August 18th
Miami Florida
2345 EST
Fifteen months after the quake
The very upbeat sounds of Caribbean Dancehall music permeated the massive nightclub, inspiring even the worst of dancers to get up and move, but Barbara Gordon was not the worst of dancers. With a level of grace and balance that seemed almost supernatural, and the kind of coordination that people would kill to have, she had her rather shapely ass moving just right, and had been all night.
The danger had been in the sheer amount of people trying to buy her drinks. Having lost the battle of having to wear the Bride-To-Be sash and tiara, it was pretty plain what she was out to do, and so many had wanted to celebrate with her. Some, moreso than others, but Ingrid had been of incredible help in that regard. Most people didn't want to mess with her, given her arms weren't much smaller than the professional meatheads who came to the club to score.
"You know, I say this all the time, but damn if she isn't the hottest thing I've ever seen." Maddie said to Helena and Bette. "I mean seriously, how the hell does she do it?"
"She has a tighter hold on her diet than anyone I've ever met, she works out constantly, and her mom was really attractive too." Bette commented, sipping at her appletini. "And it's funny, she doesn't flaunt it often. I'd kill to have her boobs, I really would."
"I pretty much have her boobs, but I'd kill for that ass." Helena replied. "We've had this conversation before, amusingly enough, and Bette's right. If I had it all like that, I'd probably never wear clothes. Babs though, she just kinda is, you know?"
"Yeah, I know, believe me. Look, between us, they're going to have some gorgeous kids." Maddie said, letting her eyes linger over another club patron, trying to decide if she really wanted to go after it or not. "Really, either flavor and they're set."
Bette nodded. "I don't want kids, but I'll happily spoil hers." She said with a snicker, imagining it.
"I said the same thing." Aasha commented, stepping in between them and smiling at the bartender, but not before showing her stamped hand to prove she was legally old enough to drink.
"So, how's that going to go?" Bette asked, leveling her gaze at Aasha. "I know you all have that thing going and stuff."
"Bitch." Maddie mumbled, but smiled at Aasha. Her jealousy would never fade where that was concerned.
"Well, right now, nothing changes. I mean, it's a piece of paper and a bit of jewelry. When children come into the picture, I think Auntie Aasha has a ring to it. I adore children though, I really do." Aasha said, sliding the bartender a few extra for his prompt service, and then taking a sip of her vodka.
"It's true, she's great with mine." Maddie said honestly. "I don't trust many people with him, but Ash is one of them. I'd rather he be around her than my grandmother, that's for damn sure. He might not turn out racist and elitist this way."
"You've got a kid?" Helena asked. Bette knew, of course, she'd met him, but that wasn't her business to share.
Maddie nodded. "Yeah, he's with the sitter tonight."
"Is that tricky, with the life?" Helena asked, furthering her gentle interrogation. "And more than that, is it hard to, y'know, have company?"
"I'm reserve. I only get called out for extreme emergencies, which means I haven't done anything since the quake. As for company, yeah, but I'm trying, so getting some dick on occasion isn't as important. Though, speaking of sitters and dick, tonight sounds like an excellent opportunity to get some of that." Maddie said, returning to her prowl in earnest.
August 19th
Las Vegas Nevada
0145 PST
Fifteen months after the quake
Deke tossed a couple of chips towards the dealer, and pushed several more into the pot, before giving his cards a final glance. Pocket tens and chasing the full house after a third on the flop. Two of the other players had pure garbage, another was looking for a straight the odds said wasn't coming, and the last was sitting on a pair of queens but getting nothing afterwards. "Last hand." He said quietly. "One way or the other."
"Yeah, we all said that once." Another of the players said, tossing his cards and folding. He had trash, and after posting blind he had no intention of losing anything else on the hand.
"I'm close enough to goal my heart ain't broke. I wanna take a nice little bundle home for the bride-to-be is all." Deke replied. He spared a glance over to the far corner of the room, where Liho and Tim were involved at the roulette table, while Dick and Kris chilled calmly, not wasting their money but enjoying the sights.
"Well, let's push it then." Pair of queens said. "All in."
