❄️His Snowflake❄️

12 - Checking Up On You

The tower was quiet the very day after their impromptu and abruptly ended movie night. Dick woke up bright and early for training as usual, nodding at an eager Gar and a somewhat interested Rachel. He knew Rose would stroll in some minutes late just to be cheeky but he had expected Connor to drag her in, early. It was either that the raven-haired teenager had given up trying or he had simply forgotten. Jason would undoubtedly dodge the training session but Dick was worried because Emily was usually among the early birds, yet she had yet to show up.

His concern was only heightened when Rose showed up, dragging Connor by the hand and grumbling to herself. She decided to blame Gar for the boy's all-nighter playing video games, rather than Connor himself because apparently, it never would have happened if Gar had kept his toys to himself. Dick silently waited a couple of seconds more before he interrupted Rose's ranting to order Gar to get Emily.

Relieved, Gar rushed off to retrieve his best friend, only to be blocked by her bolted bedroom door. "Emily...?"

"Yeah, Veg?"

"Training was supposed to start ten minutes ago." Emily cursed herself, her nose crinkling in distaste. "Dick has been waiting for you. C'mon, let's go then we can watch an actual movie with Rae after."

Appeasing her mentor and bonding time with her teammates were tempting but simply not enough of an incentive to get Emily out of bed. She lay upside down with her legs to the headboard, eyes vacantly viewing the ceiling but managed to turn her head slightly to reply, "sorry, Gar. Can you tell Dick I'm not feeling too good?"

"Oh, shoot. Is it your period? I swear, that shit drains you way too much to be legal. Is that a weird thing to say? I think that's a weird thing to say. I'll go tell Dick what you said." He scurried off and a small grin crept up her face, fading into oblivion after a fleeting second. Now that she was alone, she could feel utterly devastated in peace.

"Emily?" Her head whipped to the door. She felt so angry with herself for making Dick walk all the way to her room. How was she supposed to convince him that she was sick when he had been raised by one of the greatest detectives there was. anyway? She struggled to find it within herself to put on an act, to give all the coughs and moans that would be necessary but a horrible jab from her dark mind sent her reeling.

When she sucked in a sharp breath, Dick tried to open the door, frowning when it didn't budge. "Emily? Is everything alright in there?"

"Yes, Dick, I'm fine, I promise. I'm not really sure what's wrong with me. I just need... I need to..."

"You need rest. It's alright. I know you've been spending some of the free time you have now that you're grounded doing more work and you definitely need a break from all of that." She nodded to herself but her inner voice admonished her for being grounded, for not putting in enough effort and for acting so weak that Dick was actually convinced she wasn't well.

Finding herself awake some hours later, Emily was once again thrown into a state of utter despair. With another freakish nightmare, her mind wasn't going to let up. "Get up, dammit, Emilia Brookes. Get off your fucking ass and eat something...! Jason wouldn't be able to see those collar bones if you had some extra meat on yourself."

She shook the thought away, remembering that after their conversation not too long ago, he had apologised for insulting her behind her back and countered each remark, and then some, until she fell asleep listening to his blatant complimenting. She couldn't help how hard she flushed after this thought came. Even when the darkness in her mind fought back against the single sliver of positive vibes, she harnessed the energy from the thoughts to get up and make her way towards the door.

She half-heartedly wished someone had at least checked in with her, even though she was terrified to have anyone see or hear her when she was like this. A smile grew on her face when she saw a flask on the floor in front of her. The neon green sticky note read; I think you're sleeping and I don't want to wake you but whenever you're up and remember to feed your tum, here's some vegan noodle soup, Els!