Come Here Often? [Mary]

[catgirl]

It was early when Kitrina got up. Outside the sky was still dark, with no sign of the sun coming any soon. Even then, the unmistakable sounds of a Gotham City workday floated through the open window. Forget New York being the city that never slept.

Walking out of her bedroom fully dressed in a black T, dark wash jeans, and black converses, she walked over to the cupboard where she kept her energy bars and randomly picked one from the top. The blue covering told that it was chocolate chip. Her favorite. Satisfied, Kitrina hopped up onto the counter to eat her breakfast.

The flat was nice for the complex it was in. You walked in the door and to your right was the TV, couch, and small chair. Behind that was the dining table, usually only used when company was over, with Kitrina's perching window sitting in between the two. On the left was the kitchen area. Black cabinets with dark gray granite countertops and steel appliances. The doors to the bathroom and two bedrooms rest on the back wall.

She wasn't allowing thoughts of her expeditions the night before to work their way into the spotlight. No, that would be for homeroom or some other class where she would need something to occupy herself with. Right now she was just thinking about how nice the cool breeze drafting in felt, and how oddly quiet the apartment sounded. Sure, it had been quiet before, but now there was no adrenaline of possibly being caught by the landlord and thrown out or having the police called on her.

Really, Mary had stuck to the terms they had lied down that first night. She didn't bug Kitrina about what she did, and Kitrina returned the favor. They hardly saw each other at all. One was practically always out while the other was home. And on the rare occasion that they were both in the space, they barely spoke. But maybe that was a good thing, otherwise questions might be provoked and the truce broken. The last thing Kitrina wanted was someone trying to mother her who didn't come close to being her mom.

Once her breakfast was gone Kitrina folded her legs in a pretzel form and just sat there, staring across the table out the window. School didn't start for another hour or so, so she wasn't in a rush to get out of the house. That is, she wasn't, until she heard her roommate shuffling around in her bedroom.

[mm]

"There are two roads to walk on but in the end there's always time to change the one you're on."

A pair of eyes that had been lucky to grab four hours sleep before the crude sound of her bedside alarm clock and radio went off, the sounds of Stairway to Heaven being played on the station she had it dialed in to. The same station that one of her new friends, Heather aka Vermillion had been doing her radio call-in show on the night before. Not that Mary had heard it but she would listen later. Ah the joys of tape recording.

She had been too busy with all her. "extracurricular activities" to spare the time to listen to the radio show live. Nighthawk, a name she had been using since that fateful encounter with Red X when she suddenly decided to become a thief, and Mary Marvel had both been super busy lately. And then there was Mary Bromfield's day job cruising around the city streets in a taxicab. One was a young masked woman who had turned to a life of crime on her own decision but in large part to the blackness that had crept up across her soul. The dysfunctional order, chaos and FBI presence in Gotham were to blame for that. That was her story and she was sticking to it. The second was pretending she was still a hero, using the cover as Mary Marvel, a costume and name she no longer enjoyed, for practical purposes, to gain information that might be helpful to "Nighthawk" while continuing to pay charades with Shayera, Batman and anyone else that trusted the Maiden of Might. The fools would learn the truth in good time hut by then it would be too late.

And plain old Mary Bromfield herself? She didn't sleep much last night but she had the caffeine constantly flowing through her veins to keep her moving. Ah, for the love of the coffee bean. She also had a roommate she still didn't understand after several days now of sharing the same roof. She tried to get the girl to warm up to her but with her recent change in attitude, Mary could honesty admit to no longer giving a tinkers damn. If Kitrina actually acted civilly toward her, fine. If not then Kitrina could take a long walk off a short bridge.

Staying out of each others way had worked perfectly fine so far and the bleary eyed cab driver saw no reason to change that as she slipped out of sweat pants and shirt and got dressed for work, stumbling into the kitchen, cracking a few eggs and starting the frying process before filling her coffee mug,

Her head turned but only slightly at the human pretzel while she lifted her mug of liquid love to her lips and drew a long sip. Spatula now in the other hand as she stirred the eggs between dashes of pepper.

"Good morning, Kitrina." She finally decided to make an attempt in conversation, even if it was only half hearted while she waited for her breakfast to finish cooking.

[catgirl]

Kitrina sat deadly silent on the counter as she listened to Mary stumbling around the kitchen. Lately she had seemed rather reserve, quiet, and cold. Not that Kitrina had really known her roommate, or put much effort into changing that stays, but at least Mary had been a little less callused. Now it was like she was fighting with herself, her job, and whatever it was she spent the time doing.

Despite her feelings of honestly not bothered with the fact Mary was always gone, Kitrina's curiosity did spread to what her roommate did outside these walls. She didn't come off as the type to do anything real interesting, which made her want to know even more. The 'dull' types were always the ones you had to look out for. They made you thi k that they couldn't be capable of doing anything crazy or extreme, then they hit you while you have your back turned. And in Kitrina's case it could get messy.

This going through her mind, it startled her slightly when Mary spoke. Of course, nothing showed on the outside, because that wasnt her. "Mornin', Kitrina replied. "Late night?" Although she hadn't turned around, it was obvious by her voice and the sound of her movement she was exhausted.

