XIV.

Tells in Animosity

"You look starved."

Barsad commented as Lily moped about her new room. She turned an eye on him and scoffed sarcastically,

"Oh, really? I thought I was a picture of health."

"Well, you certainly are not that. What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing." She snapped and ignored her belly's growls. Hunger clawed at her.

"Here," Said the mercenary chucking her over some chips and a bottle of water.

"Delectable." Lily sneered and tore open the packet. Barsad sat on the chair by the mattresses and smirked,

"Y'know, for a little gutter-rat, you're quite well-spoken."

"Oh, thanks..."

"Where are you from, souris?" He asked and Lily frowned while chewing.

"I thought you didn't have time for my story?" She said pertly and Barsad chuckled.

"I'm at liberty until Bane gets back. So?"

"So?" Lily countered and raised an eyebrow, "Where's Bane off to, then?"

"I asked you first. Come on, it's only fair." He bartered and Lily eyed him coldly,

"Yes, but you're not planning on telling me anything, are you?"

"Maybe. You never know." He grinned and Lily sat back suspicious of him;

"Why are you so smiley? Where's he gone?"

She pressed and Barsad shook his head, his features growing more hawkish as his annoyance with her inability to not be single-minded spiked in his blood.

"Just tell me-"

"Oh, alright, fine!" She barked and sat back still absently chewing the chips she shrugged and said mildly.

"I was born and have lived in Gotham all my life. There. Happy?"

"You weren't 'raised'?" Barsad queried.

"What?"

"You said you were born in Gotham and 'lived' here all of your life. You weren't raised?"

Sadness lanced Lily's heart and made her look away from him. He shifted seeing the mournfulness in her eyes and leaned forward, "Sorry..." He began and Lily waved him away;

"No...No, you're sharp. I wasn't really raised by anybody...I stayed at an orphanage until I aged out at sixteen. Then...things started getting...tough."

"Tough?" He reiterated and Lily nodded idly unscrewing the top off the water bottle,

"Yeah...not much work." She explained, "Things are slim in Gotham. I've been living here and there ever since."

"Gotham's a hard city." Barsad agreed and nodded.

"Well," Lily began, "Where's Bane away to?"

"You don't give up, do you?"

"No, if I did I'd be long dead now. C'mon, just tell me...I need to know."

"Do you?" He asked in a tense voice that made Lily blink.

"Well...yes. I won't say anything if that's what you're worried about-"

She was cut off as he got up and asked; blatantly interrupting her,

"Is that why you are so sick?"

Lily scowled, "Is what why I'm so sick?"

"You've been living on the streets since you were sixteen...Is that why you're always so ill?"

"Yes...I-I'd always been lucky come the cold. But not so much this year." She confessed and peered up at him,

His dark eyes searched her shrunken face and he cocked an eyebrow and assumed stoutly,

"No family then? Since you lived in an orphanage."

Suddenly Lily's temper flared, how dare he ask her so many questions! She turned away and threw her nose in the air and folded her arms and replied grandly,

"Obviously. Now if you're not gonna' tell me anything then you can go away right now, Barsad."

"Hey now!" He soothed her, raising his hands, "I was going to tell you. I just wondered if you had anybody outside. Up there." He said nodding upwards towards the surface where Lily was rest-assured she'd 'soon' be.

"No...I don't have anybody. Well, I do...I mean I did have someone, but he probably thinks I'm dead now."

"No wonder. You always look dead." He joked in a brittle voice and Lily made a face,

"Charming." She sighed and wrung her hands, "No...I...Well the night Bane found me and took me down here..."

Her voice faded in her throat as it usually did every time she even thought about that night she first met Bane. The first night she had ever felt his power, his undeniable force. She shook her head and looked at Barsad,

"The night before I checked myself out of the hospital...I think that's the straw that broke the camel's back."

"Why?" Barsad asked, a brow quirked upwards and Lily shrugged,

"There's only so much help that can be offered and turned down. I think John must have gotten pretty sick of it, to be honest. I don't blame him."

