Chapter 6 - Sorry
Dinner was a cold affair, everyone sitting around the table, eating reheated pizza. Tim watched Dick and Barbara mainly, eyes darting back and forth between the two while he stuffed his mouth with pizza. Clark sat beside Tim, watching Bruce, who sat at the head of the table and ate two slices of pizzas with an expression like he was chewing black beetles.
Clark asked his share of questions, mainly those to Barbara whose quick wit and smart answers kept the dinner from being awkwardly silent. Barbara nettled Dick mercilessly, teasing the young man about his hair and the way women swooned over him ("They come for the good looks, Dick, but they always leave once you open you mouth.") Dick protested, but from the guilty grin on his face, Clark could tell that Dick like Barbara talking about him, simply because it meant Barbara noticed and remembered specific things about him. Clark fleeting wondered why they weren't together permanently – they made a terrific couple.
She was in the middle of a long story that included Nightwing rushing through the streets of Bludhaven in a mask and boxers because some villain had forced him to strip and he had to chase the crook down to get his clothes back and arrest him. Tim was laughing so hard he nearly choked and Coke was coming out his nose, and Dick kept insisting Barbara was exaggerating, when Clark realized Bruce was gone, his chair empty.
"Okay, guys," Clark stood up, pushing his chair back. "Finish eating, and then if you don't mind cleaning up, I'll go help Bruce close up the Cave. We should all get to bed early. I was thinking we could all wake up early and have breakfast out and then go see the first showing of a movie, like the 10:30 one."
"That way we could patrol tomorrow night," Dick nodded.
Tim grinned, excited at the prospect of a movie and patrol with everyone along for the fun.
"Sure, Clark," Barbara nodded.
Clark understood that she planned to stay for the night, and he felt relieved that she didn't have to drive home alone. Quickly, he left the dining room and went down into the Cave.
He found Bruce at the control, typing furiously into the computer and watching five of the screens that were on. Bruce had the suit on, the sleek black fitting over his limbs in a way that would have been hot if Clark had been in that sort of mood. Bruce did not have the mask on, so he seemed stuck in between his human self and his alter ego, not fully Bruce or Batman.
"What are you doing?" Clark asked quietly.
"Running surveillance," Bruce replied.
Clark paused to see if more was coming. Finally, he prodded, "Why?"
"Because I'm not letting anymore sloppiness go down," Bruce retorted.
"You weren't sloppy."
"I let myself get kidnapped right outside the grounds of my own property. Then I let myself give into my emotional vulnerability to the point that I risked exposing Batman just to punish Crane."
"Bruce, you're human. No one expects –"
"I don't get sloppy," Bruce cut through, his voice hard and dangerous. "When I do, people get hurt."
"But we showed up and everything turned out okay."
"Okay?" Bruce sneered, his eyes still on the screens and his fingers still flying over the keyboards. "You had Nightwing, Robin, and Oracle with you, and you all still took an hour to find me. That is slow and sloppy."
"Excuse me?" Clark let his voice dip a bit, a note of stern warning coming though.
"Between the four of you, you should be able to locate me in twenty minutes, no more."
"We didn't realize you were missing until the boys got back and I couldn't find you," Clark said. "I went to set the table and you disappeared. Where did you go?"
"I went – nowhere," Bruce broke off abruptly.
"You said you went outside the property. What were you doing? We were going to eat once they got back."
"I had to take care of something."
"Bruce, who did you go see?" Clark demanded.
"Me," a female voice cut through the cave.
Both men whipped around to see Catwoman step out from a dark corner, slipping her mask off to reveal her face.
"Selina," Bruce growled, his expression furious. He yanked himself out of his chair and started for her, intending to tear her to pieces. Clark interceded, grabbing Brace around the torso before the man could choke Selina.
"Oooo, naughty, naughty," she shook her finger in his face, her body beyond his reach. He strained to grab her but Clark held him fast.
"Calm down," Clark ordered. "Selina, why are you here?"
