M-Midnight Snack

After a long hard battle against the diabolical Queen of Diamonds and her cold hearted confidante Mr. Freeze, The Terrific Trio called it a night and retreated to their respected homes. The part-time millionaire, part-time crime fighter usually slept pretty soundly after defeating Gotham's most vial and depraved villains but not this time.

He tossed and turned. He kicked the extra blanket off. Beat his pillow constantly trying to get the lumps out hoping that was the problem. He even turned over onto his stomach and plopped the large feather pillow on top of his head. Nothing.

He peaked out from under the blue material to check the time. 12:36.

Ugh.

He gave up. He kicked off whatever covers were left on the bed, grabbed his burgundy and black silk robe and trudged out the door. His plodded down the stairs into the dark hallway and headed for his study. Right as he was about to enter his private study his stomach growled. He hadn't eaten anything since dinner and that all got burned off hours ago. So he headed for the kitchen.

Maybe some chamomile tea will help

He slowly made his way to the fridge without bothering to turn on the light. The tiny bright light in the fridge illuminated the room just enough for him to search for what he wanted. He searched for a little bit but couldn't find anything. He gave up and turned away from the fridge when suddenly the light revealed another person. Bruce jumped stumbling into a couple of glass jars.

It was a woman. Her back was facing him until she heard the crash.

Selina.

She was sitting Indian style on top of the long island.

"Doing alright there, Mr. Wayne?" She blinked with a hint of a taunting smile playing on her lips.

"Um…yes." He replied adjusting his robe.

"Couldn't sleep either huh?" She asked in between bites.

Bruce simply shook his head, "Couldn't turn my brain off."

He studied her for a moment. She was wearing a long sleeve royal blue shirt and green tartan flannel pants with some gray socks. Her wavy tousled hair fell perfectly around her slim shoulders. She was breathtaking.

I really hate this woman

She turned her attention back to him, "You hungry?" She asked after finishing her last bite of cracker.

"Uh yeah a little bit but I can't find what I was wanting." He turned his attention back to the still opened fridge.

"Well, what are you wanting?" She replied taking other bite of her snack.

"Well, it was a type of Welsh cheddar I bought recently. It had a hint of truffles in it." He stated as he continued to scan the shelves.

Oops. She looked down at the little plate she made for herself. Then back at him.

"Well. Maybe Dick ate it." She fought a smile when he peered over his shoulder with a smirk. "You have it don't you?"

She gave him her own smirk, "You're not going to send me back to prison are you?"

Bruce just laughed and closed the door. He made his way to the sink and flipped on the soft light hanging above it, "Well since it's your first offense I'll let it slide."

"Ha! If you think this is my first offense you don't know me, Mr. Wayne." She smiled as she happily chomped away on another cracker.

"Oh believe me I've read you file…several times." He smiled.

"Well here since I stole your prized cheese, why don't you join me?" She lightly brushed away any remnant crumbs from her slender hands and moved the plate of cheese and roll of crackers to make room for him. He got the message and hopped onto the counter putting their little snack between them. She handed him the knife and offered the roll of crackers which he gratefully accepted.

It was nice to see her appetite was back. He noticed she had gotten too thin from not eating in prison. She was always slender but this was too skinny in his opinion. He noticed her eyes were brighter as well.

"You said this cheese has truffles in it?" Selina asked her new snacking companion.

"Hmm...Mmm…" He nodded with half of a cracker in his mouth.

"So why does it have a saltier taste to it?" She cocked her head slightly waiting for his answer.

"Well," He swallowed before continuing. "It was aged in a cave near the sea so that salt altered the taste of the cheese. So that why you are tasting it."

"Ah!" She replied. Interesting. He was Bruce Wayne after all. She'd heard he wasn't just a pretty face with money but he was very intelligent. Egghead told her one time the man was a practically a walking encyclopedia full of trivial facts and figures. Bookworm called him irritating and an upstart because he knew literature better than the self proclaimed king of literary crimes.

But he's not as smart as my Batman

She blinked out of her thoughts and watched her parole officer for a second.

Bruce was half way through another cracker when noticed she kept staring at him with a funny look her face. He knew that look. It was the look that always made him question whether her feelings towards him-Batman- were genuine or not.

"What?" He furrowed his brow slightly.

"Your hair is in six different directions." She smiled.

"Oh, I bet it does look interesting since I was tossing and turn for almost two hours." His shoulders receded to a relaxed position. He tried to smooth it out as best as possible even though he didn't know what part was messed up.

She just laughed at his desperate attempt to fix his hair and finally reached over and ran her long fingers through his disheveled locks. He didn't exactly stop her either. There was one part of his hair that just didn't want to go down no matter how hard she tried. She started patting it down but the little devil wouldn't go down but Bruce was getting a kick out of her effort to tame the wild section. She started laughing and pretended to lick her palm before attacking his hair again.

Bruce caught her hand before she could apply it to his head, "No, but thank you for your help." He laughed. They finally gave up. He decided to mess it up a little bit just so that is was a little more of an even look.

Selina just shook her head, "All that work and you go and mess it up again."

An hour of story swapping and half a pound of cheese later, they were still chatting away. Bruce's latest story was about Dick trying to impress this one girl he knew in high school and it hadn't gone over well.

