Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Selina couldn’t help her delighted ek-ing as she pulled herself out the window and onto the roof.

Everything had gone without a hitch, and the bag of gold and diamonds on her back had a reassuring weight. After tonight, she would never go hungry again, nor would her cats.

She belly flopped onto the roof- no style points, but it worked. Besides, there would be no-one around to see at this time of night.

She was forced to revise that option when she looked up into a pair of glowing white eyes. The silhouette they were set in looked almost human.

Her breath was stolen from her chest when wings snapped open, blocking out the moon.

“Another? Like me?”

Shadow struck from those blackened wings, wrapping around her wrists and ankles, binding her tightly. The bag was snatched from her back and alarms started to blare from below.

The creature… the-the Bat-Man chittered, then vanished into the night.

She couldn’t stay here. She could already hear distant sirens.

The wraps were skin tight, there was no way she could wriggle out of them. She tired to bite them, but all that did was hurt her teeth.

She took a breath and let her human form melt away with a sigh.

Paws slipped out of the too large bindings and she quickly hurried to the edge of the roof, leaping from that on to the next, until she found one of her hiding spots and curled up to wait for morning.

The momentary meeting haunted her dreams.

Chapter Text

She walked across the electrical wire as easily as solid ground, tail swishing back and forth in excitement. She leapt from the line to the Juliet balcony on the museums window. Paws launched and feet landed, silent as night itself. Granted, it was Gotham, so the night was not particularly silent, but the metaphor still stood.

The Juliet balcony was several stories up, and nearly fifteen feet off the ground on the inside of the museum, so it was unsurprising that it didn’t have a lock.

Seline winced as the window loudly creaked open. Luckily, she didn’t hear any guards rushing to the defence of the exhibits. she ensured that the anchor on the line was secure, connected it to her belt, then started to slide down into the museum.

Her feet hit the floor, and she clipped the line off her belt. She padded carefully forward on all fours. In the next room was the artifact she was searching for. It had been stolen from an indigenous comity, and she needed to return it.

She listened to the hum of electricity in the floor and side stepped several pressure activated tiles, ducked under a motion sensor and stepped over a trip wire.

When she reached the display case, she stood. For a moment she froze in wonder, the beauty, the intricates of the tiny details taking her breath away.

She bit her tongue to snap herself out of it and got to work.  She pulled the glass cutter out of her belt, affixed it to the glass, and quickly dragged a circle. A quick jerk of the wrist, and the circle came away cleanly. She knelt, released the circle onto the floor and tucked the tool back into her belt. She stood up, and as she reached for the statue, she felt eyes on her.

Batman was perched on top of the display case.

She gasped, stumbling back- She hadn’t heard him, how had she not heard him?!?

He tilted his head, blank white eyes unreadable.

She turned on her heel and ran. She heard a woosh of air, and dared to look over her shoulder. Batman leapt to another display case, then glided to the next, just barely out of reach.

She looked back just in time to side step a display case, slide under a barrier, and jump over a canoe.

The door flung open, Gotham’s best and brightest situated in the light from the hall.

“Police! Stop with your hands up!”

Selina skidded to a stop, raising her hands above her head.

She heard Batman land behind her. The lead cop nodded at him, as one of his men spun her around, putting the cuffs on her surprisingly gently.

Batman stood in front of her, head tilted slightly to one side, curious.

Selina didn’t know why, nor where the impulse came from, but she leaned forward, stealing a kiss from the corner of that fanged mouth.

Batman stumbled backward, white eyes blinking in confusion as the cops lead her away.

Once they were out in the moonlight, Selina took a deep breath. she smiled, showing her fangs and getting a flinch from one of the officers.

“Well, it’s been fun boys, but my kittens will be getting hungry!”

She let her human form begin to melt away and the cops holding her arms had to scramble to let go, or get their fingers crushed by her transformation. Her paws could easily slip out of the loose cuffs, and she stepped out of them, giving herself a shake, to settle her ruffled fur. As the cops snapped out of their shock and one tried to take a lunge at her, she leapt to the top of a fence, then a streetlight, then a fire escape and vanished into the night.

Bruce felt his fingers ghost over his lips, as he looked up at the computer.

***

Name: Selina Kyle

Alias: Catwoman

Pronouns: She/Her (unconfirmed)

The rest of her file trailed off, hidden by the other windows, but he could have rattled it off by heart. There wasn’t much information on her; her parents had died young, she had wound up in foster care, one of her foster siblings died of medical neglect… she disappeared from Gotham at age eighteen, then reappeared several years latter, with the ability to turn into a cat.

His fingers drifted to his lips again.

Sure, he had been kissed dozens, if not hundreds of times before, but this time felt different. Maybe it was because he had been kissed as Batman rather than Bruce or Brucie?

He had never really thought that someone might want to kiss Batman… let alone someone as beautiful as her…

Chapter Text

Selina liked to run the rooftops of Gotham at night.

