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baticorngirl · 2 years

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Title: Power of the Night(mare) [also on Ao3]

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences Word Count: 13,282 Fandom: Batman/DC Comics Characters: Talia Al Ghul, Bruce Wayne, Selina Kyle, Ra’s Al Ghul (In Flashbacks) Relationship(s): Talia Al Ghul/Bruce Wayne/Selina Kyle, Talia Al Ghul/Bruce Wayne, Talia Al Ghul/Selina Kyle, Bruce Wayne/Selina Kyle,

Summary: Talia had climbed all the way to the roof. She had opened her window, and climbed upwards from it. She had clasped to windowsills and hooks popping out from the surface, avoiding the windows with bright lights still shining outward, until eventually her hands finally grasped the top. Her feet pushed against the buildings panels until she could hoist herself up and on to it.

But, for better or worse, it was only a few moments of peaceful silence before a certain bat-costumed vigilante came to join her. And, as a matter of fact, not too much longer of it being just the two of them before a certain cat-themed one did, too.

Author’s Note: Dedicated to @rasalghul777

This post of yours was really the entire reason I started this fic. It gave me a lot of motivation to write, so thank you for that! In fact, this fic ended up being over 13k words, so that’s a lot of writing you inspired me to do. Probably around 13-14 hours of it! So yeah, I felt like it was only fair to dedicate it to you!

I’ve wanted to write brutalina for a while now, and it was your post that really did it in! I love brutalina a lot, because honestly I like all three ships it includes on their own, and besides, all the shipping wars suck. All the sides are always putting each other down, trying to see which one can hate on the others ones more and sometimes even acting like anti-ship-war shippers are doing something wrong by being cool with the other ships, and it’s all super ridiculous!

The point is, Brutalina is amazing and super fun to write, so thank you for being the reason I actually went ahead and started a fic with them! <3

Now, addressing the actual fic contents: -This takes place during Talia's time as ceo of lexcorp. It has references to the whole of arc, but also specifically what happened in Detective Comics #750. Readers who haven’t read it may be confused by some parts. -It also has some slight references to the endangered-animal conservation Ra's manages. Some people don't know about it, but it prominently showed up in both JLA: Tower of Babel and Injustice. So... if any of my readers are wondering, that’s what’s it’s referencing.

Enjoy!

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"You're quiet," Selina remarked. She stood behind Talia. Her back stood straight, reaching up to her high chin. Her hands, previously on her hips, fell to her sides with a small pat. Other than that, though, she stayed still in her stance. Her eyes rested straight onto the back of Talia's head, all fluffy with soft hair, as she hardly bothered to blink. Talia's back curled, causing a small shift in Selina's eyes.

"Which one of us?" Bruce cocked his head backwards. His back, just like Selina's, was straight. Yet, in an uncomfortable way. As if someone had poured glue on it while it stretched upwards, sticking it in such a tense pose. He even had the same tense, unmoving expression to match, as anyone who knew him for more than a minute would discover.

"Both of you," Selina took a step forward. Her boots clicked on the concrete roof.

The dark knight had turned back to the dark night before them. Along with the matching name, his cape matched the sky's gloomy color. A few stars peaked out, but for the most part, the sky was pitch-black. Not purple in the sky, not blue, not dashes of bright whites or even hot pink. Just black. Living in Gotham was depressing.

Selina could still see Bruce, though. Or hear him, or at least feel his presence. He had a way of giving off a feeling to the people around him, especially those who had known him so well for years. Talia could feel it, too….As could Alfred, and his kids, and pretty much everyone who he truly trusted. But at this point, Talia didn't need that anymore. Bruce's hand held hers, tightly, as they both sat right on the edge of the high roof and stared out at the night. Earlier, though, when he had originally bounced up behind her in almost the exact place Selina now stood, she had needed that feeling to detect his presence.

When Talia first climbed up to the roof, she had figured herself to be alone. Mostly, at least, because as much as the beeps of the city below had blown up to her ears, generally people didn't climb up to the top of their apartment building in the middle of the night. Especially not in such dark clothes they couldn't even be noticed from the shadows of moonlight. Yet, Bruce had always proven to be an exotic man, as he snuck up on her in that iconic black costume of his.

Talia's head had perked up, "Beloved?" Her eyes widened. Bruce hadn't even bothered to answer, scooting up to her side. She looked towards him, dilating her eyes in an attempt to make out the few chunks of him that weren't covered in pure black. She blinked rapidly in another attempt.

"Talia," Bruce finally answered. He still didn't look at her, though. His eyes stayed locked on the dozens of scattered lights sprinkled over the dark sky scrapers surrounding them. Neither of them interrupted the continuous beeps from those buildings and the corresponding roads below.

After a couple quiet moments, Bruce gently let himself slide to a sitting position. He mimicked Talia's, with his black boots dangling over the ground below. Yet, his black cape had just naturally draped over him, leaving him still hardly visible to Talia. At this point, Talia was a couple feet away from him. She could hear his movements, at least. Her eyebrows rose slightly.

"Beloved," She spoke in slow, soft whispers, "What is— what is going on…" Her eyes shifted from Bruce back to the city, fidgeting. As she finished speaking, Talia's mouth kept hanging open regardless.

"urrrrnm," An odd noise escaped from Bruce's tightly-shut lips. He hummed it, twitching his nose slightly as he did so. It came out in an odd tone, questioning and negative, yet passive at the same time. It appeared to be a stutter, but really turned into an avoidance of the uncertain question. Talia turned back to the city, positioning her head forward from her neck. Her chin was propped up on her clenched-hand. She kicked her legs, gently bouncing her calves against the concrete sides.

"Why are you up here at this time of night?" Talia's voice increased in volume, "You just kind of…. Showed up. Don't you think that's a bit… odd?" Despite the volume, her voice stayed soft in its general tone. Distracted, almost. Every little light flashing from the city lost a person in thought, it seemed, and that was a lot of bright reds, whites, and yellows to cloud one person's mind at a midnight conversation.

"Of course it is," Although he responded quickly, Bruce's mind was lost in the same trance, with his eyes narrowed in a stare. He paused in his speech, obviously more than occupied with whatever contemplation the earlier day had thrown into his troubled mind. "But it is what I do best," Finally snapping out of it, he let a small snicker out.

Talia eyed him, "I supposed I shouldn't have even bothered asking," Her expression held a soft smile now, which hung for only a few seconds longer as she drifted back into her lost focus on the city's lights.

"Why are you up here?" Bruce pushed himself a foot closer to her, "I thought you were the one that didn't even live in Gotham. Although it's unclear, what's happening with you, Talia. You're…. Jumping around a bit. I guess." He gently touched her shoulder, so lightly it hardly seemed like a touch. Despite this, Talia quickly turned to her shoulder to look. He had already pulled away, but touched it again, with a slightly heavier touch. He patted it, half loving but also half lost in the surrealness of the dark.

"Yes, so who are you to believe I haven't 'jumped' to Gotham?" Talia corrected him, "I'll be here for a couple months. Just caught up with business in this city for that time period. I figured I'd rent an apartment. This is the roof of it I'm standing on, so….perhaps you might see why I'm surprised you're here with me." Her shoulders pushed a small shrug, nudging Bruce's hand away.

"Oh," Bruce mumbled. A gust of wind followed, interrupting their slow conversation. Bruce's cape got shoved even harder over his shoulders, making a large thwap against the force of the wind. Talia's hair blew onto her face, covering her eyes for a second. As the wind calmed down, she blew the hair off, shaking her head to push the strings further away.

In almost unison, both pairs of arms violently shivered. The wind came back, now harder and colder than before. Talia wrapped her arms around herself, rubbing the thin fabric that covered them. She rocked her head downward until her chin was left resting on her own chest.

"I was on patrol," Bruce finally explained, "I do it every night, and often on the rooftops. They work well for getting a good view, especially in the dark. Unless you thought I had gone off to Mars for the weekend, I'm not sure what you expected. This skyscraper is just as high as any of the other ones, Talia." He rolled his eyes, yet half-heartedly. Talia couldn't see the movement through his blank eye-covers, but the bounce of his chin and his mildly sarcastic tone gave her the hint. She quietly considered his reasoning, glancing down to her motionless lap.

