Bruce Wainright has (onerule) wrote in doorslogs, @ 2012-03-19 13:15:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | batman, mary jane watson |
Who: Luke and MK
What: Reuniting + catching up.
Where: Vegas strip.
When: Backdated to a couple weeks ago.
Warnings/Rating: None.
Despite the early point in the season -- it was just barely March -- the sun in Las Vegas shined mercilessly on the Strip in a way MK wasn’t really used to. Sure, she had lived in Los Angeles here and there and grown slightly accustomed to the dry heat the west coast offered, but nothing compared to that dry desert heat. She had grown up for the most part in New York -- a place with volatile winters and summers, but winters and summers. The perpetual sunshine was weird, especially after the perpetual overcast Seattle offered. The weather there fit her mood, honestly. The sunshine? Well, if people believed that fit her, all the better.
Plus, the sunshine did nothing good for a hangover at all, and she was suffering from a particularly bad one that morning. Mary began her morning chiding. Club-hopping until six A.M.’ll do that to you, y’know. MK knew the girl’s heart was in the right place, and maybe at eighteen she would have heeded the advice because she actually had things to wake up to in the morning, but what did she really know? At least her vigilante, her Spider-man, was still alive. He just didn’t want to be with her, and MK supported that fully. Mary Jane needed to realize that fraternizing with vigilantes in that way was the worst possible thing to do. Look at her, look at Luke and Wren. Nothing but heartache could come from it, and she needed to realize that sooner rather than later.
Hangover or not, she wasn’t going to miss her lunch with Luke. So, she put on her simplest sun dress, a green little thing that left just enough to the imagination, along with a pair of silver flats and her darkest pair of Ray Bans and enough make-up that if the paparazzi did come out on an early afternoon she wouldn’t end up on one of those “LOOK, CELEBRITIES WITHOUT MAKE-UP” tabloids that ripped them apart for having an off-day. MK didn’t have off-days, and as she climbed out of the taxi outside the Venetian, she looked every part of the socialite model she wanted to portray. She stood and waited for Luke patiently, pulling her thick red hair into a pony tail in the process because the heat was already getting to her.
Luke had seen a lot during the past five years, practically having traveled between most of the southern states and some on the west coast before coming to Las Vegas. There were cities, small towns, bright lights and dark nights, but to him they were all the same. None were home. That honor belonged to New York, where he’d been raised, where he left behind parents buried beneath hard-packed soil and a man who’d once meant the world to him. Seattle was a close second, since that was where he’d met Wren, and his adult years had been defined, but part of him would always long to be in New York. He missed the familiarity, and he missed the weather; Vegas’ dry desert heat irritated him and he hated the near-constant sunlight. Luke would have vastly preferred the dreary overcast skies of Seattle. The nights, at least, were the one time when he could pretend everything was the same. Like MK, the cheery sunshine didn’t suit his mood either.
Sometimes he worked the overnight shift, but he preferred to work during the day so his nights were left free for other pursuits. Due to a few recent losses in the Palace’s security team, however, Luke didn’t have much of a choice; he’d gotten off work at 6am and headed back to his apartment for a few hours of sleep before meeting MK for lunch. Normally he wasn’t too concerned with his attire, since when he wasn’t in uniform there was really no one around who cared about how he looked, but today was different. He actually made an effort with his appearance, wary of what Wren might have told MK and wanting to prove that he was fine. A dark blue button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up, one of his better pairs of jeans, and unmarked shoes made up his ensemble; in the end, Luke looked better than he usually did. Finch followed him around the apartment while he was getting dressed, probably expecting a walk out of all the effort, but instead Luke instructed him to stay and a whined piteously for a few minutes before relenting and curling up in his usual spot on the bed.
The one upside to the Vegas weather was that he could ride his motorcycle everywhere. It was a gift from New York, one Luke refused to sell, and he’d choose it over a car any day. He found some decently priced parking within walking distance of the Venetian and set off, blending quite easily into the pedestrians that lined the sidewalks and trickled out onto the streets. Despite years having passed since he’d seen MK, a flash of red hair in the sun marked her clearly enough, and as he approached he was reminded of Wren in the sense that both had that socialite put-together air about them. It was ironic, really; once he thought he’d be the one to end up in their shoes, yet look at him now.
