How to Get Away With Murder

[a_vacant_grave]

Bruce looked away from the display screen showing the burning wreckage of Brainiac's ship and across the table at his co-conspirator.

Dead co-conspirator, now. He just didn't know it.

Lex looked at the bottle that Bruce had presented him with. "Biondi Santi, Bruce?"

"Well, this is a celebration, isn't it, Lex?" Bruce asked, with a disarming little smile. "One alien menace down..."

"I didn't even know there were bottles of the 1961 Tenuta il Greppo Riserva still around," Lex mused. Bruce watched him turn the bottle over, and he knew that Lex thought he was secretly inspecting it. He wouldn't find any signs of tampering at all.

Soon enough, Lex popped the cork and poured the expensive red wine out into two glasses that stood at the ready on the wet bar. Bruce got up from his seat and picked up one.

They toasted each other, and Bruce could practically feel the suspicion emanating from Lex's green eyes. They remained fixed on him, watching him take the first drink of the wine. Only then did Lex take a sip.

"He's only the first. And I only went after him first..."

"We've had this discussion, Lex," Bruce interrupted, sounding bored.

Lex laughed. "Yes, I suppose we have. Superman's time will come soon enough."

"Yes..." Bruce said softly, watching as Lex drank deeply from his glass. "Yes, it will."

Bruce set his glass down and took a seat again. His vision was starting to swim. Lex made a strangled sound of distress, and the empty glass fell to the floor, shattering. Lex himself followed soon after.

Bruce breathed through the pain. It was necessary.

Comments

[no_ones_son]

"Holy shit!"

Jason doesn't realize the context initially, focusing instantly on Bruce's labored breathing. "What the fuck, Bruce? What happened?"

[a_vacant_grave]

"God dammit," Bruce groans, "Not the Hub. Not now."

[no_ones_son]

"'Fraid so." He moves towards him. "What happened? You need treatment or something?"

[a_vacant_grave]

"Aconitine poisoning," Bruce growls out.

[no_ones_son]

"Understood." Jason does, actually, have caffeine pills on hand, which he knows will help in the interim - he hands Bruce two of them. "Caffeine. Don't have any charcoal. I'll look for tetrodotoxin. Be right back."

He disappears briefly. He's gone for a few minutes before returning with the promised drug. It's not as much as he'd have liked, but it's what he could find. He offers it to Bruce. "Hope it's enough."

[a_vacant_grave]

Bruce takes the caffeine pills, grimacing slightly as he forces himself to swallow. He really doesn't want to have to -- he'd rather that these plans had gone off without a hitch -- but he also hadn't been looking forward to basically having a heart attack.

"It should be. I didn't take that much," Bruce mutters, accepting the tetrodoxin.

[no_ones_son]

"Great. You wanna tell me why the everloving fuck you took any at all?"

[a_vacant_grave]

"Because it would look suspicious if only Lex was poisoned."

[no_ones_son]

... there's a brief moment where Jason looks incredibly confused before it dawns on him that, oh yeah, most people actually, you know, cover up killings.

"... you did it, then? You got him?"

[a_vacant_grave]

"He drank enough from his poisoned glass to get a lethal dose, yes. Watched him hit the floor before I was... here."

Bruce takes a slow breath and rubs at his chest. "That is not an experience I want to repeat."

[no_ones_son]

The implication takes Jason a moment to get.

"... ouch."

He shifts awkwardly. He's not really comfortable standing over Bruce like this, but sitting on the ground is... not better. He shoves his hands in his pockets.

"It was a good plan, if the Hub hadn't interfered. Still is, I guess, just less... pleasant. But how were you planning to get out of it? Did you arrange for someone to find you two, or?"

[a_vacant_grave]

"Lex wears a... biometric monitor. Mercy will be alerted. She was... just outside the room." Bruce blinks a couple times, and wipes at his eyes (which had been tearing up thanks to the poisoning effects). "So was Sasha."

Bruce looks up at Jason. "It's not a plan I'd recommend, but it seemed a lot easier than sneaking a gun in past all the metal detectors, or explain why I'd even be carrying one."

[no_ones_son]

"Ceramic knife? Wait, no, you'd have to explain that, right."

"How'd you get him to drink it? Even with the 'Brucie' face, he's almost as paranoid as you are."

[a_vacant_grave]

"It would be a little strange that an assailant slashed Lex's throat and only stabbed me, wouldn't it?"

Bruce shrugs. "Brainiac crashed and burned, as planned. I brought a bottle of wine, and he inspected it for tampering. He didn't think to check the wine glasses."

Bruce glances behind him, but only he and the chair seem to have come along.

"I coated the interior of each glass with a thin layer of aconitine tincture. Enough that drinking a full glass would be fatal."

[OOC: Tinctures are made with alcohol, figured it would dissolve well into the wine...]

[no_ones_son]

"Damn, that's brilliant. I always loved to watch you work, you know."

"You feel up to standing yet? If you're gonna linger for a while, we might wanna find a better spot than a random-ass chair in the middle of the Hub."

[a_vacant_grave]

It hurts a little to hear that admiration in Jason's voice, only because it reminds him of his own Jason. He isn't the sort of person that his Robin would look up anymore, is he?

Bruce seriously thinks over his own condition at that question, though he rolls his eyes and says sarcastically, "Oh, yes. Heart attack over, time to run a mile."

He lifts himself slowly out of the chair, prepared for another bout of dizziness. It might linger even though he's been administered an antidote.

[no_ones_son]

"What, didn't prepare for that in all the Bat training? You could've squeezed it in before that time you locked yourself in a cave for 8 days to see if you could."

Jason... doesn't actually think to offer Bruce a hand. There's still a certain invulnerability to Bruce in his head.

[a_vacant_grave]

"Giving myself heart attacks seemed a little... counterintuitive."

