It was weird seeing Bruce Wayne again, after all these years, even if it was through a computer screen. Seeing him enlarged on the main screen made me feel as though Bruce was actually in the room with us. When I first found out he was Batman, I had to admit, I didn't believe it. How could Gotham's richest bachelor think his time was best spent fighting the city's demons?

And then it hit me: why wouldn't he?

He was the richest man around, with more money than any one person could know what to do with. Aside from when business called for it, the man was a social recluse which meant he didn't really have to explain away injuries. Especially looking at him now, it was easy to see why no one would suspect him of such nighttime activities. He was in his fifties, tall and wirey build with life lines creasing his skin and paling to white, light brown hair slicked back from his face.

The Batsuit was the epitome of hiding one's identity.

It was designed to make him seem large and foreboding, so if Batman and Bruce Wayne were ever missing again at the same time, no one would suspect a thing. Least of all when he looked like a concerned grandfather about to scold some children.

"Miss Addams, always a pleasure," Bruce said diplomatically as I stood beside Jason's chair. The junior Robin had his feet kicked up on the table and a smirk playing at his lips; whether to annoy Bruce or Dick I didn't know.

I was more concerned with Bruce's forced pleasantries. He'd always been skeptical of me, but he and I both knew that feeling became more prominent when he learned of the men I killed. "Bruce," was all I said with a slight nod.

I heard Dick enter the room behind us and the muscles in my back tensed from his proximity. In an attempt to mask it, I stretched a little before crossing my arms over my chest.

Jason's impatience for answers seemed to rival my own in that moment. "Alright, old man, give us those results," he said, tilting his chair back and forth slightly. "How is Maddie alive right now?"

"Maddie?" Dick repeated quietly and I straightened myself awkwardly. I'd only ever really had one nickname that he knew of and that was the one he'd called me. Hearing Jason call me anything but Madalyn, after the conversation we'd just had, could not go unnoticed.

"It seems Madalyn's abilities have grown exponentially from the initial results all those years ago," Bruce began. "Back then, unless witnessing her use of plant manipulation, there was nothing genetically to connect her to it. Now, within the samples Dick took, there is a significant amount of chloroplasts present."

"And what the fuck does that mean? Is she a walking plant now?" Jason asked curiously. He looked over at me as though expecting me to sprout roots and leaves; I rolled my eyes.

"I wouldn't go so far as to say all of that," Bruce replied, voice undeniably full of condescension. "She still bleeds as a human does. While I can't give a definitive answer on what the results mean, I can offer a plausible explanation. Much like Poison Ivy, Madalyn has bonded with the plants in a way that they act as one. She feels the damage dealt to her plants as though it were happening to her directly. When she is unable to protect herself, they do it for her—"

"When she dies," Dick said from behind me, voice as emotionless as he could make it. "They bring her back to life."

"Exactly."

"That still doesn't answer how they did it," I chimed in. "Just why."

"I'd wager it's the same way they and their botanist caretakers bring them back to life," Bruce said. "Fertilizer, sun and water."

Jason's face twisted thoughtfully. "I guess that makes sense why the vines pulled you into the bush," he said to me. "Soil, direct sunlight. But the water..."

"There were sprinklers in that courtyard," I replied distantly. "Set on a timer twice a day, including early mornings."

"A routine that the plants knew," Dick said slowly, taking in his words.

Jason's feet dropped to the floor dramatically as he gave Dick an incredulous look. "Do you hear yourself, man? You're talking like these things have brains and a conscious and—"

"They've been beating the shit out of you since we met," I interrupted. He paused, his mouth hanging open slightly before shutting it. "Thought that'd knock sense into you."

"Bite me," he grumbled and I smirked.

"Is there any way to know if this is a going to be a constant thing?" Dick asked Bruce, clearly unamused by me and Jason. From the corner of my eye I could see the rigidness in his stance. "If this was a one time thing or a new ability of hers?"

"Short of replicating the circumstances, no."

I'd already figured as much but hearing the words didn't make me feel any better. If anything, they'd made me realize even more how little I'd done to enjoy my life. Everything I'd done so far has been in an attempt to find answers to my past and that made me nearly lose my future.

I looked over at Dick, who was already staring at me, and sighed. "Well, on that note, I'm going to take advantage of this new lease on life and go have some fun."

"I think it's best if you keep a low profile, Miss Addams," Bruce weighed in from the screen. "If you are believed to be dead, I think it best if you maintain that image. Even if they suspect otherwise, they don't know where you are for the moment which is ideal for giving you time to recooperate—"

"I was thinking of going clubbing, not screaming from the top of a thirty foot tree," I interrupted, turning my back on the room. "It's not very likely that I'd be recognized or run into trouble while out dancing."

