Disclaimer: I don't own the characters of DC Comics or Young Justice. They're amazing.
Second fanfic as a break from my other bigger fanfic. Ended up being much longer than I had planned. But I hope you enjoy! Minor OC. Loosely inspired by the episode involving Haly's circus. Enjoy!
Kissing Booth
IMPORTANT: italics are mostly telepathic conversations through miss martian's psychic ability
The Young Justice Gang was stuck at the spring carnival for an undercover mission. What Luthor was doing at a random carnival, Robin had no idea. Batman had just simply sent the gang out to disguise themselves as various carnival attractions for the past 3 days to keep an eye out for Luthor.
Batman had assigned everyone. Artemis and Zatanna worked at 2 adjacent game booths, Superboy and Miss Martian operated 2 rides across each other, Kaldur and Kid Flash were mechanics throughout the park, and the Boy Wonder was stuck working the kissing booth.
The kissing booth was nearest to the entrance which helped keep an eye out for possible suspicious activity entering the park. Robin was beyond grateful that none of his teammates could see him. The bad thing was, most young girls had all their tickets in the beginning and had no trouble using a few at the kissing booth.
Robin hated being stuck as the kissing booth guy. Ever since puberty hit him the summer before Junior year started a few months ago, girls had been all over him. His new height and muscular build did not help him much in the carnival either. The only girl he really wanted to be all over him was Babs but she seemed to show no interest in him.
The kissing booth came with a little mini bathroom in which Robin used mouthwash about 10 times a day. Sure, some girls that came up to the booth he thought were really beautiful. But he couldn't help himself. None of them came close to Barbara.
Robin used Miss Martian's psychic connection.
"Coast is clear guys. Let the day begin"
Barbara had gotten into the car with Bette and Kayla in the front two seats.
"What took you so long, Barb!? Talking to your boyfriend, Dick, again?" Bette teased.
"No just trying to hide him from my parents" Barbara said sarcastically with a wink. The girls laughed.
"Oh man this Is gonna be the best carnival-day ever!" Kayla proclaimed as they started driving off.
Barbara thought about Bette's comment about Dick. He wasn't her boyfriend no matter how much she wished it were true. Barbara never realized how much Dick was growing until she saw him on the first day of 11th grade. Boy, that boy really grew.
She wanted him. She wanted him so much but their friendship meant too much to her, as cliché as that sounded. She felt that she had no other choice other than to keep things in the friend-zone no matter how close they've come to crossing the border of that zone.
Of course, the other junior and senior girls who had taken notice of Dick's amazing transformation hadn't made things any easier. In fact, both Bette and Kayla had taken a liking to him early during the schoolyear. Kayla had let go of her crush when she met Charlie Cox at homecoming. Bette had a crush on him from the beginning of August to New Years Day when she realized how uncomfortable Barbara had gotten at talk of kissing Dick on that beloved holiday. It wasn't until recently that Bette finally knew about Barbara's feelings for Dick and backed away, knowing well about the history the two shared. Now instead of flirting with Dick because she liked him, she flirted with Dick to speed up the process of Barbara finally telling him her feelings for him.
The girls finally arrived at the carnival and bought their tickets. On their way in, they go to look at a map. They ran into some senior girls they knew from school, Haley and Katie.
"Oh! Haley! Katie! Didn't expect to see you guys here!" Bette said happily.
"Of course! We heard from Angela that a certain dark-haired blue-eyed beautiful boy was at the kissing booth and we just HAD to come" Katie said.
"Huh…you don't say" Kayla replied.
Barbara narrowed her eyes. Dick was dark-haired, blue-eyed, and above all beautiful.
"Do you know who the hottie is?" Bette asked eagerly.
"The kissing booth's just over there" Katie said pointing behind them.
Bette, Barbara, and Kayla looked over but their view of the boy in the booth was obscured by the big line of girls in the way.
"Katie, Haley, are you sure this boy is really worth the wait?" Bette asked.
"Oh trust me" Haley said looking at Katie and smiling. "He is. Mmm. That boy" Katie moaned. Everyone laughed.
