[Closed] I stay focused on details...

[the_hit_list]

Who | Tim Drake and Stephanie Brown
What | Steph's alive! Huzzah! (We're still in deep shit).
Where | Stephanie's room at the training facility.
When | Week 8 (approximately 3 days after her death at the end of week 7).
Warnings/Notes | Do mentions of death count? This should be fairly safe.


Three days. She's been dead for three days. Tim has no clue what was taking so long, but he had no frame of reference. It hadn't seemed like any time had passed between dying and waking up, but how would he know?

Since the morning after the party, Tim's been scarce in the Capitol. He'd found the room that was assigned to Stephanie and pretty much staked it out. He was worried that he'd missed her somehow, when he was off arguing with his escort without actually being rude or argumentative about what things were and weren't necessary. Getting to Stephanie as quickly as possible was short-term priority one. Before she had a chance to sound off on the excellent political system of Panem.

He hadn't won every argument though, and he'd gone to meals - Tim knew that he was going into the next Arena, unless they found a way to stop it. He couldn't afford to drop weight. In fact, he was hoping to gain five pounds. For the interims, he'd taken to booby-trapping the door of the room in a different way each time. Feathers dropped just inside the door that would blow around around if the door was opened at a normal speed. A hair draped over the doorknob as he left the room. "Accidentally" shutting the door on his fingers and leaving a small piece of paper trapped between door and jamb. Rudimentary, but effective. Either someone knew what he was doing, or no one had touched the door besides him.

But it was getting to be noon, and there was nothing to distract him. He couldn't glean any knowledge from the hologram device - it was the equivalent of a printer, really. Strictly an I/O device. He needed access to a computer. After Steph turned up, that was next on short-term priorities. The view screen wall was on, showing a live feed of the arena, but he'd turned the sound off. Tim had still been watching it, leaning against the headboard with his knees up, when burning the candle at both ends finally caught up with him. He drifted off for an unintended nap.

Comments

[blondevigilante]

Waking up after dying wasn't that much of an unfamiliar feeling. Being completely healed as though nothing had happened was far more upsetting. It was like none of the terror of the Arena had really happened. How did this not drive others crazy?

Thinking back on how Tim said some enjoyed what they did maybe it had driven them crazy.

Speaking of Tim... When Stephanie arrived in her room she'd expected a fruit basket and maybe a change of clothes. Having a sleeping Tim was nice. And confusing. And nice. Yep, he definitely brought out all those confusing feelings that she managed to push away back home. She tossed her jacket onto a chair and slowly moved closer to the bed, smiling at the image Tim presented.

"Hey, Timmy." Her voice was low and calm. She wondered how long he'd been waiting here for her. He knew she'd be here soon or he wouldn't waste time waiting around. He'd probably seen her less than spectacular death. She sat on the edge of the bed and moved to brush a bit of hair off his forehead.

[the_hit_list]

Waking up after you had thought you were going to die... no, last week wasn't the first time that Tim had done that either. It never really got any easier though, he had still woken up in a complete panic. But there were no new scars, nothing to show that those particular wounds had healed or ever happened. It was bizarre.

Tim was normally a light sleeper, but he had picked up some bad habits from Bruce and Dick - pushing himself to keep going too long and eventually crashing. He wasn't as bad as they were, yet. He'd found Dick using the computer in the Batcave as his pillow, once. Tim still didn't wake up at the sound of his name; he stirred a little when the mattress moved.

He was dreaming about Gotham, and that's always a borderline nightmare. When the hand touched his skin, Tim woke up with a start, snatching at the offending wrist while his eyes are still trying to focus through the haze of sleep. It's Steph.

He softened the grip and used it to pull her closer, as he sat up so fast he might as well be a speedster. He hugged her tightly and didn't let go, just rested his head against her hair. She was okay. He'd been worried, almost scared by the wait. The woman who had died the same night as Stephanie had already posted on the holo-network. She had been basically annihilated.

But Steph was good. He could tell from holding her that she, too, was back at fighting weight. He needed to calm down. He wasn't just here to see that she was alive; there was work to be done. Tim turned his head to whisper in her ear, "For kidnappers, they give us way too much free reign. Expect surveillance."

Tim relaxed his arms a little, but he didn't let her go. At a more normal volume, he said simply, "I'm sorry."

Sorry that he died without warning. Sorry that he left her alone. Sorry that he wasn't there when she needed him, again. Sorry that she'd died with no aid or comfort. But he doesn't add any of that.

[blondevigilante]

She wasn't about to let him go any time soon. All that confusion and frustration melted away once they were in each other's arms. Maybe that was part of their problem. Like this they were just two teens that were not quite lovers and the rest of the world didn't exist, but they couldn't really live like that. There was Gotham, and Batman, and a whole list of reasons why they couldn't and shouldn't have this. Tim's nearly breathless whisper so clearly reminded her of all of that.

