Author's note: Look at me, fanficing again. I bet you thought you saw the last of me...

Ha, jokes apart, hello again! This time I present to you all a multi-chaptered DC hot mess. It's Selina centered, set in the future, but it'll also feature many other characters of DC, from the Superman universe to the Flash and maybe even a little bit of Arrow, but mostly using the DCTV interpretation. Now, let me tell you that I'm not a comic reader, I'm just an encyclopedia eater and TV watcher, so I might suck most of the time. I want you to be warned that this has a very high chance to suck.

My dear Louisa (gameofgotham on tumblr) agreed to be my beta reader, so my text is a little bit less sucky, but that doesn't mean that the story is good.

So just so you know, it is mostly in Selina's POV, it has a bit of Ivy's origin story and a bit of the origin of Catwoman. It also might be me not accepting the "fact" that a certain character might be "dead" in Gotham, shhh.

Of all means, Gotham, its characters and the others characters that I borrowed are not mine and I have no claim on them.

I hope you get to read it and I really hope you like it, even if it's just a little bit.

Also, it'd be really, really nice if you leave you review, thank you very much and I'll see you again! :D

Bloodstream
A Gotham/DCU fanfiction

"This is how it ends: I feel the chemicals burn in my bloodstream.
Fading out again. I feel the chemicals burn in my bloodstream, so tell me when it kicks in."
Ed Sheeran – Bloodstream

A PROLOGUE IN THREE ACTS

- Act one: the slow burn -

When Barbara Kean was kidnaped by the Ogre, brainwashed and turned into a crazy killing machine, Ivy Pepper and Selina Kyle, her roommates, figured it was time to go.

For Ivy, it just felt like the right moment to start hovering around someplace where she could learn things that interested her and for Selina, she rather go back to the streets.

It was how Ivy started to sniff around Gotham U and the herbarium, getting to know a shit ton of new plants that would be just the tip of the iceberg of her knowledge and it was how Selina's path crossed Fish Mooney's.

Sure Ivy only knew about the coolest gig ever from word of mouth after it was long over and right, Selina liked to brag about how scary and awesome it was, although she'd never explain how she escaped, but that wasn't even a big deal.

At the end of the day, was it the municipal garden, was it the abandoned hidden place in the Narrows that Fish had offered to her little army in those few glorious days, the two girls were alone with nowhere else to go and Barbara knew it somewhere deep in her mind and although it was surprising for Jim Gordon to hear his ex ask him to find the two kids, Barbara couldn't quite place his bewilderment, after all, she was in a mental hospital, but she knew what she was doing. The meds made sure of it.

"Barbara wants us to what?" Selina asked to a just as skeptical Jim when he passed along the message. He was still very much pissed at her behavior at said gig episode and she wouldn't judge him on that. She wasn't sorry either.

"Find Ivy and go back to her place. She's letting you two stay there while she's gone."

"We can't afford the bills." She stated. "Nor get actual jobs, we're too young."

"She has her savings and trusted me to pass a certain amount every month so you can do groceries and pay the bills."

Selina was almost out of words.

"She's crazy."

Jim didn't disagree.

"Maybe. Or maybe she just really likes you two and wants to help."

For several months, neither Selina nor Ivy would hold their breath for that, but when the money kept going it got easier to believe. They really had gotten into Barbara's good side, it became more and more common for them to go visit her at the hospital (not Arkham, she managed to stay away from Arkham) and by the time the woman was back home, the three of them had formed an inevitable bond.

Although the dynamic between the girls was a tad odd – Ivy and Selina would never be completely comfortable in each other's company – they grew to have something very similar to sisterhood. Barbara would take Selina to the gallery and Ivy to fancy meetings with intellectual people. The older teenager had a sharp eye for beautiful things that Barbara soon noted would be a great addition to the gallery. The younger teen was a little genius that was being wasted on the streets. A true plant lover, the few changes she applied n Kean's apartment spread around like weed and just as fast every botanic in town knew about her.

