This is a rewrite/continuation of a story I started MANY years ago. You can always read the original version of the first few chapters on my old account(locked out of sadly /~fearisanillusion), but these will be updated/fixed/rewritten and the story finally completed. I was always upset I abandoned the idea of it. It's simply a romance/drama about my favourite Batman villain and his OC. I suppose since elements are taken from both Batman Begins(movie) and regular Batman universe, everything but OC belongs to either Warner Bros or DC.
Prologue
It has been said that the only thing to fear is fear itself. But what if fear had a face, should you fear the man, or his capabilities? I often wondered this since first meeting Jonathan Crane. Growing up he was but merely someone who teased me, but we had a mutual understanding of one another. We were both poor, misunderstood, and bullied children growing up in the Narrows, a slum-like neighborhood of sorts in Gotham City. Crime was everywhere, and one never really did know who to trust, so everyone just kept their mouth shut. Unlike him, I escaped Gotham once, only to return years later after my parents deaths.
During my time away, I had received a doctorate of psychology and human behavior from a renowned university much like the University of Gotham. I excelled in all of my studies, graduated top of my class, as was expected of me. I'd always assumed I would go on to live somewhere like Metropolis, but try as I might, I could not escape memories of my childhood in Gotham, nor my memories of Jonathan Crane and the last night I shared with him before my departure.
"Why are you leaving was my question?" Jonathan asked, despair creasing his forehead, catching on to my attempt at deflecting the current conversation. My heart was breaking looking into his bright blue eyes.
"My father is sick, so my mom wants to move closer to my grandparents." I said, tears welling up in my eyes as he held me close, my handmade navy pea coat snagging on his almost matching black one. I remembered the previous Christmas my grandmother had given them to us. It was the perfect holiday, and the one time my entire small family had been together. I took in his scent, knowing it would probably be the last time I would see him.
"I have never known love before you, Kristen. I almost feel bad I tormented you so much when we were younger, but still you were my friend. Then you became so much more. " Jonathan was rambling at this point, trying to stall time, and Kristen knew it, :I'll never love another. Not the way I love you" he said, his head resting on hers as rain began pouring down from the night sky. The stood like that, melting into one another on the dimly lit sidewalk, for what seemed like forever. "You're seventeen, can't you stay?" He asked knowing the answer before it escaped her soft pink lips. He would miss her. She was the only one to ever show him love, compassion, and trust. He had only known pain and fear until meeting her. He held her tighter, as if his grasp was what was keeping her with him. "I won't be me without you." He said softly as he kissed her hair.
"And I won't be me without you, Jonathan. I will miss you so much." She said, the rain masking her tears, her brown hair plastered to her forehead, intertwined with his black strands. "I fear I may never see you again." She said as she pressed her face into his rain-soaked shirt, her tears flowing freely now. She was torn between her responsibility to her family, and her genuine love for the young man standing heartbroken in front of her. Her cell phone began the familiar ring, assigned only to her mother, the usually serene tone now like a knife in her heart. She looked up at him sadly as she answered it with a tearful hello.
As she spoke inaudible words into the receiver, Jonathan felt his world slipping from his grasp, all reality was ceasing to exist for him. As he watched his beloved slowly close her phone, he knew this would begin his last few moments with her. Precious moments he would not waste in sadness. He swiftly grabbed Kristen and pressed their bodies closely together, kissing her furiously, letting all his emotions mix with her own.
"I have to go." She said quietly as she forced herself to part from him. She fled with three little words that would stay with him forever. "I love you."
A single tear fell down her cheek as she stood in front of her new apartment building, far from her childhood home. Happy to have found a place to live, she'd used most of her savings to pay for the month. She knew he was long gone, probably happily married to a beautiful woman by now. After all, it had been nearly seven years. True, she had been with others since Jonathan, but none were awarded her love. You never forget your first love is what her mother always told her. Tonight she would attempt a sleep that would not come, tomorrow she would go to Arkham to apply for a job.
