tougher than i look

          “… I do.” A soft smile, an even softer look, even if it was masked by the dark circles around his eyes. It wasn’t a secret that the old members of the now defunct Young Justice team had some sort of special bond. Maybe it’s because they were all misfits, or that they were proposed to be the runners up of the League. A lot of expectations on a lot of young kids. It really brought them all together, the excitement and the fear of it all. That team was made up of people that Tim felt he really could talk to, unabashed, unabridged. Currently, those talks involved the both of them sitting around on the Wayne Manor lawn, no doubt angering the British butler inside. “It’s what I’m here for.” 

Cassie was lying down on her back, hoping that her body would leave an imprint on the lawn. (Wanting to leave a mark on this place like it had left on her heart. So that neither would ever be forgotten.) “Yeah?” Cassie murmured, turning her head to get a better look at him. He looked tired -- and it made her wonder how much time he really had for himself. Between school, work, and the mask... where did Tim get time to be just Tim? “Do you think if we asked Alfred for a picnic out here, if he’d let us... or would he scowl at us and tell us to eat at the table?”  She let the words sit in the air for a moment before propping herself up. “You still doing the lone ranger thing at night?” 

Diana can understand where Cassie’s coming from. Discovering yourself, entirely - well, she’s not even sure it’s possible. It’s been hundred of years and.. truth be told, Diana’s not quite sure she’s met all of herself yet either. So when she hears those words from Cassie’s mouth, she feels both concerned and relieved - but at least it’s something she can try and help with.

“Do you want to know a secret?” Diana offers kindly, tilting her head to the side a touch. She’s not sure it’s going to be the most reassuring advice she’s ever given, but.. it will be the truth, and that’s the best Diana can offer. “I don’t think anyone ever has met all of themselves yet. The more you discover about yourself, the more you realise you have so much more to piece together. And.. that’s okay.”

Cassie was deeply confused -- and not about who she was as a hero or where she stood in life... but romantically confused. There were songs written about kissing girls and boys and there were so many people who just... who knew who they were. Cassie had never given it much thought, never put words to what she felt. She had one boyfriend and a string of smaller relationships -- but she never once declared what she liked. In her mind, it had always been people. Hearts. Souls. But Helen had made one comment about how she didn’t take Cassie for the type to like girls and suddenly Cassie was so deep in her mind she couldn’t find her way out. 

Conner pushed his way through the already impressive crowd of people gathered in the Warehouse Loft, brushing past propositions and wandering eyes in a single-minded quest towards the door. He wanted to have fun that night, but, in truth, twenty minutes with Cassie, even while she was unable to dance slash openly revel with him, was worth several hours of doing either of those things with a stranger.

Approaching the entrance point where she was presently stationed, he bumped his shoulder against hers in greeting and offered a dimpled, crooked smile.

“Okay, I have two–” Conner cut himself off, chastened by the remembrance that Cassie was technically on the clock, “…beverages. I don’t really know what’s in them, but one is green and one is pink. Pick your poison.” He held them both up for inspection, secretly hoping that Cassie would go for the green one, but ultimately committed to letting her have first pick because she was Cassie, and sometimes Conner thought he would push the moon out of orbit if it meant it would make her happy. “Also, I know already said this, but you look incredible.”

In her mind, this job would be something she was doing in passing -- but then people she knew started showing up and she felt restless. And coming with Conner hadn’t helped things. The might not have been together, but they had shown up together and she felt bad for ditching him straight away to work. But thankfully (maybe that was the wrong word considering what was in his hands) he hadn’t been deterred by the fact she was on the clock. 

Two drinks in his hands and he was letting her choose. (Why did it feel like a trap?) Her eyes flickered towards the pink drink at first -- she loved the color, but, while she trusted the hands that held the drink -- she also didn’t trust him not to try and trick her. “The green one,” she finally decided on, taking it from him and glancing around to see if Harry (her temporary employer for the night) was watching her or not. Cassie wasn’t concerned about JD -- if anything, JD would encourage this behavior. (Or at least, Cassie assumed she would.) 

Drinking when you had an increased metabolism was a difficult line to walk. If the drinks the bar was serving were regular alcohol, you had to do a lot of shots very quickly for it to have any effect at all. It was something Pietro had mastered… but it was also really expensive. He could hardly afford to handle such a thing, no matter how many wallets he stole. Luckily for him, his new roommate seemed to have a workaround. Pietro wasn’t sure what kind of drinks they were serving him here… but he knew they were working. On her, too, clearly. 

