1 NEW MESSAGE
from Jaybird

... are you home?

🧍‍♀️ why are you asking
me this jay?

answer the damn question
are you home?

what if I said no.

I'd know you're lying.

why are you outside of
my apartment Jason

I need to hide out somewhere

wtf did you do?

Bruce is mad pls :( let me in
Im scared

I feel like I shouldn't let you in.

Pls 🥹

If Bruce yells at me I'm
going to kill you myself

I'd rather it be you that takes
me out than anyone else 🫡
read 2:14 A.M.

THIS SIGHT WASN'T ANYTHING NEW TO HER — Augustine had grown quite used to seeing the six foot four man climb through her apartment window. She leaned against the door frame with a raised brow, her sweatpants and tank top signifying she was getting ready for bed. He looked over at her with a smile, throwing up a peace sign in a casual manner to say hello to her. Narrowing her eyes, Augustine took in his abnormal appearance. She half expected him to clamor into her apartment wearing his helmet and gear. The shiny red metal was something she knew like the back of her hand. That wasn't the suit he was wearing though. Perhaps that should have been her first sign as to what Bruce was angry about. Maybe it was Damian that was the angriest out of them all — Jason was wearing a cheap knock off of his Robin suit. Moving off of the door frame, Augustine couldn't tear her eyes away from the lime green on the suit. He threw her a smirk, trying to get her to ignore the suit in it's entirety, "So, uh, the normal suit in with the dry cleaners still?"

Jason looked down at the poorly made Robin costume with a huff, "This old thing? Nah, saw it in a Halloween store downtown and figured it would make the old man angry."

"And did it?"

Jason tilted his head, "What do you think?"

"I think your wish of me killing you might come true tonight," Augustine glared, a joking cadence to her voice.

Following her as she walked into the kitchen, Jason leaned against the counter, "Figured you would have been knocked out by now, you were on for what? Thirty hours?"

A sigh fell from her lips, Jason took that as an indication that he was right about the last question. And when he heard her phone go off in the bedroom, a notification that he knew was given to only one person on her phone, he figured out the rest. It hadn't been his first time, hell it wasn't even his third time, coming into her apartment while she was in the middle of a fight (not that she called it that, she refused to say it was anything other than a difference in opinions) (Jason knew better than that, it was a fight and he was sure she just didn't want to talk about why it was happening) (he was also pretty ducking sure it had something to do with his brother but, he wasn't saying anything) with Roy. Augustine poured some more water into her electric kettle before turning it on. Opening up the cabinet door, she turned to him with a lifted brow, a silent question that he silently answered with a nod. Her phone chimed again, her eyes rolling at the noise, Jason couldn't help himself when he spoke up, "Do you want me to grab your phone for you?"

Augustine leaned back onto the counter in a similar manner as Jason, shaking her head. "No, not really. I don't feel like having to fight again."

"I know it's not any of my business," Jason trailed, looking over to Augustine with raised brows.

"But you want to know why we're fighting?" Augustine finished his statement for him while pouring the boiling water into two mugs and placing a tea bag into each of them. Drizzling honey into hers, she constructed her next statement carefully, "There's a lot of reasons why, I guess. It's a lot harder to have a long distance relationship than we thought it would be."

"Why doesn't he just move here?"

Augustine sipped on her tea, "That would mean uprooting Lian's entire life, it's not fair to her. Especially if we're not going to stay together."

Jason put his mug down onto the counter, worry covering his features, "It's that serious?"

"Like I said, lots of reasons, Jay."

"This is almost as heartbreaking as finding out that Dick and Kory broke up."

"I haven't broken up with him yet," Augustine side-eyed the young adult, watching as he huffed a breath. She didn't even need to use her powers to know what he was thinking, "Stop with that train of thought."

Jason turned to look at her, leaning all of his weight into just one of his elbows. With his chin propped up, he spoke, "Did you know that Babs and Dick broke up about eight months ago?"

"I had heard."

"No one really knew why," Jason mumbled. "Neither one of them would say anything about it. But then, one night, Babs told me it was because he had feelings for someone else." Augustine felt her heart beat faster at that addition. "Said she couldn't stick it out with him knowing his heart wasn't even his anymore. That it might not have been hers to begin with."

