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The Birthday Present	By : Kip Category: DC Verse Comics > Batman Views: 8478 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the Batman series, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

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Bruce's first thought was that Dick had finally got it right, and his second was that this was almost certainly completely illegal. The little part of his brain that wasn’t already in shock had just enough time to wonder what that said about him, and what it said about Dick, before pure emotion drowned out any vestige of sense. Sitting back on his haunches Bruce stared, and stared.
Lying nestled in the sumptuous fleece was a flaxen-haired man, probably not that much older than Dick, but Bruce had never reacted to his ward like this.
Oh god…
Taken aback by the strength of his own response, Bruce automatically dropped the cover back into place with trembling hands. It didn’t matter that the fleece was in the way now: the image of all that gloriously naked flesh would remain engraved in his mind for all time.
And the ribbon…
There had been two bands of it, one looped around the firm neck, and the second placed considerably lower: obviously deliberately located for maximum suggestive effect …
But by whom? Would Dick really do that? Then again, he did bring whoever this is here, and arrange all this …
Lifting the fleece away again, Bruce peeked and rechecked the second strip of ribbon, neatly tied into a small bow. He wasn’t sure if he found it degrading or erotic, but either way he wasn’t going to be able to either ignore or forget it in a hurry. He was partly tempted to remove the binding, but … that would be unconscionable wouldn’t it? Touching the man without being explicitly invited to?
And especially down there. While Bruce had misgivings about leaving anything around the sleeping man's throat, the other ribbon couldn’t really be described as hazardous by any stretch of the imagination, so removing it wasn’t something Bruce could exactly claim that he had needed to do as any sort of safety precaution.

With a heartfelt sigh Bruce carefully checked that his present … guest … or whatever the stranger actually was, wasn’t in any danger of overheating, or choking.
I shall have to have a few sharp words with Dick about his sense of humour… and there are quite a few that would fit this… Even as he was thinking of how he was going to scold his ex-ward, Bruce was also wondering about the circumstances that had led to an unconscious man being left practically stark naked in his house … It was a real mystery …
Unless THAT's my real present? The mystery, not the man? In which case getting all irate and tackling Dick about it is just going to make me look really, really stupid…
That made better sense when Bruce thought about it. Not that his brain was exactly operating at its logical best at that moment. He glanced down at the stranger again…
The room must have been colder when these arrangements had been put in place, but it certainly felt warm enough now … The candles probably.
Too warm … Automatically Bruce undid the top few buttons on his shirt and loosened his tie. The action inevitably left him glancing down at the other man's neck and the shiny band looped artfully around it: a wide strip of ribbon and blood red against the pale skin.
Nice use of contrast…
It would have made a good calendar shot, for anyone who wasn’t worried about being arrested for …
What would the charge be anyway? The blond certainly wasn’t a minor, and for all Bruce knew he might actually have agreed to voluntarily participate in whatever little scenario Dick had suggested.
Hopefully… Or else I'll be the first masked crime-fighter to be arrested for White Slave trading…

Taking a deep breath Bruce readjusted his clothing, particularly his underwear which, instead of being comfortably loose, seemed suddenly to have shrunk several sizes.
That's odd… Bruce finally tore his attention away from the ribbon for long enough to notice something else about his guest… There was something not quite right about the way that the glossy curls were distributed in one area.
What's causing that? Something in his hair? A head-wound perhaps? Intrigued, Bruce gave in to curiosity and lifted the concealing hair aside. Dick wouldn’t have left him here if he needed any sort of medical attention, so let’s see… Nodding to himself in satisfaction, what Bruce found confirmed that his guess had been correct: visible even in the dim lighting, a jagged pearly line ran right along the man's scalp from somewhere behind his ear to just beside his temple.
Not recent though. Reaching forward, Bruce traced the scar with a careful fingertip wondering at it. He'd seen plenty of injuries in his time, but this didn’t seem to fit any of the usual causes. Bending closer, he permitted himself a good long look; after all it wasn’t as if the other man was ever going to know that he'd peeked…
However it happened that scar looks pretty well-healed now, but that must have been a fairly serious injury at the time though… surgical intervention to an existing wound by the look of it. Bruce decided that whoever had re-stitched the wound had been careful, if not particularly talented.
But I've seen worse – have worse … and it's pretty invisible once he sits up, I'd guess? It was a bit of luck that it stopped where it did, a bit further and it would have … Quite by chance his finger stroked along the edge of a cheekbone; with a soft sigh, the blond moved, turning slightly toward Bruce.

