said, I’ve been where you are.”
“Yeah, what does that mean?” Jason asks.
“Well, my parents operate a farm in rural Kansas. It’s a small operation, and until about five years ago they handled the whole thing themselves, with me helping out during planting season. Running a farm like that is expensive, though- paying for seeds, water, equipment upkeep, it all adds up.” Clark sighs. “And… things were hard, sometimes. Sometimes a harvest was bad, sometimes things broke down, and there wasn’t enough money to pay for it all.”
Jason is quiet for a minute, sipping on his milkshake.
“Did you- did your parents-?”
He cuts himself off, looking down.
“Did my parents what?” Clark prompts.
Jason bites his lip, then takes another breath.
“Did you ever see your parents eat less so that you could eat a normal amount?”
Clark feels his expression soften.
“Yeah,” he says. “A few times. Both of them acted like they were going on diets, but… I knew. It was mostly when I was a teenager. Nowadays it doesn’t, uh, matter that much, but back then I could polish off two whole large pizzas if somebody let me, and still have room for more.”
Jason boggles at that, and Clark laughs.
“Yeah, puberty wasn’t a fun time.” He goes quiet. “It was… hard. I tried to help out, got a job as soon as I could, but my parents wouldn’t take the money I made. Told me to spend it on myself, or put it towards college.”
He shrugs.
“I kept trying though. Put money aside, hoping they’d finally accept it one day.” He takes a breath. “And, one day, they did.”
“What made them change their mind?”
“My parents were around forty when I was adopted,” Clark explains. “By the time I started at the Planet, they were getting up in years. They couldn’t keep working the farm by themselves and needed to hire more help. But they couldn’t do that and pay all their bills, so they finally let me help out financially.”
He exhales.
“I was glad they finally started letting me help, but I also know it was a blow to their pride. They had to set that aside to do it.” Clark takes a breath. “Which is why when Bruce offered to pay off their mortgage, we had a fight.”
“You did?”
“Yeah, it was… pretty bad. It was the fight that Dick mentioned when,” Clark clears his throat, “when you guys parent-trapped us.”
Jason snickers, and Clark smiles just as the waiter comes around with their food.
“Eat up, okay? We can keep talking in a minute.”
Jason nods, then picks up his burger. He doesn’t scarf it down as quickly as he did when Bruce first took him in, but he’s still a pretty fast eater; still, it’s progress.
“What happened with the fight?” Jason asks once he’s eaten most of it.
“Well… it was a couple months after I found out who, uh,” he does a little gesture to indicate the ears on Batman’s cowl, “he was. I’d been talking about how money was a little tight after my rent went up, and Bruce was confused because my pay should have covered the increase. So I told him about helping with the mortgage, and… well, he actually didn’t say anything right then.”
Clark pushes around a fry.
“But about a week later, I found out about this whole plan he made to completely pay off the mortgage, make it look legal to anyone who cared to check. He was planning on going through with it as soon as possible.” Clark takes a breath. “Bruce… I don’t know if you know this, but before the flood Bruce avoided really doing anything with his money. He paid Alfred and Dory with it, but other than that it just… sat there. I think he feels guilty about that, about not helping more before the worst happened. So now he’s quick to use his money to fix things.”
Clark sighs.
“But… sometimes he’s a little too quick, y’know? He doesn’t always ask, just does without making sure it’s what that person really wants. He assumes he knows best, and in the past it’s been hard to convince him otherwise.” Clark snorts. “Still is, sometimes.”
“Why didn’t you want him to pay off your parents’ mortgage?”
“Well, there’s a lot of complicated financial stuff regarding paying off big loans like that, but the most relevant thing is that my parents wouldn’t have been comfortable with it. To them, it would feel like luck, rather than something they earned. They’d hate it, especially if it was from someone they didn’t even know.” Clark shrugs. “I don’t agree with it, but their pride is important to them. Like I said, they’d already taken a blow, letting me help.”
He exhales.
“And… to be honest, I wouldn’t have been comfortable with it either. It would have felt like a power imbalance, like I owed him something for doing that.” He huffs. “Which of course he felt insulted by. We got into a fight, and we… didn’t talk for about a month after. Not until we had to, and when we did I explained the whole thing a little better. And he may not have agreed with my or my parents’ reasoning, but he agreed to let it go.”
