Title: Dime Store Novels and Hidden Rooms 4/4
Fandom: Gotham
Pairing: Bruce/Selina
Rating: T/YA
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Selina
Out of all the secret panels in Bruce's expansive house, this one had to be the most complicated. Bruce had barely grazed his hand down the side of the wood panel when she'd heard the familiar click of a spring engaging and the panel had popped open and slid into the pocket wall beside it, revealing a door Selina could only describe as formidable.
In the years that she had been thieving she had picked her fair share of locks. She had found success trying her hand at anything from simple door latches to complicated combination locks. She had even taken the time to teach Bruce the ins-and-outs of pins and rakes. So of course, in her arrogance she had assumed that she'd seen it all. But looking at the steel door, the steering wheel knob, the multi-character keypad beside it, she knew that without some extensive training there was no way in hell that she would have been able to crack that thing.
And there had been only one other time in her recent memory that a lock had completely confounded her- the iron lock on her cell.
A chill ran along her nerves as she watched Bruce study the small key pad. She knew it was a stupid idea, silly even, but if the Waynes had no problem leaving priceless antiques in barely used hallways and rare art hanging out in the open, what kind of weird shit did they keep that they needed this kind of security to lock it up?
"Hol' up, B," she said, staying his hand as he reached to punch in the code. "What's in there?"
He looked up at her, before his eyes darted from her to the keypad and back. "It's hard to explain," he said, letting out a deep breath. "Are you sure you want to see it?"
In answer, she narrowed her eyes as she cocked her head to the side. "Look, if you don't trust me. That's fine-"
"It's not that," he said, sounding exasperated.
"Sure, it's not," she countered.
"I do trust you, Selina," he answered.
"Yeah 'bout as far as you can throw me," she joked.
"No, Selina," he said, straightening so he looked her in the eye. "I trust you with my life."
There were so few times in their friendship where Selina had trouble meeting Bruce's eye, that for one solid moment she could only stare at him and digest his words. Why would he tell her that? Why here? Why now? If she didn't know him better, she would think he was trying to manipulate her. Because there was no way in hell that after everything he knew about her, after everything she had done, that he could possibly feel that way. He had to be exaggerating or just plain stupid.
But even with those possible answers she couldn't stop the fire that burned in her cheeks or the nervous chuckle that bubbled up, "But maybe not with the family jewels, huh," she laughed.
It felt like an eternity as he stood staring at her, a slight tick in his jaw and a mixture of thread-bare patience and well-earned exasperation coloring his features.
"Look it's up to you," she said, "But I'm starting to getting hungry so…"
It sounded like he swore beneath his breath, before he hunched back over the keypad. Scoffing at his nonchalance, she rolled her eyes and grabbed his nearest hand, quickly cupping it around the numbers and shielding her from whatever passcode he was bound to punch in. He only shook his head in answer.
Sighing, she put her back to the vault door and stared aimlessly into the room they had just left. From her position, she could still see the edges of his mother's private room: the wall of eccentric books, her collection of useless but clearly sentimental knick-knacks.
Separately none of those things had made much sense to Selina, but when she put them together she felt like she could see a pretty clear picture of who Martha Wayne had really been. The scene reminded her a lot of the box Bruce kept by his bed, all those strange little trinkets he kept so close to him, but hidden away.
She kept a stash like that herself. A collection of things that for no reason she could grasp she couldn't quite bring herself to part with. The little cigarette box she had stolen from Bruce, a lucky penny, her first lock-picking kit, an article she had torn from the newspaper, it was just a random collection of useless things she had picked up and kept in an unassuming box shoved in an old fireplace in one of her squats. It was also where she usually kept her extra swag and where she had used to keep her bracelet when she had needed to make a hit.
She cuffed her wrist, her finger trailing over the now smooth scar, where her charms had used to hang and jangle. She took in a shaky breath, hoping Bruce was too concentrating too hard to notice.
