El pulled the canvas towards her and almost as if she were in a trance began to paint, pink went on first, followed by liberal amounts of white and then just the tiniest traces of blue. El stepped back and rubbed her arm, her hand was starting to cramp up, she'd have to leave it a day, not only to let her hand rest but to let the paint dry.
"What is it?" A voice asked from behind her, El jumped up with a yelp, she span and found batman behind her.
"Jesus christ, don't DO that!" El gasped clutching at her chest.
"Uh... sorry. What is it?" Batman repeated again jesturing to the canvas which seemed to be a mess of disorganised shapeless colour.
"I've no idea, it's just... blocks of colour at the moment, something's going to come through it... but i've no idea what. I think this might be a hand here." El noted pointing to a particular spot halfway up the canvas.
"Shouldn't you know what it is?" Batman asked raising an eyebrow.
"You sound like Flash, speaking of which, you're a jerk." El interjected turning to face Batman with definatly folded arms.
"Not this again, I'm here for my car to be fixed, not to be pestered and insulted." Batman stated flatly.
"I'll ignore that. You have no right to make desicions for me, especially not in my love life." She shot back as she headed towards the hidden door to the garage below.
"He's not IN your love life, until yesterday it'd been three years since you'd seen him and even then that had only been about a month that you saw him then. He's not in your love life, you barely know him!" Batman argued annoyed at El's reations towards him.
"And who's fault is that?! Filling his mind with this seeing me will get me killed crap, and to think i actually bought that when he first said it to me, you had no right batman." El sighed before popping the hood of the batmobiel.
"You don't know what he's like with women, he makes them fall for him and then just leaves them at the drop of a hat, i don't think i've seen him hold a relationship longer than two weeks." Batman exclaimed angrily.
"So you're trying to protect me now?" El retorted from under the bonnet of the car.
"I've been trying to protect you the whole damn time!" Batman snapped slamming the hood of his car, nearly shutting El's finger's in it and making her jump and look at him.
"From who? Bad guys? Flash? The world?" she asked quietly, brushing now short brown hair out of her eyes.
"Everyone! Bad guys will try to kill you, Flash will break your heart and the world will screw you over! I'm just trying to make sure that someone who actually deserves a good life, a good education, recognition for their talents actually gets it for once. You shouldn't have to be the nice guy that finishes last." Batman sighed leaning against the side of his car.
"Batman… I'm an adult; I need to make these decisions on my own. If Flash was only messing around with my feelings then I have to live with that. You're like the father I never had, and I know you have every right to worry but… I need to live life if you want me to learn any of those lessons." El sighed as well as she sat on the bonnet and rested her feet on the bat-tires of batman's car.
"I know." Batman nodded.
"Did he ever say anything about me?" El asked with a hopeful grin as she flicked short hair out of her eyes.
"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that." Batman muttered.
"El!" flash yelped sitting bolt upright in bed, sweat rolled off his skin in huge beads. Panting, he looked around the room he was in; it was his room back and the justice league space station. Not that he had a room elsewhere, he's given up being Wally West and all things that went with it a year ago, he couldn't see much point, he was just renting a place for someone that didn't exist anymore. He sat up and gingerly felt his neck, it had stopped bleeding but it was still sore. He peeled off the bandage on it and flexed his neck, it didn't seem in danger of ripping open again.
He wanted a drink, badly. He glanced at the tall glass of water waiting for him on his bedside table but ignored it and reached into the bottom drawer of his desk that he could, thankfully, reach from his bed. A bottle of vodka appeared in his hand, he unscrewed it and poured some of the foul smelling liquid into his hands before splashing it on his neck with a hiss of pain. He tipped his head back and swallowed a good portion of the bottle, as his head began to feel a little lighter he thanked the gods for the quick affect that alcohol had on his system, it meant getting drunk was that much easier. Unfortunately it was also hard to maintain, easy come easy go as they say; he eyed the very empty looking bottle, this was new from only a few days ago, how did he get through this stuff so quickly?
Flash debated getting up or going back to sleep, he decided on sleep and allowed himself to flop backwards onto his pillow. He frowned at the lumpy pillow, he reached his arm under the pillow and pulled something out. He stared at the white tank top, the large bloodstains were undoubtedly his from his neck wound, but… He pulled the shirt close to his chest and held it tightly.
"El…" He mumbled and through the thick haze of alcohol he felt a twinge in his chest and the stirrings of Wally West's mind again. Now that he was no longer being required to rescue her he was free to agonize over every moment of his time with her. Elena's hurt expression flashed before him.
