#waiting for the real gif makers to do this justice but

[cable-knit-sweater]

Mom I love him 😩

[angelofthenight]

Last Man Alive Pt.11

(Dano!Riddler x Reader)

(Link to list of chapters)

Warnings: Edward is a yandere, Dark themes, Talk of drugs, Justice League Unlimited reference, Bruce & YN hav v fluffy moments

Word Count: 2.7k

~

(Y/n) glared at the Jack card before setting down the deck to unfold the white paper, Bruce watching it like a hawk. She read the first few lines before she looked over to Bruce with an uneasy, queasy look. “It’s my ex’s bank statement.”

Bruce’s eyes widened before he shuffled closer to her so that they were shoulder to shoulder, looking down at the list of numbers, locations, dates, and names. (Y/n) made a face as she read through it. “Wait, no. This can’t be right.” She pointed down at one of the statements. “It said that I transferred money from my savings account to his account. I never once did that.” She shakingly said.

Bruce took the paper from her trembling fingers to read over it. “Did he know your card login?” He asked, looking up to her. “I only told him once so he could buy a movie online for us.” Bruce looked back down. “Then it looks like he transferred the money himself.” (Y/n) was terribly confused as she gave him a look of anguish. “But… why?”

Bruce read over the names that were mentioned in the receipt, multiple of them standing out to him as he came across them during his nightly activities. “Did you know he was a drophead dealer?”

(Y/n) felt a pinch in her gut over the news, her jaw hanging slightly open and her brain in painful denial. “What? No, he couldn’t- I mean he has a lot of friends who do drugs but he-” Bruce cut her off, his detective thinking quickly rounding up to a conclusion. “He worked for the drophead makers. They gave him drugs to sell but something happened to the dropheads so he fished the cash from your savings and checking account.”

(Y/n) felt like she was sinking into the wooden floor, every positive thing she ever thought (E/n) to be slowly fading away. There was a lump in her throat as her voice cracked out a question, “How much did he take?” Bruce pursed his lips before glancing down then up again. “4,000 from your savings and 1,500 from your checking account.”

That was half of her savings and more than half of her checking account.

She sat there, just staring at a sympathetic Bruce as tears slowly swelled up in her eyes. “I always believed I was scammed out of all that money.” She said quietly with a quivering voice and lip. Then the tears finally overflowed and poured out from her eyes, her sobs mixed with gasps of breath as she hugged herself. “That stolen money ruined my life! It was the whole reason (R/n) and I moved in together in the first place! Oh my god! I had to get a second job!” She wailed out, flashbacks back to that night where she checked her bank account to find more than half of her money gone.

(E/n) comforted her through it all, encouraging the idea of it being scammed off her account. She remembered balling in his arms as he told her it would be alright and he’d help her find a second job. He did all of that while knowing what really happened. How on earth could someone be so sadistic? Especially since after she was back on her feet and back to living a happy life with her best friend now as her roommate, the two of them agreed to break up.

The money was probably his main motive for agreeing to the breakup.

(Y/n) sniffled as she tried to regain steady breathing, Bruce awkwardly rubbing her back with a sad expression. “The Riddler told (E/n) to tell me the real reason we broke up.” She said in between gasps for breath over her cries. “(E/n) chose to die rather than tell me.” She admitted with a grief-stricken emotion morphed on her face.

“The people who gave him the drugs would also probably come after him if they found out he wasn’t actually selling the drugs.” Bruce added before looking back down at the paper to work out a straight story. “He turned your stolen money into physical cash.” There was nothing left of importance on the paper but Bruce looked down the deck of cards. He grabbed it and untwisted the rubber band. He spread out the cards on the floor to search for anything that could’ve been hidden in between them.

His analyzing eyes halted at a card that stood out from the rest. He slid it away to realize it was a polaroid photograph. He lifted up closer to his and (Y/n)’s faces. It was a photo taken from a high level in an alleyway of (E/n) laughing while holding multiple neon colored bags with the drophead mascot imprinted all over them. A few other guys were around him, also smiling, and one was dropping something in his eye. The drophead.

“Those are his druggie friends I mentioned earlier.” (Y/n) said with a wavering tone from her previous sobbing, tapping on the photo. “He never sold the dropheads,” Bruce concluded, “he secretly took them himself and for his friends.”

