Chapter Forty One

Second Moon

May 6th

So when Nightwing said 'stupid teenage hormones' he really meant 'OH MY GOD STUPID, USELESS GODDAMN TEENAGE HORMONES.'

You see, after the fundraiser thing, he'd started slowly realizing that he might've been, kinda, you know, developing, uhmm, feelings, or, like, sort of feelings, for his pupil.

Which was so incredibly unprofessional and inappropriate and oh god he was FREAKING OUT.

WHY WAS THIS HAPPENING TO HIM?

He did his absolute damndest to furiously ignore any reality of such.. stirrings. But man was it hard. He'd liked a total of four girls in his life, and all four of them had liked him back and hadn't been off limits in any way.

He was simply very much unused to hiding his feelings for a girl. He'd learned a long time ago that it was about a thousand times easier to just go right out and tell them. Much less drama.

But he couldn't this time.

Because it was Morgan. His pupil. His trainee. His blonde, winged pain-in-the-butt. She was his responsibility.

If it had been anyone else on the team, it would've been totally fine, but because the two of them were in a mentor-pupil sort of situation, it was dangerous and stupid and inappropriate.

Even though there really wasn't an age gap or anything. It was just unprofessional. He had to be able to keep a cool head as her mentor, which he couldn't do if he liked her or, god forbid, was in a relationship with her.

He wondered how he'd even managed to develop stirrings for her without noticing and without his own permission.

Stupid brain.

Stupid heart.

Stupid teenage hormones.

Gah.

Nightwing steeled himself mentally as he Zeta'ed to the Warehouse, telling himself that keeping feelings hidden wasn't actually that hard. He could easily do it. he was a master at acting, pretending to not like someone was easy.

Which was why he grew very frustrated with himself when he entered the Warehouse a moment later and spotted her immediately. She was talking animatedly with Beast Boy and Impulse, bending over the table excitedly as her arms gestured wildly around her. It was her bent over position, unfairly drawing attention to her well-shaped behind, which made him actually blush – him, NIGHTWING, blush – which was what made him so frustrated with himself. He was blushing. Seriously? Blushing like a thirteen year old.

Uughhhhhhhh.

Bart was smiling happily at the girl, probably glad that someone was capable of being as enthusiastic as him, and Beast Boy, sitting on top of the table, his tail swishing around, was laughing loudly at something she'd said.

She turned to their furry team mate and squinted slightly at him, a smile on her own face.

Nightwing paused with realization for a moment.

"So that's why." He spoke up before he even realized it. Morgan, Bart and Garfield all paused and looked strangely at him. Not only had he interrupted their joke, he'd also interrupted it very cryptically.

He cleared his throat as he stepped closer. "I mean, why you always sort of squint when you're talking to M'gann or Garfield. Because of your red-green color blindness."

Bart and Garfield exchanged a look, and Nightwing immediately felt like punching himself. He'd basically just admitted to studying her. And studying her closely enough to notice those small things.

Also, Bart was looking very smug for some reason. At least the speedster kept his trap shut. He wasn't usually very good at that.

"Uh," Morgan paused briefly. "Yeah. I guess it's more obvious than I thought it was." She shrugged, looking slightly embarrassed herself.

This whole situation was just mortifying.

"I didn't know you were color blind." Garfield, to Nightwing's utter relief, spoke up.

"I'm not." Morgan quickly responded. "Not entirely. Just red and green. and mostly when they're together."

Garfield looked down at his red suit and green fur. "I must be annoying to look at."

Morgan smirked. "I don't have to look at you to find you annoying." She slyly responded.

The green boy aimed a half-hearted punch at her arm, which Morgan quickly dodged.

Was it weird that Nightwing had almost instinctively jumped over to stop him from hitting her? Sweet Jesus, he was getting overprotective and everything.

"Anyway," Morgan spoke up when she'd finished laughing at Garfield. "Was there something you wanted?"

He'd actually come because he'd intended to spar with her, but now he just sort of wanted to run away.

Internally, he shook himself sternly. He was a superhero, for goodness sakes. He was Nightwing. And Nightwing was cool and composed. He was professional and intelligent.

Unfortunately, Dick was apparently a huge noob. And he felt more like Dick than Nightwing at the moment.

He growled loudly at himself in his mind, screaming to pull himself together and act like her mentor.

"Training." He shortly explained. "We've been neglecting it since the fundraiser."

She nodded and pulled herself off the table she was leaning heavily on. "Gimme a moment."

