Red Robin just gapped. There were no words, not a single one in his head.
"What?" bluntly asked Steph. She sounded too innocent, despite the wicked smirk playing on her pink lips. He couldn't be sure just how serious her playful manner was. The sharply designed domino mask hid her usually mischievous eyes.
After too long of a pause, he stammered out a set of vowels, but nothing coherent. Frustration took hold of his rapidly thudding heart. Her cocky chuckle didn't help.
Avoiding her broadening grin, he let his gaze glide down her. The adventure abruptly stopped on the broad, purple symbol that spread across her chest. No. Correction. Eggplant colored, an all too familiar color on her well-toned body.
The streams of eggplant splintered to flow generously over her smooth shoulders before sweeping down her well-defined arms. There it descended like an arrow down the middle of her gauntlets. Liberally, it colored her ring and middle fingers. Finger strips!
A chocking lump formed in his throat.
He had to force his gaze lower to clear it. As he did, he noticed how the black Kevlar perfectly accented her smooth curves. There was no denying how tantalizing the skin-tight Kevlar hugged her in all the right places, in all the right ways. A sensation of envy tickled at his brain, envious of the Kevlar's intimacy against her skin.
He swore he heard a distinct whimper reverberating in his throat, but he wasn't sure. He was too mesmerized by the all too familiar costume design and how it looked on her. Sure, he heard Stephanie had changed name and costume, but he never imagined…
When he realized he was staring at her chest again, he forced his gaze all the way up. Immediately, he realized the distance between them had nearly vanished. As Stephanie gently tousled the short, golden strands of her new hairstyle, Tim took a moment to reintroduce some resemblance of sanity.
"What…?" he managed to breath, intently watching as her broad grin returned with a sultry hooded stare directed at him.
"Like what you see, Boy Wonder?" she said in a low, honey coated voice.
His lips moved silently as he struggled to remember how to talk. After a good few seconds, he managed one breath-filled word:
"Steph…"
Almost immediately, a lone gauntlet finger fell on his parted lips, cutting off anything further. "Ah uh!" she breathed out, leaning a bit closer in his personal space. Her warm, coffee flavored breath skirted across his face. Her fingers tickled across his cheek before she slipped her arms around his neck. It sent shiver over him as she whispered, "That's Nightwing,… Robin."