[Locked to Robin] backdating powers, activate!

[rattle_thecages]

There

He was

I don't want to

Not when everything's finally

Hey.

When you get home, do you think we can talk?

It's not--everything's okay.

Comments

[with_coffee]

Robin steps inside of the apartment feeling helplessly wary. She said that everything was alright, but all the scratched out phrases and the asking if they can talk... it doesn't feel reassuring in the least. He can't help but be worried. This is Chicago. They've been through a lot even something that still makes it 'alright' makes him feel wary and worried.

He's not leaving though. Robin takes in a deep breath. Whatever comes, they will face it together. He made that promise to her and to himself.

Come what may.

He shuts the door behind him and takes his coat off, putting it away before stepping into the apartment further.

[rattle_thecages]

He'll find her in her thinking spot in the bathroom. Rachel hadn't wanted to say anything at first, dreading how it would change things when they'd been nearly perfect for a good while now. It's only after deliberating on it, in that very same spot, she realized she couldn't keep doing that. Worrying about how he'd take bad news, how it might send him away, or hurt his progress.

She's giving him more credit than that.

"Hi," she pipes up a little hoarsely. Despite what she is feeling, Rachel looks very composed.

Come what may.

[with_coffee]

Robin walks into the bathroom and takes a seat on the side of the tub, next to her. He doesn't speak at first. The sight of her doesn't help to be more reassuring to him, not in the least. It's not sending him out the door either. He's not sure that anything would at this point.

He slips his hand into her hair against her cheek and then back further.

"Hello," he says softly and leans in to kiss her. It's quick, but sweet and laced with more meaning than he can put into words at the moment. There are too many worries on the edge of it all, waiting under his skin as he holds his breath and asks what he needs to know and what she needs to say. "What's happened?"

[rattle_thecages]

It's hard not to think about how Robin looked the moment she stepped out of that cab all those weeks ago, like she was breaking his heart into thousands of pieces.

It's very hard to look at him right now but Rachel doesn't bow her head at first. His hand on her neck is reassurance and strength. "I was--Rosie was out of food and I went to get some along with a few toys." She dropped that chew toy, somewhere along the way back home. A useless trip.

"I was leaving the store and--and then he was right there." Rachel bites down on her lip, letting her gaze fall to her knees, that are drawn to her chest. "Saying hello to me, mentioning how well I looked. As if we were old friends. As if he didn't just--steal me from the park one day and lock me up for seven of them."

[with_coffee]

It's hard not to remember how she looked when she stepped out of that cab as she finally begins to speak. There's anger as solid as the ground under his feet. It consumes him for a moment, and he has to remind himself that she has a handle on her powers or he'd pull his hand away to keep her from feeling it.

She doesn't have to say who. Of course, she doesn't. He knows immediately, and his free hand trembles helplessly with useless, floods of emotion that threaten to consume him but don't because he has a hand on her. She's there. She's solid, and this is about her as much as he'd like to hunt that man down and tear him from limb to limb that's not going to help her. And if it were that easy, someone would have done it by now.

"He didn't-" hurt you. Physically, he obviously did not because she wouldn't be here otherwise, and he closes his eyes tightly, pressing that trembling hand against his face for a moment and resisting the urge to pull her to him out of the water to be sure that that man left no marks on her body at least. "

[rattle_thecages]

Rachel doesn't have to get a read on his emotions to understand what he's feeling. Her sad eyes never leave his face as she waits for his reaction. When Robin presses his hand against his face, Rachel's own hand darts out to grab a hold of it. It is nearly impossible to be in the same room with him and not reach out. It's something more than instinct.

"He didn't," Rachel is quick and firm to assure him. It wasn't at all like last time, though the fact she defied that man when she should have just run still makes her shake slightly. It was a foolish move, but she hadn't been thinking.

She'd been feeling, remembering, hating.

"I hate him, Robin," she says, nails digging into her arms. Rachel's voice doesn't crack but it's a thin whisper. "I've always wanted to be above hating someone but I hate him so much."

[with_coffee]

Robin closes his eyes tighter when she presses her hand to his. He'd been trying to get a handle on those emotions so that he wouldn't encroach on her, because this moment is solely hers. He'll share it with her. He wants to help her and have her not worry about what's going on with him (he should know by now that that's impossible for either of them), and when he removes his hand from his face, he takes hers in his, presses a kiss against her knuckles, and squeezes gently.

He didn't.

Robin nods. There's that at least but he's so angry that that man talked to her again, that he should have said anything at all to her after everything, to act so nonchalantly playing with peoples lives like he is a god or the devil, himself

[rattle_thecages]

Rachel hadn't really noticed she'd been digging her nails into her arms, and is surprised when he pulls her hands away but she lets him. She looks up abruptly, vulnerable and open and afraid, something she has always been able to afford in his presence. She hadn't expected him to say anything at all, only needed to release the words that had been eating at her inside.

