When the boom echoed throughout the empty room, Dick had been sitting with his back against a bare wall, both hands and ankles tied together.
Earlier, he had been strolling through the streets of Gotham City, trying to get back to his mentor before the day reached four o'clock. Of course, something had to go terribly wrong, because didn't it always? Well, not all the time. Normally, Dick would find a way to get out of the ropes because he kept being captured by the normal inexperienced criminals, not people like Two-Face or the Joker. It was all thanks to his secret identity that he wasn't tied up by all type of bad guys.
It basically went like this: Dick Grayson got the inexperienced. Robin got the professionals. Either way, he was still getting kidnapped every other day of the week so he didn't find it bizarre or shocking that someone came out of the shadows and put a gag in his mouth. This time though, Bruce Wayne's adoptive son had gotten one of those seriously experienced criminals.
The bad guy had such a big criminal record that Robin's team had been called in to help. So now, Robin had to act like he didn't know his best friends who were either fighting off some goons, untying Dick, or guarding the explosive-made entrance to the room they were in. Kaldur and Conner were fighting, M'Gann and Artemis were guarding, while Zatanna and Wally were untying him. Kid Flash was working on his hands, and the magician on his feet.
"Hey, yesterday I borrowed a small bomb from your utility belt, came in handy today, huh?" Wally whispered in Dick's ear when no one was paying attention. The only thing that the Boy Wonder could do right now was nod, but secretly made a mental note to get Kid Flash back for stealing from him, and how had Wally even gotten hold of his utility belt? Robin carried it with him almost everywhere.
When all the guards were down, Aqualad and Superboy were with M'Gann and Artemis, talking within the four.
"So, you're Dick Grayson? I thought you'd be taller, but you're definitely as handsome as you are in the pictures." Zatanna stated as she finished working on his ankles, a smirk itching into her face as Dick's cheeks colored red. Wally let out a loud laugh.
"Well, Rob will sure be a jealous by this. Good thing he didn't come to the mission." The speedster winked at Robin, another laugh escaping him.
Dick was quick to recover, coming up with a remark like Zatanna's was easy when he liked her. "And you're Zatanna, the amazing magician that I've been seeing a lot of lately in the news, I have to say, I enjoy seeing you every morning. I'm a fan of your work." Dick kissed her hand, exaggerating the gesture just a bit by keeping his lips pressed against the smooth skin for more than necessary. The dark-haired girl blushed a very light pink. It was an almost invisible color.
"Hmm, you're quite the smooth talker. I bet you learned that from Bruce Wayne, I hear he is pretty popular with the ladies." Zatanna put her hand on her hip; he was so going to tease her for this later.
"I didn't just learn how to be a smooth talker from Gotham's infamous playboy, believe me." This time, the girl he was talking to blushed a bright red.
The four other team members looked over to Dick and Zatanna as they bantered on without a care in the world. Artemis' eyes stayed on Dick the whole time. Her eyes were full of knowing, but of course it would be like that, the Boy Wonder didn't just expect that he could take a picture with the archer and she wouldn't find out who really took the picture of them two. She showed a discreet thumbs up at the youngest boy in the team.
Kaldur suddenly raised his voice; "Perhaps we could leave this for another day. Team, we have to leave now."
M'Gann, Artemis, and Conner went without hesitation or a second glance at the two dark haired younger teens. Wally though, lagged behind and put a hand on Robin's shoulder. "Dude, seriously, stop getting kidnapped." He suddenly leaned in an whispered in his ear, "Make a move on her, Romeo."
Then without a warning he sped away, leaving a gust of wind as a sign that he had really been there. Zatanna looked a bit uncomfortable, "I should go too. See you later."
Dick's reflexes caught her hand, but his brain then screamed at him that it had been a bad move on his part. Batman wasn't going to be happy with what his protégé was doing right then.
"Hey, uh, Zatanna. We could, maybe, go get dinner some other day…Of course, if you're alright with going on dates with guys you just met in expensive restaurants?" Dick's heart was rapidly pounding in his chest, but Robin's years of practice let him mask that nervousness from his face and swallow it down.
The sorceress grinned at the offer, "That sounds nice. Here, my phone number. Just text me when and where we should meet up, okay?" Zatanna made a piece of paper and a pen appear, she wrote down numbers. Then, with a final smile, she left to the bioship, leaving a grinning young boy there.
When the coast was clear, he turned his ninja skills on and blended in with the shadows, banishing as fast as he had when they'd first took him about three hours before.
Four days later it was Saturday, early in the morning was as much as Zatanna registered when she first woke up, then a text was sent into the girl's phone. She groaned and turned her body on the bed to grab for the electrical device.
I hope it isn't too late to say when our date is in. I'll meet you, in, let's say an hour at the restaurant called 'Olives' here in Happy Harbor, I take it that you live there now, right? I'm guessing that you haven't had breakfast either.
-Dick
The cyan-eyed girl smiled. It was very considerate of him to pick a restaurant in Happy Harbor since she lived there, but wait, how had he known she was currently located there? Suddenly, her smile vanished with a look of sheer confusion. Then she shook it off, probably was given off in the news.
She got out of her bed, looking for decent clothes, then getting showered and changed.
When she got out of her room she went to the kitchen to grab some juice before she left for her date. She sat in one of the stools, looking out at the living room. Zatanna had been very surprised when she saw that Robin entered the living room, with a very nice outfit for what he normally wore. When he spotted her he looked like a deer being caught in a headlight. Shoot, I thought I would get out before she did. Weren't girls the ones that took longer to get ready than guys? Robin thought, his eyes widened underneath his shades.
"What are you doing here, Rob?"
The Boy Wonder composed himself, "Just going out to town."
Zatanna wasn't easily convinced though, it would totally make sense for him to be so sneaky at such an early time in the morning if he was going on to meet a lady friend in his civilian outfit, she doubted he would be dressed that way if he was going to punch the lights out of a supervillain. "Are you meeting someone?"
"Uh, no. Not at all, Zee." Obviously, Robin was more than anxious to get out from the girl's attention, but he wasn't going to be let out so easily.
"Are you maybe meeting a…friend?" The magician wiggled her eyebrows up and down suggestively. Robin didn't see how this would give out that he really was going to be going to meet up with the same girl he was talking to.
"Fine, you caught me. I'm meeting a girl at town in about thirty minutes, it's a date." Zatanna was secretly fuming in the inside; the term jealous was an understatement in her situation right then. She wasn't going to let him know this feeling she had inside, and it did intrigue her how his date was exactly at the same time as hers.
"Well, how random that your date is at the same time as mine! I'm meeting up with Dick Grayson, can you believe it, Rob?" Zatanna was hoping to get even the slightest clenching of his hands; she was just saying that to spite him. Yet, the Boy Wonder didn't show the smallest of discomforts at that statement.
"I can actually believe it. You've been talking a lot about him, and with your personality and looks of course you wined him over."
Even to this day Zatanna couldn't believe she had been so blind to know that Dick Grayson was talking to her at that very moment, and Robin would never let her hear the end of it three months after Zatanna and Dick Grayson had been dating and he revealed his secret to her.
