Tim had a scalding bath and it was FABULOUS. Beyond MEASURE.
And it was totally ruined by the paranoid belief that ANY MINUTE NOW Kiba'd show up.
He had actually put bubble-soap into the water to keep leering eyes from looking at his... Toes.
When the water went from boil to hot to bath to tepid, it was ruined again when he realized that he wasn't going to be interrupted and had wasted all that vigilance.
**************
It was the morphine wearing off, letting Kiba feel pain and thought processes clearly again, that made him wake up.
The pain, really, wans't so bad. Either body'd decided that his brain didn't need a memo every two seconds informing him his arm was broken, or his brain had started to shunt those messages to the side, but his arm was just dull throb now and he'd had more painful cases of blue balls.
The thought processes, however...
Oh they're gonna be soooooo mad! He thought, half slamming into the floor, tripping over a sleepy Akumaru.
He'd just ignored Itachi, that had been. That was insanely stupid. Never mind, his past or his sanity or what his motives were, he wasn't a part of the new village yet, so he didn't know what the rest of the world knew! I told him to talk, not when to stop!
And they'd worked so HARD to create their illusion, too! The poor English, the carefully, politely discussed 'treaty' of sorts they had with Bruce, the fact that...
He'd gone to sleep with his Ipod on. 'I never told you what I do for a living' was playing.
"Fuck the irony gods," he snarled, taking the stairs seven at a time. "Fuck them fuck them fuck them!"
It'd seemed like such a better idea to just take Itachi Back with them, let him be absorbed into the whole of the village, be let in on the plans and so forth there!
Why the hell not?! Who was he going to talk too? Robin? Maybe, but Kiba would have been able to distract Robin. More flirting, diverting the conversation, giving Itachi something with an interesting texture. Or chocolate. GOD the chocolate here was so damn good. And cheesecake!
Who would Itachi talk too? When he didn't know anything about anyone except what little Kiba'd handed over as gossip?
Dick Grayson, that's who.
All of Kiba's fears were realized at once when he realized Itachi had not MOVED from the phone since, since,
Kiba looked at the clock, tried to guess at when he'd gone to bed.
Four hours!?!
性交性交性交!!!!!!!
Itachi just, tilted his face in Kiba's direction and smiled. "Oh! Good! You're going home now but Robin is taking me to Utah."
**********
Kiba wasn't there when Tim woke up.
Well, obviously he wouldn't be RIGHT there...
But he wasn't in the building at ALL. Akumaru was gone, too.
Itachi was still there though, still holding the phone, looking like a porceilen doll wrapped in a bear skin.
The deep boop-booop-boop of a dead line droned out of it when Tim leaned his head down.
He looked at Itachi. Itahci didn't seem to be paying attention to him... He hadn't walked up THAT quietly.
"Itachi?"
"Yes Sasuke?" Itachi said, barely moving. His lips curved. "Everyone is so mad at you."
"... who?"
Itachi blinked. His head rolled back so suddenly that Tim expected to see it bounce away across the floor. The crackle of the spine of a man who had been unmoving all night filled the air as Itachi stretched.
"Utah, we go now," Itachi said, still seeming to speak to the phone. "Now, now."
"Speak properly," Tim said, frowning. "I know you can. And you can put the phone down."
Itachi nodded and dropped it. It clattered on the floor, but he didn't seem to mind. "If you want. Kiba seemed, upset when he left."
"What happened?"
Itachi smiled. Gestured broadly. "I had a partner who was very against the status quo and he rubbed off on me. I had a nice talk with Mr. Penis about what I was capable of, and now we're going to Utah."
"... Utah? Why are we going to Utah? What's in Utah?"
"Cadmus. Oh, He said to tell you 'chin up, Timmy, at least it's warmer there'," Itachi said, and this time his bandaged hands fluttered up and around.
"The bi-wing'll take us to a real airport," Itachi added. He knelt, gathered the thick hide around himself. "Come on, lead the way."
"And Kiba is where?"
"Getting yelled at for not telling me when to shut up," Itachi said. "Apparently the job definition of our old lives has better prettied up into warrior and so forth when really most of our training was to avoid a fair fight. You see, the thing about a fair fight is you might loose it."
"If you don't call yourselves fighters, what words do you use?"
"Assassin, mostly. Thief? Mercenary," Itachi finally shut his eyes and Tim felt a part of himself relax. "I remember my first kill but the rest all blurred. And then of course when I left there were so many, but it's funny you remember things like family. And their special screams."