After Morgan had refused – quite passionately– to go back to the old out-of-use gym as long as any monster still lived there – and by monsters, she meant tiny, harmless spiders – Nightwing had realized that training in there was probably a bad idea. It was kind of illegal for them to sneak into the old building anyway, so he decided to approach the League.

They had kindly decided to rent an old ballet studio in down-town Blüdhaven, which the Team was allowed to use for training all they wanted. It certainly wasn't as high tech as what their small group was used to, but it was okay.

Some gymnastics instruments had been moved to the large room, and Nightwing and Morgan were currently pulling them back to the wall so they had the entire floor to themselves.

They'd pull them out later for a bit of terrain fighting, but for now, the instruments would only get in the way as they stretched and sparred.

The old ballet studio was nice, in Nightwing's opinion. The room was large, but not too big, with sturdy floors. Large floor-to-ceiling mirrors were flanking one wall, the one to the immediate left of the entrance. Across from the door, there were large windows, illuminating the room perfectly.

Nightwing and Morgan usually had the place to themselves, as they always trained in the afternoon. The other members of the Team that took advantage of the place mostly used the place in the morning or evening, leaving the two of them to spar all they wanted.

The only downside was that the heating system was somewhat broken. It was clear that somebody had been using it during the winter, somebody who was seriously attached to warmth, because the heater seemed permanently stuck on 'LAVA'. And now that winter was over and spring was well on its way towards summer, all of that heating really wasn't necessary. Rather, it made the room uncomfortably hot, especially because the pair of them were already exercising, leaving them all sweaty and gross.

It was pretty annoying, he thought as they took a slight pause to catch their breaths and wipe sweat from their faces. Nightwing made a mental note to speak to someone about this, hopefully get the heating system fixed as soon as possible.

Morgan was gulping down half a bottle of water, letting out a relieved sigh as she removed the flask from her mouth. She gathered her huge mane – Nightwing could only imagine how hot it got to have that much hair down your neck – in a tight bun at the top of her head and let out a brief sigh.

Nightwing set aside his own water bottle, having taken a much smaller sip himself.

Morgan seemed to debate on something for a small moment before she shrugged one shoulder to herself and immediately grabbed hold of the hem of the black tank top she was wearing.

Despite having just swallowed a mouthful of water, Nightwing's mouth went instantly dry when she slipped the dark material over her head.

She was wearing a simple, black sports bra underneath – thank god – but that didn't chance the fact that she was in what could be considered her underwear in front of him and, oh no, his nerves were fried.

Nightwing took a deep breath as his eyes unconsciously trailed up her toned back. All of that sparring and training had done her good.

She turned around and he briefly closed his eyes, praying for strength. He opened them again and met her eyes, glad that his mask somewhat concealed his face.

With the slim waist and the tight sports bra and all the showing skin, she looked really attractive and – god dammit this was hard.

He sunk into a fighting stance, telling himself he wouldn't notice her lack of clothing once they started fighting.

She smirked slightly before approaching him confidently – he swore she was swaying her hips more than usual, it was not his imagination – waiting a few seconds before attacking.

Soon, they were enveloped in a dance the two of them knew pretty well by now.

And he was still way focused on all the skin. Skin was his weakness. Which he hadn't known before, but apparently it was. Apparently skin was suddenly attractive.

Pull yourself together, man.

He decided that it really shouldn't make him all flustered. She'd taken the damn shirt off herself. He might as well enjoy it while it lasted-

Okay, that came out wrong.

What he meant was that the girl he sort of had a minor, minor crush on was in front of him, in nothing but a sports bra and a pair of tight shorts. And he was a teenage boy. So he was going to notice. And he was even going to enjoy the view.

However unprofessional it might be.

Once they finished up much later, Nightwing vowed to never, ever mention the malfunctioning heating to any of the Leaguers.

May 15th

He was looking at her differently.

And Morgan was afraid she knew why.

It had started practically the day after they'd gotten back from the fundraiser.

The day after the two of them had found out about her wings true origins.

And, honestly, what other conclusion was she supposed make than her mentor feeling unnerved by it? Why else would he be looking at her differently and treating her differently?

He thought she was a lab freak. He thought her wings were wrong because they'd come from the Light.

And honestly? Morgan didn't blame him. She thought those same things herself. Her wings had been made by their enemy. To assist that enemy. If things had gone even a bit differently, Morgan and Nightwing could've very well met each other on opposite sides of the battle.

The thought scared her to death.

It hurt, though. It hurt that he would judge her on their origins, something she hadn't had control over.

It made her hate them just a tiny bit. She'd stopped hating them a long time ago, but now the hate seemed to loom in her mind again.