[mm]

Brain fart. Those were the first 2 words that came to mind when from out of nowhere her roommate not only surprised her by speaking to her in a tone that for once didn't sound hateful, but also asked a surprisingly pointed question. It dawned on Mary for the first time then and there Kitrina might be too close to the truth by asking such a question concerning a "late night". Fortunately her senses were rapidly coming to life, and a quick answer already presented itself, breaking past the weary fog clouding her mind and helping the waking up process along quite effectively.

"No more than usual" She shrugged and stifled a yawn while dropping a couple pieces of bread into the toaster and snagging a plate to move her finished egg breakfast on top of. "Spending several hours a day driving around the city block by block in a stuffy cab can exhaust a person eventually. Didn't get much sleep last night." She answered before indulging in another sip of coffee, pulling the country crock from the fridge and a jar of strawberry jelly for the toast. "What about you?" She asked while glancing back to the other woman.

[catgirl]

Kitrina let out a soft chuckle at Mary's remark. The lack of sleep was quite obvious. The question was, why? From what she knew, her roommate wasn't in any form of relationship. Of course, that was just from what her brain knew, her mind on the other hand wasn't so sure. It didn't seem to be a subject that would cause any harm, but then again you never knew. And better safe than sorry.

But what if there was something else? Something that would cause her recent change in attitude? Kitrina could just about bet if there was Mary wouldn't tell her. Somehow, though, she was going to get some information about it. Yeah, it might be considered ridiculous to anyone that she was so interested in her roommate's secret life, but that was just part of her she was. Especially since she herself didn't want people prying into her private life. But hey, the tactic had kept her alive thus far, so why change ways now?

"Eh, nothing too bad," Kitrina shrugged, masking the lie. If you compared the two's sleeping schedule, it probably wasn't too far off from each other. Kitrina had gotten in late after her nightly adventures too exhausted to even check to see if Mary was home or not. She had simply shuffled quietly into her room and collapsed for a few hours of undisturbed sleep. As she sat there on the countertop, she wished she didn't have school to attend to. A feeling of annoyance began to creep on her as she though about what she was going to have to face once she walked over the threshold. Kitrina exhaled the anticipation and looked around for L.B.

[mm]

The first day she moved in here and met the roommate she never asked for and could get along just fine without when it comes down to brass tacks, Kitrina seemed pretty normal other than for the fact she was illegally sleeping in a building and trespassing where she had no business in. Mary's heart bled for the homeless student though. Now however she seemed far too inquisitive. Not judging by her words but Mary was good at reading people's expressions to the point of guessing what they were thinking. She was not always correct but she was more often than not. This was her worst fear over having a roommate, that they would get too snoopy and discover her deepest secret, even if it were by accident, it would come because they were snooping where they shouldn't be. If Kitrina figured it all out, all it would take would be one call to the FBI and her hiney would be grass for their lawnmower.

On the other hand, there was an old saying, a rather immature, childish type saying that went something like this. When you point a finger there are always 4 pointing back at you. Could it be that she wasn't the only one here with something more to hide beneath the surface. Mary was starting to wonder.

"Have you been up to anything interesting beside school? How are your classes going by the way. Just asking." She wondered, while preparing her toast and starting to nibble away. She felt bad that she had no idea how to talk to Kitrina without angering her but she brought that on herself. Mary washed her hands of it.

[catgirl]

Her back still towards her roommate, Kitrina shrugged. "Nope, nothing really out of the routine. School is school, not really much I can say about it." She whistled and the cat came running from his hiding place beside the couch. L.B. leaped onto her lap, made a couple circles, then lied awkwardly on her folded legs.

The conversations was getting a bit more onto it than she wanted. All she had done was say 'late night?', and all she had to respond with was 'yes' or 'no', not a bunch of questions. Kitrina was pretty sure this was a violation of their verbal agreement not to snoop in each other's lives. By now she actually couldn't wait until she had to leave for school. If any more obnoxious questions were asked she was going to make a very abrupt exit.

[mm]

Her dislike for Kitrina only intensified the more time she had to spend around the girl. Seriously, why she couldn't just leave for school early and begone was beyond Mary's comprehension. There was just something Mary couldn't put her finger on. Something about Kitrina that rubbed her the wrong way. Whatever her problem was Mary just turned away and ignored her. If the other woman decided to throw herself under a bus Mary wouldn't see herself losing sleep over it at this point. Instead of wasting breath on the woman Mary rushed through her breakfast, returned to her bedroom and locked the door.

There was obviously no talking to the woman and Mary had just given up to the point of washing her hands from trying to befriend her. "Have a nice life. Or not. I could no longer care less."

[catgirl]

Kitrina blinked when she heard the door slam shut. Something was definitely different about Mary, and she wasn't quite she liked it. Sure, she hadn't put her best foot forward and given all her effort to make friends, but at least she put up a pretty good face. Said everything with at least a semi-polite tone, did her part to keep up the house, and up until recently Mary had been decent about it. Now you said a few sentences and she freaked out on you.

Something's definitely up. And I'll be damned if I'm kept in the dark too much longer. Kitrina scratched L.B. behind the ear for a moment before picking him up off her lap. Once on the floor she set him down, grabbed her bag, and walked towards the window. She still hadn't gotten used to using the actual stairs. The window still seemed like the safest route for her to take, twenty foot drop and all.

She waited for a moment, listening for signs that her roommate was coming back out. Although it was very faint, Kitrina caught Mary's words. "Yeah, you too," she muttered before sliding onto the windowsill and making her way towards the high school.