I don't own Batman... He was created by Bob Kane. I don't own Batgirl or Robin neither... I just write about them in this story inspired by Batgirl Year One...

Chapter 1
Sparring

"There is what life could be… and there is the life I lead now."

Barbara reflected on her last statement with a certain degree of disgust. It was cheesy. Not her style. Couldn't she write a year of memoirs without embellishing the last detail? Babs rubbed her eyes and took another look at the computer screen.

It had taken her most of the night, which she had because Batman had given her the night off, but she had finally finished chronicling the past year's events in something she affectionately dubbed "Batgirl: Year One".

She had only an inkling of an idea why Batman had given her the night off, but she suspected that he had what he would consider a good reason for it. He was probably going against one of the "big-time super villains" like Mr. Freeze, Two-Face, or maybe even The Joker. But what did he have to fear? Hadn't she proved herself in front of Killer Moth AND Firefly? What more did she have to do in order for them to consider her good enough to fight one of the "big time super villains?"

Her father had approved of the new Batgirl for six weeks. Dick had taken a hit for the team when he dressed up in her costume with a red wig and stood next to Batman on that rooftop. Batman made sure her father would accept it too. Batman timed it so that Dick and he would jump off of the rooftop seconds before Babs (listening in to the exchange) emerged onto the rooftop, quelling all of her father's suspicions that Babs really was Batgirl by perfect timing. True, it was a trick, but this way her father wasn't suspect towards Babs's shady actions and Batgirl had the Commissioner's blessing to patrol the streets at night under Batman's supervision. It seemed like ages ago, though. Wasn't her father, Commissioner of the Gotham City Police Department, enough reason to elevate her to the "big-time super villain" level?

She rolled her eyes as she pushed back the thin red hair, which had begun to overtake her face in the frustrating hours upon hours of writing through her night off. She saved, closed the window on the computer screen, and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes again. Gray tinged the sky in the world outside her window. She sighed. Maybe she could steal a few hours sleep before heading to the library for another boring day at the office.

She stood up from her computer, still apprehensive about the last sentence until, with a final, agitated sigh, she figured it was all for the best. She would never read it again, and that part about her kiss with Dick would sound even mushier with that last line. A laugh escaped from her mouth. This was so stupid. It was just the last line of a stupid journal she remembered perfectly. She chuckled as she realized that she couldn't even write a decent ending to her own life's story and she had managed to take this simple cliché and sully her thoughts on the piece as a whole.

She flopped on the bed and smiled. Although perturbed over the fact that Batman still didn't truly trust her, she still had his approval and that was enough for now.

At least that was what she was thinking as she smashed her fist gracefully into the punching bag the next day. While the Batcave did have the most up-to-date equipment in the world, the punching bag was still her favorite. Although she wasn't strong enough to punch it off the chain from which it dangled like Dick or Batman could, she could hit it fast. When she sparred with Dick, she could pull off her punches faster than he could, but his punches hurt a lot more than hers probably did.

The sweat dripped off of her brow as she stopped and held out her hands to stop the back, checking her watch. Twelve minutes. Dick said that his record was twenty-eight.

Frustrated over the fact that she still wasn't as good as the other guys, she gave the punching bag a final, spinning kick, which, to her surprise, broke it off the chain. She smiled in triumph, that is, until she realized that it had continued rolling and was only three feet from rolling off of the Batcave's ledge into a blackened oblivion.

"No!" she shouted to herself as she ran to get the bag. She stopped it a mere inch before it would have toppled over the edge grabbing the heavy bag by the rough chain, feeling it press rivets and grooves into her hands.

A voice chuckled behind her as she lifted the bag with both hands, leaning back to keep her both for balance and leverage. She lifted the bag up over the leg and set it against the wall and saw Dick sitting in the chair in front of the computer, clapping mockingly slow.

"Now, that was funny," he jumped out of the chair, sending it spinning around and walked towards her. "He could have replaced that, you know."

"Yeah, but it would have been embarrassing," she blushed.

"What's to be embarrassed over? It was the first time you broke the chain. I remember my first time. Bag actually flew over that ledge in fear instead of rolling off as though it was vaguely forced to go over."

Great, just what she needed, more of his showing off and bragging.

