Bruce is sleepily kissing his way down Selina's bare back when it happens.
"Stay," he says.
He's asked her numerous times, and she always begs off for one reason or another. She searches for a reason this time and finds none - only a desire to slide back into bed and spend the night, willingly sleeping in someone else's presence, while he watches over her and cradles her in his strong arms.
His arm tightens around her waist. She looks down at his hand, and suddenly she sees the future. She sees a wedding ring on his finger, and sunlight streaming through the windows, and their children excitedly running into their bedroom to wake them up, all shrieking for Daddy, jumping into bed and bouncing around, except for the littlest one that toddles behind them babbling for Mama. Bruce, glorious in the morning light, his arms full of giggling children, his eyes full of love, looks over their heads and mouths "I love you."
It's so beautiful and painful that it brings tears to her eyes. And she knows that if she doesn't get out of the bed in that instant, she never will.
Panic grips her. The tiniest part of her brain that is still rational questions what there is to panic about. But the rest of her screams to get out before she's trapped, before this fairytale turns into a nightmare. Before Bruce, who has been nothing but consistent in his tenderness and affection, turns on her, because she still can't understand what makes him tick, what drives him towards her. She flees what she can't understand.
It comes down to this: life has taught her again and again that if it looks too good to be true, then it isn't. And what she has with Bruce is just too perfect. Clearly, the other shoe is just waiting to drop, and the longer she waits, the more it'll hurt.
So before she loses her nerve, she lashes out and pushes away the best thing that ever happened to her.
There has been something wrong from the start. Guys like Bruce Wayne didn't go for girls like her. Maybe for a fling, but they didn't call the day after. He kept seeing her even after she told him about Daggett. He didn't need to sleep with her to get her to do Wayne Enterprises' security. He doesn't seem like he's playing mind games - he's been nothing but consistent in showering her with his affections.
Which leaves only one option - that he likes her. Really likes her. Maybe even loves - no, she can't bring herself to think it.
Other possibilities, she knows how to deal with, but not this one.
His big, strong hands, the passion in his voice as he tells her about how he wants to make Gotham a better place.
"Tell me, Selina, what do you think Gotham needs?" he had asked her, sincerity dripping from every word. He'd really wanted to know. She blew him off, because billionaires couldn't really give that much of a fuck, could they?
There's a hole in Bruce Wayne's story. She tells him amusing stories about burgling and he listens attentively and laughs like he actually understands. There is no way he could understand. She feels like she could tell him anything and he'd understand. Rich pretty boys don't live lives that allow them to understand people like her.
The sex is mind-blowing, and she suspects not just because Bruce is a cunning linguist. She feels seen, desired for who she is and not just a body to fuck.
He looks at her with such… dare she think it, adoration?
She remembers when he took her upstate for the weekend, ostensibly for a business trip but really it's just an excuse to whisk her away to see the changing leaves. This is what she gets for mentioning that autumn is her favorite season.
Bruce motherfucking works that angle. They go to an apple festival and sip hot cider while holding hands. They take scenic drives through forests of deciduous trees clothed in rich reds, oranges, and browns. They get tipsy at a winery and have some of the best pie of her life at a hole in the wall diner. They sleep in a ridiculously comfortable and cozy log cabin in the middle of nowhere, and he makes love to her on the rug in front of a roaring fire.
She almost tells him she loves him. But she doesn't because everything would change and it's just too fast and what if she's read the situation wrong and this is really just a rich guy taking a vacation with his mistress?
"Ah," she imagines him saying after her confession. "Selina, I think you may have misinterpreted some things…"
So she shuts her mouth and shoves him into a pile of leaves instead. She can't decide if she means it aggressively or playfully, but thankfully Bruce interprets it as the latter.
"I'll get you for this later," he taunts, pulling leaves out of his hair. Selina forgets about it until that night when he takes his revenge on her in bed.
She's desperately turned on and wants his cock in her now. But he takes his sweet time making his way to the bed, undressing, lying down. Selina pounces on him, and he rolls them over and pins her down.
"Oh, no. You're going to have to wait to get this," he explains, stroking his cock with his hand, and then he proceeds to keep her on edge for what feels like eternity.
He starts by pushing Selina's legs apart, exposing her pussy entirely. He runs a finger down from her clit to her anus. Selina moans as he explores how slick she is – and he's barely even touched her. He keeps that up for a while, and then he presses his index finger against the entrance to her vagina. Selina tries to push against his finger, but he keeps her in place easily with his left hand.
"Don't move," he murmurs.
He leans forward and slowly licks her clit. He teases her entrance with his finger, still not penetrating her. She bucks against him.
He smacks her ass.
