I'm back! Sorry about the wait, writers block is a bitch. Anyway, this one is probably my longest one yet so enjoy. Don't worry, the Batman thing will be cleared up but other stuff has to happen first. Thank you for all of your reviews especially xXRandomnessXx. I am grateful for the information on the newer characters; I didn't really know that well before.
Disclaimer: Young justice is not mine.
The team was dressed in their street clothes. Asha was glad of this opportunity, because it gave her an insight on the person's personality. Firstly, instead of his yellow and red spandex, he was now dressed in blue baggy jeans, red converse and a red hooded top. His mask was gone, exposing his freckles. He had an arm wrapped around a tall blonde girl. Her skin was a few shades darker than her boyfriend's? Asha flinched as she heard a high pitched noise in her head then relaxed when she heard M'gann's voice in her mind,
"That's Artemis, she's an archer. And yes, she and Wally are dating." The connection ended and Asha moved on with her analysis of the team. Her eyes landed on a fairly huge dude who she could immediately place as Superboy, with no help from M'gann. He was dressed in dark green cargo pants with a three quarter sleeved black shirt. He wore the trousers tucked into his military style boots. It reminded Asha of what her friend's father, who had been a sergeant in the army, used to wear. He was scowling to himself but his body language suggested he was angry towards M'gann for some reason. Anyway moving on. Her eyes were just about to settle on her favourite person at the moment but a small, green blob burst into the room. That same green blob smacked into Asha full on and knocked her to the floor, taking the blob with her. When Asha's vision stopped swimming, she looked at her assailant. First she saw bright green eyes, then a pale green face framed by dark green hair. The boy, she had decided, got off her stomach and was waving his hands frantically, trying to get out the words 'I'm sorry'.
Asha cocked her head to the side at the sight of the boy's monkey like appearance and tail. Wally was currently having a laughing fit on the floor, Artemis was laughing at her boyfriend and even Superboy cracked a smile at the flustered Beast Boy. Nightwing went over and patted Beast Boy on the head muttering 'don't worry', making the boy stop talking. Taking Asha by the hand, Nightwing pulled her to her feet.
"Thanks. Hi I'm Asha, what's your name?" Asha turned back to the monkey boy. Her tone was sweet but not patronising.
"My name is Garfield. But my superhero name is Beast Boy." He muttered quickly, trying not to stare at the girl's eyes. After an awkward silence, Beast boy turned to M'gann and gave her literal puppy eyes whilst speaking,
"I want to come with you guys for pizza. Please can I come?" M'gann and the rest of the people in the room were shocked at the cuteness and wanted to cave right away but looked toward Nightwing, who was to decide due to the boy's unique appearance. The teen paused, left the room for a few minutes then reappeared with a small, clunky bracelet. Nightwing slipped it onto the twelve year old's wrist then pressed a button. A few seconds later the boy was transformed from a green monkey to the pale skinned, orange haired twelve year old human boy he was before his mutation. He stared at his hands, turning them around under the surprised gaze of the others. Nightwing grinned wildly at the happy look on Garfield's face.
"Wow thank you, but what about Asha?" He said, green eyes landing on the slitted, sunset eyes of his teammate. Asha smiled at his consideration and pulled a pair of sunglasses out of her bag. Garfield nodded then went to stand next to M'gann. Taking this as a cue to get going, Wally grabbed the keys for his favourite car, Asha didn't know the make, and climbed in the driver's seat. Artemis childishly called shotgun while M'gann and Garfield climbed in the back.
That left Asha, Nightwing and the scowling Superboy to take the other car. With Superboy driving, Nightwing in shotgun and Asha behind, it was a quiet drive. This meant someone had to switch the radio on, as social protocol demands in awkward silences. Nightwing flicked a switch and music filled the silence. He recognised the song as one of his favourites by fall out Boy.
While he gently bobbed his head gently, he could hear a faint singing coming from behind him. It made him smile.
Asha sang along with the words quietly. 'We're goin' down, down in an earlier round. Sugar we're goin' down swinging," Nightwing revelled in hearing her voice in person. His inner fanboy hadn't cottoned onto the fact that not even an hour ago they had been holding hands and that she was living at the mountain now.
Superboy was taking side glances at his teammate. In all his time on the team he had never seen the younger boy quite as shy and nervous as he was around the new girl. He would admit she was by anyone's standards beautiful. She had a small build, maybe about five foot four and was slender. But for a seventeen year old she was *ahem* well developed. Superboy noticed the way she was looking at the team's current leader that there might be another couple in the mountain soon. In fact, he would be willing to bet on it.
