Wax Figurine | T. Drake ✔

[32]

It was decided that Olivia would be staying with the Waynes until the situation with Gemma and Ashlar's sudden appearance got resolved. However, they couldn't tell her that so at first she was hesitant to go with them to the Manor.

But after some persuasion from Tim and Steph, she agreed to stay there for a few days and then return to her bio-dome.

Tim stayed with her often and as exams were coming up, the two would often be in the library, studying together. He had given her a refresher of all they had studied in that term at high school and she had picked up on it very quickly as she had enhanced learning abilities.

Staying with the Waynes not only worked in her coming back to her normal cheerful self much more quickly but as she was always surrounded by people, it kept her safe too. She had resumed her classes in high school as well and was slowly adjusting to her life.

But as she had recovered, she had been trying to convince Bruce to let her go back to her home. As he couldn't give her any further excuses, he agreed and said that she could go back only if she stayed in contact with them and alerted them if anything bad happened to her.

She had readily agreed and had to leave the next day. Right then she was in the Manor's library along with Tim and the two were again working on their assignments together. 

Tim was writing the detailed character sketch for his literature class when his pen ran out of ink so he had taken Olivia's pen, and used it to finish the current assignment. She paused working, eyes flickering towards his handwriting which was getting messy with every passing hour.

When he was finished filling out the page, he held out the pen towards her again while looking for the inkpot to refill his own, but she was distracted as she looked at his hands. 

He had pretty hands.

It was almost as if he was sculpted to perfection, but that sort of perfection was not like a marble sculpture.

He was like a wax figurine; delicate and soft, molded to be that way through the heat and careful workmanship of a skilled sculptor. And just like a wax figurine, he was prone to melt if not taken care of.

She took the pen back from him but her eyes lingered on those slender white fingers that had gripped her pen just a few seconds ago and were now flicking the pages of the book he was reading for the character sketch.

"Mind if I borrow this?" She asked and he nodded absently, not even looking to see what she wanted to borrow.

But he snapped out of his thoughts when her hand gripped his, pulling it close to her as she started examining it. "What are you doing?"

"Borrowing. You gave permission," she replied nonchalantly as if it was no big deal at all that she had gripped his hand for no reason.

"I didn't know you were referring to... This," he mumbled, trying to go back to reading the book in front of him.

But with her fingers gently tracing the lines on his palm and her curious eyes fixed on his hand in fascination, he found it impossible to focus on anything else.

She was comparing their hands, her fingers gently pressed on his, the length of which was slightly shorter.

"Um Olivia," he spoke up after some time, "when will you give it back to me?"

"Oh, when I'm done with it of course," she replied, "but if you're in a hurry, I can chop it off and keep it then you can be on your way."

It was unsettling the way she smiled along with that threat but Tim had gotten used to her quirks by then. She said a lot of weird stuff and usually meant it too but he didn't mind it anymore.

"Oh, no issue, take as long as you want to. No chopping though."

"Thank you," she remarked breezily, going back to examining his hand.

"Why are you so interested in my hand?" He asked at last, "you've been looking at it for over ten minutes now."

"It's just pretty," she replied, listing down the reasons one by one, "and soft. And the right kind of cold, you know like the temperature when the rigor mortis just starts to settle in a corpse. And delicate. Not how I would expect someone with your nightly lifestyle to have."

"These are all very strange reasons but not that unexpected since it's you," he mumbled, knowing he couldn't focus on working if she kept holding his hand so he didn't try to pick up the book again.

There was a while of silence between them in which Tim took the liberty of observing her just like she was observing his hand. Olivia McArthur could easily be the strangest person of his own age that he had met and grown closer to.

"I like holding hands with you," she had interlaced their fingers together, holding up their entwined hands to see the contrast it made. But then she looked back at him with that playful spark in her eyes again, "I kinda wanna keep them."

He shook his head, a smile playing upon his lips too, "well you can't. Because I need my hands as much as you do. I can't possibly type or do a lot without them."

She sighed sadly, letting go of his hand at last, "I see... Goodbye Timmy's hands. He won't let me keep you."

"Oh come on..." Seeing her make that disappointed expression with the slight pout and frown made him relent, "you can hold my hands whenever you like, happy now?"

"Whenever I want to?"

"Yeah, whenever." He hadn't thought much of it as he said that because it made a smile break out on her features and she gripped his hand again.

But shortly after, he realized his mistake. Stephanie had come to the library looking for them and she stopped at a distance, looking at their entwined hands with a raised eyebrow.

She cleared her throat to gain their attention but Olivia ignored it, not wanting to get distracted.

"Did you finally tell her?" Steph whispered to Tim.

"No, stop hinting at it even," he mouthed, looking back at Olivia who hadn't let go of his hand despite the fact that he was trying to tug it away.

"Hey," Steph came up to their table, eyes flickering towards Olivia who was just as fascinated with Tim's hand as she had been earlier. "I did not expect to find you two here together again. I thought all the assignments would have been done by now."

"We have exams," Tim remarked.

Olivia added in reply, "and Tim's a hermit who lives in a library, you must always expect to find him here."

"And you, Olivia, you're no hermit?"

"Nope. I was just trying out this new pastime I have starting from now."

"What pastime?" Steph asked, visibly amused at Tim's flustered look and Olivia's sheer ignorance of it.

Tim was praying she wouldn't say anything awkward in reply because seeing the amused look in Steph's eyes, it was clear the girl won't stop teasing him for that.

"Oh, just seeing what it would take for Tim to stop saying yes to everything I ask of him," Olivia replied breezily though Tim's face had turned a shade pinker, "he's sweet."

Steph raised an eyebrow playfully at Tim who just shook his head in reply. She had been telling him for days now to admit that he had a crush on Olivia but Tim was hesitant.

They had just helped Olivia get better and he didn't want to do anything that could risk their friendship. He didn't want to find out that his feelings were one-sided either and he felt that would be the case because Olivia was rather detached when it came to emotional attachment.

She couldn't possibly have felt the same way for him as he did. But little did he know only that once his assumption about her was wrong.

The attraction wasn't one-sided; both of them were just hesitant to accept it.

***