Bruce's moods became more fickle over the following months. Sometimes he was normal and sometimes he was angry, and there was never much warning when the shift came about. Leslie made appointments for him to speak with a therapist, and that helped a little bit.

"Have you thought about speaking to a therapist at all?" she asked Selina.

"I don't have to." Selina crossed her arms. "Bruce is the one who lost his parents. My mom went away a long time ago."

"Yes, but you cared about Thomas and Martha. They took you in. I can tell that you—"

"I'm fine." Selina interrupted her, frowning. "I'm used to it. Bruce isn't."

Leslie pursed her lips.

"And besides..." Selina looked away from her, hesitating. "I feel better when Bruce feels better."

Leslie studied her for a few seconds. "You care a lot for him."

Selina stepped away from her. It wasn't okay. She liked Bruce, but admitting that she cared about him made it feel certain that he would leave her eventually, or that he would die. Either way, she would be left alone again.

"Do you think of him like a brother?" Leslie asked.

"No, he's not my brother. He's my friend."

Leslie cracked a small smile at that.

Later that day, she had a long discussion with Alfred in the kitchen, and he made an unexpected offer at dinner. "I was thinking it might be good for us to get away from Gotham for a bit."

"You mean like a vacation?" Bruce asked.

"That's exactly right, Sir. It's been a long while since we visited the chalet."

"The what?" Selina looked from him to Bruce.

"It's a house in Switzerland," said Bruce.

"Switzerland?" Selina thought of the globe in Dr. Wayne's office, which was now just called the Study. "Isn't that in Europe?"

"It is, Miss Kyle."

"Does that mean we'll be going on a plane?"

"That is indeed the way to get there, yes."

"Have you never been on a plane before?" Bruce asked.

She frowned. "When would I have been on a plane? I've never left Gotham before."

"Really?"

She crossed her arms. These were stupid questions. She'd never had much money before. How could she have left Gotham? Where would she have gone?

Alfred cut in. "Well, all the more reason for us to go. There's a big world out there, Miss Kyle, and I reckon you should see as much of it as you can."

She looked out the window and down at the clouds below. Beyond the clouds, she could sometimes see the endless blue of the ocean.

"It's cool, isn't it?" said Bruce. He'd worn a somber expression as they went through the airport. This was his first time flying on a plane without his parents. But now he seemed better.

"Yeah." She sat back in her seat so he could see. He had given her the window seat, even though it was where he always sat when he flew with his parents.

As the sun set behind the plane, the water darkened to indigo, mirroring the sky above. Soon, the window itself had become a mirror, since there was more light inside the plane than outside of it. Selina stared at herself, and at the reflections of Bruce and Alfred behind her. She realized how strange her life was, how she had gone from living in alleys and basements to living in a giant manor and flying on a plane, and all because she had tried to steal Dr. Wayne's wallet.

Again, the old guilt welled up. She was an imposter here. She didn't deserve this.

But Bruce looked at her and smiled, and she remembered why she never left when she thought about leaving. She was here for him.

The 'chalet' wasn't as large as Wayne Manor, but that wasn't saying much. It was situated on the side of a mountain, surrounded by woods on three sides and a spectacular view in front. That said, Selina, not having slept particularly well overnight on the plane, was more interested in trying out one of the beds.

Alfred made a point of giving Selina the furthest room from Bruce's. "And don't try to sneak out to Bruce's bed, Miss Kyle," he said when Bruce was out of earshot. "You're reaching an age where it isn't proper for boys and girls to share a bed anymore."

She stared at him. "But it helps him sleep better." And it helped her, too.

"Well, he has to learn to sleep on his own, doesn't he? And I reckon it'll be easier for him while we're far away from Gotham, so now's as good a time to try it out as any."

She sighed, but was too tired to argue about it right now anyway. "Fine."

They were hiking in the woods near the chalet when they came across a cave, and Selina wanted to have a look inside.