Augustine looked down at the mug in her hands, fingers toying with the branded tag at the end of the tea bag. Somehow the basis of Dick's break-up sounded eerily similar to the arguments brought up by Roy — though, despite all rational reason, Augustine liked to believe the thought that they weren't on their deathbed. Realistically, she knew there was only so much more than they could do before saying enough was enough. When they would both throw in the towel because it became too much to handle. Too much to worry over. Too much to deal with. Augustine wasn't ready for that day to come, she knew it was. It was a weird internal sensor she had — she was always good at knowing when things were going to end. Dick never failed to be wondered by her ability to know when things went bad. It normally helped her more when she was talking about him. She knew him like the back of her hand, like the two of them had been created from the same fabric cut in different ways. Jason watched her as she battled her own thoughts, "Roy's fighting you with something similar, isn't he?"

Augustine looked up, unsurprised at Jason's words. He had always been able to figure out the root of her problem, he was exceptionally good at reading situations. At reading people. He always had been — it's why she had taken to him when he was a teenager and she was barely an adult. She felt akin to him, in a way that an older sister feels for their younger brother. Like a sense of protectiveness went through her as a sense of understanding went through him — they both knew they would do anything to protect each other. Augustine tried not to think about the day that he died, how she wasn't even in the states when it happened (not that he was either but, she wouldn't have been able to do anything anyways), how she couldn't do anything. If she moved one step out of like Bruce would have had her thrown in Arkham, even if it was something that was twenty years in the making. Augustine still had yet to kill on purpose (there have been times that death was a side effect of the things that happened at her hand, but they were never on purpose), but she would if given the chance and five minute alone with the Joker. She would do anything she had to do in order to make sure he would never see the light of day again — he didn't deserve to be above ground anymore.

Perhaps that was why she never returned to Gotham, not for a long time. That and the fact that Dick never spoke to her again — he lost contact with her and suddenly Augustine Finley felt like her connections to the world she was once part of had left her. There was no need to go back to fighting crime, not when the team that helped her embrace herself more than she had before disbanded. Especially not after she realized just how different life was when she wasn't using up her nights to play vigilante. She left that part of her life behind when she went to Oxford, even after she returned to the states for medical school. And despite the devout sadness she struggled with in response to her friends losing touch, she didn't have any issues from the outside world. Of course, she knew crime was continuing, she knew bad things were happening all the time around her. And if push came to shove; she would return to save a persons life.

But otherwise, Augustine Finley was sure that Nightshade was retired. As far as she cared, the world could forget who Nightshade was and it wouldn't make a difference to her.

That was part of what Roy fought about — right next to the arguments he carried out continuously about her feelings. Both of which were enough to leave Augustine feeling sick to her stomach, the organ twisting into multiple knots just like what people would expect from a pretzel. When her phone chimed again, the noise causing her eyes to clamp close and her mouth to tilt down into a frown, Jason shook his head. He spoke up before she could ever answer his original question, "August."

"I don't want to talk about it."

Jason narrowed his eyes at her, arms crossing in front of his chest, "You've never been much of a talker, but you need to do something if it's causing that much of a reaction."

With a small huff leaving her lips, Augustine set the mug of tea down on the counter. He was right — Jason was oddly always right when it came to reading her emotions. It was almost as if he had a built in lie-detector for her and her only. Vocalizing her fears, she spoke again, "It's just that - the last time Roy and I dated and broke up there was a reason. He had cheated and then had Lian, I didn't feel bad for leaving then."

"And now you don't have a similar reason and it feels wrong to be leaving him?"

"What am I supposed to say to someone who's put their all into a relationship with someone who doesn't feel the same way? He's fought with me to tooth and nail over the same things and I've tried to make him forget about it, to stop bringing it up. And god, Jay, I tried to make it work. I wanted it to work. Life would be so fucking easy if I could just. make. it. work."

"You can't force feelings, August."

"I hate that I can't," Augustine's lip trembled, eyes watering with tears that she had yet to shed (over the failed relationship? over the friendship she lost with the person she really loved? she couldn't decide). "I love him, Jay."

