Author's note: hey so this is my first fanfic! Constructive criticism is encouraged Compliments are also fine :D My wording of things may be a little…awkward…but I'm working on it! BE SURE TO READ THE AUTHOR'S NOTE AT THE END!
Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice characters! These awesome superheroes belong to DC Comics and the creators of young justice
So as far as the story:
Dick and Barbara are in the same grade, Artemis and Zatanna are a year older (I'm really not sure how old they are in the show but I know Artemis is older than Dick/Robin). This story focuses on high school romance with not-so-much action. Minor OC.
Chapter 1: Freshman
Barbara never gave Dick much thought. All she knew going into 9th grade was that he was her best friend who knew her better than anyone else. He was the most trustworthy and loyal guy she knew. But as anything more than a friend? Barbara never gave the idea much thought. Being about 4 inches shorter than her and having his hair slicked back for school, she couldn't take the idea of dating Dick very seriously. Middle school girls may have had the hots for Dick, but they were in high school now and Barbara was showing more interest in a certain Boy Wonder.
Dick arrived at school late due to some stupid thugs in the city. His teacher was not at all impressed seeing as he had been late to first period almost every day since school started. He quickly took his seat next to Barbara.
"Late again, Grayson?" she said in a teasing tone.
"Shut up, Gordon. Like you've never been late" he countered, happy to see her.
"Well not as much as y- " Barbara started but was interrupted by their teacher. They saved their conversation for later.
After class, Barbara caught up with Dick.
"Hey so why were you so late? AGAIN." She asked
"That's for me to know, and you to never find out" he said smiling.
"Come on Grayson! Why won't you ever tell me why you're late to class?" she begged.
"Whoops, we're at my next class. I'll see you later, Babs!" he said entering the classroom near them.
After school, Dick snuck up behind Barbara and covered her eyes.
"Guess who!" he said playfully.
Barbara sneakily hooked her foot with his, did a quick spin, and before he knew it, he was being thrown to the floor. Being Robin, his fast reflexes allowed him to roll and land on his feet in a crouched position.
"Dick" Barbara said laughing.
"I try to have a playful game of 'guess who' and I get assaulted instead!" he says standing up. She laughed.
"Teaches you to sneak up on me, Grayson!" she responded.
"yeah yeah yeah let's just start heading home" Dick said.
As they started walking home, Barbara noticed Dick staring at her. He was starting to notice little things about her. He started noticing how bright her smile was, how shiny and elegant her hair looked both indoors and outdoors, how great a fighter she was, and other various things. He would never admit it but he thought she was just purely beautiful.
"What are you staring at?" she asked, perplexed.
Dick was brought out of his reverie. "What?" he asked just coming back to reality.
"You've been staring at me for five minutes, Dick" she stated.
"Oh…have I? No. I've just been looking at the flowers behind you! They've really grown since the spring" he responded quickly.
Barbara was suspicious but dismissed his actions and accepted his answer. In desperation to change the topic, Dick started talking about their Pre-Calc homework.
When Barbara finally arrived home, she thought about their walk. Was her best friend of 4 years developing feelings for her? She didn't know what to think about that to be honest. She didn't see him as a little brother so the idea of being in a relationship wasn't totally out of the picture. She decided to brush it off and take a shower.
At Wayne Manor, Dick fell onto his bed, cursing at himself for being so stupid. He would be more careful around. Their friendship meant too much to him to screw things up with a little high school crush.
The next day, Barbara saw that Dick was early. She was beyond surprised to see him there 20 minutes before school started but was nonetheless happy. As she approached him, she saw him run up to a blonde girl and take a picture with her. She felt a pang in her chest which she couldn't explain. Why did if Dick was taking pictures with pretty blond girls? He walked away from the blond student, who she knew was a sophomore because Bette was talking to her.
Dick was smiling at the photo on his phone in a way Barbara had never seen before. It was full of mischief, happiness, excitement, and was just plain happier than she'd ever seen.
"Who was that?" she said in a monotone as she crossed her arms and lay against a pillar.
"Just a girl I know" Dick said still smiling at the photo.
She grunted and started walking away.
"Babs where are you rushing off to? First period is the other way!" he yelled trying to catch up to her.
"Just going to talk to Brooke. I'll catch up with you later" she said. He finally caught up with her.
"I thought you said you were in a fight with Brooke" Dick said, walking a little faster to keep up with her pace.
"Yeah well we worked things out okay Richard!" she scolded. Dick stopped following her. Her use of his full first name was a sign that he should step out. Confused by her actions, he started heading to first period.
Throughout the day, Barbara tried to avoid Dick as much as possible but he didn't make that very easy. She was starting to feel sorry about it but continued to think about the blond beauty he was so happy to see. How did he know her? Dick never told her about a friend like that? From what she learned from Bette, the girl's name was Artemis, she was a transfer, a sophomore, and knew how to fight. How Bette knew the last thing, Barbara had no clue.
