Title: Eyes.
Disclaimer: I don't own Batman Beyond, I make no money from writing this and none of the characters are mine. There, I said it!
Okay, this is just a sort of drabble one-shot collection between my favorite characters in Batman Beyond. Be warned, there is slight JLU crossing, but it's from the same time line and I really needed it.
Warning: If you're not open-minded on pairings and the like, turn back around. If you are, enjoy the ride.
And that was the day that I promised,
I'd never sing of love,
If it does not exist.
-Paramore.
1.
Grayish blue eyes stared across the lowly lit room at gentler, cleaner blue eyes and Ghoul wondered internally if he had made a phenomenal mistake by bringing Melanie to the factory.
They had been going out, not as a romantic item but as friends who had met in her place of work, since a month ago. They had intelligent conversations and he had already been to her tiny apartment and met her extremely protective big brother. He was well aware that Jack didn't seem to like him, but Melanie had said that was just the young man's way; after all, she was his only sister and the only member of their family that he actually felt affection for.
So, feeling that little part of his up-bringing that told him to be polite, he had invited her to his "humble home" for a small snack while he changed into less conspicuous clothes. He knew that only Woof and Deidre would be there, on account of Delia having a date with J-Man and Chucko nosing around for a heist for them. It wouldn't be dangerous or uncomfortable for the small blond waitress and he wouldn't be too antsy while he got dressed.
Woof, as it turned out, was elsewhere and only Deidre was in the factory, baking and not expecting to meet someone Ghoul hadn't even mentioned.
Ghoul, genius and savvy as he was, sat Melanie down in the living area. It wasn't like the other Jolly Jack factory that had been gutted into oblivion by the Joker a few months ago with the laser; it was still where the manufacturing had been, but the Jokerz had put in the effort to actually clean it and add carpeting, furniture and best yet, a TV with pirated signals. The living area was directly connected to the kitchen because they had ripped out the wall that blocked it out so when they had meetings for plans and the like, whoever was cooking wouldn't miss anything.
As it was, since the couch nearly faced the kitchen, Melanie was left to stare at the TV with the uncomfortable feeling of Deidre looking at her, unblinkingly, as she prepared the gangs' dinner and desert. Absently, Melanie tilted her head to get a better look at the clown girl—not wearing makeup—and flinched when she saw that the one inch taller girl had put both the trays of food she'd been stirring when Melanie and Ghoul had come in, into the oven and was just leaning against the counter, observing Melanie in a fashion similar of a large cat and how it would look at a dog of the same height. Not exactly menacing, but definitely calculating. Melanie decided she didn't like it.
Melanie had been watched like that before, with her parents and it was something that, even after years, she couldn't get used to. Only, in this situation it was understandable. With her parents, she and Jack had both been watched obsessively to make sure they didn't make even a small mistake, make sure they didn't get the others caught for screwing up. With the extremely long haired blonde, Melanie had the feeling that it was a habit to make sure that the clown girl and the others wouldn't be threatened by this tiny young woman Ghoul had brought in out of the blue.
What was Ghoul doing that could take this long?
She picked at a loose string coming out of the very old couch, trying to ignore the other female. The TV was showing scenes from an old movie Melanie had seen once when she was very little. She tried to pay attention to the animation, enjoy it even. Until Deidre moved from her spot in Melanie's peripheral vision and the bottom fell out of her stomach with the feeling of the Deed taking a seat in the solid as a rock oak chair to Melanie's right.
"So," voice cool and noticeably more level than any other voice Melanie had ever heard, spoke for the first time since the waitress had entered the factory, "You're a friend of Ghoul?"
Darker blue eyes looked again into chilling and lighter blue eyes as Melanie answered as best she could, "As far as I know."
Long legs crossed, giving Melanie a look at tiny bare feet so similar to her own, blue veins prominent because of the freezing factory air that hugged the floor. The youngest Walker child shivered despite herself, arms folding when she actually noted that Deidre was only wearing her usual white shorts and a simple black shirt that actually should have been worn by a man adorned with tiny splatters of brownie mix. Melanie herself was still cold in the same thick brown jacket Terry had given her on their second meeting under the big clock, so she wondered how the other could stand it.
"Do you consider him your own friend?"
The question was serious.
Melanie leaned up and tried to piece her words carefully. Ghoul had said once that of the Deeds, Deidre was the nice one, but given provocation, she could actually be worse than her sister.
