All at Sea

14: Dogs, Cats, and Bats

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Halfway through her math homework was not when Percy was expecting for a time, three-legged puppy to come barreling into the Waynes' second-floor library, tags tingling, paws tapping, and round wagging the whole way. Percy, sitting on the floor with her papers on the coffee table was in a danger zone for puppy attacks, apparently.

The pup crashed onto Percy's lap, a welcomed distraction from the radii on her page. She raked a hand through the dog's silky grey fur before checking the bone-shaped tag on her collar. In an obnoxious Comic Sans font, the collar read; "Hi, my name's Haley!" along with basic contact information.

"Hiya there, Haley," Percy greeted, her voice filling with joy. Haley sniffed at her hand and playfully bit one of Percy's fingers. Percy curled her fingers around the sharp little baby teeth and played a gentle version of tug-of-war. Percy let the puppy win, who let out an excited yip alongside Percy's laughter.

A moment later, Dick came rushing through the manor, his white socks sliding against the polished wood. He tripped on the ornate rug beneath the couches but played it off discretely. He squatted down by the table Percy was working on, roughly petting the dog as he directed his attention to Percy. "I see you met Haley."

"I guess I did," Percy replied, her finger still in Haley's mouth. "Since when are there animals in the manor?"

"Have you never seen any of them? There's a ton; most of them are Dami's," Dick said with a blinding grin. "She's mine though," he pointed at Haley, "found some kids being big ol' meanies to her so I took her home."

Huh, Percy thought, so it's not just Bruce with the habit of taking in strays. His sons take after him. She was amused by her thoughts but responded to Dick with a sympathetic nod.

Dick stared at the line of drool coming from Haley's mouth and the way she lazily pawed at Percy's hand from where she laid on the floor. He seemed to snap out of the trace, snapping his fingers and pointing at Percy. "I did come in here for a reason, Bruce said he has to talk to us."

"Any clue what it's about?" Percy asked, working her hand out of the dog's mouth before wiping the dog drool off on her jeans.

"Selina was with him, so I could only guess it has to do with the wedding," he stifled a yawn and stood up,  stretching his arms upward despite the short time he'd been squatting. He mutters a "c'mon," telling Percy to stand, which she does gladly, and follows him out to a downstairs sitting room.

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In said lounge, the family is gathered. Jason was putting on an impressive frown while curled around a particularly worn edition of  The Great Gatsby. Tim sat adjacent to Jason,  tapping away on his phone while Damian menacingly sharpened an ornate dagger. Cass was perched on the arm of the sofa with a content expression on her face. Finally, Bruce and Selina were clutched at the hand, Bruce's thumb tracing patterns onto Selina's olive skin. She was seated on an armchair, toned legs crossed elegantly and pulling the dark fabric of her silk slip-on taught over her limbs. Alfred stood at the doorway, his gloved hands held together in anticipation as he fondly overlooked the familial scene.

"We have an announcement," Bruce started, tone kind but stern. He glanced over at his fiance who gave him a cat-like smile in return.

Before he could continue, Jason loudly shut his book and jokingly guessed "You're pregnant!"

The furrow in Bruce's brow made his lack of amusement obvious, but before he had the chance to shut the guess down, Selina spoke, uncrossing her legs and moving into a Dutchess Slant. "We have two announcements, then. But what Bruce was meaning to say is of the engagement."

Shock crossed everyone's faces (except Alfred and Cass, they know more about you than you do) then shifted into jovial grins as everybody offered their congratulations. Damian seemed perturbed by the announcement though he did mumble something vaguely non-threatening after being elbowed by Tim, who got a knife to the leg. Bruce looked from Tim to Damian and sighed loudly as he restarted his briefing.

"As the engagement has been made public, we are expected to host a public engagement party. We will be doing so this Saturday night. I know it's short notice, but god, do I hate the press." His hand had moved to Selina's upper back which he rubbed soothingly. "I do ask you not to bring guests as to not rile up the tabloids."

"There will be a second, private, engagement party sometime this month. This one has a more lax guest list," Selina practically purred, her hand twisting the ruby ring on her finger.  Selina's words always seemed to have some sort of double meaning, or at least the way she spoke felt like a siren's song. Her eyelashes lazily fanned across her face.

"You've gathered us to tell us something so insignificant? I ought to be training, lest I fall behind on mother's schedule,"  Damian huffed crossing over his chest. "And now you've dirtied my dagger," he mumbled as an afterthought.

"Training?" Percy asked, more to herself than to the rest of the room.

Tim was practically tripping over his feet to amend whatever had happened. "Y- Yes! Training! For- uh for..."

"The spelling bee!" Dick filled in, frantically.

Damian rolled his eyes, leaning back in his seat. He looked Percy up and down before scoffing and saying "She's too daft to catch on. Look at her, there's not a thought behind those eyes."

Percy gave a halfhearted glare. She looked around the room once more, noticing how anxious the room felt, though they all had perfectly schooled expressions they were all tense save for Selina who looked impressively amused with a cat-like smirk.

Selina and her cat-like eyes were suddenly seeming a lot like another cat that toys with a family of birds. They all seemed a little too much like Gotham's resident family of vigilante justice.

Percy looked up to stare into Bruce's eyes. His jaw was clenched and a glimmer in his eyes told Percy he meant business. Percy said all  she could think to  say: "So you're Batman?"

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p.s.  SussyBakaSeb wrote this authors note here's a deleted scene:

Percy rolls her eyes, "Your gay."

"*you're," says damian

This was a scene written by the best person ever aka ( Sebastian....I wouldn't have deleted it, but i just thought it was too good to be used in a main story. Also, Hfiu9y87

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sdkWRK

Perosnllay, I think that the stage we have reached in capitalism is one that we cannot back down/return from.

it's victoria again: we're getting a gala chapter again. and a couple of my favorite characters.
dissociation at barnes and noble with friends? more likely than u may think ;)