Closer Than Your Shadow

The Set Up

November 28th 11:16 p.m
Gotham
My apartment

Dez was slumped over the arm of my sofa.

I pinched him to see if he would wake up, but his eyes stayed shut and a little snore came from his lips.

I was ready to pass out from lack of oxygen when I saw Robin messing with the lock on my window. He was already out by the time I was running after him. I basically flung myself onto the fire escape. I tripped on the edge of the windowsill, but he caught me. I tried to straighten up next to him, but his hand went to my back and his fingers dug into my skin. In a moment of wooziness from lack of air I thought about how it would feel without my baggy shirt.

I clasped my eyes shut when the rope pulled us up into the sky. I didn't realize until we were a few buildings away that my foot was pressed against the inside of his knee. The acknowledgment of it twisted my stomach up. I was rubbing against him. This vapid, egotistical, fucking psycho was making my stomach tight and I hated myself for it. We were tangled up, and my leg was wrapped around him like I was a fucking idiot.

It was too vulnerable a position. I tried to readjust then I slid down. My hand reached for his left shoulder, and he muttered a curse that I soon registered as, "Fuck!"

His grasp became non-existent and I slipped out of his arms.

I wasn't screaming. Which surprised me. I usually yelled when I was scared.

My eyes were clamped shut and I tried my best to open them but it was impossible.

Somehow the whistling in my ears didn't even hurt. I was just thinking of how my heart was pounding hard enough to feel the blood rushing in and out.

My palms relaxed out of shock. Then as a reflex I guess, my hand reached for him. I was praying he would swing back around and save me Spider-Man style but that just made me think of Gwen Stacy in the clock tower and I slammed my eyes shut.

I wasn't sure how long I'd been falling. Could've been two seconds or ten.

I finally felt his arm wrap around me, and we snapped up. It felt like a car crash, and his hands were like iron. He crushed our bodies together in the span of a second and he latched onto me for dear life.

His face was millimeters from mine. I could feel his worried breaths against my cheeks and his hair against my forehead. I tried not to look at his lips, but his soulless white eyed mask just wasn't as captivating as his mouth. He let out a groan and I looked up. His shoulder was bent back holding onto his baton. He pressed something, and the rope recoiled to spring us over the roof's ledge. Both of us landed haphazardly on the gravel.

The landing wasn't the worst part, I mean it hurt like hell, but when Robin's body rolled over onto mine, I could've cried.

I groaned out, "get fucking off me."

He pushed himself up and an angry finger was in my face. I almost died and he was pointing at me like I was the problem?

"You despise me that much you'd risk falling so we wouldn't have to be pressed up together? You're the most infuriating fucking person I've ever met. You know how many people I've swung around like that? Hundreds, and you want to know how many people I've dropped? None, because they fucking listen and hold on."

I got up on my knees.

"You know what cry me a fucking river, you cunt. You're the one who dropped me! Sorry I'm not good at something that literally no one does except you! You brought me with you! I didn't ask to be here!"

"You may think cussing makes you sound hard, but it doesn't. Who taught you to talk like that? Huh? Dom? Or maybe your drug dealer boyfriend?"

"Oh my god. Drug Dealer? I'm the drug dealer!" I pushed my fingers into my chest.