how is bruce as a captive….like how would readers experience as a basement wife be…
bruce is So Strange about you and it absolutely gets turned up to the max when he finally has you home with him. he wants to smother you and protect you from the harsh reality he sees out there every night. he sees your fear in every man getting mugged on the street, sees your face in every woman he saves from being assaulted. he doesn’t want you to be afraid with him, he wants you to feel seen and loved and cared for. he doesn’t give you a moment alone and forever is your protector, even if he has to lurk in the shadows of his own home to do it.
there are countless bedrooms in wayne manor, but he insists you stay in the master suite with him as your shared bedroom. he also refuses to give you a tour of the grounds or the manor, he likes to keep you disoriented about your surroundings except the bedroom in the first few months. he wants you to feel the safest and most stable in his personal spaces in the manor, not in common rooms or small nooks you think you can hide yourself in.
he’s nervous to let you wander at first. if you want to go somewhere, like the library and the movie room, he’ll be happy to grab a book for you or he’ll have alfred set up a movie night in his study. of course all the doors are locked, only he and alfred have the keys. why would you need a key when bruce can just use his? of course this is your house too now, but honestly, you’ll just lose the key if he gives you one. once you start to be able to find your own way around, he’ll leave a select few rooms open like the library and the sunroom for you to lounge in, but trust he is watching you through the cameras.
he catches you in the library by yourself for the first time and just observes you as you thumb over some of the books. you pick one out and lazily flip through it before he clears his throat. what have you got there he asks, genuinely curious. you practically jump out of your skin and hurriedly put it back in the shelf, standing at attention as you look at him like a deer in headlights. nothing! you lie i was just leaving. he hushes you and picks the book back up. this is your home now, my love he soothes you don’t have to be afraid here.
he makes a point to have a proper dinner with you every night before patrol and tucks you in, promising to be safe so he can come home to you. he initially never planned on revealing himself as batman to you, he never wanted you to see what he was forced to do. but when you accused him of locking you up just to go whore around when he keeps odd hours, he felt no choice to but to fold and show you exactly where he goes in the middle of the night. you wish you had continued to think he was screwing around behind your back, you might have been able to hold out hope for an escape one day.
when he’s not patrolling, he’ll take his casework upstairs to his study and hold you in his lap while you sleep, mulling over the cases. sometimes he’s tempted to show you the crime scene pictures he takes when you ask if he’ll ever take you outside in gotham again. do you really want to be out there when this is what he sees? he never does, but he knows very well how powerful a tool fear can be. he needs to find a way to make your fear of gotham bigger than your fear of him. he will be your safe place.
