A/N- Wow. You guys are the best! I really cannot tell you how much your outpouring of support for this story has encouraged me as a writer, but let me just say thank all of you so much. I am so excited to share the rest of this story with you, and I hope you enjoy the ride! Thank you again. All the lyrics used at the beginning of chapters will be from the amazing band Red. On to Chapter Two!
Pieces
Chapter Two
And this is how it feels when I ignore the words you spoke to me
And this is where I lose myself when I keep running away from you
And this is who I am when I don't know myself anymore
And this is what I choose when it's all left up to me
Breathe your life into me, I can feel you
I'm falling, falling faster
Breathe your life into me, I still need you
I'm falling, falling
-"Breathe Into Me"
"Still hard at work?" Selina tried to keep the annoyance out of her voice when she walked into their apartment to find Bruce still on his laptop, just where she had left him two hours ago.
Bruce quickly closed the computer. "Just finishing something up." He looked up at her, smiling pleasantly as Selina unzipped and tossed aside the track jacket she had been wearing over a black sports bra and sweatpants. "How was your run?"
Selina grabbed a water bottle out of the fridge, drinking nearly half of it before she wiped off her mouth and answered. "Muggy as hell."
Bruce set his laptop aside, getting up off the couch and crossing to her, his hands on her waist as he kissed her hello. Selina set down the water bottle so she could properly kiss him back, wrapping her arms around his neck, her obvious bad mood seemingly forgotten for a moment. Bruce had discovered this odd quirk after living with Selina for just over three months—the physical aspect of their relationship seemed to come very naturally to her even when they had been driving each other crazy all day, but even after spending their days fairly exclusively in each other's company, she still seemed distant and closed-off when it came to anything emotional or vulnerable. He felt like he still didn't know her much better than he had back in Gotham. And it wasn't as though he was the most emotionally available person in the world by nature. So their relationship remained in the frustrating, nebulous phase of not being fully defined. And seeing that neither one of them had ever really been in a defined relationship before, they had no idea how such a thing even came about.
So the dance continued. When their kiss hello ended and they broke apart, Bruce tucked a damp strand of her hair back behind her ear, looking over her pale, make-up free skin and slightly flushed cheeks. "You always look the most beautiful like this."
"What, drenched in sweat and wearing drawstring pants?" Selina laughed. "You're delusional." She messed up his hair before pulling away from him, already stripping off her clothes and leaving a trail as she walked to the bathroom. "I'm gonna clean up. You can join me if you want."
Bruce cast a brief look back at his closed laptop. He was going to have to tell her sooner or later. Confront her with the truth he felt like he'd been carrying around forever.
But not now. Not yet. He mentally came to the same conclusion he'd been placating himself with for weeks, even though he knew he was running out of time.
He crossed the apartment, opening the bathroom door, steam already starting to fill the air as Selina turned to face him, naked and not at all self-conscious, pulling her long dark hair out of its ponytail and smiling at the look on his face as she shook out her hair around her shoulders. She stepped closer to him, pulling his t-shirt off over his head with both hands, resting them on his bare chest afterwards as Bruce leaned down to kiss her. "You are such an easy mark," Selina mumbled against his mouth, smiling as he kissed her and they both happily avoided having "the talk" for a little while longer.
Later that night, Selina was getting ready to go to sleep while Bruce was already in bed, still on that damn laptop.
She finished brushing her teeth, spitting in the sink, wiping off her mouth with a handtowel, and walking into his bedroom that they'd been sharing for the past month. As soon as she crossed the threshold, Bruce closed his laptop again, that same infuriatingly guilty expression on his face.
Selina crossed her arms over her chest, leaning against the doorframe. "Why do you always do that?"
"Do what?" he asked innocently, setting the computer aside.
"Close your computer every time I walk in the room. It makes you look like a teenager whose mom just caught them watching the porn."
Bruce sighed. "Well, I can tell you I definitely was not watching porn."
