Run

A violent storm had hit Gotham.

Heavy rain poured down to the streets and thunder roared in the skies filled with dark clouds. The storm had caused a citywide power failure and the city was filled with darkness. The only light in the night came from the brief flashes of lightning. The streets were almost empty of all life. Only a handful of people were still out in the storm. Even Gotham's notorious criminal population was forced to seek shelter from the unyielding weather and not to take advantage of the rare power outage. It seamed like Gotham was brought to life from somebody's deepest nightmares...and in a way...it was.

Deep beneath the dark sky and the towering skyscrapers, in the darkest and filthiest alleys near the infamous crime alley were a gang of thugs running from something in absolute terror. The gang blindly bumped into dumpsters and fire escapes and slipped in the slime covered concrete as they tried to navigate the dark alleyway. It was like the devil was chasing them...but no. They had it much worse. It was just like in the nightmares of every criminal in Gotham. They were hunted down by the bat.

They had done something. Something that had made HIM angry. Not just angry. They had managed to do something that drove the bat way beyond angry. They had made the bat go berserk. And they knew that this was not going to end up anywhere near well for any of them. The bat would catch them soon, very soon. The slowest of them had already seen how the bat had brutally beaten the guys left to stall him. The same was going to happen to all of them. It was just a mater of seconds until he caught them.

Joey, the leader (at least in his mind) of the gang ran in terror in the darkest alleys with his guy following him. Joey knew there was no escape but he kept running. Every second of not being beaten bu the bat to a state in witch you wish you were dead was a huge plus. But the terror in Joey just increased each time he looked back. It seemed like at every lightning strike one of his guys was pulled into the darkness while screaming for help. In an instant Joey found out that he was the last man remaining. By now he was so afraid that he no longer felt the deep bleeding cut in his face anymore. He looked back and saw a glimpse the dark figure that had took out his guys. In a desperate effort Joey picked up a lose brick from somewhere and threw it to the darkness behind him. Then he lunged down behind a dumpster in a last attempt to hide from the bat. He knew it was no use.

In a blink of an eye Joey found himself in dangling in the air as a massive arm of the bat hang him there by the throat. In absolute terror he looked down to the bats blue eyes and saw something terrifying in them. There were no words to describe the hate and malice those eyes projected.

"YOU BETTER PREY THAT I WILL NOT EVER SEE YOU OR YOUR FRIENDS EVER AGAIN...AND I PROMISE IF ANY OF YOU EVER EVEN LOOK AT HER AGAIN, I WILL TEAR YOUR BONES APART AND RIP OFF YOUR FINGERS AND SHOVE THEM DOWN TO YOUR THROAT!" The Bat roared with hatred and malice just pouring from his mouth.

The last thing in Joeys mind before he lost his consciousness was the advise from his earlier victim. "Run".

She had never fallen like that. Catwoman had never fallen mid leap from rooftop to rooftop. But this dam storm had ripped off a lose billboard of from somewhere and somehow she hadn't noticed it and it hit her in the back. And that's why she fell down . And she had fallen down hard. She found herself on the ground near Crime Alley, almost drowning in a puddle of water and who knows what. She didn't know if she had lost her consciousness for a while, but she did know that she wasn't at all ok. She was sure she had fractured her skull and broken ribs.

Selina Kyle, aka the Catwoman, was a proud and resilient woman. She would pick her broken self up and gathered her strength. She slowly wound her footing and started to walk. She had to get back home. Though she knew she needed help, but she didn't know anyone to turn to...well maybe there was this one… Selina felt a sharp pain in her head and she collapsed on the street. Her head was spinning and she almost fainted from pain. But Catwoman wasn't some damsel! Once again she pushed herself up and stubbornly started to stumble forward. She was too stubborn to admit to herself that she had no idea where she was going anymore...ore were the hell she was now.

After what felt like days ago to Selina found out that a gang of guys had spotted her and were closing in on her. SHIT! Selina knew she could take them. Hell she knew she could EASILY take them all out within seconds. But in her current state...well it was bad for her being reasonably attractive woman in a rather revealing catsuit. But cats were survivors. At least she would put up a fight!

