Summary:Bruce takes Selina out on patrol.. and on a trip down memory lane. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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With the increased push on Nightfall, and the clearing of Batman's name, it gave Bruce and Selina a chance to get over their wounds and get things back to semi-normal in the Wayne household. Enough so, that tonight, Bruce wanted to go on a patrol. But for a change, instead of taking Stephanie or Helena with him - he had asked Selina.
He's waiting down by the Batmobile, standing on the /passenger/ side of the car. He's weairng the cape and cowl, his lips set in that same line that they always seem to be in. He's already pulled on the cowl, because honestly? The eyes would probably betray him. "We're going to the south side of Staten tonight." Where the museums and gem district is located.
Selina's been glad for the respite, and for the fact that her incident with Clayface didn't cause any inconveniant scarring that would need explaining in front of her people; though she did spend most of the next day with an ice pack on her head which was not her most flattering look.
Speaking of flattering looks, Selina's in costume by the time she comes sauntering down the stairs, her goggles perched on her head as she approaches the Batman. It wasn't *too* strange for him to ask her to come out with him; but considering they're both the most experienced in the family, and that there are fresher faces - one brand new! - to train, it caught her a bit by surprise. But Selina likes surprises. And she likes Batman! So it all works out. She gives him a brief kiss on the lips - having to rise up slightly to do it - and purrs softly as she pulls her mirrored goggles down over her green eyes. "Ooo, my old hunting ground~" She smiles, "I can't tell you how many copycats I've had to scare off down there."
"I heard of a theft in New York recently - the Heart of Kali. They said the thief was cat themed. Anyone you know?" Bruce asks, returning Selina's kiss as his hand settles on her side for the lightest of touches, before she pulls away from him and his lips do pull into a faint smile. "I believe Cassandra can use a night off, and Stephanie and Helena are already out." He's accounting for the others.
Moving, he opens the passenger door for Selina to move and get settled. Once she's within, Bruce moves around to the other side of the car to climb inside. Within seconds, the car is roaring to life, before racing down the exit path, and then out of the cave into the warm New York night.
He's already got the radio on and listening to the police band as they're driving down the freeway.
Catwoman sighs dramatically, rolling her head to the side and putting the back of her wrist on her forehead "Ooohhhhh no, really?" She shakes her head. "News to me. I'll see if I can track them down and scare them off." She says. It's flattering, really! But Selina's a little bit possessive of her gimmick. She has a lot of her identity tied up in it, after all. In her mind it's how she 'freed herself' from the drudgery of her old life
Selina grins a little as the door is opened for her, all gentleman-like, and strokes her hand across Batman's chest as she passes him, pulling away just enough for her finger alone to trace along the bat symbol before she sits down. Because Selina Kyle is an incurable flirt, and no act of god can change that.
As they drive through the city streets, Catwoman reclines a bit, putting her hands behind her head and smiles, "Blackbird went and made friends with a fireman the other day just to take Clayface down. Not sure when's the last time we ever thought to just… call the authorities~" She says with amusement, before going a bit quiet for a moment and wistfully adding, "I think she's going to do just fine." In the broader sense, she means. With her role, with this city. With everything. She's smart.
"The NYPD hasn't always been our best allies, Selina. Most were quick to turn after I was accused.." Bruce starts to say. And then he stops himself. No, it's not that type of night. "She's going to be fine." he finally agrees. "We've given her all the training we can. It's going to be her decision if she wants to remain within the family, or decide to take flight." Like Dick did.
Rounding a corner, the radio buzzes, "Master Bruce, Miss Selina, there's a silent alarm at Casale Jewelers." As he's giving the address, it's not one that Bruce or Selina either need - it was the location of the first time that Batman first came across Catwoman on the rooftop, and she left him tied up, confused, and started them on the path that led them to today.
Shifting gears, Bruce starts to shift the car into it's more stealthy Batmobile mode as it exits the freeway to start down the backstreets towards the jeweler's shop. "I'm going to have Blackbird and the new Batgirl work with the orphan we found the other day. She's ready to take to the field - but she has no history about her life before we found her. But I have an idea of who trained her." He changes the subject, not talking too much about where they are heading.
Selina grins broadly as Batman speaks and shrugs her shoulders, "Hey, you don't have to tell *me* not to trust the cops~" She says. As bad as Batman's relationship with them has been at times, his activities were at least ambiguous enough to give him some fans. Nobody in a uniform takes a thief's side.
