( o12. the one who lurks )
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     THE SOUND OF THE SHOPPING CART ROLLING and background noise was present in the small gotham store. storm and damian were currently trying to find all types of stuff, such as tape, super glue, and whatever else they needed to finish that project early.

"dude, where the fuck are the stencils?!"

"can you shut up and calm down? they're right there." damian dully told storm, pointing towards the isle all the way on the other side of the store.

"you knew where they were the whole time? i've been looking for the past twenty minutes, are you fucking kidding me?" storm's eye slightly twitched with her lips formed into a deadly smile.

not giving a single fuck about Storm being irritated, he replied, "i fail to understand how you wear glasses and still can't see the most simplest stuff in front of you." with his normal, bland expression.

storm immediately fumed out of nowhere. "it's not my fault i didn't notice the goddamn thing until just now- "

"whatever. you shouldn't even be rushing me since you're not the one paying for all of this."

      she's definitely on her period, damian mentally took note of after he said that. he noticed how her emotions were slightly heightened and that it easy it was for her to get pissed off or frustrated now when storm was usually cool and collected. he didn't want to ask about it, considering he felt as if it wasn't his business.

      he remembered the look on her face when one of girls in their biology class kept asking if she was okay although storm told her yes twice already. it looked as if she was going start a bloody riot. and it seemed like blake guy wasn't making it any better. damian didn't really understand women at all, but he wouldn't judge them because of that.

     as soon as they both managed to collect all the materials they needed, such as super glue, colored paper, markers, and cardboard, they made their way to the slightly long line in front of them.

"i need to get something," storm tiredly answered with a small yawn escaping her mouth since she was tired and ready to go home and take a nap or something. "i'll be right back."

"whatever." damian answered as he stayed behind. he stood there, bored. he noticed the small television at the top corner of the wall with the news channel playing. there was a young female reporter with brown hair talking.

"we have recently gotten news of random assassinations taking place around gotham city. there's no telling what this person's motive was for murdering three people in cold blood within less than two weeks, but they're a massive threat to this city. it's recommended for gotham citizens and school students to be back home before dark, considering it's possible that the assassin only attacks during that time. hopefully the GCPD and batman find this assassin before more havoc takes place. but for now, they encourage everyone to be cautious when strolling around the city at night."

    that reminded damian of how pissed off he was at bruce at the moment. the fact that he couldn't help with the mission irked him so fucking much. he just wanted to know what his father's actual reason behind telling him off was, but of course bruce wouldn't tell him. good reason or not, he was secretive about certain stuff ── most stuff. it was just his nature. the reason why they had a hard time trusting each other with the important things.

"i'm so tired of this city," storm took damian by surprise since she interrupted his thoughts. damian took a deep breath to get himself back together. "there's always some weird, crackhead shit going on around here." she rolled her eyes at the television screen, holding a pack of pads.

"no kidding," damian lowly answered with a scoff.

"hey, i might have trevor pick me up and stay over there if we end up finishing this project after dark. because one, i'm definitely not staying at home by myself while there's a crazy murderer bitch on the loose. gives me the creeps, to be honest. and two, he has so much junk food over there which is everything i need after all this." storm informed him. the girl also knew she would most likely get another lecture from robin if she kept on. she wished her parents were home more often but they worked a lot.

     damian shrugged at her. "good, it means that after you leave, i won't have to deal with you anymore."

     immediately, storm put her hand on her chest with an offensive expression. "damn, so mean for what?"

     "i'm only stating the truth. am i lying?" he sarcastically said to storm, who stuck up her middle finger at him in return.

"i hope you choke." she told him with a smile.

damian only said, "no. now, put your stuff in the shopping cart, unless you prefer to pay for it yourself."

     storm, astounded by the young wayne's words, widened her eyes as she placed the pack of pads in the shopping cart, like damian told her to do. so the little shit is nice, huh. i'm on defense about embarrassing him in front of his brothers now.

after damian paid for everything, both teens began to walk out the store with bags full of materials and stuff. as they both waited for alfred to come get them, storm took a moment to think about the news from earlier. "hey, am i the only one who thinks this one assassin situation is weird as hell?"

    damian looked at storm with a confused expression, while crossing both of his arms. "what do you mean?"

     " like you know how normal assassinations in gotham would usually have something to do with dumb ass rich people who like to stupidly make enemies and end up getting beheaded in return?" storm questioned. "this time ... it's just weird. like there's something wrong with it. i mean they just killed three random bozos and left them for the police to find, right?" she elaborated.

     damian only shrugged in response while saying, "it is weird. it's obvious they're looking for some kind of attention, but it's nothing new for gotham."

      the police ... ? no, it's more that. they weren't just killed randomly. damn, why won't my father just tell me what i need to know, damian thought to himself.

