Read These Roses

See the end of the work for notes

One of Tam's most prized possessions is a book on the language of flowers, that her father had gifted her in the third grade.

The page for is belladonna is wrinkled thin from how many times its been flipped open to, rhodohedron has had it's dog-eared corner torn off and and coriander sticks out from where it had been slightly torn off out of the binding. Boneset has long since fallen out and remains taped to the inside of the binding.

These are the flowers of pain and grief.

She had been no stranger to soulmarks since a young age, inked flowers blooming underneath her skin.

She had at first thought they were lovely and pretty and something to show off to all her friends!

Her parents had sat her down one night, sometime in the second grade and explained to her that those flowers represented her soulmate in pain.

Every single flower was a broken bone her soulmate had to bear, a wound they had stitch close.

Tam would never say she cried as hard as she did that night but it's simply untrue.

She cried much harder in fifth grade when purple columbine and belladona bloomed in the crook of her throat (silent resolution).

She sobbed in seventh grade when on her right arm, milkweed and striped carnations curled up with oak leaves as a background (the strength to refuse and walk away).

She curled up in bed when she spied snapdragon and crab blossom nestled in the small of her back, blood red and stark against her skin (deceptive attack from an enemy).

She stopped crying when she woke up with a lotus blossom and anemone on her breast bone, pale pink but defiant (forsaken but reborn).

Tam still wakes up with flowers wrapped around her wrists and clovers on her knees and brief wildflower gardens on her torso but they're made of iris and gladiouses and black-eyed susans (earned in the pursuit of justice).

She traces the curve of each flower and tries to deciper their meanings, tracking the journey of her soulmate.

Somewhere out there, there is a person who's gone through inscrutable pain and Tam has watched as each and every mark appeared on her skin. One day, Tam will meet them and she will finally be able to say "You should never been hurt."

---

There's gossip running amok at work today.

There's always gossip at Wayne Industries, but today, it's especially loud, rearing its head in the lobby, the hallways, the breakrooms.

Tam doesn't have time for it though; she has to meet with the talk with the HR head, remind Tim about his meetings, go to the RD quarterly progress report all before lunch and then do paperwork for the rest of the afternoon.

Tam ignores the gossip but the gossip finds her.

She's in the restroom, washing her hands when Katie Chaney from Accounting tells her,

"Did you hear? Cassandra Wayne finally came home from abroad. Rumor is, that she's staying in Gotham for good this time."

"That's nice to know. Let me know if there's a welcome card for her," She replies before hurrying off.

She's much too busy to be listening to office gossip.

In retropsect, Tam should have paid more attention.

---

Tam stares in growing rage and bewilderment as she scans the electronic page for anything,anythingfilled in correctly.

Birthdate is left blank. Boxes aren't checkmarked. There are only two words in the commentary section that asked for a detailed response.

Tam even doublechecks the math and it's horribly, horribly off.

Tam grits her teeth, feeling a headache grow at this new office annoyance: Cassandra Wayne, the patron of incorrectly done paperwork.

---

Tam meets Cass one day by accident. By horrible, horrible accident.

She's always on a time crunch, always in a rush to get to some place.

On this particular day, she's on her way to a meeting with Wakewater Insurance, the bleeding cash-cow of Wayne Enterprises. She's juggling two folders, talking into her phone and holding a coffee at the same time. Tam is certainly not paying attention to her surroundings at this time.

Cue The Incident:

She's walking past a rather rowdy group in the lobby when a she sees her, Cassandra Wayne.

Tam doesn't see much what's going on but she does see Cass tripping one of the men in the group who crashes into her, sending them both to the floor.

Tam of course cannot take that lying down, so while falling, she reaches out to grab the closest person, Cass in this case, to try to stop herself.

Tam latches onto her forearm. Cass, being unnaturally graceful and strong, manages to catch her in a strange parody of a dip.

Stopping the momentum of Tam does not stop the momentum of coffee.

Her perfectly prisitine white suit gets ruined.

That is the moment Tam declares Cassandra Wayne enemy number one.

---

That night, Tam finds deep red roses (true love) have bloomed on her right forearm, in the vague shape of a hand.

"Oh," the world narrows in on that spot, as her fingers tremble and her voice chokes up, "You've fallen in love."

"Well, I'm glad." A tear slips down her face, finding the curve of her smile.

---

Tam doesn't interact with Cass personally after that, though she hears plenty about her from Tim.

She has not forgiven her for The Incident. The incorrect paperwork doesn't help either.

"She's been struggling to adjust to moving back to Gotham after living in Hong Kong for so long, Tam, go easy on her," Tim says as they eat at a lovely italian place.

