Catgirl: Young Justice BOOK 1 (COMPLETE)

CHAPTER 53

|The Flea
|Sep 10 2010, 00:03

Dick stood outside, on the street, staring up at Katherine's apartment. He was right under her closed bedroom window, debating if he should respect the fact coming back to life was validly stressful and she needed space, or that coming back to life was stressful and she really shouldn't be alone right now, even if that was what she claimed she needed.

She denied anything was seriously wrong and just said she needed space after what had happened, but there was clearly more to it than that. It'd been nearly 5 days since anyone in the team had successfully made contact with her as she was going out of her way to avoid them.

She'd not even turned her phone on to be able to see those messages in the first place.

Dick knew she really was just avoiding them, but some of the team were worried something bad had happened to her, so he used that as en excuse to come down to The Flea to check in on her.

That was what he intended to do.

He used his grappling hook to get up to the window ledge and lightly tapped on the window, putting the tool away as she came into her room, confused what had made the noise.

Her expression shifted to an unamused one when she saw he was the source.

Bravely, Dick knocked again, flashing a sheepish grin, "House call?"

Katherine sighed and opened the window before wandering back into what she called her 'hoard room', the room where she seemed to keep everything she'd ever stolen; a collection full of priceless artifacts.

Only after taking in what he could see of all the cluttered masterpieces did Dick finally process she was wandering around her apartment in her underwear.

"Oh..", was all he could say in response to it. He felt the heat rise to his cheeks as he awkwardly climbed into her room. He made his way into the living room, grabbing an old jacket off the chair in her room to cover her up.

"Hey!", She hissed, swiping the old jacket, "Don't touch my stuff!"

"Sorry!", Dick put his hands up, "I just thought you'd be...cold." He motioned towards her, refusing to look at her without proper clothes.

Batman would kill him if he did.

"Ugh, grow up, Dickhead.", She rolled her eyes, going back to her room to put the jacket back in it's place.

Dick's eyes shifted to the wall where all of her old polaroids were, now all taken down, leaving the wall bare.

"What happened to the pictures?", he frowned as she came back in, wearing one of her old catsuits that had a bullet hole in the leg.

"I was robbed." She quickly changed the subject, wondering, "Have you ever heard of anyone calling themselves The Light?"

"Robbed?!", Dick's eyes widened. He looked back up at the bare wall, "Someone robbed...you?"

"Yeah, and they didn't just take my childhood pictures." She crossed her arms uncomfortably, "Sick fucks thought it'd be funny to take all my childhood belongings; the pictures, clothes, weapons- you name it, they took it."

Dick felt disgusted at the thought of what sort of person would do that. Katherine would've been no older than 5 in those pictures, and from what he knew, most of the old clothes she kept here were full of bullets, knife slashes and blood stains.

"What happened to The Flea being a family? You said they'd never-", he let his emotions speak rather than his brain, quickly regretting his word choice.

Katherine glared, "Yeah, well lately my family don't really seem to care much, do they?" She grabbed his collar and showed her fangs- a natural thing for angry cats to do, but Dick couldn't help but look up at the scar above her eyes after what she'd said.

He got the feeling he was getting close to the real reason she took off from Mount Justice.

Katherine let go, quickly turning her back to him.

"I'm sorry.", He tried to apologise.

"Shut up."

"Really, Katherine, I didn't mean to-", he stopped talking and gasped when she suddenly turned back around and threw herself into him. He felt her claws dig into his back, but it only seemed half-intentional. As mad as she was at him for making her break, she'd broken down, and now clung to him for comfort.

"I told you to shut up!", she sobbed, retracting her claws to wrap her arms around his waist, "I told you to leave me alone!"

She did, but it wasn't what she needed.

Robin knew that for sure now.

"About that, Katherine...", he rubbed small circles into her back, "I think it's time you came back to Gotham. The last thing you need right now is to be alone."

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Word Count: 810