"Don't," Bruce said warily. He was wearing a thick jacket, as the late Spring heat was not particularly effective up in the mountains.

"Are you afraid there'll be bats?" She put her hands on her hips, her own jacket somewhat lighter. "I'm scarier than any bat, remember?"

"Just don't. Just to be safe," he said anxiously.

"Fine, Bruce."

A few days later, when they explored Zurich, she found a book on bats that was in English and bought it for him as a late birthday present. She knew that he wouldn't look at the book anytime soon, but if he did eventually and learned more about them, perhaps he would be less scared.

During the second week, Alfred took them hunting. He showed her how to shoot a rifle, and even though she and Bruce both wore earmuffs, the gun was too big and too loud for her to get comfortable with it.

Still, she managed to kill a deer, which was more than Bruce could say. A few times, it seemed like he missed on purpose, scaring the prey away instead. Perhaps he didn't want to leave any young deer without their parents.

She had mixed feelings about Switzerland. On the one hand, it was beautiful but boring. She didn't belong in the woods and mountains. On the other hand, it was nice to get away from Gotham, as Alfred had known it would be. This place was peaceful.

By the time the two weeks were done, she was anxious to return to Gotham. She could understand Alfred's and Bruce's fondness for this place, but it wasn't for her.

And when they returned to Wayne Manor, the restlessness didn't fade completely. This place was certainly more like a home to her, perhaps moreso than any one location in Gotham, but it started to occur to her how mundane her life had become. She was in a safe and comfortable situation, spending every day with her one friend, but it wasn't exciting.

So when, a week after the return from Switzerland, Leslie invited her to stay at her apartment in the city for a little while, Selina didn't reject the idea, even though she knew that the invitation had nothing to do with her restlessness and everything to do with the conversations that she overheard Leslie and Alfred having about Bruce and Selina's "codependency," which was a new word that Selina didn't like.

Bruce wasn't happy about it. They had barely ever been apart since that night several months ago. It was one thing to sleep alone, but quite another to be apart from her for weeks.

"I don't think it will be so bad," she told him, as she repacked the purple suitcase that she had never actually finished unpacking a week earlier.

"I don't want to be alone here."

Her insides felt heavy at his words. "You have Alfred here."

"Having Alfred here is not the same as having you here."

Selina sighed and looked towards the window, where the skyline of the city looked as inviting as ever. "We don't always have to be together."

"Why not. I like doing everything with you."

"Yeah but you won't always think that. You'll get bored of me someday, or think I'm too much of a burden." She felt her anger arise in anticipation of that happening. "I'm an intruder here, Bruce. I don't belong here."

"That isn't true. You do belong here."

The words increased her pain, and she shook her head. "Someday you'll want to just be a rich kid with your rich friends, and you'll kick me out. I shouldn't even be here in the first place. I only live here now because I tried to steal your dad's wallet, remember? I've never done anything to deserve to live here with you."

"That isn't true," he repeated more insistently. "You've been my best friend. I like you more than anyone else."

That sent a little zap of lightning through her. "You do?"

"Yes, I do."

She looked away again, heat rising through her face. "I like you more than anyone else too, Bruce." Then she shrugged. "I won't be away for that long. Just a little while.

He sighed. "Will you call me tonight, before you go to bed?"

"Okay."

Leslie's apartment was really big, and higher up than the roofs of most of the surrounding buildings. Wayne Tower was visible from her wide living room. "What do you think?" Leslie asked.

"It's really nice," Selina replied automatically. There was a lot of space and not a lot of furniture, and Selina had the thought that she could do cartwheels here without risking hitting anything. She hadn't done cartwheels in a while.

The bedroom that Leslie gave her was at the far end of a long hallway, and she hesitated when she saw the East End in the distance through the windows of this room.

"Is this okay?" Leslie asked.

"Yeah." Selina went to the window and stared at the run-down neighborhood that had been her home for a long time. It was a bleak and dangerous place, and yet Selina felt a longing coupled with memories of being much younger and living with her mom.

