#And it was really weird when I realized that I was closer to s2 nightwings age than s1 robin

[wistful-pigeon]

it's 2am and I have plans for tomorrow (today at this point) and yet instead of being asleep I'm just laying awake, setting my phone aside to give sleep another try only to grab it again and aimlessly read fanfiction

So. Typical Sunday night for me

[p4perthoughts]

Young Justice Universe

Dick Grayson x Barbara Gordon

I have a theory that Dick and Barbara totally got together in the middle of season 2 (as opposed to the time jump between S2 and S3) and nobody can convince me otherwise

Events take place after Young Justice S2 E9: Darkest

_

Dick was definitely not feeling the aster.

He was exhausted, much like anyone would be after nearly being blown up. As he walked along he kept replaying the sound of the explosion over and over again in his head. He clutched the flash drive Kaldur had passed to him right before they lost Mount Justice. He could have put it in his bag along with his Nightwing suit for safe keeping, but he couldn’t let go of it. He needed to feel it in his hand to keep telling himself it was worth it. Losing the cave. Almost losing his life. Continuing to lie to everyone else was worth it. It had to be.

As he rounded the corner, he paused and found himself holding his breath. She was there. Of course she was there. Barbara Gordon was sitting on the steps of his apartment building. She hadn’t looked up and seen him yet so his instincts told him to turn around and run. He’d grown distant from his best friend since this whole thing started. Dick was able to lie to the entire team, even the League, all this time because the fate of the world depended on the success of this plan. But he knew that if he looked Babs in the eyes, he wouldn’t be able to do it.

He chose to keep walking forward. Before he could say anything Barbara got up and hugged him. Her touch was a warmth he hadn’t felt in a while. He definitely missed her.

“Are you okay?” She said as she stepped back.

For a second Dick had forgotten what had just happened and that Mount Justice was gone. Reality set back in like a cold punch in the face.

“Yeah yeah. Everyone’s pretty shaken up, but we all made it out...except for those that were taken.” He said while avoiding meeting her eyes.

“Tim said that explosive took out the entire place.” She said in a way that sounded like a question.

So he nodded. But then when he looked back at her, her concerned expression turned into sadness for a brief moment. Dick forgot that Mount Justice had become a second home to Babs too when she joined the team.

They stood there for a minute before Barbara broke the silence.

“What’s actually wrong?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Dick said as he headed into the building.

Babs grabbed her gym bag from the steps and followed behind him, “yes you do.”

“I’m your best friend, Dick. I know when somethings wrong.” She said as he pressed the elevator button.

Dick stepped into the elevator and she invited herself in behind him. He chose to not address it so he tried to change the subject.

“What’s in the bag?” He said.

“What’s in your bag?”

“I asked you first.” He retorted without skipping a beat. He missed their banter.

She sighed sarcastically and unzipped her gym bag a little as it still hung on her shoulder. Right, dumb question. He saw the bat symbol on her suit’s chest plate and her cowl. It was past midnight so figures she was out patrolling. That’s two points in her column now cause this is further proof to her he was off his game. He could feel her eyes look up at him, so he knew he was right.

As he pulled out his keys and began opening his door he remembered the flash drive in his left hand. The events of the evening all rolled back to hit him like a tsunami. The harsh words from Wally echoed in his ears. It was worth it he told himself.

When they got inside Barbara made herself at home -as usual when she comes over. She laid down her stuff and headed to the kitchen. Dick put the flash drive on his dresser before heading for the couch. He fell into the cushions with the weight of the universe on him and put his head in his hands.

He felt Babs come back. She sat next to him and comfortably put her legs in his lap. She had opened a bag of chips and offered him some. They sat there together for a while in silence. Just two friends, eating chips, comfortably in each other’s company. Maybe it’s because Barbara knew him longer than almost anyone. She knew everything about him. She knew who he was, both as Dick Grayson and Nightwing -Robin before that. She was everything to him from his first kiss to his best partner out in the field.

Finally Barbara put the bag on the coffee table in front of them and she scooted closer to him. He put his arm on her knees.

“Talk to me, Grayson.” She said.

Dick finally brought himself to look at her. He looked at her and saw her deep, green eyes starring right at him. They weren’t filled with resentment like Wally’s or anguish like Conner’s. They were warm and comforting. He feared that if he told her what he wanted to tell her, that they wouldn’t look at him that way anymore.

He let out a sigh and closed his eyes. She reached for him. As he felt her soft touch on his face, he broke. He told her everything about the mission and the lies.

When he got to the part about Artemis working undercover with Kaldur, he noticed her expression get distant.

“So she’s -she’s alive?”

He nodded. And waited. Waited for her to yell at him. To tell him what he was doing was wrong. That it wasn’t worth it. Or worse, for her to say nothing.

Instead she looked at him and asked, “who knows?”

