theknightshift | inbox (etraya)

[ No he doesn't stop her. His time in Etraya has been colored with pushing away the people he's closest to. He would never admit it, but it's made his time here very lonely. So having her here is a reprieve. Like his world isn't so narrow and that he's not the lone figure in it. At one point it had been wide enough to encompass everyone. They're not together, but she makes him feel like his world can be all encompassing again.

He looks down at her as she stays close by. Bruce keeps his arms folded so he doesn't snake them around her waist and hold her there. ]

What is it?

( It doesn't escape her notice that even if he lets her closer, he doesn't pull her in. Doesn't wrap his arms around her the way he has so many times in the past. It's strange in a way, but it's for the best, she thinks.

Not that it stops her from continuing to lean against him the way she is. Entirely too at home in his space, every bit a cat doing as she pleases. And it helps, too, to get the words off her tongue. )

How did it feel, ( she starts after a thoughtful moment, shifting back only so she can look down properly at the symbol across his chest. A symbol Clark had worn for just a couple of hours once for a double date. It feels like a lifetime ago. ) Realizing this Clark isn't him?

( The Clark he knows. The one he'd made memories with, the one he'd gotten to know and care about. )

[ It is for the best. Their differences were stark and sometimes feel insurmountable. Even when it's easy to be with her, Bruce also has not forgotten how terrible he felt when she left him at the altar.

In the end, he believes no one else could fit in his life the way Selina does. But right now? They were a long way from that.

Her question lands where the homesickness lives. He's been content to ignore it for now when there's so much to do. Looking after the others, trying to figure out what Etraya's deal is--he didn't have time to pine for home. But Selina always knows how to wedge open that closed box. ]

He's a familiar stranger.

[ He's met other Supermen before and at his core, Clark is Clark no matter the world he comes from. He just misses the camaraderie. Trust isn't transferable. It has to be rebuilt and Bruce has other priorities. ]

Why?

( A familiar stranger. She supposes that's one way to look at it. Even if she looked different, didn't have her memories, there were still plenty of moments where Selina could feel that she was still Lois. Someone she'd come to know even if the wrapping had been different.

She offers a low hum of acknowledgement, looking down at her hand where it's resting on the forearm of one of his folded arms. It almost seems like she isn't going to answer when she steps back, lets her hands slide away to instead hang at her sides.)

I met Lois. ( The reply finally comes after a moment, and she lets her eyes lift, back to his face. ) The Lois from this Clark's world.

( A Lois who had never met her. Become her friend. )

[ So Selina knows what the strangeness feels like. Seeing someone you know, living a life you're not apart of. They are somehow the person you know and not. Familiar but in a way that doesn't make sense.

It could be disconcerting.

He's grateful that most of his children and Selina herself are from a place that it doesn't feel eerie. ]

I spoke to her briefly. [ She gave him a granola bar that he still hasn't eaten. ] Do you plan to keep talking to her?

( She does, and she's decided she doesn't like it. Bruce might be a loner, the kind of person stands by this idea that he doesn't have or need anyone, but she thinks she's the one here who has a much smaller circle. Only a couple of people who truly hold her close in the same way she does them. Lois had been one of them.

Though maybe it's a good thing she isn't like him in that regard. What would she do if she had children, a family, and one of them showed up and didn't know her? Would she be able to harden her heart to it the way Bruce might? She hasn't even been able to successfully distance herself from the other Bruce despite everything.

A quiet breath leaves her, clouding around her lips as she takes a couple steps away. Her hands go neatly behind her as she does, letting herself pace near the edge as her head tips back to look up at the sky. )

I think so. ( She answers finally, glancing over her shoulder at him. ) You talk to Clark, don't you?

[ Selina has his attention. She would always when she's close, because for him, she's not. As long as they're like this, sometimes Bruce can forget that they're apart. It's foolish, but it feels good too and for once, he lets himself feel it. He'll course correct soon enough.

He watches her while she paces the building's edge, always walking a razor thin margin between safety and the wild abandon that comes from diving off a roof. Bruce knows, because he does it too. If she leaps, he would follow. ]

Not lately. [ He admits after a silence that goes on a moment too long. Or ever. He doesn't want to start over. But maybe starting over wouldn't be so bad. He misses Clark, even if he'd never have the words to say it. ]

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