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Bruce had only said "I love you" to four people in his life. His mother, his father, Alfred, and Jim. And after his parents died he didn't say that often, but Bruce was sure Alfred and Jim knew. He was never good at expressing his feelings, when he wanted to say "I love you" to one of them he'd probably buy them some gift he knew they'd both appreciate.
He never tried to love anyone, on his party nights, he tried not to get too close to people, Selina had tried, but Bruce couldn't. Bruce was sure his heart was locked, he didn't know how to open it, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to. Love was pain. Loving his parents brought him a lot of pain, loving Alfred and Jim too, love had good sides, but it was still painful, imagine if Bruce decided to love someone romantically, it would be a disaster. Bruce would leave with his heart in pieces.
And then he met Jeremiah Valeska, and the engineer knew the way to Bruce's heart. He came and took off all of Bruce's armor, and Bruce found himself not caring, he was too busy falling in love with the redhead. Working with Jeremiah seemed like a vacation, from Gotham, from all the chaos, from himself. Jeremiah had the gift of making Bruce forget that the world existed.
Their first kiss had been fantastic, everything Bruce had dreamed of. He came home with a huge smile, Alfred had asked him why, Bruce said he was just happy. A pity that the next day his happiness would be torn from him.
Jeremiah took his makeup off his face, Bruce felt his knees weak, he just didn't fall to the ground because he was being held. His happiness had been torn from him, just like his heart, Bruce cursed himself for being so naive, he let Jeremiah into his heart without a fight, he allowed himself to be vulnerable, Bruce should have known that the universe wouldn't let him be happy without him having to pay a price afterwards.
Jeremiah had made several statements after that day about how he loved Bruce. And it hurt Bruce to know those statements were true. The first time he heard Jeremiah say that he loved him was when Bruce had asked him why Jeremiah didn't want to kill him, the man just looked at him confused.
"Because I love you, Bruce." And if Bruce paid more attention, Bruce thought he could hear his heart breaking, Jeremiah had said he loved him, and it was true, but none of it mattered. Nothing that they both felt mattered, Bruce just stood there waiting for Jim and the police to show up.
When Bruce entered the mansion, he hoped to find peace and silence. But instead he found a Jeremiah very alive in front of him, an Alfred acting strange, and two strangers. Bruce wasn't surprised to see Jeremiah, of course Jeremiah would cheat death, Bruce didn't even bother to cry, he was almost sure that Jeremiah was alive, if you asked him later, he would probably admit that he was in a state of denial.
Bruce sat at the table next to Jeremiah and heard him complain about Bruce not feeling their connection, Bruce almost hit him. He didn't feel their connection? Jeremiah was kidding with him, right?
"We can be connected in other ways," Jeremiah says, stroking Bruce's cheek. The brunette almost closed his eyes and leaned towards Jeremiah, almost. He only contented himself to try to put sense in Jeremiah's head, it didn't work, as usual.
Honestly, Bruce was tired of this alley. When he reached Jeremiah, he was relieved to know that people were alive, for a short time. Then he was sad that Jeremiah took two innocent lives, and terrified for his friends.
"You don't have to do this," Bruce said, tired, Jeremiah never listened to him, he always took extreme measures to want to get Bruce's attention, he seemed to have forgotten that Bruce had once told Jeremiah that he would always listen to him, after Jeremiah complained that nobody paid attention to him.
"But, I do." Bruce frowned his forehead, he was confused. Jeremiah looked tired, too, but somehow he believed that he had to do it. Jeremiah seemed to notice Bruce's confusion, he went on to explain some craziness about Bruce being more connected to the man who killed his parents than Jeremiah, about how he wanted to be the star of the show for Bruce, about how he wanted to be the person Bruce saw when he closed his eyes. That made Bruce furious.
"How dare you," Bruce speaks in anger, taking a step forward, this time it's Jeremiah who seems confused. "How dare you say I don't love you?" Now Jeremiah seemed surprised. "I..." Bruce sighs, he was so tired. "You broke my heart." Tears were wanting to appear in Bruce's eyes, and he couldn't stop it, his vision was beginning to blur. "You broke my heart and I still love you, you left me alone in that cemetery, and I still love you, you killed innocent people, and I still love you, no matter what you do, I can't stop loving you, no matter how hard I try, I can't stop dreaming about you, I can't sleep without you being the last thing on my mind, I can't wake up without you being the first thing that pops into my head." Tears were already coming down Bruce's cheeks. "Every minute away from you it feels like my heart is going to explode, and every minute near you it feels like my heart is breaking more, so don't tell me that you're doing those crazy things for me to love you, or that I don't love you." Bruce had stopped in the middle of the street, near to Jeremiah, he hadn't noticed that he started to move.
"Bruce..." Jeremiah seemed speechless for the first time. Bruce let out a sad laugh. "I'm sorry," Jeremiah says, and then his arms are around him, and Bruce lets Jeremiah comfort him. For some reason, when Bruce is in Jeremiah's arms, his heart seems to be collecting its pieces. "We'll find a way to make this work, I promise," Bruce believed Jeremiah.