SID & NANCY. bruce wayne

Nine

I CAN'T SEEM TO FIND MYSELF FALLING ASLEEP TONIGHT.

After whatever happened, my brain keeps telling me I should've put a bullet through the lunatic's head. But my heart tells me otherwise. My heart tells me I should spare him.

I hear a few raps on my door. "Come in." It's three o'clock in the morning, who could be up this late?

"Hey," the door opens. Bruce. Of course. "You can't sleep either?"

"Why don't you guess?" I joke.

He hums, finding his place next to me on my bed. "I keep having this recurring dream," he begins. "You and Joker were face to face, the rest of us were all tied up. Then he just started having this control over you and... he can make you do whatever he wants you to do. And he made you drop your weapon and put your hands behind your back." He pauses for a moment, looking so shaken.

This recurring dream really affected him, huh? "T-Then, he just... shot you in the head right in front of all of us." His face fell on his hands as he wipes the tears that were on the brink of falling down.

"Jesus," I mutter. "I'm sorry, Bruce." My hands were both on his shoulders as I lean in closer to him.

"I had to check in on you, I'm sorry-"

"No," I stop him. "Don't apologise. No one deserves to dream about that."

"What do you need to talk about?" Bruce drop everything and asks.

"If it was the right thing to do to spare Joker," was all I said, before I added, "And about whatever you said that night after the fundraiser party."

It was as if Bruce huffed the lowkey-est sigh of relief. He needed me to bring it up. He wanted me to bring it up. "I'll tell you, it was the right thing to spare him. He thought you were gonna kill him tonight. You stumped him. Kill him the next time he wants to see us again."

An almost deafening silence fell over us. Bruce was probably trying to piece his words together; as do I. "And about the other thing," I start. "I think I love you too."

—

The next night, I told Selina everything that happened between Bruce and I. She tells me he's very prone to having recurring dreams through this job. "Dick's told me a couple of them and, not gonna lie, they're pretty scary, some are gorey as shit." Selina explains. As someone who has struggled with having horrible recurring dreams, I couldn't resonate one single bit with Bruce.

"And I told him I love him back." I rush out.

Selina's eyes grow wide. "Excuse me, what?!" I've already told Selina about Bruce confessing everything to me and she was surprised, but not as surprised as she is right now. "Does Dick know?"

"Obviously not," I say, not caring to whisper since I'm in Selina's bedroom and not mine. "You think he'd forgive me?" I scoff, mouthing a 'no'.

"What is it with Dick and his gatekeeping Bruce from you? I don't understand it at all." Selina complains, shrugging her shoulders.

"The man is a god to him, Selina. The last thing he wants is for his older sister to be fucking around with God." I joke.

"But then, he's dating Barbara Gordon right before Jason could even confess to her." Selina adds. I hum. It was supposed to be Jason and Barbie, not Dick.

One thing about Dick is he'll always steal your thunder; it doesn't matter whether you're his best friend or not. So when Dick found out Jason wanted to tell Barbie he likes her, he went up to Barbie and tells her whatever lies he could come up with. Dick cannot see his friends win; that's his toxic trait.

"My brother's an asshole," I say, huffing a breath of disappointment. I wish he would change for the better. "I don't even truly know if he loves Barb or not."

"Girl, he probably doesn't," Selina begins. "He's probably in love with Hel Bertinelli, but had to put on this show in front of Barb." Many possibilities and I still don't know which one seems likely. But I know my brother. If he loves someone, he truly loves someone.

But loving Barbara Gordon caught the entire house off-guard.