She peered at the fire escape outside of the window, a new sense of anticipation building.

"I expect that I don't need to remind you to keep those windows locked," said Leslie.

"I know." Masking her thoughts, Selina turned to the room itself. It wasn't as large as her bedroom at the manor, but it was still much larger than anything she'd known before she met the Waynes. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. Take whatever time you need to get settled. Dinner is at seven." Leslie left the room, and Selina looked at her suitcase, but didn't start unpacking just yet. Instead, she turned back to the window, as more memories surged through her brain.

"Do you miss Bruce?" Leslie asked over dinner, which was a stew that was a little too healthy for Selina's taste.

"It's only been a few hours," Selina replied, not wanting to admit that she did in fact already miss the boy.

Leslie studied her as though her non-answer was more revealing than she wanted it to be.

She used Leslie's phone to call Bruce after dinner, but kept the conversation short so that Leslie wouldn't comment on it. While she talked to him, Leslie went to one of the large bookcases that flanked her television and perused it.

"You know, I was your age when I first attempted to read Jane Austen," she said after Selina hung up the phone. "I wasn't quite old enough for it yet." She pulled out a book and examined the cover.

"I've never heard of her." Selina approached until she had a view of the words on the cover of the book. Sense and Sensibility. "And that doesn't look as fun as Alice in Wonderland."

"No, there are no talking cats or mad hatters." Leslie studied her for a moment, then held out the book. "But here, take it. Maybe you can give it a try."

Selina frowned, but took the book. "Thanks."

She took the book to her room and tossed it on the bed, not having any interest in opening it. Instead, she went to the window and immersed herself in memories once more.

She didn't know how long she had sat there for when she heard a mewling sound. Looking down, she saw a black cat walking along the edge of the roof across the alley from Leslie's building. She stared, remembering Nightcat.

She examined the fire escape outside her window, and then turned and went to the door, listening for any indication that Leslie hadn't gone to bed yet. Not hearing anything, she returned to the window and unlocked it, then slowly slid it open and snuck out. Shutting the window again behind her, she climbed down the fire escape until she was level with the cat, who was now seated and watching her.

"Hi," she said quietly, her green eyes meeting the cat's yellow ones.

The cat simply watched her.

"I know you don't talk, this isn't wonderland." Selina sat down and kicked her legs out beneath the railing, swinging her feet over the empty air. "You look just like Nightcat. She was a stray that my mom found a long time ago, and we took care of her for a little while. She was like me. Now I'm the stray that Alfred and Leslie take care of, and Bruce..." She trailed off and looked down, then shrugged. "I don't want to talk about Bruce right now."

The cat hissed softly.

"Yeah, I know how you feel. He's nothing at all like us. He's rich and comfortable and... Well, he isn't happy, but he will be happy again someday, living his rich person life with his rich person friends. And you and I will be..."

She sighed, reaching up to grip the railing with one hand and resting her head on her suspended arm. "I really like living with Bruce. I really like Bruce. But he won't want me to be around forever. I'm just a stray. I'm a burden, he just hasn't realized it yet, just like I didn't realize that Nightcat was a burden when my mom said so... Still, I would have liked to keep Nightcat for a little longer. I hope Bruce will want to... to keep me around."

Her emotions swirled like a tornado. "He told me today that he likes me more than anyone else. I really like that, but I know it's not fair. He should like Alfred more. He should like his friends from school more. They're the ones that belong in his life. I don't belong there."

The cat looked down at the alley below, and Selina did the same. "I don't know if I belong here anymore, though. Sometimes it feels like I'm stuck between being two different people."

Suddenly, the window behind her lit up as the light inside was turned on. Selina froze and then stood, quickly scrambling up a level. Once she was out of sight again, she crouched and looked at the cat, who was watching her again.

"I guess I should go back inside. I bet the bed is really comfortable, just like my bed in Wayne Manor, and in Switzerland. Rich people get really comfortable beds. Will you be back here tomorrow night?"