"and what are you? some kind of detective?" damian said with obvious sarcasm coming out of that sentence.

storm rolled her eyes at damian's sarcasm and replied, "no, i'm just not stupid like most people. and i only asked because the case felt weird to me. maybe i'm just paranoid or something."

"paranoid from what?"

"damian, there's a literal assassin out there killing random people. who the fuck wouldn't be paranoid?" storm told him as if what damian asked was a stupid question. or like the fact that i feel like i'm getting fucking stalked every five seconds, storm said to herself in her head.

     damian dully told storm, "you're overthinking that big head of yours."

     "pipe down before i come after that fucked up hairline of yours- "

     "pennyworth's here." damian interrupted the girl beside him, causing her to look at him crazy in return for coming after her head like that.

the familiar fancy black, dazzling, shining car pulled up in front of them. of course damian wasn't fazed by it, he was used to having shit like rich looking cars and fancy mansions. people didn't even have to question how he was able to get into gotham academy considering who his father was.

     alfred was out the car as storm and damian made their way towards it. "greetings, miss storm, master damian," alfred said to them. after greeting the older man back, they made their way inside the fancy looking car and took a seat.

     as soon as they made it to the manor, storm noticed how quiet it was compared to last time. jason, dick, and tim weren't running around to embarrass damian and for damian so far, it was peaceful without his brothers all up on him and in his business.

     "so what, no brothers to make fun of you with today?" storm said with a sarcastic tone and crossed her arms as she walked in some more.

     damian only shrugged, not really bothered by it. "i don't know. if they're not here, they're probably out doing something within their own time. besides, it's good they're gone. less of a distraction for me and we can get this over with, correct?"

"yeah, sure. only if you decide not to be a pain in the ass, am i right?" storm said as her lips formed into a playful smirk.

rolling his eyes back at storm's remark, damian responded, "you're one to talk." as they both made their way to the living room and sat down, while setting the bags with the materials beside them.

"hey, you were an ass first, not me." storm said as she pointed her finger towards herself. she didn't lie, though. damian started acting like an asshole, which wasn't surprising to storm, and now storm thought it was okay to purposely irritate him as payback for being rude to her in the first place. storm thought damian one hundred percent deserved it.

"you're annoying, you know that?" damian emotionlessly asked storm, setting up the materials on the table during the process.

shrugging her shoulders while closing her eyes with smirk, storm casually responded, "you know you love it, demon shit."

     "call me that again, and i'll slice your throat."

     "dude, how did your father raise you like this?" storm sarcastically asked him. it was just a surprise to her how his brothers were more outgoing and fun than him. damian was, well ... his usual self.

     "he didn't." damian simply answered storm, which resulted in her trying not to burst laughing by turning her head and covering her mouth to hide the cackle that was threatening to come out her mouth.

     storm started at him for a moment with silence before jokingly saying, "i guess that makes sense of you think about it. so you're telling me you got all of that from your mother's side or something?"

"i suppose."

storm curiously asked the boy next to her, "was your mother as concerning as you are now?"

"well, she was ... something." damian just simply put it.

his mother was something else to deal with. she went crazy, she even went as far as trying to kill her own twelve year old son. that's when he saw her true colors. she was willing to eliminate and replace him, just like that, without hesitation. she didn't actually care about him, she only saw him as someone to take his grandfather's place when he grew up. hell, she didn't even give a damn about ra's wishes either.

"that's what it's all about in the end, isn't it, mother? not the vision of a better world my grandfather had. it's just about control." damian watched disappointed as he witnessed his father, a man of justice, pointing a gun at nightwing's head under his mother's influence.

talia stared at her blood son, carelessness in her eyes. without hesitation, she emotionlessly ordered bruce, "start with the bastard. we can always make more."

he was used and manipulated into thinking that he was their family. but, no. he was just a pawn to their fucked up plan. all the nonstop training, all that talk about becoming the next ruler of the league, the secrets about his father ... it all made made sense. he realized that he never got the opportunity to have a say in what he wanted. it was all them. they chose and displayed his future out for him, not caring about what he really wanted.

     damian wondered what his life would be like if he had the chance to be a kid again, since he grew up to fast. he thought about what he would've been like if he had the chance to act his age, smile, laugh, have normal friends. but then again, he wouldn't be who he was now. in a way, he was grateful, though. for his brothers (most of them), his friends, and all the other people who changed his perspective on the world. even though right now, the world thought it was best to pair him up with this annoying girl he had just met over a week ago. just why?

"hey," he heard storm say, snapping him out of his distracting thoughts. "you good?"

damian's expression immediately went back to normal, and he dully replied to storm, "yeah, whatever."

"WELL, WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT!" storm exclaimed as she analyzed the final look of their project. it was six o' clock in the evening and they were finally finished even though storm was purposely annoying damian most of the time. damian's brothers made it back home while storm was still there and convinced her to crack a few jokes with them, which pissed damian off even more considering he was already annoyed with them.

