Nightwing's car guy
Dick was doing well to establish himself in Bludhaven. He had an apartment, it was shitty but it was his. He had a day job as police officer, half the people there were in the cartels Nightwing was trying to crack down on, and the other half were in the cartels Nightwing was still trying to trace. He had his suit, still bat-grade, blue instead of the red, yellow, and green Jason got to wear now.
He did't have a cave. Or maybe it should be a nest because the whole bird thing. Burrow? What was the thing owls lived in called? The point is he made due without it. He had his apartment, and he had his supplies stashed away. It wasn't as much as in the Cave, but he didn't have Cave-funding. He could make due.
He didn't have an Oracle in his ear. But that came with the added bonus of not having a Bat either. He could do his own research, find his own information. And it wasn't like he and Babs were totally cut off. It was just only a little weird, because she was technically his ex. Sure she would be in his corner, but she was still his ex. He needed to save some face. Especially since he knew that Bruce and Babs liked to... talk. He could make due.
The only thing Dick was maybe, sorta, just maybe having a little trouble was with his bike. Well it wasn't his bike, it was Nightwing's. Which was precisely the trouble. He'd found a place to stash it, but Dick had never been a car guy... or in this case a bike guy. He would chase his rouges, speeding through the streets, and sure the bike was made for the tight corners and quick turns and the high speeds, and sure it could take a hit or two. But what about three or four? Or five?
Point was Dick needed a car- a bike guy. One that was cheap (he was only a cop), and knew how to not ask questions and keep his mouth shut (again- Nightwing's bike). All that on top of knowing enough on how to fix his bike. (it wasn't exactly the type you could find in store).
But the solution seemed to find him. Which Dick was aware was not generally how it worked, but he would count his blessings. He had been out on patrol, the type that had involved his bike and high speeds. Unfortunately it did not involve the perp in handcuffs and on his way to jail. Dick had been on his tail, could've had him too, if the bike hadn't started sputtering. Dick had done as much as he could for it, but she really needed a pair of eyes that actually knew what they were looking at.
Mumbling curses to himself, Nightwing had been ready to head off to at least catch a dust trail of what operation he'd find himself in next. He could feel the eyes watching him. His hair stood in edge, and when Nightwing turned to look around he couldn't see anyone. Maybe he was being haunted. Trying to arrange his bearings, Nightwing turned back around to get on his bike. When there was suddenly a mop of choppy black hair couched down next to it.
Nightwing blinked at him. How had he managed to get there? "Uh, something you need, man?" Nightwing asked the boy, totally not freaked out.
The boy- teen, he was only a year or two younger than Dick- looked up, large blue eyes staring. As if it was odd for Nightwing to have addressed him. It took him a moment longer to realize that the bike was, in fact, Nightwing's. "You need to change your [important engine part]." He pointed lamely, standing up to his height of only a hair shorter than Dick.
"How do you know that?" Nightwing asked before he could think of the danger the unknown person might pose.
"That's why it was making that sound. It'll put too much pressure on the engine so it won't be able to go as fast it would be otherwise. Which, I take it, would cause you problems." he tipped his head in the direction the rouge had run off in.
Nightwing considered it for just a moment, not wanting the perfect opportunity to get away from him. "Do you know how to fix it?"
The guy looked almost offended, "Yeah."
"I'll pay you." Nightwing jumped at the opportunity, "If you fix it."
Any normal person would've said no to a guy dressed in bullet-proof spandex with a blue bird on his chest and a weird mask. "Sure." He shrugged easily, a glimmer of excitement in his eyes as he eyed the vehicle. After a moment, "Name's Danny, by the way. You'd probably need to know that." Danny eyes his suit, "Who are you, like, blue-jay?"
"Nightwing." He corrected easily, his name hadn't made the streets yet.
"The Robin reject?" Was Danny immediate response, eyebrow arched up in amusement.
"The what?"
Danny grimaced, the laugh never leaving his face, "Ooh, sorry. Touchy subject?"
"I am not a Robin reject." Dick couldn't tell this civilian that he was Robin. Had been.
Nightwing's bike ran better than it had since he had moved to Bludhaven after Danny had gotten his hands on it. And Danny's payment of ("i don't trust ur money, just buy me food") lunch had been a steal in return. Maybe next time they should go somewhere a little nicer.
Because the bike was doing so well, after Danny fixed it.
Not for any other reason.