They continued talking for a bit. Bette, Kayla, and Barbara were all secretly wishing the line would disintegrate during their chat so they could catch a glimpse of the mystery-boy with no such luck. Eventually, Katie and Haley left to walk around the rest of the park.
"So…you guys wanna check out the kissing booth dude or just maybe come back later on tonight?" Kayla asked.
"I'd kinda rather just come back later…maybe" Barbara said, thinking that the boy couldn't possibly be Dick and that if she was going to kiss anyone, it would absolutely have to be Dick.
"Works for me. I'm starving anyway!" Kayla exclaimed.
"Any sign of Luthor anyone?" Robin asked telepathically.
"nope"
"no"
"not yet"
"no"
"clear over here"
"I wish"
Dick lay back in his chair in the booth. He had closed the window to the waiting crowd a few minutes ago in order to take his lunch break and cleanse his mouth. If he got mono, he swore he would battle Batman to the death.
Dick started eating his lunch – a sandwich, a boiled egg, and some potato chips. He finished up brushing his teeth for the fifth time that day, fixed his red tie, adjusted the straps on his suspenders (all a part of the required kissing booth uniform) and opened up the kissing booth.
Wish me luck, guys
He could imagine Artemis shooting an arrow close to a laughing Kid Flash.
Bette and Kayla cheered Barbara on as she tried to knock down all three pins. Lucky for them, their friend Artemis was running the game and didn't charge them as much as everyone else.
"You've got a good arm and eye, Barb" Artemis commented.
"Thanks! I guess gymnastics has helped me with that" Barbara responded back.
At that moment, Artemis received a text message. She checked her phone
"food. I need sustenance. And mouthwash" her phone read. Artemis laughed a bit at the message.
The message had been from Dick. She had been his somewhat assistant in his booth. As funny as things were at first, she felt bad for the kid. Every day since they started working at the carnival, Artemis had brought him food and various necessities during her breaks and at the end of the day. The carnival was about to close and she knew Dick would be desperately waiting.
"What are you smiling about, Artemis? That your boyfriend?" Bette teased.
Barbara rolled her eyes at Bette's obsession with people's relationships.
"Nah it's just Dick" Artemis replied.
Barbara's head snapped to face Artemis.
"Oooohh what'd he send you?" Kayla asked eagerly.
"Oh he's just complaining about working at the kissing booth. You guys didn't see him?" Artemis said casually.
Barbara's eyes grew wide.
What was Dick doing working at a kissing booth? She never saw him as a guy who would do stuff to get a little action, but then again he WAS a sixteen year old boy.
At this point Bette and Kayla were asking Artemis a bunch of questions about Dick's reasons for working at the booth.
"Why is he working at a booth?" Kayla and Bette asked in wonderment.
"For the same reason I'm working this stupid game stand. We lost a bet" Artemis said casually, handing 3 balls to a little girl waiting her turn to play.
"What bet!?" Bette asked eagerly.
"You guys see Zatanna in the next booth over?" Artemis said with an amused smirk.
"Oh yeah! I thought it was Zatanna! The girl that transferred to Gotham Academy last year right?" Kayla said in realization.
"Yea. Rob-…Dick and I made a bet with Zatanna. Her dad's having her work here for some extra money but she didn't really wanna work here alone. We lost a bet with her and now we're here suffering with her. But hey, at least I'm making some extra money" Artemis said, worried that her little slip-of-the-tongue on Robin's hero-name would raise suspicion. The story seemed legitimate and she hoped it'd work.
"I never knew you and Zatanna were close friends" Kayla said.
"I can't believe I never knew about this bet!" said Bette. "I would've totally helped you guys! Well…whatever it was you guys lost to…I'm pretty sure I could've helped" she said smiling
Artemis smiled. They had believed the story. She saw Barbara out of the corner of her eye, standing off to the side looking like she was deep in thought.
Cutting off another one of Bette's invading questions, Artemis asked:
"Are you okay, Barb? You haven't really said much in the last few minutes"
"Oh no I'm fine. Just haven't had much to say" Barbara said.
