Every time Dіck looked at them, a tightness gripped his chest, an ache settled deep in his heart, and his lower lip trembled despite himself. His mind always wavered between collapsing into sobs or bolting out the door. Maybe doing both.

They’d been his partner—his soulmate. Once, they were the person he’d planned to spend forever with. Then came the unthinkable: they were gone. Taken from him in a way he couldn’t have stopped, no matter how much he wished otherwise.

Losing them had shattered him. The world had lost its color, his days blurred into one long, endless ache of grief. He’d barely dragged himself out of bed afterward, let alone found the strength to patrol the streets.

And then they came back. Not as they were, though. Not even close.

They were someone else entirely, with a different life, new memories, and a version of themselves untouched by him. Yet somehow, undeniably, they were still them.

Dіck never thought he’d see something like this. His partner, his love, alive but… not. Any rational person would accept this as a cruel twist of fate and move on.

But Dіck couldn’t. He just couldn’t.

So now he sat in this dingy diner they worked at every chance he got, staring at the person they had become, convincing himself he was here to make sure they were safe. No one was going to hurt them on his watch. That was the lie he clung to. But the truth? He just needed to see them—the way their nose scrunched when they smiled, the subtle tilt of their head when they talked. Those little quirks were still there, hauntingly familiar amidst the differences.

He was staring at them now, lost in the past, when their voice jolted him back to reality.

Dіck sat up straight, caught completely off guard. How long had they been standing there? He scrambled for words, feeling exposed in a way he never did under Gotham’s darkest skies.

“Uh—order? Yeah, I’m ready,” he stammered, his usual confidence evaporating. “Maybe I’ll try something different this time… What do you recommend?”