horrendousness

[onapalehorse]

From this.

"You will find strength, and peace."

He promises, with belief.

Comments

[onapalehorse]

Bane expects it, and sits down on a chair in the corner of the room instead, meditating quietly on the situation and working out how to play this.

[lasiurus]

Bruce rummages for clean clothes once he's out, since his are decidedly very dirty. When he's dressed, he doesn't allow himself to hesitate in opening the door.

"Better?"

[onapalehorse]

"I'll have your old things burned."

He decides, standing up, starting down the stairs, expecting silently that Bruce will follow.

[lasiurus]

He won't argue for them. He has no intention of ever touching them again. He falls in beside Bane, a step behind so he knows which way to turn.

He pays attention this time to which left or right turns they take.

[onapalehorse]

Down, to what passes for a gym. High ceiling, mats on the floor.

"Today, we're going to test where, exactly, your resistance kicks in. I'd like you to speak to me throughout, about each request- whether you want to follow it, whether you can feel your mind longing to resist, or verbalize your flat out 'no's.'"

Nodding him in to the centre of the space.

[lasiurus]

He looks around, ceiling to mats, and nods. He even stands where Bane indicated.

"Okay."

[onapalehorse]

"If it helps, think about what would have bothered you before, compared to what does now. What his expectations of you used to be.

I'm sure, for example, you've been ordered to kneel. Do it now."

Circling him, slowly.

[lasiurus]

Bruce watches him warily, but it's the caution that the League of Shadows trained into him. He's not planning how to overpower Bane, merely watching for an attack.

And then he kneels. Why he does it is a fuzzy thing even in his mind.

"It feels like a training exercise. It would have bothered me yesterday."

[onapalehorse]

"Do you think you might have been fighting him, the weaselly little rag, as well as me?"

He means his previous master. Standing behind him, Bane reaches down and rests his hand on Bruce's shoulders.

"Perhaps I'll destroy him for you."

[lasiurus]

"You were sent by him. And he is just like all the others."

So yes, because Bruce sees them all as one entity. Although perhaps not all of them; he relaxes marginally when Bane touches him.

[onapalehorse]

"He never sent me anywhere."

He corrects, dropping down onto one knee behind him, massive, immovable presence at his back.

"He opened the door a crack, and I broke it down and lifted you free of his idiotic stylings. He thinks you're dead and need never know different."

[lasiurus]

He turns his head to see him, but with his chin tucked out of habit to protect his throat.

"How did you hear about me, then?"

[onapalehorse]

"One of his guests."

He admits, reaching out the other hand, dragging a thumb along the unprotected side of his throat.

"It had me watching. I offered my services when he was hospitalized."

[lasiurus]

He flinches at the first contact, but doesn't seem to mind otherwise. He sits back a little further.

"And that whip you used?"

Bruce knows full well he would never have agreed to come if Bane hadn't followed that all the way through. He would never have believed it wasn't a trick without that moment of aftercare. But he wants to hear it from Bane's perspective.

[onapalehorse]

"I'll use it again, I'm sure. You're doing remarkably well today, but too much, too quickly, for it to be permanent."

Stroking that finger down his throat, slowly.

"My wishes truly are to guide you."

[lasiurus]

That much is certainly true. Bruce is feeling optimistic, and alive. It will fade, and he knows it will.

But in the meantime he just tips his chin up, stubbornly rebelling against his training.

"Guide me to what?" And then, because he wants to see what Bane does with open communication, "Having my throat touched usually sets me off."

[onapalehorse]

"What happens when you are set off?"

Hand freezing, for the moment, letting him explain.

He shifts, so his legs pin Bruce's shins against the floor, and then pulls him subtly back against his body.

[lasiurus]

"Fight or flight. With you, it'd be flight."

He's tense again, but in this case it's because of the fact his singletail marks are pressed against Bane. He doesn't fidget or complain; it's just pain. He can handle it.

[onapalehorse]

"You've fought me before."

He reminds him.

"Very effectively."

But his hands drop down to rest instead on Bruce's hips.

[lasiurus]

"It wasn't effective. If it had been, we wouldn't have got to the whip."

He keeps his own hands resting on his knees, just as if he was meditating. It keeps them out of Bane's way.

[onapalehorse]

"I mean, you are a very effective fighter."

He clarifies, hands slipping in to find his buttons.

"Is it easier to be undressed, or to undress yourself?"

[lasiurus]

"It's about the same. I haven't had anyone try to undress me in... a while."

But he does finally grab Bane's wrist.

"Just- tell me if this is going to pain or not."

[onapalehorse]

"That was the anxiety of anticipation. Not knowing built the tension up in you until it burst into something you knew was ill-advised. Softened, thoughtfully, with very reasonable request, but still a tiny bit outside of your control."

Nuzzling at the outside of his shoulder, the unwelted portion.

[lasiurus]

The metal of the mask isn't cold, like Bruce would have thought. And he can feel the wires humming very faintly, because he's listening for them.

He leans back a tiny bit against Bane, welts be damned.

"Your advice is to live with the anxiety?"

[onapalehorse]

"Stop feeling it."

He says, instead.

"What is it you fear, then pain? I will be fair, you will know that if it is coming, it is necessary. You know also that you can withstand it. The fear does not make sense, it only coils you uselessly tighter, and eggs you into decisions that are wrong."

Captured wrist rotating lightly in Bruce's hand.

"This will not be easy to understand, until the first few times I have bandaged your hurts and put you into a soft bed afterwards."