Fic: Cat Got Your Tongue (Gotham, Selina/Bruce. Teen)
Title: Cat Got Your Tongue?
Author: shallowness
Fandom: Gotham
Rating: Teen
Characters/Pairing: Bruce Wayne/Selina Kyle
Summary: Three times Bruce Wayne doesn’t apologize to Selina Kyle.
Author's Note: Post-series fic. 2,071 words.
Cat Got Your Tongue?: shallowness
She’s heard Bruce say ‘I’m sorry’ in many tones of voice and at many different times. Selina’s heard him say it to her and others when he didn’t mean it at all, and at the other extreme, she’s heard him sound so contrite that his voice etched the words inside her. There have been other apologies that fall into gray areas, where she hasn’t been sure she believes him, although she thinks the ones that are most dangerous are the apologies that he thinks he means at the time.
(there are some things he’ll never apologize for)
Selina is waiting for Bruce just around the corner from the conference room. It’s one of his rare appearances at a Wayne Enterprise board meeting. Alfred had enough of a cold that his voice had gone this morning, and the executives were excited that Gotham’s prodigal son himself was attending.
They’d had no way of knowing that, under the polite veneer, they and the meeting had about half of Bruce’s attention, the other half reviewing the last night’s activities and his plans for that night. After all, he’d voted, asked questions that were more pointed than they’d seemed and appeared engaged in the discussions. Nobody in the room knew to look more carefully.
But from the second he sees her after he turns the corner, escaping, he’s giving Selina much more of his attention, although you’d have to be looking at his eyes to know it.
A part of him is aware of the executive assistant in the biscuit-colored suit trying to apologize for her inability to stop Selina from getting this close to him. But Selina is bristling with anger, and even if he had the Batsuit and all its tools, Bruce suspects he’d only be able to slow her down.
He had been expecting some reaction from Selina, but not this. Still, he hadn’t meant to be here today, either.
He waves the assistant away, hoping she’ll stick to her contract and won’t gossip that Selina Kyle had insisted on talking to Bruce Wayne and that he’s going along with it. He’s spent so long away from Gotham that he hopes most people will have forgotten the connection that had existed between them. But coupling their names in, say, the press would be asking for trouble.
As soon as the assistant is out of hearing distance, the words explode out of Selina.
“You stole from me.”
“That’s a strong accusation to make,” he parries.
“I know it was you, Bruce,” she spits out.
He hadn’t said a word until their rooftop reunion, but she had always known that it was his eyes that were watching her under the mask. Bruce had allowed himself to wonder, before returning, if she would know it was him. He hadn’t been sure if he hoped she would.
But on his recent visit to her place, he hadn’t left anything behind; it had been an extraction. The suit had been designed to leave minimal traces. He hadn’t stayed there long, using his enhanced night-vision goggles to look for her hiding places. He’d reflexively noted that she wasn’t sharing the place with anyone with two legs
Here in this corridor of Wayne Enterprises HQ, Bruce maintains control of his face, more in case any of his employees pass them than because he thinks Selina will buy the façade.
Still, Bruce takes issue with Selina’s claim that removing an already stolen object and returning it to its glass case counts as ‘stealing’. Probably best not to say it out loud. He has no intention of apologizing for what he did either, but the fury in front of him makes him yield a little.
“I told you to take it back,” he says.
She grins, showing her teeth.
“And I don’t take orders from you, or anyone.”
The fierce tone is as powerful as a hit to the solar plexus, and it’s a feeling he hasn’t known for a decade. All the other women he’s crossed paths with across the world, thieves, hustlers and assassins, even those who found some of his weak spots - it hadn’t been the same. Selina has a gift for stealing the very breath out of him.
He absorbs her anger, but he can hear the warning it contains. He hopes the museum has already started acting on the instructions the Batman had left for improving their security features along with the diamond, because he fully expects Selina to try to steal it back. She’ll probably succeed. One more thing to watch out for.
He never thought his return to Gotham would be dull.