"Prove it," she challenged. "Let's go. You and me. Right here. Right now."

Dick yawned and arrogantly checked his fingernails for excess dirt. "Nah, I'm saving my strength for the patrol tonight."

"Chicken."

He sprang towards her, flipping onto his hands and pushing himself forward into a blind kick with both of his feet towards her face. She dodged. Through watching him, she had learned how to read him to the point where she realized that he was actually predictable with his first move. He landed on his feet and turned to face her.

"Impressive," he mocked, eyebrows raised, as though he had really expected his trick to work.

"I try," she smiled innocently.

He lunged towards her again, this time running full speed. He threw his hand out towards her. She dodged left, pushing his arm to one side with her left palm and knocking him off balance. She kicked him in the side.

She only glimpsed his lack of balance for a second before he gracefully turned this disadvantage into a cartwheel and landed on his feet in a fighting stance, his left arm held straight out, his right blocking. He beckoned her with his left hand.

She jumped into the air, did a double front handspring, but, just before reaching him, jumped to the side, aimed her arm at his shoulder, and, still suspended in mid-air, thrust it, palm flat at his shoulder. In a real fight, this would be meant to stun him, but in this case would do no more than catch him by surprise. Batman did condition him, after all.

This, however, didn't work nearly as well as she had expected it to. Even though she had been specifically practicing this specific move in her gym for several days for this specific purpose, he ducked, grabbed her arm, and flipped her over his back and onto the mat, where she landed with a dull thunk.

"Ow," Babs cringed, wincing in the dull pain of mat-on-back. "How did you see that coming?"

Dick kneeled down to her level and stared at her as though she were a strange, never-before-seen bird and cocked his head to one side. "Years of practice and improvisation. That was a pretty neat trick, though. How long have you been practicing that one?"

"I didn't," she teased, lying through her teeth. "It was done through purely improvisation. Again?"

"Haven't you had enough?"

"Hey, last time I checked, you were losing."

"Last time I checked, you lost," he smiled.

"Oh, come on. You got lucky."

"Fine," he rolled his eyes indiscreetly. He stood up and offered her his hand.

She declined the offer by springing onto her hands and pushing herself to her feet. Instead of standing straight upwards as fast as she could, however, she leaned backwards, narrowly dodging his fist that would have made contact with her stomach. She grabbed his hand and flipped him up and over her. In true acrobatic fashion, he pushed off of his hand and into a handspring, landing flat on his feet. She jumped up, rather annoyed at his many years of circus training him. It was near impossible to floor him, but that's what made it fun. Near impossible.

She ran towards him, arm charged back for a full blow. He put his hands up for a block, but instantly realized this prepared hand was a ploy as she slide tackled between his legs, sweeping them with her hands as she flew past. His legs collapsed underneath him as he fell to the mat flat on his stomach.

She didn't get up from the ground, waiting for him as he groaned and rolled himself over to face her.

"I think I win that one," she said, as she rested her head on her arched fingers and fluttered her eyes.

"Fine," he responded bitterly. "But you cheated. You can't sweep my feet out with your hands."

"I can, and I did," she fluttered her eyes again. "Are you just bitter that you got owned by a girl?" Her tone dropped to one of complete innocence, pretending to not know her statement would seriously wound his pride.

"Best two out of three!" he challenged, jumping to his feet.

This time it was her turn to roll her eyes. "If you insist…"

She stood up slowly, tauntingly. He hated this. He had to. The fact that she could get under his skin like this changed the game and put her in control. It made the third of their matches the most interesting. All the anger and rage of the first two degenerated into a senseless, flirtatious, final, winner-take-all sparring round.

"Bring it, Pixie Boots," she taunted, careful to over enunciate his degrading nickname.

He gritted his teeth. "You're toast."

They ran towards each other. For each strike he attempted, she deflected and returned with a signature lightning punch of her own. Only the sound of their hits reverberated around the cave. She grabbed his hand and did another back handspring, flinging him to the mat. He flipped himself into a one-handed cartwheel and twisted to one side, throwing three ninja stars at her. She jumped into a horizontal airborne roll, barely dodging all three.

"Hey!" she yelled. "No fair."

"Isn't all fair in love and war?"

