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Chapter Text

"Cómo caen los poderosos." Is what Hernan muttered, not necessarily to himself, though he doubted the man heard him. Was it a man? It used to be, a smart man at that, vexingly the man Hernan needed him to be again. "Kirk Langstrom?!"

He had to boom through the alley to get the man's attention off his current meal. He was a sight, a fright really, when farmers spoke of Chupacabra the mental image wasn't as blood soaked, greasy haired and teeth heavy as this . . . Man. "You were un científico? A scientist?" The man didn't reply, just stared at him with big dead eyes, red as his lips, red as his unclipped claws. As Hernan squinted in displeasure, he could see his own reflection in those glossy gone eyes, he saw himself drenched in red. "You will be again. I need you."

"Need me?" It . . . He spoke.

"Si. I need your mind . . . I need it working. Is that . . . Something you can do for me?"

"No." The man finally had the common courtesy to drop the rat he held clutched in his grip. "I cannot be that . . .him . . . Kirk Langstrom again." His words were jumbled, his voice hoarse due to lack of use.

"I do not want no from you." Hernan had grown out of the use, or more appropriately the tolerance, for the word no. He swooped in and grabbed the man by a collar that was dirty and disintegrating in his grip.

"I want only yes. Only I can. Only I want to. Is that understood?" Hernan wasn't sure it was, at first all he got was that same mile long stare, the reflection of himself in deep pools of red, nothing else.

"I-" The man eventually croaked. "I-" He stammered again. "I-"

"Yes you, Kirk Langstrom, that is the man I require, that is the man you will be."

"He's dead, the beast killed him."

"Then I will revive him." Hernan did not ask for permission; it would have fallen on deaf ears and dead eyes anyway.

"This is your lab?" The creature when he was planted on his feet and stood upright looked so much more human, so much more fragile, like he would blow away in the wind if Hernan allowed him, he didn't. He took Kirk by the wrist and in through the doors.

"This is mi casa. My home, it has a lab."

"How . . . Fun." Hernan stopped at that word, it was one he didn't hear often, ever rarer directed at something related to him. Normally he was a fright, a monster, a wolf in sheep's clothing is how humans saw him. Though Kirk looked like a man willing to welcome death. Why would he fear a wolf? No he'd find his den, fun, appropriate, maybe a welcome relief to his suffering. Kirk would not find relief here, however, he'd find work, Hernan had a job for him.

"The bathroom is that room right there." Hernan pointed down the hall.

"Why?"

"Que?" Hernan didn't understand that question at first. "Because you smell of death and sewage." The man had a nose did he not?

"A bath . . . How long since I've had a bath." The man asked vapidly.

"Too long. Go. Must I wash you?"

"You would do that?"

"I will hose you down outside like a dog, is that what you want?" At that Kirk turned his head not unlike a lost puppy. The man was incapable of hearing demands, seeing threats. Hernan did not frighten Kirk, a man with nothing left, not even fear.

"I want . . . To help you." Kirk nodded after a moment of contemplation. "You had something for me to . . . You needed me for."

"Después de tu baño. I can not have you smudge everything you touch. Now I know why they called you that, the bat man, batty and impossible is what you are"

Hernan was busy looking for something small enough to dress the scientist in when he heard an odd sound cresting over the steam and spray of his shower, sobbing. "Por qué?" He walked silently over to the door, opening it, he saw the man curled up on the floor, sniffling out quiet tears. "Are you injured?" There'd been so much blood, old and new, over the man. Hernan couldn't be sure if it was all of the vermin variety. He needed the scientist alive, he was of no use bleeding out.

"I'll be enough." That answer made no sense.

"Why are you crying?" To see a grown man coil up and weep, it was unsettling to Hernan. "Oye! I asked you a question." Hernan was always settled, always sturdy, always sure, but not now, not watching this man shiver and shake . . . Watching as something poured from his soul, out his eyes and down Hernan's drain.

"You don't know what it's like to feel no point." Hernan had to step closer just to hear Kirk speak. "Why clean filth?"

"Enough." Hernan felt something far too close to anxiety or empathy flutter in his chest. He walked into the shower and scooped up the smaller man. "I did not bring you here to sulk. I brought you here to work."

"Yes." Kirk's eyes fluttered, they were still red and distant, but there was something other than Hernan's reflection in them, something alive.

'Seems the beast left scraps, not all is dead and eaten Caperucita Roja.'

Hernan brought the man into his bedroom, he did not toss him onto the mattress, afraid he would shatter all over his sheets, so he placed him like that chipped porcelain he was. "Find something that will fit you without falling off. I expect you to be in the lab in thirty minutes? Understood?"

"Yes." Kirk replied. "But also no." Kirk stretched in a way a man shouldn't, bones just weren't that limber, and yet he contorted and cracked like a corpse brought to life. "Gracias?" He didn't smile but his mouth moved nervously as if attempting and then abandoning the expression.

"Batty." Hernan was unsettled again. Kirk knew no fear, why would modesty have stuck around. He was sat on Hernans bed, every inch of once dirty, sticky repulsive skin, now clean, now moon white, now silky. He wasn't being lewd or suggestive, wasn't showing off, he just was there and Hernan could not look away, not with all the powers in him. "Dress!" Hernan left, snapping the door behind him.

'Peculiar as promised.' Hernan paced the lab waiting for Kirk to find his way down. Though part of why he needed Kirk was how peculiar that brain of his was. The nanite technology collecting dust on his work bench needed a peculiar touch. Kirk hadn't been easy to find, nor had he been Hernan's first choice. He'd brought these micromachines to the best and brightest minds across the globe. They all said what they were looking at shouldn't exist, was beyond experimental. Word of mouth is what put Langstrom in his cross hairs because the phrases experimental and should not exist always made the man a topic of discussion.

"They're beautiful." Herman hadn't seen Kirk enter let alone sit down and start examining the alien tech. "Though it wasn't my specialty, I was a Biology major leaning towards a career as an Epidemiologist. Will Magnus he's who you want, it was his nanites that-" Both saved and dammed the man and monster in front of Hernan.

"He spoke highly of you." Hernan had gone to Magnus, the man did not listen, did not hear what Hernan required of him, a man who heard only his own thoughts, spoke only of his own needs was not what Hernan required. Perhaps Magnus was bright, but it was an inward shining light one that blinded.

"What do you need them to do?" Kirk had his nose nearly pressed at the little robots. "The possibilities are-"

"Leave me be."

"Huh?" Kirk spun in the chair meant for a much larger built man. Hernan almost laughed. Kirk hadn't found pants that suited him and was wearing one of Hernan's turtlenecks as a smock dress of sorts.

"They are pests, keep trying to crawl into my space, find me as I work, sneak in through cracks in my walls. What they are after I do not know and do not care. I have no time to waste on vermin." Herman saw Kirk wince a little at that. "Yes that means-"

"Pest by definition means a nuisance. I won't be. I'll repay your favor, you won't even know I was here." Kirk swirled back to his work.

"I was going to say no more rats. Not as long as you are under my roof. It is not-"

"I should be done before I need blood again." Kirk was opening drawers, running inventory on the tools at his disposal. Then Kirk was sodering something, that something needed his full attention.

It took Hernan a minute to understand what was happening, he was being brushed off, ignored almost. He was so special, so striking, he was superman! He hadn't been ignored in ages, it oddly amused him. "To show I am not thankless, I will go . . . Bring you some socks to match your vestido."

"Socks?" It was odd that the English word was the one that needed defining.

"Socks, they go on your feet, keep them warm? Have you forgotten?" Hernan was glad Kirk was finally forming sentences, it didn't exactly make him easy to talk to however.

"Guess there wasn't a point." Kirk's dismissive tone wasn't as amusing on the second go around.

'Why clean filth? Why warm the dead?' Hernan realized the favor Kirk had casually mentioned earlier was treating him in the barest of ways not as a pest but a person, someone worth a wash. "There is a point now."

"Which is?" Kirk didn't see himself as a person, cared not of his looks, his health, his comfort. Did Kirk care about anything at all? That little living bits in his eyes, what did they shine for?

"Because I said so." Hernan wasn't sure what he thought of Kirk. A man? A monster? It didn't matter what he was, it mattered what he could do. 'No one works their best with cold feet.' So socks.

"Alright." That was their origin, their story, how Kirk was saved by Hernan, with showers and socks. Though after the beginning and before the end there is a middle, finding middle ground between the pair took quite a bit of trial and error.

Chapter Text

Kirk had said Hernan wouldn't notice his presence and he was right. Hernan, occupied with his own duties, didn't notice until five days after the scientist had moved in that he couldn't be sure if Kirk hadn't moved out. "Have you slept?" Hernan opened the door to the lab and Kirk was right where he had left him.

"Why would I?" Kirk didn't turn around, he was ignorning Hernan again. "Do you want me to sleep?" Kirk worded the question differently when Hernan didn't answer. "I can't work while I am sleeping." Then Kirk chuckled, it was a low subtle sound, like it was trying to hide in Kirk's chest.

"Que?"

"Will once said-" Kirk's face buried further into his work. "I solved a rubix cube in my sleep. He was joking I think. It was . . ." Maybe the memory was hazy, or the concept of humor all together, Kirk's voice seemed to trail off to catch whatever was elusive. "Funny."

