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bantha_fodderHibernacula (the Like We Were Yesterday remix), by Pen
Smallville/DCU. Lex Luthor and Bruce Wayne. PG.
This is a remix of Hibernacula, by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
velvetglove.
***
The message from his father is not unexpected. "Lex," his father says on the phone he never answers. "This is unacceptable."
Lionel does not say, This is unlike you, and he does not say, I am disappointed, because Lex knows his father believes none of those things.
Lex packs his own bags and drives his own car away from Princeton, and he takes the long way home.
His father is unamused.
Lex doesn't care.
*
He tracks Bruce down in Prague. It's not difficult: Bruce Wayne is always easy to find, with the press corps that follows him and continuous media reports of his eating habits and his dining companions. It is beneath him, perhaps, but when he leaves a message he does not give away any clues, and when he gets on the plane he forgets to tell his father where he is going.
He forgets.
The hum of the plane would lull him to sleep, he's so tired, but he never sleeps at thirty thousand feet. Bad memories, and he taps away at his keyboard until he's read the same data five times, and not remembered a word of it.
After they land, he holds things up by loitering in the bathroom for five minutes, but it's his fucking plane, so he does it anyway and doesn't care.
Bruce is waiting for him on the tarmac, all lithe and floppy and when Bruce shakes Lex's hand he holds tight for a second. "Let me show you around," says Bruce, but what he really means is, You look like shit. Lex wonders how Bruce survives, being so concerned and all, and thinks this is why Bruce lives in Europe.
Not as tough, he thinks, and says aloud, "I wouldn't mind a rest. It was a long flight."
The hotel is unexpected: people like Lex Luthor and Bruce Wayne don't stay in hotels, but Bruce has never been wholly predictable. Lex's suite is next to Bruce's, and Lex stops, a hand on his door. They make plans for later, and Bruce smiles at him when he says, "I look forward to it."
Lex scans the room for entrance points, and it's not perfect but it's good enough. He secures the room: he's from Metropolis, and he's not stupid.
After that, he sleeps.
When he wakes, Bruce is beside him, sleeping more solidly than Bruce Wayne has the right to. He looks up and the door between their rooms is wide open. He knows he left it locked, and frowns. From his position he can see no equipment, and wonders at Bruce's hidden skills. He makes to move, and Bruce stirs.
"Bruce. What are you doing in here?"
"Napping." Bruce gives him an innocent look. "I've missed you, and I was tired." Lex looks away, and very pointedly does not look at the door Bruce broke through to get to him. "Can I have some of that water?"
Bruce's arm brushes against Lex's throat, and Lex thinks about Bruce breaking and entering. He pushes Bruce away as he stands from the bed. A calculated guess, but Lex stands naked for a minute and feels Bruce's gaze upon his body.
Oh, he thinks, of course, and asks Bruce to hand him his robe.
He yawns, and thinks Bruce's idiosyncrasies are still preferable to his father's rage. He thinks about dinner.
*
Lex picks his clothes with care. His dinner jacket just so, in this colour or that colour and with an artfully placed stain. If he had hair, he'd muss it, he's sure, just to piss off his father. His carelessness is deliberate, and he wonders if Bruce understands it is the more effective way to operate.
"Hurry up. I'm hungry," he says, and makes fun of Bruce's tie. "I'm dying here."
"You're not," Bruce says. "Not really," and Lex needs that, that truth and that lie all wrapped up in a pretty package. It's not something he's used to, though, and it stings.
Lex bares his teeth, and masks it in a smile.
They eat in some out of the way restaurant that Lex has never heard of, and Lex hates this extra sign that Bruce has changed. Bruce never would have dined in hiding when they were friends, he thinks, and wonders when they stopped.
*
His father calls. "Cut your holiday short," his father snaps. "You're needed here."
He takes another three days, and when he tells Bruce, Bruce smiles, but the smile is false.
He smiles back.
