Author's Note: This was originally posted to a comment-a-thon over on LJ, but I thought I'd post it here as well. This is the first time I've ever written these two so hopefully I managed to do them justice. Reviews are love!


His eyes were fixed on the night sky that he could see through the cylindrical opening at the center of the Pit. The same opening that he and others had made their attempt at escape only to fail miserably. The one path to freedom and to stopping Bane from destroying Gotham City, his city. As he continued to look at the twinkling stars, it was like they were taunting him, laughing at him. His failures. He fought to keep his eyes open, to stave off the sleep that he had come to dread.

He would have given anything for dreamless nights, but he was tortured night after night with dreams of things that he could never change. Trying to save those he had loved and lost. Fighting battles that he would never win. At least not in his dreams. His eyes grew heavy and slipped close. Gleaming, razor-sharp stiletto heels, thigh-high black boots, skin-tight body suit, full red lips slightly open in a quiet gasp, a black mask in stark contrast with the porcelain skin underneath it and chocolate orbs full of remorse as they looked at him through the iron cage in the sewers.

Bruce's eyes shot open. Her name fell from his lips, "Selina." She had often filled his thoughts in the long days in this prison. Many times she had managed to slip into his dreams as well.

He heard movement from the cell next to his and quickly turned his head to see the old doctor peering at him in the darkness, his one milky eye almost seeming to glow. He muttered something in Arabic that Bruce didn't understand. Ignoring the old man, he returned his gaze to the night sky above. It wasn't long before his eyes were drifting shut once more.

There she was again, only this time she was standing in his cell, but he knew she couldn't actually be there because she didn't know where Bane had taken him. No one did. For all she knew, Bane had killed him that day in the sewers.

She was staring at him, a sneer on her lips. He wanted to sit up and walk over to her but he couldn't move. Slowly, she sauntered towards him, his eyes transfixed by the sway of her hips. As she crouched down she cocked her head to the side, like she was taking it all in. The state of him. The wretched hellhole that he was currently imprisoned in. His eyes were locked with hers as she brushed some stray strands of hair off of his forehead. Her breath on his cheek as she leaned towards him felt so real that he started to wonder if it was a dream after all.

His body seemed to come alive as her lips grazed the shell of his ear. "So this is how the story ends for the Batman?" she quietly taunted, a low rasp in her voice.

She leaned back with a challenge in her eyes. "Bane has Gotham and you're going to have to watch him break it, just like I watched him break you." The sneer was gone, and had been replaced by the pained look that he had seen all those months ago when she had betrayed him by leading him into Bane's trap.

"That won't happen," he told her, sitting up finally so they were now face-to-face. His eyes darted down to her slightly parted lips before he met her gaze again.

Suddenly, she stood and walked towards the bars, looking at the escape route to the world above. Her hair whipped around her as she turned to look at him. "Only one way out," she said with a smirk.

Standing up himself, he walked over to her. "And it's one hell of a climb. See that ledge," he pointed at the ledge high above where he had fallen from once before. Luckily for him, it hadn't meant death and he'd had a rope to catch him. "Only one person has ever been able to make that jump."

"And here I thought bats could fly…" she goaded, looking at him out of the corner of her eye.

"And I believe cats only have nine lives," he countered. "Be careful, Miss Kyle, you wouldn't want to run out."

Her mouth slowly curled in a smile before she laughed quietly. That smile and laugh were something that he could get used to. She grew serious again. "If some scrawny kid can climb their way out of this God forsaken place, surely the Batman can too." He silently wondered if he would ever have seen the same desperation in the real Selina Kyle's eyes or if it was just the one he'd dreamed up in his head.

"I don't know if I can," he responded, knowing that if this were anything but a dream such a thing would never come out of his mouth.

She moved closer to him, a steely look in her eyes. "But you're going to do it," she commanded as she reached up to hold his face in her hands. Suddenly she crushed her lips against his just like that night at the charity event, only this time he wasn't just going to let her push him away so he wrapped his arm around her waist, holding her tightly to him as he pinned her against the cold, iron bars.

Not one to be outdone, much like her flesh and blood counterpart, she snaked her arms around his neck and hooked a leg over his hip, lightly scraping her stiletto-heel up his leg as she deepened the kiss. Their tongues engaged in a fervent duel, their ragged breathing the only sound that filled the air. The exquisite feel of her body against his was like heaven in his present hell. Pulling back, he said her name like a whispered prayer. "Selina…"

Reaching up, he ran his fingers lightly across her smooth cheek before he began to push her mask up. The submissiveness as she closed her eyes and let him take it off of her was surprising. As he pulled the mask off completely, her eyes opened again to reveal unshed tears. He leaned forward just enough to capture her lips with his own in a slow, deep kiss. The salt of her tears on his tongue as they finally fell from her eyes tasted of pain and regret and sadness. This time it was she who broke the kiss. "I'm sorry," was her whispered apology before she disappeared in a wisp of black smoke like the figment of his imagination that she had been.

He opened his eyes slowly to see a stream of daylight filling the Pit. Looking over, he saw the old doctor staring at him with a knowing smile on his face. Had he said her name again while he was sleeping? He swung his legs over the side of the cot as he sat up, and turned his gaze to stone walls that could be his escape. He had to try again.