He lunged, I dodged, his fist swung, I ducked. I realised with more than a little self-triumph that I had gotten better. A lot better.

And Nightwing knew it.

For the first time since we began sparring I saw a single bead of sweat streak across his frowning brow. His breathing was strained as I danced away from each move, he couldn't get a single hit, I was just too fast for him.

Sadly though, this satisfaction was going to be short lived as I could feel the cool stone wall of the Cinadome becoming closer and closer to me. Nightwing was backing me into it, preventing any escape. I attempted to dodge left, intending to spin him around and give me more room but he guessed that I'd do that. I had no choice but allow him to trap me.

I was half a metre from the wall when I realised that the time for dodging was long over. Sweat made my loose white shirt stick to my back; my hair clung to my moist neck. My breathing changed to pants.

In a fatal attempt to counter attack I used the energy from locking his arm to lunge forward. My fist hurtling towards his chest.

He easily blocked, more than blocked, his skilled hands clamped around my wrist and using my own force threw me against the wall my stronger arm pinned above my head by his steel grip.

In a final attempt to get out of my predicament I threw my left fist at his head, only to have it pinned in the same way except by my waist.

I blinked a few times, trying to clear my mind from fight mode. I'd lost the spar after all, and I'm sure Nightwing was going to give me hell for allowing myself to be in this position. I looked up, but the cocky line died in my throat.

I hadn't noticed how close we were standing. His lean, muscled body leaned heavily on mine, our legs chests and arms all pressed hotly together. I could feel his racing pulse crash with my own. His chest heaved as he tried to catch his breath. He'd bowed his head to make eye contact. I could see nothing around his face. Since our night out I couldn't get his newly realised attractiveness out of my head. It seemed to always be there in the back of my mind, humming to me in moments like this during our sessions.

Our proximity didn't seem to bother him though, as those pale lips broke into a smile, mere centimetres from my own. I really needed to get a grip.

"Now look and what you've got yourself into," that infuriating tone he uses when looking down his nose at me seeped into his voice. "You should have rolled about fifty paces back."

I gritted my teeth and allowed the acid to flow freely into my next words. "Of course Nightwing, let me just go and find – I dunno – a mentor or something to teach me how to roll out of that sort of situation... oh wait! That would be your job."

Anger sparked in those glowing blue eyes.

"And here I thought you were progressing. Seems that your lacking in respect along with that mouth still needs work."

I strained my neck forward so that I was completely in his face. "The only thing that needs work in this room is you're stuck up your own ass attitude!"

"If you'd stop fighting me and listened I'd be able to teach you!"

"If you stopped being a jerk I'd want to be taught!"

"That's it!" He screamed in my face. "You refuse to be taught by me so you know what? Get another fucking mentor! Because I am sick of having to deal with your mouth every single –"

His rant was cut off. The words died in his throat as they were blocked from leaving his mouth. Blocked by something that shocked me almost as much as it shocked him.

My lips.

Somehow, I don't know how but somehow seeing the fire scorching through those sapphire eyes, that perfectly curved mouth forming those harsh curses, brought those annoying thoughts from the back of my head directly in front and in focus. Before I could think, tell myself that this was a bad, bad idea and look away, break the trance made by those jewelled irises I did it. I leaned those spare millimetres forward, brought my teeth down on his lower lip – somewhat softly and pulled his mouth to meet my own. He froze, I felt his breathing catch, hell everything seemed to still in that all-defining second.

And then, Nightwing came to life.

He stepped forward, crushing our bodies together against the concrete wall. My bound wrists were released as he captured my face with his hands. His lips smothered mine, doing very little to force mine open. Our breaths merged, a sigh left my chest. My tongue slipped out to touch the tip of his. Teasing, daring, finally losing patience Nightwing plunged his deep into my mouth where it twisted and fought. His cool, metallic taste overcame my senses. I was drowning in his smell, taste and touch.

Finally – and I really mean finally – some common sense came through my clouded and obviously mentally retarded mind. And with more strength than was probably necessary I shoved him backwards with my palms sending him hurtling backwards looking like I'd punched him in the face. If it had been any other person he would have fallen, but I guess if it was anyone else I probably wouldn't have been in this train wreck of a situation. Instead he simply stared at me, his expression suddenly completely unreadable.

