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[thedevilsworkisneverdone]

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[knightbynight]

The good news is, doing your own stitches is so standard for me that even my occasionally overbearing ass isn't likely to protest. As for explanations, I've had good luck with both sex and extreme sports as an explanation - and both are true enough, and solidify my reputation.

Make-up also helps but that would be a rough one for you to pull off.

Thank you.

[thedevilsworkisneverdone]

I also like to think I do good work. Straight stitches, clean. So there's that. Yeah, you can get away with the extreme sports explanation. That doesn't so much work for me; no one's going to buy that I went skydiving for the view. I can see how that would lend well to a playboy reputation though.

Yeah, that's one of those things I can't manage. People do tend to look the other way with injuries that they attribute to disability but after a while, even the innate desire of people to not be perceived as rude stops working.

Of course. I know the value of help with that.

[knightbynight]

If your work that's good, you should start doing my stitches. [ That's a joke. His are messy, Alfred's are messy. His because he doesn't care and can't always reach. Alfred's because Bruce is impatient and cranky about it.]

The reasons are mostly skiing and rock climbing - sky diving I stay away from. Batman's too known for heights and dropping from them.

If I get a reputation for abusing you, I'm going to be annoyed.

[thedevilsworkisneverdone]

My dad taught me when I was a kid. When it was just him and me, he needed someone to do it because hospitals were too much money and we didn't have it. I had a lot of practice on his brows and face, which necessitates straight and as small as necessary to close the wound. He could take a punch but he paid for it.

That's a good call.

If you mean in the public eye, I'm not well known so I can just start a brand new cycle of excuses since they'll appear fresh. Also, I presume that if I'm 'mugged' then there's some way to use that. The people who were once most concerned about my bruises either know now or are dead. I think Kirsten just believes I'm in a blind underground fight club.

[knightbynight]

I'd claim I don't remember when I learned, but the nearest thing I have to a 'super power' or enhancement is my memory. I was 15 in London and actually was mugged and didn't care much then, either.

I mean the public. No one who knows either of us would believe it privately - and if they do, I have bigger problems than the press. We can use you being an apparent victim of crime very well, I think.

Kirsten isn't entirely wrong.

[thedevilsworkisneverdone]

When did you start training?

I've never had to float a lie to the greater public about why I have a bruise on my jaw so starting from scratch on the revolving wheel of excuses will work fine. As much as it annoys me, I recognize that I make a convenient 'victim' for those sorts of narratives if I choose to lean in.

Not entirely.

[knightbynight]

I 'ran away' from Gotham at 14. I reappeared at 20, picked up the cowl and adopted Dick the same year at 20.

I don't like the victim narrative any more than I like pretending to be an oversexed, reckless drunk, but when the narrative is convenient it's worth keeping. Especially when it's mostly false.

[thedevilsworkisneverdone]

And I presume all of this training happened when you were gone? I started when I was nine.

It annoys me more as part of the perception of disability but I also recognize all the ways that I use that to my advantage, so it does often feel like talking out of both sides of my mouth to complain about it. It's what it is, but sometimes it's trying to go through life having to pretend to be something you're not. As I'm sure you well know.

In any event, I'm going to start dropping the "oh, I can't make plans, I've been talking to someone" on people in the office. No names yet. Building the story. How should I say we met?

[knightbynight]

Then you're working with at least as much experience as I am, and with less support. Though I was doing a lot of martial arts from seven, in an attempt to impose some control on me and give me an acceptable outlet. I was a terrible child.

That's a good question. Where would our public lives intersect? Where does your public persona go besides work and court?

[thedevilsworkisneverdone]

I know a thing or two about being a terrible child. I have the five year running record for Hail Mary's at St. Agnes orphanage and a discipline file that's an entertaining as hell read. Lots of fights I didn't start but that I finished on the playground.

I don't have much of a public persona in that way. I go to a local dive bar if I'm not doing the other things in my life and I can't imagine that you and I would meet there. You don't seem the type to appreciate a place where your shoes kind of stick to the floor when you take a step. But that makes me a more malleable quantity in this story. You're probably better with the sort of public storytelling. I just try cases and sometimes give quotes to the press.

[knightbynight]

Definitively finishing fights I didn't start was part of my issue. The rest was more... variable.

I actually prefer that kind of bar, but not as my public face. Let's just say I was on a business trip and ran into you at a coffee shop. "Brucie" is aggressive enough in pursuit of a pretty face that all he has to do is have seen you.

[thedevilsworkisneverdone]

Such as? Petty vandalism? High crimes and misdemeanors? What are we talking here?

That works for me. I stop at a coffee shop near the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse every time I'm in court. That's lower Manhattan so I'm sure there's plenty of good reason why you could have business in the area. Please tell me I don't have to call you that and did you just refer to me as a pretty face?

[knightbynight]

Hair trigger temper and violent outbursts. Apathy. Defiance. Completely disrupted sleep that became Alfred's disrupted sleep. Property destruction and sometimes self-destructive, albeit scaled for a child.

If you ever call me Brucie, I'm going to be... upset. [ He hates it, thanks.] It's a way I can distinguish the persona from me, at least loosely, but I hate it. And I'd like to think we're building some kind friendship and solid working relationship.

Reasons to have been there are easy to come up with. Yes, I referred to you as pretty. You're not actually far off my type, known and otherwise, anyway.

[thedevilsworkisneverdone]

Trauma does all kinds of things to us. I don't know if what you do now falls into those loose categories but at least it seems a hell of a lot more focused and useful. At least that's how it is for me.