And soon enough the guys had her pinned down against a wall. But she had managed to fight them off for a little while and hopefully made enough sound so somebody could hear what was happening. Like she said to herself, she was by no mean a damsel. Even in her vulnerable state she had knocked out on medium sized guy with only a few strikes and stretched the hell out of two more. And she seamed to have made a nasty cut to the gang leaders ugly face. Before the guys attacked her she could hear them talking. Some of them were surprisingly smart. They tried to convince their friends that catwoman was almost as dangerous as the batman was. But when they saw her in her current state...well they got exited.

Selina was already broken and in immense pain from her earlier fall so she didn't quite feel the punches and slaps that she got from fighting of the thugs. But once she was pinned against the wall and slapped around by those brutes she really started to feel the pain. She still tried to fight them off but she was too broken and weak. The thug pigs punched and slapped her in order of trying to make her stop resisting. Selina was sure what they were planing to do with her...But she was not going to let it happen...even if the situation was a little bit out of her control for the moment. Once one of the guys kicked her to the already broken ribs she finally stopped squirming. Not from the excruciating pain. But because she saw a glimpse of that black cape in the corner of her eye.

Catwoman pulled her strength and looked the gang leader into his eyes. She tried her best to bring her famous "aren't I a naughty girl" grin to her face. As a dark figure dropped behind the thugs. The gang leader looked back at her and said:

"Your boyfriend is not gonna safe you this time kitty-cat. So you might wanna calm down and make this a little easier on you"

"Hes not really my boyfriend… hes more like...well anyway... he's right behind your back." Selina said with a devilish smile as a towering figure of darkness grabbed one of the thugs and took him out in an instant. The gang leader looked behind himself in terror.

"A free advise. RUN!" Selina said as the terrified gang leader released her from his grip. She could see how the gang ran from the scene in terror. And she could just barely see the dark figure going after them before she passed out from pain.

Batman was sure he had heard something. So he triangulated the location of the noise and stealthily approached his target destination. From the shadows he could see how a croup of men were circling somebody. And it was clear that one of the thugs was holding somebody against the wall. It was obvious what was happening here. It was time to put the fear of the bat in those criminal thugs. Batman moved from his position into a better angle for an attack while still keeping to the shadows. Now he was in the optimal position to take out the thugs one by one silently and undetected. That was the plan anyway. Then Batman took another look at the victim. Something in his mind snapped.

"They had Catwoman! They were hurting Selina! Those filthy thugs were hurting my Selina!" Batman screamed in his mind. Batman legendary discipline and patience was suddenly gone. "They were hurting Selina!" Batman leaped down from his vantage point and violently attacked the men abusing catwoman. Batman spared absolutely no mercy as he took the thugs down with inflicting as much pain as possible. "These animals deserve nothing but pain for hurting my Selina!" Batman took a tiny tiny pleasure from their screams as he destroyed their bones and caused immense pain to the thug bastards.

Batman noticed that some of the thugs tried to run from the scene. Fools. They could not escape from him. There was no escape after what they did to Selina! Batman threw down a thug that he had been beating and began his pursuit.

Taking out the running thugs from the shadows was effortless for batman. One by one he pulled his prey off of their feet and into the dark corners of the alleyway. While he was hunting down the criminal scum that had dared to harm Selina batman's mind was filled with thoughts about Selina. While taking down a thug batman's mind screamed.

"How could they dare to hurt her! How could they dare to attack somebody like Selina! How could they attack someone so close to him! Did they really think that there would be no consequences! They had attacked the only woman that batman could ever...They were asking for it! They were asking for a severe beat down! Nobody hurts Selina and gets away with it!"

Then there were only three thugs remaining and batman's mind was overrun by something else. Fear.

"What if I had arrived too late? What if they had done their vile things to her...and then...killed her?" What if they had killed her? What if they had taken her away from him?"