And not just because Nightwing was repulsed by them, but also because they were a symbol of everything that had gone wrong in her life. She wasn't sure if she'd ever be able to look at them again without thinking of the people behind their existence. Without knowing that she was the result of an experiment – well, she'd already known that, but now she knew that the people behind the experiment had actually been evil.

"Morgan?"

Morgan jumped in her seat as she focused her attention back onto Esmeralda. "Huh?"

"I was asking if you wanted anything to drink. I'm headed for the cafeteria."

She considered the question for a second. "A coke would be good." She responded.

Esmeralda smiled pleasantly at her before getting up, walking away with her purse in hand.

Morgan watched her walk away silently before she turned her eyes to Rachel. The two girls sat staring at each other for a long while, as if neither was sure what to say first.

Morgan thought back on the first day of school after the fundraiser. She and Rachel had been left alone in a similar fashion. The two of them had also sat and stared doubtfully at each other, neither knowing how to approach the elephant in the room.

"So.." Morgan had eventually begun.

Rachel had nodded. "So indeed."

"So our parents know each other, apparently."

Rachel's eyes had seemed to widen slightly before she'd fixed Morgan with an urgent look. "I can't believe that we've known each other for months now, and now it suddenly turns out you're the second kid from the experiments. I swear I had no idea!"

Morgan had opened and closed her mouth before answering. "I had no idea either. I found out some time before the fundraiser and I've been going crazy because I wanted to tell you so bad but I wasn't sure if you knew anything, so.."

Rachel had kept that urgent look on her face. "My mom always told me to never let anyone know about it. Said it was dangerous information." She'd leaned in closer, shifting to a hushed whisper. "She thinks the Light is spying on her. And us. Making sure we don't do anything to harm them."

Morgan had leaned in close to listen to her hushed words. "She said something along those lines that night. She sounded afraid."

Rachel nodded once. "She is. My whole family is. She's afraid the Light will attempt to force her back into the work once they realize the experiments worked."

Morgan had frowned. "I guess I should lay low then."

Rachel had grabbed hold of her shoulder and squeezed it briefly. "You're not as publically known as my mother is, I don't think you have to worry. But my mother will probably contact you again if anything new happens. She.. told you about the offer?"

"To have my wings removed? Yeah." Morgan had gnawed at her bottom lip. "I.. I'm thinking about it. I'm not sure I want to."

She obviously couldn't tell Rachel why. Somehow, the other girl hadn't made the connection between Morgan and Sparrow yet. She couldn't very well tell Rachel that she didn't want her wings removed because they were an important part of her as a superhero.

Morgan blinked back to the present for the second time in just as many minutes when Rachel snapped her fingers in her face.

"Wha?"

"I was just asking if he knew. About your wings, I mean."

Morgan frowned in slight confusion. "Who?"

Rachel rolled her eyes. "Who else? Your boyfriend of course!"

Ah yes.

That.

So the rumor that they'd gone to that fundraiser together had spread to the entire school by now, making it a written-in-stone truth that Morgan and Dick were dating.

She honestly didn't understand why it should even be so interesting to her fellow students. Who the heck cared about who was dating who? She certainly didn't.

Morgan wished she could tell Rachel the truth – at least part of it – but by telling Rachel that Dick knew, she could potentially reveal his other identity. It might make Rachel realize who Dick really was. And Morgan couldn't risk that.

"Oh, him." She shrugged instead. "No, he doesn't. Kinda hard to explain them to someone who wasn't involved. He'd probably freak out."

Rachel hummed in agreement.

She looked behind Morgan, grabbing hold of her forearm quickly. "Esmi's coming back."

Morgan looked over her shoulder. Their blonde friend was skipping down the long row of bookshelves, talking enthusiastically to the guy she was semi-dating. He was wearing a soft smile as he looked at her, like she was a precious jewel.

It was pretty cute. Morgan had talked to him once, and had deemed him a decent fellow. He seemed right for Esmeralda too, as he was just as kind and mild-tempered as her.

If Morgan remembered correctly – and she did because Esmeralda had been talking about him a lot – his name was Jonas. He had this sort of reddish brown hair that was always adorably messy, and a pair of sparkling brown eyes.

They made a very handsome couple.

Esmeralda waved goodbye as he broke off down another row of shelves, smiling dreamily in his direction before walking the rest of the way towards her friends.

Morgan accepted her beverage with a thanks, content to zone out again as Esmeralda started gushing about Jonas, Rachel listening in interest.

She was worried about the way her friendship with her mentor was evolving. But she wasn't sure what she could do about it.

