Author's note: Hello again, Gothamites! Since the show comes back TOMORROW (!), I decided to write some baby batcat fluffy, because we've been deserving it. (srly, almost 3 months of hiatus? What the bloody hell!)

I'm parting from the idea that 2b will be good for the Bruce and Selina stans (until it's not, but shh), that's why I wrote. And if I'm wrong, than at least we have something good to come and cry about, right? I hope you like this little thing, and if you read my other fic, Bloodstream, I'll post the new chapter eventually, don't give up on me!

Rumors that the songs from the epigraphs are in my next baby batcat fanmix shhh

DISCLAIMER: Gotham and its characters are not mine.

Of lost words and stolen kisses

"Dark times, you could always find the bright side.
I'm amazed by the things that you would sacrifice just to be there for me."
Ellie Goulding – Army

"Oh, baby, can you hear the sound?
Your broken heart is beating faster now in my arms;
I promise that you're safe here in my arms."
Shakira – That way

When Bruce turned the corner and found Selina standing there, waiting for him, he didn't know she had seen it all. He wouldn't know, in fact, because she wouldn't tell him she'd seen it all. She didn't interfere as well, for it wasn't her place. She knew it was his battle to battle alone; for all she guessed, not even Alfred knew where he was.

He looked like crap standing in front of her in the cold street of Gotham. He'd gotten so tall the past months, she was glad to be a few feet away, making sure that she could look in his eyes without having to tilt her head so much. Who'd guess?

For several seconds, they just looked at each other, no words said. He wanted to know how she knew where to find him and what she'd seen, but it still felt too soon to put words together. Instead, Selina reached out to him, and almost as if it was automatic, Bruce stepped ahead and took her hand in his.

Simple like that, she led him around, not telling him where they were going. Apparently, she didn't feel like talking was necessary just yet as well, and that was okay with the teenage boy. It had been a hell of a long evening already.

Out of all the places Selina could take Bruce in Gotham City, he'd never expect to find himself in her place. They climbed buildings, passed through condemned places, reached the core of the Narrows to the top of the least expected point someone would set a home in and he entered in a square room, rather large, with very few things around, a mattress in the middle by the wall with some comfy comforters. He couldn't see where she kept clothes or weapons, but there was a loveseat on the right side where a few cats slept on (some of them looked up at them lazily before going back to sleep) and an improvised coffee table on the corner.

"After what happened to Bridgit, I had to find a new place to stay," Selina told him casually, taking off a few layers of jackets and then her boots. "Churches are too obvious and I was trying to figure something out when I decided to follow a stray, ended up here. It kind of feels like it's perfect."

The place was clean and neat, a lot of space for a girl and her cats. There were some vents where the light came through from the street and one window taped with cardboard to keep it dark. One single lamp was hanging from a hole on the wall that lit up once the teen girl gave it a twist, fixed it to its receptor, and then she petted a particularly pretty cat with three colors and eyes as vibrant a green as its owner that was sitting very still under the light.

"This is the boss," the girl told him. "I call her Highness."

"Makes sense," Bruce replied with a smile and the cat barely acknowledged him, but she did look somehow offended when Selina stopped petting her to sit down the mattress.

"You can get comfortable, you know?" she offered, and taking the cue he removed his jacket, left it on the bottom of the mattress knowing damn well that there wouldn't be a spot in that room free of cat fur, and then he sat by her side.

For a moment or two, Selina just looked at his profile, Bruce trying to look anywhere but her, wondering a million things and nothing at all. Questions like 'where do you keep the food?' and 'isn't here too cold?' threatened to be formed, but felt like the wrong things to say, so he said nothing. He had spoken way too much that night already and he felt worn out with words' weight. After those couple of minutes, the girl tore her eyes from him and laid down, her fluffy hair meeting one of her not-so-fluffy homemade pillows.

"You don't need to tell me anything, I want you to know that," she told him and he looked back at her. She was looking at him without all the bravado she was known for, more like just a friend who knows exactly what the other needed. "You can just stay until you feel ready to go home."

Bruce nodded, looking straight into her eyes.

"Thank you," he said, almost a hush, and she gave him one of those half-smiles of hers.

"Gotta be nice every now and then, right?" she joked, but he didn't laugh. Instead, he laid down as well, resting his head on her shoulder, but keeping his body an awkward foot from hers.

