#threads -- vihilum.

[firecpals]

#.*   @vihilum​ said:  ' take a breath. look at me. ‘  /  dick grayson

rough nights were part of the job description. they both knew that and chose to don the cowls anyway, to go out and come home with bruises covering their bodies and aches deep in their bones where ibuprofen couldn’t reach and the memories of awful things they would never be able to forget. normally, babs handled her rough nights well. she was tough; she had been through hell and back, had been stabbed and shot and held hostage more times than your standard anything, but every once in awhile she had a night where she came close to crossing the line. nights like those made it easier to understand why her father had made such close friends with his whiskey bottles. 

on the roof, her cowl pushed back from her face in the way that would have undoubtably pissed bruce off, she looked back at dick and tried to take his advice. she breathed in deep, feeling her limbs shaking from exhaustion and adrenaline, and she thought the only thing keeping her still was his presence. “ i almost killed him, dick, “ she said, and her voice was deceptively calm for the storm raging inside of her. “ i would have hurt him worse if you hadn’t pulled me off. “ 

they had been tracking an influential pimp, the sort of scum that didn’t care much about the age or wellbeing of his girls so long as he had money in his pocket at the end of the night. things had been going smoothly until he had caught wind of what was going down - perhaps a john had tipped him off, perhaps he had called to check in on one of the girls and gone straight to voicemail. either way, the end result had been the same. when things had gotten hairy, he had started taking wild shots at the girls. gunfire aimed at herself, babs could handle. but seeing girls younger than her running and screaming from the bullets had sparked an apoplectic rage inside of her. she had flown forward and nearly beaten him to death. they had been lucky. no one had died. but one girl had barely pulled through.

her knuckles ached under her gloves as she clenched them, voice raw as she spoke again. “ but he could have killed one of them. “ or paralyzed one of them, a voice in her head whispered, and she clenched her jaw. “ and if b tries to bench me for this, i swear to god i’m going to lose it. he would have done the same. “ 

[firecpals]

he’s read the great gatsby before: but every once in awhile he likes to pull the slender tome from his shelf and fall back into the world of jay gatsby and his sad, wild parties. it’s easy to carry around and he occasionally gets strangers who come up to him and want to have a conversation, and he always enjoys a good conversation about literature. one of the things he misses most about living in the manor are those conversations with bruce and alfred. but he’s much too proud to go running back with the books in his arms that he and bruce had used to read together, begging for their bookclub of two to three to be reinstated.

no, he has to content himself with strangers for now, and his stranger of the day is a young woman about his age and with blonde hair that had caught his eye the moment she had walked down the steps to wait for the metro like him. she’s pretty, and she seems nice (a rarity for strangers in gotham). so he smiles at her when she motions to his book and he speaks to be heard from across the bench he’s sitting on. 

“ haven’t seen the movie yet, though i heard it was pretty good, “ he says with a wry smile. “ leo’s good in everything though, right? “ he’s also an avid film watcher; he knows all the big stars and their greatest works, and he likes to have viewing parties of one with a six-pack and a pizza from the joint around the corner. occasionally he’ll invite tim over, but tim is busy with his own shit and jason doesn’t like to bother him. “ what about you? did you think the book or the movie was better? “ 

@vihilum​   :   plotted starter

[firecpals]

#.*   @vihilum​   said:   ' what happens after we die? ‘   /   dick grayson

“ how original, dickface. you think you’re the first person to ask me that? “ truth be told, jason hates the question. it’s a constant reminder of the time the joker beat the life out of him and then blew him up for good measure. he doesn’t even have a good answer to it. life’s greatest mystery is still a mystery to him. “ honestly, i don’t know. last thing i remember before talia tossed me in the pit was being in that warehouse. “

he can barely remember those first years after the pit as it is; he was little more than a zombie, lest a zombie that could learn to fight. he remembers some of the training, some of the learning to speak and think again: but the most vivid thing he remembers is the rage. he’s never quite shaken the pit madness that still lingers about him, even if he’s got a much better handle on it now than he ever did before. “ besides. don’t you think it’s better not to know? “ he raises a brow, leveling dick with his strange, blue-green gaze. “ if there’s nothing after, i think we’d be too afraid to die to ever live. and if there is something, we might take living for granted. “ he certainly isn’t guilty of the latter; not many people get a second chance like he did, and he’s well-aware of the fact. 

[firecpals]

@vihilum​   sent   :   ‘ i didn’t even know i was ticklish there! ‘   /   dick

well, now he knows, and could he really blame babs in the future if she decided to exploit it? she smiles where she’s kissing behind his ear, drawing back as she feels his body shake with laughter, and she gives him a kiss on the cheek instead. 

“ you’ve got sensitive ears, “ she tells him with another grin before she moves her mouth down to his jaw, pressing kisses there instead. " and you’ve just revealed your weakness to me, hunk wonder. you’ll never be safe now. “ 

but she leaves his sensitive ears alone for the moment, resting her head against his shoulder once she’s satisfied with the work she’s done. he’s warm and comfortable, and she’s content to just relax in the little moment they’ve created all for themselves: with no work or nightlife to distract them.