He kisses her and her body leans to it, almost by its own volition, and Rachel is reminded of all the reasons why she can't give up. Rachel kisses him back, and it's loving and gentle.

It doesn't make you any less of a person.. for hating him. It doesn't."It could. If I'm not careful and I'll be so careful," Rachel whispers to him when they break away, lips still hovering above his. "Hate can destroy a person if they're left alone with it and I am just like everyone else." She knows how a person can take their disappointed ideals and compulsion for justice and turn it into something else entirely

[with_coffee]

Robin sees all of that in her expression. It makes him think of the first time he realized that she wasn't that way with everyone when he saw her at the trial and even now when they're with their family. There's a difference for both of them in their interaction with each other when they're alone. And he's so grateful that for whatever reason she's able to be vulnerable around him.

Even if she gave up, he'd be with her still, and he understand now that the only place he could ever be is with her. To do anything else would be a betrayal to himself, to how it's supposed to be.

He nods when she speaks understanding intimately the destructive power of hate and anger though he hardly thinks she's just like everyone else. A fond expression takes hold of him because of her strength, how he loves and admires it. What she went through is nothing that he could go through and come back out the other side even remotely resembling himself.

"I wouldn't say you're just like everyone else, but... you're right. You usually are," he says. "And

[rattle_thecages]

She wouldn't be able to give him the reason why it's all happened the way it did, why he was able to tell her what he was when she found him in that hallway, why she is able to sit in front of him right now, naked and bare

[with_coffee]

"Only a very little," Robin says softly indicating with his fingers how little he means even if they both know that he's obviously incredibly biased. Robin says that doesn't make the way he feels about her and her character any less true though. A smile tugs at his lips as well at the look of the one on hers. "I'm still able to retain objectivity."

No, he doesn't understand why something like that could make all the difference. It's hard at least to understand why it coming from him makes all the difference, but if he can understand that he loves her and he understands how much her love and faith means to him... it's easier. Something like understanding hits him and a warmth flows over him as well

[rattle_thecages]

"A very little," she repeats after him in an amused murmur, using her thumb to widen the gap between his fingers to prove his bias is a bit more than a little. White bubbles cling to her wrist along with the rest of her. The bathtub really is a good thinking spot, and there is little more relaxing than a bubble bath though she's finding it is much better with his company. As if that wasn't obvious.

Rachel wouldn't hold his lack of understanding against him, not with what she knows and what he's lived. With love comes patience and acceptance. Her mother would always say that if someone doesn't know something, it is impossible to simply tell them and expect them to really know. They have to learn it for themselves along the way. As impatient as she can be, as easily frustrated as she is when others do not agree with her or see things in her own unbending way, she can wait for him. Somewhere after all their trials and their stories, she knows he will. She'll still feel that way even if he never does.

I'm glad I'll never lose you. "You

[with_coffee]

Robin laughs when she moves his fingers and doesn't deny it even if he still insists that his bias does not make what he says any less true. She's not ordinary. She's Rachel Dawes. If there were better words to describe her, he'd use them but they'd all fall short. If she'd mention that out loud, he'd insist that his presence makes everything better. Ahem.

He's starting to see things as she says them, at least he's found that she's right more often than she's not and certainly she's right more often than he is. Robin is glad that she's willing to wait for him even if it's going to take awhile for him to rewrite the way that he's been thinking for so long. He's willing to try and for so long he hadn't been willing to try, it means something.

I'm afraid you're stuck with me, buddy."Bloody hell," he mutters in a tone that sounds much more like wanting than like he's at all frustrated by this fact

[rattle_thecages]

"Bloody hell, bloody hell," Rachel mimics as best she can. She fails. "You British men and your bloody hells

[with_coffee]

Robin only laughs at her imitation. It's hilarious and cute, and yeah, it's pretty much a failed attempt at imitating a British accent, and he loves her for it... and for everything else. Obviously

[rattle_thecages]

For a minute, Rachel is content with just settling her chin on his shoulder blade and watching him as he laughs with a quiet smile on her face. He's beautiful. He is beautiful and she doesn't think she's been more in love with him than she is right there and then. She knows it can't always be like this. She doesn't expect it to, but God does it make the rest worth the while. Love isn't just laughter and lazy nights like this one.

Love is also holding on to him when he's going through a withdrawal. It's waking up late at night whenever he does when he can't be shaken from a nightmare, helping him find strength the days it deserts him. She'll do that, each and every time.

Rachel nods solemnly as he makes his argument, fingers working on the buttons of his shirt and lips trailing kisses along the jaw that he's so firmly locked. "Robin, how about we just stop talking now altogether?"

No one can ever say Rachel Dawes is not a take charge sort of woman.