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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.

Chapter List
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"Don’t you think you might be pushing him too hard, Bruce?" Kal chose that particular moment to interfere.
"I just want him to get better." Bruce was unrepentant.
"We all want him to get better." The Kryptonian was cautious. "I'm a little worried that you're expecting him to do too much, too fast."
"I only want the best for Sandy, Kal." Bruce insisted.
"Do you? Do you really, Bruce? Because from Day One it's been looking suspiciously like something else!"
Something has evidently gotten Kal's goat this morning… It didn’t occur to Bruce for a moment that it could be him. What had he done? Nothing, that was what…
Wally fidgeted uncomfortably. "Guys, this isn't the right place for this, huh?"
"You sanctimonious bastard…" Ignoring Wally, Bruce stared at Kal. "And I suppose that every thought that passes through your head is as pure as the driven snow?" He demanded.
"Guys," Manfully, Wally tried again.
"Maybe not," Kal acknowledged. "But we're not talking about me, are we?"
"You," The Bat was rising to the fore.
"Er, guys…"
"Bruce!" The other voice was as angry as it was unexpected. "Kal!"
Astonished, Bruce and Kal turned to stare.
"NO MORE!" The air around them came alive with energy, lifting both men off their feet and pushing them in opposite directions.
Dear God! What's happening? Bruce could feel the raw force pressing him back against the plaster, hot, demanding, like the touch of skin on his skin. The small hairs on his neck started to stand on end. One slip, one wrong breath and he was going to end up fried!
Across the room, Kal also struggled, pinned against the far wall, feet dangling several inches from the floor.
If Kal can't get away, what chance do I have?

"Sandy…" Suited up now, Wally edged in close, reaching for the blond. "Sandy, you have to undo this and let them go; now … I know you don’t really want to hurt them; but you could. Sandy … Please!"
"No!" Startled, Sandy gave a gasp of horror.
"Sandy, it's just me." The speedster lightly touched the trembling man. "Still Wally; but I need the suit on to get close to you when you're sparking, remember?
"Wally?"
Just as suddenly as it had come, the pressure was gone. Bruce had just enough time to twist in the air before his feet hit the floor.
"Easy, it's just me, we're good." Wally was murmuring, his gloved hands sliding slowly to and fro over the back of Sandy's thin t-shirt. "I got ya." The two of them clung together, Sandy's face buried in Wally's suited neck, the familiar red costume protecting them both.
"Bruce?" Argument forgotten, Kal hurried over to where Bruce was tentatively stretching. "Are you hurt?"

"No." Bruce was as surprised by that as anyone. Kal was invulnerable, regardless of his outerwear, and Wally was safely in costume; but Bruce had been wearing civvies, and Cotton was nowhere near as reassuring as Kevlar.
"Not hurt Bruce." Sandy whispered.
"Sandy?" Wally released his grip on the blond. "What was that, buddy?"
"Not hurt Bruce." Sandy repeated. "Not hurt Kal."
"I know you didn’t want to, and you haven't." Wally promised. "Look at them, they're fine. Sandy, look at them…" Gently he encouraged Sandy turn to face them. "You two, get over here. Let him see you're not hurt; but don’t loom over him, he’s still nervy."
Obediently they both knelt down in front of the fretting blond.
"I'm fine." Kal assured Sandy. "You didn’t hurt me at all."
Sandy blinked at him. "Not shout."
"Shout?" Kal was puzzled. "Bruce?"
"Haven't a clue." Bruce said back.
"I think," Wally gave them both a flinty stare, "That Sandy means that he didn’t like the pair of you shouting over him. I wasn’t that impressed either." He added haughtily.
"I wasn’t thinking." Bruce sighed. "I was over the top, and I'm sorry." Kneeling there, he waited for Sandy to accept the apology.