Bruce stumbles a bit.

[no_ones_son]

"No offense, but I'm pretty sure I've said that about most of the shit you've put yourself through."

It finally occurs to him to offer a hand. "Come on, there's an empty hotel like half a block from here. We'll sit in the lobby, or grab one of the rooms or something if you need to lie down."

[a_vacant_grave]

He takes that offered support gratefully. It doesn't show easily, but maybe Jason can tell anyway.

"Leslie wouldn't have been happy with me." Bruce cracks a faint smile. "Lead the way, I suppose. A rest sounds good to me. I assume that police in Metropolis are a little more competent than the average Gotham cop, so their investigation is bound to be... irritatingly thorough."

[no_ones_son]

"Guess it is."

It doesn't take them long to get there. Jason fishes out a room key from behind the empty desk and opens up one of the first-floor rooms.

Once inside, Jason continues, "Think I've puzzled it out here. You worried Supes'll find out?"

[a_vacant_grave]

"He'll know I did it the moment he hears about it." Bruce sits on the edge of the bed. Removing his shoes feels like a very complex task right now -- he does it slowly, carefully. "He saw what I did to the Joker. He... doesn't understand."

[no_ones_son]

Jason takes a seat on one of the chairs, sprawled out, facing Bruce.

"Yeah. I know what that's like." He's quiet for a moment. "So why not just do it as Batman? Why all the games?"

[a_vacant_grave]

Once the shoes are off, Bruce sets them aside and slowly undoes his tie, depositing that on the bedside table.

"For Lex, I needed to have the connections -- to know how to get him to kill Brainiac, to gain control of his assets afterward. But.." Bruce shrugs. "There are other targets where Batman will be more... appropriate."

He looks down at his hands for a long moment. Speaks to them instead of Jason.

"It's all me anyway. I can't... I'm not going to compartmentalize this."

[no_ones_son]

"If we're being honest here... I never really got it. The compartmentalization shit you always used to do. Even when I was Robin... sure, you have to keep secrets, maybe act a bit different around different people. But it's always you under the mask. Least, that's how it was for me."

[a_vacant_grave]

Bruce huffs out a little laugh. "It might seem contradictory, but... having two lives like that? With a clean split to them, for the most part? It made things easier."

[no_ones_son]

"Guess I can get that."

He laughs a little.

"Guess if I'm being honest, I don't really have much going on outside vigilante shit anyway. I always kept things secret, but I mean, it's more about avoiding getting jumped in the 7/11 than keeping a private life, y'know? So not like I've got room to talk about work/life separation here."

He leans back, shifting a bit uncomfortably. "What's next? After Lex, I mean?"

[a_vacant_grave]

"I... suppose not." The thought of it makes Bruce sad. A parent always wants their child to do better than they did, right?

Bruce takes off his suit coat and belt, then empties his pockets -- mundane stuff, a wallet and set of keys -- onto the nightstand as well. He lies down, flat on his back, not looking at Jason as he says,

"Ra's al Ghul has taken notice... of my change of heart."

[no_ones_son]

Jason notices the disappointment in Bruce's voice, and isn't quite sure how to take it. He rolls his shoulders awkwardly.

At Bruce's words, Jason tenses slightly. "Don't... don't hurt Talia. Ra's deserves to go out. But... not Talia. Okay?"

[a_vacant_grave]

"Why do you always think I'm going to hurt Talia?"

[no_ones_son]

He shrugs, avoiding eye contact. "Just... Ra's is shit to her. But she's still too damn loyal. I just worry she might get caught in the crossfire if you're not real careful. Is that stupid?"

[a_vacant_grave]

Bruce lets out a breath.

"No. It's not stupid. They both have a degree of unpredictability to them. I never know if Ra's will push her too hard, or if Talia will strike out at him..." He looks over at Jason. "I will be careful. I promise you that."

[no_ones_son]

"Thank you." He pauses. Swallows. "For... for everything."

"... I miss you."

[a_vacant_grave]

At the 'I miss you', Bruce has to close his eyes against the tears that threaten.

"I miss you too, son."

[no_ones_son]

"Can I-"

He shakes his head.

"Nevermind. How's the heart? Poison wearing off okay? I can probably go hunting for more tetrodotoxin. Some charcoal, if nothing else. Or-"

He almost laughs at himself. "Christ. Look at me. You're fucking Batman. Could send an Amazo after you right now and you'd come out on top."

[a_vacant_grave]

Bruce is solemnly quiet until Jason stops talking.

"I'm Batman, not a superhuman. So, all the same, I'd like to skip fighting big murderous robots for a little while. I think I'll be fine after some rest, but I wouldn't say no to having more of the antidote on hand."

He pauses, steeling himself for a moment. "Jason... if there's anything you need, anything you want... I'll do it for you if I can. You just have to ask."

[no_ones_son]

Jason just shakes his head at "I'm Batman, not a superhuman."

At Bruce's words, he freezes. Looks away. Then, after a moment, he stands, walks over, and just... sits next to Bruce.

[a_vacant_grave]

Bruce doesn't say anything. He just repositions himself so that he's lying on his side -- and slowly settles a hand over one of Jason's, if Jason will let him.

[no_ones_son]

Jason takes the hand and, slowly, cautiously, lies down as well. Just kind of... there.

"... thank you," he says quietly.

[a_vacant_grave]

"Thank you," Bruce says softly, "for being here."

It doesn't actually take long for Bruce's breathing to even out into the rhythm of sleep. He's exhausted, for more than one reason, and this is the first time in a long time that he's felt all right to let his guard down enough for a decent rest.

[no_ones_son]

It takes Jason a little bit longer, himself. But, slowly, steadily, he lets his eyes fall closed, and his sleep is deep and dreamless.