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thejusticelounge2012-04-28 07:21 pm
bossymarmalade) wrote in thejusticelounge2012-04-28 07:21 pm
Entry tags:
coffee tea or me
Maybe it wasn’t the best plan in the world, but Kate had been meaning to actually get to know (as compared to ‘get to know’) Dick Grayson for a while. She just hadn’t exactly gotten around to it, predominantly because of life getting in the way, but also because she was a little nervous. It wasn’t like she wanted to date him, and it wasn’t like he didn’t seem like a nice guy, just…
Well. She’d never done that kind of thing with people she hadn’t actually met before.
Fortunately, Dick seemed interested in actually sitting down and talking, besides just getting her off in a rather spectacular fashion, if his response to her text was any accurate indicator. She sent him a time, then prepped the espresso machine in her suite. At least she’d have a minute or two to clear the worry from her brow.
Dick walked through the halls of the ‘Tower, a little bounce in his step. He’d been hoping he’d get a chance to talk to Kate. He had really enjoyed the whole Arboretum experience, but he’d heard so many things about her that you just couldn’t answer when high on sex pollen.
Besides, it was always just fun to meet his fellow heroes.
He checked his watch: exactly one minute early. The good old Bat-punctuality was working as sharp as ever. He stopped outside her door with thirty seconds to spare, waiting to knock until two seconds till.
Alfred would be so proud of him.
He was almost stunningly prompt, though fortunately Kate had had a moment to compose herself. Look at you, cariño, she thought, a sudden realization coming into her head, in that damned Kyle Rayner voice, somehow you’ve ended up playing in the big leagues.
(How the hell that had happened, she didn’t know. How the hell she hadn’t figured that out when Ollie Queen had kissed her in public, US Weekly had printed pictures of her in line at Starbucks in the sidebar of an article about Hal Jordan’s return to Earth, and her ex-husband had called wanting to know what exactly was true about her sex life [none of his business]…)
That was love, though.
Making friends with Dick Grayson was different, and she really did want to be his friend—for real, not just the colleague thing. He seemed like a person who gave a damn, someone it was good to know.
She answered the door and smiled. “Hey Dick, good timing,” she said, and stepped back. “Come on in. How do you take your coffee? Alfred sourced this amazing espresso machine…it does everything.”
Dick smiled as he walked in, taking in the room with a quick once-over. ”Alfred’s got some pretty amazing things all the time. I’m starting to think he’s a wizard. I’ll take cream and sugar, with extra cream.” He laughed at the look she gave him. ”I like things sweet….”
He meandered in a slow circle, looking around the room absently. ”So how have you been?” he asked, finally focusing back on her, even as he moved around the room unconsciously. ”Haven’t really had a chance to talk for a while. Things were too crowded at the dinner party to get to talk. How’s things?”
“He doesn’t even really know me, that was the part that got me,” Kate said with a laugh. “And yet he got me this whole setup—from Italy, no less.” She went over to the espresso machine and got two Americanos figured out, making a slight face at the amount of cream and sugar she put in one of them.
Bringing the mugs over, she handed one to Dick and settled into one of the softer armchairs, motioning for him to sit down. “The dinner party…god. I wish we had had time to talk, it would have been infinitely less painful than what actually happened. Major drama. As for things…” She flushed a little and bent down to sip from the mug. How did someone say oh hey, thanks for sort of being a catalyst for my relationship, though it’d be cool if we did it again?
“Things are pretty good,” she said finally. “I’m sure you’ve heard things through the grapevine. About half of them are true, the rest are exaggeration. I’ve heard about you, but,” she grinned, “it wasn’t anything bad. And my ribs are finally back in one piece…well, multiple ribs.”
“I’m telling you, he’s a wizard,” Dick said earnestly, just resisting the urge to start doing backflips around her room. He hoped the caffeine would calm him down some; it usually did help. He didn’t know why he had so much pent up energy. He sat carefully in the chair, taking care not to spill his drink. It was hot as all get out, but it focused him, grounding him a little more in the present.
He frowned slightly. ”Drama? Wow, I guess I missed that….” He knew something had happened with Damian (but Damian hadn’t been speaking to him at the time, so he never really found out what that was about) and he’d seen Bruce being…awkward so exposed, but Dick had been over with Mia, so he was cut off from everything else.
He smiled. ”Yeah, I heard about you and Ollie. I’m glad! You two really seemed to love each other; I could feel it. And I’m glad your ribs are OK. Those are always a pain to heal, I know.”
He took another drink and smiled shyly. ”OK, now my vanity wants to know what you’ve heard about me. Anything scandalous?”