Clark smiles.
“Bruce wants to help, Jason. He’s… not always perfect, but he tries. If you talk to him about this, he’ll listen.”
Jason hums, stirring his milkshake hesitantly.
“Do you think he’d…”
Jason trails off, and Clark frowns.
“Do I what?”
Jason doesn’t answer right away, instead drinking the last of his milkshake.
“I don’t feel like I can do it.”
“Do what?”
“I just… I don’t know if I…” Jason takes a breath. “I don’t know how to do all the fancy rich kid stuff, y’know? Like, if I were to go to one of those big fancy parties, I wouldn’t know what to do. I’d probably look like a total idiot and break something.”
He pushes a fry on his plate around.
“And I don’t wanna be looked at like some- some charity case either. I know there’s a whole ‘Little Orphan Annie’ thing goin’ on here, but I don’t wanna be a spectacle.” He’s quiet for a moment. “And I don’t… I don’t wanna disappoint him, either.”
“Jason, you can’t disappoint him.”
Jason snorts.
“Sure I can.”
“Well, maybe, but not on this. He doesn’t expect you to play ‘rich kid.’ Not if you don’t want to.”
“What about Gotham Academy? He wants me to go there, with all the other rich kids.”
“Because it’ll challenge you academically, not for any societal reasons. You’re very smart, Jason- you read books on Dick’s assigned reading list for fun.” Clark smiles. “But, if you really don’t want to go, then talk to him about it. I’m sure he’d let you go to a public school- one of the nicer ones, sure, but a public school.”
Jason doesn’t speak for a long minute.
“... do you think he’ll be mad?”
Clark blinks.
“At you?”
“Yeah. I mean, I ran away.”
Clark smiles softly.
“He wasn’t mad when I saw him- not at you, at least.”
Jason peers up at him.
“Not even cause I called him a self-important jackass?”
Clark winces.
“Well, you should probably apologize for that, but no. He’s worried about you more than anything.” Clark smiles again. “He cares a lot about you, Jason.”
Jason’s ears turn red as he looks down at the counter.
“I think…” Jason takes a breath. “I think I’d like to go home now.”
Clark smiles a little wider, then waves down the waiter to get the check.
Once they’re out of the diner, Jason looks up at Clark.
“What time is it?”
“Uh…” Clark glances down at his watch, “8:57, why?”
“We gotta hurry, then, the bus back gets there at nine.”
Clark blinks.
“Wait, did you take the bus out here?”
“Yeah? How else would I have gotten here? S’not like anyone coulda stopped me.”
“Where did you get the money for it?”
Jason looks away, shifting uncomfortably.
“I… might’ve taken a hundred bucks from Bruce’s wallet.”
“Jason.”
“What, he had like five hundred dollars in there!”
“Wh- okay, I need to talk to him about carrying less cash around, but you can’t steal from people’s wallets!”
“Oh, come on, he’d never miss it!”
“That’s not the point!” Clark pinches the bridge of his nose. “Okay, putting that aside. We’re not taking the bus.”
“What, are we gonna walk all the way there?”
“... Jason, I can fly.”
Jason blinks, then looks a little sheepish.
“Oh yeah.”
Clark chuckles, then kneels down and holds out his arms.
“Alright, hop up.”
Jason stares at him.
“... seriously? I’m eight, not two.”
“Hey, you can either hang on this way or you can try to share space with the backpack.”
Jason grimaces, then sighs, walking over and wrapping his arms around Clark’s neck.
“Alright, here we go. Hold on tight.”
Jason clings to him despite all his protests, and Clark bites back a chuckle before launching himself up into the air. He hears Jason gasp when they’re high above the city, and when he turns his head to look at him he sees him looking down at the city with pure wonder in his eyes.
He smiles.
“Pretty cool, huh?”
Jason flushes, looking away.
“It’s okay, I guess.”
Clark chuckles, then starts flying towards Wayne Tower. He goes much slower than he normally would, even with a passenger- he knows that some people’s first time flying with him can lead to upset stomachs.
