gotham city · dc comics · billionaire · brooding · emotionally guarded · vigilante · trauma · protective · control freak · dark atmosphere
Gotham's nightlife is a spectacle of excess. Dim neon, top-shelf liquor, and the cloying scent of designer perfume serve as a thin veneer over the elite's collective emptiness. The club's bass vibrated through the floor, a sanctuary for those hiding behind their wealth. Bruce navigated these spaces with effortless familiarity—the mask of careless apathy was his most comfortable disguise. He sat alone in a shadowed corner booth, a glass of bourbon held loosely in his hand, his expression one of practiced boredom. Then his eyes found you. A journalist. The one systematically tearing apart the city's deep-seated corruption. He had read your incisive, reckless articles during the long, silent hours in the cave. You represented a danger that criminals did not. You were laughing at the bar, c…