Kate watched him, slightly amused at his inability to sit still. It was, like Bai, kind of cute in a way. “Well, I’m sure you know Ollie and Batman, uh…disagree on fundamental issues,” she said, trying to stay as tactful as possible. “They continued to disagree. Fortunately, nothing exploded outside of their conversation, and the food was good, at least. And Mr. Pennyworth makes a great vodka gimlet. I’d almost hire him to run a bar up here, if I had the cash.”
She sighed and shook her head, inhaling the steam from her drink, then looked up, surprised. “I’m not sure how you managed to figure it out before either of us did,” she said, smiling a little sheepishly. “We’re a little slow on the uptake emotionally, maybe. I don’t know, it’s been a while since I’ve been in this kind of position.
“And no, nothing I’d consider overly scandalous,” she said, tone a little flirtatious, maybe. “Though I did hear a rumor that you broke into the arboretum again. Leads me to think you like to play with fire, a little?”
“I felt it. I felt it in your touch. Body language talks a lot if you read it.” Dick smiled brightly. He laughed at the mention of the arboretum. ”Oh yeah. Well, if you knew the kind of fire I get to play with, I think you would, too.”
He drank some more of his coffee till it was low enough in the cup that he didn’t worry about spilling it. He toed his shoes off, then leaned back and pulled his legs up in the chair, wrapping his arms around his knees. It was the easiest way he could think of to stop his leg from shaking (not that it did much).
“So how are things with Ollie going?” he asked finally, snapping his attention back to her. ”I mean, we’ve all been having some rough times, so I was hoping everything’s OK.”
“You’ve got to teach me how to do that, my friend,” Kate said, looking up, “because I am seriously, seriously impressed.” She folded her fingers around the mug, watched Dick try not to bounce around. It was actually really kind of adorable in a way. “Anyone who can get past my brain gets some serious points.”
She considered his question for a moment, the pleased look on her face fading into concern and worry. “We’re fine…him and me are fine, I’m pretty sure him and Hal are fine. But Ollie himself? He’s been better. The nanobot thing did one hell of a number on his head, more than mine or almost anyone else around here, I think. And Hal and I didn’t have the most pleasant time of it ourselves. Are you okay?”
Dick instinctively leaned forward, an unconscious effort to get closer to her and comfort her. ”Yeah, I… I think we all heard about the nanobot thing. Me? I’ve been…fine. Just trying to keep everyone else up and OK, you know? Especially Damian. He’s been closing off from me again for some reason. I think it was the nanobots, but I don’t know.”
Kate’s (perhaps rather cynical and broken) rational mind told her no one could possibly be as honestly goddamn nice as Dick Grayson. The rest of her, which won out, told her to hell with it—maybe he had some metahuman empathy stuff going on.
She leaned into him a little, lips pressing into what might have been a worried smile. “True, dealing with other people’s pain can be almost as hard. And when you’ve got more than one person to help…” Leaning into his arm, she closed her eyes for a moment, thinking. “With Damian…I don’t know him, but I think he’s got more than his share of issues. Nanobots may be the least of his worries—he’s as attuned to station gossip as the rest of us, Dick, but he doesn’t have the full life experience and emotional maturity to work out the implications.”
Dick put a hand on her, gently stroking her arm. ”I know. And I just…sometimes I forget that he’s only ten and then I worry about what I’m telling him, but then I remember he’s only ten and I just want to treat him like my tiny baby brother and cuddle him, and then he threatens bodily harm and I know he could do it.”
He sighed, leaning against her. ”My family’s so weird.”
Kate couldn’t help but laugh, a little, but only in agreement, not actually at Dick or the situation. “I hear that. Mine’s not quite like that, but it’s pretty twisted, except for my son and my ex. I’m glad Ramsey’s an eight year-old who acts eight…”
She patted his shoulder, though only in comfort, not to patronize him. “It’s got to be hard for you to figure out what the balance is going to be between showing him you care and letting him have the space he demands. Too much space and you end up making things worse.”
Dick smiled sadly. ”I know. That’s what’s wrong with him and Bruce, I think. He either doesn’t spend any time with Damian or he spends too much time with him that’s all about ‘The Mission’ and…” He sighed. ”Sometimes I don’t know what to do. I mean, that’s why I want him to come with me, so he can have some space from Bruce, but then I think that’s not a good idea because he should be around Bruce more.
“I just don’t know.”
