luke henry ; robin (notjustsidekick) wrote in musingslogs, @ 2011-03-14 01:52:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | ramona flowers, robin |
Who: Luke and Audrey
What: Talking and avoiding the truth.
Where: Hospital.
When: After this.
Warnings: None.
With Thomas gone to see Max and Roger off contacting the healer, Luke was left alone with Audrey in the waiting room. There was nothing particularly useful he could do at the moment except to stay with her as instructed, just in case, even though he was itching to start doing whatever he could to find this Mockingbird. His reluctance to reveal certain information to Audrey had nothing to do with how much he did or didn’t trust her, because in all honesty he did, but she was Max’s sister and clearly she’d purposely left her out of the loop for this long. It didn’t feel like he had the right to go against that.
“How’s Max?” He moved towards a chair as though he might sit but leaned against it instead, evidently attempting to stall the inevitable.
“Asleep, the last time I checked,” she said. Her hair was still a reddish brown, something that was a close approximation of her natural color. Now that she was working at Monarch she could dye it whatever she wanted, but things had been so insane that there just hadn’t been time for it yet. She looked over at Luke, who looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here. “Look, can you tell me something?”
He assumed that Max being asleep was a good thing, and Amanda had to be fine too or Audrey surely would have said something. Luke wasn’t aware of all the details but he realized the dangers of a premature birth, not to mention how evidently worried both Max and Thomas had been in the weeks leading up to her hospital stay. He glanced up with a hint of hesitation, idly noticing for the first time that her hair color was far less bold than the last time he’d seen her. “Depends on what it is, but I’ll try.”
“I know there’s something going on here that nobody wants to tell me about,” Audrey began, slowly. “And I don’t know what I can get you to say, but I do get that Max and Thomas and I’m thinking that other guy are all in the secret club, and far as I can tell so are you. Can you at least tell me why I’m not allowed to be in the loop? What, am I too stupid? Am I a security liability?” Her smile was empty of anything resembling pleasure, with an edge of frustration. “I’m a big girl, I can take it. But I’m tired of people acting like there’s nothing going on. I’m not an idiot. And when it becomes a threat that affects Max and Thomas and you and me, then I need to know why I’m not being filled in. Because you guys are being threatened.” Her eyes darted off to the side, then back. “I mean, clearly. Max didn’t even want me to walk home by myself.”
Luke didn’t know how to explain the situation without making it sound like they were all criminals on the run or something along those lines, and he wished that he could just tell her the truth without having to feel bad about it. He couldn’t even admit to just himself being Robin, because it wasn’t just his secret anymore. Outing himself meant outing all of them. “You’re not... involved the way we are,” he said carefully, trying to walk that fine line between saying too much and saying nothing at all. “It has nothing to do with you not being trustworthy or some kind of liability, trust me. Max is just trying to protect you because she probably thinks it’s better if you don’t know.” He sighed, realizing that probably made it sound even worse. “Look, I’d tell you if I could, but I really can’t. It’s not my... place, you know?”
A brief but palpable anger crossed her face - so she was good enough to mind Thomas, but not good enough to be included - and then was gone again. It was an old, bitter hurt, not being good enough to get taken along on everyone else’s adventures, being left behind. “Right,” she said, slowly. “Yeah, I get it.” She wasn’t angry with Luke, since he was right, she was sure, and he was just being a good, respectful kid.
She stood up. “I should probably head home. Is it safe for me to go by myself?” Her tone indicated she would rather go without an escort, if possible. No one else should be responsible for her.
Her anger didn’t go unnoticed, and while it did make him feel worse about not being able to tell her the truth there was still nothing he could do. Maybe Max would end up changing her mind, but now wasn’t really the right time to go asking her something like that. “Sorry,” he offered lamely, though he knew it wouldn’t do any good. “I know it doesn’t make much of a difference, but it’s not personal.”
Luke hesitated. As far as he knew Audrey herself hadn’t been directly threatened, but Mockingbird likely knew about the connection between her and Max. What if he left her to go home on her own and something happened? “I don’t know. Let me at least walk you out?” Maybe it would be safer if he made sure she got a cab or something.