“MK?” He was careful to keep in her line of vision, and his tone held just the right amount of caution just in case he’d identified her incorrectly. Bruce was quiet for a change, finding very little of interest in a lunch meeting with a girl.
By the time Luke had arrived on the sidewalk outside of the Venetian, MK wasn’t paying her best attention to the passersby as she leaned against the barrier of the foot bridge, her elbow resting on the ledge. The canals blew some cool air in her direction, thankfully, and she scrolled through a news feed on her iPhone. One or two pictures from the night before was online already, along with a little blurb about her state last night. Perfect. It never bothered MK too much to be in the news; it meant people were thinking and talking about her, something that she still loved. It made her feel important, at least a little bit, or at least that she wasn’t the biggest waste of space.
When Luke called out, she was half-looking up, half focused on her phone, and so it took her a moment to register someone talking to her. The phone fell to the wayside, hand dangling next to her hip, and she waited a split second before smiling. “Hi, Luke,” she said brightly, a much better greeting than she had given anyone thus far in Las Vegas. She stood still for a moment, and after pocketing the phone, she strode over and enveloped him in a tight hug. It wasn’t very long, and she pulled back and took one step away quickly. “How are you?” she asked finally as she scrutinized him a little better. He looked the same, but so very different at the same time. Fatigue tugged on his eyes and he looked much older than when she had not seen him. Not just physically, of course, but in the way he carried himself. Gone, she believed, were the days of the nervous young man that put on a mask and tried his best to save the day, and something different had replaced it, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it, not yet. “You look handsome.” It was true, even if Luke almost looked a little more hardened than before, and she smiled again.
For someone who’d come to Las Vegas with the intention of leaving his past behind, Luke had seen more familiar faces than he’d expected to. First it had been Wren, which left him shaken in a way he hadn’t quite recovered from yet, then Roger, and now MK. The difference, however, was that he and MK didn’t have years of old hurt and lies between them; she was one of the few friends he’d had left after Wren was gone, and he’d always be grateful for that. He watched her carefully, waiting for that spark of recognition before relaxing enough to return her smile. It wasn’t quite as bright, but it was genuine. “Hi,” he said, showing no outward sign of the uncertainty he still experienced in situations like this. She looked different, of course-- older, but time had been good to her. Though Luke only had eyes for Wren back then, and one might argue the same remained true now, MK had always been pretty. She was even more so now, though he thought it in a fond yet abstract way. Hugs had not been a common occurrence in his life for a long time, but he didn’t shy away when MK enveloped him in one, not as he once would have. He was better at pretending now, and he did return the hug albeit briefly. Despite everything that had happened in their pasts, and having lost touch over the years, he still counted her as one of his few friends, one he actually trusted. “I’ve been better,” he admitted, “but I’m still doing okay.” Such honesty was rare, but like Roger and Wren, MK knew him too well to be fooled by any of his lies.
He smiled again when she called him handsome, only a hint of sheepishness in his demeanor. “I bet you say that to all the boys.” Luke was no longer a boy, of course, no more than she was still a girl; they’d both been through more than most people their age would ever experience in an entire lifetime. “You look good too,” he added. “How are you liking Vegas so far?” Determined not to bring up the topic of Wren, he began a slow pace down the sidewalk and waited for her to fall into step beside him.
MK had always found Luke handsome, but in a removed sort of way because by the time she had met him and really gotten to know him, she was already head over heels for a man with a mask. She teased Wren constantly about how good looking her friend’s boyfriend was and the beautiful children the two would have. (Had MK known the entire situation with Wren, she might have regretted all the joking back in the day.) The years had done him well, even if he had a similar tired-like quality to him that MK and Wren did. One that only people who had been through as much as they had during their younger years would recognize.