Somewhere between Selina's realization that she was stepping up to replace Barbara at the gallery and Ivy's invitation to actually be inside one of Gotham U's botanic labs, in which the acclaimed Dr. Jason Woodrue was the head of researchers, Jim came back to their lives.

The slow burn of his return started when Barbara still was hospitalized. He'd show up randomly when off duty to check if everything was alright, especially when Barbara went home. Was she having any bad reaction? Were the girls helping? How was everyone holding up? And, at first, Barbara didn't want the attention. Too much water had already passed under that bridge she and Jim had once built, but as he drew closer to her and further from Leslie (without even noticing it), they found themselves enjoying each other's company just like old times and it was rather exciting.

By the following February, Jim had put a ring on it and for once Barbara felt that she wouldn't ruin things up. This time it would work out. And it did.

In the spring of the third year after her kidnaping, an oddly hot month of April for Gotham's taste, their family was growing up and fine. The nine months bump was heavy in Barbara's stomach, Ivy had managed to do so well on her SATs that Gotham U had no choice but to accept her at only 15 and she just had successfully concluded her first year, Jim was a lieutenant and Selina was running the business with the energy that only an ambitious 17 years old can have. Her meds were holding up, she was about to have a baby girl and it was working out.

Everything was just working perfectly out.

- Act two: the fall out –

"Selina?" someone called the girl in one spring afternoon of that warm April. The sun was hanging in an angle especially flattering for the sculptures that she ordered to be put in some strategic places and they looked marvelous. When she turned around, there was a lady coming in her direction.

With a smile, Selina met the woman halfway. That lady was there just that morning and bought a rather expensive painting.

"Have you changed your mind and decided to buy something else?" the girl asked. "Perhaps that beautiful fountain."

The woman smiled charmed, but shook her head.

"I'm sure I'd have to take you with me to decorate my house, Selina, you have a heart for this. I could never accomplish the same visual. She said. She was a lovely lady, her hair just beginning to grey, and she had a good taste in jewelry. "I'm afraid I'm here again for a much less exciting reason. You see, I lost one of my bracelets." Showing her sparkly left wrist to Selina, the girl gasped as if shocked, but truly the feeling was how she could notice anything missing (there were so many) and the woman continued. "I think it fell off, maybe the lock broke? So I'm retracing my steps in the hopes to find it. Do you think you can help me?"

With wide eyes, Selina took a deep breath.

"I don't know, maybe. No one reported me anything today, but I can check. What did it look like?"

"Uh… diamonds with a silver cord?" she said it like a question and Selina started to walk to the back of the gallery, signaling for the lady to follow her. "It had seven diamonds, the middle one larger than the others, but it was also quite average."

Selina nodded, taking her words the way she learned to take rich people's words: as if they weren't spoken. Seven diamond, one of them bigger than the others, and silver. It was quite average. Rich people could say such stupid things.

"Particularly, I didn't find anything today." Selina told the woman as she unlocked the door to the office. "There are four people beside me working here and I guarantee you that they are all reliable. If they found your bracelet…" she pulled a huge cardbox from one of her shelves and put it on top of her desk. "it's here. It's in our lost and found."

She smiled and opened the box. It had more things than one would think would find, but not enough to fill the whole thing.

"Oh." The lady whispered and started to look through the things.

Each item was inside a transparent plastic bag with the date and the name of the person who found it. From cellphones to fur coats, scarfs, watches, none of them were the woman's bracelet.

"I'm sorry, it's not here." She apologizes and Selina shook it off.

"No worries. It was worth the shot, right?"

Smiling, the lady agreed.

"I'd never know if I didn't come!"

"Exactly. Now, if you want to leave your number and name, we'll contact you first thing if someone finds it."

"Would you do that? My daughter gave it to me and I love it very much."

"Sure, of course we would."

Selina offered an notepad and the woman wrote down her number before they left the office. It was almost time to close and they were halfway through the space when the woman stopped.

"You know what, Selina?" she asked, her eyes in the fountain just a few feet away from them. "I think you're right, I want that fountain in my front yard."

"Well," the girl smiled. "What are we waiting for, then?"

[...]