Without a queen on the river, Deke had the guy. Trash fold had held a third, so that left one in the deck, with the chance of the fourth ten, or another four, nine, or jack to make the full house. But, it was a $3500 all-in, which meant he'd be left with two hundred bucks if he lost. Given that's what he'd walked in with, it was worth it.
The other trash hand folded, and chasing-a-straight's blood wasn't rich enough, leaving Deke to match, which he did with a calm ease. Pair of queens wasn't feeling extremely confident, and was hoping to out-money him. "Call." He said, and waited on the river.
The dealer flipped the last card, showing an ace. Nothing for either of them. "Well, here's me." Deke said, flipping his tens, much to the disappointment of pair of queens, who scowled at his loss.
"Congratulations buddy, hope my money gets her something nice." He grumbled, before Deke dropped a hundred dollar chip in front of the other players.
"Have a few drinks on me." He offered, and looked at the dealer. "Color me up please. I've got an early breakfast tomorrow." He asked, before waving at Dick and Kris.
"A real gambler would give me a chance to win my money back." The guy said. For the first time, Deke had actually gotten a look at the man behind the mind he'd been playing against. Diamond pinkie ring, expensive suit jacket, too-perfect teeth, it was clear he could afford it.
"Yeah, but I've got med school to pay off." Deke lied, accepting his tray of chips from the dealer with a smile and polite nod. He strolled off with Dick and Kris, waiting to get away from the table before piping up.
"Welp, there's my one and only time playing cards for money. It's fun, but people get serious as hell about it." He said with a look that said exactly how he felt about that. "I thought ol' dude was gonna whip my ass afterwards."
"He might yet, he cashed out at the table." Dick replied, using every reflective surface (and there were so, so many) at his disposal to make sure that player wasn't planning to chase them down. "But unless that happens, you're buying breakfast tomorrow, right?"
"Oh hell yeah. I'm up almost three grand past goal. I got breakfast for sure. I only wanted to make about five anyways. Honestly, I was gonna use this for furniture for the apartment, which neither of you gents has yet to come by and check out anyway." Deke said, pointedly at the two men.
"Heh, yeah, about that." Dick began, rubbing the back of his neck. "Uhm, Kori thinks I'm carrying some kind of torch for Babs or something after I showed her some of my photo albums. Apparently, where she's from, men and women don't work together long without something happening. It's just their way I guess."
"Oh sheesh, bring her with you then. I'll clear it with la jefa and call you. Kris, you and your beard don't have that excuse, on account of you don't date." Deke said, spotting the cash window and steering himself that way.
"You're right, I don't have that excuse. I'll try and make it over after the honeymoon, though you might be getting ahead of yourself. I think Barbara wanted to throw a housewarming party once you were all settled in. She'd mentioned something about it after graduation." Kris said, absently stroking his beard.
August 19th
Miami Florida
0915 EST
Fifteen months after the quake
"Oh why do I do this to myself?" Aasha grumbled, batting her eyes awake. She winced at a pain in her mouth the moment she said something though, and had to stop talking immediately while she sorted that out. "And when did I pierce my tongue?" she said, much more gingerly, once she realized why her mouth hurt.
"Last night." Maddie said, sitting up next to her. "Same time you got your ears gauged, your nipples pierced, and your bellybutton done. You better keep them too. I had to pretend like this was too much to handle." Holding her hands apart in an approximation of size that seemed perfectly acceptable to be hard to handle so far as Ash was concerned, so for any woman of normal construction, probably not so much.
"I wha?" she said, patting herself gently on the chest and stomach, to learn very quickly that she had, in fact, gotten several holes poked in her body. "Why did you let me do that?"
"Well," Barbara said, strolling into the room in a loose, thin tee shirt and yoga pants. "You kinda came when he pierced your tongue, and asked for more. I think I was as surprised as you were about it."
"Oh dear." Aasha mumbled, coming up out of bed totally and completely nude. "You slept with the piercing artist to pay for those? I didn't bring much money so I couldn't get too sotted."
Maddie nodded. "I was going to anyway, but hey, you got freebies, and you were so insistent. 'I'm sick of looking like a good girl all the time. I need to make a change.' You said." Maddie explained in a horrible imitation of Aasha's accent, sounding more like Hagrid than anything else.
