I Moderate (i_moderate) wrote in we_archive, @ 2006-02-23 21:49:00 |
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Entry tags: | barbara gordon, dick grayson |
i_flybynight Making A List. [Babs]
The talk with Bruce had gone better than he'd expected. Well, Dick hadn't really had expectations for how it would go, but it was easy to come up with several ways and places that he could've degenerated. At least they weren't really the bar-brawling types. Dick had slipped away to make the phone call to Babs; it hadn't been entirely true that he didn't know who was here, but catching up on any newcomers was a good idea at any rate.
He found a motorcycle that he suspected had been, or would become, his at some point, and took that relatively normal mode (only 'relatively' normal because of his driving ability) of transportation to the Clock Tower, trying to avoid thinking about how much he might've messed up - what had Babs called it - the 'space time continuim.'
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 02/24/2006 11:13:59
Babs recognised the sound of the engine when she heard it pull in the Clock Tower area. Bruce and Dick had worked long and hard to get that particular motorcycle sounding that smooth. And having recieved the phone call from Dick awhile earlier, she knew it was him and just Tim 'borrowing' it for a spin.
Flipped a few switches, Babs made sure the downstairs doors would be unlocked and welcoming for him to come up. She was in her public office, and for a moment considered greeting him in her private rooms, but she could wait to go back there. It was possible that he wasn't here completely for business, and she was doing actual work for the school library anyway.
From: [info]i_flybynight Date: 02/24/2006 13:33:39
The City didn't seem the best sort of place to just leave any type of personal belonging lying around, but Dick figured that the bike could take care of itself. It was one of those things that tended to look really cool, and generally harmless.
He found the door unlocked, and went in, taking care to lock it behind him. The stairs were an oddly normal way to get to a different floor, at least when compared to his usual climbing/swinging/perching method, and at the top, there was a door.
Odd things, these conventional ways of getting around.
Dick could see Babs inside, and went over to lean against the doorway, knocking unnecessarily on the frame.
"Hey."
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 02/25/2006 06:44:43
An unnecessary knock, yes, but she appreciated it. She was a big fan of knocking. Had been ever since the shooting. Many said it was perfectly understandable. Babs thought it was slightly paranoid, but couldn't shake it.
Babs set her notebook aside and turned away from the computer screen after saving everything. "Dick, pleseant surprise." He hadn't been back at the Clock Tower since that initial first day. "What's up?"
From: [info]i_flybynight Date: 02/25/2006 16:18:37
He shrugged loosely, and stepped into the room so that he could lean against the wall next to the door instead. More surface area made it a bit more comfortable.
"I just wanted to check in. See who else was around." A pause, and he gave her a wry, slightly sheepish grin. "And I needed an excuse to cut short a potentially long and awkward conversation with Bruce."
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 02/27/2006 20:41:26
"Long and awkward conversation with Bruce?" Babs raised and eyebrow and leaned forward slightly in her chair. "Have a seat."
She gestured to the other chair near her desk and indicated that he should sit down and make himself comfortable. "No one else is around, not now at least. I'm still technically on office hours. Helena and Cass should still be home."
From: [info]i_flybynight Date: 02/28/2006 02:03:01
"Potentially," Dick corrected, to be fair, as he went over to the appointed seat and sat down. "It was confusing, but went pretty well, considering."
His hand snuck out to rest against the desk, fingers tapping thoughtfully. "Anyone new in the City, besides Cass? Good or bad." Best to know who to look out for, in all contexts.
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 02/28/2006 16:12:35
Babs shook her head. "No, not since Cass. But it's probably best. You and I have the advantage, we know everyone so thrusting all of these people at us isn't such a big deal. But I think for the others, it's probably good that we're having this lag right now. Gives everybody a chance to reaquaint."
Even she was secretly glad that for about a week or so she hadn't had to deal with anyone else falling into the city. It gave her a chance to catch up on the work she was faling slightly behind in. Not enough to raise suspscion, but enough to have a back log.
Babs glanced back at the files sitting on her desk. Well, she'd caught up a good amount at least. "So would you care to give me more details on the confusing? Or are you done with that? Anything else going on?"
From: [info]i_flybynight Date: 02/28/2006 16:30:08
Tap, tap.
"He wanted to know what it was that I did, that would've led him to taking me off the team," Dick waved his other hand loosely. "I don't know if he was trying to figure things out so that he could prevent it from happening, or what."
