Title: Let Me Know If It's Alright
Rating: T
Word Count: 4,100+
Characters: Artemis/Dick friendship, unless you choose to see it romantically; and Bruce and Alfred
Summary: (Post 1x23, "Insecurity") "Since when was there a Batgirl?" she asks, because out of the dozen of questions she has in her head, that one just sort of bubbled to the surface.
Prompt: #65: comfort
Other Inspirations: a commission of Robin and Artemis by yssab on deviantart. You can PM me for the link.
Note: I don't know how possible this would really be on the show, but I just sort of went with wherever it took me.
Let Me Know If It's Alright (That I Stayed)
There's a brief moment (or, she hopes it was brief) where she honestly considers that her father might be true.
She's that desperate.
He leaves shortly after their little chat and she lies down with her back flat against the bed and her legs dangling off of the side. She closes her eyes and can hear the television in the living room. Her mom doesn't even like TV much, but she's most likely using it as a distraction to keep herself from checking up on her daughter because probably assumes Artemis is going straight to bed.
She's not, of course, but she'd rather her mom think she's cried herself to sleep or something than know that she's going to venture out into Gotham alone at night.
She just really needs the fresh air.
... ...
She honestly doesn't care what other people think of Gotham. Horrible reputation or not, it's still a cityscape that looks pretty when it's lit up against the cloudless black sky underneath the stars. It's an admittedly acquired taste, but she's just always loved the view of Gotham from the rooftops at night.
She's not sure how long she's been out here.
Her skin is numb even though she's not cold and she's sort of just aimlessly been jumping from building to building. As badly as she wants to kick butt, she's still in costume and it'll be suspicious for Green Arrow's sidekick to be alone in Gotham rather than with her mentor in Star City. For a brief second, she considers running to Ollie for some form of comfort. She can trust him not to judge her.
But frankly, she doesn't trust herself not to burst into tears if she goes.
"If you're going to run around my city, the least you can do is say hi," a voice muses from behind her, making her, almost literally, jump out of her skin as she whips around to face…
Robin.
She presses a hand over where her heart is trying to pound its way out of her chest. "Don't do that!"
He laughs. "You scare easily, huh? Definitely going to remember that." She rolls her eyes as he steps out of the shadows, standing in front of her. "So, is your cousin in another spelling bee, or what?"
She blinks and sort of just stares at him for a second until she remembers that this isn't the first time she's run into Robin in Gotham. Fighting off the blush she feels growing as she recalls that horrible cover-up story, she kind of blurts out, "No! We had, um, a family thing. A dinner. And it got kind of boring, so I thought I'd stretch my legs."
Robin nods, and she thinks maybe, just maybe, he'd bought her story, until he suddenly bursts out into laughter and her cheeks get even warmer.
"Okay, we really need to work on your lying," he gets out.
She frowns. "But I—"
"Artemis, it shouldn't surprise you by now that I know you really live in Gotham."
She feels a chill threatening to run down her spine, her mind ready to jump to conclusions that he could know more—a lot more—than she's aware of. But he's giving her this smile that tells her she doesn't need to worry, so she pulls her nerves back together and takes a breath.
"Of course," she mumbles, and his smile gets a bit wider. "How long have you been watching me?"
He shrugs. "A few minutes, I guess. Though, I did drop by the Batmobile to pick up this," he adds, tossing something at her that she instinctively catches with the hand that isn't holding her bow.
It's a bag.
"What's in this?" she asks, holding the bag by the strap.
"Take a look," he tells her. He holds out his hand, and she looks at him skeptically before handing over her bow.
She unzips the main pocket and reaches in, and the first thing she touches feels like fabric. She grasps the article of clothing and pulls it out, and the first thing her eyes see is the yellow Bat-symbol against the black material. Her eyebrows shoot up her forehead and looks at Robin, who's just standing there looking highly amused.
There's a cape in the bag, too, that's black on one side and yellow on the other and matches the yellow utility belt and yellow gloves and boots, and she's kind of confused right now.