Talia's eyes trailed down through a crack in the concrete, "This isn't that close to the crime hotspots. I believe, after being an accomplice in some of those crimes myself, I should have a good idea of that." Her eyes squinted skeptically, and her teeth gently bit down on her lip in concentration. "I know you need to survey the entire city, Beloved, as it is of utmost importance to your obses… well, you, but there's no reason you should be bounding on to every building you see here, much less stopping for this long."

"Crime hotspots are a joke in such a crime-ridden city and you know it," Bruce protested, "It's everywhere for god sakes, and as I already said, your apartment building is no exception. I'm just looking, as I always have to be. Playing the role of eyes over Gotham, Talia, or it all comes crumbling down. Like an unsupervised child, running around with a sharp knife." He scanned his vision over the entire area, making a point of it in case Talia could even see. His mouth sunk into a pessimistic frown.

"Overseeing the world," Talia commented, sounding just the slightest bit backhanded in her voice, "Some people just grow to be obsessed with it, don't they?"

"Perhaps," Bruce admitted.

Now it was Talia's turn to roll her eyes. She even scoffed, under her breath, feeling a tint of anger, unresolved from previous years, subtly ticked by their conversation. Her chest felt warm, with her lungs gasping and heartbeat becoming a bit faster. As she blew a deep breath out, it made a light trail of fog simmer up from her mouth, looking almost like dust in the frosty air.

"At least, though…" Bruce looked straight into her eyes. The bright green color, glowing almost like a lazarus pit, reflected the small light around them well. She didn't make any attempt to return the eye contact, though, as her eyelids wearily shut part-way. "At least not all of them are watching over the world…. Only to watch as it burns. That's certainly worse, isn't it?" He refused to even blink until she responded.

"...yes," Talia's chin bounced up in a slow nod.

Bruce nodded back to her, forcing the idea in stone. He lost his focus on her eyes enough to blink, but not completely. He was still fixated on holding a gaze with them. It was the most reflective place on her entire body by far, and the last thing he wanted was to lose track of her in the cold night. After a moment more of looking, he noticed something. Her eyes were tinted red, as was the skin below and above them. On top of this, a patch under them was significantly darker than usual. Bags under the eyes. Bruce's eyebrows furrowed.

"You always scolded me for being too…. Questioning. Too skeptical," Bruce stated dryly, "I 'need to accept things the way they are', I 'need to rely on my intuition less and on my basic observations more.' Yet you've been doing an awful lot of questioning tonight, so I think you owe me some more explanations." He shifted himself closer, inspecting the odd noticings like the detective he was. The corners of his lips managed to droop more and more the closer he inspected.

"Go ahead, Beloved," She agreed. Her body language had calmed down, now resembling an almost apathetic stance. Yet, she did still gently pull her face away from Bruce, obviously a bit taken back by the amount of staring.

"Apartment complex or not, why are you even awake?" He asked, "Much less stand up here?"

"...Oh, no reason," Talia stuttered. She pushed a smile, as weak as it turned out, onto her face and popped her head up to look at him. Unfortunately, this emotional contrast only made her eyes' redness much more visible. "I couldn't sleep, but it's really just the beds here or something. I'm not sure, it's also possible I'm just a bit…. Excited." Despite the word's joy, her smile fell the moment she was done speaking it. Now, she turned a full 180 degrees until she wasn't just not looking at Bruce, but actively avoiding looking at them. Talia was tired.

Bruce slowly nodded. He pushed his hand just a little closer to Talia, who ignored it. His hand came a little closer, causing her to now open her own. They slowly pushed their hands closer until they touched, quickly locking together. Talia squeezed his hand, and he did the same back to her. They sat in silence again while Bruce contemplated whether he should even bother being more of a detective about it, or just trust her. Well, not trust her. The detective inside him would never disappear that much. Nevertheless, he didn't feel he had the strength for more of this at such a late time, so the silence lasted.

Clunk! A loud sound startled Bruce and Talia, making them immediately turn around. That was when Selina had shown up. She had her signature lasso tucked in her hand, but not aimed towards them the slightest. Upon realizing her identity, Bruce was more than content to turn back around. He shifted without even acknowledging the sudden visitor.

Talia, on the other hand, took another second to process Selina. Bruce's hand, still tightly linked to hers, had constrained her to the same position but she kept glancing back at Selina. It was more than obvious Bruce knew her well, considering his calm reaction, but she seemed familiar in more than just that. The lack of lighting made it very hard to see, though, so she stood there staring for an embarrassing amount of time. During that time, she gently rested her hand in her pocket, feeling for the gun she always kept on her. Just in case.

"Hey, Bats," Selina greeted. She voiced it friendly, but Talia, after all her ambush training, only moved her hand away from her gun slightly. Selina smiled slightly. "Funny we run into each other out here. It's been a while, you know. I've been trying to cut down on my crime, if it makes you feel any better. We kind of—"

Before she could finish her sentence, Talia's mouth sprung open, "Your voice sounds familiar," Her eyebrows furrowed, thinking. She tilted her head to get a good look at Selina. At this point, her hand was completely away from her gun, as Selina had proven to be far from threatening.

Selina's eyebrows quickly furrowed, as well, "Yours does, too, actually.."

They both stared at each other, resting in awkward silence. Selina glanced down, then back up, then out to the sky. Talia, still holding Bruce's hand, pushed herself a little bit closer to Selina. Bruce, too, appeared confused, but despite his unsure expression, he patiently waited for them to do their figuring. He let Talia accidentally tug at his hand a little as she pushed herself another couple inches towards Selina. With that final push, both of their faces quickly lit up with an excited smile.

"Talia?" Selina whispered. Her jaw dropped slightly. Talia nodded vigorously, making sure she could see through the blinding darkness. Selina's eyes opened wide, her pupils dilating like an actual cat's. "God, I wasn't expecting to randomly run into you out here." She stated, casually resting her hands on her hips.

"Well, it's nice seeing you again." Talia had replied. A hint of genuine joy trickled into her voice. Bruce's eyebrows rose. He had expected it to be awkward, if anything, for the two to see each other, but this was far from that. He shrugged, deciding not to ask questions. Simply squeezing her hand, Bruce gently nudged Talia to stop tugging away from him. She easily abided, spinning her head back to the beautiful city view.

What Bruce didn't know was that the two had first met only around half a year ago. During which he, as a matter of fact, was simply not there to complicate things.

The day they met, it was bright and sunny, for Gotham at least. It was later spring, so not only was it sunny, but it was warm. A nice breeze blew through Talia's hair, but it provided simple relief to the otherwise warm weather. As if it wasn't a good enough day, though, Talia hadn't even been sent to Gotham to partake in an attack against Bruce. Another enemy of her fathers was roaming through the large city, and it was her job to take the villain down. It was no-doubt a positive thing to complete such an ethical assignment, she thought, so her expression portrayed a particularly good mood. Perhaps not completely a smile, but there was a certain kind of spark in her eyes.

Selina, on the other hand, did not have any particular assignment on her mind. She didn't even have her suit on. Her feet, suited by some stylish purple heels, wandered around the streets of Gotham aimlessly. Ever so often, she would glance in the windows of stores with some mild intrigue, but for the most part, she wasn't doing much of anything at all other than getting some fresh air. There was one block, specifically, she kept walking in circles around.

Suddenly, though, her eyes caught sight of a woman, phone-in-hand, walking into her little block. The woman's walking gradually increased into a jog, moving away from the many other people crowding the area. Just by her small mouth movements, she was clearly whispering as low as she could manage into the phone. Her eyes blinked rapidly… nervously. Perhaps Selina had been spending too much time with her trust issue-littered, over-thinking, and paranoid detective of an on-off boyfriend, but as the woman rushed by Selina and halted next to a less-crowded shop, Selina couldn't help but follow her.

Spying in the public streets of a huge city was easier said than done. The sounds of a million other people erupted into her ears, and the woman's voice really was as low as it could get. Fortunately, with a small duck into the shop, the woman was much easier to get to. Selina casually walked in after her, purposely avoiding glancing towards the person she was following. The woman quickly rushed into an empty aisle, so Selina, not wanting to follow too much, ducked into a neighboring one. Through the shelves, it was still hard to hear the phone conversation, but as Selina focused, it started to become audible.

