Chapter Text
Diana destroyed the last robot attacking her and kicked its corpse so that it could join the rest of its brethren in the pile of destruction. She did a cursory survey of her sector in the labyrinth of warehouses they were in and located the last bit of lost alien tech the Justice League came to retrieve. It was in a box, carefully tucked away in the back with padlocks to keep them secure. Diana broke off the lock and opened the box, nodding when she confirmed its contents to be what they were looking for.
“Wonder Woman to the JL. I have secured the last of the tech. Meet you at the Javelin.”
“Roger.” “Understood.” “Affirmative.” “See you there.”
She hefted up the heavy box and made her way back to the meeting point. Superman, Flash and Green Lantern were all already there, waiting for her as they chatted with one another. When Clark noticed her, he waved in her direction cheerfully.
“Where is Batman?” Diana asked, looking around for the elusive knight as she loaded her box into the Javelin.
“He mentioned something about hacking into the servers,” Clark reported. He tapped his comm, “Batman? Are you ready to leave?”
There was no reply.
Hal smirked. “He’s gotten too into hacking that the world disappeared again?”
Diana chuckled. It had taken a long while but when Batman finally trusted them, they learnt of a trait of his. Whenever he got absorbed into the flow of his work, everything around him would disappear and they would have to shake him in order to get his attention. Hal and Barry had made a game of it once, shouting Batman’s name increasingly louder to see when he would finally notice them. In the end, he only responded once he was finished with his work. To this day, Diana was still unsure whether he was intentionally ignoring them or not.
“I’ll go find him,” Clark announced before he took off.
“I’ll go too,” Barry echoed, disappearing in a streak of red.
Diana tapped her comm. “Don’t bother him if he is still working.”
“Understood,” the two replied back.
Clark arrived at the same time as Barry and they both slowed down to normal speed to approach Batman. In the darkness of the room, a lone computer monitor flashed ‘100% Complete’ and waited to be shut off. The figure they were expecting to be hunched over the computer was nowhere to be found.
Clark tried not to panic even though he could see Barry flapping his hands in concern. He focused his hearing on the room, tuning out Barry and the machinery. There was the sound of breathing in the corner, slow and steady, almost like…
“Batman?”
They walked to the corner and slumped between the wall and the desk was Gotham’s Dark Knight. He had curled up, cape covering his entire body, and even the exposed part of his face was hidden thanks to Batman resting his head on his knees.
“Oh-no-is-he-hurt?” Barry rushed out in concern, words bluring into each other.
Clark surreptitiously sniffed the air. He could smell iron and steel but the tell-tale saltiness he associated with the metallic tinge of fresh blood was missing.
“I think he’s sleeping,” Clark quietly admitted.
He had wondered if Batman ever slept before. Now he had his answer.
“Asleep?!” Barry repeated in alarm and disbelief.
Clark knelt down in front of Batman and reached out to shake him awake.
What happened next is something he’ll never forget for the rest of his days. Batman had sprung to life, going from deadly still to powerfully animated. He grabbed Clark’s outstretched arm and twisted it. Clark still wasn’t entirely sure what happened next because the world spun and the next thing he knew, he was on his stomach, flat on the ground, arms held behind his back and a batarang was being held to his neck.
And then!
And then Batman growled, low and deep in his ear. No words. Just a guttural, animalistic sound that sent shivers down Clark’s spine. He felt like he was being hunted by an apex predator, igniting his fight or flight instincts despite the fact that he was Superman and he was invulnerable to blades!
“Batman!” Barry screeched.
The beast on top of Clark froze and slid off, smooth like water. Clark turned around and sat up just in time to see Batman dusting off imaginary dirt on his cape and smoothing out imaginary wrinkles. The batarang he was holding was nowhere in sight so Clark could only assume Batman hid it away in one of his many, many pockets.
“My apologies, Kal.” Batman offered Clark a hand up and easily pulled Clark to his feet. Clark should not have been as impressed as he was.
“Oh. Um. Apology accepted,” Clark stammered, still unaccustomed to how oddly formal his quiet teammate could be sometimes.
Batman nodded and turned back to the computer, safely ejected his flash drive, and destroyed the data on the servers.
“Wait!” Barry screamed. “You can’t just leave it at that!”
Batman looked at him in silent question.
“You just attacked Supes! And you were sleeping while we were fighting.”
“Hn.”
“Hn?!”
Batman nodded. “It was unprofessional of me. I apologise. I will endeavour not to do it again.”
Wow. Three full sentences. Batman was full of surprises today.
“Why were you napping, Batman? Are you okay?”
Batman stared at Clark, and he felt as though his soul was being put on trial and awaiting judgement.
“I am fine.” Then, after a pause, he added, “I have been going through an adjustment period lately and have not slept in a while. I judged that this waiting period would be a suitable time to make up for my recent lack of sleep.”
‘Not slept in a while.’
Clark was willing to bet that that meant not sleeping for more than a few hours in as many days minimum.
“It’s dangerous to sleep on the field, Batman. If you’re tired, inform one of us and we will help take over your duties.”
“Thank you for your concern but I have been trained to remain alert while asleep as you are now aware, Superman. I also set an alarm to wake me up at a suitable time. I am well aware of the risks and have taken the appropriate measures to counter them.”
“Uh, well, I still hope you get proper rest before you get into any fights, Batman.”
“Hn.”
Batman swept past them and made no further comments.
“Alright. Note to self: Never approach Batman when he’s sleeping,” Barry told himself.