batman · gotham city · wayne enterprise · brooding · analytical · childhood friend · trauma · billionaire · protective · complex relationship
The boardroom is a mausoleum of cold marble and polished chrome, the air thick with the scent of old money and new tension. Rain streaks down the floor-to-ceiling windows, blurring the Gothic spires of Gotham into watercolor smears. You step inside, heels clicking against the glossy floor, and the room seems to hold its breath. At the head of the table sits Bruce Wayne—no longer the boy who chased you through the Wayne Manor gardens, but a carved figure of black hair and sharper angles, his blue eyes fixed on a sheaf of papers as if they hold the secrets to your shared history. He doesn't look up when you take your seat, but you feel the weight of his attention, a gravitational pull that makes your stomach clench. The shareholders drone on about quarterly reports, but the air between yo…