Letting out a long sigh, Kate pondered the best way to put her thoughts that didn’t essentially come out to a potentially offensive statement, namely Bruce Is An Emotionally Scarred And Inept Tool. She figured Dick had probably guessed anyway—the level of disagreement between Batman and Manhunter was slowly becoming Watchtower lore.
“Maybe you guys could split his time a little more…directly, instead of playing it by ear? Though I’m hardly one to talk, coming at you from a custody battle that was painful and not particularly relevant to the situation…” She smiled wryly and cocked her head to look at Dick. “You do need to keep trying, though. Even when it hurts. I wouldn’t try to normalize Damian too much by force, he’s too smart for that. But do let him run with kid stuff when he wants.”
Dick hummed mildly as he thought about what she said. ”That might work,” he said, taking a small drink. ”I mean, he definitely doesn’t like it when I make him do normal kid things, but I’ve seen him be a kid, so I know it’s there.”
He chuckled and smiled warmly at her. ”You’re really easy to talk to, you know that?”
“You should still offer, but don’t make him so much.” Kate smiled and picked up her own mug. “He’s at the point where he’s convinced he’s not an adult but still damn smarter than us, so it just seems to him like you’re patronizing him, I’d guess.”
She turned and offered Dick a bright smile in return. “It’s sort of a professionally-honed talent, sorry to say. Though I don’t just use it professionally…” There was just a slight tinge of innuendo there—slight.
“It’s a nice talent, though,” Dick said, setting down his mug. He leaned back over the arm of the chair, looking at her upside-down. His smile got a bit sharper, his innuendo senses tingling.
“When else do you use it?”
Kate laughed at his slight acrobatic movement, the tinge of interest that flared in his smile. “Thank you, I try. And I’m told I’m damn provocative. I argue pretty well, for starters…”
She winked at him. “And I’m pretty skilled at talking dirty, when the mood is right. Not to mention a talented tongue.”
Dick chuckled. ”I’ll bet! Bet you’d mean verbal-domme. Got that whole ‘commanding lawyer’ thing going.”
He bent farther back, stretching toward the floor. ”Hey, now. That makes two talented tongues.” He winked. ”And I don’t mean linguistically.”
“I’ve done it occasionally,” Kate admitted, lifting an eyebrow with a further smile, watching Dick moving almost-impossibly back. “But it’s hard to find guys who like that kind of thing just as play, not as lifestyle, which I’m so very much not into.”
She sipped from her coffee and resisted the urge to lean over and run her hand against his stomach as he bent. “Neither did I, though linguistically I do put up a good fight.”
Mmm, that stretch felt good. Dick put his hands on the ground, testing his balance. ”Aw, that’s a shame. Yeah, I couldn’t make it a lifestyle; I like being free too much.”
He laughed slightly, a little giddy from hanging upside-down. ”I couldn’t see much of it, since I was a little busy, but Ollie seemed to appreciate a bit of that talented tongue, even if it was only a kiss.”
Just looking at him move made Kate grin. Would that they all were that damn flexible. And, for that matter, otherwise flexible…
“How about this,” she suggested. “Sometime, you and me, a tongue-off. Because you seemed pretty damn good from what I could tell, though I obviously am entirely differently built, my friend.”
Dick laughed, pulling himself up onto his hands. ”That sounds absolutely wonderful. I always enjoy a good tongue lashing.”
He walked around the room on his hands, totally aware he was showing off, but not really caring. The coffee was helping him focus, but he still had a ridiculous amount of energy left. With a “hup!”, he flipped back to his feet, landing in front of Kate in a crouch.
“Hi there!”
“Oh, I bet you do,” Kate replied, her smile turning into a full-on smirk, though she was firmly trying to ignore the mental images that kept coming up. “I’ll pencil you in, then?”
Leaning back in her chair, she watched Dick wander around her room…on his hands. It was something she’d known he could do, that people could do, but it wasn’t something she’d ever seen in person just for her own benefit and his amusement. It was actually kind of entrancing in a way, because he just…moved. Like it was normal. Maybe that was what it looked like when she was in the suit.
She applauded softly, then reached down to give him a hand up—he didn’t really need it, but maybe she did. “Nicely done. I’d say show me more but there’s not that much space.”
Dick willingly accepted her hand and hopped up. ”Oh, I don’t know,” he said, looking at the room appraisingly. ”I bet I could show you more. Just need to move some things around….” He turned back to her eagerly.
“Wanna watch? I can do any trick you want.”
Kate squeezed his hand firmly, somewhere between platonic and otherwise. Dick seemed so enthusiastic about showing her more that she couldn’t help but agree. “Okay,” she said, laughing, “just move it back later. And…I don’t know any tricks, come up with something? I promise I’ll watch.”
