capeandcowllogs | Yes, he is thinking that it's a good place for a date. Fffffffff. [INCOMPLETE]

Yes, he is thinking that it's a good place for a date. Fffffffff. [INCOMPLETE]

WHO: Dick (Robin) and Layla
WHERE: Wherever
WHEN: March 24th, day
WHAT: Layla and Dick haven't talked since Dick was 18.
WARNING: None. Well apparently they're going to flirt. /flails
FORMAT: Para.

The City went to chaos and so Layla and Dick hadn't seen each other since after the age-swap when Dick had turned twelve again. And he wasn't even twelve anymore - which Layla had known. And Tim, apparently.

And then Batman had left and he'd gone back to living between the Cave and the Tower. He hadn't felt comfortable living with a Batman that wasn't his and his life going back to being without a Batman around simplified the matter of not caring about Batman too much.

In fact, he wasn't particularly hurt that he'd vanished and although he couldn't tell if it was because he was just starting to lack regular morality or if he just wasn't blurring lines and getting attached to any Batman ever, he chose to believe it was positive and so that it was because of that later explanation.

And so, now thirteen, Batman-less and thoroughly exhausted, Dick wandered in a small wood on the East side of the City, near a park. No one ever hanged out in the wood, sticking to where things were pretty and had benches to sit on, and so Dick liked to go there sometimes. There wasn't any snow anymore and it was easy to climb trees. When it'd be a little hotter, he could foresee himself going there to take naps and spend a lot of time just hanging from branches thirty feet above ground. And it was kind of beautiful and uh - well -

For now, it was a good place to expect Layla and wait for her.

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Yeah, it had been a long week. A long week that consisted strictly of staying the hell inside and not getting monster goo on her shoes. Tabby had been ported out of the City and X-Force had been tense as hell, plus the lawyer guy threatening everyone with murder charges didn't help the frenzy in the place either. Layla was at least glad that she was able to try and forewarn people, but it wasn't enough to make her feel useful.

There was still so much more that needed to be fixed and settled and walking through the woods to find Robin was just the start of all that. There was a lot she needed to say to him about what had happened two weeks ago, and she knew he wouldn't like it.

Layla caught sight of him up ahead by a large oak tree and waved small. "Hey."

That hadn't taken long at all. It never really did and it was nice in the way that Layla, even knowing Dick was waiting for her, could always take the conscious decision not to go see him. But so far, whenever he would want to see her, she would come.

It was unfair that he couldn't do the same for her. However, she probably didn't feel that way at all, used to what she could do that the others couldn't, so it would have been stupid for Dick to feel bad about it when she didn't.

He climbed down the tree, letting himself fall half the way, in a gracious acrobatic manner as if it was the easiest thing to do ever. He smiled at her as he touched the ground.

"Hey, you too. Crazy weeks, uh?" Meaning he'd missed her. It was sometimes really cool not to have to say the embarrassing stuff and knowing Layla would understand anyway.

"Tell me about it," she grinned as she snapped a large gum bubble between her lips. Slowly her gaze slid off of him and up to the tree where she couldn't help but grin again. "You're like a monkey up there; all that circus training must've paid off."

Just making small talk. Small talk was good to start for now. The mood was still pleasant and Dick was happy to see her anyways. She was satisfied with that, as she was more than happy to see him back to normal again. Never mind the fact that Layla'd spoken to him over the comm, seeing him in person was better and just confirmed it anyhow.

"I've been training forever," he answered, his smile broadening slightly, "literally - I can't remember when I started, I was just always balancing on something, on a trapeze. I lived with the circus so most of the kids were also performers." There hadn't been that many kids because it was harder to go around with a child and some people decided to settle down if they had a baby.

Dick's parents had went on with their life and Dick had just grown into it. Their life was fifty feet in the air and so Dick's life also included flying very early on.