"Then what are you doing? What have you been doing for the past month? It feels like every time I leave the room, you're back to typing away on that damn thing."
Bruce didn't say anything for a long moment. Then, abruptly— "We have to leave London, Selina. Or…I have to leave London. Tomorrow night."
Her brow furrowed with confusion. "What? Why?"
"I found us more money. That's what I've been working on so much. It took some doing…and some very creative accounting…but I managed to hack into and clean out an old offshore account I kept under an alias. But even though I encrypted everything and I think I covered my tracks, there's still a chance someone could trace the log-in ID back to me and our location here in London. I don't want that to happen, for both of our sakes. So I'm leaving tomorrow for France."
Selina nodded, her dark brown eyes flooding with hurt, but she kept a tight smile on her lips. "Just like that?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, I should start packing. Since you're basically kicking me out of this place."
"I'm not kicking you out," Bruce shook his head vehemently, getting to his feet and crossing to her. "I want you to come with me."
She looked up at him coolly. "Right. That's why you've been sneaking around and hiding all of this from me. Because you want us to be together."
"I didn't want to say anything until I knew it was even going to work. I didn't want to get your hopes up for nothing."
"I never get my hopes up for anything, Bruce. If you knew anything about me, you'd know that." Selina rolled her eyes, turning away from him.
"I do know you." Bruce caught her arm, turning her back around to face him.
"Oh, really?" She laughed. "Tell me what you know."
"I know you've been taking my money and hiding it under your floorboards since we got here." It came out before Bruce could stop himself from saying it, his voice catching slightly in his throat, surprised how much it hurt to actually say out loud. He'd known about indiscretion for so long that he thought it may have finally lost its power. "Not a lot, not enough to where you thought I'd ever notice, but enough that you could just pack up and leave at any moment."
Selina masked the surprise that flashed behind her eyes at his seemingly long-standing knowledge of her betrayal with icy indifference. "Well, can you blame me? After you pull a stunt like this?"
"I would have just given you the money, Selina." He shook his head angrily. "I'd would have given you anything, if you'd just asked. I thought you knew that by now."
"Maybe I've just been lied to by too many rich assholes to believe you." She shrugged, her voice belying a hard bitterness constructed from decades of disappointment.
Bruce looked at her evenly. "Fine. Then here's my proposition. I want to split the money from the offshore account 50/50. No matter what you decide. If you want to stay in London and take your chances, fine. If you want to go off by yourself, that's fine too. But I want you to have half the money. So you don't have to do this to the next person who's stupid enough to care about you."
Selina met his gaze, echoing his detached tone. "How much?"
"Fifty million dollars."
She ran her tongue over her lips. Talk about a new start. "Split between us?"
"No. That would just be your share."
She swallowed hard. "And you'd just give it to me and walk away? No strings attached?"
"If that's what you want."
"What else would I want?" she said cruelly, humiliation over being caught and hurt over him abandoning her combining into vindictive anger.
Bruce shook his head, looking disgusted with himself. "Nothing. I…I was an idiot. I actually…I actually let myself believe, just for a moment, that the last few months meant something to you. That you might actually want to leave with me tomorrow. That it would be your idea to stay together."
"Well, wake up, honey. I'm not that kind of girl." Her shaking voice betrayed her slightly, but her words seemed to sting him just the same.
Bruce threw his hands up. "Then what the hell have we even been doing here? Why didn't you just take the two million and run all those nights I was passed out on painkillers?"
"I figured I'd wait around for a bigger payout."
"You're lying." Bruce was studying her face so closely she could practically feel his gaze burning into her skin. "There's more to you than that. There's more to this. You came back…that day, in Gotham. You saved my life. You wouldn't have bothered if you didn't—"
"If I didn't, what? Love you?" She spat the word out of her mouth as though it was poisonous. "Get a grip, Bruce."
"Then why did you come back that day?"
