Catgirl: Young Justice BOOK 1 (COMPLETE)

CHAPTER 73

|Mount Justice

|November 7 2010, 09:16

Katherine watched as dozens of cardboard boxes were brought into her bedroom, each of them labelled with black marker. She could see several different types of handwriting. 7, she thought. Quite a few team members and leaguers had gone to New York to help Zatanna pack up the home she used to share with her father.

Zatanna would live at Mount Justice now, with her new family, the team.

That meant despite Katherine's wariness of new people, she'd do anything to make sure the young magic-user was okay. 

Right now, Zatanna was far from that.

Katherine sat up a little on her own bed and looked to the side where Superboy had squeezed another bed in for Zatanna. "I've always wanted a roommate here.", She smiled over at Zatanna as she followed the boxes in. "Somewhat like having a sister.", she thought, hoping her friendliness would ease any wariness her new roommate had every right to feel about staying with her.

Zatanna returned a smile. You didn't need superpowers to see how much pain was under it.

"My room is just next door.", M'gann added, "If you need anything." She looked over at Katherine, still wrapping her head around the fact she was also permanently moving into Mount Justice. "You too, Katherine. If any of you need anything don't be afraid to ask. Anything-"

"We got it.", Katherine rolled her eyes, knowing M'gann's words towards her came less from a place of care and more from a place of caution. She was stupid to think the team would forget about her losing most of a life; she'd just shortened her current one from 15 to around 3 or 4 years. Probably wouldn't be long until she had to face the consequences of that.

"Thanks..", Zatanna kept smiling, struggling to keep herself from breaking down for much longer, "I uh..could use a little alone time." She looked back at Katherine, apologetic.

"As long as you need."

Despite knowing the second the girl was left alone she'd break down, Katherine respected the request, and left with the rest of the girls and Robin, who'd helped Zatanna bring in her various moving boxes.

"So, you're really moving into Mount Justice?", Robin asked, slowing his pace so the others would walk ahead of them. The conversations rarely ended well when he felt the need to do that.

"Zatanna needs a family, I'm open.", Katherine casually replied, knowing if she gave him any more than that he'd interrogate her more on the subject, like he clearly wanted to.

"But you hate Mount Justice."

"Zatanna needs a family.", She repeated, giving him no more than that.

Robin lowered his gaze as they headed back towards the zeta tubes. "I know that's not the only reason.", he glanced at her, "You've not been to The Flea in weeks."

Katherine didn't reply to that. 

There was a perfectly reasonable reason for that; Felix. If she allowed herself to be with him again then it'd ruin what she'd built for herself here. 

It would ruin her.

Robin sighed. "Just know I'm here for you just as much, if not more than Zatanna, ok?"

**********

"Robin B-0-1"

Once Robin left, Catgirl stood by the zeta tubes for a while, staring at them broodingly. A part of her wanted to tell him about Felix, but she knew for a fact if the truth came out then it would change everything she'd tried so hard to build.

She didn't want to lose it all so soon.

Not when she'd already given so much.

**********

"Zatanna?" Katherine quietly knocked on their now shared bedroom door.

It'd been nearly an hour since she left Zatanna alone- and she knew she wanted to be alone, she understood what that felt like from her own, personal experiences. From said experiences, she also knew being alone for too long could make things a whole lot worse, real fast.

"Zatanna?", She knocked again, giving it a few more seconds before warning, "I'm coming in." 

Katherine slowly pushed open the door, looking over to the new bed in the room. Zatanna was sitting, hugging her knees close. She had a familiar vacant look in her eyes; the kind you got when you stopped feeling the initial grief and just went numb. 

"Hey, Zatanna."

She sat on her own bed across and hesitated to speak for a while, unable to decide how she should even start on approaching and comforting someone in this situation.

When Felix died Katherine was on her own.

Zatanna looked over at her weakly. "Please don't say you're sorry for my loss...", she took in a sharp breath, "N-Not...not when it was my fault."

"Don't believe that.", Katherine could only say what she wished someone had told her, "You couldn't have done anything to save him."

"That's worse!" Zatanna broke down, sobbing into her hugged knees. 

Great job, Katherine...

"Ah..no, that's not...that's not what I meant.." Katherine continued to mentally scold herself for being so useless at this. She hoped maybe she'd be better at the physical comforting instead, so moved to sit on her roommate's bed. "Look.", she gently placed a hand on Zatanna's back, slowly rubbing as she carefully chose her next words, "Sometimes bad things just happen. Sometimes we lose those we love when they do. All you're able to do is watch, helplessly, unable to do anything, in shock from it all..." She frowned, resting her chin on the top of Zatanna's head, knowing she'd have to force the next words out. "Your father was a hero. His sacrifice...it wasn't in vain."

Zatanna closed her eyes tightly, occasionally taking in sharp breaths as she tried to stay strong. "Y-You s-sound like you h-have experience..", she managed.

Catgirl numbly glanced down to the bedsheets.

She didn't talk any further, knowing if she did then she'd either say something she wasn't supposed to, or break down with Zatanna.

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Word Count: 982