G O T H A M  C I T Y
December 1, 18:25 EST

If he did say so himself, Dick prided himself as being something of an amateur inventor. 

The x-ray goggles he'd used at the docks a week ago to look for the stolen WayneTech crates was just one of the various little gadgets he'd created over the years. Of course, that little excursion with the x-ray goggles had ended with him and Reese almost being blown to bits, but really, that was just a small, small technicality.

At the moment though, the now fourteen-year-old Boy Wonder was down underneath Wayne Manor in the Batcave, digging through a chest of spare and disassembled gadgets, trying to find a particular part for the invention he was currently working on when he heard the Batcave's zeta tube turn on.

Recognized Silverbird B-0-3

Dick stood up so fast, he hit the back of his head against the top of the chest holding the spare parts, and he winced, rubbing the now-sore spot as he set the screwdriver down onto the table he had been using as a flat surface before turning around.

Honestly, he and Reese had only been officially together for a week, but it was, by far, the best week of Dick's life.

They also hadn't told anyone they were together yet. Well, no one on the Team. Bruce knew, because of course, he did, he was Batman, for Pete's sake. And Oliver knew because God forbid Dick date the Star City billionaire's daughter without telling her father.

But, in terms of their teammates, no one knew, not even Wally. And honestly, Dick wasn't even entirely sure why he and Reese hadn't told their friends yet. Maybe it was because it was nice, just keeping it to themselves for a while.

It wasn't like the rest of the Team would never get told but at the moment, and because Reese didn't hide her identity among the rest of the Team as Dick did, the two of them still had to figure out if Silverbird would be dating Robin or Dick Grayson.

But, that was a problem for Future Dick to figure out with his girlfriend. 

Girlfriend...wow. 

Present Dick, on the other hand, had currently gone speechless when he saw Reese standing at the entrance to his workstation, a small smile on her face as she saw him leaning against the worktable he had been using a few minutes ago, still rubbing his head.

"Did I scare you?" she asked, but Dick shook his head, though whether or not Reese really believed him, he wasn't entirely sure.

What had surprised Dick so much--aside from the fact that even though he knew that Reese was coming to his party, he'd thought she'd use the front door--was that his girlfriend was wearing a dress.

Reese never wore dresses, at least, not usually, so that was why Dick was so surprised when he saw her standing in front of him wearing a dress. It wasn't anything too fancy, because there was no way that Reese would ever end up wearing a ballgown to anything that wasn't a charity function of some sort. 

But, what she was wearing was basically a long, ocean-colored sweater, a black belt around her waist, white tights, and black, knee-high boots with a heel that almost made them the same height. 

Almost, but not quite, because Dick was still taller.

As always, the arrowhead from Kent Nelson hung around her neck in full view, the shimmery gold a stark contrast to the rest of her outfit. 

Reese's hair was also curly, per usual, and it hung around her shoulders, though a few strands fell in front of her eyes, and Dick found himself wanting to brush them out of the way.

"You look beautiful," the young protege finally managed to get control of his tongue after a few minutes, and he found himself smiling as well when Reese glanced to the side, her cheeks flushing a bit.

Regardless of whether they were together or not, Dick could still make the brunette turn as pink as a rose whenever he complimented her.

"Thanks," Reese said as she walked over to him, setting the small bag she had been carrying on a table near the door before perching herself on top of Dick's worktable, letting her legs dangle. "Is your head okay? I saw you hit it when I walked in,"

"Nah, I'm fine," he answered, waving a hand and pointing a thumb at himself. "It'll take more than a tool chest to take this Boy Wonder out of the game,"

"Right," Reese deadpanned, giving Dick a look that told the young hero she really didn't believe him. "It's the tool chest's fault. Not yours, for not opening the lid far enough that there wouldn't even be a chance for you to hit it,"

"Oh, pretty bird," the fourteen-year-old retorted, clutching at his chest. "You wound me," Then, because he was having a bit of fun, Dick let himself fall backward, sprawling on the floor of the cave in front of Reese, sticking his tongue out of the corner of his mouth. "I think I need mouth-to-mouth,"

Dick had shut his eyes when he fell on the ground, and though he knew that Reese knew that he wasn't really injured, he kept up the facade for a few moments more, eyes clenched shut before he heard Reese hop off the table she'd been sitting on and walk over to him.

First, Dick felt his girlfriend poke his cheek, and as hard as it was not to move when he felt Reese's hair brush against his nose (her hair smelled like cherry blossoms), the Boy Wonder kept still, and he even tried not to breathe too hard.

Finally, Reese spoke.

