#aiw!reader

It's around the time dinner begins. People are chatting, dancing, and whatnot, when the man next to you strikes up conversation with Bruce, you following in suite reluctantly. Your eyes quietly absorbing him.

"Mr.Wayne." He greets with a smile. He introduces himself as Josh, some CEO of a startup. Bruce catches the sight of a ring on his left hand. A rather uncomfortably long handshake later, Bruce and Josh speak about some business ventures, with Bruce constantly trying to seek eye-contact with you. You're disinterested and obviously uncomfortable as you sip on your champagne. You must be, because to you it must seem like your childhood best friend ghosted you for a good decade. Unrecognisable. He knows this persona must look so fake to you. But he can't help it. It's a necessary evil.

Josh seems to catch his gaze. Because he turns towards you. Saying your name. "She's my fiancee." Josh states. Bruce freezes for a moment. His eyes subtly going wide as he notices a ring on your left hand's finger. Josh continues to brag. "She just got a job as an editor at the Gotham gazette." Bruce meets your gaze seeking out your eyes but you refuse to.

"We've met." Bruce says with a smile.

"You've met?" Josh raises an eyebrow.

"Yeah, we went to school together." Bruce wears his brightest smile. He doesn't fail to notice how your frown deepens. It feels like all he can make are mistakes near you. The charming, billionaire, persona he wants to put up is cracking at the very seams when he's in your presence. You do this to him. You threaten everything he's ever built, everything he's ever built, and he's scared.

"You've never told me that, honey." Josh says turning your way. It makes him sick. Hearing your fiancé say that so sweetly.

"Yeah." You smile faintly. "We just went to school together. It wasn't a big deal." You say meeting his gaze dead in the eye. A sense of sobriety fills Bruce. He can't be hurt by this. He's the one who pushed her away first. He's the one who cut contact for years. She's probably a different person than he remembers. He wonders why he didn't factor that in his big IQ brain. He can't be unrealistic and expect everything to go back to how it was.

There's a beat of silence. Josh doesn't catch how tense your exchange is.

You swirl the lute of champagne and sip on it maintaining eye contact. Bruce gives a charming smile to ease the tension. Before he can say something his phone rings and he knows it's an alert for the batsignal. He winces internally. Awkward.

"How about we catch up sometime later?" Bruce offers.

You nod faintly. "Sure.” You don't look to keen on it. Neither do you mean it. Your eyes follow him as he leaves. Your fiance whispers something in your ear drawing a faint smile on your lips. Bruce barely fathoms it before he turns on his chin and walks out the banquet hall.

It’s all charm and easy smiles. Except it's not when he catches sight of you across the room. He falters and it's his biggest slip up from his public persona.

You look....good. You've got a nice dress draped, and you look stunning. There's a man's arm wrapped around your waist that's perhaps too intimate. The man keeps whispering something into your ears and you smile faintly, your eyes crinkling in that way he really misses.

He wonders sometimes if things could be different—If he told you about how he felt, if he had the courage to be honest with you.

Why?

Afterall you two were inseperable as kids. Your parents worked for the Waynes in their company, and you were often the only kid around his age who he could tolerate. Some Wayne Scholarship benefits later you two were joined at the hip. Same elementary school, Middle school, High school at some boarding school. Bruce thought Your parents figured that you would be fine if you were away from Gotham with him. He could be trusted. But in reality your parents simply worried about him after his parents passed. You didn't mind of course, you'd always wanted to be independent and see the world.

Years later when he left Gotham without a word or excuse, he'd cut contact with everyone and everything he'd known. Been through hell and back in search for power and vengeance. And.. unfortunate to you, you were included in the list. When he came back he returned a changed man, Not quite Bruce Wayne. Just Batman and his rather extroverted persona of Brucie. He hadn't quite mentioned that he had returned, just appeared in a random gala with women on his arm to the public. The press went crazy. He learnt that you had left Gotham.

Well...this might be a little bit douchebag of him, but he didn't exactly make any efforts to rekindle your friendship even in long distance. Your texts do lie unread in his inbox. He hasn't opened them. He doesn't have the courage to. For someone who runs out in the middle of the night and beats up bad guys he sure is a coward when it comes to his best friend he has lingering feelings for.

That brings him here, more than a few years after coming back to Gotham, contemplating his life decisions. Wondering how to strike up conversation. He wonders who the man slung around your arm is, he wonders how come you're back. He wonders how you got an invite here to the gala. He doesn't even know what you're doing these days. Last he heard from Alfred you had pursued a degree in Media communications, He thinks you're a reporter, or a journalist. Despite your introverted nature, you always did have a passion about truths and mysteries.

He doesn't need to make a decision because the very next second he meets your gaze. You'd caught him gawking at you like a puppy. You seem rather surprised to see him there. Bruce feels like it's just the two of you in the room. Just you and him. His heart almost beats out of his chest by how startled he is. All those emotions flood right back in, the longing, the sorrow, the pain.

But you avert your gaze turning to the man beside you as he whispers something into your ear. Bruce is snapped back to reality. Of course, yeah....what was he expecting. You two weren't best of friends anymore, just strangers. He must seem unrecognisable to you.

And that hurts doesn't it? Because nothing is the same as it was.