(no subject)

[teambatgirl]

It's been a week. No rescue, no communication with anyone outside their tropical prison, and Damian finding fun and exciting new ways to work on her last nerve. It has been a very long week. Not bad, exactly, but Steph is not exactly good at rocking the restful and idyllic life style. At home there was always something she needed to be doing: if it wasn't patrolling it was schoolwork, and if it wasn't schoolwork then it was training, and if it wasn't training it was a desperate attempt to make sure all her friendships and family relationships didn't collapse while she was busy doing other things. Here there was nothing but rest and relaxation and making sure Damian was getting through the days more or less intact.

She needed to be doing something. So this morning she had wrestled a swimsuit from the clothes box and hit the beach. The bikini means her scars and faded, nearly-gone stretchmarks are all on display, but she'd need a wetsuit to hide them and, anyway, Stephanie doesn't care who sees them. She is this person and that includes all the ugly parts. It doesn't hurt that the polka dot pattern is really cute.

Stephanie is standing out in the surf when she notices a class gathering down the beach, Jason Todd included. It looks less like a class and more like an organized asskicking. Much with the running. She spends the next hour doing the beach babe thing, swimming and then drying off in the sun with a copy of The Handmaiden's Tale for a while. But when the class starts breaking up, she wanders over to the guy running the operation.

"Hey," she offers a little wave. "Sorry to interrupt. Is this the cardio class mentioned in the school's course list?"

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[onlyapassenger]

Bucky looks up from the length of rope he's in the process of putting away, something in his gaze registering as recognition as he eyes the girl who's been lingering around the beach for the past hour. He's been teaching this class since last semester, and it still manages to draw in the occasional spectator.

I know who she is. Stephanie Brown, showed up wearing a cape and cowl. I try to stay out of Jason's business when I can, because he has his right to privacy, but when another costume rolls into town, I take notice. It's my business, keeping an eye on potential problems, and I know full well that looks can be deceiving. That a little blonde girl can be world of trouble... So far, though, so good.

The boy she hangs around with is another matter entirely.

"Got it in one," says Bucky, offering the shadow of a friendly smile. "How can I help you, Miss...?"

[teambatgirl.livejournal.com]

"Brown. Stephanie. Hi." She smiles at him. Across his shoulder, she can see Jason with the other students. "You're Professor Barnes, right? You teach this and the gymnastics class in the mornings."

[onlyapassenger]

"Captain," he corrects instinctively, because at the end of the day, he's more military than academic. Hell, he doesn't even have a high school diploma; the times had been different when he was a teenager.

"And I do, yeah. Let me guess: you were interested in signing up?"

[teambatgirl.livejournal.com]

"Captain Barnes, got it." Stephanie nods and files that under her increasingly large 'things to remember about the island' file.

"Would you mind terribly if I pink slip in late? I totally understand if you don't want me to, because I get that the semester started a few weeks ago and you've got a crowd, but I just got here and have way too much time on my hands." She smiles but tries not to look too-desperate-for-approval college student. If he says no, he says no, big deal. She'll make do. "Also I could use getting my as kicked on a regular basis to build my endurance up."

[onlyapassenger]

The nature of the island being what it is and the nature of the course being what it is, Bucky's never had any issues with allowing late-comers so long as they could pull their weight. Still, he's distinctly reminded of when Tim Drake had a similar request at the beginning of the year, and though Bucky doesn't do anything so obvious as to find Jason in the dispersing crowd, his thoughts are with his friend, regardless.

"That depends, Miss Brown," he says, head tilting to the side. "Are you gonna give me any grief?"

[teambatgirl.livejournal.com]

She grins at him and shakes her head. "Nope, in this area, I am absolutely grief-less. I subscribe to the 'train until you throw up and then keeping going' school of thought. And I have...some background in gymnastics, I don't think I would be too far behind the rest of the class."

Okay, so maybe that was an understatement. Still true, though, and, hey, she didn't know the skill level of the class. It could be a class full of Dick Grayson-level acrobats and she'd wind up being the clumsy kid in the back.

