DC Genesis

Neal just watched in amusement as Rose seemed to move through the movies like she had never even watched any of these movies before. She was putting them in her arms like they were free or something. Either way, it amused Neal that she planned on watching so many in just one sitting. Perhaps the condoms wouldn't be wasted money.

"So, you ready to check out or did you wanna look at anything else while we were here?"

"Yep, I think I'm good," Rose said, as she somehow managed to carry over the entire armful of videos and toys to the counter without dropping anything. She earned quite a few stares and raised eyebrows from other customers on her way by, and when she set everything down to pay for it, the man behind the counter blinked in utter surprise, then stared at her.

"You... sure you want all this?" he asked.

"Wouldn't have placed it all in front of you if I wasn't sure, now ring it up."

The man merely shrugged, shaking his head slightly as he started to tag all the prices on the items. The result was about a hundred and fifty dollars worth, needing four different bags to fit it all into. "Well, there you go, uh... enjoy."

"Oh I will," she said, carrying all the bags with her towards the exit.

The cashier then glanced over at Neal with a look of wonder. "Dude... where'd you find her?"

Neal let Rose go first since she had the most items, also he just didn't dare cut in front of her. There was no telling what she might do to him if she had to wait for her turn to pay. As the conversation between the cashier and Rose took place, Neal once again had to work back his laugh. Rose probably thought that it was normal to do stuff like this knowing her. That was what made her so interesting to be around though, he had to admit that.

"Dude, that is a very long and complicated story," Neal said with a chuckle as he put down his money. His only cost about twenty five dollars, and Neal easily had enough money for it. After paying the guy Neal took his bag. "Later," he said before turning to go and catch up with Rose. Once he did he just started walking by her side. "By the way, I'd prefer if my dad didn't know what was going on. You've seen how he gets."

"Oh, yeah of course," Rose said, with a small dismissive wave. "He's working late tonight anyway, right? Just keep you sister clear of your room and we should be golden. As much as I'd love to embarrass you in front of your dad again... even I'm not that cruel. For the most part. Now come on, I want to get a good work out in before we settle down with this stuff. Exercise tends to help get me... worked up."

"Don't worry, Jordan never comes to my room unless there's something serious that she needs to talk to me about, so we should be okay," Neal said before reaching his car and popping open the trunk to place their bags in. Rose was right about Clint being gone, something that Neal was thankful for. HE didn't want anyone asking about the bags, and if for some reason Jordan asked Neal could just tell her that they're Christmas presents. It'd be harder to lie successfully to Clint.

"Let's get going home," Neal said before starting up the car and driving all the way back to his house.

"Mmmnnff..." Rose muttered, as she awoke the next morning. She let out a long yawn and stretched out her arms, shifting beneath the blankets on the mattress. When she finally cleared her tired vision, she sat up and cracked her back, then took a slow look around the bedroom.

The television was still on, though now it was playing nothing more than a blank blue screen instead of one of the numerous videos from the night before. Neal's box of condoms had fallen somewhere on the floor, spilling the tiny packets out onto the carpet. There were quite a few missing by now. The night had begun innocently enough... just a big bowl of popcorn, a lot of porn to watch, and Rose testing out her new toys (all of which were better than her fingers, for the record).

Of course, then it had devolved into Rose asking Neal to help her out with the toys, which turned into him just plain using them on her, and eventually led to a long, long night of intense sex. If Neal hadn't made her bite into the pillow the entire time, she would have undoubtedly woken up the entire house. Fortunately, she managed to keep it down enough to avoid announcing what they were doing to Clint to or Jordan.

Glancing back over her shoulder, she noticed Neal beginning to wake up in the bed next to her. Yawning again, she walked naked across the floor to start picking up the box of condoms and said, "Just so we're clear, that was just sex. Very... very great sex, but still just sex. Not looking to be anyone's girlfriend."

Neal's eyes slowly opened, a smile still on his face from the night before as the memories all came crashing back on to him. He wasn't sure if he had really slept that much, it was more like he passes out from the pure pleasure and exhaustion that the sex had brought on. He slowly glanced over and looked at Rose who was standing up to move around the room. He just watched her for a moment, that look still on his face.

"Hey, you don't see me asking do you? I knew what this was when we let it happen," Neal said as he leaned up and stretched his back out to make it crack a few times. "Despite how uncomfortable that conversation with my dad was, he had a good point. I know you're not gonna be here forever. We were just....helping each other out last night."

