Divination (Joker x Batman x OC)

Chapter 146

Bruce walked alone along the damp sidewalk. It was getting dark.  His thoughts kept returning to Harri's letter, the brief portion of it he had allowed himself to read. He didn't want to think about it at all. He had parked a few blocks away from his destination so that he could have time to think as he walked. Gotham was muggy and warm, like a suffocating sweater he wanted to remove.

He heard a giggle and looked ahead. Aymara, and a man Bruce assumed was her boyfriend, were embracing on the front porch. She looked very happy, relaxed, and smiled as he whispered into her ear. 

Bruce felt like he was intruding and decided maybe now was not the best time to visit. He turned around and began to walk away.

"Hey!" he heard Aymara call out.

He turned around and saw her confused boyfriend looking down at him.

"Hello Aymara," Bruce said, raising his voice so she could hear him. He was twenty feet away from the porch.

"You know him?" Bruce heard Aymara's boyfriend say to her under his breath. Clearly the man recognized him as Bruce Wayne and Aymara never mentioned that she knew this man, who was seen as essentially a celebrity.

"Yeah," Aymara said and rolled her eyes at her boyfriend.

"I uh..was just looking for your mother," Bruce said, wanting to give them space. "I will call her tomorrow."

Aymara and her boyfriend looked at him quietly until he turned around again.

"Wait!" Aymara said and Bruce once again turned around. "Come on in!"

Aymara's boyfriend looked at her as she began to speak to him.

"I'll come by tomorrow afternoon," Aymara promised her boyfriend and gave him a kiss.

"Aiiight" he said in a long sigh to her. "See you."

As he passed Bruce, he tilted his head up for a second in greeting. Bruce returned the reverse nod and walked up the steps and watched Aymara's boyfriend drive off.

"Sorry about that," Bruce apologized. 

"No problem, Bruce," she said and laughed. "We been together like all damn day."

They went into the house and Bruce immediately sat on the couch.

"Is your mother here?" Bruce asked.

"No," Aymara said. "She went to a show."

"Oh," Bruce sighed as Aymara left him alone in the living room and surprised him by coming back almost immediately with a plate of homemade cheese and strawberry danishes.

"Here," she said and held the plate out in front of him.

"Oh uh.." he said and looked at the pastries. "I'm not hungry, but thank you."

He had no desire for food at all.

"Please?" she asked, and he wasn't sure why she was so insistent but picked up one of the cheese danishes to be polite.

"Thanks," he said, despite not wanting one. To be polite he took a bite. Within a few seconds he had eaten the entire thing. It was as though his hunger had been awakened.

"Here," she said and held up the tray again.

"I couldn't," he said, though he was tempted.

"Please," she said again and he took another cheese danish, polishing it off just as quickly.

"Are you thirsty?" she asked.

"Yea-" he said but she was already leaving again. "Water would be fine," he told her but she was gone.