The car came to a stop in front of a hotel. Ann didn't get to look at the name of it, but stepping into the lobby she knew it had to be a ritzy one. Already, Bane's men were loitering around the gold-trimmed lobby. In the center of the room, a large fountain decorated with cherubs surrounding a group of mermaids. Gaudy, sure, but it sparkled in the sunlight that poured in from the windowed ceiling.
Bane guided Ann through the lobby, past the marble fountain, and through a hall lined with numbered doors. They came to a stop in front of one, but when he opened it for her, it was only stairs. They climbed up several flights in silence, only the sound of Bane's breathing breaking it.
Ann was worried that now he'd be mad at her, even though he seemed pleased in front of other people. Almost the second they got there, some men left the car with them, but went in different directions than them once in the hotel. The only time that Bane and Ann had been alone together was in their corner of the sewer. Now, out in the open, walking around, something felt wrong.
Finally, Bane stopped at a level that must have been twenty stories up. He let Ann through the door first, but then quickly took the lead again.
"Bane?" Ann questioned, testing the air.
"Hmm?" He hummed back at her. It wasn't much of an answer, but it sounded neutral enough.
"What's going to happen now?"
Bane did look back at her then, just a quick glance over his shoulder before looking ahead again.
"Planning is over," Bane began simply. "Everything that my brothers and I have come here to do is near over. You heard what I said at the prison. We must show the people of Gotham that the life we are giving them is one of true liberty."
Ann scrunched up her face and racked her mind, trying to figure out how this could be freeing in any way. It just seemed like everyone was terrified. For the first time, Ann allowed herself to admit that Bane was a terrorist that somehow slipped through America's cracks.
"I can see you're having a hard time believing me," Bane said, as if he could read her thoughts. "But you have been programed with a Western mentality that sees freedom the wrong way. But soon you will see the truth."
This was truly the first time that Bane had pontificated to Ann. His accent became difficult to understand after a few words, but the meaning was all too clear. Ann struggled with herself, fighting not to say anything that would make Bane mad at her. She disagreed with him, definitely, but also realized it's safer to be in the monster's bed than his bowl. Part of her was disgusted with herself, but the need for survival pushed that down. She knew she wasn't strong enough or smart enough to fight back.
Finally, they came to a stop in front of a hotel door and Bane pushed it open. Ann wondered briefly what happened to the lock, but found that once they were inside and she wondered over to the window, it was obvious Bane had been here for a while. A pile of clothes were folded in the closet and left over food containers stuffed the garbage can.
Swift rage rushed through Ann, who was highly indignant that she had been left alone for a week while her keeper lay in a cozy hotel bed.
Ann turned to him with a red face and a mouth full of unsaid insults just in time to see the bathroom door closing. The sound of the shower soon was heard and then a small clank. Ann know what it had to be immediately; Bane's mask. Of course he couldn't wear it in the shower, it had to be some sort of mechanic that couldn't get wet. For the second time that day, a little idea came into her head.
As silently as she could (even though it couldn't have made much of a difference) Ann tip toed to the bathroom door. Clutching the handle, Ann hoped that it wasn't locked. When it twisted under her hand, she gave a sigh of relief but winced when the 'click' came. But the door opened silently enough and Ann peeked her head in to see if she had been noticed. But the curtain that hid Bane remained undisturbed and the water kept the room steaming. The mirror was already opaque.
And there it was, with it's thick leather straps and a heavy-looking metal grid. Bane's mask sat on the small counter. Knowing her time was limited, she checked one more time to see if Bane had yet noticed her, but it didn't appear that he had. Looking back at the mask, all she had to do was reach out her hand and felt it for the first time. It truly was a source of Bane's uniqueness and a physical manifestation of his almost beast-like power, what with the grid looking like teeth and all.
It truly was heavy in her hands and she ran a finger against the mask, feeling the solid metal. Her fingers that clutched it from behind felt something fragile.
Turning it over, she noticed two little canisters on either side of the mouthpiece, peeking her interest. But as if almost on cue, she heard the curtain fly open behind her and even though she knew it was bound to happen, it froze her in her tracks.
"Close your eyes," Bane commanded, his voice not happy, but not exactly angry. It was also a strange version of the voice she knew. But she did as she was told and closed her eyes and still holding the mask, dropping her hands to her side.
"Bane, I…"
"Stay silent."
Ann could hear him coming close and stopping directly behind her. The mask was taken from her and she heard the snaps closing. Soon, the metallic sound of Bane's breathing could be heard. The shower was still going, and the room just kept getting hotter. With all of her clothes on, Ann was starting to sweat fairly badly.
