the robin & the canary; young justice

oo8: Downtime

S T A R C I T Y
August 26, 18:00 PDT

The two of them met in a park.

Earlier that evening, at around five-thirty Star City time, Reese had called Dick, asking if the young Boy Wonder would be able to meet her in one of Star City's nicer parks, and saying they had to talk about something important.

Dick dropped what he was doing without a thought and quickly Zeta-ed across the country, appearing in an abandoned phone booth close to Oliver's apartment, which was about three blocks from where he and Reese had decided to meet up.

It was, by now, late August, and considering Star City was in California, the nights were cooler, around sixty degrees Fahrenheit.

When he entered the main park area, Dick was able to see the top of Reese's head from where the brunette was sitting on a bench nearby, shifting something in her hand, and Dick was able to hear what sounded like metal clinking together.

"What are you doing?" he asked suddenly, vaulting over the back of the bench and landing beside Reese, causing the girl to let out a small scream that made a nearby streetlamp crack.

Clearly, she hadn't noticed he was there. Reese must be distracted, Dick figured, since her enhanced senses weren't able to detect him earlier.

"Don't do that!" she exclaimed, and Dick glanced skeptically up at the streetlamp, and when he was sure it wasn't going to shatter all over them, the Boy Wonder turned back to his friend.

"You didn't hear me coming?" he asked, laughing a bit, but stopped when he noticed her morose face. "Hey, pretty bird," Dick began again, reaching out a hand and setting it on Reese's own. "You okay?"

"What?" Reese asked, her eyes looking dazed for a moment before they cleared. "Oh, I'm fine. You don't need to worry about anything,"

"Rhysalin, I've known you long enough to know when something's wrong," Dick told her slowly. "Please, talk to me,"

For several seconds, Reese didn't say anything. She instead opted to stare out at the park, and the various pedestrians that were walking around.

Finally, she sighed, and looked down at her lap, shuffling her feet together.

"Tomorrow's the anniversary," when Reese spoke, her voice was so quiet, Dick had to strain to hear it. But, when he did, he suddenly felt bad for pushing the brunette as much as he did.

The anniversary. It had, come tomorrow, been four years since Reese's parents and baby sister had died in the apartment fire set by Desmond.

The weird thing was though, the Star City Police Department had never found a body that matched that of seven-month-old Lauren. Not even a bone fragment. It was odd, to say the least.

Dick couldn't believe he'd forgotten about it. He supposed they had all been so preoccupied with the Team being formed, and Roy going off by himself, that the impending anniversary had just slipped his mind.

"Pretty bird, I'm sorry," Dick whispered, his voice soft, and Reese shrugged her shoulders, pulling her legs up over the bench so she was able to set her chin on her knee.

"It's fine," Reese answered, though the words, at this point, seemed almost like a reflex. "Dinah's been talking to me about it. She and Ollie are giving me the day off from hero work tomorrow so I can process things, I guess,"

"You want me to come with you?" Dick asked, and when Reese glanced over at him, looking a bit confused, the Boy Wonder clarified. "I mean, tomorrow. When you...visit them,"

For a few seconds, all of which Reese didn't speak, Dick feared he had overstepped. Sure, they had known each other for almost five years, but he'd never gone with Reese to visit the graves of her parents before.