0001. CHAPTER ONE
— a marriage proposal, of sorts

TO BE FAIR, HARLOW FINLEY NEVER REALLY THOUGHT ANY OF HER LIFE PLANS OUT. She was always the person to jump straight into something and figure a problem out as it popped up. But this? This probably took the cake for her ideas of what hints she should have thought out before ever bringing them up. How was she supposed to ask her childhood best friend that she hadn't seen in a year to marry her? She supposed she could just ask him and explain the reasoning behind why. It could work (possibly) and it would be the most straightforward way to do it. But another part of her wanted to make a show out of it (not much unlike how she asked him to attend prom with her) (he strongly disliked the number of balloons that filled his living room because of that). Surprise him with something, pop up at his door with her hands raised out like 'surprise I'm home' and then hit him with the 'marry me so my dad can walk me down the aisle before he dies' ending. Harlow Finley knew Bruce Wayne, she liked to think she did at least. And she knew the years of being apart changed them in ways she couldn't even begin to explain, but she knew he was still the man who spent years by her side. The same person who had known her since they were babies, grew up next to each other. With each other. If there was anyone who would agree to a nonsensical plan such as that one, it would be Bruce Wayne.

It's why she stood in front of his front door, pacing as she questioned whether she should even knock. It wasn't too late for her to turn on her heels and walk back to her car. Not at all. Somehow, she had an inkling that Alfred knew she was there. He always did, when she was a teen and showing up at the penthouse at random times of the night, he always knew. He always had her favorite foods and tea set up, questions about how her day had been. Alfred Pennyworth had an alarm that went off about two people in this world: Bruce Wayne and Harlow Finley. That's why she wasn't shocked to see the front door open just as her fist raised to knock on it, Alfred giving her a knowing smile. "Doctor Finley, how nice it is to see you in Gotham again."

"Hi Alfred," Harlow smiled, her shoulders sinking a little. "How are you doing?"

Alfred opened up the door further, waving a hand to welcome Harlow inside. "I'm doing great. It's been a while since we last spoke, how have you been?"

Harlow set her bag down on the table beside the door, beginning to peel her jacket off of her body before walking any further into the home. She put it up on the coat rack, turning back to face the man who had gone greyer over the years she was gone. He leaned onto his cane, waiting for a response from the blonde in front of him, "I've been good."

Alfred eyed her, he was always able to tell when either she or Bruce were lying (they were never able to get away with anything when they were younger) (or well, they thought that they did but it was only because Alfred let them get away with it). He walked her further into the penthouse, sitting down at the dining room table where (coincidentally) he had all of her favorite snacks resting for her (maybe he had some sort of supernatural powers for knowing her location) (though, perhaps, Harlow was just overlooking the obvious point of Margaret calling and letting him know she was on her way over). "Sit, I washed some berries for you." She knew better than to argue with Alfred, so she sat down at the table and popped a raspberry into her mouth. "Now, I'm not going to ask why you're here. I assume it's so you can see Master Bruce, but he's not in at the moment. So, you're stuck with me. Which means ..."

"Which means I can't get past you with the I've been good comment."

"Precisely," Alfred pointed at the girl, a brow raised. "I was sorry to hear about your father, how has he been doing?"

"He's," Harlow found herself at a loss for words, her throat becoming dry as she rubbed at her nose. What was she supposed to say to that? Because he acted like the same man he had always been. But he was dying, they all knew that. He knew he was dying and chose to see it as a positive thing, rather than focusing on the negative part of everything he was leaving behind. He was focusing on all of the things he had gotten to live through, all of the things he had the opportunity to see. Meanwhile, Harlow couldn't help but focus on everything else. Everything that he was going to miss, everything that he was going to be dead for. She couldn't help but think of all the things he wanted to do at one point but would now never be able to do. It was all stuff she had been writing down, with the plans that one day, even after he was gone, she would do them for him. Visit the places he had never been to but wanted to see, do the things he wanted to do (top of his list was skydiving), and never found the time to do. "He's dying."

