Cat and Bat (Part 1)

Bruce lay in the hospital bed as Harvey raised his upper body a little and poured him a glass of water.

Bruce said with some distress, "She was unpredictable and temperamental, really like a cat. I can't figure her out. Right now, I'm only worried that her temper might hurt someone else. After all, I have the best medical resources in all of Gotham, but others might not."

"You should be glad your kidney didn't rupture. That dagger was very short and only left a shallow scratch on your organs. Otherwise, you'd only have one kidney left now."

Harvey set down the water pitcher and said, "Back when I was in school, there was a girl I liked too. I was crazy about her. I pursued her passionately, and one day, when we were on a date, she deliberately threw a bottle far away just to mess with a janitor."

"At the time, I thought, how could she do something like that? She was awful. She didn't deserve my affection. But later, I realized that my love had shaped her into a perfect person in my mind. In reality, she had always been bad-tempered, liked mocking people, and looked down on anyone in the service industry. She had never changed, but because of my intense feelings, I had infinite expectations of her."

"When I broke up with her, she thought it came out of nowhere. Back then, I didn't know that I really did look like a lunatic. First, I pursued her like mad, confessed to her, and then suddenly broke up with her cleanly and decisively. To anyone, that would have seemed like an insult, so she was furious."

"Looking back, that was only natural."

Bruce felt a little embarrassed, but he still said, "That girl's problems are much more serious than your ex-girlfriend's, and she might hurt other people. Physically."

"The problem isn't that. The problem is, when you met her and fell in love with her, didn't you already know about that flaw?"

Bruce thought, Didn't he know? He knew perfectly well. He had even met Catwoman while she was in the middle of committing a crime.

He could not help but think absurdly, How could he possibly fall in love with a criminal? At her crime scene, no less?

After Harvey left, Bruce fell asleep from exhaustion.

In his dream, the brilliant lights of a jewelry store shone upon the pearl necklace scattered across the floor. Then all the lights suddenly went out, as if everything had returned to that pitch-black alley. Only the pearl necklace still glimmered faintly.

Batman had never liked jewelry, especially things that gleamed and sparkled, like a real bat.

Yet his mind was filled with the girl holding a shining gemstone and wearing a sly smile.

In the haze, the sheen of those pearls in his memory suddenly no longer seemed so repulsive. And at the end of the dream, a swarm of shadowy bats still swept across the sky.

The next day, Schiller was rather surprised to see Bruce in the Psychological Counseling Room. He looked Bruce up and down and said, "Your injuries are already healed? You can walk again so soon?"

"It still hurts a little, but it's nothing serious. My internal organs weren't badly injured, and they're almost healed now."

Schiller said, "Then it seems you won't have to waste one of my coffees." As he spoke, he poured himself a cup of hot coffee and nothing for Bruce. Bruce was speechless. "Give me a glass of water, then."

After they sat down, Bruce said, "Harvey still doesn't know my real identity. I think it's better not to tell him for now, but I'm troubled. That cat burglar who stabbed me keeps appearing in my dreams every day."

"I even feel reluctant to put on the Batsuit now. If I run into her, I don't even know what I should say."

Schiller had never imagined that Batman's first psychological issue after opening up to him would be Bruce's adolescent romantic troubles.

As everyone knew, Batman and Catwoman were true love in the comics. The writers had devoted countless pages to their love story. Indeed, a Dark Knight burdened by a blood-soaked vendetta and a cunning, beautiful criminal made for a compelling pairing. Even against the backdrop of the incomparably dark Gotham City, plenty of readers still bought into it.

Schiller said, "It seems Harvey has already tried to talk you through this, but it doesn't seem to have helped much?"

"What Harvey said makes sense. Before I started liking her, I already knew she was a thief. I even met her while she was robbing a jewelry store. I don't know how I could like a criminal. It's ridiculous..."

Schiller said, "What do you think made you become Batman?"

Bruce pondered for a moment and said, "A lot of things."

"Then what do you think made her become a thief?"

Bruce fell silent.

"So you're sulking here when you know nothing about a woman's past or family."

"Are you sure you really like her? Or do you just want a romantic one-night stand?"

"I haven't even slept with her," Bruce said.

"Do you want me to applaud your purity?" Schiller said. Then his gaze fell on Bruce's side. "You hadn't even slept with her, and she stabbed you in the kidney. Now I'm a little worried about your safety."

"You think I should go talk to her?" Bruce asked.

Schiller sighed. "You like that thief. If you don't go talk to her, are you going to talk to me? Whoever you like, go date her. Got it?"

Schiller said helplessly, "What do you think dating is? You two have been running around on Gotham's rooftops for days, and you still don't even know who each other's parents are. You won't sleep with her, you won't date her, and you know nothing when asked. If I were her, I'd stab you too."

Bruce paused before saying, "All right. I'll go talk to her."

The next day, Batman caught Catwoman at another exhibition hall. Though he knew nothing about Catwoman's past or family, he had her habits down perfectly.

When Catwoman saw him, she cursed under her breath and immediately tried to run.

But she did not get away. Batman grabbed her cape again. Catwoman cursed, took a deep breath, turned around, and said, "Let me go! You freak! Don't make me use a knife!"

Batman said, "Let's talk."

