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Chapter Text

"Bruce Wayne can date who he want but at least make her pretty lol."

"(Y/n) is such a strange choice for a fling, not to be racist but black is so not his usual type."

"Interracial dating is low-key ugly lol"

My eyes rolled hard at the keyboard warriors latest onslaught of bitter words directed directly at me, I knew I'd only work myself up but I couldn't help myself, a sick curiosity possessed me to look through my mentions on Twitter.

I leaned into the warm sheets surrounding my body with a sigh, I weeded through the tweets for something actually relavent to me before tossing the device away from my reach, usually I wouldn't be tempted to be on the device but Bruce wasn't with me so I was left to my own devices.

The rare moments Bruce and I did get together were spent just like that, together, away from the rest of the world and their problems.
I smiled at the thought of the usually stoic man, today was supposed to be one of those sickly sweet days spent draped around one another like cling wrap, but he was pulled away to the office, some kind of emergency that required his presence. With some pushing fro me, he very reluctantly climbed out of the nest of blankets and pillows a few hours ago.

"Baby you gotta go."

"I think they'll survive without me for a day." He mumbled into my shoulder making no effort to get up, I felt him smile against my skin, his arm quickly latching around my midsection.
"Nuh uh I see what you trynna do over there- no starting something till you handle your business." He laughed as I pushed away from him.

"Are you kicking me out of my own bed?"

I pushed myself up on my elbows to look him in the eyes,
"Yes."
He rolled over on his back with a sigh, I shamelessly watched his body stretch out, the muscles expanding as he moved.
His body was more like a machine than anything, after so long of being the bat, scars were bound to litter his warm skin, sometimes I think he forgot he was human, that he wasn't just a nameless figure of Justice who stuck fear in the hearts of his enemy's, it took me almost two years to break the two identities apart, and now there was a fine line between the two, so fine even he could see the difference, the real Bruce Wayne had been buried under an endless quest to clean up Gotham, but now, he was beginning to shine through.
Like this moment for instance, as he begrudgingly got ready, pouting all the while.
That was Bruce Wayne, despite being a grown man he had these rare moments where he acted like a teenager, almost like the lack of childhood peeked through from time to time.
He fastened his tie in the mirror, meeting my eye in the reflection.
"See something you like?" One of his thick brows arched, a playful smirk on his lips.

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't, what are you gonna do about it?"
I spoke walking over to try and wrap my arms around his large form, he laughed finishing his tie before turning so we faced each other. I leaned up to rest my hands against his chest.

"Now look who's trynna start something."
He spoke breaking our stare off. I pulled away with a laugh, making my way back to the bed.

"Hurry up and come back so you can finish what you started."

He grabbed his suit jacket, sliding the expensive material over his arms before leaving with a smirk and a quick kiss to the forehead.

That was a solid two hours ago and he still had yet to return, as tempting as it would be to just lull myself back to sleep until he arrived, the bad taste those comments left in my mouth forced me up for the day.

Knowing Bruce, he'd give me that stupid glare he reserves for criminals if he knew what I did.
See the thing is, he's told me a million and one times to avoid all things social media, he knew how nasty the world could get, how lies spread faster than the truth and people would always believe what they wanted to, but I refused to run away from my life, I wasn't about to let some close minded twats have that much of an impact on what I did, so I went through my morning routine of deleting all the negativity I could stomach to scan through on my timeline and slowly drinking some of Alfred's famous tea to warm up my body.

When Bruce finally returned to me I was half way through a novel I borrowed from the manor's library, it was an old annoyingly, spooky Stephen King novel so when the bedroom door slammed open I couldn't fight the Yelp that left my mouth.
"Christ Almighty you almost gave me a heart attack." I laughed lightly putting a hand to my chest, my smile fell when I saw the expression on his face, his face was set in unmovable stone, almost as if he was still wearing the cowl, I shivered at the unspoken anger in his eyes.

"Baby?" I asked hesitantly rising from my seat, I placed the book down on the nearby table and met his gaze.
"What's wrong?" Usually when something bad happened he would try to carry all the weight alone, not wanting to bother another with the responsibility of resolving whatever the problem was.

One of the things we overcame with separating Bruce from the bat was this very issue, from the look on his face I couldn't help but worry something happened between this morning and now so bad we'd end up fifty steps back.

"Bruce?"

He was silent as he pulled out his phone, he typed away before handing me the device.
I scanned over the collective of negative headlines, all different but all surrounding me and him.
Mostly me.
I stared at him even more confused.

"Baby that's nothing, you told me yourself to ignore that kinda stuff."

