Chapter Forty Six

Chocolate Smoothies

Morgan slumped back against the wall behind her, holding a hand to her temple as she attempted to figure out what exactly had just happened.

He'd kissed her.

Or, they'd been kissing.

Both.

Either way, what the fudge?

No, seriously, what? Why? How – well, she did know the how, didn't she?

What she was really unclear on was the why. Literally what would compel him to pull her close like that and kiss her until her toes curled and her head started spinning.

For her first kiss, it had been admittedly glorious.

And Morgan wasn't about so say that she didn't enjoy it or welcome it – she had a crush on the guy after all, and he was incredibly good looking, who wouldn't like to kiss him? – but she just didn't understand why he'd do it.

The most obvious reason would that he, to some extent, liked her back, or something.

But that just couldn't be true. Not because Morgan didn't think herself 'worthy' or some shit like that, she was just very aware of how Nightwing worked. And she was pretty sure, if he had liked her, he would've let her know some other way than that. He would've waited until he wasn't her mentor anymore – that was another can of worms entirely – and then he'd attempt to pursue a relationship. He wouldn't just up and kiss her with no warning.

So while him liking her should've been the most likely scenario, Morgan seriously didn't think it was.

Maybe it was simply a reaction because he was tired and stressed and very relieved that she and everyone else got out okay. He must've been going crazy for those four days.

But if it was simply relief, Morgan had to wonder why he hadn't gone around smooching on everyone else – which would probably have been just a tiny bit weird.

And, if it truly had only been spurred by the relief that she was fine, why had he been pulling her flush against him and running his hands along her back and caressed her cheek and jaw line and made Morgan wonder if he was kissing her or trying to devour her. In a good way. In the best way.

And then there'd been the last, heartbreaking part.

He'd touched her wings. And had instantly let go, as if they had burned him.

She wondered if they really disgusted him that much. It was the only likely answer. He'd touched them and had been instantly reminded of the fact that Morgan was an experiment. She was a creation of their enemy.

And apparently it disgusted him so much that he'd pulled out of a kiss that had previously been very passionate – from both sides. And he hadn't even looked at her as he walked away. Not even a small glance. As if knowing that having kissed the lab rat was a huge shame.

She shook her head in a daze as she pushed herself off the wall, her legs all wobbly from the kiss, the abrupt ending, and her exhaustion.

She silently walked back down the docks, suddenly feeling like the Warehouse was impossibly far away for her tired body. The anger that had kept her going before was now, quite understandably, completely gone from her system, replaced only with shock.

She supposed her heart still should've been racing and her breathing still should've been labored, but she was too shocked to feel anything else. She was horribly aware that the kiss had happened, but at the same time she was also having a hard time truly believing that it had. It was a strange sort of denial.

Morgan slipped silently back into the Warehouse and looked around.

It looked like everybody on the Team had simultaneously agreed to just stay over because of their groggy states, because everybody was still there, all of them sleeping. Some were crashing on the couches, some in the beds. Some had turned into bats and were hanging upside down from the ceiling. Okay, so only Garfield had done that, but Morgan could totally imagine Batgirl and Robin sleeping like that.

She figured everyone had simply been too tired to bother getting to their respective homes. Morgan didn't know what it felt like to have your body and mind frozen for four days straight, but she could imagine it sapped quite a lot of energy.

As she walked silently to their small fridge and dug out a pear, she quickly wolfed down half of it before drinking a large glass of water. Despite barely eating for four days, and food definitely being a huge priority, Morgan decided to follow the others example and get some shut eye.

As she slipped behind the curtains to her room, she found the females of the Team. They'd pushed the two single bed together and now, all four of them were squished together on the two beds, sleeping soundly, still in their costumes.

Morgan smiled slightly as she noticed a corner of the bed which had obviously been cleared of limbs to make space for her.

They were sleeping in her bed after all.