"Hong Kong has paperwork, Tim! Hong Kong probably has more paperwork for renting out an apartment than what she does for WE," She rants at him.

To put it simply, she's horribly annoyed at Cass's lack of… everything when filling out paperwork. A squiggle for instead of a number, five words on a section that asked for a detailed comment, not even signing the damn paperwork.

"Tam…"

"Not signing your paperwork is cardinal sin, Mr. Drake." Tam gives him a dirty look, don't think she doesn't remember the files missing his signature due tovigilante shenanagins.

"Tam, I promise you there's a good reason for it."

"Yeah and you're not going to share it because…?"

"It's personal and not something that should be shared without consent. Aren't you always telling me to respect people's boundaries and privacy? Or should I not do that when it's convenient for you?" Tim raised an eyebrow at this, looking at her with that fake-ass patented Drake™ look.

Tam rolles her eyes, "Tim, that doesn't work me. I know you too well."

Tim didn't reply, continuing on with eating his pesto chicken pasta.

"Fine, fine, I won't pry anymore… That doesn't mean I'm not annoyed with her."

"Just… " Tim massaged his temple at thought, trying to find away to advise her without revealing something, "Think of it as a language barrier, it's not that she's trying to do it badly, she just doesn't have the words to write it correctly."

Tam squints at him, not really believing him. He's talked so much about Cass that she doubts the woman can't speak english. Plus, isn't she also a Bat? Surely, that means she knows english.

"So…?" She presses the opening Tim gave her.

"Tam…" Tim groans, "Just let it go!"

"No." tam takes a bite of her lasagna, which has gotten luke-warm after all her ranting. 

"Please?"

"I won't say anything to her face."

"That's the best I'm going to get, isn't it?"

"Yes, so take the deal or renegotiate terms, Mr. Drake."

"Yep, yep, taking the deal so my sister doesn't have to be burnt alive by the office dragon."

"She damn well deserves it for spilling coffee on my suit," Tam mutters it into her drink.

---

Eventually, Tam has to interact with Cass again. It takes nearly all of her patience to be civil with her.

Tam smiles at Cass, pouring her a cup of black tea.

"How are you finding company life, Miss Wayne?" She asks, all teeth.

"Well." The woman takes the cup, dark eyes assessing her.

"Good to hear… " Tam takes a moment to sit down behind her desk, like a queen might be ensconced with castle walls, ready for a siege.

"I'm here to talk about your role in Wayne Industries," Tam stirs the sugar in her cup, resting her chin on a manicured hand, "Since you don't have much experience in the corporate world and you're limited in educational experience, I wanted to ask where do you feel you would make the most impact?"

Cass takes a sip of her tea, not doctoring it.

"Security."

"Pardon?" Tam raises an eyebrow. That's a bit on the nose for a Bat.

"Best for security."

"And what would you do in security, Miss Wayne?"

Cass blinks. "Up to you."

Tam sighs, seems like its her job to figure things out. She wonders how she'll spin putting the dainty daughter of Bruce Wayne into security.

Tam pulls up the security shifts up on screen. She'll assign cass to shadow a manager and call it a day. The secutiy division will figure it out, she's still got R&D injury reports to go through. Something about a robot cat that spontaneously exploded.

"Ok, you can shadow Don Mcray on Mon-"

"No," Cass cut in, "Miss Cohen."

"Shadowing Cohen? But that'll mean you're on shift tomorrow…?"

"Yes." Tam stares at Cass, the sweep of her eyelids, the gentle slope of her cheeks and the dark all-encompassing void of her eyes.

Wait—She was supposed to be annoyed, yep, yep totally annoyed not being all fluttering jealous at Cass and her pretty face.

"Ok then, Miss Wayne," Tam looks away and straightens a stack of paper to distract from the strange warmth in her chest, "You're now a part of the security division, to be shadowing tomorrow's shift."

"But?" Cass points at her computer, pointing out that she hasn't changed the shifts.

"Ah right." Tam firmly ignores the rabbity beat of her heart and the blush in her cheeks while confirming her shift with the override codes.

"You're all set, Miss Wayne! I'll check in on you soon to see how you're settling in." Tam's glad that you can't see the blush on her but she's all too glad to see her out.

Once Cass is out and the door is shut, Tam resists the urge to slide down it like the female lead in one of those cheesy hallmark movies.

Tam does settle for rubbing her forehead and internally asking herself: what the hell?

---

Tam doesn't really like swimming, mostly because of the stares she gets whenever she's in a swimsuit.

Yes, she knows she has tons of soulmarks on her, it's not something she can necessarily control! And it's certainly not her soulmate's fault!