Well, any acrobatic tricks, anyway.
Dick made a happy chirp of excitement and quickly moved the chairs and table into a corner, clearing out anything that could be in his way. He even moved Kate’s chair—with Kate in it—back, giving him plenty of room on the floor. He walked across the room, counting the paces, gauging how much space he had. Satisfied, he stopped in the center of the room and faced cat.
“Preeeeeeeesenting, for your thrill and pleasure, Dick Grayson, formerly of The Amazing Flying Graysons and care of the Gotham City Bats, will now perform a series of modest acrobatic feats, given the spatial confinements.”
He winked at her, grinning from ear to ear. With a flourish, he raised his arms above his head and launched himself into a series of back flips, landing on his feet flush against the wall. With a half-step forward, he flipped toward her, managing a double flip before landing before her in splits.
“Ta da!”
Dick was seriously, seriously impressive; considering the ‘spatial confinements’, even more so. Kate couldn’t help but put her hand to her mouth, gasping slightly as he seemed to nearly run into the wall but end up just perfectly against it.
She applauded vigorously, reaching over to shake his hand. “Seriously amazing, Mr. Grayson,” she said, grinning. “You’ve got to be one hell of a force out in the field if you can do that.”
“Why, thank you, Ms. Spencer! I do try my best!” Dick sat up on his knees, looking up at her like an expectant puppy. ”Anything else you want me to do?”
Down there? I could think of a few things, Kate thought, then mentally kicked herself in the shin. This was supposed to be friendly, getting to know you, not the Kate Spencer’s Life Turns Cinemax Hour.
“I wouldn’t know what to ask for,” she said, leaning forward to give him a bright smile. “You know way more about it than me.”
Dick leaned forward, biting his lip idly as he thought, cocking his head to the side. He really wanted to show her some of his trapeze tricks, but he wasn’t sure if they wanted to leave and risk running into people. Besides, he was really enjoying this private “Getting To Know You” time.
He scrambled back, rolling into a handstand. He spread his legs and turned around till he faced her. ”What about a ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’?” he said, smiling. ”Use that verbal-domme thing to tell me where to go.”
“I can’t just do The Voice on command, I have to be pissed off,” Kate said, laughing. “Or…you know…into it. Sort of why I only very briefly considered working in the field at all, it’s hard to turn it on and off again at will…”
She sighed, pausing a moment to consider, then pointed to the far corner. “Off that wall,” she said finally, firmly. “Then back over here, one hand behind your back, don’t you dare use it, Grayson.”
Kate was probably better at it than she thought she was.
The slight shiver that ran up Dick’s back was hard to ignore. ”Well, you might not be able to turn on The Voice at will, but you’re good at turning something else on.” He looked over at the wall, judging the distance, planning the moves in his head.
“Watch and be amazed!”
He rolled over to the corner, coming out of the roll standing on his hands with his legs braced against the wall. He made a show of picking up his left hand, waving at her before he placed it flat against his back. He pushed off from the wall.
“Allez…oop!”
He landed on his feet and launched into a quick series of flips, occasionally not using touching the ground with his hand, but never moving his left hand from his back. He landed on his feet in front of her, raising his arms in a triumphant motion.
Kate couldn’t help but grin. “You wouldn’t think that if you were facing it in cross-examination,” she retorted, but she was obviously pleased, particularly at the way Dick had reacted…
And then she stared, stunned, as he’d done it, exactly to order without a waver or a thought. It was too surprising for her to clap right away, though she did after a moment, violently and happily. “Oh, damn, Dick,” she said. “You make me look like I’m staggering down the street, on my best days.”
She was tempted to give him a kiss for his effort, and she got up to put a hand on his shoulder instead.
Dick giggled, half from her praise and half from exhilaration. He really did love showing off for people; it made him feel like the circus kid he still was.
“Aw, not at all, Kate,” he said, making a small happy noise as she touched his shoulder. ”You know how it is. I was born this way.” He laughed again and hugged her. ”But thanks!”
The hug was so terribly sweet, and Kate couldn’t help herself. She hugged him firmly. “Sometime we’ll get a room…uh, a practice room…and you can show me how you really operate,” she said. It was actually really appealing to her for reasons she couldn’t fully articulate.
“Absolutely,” Dick said, smiling. ”I’d love to get a room and show you. I’ll make sure I’m firing on all cylinders.” OK, there he actually was trying to lay on the innuendo.
“I can’t wait to show you what I can do on the trapeze. Do you want to go flying with me some time?”
