First Day of School (Roy)

There were good ways to wake up and there were bad ways to wake up.

Waking up next to a beautiful woman with a smoking hot body and totally naked? Very good.

Waking up to a very angry Amazon hauling him out of bed like he weighed nothing? Not so good.

Waking up in a hospital bed? ....Bad.

But his favorite and most cherished way of waking up would always be to the sound of his daughter's voice. Even though he didn't particularly feel blessed when she sat on his chest, in a few minutes he'd remember it fondly, filing it away with the hundreds of other times as 'best sight in my life.'

Caffeine would help, though.

Roy groaned as she grabbed his nose to shake him awake. It had been another late night, of course, but patrol hadn't been all that demanding. Besides, for once he actually had gotten a few extra hours of sleep, returning home early for a special occasion.

"Heya peanut," he mumbled. His eyes opened slowly and he held back another groan at the first touch of dawn light on the windowsill. Way too early for the ride to school, but he knew Lian had probably been running up the walls in excitement the last hour or so.

With a small hup! he pushed himself to sitting, making Lian tumble off him. He scooped her up and started tickling her belly, grinning. "Heeyy, how long have you been up, little squeaker? Couldn't let daddy sleep in a little longer? Don't I get a goodmorning kiss?"

Speedy III

"Arrow Cave, huh?" He ruffled her hair and kissed her forehead, smiling happily. "But arrows don't live in caves. Maybe we should change the name, whaddaya think?"

It hardly surprised him that she'd been up so early. Her tendency to emulate her vigilante family, both extended and immediate, caused him no end of stress and pride. A strange dichotomy, no question. As a father he worried about her future, about taking her choice of what and who she wanted to become by constant overexposure to the 'thrill' of a crime-fighting life. But also as a father, he wanted nothing more than to see his little girl grow up happy and strong and fearless and she was already that in spades. But he knew the ugly side of his lifestyle, the darkness to it, and always worried about his daughter being exposed to that.

He matched her innocent look with a sly, knowing one of his own. "No vegetables huh? I dunno, let me check those muscles!" He wrapped his thumb and pinky finger around her petite bicep, squeezing with an exaggerated scrutinizing look on his face. "Hmm, mmhhmm. I dunno. These are pretty strong muscles to me, Lian. How about we add vegetables to the eggs and toast so you can get both, huh? I'll even let you have cinnamon cereal. Just like your Uncle Dick likes to have. Deal?"

Roy never really would forgive Dick for feeding Lian cereal -- it wasn't really sugary stuff but to six year old at the time, it had been high-octane fuel. Dick had just given him an apologetic shrug as the girl showed off her new and improved handstand he'd taught her. It'd been a favorite treat ever since and with this being her first real day of school, he figured a treat would be in order.

He pushed the covers off his legs, swinging his feet free. "Think about it on the way down, jelly bean, let's go!" Scooping her up, he put her on his shoulders and stood up, holding her feet against his shoulders as he ambled out of his room, yawning widely. His bare feet thumped on the stairs leading to the first floor, and the kitchen. "You pick out your outfit for your first day at school, sweety?"

Speedy III

Roy didn't hide the grimace at Lian's reasoning for her naming conventions. To him, naming something after Ollie was not a point in favor. "What, you're old man isn't good enough to name things after? What about the 'Armory' huh? That's where you keep an arsenal of weapons, you know."

He traipsed down the stairs, yawning slightly and squinting at the sunlight filtering through the windows. Luckily, he had figured out how to program the damn timer on the coffee machine. Unfortunately, she'd woken him up too early. Just as he walked in, the machine began to gurgle and hiss like a demon. Giving it a wry glare, he lifted Lian off his shoulders and set her down at the table. Stifling another yawn, his body moved on instinct, already getting the ingredients from the fridge. "Mmhmm." His mind was already on what he'd cut up, how many eggs it'd be, and how much longer the coffee would take.

He'd already started to dice up some peppers for the omeletes when Lian's words finally hit the gradually waking part of his brain. He turned to look at the couch and sure enough, there it was -- the little Wonder Woman costume she wore often, and had probably been stuffed in her backpack when she arrived here.

Crap. It's things like this that made this new world so dangerous. Little things that'd just fly right past his radar because of their familiarity. Back home, if his little girl wanted to go to school as Wonder Woman, she could go to school as Wonder Woman. No problems. But here? Well.

Diana had definitely made strides in some places. By making a strong, and resolute show of force for good, helping wherever needed without question, and even offering to represent all Vagrants and neo's, she was by no means a villain even by this world's definition. But that didn't mean they were making costumes of her just yet, either.

"Uh...." Well crap, how was he going to explain this to her? His heart was still beating away in fear that he'd nearly missed this. "Well, um... what about the red overalls you like so well, hunny? Wouldn't that be better for recess?"


Speedy III