She's out shopping with Tiffany, her sister, when a two-piece gets shoved into her hands.

"Tiff…" She groans, not this tripe about how she needs a life outside of work.

"You need to have some fun! No more work stuff!" Her sister just continues putting more suits in her arms.

"Look, I have a perfectly normal work-life balance. You should see my boss's work-life. He's got dark circles the size of dinnerplates."

"Uhuh, the same boss that you dated and not even once brought home?" Tiff places her hands on her hips, daring her to continue.

"On second thought, I'll at least try these on." When in doubt, duck and run.

---

"If only you didn't have these," Tiff traces a finger along the begonias and bittersweet flowers curling along her side (beware of the truth), "then maybe strangers wouldn't stare.

"I think they're pretty," Always, talking about her soulmarks if they were visible. Tam knows that Tiff wasn just looking out for her in her own way, though she was part of the stigma against soulmarks in a way.

"They're a symbol of pain, Tam. They're not something to be proud of."

Tam rolls her eyes, "They are people who cut their own bodies in order to send messages to their soulmates. That's far more perverse than someone who gets hurt by someone else."

 "What's the difference between taking a knife to yourself and letting someone else hurt you, Tam? Don't be ridiculous, it's the same difference."

"Hey! You don't know shit," Tam snaps. Her soulmate already went thorugh enough pain, she wasn't going to let her own family trash talk them, "Besides, this type of thinking invalidates people in abusive situations. Just because someone gets hurt doesn't speak on their morality, this actually plays a huge part in why scars are such a huge taboo in our modern lives."

"Look, that's not what I meant."

"Then what did you mean?" She dares Tiff to eat her words.

"It stops you from living your life to the fullest, Tam. I know it prevents you from going swimming, that you got bullied in school over it, I know that you cry from what the injuries mean."

"Everyone has difficulties in life, stuff. So what that I get a lot of soulmarks, this doesn’t mean I’m going to blame my soulmate. Just because someone's life is more difficult doesn't mean they're not deserving of love. The universe paired us for a reason Tiff… I'm not going up to give up on them without even meeting them." Tam doesn't exactly glare at Tiff but well…  she knows her stance on this topic well. This isn't the first time they've argued over this.

Tiff decides to change the topic, knowing Tthat she won't sway Tam. "Fine, fine, the swimsuit looks good to me, do you want to keep this one?"

"No, what would I use it for? My last three swimsuits are still laying in the drawer with their tags on."

---

Tam keeps noticing things about Cass. its just little things, at first.

Cass tends to hang around her office during shifts.

Cass brings her favorite tea when she's working late.

Cass doesn't smile much but when she finds something amusing, the corners of her eyes will lift and there's a small wrinkle in her nose from trying to hold back a smile.

Cass doesn't talk much but her actions speak louder than words.

These things didn't come across in the paperwork. In the black and white lines of the computer screen, Tam couldn't see her dedication, the calm assessing gaze, the way Cass so clearly cares for everyone around her.

Tam wouldmove her up from annoyance but she ruined her favorite suit! And it was white, okay! That's the ultimate sin.

Tam tries really hard to not feel touched when Cass brought her a thermos jasmine pear tea with a spoonful of honey, just the way she likes it.

She'll just ignore the fact that this meant Cass bought her favorite tea and made it herself.

Tam is totally not in denial.

---

Its' seven pm on friday, majority of the office having left at five, when Tam finally leaves work.

Usually cass is waiting nearby or appears whenever she exists her office, but she doesn't spring out of the shadows this evening. 

It's eerie walking through the darkened hallways, just with the click of her heels echoing through. The lights should be on, Tam notes, she'll need to talk with maintenance about that.

She gets onto the elevator, all alone.

Two floors down, someone else gets on.

Tam does her best to know the faces of everyone who works in the building but this guy… He's not ringing any bells.

She observes him as best as she can out of the corner of her while pretending to scroll through a news article. 

He's tall, over six feet, and dressed in a suit that doesn't quite fit him, a little too short in the legs. The man eeriely still, not moving at all.

The lights cut out in the elevator, though it doesn't stop moving.

It's surprising to have the dropping feel of rapid decescent in the dark but the attack was not.

Tam is not an idiot and this girl doesn't take things lying down.

Using her phone to shine a light isn't an option, light would be to her opponent's advantage as well as her's.

Tam slips out of her heels and takes a step to the side, hearing the crash of a body against metal from the spot she had recently vacated.

