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Gotham City

August 27, 06: 17 EDT

I panted as I evaded Clayface's muddy punches. I could hear Superboy's raging shouts, and feel Kid Flash speeding behind me. Robin grunted in pain, and it was soon followed by Miss Martian's cries.

I whirled around, turning to Clayface just in time to see him let M'Gann and Dick slump down on the floor with loud thuds. My eyes widened in realization of what he'd done, both of my friends were unconscious.

I could feel my face contorting in anger, and I took out my laser, pointing it at Clayface. I wanted to make the laser puncture every single piece of mud hanging on him, but I knew that if I did that, I would be risking the chance of hitting one of my teammates.

I clicked my tongue in annoyance when Clayface growled loudly, and came toward me, preparing himself to engage into battle with me. I got into a jumping position, and when Clayface was close enough for me to reach out to him, I flipped over him. I landed behind his greasy back.

"You want to fight?" I taunted him. "I'll give you a fight."

I grabbed my whip out of its placement on my utility belt, and lashed out at the monster. One, two, three, and four times I tried hitting him. I was able to hit my target all those times, but I couldn't do much damage.

I saw Aqualad jumping up on Clayface's back, and tried electrocuting him. Clayface started wriggling to get free, and in the process, he slapped me with such force it flew me across the room. My body hit one of the concrete walls, and I could only fall forward on my face. I was as unconscious as Miss Martian, Robin, and now, Superboy were.

How long was I out? I wasn't entirely sure, but I calculated that it was something between thirty to fifty minutes.

When I finally regained my senses, I could feel my body being carried out into a cool breeze bellowing from my right. I tried opening up my eyes, and after a few failed attempts, they fluttered up.

Superboy's strong arms were carrying me out of Miss Martian's bioship. Batman held Robin, Flash had Kid's arm wrapped around his shoulders for support, and Martian Manhunter held a limping M'Gann.

All of us, but the exception of Superboy and Kaldur, looked pretty beaten up. Let me guess, this meant another trip to the to the medical bay. I was getting sick of that place, and that was the comical irony.

"Thank you." I looked up at Superboy's clear blue eyes.

He nodded, "Are you, you know, okay?"

"Just peachy." I gave the clone a faint smile.

That's where the conversation ended. I was glad Superboy cared enough to try and start conversation, to attempt to find out how I felt; I thought it was just the kind of sweetness an older brother gave you.

When I gave Superboy the signal that I could start walking on my own now, that I could finally feel my legs, he let go of me.

My legs wobbled just a bit first, but I tried stabilizing them before anyone noticed anything and came to my aid. I didn't need their help right now; I had burdened everyone enough by having to look over my unconscious state.

When we reached the entrance of the Cave, we all hurried into the zeta beams. I could feel a grim silence settling upon the Team.

Aqualad had informed us about how Batman came into our aid after everyone had been knocked unconscious except him, though he had been very close, too. It was shameful, a Leaguer had to intervene with our mission, but there was nothing more we could do about it.

'Recognized: Robin B01.

Aqualad: B02

Kid Flash: B03

Timeless: B04

Superboy: B05

Miss Martian: B06'

As soon as we all appeared inside of the Cave, I was enveloped in Dinah's sweet-smelling blue jacket. "Thank goodness you're okay! I received a message from Batman telling me you were unconscious! Do you know how terrified I was?"

I tittered, "Mom, I'm fine! I've been unconscious a lot of times. Look, I got out of it alive, that's all that matters."

Dinah knew I was right, of course. Being alive until my twentieth birthday was a mission both her and I were trying to accomplish together, even if we never discussed it out loud.

It didn't matter how battered I got, how many punches I received, and how much suffering I had to endure. All that really counted was if I was alive until the next day.

I let go of Dinah, and the Team stood in an unorganized line, awaiting Batman's criticism on our performance.

"I need to talk to Aqualad." Batman announced. "The rest of you hit the showers and head home."

The last sentence surprised me, wasn't he going to give us a mission debrief like always?

