Sometimes, he swears that he's never been so happy before. That not a single fraction of his life before she came had ever been happier. He welcomed her arrival with a certain wave of awkwardness, despite him being very serious about what he's doing.
And since then, he couldn't stop thinking about her. Her black hair, her blue eyes, the certain way she talks backwards, and her fondness for his vocabulary. There was no one else that he had ever thought about more than the magician's daughter.
It was funny because she does feel the same way towards him, too. And she openly expressed it more than he ever did. Which kind of put him to shame since he's the guy, and he's supposed to be the one who's more open about the way he feels towards her, rather than the other way around.
He remembers the first time she held his hand. He blushed a little bit too much due to the embarrassment that he's leaving her to do all the first moves. But it never felt so good before.
And that's when he gradually feels this feeling that he couldn't quite explain. After the loss of her father, he was constantly there for her through it all. They would both talk in her bedroom in Mount Justice, sitting in lotus position on her bed, face-to-face. He would entertain her by telling lots of stories about the mishaps he used to have whenever he's on a mission with Bats. She would laugh at them all, and the feeling grows stronger.
A few years later, he's fourteen, she's fifteen; and the concept of whatever it is that they have is casually getting into their mindsets, they savor the feeling. They would spend more times with one another, in her bedroom, or his; they never really cared. Because at the end of the day, it would always result in the both of them laying down, facing each other, his arms around her waist, and she would count the hills across the sheets before taking off his mask. And the feeling is back.
He remembers when she first took his mask off. They were in that very position. Face-to-face, breaths mixing together, his arm around her waist, her eyes fixated on his. She moved her hand and touched the edge of his mask, and he flinched. He wasn't supposed to reveal his secret identity to anyone not unless he had a permission from Bats. He remembers how his breath got caught up in the very moment she touched his mask, her face was filled with concern, and then she pulled her hand away.
"It's okay if you don't want to." She stated, her blue eyes staring into his.
He sighs. He was always so disconnected from the world in terms of his real, and unmasked life. He was holding himself back even when he's certain about the way he feels for her. He looked into her eyes on that moment and he recognized the emotion she felt; hurt. Possibly because she thought that he didn't trust her enough to disclose his secret identity to her, or just hurt because he was the only one she was letting in during that time and he's so cut off from her.
"No, Zee." He took her hand and placed it back to where it was a while ago. "I want you to."
And she took off his mask.
"It's nice to meet you, Zatanna Zatara. My name is Richard Grayson." He smiled, intertwining their fingers together.
She smiled, and he swears he'd never get tired of seeing that smile. "It's nice to meet you, too, Richard Grayson."
Almost every night is identical to that one. And once Batman started taking notice of his attachment to Zatanna, Batman was a little too late. It wasn't much of an argument, though. Batman only had to ask why Dick told her his secret identity, he answered him, "that's because I trust her, Bats." His mentor nodded and didn't pry any further. But as Dick went near the zeta tube, Batman had another thing to say, "You could just tell her that you love her, you know."
He had never been so attached and interested to someone else before. He had memorized every bit of detail there is to know about the magician's daughter. They would spend their nights together more often than not and they would just have their own little world filled with laughter, words of encouragement, and whispers of affection. It's like they're living in another universe where no one ever exists other than them, and their unconditional love for each other.
They only ever have one another in the series of emotional and unnerving life of a superhero. But the best part is the fact that each other is enough to get them through every single day. They get so disconnected to reality as they live in their own little world, and that's the best part of it all for him.
Le notes: Well, I'm on a roll on publishing oneshots. I'm doing this because I have this playlist called "We're human beings, we fall in and out of love." And it's filled with songs that just reminds me of what falling for someone feels like. And me, being a writer who constantly gets writer's block and be like "wtf do I write", I use that playlist to get rid of it. I sit down and write whatever comes out of my mind and then the block is gone. I'm turning this into a whole book filled with drabbles about The Team and certain relationships based off the songs from that specific playlist. I'll put up the playlist online (on 8tracks possibly) and would love it if you all listened to it. Also, the song for this chapter is Disconnected by 5 seconds of summer. x