After almost crashing into the car in front, which was coincidentally Wally and the others, they made it to their regular pizza place. They grabbed a table outside and Superboy went inside to get their usual. Asha was about to sit next to Nightwing but was summoned over to sit between M'gann and Artemis. She wouldn't admit it but Asha preferred where she was sitting now, it was easier to see him. She noticed that he wore sunglasses, like her. This made her inwardly frown, since he had the most amazing blue eyes.
Wally suddenly turned his attention to their newest black haired female teammate.
"So Asha, tell us about life before the accident." Although shocked by such a direct question Asha was fine with it, as opposed to Nightwing, M'gann and Artemis staring at him with faces of horror. It was at this point that Superboy came with everyone's drinks.
"Well I'm half German on my Dad's side. German is my second language after English. I grew up in London with my paternal grandmother. I am-was in a band, we could have gotten really famous if not for the accident. That night we had played a sold out show in Gotham city." Asha paused to take a sip of her drink. Garfield was looking puzzled, due to the constant mentioning of an 'accident', what was this accident?
"Asha, what was 'the accident' you keep speaking of? Is it why you have cat eyes?" Everyone, including Asha took in a deep breath. In truth, all of them were curious as to what had happened. Only Nightwing knew some of the details.
"Well I had just finished performing with my band when I was tranquilized in an alley by our hotel. They took me to this place where they experimented on me, joining my DNA with the DNA of many different species of snake. I was held for seven months, in which I developed infrared vision, the ability to feel vibration more acutely, I am also super flexible and I have fangs which I can use to inject people with venom. Wanna see?" Asha could see the looks on everyone's faces that they wanted to see.
Asha looked around to make sure the coast was clear then opened her mouth slowly. When it got to a certain point, the two thick white needles swung down from their sheaths and into their position at the front of her mouth. The whole team was in awe at this girl's secret. Although her eyes were astounding, these fangs were something else. Asha pushed them back up and sipped her drink nervously, as all eyes were still on her. Breaking the silence, Superboy got up to get their food while conversation resumed at the table. Garfield was still staring at Asha, contemplating questions in his head.
"Hey Asha, you said you were in a band, what did you do?" Asha smiled,
"I was the singer and I played bass guitar." The boys face lit up,
"Would you sing for us, one day?" Asha nodded, not afraid to sing for her new friends. This seemed to keep his curious mind calm for now. It was Nightwing's turn now. He was getting fidgety.
"Hey, have you seen your band mates since you got out?" He asked quickly, he really wanted to know if they would reform but it would be insensitive to just come straight out with it.
"Yeah I met up with James and Dan just after I got out. They told me that the crew and Adam had," She covered Garfield's ears "pissed off back home after the first few weeks" Garfield swatted her hands away with an amused, 'Hey'.
"I suppose it could be a possibility that we could reform but not for a while. They've gone home now because the record label ditched us." She said sadly. Silence filled until Superboy and the pizza arrived then everybody dug in.
The afternoon passed with laughs and no more talk of Asha's past. They did however fill her in on their past adventures and mishaps. As the sun was beginning to dip at around four thirty pm, everyone was talking about leaving. Just as they left the table, Nightwing came and stood next to Asha. Grinning like a fool he said,
"Wanna go for a walk? You haven't seen enough of the city." Asha blushed then nodded.
"Do you want me to leave the car?" Superboy said, taking the car keys out of his pocket. Nightwing shook his head,
"I wanted to show her the alternative way of getting to the mountain, for us lazy people who don't like walking and can't fly." He said, still grinning. Superboy understood and walked over to the car. With a quick wave he got in and drove away.
When both cars had left, the pair started walking down the street. It was silence, a comfortable silence for awhile but soon Nightwing's nerves got the better of him,
"I'm sorry you must be exhausted after today, we should have just gone back." He stumbled through his words, making Asha shake her head.
"So you don't want to walk with me?" She said with an eyebrow raised, she knew he did but she found it cute and amusing how he got so flustered.
"Nonono that's not what I meant...ah," Asha silenced him,
"I'm joking and I want to be here. I'm not tired honestly." Relief spread across the hero's face. The silence resumed as they continued their walk. They were about to turn down a dimly lit street when Asha stopped. It took him a few seconds to notice she wasn't following but when he did, Nightwing turned and looked at her with concern. Her face was a mask of fear. She was standing, looking wide eyed at the buildings on the other side of the street.
"It's over there, the place where they kept me. I ran across these rooftops to get away." She mumbled, not taking her eyes off the large, decrepit building seven buildings down. It looked like an abandoned apartment building. He narrowed his eyes. If Asha hadn't been with him now, he would investigate but he would have to save that for after he got her home.