See? Confusing. He'd thought about it, and he still wasn't sure of Bruce's motives throughout the conversation. Maybe Dick was just being overly suspicious in thinking that the man wanted something more than just to work out what had happened.
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 02/28/2006 16:43:40
"Oh." She understood Dick's hesitation then. At least, Babs thought she did. She imagined it was somewhere along the lines of how she'd felt when Bruce had asked her about it. And then about Jason. She hadn't wanted to address either subject with Bruce, because she knew it would mean explaining everything. It was hard when she was just so sure that the information should have been readily there.
Babs resisted the urge to put her hand out on top of Dick's and stop the tapping. It was distracting, and she was trying to think.
"I don't think he could prevent it from happening. Not unless we're all dropped off home in and instant, and I don't see that happening. More likely he just wanted to understand. Where he's from, you two are still close, or, as close as you ever were. The sudden separation is somewhat hard to take in." She nodded, sure of herself. "Trust me on that one."
From: [info]i_flybynight Date: 02/28/2006 17:22:55
Luckily for Babs, the tapping stopped, at least for the moment. Dick needed the energy to think, too.
"Yeah."
It was hard to disagree with someone who was actually trying to be fair about things. He could easily pin a lot of his own problems on Bruce, which would be terribly unfair with the Batman that was here. "I told him I'd try," he pointed out, and then had to amend that. "Well, I told him I couldn't pretend like everything was how he expected it to be."
In thinking about it, he probably should've gone with telling Bruce he'd try and let go of some of what the man hadn't done yet.
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 02/28/2006 17:47:53
"All I'd expect you to do is try, but," Hmm, how to phrase this the right way? Babs ended up cocking her head. "Perhaps next time you might want to give him some details to work with though. I found out the hard way that keeping things from him isn't the best move."
She sighed. "But... well, it's your choice, and granted, I think we're all handling this the best we can. There'll be other chances for you two to talk."
From: [info]i_flybynight Date: 02/28/2006 20:35:01
"I gave him some stuff. I told him I was shot, that he fired me. I didn't know how much detail to get into. I thought I gave him enough to be able to understand why I wasn't going to be treating him like... 'Dad,'" Dick explained.
Truthfully, he'd never really thought of Bruce as 'Dad.' He'd always been a definite 'Father Figure,' instead of an actual father, which was probably through no fault of the man himself. Unless Dick wanted to blame him for becoming Batman in the first place.
"I don't know." This was too confusing.
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 03/01/2006 04:26:29
Babs found herself laughing just slightly. "Dad? I forget sometimes, how young this Bruce actually is. Patience. As frustrating as it might be sometimes, we have to wait and let him get used to it at his pace. In essence, he's still the same, just a few years behind. Like, it's still perfectly natural for us to work together, we mesh with no problem, it's just some of the knowledge missing. I think you'd find it the same way."
From: [info]i_flybynight Date: 03/01/2006 17:15:07
"Yeah, I guess," Dick admitted grudgingly. He'd spent so much time building a case against Bruce that it was difficult to let that wall down a little, even when it'd been very clear that this wasn't the same man he'd left behind when he'd appeared here.
"So, Bruce is missing Jason and Tim completely, and a bunch of things along the way... am I missing anything important?"
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 03/02/2006 20:09:53
"...why would you ask--" Babs stopped. That was going straight towards the route of 'stupid question'. Of course it made sense for him to ask, even if she didn't want to answer honestly.
Dick was only missing a good few months of romanticism between them. Nothing major. That probably wasn't the best way to put that aloud; Babs shut her mouth, inadvertantly pursing her lips in the process.
"Well... not much. At least not that's become apparent or obvious."
From: [info]i_flybynight Date: 03/02/2006 20:18:26
He was ready to start answering the question she never finished, but apparently the answer - or the reality of his question - had occured to her somewhere mid-sentence.
"Okay. That's good... no lottery wins, loss of limbs, Las Vegas marriages...?" he added with a grin. Bruce had made him overly serious and a touch self-conscious, two things he didn't like and, in the case of the latter, wasn't really used to.
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 03/02/2006 20:42:36
"I'm just going to say no to all three of those and call it a day." If he really wanted to go into the marriage one day, Babs would. But not now. She wasn't lying about the lottery wins or loss of limb. Though, the lottery win probably would have been useful.
