Sorry for the wait, I've been building up on Leah's character lately. Also I realized that it was 'Downtime', not 'Downtown' as I mentioned in the last episode. Sorry about that.
The city soared above her head, bright and filled with smog from various transports. One building stood out from the rest, only slightly less glaring than that of the one that proclaimed boldly 'Stark'. Leah could identify easily that Star tech lab, as well as the three Wayne Industries building on her short walk to her destination, a tall complex labeled as Worthington Labs.
It was that complex that the young Atlantean entered, the glass doors opening easily to her arrival and a receptionist looking up from her magazine to see who would be troubling her that day. Brown eyes were met with the blue of the sea dweller and she could see the older(though not by much) woman's cheeks puff slightly in a held back sigh.
"Leah Lemaris, I'm here to see my mother, Maria Hollenbeck?" she spoke carefully, keeping the Atlantean twinge out of her voice and waiting patiently while the other typed into her keyboard with more strokes than the girl was sure were necessary, though considering the limited amount of time she had spent with surface electronics had either been with Bats or Speedsters it was hard to say. Before the blonde before her could make her reply there was a call for the younger from off to the side, drawing Leah's gaze to her right where an elevator had just opened.
"Mother," she stated, surprised by the sudden appearance. She hadn't been expecting the older woman to be there to greet her, yet there she was in all her human glory.
Brown hair had been cropped short, barely passing the elder woman's chin and dark eyes stared out at her daughter from behind thin framed glasses. A business suit, black jacket and pencil skirt clung to the woman's surprisingly fit form. Wrinkles were barely beginning to pull at the corners of the woman's mouth and eyes and a thin streak of silver appeared on both temples, the only visible sign that Maria was going on fifty years of age.
"Leah, you made it on time," the younger girls jaw set hard at the minute barb to her usual inability to get to places at precisely the correct time but she pushed away the already twisted knot in her stomach to nod curtly to her mother in greeting and affirmation.
"I did, as a matter of fact. It's rude to show up late on one's first day of employment, however temporary said employment may be," her mother's smile turned flat and whatever light had been in her eyes vanished.
"You've finally figured that out then? I suppose you would have to learn sometime," Maria put forward a hand, catching the elevator door before it closed, "come now Leah, you have a job to do."
The Atlantean nodded in agreement and stepped into the small space, praying she would be able to keep from drowning her surface dwelling mother.
Apparently her mother was the personal assistant for Mister Warren Worthington II himself, and as such Leah was being included in some very important projects that required her to sign three separate sheets of confidentiality papers. The first and for most of their projects was known as 'The Cure', which sounded a bit to much the title of a horror movie for her to feel entirely comfortable.
As it happened she was correct, it was like a horror movie, one written, directed and produced by Purists. Her job was to be keeping company a young boy by the name Jimmy, or Leech, which was an odd thing to call ones self. She assumed it was like when she had introduced herself as Torrent or when Garfield called himself Beast Boy, albeit more disconcerting that the aforementioned titles. He was small, especially for his age, which seemed to be a bit over ten, with no hair to speak of and an unhealthily pale complexion, even for one who rarely saw the actual sun.
She would also be personally responsible for keeping an eye on ("Assisting Leah, you're his assistant!") Warren Worthington III. She was fairly sure it was because her mother was grudgingly aware of her capabilities as a warrior trained under Queen Mera and a guardian for Prince Arthur, but with her mother she never could tell anything for certain.
Either way it didn't matter, she liked children quite a bit, found their simplicity and innocence to be therapeutic, and Warren the younger seemed nice enough when they were first introduced. There was something odd about the way he held himself that six years of military training and two years of Team working made Leah's spine itch, but she dismissed the notion for the time being. If it was important she would figure it out later.
For the time being she found herself in a room so sterile her skin crawled and her eyes burned. Her hatred for hospitals and all rooms like them ran very, very deep. Before her was Leech, her new charge, staring up at her while she stared down at him. Neither one blinked.
"What is it you do here all day?" she asked finally, breaking eye contact and looking around. It wasn't a terrible set up, there was what she identified as a TV, several game consoles and various board games stacked neatly around the room. It more resembled a well-kept set than a child's room. Her Prince had several people cleaning up after him (though Queen Mera made him clean up most of his messes) and his room was still far less clean that this.
"I play games and watch TV," he replied, sitting cross legged on the ground and staring up at his new handler.
"Well what do you want to do now?" she sat in front of him, Indian style, hands on her knees. If Jimmy had been Atlantean there were several games she would suggest, but as they were neither of the same species nor in water that idea was quickly shot down.
"We could watch Pokémon," he offered, pointing his eyes to the box that made up the television. Leah frowned, face pinching in confusion and head tilting in curiosity.
"Watch what?"
"You've never seen Pokémon?" Jimmy's eyes were wide an round, shocked and disbelieving as though he could not believe there was someone who had no idea what the cartoon was. Leah merely shrugged, smiling sheepishly and nodding in affirmation.
