Re: Chinatown Apt: Robert/Selina
"It wasn't always sunshine and roses. I wasn't always good to her. I got caught up in work, I was taking risks to get results, and we know how that turned out. She nearly died, when it first happened." Bruce loved Betty, he looked back on their relationship with fondness but sadness too. It wasn't perfect, no matter how it sounded, but it was good. It was healthier than what it became. "And," he said dryly, "I did come stomping back into her life. She was engaged, but we got caught up again. So I almost ruined a good relationship and future for her." He didn't though, it went on once he was gone. But it was laid out there too. He and Betty cheated, even if it wasn't sex, since at the time he couldn't. The violation was there.
"Dick and Jason both tried to talk to her. Jason talked to me for the first time because he wanted to find her. They were still trying." But Jason was angry, so much angrier now, she might've really stomped down on that with her current behavior. The thing was, Bruce didn't blame them in the least. Some people didn't want to be saved. "I hate to say it, but you could be right. Broken people know what to do better when they get broken again. We still feel it, and it still hurts, but we cope." He was broken, completely so, he knew it.
"Could you please sit?" It was a plea, she was still injured, she needed to eat and rest more. Bruce would swear up and down that he didn't want to be chased, but then he felt better when Tony told him in the cage he'd go looking for him. He was glad when Selina talked him out of the cage, despite being certain he belonged there. Maybe his heart really didn't sync up with his head. "Another door, maybe. There was one that they said was futuristic, it'd be interesting to see the technology." Classic, he went to escape to the place that could feed his mind. Give him logic and distance and shut down his heart again.
"I'm not going to leave it forever. It's for now. You wanted to talk." She talked when they were in the cave and she was talking now. Bruce was going to push, carefully maybe, but a little. "It's not ... you. You know how I feel about you." And he didn't want to leave that, except who knew where they were now. He sighed. "Loki's at large. Gwen's not in control of her powers. You're in pain and I want to help. Jason's losing it. Tony's reactor is out of control. I'm worried I'm that ticking bomb everyone treated me like." No one did here, not exactly, but it was under the surface too. Her question made him stop and think and no answer came from it. "Everything's contradictory. I need people to be safe, I can't control that. I need to keep the other guy calm, but I might have to let him out on purpose." He looked over at her. "I need you to want me, but I'm not sure that I'm good for you."