Giselle wakes the next morning feeling like absolute shit. Pain is shooting around her body, and it doesn't take long for her to realize someone has bandaged her wounds with neat gauze. She looks around to find herself in a bedroom that is certainly not her own. Hell, her bed was maybe a third of the size of the plush mattress she's on. Light is just barely streaming through the crack between the thick curtains, but just enough so that Giselle can see what's around her. The room has a gothic, vintage look to it, but is still very clean from what she can tell.
Memories of the previous night's events begin flooding back to her. The last thing she remembers is being in the masked vigilante's arms. Carefully, Giselle removes the dark covers from her body and slowly sits up. She's relieved to remain conscious after doing so. Looking down, she realizes she is still in the skin-tight dress she was wearing the night before.
A sneaking suspicion in Giselle tells her she's at the Batman's place, wherever that might be. She gradually gets to her feet, before treading over to the mirror on the other side of the room. Shit.
She looks like she might as well have crawled to hell and back. Her blonde hair is a tangled mess, and there's a square bandage on her right temple, sitting on her hairline. The pretty makeup she had applied the night before is smudged underneath her eyes. Giselle does her best to make herself look less like a hungover raccoon before hesitantly opening the door. She's standing in a large, wooden hallway. The floorboards creak beneath her bare feet.
"Oh you're awake!"
Giselle whirls around to see an elderly woman dressed neatly with a broom in hand. She sets the broom down against the wall and smiles.
"I'm sorry, but I don't actually know where I am," Giselle begins.
"That's alright dear, Mr.Wayne told me you had quite the rough night," the woman empathizes. "I'm Dory,"
"Mr.Wayne?" she repeats with confusion. "But—"
"Come, he's this way," she instructs as Giselle is lead through antique halls into a large, open room with impressively detailed architecture. The ceiling is impossible high, and the windows are magnificently tall, resulting in Giselle squinting to adjust to the light.
Her eyes then fall upon an older man with a clean grey haircut, dressed impeccably nice. Beside him, standing, is a handsome, tall man with dark hair, dressed in all black. It instantly dawns on Giselle that it's the man behind Batman's mask.
"Ah, Dory—" begins the older gentleman seated at an impressive table. "What is she doing out here?"
"What do you mean, sir—?"
The man beside him turns around and Giselle's lips part slightly as a quiet gasp escapes her. She knows it is the vigilante by his eyes, but realizes the maid is right. He's Bruce Wayne. The orphaned, reclusive billionaire.
"Oh my God," she blurts out in shock.
Bruce's eyes study Giselle intensely, causing shivers to trail down her spine. His eyes look a stormy grey in the bright light.
"She wasn't supposed to leave the bedroom!" the man besides Bruce exclaims with frustration.
"Oh, I'm sorry—"
"Alfred, it's alright," Bruce states, his tone calm. "Will you two give us a moment?"
The man, Alfred, shoots an apprehensive look at Giselle, who looks down in embarrassment. He leaves the room with Dory, as Giselle stays rooted in place. It dawns on her that she probably wasn't supposed to know Batman's true identity.
"Are you going to tell anyone?" he asks coolly, his arms folded crossly.
"No," Giselle immediately replies, the words spilling from her lips. "Of course not. I swear on my life,"
"Good," he says before turning to look at her, a lock of dark hair falling in front of his face. "How are you feeling?"
"Like shit," she admits, leaning against the heavy table. "I don't suppose you've got a shower hidden in this bat cave of yours, do you?"
Bruce scoffs at her weak joke and pops a blueberry into his mouth from the bowl of fruit sitting on the table.
"You can use mine," he states before leading her down the hallway.
Twenty minutes later, Giselle has scrubbed every last drop of blood, sweat, and tears from her body in an attempt to erase the night before. She has to resort to using Bruce's shower products, but she now smells fresh and clean. Giselle enjoys the smell, savors it even.