She hesitated, and then nodded. “Alright,” she said, and waited for him to get up before she started walking. She wracked her brain for something, anything to say. After the conversation they’d just had, she didn’t feel much in the mood for talking. She felt selfish, honestly. Her sister had just had a baby and she was feeling bummed out. She should be excited, right? Well, she could tack that one onto the reasons she was a bad person and just move on, or something. “How’s school?” she asked, even though she asked him that every time she talked, because she really didn’t know that much about him. He was a student, and he was Thomas’s son, and he liked videogames. Not a lot of facts. “Find yourself a girlfriend yet?”
Audrey’s agreement was admittedly a relief, and he rose from the chair with a quiet exhale of breath. A very small part of him was glad for the distraction since he felt strangely awkward sticking around, with Roger off doing whatever and Thomas looking in on Max and Amanda. He didn’t really know what to say either beyond the tedious basic questions that always seemed to come up when conversation was lacking. “Uh, it’s good.” Pathetic, but there wasn’t much to elaborate on. His daily life was painfully boring except for that one night out with Poe and Bly. “Yeah, actually. Her name’s Quinn,” he said, trying to keep his smile from becoming a full-on grin. He was technically an adult, not a lovesick teenager. “How’s... work?” Luke realized too late that it might be a touchy subject, but it was all he could think of when he had to keep the biggest part of his life a secret.
A faint smile flitted across her face. “Interesting,” she said. “Thankfully I haven’t had to see anything of the boss, which was one of my stipulations on taking the job. It’s been a lot of managing files and appointments and ordering trees and god knows what else to come. It’s really not so bad, considering all I ever wanted was to deliver packages until I sold my first comic.”
“That’s good.” Luke knew exactly who her boss was, so there was no need to explicitly state it. “Managing files and appointments sounds normal enough, but trees? Like, those decorative ones or something?” He tried to keep in step with her as they made their way down the hallway, though the mention of comics caught his attention. “You want to write comics?”
“He wanted them for a party,” she said, with a shrug. “An arbor day party, apparently. I tried to find out why the hell he wanted to have an arbor day party but I never did get a straight answer from him.”
She stepped onto the elevator and hit the button for the first floor. She had mentioned the comics without thinking, and when Luke questioned her about them it took a second to register what he meant. “Oh, yeah, well. I mean I do, but breaking into the business is hell. I got a little work back in Musings but nothing...really solid.” There was that faint smile again. “I got a connection through a friend of mine that turned out to be mostly useless and a ploy to keep me busy and off his back. Now I’m here, and I guess all I can do is try to finish something good enough that one of the big companies will be impressed and want to give me a job.”
“An arbor day party?” He frowned, trying to remember what the hell it was before nodding. “Well, it’s... different, I guess. Not many people have arbor day parties.”
Luke practically lived off comics as a kid and still read them every now and then when he had a chance, so saying he thought it was incredibly cool that Audrey wanted to write her own would have been an understatement. “I guess it would be a hard business to get into,” he agreed thoughtfully, following her into the elevator. “But definitely not impossible. I think it’s really cool. What were the comics you worked on about?”
“I think it’s more just an excuse to have a party, or at least that’s what he said, but the guy can throw a party any time he likes. I don’t know if I buy that he needs an excuse.” She shrugged. “Maybe I’m reading too much into it. I guess I’m not really disposed to give him the benefit of the doubt.
“All sorts of stuff,” she said, as the doors closed and the elevator began to sink. “People and monsters, epic quests, girls with katanas. I’ve done a Western, and a noir-inspired piece. Autobiographical indie stuff, which frankly bores me to read but is pretty therapeutic to write.” The numbers above the elevator slowly ticked past. She leaned against the back of the elevator. “When I was a kid, I used to write stories about all sorts of ridiculousness. Sisters who went on adventures, girls who got to be superheroes, stuff like that.” She glanced over at him, speech slowing to a stop. Why was she being so talkative? Because if she didn’t stop talking, she didn’t have to think about threats and the premature baby upstairs, right, better to embarrass herself by talking about the comics she drew as a kid. The elevator doors slid open, and she walked out into the lobby. “Alright, sorry, I can’t not belabor the point, so one more time and I’ll shut up about it and stop making you feel awkward because Max doesn’t think I should be invited to the club, which I get is not your fault. What sort of shit should I be worried about, here? Is someone going to break into my apartment and slit my throat when I sleep? I’ve already been shot at once since I got here, I’d really rather not go for it again, and if I know what I’m looking for I might be able to dodge it.”