“Seriously?” Kate asked, the idea tickling her…well, between that and the innuendo, she was all for it. She picked up her mug and drank the dregs of the coffee. “Oh hell yes. I’m already looking forward to it, that’d be absolutely amazing. Pencil me in.”
Well. She’d never done that kind of thing with people she hadn’t actually met before.
Fortunately, Dick seemed interested in actually sitting down and talking, besides just getting her off in a rather spectacular fashion, if his response to her text was any accurate indicator. She sent him a time, then prepped the espresso machine in her suite. At least she’d have a minute or two to clear the worry from her brow.
Dick walked through the halls of the ‘Tower, a little bounce in his step. He’d been hoping he’d get a chance to talk to Kate. He had really enjoyed the whole Arboretum experience, but he’d heard so many things about her that you just couldn’t answer when high on sex pollen.
Besides, it was always just fun to meet his fellow heroes.
He checked his watch: exactly one minute early. The good old Bat-punctuality was working as sharp as ever. He stopped outside her door with thirty seconds to spare, waiting to knock until two seconds till.
Alfred would be so proud of him.
He was almost stunningly prompt, though fortunately Kate had had a moment to compose herself. Look at you, cariño, she thought, a sudden realization coming into her head, in that damned Kyle Rayner voice, somehow you’ve ended up playing in the big leagues.
(How the hell that had happened, she didn’t know. How the hell she hadn’t figured that out when Ollie Queen had kissed her in public, US Weekly had printed pictures of her in line at Starbucks in the sidebar of an article about Hal Jordan’s return to Earth, and her ex-husband had called wanting to know what exactly was true about her sex life [none of his business]…)
That was love, though.
Making friends with Dick Grayson was different, and she really did want to be his friend—for real, not just the colleague thing. He seemed like a person who gave a damn, someone it was good to know.
She answered the door and smiled. “Hey Dick, good timing,” she said, and stepped back. “Come on in. How do you take your coffee? Alfred sourced this amazing espresso machine…it does everything.”
Dick smiled as he walked in, taking in the room with a quick once-over. ”Alfred’s got some pretty amazing things all the time. I’m starting to think he’s a wizard. I’ll take cream and sugar, with extra cream.” He laughed at the look she gave him. ”I like things sweet….”
He meandered in a slow circle, looking around the room absently. ”So how have you been?” he asked, finally focusing back on her, even as he moved around the room unconsciously. ”Haven’t really had a chance to talk for a while. Things were too crowded at the dinner party to get to talk. How’s things?”
“He doesn’t even really know me, that was the part that got me,” Kate said with a laugh. “And yet he got me this whole setup—from Italy, no less.” She went over to the espresso machine and got two Americanos figured out, making a slight face at the amount of cream and sugar she put in one of them.
Bringing the mugs over, she handed one to Dick and settled into one of the softer armchairs, motioning for him to sit down. “The dinner party…god. I wish we had had time to talk, it would have been infinitely less painful than what actually happened. Major drama. As for things…” She flushed a little and bent down to sip from the mug. How did someone say oh hey, thanks for sort of being a catalyst for my relationship, though it’d be cool if we did it again?
“Things are pretty good,” she said finally. “I’m sure you’ve heard things through the grapevine. About half of them are true, the rest are exaggeration. I’ve heard about you, but,” she grinned, “it wasn’t anything bad. And my ribs are finally back in one piece…well, multiple ribs.”
“I’m telling you, he’s a wizard,” Dick said earnestly, just resisting the urge to start doing backflips around her room. He hoped the caffeine would calm him down some; it usually did help. He didn’t know why he had so much pent up energy. He sat carefully in the chair, taking care not to spill his drink. It was hot as all get out, but it focused him, grounding him a little more in the present.
He frowned slightly. ”Drama? Wow, I guess I missed that….” He knew something had happened with Damian (but Damian hadn’t been speaking to him at the time, so he never really found out what that was about) and he’d seen Bruce being…awkward so exposed, but Dick had been over with Mia, so he was cut off from everything else.
He smiled. ”Yeah, I heard about you and Ollie. I’m glad! You two really seemed to love each other; I could feel it. And I’m glad your ribs are OK. Those are always a pain to heal, I know.”
He took another drink and smiled shyly. ”OK, now my vanity wants to know what you’ve heard about me. Anything scandalous?”
