Fate/Dark Night

02 Bruce Wayne

*Ding dong*

*Ding dong*

An old man awakens wearily to the sound of knocking on his front door. It was late, like really REALLY late. The man lets out a tired yawn before running his hand through his face to quickly remove any crust that may have accumulated on his sleep.

He made a quick look through the window just in case. What? You can't fault him. After all, news spoke of a string murders involving various people within the city being killed in horrifically gruesome ways. Most of the victims had their blood drained from their throats, with the youngest ones being killed in a way akin to less to a murder, and more like a pig being butchered. Furthermore, horrific blood-based sigils were placed on the floor near the corpses.

There's no harm in opening it... right?

He saw the tall shadow of a man on their front porch, making him nervous. The old man, Glen Mackenzie, cautiously took his cane and readied to smack the stranger on the other side should the person try anything funny.

Glen knew that someone of that stature would easily overwhelm an old man like him who lacks even basic defense classes, but if he could give his wife and newly arriving grandson even a few seconds of a head start, he'd be fine with that.

He nervoualy opened the door while raising his cane only to see his neighbor instead. It was the rising tech businessman, Bruce Wayne. The man was wearing nothing more than a grey sweater and jeans with flip-flops. Bruce jumps back in terror, saying "Gah! I come in peace!".

The old man breaths a sigh of relief as he said, "O-oh... it's just you." The 20-ish year old man mimicks his relieved expression before asking, "Oh sorry, sorry. I just... is Martha here?"bThe old man then raised an eyebrow at the inquiry about his wife.

"Why do you ask Bruce?"

Bruce tapped his hands together, his face flushed as he embarrasedly asked, "Well... remember the spare house keycard I asked you guys to keep for me?"

"Yeah?" asked the old man, prodding Bruce to just spill the beans with an even more inquisitive gaze.

Bruce awkwardly explains, "W-well... you see, I went to a meeting four days ago and... well... I may have dropped my copy on the road on the way back... and... well... it got ran over..."

Glen couldn't help but chuckle at the young man's apparent mishap as he concluded, "You were too embarrassed to ask us for ours and instead hid in a hotel somewhere to muster enough courage to ask. Is that it?".

"I..!" Bruce said as if to try to make a rebuttal, only for said rebuttal to die down as he embarrassingly slumped down, saying "Yeah..." in a defeated tone.

Glen's chuckle turned into outright laughter as the young man joined in with nervous laughter. It was actually quite comical for the old man to see such a muscularly built young man who could pass for a soldier acting so timid and vulnerable when the guy is shown on television to have exuded in charisma.

Glen's laughter died down when the muffled complaint of his wife could be heard from the upstairs bedroom, which he strictly replied with, "I'm sorry dear. Please continue sleeping."

The old man looks back to Bruce and explains "I'll just go back to get it." before offering, "In the meantime, please, help yourself to some coffee we brewed up. I was meaning to drink that but it would seem you might need some warmth in your stomach for tonight. It's quite cold out."

Bruce Wayne waved his hands in front of himseld saying, "I don't mean to impose. You need your coffee more than-" only for his argument to die down when Glen held his shoulder, saying "I insist." with a kind smile. Bruce then reluctantly entered and sat at their table.