Chapter 5: A Kat's First kiss
Dedication: Parachute – Kiss me slowly
Disclaimer: I do own Batman or anything associated with DC and Marvel. It starts out slow, so please bear with it till later chapters.
Alfred was preparing dinner when the new Master Richard came through the door. That day Master Bruce decided it was better that he pick Dick up from school. Alfred knew that he was starting to care for the boy more than he was willing to admit. Little Miss Georgiana was currently next to him pretending to help him, but he knew from experience that she was there only for the cookies.
"Miss Georgiana, please put those back from where you took them. You'll ruin your appetite." Little Ana caught red handed dropped the cookie back in its jar and grinned sheepishly at Alfred. The old man was starting to catch on way too quick after the few years that she lived there, but that was why she loved him more and more for it, he was like a grandfather to her.
"Sorry."
The kitchen door creaked open and in came Bruce and little Dick, only that the boy didn't seem all that well, observed Alfred. Georgiana gasped in shock as they both turned to her. Half of Dick's face was swollen, his lip split with blood and one of his eyes had such a deep shade of purple some would mistake it for black, he could barely keep his eye half open.
"Master Bruce! Might I inquire what has happened?" asked Alfred setting the towel he had in his hands back on the counter. At the same time Georgiana ran to Richard fussing over him, making the boy sulk even more than he already did, phrases of "Stop it!" or "I said I was fine." being deciphered on the boys lips from time to time, but the blonde was unrelenting.
Bruce sighed. "He got into a fight. Another boy seems to have insulted him and as a response Dick attacked him. This is the result" retold Bruce waving his hand towards Dick and continued. "and a 5 day suspension, as well as being grounded for a month."
Dick's face darkened at Bruce words and yelled in rage at him startling Georgiana.
"That was not my fault and you know it! He was the one that…that…" he trembled at his words, but Bruce was no more impressed.
"The fact that you jumped to a fight so fast is reason for you to be punished and learn from your mistakes. Now I would like you to go to your room and only come down for dinner."
"Fine!" and he retreated up the stairs.
"Richard! Richard, wait!" but the boy ignored her. She turned to Alfred and her father in hope of some real answers, but none of them appeared to give importance to anything at the moment. Thus since the tension in the room was so thick, she preferred to retreat to her own room till a latter time.
"Let us hope that that was a good answer to young Dick problems, Master Bruce."
"I hope so too, Alfred. I hope so too." The fact that the man might have made an error when dealing with the boy remained hanging in the air.
Thou night came and dinner passed, a certain Dick Grayson gave no sign of life. Both adults were slightly concerned about him, but conceded with Alfred checking on him after dinner. He was not in his room. There was no sign of him having run away and after verifying his detectors, Bruce was relieved to find him still under the mansions roof. The two decided to leave him alone to cool off until the next morning then have a talk with him. He also gave a stern lecture to the only girl in the house to not disturb him in his brooding period. She obviously wouldn't listen, he need not know after all.
The problem was that he truly was nowhere in the house. Not in the pantry, not in the garage, not in the game room, heck not even in her room. Hmm, where could he have gone? "Aha!" she knew, she definitely knew what the bird had been up to. It was so obvious, even to her, a small little girl.
He was a former acrobat from a circus. His mother's nickname for him was Robin, a fact not even Bruce or Alfred knew. He loved the height, he loved the night, he was a bird bursting in his need for freedom. The only thing she didn't know was which window he used. The Wayne Manor had 104 rooms of which about half or less of those had a connection to one part of the roof. This would surely be difficult, she mused. The only way to find out which one he used exactly was to try all of them, just her luck. It took almost 2 hours and a trip to her room curtsey of both Bruce and Alfred to finally find him.
"There you are!" Georgiana exclaimed hanging out of a second floor closet window. She barely found the room. If she hadn't tripped on the carpet in her run, she would most definitely have ignored the enclosed space. "Why does a closet have a window anyway?" the question was murmured, more of a self note for further study into it. Yes, later, later, now there are more important things to worry about. She climbed out the window as well and making a few careful steps settled herself next to Richard.
"What happened? Why are you here?" but either the boy didn't hear her or just didn't care and was ignoring her. She seemed dazed in a way, as if the world had crashed onto his shoulders and was now trying his hardest not to care or simply didn't know what to do. After more silence, Georgiana moved her gaze from him and simply looked in the same direction he was. The Wayne estate stretched out from there, all of its ground and trees and plains and bushes and just beyond that, Gotham. It looked like a nice, beautiful city from there, nothing disturbing about it, just quiet and peaceful. They both knew the opposite. While the girl didn't have any bad experiences in Gotham herself, she always saw the catastrophes on the news and Richard, poor Richard, experienced it first hand with the death of his parents.
"The other guy said that both I and my parents were nothing but circus freaks and that they deserved to die." Her face suddenly wiped around to him in shock, the movement so fast that her neck creaked at the strain and a sudden painful jolt started settling in at the base of her throat that might possibly bruise tomorrow. He spoke so softly that she almost didn't hear; if she hadn't been right next to him at the time, she wouldn't have.