There was, of course, no answer to that.

"Well, if you are, I'll come back out. I'll tell you about Switzerland, or about..." She trailed off as her mind went to Bruce again. She hadn't wanted to talk about him and then of course had done exactly that. "I don't know, we'll see. Good night."

Again, there was no answer, and Selina resumed her climb upwards and snuck back into the room.

Just like Dr. Wayne, Leslie sometimes had long hours at the hospital, so Selina was often left to her own devices. She got really good at cartwheels again and tried to teach herself some other flips. But usually she would leave the apartment and wander the city, reacquainting herself with places that she had once known so well.

After a week, she started pickpocketing again, although she was very cautious about it. Dr. Wayne had caught her because she was desperate and reckless at the time, but that wasn't the case anymore. She wasn't starving and she had a comfortable place to sleep, and now she just wanted some money to keep so that she wouldn't always be such a burden for Bruce. So she was much more patient and deliberate in choosing her targets, making sure the crowds were thick enough that she wouldn't be seen and only choosing victims who clearly had money to spare.

One day, she took some of her loot and took herself shopping, as she was once again outgrowing her clothes. She bought herself a few pairs of black leggings and some black shirts, and then paused when she came across a black, leather jacket with zippered pockets. It reminded her of a jacket that her mom had used to wear a lot. She bought the jacket, even though it was too big for her, as that just meant that it would last her longer.

When she was done, she took her haul back to Leslie's apartment and stashed it out of sight in her room, so that Leslie wouldn't ask about it and about where she had gotten the money.

A few nights later, she put on her new, black clothes and the black jacket and snuck out, climbing all the way down the fire escape and emerging from the alley. The streets in this neighborhood were well lit at night, not like in the East End, and she kept her hands to herself, merely observing people that she passed. There were families and couples and groups of adolescents. Occasionally, she would pass lone wanderers like herself, and their eyes would meet for brief moments of solidarity before moving on.

As the night went on and she got further from the apartment, there were fewer families and the couples got younger. She paused at a small garden nestled against a building, impressed that most of the flowers weren't dead like in so many of the other gardens in the city. A pair of teenagers who looked to be around fifteen sat together on a bench, talking quietly.

Selina stayed where she was, unseen by the young couple. She couldn't hear their words, but she watched the long and seemingly comfortable conversation that they were having. She and Bruce never had such long conversations; there wasn't much to tell each other about when they experienced everything together.

After a while, the couple started doing more kissing than talking. Selina knew that she should leave them alone, but it took a moment for her legs to respond to the command. Her brain started to create images of herself and Bruce sitting there in the couple's place, doing the same thing, and while the images certainly made her uncomfortable, she also felt a longing for it to happen.

She hurried back to the apartment and snuck back in, getting ready for bed. When she lay down, her brain conjured an image of Bruce beside her, his face turned towards her as he slept peacefully. She reached out, her hand resting in the empty space where she imagined his face to be, and she fell asleep reaching for the dream.

Leslie gave her more books, some of them more literature that she had read as a teenager and others more academic. Selina continued to mostly leave them unopened, even as Leslie made clear that she expected both her and Bruce to go to school at the end of the summer.

When she returned to Wayne Manor, Bruce pulled her into a tight hug, and she was surprised to find that he was taller than her for the first time in over a year. She immediately thought of her dreams, which had become more frequent the longer they were apart, and felt heat in her face. As she pulled away, she saw a hint of pink in his own cheeks, and wondered if he had also had dreams about her.

He insisted on teaching her to swim that summer. She had never much liked the idea of swimming, but the way he got very flustered when he saw her in her black, one-piece bathing suit made it worth it. She struggled more than a little in the large pool behind the manor, having to constantly fight the instinct to climb back up onto the dry, warm cement tiles that surrounded the pool. Eventually, however, she managed to clumsily maneuver herself back and forth across the pool on her own, imitating his motions.

