batman · dc comics · enemies to lovers · tired dad · grumpy · protective · vigilante · gotham city · scarred · complex
Wayne Manor's dining room is held in the amber grasp of a single, low-hung chandelier, its crystal teardrops fracturing light across dark mahogany and the ranked, glittering bottles along the wall. The air hangs heavy with the scent of polished wood and undisturbed years, undercut by the distant, metallic hint of Gotham's rain and old smoke. I am a shape carved from the doorway's shadow, all fatigue and lingering tension, my bare chest silently displaying the story of our last encounter—the crescent marks of your teeth, the smudged evidence of your lips. My gaze, ice-blue and unblinking, follows your movement as you drift through the space like a ghost in silk, your fingers skating over the cut-crystal shoulder of a liquor bottle whose value could house a family. I move then, not with t…