A Cafe in Italy [Bruce]

[chastitybelt]

Players: Bruce Wayne and Diana Prince
Location(s): Cafe on the Pisa Arno in Italia
Plot Summary: Diana goes looking for her old friend in Italy before trouble arises

Her closed hand pounded against the solid oak door. Wayne Manor in the last vestiges of summer was as beautiful as it always had been. Ghosts of small happy feet beating across century old grass. Hollow corridors and battles only yards beneath her feet. There was so much history in this place. So much pain and turmoil in the air, and yet.. there was love here. Joy, caring and maybe even hope. She felt a twinge of confusion whenever she thought of Batman's Rouges Gallery. 'Who is Batman.' 'Who could he possibly be.' If some of them would stop fighting and killing for just a moment.. even the faintest of seconds, and thought about who Batman was and what he represented... it would've been a simple answer. A man who has lost everything.. and still offers 100% to the city that robbed him years before.

The door pulled open and out stepped an old man. Alfred. It's so nice to see you again. He invited her into the house for a while, offered one of his amazing cups of tea but of course... she was there on 'business'. Thank you, Alfred but.. I'm looking for Bruce. Do you know where he is? She could have tried calling him on a communicator. She could've tried asking J'onn to find him telepathically but.. Bruce stepped away from the league on his own volition. If he wanted to keep in contact.. well he would've kept in contact. It was hard enough to keep tabs on him in the first place but now he was wandering the world? Doing... only Zeus knows what. She could sense the apprehension in Alfred's face. It's not for the League, Alfred. It's not for anything that requires the detective. I just want to see him. She hadn't spoken to him since he publicly announced the beginning of Batman Incorporated.

Alfred gave her a general area. Nightrunner had been recruited which means Bruce was somewhere near Paris. Italy was the honest answer. If he wasn't searching for some new hero to take over for him then he was busy being Bruce Wayne. So he was either somewhere beating off the politician's wives with a stick... or he was soaking up the atmosphere. Thank you, Alfred. If I find him, I'll send your love. She made her exit through the back door and took a lasting inhale before taking off. She rose far above the gotham skyline before she turned towards the east and went into sonic speeds. Italy wasn't too far from her home in England. She stopped home and changed into something that wasn't Wonder Woman related. She was a regular tourist by the time she touched down near the Piso Arno. A blue denim jacket, Red undershirt, black jeans and converses. She wore her lasso as a belt and kept her gauntlets underneath her sleeves.

I found him. Thank you, Nelson. She stepped up to the maitre'd in front of the Cafe and cleared her throat. Buonasera. Per favore, puoi dire al signor Wayne che la sua data è qui? The man responded kindly and stepped into the cafe to go find The Batman. She took a seat at a table and read through the menu, chewing on a breadstick. This place was beautiful. Right on the riverfront, the smell of salt in the water. A light gale of song wafting through the area from whichever passerby happened to float by. Even the amazing smell of the authentic Italian food was intoxicating. For a woman who didn't require food to survive, it was still quite an experience. She looked up as she heard footsteps approaching. A wide smile spreading across her features, she put the menu down and stood up.

It's... it's nice to see you again. She couldn't accurately describe how nice it was... but there was a warmness spreading from her stomach throughout her body. It was like seeing home again.

[wayne]

The mafiaso familes in Gotham were all but extinct.

The Batman's original purpose was to scourge Gotham clean of the same criminal element which took a young boy's family from him in a sudden horrific moment. Joe Chill was a symptom of the disease the likes of the Falcones and Moronis and Salvatores had inflicted on the once great city. With the major familes either all incarcerated, driven insane, murdered by rival criminals, or "retired", Gotham was more or less freed from their grip. Of course, the traditional mobsters were just the beginning. The so-called "super criminals" were the real threat to Gotham nowadays.