She couldn't really confront him about it - about him feeling uncomfortable with her wings. There was no doubt that he'd deny it.

Morgan realized that really all she could do would be to treat him as she always did. Pretend there wasn't a strange air between them now.

And then maybe, with time, he'd forget about those feelings of weariness and return to normal.

May 24th

Okay, was it just Morgan or was Blue Beetle acting weird?

Like, he was staring into space a lot, and he seemed to always wait a second or two before ever answering any questions, like he was attempting to remember what the proper answer would be. All of his interactions seemed forced, like he wasn't behaving naturally, but pretending to behave naturally.

It was a very subtle thing, but Morgan had noticed it somehow. It had been pure coincidence. She'd been asking him how Green Beetle had settled on Earth, and Jaime had promptly responded that his 'brother' had settled in just fine.

Now, there were two things wrong with this picture: Unless the two Beetles had suddenly become the very best of friends, there was absolutely no reason for Blue to call Green Beetle his 'brother'. He'd been slightly uncomfortable with the appearance of the other Beetle to begin with. Why would he suddenly think of him as his brother?

Secondly, if Blue had actually been close enough to call him some sort of nickname, he'd have done it in Spanish, just like every other nickname he called his friends. It was pure instinct. She could relate, she'd been calling people all sorts of Danish insults and nicknames – trying to do it mainly under her breath, but she was never very good at keeping her voice down – since she was old enough to speak the language.

So the entire thing had just been plain odd.

But not odd enough to really gain any kind of value. It was simply enough to alert her to all the other weird stuff that was going on with the guy. It really felt like he was playing at being Jaime instead of simply being Jaime.

So, weird.

But she didn't have a clue as to why. It didn't make any sense to her.

She quietly investigated, attempting to pin point when the weirdo behavior had started. Looking back, she was quick to realize that it had been roughly at the same time as the appearance of Green Beetle. Which was odd.

She attempted to brush it off. It made sense that the appearance of an alien in matching armor – albeit with a different color scheme – who could relate and understand, was going to have an influence.

So she didn't think much about it.

Unfortunately, as she went on her usual run along the docks of Blüdhaven, she didn't have much else to think of.

Well, there was always Nightwing. He'd been acting strange too. Like somebody had wound him so tightly that every single muscle in his body was tense in anticipation and worry. He reminded her of a spring getting ready to bounce.

He'd develop some serious cricks if he didn't relax soon.

It had started yesterday, actually. He'd been all quiet and severe; his shoulders and back the definition of tense as he walked in jerky moves due to his clenched muscles.

He'd almost given her a black eye during training because his mind had been so far away. And he was usually very much focused when they trained. Taking care to keep his attacks at a proper pace for her to evolve steadily, without causing her any extreme bodily harm. But it seemed he'd been fighting on pure instinct for their entire session as his mind was a million miles away.

She'd realized that his mind was farer away than she'd expected when he'd blocked one of her attack by locking her in his embrace, and hadn't let go until she'd literally kneed him in his private parts.

Morgan had apologized profusely as she attempted to keep in a slight snicker, amazed that even such a skilled and experienced superhero was brought to his knees by that old trick.

She supposed she should've been kind of sad that she apparently wasn't interesting enough for him to keep his attention on their sparring, but she hadn't taken it personally. As the leader of the Team, he always had a pile of responsibilities to take care of. It was only natural that he'd be a bit absentminded every now and then.

Either way, he'd been very focused for the rest of their sparring after his little accident, so she supposed it didn't matter.

She sighed and wiped at her sweaty brow, leaning against her knees as she paused to regain her breath before sprinting the rest of the way home.

It was a pretty nice night. The sea was calm as the full moons made the water sparkle in silvery waves.

Wait a second.. Moons?

"What the.." She squinted her eyes at the sky to make sure she wasn't hallucinating. Then she pinched herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming. Maybe she'd been knocked out at the some point during her run, and this was simply all a dream.

Nope, totally awake.

And the gosh darn second moon was still there.

"Here comes trouble.." She muttered as she realized that this, like every other bizarre crap that happened ever, was probably going to become the Team's problem to deal with.

She straightened up again and started sprinting the rest of the way down the docks, heading for the Warehouse as fast as her legs could carry her.

Eventually, when running proved too slow, she took to the air, beating wings up and down furiously. She'd planned to land right in front of the Warehouse's front, when the entrance was suddenly pulled up, Nightwing emerging.

"Nightwing!" She called, not realizing that, in her distraction from seeing her mentor, she'd forgotten to brake her flight. Her eyes widened as she saw, too late, that she was headed for collision. "Whoops."

