fliesbynight (fliesbynight) wrote in newalliance, @ 2014-06-06 00:08:00 |
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Entry tags: | nightwing, speedy ii |
Who: Nightwing and Speedy
Where: New York city
When: May 8th, 2014 (backdated, cause we thought we posted this and apparently did not. Whoops? Ahem. Anyway…)
What: Dick and Mia aregoofing off training, via parkour tag.
Rating: PG-13 (minor language)
The motorbike was parked in record time, scrambling off it almost before it was settled on its kickstand, chaining it up and running up the stairs to the apartment’s door to knock. He was talking as soon as she opened it.
“I know! I’m late! In my defense, I had to wait for food to heat up. I mean, you ate the last of my sugar crocs. How am I supposed to earn Alfred’s disdain if you eat all my crunchy corn syrup and food coloring? The humanity!”
His hair was still wet from a shower too. He stepped in, backpack dropping by the wall and taking time to stretch and yawn.
~~~
Mia had gotten ready, and had promptly started marathoning Dog Cops as she waited for Dick to show up. She was about to give up and contemplate a nap, assume he got held up with something when he finally knocked on the door.
She smiled. “You haven’t been grocery shopping since then? Sad. He’d probably be way more sad about your time management skills.” She pointed out, practically bouncing on the balls of her feet. “So what’re we doing?”
~~~~
“I’ve been busy!” That wasn’t a fib at all. “It’s been way too easy to pick up food on the go.” He pat at his stomach, as though it was becoming rounder. It wasn’t.
He tilt his head at her energetic bouncing. “Well, you pretty much have all the wrist movements down for your hand springs. We can always work on high drop rolls. Or there’s alley jumping and climbing. That’s always fun, but….”
He faltered a bit, smiling and rubbing the back of his head. “Okay, so I’m kinda made of fail today.”
~~~~
She almost scoffed. Like there was anything under his clothes but rock hard awesomeness? “Be careful you’re metabolism is going to go to hell one day.” She teased.
So he’d showed up without much of a plan. Well, he was a busy sort of guy. She took a couple of large steps up to him. “Dude,” She said acting like she was the slightest bit upset about this. “you’re wasting my time for fail.” But she grinned and tapped his shoulder. The Titans actually played this on occasion. “You’re it.”
She had her keys already. And she flipped the lock on the door knob so it would lock behind her. And she went straight out the window and down the fire escape.
~~~~
“It?” Then he caught on as she made for the window. “Ohhh! The element of surprise has benefit you this time, padawan!”
He gave a few toe bounces, making sure his tendons were decently limber, stretched his neck side to side briefly, then made a running leap out her window, diving through it neatly. A flip slowed his momentum, feet coming forward and tumbling off his toes onto the ground between the apartment buildings. Then he was getting to his feet, racing to the wall of the apartment building, jumping up it once, then to the fire escape, reaching through the bars and grasping her heel.
“All right, tag it is. But if we’re playing tag, we’re going somewhere more fun for it. You’re going to need your bike helmet.”
It wasn’t too much later that the two found themselves at a skating park, a long sprawling jungle of concrete playground. Yet he didn’t have skates or a bike like many here, instead going past the ramps to the more cluttered walls and stairs of the park. Few really tried their chances with the wheels here. Dick motioned around at the buildings.
“Parameters. Two streets around, no going near the high traffic road, but bridge is game so long as you don’t run over it. The game is parkour tag. You’re it if you don’t trick at least once every three minutes. There’s no base. Thirty second head start. Go!”
~~~
Alright so Mia might have liked the bike ride to the skate park a little more than she should have, but it was pretty short one. She stashed her helmet and kept moving her arms and pulling her elbows as they walked through the park. She didn’t pay any attention to the skaters, and they didn’t seem to pay them any mind either.
Probably way too busy trying to work on their stuff to impress their girlfriends or whoever.
As he went over the rules, she lifted each leg and held onto a foot behind her for a few seconds. She nodded along, before slipping her yellow sports hoodie off and tossing it where their helmets were. There was a little bit of a chill in the air, but they’d be running around and warming up soon regardless. “Basically, reminding me that cars do hurt when they hit you?” She joked. Because most of his rules were. ‘Don’t play in traffic.’
Still he’d said to go, and he was only giving her a thirty second head start. She she took off away from a great deal of the obstacles. She’d loop around to them, but a run to get warmed up was exactly what was needed.
Mia was a lot smaller than the guys she trained with, but she was really fast.
Here she was long time out of her previous life and running from a cop. It was almost funny. She put two hands forward as she came up on a concrete barrier and vaulted over it.