Tim felt like he was watching a movie, at this point and didn't put any effort into correcting that mental defense.
"Oh, yes I didn't kill my brother but I was only thirteen. You make mistakes at that age," Itahci added. Bandaged hands came up, touched what was left of his hair. All different lengths, dry now, fluffy. Static made it stand straight up in spots. Halo out in others. "And I swore I didn't see that much potential."
Itachi stuck his finger's into his mouth. Well, where his finger's would be, in the linens, and bit. Pulled with his teeth, worrying the bandages off.
"You shouldn't do that, your hands need to heal and," Tim started but Itachi half growled and for a second,
-Drowning, water like tar a ferociously lean red-eyed man with long black hair staring down through the water at him going 'ah, I see,'-
Tim took the next breath in sharply.
It was hard to mentally turn the bandage chewing individual in front of him into that man, in the dream. Not-dream. The. Mental invasion. Itachi'd been in his HEAD.
"Un?" Itachi seemed very confused when Tim when very white and threw up. A few uneven steps away to avoid the splash. "Duna taa uninth otant," he said around a mouthful of gauze. He got the bandages off his hands, the raw-break points scabbed over and angry looking. But looking a week healed. "I didn't probe deeply. Sorry your remembering it."
Tim dry heaved.
Itachi patted his back with a hand that only had three fingernails on it. "You'll feel better in Utah."
******
Elsewhere....
Humming birds are rather amazing.
Watch.
They can hover. Their wings beat between 10-25 times a second depending on breed.
Watch.
They migrate from north America to south America.
Watch.
The ruby throated humming bird can fly 800 miles in one GO over the Gulph of Mexico, storing up fat before that trip.
Watch. Three of them, now.
They could hover, they could go backwards on their carefully made vortexes.
They do not.
Their flight paths, draw onto paper, would form a loose pattern of wavy lines.
They took turns on point, chittering occasionally. Deep green backs, iridescent throats.
A bird watcher would have been confused by the small black feathered crests on their heads.
They would have really lost it when they noticed the tiny Obi's, or that these humming birds were the size of pigeons.
Watch. A city on the horizon. It is shiny and concrete, it is white. There are many building, but they focus on one in particular.
Hummingbirds do not care much about brass and steel unless it is holding a glass ball of sugar water. They noted the large globe anyway, in case there was sugar that they missed and could investigate later.
They circled, found a window. Zooomed in.
Most people just whipped their heads around as they zoomed past like ballistic missiles.
Watch. One man isn't startled by them. He turns his head, and watches them go by.
He is the only person there who notes the Obi and the Crests while the trio is still in flight.
Watch.
The secretary, chewing a pencil aggressively, was the only one that didn't look up.
Even when they perched on her desk, topping her pencil holder and the quote-a-day calender.
One pooped on her desk. She glared at it.
"I see you. Let me finish this memo," she told it. "I felt them let you on out of your cage."
They ruffled up, looking like like puffballs. Standing still, the black crests looked even more ornate. Almost like little top buns. Styled.
She shoved her coke at them. "Here, drink this," she told them, oblivious to the fact that people were gathering.
They clustered around the metal can, thrilled.
"Naomi?" Someone asked. She glanced up at her now-ex-boss-who-didn't-know-it-yet and smiled.
"Nami. It's actually Nami," she said. She hit send, and closed the lap top. Gave it a pet. "I really liked that thing, but I suppose it belong to the Planet..."
She didn't look at anyone when she stood up, but there was a sudden, AIR to her that no one (almost no one. Only one, really) had noticed to her before.
Everyone took a step back when she turned sharp as steel and saluted Perry White, her grinned suddenly cheeky.
Watch as Naomi, the soft spoken woman with the mild accent, with her slightly relaxed clothes and curled-in-posture dies.
Watch.
Nami seemed taller even as she was kicking out of her pumps. She held her head up higher, hands unbuttoning her shirt. Throwing it off. She left on the tie.
The humming birds on the desk finished the coke and with a rustle of post it's were back in the air, bobbing and weaving around her head.
Watch as she unties her necklace. Thin silver chain. See as it get's longer.
Watch as the window in front of her is suddenly dust while she steps out of her knee length skirt.
The men in the office (and the three lesbians) took note of her black lace for a moment.
