The lights that sparkled against night sky as we managed to finally flew across a large city. The lights glinted against the night, making it seem like we were flying next to the stars. Maya and suren were both transfixed with the sights as well. With Goliath, we had always flow across the sky, and it was always a beautiful sight, but we had avoided more condensed areas, like cities. It was a real treat to be able get over it and see the sights. It was like we're in space. Next to the stars. It was indeed captivating, but not as captivated as we are. Batman hadn't let us out of our restraints even though we had agreed that we wouldn't try anymore of those shenanigans. Night wing had tried to keep us entertained with jokes and stories and granted they were grating on my nerves at first, I found them somewhat jovial and at least it was something to take my mind off the fact that I was handcuffed.
"Are we there yet?" I asked and Batman answered no. five minutes later I asked again and he said 15 minutes. I still asked 5 minutes later, mostly to just do something. I was bored and have never been this in active for this long. I just shaking to get up and move, but if I tried to bust out, I'm sure Nightwing and Robin would jump on me, and granted it would be something to do; I don't want to humiliate myself further. I still kinda wanted to be cool for Robin; I mean he was really cool. He was able to hack the bat plane or whatever this thing is called and not tip batman off. That was still cool, and although nightwing was the one that tackled the shit out of me, he was ok. Somewhat annoying, but he was ok. Batman was still so-so with. Part of me resented him, but another part of me wanted to just let him take over for now. I was tired and he seemed like he had some kind of plan, or at least was able to scare the shit out of grandfather. That explain why I never heard of him though. Grandfather never wanted to show weakness and he expected the same from me, but if this man was able to scare the crap out of him, than that means Grandfather wouldn't have told me about him. So he must have lightness to him. Or at least that my line of thinking.
"10 more minutes." he sighed out, but I could practically see the smirk on his face.
"We will be there soon. Just try and relax." Nightwing said from his seat in front.
"We've been sitting here for hours!" Suren complained. He had managed to fall asleep for like 30 minutes before he woke up again to complain. Maya was sitting quietly, but she seemed to be just as eager to finally stand and get out of the hand cuffs.
"I know, I know. Just think about what ….you would like for dinner!"
"Dinner? Really?" Maya was incredulous.
"Yeah, Alfred is the best cook. Ever. He can make anything." Night wing boasted to us.
" *groan* I don't want to eat. I want to get up and do something." I complained.
"Don't whine Damian. After that stunt you guys pulled, you should have expected it."
"You guys were talking about sending us to an apparent kid collector or someone who would have probably tried to put us in a kennel or feed of dog food." I shot back. Suren gagged and Maya just rolled her eyes and stared out the window.
"He wouldn't have fed you dog food.", Nightwing joked.
"Doesn't matter, we went with the kid collector."
"Ohhhh, B. shots fired."
"Not really. This is temporary till we can set up a more permanent plan." Batman said as he made a turn into a dark cave. Can't say didn't see that coming.
"What you mean B? Isn't little D staying with us?" Nightwing's voice hushed, but I could still hear him.
"We will talk about this later." And with that, I assumed our journey was over. I kicked my feet back and forth. They had been hanging over the floor for the duration of the trip and I cursed the fact that I was still too short for them to touch the ground. They were numb and I wanted the feeling back in them. Robin came up to me and unbuckled me and I hopped out of the seat. I walked over to the side of the plane and waited for them to instruct me next. Nightwing just picked me up and hauled me over the plane and unto the floor where he landed in front of an older gentleman who was dressed in formal clothes.
"Hey Alfred. Guess what we got?" he held me like a prize up to the man's examination. The man leaned forward to inspect me.
"I see. Very nice catch Master Richard, but if I may be sold bold to ask, why is he tied up?" The question made the man now known as Richard put me on my feet and spin me around.
"Oh yeah. Forgot about that. Ok. If I let you go, do you promise not to run off like last time." I puffed my cheeks at him and was tempted to tell him that we had already said we wouldn't, but he seemed like he was too happy for me to just go and destroy it for him. Maya and Suren were now waiting to be cut too. I guess it was up to me.
"I said yes already, we will stay till something happens, now would you just let me out of these damn things."
"No swearing." He admonished me. I rolled my eyes.
"For the love of! Damian, just fucking says yes. My hands cramped an hour ago." Suren bit at me.
"Fine! Yes I promise! We won't do anything like that." He smiled and leaned down like he was about to release me.
"Good. Pinky promise."
"What in god's name is that."
"Damian, just give him your pinky." Maya begged now.
"He's going to take my pinky? Like my finger? Hell no!"