The mass that was Bane radiated his own heat behind her. His smell engulfed her and her loneliness from the past week caught up with her. She just wanted him to touch her, to let her know that he wasn't angry. His commanding tone from a moment ago came back to her and she wished she could hear it again, but with slightly different commands.
She knew she was thinking like a desperate, sex-starved teenager but she could hardly care.
"Bane?" Ann asked, testing the air.
"Hmm?" Bane hummed his familiar hum. He was still standing close behind her and she hoped against hope that he was having similar thoughts.
"You…you can touch me if you want," She said, even though her face bursted red.
"I do want to," Bane replied, and two hands clamped around her hips. Her eyes were still closed, but she allowed him to draw her back until she felt his hard arousal against her back. She longed to feel lips against her neck and really, for the first time, noticed how much was missing when you took kissing out of the equation.
But those thoughts were pushed out of her head when she was bend forcibly over the sink. Thick fingers slid her pants down, taking her underwear with it. One of the aforementioned fingers, still slick from the shower, prodded at her entrance. It slid in without much preamble, eliciting a groan from Ann.
It seemed as if Bane was experimenting, seeing what would happen if he flicked his finger this way and that, how deep she would moan if he added a second one, and how loud she could get if he drilled them into her.
"Bane, please," Ann managed to choke out, exhausted from all the attention, "I want you."
Suddenly, all hands were off of her. Confused with the sudden absence, Ann opened her eyes for the first time and looked behind her. And for the first time, she saw Bane naked. His huge chest was at her eye level, and crisscrossed across his chest were ugly, jagged scars that all led to under his mask. His arms she had seen bare before, but now it just added to an expanse of skin that bulged with veins.
Ann reached out to touch him, but Bane caught her hand before she could.
"I don't want you to touch me," Bane said simply and Ann relented without a word.
Bane then turned and walked towards the door. Ann started to run after him, but the pants around her ankles tripped her up. When she fell forward, she half expected for Bane to catch her. Instead, she came crashing to the floor just in time for Bane to shut the door on the top of her head.
In a huff, embarrassed over her fall, she hurriedly pulled up her pants and stomped over to turn the water off. As she exited the bathroom, Ann saw that Bane had hurriedly dressed and was just slipping on his vest.
The tension in the room could have been cut with a knife, but Ann still couldn't figure out where she went wrong. Bane had since laid down, and the soft hum of his breathing was the only real noise in the room.
"Bane?" Ann questioned, testing the air.
"Hmm?" He hummed, and Ann was comforted by this familiar interaction, but she didn't quite know where to go from there. There were so many questions she wanted to ask, but didn't know which ones would be okay to.
"Where did you go?" Ann asked, trying the tamest one she could think of.
"Away."
"Well no shit, thanks," Ann said before she could stop herself. She really was trying to keep her temper at bay, the embarrassment of rejection in the bathroom still weighing heavily on her mind. But at her quip, Bane let a soft huff of air escape and Ann could have sworn it was a laugh, however small.
"Did I do something wrong?" Ann finally asked, sitting on the edge of the bed with her back facing Bane. She didn't want to see his face when he answered.
It took Bane a long time to answer; he even stood up off the bed and walked away. Ann remained looking at the wall, determined not to let her hurt be anymore obvious than it already was. But he did finally answer her.
"No, nothing I can blame you for," Bane said cryptically. Ann turned to look at him, and saw that his back was also facing her. Ann wondered if he too was hiding his embarrassment.
"I'm sorry I tried to touch you," Ann started, clinging to what he said before he left her. "It was just the first time I'd ever seen you naked. Those scars look brutal, but they don't make you any less handsome. We just haven't had sex since before you left and when you were touching me like that, it was so good and I'm just sorry."
Ann realized she was babbling and saying things that Bane probably didn't want to hear, so she just left her words hanging in the air, waiting for something, anything from Bane.
But he said nothing for a long time; he just kept staring out the window. Ann turned back to the wall, her face burning red.
"If you had managed to damage my mask, I could die a very painful death," Ann whipped around at that, watching his broad back intently as if silently willing him to go on.
"All because of these scars that you claim 'don't make me any less handsome'. Over our time together, I've tried to keep you in the dark as much as possible. I thought it would spare you, in a way, if you didn't know exactly what was going on. But you kept insisting. You asked Talia, you asked Barsad, you ran away twice…"
"You left me…" Ann started.
