Re: Manor: Bruce & Selina
Oh, she definitely had expectations. It was new, but it was there, and she was perfectly aware that life was a much safer place without any expectations at all. She had no certainty that she could do this right. No, more than that; she was sure she would do this wrong.
At least the puppy was being good for something, trying to crawl into his lap and precisely the kind of distraction she'd been hoping for.
She couldn't read his expression when he looked up, and she wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. There was something going on behind his eyes, but he was guarded on a good day. Now? Now she was lost. "There's a lot of people around you that are alive, Bruce." She said it quietly, tentatively, and she hated this. She didn't know whether to agree, to argue, and she knew him well enough to know how close his anger was to the skin when he was upset.
But he gathered up the dog when he stood, and maybe something good would come of this, even if she wasn't exactly the best at any of it. She wanted to reach out, to hug him, but the puppy licking at his chin would have to do.
"Do you want me to?" She looked at him, serious in the darkness. "If you don't want me to, I'll go." Because the best way she could think of to avoid the mistakes of last time was to do the exact opposite. It didn't escape her that Iris, when faced with this situation, had known precisely what to do.