I've gotta get too drunk to dream | 'Cause dreaming only makes me blue

[mayhavepeace]

WHO: Stephanie Brown and Rikki Barnes
WHAT: Rikki's on patrol, Steph is drinking in the desert. They run into each other.
WHERE: The desert outside of T or C
WHEN: Tonight
WARNINGS: Drinking and swearing and more drinking
SUMMARY: The best way to cope ever is obviously drinking and bitching with a fellow superheroine.

Comments

[yousonofabat]

[ it's a funny thing, being the designated optimist in any given situation. It's a responsibility, a serious burden, because if you don't shed hope and optimism in all directions, everything around you starts falling apart. You're not allowed to despair, because you are an optimist. Steph knows that she doesn't get to feel heartbroken, doesn't get to brood, because if she stops being a hope beacon, Damian and Jason will lose it.

But she's only human. There are times when she hits a low point, when she has to squint hard to see a silver lining, when she seriously contemplates giving up. She just can't let anyone else see those tiny breakdowns. That's why she's laying on a dusty rock out in the middle of a stretch of nowhere, a half-finished bottle of coconut rum in her hands.

Steph watches the stars spin overhead. For all that it lacks, Truth or Consequences has more stars than she knew existed ]

[mayhavepeace]

[ Rikki sees someone alone, out in the desert, in the middle of nowhere, and- okay. Some habits are ingrained. Rikki walks over to the stranger and says ] Are you okay? [ before she realizes that the woman isn't a stranger after all. ]

[yousonofabat]

[ she's sober enough to hear her before she sees her, so she (thankfully) doesn't react. All those years spent dancing with bats has left her with some twitchy reflexes, and rum can dull only so many of them.

Steph gives her an enthusiastic thumbs up. ]

Peachy keen. Your implied offer of day-saving is appreciated, but unnecessary. Cross my heart.

[mayhavepeace]

You're the waffle lady, right? [ Rikki asks. ] I'm sorry, is that rude? I can't even tell anymore. [ Rikki grins. Who gives a damn about secret identities, really? She's never been a real stickler about them, anyway. ]