Also, the Clock Tower is here. And fully kitted out. Southernmost-middle island.
[ But she has priorities, okay, and one of them is child!Bruce complaining to Damian about everyone avoiding him and then turning down anyone who shows up choosing him, or Batman, first and foremost, too. In every universe, Bruce's dramatics are exhausting.
[ They can't make him want to be a part of any of this; not just their family, but their work. Whether he understands it or not — he doesn't — it doesn't change the facts of what they're working with.
But her second message makes him smile, even through his misgivings about the first. ]
[Unless you're turning me down, too is the flippant responses in the back her mind, but it never meets the back of her throat or her lips. Because. She'll never have to question his answer to that same question, and he'll never evade answering it like a sullen teenager. (There's only one reason to evade the answer. To never be out there, in all black, helping or even just avenging those doing the hurting.) Dick Grayson will always choose to save the people around him, no matter where he is. That's who he is—and not singularly universal since his other version was out there with them destroying dolls and fighting off snakes, too.
(Same with the other Clark. And the other Barry. And...)
Barbara lets her head rest back on the chair, and unlike anyone else so far, she leaves the channel open instead of flipping it to mute between her responses. ]
As though I could keep you out of here for long.
Nothing much is set up or even cleaned up, except for the computers.
[ There's a long silence on the other end of the line that isn't complete silence — it never is, not with them. The times they've shut each other out completely are not only too painful to repeat, but too stupid an idea in their current situation. Nothing gets solved by shutting themselves away, by refusing to speak or listen.
So he listens as she breathes, as she thinks on the other end of the line, and waits to hear which topic she'll pick back up again. Both of them important to their life and work here, but only one where they get to choose how to move forward. Where she does. The Clocktower is her nest, after all, hers and the Birds.
There's some slight relief at the direction she chooses, when she does; a lessening of tension, a lightening of the Bruce-shaped shadow that lurks there in the back of his head. ]
Well, my going rate for moving services is still pizza and beer. I'm a believer in the classics.
[ And there's the complication, right on schedule. Damian doesn't have the Teen Titans here to work with, even if he's starting to cooperate with some of the other younger inhabitants here. His focus is on Bruce, on helping him and keeping an eye on him, as if he's the parent and Bruce is the child.
But he won't move away, and even if he did, he doesn't want to live with Dick and Barbara.
Every day, Dick wonders if he's doing the right thing by leaving Damian with Bruce, instead of trying to get him to come stay with him, with them. Maybe he's just making his same mistakes all over again. ]
You know I'll go where you go. Doesn't mean we can't keep the other apartment. And the Clock Tower has more space than the apartment does... he might be more willing to stay there, sometimes.
[ For Damian. And, after everything that happened earlier. It's weird that the manor is only Tim in the boat house and Damian's pets. Something about the manor sitting there all but empty, and definitely without an adult attached to it, feels wrong, too; Tim and Damian alone out there. The Tower hasn't ever been an option. Return overtures are not on the table. Haven't been for months now. ]
Room for him. For the girls?
For Dinah?
[ Her tone isn't serious yet. It's speculative. Working the edges of a problem like it's a chessboard to be studied before a piece moved, more than a fact she's at the heart of already. She's staring up at the ceiling, not staring at it at all, thinking through the people here. Thinking of who their closest people are. Thinking of the Birds, the Kids. (That it's a lot more people underfoot. Even if there are several floors to this place, and she'd never turn her back or close a door on any of them.)
Do they ask Tim at this point, too?
Bring him in from the cold of an empty mausoleum? She didn't ask for this. But it doesn't mean she won't step up. ]
I'm sure if people want to stay there, we'll have plenty of room. But they're mostly doing just fine on their own. It's not a big city.
[ This isn't the Titans, where they all lived together because they all needed to be available at a moment's notice as a team instead of individuals. And Dinah and the other Birds didn't stay in the Clocktower before. ]
[ Barbara narrows her eyes at the screen as though Dick's face could be right there in the middle of it to see her scrutinous rebellion as her first reaction to being told to breathe. But her lips press, holding her first words back. And then. A second held, she lets her shoulders and head fall back against the chair.