"Why would they want the tigers?" Talia, who the woman just so happened to be, quietly questioned. She was on the phone with her father, who had unfortunately neglected to explain the details of her mission until she had already arrived at Gotham without him. "You're the only person who would care to be in possession of them, wouldn't you?"

Selina couldn't hear the other side of the phone call, but she tried to guess what was in between. But it occurred to her that guessing would only be possible with every single word of Talia's side being heard, so she put her ear up to the shelves in between them. Fortunately, her aisle happened to be just as empty as the one Talia was talking in. No one could notice her suspicious behavior.

"Oh," Talia replied to her father's response, "So you think they'll sell it? Or even kill it themselves?" A look of extreme concern plagued her face. Her eyes narrowed in determination, and her mouth pouted. Talia's other arm, not holding the phone, was crossed over her chest in a more protective, or even slightly angry, position.

After a second of hearing her father's response, her concern only grew, "Wow. Okay, Then we really have to get them back as soon as possible! This is really important, I have to hurry up." She accidentally increased her voice in the panic. Her phone shook in her hands, too. But, as if she wasn't startled enough, her father's response startled her more. Not exactly the contents of it, nor even the amount of anger and genuine stress in his voice, but the volume. He was yelling from the other side.

Even Selina could make out parts of it as Ra's shrieked into Talia's ear, "Of course it's important! Why do you think he sent you out here with so little warning?! Why do you think I sent you, one of my most skilled and intelligent assassins out of all people, when you'd be such a help with my work over here?! Yes, it's very, very, important! Now can you stop asking questions and just start doing your work, daughter?! The planet, as whole, cannot afford to lose those tigers!" Talia instinctively pulled the phone away from her ear. She immediately began to lower the volume.

Assassins. Unless Selina had heard wrong, she had just gotten a huge hint to the situation by that outburst. Never before had she been so glad that she had trusted her own paranoid gut feeling. Selina wasn't too much of a hero herself, but who knew what such a murderous person could be up to. With a confident smirk on her face, she pushed her ear even closer to the shelves.

"Father, shh! I'm in public, remember? My volume was very low before, I promise, but you scream quite loudly when you get angry! Nevermind my ears, someone could've possibly heard a glimpse of what you said, and that was some suspicious statements." Talia frantically explained. At this point, she wasn't so loud herself, but quickly went back a whisper as she calmed down. "My hotel should be ready by now, and I need to get back there before I can keep investigating."

As her father began to speak again, Talia hit the upper volume button. Except, she accidentally hit it just one tone too high, yet not enough to notice. But Selina noticed, as she could start to hear both sides of the conversation.

"...make sure to check for secret cameras everywhere in the room. It's not run by the league, so you never know what could be hiding there." Ra's warned.

"Yes, yes, I know. I've been doing these kinds of missions all on my own since I was just a teenager. You really don't have to worry about accidentally-leaked information from one of your 'most skilled assassins'." Talia's voice now bounced into a very relaxed, assured tone.

"Of course, Talia. I know I can trust my information with you," Ra's agreed. He appeared sincerely content with his daughter… at first. But he spoke again, only a second later. "Unless, of course, the oh-so-handsome detective just so happens to be around…. just waiting for you to blindly get comfortable with…" His sarcasm immediately showed, with a gravely snarkiness in his voice.

"Father!" Talia's eyes widened, offended.

"Oh, do promise you won't neglect your mission to go off and have a romance affair with your beloved, won't you?" Ra's complained, "It's hard enough to achieve my plans without having every detail you can manage spelled out to him. Besides, as we've already discussed, this mission is very important! If those tigers die, I promise you, you will not be hearing the end of your failure to the entire animal kingdom. Stay focused." He lowered the pitch in his voice, now sounding almost grumbly with his unfriendliness.

Selina was getting more intrigued by the second. These tigers were clearly in serious danger, and they were cats, obviously. Cats that were getting mistreated, and needed saving. She knew she couldn't trust this woman, considering she was an assassin, but this sounded like her kind of heroic mission.

Talia nodded profusely, "Of course, I would never risk an innocent species like that. I'll get right on it, no contact with him whatsoever. I promise, Master." She slowly began to walk towards the aisle's exit, and Selina followed her with even that shift. With a couple steps, Talia glanced at her phone. "Goodbye,"

"Don't hang up yet. Just wait a moment, there's one more thing we must cover. The organization has received a mysterious tip, urging us to Coppers street, at midnight, if we want to see our tigers again. But don't go without many weapons, Talia, and keep your guard up. It's likely a tip from our enemy, in an attempt to lead us into a trap." Ra's explained, still keeping his voice low and completely serious with her. Meanwhile, Selina's eyes lit up with realization.

"Alright, I'll be there for the sake of the endangered wildlife, but will be as careful as I can." Talia declared. Although it was only the afternoon, a hint of fatigue made her voice become dry. "Good day, Father."

Selina pulled away from the ease-dropping as they said their good-byes and hung up. Someone had strolled into her aisle, nonchalantly looking around. They appeared innocent, but Selina couldn't be caught spying by anyone regardless. She smiled at them politely, letting them through to the item they were looking for.

Talia stepped out of her own aisle, slipping her phone in her pocket as she did so. Selina quickly strutted a couple feet towards her, taking note of as much of the mysterious assassin's appearance as she could. The long dark hair was an obvious feature, but her eye color less so. Talia was wearing sunglasses, effectively hiding around half of her face.

At least Selina did have a place, and a time. A place she was showing up at, whether Talia -or the tiger-kidnappers for that matter- liked it or not. Surely, once the sun had set upon the horizons, Talia's full face would be a bit easier to see, especially considering a full moon was even predicted. Yet again, Selina smirked.

That night, Selina dressed up in the darkest variation of her Catwoman suit she had in her closet. It was all black, except for her goggles, which were light green so she could see out of them better. Even though it was a full moon, and the moon appeared quite big that night as well, her outfit did a decent job at camouflage. Especially in the narrow, hidden alleyway she'd found to hide in.

Talia hopped on to a nearby roof just a minute or two after Selina had situated herself, just as planned. Like ping pong balls, her pupils swung back and forth even faster than they had when Selina had first seen her. But now, those fast eyes had one more thing to glance at— Talia's belt of weapons. The moonlight reflected on to a sharp, gold-handled sword that swung against her hip, next to a completely black gun, which nearly blended into the color of Talia's belt.

It wasn't quite midnight yet, actually. 11:55, to be exact. Selina had planned early, luckily, as had Talia. In fact, Talia's fast eyes now slowed down to scan the area, searching for a good place to hide. Selina's heartbeat quickened as she observed this behavior. She carefully watched to see where Talia would choose, praying it would be anywhere but her own.

Fortunately, Talia looked to the next alley nearby, which was slightly narrower. She jumped off the roof, effortlessly sliding into the shadow-filled gap. Her feet only made a small scratch at the ground as she utilized her assassin training to the sneakiest extent.

A few silent minutes later, the tiger-stealers themselves finally arrived. They made the most noise of all, not trying in the slightest to be quiet. Because of this, their boots banged against the ground like an aggressive parade, but truthfully, there were only a few pairs of boots that were responsible for the racket. Three men, all noticeably muscular and large, trampled down Copper Street's pavement as they made their way down to the middle of the road, next to both alleys.

They all simultaneously halted upon reaching the building in between both Selina and Talia's alleys. They stood by the door for a second, fiddling with the lock. Yet, they weren't even looking at the door as they did it. Instead, they glanced around, looking back at the street every few seconds. Their fiddling gradually got more and more extreme, turning into just jiggling the lock, except with a fully-working key already inside it. It was as if they weren't even trying.

The man in the front was the main one working on the lock…. Or simply shaking it. He seemed confident, holding his head high despite his ridiculous key struggles. The ones behind him, though, had completely different emotions. One was nervous, looking back to the street even more than the first man. He had his shoulders up to his neck, and arms wrapped around himself, attempting to hold himself together. The third one was happy. Too happy, really. Even when simply standing, there was a skip in his feet of pure excitement.

