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tyndalecode) wrote2008-10-07 02:53 pm
tyndalecode) wrote2008-10-07 02:53 pm
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Title: Betty, the Bat, and the Bird: (Ficlet #5)
Fandom: Batman Begins/Ugly Betty
Characters/Pairing: Betty Suarez, Selina Kyle, Bruce Wayne
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2,129
Summary: Betty and Selina discuss their book club and Betty and Bruce discuss Selina
Notes: Thanks for the comments. And the patience. Writer's block sucks, yo.
• First Arc: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part14, and Part 15
• Second Arc: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
When she looked up from her paperwork, there was a book beneath her nose. The Life of Pi. It was a good book. In fact, Betty was sure it was her book.
"I finished it on the flight back from Paris. I liked it."
Selina Kyle would have been the last person Betty imagined having a miniature book exchange with if she was one to base her appearances on looks alone. Dressed in her normal sleek and black high fashion attire with her brown hair pulled back into a bun on the side of her head and an in season cap perched atop, Betty had to admit that Selina was not the sort of person she would have imagined enjoyed the works of everyone from Jane Austen to Michel Crichton. It was unexpected, for sure, but it made Selina's visits to the Gotham offices that much more enjoyable.
Betty liked the older woman as a person in general, but that she could talk literature made it ten times better. On her second visit Selina had walked in carrying not only the copy of Fast Food Nation that Betty had lent her two weeks prior, but also Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, telling her that she should try it. It was a complete turnaround from Fast Food Nation, but she'd taken it home with her and read as instructed, surprised to discover that she actually did enjoy the book.
Betty didn't like to make a big deal of their little exchange, but it was definitely one of the reasons she approved of Selina above and beyond any of the other women Bruce had dated during her tenure. She saw them together at times and she knew their minds – their intellectual minds, at least – matched so well. Together they were a smart, witty pair. While she knew that Selina's job took her to Paris often (why, Betty didn't quite get, but it was what it was) she didn't understand why she and Bruce didn't just strike up some sort of understanding of exclusivity with each other. It didn't make sense.
Still, she was glad to see Selina and eager to see her reach back into her purse for another book.
"I'm glad you liked it," Betty said with a grin. She palmed her book, worn with the love of several readings, and quickly stashed it away in her desk drawer. It was one of the few she liked to keep around for slow days. "How was Paris?"
Selina shrugged in a simple yet elegant way that perfectly suited her chic clad petite form. "It was Paris," she answered.
Betty could only assume that once you'd spent as much time there as Selina had, it became just another city. She sighed slightly; having been to Mexico just wasn't as glamorous or as cool as Paris. She certainly hadn't seen much of Mexico either; more important things had been on her mind.
A book, cover down, was placed in front of her. Selina held it gracefully, like one of those product models on the Price is Right, but with a lot more class. Betty reached out to take it and once it was in her hands, she flipped it eagerly.
"The Great Gatsby?" she asked curiously, looking at the familiar cover. She'd seen it dozens of times. How many times had she been assigned to read this book throughout college and high school?
Selina seemed to understand the look on her face perfectly, and shook her head, holding up a hand. "I know, I know. It's a school staple, but you have to read it again now that you've worked two of the richest men in America. It'll give it a whole new meaning, I'm sure."
Fair point, Betty decided as she grinned and slipped the book into her bag. It wouldn't take her very long to read at all. "Thanks," she said, idly adding, "your earrings are really nice."
"A high compliment coming from someone who worked for the great Mode Magazine," Selina laughed. The emeralds in her ears glinted and flashed against the light. "Thank you, I got them in Budapest."
Betty's face lit up. "Really? Were you there last week? Or was it two weeks ago—there were a bunch of robberies there that made the news all the way here. Whoever it was stole five Rembrants from the major museum, a Monet, and some other pieces. They still haven't caught the guy."
"I'm afraid I missed the excitement; these were actually from one of my earlier visits." Betty, so adapt at noting Bruce's odd changes in demeanor neglected to note the way in which Selina began examining her nails, painted shiny coat of black (in a way that somehow simply looked classy instead of goth). It wasn't exactly an uncommon habit in the woman, and Betty thought it was just that, a habit. It never occurred to her that perhaps it was a lying habit, and there was no reason it should have. "Though I heard about the thefts and they sounded impressive."