“I only say that to the boys that matter,” she teased as she shuffled to fall into step with him. She was a short little thing, something that was a bit of a joke between her and her vigilante, so she had to practically skip but reached him quickly enough. She tossed her head to flip her bang out of her eyes and laughed quietly. “It’s hot. Not like L.A. hot. Like, really, really, really hot.” She pulled a slight face and reached up to tuck an errant strand behind her ear. “And apparently the hot place to be. I don’t think it’s a good place for us to be.” Looking up, she smiled at him because he understood, too, about running away from the past, probably more than she did. “When’d you get here? Not recently, right?”
It felt like ages since Luke had engaged in anything remotely like friendly banter, but MK had a knack for drawing it out even when their lives were near disasters. He knew the death of her vigilante had changed her, and most of what he saw now was likely an act, or at least part of one, but he’d become quite good at pretending. Too good, sometimes, while other times he fell miserably short. “That’s better,” he quipped, hiding his amusement as she put on an almost imperceptible bit of speed to catch up. After being in Vegas for a certain amount of time, the appeal wore off, and while there weren’t too many touristy-types crowding the sidewalk there was a fair amount of people milling about. “Yeah, the heat is one thing I’m not too fond of. I’ve gotten used to it, I guess, but sometimes I miss... different weather.” He didn’t want to refer to Seattle specifically, or even New York; keeping things vague was his armor now. His expression became somber as his smile faded, and he nodded. “I didn’t know about all this insanity when I first came here,” he explained. “It didn’t start happening until later, and now I’m not sure he’d let me leave.” Whatever Damian might say, Bruce was the only Batman Gotham had, and his presence was needed there. He needed to be in the vicinity in order to access the door whenever possible. “I’d say we’ve been through enough, but it wouldn’t matter. That’s never made a difference before.” He’d come here to get away from his past, but somehow it had managed to find him regardless. “No,” he admitted. “I’ve been here for a while already.”
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure I’m gonna miss it, too.” She knew he wasn’t just talking about missing weather and suspected he was thinking of certain places and the simpler times they implied. MK couldn’t imagine just know how far Luke had swayed from the path, but she knew that she missed the time before the authorities turned up the heat on vigilantes and Wren left and he died. Certainly Luke ached for it as well. She looked up to him and flashed him a sympathetic smile before she sobered up too. “You’d think something up there would give us a break, but yeah, you’re right, it doesn’t make a difference. We’re all gonna continually be tested. ‘Cept for Nell. Nell’s kicking ass and taking names.” Though from someone else, a statement like that might imply jealousy, MK was truly happy for her best friend. At least one of their group deserved to end up okay (even if Nell dealt with a string of shitty relationships over the years). She nodded slightly and pursed her lips. “She didn’t start talking until a few weeks ago. Mary Jane, I mean. I just happened to be coming here anyway, actually, and the journal arrived the day of my flight.” She sighed. For once, she hoped the insanity of it all could have skipped them, either of them. Wren, too. They deserved a break, didn’t they? “I’m guessing everyone hasn’t been dealing with this really long, either. Still, it’s frustrating.”
Luke was well aware that neither of them were really referring to the weather, and for all his claims that he’d left the past behind there was a part of him that would always long to return to a simpler time, before everything fell apart, when there was still hope. He looked down at her and gave a small smile in return that said he understood. The time when he thought things had to get better had long since passed, and now he simply expected nothing but the worst. “Maybe one day someone will decide we’ve been tested enough,” he sighed. If all that had happened in Seattle and afterward was a test, he was fairly sure he’d failed. Nell, however, had done better than most of them despite some unfortunate relationships. If he was being honest with himself, Luke was a little jealous; he’d always thought he would end up working for Thomas Inc. someday, but things with Thomas hadn’t turned out the way he expected and that dream was crushed long ago. “Nell has done pretty well for herself,” he agreed, with a certain amount of fondness. Despite his own failures, Nell was his friend, and he was genuinely glad that she’d found success for herself. He’d never want anyone he cared about to be unhappy, not even Wren. As unhappy as he might be at times, he wasn’t the sort of person who actually wanted others to share in his misery. “So she’s pretty recent, then. Mary Jane... where’s she from?” Luke was well versed in comics, having been raised on them as a kid, and he was fairly certain he already knew who Mary Jane was. It made him think of Simon, and the spider-like vigilante in his head; he wondered if MK knew. He didn’t offer up anything about Bruce just yet. While it was only a matter of time before people with Gotham alters passed on the knowledge that Bruce was Batman, the man remained cautious and rather private. “Yeah, I don’t think it’s been a really long-term thing,” he said, turning a corner as they veered away from tourist areas and towards the area they’d be able to find somewhere quiet to eat. “I could definitely do without it. Voices in our heads is about as fun as it sounds.”