Kate watched him, slightly amused at his inability to sit still. It was, like Bai, kind of cute in a way. “Well, I’m sure you know Ollie and Batman, uh…disagree on fundamental issues,” she said, trying to stay as tactful as possible. “They continued to disagree. Fortunately, nothing exploded outside of their conversation, and the food was good, at least. And Mr. Pennyworth makes a great vodka gimlet. I’d almost hire him to run a bar up here, if I had the cash.”
She sighed and shook her head, inhaling the steam from her drink, then looked up, surprised. “I’m not sure how you managed to figure it out before either of us did,” she said, smiling a little sheepishly. “We’re a little slow on the uptake emotionally, maybe. I don’t know, it’s been a while since I’ve been in this kind of position.
“And no, nothing I’d consider overly scandalous,” she said, tone a little flirtatious, maybe. “Though I did hear a rumor that you broke into the arboretum again. Leads me to think you like to play with fire, a little?”
“I felt it. I felt it in your touch. Body language talks a lot if you read it.” Dick smiled brightly. He laughed at the mention of the arboretum. ”Oh yeah. Well, if you knew the kind of fire I get to play with, I think you would, too.”
He drank some more of his coffee till it was low enough in the cup that he didn’t worry about spilling it. He toed his shoes off, then leaned back and pulled his legs up in the chair, wrapping his arms around his knees. It was the easiest way he could think of to stop his leg from shaking (not that it did much).
“So how are things with Ollie going?” he asked finally, snapping his attention back to her. ”I mean, we’ve all been having some rough times, so I was hoping everything’s OK.”
“You’ve got to teach me how to do that, my friend,” Kate said, looking up, “because I am seriously, seriously impressed.” She folded her fingers around the mug, watched Dick try not to bounce around. It was actually really kind of adorable in a way. “Anyone who can get past my brain gets some serious points.”
She considered his question for a moment, the pleased look on her face fading into concern and worry. “We’re fine…him and me are fine, I’m pretty sure him and Hal are fine. But Ollie himself? He’s been better. The nanobot thing did one hell of a number on his head, more than mine or almost anyone else around here, I think. And Hal and I didn’t have the most pleasant time of it ourselves. Are you okay?”
Dick instinctively leaned forward, an unconscious effort to get closer to her and comfort her. ”Yeah, I… I think we all heard about the nanobot thing. Me? I’ve been…fine. Just trying to keep everyone else up and OK, you know? Especially Damian. He’s been closing off from me again for some reason. I think it was the nanobots, but I don’t know.”
Kate’s (perhaps rather cynical and broken) rational mind told her no one could possibly be as honestly goddamn nice as Dick Grayson. The rest of her, which won out, told her to hell with it—maybe he had some metahuman empathy stuff going on.
She leaned into him a little, lips pressing into what might have been a worried smile. “True, dealing with other people’s pain can be almost as hard. And when you’ve got more than one person to help…” Leaning into his arm, she closed her eyes for a moment, thinking. “With Damian…I don’t know him, but I think he’s got more than his share of issues. Nanobots may be the least of his worries—he’s as attuned to station gossip as the rest of us, Dick, but he doesn’t have the full life experience and emotional maturity to work out the implications.”
Dick put a hand on her, gently stroking her arm. ”I know. And I just…sometimes I forget that he’s only ten and then I worry about what I’m telling him, but then I remember he’s only ten and I just want to treat him like my tiny baby brother and cuddle him, and then he threatens bodily harm and I know he could do it.”
He sighed, leaning against her. ”My family’s so weird.”
Kate couldn’t help but laugh, a little, but only in agreement, not actually at Dick or the situation. “I hear that. Mine’s not quite like that, but it’s pretty twisted, except for my son and my ex. I’m glad Ramsey’s an eight year-old who acts eight…”
She patted his shoulder, though only in comfort, not to patronize him. “It’s got to be hard for you to figure out what the balance is going to be between showing him you care and letting him have the space he demands. Too much space and you end up making things worse.”
Dick smiled sadly. ”I know. That’s what’s wrong with him and Bruce, I think. He either doesn’t spend any time with Damian or he spends too much time with him that’s all about ‘The Mission’ and…” He sighed. ”Sometimes I don’t know what to do. I mean, that’s why I want him to come with me, so he can have some space from Bruce, but then I think that’s not a good idea because he should be around Bruce more.
“I just don’t know.”
Letting out a long sigh, Kate pondered the best way to put her thoughts that didn’t essentially come out to a potentially offensive statement, namely Bruce Is An Emotionally Scarred And Inept Tool. She figured Dick had probably guessed anyway—the level of disagreement between Batman and Manhunter was slowly becoming Watchtower lore.