"Do you need sleep?" Hernan knew humans needed sleep. Hernan knew, had been raised by and could relate to humans. Kirk wasn't human, not entirely, not anymore.

"Eventually."

'Doesn't squinting like that hurt his eyes?' It's not as if Hernan could tell if they were bloodshot. 'He squirms in his seat, all that hunching.' Kirk twitched occasionally, a muscle would jerk without direction or purpose, he was still learning his body, his limits and strengths. Hernan knew that strugle.

"It can wait. I'm fine."

"Sleep or walk before you do both."

"Do you have a coffin?" Kirk finally spun in his chair and looked at Hernan, he looked tired, dead tired. "It was a joke, because of the whole . . . Vampire thing?"

"Very funny." Hernan chuckled and just for a moment those little lively specks in Kirk's eyes that had dulled in sleep deprivation seemed to shimmer. "Come." Henrnan gestured for Kirk to stand. "Follow me." They left the lab for a bit.

"A half an hour, should cool my synapses enough." Kirk turned to Hernan before entering the room. "Wake me up if I don't head down before then?"

"I will wake you up when it upsets me that you are . . . qué estás haciendo ahora?" Hernan slapped a hand into his face. Had Kirk ever been human? Hernan was starting to doubt. "Under the covers not over them batty." Kirk had collapsed onto the bed and made no attempt to get comfortable.

"You've done enough." Kirk yawned. "I've got it from here." Kirk didn't move, let his eyes finally shut.

"Do you now?" Hernan lowered his tone. "Sleep Caperucita Roja tu Lobo has work to do." Hernan felt a impulse hit him, he walked to Kirk's bedside, brushed some hair out of his face, ran a thumb along his cheek bone before pulling away and leaving.

Hernan let Kirk sleep long past his requested half hour. He checked on him after the recommended eight hours of sleep but decided to let him sleep longer. He only attempted to stir the slender scientist when he was worried he'd been still for far too long. "Kirk?" There was no warmth to the man, proof of life was not so easily garnered. "Kirk wake up!" His breaths were so slow, so small. "Kir-"

"Tina! Tina don't be scared it's me it's-" Kirk shot up out of bed in a fright. "It's you." Kirk wiped his eyes as he took in his surroundings.

"Tina was tu amante?" Kirk didn't know that word, quirked a brow as such. "Lover?"

"No." Kirk shook his head. "She was my . . . Friend." Is what he settled on. "How long did you let me sleep?" Kirk stretched and Hernan smiled, he looked like a house cat, long limbs, teeth a bit too big for his mouth, he was not a fright, a beast, he was somewhat adorable like this. "What?" A grumpy house cat, Hernan decided with another chuckle.

"Oh I'd say-" Hernan peered at his watch. "Nineteen hours?"

"WHAT?! That's way too long."

"I agree. So from this day forward." Hernan chuckled as Kirk sprang from the bed with a little trip and skip, brushing back his unruly hair, wiping some drool from his lips. "You will sleep at least-" How many hours of sleep was right for a vampire? Less than nineteen but more than none. "Three hours each day. It will keep your brain sharp."

"Superman?" Kirk had never addressed him before.

"Hernan." Kirk was sleeping in Hernan's home, in Hernan's own clothes, there was no need to be so terribly formal.

"What's this?" Kirk picked up what Hernan had left on his nightstand at the eight hour mark.

"It is a rubix cube. I saw it while I was out, and it reminded me of your funny story." Hernan hadn't finished the sentence before Kirk had finished the cube. "Done with the confidence of a man who could do it in his sleep." Kirk smiled, he'd liked the gift, he'd liked the compliment. "Back to work bat, I will keep you company." Hernan opened the door.

"Why?" Kirk never said no, but if the man's favorite question wasn't why Hernan wasn't sure what was. "Are you worried I'm not-"

"Because you are my company. Not everything is complicated, not everything has trappings."

"You don't really believe that do you?" Kirk asked as they reached the lab.

"I chose how things in my life will be and I make it so. Try it sometime Langstrom."

"Hernan?" Kirk sat at what was now for all intents and purposes his work bench.

"Yes?"

"The sleep. It did help." Kirk had already been working hard, but now he was doing it faster, more fluid, more focused.

"Good."

"Tomorrow . . . I'd like to sleep at noon." He was taking Hernan's advice swiftly, deciding how he wanted his life to be. "So long as that doesn't interfere with any of your plans." He lost his nerve at the end but Hernan still admired the atempt.

"Why?" Kirk could nap whenever he chose, it made no difference to Hernan. The man moved, breathed, existed so crypticaly quiet he'd hardly noticed. Hernan simply asked to see how Kirk liked all his decisions questioned.

"The sunlight, it bothers me."

"Visibilidad inferior al cuarenta por ciento." Hernana called out to his A.I and the windows across the tower began to tint. "See? You are not the only one who can solve problems when asked."

"Thank you."

"No Gracias? I thought we were learning Spanish?"

"I-" Kirk didn't quite blush, Hernan doubted he had the ability, but his mouth did that thing again where it wormed around fighting down a smile.

"I will teach you words while you work." Hernan didn't pause and make a mental note, it sort of just happened, a slow realization he disliked being in this big foreboding watchtower alone if he didn't have to be. He used to be such a social young man, Kirk . . . Made him feel young again.

"Desayuno." It was the eighth day of Kirk's stay and the spanish lessons had not stopped.

"Breakfast."

"Excelente." Hernan placed the plate of eggs and avocados next to Kirk and sat at a near by chair to finish his coffee.

Hernan had been cooking himself breakfast when he realized if Kirk didn't find sleep important, found a shower some gift he wasn't worthy of, he likely forgot to eat. "Breakfast is for eating." Hernan sighed, wondering how Kirk survived without him.

"Now?" Kirk sounded quite uninterested, or preoccupied, both, he nearly always sounded that way when he had his back turned to Hernan.

"While it is hot, yes." Hernan then wondered how Kirk would live if he left. When Hernan had bid him goodnight the day prior Kirk said he would be done today, perhaps tomorrow if some of the beta testing glitched.

Hernan studied Kirk as he blindly grabbed the fork and started begrudgingly feeding himself. "Better than rats?"

"Please don't mock me, Hernan."

"Why do you eat them?"

"Exactly why you think, to keep from eating people."

"But you are . . . A very smart man, Kirk. You can't-"

"Cure my hunger?" Kirk took another bite. "No."

"Or make something to . . . Feed yourself with?"

"Artificial plasma is closer to science fact than science fiction. I have a formula in mind that would be optimal for my condition, but not all of us have homes with labs. I left . . . Everything the night it happened. I'd been running from it till you caught me."

For a man who had everything figured out Hernan thought Kirk was missing something rather large. "I do."

"What?" Kirk took a pause from his work and turned to Hernan.

"Have a home with a lab, you could make yourself . . . Something? Yes?"

"You have the lab of an engineer not a biologist, tools are different. As I said, don't worry, you've done plenty Hernan."

"What would you need?"

"Bathroom!" Kirk shot to his feet.

"Huh?"

"Er . . .baño!" His hands covered his mouth, he was going to be sick.

"Out to your-" Hernan just grabbed Kirk by the sleeve and took him there, it was faster than explaining.

"Did you know this would happen?" Hernan placed a hand on Kirk's back, rubbing soothing circles as the man hurled.

"I-" Kirk dry heaved for a few more moments. "Yes."

"Then why would you eat it?" Hernan knew Kirk was kept alive by blood, he thought human food while not sustaining would be a kind sort of comfort, like when Hernan jogged in the afternoon despite the fact he could literally fly to the Alps.

"You did not want no, only yes, only I can, only I want-"

"Amigo I didn't mean it so literally."

"Don't say that." Kirk wiped his mouth.

"What?"

"Amigo, we are not friends."

"Alright." Hernan wasn't used to rejection, it hurt. He didn't want to admit it, felt he couldn't admit it, but this weak worrisome little man hugging a toilet bowl had hurt his feelings. "You will be done tomorrow?" Hernan kept rubbing Kirk's back though, he couldn't stop himself.

"Yes."

"Good." Now Hernan felt sick to his stomach. He thought his plan had been going quite well. He thought Kirk would be the one.

Kirk was an odd confusing individual. For not wanting to be friends, for simply paying off some blood debt, when the next day came and it was time to show Hernan his work, he looked so incredibly . . . Hopeful.

"These nanites . . . Are part computer, part biotic organisms, so to repel them once-" Kirk hit some button and they watched the micro machines scurry away. "Is easy, but they learn, adapt, they evolve. Not this second but you give them . . . A week? Maybe a few days, these are truly advanced-"

"So you made a one use bug zapper?" Hernan partially was amazed, this was the most Kirk had spoken in over a week. The other part of him was still sore at being told off, so he did not indulge the chatter he had no use for.

"No, I . . . It's fighting fire with fire, the zapper . . . Will learn, adapt, change its tactics when it feels threatened. I applied my knowledge of predator and prey. It's a fine threading of two algorithms, none of which are my own, but genetics and coding aren't too far . . Point is . . . Combined it should keep the pests away."

"Should?"

"I . . . Did my best." Kirk now looked sore, wounded by Hernan's lack of faith or amusement.

"Hm."

It was done, Kirk had done what Hernan had needed, only what he was asked to do, he passed the test. "We shall see."