"You said you weren't coming back," Bruce spat at her.
"I wasn't," she replied. "I planned to never see either of you again, but then I heard what happened to Crane. I was going to tell you that he and Jervis were planning to kidnap Bruce Wayne and ransom him, but you were so mean to me, I left."
"You came here to warn him?" Clark asked, surprised.
"I did. I was going to help you subdue them and take them back to Arkham, like a good kitty, but Bruce was so cruel to me –" she stopped swallowing hard. Then her eyes glassed with tears, and she blinked hastily.
"Don't believe her," Bruce ordered to Clark, but Clark took Bruce by the shoulders and turned him so they stood face to face.
"What did you say to her?"
"Nothing. She was stalking around my house and I told her to get lost."
"Liar! He said I would never feel love, that I would die alone and miserable. And then he called me a whore."
"You are a whore," Bruce snapped at her.
"Oh, and how many beds have you jumped in and out of, playboy?" Selina shot right back.
"That's enough," Clark decided. "Selina, you came here to warn him, but you left after he was rude to you, correct?"
She nodded, her bottom lip slightly trembling. Bruce wanted to tear her to shreds for looking so sad and innocent, just the right buttons to push for someone old-fashioned and chivalrous like Clark.
"And had you just been polite to her, she would have told you about Crane and Jervis, and you wouldn't have been kidnapped, would you?" Clark turned to Bruce. "And then you wouldn't have beaten up Crane, and we wouldn't have had to come looking for you, and we wouldn't have a whole evening ruined, and you wouldn't be in trouble right now."
Bruce's eyes widened the slightest bit in disbelief. "I'm in trouble? She comes over and stalks me and taunts me, and then you're mad at me? Be mad at her. If she hadn't been so – so –" unable to find the right word, Bruce gestured impatiently to Selina, as if to imply that everything about her was the whole problem.
"Both of you acted like children," Clark decided. "But only one of you is my boyfriend. And only one person in this room has been moody, short-tempered, and grouchy since I arrived."
"Ha-ha," Selina smirked at Bruce. "Looks like Daddy isn't happy with you."
"Selina, don't push it," Clark warned.
When she said nothing, Bruce got even more upset at her. "You go along with what he wants, but you make my life miserable? Get out, Selina, and this time really don't come back."
"Hell, no," she smirked. "I'm not leaving until I get to see you punished. Go ahead, Clark, roll up your sleeve, put this bad boy over your knee, and show him how much you care. In fact, I brought something to help." With a wicked grin, she pulled a wooden-back hairbrush out of her pocket. "And I want him bare this time."
For the next few moments, Clark struggled to keep hold of Bruce who did his best to break free and do bodily harm to Selina. She danced around them, laughing and teasing as Clark tried to rein in his irate boyfriend.
"That's it – fight more," she called to Bruce. "You're only going to get a longer spanking in a few minutes."
"I'll rip your face off, bitch!" Bruce roared at her.
In the end, Clark sat down on the chair at the computer controls and flung Bruce over one knee, trapped his legs with the other, and held his arms at the small of his back. Bruce twisted and yelled obscenities for a good while, but Clark was resolved and eventually Bruce wore himself out, panting hard and giving the occasional squirm to see if he could break free.
"He's got stamina," Selina nodded. "Doesn't give up easily."
"Stop riling him up," Clark told her. "I should really make you leave. You did a lot of damage tonight."
"No, Clark," immediately, Selina was all innocent eyes and vulnerable lips. "I came to tell you because I wanted to honor our agreement."
"What agreement?" Bruce grunted as he struggled to get up.
"I asked her to watch out for you when I wasn't here," Clark said.
"You what? You asshole, you had her spy on me."
"Because you go around beating people half to death. I should have sorted you out when I first got here, when you were arguing with Dick and Tim. We might have had a pleasant evening after that."
"You always make it my fault!"
"And whose fault should it be? Dick, who wants to make it on his own but still cares about you? Tim, who just wants to be a family together? Selina, who loved you at one time? Me, who just wanted to have a fun weekend with my boyfriend's family after a long week of work and crime-fighting?"