She wasn’t certain if it was her cat side or her human side that made her want to carve out a territory, a space all her own.

After she kissed Batman in the museum, she started to see him appear on the roof tops at night, always staying just outside of the area she had claimed as her own.

They would sit there and just watch each other for hours, or they would pass by each other, eyes meeting momentarily in the night.

Sometimes they would chase each other, leaping, flying, gliding over Gotham’s rooftops, Batman’s deep raspy laugh intermingling with her high, light one.

He started bringing her gifts- food for her cats, cat toys, clothes, jewelry…

In return she gave him information, things she had learned rubbing elbows with Gotham’s underbelly.

(As well as the occasional crook or would-be mugger who trespassed on her territory. Waste not want not)

***

Selina looked up, as Batman swooped down to land beside her.

He was moving strangely, and it took her a moment to realize that he wasn’t using one of his arms.

Was he hurt?

He was still for a moment, looking at her. He made a small cooing noise and she leaned back, ears standing up curiously.

His wing twitched, then pulled back.

Hidden underneath it, was a child.

Every gothamitne worth their gas filters knew who Robin was, but very few people had ever see him? Her? Them? without having a fist thrown at their face seconds later.

The child was tiny, clinging tightly to Batman’s chest. Their bright yellow feathered wings twitched slightly, contrasting their deathly pale skin. The child leaned backward at an unnatural angle to look at her and smiled, chirping.

Selina instinctively chirped back.

Robin laughed, the sound echoing strangely.

He let go of his father, falling backward, tiny head on collision course with the concrete. Selina lurched forward, reaching out, knowing that she was too far away.

Just before he would have cracked his head open, he twisted in mid air, landing silently on all fours.

Selina slumped, as the rapid shot of adrenaline faded from her system.

He whistled smugly, and spun around her, tugging on her tail and flicking her ears, giggling when they bobbed up and down.  

He skidded to a stop, and collapsed into a butterfly sit in front of her. He tilted his head to one side, then the other and chittered at her.

Again, she imitated the sound before her brain could catch up.

“I like you, your funny! Funny!” He rocked back and forth, holding onto his feet.

Batman padded forward and cooed to the child, patting them on the head. The child leaned into the touch, purring loudly. It wasn’t a real purr like hers- it sounded like a human child imitating the purr of a cat.

She swallowed, struggling to clear her throat to speak. “It’s nice to meet you?”

The child laughed again, the sound echoing strangely, sounding simultaneously distant and right by her ear. the sound could have been either laughter, or desperate sobbing.

“I like her, Daddy!” Robin chirped to his dad. Batman nuzzled his hair and cooed, then they were gone, vanishing into the night.

Chapter Text

A few nights later, when Selina clambered onto her roof to do her rounds, Batman was sitting on it.

It was the first time he had entered her territory without explicit permission. He chirped, smiling when he saw her. He whistled, then leapt across to a neighbouring roof. He looked over his shoulder and whistled again.

Did he want her to follow him?

She leapt across the gap, following him across the roof. he climbed a conning tower and glided,  she leapt to a fire escape, climbing up.  He flew, and she leapt and climbed below him. This wasn’t one of their games of chase, or a race, he kept easily in sight, never straying too far.

They reached the edge of her territory quickly, and she jumped the last gap, shimmying up the side of the building.

She blinked in surprise, ears and tail going straight up.

On the roof was a red and white checked blanket, a picnic basket sitting the middle.

Batman was already opening the lid. She carefully padded forward, sniffing the air. The smells that came from the basket were already making her mouth water.

He pulled out plates, cutlery, tin cups… part of her expected a bottle of wine, but he pulled out an old-fashioned thermos instead, filling the cups with herbal tea. She sat down next to him, tail flicking curiously, as he started to pull food from the basket.

A plate of carefully made and arranged sashimi, some sort of veggie dish that resembled the filling inside of samosa, and a mostly spinach salad.  She could tell that there was still something in the basket but that was probably supposed to be desert.

“Did you make this?” she asked, as Batman added cream and honey to his tea.

“Aaaagent An-gel helped.” He rasped, then awkwardly took a sip of tea. His massive fangs didn’t let him close his mouth fully, so he had to drink very carefully so that tea wouldn’t spill down his front.

“Who’s Agent Angel?” she asked, watching Batman use chopsticks with a surprising amount of precision to place a couple of pieces of sashimi on his plate. Her mouth was watering, but she waited. While she was 90 percent certain that batman wasn’t going to poison her, it paid to be cautious.

“Takes carrree of meee...” he picked up one of the pieces of sashimi with the chopsticks, one hand underneath so that if it crumbled, nothing would wind up on the blanket.  She watched him carefully chew it and swallow.

“So she’s what… your handler?” she asked as she eschewed the chopsticks, picking up the sashimi with her hands.

He tilted his head to one side, thinking, then nodded.

