Batman Beyond: Double Trouble (closed)

[Mephistophelily]

Deidre was now in her heaven. Free of Wayne, free of that mansion, free from the peering eyes of cameras. If only she could convince Delia of the same thing- but instead of reveling in their freedom of the night, the twin was seemingly lingering behind, as if reluctant to actually keep up with her. As if she wanted to-

Wanted to-

She came to an abrupt halt, spinning around on a heel and resting her hands on her hips, both motions so sudden her sister nearly plowed into her upon catching up. "What is your ISSUE, Dee?!," Deidre demanded, jabbing a finger back the way they had come. "You're thinking about HIM again, aren't you?! This is supposed to be us, just us! Forget him, Dee... Just... forget him."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!," Delia yelped, shaking her head and quickly holding up her hands. "I swear, Dee! I'll stop. Really! It's just- It's not the DeeDee frame of mind right now, not like this- I just can't get into it!"

"Then you need some help." Deidre smirked, grabbing her sister's hand and pulling her to the fire escape ladder of one of the nearby buildings. "Up. We can find it better from above."

"It?"
"Think, DeeDee."
"Us."
"Exactly."

The two were soon sprinting along the building rooftops, Deidre stopping occasionally to peer into various skylights or back down into the streets. The sudden sly grin that spread across her lips upon one such downward peering gave her sibling the answer to her unspoken question- she had found what she was looking for. Deidre's leg quickly rose up, vertical from the cement roof, then dropped her heel hard into the glass window. "Window shopping, DeeDee."
"Through broken glass, DeeDee."
"Details, Details."

Slipping down through the broken mess, the duo were soon happily rummaging through the various outfits of the costume shop. Something about the shop didn't exactly seem quite right to Delia, who was simply picking at some of the suits, nearly jumping out of her skin as her sister shrieked in laughter. "Perfect, perfect, it's perfection! Oh, DeeDee, we'll feel like a new set of girls!"

Staring as her sister stepped out in her new choice of clothing, she caught the mirrored set tossed to her, still managing to keep her eyes locked on her sibling. "Th... That? DeeDee, we're clowns... not Dominatrixes."

"Maybe your boy's into that sort of thing, DeeDee." Deidre smirked again, tossing a secondary part to her sister and waving her hand toward the other side of the store. "Now go. Shooshoo. But be quick about it."

Delia sighed, taking her clothing and hurrying to change. Her old clothing rolled into a pile, she gave herself a quick glance over in a mirror, unsure about this new change. Using the makeup kit tossed to her moments ago to paint her face in her usual manner, finally feeling at least somewhat more at home with that than the clothes. Seeing the painted face in the reflection, she truly did feel more like her old self. Not Delia.... One of Two Dee's. The second half of the set. A broken piece that needed its other half...

Returning to her sister, she found her waiting with a little black bookbag and something in her other hand.

"Here. Put your clothes in this, and keep it close." Deidre handed her the bag, then smiled, slipping the curious thing she had into her boot. "Feel better, DeeDee?"
"Wonderful, DeeDee. Let's go play."
"Some sisters' games."
"Hide and Seek?"
"Smash and Take?"
"Sounds so much better..."
"Doesn't it? Wayne owes us over that damn figurine. Let's find something bigger. And shinier."

Grabbing her sister's arm, the two were nearly skipping as they headed for the door, Delia simply gripping her sister's forearm as they approached and letting her help to swing her legs into the glass, the momentum of her leap and added push from her sibling smashing through the glass to gain their exit. Back to the streets, and back to causing mayhem.

Look for something with a big ol' "W" on it.
Most likely something of Bruce's.
Something worth smashing, in Deidre's eyes.

 

[Eazy]

Although having Bruce back in the cave to feed him potential directions would have been a great help, Terry was generally able to manage well enough with both the receiver built into the mask of his uniform and the Batmobile's onboard computer system. Stealthily, the lone figure continued to glide over the streets of Gotham, keeping his eyes and ears opened for any sign of the girls, as he listened into the police signals relating to any possible crimes caused by them. With the amount of petty crime any major city, let alone one with the history to it such as Gotham, tended to have on an average night, the costumed figure knew it'd be difficult to find a definite source.

As such, it was a mixed blessing when the call of a break in at a costume shop had come through the computer. "Ugh! I should have known to stake those locations out first." Terry scolded himself, not quite having the mind of the world greatest detective, despite not exactly being a dim bulb in his own right. Regardless, the current Batman set the airborne vehicle in the location of the reported crime in hopes of getting there before the police did, even if the girls were long gone.

Unfortunately, both hunches turned out to be right, as the Batmobile hovered over the costume shop which showed zero heat signatures on the inside. Terry could hear the sirens in the distance. In a sense, he was already too late. They'd not only snuck out of the mansion but had now committed a crime. The teen considered his options here. Trying to help them now wasn't so simple as letting someone get away with a late night stroll after a sentenced curfew. It was aiding and abiding a couple of repeat offenders after their most recent attempt at a crime spree. Maybe Bruce was right about his getting too close to the girls? They already had an honest chance at seeking redemption here. Even Delia.

That last name caused Terry to lightly tighten his grip around the steering wheel of the flying vehicle, the glowing whites of his masked eyes narrowing slightly, as the teen seemed to gain a renewed burst of determination on the matter. If nothing else. If nothing else, then he would be the one to bring them in before they went any further. With that on his mind as an excuse for continuing his search, the Bat then pulled up a map of the city. More so, of the immediate area around the robbed costume shop.

"Let's see, if they're still on foot, then they can't have gotten too far." Terry mused, gloved fingers gliding and taping along the monitor as played at the maps controls. It didn't take long until the teen realized there most likely target from here. After all, it wasn't like either of them seemed terribly fond of Bruce. But especially Deidre, whom Terry had guessed to be the one tugging them along at this point.

"Bingo." He stated calmly, eyes narrowing slightly as he found the nearest Wayne owned properties. Depending on which direction they took, the twins would either find themselves at one of the Wayne Aerospace hangers or one of the WayneTech branches.

"Great. So they can either steal a luxury jet and fly to God knows where or find a way of hacking into computers to tell everyone Wayne's a poopy head." Terry mused, only half-joking on the worse case scenarios, as he took a crapshot guess on which location they would head near first and moved the Batmobile quickly in an effort at cutting them off along the way.

 

[Mephistophelily]

The high towering building stood before them, a nervous look on Delia's face as the twins stared up at the monstrous heights. Deidre, however, was grinning proudly, a mischievous look on the painted face as she turned to her sibling. "So what say we give Ol' Wayne a taste of what the DeeDees can do to someone who makes them feel like crap, hmm?"

"But he didn't really do anyth-" Delia cut short as her sister sprinted forward, leaping up to grab one of the corners of a window and hoisting herself up onto the next ledgeway. "Yeah. Let's just... go anyway." With a sigh, she took after her sibling, trying to keep up with her as they scaled the building. The heights weren't truly an issue for the set, but more the slick surfaces of the architecture. Fingers found very little to cling to, leaving both girls stretching and contorting to find something to dig fingertips against. Delia groaned slightly as she saw just how far Deidre had gotten without her, trying hard to get her own motions to catch up with her other half.

Deidre had come to a halt. Not so much to wait for her sibling. She had run out of handholds.

"Problem, DeeDee."
"Time for inside?"
"Not sure if that'll work." Deidre tapped a foot against the glass, frowning again. "Let's see what we can get a bit further up. There's a walkway not too much higher."
"...Higher...," Delia repeated, cringing as her sister reached out to grasp her shoulder. The smirk on the other's face forced one onto her own, drawing a deep breath and nodding. "Right. Up and up and away."
"Wrong city. Right thinking."

The two continued to hoist and tug themselves up the building's side, pausing only long enough to regain breaths and wait for the other as they fell behind. Delia seemed to be having the most trouble, something Deidre was beginning to question as a lack of strength in muscle- or a lack of strength in determination. Was she losing her sister?

"Get up here! Not much further! I can see the ledge! The WayneTech sign is up here, we can find a way in from there...," Deidre encouraged, finally reaching up to grasp the ledge with one hand, before holding out the other for her sibling.

Delia grunted, trying to reach out for the offered hand, cringing as she felt the muscles of her back beginning to strain. "DeeDee, I-I can't-"

"Don't you even start that! The Deeds can do anything, now get your butt up here!"

She grimaced at that, stretching out a bit more.

Something popped in her back. Delia's eyes widened at the sound, her clinging fingers starting to lose grip. "Deidre-!," she shrieked, crying out as her sibling flailed out, grabbing her arm as she started to fall.

"Not again. No more skydiving." Deidre smirked, hauling her up beside her on the ledge's edge. "Now. Just up and over and we're good to go..." Pulling herself over the lip of the building's edge, she turned back to grab Delia's arm, gasping as the weight of her now one-armed sibling pulled against her. "Put some effort into it, would ya?!"

Tumbling over the side, the twins were left in a rather uncoordinated pile before the glowing WayneTech sign, gasping for breath before a slight giggle came from Deidre. "Oh. Now that. That was fun." Getting to her feet, she offered a hand to her sister, helping her to stand. "Arm alright?"

"Yeah. Just... just pulled something. Been awhile since that's happened."
"We lost some of our flexibility. Stupid cells."
"You made us lose time in the gym with those comments you made."
"Officer Koors had a lumpy butt. She had to know."

Delia sighed as she shook her head, glancing back out over the city. Not much in the line of clouds tonight. The moon was still brighter than the lights of Gotham, but not by much. The city seemed to always hold a glow of its own, even on the darkest, cloudiest, dreariest of nights.

A sudden shadow over the moon's glow caught her eye. Was that-?
"Find a door and make it quick," She hissed quickly, shoving against her sibling. "I think we've got company on the way."

She'd wanted to be good. She really did.
What would happen now? What would Wayne do? What would... Terry say?
Terry...
She bit her lip as she hastily followed Deidre, shaking her head. No. Bats wouldn't take them in. She simply wouldn't let that happen. Terry had faith in her, and Batman would make that simply explode. He wouldn't believe her.... They were the DeeDees. They were one and the same, just as Deidre always said. He wouldn't believe her.

