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aaron taft 🦇 bruce wayne (darksadlonely) wrote in thereincarnates,

“... Fliers?” Aaron frowned, immediately more unnerved by her sudden recognition of him from somewhere than he was confused by what she was saying. Given the media spotlight on his family’s tragedy earlier in the year, the idea of a perfect stranger knowing his identity (actual identity, not secret) wasn’t totally out of the realm of possibility, but apparently that wasn’t how she knew him. So how did she figure out who he was?

“What are you talking ab– ”

And then it hit him. Nora. She was looking for him.

Aaron closed his eyes and covered the lower half of his face with his hand. Of course she was looking for him. If their roles were reversed, if Nora was the one who dropped off the face of the planet in the middle of searching for answers about what happened to their parents, nothing in the world could have prevented him from spending his every waking moment trying to find her. The part of him that already knew Nora was doing what she always did – looking out for him, when he needed her the most – had buried that knowledge rather than face it. Sometimes the twin thing hurt more than it helped. Throughout this entire ordeal, he’d never really stopped thinking of Nora, of doing whatever he had to do to keep the Resistance away from her, but he always stopped short at contemplating whatever she was going through. What she might do to find him. Because the answer… well, it wasn’t good.

Nora was a force to be reckoned with in a lot of ways, some of them not exactly the healthiest. When she really focused on something, relentless hardly covered it. She was unstoppable, to the point where logic and self-preservation went right out the window. She’d hurt herself, one way or another, if she kept looking for him. It was inevitable, and Aaron knew it.

And worse, if she’d already gotten far enough in her search that the woman standing across from him – a woman who was only one step removed from Resistance proper – knew someone was looking for him, then it wouldn’t be long before the Resistance got wind of it, too. Everything Aaron was doing to keep his sister out of their pull would be for nothing, and they’d both end up dead. All the Tafts would be gone.

The thought was like a gut punch, and suddenly Aaron wanted nothing more than to call his sister, to figure out some way to tell her to stop looking for him, but he knew it was impossible. If he tried, it would almost certainly get back to his handlers, who had an disquieting habit of recounting his day to him even when he spent most of his days alone. He couldn't even eat a taco without them knowing about it.

But even if he could get word to Nora, it wouldn't matter. He knew his sister, his twin. She'd never stop until she found him.

Aaron’s hand fell away from his face, and it took another moment for him to open his eyes and look back at the thief. He felt hollowed out, empty, less than half of who he was supposed to be without Nora next to him to fill up the parts of him that were truly missing. The temptation to ask the woman if she’d seen Nora, if she could tell him anything about her at all, was overwhelming. But he bit it down. It was a weakness he couldn’t afford to show.

“It’s complicated.” His voice was soft and resigned. Almost hopeless. He gestured vaguely at the money she was counting. “Got everything you need?”