“It was good advice,” is all he says, instead of admitting he’d missed her. That’s irrelevant. She’s safe, and he’s better equipped to protect her now, just like the rest of Gotham City.
Selina surprises him, reining her temper in. Her tone changed, she says, “Before you go home, make sure you get some honey for Alfred. He sounds like Bane, underwater.”
He can’t control his face then, even though he tries his best and only nods at her.
(he’ll apologize, just not for the right thing)
Catwoman is watching Poison Ivy carefully, but the Batman knows she’s aware of his presence when he rises to join her, although she doesn’t show it by even a flicker of movement. He knows that the woman under the mask still sees the Ivy Pepper she was a kid with. Whatever happened between them during his absence, that much hasn’t changed. But Catwoman is nonetheless wary of the woman he knocked out.
He wishes he could check what marks he left on Selina’s throat. At the thought of what he did, the words come easily to his lips, the first words he’s spoken since dropping the act.
“I’m sorry,” he breathes, using the voice that comes naturally when he puts on the suit. He’s standing close enough to her that Selina can hear him easily. Her gaze remains fixed on Ivy.
“For what?” Catwoman coolly asks.
“I had to make it look real,” he says.
“Oh, the throttling. That’s what you’re sorry about.” He’s pretty sure now that he didn’t damage her vocal cords.
The wind picks up. There are sirens drawing near.
“I headbutted you, twice,” she observes, “but I’m not apologizing, am I? Because I thought that you were under Ivy’s spell again. It’s called doing what you’ve got to.”
Her tone makes clear that she’d headbutt him again quite happily if it weren’t for the reinforcement that would make it hurt her more than him, as she now know from hard-won experience.
He wishes she’d turn to face him directly, though, like she did a few minutes ago.
“But you weren’t under the influence,” she continues, and her tone flattens. “You had an antidote and you were just faking it.”
Batman doesn’t explain himself to many people. He prefers to let his actions speak for themselves - Poison Ivy is out of commission because of him, and will be easy pickings for the poilce.
“I needed to find out what she was up to,” he says, breaking his own rule.
“Enslave all the men who could be useful. Kill everyone. Let the plants take over Gotham. Same as always.”
There was more to it than that, and Catwoman knows it. There were specifics he now knows and should attend to. From the sound of the sirens, the police will soon be here and Batman and Catwoman should be gone. But he still wants her to look at him with something of the passion in her eyes when she thought she was fighting for him, even if it’s turned into anger now.
Catwoman’s words between feints and hits had been, “I might not like you very much, but I know how dangerous you can be under Ivy’s control.”
Ivy had laughed. Selina had got into position and headbutted him, which probably means she has a headache coming. It didn’t affect him the way she’d wanted, and in that moment where she reacted with disappointment and puzzlement, he’d taken the opportunity to close his hand around her throat. Ivy had ordered him to take care of Catwoman, and his reward had been the phrase that was the key to her whole scheme.
“I needed specifics,” he expands.
“It was a very convincing act. I should applaud you, but I’ve gotta go.”
She picks her way past the unconscious bodies of the gang members Ivy had brought along for protection, speeding up the further she gets away from him.
He knows she’s going to have bruises on her neck, and he’s truly sorry for them but it’s the other hurts that he’s caused that are the reason for her rancor toward him. Bruce sighs.
Batman leaves the same way that she did, contacting his car to pick him up. By the time he gets in, he’s already got a new plan of action based on what he learned from Ivy. He can’t apologize for what he did to get that.
(he’s definitely not sorry for this)
It’s a Christmas party for orphans. He’s one. She’s as good as one. This is before the whole incident with Bane on the other side of town.
A devoted swain or stalker in the making has been chasing Selina with a piece of mistletoe. She’s polite. He’s persistent. She whispers something less polite into his ears and walks away. As host, Bruce ought to step in and warn the idiot to listen to her, but Selina wouldn’t thank him for it and from the way the man’s eyes track her, he wouldn’t listen. Selina makes her way out of the main room to a balcony that’s too exposed to the chill December wind for most people. Better to let the inevitable scene play out there than in public, Bruce decides.