Barbara Kean's gallery was open from Wednesday to Sunday, 8am to 3pm and was making fast money ever since Selina landed a job there at the age of 15. Now, two years later, she knew well what to sell, what to buy, how to make people sell and buy what she wanted to buy and sell. It was easy, really, because rich people didn't care about how much money they were spending and they never noticed when she'd take something else.

One fact about Selina Kyle: her hands still were light.

Of course she wouldn't steal from Barbara or Bruce, but other people were other people. So every now and then one would see Selina close the gallery at exact 3pm, double check, get in her car (the first thing she bought with her money) and drive to the Narrows, where she'd enter in one of the Penguin's underground banks and she'd leave something behind – usually cufflinks, money or, this time, a diamonds bracelet.

It was always a smooth process, but that afternoon, as she was rolling out of the Narrows, she spotted something… odd.

She parked the car in the next corner and went back to the alley that caught her attention and she couldn't place what bothered her the most in the scene.

"V?" Selina called and the redhead girl looked up at her. The only sign of her displeasure of seeing the other was a subtle twitch of her eye that Selina only caught because she knew Ivy too well. "The heck you doing?"

To diverge the question, Ivy stood up and smiled.

"I could ask you the same, Selly."

Selina shook her head with faked humor.

"What is it you're selling?" she asked and Ivy shrugged.

"Stuff." She said opening her hand to look at the vial she was holding more closely. Someone passed by Selina, a guy, and went straight to Ivy. He handed her a few bucks and she gave him the vial, no one said a word.

"Where are you cooking these stuff?" Selina insisted and Ivy smiled again, now with mischief. "Please don't say school."

"Then I won't say it." Ivy replied and Selina's eyes widened, she looked around with her hands on her waist, unable to know what to say. "Look, Cat, you should go."

Instead, Selina stepped closer.

"I thought you were happy, V." she said, the desperation tasting bitter in her tongue. "Weren't you dating that shrink-wannabe of yours? Aren't things good with Jim now?"

"She has a name, you know that and yes. I'm super happy."

"Then why are you in the Narrows selling drugs? Don't you think Jim will find out?"

"He's not a Narc and I'm kind of working here, you know?"

"You don't need to work!" the older girl snapped. "You're the brightest sixteen years old of Gotham, people will throw money at you if you say so, Pamela. Sell drugs will ruin it."

"First of all, you don't call me Pamela around here." Ivy said, suddenly in Selina's face. "Second of all, I like you better when you mind your own business. I thought that we had made it clear years ago."

"Do you think your girlfriend will be okay with this little job of yours?"

Ivy shrugged.

"I don't know. Do you think Bruce would be okay with this little kleptomania of yours?"

It was a slap right in Selina's cheek and she stepped back, shocked to know that Ivy knew about it.

"I'm not…"

"Let me remind you again that I'm not an idiot." The younger girl said, fixing the length of her Gotham U bag strap with disinterest before looking right into Selina's eyes. "Harleen knows what I'm doing, it's a bit of an experiment she's keeping an eye on too. Does Bruce know that you're a pathological stealer?"

"He's always known that I'm a criminal." Selina replied, already sharpened after the first instant of shock, but Ivy just shook her head.

"Except… that you aren't anymore, right? Good house cat you've became, helping with the chores, taking the family business under your care. It doesn't matter that you wouldn't go back to school, you don't need it, you're the perfect daughter."

"You're the perfect daughter too." Selina reminded the other.

"I know." Ivy insisted. "Who doesn't love a little genius to show around, right?"

"V."

The bitterness was evident in Ivy's words and she knew she was taking it too far. She had to be out of there fast anyway if she wanted to meet Harleen in time for their little business in Arkham and that argument with Selina was tiring her, so she started to step away and out of the alley.

"The thing is, Selly, that Babs and Jim are blinded by their love for us. So is your billionaire. That's why they don't see us from who we really are, but I know you. And you're in no position to call me on my shit."

Ivy had a point, which made Selina sigh closing her eyes for two seconds. When she opened them again, Ivy already was back in the street, so she hurried to follow her.