Artemis knew of Barbara's crush on Dick. She realized it whenever she got a nasty little look from Barbara every time Dick was around her. But she fixed things up. She just wished Barbara would hurry up and admit her feelings.
"Okay. Well in case you just so happened to be wondering, my shift ends in about 5 minutes. Dick's might be over unless there are some unhappy customers." She said smiling. "You should go see him. I'm sure he'd be glad to see you" Artemis said with a wink.
Barbara blushed, worried of what Artemis possibly knew.
"Yeah I guess I'll go head off and see him." She said hoping to get away from the awkwardness she felt with Artemis at that moment. "You guys gonna come?" she asked Bette and Kayla.
"we'll catch up with you, Barb." Bette replied. Bette then turned to Artemis.
"I'd actually like to ask you a few questions about a certain redheaded janitor at this park I've seen you staring at for a bit" she said smiling mischievously.
Kayla realized what was going on and started to stare at Artemis hoping for answers.
Just before Barbara started walking back to the kissing booth, she saw Artemis looking worried and saying
"What red head!?"
Barbara smiled. She felt a little closer to Artemis.
Dick had gargled at least 3 cups of water now because he had run out of mouthwash. He texted Artemis again, asking for food and mouthwash. These girls just wouldn't give him a break! The second he opened up the booth at lunch, there were at least 30 girls already waiting in line.
After what seemed like the 1000th girl that day, people started to leave and the line started to dwindle to about 10 people. Then 5 people. Then 2 people. Finally, there seemed to be no one else. People were either leaving, ran out of tickets, or had already kissed him. He half-heartedly kissed more than half the girls, only going in for a quick peck. Girls that looked under 14, he kissed on the cheek which greatly upset a lot of them. Thankfully he had a sign that protected him from actually kissing 13 and below girls on the lips. It would've just felt wrong and disturbing.
The coast was clear. Robin put up the closed sign as fast as he could without looking too eager (but he definitely looked very eager to anyone watching).
Unashamed, Robin went to gargle in the mini-bathroom of the booth. He brushed his teeth with what was left of his mini toothpaste tube but it was running low. Where was Artemis with that mouthwash and food? She always found a way to get some more food and mouthwash for him.
He gargled and spit into the sick one last time and heard a knock at the booth's window. He grunted and tried to suppress his need to yell at whoever it was.
"Can't you see the sign says closed!?" he said a little rougher than he meant to.
He looked at the girl at the window. He couldn't believe his eyes. It was the one girl he had been so desperate to kiss for the last year. The girl who made him feel amazing. The girl that he really really hoped wouldn't know about his job at the carnival.
He saw Barbara.
Barbara didn't know what she was doing. She saw the closed sign and she saw no line which made her happy. Still, thinking about that huge line she saw at the beginning of the day and now knowing that the "hottie" Haley and Katie were referring to was Dick, she felt so upset and distraught. She didn't know what to think.
What would she say? What was she doing? The sign says closed, he wouldn't possibly give her a kiss. This could've been her only chance to get a kiss without possibly ruining their friendship. She started walking more and more slowly towards the counter.
"Oh screw this" she said. She darted as fast as she could to the counter. She saw Dick's back in what she guessed was the bathroom. She heard him gargle and spit out, smiling at the fact that maybe he didn't enjoy this as much as she thought. Glad that he was still there.
She got out 5 tickets like the sign said. She knocked.
She heard Dick grunt. He turned around.
"Can't you see the sign says closed!?" he said roughly.
Her heart sank a little and she quickly hid the tickets in her fist. Dick's eyes opened in realization.
"Ohmygosh Babs! What are you doing here!?" he said, running his hand through his hair.
She always found it super sexy whenever he did that. She noticed his attire. It was like Artemis's except he had a tie, while Artemis had a bowtie and he had suspender straps while Artemis didn't. It was short sleeve and she blushed at how well-defined his muscles were.
"Babs? Oh geez I'm sorry I didn't mean to yell. I didn't know it was you" he said coming towards her only to be stopped by the counter between them.