"Of course, that doesn't bother you. You'll take any woman, all the ones you've slept with since you kissed El here."
"NO!" Flash yelled angrily throwing the shirt across the room and hiding his head under his pillow, her hurt expression returned in his mind.
"Washn't my fault! Needed to be over you!" He screamed to no one in particular.
"Wasn't my fault…" He sniffed trying to hold back drunken tears, he could already feel himself sobering up a little.
The next morning Batman found himself sat next to the Flash in a room that was empty of people besides themselves. Elena's words seemed to pester him still.
"Flash." Batman began.
"Mmm?" Flash asked rubbing his temples and feeling increasingly sorry that he had managed to find a full bottle of whiskey under his bed, it was enough to give even him a hangover.
"Have you- Are you drunk?" Batman corrected himself suddenly.
"Not are, were. Why do you care?" Flash muttered before looking up at the batman. "That wasn't what you were going to ask me."
"I- Have you been to see Elena?" Batman asked flatly.
"What? After yesterday? I don't want to get her killed do I? Plus, she was just a hostage, we rescued and returned to her home, justice league business stops there. And so do I." Flash said dryly, he didn't like the idea that Batman thought he would just go running to El at the drop of a hat.
"I wasn't accusing you." Batman said simply as he left the room.
"What were you doing then?" Flash shouted after him, the twinge in his head reminded him that shouting was a bad idea. He rubbed his sore head, stupid whiskey.
Batman leant back on his swivel chair, the back spring had enough give in it to allow him to stare up at the ceiling and stretch. On his large computer monitor a light flashed and beeped, Batman kicked off of the wall and waited for the wheels on the chair to bring him to a comfortable halt in front on the monitor. He looked up, a picture of El's face had flashed up on the screen. He moved the mouse and clicked on it with a frown.
"Oh no…" He breathed as dread filled his chest.
"Elena!" Batman shouted kicking the door to her flat down, across the room Elena spurted hot tea from her mouth in surprise.
"Holy! BATMAN! What the hell are you doing? Trying to give me a heart attack?!" El shouted at him as she wiped her mouth with the back of her sleeve.
"I… you're okay?" Batman questioned feeling rather silly. He looked around the flat, there seemed to be about thirty canvases littered around the room, El looked scruffy but in no immediate mortal peril. He coughed slightly embarrassed and picked the door up and placed it back in the doorframe, it leaned there wonky and looking a lot worse for wear.
"I'm fine. What gave you the idea that I wasn't? You're paying for that door by the way." She added taking a much safer sip of her tea.
"You haven't been to class in three days, or left the house." Batman stated feeling dumber by the minute.
"I'm not even going to ask how you know that. I just got into a bit of a creative spree, finished nearly twenty paintings." El smiled proudly. Batman sat down on Elena's sofa and flipped through the canvasses nearest him.
"This is good… I mean much better than your usual stuff." He noted debating whether what he was thinking of saying next would be a good idea or not.
"Thanks, I still haven't finished the one painting I wanted to finish yet." El sighed as she pulled up her stool in front of the canvas in question. A naked male torso was fairly clearly picked out but the top half of the canvas was still just a wash of colours with the exception of a beautifully painted hand.
"I spoke to Flash today." Batman said regretting the words instantly. El's hand froze, her paintbrush mere centimeters from the canvas.
"I was under the impression you worked together." El said slowly.
"Very funny." Batman glowered at her. "He's drinking now you know, he's self destructive." Batman added irritated.
"And no good for me I suppose." El continued Batman's unspoken thought.
"This isn't love you know, it's an obsession. You're obsessed with him, you don't know him enough to love him." Batman snapped annoyed at Elena's stubbornness.
"True love can be found in a second and last for a lifetime." El said wisely touching her paintbrush to the canvas.
"What is it about him that's got you so convinced this is true love?" Batman sighed staring at a painting of the city at night by his feet.
"He's kind… caring… surprisingly gentle and understanding. He's honest, to be fair, I think his mouth just moves to fast for his brain to let him lie." El giggled and let her brush flow over the canvas more easily than it had done in days, suddenly her creative block with this painting was gone.
"What if I could pull some strings for you? Get your art into a gallery? You could sell some of it and start to really make a name for yourself." Batman offered quietly.
"You can do that?" El asked not taking her eyes off the painting.
"I'll look into it if you want, I'll get the gallery owner to contact you if it works." Batman nodded as he stood up to leave. El nodded, barely registering Batman leaving. A brilliant blue eye appeared on the canvas in front of her.