So she'd just have to make sure he didn't take them in.
"Get us inside. Now. I wanna see what kinda toys Wayne's got hiding in there."

 

[Eazy]

"Well, at least I picked the right location..." Terry noted with a tone of regret over the entire ordeal as he caught sight of the girls during a passing over the building prior to their slipping out of his range of sight. It was a twinge of regret which the current Batman realized he couldn't allow to linger on within the back of his mind. Regardless of what hope he may have, or perhaps had, for at least one of the girls, they would still view him as a threat with little reluctance toward taking him down. He needed to go into this with a similar mindset, for things could become very bad, very quickly.

Taking the time to plant the Batmobile onto the roof of a nearby building for safe keeping, the Bat would then rely on the gliding abilities of his suit to close the remaining gap as he swooped toward the WayneTech building. Keeping toward the shadows, clung to one side from about several stories upward; being aware of how not to set off any possible alarms on the exterior of said building while using its shadow to hide himself in order to slip around and get the drop on the pair.

Sure enough, with the occasional assistance of his suits enhanced hearing, Terry was able to narrow down their exact location and find them just as they seemed near gaining entry into the building. Slipping into Batman mode, trying to push aside Terry McGinnis and acting closer to how the old man would want, the darkly clad hero swooped down into action.

"Falling into old habits, huh?" The subtly disguised voice of the current dark knight signaled, followed by swooping down just behind where the girls scurrying attempts had taken them; the wings of the Bats uniform extended before retracting back into the suit after sticking his landing to add, "And here I heard the rumor you two were on the road to being such good little girls."

Despite his previous reluctance, Terry's past experience with the DeeDee's had taught him well enough about underestimating their abilities; thus resulting in his standing with a slight fighting stance while already having a batarang drawn in his right hand as a further precaution.

It was then that the Batman had taken a closer look at the pair, which caused him to raise an eyebrow at their new choice of attire. "....Aren't you two supposed to be clowns... not dominatrixes?" The young man noted, prior to adding just under his breath, "Not that you'll hear me complaining..."

Peculiar choices of costuming changes aside, the Bat knew what needed to be done. They were skilled, but he knew most of their moves by now. More so, the suit always had its own tricks up its sleeves...and mask...and belt...and, well, everywhere. But as the dark avenger glanced over at Delia, that reluctance from earlier had hit, even if he'd managed to poker-face his way out of showing it openly. He was Batman. But he was Terry McGinnis. He always knew what they were capable of when they put on that make up. But now? He also knew the girls beneath the getup's and dangerous antics. Or rather, he started to believe this to be the case, as the costumed avengers hand began to lower slightly without his realizing it due to the break in his previous determination.

His battle stance loosened, without totally breaking away of a defensive positioning, while rather reluctantly offering, "Look, we both know how this is going to end by now. You've had your fun. So how about we call it a night and head on back to Wayne's? I'll even let you keep the new costumes." This was a mistake. Part of him knew that. Every bit of him which had trained under the old man to properly take up the mantle of Batman was screaming against his current attempted actions. But the part of him which was the man under the mask was remaining hopeful against what logic would dictate. In the back of his mind, Terry was simply grateful for Bruce not being behind the monitor right now to scold and yell in his earpiece.

******​

Back in the nearly empty mansion, the elder heir of the Wayne Empire had remained in a restful (by his standards, at least) slumber, when the faint sound of a door creaking open began to stir him out of his sleep. Alert, yet not panicky, Bruce turned his head toward the source of the light disturbance, then slowly sat up on his bed to gaze at the lone visitor to his room. "Ace?" The man stated plainly while looking upon the dog standing at the doorway which he'd previously left by Terry's side.

While the dog clearly couldn't communicate on its growing uneasiness since the long minutes following the younger human's departure, it didn't take long for Bruce to get the gist of what brought the large canine up here. "Something's wrong." Were the only words to escape the man's lips as his eyes narrowed in concern before pulling himself out of bed to inspect and get caught up on the still unraveling situation for himself.

 

[Mephistophelily]

"Take out the alarm." Delia was the one with the firm voice this time, pointing up to the camera above as soon as they broke open the door. Her attention was already focusing on further down the hall, trying to catch sight of anything big, boomy, and breakable.

"Aren't WE suddenly little-miss-bossy....," Deidre scoffed, glancing up to the camera in question before noticing her sibling was already headed down the hall. "HEY!"

"Just do it!," Delia hissed, not caring at all that her sibling was infuriated.
She had concerns of her own.
Terry.
Her heart was racing now, the guilt that was caused by everything her sister had made her do so far this night, everything she had done herself- She had to cover it up, make it go away, not let him know...

But now Bats was out there. She'd seen that blip of black in the moon's light. It couldn't have been a mere shadow. He always knew. He knew before they did sometimes, something she'd never understand... But Terry, he couldn't know.

It all came down to how to get OUT of this.

Deidre caught up moments later, panting as she pushed up her hat and glared at her sibling. "What is it with you? Two for trouble, hello?!"

"Laserwire Limbo. How low can you go, sis?" Delia seemed oblivious to her sister once again, stretching her shoulders and calves a bit before dropping down as far as possible. "Doublecrab. Give me your calves."

"I know how to do it....," Deidre growled, copying her sibling and working beneath the invisible line. Whatever had caught Delia's eye had to be on the far side of the building, and for there to be this so soon- more had to be ahead.

"Falling into old habits, huh?"

Delia ground her teeth together as the twins slid to their feet, spinning around and glaring at the man in black.

"And here I heard the rumor you two were on the road to being such good little girls."

That burned. Delia seethed a bit more with that, her fists balling as she stared at him. She had to get to that room. If what she thought was down there, this could be over with in a matter of minutes- and they could be right back to Wayne's place, her sister's need satisfied, her own want to simply be with Terry met. This was maddening. Infuriating. Annoying.

Deidre, however, seemed to be... smirking.
There he was. She'd missed him. "What's wrong, Handsome? Clown got your tongue?," She teased as he commented on their new outfits, wriggling her hips a bit before reaching down into her boot, yanking out what looked to be a long wrapped stick.

"Look, we both know how this is going to end by now. You've had your fun. So how about we call it a night and head on back to Wayne's? I'll even let you keep the new costumes."

"Ohhh, an offer from the Bat. What do you think, DeeDee? Should we take him up on it? Ohh, but Batsie, it's so very very boring back in that place. No playdates like this with you... Don't you know we've missed you?" Deidre pouted a bit with that,suddenly flicking out the stick to it's full length- a bull whip, which snapped hard against the floor. "You said you liked the Domme look, Batsie. Let's PLAY." Another twist of her wrist, and the leather cracked onto the floor beside him, Deidre's smirk growing still.

Delia glanced between the two, then took a sharp breath, simply turning and running down the hall. This sudden course of action even threw Deidre off, almost turning to watch her sister... but instead, gave a further smile. "More for me..." She shrugged, twisting the whip again and letting it circle above her, flicking it out to snare the Bat's ankle. Nothing too tight, but enough to- "Light up your life, baby." She grinned, hitting the switch on the handle; 50 thousand volts racing through the line.

 

[Eazy]

There was little point denying there was a certain strange appeal to their new choice in costumed garb. Enough so that the whites of the Batman's gaze had briefly shifted toward Deidre's wriggling hips before the more troublesome twin retrieved what looked to be her weapon of choice. Even after Terry made his offer, he kept a cautious eye on the item, while at the same time not letting up on being mindful of what her sister was up at any given moment. The teen almost smirked at the irony of her remarking on the lack of 'playdates' like himself back at the manor.

Almost, that is, until she suddenly flicked the item within her grasp to its full length, which caused the Bat to shift the majority of his attention her way. "Well, can't say I didn't try..." He remarked, beginning to slip back into his full role as Batman, as he got into a fighting stance and prepared to aim the batarang within his fingertips toward the girls wrist to disarm her.

Unfortunately, while Delia's sudden departure from the scene had only moderately thrown Deidre off her game, it proved to do far worse for Terry. "Hey, wait!!" He called out, eyes widening with a mounting panic, before the remaining DeeDee reminded him of the immediately problem at hand. "Dammit...." The costumed avenger muttered under his breath, as he tried to aim quickly for his previously chosen target, only to find the flicking whip already on its way to is own destination.

"What the-" He started to speak, before the suddenly racing volts of energy came traveling through the line and coursed through his body, "AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!"

The resulting howl of agony was one which Terry had let loose many times in the past - causing the young hero to drop his weapon and fall to one knee when it let up, before immediately undoing the whip from around his ankle. The suit may have dampened the resulting damage, but it still hurt like a mother, as the batsuits built in systems started going haywire while attempting to repair and reboot themselves due to the sudden overload. Even if Bruce were behind the monitor by now, it would take a while longer before the old veteran could be of any direct use to Terry.

"...W-Why is it always electricity with you costumed nutjobs?" The teen remarked, reflecting briefly on how often such attacks came into play during his tenure as Batman, while struggling at getting back to his feet.

Adrenaline was pumping through his body, yet finding it difficult still to regain control of the muscles in his legs while seemingly every system within the suit struggled at getting back to working order, Terry tried to reason despite realizing how futile it may be, "Look, are you sure you want to keep going through the same song and dance for the rest of your life? The new wardrobe is nice, I admit, there isn't anything else you would rather do with yourself? Or with your sister?" He watched for any potential change, before giving a faint shrug and suggesting, "I hear they're looking for new pretty young models on those gum advertisements?"

Of course, while Terry may have held onto hope of rationalizing with Delia, he at least knew better when it came to Deidre. Sure, there was a small part which hoped she may show a change of heart, but it seemed unlikely a few words which she'd probably heard a thousand times growing up were going to change her current stance. She wanted to 'play'. That's fine. He liked to 'play', too.

Without breaking eye contact on the girl, the Bat suddenly drew out three fresh batarangs from his suit (a function which, fortunately, was relatively basic enough to not be hindered by the earlier attack), and suddenly got into a stance to fling them with precision to make contact with her ankles and whip wielding wrist. "Crap..." Terry uttered at feeling his legs briefly giving out while carrying off the motion. Bracing himself while falling to a knee, he watched as the trio of batarangs sloppily left his hand and made their way toward Deidre; hoping at least one of them would find their mark.