"Keep that up and you won't get laid until tomorrow."
He teases her with his finger again, and this time, she doesn't try to push against him. He rewards her by circling her clit with his tongue. She remains still, and he takes her clit into his mouth and gently sucks on it. He ever so slowly starts to penetrate her with his finger, knuckle by knuckle. Once his full finger is inside of her, she sighs deeply.
"More?" he asks.
"God, yes."
He takes his finger out. "Too bad."
"Bruuuuuuuce," she whines.
Bruce makes a face.
"Here, do something more useful with your mouth," he says, and shoves his cock in her mouth.
She eagerly sucks on it, because at least she doesn't have to stay still anymore and can try to rub herself against the bed.
Bruce enjoys himself for a while, gently tugging on her hair and changing the angle so she can take him deeper.
Eventually, Bruce pulls his dick out of her mouth.
"Should I come in your mouth right now or should I fuck you with this?"
Selina spots the trap immediately.
"Come in my mouth," she coos. Bruce was totally expecting her to pick the second option.
"Well, if that's what you want… then it's definitely not what you're going to get," he says. Selina plays along and whines about it a bit until Bruce shuts up her by going down on her again.
He puts his mouth back on her clit and pushes his index finger inside again. She whimpers at him, so he adds his middle finger as well. He starts thrusting his fingers in and out of her, speeding up his licking to match the pace, Selina's moans in rhythm to his thrusts.
"More," she says.
Bruce is too turned on at this point to continue torturing her, so he obliges and adds a third finger.
"More," she demands greedily. Oh, she's in charge now.
He pushes his tongue harder against her and shoves her left thigh to open her up as wide as possible. A few more thrusts, and Selina comes, gasping. Bruce keeps up the thrusting and licking until her muscle spasms start to slow down.
He sits down next to her and licks his fingers clean.
"You taste so good," he says. His lips are wet, glistening with her slickness. He grabs the back of her head and pulls her into a kiss. "Do you taste how good you are?"
Selina opens her mouth to him and they kiss deeply.
She pushes him onto his back, breaking the kiss. She straddles him and strokes his stiff shaft with her hand
"More," she says hungrily, and lowers herself onto him.
This whole mess started because of her taste in jewelry. She likes the eternally classic pieces. So when she saw the pearls in the safe, she just had to help herself.
Bruce loves seeing her in those fucking pearls. Clothed, unclothed, jumping off a roof, hanging upside down from a beam like a bat.
"I think these pearls actually look better on you than they did on my mother," he remarks one night as he's admiring her decolletage in his rooms. "Not that they didn't look good on her, but you have a longer neck."
"Creepy of you to be staring at my tits and thinking of your mother," she says.
Bruce doesn't hear her. He has a faraway look in his eyes. Selina worries about what is going to come out of his mouth next. The mood he's in, it's going to be moving and intimate and there is only so much of that she can take in one night, so she pushes Bruce onto the nearest chair, tugs off her shirt, sits down on his lap, pushes her breasts tantalizingly close to his face, and twines her fingers through his hair.
Bruce looks amused until she pushes her bra down and suddenly he's very focused. A pair of breasts (specifically, hers) seems to do that to him. He immediately zones in on her nipples, alternately mouthing each one until they stiffen, and he starts sucking and biting them. That's all he does for a solid ten minutes. She writhes in his lap, trying to get an angle so she can grind against something, but Bruce pushes her hips back down, making her suffer her through his sweet torture. She makes a grab for his penis, but he deflects that as well.
Suddenly, he stands up, and before she can blink, he throws her over his shoulder and carries her into his bedroom, ignoring her shriek and pound her fists on his back to put her down. She could have broken out of his grasp if she'd wanted to, but she likes it. She hears Bruce chuckling from her upside down perch, and it makes her feel warm and fuzzy inside.
The ensuing bed wrestling is some of the most fun she's had in years. They laugh and playfully smack either other while stealing kisses and caresses. They wrestle for the right to be on top - by sheer strength, Bruce would have won, but Selina plays dirty and attacks the newly discovered sensitive spots behind his knees with her tricky tickling fingers. Once she's secured her rightful spot, she quickly lowers herself onto him. Bruce stops laughing and looks at her with the purest, most innocent happiness in his eyes. It's too much for her to take in, so she leans forward to kiss him. He buries his hands in her hair, locks his legs around hers, and flips them over to reclaim the upper hand, then proceeds to sweetly make love to her, making her gasp in pleasure every time he slowly withdraws his penis fully from her and then sinks back in. Selina shuts her eyes and throws her head back.
Bruce stops thrusting.
"Look at me," he says.
Selina shakes her head.
"Why not?"
Before she can stop the words, they come out.