"Huh?"

"A week you said? In a week if I am pestless consider whatever debt you feel owed to me paid."

"Fine. I can't stay that long, for reasons I'm sure you understand. If they return back in a week come-"

"You are staying, order whatever it is you need to make that plasma of yours. I am not hunting you down to the docks again, plucking some rat from your-"

"Enough with the rats Hernan!" Kirk bared his fangs for the first time since his arrival.

"Indeed!" Hernan swept into Kirk's space, right into his face. "You do not have to like me, we do not have to be friends, me odias tanto?" Hernan slapped a palm into his chest.

"What?" Hernan didn't clarify, too passionate, too adamant.

"Enough where starving feels preferable?" Hernan grabbed Kirk by the jaw. "Why are you fighting me, let me feed you. let me-"

"Why?" Always the why with Kirk, forever the why. Hernan knew that would always be the case with him, and that's why Hernan needed Kirk, that's why he was perfect.

"Because you are hungry." Hernan gave the only explanation he had, the only one that made sense.

"It is the part of you that is alive Kirk, in your eyes, I see it, hambre." Hernan squeezed at Kirk's jaw a bit tighter when the smaller man tried to look down and away, ashamed of being reduced to urges. "Not for blood, for knowledge, for change, for . . . A home, comfort, compassion a . . . World you belong. If I am wrong, if you dislike this arrangement so terribly, in a week's time you may go. Is that agreeable?"

"And if I don't? If you're right?"

"There is always more work to be done Kirk. I am sure I will find many a use for that mind you seem so keen to let waste away in gutters."

"It'll work, my science. It's sound." Kirk didn't speak anymore, or at all on reflection, as to what he was truly hungry for. "You'll see. I'll . . . Hernan?"

"Hm?" He let go of Kirk's face.

"Gracias." Kirk did know how to smile. It wasn't strong, not yet, but Hernan could feed that urge too.

"I like it." Was Hernan's response.

"Like what?"

"Your hambre, your hunger. I like the look of it." Hernan knew he meant more than he was saying but those feelings or roots to feelings were buried a bit too deep to find the matching words. "It's just right, feels . . . At home here." Kirk made this place feel a little less like a fortress, a little more like a home.

'I almost wish to tell him, but I do not want to sully his victory. Let him be smug for a few days.' It was impressive that Kirk in a week's time had found a way to work with, or rather against kryptonian technology. 'Congratulations Caperucita Roja, welcome to mi guarida, mi equipo.'

Hernan hadn't sought out just any scientist, not just any brain, he'd sought out Kirk, yes for his experimental ideas, that would mesh well with Hernan's spotty at best Kryptonian knowledge. He needed to find someone he could trust, depend on, relate to. A man willing to risk everything, scorn nature and the gods, to fight another day, Kirk sounded more appealing with each horror story.

When Hernanan went to Kirk's peers, those not intimidated by the technology outright, had a hunger in their eyes Hernan had no taste for, a gluttonous selfish sort of hunger. They would want to capitalize, weaponize, and monopolize the bones of Hernan's dead race. Hernan had plans, global plans, he'd need a team, he'd need someone savvy and smart, a man with a plan, but he had no use for those out for notoriety and patents.

This had been a test run. Kirk was told only to find a solution to Hernan's pest problem, not to snoop at its origins or its goals, not to improve it's uses. Kirk was told to deter a threat and he did only that. He was curious, hungry for answers, but he did not put himself above the task at hand. Kirk was perfect. Hernan was glad, for Kirk was growing on him and Batman? Had quite the heroic ring to it.

Chapter Text

"What are you doing out of your cave?" Kirk had been living and working along side Hernan for around four months by this point, he did more of the later than the former.

"Blew a fuse in the lab, I think she's mad at me. I'm letting her cool down." Kirk was in their den watching T.V, Hernan truly wished he wasn't double booked. It was a rarity to see Kirk relax. He would have liked to have shared in the moment. "You're wearing a suit, look good, date?"

"Was that a compliment Kirk?" Hernan hadn't seen Kirk turn to look at him, but he was growing used to that, just Kirk knowing things without explaining how he'd gathered the information.

"It wasn't an insult." Kirk shrugged.

"I am meeting with La presidenta tonight, regarding how we can . . . Be of service."

"What you've been working for." Kirk turned around, he even gave Hernan a smile. "You'll do well, Hernan." Perhaps at finally having Kirk's attention, that was divided more often that not, squarely on him, made Hernan's spine straighten, his chest puff just a twinge more than it already did. "She'd be a fool to turn you down, and Waller is no fool."

"You should accompany me. This our vision, no lo es? We are a team." Hernan was still convincing Kirk of that, he still very much saw him as some Igor like character when it came to their ideals of a safer world under their protection.

"You make . . . Better first impressions alone. I-"

"Put on a suit, it helps. Come, I have strong presence, good posture, but you have more-" Hernan searched for just the right word. "Diplomacy." Hernan was smart, charismatic, a natural leader, but he had difficulty when it came to compromise, he viewed it as caving and superman did not cave.

"A suit won't cover my face, Hernan."

"And why would we want to cover this?" Hernan had a thing for Kirk's jaw, more exactly how it cradled so nicely in his palm.

"Because, Hernan." Kirk started to turn out of Hernan's hold with a bit of a hiss, a flare of a flang, a sneer in his stare. Hernan's attempts at convincing Kirk of his importance were not going as planned but in the past few months Hernan had learned Kirk a bit better, knew how to improve his mood.

"Fine, but I have a task for you while I am out." Hernan patted Kirk on the cheek as he let go.

"What's that?" Kirk maybe tried to hide it but he wasn't as sour as he had been a second ago. He liked when Hernan gave him something to do.

"Keep an eye on the monitors, there is a ship, human traffickers, that has been trying to shell its way coast to coast. We could not breech it safely at sea but I believe it may dock in Gotham tonight. Signal me if it comes and I will meet you-"

"I can handle it." Kirk cut him off. "Enjoy your dinner."

"Hmm, you want me to wine dine and drown in bureaucracy, while you are out having all the fun?"

"I don't want you to return to the president with blood on your suit." Kirk stated firmly, the bat had grown some backbone over the months.

"If something goes wrong you will-"

"Be glad it didn't happen to you."

"Kirk I do not find humor in these doom and gloom-"

"I'll handle it."

"Fine" Hernan knew Kirk could handle himself. He was not a natural fighter but he was a supernatural force. They'd gone on countless missions and Kirk grew better with each one. He did solo runs occasionally, but it was rarely like this, rarely a choice, often when they were needed in two places at once. Hernan preferred working alongside his teammate, that was sort of the point.

"But I wish to hear all the details when I return. I want to hear you gloat of your grand adventure without me. Deal?"

"I'll have a full report when you-"

"If you wait up for me, we'll celebrate, I will bring you something." Hernan was to meet Waller at some fancy restaurant, he wanted to bring Kirk something fancy. Teammates shared all, wins, loses, sacrifice, spoils.

"When do I turn in early Hernan?"

"Be careful Caperucita Roja, regresa a tu Lobo. What good is a bloodless suit if I am shilling a team, yet return to an empty home eh?"

"I'll be here when you get back, Hernan. Go."

When Hernan returned to their home after promising in three different languages and signing an actual affidavit that world domination wasn't what defending against enemies small and large, beyond what governments were capable of, meant, he was exhausted. He just wanted to speak to someone who understood him, so he went in search of Kirk.

The whole building was dark, lights off, windows drawn, Kirk was not in a good mood either. "Esta bien, we will cheer one another up." Hernan went to Kirk's room, knocked. "I hear no gloating, Kirk. What is the matter?"

"I killed nine men today." Kirk's voice was bitter, thick, this was not a gloat.

"And were they bad men?" Hernan opened the door, saw what the real problem was. He didn't address it, not yet, he didn't even remark on Kirk sharply turning his face away.

"Does it matter? What's the old adage? If you kill a killer, the amount of killers in the world remains the same?"

"But you killed nine, so the math does not line up with your adage." Hernan had heard the entire raid. It wasn't that he didn't trust Kirk, concerned for, always slightly, the man was irreplaceable, but Hernan was also nosy, Waller was boring, and Kirk was a bad storyteller. It had been the right choice all around to listen in.

"You were out promising we are not monsters, I was out proving I am."

"You got blood on your suit so I would not have to. If given my choice I would have been right beside-"

"In my mouth."

"Que?"

"Across my tongue, down my throat, sitting in my stomach as we speak. That's where I have their blood Hernan." That was the problem, that was why Kirk was in such a down mood.

"You will put it to better use than them I am sure."

"That makes one of us."

"Tell me then, if it sickens you so, why did you do it? You have plasma at home, you were not peckish, it was not for sport. Why then?"

"I was shot."

"After you were blinded." They had blasted the ships spotlight on Kirk, disoriented him and then riddled him with bullets, to the point he was knocked off the deck and into the Gotham sound.

"You saw?" Kirk sounded a mix of devastated and angry.

"Heard." Hernan clarified.

"You didn't come to rescue me."

"You did not need rescuing." Hernan had thought about it, when he heard Kirk in pain, the splash of that likely frigid water, he panicked for a nano second, unsure if Kirk knew how to swim. "You handled it. If you had called for me-" Kirk wouldn't have. "If you had stopped moving, stopped fighting, I would have picked up your slack. You did not need it."