Dick was getting frustrated with Barbara. She had been acting weird with him the past few weeks. It's been two months since she first started acting that way. Their walks home were awkward, she never called his house anymore, and their online chats weren't very productive. Thankfully, he had crime fighting to take Barbara off his mind before and after school but even then, she was on his mind somehow.
Winter break had just ended and Dick was hoping Barbara would be feeling better. On his way to school for the first time that year, he ran into Artemis. Ever since Barbara had started acting weird, Dick made it a semi-schedule to talk to Artemis in the morning on days when he wasn't late due to crimes. Despite Bette's problem with freshmen, Artemis befriended the persistent boy. She had no idea why he took such a liking to her so suddenly and always wondered about the picture he took on her first day. No matter though. She liked his company and his wit. It almost reminded her of Robin.
Dick and Artemis had a conversation going and eventually, the two were laughing together like they'd known each other for years. Of course, Barbara decided to choose that moment to show up.
Barbara first spotted Dick laughing alongside Artemis. She honestly had nothing against Artemis. Barbara had gotten to know her having gym class and computer programming with her. What bothered her was this feeling she got whenever she saw Artemis and Dick having such a good time.
As Barbara started walking away, Dick excused himself from Artemis and dashed towards Barbara. She felt him coming up behind her and tried to quicken her pace. Despite this, he caught up to her and grabbed her arm gently.
She turned around and saw him staring at her with a look of confusion and happiness, if that was possible. She pulled her arm away. Despite the pain she felt inside her from the sight of Dick and Artemis, she couldn't also help but feel uplifted to see Dick after such a long time.
"Hey Babs! We never got to hang out this winter break. Bruce had a big Christmas dinner and you didn't show up." He said. She stayed quiet for a little bit, refusing to make eye contact.
"I ended up spending Christmas with my cousin and his parents" she finally said. Any other year, she would have gladly gone to one of the famous Wayne parties just to see Dick in a tux. It wasn't until this Christmas that she realized how much she liked seeing him in a suit. This thought made her blush.
"Oh well…we should totally hang out sometime! Talk about our winter breaks maybe?" he asked hopefully.
She finally looked into his eyes. For the first time since she met him, she noticed how blue his eyes were. His eyes were mesmerizing. They were a deeper blue than her eyes. So deep, she could drown in the blueness they radiated.
"Babs? Hello? You're not still mad at me for whatever I did are you?" he said.
Barbara lightly shook her head.
"Um..hang out? Yeah! I'm sorry about winter break. I should have called. Are you available after school?" she asked, trying to avoid his other big question.
"Today? Oh uh…I sort of already promised Artemis I'd help her with history and then I have to assist Bruce with some party planning (which was code for 'help Bruce with a mission') but I'm totally available tomorrow after school!" he said.
Barbara's heart fell. Why was he spending so much time with her? When she started avoiding him, he would always talk to Artemis every morning! Not just the mornings, but between classes too! And now she's JUST finding out that they have history together?
Keeping her pokerface on, Barbara quickly spoke.
"Oh that's fine! I can't do tomorrow though because…I'm working on a project with a boy in my chem class" she said.
Lies. Why was she lying to him? She wasn't working on the project with Damian ( A/N: OC – just for this story's purposes!) tomorrow. She was working on it with him over the weekend.
"Oh." Dick said, trying not to show he was disappointed. "Which boy?" he asked.
"Damian Harper" Barbara responded plainly.
Barbara noticed an expression cross Dick's face for a split second. She had never seen this expression before and as she tried to determine what it was, he exclaimed "Wait! Damian Harper! Captain of the swim team? Only got into this school because his dad is one of the top donators! The sophomore who's had 6 girlfriends since 7th grade! How did you get partnered with him?"
Barbara was taken aback by his questions and clear annoyance with their partnership. She finally realized that the look on his face just might have been…jealousy? Oh this could work.
Not really knowing what she was doing, Barbara made a split-second decision to use her partnership with Damian as a little way to mess with Dick.
"Yes THE Damian Harper. THE captain of the swim team. THE son of this school's top donator. We'll be working on this project a lot. This project's about 40% of our grade and is due in two weeks." She said slowly.
Dick tried and failed to hide the look of annoyance.
"how long have you been working on the project!" he said a little too eagerly.
Barbara Gordon was enjoying herself.
"Well Mr. Levi assigned the project a week before winter break. He said partners were optional. I was going to work on it along" she paused for dramatic effect. "..but Damian came up to me and asked me to be his partner…" she paused again and moved a little closer to Dick "…so I accepted"
Dick swallowed a hard lump and Barbara saw. She smirked and the bell rang.
"Well we should start heading to pre-calc right, Dick?" she said cheerfully.
She walked with a little more spring in her step while Dick followed with a deadpan face.
A week passed and Barbara talked nonstop about her partner, Damian, and how their amazing their work-sessions were, often embellishing events.
Dick was distraught and would often talk to Artemis about his problem. (A/N: anyone see what I did there? Something for you traught fans ) Dick wouldn't admit it to Barbara, but he hated her partnership. She talked about this Harper kid as much as robin when they were in 7th and 8th grade. But this was different. He WAS robin. He was NOT Damian Harper.