 

[Mephistophelily]

Deidre was really starting to wonder where her sister had taken off to. It wasn't exactly helpful to be left out here to deal with Batsie on her own, but the chance to enjoy one of her favorite past times was certainly not something she was going to pass up to go chase after her. Besides, Delia made it sound like she had a plan. Whatever type of plan i twas, it better be worth it. Was there something back there with some good worth to it? How'd she know about it, anyway?

"I like the game, Bats," She noted firmly, resting a hand on her hip as she twirled her whip back to wrap about itself. "And do something better? What could be better than time with you?" It wasn't until the comment on her sibling had a moment to seep into her ears that he finally managed to hit a nerve- and not a weepy, realization of wrongs type of nerve. "You have no idea, you pointy-eared son of a-"

She yelped as one of his batarangs collided with her hand, hastily dropping her whip and clutching her wrist. "Hey, you got padding! I was gentle... ish! That's not how you take a lady's hand! Now the being on your knees part-" Deidre paused, hearing a rather loud running approaching from behind. She turned around slowly, her eyes widening as her sister came running back towards her, a large gun on her arms that seemed far too big for the single girl to be carrying- and she was certainly running with the thing.

That was beeping.
Loudly.
"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?!"

"I-dunno-it-won't-stop-get-the-hell-outta-the-WAAY!" Delia ran past her sister, plunking the thing down on its tripod base, grabbing hold of the two grips on either side and glaring down the sight at Batman. "ADS weaponry, Batsie. Nothin' but electromagnetic radiation in a concentrated beam. Hit all the buttons, seems you can really piss this thing off." She grit her teeth, her eyes narrowing as she stared at him. "I won't let you take me away from him...," She hissed furiously, lining the sight up with the black-suited man as the beeping grew faster.

Deidre stared in shock at the large thing, looking quickly between her sister and the man she'd been fighting with. It did what now? Electromag-

"NO!"

The sudden shout came out as the gun released, the blast of energy leaving a giant crater in the wall, remnants left about Deidre as she lay atop Batman... only inches out of the weapon's path. Deidre was panting, sitting up just enough to look down at the man in black- and hastily jump up, taking a quick twirl and kicking him in the stomach before glaring at her sister. "You didn't say anything about FRYING him!"

"You had an electric whip! What's the difference?!"

"MINE DIDN'T DO THAT-!" Deidre shrieked, pointing at the wall. "I don't want to kill him! We won't be able to keep playing like this if we kill him..." She paused, glancing back down at him with a smirk. "I love that look he gets in his eyes before a fight. Such a rush."

"Oh. My. God. You're in love with the BAT..." Delia stared at her sister, an arm draped over the gun before her. "And I'M the sick one?"

Deidre stuck her tongue out at her sister, then took up her whip again, jabbing it into Batman's side and pressing the button once more as her sister kicked over the gun. She had gotten all she needed out of it- and it seemed to have completely overloaded after that little... accident. Delia was already running back down the hall as Deidre stooped over, placing a gentle kiss on the Bat's cheek.

"So what if I am...?," She whispered, then hastily took off after her sister.

 

[Eazy]

"Funny. I didn't think you were the 'lady-like' type, Dee." Terry responded with a slight smirk under his continued intense glare at her protests - feeling at least some satisfaction for having made the hit. Incredibly sloppy, perhaps; to the point where the teen was almost grateful for Bruce not being able to see the resulting action to chide him about it later. But at least it gave him a short breather to collect himself before she could.... what was that beeping noise?

Directing his attention toward the hastily approaching Delia, the Bat's eyes widened upon recognizing what she was carrying as it was plunked down and the other sister took aim. Immediately, Terry tried to move, but the effects of the earlier electro shock hadn't quite worn off. "Well... this is ironic..." The teen grimly remarked on the circumstances, before desperately trying to reach for a grapple hook or anything else which may pull him out of harms way.

Fortunately, and indeed more so shockingly, Terry was saved by the sudden intervention of the sibling whom seemed she would have enjoyed seeing him blasted to a charred pile of ashes when out of costume. Everything happened so quickly to where the young hero hadn't quite managed to absorb the situation until after the resulting crater was left as a warning of what could have been. That, along with the twirling kick to his stomach had sobered Terry up to the reality of everything, both good and bad, while gazing up at the pair while laying on his back. And to think that being helpless on his back while two twins were hovering over him was once a dream of the teens. Only the twins in that dream had considerably less make up and weren't flip flopping on whether to kill him or not.

By the time the girls were done conversing, the glowing white eyes of his mask were mirroring the confusion within the Bat's own gaze while watching Deidre; wincing slightly at the jabbing and giving her a brief glare. As Delia made her way down the hall, Terry began to consider how Deidre's infatuation over him was likely more a case of simply enjoying the chase... until she placed the gentle kiss, which perhaps threw Terry for a bigger loop then anything else either girl may have had up their sleeve.

"So what if I am...?,"

With those words, she was promptly off after her sister; leaving current Batman laying there with a rather dumbfounded expression under that mask while trying to recollect himself. "....Ok, this is getting complicated." He eventually uttered, before starting to pull himself back to his feet - wincing slightly at the resulting tenderness from the earlier shock to his body while grumbling, "I know people used to over analyze the Jokers fixation over the old man into all types of double meanings. But this... I don't even know where to begin."

One thing was for certain. Regardless of whether they tripped any silent alarms at this rate, there was going to be some attention drawn toward the building as a result of that smoking crater and the noise caused by its formation. His eyes narrowed with renewed determination. They needed to wrap this up soon. His suit was still having trouble booting up all of its systems - including the methods of communicating with the batcave - but they were functioning enough for Terry to resume the game of cat and mice.

Familiarity with the buildings layout was on Terry's side, at the very least. Instead of making his way down the same hallway as themselves, the Bat took an alternate route through an opening to a nearby air duct. One needed to rely on old style methods when high tech gear wasn't coming through. And Terry knew the large ventilation system which stretched out through most of the building and would lead him toward the same area they were heading for while allowing him the advantage of hopefully regaining the drop on them. It was one of his last options for putting an end to this fast enough without hurting them.... or letting them hurt him, as the sharp pain to his side reminded the teen.

However, unknown to Terry, while his own suit was failing at making direct contact with the cave, it had in fact regained enough functionality to allow for the other end to pick up the flickering images sent out by his mask. Needless to say, the elder Wayne was watching the rough series of imagery as they were broadcast live toward him with a rather stoic expression; letting the proceeding minutes dictate what his course of action may be in dealing with both the twins and his young protégé.

 

[Mephistophelily]

"I hope you realize what you made me do," Delia spat bitterly, glaring at her sister as they ran down the hall, finally coming to stop before one of the elevators and Deidre using her whip to zap the controls.

"Made YOU do? You just made me save the Bats' life, what on Earth did I make you do?!," Deidre replied incredulously, looking back over her shoulder at her sibling as she gripped into the doors' opening and started to tug. "Little help here, please?!"

"You've completely ruined any chance I have with Terry-! He's never going to talk to me now- He had to have noticed we're gone...," Delia wailed, her own hands trying to help pry the doors open. "And then for him to find out what I just did to Batman... This is all your fault! I finally meet a guy that's actually interested in me without being another clown... Those guys in the Jokerz were just- I don't want to fight over lipstick with a guy, okay?"

Deidre gave her another look, then wrinkled her nose. "Can we talk about this later...?!" She fell to the side a bit as the doors finally popped open, the empty shaft only holding the lines of the car left floors below. "Right now we've got more important things to worry on.. Like getting the lead out before he gets moving again!"

"What, don't you want to kiss him goodnight?," Delia huffed, jumping out to grab onto one of the lines, waiting for her sister to join her on the opposing cord. "Not exactly the best couple there, sis- If you haven't noticed, Batfolk and Clownfaces have been at it for quite a long time...."

"Call it Romeo and Juliet."
"Except Juliet tries to poison him. All the time."
"He's cute when he's unconscious."

The two continued to argue as they slipped down the shaft, finally coming to silence as they reached the top of the elevator. Prying open the panel atop this as well, the twins lowered themselves down inside, once more forcing open the doors to gain freedom to the first floor.

"Straight through the front door?," Delia asked with a doubtful look in her sister's direction, shaking her head. "After all we did to get in here, we take the front door out?"

"Please. Aren't we enough alike for you to know better than that?" Deidre smirked, glancing back to her sibling. "I want to leave a parting gift for my valentine..."

"It's June," Delia grumbled darkly as Deidre danced off into the lobby. Whatever her sister was up to, she was not at all pleased to take part in it.

 

[Eazy]

Making his way throughout the building in hopes of catching up with the girls before the police would arrive, Terry briefly reached a hand up to touch upon the spot where Deidre had given her parting kiss. That... was an unexpected development. Granted, when it came to the various recurring villains whom the current Batman would match wits and batarangs with, the DeeDee's were perhaps one of the few whom he'd occasionally come close to possibly considering 'entertaining' to handle. But he hadn't thought of their encounters as anything remotely similar to what the one sister had seemed to take them. Well, not really, anyway.

Shaking such thoughts aside, Terry eventually reached the end of the line, as he pried open the duct of the ventilation shaft and dropped down to the floor below with surprising grace. Surprising, in that the effort of doing so had caused a sharp sting to return to his side. He must have really twisted something during the unexpected assist of Deidre from her sisters surprise attack.

Which was still something Terry had trouble wrapping his mind around. Hell, under the hypothetical situation where an unmasking was done to try and gain their trust during a future killing attempt, said unmasking would do little else then switch it up which twin was wanting to kill him or not. Too bad they couldn't both like him as Terry or even Batman. Hell, it was too bad they didn't both despise him under both guises. Even this would have simplified matters to a less frustrating degree.

Shaking aside such thoughts for now, the Bat had taken in the time to survey the immediate area. No visual sign of them, and the portions of his suit which had gone online weren't detecting any fresh traces either. Then, his glowing white peepers finally spied the open elevator door. Rushing toward it, Terry glanced up and down the interior of the elevator shaft, before deciding on trying downward. Wings spread to slow his descent, he closed the gap between floors instantly.

