horrendousness

[onapalehorse]

From this.

"You will find strength, and peace."

He promises, with belief.

Comments

[onapalehorse]

"There was a doctor. He botched the surgery badly. After that, there was a respiratory plague. Everything worsened."

He shakes his head.

"It was a pit, I told you. A child may frequently pull their body weight up more easily than a man. Small fingers finding little ledges that ours do not. With fear and no choice to lift her, to my breaking mind she fairly flew."

[lasiurus]

He's watching Bane, enthralled, concerned that places like that exist. He's been to terrible places, but never anything like that.

"Did she bring help? Was there help for prisoners...?"

[onapalehorse]

"It took her eight years. She came with the League, and took me as her own. She lifted me free, brought me to the men who made my mask, and then when I could walk a straight line again they trained me."

Stretching a little against the sunlight.

[lasiurus]

Bruce brushes his knuckles against Bane's leg. He's not fully 'back' to himself yet, doesn't question the urge for affection. He feels too good to maintain a real distance.

"I wish I could have met her."

[onapalehorse]

"No, you wouldn't. She would have skinned you and eaten your heart, for killing her father."

He answers, patiently still under his touch this time.

[lasiurus]

He frowns up at him.

"I've never killed anyone."

[onapalehorse]

"A man left on a train, roaring off tracks."

He tells him, reaching down to brush his hair back.

"If I could take you in my mouth, I'd make you come a third time."

[lasiurus]

The juxtaposition is so baffling he doesn't know which to react to or how to keep the reactions from mingling. He sits up, but straddles Bane's lap.

"He was going to kill me. Me, and fifteen million innocent people."

[onapalehorse]

"That's why I'm keeping you. And why I'm glad she never met you to skin you."

He answers, hands settling on his hips, eyebrows lifting in surprise.

[lasiurus]

He nods, glad to hear confirmation of what he had been hoping was the case. His thumbs brush along both sides of Bane's throat.

Ra's was evil, and too dangerous to be given to the police. But there are things Bruce has never said to anyone; it's easier to cling to the notion that it was all fully justified.

"I didn't want to do it. And I'm sorry that I caused her pain. I know the anger she must have felt for me."

And if it consumed her the way it almost did Bruce, and if Bane had to sit and watch the way Alfred had, then he's sorry for that, too. But he conveys that by sliding further onto Bane's lap and dipping his head to offer sharp little nips along his collarbone.

[onapalehorse]

"How many years has it been?"

He asks, quietly, trying to recall exactly.

[lasiurus]

"Seven years."

He doesn't have to stop to think about it.

[onapalehorse]

"Then it is seven years since there has been skin on my own."

He answers, hands still on his hips.

"We will move slowly, for both our sakes."

[lasiurus]

"Good plan."

That quiet, League whisper. He keeps exploring Bane with his mouth.

"How far does your network go?"

[onapalehorse]

"Far."

He answers, just as quiet, hanging on to his skin like he's drowning.

"They will have searched the city within two days, and will radiate out from there."

[lasiurus]

"Thank you."

Meaning it so fiercely it almost hurts to say. He kisses slowly up Bane's throat, to just under the mask, then down the other side.

"...Do you know what happened to the Hulk?"

Banner can't be dead. Guns don't kill him--nothing does.

[onapalehorse]

"Taken in for genetic testing."

He does remember.

"Attempted reproduction of the effect, breeding, that sort of thing. I think there's footage somewhere-"

[lasiurus]

Bruce sits up, pale, horrified.

"Show me. Where- where is he?"

[onapalehorse]

"I didn't keep track."

Dizzy at the sudden shift, where he'd been warm and molten and pleased beneath him a moment ago. Right. Business.

He lifts Bruce's stiff body gently off him.

"Dress."

[lasiurus]

He's alive, he's alive.

And with Bane and his men, he stands a chance at rescuing him. Bruce scrambles into his clothes, doesn't care that he's still sticky.

"Believe me, you'll want him on your side."

[onapalehorse]

"My side is not your side."

He reminds him, quietly, standing.

"But I will at least find you news of him."

[lasiurus]

"It is right now."

He smiles slightly at him, and even without lust taking charge, he thinks he's going to do that blowjob soon. And he will most certainly surprise Bane with it.

He opens the door, and waits for Bane to go through.

[onapalehorse]

He moves towards the study. Internet connectivity is variable, this day and age, but when Bane opens his laptop he's online. He gets a second screen connected, and drags and drops files onto that desktop for Bruce to go through.

Banner1 through Banner15
Banner-termination. Word document upon word document of lab results.

"Those are records of sales. He went missing- two years ago?"

[lasiurus]

Termination. Bruce's hand is trembling as he clicks on it. He tries to hang on that word, missing. It's not the same as dead.

"He escaped?"

[onapalehorse]

"No. Taken in by a buyer without an established record. Falsified papers, by the looks of things. Do you recognize this man?"

He pulls up a screenshot. Bruce on his knees in a small stall, a man with laughing eyes and short hair standing over him, expression twisted in a smirk.

"He's been implicated in the theft of other property, both subjects never seen again. Only next time, around a hundred people were found dead."