This is a love story, according to Selina Kyle.

At least the closest thing to it by Gotham City standards. Harley Quinn thought it was the most romantic story of all time; the Bat and the Cat. It was like the princess marrying prince. If only she knew. There were no happily ever afters in Gotham. Just like everything else in Gotham, love was hard, everchanging, and came in many forms. The consequences of which could cost you everything. That had been a hard lesson for Selina to learn.

When she was young, the idea of selfless was a completely foreign concept to her. A broken girl from a broken home she learned early on that love was something to be preyed upon and taken advantage of if you'd let it. So long as you loved anyone other than yourself, someone had something to exploit you with. To Selina, love had been a weakness, a prison, a price to pay that she could not afford.

The idea of mutual love was an absolute fairytale as far as she was concerned. That someone could see past all her flaws and all those mistakes to see the best in her. That someone could make her a better and happier person and she could do same, seemed like something that could only be scripted in a movie. Maybe that's why it was so hard for her. She had to reprogram herself to learn what love was, how to accept it, and how to give it back. She was still learning, still making mistakes but she was coming around.

This is a detective story, according to Bruce Wayne.

It was nothing more than a mystery to be solved with clues to follow and villain to be unmasked at the end. Love stories did not take place in Gotham. But there was more to this story than clue finding and conspiracy uncovering. After all, they hadn't risked it all to solve a mystery.

Love was a different creature for Bruce than it was for Selina. It wasn't that he didn't believe in it, it was just that he didn't think that it was even a remote possibility for him. He saw the way his parents had loved each other, the absent-minded affections after all those years. But Bruce wasn't like his parent. He was a difficult person to love. He was stubborn, obsessed, and seemingly stuck in his ways. He was still that broken children that made some imprudent promise to his dead parents while he wept over their bloodied and bullet-riddled corpses. It was textbook arrested development, and who could ever love a man like that? Who could possibly understand?

Broken orphans dressed as animals, jumping from the rooftops. It's why, in some ways, we work. Why we work together, I mean. Why when we kiss the pain goes away. How for just a second, just that second...the pain is gone.

Bruce wouldn't say that he and Selina fell in love at first sight; it was more like the invisible bond of two aching souls reaching out for each other at the same time. An instantaneous connection that negated all that fact reason and logic. It was love. Pure and simple love. Well, maybe not so simple.

This was Gotham City, after all. Nothing ever was.

This story will be based on the Rebirth comics and everything that could have been. A thousand thanks for the invaluable help of my wonderful beta.

Feedback is greatly appreciated!

-WB