She bit into the sashimi.

It was the best fish she had ever tasted.

It was buttery, rich, sweet, melt in her mouth…and so fresh! It had to have been caught this morning.  The rice was perfectly seasoned, not too sweet, not too salty, not too acidic, it elevated the fish rather than dragging it down.

After that, there wasn’t much room for talk, as she was busy stuffing her face with the amazing food. Bouncing from foster home to foster home, no one had really taught her how to cook. She had learned a few things since, and could manage scrambled eggs, grilled cheese, and basic noodles… but she hadn’t had a home cooked meal since she had moved out of Harley and ivy’s place. Sure, take-out worked, but sometimes she wanted a proper meal.

The salad was crisp and cool, the topping crunchy and sweet, perfectly balanced. The veggie dish was delicious, soft, perfectly cooked and slightly spicey, not enough to hurt but enough to give a depth of flavour… although there was something missing from it that she couldn’t quite put her paw on.

Once all the food was gone, and she was licking the remnants off her claws, Batman pulled out the dessert. Dessert was simple, just some hulled strawberries. They smelled amazing, and looked wonderfully fresh.  

Batman looked furtively from side to side, and put a finger to his lips. She blinked, confused, but nodded. He picked up a strawberry, then reached into his wing, pulling out… a can of whipped cream? He sprayed some on the strawberry he was holding, then held it out to her.

She licked her dry lips, and leaned forward. Lethal claws were centimetres from her face, as she delicately plucked the strawberry from them with her teeth.

When she looked back up at Batman, chewing on her morsel, his mouth was hanging open, eyes wide. He shook himself back to reality as she plucked a strawberry from the container, holding it out to him. He sprayed whipped cream on this one too, then gently took it from her fingers. She could feel the razor sharp edges of his fangs ghost along the pads of her fingers, and it took all of her self control to stay still.

They took turns feeding each other strawberries until they ran out, then sprayed whipped cream into each others mouths.

****

Selina rubbed at her eyes, enjoying the warm mint tea. A full belly was making her sleepy, even though the night was young. Suddenly it hit her, what had been missing from the meal- onions and garlic.

Everything in the meal had been safe for cats! (in moderation, at least).

“Did you make sure that everything was safe for cats?” she asked, pleasantly shocked that Batman would be that careful.

He pushed himself up from his lazy sprawl, smiling.

“You did, didn’t you!”

He nodded, radiating smugness as he started to put the containers away.

She giggled, covering her mouth more out of habit than a need to hide her fangs from Batman. “You didn’t need to do that.”

He paused in cleaning up, tilting his head curiously.

“I can eat anything a human can.”

He made a concerned noise, brow furrowing.

She rolled her eyes. “As long as I don’t go full cat for an hour or two after, I’m fine. Promise.” She finished the last of her tea, then tried to help Batman clean up. He gently smacked her hand when she tried to help, so she let him put it all away himself. Although, he did let her help fold the blanket.

She pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth, enjoying his little startled chirp.

Chapter Text

Their next date wasn’t planned.

It was a rare clear night in Gotham.

The stars were visible in the sky, the full moon blazing bright.

Batman was sitting on the edge of a roof, staring up at the sky.

She meowed, to get his attention so that she wouldn’t startle him, then sat down next to him. He smiled at her, and lifted his wing, draping it over her shoulders to keep her warm.

“I remember in school they told us that people used to the stars to navigate, but they didn’t teach us how.” She said staring up at them.

He made a excited little wiggle, and pulled a pad of paper and a pen out of his wing. His pen had a big clunky egg-shaped grip on it, that let him hold it comfortably with his claws. Between the bright moonlight and her enhanced vision, she could easily read with just the light of full moon.

He started to teach her how to navigate by just the stars.

For a cyrtid, he had surprisingly good writing, and an extensive vocabulary.

“I wonder who taught you?” she thought, as she watched him point out stars with a smile, carefully writing down details for her.

Their star gazing session was cut short by the Gotham smog blowing back in, hiding the stars once more.

Batman shook a fist at the sky, pretending to angrily cuss out the fog.

She laughed and wriggled out from underneath his wing. She dipped into a low stretch, as Batman stood up, shaking out his own stiffness.

He looked out over the city and his ears twitched like he heard something.

He darted back toward her, pressed his cheek against her own, then scuttled off the roof, gliding away into the night.

Selina was frozen, hand on her cheek in memorized disbelief.

The cat side of her mind was doing excited cartwheels and purring up a storm. “He marked me! He marked me!”

The human side was trying to rationalize; “with those fangs in the way, he wouldn’t be able to kiss anyone. He probably has no idea what that means to a cat, right?”

Chapter Text

 Tap, tap, tap!

Selina groaned, and let her head thump against the back of the couch. The knocking was coming from the window, and she didn’t want to get up.

But if she didn’t, Harley would just break the window.

Tap, tap, tap!