"I didn't want to die." Kirk said it like a revelation. "I . . . Wasn't dying, my blood clots fast, so fast, I was healing but-"

"They would have shot you again." Hernan would have had to step in. "You were not dying but you were . . ." Hernan thought to say helpless, but clearly he wasn't. Kirk had no help in surviving this night. "Injured, vulnerable, como un humano."

"I didn't want to be. I couldn't be. I-"

"Wanted to live, accepted living meant embracing not what you once were, but what you are."

"Hernan I slipped, in a way I can never come back from."

"That is one way to look at it." Hernan was not going to advise humans being some all you can eat buffet. "You slipped, and yet you survived, and yet you want more days still yes?"

"I-"

"Yes?"

"Yes." Kirk nodded softly.

"And with those days you wish to do good?"

"I-" Kirk saw the coy, catch the flow of this conversation squint in Hernan's eyes. "Yes Hernan." He still refused to smile, likely would not this night or the next few days to follow, but he didn't seem utterly hopeless and that was something.

"Together we will Kirk, keep living, make the world a place safe to do so. For those who are vulnerable always we must be strong, that is what we will do. We will slip, but only when straining to keep going, to do better to be better."

"Is this the speech you gave Waller?"

"More or less, and do you know what we did after?"

"Do I want to know Hernan?" Kirk was wiping his face, he hadn't before, as a scarlet letter, perhaps expecting, masochistically hoping Hernan would berate and disown him.

"We struck a deal, one we celebrated and you and I shall do the same. I-"

"Hernan I don't want to celebrate right now I feel-"

"Alive?"

"That is not . . . My living shouldn't justify the death of others."

"We are not celebrating past deeds, we are celebrating notions, futures, the ones we will make. You did not wish to die today Kirk Langstrom, you wished to live, and that is worth celebrating."

"If I died . . . I promised you I'd be here when you got back. I . . . Didn't want to let you down Hernan. I promised you I'd finish the job, if I died I would have-"

"If you were to die Kirk Langstrom, more than nine would be dead. So think of it that way if it pleases you. You saved lives today with your resilience." Hernan put a swift stop to Kirk's ifs, they didn't elicited the same amusement his endless why's did.

"Hernan?"

"Yes?"

"How do you do it?"

"Hacer lo?"

"How are you so . . . Optimistic? Hopeful?"

Kirk couldn't blush but Hernan could. He'd spoken, swore, and pledged his promises of a better future to president Waller and her advisors. While they eventually reached an agreement that was more a stalemate, he felt no one in that room saw him as a hero, as someone who would use the sun's energy to bring brighter days. They saw him as an anger to be quelled, a bomb to be defused. No one saw Hernan the way he wanted to be seen, no one but Kirk, not yet.

"Drinking helps. I have talked and talked Kirk, please, have a drink with me? Just the one. I brought you something just as promised. It will wash the taste out of your mouth I promise."

"Blood? Hernan I've had my-" Kirk blinked a bit wide as Hernan handed over a thermos.

"Duck blood soup, supposed to have propiedades medicinales, good for you. Yes I know soup is not a drink per . . . Kirk?" Hernan watched as Kirk stood from his bed and walked to his bathroom wordlessly. "I was not mocking, I was trying-"

"If I get blood on your expensive bottle of Sol Tarasco I'll never hear the end of it." Kirk was washing his hands, of blood, of guilt, of this conversation.

"For a shadow made of science you make so many messes."

"How many tidy bats do you know?" Kirk walked past Hernan and out to fetch the aforementioned alcohol.

'Proud of you Kirk.' Hernan smirked as he followed after him. 'The time I need to remind you to care for yourself, that you are worth keeping, to wash up and get back to work have passed. You have worth Kirk Langstrom. I saw it, you now see it, soon so will el mundo.'

"To . . . Did she agree to the name?" Kirk handed Hernan his glass. "The justice league?" He then poured his own.

"Of course, how could she not?" The rims of their drinks clicked. "To us, and the future we will make." Hernan smiled over the sip, staring at his reflection in Kirk's eyes, that shimmering hunger, pooling red, it was such a complimentary light. "So?" He wad dying to know, he could not not know.

"So what Hernan?"

"Duck? How is it?"

Hernan often when out alone, would peer around and see things that reminded him of Kirk. He'd been in Shanghai when he saw a line around the corner to a soup shop specializing in the only ingredient Kirk could stomach.

"It's not just blood, there are spices." Hernan perhaps had misjudged, watching as Kirk's eyes went wide, his tongue clearly rolling around in his mouth. He waited for Kirk's face to fully curdle, for his hand to shoot up to excuse himself. "It's. . . Sour, spicy . . . I've tasted nothing but iron for . . . What seems like . . ." Kirk shook his head. "I like it, I've missed . . . Flavor." Kirk didn't smile but he didn't have to.

"finalmente!" Hernan had a large enough grin for the both of them. "I have not heard you like a single thing that didn't belong on a spreadsheet since you've arrived."

"I like things."

Kirk surprised Hernan again, when he sat down on the couch. "Is the lab still down?" He'd already done everything Hernan had asked, been a hero, lived to tell the tale, celebrated with as much mirth as he could muster. Normally at this point Kirk would 'remember' some research to curl up with, it was his stress release, his escape. "I will look at those fuses."

"Don't you've done enough. Sit and have another drink, Hernan."

"It's no bother I know-"

"I figure there is more to the story of your ambitions being realized than the president saying yes?"

"You-" Kirk couldn't say it, wouldn't ask it of Hernan, but he wanted not to be alone. He wanted company. He wanted to hear the confident musings of hope and idealism. 'Sit, have another drink.' Is what he said. 'With me' is what he left out.

"She took mucha persuasión." Hernan hovered over the couch and plopped down next to Kirk. "She is ambitious herself, hard to see other visions, but I showed her what we have already accomplished mi-" Hernan stopped himself, he didn't want to ruin this moment, and every moment he called Kirk a friend crashed and burned tremendously. "She could not help but be impressed."

Hernan went on explaining from appetizers to end how his night went. Kirk listend, nodded, he eventually started yawning as the story grew long. "Do I bore-" Hernan snapped his mouth shut. Kirk had fallen asleep, Hernan attributed it, not to being bad company, but that Kirk had a full stomach and a long night.

"Eres frio caperucita roja." Hernan tugged Kirk's shoulder in against his chest, he was still damp from his fall into the river. "Apóyate en tu lobo." It was in this moment Hernan realized not only did Kirk's jaw fit perfectly in his hand, but his body was perfectly suited to fold in and curl up against Hernan's own. "I am here for you . . . It is nice when you are . . . Here with me I missed you tonight . . . Mi amigo." Even in his sleep Kirk tussle softly against the term.

Hernan felt one of those odd urges Kirk stir in him. "Me haces sentir cálido." He kissed the top of Kirk's head and moved not an inch more, afraid he'd wake the flighty scientist. He let his face rest in Kirk's hair, let his own eyes close. "A secret caperucita roja? I was cold before meeting you. I do not want to feel cold again."

It was two months later that Hernan needed Kirk to unstick him, to comfort him, not to warm him though, he was already piping hot. "Cómo se atreve ella?!" Hernan slammed the door closed behind him as he entered their den.

"Quién se cree que es?!" He rode the elevator down to the lab without a thought. He couldn't think, he was too angry, so insulted, disrespected, dirty.

"Ella piensa que soy basura?" He at first was upset that Kirk was sitting at his work as if nothing had happened.

"Welcome back Hernan." Kirk stated matter a factly.

"Welcome . . . Did you not see what happened?"

"At your interview? My ears are better than my eyes. I listened." Kirk's tone was cool, calm, emotionless.

"Did you not hear her spit on me?!" Hernan had been speaking at a panel, debating the necessity, the pros and cons of heros when one of the alternate 'experts' stood from her seat and spat right in his face.

"I did, you handled it well." Kirk shrugged, his shoulders still turned to Hernan.

"I could not handle it at all! That Coño-" Kirk finally turned around, that word demanded attention no matter the language. "If I had blinked wrong, if I had taken a deep breath, cleared my throat, God forbid stood at my assailant, oh they would have strung me up. So I must ser el mejor hombre! I must always be the better man Kirk! I was to do nothing but take it, allow it! Welcome her to disrespect me. Spat on me Kirk, like un perro, like basura." He felt as if he didn't matter, as if he was not viewed as a person. "Kirk I felt . . . Felt-"

"Powerless." Kirk stood from his chair and stared at Hernan, not fearful, not judgmental, just knowing. He knew Hernan so well.

"Yes."

"You're not powerless Hernan, you never are. You are the most powerful man I know."

"Yes the big scary alien that all tremble before. Not today Kirk, no-"

"That's not what I meant."

"How did you mean then?" Hernan hated that he sounded like a child throwing a fit.

"You are a man who rose the dead, who inspires minds. You are powerful because you are passionate Hernan, because you see the world, people, as they can be, not as they are."

"Tonight, I do not feel I was that man." Hernan sighed more defeated than angry. "I feel nothing but the spit on-"

"Where?" Kirk asked just as calm and unrushed as before. The only thing that had changed was his spot, no longer standing at a measured distance. He'd fluttered over to Hernan's face, his cold hands cupping Hernan's hot cheeks. "Here?" Kirk leaned in, licked Hernan's skin, soft, slow, tender. "There, all gone." He ran his pointed fingernails through Hernan's goatee. "Much better."