"It's probably best if I don't reveal more than I absolutely have to," she said, sounding as authoritative as she could in this setting. "Just in case. As far as I can tell, you know everything important."
From: [info]i_flybynight Date: 03/02/2006 20:50:56
Dick looked like he wanted to press the question, argue a little, maybe find out if anything interesting had happened in the space that he was missing when he was with her.
"Okay, okay. Fine." He started tapping on the desk again, not rapidly, but with absolutely no sense of rhythm, random little tics of his fingers against the wood. "Anything about this place that I might not have figured out already?"
A little vague, but this whole place seemed to be like that.
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 03/02/2006 20:56:20
The lack of rhythm made the tapping in some ways ten times more annoying than it had been before. Babs listened to his question, but was distracted when her eyes flicked down to his hand.
She couldn't help it when her own hand shot out and covered his. "That is... definitely, your more annoying habit. And you'd think that after months of me telling you to stop, you'd have gotten a clue." Babs smirked a bit, and then pulled her hand back, moving on quickly so that Dick wouldn't stop to think about what she'd said.
"I don't know, you're smart. What have you figured out? Other than you and Bruce don't get along in any dimension."
From: [info]i_flybynight Date: 03/02/2006 21:08:42
"Are those the months I missed?" Dick returned, innocently, even if he remembered her complaining about it at least twice once before. "I thought you told me everything important."
But he stopped. Possibly because she smushed his hand, and because he could be non-annoying to people other than Tim.
"The buildings change, and the streets change. Things appear and disappear. And there are some strange, strange people here. Sorta like home that way."
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 03/03/2006 07:42:23
"Those're the months you missed," Babs nodded. "And I told you everything important. It's only about six or seven months. Not much happens seven months. You're acting like I'm leaving out a torrid romance between us or something."
Torrid wouldn't be the word she would use to describe their relationship.
Moving on. Babs didn't want to dwell. "It is a lot like home, which is good. Makes your way of traveling kind of dangerous though, what with rooftops disappearing and all. Still working on compiling all of the strange people."
From: [info]i_flybynight Date: 03/03/2006 18:35:19
But a lot could happen in seven months. Hell, a lot could happen in one night. Seven months had the potential to be what... around two hundred and fifteen one nights.
"Well, if you're leaving something like that out, now would be a good time to mention it."
So Dick had just been starting to realize that he'd been nursing a little bit of a schoolboy crush on Babs... if anything had come of it, he'd like to know. Even if it was cheating. Technically.
He waved the hand that had been on the desk. "Ah, that's what makes it interesting. The rooftops, that is."
Compiling a list of people didn't sound like much fun to him, but it was a good thing to have around.
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 03/03/2006 18:46:47
"I am not leaving anything like that out," Babs said, a slight scowl coming to her lips. "Well. It wasn't torrid anyway."
They really were going to have to talk about this is seemed. Babs wanted to put it off. For a few months maybe.
It wasn't as if it brought up bad memories. Quite the contrary. It was just the question of, how did you explain your relationship to a partner who didn't remember any of it?
From: [info]i_flybynight Date: 03/03/2006 19:02:12
Dick stilled completely, for a few seconds. Then he fixed her with a guarded stare, which, if she was just playing a trick on him (which didn't seem quite right) would be a definite overreaction.
"But it was..." he started, and decided to let her finish the sentence. Or the thought. Whichever would be more coherent.
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 03/03/2006 19:15:19
Babs hesitated a moment, waving her hand in the air and gesturing as if the words would come in through the window. "It was... what it was."
Right. That made sense.
"It was," she tried again. "It was us. We'd started seeing each other... not in costume."
From: [info]i_flybynight Date: 03/03/2006 19:32:08
That was a rather roundabout way of putting it. It was sort of odd coming from the girl that always seemed to have the answers set up on a computer file somewhere, or already in her head.
"Dating?" Dick tried to confirm, and then couldn't help the smirk. "How much 'not in costume?'"
He was almost still a teenaged boy; he was allowed to make inappropriate comments at bad moments.
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 03/03/2006 19:48:24
"Dating would be a good way of putting it, yes."
Why was he smirking? It was awkward enough, for her at least, without Dick smirking There was nothing to smirk at, so spoke her nervous side. The side that wanted nothing to do with this conversation.
"We were dating, we'd had a relationship for six months when I was pulled in here. That was the first thing that old me something was wrong. I woke up and you weren't in the house."
