Who:Dick and Clark What:Living arrangements When:Recently Where:Clarks place Warnings:adult talk pg-13 at best tho
Dick couldn’t be found roaming the house this time, but instead sitting in what had become their bedroom. He was sitting in the window just looking out. Mind wandering ten different directions at once. He knew at some point he might have to go back to work, or hell go back to his apartment but the idea was a bit unsettling. He’d been there at that spot for a while. The coffee that had gone cold by his side was witness of that.
He’d been in a bit of a haze, a book in his lap, not actually being read. He enjoyed a murder mystery now and then, but his attention had gone out that window. Watching the open sky. Somehow it warped into something ugly. He was back in that dark room, staring at a murky ceiling while the world around him seemed to crumble apart. His breathing had tightened up, and his heartbeat quickened. Visions of dirty needles passed in front of his eyes. At first glance, nothing had changed. He hadn’t moved an inch.
The super hearing was getting better, so was the x-ray vision. Even though that one still got to him sometimes. It wasn't as bad as it had been the first night that he'd gotten the ability. He does, however, listen to the house when he walks in. Long day or not, he always listened to the house. The beat of Dick's heart. A familiar sound in an otherwise quiet house.
He frowns when he hears that heartbeat quicken and takes the steps two at a time, jacket thrown onto the bed even as he moves over to the other man and places his hand on his shoulder. "Grayson, hey. Take a deep breath for me. You're safe."
Dick had been improving, but it was a process. He was trying to learn to take things day by day, but sometimes his brain got stuck. Today was one of those. He didn’t know what set it off, he didn’t know what to avoid. He could be left alone longer, he’d been fine the majority of the day and something had clicked. Snapped was more like it. His hand was tense, gripping at the side of that window with a white knuckled grip.
It was like he was back there, the smells assaulted his nose in the same way they had then. Clear as day. Clark’s voice cut through it like a knife, and he managed to take a shaky breath at first. Then another. “I saw it again.” He’d been seeing more of that place in his nightmares and the depths of his memories. “That place. I’ve been seeing it when I close my eyes..” He admitted. A soft tone as he looked up at him. “Sorry.”
Any type of improvement was a good thing, especially when they could only take things a day at a time. The Kryptonian did everything he could to be with Dick as much as he could. Only time that he wasn't home was when he was grabbing them food from the diner or when he was at work. Work was a pain in the ass ever since gaining his abilities, but he dealt with it. Dick helped in that aspect.
He moves Dick's legs and sits down near the window, placing the other man's legs in his lap," You've got nothing to apologize for." A part of him knew that this would happen. That it could happen. "We knew that the day would come when it came back to you." Something that they could use against that damn prison. "I'm home now. You don't have to see anything you don't want to. What were you reading?"
If he could give him a bit of a distraction, he would.
Dick had yet to return to work. It'd crossed his mind though. "It hasn't all.. I just keep seeing flickers of it. It hurts." he admitted with a small smile. It left him with a headache the size of the empire state building. "Like it's stuck or something and all I get is the same damn image of needles.. Just needles." he flexed the hand that had gripped at the window and looked up as he was shifted a bit. Dick would be there for him to the best of his own ability.
Turning the book over the title read Murder on Cold Street." It's um.. " he hesitated as he tried to focus on what he was even trying to say. "It's a murder mystery. " He was still a bit shook up by what had happened, focusing was difficult. He just wanted to disappear. Not deal with his incomplete brain. "I was.." he just trailed off, not entirely sure what he was going to say. His hand moved to his face. He was trying to get the words out but wasn't sure what to say. He was confused at everything and it was frustrating.
Clark lets his hand rub up and down Dick's leg for a bit, constant pressure that was meant to alleviate tension. Even if it wasn't much, it was something that he could do. Not that he really thought it would help. Even if he knows that it was the thought that counted. He hated that the other kept seeing things. Had nightmares about the damn prison. No one deserved that.
"Not sure I've ever really read many murder mysteries," he tells him. Using his free hand he reaches up and takes the book setting it aside, lacing their fingers together. "You were what, Dick? Talk to me. You're safe here. I'm not going to let anything happen to you. You know that, right?"
He'd needed something to do while Clark was at work. He'd taken up reading again and normally it soothed his mind, but just then it felt like nothing could. He was tired of being the way he was, he just wanted to be normal again. Dick seems to relax a little at the weight of Clark's counter touch, hand reacting and curling into his automatically.
