[flashfic] BoP
Fandom: Birds of Prey
Characters: Barbara and a helper
Words: 1469
Notes: Spoilers for One Year Later arcs and revelations. I was going to write Babs and Cass have a conversation during One Year Later, but instead, this happened. Extremely unlikely to ever happen. =D
There was a crash, a small explosion of dust, and then a fit of coughing. Barbara pivoted around in concern just in time to see a teenager stumble around the corner from the direction of her storage closet, one hand waving at the air, the other covering her mouth, and still coughing enough to hack up a lung at any moment.
“Jeez, Babs,” the teen wheezed out, “don’t you ever do any spring cleaning around here?”
Barbara smothered a grin and opted for a smirk, moving towards the kitchen to fetch a glass of water. “You’re the one who wanted to go through my stuff, Sin.”
Sin cleared her throat and wiped at her tearing eyes, leaving smudge trails across her cheeks. “In exchange for-ahem, ah-helping you sort it out. But if I’d known how bad it would be, I wouldn’t have agreed.” Standing at her elbow, Sin smiled sardonically down at the redhead.
Barbara did grin at that and handed her a glass of water. Sin took it gratefully with a small thank you. Barbara fetched a clean hand towel and ran it under the faucet, then traded it for the empty glass when Sin finished drinking. The teen mopped at her face, revealing rosy cheeks that had lost their baby fat, bright, almond eyes, and a quick grin.
There was a vivacity and cheerfulness about the teen that reminded Barbara instantly of Dinah.
“Anyway,” Sin said and reached behind her to pluck something out of the waistband of her jeans, “look what I found.”
Grinning enough to almost split her face, Sin held up and waved a small figurine back and forth. It was an older toy crafted with a decent likeness: blond hair, black bustier, black jacket, black heeled boots, black choker, fishnets, and all the posable attitude possible in an action figure.
Black Canary.
Barbara made to snatch it from the teen, but Sin merely held the toy up over her head. A growth spurt had added inches to the girl’s height and while she wasn’t yet taller than Dinah, Barbara would have to lever herself out of the chair to even be within reach of the figurine. Not to mention that Sin was quick as a snake and almost as slithery.
Barbara relented and simply sat back in her chair and crossed her arms. Sin took the toy by its arms and made it dance in the air. “You know, I think M-Dinah was talking about these the other day. I was cleaning out her closet-” Barbara laughed, “-and found three of these things, only they were in another costume. She nearly had a heart attack when I showed her.”
Barbara, still laughing, only shook her head. When she’d calmed down, she said, “I remember the day she bought those.”
Sin snuck a look at her through lowered lashes. “Dinah says you don’t forget anything.”
“I don’t,” Barbara agreed softly.
A slow smile spread across Sin’s lips. “Then do you remember that M-Dinah could only buy those three because all the others ones were sold out?”
“Maybe I remember her saying something like that,” Barbara said slowly, smiling gamely as she wheeled back out of the kitchen and towards her consoles. Sin trailed behind her and then made herself at home on one of Barbara’s desks, perilously close to a scanner-not that Sin might have known that, considering that the scanner looked like little more than a flat panel.
“Watch where you sit,” Barbara scolded her lightly. Sin blinked and then scooted towards her an inch, actually away from the scanner to Barbara’s relief. She turned the toy in her hands as Barbara returned to the news story she had been following before Sin had made a demolition site of her closet.
“M-Dinah doesn’t want me to be Black Canary,” Sin said softly after a minute or two. Barbara stilled and then leaned back in her seat to regard the teen. She was staring intently at the action figure, her dark, shoulder-length hair falling forward to obscure her face. Not enough that Barbara couldn’t see the slight pout on Sin’s lips.
Oddly, the sight reminded Barbara of the first few months Sin had been in the States, young and excited and still learning English, her face just another tool of expression as she struggled to get all her thoughts across to them. There were no pouts then. The pouting had come later, Barbara remembered, when Dinah had been unsure whether or not to cultivate Sin’s martial prowess.
To Dinah’s surprise, Sin had been proud of her skill and had been upset when it seemed that Dinah didn’t feel the same. It had been one of the first rough patches of their new life together.
Dinah had been distraught. Ignoring the knot of uncertainty in her gut, Barbara had simply said, “You knew what she was capable of before bringing her here, Dinah. You knew, or at least had an idea of, what you would be dealing with. Can you, having lived the life you have, treat her any differently than how you were?”
And Dinah had given her a look of anguish and Barbara had understood that a part of her friend didn’t want the life that she had had for the little girl. But Sin wasn’t like any child Dinah could have prepared for. Barbara had hugged her friend then, tightly and reassuringly, and the next she had heard about the situation, Dinah had assessed Sin’s martial knowledge and skills. Her considerable knowledge and skill.
If she said that it hadn’t scared her at least a little, Barbara would have been lying.
But it had turned out well, especially once Sin had gotten exposure to other children her age and, even better, other children with similar circumstances, like Lian Harper.
Barbara had been expecting this to happen sooner or later, though. She regarded Sin carefully now, aware that however old Sin was in her knowledge of violence, she was still a young woman with the same doubts, uncertainties, dreams, and reckless sense of invincibility as most teenagers.
