Paralyzer [Gotham]

6

I took a slow breath as Victor ran his fingers over my stomach, eyes trailing back and forth over my skin as his fingers traced my features. He wasn't wearing his gloves and he had his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, allowing me view of a small collection of his tally marks. "Having fun?" I hummed, relaxed and riding through the little high he'd left me with.

"I've done a lot with the human body," he mumbled, leaning down to kiss my hip and smirking on his way back up. "Nothing like this, though. It's like a kid at a construction site; I just wanna push all the buttons." I laughed and eased into his touch, his presence over me calming, oddly enough. My back arched as he ran his hand up my chest, settling on my cheek as I leaned into it.

I took a deep breath before reaching up and holding his wrist, holding a small enough patch that I had no contact with any of his scars. My heart picked up speed at the look that came over him, simply watching my hand as I slowly slid my hand up his arm. Over every little ridge on his skin, his eyes would flick to me, searching for some kind of reaction as I felt over the tally marks he'd left on himself, but my face remained impassive. If he could explore my body in depth, I had a right to at least a bit of his.

Once I'd felt over all this half portion of his arm allowed, I slid my hand down to his, surprised to find another set on the back of his hand. All the same, I held his eyes as I brought his hand over, kissing his palm and laying it to rest on my chest as I relaxed into my pillows. I think it caught him off guard because for a minute he didn't move, and with my eyes closed I couldn't read his expression. "You know," I hummed, "I always wondered why you didn't want me to see. Almost seems like you're proud of your collection."

He took a deep breath as his fingers slid over my neck, running his thumb along my jaw and coaxing my green eyes open, finding rare confliction about him. "Didn't need to go scaring off Gotham's good doctor," he excused. With a slight frown, I grabbed both of his arms, scars pressing against my hands as I ran my fingers over his skin, occasionally running over yet another mark.

"They don't change how I look at you, Victor. I still see you." He frowned too, not concerning himself with my hands rather than my words.

"That's the problem. Some of me is too ugly for your innocent little head." His eyes ran over my stubborn expression a moment before he leaned forward and placed a kiss between my eyes, standing and leaving my hold to stare out the window, adjusting his sleeves as he did so.

"You think I care about all that?" I huffed, sitting up and folding my arms over my bare chest. "Hello, do you know who I work for?"

"And how do you handle all that, most days?" he wondered, turning his head in my direction. I didn't have an argument, remembering the gasping fish of a man Penguin had killed right in front of me. You're stonger than everyone thinks you are. I closed my eyes, attempting to drown out the barage of whispers. They'd been growing more insistant as the days passed, I no longer had to strain to hear them, which meant that they were annoyingly present most of the time.

I sighed and rubbed at my temple, the whispers fading after a short moment. "Obviously, I care about you and what happens to you. That also means what you do to yourself." I stood and walked over to him, resting my forehead between his shoulder blades when he didn't move. "At this point, we're a little beyond the bounds of a normal doctor-patient relationship. It's not the doctor in me that wants to know."

He sighed and turned around, tilting my chin up and running his fingers over my cheek. "I know," he hummed, lips in a flat line. "But you don't need to worry about that." He leaned down to my lips, about halfway there when a low rumble shook through the house, looking over Victor's shoulder and my eyes going wide at the plume of fire lighting up a portion of the city. He followed my gaze, and seconds later the lights around the city shut themselves off, the power shutting down filling my house with silence.

My eyes went wide, quickly dressing myself before heading into Andrew's room, Victor hot on my heels. It took a moment, but his life support system kicked back on, the battery life in the corner reading fourty-eight hours and counting down. I sighed in relief and went over everything, making sure he had enough of his nutrient IV before allowing myself to fully relax. "The stiff'll be fine," Victor acknowledged. "I gotta find out what's going on."

I turned from my brother with a small frown, seeing the determination in his features and slowly nodding. "Be careful out there." I stepped towards him, a small smile coming to my lips as he held the side of my head to bring me forward, pressing a lingering kiss to the top of my head.

"I'll be back soon." I nodded and watched him go, he hung a moment in the doorway before the front door closed behind him, the only light in the house coming from Andrew's moniters. With a deep breath, I went into the kitchen and started lighting candles, most of the house now bathed in dancing light.

I wouldn't worry if the power had gone out, usually, but the way it had gone out hadn't been normal. There had been a massive explosion only seconds before. I had an aliminum bat I kept by the front door - Andrew had insisted I keep something around for self defense - but I honestly would've felt safer if Victor had left me one of his guns.