who died and made you king of anything?

[ohdearden]

thatstheangle​:

@ohdearden

It wasn’t particularly fun, people-watching in Matchak; most folks were wan and seemed fairly miserable to be alive and kicking, though their clench-jawed grit was admirable. But every now and then, when Angelo found himself there waiting on his companion (who really needed to keep better track of time), he found his eyes wandering. 

Often, he wondered if he could clock her people out in the wild. He’d succeeded a couple times before, after all; they weren’t all so very subtle. 

But this time…

He saw someone he recognized. Angelo’s eyes narrowed. And then he smoothed the expression away, reaching into his jacket to get a grip on his angler—

—And he was sliding through the crowd across the Square of Eagles, until he accidentally bumped into the blonde. “Oh!” he exclaimed, steadying her, before blinking in expertly-feigned surprise. “Mia? Mia Dearden? I can’t believe—what on earth are you doing here?” he asked in the cadence of an old friend, knowing quite well that she wouldn’t recognize him. “I haven’t seen you since your father’s New Years’ charity event!” Alright, that bit was true. But only because he’d robbed the museum hosting the event that same night. “How are you?”

...

This was not how she’d expected to spend her afternoon. Really, she was just on a lunch run before she headed back to the Mousehole - she’d had some deliveries to make in town, had checked in with a few of the local outreach programs to see what supplies she could try to collect on their behalf or at least begin a search for, just wanted to grab some food to go because she was starving and food had been at the bottom of her to-do list for the morning. She’d been squinting at a menu for one of the stalls, translating (admittedly on the slow side) in her head with a cigarette dangling from between her lips when a shoulder bumped into her own. Her cigarette fell from where it had been dangling between lipgloss-sticky lips, a swear in Spanish leaving her instinctively as she scowled at it on the ground before looking up to the stranger that had distracted her away from figuring out her lunch order and had cost her the cigarette she’d been smoking. Eyebrows were furrowed as Mia looked him up and down, listening to the statements bouncing out of his mouth - unfamiliar face, pretty chatty already, talking about - ah. Mia Dearden-Queen had been recognized, which was something she’d been accustomed to back home but less so in Sokovia. Hands moving into her pockets, she shrugged one shoulder. “I - I’m good, thanks? Listen, gonna be honest here - I have no clue who you are, so if you’re one of Ollie’s fancy business partner-friends or whatever then I am really sorry but I’m gonna need a few more context clues to put a name to your face.”  

[ohdearden]

redplanetblueplanet​:

M’gann held herself back from raising an eyebrow at Mia’s speedy fiddling with her keys. She was nervous enough that she was fussing with her hair. One lock of it was wrapped around her finger, growing and shrinking in volume and depth of color while the pair figured out where to begin. But she let it drop when Mia finally realized what she’d asked. 

“Yeah, flying-flying.” She grinned. Couldn’t help it. Mia looked like a child with cotton candy, a soft pretzel, and a big helium balloon at the amusement park. It was downright adorable. “I’m suggesting that we lift off from here, behind the Mousehole, take advantage of the cloudy night, and land in the woods just outside of Matchak to do our patrol.” 

She sighed heavily. “I guess you’re not interested.”

...

Mia watched as M’gann’s hair shifted, growing and shrinking with the color shifting. Hazel eyes fixated on the lock wrapped around M’gann’s finger before Mia blinked, a slow smile starting again as she shifted her gaze to look at M’gann’s face. “Bullshit I’m not interested,” she said with that smile inching upwards, warm and easy as it spread across her face. “Flying is on my top five list, and we’re about to cross it off.” Flying was very close to the top, neck and neck with managing to score a piggyback ride on the shoulders of a speedster; Mia had moaned for years about inheriting the name ‘Speedy’ when she was in the game with actual speedsters. Maybe one day she’d pick a name of her own, something she chose for herself rather than an inherited mantle. She had a list, forever ongoing, but despite her bitching she was quite sentimental about the Speedy name at the end of the day. “Let’s do it. Lift off, take off, whatever you wanna call it. Up, up and away.”

