Dated to August 3

[fuck_it]

It's weird, how fast time can go by without you noticing it's done it. A year ago, Chris cut across streets, behind a church and its graveyard and found his own grave marker, sat there next to his brother's like it belonged. It was fucked, and it still is— he knows the markers are still there 'cause he's checked— but the day had turned out brilliant, in the end.

He doesn't know if he and Cissie ever would've kissed if it hadn't been for all that, so while it's fuckin' awful that it happened, he can't be angry about it, not really. He's got someone he loves now, more than almost anyone, and that probably wouldn't have happened without all that.

Chris turns up at Cassie's flat without calling ahead for once, two tambourines that he bought from that one store in one hand and flowers in the other. He can't remember the last time he brought someone flowers, but he should've done it before now.

He knocks on the door with his foot, since his hands are both full of stuff, but finds that it swings open, which is fuckin' weird.

"Cissie?" he calls, frowning, and walks in.

Comments

[arrowette]

Regular arrows? Check. Trick arrows? Check. Bow restrung and ready to roll? Check, check and doublecheck. Everything was just about ready for Cissie to patrol tonight. The fact that it was her and Chris's one year anniversary had slipped by the wayside - not on purpose or anything like that - it was just that between an unusually crazy day at work and anticipation about tonight, everything else had flown out of her head.

She finished pulling her hair into a ponytail then bent down to sling her quiver on her back. She was already in her dark maroon leather jacket and pants that served as her costume so the only thing left was the mask. She reached over to take it from the table then froze as she heard the door open.

She turned around to see Chris and her stomach turned over as she saw him, tambourines and flowers in hand.

This? This was bad. Very bad.

[fuck_it]

For a long moment, Chris is stood there looking at Cissie, not sure what to say. It's alright if she dresses up when she's on her own-- he's got his own stuff that he does in his flat, like talk to his frog some days-- but he wasn't expecting to turn up and find her in a costume with a bow and arrow. And maybe he should have knocked louder instead of just walking in.

"The uh... the door was unlocked," he says.

[arrowette]

No matter which way you looked at it, this was all her fault. She should have kept the door locked, she should have been more careful - but more importantly, she should have told Chris. Not when they were first together or anything like that, of course, but after a couple of months. It was a dangerous job she was doing and it was something he deserved to know about.

She took a breath and set the mask back down on the table. "So, uh. I should have - I mean. We should talk. About this."

[fuck_it]

"Is this not just fancy dress?" Chris asks, but from the look on Cissie's face and the tone of her voice, she's already answered him. And it's not that Chris has worked out just what he's actually walked in on, but he gets the feeling it's not good.

"I brought flowers," he adds, remembering them in his hand.

[arrowette]

Flowers. Why had Chris brought flowers, anyway? It was something he'd do just on a whim, sure, but she had the sense there was an actual reason this time. Well, she'd figure it out soon enough, she was sure, but right now she had an explanation to give.

"Okay," she said after taking a deep breath. "So, um. I've told you about my world, right? I mean, how Superman and Batman exist?"

[fuck_it]

"You're not Batman," Chris says, immediately coming to the wrong conclusion about what Cissie's said, "No fuckin' way."

For one, the costume's all wrong. Also, Chris thinks he'd know if he's been daring Batman for the past year. Maybe. He's got no idea where the costume she's got on has come from, so maybe he's wrong about everything.

[arrowette]

Cissie gaped at Chris for a moment, completely thrown off by that. Why, she didn't know, exactly. Maybe it was just that she had expected yelling or shouting and she had gotten Batman instead.

"No! I'm so not Batman," she answered with a short laugh. "I know him - well, as much as you can know a Bat which isn't much at all. And that's because - because I'm a superhero. I mean, I don't have any powers or anything but I go out and I fight crime."

[fuck_it]

Chris is quiet for a long moment, his eyes a bit wide.

"You shoot people with a bow and arrow, then?" he asks, looking at the one she's holding. He didn't know she could use a bow and arrow. But apparently there's loads of stuff he doesn't know about Cissie, even after being together a whole year.

There's some stuff he hasn't told her, too, but nothing like this.

[arrowette]

Cissie winced. It was a perfectly logical conclusion for Chris to come to, of course, but she couldn't help but think back to the guy she had almost killed (and would have if it hadn't been for Kon). She didn't kill, she would never kill but it was a reminder all the same about how important it was to stay in control.

"Not exactly. I mean - I shoot at them if they're committing a crime, but I aim for a knee or hand or something like that. Someplace that will stop them or slow them down long enough for the police to get them."