"Roy?" Jason pulled a surprised look, "Weren't you just saying that-"

"I've been in love with Dick since we were sixteen," Augustine cut him off, letting the words leave her mouth for the first time ever. Her eyes widened slightly, her chest lightening almost instantly as she did so. As if a weight had been lifted, she finally admitted it to herself and with it came a freedom she had yet to let herself feel. Jason's mouth opened in shock, out of all of the things he expected her to say, it wasn't that. Not that he didn't have an inkling, they all did. Everyone (except for Augustine who had been incapable of noticing anything regarding Dick) knew that Dick felt something for her, a flame burning in his chest that he chased to keep alive with any other person he had dated. A flame that only burned for one person — a flame that was apparently shared by the blonde across from Jason. Augustine let out a quiet laugh, shaking her head, "Roy had argued with me so many different times, told me I was holding back from our relationship. That I wasn't putting my all into it, I only just now realized why, Jay. It's cruel isn't it? To leave Roy knowing I've always been in love with another man, can you even love more than one person at a time? Because I know at one point in time I loved Roy, I really did."

"But it just wasn't the same as your feeling for Dick?" Augustine nodded in response to his question, "You know, Finley, this is sounding oddly familiar to me."

"Deja vu?"

"I'll give you a little hint," Jason smirked, "Dick and Babs had a similar reason for breaking up."

Augustine watched Jason as he retreated (just like him to drop a bombshell and then leave) with wide eyes, "You can't leave after saying something like that, asshole."

"Remember to give me credit when you and Dick finally get together!"

"Just for that I'm hoping Bruce finds you while wearing that costume."

"Oooh I'm so scared of him," Jason mockingly replied his leg out of Augustine's living room window.

A figure loomed behind him and Augustine held a straight face before the figure spoke, "You should be."

liked by acrobats & 19 others
meetmebehindthemall | i was crying in da club (my kitchen counter) and i guess at some point Jason left me, stole my phone, took this photo and came back in there to comfort me as I cried
[tagged: walkingcorpse]

load comments...

nicnames | bestie bae ... are you okay?
   - meetmebehindthemall | am I ever okay

tatteddilf | so you can post on instagram but not answer my calls
- timbers | whatever she's done or hasn't done, I'm sure august is in the right
- walkingcorpse | give her some space man
- tatteddilf | she could just send a text saying that, that's all I'm saying 🤷‍♂️
- acrobats | just leave her be, harper

acrobats | Bruce scared the shit out of him tonight!
- meetmebehindthemall | it was fucking hilarious
- tatteddilf | so you'll respond to him but not me
- acrobats | roy I'm giving you three seconds to back the fuck up

walkingcorpse | anything to cheer my fav wayne up 🤭
- meetmebehindthemall | please never call me that again
- definitelyamilf | would you want to be called a wayne, jason?
- walkingcorpse | 😔 feeling: attacked

nicnames | wait why were you crying
- notsowonderous | there's a bad taste in my mouth and I think I know why
- beastieboy | it's breakup szn folks

3 NEW MESSAGES
from Roy ❤️

August, please answer me.

You don't even have to call,
we both know what's coming.
Just let me know, please.

If it makes it any easier for you,
I can be the one to do it. I can say
the words we both know are
about to be said.

Roy, I don't even
know where to start.

You love him, don't you?

Yes.

Did you ever love me?

Of course I did, Roy. That's why
this hurts, I know I've hurt you
and I can't imagine what you
must think of me.

You deserve to be happy, August.

And you do too

Lian's going to miss you

You know you're not
getting rid of me, right?

I might need some time

I can give you that, Roy.
As much as you need.
But you will be seeing me
at some point when
you're ready, that's for
fucking sure.

Sounds about right.

You should tell him, you know.
He feels the same way about you.
[READ: 11:53 PM]

Cmon don't leave me on read, we
both know I'm right.
[READ: 11:54 PM]

Clearly you don't want to talk about
that part yet now do you?
[READ: 11:56 PM]

Right, well. We'll come back to that
later, I guess. Get some rest August.

liked by dickgrayson & 3.79 million others
augustinefinley | everything you lose is a step you take 🖤❤️‍🩹
[time stamp: 8:37 a.m.]

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AUTHORS NOTE

welcome to a long ass chapter in social media fic standards like wtf man why'd I'd write an actual chapter portion in here. anyways augustdick is coming can I get a yay (yay!)?

let me know your thoughts with this chapter 🤭🫡.