[ohdearden]

blackcanaryrising​:

***

Dinah rolled her eyes. That kid could really make her forget how to say no. Between Mia with her hand around Dinah’s heart and Sin giving her big wide eyes whenever she asked to train, Dinah was a sucker for her daughters. “I just tuned her up and I gave her an aux cord with some help from one of the mechanics in town and a quick lesson on soldering. Add in some YouTube and I had it. I didn’t even mess it up.”

While she got her phone ready to show Mia her rig she thought about that. “You want to build one here?” She asked. “I can help you. My dad and my Uncle Ted taught me how to do it from scratch. I’ve done three so far.” They could spend time together that way and Dinah could make up for lost time being missing between them from when she was away. There was a reason she’d missed Mia’s alcohol relapse. There were things Dinah wasn’t here for that she should have been. She hoped she could be here now. “We can go to the chop shop and see what they have. Or buy one off some little old farmer who was a rocker in his glory days and hid his rig away in his barn and could use a little money. It could be fun.”

...

“An aux cord?” Mia was grinning wider, practically bouncing in her steps as they walked. Her mood had drastically improved, the promise of lunch and riding around Matchak on Dinah’s motorbike bringing some much needed joy to her day (that had started much too abruptly for Mia, who preferred to stay in bed and scroll on her phone for as long as possible). “Whatcha gonna do? Hunt down a portable CD player from the early 90s and make it a fully retrofitted bike? Might be able to donate it to a museum at this rate.” Mia’s tone was teasing, and she was laughing as she leaned in to elbow the other woman gently in the side. “Excited to see the soldering job. Glad to hear you didn’t burn yourself.” The prospect of putting together a bike was an exciting one, even moreso when Dinah would be involved. Mia had missed her, had certainly had a tough few months without Dinah or Ollie around as she singlehandedly demolished so much of her standing within the Nomads and struggled with the internal demons swarming overhead like fuckin’ dementors. Any time with Dinah was enough to appease Mia, but the thought of a project was even more promising. “Yeah,” she began, smiling again as she eased hands into her pockets. “I’d like that. We can go hunting for that later, or sometime this week. Sounds like a lot of fun. Also dangerous to trust me with power tools, but exciting.”

[ohdearden]

redplanetblueplanet​:

“I guess so,” M’gann agreed, with a similar amount of trepidation. 

Three months in space with Green Lantern Hal Jordan and she’d been relegated to, well it wasn’t quite babysitting, but it also certainly wasn’t the level of work M’gann was accustomed to. Though they hadn’t spent much time together, M’gann liked Mia. They got along pretty well, both enjoyed music, good food, and pretending to laugh at the face of danger. Though, sometimes, it seemed like Mia wasn’t pretending so much as being downright reckless. 

That was probably why she’d been paired with M’gann for the night.

M’gann thought about their mode of transport. After what Diana had explained, she wasn’t too keen on the thought of riding behind Mia on a motorcycle. But she did want it to be something exciting… She adjusted her red scarf. “Mia, have you ever been flown before?”

...

Mia was fiddling with her keyring, spinning it round and round her right pointer finger: clockwise, stop, counter clockwise, stop, repeat. She would feel better once they were out and things were rolling, nervous energy buzzing within her. So much so that initially, M’gann’s question was left unheard - it took a moment for Mia to process what the other had asked, and then the spinning motion of hey keyring came to an abrupt stop when Mia snapped it into her palm. “Like, flying-flying?” Mia couldn’t stop the spark of excitement, bright in her eyes, or the smile that began to tick in her cheek - starting slow, spreading outwards into a full lopsided smile.  Are we talking super-powered-flying, like I think we are? I didn’t even get on a plane for the first time until I was like, fifteen, and that’s the only way I’ve ever flown. Are you suggesting we fly? I am so down for flying.”