Bruce's purpose in coming to Italy was actually two-pronged. He arrived to gather intel on any mob resurgences in his city for one thing; while Gotham had evolved beyond the a-typical sense of crime, there was enough of a gap to be filled that Bruce didn't want another old blooded family to swoop in and change the dynamic of the city any more than it already had. The second was more bizarre.

According to various contacts he had, there was rumblings of various sects of an ancient cult known as the Order of St. Dumas. The Order had been an antagonistic threat for centuries and most infamously known for breeding assassins from birth who would later be christened "Azrael". Memories of Jean-Paul Valley and his tragic beginnings to his heroic end flooded back to Bruce. He had hoped the Order died with him, but hope was often fickle.

In either case, whether the mafia or the Order of St. Dumas forced Bruce to re-affirm their status as a threat to Gotham - or beyond - he was on Italy for business. Sitting by himself in a cafe, Bruce pulled out a journal and jotted down some stray thoughts, none of which would make sense if stumbled upon by a stranger. He wasn't the Batman, and yet still, he always took the war on crime very seriously. If this was a taste of what was to come on the horizon, perhaps he should implement his plan sooner rather than later...

The plan itself was borderline insane but also genius at the same time. Not even Bruce was yet one hundred percent sold on it, but if it worked-

"Excuse me, Mister Wayne, sir?"

"Hmmm?," Bruce responded, snapped out of thoughts as he closed the journal and slid it within his jacket. He looked up at the waiter and put on a charming, if not aloof smile. "Yes?"

"There is a woman who is here to meet you."

"A woman?," repeated Bruce with a raised eyebrow. He hadn't told anyone where he was.

"Yes, sir," confirmed the waiter in his thick accent. "Tall, long black hair, very lovely."

Comprehension sunk in as Bruce nodded, motioning for the waiter to lead the way. A few moments later, and Bruce soon saw the woman in question. He smiled in spite of himself, and not the fake Bruce Wayne smile he often wore as part of his disguise. No, this was the genuine smile that rarely made itself known except in special occasions. He approached Diana and embraced her with his arms. "The feeling is mutual," he said before letting her go. It was an unexpected surprise, but a welcome one.

There were a handful of people in the world who knew the truth about Bruce Wayne. Even less who knew him on a personal level. And even less than that who managed to touch his heart in some manner.

Needless to say, Diana was special.

[chastitybelt]

She stepped forward and hugged Bruce with a smile. She had wondered how this first meeting would go. It was an amazing circumstance that she managed to get a hug. Not just a regular hug but something more. They hadn't exactly been on the best of terms after she killed Lord. She took a seat at the table and gestured for him to take a seat opposite her. She leaned forward, resting her chin on her hands for a moment, blinking a bit and trying to find something to say. Conversation was much easier when it was being conveyed through combat. So the hunt for vigilantes brings you to Italia? I hope I wasn't interrupting anything important in there. She never knew Bruce to be idle. Even when he was physically unmoving... that mind never stopped moving. A waiter came by, piquing Diana's interest in something to eat. What can I get for the lovely couple? Our menu's have translations on the backs. If needed. Heavy accented sincerity. The couple nod was enough to make her smile, however. It had been years since she thought like that.

She glanced down at her menu for a moment. Of course she was going to take the liberty of ordering for Bruce... only because she felt it would get it out of the way faster.Avrò ... i gamberetti fettucini alfredo con un buon vino bianco e il mio amico qui avrà ... Cotoletta alla milanese con patate ... e acqua. Ho paura che non beve. She picked the menus off the table and handed them over to the clearly impressed waiter. She took a sip from her water and looked over at Bruce. She had been boning up on her foreign languages in her time away from the league. With new heroes popping up all over the world she had more free time than she knew to do with. She had taken up.. watching soap operas and reading current literature. If it could be called that. The food would take somewhere close to half an hour to be fully prepared, which gave them enough time to talk about.. anything. Yet Diana didn't know what to say. 'Hi Bruce.. how are you? I heard you died... that must've been painful.'

