Title: "The Only Bat"
Author: Kat Lee
Rating: PG-13/T
Summary: Catwoman's mission again comes between her and the only bat she'll ever call.
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters, names, codenames, places, items, fandoms, titles, and etc. are always © & TM their respective owners, not the author, and are used without permission. Any and all original characters and everything else is © & TM the author and may not be reproduced in any way without the author's express, written permission. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.

"What's that?" Batman demanded.

"What's it look like?" Catwoman returned, her tone and glowing, emerald eyes stating clearly that her tail was already swishing with agitation he caused.

"Mew."

"I'm used to you bringing them to work, Catwoman, but can't you admit that carrying one around with you, when you're jumping and climbing high buildings like this, is a bit much?"

"Don't tell me how to raise my kittens," she growled, unsheathing her claws as he stepped closer.

Batman spread his hands apart and open, gloved palms up, before him. "I don't want to fight you tonight, Catwoman." In truth, he never wanted to fight her. He wanted to make love with and to her. He wanted her to fight beside him. He wanted to save her from the darkness that he knew was within her, a darkness far too much like his own. But he never really wanted to fight her. He only fought her when there were innocents at stake, or she was breaking the law, which always put innocents in danger. And now, the aggravating woman was putting one of her own cherished lives in danger!

"Bruce," Selina sighed, dropping the act of being strictly professional and using their code names, "Binky had to come with me." Her perfectly shaped and voluptuous lips, the lips that haunted his dreams, pulled down into a pout that Bruce found both undeniably attractive and worrisome.

"You don't have to come out every night."

"I can't stay home every night, either, not if I want to save those who you don't fight for," she snarled, "and who really can't fight for themselves against the murderous humans you protect!"

He stifled the sigh rising in his throat. He had to tread carefully here. She was already ready to throw him off of the building! "Is he okay?" he asked, looking again to the little kitten hiding in the backpack on her back.

"As okay as can be expected on a cold night."

"Mew."

Bruce's stealthy eyes darted between woman and cat. Then, he moved with the uncanny speed which was only one of the many attributes the Batman was renowned for and wrapped both in his long, black cape. His body pressed closely against hers. He could feel the kitten shivering because of the way the backpack trembled slightly, but he knew his mistress trembled for an entirely different reason. "Selina," Bruce spoke again, his voice lower and softer. He reached out and touched her face.

She purred and leaned her beautiful face into his tentative touch. He drew his thumb softly across her mask and then traced her lips with his fingers. She turned her head instinctively up. He angled in for the kiss they both wanted, but then she pulled away.

"Argh!" He couldn't stop his frustration from exploding. He wanted the woman he loved so badly he burned! For a change, the law was not standing between them, but yet, something else still was. "What is it now?" he groaned.

"Not in front of Binky," she told him haughtily.

"Selina," Bruce tried desperately to keep his anger from seething through his teeth with every word he spoke, "I have never known a cat more clingy!" He ignored the kitten's disapproving mewls. "And, besides, we've made love before in front of your kids!" Would they ever be their kids?! he wondered desperately.

"This is different," she tried to explain. "Binky isn't ready. I haven't talked to him about . . . about you know . . . " She waved a hand. "He's just a baby, barely off of his bottle!"

He stopped and stared at her. "You bottlefed him?"

"When I saved him, his eyes were not even open yet." She watched her beloved's emotions flicker over his face as she gave him that information with some pride. He still had a long way to come, but at least, he did care for cats. She had taught him to love animals, even if he would never love them as much as he loved the bastard humans who seemed so intent to make every true innocent's life a living Hell. "Yes, I bottlefed him," she continued. "Where do you think I've been every night for the last three weeks?"

He hadn't known. All he had known, for sure, was that she had disappeared again and was far too achingly void from his life, and his arms and bed. "Selina." He reached for her again but stopped, his fury roaring silently within him, as the Batsignal lit the night sky.

Her pout was truly sad this time. "Go," she told him.

"You know I have to."

"I know you think you have to."

"Call me when he gets older?"

"You bet." She meowed, causing his hormones to race even harder within him and drowning out her own baby's mew. "You're the only man, or bat, I'll ever call."

He wanted to tell her that she was the only woman to whom he would ever turn, the only one he'd ever want to share his bed again or his life forever. He wanted to tell her he loved her and could wait until she was ready to give up her wicked ways and come to him in full, but he could hear rapid gunfire exploding a little more than a block away. Her kitten cried with fright, and Selina turned to comfort him. When she turned back, Batman was gone, but she smiled, though sadness still haunted her grin, for she knew he'd be back. They'd always come back to each other.

Catwoman shifted her backpack around to her arms, lifted her kitten, and cuddled him close. She looked up to the Batsignal glowing in the night, and his big eyes followed her gaze. "Mewl?" he asked, batting gently at his mother's cheek with a single, slender paw.

"That was your daddy, baby," Selina told him, hugging him as tightly as she dared do without hurting him. "He'll be back."

"Meow." She laughed as the little kitten again batted at her with a seemingly knowing grin curving his teeny, furry mouth and lighting his green eyes. He already knew truths it had taken them so long to figure out. They were destined for each other, and though their duties might delay their union, they'd always come together again. She just hoped that, one night, that union would be made permanent. She purred and headed home, her bags full of new diamonds and money to buy her babies more food and the cats of the world better and further protection.

The End