Chapter 14 - All I Can Say Is That My Life Is Pretty Plain

                                    

                                          
***PETER***
                          
"Mmm..." I drone on as I savor the taste of North Poles Apart's delicious peppermint ice cream. "Mmm. Candy canes all year round, people."
                          
Barry grins. "Exactly."
                          
For the next few minutes, though, we all eat our ice creams of various flavors in silence. I'm more than a bit bummed that there's so little conversation, especially since this is basically our goodbye dinner. Oliver and company are going back to Starling. Grayson and Olivia will accompany me and Gwen back to New York. And Barry and Kara, they'll be returning to California. Then there's Constantine, who's basically chaperoning us all (even with Barry and Kara and, just barely, Gwen representing legal adulthood among us) and competing with Drake and Jason to see who can eat their ice cream most loudly.
                          
Honestly, I'm surprised Damian isn't pestering me with a wall of questions. Grayson warned me and Gwen that he might, but he appears to be restraining himself. Maybe he senses that there just won't be enough time for all the questions he has. There might not be enough time in the whole world, even. I know there isn't enough time for me or Gwen to ask him about what it's like to work with Batman.
                          
Can you say, hashtag #SuperheroOverload?
                          
Can you also say, never hashtag again? I'm too much of a secret old soul for that.
                          
Oliver walks into the store - thankfully, not in costume. The aproned guy has enough superhero memorabilia on the walls (most of which are Batman- or Nightwing- or Robin-related), and I bet if he knew how many of us were in here, he'd have a heart attack.
                          
Right behind Oliver is Felicity, who takes one step towards the counter but then thinks better of it and chooses not to order herself some ice cream. It looks like it's a real struggle, and I don't blame her, not one bit.
                          
"So..." Oliver says, ambling on up to our table. (He ambles? Who knew?) "Where's my sister? She still with Grayson?"
                          
"I think so." Barry swallows another spoonful of strawberry ice cream - the same flavor I remember Grayson eating on the CCU campus the other day. "They're getting a lot of information, I think. I dunno, but it'll probably be a real help to Bat-uh, Bruce."
                          
"It's okay," says Drake. "You don't need to use his real name here. Hell, I think it'll be better if you used his code name."
                          
"At least Thea's got something to do," says Felicity. "She's not gonna be going stir-crazy just yet. But wait till she gets on the plane, huh?"
                          
"Oh yeah, that reminds me," Oliver says, snapping his fingers. "Some of you guys are going to New York, right? We could fly you there ourselves - it'll beat waiting in line at the airport, and it's only a short hop away."
                          
I turn to Gwen. "Does that sound good to you?"
                          
She spends a good long time concentrating on her vanilla ice cream cone. "Mmm..."
                          
"I take it that's a yes?" asks Oliver.
                          
"Mm-hmm?"
                          
"That's a yes," I say, nodding to Oliver. "Wheels up when?"
                          
"Whenever you're ready," Oliver says. "We won't rush you." He turns to look at Felicity, only to notice that she's no longer by his side. "Definitely not," he adds, smiling as he watches her order a cone of her own.
                          
It's almost an hour later by the time we're out of the ice cream parlor - turns out, as soon as he knew we were leaving soon, Damian couldn't hold back anymore. We took turns answering each other's questions for a while. My favorite of his was the one where he asked (by request from Jason, he said, but we could all tell it was his) how expensive my weblines were, and whether or not Wayne Enterprises could get into that business.