She sighed, and levered herself to her feet, putting as little weight on her left ankle as possible. She’d twisted it in a bad landing, and it hurt like hell to walk. She leaned on the wall and limped to the window, dragging her leg.

She blinked.

That wasn’t Harley.

Batman was outside, smiling awkwardly at her.

He held up a bag of take-out as a explanation.

She unlocked the window, and shoed him back far enough to open it without whacking him.

He flowed in easily, even though the window didn’t seem big enough to let him fit. He nuzzled her cheek on his way to the floor, then sat there on his haunches as she closed the window.

“Kitty hurt?” he asked, watching the way she was limping.

She huffed, “If anyone else called me that, I’d claw their face off. I twisted my ankle.”

He gently herded her toward the couch and pushed her down into it. Before she could try and get back up, one of her cats noticed the empty lap and curled up in it, trapping her.

Batman disappeared around the corner to her kitchen. He reappeared, dragging a chair behind him. It clattered against the carpet loudly, probably waking her neighbours.

He put the chair next to the couch, and grabbed one of the pillows. He put the pillow on the chair, and tapped her sore leg, then the chair. She lifted her sore foot onto the chair and sighed. Who knew that elevating a sore ankle made it hurt so much less!

He disappeared around the corner again, and she heard him open her freezer and riffle around. She heard a dissatisfied grunt, and he reappeared, glaring at her. He reached into his cape and pulled out a chemical ice pack, handing it to her. She squeezed it until she heard the pop, then shook it, and set it on her sore ankle.

“Thanks.” She sighed. Now that the pain was easing, she suddenly felt exhausted.

He disappeared back into the kitchen. She heard hands being washed, a clattering of pots and pans, clinking of plates, rattling of cutlery and rustling of a paper bag.  He reappeared, walking upright and carrying a plate of food and a glass of water, balanced on a cookie sheet.

He handed the cookie sheet to her, rasping “no trrrray.”

 She laughed as she took it, shooing away her cat and setting it in her lap “I’m not some fancy rich guy, who takes breakfast in bed every morning.”

he snorted, then looked at the rack of dvd’s she had curiously.

“Pick whatever movie you want. I don’t have any streaming services, so if you want something else you’ll have to pirate it yourself.”

While he choose a movie, she busied herself with the food. He hadn’t just dumped the food on a plate and slammed it in the microwave, he had actually taken the time to plate the food neatly. The butter chicken was in a bowl, with an artful sweep of cream. The bowl sat on a plate, with pieces of naan placed around the edge.

The samosa had been neatly lined up, leaning on each other. he’d put the sauces in her egg cups, likely because she didn’t have those fancy little ceramic cups that dips came in at restaurants. There was even a cloth to use as a napkin!

He picked one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, the one with Davy jones.  He put the movie on, then climbed up onto the couch beside her.

It was then that she learned something very important about Batman- that he could loaf!

She couldn’t help but giggle, and she patted his head with the hand that wasn’t covered in samosa grease.

Batman looked up at her, confused and vaguely disgruntled.

“You’re cute.”

“Errggghhh” he protested, gently batting her hand away from his head.

She smiled at him, and tucked into her food, hungrier than she had thought.

***

She wiped her face, then put the tray of dishes on the end table, she could deal with it in the morning.  As soon as the tray was out of the way, Batman made his move.

He sttrreeechheeed, then flopped across her lap, wiggling to get comfortable.

Selina snorted.

“You’re as bad as my cats.”

Her mind wandered, distracted by the movie. Her hands automatically started stroking Batman’s back like he was one of her cats.

She was snapped out of her thoughts a few minutes later, when she heard a familiar, yet different sound. Batman was… purring? He was absolutely relaxed, boneless in her lap. As she watched, he started to knead at one of her couch cushions with his sharp claws.

His claws would shred the cushion, but that was a small price to see him this relaxed. There was always a tension to him, like he could leap away and disappear into the shadows at any moment. But right now? He was a puddle of content Bat, purring so loudly she almost couldn’t hear the movie.

***

About halfway through, during the scene where Davy Jones got his hand stuck in a wall, Selina noticed something.

Batman’s blinks were taking longer, his kneading was slowing down, and his purr kept trailing of then restarting. As she watched, his eyes drifted shut, their dim glow fizzling out.

He was asleep!

Selina felt awed, honoured. It was the same feeling she got when one of her feral cats got calm enough to sleep in her presence. She had won his trust enough that he felt comfortable enough to be vulnerable around her.  She didn’t feel like she had tamed batman, oh no, on the contrary! She felt like a feral who’d been slowly warmed up with toys and treats.

…Actually, upon retrospect, that was exactly what batman had done

She smiled, and shook her head.  She had stopped petting batman during her revelation. He made a sleepy little noise, shifting like he might wake up, and she started petting him again.

***

She sat on the windowsill, tail swinging idly.