"V! Hold on! Where are you going? I can give you a ride."

Laughing, Ivy turned around.

"Fuck off, Cat. Don't tell me what to do." And when she turned back again. "Out of my way!" she snapped at some pedestrian who quickly hopped aside scared.

How dare Selina feel the right to tell her whatever it was she tried to tell? Selina was a train wreck with her fancy job and fancy boyfriend who'd cheat on her every time she wasn't around and to come to her turf and call her Pamela above all?

"Drop me two blocks from Arkham in any direction, please." She informed as soon as she hopped into a cab. The driver tipped his cap and moved along.

In the Narrows, it was hard to be rid of Ivy Pepper, the framed Mario Pepper's daughter. After her mom cut her wrists and she was adopted upstate, her adoptive family gave her a new name, Pamela, as if she was so willing to start from the bottom that she'd even want a new name.

At the time, she didn't. She hated the idea to the core, gathered her things and ran back to the neighborhood she knew so well. But as she stood at Babs' and went back to school, she dug the name she had for a few weeks, giving it a shot. It stuck.

It wasn't Pamela Isley who'd stay home and help Barbara figure out the bills and water the plants. But everyone at home knew that in Gotham U and every single laboratory she ever landed feet on, Ivy Pepper wouldn't be allowed to stay.

Although Ivy teased Selina about her secrets, there was something she was keeping from Harleen, though. For the psychology student, Ivy was her second name. For Harleen Quinzel, Ivy Pepper was Pamela I. Isley and if it was on Ivy, the other girl would never know.

Ivy met Harleen in her second month as a college student. She was in the herbarium with Dr. Woodrue when this blonde girl with voracious eyes came to ask him something. She was a biology minor with a thing for chemistry and when Ivy accidentally answered one of her questions (she wasn't counting on anyone hearing her voice), it caught her attention. Later, she was surprised to see Harleen outside the lab when she went out for lunch and they immediately hit it off.

It was something from another world, really, like they knew each other for ages.

Harleen, now nineteen, was in her second year of psychology, had moved to Gotham because of the college and was hoping to get an internship in Arkham.

"I want to study the criminally insane." She had told Ivy. "It always fascinated me and I heard that Arkham was the best place for it."

Not long after that, at one of the college's parties, she found out that Ivy was a bit of a drug dealer.

"I thought your father was a cop." She mentioned and Ivy made a face. Her real father was a huge, massive dick, she kind of blamed him for not being into guys, but he was her father. And Jim Gordon had his share on his death. Ivy was constantly dealing with the trouble of knowing it pretty well and also being grateful for all Jim had done for her ever since Barbara was in the hospital.

"He's not my father." She said anyway and Harleen looked intrigued, so she explained. "I'm adopted."

She wasn't. None of the girls were officially adopted, because their files were too thick and they decided to save themselves the trouble, so they just sort of stayed there and never left.

"It doesn't change the fact that you live with a cop and you're selling drugs." Harleen pondered, to which Ivy smiled.

"You're in Gotham, babe."

It was the same night Harleen kissed her for the first time and also when they started to trace a plan that involved some illegal cocking and human testing.

Although it could be pretty soon to tell, her relationship with Harleen could only progress, not only as a couple, but as madly awesome scientists. Together, they were developing a drug to clear people's mind, a combination that the future psychologist believed would help her work.

Harleen believed that the criminally insane mind had a fog in it that messed with the person's notion of right and wrong and once this fog is cleared, the person is practically cured.

Ivy had been selling the drug in the Narrows for a couple of weeks already, a raw version of what it could actually become with a few more tests and it was promising, but Harleen landed an internship in Arkham that semester and couldn't wait to start to see results.

It was risky, they knew, but the chances of someone missing some drughead in the Narrows or loonie from Arkham were pretty low, so Ivy was heading there with three vials, glee and expectation,

The cab dropped her where she wanted and she paid the driver with drug money, walking happily towards the gate where she'd meet Harleen. She busied herself sending a text to inform that she was only one block away and when Ivy turned her attention back to her way, she noticed that she was not alone.