"Kirk?" Hernan didn't know what to do, what to say. He was full of drive, had been fuming with anger, but at feeling Kirk's tongue against his skin it was like his brain was reset, it was all he could focus on.

"Hernan, I ignored it because her opinion was wrong, so not worth my time, or yours. Her action is not worth the attention she was grabbing for. You were the bigger man, you won, it's not something you should feel down-" Kirk let go, stepped back. "But you were stuck in a loop, and to break the cycle I had to do something to distract you. I-"

"All psychological warfare then?" Hernan grabbed Kirk's wrist, not wanting Kirk to scurry off, he wasn't just going to lick Hernan's face and leave it at that. He let his other hand rest on the small of Krik's back. Truth be told, Hernan didn't want to be left.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have. I won't ever touch you like that a-"

"Kirk?" Hernan pulled Kirk closer. After being given no choice but to sit and take, Hernan had to move, he did what he wanted, not what was the strategic move, he kissed Kirk's neck. "We are not friends, that is the line in the sand?" He bit softly, Kirk stirred, he shivered.

"I'm sorry Hernan, I can never look at you as a friend. It is not what we are." Kirk opened up his neck as he spoke, allowed his hands to be pulled behind his back bunched in one strong fist. He was giving Hernan control when he needed it most, when it had been stripped of it, when he was starving for it.

"Tell me caperucita roja." Hernan found a new grit to his voice, closer to a growl. "Do you have sex with acquaintances?" Hernan shared everything with Kirk, perhaps if he felt dirty he wanted to share that with Kirk too.

He knew that was too crass, even if Kirk had started it, that Superman was to be level headed, not lewd, always the better man. He waited for Kirk to stammer out no and ask to be released, Hernan was searching his soul for the ability to do so.

"There's a first time for everything." Was Kirk's answer. Hernan looked bewildered at his teammate. Kirk was showing strength, allowing Hernan to give into a moment of weakness. Kirk kissed him.

"Si? Me quieres?"

Hernan had so much energy, so much passionate, frustrated blood pumping through his veins. He'd been forced to do nothing during his interview, got no satisfaction. Was Kirk offering an alternative? An outlet? Could he work his frustrations out not with violent retaliation but pleasure? Kirk did always come up with the best ideas.

"Por favor Krik, say you want me, I promise I will be-"

"Just be you Hernan." Kirk's voice was growing shy, quiet. "That's who I want." He'd resend if given a chance to think over pros and cons, the math, the science, the why. Hernan would not let him, now was a moment of emotion and action. He had them in his bed in seconds.

Prep had been short, foreplay no existent, Hernan could not wait, and as it turned out, fortuitous for them both, much like Kirk's jaw, similar to his limbs, Kirk's deepest to reach corners were made to hug what ached and arched from within Hernan.

"Mi calor, mi fuego." Kirk was wonderful, Hernan felt everything that upset him, everything that disappointed him, angered him in this world, everything he bottled up, he was able to let it go, put that energy to good use and Kirk could take it, enjoyed it, moaned for more. Hernan had passion, Kirk had hunger, it was a pairing that worked.

Then Kirk did something unusual, something cruel, he bit into the back of his hand to silence the sweet shouts of Hernan's name. His fangs dug in deep, breaking his skin, making him bleed. "Nada de eso." Hernan snatched Kirk's wrist, pulled his arm taught behind him.

"Be loud for me Kirk, I want the walls to echo with your voice." It was a reactionary action, just meant to catch Kirk's attention, a quick chiding swat to his rear.

"A . . . Again?" Kirk asked and Hernan was swift to answer.

"What did I say, Kirk?" Another firmer contact of palm to Kirk's pale skin got a lievly yelp. "Be loud for me!"

"Hernan!" He had asked for something, Kirk, never asked for anything, simply took what was given. Hernan would be such a bad partner not to reward this behavior.

"Hernan!" It was beautiful watching Kirk tilt his head back, his hair cascading over narrow shoulders. "Ahhhh! I . . . THIS . . . I'm-"

"Yes? Más?" Kirk's skin wouldn't pink no matter how hard, how persistent, how precise Hernan was, instead it was his sounds, Kirk's growing moans and mewels, that he had to follow and answer to.

"Hernan, please . . . Hernan I'm close I want-"

"Not a vampire but a beautiful banshee Kirk." Hernan roped his arm around Kirk's center, leaning himself over Kirk's back. "Eres mío Kirk, me perteneces." One of those impulses hit Hernan again, one last big surge of energy with nowhere to go.

"Please, please Hernan, I want it I want it!" Kirk knew where it belonged, how to take it.

"To cum is that what you want Kirk? Demand it, cry for it! Tell me what it is I should give you?"

"Make me cum Hernan, let me . . . Let me-"

"Over and over Kirk. Tu lobo perseguirá cada aullido. " Hernan drove in Kirk harder making him take all he asked for, all Hernan had to give.

"Gracias." Kirk panted into the pillows when Hernan's weight was off of him.

"De-" Hernan was going to chuckle but Kirk's action made him frown, he was getting up, trying to leave. "Where are you going?" Hernan was bigger, stronger, In this moment faster, he snatched Kirk and pulled him back to bed.

"To see if I can even sit down to do my work."

"No, enough work, enough for them." The list grew, Kirk's neck fit so well within Hernan's teeth, he even gave an appreciative fluttering sort of hum at being halted and held in place. "Just you and me. We deserve some time do we not?"

"I haven't done anything all day Hernan, I was working on triangulating predictive crime on the western-"

"Am I nothing Kirk?" It was not Kirk's most convincing protest, Hernan was getting them comfortable, pulling the covers over them. "You have done me. I am done." Hernan ran his face playfully through Kirk's hair, grinning satisfied when Kirk laughed at his bad joke.

"Don't worry about sitting." Hernan took a fist full of Kirk's flesh, giving a triumphant hum, there was a warmth there that would not be without him. "If there is something you need I will carry you to it like the prince in the castle I see you as."

"Hernan." Kirk thought Hernan was teasing him.

"Breakfast in bed? I hear you say?"

"Hernan." Kirk sighed a bit more amused this time.

"Fine idea, always the best ideas caperucita roja but morning is far away, we must sleep first."

"Sometimes I think you keep me to hear yourself talk."

"Sometimes, mi calor, my warmth-" Kirk liked that phrase, like to be thought of as something warm, alive, acknowledged, Hernan did not believe Kirk understood it's second meaning. "I feel no one hears me but you. I . . . That means a lot to me. lo aprecio, lo protegeré. You mean much to me Kirk, Nosotros-" Hernan knew if he kept doting in Spanish it would lull Kirk to sleep, it was a bit of a dirty trick, or a compassionate spell, depending on how you looked at it.

"Gracias, Kirk. Acuérdate de mí cuando me olvide de mí mismo. ámame cuando no me sienta digno de amor."

Hernan woke up alone, coffee and eggs on his bed stand. For a moment he felt confused, conflicted, disappointed, but he bounced back quickly, smiled. "Closer and closer, day by day." Moments like these were how they grew comfortable with one another, patching wounds and pursuing pleasure. "They may think me a one man army." He took a large sip of overly strong coffee. "They are wrong. We are right. I see it, you are beginning to, soon the world."

Chapter Text

Eight months since Hernan recruited Kirk, a third member was brought on to round out the team. "There are no secrets, no places off limits. Though-"

"Here it comes." This new God, Bekka was very untrusting, she had every right, the life she ran from dripped with betrayal. That didn't make every corner turn, every conversation, every promise not an exhausting effort.

"Interesting sword." Hernan was used to Kirk appearing without a word, inspecting things without asking. Bekka, was not. Her sword in someone else's hand was a Killable offense. She charged at Kirk, he evaded it with ease. "I've seen it in action. It has the ability to create vaccums that displace matter." She kept charging, he kept dodging. "I'd like to study it at length."

"I'll introduce you to it's length, just stop running you jumping flea!"

Kirk was evasive, he could make these sharp turns and vanishing acts for a while, but Bekka was a god, her endurance would win out eventually, this was not a game of keep away to play. "Kirk!" Hernan shouted for him to stop.

"We can look but can't touch?" Kirk was out of eyesight for a moment. "Just supposed to trust this sword?" He was insane, he'd tossed the weapon at Bekka's feet, now she was armed and more deadly. "That it will have our back?" Kirk fluttered in front of Bekka. "Through and through I wonder?"

"Or at your throat." She perched the blade under Kirk's chin. "I'll warn you only this once I-"

"That is what Hernan has been trying to say these last three hours." Kirk had been on this grand tour all along, just at his prefered distance.

"What? A warning?" Bekka pressed her blade forward, Kirk didn't flinch.

"Enough!" Hernan snapped, he wanted Bekka to stop threatening, Kirk to stop instigating, he wanted them to be civil. Was that too much to ask?

"No secrets, but there are parts of our lives, our possessions, our . . . Selves, that are . . . To be trusted not toyed with, look but don't touch, or atleast ask first. You can understand that-" Kirk pushed the blade away from his throat. "Can't you?"

