On The Edge//Bruce//

[Hailey Heart]

Hailey stood on the roof of the tallest building in the down town, the black sky sparkling with stars. Tonight would be a nice night to let go.. She was standing near the edge, wondering what it would be like to just close her eyes and jump. You jumped from planes all the time in World War Two. She frowned, the thoughts of the war sending pain rippling through her in her heart.
She sighed, looking down, the streets racing with cars below. "Just one step." She muttered. She was seriously considering jumping, Broden was her friend, and she knew she would try and stay friends with Steve and Sam, although it would kill her every day. So, why not jump, and only die once? She sighed, she still didn't know what those two words Steve made her promise to say were. You never will now. She scooted to the very edge, getting ready to just fall forward.

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[brucewayne]

She was standing way too close to the edge of the building for it to be healthy. He saw her edge forward, his nearly black eyes narrowing as he leaped forward, grabbing her around the waist and pulling her away from the edge. As he pulled her away her golden hair fell into his face. "What the hell do you think you're doing!?" His hoarse voice hissed into her ear as his bat wing cloak gently swept around his leg and touched her calf. He released his hold around her waist, but grabbed her wrist in an iron black gloved grip so she couldn't try and jump again. From the gloom of the mask his almost black eyes searched her eyes. He saw pain and sadness there, so he softened his voice a bit when he spoke again, "There's always a reason to live. Even if you can't see it yet."

[Hailey Heart]

She winced as she was ripped from the edge by a strong arm. A deep male voice rasped in her ear, and she froze slightly. So, I can't jump, but I can be attacked by a masked man? She thought silently. She jumped when his cape touched her, moving her leg away. When he released her waist she moved away from him, as far as her arm would let her. She derided not to rip her arm away when he used the iron grip, even though she was sure she could, if she wanted to; because of Project Rebirth She shuttered again.
Her gray eyes searched his, which seemed black, but she could not hold his gaze. Her eyes flickered down, and she said nothing.

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[brucewayne]

A sigh spilled from his lips before he could stop it. He was tired...it was late...he'd been out all morning after a bunch of robbers. He wasn't in the mood for this woman. "Fine," He rasped, letting go, "jump, it won't make anything better." He took a step back and watched her, narrowing his eyes. He bit his lip. Did I just tell her to jump? He thought and shook his head putting his hand to his forehead and taking off the mask, it was too stuffy. Beneath it was his head of ruffled dark brown hair. He pitched the bridge of his nose with his right pointer finger and thumb and then ran them over the edges of his eyes and closed his eyelids over his dark eyes for a brief moment. He ran his hand over his face, trying to rub the sleep from his eyes and then reopened his eyes, locking eyes nearly black eyes with her stormy grey eyes. "Look," he said, his voice back to it's usual strength, he didn't have to hide it anymore, not with the mask off, "I know it might feel like the end, but it's not. Jumping doesn't cure anything. If they did something to you, they'll still hurt if you jump." He continued, trying to change her mind.

[Hailey Heart]

She sighed, and when he let go of her wrist she pulled it in and rubbed it, not that it hurt. He was right, it wouldn't make anything better. He pulled his mask and she recognized him from somewhere, television, or a magazine she had read at the clothes store with Broden. She just couldn't match a name to him. He looked about as tired as she felt. But the different kind of tired, he was physically tired, she was just tired of everything.
She sighed, and turned walking to the edge, she sat down and crossed her legs, staring at the lights, and the cars driving by. She wrapped her arms around her chest, and still said nothing.

[brucewayne]

He watched and let another sigh slip past his defenses. He moved his tired toward her and eased his aching self down beside her. "Do you want to talk about it?" He knew that sometimes things got bottled up and sometimes people let it out in violence and did not want to be the one who had to take this pretty young woman down because she had let her feelings out in the wrong way."I know talking about it may hurt, but it's better then keeping it bottled inside...that never works out..." He didn't know what had happened to her, but felt...not sorry, Bruce Wayne was beyond feeling sorry for people...he just felt, he didn't know how to describe it really. It was sort of that need to keep her from harming herself. The man with the bat wing shaped cloak was unsure on what this meant, but was somewhat eager...eager to find the answer...but no...perhaps curious for the answer was the better word...no he was interested in where this would lead and interested in what the answer to the strange way he felt. Yes that was the better word, interested. He couldn't ever remember feeling like this before...but it baffled him and Batman wasn't accustomed to feeling baffled like this. He bit his lip and turned his gaze from the shining car lights, since he'd looked down when he was thinking, back up to the woman beside him. Perhaps he should have started with his name instead of diving right into the questions. Another sigh, this one mingled slightly with a yawn, came from his mouth. He put his hand over to her, offering his palm to shake, "Bruce Wayne." He did his best to offer a wry smile, but was unsure on how it looked.