Of all the people in their small group, Ghoul spoke fondly of only Woof, his best friend, and Deidre. Woof was always nice to girls for some reason that the blond male hadn't spoken of yet, so Melanie somehow looked forward to meeting him, but Deidre was spoken of in a reserved tone and with a sense that to Ghoul, the younger twin was the only representative of common sense in the Jokerz besides Ghoul himself.
"I…" Melanie hesitated a moment, but spoke with conviction after a moment, "Yes. I think he's my friend."
Like some sort of magic, the mood in the room changed and Deidre cracked a heartfelt smile; blond hair that was brighter than Melanie's own and wispy as a spider's web flickered over her bony shoulders as Deidre stood from her chair and, with no pressure and with ease, the clown girl patted the other on the head, spinning on her heel and going back into the kitchen as Melanie finally (FINALLY) heard Ghoul coming out from his bedroom.
"Good for you. Do you two want some brownies, Ghoul?" Deidre asked without turning around from her bent position as she fitted her oven mitts over her hands.
So focused on the clown girl she was, Melanie practically jumped out of her own skin as Ghoul took his spot to Melanie's left side of the couch and answered, "Sure, Deidre."
The Walker girl turned and blinked. Ghoul wasn't wearing his costume, but a simple pair of slightly ripped black jeans with a tiny chain attached to the waist and a shirt identical to the one that Deidre was wearing, save for the fact that it was dark grey instead of black. A smile of her own twitched over her face at the realization that either the rugged young man had given Deidre one of his own shirts or she had stolen it of her own volition.
Ghoul turned his eyes from the TV and back to Melanie, eyebrow raised, "You're still alive, so I assume she didn't say anything embarrassing. What were you guys talking about?"
"That's between us," Melanie chirped, happy.
"Oh, girl talk," He snorted, hands grasping the battered serving tray holding a small pile of brownies as Deidre handed it to him and then walked back into the kitchen to give them some privacy. Deidre was nice that way.
"Not exactly. She just wanted an answer to a question, that's all."
"What did the question involve?" The grey skinned young man inquired around the smallest brownie that he could pop into his mouth. He had to hold back sighing in appreciation when the flavor hit his taste buds. By God, Deidre made good brownies.
Melanie hesitantly took one of the smaller brownies for herself and as she chewed it (the taste was better than even the expensive deserts her parents had bought overseas) she spoke almost slyly. Though, with her personality, and her voice, that seemed almost an impossible, but stranger things had happened to Ghoul since he'd left his high class home and started living among people his family had seen as less than street trash. He didn't even bat an eye when she leaned in and spoke low and soft so the taller girl wouldn't hear while she took another pan out of the oven.
"I think she wanted to know if I was using you."
"…You?" He asked, fake accent making him sound less amused at the thought than he actually was.
She nodded and both leaned back into the couch cushions, each taking another brownie into their mouths and just sitting in comfortable silence. The sounds of banging pots and pans continued from the kitchen, but it was more subdued than it had been earlier, less irritated somehow.
2.
White eyes unlike those she had seen on costumed Rogues stared curiously at her as Melanie set the groceries she and Deidre had bought for Ghoul's small group onto the counter top. Woof's head tilted and made him look in a way that was not so creepy as it should have been and he clicked off the TV in favor of sitting up and making a questioning sound towards Ghoul.
The sopping wet computer expert made a little shrug and introduced the Walker girl to his best friend in a way so reminiscent of a famous and still cherished Nicholson movie while removing his rain drenched trench coat and scarecrow hat at the same time.
"Woof, this is Melanie the waitress. Melanie, this is Woof the splicer and our resident guard."
Woof held out his clawed hand in a motion of greeting. He didn't expect the regal looking blond to actually accept the hand, but was pleasantly surprised when she did and even gave it a gently shake.
When releasing their hands, Woof offered his seat to the petite young woman and, after she accepted, he offered her the remote. Again she accepted and soon, with some of the food Ghoul and Deidre baked (that wasn't charred by the blond male) they all were settled and watching an ancient documentary about the British Monarchy. They weren't bothered for that night by Delia or Chucko and that was probably why they all would remember the night many years later as their first time spent together.
3.
"You don't have to go back if you don't want to."
