They get a hold of eye contact, then Raven breaks again. She arches into him, feeling him hit every point he needed to.
"Say my name." he commands.
Raven huffs, disobeying his order. She disliked being vulnerable, even sexually. To her luck, that never worked with her partner. He always got everything out of them both.
"Say it." he knows her spots and ruins them.
She holds in a moan, her legs quiver. Her pupils dilate, her blood pressure rises, and her muscles tense.
"Are you holding back, Rae? Don't do that, you know that you're safe with me."
"You are so beautiful. Genuinely." Fell a broken, husky whisper from his lips. He wondered if that statement was enough.
He couldn't believe it.
He's seen this woman in mugshots; her beguiling character was always frozen in perfect snapshots, he's chased her across quiet rooftops in the cascades of Gotham's night rain, he's shared a couple of glasses of Marchesi Antinori, when she was keeping it classy, and cunning, but now....
Here he was. With her. In a sea of carefully woven silk. The moonlight was as warm as it promised to be. The night chill sent pirouettes of goosebumps across their exposed skin.
He was at her mercy.
The World's Greatest Detective, yet there was so many mysteries in this woman he had yet to unfold. The Caped Crusader, a symbol of courage and valor, yet he was so stupefied and starstruck in her presence. The Dark Knight, that combative and seemingly invincible hero, yet he was crumbling at the core to this very thing called flesh and blood.
All of the emotions he was feeling, they were so much bigger than him.
It was her eyes that told him, it was safe to allow his feelings to take up space.
"Selina..." There he was once more, a man of concise prose and defined character, uttering another unconscious statement.
She takes her soft, brown russet hand, rubs his cheek as gently as she could manage. The tips of her fingers bury in a patch of his ink-black hair.
Selina was just as speechless as Bruce was. She had a hard time wrapping around her head that no matter how many times the law has created a rift between her and Bruce, that somehow, something, some feeling, kept bringing them closer every time.
It was ridiculous. A woman who didn't commit to character alignments, and a man who was all righteous.
She didn't feel worthy of him, in all honesty.
This man has seen her slip up time and time again, and nonetheless, he treated her with such grace and delicacy.
Bruce was puzzling, just like she needed him to be.
"I'm here," was what she managed before letting the air between them breathe.
"I find it so funny that..." she locked her dark caramel eyes with his tender blue ones.
It was like the woodsmoke and earth of autumn contrasting with the bitter frost and blizzards of winter.
"We played this interesting, detailed, almost infinite game of cat and mouse— or should I say, cat and bat," and the last part, she said with her golden smirk.
It made Bruce chuckle.
He presses a loose kiss on an expanse of her fragile, sepia skin.
"There's so much friction between us. Black and white areas. A lot of unmarked territory. But, there's something about you, no matter how much you catch me red-handed, no matter how much you've arrested me with that disappointed look on your face, no matter how many times we've fought and disagreed..."
His eyes were damn near the best place where she could be lost and found.
"You always reel me back in. I've got nine lives, and you're in every single one,"
Bruce lost eye contact with her.
She tenderly moves his face back to hers.
"Look at me, please. don't look away,"
And she realized why he did, he had tears in eyes.
"Tell me, what is that thing that keeps bringing us here? Why we keep meeting like this?" she wiped a long tear from his cheek.
What the world knew of Bruce was a strong, unstoppable, nearly supernatural man.
On the other hand, Selina was able to see Gotham's Defender in his real state, absolutely vulnerable and flawed. It was something she had to adjust to and cherish simultaneously.
"I..." Bruce was at war with himself, fighting every urge and thought.
"I think...." he runs his calloused hand up the back of her smooth thigh.
He kisses the slant of her jaw, the crook of her neck. A soft cry threatens to leave his throat, but he holds it down.
The words he wanted to say were stuck to his brain like glossed pages of a magazine stuck together. What he needed to say was too difficult to articulate. He felt like a stuttering engine. Perhaps, a child learning to speak for the first time.
Only Selina could make him feel this way.
"I could show you better than I could tell you," he claims in a subdued manner.
"Actions mean more than words, they say." Selina smiled softly, running a finger along a track of cicatrixes on his arm.
There was compassion lingering in her touch.
He chuckles again, kissing her on the lips.
The same lips that peppered him after those nights of Hide and Seek throughout the drab maze of Gotham.
Bruce shakes off his last tear.
"You know you don't have to hide anything from me." Selina reassures, tapping his nose.
"That was an instinct, sorry. I forgot I'm not Batman right now."
Goddamn, this woman's got me falling apart at the seams, he thinks, before asking:
