#< redoing my fic tag cuz i don't like the other one

[gojocp]

"now playing:.."

cw: fluff, angst(??) in itadori's part featuring: gojo satoru, geto suguru, megumi fushiguro, nanami kento, yuuji itadori

a/n: the way i literally deleted all of the fic and had to redo it. also has anyone read the webtoon 'weak hero' cuz im re-reading it and there are literally ZERO fics abt it. also pls lmk if u find any apocalypse-type jjk or aot fics. lmk how this is!! (i think i turned geto in another version of gojo, i literally cannot write for anyone but him its so sad. also i feel like megumi's made no sense LMAO)

GOJO SATORU: 'always forever' by cults. "you and me.. always, forever!! we could stay.. alone, together!!" ─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"hey, stop! get away suguru!" utahime shouts, running away from the 16 year old. "nope, sorry utahime! no tag-backs!!" he responds, slapping her back and running away.

"fine! screw you!" she shouts, running to haibara and tagging him quickly.

"haibara! get me!" yells suguru, waving his arms. "okay! if you say so!" haibara responds, doing as the upperclassmen says.

"thanks!" he smiles, making a bee-line towards utahime. "stop it! (y/n) help me, please! why aren't you two playing?" she yells.

"we're tired man.." satoru says, resting his head on yours as you lean against his shoulder, eating a popsicle.

"you were sitting there the whole time!" shoko exclaims. "you didn't even do anything." nanami agrees, having yet to be caught.

"if you need some shade you're free to join us." you say. "no thanks, we're actually getting excercise, unlike you guys. so lazy.." suguru responds.

"hey! stop ganging up on us! we'll sit if we want to! get lost!!" satoru shouts.

.・。.・゜✭・.

after 10 minutes of running around some more, the others decide to call it a day and take a seat in the shade of a seperate tree, not wanting to disturb the two of you. and not wanting to deal with satoru complaining.

"hey, this is nice y'know.." satoru starts, "just being alone together, while the others do their own thing. we should do this more often, just the two of us." he continues. "yeah, it's nice." you agree, looking up and placing a kiss on his jaw.

"hey! look at the sunset!" utahime exclaims, directing your attention away from your boyfriend for a moment. "oo, it's so pretty!" you gush.

"yeah," satoru agrees, looking at you. "it is pretty."

0:40 ——|———————— -3:20

GETO SUGURU: 'lovers rock' by tv girl. "and if you're too drunk to drive, and the music is right. she might let you stay, but just for the night" ─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

just like any teenager, suguru believes he can hold alcohol pretty well. he can't.

when shoko sneaks alcohol into the dorms, she convinces the 4 of you to try some. of course, satoru boasts about how well he can tolerate alcohol and challenges suguru to a 'drink off', as he says. after taking a few drinks from his glass, satoru is out cold. shoko decides to put the bottle away and take satoru to his room, leaving you with your drunk boyfriend to take care of.

"please get up, sugu. let me take you back to your room." you say, trying to convince him to get off your lap. "nahh, i'm good." he responds, slurring his words.

"okay fine, stay there then." you say, standing up and leaving him to lay on the floor. "wait-! where are you going? don't leave!" he exclaims, standing up too quickly. you move to catch him, swinging one of his arms over your shoulder to support his weight.

"back to your room, suguru," you respond, "that's where we're going."

"no! i don't wanna." he says stubbornly, wrapping his other arm around you. "wait- stop! we're gonna fall!" you shout. "then we can fall..!" he giggles.

"oh my god, you're so stubborn. i'm taking you to my room." you say, slightly agitated. "ooo, didn't know you were like that." he says, wriggling his eyebrows. 'kill me now.' you think, realizing your mistake, knowing he won't leave you alone about it.

"let's hurry to your room then." he says, leaving a sloppy kiss on your cheek.

you drag him to your room and drop him on the bed and head to the bathroom to do your skincare. when you come back, you find him staring at you, love prominent in his eyes.