"John?"

"He's my friend...my only friend, actually. And I threw it away because of my stupid pride."

"You have pride?" Barsad ridiculed and Lily glowered at the dark-haired man,

"Yes. Yes, I do. I don't care if you think I'm nothing, Barsad. I always thought I was better than what I am...I tried, I did. I just couldn't cut it, but that's no one's fault but my own. I never burdened anybody, I never made a fuss. John always just took me upon himself and I always tried to fight it! So you can shut that smirking mouth."

Lily was shaken by the depth of her own venom and bit it back as Barsad eyed her glacially and huffed stoutly,

"Well you seem to have that effect on men; I'll give you that much, souris."

"Excuse me?"

She hissed impertinent and he grinned again, this time with an inclination of his head like she should know what he was talking about. With a challenging arch of her eyebrow, she shook her head and waited for him to speak,

"You're pathetic." He spat simply.

"That's why Bane saved you. You're the shining example to all the gutter-rats down here that've joined us; and you couldn't even do that right. Bane's pretty-little-mascot who can't even stand up on her own two legs. Everyone thinks you're trash, lower than garbage. When we reach the surface you'll be paraded about the rich like some prize pony – only, you aren't a prize."

At the end of his monologue he was almost panting, his face all twisted and ugly. With a hollow unabashed chuckle, Lily spat right back at him;

"I've been pathetic my entire life, but at least I'm not some Sasquatch's little bitch!"

"You dare insult Bane?!"

"You were the one who just questioned him there! If he's the great 'liberator' you keep harping on about, why don't you trust his decision to pick me up?!"

"Because you don't deserve liberation!"

Barsad bellowed wildly, throwing back his hand to punctuate what he was saying,

"You of all of them don't! Look at you; you should be dead. You should have faded away, blown to hell by the wind in a merciful puff! You're literally nothing and yet you get taken in. You've done nothing to deserve what you'll get."

Lily was absolutely agog at his contempt and simply stared at him, mouth open, and eyes wide.

"Are you annoyed because Bane saved me?" She asked in a hushed voice, "Barsad, I had nothing to do with coming down here. Bane just picked me up off of the street and when I woke up I was here-"

"Exactly," He stipulated. "You're worse than a thief because you hide beneath a facade of weakness and vulnerability."

"Bane's just a sap." He denounced the masked man and Lily felt her spine stiffen.

"What?" He teased spitefully seeing her expression, "Are you going to tell him I said that?"

"Maybe." Lily said darkly, pushed to the end of her tether with his resentfulness and indignation of her for no reason.

"Bane said some things to me before he left. Maybe I will tell him and he'll make me his second –in-command. Apparently all you need to do is nod and say 'yes, sir, no, sir, three bags full, sir.'"

"You'd make a better bitch than me, at any rate." He fired back and Lily felt her face redden,

"Get out. Get out right now, you bastard."

"Oh, don't worry," He nodded enthusiastically whipping round on his heel. He turned just before the door,

"Get what you can while you can, little Lily. Since Bane's in a giving mood."

He smirked gleefully as he added pettily,

"I'll just sit back comfortably and watch you rise as high as you can go. And not lift one finger when you fly too close to that sun and fall right back down to the drain where you belong, souris. Mark my words."

"Not before you get thrown down for your attitude, Barsad. Mark my words."

"Oh, so you're threatening me now? Well, well, little souris. We'll see who falls first then won't we. Just remember who's standing between you and all those tramps out there in the sewers." He reminded her with a wicked glint in his dark eyes, "Remember who you're new keeper put in charge of you in his absence."

Lily seethed at that and gripped the blankets that were pooled around,

"I should think your last one's glad to be shot of you."

He insulted her dryly before banging the door shut and leaving her alone and enraged.

Bane's gun winked temptingly at her from the little table.

Misunderstood Bane is misunderstood by Barsad & everybody around him. Don't worry, my doves; all shall become clear, as Bane would say: "Soon. Be patient." Haha, anyway - enjoy!

=D