He is stunning… Holding his breath, Bruce found himself looking down into a face that was breathtaking in its perfection. For a second or two he struggled, really struggled, to maintain his self-control. Why was it so hard just to look at this stranger, and not do more?
And it is damn hard! That was a concept that Bruce really didn’t want to dwell on at the moment. What was wrong with him? He hadn't been this physically undisciplined for years…
But then again I haven't had this sort of opportunity for … well, not ever, I suppose… Exploring a willing partner, however sleepy, wasn’t in quite the same league as …
Opening a present? The thought slipped out before he really had control of it. The six months of celibacy was starting to wreak havoc on his normally iron self-control.
Dick isn’t the only one who needs a stern talking to... With some reluctance Bruce decided that it would be prudent to put a little more space between himself and the temptation currently laid out before him. The wooden seat was not overly comfortable, but at the present moment that wasn’t important.
What IS important is that I not jump this guy right here and now…

* * * * *

It was just a little after 12-midday according to Bruce’s watch; which he was sure was correct, even though the damn thing seemed to have been running at half-speed for the past thirty minutes or so.
"Hello." Blinking and stretching, the blond woke.
"Hello." Bruce replied, assuming that the other man would probably be feeling as awkward as he currently did. Then again, I'm not the one lying stark naked on someone else's floor… The flash of red reminded him.
Okay ... nearly naked then!
"Dick said you wouldn’t be mad." The stranger looked up at Bruce. "He was right, wasn’t he? He said that you'd know it was a joke…"
"Oh yes, he was right." Bruce sighed. "Dick knows me pretty well by now. I am intrigued though…"
"He said that I was to tell you that I need your help." The other man continued.
"I can see that."
"You can?" The blonde fidgeted slightly, raising a hand to the ribbon around his neck and running a fingertip under it. He swallowed hard.
"You look like you're about to choke any second." Bruce suggested. "If you're uncomfortable, I could take that thing off you… since it’s served its purpose."
Light blue-gray eyes blinked at him. "Okay."

Reaching out a very faintly trembling finger, Bruce stroked the tip along smooth warm skin. It was every bit as good as he had supposed it might be, and he was very careful to cover his reaction. The very lightest pressure from Bruce's hand and the younger man tilted his head, exposing a long curve of neck. The movement stretched the ribbon more strongly over the smooth skin. The blond swallowed nervously, flushing.
"Easy." Bruce shifted in closer and carefully teased at the loose ends. "We don’t want that getting any tighter or the knot will have to be cut, and I don’t have any scissors handy." He watched the effect that the advice had on his 'present'. As he closed the gap between them the younger man flushed darker, slicking pale lips with a hint of pink tongue.
Get a grip on yourself! Bruce reminded himself angrily. It's because that damn thing's practically choking him! How could Dick have been so stupid? I suppose he thought it was funny, but didn’t he learn anything about not using ligatures on people? His patient efforts were soon rewarded, as the last part of the knot slid undone and the length of ribbon dropped free.
"Better?" He asked.
"I guess…" The guileless eyes roved over him. "Ah, I need to …"
"Yes, I expect you do." Bruce recalled only too well what it felt like to wake up from anaesthetic. "But I think you ought to have a little help getting there. This floor isn't all that comfortable to land on." He smiled slightly and reached toward his guest. "I should know, I've spent enough time with Dick throwing me onto it."
"You have?" The blond looked slightly surprised.