She was looking remarkably drunk as he scanned the crowd for someone to steal from, and the fact that there were no easy targets here made him wonder if perhaps she’d had an ulterior motive when she’d picked their drinking establishment. One man quite literally had eyes on the back of his head, making it difficult for Pietro to find anything he could steal.

Difficult… but not impossible. 

His hand shot out quickly, almost as if he didn’t mean for it to at all. It was a blur of blue smoke when he pulled it back, prize clutched between his fingers. A plant of some kind. It took him a moment to recognize it as mistletoe, though he failed to remember the Christmas tradition of locking lips beneath it. Pietro, after all, was no expert on the traditional decorations of a holiday he didn’t celebrate, and he hadn’t cared enough to learn them. 

Turning to Cassie, he held the plant up to show her. Strange thing to put on a table, he started to say, but before the words left his mouth, her lips found his. Only then did he remember the tradition behind the mistletoe… and the fact that he’d been holding it above his head. 

When they pulled apart, he flashed her a drunken grin, wriggling the mistletoe around a bit. “Be honest, you’ve been waiting for an excuse all night, haven’t you?”

Pacing wasn’t something that Cassie had learned -- drinking wasn’t something she did because she had never seen the point. It was an expensive habit and having the powers she had and being out of control? It wasn’t a safe combination for anyone involved. But a bar like this, there was something comforting, like strength in numbers -- if there was anyone on the planet that could keep her in check (that wasn’t Donna or Diana) they’d be in this bar. And if there was anyone who could stop Pietro from acting like an idiot, they’d also be in this bar. 

But tonight, Cassie wasn’t the person to keep him in check. She had gotten him to the bar with other powered people -- but outside of that? Cassie was too many drinks in to have the reflexes to stop a man who moved faster than anyone could see. But she did see the blue blur of his hand -- but the fact he stole mistletoe instead of anything worth money was... actually hilarious. Her hand was over her mouth as she tried to stifle the laughter, but it was all too obvious that she was thrilled his heist had been fruitless. 

The kiss was brief and sloppier than Cassie would ever want to admit, but that didn’t bring her any shame or embarrassment. It was Pietro talking after that did. She could feel the heat in her cheeks and quietly prayed to Hera that he would write it off as the alcohol and not see that it was him doing that to her. 

“No---” The word came out of Cassie’s mouth faster than she had moved in to kiss him. “I mean, I mean no, not just tonight, I---” wrong direction, Cassie! “I mean I haven’t thought about it at all! It’s bad luck to not kiss under mistletoe! And I have enough problems in my life without you bringing in your bad luck into our apartment. You’ve probably got... a cosmic bill of bad karma just waiting to explode and I don’t want to tempt the Fates.” 

@cleverbxrd​

There were a lot of things about Tim that had given Cassie pause. (They might not have all been romantic – but he was one of her closest friends, and she cared about him enough to pay attention. Cared about him in ways that she didn’t fully understand.) But what attracted her to him? She could have said anything – she should have said anything. Made a comment about the way his uniform fit or brushed it off like what she felt for him was something she had only experienced in passing. 

(He likes coffee and I like coffee! Clearly, we’re perfect. That would have worked. And maybe that was a little true. They had things in common but something so basic couldn't fill out what she felt.)

What did she find attractive about Tim? (How many things was she allowed to list? Or should she be concise? Pick one thing, Cassie. Just one.) 

“His heart.” The smile on Cassie’s face faded for a moment, and she shook her head. “I mean…” A sigh escaped her and her shoulders slumped slightly. It sounded so sappy the way she had blurted it out. “I mean, he’s got a good heart. He gets so caught up in his own mind but when he acts on feeling – it’s really beautiful. He’s got a brilliant mind, but when he reaches out with his heart? That’s… something else.” 

@realwhenitsuseful​ ( by accident, but also cause batdad forehead kisses for the holidays )

It had been too long since she had been inside Wayne Manor, but Tim was living there and, honestly? She missed Bruce and Alfred -- and everyone. But like her own family, the Wayne family was wildly complicated. They rarely all got along, Cassie was sure it had been too long since she had seen them all in the same room. (Had she ever seen them all in one spot? Masks on or off?) 

Cassie was being dramatic, she had to be. There was no way she had never seen them all in one spot. It was probably just so stressful because of work -- or something else had clouded her mind during it.