She slowed down, counting the people around her – seven guys much taller than her, all looking like pawns – and didn't like her result. Jim had made them take self-defense classes and she liked the extra-credit that it's give in Gotham U, but Ivy knew well that she wouldn't be able to take down seven guys. Damn, she doubted that even Selina could. According to her calcs, she could kill a couple with the pocket knife she had hidden, hurt two or three more, but there would still enough left to get her down and you could only guess what those big bad wolves wanted from her.

Her mad thinking came to a stop, though, as well as her feet, when someone stepped in front of her, someone she knew and that someone had a pretty smile to go with her lab coat and high heels.

Ivy thought about reminding her that one is not supposed to use one's lab coat outside the lab, but she didn't get the chance. The woman spoke first.

"Hello Ms. Isley." She said, her voice covered in sugar, the men got closer. "Or should I say… Ivy Pepper?"

Ivy didn't answer. She was too busy being filled with dread. Would everything be taken from her if they knew her real name? The woman wasn't finished, though.

"I heard you like to experiment on people." She said. And that was what it was to the story.

- Act three: the inception –

There were many, many things Selina Kyle was hiding from Bruce Wayne. For a start, he still thought that her mother was alive somewhere. He still thought that he was the one who came up with the whole "I could kiss you" idea. He also thought that Selina was totally okay with their friends with benefits thing and she was, but there was only a seventh percent agreement with the "you can fuck anyone else in the meantime" part. She would never say that out loud, though.

Of course there was the kleptomania thing that she decided not to mention, after all, it didn't affect him in any aspect and then there were the packages.

During the course of those three years, Selina had been getting random gifts – sometimes personally, from people on the streets, sometimes at home or at work, all of them coming from different places, most of them with Metropolis in the addresser.

Even though there wasn't a name to link those things, she had a good guess of who was behind them, and she was just waiting for the perfect moment to go look for her.

When Selina got to her car that afternoon, after that fight with Ivy, there was a new small box on top of it. Now, to get mysterious packages in Gotham was a risky thing, and it was clearly one of those deliver-in-person gifts, but it had Central City's logo and postal stamp in it.

Taking the box with her, Selina got in the car and drove back to Barbara's neighborhood in record time, sending glances to the box by her side with certain desperation. What had she sent this time? What did she want? The gifts were more and more frequent lately, maybe it meant something, maybe it meant that the time was coming.

Holding back the urge to rip the paper open, Selina parked at home, went up to check on Babs, helped her a bit with dinner and announced that she was going to Bruce's. She was in no mood to face Ivy again, it wasn't even funny.

Once she had gotten to the Manor, she greeted Alfred and went straight to the second floor, where the TV room was. There was one thing that could increase her mood and that thing came in the format of five blu-rays with Arnold Schwarzenegger on the cover.

She gathered those piece of quality big screen and went to Bruce's room knowing that he'd be done with his training in a few. She took off her boots, socks and jacket, sat on the bed and went through the blu-rays for the thousandth time. It didn't matter that she knew the words by heart, it'd be always fun to read them again.

Not much later, the door opened and she looked up, dropping the little box by her left on the mattress. Bruce came in shirtless, sweaty, unwrapping his hands from the gauze that protected them for his boxing. His feet were bare and he was wearing just training pants. Selina smiled and hummed.

"Yummy." She commented, trying to sound all sexy and Bruce shook his head getting closer. His left hand was free and now he was freeing his right one. "You know, you don't even blush anymore, where's the fun of it?" she questioned with humor.

"What, you came here like Wowbagger just to insult me?"

"And you're a nerd too!" she accused. "How dare you!"

"I know, right?" Bruce exclaimed. "It's really unfair to have such ass and such brain!"

It still was so weird to hear it from him yet, so Selina just burst out laughing and he laughed too. There was why she liked him: Bruce made everything feel effortless.

"What do you have there?" he asked, although she could guess that he already knew. He didn't even need to get too close. "Terminator? Where did you find it?"

"At the TV room. We could totally marathon it." She said excitedly.