Glancing at him, she counted six beeps as he punched in the code. Before she even had time to stand up, he was already turning the wheel, its quick rotation matching the dull clang of locks unhinging. Turning around, she watched as the thick door swung open with a groan.
There weren't many times in her life that Selina could remember being impressed. Not really impressed. Not impressed to the point of speechlessness.
Years of living on the streets had left her with a mild level of apathy concerning most things. It actually scared her sometimes, how she was rarely shocked by what human beings were willing to do to each other. And when it came to material things, she found she was even less amazed.
Most people assumed that just because she had been born on the wrong side of the city, that she hadn't seen her fair share of gaudy. When she'd finally struck out on her own, she had staked out charity galas and parties where old trophy wives flouted their newest guilt gifts and the assholes of industry bragged about all the prophets their newest investment was going to yield, but her knowledge had come well before that.
From the safety of her fire-escape perches, she'd watched as bosses and drug lords had been chauffeured around in their shining cars, their wrists weighed down with gold watches and rings shoved on every chubby finger.
Even from a young age, she had known the difference between predators and prey. Low-levelers, drug dealers, bookies and assholes that couldn't tell their right from their left were all fair-game, but she had instinctually known that despite the potential swag dripping off of them, those kings and queens were to be avoided at all costs.
Girls who kept their hands to themselves, kept their hands.
It was a motto she still stuck to.
But that hadn't stopped her from watching them from afar. Watched as errand boys became errand men and young girls grew into young mistresses, trading brown packages for Berettas and ponytails for dead-eyes. Each time they took another step up that ladder resulted in another staple, another trapping, that proved to the world that they had become somebody.
It had always seemed like a little too much to her, but then she had met a child billionaire and a spoiled blonde heiress and her knowledge of what money could get you and what it had the potential to provide had grown ten-fold.
But none of those experiences, had prepared her for this… She wasn't sure anything could have.
Unlike the other two closets, or what only Waynes would have considered closets, the vault had no heat and no overhead lighting. It was cold and dark but oddly peaceful. Maybe it was the vault like door, the thick walls, or because it was hidden so deeply inside Bruce's sprawling home, but it was the kind of place she felt like she could curl up and rest her eyes.
Darkness consumed almost everything, the walls, the marble floor, it seemed like even the very air was covered in something that seemed to absorb any trace of light that came near it. But like always her eyes quickly adjusted.
Selina felt a smirk tugging at her lips, she had always seen well in the dark.
"Rumor has it that she can see in the dark. Is that true pretty girl?" a voice echoed somewhere deep in her mind, sending an icy chill into the very pit of her stomach.
She took in a deep shaking breath, the cool air filling her lungs and clearing her mind. She really had to stop thinking about that. Clearing her throat around the small lump that had formed there, she focused on the vault like room ahead of her that looked closer to an art exhibit than a room in someone's house.
The little light that shined in the room was sparse but bright. Hip-high show cases glowed from their positions lined against the dark walls like a giant glittering U. Lit from within, as if they were in a jewelry store, the giant glass boxes both protected and revealed the treasures tucked safely inside them. Inhaling, she felt the catch in her throat as her eyes moved from one glass exhibit to the next. She felt a humorless laugh bubbling within her.
When she'd made that crack about 'the family jewels,' it had been just that… A joke.
Logic told her that Bruce had made a major mistake letting her in here. Because she wanted to bust each case open like an oyster and dig each little figurative and possibly literal pearl out. Gems of every shape and carat hung from necklaces and giant earrings. Gold broaches and silver rings safely shined from their black velvet nests like glittering eggs. And then there were the diamonds…
Selina couldn't remember having such an urge before. Growing up the way she had she understood envy and jealousy. But those feelings always made her stomach turn bitterness, churning it deep in her gut. This - this felt different.
Few times had she taken just to have. She'd started stealing because she had to, she kept stealing because she was good at it, but a few times she had stolen simply because she'd wanted.
