Suite 138: Steph attempts to sneak out.

[alwaysroomforhope]

It's nearly 3am. And Steph can't sleep.

And she can't do anything else, either, because there's a stupid brother camped out on her couch, and he's locked the windows somehow, and -

- wait, his breathing's steady and regular. That means he's sleeping, right? And he can't have locked the door, because Ed needs to use that too. Even if he shouldn't be either.

She slips out of bed silently and slides her feet into her Robin boots - best for sneaking. Pyjamas'll have to do for the rest, though - her wardrobe doors squeak sometimes.

And she's just a shadow, as she glides through the main room towards the front door, one ear cocked towards the figure on the couch.

Comments

[blue-bat.livejournal.com]

Dick gives her a suspicious look.

Maybe it's a bit shifty, as well. You might have to remind him of a certian promise to get him to talk, Steph.

"Just everyday things."

[alwaysroomforhope]

Steph shifts off the arm of the couch and onto the seat, wriggling to get comfortable with callous disregard for Dick's leg-space. Sorry, Dick. Did you want those feet?

"You promised me you'd tell me the whole truth about everything if I told you," she reminds him, brightly. "And I did, didn't I? So. Your turn."

[blue-bat.livejournal.com]

She's lucky he isn't wearing the brace right now. Might make things a bit uncomfortable.

And at that? He visibly blanches. "I did, didn't I?"

That was... just great.

He sighs, running a hand through his hair. "Fine, what do you want to know?"

[alwaysroomforhope]

"What do you need to tell?"

Note the use of the word need there. It was rather pointed.

[blue-bat.livejournal.com]

"I don't need to tell anything."

...this may be harder than it should be. Dick may be pulling more of a Bruce than he would like, which equals out to? Nothing needs to be told. It can be all be dealt with just fine in his very own head.

Why share it?

[alwaysroomforhope]

Steph just looks at him.

[blue-bat.livejournal.com]

That move is not supposed to work when it's turned you!

"What?" he asks, shiftily.

[alwaysroomforhope]

She learned from the best.


Continuation of looking.

[blue-bat.livejournal.com]

Dick can be as stubborn as long as he wants!

Really.

[alwaysroomforhope]

"You promised truth," Steph reminds him, leaning across to steal one of his pillows and prop it behind her own back. "What aren't you telling me?"

[blue-bat.livejournal.com]

"I've relocated."

She may know that already. And it's a simple answer.

[alwaysroomforhope]

She waits for the rest of it.

If he's being this cagey, then something really is going on. And the question is WHAT.

[blue-bat.livejournal.com]

"I'm in New York. But I'm about to move on to Gotham."

Where he hasn't been in too long.

[alwaysroomforhope]

"Why?"

A curious tilt of the head.

"What's behind it?"

[blue-bat.livejournal.com]

"What I told you about. Infilitration, and taking down the Black Mask."

His voice is almost flat, and short. This isn't really a topic he feels he should make her discuss.

[alwaysroomforhope]

"Is that all?"

[blue-bat.livejournal.com]

"Not exactly."

Dick exhales, and offers her an oddly tilted smile.

"I'm going to fix Bludhaven."

[alwaysroomforhope]

Steph looks away, because she knows what happens to Bludhaven - and it hasn't happened yet, for him, and she can't tell him. It tears at her, that, knowing how much pain's in store and not being able to change it.

"Fix?" she asks, voice carefully modulated to just the right level of curiousity, expression hidden in the dark - she hopes, because she can't keep all that foreknowledge out of her eyes no matter how she tries.

[blue-bat.livejournal.com]

Dick's too distracted, at the moment, by his own inner thoughts. It's enough to dull what he could see, at least for the moment.

Bats are good at seeing things - but they're also very good at pointedly missing what they should have witnessed in the first place.

"Make it run better. Reduce the crime. Make it clean. All in one sweep."

[alwaysroomforhope]

"Well, if anyone can do it, you can," Steph says, and bites her lip, hard. This is torture.

[blue-bat.livejournal.com]

"I don't know if I can," Dick says, "But I'm going to try my damned best. I just have to... manipulate a few factors."

And it'll work out.

[alwaysroomforhope]

"You'll do it," she says, and it's the truth. He will. Even if she didn't know the future, she'd still know he'd do it. He's Nightwing, after all.

"What else?"

Because there's still something he's not saying. She can feel it.

[blue-bat.livejournal.com]

"That's all I'm doing at the moment."

It was more than enough to keep him busy, after all.

[alwaysroomforhope]

She eyes him, lips pursed.

"This isn't really fair, you know. You're grounding me for - what, for kissing a guy in a bar, and you won't even talk about anything but work?"

[blue-bat.livejournal.com]

Maybe that's fair of her to say. Maybe he is being a bit of a jerk. But it still takes a long moment before he can really say anything.

"That's because I haven't been doing anything but work," he says, finally.