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[fledges]

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[fledges]

[Kate just... covers her face.]

Oh my God, that sounds miserable.

[batricide]

He'll be fine.

[fledges]

[Kate sighs and lets her hands drop. Exploratory surgery! Why not!]

What do you mean, there was nothing there?

[batricide]

No machinery. No abnormal sigils. At least nothing I could see.

[fledges]

Wow. That's not what I was expecting.

[She touches her sternum absently.]

What could it even be, then?

[batricide]

Most likely some kind of magic.

[fledges]

[Kate sighs, tilting her head back.]

And of course Loki and Strange don't have their powers.

[Nothing can ever, ever be easy. She straightens again after a second to study him.]

You're acting flippant about this, but are you okay? Really okay?

[batricide]

There was little risk. I knew what I was doing.

[ but. ]

But I didn't want to end up an only child again because my brother is impatient.

[fledges]

No good choices, huh?

[Oh, Jason. Kate still thinks it's a crazy idea, but that ship has sailed.]

I'm glad he had you there to take care of him.

[batricide]

It rarely is with him.

[ He takes another drink. ]

I think he considers himself my guardian. Laughable, right?

[fledges]

[Kate's lips quirk up.]

He's older, right?

[batricide]

Barely.

[ well. ]

From his perspective, he's probably nearly a decade older than me.

[fledges]

Multiverse stuff. That explains it. Does it bug you?

[batricide]

Not really.

[ Another sip. ]

He... disappeared when I was younger. I only recently got in touch with him again in my world. We're closer in age.

[fledges]

So it's like you two get to make up for lost time?

[Cute, Damian!]

[batricide]

Something like that.

[ It has its rough moments. But it's nice to have that bond again. ]

[fledges]

That's awesome. I'm happy for you.

[She takes another drink, then smiles.]

I guess you'll just have to watch out for each other, huh?

[batricide]

That may be easier said than done. [ He thinks of those stab wounds, how Jason didn't tell him. ]

Listen. [ We're NOT FRIENDS but ] If you suspect he's up to something suspicious or dangerous at any point, can you let me know?

[fledges]

Yeah, of course. He doesn't tell me much, but I'll do the best I can.

[And then Kate, doing the "we're totally friends" thing, reaches out to brush her fingertips against his sleeve, her voice softening.]

Promise me you won't let anyone cut you open, okay? Or do anything else... questionable.

[batricide]

I'm not worried about that. There's scarcely I surgery I haven't had.

[fledges]

[That gets her to frown.]

What do you mean?

[batricide]

[ He's tolerating her touch. Her presence. Talking to her about the past. Totally not friends, nope. ]

When I was eight I was caught in an explosion. My mother had every organ in my body replaced. I was training again in two weeks. [ Another sip. ] At ten, I was shot during a mission and left paralyzed. Mother stepped in again and had my spine replaced.

[fledges]

[Kate sucks in a soft breath, utterly shocked. Training again in two weeks? Who does that to a kid?]

Oh, Hafid, that's awful.

[batricide]

[ He shrugs. Because it's all old hat. That was his normal. It only became abnormal when Dick Grayson took him underwing and made it his mission to allow him scraps of a childhood he'd been denied. ]

What I mean to say is I'd like to see someone try something questionable.

[fledges]

[He's so nonchalant about it, and it makes Kate's heart twist. He really hasn't ever had a life outside of being a super hero, and it doesn't sound like there were a lot of people who really cared about him either.]

I just don't want anything to happen to you, that's all.