I could hear Batman muttering a strict, "just Aqualad," behind me. I instantly knew who he was talking to, and my guess was confirmed when I felt a presence hurry to match my walking speed.

I placed a hand on Robin's shoulder. "Don't sweat it, Wonder Boy."

He sighed, and hung his head up to face the ceiling. "Whatever you say, D."

I barely encountered a situation where Dick was discouraged by Bruce's actions toward him, no matter what happened between them, they were inseparable.

Batman and Robin were the dynamic duo; they would go to interrogations and attend meetings together. I could tell that Dick has been feeling insecure about how him not being leader might affect his relationship with Bruce.

It was a silly insecurity, but I would never tell him that, just because I'd felt a similar way with Dinah before.

I gave Robin's arm a light squeeze. "You two have always been and will always be inseparable. I don't think the day will ever come where I'll see you both get into a situation that you can't fix."

Robin shook his head in amusement. "You know my thoughts way too well for it to be natural. Are you sure you don't have a super power for reading emotions?"

I gave him a breezy laugh. "I've checked. Believe me, no other powers other than time manipulation."

We ended the conversation there, as we both had to part to get to our different shower rooms. I would admit it to myself even; I had an unnaturally strong intuitive sense when it came to Dick. It might have been for the fact that I've known him longer than any of my friends, but I could never be entirely sure whenever it came to Dick.

I walked into the shower room, and waved at M'Gann as I passed by her. I quickly undressed, and turned the showerhead on.

"What a night!" I sighed contently as the hot water hit me. "I'm just glad we get to go home, even if it's a little weird not doing debriefs." I put shampoo on my hair, and massaged my head.

I could hear M'Gann let out an airy chuckle. "I know how you're feeling. My uncle J'onn and I have been going around the world on my bioship for training. I'm glad to be getting a rest."

"We all deserve a good night's sleep tonight." I let out a huge yawn as I applied conditioner next.

"Especially Wally, in my opinion. He's been complaining all week about how Flash is making him complete nine laps around the world every day." I heard the second showerhead stop letting the water run down.

I turned off the water shortly after M'Gann. "Wally is just being a baby. I've known him for a very long time, he can do fifteen laps around the world four days in a row without tiring out."

I saw M'Gann roll her eyes. "Oh, Wally."

I put on a jean skirt with a white shirt, and smirked at the Martian. "He wants to get your attention and affection." M'Gann cringed jokingly, and we both burst out laughing as we walked out of the shower room.

I saw Dick and Wally playing rock, scissors, and paper in front of the joint lockers. When Wally won, using paper to envelop Dick's rock, he nudged the younger boy toward our direction.

M'Gann gave me a mischievous wink, leaving me for her to find Superboy, and I could tell that she was in the joke, too.

"So, Diana," Dick rarely called me by my full first name. "I realized one very important thing…"

I raised my eyebrow at him, "And what is that important thing?"

Dick smiled sheepishly at me. "You're hot."

I stood in silence for a few seconds as I let that comment seep it. I could feel my cheeks starting to heat up, but I soon covered the red blush by glaring at Wally. "Stop making Rob do these types of dares. They're not funny."

Wally covered his chortles by placing a hand over his mouth. "Whatever—Whatever you say, Diana!"

I rolled my eyes at the speedster, and turned to Dick. "I'm going to go find Dinah and go home."

Suddenly, Dick's face turned to a slight panic and embarrassment. "Uh, actually, D…I was hoping that you could spent the night at my house. We could swim in the pool, see a movie…you know, the normal stuff."

I could feel a smirk start to grow on my face. "Alright, Wonder Boy, I'll go ask my mom if I can stay over." Then I leaned close to his face. "There's only one bed in your room, though, and I don't want to sleep alone."

When I pulled away I could see him go redder than I expected him to, and that just added an extra bounce on my step as I left to see Dinah. I skipped around the Cave, my skirt swinging from left to right in a hypnotic rhythm.

