canolacrush replied to your post : Do you ever just headcanon pain and suffering into...
Incorrect, you know I *always* want to hear your Harvey Dent/Bruce Wayne headcanons.
You really don’t. But you did ask.
Heads up, some abuse under the cut, both (canon) child and relationship, along with a mesh of canons taking from where ever I damn well please. Also, Ace Bi-romantic Bruce because I can, with added internalized aphobia because he’s young and feels broken.
It started with two angry children. Bruce watched his parents be murdered in front of him, and his anger would not go away. He knew every time he snapped at Alfred it needed to stop. He needed to stop, to learn control, or he’d never be able to fulfill his promise to his parents.
Harvey watched his father hit his mother, then him, and watched his mother run away and leave him behind. He never wanted to be like his father, but his anger would not go away. He was terrified of his anger and what it might make him do, and he promised he’d never become like his old man.
They met as teenagers at a camp for troubled children. They hit it off immediately, quickly becoming best friends. Harvey could make Bruce smile when no one else could, and Bruce’s gentle fingers never judged as he patched Harvey up. Therapists talked to both of them, but where Bruce learned control, Harvey learned to suppress.
It was a while before they met again. Bruce had so many more things to learn for his vigilantism, and Harvey was going to have a career in law, punishing people like his father. But their was a fundraiser once Harvey got his career going, and Bruce Wayne was there. They rekindled their friendship, slipping into it like they’d never been apart at all.
For Bruce, it became something more. He had struggled with his sexuality, or rather, the lack of. Maybe it was because he was pursuing the wrong gender. He’d enjoyed kissing Andrea, but sex was something he still had trouble with and she left before he could try to consummate it.
But falling in love with Harvey was easier than their friendship had been. He still didn’t why his body refused to work, but maybe it would start to if he tried...
Kissing Harvey earned Bruce a black eye and broken heart. Harvey apologized, and even tried fooling around with Bruce after, but he was straight and Bruce still wasn’t interested in sex no matter how hard he tried. Bruce was just a little confused, Harvey said. Things like that happened. But they were friends, right?
Bruce was devastated. His body betrayed him again, even when his heart was bleeding out for the second time in his life. But Harvey wanted to be friends still, despite everything, and Bruce clung to that. Friends. Best friends.
Harvey and Bruce made headlines together, both good and bad, but sometimes the bad got to Harvey. Sometimes Harvey got a little rough, but Bruce was tough enough to handle it. Except for that one case where the guilty man had gotten off scot free. Except for that one time a girl stood Harvey up. Except for the one time Bruce was late to a meet up on the wrong day. The exceptions began to pile up before Bruce even realized they had.
Even Bruce had trouble hiding the bruises after a while, and when Harvey saw them, he broke down. He’d become his father, worse than his father, taking out his anger on his best friend. Bruce didn’t leave him though, not like his mother had. Bruce was always there, always. And he got Harvey help, picking up the bill for therapy and promising Harvey he could get through this. He wouldn’t let Harvey become like his father, and he’d never mention how Harvey cried against his shoulder.
That was when Harvey asked Bruce to talk to his dates. To explain, because he couldn’t trust himself not to. Every time Harvey started to see a new girl, Bruce would take her aside and tell her that if Harvey ever lost control, to come see him. Every time, Bruce promised her Harvey was a good man, and that he hadn’t lost his temper in ages and he’s made so much progress, but Harvey wanted to be sure. And Bruce was always there, to make sure. It didn’t matter that it stabbed at his heart every time he had to watch Harvey go on a date. Best friends, always.
Ivy was the first girl Harvey didn’t introduce to Bruce before they started dating, and Bruce told himself that he wasn’t jealous, and that the fact they were engaged should make him happy, not suspicious. Was it just the short time, or was he afraid of letting Harvey go? Could he even smile while being Harvey’s best man? Then Harvey was poisoned, and Bruce’s shattered heart needed to be pieced together to find the culprit. He couldn’t let jealousy get in the way of his investigation.
That didn’t mean he wasn’t relieved when Ivy turned out to be behind it all.
When Grace came along, it was easier and harder. Harvey loved her, really loved her, and Bruce kept up his side of the bargain. She was the first girl who saw between the lines of Bruce’s words, and who kissed his cheek knowing that he loved Harvey as much as she did. She came to him when the stress started getting to Harvey, and they both stood behind him as he went back to therapy.
Then it all burned down. Two-Face was born.
As the world crumbled down around Bruce yet again, there was still one thing he could do.
He’d be there. Always.