March 14th
Metropolis
1505 EST

Deke and Barbara walked out of Alonzo's, he now the proud owner of a khaki linen suit coat. He'd been promised that it would be exceptionally comfortable even in the heat, and so far, Deke wasn't disappointed. Apparently, pushed sleeves was also acceptable, and he'd taken advantage of it.

"I feel like we should be having a car chase against the drug cartel in Miami." He said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a pair of sunglasses. The cashier had thrown them in since it was his first time in Metropolis, and Deke hadn't argued. "You're thinking about that now, aren't you?"

Barbara nodded with a happy smile. "Uh huh." She said, and laced her fingers into his again.

"Me too. Is it awesome in your head?" He asked as they strolled along in the outdoor mall.

"Very. You?" She answered as they walked towards the fountain.

"We are so cool." Deke said, and came to a stop at the fountain. He fished into his pocket and pulled out a quarter. He closed his eyes for a minute, standing still, before flipping the coin in.

"What'd you wish for?" Barbara asked, looking up at him with her beautiful blues.

"I'll tell you when it comes true." Deke said cryptically. "Now, about this Cuban food?"

"Oh, it's in here actually," Barbara said, pointing to a place on the second story with a placard declaring the place 'Caribe' "But that wish you made?" It was clear she wasn't letting it go any time soon.

"I can't tell you, it won't come true." He said, dodging the question.

"Now you're being stubborn," Barbara accused. She was right, he was being stubborn.

They walked up the stairs, arguing playfully. They were late for lunch and early for dinner, which made it an easy time to get a table. Once seated, and their drinks were ordered, Deke began looking over the menu. Barbara seemed to know exactly what she wanted as she hadn't bothered even glancing at the menu. Instead, she seemed to be interested in the décor of the place, whitewashed adobe style walls, with splashed of slightly muted colors.

"So, what looks good?" She asked as Deke went through the offerings.

"Plenty. Otra mami taught me how to cook most of this though." He said, looking up at her. "You know what you want already?"

"Picadillo Habana," Barbara said. "Did you just watch and learn from your otra mami?" She asked, hoping that name wasn't something that only he got to use or something.

"No, she set out on a mission to teach me. She said 'Listen mijo. Women aren't raised like I was, you can't just expect your woman to cook for you anymore, so you need to know how to feed yourself.'" Deke said, even using the accent, which seemed almost funny coming from him. "I think a big part of that was because her husband was in the kitchen too, because she was looking dead at him. I didn't care, I was a big kid because I loved food so it was exciting."

"So, you speak Spanish, you say you can cook, what else can you do?" Barbara asked, not even trying to hide that she was fishing for more details about him.

"I know I can cook. I'll make dinner tomorrow night and prove it. As for the rest, I'd really like to surprise you. I kinda hate talking about myself, and it keeps some mystery, right?"

Really, she couldn't argue with the idea of mystery. Her goal had been to get him to properly evaluate himself, maybe help him get past the horrible image he had of himself, but maybe she was pushing too hard too soon. Besides, she knew how delighted she got when she could surprise someone she cared about with something fun.

"Ok," She said sweetly. "What are you getting, do you know yet?"

"Mariscada Al Ajillo, but it's garlicky." Deke warned, hoping that wasn't going to interfere with locking lips with her again. Even the thought drew his eyes to her mouth, with the upturned corners and the red lipstick. He had to take a sip of his drink to break the spell she was casting on him. All she had to do was look at him and ask, and he'd do anything for her. It was a kindness that either she didn't realize it, or didn't want to push it.

"They give you mints for a reason you know." Barbara told him, and poked him softly. Something about the way he reacted when she touched him made her happy. He'd told her this would be his first proper date, and she also knew by the way he touched her when they kissed that he was still in a state of emotional shock by her desire to be with him. The entirety of it all really did make her feel special.

She'd been on dates before, made out with a boy or two, and brushed some too curious hands away, and they all made the same excuse that she was so amazing or beautiful or whatever else they thought would magically make her underwear fly off. Deke didn't say any of that, but his hands, the touch of his lips, and the very simple kindnesses he'd shown her told her that he had a similar opinion, and that really did make Barbara's feelings soar.

Out of nowhere, Deke reached across the table and took both of her hands, just holding them. When she looked at his face, he seemed almost embarrassed. To show it was welcomed, she squeezed back. He looked like he was about to say something, but their server arrived to take their orders, showing the worst timing possible.

They placed their orders and when the server walked away, Barbara spoke up. "Were you about to say something?" She asked, mimicking his earlier action by taking his hands.

"Yeah," Deke said, and for the barest moment, his grip went slightly slack and expression fled his face. Barbara was about to say something but he returned to normal. "Sorry, making sure nobody else was near enough to hear."