I reached Dinah just in time to see her packing up. "You want to order Chinese tonight?"

I brushed a loose brown strand of hair behind my ear, "Actually, I was wondering if I could go over to Robin's house. He invited me over tonight."

Dinah paused her actions, and turned to me with a knowing smile. "Have fun with him. Don't do anything that I wouldn't do at your age."

I grinned, and raised my arms up to give her a tight hug. "Thanks, mom. Tomorrow we're spending the whole day together, though."

I left the room, hurrying over to where I last saw the other thirteen year old in the Team. I found him sprawled over on the locker room's long bench. His longer frame took up one third of the metal seat, and I realized how truly tall he'd gotten in the span of almost two months.

Males and their spontaneous growth spurts.

I grabbed the red Olympics' bag from my locker, and sat down next to Dick's torso. "Alright, Wonder Boy. I'll come with you."

I could see from the corner of my eye that Dick had a goofy grin on. "What are we waiting for, then? Let's go!"

He startled me up, and together we rushed over the zeta beams. "Why are we in such a hurry?"

"I want to spend some alone time." He turned to me, and winked. I felt my cheeks heating up in realization of what he was suggesting. "Just you and me."

"Clean your mouth with soap, and get those dirty thoughts out of your brain." I slapped his arm. "They're not going to get you anywhere."

Dick just let out a breezy cackle and slung his arm around my shoulders as the zeta beam transported us to a dumpster in Gotham City. Out of all the places that Bruce could have chosen for the zeta beams to leave us, he had to choose a dumpster.

"We should go to that Waffle House that's open twenty-four/ seven." I spoke up, wrapping my arm around Dick's waist. "I haven't eaten in about six hours. I'm starving!"

Dick squeezed my shoulders, "Whatever you say, D."

I tried pressing my nose closer to his neck in an attempt to block out the smell of rotten eggs and dirty socks. I felt Dick's chest vibrate up and down in my failing mission. I could still smell the dead fish.

I cringed in disgust, and Dick released a new wave of laughter. I was so relieved when we got out of the dumpster that I threw my head back and joined in with the cackles.

As we walked down Gotham City's pavement, we got lasting looks from some of the older men and women. A mother and a father had even stopped us once to tell us about how cute we seemed all wrapped up with each other.

That comment just made us look at each other, our faces red, and let out embarrassed chuckles. Dick assured them that we weren't really together, but we were close friends.

"Really? Well, it doesn't seem like it." The mother answered before the couple walked off with smirks on their faces.

"That was awkward." Dick smiled down at me.

"No kidding." I rolled my eyes with a grin.

We soon reached the Waffle House, and we entered to let in the air conditioning wash over us in waves. We were soon seated, the waiter's eyes widening as he recognized the local millionaire's adoptive son, Dick Grayson.

Dick and I looked at each other as we sat across from the other, and nodded in agreement. We didn't need to talk; we already knew that we were going to share a plate of five waffles.

"You know what I noticed?" Dick asked as he gave our menus to the waiter. I shook my head in confusion. "We haven't hung out in almost a week!"

My tapped my chin, "Really? That seems like much more time than how it felt like."

Dick nodded, "I know! We hang out almost everyday, you know, with seeing each other at school and going to our extra curricular activities. No wonder this week seemed less whelming than usual."

I brushed the brown hair out of my face, "Hmm, now that you mention it…Yeah, it seemed less asterous than normal."

Dick smiled at me, "Tomorrow, the day after that, and most of the days after that we're going to be hanging out together. I want to make up for the lost time."

"Can we go fishing, then?" I questioned him, a tentative look on my face.

"Uh, fishing?" Dick repeated. "Why would you want to go fishing? You just wait around for hours on a boat."

"Never tried it." I shrugged in response.

Dick's lips widened to a teasing smirk, "All right. We'll go fishing, Miss Boredom."

I glared at him, "Do you really want to get into this argument, Bird Brain?"