“Maybe you guys could split his time a little more…directly, instead of playing it by ear? Though I’m hardly one to talk, coming at you from a custody battle that was painful and not particularly relevant to the situation…” She smiled wryly and cocked her head to look at Dick. “You do need to keep trying, though. Even when it hurts. I wouldn’t try to normalize Damian too much by force, he’s too smart for that. But do let him run with kid stuff when he wants.”
Dick hummed mildly as he thought about what she said. ”That might work,” he said, taking a small drink. ”I mean, he definitely doesn’t like it when I make him do normal kid things, but I’ve seen him be a kid, so I know it’s there.”
He chuckled and smiled warmly at her. ”You’re really easy to talk to, you know that?”
“You should still offer, but don’t make him so much.” Kate smiled and picked up her own mug. “He’s at the point where he’s convinced he’s not an adult but still damn smarter than us, so it just seems to him like you’re patronizing him, I’d guess.”
She turned and offered Dick a bright smile in return. “It’s sort of a professionally-honed talent, sorry to say. Though I don’t just use it professionally…” There was just a slight tinge of innuendo there—slight.
“It’s a nice talent, though,” Dick said, setting down his mug. He leaned back over the arm of the chair, looking at her upside-down. His smile got a bit sharper, his innuendo senses tingling.
“When else do you use it?”
Kate laughed at his slight acrobatic movement, the tinge of interest that flared in his smile. “Thank you, I try. And I’m told I’m damn provocative. I argue pretty well, for starters…”
She winked at him. “And I’m pretty skilled at talking dirty, when the mood is right. Not to mention a talented tongue.”
Dick chuckled. ”I’ll bet! Bet you’d mean verbal-domme. Got that whole ‘commanding lawyer’ thing going.”
He bent farther back, stretching toward the floor. ”Hey, now. That makes two talented tongues.” He winked. ”And I don’t mean linguistically.”
“I’ve done it occasionally,” Kate admitted, lifting an eyebrow with a further smile, watching Dick moving almost-impossibly back. “But it’s hard to find guys who like that kind of thing just as play, not as lifestyle, which I’m so very much not into.”
She sipped from her coffee and resisted the urge to lean over and run her hand against his stomach as he bent. “Neither did I, though linguistically I do put up a good fight.”
Mmm, that stretch felt good. Dick put his hands on the ground, testing his balance. ”Aw, that’s a shame. Yeah, I couldn’t make it a lifestyle; I like being free too much.”
He laughed slightly, a little giddy from hanging upside-down. ”I couldn’t see much of it, since I was a little busy, but Ollie seemed to appreciate a bit of that talented tongue, even if it was only a kiss.”
Just looking at him move made Kate grin. Would that they all were that damn flexible. And, for that matter, otherwise flexible…
“How about this,” she suggested. “Sometime, you and me, a tongue-off. Because you seemed pretty damn good from what I could tell, though I obviously am entirely differently built, my friend.”
Dick laughed, pulling himself up onto his hands. ”That sounds absolutely wonderful. I always enjoy a good tongue lashing.”
He walked around the room on his hands, totally aware he was showing off, but not really caring. The coffee was helping him focus, but he still had a ridiculous amount of energy left. With a “hup!”, he flipped back to his feet, landing in front of Kate in a crouch.
“Hi there!”
“Oh, I bet you do,” Kate replied, her smile turning into a full-on smirk, though she was firmly trying to ignore the mental images that kept coming up. “I’ll pencil you in, then?”
Leaning back in her chair, she watched Dick wander around her room…on his hands. It was something she’d known he could do, that people could do, but it wasn’t something she’d ever seen in person just for her own benefit and his amusement. It was actually kind of entrancing in a way, because he just…moved. Like it was normal. Maybe that was what it looked like when she was in the suit.
She applauded softly, then reached down to give him a hand up—he didn’t really need it, but maybe she did. “Nicely done. I’d say show me more but there’s not that much space.”
Dick willingly accepted her hand and hopped up. ”Oh, I don’t know,” he said, looking at the room appraisingly. ”I bet I could show you more. Just need to move some things around….” He turned back to her eagerly.
“Wanna watch? I can do any trick you want.”
Kate squeezed his hand firmly, somewhere between platonic and otherwise. Dick seemed so enthusiastic about showing her more that she couldn’t help but agree. “Okay,” she said, laughing, “just move it back later. And…I don’t know any tricks, come up with something? I promise I’ll watch.”
Well, any acrobatic tricks, anyway.
