Yet Another Drabble. Lol

A/N: I just... It's been quite a day... Sometimes, you encounter people that put on a show for others. They want what they want when they want it and will treat you however they want when they can't have it. Then, at times, you come across people that just hate you for no reason and there's nothing you can do to appease them. Sometimes, you learn that the best thing to do is give it up...

Also, I'm listening to BTS' Fake Love while writing this so... I don't know. I just hope everything makes sense. I actually want a clean instrumental because that like electric guitar/bass gets to me...

Another rainy night in Gotham and she was, yet again, enjoying the city’s silence. She was feeling good. The rain was lighter than it had been a few nights ago. It was presently early evening and her apartment was quieter than usual. That meant that Princess was curled up fast asleep somewhere. As for Nikko, he’d been going out lately. Not really on a regular but enough to cause attention. She didn’t bother him about it though. As long as he was comfortable and wasn’t afraid, she wouldn’t hold him back from exploring.

Stretched out on the bed, she stared at the ceiling. Flashbacks of what it was like to be in Arkham for as many years as she had been were flooding through her again. She wanted to forget those years but it was hard to do, not that it was surprising. It had been torture in a way, namely because she was never supposed to be there, having been charged for a crime she didn’t commit. She can’t deny that it was because, although she had a clean record, she didn’t have any records at all. It would be safe to consider her a child born on the outskirts of the system. She never asked her parents about any of the details, finding that they wouldn’t really change anything. It wouldn’t have gotten her off the hook in not receiving a sentence.

Getting up from the bed, she set out some food and water for Princess before getting herself ready to step out for a while. She got on an olive slip dress and her black combat boots, grabbing a tan trench coat that reached down to the middle of her calves. Running her fingers through her hair, she made sure she had her keys, wallet, and phone before calling to Princess that she would be back later and then leaving.

It wasn’t too long after she left that the rain had stopped, the city building up its nighttime revival again. Glancing up at the sky, the clouds were going away, not that there were many left now. The stars were already showing in the sky, only to quickly be dimmed by the lights of Gotham coming alive. She smiled softly, a hint of sadness as she missed the stars already.

Continuing to walk, she would occasionally look up at the sky. As she began to see the stars again, she knew she was in the right area. It never felt like a long walk to Crime Alley but she wasn’t sure how long she’d been walking anyway. She always found herself taking the walk when she wasn’t in a focused mindset, yet she could always reach her destination without getting lost.

She doesn't need to be told that he's watching her. She doesn't want to acknowledge his existence but she knows that if she continues to ignore him, he won't get the hint and just go away. It's her fault for thinking it was okay to be on this side of town. She'd spent so many years in Crime Alley trying to make it, hopping around from home to home, especially while her mother was still hiding her from her father. She can remember the stench of the streets even when she's back home, the sight of trash lining the streets making the neighborhood look abandoned even though it holds quite a decent amount of inhabitants. Residents wouldn't at all be the right word. The buildings are all condemned and so what's left of the utilities in the buildings is what's available for any sort of self-care.

She kicks at the empty trash can in front of her before looking over her shoulder, light brown eyes boring into the figure behind her. He stops walking and his eyes meet hers. She doesn't have anything really in her pocket that could be used as a weapon but she sees no problem using her keys. From her knowledge, they could definitely work if she were to need a quick defense.

"You look so tense," he speaks up, frowning even, "You probably don't remember me."

As he grows closer, she sighs. She never learned his name but his appearance is still the same except the fact that what hair he has left has turned white. He's pale enough to be mistaken for a ghost, or, you know, dead, especially with the white locks he dons, including his facial hair He's never been a stocky man but, surprisingly enough, he's never seemed unhealthily underweight. There's dirt under his nails and he looks scruffy all over but presentable. He doesn't have a smell or anything, he never has.

"Where you're wife?"

"She's around here somewhere," he sighs, looking truly sad at the thought of her.

"Are you both well...?"

He looks at her as though he has many things he wants to say but he just puts on a smile. She's used to the creepy and needy ones from her father but this is by far one smile that's made her the uneasiest she's ever been.

"She doesn't love me."

She blinks, adjusting the way she stands and releasing her hold some on the keys in her pocket. She wants to hug him but she knows that she shouldn't. Not yet anyway.

"Why do you think that? How can you tell?"

"Sometimes... You just know. Have you ever just...loved someone," he pauses, looks her over and his laugh sounds like one of a grandfather happy as he tells his grandkids about a warm memory from his youth, "Even if you haven't loved someone, if you've adored them... But, after some time, you felt like you couldn't recognize who you were anymore..."

"Is that one of those 'it's not you, it's me' kind of things?"

He nods, sad smile on his lips again before he's looking up at the sky, "Your mother would like to see you, Ailee."

"I'm going to go see her now," she manages to return his smile with a faint one of her own, concern hiding in her features though.

"Be careful giving yourself to someone, partially or fully. You're like a granddaughter to me, you know? You're worth so much... So much more than even those kids back in school used to make of you."

She can't say that she's surprised he remembered that but she also can't say that she's glad he remembers that. The days when she did change herself to fit in, wearing her uniform for Gotham Preparatory Academy and just wishing that the bullying would stop. She wraps her arms around herself, remembering the names they'd call her and the ways they'd hit her and jump her as though she wasn't even a person.

The young blonde froze as she felt arms wrap around her. She holds onto him, closing her eyes and relaxing in the warm, familiar hold. When she breaks away, he's still smiling but he seems more at ease now.

"Thank you for listening to an old man."

"Clean yourself up some, grandpa. You don't need her," she nods, her smile reflecting in her eyes, "You have places to go and things to do."

"Maybe one day I'll get myself back to the other side of town. Until then, I'll see you around."

"I'll see you around."

She watches him go and then tries to find her own rhythm in walking but her feet only carry her but so far before she finds herself stopping where she is, arms wrapping around herself again. Staring at the ground, things just don't feel right and she's having trouble putting the pieces together for some reason before it just sort of clicks and some of the knots in her stomach loosen. She's got Damien on the brain again and she knows why.

She isn't sure what it is about him.

Maybe it's the fact that she went to Gotham Prep with him and remembers what it was like to be schoolmates with him. Honestly, there's a chance they would've gotten along much better then than they do now. She wouldn't be feeling like she is now. It has a lot to do with the conversation she just had but she's realizing it now that maybe, just maybe, she's pretending to be someone she's not with him. Grandpa wouldn't know that but maybe he would. Her mother would know, too.

Inhaling slowly and deeply and exhaling just the same, she was walking again, a weak smile on her lips but her steps felt lighter.

Maybe she'd finally figured out just what had been weighing on her shoulders.

A/N: If you want to come and join the Gotham that I (mentally) reside in, come visit us and help create that particular universe. We'd love to have you.

(Here >> We Could Be Heroes. [Gotham City RP] [OPEN AND ACCEPTING || Internationals EXTREMELY Welcome] << )

Thank you for reading!

Have a wonderful day/evening wherever you are. And remember that, no matter where you, who you are, you are loved. ♡