[Hailey Heart]

She looked over at him, curious to why he had even pulled her from the edge. He wasn't dressed like a hero, in all black, one could easily mistake him for a villain. He asked an obvious question, one she didn't want to answer.He looked down, apparently in thought, and she let her mind drift into the dangerous world of her thoughts. She sighed, looking over the city, and away from the black caped man. When he spoke again, she was ripped from her thoughts. He had said his name was Bruce Wayne, and then she remembered from the television. He held out his hand to her, and she figured she may as well be nice, he had saved her life, weather she had wanted it or not. "Hailey Heart." She said in a soft tone, that matched how she felt, confused and hurt, but she had finally said something.

[brucewayne]

He sighed, she obviously didn't want to talk about it, so he let it go. He switched subject just to get her mind away from jumping, "Nice evening isn't it?" Before he could stop them the words slipped past his tired defenses and he nearly slapped himself. Nice evening isn't it!? His brain shot at him, Are you an idiot? the voice in his head seemed to roll it's eyes at him...if it had eyes. It mocked him. You're horrible with woman After a moment his own thoughts came to, I know... it was strange...he was having a conversation with himself...now that was something he wasn't even going to tell Alfred. But of course the words had already fallen from his mouth, dripping with a sense of exhaustion, the sense that his body and muscles and heavy eyelids hungered for. He could have fallen asleep right there and then, but he wouldn't allow it, not with the woman, Hailey Heart's thoughts teetering on the edge of jumping or not jumping. The thought of What if I'm the only thing keeping her from going over the edge? seemed to slam into his head and wake up all his defenses and muscles. He blinked several times and rubbed his eyes, closing them for a moment so he didn't poke his eye out, something that had been close to happening several times now...one happened to be the fault of a pillow...but that didn't matter at the moment. He opened his eyes again and glanced at her, a little apprehensive about the answer to the question he'd regretted as soon as the words flew from his lips.

[Hailey Heart]

The question had caught her off guard, an odd question for the circumstances of their meeting, but she was glad to have something to distract her from it. "Yeah, the stars are beautiful." She muttered in an awkward tone. He seemed to be arguing with himself over his simple question, but it didn't bother her, she argued with herself quite frequently. In fact, even more frequently recently. She had argued with herself all the way up the the roof, and all the way to the edge, she even had argued with herself on the edge. Her pained and hurt side had won all the way to the ledge, and looking down she had hesitated, apparently just long enough for this masked man to come and save her life, and for that she was thankful to him, to Bruce Wayne.

[brucewayne]

He glanced at her and replied, "Yeah...I guess they are..." Bruce Wayne had never really cared about looking at the stars before, but now he did glance up and it opened his eyes a bit. They were quite stunning and to think he'd never even thought to cast an eye at them before. He watched the small twinkling lights for a moment before glancing his black eyes back at Hailey, the stars slightly catching in his eyes, making the orbs of brown stand out. He let his mouth twitch into a thin wry smile when he looked at her, finding that the stars twinkled in her own grey eyes. Then his eyes rested on the wrap around her side and her shoulder, tinted with red. "What happened to you?" The question that was sort of personal slipped from my mouth as horror clouded over my usually blank and calm dark eyes. "What villainous force did this?" The voice of the Dark Knight hardened as his fists clenched and all the weariness vanished from his dark eyes.

[Hailey Heart]

She smiled faintly as he looked up, catching a dark brown in his eyes. She looked away before it would feel awkward. When he asked about her injuries, she wondered if she should tell him or not. It sent a jolt of pain through her as she remembered Victor, Sinestro, and Sullivan all attacking her at once, when all she had done was go on a walk, trying to adjust. She shrugged, wincing at the movement of her shoulder, glad he hadn't seen her leg. I'm an Avenger, and I got ambushed..Yeah, because everyone trying to commit suicide is a super hero... She sighed, figuring he had unmasked. "Accident in the line of work." It was safe and didn't give to much away.

