Tempest: Chapter Eighty-Four: Never Told
AN: Reading your comments is great. I've become the Kronk meme: oh, its all coming together :)
Trigger warning for homophobic language directed towards minors
"Tell me something you've never told anyone before."
Dick snorted into his soda. "My mom was the one that came up with the nickname Robin."
Amy blinked. "Really?" He could see her doing the mental math. His parents had been dead for months before he's officially started heroing.
"Yeah, she said it was because I was always 'bobbin' along' like a robin does," Dick grinned using his mother's exact intonation, which he still remembered even after years of not hearing it.
"Oh, that's super cute," Amy stifled her laughter in a pillow, missing the flush on Dick's cheeks as he ruthlessly suppressed his embarrassment.
"What about you? What's something you've never told anyone before?"
Amy's face burrowed up from beyond the pillow, her nose wrinkling thoughtfully. "Okay," she sighed finally, "don't tell anyone about this one."
Dick arched an eyebrow. "Sure."
Amy chewed on the corner of her lip. "When I was still with…Mardon, he did a lot of art trafficking to make money in between his wreaking havoc on the atmosphere."
Dick paused with fiddling with his soda to give her his full attention. He didn't think he'd heard her ever talk about how things had been with Mardon. He'd known how bad it was, of course, but he'd pretty much gotten that from everyone else; she wasn't really the type to talk about it, even in the middle of a panic attack.
"The paintings were mostly Impressionism and Post-Impressionism and when he went to sleep, I would just stare at them and at the brushstrokes and…" Amy shook her head, her mouth twitching. "—and they were the most beautiful things I'd ever seen."
"So, you like art? Not just stealing it?" Dick gave her a half smile. "Why isn't that something you want to tell people?"
Amy's lips thinned into a hard line. "Mardon used to destroy things I really liked; I've gotten good at keeping what I like to myself."
Dick's smile fell. "Oh." That made sense. "Do you even like genetics?" She'd been raving about it for as long as he could remember, and he never would've considered calling Amy particularly reserved, given how she was with her friends, but he'd known that there were always things she didn't talk about, he just never thought that what she genuinely liked was one of them.
"Well, yeah," Amy shrugged, "it's cool and interesting…but art was kinda my first love, you know?"
"But you've been talking about maybe being a doctor in genetics for a while," Dick frowned, "like when you were working at that flower shop!"
Amy snorted, using her fingers for air quotes. "'Working' in that flowershop, c'mon, Richard, I cut flower stems and worked the cashier. There's not much to that."
Dick rolled his eyes. "Whatever, dork."
"Genetics is interesting and doctor had a nice ring to it." Amy paused. "Has a nice ring to it."
Dick gave her a look.
"I'm -look, I don't have it all planned out!" She was becoming more and more flustered.
"You don't have to! That's the whole point! No one's got their life figured out at twelve!" That's how old when she'd first floated that idea.
Amy scowled so hard it was nearly a pout. It was adorable but Dick had to focus.
"I think it's cool that you like art, kinda a weird flex to not tell anyone, though." Dick took a drink of his soda. "But that's just my opinion."
"Well there's no need to be a dick about it!"
They both laughed.
Amy's smile faltered slightly. "Do you think Dinah will be okay with me taking a break from patrolling?"
Dick went to school, was a hacker extraordinaire, patrolled with Batman, and had a place on the Team. Sometimes he had to take breaks from patrolling with Batman to make it work, and these days Amy stuck mostly to Oracle-ing (Masquerade hadn't made any appearances in a while, which Dick chalked up to her dealing with the fallout from the New Year's attack), patrolling Star City, going on Team missions (as rare as they were lately), and had her classes online. She was probably just slightly busier than Dick but hadn't considered even once taking a break.
Finding Roy came first compared to everything else.
"Dinah will probably say that she's glad you realized your limitations and recognize that you need breaks," Dick replied, considering her. As far as he knew, Amy hadn't been back to see Dinah for therapy for a while, but maybe she'd start up again soon. Wally had, for grief counseling. He was managing, some days, on the edge of a breakdown other days; Dick had never seen Artemis quite so gentle before.