But that was all ages ago now, and as much as her heart occasionally aches for a good heist, she's pretty sure she wouldn't go back. It's kinda funny. Part of the reason her and Bruce's relationship has stayed the way it has was so Selina could maintain some sort of… illusion of 'freedom' as she used to envision it. Keep alive the idea that, if she really *wanted* to, she could just walk away and do something else, no strings attached. That idea fell apart the moment Helena was born, but… she still clinged to it stubbornly, unexamined, for a long time. By the time it occurred to her that she didn't want to do anything else, well… certain questions had stopped coming up. Plus it's not like Selina Kyle to stop being stubborn over much of anything.
When the call comes in, Catwoman raises her eyebrows slowly, and then puts her hands on the dashboard, premptively bracing herself as they shift gears and change course. She looks at Bruce curiously as he speaks of their newest addition - or that seems to be the course she's on - and says, "You seem awful quick to trust this one. Where do you think she came from?"
"She was trained by Shiva." Selina may know the name of assassin and member of the Hand heiarchy. "I think taking her on patrol may open her up, and start getting us answers we're not finding. I have a feeling she's spent her whole life training, and hasn't had time or the luxury to be given any kind of life outside of that." he pauses for a moment. "After what happened with Jason, I don't want to.." repeat a mistake. He's being far more proactive and hands on, it may be noticed, and relying on the family to help - because family.
Arriving at the store - there doesn't seem anything on the outside that would suggest a robbery. "I'll check around the building. Want to take the roof access?" he asks her, turning his attention to her, and sets his hand upon hers. He gives it a quick squeeze as he pulls back.
There's never been any doubt of Bruce's affection for Selina. But when he was worried that some things would drive her off - he stopped asking. He didn't ever want to drive her away. But recent events - the growing of the family, the accusation, the way everyone came together. The way that Selina stepped up, as she had when Bruce was injured. "Keep in touch, I'll be a call away." he promises her as he parks the car in the alley behind the shop.
"… Jesus." Is all Selina says in response, softly troubled by Batman's appraisal of their new arrival. She could pretty comfortably never hear Shiva's name again; the idea that she's training little Shivas makes her vaguely nervous.
That said, when they arrive, she smirks a bit at Batman's suggestion, knowing a Bat-order when she hears one, but tickled that he'd frame it as a suggestion for her. "… Yeah~" She answers, "Been a little while since I took the top anyway~" She says, averting her eyes coyly and bringing Bruce's hand up to kiss the back of it when he squeezes her hand before she pulls sherself up and out of the Batmobile. She gives a playful little salute and replies "Roger~" Before she takes out her grapnel gun - one of her few concessions to Batman's aresenal for quality-of-life reasons, and vanishes over the top of the building, looking to make her way inside through the roof entrance.
Was that a faint blush when Selina made that bold suggestion and flirtation. Perhaps - just perhaps. "We'll discuss the tactics of your topside when we return home." he responds bravely to the woman, before he's moving out of the car to head around the side of the building.
Up on the rooftop, Selina will find the door partially opened - apparently someone /has/ tried to make their way in. The upper floor of the store contains the jewelsmith's shop, and of course, where all the gems would be stored.
But there's a note that's also pressed to the side of the door. With a date.
A date from 1997 - a date that Selina may or may not remember. Of the first time that Bruce and Selina met on this very rooftop.
Catwoman laughs merrily and blows a kiss in response to Batman before she zips away to the top, the grin on her face lingering until she sees the door is ajar. Jaw setting with a more focused gaze, she creeps towards the door and slipping inside.
Inside… phew. Inside.
Inside is a bit of a treasure trove of jewelery, and the sight gives Selina pause for a moment. She actually bites her lip softly and murmurs, "Surround a girl with catnip, why don't ya…" Batman once told her she had no business in the mad house so many of his enemies go to; but she'd be lying if she said she didn't… kind of… have a problem. Stealing wasn't *just* about freedom or thrill. It was… a bit like a drug to Selina, and these sorts of sparkly little treasures were her favorite fix. Like most of her bad habits she'd managed to kick it for her family's sake. Mostly.
Taking a deep breath, Selina backs away to the outside for just a moment and… blinks with surprise at the sight of the note. giving a cautious glance around before she pries it off of the door and opens it.
Holding it in front of her, her eyes go wide as she reads the simple note, murmuring "What…?" very softly. Her first thought is to assume something insidious - some threat, some knowledge of her old life - but… it's not when she debuted, and it's not when she done any of her more infamous work. There's really only one other person this date would mean *anything* to.
Selina turns around very slowly.
When Selina enters, she will find herself on the floor of the jewelsmith's shop. Most everything is locked up tight and secure - if anything, it doesn't look like anyone's broken in. Perhaps it's a setup? At least that's what her senses may be considering.
However, on the safe on the floor - there's another note. This one she can see - again, Bruce's elegant handwriting, and there's another note.
'The Combonation is our Greatest Treasure'.
Hopefully, a very simple clue to prompt Selina to open the safe - because there's noone on the rooftop, Bruce apparently still patrolling downstairs.
