Chapter Twenty Eight

Dick had initially been grouchy when Harley insisted on spending that Friday on her own. She had good reasons, he wasn’t so ridiculous as to not accept that.

She wanted to see Ivy for some girl time, she had to go talk to her landlord- Who Dick was roughly 82% sure was actually a criminal, but consider Harley technically still was too, he let it slide- and she insisted that having some time apart from each other regularly was a healthy habit.

Which, yeah, it was. Dick had studied enough psychology, a bonus course he took to help as Nightwing, to be able to understand the reasoning behind it. Didn’t change the fact that he sulked like a child and loudly whined about how she was abandoning him with nothing to do and nobody to talk to.

He made sure it all came across innocently. Even if it was technically true, he didn’t want her to start worrying about leaving him alone. That wasn’t healthy, and it wasn’t a burden he’d let her take.

Then Zee’s message had come, and he’d silently panicked for an hour. He turned it over and over in his head, before finally forcing himself to accept and arrange it with her. They’d be meeting at his apartment, sometime around midnight. Unusually late by normal standards, but apparently her sleep schedule was completely thrown off these days, and Dick wanted to make sure Nightwing was seen out tonight even if he wasn’t doing a full shift. So, he’d go for a quick hour of light work, targeting muggings and the like, and then head home.

Now, it was almost a good thing Harley was out, so she wouldn’t see the nonchalance he’d be lying through his teeth to show Zee. Dick still wasn’t sure why the raven-haired woman was so insistent on talking to him again after so long, but as far as he knew, people only really still kept in touch with him if they wanted something or felt obligated to for some reason.

So as long as she left thinking he was fine and dandy, the usual Dick Grayson standard? Then she’d either give up this strange persistence and go back to not caring, or Dick would find out whatever she wanted.

It was a sobering thought, though, and Dick found himself actually moping around as Harley got ready to leave.

She was just pulling on a jacket when she said, “Alrighty, see ya tomorra’ Dickie?”

He swallowed roughly, and **** a smile at her. “Of course. Say hi to Ivy for me, okay?”

Harls paused, then narrowed her eyes at him. She dropped her bag and strode over to him, then her hands grabbed his face and slammed a firm kiss to his lips. It drove heat down his body and fogged his thoughts delightfully.

When she pulled back, she grinned, “That’s better. Ya gotta get outta’ ya head, Dickie.” Her lips lightly pressed against his forehead, full of silent affection and a little bit of something neither of them were going to name yet.

She walked to the door and grabbed her bag again, then looked over at him and grinned wider at the sight. Dick was sat there with dazed eyes and a dopey smile, his fingertips grazing his slightly lipstick-stained lips.

Harley opened the door without losing the grin, and said over her shoulder as she left, “Glad ya’ here Dickie!”

The door closed behind her, and Dick sat for a while tracing his dopey smile, remembering the kiss and replaying it until-

“...Shit.” Dick muttered, his imagination taking a steamier turn, and his sweatpants suddenly bulging obscenely. He hurried through to his bathroom, flicking the lock on his door and jumping into the shower.

Scalding hot water instantly turned his skin red, the only way he was able to take showers anymore. For once though, he didn’t even consider that memory, even to avoid it. He was too distracted, his mind burning hotter than the water.

His hand drifted down and fisted his shaft without looking. His eyes were squeezed tight, his imagination playing a film on the inside of his eyelids.

Only in his head, the kiss grew deeper. Her tongue darted out to dance with his, twisting and turning to the sound of soft panting and tiny moans. She pulled back, and Dick felt the water shift over his back as he subconsciously leaned into the memory to follow her.

Her beautiful blue eyes, filled with lust, never moved from his and they burned with desire as she slowly lowered herself down. Her knees landed on the ground softly, and her blonde pigtails bounced slightly, begging to be gripped. Her pretty pink lips parted, and her tongue lolled out of her mouth to present a wide O-ring just in front of his engorged shaft.

She paused there a moment, and a long string of saliva slowly stretched from the tip of her tongue. Then the sight of it was blocked as her mouth descended on his dick, her tongue flicking out to dash the precum from his tip, and then her lips pressing a kiss to the head.

She looked up at him through half-lidded eyes, a pink flush spread across her face. “Lemme taste ya, Dickie? Please?”

The image in his mind shattered as his orgasm crashed into him. His cock jerked and pulsed in his fist, his body shook with the release, and a low moan escaped his lips as his eyes fluttered.

Slowly, the moment faded, and Dick regained his clarity. He grimaced slightly at the tiles painted white, and turned the shower head to wash it down the drain.

As he towelled off, he idly wondered what Harls would say, if she knew about what he’d just done. A long-dead mischief, beaten down and cowering, peeked an eye out and had Dick opening his phone to send her a text.

>Dick Grayson: Thanks for the goodbye Harls. It really helped.
>Harls Q: Awh, you’re sweet. Affirmations ain’t much though.
>Dick Grayson: I meant the kiss. My shower was way hotter than usual.
>Harls Q: GASP! You didn’t! Without even telling me first?!

Dick smirked to himself as a warmth blossomed in his chest. He hadn’t known what to expect, but this was totally way better. He sent a smile emoji back, and then turned to tidy and clean his place before Zee arrived later, with an unrepentantly happy smirk on his lips.

—

Zatanna couldn’t banish the smile fully. It kept creeping back onto her lips whenever she wasn’t paying attention. Honestly, it probably didn’t help that she didn’t really want to stop anyway, she was just trying to hold on to her usual public persona.

The reason was simple. She was going through to Bludhaven that evening to spend some time catching up with Dick.

