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five ────────────── cheers to that!
For a long time, Elina had trouble navigating her own feelings. Maybe that happened to a lot of isolated criminals, or maybe someone with a trauma plagued past, or maybe it was just her—or at least it felt like it was. It'd been at its worst in Gotham—when Elina was solely bent on ruining the lives of the city's cockroaches. She'd had a few friends along the way—like Harley, and for a short time, she'd even considered the Red Hood a friend. Her friends were on the same route as her: causing chaos in the form of violence. Then, when Elina landed in Belle Reve, there was nothing to really distract her from what she'd really felt. There was always something to do before she was confined in concrete walls—feeling bad about yourself? Remember that old offender across the street? Take it out on him. They'd offered her a few coping mechanism at Belle Reve, but none of them really gave the satisfaction of seeing Gotham's scum bleed. Over the years of her incarceration, Elina had started to...grasp her own feelings. She knew when she was happy, when she wasn't, when it was okay to feel something and when it wasn't. And occasionally, she liked to talk about whag exactly was going on in that head of hers.
As Elina sat in the back of the dimly lit shaking bus, she'd come to the conclusion that her house of cards was tumbling once again—she realized this as she stared at Rick Flag for a prolonged amount of time, wondering what exactly she felt for that man. She would chalk it up to being Cleo's words sticking to her mind—basically implanting an idea in her head that stuck worse than the plague Sebastian's ancestors had carried in Europe of 1346. Well, not that bad. But, she couldn't easily rid the thought from her head at the moment. Elina's back was to the window, with her body facing towards Rick, who was directly across from her. Rick offered a warm smile, which brought her back to reality.
In a swift movement, Rick pushes himself off his seat and slides to her own with a quirked brow beneath his cowboy hat. "You look worried?" He asks, unsurely. Elina shurgs. "Just thinking." She says simply. Rick chuckles softly, nudging his elbow to her side. "What about? No clouded mind for this mission, you know the rules." Rick informed, playfully.
You. You are currently the withstanding issue. But, she keeps those words to herself. For a moment, she contemplates telling him. Throwing caution to the wind, she does. "Just a little unsure of how to feel. In Belle Reve I got everything kind of in order and then I was thrown back into all this—just a little confused is all." Elina admits, putting on a smile.
Rick exhales briefly before placing a hand on her shoulder. "I understand. You were a certain way for a while and now all that's crashing down, right?" Elina confirms with a nod. "You don't have to work through this alone—which is why we're here. Why I'm here." Rick says in a reassuring tone. Elina blinks and nods. There's a feeling erupting in her heart and she can't help but feel her ears heat up at it. "Yeah. That's what teammates do." She says.
