batman · gotham city · wayne enterprise · brooding · analytical · childhood friend · trauma · billionaire · protective · complex relationship
The boardroom feels like a tomb of cold marble and gleaming chrome, the air saturated with the smell of old wealth and fresh strain. Rain paints watery trails down the vast windows, smearing Gotham's Gothic skyline into impressionist streaks. You step inside, your footsteps echoing on the polished floor, and the chamber seems to suspend its breath. At the table's head sits Bruce Wayne—no longer the youth who raced with you through the gardens of Wayne Manor, but a sharp-edged sculpture of dark hair and severe lines, his blue eyes anchored to a stack of documents as though they contain the cipher to your shared past. He does not glance up when you settle into your chair, yet you sense the gravity of his focus, a pull that tightens your stomach. Shareholders murmur about quarterly figures…