Bruce said nothing. Selina was also silent, her eyes on both of the men.
"All right," Bruce finally broke out, "I won't fight anymore. Let me up so I can go."
"Go where?"
"Out patrolling."
"You're not going anywhere tonight. You're upset and I'm not letting you go take out your rage and guilt on a poor city."
"You're not my babysitter," Bruce was sweating from trying to get off Clark's knee. "Why do I have to be the one that gets in trouble?"
"I don't know – why do you have to act this way?" Clark retorted. "I feel awful about what they said about your parents, but would your mom and dad have condoned this sort of behavior? Would they like the way you treated Dick and Tim?"
Selina's mouth dropped open. She had never been able to say anything about Bruce's parents without him blowing the situation completely out of proportion.
"Clark," Bruce's voice was caught between a whine and a sob.
"I want you to act better. You can be a nice, kind man when you want to be, and I plan to see that you behave that way more often. Now, I'm going to spank you, and then we're going upstairs and that's the end of it. Tomorrow will be a better day, or so help me, we'll come right back down here."
"The boys will hear," Bruce objected.
"No, I sent them to bed."
"What about Selina?"
"Miss Kyle," Clark was suddenly formal as he looked at her, "if you decide to stay this time, I expect you to admit your blame in this part, namely that you taunted Bruce needlessly. If you admit to that, I'm giving you ten swats with the hairbrush. If you don't, you can leave and I don't want to see you again."
Selina hesitated. She looked down at the hairbrush, torn by the choice of getting to see Bruce punished and saving her own behind. "You would hit a woman?"
"No, I'd discipline a female friend who keeps riling up my boyfriend," Clark replied.
"Fine," she gave in, "but you can't swing as hard as you do with him."
"Fair enough." Clark grabbed Bruce and stood him up on his feet, warning, "You try to run, and I'll double yours."
Bruce said nothing as he watched Selina, barely able to believe that he was going to see the female fatale, the brazen Catwoman, submit to a paddling by Superman.
Selina edged towards Clark, holding out the hairbrush. He took it, and she hesitated one moment before bending over his lap. Clark's legs were like iron, and she wondered how Bruce could ever be with someone so stone-like after years of soft-bodied women. Then a loud thwack sounded, and she gasped as the hairbrush burned around her suit-covered rear.
"Ow," she hissed, but another came just as sharp.
"Jeez, Clark, not so hard," Bruce protested.
Selina rolled her eyes. He shouldn't be concerned about her – she planned to goad Clark into harder and harder swats when it was Bruce's time.
"You be quiet," Clark instructed as he continued to paddle. It felt different to have a woman over his lap. Bruce was all bulk and muscles, but Selina's body curved around his legs, and the hairbrush spanned most of her bottom.
On swat eight, Selina cried out for him to stop, and Bruce actually crossed his arms and turned away, too upset to stand by and do nothing while she took her punishment. Clark laid the next two down in quick succession, and Selina stood up on shaky legs.
"There," she was nearly choked with tears. "I'm done. You can't make me leave."
"Go sit in that chair," Clark motioned to another control chair about eight feet away.
Wincing, Selina did as he instructed, blinking back tears.
"All right, your turn," Clark grabbed Bruce's hand to pull him near. "Suit down."
"You let her keep hers up!"
"Because it's only leather. I'm not spanking you over bulletproof Kevlar. You can keep your boxers on."
Scowling, Bruce took off the suit, piece by piece, until he stood in a tee shirt, boxers, and socks. "I get ten, too, right?"
"Don't be absurd," Clark pulled him over his lap. "You should have gotten ten for talking to Tim and Dick the way you did. You got a lot more than that coming now."
Clark took the hairbrush again and began to rain down swats on Bruce's bottom.
