"I am the fallen
You are what my sins enclose
Lust is not as creative as its discovery"
Bruce quickly discovered that Jack was fast!
By the time he had managed to climb down the ladder, Jay was already long gone. It made Bruce's heart sink to think he might have missed his one chance to get to know the most intriguing man he had ever met, by not being fast enough.
However, that only lasted a second before he noticed a flashy red Lamborghini swinging up on the road next to him with its window already rolled down.
"Need a ride, hot stuff?" Jay grinned and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at Bruce, who couldn't help but laugh as he climbed into the black leather-covered passenger seat.
"So what's the plan?" Bruce asked. The butterflies in his stomach were back again, and the added uncertainty of not knowing what would happen seemed to make them flutter even stronger.
"Oh, I don't like making plans for the day, 'cause the word 'premeditated' gets thrown around in the courtroom a lot," Jay said cheerfully, then promptly laughed at his own bad joke.
Bruce couldn't help but chuckle as well. It was a bit weird, to be sure, but then again, so was Jay. And it was funny. If a bit dark.
"Nah, I was thinking we'd go to this place I visit sometimes. It's a great place to have a few drinks and have some fun. You'll see," he said, then stepped on the gas, leaving Bruce to grab the dashboard to steady himself, but still slamming into the door as Jay took a particularly sharp u-turn Bruce wasn't entirely sure was legal. In fact, he was pretty sure it wasn't.
But it made his blood rush and made him feel alive in a way he'd only ever felt when he was fighting crime and beating up the bad-guys.
Maybe this thing with Jay was a good thing? Even if the guy seemed to disregard his own safety, and some of the things he did were on the shady side of legal.
It was certainly safer than being shot at or pursuing some of the more crazy villains in Gotham, whenever they escaped Arkham at least...
"Seat-belt!" Jay yelled at him, and Bruce laughed as he tried to wrestle the seat-belt into position -a hard task at the speed they were moving, but he managed.
At least Jay cared about his safety, even if he was a pretty reckless driver.
The thought made him smile.
Jay stepped out of the car and quickly and elegantly stepped over to hold the door open for Bruce, something he appreciated. He usually loved driving his own sports-cars fast, whenever he could get away with it, but between Jay's twists and sharp turns and the somewhat large amount of alcohol he had been drinking, Bruce felt slightly queasy.
Still, it was a very gentleman gesture on Jay's part- which made Bruce feel both flattered and a bit embarrassed. Usually he was the one holding the doors open for whichever girl he had the misfortune to have to enlist as his date for whatever he needed a date for.
A date he had been more than happy to ditch for a man he had just met.
And yet he could not manage to feel the least bit bad about it as Jay helped him out of the car with that strangely charming smile of his plastered across his face.
Jay slammed the door shut as soon as Bruce was out, and lead Bruce down towards a slightly shabby-looking bar that seemed to be located half a step from a dingy, dark alleyway.
"Wait! Shouldn't you lock the car? What if someone steals it?" Bruce said, looking back at the car confused.
Jay looked unsure for half a second, before his usual grin spread across his face and he moved close enough to pat Bruce on his cheek.
"Silly Brucie~ I already took care of that. How much did you have to drink?" he asked, appearing genuinely amused at the fact that Bruce thought he had not locked the car-door.
Bruce paused and tried to think back. Had he? He supposed Jay could have. Considering how expensive the car was, he most likely had the kind of key that would look the whole car with a single push of a button.
Strange... He couldn't remember there even being a key in the keyhole when he was driving...or Jay removing it- Which there must have been! Can't drive a car without a key after all.
...well, not unless you hot-wire it, but that thought was so ridiculous that he couldn't help but mentally laugh at himself. Especially considering how little time the other man would have had to do so.
"Maybe I did drink a bit too much," Bruce admitted.
"Can never have too much to drink!" Jay grinned and hooked his arms around Bruce's arm and dragged him along with him.