Alfred leaned forward to put a hand on her shoulder, rubbing circles onto it with his thumb. She let the corners of her lips raised in the slightest hint of a smile, rubbing away the tears that had formed in the corner of her eyes. Alfred was never a man of many words, he had always been the person who could comfort someone without them. Maybe it was just years of working for Bruce. That's what Harlow accounted it to. Bruce Wayne was always a person of few words, he preferred silence over meaningless conversation. There were plenty of times that he and Harlow were found to be sitting in a room not speaking to each other, a book resting in their respective laps. They never needed to talk to each other to know what they needed. Alfred was much the same in that respect, he had a knack for knowing what they needed and when. His timing was and had always been nearly perfect when he handed Harlow his handkerchief. The tears had just escaped their prison, flowing down her cheeks. "I can't say much to make any of this better, if I could, I would. This is the worst way to watch someone die, you know it's happening and you're just waiting for it to occur. Waiting for the day to come that you wake up and they're not here. I've always said that if there were a right way to lose someone, it would need to be quick. Unexpected. Waiting for it to occur, watching as a person loses everything that makes them them, it's the worst thing to happen to a person."

Letting out a wet laugh that turned into a sob, Harlow spoke, "He tries to play it off, make jokes about everything happening to him. And it just kills me because I know he's not going to be here one day soon. I don't know what to do without him, Alfred. He's always been there whenever I've needed him. The thought that one day I'm going to wake up and not be able to ask him a question, not be able to ask him what was happening around us. It kills me. And not to mention the number of things he's going to miss out on, Alfred. I've never imagined a life without him in it and now I'm being forced into it."

He squeezed her shoulder again, eyes leaving her face to stare at something over her shoulder. Harlow could feel Bruce's presence before he said anything, if he was going to say anything, he always had a way of making the air in the room feel different. It wasn't colder, not in Harlow's mind. Bruce had a knack for taking the air straight out of her lungs, she struggled to breathe when she was around him. It was no different now ever after eight years of not seeing him. Turning her head, she let her eyes gaze into his (or where his eyes would have been had his eyes not been covered by the black sunglasses she gave him when they turned seventeen). "Master Bruce, look at who came to visit us."

She brought her hand up to wave at him, her other hand wiping at her wet cheeks to dry them, "Hi."

Bruce's brows rose from behind the sunglasses, she could tell just by the way his facial muscles twitched, that he was fighting off a smile. He walked forward, placing a comforting hand on her slightly damp cheeks, "Hi." Her heart raced in her chest at his whisper, noticing how the edges of his lips had turned into a slight grin. "First time I've seen you in eight years and you're crying."

"Some things don't change?" Harlow let out a laugh as she finished his statement, making a deep chuckle roar from his chest. "I, uh. I need to ask you something."

"Anything."

"Alone," Harlow glanced at Alfred, sending the man a small smile as Bruce removed his hand from her cheek. Bruce nodded, grabbing at her hand to pull her up from the table. "I'll talk to you later, Alfred."

"I know," Alfred nodded in her direction, the smile on his lips never wavering as Bruce guided her through the home.

Bruce opened up the door to one of the many rooms in the penthouse, one she soon recognized as his father's study. She turned to him with a raised brow as her fingers ran over the wooden shelves near the door. Bruce just shrugged in response, sitting down on the leather couch in the center of the room. Thomas Wayne's study was different from the rest of the home, it wasn't as dark as the rest of it was. Harlow remembered the study well from when she was a child with Bruce, they often snuck their way into it to bother Thomas as he worked on patient files (or when they were a bit older, as he worked on his mayoral campaign). They were never sneaky enough that he had no idea they were in there, Harlow knew now that he enjoyed hearing his son's laughter when you were around. You learned from conversations with your father that they (both the Wayne's and her parents) had always expected that the two would end up together. Matha and Alice often spoke about what they imagined the wedding would be like, Alice had always been one to advocate that it would be small and simple, but Martha almost expected Harlow to be the fairytale kind of girl. The girl who would want a big wedding, one that looked like it came straight out of a storybook she read when she was younger. Of course, Harlow laughed about it now, because she had always wanted a wedding that teetered the line between those two ideas. She had always imagined something small, something intimate, but still, something that appeased her fairytale-loving heart.

Leaning back into the seat, Bruce watched her with a careful eye, "What was it that you wanted to ask me about, Harlow?"

Walking over to the leather couch, Harlow took a seat next to him. She contorted her body to face him, "I assume that Alfred told you about my dad."

He nodded, "I meant to call when I heard but ..."

"Don't worry about it," Harlow raised a hand to brush him off. "Neither one of us has been great at communication in the past few years."

"I'm not the one who went to England for medical school and went zero contact," Bruce spoke clearly, staring at Harlow directly in the eyes for a few seconds before his facade broke and he laughed. Harlow felt her cheeks darken, her gaze shifting from him to the hands that were resting in her lap. She felt herself begin to pick at the black nail polish again, chipping at it over and over again before it started to peel away on her lap. Bruce's index finger went underneath her chin, pulling her face up to look at him again. He was smiling at her, keeping his finger hooked under her chin as he spoke, "I'm not mad at you for doing that, Harls. If I were you, I would have done the same. You didn't want to come back to Gotham. I know damn well if it were me, you would have been the only person to get me back. You always had a way of getting me to do something, even if you didn't know."

