A Change in a Provincial Life

4/24/2017

Years later…

The sun was rising in a small village. During the time, a sixteen year old male was leaving his cottage home as he held a book in one hand and a basket in the other. "Little town, it's a quiet village. Everyday like the one before," the boy sang. "Little town, full of little people waking up to say…" then the big clock in the village began to chime as it was now eight o' clock.

"Bonjour!"

"Bonjour!"

"Bonjour!"

"Bonjour!"

"Bonjour!"

As doors and windows opened, the civilization was now alive as everyone went on with their normal routine. "There goes the baker with his tray, like always. The same old bread and rolls to sell," the boy continues to sing as he walks through the town, even grabs one of the loaves that the baker was carrying. "Every morning just the same, since the morning that we came to this poor, provincial town." Then he walks towards a horse pen, petting one of the horses as a man grooms it before turning around. "Good morning, Bruce!" Monsieur Gordon greeted the boy. "Good morning, Monsieur Gordon!" the boy, known as Bruce, greeted back. "Have you lost something again?" Bruce asked. "Well, I believe I have. Problem is, I've—I can't remember what! Oh well, I'm sure it'll come to me. Where are you off to?" Gordon asked the boy as he puts a hat on his own head. "To return this book to Père Robert, It's about two lovers in fair Verona," Bruce responds. "Sounds boring," Gordon scoffs. Then he walks away as Bruce heads towards the library.

"Look there he goes, that boy is strange, no question," a group of young boys sang as they walked up some steps to a home.

"Dazed and distracted, can't you tell?" An adult man sang as he lead the boys into the home.

Bruce hopped across some large rocks in a pond and made his way past where a bunch of females were washing their clothes. "Never part of any crowd. 'Cause his head's up on some cloud. No denying he's a funny boy that Bruce," the females sang as Bruce continues to walk along.

"Bonjour! Good day! How is your family?"

"Bonjour! Good day! How is your wife?"

"I need six eggs!"

"That's too expensive!"

"There must be more than this provincial life!" Bruce sang before entering the library, meeting with Père Robert. "Ahh, if it isn't the only bookworm in town! So, where did you run off to this week?" Robert asked Bruce as he climbed down a ladder from sweeping up the library. "Two cities in Northern Italy, I didn't want to come back. Have you got any new places to go?" Bruce asked the librarian as he hands back his book. "I'm afraid not... But you may re-read any of the old ones that you'd like," Robert suggested before picking the one he likes most. "Your library makes our small corner of the world feel big," Bruce said with a smile. "Bon voyage!" Robert said with a chuckle. Then Bruce leaves the library and starts walking back home.

"Look there he goes, the boy is so peculiar."

"I wonder if he's feeling well?"

"With a dreamy, far-off look, and his nose stuck in a book. What a puzzle to the rest of us is Bruce."

Then the boy stands by at a water fountain where a bunch of sheep were standing around. "Oh, isn't this amazing? It's my favorite part because—you'll see," Bruce sang before showing a sheep a picture in the book. "Here's where she meets Prince Charming, but she won't discover that it's him 'til Chapter Three!" then the sheep started running because their owner was chasing them. So Bruce moved on and passed a house with a mother and three daughters.

"Behind that fair façade, I'm afraid he's rather odd," the mother sang.

"Very diff'rent from the rest of us. She's nothing like the rest of us. Yes, diff'rent from the rest of us is Bruce!" the three daughters sang.

Meanwhile on a hill, Slade and Leonard were looking at Bruce's village through binoculars as they sat on their horses. "Look at him, Leonard—my future wife. Bruce is the most beautiful male in the village. That makes him the best."

"But he's so... well-read! And you're so... athletically inclined," Leonard points out.

"Yes... But ever since the war, I've felt like I've been missing something. And he's the only male that gives me that sense of—" Slade said, but couldn't think of the word to finish his sentence.

"Mmm... je ne sais quoi?" Leonard suggested.

"I don't know what that means," Slade scoffs before he started singing. "Right from the moment when I met him, saw him. I said he's gorgeous and I fell. Here in town, there's only he who is beautiful as me. So I'm making plans to woo and marry Bruce." Then he and Leonard started riding into the village.

"Look there he goes, isn't he dreamy? Monsieur Slade! Oh, he's so cute! Be still, my heart. I'm hardly breathing. He's such a tall, dark, strong and handsome brute!" the three daughters sang as Slade passes them. Then Slade spots Bruce and tries to follow him despite the crowded village.

"Bonjour!"

"Pardon," Slade said.

"Good day," Bruce said to a civilian.

"Mais oui!"

"You call this bacon?"

"What lovely flowers!"

"Some cheese."

"Ten yards!"

"One pound."

"Excuse me," Slade said.

"I'll get the knife."

"Please let me through!" Slade said.

"This bread."

"Those fish."

"It's stale!"

"They smell!"

"Madame's mistaken."

"Well, maybe so."

"There must be more than this provincial life!" Bruce sang.

"Just watch, I'm going to make Belle my wife!" Slade sang.

"Look there he goes, that boy is strange but special! A most peculiar monsieur! It's a pity and a sin. He doesn't quite fit in. 'Cause he really is a funny boy. A beauty but a funny boy. He really is a funny boy. That Bruce!"

