In the Middle of a Broken Constellation

Pairing: WonderBat (Wonder Woman x Batman)

Rating: T/14A

Universe: N/A - Reader's Choice

"Diana, meet Magdalena Marques," Bruce sounded comfortable, cheerful even as he introduced Diana to his personal shopper. Everything in the department store looked high class and opulent, and the middle-aged woman approaching them presented herself like everything contained within the mall's walls was hers. "Maggie, this is a new employee of mine, Diana Prince."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Prince. Welcome to Evident." Magdalena spoke slowly while her big brown eyes roamed over the two of them. She didn't even bother to try and hide her obvious intrigue about their relationship, despite the fact that Bruce just told her who they were to one another: colleagues.

Diana, unbothered, offered out her hand to the woman and waited for her to accept the gesture before speaking. "It's nice to meet you."

"Oh, you as well. I take it he bullied my staff to get this appointment for you, miss?" she asked the two of them, but didn't wait for their answer. Her hand slipped out of the handshake with the utmost poise before she spun on her heels and began to walk towards the women's section of the store. On Bruce's signal, Diana skipped forward to follow Magdalena's dedicated pace towards their destination.

Shouting so she could hear him, Bruce explained, "The Wayne Corporation owes her for her hard work, and I thought this would be the best place to spoil her."

"Of course it is. After all, you're a loyal customer, you have garnered a lot of business for my store," Magdalena sounded as if she was listing off the positive qualities to having the wealthy Bruce Wayne on her roster of regulars, then she stopped talking at the exact same moment that she stopped walking. Reaching to her left and grabbing for a blazer off of a nearby rack that was meant to be tied at the waist rather than buttoned, she unbuttoned her lips and added the last trait of his that she adored so much. "And all of your credit cards are on file."

"Every single one of them." Bruce chuckled, confirming her words to be true with a boyish shrug. Watching him respond to this woman as he did gave Diana pause when she least expected it.

"But we are only here to buy a handful of things, so you'll only really need one of them." She enunciated the ending of her remark to make sure that the keywords reached his determined mind.

He turned his head to face her but the rest of his body didn't even flinch. With a crooked grin he decided at that moment to inform her of his secret plan, "But I have to take into account the emotional, physical and mental toll the entire situation took on you. So I think we can look into a few spring jackets and some sun hats too."

"Mr. Wayne." The way she said his name was meant to act as a warning.

The way he tilted his head to show her the warning he carried in his gaze, "Miss Prince, let Magdalena do her job, and let me do mine."

"Your job isn't to dress me like a doll."

"My job is to make sure that you are properly compensated for the efforts you made yesterday. If I deem that you earned one of everything in this store, as your boss' boss, should that not be a testament to you rather than a detriment to me?"

Diana pursed her lips to stop herself from saying the first thing that came to mind, as it wasn't the kindest nor the most intelligible thing she could utter in that moment. If he hadn't been missing parts of his memory, she could have responded so cleverly with a remark regarding some of the designs he'd made regarding the BatClan's first set of suits. She could have brought up that his stylistic tastes involved donning a cowl that sometimes made it impossible to turn his neck from side to side.

However, if she had the luxury of mentioning those moments, it would have meant that he wasn't suffering from severe memory loss, and they wouldn't even been together at the mall in the first place.

Thinking of their situation as a happy accident calmed Diana greatly. If nothing else, she knew she could keep the tags on everything and hand the entire wardrobe she expected him to buy her back over to him once he was well again. For now, as selfish as it was, she imagined what it would be like to spend time with Bruce without the fear of sludge monsters or villains for the first time in a long time. Then, she turned her thoughts into reality. "Some employers just offer their employees a raise or a plague when they want to reward their good behavior."

Bruce grinned from ear to ear the moment he picked up on her submitting to his request. "I think you've been in Gotham long enough to know that nothing that happens here is normal, by any means." He said coolly.

Diana turned away from that smile of his for a reason she couldn't place, taking that wry remark as her cue to catch up to Magdalena and look over a handful of items that the woman had already selected for her. Giving into Bruce wasn't something she did easily, whether he wore the cowl or not. Maybe it was because she was playing the role of a civilian and he had been turned into the fully realized version of his mortal self, but she had to admit that the levity of the moment made her think that the walls of the mall were somewhat of a safe place.

That Evident might be the one place where Bruce could get what he wanted from her, and she could perhaps sneak a peek into the version of Bruce Wayne that he hid from her whenever he donned his superhero clothes.

When she exited the dressing room for the very first time, it was somewhat of a shock to see Bruce sitting on the peach-toned leather couch, awaiting her return. He was hunched over his knees and typing furiously on his phone, so Diana honestly hoped that she could walk out of her room and model her simple slacks and blouse combination without him noticing. After all, she'd learned rather early on in her clothes-shopping days that the lights in the changing room weren't always the most flattering. It was because of a habit that she reemerged before him, nothing else.