"They said I was a natural though. Gifted and all that. I can do a quadruple somersault." It wasn't an entirely happy subject because it was still about his parents, but they were all good memories, awesome memories that made him proud and glad that he'd had that life.

Up until his parents were shot at the circus and he didn't even know why.

Layla could only smile at the thought of that, stuffing her hands into her pockets as she glanced up at the trees. It must be pretty nifty being able to jump and flip around like that, and she figured if it was something she was physically able to do, she'd definitely spend her time doing it too. It was unique, and she'd never met a real acrobat until she met Dick.

"A quadruple somersault is crazy!" she laughed and finally moved her gaze back to him. "No wonder you're always hopping around all those rooftops all the time. Must remind you a lot of being in the circus."

She paused for a moment before a mischievous smirk crossed over her face. "You should show me something cool."

It really was crazy - there was only a handful of people in the world who can. Less than that. But he didn't need to brag more than he had already. He hadn't accepted to work with Batman because flying would remind him of the circus at all. At the time, he hadn't wanted to think about it, after all. But now that he thought about it, he was out nearly every night because he enjoyed it as much as because he could help people that way. And he did love flying more than anything else. Six months after his parents' death, it didn't feel like a betrayal.

"Show you something cool? Uh, now? Or - there are rings and trapezes in the Cave and Tim would be intensely against me bringing you there but there's no... Batman's gone." Dick shrugged, not feeling like talking about it that much, "it could be cool."

That was just tempting. They could always just go there and be quiet and not bug anyone; Layla only wanted to see what Dick could do, after all, and there was no harm in that. He wasn't going to fall and break his leg or anything.

"Well if it's any consolation, I have absolutely no desire to sneak around your cave and peek at things I'm not supposed to look at," she stuck her tongue out playfully and tugged on his sleeve. "C'mon! I only want to see one of your nifty flips, that's all."

And that was the honest to god truth.

Dick chuckled at Layla's reassuring words. "I really wouldn't do that because most of the stuff in there is trapped or, at least, locked. And that makes me wonder if you know stuff like - passwords? Can you just know codes to enter places and all?"

That wasn't what they were discussing though and - what they were discussing made him both shy-ish and happy at the same time. He realised he really did want to bring Layla to the Cave. And that he'd have to tell Tim after, before he found out himself (because he would) and possibly panicked about the fact some intruder had been there.

"Uh - now? It's... pretty far but I have my bike with me. We could drive there."

"That depends if they're important for the things I need to do," she said, forcing any teasing out of her tone. She was playing with him, but that didn't mean she didn't like going for a reaction. "If I think about it hard enough, I could override your security with my hands tied behind my back."

The playful mood was nice for a change, and better than the usual angst-ridden discussions they'd been stuck with. It was odd times like these that Layla felt she actually got to do 'kid things' again, and she couldn't turn the offer down.

"Bike's fine. Does it have space for two?" she cracked a grin and snapped her gum. "Ric never lets me on his."

Edited 2009-04-11 23:36 (UTC)

It did make Dick react - he huffed and crossed his arms, not completely serious but serious enough. "The Cave has voice, handprints and eyes scanners. I'm not sure you really could hack through it that easily."

He smiled right after, not really wanting an answer because if it was true she could override their security just like that, then she probably wasn't the only one and the possibility made him uncomfortable. He would have to think about it more, maybe ask Tim about what he thought of it. And he was officially going through thoughts that were way too serious for the situation.

"It has, but I only have one helmet. I'll leave it to you but if we're gonna crash, now's the time to tell me because I'd like to avoid a concussion if I can." He made a small head gesture to follow him and began walking towards the exit of the park where he had left the motorcycle.

Layla very well could have creeped him out by saying such tech was not even a match for her, but she figured she'd save him the paranoia. Offering a small smile and a shrug instead, the girl hummed. "Oh well I guess that's too bad for me then. Now I'll never be able to know all your deep, dark secrets."