"That's awful Mads." Barbara said, handing Aasha some clothes to put on. "I'd not worry about the bra until you have to if I were you." She suggested, speaking from personal experience. "Rocket, Karen, Zee, M'gann and Dinah had to leave early for League business. Artemis is still asleep in the other room with Cassie and Helena. Ingrid and I were going to wake them for breakfast after Pacifica came in from her morning swim."
"Oh yes please." Maddie said, coming out of bed, similarly nude. "Ash, you were dynamite last night by the way." She said with a look over her shoulder. "I was not disappointed."
Aasha's eyes flew open wide at that, causing her to pause where she stood, hallway into her shirt. "I what now?" she said, her voice squeaking.
"Wow, I'm kidding. About sex anyway, you're cuddly as hell, that wasn't disappointing." Maddie said with a snicker, and an uncharacteristic sweet hug to the small woman. "It was kinda nice."
"She's used to having two people in bed." Barbara said, holding her own giggles back. That had been a cruel joke to play, though at the last Maddie hadn't kept it going. "Spoiled little kitten, that one."
"Mrow." Aasha murmured with a red face. "Yes I am, and I like it. Was I poorly behaved last night though? Seriously?"
"Well, most of us were poorly behaved, that's the point of a bachelorette party, but you weren't too rotten. Aside of orgasming all over the piercer's chair that is. You and I are going to have to have a talk about that one." Barbara said, running a brush through her hair while the other women dressed.
"Later please." Aasha said, not bothering with anything besides a shirt. "Shower?"
"Bette's in the big one, but there's a second one in the balcony floor bathroom. If I'm being a bit greedy, could you wait on the big one though? You'd look adorable in it and I wanna see it." Barbara said, showing Ash the tip of her tongue.
Aasha made a frustrated face, but she couldn't tell Babs no to something that simple, and besides, oversized places made her small stature even more useful. She'd have all the room in the world to do as she liked.
August 19th
Las Vegas Nevada
0730 PST
Fifteen months after the quake
"Dude, I did not mean to bail on you last night." Will said from the couch in the suite, giving Deke a remorseful look. "One thing after another with that croupier and all. Just sorta happened."
"I ain't mad." Deke said, still in a pair of basketball shorts and nothing else. "Long as you had fun, that is."
"Oh yeah, it was fun. We're still doing that desert drive today though, right?" Will asked, watching his teammate go through the morning motions of making coffee in the small kitchenette, and apparently bamboozled by the rather advanced machine which was there to provide it.
"Hell yes. Skydiving down to rail buggies that we've got to drive through the desert, that's really what I signed up for bro." Deke said, stepping out of the way to let Will handle the morning Java.
"Sweet. How'd you do at the tables last night?" He asked, programming the thing and making it look easy.
"I did pretty well. Actually, you were right about us taking a casino too. Between poker and blackjack, we did good. If Kris had hacked the slot machines like you said, and we timed things, well, we wouldn't be welcome in the city afterwards." Deke said, handing Will the first mug.
"Thanks, and yeah, I used to plan how to take casinos. It started as a challenge, and turned into an amusing dream. One of these days, I still hope we have to sneak into one and wreck their take because they're funding some major villain. I keep an eye on that." Will said, taking a sip of his coffee and sighing happily.
"You're not the only one. Batman's got his own plan to do it." Tim said, already dressed and showered before he stepped into the living room of the suite. "It's less fun than your idea though, but it probably works better. I think I'd rather have the fun."
Deke was about to agree, but his phone went off, chiming insistently in his pocket. Grabbing his cup of coffee and putting a mug in for Tim, he dug the mobile device out of his pocket and saw it was a video call from his love. "Gotta take this, sorry guys." He said, and thumbed the accept button as he shuffled through the suite back to the room.
"Hey, look at you awake already." Barbara said pleasantly, having to stow the sleepyhead comment when she saw him looking quite alert, and not at all on a bed. "Got a minute?"
"For you, I have forever." Deke said, and flicked the stand on the back of his phone case, so he could set it down and enjoy his morning joe. "How was last night?"
