Author's notes: Ok, so here's Chapters 2 AND 3 since chapter 2 I find personally to be boring and chapter 3 is so much better. So yeah.

Warning: Umm…general boredom? Oh yeah, and Rorschach talks a little bit more in this one, so watch out for those pre-75 personal pronouns and normal-speak. It might be a little weird

Still don't own Watchmen. Alan Moore scares me.

2. Awkward Conversations

Nite Owl cast yet another furtive glance at the little trench coated vigilante stiffly perched on the edge of the seat next to him. After about three and a half weeks of Rorschach "accidentally" showing up whenever Nite Owl found himself in sticky situations, Nite Owl had finally suggested that they work together.

"Nothing committal," He'd added hastily as the shorter man stiffened uncomfortably, the only outward sign of emotion he'd shown, "Just, just for the big stuff." To tell the truth, Nite Owl was more than a little surprised Rorschach had agreed even to that.

It hadn't been a cakewalk though. For a while, "working together" just meant disappearing for hours then slipping out of the shadows halfway through patrol scaring the shit out of Dan in the process. Working together also meant a lot of miscommunication on where to meet and how long it would take to get there, which usually resulted in Nite Owl getting to their destination half an hour before Rorschach (thanks to Archie) and then having Rorschach get annoyed with him for waiting instead of going on by himself. Then, Dan brought up the idea of riding with him in Archie after one particularly irritable night when he'd waited for Rorschach and the man they were chasing got away. He got the feeling Rorschach wanted to snap his neck.

Two weeks later, Rorschach was finally sitting in Archie, looking as uncomfortable as hell and as uncommunicative as ever. Dan suspected he didn't really interact with people very much and probably wasn't too keen on starting now, but if he was going to keep working with him, Dan wanted to be able to see him as much as possible. He was really getting sick of the man jumping out of the shadows when he least expected it. It was tiring.

Dan had a sneaking suspicion that working with Rorschach for a long period of time would be a little tiring; the man was more than a little judgmental and Dan sometimes got the feeling that Rorschach was patronizing him. Just a little bit. It was either that or he'd never developed good social skills; sometimes people were just like that. Dan didn't really care, it just made him curious. He'd told Rorschach a bit about himself over the past month or so. Not a lot, Dan wasn't stupid, but little things like how he studied birds as a hobby (he figured that one was safe as it seemed like a given) or how old he was. That one had kind of just slipped out once as a bit of a non sequitur, but the look Rorschach gave him was pretty funny.

But Rorschach had never told him anything about himself. In fact, Rorschach never really said much at all. The most Dan had ever heard him talk was when they were planning something (Rorschach was a brilliant tactician). Most nights, Dan didn't mind it, he was a quiet guy himself so it was fine, there wasn't much to talk about anyways. But this night was different. This night, he and Rorschach were actually sitting still, not planning anything and without much to distract them except for the quiet humming and beeping of Archie. Dan, being who he was, figured that this would be a good time to get to know a little more about the quiet man sitting beside him.

He really should have known better.

"So." Dan shifted uncomfortably in his seat, glancing over at Rorschach, who gave no sign that he'd even hear Dan speak, "Uhm…looks like another busy night tonight, do you think?"

Rorschach turned his head to look at him slightly, "Hrn."

Hrn. Ok. Dan tried again, feeling particularily masochistic tonight, "Do you…wanna listen to the radio? I have pretty good receptions in--"

"No. Don't really like music."

Well, at least it was a response. Grasping at the multiple worded answer, he pressed, "Really? That's…unusual. Why not?" Rorschach shrugged.

And that was that. Apparently, Rorschach didn't like music because Rorschach didn't like music and that was all there is to it.

Frustrated, Dan huffed into silence while Rorschach sat, completely unperturbed. Dan continued, really too bored to do anything else, "I like music, actually. It's nice to listen to while I'm working on Archie." Rorschach nodded slowly and carefully, probably trying to be polite. Or not.

Dan was silent for a while, figuring that maybe if he kept quiet long enough Rorschach would feel obligated to reply in kind.

Hah.

Dan fidgeted a little more, "Hey, did I tell you that I named Archie after--"

"Archimedes. Merlin's pet owl. You did."

"Oh."

Well, this sucked. And it was awkward. He sighed again and began tapping his fingers in time with the beeping of Archie's console. Beep. Beep. Tap. Tap. Beep. Tap. Tap. Beep. He was becoming a bit entertained by this whole thing when he felt Rorschach's eyes on him. He turned to see the shorter man turned completely toward him and Dan had the sneaking suspicion Rorschach was glaring at him a little.

Dan smiled awkwardly, "Hey."

Rorschach stared at him for a little while longer, scrutinizing him. Dan felt a blush creep up his face. Now he felt like an idiot for behaving like a little boy on a long car ride. He opened his mouth to apologize when Rorschach finally spoke, "So is there a reason the Owlship has a unique shape? Usually airships aren't shaped like this."

Dan stared at him, momentarily taken aback by the sudden question. Then, a slow smile spread across his face, "Oh yeah, the shape of the ship makes it radar invisible, which could come in handy someday, right?"

Rorschach straightened up, "Radar invisible? Very useful." He sounded impressed. And that was really all the encouragement Dan needed. Before he could really stop himself, he was off talking about the schematics of making Archie and how fast he could go and the fuel efficiency and the weapons Archie had. Eventually, Dan was startled out of his lectures by a blip appearing on Archie's screen.

Rorschach stood, "We're here."

Dan stood up as well, "Yeah." And the last thing he thought before Nite Owl jumped out of Archie's open hatch was that he still didn't know anything about Rorschach, except that he was an exceptionally good listener. And really, that was enough.