"No I'm fine! You didn't know" Barbara said smiling.
Dick blushed at his outburst at Barbara but smiled.
"Wait what are you doing here?" he asked.
"Oh! Well I um… I just thought I'd see you… because you know –" she started.
"haha I mean…I didn't know you'd be here at the carnival" he said.
"Oh!" she said, suddenly embarrassed. "Oh I came with Bette and Kayla." She cleared her throat.
"I see." Dick said, still smiling. "So…why are you here…" he said pointing at the kissing booth sign "…and not with Bette or Kayla?" he asked
"Oh! Well like I said, I just thought we could…you know…talk or something" Barbara said, not really sure what to say.
"Well if I didn't know any better, I'd say you came to get a kiss from the famous 'hottie-at-the-kissing-booth'" he said giving a nice toothy smile.
Barbara blushed. She didn't know what she was hoping for but she wouldn't deny that a kiss from Dick would be nice. But she wasn't about to give in so quickly.
She leaned in, placing her palms on the counter.
"Hm what makes you think you're such a 'hottie'?" she said making airquotes and placing her palms back on the table.
"Artemis tells me a thing or two." He said smiling. "Speaking of Artemis, she should be bringing me food and more mouthwash" he added, pulling back and looking at his watch.
"You guys seem to be getting closer. If I didn't know you guys, I'd say you two had a thing for each other" she said nervously as she started to play with his tie.
She saw Dick blush when she grabbed his tie. She looked him in the eyes, wanting to make sure that whatever he said next would be true. Dick started leaning in, enticed by the redhead's beautiful baby blue eyes.
"Artemis? No! We're just friends. If I didn't know us, I'd say…we…had a thing for each other" he said nervously.
She giggled a little at the way he worded his sentence. Then it hit her. Was he implying…?
"Well if I didn't know us, I think that the only way to know if we had a thing for each other, was if we kissed" she said nervously.
"Well I'd kiss you but the kissing booth's closed, miss" Dick said with a smile.
"Oh darn I guess I missed my chance" Barbara said, looking at Dick's lips.
"I could always make an exception .It'll cost you a little extra though" said Dick, winking at Barbara.
Barbara pulled back suddenly, still holding onto Dick's tie from a distance. She smirked at his face. It was as if a mother had just taken away her son's entire collection of video games.
"5 tickets for a kiss? I don't know Dick" she said.
"5 tickets is nothing, Babs. My kisses are worth at LEAST 20 tickets" he said smiling and leaning all the way over the counter.
Barbara took out her purse and started looking through it.
"Whoa seriously, Babs?" Dick said in confusion.
"I'm merely paying for what I'm going to get, right?" she said, simply shuffling through her purse.
Dick's heart fell a little. Were his kisses just that? An object to buy?
Barbara put her purse down.
"I seem to be out of tickets" she said, resting her head on her hand.
She pulled Dick's head close to hers with his tie. "Whatever shall I do?" she sighed out.
"Well. I guess I could make an exception." Dick said excitedly.
He finally leaned in all the way.
Barbara instantly felt excited. She pulled away only to go back in for another kiss. Dick's hands went to her cheeks and his tongue begged for entrance at her lips. She moaned, letting his tongue into her mouth. They found a good rhythm but as they tried to get closer, they only got frustrated with the counter between them. Dick pulled back to Barbara's disappointment. He quickly jumped over the counter and pulled Barbara close to him. His right hand lay on her lower back, dangerously close to a place she really wanted him to be. His left hand tugged at her hair.
Barbara pulled Dick's lips to hers by grabbing his collar. She moaned at the contact, knowing that now they were much closer than they were about a minute ago. Her hands that were resting on his broad shoulders found their way to his hair and started playing with his black locks. Barbara kept kissing him hungrily. She didn't care if anyone watched or stared. She just wanted to keep kissing Dick.