There was no ulterior motive, truly.

But when Bruce lifted his head and switched over from excitement to shock to obvious disappointment, Diana couldn't help but laugh at his inability to control himself. "Were you expecting me to come out here like Julia Roberts?" She questioned, coy.

"Huh?" Was his dumbfounded reply.

Adjusting her buttons and the tuck of her shirt, Diana explained, "I'd been in a luxurious red dress and your generosity would have saved the homely woman from her unfortunate fashion circumstances."

"Ah, no. No, I was just…expecting you to try on that green lace dress first."

"Lace?" She repeated him while looking at him in the mirror.

His eyes found hers and she'd never seen such panic in them before, not even on the battlefield. "Isn't that fabric? Maybe it was tulle." He grumbled, trying to recover. The way he took to his phone in order to avoid her scrutiny was so dramatic, she couldn't determine if it was all an act or if he was genuinely embarrassed. However, he understood what she was implying by focusing on the sheer material and that alone tickled her fancy.

"Bruce," she called to him as she returned her attention to her look. "I think I'm good with just this."

"Really?" His head shot up so quickly, she had blinked and missed the sight of him sitting up straight in response to her comment.

"I rather like this material, and the cut of both the blouse and the pants suit me really well. There are no loose threads, and I don't need to get the pants hemmed. It's actually perfect for me." Her admiration of the outfit was so authentic because it proved to her that Evident was a quality store.

So caught up in her analysis of the fit of her slacks, she hadn't heard Bruce's shoes against the tiles. He had snuck up on her in a matter of seconds, standing directly behind her when his voice drifted towards her in a hushed tone, "At least try on the blazer Maggie picked out. It'd go with this."

Aware of the shivers that were ready to bowl her over, Diana pivoted her upper body to face him as best as she could. That tense edge in his jaw confused her, since she could typically deduce what it was that was causing him stress. Nevertheless, he stared her down with something undecided in his eyes, in his energy. He either wanted to pin her to the spot or he wanted to say something else to her that was on the very tip of his tongue. But his mouth was forced shut as he stood within mere inches of her, asking her to add one more piece to her new outfit.
"I don't need to," she admitted gently. "That's one item I wouldn't leave without."

"Good." Bruce sounded relieved when the corner of his lips jumped up into a smile for no more than a second. Then, it sunk back down and he looked like his serious old self once again.

Nervous about the silence coupled with his seriousness, Diana wondered aloud, "Is there something else…?"

"What do you mean?" He inquired, as if he couldn't tell why she was slightly perturbed by him.

Turning around to face him properly, Diana explained, "You left your seat to look me over."

"Well" - he sighed as he began his response, but he carried out his sentiment without an ounce of shame by the time it was done - "I didn't think there was a woman in the world who could make a mere suit look so attractive."

Diana gave him a moment to take it back or pretend he was joking, but when he didn't offer her any kind of humor to base his comment on, she implored him to continue. "And?"

Bruce scanned her face with those burning, searing eyes of his while he had his moment to think. After a few seconds ticked by, he finally concocted an answer for her. "And... there are paparazzi outside."

"What?" Diana asked, gawking.

"I just got a text from mall security that someone tipped them off that we are in here, meaning we are going to have to make this a shorter trip. I'm sorry, Miss Prince." Bruce explained with honest to goodness regret seeping into the lines of his face.

Diana realized then and there that what Bruce was doing wasn't harassment - he was shielding her from being photographed with him. If someone tipped off the press that Bruce Wayne was out and about with a female friend, they would create a very unsavory narrative about her and frame her in all sorts of horrible ways. Not only would the public shaming be unfair, but the attention could prove to be a major detriment to her undercover mission.

If the person who was after Bruce could pinpoint who she was to him and where they were, they could both be in danger.

No matter how disappointed she was, Diana nodded her head ever so softly to indicate to him that she was ready to move. Seemingly impressed by her resolve in such an awkward situation, Bruce swore to her in such a deep whisper, it made his voice sound gravelly and unintentionally sexy, "We'll go for lunch at a more secure location. For now, when I count down from three, we run like a pair of bats out of hell, okay? Just follow my lead."

Oddly enough, the circumstances being what they were, she didn't find them to be so stressful anymore. Escaping something sinister with Bruce when he referred to them as bats was oddly cathartic to Diana. If only for her own enjoyment, unknowingly at his expense, she answered him the only way she knew how to, "Ready when you are, Batman."

Author's Notes:

Something cute for this chapter, since the next one will involve a more intimate setting. Will the paparazzi prove to be just as dangerous of an enemy as the sludge monsters!? …Well, obviously not, but they are now interested in Bruce and his mystery date, so I wonder where that could take them? Hope you enjoyed this month's installment! Be sure to check out my other fics while you bide your time! - Maiden