(Y/n) wiped two fingers on her cheeks and dark eyebags, trying to smear the tears away. She looked over to Bruce with stinging pink eyes, “How did the Riddler even find out about this?” Before Bruce could say anything her breathing came out in a rapid, unsteady movement. “How does he know about things that happened a few years ago? Has he been stalking me for that long or is he just so obsessed that he dug through my past to learn everything about me, even the things that go on behind the scenes of my life? What else does he know that I don’t? What does-”

Bruce grabbed onto her biceps, pulling her towards him. “(Y/n), you have to stay calm.” He strictly told her but to no avail as angry tears drowned her bottom lashes. “How can I be calm?!” She snapped in his face, distress mixing with berserk on her face. “This riddling freak has killed my lover, my best friend, and my ex who turned out to be a scamming piece of shit who’d rather die than own up to his actions! And their murderer is a pervy scumbag who is completely convinced that we’re meant to be together! How the fuck am I supposed to be calm!?” She practically screamed with a breaking voice.

“I understand that you’re hurt, angry, scared. But these are just the things that cloud your drive.” Bruce said to her, looking her straight in the eye. “You can’t defeat him if you don’t have a clear head, you need to think clearly. I thought you were determined to take him down?”

(Y/n)’s lips quivered as her crazed face softened to vulnerability. “I-I am.” She looked down. “I didn’t let myself break down over the deaths because I knew they wouldn’t want that when there were bigger things going on. I told myself to push through the pain and solve the mystery for the people I haven’t lost yet. But now I feel like I’m losing my mind, I keep having manic outbursts and my anger and fear are trying to tear me apart. I just…” She looked back up to Bruce, feeling weakened. “I don’t know what to do with myself.”

Bruce frowned while his eyebrows curved up, feeling like he was looking into a mirror. “I understand what that’s like.”

(Y/n) felt her whole body relax as she looked at him through her empty eyes, her head slightly tilted as she remembered what he had to go through as a child. “You do, don’t you?”

He nodded one nod before his hands gradually traveled up to her shoulders to her upper back, pulling her into him. Her own arms wrapped around his torso and leaned into the embrace. Both of their chins rested on the other's right shoulder as they squeezed each other as if they were hugging themselves.

Two contrasting worlds colliding through empathy and a mutual understanding of the others’ pain.

~

Bruce and (Y/n) spent the rest of the day together, they talked for a long time to get to know each other and even watched a few of the weird movies she was into. Bruce didn’t laugh a lot though, he just gave weirded out faces. Alfred checked up on them a few times and never felt happier than watching Bruce break out of his shell and make a friend. He also thought this was great for (Y/n) since she really needed distractions to keep her mental health grounded.

This went on for two more days as the two spent their whole daytime together, (Y/n) got Bruce to loosen up a bit and Bruce made her more relaxed. They really brought out the best in each other and (Y/n) brought in a childlike kind of fun into his dark life. Just like now as they copied the movements on the T.V. playing the Just Dance (Y/n) had. 

(Y/n) had played many times before and practically knew this specific dance by heart while Bruce shyly moved his arms in the required movements, only moving his legs in the near slightest. “Ya know,” (Y/n) said through hot breaths as she kept moving, “(R/n) and I used to go down to the beach when we were kids and just started dancing the dance we memorized from this game. Speaking of the beach, even though it’s still cold out, we should go have a picnic down there. (B/n) and I did that once and it was so peaceful.” 

Bruce slowed down at his not-so-good dance copy in bashfulness. “I haven’t been to the beach since I was six years old...” (Y/n) immediately halted her dancing to face him. “Holy shit, really? Then we gotta go sometime this month!” She exclaimed with an excited grin, like she completely forgot her whole situation, just so caught up in her short term happiness.

Bruce still kept his nighttime alter ego a secret to her, and intended to keep it that way. He just thought it was the safest route, the less she knew the safer she was, and it would keep a lot more stress off her back. And what he did was dangerous and he didn’t want her getting involved or try to tag along.

“So I take it you will not be joining us in a screening of ‘Aquamarine’?” Alfred asked as he walked into the batcave at the start of dusk. He was about to start dinner and wanted to try and convince Bruce to have dinner with them for the first time since (Y/n) got here. He was sure the city wouldn’t mind if Batman stayed in for one night, especially since the Riddler had been suspiciously quiet.

“Selina said she found another one of the Riddler’s followers. We’re gonna try and get some information out of him. (Y/n) told me about how she was hacked and the Riddler told her he planned to go after another person.” Bruce stated as he finished his eye makeup, his computer screens presenting highlights of specific things the Riddler has said in his videos.

