the evening star

[bossymarmalade]

Bruce spits the back part of his molar out, into the sink of his ensuite bathroom, rinsing his mouth out with the chlorhexidine. He doesn’t bother to check the tooth, but looks into his reflection for a split second longer than he normally would, watching the blue of his gaze.

Ollie says from the doorway, “You’re not gonna get any answers that way. Or any assurance.” He unfolds his arms and moves into the bathroom, peering into the sink at the broken piece of tooth. “Certainly won’t grow that back.”

Bruce brings his gaze to Oliver, in the mirror. Night and day, something decides, as he looks at the picture they make, standing so close to each other, the clash of their coloring almost stark to Bruce’s eyes. Quietly, the song begins to play, pitch-perfect and even tempo, as he watches Oliver for another few moments. Then, he turns, and spits the mouthwash out, a swirling mess of red streaks, aura tinged yellow that he promptly turns the tap on to wash away.

"What was it," Ollie asks, the question flat. "What part of your body gave out this time and made you smash yourself up." His voice rises, a little, but for once Ollie’s cognizant that there’s others here, the /kids/, and he keeps it to a boiling hiss when he asks, "And how much of yourself do you intend to destroy before this is all over?"

Bruce looks back up at the other man through the mirror, and it’s dirtier than Bruce would normally ever permit, speckled towards the bottom with water spots. He leans his hands against the counter, two of ten fingers bandaged at the ends, knuckles bruised. When he speaks, his voice is dangerously low. “Did you see him?”

Ollie shakes his head. He’s looking a little banged up, but it’s nothing special, nothing more than they usually look like after doing hard patrols a few nights running or hell, after fucking all night. “Saw signs of him but not an actual sighting,” Ollie reports. “Strange graffiti everywhere, some of it over the Batman ones that’ve sprung up. Disjointed words. ‘It’s not pork’ seems to be a favourite.” He grimaces. “Fucking lunacy.”

"No," Bruce says, his voice cutting across talking about him, about the Joker. His chest rises up, hitches hard like they had been accelerating and had suddenly stopped. It catches, rises, like he might start— He clenches his fist against the edge of the sink. Bruce grits his teeth. “No, did you see Tim.”

Ollie stares at the other man. “No,” he says. “I haven’t been back here long enough. And I thought I’d give him some room.” He watches Bruce in the mirror instead of the actual, meat-and-bone man next to him, as if the reflective version can be read more easily. Will reveal whatever intense labyrinthine thoughts are percolating in his mind. Ollie takes a breath, releases it slow. “How is he.”

( a morning after )

nightingale

[bossymarmalade]

It smells like blood, with the witch-hazel-and-sulfur burn of a Pit, and the stink of machine oil. Whatever it is, the floor is slippery with it, and Mar’i can hear it sloshing onto the ground nearby when she wakes up.

She’s flesh and bone again, not bloody bubbles, and as she raises up, Mar’i coughs up, chokes on, and then vomits thick, curdled masses of silly string, acidic on her tongue and breath.

Something splashes nearby, and Mar’i forces her eyes open despite the invisible fear-organ deep inside the pit of her belly screaming to pretend to still be asleep.

There’s the green glow of a tank of Lazarus water, illuminated in the darkness by a single light, and the whir of a machine somewhere, and deep within the tank, Mar’i cannot see anything.

That is, until the machines start to squeak and shift on all sides of her, the water bubbles, and a little giggle starts up in the back of Mar’i’s mind.

Let’s play, it giggles.

And in the far corner of the room, something cricks and clacks, bones twisting and breaking as it crawls on all fours towards Mar’i in the darkness.

( subsume )

still born

[bossymarmalade]

Bruce wakes up suddenly, without starting, without a nightmare, just opens his eyes, his hand still curled around Ollie’s waist, and stares out at the windowless windows of his bedroom, where they have taped up opaque plastic to keep the birds from flying in. Kate is tucked, on Oliver’s side, not Bruce’s.

Bruce rises up, slowly, attempting not to disturb his partners.