Besides, Jason seems to be enjoying the view.
When they’re a little ways away from the tower, Jason tugs on his jacket.
“H-Hey, um…”
“Hm?”
“Can we walk?” Jason murmurs. “Just like… the last few blocks.”
Clark blinks, then nods.
“Okay. Just the last few blocks.”
Clark touches down in an alley, letting Jason down and holding out his arm. Jason looks at it, then up at Clark with his brows furrowed.
“You can hold my hand while we’re walking,” Clark explains.
Jason grimaces.
“No way, man. I’m not a baby.”
“You’re still a kid. I want to make sure you’re safe.”
Jason folds his arms across his chest.
After a moment, Clark sighs.
“Look, how about you just hold onto my sleeve?”
“Do I have to?”
“It’s that or I carry you.”
Jason groans, then begrudgingly grabs onto Clark’s jacket sleeve. Clark smiles, then starts walking with him toward Wayne Tower.
Neither of them speak for a little while. This part of Gotham is relatively quiet at night, with a lower crime rate than the rest of the city and little traffic, so the wind and their footsteps are the only things making much noise.
Then Jason speaks.
“When did you… stop feeling weird about it?” He asks. “About… Bruce, and all the money.”
Clark hesitates, then takes a deep breath.
“Honestly, I haven’t. I don’t think I ever will. But I feel better about it now, because I know that Bruce is trying to understand. He’s learned a lot, gotten a lot better about it.” He huffs. “Though, he can still get too focused on fixing something and not think it all the way through. I guess that’s something we have in common.”
Jason is quiet again.
“I don’t… wanna feel weird about it,” he says, “cause I know what he’s doing for the library is good. I just…”
“I understand,” Clark says when he trails off. “You’re allowed to have complicated feelings about the whole thing. But you can always talk to me about it, yeah?”
Jason doesn’t respond to that, so Clark lets the topic drop. They walk in silence for a little while.
“... m’sorry.”
Clark blinks, glancing down at Jason.
“For what?”
“For being kind of a jerk to you,” Jason replies, not meeting his eyes. “You’re not as bad as I thought you were.”
Clark blinks again, then huffs out a small laugh.
“Well, thanks.” He hesitates. “Why… did you think that?”
Jason goes quiet again.
“We lost our apartment in the flood,” he finally says. “Whole building was condemned. I think it got demolished last year.”
He goes quiet for a minute.
“We lived in a shelter for a while cause of that, and cause Dad lost his job after the factory he worked at had to close. Then Dad… one night, like a month after the flood, I went to bed, and when I woke up Dad was gone. Didn’t see him again til I was seven.” He takes a breath. “Then the shelter workers caught Mom with drops, and they called the cops on her. My parents didn’t have any family, so I had to live in a children’s home for a little while til she got out.”
Jason sniffs.
“Everything was different. I had to change schools, and I didn’t have any of my old stuff, and people were mad, and… it sucked, y’know? It really sucked.” He takes a breath. “And then you caught a plane out of the sky.”
Clark’s heart sinks.
“Jason…”
“Everyone at my new school was so excited about you. They kept acting like- like something, anything was different, but I- the place I’d lived all my life was still gone. My dad was still gone. My mom was still in rehab. I still didn’t have any friends.” His fist tightens in Clark’s jacket sleeve. “And there you were, talking about how you’d grown up on Earth, how much you loved this planet, and all I could think was that you hadn’t done anything to help before. Everything in Gotham was awful, and you didn’t do anything to stop it.”
Clark swallows, then takes a breath.
“I know,” he says quietly. “I know that I spent a lot of time hiding when I could have been helping. That I could have done so much more for the world if I wasn’t… the truth is, Jason, before the flood I was scared.”
“Of what?”
Clark thinks over his words carefully, glancing around to make sure that they’re alone.
“When I was about Dick’s age, my friends and I snuck out into town to watch a movie at the local drive-in theater,” he starts. “It was about aliens- aliens who looked exactly like humans, and were using that fact to invade and take over the world.” He exhales. “They were the bad guys. They- they hurt people, killed them even. I’d just found out that I wasn’t human, and while I was watching the movie all I could think was that if anyone ever found out, they’d look at me like the humans in the movie looked at those aliens.”