Feeling really uncomfortable I didn't know what to do except cover the awkward moment with attitude.

"Quit being my mentor, I don't care but for the record, there is nothing wrong with my mouth."

I couldn't even crack a smile to back up my bravado. Instead I turned around and marched out of the arena not even pausing for breath until I burst through the door of my room.

That night I found myself getting out of bed at around 2am and get dressed into the most comfortable and durable jeans I owned. After tying up my hair in loose bun I pulled out the bag of 'borrowed' weapons I'd compiled throughout the day from under my bed. The stash consisted of many knives, all sharpened and easily hidden the pockets of the worn leather jacket I through over my shoulders. Feeling dressed for the occasion I attempted to take a deep breath.

Now for the hard part.

The silence of a sleeping superhero base was smothering as I waded through the maze of hallways, hoping against hope that I'd make it to the garage without being caught. Once I made it to the chosen vehicle there would be no way that the engine wouldn't wake them but I'd be long gone by the time the team were fully conscious.

Finally, after what felt like hours yet could have been less than twenty minutes I made it to the empty garage, it's huge open section of the cave just as deserted as everywhere else. I felt my steps become more brisk as I passed each of the team's vehicles knowing that the clock was ticking by. I allowed myself a sigh of relief when I reached the bike. Part of me chose it just to piss the owner off but another part just wanted desperately to ride it. The motorbike I'd eyed on my first day in this place was by far the coolest thing in there. Completely my taste, it once again struck me how alike myself and the owner was…

I shook myself, thinking about him was becoming increasingly hard since our last training but I was getting better with practice. Casting the thoughts of equating riding the bike to well uh… you know I reached out to grasp the handle and swing my leg over the seat –

"Going somewhere?"

As if thoughts of him actually alerted him to my presence I shrieked and spun around. There, standing in what they thought was cool but in my opinion dork-like V-formation was League Beta. Furious at being caught off guard I took a breath to control my racing pulse before squaring my shoulders to meet Nightwing square in the eye.

"Yes actually I am," it took a lot of effort not to blush. This was in fact the first time I'd seen the guy since our… well, you know… session. "Didn't realise there was a rule against a late night outing."

"There isn't," Card Queen spoke up. "If you tell us about it, otherwise you could lead us to think that you're trying to escape, take the enemy on by yourself or to even join them."

I couldn't hide the small wince on the last suggestion. "If I were to do any of that why would I leave Sadira asleep in her bed?"

"You tell us."

"Enough." Nightwing's voice barked and I'm embarrassed to say his tone did silence me. He could be scary when he wants to. "Are you heading to meet Jackdaw for the information he promised you last week or aren't you?"

I glared at him, so many answers involving him and his nosy, eaves-dropping ways to shove it, instead though I sighed and nodded.

"I am. Jay might have information we need, he's a free-lance so he works for whoever gives him the higher price."

"And that's what you're planning to do?" Kid-Flash spoke up. "Pay him?"

"No…" I sighed, this better be worth it. "I'm… I mean we're… um kind of… friends."

"Friends?" Cassie raised an eyebrow. Can everyone do that bar me?

"Yes. Drop it Cass."

"Nice," Queen of Hearts smirked making Kid-Flash cop on. His jaw dropped open, Nightwing simply glared in my general direction. I ignored them all and turned back to the bike.

"We'll take the jet," Nightwing's words had me once again spinning around.

"I'm going alone," I said through my teeth.

"As much as I find the thoughts of interrupting your little 'date'," I gritted my teeth so hard at his sarcasm that I thought my jaw was going to pop out of place. "There is a rule about letting a team member out on their own, it's not safe or allowed. Batman would skin us alive."

I stared at each of them, most had regained their composure after putting the two and two together about Jackdaw and I. They weren't moving, and there was no way I was going anywhere.

"Fine," I sighed, flinging the keys at his face so hard that he had to break his relaxed composure to pluck them out of the air. "But don't pretend for a second that this is about my safety. I'm going to ride that bike before I leave this place whether you like it or not."