Chapter 4

"ALRIGHT GIRLIES!" Called Coach Chase, effectively getting the attention of all the girl gymnasts in the last period PE class.

"Hey!" came a squeaky voice from a certain ebony haired male.

"This doesn't concern you, Richard," the older woman brushed off, not even glancing the direction of the boy in question, instead, she looked out to her gathered team in front of her; all dressed in their leotards for practice.

"This weekend is the first meet of the year, I expect all of you to be there, no and if or buts about it. Is that clear?" the stern women looked out at the teens before her, none of them batting an eye at her expectations, after all most had been on the team for years, except for a certain blonde, who was silently sputtering in the back much to her raven haired friend's amusement.

"What's wrong Arty?" Dick whispered, amusement clear in his voice and humor sparkling in his crystal blue eyes.

"N-nothing," she stuttered out, not daring to look at her friend or her coach, simply looking down with her hands clenched in fists at her side.

"If I didn't know any better, I would say that you might be scared of Coach Chase, now why-" the ebony began, hand raised to chin in a faux pensive look.

"Well, you do know better," the archer in civies cut in, "Mr. Creepy, you know very well that Coach Chase has my respect and nothing more or less, some coach can't just intimidate me, I'm-" Artemis sneered, glaring down at her friend who stood at least a foot shorter than her.

"You're what? Tougher than the other girls that would be scared crapless to miss a gymnastics meet? Because those bullets that you're sweating tell me differently," Dick replied with a smirk that looked all too familiar to Artemis, though she couldn't place it.

"Wh-what are you talking about?" she cried out to him, though soft enough not to draw the attention of the other girls or coach.

"Nothing," he replied innocently, not looking her way, instead keeping his eyes on the woman speaking at the front.

"Oh sur-"

"Any questions, ladies?" And with a few shakes of heads, the Tuesday gymnastics practice was beginning.

"What are we doing?" Artemis asked in panic, turning to Dick as Barbara had already run off to the beam to begin.

"Practice, duh," he replied with an eye roll and sarcastic smile.

"Dick," the older hissed, glancing around at the soon clearing warm up area.

"Fine," the ebony whined, dragging out the one word, "We are working on our worst apparatus."

"Worst?" the blonde said with a gulp, her eyes shooting over to the uneven bars across the gym.

"Arty, Arty, tisk tisk. Are you telling me that bars is your worst?" the ebony's blue eyes following his friend's to the wooden bars stationed across the gym.

"I didn't say anything," the blonde deadpanned, as she began to walk over to the bars. Her strides heavy as she knew her doom awaited her.

"Actions speak louder than words," Dick said in a sing song voice, cartwheeling after his companion.

"Go shove it where the sun don't shine," the archer growled out as she looked at the bars stationed directly in front of her. No one else seemed to have trouble with the bars besides her, for she was the only one working the apparatus.

"I can help you," Dick offered, truly meaning it and trying to be as genuine as he could.

"Oh ya right," Artemis huffed out as she chalked her hands and the bars, "You can't even spot me, shortstuff."

"Rude," he tutted as he went to the set of bars adjacent to the archer's, not bothering to chalk anything, he gripped the first one and swung up, lowering himself into a sitting position to watch his friend.

The older of the two didn't speak again as she readied herself. Stretching and warming up her shoulder and arms. And with a bound she reached and gripped the upper bar, using her momentum to swing herself up. She got into a handstand position at the top, but couldn't hold it since her legs were separated, causing her to loose balance and swing down with a flop.

With an angry huff she hopped down and tried again, but each time she had the same results of not being able to hold her handstand, and each time not getting past that part of her routine.

Finally after about ten minutes, Dick couldn't take any more, "Ok, stop," he called, a grin on his face though he shook his head in pity at his friend's struggles.

"What." Artemis gritted out, turning her glare on the ebony who just smirked in return.

"Loosen up, Arty, I'm just gonna help you," although that could be debated as there was clear amusement in the boy's crystal blue eyes.

"Ya, right, the kid that's not even on the gymnastics team and does nothing in PE. You're gonna help me?" Artemis's voice dripping in sarcasm as she turned away, looking back up to the bars and dismissing the boy.