"I thought I hid them." He said, narrowing his eyes at her.

"Please!" she laughed.

Okay, maybe Selina was a bit too excited about Terminator and Sarah Connor and maybe they watched those movies way too many times and maybe their first actual date was to see the fifth movie because she loved them so much, but hey! Could you blame her when the movies were fifty shades of awesome? Bruce himself was an enthusiastic before he even met Selina, he was the reason they had those blu-rays.

But Bruce also wasn't stupid. When Selina came to marathon something – movie sagas, TV shows or even sex – it was because something was bothering enough for her to want to tune out the world. He knew it, because it was something that he would do and they were the same.

"What's up?" he asked casually.

"Nothing." She said slowly.

A few years back, she would snap and leave at Bruce's first step towards helping her, but the tables had turned in a way so far that instead of leaning out now she was leaning in to him now. All she needed was a little push.

"Sure." The boy scoffed and she sighed.

"I'm worried about Barbara." She assumed. Truth was that although Barbara had been having troubles at this end of pregnancy and she had to run with her to the hospital more times than it was cool, she also was the least of her concerns, but also the one that would bring less attention to her individual troubles. "I'm afraid she's a time bomb and of how much time we have in the clock."

"Is this about the Ogre thing?" Bruce asked, now more soft. Selina nodded. "But you're monitoring her, right? In case her meds stop working, you're around to report."

"Yeah, but what if we are not around? What if she's with the baby and she snaps?"

Bruce stopped and just looked at her, really looked at her, his expression softening, a small smile in his lips. Selina caught him midway through that smile.

"What?"

"You're such a big sister already."

Her desire was to retort that no, she wasn't. But the truth was that she cared about Barbara and the little girl getting ready to pop and she couldn't wait to see that little thing out and breathing.

"Look at you, so anxious about it!" Bruce continued and Selina awoke from her thoughts.

"Don't get to excited, I'll probably suck at it."

"No, you won't." He assured and she wondered where that conviction came from, so she crossed her arms defiantly.

"What makes you so sure?" she asked, one eyebrow raised.

"You're great with kids." He said matter-of-factly and Selina uncrossed her arms, focused on reading between his likes. "And you already love her. Nothing could go wrong from there."

Selina shook her head, but she wasn't disagreeing with him, she was just seeing beyond him. Bruce had a heart made of gold, seeing the good in people and reassuring them of this good he saw. It was sad that people liked to see his playboy persona and had little interest in who he really was, you could tell that he'd have a nice, happy family someday, if someone was willing to dig deeper into his layers.

"I just know that you will be the father of six someday." She told him, getting up and walking towards him. He raised an eyebrow. "The dork father who reads Lord of the Rings for them to sleep."

"Lord of the Rings is too deep." He argued. "I think that the Hitchhiker's Guide is more appropriated."

She rolled her eyes and he laughed, pulling her closer. Her body fitted right into his and she had to tilt her head to look him in the eyes.

"The question that lingers is…" he continued. "How many of those six will you mother?"

It was a harmless question that made Selina's heart skip a beat and her vision go black for a second before she had a comeback. It was a good thing he was holding her, because it'd be a delicate moment to stand with no support.

"None." She said, making it sound as if it was the reasonable answer and Bruce smiled before kissing her – fast, before she could say that she meant it – and the kiss heated pretty quickly as they walked to the bathroom and the shower.

[...]

The following day, Bruce woke up with Selina bringing him breakfast – croissants, apple sauce, blueberry jam and milk – to him in bed. It also was the day of the annual Wayne Charity Ball that they would go together for the fourth time. After their first ball, Selina started going in Barbara's behalf to keep the gallery running. She had said that nothing appealed more to the pockets of the rich than some rescued child who also looked oh so pretty.

"God, no." She said that morning, however.

"You're not going?" he asked surprised, a piece of croissant midway to his mouth. "Why?"

"I'm not in the mood for fancy dresses." She shrugged. "And I want to sleep." She extended the vowels to longer the word.

"Sleep now." He suggested and Selina made a face.

