[He laughs. It's a low, soft rumble, a bare exhalation against her neck. It's obviously not something he does very often. Bruce Wayne: public idol laughs frequently, but never genuinely and never like this.
How much of his life did he spend thinking he was alone? Ignoring Alfred, ignoring Dick and Jason and Tim's presences in his life all for the sake of clinging to his parent's memory and that knot of guilt and pain that had settled in his gut and stayed there as he knelt in their blood?
Too long. Too many years.
And it took being thrown into time, spending a year without his support network and his family, to see the truth.
He never has been.
On the day that he stood in his parent's bedroom, touching their things and missing them both so bad it was like a physical pain, when he looked up at Alfred and said I'm all alone now, Alfred, even then, he wasn't alone. Alfred had been with him since he was a baby. He doesn't want to think of what that statement might have done to his oldest friend, what he must have thought--
No. Not alone.
He tugs Karrin closer and kisses her damp hair. Appreciating her nearness.]
no subject
How much of his life did he spend thinking he was alone? Ignoring Alfred, ignoring Dick and Jason and Tim's presences in his life all for the sake of clinging to his parent's memory and that knot of guilt and pain that had settled in his gut and stayed there as he knelt in their blood?
Too long. Too many years.
And it took being thrown into time, spending a year without his support network and his family, to see the truth.
He never has been.
On the day that he stood in his parent's bedroom, touching their things and missing them both so bad it was like a physical pain, when he looked up at Alfred and said I'm all alone now, Alfred, even then, he wasn't alone. Alfred had been with him since he was a baby. He doesn't want to think of what that statement might have done to his oldest friend, what he must have thought--
No. Not alone.
He tugs Karrin closer and kisses her damp hair. Appreciating her nearness.]
You're a remarkable woman, Lieutenant.