Damsel | T. Drake ✔

[13]

Tim had gotten held up at Wayne Tech in the morning so he arrived a little late to Irina's department at LexCorp. And he knew the penalty very well; working overtime to adjust the hours wasted. Though the good thing was that his car had finally been repaired and he would have no trouble in staying late that once.

Judging by the hours he had to compensate, he knew full well that the moment he would get free from LexCorp, he would have to rush to the Batcave and suit up for patrol without any break in between.

So far he had submitted the reports he had been working on with his colleague Mathias, and was going through the stat sheets of the shipment details that were yet to arrive. 

He had been working non stop and noticed the time only when his phone buzzed from a notification, the name Ren gleaming at the screen. He swiped it open to see a text from her. Still working?

He looked up to see that most of the department had left by then as he typed back. Yeah, have to stop overtime.

Don't walk back home by yourself. It's tiring saving you from getting abducted every single week.

My car got fixed so you won't have to worry about anything tonight. 

The reply was rather immediate as the screen lit up again. Okay then, don't crash.

A smile flickered on his face but he focused back on the sheets displayed at the monitor. A while passed without any text from Ren until his phone beeped again and he looked down at it.

Are you okay though? When was the last time you had coffee?

His brow furrowed for he had surely not expected her to ask that but then realized that he hadn't had a single cup since lunch break. But that realization did not work in his favor for soon enough, he was craving coffee and his brain was starting to shut down. 

Thanks for reminding me, now I want some coffee real bad but Gladys turned off the coffee maker in our department and there's no other way I can get it. Chances are that I'm most probably going to spend the night at LexCorp so you really don't have to worry about me getting abducted or crashing my car.

His mouth turned down in an almost negligible frown as he tried his best to distract his brain from coffee and resume working again. But his attempts were proving to be a huge disappointment.

It wasn't long until the glass door to Irina Luthor's office opened and he realized that he hadn't been completely alone in the department but it looked like she was about to leave too.

Just so she wouldn't catch him being lazy again, he peeled open his eyes and glued them to the screen, trying hard to get back to work.

Though when she passed by his desk, she placed a cup of frothing hot coffee right beside him and his gaze fell on her hands that hadn't been covered by the gloves as usual.

Her knuckles were bruised as if she got involved in fights way too often for a woman in her position. And though the aspect of her having bruised knuckles was surprising to him, the even more surprising fact was why she had placed a coffee cup at his desk.

He looked up at her but quickly averted his gaze because Irina Luthor had a rather intimidating effect on all of her department members, including Tim.

"Mister Drake, your caffeine addiction is really bad and I don't want you to compromise your work due to it," she remarked, knowing that he was probably questioning her gesture, "next time make sure the department's coffee maker is still running when you stop overtime. Because such favors aren't going to happen often."

He nodded, "sure. Thank you."

She left shortly afterwards, her heels clicking against the marble floor. And only when he was sure that she had gone did he grab the coffee cup, taking a deep sip from it. After he had downed half of it, his senses started to refunction and he finally got back to work.

And though he had overlooked the oddity of the situation earlier, almost forgetting about her badly bruised knuckles altogether. But as his mind awakened he couldn't help but think as if there was much more to Irina Luthor than it met the eye. 

True she was the daughter of Gotham's genius inventor, but it seemed as if there was a deep secret hidden behind the intimidating tough facade of the Luthor lady.

***