"hey, cutie." he flirts with a grin on his lips. "shut up and go to bed." you respond.

"ow, so rude." he says, making himself comfortable under the covers.

"i love you.." he says, giving you a wet kiss on the cheek. "i love you too, go to sleep." you say, facing away from him. he wraps an arm around you and pulls you closer, kissing your nape a few times and snuggling into your neck.

"goodnight.." he mumbles, falling asleep soon after. "goodnight, sugu."

1:20 ————|—————— -3:20

MEGUMI FUSHIGURO: 'see you again' by tyler, the creator. "can i get a kiss? and can you make it last forever..." ─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

it's not often you and your friends get to hang out, often too busy with school work.

"wooo! i love the beach!" yuuji exclaims, chasing nobara as you all make your way to the sand. upon arriving, itadori quickly takes off his shoes and clothes, leaving him in his swimwear and runs into the water.

"guys!! (y/n)!! nobara!! megumi!! come swim!!" he exclaims, waving his arms. "coming!! wait up!" nobara says, running into the water.

after placing the towels and bags on the sand, you and megumi make your way to the water. "ugh! stop splashing me itadori!" nobara yells, splashing water back at itadori.

stepping into the water, megumi holds his hand out for you. "here." he says, offering you his hand. "thank you." you say, smiling at him. "eww! you guys are gross!" nobara says, splashing you with water as itadori joins in, splashing megumi.

"hey!" megumi scolds, throwing a beachball at itadori. "ow! what the hell?" itadori exclaims, as nobara laughs at him. "don't laugh, nobara!!"

"whatever.." she responds, splashing him again and swimming off. "get back here!" says itadori. "never!!" she retorts, getting splashed seconds later.

.・。.・゜✭・.

"oh god.. i'm so tired.." you say, heading back to the dorms. "i need a massage so bad." you continue. "i could give you one when we're back?" megumi offers, the others not being able to hear over their yells and shouts at each other. "i'd like that, thank you!" you beam, giving his hand a gentle squeeze.

after changing your clothes, you lay down and megumi begins massaging the knots out of your back. letting out a sigh of pleasure, you say, "thank you, megumi.." you say, smiling softly. "anytime." he responds fondly.

after a bit of silence, megumi decides to break it. "you know, sometimes i wonder.." if you look both ways when you cross my mind. "yeah?" you urge him to continue. "no, nevermind.." he replies. "you sure?" you ask. "yeah." he says smiling. "okay.." you say, deciding not to push him.

"i'm done.." he says, moving away and tucking you in. "can i get a kiss?" you ask, as he starts to leave. and can you make it last forever? smiling, he walks over and places a soft kiss on your lips. "goodnight.." he says. "goodnight... i love you." you say, smiling up at him. "i love you too." he says, placing another kiss on your cheek and shutting the door behind him.

2:00 ——————|———— -3:20

NANAMI KENTO: 'for the first time' by mac de marco. "it's just like seeing her.. for the first time..again.." ─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

two weeks. it had been two weeks since kento had seen you face-to-face. having to go on a mission out of the country, he wasn't very fond of leaving you alone for a long time. and even though you reassured him over and over, saying "oh, i'll be fine!! don't worry," and "it's only two weeks.. you'll be back in no time." he still worried.

and after two dreadful and godawful (according to him) weeks, he was finally back in japan, handing in his report.

"alright, that's everything. you're free to leave." upon hearing those words, he rushed out and quickly headed home.

"kento?" you asked, when you heard the front door open. "i'm home." he said warmly, with a fond smile etched on his face. 'they're so beautiful, just like when we first met.' running up to him, you wrap your arms around his neck and give him a warm hug, asking "how are you?".

"i'm okay, how have you been?" he asks. "ehh, it's been the same." you respond. squeezes his arms around your waist tighter and places soft kisses on your face.

"what's gotten into you, kento?" you question, laughing softly. "i missed you." he states, placing a final kiss on your forehead. "i missed you too, dear. how about you shower and we can eat? i made your favourite." you say, smiling up at him. "okay.. wait for me, my love." he responds, leaving to go shower.

