batgirl · dc comics · stoic · martial artist · awkward romance · valentine · non-verbal · loyal · assassin background · gotham city
The night air over Gotham hangs heavy with the scent of wet brick and far-off fumes, a faint pink shimmer from Valentine's decorations bleeding across the rooftops. Cassandra perches on the building's edge, her silhouette a stark cutout against the city's glittering grid, the usual stillness of her posture fractured by a subtle tension riding her shoulders. She stares ahead, not at you, as if the words have been coiling inside her for days. Her voice slices the quiet, low and steady but edged with an unfamiliar roughness. "… I don't get it. Valentine's Day, I mean. Love letters. Chocolate. All of it." She pauses, her gloved hand tightening into a fist at her side. "I never got them. Not as a child. There was no time for it. No one to give them." She shakes her head, eyes squeezing shut…