milliways_bar | (no subject)

"A friend of Charlie's," Renee says automatically before she corrects herself. "...of mine, now. He handles the technical side. I handle the getting-the-crap-beaten-out-of-me side."

"So he's like Oracle?"

Except he's a guy! Helena is oddly relived about that.

"Apart from the whole no-real-name shadowy-mastermind wooing strangers with roses deal," Renee clarifies. "I guess he is like Oracle, if Oracle is a fussy scientist who has more opinions than are good for him."

"Not quite. Oracle is more like an anal retentive computer nerd who thinks she knows better than other people what's good for them."

Renee smirks, correcting her pronoun without comment.

"I heard you and she were working together these days."

Helena shrugs.

"It's early days. I'm still not sure if it's gonna work out or not."

Renee presses her lips together, miming zipping them closed.

"I promise no spoilers."

"Which implies you know how it's gonna turn out," she says, smiling wryly.

"Don't worry, I won't press you for details."

Renee doesn't offer it, but it makes her happy, that Helena's found Oracle - and, she guesses, Black Canary. She knows nothing except that they work together for a while, but that's a stability she suspects will be good for Helena.

And the possibility of Helena being happy makes Renee happy.

Stretching an arm behind her head, she can use the action to distract from her smile.

"What else have you been up to?"

Yes the new pose is very, very distracting indeed...

'Um...' She says, forcing herself to look at Renee's face and not her body.

What has she been doing? Besides teaming up with Oracle and Canary and having an epiphany about her feelings for Renee?

'I'm teaching again.'

"Really?"

Just when you thought Renee couldn't get any happier for her, her grin breaks wider.

"That's great! I think. It's good, right?"

"It's more than great!" She says, grinning back.

"After how my last job ended... I thought I'd never teach again."

"How did your last job end?"

Does Renee remember that? She doesn't think she should. They haven't really talked about it.

Her face turns serius. This isn't a part of her life she particularly likes thinking about.

"I got fired. I was being framed for murdering some mafia guys, one of whom was my cousin. I had the cops and Batman after me so I went on the run.

"Turns out schools don't like it when teachers turn up on a regular basis covered in bruises and then disappear for months at a time without letting them know. Go figure," she adds with a shrug that tries to say 'it's no big deal' and doesn't quite manage it.

Renee offers the most rueful of smirks.

"Well, the new job is obviously good for you. You look great."

"... Thanks," she says quietly, as a faint red blush spreads across her cheeks.

"You look pretty great too."

She avoids Looking at Renee as the blush becomes deeper.

That response is kind of confusing. But there's no way to question it without sounding weird.

"...thanks?"

Damn it! She never had this much trouble talking to guys! Why the hell is the so difficult?! It isn't that different!

"I didn't mean..." She begins, becoming flustered. "I just meant... you look like you're doing okay too."

Maybe this is just difficult because she's never liked a guy as much as she likes Renee...

"I'm not doing badly," Renee admits. "Haven't run into the zombie versions of my dead best friends for a while, so that's probably enough."

Helena frowns.

"Zombies? Here?"

"No, at home."

Renee hesitates.

"I didn't tell you about zombie Charlie?"

"No, you didn't."

She would have remembered that.

"What happened?"

"Charlie's body got possessed by some Lantern thing," Renee explains. "Tried to kill me, and Tot and Lady Shiva. We stopped it."

"How did Shiva get involved?" she asks, frowning.

"She was in the middle of beating the crap out of me when he turned up."

It's the most casually given explanation ever.