"I don't remember." he leaned his head against the lining of the window and looked at him. "I don't know what I was even talking about." an irritated look creeping into his face. Mostly at his own issue. "I know… It didn't feel like I was here." He could even smell the same smells. His eyes closed for a minute as he tried to focus on the book for a minute to respond properly, but couldn't. He gripped the hand that held his. He needed the pressure. Frustrated tears escaped his eyes as he tried his damnedest not to let it show. His face betrayed him. All that pent up fear finally just overwhelmed him. Dick touched his own face with his free hand. "Shit." He couldn't stop it. He actually tried to laugh it off. "I'm leaking." A bad joke he knew, but he was trying to stop.
If he needed something to do then Clark could, possibly, take Dick to work with him. The Kryptonian could turn up the charm and see what they had at the fire house for the other to do. However, he didn't want to overwhelm his best friend either. That was the last thing that he wanted to do, especially when he seemed to still get pretty overwhelmed as it was.
"Nothing wrong with leaking," he points out. Even if the alien from another planet, which was still weird to think about, didn't remember the last time that he'd cried. That was something that he'd have to ask his parents about. They'd know something like that more than he did.
He gives Dick's hand a firm but gentle squeeze," Maybe we should get you a dog." He knows that it came out of left field, but it would give him a companion while he was at work. Even if the other didn't technically live with him. Didn't mean they couldn't get a dog for the other.
Last time he'd cried was when his parents died as a kid. Fortunately it didn't just crumble further from there, he managed to use his free hand to rub it from his eyes. "Christ that wasn't pretty." he was normally good at taking whatever was thrown his way and moving on with things, but his brain was just jumbled and being a raging asshole.
"A dog huh? I've never had a pet." he'd never really had the time. Now he had all the time, and it gave him something else to think about rather than his own spiraling emotions. He didn't hate dogs. "I barely remember to feed myself sometimes." The idea amused him though.
Dick needed something, he just wasn't sure what.
"What you did wasn't anything I haven't seen before."
There's been adults and children both he'd found in fires crying. Dried up tears on ash stained faces. Not something that he even wanted to think about. He does, however, give Dick's hand another firm squeeze.
"Mom has a dog," he says with a bit of a grin. He loved that dog. Though, he'd gotten annoyed when he was little and the dog had followed him everywhere. DHe shakes his head at the mention of barely remembering to feed himself.
A smirk graces the Kryptonian's lips," That's why I'd be training the dog and not you."
All the same, Dick didn't like it. He smiled a little at that squeeze though and refused to let go of his hand. His heart rate was slowing back down to a normal pace. Dick just closed his eyes for a moment and took a breath in to regain his bearings. Clark was a steady constant and he needed that. He just listened to him talk for a moment before looking at him again.
A careful hesitation before he responded "What if you play with it so much you forget to play with me? Jealous, remember?" normal conversation seemed to help him. Gave him something to focus on. He was half teasing, or trying to anyway.
If there was one thing Clark could do for the other man, it was be there for him. Even if he couldn't be there while he worked, he would always come home to him. He'd do that until the day that the other decided to head back to his place. Not that the Kryptonian was looking forward to that any time soon. However, he also knew that Dick had a life outside of him too.
"Who are you talking to again? Forget? Me?" He asks with a mock look of indignation. "I thought you knew me better than that, Grayson. I have never..." Clark shakes his head," You know damn good and well that would never happen."
Dick didn't really have a life outside of him right now. His world currently revolved around waiting for Clark to come home and for the moment he was okay with that. His mind was still healing. While he was improving, having constant small things like Clark eventually coming back gave him some much needed stability. At some point his life was going to return to normal, but even when it did he wasn't sure he wanted this part to stop.
A smirk crept over his lips at the response. "Then kiss me and prove it." Of course he believed him, but why not also get a kiss out of it? He watched him for what he might do.
Clark tried not to think about Dick going back to his normal life. Living out of that place of his, that didn't need much fixing anymore, and barely being in the Kent household. He liked coming home to the other man. Even if, like today, he'd found him lost in his own thoughts. It wouldn't always be like that and he knew it, but it would take time.
He shakes his head and smiles before pulling Dick to him, practically in his lap. The joys of super strength. Though, if the other man resisted then he wouldn't do it. "I have nothing to prove, Grayson," he whispers close to his lips before kissing him.
Those types of days were becoming less. Dick was able to function now when Clark went to work. The first day he'd been afraid of being alone, but for the majority of the time he could wait. He had yet to go get anything outside the house on his own, but that day was also going to come eventually.