But inside Wayne Manor, Cassie noted how quiet it was. Peaceful in a way that reminded her of Themyscira. Like the waves that would touch the shores and sing her to sleep on the worst nights. (The ocean always reminded her of home, but the gentle silence of Wayne Manor felt familiar too. But it was hard to place. Hard for her heart to explain why she felt at home here.) But the second that Bruce was in the room, Cassie had a feeling. Father hadn’t been a word she used when she was a child. Zeus might have been her blood, but he was never her father. Not in any way that mattered. But there was a warm feeling that came with being around Bruce. A trust that came so easily. He was the father figure in her heart but without any of the expectations. Just a man she admired.

It was him that pointed out the mistletoe that was still lingering in the decorations, “I’m surprised the kids didn’t run through and tear all these down,” Cassie said, as if she weren’t one of the kids. Reaching up to grab it when Bruce planted a small kiss on her forehead. Cassie relaxed into his touch and wrapped an arm around his waist before pulling him into a real hug. 

@godxofxlies ( lady loki / helen )

Hanging out with Helen after working out was starting to become a thing -- or rather, Cassie would look around the gym to see if Helen was there and more or less accosted her and asked her to hang out. And that would happen every time that she spotted Helen. And while Cassie was sure that she was annoying Helen, she showed no signs of stopping. (Helen had been nice to her one time and that was all it took for Cassie to decide they were friends.) 

It took some light bullying, but Cassie had managed to get Helen to agree to go to the cafe across the street from the gym they frequented. There was a hole in the wall cafe that Cassie had seen and she had been dying to go to, but she didn’t want to go alone -- and she wanted to hang out with Helen more so it all worked out! At least, it all worked out in Cassie’s mind. Cassie was babbling about the menu she had looked at online and how everything looked delicious.

Her own chatter to fill the silence had distracted her enough that she had almost missed it. Almost. Almost. 

She  smiled at the woman, she was brave enough to call her out.  Glad she knew that she had been caught “What I own my precious cargo here, or do you want them to nip you as well darling? “ she thought about her man and she hadn’t seen him in awhile.  “He not a clown he ‘s my puddin pop, and right now I don’t know where he is at all, can you help me find my puddin? He so sweet”  

Harley was still going to go after who was ever on that phone.  She wanted to slam them for hanging up on her.

Cassie wrinkled her nose but immediately stopped -- or at least, she tried to stop showing her disgust. She didn’t want to get into it with Harley (all things considered, Cassie knew that Harley was unhinged... but considering the life she had? Cassie had a hard time seeing her as the bad guy). “I mean... he dresses like a clown. Doesn’t he? Unless he’s you know, aesthetically trying for something else. Which -- which would be fine, I just got a very... loud, clown impression.” Sweet? Cassie forced a smile and nodded her head. (Sweet was not the word that she would have used to describe Joker but... ugh how could she say that without being rude?) “Can I pet them -- or will they bite me?” Cassie changed the topic, figuring animals were a neutral thing to talk about, right? 

@speedysmaximoff ( drunk is what bex specified so )

Cassie didn’t drink. The reasoning behind it wasn’t that deep -- it was simply that human alcohol didn’t do anything for her. It took twice as many drinks as the next person for Cassie to feel a light buzz and it didn’t seem worth it. (And frankly, the flavor wasn’t all that great for her either.) But Pietro wanted to go to the bar and Cassie didn’t want him out there by himself. It wasn’t like anyone could take the keys from him -- but running at his speed and drunk? Cassie would have been up all night worrying about him anyway.

She had gotten him to agree to an alien bar that she had found. He wasn’t alien and technically, neither was she, but it was the only place that had alcohol that she could also get drunk off of. But this was also the only place that Pietro wouldn’t be able to steal from without getting caught, everyone in the room had powers. He didn’t have the advantage here. (Would that stop him from trying? Probably not. But Cassie was hoping.) 

Her eyes had been bigger than her head, and the circular table was covered in food that Cassie had ordered and an assortment of drinks -- and Cassie wasn’t just a little buzzed, she was trashed. The kind of drunk that she should have been texting Donna to come pick her up from the bar. But instead, Cassie finished off her next drink and watched as Pietro grabbed one of the decorations off the table, a piece of mistletoe the owners had been using as ambiance (or at least that was what Cassie assumed) and he held it over his head. 

Probably to make a point.

But Cassie was too far gone to listen to anything Pietro had to say. And all drunk Cassie saw was him under the mistletoe. She reached over and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him in, and firmly pressed her lips against his. 