He told her about their tiny circle that was in on the plan. He told her how he felt lying to everyone on the team, about the flash drive, about how he felt responsible for the other’s kidnapping, about how he almost got his team -his family- killed. He felt like he had been underwater and how he could now finally breathe. He had kept everything bottled up for so long that now it exploded and he didn’t even notice there had been tears until he found himself wiping at a wet sensation on his cheek.

When he looked at Babs she didn’t say anything. She simply pulled him to her and embraced him. His head lay under her chin as he allowed himself to wrap his arms around her waist. Dick steadied himself as he listened to the rhythm of her heartbeat. They sat this way for a while.

Dick pulled away finally when he felt he’d gained control of his breathing and his thoughts. He looked at his best friend and said, “you’re not mad?”

She looked at him and took a long breath.

“No,” she said finally, “for as long as I’ve known you Dick, you never do anything to hurt anyone. Even if that means hurting yourself. I don’t like that you lied, but I understand why you did. I’m sorry you felt that this was something you had to take on by yourself. I’m sorry you felt like you had to be Batman...”

She trailed off at the end. Babs knew more than anyone that Dick no longer wanted to become Batman. She knew from working with him first-hand that Batman was somebody only Bruce Wayne could be. Anybody else would be crazy to try to act like Batman...except Dick did.

“I’m not telling you that you have to let me in on the rest of your mission,” Barbara said, “I just want you to know you’ll always have someone to talk to when things get overwhelming. You’re not Bruce, Dick. Never forget that you’re never alone.”

That was it. Leave it to Barbara to always have the perfect thing to say. He felt like a huge weight had been lifted off him and could feel a relief he hadn’t felt in ages. He looked at her and simply said, “thank you.”

She smiled.

“Soooo,” she said after a moment. “Wanna watch a movie or something?”

He raised an eyebrow.

Babs sighed, “I told my dad I was gonna sleep over at Mary’s to finish a project because the original plan was to spend the night on patrol since Bruce is presently out of town but then I heard what happened through the comms and I found myself coming here...”

She was starting to ramble a little. Dick noticed she only did that when she got nervous...and he’s rarely seen Babs get nervous. He hadn’t realized how close they were sitting to each other either.

“Yeah, we can watch a movie.” Dick agreed after he found himself starring at her lips for a little too long.

He tasked himself with finding something to watch while she got the bag of chips and went back to the kitchen to find something else for them to snack on.

Dick couldn’t help but watch her. He loved the way she walked around his apartment like she lived here too. So maybe it had been too long since the last time he’d seen her. Really seen her. Like outside of their costumed extra curricular activities. He missed her. Babs was always beautiful. And it wasn’t weird he thought of her in this way. They’ve always had a special type of relationship. But besides the usual playful flirting between them and a couple kisses -amazing kisses- they were just best friends. Secretly he’d been wishing they were more than that since he was 13 but he knew he wasn’t ready for her then.

Thinking back to their conversation, he realized how much they’ve each grown as people. And more importantly how it felt like they hadn’t grown out of each other as most childhood friends do. No, if anything they’ve grown more into each other. No matter how much time they spent apart, they could always come back together and fit perfectly like two pieces of a puzzle. The sound of a pop from the microwave brought him back outside his thoughts. Then he stood up, like on autopilot and as if his brain had just said “fuck it. Stop being a coward” he walked across to where Babs was waiting on the popcorn. As she turned to address him, Dick took her face in one hand and her waist in the other and kissed her. It was a long and deep kiss. He pulled away a little after to see her expression.

He was close enough that when she opened her eyes again he could see her pupils were dilated as she looked up at him. They were both breathing slightly heavy from the kiss. He could tell he caught her off guard but he didn’t know how to string words together to say how much he just wanted her and was tired of dancing around it. So he hoped his eyes were enough to convey that message. The silence was broken by the microwave beeping. Dick took the bowl out and put it on the side of the stove to let it cool a bit.

“Dick?” Barbara said making him turn around.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. He started kissing her back and as their lips moved together Dick felt a warm feeling in his stomach. Is that what people mean when they say butterflies? He’d been with other women but never felt that. He pushed her up onto the kitchen counter and his hands traveled to her waist. Her hands moved from the back of his neck to his hair as she pulled him closer. Her lips were so soft that he never wanted to depart from them and her touch was so soothing that he felt every worry lift off his body making him feel weightless.

The way their bodies moved together was in perfect synch. Like two pieces of a puzzle, he thought to himself. He noticed her hands had gone down to the bottom of his shirt, gently tugging at it. So he pulled apart for a moment and took it off. Her hands felt so amazing as they touched his chest. As their lips met again this time his wandered down towards her neck. He hasn’t realized she was wearing a black tank top that fit her so well until the moment when he began pulling it off her. Their eyes locked as she smiled at him. He couldn’t help but smile back because her happiness was always contagious to him.

