AN: I hope you like this character that is Hadeel, one of you said you did,and I thank you for that. I like to know whether or not my OC in being annoying or pathetically irritable.

"I just want to be ok, be ok, be ok. I just want to be ok today." -Ingrid Michaelson

Chapter Two

After a week of waiting for the so called mystery man to come back Hadeel went back to her weekly routine, almost completely forgetting about the man she went to her classes normally. As opposed to the last few days when she had been looking for a man in a huge coat or listening for the unique way in which she remembered that he spoke. She sat at the table in which her friends would talk about classes, food, internet things, and anything else that seemed to get a laugh out of them.

It turned out that the friend that had dropped the art class for a language class had not been allowed into the class as it was already full, but this just made Hadeel even more sad because it meant that her friend could go back to art but didn't. They talked like normal; she didn't suspect that anything was wrong with Hadeel and Hadeel didn't give her any reason to think that there was something wrong. But she couldn't forget the feeling of hurt that came along with the memory that she had been left for someone else.

Regardless of that thought Hadeel excused herself from the table to go to class early, saying that she needed to do some make-up work on one of her projects, when really she just wanted to get away from the table. Picking up her portfolio she trudged out of the building and towards the one that contained the art room that she spent so much time in, shifting her messenger bag around on her shoulder she took a second to look up at the sky. With the sun going down and a few clouds lying around in the sky the sunset could be called pretty or beautiful if that was the word one wanted to use.

Letting a sigh escape her lips Hadeel wandered over to the art room, seeing a familiar face of one of her classmates she walked into the room and put her stuff down on a table, smiling at said person briefly. She then took out her sketch book and began to draw meaningless things until the teacher came in fifteen minutes later, followed by the rest of the students. Her art class was small; usually it only had about ten or eleven students in it on a good night, sometimes there were even less than that.

"Today's class is going to be cut short; I have to pick up my son from school at 7:30, he has some sport event. So tonight will be an open studio, finish whatever you haven't finished already," her teacher said loudly.

The rest of the class seemed to teeter about for a few minutes until finally settling down on what they needed to finish, Hadeel pulled out a painting that she needed to touch up. It was an odd sort of piece, darker colors like black, blue, and grey with a few warm colors like white and yellow. It wasn't quite clear what it was because it was more abstract than anything and seemed to remind different people of different things that happened in their lives.

Getting to work was easy for Hadeel, and it was almost a bit of an escape when compared to what she had to deal with during the day, and with her friends. The smooth brush strokes, the smell of acrylic edging up her nose, small smears of paint on her face when she forgot it was on her hand, and the silence that meant everyone else was also absorbed in their work. With only twenty minutes left in the class Hadeel started to clean up as she would need to allow her paint to dry before she tried to transport it anywhere.

Her teacher walked around the room aimlessly, as she always did; making comments on pieces of work that she might like, and questioning others that she thought needed some work, or a lot of work in some peoples case. Finally she got over to where Hadeel was situated, seeing her bizarre piece with darkness and light she stared at it for a few seconds before speaking to her student.

"What are you aiming for here?" She asked motioning towards the small amounts of white in the otherwise dark picture. Hadeel thought about it for a second before glancing from the teacher to her art once more.

The women always looked like an old sort of rag, with dirty looking grey brown hair, and very visible bags under her eyes it was hard to pick something to focus on when looking her in the face. She always dressed a little clumsily, clothes that didn't match, pants that were two short, and shirts that she wore inside out. An intriguing person, definitely, but for some reason Hadeel just felt the need to imagine what exactly made her so tired all the time, and if she closed her eyes and picked clothing she felt was right for that day. All in all her art teacher was an odd person.

"I don't exactly know what it is, but for some reason it feels calming. Like it reminds me of a dark memory that got better over time," Hadeel said letting her heart do the talking before her brain took over. "I think it's cool," she mumbled making an odd face. "Except for the fact that I don't know what it is," she said under her breath.

