10653/Business As Usual

Business As Usual
Date of Scene:	06 January 2020
Location:	Batcave - Wayne Manor
Synopsis:	As Bruce prepares for another all-nighter, Diana appears bearing treats!
Cast of Characters:	Batman, Wonder Woman

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Batman has posed:
Bruce has thrown himself into his work as Batman ever since he once more donned the cape and cowl to help fend off the League of Assassins attack on Gotham. His unmasked persona has all but vanished, displaced entirely by the Batman who spends every daylight hour scouring for clues about the myriad of escaped criminals, devising plans for their capture, and the night time effecting those plans. He has been sleeping in twenty-minute micro-sleeps, and while the stubble has grown thick on his jaw and there are rings under his eyes he is still functioning. For now.

At the moment he stands over the Bat-Computer, compiling the most effective path that will bring him through the 'last known whereabouts of several escaped cons from Blackgate. As the computer's algorithms compile it, he lays his utility belt out on the table and prepares what he will need for the night's patrol.

Wonder Woman has posed:
For her part, Diana had simply let him having his reinvigorated role as Gotham's Bat. She knew what it meant to him and ultimately what it has been forged into meaning to Gotham as well. She always knew he'd go back to it, though she had hoped it would maybe have taken longer.

In this moment though, Diana's heeled shoes click softly on the Batcave's walkways as she moves toward him. Wearing a black sweater that clings to her fit form, a pair of loose white slacks, she carries a silver tray in her hands. Her eyes are on the back of his head as she approaches and she moves to his left side.

The tray is set down upon the nearest open spot and Diana turns to sit herself on the edge of the console, her eyes going toward the side of his face...

She waits, her dark red painted lips upturned ever so slightly in a smile.

She waits, and stares.

Batman has posed:
"Don't go anywhere," Bruce says, his voice grim and without inflection as he fits several collapsible batarangs into one of the utility belt's pockets, "Stay there."

He spends another few moments messing with the belt, slipping several hardened gel capsules into another dispenser. Apparently satisfied, he turns around to observe the map of Gotham displayed on the massive, high resolution screen of the Bat-Computer. His fingers grace the keys for a moment, typing in a few lines before hitting enter. That done, he turns to look at the tray on the console and lifts his eyes towards Diana.

He takes a moment, stepping away from the work to stand before her. His gloved hands raise to her shoulders, gripping her lightly there, and he leans in to kiss her at the corner of her mouth.

"Thank you."

He then turns to the tray, looking over the contents and taking his pick.

Wonder Woman has posed:
Diana's dark and finely arched eyebrows raise up as he speaks to her of not going anywhere. She doesn't respond to it, merely remains there on the edge of the console with her hands on either sides of her hips and the tray on her left now.

She searches his face, she watches his face, she tracks it and when he centers upon her and leans in to kiss her she grins and then lets it shift into a warm and loving smile as he does so. Her right hand sweeps up to stroke fingertips across the stubble on his face. "When you come home tonight, I insist on shaving this off." She says to him playfully while he moves to inspect the tray.

It has two things upon it, each covered over by a perfectly folded white cloth and when he pulls one off he'll find a bowl of his favorite ice cream, whatever Alfred deems as such at least.

The other is the same for herself.

"Yaaay, snacks." She quietly says in a good humored tone, barely above a whisper. "I did not think I could get a full meal down you before you left, so I opted instead for this..."

Batman has posed:
"I had a protein bar," Bruce explains, picking the bowl up from the tray and cradling it in one hand against his chest while he takes up the spoon, "That'll be meal enough. But this is good."

There's no real emotion in his voice, but then that's not unusual for him. The emotion is in his actions. The way he takes up the spoon and takes a grateful mouth. Many of their colleagues in the Justice League could not likely picture Batman eating ice cream, but here he is doing just that - and enjoying it.

He takes several mouthfuls, practically shovelling it down. When he's spent the last few days subsisting on the barest minimum in terms of nutrition, this burst of flavor does him a world of good.

"You're going to shave me?" he asks quietly, without looking up from the bowl.

Wonder Woman has posed:
Diana leaves her bowl where it is for now with the spoon resting gently inside the bowl having had the cloth napkin using it as the primary support for its tent over the ice cream bowl.

She instead keeps her hands on the side of the console, palms flat and fingers curled under it. She watches him yet continuously, he'll know she's doing that thing she does where she tries to gather all of his emotions, mental condition and everything just by reading his face. She does it because she cares though, a lot.

"All of you." She slowly nods her head after saying that in her sultry and smoky hued voice. "Head. To. Toe." She lets her eyes wander up and down him before returning to his eyes and she just geeeently dips her chin while staring upon him. "Do you have a problem with that?" She asks in her most seductive and enticing way she can... which would likely melt the ice cream in most bowls.