Dick realized that if they were going to continue, they shouldn’t keep doing so on his kitchen counter. Without skipping a beat he effortlessly picked her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist and he carried her over to his bed.

[sassycassie-s-writing]

Seal the Promise

By: SassyShoulderAngel319

Fandom/Character(s): DC, Young Justice - Kaldur’ahm/Aqualad

Rating: PG/K+ (for le very minor smoochy-smoochy)

Original Idea: IDK I read this thing and realized I needed to give Kaldur a little love on this blog because he’s a great character.

Notes: (Masterlist)(By Character)(About Me) I literally wrote this in a few hours because it just came to me (the shower is a great place for stimulating creativity). It takes place between S1 and S2 (like maybe 3 years after S1?) because I haven’t seen S3 yet. I feel like this one has the potential for one or two more parts. Any thoughts? @welovegroot (I know it’s not BatFam but we both like YJ so I’m tagging you)

^^^^^

“Psst!” I could have sworn I heard someone whispering my name.

I turned, looking around for the noise. I was alone in the Atlantis magic school courtyard. No one else was there. It was late and I’d been studying for hours, leaving me completely by myself. “He-hello?” I called quietly. “Is someone there?” Slowly I swam over to inspect behind the pillars.

“Don’t tell me you don’t remember this from our childhood,” said a deep voice as a hand closed over my mouth to stop my scream. The arm that belonged to it brushed the gills on my neck.

I gasped through my open gills and whirled around. “Kaldur?!” I hissed. “What—How—why—?!”

Kaldur put his hand over my mouth again. “Shh! No one can know I’m here.”

I pulled away from his hand. “Kaldur what are you doing here? If anyone sees you here you’ll be arrested—”

“I need you to listen to me very carefully. I’m not what Atlantis believes me to be. I’m not actually a traitor. I’m a double agent in order to learn more about Black Manta. No one can know. You cannot tell anyone. Do you understand?”

I nodded. “I got it.”

“Good. Because I need your help. The team on the surface needs your help.”

“Uh… Kaldur… I don’t know if you’ve noticed but… I’m… me. I can’t go to the surface.” I gestured to my long blue fish tail. “I don’t have legs.”

“No, but you’re advanced enough in magic to give yourself legs.”

“Kaldur, I… I don’t know.” I shook my head.

“Please. For me. All you need to do is go to Happy Harbor in New England. It has a massive mountain on the north end of the bay. Tell the one called Nightwing that I sent you. He will immediately know what to do.” He held my forearm and shoulder urgently. “Please.”

I sighed and looked down at his chest. He was dressed almost the way he used to be before he betrayed Atlantis—or rather, “betrayed”—to join Black Manta. But just different enough that no one would initially realize it was him. “I’ll… I’ll try, Kaldur. Because you’re one of my best friends. But… I can’t make any guarantees about how well it may go. Or that I’ll even be… be able to… to give myself legs. What if I can’t get my tail back?”

“I have faith in you,” Kaldur said.

“That makes one of us,” I muttered.

Kaldur reached up and picked up the pearl on my necklace between his forefinger and thumb, twisting it back and forth on its chain before letting it fall on the webbing between his fingers so he could examine it. “I’ve thought of you often since Tula’s death,” he said. I looked away, blinking the sting of sorrow at the memory of loss out of my eyes. He pinched my chin and turned my head to face him again. “I know she was one of your best friends.”

“I’ve thought of you often as well,” I agreed. “And... I know how much you loved her.”

Kaldur’ahm smiled forlornly. “This is where you tell me that my love for her was childish.”

I shook my head. “Not anymore. When we were younger my words on the subject were born of a jaded cynicism my parents imposed on me that I’ve spent years trying to unlearn since I’m naturally more of an optimist. Those words were also, at the time, born of a jealous, selfish desire to have you for my own. A desire that I grew out of.” I met his eyes with honesty. The only lie was that I’d grown out of that desire. I most certainly had not.

My words earned me a gentle grin. “It pleases me to see you so grown-up. Though it saddens me that I’ve not been here to witness it.” He brushed some of my hair out of the way as it drifted through the water.

“Yeah. I… I really missed you, Kaldur,” I said. “It devastated me to hear you betrayed Atlantis.”

“I suspected as much. Hence why I’m telling you the truth now,” he said.

Movement caught my eye. “Oh shrimp,” I hissed.

Campus security.

I pulled my hair and swirled it up to cover my head—and Kaldur’s. I slid my fingers around the back of his neck and pulled him closer to me. “Kiss me,” I whispered.

“I beg your par—“

“Just do it,” I replied. “Trust me.”