"Since when was there a Batgirl?" she asks, because out of the dozen of questions she has in her head, that one just sort of bubbled to the surface.
Robin's laughing again, collapsing her bow for her. "There isn't one," he says, and she wonders if the word yet is on the tip of his tongue. "But it's one of Batman's just-in-case things and when I told him you were out, he said you can test it out for him."
"He did?"
"He just told me to tell you that he understands."
She doesn't know where the tears come from, but she must still be stupidly emotional from the mission or her dad's visit, because her eyes water kind of instantly.
(And she always figured Batman was a total sweetheart underneath that cowl.)
"So, the sooner you suit up, the sooner we can start kicking butt."
She laughs without knowing why and doesn't really mind it when Robin sees her wipe at the corner of her eye.
... ...
They're on a really high roof that she doubts anyone around them would be looking at, so she just changes there with the brick skylight between them. Whatever, it saves them a lot of time and she's comfortable enough with her body to do so. You can't fight crime and not be fit. Every single person on the League or on the Team is like, the perfect example.
The suit fits her measurements exactly, and she wonders if it should weird her out a little bit.
Right now, though, she's mostly just grateful. She wouldn't put it past Bats to have assumed she'd need it someday and honestly? She's kind of flattered he went through the trouble.
She throws her Artemis costume into the bag and once she tells him she's done, Robin walks over and puts her quiver and her bow inside as she's slipping on the utility belt. She puts the cape on last, and feels kind of ridiculous wearing it.
"Capes are so not my thing," she mumbles, fumbling with the material before Robin swats her hands away and expertly fastens it to her costume.
"Well, you can't be a Bat without one, so." She rolls her eyes and then kind of gasps a little as she feels her hair-tie being yanked from her ponytail. "You look too much like Artemis."
She'd argue that she is Artemis if she didn't know what he meant. But still, he couldn't have warned her or something?
"Don't forget this," he adds, and she kind of instinctively closes her eyes when he sees her reach for her face. She feels something being slipped over her eyes and when she opens them, she finds herself looking through the whites of a cowl she assumes is identical to Robin's.
He reaches up again and slips a radio piece into her ear and then steps back to look over her, and its Batman's voice she hears asking her, "How does it feel?"
(She feels stupidly excited, but obviously she's not going to tell him that.)
"Different," she says. "But if you were talking about how it fits, then the answer is perfectly."
Robin chuckles and Batman says, "Good, because we have work to do."
... ...
If the whole thing with the Team doesn't work out, she'd honestly just permanently becoming Batgirl.
It's fun.
She's always loved using her grappling hook, loved the wind in her hair, but she's never really used it the way Robin and Batman do. They soar through the air and glide along the wind, only needing the chord to throw them back into the current and propel their bodies higher into the sky. Even the sound of her cape behind her whipping out against the wind managed to make it all the more thrilling.
She doesn't even know how that's possible, but whatever. It's just something she can definitely get used to hearing.
The gadgets, of course, are her favorite part.
She's got a nearly perfect, nine-out-of-ten accuracy with almost any projectile you can put in her hand, so it doesn't take long to get used to throwing Batarangs. They're not much different from her trick-arrows, anyway, once you know which gadget does what and which pocket they're in.
(Yeah, she wouldn't really mind at all becoming a real Batgirl. She may have to talk to Batman about it someday.)
And she'll never get over the looks on people's faces when they see her.
They're mostly just your common thugs that try to jump a girl or rob a convenience store or something—the lowest of the Gotham criminal food chain, if you really think about it—and she'll use a few Batarangs to pin them to a wall or knock the gun out of their hands after Robin distracts them. Then Batman will come in and maybe say something witty before knocking them out.
They make an awesome team.
Anyway, the police are quick to arrive at the bank robbery she and Robin stop and she watches a guy wearing glasses and a trench coat walk right up to them.
