A/N: Going through a bunch of drabbles I wrote a while back for various people on the LJ friendslist. This one was for Jasmine and was based on just the request for the pairing, Batman and Zatanna. First run with either of them, so let me know if they need work! Thanks and enjoy.
illusion
He's been surrounded by these lies before. The Scarecrow has always known how to spin fear around him, how to make the broken-hearted boy Bruce used to be come to the surface. His burlap face and needle fingers never ceased to torment him, and even with the rest of the League nearby, it is very difficult to represent fear when fear itself is overcoming him.
But Zatanna, fearless bold Zatanna, has her own brand of tricks up her sleeve. Her coattails fly in the wind as she stands confidently in the face of the Scarecrow. She smiles and says she has nothing to be afraid of.
She raises her hand and the world spills from her fingers. She is at once everything, her tongue fluent in all languages and her body movements known by all. Her magic spills across the streets, surrounds Bruce in a strength that is more compelling than fear.
Her gloved fingertips brush his shoulder, and even underneath his bullet vests and armor, he can feel her. She feels like home.
She tells him that even with her illusion, strong as it is, they haven't much time.
"You have to break his illusion," she tells him. "You can, and you will."
Her hands are warm with her spell, and as the heat courses throughout his body, he learns to stand up again. She comforts the boy he was and coaxes the man he is now, out, out, back into the shadows to defeat what lurks there.
And he won't forget that feeling of her magic, not as long as he lives, and not as long as she has anything to say about it.
*