Author's Notes: Well I finally finished this after having the worst case of writer's block ever. Rush, you better fracking enjoy it.
Cold Blooded
You can't trust a coldblooded over
In the end they'll just drive you insane
Artemis wasn't sure she could stand to leave.
She frowns as she struggles to get out from underneath her bed partner's arm. She didn't want him to be awake for this.
The drapes of their hotel room were pulled open, casting the moonlight all over Artemis' naked body. She absentmindedly stares out the window as she pulls a shirt over her head. Her pants are nowhere to be found, but that won't be a problem since she can get around fairly easily without being seen.
Her clutch is sitting on the bedside table and as she reaches out for it, and the man in the bed stirs. She pauses, watching as he curls his arm into himself and abruptly flops over onto the other side of the bed.
Artemis waits for his breathing to return to normal before taking a lipstick out of her purse and quickly jotting something down on the supplied note pad.
I'm sorry, she writes.
She takes one last look at the man lying in the bed, and leaves before she can change her mind.
When Dick wakes up, the first thing he notices is the absence of someone beside him. Her blonde hair, which normally manages to get tangled up in him is nowhere to be seen or felt. The sheets beside him are cold, suggesting that she definitely left before he woke up.
Confused, he rises from the bed and begins to dress. He walks closer to the bathroom door to listen for her showering, but all he hears is silence.
He walks back to the bedroom to find his jeans, before pulling his cellphone out.
No unread messages, he reads from the screen.
Dick decides not to worry. Artemis had probably gone out to get some breakfast for the two of them.
Them, he thinks with a goofy smile on his face. Because now they really were an official them.
He flops back onto the bed and runs a hand through his thick black hair, remembering last night. After they'd had dinner, their first real date despite the fact that they'd both been fooling around for months now, and after they'd fooled around once more, he'd told her.
Dick Grayson had actually said those three words. And meant them.
He smiles a tad bit wider, and glances at his phone one more time, deciding he should just call Artemis himself.
He sits up against the headboard, dials her number and waits. Three rings and…
"Hey. It's Artemis. Leave a message or don't."
Dick taps his fingers against his leg and clears his throat. "Hello. I'm awake y'know, and I'm wondering where you are. Didn't think you could leave a handsome devil like me for some—"
That's when he sees it.
"—coffee."
The previous night…
"You know you really need to work on your people skills."
Dick grinned at Artemis, pulling her closer to him as they walked through the lobby of the Four Seasons in Gotham. The fluorescent lights bounced of the subtle sparkle on Artemis' dress and she wondered for a millisecond, how Dick had managed to get her into such a ridiculous getup in the first place.
"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked, arranging his facial expression to the very picture of innocence. He squeezed her hand as she adopted a look that was half-way amused and half-way consternation.
Artemis snorted. "Threatening a civilian, our waiter, because he was staring is a little bit overkill, don't you think?"
Dick shrugged. "You're my girlfriend. It's my job."
Artemis shook her head as they arrived at the elevator. "You're such an ass sometimes, I swear."
"It's part of my charm," he said as they stepped into the elevator. He released his hold on Artemis to press the button for the 35th floor before crossing his arms and leaning back against the elevator wall.
"Dick."
"Hmm?" He raised an eyebrow.
"No, no," Artemis amended, a smirk on her face. "I was calling you one."
Dick raised an eyebrow and disengaged himself from the wall, slowly sauntering over to where Artemis was standing, one hand on her popped out hip. Artemis smirked as he closed the distance between them and slowly backed her into the elevator wall.
"You know," Dick said, his voice low and seductive as he pressed his lips against Artemis' ear, "you really need to work on your people skills."
"Oh do I?" she murmured back, sighing as Dick's lips began to plant kisses underneath her jawline.
"Yeah," Dick muttered against her skin. Slowly he worked his way up, stopping right below her lips. "That's no way to talk to your boyfriend. I might just have to—"
Artemis decided Dick had wasted enough time yapping and abruptly pressed their lips together. Dick didn't seem to mind, and responded in kind by reaching up to tangle his hands in her hair. She opened her mouth, letting out a small yelp when Dick tugged a tad bit too hard, but it gave Dick enough opportunity to gain entrance with his tongue.
Dick was thoroughly enjoying their time and would've had no problem pressing the emergency stop button in the elevator, if not for the fact that they had already arrived at their floor.
The doors had already opened, revealing a middle-aged couple to be standing there, looking shell-shocked. Dick coughed to hide his laugh, and put his hand on the small of Artemis' back, gently pushing her past the aghast couple.
They waited for the couple to step inside the elevator before both of them were reduced to snorts and giggles.
"I can only imagine what they're thinking," Artemis laughed, wrapping her arm around Dicks' side as they resumed walking down the hallway towards their room.
"Oh I know what they were thinking," Dick said, stopping in front of one of the doors. He slid the key card out of his wallet and pushed the hotel room door open.
"Oh and what's that?" Artemis breathed into his ear.
