It's always a gamble on whether or not Dani will be at my apartment when I get back from work or "work". I'd showed her where the hidden key was for the door, so she can get in without me. Sometimes she's there all day and other times she doesn't show up for days. Luckily, that works to my advantage as she never notices how much I'm gone as she's always coming and going.
I continue to ask her about herself, and she continues to give me dashing tales of her adventures across the world… and nothing actually about herself. All I know about her person is that she's American born and has been traveling for three years. Which is helpful, I guess...
She, on the contrary, knows plenty about me. I've told her all about my life growing up under Bruce Wayne (not his alter ego, though), my life in the circus, and my adventures as a police officer. I'd even managed to teach her some random knowledge; some law, carpentry (I don't even know how that started) and quantum mechanics (just don't ask because I have no idea).
That's another thing I know about her. She never went to school. She's plenty street smart and picks up everything I lay down, but beyond that, she wouldn't pass fourth grade. When she'd mentioned her lack of schooling, I wondered aloud how she could read and write, which I'd seen her do once or twice. "I learned," was her only reply.
In the mornings, I usually leave money out for her, but she never takes it. For a beggar, she's quite the chooser. I admire her for it, really. But it's still strange.
The thing she needs to see through, as far as I can tell, has not gone through yet. I still have no idea what it is, after so much time.
I even tried to follow her once as Nightwing, but she picked me out as soon as we cleared the buildings, taunted me, and disappeared.
After that, I'm more careful with Nightwing. I still don't know anything about her, so I'm not ready to be unmasked. I don't follow her anymore, even though she continues to clam up about it and I continue to be curious.
Despite our mutual secret-keeping, the time I spend with her is always the highlight of my day. She's witty and has a sharp tongue. Her realistic view on the world is refreshing. She's not as pessimistic as Bruce, Jason, Damian, etc. and every other hero I'm in contact with these days. But she's not stupidly optimistic either.
Her stories, I'll admit, are riveting and as far as I can tell, completely true. Still, I know nothing of her or her previous life. I know she likes comic books and video games, but not family or past…
It doesn't matter. She doesn't know much about me that's real, either. She's still welcome in my house. At least until she gives me a reason to the contrary.
One Saturday, almost six weeks after this arrangement had begun, I emerge from my room at ten a.m. to find Dani reading my copy of Robin Hood on the couch. She wasn't often here in the morning hours; preferring instead to be here in the evening or the dead of night. It surprised me to find her here, as no closing door or key in the lock had woken me.
I brush it off, knowing how dead to the world I was after last night. Besides, Dani is a genius of stealth. I'd like to pit her against Damian and see who'd win.
She greets me and puts down the book, thoughtfully marking her place with the accompanying bookmark instead of upending it on the table (even though the bookmark was marking my spot in the novel. At least she's trying).
I gesture with my cereal box, but she declines with a shake of her head. "You look horrible," she comments in response.
"Good morning, Dani."
I pour myself some cereal and sit at the table. She's right, though. I had a rough night. Very stressful and long. The police showed up prematurely to a slash-and-burn I was doing and Brown got shot in the leg. Luckily, today's my day off, finally. I've needed one for a while now.
"Why are you here this early?" I ask while she grabs orange juice from the fridge and pours two cups.
She hands me a glass. "I had something to do last night. I came in pretty late." After sipping some juice, she adds, almost as an afterthought, "Plus, you mentioned you had the day off."
I grin around my spoon. "And you want to spend some time with me?"
She rolls her eyes. "Don't say it like that, or it's weird."
"Okay, so what do you want to do? The pier…" I stop, frowning. "There really aren't many kid-appropriate attractions in Bludhaven."
"What do you mean?" Dani drawls sarcastically, tilting her chair back precariously. "Casinos, bars, drug deals… Perfect teenage activities."
I'd been running a list through my head as she spoke, and pause on the perfect idea. "Let's go to the gym," I suggest, backing up my chair.
"The gym?" she deadpans.
I dump my bowl in the sink and walk to my room. Dani follows, confused. After digging in my closet, I come up with Dami's workout clothes. He's thirteen and pretty small, but he's around Dani's height. I grab my own and come out of the closet.
