The holy trinity being office sirens 🤭 I tried out a new-ish coloring style so tell me what y’all think because it’s a bit different 😭

They always knew, Clark and Diana, that there was no universe where they die before Bruce does.

A godlike being from another planet and a divinely-crafted warrior could survive death's claws digging into their skin; a human's flesh, however fortified, can only truly withstand so much. For all his brilliance, Bruce can never outsmart the fallibility of his own design.

They just hadn't thought it would happen so soon.

Death wasn't permanent, it shouldn't be. But they had the body, had heard the bones crunch and the blood come out in heaves, collected the torn parts of armor that failed their purpose.

Bruce was dead.

Could you imagine what that turns out to be like?

Clark, who looks so much like Bruce, can't even look at a window too long because he might think, he might hope, that the reflection he's looking at isn't actually his own. The kids see him and actually freeze up, Damian tears up and has to leave the room. Clark elects to stand at the back of the chapel during the funeral service, but he towers so tall that he haunts Bruce's family anyways.

At his entrance, Clark waved at Dick, who walked over with a light grin.

"So, you're why Bruce ran off in the middle of patrol?"

Clark gave a sheepish smile.

"Lex has been experimenting with lab-grown kryptonite. I had to call in Diana and Bruce; they're upstairs right now."

Dick cocked his head. "Isn't the post-kryptonite protocol to go to the Watchtower?"

"I prefer being here after a rough mission, honestly. I'm sure you feel the same..?"

Snorting, Dick responded. "I don't know many people who prefer being in Gotham after a rough day, no. Though, the city does grow on you. Like black mold."

That made Clark laugh, and Alfred tut from where he was still cleaning the surgical tools.

"Not that," Clark clarified amusedly. "I meant, don't you want to be around your brothers and sisters after a bad day too?"

Dick paused. He'd known, everybody knew, that Clark, Bruce, and Diana were far closer than most in the League. They were each other's first call; hell, Dick and his siblings had grown up with their Auntie Di and Uncle Clark.

Still, Dick had thought that was a... family friend situation.

There was a loud clang from behind Dick, and both Clark and Dick turned to Alfred. His back was towards them both, so Clark asked, "Alfred...? You okay?"

"I apologize for the startle, Master Clark. It seems my old age is catching up to me, and in my clumsiness I dropped the scalpel set." He turned to them briefly, eyes suspiciously red and soft, lips helplessly twitched upwards. He held the bowl of rubbing alcohol and scalpels. "I shall return momentarily."

Clark smiled at Alfred's retreating back, and smiled wider at Bruce and Diana's incoming voices.

"-one month, Bruce. They'll be together by the end of the month," came Diana's lilting voice.

"They still don't know they even like each other," Bruce argued back.

"Not everyone needs half a dozen years to accept their feelings after realizing it," Diana teased back.

The duo stopped by Clark's cot, Diana ruffling Dick's hair and Bruce laying an arm on his shoulder before dropping it.

"Are you betting on Booster Gold and Blue Beetle again?"

"I'd bet the batplane on it taking longer than a month."

Diana turned her head sharply to Bruce, an eager grin and a hungry look in her eyes. "You swear it?"

Bruce narrowed his eyes in a challenge. "I swear it."

Dick watched the interaction with glee, even as he analyzed it through the lens of siblinghood and not friendship. They... really do bicker like siblings, huh?

"I'm going to wash up, do you need anything from the manor?" Dick asked Clark, who had been watching Bruce and Diana with fond eyes.

"I'm good," he said, not looking away from the duo. "I've got what I need."

Dick thought of the bone-deep loyalty he had to his brothers and sister. He thought about how he'd easily drop everything, the Titans, Bludhaven, his friends, to be there when they call. The instinctual need to protect, a surprise each time he felt it with a new sibling. The trust in his siblings to have his back if he needed them; that, no matter what nasty words or harsh blows they dealt each other, if Dick was in a dark place, they would be the first to reach a hand down.