"I must be dreaming."
Bruce puts his mouth to her ear.
"Wake up, Selina Kyle," he breathes. He strokes her hair. "This is real."
To her displeasure (to his credit?), Bruce doesn't give up so easily after she leaves him. He calls, he leaves voice messages, he sends flowers, he mails letters, he tries to catch her at Wayne Enterprises while she completes her contract, he knocks on her door, he stalks her apartment. She doesn't pick up the phone, stops listening to the messages after hearing the confusion and pain in his voice, tosses the flowers and letters, doesn't answer the door, befriends a receptionist who lets her know every time Bruce enters the building, and has Jen check outside the apartment before she enters or departs.
She's desperate to make it all stop when she goes to see Daggett again. It's an incredibly stupid move - her mind currently dulled by annoyance (Jen in a rare moment of insight tries to suggest it's grief, but what does Jen know?), but if she tries to go anywhere without a clean slate, she knows Bruce Wayne will find her, and the second she sees his smile again, she knows she's done for.
She would have been a goner if Batman had not stepped in and whisked her away in his magical flying machine. She remembers talking to Bruce about Batman. Bruce confirmed the rumors that Batman was a friend of his, but was maddeningly vague as to how and why - as he was with so many things in his life.
Batman lands his vehicle on a skyscraper and the canopy opens. She hops out.
"See you around," she calls behind her. She turns to leave, but suddenly Batman is in her way, trapping her between a wall and the vehicle. He stares at her silently for several moments. She stares right back. To hell with him if he thinks he can intimidate her.
"You're welcome," rasps Batman.
"I had it under control!" she retorts.
Batman ignores her and continues.
"Why did you pick a fight that you couldn't win?"
She stubbornly stares back at him.
"Bruce Wayne told me you were smarter than this."
She feels like she's been slapped in the face. She even staggers back a little in her surprise.
"Oh really? What else did Mr. Bruce Wayne have to say about me?"
Batman cocks his head at her and continues staring. Okay, fine maybe he is a bit intimidating in his silence.
"Why the hell did you even help me? Since when does helping a thief fit into your mission statement? Oh my god," she says as the thought hits her, "Did Bruce ask you to keep an eye on me?"
Batman ignores her.
"He told me you left him."
It must be her imagination, but Batman sounds almost... sad.
"Yes. Yes, I did."
Batman doesn't ask why, but she can hear the question screaming from the winds that whip around her. Finally, for once, she answers it.
"I left because I wanted to stay."
She feels the tears coming on. She swallows hard and pushes them back.
Embarrassed at her vulnerability, she turns on Batman.
"What else did he tell you?" she sneers. Yes, let the anger in, it's better than the pain. What she's angry about, she's not quite sure.
"Did he tell you about our dinners? Did he tell you about our little games? The pearls? The jewelry? Robbing his house? Wayne Enterprises?"
She's shouting now.
"Did he tell you about how much he enjoyed fucking me?"
Batman is a statue. A dark imposing statue with swirling dark eyes that pull her in.
"No? Want a taste?"
She darts forward and bites his lip in a twisted approximation of a kiss.
Finally, a sign of life from him - Batman grabs her by the wrists and pushes her away. His lip is bleeding.
Selina lunges for his mouth again. She wants to taste blood.
She licks the blood off his lip before he pushes her off him again. Instead of going for his lips a third time, she grinds herself against his groin. There's a solid codpiece covering his genitals, and she doubts her feels much through it, but it makes her intentions clear enough.
"Don't write checks your body can't cash," Batman says, his voice somehow even deeper than before.
She laughs bitingly. "Haven't you heard? I'm Bruce Wayne's girlfriend. He's good for the money."
Batman spins her around and shoves her hard against his vehicle, like a suspect being frisked. She tries to turn her head to look at him but he puts a powerful hand on her neck to keep her from turning.
"You know, Bruce never fucked me like this. Such a romantic. Always wanted to see my face."
She doesn't know what kind of sick fuck he is that he'll fuck his friend's leftovers, but those words do the trick. He starts pawing at her catsuit. Selina puts his hand on the right zipper, and before she knows it, he's got the crotch of her suit open. He does something to his own suit, and she feels his penis against her inner thighs. He pulls her legs as far apart as her suit will allow.
She again tries to look behind her, and Batman shoves her head down more forcibly this time and keeps his hand there so she won't try again.
Bruce had been on the quieter side during sex. In the midst of his thrusts, she'd listen to him panting hard, sometimes quietly groaning when he couldn't help himself. Batman is vocal, to say the least, loudly grunting with each thrust.