"Okay, well, what'd you want to say then?" She smiled at him again, and gave his hands another light squeeze.

"Ok, so maybe I'm making decisions based off being infatuated, but I don't see myself regretting this." Deke said, and Barbara was kind of worried he was going to tell her loved her or something. She wasn't opposed to the idea as an eventuality, but it would be awfully fast to say so right now. What he said next surprised her more though.

"I was eleven. This guy had won the lottery. It was some crazy jackpot, like half a billion after taxes. He was like a lot of people back home though and didn't have enough education to back up his own natural smarts. So, he thought to himself, since diamonds come from coal, and we lived in coal fields, he was going to buy land and mine diamonds." Deke began.

"That's not how that works at all." Barbara said, and Deke nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, but he was suddenly the richest guy for miles, and he was offering some ridiculous money for people's properties. He may not have had the right idea about mining, but he wasn't about to cheat people. So, he buys up all this land over four years, right? He hires surveyors who point him to the old coal deposits, and then he gets all this mining equipment brought in."

Deke paused to take a sip of his drink, and looked like he was mustering courage. "So, there we are, me and Mom living at the bottom of a hill he's bought out. This mining equipment is going full bore, really expensive stuff too. I think they were like five million a pop and there were ten running at any given time. This one Saturday, me and Mom are sitting at home, planning on heading down the road to get ice cream, and boom, one of the drills blows up. It chain reacts because he'd put them too close together, and the whole top of the hill goes sky high."

Barbara's expression was one of surprise. She thought that would have made some kind of news, but she'd heard nothing about it. "What happened next?" She asked, curious now about how it had escaped media attention.

"Well, we were far enough down the hill that it was just some shrapnel that hit us. Mom took a couple small pieces, I took a few too. We didn't bother sticking around after that. We loaded up in the car and she takes us to the hospital. None of it required real surgery. They just doped me on some laughing gas to pull the pieces out of me, and mom didn't even need that. A few stiches later and we were good to go."

Deke looked toward the kitchen and paused for a moment. When Barbara followed his gaze, she saw their food being brought, so she waited. They took a few bites, and he seemed pleased with his dish, and after the taste test, he continued.

"So we don't think anything of our health afterwards. This guy's lawyer shows up, and he offers us some money to fix the house and a little extra, probably so we didn't take him to court. Mom's not interested in going in front of a judge about it, so she takes it."

Barbara, familiar with some of the worst the legal profession can offer, knew exactly where things were headed. "She signed future liability away, didn't she?"

Deke nodded. "Yep, and I didn't know any better to tell her. Anyways, I start getting headaches, really bad ones. Doctor Delgado risked getting in trouble and wrote me a scrip of oxycodone they were so awful, and when that stuff didn't even help, we had to see a neurologist. I got more MRI's of my head than an NFL player, and they were baffled. Nothing seemed wrong, except I couldn't bear to be in the light, and even my heartbeat was too loud."

"So, I missed so much school my mom had to basically drop me out. I spent most of a year in my bedroom, in the dark, with an air conditioner running, and stoned off my mind on painkillers. And all this time, mom's getting sick and I never noticed." Deke's expression clouded at this. Barbara wanted to do something, but she wasn't sure what to do.

"So, the headaches started letting up finally. I was able to get up, move around, and give myself an honest, proper shower. I'd eaten so little that I'd lost all that fat, but I'd lost muscle too. Mom started taking me to the gym in the hospital so I could rehab, and she was so happy that I was up and around that she started working out too."

Deke took another bite of his food, and gave Barbara and inquisitive look. He'd been talking so much he hadn't given her space to get a word in, but she seemed content to listen, so he carried on. "One day, she's benching, and it was a light set, but the weight got away from her and she almost dropped it on herself. I was across the room when I caught the bar. I just, I wanted to keep it from hitting her, and there it was floating in midair. We were the only ones in the gym at the time, thank God. Mom got away and I managed to re-rack the weight."

"So, long story short, Mom's doc discovered the cancer when she got herself checked out. She asked around a bit, and it turned out some of the parts of the mining equipment were radioactive, and that lawyer got the shards and buried the story. I got superpowers, and my mother got terminal breast cancer. If that ain't bullshit, I don't know what is." Deke said, setting his fork down on his plate. "Anyway, that's pretty much me. I got my GED and moved out to Gotham, trying to get away from it all."

"I don't know what to say." Barbara said honestly. He'd opened himself up, which meant he was comfortable enough with her to do so. She was determined not to ruin that trust. "Thank you for trusting me with this."

"Say you still like me, that you still want me around?" He asked her as he finished his drink.

"Of course," She said, and brushed an errant strand of hair out of his face. "Wanna try mine?" She asked, suddenly changing the subject on him by offering a bite of her food.

"Trade you." He said, and while she was no psychic, he certainly seemed relieved.