@ofmagikandlimbo ( accident? )

Despite how small mistletoe seemed to be -- Cassie found beauty in the tradition. It was the feeling of the holidays that really inspired her, the closeness it encouraged -- the happiness that swept the city of New York despite the darkness lingering in the shadows. But mistletoe, it wasn’t about Christmas -- it was about the winter solstice -- it was rooted in Norse mythology -- it was a blend of so many things. (But mostly, it was romantic, in a hazy-dreamy sort of way that made Cassie’s heart flutter.)

She had never seen it in practice before though. Her mind was often elsewhere during the holidays, after all, crime and supervillains didn’t stop because the seasons had changed. (But this year especially, given that the people closest to her heart weren’t getting along. Cassie couldn’t even claim to know if they were speaking to each other.) Holidays were complicated. But this wasn’t. 

Cassie was at a local coffee shop (a hole in the wall place she had discovered while trying to find her place here in the city) and it was decorated beautifully. Cassie was standing with her coffee in hand, her head tipped upwards, looking at the decorations -- it wasn’t until another woman had pushed past her with her coffee that Cassie snapped out of it. 

Despite her best intentions, Donna found herself roped into a great deal of social interaction this evening. Though, her extremely extroverted date was partially responsible for her fate. Between Kitty’s not-so-subtle desire to introduce Donna to everyone she knew and the constant stares because ‘is that wonder woman?’… Donna sighed, watching as Kitty ran off to say hello to someone – Scott maybe? – but she was quickly interrupted by a familiar voice.

“Cassie?” she frowned, not quite registering what Cassie Sandsmark had just asked her. Donna prided herself in her ability to not be caught off guard, but seeing the young blonde… it brought her back to Themyscira, to her home that was no longer a home. “What are you doing here?”

Donna’s reaction to seeing Cassie wasn’t... at all what Cassie had expected. Or maybe it was what she should have expected given the time they had spent apart. And Cassie had heard that something had happened but she didn’t know what. (It was strange being on the outside, but she knew that if Donna wanted to tell her, she would.) “In New York or at the party?” Cassie asked, still smiling brightly at Donna despite the initial reaction. “Because I’m actually here because Mr. Rand is, he’s my boss -- I’m working as a bodyguard.” Not that Danny needed one, from the way he carried himself it was clear he could take care of just about anything thrown his way, but she was getting paid to attend a party. Not a bad deal! “As for New York... well, I thought a change of scenery was in need.” (It definably wasn’t because she was having a crisis of identity and was trying to find something to define herself that was hers alone. Definably not that.) 

(✉️ ➡️ roommate): cass (✉️ ➡️ roommate): iee (✉️ ➡️ roommate): we are (✉️ ➡️ roommate): out (✉️ ➡️ roommate): of mil (✉️ ➡️ roommate): k

@immortalweapon

Harley had called some random number to dial, she even had her mallot in her hand.  “Seriously no one should ever  hang up on Harley Quinn, I will teach them a lesson. “ searching through the phone book, she decided to take her pet Heyena’s with her and started walking down the street “What you looking at you weirdo’s haven’t you seen someone have pet Heyena’s?”

Cassie... wasn’t sure what she was seeing. Between the phone call and the hyenas -- was this normal in New York? It took her a moment to place the face, but that was... that was Harley wasn't it? Cassie hadn’t gone toe-to-toe with her before, but she had seen her in newspaper articles and heard about her. But being caught, Cassie held up her hands in surrender and offered Harley an awkward smile. “Yes -- I mean no, I think you’re the only one brave enough to keep those as pets, really.” Cassie cleared her throat and tipped her head to the side, carefully looking over the woman who had deep ties to the Joker, wondering if the man she had associated with for so long was also in the city. “I just didn’t think I’d see you here,” Cassie said, pushing a bright smile to her face. “The, uh, the clown isn’t with you, is he?” 

[ ✉ ⟹ Cassie ] You became my friend, therefore I’m given automatic permissions to make fun of you. [ ✉ ⟹ Cassie ] You all did it enough times when I wore the green tights. :P [ ✉ ⟹ Cassie ] I can’t draw to save my life, trust me. I can barely plan out blueprints. I’m way better behind a keyboard. [ ✉ ⟹ Cassie ] I’ll stick with the supplements. I can pay for it no problems. A paltry sum.  [ ✉ ⟹ Cassie ] Hey, you said you were the square, not me. :P [ ✉ ⟹ Cassie ] You can be any kind of bread you want.  [ ✉ ⟹ Cassie ] I don’t really get to tell you what to do anym- [Deleted] [ ✉ ⟹ Cassie ] Radical. My place or yours?