( open-ish ) dedicate and sacrifice my everything

[batsymbol]

Who: Bruce Wayne/Batman batsymbol
What: catch-all for the month, largely time travel and event focused
When: Throughout September
Where: Primarily the past
Content Warnings: TBD but let's just say Bruce being Bruce and Batman being Batman.

open to both [brackets] and prose, i'll follow your lead if you have a preference. if you want something else with bruce or bats, shoot me a PM or PP at telekinetics to discuss. otherwise things we've planned/discussed can be dropped in here as well. starters in comments.

Comments

[avatarfortruth]

[ She smiles again at that, the familiarity of it. Her title in his sand-papered voice, making it sound like something else entirely. ]

Tomorrow.

[ Reminding him, reminding them both. ]

We have the whole night before then.

[batsymbol]

( he doesn't know what's going to happen. how bad it could all go. because of course his thoughts immediately zero in on that. in a way, maybe, it's why she's needed. to be the positive to his negative. even if negative isn't always a bad thing to see. to consider. bruce just... tends to get caught up in it a lot. lost within it.

her words have his eyes lazily flutter open some, but he doesn't bother to pull away. )

Guess we do.

[avatarfortruth]

[ It takes her a moment longer to open her eyes, but when she does, she meets his soft blue gaze. He's so close, and all she would need to do is to tip her head and leans a little closer still. ]

And it's a beautiful night.

[ She shifts, rolling her head so his forehead presses against her temple, tries to ignore the warmth of his breath as she looks up at the night sky, points to a cluster of stars. ]

There... Leo. The lion. Perhaps he can offer us courage.

[batsymbol]

( she shifts and he stares — lets his gaze drop down to the waves of hair tickling at her collarbone. time ticks away here and soon, all of this — everything that's been said and done here in this timeline... it'll be over. a memory, maybe. for better. for worse. moments left here in the past, regardless if the outcome for them is favorable or not.

lifting his head, he turns to look at the constellation she points out and he stares to it. quiet. )

It was Pisces season when we arrived here. Now it's Aries.

[avatarfortruth]

He knows the stars.

[ Observed idly as if to herself, her voice low and a little teasing. But she's pleased, too, at this small commonality. ]

And what constellation marked your birth?

[batsymbol]

( he read a lot of books throughout the years growing up. her words, however, get the faintest of smiles from him as he looks out to the skyline again. )

If I told you that, I'd lose some of that mysterious charm I have going.

[avatarfortruth]

Oh, we certainly can't have that.

[ Teasing for real now, as she shifts and nudges their shoulders together, a laugh beneath her words. ]

You don't have so much charm that you can afford to lose any.

[batsymbol]

Oh.

( said soft, a little gruff, but still with that faint smile. )

So that's how it is.

[avatarfortruth]

Mhm.

[ Then again, the versions of Bruce she's always liked best were when he was like this: quiet, thoughtful. Lacking the veneer of the Gotham playboy.

When it's just him. ]

I always tell the truth.

[batsymbol]

Well I guess that's one way to look at having an opinion.

( said still rather softly, though with a glance over to her this time, brow slightly raised. )

[avatarfortruth]

[ She meets his glance easily, apparently heartless and amused in her teasing, before relenting, very slightly. ]

But I would never say you have no charm.

[batsymbol]

I'll be sure to keep that in mind, princess.

( you know. if they manage to make it out of all of this alive. )

[avatarfortruth]

[ Perhaps he will, if he hasn't yet made up his mind, as she'd asked him to do.

She wonders if that will ever happen. Perhaps her second chance is, after all, nothing but a repeat of the first: a moment of control given up, of emotions running high, never to be spoken of again.

The thought is a sore, painful one; it aches. She looks away from him so he won't see it on her face, turns her eyes back up to the sky. ]

Do.

[batsymbol]

( that night still lingers there within the depths of his thoughts. a mutual desperation, heated touches, chased kisses, and trembling limbs. a wonder if it was something they should have done — if it will simply be left here in the past after all this... if it should be left here with everything else.

they haven't spoken about it — focused on the reason for being here and with dick so close by... not to mention bruce simply being... bruce. they maybe could now. just the two of them here and yet... does he want to? should they, with an inevitable ending to some degree set for tomorrow?

he sits there, gaze lingering on her for a moment before he looks back out to the skyline and he falls quiet. as always. yet gently leans over some, pressing his shoulder to hers. )

No matter what happens tomorrow, I don't regret coming here.

[avatarfortruth]

[ His armored shoulder is rough against her bare one, but she can feel his warmth beneath the suit he wears, and she's grateful for it. For this, to have him here with her. For the chance to know him all over again, for him to know her. ]

I'm glad.

[ Words soft, almost too soft to hear beneath the cool night breeze. It tugs at her hair, sends strands of silky blue-black brushing against his cheek, so close to hers.

They haven't spoken about it. But now, she finds herself looking to him, allowing the memories of that night to play through her mind. How he touched her. How he kissed her. How he shivered in her arms. The way he said her name. ]

Do you regret anything else? Having come here?