The guy in a rented tux and with too much liquid courage in his bloodstream follows. So does Bruce. He finds them standing close, but there’s no romance to the way Selina moves her foot on top of her unwanted companion’s and grinds down. Bruce hears cracking and wonders what her heel is made of.
Her victim cries out in pain.
“I said ‘no’.” Selina says. “Do you understand what that means now?”
The guy is pale, but getting angry. Bruce does step in then.
“It’s time you leave. Call a cab to the hospital. Get an x-ray.”
“Did you see what that bitch did to me?”
“That bitch can do more if you like,” Selina retorts, and Bruce can see her eyes flash.
“I didn’t see anything,” he says. “Leave.”
The guy glowers at him, then Selina, but he sees the steel in both their faces and decides to give up the fight. He limps off and Bruce watches until he’s closed the door behind him.
When he turns to look at Selina, she’s scowling at the floor. He approaches her and sees that she’s staring at the mistletoe that was probably dropped when her heel made contact.
“Stupid plant,” she mutters.
Her cheeks are flushed from the cold and the encounter, and he has no right, because he broke her heart, and he thought it was wise to keep his distance from her because Selina hasn’t forgiven him for that, plus he’s just seen her injure a stranger for less, but Bruce closes the distance between them, leans down, fingers light on her jaw, and kisses her like it was the Gordons’ wedding all over again.
For a few moments, she’s too shocked to respond, but he perseveres and then Selina is kissing him back like she never forgot how to either.
They pull apart at the same second, as if they jointly remember that they’re no longer teenagers who could kiss with no consequences.
As far as Bruce is concerned, there is absolutely no reason to apologize for what he did.
Selina doesn’t scratch when she wipes her lipstick away from his lips with her thumb.
Other people will remember that night for what Bane did. But that’s not why Bruce and Selina will remember it.
Author’s Note 2: The second time, Batman is apologising to Catwoman. Feedback is appreciated, as this hasn’t been beta read.
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/436161.html.
Author: shallowness
Fandom: Gotham
Rating: Teen
Characters/Pairing: Bruce Wayne/Selina Kyle
Summary: Three times Bruce Wayne doesn’t apologize to Selina Kyle.
Author's Note: Post-series fic. 2,071 words.
Cat Got Your Tongue?: shallowness
She’s heard Bruce say ‘I’m sorry’ in many tones of voice and at many different times. Selina’s heard him say it to her and others when he didn’t mean it at all, and at the other extreme, she’s heard him sound so contrite that his voice etched the words inside her. There have been other apologies that fall into gray areas, where she hasn’t been sure she believes him, although she thinks the ones that are most dangerous are the apologies that he thinks he means at the time.
(there are some things he’ll never apologize for)
Selina is waiting for Bruce just around the corner from the conference room. It’s one of his rare appearances at a Wayne Enterprise board meeting. Alfred had enough of a cold that his voice had gone this morning, and the executives were excited that Gotham’s prodigal son himself was attending.
They’d had no way of knowing that, under the polite veneer, they and the meeting had about half of Bruce’s attention, the other half reviewing the last night’s activities and his plans for that night. After all, he’d voted, asked questions that were more pointed than they’d seemed and appeared engaged in the discussions. Nobody in the room knew to look more carefully.
But from the second he sees her after he turns the corner, escaping, he’s giving Selina much more of his attention, although you’d have to be looking at his eyes to know it.
A part of him is aware of the executive assistant in the biscuit-colored suit trying to apologize for her inability to stop Selina from getting this close to him. But Selina is bristling with anger, and even if he had the Batsuit and all its tools, Bruce suspects he’d only be able to slow her down.
He had been expecting some reaction from Selina, but not this. Still, he hadn’t meant to be here today, either.
He waves the assistant away, hoping she’ll stick to her contract and won’t gossip that Selina Kyle had insisted on talking to Bruce Wayne and that he’s going along with it. He’s spent so long away from Gotham that he hopes most people will have forgotten the connection that had existed between them. But coupling their names in, say, the press would be asking for trouble.