Ollie stirs anyhow, rolling over into the empty space Bruce has left. “Where you going?” His voice is lower than usual, sleep-burred, worn through from crying and not-crying.

Bruce glances over at Kate, and moves back over to the bed, pushing a knee against the matters as he leans over and kisses the other man, gently, softly. He pushes his fingers through his hair, his lips nearly caressing the archer’s.

Ollie returns the kiss, instinctively, but he also starts sitting up, struggling to come fully away. “I’ll come with you.”

Bruce voice is rough, much in the same way the other man’s is. “Don’t wake her up. She needs the rest.”

Ollie pauses, staring at Bruce. “Boy,” he says dryly, “the estimation you two have for my ability to come in out of the fucking rain is staggering. I /was/ planning to kick her awake and drag her into the kitchen to cook me some eggs, but okay, since you say she needs rest, I’ll let her sleep.”

Bruce arches his eyebrows at Oliver, blinking, but turns and moves with Oliver, into the bathroom, waiting for the door to close before he begins. “..you both become hyperaware during times of crisis, and I didn’t want us talking to wake her up.” He looks over at Ollie, frowning, and moves his hand to the man’s neck, setting his hand there, leaning back against the sink. “That’s all I meant, Ollie.”

( days that follow )

cake and candy

[bossymarmalade]

KSpenz has gone for a checkup, remarkably without any reluctance, because she doesn’t know what else to do with herself. She’s next to useless in a fight, Mar’i isn’t accepting anyone’s calls, and everything feels like a ceramic that’s been broken and then put back together slightly askew.

KSpenz gets some news she wasn’t expecting, and is therefore deep in thought as she absentmindedly heads towards Coffee, Nearest Available (it’s like she has a tracker in her head).

Ollie has at this point eaten the frosting off of three cupcakes and has almost finished his milkshake. He’s a little bit nauseated but a lot jumped up on sugar when he sees Kate come in with coffee, and waves at her, pink staining his fingertips.

KSpenz catches the fluttering pinkness out of the corner of her eye, and it’s odd enough to catch her attention and divert her Ollie’s way. She appraises the carnage of de-frostinged cupcakes and nearly finished extra-large milkshake—just looking at it makes her teeth ache. Then, she plops down across from him, forgetting she shouldn’t do that and hissing through gritted teeth. Even so, she manages to reach out for one of the bare cupcakes and starts to unpeel it. “You’re sweet already,” she quips.

Ollie blinks at her, unprepared for that quip and honestly, not quite sure how to take it. “You know who you’re talking to, right?” he finally says, taking the peeled cupcake paper and slowly chewing it into his mouth, where he continues to chew all the cake flavour out of it.

( who's that creeping round my stair )

motivation

[bossymarmalade]

Kyle searches for Zee.

Zee is staying in one place, her apartment in Metropolis, to make the finding go easier.

Kyle eventually realizes she’s not in San Fran and he doesn’t /think/ she’s in Shadowcrest…he feels a slight edge of panic and calls her.

"I’m in Metropolis," is the first thing she says when she picks up his call assuming his question without giving him a chance to say it, "Remember, I got a place here too?"

Kyle ”I remember, I just - never mind. I’ll be there in five minutes.” He tries not to think too much about what he’ll do when he meets her there, and instead just hones into her coordinates from her phone signal and flies into Metropolis. He calls again and says, “I’m on your rooftop, I think.” It’s cold in Metropolis now, and Kyle restructures his body temperature regulation to compensate.

Zee listens to Kyle’s voice on the rooftop, what sounds like a light wind brushing against him as he speaks, “I’ll be right up.” she throws on a pair of sneakers and a wool trench coat to go over her pjs. She’d been spoiled hiding beneath her warm covers. She trudges up to the roof, keeping her hands shoved deep into her coat pockets when she sees him, “Hi.”

( keep talking keep talking )

everything desperate will live behind a joke

[bossymarmalade]

Bruce sits on the table in Medbay, shirtless, with several electrodes connected to his chest, shoulders, and temples. He exhales, heavily, looking over at the machine, the clock, timing how much he has left in the exam.

