Author's Note: I'm on a Gotham kick again, and got a request to write this on my Tumblr, so here's some super fluffy baby batcat! Takes place right after 4.15, so mild spoilers if you haven't seen it yet!
The past several months of late night parties and drinking -- not to mention nearly dying due to Ivy's poison less than a week ago -- had finally caught up with him.
Bruce realized this when he'd woken up feeling the effects of a hangover despite the fact that he hadn't had a drop of alcohol the night before, but dragged himself out of bed and got dressed for the day nonetheless. He briefly considered telling Alfred that he wasn't feeling well, but when he thought of the way he had treated his guardian recently, he felt too guilty to ask for help with something as trivial as the flu.
Thankfully there were no Wayne Enterprise events that he needed to attend that evening, so he could lock himself away in his father's study for the day.
He found a book on one of the many shelves and made himself comfortable on the sofa, eventually falling asleep, hugging the still-open book to his chest.
Selina hesitated outside the mansion. Bruce seemed to be on speaking terms with her again, and he'd even tried to comfort her when she'd expressed how guilty she'd felt about Ivy's murder, but things didn't feel resolved between them...not that things ever really felt resolved between them.
Still, she missed him; so she climbed through the study window like she'd done so many times before to find Bruce...asleep on the couch?
She slowly stepped forward and took a closer look at him. His cheeks were tinted an unnatural pink, there were dark circles under his eyes, and he was breathing through his mouth, snoring slightly.
She placed a gentle hand on his forehead and frowned at the heat radiating from him, quickly pulling away when he began to stir.
"...Bruce?" she asked.
The boy groaned and slowly opened his eyes, looking up at Selina with confusion, his vision blurred slightly from sleep. "Selina...?" he asked, his voice quiet and raspy, "...What--" he was interrupted by a cough, and cleared his throat before continuing, "What are you doing here?"
"I ran out of food again," she lied with a shrug, earning a disbelieving look from Bruce as he slowly sat up. "So what happened to you?" she asked, trying to change the subject, "You don't look so good."
"Nothing happened; I'm fine. I just..." he trailed off for a moment before pitching forward and sneezing harshly into the cuff of his sweater.
"Caught the flu," Selina finished for him, walking over to the desk and grabbing a box of tissues sitting on it, then tossed it to him.
He caught the box and nodded slightly in confirmation before taking a tissue from the box and blowing his nose.
Selina walked back over and sat down next to him, tucking one leg underneath her. "Why isn't Alfred taking care of you? I thought he came back."
Bruce sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, leaning back against the cushions of the sofa. "He did come back. It's just..." he trailed off, not quite sure how to finish the sentence.
"You didn't tell him you were sick, did you?"
Bruce turned to look at her with a slightly surprised look and she rolled her eyes. "Why didn't you tell him?"
The boy sighed again, which turned into a brief coughing fit, and Selina patted his back a little, doing what she could to help.
"I didn't feel right asking for help. It's just the flu, I can take care of myself. ...And... I let him down... I don't deserve his help."
"But you deserve my help?" the girl asked with mock-incredulousness.
"It's different. I didn't ask you to come take care of me -- you just showed up. ...But I do appreciate it." He gave her a slight smile, which she returned before smacking him jokingly on the arm.
"You should apologize to Alfred. He'll forgive you -- it's Alfred. ...Plus, he's better at taking care of people than me."
"...Why are you being so nice to me?"
She didn't answer, not wanting to admit that she'd missed him. Selina hated feeling vulnerable in front of Bruce, and if she was honest, she was still a little angry about the way he'd treated her over the past few months. So she changed the subject.
"...We should do something. --And reading until you fall asleep," she said, holding up the book Bruce had fallen asleep reading earlier, "doesn't count."
"If you're suggesting we rob someone..."
"No," Selina said, handing him a tissue, "I think you're too sick for that, anyway. But you're not gonna get better if your bored."
"I wasn't bored, I was sleeping. ...And you woke me up," Bruce said a little indignantly, though it was made significantly less-so when he suddenly sneezed into the cuff of his sweater again.
He pulled a tissue from the box and turned to face Selina again, expecting her to be smirking or making some sort of snide remark, but instead she just looked concerned.
"What?" Bruce asked, his voice sounding more hoarse and congested than before.
Selina shook her head slightly, as if to clear her mind. "Nothing," she said, "It's just... You really don't look good."