"Relax, I only will take it if you break your promise." Richard hooked his finger with mine, which we were still cuffed and began to cut away the plastic ties. Soon everyone was free, or as free as we were going to get for now.
"Now that's over, dinner is ready upstairs for everyone." Alfred said as he gently guided me up the stairs after Maya and Suren. I saw Batman and the other two starts to undress and slip into sweats. Soon I was seated at a large table with steaming piles of food. I a particularly picky eater, but I felt like I should have mentioned I wasn't going to be able to eat half of the stuff the man put on my plate. I had made to elective decision years ago, that animals were just as necessary as humans. This meant I was a vegetarian.
The others came up from the downstairs and I could finally see batman and nightwing as they were. Richard was a young man, looked to be in his 20's if I had to guess. He had soft blue eyes with a paled out tan that suggested that he was not of Gotham lineage but probably has lived here for years.
Batman though, he was indeed much older and it showed in his eyes. A sharp blue that spoke volumes of experience and intelligence contrasted against the paleness he seemed to exhume. The lines under his eyes drew my attention. Many sleepy nights. Then again. Batman. His face though seemed stern and harsh, had a softness that retained some kind of gentle soul.
" Why aren't you eating?" Tim said as he pokes me. I looked down and picked up a piece of broccoli and ate it to show I was. Tim just shrugged and continued to eat. The table was quiet and the sound of silverware hitting plates was all that was heard. I ate what I could and put my fork down. Maya and siren continued to eat Undisturbed.
It wasn't long till Tim noticed again I had stopped and asked me again. I was hoping to tell the butler later in a more private area. It wasn't that I was ashamed of being. Vegetarian, but I didn't want them to feel that I was infringing on them. Then again, I wasn't exactly her willingly. I just shrugged off the question. Richard got involved then.
" Come on, I told you. Alfred is the best cook. His food is good." He played with me. When I still hadn't answered him and looked up to the man of the house. Who just remained quiet for now.
"It's not drugged if that's it." Tim said offhandedly. I rolled my eyes. Not what I was worried about, but thanks for putting that in my head.
" Tim!" Richard admonished.
"What dick? It's a legit fear." Dock ignored him to instead focus on Damian, who he was already sliding into little brother position.
"Damian. What's wrong with it? You have to be hungry." I was kinda still, but always was. This was just fine.
"I'm fine, just done." In the corner of my eye, I saw Maya rolling hers. I kinda wish they would focus on something else now. I didn't mean to draw attention, I was just done. Richard backed up off me and turned to Bruce.
"Bruce?" Richard made a poignant look at him. Bruce sighed and leaned over his meal.
"Damian -"
"Oh for the love of Aman'Thul! He is just a vagina!" What the fuck Suren?
"What? Vagina?"
"That's a new one."
"Please calm down, Suren. He means pussy, I think." Maya finally stood up.
"Damian is being a pussy because he is not eating meat, at least he is to Suren." Maya gestured to both me and Suren.
"What kind of person chooses not to eat meat when it is offered?" Suren complained.
"Animals have rights too."
"The right to be in my stomach." Sometimes Suren just made me want to punch him again.
"Ok, ok, you two. Calm down. Suren you can eat meat, Damian, just say that you don't and then this all goes away. No one is going to make fun of you for it."
"Suren just did."
"Yes, well Suren is an ass." true.
"Damian, don't worry. It's fine. We can just have something else brought out." Bruce said as he motioned for Alfred to come over and grabbed the plate from me. I gave an apologetic smile. I felt kind of bad that I wasting food, but I didn't want to compromise my morals. Alfred didn't seem mad though, he just picked up the plate and gave me a small smile back and turned to leave the room.
"Don't worry about that Damian. We should have asked to see if there was any preference for any of you." Richard said as he took his seat again.
"Nah I'm sorry. I should have just said something." Richard kept saying it was fine while Bruce went back to eating, but kept a close eye on me. Alfred came out in a bit with more vegetables and some bread. I thanked him as he set it down. He smiled and made a comment about how he was happy to finally have someone in the house that chose to eat more vegetables. That made me feels a bit better. We spent the rest of the dinner eating in small talk. Tim and Richard kept asking us questions about what we were doing on our travels. I let Suren tell most of the stories. I was starting to get tired and Bruce must have taken noticed because he stood up and called for Alfred to come and show us to our room .
"Come on, young ones. I will show you to your room."
"Can you show us where the bathrooms are? I would like to shower before bed." Maya said as she played with her arms guard.
"There will be bathrooms joined to your rooms, but there is a restroom down the hallway."
"Wonderful."
"You want to shower again?" Suren was exasperated.