As she steps out of the larger than life shower, she grabs the towel that Bruce had given her. However, as she wraps the fluffy black towel around her body, she realizes she has nothing left to wear but Ashley's club dress. Nervously, Giselle cracks the door of the bathroom open and clears her throat.
"Um—Bruce?" she calls out tentatively. The door leads to his bedroom, which is dark and minimal in decoration. He's standing by the window with a guarded expression, and turns around tentatively.
"Do you have anything else, I could maybe—er—wear?"
He silently nods before swiftly reaching into his drawer and pulling out a dark, faded t-shirt. Giselle's heart skips a beat as she opens to door wider to take the shirt from him. As she does, she notices Bruce's eyes graze over her cleavage and chest that still has drops of water clinging to it. He quickly averts his gaze to the floor before handing her the clothing and turning around.
Giselle murmurs a thank you and shuts the bathroom door. She walks over to the mirror to observe the wound on her temple. With a bit of hair placed in front of it, it's nearly unnoticeable. Meanwhile, her hand is raw yet scabbed enough so that it will not bleed. Giselle dries off before she slips the t-shirt on over her head. She lifts the fabric up to her nose to inhale the smell of fresh detergent and a hint of his musky cologne.
Soon enough, Giselle is seated in Bruce's actual 'bat cave'. It's meticulously organized and has lots of high-tech machines and computers. Above her, she can hear the squeaking of actual bats fluttering around. Bruce is reviewing footage of the latest murder of Pete Savage while she listens from a few feet away.
"Why do you trust me?" Giselle blurts out. Bruce pauses the video and turns to look at her inquisitively. Bruce ponders her question for a moment, pausing the footage.
"You didn't give away Annika's identity to the press last night. You chose to help her, and instead managed to nearly get yourself killed in the process,"
Behind the mask, she was beginning to realize Bruce was incredibly smart and observant.
"Not to mention, I have saved your life twice now," Bruce adds before turning back the monitor screen with the ghost of a smile on his lips.
"But I'm a journalist—I literally get paid to report the juiciest gossip I can find," she continues, jumping off her stool to get a better view of the footage. "Doesn't that bother you?"
"You only work for Dickinson because you need the money. Your heart isn't in it," Bruce comments smoothly.
"How do you—?" she begins before it dawns on her. "Oh my god, Dickinson—he's going to kill me!" Giselle gasps. "My phone—they broke my phone—shit!"
The blonde begins to pace, Bruce's large t-shirt flowing around her body as she does. Without a job or a phone, Giselle is royally fucked.
"I took care of things," Bruce reassures her. His expression tells Giselle that he doesn't wish to explain further, so she chooses to stay quiet as he continues watching the footage. Despite not truly knowing Bruce yet, she trusts him. Just as he trusts her. She observes the evidence from Savage's murder tentatively on a stool next to Bruce, their shoulders just barely touching.
· •❔• ·
It is much later at night when Giselle finds herself standing in an abandoned building with Bruce, helping set up equipment for him to keep tabs on Selina. She's determined to enter the Forty-Four Below Club and find out where Annika has been taken. Bruce is back in his masked disguise, his eyes dark with face paint. Selina isn't supposed to know his identity.
A bond has unknowingly began to grow between the two, and the thought makes Giselle's heart beat a little faster. Selina arrives in a whirlwind of expensive perfume and worry. She's wearing a bright red wig and a black outfit.
"Here, I stopped by your place and grabbed some of your things," she says, handing Giselle a duffle bag with some of her clothes and toiletries. She's instantly grateful and smiles at the girl in relief.
"Ow!" Selina exclaims as she puts in one of Bruce's camera-contact lenses. "I don't know about these things,"
"Hey, why am I starting to feel like a fish on a hook?" demands Selina. "I'm just looking for Annika."
Bruce doesn't respond.
"We'll find her, Selina," reassures Giselle.
"Look at me," Batman instructs Selina. He looks cautiously at her eye for moment. "Looks good. Here,"
She puts in an ear pieces as Selina exits the building. The connection with her contact lens is static for awhile before her image comes into view.