(But that's part of why he was second, right? The complicated network of both directions.)
There's more frown than resignation in the response, but there's more of the second than she wants to give a name to. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
2 of 2
Southernmost-middle island.
[ But she has priorities, okay, and one of them is child!Bruce complaining to Damian about everyone avoiding him
and then turning down anyone who shows up choosing him, or Batman, first and foremost, too.
In every universe, Bruce's dramatics are exhausting.
(Yes. Of course. She's taking it personally.) ]
no subject
[ They can't make him want to be a part of any of this; not just their family, but their work. Whether he understands it or not — he doesn't — it doesn't change the facts of what they're working with.
But her second message makes him smile, even through his misgivings about the first. ]
That an invitation?
no subject
(Same with the other Clark. And the other Barry. And...)
Barbara lets her head rest back on the chair, and unlike anyone else so far,
she leaves the channel open instead of flipping it to mute between her responses. ]
As though I could keep you out of here for long.
Nothing much is set up or even cleaned up,
except for the computers.
no subject
So he listens as she breathes, as she thinks on the other end of the line, and waits to hear which topic she'll pick back up again. Both of them important to their life and work here, but only one where they get to choose how to move forward. Where she does. The Clocktower is her nest, after all, hers and the Birds.
There's some slight relief at the direction she chooses, when she does; a lessening of tension, a lightening of the Bruce-shaped shadow that lurks there in the back of his head. ]
Well, my going rate for moving services is still pizza and beer. I'm a believer in the classics.
no subject
She doesn't even try to cover it.
How is it he can always make her smile?
Against it being the last thing she'd consider.
Something else ineffibly Dick Grayson. ]
You really are such a cheap date.
[ Barely a beat. Then. ]
Should we?
Move.
[ She looks at the ceiling.
She can't deny the want.
Even under all the dust.
Even if it shouldn't be here.
But. ]
It's further from the tower.
[ And even if they are doing this without Batman,
that's where Damian is.
Not all that far,
one island at most,
but still further away. ]
no subject
But he won't move away, and even if he did, he doesn't want to live with Dick and Barbara.
Every day, Dick wonders if he's doing the right thing by leaving Damian with Bruce, instead of trying to get him to come stay with him, with them. Maybe he's just making his same mistakes all over again. ]
You know I'll go where you go. Doesn't mean we can't keep the other apartment. And the Clock Tower has more space than the apartment does... he might be more willing to stay there, sometimes.
no subject
[ For Damian. And, after everything that happened earlier. It's weird that the manor is only Tim in the boat house and Damian's pets. Something about the manor sitting there all but empty, and definitely without an adult attached to it, feels wrong, too; Tim and Damian alone out there. The Tower hasn't ever been an option. Return overtures are not on the table. Haven't been for months now. ]
Room for him. For the girls?
For Dinah?
[ Her tone isn't serious yet. It's speculative. Working the edges of a problem like it's a chessboard to be studied before a piece moved, more than a fact she's at the heart of already. She's staring up at the ceiling, not staring at it at all, thinking through the people here. Thinking of who their closest people are. Thinking of the Birds, the Kids. (That it's a lot more people underfoot. Even if there are several floors to this place, and she'd never turn her back or close a door on any of them.)
Do they ask Tim at this point, too?
Bring him in from the cold of an empty mausoleum?
She didn't ask for this. But it doesn't mean she won't step up. ]
no subject
[ Might as well tell fish not to swim, but— ]
I'm sure if people want to stay there, we'll have plenty of room. But they're mostly doing just fine on their own. It's not a big city.
[ This isn't the Titans, where they all lived together because they all needed to be available at a moment's notice as a team instead of individuals. And Dinah and the other Birds didn't stay in the Clocktower before. ]
no subject
(But that's part of why he was second, right?
The complicated network of both directions.)
There's more frown than resignation in the response,
but there's more of the second than she wants
to give a name to. ]
We figure it out as it comes, hm?