"Such as?" Bekka still was in a position ready to strike.

"Hernan's kryptonian technology and records for one. They are one of a kind irreplaceable."

"And you? What of yours is off limits blood sucker?" At this Kirk chuckled, smiled, then gave an apathetic sort of shrug.

"I like my mess the way it is, controlled chaos, breakthroughs can be messy. You are more than welcome in the lab, just don't move anything, don't. . . Mess up my mess. Ask and I'll explain or hand over whatever it is you are looking for."

"This is what I like about this planet. Even servants have spines."

"Kirk is not a serv-"

"Thank you." Kirk was about to take that backhanded compliment and disappear down into his lab for days. Hernan grabbed Kirk's arm.

"Tell me that is not how you see our partnership." Hernan treated Kirk with respect, more than respect, adoration when he had the luxury to do so.

"I work for you in exchange for room and board." Not being friends was hurtful enough but this level of dismissal was as good as Bekkas blade right through Hernan's heart "Its out of choice because I believe in your vision, so it's not a servant more a side-"

"Superman does not have side kicks! You are my equal, my partner my-"

"Lover?" Bekka asked with genuine curiosity, she wad a very intuitive woman.

"Yes." Hernan stated confidentiality. Maybe that's what Kirk needed to hear. Sure they were not friends, but he could not deny there were lovers.

"No." Apparently Kirk could.

"Then tell me, with what doctorate level word would you define what . . ."

"I'm here for you Hernan, you were there when I needed someone, and I will always repay that. You needed someone, but-"

"Repay." Hernan felt sick to his stomach. Had all their moments? Each step closer, just been payment, gratitude, for that one stupid shower? "Kirk, I don't know how to be more-" Kirk was gone. "Fine." He was not going to chase Kirk down and grovel. He could not constantly hoist Kirk up and praise him for existing. It was unhealthy and unsustainable. If Kirk wanted to be lowly and alone, that was his choice.

"This is the team that will save this world?" Bekka's brow rose.

"First impressions are not our strong suit. Though together we have not failed yet."

"I love a good undefeated streak." Bekka smiled.

Bekka fell into the fold with ease, she was a strong fighter, a passionate personality, also perhaps due to politicized upbringing she surpassed both Kirk and Hernan at making allies, connections, and friends. She was not simply a pretty face; she was the full package.

They could do so much more as three than they could as two. The justice league, it was finally not just Hernan's goal, it was their collective calling, and the whole world was watching, listening.

"In ten months, you've reduced domestic crime four percent, we're a few good fist fights from helping take down Kobra. Yet you spend all your nights scowling and drinking like someone has kicked your dog." Bekka was dressed to go out on another date with colonel Trevor.

"Disculpas por not being more elated about a job half finished."

"It has nothing to do with the fact that you haven't had a date night lately?" Kirk had been offsite for two weeks, breaking into and info mining Luthor funded think tanks.

"He will come back when he needs."

They still had that. Hernan and Kirk's relationship never truly recovered from that month's back blowout, going back to something more traditionally professional. Though when Kirk would nestle deep in his lab, making some plasma, or doing thorough research into some other project, Hernan would keep him company, ask questions he really didn't need or care about the answers to. It was cathartic to them both. Hernan couldn't risk pushing Kirk further away, he couldn't risk losing that.

"Ugh, you two are impossible. Tower, pull up Langstrom." A hologram video screen appeared in front of them.

"No, why would he go back there of all places." Kirk was in a dark alley by the Gotham docks.

"What is that thing he is playing with?"

In Kirk's hand was the rubix cube Hernan had given him months back .'What are you up to batty?' He was having a difficult time, which was unlike him, a man who could solve it in his sleep.

Chapter Text

Hernan was in the alley in a second, about to drag Kirk back to the tower by the ear, when someone approached the bat. It was Will Magnus, Kirk's old classmate. "Kirk you look . . ." The man grimaced, if he was trying to hide his revulsion he was failing miserably. "Better than the last time I saw you." Though he didn't outright insult him. "You're really making a name for yourself. How's life treating you?"

"I'm alive, there were more than a few times that wasn't assured." Kirk replied no offense in his voice. "You're doing well, I've been following the medical journals, and Tina? How is she?"

'Tina.' Hernan knew that name, Kirk had nightmares of that woman, the only person he'd even given the covetous title of friend.

"I read you two got engaged, I wanted to visit and congratulate-"

"Kirk, we talked about that, you need to stay away for a while." Hernan's eyes went wide. After his transformation but before Hernan plucked him from squalor, had Kirk gone to Magnus and been rejected? Or had it been after, was he still viewed as not enough by those who knew him best? "This . . . She blames us for what you are, and seeing you would just . . . Listen, you're still family, we still love you . . . Always Kirk, just . . . We can't-"

"Look at me." Kirk pulled down his mask, he'd come as Kirk to speak to a friend and he'd been told that was too much to bear. "Be seen with me, I understand." There was silence for a while. "You two were there for me during a tough time, you were all I had . . . Our friendship . . . My love for you both was what kept me going, and with your help I went even further."

"Kirk this isn't a gift, we made you into a monster. Honestly I lose sleep thinking we should have just let you-"

"Hold your tongue before I rip it out." Both men turned when Superman made his presence known. Maybe as a sign of solidarity Hernan's eyes had a red hue.

"Hernan, what are you doing here?"

"I told you, eres mío Kirk, me perteneces."

"And you know I need context clues to understand your spanish."

"He said you're his, you belong with him." Will translated. "Told you to take Spanish instead of Cantonese, that decision's still haunting you huh?" It was Hernan without context now, but the small smirk on Will's face, and the inward curl of Kirk's shoulders lead Hernan to believe there was a true taunt or jeer int there.

"I wanted to be able to read Wen Yumei's papers on pathogenic Microorganisms." Was Kirk's factual but weightless reply.

"Here is a clue for you Kirk." Hernan pushed himself back into the conversation. "I, like your college here, lost sleep about you. What would it take, to convince you, what have I not done or said to be considered a friend in your eyes? It is no longer my goal." It hurt when Kirk nodded as if that was to be expected "If a friend is a man who can barely look you in the face, then I am glad to not hold such a title. What did I say about vermin by the docks?"

"Hernan, go home. Will, do you have the file I asked for? Do you know where they're keeping it?"

"Here's all the information I could find without raising flags, but if you . . . What's the line between crook and hero Kirk? You plan to steal it?" Again Magnus looked down at Kirk as he handed over the document. "There are going to be armed guards, will you kill them?"

"Unlikely." Kirk, if wounded by Will's accusation, didn't show it. "I plan to be in and gone before they notice."

"What is it we're hunting down Kirk?" We, they did not have to be lovers, friends, but Kirk was still Hernan's teammate. They had their vision. They had to make decisions like this together.

Though Magnus annoyingly was talking over Hernan again, as if his opinion mattered at all. "They'll know it's you, Kirk, they'll come for you." Was it a cure for his vampirism? Could Kirk never settle in, never settle down with Hernan because he was holding out hope he could return to his previous life?

"I've planned for that." Kirk shot a glance at Hernan and it was a worrying look, one of sadness and loneliness. "The league doesn't need me in the day to day and I've made it a point to be less of a face for the team, if heat falls on-"

"You don't make those calls." Hernan sometimes enjoyed Kirk playing fast and loose with his attention, in the moment however, being ignored was infuriating.

"Hernan, I can't compete with you or Bekka when it comes to physical power or public presence. Stealth is my only setting and unless a mission calls for it, I'm redundant at best and an Achilles heel at worst. I am doing my best to stay-"

"Away." Hernan would not entertain that excuse as anything else.

"Useful, Hernan."

"All these missions we've sailed through without you? Bekka and I both had 'bright' ideas, we need you and your mind, the one I plucked you for, to make the smart choices out of those ideas, to keep us on track. Your stealth plans keep us from scorched earth." Kirk didn't realize how much smoother their missions as three went, his rational voice able to reign in Gods, he didn't see how powerful he was.

"Any support I could have provided physically is outdone by the information I am gathering on my field work. I can support the team in a consulting capacity."

"Could you not send drones or viruses, why must you . . . Too far and too long without blood leaves you vulnerable, Kirk." He looked like he was forgetting to sleep again. 'Not under our roof, la aspillera.'

"Robotics and computer science are not my spec-"

"Yes, yes, not your specialty, but that did not used to stop you. I've watched you work, If you took something down to your desk and stared at it long enough you would make it your specialty."

Kirk's hunger for knowledge, one of Hernan's favorite traits, had Kirk buried it down? Was he stomping out that lively light inside of him?

"Kirk, if you won't listen to Superman, listen to me." Hernan might've audibly growled at the option of Magnus having a sounder point than himself. "I'd leave this be. If these radiation levels are accurate, if what the stats are showing turn out to be true . . . If it can kill him, what will it do to you? I mean you're not . . . Like them."

"What is he talking about?" Hernan's heart caught in his throat. "Kirk, If a cure is so important to you . . . We will work on it together. I know it is not my specialty, but . . . don't try something that would have me lose you."

"Hernan you're mishearing-"

"Cure? There's no curing Kirk. Is that what you told him? That you were on the brink of getting this under control? First Tina, now Superman, are you going to drag everyone down with this pipe dream Kirk."

