Lilliana felt her best when she was Bluejay. It was in the long blue wig and black mask that she was able to be herself, and live her life. As much as she loved her family, they wore her out, and this way she could live for herself. She stretched at the edge of the rooftop, feeling her uniform expand with her breath. She heard footsteps on the rooftop behind her, and turned around, her hair catching in the wind.
"Sheesh, I think your getting quicker!" Nightwing gave her a quick wink. The leather clad girl jumped down from the ledge and back onto the more spacious rooftop with a smile.
"Or perhaps your getting slower?" Lilliana joked. Practically every night for the past three years Bluejay and Nightwing had patrolled the streets of Bludhaven. The number of nights that she had patrolled alone, since his arrival, could be counted on her fingers. "Do we have anything on the books tonight, other than running laps over the city?"
"Unfortunately not. I figured we'd run into something during our little chase." Dick scrolled though his smart watch, running through a list of police calls. They both sighed.
"Well, as much as I love being out here, if it's not busy tonight I'll probably head out." Lilliana rubbed at the back of her neck, glancing out at the lights of the city. Crime has been down for a while now. Once Nightwing came into town, it took them a while to get the city gangs under control, but once they did it was a pretty quiet town.
"Why, are you getting tired of me after all this time?" Nightwing faked disapointment, and pouted while leaning over the ledge. That got a small chuckle from the blue-haired girl next to him.
"Not at 'Wing." She turned around, leaning her back against the edge. "Some nights I just so happen to like more than a few hour of sleep." Lilliana leaned her head back, and Dick watched her hair get caught in the wind. They had been working together for so long and he didn't even know her real hair color. It seemed odd to him that he trusted this girl with his life, and he knew nothing about her. Dick had asked her once, if she wanted to know who he was, in hopes that she would reveal who she was as well. She had only laughed at him, and smiled. It was the same reasoning that anyone wouldn't want their secret identity out in the open, except she had stuck to it for years now. She had always told him that he shouldn't have to know who she was in order to trust her, and that her actions should speak for themselves. Whenever he pressed her for an answer, BlueJay would shut down and become practically silent. Grayson would never want to make her uncomfortable, especially after all the villains they had fought together, so he eventually stopped asking.
"Wait, how much sleep do you normally get?" Dick questioned. He knew in their line of work you couldn't always get a full eight hours but he still wanted to make sure she wasn't being self-destructive. He looked over at his partner when she didn't awnser and saw that her eyes were closed. "Blue!" Her eyes slowly opened, showing her soft green irises.
"Give or take? Two hours or so". She bounced off of the wall and began doing some simple stretches.
"How are you even alive right now?" Dick grabbed her arm and she twisted around, fully loosening the muscle.
"By necessity. Theres only so much time in the day to get everything done and unfortunately sleep doesn't make the top 20." Dick gave a soft smirk and surveyed the street below. He was used to Bruce getting much less sleep than that a night, but at least he knew what he was doing during the day. In this line of work it was really easy to burn out, and even though he didn't know exactly who Bluejay was, he worked with her every night for so long now he wanted to make sure she woudn't crash and burn.
"Okay, but don't crash on me in the middle of a fight." Dick put put up a pair of fists and threw a couple of mock punches. Bluejay playfully knocked the punches aside, before she heard the sirens from a store down the street. Throwing her gloved hands in the air, she fist pumped and grabbed Nightwinds' shoulder.
"Lets go, lets go, lets go!" Nightwing laughed as he shot a grapple at the opposing rooftop, and grabbed Bluejay around her waist before leaping off of the rooftop. They swung down and their boots hit the paved street. Sprinting down the the shop on the corner, they saw that the glass was busted out of the front widow. Even if it was just a simple burglary, Lilliana was excited to get some action in tonight. Using her thick gloves to clear off the windowsill of any glass, the blue haired vigillante climbed through the window, Nightwing following her through the shattered glass. The shop was a low end pawn shop, with glass displays for their more treasured items.