From: [info]i_flybynight Date: 03/03/2006 20:17:50
Dick was smirking because it was funny. She didn't think it was funny? Well, to be fair, she had lived it all already, and if he thought about it, it was a bit like running into someone with amnesia.
The number she gave was what gave him pause, the smirk fading into something more thoughtful. "Aren't I only missing half a year?"
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 03/03/2006 20:26:13
"We started dating soon after you got pulled in in your timeline I believe. March." Which was now, she realised as she spoke. That left her feeling just a tad flustered again.
Well, at least he'd stopped with the smirking.
From: [info]i_flybynight Date: 03/03/2006 21:14:33
It could've been as soon as two weeks, then. He'd been yanked out in mid-February. Dick tilted his head, expression going faintly concerned.
"And... it was going well? I mean, there wasn't anything I haven't done yet that I should be worrying about?"
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 03/05/2006 10:10:15
"No, you haven't, or hadn't rather." Babs answered honestly. "It was going well. I thought so at least, and you hadn't given me any indication that you thought differently."
She looked at him carefully to see how the news was sinking in. "I didn't tell you because I didn't want things to get awkward like they are about to possibly get."
From: [info]i_flybynight Date: 03/05/2006 19:25:06
Well, wasn't she a pessimist. Sure, it had the potential to get awkward, but assuming that it would was just asking for trouble. And awkwardness.
How was the news sinking in?
Frankly, it wasn't, really. Dick heard everything clearly enough, and understood it, but for him, it was still something he didn't really know. It seemed like good news, even if Babs didn't look entirely overjoyed.
"What do you want to do?"
He could catch up on half a year, he supposed, or she could pretend like nothing had happened. Which would probably be harder to deal with, since she'd told him.
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 03/05/2006 19:49:19
What did she want to do? Babs just looked at him. As if she had a choice in the matter? Despite what she'd said so nonchalantly before, six months was a long time. He wanted her to choose how they were supposed to handle it?
Hah. Right. Babs wanted nothing more than for him to take that question back and pretend he'd never asked.
She stared at Dick some more. "What do you mean?" Stalling tactics could often help keep one alive out in the field.
From: [info]i_flybynight Date: 03/06/2006 20:11:35
Well, she was the one who actually knew what'd happened. It wouldn't have been wise for him to make any sort of decision based on the barest summary that he'd been given. In other words, don't be dumb, Babs, you're the smart one.
Dick rolled his eyes. She knew what he'd meant. He knew she knew what he'd meant. If she really liked him, she'd know he knew.
"I mean..." and he dragged the word out, "do you want me to catch up on that half a year, or do you want to go on as if it hasn't happened yet?"
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 03/07/2006 05:05:48
"You're acting as if I could just make you catch up on six months. I couldn't force-feed you the same emotions. It wouldn't work no matter how good an actor you are." Babs was growing frustrated.
"Plus, there would be something so wrong about that..." She grimaced, knowing that she wouldn't be able to do something like that. If any semblance of a relationship was going to happen --again-- it needed to happen naturaly. "If it's going to happen, it'll happen. I'm not going to force it just by catching you up and telling you how to act."
And if she wanted to be an optimist, though it wasn't too much in her nature, then she could just remember that Dick had been pulled from only a few weeks before they'd started dating. Maybe she wouldn't have to wait long.
Of course, that was baring that the arrival in the city hadn't messed anything up and wouldn't distract him. Which... wasn't likely.
Babs really wasn't much of an optimist.
From: [info]i_flybynight Date: 03/07/2006 13:25:46
Now, that, that wasn't what he'd meant. At all. Maybe Dick was just lazy for finding the idea of jumping ahead a bit appealing. Maybe he did actually want Babs to not worry about feeling awkward whenever they were alone together. Probably both.
"You wouldn't be making me do anything," he insisted. "And I mean, obviously, there was something there in the beginning." Cripes, this could get embarrassing. "Now? My now, that is. I can how it got to your 'now.'"
"I just meant that... if you want me to stop harboring the crush now, instead of in a month, I'd be glad to." That sounded cocky enough, didn't it? Aside from the whole babbling bit.
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 03/10/2006 19:07:58
"Wait... wait. You have a crush?" Babs asked, frowning slightly. It made sense, though, once she took the moment to think about it. If there relationship was to start soon, there had to be something there to base it on.