Barbara considered her words. “Do you want to be Black Canary?”
Sin’s eyebrows furrowed, as if the question confused her. “Yes. I....” She made a fist. “I want to be like M-Dinah. I want to help people like she does. Did.”
“There are other ways to help people, Sin,” Barbara said gently.
“But I have this,” she held up her fist. “It’s what I know, Auntie.”
Barbara tried not to sigh. There’d been rumors recently about a new vigilante….
“I heard Dinah and Uncle Roy talking the other day. I heard them mention Shiva.”
Lady Shiva.
Not Sandra Woosan.
The new one.
Sin wouldn’t look her in the eye.
Barbara fought off a sudden weight of sadness and placed a hand atop Sin’s. “She’s not your responsibility, Sin.” The teenager didn’t move. “Sweetie, look at me.” Sin grudgingly raised her eyes. “You don’t have to prove anything to anyone. And Dinah doesn’t want you to be Black Canary because she cares about you and doesn’t want to see you get hurt. Especially not since you’re so young-”
“Hey!” Sin objected and sat up straighter.
“-and not even done growing yet,” Barbara continued unabated. She reached up and stroked Sin’s hair. “All of us know you’re amazing. You can do whatever you want to do-when you’re old enough.”
“Even work for you?” Sin asked warily.
Barbara swallowed her laughter and smiled. “Maybe one day. But not without Dinah’s permission and certainly not without training.”
Sin pouted.
“Promise me you won’t do anything rash without telling anyone?” Barbara asked, ducking her head to look the teenager in the eye.
Sin pressed her lips together but then relaxed. “Okay. I won’t. Promise.” She slid off the table. “For now.”
Barbara let that slip.
“I should go clean up the mess I made of your closet,” Sin said, setting the Black Canary figurine on the desktop, posed authoritatively with her hands on her hips. She started to turn away and then stopped, reaching into her back pocket to pull out a wad of black cloth. “Oh, I found this, too.”
Barbara blinked and then bit back a small gasp when Sin unfolded it.
It was her cowl.
Barbara contemplated it and then met Sin’s eyes. “Were you planning on asking me to be Batgirl if Dinah never lets you be Black Canary?”
Mischief danced in those brown eyes. “Actually… could I borrow this for Halloween?”
Laughter escaped Barbara’s lips before she could stop it.
They’d been fortunate, Barbara thought as she waved the grinning teenager off with a show of feigned impatience, fortunate that Dinah and Sin had found each other… and she lucky to have them both.
Characters: Barbara and a helper
Words: 1469
Notes: Spoilers for One Year Later arcs and revelations. I was going to write Babs and Cass have a conversation during One Year Later, but instead, this happened. Extremely unlikely to ever happen. =D
There was a crash, a small explosion of dust, and then a fit of coughing. Barbara pivoted around in concern just in time to see a teenager stumble around the corner from the direction of her storage closet, one hand waving at the air, the other covering her mouth, and still coughing enough to hack up a lung at any moment.
“Jeez, Babs,” the teen wheezed out, “don’t you ever do any spring cleaning around here?”
Barbara smothered a grin and opted for a smirk, moving towards the kitchen to fetch a glass of water. “You’re the one who wanted to go through my stuff, Sin.”
Sin cleared her throat and wiped at her tearing eyes, leaving smudge trails across her cheeks. “In exchange for-ahem, ah-helping you sort it out. But if I’d known how bad it would be, I wouldn’t have agreed.” Standing at her elbow, Sin smiled sardonically down at the redhead.
Barbara did grin at that and handed her a glass of water. Sin took it gratefully with a small thank you. Barbara fetched a clean hand towel and ran it under the faucet, then traded it for the empty glass when Sin finished drinking. The teen mopped at her face, revealing rosy cheeks that had lost their baby fat, bright, almond eyes, and a quick grin.
There was a vivacity and cheerfulness about the teen that reminded Barbara instantly of Dinah.
“Anyway,” Sin said and reached behind her to pluck something out of the waistband of her jeans, “look what I found.”
Grinning enough to almost split her face, Sin held up and waved a small figurine back and forth. It was an older toy crafted with a decent likeness: blond hair, black bustier, black jacket, black heeled boots, black choker, fishnets, and all the posable attitude possible in an action figure.
Black Canary.
Barbara made to snatch it from the teen, but Sin merely held the toy up over her head. A growth spurt had added inches to the girl’s height and while she wasn’t yet taller than Dinah, Barbara would have to lever herself out of the chair to even be within reach of the figurine. Not to mention that Sin was quick as a snake and almost as slithery.
Barbara relented and simply sat back in her chair and crossed her arms. Sin took the toy by its arms and made it dance in the air. “You know, I think M-Dinah was talking about these the other day. I was cleaning out her closet-” Barbara laughed, “-and found three of these things, only they were in another costume. She nearly had a heart attack when I showed her.”
Barbara, still laughing, only shook her head. When she’d calmed down, she said, “I remember the day she bought those.”
