Epilogue – Forever
"Can you imagine yourself in paradise?
Even the daughter of gods must know loneliness,
must sometimes want nothing more than to be
trapped in a hell of forevers. Thank me, you queen.
I've given you forever."
- Clementine von Radics (Letter from Hades to Persephone, fragment)
Selina fought to scrape the few left sprinkles glued to her sticky fingers to the top of the monstrosity sitting on top of the counter.
"I mean... If you squint it looks pretty good!" she said over-optimistically.
Helena's lips twitched, but Jason was the only brave enough to speak first.
"It looks way better if I close my eyes shut," he deadpanned, between licks on the wooden spoon Selina used to mix the batter, there was chocolate all over his face. Six months passed since he was finally back to land of the living. His body had taken a huge toll both from the violence he suffered and the long period of coma. The biggest of all changes was that now he couldn't walk anymore, and although it had being really hard in the beginning, nowadays he was happy to show off all he could do in his wheelchair, and got a new interest in creating gadgets to improve it to better fit his lifestyle. Lucius was really impressed with his new little apprentice.
The laughter escaped from Helena's lips like an explosion and she bended over holding her tummy.
"Say it again, squirt!" but it was clear that Selina was also having trouble to control her face still.
Jason rolled his wheelchair backwards, preparing his escape.
"I said what I said!" and laughing he skilfully turned the chair around and pushed the control stick forward full speed – something he was technically not allowed to do, considering his chair wasn't exactly a regular store bought one, especially in Alfred's kitchen – fleeing his mother as she chased him down the corridor.
"Run, Jaybird!" cheered Helena fighting to laugh and run after the two of them at the same time.
"Traitor!" yelled Selina over her shoulder "whose side you are?"
"Of the truth!" Helena answered.
"Clear off!" shouted Jason, bringing Selina's and Helena's attention back forward.
"Jason! You promised you wouldn't run indoors!" chastised Bruce in a confused and yet well-aware tone that denounced that he was going to keep being ignored.
It was too late for Selina to stop when she turned her face forward again, and unlike Jason's chair she had no anti-shock sensors, her body hit Bruce's with full speed, and if he didn't spend ten years building himself like a wall of meat, he'd had toppled down like Humpty Dumpty.
Bruce held his wife's body in place while glancing behind to see Helena climbing the furniture and jumping propelling her body forward to try to get to Jason, she landed on the backrest of his chair and they speed up to the garden laughing like mad people. They still fought for silly stuff sometimes, but there was a new kind of complicity between them, that made them to be more generous with each other these days.
"What is even going on?" Bruce asked in an almost scared tone.
Selina, who he had just noticed now, had powered sugar on her cheek smiled at him in very suspicious way.
"Nothing!"
"Nothing?" he repeated, "so… Do I call the contractors now to fix whatever you did to the kitchen or…?"
Se wrinkled her nose disapprovingly.
"Haha, very funny."
"Cat, I mean it. I like to keep you around, and if you ruined Alfred's kitchen I might have to send you back."
She pushed him back while he chuckled, feeing annoyance.
"You are such an asshole, B" she licked chocolate from her fingers, and with her mouth still full, asked, "send me back where?"
He pulled her closer, leaning into her, his eyes getting darker. Selina licked her lips and turned her chin slightly upwards.
"You know," he said against her ear "you are my kitty cat," he kissed clean the sugar on her cheek, Selina closed her eyes shut and swallowed a moan "so… from the shelter?"
Her whole body started shaking, and she opened her eyes, grabbing his face with her hands.
"You are so bad at this, like soooo bad."
Undisturbed by the very recurrent occurrence of being made fun of in his own house, Bruce smashed his lips against hers.
"Still got you to marry me," his kisses lowered to her neck.
She sighed.
"Oh, but you didn't win me with that lameass flirting."
"Yeah?" his hands found their way under her shirt, going upwards. "What was it then?"
"Humm" she made, guiding his body with her on towards the wall "lemme se…" his hands reached her bra, undoing it non-ceremonially. Selina looked over her shoulder, and not catching any glimpse of children in her periphery, she turned back to Bruce, looking straight into his eyes "well, there was your huge" she made a deliberate pause and cupped his crotch "fortune."
oOo
Alfred did bake a cake himself to be sure, he was pretty honest about his hopes of seeing Selina making anything edible, he had none. Dick was coming home for the party too, usually he would just call, especially considering how he avoided Gotham in the dead of winter, but he had missed all the holidays, Bruce said it was fine but pouted and brooded for days. So, he promised to come home for Bruce's birthday. What surprised everyone was that he announced he wouldn't be coming alone, and that he would bring the girlfriend to properly meet the family this time. He did not ask, he told Bruce. Small, but still brave. Alfred was proud of him, all grown up, but his old heart still ached. Another of his boys found someone else.
