The club Jason ended up leading us to was walking distance from the tower. The line was short but occupied by clearly under-aged teenagers and a few sketchy characters watching the bouncer barely take a look at IDs before waving them each inside.

I immediately knew why Jason dubbed it the perfect spot. Given the sigh Dick let out beside me, I knew he'd guessed as much too.

I kept my eyes forward as we moved up in the line, trying my hardest not to focus on his heat beside me. After we all had changed and rejoined just outside the tower elevator, it took everything in me not to lock myself away in my room.

Dick had chosen a knit sweater that I'd always loved on him for its perfect fit on his form. The torso was just loose enough to billow slightly while the arms cut just right along the muscles. He knew how much I hated that sweater because I could almost never keep my hands off him while he was in it.

Which I'd gathered had been his plan when a small smile twitched at his lips at my initial, tense reaction.

"You can still leave, you know," I said to him as we moved up again. "You haven't gone in with us yet, which means technically you haven't gone against Bruce's wishes yet—"

"You say that like I don't live for that sort of thing," he answered and I could hear the smile in his voice. I pressed my lips together in a failed attempt to hide my own. "Besides, I can't keep my promise to you if I'm not around, now can I?"

This time I looked at him openly, no hidden smiles. "No, I guess you can't."

We lost Jason almost as soon as we stepped foot into the club. The thumping music was loud enough that he didn't hear us call out to him as he zipped through the crowd ahead of us. I chuckled to myself, unconcerned, but I just barely heard Dick swear at the younger boy.

"Jason can take care of himself," I yelled at him. "This is about having fun, remember?"

Dick looked at me and sighed. "You're right," he called back. "So what do you want to do first?"

"Let's hit the bar." Without much thought for it, I grabbed hold of Dick's wrist and began pulling him through the crowd. On a platform just slightly higher than the dance floor I spotted the bar and bee-lined straight for it. Two spots opened up on the counter corner just as we got there and I squeezed us in, immediately letting go of him.

The bartender was making his sweep when he spotted us. "What can I get you?"

"Two of your cheapest beer bottles, please," I answered. He nodded before taking off. He returned within a minute, popping both bottles open before putting them on the counter before us. "Thanks." Dick moved to pick up his bottle but I swiped it from in front of him before he could. "Oh, I'm sorry, did you want something too? You really should've let him know..."

Dick rolled his eyes, swiping my bottle from my loose grip and taking a swig. I pretended to be appalled, but couldn't hold it long enough.

We both ended up downing our bottles in silence, Dick ordering two more. I was taking a sip from the new bottled when I noticed Dick just staring blankly at it, eyebrows furrowed.

"You okay there, Grayson?"

His head turned to me before his eyes did. "Yeah," he said distantly and I immediately glared at the lie. He huffed out a breath at my reaction before correcting himself. "I was just thinking about the last time we did something like this together."

"What, drink?" I asked, my throat suddenly raw with emotion. Dick shook his head. "Went to a club?"

"For fun, yeah," he answered with a small smile. "Not for a mission or anything but with the actual intent of enjoying ourselves."

I thought back on it myself, surprised at how far I needed to go to realize when he meant. "Oh. You mean..."

"Our first date," he finished, dark eyes scanning my face like he wanted to pull what I was thinking straight from my features.

"You know," I said slowly, giving a small smile while trying to keep my emotions in check. "If I remember correctly, we still ended up on a mission by the end of that night."

"True, but it doesn't really count. We stumbled on to that on our way home and it wasn't in the club. It was down the street."

"Fair enough."

There was another pause of silence as he spun his drink between his fingers, still yet to drink from the bottle. "I'm sorry I didn't take you out on better, normal dates. You deserved them."

"Wow, Grayson, way to make a girl still feel like she's dead," I said without thinking, taking another swig from my drink and wincing at the harshness of the words. I sighed, starting over. "I shouldn't have said that and I'm sorry. I just—I don't want you ruining our memories by thinking we did things wrong. If I've learned anything in the past few years, it's that normal sucks. If we'd done dating the normal way, I don't think I would've stuck around passed date three; and that's being generous."