"Yeah, I think Budapest needs a Batman," Betty gave a short laugh at her own joke, another grin coming to her lips.
"Oh no, I'm positive Batman is fine right where he is. You never know what might happen if he leaves Gotham."
Cue the awkward silence, something Betty was used to when she was alone with Mercy Graves (who came around with Lex Luthor far too often for her liking), but not usually with Selina. She watched for a moment as Selina rearranged herself, pushing loose, wayward strands of hair behind her ears, dusting imagined pieces of lint from her shirt, and straightening her skirt before finally smoothing her hands down the entire slimming ensemble.
Betty had the feeling that for now, their conversation was through. Not in a friendship ending, never-speak-to-you-again sort of way, but in that awkward, 'somewhere along the way an insult was delivered , but I'm so sure where or what I did wrong' sort of way. In other words, the way she often felt after talking to Mark and Amanda, but with a slightly friendlier vibe. It still left her scratching her head.
"Want me to see if Bruce is ready?" she asked after a very pregnant pause which was perhaps far more awkward than it would have been if she hadn't been wringing her hands the entire time.
Selina nodded once, smiling briefly. "Please."
She jumped up from her desk and gathered a few papers needing signatures before opening the thick wooden door which separated her office from Bruce's and quickly slipping through.
Surprisingly, the air in his office seemed much more relaxed than it had been in her own over those last few moments. She decided, almost immediately, that it was because Bruce wasn't wearing his tie.
"You know, seventy percent of average American men aren't wearing ties to work anymore," Betty said, approaching his desk and setting papers down in front of him.
Bruce looked up, bemused. "You have time to take polls? Am I not giving you enough to do, Betty?"
"I heard it on the news this morning." Her tone said 'duh' even if her words didn't. "Sign here, here, here, and here."
"Do you see me as the average American man?" He still sounded slightly amused as his fountain pen scratched across the various documents.
Betty gathered the stack of papers once they'd been signed. "Not to much, no. Do I see you as capable of admitting you don't like ties? Maybe."
That got her a laugh and not the awkward silence of her last attempt at a joke. She smiled as she arranged the documents neatly in her hands and reached over Bruce's desk for a paperclip—sometimes she still got a thrill out of the fact that Batman used simple things like paperclips.
"Is Selina here?"
She nodded. "She's waiting outside. And I still approve."
"She's only staying for a week," Bruce said, standing from behind his desk. He reached for his tie, which hung neatly --rather, in such a way that wouldn't have given Alfred an aneurism—over the back of an arm chair in front of the large bay windows which looked out over Gotham.
"It's like you chase her out of the city every time she comes to visit." Betty shook her head and made a face that looked as if a motherly 'tsking' noise should have accompanied, but she kept the nose to herself.
Bruce shrugged slightly. "In a manner of speaking…" He trailed off and Betty chose not to pursue. It would only lead to another lecture on dumb blondes, and Betty was sure he was as tired of hearing it as she was of delivering it. She just had to be convinced that one day he'd realise that he wanted a girl with more brains than silicone.
She shook her head again. "So is this the last time you're going to see her before Bhutan?"
"Probably."
"Have you told her that you're going to do the DIL – I mean, the eligible bachelor issue?" Betty asked. She was going to kill Mark when she saw him. Or maybe just force him to wear clothing from the Gap. Both options were likely to make him scream.
Bruce shook his head, eyeing her. She hoped it wasn't because of her slip. "No. Why?"
"Well," Betty said, carefully choosing her words. "If I was your girlfriend --which I am obviously not-- I'm pretty sure I'd want to know that you were planning on declaring yourself as eligible and attractive to the entire world. Just a thought."
"I'm not declaring that." He straightened his tie, though Betty still had to walk forward and move the knot about. "Mode is."
She tried not to laugh as hard as she wanted to. "What were you saying about not being the Average American male?" When Bruce chose not to respond, Betty simply continued to fix his tie and grinned. "Are you going to tell her you're leaving for the middle of nowhere in March?"