Bruce knew he should have protested the man's clinginess -they hardly knew each other after all- but something made him feel like he'd known Jay for ages already. For all that he knew very little about him.
He turned his head up towards the sign-post over the bar-door.
"The Bootlegger?" Bruce couldn't help but laugh at the name. [1]
"Hey! A man gotta know where to get the best illegal booze in town!" Jay said with a grin, and Bruce laughed again. Yep, he'd defiantly had too much to drink.
Jay had a weird sense of humor he decided. But it was still pretty funny. And the man himself was an enigmatic mystery to him.
He seemed like a typical spoiled rich kid, right down to the classy car and reckless driving -probably would buy his way out of speeding tickets and hit-and-runs- if the case even made it to the courtroom- But he still cared about things like car-belt safety, and holding the door open for his... whatever Bruce was to him.
And, apparently, he enjoyed small, dingy pubs in the less reputable parts of town. Which -based on the cheers he got when he entered it- was not the first time he'd been there either.
Jay was charming, funny, and full of contradictions, and Bruce couldn't wait to solve the mystery behind this man!
"Two whiskeys, Monty, my man! And put it on my tab," Jay grinned as he strolled over to lean against the bar.
"A bit short again, Jay?" the somewhat stout barman said as he pulled up two glasses and proceeded to fill them from a bottle of unknown origin.
"Temporarily. Haven't had a chance to hit the bank yet," Jay laughed, and took the whiskey from the barman and handed one of them over to Bruce.
"Thank you," Bruce said and smiled at Jay, "I could pay, you know," he offered.
"Nonsens! Let me treat you, Brucie-boy~" he winked at him, then grabbed Bruce's arm and dragged him off to what looked like a second room. Not that there was a door in the large frame that separated the rooms.
The place had a pool-table, and a few round tables spread around the reasonably large room.
At one of the tables there seemed to be a game of poker going on, while somewhere else a group of shady-looking individuals were talking amongst themselves in hushed tones.
But Jay ignored everything else in the room and headed straight for the back-wall, which seemed to hold something that Bruce had not seen since he was a little kid.
'Arcade Games?'
"Are. You. Kidding me?!" Bruce said, unable to hold back a grin as he hurried over to one of the machines.
"Pinball, Street Fighter II, Donkey Kong... take your pick!" Jay grinned, spreading his arms wide in a silly gesture of showmanship that made his drink spill over and Bruce chuckle.
"I thought they'd got rid of these," Bruce muttered with a nostalgic smile, as he ran his hand across the buttons of the Street Fighter machine.
As he took a sip of what tasted more like moonshine than whiskey -clearly the bar was aptly named- he thought he heard Jay whisper something like 'I knew it!'
But that was just silly. And with the general ambient sound of the bar, it was hard to be sure.
"Did you say something?"
"What? No. No! I was just thinking out loud.. you know, nostalgia and all," he said, then laughed a bit awkwardly.
Bruce couldn't help but shake his head and smile. He didn't understand Jay one bit, but he was pretty cute sometimes...
Honestly... Jay was strange and enticing. Confident and upbeat one minute, awkward and embarrassed the next. The man was a mystery and a contradiction, and Bruce was strangely attracted to the thought of getting to know him better, and solve the mystery that was Jay...
"C'm on! Let's play!" Jay said excitedly and pulled a coin from his pocket.
Upon closer inspection, Bruce saw the coin had a string tied to it, and a stone tied to the other end.
He took another sip of his drink to hide a smile. He was smiling far too much tonight it seemed.
It was a time-honored tradition of kids everywhere to try and cheat the various arcade machines. And with ones as old as these, it would most likely work too.
"I can pay, you know..." he offered, trying hard to hold back the laughter in his voice.
"Sure you can. But this way is more fun!" Jay said with a grin, and Bruce couldn't help but laugh.
He honestly couldn't tell if Jay was broke, or just a thrill-seeker. The way he acted he could easily be both, or either. However, it seemed likely that Jay really was a thrill-seeker either way.