"Not long now," Ollie says, eating a candy heart. It’s unclear why he even has these in November, but he keeps steadily crunching them as they wait.

Bruce looks over at his partner, the death-glare loosening a touch. “I told you this was unnecessary.”

“‘Tisn’t,” Ollie says serenely. “You’ve spent too long a time at less than optimal health, dumpling. There’s a number of things you’ll now need to subject yourself to and this is one of ‘em.” He pokes through the hearts in his hand, selecting one that says TXT ME.

Bruce exhales again, and lifts his hand to push his fingers through his hair, licking his lips. “I don’t need to—” He pauses, when he hears the nurse enter. She casts a somewhat furtive glance at the two of them, a bit starry eyed, before she states, politely. “The doctor says you can go, she’ll get the results.. as soon as she can. I can—” Bruce interrupts her, however, and her intent to remove the electrodes: he pulls them off, not caring for the solvent that would dissolve the adhesive. She looks at him, startled, and then, at Ollie.

Ollie grins charmingly at the nurse. “He’s a history buff,” he supplies, keeping her distracted from Bruce’s rampage. “Particularly fond of the Spartans. Grace under extreme physical discomfort, y’know?”

Bruce doesn’t look as the nurse blinks nervously at Ollie, before she leaves. Instead, he works at getting the electrodes off, all of them, as he stands. “..hand me my shirt.” He puts all of the spare bits into a biohazard box, and slips his belt on.

( but i swear that i will stand within the range of your perfume )

nestlings

[bossymarmalade]

It is four in the morning when Tim ventures to the kitchen. He has slept eight hours, went to sleep as soon as he received Zee’s talisman and doesn’t dare return to his bed in case he sleeps the entire day away. It allows him to get familiar with the hallways of the Manor once more, while everyone else is asleep. “I thought I’d never return,” he mumbles opening a cabinet and finding the mugs with a little smile, amused that Alfred never changed the inventory of the kitchen.

Jason has not been able to sleep at all, even with the talisman. The bed is too big, and the room is so large it feels like he’s an ant. After tossing and turning for hours, he gets up, hands in the pockets of his sweat pants as he wanders the halls, steps almost silent. He finds himself nearing his old room and immediately turns and rushes downstairs. Since he can’t sleep, he might as well make some coffee. His bare feet pad across the floor and into the kitchen. He pauses in the doorway when he spots Tim. “You still having trouble sleeping?” he asks, voice low, trying not to startle him.

Tim cradles the tin of roasted coffee beans to his chest, inhaling its heavenly scent when Jason enters the kitchen. He hums in reply, eyes opening and glancing his brother’s way, noticing he looks rather tired. “Actually, no. The talisman Zee sent me works fine,” he says, facing the man and showing him said piece of magic. He fiddles with its cord, looking down at it with curious eyes. “I suppose I shouldn’t wear it when making coffee though.. Yours not working?”

( hatchling bonding )

push just a little too late

[bossymarmalade]

Roy leans against the counter in the Pharmacy adjacent to the Medbay on the Watchtower, staring at the game he’s playing, intently. When the pharmacist returns, he puts the device away, nodding at her. He signs the little screen, declining advice, and takes the bag. As he walks, he tears open the plastic, tucking the bottle into his back pocket, trashing the bag in the compost receptacle on the wall, and heads towards the cafeteria.

Ollie sits at one of the cafeteria tables, going through a bunch of photos of himself on his tablet. He has a half-crumbled blueberry muffin and a horchata in front of him, along with a bag of salted peanuts, and when he sees Roy come in, Ollie considers for a moment before raising a hand to give him a short salute.

Roy spots Ollie, and lifts his chin at the other man, before he walks over to the food line. He goes for some mashed potatoes and corn.

Roy , with his back turned, removes the bottle from his bag pocket and as surreptitiously as possible, taps a pill out, laying it on his tongue. He swallows it dry, cocking his head back sharply, before he chases it with a spoonful of mashed potatoes. Walking towards Ollie, he slips the bottle back into his pocket. Roy doesn’t bother with politics that anyone else might. “You said you wanted to talk.”

