There were more cats than he was expecting. They lay across the floor, the furniture; two had even decided that Alf himself would make a suitable resting place. A grey and brown tortoise shell named Torem perched upon his left shoulder, while the sleek black cat that had tripped him on the rooftop, Isis, was sprawled across Alf's lap while he stroked her fur.
"I'm impressed," Catwoman called from the kitchen, visible through the doorway across from him. "It usually takes a lot more for those two to warm up to someone." Alf just smiled, tickling the same sensitive spot on the underside of the jaw that this cat would pass on to her own descendants someday. Isis rumbled in pleasure, her limbs turning to practical jelly.
"You want the little marshmallows in your hot chocolate?"
"Yes, please." She shook her head, either annoyed or amused by his sporadic responses. Maybe it was both. "Thank you, G- Catwoman."
"Call me Selina," The woman said firmly, throwing the empty packets in the trash.
"Selina." He whispered, staring down at the limp cat purring contentedly in his lap.
"Now, I know you've clearly got some secrets you don't want to spill, but it can't hurt you to tell me at least a little about yourself." She coaxed, bringing over two mugs. Alf sat up a bit straighter to accept his beverage, looking at her warily. Personal details were among the most dangerous he could tell. "I promise, I won't pass it on."
"Maybe..." He said softly, gaze dropping to the mug in hand.
"How about this, then - I ask a question or two, and you decide whether to answer or not." After a few minutes of deliberation, the boy nodded once. "Okay. First off... You're clearly a Bat, if that uniform is anything to go by, let alone the moves I saw you bust out earlier. And at least a couple of the speedsters think you're either a time traveler or guest from another reality."
Alf's head jerked up at that first option, which the woman took note of. He gnawed on his lower lip before nodding once, violently jerking his head down and up.
"Hm. You are aware of that then." Sipping at her hot chocolate, Selina's eyes never left him. "I'm going to guess, since I know some people who know some people who've done the crossing-time thing, you're less concerned with messing things up for yourself than for others in the future."
"Don't want them to disappear." Alf muttered into his mug.
"Who?"
"... My family." He took a deep gulp to stop from saying anything else, but then coughed from the hot liquid burning its way down his throat. Selina waited until the kid had recovered before continuing.
"Little one, are you a Bat because you were taken into the group, or born to it?" Alf's eyes widened, and he gulped again, in nervousness this time.
Eventually, he answered in a quiet voice. "Born." Selina nodded, mentally comparing the kid to the other birds she knew. She supposed he looked a bit like Damian, in the jawline and eye color, but the wild red hair just threw everything else off.
"Alright then. I'm not going to call you Robin, that would be a little too weird even for me, but I still need something to address you with. Okay?"
"Okay... I'm," He took a deep breath. "Alf." Immediately, the boy sunk in on himself, peering at her in worry. Selina raised an eyebrow, wondering what he had to be scared off.
Then the significance of the short name leaped out at her.
"Alf- That wouldn't happen to be short for Alfred, would it?"
He glanced back down, unable to hold it in anymore. "Alfred Wallace Wayne. Momma was supposed to pick with me, since Dad already got my brother's first name, and she was going to make me Gramps' namesake, but then Mr. Pennyworth, everybody's told me about him, he died a week before I was born, and she changed her mind at the last minute."
And just like that, Selina could see relief steal over the kid, his body going limp on the sofa. Almost immediately, though, he seized up again to stare at her in horror.
"I-I shouldn't have said all that!" Alf exclaimed. Quickly, Selina set down her mug on the coffee table and scooched down the length of the sofa, forcing several of her cats aside in the process. Wrapping an arm around the kid's shaking shoulders - God, he really was tiny - she started shushing him with soothing sounds.
"It's okay, kitten, it's alright, don't freak out on me, Alf. Trust me, those words came out a bit too fast for me to make much sense of them." She lied through her teeth with that last part. The red hair suddenly made a lot of sense to Selina, and she wondered how the family of speedsters had missed that particular detail.
Still, it was probably smart for the kid to want to avoid mentioning his parentage within hearing of Irey West and Damian Wayne, or anyone who might repeat it to them - those kids would start avoiding each other like their lives depended on it. Apparently, though, this little boy was collapsing in on himself because lives did depend on his not revealing information about the future timeline.
Selina felt her heart twinge in sympathy for the tiny Bird.
"Now, look here- look at me, Alf." Hesitantly the kid tilted his head up to meet her gaze, eyes swiftly filling with unshed tears. "I swear, anything you tell me, it won't leave this apartment. Okay?"
"Y-you, you p-prom-mise?"
"I promise."
"O-on the c-cats?"
Her lips twitched into a half-smile. "I promise on the fur and whiskers of every cat in here." Meows and faint purrs filled the air, and suddenly there were more than two furry forms draped on Alf. Selina laughed as nearly a dozen of her pets sought to twine themselves around the boy, all seeking attention from their mistress' guest. Sniffing, Alf tried his best to pet them all, the clawed tips of his gauntlets running through fur and scratching behind ears.
Blinking, the woman glanced at her own gloves, lying along with her whip on another chair. She mentally compared the leather garments to the metal protecting the boy's hands, and realized with a start that they were nearly the same design.
Maybe that would be the next thing she asked about.