Bad, I'm better [Bruce Wayne]

Chapter 11.

"Walking home by yourself is not taking care of anything though..." Bruce pointed out and I rolled my eyes.

"It was a nicer way of saying usually no one cares if I go home by myself or not." I explained myself, sounding more pitiful than I had intended to.

"What about your family?"

"They don't live here, so they don't really know. But I'm not a child, I can take care of myself." I saw Bruce raising his eyebrows at that, clearly thinking otherwise, but he didn't voice his opinion before we turned a corner.

"I doubt that. If a criminal came along there is not much you could do. And you know criminals in this town don't care if they kill someone or not." A shiver ran down my spine as he said that. Of course I knew. But I didn't want these thugs to take my freedom away.

"I know." I replied curtly and now it was Bruce's turn to sigh.

"You're rather stubborn, are you?"

"I don't know what you mean." I chuckled and he shook his head with a smile on his face.

We spent the rest of the way talking about my hometown and my family.

"So do you ever want to go back?" He asked me and I thought about it for a moment.

"I'm not sure. I think Gotham has its own charms, but definitely not my neighbourhood. It's not the worst, but not the best either, so maybe if I lived in a different one and there would be less crime I'd stay here." I explained and he nodded.

"Although I do miss the countryside sometimes." I added and he nodded.

"I think I can relate? Since Wayne Manor was always pretty far from everything and we had a huge garden. I'm still not used to living in the centre of the city."

That was when we finally approached my apartment complex and I started to look for my keys.

"It was the same for me at first, but you will, believe me." I tried to cheer him up and grasped my key. "So here we are." I told him as I walked up the stairs towards the front door and turned around.

"This is where you live?" He asked me and I looked up at the building just like he did.

"Uhm, yes. It's nothing special, but it could be worse." I shrugged, feeling myself blush. He must be thinking that this is a shithole.

"I didn't mean to put you down if that's what you think."

"No, no. It's just I know this isn't the fanciest place out there." I tried to laugh it off, but Bruce saw through me. Then he looked at his watch and sighed.

"Is everything alright?" I asked with a frown and he looked up at me.

"Yeah, sure. I was just thinking that I don't want to wake Alfred this early in the morning, but I guess he'll have to deal with it." He joked, but I could see the concern in his eyes.

"So...feel free to deny, but if you want you could sleep here? I mean just in a completely platonic kind of way. Like, my flat isn't the best and I didn't clean up or anything..." I rambled, not wanting it to come across the wrong way.

What was I even doing? He was my boss after all.

"Thanks, but I can't do that. I don't want to make you even more uncomfortable." He rejected my offer with a smile and my eyes widened.

"You think you've made me uncomfortable? That's not true, Bruce." I started to explain, but he waved it off.

"Don't worry about it." He chuckled and started to turn around to leave.