#fic starter

“Yeah, I know. It’s not the pit though. They just do that.

They swung left, dropping into a crouch as they heard murmured voices. Along with their footsteps, the voices faded as they left. Duke and Jason seamlessly followed.

“Really? Why?”

“Dunno, ain’t like being a zombie come with a manual.”

Duke grinned. “Pretty sure it does. Die. Wander around and go ‘blehhhh.’ Move slow like you’re old. Eat brains.”

“Are you calling me old?”

“If the boots fit,” Duke smiled smugly. “Plus, look, you’re already going grey.”

Jason huffed and got Duke away from the crumbling railing by playfully shoving him. “Little shit.”

“I noticed you didn’t deny eating brains. Or being slow.”

Jason ignored him. “Seriously, I don’t know. They just do that.”

“I’ve noticed it’s when you’re in a life threatening situation.” Barbara said, dropping information like it wouldn’t alter the world around Jason. “Also, group of people ahead. Looks like they’re planing distribution lines to East End and Gotham Prep.”

“Oh ew, they’d definitely have customers there,” Duke grimaced.

“I’ll let you get the last shot, but you also have to write the report.” Jason offered slyly.

“No way!”

“Well, I’m not doing it. And you get away with more.” He reasoned.

“Says the guy who literally got away with murder.”

“I’m not doing it. You do it.”

“No, you!”

“No, you!”

“No, you!”

“No, you!”

“No, you!”

“Boys.”

“Sorry, Oracle.” They chorused. Chastised but sending each other irate looks like Barbara couldn’t see it through their masks, Duke shoved Jason in as bait with a snicker and took to the roofs. Jason flipped him the bird and kicked the doors down.

“¡Hola, motherfuckers!” Jason shouted, going straight for a head punch. “It’s clobbering time!”

Amongst the erupting brawl, Duke surprised dropped three men before landing next to Jason, uppercutting a goon to interrupt him from nearly bludgeoning Jason with a bat.

“Dude, you’re so lame. Clobbering time?”

Jason shoved him again— making a flung knife miss Duke’s throat by a few inches— and elbowed another man in the throat.

“What else would you call it??”

“Not that!” Duke blinded a guy and punched him in the face.

“It’s classic!”

Duke flew up to knee a thrown goon in the face. Jason gave him a thumbs up as he dodged a shot.

“It’s outdated!”

Gummigoo is a new transfer from another branch of the company. He's sweet and kind, dotes on his family, and is secretly built like a brick shithouse, a secret the office only knows because Pomni used to work in the same branch as him and mentioned a work retreat where the AC broke down. It was a funny story. Caine doesn't remember it. He only remembers how familiar Gummigoo is with Pomni, how easy conversation flows between them, how she refers to his mother by name when she asks about the woman's health.

How she laughed while telling the previously mentioned AC story.

But Caine tries to not feed those negative thoughts. He shoves those unfounded feelings of jealousy down, down, down. After all, its him that gets to hold her at night. Gets to cook for her. Its him that Pomni kisses on the cheek when he makes her drink in the morning on the weekends. Who gets to take her hand when they go on one of her abandoned building jaunts.

It's his name she murmurs into his hair when he bites a particularly sensitive spot on her neck, his name she moans when he finds just the right pressure, just the right angle. She's always praised him for his problem solving skills, how many iterations he will attempt before finding the perfect method to make her--

"Alright, mate." Caine is slapped back into the room by that annoyingly attractive Australian accent. "You know Pomni pretty well, right?"

"I certainly hope so," Caine singsongs, voice a bit too loud. "We've worked together for years now!"

"I don't suppose you'd know what kinda gift she'd like? Doesn't seem like a flowers and chocolate kinda sheila to me."

Jokes on him, she loves flowers. They just need to be subtle, and either in the ground or in a pot. And looked after by him because she can't keep a plant alive to save her life.

"Loves bouquets actually," Caine starts. "Specifically in the shape of her head. With the strongest fragrances imaginable. I know, horrendous for such a small office space. It's why she never has any."

"Huh," Gummigoo thinks on this for a moment, seriously considering what he's said and Caine feels a pang of regret at how sincere the man's consideration seemed to be. "I'd never have guessed. This is why I thought to come to you mate, bein her friend and all."

"Hm," Caine hums, tapping away at his keyboard a bit more forcefully. "Yup. Real good friends!"

Who's bright idea was it to keep their relationship secret? Oh yeah, his dumb ass. Abel would make his life a living hell if he found out, not to mention Pomni's job would be in peril. If Abel knew of a way to get to Caine that resided inside the company...

He didn't want to think about that. Didn't want to take the risk when it meant the livelihood of the woman he loved.

And now there's a good looking Australian here asking about what Pomni likes, and technically he has no reason to not help. The conversation soon turning to what she considers attractive in a partner.

"Passive. Be really, really passive. But not too passive! She loves a good chase that saucy scoundrel Pomni." Caine is fully in theatrics mode now, that is, fully talking out his ass.