"Judo, Tae-Kwondo, Aikido, this is, was, our training room. When Dick was growing up here," Bruce explained.
"Ah." The other man sat up and reached for the offered hand, wincing slightly as he moved.
"You're hurt? Where? And how badly?" Just what had happened to the other man before he had been brought here? And what part did Dick have in all of this?
"Uh…" A scarlet flush spread over the tanned face. "Here…" Lifting the back of his hair, the blond showed Bruce a very neat surgical dressing just below his hairline. "They had to put me out completely to do it." He shuddered. "It's really embarrassing to have to admit it, but I don’t react well to people standing behind me and touching me… Not even Doctors."
Bruce duly logged that piece of information for future enquiries, and because he was plain damn nosy. "What did they have to do?" He wondered.
"Take out some metal fragments." His unexpected guest replied.
"Very close to the spine." Bruce could immediately understand why surgical removal had been recommended. "How did you get metal fragments back there?"
"I think it happened when I was hit. Someone's been trying to abduct me." The blond admitted softly.
Gesturing for the other man to continue speaking, Bruce listened with growing interest.
"The first time was a few weeks ago,” The blond told him. “Which is when Dick and I first met ... Dick came back a few times while he was investigating the case, and we got talking - about things…"
"First met?" Yes, that was typical Dick: always a sucker for lame ducks. And especially partial to blond's … Not that I can fault his taste this time…
"Dick rang a few days ago to say that he was still chasing the men that Julius thought were responsible, but that he hadn't gotten any real leads. Then yesterday morning someone tried again while Julius and I were at the Marina. It … went badly. When the police arrived at the scene they started to examine the bodies, it was only then that anyone realised that I was still alive."
"Julius?" Bruce waited for an explanation.
The blond nodded. "Julius Wociek. He's …" The younger man corrected himself grimly. "He was my … mentor."
Is that what they call it these days? "Julius Wociek, the antiques collector?" Bruce checked. "Retired business man? Mid-seventies? House outside Bludhaven?" Which explained how his former-Robin had come to be acquainted with this man, didn’t it?

"Yes." The blond nodded. "Julius collected a lot of things, including antiques."
And some not-so-antiques … could this be the reason that Julius dropped off the social radar? The man never did like to share his toys… Well, so now the old crook's dead, eh…
"So you're a murder witness?" Which went at least part-way to explaining why Dick-the-cop was so keen to have this man safely away from Bludhaven…
"Some witness … I didn’t see anything…"
"You might still be surprised by what you could be able to tell us." Bruce told him.
"Or I might not." The blond sighed heavily. "I don’t think I was much help to Dick."
"Don’t worry about it right now." Bruce soothed, "Just tell me what you do know … about what happened then, after the police found you?"
"Someone from the precinct had already phoned Dick and told him to go to the hospital with me. I don’t know who it was, but I'm grateful they did. I was glad to see him, under the circumstances I really couldn’t think of anyone else I could trust." Came the slightly unexpected reply.
"You said 'bodies'?" Bruce remembered. What the hell had this guy been through? Or what Hell…
"Yes, five strangers and Julius." His guest told him quietly. "Dick said that so far no one knows how they died, but that he would tell me as soon as he found out."
"Six men just died, and the police don’t know how?" Bruce looked at his guest. Even by Bludhaven standards that has to count as a little unusual?

"The doctor said that Julius drowned..." The blond blinked back tears. "M'sorry... I'm not usually like this." He mumbled. "I still can't quite believe that he's … gone."
"Don’t be embarrassed; you were obviously close, it's natural you should grieve." Bruce reminded him, feeling more than a little hypocritical at giving out that sort of advice. "Were you hurt anywhere else?" Perhaps if there were more wounds, that might offer some clue as to the cause of the other deaths?
"Only down here." The blond unselfconsciously tugged aside the sheepskin with his free hand and showed Bruce a long angry-looking line of thin cuts running along the inside edge of his right thigh. "They're a bit sore, but not deep. I don’t think they're anything serious…"
Definitely not self-inflicted, not at that angle...
"And that happened at the same time?" Bruce tried very, very hard to keep his eyes on the site of the injury. He succeeded, but it was a struggle.
"I guess … I don’t really know. I do remember getting off the boat, and someone shouting, Julius - I think? Suddenly there were people around me and they were strong. I'm not sure but I think someone walked up behind me and hit me…" The blond paused.
Bruce tensed as he waited for the rest of the explanation, but from the position of the other wounds he already had a pretty horrible idea of what it was going to be.

