A/N: The second, and maybe last, holiday drabble… it's only Friday night, though, but I DO have to focus on "the Peace Contract", so…
This is from and idea from The Darkest Half. I gave it a shot, though I was scared to death… You could have done it better, my friend, with more character detail, but I hope my ignorance won't show TOO much…
Even though it might seem so, this is NOT connected to the last drabble… so forget everything that happened in that! Oh, you already have? Well… good, then…! Don't mind me…! -mutters about five months-
Long enough…
It was dirty, it was dark and it was dangerous… but it was his. Nightwing stood on a rooftop, surveying a particularly nasty area of Blüdhaven, not that there were any nice ones… Nightwing… Richard smiled tightly. It still had a new ring to it, even though he had left his Robin-persona for good almost a year ago. In that time he had already built himself a name out here. Not many wanted to mess with this new hero if they could avoid it.
It was a feeling, more than a sound, which alerted him to the other man's presence, and Nightwing's smile grew wider and more feral.
"Why don't you come out and play… Slade?" he asked aloud, while turning around to face the darkness.
A deep chuckle was his first reply, before the night took form and his enemy emerged.
"Impressive. You have learned."
"It was you that taught me to watch the shadows, Slade." Richard said dryly and squared his shoulders, getting ready for the fight. "Besides, I know that you have been looking for me."
"Really? How is that?" the man cocked his head.
"I heard a rumor…" That rumor was the reason he had waited out in the open tonight. Sneaking around playing cat and mouse with this man was not what he wanted. Nightwing wanted confrontation.
"Was that the rumor you were told by that lowlife last night? Didn't you throw him into the wall a little too roughly, perhaps?"
"Do not lecture me, Slade. Why are you here?"
The man took another step closer and Nightwing blinked behind his mask. Slade was back into his Deathstroke uniform.
"To see you, of course. To see what kind of man you have become." the man drawled.
"I'm flattered. Really. Now piss off." Richard snorted.
"Really, Nightwing… no need for all this hidden hostility, is there?"
"It was hidden?" Nightwing smirked, somehow glad that the man hadn't called him Robin. Even Batman occasionally still did, and even if it was only a slip of the tongue, Richard felt like it was a blow to his independence every time.
"I thought you would be glad to see me… been a long time…"
Richard slipped his bo-staff out and extended it.
"Not long enough." he hissed.
Slade fell into a fighting stance with the ease of a tiger. A defensive one, Nightwing noted with some surprise.
"I see you haven't abandoned the staff."
"Why change what works?" Nightwing gave back.
"I'm glad you still use it. I have always considered it my gift to you."
Richard froze.
"What do you mean? I used the bo long before I ever met you!"
"That you did. And at an acceptable skill, I suppose. But when we met you started using it more. It became your number one weapon. And your skill grew…"
"That was only because you-" Richard stopped himself, but Slade finished his sentence.
"…because I used one. Yes. I studied you beforehand and came to the conclusion that the staff should be your primary weapon. It suited your agility and your build. Did you never question why I, with such a different body type from yours, fought with the same weapon? My preferred weapons are the swords, but, sadly, I can't see you as a swordsman."
The bo felt almost filthy in Nightwing's hands now, and the look of disdain on his face didn't pass Slade by.
"Saying that, you did make the weapon your own. I won't take all the credit. Don't let pride get in the way, boy. You knew I was molding you… I even told you so once."
"That you did. And then you disappeared." Nightwing attacked without any more warning. He never chatted with the criminals here. Slade had been an exception, but enough was enough.
The man blocked his attack easily and answered back. Nightwing dived under the sweep and managed to get in a hit on Slade's upper thigh, before flipping away out of reach.
"Excellent, Nightwing, very good. Remember the last time we met?"
"A demon as tall as the sky, a burnt out, post-apocalyptic world? Fire monsters? Now let me think…yes, you were in there somewhere, weren't you?" Richard smirked, trying not to acknowledge how he wanted to lap up the praise.
"Are you angry with me for leaving?" the question threw Nightwing off guard, and he paid with it when Slade's bo-staff came crashing down on his arm painfully. Painfully but not cripplingly. The man was holding back. Again.
"Angry? Me? What gave you that idea?" Richard, who was furious, growled. "Just because you left-" he swung at Slade's face, missing by a hairsbreadth, "after telling me-" this time he stabbed the staff at the man's torso, a strike that Slade sidestepped, "that everything-" thrust "was-" swipe "about-" kick "me!".
"My, my, Nightwing, yes, I would say you are a bit upset…" Slade chuckled as he blocked and ducked the young man's furious attack. "But I didn't lie. Everything is still about you."
"Shut up, Slade. Leave. You are not a part of my life anymore." the man in front of the mercenary had changed. The fury was still there, but there was…
"Control, my little bird? Finally. I'm impressed. I knew a few years of growing up would benefit you."
"I'm not your little bird."
"I beg to differ. You will always be my little bird… and I will always be able to pluck you out of the sky at my pleasure… Come now... Show your Master what else you have learned."
They fought hard. Dirty. Deadly. Slade still had an advantage in both height and bulk over Richard, and the young man marveled over the fact that he had fought this same man as a teenager. Did he have a death-wish back then?
"Again, why are you here?" Nightwing panted, as he managed to kick Slade away to a safer distance.
"Because you weren't ready back then." the man told him, calmly like he was talking about the weather with a friend.
"I was ready for anything! You left because I wasn't good enough! You didn't want me!" Nightwing snarled.
Suddenly the world exploded. The strike had come out of nowhere, and sent Richard crashing into the wall behind him.
"Believe me, you weren't ready…" a voice by Nightwing's ear suddenly growled. Richard fought desperately for the breath that had been knocked out of him, black spots swimming in front of his eyes. A large body pressed up against his. "Tell me, my little bird… would you ever have forgiven me if I stayed… when I wanted you like this?"
Nightwing gasped as he felt the man's obvious desire pressing into his stomach. Before he could regain his breath completely, a kiss stole it away again. As it ended, Nightwing found himself pinned to the wall, gulping for air, and… smiling?
"I think I would… But you left. And now… you have to make it up to me."
The End.
A/N:I'm-so-sorry-I-know-I-shouldn't-write-Nightwing-when-I-know-nothing-about-him-and-I-hope-you-can-forgive-me-for-this-crippled-character-description-I'm-sorry-and-will-go-away-and-feel-ashamed-now…. Good thing it was short, huh? See, I can do SOMETHING right? ;o)