"I've to work." She complained pouting. "No one will show up because every costumer will be so busy with the Ball, but I still have to go there and stay until 3pm."

"But I thought that the Ball was good for business."

Selina sighed.

"Marla is going in my place." Was her final statement. "Besides, I so don't want to face people today. You can go and be Playboy Billionaire Bruce Wayne tonight. Fuck someone cute like she's not me."

Bruce shrugged.

"That's how I always do it, Cat." He said.

Word spread quickly that Bruce was riding solo that night as soon as he got to the hotel where the Ball was being held, that his date was his butler. In his defense, he did try to contact Ivy Pepper to go with him (she was almost as good as Selina at those events), but since he got no answer, Alfred was the next suitable option.

Ever since he and Selina started to go to those events, more kids their age began to go too, especially girls, so he had no trouble to find pairs to dance with while pretending to drink alcohol from his own bottle (it truly was just water). No one was as fun as Cat, though. She knew him like no one else and used to encourage him to do things that would improve his fake persona that was being carefully displayed in front of the society.

He was in the middle of a conversation with Lucius Fox when he saw a girl about his age near the food table. Beautiful, with dark skin and natural hair adorned with a blue flower, she was wearing a purplish dress that did good things for her curves.

"Who.." Bruce changed his line abruptly when he spotted her "is that?" he also made a good deal of pointing which, in fact, his mother did teach was rude. By his side, Lucius followed his gaze and shook his head.

"You don't want to go there." The scientist answered, but the boy insisted.

"Who is she?"

The girl seemed unsure of what she wanted to eat and just picked at things with her plate in her other hand. Alfred joined them. Lucius sighed, looking at Alfred for support.

"She's Tabitah Banderslaw." He finally said and Bruce's eyes lightened. "Sid's eldest."

"Banderslaw's daughter, is that so?" Bruce asked, ten thousand times more interested now. Alfred sniffed the danger of a bad decision being made.

"Oh no, no, Master B." he warned when the teen stepped towards her and he turned to the butler and Lucius with a mischievous smile.

"No… what?" but Bruce didn't wait for the answer.

Tabitah Banderslaw was fifteen, just as bored as Bruce, wasn't worried about why he didn't have Selina tagging along that time like other girls tried to know and was just as willing as he to jump right into one of the bathrooms to have sex. She was pretty and smart and quick to get in and out of situations, as he quickly realized. She didn't fuss around him, let him do his playboy act, enjoyed it and even asked him to join her for a smoke after.

Bruce wasn't a smoker, but he followed her to the back of the hotel to smoke in the street. For the look at the front of the hotel, one would think that the back couldn't be so ugly, but when Bruce came out with his fake alcohol and Tabitah Banderslaw, he felt the déjà vu of the streets he walked with Selina to meet Clive.

He drank, she smoked, all in silence for a few minutes watching people in rags pass by, the stinky smell boiled with the heat.

"Do you know what it's like?" Tabitah suddenly said and Bruce looked at her frowning.

"What?"

She shrugged, puffed her cigar. Her eyes were on an old man digging in the garbage.

"To live in the streets of Gotham."

That was unexpected, and he thought about it for a couple of seconds.

"I've seen up close."

"But did you live it?" she insisted. It was a strange subject to bring up after casual sex, he thought.

"Did you?" he chose to reply and a few emotions crossed Tabitah's eyes, none of them the comprehension she seemed to seek.

"No. I don't even like to think about it. My father says that I should avoid these thoughts, but sometimes it's inevitable, like I can't help but feel their pain." She looked right at Bruce then. Her eyes were deep and black, he hadn't noticed before. She continued. "This city is sick, Bruce. And as long as we can't relate to those who suffer, we won't be able to help. Of course those are thoughts of a rich girl. Any street con would laugh at me."

There was some real talk in there, he could grasp it. She seemed real and her theory was something to think about. Ivy once told him that he could try all the much he wanted to live in the streets and live like they did, but it would never count, because in his head he'd always know that anytime he felt like it, he could go back to his Manor and his endless money. Selina had told him to ignore Ivy (apparently, she was pissed at him for other reasons), but he knew that she agreed.

