Disclaimer: Nope. Not mine.
Pairings: Traught and a smidgin of DickBabs. Mostly Artemis X Dick's butt.
Note: I may write more parts to this, depending on people's reaction to the story.
A Nice View
Artemis peered down at the shorter boy and then looked up as he held a camera in front of their faces.
"We'll laugh about this someday."
The digital camera flashed, blinding the two teens and capturing the moment in a flare of searing light.
Dick kept a safe distance between his alter-ego and Artemis after snapping his picture. He knew Artemis was a jock, but she wasn't a moron.
If Dick Grayson started getting buddy-buddy with Artemis Crock, it wouldn't take long for her to connect his two identities. He would troll her constantly as Robin ("My school doesn't start for another week." "No kidding! Mine too."), and he wanted her to figure out who he was, but he didn't want to make it that easy.
Thus their non-hero relationship could be summarized as the following: she was the punk transfer from Gotham High; he was the mathlete at the top of his class. He was the skinny shrimp with the slicked back hair. She could have brought every heterosexual Gotham Academy male to his knees with her husky voice, even though she already had a boyfriend. They ran with different friend groups, had different interests, and lived separate lives.
The closest thing they had in common was they attended the same school, and Dick intended to keep it that way. If Artemis knew anything about Dick Grayson, besides the fact he existed, Robin wouldn't have been doing his job. He made himself pointedly unmemorable and blended with the underclassmen crowd, even when every cell in his body screamed for him to put on the performance of his life, to make her notice him as she passed by without a sideways glance.
However, when he finally hit his growth spurt and started looking more like his father, a few things changed. Girls began to really look at him instead of just giggling at the witty things he said. Babs' jealousy raged 24/7, and she never left his side, even using her "daughter of the commissioner" status to change her class schedule to mirror his.
Not that he was complaining. Her interference kept the sea of other girls out of his personal space. One glare from Babs could scare away anyone with less backbone than Batman. It also didn't hurt that time had been good to her as well. Dick wasn't about to say no to having a pretty girl on his arm.
Even though they never defined it as such, for all functional and technical purposes, Gordon acted as his bodyguard/girlfriend.
All of these things he had at least somewhat expected. It was Artemis' response that caught him completely off guard.
He was playing three-on-three with some of the guys at the outdoor court when he noticed a few upperclassmen passing by. Gotham Academy uniforms differed slightly depending on the grade of the student. Dress-code restrictions were more relaxed for seniors, and twelfth grade girls were known for their shorter skirts.
Wiping sweat off his upper lip, he peered out the corner of his eye to give them a second look.
Bette, Artemis, and a couple other girls were chatting amongst themselves, some chancing a interested glace at him. He couldn't help but grin at the sight of Artemis' growing social circle. While still keeping his distance, Dick had checked up on her every once in a while to see if Artemis had found her niche and was making friends. He had put in a good word for her here and there, but for the most part, Artemis was able to make her own new life without assistance. As her teammate, it made him happy to see her happy.
"Grayson!"
Bette's blonde head jerked up at the sound of his surname, and the girl group came to a halt. He spun around just in time to catch a basketball aimed for the back of his head.
"Checking out the upperclassmen?" his friend called.
He laughed good-naturedly, dribbling from one hand to another.
"Naw, Gordon would kill me if I did that."
"You guys should get together already," another guy said, and the rest of them laughed at Dick's expense.
Shrugging off their usual jeers, he went back to the center, calculating what move he should make next. He wondered if Artemis and co. were still watching, and when he saw her standing on the other side of the fence, the performer's blood churned in his veins. A smile popped onto his face, and he decided since she had hung around, he might as well give her a show.
After a few passes back and forth, he "accidentally" let the other team get the ball. The players tore down the court, and with as little "Robin" to his movements as he could manage, he single-handedly turned the game around.
First, he blocked their best shooter from getting a basket and passed to a teammate, who dribbled halfway up the court and threw the ball back to Dick. He dribbled up to the midcourt line and stopped as a defender blocked his way.