Typically, when Selina stole, she did so with nothing but the item's value and the promise of another week of survival on her mind. But her thief's eye had somehow abandoned her in here of all places. Because she didn't see dollar signs when she looked at those clear stones. She saw beauty, she saw stars, she saw a galaxy in the palm of her hand.
She could picture herself draped in them. She knew it was an irrational thought, people didn't do those things, not even rich people, but that couldn't stop her mind from fantasizing. She wanted to lay back on a bed of them, to feel the hard stones digging into her skin, making her sparkle with their hidden light.
Fire, her Mae had used to tell her. That's how you tell the good ones from the costume. A real diamond has fire inside it.
A warm voice cut into her thoughts but she couldn't bring herself to be bothered by it.
She stepped closer to the closest display. Teardrop pendants reflected rainbows inside their glass cages and for one moment she felt as if the world was swaying beneath her.
"Selina," the warm voice repeated and she felt long fingers wrapping themselves around her wrist as if someone wanted to shake her.
"Selina!"
As if being pulled from a dream, she took in a deep breath and suddenly felt the cold air of the room and the tight hold Bruce had on her.
"What?!" she snapped, heat spreading along her cheekbones as her eyes met a pair of concerned grey ones.
"Sorry," he apologized, not sounding sorry at all but watching her as if trying to puzzle something out. "But, you looked… Stunned."
Trying hard to fight the blush she knew must be deepening the color in her cheeks, she let out a small scoff, "Not likely," she mocked, trying to gently pull her wrist from his hand. But to her utter shock, Bruce didn't immediately let go.
For a single moment, surprise robbed her of a voice, but looking at the worry etched into the lines of his young face she couldn't bring herself to jerk free of him. She didn't know where that concern had come from or what it had been for. Bruce couldn't have possibly truly thought that she had been close to fainting. She wasn't some delicate debutant or fragile flower. She was made of sterner things. She had thought he knew that.
Feeling something very close to disappointment settling into the pit of her stomach, she gently pulled her wrist free.
"Seriously, I'm fine," she said, stepping closer to the display case she'd been edging before he'd grabbed her. "I was just a little surprised…" she admitted, leaning over the glass to look at a tray of rings. "I'm not used to all this."
"All what?" he asked, stepping beside her, his elbow brushing her arm.
She gave a derisive laugh before turning from the case and gesturing around her with both hands.
Bruce didn't turn with her or even lift his head, but she knew he had understood her gesture.
"They're just things, Selina," he explained, his deep voice even but spent.
She didn't stop her humorless laugh, "Says the youngest billionaire in the world," she replied, sardonically.
"That wasn't a choice," he bit out.
Well, neither was being left on an orphanage's stoop soaking wet and half-dead with nothing but a locket and a note, she wanted to retort, but refrained. She knew that if she and Bruce ever got into a pissing contest over each tragedies, that would be an argument that they would both lose.
"I know, B," she replied. "Doesn't mean it's not true, though."
With that parting shot, Selina allowed her shoulder to brush his back as she moved around him. Immediately her eyes darted to the next closest display, a section demarcated for brooches and pendants, but she couldn't quite bring herself to really even appreciate them for their market value. Despite her initial reaction to all of those
dazzling gems, she could admit that not all of the cases held such enticing prizes.
She could feel those studious eyes on her as she moved onto another case. The jewels inside were even more boring than the ones before, but between a display of multi-stoned rings and different sized bangles, an empty space caught her eye.
Tapping on the glass, she could feel the question on the tip of her tongue when a memory caused her to pause.
Judging from the space, it had been used to store a necklace. Probably a set of pearls if the lonely matching earrings were anything to go by. She could almost see those tiny white pearls again as they had scattered along black pavement and later when she had been so carelessly digging through that box in Bruce's room, some of those same stones pouring into her gloved hand.