Then everyone took note of the way she sprung forward. How far out she got with that last leap out into the air, arms out, before she was out of sight and the staff of the Daily Planet was gathering around the open window. Most of the staff.
They were all blown back when something large and dark ripped past, chittering.
Dark in the sky a moment, then gone.
Only one person could see all the individual birds in the swarm, thought a few got the impression that in the middle there was one the dwarfed the rest.
"Someone..." Perry started, breathing in...
"I'll go to her place, boss!"
"I'll call the Janitor."
"I'll go through her desk."
"I'll go downstairs and make sure she's not dead."
"I've got her laptop!"
"Did anyone get a picture of that?"
"I'll go see if it'll turn out!"
And the vultures descended.
Except one.
******
"That was dramatic."
Nami was busy using a sharp, dark blade to hack her hair off. It had been bun length, Naomi'd worn it pinned up. Nami liked it short. "Yes, well, that's what three birds meant, see? And now I tell everyone else."
The bird she was on had crimson feathers, gold in it's black crest, and a wide green Obi that Nami was using for a saddle while pulling things out of it. So far she'd found a vest and a skirt that barely counted. "How long have you had me made?"
"About a year."
"Be honest."
"I am. I was busy before then. And it was when you got mugged."
Nami sighed, rolled to her back, on the bird, stared up at the flying man. "I'd had a drink or three at the office party. Forgot to be a victim for a second."
"That man was lucky I was there, wasn't he?"
"He would have lived. He might not have been able to procreate for a month or two but you can hardly call that a great loss for society," she retorted, stretching. "Good to know that chakra control and VERY good acting combined with diet change and deep, deep cover are enough to deceive you," she added, smiling and pulling sticky red lip gloss out of the vest.
Superman's nose wrinkled. "Poisoned?"
"Well, it's my favorite color, and when you're going too see an old friend it's important too look your best," she said, smacking her lips once or twice. "Don't you think?"
"I think we're heading towards Metropolis General Hospital," he responded.
"No, Clark, I'm heading there. You're just sort of following along. Like a super-puppy."
Superman crossed his arms.
"Haaa, don't worry we know better than too say that too loud. But you should know there are two hundred of us who think you look better in glasses and a damn fool with that hair."
"Two hundred?"
She nodded as the bird under her started a steep dive. "Well, one hundred and forty three, but that's not bad, really! It will be nice to see the unhidden village for the first time. They found me in Mexico, but I learned English pretty good, don't you think?"
She jumped when they were over the sprawling building, landed light on a fire escape. Her mount and the flock angled up to circle, hiding in the sun. Three tiny birds stayed with her, the size of bumble bee's, and a few moments with the nearest window let them in.
She scaled quickly to the roof. "You're watching them, I know you are. What do you see?"
"I see three humming birds with tiny silk sashes heading towards the maternity ward."
She nodded. "Yes, that's right."
"They have things tucked in those sashes..."
"Those would be tiny poison beads, actually. Don't worry. Three humming birds means big, flash bloodfree exit."
"How many means a rain of poison?"
"One that's a little on fire."
"They're going past a nurse... past, into... No, they're..." He paused. "The Nurse is one of you?"
"Okawa Rei," Nami said softly, smiling.
"He's shooed the birds off, and he's walking..."
"Towards the nearest exit?"
"He's stopping..."
Nami frowned. "He should be going to the nearest exit, post haste..."
Superman frowned, and vanished in a ruffle of air.
*******
Nurse Oaks was what the name tag said. Well, R. N. Oaks. He was soft spoken, good with the babies. Excellent with the screaming pregenate women. He'd only been there two years but he already had one or two mother's asking him to be there for the delivery. Anyone who could make you feel that cheerful just while taking a blood sample?
He was well liked.
Everyone thought the time he spent in the cancer wards should have him nominated for sainthood. He was always taking one last round to check on his patients.
Patients like Leroy Jones.
Leroy Jones was ninety three years old. He'd survived world war two, but lost a leg. He'd had three wives, six kids, ten nieces and nephews.
He'd adapted to tech as best he could. He'd driven a fatboy back when that was still cool, and there had been fewer RUBS. He had a few gay grandchildren. He'd given one away at his wedding. It had been strange, and he wasn't sure what Nancy had done that made Kevin turn out so strange, but they'd seemed happy enough and they'd asked.
Leroy Jones was now dying.
Old age, plain and simply. A mixture of maladies resulting from that. His mind wandered, but he didn't have alzhimers. His hands shook, but it wasn't Parkinsons.