Catwoman peers at the empty space behind her, having expected someone to have followed her or been watching her. But with no one around, Selina just feels an odd vague sense of surreality that only grows as she moves further inside, finding that safe and that familiar note. For reasons she can't place she can feel her heart start to pound as she moves slowly, following commands as if hypnotized, her fingers only hesitating briefly at the dial before she begins to turn it, slowly entering in a date she holds close to her heart: the day of Helena's birth.
*click* The safe opens. And inside is a small box. A ring box.
It's fine velvet, blue in color - expensive. Selina may recognize it as the same jeweler that Helena Wayne used.
This very jeweler.
Inside the box, if she opens it, is a very familiar jewel - the Cat's Eye emerald, set in platinum band, surrounded by diamonds. An emerald that was once denied to her is now sitting in front of her, beckoning her to take it. And possibly for very good reason.
There's a soft, familiar voice behind her. "Selina."
Selina stares silently at the box for a long moment before she reaches out to it with faintly trembling hands, holding it close for several seconds before she opens it.
In a way it was exactly what she was expecting, what that first date on the door brought her mind to, but she still gasps when she sees it, putting one hand over her mouth as she breaths heavily for a moment, breath shaky before she starts to reach out towards that gemstone. She's wanted it all her life. It was one of the first things she went after when she was confident in her abilities. The night she met him.
She straightens up when she hears her name, and turns around slowly, holding the box in both hands as she says, simply, "… Bruce…?"
The mask is off. No Batman. Just Bruce. The cowl's pulled back - exposing him, as would have been if Catwoman had allowed her curiosity to get the best of her that first night. Settled on knee, the knight looks to the cat.
"For far too long, I've been holding back my thoughts. Feelings.. the way that my heart moves when you're near. How I wanted to…" he smiles, his blue eyes crinkling in the corners with faint crow's feet.
"I had a much better speech for this moment.. but I look at you once, and you steal my very ability to keep my composure as easily as you stole my heart." there's a soft chuckle as he lowers his head, before lifting his blue eyes to meet her brilliant green ones. "You were wrong, by the way. That first night. You said the gem would bring out your eyes. I think your eyes bring out that gem. And I want it.. and myself.. to be illuminated by those eyes for every day of my life."
"Selina Kyle, will you marry me?"
Selina barely moves as Bruce speaks. The first time he had asked her she seemed to cringe with sympathy as soon as he'd started talking, only to let him down as gently as possible. Now, with her goggles covering her eyes, it's almost impossible to read her expression as she watches her long time fiance try to pour his heart out to her. She presses her lips together very tightly for a moment, then begins to very slowly step towards Bruce.
"You know I… I spent a while…" she swallows, as though she's having difficulty speaking, "… wondering about how I'd respond if you asked me again? … Why I responded the way I did the first time?" She gives a quivering sort of smile. "At the end of the day I- I think… maybe… maybe I just didn't ever want to admit to being caught…" She draws close and puts one hand on Bruce's chest, and in the first clear sign of emotion, gives a little sniffle before she smiles. "… but I think you caught me a long time ago." Finally she lifts up her goggles, her hood pushing away and falling away from her head, exposing her dark hair and her green eyes which are visibly watering up with tears as she says, softly. "… Yes… Yes." Her body quivers like she's holding back a laugh, then she shakes her head and gasps, "Yes!" Before she throws her arms around Bruce's shoulders and kisses him as hard as she can.
He was braced for anything, really. The first time had been impulsive - she was pregnant, they were both perhaps scared. But now, they'd grown. They'd watch their child grow. And as she speaks, he waits. Because for some reason, Bruce halfway expects that no. That gentle let down. That acknowledgement that — wait, that wasn't wholly what he was expecting.
He wants to say something, anything, but then he finds himself pressed into, that excited yes, that kiss to his lips as he feels her warmth and curves against him - even through his armor as he pulls her closer to him, returning that kiss with equal fevor and love as he pulls away. And he reaches for the ring in the box. "May I?" he asks her, offering to put the ring on her finger.
"You know.. I do have Nightwing patrolling this area tonight. We have full coverage if…"
Yes, that was a sugestion.
Selina holds the embrace for a good long while, crushing her body against Bruce's; one can reasonably surmise that the need for air is the only thing that forces her to pull away, panting softly, and looking a bit of a lovely mess. She laughs softly and gives a sharp little sniff before she nods her head, removing her glove about as swiftly as she ever has before she puts out her slender bare hand.
At Bruce suggestion, though, a bit of a micevious grin comes to her face, as she pretends to consider it for a moment before answering, simply, "The kids can mind the store for the night~"
They have a lot of celebrating to do after all.