The gala lights glittered above like false stars, champagne bubbling, laughter echoing across marble floors — and you, somewhere between the sun and the dark.

Clark found you first. He always did.

“You’ve been avoiding me,” he said, voice soft but steady, that small smile disarming as ever. He looked painfully perfect in the tux, every bit the golden boy of Metropolis.

“I’ve been busy,” you said, sipping your drink.

“Busy?” he echoed. “Or hiding?”

You were about to answer when the crowd shifted — and the air changed. Gotham money always arrived like a cold wind.

Bruce.

Even out of the cowl, he wore the same quiet gravity that made rooms bend around him. His gaze found you instantly. He didn’t smile. He rarely did.

“Kent,” Bruce said, shaking Clark’s hand with that practiced civility that fooled everyone but you. “Didn’t expect to see you here.”

Clark’s jaw tightened. “Press coverage.”

“Of course,” Bruce murmured, then looked at you. “You look… different.”

You smirked. “I’d say the same, but you’ve always looked like you could start a war just by frowning.”

Clark laughed — too quickly. Bruce’s lips twitched, almost a smile, before fading again. The silence stretched, full of things unspoken.

They’d both saved you once — Clark pulling you from fire, Bruce from the kind of men fire didn’t scare. You owed them both. You trusted both. But standing between them now, you realized what they didn’t say out loud.

Bruce was the night that understood your shadows. Clark was the sun that refused to let you stay in them.

And both were watching you like the world might end depending on who you chose to stand beside.

You set your glass down, heart pounding. “You two should really work on your timing.”

Clark’s voice was gentle. “Maybe the universe doesn’t want you choosing.”

Bruce’s eyes narrowed. “Or maybe it already knows the answer.”

The orchestra swelled. Someone laughed across the ballroom. But for a moment, it was only you — caught between light and shadow, and knowing that whichever way you turned, the other would still follow.