Leaving himself just a second to aim, he jumped. Hands poised for the throw, he relished in the ball's smooth release as it slipped from his fingertips. The ball made a beautiful "swoosh" as it dived through the net, and Dick's feet returned to earth.
The players froze in awe, and then the court exploded with yells and whoops. A three-pointer from 47 feet away. Batman's "special training" had paid off.
Dick's face glowed with adrenaline, mouth panting, eyes wide open, looking boyishly handsome in his excitement. If this didn't catch Artemis' attention, he didn't know what would.
His teammates gave him mixed reactions, "Showing off, Grayson?" "Come on man, that wasn't cool. Be a team player," some congratulatory fists to the shoulder, and a few claps to the back. But Dick wasn't worried about them. With the eagle vision of the Greatest Detective's protégé, he snuck a spit-second glace behind him.
The upperclassmen girls were still there, predictably enough. Most of the group was busy giggling and pointing at him with sparkling eyes and hands over their laughing mouths. Since Bette was a childhood friend of his, she only rolled her eyes and reluctantly acknowledged, yes, Dick Grayson makes even sweat look good, with a sideways angle to her head. All reactions Dick could have predicted.
At the last second, he focused in on Crock.
Artemis wasn't a giggler, so he wasn't surprised she hadn't joined her friends in ogling him. However, he'd never seen that particular expression on her face before. One eyebrow raised, arms crossed, weight shifted to one hip, and mouth tilted into a sideways smirk. She almost looked…impressed, a rare if not impossible emotion for a Crock.
Her eyes were focused in the same direction as her friends but at a slightly different angle.
Dick quickly turned away before she noticed him staring.
What exactly was she looking at, he wondered as he waited for the opposing team to make their move. Then it clicked. A slow grin made its way across his face as a friend intercepted a pass and tossed him the ball.
Artemis Crock had been checking him out! Okay, maybe she hadn't been checking all of him out. Just his butt. He mentally chortled in glee and resisted the urge to show off his...assets for her again.
He could practically hear the noise of her thoughts, "Mmm, that boy," over M'gann's telepathic connection in his mind.
The idea filled him with an inexplicable mixture of pleasure, pride, and amusement. He couldn't wipe the manic grin off his face for the remainder of the game. His smile stayed firmly in place long after Artemis and her friends had left.
When he started chuckling to himself aloud, a friend stopped and said, "Dude. You're creeping me out."
"Yeah, what's so funny?"
He blinked, no longer smiling.
Well, he couldn't really answer, "You know Artemis Crock? Senior, hottest girl in school? I'm supposed to barely know her but we're actually afriends. She was checking me out even though she has a boyfriend. It's hilarious, because she thinks I'm hot but she doesn't know Dick Grayson is Robin. If she did know, she probably wouldn't have been staring at my ass."
So he said, "Oh, I just thought up a joke. What is non-orientable and lives in the ocean?
No one tried to guess.
"Möbius Dick!"
They just stared at him. One mumbled, "Math dweeb," another said, "That wasn't funny..."
Gordon appeared on the scene just in time. With a pointed look towards Dick, the redhead leaned against the wire entrance to the court with her arms crossed under her chest. Babs was not to be kept waiting.
"Gordon's here. Gotta go."
This elicited hoots, hollers, and a few wolf whistles from his mates as Dick jogged to catch up to Babs.
"Gross." Gordon pinched her nose delicately, looking her friend up and down. "You reek."
Dark, moist patches of sweat patterned his gray GA basketball t-shirt, and his hair had fallen out of its signature slicked-back shape. In this state, he looked less like Dick Grayson, the math nerd wonder, and more like Robin after a weight-lifting session in the training room.
"Want a hug?" He reached for her.
"No!" she snapped, moving back, and he began to laugh.
"What's got you so chipper today?" she asked suspiciously, noticing the light in his eyes and the bounce to his step.
He just smiled and said nothing, tucking the day back into a special corner of his mind where he stored the memories he couldn't share with anyone.
A place where he kept a picture of two teens touching shoulders, the girl slightly cross-eyed and the freshman grinning like he had just won a Nobel Prize.