AN: I don't own the characters and am obviously making no profit from this.
Bruce Wayne was a busy man. Between running Wayne Enterprises by day and cleaning up the streets of Gotham by night, he had little time to spare. Not to mention his involvement with the Justice League, the endless fundraisers he had to attend, and the ever-accelerating drama that was his relationship with Dick. Between all these demands, it was a miracle that Bruce had time to eat and sleep, let alone enjoy himself.
And yet that was exactly what Bruce was trying to do right now. He had spent hours earlier in the day attempting to mentally justify it, reasoning that taking a break from his normal routine would be productive and that there was nothing demanding his immediate attention. But of course, being Bruce, he was still plagued with a sense of guilt. How dare he fritter away his time when there was still so much work to be done in his city? He should be training, or re-evaluating the logs, or… something, anything other than sitting in an opera house with her.
For her part, Selina was trying hard not to be too irritated by his obvious discomfort. She had expected her companion to be moody; after all, this was Batman sitting here with Catwoman. It was only natural that he would beat himself up and brood. However, the musicians were just now starting to tune their instruments, which meant that if he kept going at this rate he would implode before the first act even began. It was time to do what she was best at: catching him off guard.
"Let's get out of here," she whispered, standing up and leaving before he even really had time to register that she had spoken.
She waited for him outside, wondering what excuses he would come up with for all the important people wondering why Bruce Wayne was leaving the opera before it even began. Right now, he was probably explaining how his poor date, whose name he couldn't actually remember, had a dreadful case of the sniffles and he needed to see her home right away. Those oh-so-important people would lap it up as just another instance of playboy Wayne being incapable of keeping it in his pants long enough to sit through an opera.
When he finally came out the door he shot her an irritated look, which she duly ignored. She took off walking down the street, knowing that he would catch up easily. It was silent for a good five minutes, until Bruce finally asked, "Care to explain why I wasted money on two tickets for something we're not even going to see?"
He knew it was ridiculous, acting like he cared about the money for the tickets, and he wasn't really surprised when she shot him a deadpan look without actually answering or breaking her stride. She remained silent, walking briskly and purposefully, and Bruce tried to figure out what she was thinking. She was the one who had insisted they go in the first place, so what was the problem?
"I could tell you didn't want to be there," she said out of the blue, making him wonder (as always) how she could read him so well. "You were doing a pretty good job of hiding it, but I could tell. There's no point in sitting there making yourself miserable."
He looked at her out of the corner of his eye, now trying to gauge just how angry she was. When Selina was angry, especially at him, she had absolutely no problem expressing it through yelling or glaring or even violence. But now her demeanor was calm, her face expressionless, which was somehow much worse. He knew how to deal with anger.
She stopped walking, and he had to say something.
"Look, I didn't mean to…"
"It's fine," she cut him off.
"It's just…"
"I know."
He looked up. He had been trying so hard to read the nuances of her face and body language that he hadn't even noticed that they were outside of her apartment building. It seemed pretty clear that she had every intention of going inside and never speaking to him again, and for some reason that thought made him panic a little. Random details began to cement themselves in his mind (God, she looked good in that dress, she was definitely the most attractive woman he had ever been with) as he tried to think of some way, any way to fix this.
"Well are you coming up or not?"
He stared at her in shock, caught completely off guard, as she said the exact opposite of what she was supposed to be saying. He had been an ass all night, he was so sure he had irrevocably screwed this up, he was so sure she was angry and disappointed, he… didn't understand.
"I thought…" he floundered.
She rolled her eyes, muttered something sarcastic about a great intellect, and grabbed his arm. The surprise of finding himself being practically goose-stepped through the lobby and into the elevator shocked him into coherence.
"I thought you were upset," he said carefully.
She rolled her eyes again. "Of course you did. Always assume the worst, right, Dark Knight? Honestly, I just thought that as long as you were failing so hard at enjoying yourself that I'd be nice and do something to… distract you from your inner turmoil." She paused as the elevator doors opened and a smirk spread slowly across her face. "Wait a minute. Is that why you were staring at me like that? Did you think I was leaving you or something?"
Normally he would have reflexively reminded her that they weren't actually together, but he couldn't make himself do it tonight. He had been worried that he had destroyed any chance they had, and as that thought hit him again he found himself pulling her towards him and kissing her, hard.
They staggered over to her apartment door as she fumbled with the keys, breaking the kiss for a moment so that she could actually get the door open and closed. He realized that this would be their first time as Bruce and Selina, but before he could really contemplate that notion they were at it again, she digging her nails into his biceps, he walking her backwards and cursing her bedroom for being so damn far away. By the time they reached the bed, all their clothes were left in a tattered trail behind them as he kissed down her neck to her breasts and she moaned appreciatively…
Somewhere between round two and round three Bruce decided that his original justification was right; taking the occasional break to enjoy himself was very productive.