"What?" Her teacher asked looking at her curiously. Hadeel simply shook her head and left the odd expression on her face. "Well I like it, it's not abstract, nonrepresentational is more what I'm feeling right now," she explained glancing over at Hadeel every few seconds.

"Yeah," Hadeel murmured looking away from her teacher. It was a funny thing to think about when the teacher was standing next to her, but all the other students agreed that their art teacher smelled a little odd sometimes.

Like alcohol.

After someone said that they all had to agree that it was that smell, which was weird because their teacher was never drunk, or even had a hint of being hung over for any reason, she just smelled like beer. Thinking about it now Hadeel had to hold back at small smile as her teacher continued talking.

"I like the colors; do you think you could use some more warm colors?" She questioned going over the layout of the picture.

"I don't want to," Hadeel grumbled in a silly voice. She had had this teacher for one term already so she knew her well enough that she wouldn't get angry if the students decided to voice their own opinion, it was their art after all.

"I know you don't want to, but can you try?" She pushed staring at Hadeel.

"Maybe," Hadeel finally said with defiant expression. She wasn't going to, her teacher knew that but at least she had somewhat agreed to thinking about it, though at the same time she wasn't going to think about it either.

"Good girl," she laughed before walking away to look at someone else's work.

Sometimes it was very frustrating working with a teacher that always wanted to change so much about her students artwork, telling them that it looked wrong or it wasn't dark or bright enough. Last term she had almost made a girl cry when she repeatedly told her that her piece needed more work, of course the girl also got mad pretty easily, but it was still a little intense. Hadeel herself listened to what her teacher had to say, even if she didn't apply any of it to her work, sometimes her teacher was right but most of the time, it just felt wrong.

"Okay clean up, I need you out of here in ten minutes," her teacher said to the whole room.

Since Hadeel had already cleaned her table and put everything away she simply picked up her portfolio, her messenger bag, and her still wet painting and walked out of the room and into the cold dark air of night time. The art classroom was more or less built in the side of the building, so the door that you left through was connected to the outside.

Feeling that she had to wait until her painting was dry before going home she went up the steps into another building that had long hallways with tables and chairs at the end of each one. Walking down one hallway she got to the end of it to see that her friend was sitting alone at a table playing some sort of game on her phone. When she saw that Hadeel was there she smiled up at her and gave a mumbled hello before speaking further.

"No art class today?" She questioned hitting a sour note with Hadeel.

"Got out early, if I hadn't had class at all I would be gone, you should know that," Hadeel commented blandly.

"Well sorry, it's not like I had the class for very long," she snapped back suddenly.

Hadeel was surprised by the tone in her voice and felt the need to retaliate with a comment of her own, but she didn't. Letting the small pause of silence quiet down her mind she placed her portfolio against the table that her friend was sitting at, she wasn't sure if she wanted to sit down with her or not yet.

"That class sucked anyway," she mumbled softly.

This made Hadeel freeze, her heart twisted painfully as she tried to figure out how to respond so that nothing more would come out that was awkward. Why had the class sucked? Was it because Hadeel was the friend that she had taken it with? Was there something about Hadeel that made the class boring or uninteresting?

"Why did it suck?" Hadeel asked feeling her jaw clench and her eyes harden as they always did when she felt like crying.

"I don't know, it was just boring, I wasn't having any fun," she explained looking back down at her phone.

"I told you that it was going to get better, we could have had fun together," Hadeel said letting her emotions get the better of her. It wasn't often that this happened, that Hadeel would say what she had been thinking about for weeks and weeks, it just wasn't like her. So when it did happen, her friends didn't know what to say and usually retaliated as if they were the victim and Hadeel was the one in the wrong.

"Well it didn't," she said bitterly.

With that being said Hadeel picked up her portfolio and started to walk away from her friend. She didn't want to deal with everything that would spew out of her mouth if she stayed near the girl any longer, she was angry now. Nothing good comes out of one's mouth when their angry, mostly hurtful words, or bitter truths that they are afraid to admit to themselves.

