(Untitled)

[onceaguardian]

Characters: Bruce, Shizuru
Setting: Some coffeehouse downtown
Time: The Wednesday Afternoon Following This Post
Summary: Bruce agreed to meet Shizuru for lunch so that they could get a feel for each other! If nothing else, it'd be an interesting - if brief - meeting.
Warnings: None at the moment; will update if necessary.

Comments

[ihaveafeeling]

Shizuru was fairly certain that Bruce was the last of her fellow adult Haven transplants she had yet to meet. At twenty one, she was old for her age; she'd quit school in her mid-teens and worked for a living as well as helped to raise her younger brother into a man she was proud of a majority of the time. She should check in on some of the younger residents, make sure that they weren't getting themselves into trouble. While she wouldn't call herself a positive adult influence in spite of how her brother had turned out, at least she was an adult. Not a role model, just a grown person who didn't rely on people in ways other than emotional, with a long habit of keeping an eye on others. Even that reliance was scarce here; she did miss her friends and father and brother more than she would have expected

[onceaguardian]

"It's good to see you," Bruce smiled politely, holding an outstretched hand towards her. Perhaps he'd dressed up too formally for such an occasion - though, to be honest, he was "casual" for his job in a navy blazer and dark pressed jeans. (Those apparently existed in the business world.) "I hope you've been well lately?"

As if he could say the same - there were dark circles under his eyes from nights with Cass and Tim - but he knew he could tell the truth to her. He hadn't once put the cowl on since he arrived. (This needed to be remedied for sure, but there was nothing he could do at the moment.) Graciously taking his coffee, Bruce waited for Shizuru before leading them to a nearby booth.

"I imagine you've been enjoying your summer break."

[ihaveafeeling]

The formal speech patterns were still a little foreign to Shizuru, who had lived her life surrounded by informality. The formality from Bruce was, bizarrely, more jarring than Felix's, possibly because the wizard's words carried hints of another time period entirely. She shook his hand firmly. "Pretty well, especially recently. And you?" He did look tired, but it was always informative to see what people would say. Sometimes they hid things and pretended to be fine, and sometimes they shared reasons, true or false

[onceaguardian]

"A little tired, unfortunately," He laughed, casually stirring his coffee as he added milk and sugar. "Life here's keeping me busy."

Hm, so she'd graduated college... this'd make her an actual adult (and thus not a teenager like Querl). Bruce looked thoughtful - in his eyes, she and his world's Dick weren't very far apart in age - as he commented, "I see. What're you going to do if you're not going to grad school?"

At the mention of his kids, Bruce nodded. "I had two wards, Dick and Tim. However, Dick and Tim were much older when they were placed in my care... and I also had help caring for them." He sighed. "I didn't expect to become a temporarily single-father raising three on my own." Hastily, he added, "I have a wife, but she's been out of town before I even arrived."