I would never, thank you very much. That cutesy shit is...not for me. Similarly, only my dad, Stick and my priest ever got to call me Matty, so none of that. Matthew or Matt is fine. I like to think we're well on our way to that.

I drink black coffee with three sugars, by the way. If that were to come up. Real sugar; I can tell that fake shit and it tastes like chemicals to me. See, you've got me at a disadvantage still since we're not in person yet, but I appreciate the compliment all the same.

[knightbynight]

No one does this without some level of trauma creating the impetus. Even Superman, though his trauma is different.

I drink my coffee black. There's only so far I'll take the facade, though you're going to get called 'sweetheart' a lot. Apologies in advance.

I can be in person by the time you get off work tomorrow.

[thedevilsworkisneverdone]

No, they don't. Everyone that I've met in this whole world has been just different brands of trauma in different packaging. My ex girlfriend the therapist always dropped that Faulkner quote about how the past is never dead, it's not even the past.

Yeah, you seem the type. Sweetheart is fine. I can handle sweetheart. That's usually my default endearment as well.

Alright. I imagine I'll be done reasonably early as long as my client shuts the hell up for once.

[knightbynight]

Oh, I'm rude. I'll interrupt if I have to. You can decide if you want an impatient call or impatient, large man in expensive shoes in your office.

Faulker seems like a good person to quote at you. “Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed.”

[thedevilsworkisneverdone]

I think I'll go with the impatient, large man in good shoes but you have to tell me what the receptionist's expression is when it happens.

I was always partial to "Because no battle is ever won he said. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools." I think she dropped the other line on me because she picked it up in a shrink book, though, to be fair.

[knightbynight]

I'll definitely provide a description. It's bound to be something interesting.

I would lose what's left of my sanity trying to date someone with a background in mental health. Or they would.

For what it's worth, my favorite is "Don't bother just to be better than others. Try to be better than yourself."

I'll see you tomorrow - and good luck with the tenants case.

[thedevilsworkisneverdone]

Oh, I'm sure it will be. My love life seems to be a favorite topic in the office so I'm certain the whispers will be good listening.

One of Kirsten's attempts at getting me back to living some semblance of a life. When my ex started wanting to write about the vigilantes in the city and the literal and figurative masks...yeah.

I like that one.

I'm looking forward to it. Thank you. I'm hoping it's a win for the 'little guy.'

Do you want to move this to action/meeting?

[knightbynight]

What I got in an attempt to get me back into living was 'then wake up and show this city who you are'. Less romantic, but it also came from Alfred so equally fitting.

I'll try to make sure it's a show worth listening in on -- and bring flowers.

I would love that. Feel free to just keep the thread going if you don't want to make a new one

[thedevilsworkisneverdone]

I'll tell you the horrible way that I got set up on a date with her. Truly nefarious and underhanded shit was afoot.

I like the scent of lilies and jasmine. For the record.

DONE

[knightbynight]

"Noted" is the sum total of his reply back. Mostly because he has to make arrangements for Gotham coverage tomorrow night and get on top of the lingering business of Wayne Enterprises and make travel arrangements.

He gets to Matt's office a touch early. Tailored suit, but no tie and first few collars of his dress shirt undone. Italian leather shoes, and the jasmine and lily floral arrangement he had custom ordered and picked up on the way. The early is intentional. It gives him a solid reason to be impatient and put on a bit of a show.

He sits, asks periodically if Matt's done yet and when he'll be done and flashes around a thousand watt smile. Tells the story of meeting Matt at the coffee shop and how much he admires his work as a lawyer and how intelligent he must be.

He's mentally flagging slightly in the ten minutes or so it takes before the work day is actually done. It doesn't show but lord that routine is more tiring than any amount of Batman.

[thedevilsworkisneverdone]

Matt smells the flowers first. Lillies, in particular, are strong and cut through the din of all of the other inputs of his senses. Then it's the scent of leather and a good cologne. Purposeful steps that are neither heavy nor light by some measure of comparison. While he half-listens to the conversation happening around him between Kirsten and their current client, his real interest is in what's happening outside the glass of the conference room. Matt puts on a good image of someone paying attention with his hands steepled in front of him but he's already figured out how he wants to play this with the client. The guy just needs to shut the hell up already and let them work.

Finally, Matt rises to his feet and extends his hand, slightly off center, for their client to shake while they say their departing remarks. That's when Kirsten notices someone is waiting for him and the administrative assistant can finally poke her head into the room to announce that Bruce Wayne is waiting for Matt.

Showtime.

Matt picks up his cane and heads out of the conference room with a smooth, easy smile. "I hope I didn't keep you waiting." He makes quick assessments. Ones that maybe he'll tell Bruce about sometime but he picks up a lot in the split seconds of standing across from one another for the first time. Size and build. The way he holds himself as he stands in confidence. It all paints a picture.

[knightbynight]

Bruce will be interested in seeing what kind of impression Matt gets from him, both because he's just plain curious, and because it will tell him more about how Matt 'works'. He'll also be interested in seeing how, or if, that general perception changes when Bruce isn't playing this role.

He's more loose limbed, 'unconsciously' graceful than he would be in the cowl or even just moving around the Manor.

He sticks to that while he moves to meet Matt half way, and flashes a smile that's just a bit pained. "Maybe a little, but it was worth it." He puts a hand on Matt's shoulder and gives it a squeeze, then pulls back and offers the flowers. "These are for you."