"Where are you going?" She questioned calling after Hadeel.

"You ditched me for a guy, so I'm going to ditch you," she said letting her face become cold and emotionless.

Her friend didn't say anything else to her, because it was true, she had a guy that she liked who was taking Portuguese, and she figured that Hadeel wouldn't care if she dropped the art class in order to take the language class with him. In truth she hadn't cared whether or not Hadeel would mind, she hadn't thought about Hadeel at all.

Hadeel continued to walk down the hall towards a different group of tables, placing her portfolio against one of the chairs and dropping her messenger bag on the floor she placed her painting on the table before sitting down. A mangled breath escaped her mouth as she slumped forwards onto the table; a resonating pain tortured her right kidney. Reminding her that she needed to take her medication if she wanted the pain to go away, but she didn't care at the moment, she was going to get surgery soon anyway.

With that thought entering her mind Hadeel frowned and pulled out a small container filled with pain killers, this would be the third surgery that she would have for her kidney. She'd have to go to the hospital again, spend a couple days lying in a bed while she imagined laughing and telling stories with her friends that weren't there. She'd need to give her teachers the doctor's note that excused her from any tests or other activities she might miss.

The biggest thing that bothered Hadeel was that she hadn't told anyone about it yet, of course her family knew, but she elected to not tell any of her friends that she was going to the hospital. She didn't want to tell them because she had a feeling that they wouldn't care, most of the time her words fell on deaf ears. Not that they were deaf, it was just that they felt their problems and worries were more important than anyone else's, but isn't that how everyone is?

Regardless of thinking that way Hadeel knew that she would end up in the hospital, hooked up to an IV that would send her morphine when she needed it, and propped up against a pillow as if she was comfortable. When really her thoughts would be plagued with memories of white walls, sleepless nights, and bodies covered with blankets. No one would visit her even though they said that they would, and they wouldn't care.

Hadeel had to wonder what she would say to her friend when they saw each other again on Wednesday, would they talk like normal? Or would Hadeel be ignored?

Grumbling to herself about being too depressed she pulled out her laptop and checked her email before opening a word document and starting to write a paper about a story she had read in English. The story had been about a woman who thought her husband had died and how she got through the terrible crushing emotions of sadness and despair. In the end it had been false information, her husband was alive, she had such joy in her heart that she had a heart attack and died, and so the story ended.

Everyone in class had looked up at the teacher with appalled looks on their faces, but she simply smiled and told them to write why they thought the woman might have done different if she had been told a few days later and not the same day that her husband was alive. Hadeel herself thought the story was a little messed up, but all in all it just made her sad. It reminded her of people that had died in her family, how she had forgotten about them so easily, eventually her mind circled back to feeling that she was just an awful person.

It had already been an hour since she started writing, the paper had to be six pages and Hadeel had run out of things to say that made sense on the third page. Even with the double spacing she couldn't make up for the fact that her mind felt like an emotional sack of jelly.

So she shut her laptop and tried to think about happier things, like vacations, reading a good book on a rainy day, or the feeling of a scalding cup of hot chocolate between cold hands.

"I just want to be ok, be ok, be ok," her voice started out softly. It was a simple song by an artist that she loved, and the words felt just right to sing at the moment, as if just singing the song to herself would help her get better. "I just want to be ok today," she said before repeating the same words again.

She didn't know that someone was walking towards her back; even the soft thump of his heavy footfalls didn't stir her from her song. Perhaps it was because she was still mournful over everything that was worrying her or the fact that she really hoped the song would lighten her heart and make her ok. She didn't notice the man until he spoke.

"What a lovely song," a familiar voice said to her.