Babs cocked her head and stared at him. "Dick, I honestly don't know. I'd miss it if I told you to halt everything, and if I let it go on I'm... going to feel guilty." Why, she didn't know exactly. Maybe she felt as if she'd be pressuring him.
From: [info]i_flybynight Date: 03/10/2006 19:45:38
"I never told you that part, huh," he realized. Genius. Apparently, this whole missing-information thing could go both ways in the timeline. Though, this way, there was probably less of a chance of giving away too much.
Still, Dick made a note to himself to work on not babbling anymore.
Had Babs always been such a worrier? He didn't remember her making this much not-sense, except when it came to technical things that no one understood but her and Bruce, and Dick suspected Bruce was faking it half the time.
"Babs, why would you feel guilty? This would save me some work. And," he added quickly, "I know you can't tell me everything that happened in the past year, but it's a place to start, right?"
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 03/10/2006 20:12:28
It was a bad, bad thing when Dick started making more sense than she was.
"I don't want to feel like I'm pressuring you into anything," Babs said honestly. "And I'd feel guilty if it seemed like that. You shouldn't have to do anything just because of what hasn't happened yet... for you.
"If you feel like something's starting, then no, I don't want you to 'stop harboring' anything right now." She looked down, blushing slightly. "I miss it, I'm just not going to rush you or force you. It's your choice."
From: [info]i_flybynight Date: 03/11/2006 00:22:53
Dick made plenty to sense all of the time. It just tended to only work out in his own head, and to be fair, in the execution part of his ideas. They seemed to be sensible enough.
"I'm twenty-four, I fight crime, and I'm not dead yet. I think I can look out for myself."
Nevermind how helpful a good organizer could be. Then there was the less subtle way.
"So I could kiss you now, if I wanted to." And he didn't even leer. Or smirk. Much.
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 04/12/2006 15:26:07
Babs frowned slightly. Was he even taking this seriously? She knew the look that was on his face, she was used to it. Normally she'd have found it quite attractive if only because it usually lead to other things, but not now. She just looked at him, chewing on her lower lip and shaking her head.
"If that's the road you chose to start down, I wouldn't object, but..." Babs shrugged. She really didn't know how to explain this without starting to become circular. She wasn't often at a loss for words.
She loved him, yes, she always had in some way. She just didn't know if this Dick loved her.
From: [info]i_flybynight Date: 04/12/2006 18:45:26
She sounded far too uncertain for his liking. Dick didn't have the same amount of mental clarity that he did before, back when he was fine with following Batman around for the rest of his life, but he thought he tended to know what he wanted.
And really, Babs speaking in incomplete sentences was sort of funny, so he wasn't taking this quite as seriously as he could. It wasn't even hard to stand up, lean over the desk and kiss her.
If she decided to smack him, he might have a bit of a problem dodging, but it was worth it.
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 04/12/2006 18:56:32
Babs wasn't going to smack him, no. Just the opposite in fact. She hadn't actually been expecting him to just do it. It was rash, and impulsive, slightly inappropriate, unexpected...
Completely Dick Grayson, really. Babs kissed him back.
She couldn't just push him away, her mind wouldn't even let her consider that as an option. She just kissed him, like he was actually her Dick. He felt like her Dick, and kissed like him too. It was easy to forget the boundaries she'd just tried so hard to set up.
From: [info]i_flybynight Date: 04/13/2006 15:32:33
Dick let her go almost as quickly as he'd started this, but didn't retreat to his chair, staying standing with his arms braced on the desk. He managed to not grin like a complete idiot - only a partial idiot, and tilted his head.
"But what?" he prompted.
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 04/13/2006 15:36:55
"But..." she didn't really have a but. Not one that made sense. She could only think that she couldn't force him into something, but obviously she wasn't going to be forcing him...
'You're being circular again,' her mind snapped. Babs shook her head, and looked back at Dick.
"Did you mean that?" She asked him.
From: [info]i_flybynight Date: 04/13/2006 15:52:34
Dick always meant it, even though the fact that there had been so many different cases of meaning it that the sentiment was probably cheapened a bit. Now, he especially meant it.
Still, he was tempted to reply with a question, a 'Do you think that I meant it?' or something equally as vexing - it just seemed even more inappropriate than it would've normally. Instead, there was a small bite at the corner of his lip, and a nod. "Of course I did. I wouldn't mess with you that way."
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 04/13/2006 17:16:52
"Oh." She blinked once or twice and stared. "So you want to..."