The fear of losing Selina and the intense hatred towards her attackers mixed up together and filled his mind with such wrath that even he was now having a hard time containing it.

Batman closed in on the last thug still on his feet. The fool tried to hit him with a prick. Then he tried to hide behind a dumpster. With a speed of a lightning he was on him and had the thug gasping for air as he held him in the air by his throat. The pure hatred and malice in Batman's eyes was enough to break this cowardly weasel in his hands. But that was not enough punishment for his crime. Not by a long shot. Batman would make this scumbag suffer for hurting Selina.

Batman had raised his arm to deliver the final blow to knock out the scumbag as he felt a gentle touch his shoulder and then a pair of arms warping around his neck for an embrace. Batman's menacing look didn't flinch even as catwoman kissed him to the lips. Batman didn't acknowledge her at all and continued to stare down the now badly beaten thug.

"Thank you for the heroic save, my big bad dark knight" Selina said in her seductive tone as she pulled away from batman's lips and turned to face the filthy scumbag still tightly embracing her rescuer.

"I told you to run, dint I?. Selina said to the thug sweetly.

"You obviously aren't fast enough" Selina added with a cold voice as the thug looked at her.

"He really doesn't like it when somebody threatens his favorite kitty" Selina said with evil amusement as she reached with her hand to examine batman's handiwork on the thugs face.

"But I guess you know that by now, right?" Selina said coldly looking deep into the eyes of the man who had earlier beaten her and threatened to do even worse things to her.

"NOBODY MESSES WITH CATWOMAN!" Selina said threateningly just before batman knocked the thug out with a quick punch to the face.

When the unconscious thug began to fall to the ground Selina remembered her own pain and collapsed. Luckily she had her big bad knight right there to catch her and pick her up to his muscular arms.

"Selina, are you..." Batman was about to say with concern slipping to his voice when Selina interrupted him with her eyes still closed.

"I am fine Bruce, im just fine...now that your here" She said and moved her head so he could rest it on his shoulder. She had a smile on her face as she fell unconscious knowing that she would be safe.

Selina woke up in the batcave's medical station. She was fairly familiar with the cave so it wasn't much of a shock for her the wake up in a cave occupied by swarms of bats and high tech...and a very handsome vigilante. Selina didn't fully open her eyes as she spied batman carefully tending her wounds. A playful smile forced its way on her lips as she could spot batman's cowl and gloves on the cave floor. Selina knew that batman was VERY organised and he would never just throw away his gear like that. He really cared for her, Selina thought.

"I know you are awake" Batman spoke with his stern "bat-tone" that criminals had learned to fear. But the bat-tone didn't frighten catwoman. It got her exited. She thought it was sexy as hell. Just like the man emitting the sound.

"Of course you do. Good morning handsome" Selina purred as she fully opened her green eyes and tried to stretch her arms.

"OW!" Selina screamed as the pain from her wounds hit her.

"Try not to move too much. You were pretty badly broken. I did what I could but you need to lay down and rest" Batman said with concern in his voice as he rushed to examine Selina's arms.

Selina watched as Bruce gently examined her arm and adjusted the bandage on her arm. Selina found herself lost in her thoughts. She could feel so safe when he has around. She knew that he was hurting. She knew that he felt like he had failed to protect her, even though he knew that she didn't need his protection. Selina understood his pain. She understood him better than anyone. And he understood her. Sometimes she was scared by just how much she loved him. And she knew that Bruce loved her...they just hadn't said it to each other. Maybe she should tell him that she lo…

Selina's train of thought was interrupted when Bruce's blue, almost steel like eyes appeared just in front of her green ones. Selina could stare at those eyes for days...they oozed out intelligence and strength of will and something that made her kind of understand why most criminals broke down when faced with those eyes. She failed to notice that he was speaking to her. She didn't hear a word he said. Such dreamy eyes...

"Selina. Can you hear me" Bruce said with a slight amusement in his voice.