Dick didn't fight, he had no reason to. He wanted to be close and touch him. His legs wrapped around his waist as he returned that kiss. He could have said so many things but he decided to be silent and just enjoy the moment. A hand skipping into his dark hair before his eyes closed contentedly. He only pulled away when he ran out of breath due to his own poor planning. "I can hold my breath for ten minutes for future notes." he grinned and kissed him once more. This time a little deeper.
The first few days of having his abilities had been hell. It wasn't the same as what Dick went through, but he'd had to take some personal days and stayed home with him. That was something that he couldn't continue doing, though. He'd had to go back to work. Luckily, most of his abilities were fine now. Not that he trusted the x-ray vision much, but the other abilities seemed to be coming along just fine.
"Is that right?" It's asked with a hint of amusement even as he runs fingers through Dick's hair, up along the back of his neck. "I'll keep that in mind," he murmurs even as he lets the kiss deepen.
He had strange bat training to back up his breath holding time. He wasn't sure if aliens could go that long, but whatever. That thought was pretty far from his mind as he let his arms wrap around his neck. He made a soft pleased sound at the gentle touch of his hand. A hint of amusement touched his eyes as he leaned into him.
"Keep coming home to me like this and I'll never leave." he gave his lower lip a teasing nip. When they first started all this he hadn’t really been thinking clearly, but now that he could he didn't want it to stop.
Someone could possibly ask Clark that about aliens and he wouldn't be able to tell them a damn thing. All he knew was what was in his dreams. Not that he tried to think much about that. Especially when that came with the thought that his planet, Krypton, had been blown up. Something that he saw every time he closed his eyes. Luckily, not as much as he used to.
He gives him a smirk before leaning back against the wall for a moment, free hand sliding up and down Dick's arm before taking his hand in his own and lacing their fingers. "What if I don't want you to ever leave?"
"Hmm are you asking me to move in with you?" one hand laced easily with Clark, and the other rested on his chest. Bruce would entirely lose his mind if he were real and everything was like the dreams. Kissing Clark made him happy though. While he might not have been ready to tell the world, he was enjoying being with him and keeping him to himself for the moment while they figured stuff out.
He wanted Clark to touch him again. His fingertips wrapped up in his shirt. Maybe all this was a little fast, but nothing in his life moved slow. "We haven't even had sex yet. People usually do that part after, don't they?" Their situation was a little different with him having been incarcerated. "I mean I guess I haven't bothered to go home.." He thought out loud, quite content actually at living there. While he was leaning there, Dick let his hand toy idly with his chest. Legs remained wrapped around him. "What if I told you I don't want to go home either?... And you're a good kisser Clark Kent." He added for good measure.
"What if I am?" It's asked even as he leans his forehead against Dick's. Having someone in his house was nice. Different, but nice. That wasn't something that he'd thought about for a very long time. His eyes look towards their interlocked hand before leaning back, giving the other a bit of a smile.
"No, people don't normally have sex before moving in with one another," he says with a bit of a laugh. "I mean, some do. A lot of people don't. They date for a bit and then move in together. The sex is an added bonus, but it's not a deal breaker."
The idea that Dick wanted to stay, he gives him a bright smile," I'd be happy. On both counts."
He watched him quietly, a steady gaze locked on the others. Dick gave him an affectionate nudge with his nose much like a cat might do. He remained where he was, watching him curiously. "A bonus huh." he repeated as he shook his head in amusement. He wanted to try it, but when they were ready. For now he was content where they were. No need to rush. "I want to. With you for the record I mean." He figured that he should at least put the thought out there.
"Both things I mean.. Dating, sexing." words clearly weren't his strongest point there but hopefully he got it across anyway.
"Then I'll stay. As long as you want me to."
"That's what I said."
Sex wasn't even on the table, though. It wasn't something that the Kryptonian was worried about. Not when they'd barely even started dating yet. Or maybe they had but hadn't put a name on it yet. Which wasn't really a problem.
"Then, I guess, it's a good thing that I want both of those things too." He nips his bottom lip.
"And, Grayson, maybe I want you to stay forever."
“Maybe the dating first.” He grinned at the comment of him wanting both as well. He was okay with waiting, not rushing into things head first was probably a good idea. Dick was used to his life being full of fast paced excitement, but maybe some things being slow weren’t bad. “Very good.” It was adulting to discuss things wasn’t it? It was new, whatever it was. With Ruby things had gone on for years, he didn’t remember.
“Good thing I’m okay with forever.” He responded as he leaned in to kiss him. Clark was the first person he’d had feelings for in nearly a year, Ruby had told him moving on was okay in a complicated Orange County dream..maybe it actually could be. For the first time in what felt like forever anyway, he had hope. It was both terrifying and exciting.