fille_fatale | ( IC CONTACT )

[There's plenty different - in the situations, the victims, them. She doesn't know how to answer at first, so she shrugs.]

It's not like he was someone I cared about. He was gonna screw you over, maybe get you killed. [He was going to do it where she couldn't look out for him, too.]

I told you, gotta me ruthless out here. [She gestures vaguely down, toward the city.] Ain't a lotta point in punishing yourself for what you have to do.

[His eyes followed her gesturing, although they lingered on the city skyline for a long moment. Seeing behind the dotted lights and seemingly perpetual shadows and the movement constantly shifting between the two. Seeing the city for what it was. What it always had been. What it could be.]

[What it probably never would.]

I wish you didn't have to. [He was frowning now, although it was a slight improvement from the defeated expression a moment prior.] I wish none of us had to. That Gotham wasn't a place where you have to kill to protect the ones you love.

It shouldn't...it shouldn't have to be this way.

Yeah, well.

[She's not sure what's caught his attention - sure, sometimes the city still entrances her when she's up somewhere high, like this, but she didn't really think the lights caught his attention the same way. Glancing between his expression and the skyline, Selina arches her eyebrows.]

That's the way it is. Not like we're gonna change anything.

[He was thinking. About...thoughts that were not new to him, but were now being thought in a slightly new light. With a new perspective. And an even deeper understanding about the heart of their city than ever before.]

Maybe.

[She makes a face at him.]

What's that supposed to mean? [She doesn't like not knowing what he means.]

[He didn't answer.]

[For a time, he didn't even look at her. Didn't move. He might as well not have heard her at all, even though they both knew he did. When he finally did turn back, he looked far more exhausted than he had before. But the kind that came with a release of adrenaline. A weight no longer quite so heavy on his shoulders. Not gone--he had a feeling its presence would linger for a long time to come--but he felt like he could actually come up for air.]

I'm glad you came tonight.

[She very nearly loses her patience, shifts her weight to walk away when he finally deigns to acknowledge her again.

It cools her ire some. Enough. Lucky him. Besides - he looks more...like himself.]

Oh good, you're acting normal-weird again.

[He did smirk a little at that.]

Is there any 'normal' without the 'weird' for you?

With you? [She pulls a face, considering for half a second before shaking her head.]

Doubt it.

In other words, you're convinced I come only in varying degrees of 'weird'.

[It was either the lingering drink or the heaviness of the prior conversation that made this one seem so...inconsequential. He couldn't bring himself to feel offended.]

Yeah, because it's true.

[It is inconsequential. It's even a little fun, something that - well, he used to be sorely missing. She's kind of been missing it, too.]

I can be normal.

[See him, being underaged drunk? That counted as normal, didn't it? ~~If one ignored the fact that he got this way by buying the club~~]

[How is she supposed to ignore that very important tidbit?? Most kids have to work harder than that. She shakes her head at him.]

You make normal look weird.

[He pouted. Which definitely wasn't weird at all.]

You won't even give me a chance!

Come on. Give me something normal to be. Do. Whatever. I'll bet you I can.

Yeah?

[She certainly looks like she's considering it.]

What do I get when you lose?

Whatever you want.

[Within reason, was the unspoken stipulation, but even some of her more "unreasonable" requests were still within his power to grant. So. Choose wisely, Kyle.]

But I won't lose.

[She lifts her chin, considering: it's surprisingly difficult, given he's basically the most known teenager in the country. But...She holds her hand out.]

Give me your wallet.

[He should have guessed.]

[He also did not comply, raising an eyebrow as he folded his arms across his chest. A slight wince as he felt a dull ache in the back of his head--dehydration taking effect, probably--but he promptly ignored it.]

No.

You haven't won anything yet.

[She rolls her eyes at him.]

I'll give it back once you screw up, but you don't get to do normal with a black credit card at your disposal.

So give me your wallet, then I'll tell you what you hafta do.

[He peered suspiciously at her. For a long moment. It wasn't that he didn't trust her. It was just that he knew her. Far too well.]

[...eh, at worst, there was literally nothing in there he couldn't have Alfred replace later on. She would be less interested in anything that wasn't money.]

Fine.

[Pulling the black leather out of his back pocket, he casually tossed it to her.]

[She snatches it out of the air - maybe a little more clumsy than if she was stone cold sober. It's the staring that annoys her, and she rolls her eyes again in impatience before he gives in.

She goes through the wallet immediately, checking his ID, cards, cash. She pulls out two twenties, and disappears the wallet into her pocket. Holding up the bills, she arches her eyebrows and starts to hand them back to him - only to retract her hand and crumple both bills into a ball in her hand. She unfolds them again, finally hands them over.]

There. They were too straight.

[He wasn't sure to laugh or scoff at the criticism. So he settled for a light snort.]

What are these for, exactly?

[She holds up two fingers.]

You got two choices. You wanna smoke, or you wanna drink more?

[Bruce was...confused. This was his "challenge"? It...didn't seem like the greatest means of proving how normal he could be.]

I don't smoke.

[He was confident enough that it wasn't not normal to leave it at that.]

[She snorts a little, because that's exactly the response she expected. Still, she allows it.]

Fine. Normal kids who want to drink have to bribe someone else to buy for them. They don't just buy clubs. So you take these, and you go like twelve blocks that way. [She points.]

Then you find a corner store, and you ask some bum to buy you a couple six packs of the cheapest beer he can get.

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