milliways_bar | (no subject)

Dick wasn't expecting to see the bar.

Ever again, really. He had become used to the bar being somewhere he could access through tents and doors in the circus. It was a new part of his world, sure, but it was a part of it.

Then his world collapsed in front of him and everything changed and suddenly he found himself living in an orphanage in Gotham City run by nuns.

He's had to deal with that new, horrible world, and he hates everything about it. Hates how it's not the circus, but at the same time, he's sort of pleased that he doesn't have to be at the circus, to see Mister Haly or the animals or any of his friends, and not see his parents. This new world is horrible, but because it's missing everything, it's not missing them specifically.

That's what he'd think if he was capable of coherent thought on the subject right now.

As it is, Dick couldn't explain exactly why finding the bar appear on the way to his dorm feels like a betrayal.

The boy stands in the doorway, fists clenching at his side as he glares at the bar for daring to still exist, and still be bright and loud and friendly when everything on the other side of the door is broken.

He glares for one second,
two seconds,
three seconds...

And then he vanishes into the rafters.

[OOC: If you can find him, completely open! But be open to very short threads, if he doesn't want to talk. DCU!Dick.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

X gives him a thirty second head start, then follows.

Quietly.

She knows he does not want to be seen.

But --

Being alone can make things worse.

She remembers that very well.

He's sitting up in a tree a short distance from the edge of the forest, huddled among the branches like a large, weepy eagle.

He doesn't want to be alone, really.

But he doesn't want her.

(He wants his Mom.)

X does not pause to study him, she just leaps up into the tree and drops down next to him.

Carefully.

She doesn't say anything, just reaches out -- twice as carefully as she approached -- and rests her hand on his shoulder.

If he will let her.

Not gonna cry. Not gonna cry. Not gonna cry.

Dick shies away for a fraction of a second as the hand approaches. Then he stops, and makes himself lean towards her, just slightly.

X hesitates for a moment or two, but considering Stitch and Elle and even Thor, these days --

She leaves her hand where it is for a few seconds and then shifts her own position in order to give Dick a hug.

"I have cried," she says very quietly. "Before. It is okay."

This, too, is the truth.

He doesn't hug back, so much as curl into her, keeping his head down and his arms in front of him on the branch, but there's definitely room for her to hug him

"It's not."

Okay.

Nothing is ever going to be okay again.

"Crying is," she says quietly, still holding on.

"Not the rest."

Silence reigns, at least for a little while.

Then --

"It is better if I do not ask?"

"I don't..."

He doesn't want to talk about it.

But then he remembers that she doesn't know. No one knows.

He steels himself.

"My parents are dead."

"Oh."

Oh no. If they are already dead, nothing she learned from Robin will be any help.

Because it is too late. And the cause might not even be the same.

"Dick."

She tightens her grip just a little. X is very sorry, but 'sorry', at this moment, is not relevant.

But eventually --

"It -- I am allowed to ask? How. If -- "

Beat.

"Talking does not always help. I know."

That, at least, she knows very well.

"They fell."

Angrily again, and Dick pulls out of the hug because suddenly he's been in it too long.

"It was an accident."

It was not - and he will punch her if she even suggests it - incompetence or negligence on their part.

"An accident."

"Okay."

X studies him warily, just for a moment or two. That does not sound distinctly murderous. Maybe his timeline is different from Robin's. For more reasons than what might be the obvious.

Then she shifts to lean her shoulder against his.

Because that is definitely not a hug.

And maybe it is safer.

Only then does she ask her next question.

"You saw?"

Edited 2013-05-18 23:11 (UTC)

"Yes."

She leans a little more heavily against him at that, tucking her knees up against her chest.

"That is hard."

Silence falls again, at least for a little while.

"You dream?"

Every night.

(At least so far. It hasn't been that many nights.)

"I don't wanna talk about it," Dick says, when he can make words.

"Okay," X says.

She's still speaking quietly.

And after another minute or two --

"Sometimes exhaustion helps."

Beat.

"People say that. A lot."

Edited 2013-05-18 23:20 (UTC)

"Maybe we'll do more fighting later?"

Not right now, he's not in the mood. But he will be.

"Yes."

X's response is prompt and very certain.

"I am easy to find. Here."

Especially since, for now, at least, she is not planning on going anywhere.