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[brucewayne]

Wayne's dark eyes focused on her stormy eyes, "Miss Heart, who are you really?" It was a strange question even the man wearing the black armor-like suit and the bat wing cape would admit that. He was really Bruce Wayne...but then he was also really Batman. They two were one of the same, as strange as it was for him to admit to that. He tried to make Batman...something more of the kind of thing people looked for when they thought of a savior, that's what he thought he was, a savior and a protector...perhaps even a guardian....but never a hero. Hero was too...too proud and Bruce Wayne was not proud. Nor did he want to admit to this woman that he was Batman, protector of Gotham City. He sighed, ran a hand through his dark brown hair, also near to jet black, and told her, casting his dark eyes to the ground, following the light of the racing cars, "I may be Bruce Wayne," He paused for a moment and let a sigh slip through his pursed lips, so it looked almost as if he was blowing out cigarette smoke, "But I'm also Batman...the Dark Knight, some call me..." He turned his intense near midnight black eyes back to her face and stared her full force in the eyes with an unblinking stare of a basilisk. His voice had been level, but not at all threatening. His eyes were deep and intense, but not threatening either. His eyes flickered as he searched her face for answers as his voice, hard as steel but not in a bad way, once more exited his lips, "Who are you, Miss Heart?"

[Hailey Heart]

She sighed, there was no backing out now. He had told her who he was, now she felt required that she had to return the favor. "I just want to be Hailey Heart." She muttered, but looking up at him, her eyes not matching the intensity of his in anyway. "But I am also an Avenger, Mistress Liberty." She had been about to say Former side kick to Captain America. but she had stopped herself. "The rest," She let her gaze drop slightly. "You'd never believe me if I told you." She muttered, referring to how she was from the World War Two era, and had been frozen for about seventy years, and was still as young looking, and feeling, mentally and physically today as she was then. But she didn't want to tell him this, he would think she was crazy, and maybe she was. But she didn't say it, she wouldn't say it. But her resolve had been easily melted before, and she was not sure if she would be able to hold fast to her secrets if he were to ask, turning his eyes on her. She wasn't sure she would be able to hold it in.

[brucewayne]

He listened to her, watching her, his dark eyes loosing most of the intensity. He'd heard a lot of crazy things in his life, he'd seen a lot of crazy things in his life, but when she said he wouldn't believe her his dark eyebrow instantly shot up. If only she knew. He thought with a slight shake of his head, making it look like it was a bug that was in his way. He'd fallen into a well and swarmed by bats, as if they knew they were intertwined into his future. He'd seen his parents murdered in front of him, and it had been his fault. He'd seen a man turn the young Bruce Wayne into a fighter in the span of a few hard years. He'd seen a man with a bag of cloth over his face make a man live his worst fear. He'd seen a man with smeared makeup mercilessly attack innocent citizens and purposely get himself captured. He'd seen the building where the woman he loved sat burst into flames while her rescuers were out there ready to rescue her. He'd seen a man who'd been a friend turn to a foe because of the loss of half his face to a explosion. He'd seen so many things and yet this woman, Hailey Heart or Mistress Liberty, didn't think he'd believe her. For a moment his dark eyes stared blankly at the cars racing by, the lights reflecting the blankness in his dark eyes running all the things he'd seen through his. Then his calm stare came to rest on her again. Only two words escaped from the expressionless line of his mouth, "Try me. Was all he said before he fell silent, his basilisk like stare searching into her soul, or so it seemed.

[Hailey Heart]

She sighed as he thought, looking down to the street, she wasn't sure how many stories below her. She looked over at him when he finally spoke. She looked into his eyes, hesitating, and flinching slightly under his gaze. "Fine, but just promise you wont send me to the loony bin." She muttered, her eyes flickering across the city, before returning to his face, and she began her story. "I'm from the World War Two Era. I was fighting Nazis along side St- Captain America." She cut herself off before she could say Steve, and slight pain flickered in her eyes, but was gone as she forced it away. "I was sent into another country, and was captured. I was put into a cryostasis tank and forced to watch five thousand women and children slaughtered as I slow lost feeling." She fell into an awkward silence, letting her gaze drop as she shuttered at the memories, but not only memories, but the cold as well. She risked a glance up at him, to see if he thought she was crazy.

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