Behind her, she could hear some of her siblings playfighting. She looked over her shoulder just in time to see her sister tackle one of her brothers and start a game of chase. They were reaching the age where it was time for them to wander off, find places of their own, but a couple of extra days together wouldn’t hurt.

The door clicked, and they all turned to stare at it, as the food-givers opened it and stepped into the room. She couldn’t smell food on them, so she didn’t care, and turned back to the window.

She heard them chitter to each other and heard them pick up one of her siblings. After a few moments, she heard their feet hit the floor. She heard the food-givers step closer to her.

Oop! She was going up! They had picked her up! One of the food givers was holding her, and making little shushing noises. They flipped her over and poked around at her belly for a moment, then let her wriggle the right way up. “Why did you do-oh, treats!”

She licked at the goopy treat, as the food givers carried her towards the door. is she going out? none of them had ever been beyond that door before, other than her mother. The treat tasted a little strange, but none of the food the food-givers had given made them sick, so it was probably fine.

She was carried down a long corridor. Her eyes kept drifting shut, even as she purred. Then there was a creak, and she was outside. It was so bright! She could hear all sorts of sounds, and new smells! She wanted to explore… but she was so tired.

she opened her eyes in a room lit with flickering orange light, and filled with strange, acrid smells.

There was a food-giver, without their outer fur, laying on a stone slab in the center of the room. There were more strange sounds, some coming from the one holding them. they went down, then the one holding her placed her on the chest of the food-giver on the slab.

She purred. The food giver was warm. She curled up on their chest, as another treat was pressed to her lips. Someone patted her head, and she fell asleep, purring.

***

Selina woke with a start, pulling her tail away from her face.

She never liked that dream. Didn’t like the reminder that she was born human.  She stretched. Her back leg still hurt, but not as bad as the night before. she leapt down from the couch, carefully keeping her weight off her back leg.

The sun was up outside, weak light swimming though the smogy sky and cloudy glass. Batman had left at some point during the night. He’d thrown away the dead ice pack, and put the dishes in the dishwasher without starting it. He’d even taken care of the takeout trash.

… she wondered if he had bumped into any of her neighbors on the way to the trash chute, and how they’d reacted.

***

That night seemed to have fundamentally change something about their relationship.

Instead of batman leaving gifts at the edge of her territory, or on the roof of the apartment building, he would come straight up to her apparent window and bring them to her. He would, often bring a meal to share as well. Then they would cuddle or go patrol together.

Sometimes he would bring Robin, and the three of them would dance through the smoggy skies of Gotham together.

Of course, the humans promptly decided that she was Robin’s mother, a turn of events that amused the hatchling immensely.

Sometimes, when she wasn’t home, Batman would leave the gifts inside her apartment. How he got through the locked window without damaging it was beyond her. It wasn’t uncommon for her to come home, only to find Batman chilling on her couch, or feeding her cats treats when they weren’t supposed to have any.

She should probably be more concerned about this, but it’s hard to be suspicious when you’re eating the most amazing cheesecake you’ve ever tasted.

Chapter Text

Batman was standing on his hind legs in the middle of her living room, staring suspiciously at the kitten incubator.

Selina put a hand to her chest to still her racing heart. (She couldn’t hear his breathing or the rustling of his cape over the sound of the incubator. That was something she would need to remember)

“Batman! You startled me!”

He made a low trill, ducking his head apoplectically, before looking back at the incubator, from which now chorused squeaking sounds.  His ears twitched, as she stepped up beside him. She held her breath a moment, thrumming with fear, until she saw that the smallest kitten was squeaking just as fiercely as the larger two.

Batman pointed at the device, tilting his head in confusion, as she sanitized her hands, and grabbed a disinfectant wipe to wipe down her surfaces.

“It’s an incubator.”

He rolled his eyes, (really rolled his whole head, but it got the message across) and pointed at it again.

“Oh, what’s inside? Kittens.” She answered, as she got the clipboard with the weight and feeding schedule ready.

His eyes went wide, and he looked her up and down, paying extra attention to her middle.

She laughed, shaking her head as she disinfected, then tared the scale. “They’re not mine. I’m fostering them for the shelter.”

He dropped down to his haunches, letting out a huge puff of air.

“Wanna help me feed them?” she asked.

It was comical, how wide Batman’s eyes went, and how quickly he scrambled backward. His ears pinned back tightly, and he made himself small against the couch.

Selina rolled her eyes, as she opened the incubator and retrieved the first kitten. “Com’on, if you can feed me strawberries and braid my hair, you can bottle-feed a  kitten.”

 He worried at his lip, as she held up the first kitten, cooing to it. They were at the ‘fuzzy blob’ stage, eyes and ears still closed. “Hullo Ranch!” she chirped, as the kitten whined “Yeah, I know, it’s cold out here.” Ranch was mostly white, with a few small grey patches.   

She grabbed a wet wipe, and stimulated the kitten to go to the bathroom, threw the wipe in the trash, and placed the kitten on the scale.