[batsymbol]

( he knows what she's asking because it's on his mind, too, and yet... he doesn't know if he wants to. if he should.

even still, the way he looks to her is soft — like that night — and quiet, as if it's simply just the two of them here in this world they've found themselves within. unable to be anything above a quiet murmur when he speaks. )

No. I don't.

( a heartbeat, still soft. )

Do you?

[avatarfortruth]

[ Those blue eyes of his, soft as they are while they watch her, are magnetic. She finds herself leaning closer, pressing her shoulder more firmly to his, her own eyes clear and solemn. ]

Not even slightly.

[ Again, she considers it – her glance drops briefly to his mouth before meeting his again – but she doesn't close those last few inches between them. At one point, she'd thought she knew what he wanted... but she hasn't been sure of it since their second day here. ]

[batsymbol]

( she leans in closer and he lets her. gaze fixated on hers. unable to make himself look away from her. somehow, this always comes natural. the pull between them. as if it's been done before in another life — as if, in some other life, they knew each other like this and they have, in some way. not exactly him and not exactly her, but. close enough that it feels almost familiar to do. even for bruce.

like always when it's just the two of them like this, his gaze is soft as he looks to her. as he watches her with the night around them. )

Guess that makes two of us then.

( but what does it make them? )

[avatarfortruth]

[ She has no words for this, for how it feels when he watches her the way he does, eyes soft, making that glance feel as intimate as a kiss. She'd told others, and him, too, that she's glad he's here, but glad doesn't feel like enough for how it feels to know she'll have him at her side. That makes two of us he says, and she can't help but be glad – that word again, not enough – they're together in this, too.

Things with Bruce – this one and the one she left back in her world – have always been... complicated... but none of that complexity has ever erased the gratitude she feels that he exists at all.

She could never regret him. No matter what happens. ]

Bruce.

[ His name soft on her lips, but without any other words following it. What can she say? That she not only doesn't regret him, but hopes for more, if they live? That having now had him once, she only wants more?

All so unwieldy. She nudges her forehead against his, noses gently at him as he had at her that night, her breath warm against his lips before she tips her head and brushes her own over them. Light and sweet as moonlight. ]

[batsymbol]

( it's a tenderness he hasn't had much in his life — a gentleness he often doesn't believe he needs or deserves. yet when he finds himself with it, despite his not always knowing what to do with it, there's a quiet acceptance of it at the same time... perhaps even a silent yearning for it, deep down.

her lips brush over his and he finds himself unable to pull away. why would he ever? here, in this quiet moment they have with each other. tomorrow, he thinks, and yet... so gently does he let his own lips find hers as they'd done that night in the motel room. a kiss, like then, so soft and sweet. a contrast to how batman carries himself. stoic, intimidating. how bruce even carries himself. distant, quiet. yet genuine in such softness, such sweetness, as if from the very depths of a vulnerable persona. )

[avatarfortruth]

[ Tomorrow, things will change. Perhaps they'll emerge victorious. Perhaps they won't emerge at all.

None of that matters right now, when they're here, together, in the quiet of the night. She presses her lips to his, deepens this kiss with gentle determination before pulling away just enough to look at him, the warmth and taste of him lingering on her lips.

Maybe this is enough, tonight. Just being here with him like this. ]

[batsymbol]

( maybe it is. maybe it isn't. regardless, he doesn't slip away from her — doesn't disappear into the shadows of the night when she pulls back some. instead, he looks after her with those blue eyes of his still wearing such softness within them, quiet as he sits there with her.

it's only after a moment that he leans in — presses his forehead to hers, eyes falling shut and a sigh so very soft on his lips. no matter what happens tomorrow, at least he has this. at least he had this. all of it. brief as it was. in this timeline they both ventured back to. )

[avatarfortruth]

[ His sigh is as light as the breeze that tugs at her hair and his, and his lashes are long against his cheeks. He's too pale, even after their days here, when he was forced to go out more often during the day. She wishes she could take him to the warm beaches of Themyscira, let the sunlight and salt breeze bring the color back into his face. Offer him some time to simply be, without the weight of all his own expectations crushing him.

She lifts a hand and gently pushes his hair back from his face, curves her fingers, warm, at his jaw, then the side of his neck. Wanting to touch him. Wanting him to know she wants to feel him beneath her fingers. ]

It's a beautiful night.

[ She says it again, an echo of her words from earlier. ]

Stay with me a while.

[batsymbol]

( as the night in the motel room, her touch is a like a balm he didn't know he needs. that soothes some part of him he's so often ignored, pushed aside, sometimes even forgotten, especially over the past two years.

it's enough to keep him here — to keep him from straying from her and with eyes softly fluttering open, he looks to her. so close as they are. a gentle, just barely felt, nudge into her fingers before they fall to the curve of his neck. )

If that's what you want.

[avatarfortruth]

I already told you what I want.

[ It hasn't changed, for her, at least, in the days since that first night. He leans ever so slightly into her touch, and she responds by running the pad of her thumb along the cord of muscle in his neck, where he's so often tense. Her fingers curved warm and gentle, the tips of them slipping into the soft hair at the nape of his neck.

She told him. He knows. Whatever he does with that knowledge is up to him. ]