That settle the matter of the cake, there was no way in hell Alfred would not serve an ugly, inedible cake to royalty, no matter what Madam said about being able to feed herself for years. He didn't remember it like that.
They'd have a huge gala in the evening, of course, but the real deal of the day was lunch with, finally, the whole family. Bruce and Selina were late, as usual, and giggling like teenagers as they walked down the stairs. Of course Alfred was happy for them, of course. Especially after the nine rings of hell they had been through the past year, but it would somewhat always be annoying how sometimes they could barely function when they were happy. He had no doubt he'd have to endure the both of them playing footsie through the whole meal, and only god knew what ludicrous situation they would pull at the gala.
Everybody stood up, except Jason, of course, and clapped singing happy birthday when they entered the dining room, Dick whistled and Helena covered Mary's ears and told him to cut it out.
"Thank you," Bruce said sitting on at the head of the table.
"Speech, speech, speech!" Dick, Helena, Jason and Selina started chanting; even Mary tried to joy in, despite not having the slightest idea of what a 'speech' was.
Bruce paled and took a sip of his water hoping they would give up if he ignored them, never happened before, but he could always try.
"Guys, come on, give him a break," interceded Holly.
"Thank you, Holly," Bruce said with genuine gratitude, "you are the only one getting into my will."
A wave of moans spread through the table and Bruce got a scone thrown at his face before it hit him, and gave it a bite.
"So," he said after swallowing, "we have a royal guest today, introduce her to the family, Chum."
Dick made a displeased face at the nickname, it had the power of make him feel like he was 12 again, wasn't Jason 'Chum' now? He cleaned his throat and picked Kory's hand, noticing she was shaking, he smiled fondly at her, it was rare to see Kory insecure about something, to have her like that because she was meeting his family for the first time endeared him.
"Mom, Dad," Dick started glancing to each one of them, Selina exchanged a teary look with Bruce whose face was still, but they all knew was just a mask "Grandpa Al," Alfred snorted, but everybody knew he liked when the kids called him that. "Annoying little siblings and Holly," Helena stretched her tongue at him and Jason rolled his eyes, Holly just smiled, Mary blew a raspberry. "This is Princess Koriand'r of Tamaran, my Starfire."
"I am very grateful to be invited to the happy occasion of your day of birth, Mr Wayne," said the alien girl, her cheeks a shade darker of orange.
"Are you comfortable in our house, your highness?" asked Bruce.
She beamed, her body relaxing, Dick noticed his own heart rate slowing too. He knew very well what Bruce thought about metas, especially aliens, but it looked like after the whole affair with Jason, his mind was opening.
"Please, call me Kory. And yes, you have a very beautiful house."
"Oh, that's on Alfie," said Helena whom already knew Kory very well from her trips to Titans Tower, "we have no say in how things look like."
"If I let any of you have a say, Miss," said Alfred serving Jason a generous portion of peas and carrots despite the boy's face of disgust, "we probably wouldn't have a house. Don't forget your parents got this place blown to the ground."
"Excuse me," replied Selina, her mouth full, "that was so not our fault!"
"Yes, it was, Madam. And eat with your mouth closed, we have a guest!"
"What about the cake?" asked Dick accepting the tray with potato salad from Holly and trying to stop another of Selina's and Alfred's endless discussions before it even began.
"Oh… the cake," said Jason in a suffering tone "you will not want to see that."
Helena started giggling. Selina's neck snapped in the direction of her youngest son.
"You didn't complain when you were licking the batter."
"The batter and the final monster were two completely different creatures," he was reading Frankenstein now.
Bruce choked with his food and Selina reached to do what should be patting his back, but looked a lot more violent than it should.
"Do you see what kind of abuse I take, goldie?" said Selina, turning to the guest. "Think about that before joining this loony bin."
oOo
The new Wayne family portrait was revealed at the gala, it was Alfred's and Selina's joined present, she even convinced him to hire her favourite forger, the one who painted Helena when she was little, whom she believed was so much better than the snobbish reputed artist he wanted to hire. Selina did not like the way that woman felt comfortable talking as if she agreed with her bigotry, but that happened a lot these days when people took her for Bruce Wayne's wife and assumed she was born to that word. Besides, her art was what Selina considered 'meh' in a good day.
She liked how it ended up, the painting, even if it looked a little cliché. And she made sure to include Alfred too, although that had being another whole drama. Why everybody in that house had to be so damn difficult? When he told her it wasn't proper to have staff in the family portrait she felt like her eyes would roll permanently into her skull. But in the end there he was, baldy Alfred in oil and canvas, next to the family he had been holding together for three generations now.
Sipping from her flute of champagne, she watched the party unfold. Lee had managed to make Gordon come and was dancing with him, he was still mad at Bruce because of the whole Batgirl affair. The hypocritical jerk. Selina had not stepped her toes in that mess, Bruce knew what she thought about the kids fighting crime, and by what she heard, it had not been his idea, and all he had done was damage control.
