CHAPTER ONE

It was a Friday afternoon, the day school had broken up for summer, sophomore year was finally over, and Dick and Barbara were relieved about it. The sun was shining and there was barely a cloud in sight. The perfect day for a picnic, Dick had declared at lunch and Barbara could not agree more. So, after school, Alfred had arrived with a blanket and a basket filled with sandwiches, crisps, and strawberries and had driven them to a peaceful park area just outside of Gotham. The park was packed, there were kids everywhere, but they didn't mind.

'You look really nice today,' Dick said, finishing the last sandwich – egg and cress, his favourite.

'Nice is the best you can come up with?' Barbara bit into a strawberry and giggled as the juice ran down her cheek.

'I spoke too soon.' Dick handed her a tissue, blushing a little.

She wiped the juice off then licked her lips. 'Wow, that strawberry was so good, Gimme another.'

Dick picked up a strawberry from the box and pretended to offer it to her but right at the last second, he snatched it away and bit it off the stem. 'Mm-mmm.'

'Hey, no fair,' she said whilst laughing. She picked up another one and twirled it around in her finger. 'Anyway, this picnic is delicious. Please tell Alfred for me.'

'I will, I'm sure he'd love to hear it.' Dick shoved the empty plate from the sandwiches back in the basket and pulled open a bag of crisps. 'He grew the strawberries himself in the little vegetable patch he started last year.'

'Wow, I'm impressed.' Barbara pulled the box of strawberries onto her lap and started making her way through them. 'Tell him to quit his day job and become a farmer, the world needs Pennyworth strawberries.'

'I think Bruce needs Alfred more, the guy doesn't even know how to tie his own shoe laces.'

'Seriously?'

'Ha, no, I was kidding. But I know he doesn't know how to use an iron. One time when Alfred was on holiday, he had to iron a suit, he tried to iron it while the iron was cold. In the end I gave in and did it for him.'

Barbara giggled again. 'That's amazing.'

'The best thing is, whenever Alfred or I bring it up, he goes redder than that strawberry and denies it completely. God, he hates not being the best.'

Barbara smiled hesitantly. 'How are things with Bruce?'

Dick looked away and shrugged. 'The same… worse.'

Barbara reached over and touched his hand, but he pulled away. 'You can talk about it. I'm a good listener.'

Dick took a deep breath in, released it and then looked at Barbara – assessing her sincerity. 'I… it's just he's so distant whenever I need him but then expects me to be at his beck and call all the time. He's so controlling to the point where sometimes I wonder if he only adopted me to look good…' He closed his eyes tight and felt the tears cold against the rim of his eyelids. 'I'm sorry; I didn't mean to unload like that.'

Barbara put the strawberries down and pulled Dick into a hug. 'You've got nothing to be sorry for, it's his fault.'

'No, I-'

'Dick, I asked you, you answered.' She released him and he sat back awkwardly mussing with his hair.

He had nothing to say to that.

'Have you talked to him about how your feeling?'

'I've talked to Alfred-'

'I meant Bruce.'

'He's not someone you can really have a heart to heart with. He's cold.'

'You should still try.'

'Look, can we drop this?'

'If you promise to try.'

Dick smiled a little. 'Promise.'

'Good.'

'Hey, you should be a psychiatrist.'

'No way, not my thing. I'd rather be a librarian. Or the mayor.' Barbara fiddled with a stray hair. 'So, do you wanna do some-' She stopped herself when she realised Dick was looking straight passed her. 'Hey, what you looking at?'

'What are they doing here?' Dick said with a pained expression.

Barbara looked around but could see no reason why Dick would have reacted like that. She couldn't see any of the popular kids or the bullies from school and no one was looking at them so she had no idea what he had meant. She looked back to Dick.

'Stay here a moment, I've just got to go sort this out.' Dick stood up and brushed crumbs from his pants before walking off.

Barbara picked up their phones and followed him over to a group of older teens a few who were looking everywhere apart from at them. She supposed these were the people Dick was so worried about.

Dick cleared his throat loudly, only the pretty red headed girl looked at him. 'Why are you guys here?' said Dick.

'I'm sorry, I tried to stop them,' the pretty red head said, giggling. 'But they followed Wally.'

'M'gann, you were the one that followed Wally,' the boy with black hair said, he sounded very tired and was about the size of a truck, a truck full of muscle.

Dick's expression changed from mildly annoyed to completely peeved. He strolled over to the ginger guy who had not said a word, that Barbara guessed was Wally, and flicked him in the ear. 'Hey, scatterbrain.'

'Ouch.'

'Why are you here?' Dick said. 'How did you find us?'

The ginger guy grinned. 'As for the why, I got your text, I couldn't resist. And the how, I tracked your phone. It's so easy to do, see Barry has this police tracker app that-'

'That's illegal,' Dick said.

'No, it's not.'

'You're stalking me, that's illegal.'

'You must be the famous Wally West,' Barbara said, holding a hand out for Wally to shake.

Dick startled and glared at her. 'Babs, I told you to wait.'

'Do I look like your butler?' Barbara raised an eyebrow. It was one of those moments where Dick had no response; he hated not having a witty comeback.

'You're a darn sight prettier than his butler.' Wally grabbed Barbara's hand with a flourish of his wrist and kissed it. 'And Alfred is a beautiful man.'

Dick slapped Wally's hand away. 'Must you flirt with every living thing?'

Barbara shoved her hands in her back pockets, blushing. 'I've heard a lot about you.'