She rubbed her forehead wearily. "I don't know. Maybe I thought…I thought I could believe you. Believe in what you saw in me. Find something good in myself. But that's just it, Bruce. I'm not a good person. I never will be. I've proved that to you over and over. And if we stayed together, I'd keep proving it. I don't know how to stop looking out for myself, because no one else ever sticks around long enough to make me believe I have other options. Something you just proved."
Bruce sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I'm sorry. Help me understand something. How is me giving you fifty million dollars not looking out for you?"
Selina opened and closed her mouth, momentarily stymied. He seized her momentary silence as an opportunity.
"If we split up, it would just be because we're both running scared. Because we both know this is actually going somewhere, and we don't want to face it."
"Did you ever think maybe you're assuming too much?" She echoed his words to her that night at the masquerade ball, both unable to help smiling slightly in remembrance.
"You know what?" Bruce reached out, his hand on her cheek. "Take a day. Think it over. Tomorrow night, we'll get dinner, and you can tell me what you decide."
"What exactly are my options again?" She raised an eyebrow.
"An end." He dropped his hand from her cheek. "Or the beginning."
"Don't be all vague and poetic when there's this much on the line, Bruce."
"Fine. You either cut your losses, take the fifty million and go off on your own, and we never see each other again. Or you leave with me, the hundred million goes into a joint account, and we take the risk and give whatever this is a real chance. Together."
Selina nodded. "I'll think about it."
"Good." Bruce nodded back.
She crossed her arms over her chest, licking her lips, trying to think of anything to fill the awkward silence between them. Finally— "I'll just sleep in my room, then."
Bruce shrugged. "Sleep wherever you want."
"Bruce…"
"What?" He snapped.
Selina pressed her lips together, her dark eyes suddenly very sad, seeming to force herself into some kind of hard-won conclusion. "N-Nothing. Never mind."
"All right. I'll…I'll see you for dinner tomorrow then."
"Right." She nodded, privately thinking that it would be pretty difficult to avoid each other all day when they shared a two-bedroom, one-bath apartment. Selina went to her room, laying on top of the covers and staring up at the ceiling, unable to sleep and unaware that Bruce was doing the exact same thing.
"I'm sorry to tell you this, ma'am, but we're completely booked for the evening." The maitre'de gave her a snooty little smile, indicating the rain pouring down on the terrace. "Unless you'd like to sit outside."
"You're hilarious. Really." Selina rolled her eyes.
"She's with me. Reservation for two, under Peters."
Selina turned towards the ornately carved wooden doors at the front of the lavish French restaurant Bruce had selected for what could be their last meal together to see him walking inside, shaking out his umbrella, the shoulders of his black wool coat soaked. The storm was growing worse by the minute, the rain practically falling sideways.
"You're here." Selina greeted him bluntly.
"Yes. Survived the deluge." Bruce shook his head, instinctively leaning in to kiss her cheek but seeming to change his mind halfway, going for a hug instead, Selina stiffly patting his shoulder as they basically just bumped their chests into each other like a couple of clumsy work colleagues who overestimated being at the "hugging" phase of a friendship.
They stepped away from each other afterwards, inwardly berating themselves for not being able to play it cool. Both Bruce and Selina were used to being able to negotiate high-pressure social situations for a living. But tonight was different. Tonight wasn't about Selina charming her way into the inner sanctum of a gullible mark or Bruce closing a deal with millions on the line—it was easy to smile and fake it when they could hide behind the masks of a brainless socialite or eccentric billionaire. But there were no masks to hide behind here— and the thought terrified them both, reducing them to acting like skittish teenagers in each other's presence. But if the maitre'de thought they were behaving oddly for a supposedly happily married couple, he made no comment about it.
"Ah, yes, here we are." The maitre'de looked up from scanning the list with his finger. "Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Peters?"
"That's us."
"Is tonight a special occasion, Mr. Peters?"