As the door latched shut, Dick turned around, looking at Artemis with such an intensity that it send chills down her spine. Artemis's lips spread slowly into a seductive grin.
"I was thinking that they were right," Dick said, finally closing the distance between them.
Their night would continue on as many of their nights did. A sensual exploration of each other's bodies, a dance filled with all the heat and passion of two people who had experienced more of life's pain and suffering than most could even imagine.
It was the one time when both were whole, in each other, seeking solace in the fact that neither of them had it all together. When Dick and Artemis were together like that, they no longer felt the need to mask their pain or their fear. Both had grown up, experiencing the worst that life had to offer through their childhood in Gotham.
Both of them knew what it was like. And for some reason, that neither one of them could explain, it translated into every touch, every kiss.
It was as if a single flute were playing a melody all its own against a complete symphony orchestra. It was there, almost inaudible—you would have to know what to listen for, as they did. But one thing was clear: it said, "I know your pain. I know your past. And because of it, I know you."
And when they finished that night, Dick had made it something more. Not just a battle, not just a stress reliever, or an escape.
He'd made love to her and Artemis had immediately known that everything had changed when he uttered those three words, before falling asleep.
Eight missed calls.
Artemis sighs as she glances down at her phone. Two of them were from M'gann, asking whether or not Artemis could make it to her and Conner's party on Friday night, and if she could please bring those 'really yummy noodle thingamabobs' that her mother used to make for her.
The other six were from Dick. And listening to them made Artemis feel like the absolute most god-awful person on the planet. The first message cut off after Dick had said something about coffee—Artemis assumed he must have found the note she'd left. The second, third and fourth, all communicated his confusion. The fifth, his anger. And the sixth, the worst of all.
Dick's tone had seemed forced, oddly even as he'd told her that maybe he'd see her at Bruce's fundraiser at on Friday.
She bites her lip and puts down the phone, promising herself that she would call him back later to explain
She never did.
Three months later…
Dick takes a long swig of his beer, barely listening as the girl seated across from him babbles on about her work at the Cancer Research Center in Gotham. Her name is Melanie, and, thanks to Wally, he'd been forced into going on a blind date with her.
She's nice enough, sure, he decides, and certainly pretty. Definitely intelligent—she'd graduated from Harvard with honors and was very passionate about her work at the research center. Dick had spent half the night wondering where Wally had even found a girl like Melanie.
But there were several things wrong with her. Her hair was brown for one and cropped particularly short. Her eyes were a warm, chocolate brown instead of a cool, steel gray. And she was about two inches two short, with not nearly enough muscle definition. No matter how fantastic this Melanie is, Dicks knows she'll never measure up.
She isn't Artemis, he thinks glumly.
He runs a hand through his hair and nods absently, hoping it at least looks like he's paying attention to her. Throughout the night, his thoughts have been straying to the blonde archer more than he would like. Dick simply couldn't find it within himself to listen to anything Melanie was saying for more than five minutes at a time.
She's not coming back, he tells himself, trying to focus back in on the conversation.
Dick hasn't heard from Artemis in three months, since she left him in that hotel room. None of their old team has heard from Artemis except for Red Arrow, who had told Dick he'd seen her occasionally on patrol in Star City sans Green Arrow.
Much to Dick's dismay, Artemis hadn't spoken with Roy. She'd just disappeared. And it was obvious that she didn't want to be found.
Sure if Dick put forth enough effort, he could probably find her within a few days. He was after all trained by the world's greatest detective.
But if Artemis didn't want to call him, or even speak to him after he'd told her that he loved her, then Dick would rather suffer far away from her. Anything would be better than her telling him, face to face, that she didn't feel the same way about him.
"…and it really is just such an experience. I feel like I'm really doing something to change the world, you know…"
Dick looks up at the sound of his name being repeated.
"Huh?" he asks, looking up at Melanie for the first time in probably ten minutes.
She smiles, shaking her head slightly. "I asked if you had ever been to the research center. I was saying that I could give you the VIP tour."
She winks at him and he smiles absently in return. She's nice, the kind of girl Dick would probably be good with. She'd be good for him. Melanie is definitely the kind of girl who'd be there when he got home every night, with dinner on the table. He'd never have to worry about her running off and getting hurt on a mission, or trying to pull some crazy to stunt to stop the Joker.
Dating Melanie would be simple, easy. But Dick didn't want simple, or easy.
He just wanted Artemis.
He hasn't heard from her directly. But Roy at least has the decency to let him know that she's staying with him and his new girlfriend Jade. To help take care of their child.
Another three months pass and Dick thinks he's starting to go crazy. He sees Artemis everywhere now.
But Dick sees Artemis every time he closes his eyes. He jumps, every single fucking time he sees someone who looks like her. On the street, on patrol, at the grocery store… He wants so badly to believe that she's coming back.
But he knows she probably never will.
It's not healthy, this fixation on a girl he hasn't even spoken to in six months. Nothing is going to change. So he decides to move on with his life. Dedicate his life to his other love.
Justice.