[ohdearden]

‘So...I’m your patrol partner, I guess?” Considering the last time she’d had a patrol partner, she’d been benched by Wonder Woman (and had been made to feel an inch and a half tall with all of that Amazonian disappointment weighing her down; it had been definitely well earned, and Mia was determined to never feel like that again) after taking a spill off of the back of a motorcycle, Mia was hoping to fuck that this evening be head and shoulders above the last. She’d put in the work on herself, That’d been the last time she’d been in the field at all, and she’d be lying if she didn’t admit that she was practically buzzing from the inside out at the concept of being able to make forward steps. Stagnation was never something that Mia had done well with, and she was detemined to prove herself. She was still on probationary status, Speedy was still on the sidelines and this was a purely plain-clothes operation that really wasn’t an operation at all..but it was a start.  “Do you have a preference for how we get into town? I’m definitely biased in the motorcycle direction, but I’m flexible.”

[ohdearden]

blackcanaryrising​:

“Please, mamacita. You’re breaking my heart.” She shook her head and then laughed a little bit while she took her daughter’s hand and twirled her to the music always playing in Dinah’s head. “Keep your weird fetish to yourself.”

She laughed when Mia jumped for the keys and finally lowered them to brush the girl’s palm. “You’re lucky I love you little girl. I even make your dad ride bitch.” She gave a giant sigh like it was such an inconvenience. “You can drive back.” If she did a good job then maybe they could salvage a fixer upper to work on together. Working on her bike with Ted were some of her favorite memories.

...

“Cereal has never let me down.” Mia couldn’t help but give one more jab, stumbling into a spin when Dinah took her hand. “So many other things have let me down but eating Frosted Flakes right outta the box never has. But I’ll concede and say that I’d much rather poke around town to find something for breakfast. Lunch? Fuck if I know, I don’t know how long we were doing inventory.” All Mia knew is that she was starving and hadn’t had time to grab something as she literally ran out of the Mousehole that morning. “I’ll save my cereal passion for my two AM binge eating while I’m scrolling through tiktok.” A wide grin broke out over her face and Mia bounced up into a tiny triumphant jump. “Thankyouthankyouthankyou,’ she began as she bounded towards the bike. “I haven’t driven a bike in months. I left mine back in Star City and I’ve missed her every single goddamn day.”

[ohdearden]

dacostaintl​:

Like hell he wasn’t going to say anything. The girl was practically vibrating out of her skin, and not in the nice, heady way from moments before. The air outside was cooler on their heated bodies, and he made sure to emanate warmth if she needed it. Berto hardly ever got sick, probably a side-effect of his mutation burning up whatever could harm him, and it made it harder to imagine how Mia probably felt whenever her health got a little worse. The fear, not of something hurting her in battle, but of whatever could consume her from the inside out, a silent enemy. Regardless of where the night was leading them, he didn’t want to be another cause for her fear.

He nodded in confirmation. “You’re right. And it would be a dick move on my part if I held you at fault because of full disclosure.” The bravery alone that it took. If he didn’t already think that the girl had a spark to her, the way she seemed to handle her condition would have convinced him. Her demeanor smoothed out into something resembling the playfulness from earlier and Berto smiled, interlacing their fingers together and keeping that point of contact as he stepped to the side to resume walking. “Good, ‘cause I wanna see where that leads us. First stop, the hotel room.” He pointed ahead with their joined hands, letting their arms swing between them along the way.

...

Mia wasn’t sure what reaction she’d been anticipating, had jumped into explaining before she’d given herself time to think that far ahead. She did better that way, generally; Mia always did prefer to jump head first into things without much plan of how she’d land, gracefully on her feet like a cat or flat on her face. She’d had no expectations, though he still managed to surprise her. She could feel relief slowly spreading, the anxious tightening in her chest loosening as the feeling spread down to her fingertips and she gave his hand an unconscious squeeze. She took a few quick steps to trail after him once he’d begun walking to keep up with his longer stride, matching his pace. She brought their joint hands up, pressing a kiss against the back of his hand and leaving a smear of gloss behind. “I have a few ideas,” she shot back with an absolutely devilish smile. A lot of them, actually, and quite a variety; ranging from room service and poking through whatever they could find on the TV to much more adult activities that would cross boundaries previously left untouched in their friendship. Mia took a few hurried steps forward and reached out to grab his free hand, grinning and walking backwards once she was in front of him. “Should we rock-paper-scissors for whose platinum card we use? I fully support this use of my Amex card.” And by her Amex card, she definitely meant Ollie’s. “Hotel rooms and room service definitely fall under necessities.”