He finally spoke.
"The reason they pulled me in today was to talk about this- my PR representative showed me that and then some." He scoffed leaning heavily on his knuckles against a dresser.
"Did you know people were saying all horrible these things?"
I sighed walking over to his tense form, I placed a hesitant palm on his shoulder,
"Well yeah-"
"How long?"
"Since we've been dating, but baby it's nothing new, I don't let it bother me."
"Well it bothers me." He hastily loosened his tie, tossing it somewhere off in the room, now beginning to pace the shiny marble floors.
"I don't care if they trash my name, or my company, but you?" He scoffed, anger shining through in his tense actions.
"I won't sit back- I can't." I watched him, my worry clear before I forced myself to calm down. I made him meet my eye, grabbing the sides of his face, stopping him in his tracks.
"Baby I know- but you need to calm down, don't act when you're angry, you may do something you'll regret." His expression softened for a moment as he leaned into my touch subconsciously.
"You're one of - if not the most- incredible people I've ever encountered, you're naively kind but all the same stubbornly intelligent, you're what keeps me sane. So it's hard to watch idiots who have no idea what kind of amazing human being you are judge you for something as ridiculous and trivial as the color of your skin." He quickly worked himself back up so I wordlessly pulled him to his bed.
He landed on his back with a huff, I pushed myself off of the soft mattress to get up and close the blinds, I took both our phones and silenced them, before putting them across the room.
He stared at me with a face that asked what I was doing but I said nothing. I pulled his shoes off before kicking off my own.
"What are you up too?" He spoke, the words were still serious as ever but slightly amused.
I sighed with a sad smile.
"Growing up- and sometimes to this day- it felt like a crime to be black, so when the world got just a little too bleak for me to handle, I would shut it out for a little while and collect my bearings so I could face the challenges with a clear mind."

He stared at me as I climbed my way up his stupidly big bed until I made it to him. I hovered over his body, a small grin on my face as I stared at him.

"We're gonna shut the world out, because they don't deserve our attention right now." He said nothing but them smile growing on his face told me everything I needed to hear. His eyes turned soft, his body finally un-tensing and Bruce, had finally come back to me.

We laid there for hours, curled into each other's bodies, hands never leaving the other persons as we talked about anything and everything, the conversation never had a direct direction but that's what made it nostalgic, like we were both seventeen again, and our biggest worries were senior year.
The butterflies raving in my stomach never left when I looked at him, no matter how long we'd been together, I could always fall a little more in love with the man who laid before me.

Thankfully, the drama from before was pretty much forgotten as we settled into the night, at least I thought it was.

I woke up later in the evening searching for his warmth in my sleep but coming up empty, I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes as I aimlessly walked down the manor's extensive hallways until I found the door I was looking for. I'd been down in the cave a handful of times but I never got used to opening the secret door in his study, I always felt like James Bond afterwards.

I made my way down the steps, my bare feet almost stung with every step down, I forgot how cold it could get in here.
I couldn't help but overhear a conversation between one of the boys and Bruce.

"Remind me again why I'm hacking into Twitter accounts on a Tuesday night?."
The loud sound of typing was heard before Bruce responded.
"Recon."
The other voice laughed- I now realized who it was.

"Tim?"
They both looked up, the younger man smiling at me.
"Hey (y/n)! Fancy seeing you here, Couldn't sleep?"

I crossed my arms, trying my best to look intimidating in my robe and bonnet.
"I was asleep, but my Bruce-is-about-to-do-something-stupid senses were tingling so I figured I'd come check it out." Tim barked out a laugh before covering it up with a cough at the Bat glare™ he received. He turned back to the computer with an awkward whistle.

Bruce turned to me, removing his cowl so we were face to face.
"You should go back to bed, I'll be in later."
"Oh I'll go back to sleep, if you tell me what you're doing over there."
"Thats confidential."
"He's making me hack into some random Twitter accounts." I could feel the glare he gave tim all the way across the room.

"Bruce!"

"This is justice."

"This is petty is what it is."
He crossed his arms, smirk ever present on his smug face.
"Cyber bullying is illegal, I'm just doing my job."
Tim peaked his head out from behind Bruce "Wait who got bullied."
"No one"
"(Y/n)
Bruce and I spoke simultaneously, Tim made some sort of noise of acknowledgement before the typing noises intensified.
"Yeah they got this coming."
I sighed into my hands.
"Tim not you too! You're supposed to be the smart one." He leaned back, satisfied with whatever it is that he did.
"Exactly, that's why these jerks won't be bothering you or anyone anymore." I sighed walking past Bruce's smug figure to kiss Tim's temple, "I don't agree with either of y'all but- Thank you, I appreciate it." I then leaned over to give a quick peck to Bruce and question him
"Are you done being petty or do I have to worry all night?"
He grabbed my hands bringing them to his mouth for a sweet kiss.
"I'm done." I squinted at him before shrugging and heading back to the warmth of his bed.

