twenty two

                                    

                                          
PRESENT DAY
"Keeping in mind the placement of each Green Lantern member in their respective sector..."
Meredith sat in her third weekly Justice League meeting, listening to Batman discuss something which she, again, didn't understand. However, she'd admit, hearing about the hero's business had proved to be fairly interesting. It was always talk of criminals and villains and fellow fighters with the most absurd abilities, and the banter that occurred at the long table in between discussion topics was rather amusing as well.
Green Lantern, who she now knew as Hal because he had oh-so-subtly introduced himself as Hal "the man of her dreams" Jordan when she walked in, spoke up, offering what sounded like a rebuttal to Batman's current point. Meredith glanced around the table at the other heroes who seemed in a similar state of paying only mild interest to the conversation. She was tempted to pull off her navy blue blazer due to the fact that Clark was radiating heat from next to her like some sort of personal furnace.
Barry threw a sarcastic comment in response to Hal, Hal rolled his eyes as he complained about the speedster, and Cyborg asked them to shut up. Just another normal meeting. She took in a deep exhale and sat back in her seat.
As Cyborg moved onto the next topic, her eyes landed on Batman as they seemed to be doing more and more each meeting. He was staring at some map on the large screen, something to do with Green Lanterns and their sectors, whatever the hell that meant.
Meredith would genuinely rather slam her fingers in a car door than ever admit it, but a part of her almost... sort of... possibly understood Lois' attraction to men in spandex. Maybe it was a certain something about the mystery of their secret identities, or maybe it was the allure of muscles wrapped in tight fabric, but Meredith kind of... no.
She trailed her gaze over the sharp jaw outlined by his mask (which, by the way, she still did not understand why he'd recently made the switch to a full cowl) down to the black fabric tapering off of his shoulders that covered the rest of his body and she felt sort of disappointed—
What? No, she didn't. She didn't feel disappointed. She didn't care.
As if he could read her thoughts, a minute later, Batman moved his arms out from under his cape and crossed them as he studied the map. She immediately tilted her gaze down to the cool metal of the table, as if it was going to help quell the feeling of her face heating up.
His arms. His arms were— stupid. That's what they were. They were—
She finally got her face under control again and turned back up to him as he started to speak. He angled his body towards the table, the way his arms crossed allowing enough room to see the bat symbol splayed across his chest, and suddenly she found her eyes trailing past his forearms to his abs and then to the dark utility belt and then her eyes dipped just a little bit lower—
Her stare was quickly back on the surface of the table again and her face felt like it was on fire.
Okay, fine. So Batman's physique was... adequate. Big deal.
She looked up at Aquaman who sat across from her, hoping to put her attention anywhere else other than the Bat-themed hero, only to find the blond Atlantean staring directly at her. And the rest of the table. Everyone was staring at her.
She turned to Cyborg, who looked at her questioningly. "Ms. Elias?"
"Uh." She immediately wanted to slap herself for the unpolished sound. "Please, Cyborg, it's Meredith."
He offered a small smile. "Alright, Meredith. I was just saying that we're almost finished— so if there's anything you want to add, then feel free."
Although she couldn't see Batman's face, she practically felt his eyes burning into the side of her head. Or maybe she was just imagining it. She... she needed to call Lois after this, because Meredith was definitely going crazy. Absolutely, utterly, spiraling into delusion. Batman— the dark, demented guy who dressed as an animal every night and only showed up in her office to... honestly, who the hell knew why he even showed up— was making her flustered. Her! Meredith Elias certainly didn't get flustered by men who dressed as animals, even if he did have all of those gorgeous muscles and those arms—