"Commissioner Gordon," Robin greets with a tone of familiarity that makes her raise an eyebrow. If you're the hero of a city where crime is as common as a faulty weather prediction then she supposes it makes sense you'd be casual pals with the police department.
"Just a normal night in Gotham, I see," the man replies, and before Robin can respond, he looks over the boy's shoulder at Artemis and adds, "Or perhaps not."
Robin looks amused. "That's why you came down to this crime scene yourself, huh?"
"When five of my men tell me there's a Batgirl running around the city, I think it makes it worth checking out," Gordon tells them, still looking at Artemis. "At least, that's the name they've given you."
"Has a nice ring to it," Artemis muses. Robin laughs quietly, but Commissioner Gordon is mostly unreadable in expression.
She looks at Robin, who clears his throat and breaks the silence with, "Catch you later. I'll tell Bats you said hi," before disappearing into the shadows, taking Artemis with him.
"What's his deal?" Artemis asks once they're walking down an empty street.
"He's not exactly a fan of sidekicks," Robin explains. "He thinks crime-fighting isn't something minors shouldn't be roped into, and he wasn't exactly thrilled with Bats when I first joined." He chuckles to himself as he seems to recall a memory, before adding, "Plus, he has a daughter that's around our age. Seeing you probably hit closer to home without him realizing it. I'm sure he didn't mean it."
Artemis nods and can't help but think of her own father.
Commissioner Gordon would rather keep all kids, especially his own, away from the dangers of crime-fighting while her dad trapped her sister into the Shadows and is trying to recruit Artemis with them.
Life's ironic that way, she supposes.
"Artemis?"
She looks at the boy beside her. "Huh?"
"I asked you if you knew how to drive a motorcycle," he says.
"Yeah," she says slowly, confused, before blinking and asking, "Why do you ask?"
"Because our rides are here," he says, and she hadn't even noticed the faint sound of engines getting closer and closer until lights are cutting through the shadows of the block they're on and these two motorcycles are driving themselves down the street, skidding to a stop right beside herself and Robin.
In her ear, Batman's voice is telling them to rendezvous with the Batmobile just a few miles away from their position, and she can't help the "sweet" that slips from her mouth.
... ...
Robin slips a blindfold over her eyes and has her helmet back on before she can protest, and when she does, he laughs as he says, "Well, it's not like we can show you where the Batcave is yet!" She gets kind of quiet after that because it takes a second to sink in that they're actually taking her to the Batcave.
This shouldn't feel as monumental as it does.
She has to ride on the back of Robin's motorcycle with her arms around his waist, though, and judging by the way he cackles the entire ride over, she thinks he's enjoying it a little too much.
She's not sure how long they're driving before the bike slows to a stop, but she can tell they're inside somewhere because there isn't any wind. She hears the second motorcycle drive itself to a stop somewhere beside them, and lets Robin guide her off of the bike by her elbow until she's on her feet. "She can take off the blindfold now," Batman says, sounding like he's walking away.
He pulls off her helmet and undoes the knot of her blindfold, pulling it from her face along with her cowl.
Damn, this place is huge.
Honestly, it looks like something out of those sci-fi movies Wally always watches when he hogs the TV in the Cave's living room. There are ramps and pathways connected the various levels, and the entire thing is suspended in the middle of this hallowed out mountain, or at least that's where she thinks this is.
(She's willing to bet that Batman got the idea of the Cave in Mount Justice from this place.)
"Come on," Robin says, snapping her from her thoughts, and she jogs a little until she's in step with him as they follow Batman towards steps that lead to a large computer spread.
She glances down at the water below them, listens to the muted rush of the waterfall across the cave as her eyes try to take everything in. She thinks the giant Joker card is supposed to be funny, or at least ironic, but she makes a mental note to ask about the giant penny and dinosaur later.
"My hair feels like a disaster," she mumbles, tugging her fingers through the knots as Robin sets their things aside. "Now I remember why I always tie it back."
"It looks fine to me," Robin tells her, but tosses her a brush and her green hair-tie, anyway.