As soon as the assistant is out of hearing distance, the words explode out of Selina.
“You stole from me.”
“That’s a strong accusation to make,” he parries.
“I know it was you, Bruce,” she spits out.
He hadn’t said a word until their rooftop reunion, but she had always known that it was his eyes that were watching her under the mask. Bruce had allowed himself to wonder, before returning, if she would know it was him. He hadn’t been sure if he hoped she would.
But on his recent visit to her place, he hadn’t left anything behind; it had been an extraction. The suit had been designed to leave minimal traces. He hadn’t stayed there long, using his enhanced night-vision goggles to look for her hiding places. He’d reflexively noted that she wasn’t sharing the place with anyone with two legs
Here in this corridor of Wayne Enterprises HQ, Bruce maintains control of his face, more in case any of his employees pass them than because he thinks Selina will buy the façade.
Still, Bruce takes issue with Selina’s claim that removing an already stolen object and returning it to its glass case counts as ‘stealing’. Probably best not to say it out loud. He has no intention of apologizing for what he did either, but the fury in front of him makes him yield a little.
“I told you to take it back,” he says.
She grins, showing her teeth.
“And I don’t take orders from you, or anyone.”
The fierce tone is as powerful as a hit to the solar plexus, and it’s a feeling he hasn’t known for a decade. All the other women he’s crossed paths with across the world, thieves, hustlers and assassins, even those who found some of his weak spots - it hadn’t been the same. Selina has a gift for stealing the very breath out of him.
He absorbs her anger, but he can hear the warning it contains. He hopes the museum has already started acting on the instructions the Batman had left for improving their security features along with the diamond, because he fully expects Selina to try to steal it back. She’ll probably succeed. One more thing to watch out for.
He never thought his return to Gotham would be dull.
“It was good advice,” is all he says, instead of admitting he’d missed her. That’s irrelevant. She’s safe, and he’s better equipped to protect her now, just like the rest of Gotham City.
Selina surprises him, reining her temper in. Her tone changed, she says, “Before you go home, make sure you get some honey for Alfred. He sounds like Bane, underwater.”
He can’t control his face then, even though he tries his best and only nods at her.
(he’ll apologize, just not for the right thing)
Catwoman is watching Poison Ivy carefully, but the Batman knows she’s aware of his presence when he rises to join her, although she doesn’t show it by even a flicker of movement. He knows that the woman under the mask still sees the Ivy Pepper she was a kid with. Whatever happened between them during his absence, that much hasn’t changed. But Catwoman is nonetheless wary of the woman he knocked out.
He wishes he could check what marks he left on Selina’s throat. At the thought of what he did, the words come easily to his lips, the first words he’s spoken since dropping the act.
“I’m sorry,” he breathes, using the voice that comes naturally when he puts on the suit. He’s standing close enough to her that Selina can hear him easily. Her gaze remains fixed on Ivy.
“For what?” Catwoman coolly asks.
“I had to make it look real,” he says.
“Oh, the throttling. That’s what you’re sorry about.” He’s pretty sure now that he didn’t damage her vocal cords.
The wind picks up. There are sirens drawing near.
“I headbutted you, twice,” she observes, “but I’m not apologizing, am I? Because I thought that you were under Ivy’s spell again. It’s called doing what you’ve got to.”
Her tone makes clear that she’d headbutt him again quite happily if it weren’t for the reinforcement that would make it hurt her more than him, as she now know from hard-won experience.
He wishes she’d turn to face him directly, though, like she did a few minutes ago.
“But you weren’t under the influence,” she continues, and her tone flattens. “You had an antidote and you were just faking it.”
Batman doesn’t explain himself to many people. He prefers to let his actions speak for themselves - Poison Ivy is out of commission because of him, and will be easy pickings for the poilce.
“I needed to find out what she was up to,” he says, breaking his own rule.
