REBIRTH

    it’s been a particularly rough night.  patrol has sucked, and dick is bruised, body and ego.  so running into jason is pretty far down on the list of things he’s hoping for tonight.  he just doesn’t have the energy to be all smiles and support.  his eyes narrow, eyes flitting quickly over his brother before he manages a sound kind of like a scoff and looks away.  “ that’s quite a look you’ve got.  i guess that answers the question about who you’ve been running around town with. ”  he’s not surprised, now, that tim wouldn’t just come out and say it.

    dick snakes an arm around babs’ waist, still grinning so wide his face kind of hurts from it.  now, he drops his chin to her shoulder from where he stands behind her, looking around.  it needs furniture, which means they probably should have waited to try and settle in.  but hell, he’s eager.  and if that means using plastic utensils and sleeping without a bed frame, then god, he is more than happy to do that for months. 

    dick turns the ring around a few time between his fingers.  there’s a tempting quality to it; he can’t deny that.  the rush of power, the sudden clarity.  it’s really something.  but there’s more than one reason dick keeps convincing himself to take it off.  part of it is because dick’s always prided himself on doing what he does without the aid of superpowers.

“How mad do you think Aphrodite would be if I borrowed some of her clothes and dressed up as her for Halloween?” 

“Why do I ever bother to leave my home? This entire city gives me headaches.” 

“Oh yeah, all the time. Why? Are you going somewhere for longer than a patrol night?” Cassie wondered. She wouldn’t blame him, actually she honestly thought all the bats deserved a little time off. This city was more chaotic than any other she’d seen, it must be exhausting to watch over it 24/7.  

With Damian gone, she stepped up to lead the Titans, and she couldn’t complain about that. “If you head out, at least you have a ton of people who can watch over things for you.”

      the ship was beautiful. it left her awed even now, three hours after their departure from the port; the city was an ant on the horizon and the waves of gorgeous, clear blue sea that surrounded them on all sides was almost instantly rejuvenating. barbara couldn’t chase her grin away any longer, despite any misgivings or concerns she’d held about leaving before. it was overwhelming, but in a way that left her brimming with joy — it had been a LONG time since she’d felt so excited about something. 

      “ dick – !! ” she turned on her heel to face her partner for the next four days. the love she had for him for pulling this together wasn’t something she quite knew how to convey yet, but she wanted to try, one way or another. “ what do we do first?? i don’t even know where to start. did you see the list of things they have going on?? ” // @lcvesfalling

    the last of dick’s doubts about this whole vacation had disappeared at about the same time that he’d lost view of land.  turns out it’s a lot easier to relax and stop imagining the problems if you can’t even see the shore.  the boat’s nice, yeah, but he’s distracted for the moment by the ocean.  ( it’ll be a long four days if he doesn’t get over that. )  it’s just so big, he almost can’t wrap his brain around it.  but babs’ enthusiasm is catching, and dick is already half-giddy himself.  

    “ — or something. ” babs replies with a roll of her eyes despite her huff of laughter. she pockets the device from earlier and breezes past him, little more than a feather light tap on his arm as she does. “ now, if you’ll excuse me, i’ve got some work to do. not a minute to be wasted, nightwing. ”

Plastering on a small smile, Celina wished she could sigh with relief over her little act being believable. Times like this, she wished she could read minds, she was sure that the identity of Nightwing would be worth a lot around here. “That’s very nice of you, Nightwing, isn’t it? I suppose one can always feel a bit safer knowing this city has people like you in it.” Ok, that was a little thick, even for her. She wished she could teleport away, but she was sure the hero had seen enough of her face already. “I don’t live very far, just around the corner,” she gestured to her right, where she knew a nice apartment building was. Not hers, of course, but if she made it inside she act like it was until he left.

“Come on, you must have some things that keep you looking on the bright side. You’re like, the second most hopeful person in the family,” she laughed. Not that she was surprised by the question, people asked her that a lot actually, but she usually just waved it off with a joke about her sugar intake. But no, she could tell Dick was someone she could be honest with. Out of everyone, he was the one she felt she was the most like, really. 

With a slight shrug, she smiles as she explains. “I don’t know, I guess I’ve always been like this. Had to be like this. There’s one downside to some of the bats being so closed off, they only see the dark side of Gotham. I try to meet people, make friends, get to know everyone. Out of the whole city, you’re bound to meet enough good people that make you see this city is worth fighting for. Have you ever heard that quote about the saddest people smiling the brightest? Something about not wanting to see others suffer like they have, I like that one. I guess me being chipper is from me finding things that make life worth living.”

she’s not wrong.  dick certainly tries to go the hopeful route with his attitude, but that means he also knows exactly how tiring that can be.  or maybe it comes to stephanie more genuinely than it does for him.  and that’s sort of a depressing thought.  good for stephanie, but kind of sad for dick.

dick is fairly certain that normal people don’t have so many mixed emotions about going on vacation.  he’s excited, sure, but he also feels really, really guilty about feeling excited.  but it’s only four days.  and no matter how much he loves gotham, usually, he’s pretty sure four days isn’t even enough time to miss it.  or for it to miss him.  so it should, god willing, be perfectly fine.  

hes finishing up the last few things he needs to do in gotham now.  bag is packed with the necessities, and tonight is his last patrol.  he’s contemplating dropping by the manor to let bruce know that he's leaving for a few days, or to at least tell alfred so eventually the word gets back to bruce, but that just sounds like a recipe for trouble.