Last Chapter
"Richard?" she asked nervously making her way over to him "would it be the o and k to share a bed once again? From my new understanding of our relationship, it seems to me that it would now be acceptable. It is okay if you do not wish it, but it was very pleasant the first night we were here and I do so wish to return to that feeling" she stated hopefully.
"Of course you can" he said with a bright smile opening the door and closing it after she entered. "On one condition though" he stated taking her hand and slipping the ring off of her finger "that it is Star that I am sleeping next to and not Kori"
Chapter 7: Miss Gordon
Barbara Gordon had practically burst in excitement after hearing that Dick had come back to Gotham, she had missed her friend a lot over the past few years and finding out that he had brought Starfire with him only made her excitement grow. She was interested in meeting the girl but her main eagerness came from the amount of ribbing she could give Dick about him having a girlfriend now.
She bounded through the doors to Wayne manor early that morning in high anticipation.
"Hi Alfred" she said gasping for air as if she had just ran a mile "Where's Dick?" she asked hurriedly as if every second talking was a second wasted.
"Greetings Miss Gordon" Alfred said with a sigh of exasperation from her rude entrance "Master Dick is currently resting in his room, so you should not disturb him" but before Alfred could even finish his sentence Barbara was bolting down the hallway towards the bedrooms.
With a wide grin on her face she almost knocked the door off its hinges as she swung Richard's bedroom door open widely. "Dick! Why didn't you tell me you were-…" she yelled eagerly before cutting herself off. Her grin quickly melted away and was replaced with a look of utter shock as she stared at the couple wide eyed.
Richard kept drifting in and out of sleep that morning, usually he would be up as early as possible but he found himself incredibly reluctant to leave the cosiness of the bed and Starfire. He would awake randomly to be greeted by the her sleeping face laid on the pillow beside him, even when she was asleep she still had that same cheery smile she always had and he found himself watching it adoringly before drifting back off into a deep sleep.
The euphoria of sleep was shattered around him as he heard the door slamming open and the call of "Dick! Why didn't you tell me you were-…" assaulting his ear drums. In a panic he leapt out of the bed and fell flat onto his back on the floor, startling Silkie who made a mad dash under the bed. He realised that his arm had been hooked around Starfire and so soon she came tumbling down on top of him with a thud and a groan.
The two clambered up and Stared at Barbara with the same wide eyed look she was giving them. "Sorry!" Barbara shouted in a panicked tone before bolting back out of the doorway.
Starfire looked perplexed and startled, "Richard? Who was the intruder and why did she know you?"
"That…was Barbara Gordon" he said exasperatedly "I really should have expected something like this from her" he said with a sigh
"Oh! Alfred told me about her, I would very much like to do the meeting of her!" she said with a new found eagerness towards the intruder.
"Well not a great first introduction was it Star?" he said with a chuckle "Sorry about that" he said with a nervous laugh "I don't think she knew we were sharing a room"
"Oh I understand why she was startled then" Starfire replied with a blush
"Yeah" he paused placing his head in his hands "she is never gonna let me live this down" he said with a long sigh "I need to go and talk to her…"
Barbara sat in the dining room of the manor still slightly shell-shocked from what she had seen. She couldn't believe that they were already sleeping together considering how new their relationships were. She guessed that Dick was really starting to follow in Bruce's footsteps when it came to the ladies. She was drawn out of her thoughts by the dining room door opening and closing, she looked up to see Dick walking towards her nervously.
"Umm…Hi Babs…..So…how have you been?" he said with a sheepish smile
Barbara was not going to let him worm his way out of the conversation with small talk "You're already sleeping with her?" she stared at him awaiting a response
"Yeah…wait no! Not like that 'sleeping together'" he explained with emphasis
"Then why did I catch the two of you in bed together?" she asked, not fully believing his explanation
"Starfire likes to share the bed with me" he explained "Why? Is there something wrong with that?" he said glaring at her
"Nope" she replied before plastering her face with a playful grin "it's just funny that little Dicky as found himself a girlfriend"
He looked at her mortified "Never call me 'little Dicky' ever again" he said glaring even harder
She took a moment to ponder what he meant "Oh! Get your mind out of the gutter Grayson!" she said in mock disgust
"You're the one who instantly presumed me and Star were 'doing it'" he said raising his voice
As they began to bicker, neither of them noticed that the door had opened and Starfire was standing in the entrance "Please, what were we doing?" she asked quizzically
"Umm" he gulped "Babs thought we were having sex" he explained gently
Starfire eye's widened "Oh! I see now how that could have been inferred" she replied guiltily "I apologise for doing the embarrassing of you Richard"
"She gets to call you Richard" Barbara mock pouted at him "that's no fair!"
"Yeah, and she's the only one who gets to call me that" he said with a grin "so don't get any ideas missy or I'm going to start calling you Barbara" he paused watching Barbara's eye twitch "or how about Miss Gordon?"
"Fine" she replied exasperated before turning to Starfire "So Starfire, how often does lover boy over here mention his best friend in the whole wide world?" she said gesturing to herself with a grin
"Oh, he hasn't done the bringing up of you to me before" she paused, watching as Barbara's face fell, so she hurriedly added "but I'm sure he has talked in great detail of you with the other Titans"
Barbara turned to see Dick's nervous expression and a grin spread across her features "Oh so he has never talked about us then?"