Luckily, before Dick could reply, the waiter came with our drinks and waffles on a tray. Instantly, I heard my stomach let out an unnecessarily loud growl.

The waiter looked at me with wide eyes, "I don't think I took that long in serving the food to you!"
I sucked in my stomach to stop it from growling, "I haven't eaten in six hours! I have an excuse!"

Dick rolled his eyes, "Just set down the plate in front of her, please."

As soon as the waiter left I looked up from my waffles to find the maple syrup and the sugar. I sprinkled in as much from both as I could handle without going into an extreme sugar rush.

I looked at Dick, daring him to challenge my authority with the condiments on the waffles. He slowly, and sneakily took one of the waffles out of my pile, the one with the most sugar and syrup.

I slapped his hand away, and gave him the second waffle on the pile, taking the one in his position for myself.

"Talk about being selfish." Dick muttered.

"Excuse me, Bird Boy? I can rip your head off with this fork." I threatened him.

Dick snickered, "As if you would ever hurt me!"

I smirked, "You want to test that theory?"

Instantly Dick's eyes widened in realization. I was being serious here. I could rip his head off with a fork, and in less than ten minutes, too. He started wolfing down his waffles to not have to answer me.

"I didn't think so." I squeezed his cheek before eating my own food.

We were done with our food after only twenty minutes, but we stayed an extra thirty chatting about nothing in particular. We switched topics from the Team, to music, and to what we'd been doing this past week that we weren't together.

I still found it odd that we had barely seen each other lately. I missed Dick's quirky remarks like whelming and turbed.

When we thought it had gotten pretty late, it was eight o'clock, and that we should call Alfred to pick us up to go to the manor if we wanted to watch at least three movies, we left the restaurant.

We had told Alfred that we would meet him in front of the Waffle House, but we deduced that he would take about thirty minutes to come pick us up, so we went for a stroll.

It probably wasn't a smart idea to walk around the streets of Gotham City at night, but we didn't really care.

Why would we when we could kick any criminal's butts?

Soon enough, there was a scream that echoed all around us. The civilians just looked at each other in guilt and dread, but since it happened so often here in Gotham, they didn't do anything about the obvious girl's plea for help.

Dick and I nodded in agreement.

Without alerting anyone that we were up to anything, we quickly walked the opposite direction of everyone; they were running away from the shout. A man looked at us as if we were crazy, but we didn't meet his eyes.

We were on a mission, and nothing was going to stop either of us.

When there weren't any other people around the certain spot of the road where there came another shriek, Dick put on his sunglasses in an attempt to hide his identity.

I took out my whip, and Dick took out his birdarangs. We ran down an alleyway where we found six silhouettes. Five men, three big and burly, one extremely skinny, and the other normal sized, were surrounding a girl in the middle.

"What's wrong, sweetheart?"

"We just want your money!"

"Mwah, mwah!"

Instantly, my skin prickled with goose bumps and I ran toward the girl they were harassing. "Hey! Over here!"

The men turned to me and the apparent leader smirked, "What's this, more money? Ooh, and she has quite the nice body, too!"

I growled deep in my throat and moved to punch the lights out of the older man. Before I could knock him out, though, the light brown haired girl sneaked a punch on his ribs, and gave him a kick.

Together, her and I, we kicked and punched at the five men. I decided to let the girl get her revenge and lash out at three of the men while I took out two. Dick just watched us from afar, and I could tell that he was quietly cackling from his spot.

He knew we didn't need his help. I appreciated that.

When everyone was on the floor, unconscious, I turned to the girl. She stood in the middle of the men, furiously panting. Her light green eyes held a deadly spark on them, like she knew she could knock out anyone who messed with her.

I believed she could do it.

"You okay?" I placed a hand on her shoulder. "You were almost stolen from, and maybe even…you know."

The girl seemed to be about my age so she nodded, understanding what I meant. "I'm fine. Thanks for the help. If you hadn't arrived when you did, well, this alley would have held a lot of memories for me!"

I smiled at her attempt to lighten up the situation. "What's your name?"

