InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "I am the walrus"

Dick Grayson (i_wingit) wrote in we_coexist,
@ 2008-10-13 19:26:00

Entry tags:

dick grayson, tabitha smith

Lunch Break [Attn: Tabs]
They'd been moving along down the sidewalk for a while now, at least an hour since they'd met, with Tabs doing most of the talking and Dick concentrating on their surroundings and the creation of a mental map which would soon prove completely useless. The girl had a voice best equated with a brook, and it poured on cheerfully until Dick interrupted (gently) with: "Hey, I gotta take a break. My arms are killing me." With a last swinging step on the crutches he came to a stop on the sidewalk, shuffling a little on one foot to get the damn things out from under his arms and rolling thick shoulders to get the kinks out of his muscles.

He looked around. "What are the chances we find something to eat around here?" The backpack he wore might have a pack of squashed M&Ms--if they were lucky. If they weren't lucky it would just have his costume and escrima, which weren't going to help the lunch problem unless someone came along that Dick could beat food out of.

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i_gotboom
2008-10-13 10:39 pm UTC (link)

After meeting Dick and mentally assessing that he was in fact NOT evil nor harmful nor batshit insane, she opted to tag along with him. You wish all your interruptions to the school day were this awesome! She spent time talking about where she was from, her parents, just small talk mostly. Silence wasn't her forte.

"Oh, okay." She almost forgot that the poor guy was hobbling while she was the perfect bipedal. Pausing, she looked down for a moment, kicking a pebble out onto the street, before looking up as he talked. Frowning a bit, she swiveled her head back and forth, trying to spot anything particularly foody. "I'm not sure. Don't suppose there's a directory eh?" she laughed. Tabs had less luck foodwise in her purse: only a couple rogue sticks of gum lay inside.

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i_wingit
2008-10-13 11:07 pm UTC (link)

"You know what I could really go for," Dick said, leaning on one crutch with an elbow to go easy on his arm and good knee, "is some really thick New York--" He took a double-take at something over her head and then shook his head. Did he just... is that...? It was.

"--pizza. Sort of like the pizza that would be at a parlor like that one." He pointed at the building that he could have sworn wasn't there before. It was one occasion in which the City provided, instead of taking away. "I'd be creeped out by the coincidence, but I'm too hungry." Distantly, Dick could hear Bruce saying something about healthy eating, but he'd gotten used to ignoring that voice.

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i_gotboom
2008-10-20 12:41 am UTC (link)

Mmm, pizza. Full of caloric cheesy greasy goodness. They never had any of that good stuff at school, just the crappy cardboard pieces they labeled as "pizza" which was most certainly not her idea of high end cuisine. The deli joints and whatnot were where it's at...

"Uh..." Tabs was sure there wasn't a pizza parlor there before. Well, mostly sure. Pretty sure. Hell, she wasn't even sure this wasn't all in her head. But, as she felt a rumbling in her stomach, she was certain she didn't care anymore. "Let's go then!" With enthusiasm, she walked side by side with Dick over to the parlor. The inside was very typical of New York, complete with a jovial rotund Italian man at the counter. "Benvenuto!" he greeted them cheerfully, "What can I get for you?" Tabs couldn't help but perk up at that. "I'll have your..." she scanned the menu, "Sicilian! A medium!" Grinning, she turned to Dick. "What would you like? It's on me."

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i_wingit
2008-10-20 02:50 am UTC (link)

Dick didn't even look at the menu. "One of those ones with everything on it." It took a lot of maneuvering to get around the tables on the damn crutches, and one time he bumped a bench with his bad leg and winced hard, swearing. He sat and all the breath went out of his lungs at once with it. "Whew. Sorry," he told her, looking apologetic. "It's sort of like walking around on my arms, but my legs get in my way." He propped the crutches on the edge of the table and twisted his torso toward her, grinning.

He turned his head and watched three rough looking guys walk in. They sort of had trouble written on their foreheads. He sniffed and rubbed the sweat off his forehead. "Weird that this is just sitting right here right when we need it, huh?"

