MELLIFLUOUS ➪ Bruce Wayne {Gotham}

V

Faye believed that she was far too overwhelmed to start unpacking, so she decided to explore...

She exited her room and shut the door. The teen took each step carefully, yet taken with good strides as she walked across the polished floor, almost shiny enough to see a clear reflection. Each one of those steps echoed across the halls, bouncing down and back. Faye took extra seconds to view each painting and portrait placed on either side of the walls.

Not knowing where to go or how to get their, the girl took a left, and then a right. Confused, she took another left, somehow leading her to a dead end.

"Where-," she began to whisper, "Where the hell am I?" Being lost in a gigantic house that you've never been inside, barely even knowing the residents doesn't sound like an ideal situation to be stuck in, now does it? The only thing Faye could recognize was that beautiful view to the backyard that somehow made her feel renewed every time she looked out the glass. The way the sun's light dances on the grass and how the flowers bloom facing the shine.

"Can I help you?" An unfamiliar voice asked the girl staring out the window. Her heart felt like it exploded, stopped, and dropped all at once. Faye whipped her head toward where she heard the stranger, making eye contact with the boy: black primed-up hair, dark green eyes, lanky build, looking to be around her age. He recognized the look of fright on her face as he began walking towards her. "I'm...sorry. I didn't introduce myself." He made his way to Faye, only a few feet away. "I'm Bruce Wayne."

Faye already had the idea when she heard his voice that this was the child of Martha and Thomas, also known as the boy she would be living with for some time.

"Oh, thank God. You scared the hell out of me." She sighed heavily, throwing in a quick smile to relieve Bruce of any guilt or worry about her.

"And you're Fayette Ridley?" The young Wayne asked. Faye choked up for a second at the mention of that name.

"I, uh," She stammered. "I actually go by Fayette Addington...My mother's maiden name. You can also just call me Faye."

"Oh, okay. My apologies, Faye." Bruce responded, sympathy and awkwardness filling the air. "I was going to ask if you were lost, but even I don't come down this wing in my free-time. C'mon, I'll show you how to get to the main living area from your room." The boy turned and led her down different halls; left, left, right, until back into the original hall where Faye's room is located. "See," Bruce pointed, "There's your room, and then if you follow this grand hall all the way down until you see the room with the metal door and tile flooring, you'll know you're in the main living spaces." Again, he began leading Faye down a new wing. Each room she peaked into had a distinct purpose rather than those other rooms that seemed to each just have a bed and a lamp. Their journey was interrupted by a figure popping their head out of one of the rooms.

"Ah, there you two are!" The recognizable British accent rang through the hall. "I'm almost done with dinner, so you two can go wait in the library, if you will." Alfred said, turning and going back to his cooking as Bruce smiled at Faye and took her into the library. Upon entering, she examined the room in awe. The amount of books amazed the girl.

"Does the library in Gotham even have this many books?" She joked, taking in the view with a full circle.

"They used to ask us if they could borrow some books," Bruce replied. Faye stopped moving to look at the boy with wide-eyes.

"You're joking..." She breathed out in disbelief.

"...I am joking," Bruce chuckled, treading towards the couch, sitting down and reading some papers placed on the coffee table infront of him. Faye rolled her eyes jokingly and followed, sitting in a chair across from him and the couch. She continued to examine the room, picking up on the little details in architecture and furniture that was all across the the area around her.

"I feel like living in a mansion requires fancy classical music playing all the time, and two-hundred people working the staff." Faye broke the silence that Bruce created.

"I play music...sometimes, it's not really my thing. And having Alfred around is just enough for me. He probably does everything around here better than two-hundred people could possibly do," Bruce responded comfortably.

"Wait, I have to pause you right there. Music 'isn't your thing'? How is that possible? Music is everyone's thing!" Faye exclaimed, patting her hands on the sides of the arm rests.

She quickly cleared her throat and settled down, realizing how excited and wound up she had gotten herself...in a household of people who don't want her. She was blessed with the gift of being able to connect and bond with people just on her sheer personality, but Faye also believes its a curse, sometimes blinding her from peoples true intentions and motives. She shakes crazed thoughts from her head, returning to the reality just in time to hear Bruce continue their conversation.