tushanshu_logs | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Characters: Cassandra Cain and Bruce Wayne
Location: Cass's suite in Earth sector.
Situation: Familial bonding.
Warnings/Rating: G probably.

Cassandra leaves her windows open when she's there. (Not when she's home; this isn't home, not yet.) It makes her feel less contained, less confined. She's not a creature of caves any more.

A rose needs light to grow.

She's not afraid of who might crawl through; she has little reason to be. Besides, there are people here who are more than welcome to. It's like a silent invitation.

So she isn't particularly surprised, really, when Bruce slips into her room. She turns to him with a warm smile, eyebrows raised in quiet curiosity.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Do you want to be?"

Using the name isn't important. Dick still uses Grayson. And Tim uses Wayne only when he's acting as the Wayne heir in some official capacity. It's never been a requirement for him, but... he wouldn't object to Cassandra's use of it.

Cass bites her lip. Cain is - that's - well, it's his name, she only has it because -

She never uses it, not really.

Slowly, she nods. It would feel...good, to leave that name behind, and to take one that feels like hers. One that isn't just blood and nightmares.

"Yes."

"Then yes. You're Cassandra Wayne." He gathers up the paper and the pen, folds the former back down and tucks it back into the envelope. He sets them together, neatly, in front of them on the table.

"Welcome to the family."

Suddenly her eyes are burning, and she thrusts herself into his arms, throwing her own around his waist.

"Thank you," she murmurs into his chest.

Bruce-- sort of freezes at the sudden proximity, but he relaxes after a moment and rests one hand between her shoulder blades. It's sort of an awkward position in a chair, but Cassandra's tiny enough that it barely makes a difference.

"Don't thank me. You deserve this, Cassandra. You earned it."

She expected that, and she doesn't take it personally, just burrowing closer when he relaxes again.

Finally, she tilts her head up. Her cheeks are a bit damp.

"What about - out there?" What's the story?

It's one of the things Cassandra has always understood about him. Dick and Tim and even Jason could be resentful of his distance-- Cassandra simply accepts it. He wonders if her form of reading people helps. She knows the emotions are there, and knows equally as much how bad he is at showing them.

After a moment, that hand lifts to stroke her hair.

"It's difficult, with the foreigner population being so small, to protect our identities the same way we did back in Gotham. Honestly, it would be better if none of us ever spoke on the Network at all, or outside of our costumes." But the others have sort of... ran roughshod over that one, and Bruce honestly isn't sure if there's much point in maintaining any distance now, or if it would simply seem more suspicious.

"There isn't any point lying about it, however. You're my daughter, and if anyone tries to push you for more information than that, I'll deal with them. For the rest-- use your own judgement."

He's trying to trust that, in others. It's still hard to say. Not alone.

He'll repeat that in his mind as many times as he needs to for it to stick. After everything.

Cass closes her eyes, for a moment, head tilting into the touch. It's still - strange, sometimes, to be touched in ways that aren't violent. She always cherishes it.

Then she nods, meeting his gaze.

"Then I'm - Cassandra Wayne. To everyone." A giddy little smile curves her lips. She...likes that.

He mirrors the nod, still with a very faint smile to his expression. After what Cassandra has been through - not just at his point of time, but even in her own - he's... glad that he can give her this.

A pause.

"And Cassandra. If you want to know about my parents, ask." He won't lie and say it doesn't hurt. But-- some injuries can't be healed by simply sealing them away. His parents have been a source of darkness to him for so long, maybe it's time to honour their memories equally as much as he's affected by their death.

They would have liked Cassandra.

Her eyes go wide, and then her arms tighten around him again, as she rests her head on her chest.

"Thank you." It doesn't surprise her, that he knows; she'd sort of expected that.

After a few moments, she meets his eyes again. "Think they'd be...proud. Of who you are."

There are very few people he's never been able to hide his reactions from. He's been able to fool Clark in the past, even with his x-ray vision and super-hearing. He's fooled the fabric of his own mind, an Archivist from the end of time. He's bluffed gods and demons alike, but Cassandra-- she always knows better.

So while he stifles the full-body flinch that follows her words, he doubts she misses it. If it were anyone but Cassandra, that would be the end of this conversation.

But she's speaking from... a different place than most people he knows. Cassandra is so empty of deception that he has to take them as they're meant. Not an insult or a barb.

"Thank you."

He doesn't believe her. But on the heels of his offer, he's not going to shut her down when she's... only trying to say something she thinks he'd like to hear.

Cass frowns, staring up at him with clear concern. He doesn't believe her, because - oh.

"Wouldn't want you - to be perfect." She knows he tries to be. Knows that's why he pushes everyone else so hard.

She pulls back a little, so she can place a hand on his chest.

"I think...they'd want - good. From you. And - " And he does so much of it, he has so much of it, even when he doesn't see.

"You are." Her voice is very intent as she stares up at him. She's not trying to make him feel better, or to repay him for what he's done. She's simply telling him what she believes, what she knows.

Bruce is perfectly still as she speaks. He loves his parents. Even now, though they've been dead for more of his life than they were alive. He wanted to fight crime for them. For all the people who were helpless against it, for all the children who had to grow up without their parents, all the parents who had to live on after the loss of a child.

Bruce wants vengeance for his parents. Vengeance and justice both.

But he pushes himself to be perfect not for their memories or ghosts, but for the people around him, the people who need him to be perfect. Who rely on his being so. People like Cassandra, and Damian and Dick and Tim and --

Jason.

Whom he's failed once before, for want of perfection.

There are many times when Bruce refrains from speech, but few when he's actually speechless. This is one of those times. So he says nothing, merely meets her gaze and nods, just slightly.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only