Harlow let out a laugh at the implication, knowing exactly what she was about to ask of him. He wouldn't be saying the same thing in a matter of minutes, he couldn't. Who in their right mind would accept a marriage proposal (a half-assed one with no ring at that) from their best friend who had completely ghosted them for years? Harlow knew if the tables were turned it would be an entirely different story. If the tables were turned, she wouldn't be saying yes to him. She'd be trying to get him into Arkham, to get him the help he so obviously needs. And maybe she did need help, she had just randomly come up with the idea to ask her best friend to marry her for an extremely selfish reason. This wasn't something simple. It wasn't a simple task. It might have been a different story if their last names didn't carry the impact that they did. If their names weren't as heavy as they were. Harlow Finley thought, if they were just two random kids who grew up in the suburbs as neighbors, she wouldn't be so afraid to ask this of him. But that wasn't the case. Harlow Finley had a name that carried weight, and Bruce Wayne's name carried the same weight (if not more).

Them getting married wouldn't just be between them and those closest to them. No, them getting married would become a public affair. Just as the rest of their lives had become something in the public eye. They wouldn't be able to explain it away for why Harlow wanted it to get married, there would have to be an entire backstory to carry them through it. A backstory to give the media about them, something along the lines of they've always been together and never wanted to go public until they were sure of it being real. Sure that they wanted to take it to the next step. Bruce watched her with careful eyes, moving his hand away from her chin to take her two shaking hands into his own. She let out a breath, thinking of how she wanted to phrase the words to him. It was funny just how many times she thought of this exact moment, the number of times she thought about how she wanted to tell him. About how she wanted to pop the question, yet now, she wasn't sure of anything that she had planned. Should she even ask him? It wasn't fair to put him on the spot, not for something like this. Not for something that is supposed to last forever.

Because Harlow wasn't sure what they were supposed to do after they got married. They would have to act like a married couple to the public unless they were to quickly get their marriage annulled. Yet, the thought of marrying Bruce Wayne only to turn around and not be married to him anymore was something she didn't want to think about. The thought of them getting married and divorced a year down the line was something that hurt her heart every time it came across her mind. And she knew it wasn't fair to have something like that hurt her because the two weren't dating. They weren't together. And yet, she loved him like they were. Marrying him was something that made her heart race, imagining him at the other end of the altar waiting for her, she couldn't explain what it did to her mind. How her thoughts raced around her skull, wanting to be heard. Wanting to be seen.

"You can tell me anything, you know that right? I can tell your mind is working on hyperspeed," Bruce's voice was soft, cutting through her hailstorm of thoughts like a hot knife through butter. "What's got you so worked up."

"It's stupid," Harlow let out a low chuckle. "Like it's super fucking impulsive and you would be an idiot to even think about agreeing."

Bruce raised his brows in response, " You? Harlow Finley and impulsive together in a sentence? I can't see it."

"You won't be saying that once I ask you my question."

"I guess, but you've never been one to be impulsive. I can't imagine that your question really is that ..."

"Will you marry me?"

Bruce closed his mouth as Harlow's eyes widened, her hands had gone still in Bruce's. The two sat in silence for a moment, Bruce's mouth opened and closed wordlessly as he thought of what he could say. Meanwhile, Harlow had a million things she wanted to say but couldn't get out. Her throat had gone dry and her chest had tightened. No words could leave her lips as she tried to explain what she meant by that. Bruce leaned back, his mind lost in thought as he finally spoke, "I stand corrected."

"I," Harlow choked on her words. "I didn't mean to ask it like that. I had a whole spiel about how I wanted my dad to walk me down the aisle for an actual wedding. How I needed it to be for a real wedding, for something real. And how you're the only person I trust enough to even look at on the other end of the altar. And I just, ugh," She dropped her head into her hands as frustrated tears flowed from her eyes. "God, it sounds even more stupid out loud. I almost thought about not asking you when I got here, I mean. We're just friends, right? That's all that we've ever been to each other and here I am asking you to marry me because my dad's dying. I shouldn't have even asked. I, this was stupid. Uhm, I, you don't need to answer. I know this was stupid to ask of you. You saying no won't make anything awkward between us, if anything this rant might be the nail in the coffin between us. I really am just making a fool out of myself, aren't I?"