.・。.・゜✭・.

after eating, you both head to bed and lie down. wrapping your arms around kento, you rest your head on his shoulder and look up at him.

"i missed you kento.." you say sleepily. "i missed you too." he responds. "i love you.." you add, letting sleep engulf you. "i love you too." he whispers, while softly sleeping.

'it's just like seeing her for the first time.. again..'

2:40 ————————|—— -3:20

YUJI ITADORI: "i'll never smile again" by tommy dorsey. 'i'll never smile again...untill i smile at you' ─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

'how did this happen?' he thinks to himself. 'this was supposed to be a grade one curse, where the hell did the special grade come from?'

you and yuuji were paired up to travel to shibuya to excorsise a grade one curse. easy enough, right? WRONG!! like all missions in shibuya, something had to go wrong, and in this case, a special grade appeared. you both tried your best to excorsise it, but all your efforts were futile as you were knocked out, and the curse remained in the city.

it had been two hours since then, another sorceror was sent to excorsise the curse. but yuji didn't care, his partner was unconsious and greatly injured, for heavens sake! you had been impaled in the arm and legs and cursed buds were planted inside you, growing deeper and deeper the more you used cursed energy.

i mean, it was already bad enough that an s grade curse appeared, but know you can't even use cursed techniques? the 15 year old couldn't recall what he had done to deserve this, but that's because he didn't do anything. the world is just cruel.

he couldn't ever imagine smiling or being truly happy in a world without you. you were the love of his life. you were his everything. he couldn't lose you too.

'i'll never smile again, until i smile at you.' he thinks to himself. 'please.. whatever god is up there, please save my partner.. i'm begging you..'

love really is the most twisted curse of all.

3:20 ——————————| -3:20

[ante--meridiem]

I really liked the idea of ship classification ask game based on that post, but honestly I don't know what fandoms you've been into lately, cuz I'm just back on tumblr after a big hiatus xD

So I'll formulate my question like this. What about the quadrant thingy for the four popular ships from the fandom you've been in the longest?

(From my tags here)

Hey!! Thanks for biting! I think the fandom I've been in longest is tma? I don't know exactly which 4 ships are most popular for it so I'll try to do it as "for each category I pick the most popular of the ships that clearly (to me) belong there".

Also some clarification on how I interpret things, based on other people's responses to the post it seems like a lot of people are taking "makes sense" as "proximity to canon" where I was seeing it as either "yeah I can see what personality compatibility these characters would have" or "I could see how the situation they're put in could be made easily shippy even if canon doesn't follow up on that". So "makes sense, doesn't compel me" doesn't mean "canon but boring" here, it means "I see the vision but am not that enticed by it". Meanwhile very many actually canon ships fail to make sense to me.

So with that said

Makes sense, compels me: jonelias (Elias' "shaping Jon for his own ends" thing could easily be developed into fascination/obsession; Jon's hunger for answers and desire to regain some control over his life could easily be developed into hunger for the person who can give him those things)

Makes sense, doesn't compel me: wtgfs aka georgie/melanie (on first impression I did think this came out of left field and didn't make sense but on further reflection I do see where it's coming from? Georgie has an established pattern of being interested in people more prone to boldness/acerbicness/need-to-dig than she is, between Jon and Alex (I think that's the name of the girl from her statement who I thought it was fairly heavily implied she had some level of crush on), and it makes sense for her to be drawn to/admire those traits because she wants to be more like that herself; meanwhile it makes sense for Melanie to go for someone capable of a more grounding/calming presence who continued to respect her when her reputation was damaged. Nothing canon does with them really compels me but hypothetically someone could do something with them that does; I think I read one fic once where I did find their dynamic interesting.)