"You sure?" Amy's eyes were big and green and distracting.
Dick swallowed hard.
"Yeah, Dinah's great about that." He was sure that she knew that and it was just some insecurity breaching the surface. "Don't worry so much." Then he used his foot to push her off the bed.
Amy yelped as she fell into a heap before leaping up to grab a pillow to smack him.
Neither of them noticed Alfred watching with a faint smile at the door at their childishness and it was only much later when they managed to fall asleep, after watching Treasure Planet completely, content and at ease.
Amara couldn't remember the last time she'd completely eaten a meal. There wasn't really a reason for it, she just never really had the time to eat when she had so much other stuff to do…and maybe Roy wasn't eating as well as he should, either. It was stupid to think like that, and Amara knew it but it had been like her hunger had really gone down in the past few months since what happened on New Year's. But once Dick had starting talking about coding and algorithms, sliding a bowl of soup in front of her, she'd eaten the whole thing and then some while making agreeable sounds.
He was the rational one. She had needed him to tell her it was okay if she wanted to take a break from patrolling.
"And even if you didn't," Dick had said halfway into Treasure Planet -which was one of the best movies on the planet and deserved a fucking sequel-, returning to their previous conversation about it so fast that it gave Amara whiplash, "you're allowed to step away. No one's going to blame you for it."
Amara could think of exactly one person who would find fault and bring it up on every session that he was on air. G. Gordon Godfrey was perhaps the staunchest opposition to the Justice League and his followers grew every day, especially in the wake of the death and destruction Mardon had caused that was still getting blamed on Amara, despite the fact that multiple news crews had recorded and reported that it was the Weather Wizard.
A year ago and it wouldn't have bothered Amara, but she was tired of getting knocked down and maybe she was starting to get a bit despondent with how little progress she was making that even the potential lead Jade had given her wasn't doing a lot to lift her spirits.
She chewed slowly on her eggs the next morning while Dick practically inhaled some pancakes, which was an impressive sight to see; she was starting to wonder if he'd even eaten at all last night.
"Miss Amara," came Alfred's proper voice and Amara lifted her eyes from her plate, "your father's here to pick you up."
She checked her watch and frowned at the time, because shouldn't he have been at work by now? Then she shook her head and swallowed the last of her eggs, telling Dick she'd see him later at the Cave to fix the zeta tubes; all he could do was bob his head in agreement and give her a thumbs-up, which made her roll her eyes.
"Don't you have work?" was the first thing she asked when she saw him leaning against the staircase in the foyer.
"You know," Barry sighed, "sometimes I wonder if being homeschooled affects how you gauge time passing…Amy, its Saturday."
"Oh." It dawned on Amara a bit more suddenly than it should've and flushed, rubbing at the back of her head with some embarrassment. "Yeah, that makes sense why Richard's not late to school."
Barry snorted as she pulled her shoes on, holding out her jacket to her once she was standing, and then they were out of the door. They walked past the wrought-iron gates and then they kept walking instead of him gathering her up in his arms and taking off running like he usually did.
Amara had known it was coming, she'd only managed to escape being interrogated the previous night by running off to Dick's. It was like waiting for a bomb to go off and Amara would rather get it out of the way now than deal with it later.
She kept her hands in her pockets as they walked. "Just say it, I know you want to."
"And what do I want to say?" Barry's words were mild, but he was a mild-mannered man. He'd been upset with Amara before, but she'd yet to see him blow up like she did.
"How could you be so stupid?" Amy offered helpfully. "You're grounded for three months…again."
Barry's lips twitched. "That time you were being stupidly reckless, even BC and GA agreed."
Amara opened her mouth to complain -thinking how GA had been on her side at the time-, only to concede with a sour expression. "Yeah, I'll give you that one."