Sure enough, the first floor doors were still at least partially ajar, which was enough proof for Terry to continue on his current path. Opening them just enough for his relatively slender build to slip through, the young Batman was quickly grateful for the return of the night vision sensors within his mask as he cautiously made his way through the first floor area. Great. His attempts at trying to get the drop on them had placed him within a game of cat and mouse where Terry couldn't tell which mammal he was representing. Although if the old saying of a bat simply being a rat with wings held any truth, then the odds probably weren't in his favor, as he continued onward upon the girls trail.

 

[Mephistophelily]

"He'll see us."
"He's broken."
"Who's fault is that?"
"Yours. Mine. One of us did it. Team effort?"
"Truce!"

The twins grabbed hands in agreement with that, smirking just slightly. There was still a slight bit of a disagreement between them- after all, they'd both confessed in the last few hours on having the worst possible taste in men in the other's eyes. "Now we just want to give him a little parting gift," Deidre warned her sibling, pulling her up behind her.

"I know how to do it," Delia grumbled, placing a finger over her lips. They'd reached their decision on an exit point- one simple enough, really, and had proven the ease of returning to it... It was now merely a matter of losing their tail. She crouched down a bit more, clutching onto the lines as the Bat slowly wandered into the room, the trickle of the fountain below providing noise enough to keep the set's motions unnoticed.

Deidre was still shivering a bit. Their past encounters with the Bat had left them with enough ideas on the bag of tricks he could pull from, and the idea of delving into the cold water of the fountain had come about from it. Wether it actually did anything or not, Deidre wasn't quite sure at the moment, but at least it did help to cool her down.
Though she did have half a mind to simply shove her sister off into it.

He must have still been having troubles with his toys. He seemed a touch... off balance. Well, that would at least be helpful to them. Delia smirked, suddenly grasping the outer ring of the chandelier they had perched upon, raising her legs up above her in a handstand. Staying that way for a moment, she quickly swing her legs down underneath, letting the momentum of the swing bring her feet to collide against his chest. Within seconds, her sister pulled the same motion, from the opposite side- catching hard against his back. The lack of light made it a bit hard to see exactly if they had made proper connection as they landed on the tiled floors, hoping to have caused enough confusion to send him into the fountain's waters. "Sorry for the dance and dash, sweetie," Deidre purred out, taking up her whip once again. "But we're rather past our curfew... Don't wanna piss off the ol' man too much, now do we?"

 

[Eazy]

The water fountain had indeed aided in masking the girls already gingerly performed movements, but another negative factor was the light crackling and sound of static during his continued attempts at getting the suits tech fully back online. Terry realized it was very unlikely for Bruce to still be asleep at this point, and not knowing how the old man was reacting toward his absence was perhaps even more terrifying than the brush with death earlier in the night. Regardless, it served as enough of a distraction until the Bat was barely able to take notice of the one sisters swinging motion only after it was too late to do anything in preparation of absorbing or avoiding the attack.

"OMPH!!!" The darkly clad figure let out, stumbling backwards and attempt to regain his footing before suddenly feeling the other DeeDee's foot colliding with hard against his back, "AHH!!!" The hits were enough to send him reeling forward and toward the nearby fountain, where a sudden splashing sound would make it known even within the dark flood that their goal had been carried out successfully.

Having landed face first into the cold water, Terry's hands curled into fists, teeth gritting, as he listened to Deidre's attempted parting comment and decided he'd had enough of holding back and playing by their rules. "That's.... it!!" He barely audibly muttered out, before sitting up and tossing out a set of smoke bombs toward the twin siblings. It wouldn't do much on hindering their vision compared to what was already done by the lack of light within the building, but the gas was strong enough to cause a few coughing fits if they inhaled enough of it. If nothing else, it would ideally give enough of a distraction for Terry as he suddenly departed from the fountain and made for the ceiling.

Whether the girls stuck around to try and compose themselves or made a break for their planned exit, Terry was able to more clearly follow their movements, due to either the sound of their coughing and/or their comparatively hurried footsteps to get away of the offending smoke. In typical Bat family fashion, the current dark knight waited for an opening, moving from the chandelier and using any other means available to stay above them; with the girls first sign of his descent upon them being the ironic droplets of water which they felt only an instant prior to the Bat making his move.

The struggles from there were rather academic. Terry made use of the resulting confusion to eventually lasso up the girls back-to-back with a line of rope. Bound together, the smoke slowly clearing, the teenager then began to remove the pairs energy whips while carefully patting them down for any other weapons. In any other scenario this may have been somewhat enjoyable, but the Bat was noticeably annoyed for some reason, as he heard the police sirens from the distance growing closer to the building.

"I should leave the both of you here to be taken back into Arkham. You've already done more vandalizing and property damage than any second chances should allow for." He stated, almost scolding them on the matter, albeit while seeming to largely direct the words toward Delia as Terry made certain to meet her eyes while adding, "I can only imagine the looks on Mr. Wayne and his assistant's faces when they get the call about how quickly you fell back into your old habits."

Terry was indeed disappointed with Delia. Which was somewhat ironic, given how quickly he'd been about dismissing the sisters prior to their arrival into the mansion. But within a day's time together, the young Batman had begun to see what Bruce meant during their previous talks. Now, however? He just didn't know what to think when it came to the girl.

"And you..." He began, redirecting his attention toward Deidre while pointing his index finger at her, before seeming a bit at a loss for words and showing hints of confusion prior to simply admitting, "Well, I don't even know what to say about you at this point." The young McGinnis had come here to help 'rescue' one sister from the other, only to end up being literally saved by the 'bad influence' as the one he'd intended to help tried to kill him. As if today hadn't already been one for strange surprises and unexpected developments, as he noted with an odd hint of amusement, "Most girls I knew with a crush would settle on punching a guy in the arm or throwing spitballs to get their attention. Electrocution is a new one for me."

Shaking this off for now, knowing he'd need to stay focus compared to earlier, Terry could hear the police cars circling around the building, which left the young hero with one question on his mind for the pair, "Either of you want to give me one good reason for why I shouldn't leave you here for Gotham's Finest to find?"

 

[Mephistophelily]

"Bathtime for Batsie!," Delia laughed, stopping only long enough to cackle out gleefully at the sound of the Bat's thrashing in the water- resulting in a sudden squeal of surprise at her sibling's hasty grab of the back of her shirt. "Heyy-!"

"You don't stop, DUH!" No sooner had the words left Deidre's mouth then the sound of tiny metal hitting the floor hit their ears, the hiss of the smoke bombs quickly filling the room. The twins were soon coughing, trying to find their way back to the elevator, leaving it more as an "every clown for herself" situation as the cloud grew stronger.

Deidre had thought herself to be rather close to the door, flailing behind her to see if her sister was there... only to hear the sudden yelp from her twin, her own echoing it a second later as she was quickly bound to her sister's back. The Bat stood over them, hastily snatching the whip from her boot and earning himself another pouting glare. "Hey! It's not NICE to touch other people's stuff!," She snapped.

His words only brought a rolling of eyes from Deidre, but Delia's quickly widened as he spoke of sending them back to Arkham. His stare seemed deadset on her as he brought up Wayne and Terry, a pained look on her face.

"Pfft, whatever. That old windbag seemed pretty set on sending us back at a moment's notice anyway," Deidre scoffed, oblivious to the look on her sister's face behind her- a look that was nearly in tears.

"Bats, PLEASE don't send us back!," Delia begged suddenly. "It was- It... Haven't you ever felt that itch? Haven't you been without that suit of yours for too long, and when you finally got the chance- wanted to use it? Even if you had everybody telling you NO... You just- you just HAD to... I didn't mean to do that much damage.... I was- I just didn't want you to take us back, I didn't want- He'll hate me, he'll hate me for sure, I was so close to being so good too..." Her head lowered down against her chest, her eyes closing as she sighed.

"Ohhh my gawwwd.... Seriously, Bats, if you want to get some revenge on the whole tasering, feel free to do it now- Anything to drown out the sound of her going on about that guy..." Deidre's own head lolled over to look at him, though a smirk rested still on her face as he tried to address her. "Oh, come on, Batsie. I just needed a night out to see you. I got worried.. You never wrote, you never called... started thinkin' you didn't miss me at all... Had to make sure I still held a spot in your heart. Just had to make room with a broken rib or something first."

"She's right! Well- I mean- with the whole being her idea! Really!" Delia spoke up earnestly, looking up to him with wide eyes. "It was all her planning, Bats! I wanted to be good, I swear it!" She bit her lip as the sirens grew louder, whimpering softly. "I didn't MEAN to try to kill you! I just didn't want to go back to JAIL!"

"Oh, well that makes sense. Let's commit homicide to cover up criminal damage..."
"SHUT UP DEE!"
"YOU SHUT UP DEE!"


The Bat's voice firmly snapped the two of them out of their argument as he walked around them, as if contemplating his own course of action regarding them while the cops moved in. "Either of you want to give me one good reason for why I shouldn't leave you here for Gotham's Finest to find?"

"I'll make it incredibly worth your while?," Deidre offered up with a grin, only to hiss as her sister elbowed hr hard into the ribs.

"Send HER in, Bats. She's the one who caused all this... I want to try again. I swear, I swear you won't see me in this suit ever again. It was a horrible, horrible mistake. I just- please, Batman. I can't do that to Terry. Please..." She stared up at him, those tears finally coming free and washing away the white of her makeup. "I think I'm in love, Bats. Love made Gram do some pretty crazy things- Maybe love can make me stop."

Deidre was dead silent for a moment, only to perk as she caught a sniffle from her sibling, looking up at the Bat with a disgusted look. "Is she crying? Seriously? She's- Yeah, she's crying. Uuuugh."

 

[Eazy]

The dismissive response from Deidre was rather expected as Terry gave her a simple roll of the eyes. What hadn't been expected, however, was the sudden pleading of her sister as she begged and frantically stated her case. The surprise on Terry's masked face was fairly evident as the teen hero stared at the nearly tearing up sibling. Bats had known how bringing up his true alter ego may have had an effect on Delia, but the masked avenger hadn't thought she'd take it this hard. The man behind the costume almost wanted to reach out and comfort her, but restrained himself, hand rolling into a tightly balled fist as a result.

