So, I could have sworn there was a prompt that was 3, so that gave me some ideas… but then I looked back and realized there wasn't one. So this prompt is 96- Writer's choice!

In Batman Begins Bruce Wayne really seemed like he didn't have enough time to sleep with a lot of people, which is what I explored with this, also the three facets of his personality. The number of partners is sort of low, because to me definitely seemed too depressed to sleep with a lot of girls when he was younger(pining over Rachel who he seemed likee he never slept with), and then he was busy training for seven years so... Anyway. Included are the Nolanized version of the Batman characters Silver St. Cloud, Talia, and Selina.


iii


Brucie forgets a lot of things. He forgets who the current mayor is, the name of his latest date, and if a reporter ever asks, which they do- a lot- he can't remember how many women he's been with, but (Bruce can; he can count it on one hand) he laughs, shakes his head and says "That's awfully personal…" and never gives a number. (It's safe to assume most people think it's in the hundreds…)

Batman does his best to not forget, but after all he is only human under his shroud of darkness. He's brilliant. There is no denying that. He is one of the most intellectually astounding people in Gotham, maybe even the world.

Batman does his best to not forget, even the smallest of details, because he never knows when he'll need them. At night, (because it's always night in Gotham) he leans over a clue from Gotham's latest nutcase: a lion, a unicorn, and something small and shiny between them. He remembers a nursery rhyme he heard a life time ago.

'the lion and the unicorn were fighting for the crown, the lion beat the unicorn all around the town….'

He brings up the communicator and in his harsh voice barks orders to Alfred, because Batman knows where the mad man will strike next. Batman doesn't forget often, but on those rare occasions he does, he has a computer that takes up the wall of a cave and at least three people he can trust- but it's not often he forgets, and it's not often he asks for help.

Bruce can't forget. He doesn't want to remember, but he does. Bruce remembers everything. At night (because it's always night in Gotham) he can still hear the BANG and the THUD and the SCREAM and then the BANG and the THUD and then… nothing.

Nothing but pearls clattering on the ground and his heartbeat in his ears.

Batman remembers the type of gun Chill used. And he knows exactly what he'd need to do to disarm the robber and toss the unconscious body to the side. He knows what to do to stop a kid from sitting alone in a police precinct waiting for next of kin.

Brucie never talks about it. He won't talk about it. When the interviewers ask he just gets up and leaves. Or he'll change the subject, usually to whatever girl he's dating at the time and then it's back to square one and they ask him how many women he's been with, and he'll smile and shake his head and say "Well, that's rather personal…" and everyone will assume it's somewhere in the hundreds…

But, Bruce remembers. The nervousness. His awkward hands undoing the buttons on his college girlfriend's blouse. Silver St. Cloud: only people with millions of dollars in their bank accounts can name their children 'Silver.'

"Sounds like a comic book character. Or a Bond villain." Bruce comments when she's introducing herself. He half remembers another little girl hanging around the mansion when the grownups were talking-that he ignored to play with Rachel-with hair so blond it was almost white.

"Oh, like Brucie is any better." She says, but she smiles at him and for the first time in a few years he feels his pulse racing.

"It's just Bruce now…"

It was clumsy and awkward, like most first times, with clinking knees and elbows and half-gasped whispers of 'are you okay?' When it was over Bruce didn't really feel all that different, but that night she slept in his cramped dorm bed and he didn't have any nightmares.

Of course things rarely last and after a few months he is standing in his dorm room, staring at her.

Silver is yelling and he just stares back impassively.

"Damn it Bruce! Don't just stand there looking at me!"

"What is it, exactly, that you want me to do?" He asks dryly, his sharp blue eyes have dulled slightly as the year at Princeton has dragged on.

"React!" she practically screams. Bruce isn't wearing his shoes and he can feel the scratchy carpet under his feet. "You're.. you're.. you're just so hollow, Bruce."

"I.. don't know what you're talking about, Silver."

"Of course you don't." Silver spits out, her light eyes narrowed. "Nothing matters to you. You don't care about anything." She pauses and lowers her eyes to the floor and maybe she's fighting back tears, maybe she's not. "You're not even in love with me," she whispers and raises her gaze to stare Bruce right in the eyes, "Are you?"

Bruce doesn't say anything. He's watching her. She pulls her almost white blond hair behind her ears and out of her face. She looks beautiful and it occurs to Bruce if he screws this up he might never see her again.

"Would you say something? Would you do something?"

"Look, Sil.. I…." He can't think of what else to say so he trails off and has to look away because he can't stand looking her in the eyes right now.

Silver picks up a trinket that they bought on one of their first dates, exams it for a half second or so before she flings it across the room. It slams to the right of him and shatters against the wall.