They sat in awkward silence for several long moments before Selina suggested they do something again. Bruce suggested a game of chess, Selina insisted that chess was worse than falling asleep reading and they eventually settled on a game of checkers, Bruce resisting the urge to point out that checkers was just a less interesting version of chess.
They played for a while until Selina abruptly picked up the board and placed it on the floor next to the sofa.
"What are you doing?" Bruce asked in confusion.
"You look like you're gonna pass out; you should lay down."
She was right. He felt worse than he had when Selina had first arrived not too much earlier. He was feverish and weak, and every muscle in his body was aching, but he didn't want to let on how sick he really felt. Not to Selina Kyle.
The girl rolled her eyes and grabbed Bruce's arm, pulling him closer to her. "Come here."
Bruce sighed and rested his head on Selina's shoulder with a small smile, "There's no point in arguing with you, is there?"
"Nope," Selina said with a smirk and wrapped her arm around Bruce's shoulders.
"...Selina, about the way I treated you these past months, I--"
"--What'd I say about apologizing to me?"
"I know, but you deserve an apology. So, I'm sorry. I was... in a bad place... but that doesn't excuse the way I treated you, and... I'm sorry."
Selina smiled slightly in spite of herself, "Yeah. You were a douchebag."
"I know."
"...But you're not a douchebag now. So I guess I forgive you."
Bruce smiled, his eyes beginning to closed as he leaned more heavily on Selina's shoulder, "Thank you."
Nearly an hour later, Alfred walked into the study, finding a sleeping Bruce curled up on the sofa with his head in Selina's lap while she played with his hair as if he were a cat.
"What exactly is going on here?" the man asked, giving Selina a somewhat accusatory look.
"Shh," she replied sharply, holding a finger to her lips. "He's sick," she continued in a whisper, "he didn't wanna tell you."
"And why wouldn't he want to tell me something like that?" Alfred said, still unsure of whether to trust the young woman or not.
"He thinks you're still mad at him."
"...Ah. Well, I will be sure to reassure him that that is not the case when he wakes up. However, in the meantime--"
"--You want me to leave," Selina finished with an irritated and, though she wouldn't admit to it, slightly sad sigh.
"No," Alfred said patiently, "Quite the opposite. If you move, he will most certainly wake up; and if Master Bruce is as ill as you say he is, then he needs to rest."
Selina gave the man a smile, surprised by his sudden change of attitude towards her, and nodded in agreement.
"Now," Alfred said, "I'll go and make us some tea. If anything happens, you know where to find me."
He began to leave, but stopped in the doorway when he heard a quiet, "Alfred?" come from Selina, and turned to her with an expectant, questioning look.
"Thanks for taking care of him."
"Oh, I dare say you would have managed without me. You seem to be quite capable of caring for someone on your own." He gave her a kind smile and left the room.
Selina sat in silence for a few minutes before Bruce began to stir, coughing weakly and repositioning himself to look up at Selina.
"...You're still here," he said in a raspy whisper, a tired smile on his lips.
"Yeah, well, you fell asleep on me, so I couldn't really move," Selina said with a small smirk. "How do you feel?" she added, her expression quickly changing to one of concern.
"A little better..."
"You're a really bad lier, Bruce."
"...My head hurts a little -- but I've been worse."
"Just your head, huh?" Selina said skeptically and Bruce nodded slightly. "Then why's your voice sound like that?"
The boy sighed and slowly sat up, "I'm okay, Selina. Really."
"Sure, well, Alfred's making you tea. So that should help with your 'totally okay, even though you can barely talk' sore throat."
"...You told Alfred?"
"He came in a few minutes ago. I think he thought I poisoned you or something; so yeah, I told him. And he's not mad anymore."
"He's not?"
Selina shook her head, and she could see Bruce relax, as if a weight had been lifted off of him.
"...Thank you, Selina. For everything. I... I missed you."
"You get really sappy when you're sick, you know that?" Selina said in what was probably meant to be an annoyed tone, though the smile playing on her lips betrayed her true feelings.
Bruce laughed a little, which quickly progressed to a short coughing fit, and leaned into the back of the sofa. "Yeah," he said, "I know. I can't help it."
They sat quietly for a moment, then Selina leaned over and rested her head on Bruce's shoulder.
"I missed you, too," she said with a small smile as she wrapped an arm around the boy's waist in a comforting hug.
She thought about what Alfred had said about her being a good caretaker, and thought that maybe he was right. She was a good caretaker... as long as the person she was taking care of was Bruce.
As the boy in question wrapped his harms around her and rested his cheek on top of her head, Selina know that he would always take care of her, too.