"Blue." Nightwing gave a hushed whisper before pointing her in the direction of the back room, as he nodded his head in the opposite direction. Taking in his directions the Bluejay nodded before silently walking to the door and slowly opening it. Exposing a back room, she saw an over-crowded stock room. She ran her fingers over the dusty shelves while glancing around. Bracing herself she carefully turned the corners of the larger than expected storage unit. She paused when she noticed a particular item on one of the higher-up shelves. Carefully scaling the metal rack, she hoisted herself up to get a closer look at the item. It was a white mask, having a faint appearance to an owl She looked closer, only to flinch when the mask blinked. An unseen figure behind the mask lurched to Lilliana, effectively knocking her off the shelf. She hit the ground with a thud, and could only watch as the entire shelf collapsed on her person. Protecting her head she saw the masked figure run out of the room and into the main shop space.
"Nightwing!" She hollered for her counterpart to be aware as she began to shove pieces of product off, and tried to find something to help her leverage the metal rack off.
In the other room, the figure tried to make a dash for the broken window, only to be knocked over by a flash of black and blue. Nightwing tackled the figure through a glass case, ignoring the shards of safely glass that bounced off his face. Dick was tossed off of the masked man and into the wall. He landed on the floor and pulled out his eskrima sticks, the weapon coming to life with a blue glow, and gave one of his trademark smirks.
"Incoming!" Dick paused at the sound of Bluejay yelling from the back room as a light blue disk flew out of the open back door. The item hit the back of the criminal and a burst of electricity emitted from the disk. Lilliana appeared in the doorway, and froze once she saw the electricity bounce harmlessly off of the assailant. "Uh Nightwing, you might want to turn those up." She gave a quick point to his weapon. He fumbled for a moment before the light shone off his batons even brighter. Nightwing charged at the thief, swinging at the caped creature. The masked criminal skillfully dodged and retaliated, Nightwing managed to catch the side of the mask with his weapon. A slight crack appeared in the side of the eye. Bluejay climbed up on the counter, before throwing herself on the shoulders of the assaliant. Wrapping her knees over their shoulders, Lilliana reached to pull the mask off. As she got her fingers around the edge of the mask, her back was slammed into a wall. Her grip slipped and she was thrown off of the thief's shoulder. As she was flug through the air, she crashed right into Nightwing who was climbing over the counter. They both crashed to the floor.
"Do you come here often?" The batboy quickly flirted with the blue-haired girl that landed onto of him. Rolling her eyes, she climbed off her partner and extend her hand to pull him up with her. Looking around at the wrecked shop, they saw no trace of the figure that caused the mess. Putting her hands on her hips, Lilliana sighed and looked around.
"Geez. Who even was that?" She flipped her hair over her shoulder and walked through the front door of the shop as the police pulled up out front. She walked over to one of the officers and gave a short explanation of what happened, before walking back around to Nightwing to finish their conversation.
"I need to talk to the Bat to be sure, but I can tell you that mask probably isn't the best thing."
"Well that was oddly cryptic." Lilliana looked at Nightwing through the side of her eye. The costumed boy rubbed the back of his neck.
"As soon as I know for sure I'll let you know, but other wise I'm not one to crumple the entire infrastructure of a city lightly." Lilliana reached up and poked his nose playfully.
"Your such a drama queen." She chucked and turned away attempting to cover a yawn.
"And your exhausted." Nightwing took a glance at a clock outside of a bank, it read 3:37am . "Come on Blue, it's getting late. Also, I'm pretty sure we've seen the biggest event of the night." Clenching her jaw, Bluejay turned back around.
"I'm fine," she glanced over at the watch as well.
"Well I'm going to head out. I got class tomorrow what about you?" Nightwing peered at his companion, as he pulled out a grapple.
"You know what. I think I'm pretty tired after all." Lilliana turned around and began down the street. "Goodnight Nightwing."
Alright y'all! The next chapter is really going to delve into the character of the Monroe family. So let me know what you think of Lilliana and Bluejay!