pick one (hawkgirl/batman)
Pick One
Fandom: Justice League Unlimited
Pairing: Shayera Hol (Hawkgirl)/Bruce Wayne (Batman)
Rating: PG
Warnings: None.
Summary: Surprise, surprise, she's going through another day.
Surprises these days are no longer pleasant to her. they are filled with only more dismay than she had yesterday. Her heart pumps with silent grief and undetected anticipation through the weeks. It's come with only more sorrow than she has ever expected. The wings on her back seem much heavier than the days before and she cannot stop that.
However, she doesn't notice these patterns. There are lives to save and bad guys to extinguish constantly. Time to stop and observe her past has taken the life out of her before and she busies herself to prevent further hurt.
But, apparently, someone else has time. Seemingly, he's always had time. His masked eyes glance over her once and she knows he can read her gestures, her mind. It's never occurred to her that he may tell her anything about how she treats her days in near solitude (isolation, actually). Her feet hardly touch the ground anymore; she's too busy with duties, things she likes to call good work. Debts, she has yet to repay, cloud her mind and she's sure he knows that part of her. But, really, it doesn't cross her mind that maybe he would say anything about it.
The day he does, they sit together in a JLU vehicle, the others talking too loudly to notice them. A mission to Nigeria has brought them together, but she has to painfully admit to herself that she doesn't care--just as long as it takes thoughts of betrayal, lost friends and loneliness away.
What compels her to say anything at all is still unknown to her, but her words fall through her lips quietly nonetheless. A hand under her chin and staring out the window, she watches the desert sand in the distance as they drive by.
"It's different now," she says softly, thinking again of the past.
She doesn't expect him to answer, but he does anyway.
"We're different now," Bruce returns just as quietly.
Her gaze lifts to his briefly. She'd like to think the man in the mask gives her a small smile before he turns his face away. With a waning smile of her own, she remembers that they really had changed through these years and, maybe, that's a good thing. Somehow, that makes it better.
And she thinks how nice it is to be included within that word 'we'.
A nice surprise.
--
fin.
--
I miss Shayera.