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He loved them. It was something that took a long time for Bruce to come to terms with but he truly did. Trix and Logan had become unique comforts in his life. Comforts that he has not had with anyone outside his family in a long while. Two mostly perfect constants to lean on. It always took Bruce longer to trust someone, took even longer to let his guard down. He learned the hard way that not everyone that is close is trustworthy.
Selina, Talia, even Harvey had worked their way past his defenses only to end up hurting him. To leave him with new problems to fix. His pride mostly, his dignity second and well honestly his ego. He was human, very human. A fact too many have forgotten. Yet not them, no they too well reminded him that he was not the unbeatable dark knight everyone convinced themselves he was. He was human.
Which is why the velvet ring box sitting on his desk seemed to glare at him. It had been glaring at him since he opened the discreet package it came in. Sent to Wayne Enterprises knowing that it wouldn’t be snooped through before he got his hands on it. He hadn’t even checked to see which one it was. Just sat it on his desk and stared.
Bruce had been through a lot, more than any normal person could imagine. Life or death situations, other earths, and different dimensions all of which he could handle. More than enough planning had been made for those things but this? A simple question that felt much less simple the more he thought about it. God he felt stupid. The big bad bat scared of a box. He had done this before. It felt like forever ago at this point but still he had asked Selina. The experience, although humbling, still held a place in his heart just like she does even if it hurts to think about.
The thought of Trix leaving him at the altar like Selina did run through his head before he could even try to convince himself he was being ridiculous. Taking a breath, Bruce closed his eyes trying to erase that thought. He couldn’t see her actually doing it, running away that is, Trix wouldn’t do that to him. She couldn't live with herself if she did. No, no instead Bruce pictured her curled up in a ball crying her eyes out and she just kept apologizing. He couldn’t decide if that was better or worse. Better because at least they’d be able to talk about it, work something out. Worse because he’d be the reason for the tears, the pain, the stress, the everything. Bruce rubbed his face with his hands.
One thing in the world he couldn’t stand was seeing the people he loved upset. Trix especially. The way her eyes watered when she was trying to stay calm. Biting the inside of her lip, picking at her nails. He couldn’t do that to her. His eyes opened again to the box now silently mocking him on his desk.
He should at least look at it. The thought made him sigh before finally reaching for it, holding it in his hands. The velvet finish was soft against his palm, his thumb rubbing a circle over the top before he popped it open. A gold band sat within.
The antique gold had just enough shine to catch the eye but not be too flashy. The small etched diagonal pattern brought just enough charm to the otherwise simple look. It was a classic for a classic. Bruce picked it out of the box turning it in his fingers as he laid eyes on engraved words on the inside of the band.
“No matter what happens, find your way home.”
Logan.
Of course it would be Logan’s. Bruce let his head fall back hitting the back of his chair and he let out the tensest of chuckles. He’s been so worried about the hypothetical he forgot about the other problem. Logan’s not the “marrying type”. The shorter man’s own words when the topic of marriage was brought up due to Gotham gossip. A sentence that made Bruce freeze in the moment as he just convinced him to hit order that morning for the ring that was now in his hands.
“What makes you say that?” Bruce’s voice was steady, not giving away the way his heart stopped for a moment.
The man just shrugged taking a swig of his beer. “Have you looked at me, pretty boy?” His head dropped slightly, taking his own glance at himself before shaking his head. “Too old for a silly piece of paper telling me what I already know.”
“And what’s that?” Bruce had asked a bit too quickly, making Logan look at him fully. His brown eyes as soft as chocolate suddenly bit like whiskey.
“The two of you got me wrapped around y'all's little fingers tighter than some ring ever could.”
Logan was being honest even as a smirk grew across his face. The smile Bruce couldn’t help but match made the anxiety disappear then. The smooth talking bastard always somehow made him melt no matter how many times he swears it didn’t work anymore.
The door to the office creaked open pulling Bruce from his memory. Quickly putting the ring back into the velvet case and shoving it into the back of his desk drawer. He pretended to look busy on his computer when Trix came in carrying a pile of boxes in her arms stacked high enough she could barely see over the top.
“You’re not gonna believe what I found.” Her voice was beaming with excitement even though it was a bit muffled from the mountain in her arms.
“Snooping where you shouldn’t be?” Bruce asked as he focused on slowly his heart rate. He silently thanked whoever was listening that her teleportation powers only worked on her and nothing else. It’s hard enough to keep secrets from a house full of trained detectives, let alone a woman who could pop out of nowhere at any time. Especially when she was the one he was keeping the secret from.
Trix dropped the boxes on his desk each a different and dusty color. “I call it curing boredom.” She hopped on her tiptoes to look at him from over the boxes. “You really shouldn’t have let me have an all access keycard.”
Her excitement made him crack a smile. “You were supposed to be helping Lucius.”
Bruce leaned back in his chair, his arms crossed in amusement. His dear was always finding her way into something. He found it fascinating how easy she seemed to slip off because something caught her attention or she simply got curious enough to take a look. One time he found her cross legged at the very back of his closet going through clothes he’d hadn’t worn let alone seen in years just because she was trying to clean up some for Alfred.
“I was.” She unstacked the boxes, placing them across his desk. Five boxes of different sizes and colors all covered in a thick layer of dust from wherever she had found them. Red, blue, green, yellow, and purple all have the same size, shape and style. They were oddly familiar to him yet he couldn’t quite place it.