At Deidre's retort to her sisters begging, Bats gave her a sharp glance, but found it hard to maintain that cold stare as the twin spoke of how she wanted to see him. That still kind of weirded Terry out, albeit mostly due to the contrast of how she felt toward his actual self. Listening as Delia interjected herself once again, the police cars were already parked outside, meaning it wouldn't take long for the actual officers to work their way into the building and approach their location.

Listening as the pair finished their bickering, Terry began to feel a slight headache coming on due to the nights events and now trying to decide on what needed to be done. Rubbing at the temple of his forehead, the young man did pause at Deidre's offer, before giving her a glance which may have betrayed any attempt at a stoic stance by showing an initial, albeit brief, interest at the notion. Stupid teenage hormones, Terry thought briefly, before returning his full attention toward Delia as she made a final attempt at swaying his opinion. It became increasingly difficult for Terry to maintain that composure as the tears started to streak down her cheeks, washing away the white makeup, prior to dropping the big bombshell on him.

Eyes widening, almost feeling his heart catch within his throat at the sudden emotional jolt of her words, the young Batman immediately sought confirmation, "Did... Did you just say you're in love...with Terry McGinnis?" Terry had come dangerously close to saying 'me' at the end. This... This was getting complicated. No, this was beyond complicated. And with the clock ticking away on his making a decision, it became clear to the young McGinnis that there wasn't any one right answer on how to deal with the situation.

Glancing over at Deidre as she spoke out on her sisters sniffling, the Bat was a little annoyed at how she responded to her sisters feelings, yet calmly stated, "She's scared. Scared of losing somebody important to her forever. It's probably not entirely different from how you were feeling when it looked like I was going to die right in front of you." Not certain on what, if any, effect that comparison may have on the disgusted sibling, Terry could already hear the light footsteps of the police making their way down a nearby hallway. He considered leaving Deidre here, since she didn't seem like another trip into Arkham would particularly bother her. If anything, aside from being pulled away from her sibling, she probably would have preferred it over returning to the manor. But there was one big problem with doing so.

"If I leave one of you here, it'll probably result in the both of you being taken away from Mr. Wayne's custody." He stated simply, knowing how the courts would show reluctance to trust the remaining sibling into the care of somebody who failed to keep the other out of trouble after a single day.

Suddenly a swarm of police officers rushed through the nearby hallway, entering the area where the siblings had set up their ambush for the Batman, as even more cops barged in through the doors; effectively surrounding the entire floor of any route of escape. Well, aside from taking the nearby elevator shaft, which Terry had used with the assistance of the by now functioning rockets within his boots to propel himself and the girls up toward a higher floor. Using his suits cloaking abilities and an exit point which was a blind spot to anybody without a copy of the buildings blueprints, Terry had carried the still bound twins back toward the similarly cloaked Batmobile.

".....You two better not make me regret this...." The young man grumbled, glancing over at the pair still tied up and seated behind him, as the currently stealthy vehicle lifted off the rooftop and quickly made its way back toward Wayne Manor.

A few minutes later and largely ignoring any complaints or (in the potential case of Deidre) attempts at flirtation from the twins, the trio were back at the large estate of Bruce Wayne. Bringing the Batmobile to hover right outside of the window for the girls guest bedroom, the Bat helped them both inside before starting to remove their binds. For a split second there, Terry actually began to wonder if they may get away with the girls ditching out for their own brand of fun and his attempts at retrieving/covering for them. That is, of course, until they heard a familiar voice from within the shadows.

"I hope you kids had fun?" Inquired the elder sounding voice, as Bruce slowly stepped out of the shadows, cane in hand for balance, while giving that cool, judgmental glare toward both the girls and, subtly, toward the young man whom had taken up his old mantle.

"Mr. Wayne?!" Terry exclaimed, almost breaking out of his subtle tone and demeanor while wearing the costume, before collecting himself, "Uh, look, I was just... you see, the girls were-"

"I want to hear it from them." Bruce interrupted, already having an idea of what Terry might say to cover or put a positive spin on the DeeDee's actions, and thus wishing to hear what the twins had to say for themselves, "What did you two think you were going to accomplish? A night of thrills and then it's right back into Arkham? You may destroyed the camera set to monitoring the outside of your room, but did you truly think I wouldn't have put things together just because I didn't have video proof?" His words were calm, yet very much carrying with it a menacing, almost aggressive undertone to them, as the former Batman awaited to hear whatever they may have to say for themselves.

 

[Mephistophelily]

Delia said nothing as Batman repeated back her confession, a rather- odd tone to his voice. He didn't believe her. Of course he didn't believe her. She had tried to beat the crap out of the guy when she worked for the Joker... What on Earth could possibly come from it? She instead just said heavily, trying to stop her tears, realizing just how much it was driving her sibling mad. "Sorry, Sis," She hissed out, a twist of bitterness toward Deidre and the heartache of knowing Terry had to have seen they'd one by now.

When Batman spoke to her sibling, Delia glanced up, surprised to hear him scolding her so calmly on how she was reacting.

"I would miss trying to blow you up, sweetie," Deidre agreed, glancing back up at him with a smirk. "Oh, you're important to me, alright..." She leaned back a bit, trying to reach her sister's ear. "Gonna blow up your baby, Dee?"

"Just shut up."

The two stopped as Batman spoke out his weighed options, both girls looking up at him and hoping he'd make a choice that didn't get them back in the Asylum. His sudden grasp of the rope had them up and over his shoulder, Deidre crooning into his ear. "Oh myyy. I forgot how strong you are... Tighter, Bats. Can we keep the rope? Please?" She was giggling softly as he took to the same way the twins had come down.

With a heavy thump and his deposit of them in the back of the Batmobile, Deidre pouted just slightly, wriggling a bit. "Not even a kiss? Aww."

Delia, however, had gone mostly silent. She was dreading this terribly. Even as he returned them to their room, she only gave him a worried stare while slipping through the window, rubbing at her arms when the rope was finally removed. "Thanks, Bats...," she started softly, most of her makeup gone now. Rather apologetic, especially after trying to fry his innards earlier...

Wayne's sudden voice caused the twins to scream, grabbing hold of each other and attempting to hide behind the Bat. He quickly began to fumble for an excuse, something that caused Deidre to peer up at him curiously. Why did he care what Wayne thought about all this...?

The elderly man's demand for their own words caused the duo's eyes to widen, stepping back out like a set of pups with their tails between their legs.

"We weren't thinking."
"It wasn't supposed to go that far..."
"...Just a little late night run."
"We didn't mean-"
"-to cause so much damage..."
"We're so sorry, Mister Wayne," They added in unison, both looking up shamefully from their gaze at the floor.
"Another chance...?"
"Please. PLEASE." Delia's eyes were starting to brim once more. "I promised Terry, Mister Wayne. I have to make this up to him. Please..."

Deidre held back the urge to roll her eyes.

"This was a terrible, horrible idea on our part. MY part. I should never, ever have listened to her...," Delia added into her words to the man, shaking her head.

That, however, earned the twin a wideeyed stare of shock from her other half. "Excuse me?"

"Let me be in a different room from her, sir. Please. I'll show you that we're not the same, I swear. Just let me get away from her...."

Deidre was shaking now, she was so furious. "You ungrateful little BITCH!"

Delia pointed to her quickly, nodding. "You see? You see? She either is baiting me or insulting me, Mister Wayne... Please..."

Deidre said nothing then. Just stood there, her teeth grinding, before finally looking to Wayne. "You can't seriously believe her. She's as much to blame for this as me. We're one and the same, Wayne. Nothing... and NO ONE... will ever change her from that. Okay, yeah, what we did was- dumb... And I did want to see Batsie..." She glanced back at the man in black, then to Wayne. "...But not like that. I wasn't the one who took out the massive weaponry...."

Delia paled, then glared at her sister- who gave her a smirk.

 

[Eazy]

Listening to the pair plead their cases and then break out into an argument over it, Mr. Wayne eventually put his foot down, or rather his cane, as he brought their attention toward him with a single word, "Enough."

Surveying the DeeDee's and the costumed Terry McGinnis, Bruce seemed to have an idea of what he'd wanted to do, yet was mulling over whether or not it was the correct path to take matters from here on out. Seemingly noticing this, the current Dark Knight stepped forward while beginning to address the previous hold of that mantle, "Br-I mean, Mr. Wayne? I know you have every reason for turning these two over to the authorities and letting the law take it from here."

"But?" Bruce inquired, knowing there was going to be an alternate suggestion from his 'assistant', which the masked Terry was quick at following through on.

"But. I think if we give them another, they can turn their lives around." The Bat explained, glancing toward Delia and watching her reactions toward the pair discussing the girls fates for a moment until noting, "If nothing else, I think tonight has been a pretty big wake up call for at least one of them."

Redirecting his attention toward Deidre, on the other hand, had reminded Terry of perhaps the bigger problem amongst the duo, as he offered, "As for her? Well, I'll try to keep a closer eye on them both to make sure she doesn't talk her sister into anything like this again." Staring at her for a bit, the teenager raised an eyebrow while partially jokingly noting, "Besides, at least that way you won't have to break into any buildings and try to fry me in order to get my attention in the future."

The Batman returned his own attention toward Bruce, whom seemed outwardly unfazed by any of what they were saying, which may have given the false impression of his letting everything fall onto deaf ears. That is, until the elder Wayne finally broke his silence, "Very well." Noting the relieved expression on the Bat's face, Bruce gave a light scoff while thinking over how it was fortunate his connection to the WayneTech building's security cameras allowed him to distort the images manually from the Batcave. It'd hide the girls identity, although other matters would need to be addressed as he explained, "I'll pay for the damages out of my own pocket. But the two of you are going to work off the money with chores and other work around here until every penny is paid off. Understood?"

