𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑮𝒊𝒇𝒕 𝑰 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒅 (Batfam FanFic)

31. Birthday?

It's been about 5 minutes since I and Jason got to his so-called, 'Luxury Crib', and it's not as crummy as I would've expected. It's actually pretty clean. A little bland, but, clean.

I've mostly been inspecting the place while Jay was on the couch doing something on his phone.

I made my way over to his fridge to see if he had anything.

Nothing. Zilch. Nada. Literally, nothing to eat in the fridge.

I tried the cabinets. A loaf of bread. A loaf of freaking bread.

"Um, Jay, why do you have literally nothing to eat?" I turned to him as I asked. I immediately stopped. He had his mask off for the first time since he approached me at Bruce's house. And let's just say, his face should have trigger warnings on it for the faint of heart.

"What'd you say?" He turned to look at me from his phone. At first, it didn't register that he had talked to me. So I just stood there gawking at him.

"That good-looking am I?" He gave me a smirk.

"No." I have a really good poker face, but in this situation, it was taking everything in me to not pop.

"I was just wondering why you don't have any food?" He gave me a look like I should know the answer. "I don't exactly have time to go grocery shopping, you know, crime fighting and saving lives. And don't try to change the subject. How could a young child like you have such nasty thoughts about a grown man such as myself? How shameful!" He made a dramatic pose.

"I'll have you know I'm-" I was about to say 15, however, "You said the date was December 9th, right?"

"Yeah, why?" I slapped my hands on each side of my face and yelled, "Holy'-! I'm 16!"

"Ummm, ok, and?"

"My birthday was 4 days ago! I missed my 16th birthday!"

"It's just a birthday. Another year closer to death."

"You don't understand, this one was supposed to be special! I can't believe I missed it." I ran up to him and shook him and then, surprisingly, started crying a little.

Jay didn't seem like he knew what to do with the situation in front of him. Looking back, I probably should've made such a big deal about it, considering what happened to him at 16.

"Ok, ok. It's important. Now would you calm down?" I finally stopped tearing up and sat on the couch beside him.

"Wow, you really must've not known the date if you're this upset about it. I thought you were joking before when you asked about it."

"No, I can't believe I missed it. That's so disappointing." Jay looked like he wanted to say something, but was hesitant.

Jason's Pov

I didn't know what to say to her. I mean, it's just a birthday. Geez. I didn't think my bringing her out was gonna result in her finding out she missed her birthday. 

Initially, I was bored and thought that it would be interesting to mess with Bruce by stealing her away from the mansion.

If I'd known she was gonna ball like a baby, I would've left her. But, at the same time, I felt kind of bad. I don't know much about her past or her family. Hell, I don't even know if she's really telling the truth about coming from some other world. But I know what it feels like to not have any family around to love you. Even if her situation isn't exactly like mine. I can tell where she's coming from.

"Well, for what it's worth, Happy Birthday." I don't think coming from me that's gonna mean a whole lot, but, might as well try something to turn that frown upside down.

I looked over at her and she was looking at me strangely.

"Um, why are you looking at me like that?"

Lucy's Pov

I can't believe he actually said that to me. He actually told me 'Happy Birthday'!

"Um, why are you looking at me like that?"

I didn't know what to say, so I did the next best thing. I hugged him.

"Ok, so we're hugging, I don't really do hugs." He says that, yet I can feel his hands reaching out to hug me back. Albeit quite awkwardly and hesitantly. At least he's trying.

I felt tears starting to prick my eyes again, so before I started crying I pulled away and gave him a bright-eyed smile, and said, "Thanks a bunch!"

I don't really know why missing my birthday made me so upset. It's not really that important in the grand scheme of things. In fact, I could probably name at least 3 other things that are way more important than my birthday. Number 3, get some food. Number 2, mend Jay and the other's relationship (somehow). Number 1, find a way back to my family.

Thanks so much, you guys for 20k+ reads! It's amazing how far this story's come in the last what, almost 2 years? Well, not really. It's only got 31 parts which is kind of pathetic. Shame on me. But, I'm grateful to the oldies who've stuck around from the beginning and the freshies? who just started! Thanks for giving my story a chance! Stay safe out there peeps!

                                                                                                                                      -Peace