The face belonging to the voice that often, to Deidre at least, looked hard and demonic had changed into something more human. Something she could relate to and helped her adrenaline level go down just enough for her to stop shaking a little and cease trying to pull her tiny hand from the Tomorrow Knight's grasp. His voice was menacing as ever, but his mask had become a little gentle at the sight of her ocean cleaned face with the bruising all over the left side and the marks she had gotten from her only relative left in the world.
She just stood staring at Batman for a moment, thoughts so disorganized she was sure that she'd pass out from the dizziness and red haired wig washing with the tide up to his and her feet.
"I…" she choked a little on her words as emotion came flooding through her systems, "I know. But she is my sister."
"Doesn't mean you should throw away your life trying to fix her," Batman reasoned. His own hand loosened its hold on her and he was silently glad that she didn't take the opportunity to go running into the darkness of the woods along the shore to escape him. He was also silently pleased to think she was one of the few Rogues that knew better.
Grey/blue eyes seeped just the tiniest of tears. If she recalled correctly, her grandmother had said that she'd had this same discussion with the first Batman too many times to count and it almost always ended the same way.
You're wrong, my Puddin' does love me, he does…
That was a long time ago, he's changed…
It's just a joke…
Okay, so he roughed the kid up a little, but I'll make it right…
Long blond hair, dampened, bloody and a little ratty from the tide, spilled over her shoulders as Deidre leaned her head onto the red bat symbol and almost gave Batman a heart attack when she let out a heart-rending sob and spoke in only the barest whisper.
"Tell me what to do and I'll do it."
4.
Good and Evil often wear each other's clothes.
That was a phrase Ghoul had found on the internet when he was only ten and it had stuck with him forever. He didn't entirely understand it, even while living with his family, but now it made a heck of a lot of sense.
Woof stood in front of Melanie, the little waitress and apparently ex-thief shaking terribly and holding her brother and the reddening slap mark across her face, growling and snarling and foaming at the mouth while Ghoul just glared at the Walker children's parents. Albeit with a laughing gas pistol and tazer in hand, but still just glaring.
The King and Queen of the Royal Flush Gang stood in the Jokerz living room looking as if they had done nothing wrong by hitting one of their own children. Both were dressed prim and proper and stared at Jack and Melanie as if they were scum because they were wearing simple, inexpensive clothes that any normal teen would wear. Ghoul had never appreciated the phrase from his childhood more than he ever did then.
"Ten, Jack," The King, tall and stern, spoke nonchalantly in that rock hard tone he always did, "Get whatever things you need out of this filthy place. We're leaving now."
Both the Walker children, after months of pulling themselves out of the shadows of their family legacy, almost would have done exactly as the tall, rigid man demanded. Almost.
"Melanie," Ghoul said, voice strong and accent causing the two adults to look at him with sneers, "Do you really want to go with them? If you don't, just say so."
Blue eyes, ones that Ghoul often felt he could fall into like the sea and just wade through into eternity, flickered, lit and took strength from his words. How strange it was, but it worked and she removed her own hand from her cheek, red mark prominent and growing but no longer any bother. Jack understood as well and gave a wolfish grin in pride as his sister spoke.
"Go away," she said, strong and sure, "You're not welcome in this house."
Both King and Queen had the same emotion, perhaps for the first time in a very long time, years on years, cross their marble faces at their daughter's words. There perhaps was no word for it, but if there was one that existed what a word it would be when two faces turn a feverish red, eyes go wide and raged and mouths clamp shut tight. What an emotion that would be to name.
Woof cackled as the two left.
5.
Wings of black that raised with such strength and pride it was frightening threw a shadow over the small figure crouched under one of the Watchtower's lunch tables and somehow, Warhawk felt he was missing something.
Kai-ro's green energy lifted Batman from where he and the clown girl had landed, ever careful with the battered and unconscious figure and left Rex to do whatever he thought would be protocol with an intruder.
The littlest Green Lantern ever, however, missed the eyes that, though fearful and keeping the half-Thanagarian in her peripheral at all times, watched him from the time he picked up the Tomorrow Knight to when his shadow disappeared into the hall that led to the medical bay. When both were gone, blue-grey eyes flicked instantly back to Warhawk and Dee Dee's small form tensed from its shaking at the cold, calculating and all too frightening look of green eyes hidden with a helmet made to make them look red.
The first step toward her that he took was met with her hitting her head on the table and shrinking back inwards, back hitting one of the chairs as well. It was actually rather funny and Rex barely caught himself from laughing when she clutched at her head where it impacted, her wig missing from when she went sprinting from the transport deck with the injured Batman no more than half an hour ago. He remembered it falling off when she almost collided with Barda and went screaming into the lunch room. It was probably still out in the hall.