Whether he was rich or poor, however, THAT was a mystery. Not that money mattered of course. Certainly not to Bruce. But he liked to be able to classify the people he met. It made them easier to predict and work with.
But nothing about Jay was predictable. Somehow that made his heart beat faster. Made him eager to discover what it was Jay would do next.
They played arcade games for a while, and Bruce couldn't help but be impressed at Jay's skills with it. And it wasn't because he knew which comboes to press or which button that did what, but more because he seemed to know exactly what kind of tactics to use in the game.
It was an unspoken challenge between them that they'd each do their very best to beat the other, followed through with numerous taunting -Jay- and an unheard of amount of cussing -Bruce-.
Neither of them seemed to get an upper hand on the other, and Bruce won just as often as he lost, and in both cases it was always a close match.
Of course, Jay being as flighty as he was, he just couldn't sit -or stand- still for very long.
Which meant that it didn't take long before he cajoled Bruce into joining one of the poker-games that had been going on at one of the many wooden tables scattered around the room.
The three guys sitting at the table looked more than a little shifty, but Jay did not look the least bit perturbed by that. In fact, he looked exceptionally comfortable around them.
"Hey guys!" Jay greeted the men, who in turn stiffened, and looked at Jay with an anxious suspicion written across their face.
"Hey, Monty! Over here! A round here! On me!" he yelled, waving cheerfully to the barman.
The three guys seemed to relax at his jovial cheerfulness -or maybe because of the free drinks-, and started shuffling the deck again as Jay and Bruce took their seats at the table.
"Bruce, this is Tommy, Abe aaaand... what's your name again? I always forget,"
"John," the burly man grunted.
"Right! Johnny-boy!" Jay grinned.
"Just John," he growled, and gave Jay a nasty glare.
"Hi, I'm Bruce," he said, giving them his friendliest smile. If these people were Jay's friends, he would at least try to be friendly to them. Even if they didn't exactly look like very friendly people.
To be fair, something about this entire pub just rubbed him the wrong way. There was a sense of distrust and secrecy in here that practically screamed criminal hideout -for all that he had not seen anyone do anything illegal. And it wasn't like there was a single person he could recognize from his nightly hunts in here either.
Of course, that only meant that they weren't big enough of a problem for Batman to step in and deal with it in person. It was by no means a guarantee that they weren't doing something illegal.
But as long as they didn't kill anyone, he supposed he didn't mind it too much. For all that he was a bit worried about why someone like Jay would want to hang around with people like this.
Then again...
He stole a glance at Jay, and his open, comfortable way of speaking with them, and the way he seemed oblivious to any and all warning-signs, even as he invaded their personal space while they seemed to contemplate whether or not to break his arm just to make him stop.
...maybe he just didn't realize exactly who his 'friends' were.
He could easily see how someone as seemingly naive and childish as Jay could have strolled into a bar after getting lost in the Narrows, and upon discovering that said bar had some of the last few Arcade games in town, decide to make that bar his regular bar to hang out in an attempt to recapture the joys of his youth.
Not that Jay looked much older than himself, but he wasn't exactly young himself anymore either. At least not that young.
Bruce was less sure about how Jay had not yet been run out or killed by some of the less desirable elements around. But it was entirely possible that his generosity smoothed over many problems, and if he gambled and lost -not an unlikely scenario all things considered- they'd be more than happy to take his cash without the need for violence.
"...and that's when I hit the church!" Jay said, gesturing wildly as he mimicked the crash, and made the other guys laugh. Even the sourly John tugged his lips into an amused smile.
'Then again, maybe even criminals just enjoyed a good source of entertainment,' he thought and hid a smile behind his whiskey.
Jay kept telling them stories that ranged from silly to inappropriate, scattered with dark humor and theatricality animated gestures.
It was strangely endearing.
He was also starting to see why Jay preferred this company to that of high society.