"Hence why I'm not looking for a relationship," she said, as she started stacking the movie cases back into a neat pile. Quite a few of them had spilled onto the floor in a haphazard pile last night. Then, she closed up the box of condoms and put them in the drawer of the table next to the bed. "If I ever did get that attached to this place, I'd stick around anyway, whether here or in my own place, but for now I don't really have any long term plans, so... I'm just winging it for now. No reason we can't enjoy ourselves while I am here, though. Kinda wishing we started that up sooner. I mean, I know I was probably at the top of your list, but you... definitely a step up from the dick I'm used to."

"It makes sense to me," Neal said honestly as he kept watching Rose work. It was funny how a man's eyes always seemed to focus on a naked woman. Who knew right? "Believe me Rose I understand," he said as he got up and slowly began to get changed. "I know that you could leave any day, so as far as I'm concerned we are just good friends who help one another in times like these," he said with a smile as he pulled his pants on and buttoned them up.

At the compliment Neal just gave a small laugh. "Why thank you, I bet that's quite the compliment coming from you," Neal said with a smile. "You were pretty great yourself."

"Yeah, I know," Rose said, with a small smirk. She looked back at him again and winked, then gave her bare rear end a firm slap. Neal had used that same ass to quite the fullest last night. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I need a shower. I'd invite you to join me, but... I don't think we need your dad to see us going to the bathroom together." Or Jordan, for that matter. Poor kid would probably be scarred for life. Quickly dressing back into her clothes from the night before, she grabbed some clean clothes from the closet and then began heading out of the room to the shower.

Neal gave a nod as Rose said that she was going to go shower. He'd probably just shower later in the day or something like that, maybe after he worked out a little later in the day. He wasn't sure yet, but he would figure it out. "Anyway, enjoy your shower and I'll see you out soon," Neal said with a smile before throwing on a shirt.

Afterwards, Neal would be found out in the living room. HE was watching the television intently as a NEWS story was coming on. When Rose walked back in to the room, he wouldn't even glance up at her unless she said something.

Fifteen minutes later, Rose appeared in the living room wearing her typical exercise outfit, a sports bra and tight bike shorts. She glanced over at the television for a brief moment before hoping up onto the exercise bike and starting her morning work out. "So, today's Christmas Eve, right? We supposed to be doing anything special or something?"

"Well, we were supposed to have dinner as a family, but that's not looking very likely right now," Neal said before glancing over at Rose. "Take a look at this," he said before motioning to the television. On it would be a reporter speaking to the camera while police were working behind him, it looked like they were removing body after body from a warehouse.

"What first seemed like an anonymous tip to the police was apparently something far more drastic as the police arrived on the scene," the reporter began to say before the camera focused more on the body bags that were being pulled out of the warehouse. "The time of death all seems to be around the same time. Cause of death has been severe beatings and a single gun shot to the head."

"According to the mortician there has been no ways to track any DNA off of the bodies to see who committed these crimes, however it seems like we have already been provided the answer as THIS was left on the wall," he said before the image changed to a wall that was inside the warehouse. Marked in red pain was a simple message: "The guilty will know agony". At the bottom, it was signed Deadshot.

"All of the men killed in this massacre have been known to work for Gotham's Underworld before being released after paying for their crimes. It seems that Deadshot is no respecter of the law though, as these men have now been silenced for good."

Neal glanced over towards Rose. "With luck my dad will still come home in time for us to celebrate Christmas Even dinner, crime or not he always tries to make it so Jordan and I aren't alone."

Rose leaned forward atop the exercise bike and squinted her eyes, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. Was this news story for real? "Isn't that Deadshot guy the psycho on the television yesterday? Boy, he's off to a great start. Goes out to stop crimes, and already he's committed about twenty murders. Classy." Still, it wasn't anything to be worried about, she was sure. If the police didn't run this idiot down, chances were those bat freaks would. She had the feeling that they wouldn't take too kindly to some rogue vigilante moving in on their turf. They were egotistical like that.

"That would be him," Neal remarked as he kept watching the news stories. The body count was right at twenty, and every single man had something to do with the Gotham underworld it seemed. Whether they were low level enforcers or the ex-owners of corrupt business fronts. Had he really gathered twenty people in one day and killed them all in such cold blood. Who was this guy to be able to do something like that in a single day?

Regardless, Neal couldn't help but have a bad feeling about all of this. He soon shut off the television. "God, I wonder what he's going to do next," he muttered as he looked to Rose. "He obviously doesn't have a problem with going extreme."

"Eh, even so, it's not like he's taking out the innocents," Rose said, with a small shrug. "Sounds like he's going after the people in the same category as Mac, in which case I don't see how it could be a bad thing. At least it doesn't have to be me doing it again..." Sighing, she shook her head and started pedaling faster on the exercise bike. She was in quite a mood to work up a good sweat right now.