Doesn't make sense, compels me: gertrudeagnes (they only interacted once and we didn't even get to see it directly, and there's nothing in their personalities that immediately indicates compatibility, but they both have strong personalities that could mix and clash in interesting ways and I'm pretty intrigued by the possibilities)

Doesn't make sense, doesn't compel me: jonmartin (rather than redo one of my many rants about them I'll just say that I can see that the intention with them may have been a similar kind of complementary personalities thing to what made me now concede that Georgie and Melanie do make some amount of sense, except that Georgie and Melanie admire the traits the other has that they lack and would want said traits for themselves, while Jon and Martin mostly show frustration/disdain/disinterest towards each other's complementary traits.)

[sleepsonfutons]

Thank ye for the tag @seiya-starsniper!

current time: 7:16pm

current mood: neutral

current activity: Sewing a channel for a dowel at the bottom of my neighbor's flag to keep the wind from flipping it around on his flagpole

currently thinking about: How long it's taking to rip out these stitches I need to redo cuz the stitch setting I started with turned out to not be what I wanted

current favorite song: don't have a single fav atm, but the whole of this playlist is a mood lately

currently reading: mostly just alllllllllll the fic (these are my current open to read ones in my mobile browser) In Waking Dreams and Integration by @cuubism, More often than not. (ch17) by TrainWreckBeck, The Chandrasekhar Limit by @beauty-of-nyx, and Discover Check, and Incidentally, Mate by @arialerendeair

OH YEAH! Almost forgot my book club book: Ace by Angela Chen

currently watching: nothing atm cuz Netflix did a ridiculous split release on Witcher S3 so I'm waiting for the whole thing to drop for binging purposes 🤙🏻

current favorite character: like the song Q, no single fav atm, but my current spread of favs remains unchanged: Dream (Daniel & Morpheus)*, Hob Gadling*, The Corinthian, Fiddler's Green, Destruction, Geralt of Rivia, and Jaskier

*especially keen on Shaman!Dream/Nightmare!Hob from Soteria by @phinofthestorm, Dream!Randall in the collab WIP we're writing together, and the mer!Dream @beauty-of-nyx is stewing on writing and @aquabluejay has been drawing

current WIPs: Σ(´∀｀；) ummm... there're quite a few... (；´ ³`)ゞ the pile keeps growing, but now that I finished my Hobrinthian, exchange fic Dues Owed (Debts Collected), I'm gonna be circling back to my John Dee Wins bingo fic and see about FINALLY getting that one wrapped up. Others at the top of the pile are the previously mentioned collab fic with @phinofthestorm and then writing more of the story following the angst prompt fic Don't Ask Me To Say Goodbye ft. siren/mer!Dream

Tagging (but legit no pressure): @thranduilland, @mentallyinvernation, @blueberrymffn, @arialerendeair, @landwriter, @phinofthestorm, @spockandthings, and @beauty-of-nyx

[cutiecorner]

After

Fanfic • agere • Batman + Superman • hurt/comfort • Regressor! Bruce Wayne, Caring! Clark Kent & Alfred Pennyworth • AO3

《 Finally posting my regressor Bruce fic! I'd super appreciate it if y'all checked it out on AO3 (probably better to read it there cuz it's long & Tumblr didn't take well to my formatting), but I thought I'd post it here too. Also, big thanks to the folks who helped me edit this, @idioticpaperclip and @batboysstuff !!Thanks for waiting, enjoy! 》

Sometimes, the aftermath of crime was almost worse than the deed itself. It was brutal, but it was part of the job. Regardless, it still made Superman's heart ache when children had to see their family members hauled away in cuffs or, lord forbid, on a gurney. Tonight was one of those nights. It hit Clark hard, but there was someone he knew it hit much harder.

He turned to his partner, who was standing stoic - but not in his usual way. Not strong, numb. Behind the mask he could see his friend stare blankly at the sight below, a storm brewing behind his eyes. He wanted so badly to reach out, but he knew better. Bruce did not like being touched. He'd just have to wait.

Clark sighed and shook his head. He opened his mouth to speak but was cut off.

"Clark?" The voice was quiet, soft. Uncharacteristic of the bat. 

"Ye- yes?" Clark couldn't help but stumble. The air between them grew heavy as he waited for another sound.