[ohdearden]

bdrakerising​:

…

“Would you rather the floor be lava?” Bobby suggested with a smile to go with it. “Relax, once you warm up, you’ll forget this was ever ice anyway.” It was more convenient for Bobby to just use his powers than set up the old, beaten up stuff that was stored in a rather large box. 

“Okay, I want you first to run a couple of laps, get used to the ice and temp around you.” Bobby gestured around them as he slipped off the higher wall with very little effort. “What do you normally do with Dinah? Is it just archery?” 

...

Mia knew she’d adjust to the temperature quickly, especially once she was warmed up and ready to spar or whatever else the guy had in mind. But it was easy to pout and complain, especially when warmer temperatures had always been her preference. “Y’know, I might. It would definitely put my acrobatics skills to the test and the floor is lava was one of my favorite games as a kid.” Better hot than cold as a general rule, but y’know, at least the ice wouldn’t kill her. Mia made a face at the idea of running, huffed out a sigh with billow clouds of breath, and nodded once. Another stretch with arms above her head before she began to move, a slow jog to begin with. “Uh, no. Not really. I do most of the archery stuff on my own.” Or with Ollie or Connor, when they were around. There were definitely more than enough archers to go around within the Mousehole, though there was something about training with someone familiar that she missed. “Sparring, mostly. Make sure my hand to hand stays where it needs to be. I prefer long distance, but it’s not always possible.”

[ohdearden]

blackcanaryrising​:

…

“Fuck cereal. That’s for poor people Mia. I love a lazy meal as much as the next guy but we have rock star money that’s burning a hole in my jacket pocket. You know it’s my favorite.” Dinah didn’t flaunt around her wealth that much but she was definitely doing just fine. They would have to keep a low profile but she was pretty sure she could swing some good food. She was just glad Matchak was the kind of place to let a rock star lay low. The ISA knew who she was. She wasn’t going to draw attention and put her friends in danger.

Dinah squinted at Mia and pulled the keys out of her pocket to dangle them just outside of Mia’s reach. “I don’t know mijita. They told me what happened last time. Can you handle my baby?” She trusted Mia but she worried anyways. She should have been here to take care of her kid. Fucking ISA messed her head up so bad she neglected her duties to Mia and Sin. She didn’t even know what was going on with Ollie and where the hell he was. Probably off with Hal doing space shit or something. Mia was alone when it all happened. “Because i just tuned her up.”

...

“Poor people, she says. Do you remember the whole homeless teenager thing? Do you know what saw me through it all? Cereal. It never turned its back on me, and I’ll never turn my back on it.” Despite the potentially heavy content Mia had slid into conversation, she said it was a snicker and a wide, easy smile. “Do you know what else cereal is good for? Everything. It’s good with milk, it’s good dry, it’s good at 2 am when I eat it in the dark while I’m scrolling through Tik Tok. Cereal is always good, Di.”  Mia reached up quickly with a bit of a hop, attempting to snatch those keys as they were dangled before her like the fucking cartoon carrot. “Last time I was drunk,” Mia objected with a bit of a pout. “Making poor decisions. Well, poorer than usual. Now I am very sober, have that hypothetical thirty-something day chip in my pocket, and am more than capable of treating your baby right.”

[ohdearden]

dacostaintl​:

If she hadn’t signaled that it was important, Berto was likely to have tried to distract Mia – what could possibly be more important than the two of them and the prospect of feeling good? Still he refrained as she appeared to be gearing up for whatever she needed to say… which wasn’t remotely close to anything Berto could have expected. His expression flickered through surprise before settling onto concern, his speechlessness giving her time to continue talking – explaining herself, as if she owed him something.

