Chapter Text
~~Recap~~
You quietly make your way back to your room, on your way there, tempted to text Jerry or one of your friends, but decided against it.
Instead ending the night off by yourself again…
~~Recap Over~~
You slip into your room and get ready for bed. Before heading to sleep your eyes land on the beetle plush from before. Sure its head has to be stitched back together after what Damian did to it, but it’s still in pretty good condition.
Pulling it closer to you, you fall into a deep sleep. The last image you see is of the family photo back at Jerry’s home. His father eyes being the last thing you see before your dream starts….
**Gotham City, 1989**
The air is thick and moist, as rain continues to pour down on the poor boy hiding in alleyway out back, behind the celebration going on.
Every now and again someone would step outside but wouldn’t say anything when they spotted him. Why would they?
Why would anyone want to talk to such a creepy kid.
He doesn’t even know how long he’s been out here for, minutes, hours? Not that his father would care. He hasn’t cared ever since his mother passed away.
Arthur buries his face further into his knees as he curls up against the dumpster. A bug would bite him every now again, only further adding salt to the wound.
Unlike his sister he didn’t have the power to understand bugs, to hear them, to control them. Hell, even his older brother could at least hear them.
The only trait he did seem to get was his mother’s eyes, but even that wasn’t enough for their father it seems.
He wasn’t as connected as his sister was, he wasn’t their mother’s twin and the congregation perfect golden boy like his brother was. If anything he looked more like their father.
The same father that had shunned him in front of their entire close family during his sister’s day of recognition, due to his…attitude.
He’d never get a celebration after today. Honestly he wouldn’t be to surprised if they already forgot all about him.
Arthur tries to stop himself from sneezing but it only made the itch worse, and before he knows it, he’s in a sneezing frenzy.
He doesn’t even notice when the rain seems to stop until he finally has to ability to open his eyes again.
But he almost immediately jumps back, as his head hits the dumpster when he finds himself being stared down at.
“Gawd-“
Arthur clutches his heart as he presses up against the wall, now staring back at a very unfamiliar face.
~~POV switch~~
“Are you okay?”
She watches as the boy in front of her starts to hyperventilate, and for a second she’s tempted to say something else, but only watches as he pulls out an inhaler and slowly starts to calm down.
He holds onto the inhaler as if his life depends on it, and maybe it does. He closes his eyes again and now she really takes the boy in.
He has these thick bottle cap glasses on, the kind you’d only see really old people with bad vision have.
His face is all pimply, and he’s as pale as paper, but she swears he looked like even before she spooked him.
Once he finally seems to calm down he relaxes a bit, maybe finally realizing she isn’t about to rob him, but that doesn’t seem to make him fully relax just yet.
He does manage to rasp out a couple of words even after the scare he just had.
“Did my sister tell you to come out here, come to berate me too.” He snarled, brows furrowed and face now flush with barely concealed dismay.
“No?” She straightens up now as the wind starts to blow harder now. “Aren’t you a waiter here?”
His face only seems to heat up even more at her question. Embarrassed and enraged the boy finally stands up. His legs unfolding as such quickness she had almost slipped trying to back away.
To be honest she wasn’t too afraid of him before when he sneezing his lungs up, but now with him standing at full height…
~~Arthur POV~~
He can’t seem to find peace anywhere it seems. Someone always has to come and ruin his peace. The rage in his chest seems to dim when he takes a really good look at her.
There was nothing particularly special about her, he’s sure he has seen many girls with a similar style as her. But something about her was different, he felt different when staring at her.
“I’m just gonna…” She slowly backs away now and the cold wet feeling from before comes back almost immediately.
His face warms up as he opens his mouth to say something, but nothing comes out. All of his earlier confidence fades out as she continues to glance back at him as she walks away, pure concern written over her face.
Arthur doesnt say anything as she gets farther away, nor when she leaves his line sight, and definitely not when his brother came outside to try to get him to go inside.
As his older brother ushers him back inside, probably mumbling out comforting words of encouragement, Arthur can’t help but think about the girl from earlier.
She was quite nice.
~~~~
Arthur has never gone out of his way for anyone who wasn’t family. But after meeting your mother once, he decided to learn more about her-hell, he wanted to know EVERYTHING about her.