Selina felt sore and uncomfortable, but she was able to ignore her own discomfort as she watched Bruce under Clark's stern hand. She loved the sounds he made, the feared Dark Knight of Gotham getting soundly spanked. She loved the expressions that passed over his face, his features twisting in pain and then his mouth moving hard as he tried to accept the pain and get himself under control. Every so often, he would bite his bottom lip, tucking that lip in between his teeth to keep from crying out, and Selina found herself washed in a wave of heat that had nothing to do with her own spanking.
"Please, Clark," Bruce whined. "That has to be – ugh! – at least thirty."
"Let it out, Bruce." Clark replied, still swinging the hairbrush.
Bruce let out a bellow that made Selina jump in her chair. "You bastard! I don't want to let it out. I want to keep it inside, like I've always done. I'm not sorry. I'm not sorry I yelled at Tim. I'm not sorry I fought with Dick. I'm not sorry I called her a whore. I'm not sorry I pounded Crane into the floor. And I'm not sorry Mom and Dad died because they wouldn't have liked me anyway."
After that last declaration, Bruce lowered his head as the tears came. And they came hard and fast until his body was wracked with sobs and his whole frame shook.
Clark did not even pause in his swats. He seemed determined to exorcise the guilt out of his boyfriend, and he kept popping that hairbrush down as Bruce kept releasing tears and anguish.
"Are we about done?" Clark asked. "Can we move forward from here or do you need another round while I explain to you how much your parents did love you, just like the boys and I do?"
"Nooooo!" Bruce wailed. "No more – I'll be good."
"Selina," Clark looked at her, signaling it was time for her to go.
She stood up and came to stand beside Bruce. "Shhh," she soothed as she brushed his damp hair back.
He looked up at her, his face red and streaked with tears. She smiled at him and leaned down to press a soft kiss against his sweaty forehead. "Find me later," she told Clark. "We can talk then."
Clark gave a nod, and she slipped away.
"Five more," Clark said as he raised the brush again.
Bruce gave a sob, but he didn't protest. Clark gave him the last five at superspeed, so fast that Bruce stopped breathing at the impact of the pain.
"Oowww, Claaaark!" he wailed. "Why? Why do you have to do that?"
"Because it does you a world of good." Clark lifted him up and set him down on the same knee. Bruce grimaced at the pain, and he put his arms around Clark's neck to lift himself up and relieve the pressure.
"I hate you," Bruce muttered as he leaned his head against Clark's shoulder. "I'm going to start drinking Kryptonite protein drinks to stop you from doing this again."
Clark chuckled, a deep rumble against Bruce, and Bruce just pulled him closer.
"Doesn't that feel better?" Clark asked. "Do you feel as bad and upset as you did fifteen minutes ago or four hours ago?"
"You punished me – don't make me talk," Bruce grumbled.
Clark nodded, the silent understanding that Bruce would never admit he needed punishment as a release from guilt and that he would protest until his dying day that he did not want Clark to spank him.
"You ready for bed or do we need more time down here?"
"No," Bruce gave a long sigh, "we can go up." He swiped a hand over his face, once again surprised to see tears.
Clark squeezed him close and planting a kiss on his nose. Bruce blinked at the affectionate gesture and shook his head.
"Only you could turn my ass into ground meat and then kiss me like that."
"And don't you forget it," Clark helped Bruce stand and then went into a superspeed to put up the Batsuit while Bruce pulled on his clothes.
They turned off the lights to the Cave, Bruce smart enough to not venture a last request to go patrolling. They rode the elevator up, and Bruce reached back once to rub while Clark was fiddling with controls.
"We're going to movies early in the morning," Clark explained as they turned off the downstairs lights and headed for the stairs.
"I don't want to go to the movies. Tim can't sit still, and Dick hogs all the popcorn," Bruce complained as they mounted the stairs.
"I'll sit by Tim and we'll get you your own popcorn," Clark laughed.
They rounded the corner, and Clark suddenly put his arm on Bruce's shoulder, nodding his head down the hallway.
