a/n: chapter contains mature content

Kate let her fingers glide over the uninterrupted lengths of Sophie's skin, enamoured by the smoothness of it. She heard a small sigh as the touch roused Sophie from her sleep.

"We're going to miss the train."

"I don't care," Kate murmured, her fingers dancing around her uninterrupted access to Sophie's skin. Her hand settled onto Sophie's breast, cupping it lightly.

"There's going to be a fee to change tickets," Sophie continued through the blur of sleep, trying to resist the distracting sensations Kate's dance was causing, her fingers now rolling and squeezing Sophie's quickly hardening nipple.

"I'll pay it," Kate continued, her lips tracing their way along Sophie's shoulder.

"And your Grandmother," Sophie tried to argue, the fog of arousal making it harder by the second.

"What about her?" Kate asked, her hands undistracted from their mission.

"She… we have to be there by noon."

"She'll understand," Kate said, her hand now sliding down Sophie's stomach.

"Kate, I don't… don't th…

"What's that?" Kate smirked into Sophie's skin as her fingers teased toward her target.

"I don't think… K… Kate."

"Say again?"

"D… I don't…"

"Can't hear you."

"Don't… Kate…"

"Hm?"

"Don't stop."

"Yes, ma'am."

"We are so late," Sophie muttered again as they trekked the remaining steps to the front door.

"Worth it," Kate grinned back. "I've never heard you moan like that."

"Behave," Sophie admonished as Kate lifted her hand to knock. Before her knuckles could rap against the ancient, solid oak door, it creaked open. If it had been the middle of the night in late October and they were eight year olds dressed as their favorite caricatures Sophie might have been terrified out of her mind at the imagined ghoul hiding in the depths beyond. Instead, it was the middle of summer, she was clad in a bright yellow sundress, and the door accelerated open only to be stopped by the face of a short elderly woman dressed for Easter Sunday and adorned with an impish smile.

"You're late!" she cackled, pointing a tiny finger up at Kate's nose.

"Only barely!" Kate said, lifting her hands in surrender.

"Two hours? Hm?"

"We missed the train and- and we were… it… I-I was-"

"Oh, enough with your bullshitting; I know what you two were up to," the woman waved off with a snicker. "You've got that glow. Come in, come in," she beckoned.

Sophie ducked her head to hide the blush of her cheeks but was interrupted by the tiny woman latching herself around her waist.

"And you must be Sophie!"

"Sophie, Grandma Kane," Kate said, making belated introductions.

"My god, how ever did Kate snag you," Grandma Kane gasped, pulling back so Sophie stood at arm's length from her. She surveyed Sophie up and down, her hands never leaving Sophie's waist, all the while sending her cheeks erupting with embarrassment. "Impossibly gorgeous. Is she an idiot?"

"Grandma, leave her alone," Kate scoffed.

"Are you an idiot?" Grandma Kane continued, unwilling to be pried away by Kate's annoyance.

"I… I try not to be?" Sophie offered, her brow waffling in confusion as she tried gathering her wits.

"Well, as long as you're dating this one," Grandma Kane whispered, nodding toward Kate, "I'll consider the jury still out on that."

"Do I get a hug or not?" Kate asked with a forced scowl.

"Oh, of course, my dear," Grandma Kane sighed, reaching for her granddaughter and wrestling her arms tightly around Kate.

I'm sorry, Kate mouthed over her head toward Sophie, sending a giggle from her.

"I heard that!"

"Grandma Kane can be… well, she can be a little much," Kate offered on the train.

"Yes, you've mentioned this," Sophie smirked, her fingers idly playing with Kate's.

"Yes, but… she isn't like the rest of my family. She's… she's…"

"Fun? Smart? Witty? Attractive?"

"Why you gotta?" Kate scowled with a smirk.

"As long as she doesn't whip out a shotgun when we arrive, I think I can handle a little unknown."

"You say that now…"

"Now, since you two arrived so late, that means Katherine has weaseled her way out of making the deviled eggs," Grandma Kane explained. Kate's tongue did a bad job of hiding her disgust for the task, and without missing a beat, Grandma Kane's hand came up and swatted at Kate's arm.

"I hope she behaves better around you than she does her poor old grandmother," she scowled as they walked down one of the million halls of the house. Hall was underselling it. So was house. Really it was the grand hall of a mansion that sat on a massive estate that challenged the scale of Arkham Island.

They'd left their bags to be brought up to one of the twenty-one rooms, and that was just in the guest wing. This piece of information sent Sophie's mouth ajar in shock. Now Grandma Kane was guiding them toward… somewhere. Where exactly, Sophie had no clue, but she hoped Kate would be able to navigate their way back if needed.