~~~~~
Dick made a point to count aloud, and to even cup his hands to call the numbers out as she sped even further away. Speedy. Apt name! He was going to make a point of telling Wally he needn’t fear of having the S word tarnished by Mia in the least. She was quite the sprinter.
“THIRTY!” He was quite the sprinter as well, but she had quite a lead on him. That meant taking short cuts. He went right through the obstacles with a kong vault first, whole frame springing almost straight out before grasping the edge of a wall and using his toes to swiftly get over the edge, rolling over the top and back onto his feet. The next few obstacles he simply leaped across, the last rolling off of into the grassy area and springing to his feet once more. Mia was now no longer so far ahead.
“Good spring!” Because of course he was still going to spot for mistakes. This was going to be where she would likely make the most mistakes, and this was the type of situation where this was going to come in handy for her when out in a mask--racing around sometimes frantically within the cities, chasing or being chased. Being sure she could when in a rush and focusing on the best paths and options was critical. He followed over the barrier with his own hand spring, looking ahead for where he might cut her off, starting to angle his run accordingly.
~~~~~~
Mia was paying attention to where he was, but also paying attention to what she was doing herself. She noticed his change in angle, and she compensated. However that had her heading in the general direction of some older wood ramps for the skate park. They weren’t closed to the skaters, but they seemed to want to stay in the newer ramps.
She hopped up grabbing the top of the shortest ramp and pulled herself up, before running across the flat top to hop to each successive ramp which was higher. On the highest one she was close enough to leap off and grab a bar under the bridge as she swung back down towards the ground.
She lost a little bit of speed once as she got tangled once, but she was hoping to make it up when her feet hit the ground. She was mindful that she was starting to run into the boundary he’d set up. So as she flipped to the ground she went right away from him, even though straight forward would have kept the most distance.
~~~~~
He saw where she was going, and instead of following after her, he ran around the ramps to the other side of the bridge, scrambling two steps up the bridge’s stone wall brace and grabbing a rough edge of stone and starting to climb. But not in time before she went over his head, his fingers swiping empty air. “Ah!” So close, yet so far. He backflipped off to his feet and went after her, corralling inward against the border. The bench didn’t slow him at all, vaulting over it easily.
Then he started to close in, their feet pounding the ground as he put in a burst of speed to rapidly cut into her path.
~~~~~
She knew she was being closed in on so she pushed herself harder. Turning a bit towards a fountain. She was handling things pretty well, so the ledge of that should be no problem at all. She hopped up and ran quickly around it, hopping over what looked to be some loose crumbly stones .
She took two more steps and was about to vault off when it seemed she missed a loose stone. Her foot slipped out in front of her and she landed backward on her ass and into the cool water of the fountain. She gave a bit of a surprised yip, as the water surprised her. Luckily her feet were still on the ledge. Because wet shoes would fucking suck.
She thought for a moment that she should pull herself out and just keep going, but he was pretty much already on her. All she could do was start laughing. Loudly.
~~~~~
Sometimes the elements were just against a person. Socks that caused your feet to slide, a loose screw in a railing, a rusted scaffolding, drips of oil… Once he had missed a grip on a wall because of a pigeon nest. He had to catch himself and the two falling squabs, but it just meant there were always factors one couldn’t calculate, and that meant never making a jump unless you were sure you could make/survive it.
Falling into a fountain, thankfully, was survivable.
“Oh man, oh man…” He was also laughing as he came up to the fountain and offered her both hands to help her up and out. “Check yourself. You’re all right?” ‘Check yourself’ was habitual at this point, something said if she missed a jump to go through swiftly and systematically to find any injuries on her person.
Some kids started yelling from where they were skateboarding half a football field away. “Yeah! That’s how it’s done!” one was calling, raising his hands.
“She okay?!”
“She looks good man! That your girl?!”
“Heh. Guess they don’t see too many girls playing parkour.” Dick called back. “We’re good, guys!” Good except jumping around in wet clothes was difficult.
~~~~~
She couldn’t even claim to have a busted ego. She was too busy laughing. One good thing. Mia didn’t tend to get flustered or embarrassed easily. Instead, she firmly grasped both his hands, braced her feet on the ledge, and pulled herself up. She pretty much just popped straight out of the water quickly, leaving nothing behind but the sound of water lapping where she’d just been.
“I’m fine.” She said shaking her legs out as water dripped down her legs. “Might feel it tomorrow, but the water probably broke my fall a little.” She turned her head in the direction of the yelling. Oh honestly? She lifted a hand and sent them an obscene gesture in response. “Idiots.”