Yeah, she was being a brat but she meant no harm by it. So she simply skipped off to catch up with him, grin stretching wide across her face. "Nope, don't worry about accidents. Just stay off the main road and we'll be good."

He rolled his eyes but knew she was just playing with him. They were doing that more and more often, just teasing each other because it came naturally, which, really, meant something right there. There wasn't a lot of people close to Dick that he was feeling comfortable about teasing. He got... closer to people because they might be helpful, or by necessity, mostly. Tim wasn't even an exception - if they hadn't both be Robins, they probably never would have talked. Now they were closer and he was the person he trusted the most (the only person ever coming close to being trusted) in the City. That didn't mean it was a conventional friendship.

Layla had been different because she had been the one seeking him out. Somehow. And their friendship also was very far from conventional but it was there. Just because it felt good.

He was smiling again when they reached his bike and he gave Layla his helmet before getting on the motorcycle. "When I lean right you lean right, when I lean left you lean left and you have to hold onto me," he explained quickly, and then wondered if she had already known?... It was cool to explain it either way. He started the engine and gestured to Layla that she could also get on now.

She cracked a grin as she listened to him explain and didn't bother telling him to stop. Dick seemed satisfied at his ability to enlighten her for a change, so that was fair enough. "As long as you lead the way, Steve McQueen, I think we're okay."

After getting the helmet on, Layla slowly climbed on the bike behind Dick, smoothed down her skirt, and wrapped her arms around his waist. She was excited. Now Ric could totally kiss her butt because she was allowed to ride on a real bike. Sucker.

"I'm ready!"

It was the first time Dick had someone on his bike with him and even though he knew the gist of it and what to do to make sure they wouldn't both die (which included a short detour to avoid the main road, apparently) but it was something else entirely to have Layla pressed behind him.

It wasn't unsettling, not exactly, Dick had been trained to be able to perform under very intense pressure and stress since he was born or nearly so. That had helped him with the meditation techniques a lot more than anything Batman or Tim had showed him.

Either way, it was weird but not bad and they made it to the Cave without any incidents. He entered the 'abandoned warehouse' with his bike and went through the security there to enter the Cave with the vehicle. There, he parked and turned around to look at Layla.

"That's the Cave. It's different than the one back in my universe but the dinosaur's the most important and Batman found one here, too. No idea how," he joked. And the joke meant way more than it seemed because the reason why Batman had gotten the giant dinosaur even here had been because Dick had told him he liked it before. Or - that's what Dick had guessed.

The ride was nice, and Layla managed to enjoy the scenery on the way to the cave. Even though she was born and raised in Hell's Kitchen, she still couldn't help but love watching New York. And since this was the closest thing to it, that didn't change. It was nicer enjoying the time with Dick too, and she was thankful that he trusted her enough to do this.

When they finally reached their destination and made their way inside, Layla couldn't help but smile widely. "Hey, you can never go wrong with dinosaurs, you know. Besides, they're way more interesting than door mats anyhow," she chuckled and folded her arms over her middle.

"Dinosaurs or not though, I'm ready for some crazy somersaults."

He smiled at Layla and gestured to her to follow him, bringing her a bit deeper in the cave where the training equipment was. Mats, weights, rings and the trapezes. There were two of them and they had magnetic control - they could swing without anyone's help. It made some fake-transfers possible even though Dick had no one to practice with.

"Give me a minute." He moved to the changing area quickly to put on tighter clothes that wouldn't bother his movements by moving around while he was in the air and wasn't wearing any shoes when he came back.

"All ready to show off for you," he said, grinning. He then went to the stairs and climbed up, looking down at Layla once on top. He grabbed the trapeze next to him and started the movement of the other one at the speed he knew he'd get himself. As soon as that was done, he had his poker face back on, concentrating enough. They didn't have safety nets in the Cave and that was fine with him. Even if he did fall, he could catch himself before hitting the ground. Hell, he'd fallen the night Bruce was there and his parents has been shot.