"I . . . Stopped looking, I have other things to focus-"

"Kirk, ignore him, what dragon's tail are you trying to grab without your sword? Without your shield? I know it's your habit, not to worry those you care about, but they . . . I atleast, want to worry, want to be beside you, that is the life, the company you deserve. You are coming back to the team Kirk, that is what I need-"

"Kryptonite." Was Kirk's one word reply as he turned to Hernan. "I'm trying to protect you, Hernan, ok? For once, I'm trying to look out for you. It's important."

"Kryptonite." Hernan knew pitifully little of his home planet, not for lack of trying. "What is that?"

"Biology is my specialty, your cells? I know them backwards and forwards, I have them memorized, could see them from space."

"Haciéndome sonrojar." Hernan chuckled, this was one of Kirk's unintentional quirky little flirts.

"Shortly after Bekka came I did . . . Go fishing for something I could . . . Sink my teeth into." Kirk gnawed on his lower lip nervously.

"Because you thought I was replacing you?" Hernan approached, grabbed Kirk's jaw in the way that just felt right.

"That's not import-"

"Stop shutting down Kirk, you are better than that."

"She's more your equal than I could ever be, It was just a matter of time."

Hernan had grown frustrated with what he thought to be Kirk's unwarranted insecurities, but after hearing Magnus talk, Hernan understood this was a protective maneuver. He'd had friends, he'd loved others before, and he became first a third wheel, then a dead weight, lastly a beast. He didn't want that hurt again.

"Don't let the rats back in, not your mouth, not your head. Deja que tu lobo . . . let me keep them away." Hernan kissed Kirk.

"I saw it, your genes are under well funded study at the university of Texas, they're known for their geology program." Kirk wasn't going to stop being an awkward shy little scientist, Hernan didn't want him to, allowed him to gloat.

"Si? Followed the trail mi caperucita roja?" Kryptonite was some sort of rock apparently.

"He called you-" Magnus was still there, Hernan cared very little, though Kirk's response he cared for very much, made him feel all his efforts were not in vain.

"Little red riding hood." He knew the pet name Hernan had given him at their start. "And he is my-"

"Big bad-" Magnus was irrelevant to this conversation; he just was the last to know.

"He's my wolf. He's been looking out for me, with his big blue eyes."

"Para verte mejor." Hernan smiled as Kirk finally initiated touch, running his thumbs along the corner of Hernan's eyes.

"Listened to me with his sensitive ears."

"Para escucharte mejor." Kirk let his thumbs trace Hernan's ears. Something had clicked, Hernan wasn't sure what but he knew finally, his love, his captivation, his interest, was being heard and respricocated.

"Wolf . . . um, Cariño?"

"Yes." Hernan loved that Kirk was trying to show off his Spanish, but as always Hernan was a bit impatient to act, he skipped a line. "Para comerte mejor." Hernan pulled Kirk in by the hips, biting at his turned neck.

Perhaps it had been the kiss, not as Kirk slept, not in response to the actions of others, but it was Kirk being found eerily close to where they first met but being leaps and bounds from where both men had been. Maybe Kirk finally knew it wasn't a dream or a trick, some inevitable rug pull, it was their journey, their relationship, their partnership. He wasn't alone anymore. He wasn't being shunned. He was being fought for.

"Now will you tell me what may kill me, so I can go home and make sure I'll die with no regrets?"

"Kirk?" Again Hernan was reminded Magnus was still there. "You're happy? This is what you want?"

"I was dying when you last saw me. I kept at it, I was good at, had been doing it for what seems like forever. Hernan . . . Saw life in me. I . . . Saw . . . See a life with him, and I will protect it, whatever the cost."

"Tina will be happy to hear it. All she ever wanted was for you to live a little, to be happy." Will turned and left, whether he was genuinely happy for Kirk, or just happy he was someone else's problem, Hernan didn't know or care.

"We can go home now?" Hernan had not grown more patient in the passing minutes.

"Hernan, Krytponite when in contact with your cells, it causes rapid deterioration. It's a huge threat. I meant what I said. I need to go after it, study it, make sure it can't hurt you."

"You need sleep, a warm meal, I will get you that duck soup you like."

"Hernan, are you not hearing me? I've found one of maybe a handful of things that can kill you. I know you think you're invincible but we need to take this seriously."

"Not having my warmth, mi sol, that has been killing me slowly. Not could, has been. We will go on your rock hunt, as a team, tomorrow. Tonight? Indulge me Kirk? Let me take care of you? Like I'm sure you haven't been? You cannot save the world in your state and that is the goal is it not?"

"Why?" Always the why with Kirk, forever the why with Kirk, Hernan loved it, loved him.

"Because you are hungry, and you look beautiful as I feed you. It does much for me." Hernan's answer had changed very little in months. "I have never felt someone fit with me before Kirk, always odd, always a big loud bully, is how I was seen ever since I came into what I am, but you . . . Have always seen me as hopeful, as loving, as a wolf not in sheep's clothing but circling what is dear to him. You have seen me as I wanted to be seen, you understand me, such a smart man, with an undying hunger, and all I want is to feed it. Does that make sense?"

"No." Kirk smiled. "It makes no sense at all, that the world doesn't see you like I do, but . . . They will, Hernan, tomorrow. Tonight, I'll . . . Just me, just you? Some time just for us?"

"Si, will you get loud for me Kirk? You've been selfishly silent lately. Shout my name? I never feel more invincible then when I hear you cry for me."

"Is Bekka home?"

"Likely, means we must be louder than she and Trevor, can you handle that task Caperucita roja?" Hernan saw it, that lively spark, that love for a task to accomplish.

"I won't let you down, Hernan."

"I'll make sure of it. This suit Kirk, such a tease." Hernan left a firm swat against Kirk's ass before flying them off.

Chapter Text

"Put this on." Hernan tossed a garment Kirk's way.

"Working." Kirk was nose deep in a microscope, he was in his element.

"Not tonight, tonight is our-"

"Anniversary? We technically have only been together for two months." Kirk was, as always, impossible to argue with, full of inconvenient facts.

"We do some of our best work unofficially." Hernan had met Kirk twelve months ago, a full year.

"Hm."

"So you will turn me down? You won't change and entertain my want to have fun with you?"

"I'm working. I think I've found a new strain of-" Hernan was a romantic, counted that whole year as courting, Kirk knew that, knew him, yet they both played this game, this was the hard to get that amused Hernan, proving himself the greater of Kirk's two loves.

"Up batty, strip down and dress up before I do it for you." Hernan gave a tug on Kirk's collar final getting his eyes off the small, adjusting to the big picture.

"It's-" Kirk looked over his shoulder, giving Hernan his attention. "Red."

"You look good in red."

"I'll stick out." Kirk still had no shame, or maybe just not in front of Hernan. He swirled in his chair, stood and started undressing.

"Not where I plan to take you. Well you will, alway do, but only to me." Hernan reached out and palmed Kirk's ribs, his torso and his chest. Kirk moved into his touch, it wasn't exactly a strip tease but it was Kirk showing how Hernan had earned the feel of that moon white, dove soft skin.

"I did . . . I got you a gift, you don't have to wear it but-"

"Oh? En el cuadro?" There was a box, bow and all, Kirk was trying to not just allow Hernan in, but show his own affections. "A coat?" Hernan popped open the box, it was a long leather duster.

"You don't want to feel cold again. Now you don't have to." Hernan had mentioned again and again, how he felt cold without Kirk. His scientist gifted him a very rational, practical response, a token of love, a promise to keep him warm.

"I love it Kirk." It meant Kirk agreed, they'd been together from the very beginning, it meant Kirk loved him, would stay by him, it meant Kirk thought he looked good in leather. There was nothing to dislike about this moment.

"You don't even feel it do you? The extra weight? Good, I figured you wouldn't." Sewing wasn't Kirk's specialty either but just as Hernan touted, if he took something down to his desk could dismantle and rebuild anything.

"It's weighted? Why?" Hernan questioned as he straightened out his shoulders. "How do I look?" Hernan went to fix Kirk's tie, he saw himself in the reflection of Kirk's eyes, drowning in red, shimmering hunger swallowing his image. "You look like a red apple Kirk, crisp and meant to be bitten." the suit kirk wore was a bit loose on him, just asking to be taken off, crumpled up, thrown off in a corner.

"It's lined with lead, it won't stop Kryptonite poisoning, but will keep direct contact opportunities to a minimum, not that you need it but it will also help with your more standard projectiles such as bullets." Kirk went rooting through his drawers as he explained Hernan's fashion forward armor.

"On top of your head batty, but you won't need them." Hernan chuckled as Kirk searched for and then eventually pulled down his tinted goggles.

"Where are we going?"

"Karaoke with Bekka and-" Hernan couldn't keep a straight face Kirk went paler nearly see through. "Kidding, kidding Kirk, the traditional, dinner, some dancing-" Hernan gave Kirk a little spin. "It will be a good time."

"We're staying in?" Kirk asked slightly hopeful.

"Or, you could let me take you out? Please, Caperucita roja, you keep tu lobo in his cage night after night, I want-" Hernan watched Kirk lose interest in shy and shut in, caving to Hernans valiant coos.

"Keep you caged? And I thought I was the funny one."

"Very." Hernan scooped Kirk up bridal style. "That's why I chose you Kirk, your sense of humor." He smiled as Kirk's arms roped around his neck, leaned up for a kiss.