"You could say that." Bruce nodded, Selina examining her "husband" more closely now that they'd survived their awkward greeting. He had finally gotten a haircut and shaved off his vacation beard, and was wearing an immaculately tailored all-black suit. She didn't know if it was because for the last three months he'd mostly lounged around the house in sweatpants and a Paul Bunyan beard, but in Selina's opinion, tonight was the handsomest he'd ever looked.
"I'll alert the hostess that you're here. Shall I take your coats?"
"Yes, thank you." Bruce took off his coat before turning to Selina. "Honey? Your coat?"
"Sure thing." Selina purred, deciding to have a little fun with him. She slowly slid her red jacket off her shoulders, staring right at Bruce as she revealed her new dress. He swallowed hard, unable to help briefly looking her up and down. She was wearing a skintight black lace dress that hugged her body so well that it seemed to cause him to lapse into a momentary stupor. The dress had a very low cut neckline that barely revealed the edges of her red push-up bra, and even when Bruce tried not to stare and look somewhere else, he found himself preoccupied with her mile-long legs, picturing how she would look only wearing those knee-high leather boots…maybe they were the ones with the razor blade heels…
"You like the dress?" Selina put her hands on her hips, cutting into Bruce's increasingly inappropriate thoughts.
"Not bad." Bruce smiled.
"Well, you don't look so bad yourself." She smiled a little nervously back, initial awkwardness changing into a very different kind of tension as they just stared at each other for a long moment.
The maitre'de cleared his throat. "Mr. and Mrs. Peters? Your coats?"
"Yeah, thanks." Bruce vaguely waved him off, handing him their coats. "And, uh…don't feel the need to hurry back."
The maitre'de nodded, walking away at his oddly efficient clip and leaving Bruce and Selina alone in the front entrance.
"Should we try that first greeting again?" Selina asked.
Bruce laughed. "Whatever you say. Do you want me to go back outside?"
"That won't be necessary." She looked up at him with a slow smile. "Hi, honey."
"Hello, Mrs. Peters." Bruce gently moved her long dark hair back over one shoulder, leaning down and catching her off guard when he pressed his lips against the side of her neck instead of her mouth, Selina's eyes sliding closed, her whole body shuddering slightly at the feeling of his lips against the thin skin right below her jaw.
"What are you doing?" she whispered softly.
"Just happy to see you." He pulled back to look at her, and before she had time to hide it, he thought he saw a brief flash of honest affection in her eyes, the same way she'd looked at him before their last kiss in Gotham, and Bruce couldn't help the sudden, hopeful thought that flashed through his mind—
We're still in this together.
"Mr. and Mrs. Peters?"
Bruce and Selina reluctantly stepped apart at the sound of the hostess' voice, turning to see a pretty blonde girl smiling brightly at them both, indicating they should follow her. "Right this way. Best seat in the house. For your…anniversary?"
"Sure." Bruce and Selina gave the waitress identical shrugs.
The interior of the restaurant was candlelit and undeniably romantic, and their secluded corner table was even more so, with green velvet seating and gold-leaf accents. Everything about the place had an intimate, hidden quality that seemed perfect for a married couple with something to celebrate.
Bruce pulled out Selina's chair for her, and she muttered her thanks, taking her seat and wondering what exactly Bruce's game was here. Why had he picked this place? Why would he do everything in his power to make this feel like a date? Was he trying to make her feel guilty? Or just laughing at her? She had no idea, and couldn't discern anything from his maddeningly pleasant expression as he sat down across from her.
They managed to avoid the hundred million dollar elephant in the room with stilted small talk through appetizers, picking at their food but polishing off nearly half a bottle of wine, nerves making both of them drink more than they usually would. But finally, after they were served their main course, Bruce summoned up his courage and brought up the topic that had been hanging heavily between them all night.
"So have you given my proposal anymore thought?"
Selina looked up at him. "Yes. Of course I have."