"Hello, can you hear me?" Selina's voice hisses, breaking the two apart.
"Yeah," Bruce replies.
"Hey, where you goin'?" asks a voice and Giselle feels her blood run cold. She recognizes that voice from the night before. Selina looks at the man and Giselle gasps to see the man with the broken nose.
"That's one of the guys from last night," whispers Giselle. "He took Annika, and ordered his men to kill me,"
"Kenzie, William." he reads as the system identifies him. "He's an off-duty cop,"
"A cop?" Giselle deadpans as Selina enters the club. It's dimly lit and crowded, and there are people doing Drops.
"Wait. Who was that?" demands Bruce.
"Oh, I saw him," mutters Selina irritatedly.
"Look back, I need to see his face,"
"If I look back, it's gonna be a whole can of worms," groans Selina, slowly looking over her shoulder.
"That's the DA!" exclaims Giselle in surprise.
"Gil Colson," Bruce says. "Talk to him,"
"Hey. How you doing?" smiles Selina stiffly.
"Hi, I'm Gil," greets the tall, bald man.
"Hey, aren't you the DA?"
"Yeah, I am,"
"Wow, I've seen you on TV!"
"Is that right? Do you want to come over?"
"Sure," agrees Selina as she follows him over to the table he's seated at with a group of friends. She sits down and looks forward, and Giselle's blood runs cold as she sees Ashley, a bottle of champagne in hand.
"Oh my God, Ashley's down there,"
"Who?"
"She's my best friend," Giselle cries. "How could she be involved in this shit?"
Bruce frowns but doesn't respond as the DA offers Selina some Drops.
"Uh, no, I'm good. But you enjoy,"
"Hope you don't mind. I got a lot on my shoulders with that psycho running around," Gil sighs. "I mean, this Riddler, he's going after the most powerful people in the city. He knows so much,"
"He doesn't know shit, man," retorts a man at the table.
"What are you talking about? Yeah, he does! What about that rat—!"
"Hey, what's this about a rat?"
"I mean...there was a rat. We had an informant. We had big-time information on Salvatore Maroni. That's how we got him out of the drops business,"
"He's talking about the Maroni case," Giselle states. "I wrote so many articles on that,"
"But if this guy knows, it's gonna come out, and when it does, this whole city's gonna come apart," continues the DA fearfully.
"Okay, I don't wanna hear this," snaps a girl at the table. "This is the kind of pillow talk that made that Russian girl disappear,"
"What do you know about that?" asks Selina sharply.
"Does anybody want a drink?" offers the woman before jumping to her feet. Selina follows quickly in pursuit.
"No, stay on the DA!" hisses Batman.
"Where's Annika?" growls Selina. "Who took her?"
"Jesus Christ, keep your voice down. You got a death wish?" chides the woman.
"Hey, what's the problem, ladies?" greets a voice. Giselle watches as Selina turns to face none other than Carmine Falcone, a notorious crime boss.
"Hey, been a long time since I seen you down here," he says sweetly. "How you been?"
"Yeah, I've been okay," replies Selina slowly. "I was just headed back upstairs,"
"Well...don't be a stranger," he teases as Selina brushes by into the bathroom.
"You know Carmine Falcone," states Bruce angrily. "You're friends with him,"
"I am not!"
"Well, that's certainly not what it looked like," Batman quips.
"Forget it," Selina growls before beginning to take the contact lens out. The image goes static.
"Stop, no!" cries Bruce but there's nothing further he can do. "Shit,"
"Do you want me to go in there?" wonders Giselle softly. "I could find Selina, talk to Ashley—"
"No," Bruce tells her sternly. "I won't let you. If Kenzie recognizes you, you'll be dead,"
Giselle bites her lip as she studies Bruce.
"We've got a lead on him, I'll talk to Gordon and see what he knows. Come on,"
• · ─────── · •❔· ─────── · •
author's note:
sorry that this chapter literally had so much dialogue lol but it was lowkey kinda steamy so hopefully that makes up for it tehe