Jay's humor was something that more often than not would be frowned upon in the highbrow circles that Bruce usually traversed. It was funny, but often touched upon themes that involved violence and/or death. Dark humor and all that.
Bruce was also pretty sure half of his stories -if not more- were completely made up.
Some of them were just too outrageous, or just downright impossible, to actually be true.
Which probably was a good thing, because a large number of his stories involved someone getting hurt or killed.
The fact that he actually found Jay's stories entertaining, and his jokes amusing, just served to drive home the fact that Bruce himself really didn't belong in the highbrow circles he usually traversed either.
So when Jay leaned his hand on his arm just so he could lean in to whisper something meaningless in Bruce's ear, or their hands accidentally brushed by each-other as they both reached for the same glass, Bruce couldn't help but quirk the corner of his lips up in a slight smile and relax a bit further.
Despite the fact that they were surrounded by some very sketchy individuals, and Bruce felt the need to keep an eye out in case someone were to pull a knife or a gun, he felt a million times more relaxed and at peace than he had ever done at the various charity galas, found raisers or various other lavish events that Gotham's most wealthy saw fit to waste their money on.
Not that helping people was a waste of course.
But he couldn't help but think how much more efficient it would have been if they had just spent the money they used on hosting the parties to actually help Gotham instead.
As the late evening faded into the early hours of the night, Bruce quickly realized that whatever the criminals kept Jay around for, it was not because he lost money playing poker. In fact, he seemed to win far more often than he lost.
Jay had an uncanny ability to read the other players.
He knew when to fold, and when to bet more. When to go all in, and when to bluff.
And all the while he distracted everyone else with his stories, jokes, and another free round of drinks -the latter undoubtedly smoothed over the anger at the somewhat substantial amounts of money the other players kept losing.
For someone who seemed so blind to what kind of people he surrounded himself with, Jay had a strangely keen eye when it came to reading people...
Bruce shook his head and put the contradictory mystery that was Jay out of his head long enough to focus on his own cards.
He wasn't as good as Jay at the game of poker, but he was an expert in reading the minuscule signs of human emotions, as well as controlling his own. And that allowed him to easily keep up with Jay and his seasoned poker-playing friends.
After the fifth alcoholic drink of unknown origin, Bruce put down his cards and excused himself to go to the bathroom.
He had been feeling dizzy and had decided that he should probably drink some water -and maybe splash some on his face- if he wanted to avoid passing out drunk in the middle of a seedy bar, or a bush outside. Which wasn't exactly what he considered a good time.
Strangely enough Jay had seemed almost unaffected by the alcohol. And Jay had downed almost two or three times as many drinks as Bruce, if not more!
But maybe Jay was just good at hiding how drunk he was, he hadn't exactly stood up. Or maybe Bruce was just too drunk himself to notice.
In all fairness, Bruce wasn't exactly used to drinking much. Most of the time he just threw the drink out after pretending to drink it. You never knew when a new crisis that required Batman's assistance would come up after all.
But today had just been one of those days when he really did need something to calm his frustrations, before he punched one of the obnoxious snobs he had to deal with square in the face. And that was before he even met Jay... That man just wouldn't take no for an answer!
He wasn't sure if it was more frustrating... or endearing.
He contemplated the privacy of using a cubicle instead of a pissoir, but the door was broken and the seat seemed to be missing on the toilet, and he wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be impossible to flush it as well.
He didn't like the fact that his back would be against the door, just in case someone tried to attack him, but it seemed like the best alternative for now.
It didn't take him long to finish, and after quickly washing his hands, he realized the only place there was paper was inside the broken-door cubicle in the corner.
Bruce also splashed some water on his face and dried himself off as best he could with what passed for paper in this place, before heading back out the door to the loud, tacky music of the pub.
The door swung open to what sounded like one hell of an argument, and he was shocked at what he saw.
A large ball of muscles and tattoos had grabbed Jay by his blazer jacket and slammed him into the wall, yelling something that he couldn't quite hear over the music and the rest of the crowd's shouting at each-other, clearly taking sides.