She charged at him, dodging more stars as he flung them at her. She threw forward her left hand with all her strength, but he easily blocked it and pushed it to one side. The moves became such a flurry that she could barely keep up, even with her special gift for speed. Finally, she found an opening, slapped both of her wrists together and flung open palms into his chest, sending him to land, sprawled on his back on the ground. She put her bare foot over his throat.

"Yield."

"Are you kidding? I was winning."

"Yeah, with a bunch of ninja stars and a few lucky shots, and you still lost."

"Fair enough," he retorted, feigning defeat. "Hand up?"

She offered him her hand. Before she knew it, he pulled her down on top of him and his lips met with hers.

She melted. She closed her eyes and gave into the temptation that had been bubbling in on her since he twirled around in Batman's chair. Through all the sparring, through all the taunting, through all the flirting, she had hoped it would come to this. She would never admit it to him though. The last thing she wanted was to have to beat a potential boyfriend at sparring on a regular basis. She laughed mentally, careful not to laugh in the middle of their kiss. That would just be… embarrassing.

She pulled away slowly.

"I thought you'd like that," he smirked.

"I- I-" she faltered, realizing she was looking into his eyes too deeply. "I don't know what you're talking about!"

"But I do know, that's what makes it so fun," he smiled at her.

She huffed in denial of defeat, looking away from him. "Whatever you say, lover boy."

She almost wished he would pull her back in for another, but he had the innate ability to keep Babs wanting more. True, they hadn't kissed since that mission way back months ago when they went into the subway against… Who did they fight again? The only thing that really took precedence from that night was the kiss. Wow. She had actually forgotten who they faced that night. She blamed it on his kissing; it wasn't her fault he was such an amazing kisser.

She walked to the towel where one of her spare costumes hung on the rack. The contented smile still played across her face even as she mopped the sweat off of it. Of course, it was one of those things she would never tell him. If he could play hard to get, so could she.

"So what does Bats have on the agenda for tonight?" she asked him from across the cave.

"We're putting you out on the street tonight," Batman's voice echoed across the cavernous headquarters.

She whirled around to see him swivel around in the chair in front of the computer. How did he get there without her noticing? Oh right, she was too busy making out with Dick. Oh no. What if he saw them kissing? What would he do? How embarrassing would that be?

"You're flying solo tonight. I've got an assignment for you," Batman continued.

"Yeah?" she inquired. She picked her suit up off of the wall. "What's on the bat-radar for tonight? Convenience store robbery? Bank hold-up? Cat in the tree?" These trivial errands were starting to get tiresome.

"Robbery," Batman replied. "Clue left at the scene. I thought this would be a good task for you to start off on."

"Goodie," she rolled her eyes. Of course it had to be another robbery. Yet another slow night, so let's give the easy assignment to the new girl. She clicked the utility belt around her freshly washed costume, swishing her short blue and yellow cape, hoping Dick would see so that she could still tease him.

"We're going to test out your detective skills on this one," he moved over and pulled a piece of bat-paper off of the bat-printer. Heh. Sometimes she cracked herself up.

How peculiar though. He'd never wanted to test her detective skills before. As she pulled the cowl over her head, he handed her a piece of paper on which was written the puzzle:

Many rocks have we
Long have we remained in our place
Those we guard do not move
And those who visit get naught but grim news

Her eyes widened. "The Riddler?" She muttered.

"The Riddler?!" exclaimed Dick dubiously from the other side of the cave. He moved over to read the clue.

She ignored him. "Where do I start?" she inquired, trying to hide her excitement.

"We don't know if it is the Riddler, but whoever it was hit the Toy Shipping Warehouse at the 42nd Street wharf earlier this evening. Determine whether of not it's a copycat, like the Cluemaster. Then, decipher the clue, track him down, and bring him in."

It took all of Babs' resolve to not jump into the air and shout for joy. "I'll do my best."

She jogged over to the nearest Bat-Cycle and jumped on, sliding on her helmet. The Riddler? She questioned herself as she revved the engine loudly, masking the scream of jubilation she released in her helmet. So it wasn't the Joker, but she was definitely moving up in the world. With a smile, she revved the engine once more and drove as fast as she could out of the cave, unable to keep the smile off her face as she emerged onto the road and rocketed towards her new career in the fight against crime.

Finally, a fight against "big time super villains."