Thread: Mia Dearden and Dinah Lance Who: Dinah Lance and Mia Dearden What: Mia decides to check on Dinah. It doesn’t go well. There is some feels When: October 5 Where: Gotham Note: Started in gdocs, to be finished in comments.
Yes, Oliver had a rule, and if there was one rule Mia had always been good at listening to, it was the ‘no going to Gotham unattended, because psycho clowns live there’ rule. But she didn’t really give two shits about his rules at the moment. She skipped her last period at school went to the house and changed. Last night she’d asked Connor to cover for her at the Youth Center. He didn’t ask why. And she left a note saying she wouldn't be home for dinner (and sent texts for good measure) because she was angry but not cruel.
She double checked to make sure she had all her stuff. She tossed on her helmet, got her on bike and soon enough had it filled up and was on the road.
She knew Dinah had texted that she needed a break, but that had been nearly a week ago, and Mia just wanted to check on her. Sure, she could have called, but it was easier to lie over the phone or act like everything was alright. Hell it was the reason she sometimes loved phones.
She dealt with the traffic, (and really was kind of jealous of superheros who could fly at the moment because it was mostly traffic making that trek so long and not actually geographic location. Lucky bastards.) and an hour later was parking in a space close to Dinah’s own bike. At least she was home. She pulled the helmet off, shook out her hair and climbed the steps just as one of Dinah’s neighbors was leaving the building. She gave the old man a smile and small wave. He recognized her from her visit. She caught the door before it closed bypassing the buzzers in the front.
She rode the elevator up and then knocked on Dinah’s door, shifting her weight from foot to foot and moving her helmet from one hand to the other awkwardly as she waited, suddenly nervous, which isn’t something she liked feeling.
~~~~~
What the hell? Dinah wasn’t expecting anyone and Mik had a key-- he wouldn’t knock when he was coming back. No one had called, or texted, or buzzed... not even a curious doorman. And in Gotham, surprise visitors were just as likely to be good surprises as they were to be bad surprises.
She moved to the door on the balls of her feet, careful not to touch it in case the interloper deduced exactly where she was standing and fired a weapon straight through the door and into her brain. Leaning over, she peered through the peephole and blinked in sudden shock, quickly taking a step back to open the door.
“Mia?!” What was she doing here? “What are you doing here?” Who was with her? She wasn’t allowed in Gotham without an army escort. “Is Connor with you?” She said, looking around the hallway to see who she had come with. “Come inside, honey.”
~~~~~
Mia hadn’t really thought that her surprise visit might actually worry Dinah when she knocked on the door, but she couldn’t help but smile when Dinah opened the door. “No, he’s covering the youth center for me.” She answered stepping into the apartment. She figured that was the easiest thing to answer rather than starting with the fact that she was checking up on her. She pushed some hair behind her ear and put her helmet down on the table near the door.
“I just...” She gave her a small smile like she’d been caught doing something she wasn’t supposed to, and she supposed technically she was. “I wanted to see how you were.” She admitted.
~~~~~
Dinah blinked, but she let Mia in without question, closing and locking the door behind her. Things were still kind of a mess-- there was an empty ice cream carton in the sink and sappy movies lying around (but thankfully Dinah had gotten out of her PJs today, at least enough to pull on some jeans and a T-Shirt). She wished she’d had a chance to clean up a little more- to put some make up on to cover up some of the puffiness that she could feel in her face, even if she couldn’t see it
She appreciated Mia’s concern but really, the last thing she wanted was for the kids to worry. As much as she and Oliver hurt right now (and she was pretty certain that he hurt too, which was really a polarizing thought for her at the moment), they were adults and they were going to be fine and it didn’t have anything to do with the kids-- they both still loved them all very much; and Dinah was still going to be around for them whenever they needed her.
She just didn’t necessarily want them to see her wallowing on the couch for days on end.
“I’m okay.” She promised with a bit of a smile, reaching out to give Mia a one armed hug. “Do you want something to drink? Eat? How was the drive in? Are you liking your bike?”
~~~~~
Mia didn’t really look around or think anything was really amiss. Sure most of the time when she saw Dinah she might have been better put together (outside of the times they’d had just woke up in the morning breakfast together), but lazy days weren’t against the law. Especially when- Well, that wasn’t something she was going to think about. “No, I’m good. Lunch wasn’t that long ago.” And it really hadn’t been considering it was only just about Four o’clock now. “Tedious. I always wondered why it took so long considering it’s only like twenty miles, tops. Damn traffic.”
She studied Dinah for a second and almost asked if she was sure she was alright. Mia just needed her to be alright.
~~~~~
“You skip school?” She asked without accusation-- given the time and the fact that she’d driven, in traffic, breaking Oliver’s No Gotham Rule, Dinah could only assume that she’d ditched at least a class or two if not the whole day.
And really, she should probably put on her parent face and be mad at her- but skipping school once every now and then really was not as big of a deal as people seemed to make it out to be. The scary part would be not knowing where Mia was (which Oliver was going to flip over once he found out) but then again, she was a superhero/sidekick/partner-in-anti-crime...
Noticing Mia staring at her, Dinah frowned and looked right back at her. While Mia wasn’t a slouch in any sense of the word- she wasn’t usually the type to sit around studying the folks around her-- and the way she was looking at Dinah right now suggested that at any minute now the older woman was going spontaneously burst into flames.
“Mia? What’s up?”
~~~~~
She waved a hand dismissively. “I skipped Photography.” She responded as if it didn’t count. Technically she’d skipped school. But it wasn’t like she’d skipped English. She didn’t really think that was of the utmost importance either. Though was probably far more important than a photography class taken for an art credit.
Mia didn’t know how to answer that question. She almost wanted to tell her that she was checking up on her to make sure Dinah wasn’t wallowing because she could do way better than Oliver. She offered her a small smile. “Nothing. Promise.”
She needed cheering up. Mia sat down on a stool at Dinah’s breakfast bar. “But let’s go get pizza. My treat.”
~~~~~
Dinah didn’t really want any pizza. She didn’t want cheering up. Honestly, all week she’d had people being good friends and trying to take her out and make her smile and that was great- they really were great people... but mostly what she wanted was to just be left alone for a little while. She was sure she’d bounce back to her normal, social self soon- but the hurts were still too raw, she was still bursting into spontaneous tears and didn’t trust herself to be in public, around friends who didn’t want to see her upset.
But as much as she wanted to stay home and become a tumor on the couch, Mia was asking her to go out-- not because Dinah needed cheering up, but because Mia needed cheering up. And even now (and forever) Dinah would do her best to see that Mia got everything she needed (and most of the things she wanted).
“Okay, pizza’s fine.” She relented, shoving her feet into shoes, “But it’ll be my treat, how about?”
~~~~~
Mia watched as Dinah seemed to have a short inner monolog with herself about whether or not she wanted to go. She didn’t want to force her out of the house if she didn’t want to be out there. And then Dinah herself offered to pay, and Mia wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting with this visit but it wasn’t this. She was feeling kind of awkward like she should’ve called first or not come.
“We don’t have to go.” She said quickly. “It was just a suggestion.”