"I should punch you for leaving like that. Dying like that. I waited the whole day for you, you know." That night when his picture was shown her stomach clenched and a little piece of her heart broke. She kissed the side of his head lightly. "You're going to have to be my guide. Again."

[the_hit_list]

His stomach twisted at the knowledge that she had waited for him at the rendezvous. She must have been there when the music played and the display of the fallen appeared in the night sky. He can't imagine a colder way to break the news to someone. If the situation were reversed, he would have gone ballistic, what with his doubts in Bruce's story about them resurrecting. He didn't completely understand when he was still in the arena, why Bruce had risked his life to save Tim's, when it was nearly inevitable. He had been ready to go back in the water after him though, and he hadn't witnessed Bruce go under water. He'd seen every second of Steph's death. To hell with waking up again in the Capitol, he'd have traded places with either of them in a heartbeat. Anything to give them a chance at not having to go into the next Arena.

They were all going back in. He knew it. Stripped of gadgets and hideouts and everything that they depend on, Tim couldn't force himself to believe that the situation is going to be investigated and resolved in the precious few weeks before the next round He should have run, lived, helped her win. They needed someone on the outside.

His train of thought was derailed when she kissed him. It didn't mean anything, he told himself. They had both just died. They were overly emotional. Stop letting her get under your skin; she had told you that she didn't need complications now then. The current present was worse. Don't exacerbate it by misreading the situation and telling her that you can't do this. Don't wonder if that's even true. "Go ahead. I deserve it for once."

The tone was playful, but Tim slipped out of the embrace and turned his head, ostensibly to offer his cheek for a hook - but really so that Steph can't look him in the eyes.

[blondevigilante]

She didn't want to think about the thoughts that had rolled through her head when she'd seen Tim's picture light up the sky that night. It had been gut wrenchingly painful. Tears had formed in her eyes that she'd refused to let fall because Tim wouldn't want her to cry over him and potentially lose that head for survival she would need now more than ever. And she had to survive. For Bruce and Tim and every other person who didn't deserve to die in that Arena. Apparently she hadn't done such a good job on the whole survival thing.

Holding Tim right now eased that pain that she still felt at not being there with him when he finally died. She felt conflicted over the need to know how it had happened. Had be been alone? Was it an accident like Bruce or had he died at the hands of one of those whole liked this whole Arena thing? She squeezed him tighter for a moment hoping that he hadn't been alone.

When he pulled away and made his mild attempt at joking she did lightly punch at his shoulder. "Sorry, you don't get to play Martyr on my watch, Drake. Now, fill me in on this place."

[the_hit_list]

Thank you for that, Steph. Tim laughed when she hit him; he felt like the tension was diffused - or maybe it was just the heavy sadness lifting. He could handle this.

"You punch like a girl," he teased her, but, then, his voice became less jovial as he corrected her. "Wayne."

There was something of a look for a second, one eyebrow raised. She should know about that, shouldn't she? Please, not her too. Everyone can't be from funky random worlds where none of the details match up. "It's Tim Wayne now. I'll stop changing names one of these days..."

Tim cut himself off there, though. It was time to get down to business. "The name isn't important. The details on this place, or the ones I know so far, don't all fit together. The country is called Panem. The President's name is Snow. The Capitol city is 'the Capitol', and there's a lot of wealth here. The tech is advanced. There are 12 other districts in Panem; they're boring."

Tim was abridging this narration heavily. He'd cautioned her already. As it had been when he first arrived in the arena, Tim knew that he was where they wanted him to be, here in building specifically designed for housing their victims. He assumed all kinds of security were in effect.

The other districts weren't boring at all to him. Whenever he had asked a Capitol citizen about the other distracts, he'd only heard about what was made or grown there. Never 'oh, 4? I grew up there.' or My cousin Sue moved out to 6.' That was suspicious. "The Capitol is not boring. There's a lot of parties, and tributes get invited to them. You should check them out with me. There's a training room in one of the basements. If you get bored, the Hunger Games are on TV 24-7. With me so far?"

[blondevigilante]

She smiled at him and leaned against his arm. "I know, but I still like Drake. Of course you could really take hold of the past and go with Draper." That was as far as she would go with remembering that time that now seemed so long ago. Tim had always been her rock back then, back before she screwed everything up.

She shut her eyes, closing off any memory of that past and then opened them again with that old Stephanie Brown smile. "Parties, training, television. As long as they don't make us go to university I'd call this a much needed vacation." The mention of other Districts interested her. Tim said boring which meant they were probably important. Important and off-limits.

[the_hit_list]

He laughed at that and shook his head, putting an arm around Steph companionably. Alvin Draper. For when you need an alter-ego to date a girl that you want to get to know, but can't tell your real name. "I think we can leave Draper out of it. It's not even a great alias - you're not supposed to use the same initials. Except now it's got so much documented history that it's pretty solid."