First it started off simple, innocent. He’d walk past the street she lived on and walk by her school. Then he would start to “bump” into her on the street whenever he could.
It was easy to befriend her, she didn’t seem to mad about their initial meeting anymore and was happy to become his friend when he told her how he had none thanks to being homeschooled.
Now her friend, he got the chance to learn more about her. From her favorite bakery, to the theater she likes to sneak into every now again whenever she could.
He learned how she would go out of her way to help those less fortunate and even volunteers at soup kitchens on the weekends.
The only problem was that during the week she’d have to go to school. At first he didn’t mind waiting for her to get out. But Arthur isn’t as patient as he likes others to believe.
Eventually he ended up signing up for public school just to be able to spend more time with her during the week.
At first your mother was happy to show him around school and hangout with him, but then he started to get clingy.
He’d intentionally cut off her friends whenever they would try talking to her, start rumors about her to scare her friends away, and even got her kicked out of her theater club. She eventually became a social pariah.
At first she really wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, to believe he didn’t know what he was doing and how it was hurting her.
But it took her best friend Eddie starting to distance himself from her, for her to realize the severity of the situation.
Enough was enough, she needed to get rid of him, but how?
~~
The bell rings and everyone is running out the door to be the first to get out of here. She takes her time putting away her stuff. As every time she walks through the hallway now, all she can see is people’s gaze on her.
But not in a good way, of course not. Because of all of the rumors Arthur has spread about her, no one wants to come up to her. But they do love to stare and whisper.
As she putting her stuff away her waterbottle tips over as one of her classmates knocks into her shoulder…even though she was already as close to the wall as she could get.
Her eyes snap up almost immediately. “Hey-….” She watches as the boy walks away without looking back, as if not even realizing he just knocked into her.
Looking back down she goes to pick up her stuff when a pair of shiny black pumps appear in her line of sight. These were the expensive kinda of shoes too.
Slowly looking up, she finds herself face to face with one of the most beautiful girl’s she has ever seen.
Before she could say anything the girl picks up her water bottle and hands it back to her. Now slowly standing up, she can really take in the girl.
She had short brown hair, grey-ish blue eyes, and some of the rosiest cheeks she has ever seen. But even though she had some of the softest features your mother has ever seen, she sure did have the sharpest scowl as well.
Honestly this girl looked like the metaphor “Wolf in sheep’s clothing” with how big her blue eyes were yet how hard her stare was.
“Thanks-“
She gets promptly cut off by the girl as she gets pulled forward. “You don’t like Arthur, do you?”
“Hm?” She glances down at her wrist, the girl’s hand is wrapped around it. And no matter how hard she tried to pull her arm away, she could never break out of the girls tight grip.
“I can help you get rid of him, all you have to do is follow my lead.”
Looking back up, your mother looked at the girl, really looked at her. Now closer she could see every thing, from pale bags under the girls eyes, to the gloomy look on her face.
If her grip on her wrist said anything about who she was, your mother knew it meant she was someone she didn’t want to disagree with.
And technically she’d be getting something out of this too, she’d get rid of Arthur and maybe Eddie would come back, and whatever this girl wants she’s get too, whatever it is that she wanted that is…
Your mother agrees quickly, a sigh of relief escaping her once the girl let go of her wrist finally, allowing her to rub at the now sore spot.
“By the way my names Lucy’s.” The girl smiles finally, and your mother gives the girl a polite but strained smile back.
“Like short for Lucifer?”
“…Sure.” Lucy chuckles coldly, before twirling a strand of her hair between her fingers absently. “Anyways, all I need you to do is to steer clear of him once I get rid of him. I’ll make sure you get everything you want as well, trust me, you’ll get everything you deserve and more.”
Even though that sounded extremely ominous and your mother really didn’t like this girls tone, she also knows a killer when she sees one. And this girl was looking at her like she was about to be her next meal. So without any further explanation she agrees…
~~
It didn’t take long for her to figure out the girl was apparently Arthur’s fiancée (She didn’t know people were stilling marrying off their children) , or that’s what she told her anyways.
It also didn’t take long for Lucy to get Arthur to leave her alone either. One day Arthur was following her around and the next he was gone, no warning, no goodbye, nothing.
