Author's note: Disclaimer - I own nothing.
Thank you for all the incredibly kind reviews, and I have some good news I hope, at least for Batmam. Although this was only ever meant to be a series of fun one shots, I have always had something bigger planned. I have already started writing a full story involving the characters, but which will have much more detail to it. It's going to be a crossover, (I think a few of you may have noticed that Shaun and Rebecca are borrowed from the assassin's creed series) and I will start posting it shortly after I finish this series of one shots, which only has one more chapter to go, I'm sure you're glad to hear. I hope to start posting chapters for the full story around mid October.
Spring had sprung, and Dick was loving it; after he'd got home from work he'd had time for a long nap before heading out for the night, and because it was Valentine's day, the only people out and about where young couples in love, and old couples adhering to tradition. Dick had even seen a couple of crooks he recognised out and about romancing their partners. It was both nauseating and disturbing.
If Dick was completely honest with himself, he may have been slightly bitter that Babs was out of the country with the Birds of Prey.
But he was happy that things were so calm around the city; if this were Gotham, he'd have been rushed off his feet with Super-villains trying to mark the occasion with spates of murder. Last year the Calendar Killer had murdered fourteen couples who had gotten engaged that day. The year before that Poison Ivy had used everyone she caught giving cut flowers to their partners for compost. The only disaster for Dick this year was that Barbara wouldn't get his card until the seventeenth.
Dick ran over the roofs, able to stick to his patrol route, without being dragged away by emergencies for once. He stopped one mugging, and was about to jump down to confront a man who was following a woman on her way home from work, until the man stopped her outside a park, and pulled out a ring. She said yes, and Dick moved on.
To be perfectly honest, Dick wasn't sure what to do with himself. This was the quietest night Blüdhaven had seen in months; Dick briefly entertained the idea of going over some cold case files back in his apartment, before he realised there was a much greater mystery he wanted to solve.
Dick headed South, taking his time to make sure everything was okay on the ground. He watched one woman thrust a bunch of roses back in the face of a man who was getting too handsy… with a fist wrapped round them. He stood ready to intervene as she turned on her heel and stalked away. She was fine though; she left her would be wooer on the floor licking his wounds, but Dick still took the time to drop down and remind the man that him buying a woman a present left her with no obligation to him.
Dick did appreciate people who stuck up for themselves. It made his job much more entertaining, if not any easier.
But with refreshingly few problems, Nightwing found himself at his destination. He stopped on the roof over the road from his target. He lay flat on the edge of the roof, and settled down to do some reconnaissance.
Only the two people he wanted to see were in the area. That should make his job much easier. The pair seemed to be at ease, casually leaning on the same counter, chatting. Unfortunately they both had their backs to Dick, making lip reading their conversation impossible.
Dick waited patiently for one on them to slip up. Be it body language, or some other seemingly insignificant action, there would be something that would give Nightwing the proof he needed. It was just a matter of waiting.
The pair reached a lull in their conversation, and she turned away to grab some bleach. The moment her back was turned, the man made his move, and grabbed something he'd stashed in a cupboard.
She turned around suddenly to face him, and her face was drawn into an exclamation of shock. She took a step back from him, and then… took the single red rose from his outstretched hands.
Dick smiled to himself; he loved being right.
He made to get up from his perch, then stopped in his tracks. She gave a mock curtsy, before tossing the flower carelessly on the counter. She made no move to put it in water, and seemed perfectly content to let his token of affection wither and die.
Okay, so he was in love with her, but she didn't feel the same way.
Nightwing was ready to be on his way, and leave them in peace. But just as he decided that, she swooped in to kiss him on the cheek, as she moved past him. Clearly his declaration of love hadn't actually been awkward and unwanted. Dick saw her say thanks, before she turned around to put something in the trash.
Dick was finally satisfied that they were happy together, just not comfortable with pda's. But the next minute, something she said set him off, and he spent the next four minutes gesturing wildly at her, and probably shouting, judging by the way his face was turning steadily purple. Nobody in a functioning relationship would talk to their partner like that. For the first time he began to get seriously worried. A temper like that was never a good thing.
Fifteen minutes of varying degrees of intimacies later, and the highly trained vigilante ran out of patience, and stormed across the road to confront the pair.
"Are you dating or not?!" Nightwing demanded.
Rebecca snorted, and Shaun let out a short derisive burst of laughter.
"You're the detective, work it out," Shaun said. "We don't discuss our private lives with customers," he chided. Nightwing was ready to snap back, when Rebecca reached under the counter, and pulled out another rose.
"We had a sneaking suspicion you'd show up," Rebecca said, passing it to Dick. He mimicked her curtsy from earlier, before tucking it behind his ear. He regretted it slightly, when he realised it hadn't been de-thorned.
"Now get out," Shaun said, making a shooing motion at Dick. "We're closing up early tonight."
Dick followed his orders without a fight, deciding that following them to see where they went, especially after he'd already revealed himself, would be more than a little awkward if they spotted him.
Dick decided it was best to go back to his flat; the cold case files were still waiting, or he could just get a decent night's sleep. He also had to put his gift in a vase.