His reaction brought a gasp of surprise out of the girl and for a few seconds she didn't know what to do, her breathing quick, her right hand as surprised as her face, but he wasn't seeing this, his eyes were on the cats laying so soundly on the loveseat. He longed for that easy life he guessed he had when his parents were alive, but that was out of question now, wasn't it? With his forehead against the side of Selina's chin, her fingers slowly finding okay to run through his hair, Bruce simply realized a lot of things about himself.

After a few minutes, he spoke up.

"I didn't do anything. I couldn't."

For he had tracked down Matches Malone, his parents' killer with those shiny shoes, and he had confronted him, he even had a gun. But he couldn't pull the trigger, he couldn't bring himself to go through with all of that. After almost two years and well aware that his life was changed forever, Bruce doubted that whatever he thought he could do would help. Selina had seemed fine after she killed Reggie, but did he ever ask her how she really felt about it? Had he any clue of how it felt like, killing? Did he want to know? Whenever someone mentioned Jim or Alfred's soldier days, they always tried to avoid the subject, as if their ghosts were right behind them, way too close to be poked. Was that the life he wanted?

Of course Malone deserved to die, a part of him insisted. The man didn't deny anything when confronted, let alone mind the boy in front of him holding a gun. It was funny how Bruce didn't shake, how steady his hold was. And it was also funny how he let himself drop it, left it on the table for no reason at all.

"Finish the job if you must," were his words to Malone before leaving the precinct. Didn't look back, but found Selina a couple of minutes later, as if life was supposed to go on that simply. He guessed it was true.

"It's okay," Selina assured him, even though it didn't feel okay.

"They were good people, my parents. And they are gone because of him. I had him right in front of me and I didn't do anything," Bruce insisted. "Instead, I gave him the chance to kill me, at last. Why did I do that?"

"Comes with the hero complex, I guess," replied the girl with some smile in her words. "The death wish."

"It makes no sense," he continued, his voice lower, a frown on his face.

"Bruce, this whole thing… you just realized it's bigger than you," she told him softly, her fingers still in his hair slightly wet with sweat that was going cold as his body temperature adjusted. "You've always known that, but didn't quite get it, am I wrong? But now you do, right? When you went there and you faced this picture, you figured out the person you became. You're good, B. Too good a person to be corrupted and smart enough to know when to make the right choice."

Still frowning, Bruce raised his head, lifting his upper body. He leaned on his left elbow, looked right at her and a small smile threatened to grow on his mouth. Selina, on her side, just kept looking at him, waiting for him to protest her words. Lately, that was all he had been doing, but instead, this time, he only shook his head.

"How do you do that?" he wondered.

"What?"

"Know me so well," he answered and she shrugged.

"I just pay attention," said the girl. "You've never been too hard to read."

There was a fact about Selina, and it was that she always surprised Bruce, even when he probably shouldn't be surprised. She had a way of putting things like they should be obvious, an outside perspective that was both very old and very refreshing and it added to her persona like every good paradox. She was her own piece of art, something no one could deny, both inside and out. And man… how beautiful her outside was! Bruce could hardly believe it sometimes.

For that, and a lot of other reasons, Bruce leaned in and kissed her, just like that. Lips on lips, his eyes closed, it was as brief and as much a tease as their first kiss, but instead of pulling back quickly like she did that time, he opened his eyes and nuzzled her gently, meeting her surprised gaze.

"What was that for?" the girl asked, barely a whisper, their lips so close.

"Just taking back the kiss you stole from me."

The biggest evidence of how Selina didn't expect that answer were the redness in her cheeks and the way she looked away, and Bruce counted two in the number of times he made her blush. Her shyness was shaken off pretty fast, though, and her eyes met his again with new fierceness, some cheeky determination as she smiled, their noses touching. With no time to waist, she kissed him again, let him kiss her slowly and gently. His right hand found her cheek and he turned her head the angle he wanted, teasing her lower lip between his teeth.

He didn't know where he learned all that, he was just improvising, but she seemed to like it - by the way her body moved under his and how she let out something between a gasp and a moan; funny how it took nothing for all that awkward space to be erased. So he kept following his instincts and kept kissing her until they were out of breath, forehead against forehead on the not-so-comfortable mattress of her hidden home, with Highness judging them from the coffee table.

Selina ran her fingers through Bruce's hair one more time and once again, her bright green eyes studying his face. That was nice, she wanted to say, but the words lacked in her tongue. Her tongue was too busy worrying about exploring more of his and that's not the kind of thing one speaks up about. Apparently, he felt the same way, because soon enough they were back to kissing and it went on for a long time (even after Alfred called demanding to know where the hell Bruce was) across the hours and up to the point where they, exhausted, fell asleep in each other's arms.

For once, things felt just fine.