"And she loves a man who can show her what she wants," he keeps going, the words piling out his running mouth. "Be assertive at the right times and she's putty in the proverbial palm."

"Be passive, but not too passive, and assertive at the right time," Gummigoo repeats, fully invested and Caine is experiencing some weird combination of a head rush and vertigo. "Got it. Hey, thanks a lot mate. Didn't think you'd know so much about pleasing a woman given you're not that way inclined--"

"What"

"Anyway, gotta go! Thanks again!"

And once he's alone again in his office his brain happily leads him in a spiral. Not that way inclined... as in not interested? Not capable? Not able to make a person feel wanted? Is that it?

Before he knows it his feet and cane lead him out and down the hall, a path he knows so well by now he would do it blindfolded if the risk of tripping weren't so high. The probability of thrown paper balls being alarmingly high for a working office space.

He kicks a few in his march to reach Pomni's desk, only becoming more irritated when he doesn't find her there. He turns to Jax, who just shrugs and crumples up another ball to throw. Caine grits his teeth and spins on his heel to head back to his own desk, throwing himself back in his chair and immediately regretting it a second later.

He sees her walk past two hours of brooding later, arms full of documents and brow creased in that way that usually has him sighing dreamily, but he's had two hours to stew in his own turmoil and it is Bad. She turns just long enough to wink at him, and then carries on. He's storming his way after her the moment she's gone again, quickly swooping by to juggle her files onto Jax' desk instead so he can whisk her away from prying eyes.

She'd been smiling all confused until she saw the thunderous look on his face. Then the smile dropped to something softer.

"Caine?" She asks. "You good?"

"Need to talk," he grits out over the ding ding ding of his impatient button mashing for the elevator.

"Oh," Pomni says, cautious. "Did... something happen--"

She's swung into the elevator as soon as the doors cracked open enough, a little disorientated from the urgency.

"Okay, so something happened," she deadpans, leaning against the mirror with her hip cocked and arms crossed. "Are you gonna tell me or keep me in suspen--"

He's on her even before the doors fully closed, cane dropped in favour of the handle bar under the mirror as he caged her in.

"Uhhh," she sophisticatedly articulates, dumbstruck by the heat in his odd eyes. But he just looks, he doesn't touch her, doesn't close the minimal space between them and that is somehow worse than the idea of getting caught in the elevator by whoever opens that door.

"I just," Caine starts. "I needed to see you."

"Just see me?" She teases. "You see me nearly every day."

He does. He does and even thats not enough sometimes.

"I..." he trails off. Starts again. "I'm-- I need--"

The door pings and they shoot apart like kids caught in the cookie jar. Luckily, the office body that walked in didn't pay them any attention, instead focusing on his obnoxiously loud phone call.

He only goes one floor up. Then they're both left with that vacuum. The absence of noise other than the stupid elevator jingle that somehow catches like a record.

Pomni picks up Caines walking aid, needing something to do with her hands.

"Thanks," he says, beautifully red in the face. She wants to bite him.

"Soooo, what was your plan here, hotshot?" She says. "Other than get caught talking in the elevator, of course."

He bristles. "I didn't--"

The elevator stops, and instead of explaining himself he just grabs her hand and takes her to the flights of stairs to the roof.

"Uhh Caine," she warns. "You sure you're okay to--"

She shuts up at the look he shoots over his shoulder at her. Determined, if a little haggard. She doesn't argue.

He fumbles with the door bar, but once they're both through and blessed with a nice cool breeze that tousled their hair, he has her against it. Her eyes widen and brows shoot up when he presses into her, cane once again forgotten with a clatter as he grips her to him and kisses her.

It's all hunger and desperation, something not unlike their first, where Caine had gripped her by the nape, by the waist, and kissed her so hard he bent her back over the couch. She'd melted into his hands then and she did the exact same thing now, gripping him back, pulling him closer.

He moans when she gets a hand in his hair and scrapes with her nails. She answers in kind when he presses a leg between her thighs. It's a mess, its out of character, she has to pull him back with a fist full of red and white strands just to get a breath and he whimpers so sweetly she nearly bucks her hips.

"Okay," she breathes, feeling the wetness of his mouth cool on her lips. "Okay, something's happened--"

He tries to close the gap again but she holds fast, giving him a look that has him making that lovely sound again.

"Are you gonna tell me what it is? Or do I have to get it out of you? Because if thats the case," she tilts his head to the side, leans in to his ear. "You know I have my ways."

"Probably not right here though," she considers. "Jax sometimes takes her smoke breaks up here and I really do not want to have that conversation yet--"

Caine pulls her around the corner to a little conveniently secluded area, boxed in with huge vent tubes and wire gates he somehow had the keys to.

"Do I even want to know how you got those?"

"No," he says, closes it behind himself. He looks around as if to check for something and, once satisfied, presses her back to the wall again.

She's gotta say, she's starting to like the new approach he's taking to shutting her up.

"Steve!" He looked to Eddie as the gun to his temple pressed closer. He could see the vines Eddie was trying to sneak closer, desperate to get him out of the bastard's grasp. He laughed as the safety clicked off on the gun.