Dick closed his eyes for a second. Beyond his door, the ruckus of the team's activities filled the tower. The kitchen was going at full speed, the oven cooking a chicken, the stovetop handling pasta and sauce, and the countertop carrying a chopped salad, it's toppings, and two loaves of bread. The living room was a scattering of various games, group chats, and a few solo readers.

A few of the newer teammates were already picking at the salad and bread. They usually slipped out early. Being taken care of and heading to bed first, while the adults enjoyed the quiet night.

Dick was coming back from two back to back solo missions and his task list was still full. It almost pulled him back in but the younger members needed to see him. He opened his eyes and stepped out into the hall.

A few of the new recruits greeted him, while the others quietly waited for him to approach. One of the more eager members' brought up a data analysis method she was planning on implementing on a string of crimes. It snapped Dick's mind back to the last mission. There were a few pieces of data he had meant to rescan. He had thought of it while writing up his report, but by the end of it, he had forgotten about the seemingly insignificant items. However, they might not be insignificant if looked at in a new light.

Dick's eyes flicked down to his water bottle, going over the small plan several times before he looked back up. Thanks to Dick's mindless nodding, the girl had moved on to her practice regiment. She was concerned she didn't have enough practice fighting multiple people at the same time. They had all been primarily practicing one-on-one.

"That's a good point," Dick chimed in, cutting off her string. She beamed in response. "I'll talk to Star tonight and then tomorrow morning, how about we meet up and I'll assess your one-on-one skills before we develop a new plan?"

"That would be helpful. I could really use a new perspective. Thank you."

Dick smiled before using the chance to break away.

"See you tomorrow."

"Yes, sir. Tomorrow."

As soon as he pivoted, his smile fell. Tomorrow morning he had a few people to check in with, something that should probably be handled before meeting the girl. Next, though, he had to meet with Star and go over the girl's concerns.

He ran into two more people and made two more promises to meet the next day before even making it to Star. His old flame took the opinion well and agreed to look back over her future week's plans.

"Thank you, I can look over them with you if you want?"

Star eyed him for a few seconds, took a long sigh, and agreed.

"Sure, what about tomorrow night?"

"I can do it tomorrow afternoon. I'm going to meet with Cy around 11 am, it should last an hour to an hour and 15 minutes. Then we can..."

"Tomorrow evening works for me," Star cut in.

Dick nodded. That would give him time to knock out a proposal he just got in.

"Join us for dinner?" Star motioned towards the table in the corner where the other original three were sitting.

"Mhm," he nodded and followed along, still mentally allotting the next days' hours and revisiting each item he needed to do.

Throughout dinner, he kept his mind halfway on his teammates' conversation, halfway on tomorrow's items, and halfway on the past two trips. Nothing they were saying was really sinking it, none of it immediately struck him as important.

Till a green finger on a glass flicked in front of him. Gar redid the gesture, all the while facing and talking with Cy. Dick's mind emptied in an instant and he thought of the last time Gar had used the sign. After a pause, Gar glanced over to him, their eyes meeting for a second. Long enough for Gar to raise an eyebrow and smirk. Raven added to the conversation and Gar's eyes left to focus on her.

The topics ranged from the new block of stores under the finished apartment complex to new movies coming out. Sure, nothing really important but now Dick was listening and enjoying it. The first second he caught Gar looking at him, he tapped his pinky finger twice. After remaining engaged for few more seconds, he let himself look directly at Gar just as Gar was looking away. The man's smile was wider than it should be for what Star was saying and it melted Dick.

His mind went completely blank, except for the thought of their night together. The grip on his water bottle slackened, the bouncing leg stilled and even stretched out, and his jaw finally relaxed. Eventually, something Star said caught his attention and delighted him enough to pull out a laugh. It was the first time he had really laughed in several weeks, maybe months.

As the night wore on, people broke off one at a time. Gar was the second one to leave and it gave Dick enough doubt to cause him to call it a night. Perhaps they were communicating the same thing and he should get to his room as quickly as possible, or he was wrong. Either way, he had nowhere else to be.

After 20 minutes of trying to get back into his work, he scanned his desk. On each piece of paper, he had written something different, from the leftover tasks accrued during the past weeks, to the meetings he had planned tomorrow. Each one carried it's own small weight, gathering up as they were read and reread till the only thing he could do was stare at them.

Forcing himself to push away from the desk, he commanded his computer to set a wake-up alarm and turned to the bathroom. The cape fell half-way into the hamper before sliding out and resting on the floor. The shirt was blindly tossed back towards the same general area. Tomorrow's problems.

Before his foot could make the next step, a rope slipped around his wrists and pulled him against the poll next to the bathroom door. It was too quick for him to react and the only thing he managed to do was tilt his head forward enough to prevent a concussion. Twisting his wrists, he tested the rope quietly. No one was visibly in the room but if he could keep his release secret it could give him an upper hand.

He gave it two more seconds before yelling at the computer.

"Computer. There..."

A hand slapped over his mouth and a laughing figure appeared in front of him.

"Shhh," Gar laughed, "you'll ruin the fun."

"Where have you been?" Dick hissed.

"Aww, I'm touched, it almost sounds like you missed me."

Dick struggled against his restraints again, pulling his wrists till the rope started to bite into his skin. The pole wasn't that wide and he turned his head from the green smirk to look at the knots he was fighting against. A light nibble at the exposed length of his neck immediately stilled him. Gar gave him another harder bite before licking over his mark.

"Fuck," Dick groaned, letting his head fall back. Just like at dinner, his whole body relaxed. He was literally stuck to this pole and Gar was going to prevent him from doing or even thinking about any sort of work. He could just let it all go for a few hours.

Dick jumped as Gar's mouth eagerly began exploring his lower abdomen, going lower as he pulled Dick's pants off. The ropes prevented Dick from really stopping Gar and he actually let out another laugh. He hoped this could last as long as possible and instinctively wanted to stop Gar from making him cum so quickly. But Dick wasn't in control and it made it even harder to last as Gar continued down.

"How the hell did you even have time to set these things up?" Dick said, pulling on the ropes for emphasis.

"Who said I did it today?" Gar answered, his warm breath dancing over Dick's wet skin.

Dick's eyes darted to every dark corner in his room.

"How many of these did you set up in here?"

Gar took his time removing all of Dick's clothes before making his way back up to stand before his captured lover.

"Enough to calm you down for the next few weeks."

Dick's laugh fell short as his glance fell on his mountain of paperwork. He didn't have weeks.

Gar pulled his attention partly back with a long kiss.

"What?" he murmured, kissing Dicks neck again. This time the small bites didn't loosen Dick's body and Gar stood back up.

"Would you be up for another mission with me?"

"Possibly."

"I promise not to be an absolute ass." Dick gave a crooked smile. Both of them already doubting his words.

Gar laughed lightly before kissing Dick again.

"I promise to continue to be an absolutely great partner," Gar answered, fully wrapping his hand around Dick's cock.

A/N - Thank you to everyone that stuck around! I'll primarily be moving to my own site ( ) from now on, but might be coming back from time to time for short stories :) - TnE