Complete sentences. Come on. You know how to use them.
Babs took a breath and looked at Dick, this time not so much staring blankly. She let herself relax slightly, even managing a small cautious smile.
She was hoping this was a good idea. Not that she didn't trust what Dick was saying, but the entire situation was just so surreal that she couldn't be sure about things like she usually was. Nothing was ever really sure in a relationship, but she'd never felt this off kilter before.
"Well that was certainly lacking any force or pressure on my part," Babs finally got out, her smile growing a bit more noticable. "Guess you did."
From: [info]i_flybynight Date: 04/13/2006 18:49:23
Babs's apparent loss of words was amusing, and this time, Dick did grin, rather toothily. His sentences were all fully intact, after all, or at least as intact as they usually were. Not being the brains of any operation gave him some leeway in that department.
"Like I said," he said, as he pushed off the desk and dropped back into his seat, "I am capable of making my own decisions."
Or maybe he hadn't said that, but he was sure it'd been implied somewhere in the conversation.
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 04/13/2006 19:42:13
"So you are," Babs said dryly, the smile remaining on her face as Dick's grew. It didn't bother her to see it now that she knew it wasn't just an inadvertant tease. She'd always liked that grin.
She looked at him, trying to keep her face dignified and not overly excited just because she'd gotten kissed. She wasn't a teenager anymore.
"What do you want to do?" Her sentence ability seemed to have returned, along with the talent to ask vague questions. She thought for a second, and then clarified. "As in with... this." Ah, good old clarification.
From: [info]i_flybynight Date: 04/13/2006 20:06:50
Oh, and it was hardly ever inadvertant. Except for the few times where he hadn't actually meant to use it - but that was the very definition of 'inadvertant.'
Dick almost shrugged, and caught the movement. Now wasn't the right time to be flippant, or indecisive, especially since Babs appeared to still be going for Vague. "Just that. I mean, I know I don't know everything, but it seems like a good place to start."
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 04/13/2006 20:18:14
"It is," she agreed. Keeping true to her own self promise, she wasn't going to mention how far their relationship had actually gone. No pressure. If Dick wanted to know that they'd been sleeping together, then he'd have to ask. Babs was just happy enough that Dick's impulsiveness had gotten her this far.
She'd been quite passive about the whole thing, she knew, just asking Dick what he wanted and taking it from there. But now that she'd been 'courted', action was good.
"Hmm... same Dick, just a few months in advance. Not bad," Babs said, smiling at him. She stopped trying to hold back her true brightness of said smile. "We'll get to watch Bruce's head nearly explode again."
From: [info]i_flybynight Date: 04/13/2006 20:44:50
"A few months younger, too." Because at twenty-four, Dick was already worrying about what every single month of his life meant in terms of his health... well, it was true, to a certain extent: he wasn't worrying about his memory so much as whether or not he'd end up shot, though.
The last part of what she said made him pause though, half a grimace creeping over his face. "Bruce, right. Didn't take it well last time?"
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 04/13/2006 20:55:14
"A few months I can deal with," Babs said, grinning. "A few years, and I doubt we would be having this conversation." Because then they would have begun to boarder on creepy. She'd gotten rather lucky.
When he asked her to elaborate on Bruce, her smile grew slightly impish. It was a funny memory... in retrospect. "He thought that our seeing each other would interfere with the Mission, and didn't approve, even though by that time you two hadn't been partners in years. I suppose he was just worried about you, and that was his way of showing it. He also mentioned something about me having too many distractions, but it was working out."
From: [info]i_flybynight Date: 04/13/2006 21:26:51
This was one case where Bruce being from a time where he and Dick actually got along might possibly help them. At least there would be less instances that Bruce could point to where either of them might've messed up, for whatever reason.
Of course, this was all hypothetical. Bruce's reaction might be exactly the same as it had been in 'reality.'
"Well, I guess we'll just have to show him that won't happen," Dick said finally, and grinned. "When we have to."
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 04/13/2006 21:41:05
"When we have to. Right." Babs laighed slightly. "Bruce knows everything, or have you not figured that out yet." Besides, the man would only be angrier if he had to find out by figuring it out himself rather than 'the children' tell him honestly.
"We're two adults, don't worry. It's not as if he can do anything about it." Babs said, quite logically despite the amused look on her face. "He'll just grumble and lecture a bit and we'll sit there very stoically and listen, though in our heads we might be laughing a little."