END
Smallville/DCU. Lex Luthor and Bruce Wayne. PG.
This is a remix of Hibernacula, by
velvetglove.***
The message from his father is not unexpected. "Lex," his father says on the phone he never answers. "This is unacceptable."
Lionel does not say, This is unlike you, and he does not say, I am disappointed, because Lex knows his father believes none of those things.
Lex packs his own bags and drives his own car away from Princeton, and he takes the long way home.
His father is unamused.
Lex doesn't care.
*
He tracks Bruce down in Prague. It's not difficult: Bruce Wayne is always easy to find, with the press corps that follows him and continuous media reports of his eating habits and his dining companions. It is beneath him, perhaps, but when he leaves a message he does not give away any clues, and when he gets on the plane he forgets to tell his father where he is going.
He forgets.
The hum of the plane would lull him to sleep, he's so tired, but he never sleeps at thirty thousand feet. Bad memories, and he taps away at his keyboard until he's read the same data five times, and not remembered a word of it.
After they land, he holds things up by loitering in the bathroom for five minutes, but it's his fucking plane, so he does it anyway and doesn't care.
Bruce is waiting for him on the tarmac, all lithe and floppy and when Bruce shakes Lex's hand he holds tight for a second. "Let me show you around," says Bruce, but what he really means is, You look like shit. Lex wonders how Bruce survives, being so concerned and all, and thinks this is why Bruce lives in Europe.
Not as tough, he thinks, and says aloud, "I wouldn't mind a rest. It was a long flight."
The hotel is unexpected: people like Lex Luthor and Bruce Wayne don't stay in hotels, but Bruce has never been wholly predictable. Lex's suite is next to Bruce's, and Lex stops, a hand on his door. They make plans for later, and Bruce smiles at him when he says, "I look forward to it."
Lex scans the room for entrance points, and it's not perfect but it's good enough. He secures the room: he's from Metropolis, and he's not stupid.
After that, he sleeps.
When he wakes, Bruce is beside him, sleeping more solidly than Bruce Wayne has the right to. He looks up and the door between their rooms is wide open. He knows he left it locked, and frowns. From his position he can see no equipment, and wonders at Bruce's hidden skills. He makes to move, and Bruce stirs.
"Bruce. What are you doing in here?"
"Napping." Bruce gives him an innocent look. "I've missed you, and I was tired." Lex looks away, and very pointedly does not look at the door Bruce broke through to get to him. "Can I have some of that water?"
Bruce's arm brushes against Lex's throat, and Lex thinks about Bruce breaking and entering. He pushes Bruce away as he stands from the bed. A calculated guess, but Lex stands naked for a minute and feels Bruce's gaze upon his body.
Oh, he thinks, of course, and asks Bruce to hand him his robe.
He yawns, and thinks Bruce's idiosyncrasies are still preferable to his father's rage. He thinks about dinner.
*
Lex picks his clothes with care. His dinner jacket just so, in this colour or that colour and with an artfully placed stain. If he had hair, he'd muss it, he's sure, just to piss off his father. His carelessness is deliberate, and he wonders if Bruce understands it is the more effective way to operate.
"Hurry up. I'm hungry," he says, and makes fun of Bruce's tie. "I'm dying here."
"You're not," Bruce says. "Not really," and Lex needs that, that truth and that lie all wrapped up in a pretty package. It's not something he's used to, though, and it stings.
Lex bares his teeth, and masks it in a smile.
They eat in some out of the way restaurant that Lex has never heard of, and Lex hates this extra sign that Bruce has changed. Bruce never would have dined in hiding when they were friends, he thinks, and wonders when they stopped.
*
His father calls. "Cut your holiday short," his father snaps. "You're needed here."
He takes another three days, and when he tells Bruce, Bruce smiles, but the smile is false.
He smiles back.
END
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-03 04:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-10 05:22 am (UTC)I love this line. It's absolutely delicious.