But the day before he left he was particularly more clingy than usual, but she choice not to linger on it for to long, she had bigger issues to worry about.
Like getting her fame back. Thanks to Arthur, everyone hated her. Even Eddie seemed to disappear, honestly she was starting to get worried as she hasn’t seen Eddie for a while.
~~
School’s over and she’s walking down the street when all of sudden she’s getting pulled into a shop.
“The hell-“ She turn to glare at whoever just pulled her inside, when her eyes land on a familiar tuff of red hair.
“Eddie?!”
Staring back at her is a much weaker looking Eddie, not like the one she’s used to seeing. His hair is a mess and bruises cover every inch of his skin.
Before she question him, he quickly pulls her away from the door and further into the thrift store.
“Hey-oh…” She quietly follows him towards the back of the thrift store, nearly avoiding spiderwebs.
The place was absolutely deserted, and if Eddie hadn’t dragged her in here she would’ve assumed it was abandoned.
As she’s looking around her eyes land on a shelf full of books, but she didn’t get enough time to truly look at any of them before Eddie is abruptly stopping.
Turning around sharply, Eddie begins to look her over. This might’ve been the most nervous she’s seen the boy.
Honestly he looked like shit, red hair unevenly cut, the bruises on him much more pronounced somehow in the darker lighting of the store, and his eyes were filled with concern.
Before she can ask what’s wrong, Eddie implodes into tears and barely concealed sniffling, as he pulls her into a deep embrace.
During the weeks he had disappeared, he had gone through some things just fighting to stay alive. It all happened out of no where. His father’s small business tanked, his mother lost her job at the office-they even lost their house.
Then things went from bad to weird quickly. Over the short time frame he’s been gone, he’s been seeing Arthur everywhere he went, and if it wasn’t the blue eyed boy, it was his stupid bugs.
Eddie has never been bitten this much by anything in his life!!
He knows it sounds crazy but he knows Arthur has something to do with it. And he’s scared for you-her, your mother.
This was the first, and definitely not the last time she’s seen Eddie cry. Your mother didn’t know what to say when Eddie told her all this things.
From how he now had to live with grandma who lives on the completely opposite side of Gotham- (As that’s as far as Arthur could get him without it getting to suspicious) To how Arthur has been there at every turn.
Now Eddies pulling at what little hair he still had while holding her even closer-at this point they were hugging all while Eddie just went on and on about Arthur is a terrible person and how he did something.
Which at first she thought Eddie was just mentioning Arthur to just mention him. But the more she thought about it the more it seemed believed.
Then again, why was she trying to defend a guy who spread a rumor about her anyways? She was quick to finally place her hands on Eddie shoulders, making the boy finally look at her, really look at HER.
“Eddie, breathe with me here.”
She pulls back so then he could visibly see her breathing better, as she begins to breathe. And after watching her for a few seconds Eddie follows along and slowly he catches his breath.
“You can’t hangout with this guy anymore.” Eddie shakes his head as she lets out a small sigh of agreement.
“I know, and trust me I won’t…”
Eddie lets out relieved breath as he rests his head on her shoulder. And for the first time in days, he can breathe.
~~POV Switch 3rd person~~
That day Arthur disappeared was the day his father caught wind of he did. Now his father didn’t care about Arthur or his reputation as singular person on his own.
It’s about how he represents the WHOLE family.
He may not have the ability like his sister or be the golden boy of the congregation but he can’t be out here acting as if he’s not apart of this family either.
Sure he could technically kill whoever he wants as long as he spins it just right. But he didn’t want to do all that extra work just to protect the one child he didn’t even like.
So what did Arthur’s father do to prevent his son from doing something they’d both regret. He took him right back out that school, put him BACK into boarding school, and this time put him even farther away.
He no longer would attend school with his brother in Europe, no, he got sent to a boarding school somewhere in Asia. Honestly he doesn’t even remember where he sent his son, he just sent him away.
And for the longest time everyone forgot about poor Arthur. Maybe at first his brother tried to send him letters, but Arthur never answered, so he stopped sending them.
And when he did, no one remembered, not even the girl he loved…
~~
After the summer ended it was like nothing ever happened. Somehow everyone forgot about the rumors, and strangely enough everyone actually wanted to be friends with her?!
