This is not necessarily very chronological with anything else. Like, at all. (Seriously, the first date is set before the kidnapping, and along with the rest of this chapter it spanns well over a year. Maybe two.)

It also caused me a lot of writer's block for no apparent reason...

Still not Marvel. Or DC!

TapTap

The first night Claire agreed to go out with Bruce Wayne, just a few days after their loaded post-flower-delivery conversation, they'd simply gone out to dinner. Claire had sat opposite him at a classy but not overly posh restaurant, truly looking at him instead of just judging him for his wallet, and Bruce Wayne had fallen just a little further in love with her.

As they ate breaded hummus aperitifs they chatted about general things, before Bruce found himself going off on a tangent about corporate culture as they received their entrees.

He was surprised when he cut himself off - having plenty of experience of boring his dates with this sort of talk - and Claire merely laughed.

"I find it's important to set ground rules about what is expected from the working environment. Stark Industries has set rules about working attire, for example - but it is different for the different sectors. And of course, in internal R&D rules aren't a thing. We're family - and for once it isn't just an empty saying - but you already know that." She smirked at him, pointedly eying his right eye and cheek, where he had only just avoided getting hit by her for all intents and purposes father not a week earlier.

Wayne laughed in response. "Yeah, I picked that up. I know they say geniuses are bad with people, but I'm not that blind."

Claire giggled over her melon salad with decorative fruit flowers. "I noticed. Actually, none of the geniuses in my life are actually that bad with people. Bruce is shy and dad has dysfunctional childhood written all over him sometimes, but they're both good with people otherwise. And you seem to be the most functional one I've met yet, if you don't mind me saying."

"Maybe I am less intelligent than they are?" Wayne questioned, smiling at her. He felt genuinely curious about her insights. She was not like anybody else he had ever gone out with - genius or not.

"I don't think so. But - trauma aside - before things we need not talk about, you had the most normal childhood, out of the three of you, did you not? I think those things are important." Claire shrugged. "You haven't asked, and thank you, but you know my issue with... men? I grew up without positive male role models, and see what trouble that caused! I've only just got comfortable with Clint, and I've known him for well over a year."

"Thank you for telling me," Wayne replied simply. "I figured that's why you asked Steve to pick you up? I... is there anything I need to do for you to get to that stage with me, or is it just... a matter of me being here? Time passing?"

"I couldn't say. It's a feeling, not science. I'm just comfortable with someone, or I'm not. And it's not that I can't do it, I was alone with Tony before I claimed him as one of my own, you know? I don't like it, but life works that way. Tough luck... as for you, I'll get there on my own. Just you wait." She winked at him, just as the waiters came for their empty dishes, and he laughed.

"I'll just hang around and keep blocking your 'dad's' punches, then," he replied, letting a comfortable silence settle in as the main course arrived, and they both ate. It lasted for a few minutes, before gradually giving way to enginering talk - Claire was developing a green energy optimisation idea - and settling on mishaps in managing a company, a subject that lasted them through to desert, when Claire started gushing about the Hulk. It was a good night, for both of them.


Circumstances made almost six weeks pass after their first date until they could go on a second one, giving Bruce plenty of time to plan something more elaborate than the first one.

When they did, Claire still had bruises healing in various places after being crammed into a space in a corrugated iron wall during her kidnapping, and various Avengers lounged around the common area watching them as Wayne came to pick her up.

Having received a bit of an unusual education for a billionaire, as it was, he noted them while he kissed her on her cheek and gave her some flowers Steve gamely volunteered to find a vase for.

He had half-expected Tony to glare - and he was, from his usual spot by the coffee machine - but Hawkeye was staring from a half-hidden position in a vent near the kitchen ceiling, Captain America kept a clearly watchful eye on him, and the former Winter Soldier's silent watch over by the couch would have made a lesser man - and possibly also an even better man - just give up and run for it.

Bruce Banner, who had volunteered to chaperone them, was more relaxed, but it might have been either just him, or more an act than actually true, because his eyes were bright green.

"So, are we free to go?" Wayne tried not to smile, keeping his body language relaxed and open on purpose. He was not in any danger, nor was she - they were just being protective of her and he had never been more able to relate to anything.

Claire laughed in response. "Don't ask that! I don't think we'll approve of the answer. I'd ask if you will tell me where we're going, but maybe it's best that they don't know!"

Wayne snorted. "I'm perfectly sure it wouldn't matter if they truly wanted you home! Do you have a curfew I need to know about, or shall we go?"

She merely laughed, but Tony muttered, seemingly rather jokingly, from his corner, "Don't do anything I wouldn't do!"

"And how exactly does that limit her? Even in regards to me - we both know it's mere coincidence we didn't end up in bed with each other gone a dozen times!" Wayne pointed out, laughter in his voice.

"Not a coincidence, just availability of models I knew would be easier to kick out in the morning," Tony confessed casually. "And cause less of a Pepper-lecture. Glad for it now though..."

Wayne shuddered. "Oh, god yes. It would've been so creepy..."