"Tim, look up how much it would be to buy Twitter."

"Dear god Bruce."

Chapter Text

Another cold day had come and gone, by the time I walked in my door the sun had long fallen, I had stepped inside my apartment expecting the traditional bear hug from my boyfriend I always got when I came home, but instead I was greeted with silence, after receiving no answer I began to tip toe in the rest of the way, alert, preparing myself for a robber or something awful, only to see the back of Buck's head, his attention was entirely on on the television, that in and of itself was concerning, after all Bucky was from the 1940's, him and modern technology just didn't always end up well.If the silent greeting wasn't clue enough the moment I saw him I could tell something was off, so I slowly walked over, tossing my bag on the nearby counter not really caring where it landed.
"Hey baby?"

I spoke slowly coming up to his stone like form.
I placed a tentative hand on his shoulder, pulling him from the screen.
He finally turned away from what I now saw was the news, looking up at me from his seat on our couch, and if I wasn't sure before I was now, something was definitely wrong.
I shuffled around his body until I was sat next to him, out of instinct I reached for his hand, to my relief he returned the gesture, though he remained silent. I stared at the man before me, my brows creased in concern.

If you're with someone long enough you get to know them better than yourself, and for me? Reading Bucky was as easy as breathing for me.

What gave him away most of the time was his eyes.

See, Bucky had these eyes, and yeah, they were beautiful, but what was really incredible about them was the stories they told, if he let you close enough, you could almost seethe stories, the pain, for a master assassin he was pretty bad about hiding the way he felt, but then again I always figured it was his own way of rebelling against what had been drilled into his head, he was always told to be a stone, an unmovable rock, but now that he had the freedom to be who he wanted, he was an open book.

To my dismay, at the moment he had that cold, unflinching anger resting in those baby blues. My worry increased ten fold, I'd only seen that look when he fell back down a few pegs, having lived the life he's lived, there were always going to be slip ups, always moments where Bucky would slip away and the soldier would come back, moments where the life would fade from his eyes and things he thought too dark to show me would replace it, memories soaked deep with blood and pain, and even though these moments happened less and less as time went on, it didn't make them any less horrifying to witness.

A breath I didn't know I was holding released once he gave my hand two gentle squeezes, a signal this wasn't an episode and he was still in control, my body instantly relaxed, I folded myself into his side, basking in the warmth that was Bucky, as I waited for him to open up.

Although he seemed relatively okay, he still hadn't spoken, but I knew better than to rush him into it, so I took the chance to turn towards what had seemed to have gotten so far under his skin, Four figures, A black woman, a hispanic man and two white men sat at a long table discussing the very heavy, very unfortunate, topic of racism in America and how it mirrored the country's dark past far too much for comfort.

I’d joined in mid debate but I could grasp the gist of that was happening, I’d grown accustomed to the uncomfortable, hot anger that came to me when i watched this kind of stuff, but to my surprise every person on the panel passionately disagreed with the nations handling of its ever growing racism and its inability to deal with it, all but one man.

”Now I’ll be clear here, as a God fearing American it is my right to say how i’m feeling and how i’m feeling is, you people are all too sensitive.” He went on, to the rest of the panels horror, to say how equality was the end of the world and to add the cherry on top of this shit show he ended up referring to the rest of his panel as, and i quote, “Colored loving pansy's.”

yeah, he was the human embodiment of the feeling you get right before you throw up.

and the actual throw up.

I could only stomach a few minutes of hate speech spewing from his mouth, with a roll of my eyes I snatched the remote from my boyfriend’s hands and turned the channel, much to his dismay.

Yeah that's enough bullshit for today.

"I was watching that."

He finally spoke, his tone matched irritated expression.

"Yeah well I can tell you how it was gonna end."

I yawned leaning into the soft cushion, the weight of a hard days work finally seeped into my bones.

“Either he’d continue on with his little hate speech, or he’d get dragged to hell by the remaining three hair follicles hanging on his scalp for dear life.”

He shook his head sitting back into the faux leather cushions, a smirk just barly graced his handsome features.

The hand holding mine began to rub small circles into the back of my skin.

