When Bruce Wayne walked into the food court of the South Dock Mall, he was surrounded by an entourage of adoring girls. They circled him like a flock of birds, chattering and giggling, all of them competing at once for his attention and approval. They took every opportunity to touch him and hug him, like an old friend that they hadn't seen in years.
From the first moment she saw him, Nadia understood why. Bruce was simply the most beautiful person she had ever seen. The epitome and embodiment of tall, dark, and handsome. At sixteen he already stood at over six feet, and had the muscular build and walk of a warrior. His fine black hair was cropped short like a soldier's. His handsome face was the face of an angel. His perfect smile was the smile of a movie star.
Bruce walked with a confidence that could be mistaken for arrogance in any other man. He didn't just own the world; he was the world. He was the center of everything real, and the only thing that mattered.
Nadia was struck dumb with love at that first moment.
At any other point in her life Nadia would have considered herself any man's equal, at the very least. She was the mirror of her mother in her youth. Same piercing dark blue eyes. Same deceptively delicate facial features; thin nose, with Cupid's bow lips. They both were known for their full dark brown hair. But while her mother mostly kept her hair short in the style of the ballet, Nadia let hers flow down her back. She always wore it traditionally straight, rebelling against the trends of the decade.
From her father Nadia had inherited height and athletic ability. At seventeen she was taller and more physically fit than most of her rivals. And although she had also inherited her father's light complexion, she spent enough time in the sun on beaches around the world to maintain a year round tan.
Nadia's looks were matched by her intelligence. Tests performed on her as a child would place her IQ in the upper 140s. On later tests she would consistently score lower, but only because she had learned to manipulate the results.
But none of that mattered with the sudden arrival of Bruce in her life. For the first time she was stuck with insecurity. She couldn't have walked up to him with the confidence she would have possessed with anyone else. All she could do is numbly stare at him.
Then she recognized the only guy in Bruce's group. It was Harvey Dent. Nadia had briefly dated Harvey for a couple of days over the past summer. She had quickly broken things off with him because she found him to be selfish, arrogant, and manipulative. These were qualities she could only accept in herself. Never in a man.
Harvey spotted Nadia, and waved at her. She wasn't sure if she waved back. He started walking towards her. To her dismay Bruce followed him, leaving the gaggle of girls standing where they were.
Nadia began to panic. But she tried her best to stay calm as the two approached her.
The food court was not very busy, so the two were quickly at her table. She stayed sitting as they stood.
"Hey Nadia. How have you been?" Harvey asked. "Haven't seen you in a while."
Nadia mumbled something back.
Harvey went on. "That's good. I always felt bad about the way things ended with us. Like I led you on, or something."
That was Harvey. Manipulative and self centered as always. Making this moment about him. Making it sound like he had dibs on her, or something. Making it sound like they had been involved in something more than it was.
But all she could think to answer was, "it's OK, Harvey. I moved on." Then, with all the confidence she could summon, Nadia looked up at Bruce and smiled. "So who's your friend here?" She asked.
"Come on, Nadia." Harvey answered. "You know who this is."
"No, we've never met before. I would have definitely remembered if I had." She knew how lame this sounded as soon as she said it. She tried to laugh it off, but her laughter came out a nervous giggle.
"You may not have met before, but you still know who he is." Harvey insisted. "Everybody knows who Bruce Wayne is."
Nadia recognized the name at once.
As a daughter of Gotham City Nadia had grown up hearing all about the prestigious Wayne family. She knew all about Wayne industries, a million dollar automotive manufacturing plant at the end of the 19th century, growing to a billion dollar company by the time route 66 spread across the 20th century. By World War 2 they had expanded to making aircraft for the US government.
Technological adaptation was the Wayne brand. They were the pioneers of every era. By the late 60s they were the leaders of the computer revolution; a science they claimed would transform every aspect of life like nothing before.
As a child of Gotham, Nadia had grown up hearing tales of Charles "Archer" Wayne, Bruce's paternal grandfather. Archer Wayne had made international headlines during the second World War by abandoning a life of privilege, to enlist in the Air Force, eventually serving as a fighter pilot. Two decades later Bruce's father, Thomas Wayne, would follow in his father's footsteps, serving as a medical helicopter pilot in the Vietnam conflict.
Public opinion was that Bruce would follow in this tradition as soon as he was old enough to enlist.
As a daughter of Gotham, Nadia had heard all about Bruce. All of her classmates pined away for him, droning on over how handsome he was. How dashing and daring he could be. What a brilliant student he was. What a promising future he had before him. What a fine husband he would make.
Nadia had never been interested in such gossip. She had always considered the giggling twitter of other girls to be like the braying of jackasses; amusing to hear, but not worth listening to.
Then she met Bruce in person, and at once realized how wrong she had been.
But she didn't tell Harvey any of this. She admitted honestly that she had heard of Bruce, but until this moment had never seen his face. Bruce, in turn, insisted he had never heard of Nadia or her family before either. Which was difficult to believe, considering the portrait of her mother watching them from the background.
But none of this mattered. He could have told her anything he wished, and she would have accepted every word.
Bruce and Nadia spoke that day for only the sweetest and briefest of moments, both of them ignoring Harvey all together. Then the other girls came over and surrounded Bruce, stealing the moment away. They had identified Nadia at once as a chief new rival. This proved they were not as ignorant as they appeared.
But as they dragged him away from her Bruce did the sexiest thing Nadia had ever seen a man do. As he was leaving her he turned back to her one last time, smiling that beautiful smile, and winked.
He would later admit to her that this was something he did to any woman he knew was interested in him. It was his trademark. He called it his "I have you now" wink.
It worked. Like everything else from that day, she would remember that wink for the rest of her life.
Bruce had known from that first moment that he had her. But from that first moment Nadia knew something herself. Watching him walk away, she knew that for as long as Bruce lived she would be a part of his life.
She would never leave him.
She would never let him leave.
