“DAAAADDDDDD!”

Dru nervously smiled to no one in particular when the voice of his cacophonous, teenaged daughter reached his ears. He was just finishing replacing his costume with a pair of jeans and nothing else. The shirt would have to wait. Kitten hated going without attention for too long.

“What is it, my little mothums!?”

A little joke that only he really liked. Still worth the reaction.

“I TOLD YOU NOT TO CALL ME THAT!” screeched Kitten as he suppressed a giggle with a hand over his mouth.

“YOUR GIRLFRIEND’S HERE!”

Kitten yelling was far from a rare occurrence, but Dru got to be adept at noticing when it was “normal” yelling and “angry” yelling. The extra amount of force behind the voice was a clear indicator that the sight of Dru’s significant other did much to put her in a bad mood. She may still be quite unhappy at the relationship, but at least she was past the point of “trying to kill Daddy’s girlfriend phase”.

Marriage may change that story though. Thankfully, it never came up between them.

“I’m coming down!” he responded before rushing out of his room down the stairs to be met with the sight of his blonde, beautiful, and very distinguishable daughter thanks to the whisker like birth marks on her cheeks that inspired the name. His eyes looked away from the quietly enraged expression of his daughter toward the open front door where Barbara Gordon stood. Now out of costume and dressed in blue jeans, a simple white baseball shirt with short dark grey sleeves. Over her eyes were a pair of thin, rectangular rimmed glasses that made her look more like a professional than usual. Doubling that effect was the librarian like hair bun her auburn red hair was tied into. Dru was used to this kind of appearance. It typically signalled whenever she was trying to give herself a confidence boost. No surprise there.

Her plan was set to play out tonight. The large, grey duffel bag she carried on her shoulder showed that to him clearly. Dru was may have been nervous, but he felt that he was better at not showing it unlike what Barbara was unwittingly doing. Though it never really seemed to matter. Hardly anyone noticed and even if they did they were glad to see her get into that kind of mindset. It actually succeeded in making Dru feel a little more at ease.

“Babs! What a pleasant surprise!” Dru enthused while knowing it wasn’t quite a surprise.

“Hey, Dru!” said Barbara as she leaned in for an embrace while Kitten rolled her eyes at the sight with her arms petulantly crossed.

“I’ll get dinner,” she declared before laving the couple to their hug. While Dru’s daughter was away, he whispered into Barbara’s ear.

“You got it?”

“What do you think the bag’s for?”

“All of it?”

“I’m very meticulous, Dru.”

“Sorry. Just making sure.”

They stop them moment they hear the clatter of ceramic hitting a table followed by the additional clattering of utensils hitting the same surface. A signal that it would not be long before they would be called to the table.

“IT’S READY! HURRY UP!”

As Barbara slightly jolted at the voice of Kitten, Dru gently placed his hands upon her shoulders. She looks to him with a small smile as she places a hand on one of his own before they let go of each other and move to the dining hall where Kitten and two plates of steak, turkey legs, soy sauce doused rice, two peppered mushrooms, and all doused in gravy with a side of mint sauce. As appeasing as the meal looked, Dru showed some concern at the sight as Kitten had taken a seat.

“Um, honey. Aren’t there supposed to be three plates?”

At that, the blonde girl threw a small packet of potato chips to Barbara. A cheap brand of salt flavoured chips with barely a hint of salt on them. Barbara looked to Dru with an embarrassed frown.
Past conflicts with his daughter over his relationship with Barbara may have been unproductive, but he was still not afraid to confront he rover this sort of treatment despite it being an objectively lower grade than tying her to an acid bomb.
“Now, Kitten. I know you and Babs have problems but-”

A warm, soft sensation on Dru’s arm distracts him from his attempted defence of his younger beau. She looks to him with pleading eyes behind the frames of her glasses. He understood it completely. They had bigger thing s to be concerned about.

“It’s okay, Dru. I’m not really hungry anyway.”

As difficult as it was to do, he allowed this to slide with a deep sigh. Slowly, he nods before the two of them seat next to each other. Him with the full cooked meal and her with the stale snack. Bot of them had begun to eat their meals of varying sizes. It was a long and awkward dinner that Barbara had finished first. She spent the next few minutes sitting in silence while the two Walkers were still eating their cooked meals. This silence went on for so long that it seemed as though it would stay that way until the room was empty until Dru decided to try and make the atmosphere a little warmer.

“So, how was college, honey.”

“Fine,” said Kitten.

“Great” said Dru before he resumed to chewing on the gravy laden steak. That was it. The rest of the dinner was the same silence before the finish and the loading of the unwashed dishes into the sink. Kitten ignored her father and Barbara for the rest of the night. More interested in catching up on her favourite drama TV shows. Which proved to be quite convenient to them even with Kitten having little concern about what her father does during the night. The two went to Dru’s bedroom to review their plans for the night. A process that began when Barbara had taken a folded piece of paper from her pocket. A piece that was so big, Dru assumed it to be a map of something. He was soon proven correct when Barbara unfolded it in her hands and laid it on the bed.

