Bruce wasn’t supposed to meet anyone in London.

It was a business trip.

A series of meetings.

A controlled schedule that left no room for distractions.

Which, of course, meant he immediately met someone he shouldn’t have.

She worked in a quiet corner of the city—far removed from the kind of life Bruce was used to. No headlines. No attention. Just someone with her own routines, her own independence, and absolutely no interest in Gotham’s version of chaos.

That alone should have been enough to make him leave it alone.

It wasn’t.

The meetings finished on time.

His itinerary stayed intact.

But Bruce found himself extending his stay anyway.

At first it was harmless.

A conversation here.

A shared walk there.

A pause in the day that somehow became the best part of it.

By the time he was supposed to leave, something had shifted.

Not dramatically.

Not suddenly.

Just… inevitably.

Bruce was very good at making decisions quickly when he wanted something.

He was also very good at removing obstacles.

And distance, as it turned out, was an obstacle he was willing to solve.

Gently at first.

Then persistently.

Then with the kind of quiet certainty that only a man with unlimited resources could sustain.

Gotham was mentioned carefully.

Not as pressure.

As possibility.

As something she might consider rather than something she had to accept.

Flights were adjusted.

Arrangements were made.

A life that could be portable, if she chose it.

And eventually, she did.

Not because she was persuaded into it.

Not because she was overwhelmed.

But because Bruce made it feel like a choice that belonged entirely to her—even while quietly ensuring every path made it easy to say yes.

So she came to Gotham.

To Wayne Manor.

To a world far larger, louder, and more complicated than London had ever been.

Bruce stood at the entrance when she arrived.

Not as Batman.

Not as a billionaire.

Just as a man who had gone to London for a meeting and somehow returned with something he hadn’t known he was missing.

And for once, Gotham felt less like a city he protected—

and more like a place he was building a life in.