He timed himself and jumped gracefully from the platform with the trapeze a few seconds later, climbing over the bar swiftly before the swing was complete to he could go a simple transfer by letting himself fall onto the second one, his hands sliding down the ropes and griping on the bar at the last moment. He crossed his arm on it and pulled himself higher just enough to switch around and face the other swinging trapeze once again, the movement fluid and natural.

Balancing his legs under him to keep the swing going, Dick waited for both trapeze to be close again and proceeded to do another transfer - a double somersault this time - and grabbed onto the first trapeze, letting it bring him back to the platform where he stopped for a second and looked down.

"Triple and quadruple next?" he asked loudly.

Edited 2009-04-17 05:46 (UTC)

Layla followed him without a word, just looking around at all the equipment laying around the cave. Batman had Dick set up pretty good, Layla thought. The training area was also much less dangerous looking than the one X-Force had back home, so that was good too. She liked that Dick's exercise place was a more natural one that suited his skills; not relying on powers and an armoury of weapons was more impressive than most heroes would ever admit. That was definitely something that appealed to Layla about Dick.

When the boy stepped out fully changed and ready to go, she couldn't help but smile. "All right, you better make it impressive!"

And it was, of course. Just tossing himself from one trapeze to another was impressive in her eyes, but the double somersault just made her jump in excitement. Layla was aware that he would not fall, so there was no reason for her to be scared for him.

"Oh, please do!" she grinned up at him and blew her hair from her face. "That's crazy!"

The thing about longer somersault was that he had to get the trapezes going quickly enough to give him a lot of impulsion and momentum to make the turns in the air fast and swift. But at the same time, if the trapeze was swinging faster, it meant it'd be gone faster, too, and that it was easier to miss the transfer.

Dick knew how to deal with that, of course. He was small and light and that was probably what helped him out the most to manage these tricks: he could jump off in advance and just - be in between the trapezes for longer. The longer the somersault, the earlier he had to jump off and that was when he truly was flying, in suspension for a few exceptionally long seconds.

It was harder trick, still. He waited for a bit, concentrating more because he needed to, and took off holding the bar firmly. He jumped off higher, a bit in advance on the second trapeze, and did the triple somersault without thinking about it that much - he hadn't screwed up a triple in ages. Then, he let himself land on the platform on the other side because he was going to need the push to start off. He didn't look down - he was performing.

His initial trapeze made one full swing and Dick watched it carefully to be sure he would be leaving the platform at the right time. He still, sometimes, didn't jump high enough ot turn on himself fast enough and was forced to do a triple instead of a quadruple for safety issues. But, hey, if he was going to screw up now, Layla would know already so she wasn't going to be disappointed. He smiled at that thought when he pushed himself off and knew when he let go of the bar that it was going to turn out. Then it was as slow and fast as it usually was and he was back on the platform, grinning down at Layla.

"Was that impressive enough?"

He looked so determined and focused up there, and it was something else to see Dick in his element. Layla thought he made it look so easy. That kind of skill and exercise would take a life time to learn, and yet Dick flew and twisted with grace and ease. It was exciting to watch, really, and a lot better than just knowing he was capable.

So from the ground she stood and watched, eyes glued to his body as he moved and she couldn't help but grin. Mesmerized. As an orphan, Layla had never been given the opportunity to even see a circus before. It made her feel like a little kid all over again - which was something that didn't happen often to someone with the weight of the world's future on her shoulders.

"Impressive barely covers it!" she yelled up and clapped her hands at him. "That was awesome! Guess the codename really suits you after all, huh?"

Dick kept grinning as he started climbing down the platform quickly, after deactivating the magnetic system and putting the trapezes the way they were before he'd gotten on them.

"I could probably come up with some routine if you want at some point," he said, on the ground one again. He could even go back up there and improvise something right on the spot instead of making that half-suggestion. Possibly. He hadn't used the trapezes like that forever. Or used them at all, really, other than for cardio. Exercising.