Looking at him suddenly Hadeel felt something in her hitch and stop working; her eyes seemed to be glued to his face which had a mask covering his mouth. All she could see were his eyes; a hardness that she could not explain seemed to dwell within his orbs as he stared down at her. The mask was definitely made of some sort of metal, or at least that was what she guessed, with tubes that looked like teeth it gave him a sort of wicked grin. Looking like some of the monsters that she liked to draw on her math notes.

The man himself was massive in size, greatly towering over Hadeel's small form she couldn't help but feel tiny under his gaze. As if she was a hobbit and he was Gandalf or Aragorn, her mind couldn't help but compare the two of them like that. It seemed as if everything about him was muscle, she could imagine him punching another man and having him blast through a wall like in a cartoon.

"Do I frighten you?" He asked in the same voice she had been thinking about since that rainy night.

"Do you want to?" She countered with a question, just like she had the other night. "I like your face thing," she commented looking at it again.

"Thank you," he said staring at her strangely blue eyes.

Hadeel had no words that entered her mind in order to continue the conversation; she'd never seen a man like him before, it almost seemed as if his muscles wanted to escape from beneath his jacket. If anything he reeked of power and strength, things that Hadeel had always wished she possessed.

"Why do you sing, little Songbird?" He asked watching to see what her reaction would be.

Hadeel looked at the man with a quizzical expression at first, was he calling her a Songbird? No one had ever commented on her singing before. Her sister Margo was always so much better than her at singing, she had a clear strong voice. Hadeel's own breathy soft voice was nothing compared to that of her sister, even Alana's voice was more powerful compared to hers.

"Are you not going to answer?" He questioned bitterly.

Hadeel looked away from the man then; the way he spoke made her assume that his questions were to be answered right away and that he was not one to be kept waiting. But at the same time Hadeel didn't want to answer, it felt like she was getting swept up into the rhythm that the man lived by every day. She liked hearing his voice though, when he spoke she couldn't help but feel the need to answer.

"I sing when I'm sad or when I'm bored," she answered glancing at the man before looking away again.

"And are you sad right now?" The man pressed her.

She didn't know why she was talking to such a mammoth of a man; normally people would sit down and talk with her because she was sitting with her other friends. Not many people sought her out just to speak with her alone. Now that there was a person who was only speaking to her she felt weird, especially since they were talking about her voice, which she had no confidence in. If she answered truthfully would she burden this stranger with her worries and fears?

"No," she answered looking him in the eyes.

As a person who always lied and told everyone she was okay Hadeel had become amazing at hiding everything away from everyone, even people who claimed they could tell when anyone was lying couldn't catch her. But it was not something to be proud of, it meant that no one ever knew she was in pain, that she was sad, that she needed help, and couldn't bear to be alone. Lies have their price, and she was always paying for them.

The man in front of her was silent for a few moments before he began to ever so slowly move towards Hadeel, she looked at him oddly and moved away slightly. His eyes were hard with anger and bitterness, obviously that had not been the answer that he had been expecting.

"Liar," his voice bit out at her.

At that moment Hadeel felt like the man in front of her was different, as if her little lie had made something within him snap and crumble away. She felt the need to get away from the man, something within her screamed to run and escape, but she was curious, what did the man want with her anyway? Perhaps he was mocking her; Hadeel was no stranger to laughter aimed at one's heart. This caused the girl to stiffen and grow cold towards the man. Her sudden change in attitude made his eyes soften and grow curious.

"It doesn't matter does it? It's not like we're good friends or anything," she laughed suddenly and smiled jokingly. "I don't even know your name," she added trying to get away from the subject of sadness.

"My name is Bane, little Songbird," his reply was quick and short. It almost sounded like he had been waiting for her to ask or hint at the fact that she didn't know it yet. Her face suddenly dropped at the mention of the name little Songbird again.

"Are you just going to call me little Songbird, Bane?" Hadeel wondered aloud before her eyes widened and she looked at him. He stared at her oddly for her expression was a little strange looking, as if she had just blurted out a secret and was making sure he would say nothing about it with just her face.

"What does your name mean?" He asked with what sounded like a smirk in his voice.