Orin Monarch wasn’t someone Luke knew a lot about aside from his public behavior, which didn’t exactly portray him in a positive light, but he couldn’t figure out why the guy would want to throw a tree party of all things. “Huh. I guess we’ll find out eventually, right?”
“I bet people would love the autobiographical indie stuff. I mean, I know it’s kinda private and all that, but I think they like things they can relate to almost as much as the stuff that takes them away from reality sometimes.” The awkward attempts at conversation were gone, and he listened with evident interest as Audrey continued, though he distantly realized that this was the most talkative he’d seen her since they met. “Superhero comics are classic,” he grinned. “I used to love those as a kid, and I went through a Western phase too. Cowboys were always way more badass in comics than they were in cartoons.” He tried not to fire questions at her, which would probably come off as annoying, but he couldn’t help wondering if she’d let him read any or if they were one of those things that tended to be private. Luke could understand that.
He wasn’t too surprised by the conversation shift. The problem was that Mockingbird hadn’t made specific threats, not to his knowledge. Who knew when or how she would strike? “Just be careful. You know, extra aware of your surroundings and people you might not normally notice.” He hesitated. “Try talking to Max about it. Maybe she’ll be more willing to talk to you about it now.”
"You've got a lot of faith in my life being interesting enough that people would want to read about it," she said, amused at the thought. "I'm not so big a narcissist that I generally think that. Then again, maybe you're right, and I ought to show it to someone before I assume nobody wants it."
"Everything is way more badass in comics than it is in cartoons, unless you're watching the good anime, anyway." She smiled faintly, with a touch of fondness. "Yeah, I liked the comics about the real heroes the best. I wrote a really terrible Batman comic when I was fifteen. I think it involved me assisting him as my Mary Sue alter ego. That one is never seeing the light of day."
Audrey put her hands in her pockets, glancing toward the front door and whatever unknowns were outside it. "Maybe," she said, and she sounded like she didn't think it was very likely. "I'll give it a shot, anyway.” She looked Luke over. “Are you going to be alright hanging here? You ought to get home soon, get some rest.”
Luke shrugged, decidedly not commenting on how potentially boring or not boring Audrey’s life might be. “You’d be surprised,” he said instead, fighting to hold back a laugh when she mentioned the Batman comic. It was a challenge to keep a straight face while trying to imagine Thomas’ reaction to finding out that there were comics about him, even if one had been written by a kid, so he tucked that mental image away for later. “A Batman comic, huh? No one can blame you for that. I thought he was pretty cool when I was younger too.”
“Can’t hurt to try.” He glanced out the front door and nodded, even though he didn’t plan on sticking around for much longer. “Yeah, I’ll probably just... hang around for a bit and then head home. Are you taking a cab?” He really hoped she’d humor him and say yes, just this once.
“I thought he was amazing,” she said, with the wistful nostalgia of all old loves from childhood. “It was such a romantic idea, you know? I heard he’s here, on this side of the portal, but it sounds like he hasn’t been out and about for a while. I guess I missed him.”
She smiled a touch. “I can take a cab,” she said, catching the hint. She touched his shoulder. “Hey, Luke? Thanks. Sorry if I acted like a bitch there for a second, you didn’t deserve it. Promise me you’ll stick to your word and go home for some sleep?”
“Yeah, I heard that too.” Luke shrugged as though he didn’t know either way, but there was something strangely reassuring in knowing that he wasn’t the only one who’d looked at Batman as a kid and seen a hero, something more than just a man. No matter what the rest of the vigilantes did they’d never be able to measure up to that, not in the same way.
He couldn’t help but smile. “Promise. And it’s okay, really. I’d be the same if I were in your position.”
She nodded, and flashed him another brief smile. "Good. I'll see you soon." She turned and walked out to hail a cab, smile disappearing as soon as she was out of sight. She'd go home, do something to get her mind off of this mess, and then she'd interrogate Max as soon as she was better about what was going on.