"I'm Katie. What's yours?"

I hesitated for a moment, "I'm Diana."

"Well, Diana. It's been nice knocking five men unconscious with you, but I got to get going. My mom is going to get worried if I don't arrive soon. Thanks for all the help! Tell your friend that he's lazier than me. He didn't help us at all!" Katie rolled her eyes before hurrying out of the alley; her small height didn't let her travel that far.

I walked over to Dick, "We should get going, too, Lazy Bum. Alfred is going to come pick us up soon."

Dick rolled his eyes, "I wasn't being lazy. I was letting you two get your revenge on the men who were trying to harass you."

I smirked, "Sure you were, Bird Boy. Whatever you say."

We walked side by side in silence back to the Waffle House. I was wondering if Katie was going to get into more trouble tonight, if she was going to be safe. I now knew she could take care of herself, though. She demonstrated that enough.

"Master Richard, Miss Crane. Where were you?" Alfred spoke up from his spot next to the small limousine.

"We, uh, ran into some trouble." Dick smirked, winking at me jokingly.

"Nothing to worry about, Alfred." I shrugged, returning the wink.

Alfred smiled knowingly at us, "I'm glad you returned safe, then."

The three of us got into the car, and Alfred drove away to Wayne Manor. Dick and I made small talk during the ride, but we were mostly looking out of the window.

At one point, Dick leaned his head on my shoulder. When I looked down at him, his eyes were closed and his breathing was even. He had fallen asleep. Something about the way of how the boy who could kill anyone with just two punches sleeping peacefully, and looking so innocent, was amazing.

He looked like his parent's death hadn't happened, like he never got any special training from the best detective in the world, and like he'd never gotten hurt.

It was nice to watch him in such a childlike state.

"Miss Crane, may I ask you something?" Alfred looked in my eyes through the rearview mirror. I nodded. "Do you like Master Dick?"

I looked down at the raven-haired boy leaning onto me, "You probably know the answer to that already. You're a very smart man, Alfred."

"You do fancy him, then. I believe you two should be together." Alfred smiled.

"You know his feelings almost better than anyone. He doesn't feel the same." I looked away and into the night sky.

I could hear the smile still on Alfred's face, "If it makes you feel any better, Miss Crane, I believe you two would be perfect for the other."

I sighed, and a sad grin broke out. "Thanks, Alfred."

We rode in silence after that short conversation. I knew that my feelings were safe with Alfred. He would never tell anyone unless I asked him to do it.

When we drove past the Wayne Manor's gates and got into the spacious garage, I begrudgingly tapped Dick's face. He moved slightly, but it was just to snuggle closer to my neck.

I could feel my face start to heat up as his breath started tickling my collarbone. I let out an airy chuckle to try and calm my nerves, "Dick, common. We're here. You need to wake up!"

"Just a little while longer." Dick muttered without opening his eyes.

I smirked, "There's no 'little while longer'! You invited me here. You have to play a good host and show me to my room and all that."

Dick groaned, and wrapped his arms around my back. "You've been here more times than I can count. You know your way around the manor, and all. We can get to that later, though. I just want to sleep now."

"You do know that you can go and sleep in your room, right?"

"Just a little while longer."

A hesitant silence filled the car. I could see Alfred giving me a wink from where he stood outside of the garage.

Stay there for as long as you want. Turn off the car when you get out. Alfred mouthed and went away, probably about to tell Bruce about my current situation with Dick.

I sighed, "Fine, then. We can stay this way just a little longer. Please be a gentleman, though, and let my head lean on your shoulder. Not the other way around."

Dick chuckled and moved his head away, and I situated myself on his shoulder. Soon enough, he rested his head on mine.

I liked this. I liked when we got like this. When we got so very close to each other, but never too close.

It left my heart pumping, and by head whirling in affection toward this boy. It was times like this when I sometimes thought that Dick liked me the way that I did him.

Then again, my insecurities would eat up that significant thought.

I hated my insecurities.