Jay, on his side, were still smiling, his hand held up in the universal motion of surrender that made Bruce suspect he might be trying to placate the guy, even if he didn't look the least bit apologetic or scared.
It didn't matter anyway. Not to Bruce.
All he saw was Jay being attacked by this large ball of muscles. A wonderful, strange, amusing man that was always -even now- smiling and laughing, and made his heart do strange little flip-flops, in risk of being hurt -maybe even killed.
A man that needed to be saved! And Bruce was nothing, if not a savior.
He rushed at the muscular man without thinking, punching his square in the jaw with all the force he normally reserved for when he went out as Batman.
That punch was the spark that set aflame the powder-keg of anger and booze that was the rest of the population there, and the whole thing quickly dissolved into one hell of a bar-fight as people were cheering, yelling and taking sides.
Through the dangerous thumping of adrenalin through his veins, Bruce couldn't quite make out Jay's face in the sea of blood and violence that surrounded him, but he could see that the well-dressed man was anything but new to fighting people twice his size.
Jay threw himself into the brawl with the same reckless abandon that he did everything else, all quick punches and sharp edges.
It was a moment too late that Bruce realized a brutal-looking guy was coming at him with a knife, only for him to crumble to the floor after a brutal meeting with Jay's sharp, pointy knee.
And while he was busy pummeling someone who had taken a swing at Jay, some other guy fell to the ground clutching his side, as Jay returned the favor to protect Bruce. He did not get back up.
At this point the whole bar had erupted in chaos, with the bartender trying to shout for them to stop -even turning off the music to do so- to no avail.
Bruce grabbed Jay's arm, making whatever it was he was holding clatter to the floor with a barely audible clank.
Bruce paid it no heed as it seemed far more important to get Jay out of that place and towards somewhere safe, than to worry what kind of thing Jay might have found to use as a weapon in all that mess. Hopefully it wasn't anything too dangerous.
Not that it mattered now.
Once they had gotten back out into the calm night air, and the adrenalin that was thumping through Bruce's veins were slowly coming to a halt, he suddenly regretted showing his violent side to Jay.
He had beaten the guy who had held Jay up to the point he was sure he would need to be carried out on a stretcher, and he was worried that Jay -like everyone else- would back away from him now that he had caught a glimpse of the violent beast that he sometimes couldn't help but be.
Jay, however, surprised him yet again by pushing him against the wall and stealing a quick, passionate kiss. His eyes looking into Bruce's own with such an infatuated reverence that it took his breath away.
"My hero~" he purred against Bruce's neck, the slight slur in his voice indicating that Jay had finally succumbed to the ridiculous amounts of alcohol he had been consuming. Even if it had taken him far more than it had taken Bruce to get there.
He moved away, but only to take Bruce's larger hands into his own slim hands and kiss his bruised and bloody knuckles with a silent reverence that had Bruce's heart beating in his throat.
'I didn't scare him away,' was the only thought running through the violent vigilante's head.
For every kiss placed upon his hands his pulse quickened and he was just about to grasp the other man to return those temptatious lips to his own, when Jay slipped away from him again, agile and slippery like an eel.
Yet still not quite letting go of his hands...
"Come on! The night's still young, and so are we!" he paused and looked at Bruce, as if considering what he just said.
"Young enough at least. Probably. And anyway, we got so, so SO many things we can do! So many places to go! So tell me Brucie~ What do you want to do~?" Jay freed his hand only to run a single finger down Bruce's still dressed chest.
Bruce felt himself shiver pleasantly at the touch. Or maybe the slight chill of the night air. It felt like too much too fast, and not enough -all at the same time.
'You' he almost said, but quickly covered it up.
"You-re... Your favorite place...?" he watched the moonlight spill across the pale skin and make those acid green eyes seem ethereal and luminescent in the dark Gotham night.
