The Guild of the Forsaken

CHAPTER 38 - Even Salt Looks Like Sugar

Writings On The Wall - Sam Smith

October 31st 2024

GOTHAM CITY

WAYNE MANOR

In a room with too many windows and rich people to boot, a duet of youth dance to their own music as the rest of the world melts away.

The pair make an interesting sight, partly for the fact that the combination of their colour palettes cause a great many fashion fiends look away in abject horror. But the youthful duo pay no mind to these naysayers. Spinning each other in an accurate rhythm accompanied by the band the couple put every other dancing pair to shame.

Lost in the feeling of firm hands on her waist and laboured breaths in her ear, Marinette nearly misses a dark figure that tries to slink away into the cowering shadows. A peculiar feat given that the man is clad in a stark white suit that is battling for cover amongst the drowning lights and reflective decor.

"If you hold me any tighter I fear our bodies will mould together," Damian whispers hoarsely into Marinette's ear. She tilts her head in acknowledgement of his statement as a soft smirk graces her features, the expression feeling unfamiliar in comparison her usual sharp smiles.

"Would that be such a bad thing?" Marinette murmurs in an equally husky tone, leaning closer into Damian's hold and tightening her hands around his neck as though to do the very thing he warned her about. Damian makes a low noise in his throat but does not respond.

Despite the encasing joy that Marinette may feel for the physical contact Damian has allowed her she cannot help the cloud of dismay that gathers in her mind. For she is wearing more than one mask tonight. He wishes to hold 'Bridgette' not her (maybe once, but what good is past when parties forget.)

His tolerance does not mean unconditional trust nor does it imply anything more than an extension of hidden desires, even in spite of the way his body reacts to her presence. Bridgette and Damian for all intents and purposes are not real. Comfort they both seek but perhaps for different reasons.

Marinette suspects that Damian views her alter ego as an escape. She doesn't know or judge him for his past. Neither for the present, well she in his eye is blissfully unaware that Damian is one of Gotham's Vigilante's. And as for his wealth she has made no indication that she cares. And it is refreshing for him.

The two work because there is no deeper level of expectation. Marinette or 'Bridgette' as Damain recognises her, is simply something that he has craved for a long time. He has denied himself companionship all his life. No one was deemed worthy or equally bothered to try. Sycophants and fake sympathisers pleaded for his attention not because they wanted Damian as him, but rather his last name or genetically perfected looks.

Damian had always organised his mind in clear ways with thoughts sorted meticulously and analysed. Each emotion documented and assigned a rank of importance. More than once more 'primal' desires as he referred to them as were put on a back burner, locked away in a case stamped with the sign 'Do Not Touch.' However as with everything that ages with time cracks began to show and slowly those hidden desires had begun to creep forward.

In a broader perspective Bridgette and Damian know each other as well as strangers. But it's not knowledge that Damian seeks with her. It's not an obsessive need to tear a person apart until he knows every detail of their soul - It's a presence and a conscience that is content to exist within his space without infringing on that fragile wall that holds back every dark secret he keeps.

For Damian their arrangement and relationship is perfect, allowing him to grow in experience and emotion and catalogue those thoughts until he is content with their permanent place.