When Heather's boyfriend broke up with her, she wasn't expecting him to completely fuck the hell off the way that he did. After all he had demanded that they stay friends after the breakup, and while she had been reluctant, they had been friends for years before they started dating and developed a more romantic relationship; she had, perhaps stupidly, hoped that it would go back to more or less normal after an awkward phase. Avoiding each other in their shared apartment, the spare bedroom taking one of their things rather than just being used for her sister when she came to stay for a weekend, something like that. What happened was that her ex, the cheating jerk, had waited till she was out of the apartment and then packed ALL of his things in the span of 12 hours and had some friends help him move it out. The only thing that he had done that had been decent of him that day was leave his portion of rent on the countertop.
Heather was… numb for a week after that before she shrugged it off. She removed all the cute couples' pictures he had insisted that they take together that he had left and replaced them with photos of her family and friends. The photos of them ended up in an envelope in a bookcase next to her altar while she talked herself out of doing something malicious to him with magic. Avoiding doing that, Heather searched for a roommate because she could afford rent in this place by herself but not much else. And she needed to eat, and she didn't want to rely on hand made from the base ingredients' food all the damn time. That sort of thing, while it may be kind of healthier, was time consuming and she didn't always have that kind of time.
She had checked a few websites and refused to touch craigs list and wasn't sure if the Gotham Times would allow her to advertise from Bludhaven. Finally, though, she broke down and put out a post on social media and in the paper. She was shocked when the paper allowed her to put the ad in there, but she figured they just wanted the money. She hadn't expected to get an applicant within the week. The email had gone to what amounted to a burner account that was set up just for this and was only in the new paper since people could just reach out to her directly on social media.
In the dark of her bedroom with her glasses perched on the edge of her nose, and laptop the brightest light on at the moment, she clicked on the email.
From: GreyAerialist96 @ bmail
To: 52.5Turtle @ cmail
RE: Potential Roommate
Hello, my name is Dick Grayson, I am looking for a place to stay long term as I will be moving to Bludhaven on a permanent basis for work. I am 25 and male and coming from Gotham. I will be working for the police department and won't be home all that often so we would not have to interact frequently, if at all if you would prefer. If you could please send the details of the sublease and what you would be expecting in a roommate, I can give you several references to check out to ensure that I am not a complete basket case.
Thank you,
Dick Grayson
Heather reread the email twice and then glanced at the clock on her laptop: 22:34, yeah, her sister would still be awake. She reached for her phone and called her sister. The girl answered on the second ring.
"Hey Heather, you haven't been watching Dead Poet Society again, have you? If you're calling to have a deep talk about the movie that made me cry for an entire weekend, I will not be complying."
Heather felt her lips tug into a sardonic smile, and she shook her head even though the other girl would not be able to see it. "No, not this time, promise little sister. No, I got an applicant for a roommate and wanted to know if you could do some digging before I reply?" Heather may be the older of the two girls but her sister, Hazel, was the tech savvy one. The kid had been hacking her way into systems since she had learned to read and memorize patterns when she was around a year and a half. The little monster had managed to work out their mother, Holly's, 14-digit password to the family computer and had somehow gotten into their father's locked email account and left the emails from his mistresses open on the screen for Holly to find.
"Oooh something fun to fill my insomnia wrecked night," The younger girl said, and Heather could hear Hazel's laptop keyboard come to life at nearly the same speed Heather could type at. She was impressed with her little sister getting as good as she was at typing without having to undergo the tortuous school mandated typing classes. "Can I get a name?" She asked.
"Yeah, Dick Grayson of Gotham, apparently to work with the Bludhaven Police Department," Heather said. "He is the same age as me, but I don't kn-"
"December 1996, you're older by 7 months, I'm sending pictures." Hazel said and moments later Heather's social media PM notification pinged. She set her phone down while her sister kept talking and opened the chat box. "He's an orphan adopted by big shot Bruce Wayne and yes, he is moving to Bludhaven to work with the cops. Damn he has pretty eyes."
Heather snorted a laugh but had to agree when she saw the picture of the man her sister had sent. "I'll agree to that whole heartedly," she said as she closed the chat box. "Why's he getting a roommate instead of his own place?"
There was a series of rapid keyboard strokes that, if it was any other house, would have woken the other occupants. Luckily their mother snored louder than a chainsaw. "Doesn't really say anywhere. My guess? He wants to prove he doesn't need the adopted dad's money and can do this on his own. Kind of like you but less of a running for his mental health."
"I didn't run," Heather grumbled.
Hazel sighed, "Okay, you didn't run but you didn't take me with you when you left."