"I . . . Thank you Hernan, for always pushing me to . . . Be more-" Kirk wasn't sure the word he was looking for.

"Only made sense, I loved the small scraps of you I found, once I could see under the grime. I only wanted more, I will always push more from you. I chose how things in my life will be and I make it so."

"You never said where we are going."

"Over the top."

"Huh?" Kirk didn't get a better answer than that, they were off.

"It's beautiful." Kirk stated as Hernan's feet hit the rooftop. "I . . . You know I never thought I'd see it, the world? Outside my books."

They were in Paris, far enough that the city of lights didn't bother Kirk's eyes, high enough that they had a view of The Eiffel Tower, the Opera Garnier, Le Grand Palais. Far enough from people they could be themselves.

"You do . . . Like things, I know you like that French singer . . . The album you play." Hernan didn't dare bring the actual relic but he had set up a playlist for them. He hit play.

'Non, rien de rien.
Non, je ne regrette rien.'

"Eternelle." Was the album, Kirk listened to it adnausim while he worked. It was one of his little ticks, a good luck charm or mantra of sorts. He said he'd written his first thesis while listening to it and since then he used it to focus on his experimental and more out their concepts. "This is very sweet, Hernan I-"

'Ni le bien qu'on m'a fait.
Ni le mal, tout ça m'est bien égal.'

"Come here." Hernan knew he would, knew Kirk would melt right into his chest, sway like a cool autumn breeze. "I want nights like these, Kirk."

'Non, rien de rien.
Non, je ne regrette rien.'

"I don't deser-" Hernan knew that protest to be coming, caught and killed it with his lips.

"I have always wanted to care for someone, to . . . Be able to provide for them something grand, something good. I saw it in my parents, they did not have much but the unconditional love they had, got them through such long struggles. I wanted that. I wanted to be the man my father taught me to be. Verbally I. . . Lack some times. I cannot be soft worded. I can not-"

"Hernan your words are always loving, you don't hear it?"

"I've alway been too much, too . . . As with my vision people tend to think I over bear, involve myself too fully." Hernan had been defined as smothering by previous partners.

"Sometimes it's tough love, but that . . . Is what I need, what I want, what I love back. You don't have to fly me to places and spoil me."

'C'est payé, balayé, oublié.
Je m'en fou de passé.'

"And if I want to? If I find great joy in dragging you away from your beakers and books to have you do something you wouldn't, to steal you away, and make it so you want me to do so again? I like . . . Showing what I can do, always, I am a bit of a show off. Same applies to love."

"I can't do the same." Kirk, still swaying in Hernan's hold, shrugged apologetically.

"A spotlight is nothing but dim without a shadow to play against. I help you see things in yourself you don't see. You . . . Kirk when people tell me to be less, to dampen my ambitions, my passion, my power, you tell me how I am is perfect, you encourage me to shine."

"So I am a yes man." They stopped dancing.

"I do not want no from you, only yes, only I can, only I want to, and you give me that . . . But in your way, a way that is distinctly Kirk Langstrom, the reason I chose you."

"Hernan you have now listed eleven different reasons I was the chosen-"

"You ask far too many questions to be merely a yes man Kirk, you say yes but only after all your curiosity has been cured. You never say I can't, but ask if I should in a way that I respect."

'Avec mes souvenirs,
J'ai allumé le feu.'

"Come enough ego stroking. Let us eat, so we can get to stroking better things." It was a bit cheesy the white tablecloth, the candles, but all those cliches had seemed so out of reach a year ago, after all this anguish, going fondue level cheese was owed to them.

"You must keep that duck soup stand in business, Hernan."

"Actually it is quite popular, you would not like the crowds or else I would bring you." Hernan liked bringing Kirk out of his shell but knew some boundaries would take more time. "Sad to report, that is not what I brought for you." Hernan was opening a cooler he'd set up earlier.

"No?"

"You can't eat this always those teeth of yours will rot, this is not a good for you meal, it is a . . . Just try it."

"It's solid." Kirk was almost more bewitched with the need of a utensil over the actual dish itself. "A blood pudding?" He poked at it with his spoon.

"No theories, just eating Kirk, try it."

'Mes chagrins, mes plaisirs,
Je n'ai plus besoin d'eux.'

"It's . . . Chocolate?"

"Si, Sanguinaccio Dolce." Kirk wasn't the only one capable of research, Hernan had found a small Italian restaurant in queens that served it, he'd gotten a bit of a look when he asked for light chocolate, none of the nuts and raisins that usually go into the sweet pudding made with pig's blood, though any odd look was worth the look Kirk was giving him now. "Good?"

"Hernan I missed . . . I really missed chocolate. I-"

"Cannot have much I figure." Chocolate, cream, milk and sugar, too much would make Kirk violently ill. "But . . The flavor, once in a while? As a treat, a little gift from me to you?"

"Hernan, this is wonderful . . . I love it."

"Good, eat."

'Balayé les amours,
Avec leur trémolos.'

Hernan eventually tore his eyes away from Kirk, it was so difficult, the joy bubbling from him with each bite was such a treat, a little gift back, but Hernan did grab his own plate from the cooler, he was trying French food, Coq au vin, he turned back to the table and Kirk appeared to be missing.

"Caperucita roja?" Hernan could hear Kirk's slow heartbeat, he could have used xray vision to find him, but that pulse was pattering higher than usual, playful, Kirk was toying with Hernan and he wanted to play.

"I want to show you how much I enjoyed your gift Hernan." That voice came from under the table.

"Do you now?" Hernan sat at his chair, and as soon as he did to he felt hands at his belt buckle. This side of Kirk wasn't as rare anymore, it was all about getting him comfortable and confident, then he turned into quite the minx.

"But you should get to enjoy your meal." Hernan ran his hand through Kirk's hair as the vampire grazed fangs over his thigh, not afraid he'd be turned away or feared.

"I am already." Kirks's mouth and tongue batted around Hernan's cock.

"Hernan?"

"Yes?" Hernan groaned, wanting nothing to do with dinner, oh so much more of Kirk's watering mouth.

"I am still hungry." It could have sounded like a threat, it did send a shiver up Superman's spine.

"Let me feed you then." There was always a why, forever a why with Kirk, except this time he did not question, just let Hernan push the back of his head, let Hernan fill him as he wanted. "Tu hambre, me encanta."

'Balayé pour toujours,
Je repars à zéro.'

"No, Kirk no, Basta!" Hernan had played around with his food as long as he could.

"What? Are you not . . . I thought it would be fun." Kirk's head popped up from under the table cloth.

"Estaba, but, you must not hide." Hernan could not reach Kirk in a way to please him, that had to change. "Must not deny yourself, must not deny me the view I fought for." Kirk was pulled up into Hernan's lap.

'Non, rien de rien,
Non, je ne regrette rien.'

"Hernan!" The tie had looked quite handsome on Kirk, he'd left that on, everything else had been removed, it was for the better. Kirk was more aerodynamic this way, his scientific mind could appreciate that.

"Louder, Kirk, we have a whole city to make jealous, let the lights bounce off of you." Hernan kept tossing and catching Kirk, kissing brief and hungry as they went.

'Ni le bien qu'on m'a fait,
Ni le mal, tout ça m'est bien égale.'

"Hernan I need more I need-" Hernan had been done sitting anyway, he slammed Kirk back onto the table, knocking over the candle, rutting up that pristine table cloth.

"Todavía hambriento?" Hernan bit hard into Kirk's neck. "yo tambien." His shoulder. "Always." Deep and unapologetic into Kirk's chest.

"Always, yes always Hernan." Kirk's legs wrapped around Hernan's waist. "But now! I need you now, I need you to-"

"Feed you?"

"Yes! Fuck it! I need to be fed Hernan please, please!"

"Always, tu lobo will hunt for you, feed you, fill you." The table collapsed beneath their orgasm, that was fine, they were overdue for a change of scenery anyway.

'Car ma vie, car mes joies,
Aujourd'hui... ça commence avec toi!'

Once home and satiated to the point of immobile Hernan voiced a curiosity he'd had during the planning stage. "Kirk, I have a question for you."

"Si?" Kirk yawned as he cuddled up close.

"That, you don't know Spanish, not really, is your French any better?" Hernan wanted to know why that record had been his favorite, if he even knew the words to the song they'd danced to.

"I bought it, record and player, to impress a girl in college, thought it would make me seem cooler, a cultured taste in music. You might not believe it but I was considered a nerd in school." Kirk tried to chuckle it off. "My love life didn't pick up, but I found french music focuses my critical thinking. I also own the Opera Carmen, Marie Laforet, I-" He was rambling a bit.

"Tu tina?" Hernan looked down where Kirk laid across his chest. Had he serenaded their evening to the one one that got away?

"Yes, she was my first love."

"I'm sorry Kirk, I wouldn't have-"

"I do know the words Hernan, and it fits better with you."

"Si?"

"No, nothing at all.
No, I don’t regret anything
For my life
For my joys
Today
It starts with you."

Everything that had built and broken them, their origins however tragic, hopeless or lonely, it brought them together. This was where the true story started, they would change the world, they would be heroes, teammates, lovers, everything but friends.

"Happy anniversary Hernan."

"To many more Kirk."