He was, as he said, just OLD. Skin like an onion, lumps that were just lumps, not cancer.
He'd had a cigar and a bourbon every night until his doctors and his third wife-rest-her-soul had bullied him out of it.
He missed that.
His family visited often, really, formerly-nurse-Oaks thought. Leroy Jones was lucky like that.
"Oaks?" Leroy jerked a little on the wake up. "Boy, I told you not to sneak up on me,"
"Okawa," Rei corrected. "My name is actually Okawa Rei."
"Sounds kinda Japanese. Did you go and get gay-married to a Japanese boy?"
Rei laughed, softly, put his hand over Leroy's. "No, Mr. Jones, that's just what my name has always been. Oaks is assumed."
Leroy looks confused. "Why'd you got to go and change your name for then?"
"It's a general first step in assuming a new identity. New name. New face. The whole package."
Leroy looked left, and right and cackled a little. It showed his bare gums, and he brought up his other hand to wipe his mouth. "You in the program?" He asked, eyes lighting up. Leroy Jones loved shows like Law and Order, reading Grisham books in large print, CSI. "Did you see someone kill someone else?'
Okawa Rei leaned, closer. "Several someone's killing several other people. One of them's here, now. So I wanted to say goodbye to you."
Leroy looked worried. Rei patted his hand.
The arm went, oddly numb, a moment. "I think that you should go to that family reunion, Mr. Jones. You don't have another year in you, but I think the next few months might be your best. Brightest just before nightfall, you know?"
"Darkest before dawn. You always did get that wrong." Leroy said, giving Rei a look.
"Of course," Rei agreed.
Leroy's mind was, popping along, suddenly. Clearly. Sharply. He looked down at his hand. "You've got blue on you," he started, as Rei withdrew his hands.
But when he looked up the man was gone.
Leroy ran his tongue along his gums. His stump barely hurt at all, suddenly.
He reached for his dentures and rang for the nurse.
*****
"What did you do to him?"
Rei blinked. Tilted his head. "I held his hand, and listened to his stories."
"What did you do to him just NOW?"
Rei didn't seem to mind having to tilt his head up to look at Superman's face. "I've put his body back into a sort of balance. He'll feel fifty years younger. For a while. Then it'll wear off, and the cancer I've kept from spreading will kill him in a month. It will be very fast."
"How?"
"I control hormones through skin contact," Rei said, bluntly. "Now, if you'll excuse me?"
"Why were you HERE?"
"Why aren't you? You could save the uninsured a fortune on X-rays," Rei said. "Why don't you spend more time delivering food to the hungry? I was here because I was told to be here. Now I'm leaving."
Rei walked silently, in very straight line, straight to the fire escape. He wouldn't have attracted any attention if he hadn't been followed by a man in a red cape. "To Montana?"
"Yes."
"You're being awfully forthcoming."
"We're under orders to be straightforward with you once found out."
"I had Nami made a year ago."
"Your mother must be very proud," Rei started, then stopped. He stood still a moment, eyes closed.
When he opened his eyes his face was blank as a mask. He resumed walking, straightening up his shoulders, posture improving, stride lengthening a little.
Superman's eyes weren't telling him much. He could, see inside the other man, yes, he could even zoom in but whatever Rei had just done was on some chemical level and he didn't know where to start.
The change was slight, but enough that he could admire the extent of the disguise. Rei's scent had changed, the rhythm of his heartbeat had slowed. "I take it this is the real you?"
Rei brought his hands up, together, and there was a slightly acidic smelling cloud of steam and the man was gone.
Superman'd seen that one, before. They didn't go FAR with it. A scan of the building showed his reappearing on the roof, next to Nami.
He followed.
**********
Kiba hadn't been beaten like that since ole Shika'd made chunnin. Holy hells. It was like his sister'd come back from the dead just to chew on him.
Akumaru whined and licked him, worried.
Kiba groaned and stretched out an arm. Fuck drinking games, FUCK them. Some flailing found him a flask for a...
Hair of the dog.
He'd thought it was stupid when he'd gotten the flask with that engraved on the side, but still.
"Glub gulg," he told it, taking a long swallow. Akumaru whined and he poured some into her mouth too. Tossed the flask back into the corner. Normally he didn't GET that drunk. So normally, he never needed that flask.
But fuck, getting back home last night, alone and unlaid, getting kicked around a little, getting yelled at and THEN...