Knowing how pricy some of that damage would be, especially on covering the expenses of the crater left by Delia's killing attempt, Bruce figured it'd take a long while until the pair were out of debt from him. But with the way their 'rehabilitation' was going, it seemed they had plenty of time for working it off while stuck here. "Deidre can keep this room. Delia? I'll let you pick any of the other guest rooms on this floor for the rest of the night. Or however long you may decide to stay in a separate bedroom." Bruce offered, staring at the pair, than briefly glancing toward the current Batman and noting, "I'd have Terry show you to one, but he ended up rushing out into the city to try and find you both after realizing you were gone."

Realizing the truth behind that excuse for his 'absence', Terry gave a nervous little laugh before offering, "Uh, right, I'll be sure to keep an eye out for him and make certain he gets back safely. And thanks, Mr. Wayne." With that, Terry turned toward the window, stepping upon the sill with one leg while giving a parting glance toward the twins and warning with a pointed index finger, "You two be good, now." First staring at Delia, the Bat's glowing white eyes would then shift toward Deidre, at which point he'd add, "Especially you."

With that being said and done, the Bat got back into the hovering Batmobile and took off into the night; fully intending on coming back shortly afterward in order to done his civilian guise. This left the twins alone in the room with the owner of the estate, whom gave them both a look which said not to try anymore stupid stunts for the night, before making his departure, "I'll let you two handle the sleeping arrangements and any dividing of personal belongings from here. If you'll excuse me, I need to make a few calls to deal out damage control over tonight's fiasco." With those words, Bruce turned and left the room, with his true intentions being to await for Terry's return in order to have a 'talk' with the young Dark Knight about the events of this first night together.

 

[Mephistophelily]

He was going to demand Bats take them in, Delia was just certain of it. She could already feel her chest starting to tighten, afraid of what she was going to lose with Terry over this. They had gotten along so well... He'd connected with her, even with all the crap she'd done so far in her life. This... This was all Deidre's fault, and she was standing there smirking like some.... some... well, clown!


But Batman had some comments of his own, ones that made the 'reforming' villain look at him with widened hopeful eyes, then to the man who they were in the care of. She still kept quiet, not wanting any of her comments to come out wrong- or for her sister to decide to throw her own two cents into the mix and completely destroy it on her with another argument brewed... But she did manage to quickly nod, a pleading look given to Wayne.

Deidre seemed completely unphased by almost all the conversation, simply glancing around the room and shrugging when it came to the mention of wake up calls. However, when Bats looked at her and promised to keep an eye on her, she gave a wink and smirk, blowing him a quick kiss. "Naw, I'll find us some better games to play. Keep that rope, Pookie."

Wayne's final agreement to the Bats' offer brought a hopeful smile to Delia's face, nodding and trying not to cry. "I'm so, so, so sorry, Mister Wayne. Yes, of course, we'll do whatever you want to pay off the damages."

"HA!"
"Shut up, Dee!," She hissed, elbowing her twin. "At least I will, sir. She may need a good kick in the butt to get moving...."
"Send Batsie back with my whip. That'll get SOMETHIN' Moving."
"You are so gross...," Delia growled, shaking her head, then looking back to Bruce. "Thank you, sir. I just- I really need to get away from her... I swear to you, I can be better than this. I can-!"

The mention of Terry made her bite her lip, nodding again. "When he comes back, sir? Can- can you please tell him I'm very sorry...? I didn't mean to scare him. Or hurt him."

Batman took to the window with that, leaving the set to stare at Wayne- only giving a quick parting warning to the duo as he returned to his vehicle. "Of course, Bats," Delia called, only to make a face as Deidre winked again and blew a kiss to him.

With the hero gone, Wayne and the girls stayed quiet for a moment, though the stern glare on the man's face certainly said enough. Delia's gaze refused to meet the man's, looking more to the floor than him until he spoke up on the rooms. "Yes, sir. Thank you."

And with that, the old man left as well.

And Deidre immediately gave a deep, hard sigh- followed up by slapping her sister in the face. "What the hell is your problem?!"

Delia clutched her cheek, staring at her sister in shock. "Wh- What was that for?!"

"Yes, sir, Mister Wayne, of course, sir, Mister Wayne, Smoochie smoochie, Mister Wayne-!" Deidre hissed, shaking her head. "I'm really starting to think you just don't care about anything we have in common anymore!"

"I don't think we have ANYTHING in common anymore, Dee... aside from looks." Delia stared at her sister furiously, the red welt of her cheek starting to show through what remained of her makeup. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm taking some pajamas and just heading off to my OWN room." She snatched up some clothing from the dresser beside her, glaring at her sister before heading for the door.

"Suck up to them all you want, you're still my sister, and don't you ever forget that! Terry sees you as a charity case, you know? There's no way he'd ever actually love a psycho like you... Like US!"

Delia simply slammed the door behind her.

 

[Eazy]

"Oww!!" Terry openly winced, giving Bruce a questionable glance as the older male helped to finish tightening the wraps around his waist while the pair finished going over the days events in the privacy of the Batcave, "Is it my imagination, or are you making these tighter than you normally would?"

The elder Mr. Wayne simply stared back at Terry's question, seemingly giving his response by applying one final tug, much to the teen's chagrin, before fastening the gauze into place while moving the conversation forward, "Just be grateful you didn't end up with worse than a nasty bruise. From what I managed to see, you were performing a lot sloppier than you normally would."

Starting to lower his arms and relax after the gauze was applied, the by now civilian clothed Terry reached over to pull on a black shirt while admitting, "Yeah, I know. You're right. I let myself get too close and it caused waaaaay too much hesitation while on the field."

"Getting too close isn't the problem." The long retired Dark Knight corrected, by now standing to one side with the large black Dane at his side as he elaborated, "We wouldn't get anywhere with the Dennis girls if we were to keep them at a constant arms length. The real problem is your not being able to put those connections into perspective and focus on what needed to be done in order to keep things from spiraling out of control."

Largely due to knowing Bruce correct, while also not wanting to deal with another lecture, Terry relented on the matter as the dark-haired teenager slowly stood with a slight wince at the pull of muscles on his abdomen, "Believe me, Bruce, I got the idea after nearly being killed by the one I was primarily trying to help. I won't be making the same mistake twice if there's another time."

Surveying the young McGinnis with a cool gaze which seemed to be measuring up the teens commitment toward such words, Bruce decided on dismissing the notion for now, "Either way, you focus on getting some rest. I'll work on fixing the suit and making sure it doesn't face the same problems in rebooting its systems properly."

Leaning down enough to pet Ace on the head, the dull pain at Terry's side could find no argument with that logic as the pair decided on parting ways for tonight. The trek upward the stairs, however, had proven a lot more time consuming and frustrating for the young man than he may have initially anticipated. As in both the stairs leading toward the mansion itself and the set which would lead him toward the second floor where his room would be found.

By the time Terry was on said floor, there was a noticeable favoritism toward one side of his body where the nagging injury laid. In his mind, the teenager was already working out the cover story of getting hit by a late night driver while looking for the girls and being on his way home when coming across the Batman. Bruce had certainly thought ahead on planting the seeds for covering the teens injury with the cover story given to the girls earlier.

Speaking of the girls, Terry had wondered how they were doing after being left alone to deal with the change of sleeping arrangements. Walking past the room which was intended for them both, the teen had briefly considered checking on Deidre, before remembering how she only seemed to like him while wearing pointy ears. "Probably best to deal with her when I'm more properly dressed." The young McGinnis quietly remarked, continuing on his way down the hall to check the other rooms.

The young man was curious on how Delia was holding up after earlier. In particular, he was especially curious on what may be going through her mind following the little 'confession' confided toward his alter ego. Love? Terry certainly hadn't expected that one. Granted, they had begun to really seem to connect since meeting earlier, but...

Shaking his head lightly, Terry was reminded of how he'd need to not address the question directly with the sister until whenever she may say it to him-him. Far as they were concerned, she only shared those feelings to the Batman in an act of desperation. Maybe that's what it is, Terry briefly wonder. Simply an attempt at getting the Bat to look the other way this one time. That was certainly a possibility. One which the teen wasn't certain on he'd feel about it.

Trying once again to brush aside such questions for now, the young man had already checked several of the guest bedrooms, until coming upon one which seemed to have faint signs of life peeking out from around the corners of the door. "Delia? You in here?" Terry cautiously called out after giving a quick couple of knocks, slowly opening the door and checking inside to make certain.

 

[Mephistophelily]

Delia was doing something she'd never done before.... She was crying. Settled onto the bed, her head in her palms, having not even bothered to scrub off the remaining makeup before the sobstorm hit. The sudden sound of someone approaching made her attempt to quickly stop, wiping heavily at her eyes and attempting to catch her breath. The last thing she wanted was to get into another bout with her sister with tears in her eyes.

"Delia? You in here?"
Oh, god. Even worse than Deidre...
Terry.

"Y-Yeah... I'm in here." She tried to muster a smile as he stepped in, a forced smile on her face. "I guess Wayne told you about the room rearrange, huh?"

The smile fell quickly, her gaze going back to her white-smeared palms, realizing then what was still on her face. She winced, realizing on TOP of that, he was seeing her this way. "...Sorry," She mumbled out, turning on the bed to face away from him. "I know this isn't exactly how you like to see me..."

She sighed. "And I'm sorry about tonight, too. Deidre put some dumb ideas into my head, and I listened to her, and-" She frowned, rethinking that, then shook her head again. "No. I can't... I can't completely blame her for this. I was just as bad to actually go along with it. And then what I did to Bats..."

Had he found Terry? Was that what brought him home? "I got scared. Really scared. I did something incredibly dumb, Terry. I have no idea why he even listened to me... Why he let me come back. I don't know why he believed me. It was such an unbelievable thing to come out of someone like me... I have a hard time believing it myself..."

She was saying too much.
She needed to stop.
There was no way he'd even think that way about someone like her. All he had done was make chitchat with her, tried to make her feel comfortable.

"I made a fool out of myself and hurt someone I really, really shouldn't have." She frowned again, then glanced up at him. "Do you really think I can be good, Terry? I mean... really? Deidre says that as long as she's around, there's no chance of it. That we'll always be another version of each other. I don't want to always be her 'other half'. I had enough of that when we were kids. The whole DeeDee thing? That started because Nana could never tell which was which. Kinda funny... The woman who wanted us to be so different from who she was... gave us the name that started us off..."