In front of Dick's bedroom, Tim was crouched down. He had a glass in his hand, and he held it up to the closed door with ear against the bottom, listening intently for any sounds that might be coming from the other side of the door.
Bruce's face darkened, and he strode forward towards the eavesdropper.
Clark asked his share of questions, mainly those to Barbara whose quick wit and smart answers kept the dinner from being awkwardly silent. Barbara nettled Dick mercilessly, teasing the young man about his hair and the way women swooned over him ("They come for the good looks, Dick, but they always leave once you open you mouth.") Dick protested, but from the guilty grin on his face, Clark could tell that Dick like Barbara talking about him, simply because it meant Barbara noticed and remembered specific things about him. Clark fleeting wondered why they weren't together permanently – they made a terrific couple.
She was in the middle of a long story that included Nightwing rushing through the streets of Bludhaven in a mask and boxers because some villain had forced him to strip and he had to chase the crook down to get his clothes back and arrest him. Tim was laughing so hard he nearly choked and Coke was coming out his nose, and Dick kept insisting Barbara was exaggerating, when Clark realized Bruce was gone, his chair empty.
"Okay, guys," Clark stood up, pushing his chair back. "Finish eating, and then if you don't mind cleaning up, I'll go help Bruce close up the Cave. We should all get to bed early. I was thinking we could all wake up early and have breakfast out and then go see the first showing of a movie, like the 10:30 one."
"That way we could patrol tomorrow night," Dick nodded.
Tim grinned, excited at the prospect of a movie and patrol with everyone along for the fun.
"Sure, Clark," Barbara nodded.
Clark understood that she planned to stay for the night, and he felt relieved that she didn't have to drive home alone. Quickly, he left the dining room and went down into the Cave.
He found Bruce at the control, typing furiously into the computer and watching five of the screens that were on. Bruce had the suit on, the sleek black fitting over his limbs in a way that would have been hot if Clark had been in that sort of mood. Bruce did not have the mask on, so he seemed stuck in between his human self and his alter ego, not fully Bruce or Batman.
"What are you doing?" Clark asked quietly.
"Running surveillance," Bruce replied.
Clark paused to see if more was coming. Finally, he prodded, "Why?"
"Because I'm not letting anymore sloppiness go down," Bruce retorted.
"You weren't sloppy."
"I let myself get kidnapped right outside the grounds of my own property. Then I let myself give into my emotional vulnerability to the point that I risked exposing Batman just to punish Crane."
"Bruce, you're human. No one expects –"
"I don't get sloppy," Bruce cut through, his voice hard and dangerous. "When I do, people get hurt."
"But we showed up and everything turned out okay."
"Okay?" Bruce sneered, his eyes still on the screens and his fingers still flying over the keyboards. "You had Nightwing, Robin, and Oracle with you, and you all still took an hour to find me. That is slow and sloppy."
"Excuse me?" Clark let his voice dip a bit, a note of stern warning coming though.
"Between the four of you, you should be able to locate me in twenty minutes, no more."
"We didn't realize you were missing until the boys got back and I couldn't find you," Clark said. "I went to set the table and you disappeared. Where did you go?"
"I went – nowhere," Bruce broke off abruptly.
"You said you went outside the property. What were you doing? We were going to eat once they got back."
"I had to take care of something."
"Bruce, who did you go see?" Clark demanded.
"Me," a female voice cut through the cave.
Both men whipped around to see Catwoman step out from a dark corner, slipping her mask off to reveal her face.
"Selina," Bruce growled, his expression furious. He yanked himself out of his chair and started for her, intending to tear her to pieces. Clark interceded, grabbing Brace around the torso before the man could choke Selina.
"Oooo, naughty, naughty," she shook her finger in his face, her body beyond his reach. He strained to grab her but Clark held him fast.
"Calm down," Clark ordered. "Selina, why are you here?"
"You said you weren't coming back," Bruce spat at her.
"I wasn't," she replied. "I planned to never see either of you again, but then I heard what happened to Crane. I was going to tell you that he and Jervis were planning to kidnap Bruce Wayne and ransom him, but you were so mean to me, I left."