"So instead, I need you two to go fetch some lemons and limes from the greenhouse," Grandma Kane said, "and make sure you don't accidentally grab the key limes. Those aren't ripe yet. After that Katherine, be a dear and give her a tour of the house. I get so bored of talking about the gold leaf. Make sure to take Sophie by the new Adolf Fényes though. And if you're fast, you can even check out your bedroom before everyone else starts arriving," she said with a wink.

"So how many key limes did you want?" Sophie quipped lightly.

Grandma Kane paused mid step and pivoted to face Sophie, her arms falling to her hips and her gaze peering up at Sophie's. "I like her," Grandma Kane said simply to Kate, her eyes not leaving Sophie's. "She's good for you," she said, turning to continue walking. "But if you bring back key limes you two will be sleeping outside tonight."

xx

"I like her," Sophie said, reaching for a lemon. "She's a little spitfire."

"Oh, don't let her hear you say that," Kate said, accepting the lemon into her growing armful.

"What? Spitfire?" Sophie asked, grabbing a basket for Kate to deposit the fruit.

"Little," Kate smirked, dropping the dozen or so citruses into the wooden bin.

"She's pretty progressive. I mean, I can barely imagine my parents' generation being accepting and your grandma is… definitely not subtle."

"That's new. She wasn't always," Kate said, lifting the basket toward the lime trees.

"Really? I'd have never guessed."

"Nope, those are key limes," Kate said, guiding Sophie's hand to the adjacent tree of limes.

"You didn't want to sleep outside under the stars tonight?" Sophie teased. "So what changed?"

"Eh, it's a long, boring story," Kate waved away dismissively. "Maybe another time."

"How many do you have?"

"Four… seven… nine…" Kate rattled off. "Grab three more."

xx

"And this is the gold leaf Grandma Kane hates so much," Kate said, gesturing to the sculpture that adorned the entire wall at the end of the second floor's grand hall. It was clad entirely in the soft, antique glow of gold and was impossible to miss. It had been the focal point their entire walk, but standing in front of it now Sophie found it difficult to digest. That everything was shaded in the soft reflective color made it difficult to perceive the depth of the layers of detail. She squinted, realizing it was filled with workers performing various tasks she'd expect to see in the Industrial Revolution. Railroads, massive coal-powered engines, and steel workers sat at the foreground while the background was collaged with a cityscape. Old Model Ts, mid rise buildings, and set an ambiguous era.

"It's Gotham through the ages," Kate said with the interest of a six year old at an art museum. "My great-great grandfather had a bit of an ego."

"It's really… lovely," Sophie said, searching for a word to fit the image. It wasn't that it was ugly; it was certainly well-crafted, but it was also so incredibly over the top that Sophie didn't know how to grade it.

Kate laughed. "Not your best word. Come on, we can check out Fényes."

"Who?"

"Hungarian painter from the early 1900s," Kate explained easily. She glanced back, realizing Sophie wasn't following her. "What?"

"Who are you?" Sophie asked. "First Evan's party, now this."

"Not impressed?"

"Honestly? It's kind of hot, but it's not very you."

"That… is a very back-handed compliment."

"You're hot in other ways," Sophie said, rolling her eyes at the pout on Kate's face.

"Parlor tricks," Kate winked, and Sophie understood. It wasn't that Kate necessarily found all of it interesting - Sophie wouldn't have faulted her if she did, but it was just so atypical to see Kate's attention hone in on art - it was that this was the world she'd been raised in; that she'd been raised for.

"Do you ever get tired of it?"

"Hm?" Kate asked, her attention on orienting herself to the sprawling floor plan.

"The parlor tricks."

Kate shrugged. "You get used to it. It's easier to remember the name of a painting than it is to talk about anything real."

"I guess that makes sense," Sophie pondered, feeling Kate's arm wrap around her shoulder and pull her close.

"Yea, compared to a night with you, elite life is a walk in the park," Kate smirked, landing a quick peck on Sophie's cheek. "Wanna take a small detour before we bore ourselves with more rich people stuff?"

"That depends," Sophie smirked, allowing herself to be led into one of the endless options of rooms. "What's in here?"

"No idea," Kate chuckled, slipping the door shut behind her as Sophie scowled at the room.

"Books?"

"Sure, but that's not really what I'm here for," Kate smirked, stepping behind Sophie and brushing her lips against Sophie's neck.

"Do you think of anything else?" Sophie asked, her breath hitching in surprise.

"Not when you're wearing this dress," Kate said, stepping around to face Sophie.

"You picked it out," Sophie scowled, gladly accepting the feel of Kate's lips against hers.

"Did I?" Kate asked, a smile playing against Sophie's mouth. "I could have sworn-"

"Oh no you don't," Sophie said, pulling away from Kate's hawkish fingers.

"What?"

"By my tally, you're one ahead," Sophie said defiantly, her eyes suddenly the definition of serious.

"I thought we weren't counting that way anymore," Kate complained.

