[Chiraptora: For Bryce Wayne]

[serinusniger]

The book launch Dinah so much wanted to go to is taking place in the ballroom of the Gotham Hilton, and the guest list is long and illustrious enough to warrant a large media presence in front of the hotel lobby, parting occasionally to let cars arrive.

It's into this crowd that Dinah, dressed to impress in red, with impressive slits up both sides, pulls her matching red Ferrari. She grins at the snapping photographers, pulls on her heels while still sitting in the convertible, and offers the keys to the valet who opens the door.

Then she offers a hand to her passenger, because coming out of this door will still be easier than fighting the other side.

Comments

[gothamsheiress]

"Hi, Sin."

Smiling, Bryce offers a hand down to the girl. "My name's Bryce."

[serinusniger]

Sin manages not to look at Dinah and shakes the offered hand.

"Hello, Bryce," she says. "Are you a sister of my sister?"

Dinah doesn't translate right away, and waits to see Bryce's reaction.

[gothamsheiress]

Her eyebrows go up.

"That depends on what you mean by sister."

[serinusniger]

"She means, do we help people together," Dinah says. "And the answer is sometimes, Sin. But tonight we're just going to sit in and watch TV."

"Can I watch with you?"

"It's past your bedtime."

"But."

"Go."

Sin scowls at Dinah, a healthy I'm-not-tired scowl.

[gothamsheiress]

Bryce cocks her head and glances at Dinah.

"Alfred used to let me stay up just for a glass of milk, and then straight to bed."

[serinusniger]

"You know Alfred?" Sin asks, wide eyes fixed on Bryce.

Dinah rolls her eyes, and pats her shoulder to steer her into the kitchen.

"C'mon. I'll get the coffee as well."

Before she does, she points an accusing finger at Bryce. "Terrible influence."

[gothamsheiress]

"Straight to bed," Bryce repeats, grinning.

"I know Alfred, sort of. It's complicated."

[serinusniger]

"Complicated how?" Sin asks, still speaking from the kitchen as she pours milk into the biggest glass she could find.

Dinah hands Bryce a cup of black coffee, and quirks an eyebrow. "Better tell her the truth, Bryce."

[gothamsheiress]

Bryce mouths Sorry to Dinah, but she doesn't look terribly regretful.

"You know Bruce Wayne, right, Sin?"

[serinusniger]

"Of course I do."

Sin rolls her eyes in Dinah's direction but Dinah ignores her in favor of her coffee.

[gothamsheiress]

"Okay, well."

. . . What's the best way to explain parallel universes to an eight-year-old?

"I'm from the world next door, and there, instead of Bruce Wayne, it's Bryce Wayne."

[serinusniger]

"Oh," Sin says, sipping her milk thoughtfully. "Okay.

"Does Bruce know you're here?"



"No," Dinah says. "But it's not a secret. I'll tell him when I speak to him."

Sin addresses Bryce again. "So you are my sister's sister."

[gothamsheiress]

"I suppose so."

[serinusniger]

"I guess you are," Dinah says with a bright smile.

"Is Jason coming home soon?" Sin asks.

"Tomorrow, he said," Dinah tells her. "And you've finished your milk. Go to bed and you can train with him when he wakes up."

"Okay," Sin says. "Will you tuck me in?"

Dinah smiles at Bryce. "Be right back."

[gothamsheiress]

"Take your time," Bryce says, her smile softening.

[serinusniger]

They do, in fact, take their time. It's fifteen minutes later before the door opens and she leaves Sin to the faint blue glow of a nightlight.

"Sorry," she says. "We're reading The Hobbit."

[gothamsheiress]

Bryce has moved to the living room with her coffee, gazing out the window; she turns when she hears Dinah return.

"It's no problem. Is she asleep?"

[serinusniger]

"If she isn't, she's faking it," Dinah replies with the long suffering sigh of a mother.

"And she'll drop off for real soon."

[gothamsheiress]

"She's a cute kid."

[serinusniger]

"Isn't she?" Dinah says, brimming with fondness. "I ran into her a few years back, and she followed me home."

[gothamsheiress]

Bryce chuckles.

"And she's in training."

[serinusniger]

Dinah glances out of the window, almost wistfully.

"Yes, but in exactly the reverse way than you think."

[gothamsheiress]

"Oh?"

[serinusniger]

Dinah stays by the window, looking down on Gotham rather than looking into the light of the apartment.

"She calls me sister," she explains, "because we were trained by the same so-called 'mother.' I went to experience the same training as the assassin Lady Shiva. Sin was already there."

[gothamsheiress]

Bryce's faint smile disappears.

"Not the League of Shadows?"