"I'd like to go home." Bruce's head was hung low as he turned to Clark, taking resigned steps toward him. It took Clark a second to make the connection.

"Oh, of course. Do you want me to take you?"

A nod. He cautiously reached out for Bruce, who stepped into his arms to be lifted, as he'd done on the way there. The flight to Wayne manor was silent, devastatingly so. He didn't know what to say. He didn't think there was anything to say.

He touched down on the manicured back lawn of the manor, spying Alfred still in his prim suit despite the late hour. Alfred pushed open the grand glass doors and met them outside, extending a hand for Bruce to take while he got down from Clark's grip. Clark had never seen such worry in the old man's eyes, and he wondered how he knew what happened. The whole exchange was alien, just slightly off from the Wayne duo he knew. Bruce's head still hung low as he stepped to Alfred's side, the older man's hands moving up to hold his ward's arm. 

"Thank you, Mr.Kent, We'll be retiring for the night. Have a safe trip home."

Clark's mouth moved before his brain.

"Are you sure you don't need me here? I've -" he slowed himself down as he caught Alfred's confused glance, "I've never seen him like this." 

Clark picked nervously at his costume. He hadn't felt this cocktail of emotions in quite a long time, finding it akin to speaking out of turn to his pa's boss as a child. The seconds of silence dragged, and he wondered if his Kryptonian brain could alter time. 

He noticed an exchange between the two in front of him, if not a verbal one. A look from Alfred to Bruce, then from Bruce to Clark. When Clark caught his eye, he noticed their peculiar glossy look.  Bruce looked back to Alfred, then to the ground once again. A decision had been made.

"You can stay if you wish to, Mr.Kent."

The two turned heel and headed back toward the manor. Once Clark processed the sentence he felt a weird rush of pride before remembering the situation at hand… What even was the situation at hand?

•

Alfred made tea, like he always did. Clark always marveled at the resolve the Brit had for making tea in any situation - he could be meeting Satan himself and he'd still offer tea. The smell was nice though. Clark had really never cared for hot tea, but this brew was rather nice. It had a hint of mint and lemon, which made the smell more hospitable. He expected to take a seat at the long dining table as he had many times before, but he found Bruce at the kitchen bar. It was almost funny. The bar was an unofficial kid's table at super meetings - usually relinquished to the titans or other young sidekicks while the adults hatched plans. Well, it's his house I guess, Clark thought, he can sit wherever he wants.

He pulled up a stool, not too close to him but not so far to seem distant. Clark knew Bruce well by now, and the first thing he learned was his regard for personal space. Not a rule Clark particularly enjoyed, the hugger that he was, but one he would deal with. Bruce had already changed out of his costume, now sporting the same blue pajama set he wore every night. Clark chanced another look at him and his heart sank a little more. It was a night of firsts, apparently, because this was definitely not an expression he'd seen before. Bruce was watching Alfred prepare the tea very closely, worry brimming in his eyes. Why would he be worried? If there was a task he could count on Alfred doing safely, it was making tea. But it wasn't just that, it was mournful. Lonely. Scared. Clark found it completely bizarre - like Bruce was convinced his right hand man would disappear at any moment.

A morbid thought crossed Clark's mind. Considering what had already been taken from Bruce, the worry made a little more sense.

Clark was snapped from his thoughts by the clink of fine china on a silver tray.

"Perhaps we should sit in the drawing room, by the fire. It was quite cold out tonight, hm?"

Alfred laid a hand on Bruce's shoulder, and waited for his small nod before leading the trio to the drawing room.

Like everything in Wayne Manor, the room was large, gothic, and expensive. He pulled at the collar of his suit as he took the host's lead sitting down - this was not the type of furniture you sit on, this was the type of furniture your grandparents put plastic on and told you not to touch.

The only light was the roaring fireplace, which Clark didn't really mind. He always loved fires like this, though he was more accustomed to the camping kind. He could stare into them for hours, basking in their warmth, which was a welcome distraction from the otherwise eerie quiet.

