Shadows Of Gotham

It had been a couple weeks since the events at the gala.

Not that Amora was keeping track—at least, not in a way anyone else could see. But in the back of her mind, she knew it had been about two weeks. Two weeks since she'd frozen up in front of a room full of Gotham's richest. Two weeks since Bruce had quietly led her out before anyone could ask too many questions. Since then, things had... settled. A little.

School became routine. Not easy, but manageable. She didn't talk much in class, but she didn't hide, either. Her name wasn't passed around in whispers anymore. She wasn't that new girl who lives with Bruce Wayne every time she walked into the room. Just Amora. Quiet. Kind of weird. But mostly left alone.

Well—mostly.

Cami, Jules, and Natalie had stuck around.

Amora didn't know why, at first. They were so normal—the kind of girls who talked about TV shows she hadn't seen and used slang that confused her. But they'd kept sitting with her at lunch. Kept walking with her between classes. Kept talking to her like she was just... one of them.

And somehow, that had started to feel okay.

So when Cami invited her out after school on a Friday afternoon—to "that diner on 12th with the spinny stools and the really good milkshakes"—Amora didn't say no.

She didn't say yes, either. Not right away.

But Bruce overheard and casually mentioned he could have a car pick her up if she wanted. And Tim gave her a look from across the breakfast table like You should go, seriously. So she did.

That's how she ended up squished into a red vinyl booth across from her three friends, a vanilla milkshake in front of her and the faint scent of grease and maple syrup in the air.

It was warm. Crowded. Familiar in a way she wasn't used to.

"I'm just saying," Jules said, stirring her soda with her straw, "if you had to pick between kissing a merman or kissing a vampire, the answer should be obvious."

"Oh my god," Cami groaned. "Not this again."

Amora blinked. "What's obvious about it?"

Natalie grinned. "Thank you. Logic time. Go on, Jules."

"Well," Jules said, straightening up like she'd been waiting for this all day, "you'd kiss the vampire. The merman would taste like fish."

"You don't know that," Cami argued, "mermen could have ocean magic or something. Maybe they taste like bubblegum. You don't know!"

"I'm pretty sure that's not how biology works."

Amora let the voices wash over her like background music. She sipped her milkshake slowly, more comfortable listening than talking. Occasionally, one of them would loop her into the conversation—ask her opinion, joke around with her—but they didn't push when she didn't respond right away. They just... kept including her.

She found herself smiling once or twice. Just small ones. Almost out of habit.

"See I'd still say vampire," Jules insisted, now waving a fry for emphasis. "They're usually hot. And they have tragic backstories. That's kind of the whole appeal."

Natalie snorted. "You just want someone brooding to fix."

"Don't we all?"

Amora tilted her head slightly. "Why would you want to kiss either of them if you don't know them?"

The table went quiet for half a second before bursting into laughter—not at her, but with that kind of fond, of course she'd say that energy.

"She's got a point," Cami said, grinning. "Leave it to Amora to logic her way out of a fantasy question."