(closed) Love takes off the masks we fear we cannot live without

[batinbelfry]

Who: Barbara Gordon batinbelfry and Dick Grayson forceforlight
What: a date between 'friends' doesn't go exactly as planned
When: February 14th
Where: Locations
Content Warnings: character death




It never failed to surprise her how they could be so terribly lucky and yet unlucky at times. Life had been hectic, per usual, so their dinner date had been put off and rescheduled multiple times. So many times that by the time they finally got a reservation at this wonderful Italian spot, that everyone was raving about, it was Valentine's Day.

Awkward.

But this was Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon. If anyone could handle the mess their multiverse selves were dealing with, it would be them.

Wearing a red dress that didn't clash with her hair, Barbara stood outside the restaurant waiting for Dick to show up. She was a few minutes early, but that might have been nerves.

Comments

[hackingyoursensors]

Dozens of scenarios had gone through his head when he'd heard 'she's not breathing.' None of them live up to the reality. His breath hitches at the sight. It's so much blood. She shouldn't be alive. But she's there with just a fading wound.

He's glad for his mask, because he thinks he might have teared up a little. But then Kestrel snaps him out of his pain-confusion-relief. It's not difficult to understand the message-- someone did this to her and they have to pay. His expression hardens and his body goes taught, as if ready to fight.

"Let's go," he says quietly with ice in his voice.

[batinbelfry]

Later. There's a nod in response as the key, or whatever it is, disappears into her belt. No need to bring in the others until they've had time to figure it out themselves. There are other concerns first.

Hers override the others. "Just a dumb kid. Made a mistake." She needs Dick to make sure Jay and Dickie understand that she is not going to be happy if she just saved someone, and they hurt him. "Remind them. Please."

Because she needs him to focus on things other than he just saw his multiverse girlfriend die. Then she can focus on other things besides that as well.

[forceforlight]

It's why he needs to think about the whole Valkyrie thing in a place that isn't where Babs died in his arms. When he's had a chance to change and get the blood off of his uniform.

For the moment, he pushes to his feet, offering a hand to Babs. "You heard the lady," he calls to Heron and Wren. Because he knows they did, but Babs did say to remind them. "He's a dumb kid. So he should definitely make it to the police with everything still attached."

Does that give his brothers a lot of leeway? Well, broken bones still heal.

He looks around for something he can open. "Anybody have a bag I can use real quick? Just need to get my hand in."

[reneger]

"It's called pockets."

He's trying to keep his voice more - light, less angry. Because he's really, really fucking angry. At the person who got Babs killed before whatever brought her back, at Nightwing, for panic calling in Tim without first verifying if Tim would make it out of trying to patch Babs back together okay. The fact he hasn't jumped straight off the building to go hunt down the kid or gone in to fuck up Grayson's face speaks volumes on the level of self-control he's exerting here. But he also knows what Nightwing's looking for, exactly, so with an overly dramatic roll of his eyes, Kestrel's yanking off the black leather jacket he's been sporting. Tosses it over towards Nightwing. It has plenty of pockets, pockets of all sizes, full of all sorts of fun toys.

He's now a good seventy percent less armed. Not that it'd stop him from fucking over someone if he wanted to, but. Jacket removed, his attention turns back over towards Wren. Puts an arm around his shoulder and starts leading him towards the edge of the building. "See? This's why we don't follow big bird's example. Guy doesn't even have pockets." And over his shoulder, back towards Nightwing and Batgirl. "'m not a monster, I'm not gonna fuck up some stupid kid."

A few broken bones don't count as fucking them up. That heals.

[mostdangerousbird]

"Got the IPs of everything with a wifi or bluetooth connection in the vicinity." He doesn't expect anyone's going to hear him at this distance, but it's the official update.

He won't be long pulling the data and will come back later with more gear to take more of a blunt tool approach to what's left. He has to give the police something to blame the lack of evidence on.