Hello everyone, I decided I'd do a short little piece here to get back into the hang of writing before returning to Sapphire Eyes, one, because I haven't updated this little companion piece in forever, two, because during my break I got the itch to write this (something set it Gotham) since I've really been into the whole 90s, darker/drearier Batman stuff with Tim Burton's Batman films, and the animated series, (like if I could live anywhere I'd love to live in Tim Burton's Gotham….minus all the crime, because it's just my type of aesthetic and speaks to my soul) and three, because something is given to Saph in this that I think isn't completely necessary, but will be fun just to have.
Moving on, this little scene is set during Chapter 14 of Sapphire Eyes, during the few days in between the Belle Reve briefing and the day of Saph's apology to Wally. For the most part it IS canon, so just think of it as a lost or deleted scene of sorts. The brief summary is Robin takes Saph out of Mount Justice and into Gotham for some 'training.'
Saph POV
"Shit….shitshitshitshitSHIT!" I cried out as I barely made the jump I had just attempted from one of Gotham City's taller buildings, to the next. After moving away from the ledge, I hunched over and put a hand to my heart and took some deep breaths to try and calm my body and mind, while remaining half tempted to peer over the edge of the roof I was currently on, to stare down and see where I would have landed, if I had not made the stupid freaking jump.
"Relax man, you have nothing to worry about," my companion on this evening excursion, Robin, said.
"Nothing to worry about?!" I exclaimed through breaths, "How does the possibility of falling to my death not qualify as something to worry about?!"
"Well obviously it does," Robin said through a grin, "But you made the jump, and the one before that, and the one before that, and well, you get the point. Plus it's not like I'd let you fall."
"I only made those jumps by the grace of some god or something!" I said as I stood back upright.
"No, you made those jumps because even if you don't believe it, you have the skill and spirit to do so," Robin replied.
"That has got to be the lamest shit I have ever heard you say," I smirked.
"Hey, I'm trying to be motivational here," Robin laughed, "And besides, the more jumps you make the easier it gets for you to make the next one, and then the one after that."
"Yeah, yeah," I said as I walked over to Robin while he seemed to peer around the city high rise to get an idea of where to go next, "Remind me why we're doing this again?"
"I guess you could call it training," Robin said, "You know, get you more prepared for potential situations like this in the future, and the longer you do this hero work the more situations you'll be in where you'll find being able to jump to safety is a great skill set to have."
"After tonight I'll be staying on the ground as much as possible, thank you very much," I said, interrupting him, "I'll leave the jumping to you and like….Superboy."
"Annnnnd," Robin drawled out, continuing on with his explanation as if he hadn't been promptly interrupted, "I figured it would be good to take you out and away from Mount Justice for a change."
I was able to see past the surface of Robin's statement as the younger boy got a running start and easily leapt from the dark roof of the building we were currently on, to the next one over. You see, Wally and I were still in our 'not talking' phase and the others had started to notice. This of course was making for a tense atmosphere at times, or at least I felt that way since naturally I assumed that if the others were going to find out about our tiff, they'd take Wally's side given that on his hand he had his longer standing position on the team and the relationships predating it, and on my hand I had my less than stellar induction to said team, and less than perfect relationships with some of the members, cough Superboy cough.
"Uh huh," I said in an unbelieving tone as I made the jump between buildings with no fear….which this time was only because the distance between the two was meager at best. "Sure."
"What does 'sure' mean?" Robin asked, refusing to give anything away.
"I know the real reason you wanted to take me out was because you were smart enough to pick up on the tension between Wally and me...well...it's not like we've been too secret about it I guess" I said, brushing off the dust from my brilliantly blue uniform, which probably stuck out like a sore thumb against the dark greys and occasional blacks of Gotham; thank god we were up in the air and not on the streets. "Anyway though, I'm assuming this is the part where you talk to me for Wally or something, or tell me to make amends?"
"See I knew you were smart enough to figure out another reason I brought you out here," Robin said with a grin, "And Superboy says you have no good qualities! As if!"
My eyebrow twitched at the latter comment and I had to nearly bite my tongue to avoid flying off the handle to inquire about just what exactly a certain someone had said about me.
"I will say you are wrong on one part though," Robin said, derailing my train of thought, "I'm not here to tell you to do anything. Whatever's going on between you and Wally, or you and anyone else for that matter, isn't my business. I mean, it will be if it interferes with our work, but that hasn't happened yet so I'll keep my hands out of it. I did figure though that since both of you still don't seem like you're ready to talk, that taking you out for this little exercise would be way more beneficial than having you two glaring daggers at one another for a couple of hours while M'gann tried to make small talk."
"Yeah….you're probably right," I said, quickly following Robin as we made another jump, "Poor girl has tried to diffuse the tension for the past two days now and doesn't have the social awareness to see she's making it worse."
"True," Robin agreed as he led the way for another vault, "But she'll learn, just like you're learning that you can successfully take risks right now, heck we'll all learn things as time goes on, that's what makes being a part of a team so great; you get to make great friendships and grow and learn with and from one another."
"Bleh," I groaned with a smile, making the next jump while noticing how much easier it had quickly become just from Robin talking with me, probably distracting from the absurd amounts of danger I was in by doing this, "You sound like you don't have even a single negative bone in your body. Are you sure you're as young as you say you are? You do seem pretty ahead of yourself."
"Not anymore," Robin said as he continued leading us forward through the city, "Technically no one will ever still be as young again as they are in this, or that, very moment."
"Funny," I replied as I stuck my jump, noticing that it was the first time I didn't stumble even a fraction in my landing.
"I try," Robin told me as he paused in our travels to lean against some of the venting on this particular rooftop to start fiddling around with the little computer system or whatever it was, on his suit.