At first glance, he immediately recognized it as a blueprint of the ground and second floors of the Gotham National Bank. He wasn’t sure whether he should feel his heart sinking or leaping and both for multiple reasons. He was in dire need of financial support, and this should scream opportunity, but his partner in crime was not exactly the kind of partner in crime you’d be hoping to have for a job like this. He was sure that she was just planning to get in and get out for one thing only, and he could not help but be relieved at that as well. Seeing Barbara of all people getting dragged down a little on the moral scale would make him believe that perhaps a relationship like this is not good for her sense of right and wrong. Especially, after she assisted him with that.

“As usual, the best way to get in is from the top, but the windows are alarmed. So,-”

“Cut the glass or re-route the current away from the building. I’ve done this before, Babs.”

Sheepishly, she grinned while pulling the zip on the duffel bag.

“See? Who needs Selina when I got the other best thief in Gotham?”

Dru wryly smiled as he observed Barbara’s hands digging into the bag.

“You mean second best?”

Barbara’s hands began to pull out what appeared to be a thin, creased and dark layer of material to Dru. She gives him a glance with an amused smirk.

“Oh, come on. You don’t fly a kite.”

Once she had taken the whole of the material from the bag, and placed it on the bed, it had become clear to Dru that this was the catsuit Barbara had said she would bring for this excursion. Their regular costumes were out of the question for obvious reasons. Dru had to admit to himself that this was not what he had in mind despite knowing what she was going to bring. He had pictured it to be a little more darker instead of being a midnight shade of blue. He also expected something more leather than what he could already guess was spandex. Very thin spandex.

“Not sure this’ll fit, Babs.”

Barbara pulls out the other, somewhat smaller catsuit from the bag. Clearly, her own.

“It just looks that way, but it’s very flexible.”

She grabs the arm of her own suit and stretches it. The arm is pulled to a considerable length before she allows it to snap back.

“See?”

With an uncertain sigh, he begins to get ready for the upcoming trip by pulling down his jeans just as Barbara lifted up her shirt. He seated himself on the bed and pulled up the suit feet first while she stripped to her plain, white underwear. He found it to be a tighter fit than the moth suit after getting the gloved sleeves over his arms and hands. He glanced down to observe himself, and he was pleasantly surprised to see that his well-built body fitted quite well in it. It was showing his trained muscles and biceps quite clearly without feeling like a tight squeeze. Too tight of a squeeze anyway.

It didn’t stop him from feeling vulnerable though.

“Told you it fits,” said Barbara as she finished pulling the neckline of the suit up. Dru saw the thin garb having the same effect on her as it had with him. He took in the sight of her athletic, muscled limbs and torso. Soon, he landed his view on the chest. Large, perfectly rounded, soft, and-

“Dru, I know you’re not used to seeing me in anything tighter than the costume, but we need to focus.”

Dru immediately raises his eyes up to see her bespectacled, bright ones. She has a proud, knowing smile daintily playing on her bright, red lips. The kind that made it clear she was already enjoying wearing that flimsy spandex.

“Sorry. Just wondering if you’re planning on stealing or seducing.”

With a wry grin she quickly scans him top to bottom before looking to him at eye level again.

“I could be asking you that if I hadn’t brought the gear.”

Dru felt quite flattered. Even if he felt some insecurity regarding another factor other than his build alone.

“Strong words for a guy nearing fifty.”

With a reassuring pat on his shoulder, Barbara smiles to him with the supporting smile he was sued to seeing back before their relationship had even become intimate. Back when they went through their first few reluctant team ups, and she discovered that there was little to really hate about a man self-employing as a punch bag in the service of Gotham’s wealthier criminal element while raising a daughter by himself. He was certain that animosity was there at the beginning, but it didn’t take too long to dissipate and make way for mutual respect, then team work, then friendship, then… this as hard as it still was for him to believe.

“A nearing fifty guy who’s not afraid to dress up like a big purple moth and still make something of a life here for his daughter even if she hates me. Plus, you work out a lot. There’s that too.”

Not the first pep talk he had gotten from her. Probably not the last either, but it still never failed to make him feel more esteemed as a man who’s doing something he hoped was worthwhile in life now that hew as close to potentially having the infamous “mid-life crisis”.

That though caused him to closely observe his younger, beautiful girlfriend, then the other beautiful young woman in his life as he looked to the door and saw it open with Kitten’s petite form entering. She looks to both of them with a mildly confused look.

“I thought you were just patrolling again?”

There was a brief silence between the three. Awkward, but brief.

“I kinda, sorta am, honey. It’s a little more… covert.”

Kitten shrugged. Unimpressed. She places a bowl of coconut ice cream on top of the cabinet beside her before leaving.

“I told you it’s a mid-life crisis.”

Dru and Barbara exchange looks. It was clear to her that Kitten’s departing statement had some effect on Dru and not in an encouraging way.

“Dru, trust me. You are totally hot.”

With a small, uncertain smile. He looks to himself.

“Still feeling kind of naked.”

With a grin, Barbara reaches into the bag again, and pulls out a metallic belt lined with small tubes and pouches.

“That’s what this is for.”