@blizzardmuses asked โ shhh, youโre alright, youโre safe. i promise. โ (dinah to liannn)
This was not what Lian pictured when she slipped into the Nest after her โpatrolโโnot that it was really a patrol, at least not like the Bats did it. No routes. No rhythm. Just her, tucked into the shadows of Alleytown, watching the younger kids. The ones fresh from the orphanage, like sheโd been not so long ago. It wasnโt her job to keep them safe. No one had asked her to. But who else was going to?
The local vigilantes didnโt care. The cops didnโt come unless there was a body. And even then, they looked the other way. Sheโd just peeled off her momโs maskโShoesโ maskโwhen she saw the figure step out of the darkened walls. Blonde. Familiar. Too familiar. Dinah.
Lian's breath caught. Her body froze, the mask falling from her fingers unto the ground. And then Dinah was talkingโsoft, steady, saying things that didnโt make sense. That theyโd found out. That she wasnโt dead. That they wanted her back. How did they find out? Why did it take them nearly ten years?
The relief. The questioning. The ache of absence, it all crashes into her like a tidal wave.
She doesnโt realize sheโs backing away until her spine hits the wall. A sharp whimper escapes her throat, and she slides down, knees folding, arms wrapping tight around herself. Her fingers dig into her loose black sleeves, white-knuckled grip on the worn fabric. It's hard tooo breath.
Whatever Dinah is saying is drowned out by the rush of blood in her ears. Her vision clouds with tears until Dinah is just a blonde blur. Her heart is pounding out of her chest, her fingers tighten impossibly on the fabric, her nails catching.
It could have been minutes. It could have been seconds, but then there's gentle hands puling her arms away from her knees.
โshhh, youโre alright, youโre safe. i promise.โ
A harsh sound escapes Lian. Was it a gasp? Was it a sob? It doesnโt matter. She knows that voice. It's the voice that used to sooth her when there was monsters under her bed or in her closet and her dad wasn't around--
"D-Dinah." Lian's voice is wrecked. Rough and small, like she was both too young to deal with such pain and like someone who has been through too much for a lifetime. "I didn't....I thought...No one.." The fourteen year old chokes on her words, thoughts running together as she shakes her head.
She doesn't know if she tumbles forward into Dinah's embrace, or if the older woman pulls her into one, but in the end it doesn't matter. The teenager clings to the other with trembling hands and hot tears. "I thought ev-everyone f-forgot."