"I did." Ollie nods at Roy’s hand, since he can’t do it in the direction of his pocket. "You hurt yourself or something?"

Roy responds, in a no-nonsense way: “Headache.” He takes another bite of his mashed potato, corn, and gravy mashup.

( i could never give enough have enough be enough )

roommate rumination

[bossymarmalade]

"So," Kyle starts, settling in with cake first, then popcorn. "How do I even start this? Well okay - after talking with Zee, I realized that I'm not only into women. I'm still not sure how much or what or anything, but. Working at the Blackbird was really, uh, was eye-opening? In a good way." Kyle looks at Mar'i, feeling a bit raw. But he's determined to explain. "And then Jason Todd came along."

Mar’i stretches back, caddy-cornered between the arm and the back of the couch, legs resting half of Kyle’s lap and half on the coffee table. She eats the popcorn a handful at a time, having already demolished her cake.

"Okay," she replies, then repeats, "—and then along came Jason Todd."

Kyle lightly rests his plate on Mar’i’s legs as he tries to think of what to say, using his hand as a mat between the cool dishware and Mar’is warm skin. He leans his head back, staring up at the ceiling.

"Hnnnnn," he says half through his nose, sounding like some sort of walrus. "This is where the whole triangle thing comes in. Todd’s all charmed by me and Zee. Zee thinks Todd’s adorable. I think Todd’s surprisingly neat myself. Plus, he’s already comfortable with, y’know, who he is and all that, and so I asked him, like. A lotta questions. A lot. And he really, like. He gave me insight into a lot of it - a lot of me - which I didn’t realize was there. I appreciated his help.. I mean not that I couldn’t’ve asked you or Kate or anything, but, well.” Kyle looks a little sheepish to admit it, ”Talking to a dude about this was kind of a relief. I dunno why. My own latent internal gender bias…hoohaw, I suppose. Or something. Argh, I dunno,” Kyle rubs his face with the palm of his hand.

"Anyway! Point is, that, like. Yay, okay self-discovery for Kyle! I guess! And another person’s feelings in the mix! And Zee’s sorting through her own, like, feelings for two people now! And we’ve all been talking about it and being all ‘mature adults’ about it but it’s still awfully new and unexplored, and. I’m not really sure where I’m going with this, but." He looks up at Mar’i, hoping to gauge her thoughts. He wiggles her knee.

"Tell meeeeee what you think. I’m overthinking this, aren’t I.”

( sharing the popcorn )

flies so high and feels no pain

[bossymarmalade]

Tim takes shelter in his room, newly organized with objects of his former and current self. He has been attempting to do some yago and mediation mantras, but he can't stop thinking, can't shut off his brain. In the end, he reaches for his phone and finds Ollie's contact info. [Text] I need your assistance. Are you still at the Manor

Ollie is, in fact, tooling around in one of Alfred’s vast pantries of preserves, sampling from the different jams and jellies and conserves and marmalades quite shamelessly. It’s the holidays; he figures whatever he opens will be used up in a snap, with so many people around who’ll be wanting toast and toppings.

The text distracts him from a particularly perfect jar of stewed strawberries, and Ollie takes the fruit and a clean silver teaspoon with him as he leaves the pantry. [TXT] Sure am! Where you at, spatzi?

Tim closes the door behind him, thumb sweeping over his touchscreen at the sound of Ollie’s reply. He stops, head tilted slightly. Spatzi? He didn’t know Ollie spoke German. Perhaps it is time to get to know his father’s partners better. Even if he knows far more about Ollie than he does about Kate.

[Text] Can you meet me in the den? I’ll be there shortly.

[Text] Also, I’m a robin, not a sparrow.

( precious fragile little thing )

cohabitation

[bossymarmalade]

O: So, I’ve got a cat now.

K: She’s a good cat.

O: Did you meet her? She’s so fucking demanding. I thought she might nip your ankles or something.

K: Demanding? Are we talking about the same cat? Or maybe she’s just being nice to me until I displease her.

O Maybe she’s waiting until five in the morning to jump on your chest, kneading and drooling and making weird little harsh meows.