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Always gonna be on a found family for Billy kick, always, so just imagine Billy stumbling into Benny's diner right at closing, and Benny (who didn't die in S1, because I say so) is all ready to throw him out, too tired after a long day to be dealing with any punk ass teenagers who come in reeking of an attitude, but then he gets closer, and he sees Billy's bright red cheek and his black eye and his bruises, and he combines them with Billy's unblemished knuckles and the broken look on his face and the way he's hunkering down in his too-thin-for-the-weather jacket, and his heart sinks and so he's like, "Ten minutes kid," cause it's a cold night and, as far as he can tell from the empty parking lot, the kid must've walked there.
So Billy asks for a black coffee, the cheapest thing on the menu, but then he reaches for a wallet that isn't there and starts scrambling in his pockets, managing to find a couple of quarters or something but still not enough, so he just sighs all exhausted and resigned and says, "Never mind," and turns to leave.
And that's when Benny reaches out. He puts a gentle hand on his shoulder, regretting it immediately when Billy flinches, so he pulls his hand away and keeps his voice soft and says, "One coffee, coming up, sit your ass back down, kid," before bringing out the coffee AND a milkshake and following it up with a loaded plate of pancakes.
And Billy tries to refuse, brushes it off with a, "Don't need any charity," but Benny can see the way he's looking so longingly at the food, and he tells Billy that it's not charity, cause he's kinda planned on Billy helping wash some dishes up after.
And Billy can work with that.
(And, yeah, there's the offer of an after school job, Benny making some comment about how he's been thinking about hiring someone else, an extra hand to help now he's getting older, and, hey, Billy seems like a good, hard-working kid so what does he think? And Benny doesn't say it outright, but he also makes sure Billy knows he can come in whenever he needs a place to go, whether he's working or not.
And of course, after a few weeks, Benny notices that there's another kid hanging around too, some preppy guy whose shiny red Beemer sticks out like a sore thumb amongst the pick-up trucks and rusting old cars of his usual customers, and who always turns up when Billy's on shift.
And, yes, after another few weeks, Benny catches Billy and this other boy making out by the bins around the back, and he feels a little thrum of satisfaction when the preppy kid throws himself in front of Billy like a shield, his jaw set and his fists already raised, so all Benny does is smile over at a clearly terrified Billy and say, "He's still gotta pay in full for the fries, kid. Don't go giving out any sweetheart discounts, y' hear me? Now get a wiggle on. Break's over in five," then heads back inside with a fond chuckle.)
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Usopp tracks him down after dinner, as if there’s really any place to escape on a ship the size of the Going Merry, though the storage room was always a viable option up until Sanji caught Zoro napping on crates and told him to get out, bitching about how he had to check on their provisions.
Now one of his preferred spots is toward the stern, where he can rest by the mikan trees, enveloped by the warmth and scent of citrus and loamy earth on the open sea. Usopp comes to sit beside him, his nearly full sketch pad in hand and assorted charcoals in the other. It isn’t something he shares often, and Zoro finds it an extension of trust when he lets him peer over his shoulder as he sketches, or perhaps turns it just enough to blatantly put it in his line of vision.
He flips through outlines of Chopper’s hooves and sketches of three boys who thought he hung the moon to land on a half-finished profile of Luffy. He drums his fingers on the edge of the pad, poking through charcoals that all look the same to Zoro, and he tears his gaze away to stare at one of the bullet scars on his forearm. His back still burns from where Luffy had decided to lounge across it in the middle of a push up, which had been easier to ignore until his wandering hands had veered away from casual and annoying.
He can still feel Luffy's fingers pressing into his ribs or the arm winding around him to drag a hand across his stomach before he'd bitten his ear, just to laugh when Zoro shoved him away.
“Are we gonna talk about it?” Usopp asks, head bent. He has his bandana tied up higher to keep his hair out of his face, eyes fixed on the page before him. He also calls this the golden hour, says it’s great for drawing, but Zoro doesn’t really see how since it’s such a short window and it’ll be dark soon.
“No,” he says.
Usopp makes a soft ah sound but doesn’t push it beyond that. A few sketchy lines later and he has the outline of the Going Merry’s figurehead.
It’s comforting then, because he genuinely does not want to talk about it, perfectly content with burying it away in a hollow in his chest until he draws his last breath. A bit melodramatic, yes, but his … longing (he doesn’t like that word, because it isn’t what it is, but it is too) for his captain will remain only that: something kept to himself. He will not cross that line.
“I don’t think it’s the worst thing ever,” he says, because woe for Zoro to think he wouldn’t actually bring it up. Luffy wasn’t exactly subtle and apparently Zoro didn’t school his expression as much as he thought he did. His projected annoyance clearly wasn’t strong enough, even though annoyance had been a big part of it. Usopp’s too aware and Chopper was too blissfully ignorant and entertained by their antics.
“Right,” he mutters, because it’s actually a terrible idea. He’s not as stupid as Nami and Sanji like to say he is.