When Bruce looks up from his book and turned around, everything became normal once the singing stopped. Then Slade approaches Bruce with a bunch of flowers. "Good morning, Bruce. It's nice to see you," Slade said with a smile. "Nice to see you too, Slade," Bruce said back. "Well Bruce, what have you been up to?" Slade asked and Bruce looked at his book with a smile. "I've just been doing some reading," Bruce said before looking back at Slade. "I was thinking that you and I should get together this evening," Slade proposes as he hands Bruce some flowers. "No thank you, I just want to spend my time alone," Bruce admits.

"Is he...?" Slade asks.

"No," Bruce said before walking back home.

As Bruce approached the house, he could hear a music box playing and went inside to see his father, Thomas, sitting at his desk as his famous windmill music box was playing the song he heard.

"How does a moment last forever? How can a story never die? It is love we must hold onto, never easy, but we try," Thomas sang as Bruce looked at some drawings of himself that his father drew of when he was young. "Sometimes our happiness is captured. Somehow, a time and place stand still. Love lives on inside our hearts and always will." Then Thomas saw his son had entered his workplace and Bruce helped him with a few things with the music box. "Papa, do you think I'm odd?" Bruce asked, sitting on a stool across from his father's work table. "My son, odd?" Thomas asked. "Never. Where would you get an idea like that?"

"The people in the village say I'm a funny and an odd boy," Bruce admits. "Well, this is a small village after all. And some people can be small minded about the others around them, and small is also safe," Thomas said."But to me, you're the brightest, adventurous and handsome son I love, just like the lady I met in Paris." Bruce smiles and scoots his stool closer to his work table. "Can you tell me one more thing about her?"

Thomas took a minute before speaking again. "Your mother was a reader like you; she was also brave and kind. People mocked her everywhere she went until we married. Then the people of the village started to imitate her." Soon Bruce helped his father loading the wagon attached to his horse, filling it with his father's needs as well as his music boxes to sell. "Now, what shall I get you from the market?" Thomas asked his son. "A rose," Bruce replied with a smile.

"But you ask that every year," Thomas said.

"And I shall ask for it again," Bruce smiles.

"Very well, I shall fetch you another rose, my son," Thomas said before flicking the reins. "I shall see you tomorrow." Bruce waved to him goodbye before wishing him luck. Soon Bruce went back into the cottage and finished his project, since he picked up how to use machinery because of his father; he built a clothes washer barrel that spun as the clothes cleaned. The only way for that to happen if someone moved the barrel in circles, so when Bruce went to the washing pool in the town, he got a donkey (or a pony, saw the 2017 movie and it could be one or the other) to do his laundry for him as he read a book.

A little boy came up and asked. "What're you doing?" and Bruce responds with "doing the laundry." Soon Bruce started teaching the little boy to read, and some of the townsfolk noticed before removing the barrel from the pool and dumping it on the ground as revenge.

As this happened, Leonard told Slade that a certain male is in distress as Slade was looking at himself in the mirror. So Slade went to help Bruce by putting his clothes in a different basket that Bruce brought with him. "All I wanted was to teach a child to read," Bruce groans as he held the basket as the two walked to Bruce's home. "Well, it seems like the townspeople aren't interested in the things you are, Bruce. They mostly care for their families as well as providing their needs. Just like you need to care about your soon–to–be family with me," Slade said.

"I'm flattered Slade, but… I'm just not interested in marriage," Bruce said, and then Slade grabs his book. "That's because you're so into this nonsense of reading," Slade said before dropping it in the mud and picks it up. "I really know how to make your dreams come true."

"What do you know about my dreams, Slade?" Bruce asks, before turning around and headed into his home. "I'm sorry, I just don't deserve you." Then he grabs his book and ran home. Once inside, he gently shut the door before cleaning the book. Soon he went outside to feed the chickens in their pen. "Can you imagine? Me, the wife of that boorish, brainless..." Bruce said to the chickens before stopping himself. "Madame Slade, can't you just see it?" Bruce sang, putting a clean cloth on his head as pretending to be women. "Madame Slade, his little wife, ugh!" then he threw the cloth onto the ground. "No, sir! Not me! I guarantee it! I want much more than this provincial life!" Bruce continued to sing before running out to town and onto the hills. "I want adventure in the great wide somewhere. I want it more than I can tell. And for once it might be grand, to have someone understand. I want so much more than they've got planned..." Bruce sang as the puffy dandelion seeds blew into the wind.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I know, it's been a long wait, hasn't it? So, I know that Lex Luthor wasn't in the Lego Batman Movie, but I thought it would be super weird if one of the male villains from The Phantom Zone fell in love with Bruce Wayne. And the Leonardo fellow? That's Leonard Snart A.K.A Captain Cold.

At first I thought that Lex Luthor or Slade Joseph Wilson A.K.A Deathstroke could be Gaston. I chose these two because in the Lego Batman 2 Video Game and Lego DC Super Heroes: Justice League: Gotham City Breakout Movie, they both hate Bruce Wayne, (and also another reason why I chose Deathstroke because I saw a Deadpool parody of the song "Gaston" on YouTube.) At first I thought that either Lex or Deathstroke could propose to Bruce to be their hunting buddy (because I don't ship Lex or Deathstroke with Batman), but I thought that maybe it would be weird to the audience if they only wanted Bruce as a hunting buddy.

So I decided for Deathstroke to be gay and become Gaston, at first I chose Lex, but he isn't well fit or a fighter. He only relies on the weapons he makes including Joker's help to become President. So Deathstroke is the winner. And for Captain Cold to be Gaston's sidekick, LeFou. Don't ask why please. Anyways, I will be posting Chapter Three next week or the week after depending on my schedule.