I Do Not Own DC Comics, Movies/TV, or Animation
Impersonal Routine...
Bruce stood in a nice townhouse, staring out at the dreary Gotham weather, his hands shoved in his pockets as he waited patiently for his business partner to get here. It had been many years since he'd been forced into a corner like this, but he was never one to turn back on a debt.
And what Lucifer Morningstar had done for him could never truly be repaid, however he was here.
"Relax, you're too tense," his wife said behind him. Bruce glanced at the mother of four of his elven children, her finger slid into his and he pulled her closer as he kissed her temple. He was thankful for Cat since he was twelve years old, even if they had an overly complicated relationship that had always been solid and shaky at the same time.
"We'll hear him out, he's a good man," Selina said as she rested her chin on his shoulder.
"And if I can't give him what he wants?" Bruce asked her. He feared Lucifer had come, come for one of his children, and that was something that terrified Bruce to no end.
"He's not taking the kids," Cat growled lowly. He squeezed her hand and watched as a black Audi pulled up. An older man, with white hair got out when a young woman with a scarred face got the car door for him. Bruce released Selina and walked to his study where he waited. It took five minutes before his eldest daughter walked in with the Devil himself behind her.
"Mr. Morningstar," he acknowledged as Cass slipped out of the room.
"I've come to collect your debt Mr. Wayne," Lucifer said as he sat. The old man stared him in the eye with dark eyes, and Bruce frowned.
"And what do you want?"
"I want you to find my granddaughter."
Jason was scrolling through his texts, from Dickhead, Roy, Arty, Rose, Cass, Tim, Chris, Tiger, Artemis, demon spawn I, demon spawn II, Eddie, Connor, B, Cat, Joey, he sighed and shut off his phone as he stuffed it in his pocket before walking into the café. It wasn't that important of a thing, and yeah, there was a big shipment to move, and logistics to coordinate, also subordinates to deal with, but Jason just wanted his fucking coffee!
Anyone who thought being a crime lord meant he was an entity who did not require sleep or coffee, they were wrong. He might not have been as needy about his caffeine as Tim, but he needed the caffeine. And it was six in the fucking morning, he wasn't dealing with this shit! Not without coffee.
Jason came to his favorite café, the one with the best coffee he had ever had, and walked in. He kept his cap low, so as to not attract attention of people, he didn't like people staring at his face, it made him uncomfortable.
He nodded at a regular who looked up at him.
Her black hair was short and messy her large dark eyes were showing signs of sleeplessness, her pale skin looked rather grey and he thought she needed the coffee more than he did.
"No sleep?" he asked.
"Deadline," she answered.
"Ah," he nodded as they shuffled in the crowd towards the register.
"What about you?" she yawned hugely.
"Big project," he answered. Also Rose was in town, which had lead romp in the sheets.
"No sleep for the wicked then," the girl sighed.
"Guess not," he chuckled as they continued shuffling forward.
She and he had been regulars here for as long as he had been coming to this café. Which was since he had come to the NYC branch of the Bats. And he was guessing she was here before him. Mentally he had dubbed her little bird, she reminded him of one, and she was of his morning routine. They always showed up, at six on the weekdays, eight on the weekends, had a polite conversation as they muscled their way to the counter for their orders. She would order one for sure, sometimes three, rarely more than four. Hers was a simple order: vanilla latte, heavy on the vanilla, no expense spared on her vanilla. Weekends, she ordered tea, a London Fog, whatever that was.
Then they'd get their orders, he'd hold the door open as she left, and they'd part ways.
It was routine.
The small talk was nice, something he looked forward to, since she didn't stare at his scar or tremble in fear like everyone else. It was just small talk, off handed comments about sleep, or books, a conversation about a tv show she was engrossed in, or a drama with a friend, all vague and personable. It was nice, something he liked, he could even bitch about his brothers and sisters to her and not worry about it getting back to them, as it was all vague and personable small talk.
It was a twenty minute, standing routine he carved out of his days for his morning caffeine fix and daily dose of small talk.
It was pleasant.
Impersonal.
Routine.
"How's the cat?" he asked.
"You remember?"
"Yeah, you wouldn't shut up about it," he yawned.
"I named him, officially," she smiled tiredly.
"No shit?"
"Yeah, Sylvester," she chuckled softly.
"Damn."
"He's the devil incarnated," she swore. Then they were at the counter, she put her orders in, three today, her other two regular orders. A caramel coma inducing coffee with milk instead of cream, then a four shot expresso macchiato with enough caramel and chocolate to have him recoiling. He didn't know who those were for, but he had a feeling it had to do with her friends. "How's your dad?"
"Stressing, big project at work," he replied after he place his order; coffee black with a shot of expresso.
"That's not good," she decided as she shouldered her bag; it wasn't a purse really, so much as a Mary Poppin's bag, the woman seemed to have everything in there.
"It'll work out, mom's good at getting him out of his head," he admitted.
"That's good. You have a mark on your… oh, it's a hickey," she blurted out, and her face pinkened.
"Damn it," he muttered. "Is it bad?"
"No, just uh… use the collar up," she said and gestured on herself as she motioned lifting the collar up. He sighed and did as she suggested, he waited until she nodded and smiled a bit. "Better, You look better for your job now."