"As it so happens, bars are my specialty in the gymnastics world," Dick said with a grin, and had Artemis not had her back turned, she would have seen the hint of sadness in the boy's cerulean eyes.

"Oh ya, specialty," she deadpanned, glancing at the boy over her shoulder to show him her eye roll.

"Fine, Arty, I get it, you don't believe what you haven't seen," and with that the ebony turned and pulled himself into a perfect handstand atop the lower uneven bars. He spun around on the lower ones a few times, perfect form as he went into a split so his feet wouldn't hit the ground as he went. The ebony flashed a grin at his companion as he let go of the bar and flew through the air, his hands somehow finding the taller bar. He kept swinging, occasionally letting go of the bar to do a flip or two but nothing extremely complicated. Finally he ended the routine with a double summersault, sticking the landing and bowing to the invisible crowd, and had his eyes been open, Artemis would have seen the look of utter joy in them.

"Fine," she growled out, as she came up next to him, "You're decent, decent enough to help me."

"Decent?" the boy asked in faux hurt, hand resting over his heart at the insult.

"I know better," the archer said with a smirk, thinking of another ebony that she knew.

"I'm sure," Dick replied with a secretive smirk that confused Artemis.

"So will you help me?" she growled out, trying to read the younger boy before her, but to no avail he just continued smirking.

"Sure, sure. And hey if I can't help you all the time, maybe that friend you know that's super good can, anyway. First we must start with your legs. Where did you pick up that form and technique from?"

Mount Justice, Later that day

"So let's see this little bar routine," Robin said dryly, eyeing his comrade as she mounted the uneven bars in the Mountain's gym.

The masked boy saw what he expected, even wincing right before she went into a handstand, knowing the end result.

"I just- ugh! I don't know," the archer growled in anger, hands clenched in anger at the fact that she was doing so poorly on the bars. "I mean, I had this friend that said he could help, but we couldn't work on anything today cause class ending and he hightailed it out of the class for some club or another, and I need to work on this."

"Breathe. Just breathe, Artemis," the Boy Wonder said calmly, walking up to his stressed teammate. Gripping her shoulders, "Look at me, it's gonna be fine, this is just some stupid sport."

"Easy for you to say," Artemis growled, brushing the younger off and going to face the bars.

"Ok, just take a break for now, tell me about this friend of yours." Robin said, trying to defuse the teen's anger and frustration.

"I don't know, just some kid I know. He's kinda a pipsqueak, but he's nice and all. He's decent at gymnastics, nowhere near as good as you are Robin," the archer added, causing a smirk from the birdie, "And he has the major crush on a mutual friend, got all protective of her and everything," and at this the Boy Wonder was at a loss of words with his pale cheeks flushed a light pink.

"Ok, ok," the younger vigilante cut in, hands raised and ending the conversation, "Let's talk gymnastics. I know you are capable of performing a bars routine, but you just need some help with form. Just keep your legs straight, and when you're in a handstand, your legs should be glued together. Funny story about that, my legs weren't actually glued, but-"

"Robin!"

"Sorry, sorry, anyway form and work-" the masked vigilante continued with a sheepish grin.

"Wait, someone glued your legs together?" the archer asked in wonder.

"No, no, of course not, they just duck taped them. Glue takes way too long to dry and is too much of a mess anyway. Now back to-"

"Someone taped your legs together?" Artemis cut in, looking at the younger in shock.

"Oh ya, training, you know, had to teach me somehow," the acrobat said with a cackle.

"Who? Batman? That Satanist, tying up the legs of poor kids."

"No, no, nothing like that," the teen said with a soft giggle, "No it was before I was Robin, it was just a training exercise for fun, and it was actually kinda fun to tell you the truth," and the archer could hear the happiness in the younger boy's voice but she couldn't see through his domino mask to see his crystal blue eyes full of sorrow and longing.

"You're so weird," Artemis said, thinking about how much the younger enjoyed the hard and near impossible training that Black Canary would sometimes dish out to the team, "And why did you train before becoming Robin?"

"Back to the technique," the Boy Wonder not so subtly changed the topic, turning away from the archer to hide his worry filled face. Batman would have his head if he knew about the slip up.

Ok, so finally got that out there. Please Review, sorry its been so long. And next chapter will be the gymnastics meet! Get pumped!

Please review with any new ideas!

Love yall! –C