tears to adventure ; gotham au

two; sorry, no school today

It had been a few days since the... event and Gabi and I were going back to school. I didn't know how everything would play out, but I didn't particularly care.

That morning was just like any other morning that week. Neither of us slept much, and had sat up together, not saying anything, but simply keeping each other company. Though, that morning, I'd woken up to the same nightmare... the description too vivid and too painful for me to begin to describe.

Gabi had already been up and was dressed in her navy just above knee length skirt, matching socks, a blue collared shirt with a navy and yellow striped tie with a blazer that had the school's logo printed on it. She looked over at me and smiled softly.

The past few days had been indescribably hard for the both of us. Despite our parents being so busy in the city's affairs, they had always made us feel safe and wanted. Now we were kind of... lost. It wasn't something we'd ever felt before. Every time anyone would mention them I would either break into tears or get so pent up with anger that only Gabi could calm me down. It was the same for her, but for some reason she could control it more than I could.

Today had to be different, I told myself as I pulled on my blazer, I had to be strong. We both did.

"You ready Benny?" Gabi asked, taking in a deep shaky breath.

"Yeah... As ready as I'll ever be I guess... Are you?"

"Hell no, but we can't do much about it, so I'll live."

She sighed before walking downstairs to get some coffee... She lived on coffee, it was like part of her blood, and especially had been for the past few days.

"It's almost like I don't want to live..." I murmured in response to Gabi's statement before following after her.

The ride to school was drab and silent, not even Alfred said anything. When we finally pulled up in front of the huge campus in the city, I froze. Gabi nudged me gently, even though I sensed she was feeling the same way as me... trapped.

"Come on... We have to do this together okay? I can't do it without you."

I nodded slowly, swallowing hard before getting out of the dark colored car. We both stood there looking up at the building, aware of how many eyes had turned to look at us in the matter of seconds. Alfred pulled away and we were left to face the whole student body's blank stares.

We made it up to the top of the staircase leading up into the building when we were stopped... I didn't know exactly who it was at first, but he was towering over us like he was somehow a king compared to us. That's when I picked him out of the crowd. Tristan Laurence.

"Well well... we love to see the Wayne's back in school don't we? That is, if you still go by that name, you know after the-"

"Shut up Tristan..." I murmured, focusing on the sole fact that I was not going to cry.

I looked over at Gabi. She seemed to be doing the same thing, and stepped closer to me.There was some mass feeling in my throat that I couldn't get to go away.

"Oh, right sorry.. that is a sensitive topic isn't it? I apologize deeply... /Benji/."

That was when I snapped. The only people who had called me Benji were my mother and father. Tristan calling me that just hit me hard, leaving me feeling like the wind had been knocked out of me. Gabi saw the look on my face and attempted to step closer to me again, but it was too late.

I swung at Tristan, hitting him full in the face. The tears stung in my eyes, my face red, and my emotions were spiraling out of control. In the events that followed, all I remembered was that I was shoved backwards, falling down a few stairs before I got up and started sprinting.

"You fucking asshole!! You had no right- just stay away from us!!" Something like that came out of Gabi's mouth before she darted after me.

I ran away from that school as fast as I could, not even thinking about looking back. As I ran through the crowded streets of Gotham City, I bumped into many people dressed in official clothing, clearing hurrying to their jobs, just like I was hurrying to get as far away from that awful building as fast as possible.

Eventually I found myself in that alley, the one where my parents had gotten shot right in front of  me and my sister's eyes. I don't know why I ended up there, but seeing it and the remains of the crime scene caused me to back up, slamming my body into the wall as I sank to the ground.

"Ben!! Oh my god, don't ever scare me like that again!!!" 

Gabi came running to my side the second she got to the alleyway, pulling me close and before I could say anything in response, we were huddled together just being each others strength. For some reason neither of us cried this time... maybe it was because we'd cried so much over the past few days, or because we couldn't bring ourselves to do so.

I heard footsteps nearby and my head shot up immediately, thinking it could be my parents' killer, but instead my eyes fell upon three girls standing over us who seemed roughly the same age as Gabi and I. There was something familiar about their faces...

By that point Gabi had already stood up and was facing them with almost a menacing look spread across her face, but she was too nice to be menacing... classic Rory Gilmore.

"Um... Can we help you?" was all that seemed to come out of my sister's mouth.

"Actually... We're here to help you." The girl with her hair pulled back in a half ponytail said, stepping forward. 

I stood up and looked at the three of them and suddenly I remembered their faces...

"We were in this alleyway the night your parents were killed... We want to help you find him."