"That's when everything stops." The younger man shivered. "I suppose that I went down, but it's all a blank. I just woke up in the ambulance with Dick sitting there. The doctor said that there was no sign of … rape,” He stumbled very slightly over the word, “The only damage was what you've seen…"
"The only physical damage." Bruce muttered. Whatever happened to prevent them doing anything worse, it was certainly timely…
"So if you didn’t see any faces, did you recognise their voices or their body language?" He wondered. Perhaps subtlety might be a better tool? Police questioning often left a lot to be desired in that area.
"No, but that first time, one of the two guys that tried to grab me let slip that their boss wanted me. They tried to make me go with them. I was able to fight them off while Julius was summoning his Security. The men left at a run, with Julius yelling at them to tell their boss, whoever that was, that Julius would never let them have me, whatever they offered." An angry frown appeared on the expressive face. "If I had any idea of who they were, I'd have gladly led the police to them the first time. I'm sure that Julius felt the same – that's why I don’t believe he knew anything either."
"And they left no other clues either time?"
"Not from when they came to the house. The CCTV cameras at the marina yesterday had been sabotaged, but apparently the police managed to salvage some of the footage. Dick said that it showed two of the men holding me pinned, while a third stayed just out of camera range. The other two were crowding around Julius, pushing him off the dock." The pale eyes filled with tears again, but the blond scrubbed them away angrily. "By the time I came round in the ambulance it was already too late: Julius was… gone."

"They killed him?" It was a logical guess given the circumstances.
"As good as." The golden curls bobbed as the man nodded miserably. "The water was terribly cold that day, and Julius was never a strong swimmer: his heart just gave out." He looked at Bruce, "He was an old man. He never hurt me. He never even touched me! He just wanted…" He couldn’t say it.
"Come on. We'd better get you comfortable." Bruce offered. "If you'll let me?"
"I … trust you. Dick said I could, that you'd understand; but …"
"But you weren’t sure?" Bruce suggested. Understandable really…
"Not at first, but I am now. You could have done anything you wanted to me before I woke up, but you didn’t." The blond allowed Bruce to pull him up from the floor.

"How do you know that I didn’t do anything?" Bruce asked him.
"I may not have any experience of that side of things, but I'm not stupid." The other man answered softly. "I wouldn’t be moving as comfortably as I am if you'd forced yourself on me."
"Logical." Distracted by the acreage of smoothly rippling muscle revealed by the loss of the fleece, Bruce barely paid any attention to what was being said, until he realised how rude it would seem. Thankfully the other man didn’t seem in the least offended; instead the pale eyes fixed on him and a small smile appeared on the exquisite face.
"What?" Bruce looked at his guest, determined to keep his own eyes very firmly above elbow height. "Did I say something funny?" The other man didn’t seem bothered about standing around completely nude in front of a total stranger, a fact which was almost as interesting as the actual view, but Bruce wasn’t going to have anyone thinking that he would take advantage of the situation.
Even if certain of the mirrors did turn out to be very conveniently placed.

