horrendousness

[onapalehorse]

From this.

"You will find strength, and peace."

He promises, with belief.

Comments

[onapalehorse]

Bane lets him set the pace, steering him eventually off the train and on to the grass, towards one of the hills he can see from his bedroom, with a sprawling apple tree.

He makes patiently sure he doesn't tumble, bolt or panic.

[lasiurus]

By the time they reach the tree (which shouldn't smell so strong, so perfect) he has decided that he will bring Alfred and Fox here. He will let them nap here if they want, pick fruit if they want.

And he, meanwhile, will do whatever it takes to become the person the world needs. Right now, Bane is the absolute best person to teach him how to become that person.

When he looks at Bane again, the gratitude is overwhelming and genuine, even if he won't say it. It comes out in the way he speaks, clipping off the formal and grammatically correct beginnings to his sentences.

"Best start to a test I've ever had."

[onapalehorse]

"Here."

He has a bag with him. A blanket, for the wet grass, to lay beneath the tree. Scissors, for the top zip tie, so his arms aren't quite so forcibly strained.

Once those things are taken care of, he helps him gently down onto it. The slope faces east. Pink is starting to lick at the horizon.

[lasiurus]

Bruce stares at it so long he forgets he's supposed to be watching Bane. He needs to make sure Alfred and Fox see sunrises, too.

Finally he asks, "What am I supposed to do here?"

[onapalehorse]

"Tell me when you begin to get hungry."

Resituating them, so Bruce leans against him.

[lasiurus]

He had tolerated it in the gym, but mostly out of confusion. Here he glances at Bane curiously, but settles comfortably. Bruce adapts to things very quickly.

[onapalehorse]

He starts on his shirt buttons again, too, tugging it down his arms as far as it will go, letting it hang like that.

Then, his hand is at the front of Bruce's pants.

[lasiurus]

He hasn't been calculating, so his reaction is pure instinct. He tries to elbow Bane, but his hands are bound, and he stops himself from rolling to the side.

He tamps down the shock and looks at Bane again, waiting.

[onapalehorse]

"I wondered if you'd really been stopping yourself from hearing as thoroughly as I thought. I've been telling you this was coming."

Soft, hand resting flat on his abdomen.

[lasiurus]

Bruce licks his lips, and then settles against Bane's chest, proving a point to himself.

"People I've been around say a lot of things. I didn't think I was your type."

[onapalehorse]

"All right. Now that you're conscious of it, what do I need to know?"

Hand still rubbing soothingly at his stomach.

[lasiurus]

"I'm not sure. If this is a test, I'm prepared to do whatever I need to do. And if I am damaged, I need to learn how to get past it."

That and he's not sure how far Bane is actually prepared to go.

[onapalehorse]

"Damaged? What has been done to you?"

Setting him back down, moving instead for the bag.

He's brought breakfast. Bread and a thermos of coffee.

[lasiurus]

"You were a slave. And you know what life as one is like here. I never had it as bad as the others did. Up until you, I could beat them off. So they took it out on other people. I- you said 'damaged', I'm just borrowing your word."

He speaks about it flatly, giving all his interest to the food.

[onapalehorse]

"I will be cautious."

He informs him, handing him a slice of bread.

"It will not harm you physically unless you fight violently."

[lasiurus]

He takes the bread, chagrined. He's reactive but usually very controlled about it. Bane still scares him, he realizes. Not the soul-deep terror of bats or failure, but something that sits in a primal part of his brain.

Or maybe it's just his ego. He is always the strongest fighter in a room. He's never had to deal so blatantly with not being. Either way, he swallows his bread.

"I won't."

[onapalehorse]

"So. The last time someone had you?"

Pouring him coffee from the thermos, into one of the two mugs.

[lasiurus]

"Had me? Never."

Coffee at dawn. It's so idyllic he hasn't even imagined doing anything like this.

"Last time I had someone else? ...Three, four years ago. It was never really something I was that interested in to begin with. Then things got busy...."

[onapalehorse]

"You made it through life as a slave with your legs shut?"

Impressed, eyebrows lifting.

"I have never heard of that."

[lasiurus]

"Don't. I told you, my master took it out on others because I refused him."

Which is hell for a man like Bruce Wayne. He can endure, and will endure, whatever it takes to keep people safe, but failure to them is torture for him.

"So I paralyzed him. I crawled in through his window, I put him against the balcony, and I stabbed him in the back. I was sent away and no one ever asked to have me as a bedmate after that. Meanwhile, some poor girl or boy is taking up where I should have been."

[onapalehorse]

"Well. That really depends which vertebra you got him in. High enough and he'll probably never get an erection again."

Observes Bane, perfectly practical in a way that is a little reminiscent of a long-lost doctor with glasses and a menace of a car.

[lasiurus]

He snorts and nods, then twists to show Bane the vertebrae he sliced between. No erections for that man. A lot of incontinence, though.

"You remember what Ra's called it? Head on a stick?"

Bruce had never been so cruel that he had used it before.

[onapalehorse]

"Good boy."

He announces, reaching up, sliding a hand slowly up Bruce's back. The sun is high enough now that they're both painted with splashes of colour.

"After so long in such pain, you deserve a touch of hedonism."

[lasiurus]

He welcomes the touch, head bowed slightly, eyes closed.

"I don't know that I've earned it. But I wouldn't turn it down."

[onapalehorse]

"I say you have, and in this moment, my opinion is the only one."

He reminds him. He is Bane's now.

"Undress the rest of the way."

Now that the air is warming.