K: Honey, that’s pretty standard for cats.
K: You know, all ‘large blond human, I require sustenance’.

O: If my mom’s Emma had done that she woulda crushed me. But I guess they don’t do it to kids. Kids have nothing they want.

K: You aren’t in charge. They know who’s In Charge, cats. My abuela had a cat for a while.

O: *grins* She had a cat, or a cat had her?

K: Both, I think. They were both strong willed as hell.

( four paws and an attitude )

buried deep inside

[bossymarmalade]

KSpenz drinks all the eggnog on the Tower. ALL THE EGGNOG.

Ollie strolls by with yet another gingerbread latte, since he gorges on these things come Christmastime. “I hope you rummed that up,” he says.

"Wouldn’t have it any other way," Kate replies, and she has a little bit of a nogstache, to be perfectly honest with you.

Ollie hovers, not quite sitting down, restlessly tapping his fingers against his thigh and looking around. “Something feels … hinky,” he says, nose twitching. “In the air. Don’t you feel it?”

KSpenz hadn’t, actually. She cocks an eyebrow, considering. “What do you mean, hinky,” she asks, raising an eyebrow that incredibly high level that only really happens when she’s tipsy.

Ollie frowns, still looking around. Scenting the air, is what it seems like. “I dunno,” he says. “I just feel wild under my skin. But not in a sexy way. Or even a beat-things-up way. Like I got electricity itching under there.”

"Maybe it’s the rift that The Guy From The Future came through?" Kate says, looking slightly disappointed that he’s not feeling it in a sexy or a fight kind of way. She sips her rapidly-cooling eggnog and considers heating it up in the microwave, which would be a fucking disaster.

"Humph," Ollie finally says, and sits down, sprawling his legs out. "I guess it’s a misfire. Maybe I’m wound up from the Thanksgiving bustle."

"Or maybe it’s just that there’s unresolved business," Kate notes, though she probably wouldn’t have said this if she weren’t drinking; better to not be so damn blunt, to dance around things a little more. "That everyone’s got a lot of unresolved business."

( and excavation means blood and bone )

inquisition

[bossymarmalade]

Roy avoids the ‘art’ as much as he possibly can, and instead, heads to the gym for a heavy duty workout. He hasn’t given himself a sound beating like this in a while: lunges, sit ups, salmon ladder, as a cherry on top. It’s only with the sweat pouring off of him that Roy feels remotely human, and even then.. It doesn’t seem enough. He continues to work, wrapping his hands, going for the sparring dummies in the open arena.

Kyle is nearing the outside of the gym, in outer space, doing some repair work. Being one of the few people around anymore who can be out in space at will, Kyle’s taken on this duty with a lot of hup-to eagerness. It’s also fun because he gets to pretend he’s, like, some sort of badass construction worker or something. Without the union or the pay, but…close enough. He’s even constructed his team to work for him, and has self-appointed himself as the foreman. He sees Roy in the gym through the large curved windows, and raps on it, trying to get his attention (as if the bright green lights aren’t enough).

Roy spots the glowing green from the corner of his eyes, and exhales, punching the dummy once, hard, in the solar plexus, before he stops. He grabs his towel off the straight bars, dragging it over his face, and walks over to the window where Kyle is.

When he’s got Roy’s attention, Kyle plants his hands flat on the glass to brace himself, and then, dissolving his crabmask so it doesn’t bump, he makes a blowfish against the glass, his eyes crossing from the effort.

Roy can’t help himself. His face splits into a big, effusive grin, and he shakes his head, his hands moving down to the band of his sweatpants, thumbs stretching the elastic as he adjusts them. Overly loud, he states: “You’re an idiot.”

Kyle can see Roy talk, and mimes holding his ear and then shrugging in an exaggerated way. Really Kyle could be doing a clown act from vaudeville. He laughs too, then dissolves his crewmen as he phases through the window. It takes a bit of effort - particularly in remembering to just know it will not allow any suction between the pressurized indoors and the zero of outer space. “Yo! Lookat you! All working out and sweating to the oldies…” Kyle looks duly impressed.

( nobody expects )