"Legally I couldn't and still can't. Mom won't let me," Heather had looked into taking her sister from their mother more than once and each time she dug into it or brought it up to their mother, Holly would lose her shit.
Hazel sighed, "I know, sorry, I don't mean to sound accusing."
"I can get why, and it probably didn't help my case that Neil also didn't want to allow it," Heather said, thinking, too little too late, that it was a red flag that her ex had tried to limit her time with her sister.
"He turned out to be more of a cock bite than either of us thought," Hazel said, her voice getting low and angry. She had thought the blonde would be good for her big sister who had been drowning playing mom to both Hazel and their mother and dealing with abuse from their grandmother Hyacinth to keep Holly and Hazel from safety. He had helped her find a way out and get Grandmother into a home and then had helped get Holly a stable income. Once that had been done Neil had talked Heather into moving out with him and they had done it. Things in Hazel's home didn't fall to pieces immediately but after 7 months or so Holly had fallen back into lazy habits and Hazel had run to her sister. She would stay with the couple for a few days, as long as she could get away with it, before their mom would turn up and she would have to go home. Six months after that started, Neil had left Hazel's big sister for some woman he had been fucking behind her back. Just thinking about the whole thing and why her sister was frantically searching for a roommate made Hazel grind her teeth to the point that she reached for a stick of gum and popped it in her mouth.
She could hear Heather on the other end of her phone unwrap a lollipop and stick it in her mouth. Maybe none of them would sleep tonight. "I think you should give this guy a chance, Hezzy. He said he would barely be home so it would still be like you living on your own, just an extra pair of shoes by the door that come and go."
Heather thought about it and then nodded. "Alright, I'll send the response and see what happens." She tucked her lollipop between her teeth to keep from biting down on her cheek, tongue or just out right grinding them together. She typed up the email and attached the sublease she had worked out and hit send. Once that was done, she sighed and said, "Spit the gum out Haze and take a melatonin gummy, see if you can get at least a few hours sleep."
The gum popped on the other end of the phone and Hazel said, "I will when you throw out the sucker and take a sleep aid too."
Heather huffed out a laugh and shook her head. "Fine kid, you win," she said and did just that, chucking the half-gone sucker into the bin by her bed to be removed tomorrow when she cleaned the apartment. She heard Hazel spit the gum into a napkin and toss it into the plastic bag that sat on her bedside for trash. "Love you brat, have sweet dreams and cause chaos."
Hazel laughed quietly and said her goodnights before she hung up. Heather plugged in her phone, closed her laptop, and went to brush her teeth again since she had the lollipop. Once she was done with brushing her teeth she changed into a matching sleep set, a top with Hufflepuff Alumni and shorts decorated with the badger crest smattered across it. She braided her lavender and pink dyed hair and curled up in her bed, cuddling with a soft rag doll, hoping that she would have a roommate soon. She didn't want to move back in with her mother, she wouldn't be able to deal with it if it came to that.
~~~~~Line~~~~~Line~~~~~Line~~~~~
Dick Grayson was surprised to come home from patrol to an email timed as delivered at 23:06. It was a reply to the email he had sent about the roommate in Bludhaven. He was tired but… He sat down at his computer and opened the email.
From: 52.5Turtle @ cmail
To: GreyAerialist96 @ bmail
Mr. Grayson, my name is Heather Weber. I am a 25 year old female who works a 9 to 5 day job in an inbound call center and rarely manages proper sleep schedules. Attached is the sublease. If it is more or less agreeable to you we can discuss further terms or changes you would like to make. My younger sister sometimes spends weekends with me so I hope that would not be an issue. If it is please feel free to not respond to this email.
Thank you for your consideration,
Heather.
Dick tried not to laugh but he decided to run a search on the woman and found her social media page easily enough. She was short, maybe an inch or two over 5 foot and seemed to change her hair color whenever the mood struck her. The most recent colors were apparently a mix of soft lavender and pink. She had narrow grey blue eyes, he scrolled back through her profile photos and found that she used to be blonde which made him question if the black haired and clearly Hispanic young woman in some of the photos captioned "Me and my sister" was actually her sister. Maybe he would look into that later. For now, he would run a background check and go over it and the sublease in the morning. He was much too tired right now to do it. He closed down his computer and got ready for bed.
~~~~~Line~~~~~Line~~~~~Line~~~~~
Well... idk if it was ever obvious but I've been a Batman fan since I was like... 1 year old? I crushed hard on Dick Grayson as a tween and late teen me liked Jason Todd a lot but I figured, I'm getting back into Batman so I'd try a Dick Grayson fic... should I keep on? lemme know.
~Syl