At least someone on the Team still seemed to accept her. Then again, none of them knew the truth like Nightwing. As she crawled in next to Cassie, Morgan did her damndest to force any thoughts of her mentor from her mind.

And yet, as she lay there trying to sleep, she brought a hand up to her still-tingling lips, her mind and heart very much out of sync. Her mind was worrying over what this meant, what it would mean in the future, and how she was supposed to react. It worried over what tomorrow would reveal. Worried that her mentor was disgusted by her.

Her heart wanted her to sigh dreamily and snuggle deeper into the comforter, reliving the kiss in her thoughts and eventually dreams.

May 31st

He'd screwed up.

Oooh, how he'd screwed up.

Shit, crap, nooooo, whydididothat

He was the biggest ass in history. Batman would slap him so hard if he wasn't still stuck in outer space at some intergalactic trial.

Nightwing almost wished Batman was here, because he really did deserve that slap.

Why had he lost control like that? Why was he such a moronic idiot of epic proportions?

WHY HAD HE KISSED MORGAN?

Well, he'd certainly wanted to, but that didn't make it okay!

What kind of weirdo just went around kissing people?

Nightwing jumped in his spot when the door he'd been pacing in front of suddenly opened.

Black Canary paused as she noticed the teenager in front of her office door. Her eyes trailed his face and then his body briefly, noticing the tenseness in his stride and the distressed look on his face.

She took a step back to allow him entry, obviously knowing what this was about.

Ever since the first session they'd had after that specific training exercise gone-wrong, where he'd admitted that he wasn't so hot on the idea of becoming Batman anymore, she'd been her go-to guy – woman – when he needed to talk things out. Perhaps going to her with this was a stupid move, but he wasn't sure what else to do. He confided in Black Canary more than he did anyone else. If there was anyone he trusted to talk this out with, it was her.

Feeling antsy and restless, he sat himself down in the chair across the table from Black Canary, waiting for the older woman to take a seat as well.

"I figured you'd show up soon enough." She started out.

Nightwing was instantly confused. Did she already know? How?

"You did?"

Black Canary leaned forward, her hands clasped in front of her on the desk. She always did that. The clasped-hands thing. Maybe it made her feel more professional.

"Nightwing.. having your entire team getting kidnapped at once, and then searching for them for four whole days is a very distressing thing to go through."

He frowned when he realized they were thinking about two very different things. True, losing his Team had been horrible, but he'd been fine as soon as they'd all gotten back. No worries there.

Nah, his sanity was currently being plagued by something else.

"That's – no." He cleared his throat. "That's not why I'm here."

She straightened and studied him all over. This was a surprise to her, apparently. "What then?"

"I-" He scratched his neck awkwardly and sort of scrunched his face up in a grimace. "I kissed Morgan."

There was a stunned, dead silence between them for several seconds. He sunk low in his seat, already feeling like a scolded little kid. And she hadn't even started scolding him yet.

Black Canary raised an eyebrow at him. He couldn't tell if it was because she was unimpressed or displeased.

He returned the skeptical look with a wide-eyed look of distress and regret.

Eventually, Black Canary sighed and brought her clasped hands up, leaning them against her chin. "And?" She slowly said, like she didn't understand the problem entirely.

What? She didn't understand how extremely horrible this was?

"And it's bad!" he immediately clarified.

"Did you want to kiss her?" Black Canary immediately shot back, her head tilting as she studied him again.

"Erh, yes." He admitted, feeling slight heat creep up his neck at the admission.

"Ah, so she reacted badly."

"No. She – that's not the point!" He incredulously protested, sitting up straight. "The point is that I'm her mentor and it was inappropriate of me to do that! I should be able to keep a professional and emotional distance, or I'm not fit to work as her mentor anymore."

Black Canary looked like she didn't entirely agree, but chose to go along with it. "Is this something Batman told you?" She questioned.

She really was sharp as a whip, that woman.

Nightwing nodded sulkily.

Black Canary sighed. "Nightwing.. Kissing your trainee isn't so bad. It's true that Batman would consider it inappropriate, but he's Batman. I doubt anyone else will take it as seriously."