While you were... away. I helped stop a mass outbreak from Arkham. The world reacted adversely with a sudden loss of Batman. I'm afraid Dick doesn't have your sense of.. brooding aloofness. It's an interesting change, really. Any plans to return to your empire.. regain the cowl? She had mixed feeling about Bruce returning to be Batman. If he remained Bruce then he wasn't knee deep in pain every day. He didn't have to worry about bleeding everytime someone innocent in his city bled. But she knew he would never be able to put down the symbol completely. It would haunt him if he decided to drop the cowl now. Not even Jason's death deterred him from the war effort. Was there a personal stake in him leaving Gotham behind for something else..Alfred sends his love... So does my mother, actually. She had actually gone to see the gods to discuss the returning of Bruce to the Mortal Plane. They told her that nothing could be done.. which gave her a bit of hope in dark times.

You know... I'm actually a bit upset that you didn't invite me to come with you. I would enjoy a trip around the world. Seeing sights from a tourists perspective... helping to recruit new Batmen. Instead you brought Selina... where is she? Sent her back to Gotham? She was curious actually. She knew Selina wasn't one to give up easily.

[wayne]

Alongside Clark, Diana was his closest friend and ally outside of the network of vigilantes he had molded and formed into a surrogate family of sorts. Like Clark, she, like Bruce himself, was a founding member of the Justice League and one of the few heroes who stood as an example and icon to even other superpowered beings. And like Clark, she was possessed by a sense of kindness and compassion that Bruce couldn't hope to match; both of them had an inner warmth and sense of "goodness" that the Gothamite lacked.

Unlike Clark, though, Diana had a warrior's mindset. She was an optimist, but also a realist as well. Her sense of tactics and warfare was similar to his own, albeit several centuries (if not millennia old) though no less effective when applied today. In a lot of ways, she was like a counter balance to the two men whom called her friend. She had unique insight to either of them, and they too had a unique insight into her.

"No, you didn't interupt anything important," Bruce replied. "The hunt is going well," he added, ceasing conversation as the waiter returned. Bruce's facial muscles tensed at the mention of "lovely couple" as he threw a glance in Diana's direction. Her smile caused the billionaire to clear his throat as he shifted in his seat. He noticeably, however, didn't correct the waiter in his assumption.

Bruce was about to order when Diana took it upon herself to do so for him and in the native tongue of Italian, no less. While Bruce was perfectly capable of doing so himself, he was nevertheless impressed with Diana's perfect diction, speaking with all the ease and natural accent of someone who has spoken Italian all of their life. Of course, Diana was as close to physically perfect as any woman could ever be, so this fact was not lost on him.

"No," came Bruce's response after a short tentative pause. "Dick is...better suited for what Gotham needs right now. And I'm not ready. Not yet." There was too many unanswered questions in the world and Bruce hadn't trained his mind and body to be able to get the answers he needed. Being honest, he knew he would inevitably re-don the mantle of the Bat, but only after he knew with utmost certainty he could accomplish the next phase of his war on crime. Bruce noticably softened at the mention of Alfred and Hippolyta. "I don't mean to be a recluse - not this time. But this is something I need to do alone." He smiled, genuinely and warmly, as he leaned forward. "But even so, it's nice to know I do have people who care about me even when I'm being...well, me." He could point out his flaws, after all.

His smile grew from soft and friendly to sly and playful, a side of Bruce Wayne that not many people got the luxary to see. "You wouldn't be jealous now, would you, Princess?," referring to Diana's title amongst the Amazons. His expression grew more serious as he looked into his glass of water briefly. "Selina is very much like her namesake. I doubt I could get her to do anything she didn't want to do. To that end, she's still in Gotham, but we've not keep in regular contact," he admitted. Selina and Bruce had a history to be sure, both advisarily and romantically. Where they stood now was one mystery the World's Greatest Detective couldn't solve, at least not yet.

Looking to Diana once more, Bruce half smiled. "How's the life outside of superheroics and the affairs of gods treating you, though?"