But still she was smiling. Most would see falling into a fountain as a damper, but Mia still looked every bit as excited as when she was bouncing earlier. She simply reached back and squeezed some excess water out of the back of her shirt. “So… I’m it?”
~~~~~
Dick looked her over himself to be sure, not seeing any cuts or odd angles. Sometimes when adrenaline was pumping, an injury could go entirely unnoticed, and that could really cause damage. But aside from the fact that the outline of her bra could be clearly seen now, she seemed fine.
Dick couldn’t help but chuckle when the boys only laughed and flipped the bird right back at her, one calling ”Anytime!” “Damn, she’s feisty!”. “Ah, kids.” But he was being terribly reminded of Roy and Wally when they were younger.
At the question though, he looked up at the sky. “Oh, yeah, guess you are.” A breath of a pause, glancing to her, then he did a side spring away from her and raced away.
~~~~~
She gave him a few seconds. She was fast, but he was far better at this stuff, and too much of a headstart and she might never catch up to him. She shook her legs out one more time, before dashing after him.
The direction he’d headed in looked to be towards the bridge again, but it was a patch of emptyness. She was able to make up a little bit of time there, but he made a sharp left and she tried to cut across to catch up. Hopping over a few concrete barriers and climbing up a platform quickly. She vaulted off and she was a lot closer as she continued to chase him.
She’d dry off in no time.
~~~~~
Somersaults, vaults, backflips, hand springs, mad sprints--they both had grass stains from sliding to get away from tagging hands, and their elbows and knees were dirty and there was grass and dirt in their hair. They cared not at all while laughing, quipping, and trying to outmaneuver each other. Dick was good, but he was evening it by making sure he did more moves and flips to slow himself down. There was more than just the few kids watching them now, several skaters gathered on the edges of their ‘arena’. He scrambled up the side wall of a ramp, got tagged on the heel, immediately backflipped off and swiped her fleeing elbow and slid under a railing, tumbled over another, looked back and didn’t see her.
“Uh-oh…” He looked up on the ramp, hearing the quiet patter of her feet on the wooden surface before she dove off the edge and tackled him.
There was no breath left. They lay there, smacking at each other and panting hard, still ‘tagging’ each other half heartedly despite her practically pinning him before rolling to her back so he could breathe easier.
“Whoo.” Smack “That was fun.” Smack. “I think… my lungs are bleeding.” Smack. “I need to do this more often.” He hesitated before smacking his hand back on her shoulder. “Who’s it now anyhow?”
~~~~~~
Mia wondered if pinning him meant she’d won? She didn’t really know what the rule on that was though. She pushed some sweaty bangs out of her face, and elbowed him to tag him back even though it was now all the energy she had left to do now that she was laying down.
At least she wasn’t laying in wet clothes. She’d been right that it would dry off soon enough. He smacked her back to tag her, and she elbowed him again. “You apparently.” She said feebly trying to roll out of the way before he could tag her back.
“God, I’m fucking hungry.” She said suddenly. “But I can’t decide if more hungry than I am tired.” She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a second. Smacking him with the back of her hand when he tagged her again. “I need pancakes.”
~~~~
He lazily smacked back at her with the back of her knuckles. All it managed to do was brush right at the top of the back of her thigh, but all she had to do now that she was up was kick him. “Ugh! Fine, defeat. Man, you’re stubborn. I think I like that about you, but I’m not sure yet.” He sat up. “Food. We need food, and oh my gawd, pancakes sound like magic. Help an old man up.” He reached his hand up. His stamina was swiftly returning. “Back to the bike. I will find us pancakes.”
Some of the kids hollered at them from the rails. “Your girlfriend kicks ass, man!” “You rock, chick!”
Dick shrugged toward them a little. “Like I said, they don’t see many girls doing parkour. I’m pretty sure the others will pick their jaws up in proper time. Let’s skeedaddle before that happens. You want to drive? Wait… how much like Roy do you drive? I may take that back…”
~~~~~
“Fuck that.” She said when he sat up. She remained laying there. “I’m going to play a horrible girly card and say I need carried to pancakes.” She was joking though, and despite her tired self she pulled herself up in one fluid motion and held out a hand for him to grab anyway.
Once he was up she grabbed her sports hoodie and tossed it back on for the bike ride. “Hell yeah I want to drive.” She said not even bothering to answer the question on how much like Roy she drove. Dinah had totally taught them both after all.
~~~~~
“Yeah, I’m probably going to regret this then.” But still he pointed over her shoulder from behind her on the bike. “That way for pancakes. Be easy on the throttle."
... It was cute how wishful his thinking could be.