Ka'liyah quickly discovered that that was blasphemy in the eyes of the young boy, and they ended up spending the rest of the afternoon sitting in front of the TV, staring at the less than stellar graphics of the very first season of the show. Leah asked several question, mostly fixed on why, if the Pikachu was Ash's friend, the human would force his partner to beat up/get beaten up by several opponents, multiple times. Jimmy just gave the typical reply of 'because that the way it is' before shushing her on the matter.
Her time with Jimmy had been nice, and she had discovered that she would be his companion from nine in the morning to six in the evening, at which time she would leave the labs with Worthington Jr. and make her way to the penthouse apartment the man shared with his father while he was attending classes in Columbia University. Classes that, from the text books he lugged into the apartment, would bore any from below the waves to tears.
Leah had hardly said twenty words to her new 'friend', who seemed more than a little nonplussed to have baby sitter a year or so younger than he was. But at twenty Leah had little doubt that Warren could handle himself better than she could. Perhaps that was arrogant, and perhaps she should have listened to her instincts a bit more, but it was what she viewed as true. It may have been that she had spent to long with Jason when he was alive that his cynical nature rubbed off on her, who could tell.
But the thoughts of the former Robin were quickly shoved out of her mind before she could latch on and get lost in the loss of the Robin and the red haired girl she had grown up with. Death was not a subject for that time or that day, Leah had better things to do.
Warren had dropped onto the couch and was glaring vehemently at the overstuffed backpack the he had dropped on the floor between himself and the coffee table and Leah felt as if some of that resentment was aimed at her instead of the school work, but what did she know about the young man?
Carefully she lowered herself to the white leather of the arm chair off to Warrens right, wishing desperately she had thought to bring something to do. The living area was large, obviously, and furnished more for show than for living in. The setup of the place was clearly meant to impress whatever guests happened to be important enough to invite over. Walls were lined in oak book shelves and clearly expensive paintings of varying designs. The furniture was either leather or oak, the same shade as the shelves. The books were old and large, most looking more intellectually demanding than they probably needed to be, a few labeled in Latin and one that was-
Leah paused, light eyes glued to the Atlantean text that had been imprinted on the spine of the book. She stood up, walking over to the tomb and glancing back to meet Warrens eyes when he looked up at her curiously. She had bit back every sigh of irritation, every smart remark of the day, and all she wanted to do was curl up with one of her books and loose herself in the spells of her people. Or go swimming, or maybe jump in and stop a robbery. Something to stimulate her mind. Anything.
"D'you mind if I read?" she asked, gesturing to the book and taking quick note of the utterly bewildered look the blond hair, admittedly attractive, surface dweller gave her.
"The Atlantean one? You can read that?" he was sitting up straighter, if that was at all possible with the so far perfect posture he had displayed.
"Of course," Leah replied, wondering why he sounded so surprised, until she remembered exactly who had set up this little job of hers. It would come to no surprise that her mother had neglected to inform her employers than her spawn had gills. It was no wonder she was working on 'The Cure'. When Leah had learned of its purpose, what it meant, she was caught between being horrified and amazed. The fact that they wanted to change people genes, had the ability to, was amazing. The fact that they were treating at as though they were saving the world from an illness by stealing a little boys childhood had made her want to vomit.
"If you want to go ahead," Warren told her, snapping the brunette out of her musing and at his permission she stole away the thick tomb and returned to her seat, cracking open the spine gently and beginning to dive into the world that was depicted. It was a history of Atlantis and her myths, going as far back as the original sinking and delving into the rapid evolution that had undergone to live in their new home. The dome that had been erected over Poseidonis and the complete decimation that had struck Tritonis, Leah's own home City-State.
It was several hours, nearly nine in the evening when Leah was roused from her readings, almost halfway through the book, by the opening of the door and revealing of Warren Worthington the elder. Mr. Worthington walked in, drawing the attention of the two young adults that had taken up residence in the sitting room. Warren had been studying the entire time, somehow, and only then stood up to greet his father. While they were distracted Leah placed her book back in place and walked forwards to introduce herself formally to her mother's employer.
"Hello Mr. Worthington," she greeted smoothly, picking her metaphorical skirts up to make a decent impression, "I'm Leah Lemaris, it's nice to meet you."
Mr. Worthington smiled and took her outstretched hand, shaking it firmly and greeting her with just as much formality and businesslike manners as she did him.
"Miss Lemaris, your mother said you would be good at keeping my son and James company, I trust you had no trouble today?" he waited until she nodded before copying the gesture, "Good to hear. You shouldn't have to stay here past eight on most nights, I was just running late tonight. "
"Thank you sir, I'll remember that," she promised, muscles beneath her scapula twitching. Both of these men put her on edge, every one she had met since she left the water did, except maybe Jimmy, and even he made gills twitch on occasion. Mr. Worthington dismissed her then and she bid both men goodnight before leaving, cracking her knuckles in a habit she had picked up at some point in her interactions with the bats.
It was going to be a long six months.