Nightwing opened his mouth to protest, but she fixed him with a serious and decidedly maternal look, which made him snap his mouth shut again.

"It's true that there are certain boundaries between a mentor and his pupil that shouldn't be crossed. But I think your case is different, simply because the two of you are both so young. If you'd been many years her senior, just like most other mentor situations, yes, it would've been inappropriate. But you're not. You're not even a year older than her." Black Canary explained.

"The age gap is not the problem here." He immediately answered.

"Then what is?"

He paused for a long time as he realized he wasn't entirely sure what the problem was. "Uh.."

Black Canary smirked. "If you ask me, this has nothing to do with you being her mentor."

He narrowed his eyes slightly at her, not liking what she was insinuating.

"I just.. I feel like I'm failing my role. I know I've broken out from under Batman's wing, but I still feel very influenced by his opinion. I.. want him to be proud of me. And I feel like I can't mentor her properly when I'm also fighting my.. feelings for her at the same time."

Holy freaking shit, he'd just admitted his feelings out loud and in front of someone else.

He wasn't sure if this could be considered progress. And if so, if it was good or bad progress.

Black Canary nodded, glad that they'd finally reached the real problem. "If it would make you feel better, we could free you from your mentor duties for a little while. To give you time to sort out these feelings of yours. I'll take over her training until you feel ready to resume."

Nightwing breathed a deep sigh of utter relief, feeling gratitude swell in him. "I'd appreciate that very much."

Morgan frowned down at the grey, unattractive thing in the bowl in front of her. She poked at the mass with her spoon suspiciously.

M'gann rolled her eyes at Morgan, still waiting expectantly for her to start eating.

"Why porridge?" Morgan eventually groaned, looking up at M'gann with wide, pleading eyes. "I've been dreaming about steaks and fries and ice cream for four days now, and the first thing I get to eat when I get back is porridge?"

M'gann nodded sternly. "If you get anything less bland, your stomach will reject it. You have to get it used to food again."

Morgan sighed loudly and shoveled a decent-sized bit onto her spoon. "Fine." She pouted. "Can I at least get some sugar on it?"

M'gann looked like she was about to protest, but she shrugged once and levitated the sugar bowl onto the table, coating the porridge in a very thin layer.

Knowing that there was no way around her horrible fate – and she was really hungry, so it really didn't take a lot of thought – Morgan brought the spoon to her mouth and quickly swallowed her first bite.

It wasn't as bad as she'd imagined – but then again, she was probably just so hungry that any food was good enough – so she quickly went in for her second mouthful.

"Don't eat too fast – you'll just throw up." M'gann worried.

Morgan smiled a close-lipped smile at the older girl. "I missed you, M'gann."

M'gann smiled fondly back at her. "You too, Morgan." She said before walking away, satisfied that Morgan was eating.

Morgan dug further into her porridge, suddenly finding it hard to eat at a respectable pace and not just wolf the entire thing down. It felt like her stomach realized how truly empty it was the more food she ate.

She was so relieved M'gann was safely back. Morgan dearly hoped the Team would return to normal now that the 'mother' had returned. Seriously, the other girl was already back to making porridge for her starved team mate.

As she'd polished off her porridge, Morgan sighed contently and downed a tall glass of milk. Normally, she'd have gone for a run right before eating, but she figured skipping out just this once – she wasn't sure she'd actually be able to run even if she tried – wouldn't kill her.

She was also hoping that Nightwing would show up. The two of them kind of obviously needed to talk.

You couldn't just go around kissing people like that without expecting them to want an explanation afterwards.

Morgan's body was still sore and exhausted, so after eating her breakfast, she could already hear her bed calling out for her again. She slowly got off the stool and shuffled towards her 'bedroom', slipping underneath her covers. She wasn't necessarily tired, at least not mentally, but her body was weak, so the rest was necessary.