“This is her fourth night in the manor, we can't just keep feeding her the lie that you’re in your study every single night.” Alfred said strictly, looking down at the seated Bruce before he got to his feet and began to walk towards the batmobile while tugging on his hood and face covering and carrying the bag of his suit and cowl.

Alfred grumbled and stomped after him, gripping onto his shoulder and forcing the masked Bruce to look at him. “That girl needs a friend and a shoulder to cry on more than a hero. She needs Bruce Wayne more than she needs Batman.” He said harshly, glaring up at him.

Bruce looked down at Alfred’s hand then back up to his eyes, placing his hand on top of his which gave Alfred false hope of joining them for dinner. “What she needs,” Bruce softly removed Alfred’s hand off him then turned in the direction of the batmobile, “is the Riddler out of her life and behind bars.”

Alfred watched sadly as Bruce got into his batmobile.

~

(Y/n) opened her curtains to display the nighttime sky, it must’ve been only roughly 11 PM. She told herself it was still a little early to fall back asleep after her nightmare woke her up. Her limbs were tired and begged to fall back onto the expensive bed but her brain was already shifting into morning routine mode.

Her throat was dry and warm from dehydration so she set off out of her room in pursuit of a glass of water. Her body was still incredibly tired so she decided to take the elevator. She’s only taken it once with Alfred since he couldn’t really go up and down stairs very well due to his age and need of a walking cane. She reached the hallway that had the entrance to it and she pushed the button that brought it up to her level.

She heard rumbling before the ding and sliding of the doors opening. She trudged in and slumped against the wall to choose the main floor. She halted her finger as she noticed the button below it for the very last floor to the bottom. Alfred told her it was just the basement filled with crap. Her curiosity kept annoyingly poking at her side, wanting to at least see the basement just to see it.

She looked down the hallways to make sure Alfred or Bruce weren’t around before she hesitantly pushed it. The excuse she planned in her head was that she pushed it by accident. The elevator shook a little before gliding downwards to the lowest floor of the manor, which must’ve reached underground.

(Y/n) watched through the fancy crate of the door as the elevator passed all of the floors and enter a dark, stone area. Her eyes widened as she took in the new atmosphere and setting as the elevator lowered. It shook as it came to a halt and the gate slid open on its own. She peeked her head through, the distant sounds of bats screeching perking up her ears. Her eyes fell on the body wearing a heavy, dark jacket sitting in a chair surrounded by computers.

She gulped hard, anxious fear pumping through her veins. Did someone, Bruce and Alfred didn’t want her to know about, live down here? Was it a mistake to press the bottom floor button?

Her shoulders tensed up as the man turned in his chair to look over his shoulder at the elevator where she stood. The man had wet black hair with a few strands draped over his eyes covered in black eyeshadow.

‘I’m gonna die.’ (Y/n) mentally concluded over the sight.

It wasn’t until the man turned in his chair completely that (Y/n)’s eyes widened even further and her throat let in a quiet gasp. “Bruce!” She squeaked as he turned to her with a look of horror in his face. “(Y/n), y-you’re not supposed to be down here. Did Alfred send you?” Bruce said nervously as he jumped to his feet in surprise, his body trying to lean in front of his computer screen as a last chance to conceal his secret vigilante identity.

(Y/n) stepped out of the elevator subconsciously and frantically waved her hands around. “No, no! I hit the last floor button by accident! And, you know, you can’t really undo pressing a button on an elevator!” She defended like an embarrassed wreck, not wanting to ruin the trust that he grew to have with her.

(Y/n) hands lowered as her eyes were pulled to the scenery around them. “When I asked if you lived in a cave, I was being sarcastic just so you know.” She said as her eyes traveled around to take it all in, the area looking like an abandoned train station. “Can I ask what is this place?”

Bruce nervously watched her, following her eyes to make sure she wasn’t looking at the most important stuff. “The place I always go to… my study.” He said quietly. (Y/n) held back making a weirded out face after his answer. Like, she was never one to judge others but she’s just never seen a “study” like this before-

Her eyes stopped at the big black car with flaps that resembled bat wings on the side. Her face fell into a deadpan expression before her eyes went over to the open duffel bag that held a black suit in it, a black cowl laying right on top of it.

She looked back over to Bruce who looked like he was trying not to piss his pants.

“Are you fucking Batman?”

-

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