this one's for the faithless, the ones that are surprised

[hellofist]

Who: The Once-ler and Cassandra Cain
What: He's been inside way too much and she is going to change that.
When: May 24th
Where: The clinic, then OUTSIDE damn it.
Rating: PGish


Each time she's gone to visit him, she's found Once in the exact same place, doing the exact same thing, generally looking not all that happy about... well, anything. They sit and knit and talk and it's nice, it's fun, but when was the last time he even left the clinic? Has he really just stayed in bed since their horrible space adventure?

If that's true, it's not acceptable at all. It's also why when she comes to visit him today, she's pushing a wheelchair in front of her. There's a picnic basket sitting in it right now, so her intention is probably pretty clear: she's taking him outside for lunch.

Does he have a say in it? Not exactly. She smiles at him when she stops the chair by his bed.

"Hi Once."

Comments

[hellofist]

For a few more moments, she watches him and tries to think of something else to say, but she's starting to feel a little guilty. She doesn't want to make him uncomfortable but that's what her suit is for, it's for scaring and intimidating, being something that lurks behind Batman as a threat. Being Batgirl is something that just makes people nervous, so she's used to it, but it's never happened quite like this before.

"Will go change." She says abruptly, turning to go. Better to just be Cassandra in normal clothes than Batgirl in the suit if it makes him uncomfortable.

[whichwayyoulean]

As terrible with empathy as he is, even the Once-ler can tell when he's put his foot in it sometimes. He reaches out to touch her butt take her hand.

"Hey, it's okay, sorry if I made you uncomfortable...what with the staring and all, you really do look good."

He pauses, before offering her a small, encouraging smile.

"Thank you. For showing me, and letting me know you do this. It makes me even prouder to know you, knowing you're going around doing good in the world."

[hellofist]

She reaches up with her free hand to tug the cowl off so he's not saying all this to a stitched up mask and smiles at him, squeezing his hand softly.

"I'm fine. Probably should have... given more warning." Do you warn people about your curves and whatnot? It seems like a weird thing to do but maybe it would have helped. It's a little surprising to hear that someone would be proud to know her, but it feels good to hear it out loud. She can see Bruce's pride sometimes but he rarely ever said things like that with words. Until now, Cass hadn't realized how good it could feel to actually have someone put it out there verbally.

There is a moment when she considers not hugging him because it could make things more awkward for him, but it's not a very long moment. She wants to too much, so she just does, leaning in to put her arms around his neck and hug carefully. There's a lot of sharp points to her costume, from the shoulder spikes to the spines on her gloves after all.

"Thank you."

And now the curves and whatnot are all up close and personal, hopefully his brain won't explode because of it.

[whichwayyoulean]

A warning probably would have made him even more panicky, the surprise has probably worked out for the best. He doesn't even seem to be panicking about the hug, probably because he wants it just as much. He returns it, giving her a gentle squeeze, taking care of those sharp points, just enjoying the closeness, as much as he knows he probably shouldn't.

"Hey, you're always welcome, Cass."

[hellofist]

Hugging him feels very nice, so she'll just stay right there until his body language tells her it's time to let go.

"Maybe, when you're better, can get you suit. You can come... climb walls, play rooftop tag."

It'd be a fun thing to see, him jumping around on roofs with a cape.

[whichwayyoulean]

Which won't be for a while, probably longer than you should hug a girl who's just a friend. Oh well. He does laugh at that mental image, though.

"I'm pretty sure all the lanky wouldn't look nearly as [attractive] cool in a suit like that," he says, amused. "And so long as you're there to catch me when I inevitably fall off the roof trying to leap across it gracefully, we'd be okay."

[hellofist]

She's fine with it, physical affection is always something Cass wants more of as often as possible.

"You'd manage. Batman's really tall."

And she helped Stephanie to not die by knocking her into garbage cans whenever she'd miss her jumps, so there's always that option.

[whichwayyoulean]

"Well, that's good to know, at least. So long as I don't make a complete fool of myself, I do that regularly enough anyway"

Garbage air bags, the safest option, clearly. Eventually he realises he should probably pull back from the hug, but he does it reluctantly. He even offers her a small smile. Normally he'd feel the need to babble, fill the quiet with inane words. But he didn't have to, with her, she could understand him without him even saying a word. There was something comforting about that.

[hellofist]

"Should give yourself... some credit."

Of course the fact that he's here in a wheelchair doesn't really help with assuring him he won't get hurt leaping around on rooftops, but hey. She'll be there to save him if something goes wrong this time, so he'll probably come out of it without a scratch.

Hopefully. When he pulls back, she smiles at him. There's been a lot of that going on today.

"Not a fool now."

[whichwayyoulean]

"You won't say that when I'm comically flailing about."

He sounds amused, at least. As for not falling to a broken heap, well, he can only hope, he's really had enough clinic time to last him a good long while. He trusts her not to let him come to any harm, something he doesn't especially give a lot of people.

"I don't know, I still have plenty of time to say something awkward or stupid."

[hellofist]

"Don't have to... worry about that, with me. Will always see... what you mean."

Which can be good or bad depending on what people do or don't want her to know, but it's not hard to pretend she doesn't see everything. She's kind of used to that actually, it keeps people from getting too weird about what she does.

[whichwayyoulean]

"I know. It's actually kind of comforting, knowing that."

He's so used to wearing a mask of indifference to the world, or to building his walls ridiculously high to prevent people from getting too close, denying himself the opportunity to hurt them, that he often struggles to show his real feelings. There's been a lot of hiding in his life, and for good reason. But even when he's hiding at his best, Cass knows what he's feeling. Some might find it disturbing or weird, but for the Once-ler it means one person he doesn't have to try to explain things to.

He belatedly realises this might make it easier when he'll inevitably have to push her away. She's already far too close. Maybe she might not take it personally. Maybe.