She'd been lying there, curled up in her comforter like a burrito, in a pleasant, half asleep state, when her phone suddenly went off.

It was lying on her bedside table, and Morgan was honestly impressed that it still had any battery left after four days. True, it hadn't been used in those four days – it had been back at the Warehouse as she'd run around War world – but it was still impressive.

With a small sigh, she unleashed one of her arms from her comforter burrito, fishing around for the phone.

Once she saw that it was Rachel calling, she forced herself up and out of her bed, ignoring M'gann's protests as she darted out of the Warehouse.

She partly opted to speak to her friend outside because she didn't want Rachel to hear anything that could blow Morgan's secret cover – though most from the Team had gone back home, there was still the possibility out someone saying something loudly enough for the girl to hear – and partly because she didn't want anyone on the Team to be able to listen in if Rachel said anything about her dad. She was a bit confused as to why Rachel was even calling her. The two girls had swapped phone numbers months ago, but had never really used them to call each other before. Esmeralda was usually the one to make the plans whenever plans needed to be made.

But then again, things had understandably changed between the two girls.

Answering the call and pressing the phone to her ear, Morgan shortly spoke. "Hey Rachel."

"Morgan? It's Fathiya."

Morgan pushed herself off of the wall she'd been leaning against, already dreading what was coming next.

"Uh, hi." The wind came from her side, and Morgan pushed a small mass of curls from her face. "What can I do for you?"

She hadn't spoken to the woman since the fundraiser. If Fathiya had had anything to tell Morgan, she'd done so through Rachel. There had been no direct contact between them. Fathiya had deemed it safest, because it'd be more difficult for the Light to make any connection between them that way.

To be honest, Morgan thought that was a tiny bit pointless. What were the odds that the Light hadn't figured out that the new superhero in town, who's age and appearance matched that of Henrik Jørgensen's daughter, who also had a pair of wings, wasn't their former experiment? Pretty damn small. So the Light most likely knew about her existence already. And they probably already knew that she'd been talking with both Henrik and Fathiya.

Which begged the question.. Why hadn't they done anything yet? Upon realizing that their attempted weapon – their failed experiment – wasn't at all failed, and now their enemy, shouldn't the Light had done something? Tying up loose ends and all that?

"Your father is missing." Fathiya explained.

Morgan froze.

Speaking of the Light doing something..

She realized they already had.

"How? When?" She frowned, praying that the conclusion she'd jumped to wasn't the right one. "Why?"

"I'm not sure." She could hear Fathiya sigh. "I talked to him a few days ago. He said he'd contact me the day afterwards.. He never did. And I haven't heard from him since. Henrik is a very punctual man, and he keeps his promises.. The only way he'd miss our appointment was if someone made him."

A clump of ice seemed to have manifested in Morgan's stomach. She suddenly felt incredibly worried for the man she'd previously only harbored feelings of anger and betrayal for. She suddenly needed her dad to be alright.

"Okay, uh.. When did you last see him?"

"We talked briefly at his apartment. That was the twenty seventh. I went there to check once I never heard from him again. There were obvious signs of a struggle."

Morgan heaved in a deep breath, trying to calm her frantic mind and racing heart.

"What are we going to do?" She asked, hating that she didn't seem to have any answers.

"Morgan, I will do everything I can to relocate him. But you should not get yourself too involved." The older woman told her firmly. "I just thought you deserved to know, in case.. I will call you once I know more."

Morgan nodded, though she knew the other woman couldn't see the movement. "Right, yeah. I'll – I'll talk to you later."

"And Morgan?"

"Yeah?"

"Have you been thinking about my offer?"

Morgan bit her lower lip briefly as she was faced with that difficult choice again. "Yeah.. I'm.. still not sure if I'll do it. I need more time to think it over."

There was a brief pause. "Very well. I'll talk to you once anything new happens. Take care, my dear."

"Yeah." Morgan cleared her throat sort of awkwardly. "You too."

The line disconnected.