"Sorry, handsome. I was lost in thought. What did you say?" Selina said sweetly as she shook herself up from her thoughts.

"I said you would probably appreciate a real bed" Bruce said as he stripped away the rest of the batsuit. Needles to say Selina had a hard time concentrating on his words as she looked the show.

"The cave is not really a good place to rest anyway." Bruce continued as he was now stripped down to his skin tight under armor bodysuit. Selína could see every muscle on his magnificent body. She bit her lip and started to purr.

"But since you cant really walk.." Bruce said and effortlessly lifted Selina up from the medical bed and started to carry her from the med station.

"...I need to carry you, kitty."

Bruce carried her effortlessly to the elevator that led back to the Wayne manor. Selina couldn't help but smile as she was carried through the manor towards the stairs leading to the bedroom. She liked the sound of his heartbeat. She knew that his hear was broken many times. She liked the reminder that he still had a heart. So many people, even his friends claimed that he didn't have a hear of he was cold-hearted...they didn't really know him...not like Selina. She knew that he had a caring heart...it was just made colder by all the crap that he was forced to go trough...his heart might have been dying but there was hope. Selina liked to think that she had something to do with it.

"You ever gonna ask how those idiots managed to pin me down?" Selina asked playfully.

"No" Came the short answer.

"You already know what happened." Selina stated with a flirty smile.

"It was obvious. The storm must have somehow knocked you off a rooftop before you came across with that group of scumbags. Otherwise there is no way in hell that you could lose a fight. Believe me I know how much a wildcat you are in a fight" Bruce said with a teasing smile and earned a playful scratch to the chest from the catwoman is his arm.

When Bruce reached the bedroom he gently placed her on the sheets. Then he examined her one more time and mentioned something about unfinished "work" and turned to leave. He was stopped on his tracks as Selina grabbed his and hand squeezed tightly. In order to reach him she had to stretch out a little too much so she pulled her stitches on her side and flinched in pain.

"Bruce, please. Don't go. Stay wit me." Selina said quietly as tears formed in her eyes.

Bruce turned to see Selina sitting in his bed. Holding his hand tightly...with tears on her eyes. Almost immediately he spotted the pulled stitches and went to work fixing the damages.

"I know it hurts, Selina. That's why I told you to not move too much" Bruce said with a soft voice and carefully fixed the stitching .

Selina knew that Bruce thought that her tears were from the pain of pulling her stitches . She had to make him understand.

"I'm not crying for that, Bruce" Selina said weakly. She looked up at Bruce with her teary eyes as he lowered himself next to her and gently hugging her.

"Then why are you crying, Kitty?" Bruce asked softly and looked Selina deep into her breathtakingly green eyes.

Selina didn't answer immediately. For a moment she just stared into his eyes and let her tears fall down on her cheeks. After a brief moment Bruce took her hand into his and used his other hand to very gently wipe some of the tears from her cheeks. Then Selina took her hands and placed them on either side of Bruce's head and pulled him into a moist kiss.

"Because I love you" Selina said with even more tears running down on her cheeks.

Selina could see something truly wonderful sparkling deep inside his eyes as she said the words. She could see that he had found something he had lost so long a go. She saw a glimpse of happiness...She saw the pure love that he felt for her. She felt yet even more tears forming in her eyes as Bruce placed his palm on her cheek and leaned in to a deep, emotional kiss that lasted for ages.

When he finally pulled away Selina felt a little head rushed...But it was nothing compared to what came next.

"I know that you know how I feel about you. I know that you know just how deeply I care about you...And I think you know that I love you." Bruce said softly as he looked her in the eye.

"You think?" Selina said with a playful smile.

Bruce let a rare smile form on his lips as he leaned in to kiss her again. In his eyes She was perfect...even tough se is or at least was a criminal. He could not hide his feelings anymore. She had already broken through his shield some time a go but now it was the time to finally admit it. Maybe there was some hope for a relationship...Bruce knew that she was the only one who could truly accept

him as he was…

"I love you too, Selina"