fandomtownies | The Beach, Sunday

Priestly hadn't done the whole "moody on the beach" thing since he was in Santa Cruz. He felt like he should be out of practice, but it turned out staring out at the sea was something you didn't forget how to do.

Dinah's beach these days was the rocky shores around Arkham and Blackwell, or the docks of New Gotham. But yeah. Same.

"Hey," she said, when she was close enough to be heard. "Glad you could make it."

That was normal, right? Not pushy, not weird?

...yeah, okay, weird.

A little weird, yeah.

"How was Karla's party?"

"It was good. Good cake." Dinah nodded, looking at the ocean. "People I hadn't seen in a while, all glad to be-- there." Themselves. She hurried on, "Jaime was there, Jono, Rinoa, if you know her."

Priestly nodded. Small talk. They could do small talk. "I hired a new guy at the diner. According to radio, he's teaching the kitchen staff how to knife-fight."

That got a small laugh out her, and she relaxed a little, stretching her arms out over her knees. "A useful skill to have, around here." She turned her head to finally look at him. Same as always. But it hit her that aside from that one awful morning, it had really been more than seven weeks since she saw this Priestly. "What else have you been up to?"

Priestly shrugged, glancing over at her. "Not much. Catching up on classes at the community college." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Um, speaking of college."

This was awkward.

"Yeah?" Dinah tried to think of what he'd look so uncomfortable about, telling her about his studies. Absolutely nothing was coming to mind.

"I heard back from the places I applied back in February," Priestly said. "Sheba ended up replying and, uh." What if it was too weird? "I could probably put it off or something, but she picked New Gotham and that's what I would have gone with before, too, so if it's cool, then I was thinking I'd still go."

It was a big city, right? She could totally still avoid him if she wanted to.

"They have a good Nutritional Science program."

"You--" Glee! Absolute glee! Dinah was beaming at him, thrilled. "Really? Seriously?" She leaned forward, about to hug him at the good news, and then--

leaned back, remembering. "That is awesome."

And then the rest filtered through. "Wait, of course it's cool! Why wouldn't it be cool?"

Then winced. Because now, now she was having thoughts, and...

Priestly was not proud of the fact that he leaned away when he saw her coming in for a hug.

Not. Proud.

They'd have to work on that

"I dunno, 'cause it's all weird now, and I -- we can't even hug each other."

Her powers had never used to bother him. Of course, now he knew exactly how they could go horribly wrong.

"It is all weird now." Maybe saying that would help. "I just-- I don't want to believe it's going to be weird forever." Dinah dug the toe of her shoes in the sand, not looking at him, thinking about five different things at once. "You're not the only one scared to hug you." She frowned, looking up. "I mean..."

"We don't have to be huggy to be friends," Priestly offered. "It's not like Dean and I hug all the time."

Not that his and Dean's relationship was what everyone would call a great friendship.

Dinah's expression crumpled, but she got it under control. "No. We don't." She swallowed hard. Because now a thought she hadn't had before had surfaced, and she ... kinda felt like she had to ask. "Do you, um. Do you want to still be--" Ahem. Straightening, she said, "Friends, like we were before? Someday. Not today."

"I've thought about that," Priestly admitted. "I've thought about it a lot." Usually while drunk. "And . . . I don't like the idea of you not being in my life."

"Oh good. Me neither." Dinah got her breath back, tightening her fingers together, and looked at him again. "I was afraid. That you'd dump me as your BFF. Find somebody less--" She waved one hand, and then shrugged a shoulder. "And I'd have to let you." And just cry forever, yup.

"Who the hell do you think could replace you?" Priestly shook his head. "I think we can fairly say that we've been through everything together, now."

Dinah very carefully bumped his shoulder with hers, then leaned away again.

"Yeah. That part made me come here. When I was still scared to." She swallowed, then said, "I'm not scared of you. But I think, maybe, I get a little scared of-- the us-that-was. Maybe."

In that, it'd occurred to her over the last few weeks that if Priestly hadn't run for it first? She would have.

"That's fair," Priestly said. "We were pretty fucking creepy."

"Yeeeeah. Extremely." Dinah had a weird expression on her face, and said, "I don't ever want to be evil. But."

Priestly snorted a half-laugh. "How is there a 'but' on not wanting to be evil?"

"Not the evil, you're right, that's not the..." Dinah huffed in exasperation, mock-glaring at him. Then back at the ocean. "They were having fun. Horrible, homicidal, selfish, but." She was quiet a second and said, "I have the same kinda fun when I go out fighting crime. It freaks me out. Where the lines are."

Great, now she'd given him another reason to give her weird sideways looks.

Like, say, the one he was giving her now. "I'm not sure whether to be weirded out or impressed by that."

Dinah winced. "See, and now... Things are complicated. When I'm honest. I hate that." She paused, musing, "I had the same kind of thoughts after I was a vampire. Not that I wanted to kill anybody, but to just be wild. And irresponsible and destructive and this is probably freaking you out, I need to shut up now." GAH.

"Okay, well, we already knew you were an adrenaline junkie."

"Yeah. There was a lot of adrenaline."

And sex.

And wow, did she need to get a boyfriend or a fling or something, that was not a good road to go down.

"...how are you doing with it? With the parts that have, you know. Nothing to do with me?"

"I dunno. I mean, he wasn't that different from me. But he was also crazy different."

"Best part?" Dinah rested her chin on her knees. "Worst part? And that can include Sheba, so. There had to be *some* best part in there."

"Sheba was very cool. I would like to be Sheba when I grow up."

"Me too." Dinah smiled a little. "I miss her. I wanted to keep her, but I wanted you back at the same time." She frowned. "And now I'm remembering saying something like that and it's weird, 'cause I forgot you'd know."

"Well, yeah. It's weird, though, you know, because I remember her as me, but she also . . . wasn't. This whole thing is just bizarre."

"Worse than usual because it lasted so long." Dinah grimaced. "Are we ever going to talk about it more than this?" 'Cause she kind of felt like she had stuff to say, and he had stuff to tell her, but pushing more than that was just-- yeah. No.

"It's just hard to wrap my head around."

"Tell me about it." Dinah frowned. "I mean-- oh, you know what I mean."

"Yeah. I know." Priestly smiled a little. "We're okay, right?"

Dinah wasn't sure about that. But now.... "We're gonna be," she said, with confidence. "And hey. You'll be in New Gotham." She grinned again. "We have time."

"Not till the end of the summer," Priestly said. "I gotta make sure the diner's in good hands. But yeah. We'll have time." Priestly hesitated, then leaned into her a little. No skin to skin, but pressure. A little weight.

A start.

Dinah squeezed her eyes shut tight, and smiled as the tide came in.

The Beach, Sunday

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