Cold-Blooded: A DC Universe Fanfiction (#Wattys2015)

Chapter 21: Slade: Beneath Her Facade

As they started up the harder path to the shrine, Slade turned to Yukie and remarked, "So, after more than two years together, despite everything we've done and everything we've been through, somehow it never occurred to you to wonder why I made the time to see you at least once a month and often more?" He was not bothering to hide his amusement.

"The—," she paused to think. "The obvious reason was the sex. It has always been very good." The color was up in her face again, and it had nothing to do with the climb. How had he ever thought Cheshire more appealing than Yukie? With women like Jade Nyugen, you got the full effect all in one glance, and beauty was overrated anyway. With Yukie, there was much more to discover.

"You know, I like it when you blush. It reminds me of how you look after you come. If all I wanted was to get laid, the world is full of opportunities. I don't pursue them; I'm not sixteen anymore, with nothing on my mind but fucking. Come October, I'll be sixty. Old enough to know what I want, what I need. Old enough to know what truly matters. I come to you because the body doesn't stay attracted to somebody the rest of you doesn't like."

"The less obvious reason is that you trust me enough to fall asleep afterward. It is not that you think I'm harmless. You think no one is harmless."

"That's not a response to what I just said," he prompted.

"Slade—I have gotten to this point only by telling myself this, what there is between us, is only about sex. It is my coping mechanism. If it is only about sex, then I don't feel as I did when I was married, swimming around and around in a dirty aquarium with the oxygen depleted. If it is only about sex, then some day when you no longer return my calls, I can shrug it off. If it is only about sex, then some day, when someone who knows about us asks me 'Did you hear what happened to Deathstroke?', and I look on line, where there is graphic footage of your terrible death at the hands of an entire army, for I do not doubt it would take nothing less, then I might be rather sad, but not—not destroyed."

She was so serious that it was even more comical. "It's not that difficult to dodge an entire army. They're ill equipped to hunt down only one man. But far be it for me to interfere with your mental processes. All right, despite everything, including this vacation, and that the only other people who would voluntarily afflict themselves with my constant company for eight weeks are those who are so much more afraid of someone else that they're willing to pay me to protect them, this is only about sex. Despite the kindness you're showing my daughter, this is only about sex. Despite—."

"Must you tease me so?"

"I'm merely agreeing with you," he assured her. "It's only about sex. Hold on a moment. Who knows about us?"

"Practically everyone who was at the Jian Wu championship, everyone they cared to gossip to, and anyone who they in turn gossiped to. Also those who have watched the video Mr. Cobblepot has of the duel, those who have seen us together in Gotham City—."

"I take your point. Has anyone given you any trouble about it?" he asked.

"No. Between your reputation and my…unprepossessing appearance, very few even mention our association."

"Your unprepossessing appearance?"

"I was told rather recently that I am not what they would have expected you would pick for 'fun and games'," she replied.

"Who are they to presume?"

"He turned up in the river two days later, so he is not presuming anything any longer. Not my doing, though I cannot say I was grieved….Do you truly not pursue those opportunities?" she asked, tentatively.

"Ah—," It took him a fraction of a second to recall what she meant. "Since I decided on you, I have not gone to bed with anyone else in any sense of the word, whether technically in a bed or otherwise. Does that surprise you?"