"Hello? Where are you, Mr. Al Ghul?" He grinned as he hopped over to search behind a planting pot. The first one, most likely the leader of the group, quickly turned around and let go of the key. His mouth was snarling with anger, but his eyes rolled with a more mild annoyance. It took a second for the third man to notice. "Come out! We've got your tigers and now we'll get you!"

The leader violently grabbed him by the arm, "Shut up! He's not supposed to know that, you moron." He quickly slapped his hand over the man's mouth. The man's originally-cheerful mood diminished in an instant. His face turned bright red, uncomfortably nodding. After a moment, the leader hesitantly peeled his hand off from his mouth. The man smiled again. His excitement came right back, as he eagerly helped with the jostling of the lock. The other man, now even more nervous, was put in charge of looking out for 'Mr. Al Ghul'.

Meanwhile, Talia was ice-frozen in her hiding spot. She gulped down her breaths, forcing even them to be as quiet and unnoticeable as a non-meta human like herself could possibly manage. Selina did the same.

Around ten minutes passed, with almost nothing going on. Nobody had actually turned the key to let themselves in, and no one had made a single move to show their hidden spot. Everyone was just patiently waiting for something to happen, which never did. The leader, though, was not the slightest bit surprised. He pressed his fingers against his forehead, sighing. He stared at his cheerful henchman with genuine disappointment.

"I can't believe you," He grunted, "We had this great plan to trap the League of Assassins here, and you ruined it. Do you know how loud you declared our plans?! If Ra's Al Ghul was anywhere in a fifty-mile radius, he would've heard it." His breaths became sharp, fuming with pure rage.

"Hey, I was just inviti-"

"WE ARE GOING TO DIE!" The leader interrupted. He gritted his teeth, pushing the top against the bottom extremely hard. "I don't think you understand that you don't act friendly with the Head of the Demon, but even more than that, you don't mess with him! But we would've, you know, been fine and even conquered him with what I thought was a foolproof plan. Except I guess I should've been more careful because you're coming, and you really are the biggest fool in the world, aren't you?" He picked up his hand, harshly slapping the henchman across the face in his anger.

The henchman finally frowned, "Hey, you know it's only when I get excited…." He took a few defensive steps away, almost whimpering in his pathetic embarrassment. This only made his boss fume with even more anger. The henchman stumbled backwards so much he tumbled onto his bottom.

A huge argument started very, very quickly. Yet, as they argued, the men quickly roamed off into the night.

Once they were out of the area, Talia peaked around the corner. She took a moment to observe her surroundings, but then slowly made her way out of hiding. Her eyes still bounced with their glancing, but much slower and more certain than before. She put one hand on her hip, staring down at the door which had been jiggled around so harshly only minutes before. It now had scratches in the paint, as those men were not the slightest bit gentle, but it had a lot more than Talia would've expected. As she leaned down to get a closer look, she noticed that some scratches weren't just the paint, but dipped down into a deep indent in the metal. Those men wouldn't have been able to do that so easily.

Selina was watching her inspect this. She inched slightly closer, softly walking on her tiptoes. Talia slid onto one knee, getting a bit more comfortable with the idea that she was truly alone. That is, until Selina, immediately taking the opportunity, ambushed her. Or, at least, snuck up on her with the utmost startle.

"Talia," Selina had spoken while jumping up behind her, recalling the name from her previous eavesdropping, "I need to talk to you. Right now." She crossed her arms with confidence. Talia, on the other hand, was not so confident. She shoved herself back up to standing, quickly facing Selina. Her eyes stuck in one place, seemingly paralyzed. Selina frowned seriously.

"Who are you, and what is your business for such an urgent talk?" Talia quickly queried. She crossed her arms, as well. With a slit grit of her teeth, she softly kicked some dirt towards Selina, who didn't even notice. Talia tapped her foot, as if counting the seconds, or even milliseconds, that Selina took to give her the much-needed answers.

"My name is Catwoman, and I just so happened to hear all about your missing tigers, and just how important to both you and whoever your boss is that you get them back in one piece." Selina stated apathetically, "Actually, I also heard about how supposedly, it's important the 'whole planet' that you get them back. I know everything, so just to be clear— trying to keep me out of this with lies isn't your best bet."

"Well then I won't," Talia agreed, sounding just as apathetic and serious in her tone as Selina. Despite being nervous, she blinked very little now. In fact, she didn't move at all, as even her mouth pressed each sound together as gently as possible. This excluded her toe, which still tapped against the ground as rhythmically as ever, despite Selina having already answered. "But, I can't promise I'll let you get into it. Especially since I don't even know what kind of trap you're trying to sell right now, so tell me— what do you want with this whole thing?"

"Actually," Selina smiled slightly, "I wanted to help."

Surprisingly, it only took a little bit more conversation for Talia to agree, and after that, they immediately became temporary partners. They looked back down at the door, where Selina quickly proved helpful by spotting black and orange cat hairs hiding on the welcome mat. From then on, Talia, gracious for the help, let Selina help with the entire rest of the mission. As it turned out, they worked well together, and even bonded. The mission took longer than they would've hoped, and to work on it, they had to be spending time together for hours each day.

Eventually, though, they tracked down the tigers. None of them had been sold yet, as the thieves had found it took a bit to track down buyers who truly appreciated (and would pay good money for) the rarity of such a tiger species. Together, Selina and Talia easily defeated the enemy's henchmen and took the tigers away from them. But that was when things began to get a bit more… complicated.

First of all, when Talia stared into Selina's eyes, she noticed that they looked so shiny, like the stars. She also noticed that Selina's entire face, or really entire body, was looking as pretty as the stars. Talia was smiling at Selina, and not just because they had been so victorious. Selina was smiling back.

"Come here," Talia gestured towards herself. Selina abided, making her eyes look even brighter to Talia. Yet, Selina was also staring into Talia's eyes, also admiring the soft smile looking back at her. Their smiles gradually grew, until they had reached an almost amusing, silly, size. So, with those smiles still clinging to their lips, they leaned forward, until there was only an inch in between. That inch disappeared quickly, though.

Selina and Talia, with the moonlight glowing against their backs, had kissed.

Unfortunately, not all the complications were good. After their kiss, there was still one thing they had to discuss; Where the tigers were going. Talia, of course, just assumed her father would have them returned as soon as possible. They were from his conservation, after all, and although she didn't know him to be an extremely easily-intimidated person, he was sincerely worried about his tigers.

"I'm sorry, Catwoman, but I promised my father I wouldn't waste time completing the mission… specifically with love." She explained. Her face was sorrowful, with a soft frown, and eyes gazing downwards with hesitant disappointment. Talia stumbled away from Selina, and closer to the tigers, who were still being caged in a disturbingly small space. "I should get these back to him now."

"Wait a second, Talia," Despite their affectionate kiss being so recent, Selina's voice was bold in tone. She had a very different idea of these tigers' placement than Talia, and this showed with her eyebrows furrowing inquisitively. "Your father is a murderous terrorist, and this is an endangered species. We can't just trust anyone with it."

Talia quickly corrected her, "A murderous eco-terrorist—"

"Yes, a murderous terrorist," Selina stubbornly insisted, hardly listening. "I get you've mentioned several times that he does have a well-managed conservation that takes good care of all the animals in it, but…. Maybe there's somewhere better for these kitties? Like in the wild, for example. Cats don't deserve cages of any kind."

"They're not just a little bit endangered, Catwoman, they're almost gone. We can't just put them out in the wild and cling to the idea that hopefully they won't all die. The species won't survive, then." Talia protested, shaking her head rapidly. "It's just for the best that they stay in his conservation. Believe me, I wish we could release them too, but I've heard my father explain it enough times to understand it's not enough of a possibility to even bother to think about." She gently shrugged.

"Why his conservation, though?"

"Because he knows what he's doing, as I've already said," Talia argued.

Selina's voice rose, "He's an assassin, who, as you've also mentioned when we worked, is only decreasing in morals by the second." She scowled, gradually getting more upset. Her arms were tightly crossed over her chest, and she tensed her shoulders up in her frustration. With one thought of that happening to one of her own cats, she was done with her decision. "I'm sorry, but I can't risk these innocent cats like that."

Talia sighed sadly, "Trust me, please, he's not going to get so far he'd hurt them. I promise. It would go against everything he is." She rolled her hands in the air, adding hand gestures to her explanations.

"You're biased, Talia, I can't—" Selina's answer was a mere millisecond after Talia's, as she wasn't even hardly thinking anymore, simply speaking. But at this point, Talia not only wasn't listening a ton, she outright interrupted.

"It doesn't matter, you already agreed to this when we started." She glared, now feeling the tiniest bit betrayed by Selina. She couldn't fail the mission. Not just for her father and tigers' sakes, but for her own.

"I agreed to help the tigers, not this 'Ra's Al Ghul' guy."

Both argument participants had snapped. Selina grabbed the cage's keys from Talia's hands, immediately starting a fight. It hadn't ended well, at all, so even if they were happy to see each other, Bruce wasn't completely wrong about it being awkward. Because of this, as Selina came over to join them on their overlook of the city, she positioned herself on Bruce's side, not Talia's. As she plopped herself down, she even pulled Bruce even to a quick, casual, kiss.

Talia appeared surprised, "Wait, you two….?" Her mouth gaped open, eyeing the couple curiously.

"Yes, I mean…. I have on-off relationships with both of you, I guess." Bruce replied. Although he tried to sound smooth and uncomfortable, his stutters were more than obvious. He gulped. "Well, this is awkward. To be clear, I promise, I've never been 'on' with both of you at the same time. I wouldn't do that. Well, I don't believe I have, but…. It can get confusing sometimes. Really, you both are just very complicated women…"

"That means a ton coming out of the mouth of the most complicated man I know," Selina joked, chuckling to herself. She rocked her head backwards with the laughter, but as she returned back to normal, rocked herself the other way. Her eye peaked over the edge of the building and under it, silently studying the little moving color dots she figured were probably distant cars.

"Whatever," Bruce rolled his eyes, pretending to be more annoyed than he truly was. He shrugged even the fake annoyance off quickly, though. "So, Catwoman. Talia and I were just explaining to each other why we were neglecting to sleep at this late hour. Would you care to do the same?...Not, I don't know, stealing anything, I presume?" His eyebrows rose, showing an obviously fake innocence.

Selina quickly looked back up, "Of course not, I haven't stolen in a while now." She frowned. Her body leaned further away from him out of instinct, and even scooted an inch of two away, genuinely taken back by his assumptions. "Well, except for that one time a couple months ago, but I had my reasonings. I don't just go around stealing everything I see anymore." She breathed in through her nose, making a loud sniff sound. It almost mimicked a snort with her tense nose muscles.

"Then why are you out here at this time of night?" Bruce casually interrogated her, making Selina snort another time. She twisted her torso to face the opposite direction than him, mildly angry at his behavior. She opened her mouth, breathing harshly the way she had just snorted. "Answer the question, Catwoman." He quickly persisted.

"I just needed some fresh air. A midnight walk," Selina answered, still obviously very annoyed in her tone. "But I wasn't expecting to be so heavily judged for that by someone I went out of my way to greet."

"I'm not judging you for that, I'm simply pointing out that it doesn't really seem like that's the truth." Bruce explained. He lowered his voice, trying to get a bit calmer with his offensive assumptions in hopes Selina would get calmer, as well. "If that really is the truth then I'm sorry, but I have a hard time believing that's the case. For example, why are you wearing your suit? Talia came out for a similar reason -although less of a walk and more just getting fresh air- and as you can see, she's not in any suit."

He was right— Selina looked around him to Talia, finally noticing the woman's unprofessional outfit. Instead of a fighting suit, Talia simply wore a long blue nightgown. It had many fancy embroideries, and was likely quite expensive, but a nightgown, nonetheless. She also wore matching slippers, which also looked ridiculous fancy for sleepwear, but it was all undoubtedly not a superhero suit. The bottoms of the slippers looked scratched up and disturbingly dirty, much beyond the ware they were meant to take. The only thing practical about the outfit was the dress's one large pocket on the side. A gun peaked out of it, and, considering the pocket was padded thick and strong enough to block a small bullet, Selina quickly realized Talia must actually sleep with that gun in there. Some people were very paranoid.

"Well, that makes sense since she isn't trying to walk down on those dingy, crime-ridden streets down there." Selina vaguely pointed downwards, under the skyscraper. She wasn't facing away from Bruce anymore, or even leaning that way. She had become much calmer. "But I was, and you know what's the best way to get kidnapped? Look like perfect bait. And you know what looks like perfect bait? A seemingly-innocent young woman ignorantly wandering around the most crime-ridden city in the world, wearing only her sleepwear, or even just normal clothes. Besides, I also wanted to go on the roofs, which would normally just look suspicious."

Bruce looked at Selina, then down to the city, then to the other building surrounding. He seemed confused, for a moment. He bit his lip, almost chewing on it. Bruce then glanced back at Talia, slightly, but quickly back to Selina. He stared, tensing every single muscle around his eyes.

"I… have to admit. You've got a point there." He finally gave in. Selina rolled her eyes.

"Yeah. I do,"

Bruce felt the temperature in his cheeks get hotter, embarrassed and the tiniest bit guilty. Reserving himself both emotionally and physically, he pulled his forearms closer to his back. Somehow, he managed to make his position look even more like a robot than it already had. Yet, despite this, the lower half of his arm next to Talia was still loose. His hand may have gripped hers, but it did it in a very gentle and loving manner. The same went for Talia's hand, which laid underneath his in their hand-holding. It was even looser than his.

He quickly turned to her, almost wanting to avoid speaking to Catwoman after his apparently-undeserved suspicions. Talia was looking downward, at her own lap. She was eyeing the gun, despite being in no obvious danger, and as Bruce gently rubbed his arm against her, he discovered her shivering. Or, at least, shaking. It was hitting the cold winter in Gotham, so the chills down her spine were no surprise, but it still reminded him of her eyes again.

Bruce bent over awkwardly to force her to look at him, "Talia…." He began, unsure what to say next. In fact, he wasn't sure why he had begun to talk to her at all.

"Yes?" Talia popped her head back up. Now, he could really resume inspecting her worrying expression. She claimed she was fine, that it was simply a discomfort in the bed, but he knew from his own experience that just because someone claims such a thing does not mean they're not feeling the exact opposite. The more he looked at it, the slight redness and darkness under and around her eyes seemed more severe, and abnormal. But what he only now noticed was that her eyes were actually the tiniest bit wet, explaining why they were extra reflective. The detective in him would not stay silent anymore.

"Just wondering….Why, again, couldn't you sleep?" Bruce asked. Given he had the same fake innocence in his expression that he'd had with his questions to Selina, it was clear he really hadn't learned much from that uncomfortable experience. But to him, this felt more important than Selina and his conversation. "Something to do with the apartment, right? What was so wrong with it?"

"Oh… nothing," Talia gently shook her head, but seemed unsure of her answer. Her voice posed it almost like it was a question, getting higher in pitch at the end. "I'm not sure what's wrong with it, now that I think about it. Perhaps it gives off some kind of odor from the previous renters that's bothering me, and I think my mattress is wearing out. The place just isn't the best quality, as I chose it last second." Talia explained. Bruce slowly began to nodd, but his eyebrows pressed together in a skeptical manner. She looked skeptical of her answers, too, in a way. She was trying to hide it, though, obviously, as she quickly rotated her head away from him and curled it downwards until he couldn't see a glimpse of her face.

Her voice lowered to a murmur, "Or maybe I'm a bit…. Homesick,"

"What home?" Bruce spoke significantly louder than her, startling Talia into curling her head up again. "I know I've already said it, but you've been jumping around a ton lately. Last I checked, you didn't really have much of a home anymore. Not since you left your father…. I know we haven't kept up much after everything, but I still doubt you really got situated anywhere that quickly. At least not enough to get 'homesick' for that place." As she listened to his words, Talia nudged her hand away from Bruce. She wrapped it around her other arm.

Talia now seemed much more genuine in her confusion, "I don't know. I have been spending much more time in Metropolis, I guess. But you're right, Beloved. Not enough for this kind of homesickness to stem from that." She frowned, slightly pouting with her lips tightly sucked in.

Bruce's eyes softened, "You don't... miss…" He didn't bother finishing his sentence, knowing Talia already knew what he was implying the moment he opened his mouth. With her hand already wrapped around it, she squeezed her own arm nervously. Her lips quivered, still tightly shut. Bruce noticed this, frowning at her hesitance, "...Do you?

