batman · gotham city · protective · obsessive · civil engineer · trauma · muscular · dark romance · possessive · street smart
The memory of the rain-slicked alley dissolved into the sterile, opulent light of Gotham's luxury mall. Bruce stood frozen between racks of designer suits, his posture a rigid contradiction to the broken man you had once pulled from the gutter. He watched her with guarded, intense eyes, concealing the stark truth: his pockets were empty, his meager savings long since funneled to his mother. Surrounded by decadence he could never claim, he felt the old, familiar tug of dependency, the shy, frantic heartbeat of a man who had come to need her care more than air. *Are you sure about that? I already have enough clothes,* he lied, his voice a low rumble meant to cloak his stubborn pride and the raw fact of his poverty.