get scratched

he laughed as well, seeing her point. sometimes he forgot that the residents of the mansion aren’t all mutants. sometimes, they’re humans - the best of them, in his opinion. darwin gave an apologetic look. “sorry. i never did go to college, but i imagine if i did, then i’d probably be a philosophy major. a lot of my time went to thinking about these things. am i wasting my time?” he asked jokingly, a grin on his face. he paused to think about her question. “i guess not. though i feel like i could feel overconfident at times, like i’m untouchable because of what i can do. and that may be true, but there’s just a fine line between overconfidence and true arrogance. very fine line.”

“hey, i never went to college either,” she replied. “i don’t know, maybe you’d end up surprising all of us. going into something tangible or some shit. evolutionary biology, maybe.” selina paused for a moment, nodding. “i know what you mean,” she replied thoughtfully. she wasn’t the kind of person who wanted to admit that she had an ego, but she was definitely arrogant. she thought that she could do anything sometimes, even though she knew that she couldn’t. “it’s taken me a long time to learn when i’m being arrogant and when i’m being confident in my skills.”

“I GUESS NOT, but you never know when you’ll meet one. Well you might not meet a guardian, but a martian? You never know.” Kyle points out considering even he knows that there are some that have been on Earth before.  “So what are you going to do then? Sit aside when something happens?”

“And I’ll be able to tell them apart when they tell me where they’re from.” Selina shrugged. “I don’t exactly have martians lining up to meet me,” she added with a laugh. She shrugged again. “I don’t know. It’ll depend on the day.” Selina wasn’t the type of person to plan too much—things would happen how they happened, regardless of her plans.

darwin leaned against a wall, a smile tugging at his lips. “we all have our own gifts, whether we know about them or not.” he declared. “i guess part of the ‘mutant’ experience is to figure out who you are with those abilities and if there’s still a ‘you’ without them.” darwin looked down on the floor. before meeting the professor, he was still trying to figure himself out. he imagined that if he didn’t follow the two men that day, things would’ve been way different. “evolution has always been a big part of my life, but since i can’t exactly control it, i don’t know who i could be without them.”

“yeah, but picking a lock can be learned. it’s not like i can learn how to make myself fireproof,” she pointed out with a laugh. her nose crinkled up slightly. “jesus, that’s a little too existential for my taste,” she replied. “i never think too deeply about those things.” she and catwoman were one and the same, as far as she was concerned. who she was, was tied to her actions, and if most of her actions were as catwoman, that meant that was who she was. it was simple to selina. the moment she stopped acting as catwoman, she stopped being catwoman, and she was just selina. “yeah, but do you need to know? it’s not like your mutant genes are going to suddenly disappear.”

barbara couldn’t help but chuckle at selina’s words, a smirk soon curling on her lips as she nodded. “you should’ve said sooner and i would’ve saved you from all that testosterone.” she somewhat teased with a hint of a grin, “you’re certainly not wrong about that, although i don’t think that’s something someone could easily forget. oh god kyle, you really have been spending too much time with them.”

“i like hanging around with the boys every once in a while. it reminds me of exactly what i’m not missing in my life,” she joked lightly, her head tilting to one side. she laughed. “well, it’s not easy to forget, but it’s not like the number of men hanging around this mansion is making it any easier to remember.”

KYLE COULD GO INTO IT, but he has a feeling that a history lesson isn’t what she was asking for. “It’s too bad I can’t make a powerpoint presentation right now. It’d be great at describing the differences.” He laughs at the ridiculous statement of his though. “You don’t want to be here? I think you could help us.”

Selina laughed. “I know there are differences,” she replied. “But they don’t really affect me, now do they?” She tilted her head slightly. “You think so? It’s too bad I’m not too inclined to take part in some sort of future-deciding battle,” she replied, shrugging once. “You can all have fun with that, though.”