She gives him a look. "You keep a brush in the Batcave?"
"Hey, my hair doesn't just happen!" he argues, and for a split second, she thinks he's being serious. Then he's cackling again and she shoves his shoulder as she laughs.
What? She's always figured Robin's a total girl when it comes to his hair.
Once she's got the knots out and has it pulled back into her ponytail, Robin hands her a can of Coca-Cola and she didn't even realize how thirsty she was until she practically downs half of it in one breath.
Then Robin finally pulls off his own cowl and as she's met with a pair of bright blue eyes, she kind of chokes on the last few drops of soda that she didn't entirely swallow yet because, holy crap, she knows those eyes. Those eyes go to her school.
"You're…" is all she gets out because she's too busy staring.
Robin—sorry, Richard Grayson—looks entirely amused, more so than he's been all night, and that's saying something. He leans with his elbows against the railing, giving her a slight smirk as he cracks open his Coke and says, "Try not to choke. I don't want to tell Paula you died from drinking soda," and she blinks and kind of just stares at him for a few more seconds.
Then she has her hand on her hip and is smiling, genuinely smiling, and he returns the look before tipping his head back and gulping down some soda.
Well then.
She glances at Batman—which, she guesses must be Richard Grayson's adoptive father, Bruce Wayne; that would explain how he gets the money for all these toys—and wonders…
Well, wonders how much of tonight Batman had planned out in his head all along. She doesn't doubt that he predicted everything to a tee.
He is Batman.
Then it hits her, truly hits her, that Batman trusts her with their identity. Her mind races, thinking back to her reaction to learning that her mom had practically begged Green Arrow and Bats to take her in, and thinks that she probably wouldn't have thought of it as such a big deal if she had a clue of what Batman thought of her.
She smiles too widely for her liking, and tries to hide it by bringing her soda can back to her lips.
A white-haired man is walking up to them and somehow it doesn't surprise her that she recognizes him as the man that drives Robin to and from school each day.
"Soda after patrol again, Master Richard?" he asks in a monotonous drawl, though the reprimanding in his words is clear enough to make Artemis stifle a laugh.
"The fridge is full of them, Alfred," Robin laughs.
"Not by my doing."
Robin shrugs as if it's all the same to him and downs the remainder of his drink, crushing the can by the lids. "Chicken soup?"
"Tomato basil in a bread bowl, actually," Alfred corrects, holding his hand out for the can. "I thought I'd try something different since we have a guest tonight. Now, if you follow me, Miss Crock, I shall show you to the bathroom where you may change and freshen up before dinner."
... ...
By freshen up, she didn't think Alfred had meant taking a shower, but there are towels folded neatly on the sink counter with small, hotel-sized bottles of shampoo and conditioner and an unopened box of Dove soap resting on top.
"Do not worry, Miss Crock. Master Bruce and Master Richard always shower before dinner," Alfred informs.
She hears it as, "They're not allowed to eat until they clean up anyway, and neither are you."
So, she takes a quick shower and changes into the sweats and white tee Alfred left for her, pulling her wet hair into a braid before walking out. She sort of just stands there for a second, marveling at how it's actually kind of warm despite how large and vacant the mansion is, when the butler seems to appear out of nowhere and leads her to the kitchen.
Robin's sitting on a barstool at the kitchen island in a T-shirt and flannel pajama pants, with Bruce on his one side and an empty stool on his other.
There are plates holding bread bowls filled with soup in front of the three stools, and her stomach growls embarrassingly loudly as she sits herself on Robin's other side, making her blush a little.
They eat in silence for a few minutes, which she figures is alright because they're all sort of stuffing their faces. She knows how hungry she gets after a mission, so it's basically the same.
But then Robin takes a large sip of his iced water and says, seemingly out of the blue, "I heard about the mission today."
She nearly chokes on her bread.
He rubs her back as she swallows it down with her own water, and her voice is hoarse as she asks, "You did?"