"Asha we have to walk down this street ok? There is no other way to get to where we're going." The girl in question shook her head vigorously. She was beginning to shiver, though not from the cold.
"What if they see me and take me back? I can't go back." Her breath hitched, on the verge of an all out sob. Nightwing had a plan to get her past the building, one that his inner fanboy seconded.
Nightwing walked up the almost hysterical girl and wrapped an arm around her waist. He then turned her head so it was faced away from the building and into his jacket. Asha felt her eyes close and she calmed down.
"Right, now we're going to walk down the street," He pulled her closer when she tried to pull away, knowing her pain would be over sooner if they just got to the zeta beam teleporter he knew was in this area. They started walking, slowly. To anyone watching, which is what Asha was afraid of; they were just a couple walking down the street.
They turned down an Alley and toward an old payphone. Nightwing unwrapped his arm from Asha's waist and was surprised when her arms didn't let go of his torso, she did however, look up at him from behind her glasses. Asha's lifted a hand to her face, taking off her sunglasses, hooked them on her top then reached up and took the sunglasses off her companion. Bright blue eyes stared back, making her break into a smile,
"People don't wear sunglasses at night silly." Nightwing smiled also, but it made him think. Batman always told him not to reveal his secret identity to the team but now that he was his own person, did that mean he could tell the team, or at least show them what he looked like without glasses. Maybe that was the first step,
"Hey, are you still there blue-eyes?" Asha joked, burying her face in his jacket again. Nightwing grinned then opened the payphone door before pulling them both inside. Both were blushing at the lack of room in the small space before a code was entered, filling the booth with light.
Light was all Asha could see behind her closed eyelids. She wrapped her arms tighter around her companion then felt herself being pulled forward, forcing her to walk. Then she heard a voice,
"Recognized Nightwing...Recognized No name" Called a robotic voice from over head. Asha opened her eyes to see herself back at the mountain. She let go of Nightwing and turned to see where they had come from. It was a circular machine, very Stargate looking.
"No name...really?" She asked Nightwing, hands on hips. He shrugged,
"I asked Wally to set you up with an ID under the title, No name until you come up with a name. Hey it's better than being shot on sight by our defense system here in the mountain." Asha nodded in understanding then yawned.
"Not exhausted huh?" Nightwing joked, only to be met with a meek 'Shut up'. He offered his arm, which she leaned on, yawning again. He walked her back to her room then announced he would be staying in his room, which was three doors down from hers. He said he'd be back in a few minutes before going to his room to change into pyjamas.
When the door closed, Asha was tempted to just face plant into her pillow but then remembered that sleeping in jeans isn't nice. So she sluggishly changed into black cotton shorts and a baggy ACDC t-shirt. Just as she pulled the t-shirt over her stomach, there was a knock at the door. Nightwing was back, this time dressed in baggy shorts and one of her bands t-shirts. It was black with a multicoloured t-rex shredding on an axe guitar. It made Asha remember when they saw the design for it, courtesy of drummer Dan.
"I just want to clear this up now. I swear our drummer wasn't high when he drew the design for that." She said, poking the t-rex. They laughed lightly.
"Stop trying to change the subject. You need to sleep. Go on." He said. Asha pouted then climbed under the covers.
"Happy?" She said stubbornly. Nightwing nodded and was about to turn out the light and leave when Asha spoke again.
"Wait, come here." She motioned for him to stand next to her bed. Then, rising until they were at eye level, she was kneeling on her bed; Asha wrapped her arms around his neck.
"Thank you for everything."Asha muttered into his neck. Before any reply could be given, Asha lifted her head and put her lips to Nightwing's cheek. She could feel the blush rising across his cheeks. Then she let go and sat back down. Without making eye contact, she called 'Goodnight'. Nightwing said it back, turned the light off and shut the door.
His mind was reeling. He was just kissed on the cheek by the girl of his dreams. That band had gotten him through some tough times and now he was sleeping three doors down from her. He knew then that breaking away from Batman and helping Asha would be one of the best things he'd ever done.
That night, both teens slept through the night without nightmares, both knowing that things were going to get better.
Got a little bit more fluff there. I had planned for this to give Asha some back story but the team needed to know what happened so maybe next time. Also I haven't seen many episodes with Beast boy in so I made him act like any other twelve year old. I can't say for sure when the next chapter will be up but I'll try and make it quicker than last time.
That last bit was rather cheesy wasn't it? Oh well, review please it makes me happy and gets you quicker updates.
Ps. This just hit 3000 words BOO-YA.