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i_gotboom
2008-10-21 06:20 pm UTC (link)

Tabs happily bounced behind, giving Dick enough space so he could sit down first (what with the poor guy having crutch issues in the tinier space), herself plopping down across from him. "It's okay, it's not like you could just back flip your way over there!" she laughed.

Seeing his head turn, her eyes followed, spotting the big ugly guys, one who saw her looking and winked. Ew. Thankfully, the waiter came over (strangely quickly, she thought) with their fresh piping hot orders. "Yeah, totally weird, coulda sworn this wasn't here before," she commented, picking up a piece and taking a big bite. Mmm, ham.

The cheesy peace lasted for a few minutes before the freeloading wannabe thugs decided to bug them, two ending up standing on either side of Dick, the winker next to Tabs. "Hey sweetcheeks, why don't you ditch McCripple here and hang out with us realmen?" Tabs was not pleased at his crudeness, and attempted to unwisely retort with where he could stick his comment, but with the pizza in her mouth, it ended up as "Muuganfickurcomnuburass."

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i_wingit
2008-10-26 01:36 am UTC (link)

Dick was not in the mood for this. Bullies were everywhere, and for the most part they didn't deserve to have their faces beaten in for heckling people. Most of them considered it a hobby to fill their free time. But Dick was just coming off of a seriously bad day. A building had fallen on his head, he's hobbled at least two miles on crutches, he hadn't eaten for at least twenty-four hours and he was so tired his eyes were crossing. Right now was not a good time to come up behind him, call him names and then slap him on the back of the head.

He turned around, looking up at the guy that had hit him. "You want to give us some room here? We're trying to eat." Of course, that didn't make any difference whatsoever. All three of them started cracking up, and Dick looked across the table at Tabs, shaking his head. Idiots was the nonverbal comment. One of the guys sat down next to Tabitha and scooted next to her, leaning in. He had BO and his breath smelled like month-old fish. "Hey baby."

"Hey, asshole, I'm talking to you!" Dick didn't look back in time to see the next slap coming, and it got him across the ear.

Head ringing, he lifted his eyes back up and shot the guy a glare. "Get lost, jerkoff."

The guy pulled back for a punch, but before he could connect Dick hooked the toe of his tennis shoe in the arm of the crutch leaning on the table next to him and brought it up sharply. The crutch connected with the guy's chin and he stumbled back into a table. Parmesan cheese and silverware went in all directions.

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i_gotboom
2008-11-01 08:10 pm UTC (link)

Ugh, what the hell was wrong with them? They're bullies and they're mean and icky. And interrupting lunchtime. Tabitha may not have had nearly as rough a day as Dick, but she was in a strange place and hadn't eaten since that morning, and dammit, these guys were interrupting her food! The worst one was the guy who sat down and was sitting waaay too close for comfort.

Quickly swallowing the pizza bite, she glared at the slappers. "Leaves us alone." To the guy who decided to be more buddy buddy than he was allowed to, attempted to put his arm around her. That was going too far and if he thought that was allowed then he was so wrong. With a partially closed fist, Tabs formed an energy ball the size of a marble, smiling at McCreep before simultaneously kicking the chair legs in the front and plopping the marble ball on his lap, forcing the guy to fall backwards and then...POOF! A nice cloud of smoke, a little ash, and a very stunned bully was on the ground.

Cheekily grinning, she turned and watched another guy go backwards right into a table. The look on her face was one of slight shock and awe. Seems the crutches weren't really holding him back. All she could do was blink and stare.

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i_wingit
2008-11-02 01:09 pm UTC (link)

A few bullies looking for entertainment usually wasn't that big of a deal in Dick's world as long as it didn't accelerate. Something exploding on the other side of the table took this out of the 'harmless bullying' category and into the 'big problem' category. Naturally Dick didn't know it was Tabitha doing the exploding. Catching the crutch, he twisted in his chair and came up automatically with his weight on his good arms. He swung his good leg up with a solid thrust kick to another guy's solar plexus.

Dick and Tabs' table was now surrounded by a small radius of broken tables, chairs, scattered silverware and squished pizza. "Let's move!" He caught up his pack and second crutch with admirable balance and used it to swing over the bodies and the wreckage toward the door, only looking back once to make sure Tabs was following.

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