fandomtownies | The Park, Sunday Afternoon

Pulling her leather jacket tighter around her shoulders, Hayley Fitzpatrick went and crouched at the edge of the duck pond. She watched her breath in the cold air, rubbed her red-wool-gloved hands together for a bit more warmth. It wasn't any colder than it could get in Gotham, this time of year, but then again she tried not to spend too much time outside during the winter in Gotham.

She stayed for a moment, looking past her breath into pond itself. Thoughts whirled in her head. Doubts, anxieties, fears, wants, desires. All the questions she had for herself, why did she leave Gotham, what was she wanting here, why hadn't she called any of her old friends? There weren't answers in the pond, in the cold, and she didn't have any answers for herself in her head, either.

She reached into the pocket of her jacket, tugged at the red silk hood that she kept in there. Why was it she felt better with the mask on than she did as plain old Hayley Fitzpatrick? Another question she didn't have an answer for. She sighed a bit and stayed there at the edge of the pond, trying to answer all those questions in her head.

[ooc: Open post!]

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Jono couldn't help but grin. Hayley's honesty seemed to come from somewhere right out of left field, but it was strangely refreshing, even if it was insanely jarring all at once.

"So the options are 'scary,' or 'other, off-limits ways,' then?"

News to him!

Hayley shrugged. "I dunno," she said. "I hate to say it but we didn't really meet up all that often, you know?" She rubbed the back of her neck with a hand.

"I had a lot of other people on my mind. But maybe this is one of those things that change?"

"It could be," Jonothon allowed, nodding slightly. "This place is a fresh start, isn't it? Back to the familiar to reinvent ourselves, wasn't it?"

A lot of the particulars of their conversation at Caritas had been swallowed in drink that night, but he was sure he remembered something like that.

"I think it could be safe to count new friends as a part of that."

Lord knew he needed some. Ones that wouldn't judge at a glance, and maybe didn't know him all that well back when he was burning, but wasn't bleeding away inside.

"New friends," Hayley said with a nod. "I definitely need those. Got to do something other than waitress and sit alone in my room, right?"

Her tone almost screamed that her sentiment was real... but that she was hiding something as well.

Jonothon caught that hint of something else in her tone, and smiled faintly at the sound of it. Who wasn't hiding something, around here? He certainly was. Too many things to keep track of these days, it seemed.

"And I can hardly spend all my time petting the cat or running the theatre," he agreed, with much the same tone, himself. "People need... hobbies, I suppose. Or something of the sort. I haven't been very good at that kind of thing lately, admittedly."

"Me either," Hayley said with a sigh. "I keep hearing knitting is the thing to do but that's just super square sounding."

She let out a wistful sigh. "I suppose I could catch up on Rumor Gal. I've probably missed a couple seasons."

"Oh? I ever was all that interested in that one, myself," Jono admitted. "Raven is, I think. Or... was, before I left."

He frowned a little. How could he not be sure, now? It bothered him a little, that he'd fallen so out of touch with the people that he was closest to. And he was pretty certain that, Weapon X aside, he had nobody to blame for that but himself. That was usually how it worked, after all.

"I wasn't gone all that long. I'm sure she still likes it."

There. She had to. He said so.

Hayley nodded. "Yeah, not like people change all that much in a short time, right?" she said, only sounding a little skeptical. "People are sure to still like the things and people they used to."

She was putting words to the fears behind a lot of the questions that had been swimming in her head.

She was putting words to a lot of the fears in his own head, too, for that matter.

"People don't change all that much in a short time," he agreed. "Unless something big happens, that makes them change that way."

Voice of experience, right there. Jonothon frowned thoughtfully before pressing on. "Though... sometimes, the way we see them can change that much, even if perhaps they haven't changed at all."

"And that's the worst," Hayley said. "Because it's the hardest to change, too. Sometimes people get images in their heads that just stick no matter how you try to shake it loose."

She shivered for a moment, not entirely because of the cold. "And sometimes those images are in your own head."

She spoke freely not because she had trust in Jono, but because she had no reason to hide these things. They were at the surface for her, scratch at her skin and the greasepaint was just waiting to get out.

And some days, he still looked at his hands and saw blood. There were moments where he was positive that he'd bleed in gouts of flame, if someone were to rip his chest away.

It was easy to talk when you were convinced the world could see straight through you to the other side.

"Images of yourself? And closing your eyes can't do anything to make those images change?"

"And sometimes it only makes them brighter," Hayley said with a sigh. "But things change. We said so, right?"

She was almost insistent in tone. It was going to get better, wasn't it?

It had to. It wasn't as if it could really get much worse from where it was now. Right?

"We said so," Jonothon confirmed with a small nod. "It might take some work, but things change."

"Work, yeah," Hayley said with a nod. "Guess nothin' good comes easy, right?"

The fun stuff was easy. The good stuff... took work.

That was more or less what it boiled down to, yeah, and Jono's wry smile confirmed that much easily enough.

"Not in my experience, at least."

Hayley huffed out a long breath and nodded.

"Almost makes ya want to take up smoking again," she said, having nothing more insightful to say.

"Almost," Jono agreed, smirking faintly. It had been years since he'd smoked. Well, since he'd smoked a cigarette, right along with most other filthy habits that had been kicked for him when his powers had manifested. "But I think perhaps I'll settle for going in out of the cold. Care to accompany me to the Perk, or were you planning on staying out here for a while longer?"

Walking.

"Coffee is the next best thing," Hayley said. "Especially the kind you can get nowadays. Sixties coffee just really doesn't compare."

She rubbed her hands together and nodded. "And coffee with friends is even better."

"Brilliant," decreed Jonothon, with about his usual level of enthusiasm as he nodded toward town, waited a moment, and then started walking. "I'll treat, then. To commemorate this new friendship."

And also because he just liked doing nice things for people he got along with, dammit. Even if he'd never admit it.

The Park, Sunday Afternoon

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