"I'd suggest to get you up there and make you try out a thing or two but we don't have a net and - yeah. You know where I'm going with that."

He tilted his head a little, squinting just barely, suddenly studying her. "I can't tell if you have any strength in your arms or not," he said finally.

"Hey, I bet a routine would be cool!" she grinned at that and placed her hands on her hips and she watched him tidy up. "I've never seen one before. What you did right there is it! Well, besides the TV and all that."

It was kind of exciting that he was opening the door to something new for her. While Layla held a lot of knowledge about things, she didn't have much experience in anything at all, really. She was a regular kid until her parents died, and when she turned into a mutant at the orphange it was worse. No one liked to see a fire-breathing little girl running around in public, especially one that didn't have the proper supervision. Circuses were just a no go, and now it was like Robin had his own little show and that was cool. Layla liked that, as well as the probability of a routine.

As for strength though? She scoffed. "If I do, it isn't much. I'm not like the rest of you jumping around, flipping, and fist fighting all the time. I prefer prank phone calls and rigging bets, thank-you very much!"

Dick's thoughts went through a lot of possibilities about what he could do and what she could do with nearly no strength in her arms. Even the most simple transfer would be hard because she'd still have to hang on the bar with one hand at some point.

And that made him wonder about his own limits - could he hang on the bar and hold Layla's waist at the same time to give her some support until she grabbed the second trapeze with both hands after a transfer? He was already way ahead of himself though - he didn't even know if she was interested into any of that. For Dick, that was just someone he loved, it was part of his life, and it felt natural to want to share it with her. And he was doing so and was going to keep on doing so by performing himself, but in no way that meant she'd want to be up there.

And anyway, he'd need to put up a net. It'd have to be high, a few meters under the platforms only so that falling down wouldn't be dangerous at all and would be a short fall -

Yeah. Ahead of himself didn't even begin to describe it.

"You don't have an offensive power and.. aren't likely to get into lots of fights? So that's logical. You could probably manage to kill someone without fighting just by knowing where to place yourself or what to move where, anyway."

He swiped the sweats off his hands on his shirt. He hadn't stayed up there for long enough for it to get bad, but if he'd planned on something longer he'd have used chalk powder to keep himself from slipping eventually.

"I'll come up with something and we can come back here some other time." It was easier to push the thought of what-Batman-would-have-to-say-about-that away as he spoke.

"Yeah, fighting isn't really my thing," she agreed with a nod and left it at that. The idea of announcing deaths she'd been responsible for in the past wasn't exactly appealing. It would make her a hypocrite considering all the stuff she and Dick had talked about over the months. The killing, the Joker, preventing and evading him from becoming said Joker. It just wasn't a very comfortable conversation. Though she'd been able to kill people without a flinch, it didn't mean she liked bringing it up. "But you're probably right; some people would underestimate me in a situation, I guess."

Smiling again and the topic of a routine, Layla folded her arms over her middle as she watched him tidy up. "As long as your team is up for it, fine. I'd be more than happy to come back!"

"It's not as if I rally had a team right now. Not one that hangs out here, anyway."

Tim did spend enough time in the Cave and on the computers, but Dick didn't intend to hide that from him. Batman would probably mind random people in the Cave... but Batman wasn't here. And Layla would know where it was, even without Dick bringing her here.

"I'll tell Tim. He'll be okay with it." Or, more likely, he would say something but wouldn't stop Dick anyway. A few seconds went by that made him uncomfortable because he had no idea where this was going, now. But his attention had been driven away from anything important and that, for him, was considered a success.

"Do you wanna stay here? Or - we could go out again. To do something really cliché like getting ice cream."

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Yes, he is thinking that it's a good place for a date. Fffffffff. [INCOMPLETE]

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fffff I TRY FOR YOU, BABY, BECAUSE ILU

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