Re: log: gatsby, bruce/selina
"Once," she repeated, but there was a hint of smile in the cat-lined eyes. "Once, for a very, very long time. Things have changed. I don't actually know when they changed, but they did. I still love Gotham, this Gotham, any Gotham. But this Gotham doesn't love me back. It loved a kitten, and I'm not her anymore. And I'm the one that needs to find a way to accept that. It's not everyone else's job." And that was something she was just beginning to realize. Oh, sitting there, she already knew she would go back home soon.
She watched the shrug of his shoulders, tired, and that showed his new age more than the silver at his temples did. "Her path took her there unwillingly, Bruce. It's not like you. You don't want this Gotham. She just wants a place in it." But she knew he would never understand, not when he cut himself off abruptly like he did. "You can go, Bruce. No one's putting the weight of this city on your shoulders but you. Dickie has worn the cowl before. The city won't fall to ruin."
She saw the bitterness in his features. She saw how tired he was of the things she was still trying to work through. She'd thought, when he came back, that there would be time. He'd promised her that, hadn't he? But it was different now; she could see it in his eyes. It had just taken her longer to realize than it should have.
She didn't stop tugging the strap down. Not when he said he made her miserable, not when he asked what she was doing. She just moved her hand to the other strap, and she let that fall too. Black fabric slid along her arms and pooled at her feet, and there was thin black fabric beneath, silken and to mid-thigh.
She nudged him back into the chair, and she put a knee on his thigh. She almost said things, words, but that tired look in his eyes, it told her everything she needed to know. He didn't want words. The things she felt and the things she wanted to say to him, they would only make that worse. He was hating her, or starting to, bit by bit and layer by layer, just like he hated this Gotham and its expectations. She would just make it worse if she spoke.
So, she didn't speak. She just tugged the remaining black fabric over her head.