The Ties That Bind Us

CHAPTER 4: Rejection

"Stupid. Stupid. Stupid," Selina mumbled furiously while rearranging the sheets and the pillows around Bruce while he groaned incomprehensibly. She covered him properly with the blankets he had dismissed over the night and went to the toilet to get some tap water.

"Morning, Kitty Kat," Bruce muttered in a husky weak voice, "What have I done this time?"

She laughed humorlessly and unfazed, coming back with a glass of water.

After their make-out session the night before, they both went back into the house and Selina rushed to the bedroom and started collecting her things. When Bruce caught up to her, he saw her packing her bags from the door, a confused and slightly worried look on his face, having a play-by-play in his mind wondering if he'd done or said something so horrible that would send her right back to Gotham.

But as soon as she turned her look to him, she quickly clarified that she wasn't leaving, but that if they weren't sleeping together, then they wouldn't be sleeping together. In her twisted drunk logic, she rationalized to him that sleeping together without having sex was way more intimate than actually having sex and that if he didn't want one, then he wouldn't have the other. Bruce was ready to fight her on it, but she grabbed her things and sprinted to the bedroom next door before he could even mouth the words.

Selina checked Bruce's wound and made sure he'd taken all his meds before locking herself up in her new room. Bruce didn't want to argue or get in trouble by saying the wrong thing again, so he decided to just accept and go with it. If only he had Alfred around to tell him what to say or do.

The kiss they'd shared on the beach had made Selina weirdly uneasy and inexplicably panicky, and so she decided to do the immature thing and ignore Bruce for the rest of the evening. Which completely bit her in the ass later, when she woke up hungover at 5am with his wails. She got up almost immediately, making the room spin around her and her insides protest in nausea. She stopped for a second, holding her breath and covering her mouth, telling herself to pull it together, then swallowed and kept walking towards Bruce's room.

He had completely gotten rid of his blanket and was lying curled up in a tight ball, his teeth chattering and his arms wrapped around himself. Obviously, the cold breeze and water hadn't helped his already compromised immune system.

"Seriously, why am I stupid this time?", he asked, taking the glass and meds she'd brought him from her hands.

"It's not you. I mean, it is you. You were absolutely stupid going outside yesterday, and even more so going into the water. But it's also me, not thinking I should have stayed here with you for the night."

"Can't argue with you on that one," he joked, but his voice was still faint and his skin was pale again, "You had a lot to drink, don't beat yourself up. I'm fine."

"Being drunk never stopped me from doing the things I need to do. If anything, it's the other way around."

"Come here," he said motioning to the vacant space on the bed and lifting the blanket so she could get in there, "it's still early, come back to bed."

His arms were opened, as if waiting for her to slip in and let them close around her. She stared at the image in front of her and swallowed terrified, her stomach turning ice cold.

"I gotta run," she mumbled in a strangled voice, pointing to the door. When Bruce raised his eyebrows inquisitively, she froze realizing she had nowhere to run to. "I meant run. Actually run," she said and gave him a tight smile, then left the room when he started to open his mouth to speak. He'd realized she had a habit of doing that.

Selina was in no condition to run or exercise in any way, but she felt an intense need to get out and get away from the house right away and breathe some air that hadn't been touched by him. She tied her hair in a high ponytail, put on her sneakers and workout outfit and ran to the kitchen, grabbing a pear and a bottle of water on the way out. She hadn't been to the beach during the day yet and so she decided to go from there.