He barely even had the time to turn around and spot her until they collided. And with many a cry of surprise and pain, the two teenagers found themselves flying backwards into the Warehouse, Morgan landing on top of her mentor, then rolling along the floor a few times before coming to a stop right in front of the newly-installed Zeta tube.

(Honestly, that thing was so smart, now she didn't even have to leave the Warehouse to go somewhere. She could just step out of bed.)

Arsenal, Blue Beetle, Superboy and Wonder Girl had seen the rather ungraceful collision. The Team's newest member, the red head with the mean attitude and the huge guns – as in, actual guns, not.. ya know – snickered, while the others just sort of stared, fairly used to the stupid situations Morgan and Nightwing seemed to end up in.

"Morgan.." Nightwing turned around on the floor so he was facing her instead of the roof. "What.. on earth.. are you doing?"

She blinked at him from her seriously uncomfortable position on the floor. She'd been in the middle of an involuntary somersault when she'd stopped, her back bent so her feet were almost dangling in front of her face, her body practically forming an un-charming circle, her wings sticking every-which-way.

She spat a feather out of her mouth – realizing that, ew that was one of her own feathers how did it get in my mouth - quickly replying as she attempted to get out of her pretzel formation.

"Don't worry about that, look outside! There's a second, friggin' moon in the sky!"

Everyone in the Warehouse filled outside to confirm that, yes indeed, the moon had apparently reunited with its long lost twin.

".. I have to go." Nightwing announced after a few seconds of stunned silence between the team members.

He slipped inside immediately, Morgan only needing a moment's deliberation to follow after him.

"You knew about it already, didn't you?" She asked quietly, taking care to not sound accusing.

He'd been in the middle of punching in coordinates on the control board of their new Zeta tube – so smaaaart, seriously, she could travel to another city in her pajamas – but at her quietly spoken words, he turned to her.

"Since yesterday. We spotted it passing by Saturn yesterday evening."

"It was at Saturn yesterday? That thing is fast!"

"Which is why I have to hurry and talk to the League." He explained, placing a hand on her shoulder. She glanced up at him, noticing, far from the first time, how much taller he was than her. "We need to decide what's to be done about this."

She nodded up at him, understanding completely. "Good luck."

He offered her a small smile that was probably meant to be reassuring, but didn't really help much. Then he activated the Zeta tube and disappeared in a blinding, white light.

The winged girl stared into the empty Zeta tube for several seconds after he'd gone. She couldn't help but think that trouble was headed their way.

"So.. you two seem close." Came a voice from behind her. Morgan jumped slightly in surprise, looking behind her to spot Arsenal leaning against a wall, a casual yet dangerous look and tone about him.

She simply looked at him for a moment as she attempted to figure out the best response. She didn't want him to get the wrong idea..

"He's my mentor. Of course we're close."

"True." He pushed off the wall and approached her slowly, reminding Morgan vaguely of a cat closing in on its prey. She took in a deep breath and squared her shoulders, not willing to let herself be intimidated by the younger, only slightly taller teenager. "But what I mean was that you two seem.. close. Somebody got a bit of a crush on our leader?"

Oh, great, he'd totally gotten the wrong idea.

Or, ugh, the extremely right idea, unfortunately. Depended on what she focused on. No, the two of them weren't close, but, yes, she did have a crush on him.

Seriously, it was bad enough that the entire school now firmly believed that the two of them were dating, after Rachel had seen the two of them together at that fundraiser. She didn't need more stupid rumors and speculations to pop up on the Team as well.

She raised an eyebrow at him, trying to look as skeptical as possible. "Seriously?" She let out a haughty laugh. "Like that is ever gonna happen."

He raised his own eyebrow, smirking like she'd just admitted that there was indeed something going on.

"Shouldn't you be reloading your guns or keeping that buzz-cut of yours short?" She snapped, narrowing her eyes, not at all appreciating that smirk of his.

He shrugged. "Sure." He smugly returned, swaggering off.

Teenage boys were so goddamn infuriating.

Aaaaand, our internet is working agai so I'm on time!

The last chapter didn't get as many reviews, so remember guys that more reviews = faster updates.

On that note - whole shit I can't belive how many reviews this story already has! Wow!

Also, that kiss you're all pining for? I promise it's not that far off, okay? Just hold on for a little while longer.

So far, who do you tihnk handled the discovery of their crush the best? Morgan or Dick?

Fun fact: Her red-green color blindness is inspired by me and my sister and my dad's. We all have it, though mine isn't as bad as theirs.