As Morgan pulled her phone away from her ear, she could see that she had half a dozen missed calls from Rachel's number, spanning over the past few days.

And then it hit her.

Her dad was missing.

Possibly abducted by a Team consisting of the worst of the worst.

She had no idea what they wanted from him.

She had no idea if he'd be alright.

Morgan couldn't even be sure she'd ever see him again.

Before tears had the chance to prick at her eyes, Morgan shoved her phone into her jeans pocket and slid back inside the Warehouse, re-burying herself in her comforter. She knew she wouldn't fall asleep again, but at least this gave her an ample opportunity to think.

Nightwing never made it to the Warehouse that day.

June 1st

"What?"

Morgan blinked up at the older superhero, not entirely sure she understood what Black Canary was doing in the Warehouse.

Black Canary smiled in a reassuring sort of way that made Morgan think she knew something Morgan didn't.

"I said," She patiently repeated herself. "Nightwing is too busy to train you at the moment, so I'm going to instead."

Yeah, that was a pretty obvious lie.

Well, it might've been true, Nightwing was busy pretty often, but that had never been an issue in the past. He'd just cancel if he had to, and then they'd train a bit extra the next day. He'd never decided to enlist the help of anyone else before. And him being too busy wasn't a good enough excuse for Black Canary to suddenly offer her help.

Another thing entirely was that Nightwing was a total goodie two shoes. He was all about performing his duties admirably and perfectly. He'd have to break a leg before he suddenly decided that he didn't have the time for one of his duties.

So what Black Canary really was saying was that Nightwing didn't have what it took to face Morgan after he'd kissed her.

What she was saying was that Nightwing was avoiding her.

It sent a pang of some unidentifiable but highly uncomfortable feeling into her stomach.

She kept her grey eyes trained stiffly onto the older woman. She must've waited too long to answer because Black Canary raised an eyebrow that clearly said 'well?'

Morgan hopped off the table after setting aside the smoothie in her hand. M'gann had finally allowed her to eat something other than porridge and bland bread, and Morgan had gone down the docks to a small café that she knew made the best smoothies.

A café she'd incidentally found out about after Nightwing had lost one of their bets and had had to treat her to a chocolate smoothie.

Sigh.

Thankful that she'd at least gotten a few mouthfuls of her delicious treat before the untimely interruption, Morgan left the rest behind for Beast Boy to consume – any sort of food left behind on the table for more than ten minutes was left so at the owner's own risk. The boy ate everything.

"Let me change first." She sullenly mumbled, hating how her chest was aching. It was embarrassing how extremely hung up she was over some boy.

Black Canary nodded briefly, trying for a comforting smile at the obviously sad state Morgan was in. She knew what was really going on, apparently. And she knew that Morgan knew. Morgan wondered if the two of them would address it at all or if they'd skirt around the issue like a pair of cowards.

As they walked down the street five minutes later, Morgan felt her previous sadness slowly turn into frustration.

She was half tempted to hunt her mentor's ass down. She wanted to tell him that she'd pegged him down to be many things, but not a coward.

Never a coward.

The worst part was that not being able to see him was slowly driving her crazy. As long she hadn't seen him face to face yet, there was still a tiny, stupid part of her that dared to hope that he hadn't regretted that kiss. She needed to see him, see the regret on his face, if she wanted this uncertainty to disappear. If she wanted the stupid hope that hurt more than it helped to fully go away.

This was torture. He was torturing her.

"So." Black Canary began. She held her mouth open as if trying to figure out what she should say next.

"It's fine." Morgan quickly spoke up, an edge to her tone, before Black Canary could continue. "You don't have to small talk. I'd prefer silence."

Black Canary looked briefly taken aback by Morgan's honest comment, and then a small grin cracked at her red lips.

Morgan thought she heard Black Canary mumble something along the lines of "feisty alright.."

She looked at the much taller woman. "Excuse me?"

Black Canary chuckled. "I just said that what I heard about you was true. You are a feisty one."