"I don't want to work out," Dani whines. I toss the clothes at her. She grimaces at them. "Are these your angsty brother's?"
"Yeah."
She sniffs them before holding them out at arm's length. "They smell like a father's disapproval."
"They smell like detergent," I stress. "Now get dressed. This is going to be fun, I promise."
She looks doubtful. As she leaves my room, I hear her mutter, "I hope somebody robs a convenience store…"
After bullying Dani into a long stretch warmup, where I find she is decently flexible, I help her stand and gesture out to the gym. It's a different kind of gym; instead of machines, there are mats, bars and a tightrope/trapeze stretched up above us.
"What do you want to do first?"
She looks up at the trapeze doubtfully. "I feel like any answer will lead to death."
"I grew up in the circus," I explain, "We won't die on any of this equipment."
"You grew up in the circus…" Still, she walks over to the ladder leading up to the tightrope. As she starts her climb, I grab a long pole from a bundle standing against the wall. I clip on a hook to a small hole in the pole before climbing up after her.
Surprisingly, the gym is quiet and empty. Usually there are at least a couple other people here, but the day is rainy and miserable, so I guess they stayed home. It's good though; we have the whole place to ourselves.
When I get up there, I start wheeling up the pole from the pulley I'd connected it to, refusing to let Dani on the tightrope without it.
"Why?" she whines. "There's a net."
"Falling in the net isn't as fun as you'd think. It's rough and a ways down. This will help keep your balance. It keeps you centered. Okay, hold your hands like this and bend your knees. Turn your feet… No, more like this… Great. That looks fine. Now, the line is taunt, and it'll be bouncier than you think. Walk on your arches in small steps. Don't try to bring one foot up until the line settles."
She nods, hearing my instructions. Her face pulled into a determined mask, she places her first foot on the line. It wobbles, but only for a moment. The foot on the line adjusts and she tests adding more of her weight.
I'm surprised by her restraint. Knowing her, even as sparsely as I do, my impression would be that she would jump right in and start walking across the rope.
I spoke too soon.
As soon as she placed the next foot on the line and swayed as the line bounced, she started walking continuously, gripping the bar as it swayed, trying to keep her balance.
For a moment, I thought she might fall almost immediately, but she found the right rhythm by the time she reached the middle and settled in. Her body moved away from the foot taking the step forward, compensating to keep her balance.
It's not graceful, but she doesn't fall. When she reaches the other side, she tilts dangerously as she tries to land her foot on the platform. One of her hands leaves the pole to catch herself, but then her whole body sways towards the tilting pole. I'm sure she'll fall, but she drops the pole and forces her body forward, bracing her hand on the platform before she can leave the line.
Turning her body, which is suspended in the air between her stationary hand and the foot she still has pushing against the cable, she's able to get herself seated on the platform. Her arms fold and she grins at me from across the space.
I give a huge thumbs up and make my own way across the tightrope, keeping on the balls on my feet and hardly pausing to compensate for the bounce of the cable.
I'm there in a third the time it took Dani, and she gives me a heavy frown. "Show-off," she complains. She eyes the tightrope again. "Do your circus tricks."
"You want me to show-off?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes."
I shrug and step back on the line. I walk out to the middle and glance back at Dani, whose eyes are on my feet. Running through the list of tricks in my repertoire, I settle on a couple simple acrobatics that are made that much more difficult by the surface I'm performing it on.
On a handstand, I walk forward a bit before lowering my body until my feet are back on the line in front of me. With a push, I end up back on my feet. Next, I bend my knees and push off of the rope, twisting backwards so I can land on my hands again. Only pausing to feel the line bend down again, I use the bounce of the line to flip again onto my feet, and then onto my hands again, and landing definitely on my feet.
Though the line is wild, I take a bow. Dani claps a couple times before leaning back, expectant for more. I grin and show off for a little while longer before Dani decides to go back to the ground. I don't notice until she'd gotten halfway down, as she gave no prior indication of her decision and she's fast at climbing.
I follow her down. She goes over to the parallel bars and asks me to teach her on those, which I do. She then asks me to show her my tricks while she sits and watches.
Then she wanders off again.
