"Jonathan." The word entered his ears suddenly, seeming to come from all possible directions. He turned, eyes darting and hand reaching towards the containers of fear gas on his belt before he noticed the figure in the shadows.
"Selina," he responded, tone dry and even. "What brings you here tonight?" He turned, looking back towards the city. There was something about being on top of a building, his back against the wind and eyes over the entire city that made his heart race and cracked lips slowly form a smile.
"Oh, nothing too bad," she replied. She smiled, and behind her masks her eyes gleamed. "All my big plans are for another night, if that's what you're wondering." She paused for a moment, looking him over, her eyes hovering over the hand at his belt. "Am I intruding on anything?"
Slowly, he took his hand away from his belt and relaxed them to his sides. "No."
She smiled. "Good, then I won't have to rush."
Were it not for his mask, then she surely would have seen his eyebrow raising. "Is there something that you need to see me for?"
She nodded. "I'm glad you have gotten the idea by now." She stepped forward, the moonlight washing over her making skin, what little could be seen that wasn't hidden by her mask, look even paler than before. "Though I'm not here of my own doing. I'm here because of Edward."
Jonathan stiffened. "Was this something that he couldn't tell me himself?"
"Oh, don't look so worried. It's not as if he's breaking up with you." Selina chuckled, the sound somehow louder than the whirr of cars and distant chatter from below. "Though I can't say that he exactly sent me."
Her every movement was quick and lithe, and she moved through the shadows as if she owned them. It was barely a heartbeat before she was behind him, one arm wrapped tightly around his thin waist and the other at his throat, her metallic, gleaming claws held to his throat.
"Edward has been my friend ever since I got into this business, and we've been with each other through the good and the bad, the rise and the fall." Her voice was low and each syllable of her words drawn out. "When I found out about this..." She paused, and from the corner of his eyes he saw her smile. "This relationship, I was incredibly happy for him; you should have seen the way his eyes lit up when he spoke of you."
She moved her hand forward, the backs of her metal claws rubbing against his skin. If she moved just the slightest then the tips...
"I hardly see why our relationship should concern you, Selina." He struggled to break free, which only tightened her grip around him.
"Oh, don't look so worried." Her eyes twinkled. "There's no need to be scared, Jonathan, at least not now." She paused, her smile fading. "We all know that we follow rules differently and can't follow the same social rules that others do." She removed her hand from his neck and gestured towards the city below. "To think, we and all those people live in the same city and yet live completely different lives; what they would do in one situation, we would do the exact opposite." She paused, momentarily loosening her grip before clutching him twice as hard, so tightly that he had to wonder if she was going to pull off his mask to see his face go blue. "Whatever happens between you and Edward is your own business, and you two should be free to enjoy your time together. Perhaps you two will find something deep and meaningful or perhaps not. Whatever happens, I just want you to know one thing."
"What?" he rasped, his voice as dry as the burlap of his mask, breaking the silence that had filled the air ever since her last word.
"Hurt him and you're dead." She raised a clawed hand to the air and slowly brought it towards his face, the tips of her claws centimeters from the fabric of his mask. "If you change him in some terrible way, make him come crying and whining to me, then I'll gut you like a fish and feed whatever scraps of meat that you have on you to my cats. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes."
"Then just remember what I told you or I will show you a whole meaning of fear, one that even you hadn't known of before."
The moment the word left her lips, she completely let go of him. With one graceful leap, she was over him and racing back towards the shadows, her hand at the whip at her side.
This time, Jonathan didn't stop himself from taking a canister of fear gas from his side. He held it forward.
She turned back and gave him a grin. "Oh, don't take it personally. You've got to look after your friends after all, and Edward has had my back." Selina smirked. "Really, if that bothered you, then you should have heard what Edward apparently told Batman. If Eddie's to be believed then that did more to the bat then your fear gas ever could." With one quick backflip, she was gone, lost among the shadows that not even Gotham City's heavy lighting could repel.
