Buddy Talk

Bruce heard the elevator doorbell ding.  Slightly surprised, he moved to open the door.
Clark was standing on the other side.  "Um... hey," he said.
"...Hey," Bruce replied.  "What are you doing here?"

Clark paused for a moment.  "...Diana asked me to the Winter Formal."
Bruce nodded upwards in understanding.  "Ah. Come on in, then."

Bruce walked over to the fridge.  "Want something to drink?"
"Sure; thanks."
Bruce leaned into the fridge and grabbed a soda can, tossing it to Clark before grabbing one for himself.

Clark looked down at the can.  "Root Beer.  My favorite.  How'd you—"
"You're a farmboy from Kansas.  It was either that or Dr. Pepper, and I figured you had better taste than that."

Clark grinned a little.
"So, did you say yes?" Bruce asked, taking a seat at the bar next to Clark.
"Well, yeah," Clark said. "I mean, I didn't have any reason not to go, and it's not like I'd be going with anyone else."
"Mmm," Bruce hummed, sipping his drink.  "So do you like her?"
Clark wasn't sure how to respond.  "Uh... well, I mean... I don't know."
Bruce raised an eyebrow at him.
"I think she's great and all," Clark began, "but I'm not sure that I want to be dating her."
Bruce knew what he meant. "You think of her as a friend, and you're not sure you want to be changing that."
"Yeah."

Bruce paused for a moment.  "You know she likes you, right?"
Clark winced.  "I was worried about that.  Are you sure?"
"Mmhmm.  She looks at you differently."
Clark wasn't sure he wanted to hear the answer, but he asked the question anyway. "What do you mean 'differently'?"
"She looks at everyone pretty much the same way.  Like they're nothing special.  She cares about people, a lot more than she lets on, but she doesn't show it.  Except with you."
"Why would she do that?"
Bruce looked at Clark like he should know the answer already. "You two are maybe the only people on Earth who can fly and punch through solid steel.  And besides, you're probably the only guy in the universe who can actually live up to her insane moral code."
Clark was confused.  "...insane moral code?"
Bruce raised an eyebrow again.  "You haven't noticed?"
Clark shrugged.
Bruce looked out the window across the city as he gathered his thoughts.  "She and I talk sometimes while we train.  I've gotten to know her a little.  Back on her island, the women are indoctrinated with this belief that the outside world—'Man's World'—is corrupt.  If I understand correctly, she's supposed to eventually become the 'Ambassador of Truth', who is supposed to fix the world's morality problem."
Clark frowned at this. "She's supposed to WHAT?"
"Yeah. Exactly," Bruce said dryly. "She's supposed to 'act as an example', to show mankind the error of its ways.  Like a high-and-mighty priestess."
Clark sighed.  This certainly all made sense to him now.  Diana always did seem a little detached... and maybe a little judgmental.  But on the other hand, Clark wasn't the type to let himself assume the worst of anyone.
"Are you sure it's not just that she's... I don't know... going through a weird 'phase' or something?  Maybe she's just had bad experiences with guys before?"
Bruce cocked an eyebrow for a third time.  It was starting to annoy Clark.  "What do you mean?" Bruce asked.
"Well, we know she dated Hal for a while, and that didn't end well."
"Hal?"
"Oh, that's right; you didn't meet him.  Yeah, Hal Jordan. He's an ex-boyfriend of Diana's from Coast City.  He takes a couple of classes at Metropolis High, but does the rest at the Wayne-Ferris Academy.  Diana ran into him in the hallway at school when he first showed up, and... well, it wasn't pretty."
Bruce was surprised. "Hal Jordan is an ex-boyfriend of Diana's?"
"Yeah; you know him?"
"I've been reading up on the Academy and the projects we've got going on there.  Hal Jordan is one of the top candidates to begin training for the new prototype aircraft."
"Really?  Wow; that's cool."

Bruce was slightly curious at the fact that Clark—who had the power to fly—thought planes were cool.  But he kept on-track with the conversation.  "If she had a bad break-up with Hal, then that might've only added to whatever nonsense she learned from the other Amazons."
"So... you really think she's an Amazon?  From a paradise island?"
"I'm not sure exactly what she is, but what she says is probably true, in a vague sense at least.  There's no proof that her 'people' are the true Amazons of myth, but they probably do exist."
Clark nodded in acknowledgment, then frowned.  "What did you mean about me being 'the only guy who can live up to her moral code'?"
Bruce paused to think before speaking. "You were raised on a farm, correct?"
"Yeah."
"In Kansas."
"Yeah."
"Your family goes to church?"
"Yeah, my family's gone to the same church for three generations."
"And your parents taught you 'right from wrong,' and all that?"
Clark chuckled a little. "Yeah, definitely.  I got a lot of lectures.  Still do, sometimes."
"Right.  Basically, you're the poster-boy for the American way.  You've got that look in your eye, like you always know the right thing to do."
Clark frowned again. "But I don't always know the right thing to do."
"But you figure it out eventually, and you always do the right thing, if you can."
"Well... I mean... if I can, then I try."
"Exactly.  You're one of very few teenagers in the world that actually cares about doing the right thing, regardless of what you get out of it."
"Well, I don't think that's true..."
"It is."
Clark became a bit more serious. "No, that's not the case.  Just because we hear about all the bad things people have done doesn't mean that there aren't still plenty of good people out there willing to do the right thing."
Bruce halfway-smiled and shook his head. "That's exactly what I'm talking about.  You believe the best in people, even when it's not true."
"And you believe the worst in people."
"Do you honestly believe that the average person in this world cares about anyone but themselves and the people closest to them?"
Clark's eyes were firmly set.  "Yes. I do."
Bruce let it go at that.
Clark didn't.  "Bruce?  What do you really believe in?"
Bruce almost chuckled.  "You're the second person to ask me that."
"Really," Clark said curiously.  "Who was the first?"
"Diana."