Chapter Text
Bruce wakes up, the last thing he remembered... oh no... he didn't know if Robin managed to get him to his car.
But since he didn't recognise the ceiling he is looking at now, he assumes that he is in a hospital, unmasked and his identity revealed to the world-
"You're awake," Mercy sighs in relief as she enters the room with clean tools and medicine.
Bruce doesn't look at her, how can he? But he notices that no, he isn't in a hospital but rather a hotel room and his cowl is still on.
"You'd be relief to know that we didn't unmask you but I have no idea if you have any head injuries so... I've gotten some tools and medicine for you... if you want to do it yourself..."
Bruce is shocked, he half expected Luthor to take advantage of his moment of weakness.
"How did he get me here?" He asks as he takes the bottle of pills and reads the label on it, studying it if he can tell if it has been tampered or anything just by looking at the bottle.
"His suit."
Bruce raises his eyebrows. He thought they had taken every single valuable from him.
"He has a back up in his molars."
"Right..." Batman sighs as he takes two pills even though he doesn't really need it, it's good stuff. He notice that the suit had been dismantled which is concerning given it's booby trapped which meant that either are too skilled or they sacrificed someone to open it.
Mercy leaves him some privacy as he didn't check his head but put on his suit. He can do a scan later but right now he needed to leave but he doesn't want to sneak out even if he should. He wanted to know the guy that gave Superman so much trouble.
He is like a magnet, attracting Bruce in a way he hadn't thought was possible. I mean, he is everything Bruce wants in a partner, smart, pretty and clashes with him often but not often enough that they can't be on the same side. Sure he can get close to him just to get into Superman's good graces.
What is it that Tim said he had? The 'I can fix him' mentality?
Batman shakes his head before opening the door. As if not expecting him to walk out the front door, Mercy's head snap up at him as she pauses in fanning the warden awake before resuming. That is until Batman woke him up with smelling salts.
"Wuh Batman!"
Mercy raises an eyebrow before tossing the fan towards the warden.
"Sober up man," Mercy snorts before joining Lex in the kitchen who had glanced back when he heard 'Batman' but turns back to the stove just so their breakfast doesn't get burnt.
Mercy says something that might be along the lines of 'he seems like he wants to talk.' As Lex hands the spoon over to her and wipe his hands before walking out and into the living room.
Lex glares at the Warden and snaps his fingers.
"It's rude to stare."
"It's alright, I was just leaving, I was advised against being a messenger owl but," Batman takes out an unsoaked piece of letter.
Lex's eyes seem to light up in surprise before accepting the letter.
"Thank you, glad to know at least one hero is reasonable," Lex smiles.
Batman doesn't bother to correct him and excuses himself to use their balcony to leap out of. While the warden is struggling not to get a heart attack, Lex opens the letter with a swift hand.
He reads it once amd grins. Lex would say it's too easy if it didn't take him this long. He is rightfully suspicious, come the time for him to meet Wayne, it's pouring. For a city that is known for it's brooding and rainy nights, only does it rain the night Lex needed to be at Wayne Manor.
Mercy won't complain because she is used to it but Luthor will.
"Mr Luthor, do come in," Alfred greets him as he takes the umbrella from Mercy.
"Please, call me Lex, Mr Luthor was my father," Lex replies out of habit.
"Yes sir, Right this way," Alfred smiles not betraying the disapproval of Lex using manipulation to get Alfred to call him 'sir'. Lex has no idea what he is thinking about rather he is doing the most to make sure he doesn't wet the floors. Despite having a huge manor, it is all maintained by one person. That in itself is already very impressive, Lex could hardly find the time to clean his penthouse not wanting to waste his money on doing something he can easily do himself.
"Lex!"
Meanwhile Mr Wayne seems a complete opposite of his butler, he is wearing a bathrobe, underneath it leaves very little to the imagination but it seems like he didn't expect his bodyguard to be a woman but his surprise is quickly covered by flirty grins but Mercy is immune to those advances.
"Tea sir?" Alfred asks as Bruce gestures for him to sit onto the couch beside him.
"Sure," Lex smiles as he waves for Mercy to stand outside. To her credit, she didn't show any change in expression on her face at all even though she would rather stand with Lex on pins rather than leave him alone in a room with Bruce Wayne without her having visual on him but she listens anyway and closes the door behind her.
"So I heard you're interested in meeting me, though I must say I am flattered, didn't think lil' ol' me would interest the CEO of Luthorcorp," Bruce grins.
"Mm, back then I thought you could appreciate the work us tech gurus do," Lex muses. "But I guess you'd be more interested in recommending me places to go to, I heard you just came back from the himalayas?"
"Yes, had a few nasty cuts," Bruce grins. "Still hurts, but I'm always the daredevil."