Except for the fact that Ra's al Ghul had found out about it and somehow turned Draper into a suspected international criminal, so odds are he'd never be able to safely use it again.

Not that that mattered here, when he's already got too many names floating around, on top of everything else that's wrong. At least Stephanie seemed to be on board with the general idea of watching word choice. "Looks like it's a vacation, then, because no one's told me about any classes that I'm missing. You're missing something from your list though: strategizing for the next Arena. We need to make a plan for how we're going to handle it, and we're going to need to make some friends in the Capitol. They'll come in handy."

[blondevigilante]

She laughed. It was nice to not think about death for a moment. She missed her home and her mom. Hell, she even missed Jordan which is was sad and wrong. But she had Tim who was always strong (sometimes too strong) and Bruce was here and some weird teenage Barbara. It wasn't the people from home that she wished for, but if she was going to survive this then she couldn't have asked for a better group.

"Ugh, you know I'm not good at strategizing." Which was only partly true these days. She still was more often than not leaping before thinking, but occasionally O got it through her head that having a plan was sometimes better. Sometime. "Howard. I met him in Thunder Mountain. Smart kid. Paranoid though. He'd set up some pretty good traps. Think Meta's will have their powers next time?"

[the_hit_list]

"You're not bad at it though. You just..." Tim let that sentence hang there while he tried to figure out a predicate that wouldn't make her angry. It wasn't that she didn't have the ability to read a scenario quickly and correctly, and it wasn't that she couldn't stick to a plan. "You just tend to rush in and get in over your head, but we're kinda rushed in and over our heads already, so I don't think it matters."

It felt good to admit that - that he was in over his head as well. He's been treading water the whole time, but he's hoping they can do better with a little prep time. "I've met Howard twice. Once in the Arena, and once in the Capitol. He's got a survival streak, and he's good at scavenging. I've already talked to him about an alliance - he's agreed to not attack either of us. I think he's paranoid with good reason; from what he's said and from how he looked here in the Capitol, his homeworld is rough, possibly a warzone. You might get further with him, I..."

Blew it almost. Tried to order him around. Pissed him off. Reacted like Batman. "I think I'm getting too good at some things for him to be comfortable with me. If the metas have their powers next time, we're going to need to try our luck at the Cornucopia for weapons and tools."

[blondevigilante]

She laughed because it was very true and Steph owned up to the fact that she very often jumped before she looked. That wasn't to say she couldn't follow orders or stick to a plan, but it was hard to fight instinct. She was sure it was what Bruce hated most about her.

"Maybe. I think he's on his side first and foremost, but he's not about helping if you can prove that you're helpful too." She wondered what Tim had done to scare Howard off. Back home Tim was, well, he was very Bruce-like in the worst ways. It hurt a little (okay, maybe a lot) to see him react like his mentor and to know that she helped push him that much further. She wanted to hold him and tell him she was sorry. She wanted to hit him and tell him to snap out of it. Why did things have to be so complicated between them?

Stephanie threw herself backwards and sighed. At least they were given luxury before death. "I met Diana. I think she's from our world, but it's hard to tell. This place is so mixed up I'm getting a headache just thinking about it." She reached over to pull Tim back. "You should take me out for ice cream and waffles."

[the_hit_list]

Laughter was good. It put Tim more at ease, made him unclench somewhat. She hadn't gotten mad at the appraisal. He knew that she didn't always take his constructive criticism well and that he didn't give it well occasionally.

"He needs to learn that being a one-man army doesn't work for anyone, not even Superman. Howard's been in a bunch of arenas - he should know that by now." Maybe the kid did. He had formed himself a little band of allies, after all. That was probably the problem. There was safety and danger in numbers in the Arena, and, once people reached the over/under, a lot of them would quit collecting more. Tim wouldn't. If he could, he'd get everyone on the same team and let them all starve to death. That would be entertainment, right, Capitol fans?

It would probably just get them all permanently killed. Dammit.

This line of thinking was depressing, and maybe he wasn't hiding it as well as he should be, because Steph tugged him back onto the bed. Tim let her, stretching an arm out above her head to invite a hug, if she wanted another one. He did. "We don't have to go out for ice cream and waffles. They'll give us any food that we ask for."

Fattening the lambs for slaughter. He hated this place. He might as well get comfort food out of the deal. "Want to get some to go and find a park?"

[blondevigilante]

Hugs were good. Hugs were the sort of medicine her mom prescribed during times like this, which admittedly she believed had more to do with college than chasing criminals and there was definitely zero thought about death arenas. "I don't want them to bring us things, I want to go out and..."

Yeah, she was suddenly really hating this place. "Yeah, a park sounds nice." She missed home and her mom. A heavy breath held back tears. "Let me change into something that doesn't resemble a tracksuit and we can go."