“Mia,” he started, just to make her pause and listen. To be fair, he wasn’t sure where to begin either, but he moved one of his hands down her arm, to intertwine their fingers once again. “First of all, I’ve never delved too deep into my mutation to know if there would be any specific reactions or not, but regardless, and because it’s safer to err on the side of caution and presume that I’m at the same kind of risk as any other human… it still doesn’t mean I’d run away in fear. You said it yourself, right? It’s controlled, as much of a blood condition can be, and that’s something my kind would understand, if nothing else.” He held her gaze as he spoke, troubled only for the problems she may have faced – and still would face, most likely. “Logistically, I assume that for anything beyond messing around we’d use protection anyway. So… thank you, for telling me.” He pressed a kiss to her knuckles. “How far do you wanna go?”

...

“You don’t need to say anything,” Mia interjected, quickly, bouncing up once on the balls of her feet as the words practically ran out of her mouth. This was far from her first time having this conversation, probably wouldn’t be the last, but it wasn’t a topic that got easier with time. There was always that trickle of fear that was impossible to ignore when Mia let the HIV secret out of the bag, fear of the reaction and judgement that could come with her admittance. It sucked. It would never stop sucking. She was living with it, pushing forward rather than wallowing, but it still sucked. She could keep things from sucking more by taking care of herself and making sure that her health stayed within the right parameters, but there would always be a base level of suck to deal with.  But then he did say something, and Mia was somehow able to hear him even over the sound of her heart pounding and blood rushing so fucking loudly in her head. She exhaled, long and slow through barely parted lips, and nodded reflexively. She wasn’t sure what reaction she was expecting, had tried to keep herself without any expectations, but the reaction he’d given her was...better than she ever could have imagined herself, really, especially since she’d sprung it on him. Could’ve kissed him for it right there, really. Almost did. “Logistically, you’d be correct.” Non-negotiable, because regardless of what the odds might say regarding transmission, she’d be damned before she risked passing this onto someone else. “It’s just - gotta bring it up, y’know? It’s a thing.” A big thing. A really fuckin’ big, ugly thing she had to drag out of her closet. Mia’s eyes settled momentarily on his lips against her hand, his hand warm and comforting just by its presence against her own, and then she shifted her gaze back up to his face. “Well, provided my confession didn’t just ruin things or ruin the mood,” she began, a lightly teasing tone sneaking back into her voice as her hand gently shifted around in his hold to squeeze his, “I think my stance on that was pretty goddamn clear.”

[ohdearden]

dacostaintl​:

Berto was at least a little thankful that Mia had moved first to lead them outside – as much as his brain understood that it was the best decision, his body hadn’t seemed too keen on putting any millimeter of distance between them. He followed the girl, fingers intertwined, eyes intent on her smile and the play of lights on the halo of her blond hair. Beautiful, soft and present, when other things had started feeling intangible to him.

He leaned down for the kiss with a hum, still buzzing with the warmth from the bar. When she murmured a word against his lips, he barely registered it, raising a hand to the back of her head, burying into soft strands of hair. It wasn’t until Mia spoke again that Berto noticed she did have something important to say. “Yeah, sure,” he began, a little crease on his forehead as he tried to concentrate on her words and not the softness of her lips. “It’s okay if you wanna set any boundaries.”

...

It would be so fucking easy to lean back into him, allow herself to get lost in the moment and the heat of him and the slide of his lips on her own. That became especially true as fingers wound into her hair, and Mia swore quietly under her breath. It would be so easy, but the conversation she was starting wasn’t one she could skip over. It would be nice to skip right over it, brush away the awkwardness, but that wasn’t an option. Teeth sunk into her lower lip as Mia tried to force herself to focus, and she took in a slow breath through her nose as she nodded. This was the part that sucked. It never sucked any less, never got easier to talk about even after years of dealing with it. Many of her prior teammates knew, had been told years ago once she’d gotten comfortable and settled with the Titans, and it was in her file; her HIV status remained need to know, and working with someone in the field was an instance where that became necessary. This was another situation where it came up, and that sinking feeling in her stomach certainly was creeping up on her again. “So,” she began, exhaling long and slow as she dove head first right into it, deciding it was better to take the high dive rather than hesitate and fumble: “I have HIV.” There it was, right out in the fucking open, and the quick wash of vulnerability that came with the admission was overwhelming. She swallowed around it, continuing on. “It’s - I take my meds, my number’s are good, my viral load is undetectable which means I can’t give it to anyone but it’s still a thing.”  Still a risk, always a risk, always a fucking red letter pinned to her shirt and tangible proof that there would be no way to ever escape her past. Eyes met his again, a little more guarded than they’d been earlier but she managed to keep her expression neutral. “So if this stops here, then that’s fine. Or if you just wanna keep this at messing around without going any further, that’s also fine. No hard feelings, I promise. Hell, we can even go back inside and drink and dance some more instead, if that’s what you want. Night’s still young, got plenty of time.”