Then Itachi calling THEM!l Kiba didn't know what the hell that man had said but suddenly it was party time and while he wasn't forgiven (people kept punching him in the arm, HARD) he was still given drinks and now?
Now there were forty VERY hung over fighters, and a few put out ones that had to do border patrols walking around kicking their grouchy brethren awake so they could go to the village center.
Kiba had too well trained a system to throw up. But the nausea had him sticking fingers down his throat to get it damn well over with.
One long series of heaves later and he was rinsing with water, then salt, then staggering outside.
Fuck the sky was blinding and...
Alive..
He squinted. What he had thought were just, the motes of inebriation were in fact. Umm. What were they? Ah...
Birds.
Three types, all flocking.
He squinted harder.
No, wait two types. Fast and buzzing, bright and loud, and butterflies.
Huh. He knew that leaf had a few bird summoners. He wondered if the bugs were from Grass...
Shino'd never had anything that pretty. Kiba felt an ugly wretch at that name and blamed that...
He sniffed his puke bucket thoughtfully. Rum. Yes. He blamed the rum.
It was sweet enough that it gathered butterflies and he tried not to think about that. He needed to run, now, before the calories converted to energy converted to chakra converted to energy again converted to fat. His pants fit snug right now because he liked them like that but he didn't need to buy new ones yet.
Heh. The butterflies had words patterned into their wings. Patterned faces. And several had the question mark of the village on their backs now. That was kinda cool.
"Hey, you must be the reason I'm here!" Said a cheerful voice.
Kiba turned. And promptly got punched in the shoulder. In the BRUISE that was forming. "Urf!"
The amazon that had hit him was six feet tall, built like tank with tits, red hair down to her knees. She would have been hailed as a Goddess at any convention that involved the phrase 'pop culture' in it's description. Or the anagram BDSM. "I kind a liked Russia," she said, reproachfully. "I had a nice fur coat there."
"Sorry?"
"And the food was good."
"Are these your butterflies?"
"Yes."
"In Russia? Seriously?"
"They are really more like moths. Fuzzy. See?" She held out an arm, and it was coated in a heartbeat with a plethora of wing shapes and styles and colors and patterns. But they were all fuzzy. Many had large antenna.
"Ahh. Cool?"
She hit him again. "You go to the center now."
Kiba wasn't looking forward to that.
He was probably gonna get his ass kicked again.
End Chapter Seven
Author's notes: Quick rundown of Western DC Comic characters, if you don't know. Skip this if you want too!
And yes I'm gonna list the obvious ones too. but VERY briefly. Fact's I list are, as far as this story is concerned, Canon. For Example... I'm not going into the whole JasonToddLives RedHood thing. NOR is Superboy Dead. I'm just... I don't want too.
Superman/Clark Kent, alien raised in Smallville Kansas
Batman/Bruce Wayne, Human, orphan, Rich, uses money like a superpower. And can do pretty much anything better than you. Control freak and sorta a douche. (go ahead. Argue with me. The funny thing is, I love Batman. But he's still a dickwad.)
Tim Drake/Robin. Tim is the third Robin. The Second one was Jason Todd, He's dead now. No, you can't argue with me on this one.
Dick Grayson/Nightwing: The first Robin. FUCKING HOT. No. Really. Google Nightwing. For you pure, hardcore Narutards? Sasuke but tall, with a gymnasts body, blue eyes, a sense of humor.... Okay, nothing at ALL like Sasuke except for hair color. I'm sorry I mentioned it. Have you googled him yet? Dude was raped once. That's not too important to this story, really, but he's one of the few males in the DC universe that's ever been violated and I think that's kinda funny. Ahhh. Grayson, you Pretty, Pretty slut. And his name's DICK!
The Ninja's think that's funny as hell
Oh, Alfred! Bruce Waynes Butler.
Sterling: She's a scientist. Bit, tiny, back round sorta Character.
Cadmus: A Corporation/Laboratory like Star Labs, WayneTech research, or Lexcorp. OR, for a real world reference, Pfizer, but without the Viagra and with 100% awesome since they cloned Superman. Okay, they fucked it up and got Superboy but STILL.
Lois Lane: Professional victim, reporter, and Married to Clark Kent. Human.
Wonderwoman: Voiced by Lucy Lawless (Aka Xena) in the 'New Frontier' movie and therefore a goddess. Really, a goddess anyway.
Everyone else: Google. people. Wiki. :D!