"Clark?" Bruce broke the silence with the first thing he'd said in hours. Even Alfred's tired eyes widened in surprise. Clark fumbled with his cup, narrowly avoiding spilling the piping hot liquid into his lap, but managed to speak up.

"Y-Yeah? What is it, B?

Bruce raised his head to look him in the eye, that same desperate look returned to his features.

"...Would you mind staying the night?"

Clark was glad he didn't need to breathe, because he hadn't in a good thirty seconds. He looked into his friend's eyes, now misty and tired, and felt a knot deep in his stomach.

"Of course, B. Anything you need."

Relief washed over Bruce's face and Clark felt his chest rise again. He could hear a quiet, breathless thank you under Bruce's breath, like he'd just saved him from a burning building.

Alfred collected the now tealess cups back onto the tray, ready to return them to the kitchen. Before he left, he took a knee next to Bruce's chair and gently laid a hand on his leg.

"How about you show Mr.Kent your screening room, Master Bruce. I bet he'd love to see your collection."

Those blue eyes seemed to light up at the thought, a tiny smile creeping onto Bruce's lips.

"That's a great idea. Clark, do you want to see?" 

Bruce looked up at him hopefully, and Clark marked another first on his list. For one, as silly as it sounded, he didn't know Bruce had interests. Five years of knowing each other and this was the first Clark was hearing about any collection. He'd shown Bruce his stamp collection the second time he came to Metropolis, he could've at least mentioned it- Clark pushed aside the thought for later. This was no time to criticize. He mustered his warmest smile.

"Of course, lead the way."

•

Bruce's screening room was stripped back compared to the drawing room, more modern. It held a few rows of black leather reclining seats, and a floor to ceiling screen to project onto. It wasn't purely of the era though, an old fashioned film camera taking the place of the usual projector. By the time Clark was done marveling, Bruce was already lost in the shelves of old film reels, shuffling his way through the boxes. Clark found him on the floor, looking through a box that was significantly more beat up than the others. He took a seat beside him, but before he hit the ground Bruce was already questioning him.

"Pretty cool room, huh? I've collected the films from a lot of private auctions, the one over there is from Taiwan. Do you like the Grey Ghost?"

Clark had to recover from the whiplash of the last 20 minutes. Bruce had graduated from somber silence to three consecutive sentences - a new record outside of league business. Once he'd regained his shred of composure he answered -

"I read the comics, but I don't think they played the show in Kansas. I think I saw some reruns once."

"Oh, neat. I watched all the episodes when they were on, then I met the Grey Ghost - well, I met Simon Trent, he played the Grey Ghost but he wasn't him in real life - until he was, which was really cool - but that's how I got all the reels. Oh, and these are the only ones from Mr.Trent's personal collection. What episodes did you watch?"

Clark considered the possibility he was dreaming. It was like he was talking to a different person. Was this the fabled 'Brucie' persona? He couldn't imagine that was the case, he had a sense for dishonesty and this was the most earnest he'd ever seen Bruce or Batman. In his state of shock he hadn't realized Bruce had continued rambling on.

"- or it could be 'The Jade Railway', which is the one where the Grey Ghost tries to stop a museum heist but ends up getting kidnapped and his assistant has to save him. Those are the only episodes that are open to syndication because an editor had the backups at his house when the studio burned down. Was it that one?"

"Oh um, I don't know, it was a long time ago. Sorry, bud," he rubbed the back of his neck, trying to remember if it was okay to call Bruce 'bud'. 

"That's okay, we can watch the first episode then. It's not very different from the rest of the episodes but this one goes over the Grey Ghost's origins in the first half, usually they summarize it in the introduction." Bruce pushed himself off the ground and sidestepped the still seated Clark, going straight for the projector without so much as a glance.

As if on queue, Alfred stepped through the door, cradling a neatly folded blanket and set of clothes in his arms.