Bruce narrowed his eyes as he took in Harlow's words, "You're not a fool, Harlow, you never have been."

"Did you not just listen to a word that came out of my mouth?"

"I did," He nodded. "And all I heard were the ramblings of a woman who's losing her father and wants to have him walk her down the aisle. If I were given time with my parents, I would have done a million different things just to have those memories with them."

Harlow let out a choked sob at his words, "But I just asked you to marry me. Marriage. How are you not freaking out right now?"

"There are worse things in life than the prospect of being married to you, Harlow."

"You can't just go around saying stuff like that," Harlow's eyes widened slightly, mouth opening and closing like a gaping fish. "People might think you want to marry me."

Her heart was thumping in her chest as Bruce nonchalantly shrugged again, "Being married would take away the eligible part in front of the 'world's most eligible bachelor billionaire' that the tabloids like to explain me as. Plus, I meant what I said, Harlow. You deserve to have this memory with your father, I'm honored that the only person you felt comfortable asking was me. If this is going to make you feel better, have you make some peace with your father's impending death, then so be it. There are worse people for me to be stuck with, we survived the first eighteen years of our lives together. I'm sure we can survive however long you want to be married together."

"About that," Harlow leaned back. "I haven't really thought that far ahead. I figured you were going to tell me to go find some psychiatric help. Can you imagine what the media will do when they catch wind of this?"

"So we come up with a story, let the media think we've been hiding a relationship all along."

"It can't be that easy to get people to believe that we've been hiding a relationship."

"It can't be that difficult," Bruce mumbled. "You've been out of Gotham for eight years, no one here can say anything different. I am a man who hasn't been seen by the public eye in about two years, not including the various galas Alfred has forced me to attend. No one would be able to argue with a well-hidden relationship turned into an engagement announcement."

"But we'd have to get married soon."

"So? We announce our engagement not long before the wedding, but say we've been hiding that too."

"What about after we get married. What are we going to do then? The public will believe we're a happily married couple."

"So, we go on a honeymoon to a place of your choice. We can afford it," Bruce shrugged. "And then you move into the tower, we have plenty of rooms for you to stay in. We can make it believable."

Harlow felt her heart calm down as she let Bruce's words sink in, this wasn't exactly how she expected things to do. She expected Bruce to tell her no and send her on her way home, not come up with a way for the two to make this work. A way to make the public believe that they were together. Harlow Finley expected Bruce Wayne to laugh in her face, instead, he gave her the hope of everything she wanted with her father. Sending a smile to him, she let her hand fall out of his hands, "Bruce, are you sure that I haven't asked too much of you?"

"You haven't," Bruce shook his head. "It's a lot and if I were anyone else if you were anyone else, I would have said no. But you deserve to have the memory of your father walking you down the aisle. And it's not like I have anyone waiting for my hand in marriage, so I'm sure Alfred would benefit from seeing the wedding too."

"Are you about to tell me that Alfred's dying too?"

"He's not," Bruce mumbled. "He just thinks I'm perpetually single and will never get married anyway."

"If it's any consolation, my mother thought the same thing."

"Looks like we're proving them wrong." Bruce shrugged.

"Are we? We're getting married not because we dated and love each other," Harlow laughed.

"We're still getting married."

"Yeah, I guess we are," Harlow's voice was soft, almost as if it hit her that he agreed. That he said yes to her half-thought-out plan where she asked him to marry her, that at some point in the future she would be able to legally call him her husband. They would be married before she even admits to the world that she's in love with him. She's been in love with him forever, for as long as she could remember. He was the only person she could imagine being married to. And soon enough, she was going to be married to the only person she had imagined being married to. To her childhood best friend.

Harlow Finley had thought a lot about the day she would become engaged, this scenario was never what she expected of the day. The thought that she would ask was one thing, but she had expected it to be something grand. For it to have meaning, for love to be the driving factor behind why she would ask. Or the reason behind why anyone asks. She never thought her driving factor for getting married was to have a memory with her father. Yet, it was the most meaningful reason she could think of for getting married.

That was incredibly stupid for her to even think about, but she was going through with it either way.

AUTHORS NOTE

^ me @ Harlow

Anyways! First actual chapter is done now. I am very excited to see how you guys are enjoying the story so far & what you're excited to see. Honestly, I can't wait to get past this building up and jump straight into my version of the movie plot. The angst. The miscommunication. The 😩✨🫶🏻 you know. Idk, this chapter is definitely kind of a filler but the next one is not (can confirm, I've already finished that one too). Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!!