Between Jay's intoxicating presence and the alcohol coursing through his veins, Bruce found it difficult to even think, much less focus on anything other than those ludicrously red lips -how could they even be that red?- and the sweet, smoky taste reminiscent of whiskey and candy that lingered on his tongue from Jay's recent, passionate kiss.
The taste was highly contradictory, just like the man himself.
Bruce worried for a moment that it might have been the wrong thing to say. It sounded stupid, didn't it? Did it? Or too personal? After all, they'd only just met.
But all Jay did was smile, and say;
"Sure."
From the ledge of a tall rooftop Bruce stared across the cascading darkness that shrouded the city at night. The moon was bright and full, and its pale light spilled across the glowing city, whose illuminated landscape all but vanished the stars.
This was not an unusual sight in Gotham, and certainly not unfamiliar to someone whose alter ego and 'true' self prowled the rooftops of the city on his nightly hunts for criminals. But it was a sight he had never before truly appreciated. And he only just realized that now.
"Beautiful, isn't she?" Jay said, balancing on the ledge of the tall building they stood on, making Bruce's heart leap in his throat every time the man seemed like he might lean too far and fall. But he never did.
"Yes," Bruce conceded, and smiled as he looked down at one of his own favorite spots.
This building was too tall for him to keep an eye on the streets, but he could clearly see the spot in which he -as his alter-ego Batman- would often perch, always watching for some of the nefarious elements in the city that so often did their business in this exact part of town.
Jay couldn't have known that of course.
And even if his eyes happened to travel in that direction, Jay must surely have been far more interested in the cityscape and the view of the city, than whatever crimes that might be going on in the streets below. Hidden away from their prying eyes, and they were equally hidden away from anyone who might want to look up.
Bruce stared across the sea of rooftops with a smile, lost in contemplation and remembrance, when he suddenly felt a pair of strong, slender arms wrapping themselves around his waist.
He had been so lost in the view and his own thoughts that he hadn't even noticed the other man move.
"Breathtaking~" Jay whispered, sounding ever so slightly out of breath.
With Jay's breath hot on Bruce's ear and his strong, slender arms around his waist it made Bruce feel a bit breathless as well.
And for all that they were staring at the spectacular view that stretched out before them, Bruce got the distinct feeling Jay was no longer speaking of the city...
Bruce didn't reply. Instead he placed his own hands over Jay's and pulled him even closer, if such a thing was even possible.
He could almost feel the outline of a smile against his neck.
Of course, true to Jay's fickle nature, the brief moment of romantic respite could not last forever. And Jay regretfully withdrew from the embrace, pulling Bruce to turn around as he did so.
"Lookie what I got~" Jay sing-songed, as he pulled a bottle of strong vodka out of his pocket.
Bruce couldn't help but laugh. The guy was like a magician sometimes. How did he even fit it in there? And when had he grabbed it?!
Jay took a sip, then wiped his mouth and handed the bottle over to Bruce.
Bruce placed the bottle to his lips and wondered if this counted as an indirect kiss -touching the bottle to his lips at the same spot that Jay had.
There were no signs of a lipstick mark -something he halfway expected- which meant that those ludicrously red lips were red by nature rather than design.
And as he passed the bottle back again he couldn't help but think about how much he'd rather taste those sweet, red lips directly against his own.
Jay flopped down on the rooftop rather inelegantly, and pulled Bruce down with him. And even as Bruce landed roughly on top of him, Jay still managed to not spill a single drop of the vodka in his hand.
They laughed and play-fought over who would get the bottle, just so they could have an excuse for the other person to brush up against them.
As Jay grabbed the bottle from Bruce after who knows how many sips -the bottle almost empty now- he used his long arms to keep it out of Bruce's reach until Bruce was very much stretched across his lap, his strong hand resting in Jay's lap for support, as he reached further and yet never quite far enough.
"Ah-ah-AH!" Jay said with a grin.
"If you want it, you gotta pay the price~" he teased.
"And what's the price?" Bruce smiled, playing along.