"Speaking of trying," I began as I took a spot on the ground next to him, "I'll talk to him, Wally, soon…..it's just….hard for me….I guess. Like this whole thing is still very new to me, the whole being a 'hero' thing….like I lay in bed sometimes and think wow, fucking shit! I'm literally a goody-goody crime fighter now, working for, or alongside the people I've heard about and seen my entire life on news and stuff."
"Aww, is somebody star struck?" Robin goaded.
"No, shut up," I said with a gruff laugh, "What I mean is that sometimes I guess I have less than stellar outbursts to vent and release my tension or something, in the form of these moments of cattiness, like the one that pissed off Wally, or whatever, that have ingrained themselves into my personality, for better or worse mind you, and I guess they bubble up to remind me that through this gargantuan life change, I'm still…..me."
Robin didn't say anything to that, and I didn't want to look up at him to see how he'd be reacting. "I mean that's definitely not the only reason, and I could explain more, but no offense, I don't exactly feel like spilling my life story, or even a chapter or two of it, right now on the roof of a building in probably the most notorious city for crime in the world. Not because you're you….because you're great Robin! I mean it….but….yeah…..now just doesn't feel like the time nor the place."
"No man it's totally cool, and I agree!" Robin quickly responded, "Plus I think it's cool and means a lot that you've said as much as you have to me already. I appreciate that."
"Thanks," I said with a small, soft smile, before taking a moment to stretch out my legs.
After that, a brief pause settled over the two of us as we continued to rest and take a breather, and get some of our energy back. During that time I got the chance to think about just what exactly I had said and that led me to my next question for the younger boy.
"How did you handle all of this when you started?" I asked, looking up at Robin to find him staring off into the distance, "You're so young now, and if memory serves correctly that means you have had to have been doing this since you were what, eight? Why would you want to get involved in this?
"Can't really say with the gag order Batman has on my identity," Robin said with a sorry smile after a few moments, not glancing down at me.
"That's right, I apologize," I said looking back down, "I didn't mean, or wasn't trying to pry, you know?"
"No I know, it's cool man," Robin said, "Believe me, it's not my choice to basically be a giant question mark to the team on a personal level."
"Still though," I said, steering away from his personal life in case it was a sorer subject than it already sounded like, "How do you handle it though?"
"I just…..do," Robin answered, like it was simultaneously the best and worst explanation to him, "Like you said, I started when I was young….and I guess maybe I didn't recognize the true gravity and weight of my decisions and what I was getting into, and hey, maybe I still don't….but I think, through it all, it helps knowing you're a part of something bigger….knowing that you're doing good in the world….doing good things for people who can't do it for themselves, but probably would if they could do what we do. Does that make sense?"
"Yeah…..it makes a lot of sense actually," I answered after thinking about it, "That's a great way to put it."
Once again another silence fell over the two of us, but it was one that was definitely more comfortable than anything. I thought we'd stay like that until Robin was done checking over whatever it was that held his attention in that moment, or until he decided to continue our jumps, or that it was time to call it a night, but what he said next had me curious.
"Okay, found it!" the boy wonder suddenly exclaimed, "I've been holding out; there was one last reason I wanted to bring you out here tonight."
"Oh?" I asked as I looked up to see Robin bringing up one of his portable displays.
"Take a look at this," he said as he brought up an image, "It took me a while to find it since I forgot where I saved it, and what I saved it under, but check it out!"
"You had to bring me to a roof in Gotham just to show me a picture?" I asked as I pushed down on the ground so I could stand next to him.
"Think of it as a reward then," Robin said, "Now just look, will ya?"
I stuck out my tongue at him playfully, and when I did look I found myself staring at the image of an eye, in almost a dark teal color, outlined in blue, on an even darker blue background. The eye looked beautiful, almost hieroglyphic in design, with what I could only guess was a long tear drop hanging off of it, and with the eyelashes being made from three triangles
"Every hero has to have their own logo, emblem, or insignia right? Batman has his bat logo, Superman has his 'S,' Flash has lightning bolt, Green Lan-…, well, you get the point" Robin told me, "I figured that since you're officially, as you put it, a hero now, that you need one, so this is yours!"
Knowing what the image was now I looked at it more closely with myself in mind. The reasoning behind the choice for the eye was clear to me since the power in my eyes was the first thing Robin had learned about me so many months ago during my first heist. I then still held to my idea that it was a tear drop hanging from the eye, to symbolize my control over water….which left the triangles. After a minute I guessed that maybe, given their shape, they represented my control over ice, and when I told Robin, he confirmed all three theories of mine with a resounding 'Yep!'
"And Superboy says you have no good qualities!" Robin finished.
"You…already said that," I said, slightly irritated in jest, but also slightly, actually irritated.
"I know," Robin said, turning to look at me with a grin, "I just wanted to say it again to remind you that he's wrong."
"Oh, I don't need to be reminded of that," I said with my own grin, "I know."
Robin smirked even more at that before shrinking down the image, "So, I was thinking we could maybe put the logo on your uniform at some point, maybe on the back. That'd be a little unconventional, but I figure that so are you, so it'd be a perfect fit."
"Sounds more than good to me, I mean….I have my own symbol now….like who would have ever thought that would happen?" I asked in slight awe before taking a moment to pause and look at Robin, "Thank you though Robin…..I really mean it."
"What are friends for, right?" Robin asked me, "Now let's go home."
And that's that.
If you want to see how Saph's logo looks then head over to the tumblr that I have for the 'Eyes' stories, since I have an extended explanation for it there as well.
Anyway though, that's about it, I hope you enjoyed this little mini lost/deleted scene, and I'll see you all soon.