"It had to happen." She was staring at me, eyes calm. Her hand delicately touched my cheek, fingers gently caressing my skin.
I was frozen. Shock had locked all of my muscles in place as I gaped at her. Her smile was wistful as she gazed at my lips.
"Why?" It was all I could manage to get out of my constricting lungs. Her eyes slowly roved up my face to my eyes.
"It was inevitable."
"B-but we're enemies," I breathed out, basking in the warmth of her touch.
Her lips twitched into a half smile. "Enemies always have complex relationships. If you think about it, this should be no surprise."
I couldn't help but snort. "Batman never fell in love with Joker."
"Batman had charms, but he's an unrealistic image of reality. And Joker… was never as sexy as me."
"Batman was as real as any man could be as a superhero. Even more so then Spiderman." I would never admit it, but Batman was kind of my hero. As I said, he was just a man, a man in a bat suit out saving the world with cool toys and fancy moves. The only reason he was special was because he worked hard and found the right tools to use for his skewed dream.
She lifted an eyebrow, fingers trailing down my face to land lightly on my collar. "I think it slightly disturbing to attempt picturing those two together."
"Exactly my point," I said with a small frown. "Enemies are never lovers."
"Are they not?" she purred, leaning close. The scent of her shampoo wafted over me, and for a moment I was lost in a hazy surreal world of nothing but the scent of vanilla. "After all, enemies know each other best."
Her low sultry voice slowly drew me out of the spell of her intoxicating scent.
"Enemies are enemies. They're always trying to kill or maim each other." I turned my head away, desperately trying to get a breath of fresh air that wasn't filled with her. I felt like I was losing my mind with that scent swirling around me in lazy circles.
"But, there is that saying… keep your friends close…"
"You're enemies closer," I finished, looking back at her with a scowl. "That doesn't mean they go sleep with each other."
She chuckled, and my insides squirmed. "Some of them most certainly do."
"Name some," I retorted quickly.
"I don't need to," she said with a lazy smirk. "You yourself are already scouring your brain searching for some. And even if you don't find them immediately, you have a hazy recollection of hearing or seeing something of that nature." When I hesitated, she smiled. "You see? You can't deny it."
I huffed, wanting to pull away but unable to move my feet to do so. "You're wrong. And besides, even if some of them were insane enough to do that, that doesn't mean you and I are going to."
Her gaze turned thoughtful. Her hand never left my collar, but she let her fingers splay out to rest gently on my neck and shoulder.
"You and I are unlike most enemies. You and I… we weave a complex dance. Every time we meet, the web only becomes thicker."
"You and I repeat the same steps we always do," I interrupted. "Neither of us really wins, and neither of us really loses."
"Exactly," she murmured. "The longer we draw out our meetings, the more curious we become. I want to know what drives you, and you want to know what drives me. We constantly hunger for answers, but we dare not ask because we're pretty certain any answer will be a lie. So we watch, we gauge. We stalk each other in the shadows. And slowly, but most surely, we're starting to come to a grudging understanding. All the lines that we used to never cross… suddenly became skewed, and gray. And we're no longer sure what side we're standing on."
I momentarily forgot to breathe, looking into those deep rich eyes. The truth struck home so hard, I didn't know how to answer her. I didn't know which side I stood on. Not with her. Not anymore. Our game of cat and mouse had changed repeatedly over the years, but it was suddenly merging into something entirely different than what it originally had been. I wasn't even sure what to call it anymore. And she was daring me to challenge it. She was daring me to deny that anything had happened. She wanted to prove how much everything had changed.
And I couldn't deny her. I'd been noticing the exact same things myself. All that time. I didn't dare look at it too hard because bringing it into focus would break my resolve. I needed my resolve. It kept me sane. It kept me at the peak of my strength. It kept me alive and whole and let me rise above things that would topple others. It let me do the impossible.
Then this. She was challenging me on an entirely different level. It was a challenge I couldn't back down from, but one I certainly didn't want to rise to. It would lead to things… things that would change everything. Nothing would be the same, even if we tried to forget about it ever happening. Right then, that very moment, we were changing our reality. We were altering our lives to go down entirely different paths… and I couldn't stop it.
More frightening, I didn't want to stop it. A part of me wanted to start racing headlong down the first path I came to and not stop. I wanted to dare, to chance, to challenge all the things that I'd ever done and always believed to be truth. I wanted to know if everything that wasn't supposed to be challenged, could be challenged. I wanted to know if I could conquer it, like I'd conquered so many other impossible things.
I wanted to chance an entire lifetime of dreams and set in stone realities… for an entirely selfish dream I never knew existed, and a reality that… had yet to be written.
Looking into her eyes, for some reason, I believed it possible. I didn't know why. It was irrational and illogical, considering she wasn't on the same side as me. But I believed it. A part of me honestly thought we could somehow manage to pull it off. Even if in the end, I was left wounded and alone, I wanted to try. I wanted to give my worst enemy… the challenge of a lifetime. And I wanted to be her challenge. I wanted to remain her challenge. I knew she'd never gone up against anyone like me. I knew it irritated her and yet intrigued her. And I wanted to draw her in, suck her into my world and show her all the insane challenges that I could dream up. And I wanted her to conquer them. I wanted her to win. Just so I could create a new challenge, a new test for her to climb.