"A kiss," Jay said with a grin.
"Seems fair," Bruce said, his voice dipping into a lower tone, filled with desire as he leaned in to finally claim those crimson lips that had been haunting him ever since their first kiss.
The world stopped.
Bruce was vaguely aware of the sound of broken glass, but it came from somewhere far, far away as Jay clasped his face with both hands and deepened the kiss as if his life depended on it.
All sounds and thoughts were lost behind the heady haze of Jay's kiss, all lips and teeth, and passion. His hands now grasping Bruce's hair, clawing his back. Feverish and possessive.
Bruce kissed back with an equal passion, but far more finesse. Years of practice went out the window as he lost all control over his own emotions and actions.
There were no slow, romantic movements. No careful seduction and well-practiced techniques.
It was all teeth and claws and a fight for dominance that Bruce was slowly winning, perhaps because Jay was finally giving in.
The small, whimpering sounds that came from Jay, and the way he whispered Bruce's name in his ears like a prayer felt like the greatest victory the billionaire turned vigilante had ever felt.
Bruce pushed the slimmer man down onto the rooftop, kissing and biting his neck with a feverish passion he could never remember having felt before in his life.
Not even Selina had felt like this.
The brief thought of her quickly dissolved into the aether as Jay pulled Bruce down and proceeded to assault his neck with his own kisses and sharp teeth, while tugging open his shirt with an adorable impatience.
Bruce ravished those savage lips with his own brutal kisses, before sitting back up to drink in the sight of the disheveled man underneath him.
His hands slipped underneath Jay's shirt, and he was rewarded with a slight gasp and the gorgeous sight of his new lover staring up at him, eyes half-closed and lidded with passion, and his ravished lips parted in an invitation of more passion to come.
In the pale moonlight he noticed he had bitten Jay's lip a little too hard, leaving a cut that was even now bleeding slightly.
Bruce's love-marks were all over the slighter man's neck, and his hair messed up and adding to his disheveled appearance.
Jay looked roughed up and ravished, and yet the pale moonlight revealed his eyes wide and burning with a smoldering passion. One that Bruce could feel pressed tightly against his thigh, as his own knee was firmly trapped between Jay's legs, one of which was slightly bent and pressing against his own passionate arousal.
Just as he was about to lean in for another kiss, he cast a subconscious look at the moon, and went still.
The Bat-signal.
Bruce felt torn. On the verge of tears. His heart hammering in his chest and his desire obvious and pressed against the other man's thigh. He didn't want to stop. But...
Jay followed his line of sight and laid back, letting go of Bruce's shirt to press his hands against his eyes with a sight as a small, sad smile bloomed on his face.
Bruce scrambled to his feet, trying to think of an excuse that wouldn't seem too suspicious. He didn't like to seem like a coward, but most people in Gotham wanted to get to safety when the Bat-signal was in the sky, right? Because it always meant something horrible was about to happen. Or already had.
Maybe he could pretend to worry about a loved one or something...?
He had never before hated his duties to the city the way he did now. He'd never felt this torn, wishing he could be selfish just this one time...
Torn between his duty and his own desires, he always chose duty.
He was just about to open his mouth and tell the lie he did not want to say when Jay spoke instead.
"It's okay."
The voice was so quiet that Bruce wasn't sure he had heard him right.
"I get it," Jay said, giving him a sad smile, before sitting up.
"It's past bedtime for little Brucie... When all the baddies come out to play," Jay gave him another enigmatic smile and got to his feet.
"Let's continue this later," he leaned in and kissed Bruce deeply, leaving his head spinning. Or maybe it was the vodka.
And then he was gone.
And then there was no time left to peruse or think about his experiences tonight. His city needed him, needed Batman, and he was not about to disappoint it.
It would not be until he got back to his manor that he would realize that he never got Jay's number, nor gave his to him...
[1] The Bootlegger is actually a real pub... in London. Although I HAVE taken some liberties when it comes to how it looks inside.