Usopp smudges some charcoal with the side of his thumb. “When I first joined up I got the impression there were more to things than you guys let on. You didn’t say anything outright, and maybe it was just me putting too much stock into your dedication, so, y’know, I didn’t want to say anything. I’ve seen the way the looks at you though.”
“He doesn’t look at me like that,” Zoro says, voice sounding perfectly level, he thinks. He doesn’t want to talk about this anymore, but then he’d never wanted to talk about it in the first place.
Usopp finally turns to look at him, stares right into him in a way that makes him want to growl, bite back that maybe he should mind his own fucking business, that he knows he’s a liar but he should know when to cut the crap. He swallows and turns away.
“If you say so.”
This time Zoro does growl, or at least mutters something indelicate because he kind of wants to tell him to fuck off, but that’s a little too harsh and will like draw unwanted attention.
“I was there, remember?” he says after another minute spent fidgeting with charcoal that oscillates between shading and smudging. His voice is quieter though, like he’s afraid Zoro’s going to overhear, as if he isn’t talking to him right now. “I heard the oath you made to him, Zoro. At this point I think you and I both know there’s a lot more weight to it now than there was before.”
“It’s not happening,” he returns with a tone of finality, because it isn’t, and Usopp better drop it.
He turns back and Zoro’s mildly surprised when he doesn’t flinch back and shrink in on himself when he glowers at him. He does wince, just a little bit, but he meets his gaze head on and looks like he wants to say something else. The sketchpad teeters on his knee, and he starts before it hits the deck.
Zoro hunches his shoulders and forces himself back to his feet.
“I’m not dealing with this,” he mutters, reaching for his swords. It was better when it was just something he himself had to address. It was never meant to be shared.
“Clearly,” Usopp mumbles under his breath. “Zoro, wait. Don’t be stupid about it—easy, that’s not what I meant,” he’s quick to interject, holding his hands up. “I just mean … be realistic about it for a second? Luffy trusts you more than the rest of us combined. You’re his go-to for everything, and I don’t think that’s just because you’re his first mate in everything but title. He looks at you in ways I can’t describe, like—”
“Usopp.”
“What are you afraid of, that it’ll change the dynamics between the crew? How?”
“I’m not afraid, Usopp.”
“That’s not what I said. Do you think it’ll change the dynamics of the crew?”
He grinds his teeth, hard enough a grating noise screams in his ears. “Enough.”
“Fine, look at it this way: we’re not part of this crew for a few weeks, right? We’re in this crew for the rest of our lives,” he falters for a moment, and he sounds almost wistful and Zoro so badly wants him to shut up when he says, "Would you rather live your life full of regret for something you had the opportunity to act but never did?”
“Usopp, stop,” he says, gritting his teeth. His fingers flex around the hilt of Wadō as he loops his swords back into his belt, but Usopp’s paying that no mind and watching him with a furrowed brow. Settling back against the deck his hands still, the Merry’s sketched eye and his own watching him too closely. A bead of sweat trickles down his brow and he swipes it away with the back of his forearm before he blinks and looks away, chin ducked in his chest as the sea swells and calms against the ship.
Zoro will pull, and will twist, and will pry and will split himself apart to protect his crew. There are a great many things Zoro would promise Luffy without any hesitation, any number of vows he would make in a single breath. But this cannot, and will not, be one of them.
No, no this is never something meant to be shared. This, this affection Zoro harbors for Luffy, the one that has morphed in a steadily growing resentment toward himself, is his and his alone.
Zoro is not one to ask for things he cannot have, and this—this is his burden to bear.
“Okay,” Usopp says after a minute, sketchpad long forgotten and charcoal staining his fingertips and palm of his hand. Zoro draws in a breath and it bubbles up into a burst of pain between his eyes. He can hear him swallow, eyes darting away in fear of further reprimand. “Sorry.”
His footfalls are heavier, weight dragging into the ache that nestles between his shoulders, but Usopp says nothing more and Zoro says nothing less. The stairs creak in an amalgamation of wood and metal, and as he descends to the lower deck the sunlight catches on the waves, leaving him squinting and raising a hand against against the blinding light.
He pauses at the bottom, looking out over the expanse of the ship and the rolling sea spread before them in every direction, full of the promises of their dreams and freedom, and spots a familiar figure in his seat atop the masthead. As if he senses him, he sits up a little straighter, hand against the brim of his hat as the breeze kicks up, smelling of salt and the last remnants of dinner.
Luffy turns him and beams, and it’s a sick, twisted pleasure to burn, isn't it, as he meets his gaze.
a missing chunk from ode to an ocean. !
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