Chapter Text
Selina Kyle stood in the door of the fire exit and watched the snow fall from the night sky. The enormous snow clumps looked almost pretty if she wasn’t, quite frankly, freezing her tits off.
“Are you almost done?” She asked,
Her co-worker who only ever went by Sugar took another drag, “Does it matter? We either get killed out here, or get killed in there.”
“The Batman doesn’t kill,” Selina retorted,
“Doesn’t mean we aren’t collateral,” Sugar retorted back,
“Big word,” Selina huffed and watched her breath dissipate into the cold air.
“I wasn’t kidding about dancing my way through grad school,” Sugar said with her cig between her teeth.
“Yeah, yeah, save it for the clients. I’m not tipping you,” Selina rolled her eyes.
Sugar laughed before taking one last drag and dropping her cigarette butt onto the ground. It made a satisfying crunch as her pleaser ground the smoldering embers into the pavement.
“Okay,” She said, “let’s go.”
“Thank God,” Selina said, “I’d rather be warm and dead than cold and dead.”
Inside the music was still blaring through the speakers, but just under the thumping of the bass Selina could hear the sound of fighting, men groaning, things breaking. The club had always been dangerous, but The Batman made it worse; worse for her, at least. Seedy criminals and gangsters were the best clients. Nobody tipped better than someone high off a successful robbery, or mobsters.
Selina followed Sugar to the back where the other dancers stood around waiting for whichever poor victim The Batman decided to beat on tonight. The room was warmer than normal with the combined body heat of everyone there mixing with the glow of the incandescent lights that lined the mirrors. The whole place stank of liquor and vanilla caramel perfume.
“Who is it tonight?” Selina asked,
“I hope it’s that grabby guy,” one dancer said,
“The banker?” another asked, “That guy slapped my ass last week and security kicked him out. He was supposed to be banned, but you know management.”
“It’s probably the weasel-looking guy,” a different dancer, whose real name was Lauren, said as she took off her lashes in the mirror, “he works for Falcone; gave me $300 for a lap dance.”
“Damn,” Selina said in approval, “Is he after Falcone again?”
“The Batman?” Lauren asked as she pulled a box of wipes from her bag,
“Yeah,” Selina said.
“Isn’t he always?”
“What are you doing?” Sugar asked her.
“Going home.” Lauren said as she took out a makeup wipe, “I’m not paid to stand around here and I haven’t seen my kid in two days.”
“Pass me one over here,” Selina said as the dancer passed her a wipe.
“Management won’t like hearing about this,” Sugar said.
“Management isn’t here right now,” Lauren said, “and I’m going home.”
A few more words were exchanged between the two followed by the room bursting out in laughter. Selina kept quiet as she focused on getting the liner out from between her lashes. By the time she stood at her locker and was half dressed the music had stopped and the lights had been turned on. Police sirens could be heard in the distance, but Selina wouldn’t be sticking around long enough for them to take her statement- there was nothing she could add the other girls didn’t already have.
“Bye, Ladies!” She called out as she made her way out, weaving in between dancers in various stages of dress and their things.
“Bye!” She got in response.
Selina made her way out the back of the club and into the alley. The sun must have been barely rising out of view of the buildings as the sky wasn’t as dark as it had been earlier. Selina skidded to a halt. Behind her the door closed with a heavy thud.
In front of her a dark figure barely visible in the shadows of the dark alley stood.
“Shit.” Selina gasped.
The figure stood for a second as if frozen before moving faster than Selina could comprehend. Before she knew it her eyes followed him as he leapt up the buildings of the alley and disappeared into what was left of the night sky.