A/N: Messing around some more with perspectives.
12.) The jungle
Gotham is not a gentle, peaceful place. She does not have the tranquility and calm of the suburbs. She is a clash of peoples, cultures, lifestyles. She loves everyone and no one. It is too easy to lose yourself in Gotham, for she will not stop you from doing so.
There are stories whispered of those who are lost in Gotham, the ones who disappear and don't come back. She is a devourer, an eater of the weak and innocent, they say. Do not go there if you value your life and sanity. There are those who stay away from Gotham for this reason. There are those who go into Gotham for this reason.
There are those that go into Gotham because they have no other choice, work or family or simply passing through. They do not know how to put Gotham into words, for when they look upon her, they catch only a glimpse of her true spirit.
But there also those who know better, those who see Gotham. Those who live in Gotham because there is no other place they belong. I like it here, they will say, and when they are asked why, they will have no other answer than the same old thing about cities and people and culture. But that is not the real answer, the true answer.
They love Gotham because Gotham has worked her way into their systems, Gotham has dug herself so deep into them that it would be almost impossible to pull her out.
And Gotham worked her way into Bruce's system a long time ago. Even the years away from her, trying to get away, he couldn't, because he was always hers and hers alone. He could not find room in his heart for Cape Town, for Shanghai, for London.
It was Gotham, always Gotham, and as he looks over her, protects her, (loves her), he thinks that maybe that's the way it should be.