Barry gave her a slight smile at that, reaching out to bring his hand to rest on top of her head, making her blink in surprise. She was wearing her hair red, the green highlights -a poor choice that Iris still laughed about- growing out with the undercut that Amara had decided didn't suit her all that well. It seemed that every day she looked more and more like Pamela.
"Trying to run off on your own to help Roy, I can understand," he told her, "but I'm thankful your friends talked you down, given what a complete ambush it was."
Amara shoved her hands further into her pockets and slouched a bit more deeply. It couldn't have been clearer that she was displaying an 'I am sulking, stop talking' message from body language alone.
"And you ran off alone to go to Dick's when we've been telling you to be more careful," Barry was more focused on that one. He couldn't control what the Team did, he wasn't Batman, he wasn't the one they answered to, even if they seemed to go off on their own more often than not, but he could keep his daughter as safe as he could during this stressful time.
"I don't need an escort!" Amara's words burned.
"Amy." His tone stopped her cold. "You're a born-metahuman and we worry about you and Wally but Wally doesn't rush off into things like you do."
Amara thought that was ironic, given the fact that rushing was literally Wally's power, but go off, she supposed. But she decided to keep that to herself, since Barry, who had the exact same power, probably wouldn't like that being pointed out.
"We just want you to be safe," Barry said, "is that too much to ask?"
Sometimes Amara had to wonder.
"So, you're grounded for three weeks."
Amara wrinkled her nose before giving a conceding grunt. All right, that was fair, she supposed. She might've gotten killed on her own; villains didn't pull their punches, especially with kids like the Team, who'd been a personal thorn in their side for months.
"I'm taking a break from Storm Chaser," she told him instead, feeling her lower spine beginning to twinge and if her dad figured out about the pain she was experiencing that was probably chronic at this point, Amara was going to literally scream.
Barry pulled them to a stop and her legs were starting to ache. "Amy, no, that's not what I want," he pressed, kneeling down slightly so their height disparity wasn't quite so large. His eyes were imploring and Amara looked away. He had the same look on his face when she'd been in the hospital after Merlyn shot her. "You don't have to stop heroing, we just want you to be careful."
Unwillingly, Amara could feel the tears beginning to well up. It was probably because of how stressed she was, but she really didn't need to deal with that stuff.
"I am careful," she muttered heatedly, rubbing quickly at her eyes to get rid of the tears.
"You were careful when Merlyn shot you."
That one hurt and Amara turned completely away from him. "Amy—"
"I can't even look at you right now!"
"Amy, sweetie," Barry said, taking her hands in his, "I want you to understand that sometimes being careful isn't enough when you're on your own. What would've happened if you and Roy had been patrolling like you usually did?"
Amara had had to let go of all that anger a long time ago; she couldn't be mad at Roy, not then, it wasn't his fault he wasn't there. But if he'd been there…
She aggressively shook that thought off; it hurt about as much as having nightmares about his hands around her throat. She tugged at her shirt's collar, suddenly feeling constricted. Amara didn't notice how her father's eyes darkened at the movement, remembering the pictures of the marks bruised into her skin.
She didn't answer him, trying not to focus on the agony creeping down her legs, but she didn't really have to.
"That's not why," she managed to force out finally, making Barry blink, "I was talking about it with Richard last night. I need a break before—" before I break. She didn't say the words, but Barry understood. She didn't let him say anything. "Now, you're taking me home, right? Because I really need a shower."
That actually made Barry laugh as he gathered her up in his arms, Amara hiding her face in his shoulder, biting her lip at the pain and hoping he didn't notice her stiffness as he ran her home.
"Llaberif!"
The large fireball shot out of her palm, across the lake before going up in a ball of steam it finally crashed into the water.
"Ooh! Nice!" Artemis pumped a fist as Zatanna turned back, breathless and pleased.
Zatanna had woken up the previous night after collapsing during that ritual, feeling like she'd run a marathon. Her whole body ached but she'd never felt more alive, more powerful than she did now. And the occasional whispers in the back of her head -of spells, of her past and present- was nothing she couldn't handle; it was no different than putting on the Helmet of Fate.