"We weren't, but then you decided to break it when you counted three for me," Sophie countered. "You don't get to keep changing the rules whenever it suits you."

"Wh- but-"

"Nope."

If there was one thing the last few weeks had taught the happy couple, it was that the only thing better than achieving their own turn of mind-numbing bliss was bringing the other to writhe in wave after wave of tantalizing ecstasy.

"Oh, fu… Soph," Kate moaned as her body jerked and flinched from the flood of pleasure crashing through her.

The first time Sophie heard Kate's lips uncontrollably cry out her name a switch flipped in her brain and she understood Kate's arousal for hearing the same. To hear her name moaned in the peak of pleasure was like a drug Sophie couldn't get enough of, and it set off an unlikely addiction. Once the dam was broken Sophie became an unsurprisingly quick learner, and with it came a hunger which could only be described as:

"Insatiable."

"That…" Sophie froze and looked up toward her girlfriend, her eyes bright with hunger and arousal in the darkness. "That is-"

"A good word?"

"A great word," Sophie corrected, before her lips continued their path southward down Kate's stomach.

It became a surprising source of disagreement for the first two weeks, and, while it usually resulted in their clothes being carelessly stripped and cast around the apartment with both gasping for breath by the end of their impassioned 'argument', it didn't change the fact they were both fighting for the upper hand.

"Let's keep score."

"Hm?" Sophie asked, pulled out of her doze by Kate's words. She felt Kate's fingers leisurely run over her shoulder and down her back, and by the familiar patterns she was drawing, Sophie could tell Kate had been thinking about it for a while.

"Tonight we both got a point, so next time it's fair game."

"Wait," Sophie said, shaking herself of the lingering grips of sleep. "You're serious about this?"

"Yea."

"You actually want to keep score? That's… that's… no."

"Not like a running tally or anything. I just mean, it'd solve this little problem of ours."

"Rounds or orgasms?" Sophie asked, intrigued by but mostly only lightly entertaining Kate's proposition.

"I was thinking the latter. If you're winning, I get priority-"

"But if you're winning…"

"You get priority."

"Shouldn't it be the other way around? Like golf."

"Eh, I kind of like the idea of losing going into it. The underdog gets the win."

"Doesn't this feel a little… calculated? I'm not really interested in negotiating a score in the middle of things."

"What if we… I don't know," Kate replied before pausing in another round of thought.

"How about this: current loser gets dibs in the moment. After that, it's free for all," Sophie offered.

"And we just… add it up afterward to see who's losing going into next time?"

Sophie paused, giving it genuine thought. "Yea, that works."

They'd both endlessly taken advantage of this newfound rule. Generally it worked until they got into a spat about outstanding scores:

"No, not fair. You got two points last night," Kate argued.

"This is such a ridiculous thing to be arguing about," Sophie complained as they emptied the dishwasher.

"So you agree I'm right," Kate said over the clatter of stacking plates.

"That is not at all what I said. When we discussed it we decided the current loser got first dibs but anything after that was fair game," Sophie said, gesticulating with two glasses clawed between her fingers.

"I want to change the rules," Kate argued stubbornly from her side of the kitchen.

"What? No."

"Yes: scores need to be offset. I get dibs until we even out."

"Meaning what, exactly?" Sophie asked, the half-finished house chore quickly being forgotten.

"That I'm losing until I get my two points."

"You're so competitive."

"You like it."

"Fine," Sophie said, folding if only to put it to rest.

"Really?" Kate grinned in surprise.

"Yes, but you aren't allowed to change the rules when this backfires."

Of course Kate did just that. Sophie obliged the pouts that followed when Kate argued for a return to the first means of counting a week earlier. It changed again mid-week when they decided to reset after a particularly contentious night. After that though, Sophie intended to draw a hard line when it came to the count.

"That's not fair," Kate mumbled grumpily.

"That's not going to work this time, Kate," Sophie said, her face set in a stare of indifference.

"What if we reset this one time."

"Not a chance. I've practically already let you get away with murder."

"Come on, it's a special occasion," Kate pouted, sidling up to Sophie.

"There is one way," Sophie offered in thought. This was met with a look of approval from Kate who eagerly played over the fabric separating her fingers from Sophie.

"And what is that my beautiful, bright, boisterous girlfriend?"

"You had me until 'boisterous'. I don't think it means what you think it means," Sophie smirked.

"What… wait what?"

"It means raucous-"

"Uh-?"

"-rowdy-"

"-well-"

"-loud."

"Oh, loud? I mean you aren't -ooh hey, not fair. You uh, you were saying?"

"We can always even the score," Sophie whispered in Kate's ear, sending a shiver down her spine.