“She has,” MK agreed of Nell and nodded briefly. Nell always had great potential, and she deserved a fighting chance just as much as any of them did. The girl was amazing -- MK knew that since the moment she met her when she was a kid -- and was always bound to kick ass. The corner of her lips tugged downwards, however, at his next question, and she looked down to the sidewalk as they rounded the corner. “Ah, yeah. You know Spider-Man, right? She’s the girl in in, the redhead. Mary Jane Watson. I heard a bit about her before.” Scoffing, she looked up again and rolled her eyes. “The irony isn’t lost on me. I looked her up on Wikipedia, and there are few different versions. I lucked out with the teenaged one.” Sarcasm, of course. Frankly, MK found it really, really unfortunate that she wound up with the young MJ in her head. She would have taken a vigilante of her own. Hell, at this point she would even like someone who liked to cause a little bit of trouble. Anyone but a girl whose story happened to line up with hers so similarly. Except, of course, her Peter was still alive. Again, she pulled a face, but flashed Luke a ghost of a smile. “Yours causing you too much trouble? I’d hate to think that you’ve got a teenager in your head too. I know that brother of yours does.”
Luke didn’t say it aloud, of course, but he couldn’t help thinking that at least one of them had managed to overcome their past and, for the most part, end up happy. No one’s life was perfect, but Nell was a step up from most. Admittedly, he hadn’t been certain whether MK would be willing to discuss Mary Jane, but it seemed some were more open about their fictional tag-alongs than others. “Yeah, I know a little about Spider-Man,” he said, which was an understatement considering he’d loved comic books as a kid, but as he got older it became harder to keep up and he hadn’t actually read one in years. “I’m not much of an expert on the different versions, but I thought Mary Jane and Peter Parker were like some sort of power couple or something. Which... probably doesn’t help.” While he would have greatly preferred a teenager to Batman, or so he told himself, he could see the parallels and understood why MK wasn’t thrilled about it. “How bad is she? Mine’s not a teenager, thankfully, but he can be difficult at times. We don’t always get along.” He quirked a brow at the mention of his brother, though at this point it seemed to be common knowledge. Not that he wanted to hide his relation to Roger, of course; it had just never been something he’d come right out and mentioned. “If one of us had to get the teenager, better it’s him,” he said with a slight smile. “He could handle it better than I could.”
While MK was hardly an open book about most things, she found herself inexplicably ready to discuss the doors or the teen in her head. Maybe it was the absolute ludicrousness of it, maybe she found comfort in the fact that so many others were going through something similar, or maybe it was the influence Mary Jane had on MK. The younger girl happened to be a bit of a proponent of sharing information, of talking, which was a stark difference to the woman whose mind she inhabited. She nodded and frowned slightly. “Yeah, that’s what I read online, but I think they broke up or something. She’s whinging a lot about missing him.” Scoffing again, she turned her face from Luke and towards the storefronts they strolled past. “She’s such a...kid. It’s annoying. If only she knew...” MK trailed off with a sigh and turned back to Luke as she nibbled on her bottom lip. “Oh, yeah? What about?” She didn’t expect Luke to be as open as she was about Mary Jane; in fact, she hadn’t really spoken to many people who were as open as she was. But she still wanted to offer Luke the opportunity if he did want to talk. Mirroring Luke’s smile, she said, “Yeah, he seems like a real character, Roger. Totally like he put his kid in check. I might be helping him out a bit with his work, actually. I don’t know if she told you.” No reason to clarify who “she” was -- they both knew who MK meant.