"Probably." Bruce finally said, hiding his bottle in a secret pocket of his suit. Tabitah finished her cigar and they went back inside.

Less than half an hour later, Bruce already was back to the Manor, but Selina wasn't there. He ate leftovers from lunch, let his dogs ruin his suit with dribble and fur and it was past 9 when he went up, stripped and got into a hot bath. Still no sign of Selina, not even a call. He didn't try to reach her. That wasn't their way.

Just a few minutes later, she arrived. With no much more than a relieved smile, she stripped down and joined him.

"How was it?" Selina asked and he made a face.

"Terrible, of course."

"No, tell me something new." She said with a bit of a laugh. "Who did you fuck?"

"How d-" but he stopped short when she move her hips ever so slightly, just checking his limpness as if it was proof. They both smiled. "Okay, brace yourself." He warned her before saying "Her name is Tabitah. Banderslaw."

Selina's jaw dropped and then she threw her head back laughing.

"No fucking way!"

"Yeah fucking way!" he replied, following her laugher. Most of the time, it was such a pain to pull up this other persona so different from who he really was, but sometimes somethings would happen, things that were the dictionary description of 'karma is a bitch' that he could do nothing but enjoy it. Selina seemed to like those things just as much.

"And how is she?" she asked. That's a question she always made and at first he felt weird about answering, but as time passed by he got used to it. Maybe it was a kink of hers.

"Black and beautiful," he answered "awesome hair, her breasts looked wonderful in that dress." Selina hummed, so he teased further, his fingers tracing the muscles of her stomach and up. "I had the chance to have both hands more than full on them."

She looked down at her own breasts with a little pout and he smiled, his hands hovering over them. She once had told him that her boobs weren't very impressive, but at the time he assured her that he didn't give many fucks about it. This time wasn't different, but instead of cupping them, he traced his way back down, his hands grasping the skin of her hips, and he leaned closer to her, their noses almost touching.

"It's hard to have an ass like yours, though."

Selina smiled, melting at the look in his eyes, the way his hands grabbed her ass and the evidence of his rising excitement.

"I forgot that you're not a boobs man." She whispered, mostly because she was suddenly out of breath. "You're an ass man." And kissed him.

"You're rather right." Bruce admitted in her lips. "But that's probably because you have an ass that makes even black girls run for their money."

She laughed again and joked.

"My anaconda don't! My anaconda don't-"

"want none unless you got buns, hun!" he completed and didn't let her continue, kissing her again.

They kissed for a long time until the water was almost cold and their skin was too hot. They were too connected to want to move, though.

"What took you so long to come back?" Bruce asked after some time and a pained look crossed her eyes.

"Something happened." She murmured, avoiding his eyes, so he placed two fingers under her chin and made her look up at him. She swallowed before speaking. "Ivy disappeared." She told him and his eyes widened. "Yesterday, she was going to go on a date with Harleen, but never got there. At first, Babs and Jim thought that she was at Harleen's, but this morning she called asking if everything was alright and if she could talk to V. It was when everyone realized that something was wrong."

"I tried to reach to her today with no success." Bruce commented a little bit in shock.

"And I saw her yesterday after I closed the gallery!" Selina exclaimed a bit louder than planned. Before speaking again, she took a deep breath. "Something happened in the half hour between when I saw her and the text Harleen got saying that she was almost there. Ivy wouldn't just leave. Jim showed up at the gallery, asked for my help and I spent the rest of the day pulling my old contacts, which also means that I didn't sleep. I hope you don't have plans for tonight."

She said the last part as a joke, but it was clear that to talk about Ivy brought her concern to the surface. Any thought Bruce had about sharing what Tabitah had told him vanished and he set his mind on being a good friend to Selina right there.

They finally got out of the water, changed into some cozy clothes, put Terminator Genisys to play, had Alfred bringing them tea and slept halfway through the movie, fainting ideas about knowing the poor and having a fish craved in the base of a snow globe of the Daily Planet lingering in the back of their minds.