Pairing: #3 - Dick/Zatanna
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1,100+
Prompt: Secret Santa
For: SuperboyRules

... ...

"Hey," a voice greets by her ear, and she nearly falls off of the step as she lets out a yelp.

Dick cackles. She usually doesn't scare easily, but it's not like she could've anticipated that he would literally drop by, hanging upside down on the end of his grappling hook as she's standing on the ladder, trying to decorate their ridiculously tall tree. Though she obviously shouldn't have put it passed him to try something like this.

"Jerk," she laughs.

He smirks, adjusting his shades with his free hand. How they stayed on his head, she's not really sure of. Maybe these are special sunglasses that strap on like goggles so his identity stays protected even while he goes around scaring the crap out of people.

And yes, she thinks that's something he'd totally invest in.

"Are you doing anything later?" he asks.

"Megan wants all hands on deck to make a gingerbread mansion after we finish the tree, remember?"

He laughs. "Yeah, I remember. I don't mean today." She looks at him, arches an eyebrow. "I'm going to try and get Black Canary's gift tomorrow and it'd be really awesome if you could come with me."

"Why do you need my help to pick out her gift?" she asks. "I'd think you know her better than I do since you've known her longer."

"Sometimes having a second opinion helps," he tells her, shrugging (which looks a little weird since he's still hanging upside down). Then he grins. "Besides, I'm just trying to look for an excuse to get you to hang out with me. We don't necessarily have to go shopping if you don't want to."

"Oh." She feels her cheeks warm. "I've got plans with Artemis after lunch, but we can go first thing in the morning."

He grins. "Then it's a date."

"Great," she says, and the leans forward to press a kiss to his lips. "Now get down from there and hand me some more ornaments, Spider-Man."

... ...

They end up in The Disney Store because they agreed that none of the places they've gone to so far had anything that seemed perfect enough for Dinah, so they decided to take a break and just browse around in here for fun.

She picks up a Prince Charming and Cinderella snow globe from the shelf, smiles as she tips it carefully and watches the flakes swirl around.

"Is she your favorite Disney princess?" Dick asks as he suddenly appears beside.

"No," she admits.

He grins. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I didn't really take you as the Cinderella type."

She laughs a little, shaking her head. "Nah, I'm not one for being a damsel in distress, though I have a total weakness for fairytales and all of that stuff. It's just that she's always reminded me of my mom because of their names—Sindella, Cinderella." She shrugs her shoulders. "I was even her for Halloween, once. It made my dad cry."

"Yeah?" he asks.

"Yeah," she says. "I think I've been all of the Disney princesses, because Dad would always say I'm his little princess. My mom used to call me that all the time, so I guess my dad wanted to make sure I never lost that even after everything."

She glances at Dick and finds him staring at her. She thinks his expression is thoughtful, but she can't tell with the shades.

"So, which one is your favorite?"

"None of them," she laughs. "My favorite Disney princess is Tiger Lily from Peter Pan."

"She's Native American princess, right?

She smiles at him widely. "Most people don't even remember her," she says. "And I don't really know why I like her so much. I have almost nothing in common with her. I guess just thought she was exotic and mysterious and I wanted to be like that. Plus, I had the biggest crush on Peter Pan," she adds quickly, almost sounding embarrassed.

"He's the best," Dick agrees. "Why didn't you ever dress up as Tiger Lily?"

"For my dad, I guess." She shrugs a little. "I had a feeling that he thought I would've loved that kind of stuff if my mom had still been around. I didn't really have the heart to tell him that I didn't want to be like those traditional princesses. I think my dad felt like my mom would still be a part of me if I liked them."

"Your mom's going to be a part of you no matter who you become," he tells her. "If my parents were still around, I probably wouldn't be doing what I do. They may not even like that I do it. But that doesn't mean I've abandoned them." His voice is soft as he adds, "Growing up without them doesn't mean I've become a stranger that they wouldn't still love."

She doesn't realize that her eyes had been watering until she blinks and her vision blurs with tears.

He reaches up and wipes some away from the corner of her eye.

"Thank you," she says, and not entirely sure if she means for that or for what he just said.

"You're welcome," he replies. He takes the snow globe from her hand and sets it back on the shelf, grinning. "Let's get out of here."

... ...

They're all in the Cave the day before Christmas Eve for the party, since everyone's going to be separated for the actual holiday and this is probably the last time before New Year's that they're all going to be together.

Megan sits them in the large room around the tree when it's time to open gifts (she made a schedule), and it's kind of funny to see everyone dressed up kind of formally while wearing the Santa Hats and reindeer headbands that Megan had passed out when people started arriving.

They pass out all of the Secret Santa presents first, taking turns going around the room to open them and find out who their Secret Santa was. Some of the gifts make them laugh – like the Baywatch DVD collection from Artemis to Wally or the pedometer from Hal to Barry – but most of the gifts just make everyone emotional (especially Megan, who's kind of just crying through the whole thing) – like the charm bracelet Conner gives Dinah or the ceramic Alice and Cheshire Cat statue that Roy gives Artemis.

When it's her turn, she unties the gold ribbon from around the box and lifts the lid. Inside is a silver tiara with an orange gem in the center, shaped into a flower that she immediately recognizes.

Someone pulls off her reindeer headband, and she laughs a little and feels her eyes watering as she finds Dick smiling down at her. She vaguely registers the voices of their friends around them, but then Dick is sliding the tiara into place and pressing a kiss to her knuckles. He mumbles something against her skin, but she can only make out one word.

Princess.