Title:  Four First Kisses
Fandom:  The DCU
Pairing:  Bruce Wayne/Clark Kent
Categories:  angst, romance, repeating time
Length:  Medium [~10,000 words]  Bonus rec!
Warnings:  character death - but it doesn't stick; violence


Author on LJ:  mithen 
Website:  n/a

Review:  "After a murder Bruce Wayne cannot accept, how far will he go to set things right again?"

Apparently, Batman will go pretty far to keep Superman from being killed by a malicious robot.  For example, he'll get himself caught in a time-travel loop... a loop that brings him to a young Clark Kent, who gets a massive crush on the "secret agent" cover identity Bruce uses, and who promises to wait decades to meet him again.  The latter portion of the story is Clark's POV, as he grows up, bumps into Bruce repeatedly, and eventually figures out that his secret agent crush, Bruce Wayne and Batman are all the same person. 

Mithen is talented enough to keep the complicated plot from collapsing in on itself, and she makes me believe that Superman really could fall in love with Batman so quickly and deeply.  The contrast of the young Clark with the older and heartbroken Bruce - and even with his own older, faithful self - is beautifully written.  Also, I find the loyalty and devotion that both characters display incredibly touching, and it draws me back to re-read this fic every few months.  [Note: at first it looks like a sad, character-death ending... but don't worry, folks, I'd warn you if it wasn't going to end happily.]

Four First Kisses: The First One    The Second One   The Third One   The Fourth One