"Kaldur has to report everything to me," Batman reminds.
She sighs. Of course.
And she doesn't really know what to say right now because she knows it's her fault, but she manages a faint, "Sorry for screwing everything up," because she figures that about sums everything up.
"You don't have to apologize to me," Batman says, and she looks at him. His voice sounds different, and she realizes it's because it's not really Batman, head of the Justice League, she's hearing—it's Bruce Wayne, playboy billionaire philanthropist and adoptive father of Richard Grayson, that's talking to her. "You should apologize to yourself, because that's who undermined your potential tonight."
Her grip tightens around her glass. "Right. It's all selfish, insecure Artemis's fault."
"The Artemis that went out on patrol with us tonight wouldn't have gotten in her own way," Robin agrees, and she meets his eyes. "Were you that freaked out by Roy?"
"Well, since he's obviously everyone's first pick as archer and he's hell-bent on exposing my identity to everyone," she mutters, "then yes, I was that freaked out that he joined the Team."
"He's been our friend for years," Robin informs, "but that doesn't make him our first pick as archer."
She closes her eyes. "Yeah, I realize that now."
A moment passes before Robin speaks again. "Wally will get over it, and no one else is mad at you. And Roy… he's probably just grumpy and you're his easiest target."
"I feel honored," she mumbles.
She closes her eyes again, running her fingers over her temples, and feels Robin put a hand on her shoulder and squeeze slightly.
But Batman's the one that speaks next, saying, "The bonds between the Team are more than strong enough to overcome this. You all have come a long way since you felt betrayed by Kaldur, and you all care deeply for one another. Whether or not you choose to believe it, that care also applies to you, Artemis."
She exhales loudly, letting her mind wander.
She thinks back to her first mission with the Team, remembers how divided and new they were to each other. Then she recalls the terror of Red Inferno and Red Torpedo's attack on the Cave, the breaths she held as she realized that her friends—her new family; people she didn't realize she'd come to love so strongly until that moment—were in danger.
They went through hell and back together after their telepathic training simulation had taken a turn for the worst, and she knows they've come a long way since that mission with Dr. Roquette.
Her eyes open when Robin squeezes her shoulder again, and she thinks that they must be thinking similar things because he gives her the same sort of smile he gave her when she realized he hadn't drowned to death.
"It'll work out in the end," he tells her, and she thinks that no matter how doubtful she is, a small part of her knows that he's right.
... ...
She doesn't exactly remember falling asleep.
She does remember playing a few rounds of pool after dinner, and then sitting in front of the fireplace on the carpeted floor, and then she finds herself waking up in her own bed with the sun poking through the space between the curtains and the aroma of bacon and hash browns wafting from the kitchen where her mom's cooking.
So.
She groans a little, which turns into a yawn as she sits up and stretches, and her mother must hear her (the woman's got crazy-sensitive ears) because she yells, "Artemis? Are you awake?"
Resisting the urge to shout back "well, obviously," she calls out, "Yeah, Mom!" as she throws her legs over the side of the bed.
But her foot steps over something that's definitely not hardwood, and she looks down to see a strap coming out from under the bed. She pulls at it and brings a bag—the same bag from last night—up and onto her lap. Her costume, and bow and quiver, are all sitting on Jade's bed, so there's really only one thing that crosses her mind that could be in this bag.
She unzips the pocket and sees the yellow Bat-symbol stitched into the black material of the costume.
But what catches her attention is the photo on top of the costume. It must be the one that Robin took on her first day of school, because her eyes are wide and expression off-guard while his is bright and smiling with a twinkle in his bright blue eyes.
She flips over the photo and finds Robin's scrawl on the back:
Rule #1: Never leave home without your utility belt.
In your case, it's your quiver, but still.
-R
P.S. Don't lose this bag.
-B
Smiling, she flips the photo back to the front as she reaches in and finds the yellow belt, laying it across her lap.
It's comforting to know that last night wasn't her last time as Batgirl.