"You'd think I never left the 40's with this shit happening as much as it is." He scoffed still staring at the now black screen. I nodded into his shoulder, I knew how angry he could get with all the injustices in the world, after all he did fight in a war against people like this, so I could understand the irritation once seeing that the mindset hadn't disappeared.

"So that's what has you so upset?"

He shot me a half smile, his shoulders un-tensing as he brought our laced fingers to his lips.
"Is it that obvious?"
"Well I didn't get my hug at the door so one could only assume." He offered me an apologetic smile, before speaking up again.
"I've been catching up, like you told me to and," he sighed, the irritation flaring in his expression again."-I'm angry." I tossed my legs over his lap, his free hand subconsciously began to work it's way over my outstretched limbs, a habit he had when his mind was running a mile a minute.
"It's pretty crap huh?" I leaned on my hand, watching his facial expressions closely. He gestured to the blank screen with a nudge of his head, a humorless laugh leaving his tight set lips.
"This shit hasn't stopped happening, I don't know how it's continued to go on but I-" the hand rubbing at my legs stopped as he spoke, his prosthetic fingers twitching as his anger rose. "I know what it's like to live in a world that doesn't want you, doesn't appreciate you, but I'll never know it like you do." He looked hopeless, and I knew that feeling all too well, watch enough of that kinda crap and the world always look darker. I listened to him rant, a sympathetic smile on my face.
"I'm angry because the world hasn't changed at all, I'm angry because people like that can walk around freely but innocent, good hearted people get denied the chance of a decent life just because of what they look like-" he huffed cutting himself off.
"I'm angry because it feels like all that fighting and death was for nothing, and like there isn't a thing I can do to help."
I sighed removing my legs from his lap and folding them underneath me, grabbing both his hands I made him meet my eye.
"I know how you feel baby- trust and believe I know, and I won't lie to you it's not easy, it is frustrating that the world hasn't changed all that much but it is better than before, and it will keep getting better, because of people like you, people who acknowledge the problem, and want to do something about it.” My thumb traced patterns into the flesh of his cheek as i spoke.

“And because we've always made it though we may not all look alike or share the same blood but people who struggle and fall together get back up together just as easy."

He was silent a moment, and I could see the walls of anger he no doubt had been brooding in begin to crack.

"Aren't you angry?"

"Of course I'm angry, I'm absolutely livid, but I've turned that anger into a source of power. People who look like me have always been at the short end of the stick, and let me tell you, acting through strength rather than anger is a hell'uva lot more helpful than letting that rage get the best of us." He sat there, drinking in my words, so I continued.

“They don’t get our rage, they don’t get our pain, what they get is a calm grace, because in the end, people with hate in their hearts end up alone and angry, and they deserve nothing more than that.”

With a slow nod of his head I could visibly see the stress chipping off his shoulders the more time ticked on. I swooped up to steal a kiss from his unsuspecting lips.

"I meant what i said too, it really helps to have people like you in the world, not everyone is an evil bastard I promise, The world can be good, don't lose faith too soon. "

He sighed staring down at me, arms wrapping their way around my waist, the butterfly’s he gave me went bonkers as his hands settled gently on my hips, his grip tight but not uncomfortable.

"I know it can be good, it gave me you after all."

I made a face pushing myself away from the taller man.

"Ew, Buck that was corny!" I whined, he pulled me back into his embrace,a soft laugh accompanying his action, and as gently as one could, he smashed my face back into his warm chest. I squirmed against his hold until he let me up, the smile was back in his eyes, just where it belonged. I smacked his arm for the dirty move before I leaned forward on my own, finally getting my end of the day hug. He tucked a stray curl away from my face, leaning down to press a warm, slow kiss into my lips.

"Sorry for that- I didn't mean to get so worked up."

I laughed at his words, pecking his cheek before responding.

"Never apologize for being woke my man."

His goofy smile morphed into absolute confusion.

"What does me being awake have to do with any of this?"

I rolled my eyes at the both literal and figurative old man, rising from his lap with a laugh.
"I'm serious!" He yelled at my retreating figure.

(Bonus)

Later that night, the universe blessed me with a moment I'll treasure as long as I lived, and Buck would cringe at whenever I brought it up, as I woke from bed at a way too early time, I shuffled like a zombie to the fridge for some much needed water, I was surprised to see the soldier standing silently in our kitchen, the only reason I knew it was him was the bright blow light from his phone screen painting his face, I prepared my dry throat to call out to the man, who by the way had no type of business just chilling in our kitchen at 4 AM like that, and question him only to be interrupted by his harsh whisper.

"Siri, what does being woke mean?"