"It means to coo lik-," Hadeel stopped herself short before looking back at the man a little baffled. "How do you know my name?" She murmured a little suspiciously towards him. The man merely let his eyes smile at her, which made her all the more skeptical at who the man really was.

"Hadeel, Little Songbird," he said to her softly. "Do you not like your new name?" His voice turned cold while he asked this. Telling Hadeel that she better like her new name because otherwise something was going to happen and she wouldn't like it.

"New name?" She asked looking at him oddly. "What was wrong with the old one?" She murmured looking down at her bag.

She had yet to take the pain medication that they had given her; she'd meant to get up and get some water but never got around to it with Bane coming and all that other good stuff. Her jaw clenched and she set her eyes forward sternly before looking back up at Bane, if there was anything she was good at, besides lying, it was hiding her own pain and misery from others.

Even as she looked at Bane with her mask of emotions blocking out her pain she saw his eyes change slightly, making her panic briefly, if he had seen through her lie as if it had been made of paper would he also know what was going on with her now? Carefully Hadeel hid the pained expression that came with another wave of agony from her kidney.

As it goes, Hadeel has kidney stones, one of them is rather large and is currently blocking drainage, causing the kidney to swell, and it's currently almost twice as big as her left kidney. This causes her quite a bit of pain, although no one knows, because she never tells anyone. This had happened to her twice before, making her go to the hospital to get it surgically removed from her body, as she could not pass it due to the largeness of it.

"So what do you like to do?" Hadeel tried to change the subject before he could ask her what was wrong. He seemed so keen to want to know what was wrong with a person he had only just met.

"Why do you ask?" He questioned as his eyes went back to the same coldness as before.

"The keys," Hadeel explained. "I said I would give you a better thank you," she said reaching for her bag. "I don't know what you like, and it would be silly to give you socks and say; here I bet you like socks, everyone likes socks," she said earning a chuckle of amusement from Bane.

It was an odd sound that Hadeel had never expected to hear from the man, mostly because he had yet to do anything but ask her questions, which was making her feel slightly uncomfortable. It almost felt like he was prying through all her barriers and breaking down all her brick walls that she built around herself, and he wasn't even saying that much!

"When I figure out what I want, I'll tell you," he said keeping the laughter in his voice.

"It can't be overly expensive, and it shouldn't be something outrageous either," she said setting up guidelines for the man she barely knew.

"Just be patient little Songbird," he mused patting her head gently.

Hadeel froze at his touch; his hands were huge, much bigger than her own small hands that had stopped growing in seventh grade, furthermore he was patting her head like she was a child or something. Of course she was a great deal smaller than the man, so perhaps it was okay due to the fact that he could squish her just by sitting down.

Realizing she had been sitting down the whole time Hadeel finally stood up before taking tentative steps towards Bane, trying to figure out how tall she was standing next to him. The results were so saddening she slumped against the table and looked up at him again.

"What's your favorite color?" She asked trying to get back to more normal questions.

"Little Songbird," Bane chuckled again; Hadeel liked the sound of it. "Your questions are so worthless," he mused standing up fully to tower over her form again.

"You ask a question then," she countered feeling very much like a quarreling child.

"What is the medicine for?" He asked showing with his eyes that he could see the pills she had been hiding. Hadeel stiffened when he mentioned the pills she had grabbed and hid in her fist, slowly she opened her hand and let the small container of pills catch the light.

"See your questions aren't even in the same category as mine," she muttered feeling awfully exposed. When she turned to see he was still waiting for an answer from her she stared at the table in a bit of defeat. "I need them, okay?" She said shortly hoping he would drop the subject. "Why does it matter? This isn't important," Hadeel felt herself retreat back into her mind.

"It will be," Bane said simply.