“125 grams!” she cooed “you’ve gained some weight!” 

She wrote that down own the chart and put him back.

The next kitten was-“Aioli! Good morning~!” she helped Aioli go to the bathroom, then weighed her. “130 grams! You are a chonky kitten!”. The chokny kitten was mostly black, except for little white paws and a blaze on her chest.

The last kitten, the smallest kitten, was named-“Mayo~! It’s breakfast time sweetie!”. Mayo was almost completely black, except for the lower half of his face, which was white… like he had dipped his face in mayo.

“oh… only 100 grams… tiny boy…” once she had finished the first step, she whipped down the scale and counter again, then went to wash her hands. Batman followed her, much like one of her cats. At least he was better about not getting underfoot.

“All right! Time to make formula!” she double fist pumped the air, pretending to be super hyped and excited, and batman imitated her with a wordless cheer.

She opened the sterilizer box, pulled out a funnel, a shaker bottle for mixing, and the bottle for the kittens, along with a glass measuring cup. The tub of formular came out of the fridge, along with a container of purified water.

“Two! Scoops! of formula!” she added that to the shaker cup.

“Five! Hundred! Millilitres! of warm water!” she filled the measuring cup and put it into the microwave for a few seconds. She tested the temperature on her wrist, deemed it appropriate, and put in into the shaker cup.  

She screwed on the lid and made sure it was sealed-“and now, we shake!”

“Shakea-shakea-shakea!” she shook the mixer vigorously up and down and side to side, throwing in a couple of dance moves, and even a spin. Batman laughed, clapping his hands.

She put the shaker down, pretending it was really heavy. “Whf! That’s a work-out!” she joked, pretending to wipe sweat from her brow.

She used the funnel to carefully transfer the formula to the bottle, testing it again on her wrist.

“All right!” she pointed dramatically toward the living room “Time to feed some kittens!”

The kittens, while they couldn’t hear well, and were still completely blind, had worked out that human voices’ equals “we’re about to be fed”. Their squeaky meows were surprisingly loud for such tiny creatures.

Selina took a clean cloth from the neat pile next to the incubator, laid it out on the table and opened the incubator. Aioli had managed to squirm right up to the edge, so she was going to be fed first.

Selina picked up the kitten and gently placed her on the clean cloth. She made sure the feeding posture was correct, then brought the bottle to the kitten’s mouth. Aloi’s little paws flailed, as she latched and started a one-kitten mission to drain the bottle dry.

Unfortunately, her mission did not succeed, and she only finished about a third of the bottle.

“You done? You done?” Selina asked, as Aloi let go, and yawned massively, having tired herself out. Selina gently patted Aloi’s back until she heard a tiny burp, then whipped her mouth, weighed her again and put her back in the incubator.

She was startled by a set of black claws, creeping over the edge of the table, as Batman pulled himself up to better see what she was doing.

“And now we’re going to feed Ranch.” She started narrating what she was doing, explaining it to Batman in a no-pressure kind of way. “The cloths on the table so that it’s warmer, and easier to clean. Formula is sticky.”

She pulled Ranch out of the open incubator and set her on the cloth. The little kitten mewed and squirmed around trying to find the food.

“Always feed kittens on their bellies, not on their back.”

She picked up the bottle again-“hold the kitten with your non-dominant hand, and the bottle with your dominant hand.” She put her hand over the kitten’s back, one finger gently laying on their throat. “You don’t grasp the kitten, you just gently lay your hand over them, with one finger resting on their throat so that you can feel if their swallowing or not.”

She gave the bottle a little shake to ensure nothing had settled, then held it up to the kitten’s mouth, gently bushing their lip with it, so they knew it was there.

Ranch had a little trouble latching, but one she got it, she went at the bottle with single mined determination.

“You don’t squeeze the bottle at all, just hold it at a slight angle… Ranch has a little trouble getting latched, but once she latches, she’s good.”

“When they start trying to pull their away, that means their done.” She pulled the bottle away, setting it down.

“Now, we need to burp the kitten. Just gently tap their back with two fingers until you feel or hear a little burp.”

There was a tiny little ‘urp’ noise, and Selina stopped patting the kittens back.

“Now, we wipe their face, weigh them, put them back and write it down.”

Batman watched the kittens with fascination, as he carefully asked a question.

“Why… weigh… again?”

“We weigh them a second time to see how much they ate. That way we know if their eating properly.” Selina answered, as she carefully wrote the wight onto the sheet.

“Do you want to try feeding the last kitten?” she asked gently, trying to make it seem not that serious.

He worried his lip nervously for a few seconds, then seemed to come to an agreement. He nodded firmly and lurched into a standing position.

“Go wash your hands first. And don’t touch anything after you’ve washed them”

He lurched down the hallway to the bathroom, and she heard the sink running.