From: [info]i_flybynight Date: 04/13/2006 23:07:04
"Well, he can know it and not say anything." He'd probably just stare a lot, and brood, and eventually, one of them would have to step forward and say something. Or they could go the proactive route and actually tell the man before the staring became uncomfortable.
Dick wasn't sure which option he liked more; his own recent conversations with the man - in his own time - had shown that he wasn't very good at communicating with Bruce.
"I don't know. I don't know if I've ever laughed at Bruce, even in my head... definitely have been lectured, though." He shrugged. "I guess we're stuck picking a time, then."
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 04/14/2006 18:50:40
"Oh I suspect that once he sees us together at 'family dinner' he'll figure it out." Babs glanced at him, wondering if Bruce had mentioned it around the manor yet. "Fate has picked this deadline for us."
From: [info]i_flybynight Date: 04/14/2006 19:31:16
"Am I your guest, or are you mine, then?" Dick asked, leaning forward in his seat to fix her with an oh-so-not-innocent stare. "If he's going to notice, we might as well make it look like we're not hiding, right?"
Plus, it was just so much more fun that way.
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 04/14/2006 19:50:04
She laughed outright and then grinned, so enjoying the look he'd pinned on her. "I think seeing as firstly it's traditional, and secondly that you're living in the manor, that I should be your guest. Besides, I'm the one who has to leave afterwards, anyway."
Even if they had been at a stage where leaving after dinner wouldn't have technically been necessary, she still would have insisted on it. Sex under Bruce's roof was not something Babs wanted to think about.
From: [info]i_flybynight Date: 04/14/2006 20:27:44
"Do I still have to ask you, or can we be mature adults and assume that a mutual decision has already been made?" he asked, and even if the words were high-school level, his grin was more like that of a junior high prankster. Only less ominous.
Dick was of the mind that Bruce and sex shouldn't ever even be mentioned in the same sentence again.
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 04/14/2006 20:41:40
"It's so sweet when you ask though," Babs said with a smirk. She knew she could drag it out of him if necessary. Even if he did insist on acting like he was in eighth grade again. "I might think that you didn't want to take me if you don't ask."
From: [info]i_flybynight Date: 04/14/2006 21:51:34
Dick rolled his eyes, and reached across her desk to snag a pad of Post-Its and a pen. Eighth grade was a fun and carefree time, or would've been, if he hadn't been tossing himself off of rooftops every night. Which wasn't to say that hadn't been fun, but...
Anyways.
He scribbled something down on a Post-It, and stuck it on her desk, facing her. The pen followed, and then the rest of the Post-Its, off to one side. The note read, in an exaggerated scrawl:
Will you go to Bruce's Family Dinner with me?
[] Yes
[] No
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 04/14/2006 22:03:39
Babs was quite sure that she hadn't experienced this level of immaturity in any grade. Boys really did just get foolish at some point if they thought this was the way to ask girls out.
Not so foolish though, that Babs didn't laugh and think that Dick was actually rather funny. Maybe a little clever. She picked up the pen he'd just used and pretended to reread the note several times and think about her eventual answer.
Finally, she checked off the 'yes' box and slid the postit note back towards Dick. "The postit notes eventually come with flowers, I assume," she teased.
From: [info]i_flybynight Date: 04/14/2006 22:28:11
Clever was a big compliment for a man acting like he was half his age. Less than that, even. The look that Dick gave the Post-It was purely for show; he'd have taken it to mean yes to matter what she put.
"Depends on what I can filch from the grounds before Alfred catches me."
Grin. If her flowers had dirt on the stems, she'd know why. He nodded at her, and stood up. "Well, that went better than I expected it to."
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 04/14/2006 22:51:45
If they found his body burried in the backyard she would know why as well. Alfred had caught him, dismembered him, and burried him for picking his carefully cared for perenials.
"It did, once you set me straight," Babs said. "I was... making things a little too difficult. Maybe." Understatement, but who really cared?
From: [info]i_flybynight Date: 04/14/2006 23:26:35
He wasn't planning on picking them... just breaking a few stems off. Any actual picking would be purely by accident. Of course.
"Not letting me think for myself?" Dick suggested, and nodded sagely as he retreated to the doorway. "That was too difficult. I'll drop by."
Then he slipped out the door, only to stick his head back in again. "Or maybe not, since that dinner's coming up anyways."