He paid attention to every movement of the woman, but did not say a single word while she moved. He had heard the first words and the next thing he just blocked it, assimilating the fact that she was there. That she was well. “Selina,” he said in a slightly softer tone than usual and waited for her to finish speaking, still assimilating the presence. The resistance, the horror of that day, the almost pure hate face that Selina had the last time he saw her when he told her he was going to save her; all that was still pretty vivid and he did not care about the fact that at that moment she was possibly just seconds away from hitting him. “I stayed until I couldn’t fight anymore. But you’re fine, it really worked… You’re fine.”

Selina wanted to hit him. She wanted to hit him so badly, but she couldn’t bring her hand up to strike him, instead just staring him down and emanating as much anger and hurt as she could—he must have felt it. It had to have been palpable in the air around them. “Of course I’m fine. You sent me back here without telling me that you weren’t coming, too.” She reached her hands up and made a motion as if to shove him back, but instead she just sighed in frustration. “How could you do that to me?”

KYLE RASIES AN EYEBROW as he looks over at her. “Well first of all, they’re blue not green. The ones who tell us what to do. We aren’t located on Mars either.” He chuckles and looks over at her. “I have always done what I wanted though, sometimes against what they thought was right or not. I don’t think they even know what fun is anyway.”

Selina shrugged. “Blue, green, Mars, OA, what’s the big difference, again?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at him before she laughed softly. “I think that you sound just like the kind of person this mansion needs more of. I need to get back to the future so I can at least be around my own people again.”

“i’m sure you have been.” barbara watched selina carefully, the way she displayed herself could only indicate that she must’ve been up to something, though at the same time it did seem she was only trying to wind her up. “i’m not.” she replied simply, a smirk curling on her lips from the other’s laugh. “have i ever given you a reason to think otherwise, selina? even as a kid i could outsmart the boys.”

selina nodded. “i’m the epitome of both helpful and kind at all times, and i don’t know what you might be thinking, but i can promise, it’s not true.” she laughed. “i know, i know. i’ve just been spending too much time around these me, i keep forgetting that women are better at everything and that’s just a fact.”

He could feel a headache begin and none of the thoughts that passed through his mind ended completely before another immediately began to form. Damn him for wanting almost immediate answers to everything and not being able to relax for only a second. 1973… So many questions and so many unresolved blanks spaces were eating his head until he realized that someone was talking to him. “Were you saying?”

Selina walked in just as he turned, making eye contact with him without even meaning to. Her jaw dropped. A huff of breath left the back of her throat in a scoff and she couldn’t help but smirk, as if she couldn’t believe it. “You’re kidding me, right?” She gestured between them. “You’re actually kidding me. You have to be kidding me!” Selina paused, her eyes wide and staring at him before she shook her head. “This isn’t happening,” she said, wagging a finger at him and turning to leave. She stopped again, biting her lip and shaking her head to herself one more time before she turned around and strode across to him. She didn’t throw her arms around him—even though she wanted to—instead trying to look as tall as possible and exude every ounce of anger that she could. “What took you so long?”

if she was honest stephanie had been a bit caught off guard when selina offered to cook her dinner, not in a bad way. she was just used to getting overlooked by the bigger figures in the mansion. even the bat himself sometimes. to be fair steph didn’t exactly have the best reputation. she was reckless and often acted on impulse, she was more rough around the edges than most of the robins and batgirls before her to the point of often being compared to jason todd himself. maybe it had to do with growing up with a villain as a father. she hadn’t been sheltered like others who had taken up capes. no she grew up wishing she could be a hero to put her dad and people like him, abusive assholes, away. it was because of her upbringing that she never brought herself to judge selina’s lifestyle. the older woman did what she had to in order to survive and in all honesty steph admired that aspect about her. if things had turned out different for her she could have very well followed in her footsteps. “ as someone who’s diet is almost exclusively frozen waffles i don’t really have room to judge. you need any help preparing anything. i’m not the best cook but i’m slightly better at taking direction. slightly. “

selina was always the person to like the underdogs more than anyone else. steph was an underdog when it came to the batkids. first off, she was a woman, which instantly placed her at a disadvantage, even if people didn’t want to say so. she came from a rough background. she was hotheaded and impulsive—much like selina could be. selina saw a lot of herself in stephanie, and that meant she took it upon herself to make sure that stephanie was okay, even if other people forgot. laughing, selina gestured with the wooden spoon in her hand towards the chopping board. “cut up those mushrooms and bell peppers,” she replied. pausing for a moment, selina then turned to cassie. “please avoid taking your own fingers off.”