At first, when she texted him to chat, he’d be ridiculously polite. Told her that he appreciated her checking on him. Then he’d tried to imply that she’d fulfilled whatever social requirement she felt she had, and she could stop talking to him without it being a problem. She had quite intentionally ignored that completely, no matter how many ways he tried it.

Slowly, he had stopped suggesting it. Apparently, he’d accepted she was going to continue, and that felt like a victory, no matter how small. Then, though, she tried to arrange to meet him. Immediately, he had stonewalled it, claiming he was busy that day or he couldn’t get there for that time, or whatever reason came to mind.

It had taken a lot of cajoling and insisting to build it up, and then she’d flat-out told him she would be showing up in Bludhaven tonight, and she would like to see him.

He’d been quiet for a long time, and eventually replied, to iron out details with her as he agreed as if no time had passed. He’d also told her that Harley wouldn’t be there, and when Zatanna insisted that Harley was welcome to be around, he’d told her that the blonde was busy doing something else.

That was fine though. She would have liked to get to know the ex-villain, but her focus was definitely on rebuilding the closeness she once held with Dick.

Because there was still a teenage girl squealing inside of her that was absolutely terrified by what Zatanna saw the other day, and those deleted messages from months ago. And she really, really did care about Dick. Really.

—

Barbara was a perfectionist. Always had been.

It was perfect for Batgirl. She was never caught by the cops, never caught sneaking out or changing into the suit. Case details very rarely slipped by her, and her casefiles were immaculately detailed, so only a few situations went unsolved for long.

It was also perfect for Oracle. Her coding was precise and tidy, her hacking clean and unnoticed. Her security systems were some of the best on the planet, and her management skills were practically unmatched. It took her a while to match her physical ability to her expectations, but once that was done, she moved as if she’d always been in a wheelchair.

However, her perfectionism came with a downside, unsurprisingly. When she did get things wrong, or she couldn’t make it quite perfect? She obsessed over it. Majorly. She lost sleep, paused other projects, and forgot to maintain socialisation. The longer she obsessed, the worse it became.

So, as the fourth week dawned without solution to Dick’s situation, Barbara was only stopped from climbing the walls by literal paralysis. The irony that Dick had always been the best at grounding her when she got like this didn’t help the situation either.

It was only because Donna and Kory were still staying in the Clocktower’s spare rooms with her that she was holding her shit together. Donna turned out to have a surprisingly similar ability as Dick when it came to calming Barbara’s gradually increasing infuriation, and in a very strange and guilty way, Barbara found herself settled somewhat by how emotionally wrecked Kory was as the days went by. She could relate, after all.

She was staring intently at another CCTV clip her trawler program had picked up from Bludhaven, showing Dick beating some gang members up in the street with Harley at his side.

“They’re working together.”

Barbara startled slightly and looked to her left where Kory was stood. The alien woman really did look wrecked at the moment. Her amber skin had lost it’s shine, there were bags the shade of dirty gold under her eyes, and her eyes were a dull green without their usual vibrancy.

Even so, Barbara couldn’t help the dismissive response, “Yeah, we’ve known that for months now-”

“No, they are working together, Barbara.” Kory insistently said, her eyes tracking the movements of the duo on-screen.

Barbara turned back to the clip with a confused frown, trying to catch whatever Kory was trying to point out to her. She just didn’t know what the Tamarean meant by- “There. Do you see?” An amber finger pointed, and Barbara rewound the clip to see.

It wasn’t anything notable that she was highlighting. Just a moment where Dick took someone down, then moved to intercept a thug heading for Harley’s back. In turn, she dropped her assailant and smoothly moved around him without either hitting the other, and took his place where he’d been fighting before to protect his back. It was a normal movement during a fight, and Barbara still didn’t really understand why Kory was pointing it out.

Clearly, Starfire could see the lack of comprehension on her face, as she explained, “That covering of the back. The fluidity of the position exchange. It only occurs when Richard has synchronised with his ally, else they collide or allow foes to escape.”

Barbara’s eyes widened, and she turned back to the clip, watching it through and spotting the dozens of tiny tells that she was simply too familiar with, and too long out of practice, to consider. Her voice was full of stunned realisation as she breathed, “You don’t mean they’re working together, you mean they’re thinking together.”

As she spoke, Donna wandered in wearing jeans and a blouse, drying her hair in a towel. Her eyes critically scanned the clip as it played, drawn by Barbara’s words, and a small frown pulled at her lips.

“Not entirely. See how he never fully exposes his back to her? He ensures she is within his vision at all times, despite the other displays of trust. Knowing Dick, I would wager that the issue is not that he does not trust her with his life, but rather that he does not trust she has the skill necessary to preserve her own should complications arise.” Her gaze softened. “I saw it often when we were younger, for the other Titans.”

“You’re right, both of you.” Barbara said, leaning back in her wheelchair slightly with a grimace, “He trusts Harley, apparently, and cares enough to watch her. He-”

She cut off and slammed her hand on the keyboard to pause the clip. Her eyes glared at the scene captured. A muscle twitched under her eye.

Donna coughed awkwardly into her hand, a slight flush coming to her cheeks. She averted her eyes from the screen, clearly willing the blush to vanish.

Kory squinted, tilting her head, then asked, “Is Richard…admiring her posterior?”

The screen displayed a freeze frame mid-fight. Dick’s just knocked out the guy he was fighting, and was looking around for the next. For only a second, his eyes flick down to Harley’s leather-clad ass, as she faces away from him and fights, and a tiny smirk shifts his lips. That’s the moment frozen.

Barbara was a perfectionist, but sometimes? If a lockpick wasn’t working, you just needed to grab a brick.

“...We’re going to Bludhaven tomorrow.”