Dick made a happy chirp of excitement and quickly moved the chairs and table into a corner, clearing out anything that could be in his way. He even moved Kate’s chair—with Kate in it—back, giving him plenty of room on the floor. He walked across the room, counting the paces, gauging how much space he had. Satisfied, he stopped in the center of the room and faced cat.
“Preeeeeeeesenting, for your thrill and pleasure, Dick Grayson, formerly of The Amazing Flying Graysons and care of the Gotham City Bats, will now perform a series of modest acrobatic feats, given the spatial confinements.”
He winked at her, grinning from ear to ear. With a flourish, he raised his arms above his head and launched himself into a series of back flips, landing on his feet flush against the wall. With a half-step forward, he flipped toward her, managing a double flip before landing before her in splits.
“Ta da!”
Dick was seriously, seriously impressive; considering the ‘spatial confinements’, even more so. Kate couldn’t help but put her hand to her mouth, gasping slightly as he seemed to nearly run into the wall but end up just perfectly against it.
She applauded vigorously, reaching over to shake his hand. “Seriously amazing, Mr. Grayson,” she said, grinning. “You’ve got to be one hell of a force out in the field if you can do that.”
“Why, thank you, Ms. Spencer! I do try my best!” Dick sat up on his knees, looking up at her like an expectant puppy. ”Anything else you want me to do?”
Down there? I could think of a few things, Kate thought, then mentally kicked herself in the shin. This was supposed to be friendly, getting to know you, not the Kate Spencer’s Life Turns Cinemax Hour.
“I wouldn’t know what to ask for,” she said, leaning forward to give him a bright smile. “You know way more about it than me.”
Dick leaned forward, biting his lip idly as he thought, cocking his head to the side. He really wanted to show her some of his trapeze tricks, but he wasn’t sure if they wanted to leave and risk running into people. Besides, he was really enjoying this private “Getting To Know You” time.
He scrambled back, rolling into a handstand. He spread his legs and turned around till he faced her. ”What about a ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’?” he said, smiling. ”Use that verbal-domme thing to tell me where to go.”
“I can’t just do The Voice on command, I have to be pissed off,” Kate said, laughing. “Or…you know…into it. Sort of why I only very briefly considered working in the field at all, it’s hard to turn it on and off again at will…”
She sighed, pausing a moment to consider, then pointed to the far corner. “Off that wall,” she said finally, firmly. “Then back over here, one hand behind your back, don’t you dare use it, Grayson.”
Kate was probably better at it than she thought she was.
The slight shiver that ran up Dick’s back was hard to ignore. ”Well, you might not be able to turn on The Voice at will, but you’re good at turning something else on.” He looked over at the wall, judging the distance, planning the moves in his head.
“Watch and be amazed!”
He rolled over to the corner, coming out of the roll standing on his hands with his legs braced against the wall. He made a show of picking up his left hand, waving at her before he placed it flat against his back. He pushed off from the wall.
“Allez…oop!”
He landed on his feet and launched into a quick series of flips, occasionally not using touching the ground with his hand, but never moving his left hand from his back. He landed on his feet in front of her, raising his arms in a triumphant motion.
Kate couldn’t help but grin. “You wouldn’t think that if you were facing it in cross-examination,” she retorted, but she was obviously pleased, particularly at the way Dick had reacted…
And then she stared, stunned, as he’d done it, exactly to order without a waver or a thought. It was too surprising for her to clap right away, though she did after a moment, violently and happily. “Oh, damn, Dick,” she said. “You make me look like I’m staggering down the street, on my best days.”
She was tempted to give him a kiss for his effort, and she got up to put a hand on his shoulder instead.
Dick giggled, half from her praise and half from exhilaration. He really did love showing off for people; it made him feel like the circus kid he still was.
“Aw, not at all, Kate,” he said, making a small happy noise as she touched his shoulder. ”You know how it is. I was born this way.” He laughed again and hugged her. ”But thanks!”
The hug was so terribly sweet, and Kate couldn’t help herself. She hugged him firmly. “Sometime we’ll get a room…uh, a practice room…and you can show me how you really operate,” she said. It was actually really appealing to her for reasons she couldn’t fully articulate.
“Absolutely,” Dick said, smiling. ”I’d love to get a room and show you. I’ll make sure I’m firing on all cylinders.” OK, there he actually was trying to lay on the innuendo.
“I can’t wait to show you what I can do on the trapeze. Do you want to go flying with me some time?”
“Seriously?” Kate asked, the idea tickling her…well, between that and the innuendo, she was all for it. She picked up her mug and drank the dregs of the coffee. “Oh hell yes. I’m already looking forward to it, that’d be absolutely amazing. Pencil me in.”