He sighs.
“So, I… I stayed hidden. I pretended to be just a normal human, went to college in Metropolis, worked a normal job, all of that. I was honestly terrified of anyone finding out.”
“... what changed?”
Clark smiles.
“Do you remember the picture of Batman holding up a flare and leading people out of Gotham Square Garden after it flooded?”
“Yeah?”
“Well, when I saw that picture I knew that I couldn’t hide any longer. I had to do something to help, and I… well, the first place I thought of was actually Gotham.” He chuckles. “I was… really out of my depth. I didn’t actually know how to help other than cleaning up the damage. Plugged some holes in the seawall, put overturned trucks back upright, cleared rubble, that kind of thing. I’d work during the day, then at night I’d fly over the bay to help with clean-up when people weren’t around.”
He smiles.
“About a week in, I met Bruce for the first time. He was investigating the clean-up, and he found me moving abandoned cars to a nearby parking lot.”
“How’d he take that?”
Clark snorts.
“He wasn’t thrilled. The first thing he ever said to me was to get out of Gotham.” Clark shrugs. “Fortunately, I’m stubborn, so I kept working. Eventually we actually talked. I told him how he’d inspired me to stop hiding, to use my powers to help people, and he told me that I… that I could do so much more than moving people’s cars.”
He exhales.
“So, I finally started digging into how I got here, and the rest is history.”
Jason doesn’t speak for a minute.
“I didn’t know,” he says quietly. “That you did that.”
Clark shrugs again.
“Well, there was a lot going on. I don’t think people were paying much attention to how things were being fixed.” He looks down at him. “But I do understand why you felt the way you did. And I’m sorry that I didn’t help sooner.”
Jason doesn’t look at him, but he does squeeze his sleeve a little.
“... maybe… maybe it wasn’t all your fault,” he admits. “S’a lot to put on one guy, even if he’s Superman.”
Clark chuckles.
“Yeah, well, I can take it.”
They don’t talk much the rest of the way to Wayne Tower. Clark texts Bruce when they’re about half a block away, and he tells him to take Jason up to the main floor of the residence. They walk past the cameras manned by the (very well paid and under NDA) night guard without issue, but when they get to the elevator Jason suddenly stops.
“What’s the matter?” Clark asks.
Jason hesitates, fidgeting and fussing with the strings on his hoodie.
“... is he gonna be mad?” He finally asks.
Clark blinks, then feels his expression soften.
“He might be a little upset,” he admits, “but it’s because he was so worried about you.”
“So he’ll… still want me to be here?”
Clark smiles.
“Absolutely. What happened tonight won’t change that.”
Jason hesitates, then nods, walking toward the elevator with Clark.
The ride up is quiet. Clark sees Jason still fidgeting out of the corner of his eye.
“It’ll be alright,” he promises.
Jason doesn’t reply to that. Clark kind of wants to ruffle his hair reassuringly, but he gets the sense it wouldn’t be appreciated.
Finally, the elevator stops. Jason takes a deep breath, then walks out of the elevator, leaving his backpack by it as he walks to the living room. Clark follows a few steps behind.
Bruce is sitting in the living room, hands clasped as he stares out into space. Clark resists the urge to go comfort him, knowing that he and Jason need to talk.
Jason stops, then takes another breath.
“... hey.”
Bruce startles, looking up with wide eyes. Obvious relief rolls over him, his shoulders sagging.
“Jason, thank god,” he says, getting up and walking over to him. He kneels down in front of him. “Are you hurt at all? Cold? You were out there for hours, if you-!”
Jason suddenly lets out a sob, diving forward and wrapping his arms around Bruce’s neck. Bruce looks stunned, but quickly hugs him back, hushing him softly.
“I-I’m sorry,” Jason manages through tears.
“S’okay,” Bruce assures him. “S’okay, Jason, I’m just glad you’re safe…”
Clark smiles, then turns towards the elevator to go check on Conner.
Better to let them have this moment alone.