[ohdearden]

blackcanaryrising​:

“It’s a good choice,” she laughed. Dinah was no cook. She could feed herself kind of when she was alone, but that didn’t mean cooking. She wasn’t going to subject her child to the struggles of her improvisation when it came to eating. Food was food right? At least she didn’t guzzle down protein shakes like some sad clowns calling themselves superheroes did. 

“I wonder if there are any Eastern Europe specific food places,” she thought out loud while she led Mia to her bike. One of her pride and joys. “Wanda’s the only one actually from the place. She would probably know but I’m guessing she’s a little occupied since the whole everything.” They were probably on their own.

...

“Your cooking is probably safer than mine, but even then I’m not exactly looking to roll the dice here.” Mia was fine with sandwiches and pre-packaged-meals, but anything other than that went high above her skillset. Cooking was never something she’d taken the time to learn, let alone get good at. She could replicate Ollie’s chili, but she wasn’t sure that counted and it never tasted the same. “It’s take out or cereal, and I’ve honestly had a whole lot of the latter lately.” Too much, usually at odd hours of the night in the mostly-dark kitchen. Real food sounded good. “We’ll need to find out for ourselves.” Mia was smiling as they approached the bike, reaching up with both hands to adjust and tighten her tell-tale ponytail. “Let’s just drive around and see what we can find? Also, can I drive back when we’re done? Please?”

[ohdearden]

[ohdearden]

bdrakerising​:

…

“You don’t need the dress for an ice age, just put some thicker leggings on.” Bobby went to his supplies, pulled a pair out that looked just her size and threw them over to her with a smile. “It’s not that cold in here, you’re just not used to temps like this.” He told her then moved away to finish up his obstacle course. 

Once he was finished, he waited until Mia came back out and smirked a little to himself. “Are you ready? I need you do your usual warm up routine.” Bobby moved out of the way to do some warm up exercises himself before using his powers to slide himself up on top of the highest ice wall he had made. “Pretty cool, right?”

...

“Put on some thicker leggings, he says as he makes a freakin’ ice wall.” The sports bra and athletic leggings she’d thrown on for training purposes suited the time of year and overall temperature inside of the castle well; summer was slowly inching up, warmer weather drawing Mia outdoors much more often like a damned siren song. So naturally, the drastic shift in the opposite direction was less than desired and Mia was absolutely pouting a little when she moved out of the room to change. Leggings changed and a sweatshirt acquired (too big, definitely not hers, but it had been left out and beggars couldn’t be choosers), Mia was still making a face despite being warm enough under the unexpected conditions. She huffed out a little, breath still billowing out in front of her, as she began to stretch. “Pretty cool,” she agreed, eyes trailing upwards to follow him. “Ice cold. Fuckin’ freezing. Also looks like a badass advantage.”

[ohdearden]

dacostaintl​:

The world began and ended where their lips connected. Berto smiled as Mia went after another kiss when he pulled back to speak, looking as dazed as he felt, the cupid’s bow of her mouth more inviting than ever. It wasn’t that he had been nervous over how his advance would be received – the signs of their dancing around each other had been obvious, after all – yet her breathy agreement to leave with him sent another spike of energy crawling underneath his skin. He considered their options – there could be a secluded place somewhere, but Mia deserved better. The Mousehole was a bit too far from the city, so they had to compromise on somewhere in between.