If Dad could handle it, so could she.
She could handle anything.
"Getting into offensive magic now?" Artemis' eyes gleamed as she high-fived Zatanna. "Nice! Bet Amy'll be impressed."
The wink she gave Zatanna made her flush and brighten. "Is she here?"
"Yeah, she and Robin are finally working on fixing the zeta-tube in the garage—"
And Zatanna was already darting off, heading in the direction of the garage, opening the door to the sound of laughter that sent a ripple of jealousy down her spine and a whisper in her ear that she aggressively shook off, opening the swinging door to see Amy and Robin sitting on the ground, with tools and a computer between them.
(Sitting a bit close, aren't they? The voice whispered)
They both looked up when Zatanna entered and Amy immediately brightened. "Hey, babe, Robin's having a hard time with Russian coding and it's so funny."
Robin groaned loudly behind the laptop. "How insane do you have to be to imbed Cyrillic into your code?"
Amy gave him a saucy wink. "How insane do you think I am, babe? Remember when you tried to hack me on BlackNet? And you got dropped down a black hole?" She cackled loudly and a bright red blush appeared high on Robin's cheeks.
"I didn't even know that was you! I didn't know you and Masq were the same person yet!"
Zatanna looked between them. "Which one of you is actually the better hacker?"
That made them both pause and look at each other, a bit flummoxed.
"Not sure," Amy said finally, rubbing her chin thoughtfully, "we focus on different areas and I've got my girls to help out where I fall short."
Robin snorted, typing out a line of code before entering and telling Amy, "okay, that should be it."
Amy hummed, connecting the right wires within the zeta-tube, before screwing the plate back in place. "Okay! Test run!"
She hopped up and took off running and Robin shifted his sunglasses down slightly to arch an eyebrow at Zatanna as if to say 'this is what you'll be dealing with'.
Amy darted back to bring an apple with her with a lightning bolt carved into it. "Okay, now we can test it!"
Zatanna stared as she put it in the zeta-tube.
"Firing up, stand clear," Robin advised.
"Recognize," came the familiar voice over, "authorized guest: Flash Apple."
Amy stifled her sniggers as the apple was teleported away.
Ray Palmer really needed some sleep, because he could've sworn that the zeta-tube in the Watchtower had fired up and informed "Recognize, Authorized Guest: Flash Apple."
He stared blankly at the sight of an apple on the platform, feeling distinctly like he was missing something.
Especially when it disappeared just as fast.
"Maybe I should take the night off," the Atom muttered weakly to himself.
"Zeta-tube is officially online," Amy smiled, fist bumping Robin who immediately started cleaning up, probably recognizing that it was still a little awkward to be in the same room as his ex and her girlfriend.
"Who's Richard?" Zatanna asked suddenly and if she'd been looking, she would've seen how Robin stiffened at the question. As it was, Amy frowned in confusion. "I went by your house yesterday," she explained. "Wally said you were out with Richard."
"Ah," Amy nodded in understanding. "Yeah, I spent the night over there."
Zatanna decided she wasn't going to touch societal norms about a girl and boy sleeping over in the same house, especially since Amy and Roy had slept in the same bed a lot, and no one had thought that strange, probably because they could pass as brother and sister, she wasn't sure the same could be said about Amy and this unknown Richard. "You never talk about anyone named Richard."
Amy shrugged unconcerned. "I don't really talk about the GCB girls, either."
"Yeah, but we still know who they are," Zatanna was trying not to sound aggrieved, but it wasn't really working.
Amy pulled out her phone and Zatanna could see a loading bar on it not yet complete and she rolled her eyes, shoving it back in her pocket. "Richard's got a right to privacy."
(Coming from the one who invades privacy? The voice cackled in her head)
"He tutors me in math, I help him out with science, when he needs it," Amy acquiesced, "Our dads are old friends."
"Which dad?"
Amy had bent down to gather up the tools and her expression had completely blanked. Luckily -or perhaps unluckily- she wasn't facing Zatanna, so Zatanna missed it, and the rather gaping expression on Dick's face.