"Not really…" The younger man smiled more widely. "People don’t normally say that about me."
"That you're logical?"
"Yeah." The blond shrugged. "Daft maybe, but not logical."
"You sound English." Bruce noted, realising that he had been hearing the accent for some time without recognising it for what it was.
"Do I? I really don’t know."
"Don’t know?" That's an odd thing to say.
"No." There was a cloud across the winter-blue eyes. "Amnesia." The blond raised his broad shoulders in a shrug. "I don’t have any memory of anything further back than three years ago." Absently he ran a finger over the long scar that Bruce had found so interesting earlier, disturbing the abundant curls.
" I woke up in hospital with no idea of who I was, or where I came from." He explained, as if he was quite used to doing so. "That was three years, two months and six days ago; I still haven't found out."
God, and I thought I'd had a tough time of it! Just goes to show that you never know…

While his guest used the facilities, Bruce went off to his own room and hunted out a few garments that ought to fit, gauging them roughly for size as he threw them on the bed.
You got a good enough look at him, he reminded himself sternly, by now you should be able to reproduce his inside leg measurement from memory!

"You okay?" Bruce asked his unexpected guest.
"Just dizzy." Came the quiet reply. "And a bit hungry…"
Low blood sugar levels, coupled with the after effects of the anaesthetic, most likely? Bruce did have a cure for that; at least he hoped so…
"I'm sure we can find you something to eat." He very firmly looked the other way as the blond pulled on a pair of Bruce’s old jogging bottoms.
Thank god he doesn’t seem to mind going commando… Which brought something else to mind.
"About the ribbon…" Bruce said uncertainly.
"Oh that!" The blond grinned. "Before they put me under, Dick told me that we would need to hide the dressing on my neck – to keep the wound sterile in case you decided to investigate it. He just grabbed the first thing that he happened to have handy. From Barbara’s present apparently."
"And the other bit?"
The other man’s grin widened. "My idea I'm afraid: symmetry; I didn’t say anything to Dick, but I just couldn’t resist…"
I nearly couldn’t either… "Ah." Bruce nodded.
"Thinking of the whole joke thing …" The blond slid neatly into one of Bruce's t-shirts, which hung a little loosely on him, but no worse than the current fashion dictated.
"What about it?" The loss of the view was… curiously disappointing. Bruce sighed softly, keeping the thought to himself.

"Well, it just occurred to me - I was sleeping in your house, and now I'm wearing your clothes, but no one actually asked you if you minded did they? Dick insisted that it would be fine, but …"
"Dick is very used to taking liberties with me, and I've gotten into the habit of letting him," Bruce confessed, "It's easier on everyone."
"Yeah, he is kind of stubborn, isn't he?"
"Stubborn?" Bruce actually laughed at that. "It might as well be his middle name. Thinking of names, Dick obviously told you mine; but he neglected to mention yours…"
"Sandy Smith is what it says on my papers; but that's just something the staff at the hospital made up for me," The light blue eyes flickered in unease.
"The social worker suggested I start using Smith because it's a common enough name… Everyone had already been calling me Sandy, because of my colouration," The other man grinned and twirled a ringlet around one finger, “It was either that, or Shirley Temple; and I don’t do girly…”
"Nice to meet you, Sandy," Bruce held out a hand. "In case you're at all worried, I truly don’t mind having you here …"
Shyly, Sandy clasped his hand in a surprisingly firm grip and shook it formally. "Thanks." He said softly. "Really."

Bruce found himself moved by the plight of the blond, and not just because of the other man's appearance - stunning though it was.
"Dick knows that I hate my birthdays, and he always tries to take me out of myself on them." He told Sandy, wondering at how very easy the younger man was to talk to. "This is the first time that he's actually succeeded, or that anyone has," He added, "I'll have to phone Dick later and tell him." And thank him …
"He works too hard." Sandy said suddenly.
"Yes. I tell him that, but he ignores me of course."
The other man gave a soft chuckle. "He says the same about you."
"I'll just bet he does. So, you two know each other pretty well then?"
"In a way."
In what way? Damn, I wish Dick had thought to leave me with a bit more information!
They were wandering down the stairs toward the kitchen, and as they passed the portrait of Bruce's parent's, the blond stopped and looked up at it.
"My father and mother." Bruce said, by way of explanation. "This was their house, now it's mine."
"Oh." The blue eyes widened. "Oh … wow…"
"Wow?"
The blond flushed hotly. "I …"
Surprised, Bruce faced his guest. "What?"
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The Birthday Present