#Gotham makes their footsteps lighter and changes the streets to help them cut people off.

[brucie-baby]

I know everyone loves the angst and stuff with the Living Gotham AU, but gimme something warm, sweet, cute, or fun for it.

Please. I can't stand things that are sucky. Life has its ups too!

genuinely having to take a solid moment to think here bc even when i try to give fluff it's got a lil angst to it.

bruce loves the way that Gotham will allow him to do near enough anything if he wants it bad enough. it comes in handy when he's trying to intimidate people.

he backs a guy into an alley, one of those big ones who thinks he can take on the big, bad bat. normally bruce wouldn't even bother, but this guy has information he needs, and he needs it now. the guy doesn't look too scared. he's heard stories of batman, sure, even seen him a few times, but he knows that batman's just a man in a mask, and all men can bleed if you know how to cut them.

but then the buildings around them start to close in, start to almost loom over him. the bricks against his back feel sharper, rougher, like they're dragging along his skin. suddenly all background sound cuts out and all he can hear is his own breathing getting heavier. the bat looks taller and the guy feels so small. that's when the shadows start to creep in on him, slithering around his feet and crawling along his arms up to his neck and framing the bat as if he's part of them. his hair stands on end and he's trembling. he's trembling like he's six years old all over again.

the bat doesn't say anything. he takes a step closer, just a single step, and the temperature drops so far he feels like someone has just walked over his grave.

the guy spills everything he knows. he tells the bat all about who he's working for, what he was told to do, where the villain is hiding out. he tells him things that aren't even relevant, like where he lives and what he ate for breakfast that morning. he's terrified.

the bat takes a step back, and the guy runs. he runs and he doesn't look back.

which is a shame, really, because if he had, he'd have seen duke doubled in laughter, tears at the corners of his eyes and needing to hold onto the wall just to stay upright. bruce is trying to hold it in but he's chuckling too. he loves it as much as duke does when Gotham and the signal join forces. for a moment, it feels like Gotham herself is laughing along with them.