Dick let out a light laugh and I smiled. I bumped my shoulder into his, electricity crackling through my veins as I leaned comfortably against him. His eyes dropped to where our arms met before shooting back up to my face.

I knew I should move away, stop tempting us both with what we shouldn't have. But the thought that I'd died without him kept me where I was. "I loved our dates," I continued, smile growing wider. "I loved that our date nights were going out and kicking other people's asses. Because the only thing that truly mattered to me was that I was with you."

Dick had a smile of his own, his face close enough to mine that I smelled the faint trace of alcohol on his breath. "If I were anyone else, I'd say your enjoyment of violence is a bit disconcerting."

"Guess it's a good thing you're you." I knew my face was leaning in towards him and I did nothing to stop it. If I woke up in the morning, thinking how much of a stupid mistake this was, I could blame it on the alcohol.

One and a half bottles were enough to use as an excuse, wasn't it?

"There you guys are! Did you order me a drink too or... Hold up, was I interrupting something?" Jason's voice sounded from behind us and I groaned.

"Yes," Dick and I replied in unison, exchanging an amused smile.

"Too bad," Jason smirked. "If you wanted to hook up, you could've done it at home."

"You're a tool," I said.

"A tool of mass destruction," he countered with a wink.

"And on that note," I said with a shake of my head, downing the rest of my drink. "I'm gonna go burn some of this liquor off. Anyone care to join?"

"I need to hydrate first," Jason answered, maneuvering himself into my spot at the counter and flagging the bartender down.

I looked to Dick for an answer and he looked disturbed, "I'm... still not much for dancing."

"Oh come on, Grayson, let loose. Have some fun."

"I think I'm good here."

"Whatever," I said with a roll of my eyes, slipping out of my jacket and tossing it to him. "Then you can hold my jacket while I go have fun." I flashed a smile before dropping in on the dance floor, immediately melting into the moving crowd. I tuned out everything else in the world except the music that coursed through me and moved my body of its own volition. My bare arms brushed against other's clothes and skin as we all moved, carefree of the problems we checked at the door.

For the first couple of minutes, the dancing was fun and freeing. Then it began to be just another failed distraction from what I wanted most in that moment. So I closed my eyes and tried to imagine it happening for myself. I imagined it so much, with everything I had, that when his calloused fingers lightly gripped my elbow, it took me a few moments to realize it was real.

Opening my eyes and glancing over my shoulder, I saw Dick standing perfectly still and watching me with lustful dark eyes. The corner of my mouth twitched up as I lightly pulled from his grasp before leaning into him entirely. I could feel the hammering of his heartbeat in his chest as he brought his arm up under mine, lifting them together and twining our fingers.

My own heart seemed to skip a beat at the action, my free hand going up to his shoulder and pulling him as much closer as I could.

The rest of the club seemed to fall away as I felt his breath on my neck and his face against the side of my hair. I closed my eyes again, swaying only slightly to the music I could no longer focus on to hear.

A chill ran through me as I felt Dick move his fingers across the back of my neck, moving my hair so he could press his lips lightly to my skin. His fingers began tracing a shape on my skin and it wasn't until the upward brush that I realized it was my tattoo.

Once the trace was complete, he planted a kiss there too before whispering into my ear "Interesting tattoo."

I couldn't think of a response with him so wrapped around me. Everything I'd felt for him since the moment I met him was weighing down on me inside. The fact that I'd actually died, thinking I would never see him again only to be this close to him days later... It was as if, despite what we thought was best for the world and the decision we'd made all those years ago, we were always meant to find our way back.

We were connected and meant to be and who were we to fight that?

I opened my eyes as I turned to tell him as much, prepared to put our hearts out on the line again, when I froze where I was. I felt my entire body tense as I spotted the two men in the world I wanted to see least; D'amato and Hurricane.

And D'amato was staring right back at me.