"I… don't think so," She tilted her head to one side, then the other. "At least, not much."

Bruce considered reaching around her shoulder, and squeezing it until the hand wrapped around it fell down. He considered nudging her towards him until she relaxed. But he did neither. He picked up his hand as he considered it, though, and even began to weave it around Talia's back. But then he let it drop down behind her, feeling reluctant to show that level of physical affection. Fortunately, with a deep breath, Talia let her hand drop onto her lap regardless.

"If it makes you feel any better about what I just said," She stared straight ahead now, but resumed looking at Bruce from her peripheral vision. "For the little amount of longing, missing thoughts I think of regarding him…. I think of slightly more for you," She smiled. Well, half her face did. It was almost as if there was a split in the middle, one half of her face (specifically the one closer to Bruce) showing joy, and the other half confused about her own emotions, and slightly sad.

The corners of Bruce's lips curled upwards, but only slightly, "Wow, Talia. How romantic of you." He jolted his shoulders diagonally away from his body, showing a mild snarkiness. "It's nice to hear you think of me…. Well, the tiniest bit more than the person who's made your life hell." Talia didn't bother to comment on his sarcasm.

"I'm telling you, though, Beloved," She complained, emphasizing her words by stretching each syllable out longer than normal. Her voice was also slow and rhythmic, in no hurry to finish what she was saying. "Missing my father is certainly not the cause of my sleep issues. Even if I may have briefly mentioned homesickness."

"Then what could it be?" Bruce thought aloud, appearing somewhat frustrated by the conversation. He had still gotten zero answers to her eye's redness, nor the almost tear-like wetness. He flipped his palms up, throwing the backs of his fingers down with a small thump. "What other home have you really had, other than with him?"

Talia's eyebrows rose, seeming mildly intrigued by his question, "Maybe that's it,"

"What's it?"

Bruce was even more confused now. It was a question, not a suggestion, and he was too frustrated by her riddled answers to even hardly think about it much. His mouth was hanging open, to some degree. Being the detective he was, though, this didn't stay for long. His own eyebrows rose, as long with Talia's, as it suddenly occurred to her what she was implying.

"Perhaps," Talia considered, just a moment after Bruce's realization. She got even slower with her words than before, testing out the idea in her mouth. Her tone was undeniably uncertain. She moved her tongue in the movement of each word before she even began to speak it, careful with every move. "Homesickness is, well… the lack of home. So, perhaps…it is the lack of a home, itself, I feel sickness for. In general… Perhaps, I simply do not have anywhere with that feeling of belonging, and it's bothering me when I lay down for rest."

"But then… shouldn't you have trouble sleeping everywhere?" Bruce countered, looked at her sideways. She sighed, now reluctant to respond to his truthful point. He lowered his head, looking at her gulping neck. "Could you sleep most nights in your previous apartments? In Metropolis?"

"...yes," She slowly admitted. A few deep breath coursed through her lungs and mouth, puffing out more frosty snakes of fog. Talia retired back to her eye-contact avoidance technique, making a movement out of staring at a taller building the opposite from Bruce. As she did this, though, gushes of wind beat on their backs. This time all, every single one of them were hugging themself and shivering, Selina included.

Despite not yet adding anything to the conversation, Selina had certainly been listening. Many things surprised her from both Talia and Bruce's mouths, and although she had shown her shock quietly with her expression, both of them were too busy with each other to notice her gasping gaze. Selina finally decided she would stop being so eerily silent.

"Then maybe it's not homesickness at all," Selina commented, quickly getting straight to the point. She hardly paused between each word, speaking unbelievably fast compared to Talia's careful wording. Even as she poked her head around to view Talia straight in the tired, watering eyes, she didn't stop for a second. "You mentioned you recently left your father, right? That you were jumping around a lot, and figuring yourself out? Well, I'd say there's a lot more there to interrupt your sleep than just homesickness."

Bruce quickly agreed with Selina, nodding. "She's got a point, Talia. You didn't happen to have any nightmares last night, did you?" He asked, cutting right to the chase that he had truly wanted to ask from the beginning. Talia spun herself back around to glance at Bruce, surprised, but then glanced back until she eventually left herself in between them, but leaning towards the opposite way.

Her eyes stared not just at her lap anymore, but at her dress and torso, "Well…. yes,"

"What was it about?" Seeing a lead in his little mystery, Bruce didn't wait a second to respond. He pushed himself even closer to Talia, trying to find more hints. But of course, Talia shook with the sudden overwhelm. Upon noticing this, Bruce went back to his previous place, taking a breath. "What was the setting, and the people around you? Who or what was so upsetting about the dream?"

"It's not very important. It's recurring, so out of experience, I know I'll be able to get to sleep again at some point. It's more true than you might even realize, your ability to get over things as you get desensitized. Quite helpful, really." Talia turned her head to face Bruce directly, now with a smile plastered on. Yet, her eyes were still watery, and the more Bruce looked, the more the redness truly did look like tear-streaks. It still looked wrong for her to smile. "Believe me, Beloved. It's a joy to see you here tonight, and I'll probably be able to get to bed much better after it. Even if we haven't been on the best terms." She complimented, in an obvious attempt to distract him from the question.

It didn't work at all, "But—" Bruce objected.

"It really doesn't matter, I promise you." Talia swore. Her expression softened, now looking at Bruce as if she was concerned about him. "You need to stop worrying about everything so much, Beloved. It's probably not good for you, and frankly, it gets everyone else on the edge, too. No one likes being questioned all the time. Stop expecting disaster."

"Oh great, not this again." Bruce rolled his eyes, but not in an exaggerated way, simply natural. This time, he was genuinely annoyed at all these comments.

"I'm sorry, but it's the truth." Talia shrugged, "Why, again, are you out here this late?"

"I already told you!" Bruce whined. He outright scowled, with his arms crossed. His eyes narrowed sharply. "I'm just here because I'm out on patrol, just like I do every night. Don't tell me you're going to say I'm lying or something…. That would just make you a hypocrite, I swear." He scoffed, expecting the worst.

"No, I'm not as bad as you in that way," Talia smirked slightly, but it quickly faded into a much blander, unemotional expression. She stared at Bruce, even as he tried to look away in his annoyance, and nodded as she spoke. "Well why, may I ask you, do you go on patrol each night?"

"To protect the city, as I already mentioned," Bruce stated dryly. His arms were already crossed, but he tightened them in their crossing until his muscles pressed down on each other. After a moment of studying the look on Talia's face, he let out a small sigh. "Well, if you choose to think about it and blatantly misunderstand it, I suppose you could theoretically say I'm waiting for disaster, but that's not how most people would think of it." He turned to Selina, moving his eyes around in a silent gesture that she should back him up. Instead, all he got was a careless shrug.

"What, you think I don't think you need therapy?" Selina's voice rose, clearly rather amused by such a thought. She smiled at him light-heartedly. "You know, when I first met Talia, one of the nicest things about working with her was just that fact. She's the tiniest bit less crazy in that way than you are. Sorry, but I'd be lying if I said I disagreed." She shifted her mouth to one side, as if swishing around water in her mouth nonchalantly.

"Oh, shut up," Bruce held a deep frown on his face, now refusing to look at Talia or Selina. He stared as straight ahead as he could manage, not even letting his eyes roll to his side vision in case he might make eye contact. Yet, after a moment of letting it sit, his frown faded into what was almost a chuckling smile, or at least a lack of displeasure. He turned back to Selina, "So, what made you have such an urge for your midnight walk? You didn't have a nightmare too, did you?"

"No, or at least, if I did, I don't remember," Selina replied. She shrugged again, but without the sass this time. "I probably just remembered a really bad memory or something, because I was feeling disturbingly agitated when I woke up. But I'm feeling a lot better now that these breezes are hitting me."

"Good," Bruce nodded, smiling ever so slightly. Selina seemed pretty genuine with her smiles, or at least… genuine enough. She wasn't anything compared to Talia, who's eyes still seemed to get more and more weary and emotional every second they sat up there together, even if she continuously put on smiles.