His eyes were hard, as they had been for the majority of their conversation, if that is what you could call it anyway. Hadeel felt like it had been more of an assault against her person; she wanted to leave as quickly as she could now, this wasn't like any of the conversations she had had in a long time. She felt like crying, like Bane wanted to see her break, and she had to admit that he was good at what he did, asking all the right questions. He probably enjoyed watching her falter with her words.

"I have to go," She said coldly to him. Bane knew it was a lie but pressed no further, perhaps this was the extent of information that he would get from her for the night.

"I'll see you Wednesday, little Songbird," he whispered to her before walking in the opposite direction of her form. Hadeel watched him until he disappeared around a corner before she picked up her things and hurried towards her car. It was already nine and she needed to get home, she had to wake up early for work tomorrow, not that she wanted to go, she hated her job, but a job is a job.

Gently she put her portfolio in the back of her car before getting in the front seat, taking one last glance at the building she turned on her car and started towards home.

That morning she had been hoping that the day would not be another boring one as it usually was, she had expected to feel drained at the end of the day, and she hadn't expected to feel the way she was now.

030

Bane watched Hadeel's car until it drove out of his sight. Earlier he'd watched her for a good hour before he knew that she was a liar, that she for some reason didn't like her friend, and that she would fake her smiles when her mind wandered. Her name, Hadeel, meant to coo like a dove, and when he came to her again she was singing, like a little songbird, just as her name suggested.

Her voice carried through the long hallways of the building nicely, jumping off the walls until they landed on someone's ears who would then shrug and pretend like they hadn't heard anything. Bane couldn't help but notice the slight traces of pain in the girls face as she spoke to him at first, though he somehow knew that she wouldn't tell him what was wrong with her.

She didn't seem to appreciate the nickname, not that he cared, in Bane's eyes she was already something that he could touch and claim. At first he disregarded the encounter with the small college student, writing it off as one of the only normal things that happened to him in a long time. But then he felt himself being pulled towards the girl, their worlds were so different from each other, he wanted to know what would happen if he smashed them together.

The way she spoke made him angry and amused at the same time, this was the way she spoke to everyone, the way she lied to everyone, so he'd called her out on it. For some reason he hadn't been expecting her to lie to him, so when she had it made him irritated, he felt the need to bite back at her. Bane had to admit that the reaction he got was interesting to say the least, at first he thought that she would get angry and start yelling at him. The way her eyes grew cold and her face seemed drain of any sort of revealing emotion, he was sure that some shouting would follow.

And yet she smiled and laughed at him like nothing had happened, like he hadn't just broken her barrier of lies and everything was okay in the world again. He was surprised to say the very least, intrigued by the small form in front of him, she had found great strength in a world that seemed so trivial and meaningless to him. If she had been placed in his life, would she have turned out the same way? Or would her heart be blackened and dead just as his was?

He was curious now, and relentless in the questions he asked, picking certain ones that might set her off on the wrong foot, or pull her sense of security away. Every reaction he got from her was different from the ones that he had gotten previous, he didn't know what to expect from her at all. Bane was always so used to knowing what someone would do next, it was almost refreshing for him to be talking to Hadeel, for she was so different from him.

The comment about the socks and how everybody liked them made him chuckle before he could even stop himself, such trivial things like returning a favor, or giving a gift. Were these the things that clouded the minds of people like her? Of course not though, this was her kindness, the way she connected with other people, by making them laugh and smile. Her worries and restraints were things that she had hidden deep inside herself; such silly things like socks couldn't possibly be what she worried about.

So then what did she worry about? Certainly not whether a city would fall easily or not, or if the Batman would show up after so many years of hiding, she probably didn't think about the Batman at all.

Walking back towards his sewer hideout Bane decided that he was going to keep pecking at his little Songbirds protective shell until she cracked, and then all the gooey insides would be for him.

"I just want to feel today, feel today, feel today. I just want to feel something today." -Ingrid Michaelson

Time to go to work, blehh, nasty. Hope you liked this chapter, leave me a note on what you thought about it. The song used in this story is called 'Be Ok,' big surprise there.

Thank you for reading.