Selina couldn't explain it. She knew there was no rational reason for her to assume that spot had been used to keep that string of pearls safe, but she kept her question to herself.
Clearing her throat, she quickly and quietly moved to the next row.
Intentionally lazy, she let her fingertips trail along the sharp metal edge where the two panes of glass met. Tinsel thin bracelets and bejeweled cuffs flashed up at her in rows of gold and silver. Necklaces and princess chokers polished to a shine were laid comfortably against black models.
Looking at all of the beautiful displays and their lack of dust and fingerprints, Selina had just begun to feel the first stirrings of amusement as she thought about how long it probably took Alfred every day to dust and shine when something from the corner of the room her eye caught her attention.
"Holy shit…" she breathed, and as if she was in the daze that Bruce had accused her of, she felt her feet carrying her across the room of their own accord.
Placing both hands on the glass above it, Selina looked down at the jewel encrusted piece. "Is that a crown?" she asked, trying and judging by the footsteps following her, failing to keep the shock from her voice.
His warmth was more than welcome in the cold room, as he stood beside her and studied the circlet. "Technically, it a diadem," he replied.
Unable to resist, she rolled her eyes as she leaned on her elbow, "And what the hell would you need with a diadem."
To her surprise, Bruce merely shrugged, "I'm sure one of my ancestors had their reasons."
It was such a rich person's response, she only chuckled at his answer, surprising both of them. "So, what's it all doing in here?" she asked. "Why isn't it locked up somewhere?"
"My father said it was because my great-grandfather didn't trust banks," he answered, matter-of-factly.
She raised an eyebrow in his direction.
"Black Tuesday," he answered, as if that was supposed to mean something to her. It didn't.
"Well, I can see why you didn't wanna lemme see it," Selina took a deep breath wondering if she really wanted to hear the answer or if Bruce would even give her one. "This place could float half of Gotham for a decade," she exaggerated.
"That's not why I didn't want you to see it," he said, turning to her, his own elbow resting on the top of the case. "I mean it is, but it isn't."
Confusion knitted her brow. "Then what was your problem," she asked, sliding a step closer to him.
Bruce sighed, and his eyes drifted to the crown before they met her own. "I didn't-" He exhaled again, lifting a hand to push back that stubborn lock of hair. "I'm not ignorant Selina, I know you think I take my money for granted and for the most part you're right. It's not something I think about it… But I know you do and I didn't want-" he paused, as if he wanted to find the best way to explain himself. "I didn't want to offend you."
"You thought something like this would offend me?" she asked. "How weak do you think I am?"
"Not weak at all," he answered. "I just didn't want you to think that I was-"
"Rubbing it in my face?" she interrupted.
"For lack of a better term, yes," he agreed, honestly.
Selina felt her eyes narrow as she stared back at him. Out of all the things she could've accused Bruce of, wielding his wealth on people like her, people who lived hand to mouth, would have been on the bottom of that list, if it had shown up at all.
If anything, the boy was usually guilty of being stupidly generous. Something she assumed he had inherited from his parents.
"B," she said softly, reaching for his free hand. "That never crossed my mind. Why would you even think that?"
"Selina, I've seen normal people get offended for much less than this," he admitted, looking away.
"Yeah, well we're not normal people," she stated, dragging him along.
"No, we're not," he agreed.
"So," she said, walking backward. "I think it's time for you to show me something fantastic."
Sometimes Selina wondered how Bruce fit all of the knowledge he had inside his head. The only other genius she knew had traded a bit, or maybe a lot, of her sanity for brilliance. That kind of deal made sense to her. Life was a shitty checks and balances system, wasn't it? So, what had Bruce given up to be this intelligent?
Well, if she was being honest. He didn't always make the best decisions and he was a terrible judge of character. Exhibit A – him bringing her in here. The boy had actually brought a self-professed thief into a room that was the equivalent of a giant jewelry box.