Once she'd finished, he stepped back. "She'll find out eventually."
"Probably," Betty nodded. She readjusted the papers in her hands. "But I'd want to hear it from my boyfriend."
Again, Bruce said nothing. He grabbed his suit jacket from the back of the desk chair and slipped it easily over his broad shoulders as he prepared to leave. Betty had to admit, she didn't know much about relationships, having not been in many in her day, but she was a woman and she knew that in Selina's position, she'd want the truth, rather than finding it out through the tabloids or the news. She didn't completely understand why Bruce was so against just coming out and telling her, and again wondered exactly what she was missing when it came to the well-read enigma that was Selina Kyle.
"Straight home tonight." Bruce stated it more like a fact than the questioning tone most would have used for such a statement. It was just expected these days and Betty knew that Bruce expected her to know better than to dawdle in Gotham. She did, and despite the exasperated look she gave him at the warning, she took it to heart. It meant he cared and she wouldn't begrudge him that, or herself of the feeling.
It was nice, knowing that Bruce Wayne cared about her.
She nodded and smiled softly. "Home, I know."
"Good." And he opened her office door for her as he always did, letting her slip through first and hurry to her desk where she started packing up her things. She knew it was time to get going when Selina threw her arms around Bruce and started whispering something in his ear. As someone used to being the awkward third wheel in these sorts of things, Betty knew how to make a quiet exit when needed.
She finished throwing things into her bag, only really taking care with the book Selina had given her which she placed atop of everything else along with her writing notebook. With a pen slipped into the side pocket, Betty was ready to leave for evening.
"Have a good evening," she offered to both Bruce and Selina as she headed out.
The older woman looked away from Bruce briefly, grinning at Betty over his shoulder. "Don't forget about Gatsby, love."
Betty smiled as she opened the door. "I won't. Thanks."
"Gatsby?" she could hear Bruce asked as she headed towards the elevator in the hall.
"Don't worry about it, it's between us girls," Selina purred in answer. "Now, Bruce, I do believe we need to talk…"
As good an eavesdropper as Betty was, even she couldn't hear from behind shutting elevator doors.
Fandom: Batman Begins/Ugly Betty
Characters/Pairing: Betty Suarez, Selina Kyle, Bruce Wayne
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2,129
Summary: Betty and Selina discuss their book club and Betty and Bruce discuss Selina
Notes: Thanks for the comments. And the patience. Writer's block sucks, yo.
• First Arc: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part14, and Part 15
• Second Arc: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
When she looked up from her paperwork, there was a book beneath her nose. The Life of Pi. It was a good book. In fact, Betty was sure it was her book.
"I finished it on the flight back from Paris. I liked it."
Selina Kyle would have been the last person Betty imagined having a miniature book exchange with if she was one to base her appearances on looks alone. Dressed in her normal sleek and black high fashion attire with her brown hair pulled back into a bun on the side of her head and an in season cap perched atop, Betty had to admit that Selina was not the sort of person she would have imagined enjoyed the works of everyone from Jane Austen to Michel Crichton. It was unexpected, for sure, but it made Selina's visits to the Gotham offices that much more enjoyable.
Betty liked the older woman as a person in general, but that she could talk literature made it ten times better. On her second visit Selina had walked in carrying not only the copy of Fast Food Nation that Betty had lent her two weeks prior, but also Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, telling her that she should try it. It was a complete turnaround from Fast Food Nation, but she'd taken it home with her and read as instructed, surprised to discover that she actually did enjoy the book.
Betty didn't like to make a big deal of their little exchange, but it was definitely one of the reasons she approved of Selina above and beyond any of the other women Bruce had dated during her tenure. She saw them together at times and she knew their minds – their intellectual minds, at least – matched so well. Together they were a smart, witty pair. While she knew that Selina's job took her to Paris often (why, Betty didn't quite get, but it was what it was) she didn't understand why she and Bruce didn't just strike up some sort of understanding of exclusivity with each other. It didn't make sense.
Still, she was glad to see Selina and eager to see her reach back into her purse for another book.
