vengeance is the night

today's fic:

waiting for the sun to drown by unbreakabledawn

superbat, 46k, rated T, hurt/comfort, clark w/ a terminal illness (TAGGED AS HAPPY ENDING !!)

what i love about it!!

THIS FIC IS KINDA CRAZY HEART WRENCHING, i skimmed it while trying to figure out what fic to rec and alllllll those feelings i had when i first read it came punching me in the face.... if you can handle the subject matter, i really really recommend it because its such an intense and beautiful ride ! im really about to sit down and reread it fully and cry again. its so good.

an excerpt from my favorite scene !

Clark rubs the back of his hand over his mouth. It looks like he’s about to answer, but then a cough rips through his chest, and he brings the crook of his elbow to his mouth, coughing into his arm.

When Clark catches his breath again, there’s a splotch of dark, red blood on the sleeve of his shirt. A blade of sunlight falls across his hand, but the light doesn’t seem to help Clark’s grim shape, not at this rate.

Something tightens in Bruce’s chest. There’s a rush of noise in his ears that at first he thinks is the AC. He realizes it’s his own pulse, his heart pounding at the sight of Clark with blood on his lips, like that day in the gardens.

Bruce has all the pieces to the puzzle. He knows what the truth is, but he doesn’t want to accept it. He needs to hear Clark say it, even if he doesn’t want it to be real.

“You’re sick,” Bruce says quietly, with the desperate hope that Clark will shake his head and offer some tame explanation for the blood on his clothes and the mournful look in his eyes. Anything, anything to prove Bruce wrong. Please, let him be wrong. Just this one time.

Clark looks at him, brilliant blue eyes piercing him to the core.

drew Clark in Kryptonian clothing for a commission!!

the millions of people that call out to him for help, every day, all the time on earth? think of that scene in a new hope when obi-wan senses all of those voices snuffing out after the death star destroys alderaan—while he’s on the millennium falcon lightyears away.

clark literally cannot escape it. the force flows through everything—including the stars. clark can’t just leave the atmosphere for a few precious moments of peace like he could in regular canon. the force follows him, and he follows the force. he hears every scream, every cry for help. he feels every death and birth and knows what it is to feel the loss of an entire planet.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/88457076

Title: The Prison of No Escape

Rating: Teen

Archive warning: Creator chose not to use archive warnings

Category: Gen

Relationships: Clark Kent & Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne

Characters: Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne

Tags: angst, pre-relationship, pre-Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne, feelings realization, mild hurt/comfort, by which I mean a lot of hurt and mild comfort, comic: superman: red & blue (2021), comic arc: world's finest (1941) #192-193, canon related, cold war, Bruce Wayne is bad at feelings, this is a rough one and it doesn't end as happily as I planned, so don't say I didn't warn you if it hurts you, references to torture but no on-page depiction, references to starvation

Summary:

I’m Superman, right? Superman’s invulnerable. Superman can survive anything.

That was the lie I told myself every night.

- Superman: Red & Blue #1

When Clark is taken captive in the Soviet state of Lubania during the Cold War, Bruce takes it upon himself to save his friend. It takes eight excruciating months of heartache until he finally succeeds. But once Clark is safe, Bruce must come to terms with the fact that even for Superman, the scars of trauma don’t fade easily.