And he fucks her like she's never been fucked before. She's going to be sore for days. Hard, raw, brutal. He pounds into her angrily, violently. He's gripping her legs so hard she knows he'll leave dark bruises. Batman doesn't give a fuck about her pleasure - she's just a cum bucket to him. She wouldn't describe what's happening right now as pleasurable - but she craves it nonetheless. She revels in the pain. It's what she deserves.
Batman finally lets go of her neck, puts both hands on her hips, and speeds up his thrusts. She's too busy trying to hold on for dear life to try to take a peek. He comes inside her with a growl. She thinks that maybe the bat was the wrong animal - he sounds like a bear.
He thrusts a few more times, but she feels that the drive behind it is diminished. He pulls out and backs away from her.
Selina slowly gets up. She feels his semen dripping down her leg into her suit - that's going to be a bitch to clean. She zips up and looks up - Batman's already decent. She waits for him to say something, but he doesn't.
"Well, this has been fun. Bye!" she says brightly. She stretches her face into a grimacing approximation of a smile. Batman doesn't move, so she squeezes past him.
She sneaks a peek behind her before heading off the roof. Batman is still standing right where she left him, staring at the spot where she had been.
She wonders if he'll tell Bruce about this.
She finds Bruce in her apartment one day, sitting on the couch like he fucking owns the place (she's pretty sure he doesn't), Jen sitting next to him scowling, her gun on one side of the room and her clip on the other.
"You never told me he had ninja moves," Jen says.
Selina ignores her.
"How dare you –" she starts, but Bruce cuts her off.
"I'm not here about… us." He looks almost sheepish. "I'm here for my friend."
"Oh?" Her anger drops a notch.
"I hear you owe him one. He needs a favor."
And her anger goes right back up.
"Oh, I think I repaid him well enough."
"He can give you what you want."
That gets her attention.
"It doesn't exist," she says.
"He says it does. He wants to meet. Tonight."
"Why?"
"He needs to find Bane. He thinks you'd know how."
She purses her lips.
"Maybe. I'll think about it."
"Think fast," says Bruce grimly. He gets up from the couch, and his face softens.
"Selina…"
"Get out," she says between clenched teeth because if he stays any longer, she might throw herself into his arms.
He obliges.
He looked so tired. Her gut clenches when she recalls the headlines about the theft at the stock exchange. That was all her fault. Man, she's really fucked him over twice – once emotionally, once financially. Maybe she should go for a third fuckery. She's a walking disaster when it comes to him.
She leads Batman down the sewer tunnels, but the closer they get, the more uneasy she becomes. She doesn't know why she cares. Sure, he fucked her, but that doesn't mean much to her - her body is often the best tool she has, and she's learned to separate it from her emotions when necessary.
She sees the agreed-upon meeting spot with Bane coming up ahead of them. She slows down.
"What?" asks Batman.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" she says.
"Yes," he says without hesitation.
Must be nice to go through life that sure of everything, she thinks.
She stops walking. She hears another mercenary heading towards them. Batman speeds up and jogs past her to put some more distance between himself and the rapidly approaching mercenary.
"Batman, wait a sec," she calls to him - god, it sounds so silly when says his name out loud. Batman ignores her.
The grate slams down. Batman turns around and touches the grate, looks at her with a question in his dark eyes.
"I had to find a way to stop them from trying to kill me," she says, but it sounds hollow even to her.
"You've made a serious mistake," says Batman.
"Not as serious as yours, I fear," says Bane as he emerges from behind a waterfall.
"Bane," Batman growls.
"Let's not stand on ceremony here, Mr. Wayne," says Bane, and Selina's world comes crashing down. She feels faint, faint enough that she has to clutch the grate to stay upright.
The biggest mistake of her life. Bruce is Batman, Batman is Bruce. Everything, everything makes sense. His reticence to discuss the past, the broken and scarred body, the passion for Gotham, Jen's comments about his ninja moves, his annoying confidence, the way Batman fucked her from behind, not letting her kiss him or see his cock... his interest in her. Bruce Wayne told her he knew her. He told her he could help her. He was the only person who could have. She threw that out. She threw out passion and security and love and she did it because she was too goddamn insecure and arrogant.
How could she not have known? Eyes so intense and dark, his lips, so beautiful and distinctive, his jawline, his chin, rendered unrecognizable by his cowl. Or at least, she didn't see it because she hadn't been expecting it.
He isn't going to walk out of here alive. Neither will she - oh maybe her body will be alive, but her soul won't.
And she forces herself to watch, until the bitter end, because the very least she can do is be a witness. She watches from behind bars, in a cage of her own making, feeling the ghost of every blow Bane lands on Bruce, struggling not to cry as she watches Bane utterly destroy the man she loves.