Archive of Our Own ^beta

“You’re coming home,” Cass says, matter of fact, when the last of the cleanup is done, most of the bona fide bad guys – if that means anything, anymore – have snuck away, and it’s mostly just white hats standing around and looking at each other. Steph kinda wishes she slunk out around the time Ivy did, before anyone starts asking about how she got by so long in the muck, but she’s a little more battered than she let on, and couldn’t exactly go quietly. Not that there’s much way of hiding anything in present company. Cass pokes her in one of the four broken ribs she has, pain running through Steph like a bolt. “Pay attention. You’re coming home now.”

Steph gives her the stink eye but leans a little heavier on Cass’s shoulder. “You know, I was actually surviving pretty well when I was a bad guy, I have a place to crawl back to and feel sorry for myself.”

“No you don’t.” Cass says impatiently, starting to move them towards the gates. “You had a hiding place you called a lair. Now you have a trap waiting for you from all the worst people in here that don’t care that you freed them from jail, or about the Magistrate, just that you have a bat on your chest.” She pokes again, to make a point, right on the sternum.

“I thought there were no sides anymore?” Steph can’t quite tense her way out of the hobbling, but Cass is strong enough to keep her upright without so much as twitching off course

“There aren’t. But there are still people who would sell out their moms for cash.” Cass snaps her gum like punctuation.

“Were you always this much of a pain in the ass?” Steph coughs, and appreciates that Cass doesn’t stop walking.

“Yes.”

*

Home, it turns out, is not just one of the generic underground safe houses Talia and Dick have been keeping, but Cass’s, specifically, a basement under the burnt-out theatre the Magistrate gutted, supposedly looking for Bruce, but really just to cut un-sanctioned performances off at the neck. It’s full of set pieces and costumes and dust and Steph wants to miss her bedsit, but it’s hard not to fall into the allure of the escapism.

“You know,” she says, wincing as she sits up on the creaky mattress Cass slid her onto, the cot squeaking every time she breathes too hard. “If you wanted to get me into bed you just had to–” she coughs, again, a little blood this time, but not enough to be worried about. “Ask.”

Cass rolls her eyes and sits on the end of the bed, drawing her knees up. “The second time we spoke I broke into your bedroom and sat on your bed like this.” She touches Steph’s ankle, just above where it’s swelling. She took a lot of the nastier hits in the squabble, as many as she could manage. Old habits, and all that. “Do you remember?”

Steph sits up a little taller and frowns exaggeratedly. “Here.” She grunts like a moody teenager. “Read this.” She waves her hand in front of Cass’s face.

“Asshole,” Cass bites.

“Language,” Steph counters. “God, we were children. No wonder I died.”

“Don’t,” Cass says, sharply, quietly.

“Should I go back to being the bad guy? You seemed to want me dead a lot more then.” Steph shoots for a smile, but the pain is bad and the painkillers thin enough on the ground that she’s pretty sure she only gets as far as a grimace.

“I never thought about killing you,” Cass says, looking up at Steph through her fringe. “But I pictured beating you up a lot. It was very… Cathartic.”

“Glad to hear it, girlfriend. Wouldn’t have worked if I didn’t shoot for the heart.” Steph touches Cass’s wrist, the same hand still rubbing around Steph’s bruises. “Did I at least put up a good fight?” She tries to smile again, and the tease makes it easier. “I was practicing, you know.”

“I could tell,” Cass twists their hands together, smirking back. “Would still have lost, though.”

“Yeah well,” Steph swings their hands, hurting a little where her shoulder is strained, but not enough to make her want to stop. “Can’t all be super human, can we?”

Cass stills their hands and crawls up the bed, resting her cheek on Steph’s good shoulder. “I think what you did today counts as super.”

Steph smiles and pushes the hair back off of Cass’s face. “Only takes one good day, and all that.”