averting her attention from the magazine in her hand she lets her gaze fall on selina. she allows her eyes to narrow and eyebrows to furrow as the magazine falls to rest on her lap. “i don’t have to, no.” she says with a careless shrug. despite the cats statement, cassie wasn’t moving from her seat either way. if it bothered the woman so much she could easily find another place to sit. “doesn’t mean i won’t though, i think you can handle it.” she continues with a grin before going back to her magazine. “if it bothers you so much there’s plenty of other rooms to sit in.” 

selina raised an eyebrow. “sure there are other rooms, but this one has the best sun. and not to mention, i get the added benefit of sussing you out—and so far, you seem just like everyone else, which is a real pity. i always hate when young women get seduced by good people into joining them,” she joked lightly, her gaze fixed on the book between her fingers as she dragged nail down the page and followed what she was reading. 

“YOU DON’T THINK HEROES know how to have fun?” Kyle asks while looking over at Selina. His gaze shifting away from her face as he finished pouring himself a drink. He lifts the glass to his lips and takes a sip of the liquid. “There are boring aspects to anywhere, but if you want to have fun then lets have fun.”

“Not the real kind,” she grumbled. Her eyebrow raised. “You sure about that, Lantern? Because I don’t know if the big-headed green guys out on Mars would be too happy about that,” she joked lightly. Selina knew that OA and Mars were different—but she didn’t know the specifics, so she didn’t try. She hated looking stupid.

barbara rolled her eyes at the woman, aware that selina could only be up to some sort of mischief as per usual. “you don’t exactly give us any good reason to.” she arched a brow, observing the room before turning back to the thief. “really, you should know by now that act doesn’t work on me. i know you’re capable without any of the gear.” she admitted, in a way the younger woman admired selina for that, how much she achieved without the wayne riches, even if it was against their creed.

selina raised an eyebrow. “are you kidding? i have been nothing but helpful at every turn.” she paused. “i’ve been helpful at a lot of turns,” she amended, her nose crinkling slightly as her lips spread into a grin. even if she didn’t have anything planned, she could make it seem like she did, and that was one of her favorite pastimes. “i keep forgetting that you’re not as dumb as the big bat,” she replied with a laugh. 

Tommy stopped looking at the older woman who seemed less than impressed with his speed.  –– his ego had to be honest, it wasn’t fun to see people not impressed with him; since most people were. However, he did not have a good enough reason to brag about it right now; since he had just been playing around. “quite finished” he announced.  

Selina knew what it was like to have a large ego—she had one herself—and she was sure that he did, too. Most speedsters she had met did, and she was already tired of it. She nodded once. “Great.” She jerked her head towards the door lightly. “Skeedaddle, kiddo.”

he didn’t want to dip his head into another fish tank, no matter how amusing it was, so darwin picked another way to demonstrate his abilities: picking up a lit candle and making it come into contact with his skin, causing it to become fireproof. “no pain. i feel nothing.” he declared, a smile on his face evident. after his demonstration, he put the candle back on it’s stick. darwin was always down to show others what he could if he felt it was a safe space to do so. it’s not like he could hide it, especially in times of peril. he shrugged. “pretty much. i got my head pushed down a toilet by some kids at school. turns out i could grow gills. who would’ve thought?” he joked, stuffing his hands in his jean pockets.

selina laughed, her nose crinkling up tightly. “sick,” she replied, shaking her head. “a thousand years of evolution in the blink of an eye. i have to admit, it’s kind of...a lot cooler than what i can do.” selina rarely let her cool demeanor drop, but this personified everything she had done herself her whole life. she had adapted her whole life, always done things that people said she couldn’t so that she could survive, and that was exactly what he was doing. plus, it was just cool.