Sin snuck a look at her through lowered lashes. “Dinah says you don’t forget anything.”
“I don’t,” Barbara agreed softly.
A slow smile spread across Sin’s lips. “Then do you remember that M-Dinah could only buy those three because all the others ones were sold out?”
“Maybe I remember her saying something like that,” Barbara said slowly, smiling gamely as she wheeled back out of the kitchen and towards her consoles. Sin trailed behind her and then made herself at home on one of Barbara’s desks, perilously close to a scanner-not that Sin might have known that, considering that the scanner looked like little more than a flat panel.
“Watch where you sit,” Barbara scolded her lightly. Sin blinked and then scooted towards her an inch, actually away from the scanner to Barbara’s relief. She turned the toy in her hands as Barbara returned to the news story she had been following before Sin had made a demolition site of her closet.
“M-Dinah doesn’t want me to be Black Canary,” Sin said softly after a minute or two. Barbara stilled and then leaned back in her seat to regard the teen. She was staring intently at the action figure, her dark, shoulder-length hair falling forward to obscure her face. Not enough that Barbara couldn’t see the slight pout on Sin’s lips.
Oddly, the sight reminded Barbara of the first few months Sin had been in the States, young and excited and still learning English, her face just another tool of expression as she struggled to get all her thoughts across to them. There were no pouts then. The pouting had come later, Barbara remembered, when Dinah had been unsure whether or not to cultivate Sin’s martial prowess.
To Dinah’s surprise, Sin had been proud of her skill and had been upset when it seemed that Dinah didn’t feel the same. It had been one of the first rough patches of their new life together.
Dinah had been distraught. Ignoring the knot of uncertainty in her gut, Barbara had simply said, “You knew what she was capable of before bringing her here, Dinah. You knew, or at least had an idea of, what you would be dealing with. Can you, having lived the life you have, treat her any differently than how you were?”
And Dinah had given her a look of anguish and Barbara had understood that a part of her friend didn’t want the life that she had had for the little girl. But Sin wasn’t like any child Dinah could have prepared for. Barbara had hugged her friend then, tightly and reassuringly, and the next she had heard about the situation, Dinah had assessed Sin’s martial knowledge and skills. Her considerable knowledge and skill.
If she said that it hadn’t scared her at least a little, Barbara would have been lying.
But it had turned out well, especially once Sin had gotten exposure to other children her age and, even better, other children with similar circumstances, like Lian Harper.
Barbara had been expecting this to happen sooner or later, though. She regarded Sin carefully now, aware that however old Sin was in her knowledge of violence, she was still a young woman with the same doubts, uncertainties, dreams, and reckless sense of invincibility as most teenagers.
Barbara considered her words. “Do you want to be Black Canary?”
Sin’s eyebrows furrowed, as if the question confused her. “Yes. I....” She made a fist. “I want to be like M-Dinah. I want to help people like she does. Did.”
“There are other ways to help people, Sin,” Barbara said gently.
“But I have this,” she held up her fist. “It’s what I know, Auntie.”
Barbara tried not to sigh. There’d been rumors recently about a new vigilante….
“I heard Dinah and Uncle Roy talking the other day. I heard them mention Shiva.”
Lady Shiva.
Not Sandra Woosan.
The new one.
Sin wouldn’t look her in the eye.
Barbara fought off a sudden weight of sadness and placed a hand atop Sin’s. “She’s not your responsibility, Sin.” The teenager didn’t move. “Sweetie, look at me.” Sin grudgingly raised her eyes. “You don’t have to prove anything to anyone. And Dinah doesn’t want you to be Black Canary because she cares about you and doesn’t want to see you get hurt. Especially not since you’re so young-”
“Hey!” Sin objected and sat up straighter.
“-and not even done growing yet,” Barbara continued unabated. She reached up and stroked Sin’s hair. “All of us know you’re amazing. You can do whatever you want to do-when you’re old enough.”
“Even work for you?” Sin asked warily.
Barbara swallowed her laughter and smiled. “Maybe one day. But not without Dinah’s permission and certainly not without training.”
Sin pouted.
“Promise me you won’t do anything rash without telling anyone?” Barbara asked, ducking her head to look the teenager in the eye.
Sin pressed her lips together but then relaxed. “Okay. I won’t. Promise.” She slid off the table. “For now.”
Barbara let that slip.
“I should go clean up the mess I made of your closet,” Sin said, setting the Black Canary figurine on the desktop, posed authoritatively with her hands on her hips. She started to turn away and then stopped, reaching into her back pocket to pull out a wad of black cloth. “Oh, I found this, too.”
Barbara blinked and then bit back a small gasp when Sin unfolded it.
It was her cowl.
Barbara contemplated it and then met Sin’s eyes. “Were you planning on asking me to be Batgirl if Dinah never lets you be Black Canary?”
Mischief danced in those brown eyes. “Actually… could I borrow this for Halloween?”
Laughter escaped Barbara’s lips before she could stop it.
They’d been fortunate, Barbara thought as she waved the grinning teenager off with a show of feigned impatience, fortunate that Dinah and Sin had found each other… and she lucky to have them both.