Finally, the project was due and Barbara couldn't talk about her and Damian's work sessions. But, she DID talk about their little conversations in chemistry. The look he gave healed the pain in her heart from seeing him so happy with Artemis but only just a little bit so she talked about Damian often. Dick would often just keep quiet and be off to the side. She thought it was cute whenever he tried to change the subject but failed.
Valentine's Day was in 3 days. Dick didn't care how much Barbara talked about this Damian kid. He was going to do something special. Something subtle but special. Artemis was more than happy to assist him after he had saved her during one mission.
When Valentine's Day arrived, Dick bought a rose with a little card on the side saying
"Robin's suit is red, your eyes are blue
I know we're just friends, but be my valentine will you?
-Dick Grayson"
He hated poetry but it was the best he could come up with.
He arrived at school and went straight to looking for Barbara. He went to her locker but couldn't find her. He continued walking around and finally spotted some red by one of the school's gardens. As he walked towards her, he saw she was holding hands with a certain captain of the swim team. His heart shattered.
Barbara took the captain's hand and he led her towards the computer lab. He had asked for some help with a web design assignment. She saw Dick and quickly picked up her pace to keep up with Damian, hoping to make it look like they were a little more than just friends.
She saw his face and smirked. Whatever he was holding, he totally dropped it. His jaw dropped. His head dropped. Everything about him just dropped and she felt a little bad.
She was brought to the computer lab. There, she helped Damian and he thanked her.
"wow you're really good at this stuff, Gordon" he said.
"yeah well this IS gotham prestigious" she said smiling kindly.
"you know…lots of girls would give anything to be in a computer lab alone with me" he said leaning against the table.
"I'm sure they would" she said smiling and getting up to leave.
Before she could walk away, he grabbed her and pressed his lips to her before she could say anything.
Instantly, her body went into defense mode and she pushed him away, ducked his next assault, tripped the poor lad, and ran.
Barbara had just had her first kiss on Valentine's Day and it wasn't with the one boy she actually might have had feelings for.
Dick threw his flower on the ground. Artemis picked it up but he slapped it out of her hand and quickly apologized for his rash behavior. She picked up the rose again.
"Hey look…it's okay Dick…she'll come around…I know it" she said trying to comfort him.
She hugged him, still holding the rose. Barbara came out from the computer lab building and saw this scene. The one person who could have given her comfort in this time of confusion was hugging the blond beauty.
Artemis held the rose and continued to hug Dick. Barbara was just about in tears by this point. She sat down in a nearby bench wondering "what have I done?".
Later that day right before computer programming started, Artemis walked up to Barbara. She didn't mean to sound rude, but she was mad. She was angry.
"What do you want?" she said sternly to Artemis.
Artemis said nothing and simply took Barbara's notebook from right under her.
Barbara grabbed for it but Artemis dodged her easily and slipped something between the pages, placed the notebook back on her desk, and walked back to her seat before the bell rang to begin class.
Barbara saw a rose peeking out of her notebook and felt very much confused by Artemis's actions. She opened it and saw a heart shaped note signed "-Dick Grayson " at the bottom. He had asked her to be his valentine that day. Her eyes started getting watery. She had really screwed things up.
How had freshman year gone so bad so quickly? Barbara stood in 7th period, the last class of the day for the last day of freshman year. She and Dick hadn't talked much. They walked home together in silence.
They really only talked for school purposes.
The last bell of freshman year rang and everyone ran everywhere. Dick had told her that he would be picked up by Alfred for an appointment. He asked if Barbara wanted a ride but she had rejected.
As she started walking home, she saw a van stop next to her. Dick got out and ran up to her. This surprised her.
"Dick? What are you doing here?" she asked.
"Hey Babs" he said. She nearly cried when she heard him say her special nickname. "your dad told us to take you home with us" he said
Perplexed by this news, Barbara slowly approached the van and got in.
When they finally got to Dick's mansion, he brought her to an entrance she had never seen before.
"Babs. I know we had a tough year, but I don't want to lose you….as a friend" he added at the end quickly.
He opened the secret compartment and gestured for her to enter.
They eventually found themselves in a cave-like area. She saw Mr. Wayne at the center of the place working on something. He greeted Barbara and went back to his work.
"Babs this way" Dick gestured.
Mouth open, Barbara followed Dick trying to look around as much as possible.
When she finally finished looking around the entire cave, she looked back to Dick but instead, saw none other than the Boy Wonder.
Barbara thought to herself: Things are about to get interesting, Grayson.
"I hope this explains why I was late to school so many times" Dick said to break the silence.
A/N: VERY IMPORTANT!:
The ending may seem a little rushed but mostly because I thought the story was getting a little too lengthy for a first chapter. Yes, I plan to make new chapters! :D Preferably one for each year of high school. I plan to make future chapters shorter than this one but no promises! Also, this chapter was a little more on the K rating but maybe around their junior year, things will definitely get a little more T-rated
Please let me know what you thought! Ideas, constructive criticism, compliments, suggestions :D thanks!