Bruce doesn't flinch.

"React! Get angry! Get upset! Do something! Don't just stand there!" But, he does, unable to find the words he knows he needs to say. She stomps out; Bruce stands there for a while longer before he calmly closes the door. He considers looking out the window, but he knows she won't be there when he does, so he just goes back to reading.

It takes him three days to get around to cleaning up the mess she left. Silver spends the next twenty one days crying. And one day, sixteen weeks later, he sees her on the arm of Tony Stark at a gala function.

The bastard winks at Bruce. And it's odd, but Bruce finds himself thinking about Rachel.

He can remember all the women he's slept with. Not that anyone would believe him.

Brucie smiles at the woman when she glances over her shoulder at him. Her hair is sleek, black, and shines under the light. Her eyes look familiar.

"Excuse me," he says reaching out a hand to place it on the warm skin of her shoulder, "I don't know your name."

"No, Mr. Wayne," she says looking down at his hand with mild displeasure, "You wouldn't."

She sounds familiar.

He hasn't felt this way in years and he doesn't mind the hostility in her stance or the annoyance in her eyes because he knows he can show her he's not the man she thinks he is. And because maybe, somewhere in the back of his mind, he thinks she can help him get over Rachel(though her eyes are light like hers and her hair is dark like hers.)

It had been so long since he felt this way. It had been so long since he looked at a girl and felt a tug that most people would say is in the 'heart' (but Bruce knows that really it's in his throat as well as his diaphragm).

After weeks and weeks of trying, she finally smiled at him.

"Talia." She says and he smiles back so largely his face starts to ache, "Talia Head."

Her eyes look so familiar.

It was really no surprise when he iwa standing shirtless on the balcony and she approached that he assumed the glint in her hand means she found the ring.

He turned to face her.

"You wouldn't know my name, Mr. Wayne." She hisses and he knows those eyes now. "but you knew my father's."

Through the pain Batman whispers, "Al Ghul."

Oh, yes, Bruce remembered. He remembered Talia, sweet beautiful Talia who smelled like Jasmine, tasted like cinnamon, and jabbed a knife into his lung with tears in her eyes in the name of her dead father.

Sweet, kind Talia who he wanted to marry.

Sweet, wonderful Talia who he thought he could trust.

Who he thought he could be with.

Who he thought he could have a normal life with.

Brucie says "Which one was Talia? The redhead with the F cup? Oh! Or was she the blonde with the…"

Batman says, "Next time I need to be more careful. Next time I can't be so trusting."

And Bruce doesn't say anything. He just looks at the bandages covering his chest and hopes, prays really, that he'll never see her again, because unlike her father he will always feel compelled to save her.

"Bruce Wayne?"

"Sorry." He replies rubbing his right eye with the back of his hand.

"What?" Her neck is beautiful. That's probably an odd thing to notice first considering the way her dress is slit up and shows off her legs. They look strong- not stick thin like most of the women's here, but powerful and muscular like a swimmer or a gymnast.

"Whatever it is you're coming over here to tell me off about." Bruce manages to keep his eyes from her cleavage, because he's too tired for this right now. "I'm sorry. I was probably drunk and I didn't know you had a boyfriend."

She tilts her head and the wild curls slide over her shoulders and end a few inches below her exposed collar bones.

"Funny."She says with a predatory smile. Bruce eyes her warily, because she walks with the gait of someone born into money, but she has the eyes of someone from the streets.

"I try." She eyes him and he feels his pulse racing when her long nails slide against his arm as she reaches for a glass of champagne behind him. He can't stop staring at the curve of her neck.

"Who are you?" He asks before he realizes how abrupt and almost Batman like it sounds.

"Selina Kyle."

For once Bruce really can't remember something- and that's the conversation that followed. All he knows is he ended up with her against a wall, her hands undoing the buckle on his belt.

What he does remember is skin and hands and scratches and bites and kisses. He remembers her long hair under his hands and the way the perfume she wore smelled and the way the curve of her neck looked when she arched it towards him.

He remembers the saltysweet taste of her skin and most of all he remembers a rush and surge so primal and desperate they didn't even manage to take off her dress or loosen his tie.

Of course when they walked out and pictures were snapped of the bluepurplered marks that weren't all the way hidden by the curls of her long hair Bruce shouldn't have been surprised what the tabloids claimed Brucie had done.

But this time it wasn't a lie, and when he got home he couldn't look Alfred in the eye before he headed out.

Weeks later, at night,(because it's always night in Gotham) Batman kisses Catwoman twenty stories above the ground, feels her body pressed tight against his, and Bruce wonders what the hell he is going to do.