“But then Duke’s helmet kept pissing me off because the stupid thing wouldn’t fit in the ear piece and no matter what I did it just kept falling apart and—“
She took a breath letting the small wrinkle that formed in between her brows relax. “I needed a break.”
Bruce nodded in understanding. He was never the tinkerer type. Why fix things when you could just replace them easily? Although he found out very quickly that was harder to do when moonlighting as a vigilante. He knew how to do some things, mostly coding and simple circuits. Whatever he couldn’t do eventually landed on Lucius.
As she popped open the dust covered top of the red container a wave of nostalgia flooded his mind as it seemed to be filled with a small child’s drawings. Bruce sat up in question as Trix pulled out the top picture of what Bruce would assume is a poorly drawn cat or maybe a dog. Hard to tell.
Trix’s smile only seemed to grow as she watched his confused expression. She flipped it over showing him handwriting he hadn’t seen in years. The same writing that decorated the corners of some of the books in his study, the gentle loops of cursive he memorized so well he could mimic it with his eyes closed. His mother’s.
“All of them have something on them.” Trix’s voice broke through his consciousness as she offered the paper to him only to dig through the box again, setting it aside instead. “Mostly just your name and age with whatever the drawing is supposed to be.”
“This is a bear.”
Bruce scrunched up his nose at the reveal of the animal as he took the old drawing into his hands. He was more concerned with the faded pen on the back than the actual drawing but still. It looked nothing like a bear.
“All of them are filled with stuff like this.” Trix continued as she popped open another box revealing more pictures. Although they seemed much better than the firsts.
“I didn’t know she kept them.” His voice was soft, even a bit saddened at the sight of them.
Trix's smile never faded as she looked through the new box. “I can’t believe they’ve been living in the big storage room. You would think someone would have cleaned that thing out every once and while.”
She pulled out a very small card. The edges were curled as the small blue bird on the front was faded but the writing was still legible on the inside. In the same delicate loops came the sweetest but simplest messages
“Love you my sweet boy.”
~ mommy
Trix couldn’t help the small “aw” that left her mouth before she circled the desk to show him better. Bruce seemed to stop. His eyes glued to the card in her hands tracing the words with his eyes over and over like it was some great novel. Trix’s smile slowly fell as her concern grew in his silence. Sure he was normally hard to read but this was different. Almost as if she’d lifted a stone that wasn’t supposed to be touched. The corner of his eyes water for a moment before he blinked them away rubbing his hand over his face.
Trix suddenly felt very guilty as he looked off. Placing the card back she gently rubbed his shoulders in comfort not wanting him to lock up.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—“ she was cut off by his arms pulling her into a hug. She had to catch herself on the back of his chair from the sudden gesture. Letting out a relieved chuckle before finding her way into his lap and pulling his face up to look at her. Bruce’s hands on reflex finding support on her lower back holding her steady.
“You okay?” Her questioned as sweet and gentle as her hands were gently rubbing his cheek with her thumb. Feeling the subtle texture of his constant five o’clock shadow against her skin.
His nod was clear and quiet even though his eyes still seemed to have that tear filled gloss to them. Trix gently pressed her lips to his apologetically knowing he’d just do it anyways if she tried to actually say the words. She always seemed to forget how fragile Bruce was about his parents. Her lips pressed a couple more quick kisses across his face until the corners of his mouth twitched back into a soft smile.
God she made him soft. It was a good soft, like the inside of a toasted marshmallow. Warm and gooey. Even more of a reason he wanted nothing more than to ask her to be his. Right here, right now with her vanilla scented lip gloss covering his face and her so excited to show him a part of his past he all but forgot just because she knew he'd want to see his mother’s writing again. They held a comfortable silence as their blue eyes met. The marry me stuck to the tip of his tongue.
“I love you.” Trix spoke first like it was a secret between just the two of them. Like the whole world didn’t know just how much she loved him. She said it because she wanted to and it was just for him.
“I love you more.” He challenged
She shook her head leaning forward to invade his space more than she had. Her hands gently squeezed his face. “I doubt that.” Was muttered out as her lips met his again silencing his retort.
He let himself melt into the kiss as he took a shameless handful of her ass into his hands. Giving it a squeeze before running them down to her thighs and back up to her waist. She giggled against his lips letting him deepen the kiss. Not fighting the way he explored her mouth like they’d never done this before. He pulled away gently watching her pant softly from the loss of air rubbing her reddened lips together tasting the gloss he now wore.
“Okay maybe you do love me more.” Trix joked softly, making him press another quick kiss to her lips before giving her a pat on her thigh.
She stood once again pulling up her pants and adjusting her shirt before putting the lips back on the containers. He couldn’t resist running a hand over her lower back as she reached out to stack them back up in front of him. She pulled out the small faded card setting up on his desk right next to the small array of pictures of the kids he had on his desk before picking all the boxes back into her arms.
“I’m gonna put these somewhere that makes sense.”
“See you soon, love.”
Bruce called after watching Trix walk off with a new swing in her hips as the door to his office was held open for her by his secretary. Who was carrying a box of her own, a much smaller one. She dropped it off to him with a smile before quickly disappearing out the doors again leaving him be. Bruce didn’t have to open it to know what lay inside.