The very thought filled me with so much energy, I thought I'd start trembling in anticipation.
She was watching me still. She was trying to reach into the depths of my eyes and pull out all the answers to all the unvoiced questions I posed for her. I had yet to give her a response, and she had been waiting patiently. Desperation filled her though. I could read it in her tense muscles and tight jaw. She had to know. She needed to know… There was already too much hanging on the balance for her to walk away without any reply. She'd already stepped over a hundred lines just to have this conversation, even as skewed as they were.
"So what do you understand of me?" I dared ask her. She wasn't going to get out of this challenge so easily.
Despite the ire and fear that momentarily rose in her eyes, she smirked and boldly leaned back and pushed her hips forward until they just barely grazed mine. She tapped her chin thoughtfully, as if she hadn't pondered this very thing countless times before.
"You are the perfect hero. You have the perfect image, and the prefect balance of courage and strength to do anything you could possibly desire. But you chain yourself by rules. You bind yourself to limits, and you keep yourself approachable by reminding yourself that you're only human. And yet…" She leaned close again, other hand rising to tantalize my skin along my jaw with her fingertips. "You long to do more. You desire things beyond your set limits. You want things you dare not name because you believe you are not allowed to indulge yourself. You've learned that being selfish has a tendency to cause problems in your perfect little world, and so you have discarded that part of yourself and buried it deep within you to hide it and shun it. Only once and a while do you dare glimpse at your secret desires and burn with need for the briefest of moments."
I lifted an eyebrow as if daring to question her certainty. Internally, I was well aware of the fact I was completely agreeing. I was what she said. Exactly what she said. I'd worked hard for my skills, but I didn't want to outreach myself and begin my own demise with my own foolishness. But I wanted more too. I wanted things that I knew I shouldn't and I refused to ask for. I had done selfish things like that in the past, and I'd always come to regret them because somehow or another my selfishness cause others pain or trouble.
She didn't back down from my silent challenge. She met my gaze and waited patiently for me to say something. I smirked.
"You truly are a thief," I finally said, shaking my head. "You even steal a person's most secret desires and horde them for yourself."
A twinkle lit her eye, but she looked slightly cross. "I wasn't mocking you. And even if it was possible to steal a person's desires, I couldn't horde them. Lounge and abuse them, yes. Horde? Why steal them if not to use them?"
I scoffed, a smile daring to tease the corners of my mouth. "Of course. A thief who steals and does nothing with such treasures is foolish. You always put everything to good use, even if it isn't for your own pleasure. You have yet to discard anything without finding out some other use for it. You were a hero, and then turned thief. I would guess it's because being a hero wasn't a challenge. You were too good at it. I even dare presume that you tried a hundred different things before settling on being a thief and mercenary. Even then, you were starting to get bored when I stepped in. I think you were even considering of attempting to conquer the world, just to see if you could."
"You think too highly of yourself," she said with a sniff, turning away haughtily.
"I dare to think what I will," I answered lowly. My hand moved of its own accord, reaching out and firmly taking hold her hip to keep her still.
Her head turned back to me leisurely, but her eyes were snapping with curiosity.
"You're daring to cross a line that shouldn't be crossed," I continued. "You're pompous enough you think you're going to pull it off. I just wonder what you possibly think you'll gain from doing so. I won't argue it's the challenge of a lifetime, but is it simply for the challenge you're doing it? Are the risks that dangerous that it seems all the more tempting?"
That's when the spark of fire finally ignited.
"I don't do this for the challenge alone!" she snarled hotly. She tried to push away, but my other hand reached out to help keep her in place.
"Then why? Why would you even attempt the charade? Why risk everything for such a simple win?"
She glowered now, fingers digging into my shoulders. "It's not a simple win. You're scorning it so? This has the impact of creating or destroying everything for me! Even I hesitate to lose everything! As much of a game this has been, the ending wouldn't be a laughing matter! It's not something a person could shrug off!" Ample figure stiff with anger, she hissed in repressed aggression.
In spite of the fact that she was being so hostile, and despite the fact I knew it was a bad idea, I smiled. It crawled across my face slowly, at first. And when she finished her small rant, it became a radiant beam that made her froth at the mouth and become baffled all at the same time.
"So you're daring to chance everything with me? You're risking everything because of me? You want to take up the challenge of a lifetime with me?"
Hesitating, her anger fizzled out a bit, and she was looking at me warily. I saw the change immediately in her eyes. She was questioning herself. She was starting to doubt the logic she'd arranged so neatly on her own.
"Pfft, maybe not," she said darkly. Her voice was so soft I barely heard it.
Chuckling, I shook my head. "You are far too late for that now." Under her confused gaze, I leaned forward and grabbed her chin with my thumb and forefinger. "You've wandered too far into the web, my dear. There's no turning back now."
Without waiting for a reply, I leaned forward and caressed her lips with mine.