Dick's face turned white, shocked that she would bring their past relationship up in front of Starfire "Babs" he said with a warning tone
"What do you mean by the 'us' friend?" Starfire asked quizzically but with a slightly serious tone
"Oh just that me and lover boy dated a while ago" she paused grinning like a Cheshire cat "Oh, I think I heard Alfred calling me. I'll see you guys later" she said before standing and running out of the room giggling to herself.
Richard wanted the floor beneath him to open up and drag him down into an abyss where he didn't have to worry about what had just happened. He looked over to Starfire's blank and almost shell-shocked looking face. After a long while he became concerned by her silence "Star? You okay?"
She tilted her head back around to face him "Richard how long is 'a while ago'?" she said her tone placid but with an edge of unease to it.
Richard quickly rushed out his explanation, he knew that Starfire might misinterpret what Babs said "Oh it was a long time ago Star. Before I even moved to Jump City" he paused watching as her face showed slight signs of relief "I was 13 and she was 14, we were just kids. We only ever held hands and I think we kissed once."
Starfire's tone returned to normal and she gave him a small smile "That is good Richard. I was very concerned that I was having the feelings for you whilst you were still doing the dating with Babs"
Richard breathed a heavy sigh of relief "No nothing like that, don't worry about it Star. I should have guessed that Babs would bring it up sooner or later; she always loved to tease me about stuff and to try and embarrass me. Ever since we stopped dating she became more of a sister to me than anything else"
Starfire's smile returned "Yes I can see how what she said would do the embarrassing of you" she said with giggle "She did seem like a most marvellous friend though" she stated with a smile
"Yeah she's great once she's done teasing" he paused smiling "she was always there to help me and Bruce out when we needed it. Despite Bruce never wanting help, we would have fell apart without her help. She still is Batgirl when she is needed but Bruce seems to work by himself most of the time now, Jason should fix that though and I'm sure that Batgirl will follow suit"
The residents of the manor all sat around the dining room table "So Jason, how's your training with Bruce going?" Barbara asked to break the silence
"It's going pretty well I guess, Dick's been giving me some pointers with some things but Bruce says that I'm not doing too bad. Ain't that right Bats?" Jason replied with a grin
"You are showing progress Jason" Bruce responded simply
"Yeah you're doing pretty well but don't get cocky kid. Cockiness will end up being your downfall" Richard stated with a grin
Starfire turned to look at Richard inquisitively "Richard, what is this cock and why is it being formed into a noun corresponding to the adjective?" she asked innocently "I have heard it being used before"
Richard looked at her sheepishly whilst all the other patrons smirked at her remark and Barbara was almost choking on her food "Umm I'll explain it to you later Star"
"Yeah, I bet you will" both Barbara and Jason said in unison before staring at each other and grinning at their shared taste in mockery
Richard glared at the 2 of them before Bruce changed the subject. "Dick, you and Starfire are expected to be attending the Gotham wine festival as my guests next Friday"
"Wine festival?" Richard asked confused "Were not even old enough to drink yet, so why are we going there?"
"Well the commissioner was really interested in seeing you again and so he suggested that I bring you with me to event as my personal guest; that invitation also extends to Starfire"
"Wait, Dad's going? He hasn't even mentioned it to me yet" Barbara asked in confusion
"I'm sure your dad will want you to go with him, he's probably just forgot to ask you yet" he replied simply
"Yeah I guess. It's getting late anyway so I'm gonna head off" she turned and smiled at Starfire "It was nice meeting you Starfire. I'll see you at the wine festival next week"
"I will do the looking forward to it friend!" Starfire replied with a bright smile
"I'll walk you out Babs" Richard said stepping up from his seat and following Barbara to the front door.
She stopped just before the exit and turned to him "She's a keeper, Dick. You better not mess this up" she said with a serious tone
"Trust me. I'm not planning to" he said mimicking her tone
"Good" she paused, a playful smile forming on her face "Enjoy your 'sharing a bed without the benefits'" she pondered for a moment "or 'virgin slumber party'. I could keep these going" she said with a wide grin
"Yeah thanks Babs" he said rolling his eyes "Don't worry. I will" he said pushing her out of the door with a grin and making his way back to the dining room.
End of chapter 7
Author Note's:
This chapter was much better than my original plan for chapter 7 so I'm glad I rolled with the idea. It's fun writing a different character for once and Babs is just a great character overall anyway.
I decided to sneak Silkie into the chapter as well if you noticed. I just did that to show he is there and that I haven't forgot him or anything and that he has been in the background the entire story. It's just he isn't exactly a major character and so I often forget to include him.
Also I just thought I'd clarify the ages of the characters. Richard – 18, Starfire – 18, Jason – 16, Barbara – 19
The reason for these ages is that I see the characters in the show as being roughly 16 years old except for beast boy who I think is younger at like 15 and cyborg is older than the others at about 17 or 18. And so this story is meant to be about 2 years after the show.
Also in case you were wondering, I use a lot of Americanism's in my stories so that they seem more authentic. I've read quite a few stories where the author has made reference to TV shows or foods that don't even exist in the USA and so it seems confusing and strange and so I aim to make it as authentic as possible.
Anyway hope you enjoy the chapter, if you do let me know with a review.
Next Chapter: A call from Cyborg and the wine festival