It wasn't so much that she wanted to steal it or even that she needed to steal it which were typically, her two driving forces to find a mark. She couldn't explain it. The undeniable draw that each piece had on her that something inside her that craved the kind of security that things like that could bring her.
But she couldn't even entertain the idea of snatching something from here, and not just because the old man watched her like a hawk. No, it was because of the boy whose fingers fit so perfectly between her own and a stupid promise she had made him when she had never thought to see him again.
But if it had been anyone but Bruce acting so stupid she just wasn't sure she would have been able to help herself.
Listening she could still hear his even voice, a faint hum in the background as she looked at another piece.
When she had asked him to show her something fantastic he had quickly tried to drag her to the other wall, but the moment something had caught her attention she had quickly slowed him down.
She was not sure how she had missed it on her first round. Unlike the obviously blank space that had once held his mother's string of pearls, the case she had slowed down to examine had been entirely cleaned out. Not even a velvet stand left to show it had ever existed.
When she had asked, what was supposed to have been in there. Bruce had studied it before explaining that those had been loaned out to a museum on the opposite coast, but that he didn't think she would have liked them anyway. When she had lifted a brow at this claim, he had given her a rare but not unheard of smug look and told her that historically they were rumored to be cursed.
She had been overwhelmingly tempted to give him the finger at the implied accusation, but she had only rolled her eyes. Never-the-less she had given the cabinet a wide berth.
As Bruce had finally hauled her to their destination, Selina seriously questioned his definition of what fantastic was because the jewelry he had showed her was to put it nicely - simple.
But seeing the small bit of alertness that had entered Bruce's dark grey eyes, Selina had listened patiently as he had explained how Alexandrite had come from some mountain range in Russia and that the stones could change color depending on the light they absorbed and the angle at which you could see them.
Despite the interesting contrast of the bright green gems shining from their lacey gold setting, she thought that their history seemed to be a lot more interesting than the actual stones.
"So, it changes color," she said, cupping her jaw and sliding her elbow onto the glass case until her arm lay flat. "So, does a five-cent mood ring?"
Squeezing her fingers lightly, his lips twitched as he looked at her like he was trying to figure something out. Bruce's arrogance wasn't rare but Selina couldn't recall it being overly common either. But when it did rear its prideful head his egotism was almost always tied to his intelligence. It wasn't unusual to find people who thought they were the smartest person in the room, Bruce just happened to not always be wrong.
He leaned into the case one long finger pointing at the smallest gems that framed a center stone that was nearly the size of a pigeon's eggs, "That's a little over one carat," he explained as if she didn't know what a carat was, "Alone, it is worth close to fifty-thousand dollars."
Selina felt something deep in her lurch at the idea.
Fifty-large for something not even as big as her front tooth.
"If you're going to work in goods Selina," he continued, losing none of the haughty tone he had adopted. "At the very least you should know how much their worth?"
She felt her eyebrows lift almost into her hair line, as she gazed up at him from her nearly prone position, "Are you saying I don't?"
Bruce just smiled at her. "I'm saying that I was with you when you tried to sell a jade Netsuke for fifty dollars."
Damn, that felt like forever ago, she thought, surprised he had remembered that. She could only stare back at him before his words had fully sunk in and she scoffed.
"Wait," she said, sliding back up to stand and meet his eye. "Are you actually trying to tell me how to do my job?"
"I wasn't aware that thieving was considered an official vocation," he answered, dryly.
"Well, last time I checked neither was grumpy-ass child billionaire," she sniped. "At least I actually do something to put a roof over my own head and food on my own plate. I don't just wake up in the morning to a warm bed and a full belly."
"You could," he said, "You don't have to keep stealing. You could stay here. Stay with- "
Selina felt her eyes round as she watched him swallow the word they both weren't ready to hear. Her own stomach knotted in response. For a girl who had never run from a fight with this boy, she had been dreading this confrontation. When Bruce had questioned her about her accident, despite all of his prying and knowledge, she knew he didn't know anything. But now, here, they both knew the truth. They both knew that her staying here was simply impossible.
