No Nuance November

No More House Calls

Damian was beginning to think this had gone well past what he'd been intending.

Normally his plans were always perfectly executed without any hold-ups or issues. He was an Al-Ghul, perfection was expected. Even if his plans hit... snags, he was always very good at adapting to the new situation.

What was supposed to be him doing helping out the community as himself had turned into him standing in the rain, covered in soot and ash, with a cat and three dogs he'd pulled out of a burning apartment.

The cat yowled and thrashed wrapped in his jacket, the dogs were not any calmer. He'd found some rope to act as a leash until he found a safe place to assess them and return them to the owners.

Damian knew the couple that owned the apartment. They tended a small garden on the rooftop of the building. He knew these animals were rescued from the streets and were well taken care of. Damian himself (as Robin) had given them the cat, which they'd named Robin in honor of that occasion. They were a very nice older couple who worked at the Martha Wayne Foundation.

They'd gone out of town for a couple of days and had asked him to keep an eye on things while they were gone.

He watched the flames rise, the building was going to be a total loss. He'd already informed first responders of the situation. There were no fatalities, luckily.

All the plans for his day had been completely ruined.

The worst part being he wasn't sure where to go.

The dogs weren't exactly small. They ran around him pulling at the ropes barking and yipping anxiously making it very difficult to calm the cat.

The February air made the freezing rain even worse since he'd relinquished his jacket for said cat partly to try to keep the poor thing out of the rain and to also protect his skin from being shredded.

Everything had happened so fast, he'd realized he had left some of his own belongings in the apartment. He'd been focused on getting the animals out, and also making sure no one needed help getting out. It was unlikely that this fire was an accident but that was something for him to investigate later, when he wasn't being jerked around by three very scared dogs and scratched up by an equally scared cat.

"Ow, would you please stop? I am trying to help." Damian began his fruitless plea to the cat. It wasn't his fault that he didn't understand. He wanted to get to safety, to get out of the freezing rain. Damian also wanted those things.

The biggest of the three dogs, ironically named Bean (According to Shelby, he'd been the runt of his litter when they'd found him) gave a particularly strong tug causing Damian to lose his footing and almost fall to the ground.

It was enough for Robin to wiggle his way out of Damian's grasp and into the frozen night.

"Robin, no!" He shouted, forgetting himself for a moment. His grip on the ropes loosened slightly.

Bean took advantage, shooting off in the opposite direction.

"Damn it." Damian gripped the other two rope leashes tightly.

After Bean and Robin had taken off, the oldest dog (Brutus) calmed significantly. He sat looking off in the direction that Bean had gone. Klepto (Micheal had explained that she was a food thief, she would take things directly out of the skillet if you weren't careful. They'd caught her digging around in their cupboard) finally stopped barking standing on Damian's other side.

He'd never taken care of an apartment for anyone before. He liked Shelby and Micheal, they took good care of strays, were very helpful for the community, and were just all around nice people. He'd been more than happy to help when they'd asked, saying they're dogs really liked him and had wanted to make sure they were comfortable since they weren't coming with.