"That… that is one way," Kate stammered, caught off guard by the controlled way Sophie toyed with her. It was a jaw dropping trait Sophie had picked up that aroused Kate to no end. She'd spent months thinking that inexperience would make her shy when it came to sex, but the opposite held true. Instead, Sophie approached it with the same attentive focus she'd applied to everything else in her life. The biggest difference was that, where Sophie was generally timid about her displaying her intelligence level, that rule of thumb did not apply to her growing confidence in the bedroom. Or the living room. Or the kitchen. Or the bathroom. Or the terrace. Or the-

Kate let out a moan of surprise as Sophie pressed her against the bookshelf Kate hadn't bothered to register was behind her. She felt Sophie easily slip a thigh between Kate's legs before pulling her into a rough kiss that caught Kate's bottom lip between her teeth and sent a hunger burning inside Kate. She responded by gripping her partner with the same intensity, granting Sophie's tongue access and savoring the familiar taste of her as she succumbed to the dominating side of her girlfriend. A disorienting minute was spent like this, Sophie's fingers taking a commanding lead as one hand entangled itself into Kate's hair and the other held her firmly against the floor-to-ceiling wall of books. It was only when Sophie felt Kate press herself more fully against Sophie's thigh that she pulled her lips away.

"Should we get back to the tour?" Sophie asked, taking in a winded breath.

"In a minute," Kate choked out, transfixed by the ease with which Sophie could unravel her.

"Just a minute?" Sophie smirked against Kate's lips.

"You're right," Kate muttered before she took a sharp breath as Sophie's hand slipped toward the edge of her jeans. "Let's just cancel it."

"But what about Fényes?" Sophie whispered, her mouth now navigating down Kate's neck as she felt her fingers release the button of Kate's pants.

She felt Kate shake her head in quick response.

"And the tapestries, or the wainscoting," Sophie said, struggling to come up with a list as her hand slipped between the fabric of Kate's jeans and underwear.

"Not worth it," Kate murmured, distracted by the fingers now sliding over the quickly wetting fabric.

"I think I saw some hand carved mahogany bookshelves, too," Sophie continued.

"Soph," Kate said, her own hands struggling to hide her want. She felt herself instinctively grind towards Sophie's fingers, and groaned in frustration as Sophie slipped away from her.

"Patience," Sophie smirked with a devilish grin that only caused Kate to squirm in growing frustration.

"You're only doing this because I'm winning," Kate challenged, hoping to bait Sophie.

It worked. At least, that's what Kate thought. A moment later Sophie's fingers had slipped themselves past the properly wetted fabric that separated her from Kate. A sharp inhale later, confirmed she'd stroked an especially responsive spot before slipping a finger in to fill Kate.

Kate stifled a moan as she felt Sophie slowly and methodically slip it in and out before introducing a second and sending Kate toward a new level of frustration.

"More?" Sophie asked, feeling the desperate way Kate was grinding against her.

She felt Kate nod dumbly against her.

"Can't hear you."

"Yes," Kate croaked, exhaling with satisfaction as Sophie obliged.

"Like this?" Sophie asked, knowing the question was rhetorical but using it to hear the soft moans elicited from Kate's lips as she replied.

"Mmm… yes, Soph," Kate sighed, her hands pulling Sophie to her as she felt the rhythm build her toward release. She could feel herself collapsing into Sophie as her world faded, her focus solely on the fullness Sophie was providing and the edge she was moving toward when-

"Hmm," Sophie hummed with unfamiliar casualness, and Kate felt the pace slow.

"Soph?"

"I don't know," Sophie whispered as Kate grinded against her again in want.

"Wh-what's that," Kate choked out, her thoughts blinded by the feeling of Sophie inside her and the growing frustration of her teasing strokes.

"I kind of like losing," she said, slipping her fingers from Kate.

"What?" Kate choked out, flustered and disoriented by the sudden absence of Sophie.

She watched in stunned silence as Sophie slipped her hand away from Kate.

"I said," Sophie began, raising her forefinger to her mouth and wrapping her lips around it, running the taste of Kate across her tongue. "I kind of like losing," she said, slowly repeating the gesture with her middle finger.

"Wh… you wouldn't," Kate said, stunned, yearning for completion and practically speechless at the sight of Sophie's teasing gesture.

"And rules are rules," Sophie grinned while fighting her own desire to pin Kate back against the shelves.

"Soph… wh… that- that's not fair," Kate whimpered, her eyes wide in growing surprise.

"Besides, we've got a tour to finish," Sophie smirked wider, a mischievous glint sparkling in her eyes.

I actually wrote most of this chapter like, a month ago and forgot about it. Not like 'forgot' forgot about it; I just wasn't sure whether it was good to include right after the last chapter, but since it's been so long since this story got an update and it doesn't really impact the remaining story arc I figured 'why not?' so, here you go!

I'll finish up the party in the next chapter because we need some more Bruce Wayne in this fic.