It took everything in him not to prod her with "And…?" but he sat in silence, waiting her out. Selina sighed, tucking her long dark hair behind her ears. "Honestly, Bruce, I've been going back and forth about this all day. And you should know, it's never been this hard before to…"
"To what?" He reached out, his hand over hers.
"Cut and run."
"Then don't. Stay with me." Bruce abandoned dignity altogether, deciding if he didn't lay everything out there tonight, he wouldn't get another chance. And there was a part of him that knew— that had known for a long time— that he could never truly be happy with anyone but her.
"Say that I do. Say that I do stay with you." Selina shook her head, frustrated tears welling in her eyes. "What's the ending of our story then, Bruce? Years go by and either we'll maintain just enough passion to start hating each other or we'll just get old and sexless and boring. I don't want to start hating you, and I really don't want to get and old and sexless and boring. I mean, we're not exactly the types who would be happy holding hands in a retirement home fifty years from now."
"Then where do you see us fifty years from now? Still dressing up in leather costumes and swinging from rooftops? That's over, Selina. We left that behind when we left Gotham behind."
"Bullshit." Selina shook her head, her eyes narrowed. "We may have gotten a clean slate, but it didn't change who we are underneath. You're still the good guy. I'm still a crook. No matter how you spin it, we're fundamental opposites, baby." She took a long sip of her wine, swallowing as a tear slid down her cheek. "Don't confuse staving off loneliness with finding your soulmate."
"Stop it." Bruce's hand tightened over hers. "This has nothing to do with me being lonely. I've been lonely most of my life. I'd be just fine on my own again. I don't want you to go with me just to have someone there. I want you to go with me because…because I love you, Selina."
Selina looked down, her other hand covering her eyes, her thin shoulders starting to shake with holding in tears. "Please…please don't say that."
"It's the truth."
"I can't do this." She abruptly pulled her hand away, wiping off her cheeks and getting to her feet. "I'm sorry, Bruce. I'm sorry for taking your cash and trying to hide it. And I'm sorry for leaving like this, but…you'll thank me for leaving someday, believe me. Someday, when you're married to some nice, normal girl with a couple of kids and I just have to hide in the shadows and watch you be happy while I just stand by and hate her for making you happier than I ever could, then, if you even still think about me, you'll realize I really did do you a big fucking favor." Selina caught her breath, noticing that people were starting to stare. "And I'm rambling. So I'm gonna go. So…goodbye." She walked away with impressive speed for a woman in six-inch heels, still graceful even in her misery, leaving the restaurant and attempting to disappear into the storm, Bruce hastily throwing two hundreds on the table and following after her.
Selina crossed her arms over her chest, shivering and miserable in the pouring rain, her heels click-clacking on the cobblestoned path down the alleyway she had taken for a shortcut back to the apartment. The streets were quiet and empty on either side of the alleyway, and she was grateful. She wanted to be alone, and she needed to move fast. She needed to beat Bruce home so she could get her things and be gone before he could say or do anything else that would make her want to stay with him more than she already did.
She would just disappear. Like always. Disappearing was the only thing she'd ever been good at. Tears were still streaming down her face as she tried to reassure herself this was all for the best. He was the only man who'd ever meant anything to her and here she was still ruining everything. Love didn't fix anything, Selina thought glumly. It just made everything so much worse.
"Are you lost, sweetheart?"
Selina looked up at the unfamiliar, heavily Cockney-accented voice. There was a man standing in her way at the end of the alley, and she had been so lost in thoughts she'd nearly run right into him. She didn't bother responding, just forcing a tight smile and attempting to walk by him. But he didn't budge, reaching under his jacket and shoving the barrel of a revolver against her stomach. "Give me the purse, and I won't empty this into ya. The earrings too. And the bracelet."
"Fuck you." Selina scoffed automatically.
"Watch your mouth, you stupid slag. Or my friends over there—" he cocked his head towards the other end of the alley, where a group of four men were blocking the only way out, smiling and laughing with excitement as they watched their boss in action, "They'll take turns holding you down while my whole gang fucks ya bloody, and then we'll shoot ya in places that'll make your death come real slow."
