What's this? An update? This early? WHOO YAY. I dedicated my time to trying to make this chapter perfect, as it is the last one... :o
Well, enjoy it! I've had so much fun writing this story! I'm very thankful for all your reviews and to everyone who bothered to read it! And I'm sure you'd like to know I have plotted and planned out a sequel to this story! I'll probably post a kind of epilogue soon, to help you all get a feel of it. But I'm super excited to write it!
AND (whoa so much stories) I am thinking of writing a Tim/oc and Jason/oc story too! I have planned them out and have a general idea for both of them. I've got to say thank you to my sister for all these stories! Her feels for Jason started it all. xD
Lastly, if I were to put up a one-shot story thing where you can all submit a one-shot with a form I put up, would you guys do it? I think having something like that would help with the writer's block I sometimes have.
Anyway. On with the story! ((LAST CHAPTER OMG WOW FIRST STORY I HAVE ACTUALLY FINISHED CAN YOU BELIEVE IT))
"Rose you're moving in with me. It's all sorted."
The brunette blinked twice in front of her older sister, her hand still on the door knob and her face in a blank stare.
"Everything you have from the orphanage is packed. It's just your stuff here now. I'll wait in the car for you, okay?"
Rose's eyes dropped to the ground and she slammed the door of the manor shut, walking with her head still down to her room. Slowly, she packed her things into her suitcase. She didn't know what she was doing. Images from the previous week flashed before her eyes, her sister had been much sterner with her, and had asked her many times if she had thought about moving in yet, and every time she asked Rose would stay silent.
But obviously Lily had had enough, she wanted her sister there, and that is what she would get.
Rose didn't want to argue, she didn't have the energy. And she guessed she was being selfish for not going there sooner, she had completely ignored the fact that Lily was going through all of this as well, and she wanted to be there for her. She was moving in for Lily.
Her bottom lip trembled slightly, she didn't want to leave. Rose got attached to things much more easily than she liked, and she loved it at the manor.
"What're you doing?"
Rose turned around from her bed sharply, her eyes wide, and they welled up with tears in front of Damian who was standing by the door. His voice was cold, it sliced through the silent air and hit Rose right in the face. She didn't want to leave the manor, she was lying to herself. She didn't want to be away from Damian.
Damian's eyes were in a strong glare, his eyebrows frowning fiercely.
Rose couldn't speak, there was so much tension in the air, she felt it tightening around her body and she let out a deep breath.
"I said; what are you doing?" He said every word separately, as if she was a child and couldn't understand.
At the moment, she really felt like the child, looking up at him with tears threatening to spill from her eyes, and he was leaning against the door still in his uniform, his arms crossed. It seemed as if it were a lifetime ago they were laughing together in the car coming back from school.
"I'm packing," she said, her voice quiet and fragile.
"What for? Where are you going?"
Rose gulped, her heart thumping in her ears, "I'm going to live with Lily."
Once the word's at left her mouth all hell broke loose.
"Do you want to go?" He yelled at her, making Rose jump slightly, she hadn't ever seen Damian so angry, it radiated off his body in waves. It seemed to boil right up in him in a second. His face had grown stiff and hard, his eyes a tone darker and his fists were balled together by his sides.
She didn't answer, and this only made him angrier.
"You do, do you not?!"
"No!" Rose cried. "Of course I don't!" She knew it was a horrible thing to say, but it was the truth.
This didn't surprise Damian, he probably knew she wouldn't want to leave him, he knew her too well.
"Then stop packing!"
"I have to go!"
"Why?!"
"For Lily, Damian!"
"But you do not wish to go!"
"That does not mean that I should not!"
They were yelling at each other so loudly now Rose wouldn't be surprised if Alfred came running up the stairs with a concerned look on his face.
Then his fists unclenched and he rubbed his closed eyes, she heard him sigh loudly.
"You won't be happy," his voice lower now, his eyes softer. "I want you to be happy."
Rose pursed her lips and looked away from his eyes; she knew she'd cave in if she looked into his blue ones. Turning around, she started to chuck some more clothes into her suitcase and sighed.
"Sometimes your happiness comes second if you're able to make someone else happy."
She felt him place his hands on his waist and lean his head against her cheek.
"You deserve to by happy Rose," he whispered into her ear and Rose shook her head.
"Everyone deserves to be happy, even you," she said, a smile creeping onto her face.
Damian tutted but kissed her cheek anyway. "Are you sure? About leaving?" He seemed upset now, and Rose turned to face him.
"Yes, I'm sorry. But I'll visit all the time, and we'll see each other everyday at school," she said to him softly.
He leaned his forehead on hers and nodded, his eyes closed.
"At least let me train you then, please," his voice was pleading.
Rose sighed and turned back around, not this again, she thought.