This pattern repeats itself until Dani explores the entire gym. I'd only taught her maybe a fourth the time; Dani always wanted to see me do it all instead. When I finished on the trapeze, Dani and I climbed down together.
"Are you done?" she asks me with a tilted smile.
"What do you mean? You're the one who wanted to do something."
She shrugs, and we decide to leave.
"Did you like it, though?" I ask as we start walking down the sidewalk away from the gym.
She squints up at the sky like she's trying to determine whether it will rain or not. The clouds are heavy and almost black-an obvious sign that it'll end up pouring soon- but she continues to scrutinize. "It was alright," she answers finally, and I take it to mean she enjoyed it.
"Do you want to go get dinner?"
"Always."
On our way back, we stop and order two pizzas. Dani insists she can eat an entire one by herself, and I know I can. When they're done making them, we take our pizzas and head back to my apartment. Somehow along the way we'd started arguing about the tension in Serbia and how likely it was to erupt into a war. It's one of my favorite parts of hanging out with Dani. We'll start talking about the weather and end up on foreign politics. She might not have traditional schooling, but she has the geography and history knowledge of a professor.
We enter my apartment and spend the evening chilling. Before I met Dani, I didn't even know how to chill. My idea of Netflix was roping Arsenal and Damian into taking care of crime in Bludhaven for the night while I watched from the sidelines and ate popcorn. But Dani lived her whole life doing whatever she felt like, whenever she wanted, and I've gotta say: it's infectious.
As we finished our eighth round of Super Smash Bros, I notice that this was the longest I'd ever idled without getting some kind of call that's pulled me into action. Crap. I jinxed it. Not even a full minute after I think that, there's a knock at the door.
I sigh, pausing the game and getting off the couch. The only people privy to my residence are superheros and a couple unfortunate villains. Come to think of it, Dani is the only one I know without a dual identity.
Please don't be in uniform, please don't be in uniform…
I look through the peephole.
Thank Batman. It's Damian, in a pressed shirt and slacks instead of his assassin get up. I immediately guess that he'd initially snuck through my window, heard Dani, and decided to come through the front door. Turning the lock, I open the door wide.
"Hey, Damian," I greet, and I hear Dani slide off the couch. Damian stalks inside with a nasty frown, glaring at me before settling it on Dani.
In response, she folds her arms, her friendly smile slipping into a scowl.
"Oooookay." I look between the two and step between them. "Damian, this is Dani. Dani, Damian."
"You're like, twelve," Dani observes sarcastically. "How'd you get here from Gotham on your own?"
"Thirteen. And Alfred drove me," he answers shortly. "You can leave now, street girl."
"Damian, don't talk to her like that," I scold, giving her a shrug over his head. She waves it off dismissively. "What did you need?"
"You are needed in Gotham. It is urgent."
Dani's frown deepens.
"Are you going to tell me why?"
"Not with her here," Damian retorts stubbornly, folding his arms.
I sigh. "Damian…"
Dani rolls her eyes. "No, it's fine, I'll go."
"Okay. I'll leave the apartment key where it is and a note telling you when I'll get back."
Damian's scowl deepens. "You won't be coming back. You're needed in Gotham permanently." For the first time, his mask cracks and he suddenly looks like a scared little kid. That scares me. "Father has died, and you need to take his place."
Distantly through my shock at Damian's revelation, I hear Dani give an uncomfortable cough. "Yeah… I'm gonna go."
In response to one of the comments I saw: Dani's story is just a story. Technically, it did happen, but it's not going to be a plot point or anything. It's just a development that gives you guys some idea of the adventures she's been having. Dani's character is impulsive, adventurous and heroic in nature, so it made sense to me that she'd get involved with the wars happening in the Middle East. As for Young Justice... it isn't an installment in this fanfic. All the characters will likely show up, but the series doesn't have Batman's "death", and that's where I'm following. YJ is more for my other fic I'll probably end up doing (the one with Sam).
Sorry for the long A/N. One more thing, though: if you guys want anything to happen in this series, I can probably fit it in. it's very fluid right now, with only an outline of the plot. Let me know your thoughts!
~Disclaimer, Disclaimer~