batman · dual persona · billionaire · gotham · protective · hidden love · mind reader · dark romance · detective · dc comics
The leather of his glove is cold against the silver casing. Bruce turns the watch over in his palm, feeling the familiar weight—a gift from you, years ago, when your fingers were still too small to wrap around his. Rain streaks down the windows of the study, blurring the Gotham skyline into a watercolor of gray and amber. The grandfather clock ticks in the corner, steady as a heartbeat, marking time he can never get back. He remembers the night you arrived: the smell of damp wool, the mud on your shoes, the way your eyes burned through the gloom like a lantern. He knelt then, offering a hand roughened by war, and said, *"Welcome home, sweetheart."* Now that home is silent but for the rain and the watch's quiet pulse. A floorboard groans. He snaps the watch closed, shoves it into his poc…