"Want to race?" he asked when she felt not remotely comfortable enough yet for such a suggestion.

But she wasn't one to back down. "What do I get if I win?"

He hadn't been expecting the question, and mulled it over for a moment. His cheeks turned pink at whatever it was he thought of. "If you win, I'll kiss you," he finally said quietly.

She stared at him, clinging tightly to the edge of the pool. The cool water helped her fight off her own blush. "That sounds like more of a prize for you than for me."

His face fell, and he looked away. "Fine, I'll buy you ice cream," he offered dejectedly.

"Deal," she replied with false enthusiasm, hoping to lift his spirits back up. He wound up winning the race anyway, of course, but it wasn't like she would be paying for herself the next time she had ice cream with him.

She anxiously ignored the change that followed that day. His verbalization of the possibility of them kissing, if not explicitly his desire to do so, created a strange sort of static in the air around them. There was no more illusion that they were like something of a surrogate family to each other, along with Alfred. They were most definitely not family and there was most definitely a possibility of mutual attraction and, eventually, something more than that.

She took to spending more time away from him, using the excuse of going through the books from Leslie in preparation for starting school. And she did actually go through the books this time, because they kept her mind off of the boy.

Alfred noticed, of course. Selina could tell from his expressions whenever she and Bruce were being quiet around each other, which happened more often than not now. But he never asked about it.

And then school started, and Selina detested the uniform from the moment she tried it on. She anxiously entered the fancy building alongside Bruce, her bag slung over one shoulder.

"Bruce?"

"Julie!" Bruce smiled at the red-haired girl with very pronounced freckles who had been there the night that he and Selina first met.

She ran over and stood in front of Bruce, bouncing on her feet as she beamed at him. "I'm so happy that you're back!" Then her gaze shifted to Selina, and her eyes narrowed. "What's she doing here?"

Bruce sidestepped closer to Selina. "She's coming to school with me."

Julie, or Freckles, as Selina promptly decided to think of her, frowned. "She's the thief, isn't she? The one who was all dirty and doesn't have any parents?"

The words struck Selina in the gut, but she carefully avoided showing any reaction.

"Her name is Selina," said Bruce, his pitch dropping in anger. "She's been living with me for the last two years."

"So she's like your sister now?"

"No, she's not my sister. She's my friend."

Freckles gave her a dirty look, then reached out her hand for Bruce. "Well, come on, Bruce, let's go to class."

Bruce didn't take her hand, and instead guided Selina to the classroom.

That first morning set the tone for Selina's brief experience as Bruce's classmate. The worst offenders were Freckles and another old friend of Bruce's named Tommy Elliot, but it was clear that none of Bruce's peers like Selina or believed that she should be there. She was very much an imposter among them, and no one was fooled.

After a month, she'd had enough. She'd been clashing with the other kids almost daily, and she was also impatient with the lessons themselves, which ran at slow paces and contained so many innocuous facts that she had no interest in learning. She couldn't fathom why she would ever need to know so much of the boring material.

"I don't belong here," she told Bruce. They were having lunch on a bench near the edge of the grounds, where Selina planned to make a quick escape.

"Yes, you do," he replied urgently.

"Wake up, Bruce! You're the only one who thinks that. Everyone else knows that I shouldn't be here."

"I don't care what anyone else thinks. And I thought you didn't care, either."

"I don't care what they think, but I care what I think. School isn't for me, Bruce. It's too boring and... structured."

He looked down at the empty space between them. "But I want you to be here."

She sighed. "You have other friends here."

"I've told you, I like you more than them."

She studied him. Reaching out, she lifted his chin, then leaned in and pressed her lips against his.

They were both blushing afterwards, but she didn't let it slow her down. Picking up her bag, she stood. "Goodbye."

He stared at her, but she turned away. Looking around quickly to ensure he was the only watcher, she snuck off of the grounds and back to the city where she belonged.