The Nowhere Girl

16. Emotions are Annoying

Prepare yourselves for fluff.

Also need a ship name for Jason and Gita.

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Two weeks pass, Tim has gone back to Jump City and is staying with the Teen Titans, Dick is mostly in Blüdhaven, but he stops in from time to time, so it's mostly Damian, Duke and Jason around the manor.

Each morning I take Arabic from Damian, and he teaches me all the insults first, which is his mistake because now I can cuss people out without losing anything to the swear jar. I speak Spanglish and Italian, but I found that Arabic is a lot harder because the gramma is weird, and the words are hard to pronounce, but I'm sticking it out.

The rest of the day is mine to waste until around 5 o'clock when Bruce pulverises me for three hours an afternoon. When he's not beating me into the mat, running me through simulation of old cases.

"Study the architecture, Gita," he says. "The false wall... leading to Gotham Bay."

"He'd be gone before we climbed up the side of the building. Fine."

"Never enter a room without knowing the way out."

I know this, but I listen anyway. There were many nights I slept in abandoned buildings, I always had an exit strategy just in case strangers ambushed me in the night, whether I went full Bruce Wills in the airducts or just jumped out the window, I always had a plan.

Other things didn't come so naturally, like forensics or biochemistry or hacking. I'm not Tim. Normally I'm on the other end of that stick.

"It isn't enough to know your enemy," he says. Bruce has this look that doesn't let you go – intense blue eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything. "You have to know everything about them. You might not be able to out-gun them. But you can always outthink them." Then Bruce does something I don't expect. He places a hand on my shoulder. "What you learn from me is vitally important. I expect you treat it as such. I will only except the best from you, Gita."

I want to get angry; this guy pushes me so hard.

I mean, sure, it's cool to be learning all this new interesting and useful information by a guy dressed like a bat and had me do push ups while naming every chemical compound in Scarecrow's fear toxin and what went in the cure to counteract it. But Bruce expects to be as good as the others, despite the fact that I have ADHD and I have never made above a C in my life. No – he doesn't expect me to be as good; he expects me to better. And I just can't learn all those names and fact, much less read them or spell them correctly.

Instead, I say, "Don't go getting soft on me old man."

Bruce shakes his head at the stupidity of the suggestion. "Dick says you have an interest in archery."

It catches me off guard. "Aye, I do. But it's more than interest, I can put Green Arrow to shame."

"That's not hard."

I snort. I've learnt one of Bruce's favourite hobbies is throwing shade at Oliver Queen.

Bruce tells me trainings over for the day and lets me go.

Stretching my sore muscles, I wander across the cave. I sit by Jason as he tries to fix the headlight on his bike and hold the torch for him.

Getting to know Jason properly has to be my favourite part of being stuck in this dimension.

I like speaking with Jason. He hasn't tried to kiss me again, but he's dialled up the flirting. He's learned my sense of humour like the back of his hand, and I've learned his. We respect each other's taboo topics and pick apart everything else.