"I couldn't just let him say whatever he wanted. I thought Bruce understood that. I believed that I would someday avenge my parent's murder and I don't know…thought that maybe now that I was living here, I was actually living among people that understood and supported me. While I understand why Bruce isn't really that close to anyone and I respect that, in fact, if he was acting all parent-y, I would have left this place a long time ago, still…Bruce isn't the person I thought he was and I don't know if I want to stay here anymore. This so not 'aster…" Georgiana smiled, she loved his occasional weird use of words.
Once upon a time she faced the same problem. Who would want to live with a drunken rich guy that didn't care about anything other than his next drink and the next dame to grace his bed, but she knew now he wasn't like that. She knew what he did at night. Her curiosity got the better of her and one way or another discovered the bat cave accidentally. How Bruce still didn't know about that was a mystery, maybe he did and he just didn't say anything. All the more reason to work hard and have him acknowledge her and maybe one day she would be his very own partner, the first among many. Until then she wouldn't tell a soul of the secret she knew.
She took a deep breath, cheery at the topic. This might make Richard annoyed, but she didn't care, Bruce was more than he though and she had to make him understand without revealing too much.
"Maybe you should give it another change."That got his attention at least. "I mean, you've been here only half a year. Daddy has a hard time dealing with things, but he is doing it in his own way. Not necessarily the way you think he is. Who knows, maybe you'll discover a whole new side to him. I've lived with him for 3 year and I still don't know everything about, but from time to time he shows potential."
"3 years? I thought it was only 2." The blonde was a bit miffed.
"I'm actually 7 you know, only a year and a half younger than you."
Dick was shocked. "You mean your birthday passed recently?"
"Yeah, but we don't really celebrate it since we don't know exactly when my birthday is, so daddy and Alfred keep the prospect open in case we find out about my past someday. Anyway, the thing is that even with its ups and down, I'm happy. I would also like to have my family with me, my mom, my dad, my sister, but I'm glad that I get to stay with you guys when my family isn't around anymore." Richard became pensive once more. He was sad now, most likely thinking once again about his family. Georgiana didn't say anything, the silence more of a silent comfort than any pity words would prove to be.
"I saw dad and another lady doing those strange things again today." While pity words she couldn't provide, changing the subject was a thing she was good at. Maybe lighting the mood was good for her new big brother.
"You mean kissing." The boy turned to her a confused look on his face. She just stared back at him curios to learn more.
"Is that what it's called? How do you know?"
"My mom and dad did it all the time. Dad explained to me that it's something people that love each other do." This just got her more curios and confused.
"You mean the way we love one another?" Richard pondered the question for a few seconds before responding unsure.
"I…guess." Georgiana was all the more miffed. She knew that her new dad and all those ladies he sauntered around didn't love each other. She never saw one of them more than once, that couldn't be love, now could it? "But dad and all of those ladies don't love each other, do they? If they did we wouldn't see them around here only once, would we."
"I guess you're right, but why do people kiss then?" Aaa, children and the mysteries of kissing.
Georgiana shook her head, she barely knew what kissing entailed exactly, not to mention the reason why people did it. "Don't know, but I wonder what it's like."
As any other child her age, she was curios. Why people did this, why they did that, how this and that was created and why, but kissing… She'd seen Bruce do it, many times in fact and the girls he was doing it with always seems to like it, so she also wonder. What was it like exactly that adults like doing it so often.
"I don't know, but do you wanna find out?" Georgiana couldn't help but nod. Of course she did. Richard looked nervous suddenly. He was playing intently with his hands all of a sudden and gazed at her in an almost shy way. "Then do you wanna try it? I mean with me?"
The girl was startled. She did want to know what kissing entailed, but was it alright to do it with Richard. He did say that it was okay to do it between people that loved each other and they loved each other like sibling, so it had to be alright, right?
"Ok…" she muttered softly, shy as well, surprisingly. Dick gulped, blushing, but turned to her, all the while gripping her shoulders. It hurt, but she said nothing of it, starting to blush herself under the intensity of Richard's gaze. The boy suddenly started to lean into her and Georgiana was startled by the movement, all of a sudden afraid. Her hands started sweating, her beat pulsing just a little bit louder than before. She didn't know what to make of this, she was just a girl. The only moments when she felt like this was when she was afraid. Maybe that was it?
Then slightly like a feather she felt a very soft pressure on her lips. Right away she snapped out of her wandering thought and moved her eyes in front of her. Richard had his eyes closed, his blush all the more discernible, his grip all the more tighter. It felt…strange, like nothing she has experienced before. It felt good…like a feather bed, it made her dizzy. She started closing her eyes as well, but Dick moved away right then. She was dazed and so was he, but only for a few seconds. He snapped out of it quickly and covered his face with his arm. All Georgiana did at the moment was touch her lips lightly with her fingers. She was so bemused that all she could do was nod when he garbled a barely audible "I think it's better if we don't do this again." Now if only she could stop the butterflies that running a havoc inside her stomach.
The next morning Georgiana woke up to a sight that made her vaguely uncomfortable. Both Richard and Bruce were in the hallway, her dad telling Richard all about how this place would always be a home for him. They all smiled at that, Richard and Bruce, even Alfred. She felt left out and somewhat envious. No, she wasn't jealous; she was not, for she knew that he loved them both just as much, didn't he?
Her being was flooded by a small barely there pain, she didn't even notice it, but Alfred did see her, as well as the wounded expression she wore.