"Oh no, I bet he was in for a shock" Selina laughed.

Bruce was trying to be nice not laugh at the boy who was practically his own son. But the story was just too funny not to tell.

"He was." Bruce chuckled.

"So whatever happened to her?" Selina questioned resting her chin on her hands that were elegantly sitting on top of her propped up leg.

"Last I heard she moved to Florida and married the trumpet player of the school's orchestra." Bruce stated.

"Hm. Good for her. Too bad for Dick but still." She replied.

Their laughter died down and they'd grown quiet until Bruce finally worked up the nerve to ask her a question.

"Selina may I ask you something?"

"Sure." She replied.

"Your behavior last night on the terrace caught my attention." He began. She didn't say anything and calmly waited for him to finish his statement.

"When we saw the Bat Signal you were practically hypnotized by it."

"And…" Her eyes became a little harder.

"Well, Warden Crichton informed me about your late night star gazing routine and said it was almost as if you were searching for something. It wasn't until I saw your reaction to the Bat Signal that I put 2 and 2 together…"

"And what was your conclusion, Mr. Wayne?" She purred.

"You miss him." Bruce boldly stated with a hint of a smile.

"Why would I miss someone I wanted to murder, Mr. Wayne?" She coolly responded.

"I don't know, Miss Kyle. Why would you?" He pressed on. He wasn't trying to be mean. He was seriously wanting to know why she was so fickle all of the time. There were times he knew she was just trying to distract him or lure him into a trap but then there were times like this when she acted as if she really meant she wanted to be with him-er-Batman.

She turned away and stroked her hair pretending she was still wearing her gold metal claws. He'd seen that look before as well.

And here we we go again. One moment I think there's hope and then we end up here.

"Maybe the real question is why do you want to kill someone you want to be with?" Bruce softly stated showing he meant no harm.

"I don't know." She shrugged.

You don't know?

"But you know how fickle cats can be." She tried to shake it off as if it didn't bother her so much that the only man she ever loved was on the opposite side of the law. A part of her hoped that if she changed he'd might come after but whenever she showed that vulnerable side he liked it but wouldn't do anything about it. She didn't know what to do because he didn't know what to do. She knew he liked her. He almost kissed her. He wanted to kiss and he would have done it too if it hadn't been for…

Bruce watched her face changed from indifference to sadness to anger. The cracker she was holding quickly became crumbs. Bruce wisely hid the plate with the knife behind his back.

"Selina…"

She blinked out of her thoughts, "Sorry." She looked down at her hand that was once holding onto a perfectly shaped butter cracker. Bruce smirked and handed her the plate (with no knife). She sheepishly brushed her hands over the plate until they were clean and he placed it once again behind his back.

Cats are definitely fickle.

He let out a chuckle.

"What?" She grinned.

"You. You really do miss him." He smiled.

"Everyday." She matched his smile.

"Won't you miss him even more if you kill him off?" He replied.

"I don't actually try to kill him off." She smiled like a cat who just ate a canary.

What?!

"What?" He exclaimed.

"I know him too well. He's the smartest man any criminal has ever met. He always has a trick up his sleeve which means I know he'll always escape any trap I set for him. I just don't know how he'll do it every single time." She giggled.

She knew he wanted her as such as she wanted him but, again, they were on opposite sides of the law. So she figured their little cat and bat game was the closest they'd get until she gave up or he'd finally join her side. She really wasn't expecting there to be a third option until Bruce came back as her parole officer.

The millionaire playboy/ caped crusader was dumbfounded.

So this whole time it was a game?!

Uh hold on there slick. Who was it that said he would do anything to rehabilitate her?

And who volunteered to be her parole officer? Twice.

Ok Barbara I get.

And you did almost kiss her…willingly.

Yes, until you opened your mouth, son.

He closed his eyes. He was just as bad as she was and just as fickle. He chuckled and shook his head.

"Attempted murder is still wrong and it's not a flattering characteristic. Batman can back me up on that one. But do I get it now." He hung his head for a second then met her beautiful face once again.

This woman will be the death me. Well maybe not after what she just told me.

"Good. At least one of us does." She grinned. He just laughed.

"Mr. Wayne, I think it's time we both head back to bed." She stated seeing the clock above the fridge. They had been up for almost two hours. This was the most they'd ever spoken. It was fun though.

He noticed the time as well and nodded in agreement. They both hopped off of the counter, cleaned up the area and headed back upstairs. Once they reached the top of the stairs he turned to her.

"Well hopefully you'll sleep well now." He stated.

"Thank you. And hopefully you'll sleep better as well." She was about to turn in the opposite direction of the long hall when she saw that pesky section of his messy hair. She smirked and combed it again but this time she combed it the opposite direction than her previous attempts. To her amazement it perfectly settled down into place.

"Oh now it finally cooperates." She rolled eyes. Bruce tried to stiffen a laugh to keep from waking everyone up.

"Goodnight, Mr. Wayne." She shook her head and headed for her room.

"Bruce." He called out. She swirled back around. "You can call me, Bruce." His soft baritone voice reached her ears with no problem regardless of the distance between them.

She gave him one last smile, "Goodnight Bruce." And with that she retreated to her room.

"Goodnight, Selina." He replied to the darkness and slowly yet happily returned to his own room.