"I guess that's true," Neal remarked as he glanced back at the television. They were talking more about the case, but mostly now they were just talking about how the police didn't approve of these murders and how they planned on stopping the man. It was the usual stuff that came at the end of every crime story. Neal shut off the television before looking back over at Rose. "So, what do you want to do after you work out? Like I said I don't think we're going to eat until later tonight."

"I don't know, whatever you want," Rose said, with a small shrug. "Don't really have a whole lot on my to do list at the moment, aside from getting in my work out... speaking of which, I noticed it snowed a bunch last night. Looks like we got at least six inches out there, so I might dress up and go for a jog. I usually hate the cold, but running through snow is a great way to build your core muscles, and your legs. Lots of resistance."

Neal was quiet for a moment as he thought about what to say in response to Rose. He was thinking about doing something else, but for whatever reason he felt really compelled to tag along with Rose today. They hung out a lot, but Neal wasn't usually as proactive as Rose was when it came to physically working out. Neal had something on his mind though, and he couldn't help but let the idea grow.

"Well, would you mind if I joined you? I think that I could use a good run as well."

Rose Wilson

When Neal asked his question, Rose lifted an eyebrow and snickered quietly to herself, trying her best to hold back a bigger laugh. "You tag along? Hah, uh, I mean, sure, I guess... If you think you can keep up." Neal wasn't exactly out of shape or anything, she had seen that first hand last night. But he wasn't really super athletic either, not like she was. Chances were, if she went full force through the snow, she'd leave him in her dust... she supposed that she would actually have to hold back a little for him to keep up with her, but it wasn't the worst thing in the world. For the moment, though, she continued cycling on the exercise bike, until finally she hopped off and started working with her weight set in the other corner of the room. For someone who everyone thought was only going to be here a short time, she really seemed to be settling in.

That's right, I'm bringing boxes back.

Neal gave a small shrug. "I don't know, if you went full speed I probably wouldn't have a chance of catching up to you, " he admitted. Neal smiled at this point though. "However, I suddenly have a desire to get in to better shape," Neal remarked as he looked down on himself. As Rose though, he wasn't in terrible shape but he definitely didn't have the fit body that people liked to boast of.

"So maybe with your help you can get me in to better shape, what do you think?" Neal asked as he looked right at Rose who had started to move over to her weights.

"Oh I doubt that, how bad can it be?" Neal asked as he moved to his room. "Gonna get changed in to some more fitting clothes, be out soon," Neal said before going to his room. It wouldn't be long after that he started.

Several hours later...

"Oh my god," Neal said as he was laying out in the front yard of his house in the snow. Despite the fact that it was snowing outside he was still covered in sweat. Rose didn't believe in breaks apparently, and that was something that Neal was not okay with. He just laid down in the snow, exhausted from the quick pace that he had to keep with Rose. Girl moved like a train as far as Neal was concerned.

"I'm not sure I could keep this up for several days in a row," Neal admitted as he slowly pushed himself upwards.

"Promises promises," Neal said jokingly to himself as he reached up and wiped off the snow that had covered his pants and jacket when he laid down in the snow. Well, if he was still sore tomorrow than this whole thing was just going to get more painful wasn't it? Still, eventually the results would show up. Who knew, maybe Rose would even make Neal get that butt that she wanted so badly. Only time would tell.

As Rose and Neal made their way in to the house, they'd hear some noises from the kitchen. "Dad, Rose and Neal are back," Jordan said with a smile before moving over and giving Neal a hug really quickly, she immediately turned to Rose though. "I think you're going to love the gift I got for you. I found it today and thought that it would be perfect for you," Jordan said honestly. The girl appeared to be in a very good mood, she didn't have full conversations like this with Rose very often.

"Oh good, and here I thought that I'd have to send out the search party for you two," Clint's voice came from the kitchen. He slowly moved out and placed a large turkey next to the ham that was already on the table. "Well dinner's ready, so whenever you two are ready.....Neal you look terrible," Clint finally said as he saw how his son looked.

"Oh me? Don't worry about it, I'm just trying to get my exercise," Neal added with a weak smile and thumbs up. He took his jacket off and placed it on the coat hanger. "My dad makes the best Christmas dinner," Neal said as he looked to Rose. "And afterwards we have a tradition where everyone opens up one gift. The same goes for you," Neal pointed out.

It would be at that point that Rose would notice that many of the presents underneath the tree were actually marked for her, from every member of the Anderson family.