[onlyapassenger]

He wonders just how much she's selling herself short, but knows without asking that he'll find out soon enough. His only standard of measurement is Jason's training, after all, but never having been to the kid's home world, whether it be in dreams or some sort of mind trick, he doesn't know what the norm is for that kind of thing. If nothing else, having her in his classes will provide him with an innocent way of keeping an eye on her.

"Then you won't be late," Bucky replies, brows arching. "I don't abide tardiness."

[teambatgirl.livejournal.com]

"Me, late? Never. Totally out of character of me," she scoffs and then laughs. In her personal life, she was perpetually skidding into class just before the professor started. There just wasn't enough time to get everything done that needed doing. But as Batgirl she was never late, she was a master at arriving in the nick of time. "Okay, I have been known on rare occasions to arrive slightly later than expected. But I get to class on time."

She pushes her fingers through sea-water damp hair and pulls it up into a ponytail. "What sort of equipment do you use for the gymnastics class?"

[onlyapassenger]

For her sake, he hopes she's right.

"We're mostly working on tumbling and floor exercises for the first part of the term until I can get the equipment available up to my standards," says Bucky, and it's clear just by looking at him that his standards are both exacting and high. "Some trampoline work, too."

[teambatgirl.livejournal.com]

"Oh, I landed on the trampoline when I arrived," she says with a nod. And thank God for that or she would have been nursing more than a few broken bones at this point. She would not want to be doing the whole new arrival thing in a full body cast. "It seems nice. Appropriately springy."

[onlyapassenger]

She wouldn't have been out of place with the Young Avengers, Bucky thinks suddenly. The attitude's about right, at least, and she can't be any older than eighteen, though he's admittedly not the best at gauging the ages of kids these days.

"Fell from the sky, too, huh?" he says, an edge of commiseration to his voice. "Landed in the ocean, myself."

[teambatgirl.livejournal.com]

She raises her eyebrows and her eyes flick to the surf. "That could have been a serious fall if you were up high enough when you arrived. Unless you happened to be skydiving when poof! Magical island time."

[onlyapassenger]

"Something like that, yeah," says Bucky, nodding a little. In truth, he'd been reliving the circumstances of his death, but it had involved a jump from a plane, meaning what he's saying, now, isn't exactly a lie. He's just leaving out the part where he never had a parachute.

"The water here's a lot warmer than the North Atlantic, I'll give this place that much."

[teambatgirl.livejournal.com]

She wants to ask about what he was doing over the North Atlantic, but this is so not the time to be nosy, Steph.

"Yeah, the weather is one thing you can't really complain about." Day after day has been gorgeous sunshine on blue water. Africa was beautiful, sere and red, a world away from Gotham, but it had been nothing like this. It doesn't feel real, like a vacation someone else would take. "I've heard about winter though. Maybe by December I will be so homesick for Gotham I'll accept the blizzards and possible frostbite with open arms."

[onlyapassenger]

"I hear it changes every year," Bucky replies. "I've only been here for the one, though, so I'm curious to see what it looks like this winter. Everything's different -- the architecture, flora, fauna... It's a trip."

It's also just changing the gilding on the cage they're all trapped in, but he can temper his cynicism.

[teambatgirl.livejournal.com]

"It's hard to imagine it looking so different," she says as she looks toward the treeline and the palm trees waving lazily in the breeze. "Then again- we'd like to avoid ecological disaster so it's probably for the best the plants and animals change."

Then she pauses and tilts her head to the side. "What happens to the dinosaurs come winter?"

[onlyapassenger]

"Pretty sure they get swapped out for something more climate-appropriate," says Bucky, if only because he doesn't recall anyone mentioning a bunch of dead dinosaurs once January rolled around. He doesn't go out there as much as he perhaps ought to, liking to save dino territory for special occasions, if only because it's the one guaranteed source of excitement.

"Convenient, huh?"