"What do I have to talk to you about? Stop getting in the way of my work!"

Ten minutes later, the two arrived on the roof of the exhibition hall. Catwoman waved her hand helplessly. "Fine, fine, my little boy. What do you want to talk about? Are you going to lecture me? I can practically recite all your principles by now."

"No. I just want to hear your story," Batman said.

Catwoman was a little surprised. She fell silent for a moment, glanced at the pointed ears atop Batman's head, and said, "All right, for the sake of your taste in clothing."

"...I came from the Slums in the east. You know, the biggest and messiest one. My mother was an alcoholic, and my father was a drug addict. Still, I was lucky enough not to become addicted myself. When I was little, I followed a madam around. She was a retired acrobat and taught me quite a few things. Of course, she had a terrible temper, and I got beaten plenty, but at least I learned real skills."

"When she wanted to sell me to a stinking middle-aged man, I ran away. I was twelve that year."

"Later, a meddlesome orphanage insisted that I live there. I said fine, so I went. Then someone there wanted to adopt me, but I offended the Administrator, and he wanted to abuse me. So I stole his diamond necklace and ran away again."

"I met the leader of a group of thieves. We all called her Mama Luck. She specialized in training little girls like us to steal for her. I had studied acrobatics and was pretty agile, so I was her favorite child."

"But good times didn't last. She found the diamond necklace I had kept hidden on me all along. You know, it was worth a lot, enough for her to retire and quit. She wanted me to hand it over, but I didn't want to, so I ran away again."

"Later, I met a sister named Maggie. She was very good to me, but her boyfriend always beat her and even wanted to kill her. When he was about to do it, I killed him and became wanted. I didn't want to drag my sister down, so I kept drifting from place to place. But whenever I made money, I sent some back to her."

"That's it. A very ordinary story, not very exciting. I'm sure it isn't as exciting as your life, right, great hero?"

Batman seemed a little silent. "Not exciting? Isn't it exciting enough?"

Catwoman shook her head. "Oh, I forgot. You're a young master raised in the Affluent Area. People there probably all go to school step by step, right?"

"But it wasn't like that where we lived. There weren't even one or two students in an entire neighborhood. Actually, my mother loved me very much, but alcohol had a bit too much control over her. She spent far more time on cats than she did on me."

"My parents had no ability to send me to school. All my neighbors were the same. If even one parent was clear-headed, that was already pretty good, at least the kid wouldn't starve to death. I even heard of parents who were both drunk out of their minds, and their child climbed onto the stove and got scalded to death."

"Of course, people like us all grew up more or less the same way. The lucky ones, like me, learned a trade. The best way out was working for a gang. If you could become a dealer at a casino, that was an unbelievably respectable job. Maggie's boyfriend was a casino enforcer. He was so popular that several hostesses threw themselves at him."

"Actually, Mama Luck treated me pretty well too. Sometimes she was like a real mother. Whenever I stole lots of jewelry for her, she praised me and even gave me candy. Of course, she beat or cursed the children who couldn't steal anything, but in my view, they were just too young. A few more years of practice, and they'd be about as good."

Catwoman spoke in a relaxed, lively tone, telling the story in fragments. She made that kind of life sound rather interesting.

For example, when she practiced acrobatics and fell off a roof for the first time, she landed on someone. That unlucky drunk had just picked more than ten dollars from someone else's pocket, and it ended up in Catwoman's hands. She used the money to buy food for the cats her mother kept and got a kiss from her mother in return.

Batman did not say anything. He listened quietly. As Catwoman spoke, she gradually fell silent too. Looking at Batman, she said, "Fine, fine, I know this story disappointed you. I don't have some rich, exciting college life, and I don't understand your career goals. We're people from completely different worlds. You rich people probably aren't interested in life in the Slums, right? After all, it sounds filthy, chaotic, and awful."

Batman's voice was somewhat low. "No. It's the most exciting story I've ever heard."

Catwoman raised an eyebrow. "You really know how to flatter someone. You've praised me so much I'm a little embarrassed. Actually, I'm happy too, because not many people are willing to listen to me talk about these things. Maggie isn't in very good health and can't go out. When we talk, she prefers hearing about my adventures in the Affluent Area, about the dresses and necklaces those rich ladies wear."

Batman asked, "Do you like jewelry that much?"

"I knew you were going to ask that." Catwoman blinked.

"At first, it was only because jewelry could get me better treatment from Mama Luck. I didn't want to get beaten."

"But later, when Mama Luck asked me for that diamond necklace, I realized that what I liked was their natural gleam, not how much money they could sell for. The thought of Mama Luck selling those treasures for money made my heart ache."

"That enchanting shine, especially under the lights, is the most beautiful thing in the world! My lifelong dream is to have a huge castle filled with all these beautiful gems..." Catwoman's tone grew lighter and lighter, as if happy bubbles were about to float out of it.

Forty chapters already! What a great achievement!

Also, the author writes three to four thousand words per chapter, so there are fewer chapters. Other stories with the same word count are already at seventy or eighty chapters, but I think short chapters aren't satisfying to read, so I'll keep updating like this. Even though it's three updates a day, that's still ten thousand words daily, so how about some monthly votes and tips?

Also, the group is set up. Just click the one-click group link under the description!