Since she had gotten back from Metropolis, Damian and Bruce hadn't stopped pestering Rose about letting them train her in simple hand to hand combat, so that she'd be prepared if anything like that ever happened again. Though Damian had sworn it wouldn't.
Rose had refused it, she didn't want to be trained, it would only prove to herself how much her life had changed, and all she wanted for it to do was to go back to normal. And she'd told Damian that if she ever got kidnapped again, she had gotten kidnapped. Simple. This of course, sent Damian into quite a rage.
"Do it for me," Damian said into her hair.
Rose ignored him and continued to pack, after a while she heard him tut again and he pulled her around roughly to plant a long kiss on her lips. It was definitely the most intense kiss they had shared, and Rose laughed against his lips.
"Damian, we aren't saying good-bye for the rest of our lives, I'll see you tomorrow morning, okay?"
He shoved her lightly and she laughed again, she secretly knew he just liked to kiss her.
Then a car beeped it's horn from outside and Rose looked to her open window, Damian kissed her cheek once more and zipped her suitcase up, pulled it down the stairs as Rose tied her shoelaces up.
They reached the door and he hugged her tight, she still couldn't believe she was just leaving like that, and even though he wasn't angry anymore Rose could tell Damian was not happy about the whole ordeal.
As she got into the car, Rose quickly turned the radio up so she could avoid any sort of conversation and turned to face the window, her head on her palm.
...
"Do you want anything? A soda? Piece of some left over pizza?"
Rose looked up from her drawing to her sister at the door of her new room and shook her head, attempting to smile.
"No Lily, I'm fine. Mark's waiting for you," Rose said and Lily blew her a kiss.
"Alright petal, what ever you say, you know where everything is and I'm only a call away if you need anything, I won't be back late I promise!" And with that Lily had slammed the door of her apartment shut and left Rose alone.
Rose let out a deep breath and fell onto her back on the bed, closing her eyes. The apartment was nice, very Lily like, full of colour and paintings and photos, there were play scripts every where and poster of famous guitarists and actresses all over the walls.
Her room was nothing special, but Rose didn't care. It had plain white walls, which Lily said Rose could paint to her liking, lilac curtains and red bed sheets, there was a small desk and wardrobe, but apart from that the room liked as if it belonged to a hotel, not a teenager.
She was trying to like living there, really she was, and after a week of it she already knew where Lily hid her stack of chocolates and the warmest spots in the living room. But it didn't feel like a home.
It was a Saturday night, usually she'd be finishing off homework or having dinner at the manor, but instead she was alone in her sister's flat. Lily had gone on a date with Mark, someone Rose vaguely remembered but didn't like. He wasn't someone she would've thought that Lily would like. Mark had sandy coloured hair, freckles on his arm, a dimple under his chin and bright, green eyes. Rose never listened, but he never stopped telling her about the places he had visited in the world with his parents. Mark was slightly nerdy, not muscular, or popular, or on the football team at college. He kept giving her peppermints even though she refused every time, though it did look as if he was uncontrollably in love with Lily, he would stare at her and only look away when she noticed it.
The week had been boring and went by slower than a snail in peanut butter, and Rose had piles of homework to be doing, but she wasn't bothered. Something her sister had said to her hadn't left her mind all week.
It was after school on Tuesday when Lily drove her to the hospital instead of her flat and Rose didn't understand what was happening until she was sitting in front of a psychiatrist. Dr. Owen.
His face looked rubbery, his beard too yellow and his glasses so thick she could barely make out his eyes. But he was nice, and didn't talk to her as if she was an incompetent child.
When Rose asked why she was there, he said that sometimes children picked up things from their parents that they wished they hadn't, and that they were just checking if Rose was one of those children.
Though Rose still hadn't quite understood, she didn't ask again, afraid of been seen as stupid, and answered his questions. Rose had been too tired recently to put up a fight to things, nowadays she lets things be and adapts to everything, she realised it was much more stressful than pondering about it day and night.
That is why she didn't shout and yell at Lily for taking her there, for thinking she needed the help their mother had and for thinking she was mentally disturbed.
Rose was not mentally disturbed, she wouldn't believe it.
So she kept quiet, and kept her thoughts to herself, keeping things to yourself got you into much less trouble, something else she realised.
Lily had told her she had another appointment with Dr. Owen, seeing as her first one went 'spectacularly well,' and he 'would love to talk and see her again.'
Rose didn't care, the nurse gave her a cookie the first time and the paintings on the walls were fun to look at.
...
But soon Rose did get used to it, she got used to the flat, Lily and her now boyfriend, she got used to the birds that sang at exactly 3 AM by her window, she got used to the food and the journey home.
She also grew to enjoy her sessions with Dr. Owen. He asked her about lots of different things, such as her drawings, Damian, her father, his work and what she thought of him, and once he even dared to ask her about Katrina, which Rose was surprised to realise she didn't care, and talked and talked and talked.