I heard the chair roll backwards as Jason jumped to his feet behind me. "And just to be on the safe side, I'll go with her," he volunteered. "I even know the perfect spot."

"Awesome, lets get changed then."

"Dick," I heard Bruce say as Jason jogged out ahead of me in the hall.

"I'll take care of it," he replied, footsteps following behind me almost immediately. I expected him to reach out and stop me, but I'd made it all the way to the end of the hall without a word. It annoyed me more than if he'd actually stopped me.

"There's nothing you can do or say to keep me from going out," I said over my shoulder without turning. "So don't bother trying."

"Wasn't planning to."

"Then why are you following us?"

"I'm not following you," he answered and I stopped where I was to look at him suspiciously. He just rolled his eyes and kept walking. "All of our rooms are in the same direction."

"And what, you're just going to your room without lecturing anyone? Are you sick or something?" I pried, trying to get him to confess.

Dick didn't slow or pause his stride as he carried on past me calmly. "I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to lecture you later. In the meantime, you aren't the only one who wants to have some fun tonight. Since I can't stop you two, I might as well join you."

I opened my mouth to challenge him further, but he was already too far ahead. Not to mention he was stubborn as hell and there was never any stopping him from doing what he wanted, when he wanted.

I knew how it worked out in the end and still just the thought of the first time I learned that lesson still made me anxious.

*****

6 Years Ago

Dick and I had grown closer after that night I killed for him, but I'd just assumed it was from the shared experience. I didn't want to acknowledge my own growing feelings for him at the time and I didn't even consider the possibility of him having any for me. As far as I let myself believe, we were only in each other's presence so much more than usual because we understood each other.

We learned to communicate without words, we sparred together more often when one of us was having a rough day.

It was one of those days for Dick, when everything between us changed.

He'd come home from work, slamming everything he could as he moved through the mansion in silence. I just sighed and got up without a word, making my way to change.

Half an hour of exchanged blows and heavy silence later, Dick landed a kick to my ribs that knocked the air out of my lungs and the anger into my muscles.

He took pause to apologize and see if I was okay, but I grabbed his shoulder, yanked him down and kneed him in the abdomen. Dropping the same foot down, I stomped on his and shoved him back. Moving fast, Dick grabbed my wrists and tugged me with him, both of us falling to the mats; me on top of him.

With a swift wrap of his leg on mine, Dick made a reversal so that he hovered above me, breathing heavily. "If you wanted a break, all you had to do was ask."

"Yeah, and if you wanted to talk, it probably would've been easier to do if you weren't trying to puncture my lung with my ribs," I shot back.

"I said sorry."

"Whatever," I sighed, shoving him again. "Just get off of me." He disentangled himself from me, sitting and leaning his arms against his knees as he took a breath. I sat up beside him and watched the muscle in his jaw jump slightly. "What's up with you, Grayson?"

"The department did a raid based on an anonymous tip that got called in," he answered lowly, not making eye contact. "Sex trafficking ring. By the time we got there, the raid ended up being a recovery. Twenty men and women poisoned and already dead when we got there."

I got a pang in my chest for him, knowing how much he hated feeling useless. "I'm sorry...but that's not on you. You can't save everyone, whether you're Officer Dick Grayson or Robin."

"That's not what's bothering me."

"Then what is?" I asked.

"There was one guy, just barely holding on, that I found while doing a sweep. He was half hidden in some sheets in a corner and reached out to me; grabbed my foot. I almost pulled my gun on him, but something told me not to. He started talking and at first I thought he was trying to say something about the people who did that to him, but he wasn't. Instead, he used his dying breath to dole out advice."

"Advice on what?"

Dick finally turned his face to look at me and something about the stark seriousness of it made my stomach do flips. His face was hard lines and sharp angles, but there was a desperation to his eyes that offset it.

"He kept saying to never take the easy way out, no matter how tempting. Not to get confused by an easy way that's actually a hard decision in itself. That if you want something enough, no matter how hard or impossible it may seem, do everything you can to get it. He said he tried to take the easy way out and instead it landed him there."

"Not to sound callous," I said softly, careful not to say anything to offend him. "But that doesn't exactly sound like something you didn't know. You risk your life everyday and see what happened with just one wrong choice. So why is this getting to you so much?"

"It's something I know, sure, but it still made me think. In everything that I do, I try my best to not take that easy way out. Everything but one glaring exception. You." Dick stopped and stared at me as if waiting for a response but I had no idea how to.

I was both confused and curious in that moment; but terrified that I already understood. "Whatever you plan on following that up with, I really wish you wouldn't."

"Because you think it would make things between us weird? Or because you're worried that it's something else we both have in common?"

