The Ties That Bind Us

CHAPTER 8: Newness

"I think we need a safe word, cause we keep telling each other to stop when we don't really want to," Bruce muttered airily as he dropped to the side and away from Selina's dripping body.

"Okay. How about "babe"?", she proposed, still breathless and panting.

"Babe?"

She swallowed, her throat too dry to speak, "Yeah, I find it absolutely nauseating when couples call each other that. So it'd definitely be a moodkiller for me."

"Did you just call us a couple?", he looked at her and asked jokingly.

"Definitely not," she puffed and shook her head blatantly.

He laughed, ""Babe" it is then. And since you called us a couple, I'll have to come up with a weird nickname for you, like honeybear or cuddlebunny."

"Babe."

"What?"

"No! Babe," she shoved him further to the side and got up from the bed, going straight into the closet.

"We just exercised, are you really going to run this morning? You're already drained."

"That's not why I go running," she mumbled from the closet.

It had been a few weeks since they'd first had sex, and it had been exactly what you'd expect from putting two rabbits in the same house with nothing better to do. Selina for once was glad she'd had her IUD implanted years back, or else Bruce would have needed to buy a condom factory or something like that. Not that that'd be a problem, financially speaking.

She ended up returning her things to the master bedroom when she found out the reason why Bruce had asked Paula to move his things to another room was that so she'd eventually have room for herself in his. She called him pretentious after that, but gladly took up practically all the space in the closet for herself. Bruce didn't mind one bit, having learned to love watching her get ready in the morning in his room so casually. That morning though, he was getting jittery when she took longer than usual to put on her workout outfit and leave for her morning run. He had some things to do in the city and didn't want her around while he was gone, because he hated lying to her and he was terrible at it. Omitting on the other hand turned out to be a bit easier.

Among some other issues, that day he'd be going out for lunch to pick up his and Selina's new documents with an old acquaintance. Some fake passports and driving licenses she'd hooked him up so that they could travel safer and blend in better. Selina had already used the clean slate program to erase her name from all data systems, but having the extra document couldn't hurt. He on the other hand had no intention to use the program—not that it would work for him anyway; having Wayne Enterprises all around the globe made it quite impossible for him to simply disappear without being recognized or at least raising suspicion due to his name. For the rest of the world he was dead, and that's how he wanted and intended it to be.

Some things concerning that were still troubling to him though. Like the fact that he had "died" before ever getting to talk to Alfred or explain to him the situation, and that now his friend was probably still mourning his loss unreasonably. He'd been trying to get in touch without success because he didn't want to be recognized or leave any trace that he was alive. Alfred's old number wouldn't work. He didn't want to tell him via email, where anyone could hack into it or get to see it. And so he'd planned the perfect trip for them around the time Alfred usually went on vacation during the summer. He'd hoped it would work because it was his last resort. All these were things he needed to sort out that day, but first he had to make sure the one vital part of it all was on board, even if she didn't know it yet.

Bruce got up from the bed and walked through the closet doors. Selina was standing in the middle of the large room in front of a clothing rack, wearing her tight running shorts and sports bra, looking uncomfortable and frustrated, so much that she didn't even notice when he got in.