Adrianne wasn't positively sure, but she felt like something had clicked between her and Damian at the library. It's not like he was telling her his deepest darkest secrets, but he make jokes with her and smiled once in awhile.

She didn't know how to describe it other than that it was nice.

Talking with him was simple and easy and thoughtless and genuine. Was this how real people, uncorrupted by showbusiness, acted? If so she couldn't wait to meet more.

Sure he looked like he didn't know what the word meant when she first suggested it on the sidewalk, but she liked to think that she could now consider Damian Wayne her friend, and he could consider her his.

It was their second afternoon working on the project and they had both hit a slump. It was only 5 o'clock and they needed to get at least 3 hours of work done. Damian was trying to work through it, but he seemed even more tired than her. Adri's eyes fluttered closed for a second and her head began to settle down onto her arms.

Her stomach let out a loud roar and the girl shot up in embarrassment. Damian looked flabbergasted at the revelation that such a loud sound could come from someone so small.

"I need food." Adri's tired voice said.

"Agreed."

"And coffee."

"Yes." They packed up their stuff rather quickly, deciding to find the closest place with coffee, which happened to be a Starbucks 2 blocks away. Adri got a venti macchiato and a sandwich and was pulling out her wallet when Damian tagged his order on with her and told her he was paying. And although that was awfully nice of him, it wasn't the surprising thing; his order included 50 million different specificities. Something about soy milk, 3 extra shots, and literally the largest cup they had.

They didn't stay, opting to go back to the library and get back to work. But as they left the coffee shop, Adri couldn't help but feel like someone was watching her. She checked behind her several times, effectively alerting Damian to her predicament, but she couldn't see anything. Must've just been the caffeine.

Adrianne had to ask Damian to walk her back to her car since she had left it at school. She wasn't stupid. She knew Gotham was a dangerous place for teenage girls. That didn't have to bring down her good mood though. Now that she thought about it, she didn't know if she was actually happy or if she was still on her sugar high.

A movement in the corner of her eye caught her attention as she was listening to Damian tell her about his eldest brother. He noticed immediately.

"What is it?" He had stopped along with her, peering into the dark alley that they were now facing.

"I thought I saw something." A loud clang sounded from the alley, making Adri jump. "There it is again!" A split second later something shot out towards them, leaping towards Damian.

It was just a cat.

To think Adri had been scared it was someone about to mug them. No, instead it was a small, underfed, white cat with a brown tail, paws, and ears. Damian was startled by its appearance, and the fact that its claws were digging through his jacket and into his arm, but was gentle in the way that he coaxed the animal into relaxing its hold on him.

The hair on the back of Adri's neck stood up and she felt something was off, but the sound of something clicking was what alerted her that something was wrong.

She turned around and her blood ran cold. Not five feet away a gun was in the hand of a scraggly looking man. Adri could faintly register that he was saying something, but the only thing running through her mind was, 'DANGER DANGER DANGER'.

She tugged on Damian's sleeve. He was still paying attention to the cat, his back to the mugger.

"Damian…" Adri felt very small at the moment and it reflected in her voice.

"Hmm?" He turned to face her, the cat still in his arms. She pointed to the problem.

"What the fuck'er you idiots waitin' for?!" The mugger's words broke through Adri's stupor as he waved the firearm around. "Wallet! Purse! Jewelry! Watch!"

"Damian…" She choked out.

"Just do as he says, Adrianne." He was unreasonably calm, as he handed the cat to her and dug his wallet out of his pocket. He finally looked at the mugger, holding his wallet out. "This should be enough to satisfy you."

He stalked forward, with the gun swinging around by his side. "You think yer lil' wallet is enough? I said-" He moved to snatch the leather from Damian's hand, but the wallet dropped to the ground as his hand wrapped around the mugger's wrist and his foot slammed into the older man's chest, making him fly several feet away. The gun clattered to the ground and Damian stormed over.

"You know," He said. "If there's one thing I hate more than muggers," His free hand reeled back into a fist. "It's greedy muggers." Damian spat as he socked him an uppercut and knocked him out.

Adri was speechless. When she asked Damian to walk her to her car she figured he'd turn off thugs just because two people were much harder to subdue than one. She didn't predict him going all Mortal Kombat like that. Also there was his comment to the guy about muggers, as if he encountered this type of person all the time.

She attributed his calmness, familiarity, and ability to handle the situation down to him living in the city much longer than her. She guessed this was just what the norm was for natives. A thought ran through her mind about sending some donations to local charities, but it was pushed to the back of her mind since Damian was talking to her again.

"Are you done standing around, or should we wait for more cretins?" He raised an eyebrow, completely oblivious to why she was so dazed.

The thing that really broke her stupor was the writhing going on in her arms. She'd almost forgotten about the small animal she was holding.

"Achoo!" A loud sneeze lept out of Adri and she dropped the cat to the ground, sneezing once more in the process.

The feline rubbed up against her and she moved to pet it once more, but was again interrupted by the tell tale feeling of a sneeze coming on. She drew away from the cat.

"I think I'm allergic." She said with a frown.

Damian shrugged as he cradled his new friend. "Guess I'll just have to take her back with me then."

Adri felt a smile tugging at her lips as they strode out of the alley and back to their cars. For a person so intent on scaring off unwanted people, he sure warmed up to such a little cat quickly.

I forgot what I was going to say here. I know it was something witty though so :)

Also just wanted to say that when Damian takes care of the mugger, he's restraining himself. Like... a lot. So when Adri is still like 'Whoa wth dude' he's weirded out cause he's like 'I was trying my best to not go vigilante what do you mean normal people don't do that?'

But yeah, hope y'all had a nice time reading. Hit me up with those follows, favorites, and reviews. It's Christmas people.

-H