"I'm glad you liked it," Betty said with a grin. She palmed her book, worn with the love of several readings, and quickly stashed it away in her desk drawer. It was one of the few she liked to keep around for slow days. "How was Paris?"
Selina shrugged in a simple yet elegant way that perfectly suited her chic clad petite form. "It was Paris," she answered.
Betty could only assume that once you'd spent as much time there as Selina had, it became just another city. She sighed slightly; having been to Mexico just wasn't as glamorous or as cool as Paris. She certainly hadn't seen much of Mexico either; more important things had been on her mind.
A book, cover down, was placed in front of her. Selina held it gracefully, like one of those product models on the Price is Right, but with a lot more class. Betty reached out to take it and once it was in her hands, she flipped it eagerly.
"The Great Gatsby?" she asked curiously, looking at the familiar cover. She'd seen it dozens of times. How many times had she been assigned to read this book throughout college and high school?
Selina seemed to understand the look on her face perfectly, and shook her head, holding up a hand. "I know, I know. It's a school staple, but you have to read it again now that you've worked two of the richest men in America. It'll give it a whole new meaning, I'm sure."
Fair point, Betty decided as she grinned and slipped the book into her bag. It wouldn't take her very long to read at all. "Thanks," she said, idly adding, "your earrings are really nice."
"A high compliment coming from someone who worked for the great Mode Magazine," Selina laughed. The emeralds in her ears glinted and flashed against the light. "Thank you, I got them in Budapest."
Betty's face lit up. "Really? Were you there last week? Or was it two weeks ago—there were a bunch of robberies there that made the news all the way here. Whoever it was stole five Rembrants from the major museum, a Monet, and some other pieces. They still haven't caught the guy."
"I'm afraid I missed the excitement; these were actually from one of my earlier visits." Betty, so adapt at noting Bruce's odd changes in demeanor neglected to note the way in which Selina began examining her nails, painted shiny coat of black (in a way that somehow simply looked classy instead of goth). It wasn't exactly an uncommon habit in the woman, and Betty thought it was just that, a habit. It never occurred to her that perhaps it was a lying habit, and there was no reason it should have. "Though I heard about the thefts and they sounded impressive."
"Yeah, I think Budapest needs a Batman," Betty gave a short laugh at her own joke, another grin coming to her lips.
"Oh no, I'm positive Batman is fine right where he is. You never know what might happen if he leaves Gotham."
Cue the awkward silence, something Betty was used to when she was alone with Mercy Graves (who came around with Lex Luthor far too often for her liking), but not usually with Selina. She watched for a moment as Selina rearranged herself, pushing loose, wayward strands of hair behind her ears, dusting imagined pieces of lint from her shirt, and straightening her skirt before finally smoothing her hands down the entire slimming ensemble.
Betty had the feeling that for now, their conversation was through. Not in a friendship ending, never-speak-to-you-again sort of way, but in that awkward, 'somewhere along the way an insult was delivered , but I'm so sure where or what I did wrong' sort of way. In other words, the way she often felt after talking to Mark and Amanda, but with a slightly friendlier vibe. It still left her scratching her head.
"Want me to see if Bruce is ready?" she asked after a very pregnant pause which was perhaps far more awkward than it would have been if she hadn't been wringing her hands the entire time.
Selina nodded once, smiling briefly. "Please."
She jumped up from her desk and gathered a few papers needing signatures before opening the thick wooden door which separated her office from Bruce's and quickly slipping through.
Surprisingly, the air in his office seemed much more relaxed than it had been in her own over those last few moments. She decided, almost immediately, that it was because Bruce wasn't wearing his tie.
"You know, seventy percent of average American men aren't wearing ties to work anymore," Betty said, approaching his desk and setting papers down in front of him.
Bruce looked up, bemused. "You have time to take polls? Am I not giving you enough to do, Betty?"
"I heard it on the news this morning." Her tone said 'duh' even if her words didn't. "Sign here, here, here, and here."
"Do you see me as the average American man?" He still sounded slightly amused as his fountain pen scratched across the various documents.
Betty gathered the stack of papers once they'd been signed. "Not to much, no. Do I see you as capable of admitting you don't like ties? Maybe."