" Yes, and you two will shower as well. Unless you want to have a rerun of last night." Suren shuddered while I ignored the comment. Considering that I hadn't been the one she caught last time, and that I don't have this odd aversion to bathing like Suren, I wasn't too worried.
" Id listens to her. I heard what happened at the tower and the water and ceiling damage was extensive." Ceiling damage? What the hell happened? I looked to Maya, who just smiled at me like she was reliving an amusing battle. Suren just raised his back like a cat on guard.
"Please try to refrain from doing so here." Alfred opened the door to our rooms. We each had our own rooms that were exceptionally large. Fully furnished with king sized beds and large flat screens. And we each got one room that was an exact copy.
"Now this is luxury." Maya said as she went to her room and plopped herself down on the bed and began to roll over the covers. I and suren both stood awkwardly outside our rooms. Me because I didn't want to leave them quite yet. We had been together the whole time in the plane, but we hadn't had any alone time since. We couldn't talk about what had happened. Suren though, he seemed averse to going into a room made for absolute comfort. He was a dargona boy, and that meant he was supposed to live with little comfort.
"You two should probably go get ready for bed." Maya suggested, but I caught and evil glint that spoke of how she wanted us gone for now. She needed her 'alone' time. Whatever that meant. I left Suren still in the hallway and closed my door. The room was nice, like the teens titans were, but I just couldn't see myself getting comfortable here. It kind of reminded me of the guest rooms back at grandfathers. I was never permitted a room like this, I always had a rather bare room, but when I left the league had no room, so maybe it was whiplash I was feeling. Part of me still wanted to go out and sleep under the stars like we had for the past few months, but decisions were made and I doubt Batman had any reason's to let us go so easily.
I showered and dressed in the borrowed clothes the Alfred had left me. They were cotton blue pajama's that were rather comfortable, but even as I lay in the giant bed, that's sole mission was to swallow me into softness, I couldn't sleep. Every noise seemed to set off alarm bells in me. I rolled around the bed with my eyes clothes hoping that id finds the end, but oddly enough ,it seemed like there was no end. I kept the game up for a bit, before I got tired and just got up. I sat up and had to crawl to the end of the bed. I dangled my feet over the edge of the bed. If wasn't going to sleep, then maybe I should try to get Suren and Maya. I was about to hop down the bed when the rooms door cracked open a bit. Suren stuck his head through the crack and looked to see me up. His face it up in a big grin seeing that I was awake.
"You're awake?"
"Yeah. What's up?" I answered back.
"Shhh, be quiet or the bat might hear." I rolled my eyes at him. Bruce might be batman, but he doesn't have bat hearing. I think.
"Ok, what's up?" I whispered at him again. He walked in silently closed the door.
"I can't sleep in the room of atrocities."
"We have the same room." I reasoned.
"Yes, but at least here we both can suffer this delusion of hell they are imposing on us."
"Uhhh, ok? So you want to just sleep in the same bed?"
"As if I would like to sleep with you, you ameba." I rolled my eyes.
"I meant we sleep next to each other. Kind of like before."
"Oh, well in that case, yes. Sharing the space would indeed more preferable at the moment." I slid over for him, but he just hopped in, causing both of us to bounce. It was a momentary distraction, but enough for us to be put a bit at ease. Soon though we calmed down enough and took the opposite corner of the bed.
"So, you couldn't sleep too?"
"No. this place is full of phantoms." I heard the house move, causing an odd whooshing sound.
"Yeah, it kinda creepy."
"What do you think we should do for this one?"
"You mean, what I think we should do?"
"Yes, I for one am humiliated at the fact we were caught so easily."
"To be fair it was kind of spur of the moment, and to even be more truthful, we knew we were out matched. We made a bad call going to Robin and his team. It's like walking into my grandfather compound and asking him how he'd fight against global warming or something, and then expecting to walk out."
Suren seemed to be taking his time in thought, which was fine by me. With him by me know, I was slowly lulling into a sleep.
"Do you think we should try again?"
"To escape? Not for now, we need them to trust us and then who knows maybe we were overreacting. Maybe they do know what they are doing. Or maybe they just have a heavier hand than us. Regardless, we are stuck here, let's just try and get along for now."
"I see, so we should just stay in wait."
"Yeah, *Yawn* we just need to play it smooth till they are cool with us enough."
"What do you think will happen tomorrow?"
"Mmmmm, not sure. They will probably want to interview each of us to document what has happened and maybe make a plan."
"That makes sense."
"Yeah." it went quiet at that. I felt Suren move on the other side to get deeper under the covers and I followed suit. I started to fall into a deep sleep, I was able to hear Suren's breathing clearer now and was lulled to that and the sound of the old house moving.