"The only one that matters," Amy said as she straightened up, pressing a light kiss to Zatanna's cheek. "How d'you feel about lazing around in the park today?"
And Zatanna was quite happy to be tugged along, despite the doubts that had been seeded in both of their minds.
I can talk to Zee if you want, Dick sent to Amara while Zatanna was reading one of her father's books on witchcraft that Amara didn't really have the head to understand, her head in Amara's lap as Amara played around on her phone.
Amara chewed on the corner of her lip and frowned. I told you guys about not calling Mardon my dad, right? She thought she had, but she was never completely sure if she ever said things or they were just picked up on. Wally, Roy, and Dick had known her first and longest and watched her struggle endlessly with the fact that she was fifty percent of Mark Mardon. Artemis understood the best, given her own father. Kaldur, M'gann, and Conner had learned what to not say about her genetics, and Raquel might've learned recently, but she knew there were some things you shouldn't pry into.
But Zatanna hadn't figured out that calling Amara's abuser her father might be detrimental.
That's what stung.
I don't think you ever told us, Dick's reply came, but we kinda figured it out after watching you react to ppl calling him your dad.
Ah, Amara replied.
"Don't you think you should be doing that where no one can see you?" came a disgusted voice and Amara and Zatanna lifted their eyes to see a blonde-haired woman with cold eyes and a round belly. Amara immediately switched her phone to record.
"I've heard that being a bigot has a negative impact on your health," Amara said loudly, "maybe that's something you should get checked before you infect anyone else."
The woman sneered. "You two are the infection, your parents must be ashamed."
"I dunno, my moms never seemed to have a problem," Amara responded icily, before making a gesture, "and our dads are very aware we're dating and they're fine with it."
"Go bother some other homophobe, lady," Zatanna added, surprisingly fiery. "We were minding our business before—"
"Your business is a sin and it should be beaten out of you!"
"Did you just say that we should be assaulted because we're different?" Amara was affronted. "That's unbelievably fucked up and I'm pretty sure that's a threat against minors." She held her phone a bit more completely in the woman's sight. "Back the fuck up, lady, or I'm going to the police."
The disgust warred with anger and finally she turned on her heel and left them.
"Unbelievable," Amara muttered as Zatanna sat up. "Let's get out of here, I'm suddenly craving some raspberries."
Zatanna took her hand, squeezing it once, tucking her book under one arm before raising her free hand to knot in Amara's hair, pulling her into a kiss.
Amara stiffened briefly in surprise before melting just as quickly, cupping Zatanna's cheek. It was over too soon and Zatanna parted from her, only to kiss her again when she saw Amara's eyes still shut and leaning forward, seeking her out.
"Mm," Amara hummed when they finally separated, her eyes fluttering open, "what was that for?"
Zatanna shrugged with a careless smile. "I love it when you sass homophobes."
"I aim to please," Amara gave an elaborate bow before giggling and linking their hands together when Amara's phone buzzed and she brought it to her ear. "Hey, Ariel, what's up?...oh, that's great news!...Yeah, I'll come by the weekend and we'll all help you decorate your room, promise!...Kay, bye!"
She grinned broadly at Zatanna. "So, I've got a new sister."
"That's great!" Zatanna was so happy for her. "Ariel decided to stay?"
Amara nodded. "Yeah, the judge signed the papers for her to be fostered by Mom and Harley…it'll be awhile before they can officially adopt her, but Harley was texting me yesterday saying she was worried that Ariel didn't want to stay."
"Aw, that's cute." Harley Quinn being worried that a kid didn't like her enough to live with her…who would've thought. Harley really was living her best life since dumping her psycho clown ex.
"Her room's gonna be sea-themed," Amara cackled, "I showed her the Little Mermaid and now it's a thing."
Zatanna laughed with her, unaware of the presence in her mind, spinning threads and plotting deep down where they couldn't be seen or heard.
As always: Please review!