"How did you get here with Batman?" Warhawk finally asked, tired of the silence and wanting to find out if she would co-operate so he wouldn't have to yank her from under the tables like a pet owner.
"I-I tricked the computers into accidentally transporting us with his comm. link," she answered with a slight stutter.
Something in that statement didn't add up and, despite his back getting a slight twitch with the action, he moved to one knee on the floor so he could be almost eye to eye with one of the twins that gave the new Batman such a hard time, "Why did you think you could storm the Watchtower yourself with Batman as your hostage? What were you looking for?"
She blinked up at him, "Hostage? I think you misunderstand."
"Oh? And why's that?"
"I didn't intend to come up here with him," she stated truthfully, "I just wanted to make sure he got the right medical attention. I just sort of, well, screwed up the transportation codes and ended up here…"
…Oh, this was one of the weirdest conversations with a Rogue that he'd ever had.
6.
Ghoul, eyes no longer blackened by makeup and general appearance a great deal healthier since teen-hood, felt all the air he was processing stop altogether as Ten sighed happily, if not completely exhausted, and handed the still long haired man their sleeping daughter.
Jack and Woof had left the now sterile hospital room right after seeing the little baby girl, both grinning in pride at their friend and sister's creation, but unwilling to stay for another few hours while the doctor waited for the placenta to come out and stitch up the few rips she'd gotten during the birth. It had made Jack pass out when he went into the room to see his sister pushing, he'd probably throw up all over the newborn if he stayed around for the after-effects. And nobody wanted something like that.
Gently and ever careful, Ghoul took his baby from Melanie, the small blond woman finally settling into the realm of sleep once she was sure the tall man had a handle on this. Her brow relaxed and all the wrinkles faded away as she laid her head down.
The JLU's new computer expert/hacker looked over his equally asleep baby girl, memorizing every detail of her that he could see.
Her face was serene and small like her mother, with a pale complexion and equally white blond hair that was only just beginning to form at her bangs. Earlier, when she had been crying from being thrust into the world, he had seen her dark blue eyes that would either stay the color of a dark ocean or turn into his endless midnight black. Either way, she was perfect, with absolutely nothing wrong.
7.
"So Darling," Terry spoke seriously, the Batman suit losing its effect of menace as he looked at the pair of tiny newborns in his arms that Deidre had found in her sister's old hide-out and brought to him in a panic in the Batcave, "What are you going to do with them?"
Head still clutched in her hands, the images of finding the early born identical twins in the freezing cold factory that was Delia's old place of mischief in a pile of bloody clothes racing through her mind, Deidre looked up at the sound of her new name on the Tomorrow Knight's lips. Her eyes seemed to shrink again at the sight of what were most definitely her nieces in his black shrouded arms in a fresh set of blue towels Bruce had started keeping in the cave a long time before he retired. Their little heads conformed to Terry's chest and the blond hair on both of their heads brushed against his Kevlar.
"…Keep them I suppose. Half of their DNA will match me perfectly and the hospital won't ask any questions if I say it was a home birth out of town. They no doubt also belong to J-Man, but since he's been MIA for months, I doubt he'll pose any problem."
Terry's eyebrows rose fantastically when his mind went out of the shock of her matter-of-fact speaking and actually took in how serious she was.
"Uh-huh," he finally said after a few moments. One of the little girls, the one in his left arm with the tiny cut at her temple from whatever Delia had used to deliver them, woke up and looked over at the one female on the planet that was genetically compatible for the twins, blue eyes widening and started fidgeting. Terry gave a sad little smile at the one who woke up and handed her to her aunt/soon to be mother whom hesitated for only the briefest of moments before accepting her and settling her into the crook of her collarbone.
The baby quickly settled down, as if certain that she was with her real mother and he spoke up with a question that had been echoing since the dawn of time, "What are you going to name them?"
The smile that formed at the question was small and slow to form, but it came to life on her lips and she answered relatively quickly, "Twin girls, twin names. I think I'll call them…Iris and Irene."
"That's pretty."
"Mm."
Silence, though comfortable silence, reigned for a few moments until Deidre spoke up again, voice regaining some of its vigor back, "Want to make a bet that they'll end up dating your sons?"
"Don't even—"