Sasha's P.O.V:

I was sitting toward the back of my Spanish class while some random kid performed their assessment monologue, staring rather boredly at his mumbling figure.

I was pretty certain this guy was part of the idiotic "troublemaker" gang, or whatever it was that they identified as. Needless to say, he was beyond stupid when it came to spanish. He literally had no idea what he was saying or doing, and it was giving me a headache.

"Sasha," Rebecca hissed from two seats to my right. I jolted a little, surprised that someone was talking to me in the otherwise silent classroom.

Rebecca pointed to her phone, which she had hidden beneath her desk. I realized that she wanted me to pull out my own and check it for a message from her. I rested my new iPhone 11 Pro (courtesy of the Wayne family's large abundance of money) in my lap and read the text I'd received.

R: hamish invited me to conners party this sat!!

I stared at my phone in momentary shock.

Me: conners having a party??

Rebecca replied almost instantly:

R: yeh he didnt tell u?

Now I was feeling slightly pissed. Conner was by far my oldest friend in this world, and he'd decided to throw a party without inviting me? I felt my heart sink a little at that.

Me: no i'll ask him abt it

R: good bc i need a dress and ur coming shopping w me for it

An involuntary groan escaped my lips at her text. Rebecca smiled excitedly to my right and threw up jazz hands, though she was forced to pull them away when Mrs. Hernandez sent her a sour look.

Me: when?

Rebecca texted back with:

R: after school or something

R: its friday after all

I supposed that made enough sense. Bruce wouldn't mind, now that we'd moved past that whole I'm trying to keep you safe by locking you up phase. I was essentially free to do whatever I wanted.

At that moment the class erupted in clapping and I looked up from my phone to see that the kid had somehow finished. He looked relieved, as did everyone else, but we all knew it was for different reasons.

"Señor Wayne is up next," Mrs. Hernandez announced immediately. Pretty much all eyes turned to Damian, who was sitting way at the back of the room, playing around with a tiny pocket knife under his desk. Typical.

He rolled his eyes and stood up, making his way to the front of the room. He didn't carry any palm cards or notes. I wasn't surprised, it was obvious to anyone that he was about to fucking ace this assignment without them.

Last I remembered, Damian knew a good couple of languages. Spanish was among one of the easier ones and he had no trouble speaking it fluently. When he reached the front of the class, he folded his arms over his chest and glared at everyone until Mrs. Hernandez told him to begin.

I had never really heard Damian speak in any other languages before, so hearing the Spanish flow out of him like he was a native pretty much shocked me. Not only was he good, but the way he spoke it sounded so... beautiful.

Like in a romantic way.

I could sense all the female students in the classroom going crazy from his presentation. Their hormones were in overdrive, and they were practically swooning, some exchanging giddy looks and others giggling and gawking.

My phone buzzed slightly in my lap and I looked back down.

R: i think ur bf just impregnated every girl in this room

Rebecca's text had my cheeks burning and I scowled at her to my right, quickly flicking her the middle finger.

Me: dont even start

She laughed silently to herself and replied:

R: it had to be said bitch

God, I hated her sometimes.

----------------------------

Damian's P.O.V:

"Sasha!" A voice called out, echoing down the corridor.

I was walking beside Sasha to our Advanced Math class, watching as she turned in the direction of the noise, her face scrunching in confusion.

Conner was running toward us, his hair slicked back with gel and his uniform worn neat and tidy. He seemed to fit right into the role of rich private school boy. He somehow even managed to look spoiled, too.

"Hey, Conner," Sasha smiled weakly, and there was a slight look of sadness in her eyes as he approached us for reasons I couldn't place.

Conner skidded to a halt and turned to face Sasha fully. "I haven't seen you at all lately. And after you went to the bathroom the other day you left all your stuff and everything. And why is everyone talking about Drake? Is everything okay?"

I felt an uncontrollable amount of anger beginning to rise inside me at the thought of what Henderson had tried only two weeks ago. It angered me even more that Conner, Sasha's supposedly "oldest" friend, hadn't even realized what had happened.

I felt my fists clenching. Rage was taking over me again, like it always did. I could never control myself when I got mad. The anger management therapy wasn't helping in the slightest, either, because even when I tried the  breathing exercises I'd been assigned, the fury still continued to course through my veins.

I stepped toward Conner and shoved him back, causing his eyes to widen in confusion and shock.

"Why don't you ask your fucking best friend, then?" I snarled at him, tempted to hit him in the face for being so oblivious when it came to Sasha. If he really was her true friend he would've known, and he wouldn't fucking done something about it.

"Damian, stop," Sasha hissed at me, yanking my away from the boy with slight aggression.

She turned to a startled Conner and said, "It's nothing, Conner. I'm fine. Everything's fine."

He could obviously tell that that was a lie now. He stared at the both of us, his gaze flicking between us as if he was trying to figure out the problem.

"What's going on?" He demanded harshly. "What happened?"

Sasha looked anxious to leave, but I wasn't about to let Conner get away with being an absent friend. I was mad now, and that anger wasn't going to go until I did something about it.

"You should watch who you hang out with," I growled, my eyes narrowed and my jaw clenched. I stepped toward him so that we were level and our faces were only inches apart.

I could sense Conner's own anger rising at my challenging demeanor. "Get out of my face," he spoke through gritted teeth, reacting just how I'd expected him to. He was an assassin, after all, and assassins didn't have a lot of control when it came to confrontation.

They weren't taught to.

I offered him a dry laugh. "Or what? What are you going to do?" Because sincerely, I did want to see what he would try, what he was truly capable of.

Sasha grabbed my arm again. "Damian, stop it. Just leave him alone."