Dick lost focus of what was going on. All he knew was that he was practically making out with the most beautiful girl he knew. Her moans only turned him on even more. He turned them so her back was against the counter of the kissing booth. She jumped onto the counter and spread her legs apart. "That's my girl" he thought to himself. He kissed her cheeks, then her eyes, then her forehead, only to have her pull his lips back to hers. If he had known she had feelings like this (and kissed like the animal she was) he would've had no problem kissing her anytime sooner.
"Eww dude what are you doing?" Dick suddenly heard Kid Flash in his head.
He instantly pulled away with a little growl. Barbara looked at him, confused and a little hurt by his sudden haste.
"Shut up KF!" Dick said in his mind. He was suddenly aware of all the things he had been thinking about while kissing Barbara and blushed.
"I'm sorry. Just…this is all so sudden" he said to Barbara, smiling sweetly.
She smiled and pulled him in for another mind-blowing kiss.
"Seriously man I thought you closed up the kissing booth by now!" Kid Flash sounded again.
"Shutup Wally! Whatever Robin's doing is his business" Artemis's voice said.
"Robin do you want me to temporarily cut off your connection or…?" Miss martian chimed in.
"We need to all keep together in case we see Luthor and that means keeping Robin on the line. Robin if you could just..uh…lower your thoughts a little bit" Kaldur included.
"But Kaldur, Robin just might be getting it on with a girl on the mission! I'm just lookin out for my bro" Kid Flash said innocently.
Dick winced but put more energy into the kiss in order to ignore all the conversation going on by now in his head.
Barbara's body was going into overdrive. She didn't know what was going on but Dick suddenly started kissing her harder and with more intensity than before and she loved it. Dick was starting to moan into their kisses and she was only turned on even more.
"Oohhh Dick" she moaned. At this point, Dick knew he was in trouble. He felt sensation in his lower abdomen. He only kissed her more passionately, trying to avoid the banter going on in his mind.
Barbara never wanted to stop kissing this boy. Until she saw a flash of light. Barbara straightened her back and separated from Dick as if she was struck by lightning. In the short-distance she saw none other than Bette holding a camera, laughing.
Dick was greeted with a rush of cold night air as Barbara pulled back suddenly and he frowned. He looked behind him to see what Barbara was looking at, somewhat scared that it was possibly Commissioner Gordon. He had no idea how he would explain himself if the commissioner told Bruce what he was doing during the mission stakeout.
Dick saw Bette laughing and looked back to Barbara. He saw that she was blushing furiously and she instantly pushed him away and pushed herself off the counter, fixing her wrinkled clothing and messy hair (which Dick had messed up in their PDA).
Bette and Kayla approached the couple.
"Wow Dick! Do you kiss all your booth customers like that?" Bette asked, still laughing.
Barbara suddenly felt embarrassed, suddenly remembering all the girls Dick had been kissing.
Dick noticed this and pulled her close to him, not ashamed to show his feelings for Barbara to Bette and Kayla.
"Nahh. Just the beautiful, genius, talented, redheaded and blue-eyed ones" he responded.
Kayla practically cried from the sweetness she witnessed.
Dick noticed Artemis running towards him. His fighter instincts kicked in and he started walking towards her.
"Dick…it's Luthor. He's been spotted." She said. Robin turned back to see Barbara looking at him questioningly.
He quickly ran up to her and gave her a deep kiss.
"I gotta go. Artemis and Zatanna are having some maintenance trouble. See you on Monday?" he said.
Barbara smiled.
"Yea. See you Monday, Grayson" she said.
Dick smiled and ran off to Artemis. As the two started heading towards the rest of the group, Dick asked
"hey how come you guys didn't just contact me through the mind-messaging?"
Artemis laughed
"We were getting a little disgusted by your thoughts. But at least now I know what was causing those thoughts" she said smiling to Robin.
He blushed. They stopped in front of a building and hid behind a few pieces of cargo. As Robin got up to run inside, Artemis stopped him and handed him a bag.
He opened it and inside he saw a burger, some fries, a small jug of mouthwash. Robin smiled and let out a small laugh. As he looked up to thank Artemis, he realized she was gone. On the mouthwash he saw a message:
"Barbara will probably appreciate this more than you"