"You came here to warn him?" Clark asked, surprised.
"I did. I was going to help you subdue them and take them back to Arkham, like a good kitty, but Bruce was so cruel to me –" she stopped swallowing hard. Then her eyes glassed with tears, and she blinked hastily.
"Don't believe her," Bruce ordered to Clark, but Clark took Bruce by the shoulders and turned him so they stood face to face.
"What did you say to her?"
"Nothing. She was stalking around my house and I told her to get lost."
"Liar! He said I would never feel love, that I would die alone and miserable. And then he called me a whore."
"You are a whore," Bruce snapped at her.
"Oh, and how many beds have you jumped in and out of, playboy?" Selina shot right back.
"That's enough," Clark decided. "Selina, you came here to warn him, but you left after he was rude to you, correct?"
She nodded, her bottom lip slightly trembling. Bruce wanted to tear her to shreds for looking so sad and innocent, just the right buttons to push for someone old-fashioned and chivalrous like Clark.
"And had you just been polite to her, she would have told you about Crane and Jervis, and you wouldn't have been kidnapped, would you?" Clark turned to Bruce. "And then you wouldn't have beaten up Crane, and we wouldn't have had to come looking for you, and we wouldn't have a whole evening ruined, and you wouldn't be in trouble right now."
Bruce's eyes widened the slightest bit in disbelief. "I'm in trouble? She comes over and stalks me and taunts me, and then you're mad at me? Be mad at her. If she hadn't been so – so –" unable to find the right word, Bruce gestured impatiently to Selina, as if to imply that everything about her was the whole problem.
"Both of you acted like children," Clark decided. "But only one of you is my boyfriend. And only one person in this room has been moody, short-tempered, and grouchy since I arrived."
"Ha-ha," Selina smirked at Bruce. "Looks like Daddy isn't happy with you."
"Selina, don't push it," Clark warned.
When she said nothing, Bruce got even more upset at her. "You go along with what he wants, but you make my life miserable? Get out, Selina, and this time really don't come back."
"Hell, no," she smirked. "I'm not leaving until I get to see you punished. Go ahead, Clark, roll up your sleeve, put this bad boy over your knee, and show him how much you care. In fact, I brought something to help." With a wicked grin, she pulled a wooden-back hairbrush out of her pocket. "And I want him bare this time."
For the next few moments, Clark struggled to keep hold of Bruce who did his best to break free and do bodily harm to Selina. She danced around them, laughing and teasing as Clark tried to rein in his irate boyfriend.
"That's it – fight more," she called to Bruce. "You're only going to get a longer spanking in a few minutes."
"I'll rip your face off, bitch!" Bruce roared at her.
In the end, Clark sat down on the chair at the computer controls and flung Bruce over one knee, trapped his legs with the other, and held his arms at the small of his back. Bruce twisted and yelled obscenities for a good while, but Clark was resolved and eventually Bruce wore himself out, panting hard and giving the occasional squirm to see if he could break free.
"He's got stamina," Selina nodded. "Doesn't give up easily."
"Stop riling him up," Clark told her. "I should really make you leave. You did a lot of damage tonight."
"No, Clark," immediately, Selina was all innocent eyes and vulnerable lips. "I came to tell you because I wanted to honor our agreement."
"What agreement?" Bruce grunted as he struggled to get up.
"I asked her to watch out for you when I wasn't here," Clark said.
"You what? You asshole, you had her spy on me."
"Because you go around beating people half to death. I should have sorted you out when I first got here, when you were arguing with Dick and Tim. We might have had a pleasant evening after that."
"You always make it my fault!"
"And whose fault should it be? Dick, who wants to make it on his own but still cares about you? Tim, who just wants to be a family together? Selina, who loved you at one time? Me, who just wanted to have a fun weekend with my boyfriend's family after a long week of work and crime-fighting?"
Bruce said nothing. Selina was also silent, her eyes on both of the men.