Claire listened to this exchange with obvious amusement, then she waved goodbye to Tony and grabbed Wayne's wrist to bodily pull him out of the room. After the initial shock of her movement, he laughed and obligingly followed along. Bruce Banner walked after them silently, a peaceful smile on his face, but eyes still vividly green.

The two Bruces spoke of radiation as they took a short ride in a limousine, out to a local airfield. Claire raised an eyebrow at Wayne as they exited the car and he took her arm to escort her to the waiting private aircraft, but she mostly seemed amused, so he didn't comment.

Bruce Banner settled in the other end of the plane from the new couple, a reassuring presence, but not close enough to intrude, as they all selected their seats. Bruce Wayne laughed and shook his head, looking over his shoulder towards the other man. "I feel like I'm in a Jane Austen novel... We need a chaperone in order to not compromise you."

Claire laughed. "I don't want to know how indecent we'd have to get for him to feel the need to intervene!"

Bruce laughed over from his corner, clearly having heard her - or maybe Hulk did. "Say the word and I'll let Hulk take over moral support duty... he'll not be embarrassed no matter what you decide to do. I don't even want to know..."

Wayne raised an eyebrow, blinking, and that was the first time he truly saw her blush.


The air was crisp, and there was the lightest possible snowfall; graceful, soft flakes drifting slowly through the patches of soft sunlight.

The park was small and very cozy, a little wooden hut in a corner selling hot drinks and in the summer ice creams, and a large space around a scattering of little trees had been meticulously treated and frozen for ice skating.

Claire had taken Wayne's hand at the gate, and now she was tugging him along. By then, he would have followed her anywhere. She smiled as they neared the red-leaved trees, looking so perfect in his eyes as she passed a speck of bright sunlight. He looked back at her, smiling as well, just because of her happiness. He was taking in the way she looked; beaming brightly, wearing that grey coat with the green scarf and red gloves. He was carrying the bag with ice skates, and now he knew why.

They sat down on a low stone wall near the ice to lace up their skates, and he brushed his fingers across hers as they did so. She was the only one who had ever done this sort of thing with him: always seeing him, not his name or his reputation. And he loved her for it, almost as much as he loved her for so many other reasons.

She winked at him, hands still linked, as they set their feet down on the ice, both accomplished enough skaters to glide relatively smoothly, even as they did so together for the first time. Wayne decided to set up an ice rink near Wayne manor, as they glided around together. It was a quiet, almost secluded little spot, and they took their time drinking chocolate in peace after they skated their fill and changed back into their warm, comfortable boots. Life was good.


"Alright, I trust you!" Claire's words had been cheeky, but contented, as Wayne had requested she'd come with him for their date without asking questions.

They had been together long enough by now that they were quite sure of one another, and so Claire merely laughed as they exited one of his cars by the roadside, near the sea, and her longtime boyfriend insisted on leading her somewhere unknown with his hands over her eyes.

Once he let her see again, they stood below the surface of the road, on a naturally occuring little platform, by a cave-mouth. She burst out laughing. "Cave-spelunking? Why do I feel like Mr. Fox has already told me this story?"

"Because I'm sure he has... but I don't actually explore as much as I'd like to. And I thought you'd like to join me." He winked at her, and she shook her head in amusement, bright smile on her face.

They wandered inside cautiously, but without apprehension, as neither of them were cautious of dark places, and Wayne had thought to bring torches and warn his partner to make sure to wear sturdy boots. Not that he thought she'd come to an average date in high heels, but her customary sneakers would be utterly soaked with one mis-step.

"Are there bats here?" She asked curiously, knowing her boyfriend seemed to have rather a complex relationship with the little critters. They lived in great numbers near his manor, but he seemed both fascinated and occasionally uncharacteristically terrified by them.

"Not really, not on this side. There's a big colony near Gotham, but closer to my place. They're fascinating animals, though, as I'm sure you know, and their sonar is like something your dad would invent. They rarely ever crash into people. Or anything else, for that matter."

"Rarely, being the word. Did you see that Attenborough documentary? He vouches for their accuracy not ten seconds before one flies straight into his head."

Wayne laughed in response as they walked deeper into the cavernous space. "I sure did, and found it as ironic as the next person. Pretty sure it was only a very odd bat, however. I mean, what would the aliens think of us íf they encountered Tony first thing?"

"I think they did, and then gave up on invading!" Claire snorted, "sometimes I wonder if he's more brilliant or more crazy... are you sure you don't mind sharing the rights to my new patents with him?"

"You don't want to choose between us, and I respect that. Besides, your habits of making design drawings right after... ahem, aside, I think he's still been of more practical help than I have!"

"Bruce helps me with the math, dad helps with the builds, you provide inspiration," she grinned at him, "it's teamwork."

He laughed so hard he almost lost his footing and fell against the mossy walls.

They spent over an hour after that, hiking inside the system of caves, enjoying the company of both each other and nature.

As they finally left the cave-mouth, just as the daylight started to fade even out in the open air, he promised to take her cave spelunking again soon. It was not the only promise he ever made her and then broke, but it was related to the only other one, and maybe that was a point of honor to the man, moot as it was, but the fact remained. They never got the chance to go back, because of the only other promise to Claire, Bruce Thomas Wayne ever broke.