"Because it doesn't matter what some guy with a few seconds left in his life told you about how to live yours," I answered brusquely . "Because no matter what you think you feel for me all of a sudden, you don't. Even if you did, it wouldn't matter because it's—"

"Impossible?" he interrupted skeptically. "Is it? I've resisted your pheromones before thanks to Bruce's secret little inoculations. So I'm sure by now, especially having doubled the dose, I'm immune."

"My pheromones aren't what kill people. Kiss of death, remember?"

"I haven't seen it for myself yet, so I'm not entirely sold on that being a thing."

"Well, I'm sorry for not offering to show you first hand," I replied with a roll of my eyes. "I don't exactly have volunteers lining up."

"You're making excuses," Dick said, an underlying tone of annoyance breaking the surface. "You're scared and will say anything to avoid the one thing that actually matters here. You have the same feelings for me as I have for you."

My heart skipped a few beats at his words and the air blew out of me as if he'd kicked my side again. As much as I didn't want to react for him to see, I could already feel the nervous mask arranging on my face. My stomach twisted at that final sentence and I couldn't decide if it was more from dread or joy. "Yeah? And what feelings are those exactly?"

"You care about me, just like I care about you," he answered without pause. His face inched closer and as much as my mind screamed to move away, I stayed rooted to the spot. "You can say you don't, but you risk your life to save me and have been helping me look for who killed my parents. You have your own life mystery to solve, and yet you're always willing to put it on pause if I think I have a lead. Deny it all you want, Madds, but you care."

"Of course I care," I said with was nonchalance. "But caring and being in love with you are two different things."

"I never said you were in love with me." Dick said in an almost pointed tone, dark eyes boring into me. I winced at my own stupid slip, mentally calculating the odds of me successfully diverting the conversation.

They weren't looking so great.

Dick shifted his body so that it was more angled towards me. Looking at him as he watched me silently, a cold pit formed in my stomach, sure I was about to lose one of the most important people in the world to me one way or another. All I had to do was move away from him; get up completely and shut this whole thing down in seconds. But the part of me that wished things could be different seemed to keep me locked in place.

"I saw a lot of myself in that guy," Dick explained, his breath warm on my skin. "A normal person wouldn't see it, but I do the whole Robin thing –"

"Because it's easier for you to actively look than face the idea that you'd never know who killed your parents," I finished. "The physical pain from the bruises is nothing in comparison to the pain of not knowing."

"It's my easy way out and I know, one way or another, it's going to land me somewhere I never wanted to be. And then you showed up and my easy way out became throwing myself more into being Robin. It let me distract myself from anything I was starting to feel about you but knew I couldn't act on, while still keeping you around through training. But if I keep up with it this way, it's going to end in a way that I don't want either."

"Anything involving me is going to end bad for you," I said. "I don't want to do anything to hurt you – to kill you."

"You won't. I know you won't. And even if you did, I could think of worse ways to go."

"That's not funny," I snapped.

"I'm sorry, just... tell me right now you don't want this. Tell me you don't ever think 'what if' and I'll leave it alone." He searched my face carefully as I bit down on my lip hard enough to draw a little blood. I wanted to tell him that I didn't and put some distance between us. But that meant lying and that was something I never wanted us to do to each other.

Neither of us said anything for a minute and then Dick moved before I could fully comprehend it; his lips pressed over mine softly before turning more eager.

My mind screamed at me to push him away, to try and get him some help while I had time.

My body stayed where I was, kissing him back just as eagerly in an attempt to burn the blissful moment into my mind before it took a turn for the worst.

It was Dick who broke us apart, causing my heart to drop to my stomach.

His forehead stayed rested on mine, eyes closed, and my breath caught in my throat as I waited for the end. Then his eyes opened slowly and he stared back at me.

"Are you..." I sighed, trailing off. I didn't even need to see my face to know I must've looked terrified.

"My lips tingle a little, but I don't feel anything otherwise," he answered. "How long does it usually take?"

"It's almost immediate. I don't— I don't understand...."

Dick chuckled lightly. "Are you disappointed I'm still breathing, or..."

"Don't be an idiot," I snapped. I took a deep breath, still sure something else was going to happen. There was no way that we could be that lucky; that I'd wasted time trying to stay away when I could've spent it with him. My hand reached out slowly, fingers tracing over the shape of his lips. "You really don't feel...I don't know—"

"I feel fine, I swear," he interrupted with a smile. It was infectious, and with the emotions already swirling in me, it was enough to push my decision.

My hand slipped to the back of his neck, pulling him in close as I made our lips meet again.

I am so sorry for the long wait on this chapter! Life has been crazy busy and hectic for me lately and then there's the whole "world might be ending" thing 😩 Anyways, I promise to try and get another chapter out soon but I make no promises. As far as this chapter goes, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it so please please PLEASE comment your thoughts so at least I know how you guys feel, haha.

Until next time ✌🏼