"All right," Bruce finally broke out, "I won't fight anymore. Let me up so I can go."
"Go where?"
"Out patrolling."
"You're not going anywhere tonight. You're upset and I'm not letting you go take out your rage and guilt on a poor city."
"You're not my babysitter," Bruce was sweating from trying to get off Clark's knee. "Why do I have to be the one that gets in trouble?"
"I don't know – why do you have to act this way?" Clark retorted. "I feel awful about what they said about your parents, but would your mom and dad have condoned this sort of behavior? Would they like the way you treated Dick and Tim?"
Selina's mouth dropped open. She had never been able to say anything about Bruce's parents without him blowing the situation completely out of proportion.
"Clark," Bruce's voice was caught between a whine and a sob.
"I want you to act better. You can be a nice, kind man when you want to be, and I plan to see that you behave that way more often. Now, I'm going to spank you, and then we're going upstairs and that's the end of it. Tomorrow will be a better day, or so help me, we'll come right back down here."
"The boys will hear," Bruce objected.
"No, I sent them to bed."
"What about Selina?"
"Miss Kyle," Clark was suddenly formal as he looked at her, "if you decide to stay this time, I expect you to admit your blame in this part, namely that you taunted Bruce needlessly. If you admit to that, I'm giving you ten swats with the hairbrush. If you don't, you can leave and I don't want to see you again."
Selina hesitated. She looked down at the hairbrush, torn by the choice of getting to see Bruce punished and saving her own behind. "You would hit a woman?"
"No, I'd discipline a female friend who keeps riling up my boyfriend," Clark replied.
"Fine," she gave in, "but you can't swing as hard as you do with him."
"Fair enough." Clark grabbed Bruce and stood him up on his feet, warning, "You try to run, and I'll double yours."
Bruce said nothing as he watched Selina, barely able to believe that he was going to see the female fatale, the brazen Catwoman, submit to a paddling by Superman.
Selina edged towards Clark, holding out the hairbrush. He took it, and she hesitated one moment before bending over his lap. Clark's legs were like iron, and she wondered how Bruce could ever be with someone so stone-like after years of soft-bodied women. Then a loud thwack sounded, and she gasped as the hairbrush burned around her suit-covered rear.
"Ow," she hissed, but another came just as sharp.
"Jeez, Clark, not so hard," Bruce protested.
Selina rolled her eyes. He shouldn't be concerned about her – she planned to goad Clark into harder and harder swats when it was Bruce's time.
"You be quiet," Clark instructed as he continued to paddle. It felt different to have a woman over his lap. Bruce was all bulk and muscles, but Selina's body curved around his legs, and the hairbrush spanned most of her bottom.
On swat eight, Selina cried out for him to stop, and Bruce actually crossed his arms and turned away, too upset to stand by and do nothing while she took her punishment. Clark laid the next two down in quick succession, and Selina stood up on shaky legs.
"There," she was nearly choked with tears. "I'm done. You can't make me leave."
"Go sit in that chair," Clark motioned to another control chair about eight feet away.
Wincing, Selina did as he instructed, blinking back tears.
"All right, your turn," Clark grabbed Bruce's hand to pull him near. "Suit down."
"You let her keep hers up!"
"Because it's only leather. I'm not spanking you over bulletproof Kevlar. You can keep your boxers on."
Scowling, Bruce took off the suit, piece by piece, until he stood in a tee shirt, boxers, and socks. "I get ten, too, right?"
"Don't be absurd," Clark pulled him over his lap. "You should have gotten ten for talking to Tim and Dick the way you did. You got a lot more than that coming now."
Clark took the hairbrush again and began to rain down swats on Bruce's bottom.
Selina felt sore and uncomfortable, but she was able to ignore her own discomfort as she watched Bruce under Clark's stern hand. She loved the sounds he made, the feared Dark Knight of Gotham getting soundly spanked. She loved the expressions that passed over his face, his features twisting in pain and then his mouth moving hard as he tried to accept the pain and get himself under control. Every so often, he would bite his bottom lip, tucking that lip in between his teeth to keep from crying out, and Selina found herself washed in a wave of heat that had nothing to do with her own spanking.