Morgan would very much like to know who was going around calling her something as stupid as feisty. Then she realized that the League had apparently been talking about her.

She freaked out about that for a moment, and so forgot to answer Black Canary. The silence she'd been asking for before finally settled around them as they walked the short distance to the ballet studio.

They'd only been sparring for about half an hour when Morgan had had enough. She was already incomprehensively fed up with the two of them skirting around the real issue. It was so incredibly obvious that they both knew Nightwing wasn't busy, he was just avoiding her.

Black Canary was a really good teacher actually, probably better than Nightwing even, simply because she had more experience in teaching. Morgan knew the woman had been the Team's martial arts teacher back when they'd been funded.

But Morgan couldn't actually concentrate on the training when she was fighting even harder to keep her temper in check. She couldn't concentrate when all she could think about was that it should've been Nightwing with her right now, and not Black Canary.

The other woman had been going at her non-stop, as if hoping the fast pace would prevent Morgan from thinking too much about anything else. It wasn't working. It was only making her more frustrated.

Black Canary aimed a kick at the side of Morgan's head, and she finally lost her temper. She parried the foot with her arm and, with a growl and barred teeth, she used her telekinesis to push the blonde away.

"Enough!" She shouted, her voice echoing powerfully through the room.

The new push had been much unexpected, and Black Canary was thrown on her back several feet away.

Morgan figured she should've been worried that she'd accidentally hurt the Leaguer, but she knew Black Canary was tougher than that. She was also too angry to worry.

Black Canary got up into a crouch in a second, proving that she was perfectly alright. She saw the way the younger girl was clenching her fists and breathing heavily in anger, and realized that sparring time was over.

"Morgan.." She began before Morgan cut her off.

"Look, I can totally understand if he wants to sever contact as much as possible because he regrets what happened, but he could at the very least tell me so himself!" She began, her voice raised in her agitation. "I think, after everything, I deserve that much!"

She was embarrassed to admit her voice had cracked slightly on her last words, her face taken over by a hurt expression.

Black Canary sighed and stood up. She walked closer to the younger woman and placed a hand on her small shoulder. "You do." She reassured Morgan. "But he needs time."

Morgan tugged uneasily at her blonde curls, looking up at Black Canary with wide eyes. She didn't understand when all the fight had disappeared from her body, but her anger was completely gone, replaced by sadness and uncertainty.

She must've looked truly pathetic because the Leaguer smiled softly at her and drew her into a brief hug.

"Come." Black Canary said as she drew back. "Right now, what you really need isn't sparring."

Morgan couldn't agree more. Unfortunately, she didn't really know what she needed instead. At least, she didn't know what she needed that Black Canary could provide.

Either way, she followed after the other woman. Black Canary led them from the studio and down the street.

Both of Morgan's eyebrows rose in surprise when the superhero bought both of them a large chocolate smoothie. Morgan figured it was the only thing the woman could order that she knew Morgan liked, since she'd seen her drink one less than an hour before.

And so, Morgan found herself staring out at the ocean with her feet dangling over the edge of the pier, drinking a delicious icy treat with Black Canary by her side.

"Thank you." She spoke up after a minute of admittedly – considering the circumstances – comfortable silence.

Black Canary nodded at her words. "You're welcome."

She put her half-finished smoothie aside. "You know, I didn't just train the Team back in the day. I also used to be their listening ear, when they needed it. Their council." Black Canary placed a hand on Morgan's shoulder. "If you need to talk.. I'm here."

Morgan nodded hesitantly and smiled slightly at her. The smile fell when she remembered why Black Canary was even offering to talk in the first place. "I'm.. I'm just so confused. And scared. This is new territory for me."

Not only that, but she was also extremely stressed. True, the kiss with her mentor took up a lot of space in her thoughts. Maybe, like, fifty percent. The other fifty percent was all dedicated to worrying over her father.

She hadn't heard from Fathiya all day. So there hadn't been any development. Meaning he was still missing.

