"Know By Now"
Sophie, dressed as Batgirl, was knelt by the edge of the building's flat gravel roof, looking out over the city, watching for any sign of crime. Not that she could actually do anything about it if she saw it happening except call the police station, but it was for the sake of proper role-play. She made sure not to flinch when she heard the telltale crunching of gravel signalling the approach of another person from behind her post.
"What? Too quiet for you in the western part of town?" she asked in a flippant tone as she adjusted her binoculars to zoom in further on a window with suspicious movement behind the curtain, before quickly directing her binoculars elsewhere when she realized what the two people inside were really doing, feeling her cheeks heat up with the realization.
"Well, that's part of it. But mostly I just wanted to visit my favorite redhead."
Sophie raised an eyebrow, stating coolly, "I thought Raya was your favorite redhead. After all, you two are together, aren't you?"
"Were, B-girl." Abed sighed. "This kind of life...Raya wasn't ready for it. I don't think she'll ever be ready for it. So I had to break it off." Stepping forward so he was beside Sophie, he crouched down next to her, grabbing up a handful of gravel and slowly sifting them between his fingers. "It's kind of lonely, this existence of ours, isn't it?"
Slowly, Sophie lowered the binoculars from her eyes. "Yeah," she mumbled. It was true.
They were both silent for a moment, just appreciating one another's company, when Abed turned to look at Sophie and said, "Y'know B-girl...it doesn't have to be lonely."
Sophie could've sworn she almost got whiplash from how quickly her head turned at that statement. She stared wordlessly at Abed for a long moment before saying, "Di-er, Nightwing... I thought we discussed this before. I thought we'd decided that despite, or in part even due to, our past, it would be...unwise to pursue a relationship between the two of us."
Abed exhaled through his nose, folding his arms on top of his knees. "As I recall, B-girl, that was more of a one-sided decision on your part than anything that had to do with my contribution to the conversation..."
Sophie winced. "But you have to realize, I'm only thinking of what might happen to us in the long-term and why it'd be so bad for us to be together despite the fact that we're both vigi-mmph!" She was silenced as Abed's lips met hers, and she all but melted, cheeks hot as she felt Abed's tongue touch against her lips as though asking permission to deepen the kiss. She complied, knowing it wasn't exactly what might have happened in the comics due to the many writers who had been against the Dick-Barbara relationship and the fact that in the original comics, Barbara had been older than Dick, but she honestly felt that in that moment, even if it was only because it was her and Abed playing the roles, it just felt...right. Gingerly placing her left hand on the side of Abed's neck, she let out a muffled noise of surprise when a moment later he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her close. Kneeling on the ground was by no means comfortable for her, nor could she imagine it was comfortable for Abed, either, but the passionate intensity of the kiss all but drowned the sensation out.
When they broke apart for air, Abed quickly leaned forward to capture another kiss, but Sophie turned her head and Abed's kiss landed on her cheek, instead.
"I'm sorry, Dick. I shouldn't have let that happen," she said softly, with a hint of regret in her voice.
Abed was silent for a long moment before he removed his hands from her waist and stood up. He sighed.
"I'm sorry too, Babs," he said, turning to exit the roof via the same stairwell he had come up to it through. Before he stepped onto the stairwell, though, he turned slightly and called back over his shoulder to her, "And for the record...even when I was with Raya... you were still my favorite redhead."
With that, Abed left, hoping that Sophie got home alright, and also hoping that a situation similar to this role play would never, ever happen in real life, because even as it was, he felt his heart clench a little when she refused him despite the fact that she had referred to him as Dick instead of Abed.
That night, he dreamt of Sophie and him together. And when he woke up, he hoped that that would remain his reality for the rest of his life.
A/N: My apologies if you follow the Batman 'verse comics and I have anything out of place... I did some research for these one-shots since I only started collecting them after the New 52 reboot started but it's possible I may have missed some facts. If you find any mistakes be sure to let me know and I will do my best to correct it.