"Please, Clark," Bruce whined. "That has to be – ugh! – at least thirty."
"Let it out, Bruce." Clark replied, still swinging the hairbrush.
Bruce let out a bellow that made Selina jump in her chair. "You bastard! I don't want to let it out. I want to keep it inside, like I've always done. I'm not sorry. I'm not sorry I yelled at Tim. I'm not sorry I fought with Dick. I'm not sorry I called her a whore. I'm not sorry I pounded Crane into the floor. And I'm not sorry Mom and Dad died because they wouldn't have liked me anyway."
After that last declaration, Bruce lowered his head as the tears came. And they came hard and fast until his body was wracked with sobs and his whole frame shook.
Clark did not even pause in his swats. He seemed determined to exorcise the guilt out of his boyfriend, and he kept popping that hairbrush down as Bruce kept releasing tears and anguish.
"Are we about done?" Clark asked. "Can we move forward from here or do you need another round while I explain to you how much your parents did love you, just like the boys and I do?"
"Nooooo!" Bruce wailed. "No more – I'll be good."
"Selina," Clark looked at her, signaling it was time for her to go.
She stood up and came to stand beside Bruce. "Shhh," she soothed as she brushed his damp hair back.
He looked up at her, his face red and streaked with tears. She smiled at him and leaned down to press a soft kiss against his sweaty forehead. "Find me later," she told Clark. "We can talk then."
Clark gave a nod, and she slipped away.
"Five more," Clark said as he raised the brush again.
Bruce gave a sob, but he didn't protest. Clark gave him the last five at superspeed, so fast that Bruce stopped breathing at the impact of the pain.
"Oowww, Claaaark!" he wailed. "Why? Why do you have to do that?"
"Because it does you a world of good." Clark lifted him up and set him down on the same knee. Bruce grimaced at the pain, and he put his arms around Clark's neck to lift himself up and relieve the pressure.
"I hate you," Bruce muttered as he leaned his head against Clark's shoulder. "I'm going to start drinking Kryptonite protein drinks to stop you from doing this again."
Clark chuckled, a deep rumble against Bruce, and Bruce just pulled him closer.
"Doesn't that feel better?" Clark asked. "Do you feel as bad and upset as you did fifteen minutes ago or four hours ago?"
"You punished me – don't make me talk," Bruce grumbled.
Clark nodded, the silent understanding that Bruce would never admit he needed punishment as a release from guilt and that he would protest until his dying day that he did not want Clark to spank him.
"You ready for bed or do we need more time down here?"
"No," Bruce gave a long sigh, "we can go up." He swiped a hand over his face, once again surprised to see tears.
Clark squeezed him close and planting a kiss on his nose. Bruce blinked at the affectionate gesture and shook his head.
"Only you could turn my ass into ground meat and then kiss me like that."
"And don't you forget it," Clark helped Bruce stand and then went into a superspeed to put up the Batsuit while Bruce pulled on his clothes.
They turned off the lights to the Cave, Bruce smart enough to not venture a last request to go patrolling. They rode the elevator up, and Bruce reached back once to rub while Clark was fiddling with controls.
"We're going to movies early in the morning," Clark explained as they turned off the downstairs lights and headed for the stairs.
"I don't want to go to the movies. Tim can't sit still, and Dick hogs all the popcorn," Bruce complained as they mounted the stairs.
"I'll sit by Tim and we'll get you your own popcorn," Clark laughed.
They rounded the corner, and Clark suddenly put his arm on Bruce's shoulder, nodding his head down the hallway.
In front of Dick's bedroom, Tim was crouched down. He had a glass in his hand, and he held it up to the closed door with ear against the bottom, listening intently for any sounds that might be coming from the other side of the door.
Bruce's face darkened, and he strode forward towards the eavesdropper.