"Oh I won't soon forget it, and a few of the girls won't soon remember it. I spent almost the entire night dancing, so my feet to my butt are more sore than I'd like." She said, her background shifting around and moving in an obvious show of her getting more comfortable. "We're getting a late breakfast, but I'm waiting on Aasha in the shower before we go, so I thought I'd call you." She added with a bright, sweet smile.
"I need one too. I've got enough smoke in my hair to fog up a concert. Any particularly juicy stories you feel like sharing?" Deke asked, leaning back into the chair in the bedroom, but still avoiding opening the curtains. The view of the strip was amazing, but at that early hour, Vegas wasn't much to look at besides some strangely shaped buildings.
"Oh yeah, a few. None I'm willing to share over the phone though, so you'll have to wait. What about you? Anything exciting on your end?" She asked, her torso moving around enough that Deke guessed she was putting a bra on. "Maybe that lap dance you got?"
He grew red as a beet on that one, and gave an embarrassed snicker. "Heh, yeah, Liho bought me four songs. It was fun, but I like yours better." He said sheepishly.
"I should imagine. You're allowed to touch me." Barbara said with a wink. "Hit the tables at all?"
Deke nodded. "Yeah, Tim cleaned up on blackjack, and I did pretty alright at hold 'em. Before you say anything because I see that face you're givin' me, I didn't go near the high stakes room, and I made sure nobody I cleaned out desperately needed the money."
"Okay, then I'm satisfied. Oh hey, there's Ash, you gotta see this." Barbara said, and on the screen, Deke could see her turn to face towards what he assumed was the door. Barbara smiled and made a beckoning gesture. "C'mere, you gotta show off."
"Oh dear, who is that?" Deke heard, but saw her face poke around the screen after a second. Her expression lit up at that at least. "Hello love!"
"Hey kitten." Deke said warmly. "Babs says I gotta see something."
"Yes you do." Aasha said sheepishly, and stood there while the phone maneuvered, presumably in Barbara's hand, when it suddenly changed, clearly going from front to rear camera. At first it panned down the towel Ash was wrapped in, but after a second, that towel parted, revealing her pierced navel. "Oh, we're not done yet." Aasha said, when she heard him make a surprised noise.
The camera panned up slowly as her towel separated, revealing her smooth, tanned skin, before pausing on her dark peaks, now ornamented with silver barbells. "Still not done." She said, and the camera came up further. Here, she turned her head, a remarkably flattering angle if Deke was being objective, to reveal the small black plugs in her earlobes.
"Geez, gotta call you pincushion." Deke commented, which drew a giggle from both girls, and an exposed tongue from Aasha. "Your tongue too?!" He asked, flustered as hell from it all. He was going to have to wait a couple of minutes before stepping back out into a room full of guys.
"Every time they poked her, she had an orgasm, and it was damn hot. I almost took off with her then and there." Barbara said, flipping the camera back around. "But, the moral of the story is we really can't let her get drunk."
"Noted." Deke said with a snicker. "Oh, hey, Papi texted me earlier. He got into Miami from Cuba earlier and I might have said you were down there for your bachelorette party. He'd like to see you if you have time."
Barbara blushed, loving the welcomed feeling she got from the Delgados. "Yeah, I'll text him and he can join us for breakfast. What was he in Cuba for, anyway?"
"I have an uncle I've never met, well, I have a couple, but one of them had passed. Papi was busy trying to help the family get sorted." Deke explained.
"Oh God, I'm so sorry." Barbara said, her sunny mood darkening at the news.
"I never met him, and apparently, Papi and César hadn't gotten along since ninety-two or something. I never got the details but I think it involved both of them chasing Mami. Anyway, yeah, he's down there now. He likes long layovers so his flight to Lexington doesn't even take off till just after midnight. He's a grand explorer if you give him enough space to do it."
"Well, we're almost dressed. I'll text him and tell him he's perfectly welcome to join us." Barbara said. Deke could see a small hand on her shoulder, and Barbara looked up and over. "But, I'm not pushing Ash away for this either."
Deke nodded. "Mami's the one I'm worried about. Papi'd just hand me a beer and a Cohiba and tell me I'm doing something right. You do you babe. I love you."
"I love you too Cowboy." Barbara said, and got unceremoniously shoved out of the way.
"And we all love you too!" Maddie said, leaning into the frame.