[teambatgirl.livejournal.com]

"Convenient," she agrees but adds after a moment. "But probably pretty stressful for the dinosaur-slash-mammoths. Or maybe they'd be more saber tooth tigers." She grins. "Have you seen them yet? The dinosaurs. Or, well, dinosaurs when they aren't in their winter wear gear. I really want to see at least one because dinosaurs."

[onlyapassenger]

"I've been here a year," Bucky says, swallowing a laugh. She's bright in a way that Jason isn't; it's probably not fair to compare the two, but what Bucky knows of Gotham are two fairly grim boys, and it's somewhat reassuring to know that there's some hope in Jason's world, even if it's only at the level of the individual. "Of course I've seen 'em."

[teambatgirl.livejournal.com]

"I definitely want to go on a dinosaur zone safari," Stephanie says with a decisive nod. "Maybe not right away- I am not yet totally confident in my ability to defeat a swarm of dinosaurs, but I'm going to work my way up to it."

One dinosaur she could handle, probably. She handled the undead evil space zombies, she could deal with a dinosaur. But maybe not a bunch of them. Unless they were a little more Land Before Time and a little less Jurassic Park.

"So, what sort are even out there? Are we talking T-Rex?" She brings her hands up into the 'I'm a dinosaur with tiny arms and claws' pose. "Velociraptors? Those little ones that spit?"

[onlyapassenger]

"If you're willing to go out with an escort -- and I'd suggest you be willing -- you won't have to defeat anything," says Bucky, shaking his head slightly. He has no respect whatsoever for Tony Stark as a person, but he can't deny the man's a genius -- even if he is an ass.

"The ITF has access to a device known as a Re.Di.Re.C.T. It activates the collars the dinosaurs wear and prevents unnecessary snacking on the locals, whether it's a T-Rex or those little ones that spit."

[teambatgirl.livejournal.com]

"That would be the sensible and responsible thing to do," she agrees and manages to sound only slightly disappointed. Probably better all around for both her and the dinosaurs, even if it cut down on the danger level. That was okay, though. She had almost entirely curbed her adrenaline junkie urges. And it was still dinosaurs. "I will definitely do that then- bring an escort. And ITF is basically the equivalent of Island Special Forces, yes? The Green Berets of island living."

[onlyapassenger]

"Basically," he says, because it's a fair enough comparison, if not a perfect one. "Island Task Force. Myself and Captain Kara Thrace are in charge of its operation."

[teambatgirl.livejournal.com]

"Oh, cool. Captains all around." Stephanie nods and files Captain Kara Thrace away in her growing depository of island names. "What does one do if one wants to join? Not-" she adds quickly. "That I necessarily want to, because I'm not really the...organized quasi-military type, but, you know, for curiosity's sake."

[onlyapassenger]

She's the second teenage girl to ask him about the criteria for joining the ITF lately; she's also the second he'd turn down in the blink of an eye.

"You need significant military experience before we'll even consider you. Sorry, kid."

[teambatgirl.livejournal.com]

"Hey, I could have significant military experience," she protests and then grins because that doesn't sound convincing even to her. Not that there weren't girls her age who did have the experience they were looking for, but she was worlds away from structured, military environment they were looking for. "But that's cool. I'm just trying to get the lay of the land and decide what to do with my oodles of sudden free time."

[onlyapassenger]

"My advice?" says Bucky, considering her for a moment with a calm, level gaze. There's a noticeable switch in demeanor; the lingering evidence of laughter he has disappears in favor of an expression that implies he's not someone to cross. Given her connection to Jason, it's deliberate. "Stay out of trouble."

[teambatgirl.livejournal.com]

Stephanie meets his gaze steadily. There was a time when that would have been a challenge to rise to with a tilt of the head and a reckless grin. Irresistible. You don't wear a cape to stay out of trouble. But she's grown now. Maybe she still wants to chase after trouble, but that's to put a stop to it not seek it out.

She smiles, and it's a Stephanie smile, not a Batgirl smile. "I will do my very best. There doesn't seem to be much trouble here and I will endeavor not to cause any."