"Pity," she said after a few seconds, sitting back, and Dick cracked one eye open, though he snapped it shut again when Reese turned to look at him, her brown eyes sparkling as she tilted her head and grinned. "You were so cute too,"

Dick spluttered as he sat up, abandoning the charade to fix Reese with a look that said he was not impressed.

"How dare you?" he asked, though really, Dick wasn't angry at all. If anything, he was having trouble trying not to laugh and judging from the look on Reese's face, she knew it. "Rhysalin Queen, you've broken my heart,"

Dick flopped back down on the ground again, grinning, and he sat up slightly, using his elbows to brace himself as Reese let out a laugh.

"You, Dick Grayson," the brunette began, leaning forward until she and Dick were nose-to-nose. "Are a dork,"

"Yeah," he admitted simply, lip quirking slightly. "But, I'm your dork,"

"Indubitably," Reese retorted before she moved forward the last couple of inches and pressed her lips to his. 

The kiss only lasted a moment or two, but Dick felt the sense of bliss he'd been feeling up ten-fold, and he closed his eyes, cupping Reese's cheek in his hand. 

He loved her. He really, really did.

When the two of them finally leaned away, the Boy Wonder sat up fully again, crossing his legs as he sat next to his girlfriend.

"What are we gonna do?" Reese questioned him softly after a couple of seconds, and Dick glanced over at her, one eyebrow raised in a silent question before he spoke up.

"What do you mean?" he asked, though Dick had a feeling he knew what she was talking about. And he was proven right when Reese continued a moment later.

"With...this," the younger girl gestured to the both of them, her eyes suddenly turning downcast. "Us, I mean. Dick, aside from Wally, no one else on the Team knows who you are. And I know they already think that you--Robin, I mean--is in love with me, but if we decided that I'll date you as Robin and Silverbird, but then Rhysalin Queen is seen out with Dick Grayson, what does that mean for your secret identity?"

"Hey," Dick said quietly, reaching forward and lacing Reese's fingers with his, making sure Reese was looking at him before he continued. "We'll figure it out. Promise. And, hey, I'm not opposed to never telling the Team that we're together, and then just keep you to myself for all eternity,"

"All eternity?" Reese echoed, her lips turning up into a small smile, and Dick counted that as an improvement. "Last time I checked, Boy Wonder, you weren't immortal,"

"I know," Dick admitted as he stood up, taking Reese's hand and pulling her to her feet so she stood next to him. "But, like, think of how cool that would be! Being a superhero forever?"

"I think I'd get bored," Reese deadpanned, and Dick stuck his tongue out at her before the two of them stood in front of the table where the gadget that Dick was currently tinkering with was sitting.

Reese quirked her eyebrow again as she stared at the small metal cylinder where it sat at one end of the table, the ends of it open and showcasing the inside, though really, you weren't able to see anything inside of it.

"What are you working on?" she asked, after studying the cylinder for a few seconds, and Dick grinned again.

"You wanna see?" he asked giddily, and Reese gave a small nod, before Dick dove into the chest of old gadget parts again, before taking out two pairs of industrial goggles, tossing one pair to Reese before he pulled the other pair over his head, messing up the hair that he had carefully gelled in preparation for his party, but really, Dick didn't care too much. "Put the goggles on, otherwise you'll probably go blind,"

Reese looked more than a little bit wary, and she flicked her eyes between Dick, the goggles she was currently holding, and the cylinder that still lay on the table, looking remarkably harmless, before the brunette finally pulled the goggles over her eyes.

When Reese put her goggles on though, they were crooked, and Dick chuckled to himself as he reached across the table and straightened them so they were facing the right way. Through the lenses of his own goggles, Reese's eyes looked relatively normal, but he knew that if anyone were to walk in on the two of them, they would say their eyes looked about three times larger than normal.

Also, since the lenses of the goggles protected their eyes from anything too bright, kind of like the metal face-shields welders used when Dick pulled the goggles on over his face, everything took on a dark orange tint.

Then, Dick reached into the chest of parts again and grabbed two more pairs of thick, elbow-length leather gloves, and again, he tossed a pair to Reese, but due to the magnification effects of the goggles, the gloves ended up hitting her in the face.

"Sorry," Dick said quickly, wincing as Reese pulled the gloves on after pulling them off of her face, staring at her hands for a moment before leveling Dick with a look that was equal parts confused, wary, and intrigued as the Boy Wonder pulled on his own gloves.

"Please tell me we're not going to blow anything up," she muttered after a few seconds, and Dick scoffed, flicking his eyes around the Batcave for a moment before he looked at Reese again from where they stood across from each other.