"More presentable for the meetings," he countered, and made a note to pay Rose back for the hickey. Her order and his were called out simultaneously and he watched as she grabbed the drink carrier, he followed as they made it to the door.
"See you tomorrow! Good luck in your meetings!" she smiled slightly.
"See ya, good luck with work," he added as he got the door for her and she slipped out under his arm and they parted ways. It was all too familiar, impersonal, and routine, it was also the only welcomed interaction of his day. His phone rang as he took a sipp of the hot coffee and walked through the autumn spitting shower.
"What is it?" he asked noting it was Dickhead's number.
"Dad's calling us back to Gotham."
"Can't I got that shipment coming in from Cobblepot," he said.
"Get Artemis to cover, this is a family emergency," Dick said.
"Next time, start with he family emergency, I'll be in Gotham by noon," he said looking at his watch.
Raven had long since been going to that café, and as long as it was open she'd be going. They were the only ones to ever get her order right; that's right, Starbucks had fucked her simple order up so much that she stuck to a small, out of her way café that made her leave her house at five thirty to get there at six to get to work by six thirty, which was perfect. It was a half an hour walk from her apartment, but it was a ten minute walk to her job.
The café might have been slower at serving people, crowded, stuffy, and filled with staff that she didn't always want to deal with, but five years of going there through college and she had never had better coffee. Even three years ago when Jay had started showing up.
She had long since dubbed Mr. Sexy Muscles Jay, and part of it did have to do with the J carved into his right cheek. But she wasn't about to call him Mr. Sexy Muscles, despite being incredibly handsome. Though she would admit the scar had been intimidating when she had first seen him, but three years of this impersonal, personal relationship they had standing and she could admit he was nothing if not a gentleman. And a complete mystery.
Raven loved it!
She liked having an impersonal stranger she could talk to, who didn't know her and she didn't know him, and she didn't have to deal with all the drama of actually being friends with him. It was also nice that he was brutally honest with her, like about her situation about liking Garth but being unable to actually act on it because it was Garth and he was so beyond her league.
"I have the coffee," she announce walking into Lantern's Comics. She was a writer here, and she was a freelance ghost writer, but as Kyle and Jessica worked here this was where she tried to keep her main job. Though Hal wasn't on about hiring as a full on writer for his comics about Oa, they were a huge hit with this generation. She had grown up on Oa comics.
"Thank the gods! You are the best Rae," Kyle sighed as he grabbed his.
"I pulled another all nighter, I don't want coffee, I was sleep and my pokemon," Jessica whimpered into her desk.
"We finish this, then we're set," Raven predicted as she sat down and they got to work on finishing their deadline. The three of them were a team, Kyle the color artist, Jessica the line art artist, and Raven the writer/editor for their little comic. They had met in college, Jessica had been Raven's roommate and Kyle had joined their group for an art project, things had never parted them and they just sort of kept working together. They no longer lived together but they met up Kyle's bar, Warrior a lot. Raven lived over a bookstore, and Jessica lived over a garage where her mechanic neighbor drove her nuts. But it was that or live with her sister, so Jessica picked the apartment she was in.
"Raven!" Hal shouted.
"On it!" Raven hurried up to the boss' office then.
Jason sat in the Gotham townhouse his many siblings there and he stared dumbfoundedly at his father, and mother. His mom's hand was clasping his shoulder tightly as she lounged on the armrest beside him.
"You want us to find a unicorn," Dick deduced flippantly.
"Why?" he whispered.
"What?"
"Why would you ask him?" Jason asked.
"The Joker had you," Bruce stated icily.
"But the madman was worth making a deal with him!?" Jason roared surging to his feet. Lucifer Morningstar, the most ruthless, powerful, mobster in Europe! And Africa! Also having ties in Asia! The man's global enterprise was a well oiled, never ceasing beast of a machine! Something built in the after math ruins of World War II and thrived in the Cold War, bloomed in the conflicts of Desert Storm and the hells of the recent wars. Lucifer, nicknamed the Devil, had never been more accurately nicknamed. A man with more power than the President or Lex Luthor, he was the most powerful crime lord ever to come into power.
"Yes! Jason! You were offering him anything he wanted!" Bruce roared back.
"So how are we to find his grandchild?" Tim asked.
"We start with Slade's wife as Slade killed Ddrez Skath Morningstar for Arella," Cat said. "We start, with Arella."
"What exactly did Lucifer want?" Jason grounded out.
"He wants an heir, whoever finds the heir will have his alliance." Bruce stated.
Hello everyone!
No, I'm not dead, yet. Yes, I've Got the Umbrella is getting another update, I've actually managed to write a collection of words for the next chapter that finally don't feel like a word vomit, so that should be up in a few days. I'm a terrible, terrible person, but we'll just add this little fic to the list of reasons why I'm terrible, and the guidelines for how this little AU works is on my Ao3 account; same name, I'll write it when I can but it'll be eradicate and irregular at best.
And in other news, I have not forgotten about Things Found in the Dark or A Precious Gem, those will be getting updates again; soon.
And I will be returning to Naruto's fandom, after the completion of Never Be the Same, and closing out the Until the Day I... Series, for real this go around. No avoiding it. So please, be patient with me as I practice being a juggler.
That's all for now folks!
Enjoy Devil's Deal 😈