“Enslave all the men who could be useful. Kill everyone. Let the plants take over Gotham. Same as always.”
There was more to it than that, and Catwoman knows it. There were specifics he now knows and should attend to. From the sound of the sirens, the police will soon be here and Batman and Catwoman should be gone. But he still wants her to look at him with something of the passion in her eyes when she thought she was fighting for him, even if it’s turned into anger now.
Catwoman’s words between feints and hits had been, “I might not like you very much, but I know how dangerous you can be under Ivy’s control.”
Ivy had laughed. Selina had got into position and headbutted him, which probably means she has a headache coming. It didn’t affect him the way she’d wanted, and in that moment where she reacted with disappointment and puzzlement, he’d taken the opportunity to close his hand around her throat. Ivy had ordered him to take care of Catwoman, and his reward had been the phrase that was the key to her whole scheme.
“I needed specifics,” he expands.
“It was a very convincing act. I should applaud you, but I’ve gotta go.”
She picks her way past the unconscious bodies of the gang members Ivy had brought along for protection, speeding up the further she gets away from him.
He knows she’s going to have bruises on her neck, and he’s truly sorry for them but it’s the other hurts that he’s caused that are the reason for her rancor toward him. Bruce sighs.
Batman leaves the same way that she did, contacting his car to pick him up. By the time he gets in, he’s already got a new plan of action based on what he learned from Ivy. He can’t apologize for what he did to get that.
(he’s definitely not sorry for this)
It’s a Christmas party for orphans. He’s one. She’s as good as one. This is before the whole incident with Bane on the other side of town.
A devoted swain or stalker in the making has been chasing Selina with a piece of mistletoe. She’s polite. He’s persistent. She whispers something less polite into his ears and walks away. As host, Bruce ought to step in and warn the idiot to listen to her, but Selina wouldn’t thank him for it and from the way the man’s eyes track her, he wouldn’t listen. Selina makes her way out of the main room to a balcony that’s too exposed to the chill December wind for most people. Better to let the inevitable scene play out there than in public, Bruce decides.
The guy in a rented tux and with too much liquid courage in his bloodstream follows. So does Bruce. He finds them standing close, but there’s no romance to the way Selina moves her foot on top of her unwanted companion’s and grinds down. Bruce hears cracking and wonders what her heel is made of.
Her victim cries out in pain.
“I said ‘no’.” Selina says. “Do you understand what that means now?”
The guy is pale, but getting angry. Bruce does step in then.
“It’s time you leave. Call a cab to the hospital. Get an x-ray.”
“Did you see what that bitch did to me?”
“That bitch can do more if you like,” Selina retorts, and Bruce can see her eyes flash.
“I didn’t see anything,” he says. “Leave.”
The guy glowers at him, then Selina, but he sees the steel in both their faces and decides to give up the fight. He limps off and Bruce watches until he’s closed the door behind him.
When he turns to look at Selina, she’s scowling at the floor. He approaches her and sees that she’s staring at the mistletoe that was probably dropped when her heel made contact.
“Stupid plant,” she mutters.
Her cheeks are flushed from the cold and the encounter, and he has no right, because he broke her heart, and he thought it was wise to keep his distance from her because Selina hasn’t forgiven him for that, plus he’s just seen her injure a stranger for less, but Bruce closes the distance between them, leans down, fingers light on her jaw, and kisses her like it was the Gordons’ wedding all over again.
For a few moments, she’s too shocked to respond, but he perseveres and then Selina is kissing him back like she never forgot how to either.
They pull apart at the same second, as if they jointly remember that they’re no longer teenagers who could kiss with no consequences.
As far as Bruce is concerned, there is absolutely no reason to apologize for what he did.
Selina doesn’t scratch when she wipes her lipstick away from his lips with her thumb.
Other people will remember that night for what Bane did. But that’s not why Bruce and Selina will remember it.
Author’s Note 2: The second time, Batman is apologising to Catwoman. Feedback is appreciated, as this hasn’t been beta read.
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/436161.html.