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Selina Kyle sped down the streets of Gotham in a hurry. She was desperately late for her job and could not do with anymore setbacks than she already had earlier. One of her cats decided today would be a good day to become a gymnast and attempted to launch himself out of the window of her apartment, which was a not insignificant drop. As though that was not enough she was entirely unable to hail a taxi, and forced to walk, in heels, the entire way there. At this point most would accept their situation and call out, but cat food wasn’t cheap and she’d already called out twice this week, so here she was, speed walking down the busy city street. Despite her current predicament she still held her typical grace, weaving in and out of groups of people and avoiding all obstacles in her path. It was quite an impressive feat to be able to navigate Gotham to seamlessly. At least almost seamlessly because for all her grace she was not able to move out of the way of the oncoming Edward Nashton.
Edward Nashton was many things, however graceful was not nor ever was one of them. Edward was an accountant for a tech company on his way home from a stressful day in the office. Edward was also planning to murder a major political figure in Gotham, but no one but him and his online followers knew that yet. Stumbling his way back home from that exhausting day Edward also decided to purchase some materials that would be necessary for his scheme, stopping by a hardware store on the way from where he worked. He took his time choosing what he needed, taking in careful consideration the advise of his followers as to what would be the best choice of murder weapon. He also took his time to pick out some craft supplies for his special gifts to the Batman. When satisfied he began to rush home giddy to begin his new project. It was this blind movement that brought him to his current situation of full body crashing into a young woman weaving through the foot traffic.
Selina nearly toppled over but caught herself, after all cats always land on their feet. But the man she had crashed into had not been so fortunate, scattering his belongings on the ground. She felt quite bad, after all she had been moving in and around people, he must not have seen her, she was already late as is, whats a few minutes to help him pick up his things.
“I’m so sorry, are you alright?!”
She reached to help him gather his things but the man became agitated quickly, snatching his things up, clearly trying to keep her from seeing.
“Im fine Im fine its my fault I wasn’t looking where im going I can get all my own things by myself Im fine Im fine”
Edward was extremely agitated at this obstruction in his plans, the very last thing he needed was some stranger touching his things and asking him questions and the more people who saw him going from place to place were more witnesses who could ruin his entire plan. He hated to seem rude but he hated to be noticed even more. He looked up at the woman who had tripped him up, to look her in the eye and do his best to seem normal and not suspicious when he realised her face was extremely familiar.
She looked at him surprised and uncertain, still attempting to help him but clearly not wanting to start a fight. She began to back away when he looked directly at her, she probably feared this encounter would turn for the worse if she stayed but the more he looked the more sure Edward felt that he knew her from somewhere.
“Im really sorry, i was just in a rush to get to work, I just wanted to help you Im really sorry sir”
Then it clicked in his head.
“Wait, Selina?”
Selina was at this point thoroughly confused as to the situation she was dealing with. First she’s late then she crashes into some strange man who gets mad at her for trying to help him and now he knows her name. This was extremely not ideal. She looked at the man in front of her to try and figure out how he knew her name, while taking very careful, covert steps away from him. Was he from the Iceberg lounge? No she’d never seen his face there she was sure of it, but he did look familiar now that she really looked at him. She’d seen that face a million times before but where? She couldn’t put a finger on it but she definitely knew him.
“Yeah I’m Selina” she spoke hesitantly, she knew better than to get comfortable, he could still turn out to be some scumbag here to mug her.
“Oh wow! Its really been a while, I’m not sure if you remember me I look very different, I’m Edward Nashton.”
The spark lit in Selina’s brain, Nashton! Her mind flooded with memories of herself as a young girl and the young Edward Nashton together in the orphanage.
“Oh my gosh, I remember, it’s been so many years! How have you been, its so crazy running into right now, I’d love to catch up but I really have somewhere to be”
Edward looked starkly different as an adult and yet so many features remained the same, he was very tall, had a nicer pair of glasses, though at the moment he looked quite deshevelled, he looked polite, like he’d adjusted relatively well to adult life.
Edward felt at the moment as though he was going insane. It’s always on the days you want no one to see you that you run into everyone you know. And right now, with 5 rolls of duct tape and a hallmark card in his bag he really really did not want to see anyone. Not to say it wasn’t nice to see his former orphanage roommate Selina Kyle. She looked great, like outstandingly so, to a point where Edward felt embarrassed of what he looked like right now because he usually looks more put together it just so happens she caught him today, the day he bought his murder supplies. He had no idea what to say, but he couldn’t say nothing because he’d already made himself look like a weird jerk by getting upset with her over what was seemingly nothing.
“Oh I’m alright, I’m very sorry I just got out of work I’ve been very stressed thanks for the help, I didn’t expect to see you but I also have somewhere to be, good seeing you though.”
Selina smiled
Edward smiled back
Selina sped off once again, now recounting her time in the orphanage after her mothers passing. It was a bad place but there were people there who made it easier. Edward had always been an odd kid, he liked puzzles and riddles, he saw outside of conformity but never had a problem with it, content to march to the beat of his own drum. She was honestly a bit sad she couldn’t catch up with him. Over the years they simply drifted apart but she was curious as to what he could be doing with his life now.
Edward continued his trudge home with his bags also recounting his time in the orphanage. His life spent there is what fueled most of his energy to take down gotham. But there were some spots of light in that orphanage. Selina was different, she remembered her family, but more importantly she was nice, she didn’t mind how odd Edward was or what other kids thought of him. She just wanted to hang out and have fun. It was a shame they couldn’t catch up, but he had bombs to build cities to destroy and Batman to attend to. Yes it was a shame.