Bruce looked down, getting lost in his thoughts. There were so many ways he could fish for an answer from Talia about the dream. He could be more direct, but he'd probably get interrupted or ignored, as that was how it had been going before. But perhaps if he was just a bit more blunt, mentioning the eyes and the expressions and everything, she'd give up and elaborate. Then there was also the tricking into giving answers, which Bruce also knew from using it with more stubborn villains. He could talk with her about something more casual, then….

Bruce got his thoughts quickly interrupted by another kiss from Selina. Talia was looking the other way, not seeming to notice or at least not care, so Selina hadn't seen any reason her midnight kisses would cause a problem. Bruce kissed back, too, and Selina grinned at her. But unfortunately, this break from his thoughts gave him a moment to realize how tired he was. He turned back to Talia, just wanting to get it over with at this point.

"Talia, you look terrible," He blurted out. With his energy, went his self-awareness. Talia looked up at him, jaw dropped. She blinked at him, more than offended by the comment. Nonetheless, Bruce continued. "You look like you've been crying for hours, for god's sake. What in the world was your dream about that was so unbelievably upsetting…. and why do you think avoiding my questions is really going to work?"

Talia suddenly got self-conscious, feeling around her eyes, "Excuse me?" She wiped the excess water from them, quickly attempting to give them a shineup on the spot. But, upon seeing Bruce's exasperated reaction to that, she simply sighed. Her head drooped like a rotting sunflower.

Selina crawled around Bruce, positioning herself on the other side so she was next to Talia. She stared over Talia sympathetically, a glossy sadness coming over her eyes. Meanwhile, Bruce picked up his hand. This time, he actually did go through with wrapping it around Talia's shoulder. A muffled whimper heaved out of Talia's chest. She leaned into Bruce's gentle hug, but kept part of herself closer to Selina, obviously happy to have her near, too.

"I suppose it couldn't hurt to tell you about it a little," She mumbled. Talia's eyes were now watering even more, almost to actual tears. But she kept her head down, still hiding the signs of it. The smallest droplet of a tear escaped, though, only to be caught by her fingers. Her hands were rubbing her temples and cheeks worriedly.

This time, it was Selina who responded, "Go on, Talia," She gently coerced. Her hand rested near Talia's, almost touching it. Her fingers only inched closer by the second, until they softly patted the back of Talia's hand. Talia spun her hand so it faced Selina in a less awkward position.

"I…." Talia began to sputter out. Her voice was quiet, but clear over the small amount of background noise. In unison, Bruce and Selina both turned their heads closer to her, encouraging her in a small but assuring nod. Her voice rose, but only slighted, "I… failed…. Everything. In the dream. I failed my whole life, my missions…. My hopes and my dreams. I wasn't dead. It wasn't that bad. But I had… failed." As she finished, her voice diminished yet again.

Bruce looked away from her, scanning with his eyes, "You failed what?" He pressed his teeth together, but not in an angry way. Simply a mix of confusion and determination, fighting against the other one in his mind. "Specifically…. Well, you failed everything, we know that. But what is it that actually happened to cause such a...drastic event?"

"You… wouldn't get it," Talia's voice was hardly at all anymore.

"Well, perhaps I would," Selina reasoned. She glanced at Bruce for a moment, then turned back to Talia. She looked down at Talia's ear, managing to get a small glimpse of her face, covered with messy chunks of hair, underneath. "There's a lot of things Bruce doesn't understand. Maybe in this case, I wouldn't get it either, but… you never know. Just go ahead. Explain it anyway, you have no reason not to."

"I guess," Talia admitted. Her shoulders rose and fell as she spoke, all in tune to her spontaneous breath patterns. Along with it, went her chest, but that area was much too covered by her sprawling-out hair and dropped-down head to be seen. "Well, I would say, I failed to be… who I wanted to be. I failed to be myself. Failed to be anything at all, actually."

Neither Selina or Bruce said anything, hoping she would bring herself to elaborate without their verbal encouragement. It ended up resulting in a few seconds of silence. As the night fell even darker over the city, the concrete felt noticeably cold. Bruce and Selina fidgeted with their legs and bottom, but Talia stayed still to an almost unsettling level. Yet, after another second, she broke the silence like they were waiting for. Her eyes were shut now, much more interested in her own swerving thoughts than the outside world. Perhaps even wanting to protect herself from the outside world, just the slightest bit.

"I failed to be anything more than a pawn,"

Bruce's eye lit up with slight realization, "...Oh," He felt his through clump up with imaginary phlegm. He knew he could speak fine, physically, but it was as if his tongue had been twisted. As if a cat had grabbed it, literally. His mind quickly went back to their previous fights, one of the last times he and Talia had spoken.

"...So you felt powerless? Helpless? Weak?" Catwoman, of course, was having no problem with these tongue-grabbing cats, as she didn't feel the slightest tint of guilt the way he did. She was still careful with her words, of course, but spoke fine. "Talia... as a matter of fact, I actually think Bruce might get that… just a little bit. Don't we all feel like that, a little bit, occasionally?" She squinted her eyes, almost replicating the cat-eye shape of her current goggles.

Bruce blinked rapidly, "Um…" It suddenly occurred to him that she was expecting some kind of agreement, or even disagreement, from him now. He tapped his teeth together, as if clicking in his thoughts. "Uh… yeah. Yes, I have… felt that." He slowly nodded, getting gradually more comfortable with the conversation.

"Not exactly… in the same way, I doubt." Talia whispered dolefully.

"Probably not," Bruce sighed, looking off into the distance away from Talia. His face pointed straight out— not up or down, just out.

"What do you mean?" Selina asked. She lightly chewed on the inside of her mouth, sucking it in. After a moment, she switched to the other side of her mouth, looking the slightest bit like she was trying to rub something out of one of her teeth.

Talia blew a few strands of hair out of her face, but still didn't look up, "It's just, well… he has power. Now, at least. Perhaps not when he was a child, perhaps not when his parents were so tragically murdered, but… he got over that. Somewhat because he fought to become stronger than ever before, somewhat just… because he was allowed to. He was allowed power, if he earned it. Alfred never stopped him. Nothing but his own abilities stopped him, and even without his batman persona, well… Bruce Wayne, once grown up and in charge, was not exactly powerless to the city."

Selina raised one eyebrow, confused by the statements, "But… although you do somewhat have a point, especially about him growing up with connections to people in power and the money to complete any goals he put his mind to… it's not like a lot of that's not slightly true for you, as well. You were raised rich, weren't you? Actually, if anything, I'd say there's a good chance you're even richer than him! Aren't I the only one here who would have a different experience financially?" She moved on from biting her mouth to simply pressing on her lips.

"Well yes, but the thing is—" Talia started to explain herself, "My father is rich, not me. Even if his parents hadn't died, he would've been written into their will, given trust funds… Everything, just for being their son. But my father, well… he's a different story." Her eyes, which had stayed tightly shut the entirety of the last minute, finally opened again. They stared at the edge of the building, and the few sights below she could see without moving her neck.

Bruce suddenly turned around, snapping in his spin. His jaw dropped, "Wait a second. Talia, are we not going to address the fact that you just stated my secret identity? You had no reason to believe Catwoman even knew it yet! How many people have you—" His arms suddenly pulled away from Talia, crossing over his chest.

Selina interrupted, though, "Oh, give her a break. You already said we had an on-off relationship. Frankly, if we'd been doing it for this long and you still hadn't told me, well… that would just be ridiculous. It would've been for the best that she'd spilled your little secret. After everything, I think I've earned the right to know." Bruce eyed her, still a little upset about the situation, but Selina just rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Considering I did already know, I'm pretty sure you know I'm right."

"Fine," Bruce took a deep breath, letting the piercing glares disappear from his eyes. His arms loosened in their crossing until they eventually dropped to his lap. "I guess that's not really the most important thing right now, since it didn't actually cause a problem, but in the future…." He frowned.

"I know," Talia quickly replied, "I just forgot, Beloved,"

Her arms were wrapped around herself, now moving up to the area Bruce had stopped squeezing. She rubbed the area, attempting to bring back the warmth of when Bruce had been hugging her. Her shoulders gently shivered. Bruce looked down at this, and now much calmer, chose to go back to hugging her. The tenseness in her shoulders declined.

"As you were saying…" Selina prompted, waiting for Talia's reply.