Morgan hadn't told anyone on the Team. Normally, she'd go to Nightwing, but now..

She'd always been able to go to him for help. Now she wasn't even sure if he wanted to have anything to do with her. She hadn't realized just how important his support had been until she'd lost it.

"It's okay to feel those things, Morgan." Black Canary reassured her in a soft tone. "That kiss came at a bad time."

Morgan snorted. "It just shouldn't have come, period."

At least, as long as he obvious didn't harbor any feelings for her, it shouldn't have come.

"So you're saying you aren't interested in him like that?"

Morgan turned and found the older woman watching her like a hawk. Her gaze was intelligent and calculating, and Morgan got the feeling any lie from her would be seen through immediately.

So she told the truth. "I.. no. No, that's not what I'm saying."

Black Canary seemed satisfied by her honest answer. She leaned back, supporting herself on her outstretched arm.

A soft wind ruffled up Morgan's curls and she pushed them behind her ear as she watched the other woman.

"Nightwing is a very complicated boy – man." Black Canary began, seemingly weighing her words carefully before speaking. "He trained under Batman, and in many ways, he's very different from his former mentor, but they still agree on a lot of things. One thing they both agree on is that the relationship between mentor and pupil is supposed to have some emotional and physical boundaries. Kissing you, in his opinion, showcases a loss of control that makes him a failure as a mentor. He overstepped the boundary he knows he's supposed to stay behind."

Morgan was paying the other woman rapt attention as she explained a side to Nightwing Morgan wasn't familiar with.

"It can't have been easy.." Morgan finally said, her low voice carried by the wind. "To train under Batman."

Black Canary shook her head, looking so at ease despite the serious subject. "It wasn't. Batman is one of the greatest heroes this world has ever seen. And that leaves a lot on pressure on Nightwing. People expect him to be as great. He expects himself to be as great. And slipping up in something he knows Batman would've never failed in.."

"He's not under his care anymore, but he still needs to prove himself to Batman. And to himself. And that's why he's avoiding me." Morgan finished for Black Canary, who nodded.

"Exactly."

Morgan ran a hand through her curls, pulling at the ends. Morgan already knew her mentor strove for perfection. And she knew that would eventually end badly for him. Nobody was perfect, not even Nightwing. Not even Batman. "He shouldn't – we shouldn't – have done it. It wasn't worth it if it damaged the friendship we had."

Black Canary smiled reassuringly at her. "He'll sort himself out soon enough. And when he does, you two need to sit down and talk it out. That's the best advice I can give."

Morgan nodded and looked out at the water again. She squinted her eyes as the bright sun shone on the water.

"That was my first kiss." She admitted, not sure if she should sob or chuckle at the absurdity of her situation. "And he knew that."

Black Canary sighed. "Men are idiots, Morgan." She revealed.

Morgan shrugged, a smile tugging at her lips. "I know. Do they get less stupid with age?"

Black Canary seemed to consider her question before smirking conspiratorially. "Not at all."

Morgan didn't suppress her chuckle. "Oh joy." She dryly mumbled.

Well, last chapter certainly got a reaction out of you guys, huh?

I hope this chapter explained why Nightwing's dicking around the way he is. I can only imagine the sort of unhealthy side effects training under Batman would cause.

Also, if anyone finds his reaction 'uncool' and 'not like Nightwing', remember that he's not just a superhero but also teenager. And teenagers are confused and makes bad decisions. Dick can't be totally cool and smooth 100% of the time, the guy isn't perfect.

I haven't played Assassins Creed for three days now. I'm experiencing serious withdrawals.

Also, does anyone else think it's all a thinly veild Superboy appreciation game? Think about it: Connor Kent and Connor Kenway? Not to mention that Desmond is voiced by the same actor as Superboy. It's a huge conspiracy, I'm telling you. I'm onto them.

Fun fact: I really like Black Canary and the idea that Nightwing goes to her every once in a while to talk through some of the shit he goes through.