Selina interlude

[moonshadows]

Selina interlude.

The door opened. Footsteps announced her visitor as he crossed the room and sat in the other chair, but Selina kept her eyes on her cuffed hands. The silence thickened for a long minute. Then the chair scraped across the floor as her visitor stood and rounded the table, and a warm hand under her chin gently urged her to look up.

“Hey,” Bruce Wayne said, expression somewhere between happiness and concern. “Am I that unwelcome?”

She turned her head away from his fingers, unwilling to see the inevitable disappointment on his face. “It’s not that. I’m…I didn’t want you to see me like this.”

Bruce pulled the chair over so he could sit closer to her. “You’re beautiful no matter what you wear,” he said, the words low and warm and throbbing.

In answer, she raised her hands and let the handcuffs rattle, still avoiding his gaze. He took her hands in his. She wanted to pull away, to ball her hands into fists, but she couldn’t force herself to give up that touch. “Bruce…the ten thousand…it was stolen.”

“I know.” His voice was calm, grounding, reassuring. She closed her eyes to protect herself from the desire to look at him.

“The night before we met, I committed a theft. Batman confronted me. His power, his grace, speed, control…he was like a panther, and I was his prey. He had the eyes of a lion.” Her fingers tightened around his; he squeezed back. “I’m a lioness, Bruce. I fell in love. I know you care about me, but you don’t need the scandal of being involved with a criminal – much less the heartache of knowing that if we ever went past friends, I’d be imagining him instead of you.”

Again, the silence stretched. Selina pulled her hands free and turned away, eyes still closed. Maybe, if she’d met him first, she wouldn’t have…but if she’d met him first, would Batman have saved her? Would he have been able to destroy the plague? No, she didn’t regret her actions – only that the consequences were hurting an innocent bystander.

“Don’t I deserve the right to make that choice for myself?” Bruce asked.

He sounded so forlorn and hopeless that her eyes flew open and, reflexively, she turned around to look at him. He looked every bit as forlorn as he’d sounded. “Why?” It was the only word she could force past the lump in her throat.

“Why would I pursue this, despite you being a criminal and in love with Batman?” When she nodded, he smiled sadly. “I love you, Selina. Maybe I can’t chase you across rooftops and make your heart race the way he can, but I can do things he can’t. I can take you out to dinner, take you dancing. I can hold you on a couch before a roaring fire on Christmas Eve. I can be the warmth you feel when you fall asleep, and the smile you wake up to. And if you need to spend a few hours chasing and being chased and come home with the smell of leather in your hair and sweat on your lips…I can turn a blind eye.”

“Bruce…” She swallowed, trying and failing to find words that might possibly explain what she was feeling. “Even though I can’t return your feelings?”

He brushed her cheek with the knuckles of one hand. “You care enough about me that you didn’t want me to see you like this. You care enough to want to spare me heartache. You’re the first one I’ve felt this way about in a long, long time, and I don’t begrudge the Dark Knight whatever happiness you might bring him. I want you to be happy, Selina. I’d prefer to be the one making you happy, but if all I can be is the runner-up, I’ll settle for that.”

She wanted to say something, anything, but her entire world was a pair of sad, earnest eyes belonging to a man who could have any woman he wanted, but was throwing his heart away pining for her. Could she do this, let Bruce shackle himself to her, be a pampered lap-cat who still forsook safety and security for the primal thrill of the night? Would it be fair to him if she did?

Maybe he’s willing to share, whispered the memory of Superman’s voice.

“How can you trust me?” she whispered. “After you got me that meeting with the chairman of Multigon, I went back and broke in. The men in the red car were trying to kill me for that. You could have been…”

He pulled her into an embrace, her head on his shoulder, her tears soaking into the material of his suit jacket. With one corner of her mind, she admitted that she must care about him as more than just a friend if she was so upset about this. With another, she was aware that he was stroking her hair and murmuring nearly-inaudible reassurances in her ear. His voice was lower, rougher…

The suspicion startled her, but his hand pressed gently against her head, preventing any observers from realizing something had changed. “I didn’t think you cared,” he murmured, teasing. “Trust me, Selina. I’ll do what I can to make sure you get out of here.”

Get out of here. Words she’d heard once before in this rough voice. She wanted to believe, but she had to test it – she had to be certain. “Not without you,” she whispered into his shoulder, a counter-sign that had never been agreed on, and held her breath waiting for the continuation of a conversation that had had no witnesses.

“I’ll be right behind you.” The words were no louder than a sigh.

It was him. It was really him. He loved her. Selina allowed herself a dozen tears of relief and joy, but then she forced her breathing to calm and sat up. Bruce smiled uncertainly at her, gently brushing away stray tears while she searched his eyes for Batman’s fierce strength.

“You did warn me you’re not a man who gives up easily,” she said shakily.

For just an instant, that lion’s spirit flashed at her. Then he threw his head back and laughed. “More than you’ll ever know,” he said proudly, and somewhere, she found the strength to smile. Amazing that the words which had dashed her hopes could now restore them. “When you get out, however long it takes, I’ll be waiting for you.” He grinned, an expression less about amusement and more warning her that the joke was about to be told. “We never did get to go to lunch.”

Selina laughed.