The rain hammered against the windows, a steady rhythm that filled the quiet of the apartment. It had been pouring for days, the kind of relentless deluge that turned streets into rivers and made sneaking into warehouses or chasing cargo trucks impossible. The city had slowed, and so had they. The day passed in a pattern: sparring, reviewing recordings, combing through files for anything useful. It was the tedious, unglamorous part of hero work, made worse by the storm trapping them indoors.
The pair had dragged their sparring setup down from the roof days earlierābefore the rain beganāin anticipation of the storm. Helena stood barefoot on the mat in the corner of the room, her hands wrapped as she worked through a series of kicks against the heavy bag. Each strike landed with sharp precision, the dull thud punctuating the steady hum of rain. Across the room, Dick leaned against the couch, a book open in his lap.
āDrop your left on the follow-through,ā he said absently, not looking up.
She shot him a glance over her shoulder but didnāt reply. The bag swayed slightly as she stepped back, unwrapping her hands and tossing the wraps onto a chair. By the time she made her way to the table for her Gatorade bottle, heād already turned another page.
Helena took a swig of the drink as her eyes flicked to the book in his hands. Cosmos. She didnāt say anything, but her gaze caught his attention.
āYou could just ask,ā Dick said, turning the page without looking up.
Helena raised an eyebrow, feigning indifference. āAsk what?ā
āWhat Iām reading.ā He held up the cover briefly, then set it back in his lap. āCosmos by Carl Sagan. Itās about perspective, patterns, andāwell, life. Youād hate it.ā
She snorted faintly. āProbably.ā
Dick chuckled, shaking his head. āItās not just science. Itās about finding meaning in all the chaos. Seeing how things fit together, even when they donāt look like they do.ā
Helena leaned back against the table, taking a slow sip. āSounds optimistic.ā
āIt is,ā Dick admitted. āBut itās not naive. Sagan wasnāt saying life was easy, just... that you can find something in it. Even the hard stuff.ā
Her fingers tightened slightly around the Gatorade bottle, and her gaze flicked to the window. The rain blurred the world outside into soft shapes, indistinct and distant. For a moment, she didnāt reply.
Finally, she shrugged, pushing off the table. āIf it works for you.ā
Dick watched her for a beat, then smiled and turned back to his book. āIt does.ā
Helenaās eyes lingered on him for a moment as she headed for her laptop. Find something in it. She wasnāt sure what that even looked like, but the words stayed with her as she settled into a chair, the rain continuing its tempo against the windows.
āAn excerpt from an upcoming chapter of my nightwingxhuntress slow-burn, multi-chapter fic, No Saints in Blüdhaven.
If you like the work, please interact and comment. Iāll post more frequently if I get more engagement!
PS: still looking for beta readers!