'And I you, Barbara Gordon. Dick talks about you, like, all the time. Your name is always on the tip of his tongue.' Wally had a smug look on his face. 'Babs this, Babs that. Babs, Babs, Babs-' He was interrupted when Dick tackled him over.

Barbara was surprised; Dick had never struck her as a violent person. In fact, he was quite the opposite around her, always calm and sensible.

'Wally, stop teasing him,' the red head said. 'I'm Megan, by the way. This is Conner.' She looked at the truck of muscle boy as she spoke. He waved shyly at Barbara.

'Seriously?' The voice came from just behind Barbara.

'It's not what it looks like, babe,' said Wally. 'He can't help himself; I think he's in love with me.'

Barbara turned and spotted a girl in Gotham Academy uniform. She was sure she knew her. The girl looked at her and grimaced, then looked back at Dick and Wally. 'My sister thinks you two are closet gays, I guess she won that bet.'

Dick pushed himself away from Wally, who was laughing at the girls joke, and crossed his arms across his chest, shoulders hunched and scowling.

'You lied, Wally, I thought you said we were having a picnic. And I assumed you meant just us,' the girl said.

'Dick and the lovely Barbara had a picnic, so I decided to crash their date and make it a triple,' Wally said, absently picking a leaf from Dick's hair. 'Yo, Dick, you got any food left, I'm starving.'

'Of course you are,' Dick said miserably but he got up and went to pack up the neglected picnic. Barbara was unsure whether to follow so she stayed, awkwardly trying not to look completely out of her element.

'You guys went along with this?' The blonde asked Conner and Megan.

'No,' Conner said.

'Of course not,' Megan said.

'I'm disappointed,' said the blonde.

Barbara had been trying to figure out who the girl was and suddenly it clicked. Barbara frowned; she wasn't a fan of this girl, although she looked different without her school friends and her hair up rather than down. 'You're friends with Bette Kane and Helena Bertinelli, right? You're Artemis.'

Artemis laughed but there wasn't much joy in it. 'Yeah, I guess they're my friends.'

Dick arrived back with the basket packed and the rolled up blanket under his arm. 'Babs, you want any more food?'

Barbara shook her head.

Dick plonked the basket in front of Wally. 'Eat then, kid-pig.'

'Thanks, bro,' Wally opened the basket and started chucking food in his face.

'He's like a garbage bin,' Artemis said to Barbara, a little hesitantly.

Wally grabbed Artemis' hand and pulled her down onto the floor beside him. For a moment she looked dazed and confused but a few seconds later she just looked annoyed. 'Ew, chew with your mouth closed.'

'Kay, babe,' he said with a mouth full of food.

Artemis put her hand under his chin and pushed his mouth closed. He smiled and kissed her on the nose. She squirmed away, disgusted. He went back to chewing with his mouth open. Artemis huffed.

Barbara looked at Dick who was rolling his eyes.

'You guys might as well sit,' Megan said. She looked over at Wally who was making his way through the basket, Artemis watching her boyfriend in dismay. Megan giggled. 'I think we might be here a while.'

Dick looked at Babs, asking her with a look if she wanted to sit. She smiled a little and sat down. Dick followed suit.

'So, have you kissed her yet?' Wally said, munching through a packet of crisps.

Dick and Barbara both turned the colour of a ripe strawberry.

'Wally,' Artemis chided, hitting him round the back of his head with an audible smack.

'Ouch.' Wally rubbed the back of his head, looking like a hurt puppy dog.

'This wasn't a date, Wally.' Dick stared at the ground as he spoke.

'Definitely not a date,' Barbara said.

'They're so adorable, aren't they Artemis?' Megan said.

Artemis smiled at Barbara but there was something not quite genuine about it.

'So, uh, where's Kaldur?' said Dick, sensing the tension between the two girls.

'He went back to Atlan… he went back home,' Megan said.

'To, uh, Smallville,' said Conner.

'So, it's just us six and Mal and Karen this week-end,' Wally said. 'Oh, and Gar, Z, and Raquel are… busy.'

'Cool, cool, I'll let Bruce know,' said Dick.

'What's going on?' Barbara asked.

'Chess club,' Dick said, a little too quickly. 'Super nerdy and lame. You totally wouldn't enjoy it.' She was certain he was lying.

'You guys don't strike me as chess players, no offence,' said Barbara suspiciously. 'Well, except you, Dick. You're kind of a dork.' She smiled at him to avoid offence.

'I'm glad I don't, no one wants to look like a chess player,' Wally laughed. 'And yes, my pal Dick here is a dork.' He shook an empty crisp packet above his head until no more crisps came out and screwed them up. 'Crap, I'm out of grub. Can we stop by the kebab place on the way to bowling?'

'I'm sorry, what?' Dick and Artemis both said in unison.

'Triple date, we're going bowling.' Wally shrugged.

'And when did you decide this?' Artemis said.

'About two minutes after you got here. I'm bored of the park, let's go.' Wally stood up and brushed off crumbs from his lap.

Everyone groaned but to Barbara's surprise they all stood up and followed Wally.

Dick offered a hand to Barbara; she took it and allowed him to pull her up to her feet.

'So, do you wanna go?' he asked.

'Yeah, sure, I love bowling. And your friends seem cool.' How could she refuse? Although she wanted to avoid Artemis as much as possible, she was being genuine about the other three even if Wally was a bit full on.

Dick led her, following the others. He forgot to let go of her hand.