 

[Eazy]

Stepping further into the guest room, Terry gave a soft smile at seeing Delia trying to get some rest inside and slowly confirmed, "Eh, yeah, Mr. Wayne gave me an update on the entire situation once I got back." Whether it was toward family or friends, a part of him never could get completely used to the lies associated with the double life of being the Batman. But they were a necessary part of the package, as Terry closed the door behind him and walked closer while keeping to the little white lies of protecting his identity.

Watching as the realization of her current state of dress (at least in terms of make-up) hit the twin, Terry gave a remorseful look while she turned her back away from him. Maybe it would have been best to wait until the morning, but it was too late to back away now, as the young man slowly closed the door after him while moving closer toward the bed. Hearing out her apologies, the dark haired teen stood to the side of the bed, staring down while she spoke further on the events of the day, feeling a bit relieved in her for taking part of the blame instead of trying to solely pass it onto Deidre, even if her sister was indeed a whole other department of issues which would need to be addressed later.

Showing continued patience toward the teenager, the young McGinnis remained at the side of her bed, awaiting until she did finally glance back at him and asked the big question hovering over their entire arrangement together. Giving a slight sound of amusement over her factoid on the girls Nana, a hint of a smile peeking out the corner of his lips, Terry quickly reassured, "You're already on your way to being something more then her 'other half'. I could tell that after only spending a few minutes with you both. And not just because you were the sister who didn't look like she wanted to jab at me with various pointy objects."

Giving a light shrug, the young man moved to carefully sit at the corner of the bed, with one leg still on the floor as the other was folded under him partially, while attempting to hide any discomfort caused by the hidden injury to his side due to the shifting of weight, "It's only natural for you to fall into old habits at times. You two have been one half of the same coin for so long that it'll take a lot of work for you both to break the habit."

There was some extra emphasis on the notion of 'both' needing to get better at whatever demons were ailing them. For Terry, while Delia was the main focus of his attempts at helping the twins, there was a part of him which wondered about Deidre, too. She did come to his rescue rather quickly while dressed as Batman and admit to her own feelings, so there may have been something deeper to her then he'd originally conceived. Maybe. Big maybe, but still.

Either way, that was a problem for later, as the teen slowly reached out a hand to wipe away a few stray tears on Delia's painted cheeks; not seeming to mind the traces of white which tracked onto his fingers due to the action. "And there's no reason to hide yourself away right now. Not from me. I may not be the biggest fan of the stuff you usually do while made up like this, but it's not like I wasn't already aware of this part of your life before you and your sister stepped into the mansion."

Mostly trying to wipe away at the drying tears, Terry recognized how it may be impossible to also wipe away the paint on her face and instead settled on carefully rubbing it to where the resulting tear streaks were less noticeable. "Believe me, Delia. I can relate on how liberating it may feel to put on a mask of some sort and letting another side of you out at the end of the day." A very brief pause on the teens part, realizing the possibly slip before attempting to cover for it while relating/diverting the subject with a half smile, "Let's just say my own life has had its own 'colorful' aspects to it. Including a stint in juvie which I won't bore you on the details about for now. So, it's not like I don't have my share of skeletons in the closet."

Finishing up with the light attempt at 'fixing' her makeup, the dark haired teen took a long look at her up close; giving himself a real chance at looking her over as both Delia Dennis and one-half of the infamous DeeDee twins. Funny how easily the two ran together when one wasn't distracted by her trying to blow up or kick the crap out of a guy. "Heh. You know, the whole Jokerz motif aside? You're actually kind of cute in this stuff." He noted with a smile, watching her for a few seconds longer, before clearing his throat and diverting those eyes of his slightly to avoid showing any hints of anticipation while suddenly inquiring, "So, uh... what did you end up telling the Batman to get him to bring you both back? I did run into him on my way back to the mansion, but all he told me was that you two were back at Wayne's and to catch up on the details there."

It was probably stupid, prodding at Delia to see if she would repeat anything of her earlier confession to his alter-ego now that she knew the person she was talking about was sitting right before her. But it had remained a burning question on Terry's mind since the ride back to the mansion with the twins earlier and, aside from that throbbing pain at the young man's side, was perhaps the lingering effect of the night which remained the most nagging and persistent on his mind.

 

[Mephistophelily]

Delia smiled softly as Terry deemed that she was already different from her sister, a tiny laugh leaving her that was quickly choked down with a tiny sigh at the mention of the differences in reactions to him between the set. His hand touching her cheek brought her to look up once again, a rather saddened look on her face with his words. "I.. I know... It's just... I wanted to see what would happen if I could get away from it. And yet I got right back into it so easily. I give in to her too quickly..."

His fingers stroking on her face felt strange, yet ... calming. Her brows raised a bit as he explained how even he had a troubled background, surprised at the mention of time in jail himself. Terry?

Terry the bad boy.
Huh.
Was she actually smiling at that?

"Maybe I do stand a chance then, huh? Get myself some nice cushy job for a rich ol' broad... Kinda like you got yourself here with Mister Wayne....?" She laughed softly with that, glancing back to him as he studied her. "I... I can go wash up..."

What he said surprised her.
She hadn't expected that. At all.
"...Cute...?," She repeated softly, studying his eyes for a moment. Was he joking around? He couldn't possibly have thought the mess she was right now was in any form attractive...

Wow, he had amazing eyes.
His sudden throat clearing made her jump a bit, smiling sheepishly. "Wandering thoughts, sorry...," She noted quickly, wiping at the corner of her forehead. She could just hear her sister if she were to come in right now. But she wouldn't. She had no reason to. They were both mad at each other, and Delia was more than happy to keep from seeing her any time soon. Tomorrow morning was going to be hard enough, and that was before they even met up with Wayne.

"So, uh... what did you end up telling the Batman to get him to bring you both back?"

Delia stared at the floor with widened eyes for a moment, suddenly fearing Batman had told him something that she would regret him knowing. As he continued, she gave a soft breath of relief, running her fingers against the bedspread for a moment as she tried to figure out how to best phrase it.

*I think I love you and I've only known you for a day.... That I'd give up everything just to be close to you. That I'm scared to death that Dee is right... That I'm too big of a mess for anyone to ever want that way...*

Right. Not exactly the best thing to just blurt out.

"I told him... about some things that... that were kind of making me regret all my decisions tonight. That I did a number of things out of fear, scared I would lose something really special to me..." She paused, finally looking back up from her boots to glance at him. "That I was really, really upset with myself for worrying you. For doing something so stupid when I was starting to feel-" She cut short, simply looking him over for a moment. "...Feel really close to you... That maybe I'd found a friend aside from someone who wanted that side of me...."

The Bat's reaction to her words was still quite vivid in her mind. The disbelief, the way he just stared at her-

"I said something to him that... I guess neither of us expected.... It surprised us both..." She gave a smile, looking back to her feet with a soft sigh. "I think it's the first time I ever told him the truth... Funny thing, is how I realize just how true it was right now, and hate the fact I want to tell someone else but... just- can't."

 

[Eazy]

Terry didn't want to push the matter. For one, doing so would make it too obvious that the teen had already known what she revealed to him under his Batman guise. For another, there was always the possibility, a very real one, of her simply having said what she did in hopes of earning a few points to get the Dark Knight to let her go at the time. Even if they only knew each other for a day, with his own feelings on the matter not entirely certain at the moment, just thinking of that being the case had caused a slight pain in the young man's gut, Watching as the Dennis sister seemed to nervously consider how she should respond, however, Terry had a feeling such fears weren't justified.

Sitting quietly, patiently, while she began to answer his question, Terry began to feel the previous tension within his gut gradually lift away - only to be replaced with an entirely different feeling when their eyes met yet again. Still wanting to mask his knowledge of exactly what she said, Terry tried to keep from showing too much of a response, but did allow a growing smile to appear when she spoke of worrying him. Of her feeling close toward him after their time together. The day had been filled with so many unexpected twists to where it was difficult for Terry to say exactly where the teen stood on this subject. But there was that connection. That friendship. That... feeling of something greater.

Watching as her gaze diverted away toward her feet yet once more, the dark haired youth let her finish speaking, listening to her final words and now believing even more in her feelings. There was no need for her to speak with vague, cryptic, yet to him very clear responses on what she said to the Bat. No airs to put on since she didn't know of his secret. No way for her to know that the young man sitting on the other end of the bed was fully aware of what she was saying.. Slowly, Terry shifted his weight in order to move closer, trying his darndest to ignore the pain at his side, before reaching out a firm hand to press upon Delia's slender shoulder.

"Delia?" He spoke softly, waiting for her to possibly return her gaze toward his direction before rather reluctantly pressing on with any potential giveaways of him already knowing, "If... If it's something meant for me... then I want you to know that you can tell me anything that's on your mind, okay?"

Letting his warm hand linger upon her shoulder for a while longer, Terry gave a slight shrug and noted with a half-smile, "Hey, I went racing off into the night because I cared enough about not wanting to see you throwing your life away. So you'd better believe I care enough to not want you feeling like you need to keep anything bottled up inside."

Kind of an ironic, if not hypocritical statement, considering his own secrets and bottled up feelings which came with keeping up a secret identity. Regardless, the offer for talking freely stood, as the young McGinnis slowly moved his hand away to rest at his lap - relenting on the subject if she so desired by adding, "But... you can tell me when you're ready, alright? I don't wish to pressure you into anything. You've gotten enough of that from your sister, it seems."

A brief chuckle, a small smile, his eyes seeking out her own as he addressed the matter of making him worry about her earlier, "As for tonight? Heh. Mistakes happen. Some bigger than others. But it turned out well enough, all things considered. So , you know. Don't beat yourself up over it."

Sitting up a little more, seemingly preparing himself for making his exit, Terry confirmed this by offering, "Anyway. I should probably let you get some rest. It's been a pretty rough first day, to say the least." For several moments toward the end of their conversation, Terry had felt comfortable with Delia in a similar way to how he'd often get toward Dana during their long relationship. A moment was all it took, it seemed, for the dark haired teen to instinctively lean forward and press a 'goodnight' kiss upon the one twin's forehead - eyes widening slightly while in the midst of doing so as realization suddenly struck.