Still, Rose doesn't feel her relationship with Lily has strengthened any more, they don't talk as much, or go shopping, or watch reruns of Saturday Night Live every Sunday. Lily is always out with her friends and Rose is usually either drawing, with Colin at the orphanage or sneaking out with Damian. And Rose still can't forgive Lily for ever even suggesting that she was a schizophrenic. It was something that was engraved into her heart and wouldn't ever fade away, not matter how many times Lily scratched or smudged at it.
They sneaked out a lot more, Rose and Robin, Lily didn't like Rose going out to see Damian, so he met her as Robin a lot more frequently. Every night after patrol she'd keep her window open and stay up late to hear the tap tap tap of his knuckles against the glass. Then he'd help her climb to the top of the block of flats and they'd just lay there. Sometimes they'd talk, sometimes they'd sleep by each other's sides, and other times they just kept quiet, because quiet is sometimes what someone needs.
He still pestered and bothered and asked her about the training, but she'd just smile and shake her head. He sometimes called her selfish, for not thinking about what others would do if she was kidnapped again, but Rose knew differently. He was selfish; they were both selfish for one another.
Damian hated when Rose even mentioned Lily in a sentence, he didn't like her staying with Lily, because he wanted her all to himself. Rose hated Damian mentioning anything about punches or kicks, because she didn't want their relationship to change, she wanted them to stay exactly the same.
Every night she'd have the nightmares, but they weren't as sharp as before, whenever she woke up breathing heavily and panting out of panic and fear, she took Damian's advice and thought of him. She laid back down on her bed with him on her mind, and fell asleep with a smile on her face.
Her drawings had only gotten better, Lily had often said they had raw emotion in them, Rose didn't understand that, emotion was never raw to her, it was always intense.
Her latest drawing was something Damian loved to compliment her on, and he had his own copy in his room. It was off Gotham, but the view was not someone standing up straight, it was from an ants view, as Damian had said, what the ant could see was a rose, a rose in full bloom on the ground, and in the distance was what Rose drew out to be Gotham, and it's tall buildings, its street signs and parks and pedestrians, all sinking into the ground and bursting into flames. The Wayne Enterprises building could just about be seen, and the 'W' had fallen off.
Damian had said he liked this drawing because it 'showed Gotham in its true colours. It is sinking down into the depths of the Earth because of all the crime out balancing it.'
Rose didn't understand and had gotten quite a fright as his eyes seemed distant and he had squeezed Rose's hand so tight it had gone numb. And obviously Damian was not happy at all that she was seeing a psychiatrist, she hadn't told him at first, in fear of what he might do, and when she did he was so calm Rose would rather had seen him lash out.
He tells her constantly she doesn't need to see him, that's she perfectly normal and sane, and she believes him, but does doubt his words at times. If she was sane, why would Dr. Owen continue to want to see her? Continue to have sessions every week and ask her question after question? He doesn't prescribe her anything apart from sleep and going out, which Rose does with most pleasure.
School was getting better, no-one stared as often and Anna and her little group had backed, she didn't know why or when it happened, but she knew Damian had done something; they didn't stare at him as if he was some sort of deity any more.
Rose was doodling in her sketch book during an English lesson when the bell finally went off, signalling the end of the third period. Sighing, she slung her bag over her shoulder and skipped to her next lesson, which was somewhat better, art.
Opening the door to the studio, she waved at Mr. Rauhl and walked over to her stool at the back of the class room, Damian already there and getting his sketch pencils out.
They barely had time to greet each other before the teacher had silenced them all and brought the attention of the students to him.
"Alright class, what was it you were doing in your last art lesson?" He asked them, enthusiastically.
"Our examination," the class answered in a bored tone.
"That's right! And I know you'd all like to see each others and find out your mark. In the canvas in front of you, underneath that thin cover is your painting and your mark too. After you've all seen it and sucked up your grades, you can ask me questions and we'll start our new project next lesson."
After he had finished speaking, Rose peeled off the cover of her canvas slowly and looked at her mark, her eyes full of joy. She had received an A*. Of course, she always did get an A* in art. It was the same as her draft, but she had added some colour to the flames and made out that tears were falling from the eyes.
She looked to Damian's painting and smiled at him, his painting had earned an A* also, which was not surprising.
His piece of work was exactly the same as the draft, the rose was painted a very dark red and the robin had some colour to it as well. Damian hadn't titled it, Rose hadn't titled it either.
Rose felt him intertwine their hands and she smiled up at him, her eyes shinning brightly. He returned the smile, kissing her cheek he opened his mouth to whisper in her ear.
"The Robin picked out his Rose and won't ever let go."
...
I hope you all loved this story as much I enjoyed writing it! Please tell me what you think/have thought about the whole thing! I'd love to hear your thoughts!3