But she then quickly flashes him a big smile again. "I am just teasing. But I would be happy to try, it would be fun! I promise not to clip you either." She raises her right hand up then as she stands before him and lets it touch the side of his face to affectionately stroke his cheek and jawline with the outside of her thumb.

"I will be gentle. Mostly."



Another little grin is shown then before she lowers her hand and turns her back to him to pick up her own bowl of ice cream then and there, whilst her eyes raise up then to look at the map and try to garner any information she can from it's display.

Batman has posed:
There's no laugh from him. Diana would know well enough that Batman doesn't laugh, and when he dons the uniform, he puts up the sort of mental and emotional walls that prevent that. But he does smile that lopsided half-grin that shows he's amused, raising his eyebrows as he listens to her promises ... or threats?!

"Very seductive," he says, taking another mouthful and waiting to finish before he continues, "I've never wanted to be completely bald before."

He lifts his chin a little, observing his reflection in the stainless steel of the nearby console, and lifts his shoulders a little: "I suppose I could do with one. If you want to, sure."

His own eyes follow her gaze to the map, watching it in silence for another bite of ice cream before adding: "Five escapees on the list tonight. The first one shouldn't be much of an issue. He used to operate out of Red Hook and with most of Red Hook missing he's lost most of his connections. The FRS picked him up using a stolen card on an ATM in the area, so he obviously isn't ready to move on yet."

Wonder Woman has posed:
Diana starts to enjoy spoonfuls of her own self-delivered treat while she listens to him. A brief smile is showing to his initial response to her shaving proposal and then her eyes return to the displayed map as he says the rest.

When he finishes she lowers her stare down to her icy treat and just softly shakes her head from side to side. "I wish I could have done more for those people." She quietly says, about Red Hook. She's been going there every day since the event took place, making herself a big public facing figure there to be there for the people of that area. But she, like Bruce, will always feel her efforts aren't enough.

"I would tell you that if you need help, you need but reach out to me, but I know that you will be fine." She then says as she looks back to him and smiles lightly. "I will be here when you get back. I have some things to work on tonight, though nothing quite so exciting as chasing down unlawful nare-do-wells. I will do that this weekend." A hint of a grin is shown to him again, then she puts the spoon of chocolate ice cream into her mouth and pulls it back out between her lips leaving it silvery and completely clean of said ice cream.

"Mmmm. Cold and sugary." The Princess surmises her experience with a soft sly grin.

Batman has posed:
"I feel the same way," Bruce says quietly of the Red Hook disaster, "But you made a difference there. There are people who are alive now who wouldn't have been without you. That wasn't your finger on that detonator's trigger. Those people were lucky you were there."

It's a funny thing. He can hand out the positivity to others but seems unable to countenance it himself. Another of his quirks.

"You'll be here?" It's a silly question, really. They've been living together for a short while now, but it's a fact that always seems to escape him. It warms him to hear it, even if he doesn't do a great job of showing it. "I'm glad. I'll see you then."

Wonder Woman has posed:
Bruce's words do offer some comfort to her, his reasoning sinks in and does positively effect her. She shows it with a faint smile but otherwise just lowers her eyes again to the ice cream.

A soft nod is given to his later question before she looks up once more, enjoys another spoonful of chocolate ice cream and then speaks up again. "Yes, I will. IN the big fancy room. No, not that one, the other one. No not that one either, the -other- one." She shows a playful grin again, teasing about how many big fancy rooms are in the Manor above them.

"Good luck." She says for his journey out for the night head. "And someday soon I will trade you a chance to fly my Jet if I get to drive your car." And that is both a tease, and a serious trade offer.

Diana will then move to take the seat he'd hand and put her feet up onto the desk's edge crossed at the ankles withher long long legs stretched out before her and her head settling back into the seat's corner, dark haired ponytail resting down the left side of her shoulder and over her chest... and most importantly....

Spoon going back into the ice cream bowl.

Batman has posed:
"My car was destroyed," Bruce admits, having driven the Batmobile into Superman as a makeshift battering ram during the Battle of Metropolis, "The new one is Damian and Jason's pet project. I'm not even sure they plan to let me drive it when they're done. But there are plenty of spares - you can drive them any time you, upstairs or downstairs."

He gestures towards the great tunnel with its colossal housing frame that is occupied by literally dozens of Batmobiles, all those that have survived their time of service with Batman and not ended up as twisted heaps of metal. In the same gesture he refers to the expensive but more mundane vehicles housed in the Manor's garage.

Bruce pauses for a moment to regard her, that same half-smile on his face. But then he sighs, finishes off the last spoonful of his ice cream (there's barely a drop left in the bowl) and sets it down back on the tray. That said, he turns and with a flutter of his cape he heads in the direction of the older Batmobile that has been outfitted for tonight's mission.