He did, letting his lips meet mine. I could feel his fingers tangle in some of my hair. I yanked him and pressed his back against one of the pillars where it would be harder for the guards to see who he was. His bare feet brushed against the scales of my tail as I pushed him firmer against the pillar. With my tail, he and I were the same length. However my torso was much shorter than his so I imagined that if I got legs—which I was fairly certain weren’t as long as my tail and fluke—I would be quite a bit shorter than him.

“You there!” a guard called. “Campus is closed.”

I pretended to be embarrassed at getting caught, pulling away from the kiss with a bubbly sigh out my nose, but keeping my hair upward to block Kaldur’s face from view. “We just, uh, finished studying for our exam that’s tomorrow. We were just… heading home,” I said.

“Well, get a move on,” the other guard said.

“Yes sir!” I said with a bit of a squeak. Both guards kept swimming and disappeared. “C’mon, Kaldur. It’s not safe here for you.”

“It’s not safe for me anywhere in Poseidonis,” Kaldur pointed out as I checked to make sure the coast was clear before pulling him along by the wrist away from the magic school. It could have been the bad night lighting, but I could have sworn he was blushing. I should have given him more warning before ordering him to kiss me.

“There is one place you’re safe here,” I said.

“Is that right? Where?”

“My place.” I swam through the city cautiously before we made it back to the small grotto apartment where I lived after I moved out of my parents’ place. I pushed Kaldur in ahead of me and then shut the door. “It’s not much, but no one ever visits so no one would find you here.”

“Always so kind to me,” Kaldur said. I glanced at him over my shoulder.

“You’re one of my best friends, Kal,” I muttered. If anyone else called him Kal they’d get a water-hammer to the gut. But I’d known him long enough that he begrudgingly let me call him Kal rather than Kaldur.

I opened a storage cupboard and held out some food. “Care to take a meal with me?”

He accepted it. “I would consider it an honor.”

I smiled and floated against the ceiling, letting my back brush it while I ate. Kaldur was used to me being weird and eating on the ceiling so he didn’t comment on it. I preferred the ceiling because I could relax and just float without putting forth any effort to keep me in one place underwater.

“How is Garth?” Kaldur asked quietly after swallowing a bite.

“Still hurting,” I said. “He and Tula were pretty happy together. Losing her cut deep.”

“I understand.”

“You really think I can help your old team on the surface?” I wondered.

“I have no doubt of it. You are a skilled magic-wielder and an incredibly intelligent young woman regardless of your magical prowess. Nightwing will understand why I’ve sent you.”

“What am I supposed to tell the queen when I say I’m not going to show up for lessons? And Garth? And the king? And my parents?”

“I’m sure you will come up with something cleverer than anything I could imagine, but I would recommend you say you wish to do some soul-searching. You could say that you want to broaden your horizons on the surface team for a while if you don’t want to lie too many times. I suppose you could say nothing and just disappear for a while.”

“I could but… if I can’t give myself legs on my own I might need the queen’s help.”

“Indeed,” Kaldur said quietly. I finished my meal and pushed off the ceiling to float near him. I wrapped my arms around his torso and rested my head on his chest.

“I miss you, Kaldur,” I said quietly. I love you, I added silently.

“And I you,” he agreed. His free hand rested on the back of my head. “When all this is over, I promise you and I will take the time to catch up.”

I kissed his cheek. “That seals the promise. We better.”

That earned me an amused chuckle. “We will. I’ve already missed out on too much of your life since I’ve been away.” He kissed my cheek as well. “That seals the promise.” He glanced at the singular glass window in the open living area of my apartment. “I should go before the sun rises. Escape in the cover of darkness.”

“Want me to lead you to the edge of the city?”

“No. I want you to stay safe, here.”

I sighed. “Okay. Just promise me you’ll be careful.”

“I promise.” A kiss of promise was pressed to my forehead. “And when all this is over, I will return to you.”

“You better. I don’t know what I’d do without you, Kaldur. My friends are my everything.”

“I completely understand.” He took my hand in both of his as he swam to the door of my grotto apartment. “I’ll be careful. And I’ll see you again when all this is over.”

“I’ll see you when this is over,” I agreed.

“Thank you for the meal and the company.”

“No problem. Thank... thank you for coming back to see me. And telling me the truth. Oh, and by the way, you’re a really good kisser.”

A faint dusting of pink darkened his skin. “I, uh… thank you.”

“Sure thing,” I said, squeezing his hand.

He smiled, released my hand, and slid out.

I blinked the sting of sorrow at losing him again out of my eyes, sobbing without tears and curling up on the floor of my grotto to release my emotions into the sea around me. Exhaustion after hours of studying didn’t help me either. After a few minutes I swam to my sleeping quarters and passed out. I had my exam tomorrow and then… I guessed I was heading for the surface.

“I won’t let you down, Kal. I promise,” I said, blowing a kiss toward the edge of the city to seal the promise.