"Uh huh," Lex muses as he glances at his stomach.
"Want to see?" Bruce purrs.
"If I said yes, would you really let me see?" Lex asks, in a low voice. Bruce seems to contemplate it, but why would he need to? Well, Lex could take a wild guess but Lex is surprised when he parts open his robes, slowly. He can see that he isn't wearing anything underneath, not even his underwear.
Lex however doesn't look away.
"I'm impressed, I thought you only take girlfriends," Bruce hums.
"Maybe I just haven't found the right guy yet," Lex mutters as he focused on the scars. His body is fit, better than Lex's, there are a few old scars but most of it is smooth skin. He focused on the recent ones, trailing it, it's clear that work has been done for it to heal as best as possible.
"Can I?" Bruce asks, hand hesitantly hovering above Lex's cheek as their faces are too close to each other.
Lex swallows and nods wordlessly.
"I need your word... Lex..."
Lex shivers, to think that Bruce Wayne can be such a gentleman. It could be a ploy, he is more experienced than Lex after all. With his girlfriends, it's all for decoration. It's hard to have any feelings when all the girls he had dated all did it for the prestige and money. He hardly needs to be gentlemanly when they fall just fall naturally onto his lap.
He isn't really sure about going through with this however, Bruce has a stable set of income and unlike Lex doesn't use it on killing Superman which costs a lot of money to do, Lex is pretty sure he wouldn't even notice should he take his money but he also goes on dangerous trips and there might be a day where he wouldn't come back.
Why was he seriously contemplating this? He is just using him to get what he wants... isn't he?
Bruce seems to sense his hesitance and pulls away.
"Maybe after I give you a tour?" Bruce asks.
Lex grabs his hand before he could leave. But nothing seem to leave his mouth.
"No rush, I'll be here all day," Bruce smiles and Lex somehow doesn't believe him. Bruce let's him follow him, all the way to his room but Lex doesn't go in, Bruce goes to grab some clothes.
Mercy seems to notice that something is off about Lex but wisely doesn't say anything.
Bruce graciously gave them a tour around the mansion. It's definitely too much for one person to do the cleaning everywhere. He even has a collection room and everything.
Lex notices however something that is slightly out of place.
Bruce seems to take notice and stops right in front of a grandfather clock.
Lex takes note of the bottom with a twitch of a smile.
"Somehow I am not surprised to see this here I often see these in movies after all... but you only have one?" Lex asks.
"Yes... it belonged to my parents so I never really touched it," Bruce replies, body not betraying anything.
"That's nice... you must miss them a lot..." Lex replies, sadly.
"Not really... with what I learned about my father... I'm honestly glad that I'm able to use the money he gained from hurting people for good," Bruce explains but his tone doesn't really convince Lex, as if he is telling only half truths.
"Anyway, let's go to the pool, I think you'd find it even more interesting."
Since it was late after the tour, Bruce invites them to stay for the night which is a good thing. Yet Lex feels a little anxious for not making his advance onto Bruce earlier that evening. It was stupid and a moment of weakness. It wasn't like he had any attachments to the girlfriends he had, why was he so against kissing for favours with Wayne?
No matter, he waits for Mercy to give him the all clear and checking the tracker he had placed at Bruce's door to be stepped on. Of course he'd wear slippers indoors, even if Alfred raised him since he was a baby, that doesn't mean he is spared the wrath of a family butler should the floor be dirty with his footprints.
Lex walks out of the room, making sure that there are no cameras or any figure of Alfred around before sneaking down to the main study.
The fireplace is not lit, which means alfred must have retired to bed too. Lex looks at the clock he stopped in front of where his device detected the slightest hint of draft from. It meant that there is a secret passageway behind it.
But the mechanism seems to be physical and not digital if not Lex would have already hacked it. There could be a trap mechanism if he trips the clock the wrong way he could set off an alarm or trap. But Lex is always prepared, so long as he doesn't have anything like a super dog or something... Lex scans the interior of the clock using nano bots and finds the time required to open the entrance.
Inside is a rather small elevator down, made for one grown man he supposed and maybe a kid... he steps into it and it has no buttons, most likely because it leads to only one place.
Lex looks up in awe at the cave that greeted him as soon as the door opens. It's a bit too on the nose isn't it?
He notice that there is one person here however and he hadn't expect that, he checks that yes, Bruce Wayne is still in his room unless he forgo his slippers.
He was going to sneak around the computer to not alarm the person there who seems to be studying some villain's equipment when he hears the unmistakable sound of sniffing.
Lex looks down and is promptly met by a pair of unblinking white eyes and a wagging tail which is probably not happy to see him but actually agitated into... well biting-