Pulling back slowly, obvious embarrassment upon his features at the perhaps inappropriate gesture, Terry could only mutter a quick "Sorry" in response of his actions while flashing an apologetic, it slightly awkward, smile.

 

[Mephistophelily]

Delia hesitated as he called to her, glancing over slowly and biting her lip. It was still strange to be sitting next to him like this, in her- well, semi old ways. It wasn't exactly the same suit as she used to have, but certainly close... and her makeup a mixed jumble of normal and her night's wear. It had been rubbed off for the most part, between her own tears and his efforts to clean it away.

He wanted her to be honest.
She bit at her lip, fidgeting on the edge of the bed, trying to figure out if she truly should tell him. It wasn't exactly the easiest thing to say- of course, this was coming from someone who was prone to running through the city in clown makeup and a wig... It was probably the most 'normal' teenager thing she'd actually had to contemplate.

His added comments on going to find them, however, did manage to bring a faint smile to her face. "Okay... I get it. And- and thank you. For doing that. Most would probably have considered us a total loss with something that dumb..." She sighed heavily, shaking her head. "There- there is something.... I just... I'm not sure if it's a good thing to say right now. Not with all that's happened. Just know that I really, really appreciate you not giving up on me. Us. My sister and I."

Far too much readjusting of words, there. She frowned a bit, taking a deep breath once more. "Tonight was really long for me, Terry..."

It turned out well enough...?
Maybe.

She nodded with his little parting words, surprised as he suddenly leaned over her and placed his lips against her forehead. He seemed just as confused by it, looking at her with a reddened face and a mumbled apology. Delia simply stared at him for a moment, hesitating herself as he started to move away.

"Terry-" She stood up, clenching her fists as she took a breath. May as well say it. It was much easier than the OTHER things she had ever kept bottled up, and yet felt the most frustrating to get out. "What I told him- I said- I- " She ground her teeth together, looking back to him and shaking her head slowly. "I told him I thought I was falling in love... That I really- That I thought I was starting to feel something really special for someone." All these dumb beating around the bushes, pretending he couldn't tell. Who else had she even been in contact with? Wayne? Right, real Spring/Winter romance there.

"You. You, okay? I think I'm falling too much for you." She bit her lip once more, trying to study his face, only to look over at the window and the stars over the city. "Maybe it's just... from being in Arkham. Not exactly the most friendly fellas in there. And the ones who try to be, usually have a different motive behind it. Just the little kindness you've shown me... it was too much, Terry. You shouldn't give something like that to me."

 

[Eazy]

His departure was halted by the sound of her calling out his name. Curious, Terry had stopped while one foot was placed onto the floor, seemingly ready to resume his exit if she whatever she had to say was of minor detail and could be addressed quickly. One glance over at Delia, however, was enough for Terry to recognize this to not be the case, as the teen then waited and listened while she attempt at get out her thoughts. As the hard to admit words began leaving her lips, the dark haired male found it difficult maintain the appearance of uncertainty, yet alone to not jump at finishing her thought. To let her realize that, by whatever means made it possible, he'd known what she had to say, so that then maybe she, or himself, wouldn't have to go through any further apprehension on the earlier confession.

And then the final piece of her confession finally parted through those soft lips. Terry did show a small look genuine surprise, albeit more due to starting to believe Delia may end up keeping her words to his alter ego between them and her sister. The young man watched as she diverted her attention, speaking of Arkham and touching on a possible concern of his own even if she were to confess her earlier feelings. Considering everything she had been through, would it be taking advantage of her to respond in kind toward her fledgling feelings? For that matter, were his own feelings the same as her own?

Watching as she finished, a short silence filled the room, with clown and bat left a few moments of contemplation over this very unexpected development. "Delia?" He broke the silence first; those dark brown eyes of his gazing toward the Dennis sister - not being one of the best for handling such a situation, yet wanting to be honest with her, "I... I may not be anything like the average guy you've had in your life up to this point... but I also don't want us rushing into anything we may regret later. Especially when it comes to yourself"

His hand lowered onto the mattress, seeking out her own and settling back onto the bed for now as his eyes would always seek out her own while speaking, "The truth is? I'm surprised by myself for saying this after only a day together, but... yeah, I think there might be something deeper between us, too." Giving her hand a light squeeze, Terry let out a soft sigh while admitting, "I care a lot for you. More than I thought I would be able to for another person so soon after... well, after an ugly break up with a longtime girlfriend fairly recently."

His hand gently drew hers upward, taking it within both hands now and holding onto it while watching over her and listening to her soft breathing patterns within the still of the night. She was so beautiful, for all of her problems, of which the young hero could attest to having more than a few of his own. He could relate to a lot of what she was feeling, which made his continued emotional restraint all the more challenging to maintain. "I don't want to rush you into anything. But I also don't want to rush myself into anything I may not be ready for and which might end up hurting you." He explained, slowly guiding the hand toward his warm cheek and letting it rest there for a few moments; enjoying the feel of her soft skin against her own while giving the hint of a smile out the corner of his lips as he finished, "But? I did want you to know I do feel a lot of the same things about yourself. So... I guess, for now? The best we could do is take it slowly together and try seeing how this may develop?"

Letting his small smile grow a little wider, Terry let her hand linger upon his cheek for a while longer, before drawing it away enough to let his lips place a reassuring kiss upon the back of her hand. Allowing for the simple gesture to linger a bit longer than necessary, the young man then let his eyes similarly linger upon her own for several seconds which may have seemed closer to minutes. Watching her now. Seeing this side of her. It reminded Terry of why he'd been so bold as to rush off without Bruce's assistance to try and get Delia and her sister back without incident. And with that reminder fresh in his noggin, Terry slowly moved in closer, acting without thinking, as his lips pressed against Delia's own for an initially tender, yet slowly deepening kiss.

Letting his eyes drift shut for a few lingering moments, Terry's hand lifted to lightly cradle itself along her painted cheek; almost starting to cradle the teenagers head before catching himself enough to slowly pull away with considerable reluctance. "Heh. Sorry. Probably not setting the best of examples on 'taking it slow', huh?" He admitted with brief laugh, moving his free hand to rub at the back of his neck awkwardly for a bit as he added with a half-smile, "But... it's something I'd been wanting to do since you returned."

Gazing into her eyes for a few seconds longer, Terry hadn't wanted to leave, but knew it was necessary for this night. It'd been an emotional charged day, and she needed her rest. Hell, they both did, as the young man slowly, reluctantly, began to pull himself up from the bed. "Get some rest, Delia. I'll see you and your sister in the morning. We'll deal with what might happen from there. Together." He offered with a nod, standing over the bed for a few instances longer, until finally managing to will his legs toward leading him toward the doorway leading out of the lone bedroom. It'd been a rough first day, and there were few signs of hope, however small, for the next being a tad easier.

 

[Faux_Pas]

Average. Delia almost laughed at that, looking back up to him hesitantly as he moved closer to the bed. He really had no idea on the people she'd spent her time with before, did he? Like she'd complained to her sister earlier- The Jokerz left little in the lines of a conventional date, and the boys there were hardly her idea of boyfriend material.

Wait, she knew what was coming up here.
The way he was going... The nice guy let down. She frowned slightly, just waiting for it. What excuse was he going to use? The sweet You're A Nice Girl, But... or the blunt I'm Not Dating An Ex-Criminal. Terry seemed the type to be above that, but after the night she'd put him through, she could see it as a possibility and-

he took her hand. She stared at it for a moment, then looked up to him as he lowered onto the bed beside her. His words made her eyes widen, shocked to hear the exact opposite of what she had expected to leave his lips. "Y-You care for me..?" Doubt and shock. This was some type of joke, right?

His hand drew hers up, the kiss still receiving a dumbfounded stare, a sharp breath taken in as she watched him. This was- No. This couldn't be... Was he playing with her?

He meant it. Delia slowly let a smile take her lips, surprised and nearly in tears as he continued to speak. No guy had ever been this cautious about talking to her before. It was either blunt snappings towards her or barely understandable mutterings. Certainly never anything with this much sentiment behind them. He was actually... caring about her feelings. That alone caused the tears to finally slip free, a slow nod coming. "I... I understand. Terry..." Her words were soft, the faint smile growing as he cuddled her hand against his cheek. "Just... just friends."

Still. That felt so nice, the way he held her hand, even just the brushing against his cheek... A tiny giggle as he kissed the back fo her hand. She was incredibly thankful now, that Batman took her pleas to heart, allowed her the chance to try again. She couldn't mess this up, she just couldn't. Deidre was just..

he was getting close. Very close. What was he doing? Why was he-

A kiss.
Delia made a soft sound, confused by this, her eyes drifting closed to sink into his lips. Confused but certainly not drawing away. Her heart was pounding, lost against him... his kiss. He felt... wonderful. A tiny whimper, nearly a moan, her eyes still closed as he pulled away.

A blank stare finally came as her eyes reopened, looking at him as her still makeup covered cheeks reddened slightly. "I... I kinda like that version of slow...."

His added words took a moment to sink in, Delia watching him as he stood from the bed. Since she came back? He really had been worried... It was both a reassurance and a guilt burden. She had done something horrendous.

She smiled up at him, nodding firmly once more. "Tomorrow. Good night, Terry." She couldn't help but smile still as he stood there, simply watching her, a tiny giggle managing to slip free.

Oh, he was going to just make this so much more difficult... In wonderful ways, however.

"I won't let her do it to me anymore. I swear, Terry. I mean it."
She tried to sound as reassuring as possible. That was the thing about her sister. No matter how 'in control' Delia thought herself to be... Deidre could always manage to tear her apart. Find something, anything inside her, to use against her. She smiled again, watching as he made his way from the room. A little sigh, sitting there for a moment longer, then heading for the restroom to get cleaned up for the night.

These clothes. They had to go.

Wadding the stolen costume up, stuffing it into the trash of the bathroom, Delia heaved a heavy sigh, then set about washing her face. No more of this.

"Just. Me." She took a deep breath, looking herself over in the mirror and nodding.