Barbara came too, of course, she would never miss a party, Selina heard she was seeing a woman lately, a retired cop from her past, her old crime mom had a type it seems. She was happy for Barbara, she deserved to be happy too, no matter what other people may think. Nobody that judged her had a clean past. And despite everything, Barbara had been the person that, at the end of the day had always offered her shoulder when Selina needed, even if Selina herself couldn't always accept it. But she would give Barbara some love later, now she was trying to entertain herself by watching her birthday boy play billionaire Brucie Wayne to the guests.
She felt it was almost cruel how he had to do that even in a day that supposed to be about him. That morning when she woke him up in a very, very pleasant way, she asked him how it would be if he could get the birthday of his dreams. The sappy shit told her, he already was having it. But she knew it was bullshit, there was no way in hell his perfect birthday included talking about golf with Jack Drake, Selina was glad his wife haven't found her yet, if she had to endure another chitchat about how hard it was to find help these days, she would have to visit that woman's jewellery box again. She has this amazing collection of pearl earrings from the 14th century, but the pieces keeps disappearing one by one…
But Bruce, she was thinking about Bruce. She woke him up doing that thing with her tongue that he liked, check. She baked a horrible cake that he ate a piece with tears in his eyes and pretended it was good before she told him to quit lying, check that one too. Oh they had sex earlier too, when they met at the corridor, but did that count as a birthday present? Well, now it did, check. She used very dirty emotional blackmail to bring Dick home for the day, that's a huge check.
She looked for her son in the crowd, and found him slow-dancing with his girlfriend, it was cute, Selina didn't have a solid opinion about her yet, she noticed that the girl wasn't exactly what she expected from a princess, despite smiling a little too much, which could be annoying. Her English sounded weird sometimes and when Alfred commented on it earlier, Dick chocked with the three cookies he was trying to eat at the same time, but it wasn't like him to be ashamed for that… It was suspicious, she'd have to dig deeper. Helena and Barbara Lee seemed to be like her well enough, and Jason always became beet red every time she even glanced at him, that was spectacle by itself. But the person to whom Dick's girlfriend made the most strong impression was beyond any doubt Mary, it was almost impossible to unravel her little chubby fingers from the huge mass of red hair of the alien girl.
Her thoughts trailed off when she noticed the light flashing behind her, and Selina turned to find the Bat signal lighting the pollution clouded skies through the tall windows of the ballroom. Her eyes looked for Bruce's and she smiled devilishly. Catwoman had not get the chance to give him her present.
oOo
"You done?" She asked, sitting on the rail of the fire staircase of the alley Batman had just captured the last remaining goons that fled after he stopped Oswald's and Nygma's last stupid plan.
He finished arranging the goons' unconscious bodies against the dirty wall and sent a message to CGPD before looking up at her.
"Now I am…" he jumped on the stairs, and she used her whip to climb higher. "You didn't help," he accused her when they get to rooftop.
"And miss the show?" she said, she was now walking on the edge, just waiting a move of his. "Nah… Besides, you didn't need me."
He smirked and threatened a step forward.
"What if I wanted you?"
She turned around, mostly to give him a good show of her latex covered body.
"That," Catwoman said glancing at him over her shoulder cheekily, "you always do…" and she fell, her eyes closed, bliss spreading through her body as another game of cat and mouse started.
Her laugh echoed through the night as she avoided Batman's attempts to catch her in mid fall, but she didn't make him suffer too long that night, after all, it was his birthday. And when he finally pinned her on the ground of one tall rooftop, she just wished that moment, right there with him, his body covering hers, so solid, his lips on hers, so alive, the way he told her over and over how much he loved her, so real. That was worth changing for, to settle for more than just surviving, it was worth all the twenty-seven names for tears she dropped to keep it, and to have that forever she would face whatever hell threw back at her.
It's finally done. And I'm sad. But also happy. Well, I'm feeling accomplished, that's for sure. I just wished this was posted on B's birthday, but things will be like that sometimes.
My beautiful, wonderful readers that walked the path of this story with me, thank you so much for the vote of trust, all the smiles, all the love, you are in my heart forever.
To you who decided to read this 80k fic at 4am on a Sunday, you are brave af, and I love you too.
I'll not probably write a sequel to this. I think they suffered enough haha. But Itzel suggested a sort of AU that made me very interested, so, you will hear from me soon. There is also my story 'Want' that is a WIP that I did not gave up on, just haven't find the right time and right muse to finish yet.
That's it, send me comments, find me on twitter selinascatnip and my writing blog on tumblr pandoraimperatrix
Just like the last chapter of Four Names I made an artwork for this chapter too and you can find it here pandoraidraws. tumblr post/643703847347519488
Be safe and take care!