Luke’s knowledge didn’t extend that far, and he raised his eyebrows at the thought of having a teenager who’d just broken up with her boyfriend in his head. Maybe Batman wasn’t so bad after all. He, at least, kept his own emotions under lock and key most of the time. “That must be hard to deal with sometimes,” he commented. “Breaking up always seems much worse when you’re a teenager.” When Wren left him, after all, he’d treated it like the end of the world, and sometimes he regretted allowing one person to have so much influence over his life. He never wanted that to happen again. “I mean, it’s never easy,” he added, “but you know how dramatic they can be.” He stopped there, feeling like he’d just make a mess of things if he continued, and he certainly didn’t question where she was going with her if only she knew.... Unfortunately, he couldn’t elaborate on what he and Bruce disagreed about without revealing things he had no intention of ever revealing, but he could skim around the truth well enough. “He’s kind of uptight, you know? I don’t think he likes the fact that I’m working in a casino. Plus, he thinks I’m ‘wasting my potential’ or something.” Really, it wasn’t exactly a lie. Bruce did think he could achieve much more than he currently was. “Oh? No, she... didn’t tell me. How would you be helping him out?” What Roger did wasn’t safe, exactly, though he knew his brother too well to think that he would ever put someone else in harm’s way intentionally.
She laughed, and the noise came out a little bitter. “Luke, let’s be real. Everything seems much worse as a teenager. Everything. It’s in their DNA, I think.” MK could not help but wonder how everything in Seattle could have gone down if they were all only a little older. Maybe she wouldn’t have wasted as much time realizing she truly was in love with her vigilante; maybe he would still be alive. Maybe Wren and Luke wouldn’t be such messes. All the hypothetical situations bubbled up in her brain and teased her with the possibilities. She shrugged to break her own reverie, but frowned as Luke explained the person attached to him. “That doesn’t sound like fun, sweetheart. Why are they so...judgey? I wonder if they’re all like that -- trying to share their wisdom or whatever.” Over the past couple of days of observing the entries that popped up in that leather journal, a curiosity about everything festered in MK, and it was growing more and more each day. Whether it was just MK or also MJ trying to get information was yet to be seen, but MK really believed the younger girl had a power sway on her actions and thoughts. “I’m not exactly sure,” she said of Roger and his work. “Undercover stuff, I think. Baiting people, which I’m great at, I guess. We’re just gonna do a trial run first, and see how things go. I think he thinks I’m just an alcoholic party girl, but that fits the image he’s looking for. And who knows? Maybe I am, and maybe it’ll be a perfect fit.”
For a moment it seemed like Luke might actually argue, but it was short-lived. He turned sheepish, offering a smile rather than a laugh, since she had an undeniable point. “Yeah, okay. You’re right. Sometimes I look back on my teenage self and cringe,” he admitted. All the madness in Seattle aside, what had once seemed so terrible was now trivial at best. Sometimes he thought their youth was a strike against them, leaving them unprepared for the reality of the world and how to cope with it. There were so many maybes and if onlys, which he’d spent years obsessing over, but now he was beginning to realize how destructive those sorts of thoughts were. Fortunately, talking about the other man in his head was an adequate distraction, primarily because it took concentration and effort to avoid giving away too much. “That’s just the way he is, I think,” he shrugged. “He means well, but he goes about it the wrong way.” Bruce’s reaction to that was a sharp disapproval, but Luke ignored it. He could hardly admit the real reason why Bruce was so damn judgmental all the time. “Some are probably more opinionated than others, so it might be a case by case basis.” Someone a little less opinionated might have been nice, but it wasn’t as though he could trade or anything or the sort. Baiting people didn’t exactly sound safe, and he fought to keep a frown off his features. “Sounds... exciting. Roger’s bark is worse than his bite, by the way, so just ignore him if he gets a certain way,” he said with a rare grin. “You’re more than just an alcoholic party girl, MK. Don’t sell yourself short.”