“I think we’ve passed a hotel, we could walk there.” He suggested, brushing his thumb along the back of her knuckles, his other hand having moved from her cheek to the nape of her neck. The drinks were paid for, leaving them free to go – if they could disentangle themselves from each other for necessary amount of time that took.

...

Everything was still a little blurry and shiny around the edges, Mia unable to quite shake the dizziness that had come from the all-too-brief kiss he’d offered and that she’d eagerly taken. The music in the bar was still thrumming through her despite sounding different, the vibrations only further serving for Mia to give into that warm haze. But she had to disentangle, had to let go of that feeling just a little bit to guide them outside once he’d made his suggestion, otherwise she’d be content to just stay there. “Let’s go,” she murmured, walking backwards to still face him with an impish grin growing on her face as she moved towards the exit. The air outside was still warm but cooler than the stagnant air had been inside the bar and the breeze served to wake her up a little more. She was still in the moment, tugged him in by that hand she’d let him out with for another kiss nearly as soon as they’d made their way outside - up on tiptoe, pressed against him, the taste of alcohol less noticeable and distracting this time around. “Wait,” she murmured, kissing him for another moment despite what she’d said (and despite the fact that she’d been the one to initiate this time). She pulled away, slowly, hesitantly, and felt cautious meeting his eyes. “I need to talk to you, first.”

[ohdearden]

bdrakerising​:

…

“Why? scared of a little rain, Mia?” Bobby raised an eyebrow then grinned when she realised that he wasn’t Dinah. “Sorry to disappoint, but I am a former X-Man so you can’t really get any better than us guys for training.” Then he finished up solidifying an ice wall. The temperature in the training room had dropped rather dramatically since she walked in but he needed it to keep his ice obstacles.. you know, cold. 

“I’m Bobby Drake, the combat trainer about here, except I’ve been off on a mission recently so you’re my first one since getting back. Don’t worry, I’ve read your file and you are Speedy, right? I don’t teach archery, I teach hand to hand fighting and how to use the landscape around you to your advantage.” He gestured around them. “Go get changed.”   

...

“I’m not scared of a little rain. I’m actively avoiding it because I don’t feel like getting soaked for the sake of shooting targets today.” Mia tsk’d under her breath a little, and shook her head once. She knew she was more than capable of performing well despite conditions that made it difficult to do so, or in this case conditions that literally rained on her parade. Mia instinctively crossed her arms over her chest, the temperature change in the room drastic and very noticeable the longer she lingered in the room. Eyes fell on the ice wall, and her gaze turned inquisitive. “Mia Dearden, but it sounds like you already know that.” Read her file. Great. How much of recent events were going to be listed in there? She sighed a little to herself, breath puffing out in front of her. Any additions were her own damn fault, she had to learn to live with that and deal with people knowing. “But yeah. Speedy the second. Nice to meet you.” She’d been looking for Dinah to train with her (well, train and bullshit, a combination they’d learned to tie the line with years ago), but training was training. Might be beneficial to train with someone new, especially someone who worked outside of her usual skillset. “I was ready to go but it looks like I need to dress for the ice age.”

[ohdearden]

@bdrakerising Outside of the tasks that Wonder Woman had allowed Mia to slowly begin to step in on, Mia had found herself trying to squeeze in more and more time for training. She was still out of the field, would be for...a good while, if she had to guess, but she wanted to make damn sure that she was ready for when she got the green flag. She’d always been pretty on top of training (and she had Ollie to thank for that, with all of the training he’d insisted on before she’d debuted as Speedy), had to push herself a little harder now that there wasn’t fieldwork to go alongside it, but at least there was an archery range and a training room at her disposal. “Hey, I know I said that I was going to work on archery shit today but it’s raining and I really don’t need that in my --” Mia cut herself off, looking up from her phone as she set her bag down inside of the training room, and frowned a little. “You’re not Black Canary.” No, the person inside definitely wasn’t her mom. “Shit, sorry.”