     "we're finally done. you mind keeping this here until next week? great, cool, thank you, i appreciate it so much." storm quickly said as she gathered her book bag and her phone, in which damian narrowed his eyes and sighed in annoyance.

     storm quickly texted trevor, telling him that she was done with her project damian so he could pick her up. she was already tired, and planned on relaxing with trevor all night.

     her parents had worked a lot, therefore they weren't at home that much. most of the time when she got home from school, she would be home alone. of course her parents would always find time to spend time with storm, but sometimes they couldn't because the asylum and police department were always busy. there were always new bodies found that they had to take care of because there was always some crazy shit going on in gotham.

     "how long will it take for your friend to get here?" damian asked storm as she patiently waited by the front door.

     she shrugged, not really sure how long it would take for trevor to pick her up. "don't know, maybe ten minutes. where i live is about five minutes from here, and trevor lives about another five minutes away from my house."

     "good." damian just replied to storm.

     with a small chuckle, storm said, "damn, you that eager for me to leave?"

     "well, that and if you mysteriously forgot, there's a serial killer roaming around gotham, and i'm not going to be presenting this useless project by myself because you got killed." damian sarcastically remarked back, taking a deep breath and crossing his arms.

     storm playfully rolled her eyes at the teenage boy's sarcasm. "alright, you smartass. i'm not stupid enough to get myself murdered, especially in this fucked up city. and if it ever came to that, i would become a ghost and haunt your ass for eternity." she returned some sarcasm right back to damian.

     "you're actually calling me the smartass? listen, anderson. i know you provoke me on purpose." damian said to storm, his arms still crossed.

     storm only let out a minor laugh before replying, "damian, boy, i thought that was obvious already. you can't blame me, though. you're fun to mess with." 

     "i'm never paying for your stuff again." damian said back to storm, emotionless and dull.

smacking her plump lips, storm shrugged her shoulders and rolled her eyes, pretending to be offended by damian's words. "damn, okay. keep that same energy when i talk shit about your hairline to your brothers the next time i see them."

damian gave her an irritated side eye in return. "if i wanted to, i could have you waiting outside until your friend gets here. sounds like a plan, doesn't it, anderson?"

     not this motherfucker over here threatening me. this is why i'm gonna keep on violating him, storm said in her mind. "your family wouldn't let you, even if you wanted to, demon spawn."

     "wanna find out?" damian lifted an eyebrow at storm.

     rolling her eyes, storm loudly huffed and gave up. "mean ass."

     "i thought so."

     before storm got the chance to say anything back, both teens heard a car horn honking in front of the manor, which meant that trevor had finally made it there without a problem. "welp, there goes my ride. catch you later, demon spawn." storm said to damian while he chose not to say anything in return and let her walk out.

getting in the car, trevor started and asked, "you guys were eager to finish that project, huh?"

"uh, yeah," storm answered trevor as if the answer was obvious. "i told you i couldn't spend a whole two weeks with that boy, he's too grumpy, you feel me? his brothers are actually cool, though. i hope i see them more often, to be honest. they're better to hang out, rather than damian's old ass. i can't even get the poor guy to smile."

laughing, trevor said, "why are you surprised? damian wayne is not the type of person you'd wanna be friends with. you remember that time he traumatized that one kid for looking at him the wrong way?" he began to pull off and drive out the wayne manor driveway.

"now you know that'll never be forgotten. the poor child was too scared to even come to class for a month straight." storm remembered and tried not to burst out into laughter. "i don't even know why people are terrified of him. his death glare doesn't scare me, whatsoever. i experienced them like five thousand times already. he's like any other kid with anger issues."

      as trevor was driving past the turned off street lights and tall buildings, storm's gut was telling her again, that something was watching her, following her wherever she went. a concerned look immediately grew on storm's features as she looked in the mirror on her side of the car. then, she could've sworn she saw a shadow like figure, maybe the one from that night in the kitchen, in the corner of a building for a split second. she couldn't quite catch it all the way.

      maybe it was it. she could've been wrong. but she knew someone was watching her. there was no way in hell she was getting those feels out of nowhere, for no reason. she was being watched, and there was nothing she could do about it at the moment but keep to herself, because at the same time it could've been nerves from hearing about the assassin news. but whatever was making her feel paranoid and unsafe, was definitely out there, waiting for something.

      "storm, you okay?" trevor asked, concerned. "you froze there for a moment."

     not wanting to worry her best friend, storm just sat back and reassured trevor that she was fine. "i'm good. i just thought i saw something weird." she said shrugging her shoulders.

     even though she knew she was becoming more paranoid every single day.

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PUBLISHED ──── 10/30/2021

AUTHOR'S NOTE ──── i hope yall know storm ain't the assassin 💀🧍🏽‍♀️

anyways i finally updated again, i know yall missed this story 😭 i am SO sorry for not updating sooner, i been so fucking busy with school and stuff but here's a longer chapter this time, and hopefully it won't take me another 4 months to update