He came back, holding his hands in the air away from his body like a freshly-gloved surgeon, making Selina laugh at his awkward walk.

He stuck out his tounge at her in retaliation, and joined her at the incubator. She’d already taken Mayo out of the incubator and put him on the cloth.

“Ok. “she handed him the bottle, “I’d always recommend testing it-“ she looked at the thick, leathery skin on Batman’s wrists and interrupted herself “-usually I’d say test it on your wrist, but you’ll need to use a thermometer”

He carefully put his hand over the kitten as she had taught him, and held the bottle up to it’s mouth.

Selina gently grabbed batman’s hand and re-adjusted it “little closer and tilt the bottle up just a little more… you got it!”

Batman’s face lit up, wonder replacing fear.

He was absolutely enamored with the tiny creature, that was fully reliant on them to take care of it. Rapt attention and love were obvious in every line of his body. It was the same way he softened, seemed almost a little more human around children.

Selina smiled, watching Batman carefully feed this tiny kitten.  After a few seconds, Mayo was done, and Batman put the bottle down. He gently tapped the kitten, just until it made a tiny urp, then whipped mayo’s face clean.

 He lifted the kitten up to his face and made little kissy noises.

Selina giggled, smiling ear to ear “Bats, we do still need to weigh him.”

Batman play-growled at her, but put the kitten on the scale.

“Ok, Mayo now weighs a hundred and ten grams.”

“Nuh.” He shook his head, and pointed at the kitten “Batman.”

She looked down at him, as he grinned up at her from where he had propped his head up on the table.

“You wanna call him Batman?” she snorted, playing along “but how will you tell if I’m talking you or the kitten?”

Batman’s face was suddenly serious. He looked away, and seemed to be thinking about something. He came to some sort of conclusion, then stood up on his hind legs, taking a deep breath, bracing himself.

He met her eyes straight on, the trailing edges of his shadow stilling.

He raised a clawed hand slowly, and tapped a finger on his chest, just above the bat-shaped void. His voice was raspy and pained, and so quiet she could barely hear him.

“Bruce.”

Selina felt like all the breath had been punched out of her body, and she rocked back on her heels. She was frozen, the pen falling from her limp fingers.

Batman… had a name?

Had he… been born human? Like her?

He picked up the pen from the floor, crossed out ‘Mayo’ and wrote ‘Batman’ next to it.

She shook herself back to reality. She licked her dry lips, and took a deep breath, tail lashing the air. Was she really going to do this?

“I guess… I should give you my name, in return”

Batman looked up at her, eyes wide, and ears canted forward, his cape stilling, like he was frozen in shock.

“It’s Selina.”

Batman’s brow furrowed in concertation, as he carefully sounded out her name.

 “Se-sh- selwenna?”

She laughed, but it was a bit forced, a bit strained, as she put Mayo back in the incubator, writing down his weight.

“You can call me Selly, if that’s too hard.”

“Sewy?” it almost sounded more like ‘celery’ when he tried to say her nickname. He puffed up his cheeks and shook his head “kitty.”

She chuckled, for real this time and shook her head, as she whipped up the table. “You only get to call me that ‘cause I love you.”

… had she really just said that? The realization hit her like a freight train. She had been so caught up in joking with Bat- Bruce, that she hadn’t realized what she was saying. It had just come out, without thinking.

“I love him. I didn’t realize it before… but I love him.”

As she delt with that earth shattering revelation, she watched as batman crossed off the other names, making ‘Ranch’ into ‘Martha’ and ‘Aioli’ into ‘Lara’.

He also flipped to the feeding schedule and started putting a ‘B’ next to times- ones that overlapped with when she was mostly likely to go out, or be asleep. Of course, only at night, as he was always gone by the first light of day.

So. This was really happening. She was co-parenting a litter of kittens, with a bat-cryptid that she was in love with.

She was snapped out her thoughts by Batman poking her in the thigh with her phone. He poked her again, and she took the phone from him, unlocking it.

“What do you need my phone for?” she asked, holding it out to him.

Rather than taking it, he hovered his hand over the phone and the screen glitched out a bit. Her contacts flashed up, the screen was lost to glitches again, then a strange contact appeared.

It was glitchy, the phone number showing up as random Unicode symbols, and the name being a mass of glitchy pixels.

Batman pointed at her phone.

“Message… you… if… can’t…come.” His voice sounded especially bad, like he had done way too much talking tonight. He slumped, the trailing edges of his cape moving sluggishly, eyes dim.

“You have a phone?”

He put his hand out flat and tilted it one-side to the other.

“…Is the giant spotlight thing just you messing with the police?”

Batman shrugged, a little smile pulling at the edge of his mouth.

***

A few nights later, Selina sat in her living room, drinking a cup of coffee, and watching Batman get ready to feed the kittens. She was comfortable enough around him to hang out in her pajamas- an oversized t-shirt and some shorts, a hole roughly cut for her tail. 