Selina affixed a terrified expression on her face, still upset enough about what had happened with Bruce that it wasn't too difficult to get her lower lip to tremble with fear. "Please…please don't hurt me. I'll give you anything you want." She handed over her purse with shaking hands. "See? I'll cooperate."
"I know you will." The man smiled, revealing yellowed, crooked teeth. He lifted his hand, snapping his fingers to signal the rest of the boys should come and join them. "It's five against one, sweetheart. Don't struggle. You'll just make it worse." He handed off the purse to one of his minions. "Now the bracelet and earrings."
"And then you'll let me go?"
"Sure, of course."
She handed over her diamond bracelet and earrings, pretending to be surprised when two of his stiffs caught her by the arms. "Wait, what are you doing? You said—"
"I lied, love. You really shouldn't take the word of thieves as the bloody gospel." He stepped closer, touching her cheek. "And you know what? Fight back all you like. It gets me so hard when you birds struggle."
Selina sighed, muttering under her breath in her true voice. "Why does that not surprise me?" Before the men could even react to the sudden change in her demeanor, she wrenched her arms free and kicked the gun out of her primary attacker's hand, spinning around and slashing the razor blade heel of her other boot across his face before swinging her arm back to elbow one minion in the face hard enough to break his nose before turning on the other three.
But suddenly she realized it wasn't just three men waiting for her anymore. There were at least ten more men now, in groups of five at either end of the alley. This wasn't just a group of idiot drunks. This had all the earmarks of a gang initiation, where the new guy was supposed to rape and mug the first unlucky girl they stumbled upon to prove his mettle with the new crew.
Selina's mind was suddenly flooded with a very unpleasant memory very similar to this moment. She'd been so young then, surrounded by a group of men who were looking at her just like this, like she was an animal to be tied up and tortured for their amusement. But she wasn't that scared little girl anymore. Far from it. She'd fight to the death before she'd go through something like that again. Selina's hands clenched into fists, her heart pounding in her throat as the men moved closer, encircling her, the stench of stale alcohol from their clothes and breath making her disgusted and angry, her body humming with energy as she prepared for battle.
When the first man finally lunged towards her, she lashed out, clawing him across the face with her fingernails as someone else grabbed her hair from behind, dragging her backwards and slamming her head against the brick wall of the alley. Selina's vision swam alarmingly as she continued to fight against them, knowing the most important thing in a fight where she was this badly outnumbered was just to stay on her feet. But victory started to seem more and more impossible, even as she flipped and kicked and twisted out of their grasp time and time again. If only she could somehow climb up…if only she had her weapons belt…but she didn't. She had nothing. She had gotten distracted, surrendered to her feelings for Bruce for just a moment, and that one moment of emotional weakness had left her open for an attack.
And now she would pay the price. Dazed and disoriented from multiple blows to head but determined as ever, Selina looked up at her nearest attacker, her upper lip curling into a snarl. If she was going down, she was damn sure going down with a fight.
But suddenly she wasn't fighting them off alone. With a black blur and a roar of fury, a new arrival took out her nearest attacker, slamming him into the brick wall so hard the man crumpled to the ground, unable to form more than a gurgling of protest as his mouth flooded with blood.
Somewhere in her addled brain, Selina registered that the Batman was here, he was fighting beside her again. He wasn't wearing the cape or the cowl, but this merciless attacker and vigilant protector certainly wasn't Bruce Wayne anymore. He had become his alter ego entirely, fighting for her so fiercely that several of the men at the back of the group started to slink away with fear.
His arrival awakened the fight in Selina as well, and she pushed off of the wall, no longer a victim weakened by pain, but The Cat, fighting them off two at a time, the former Mr. and Mrs. Peters shedding their masks of pleasant domesticity and embracing the dark, violent fury that had been barely contained and hidden by their fancy clothes and false smiles. They worked beautifully together, backing each other up and assisting each other's attacks without a word exchanged between them, instinct guiding their every movement until the group of thirteen men lay in an unconscious heap at their feet.
