Young Writers Society

"Night," he softly said.

He didn't sleep the rest of the night.

He hadn't expected to. His injury was too irritating to focus on falling asleep, especially when the remnants of his last nightmare stubbornly flickered before his eyes. He stayed on his back for the rest of the night - staring up at the ceiling as he tried to think of how he could get back home.

Eddie woke up first in the morning. Without windows, it was impossible to tell what time of day it was, but he shook Megara awake with no regard for anything of the sort.

"Meggie, Meggie, Meggie!" he chanted, "Up time!"

She groaned and sat up rubbing her eyes, "I'm up, Eddie, I'm up."

He grinned and hopped off the bed, "Breakfast!" he shouted.

"Yeah, yeah," she said.

Jason grinned when he heard Eddie's chants - it made him think of a certain little boy of his own, and how insistent Damian could be when it came to waking him up in the morning.

Sitting up, he gave a little stretch and a yawn before grabbing onto the clothes he had discarded the night before. He slid the shirt on and then the jacket. The last step was putting on his boots, which he did the moment he got out of the bed.

He tucked his helmet underneath his arm.

"Morning," he said to both of them, the smile still dancing across his lips.

Megara glared at his wakefulness and swung her legs around the edge of the bed while Eddie skipped over to him and took his arm in a surprisingly firm grip. As he dragged Jason to the door, Eddie chanted, "Break-fast, break-fast, break-fast!"

Megara watched with mild amusement until she found it was time to stand. Her heart skipped a beat in panic before she managed to calm herself. She couldn't stand. She couldn't stand.

She'd been mad about it the night before, but now she was scared. There was a reason she kept so many weapons around. What if they were found out? She wasn't there when Eddie led Jason here, what if they'd been followed? What if the loud bangs from Jason's weapon were heard from outside? What if...

She shook her head. Grabbed her cane.

She laid it across her lap and contemplated an actual solution for a few seconds. Walking would be painful. Very, very painful. She wished she couldn't imagine what it might be like to fight.

She shook her head again. Right now, all she needed was a way to get to the kitchen. She didn't trust Jason to know what was and wasn't toxic.

He was about to head through the door with Eddie when he realized he didn't hear Megara coming from behind. He came to a stop despite Eddie's excited tugging. He turned back to look at her and saw where her cane was.

Understanding dawned on him.

"Do you need help?" he asked. He paused, realizing that the question might come across as demeaning to her. "With breakfast, I mean?"

He hoped she got the implied double meaning - he'd happily help with breakfast, but he could see that her leg was causing her a little more trouble than breakfast was.

She blinked at him.

"Yes," she said after too long a pause. It sounded defeated. Her gaze dropped.

She hated it. Hated feeling like this. She couldn't even walk to breakfast in her own home. She couldn't defend it either. She needed help. Her grip on her cane tightened until her knuckles were white, the stare she pinned on it burning with hatred. She couldn't even stand.

He glanced between Eddie and Megara, an idea beginning to form in his head.

He crouched down beside Eddie.

"Hey, Eddie," he said, "want to play a game? Megara's really tired right now, and she's having trouble getting out of bed. But you and I both very awake right now, so it's our duty to help her body wake up. Whoever helps her the most wins the game."

Eddie grinned, nodded, and trotted over to Megara, immediately grabbing her by the hand and pulling on her somewhat gently at first to give her a chance to get her cane on the ground before pulling her to her feet. She winced, leaning heavily on the cane.

"Come on Meggie," Eddie said, "We have to get breakfast!"

She managed to offer him a smile. Her mind was a colorful field of curses in every language she knew, and a few of her own invention. Gods, that wound, whatever she was supposed to call it, hurt like so many kinds of hell.

The real reason for asking Eddie to play the game was so he could help Megara walk around without worrying Eddie. After Eddie went to her side, he quickly followed. The cane only supported one side of her body; he would support the other.

Without giving her a chance to protest - mainly because he doubted she would - he slipped his arm under hers and supported her weight with his own body. With her cane and his own muscles, it wasn't hard to keep her up and keep most of the weight off of her injured legs.

Eddie skipped ahead of them as they limped over to the kitchen, humming some tuneless melody that was a song only to him.

"Thank you," Megara muttered.

Inside the kitchen, she directed him to put her down on one of the crates. Once seated, she gestured to one of the shelves, "Nothing on there is edible. Just...ask me before you eat anything else."

He glanced at the shelve in question, nodded and then turned his attention back to the kitchen before him. Megara couldn't easily stand, and Eddie probably didn't know how to cook yet, so the least he could was make some breakfast for the three of them.

"Do you have any eggs?" he asked.

She gestured to one of the crates, "Too many," she said.

Eddie was bouncing around, having apparently dug a little wooden doll out of gods-knew-where and he was playing with it, giving it a change of accent every time he moved it to face the spot where it had been before.

"-I am a cook!" he made the doll say in a shrill imitation of a northern accent.

"You should not be a cook! You should be a dead bad guy!" said the featureless doll, now in his other hand with an eastern accent only slightly more pronounced than Eddie's own.

"No I should not!" the shrill voice again.

"Yes you should!"

He switched the doll over to his other hand again and had it say something unintelligible in the shill voice once more before tossing it across the kitchen floor.

"Eddie," Megara interrupted as he hopped up from the ground and began to walk away from the toy, "You know the rules."

He pouted and trudged over to the toy, picking it up as slowly with as exaggerated movements as possible. He flashed Megara an angry look and stomped out of the kitchen with slow, dragging feet.

Once he'd turned the corner, Megara shook her head. "You don't mind retrieving him when the food's done, do you?" she asked Jason.

He shook his head.

"I don't," he confirmed. He distracted himself from thinking too much about Eddie's game of pretend by opening the crate she had pointed at. There was plenty of eggs for him to make what he had in mind. It was simple, but it would taste good. He got out six eggs. Now all he had to find was the right cooking utensils, the spice he needed, and some squash.

...Assuming Megara had those last two.

He turned back to her.

"Do you have cajun seasoning and squash?" he asked. After a moment passed, he added, "A cutting board and a knife would probably be good, too."

"I don't have any actual cutting knives, but there are a few knives tucked along the back of the shelf-" she gestured to the shelf in question, "-as for spices, all I have are also on that shelf. I doubt you'll find what you need." She shrugged.

She'd only collected whatever spices she could find in her less-than-welcome visits back to the manor. Those trips were mostly for weapons, specialized ones that were meant to be hidden and toxins only Briar could make, but the kitchens - which had served as her entrance and exit - were well stocked with rather expensive spices. She couldn't help taking a little something on her way out. Penance for the hell she was in.

"What, exactly, do you do? Where you're from, I mean, what's your job?"

The lack of squash was a disappointment, but he'd have to make do without them. All he needed was a little bit of seasoning, and the eggs would taste just as good as if he had the squash.

He went to where she pointed. He didn't find anything that was clearly cajun seasoning, but it looked like some of the parts of it were there - he'd just have to use those instead.

Getting out the ingredients and supplies, he started to get to work on making breakfast.

'"My job's actually a little boring," he admitted. "I work at a bookstore. Not many people come to it, but I get a good pay since no one wants to work in that part of Gotham."

He sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck.

"At least they hired me," he added. "I wasn't sure anyone would - I didn't have any experience, and my hours are a little limited thanks to taking care of my..."

He faltered - he was clearly mulling over the word. It wasn't like he was trying to lie, but he was trying to figure out if the word really applied to Damian.

"...little brother," he finished.

He cracked open the last egg.

"And when I'm not with him or at my job, I do some vigilante work in my city."