#nighttknight

Sometimes, you couldn’t go wrong with the classics. At a charity ball, raising money for a good cause, sometimes that meant shaking hands and playing nice with those you normally would rather avoid. Right now J’onn was making a public appearance to champion for LGBT+ youth, a cause that was among others near and dear to his heart. So it seemed appropriate to be wearing one of his nicer dresses, something dark, nearly midnight blue with a slit almost dangerously high up his leg.

“ -- of all the thing that you would change. But it was just a dream!” 

Two more families came with the same results, Nikolai was left alone. 

Nikolai was never really as stupid as one might think with his innocence. At a mere eight years old he had the world figured out in a simple statement. Life sucks, and then you die.

The boy is struggling with a task at the moment. His skinny, dirty appearance makes him an unmistakable part of the lower class. His clothes are frayed at the edges, even dappled in dried stains from whatever he ended up falling into. His wee feet are on an unstable trash can while the middle part of his body is bent over the edge of a large dumpster. He has his eye on a half eaten sandwich in with all the garbage. Nikolai’s arm isn’t really getting him any closer to his prize. He paws at the air, as if wishing the sandwich to come to him somehow.  

Well, he can’t get it. Frustration over this, as well as hunger, causes a misty look to his eyes to form as he sniffled. He straightened himself a little too quickly, causing the trash can to topple and his fingers to hook on the edge of the dumpster instinctively. From there, he lets himself drop the short foot onto the asphalt below.

Dinah watched him with attention, gloved hands resting on both sides of the armchair. She wouldn’t say anything before he was completely done talking. Canary wasn’t a professional psychologist,  she wouldn’t be able to fix him, but she was a good listener, and what he needed right now was a friend. 

The question of sidekicks had always been overly complicated to understand and accept. Herself never had taken any, even when Steph had come to her several times, she had pushed her away. It was both hypocrite and protective. The answer couldn’t be all white or black, but when you listened to Bruce’s speech, you would probably side on the canary’s opinion on the matter.      “ You don’t pay me, I’m just being a friend here, okay ? And don’t tell me you’re not ‘cause you’re going to hurt me strong. ”     she drew a smile over her lips, then tilted her head more seriously,      “ I know you’re taking the blame on Jason, and with if ifs and buts were candy and nuts, but this is not your fault. I’m not saying the guilt will never go away, that’s something you’ll have to deal with for a long time. But Bruce... you did the right thing by not killing him. This is so easy to release our first instincts, to surrender to our revenges, but that would only add another guilt to your troubled nights. Trust me, I’m close of Barbara, and I want him dead, he would be the only exception, but... that’s not what we do, right ? ”