And she really wasn't ready to have this conversation. She wasn't ready to see the look of disappointment lining those dark eyes. She wasn't ready to leave.
Swallowing, she tilted her head as she studied him. "Does my business really bother you that much?" she asked.
"Of course, it does," he answered straightforwardly.
She felt a humorless smile pull at her lips. "Then you really shouldn't have brought me in here," she said, not hiding the disappointment and cynicism in her voice as she stepped away from him and blatantly let go of his hand.
"You promised to keep things honest between us," he said, shrugging his shoulders as he slid his hands into his pockets. "I'm holding you to that."
She scoffed, shaking her head at his answer. Sometimes his naivety was almost too much to bare.
"Kid you have got to start wising up," she advised.
"So, I've been told," he murmured.
She gave the room one more glance and sighed. She couldn't believe she had voluntarily walked into a room with only one exist. But she had just been so… Entranced seemed way too strong a word. Attracted maybe too weak. But watching the light reflect off all those pieces, like tiny rainbows filled with fire had made her very breath catch in her throat.
She knew some of the old cats used to call them sparklers and now she understood that phrase. She understood a lot more. Bruce had shared with her things she wasn't sure even her Mae had known. He had explained to her all of the different diamonds, the differences in cuts and colors. In all her time working she had never even seen a colored diamond before. Because of her instructions, and later out of habit, she'd simply just snatched whatever she could and worried about the rest later but now… She wasn't sure that a cheap watch and some costume jewelry was going to cut it anymore. Shaking those thoughts, she turned away from the display.
Taking her last lap around the room she came up short as she gave a row of eternity bracelets a second glance.
"I had no idea you liked diamonds," Bruce observed, once again coming up beside her.
"Neither did I," she replied honestly.
"Did you want to…" His words almost faltered and once again, like a pendulum, Bruce's voice held a note of hesitancy. It was strange how something so small as indecision could undermine the almost aristocratic confidence he had been born with. And Selina couldn't help it, she honestly liked seeing him a little flustered.
"Did I want to what?"
He made a strange dismissive gesture with his hands, and she felt her eyebrows knit in answer.
"I can open any of the cases," he said, once again sliding his hands into his pockets. "If you wanted to, I don't know…" he hedged, as if he was afraid she would be offended.
"Play with them?" she asked.
"I wouldn't have put it that way," he answered. "But sometimes when my mother would loan them out, her friends would spend hours just trying them on."
"Why?"
He shrugged.
"Rich people are weird," she said, taking a few steps from him.
"That's a no then," he asked, his shoulders turning inward.
"I didn't say that," she answered. Turning, she leaned her elbows against the case behind her and she knew the smile she had given him would most likely be read as mischievous. "So, I just point at a case and you'll open it."
"That's what I said," he replied, lifting a single shoulder.
"And I can just put them on," she drawled.
"That's the idea," he said, taking a step closer to her.
"Any of them?" she asked, again.
"Any," he clarified, the tips of shoes inches from her own bare toes.
"Even the crown?" she tested.
"It's a diadem," he corrected. "But yes, even the crown."
Biting her lip, she moved past him but could still feel his gaze on her back. Soundlessly popping her knuckles, she slowly walked around the small room, her eyes taking in every single piece of jewelry encompassed in their well-lit homes.
She paused as something small and gold, something that shouldn't have made her look twice in a in a room full of rubies and emeralds, caught her eye. Selina didn't know what it was about the dainty looking jewelry that seized her attention, maybe it was the delicate metal work, or the half-carat jewels, or maybe it had stirred her insatiable curiosity because it was completely alone. Isolated in the corner, the only jewelry in the entire case.
"What's in here?" she asked, inclining her head toward the glass box in the corner.
