Love Birds

Cardinal Blood

Hope y'all like this little chapter. I promise (or I hope to promise) more is coming soon! 

Also, different note: I now have a facebook page! It is under my pen name KC Blares, but if you want updates of ANY kind about me and my stories, that's where you'll get it first. I'll also be posting pictures, updates, and Q&As if anyone's interested :)

Anyway, enjoy :)

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Cardinal Blood

Dick Greyson

 Dick firmly held the frigid ice pack against his swollen wrist which, like his cheek, was green and purple with bruising. Ace had sprained it, maybe intentionally and neither Bruce nor Dick was happy about it.

            “I’m guessing your little intervention with Ace didn’t go over so well,” Bruce said, looking down at Dick who was sitting at the dining room table, sorrowfully looking down at his wrist.

            “She’s gone, Bruce, and I don’t know what to do,” he muttered quietly, unable to raise his eyes to meet Bruce’s. “Those grey eyes… they were cold and… and….” The words were swimming around in his mind, but he couldn’t say them, he didn’t want to admit what he saw in her psychotic gaze.

            “Insane?” Bruce filled in the blanks and Dick managed a nod. That’s what he saw; pure insanity. Not even a week since she had been accepted into the Clown Prince of Crime’s home and already every trace of Ace he had known was shattered… like her sanity.

            “I want to believe that it’s just an act… that she’s just doing this so they don’t kill her, but that look she had. She didn’t look at all like the Ace, The Raven, I knew.” He murmured. Bruce sighed as he slid into the chair next to his sidekick, wincing at the pain that pecked at his ribs. Dick wasn’t the only one who had escaped the night with a few bruises.

            “I don’t know about her sanity, Dick,” Bruce began in the calmest, nicest voice he could offer. However, it still sounded indifferent and stern. “But we can try to save her from Joker and Quinn.”

            “Her parents,” Dick bit sourly, clenching his fist, only to bite back a groan.

            “What?”

            “Ace calls them Mom and Dad,” he explained lowly, his gaze fixed on the dark surface of the polished table. A curtain of thought fell over Bruce’s face and Dick could actually see the gears turning behind his eyes.

            “Interesting,” he eventually said, shifting his gaze back to Dick. A new, almost impassive look came over his face as he changed the subject. “You should get some rest. Keep the ice on your wrist and don’t use it.” Bruce got up and turned to leave.

            “Trust me, I won’t,” he said, wincing when he dared to move it and it protested with pain.

            “Oh, and Dick,” he said before walking through the doorway. Dick looked up in question, but Bruce didn’t look back. “There’s something on your cheek.” With that, his footsteps faded and Dick reached up, realizing that right below his bruise was the red and black mark Ace had left on him.

Ace Card

Harley had made chicken the following night. It was just me and her, Lou and Bud under the table waiting for scraps, or the rest of the chicken. Joker hadn’t come because he was hot on some new weapon and didn’t want to be interrupted. He had already thrown Harley out for trying to bring him something to eat, throwing the plate out after her. However, Harley was quick to shake it off, and something told me that it wasn’t the first time she’s been thrown around. A flash of a memory hit me, a hand across a woman’s cheek, anger flaring up in his grey eyes