But I ignored her, enjoying the deadly glare I was receiving from Conner. He was mad, and he wanted to hurt me.

Good, because I wanted to hurt him too.

"Just tell me what happened," Conner's jaw was clenched, his words seething. "Sasha, just tell me what happened."

Sasha brought her hands to her head in distress. She looked frustrated and slightly scared, almost like she was trying to hide. "Conner, I told you, it's fine. You didn't do anything wrong."

I couldn't believe what she was saying. "Bullshit," I snarled, shoving his chest again, watching as he stumbled back once.

This time his assassin training took over him, and he went to hit me back, though I easily dodged the attack by stepping to the side.

I grabbed his arm and twisted it, his body locking and he grunted. Then I shoved him back and watched him stagger a good ten feet away from me.

"What the hell is your problem?" he yelled, grabbing onto the nearby lockers for support.

I headed toward him with a look of disgust. "My problem? You're the one buddying it up with fucking Drake Henderson."

"Just stop it," Sasha growled, angrier now.

Conner looked confused as hell. "Why? What did he do?"

I turned to Sasha, who shook her head profusely. Don't do it, she was telling me, looking close to tears. Don't you dare tell him.

Although every bone in my body screamed at me to tell Conner exactly what he had allowed to happen, to tell him what he'd failed to do as her supposed "friend", I controlled myself for Sasha's benefit.

Justice, not vengeance. Justice, not vengeance.

I cursed to myself in Arabic, something I did subconsciously when I was mad. Really mad. It was an old habit from my time at the League.

I needed to leave before I hurt someone. Before I hurt him.

"Whatever," I muttered, shoving my way past Conner and heading down the hall, leaving Sasha behind.

I hated him. For some inexplicable reason, I hated Conner with all my being. I hated him as much as I hated Drake, and as much as I hated Henderson.

But why?

I wasn't even certain.

---------------------------------

That afternoon

Sasha's P.O.V:

I'd alerted Alfred about my outing to the mall with Rebecca so he wouldn't wait up. Damian had some patrol thing with Bruce after school, too, which was good because it meant he wouldn't be joining us. Not that he'd ever join me shopping, anyway.

I was mad at him for lashing out at Conner like that. As much as I was frustrated by the fact that Conner hadn't told me about his party, I still hadn't wanted him to be abused by Damian's anger issues. It wasn't his fault that Drake had snuck up on me and tried to enact his revenge.

When Damian had stormed off, I'd calmed Conner down and reassured him that nothing was wrong. He clearly wasn't convinced but managed to let it go after I casually brought up Rebecca and Hamish's plan for "some party".

Conner's eyes lit up and he seemed to remember. "Oh, yeah. I've been wanting to talk to you about that for ages. Do you wanna come?" He'd said, much to my surprise.

And to think I thought he'd just been avoiding me or something.

I accepted his invitation and he walked me to class. Damian was glaring at us when I reached Math. I ignored him and took a seat on the furthest side of the room instead of beside him.

What? I was allowed to be a little bit petty. He shouldn't have acted out so aggressively.

Now it was currently 4:30 and Rebecca and I were making our way to the subway. "So I was thinking something blue, or like maybe red, since I have red hair and all," she was rambling as we crossed another one of Gotham's busy streets.

I wasn't really listening to her. The whole Damian incident was still playing on repeat in my head and it had me worried. I didn't like fighting with him. I never had, even before our whole relationship thing.

And speaking of relationships, what even were we now? A couple? I hadn't given it much thought after the night I'd asked Damian why he'd called me a friend.

Supposedly, he wanted me to be the one to label us.

Talk about pressure.

Half of me wanted to be with him officially -- whatever that even meant. The other half wanted to take things slow so I didn't fuck anything up like I always did. I was also still really traumatized from my past, which wasn't helping the emotional aspect of things.

I wasn't even sure if I could commit to someone after all the things i'd been through. After all the things we'd both been through.

Rebecca and I ended up on the train ten minutes later. We managed to score two seats on the busy carriage, which was rare for Gotham. Rebecca beamed at me and said, "Dad gave me and extra $500 to spend. He's being really sweet lately, apparently I've been "super helpful" with mom."

The mention of Rebecca's mother snapped me from my little trance. I turned to her and offered a quizzical look. "How is your mom, Rebecca?"

I kind of regretted asking when I noticed her smile diminish. She leaned her head against the window and shrugged uncomfortably. "She's doing good, for once. The doctor said if she stays like this she'll be back on her feet soon enough."

Rebecca's mother had... issues. And by issues, I mean mental issues. She suffered from severe Bipolar disorder that had landed her in hospitals and psych wards on multiple occasions. Only a couple of months ago she'd spiralled so badly that she'd purposely tried to kill herself by overdosing on painkillers.

"That's really good news," I responded, resting my hand on Rebecca's. She forced a smile and sat upright, shaking off my hand quickly and glancing out the window. "Oh, look, I think we're here."

I knew Rebecca didn't like talking about her mom much. She often tried to change the subject or pretended like she was fine whenever we did. I didn't mind, though, because I was essentially the same when it came to Slade or Midnight.

It turned out that we had in fact reached the station nearest Gotham Mall. We hopped off and made our way out of the subway and toward the entrance of the huge plaza.

"I wanna get something designer. I'm thinking Louis, or Prada, or maybe even Gucci," Rebecca told me while dragging us into the building.

I could only roll my eyes at her antics and hope that she wouldn't be too long. Sure, shopping was fun and all, but it wasn't exactly my most favorite activity. I preferred something more physical and adrenaline-seeking.

"As long as we can get food later, I'll do whatever you want," I replied.

this is more of a filler chapter but i have a lot of stuff planned that i'm leading up to so don't worry. hope ur enjoying x