“I…wanna…show…friend…kittens.” He looked over his shoulder at her, asking for permission.

She yawned, and scratched her ear, not fully awake yet. “Yeah, sure.”

Batman set the kitten back in the incubator and padded to the window. He opened it, and leaned out the window, whistling and clicking. After a few seconds, he pulled his head back in, but left the window open.

Selina blinked in confusion, watching this happen. She hadn’t expected him to call his friend right now. How long would they take to get here? What was his friend anyway? Was she finally going to get to meet the legendary Agent Angel?

… should she go get dressed?

Nah. His friend was probably a cryptid who wouldn’t care anyway.

There was a distant whistling sound, and a woosh of displaced air, and suddenly

Superman!

was floating on her fire escape.

What. The. Hell.

Superman did metropolis! Not Gotham! Everyone knew that! She’d heard rumors about Superman and Batman being friends, but she’d never believed them!

He politely tapped the window frame with a knuckle, to get her attention.

“May I enter?”

She closed her mouth with a click of teeth and grabbed her fluffed up tail, hiding it behind herself.

“Of course!” she bit out.

Superman was suddenly inside- had he teleported? No, he must have climbed in the window too quickly for her eyes to perceive.

“Would you like tea? Coffee? I think I have some cookies in the cupboard?” she knew her grin was rictus, and her voice was strained, but the honest-to-Gotham Superman was floating in her living room!

His blank, neutral expression did not change as he bowed his head in her direction. “I am not in need of sustenance. Thank you for your hospitality.”

He turned toward Batman. “What did you want to show me?”

Batman chittered, smiling.

In response to whatever he said, Superman put his hands out and closed his eyes.

Only to blink them open in frantic surprise when Batman placed a kitten in his hands.

Selina watched as his stillness went from freaky ‘I don’t know how to human’ to ‘I am terrified of hurting this tiny creature!’.

Batman squeaked and whistled and chittered, explaining something, as he moved superman’s hands to cradle the kitten.

There were two word that stuck out from the chittering- ‘Lara’ and ‘Martha’.

Superman softened, his walls melting, his eyes going huge and sad.

“You named them after our mothers?” he asked, voice quiet and gentle. Batman nodded, smiling. For a moment, they were still, looking down at the kitten carefully cradled in superman’s hands.

The sweet moment was interrupted by Lara starting to squeak loudly. His hands must have been cold.

Batman carefully took the kitten back, holding them to his chest with one hand and knuckling over to the incubator. Lara went back inside, and he pulled out Batman-the-Kitten, setting him on the table.

Superman watched in silent, rapt fascination, as Batman fed Batman-the-Kitten. When the kitten was done, he went back in, and Martha came out.

As Batman fed Martha, he seemed to be explaining how to do so to Superman.

When Martha went back in, he pulled out Lara again.

He held the bottle out to Superman, like he was asking if he wanted to try.

Selina felt a sharp spike of fear- Superman could crack the planet like an egg if he wanted to, could he really be gentle enough to feed a kitten?

For a moment, it looked like Superman was having the same thoughts, then he set his jaw, and took the bottle from Batman.

He was, of course, a natural. Didn’t need Batman to adjust his hold at all.

She watched as he had the same revelation that Batman had, that he would do anything for these tiny creatures.

It hit Selina then, that she was one of the few people, outside of the Justice League, and maybe some of his villains, to see Superman emote. She felt like she was intruding on a private moment, something that wasn’t for her eyes.

She stood up, considering leaving the room, as Superman finished with the kitten and placed her on the scale, then back in the incubator.

As Batman started writing weights onto the chart, concentring hard so that his writing would be legible, Superman turned to look at her.

She froze under the weight of his unblinking gaze. The part of her mind that was a very small creature was screaming that she was in the gaze of a much larger predator.

He drifted toward her, floating higher, the emotion leaving his face, his walls coming back up.

His head tilted (the exact same way Batman’s did! Had he learned the gesture from Batman, or had Batman learned it from him?).

“You must be Selina,” His voice was emotionless, flat. “-better known as Catwoman.”

“My brother has told me much about you.”

“Brother? Wait, who the hel-Batman!?” she thought.

He waited for her to process, letting the statement sink in.

“I wish to make something clear. Batman and his flock Do. Not. Kill.”

He leaned in closer, and she flinched, taking a half step back. He didn’t blink, or breath, or smell like anything even remotely human.

“I do not have the same reservations.”

Was-was this a shovel talk?? Her heart was beating out of her chest- she couldn’t-breathe-she was trapped-

“If you break my brother’s heart, they will never find your corpse.”

It wasn’t a threat, it was a promise, delivered as cold and calculated fact.

She felt dizzy, like she might pass out.

He leaned back, then his gaze snapped to something only he could hear, and he was gone.

Now free, she collapsed, humanity slipping away as she fell. Under the couch was a good hiding place.

… she was just going to say here awhile.