*BIRD / PREY !

urge to revive this blog. rising…

“Nosey, aren’t we,” he said as he jumped into the woman’s arms, “All you need to know is we met, we fell in love and she kicked the clown to the curb. Ever since then it’s been smooth sailing.” Yakko immediately jumped down, since he didn’t quite trust the stranger yet. She could be working for Plotz as a way to lure them into the open and try and capture them again. Or worse, she could be a spy for Disney.

“But you and Dick are kids.  You two have your entire lives ahead of you.  Jason has his… had his entire life ahead of him too.”  He looks away from the grave, facing Barbara.  “I’m not going to be throwing children headfirst into danger anymore.  I can’t take that risk.  What would I have said to your father?  If you died wearing the uniform?  How should I explain that your entire life is gone?”

“Then fix the system from the inside, become a senator.  You don’t need a mask to make a difference.”  Says the hypocrite.  “Leave the life behind, enjoy the time you have.  Don’t…  Leave it behind, Barbara.  I’m not going to ask twice.”  And he tells himself to tell Dick the same, despite him being positive that the former Robin won’t bother listening.

She could feel a stinging in her eyes the longer she looked upon the second Robin’s tombstone. Her mentor had always thought of them as his own, and while Barbara and Dick were older they were still his kids. And Jason would be too if the asshole in face paint-the same one who had put her in the wheelchair- hadn’t taken him from them. “You would have told him I died for what I believed in.” Easier said when then when the situation was hypothetical. 

“About this? W-What do you mean this?” she asked, taking a ship of her drink. A too long ship. She coughed. “I just got caught up, you know. It’s been a while since I kissed anyone.” Though, even if that weren’t true she would have still gotten carried away. She didn’t need Barbara to know that, though. “But, we can talk. If you want. Hm somewhere private?” She looked around. Too many people with too good hearing. And too many nosy people too. She cleared her throat. “Want me to fly us somewhere else?” Maybe that way she could convince Barbara she wanted to be just friends. Or maybe she’d end up confessing her growing feelings. It could go either way, really. 

Barbara realized she couldn’t have prefaced things any worse. It was like the equivalent of texting an anxiety ridden friend ‘Hey can we talk?’ With absolutely no context. “Kara, it’s okay. Really, it is. I’m not mad.” she gently reached out to place a reassuring hand on her friend’s shoulder. “I just...I’ve had some stuff on my mind and now I think it’s resurfacing, if that makes any sense?” Oh no, now she was starting to feel tongue-tied and tingly. “Yeah, let’s go somewhere else.” Brown eyes scanned their surrounding, taking note of all their hero friends nearby. She didn’t think anyone would intentionally eavesdrop but certain sensory powers while intoxicated proved to be bad combos. 

“Foam Party? Yeah we can totally go there, although for a moment that sounded like one of those bounce house superstores that you can easily lose track of your kids in,” Peter mused, “or a couple of a big kids past their teenage prime as well.” At least the nerves had finally managed to somewhat work their way out of his system. When Pete was in element, it was hard to prevent him from stopping. Especially if there were bad jokes and quips involved.

Name? “Oh right, my name! The one that I was practically born with,” he joked once more, making a mental note to question everything he said to himself in the mirror today whenever finished getting out the shower. “My name’s Peter. Peter Parker. I’m actually right up the road straight out of Forest Hills in Queens. And you said you were Barbara? That’s a quintessential librarian name right there.” Of course it was meant to be a joke, because he was almost positive that Barbara had so much more talent than just rearranging books on a shelf.

“Total joke by the way. I’m sure your resume has a lot more on it than just re-evaluating the Dewey Decimal System and punching tickets for people who need to use the library computers. Am I acting like a total dork right now? If I am, please do not hesitate to let me know because I will web my mouth shut–metaphorically speaking of course. So donuts and bagels, nice choices. Combine that with coffee, a decent location and a lobby that plays music from the 70s on a loop and we’ve got ourselves a winner winner chicken dinner! Should we get a picture for Spacebook to commemorate the occasion?” he asked with a chuckle. Hopefully his Spider-Man case on his phone didn’t stand out too much to her.

“You know, I thought the same thing for a bit,” Barbara admitted. She had even imagined herself and some of the other Batkids hitting each other with those foam joust sticks and diving into the block pit. She made a mental note to bring Damian to one of those and see what happened. “I guess they were thinking of the layer of foam that goes on top of a latte.” 

“It’s nice to meet you, Peter.” He seemed a little goofy and possibly hyped up on caffeine, but she appreciated his desire to converse. Made things much easier when someone was open and chatty opposed to be an unresponsive brick wall. “It’s also a suburban mom name.” She laughed at the compliment. “But I think it fits my profession pretty well.” When she was younger, Barbara often complained that her name sounded ‘old’ and ‘dated.’ She even went through a phase where she threatened to change it once she turned eighteen. Eventually the bat grew into her namesake.