She got moved from the theater kid table and over to the popular girl table! She no longer was the last one picked during group projects, actually people were practically begging to partner up with her!
Hell, she even got two prom-proposals that and won prom queen for the rest of her high school years.
Then the second she graduated she got a gig as a background actor for movie, then she got a voice role, and finally she was apart of the main cast….
As all of this is happening Eddie stayed by her side. Slowly turning from not only just her closet friend to her bodyguard. No longer was he just some scrawny little boy anymore, he was much bigger now and stronger.
And somewhere down the line your mother somehow got herself involved with the wrong crowd…apparently she had reached a high enough tax bracket for the Court of Owls to catch wind of her.
She was given a mask and everything but she had no plans of joining…until him.
Bruce wanted info, but the Court of Owls weren’t cocky for nothing. They were good. He had originally planned to just sneak in there and get information that way. But then he met your mother.
A long term rat is better than a one time visit.
He convinced your mother to join the Court of Owls and to report to back any information that could be concerning to a particular case he was trying to solve involving deaths surrounding a book and bugs.
Along the way your mother did want payment, but not the paper kind. She had money and fame already. And this was Bruce Wayne we’re talking about here. He can be very alluring even when you don’t know what he looks like under the mask.
Somewhere down the line she accidentally gets her hands on said book and immediately has to leave the country with it. Taking only what she needed, and with Eddie she fled.
Her career comes to a halt when she has you, and then she back to work, leaving you under the care of Eddie.
She went through great lengths to keep your face out of public view, and it worked until it didn’t.
Some people came looking for the book again, and in the process you got hurt, leaving your mother with only one choice.
To send you to Gotham.
The dream ends right when she closes the door, leaving you behind in the hotel as she disappears off into the night, and your trip back to Gotham starts.
~~~~
You wake up with a start, as your alarm clock screams into your ears. “Ughhh.” Letting your hands hit the off button you lay back down in your bed for a second before sighing.
Your eyes slowly glance around from one side of your room to the next only to find another set staring right back at you…
~~Extra Scene~~
**Back with you and Eddie**
Eddie watches as you stare longingly out the window of the bus, clearly still upset about being away from your mother for this long. He glances away as he checks his phone, still nothing from your mother…A sigh escapes him just as you turn to look at him.
“Where are we heading again?”
“Gotham.”
Eddie watches as you try to remember where you heard the name from, but when you can’t seem to remember you focus back on him.
“What’s that?”
Eddie gives you a look, already having explained it to you on the plane, but he decides to humor you anyways.
“It’s a-“ You cut him off before he can finish, already onto your next question. “Where is that?”
“It’s by-“ You cut him off again, now lazily adjusting your hold on your plush. “Why are we even going there?”
Eddie side eyes you, just for a second, before he finally answers you many questions.
“It’s a city in New Jersey, where going there to meet someone.”
“Who?”
“Your father.”
He watches as you sit up a bit straighter, your interest now fully piqued. At this point in your life, you have never met your father, you don’t even know what he looks like. This is perhaps the first time Eddie has even mentioned him.
“Really, what’s he like?”
“I don’t know.”
“…” Your face scrunches up into confusion as you stare at Eddie with a hint of mild shock as well. How does not know what your father’s like?
As if sensing your confusion, Eddie is quick to explain.
“I never really…hung out with your father, I only known him from what I heard about him your mother…” He glances away for a second as he mutters this last bit under his breath. “And newsletters.”
“Huh…” You look away for a second, and Eddie looks away too.
As he glances away he spots a very familiar mask. “God damnit-“
~~Extra Scene~~
Jason looks over his gun as he wipes away at smudge of blood, softly humming a tune under his breath. He glances back up as he stares down at the manor.
He doesn’t know why, but he has a strange feeling that something bad will happen to you tomorrow. Maybe your play will go wrong? The only reason he knows about is because he’s been shamelessly stalking motoring you out of fear of something bad happening.
And he wasn’t alone either.
Cass had also not been affected by the journal, and hasn’t stopped following you around since that day in the sewer.
Even though it’s only been a couple hours since dinner, she can’t help but notice how differently everyone’s acting. And she has a feeling she knows why.
~~End~~