"Before we get that started we should let your friend change out of his suit," Alfred handed the clothing to Clark. "If you're going to stay the night I assume you don't wish to sleep in your cape. There's a bathroom down the hall, we'll be here."

Bruce eagerly took the blanket and wrapped himself up, earning a fond smile from Alfred, who took a seat beside the smiling Bruce. Clark couldn't help but share the expression as he walked off to change.

•

Clark hadn't actually seen the Grey Ghost's origin story. He picked up the comics somewhere in the middle of the run, so he knew the broad strokes but not the detail. Bruce, however, clearly had the whole thing committed to memory. It was surreally endearing the way he quoted every line under his breath, leaned forward in his seat, his expression a mimic of whoever was speaking. Clark learned more of the story from Bruce's expression than the show itself. Once the credits began to roll he was met with Bruce's blue eyes yet again, this time filled with more joy than he'd ever seen them.

"That was pretty neat, huh? Actually, this story is a little different from the comics because in the comics he was going to a movie when he got stood up, but in the show-"

Clark was barely following but he nodded nonetheless. As Bruce rattled off his facts he played with the blanket draped around him, feeling along its seams and frayed edges. Clark watched as his fingers halted in their well-worn track, noticing the sound had stopped as well. He looked up at Bruce and hischest felt hollow.

"I'm sorry, am I boring you?"

Clark had never responded so fast.

"No, no, of course not! It's really interesting that they changed that detail, why did they do it?"

Pride filled Clark's chest again as the glint returned to Bruce's eyes.

"Oh, well the director thought that seeing him watch a movie would break the immersion because…"

•

By the next hour of their marathon, Clark was truly beat. He'd already been exhausted when he stepped foot in the manor, but he didn't have the heart to stop Bruce's fun just yet. He'd never seen him so excited about something, it was a whole new side of him that Clark just adored. He wasn't the only one who was tired though, as Bruce's monologues had slowed down to accommodate his yawns. When the credits rolled on the next episode, Alfred reached over and tucked Bruce further into his blanket.

"I think that's quite enough for tonight. You can show Mr. Kent more in the morning,"

"What?" Bruce rubbed at his eyes and stifled another yawn, "But I'm not tired yet," he lost his battle with his sleepiness and stretched out his whole body in a yawn.

"Well, a certain butler would love to get some sleep tonight," Alfred chuckled and lowered his voice to a whisper, "Besides, it's far past your bedtime, young master." 

Bruce hummed in agreement, "I guess so, Al. Good night, Clark" Rather than stirring from his comfortable spot, Bruce turned over into the recliner, inciting another chuckle from Alfred.

"That will be terrible for your back, my dear boy. Let's get you to bed,"

Bruce mumbled, pulling the blanket back up over his head. Clark got up from his chair and stretched, finding some way he could be of assistance.

"Come on Bruce, I'll getcha' there."

He knelt down on his knees and extended his arms as he'd done many times before, and Bruce fell into the familiar hold. He nodded to Alfred to lead the way, and they journeyed off to Bruce's bedroom.

•

Clark took a moment to admire his handiwork. He had gotten Bruce, who was known to have to be heavily sedated to get a proper amount of sleep, tucked into bed snoring soundly. The credit wasn't entirely his, of course, the main mother-er currently arranging a chair beside the huge bed.

"Don't tell me you're gonna stay here all night? You need some sleep too, Pennyworth."

Alfred let out another tired laugh as he brushed a few stray hairs from his ward's face.

"Just until I know he's sleeping soundly"

Clark took in the sight. He knew how dear the two were to each other, but it was nice to see their familial bond in action. As relentlessly formal as the two were, sometimes even Clark worried things would be left unsaid between the two of them.

"Thank you, for the clothes and everything." Clark was always taught to be gracious to the host.

"Oh, it's you I should be thanking," Alfred sat back in the seat and looked to Bruce again. "It can be so hard, so…lonely, when he gets like this. He truly is lucky to have a friend like you."

Clark tried to contain his pride. He was many things, a son, an alien, a superhero - but by far this was what he held in the highest regard; a friend.