"Yes, well, um…." Talia stammered, "Every single piece of not just money, but power, I've ever been able to achieve had to do with my father. But now I've left him, so with that, went everything. But as a matter of fact, I'm actually quite alright with that. Joyful, even. What I had before… Was it really power, or even the slightest bit of control? If I had to stick by the side of someone else, intimidatingly more powerful, to uphold it?" Her eyes looked up, and with it, went her neck. Just the slightest bit. Selina and Bruce could still hardly see her face at all.

Bruce slowly opened his mouth, "No," He gently shook his head, agreeing with her doubt on the situation.

"I'm not power-hungry, I promise," Talia quickly clarified, hardly listening to Bruce's quiet response, "In fact, if I were, I probably wouldn't have left my father. Being power-hungry is a kind of status, isn't it? I had that status, at least somewhat, being basically princess back at the League of Assassins. Except… is powerless really the same thing, but opposite? I just… don't know. I don't miss the status. I don't miss anything. That nightmare… it's not my current reality. I'm better here."

Talia noticed, from the corner of her eye, Selina's face turn confused. Just slightly, with a glint of intrigue in her eyes, but still… confused. Bruce's eyes were a bit wider as well, but with not just confusion, but an odd understanding mixed in with it. They were both visibly waiting for the full understanding to come with more explanations.

"That's confusing, isn't it?" Talia remarked. Her hands bounced on her lap, wrapped around each other. "Maybe this'll make more sense— I had power over others, but no control over myself. Now I have control over myself, which I am… eternally grateful for, but a little bit less power in a status kind of way. I'm still… finding that status, though. On my own." For a moment, the corners of her lips turned up in a tiny smile. Selina and Bruce seemed a bit more certain now, nodding at her solemnly.

"So that way, you're not a pawn," Selina continued nodding, obviously understanding it much better now, "That's good… But, if you're as happy and fine as you say you are, then….?" She opened her eyes wide, glancing at Talia quietly.

"Oh, it's obvious," Bruce interrupted. He threw his hands in the air, half frustrated by his own previous misunderstandings and half just mildly excited about knowing it all now. "Talia, your father kidnapped you in the nightmare and you were stuck back as his pawn again, weren't you? His slave, his prisoner, even? It's not that complicated, really. He almost did that to you not too long ago, but you still managed to escape, of course…. Would you, though, if it happened again? That question… it lies in your mind. Every time you go to sleep it pops up again, doesn't it?"

Talia's head drooped down as far as it could go again. Although it wasn't much farther than it already was, the exaggeration in the movement made it look like a huge move. Her arms clinged to the opposite arms' elbow. A small sniffle, along with an even tinier sob, could be heard from the people next to her. Yet, she nodded. Upon seeing her obvious upsetness on the topic, Bruce started rubbing small circles in her back soothingly. His eyebrows lowered passively. Selina reached over and clasped Talia's hand again, squeezing it.

"It hurts, doesn't it?" Bruce finished. His voice had turned to a delicate whisper, soft yet prying. He pushed himself even closer to her, tenderly kissing her on the cheek. Selina, herself, slowly leaned in to do the same on the other cheek. Both of them had to do it on a part of the cheek closer to the ear, though, as Talia's head continued drooping.

With a tiny nod from Talia, silence draped over the three of them. Talia was shaking… In fact, they were all shivering, just a little. But, at least, the physical closeness they had trapped the comforting, sweet, warmth in between their arms, making it slightly more bearable. In fact, with Selina and Bruce both so physically affectionate in their comfort, Talia hardly felt cold at all. Just upset, mostly.

"I'm sorry," Bruce suddenly blurted out. Both Selina and Talia turned their attention to him, startled and confused.

"For what?" Talia whispered. Her voice came out similar to a frog's croak. The tears and quiet sobs that had erupted out of her recently had dehydrated her voice, and the sniffling made her throat feel rough inside.

"I'm sorry that I didn't help you," Bruce muttered. His eyes looked straight down uncomfortably. "I'm sorry that I ignored you. I'm sorry that I…. I'm sorry that I only focused on my own problems. I'm sorry I… sometimes blamed you for things… that, well, weren't your fault."

Talia didn't respond. In fact, she hardly acknowledged it. But she also didn't pull away at all. Her body was unbelievably still, without even hardly a single muscle twitching. Bruce, now only feeling more uncomfortably, continued his apologies in hopes of some kind of response eventually.

"I'm sorry that sometimes… I'm sorry that I just…" Bruce's voice sputtered into random words, repeating each one too many times as he chose what he wanted to say. He swallowed, harshly. "I'm sorry I might have made it a little bit worse, Talia. I'm sorry I played tug-o-war with your feelings. I didn't mean to do that, I just…"

Talia swallowed, as well, "It's… It's alright, Beloved. I know. I've thought about that… What happened there, and… well, it's my father's fault more. That's all I'm going to say." Her chest slowed down, just a bit, with its tearful heaving.

Bruce looked up, "...Thank you.. I guess,"

Selina was obviously confused. She stared at the couple's vague conversation, attempting to put together the few clues she had as to what was going on. In the end, she shrugged, deciding to change the conversation altogether and mind her own business. Selina looked to Talia with a small gulp.

"Speaking of saying sorry," She slowly began, "Talia, um… if we want to really be friends again, I think we should probably talk about that, you know… fight. About the tigers." She rocked her head side to side, and pressed her teeth together, seeming iffy on what to say next. Fortunately, Talia quickly gave a calm reply, waving away the awkward conversation altogether.

"That… it doesn't really matter, Catwoman," Talia assured her. For someone who still had tears rolling down her cheeks, her voice was remarkably calm, as was her breaths. She breathed quietly and slowly. "We both had the same idea, and that's what's important, isn't it? The rest had to do with my father. He doesn't matter anymore." She gently shook her head.

"I won't let him matter anymore," Talia repeated to herself. Her eyebrows abruptly sharpened with a burst of righteous anger.

Selina smiled at her, "Good. I'm just glad that you're not going to hold too much of a grudge against me. Because, well… not only are you not someone I enjoy making angry, emotionally, you're also just someone no one should ever try to make angry, period." She stifled down a small laugh. "Not that I couldn't handle you, Talia, but you're good."

"Thank you," Talia replied, "You're quite good yourself, I'm not going to lie."

Selina nodded, mouthing something somewhat close to a 'thank you', but didn't actually tangle her vocal cords into making the sound.

Silence, yet again, fused into the air around them. Talia picked her feet up from the cold roof and hugged them to herself. She leaned her head on them, faced down. The one hand that wasn't being held by Selina was touching the top of her head lightly. She fidgeted around, crossing and uncrossing her legs, until eventually she decided to put them straight back down onto the concrete, but didn't move her head the slightest. Now even her back was leaning forward, not just her neck.

"I just… don't want that nightmare to come true. That's all." Talia stated. She moved her hand from her head to her dress, poufing the gown up formally. "My father's been searching for me, I know it. He's always searching. 'No one escapes the Demon's head'… He repeated that to me, back when I was a child, as if it was the most positive thing in the world." Her hand quickly bounced back up to wipe away the many tears soaking her face.

"Of course he'd say that….But people have. I have. You've seen it happen. Believe me, if I can escape him, you can, too. Even if he is searching harder, with you being his own daughter and all." Bruce gently patted her back, "Besides, I'm not gonna let it happen. It's my job as a superhero, of course, but also, I just… I won't."

"Neither will I," Selina added.

Both of them smiled at Talia. Bruce's was hardly visible, especially in the dark lighting, but it was obvious what was peeking out from his expression. Meanwhile, Selina's was much more obvious. It resembles a small smirk, but in a more affectionate way.

After a tiring amount of time craning it over sadly, Talia began to pull her head back up to face them. She did the movement slowly, but surely. As Bruce and Selina watched, they both expected to see an expression of fear or sadness on her face. They expected a frown formed with quivering lips, half-shut exhausted eyes, and her cheeks red with a mix of anger, nervousness, and the rough stains of tears. Many, many tears. Although they were right about there being some tears still dwelling on her face, there was something else that surprised them a lot;

With both of them by her side, Talia was smiling. Not to fake anything, not to lie, and not to push them away— but genuinely, sincerely smiling.

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