Kal apparently knew his cue when he saw it. "Yeah, that goes for me too, Sandy. I didn’t mean to yell at Bruce. I was just worried about you. Do you forgive me?"
"Yeah…" Sandy reached out and tugged at the famous cowlick curl. He smiled at Bruce. "Yeah, Bruce."
"Well, Sandy may be ready to forgive you both that easily." Wally decided, gently setting Sandy loose and straightening up. "But I'm not."
"Wally." Bruce realised that he owed the slender man an apology, and something else. Without Wally diffusing Sandy's response as he had, things would not have worked out so well. "I appreciate what you just did for me. I'm truly sorry for ignoring you like that."
"Wow." Wally tugged off the cowl and blinked. "I must be dead, or dreaming. I never thought that I'd ever hear you say that, and to me!"
"Yeah, well don’t get used to it." Bruce grinned. There was a very rapid blur, and Wally was back in civvies. Although he couldn’t prove it, because he didn’t live life at the same speed as either of the other two, Bruce nevertheless had the distinct feeling that he had also been the recipient of a rather crude hand gesture in the process. The expression on Kal's face certainly supported that theory.
Either that, or Wally flashed him… Which was an amusing notion and a dreadful pun all in one. Or was that the other way around?

"But you're alright? Really alright?" Wally's hands were flickering nervously over Kal.
"Slow down the massage, Wal," Kal grinned. "Unless you were intending to start a fire with me?"
"Later." A touch of smirk appeared on the redhead's face. Leaning forward, he whispered something in Kal's ear, laughing out loud as Kal's cheeks reddened. Wally smirked. "Then again," He said wickedly. "Maybe I could outline the full details of what my precise terms for forgiveness are, and we could go sit somewhere private and toast marshmallows over your face while you recover from the shock?"
"Something about a boy scout and finding two sticks to rub together?" Bruce guessed. Scarlet, Kal nodded.

* * * * *

Stretching across his desk, Clark Kent picked up his private cell-phone. "Kent." He said automatically, since he was in the office.
"I know it's you, because it was YOUR cell phone number I dialled." The man on the other end told him in a tone so frigid that it could have been used to manufacture ice-cream.
"Bruce?" Clark was in no doubt that it was his friend speaking; but why did Bruce sound so grumpy? It had been more than a week since they had argued over Sandy, surely Bruce wasn’t revamping the grudge?
Then again, it's the Bat we're talking about… Oh dear… Clark sighed.
"I've secured the channel, and I know you're in a public place - so don’t speak. Just listen." Bruce growled.
Obediently Clark waited.
"Clark… Kal." Bruce was very quiet, ominously quiet. "When Sandy was with you two yesterday, did you perhaps happen to watch the Documentary Channel?"
Kal thought back to the previous afternoon. Sandy had been so hyperactive that even with their powers he and Wally had been hard put to keep up, and finally they had both run out of steam, which had lead to a shared afternoon nap while Sandy watched television alone. Ultimately the nap had turned into something a lot less restful but infinitely more relaxing.
"We might have…" Kal admitted tentatively.
"Despite my express request that Sandy not be allowed to watch anything other than kiddies TV during the day?" Bruce asked.
Kal could almost feel the needles in the other man's voice. "Uh,"
"Don't 'Uh' me!" Bruce remained controlled; but Kal could just hear the faintest hint of his teeth grinding together. "Kal," He said tightly. "Do you have any idea, any idea at all, just how complicated it is to have to explain the meaning of 'internecine period' to someone whose mental age fluctuates consistently between the ages of three and twenty nine?"
"I… might?" Kal answered hopefully.
"No, you don’t." Bruce was quite firm about that. "And what made it even better, Kal, is that I wasn’t here for the first part of that evening, and Shayera was..."
"Oh."
"Yes, 'oh'!" The rest of Hurricane Bruce finally touched down. "Let's just say, that there was a spectacular failure to communicate, culminating in Shayera quite unintentionally giving Sandy a lesson in female reproductive biology that he was very definitely not ready for." The billionaire took a deep breath and calmed himself with an audible effort.
"The knock on effect of that," He told Kal. "Is that, apart from my having to contend with Alfred being incredibly upset, John Stewart is not speaking to Shining Knight, and there have been arguments up here on the Satellite, culminating in several requests for rescheduling of the League duty roster. The whole thing has given J'Onn a headache and he's very ticked off about it. Next time you want to set off World War Three, maybe you could be kind enough to give the rest of us just a little warning!"
The phone went dead.

Staring blankly out of the window, Clark considered repeatedly hitting his head against the office wall, until he remembered that he would only break it, and would then have to fix it again before anyone noticed. He also recalled John Stewart and the man's legendary temper. There was really no point in inflicting pain on himself: if he ventured out anywhere tonight there would probably be plenty of other people willing to do it for him.
"Including Alfred…"
Maybe it was time for he and Wally to spend a quiet night at home, just for a change?
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The Birthday Present