He stared at it for a moment and Selina could almost see the pictures and information quickly flashing through that overflowing mind of his.
"Wedding jewelry," he said, dismissively.
Curios, she leaned over the case, her nose nearly touching the glass. "Wedding jewelry huh," she repeated, mockingly.
The jewelry set, because that's what most of these stupid cases were filled with, sets, was probably the least assuming jewelry in the entire room. They were simple. The black gems were significantly smaller and the gold filigree less gaudy than any of the other stones and metal she had been drooling over the last half hour. They had an elegant appearance but they seemed far from fragile and she thought there was something quite beautiful in that. Which surprised her as small and unassuming were a far cry from what what she was typically drawn to.
A faint memory of Barbra drunk-ranting one afternoon after an old college roommates wedding flitted through her mind and she asked, "So, like something old, something blue, crap like that."
"Not exactly," he explained. "They're technically heirlooms. My mother wore them, and my grandmother, and my great-grandmother. They supposedly go on for centuries."
"That's weird, B," she said shrugging.
"Not to mention rather archaic," he agreed.
"Well of course," she said, sardonically. "How could I forget archaic?"
He looked up at her and she couldn't resist scrunching her nose at him teasingly.
"But it was tradition," he said, a strange note of resignation to his voice.
Selina resisted the urge to roll her eyes as she looked down at the jewelry set again.
It felt weird to think of him getting married. Of having some little socialite wife, who always knew what to say and what fork she was supposed to use. Of his house being overrun with a bunch of Wayne brats with stiff black hair playing polo or chess or whatever it was that rich kids did.
She'd never really thought that far ahead before, never given any thought past tomorrow. But Bruce had a future, obligations to keep, he had a family name to uphold.
Is that the life he had waiting for him, when he stopped playing detective and hanging out with the detritus of the world? Is that the life he wanted? A life with tea times and ballet recitals and debutant balls? Sweet smoke from imported cigars and amber drinks in low-ball glasses.
And then she would just be that girl that he had kinda been friends with once upon a time.
She took a deep breath to steady her heartbeat, she had begun to feel mildly nauseated at the thought.
She listened as Bruce shuffled his feet beside her, but when he spoke his tone had lowered several octaves, "Have you decided which ones you want to wear?"
"Naw, I'm good," she said, clearing her throat. "We should probably be getting back before Alfred thinks I kidnapped you again."
"Has he accused you of that?" he asked, confusion painting her features.
"Not yet," she said, lightly "But it's only a matter of time."
She saw him reach for her and she allowed it enjoying the gentle feel of his long fingers threading through her own.
"Are you sure you're ok?" he asked, concern mixing into his voice.
"Yes," she lied. "C'mon, I'm hungry and you missed lunch," she insisted, squeezing his hand as she moved to guide them back out the door.
Author's Notes: Thank you so much for taking the time to read. I hope you enjoyed it.
Ben – Thanks, I hope you like the rest. batcat – I'm so happy you're still enjoying the updates. Hopefully, they'll be coming a lot faster. I'm so glad you're enjoying their POVs, I love writing for them and I agree, I wish the show would delve more into their characters as well. : ) You're totally welcome, and I will definitely be writing as fast as I can. – While we might not see Bruce's POV from that particular scene (though I could try and write it and put it on my tumblr, but I can't make any promises) He will have his own POV intense scene very soon. : ) Lisa- Awww, thank you. I'm so glad you like it. Guest 12/27 – I know those two kids are the king and queen of the slow-burn, but I promise it won't be too long. Also, I agree, they really are totally messed up and do things that reflect that. Rest assured there is more domestic batcat to come, they deserve a little rest before… Well, I can't say right now. : ) Thank you so much for the all the kind words. Quinn – Thanks so much. I'm glad you are finding some amazing fics, it's always fun to discover a new story for our favorite characters.
HUGE THANKS to: R3wind101, crypticjinxx, and byzinha – I hope you all got my replies.