"And," Bane said, cutting her off, "You learned everything. But you're still here. Why? You didn't need to yell my name in the crowd, you could have just gone. We would have found you eventually, we could have collected the baby…"
"I'm not pregnant," Ann interjected, unable to stop herself. This did make Bane stop and turn towards her.
"But how? We…twice…" Bane mussed, finally sounding almost as flustered as he made Ann, even though his face remained stoic.
"Seriously?" Ann asked, wondering how much he knew about the reproductive system. "Bane, you don't get a baby every time you have sex."
"Hmm," Bane hummed again, turning back towards the window.
"Well, I guess you guys got lucky," Ann said, standing up off the bed. "You got a girl who is just plain willing to go along with your plans. Who would have guessed? Oh wait, you guys did when you looked for someone with a 'manipulative' trait."
She didn't know where this anger came from, perhaps from the rejection in the bathroom or the lack of faith Bane had in her from the beginning.
"I don't know what you want," she kept going, "I have literally done everything you want…"
"I don't remember asking you to see your parents," Bane interrupted, but Ann continued as if he didn't.
"And you don't trust me for shit. You thought I was going to break your mask," Ann snapped, stomping close to him. She fully knew he could kill her if he wanted to, but she also knew he would have done it by now.
"You just picked me out of who know who many candidates, just told me I was going to have a baby, and I went along with it! I said 'Okay Bane, whatever you want'…"
"I don't remember it being exactly like that…" Bane started, sounding the tiniest bit amused, which only further angered Ann.
"And I let you fuck me!"
"Moments ago, you begged me too."
"You fucking asshole!" Ann shouted at him, pushing his chest. Of course, she couldn't move him an inch.
"If you are so mad at me, why didn't you leave when you could?" Bane asked, taking her hands off of him and holding her wrists.
"I don't know," Ann admitted to him, feeling her anger levitate, "I just…it's just…" I care for you was just at the tip of her tongue, but she swallowed it. She didn't, she couldn't. He didn't do anything to deserve her affection. All he ever did was…gently caress her wrists with his big, calloused thumbs.
She looked down at them, noticing how small her wrists looked in his hands. She would even think the word 'fragile' if he had been holding her any harder than this feather-light touch.
Her heart caught in her throat and for some reason, she couldn't bring herself to look him in the eye.
"Thank you for coming back," Bane rumbled in as much of a whisper as he could manage.
"Yeah well…" Ann started, but trailed off and lightly coughed.
"So you're not pregnant?" Bane questioned above her with a smile in his voice.
"Nope, definitely not," Ann responded, remembering Mother Nature's call.
Bane's hands left her wrists, but she was soon swept up with amazing ease. In those few seconds she was in Bane's arms, this amazing sense of comfort swelled in her. But too soon, she was unceremoniously dumped into the bed.
Bane ascended on her with surprising speed, but instead of doing away with her clothes quickly like he normally does, the metal of his mask scrapped against her neck. He buried his face as much as he could into her soft skin and even though it did hurt her a bit, she wondered if this was a sign that Bane maybe did trust her. Whether he did or didn't, it didn't stop the swell of affection she had at his simple gesture. Without really thinking, she wrapped her arms around him as much as she could, allowing them to just be for a second.
But a second later, she let Bane peal her out of her clothes for a second time that day. He swiftly took of his afterward, letting her see his scars again. She didn't reach for them this time, she just let Bane spread her legs and tuck her knees over his shoulders. It had been a while since they had been like this, so Bane could not slip in easily, but after a moment of prodding, he was able to engulf himself within her.
As he breached her, Ann arched off the bed and twisted her eyes shut, not seeing how intently Bane watched her. He braced his hands on either side of her face, pinning her legs behind her head. He pounded into unabashed, reveling in her moans once again. He filled her so nicely, so wholly, that she was nearing her brink sooner than normal.
With one hand, Bane tipped her chin to him, forcing her to look at him. There was something in those grey eyes that she hadn't seen before. Indeed, has she ever looked into his eyes before? But then he thrusted a different direction and stars exploded in her eyes and she couldn't focus on him anymore, only on riding her orgasm. She came down eventually, but Bane kept going. His breath was uneven and coming out in vicious gasps. His movements were verging on painful, but it was only another moment more before he pushed himself as deep as he could go and shuttered a load into her.
Bane rolled off of her and turned away from her, adjusting something with his mask. Soon, his breathing was normal again. Ann just lay there for a moment, listening to him and feeling his seed leak out of her. How she had gotten her in life, Ann couldn't quite pinpoint. She was a college educated, professional actor. Things could have wound up so differently. But yet here she was, in the second bed she shared with Bane, and for the first time she couldn't find it in herself to feel upset about it.