horrendousness

[onapalehorse]

From this.

"You will find strength, and peace."

He promises, with belief.

Comments

[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."

[lasiurus]

"A hundred people?"

He leans closer, trying to remember every face he has ever seen. But no, he hasn't seen that one.

He looks around for a chair, then just kneels beside Bane's. This is work, this is what he's good at. More than that, this is going to help save Bruce Banner.

"What property is he after?"

He usually poses questions to himself out loud that way, but finds himself glancing at Bane for ideas.

[onapalehorse]

"Some medical experiment."

Click. The footage is up. Lucifer is standing, laughing again, surrounded by bodies, while Bruce gently unhooks and gathers up a naked, bloodied, emaciated but unmistakably alive Tony Stark.

Bane's eyes narrow.

"I see."

[lasiurus]

"How did-?"

There was no explosion, no gas. Nothing that has effected Tony or Bruce.

"Fill me in."

On what Bane is thinking.

[onapalehorse]

"The notes weren't specific on who that is. But that's Tony Stark, isn't it? The other Avenger? I've seen him like this before."

When the battery got put in.

"I had presumed he was becoming property, but whoever has them may be making a power play, may be... exceptional in his own right, the way Doctor Banner is."

[lasiurus]

"Yes, that's Tony."

Swallowing hard.

"They're lovers. They would have gone after each other, no matter who got free first. But if you're right, if anyone else is alive, they may be going after them next."

[onapalehorse]

He turns the laptop screen, cues up a webcam, clicks, and there Bruce Wayne is on his screen, tousled and a little sunburnt and looking like his heart is being ripped out by what he's seeing, kneeling patiently.

A few clicks, and the picture is uploading.

"We can't get to them."

However, they will soon arrive for Bruce, he imagines.

[lasiurus]

"We don't know how he's killing people. My guess is it's a gas, but-"

But he doesn't want Bane to end up dead. Or the other men, because he abhors killing, but Bane specifically. He looks up at him evenly.

[onapalehorse]

"Then I am prepared."

Gesturing at his mask.

"Fear not."

[lasiurus]

He nods and looks back at the screen. And is suddenly very glad he's kneeling, for the way his vision whites out and he has to curl in on himself.

[onapalehorse]

Bane slides his chair over, reaches for him, and drags him up by the hair, forcing Bruce to rest his cheek on Bane's knee.

[lasiurus]

The rough comfort will make him laugh later. Right now his mind is just trying to come to terms with the idea that Banner has been alive and well; that Tony isn't dead.

That he might see Fox and Alfred again. And that, of all the things that might have happened to him personally, he is with another exile of the League. He stays just as he is, cheek on Bane's knee, unfocused and empty.

He doesn't hear when an email comes in expressing interest in Bruce. It's signed, simply, Meg.