Bruce and Selina looked at each other when it was all over, both breathing hard, Bruce stripping off his jacket, Selina's chest heaving up and down with each shallow breath, so much adrenaline pounding through their systems that it was impossible to think, impossible to question anything, still relying on animal instincts to guide their next move.
"Better than sex?" She grabbed the collar of his shirt, pulling him to her.
"Let's see." Bruce growled, Selina crushing her mouth against his as they stumbled backwards, the kiss growing even more desperate as he pushed Selina up againt the brick wall, their tongues tangling together, Bruce pinning her hands flat against the wall over her shoulders with her own, Selina lacing her fingers through his, sighing against his mouth as passion became necessity. They didn't just want this anymore, they needed it like oxygen, practically devouring each other as Bruce pushed up her skirt to rip off her underwear before he lifted her into his arms, Selina hurriedly undoing his pants and wrapping her legs around his waist as they abandoned all common decency and fucked right there in the alleyway. It had never been like this with them. There was nothing nice or sweet or romantic about anything they were doing. It was fast and dirty and brazenly public, Bruce thrusting into her hard against the wall, Selina practically panting against his mouth as they raced each other to an orgasm, Bruce silencing her strangled cry of passion when he kissed her at the end, a long, deep kiss that changed everything. Afterwards, Bruce looked up at her, his eyes dark with desire as he smoothed down her hair with one hand, Selina's usually immaculately straightened hair gone appealingly messy and wavy from the rain, her hand on her cheek as she looked back at him, neither able to find the right words to express out loud what they both finally understood.
This was who they really were. This was what they were meant for. And the only person who could ever truly understand this side of them was in their arms.
Bruce let out a long breath. "So do you finally believe me?"
"About what?"
"I don't want a nice, normal girl."
"I believe you." Selina smiled peacefully down at him as they both reluctantly came back down to earth. "So when's our flight out of here?"
"You're coming with me?" Bruce helped her back down to her feet, watching Selina pull down her skirt and stuff her ripped red thong into her purse.
"Only if you promise we can fight off a gang of thugs together at least once a week."
Bruce tried to smother his smile. "Never a shortage of thugs, I've found."
"Then I'm in." Selina took his hand, leading him out of the end of the alleyway away from the sound of approaching sirens and calmly hailing a cab as if fighting off thirteen guys before getting it on in an alleyway to celebrate was the most normal thing in the world.
Selina in a skintight dress seemed to make a very appealing potential customer to the London cabbies, and she nearly caused a car accident when two cabs tried to pull over to their same curb. As the two cabbies cussed each other out, Bruce and Selina selected their ride, Bruce opening the door for her. Selina smoothed down his lapels before getting inside. She leaned forward, kissing him softly with a small smile on her lips. "Happy anniversary, Mr. Peters."
"The first of many, Mrs. Peters." He smiled back, following her into the cab as Selina gave the cabbie the address of their apartment so they could get their things before leaving for the airport.
The driver seemed to be fairly adept at taking a hint, and after glancing at the way his passengers were sitting in the rearview mirror, Bruce's arm around the back of Selina's seat as he spoke softly into her ear, Selina smiling slyly in response as her hand slid higher up his thigh, the driver put up the partition and turned up the radio.
Bruce and Selina were both still just drunk enough—on way too much vintage wine, on the adrenaline rush of a good fight, on the hazy aftermath of mind-blowing sex, and most of all, on the unexpected promise of a future together— to kiss the whole way home.
A/N- Until Chapter Three! Next time—Bruce introduces Selina to the high life in Paris, Selina starts to come clean about her past, and Bat Cat decide that using their very specialized skills to fight foreign crime isn't just great foreplay—it's a way of life. Thanks so much for reading. Reviews make my day!