She seeks out with her hands, touching his back before attempting to grapple him. She'd like to say that she knows what happens next but fighting in inky darkness is difficult. There's the the scuffle and she knows she definitely lands a punch in his gut but there's also the hits she recieves. In the heat of the moment, you don't really think "oh hey, I just got kicked in my face", you just think "oh shit that fucking hurt" and punch even harder.

Tam's not half bad at hand-to-hand. After the Council of Spiders, she'd stepped up on her martial training but this guy has at least a hundred pounds on her and they're all doing this in. The. Dark.

Tam's trying to get out of a grapple when the elevator screeches to the halt and the doors open letting in a ray of blessed, blessed light. 

It's Cass standing, cast in shadow by the light, not unlike one of those dramatic hero scenes in a movie. There's a small furrow to her brow, unusual for her usual stony dispositon.

Cass puts him out quickly, hitting him in the knee, gut and throat in that order before putting in him a trinagle hold.

One ill-fitted suit down within a minute.

Cass leaves him lying on the floor, approaching Tam and picking her up princess-style.

"Are you okay?" She asks, stepping over his prone body as security guards arrive on the floor, flushed and out of breath.

"Ye-yeah," Oh wow, this is way too close, Tam can discern the difference between the dark, deep chocolate brown of her iris and the inky void of her pupils. 

Cass locks gazes with her, not looking away for a second which is kind of creepy but also hot as she carries her into… a nurse's office?

Oh, this is the R&D floor. After the third time of a smart toaster shooting blackened chunks of bread at scientists and causing injuries, it was decided that it'd be more smarter to just have medical personnel nearby at all times, just in case. The insurance coverage was just a bonus.

Tam can feel her cheek beginning to swell, feeling very hot and uncomfortable.

She pokes at it tenderly, watching Cass's back as she searches for something in the cupboards.

Cass turns around, holding a tube of something. There's the beginnings of a soulmark on her cheek.

"Oh hey, you have something blooming on your cheek," She points out, unconsciously motioning to her own bruised cheek.

"I know," There's a subtle curve to her lips, an inside joke she's not telling.

"But it just appeared?"

"You have it too," Cass presses her cool fingers to her cheek, cupping the pulsing bruise in her palm.

"Oh." 

Oh. Wait…. what? What?

Tam.exe has stopped working. Cass rubs bruise cream onto her cheek and Tam ignores all the electric tingles running up her spine to figure out how Cass + Tam = soulmates.

"Explain." She demands because when in doubt, assert your confidence and don't let a hint of uncertainty show.

"You… and me… soulmates," She says it so slowly, letting her hands drag acorss the planes of Tam's face, buzzing neurons high on touch wherever they brush.

"But how'd you figure that out?"

"Papercut," one of Cass' hands clasps one of her own, rubbing a thumb over a freshly healed papercut.

"Oh…" Tam cannot believe this. This woman just put together who her soulmate was on a papercut. Yeah, the evidence wasn undeniable with the newly formed brusie and consequently the bloom but earlier? How?

"I've always had a lot of blooms from you," Tam blurts out, running on not much more than adrenline and shock.

"I'm sorry," Cass genuinely looks sad and pained at that.

Tam cuts her off, "I had this huge, heartfelt speech planned about like how the injuries caused to you weren't your fault, that your self-worth doesn't hinge on how much damage you can take but–" Tam takes a deep breath, "-that would be hypocritical of me."

Cass cocks her head at that, looking at her confused.

"I've been incredibly rude to you since I've met you, dismissing your intelligence and abilities all over a single incident." Tam tries really hard not to focus on the opening and brightening bloom on Cass's face, focusing on her very pretty eyes instead, getting drawn into them. "You are an incredibly dedicated and kind person who's gone through a lot. I shouldn't have allowed my misconceptions of you change how I treated you. I'm sorry Cass, I'm truly, genuinely sorry."

Cass smiles; a real smile, one of those big, all-teeth and showing gums smiles that Tam has never seen on her before. Cass leans in close, Tam readies herself for a kiss (which okay? might be a little fast but Tam is a 100% down) but Cass just presses their foreheads together, so very close together. She goes a little cross-eyed looking at her.

After a moment of struggling for words, Cass just whispers, "So sweet," and pulls back.

The soulmark on Cass's cheek has fully bloomed and it's a thing of beauty: lily-of-the-valley and red tulips (humility in a declaration of love).

"Now that that's out of the way, I have two things to ask: will you go out with me? And also what was that all about?"

"Yes." Cass gained a sly look in her eye, "Bat," she pointed at herself, "No telling."

"Cass! I already have to bully Tim into telling me things, do I have to that with you too?"

Cass hummed, "No, much easier," tapping her lips.

---