bittybat | (no subject)

[ Thankfully, this isn't her first rodeo, and this time, she has advice-- rather than going from a frigid ice palace to an equally frigid harbor. This won't even be as bad, she tells herself, though once she hits the water, Kisa has to force herself to not immediately gasp or suck in air.

She does that instead when her head breaks the surface, followed by a cough as she treads water.

It's... still really unpleasant, but maybe if she can make it back to the dock before Damian gets fussy and hauls her out himself--

Wishful thinking. ]

[Very wishful.

Damian is immediately at the edge of the dock as she flies through the air, and he's there for sure when she lands. He doesn't hesitate. He jumps straight in by the dock, feet-first, with little splash and almost no sign he got in literal ice water.

He grabs her arm, grip firm, holds her up as he breathes forcefully in and out against the painfully clenching chill. Even at thirteen, it's easy for him to lift her up with one arm and toward the edge of the dock so she can grab in, and then he'll push her legs to get her out.]

[ Well, he sure kept his word, and Kisa stays closemouthed against any type of protest she might want to actually voice. Instead, she manages to get back onto the deck through their combined efforts, where she immediately crawls back enough to give him room to haul himself up, shivering and going for the blankets. ]

[Once she's up, he latches to the edge and does the same, hauling himself onto the dock. He moves as if he isn't frozen to the bone, though he shivers uncontrollably out of reflex.]

Wait--

[He goes to grab the clothes he removed; in the end, they weren't for him. He drops them near her but out of the way of water, and then he moves to get a blanket and, like... hold it up to shield her?]

Take off your outer clothes. Sitting in them wet is dangerous. Put those on.

[He'll wait, and then he'll drop the blanket around her once she's finished.]

[ DAMIAN... ]

Wait... y-y-you're the one without a shirt!

[ Though, as it's Damian, she does eventually comply, and once she's dressed a little more similarly to him and the blanket's around her, she's reaching down to pick up the other blanket and press it into his hands. ]

I'm fine.

[But he does accept the blanket, looping it over his shoulders and bunching it around him. He sits down with legs crossed, makes her sit down if she isn't already. He takes her legs and draws them over his knee, rubbing them and her feet briskly through the blanket.]

Rub your arms. Your extremities lose heat first to protect your organs. But it will give you frostbite or, worse, dead appendages.

When you aren't numb, we're going to make a fire.

[ This... is more than a little embarrassing, but Kisa's warming face means she's not shivering quite as hard, even before she obeys and starts briskly rubbing her palms over her arms. ]

Damian... y-you really always put me first...

Tt.

[It's more of an exasperated sigh than a scoff. He keeps rubbing her legs and feet through the blanket to try to get them warm and keep the blood circulating where it should.]

Don't get ahead of yourself. It's... [God. On one hand, he is too tired to care about secrecy anymore in this place. On the other, he doesn't want to say.] ...my job.

... Your job?

[ She shifts one leg, head slowly tilting in perplexity. What kind of 13-year-old has a job? ]

Yes. Back home, my job is to... protect others. [Wow, how is he going to explain this without explaining it.] To make sure they're safe from criminals.

Like... a police officer.

... But why is that your job? Don't you have police?

[ He's thirteen. ]

Yes, we have law enforcement. I suspect my world may not be very different from yours. We have a judicial system and a government; however... Some criminals are not everyday thugs.

[He seems to fail to understand he’s thirteen.]

I work with a... corporation which oversees the protection of the populace against higher-risk crime.

... Corpor... ation...

[ You've lost her, Damian. ]

I didn't think they hired... people like us. [ Kids, she means. ]

[The fact he won't!! look up and meet!! her eyes!! sure is something. He's just making sure both of her legs are warm and circulated, and then he stops to keep them wrapped over his leg near his own body and blanket.]

I have special permission. Some may think it's nepotism, but the... business runs in the family.

Your dad, too?

[ Actually, that makes more sense to her, and it's a little easier to focus on than the fact that Damian is still keeping her legs wrapped and tucked over his leg. ]

[look, don't worry about the legs it's fine]

Father, too. Yes.

[ Well. It makes her think back, to the memory she had experienced-- and the thing about Kisa is that there's not a whole lot that she forgets, for better or for worse. Every last thing the girls at school had said to her, about how she'd looked. How every strike from Akito had felt.

And-- ]

... Batman and Robin.

[Really, Damian is a master actor, but there isn't any way he can school his face into not being surprised. He stares, mind doubling back to try to figure out what he had done, what he had left, what he had said that would have been anything like this.

Who he's told--had they said something to Kisa? To other people? Was his trust breached?]

What? [It's firm, but not angry.] How do you know those names?

I heard them... in your memory. When we were seeing everyone's memories... your father said them.

[ And now it's starting to make more sense. ]

[Damn.

Not that it... particularly matters, he's come to realize. As much secrecy as he had hoped to have about everything regarding himself, the town throws a wrench in those plans every time.

He looks away, brows together.] They're codenames. [His sigh is foggy when he finally looks back.]

We conceal our identities so no one is harmed.

... Like heroes.

[ Ah. Kisa's silent for a moment, peeking out at him from under her blanket. ]

It's... it's okay. I won't say anything.

[WHY IS KISA SO SMART. He doesn't know if he should be enthralled or irritated.]

Even here, it's confidential. We never know who is going to be pulled inside this town. It could be someone dangerous from our world. Here, I'm only Damian.

[And then he shifts, sliding her legs off him so he can stand. He offers his hands out to her.]

We need to build a fire. We're even. Don't ever ask me to do something like that again.

O-okay.

[ It's a very meek, contrite answer. Even though she still thinks having to bury Damian was worse than anything, it's true that he clearly wasn't happy with having to help her on this quest. He still had, though, and Kisa quietly appreciates it, even as she lifts her arms to place her palms in his and gathers her legs underneath her to rise with his help.

"Only" Damian, she thinks, as though simply that isn't incredibly amazing. ]

[Gently, he pulls her to her feet with little effort.] Come on. [He untangles from the blanket and wraps it around her, too, with the others. And then he moves to gather up everything else, his clothes included.]

We can stop by the house I arrived in. It's in Bluo. There's a "roommate."

[So even though the boathouse has long been abandoned, he has flight between the Flavo cottage where things are hoarded and a house in Bluo.]

It's closest, and it will have fire.

I didn't know you lived with anyone else.

[ She's more inquisitive than accusatory, and she'll follow him in her robe of Many Blankets. ]