She nodded vigorously when he agreed. “We were all kinda idiots, let’s be honest.” When they were all young, it felt like the world was crashing down every single day. The most minute problem could seem like the the biggest when you were eighteen or nineteen, when your world focused on young love and having fun and teenage things. “Though I’m not so sure I grew out of it. Being an idiot, that is.” MK didn’t like the sound of Luke’s mind-buddy, and her frown showed that. “Still,” she began, “he might mean good, but it’s annoying to have it chirping away in the back of your head all day, every day. Some people probably got a nice, docile old person talking to them.” She shook her head, however, knowing just like Luke that there probably wouldn’t be any swapping around, much as she might like it. “That’s what she said, that Roger’s a good guy. He’s like, textbook good. Then again, I’ve dealt with worse,” she teased with a smile, shrugging and choosing to ignore his last comment. He might think that and maybe Wren would argue that, but over the last five years, maybe that’s all she really was. At the very least it was a good mask to hide behind.
Idiots seemed a little too kind, but Luke figured the point had been made countless times over and didn’t need to be rehashed now. “Yeah, okay. I’ll admit to that.” He tried to make a joke out of it, but the past wasn’t quite far away enough yet for the lightheartedness to stick. How young and stupid they’d been wasn’t something he wanted to discuss, really, and he decided to stick to the lesser of two evils, which was the people in their head and all the drama that kind of insanity brought. He wondered what it might be like to have a normal life. “Trust me, most of us never fully grow out of it,” he said, pulling a face. Poor judgment definitely didn’t have an age limit. Bruce bristled at being referred to as an annoying, chirping voice in the back of someone else’s head, and Luke couldn’t help grinning. “Oh, it’s annoying as hell some days. He’s quiet sometimes, but most of the time he has something to say about everything. I wish I’d gotten some nice, docile old person who was easy to get along with.” Like Alfred, though he didn’t know whose head the old butler was in. Roger may not have been prince charming, or a knight in shining armor, but he was fundamentally good and that made all the difference. “He is,” he agreed, trying not to frown at yet another mention of Wren. He knew that she and Roger were acquainted in some sense, which made him reflexively suspicious, even if it was completely irrational. “I’m sure you’ll be able to deal with him just fine.” Luke noticed the way she avoided his comment, but he didn’t push, and instead turned his attention to the topic of lunch. “So, how hungry are you?”
MK didn’t want to discuss the past much either and was secretly glad that Luke brushed it off for the most part. Neither of them liked to talk about things, not really, and especially about those times. She hummed in agreement, however, at the idea that no one really grows out of stupidity because she certainly didn’t, and she knew people who hadn’t either. Smiling, she nodded again. “Yeah, I think I can handle him. I’ve never met a guy I can’t handle,” she teased, smile drifting to a smirk quickly before she rolled her eyes and looked at him with a grin. “Starving. I need something to soak up all this booze in my system right now. Are we close to anything you’d like?” They’d be walking down the street for a few minutes, but being so new to Vegas still, she didn’t know the best place where they were.
Luke tilted his head to the side and regarded her with a look, one that was too carefully guarded to be identified. “Roger won’t know what hit him,” he teased, because if there was one thing he wasn’t worried about, it was Roger and MK. They might end up driving each other insane, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t eventually get along. His smile faltered when she joked about all the booze in her system, concern slipping through despite her flippant demeanor, and he wondered if Wren might be able to slowly lessen her alcohol intake. “I’m a cheap date. Get me a burger and some fries and I’m good,” he grinned. “There’s a pretty good cafe just around the corner, though. Sandwiches, coffee, the works.” It was far from the places he suspected MK might frequent now, but that wasn’t really his scene anymore; fortunately, good food still counted for something, even here.