That got her a laugh and not the awkward silence of her last attempt at a joke. She smiled as she arranged the documents neatly in her hands and reached over Bruce's desk for a paperclip—sometimes she still got a thrill out of the fact that Batman used simple things like paperclips.
"Is Selina here?"
She nodded. "She's waiting outside. And I still approve."
"She's only staying for a week," Bruce said, standing from behind his desk. He reached for his tie, which hung neatly --rather, in such a way that wouldn't have given Alfred an aneurism—over the back of an arm chair in front of the large bay windows which looked out over Gotham.
"It's like you chase her out of the city every time she comes to visit." Betty shook her head and made a face that looked as if a motherly 'tsking' noise should have accompanied, but she kept the nose to herself.
Bruce shrugged slightly. "In a manner of speaking…" He trailed off and Betty chose not to pursue. It would only lead to another lecture on dumb blondes, and Betty was sure he was as tired of hearing it as she was of delivering it. She just had to be convinced that one day he'd realise that he wanted a girl with more brains than silicone.
She shook her head again. "So is this the last time you're going to see her before Bhutan?"
"Probably."
"Have you told her that you're going to do the DIL – I mean, the eligible bachelor issue?" Betty asked. She was going to kill Mark when she saw him. Or maybe just force him to wear clothing from the Gap. Both options were likely to make him scream.
Bruce shook his head, eyeing her. She hoped it wasn't because of her slip. "No. Why?"
"Well," Betty said, carefully choosing her words. "If I was your girlfriend --which I am obviously not-- I'm pretty sure I'd want to know that you were planning on declaring yourself as eligible and attractive to the entire world. Just a thought."
"I'm not declaring that." He straightened his tie, though Betty still had to walk forward and move the knot about. "Mode is."
She tried not to laugh as hard as she wanted to. "What were you saying about not being the Average American male?" When Bruce chose not to respond, Betty simply continued to fix his tie and grinned. "Are you going to tell her you're leaving for the middle of nowhere in March?"
Once she'd finished, he stepped back. "She'll find out eventually."
"Probably," Betty nodded. She readjusted the papers in her hands. "But I'd want to hear it from my boyfriend."
Again, Bruce said nothing. He grabbed his suit jacket from the back of the desk chair and slipped it easily over his broad shoulders as he prepared to leave. Betty had to admit, she didn't know much about relationships, having not been in many in her day, but she was a woman and she knew that in Selina's position, she'd want the truth, rather than finding it out through the tabloids or the news. She didn't completely understand why Bruce was so against just coming out and telling her, and again wondered exactly what she was missing when it came to the well-read enigma that was Selina Kyle.
"Straight home tonight." Bruce stated it more like a fact than the questioning tone most would have used for such a statement. It was just expected these days and Betty knew that Bruce expected her to know better than to dawdle in Gotham. She did, and despite the exasperated look she gave him at the warning, she took it to heart. It meant he cared and she wouldn't begrudge him that, or herself of the feeling.
It was nice, knowing that Bruce Wayne cared about her.
She nodded and smiled softly. "Home, I know."
"Good." And he opened her office door for her as he always did, letting her slip through first and hurry to her desk where she started packing up her things. She knew it was time to get going when Selina threw her arms around Bruce and started whispering something in his ear. As someone used to being the awkward third wheel in these sorts of things, Betty knew how to make a quiet exit when needed.
She finished throwing things into her bag, only really taking care with the book Selina had given her which she placed atop of everything else along with her writing notebook. With a pen slipped into the side pocket, Betty was ready to leave for evening.
"Have a good evening," she offered to both Bruce and Selina as she headed out.
The older woman looked away from Bruce briefly, grinning at Betty over his shoulder. "Don't forget about Gatsby, love."
Betty smiled as she opened the door. "I won't. Thanks."
"Gatsby?" she could hear Bruce asked as she headed towards the elevator in the hall.
"Don't worry about it, it's between us girls," Selina purred in answer. "Now, Bruce, I do believe we need to talk…"
As good an eavesdropper as Betty was, even she couldn't hear from behind shutting elevator doors.