"What?" he asked, feigning ignorance when he saw the dubious look on Reese's face. "Of course not. There is absolutely a 100% chance of no explosions," Reese crossed her arms. "85%?" She tilted her head, and Dick sighed. "Okay, fine," he finally admitted, huffing out a breath. "It's more like a 70% chance, but honestly, we should be totally fine as long as we don't touch anything that's a part of the actual staff itself,"

Said staff was the tiny cylinder currently sitting on the table in between the two of them, but when Reese glanced down at it, she didn't see anything that would've even remotely defined it as any sort of staff, bo staff, or otherwise.

But, Dick was a lot smarter than most people gave him credit for, so, as it were, Reese believed her boyfriend when he said this...whatever it was that he created, was some sort of staff.

She flicked her eyes up towards Dick again, more than a little bit wary and concerned, just as he gestured to her.

"Come on," he said quickly. "It'd probably be better if you stood next to me, just in case there is an explosion,"

Reese quirked an eyebrow behind the protective goggles as she rounded the table, and lightly bumped her shoulder against Dick's.

"Somehow, Boy Wonder," she said quietly. "That doesn't make me feel better,"

"Oh, ye of little faith," he retorted, before snapping the goggles above his head again and glancing at Reese. "You ready?"

"Do I have a choice?" the brunette asked, shifting so she stood slightly behind Dick's shoulder, as the fourteen-year-old grinned.

"Nope!" he exclaimed, and Reese clenched her eyes shut, bracing for the inevitable explosion, as Dick reached forward and pressed a button on the side of the small metal cylinder that Reese hadn't noticed earlier.

For several seconds afterward, Reese didn't move, when suddenly, she felt Dick nudge her, and when he spoke, she could hear the smile in his voice.

"Pretty bird?" he asked softly. "We didn't blow up. You can look now,"

Slowly, Reese cracked one of her eyes open and peered over Dick's shoulder towards the table, where the small metal cylinder had been sitting a moment before.

Only, now it wasn't. Well, that wasn't entirely true. The metal cylinder was still there, still lying in the same place it had been when Reese walked into the Batcave, only now it looked different.

Out of each end of the cylinder extended twin beams of reddish light, though through the lenses of the goggles Dick had given her, Reese likened the color more to that of caramelized carrots. 

The beams of light exited the cylinder a good three feet in either direction and underneath the halogenic lights that Bruce used to light his lair, the beams almost seemed to flicker, darkening for a split-second before they brightened again.

Like a moth to a flame (a terrible analogy once Reese thought about it), the brunette reached out to poke one of the beams of light, but before she could touch it, Dick grabbed her hand and yanked her back.

"No!" he exclaimed sharply, his voice echoing slightly in the cave, and reflexively, Reese recoiled.

"Sorry," she said quietly, and when he saw her, Dick's face crumpled.

"No," the young hero continued, his voice quieter than before. "Rhysalin, I'm not mad at you. Just...you can't touch it. If you do, you'll either a) blow up the entire house, or b) end up dying. And right now," Dick added after a moment, staring down at Reese with enough emotion in his eyes that Reese felt terrible for even attempting it. "I don't want either of those things to happen. Ever,"

"If it's so dangerous," Reese asked after a moment, stepping away from the table once Dick had explained the repercussions that could happen if one of them did end up touching the staff. "Why'd you build it?"

"It's not..." Dick trailed for a moment, reaching forward and pressing the button on the side of the center of the staff again, making the twin beams of light disappear, before he pulled off his goggles and tossed them onto the table. "It's not supposed to be so dangerous. The lights are actually concentrated plasma that I convinced Clark to get me on one of his missions in space, then I refined it. The problem is, the plasma's so unstable, it's difficult to keep it contained,"

As he pulled off his gloves and took Reese's own goggles and gloves when she handed them to him, Dick shrugged and glanced over his shoulder at her.

"There's a protective casing for the plasma made out of some sort of industrial-strength super high-tech glass that I ordered," he explained slowly. "Supposed to come in next week,"

"You know what it reminds me of?" Reese asked as she followed Dick across the room as he opened the tool chest again and tossed both the goggles and gloves inside. When her boyfriend let out a questioning hum, the brunette continued. "A lightsaber,"

Much like he had when Reese had said she was glad he was dead (obviously, she'd been joking), Dick let out an indignant sounding spluttering noise, before he spun around to face her.

"It's not a lightsaber," he retorted, though Reese was able to see that her boyfriend was fighting a grin. "It's a highly sophisticated bo staff containing a plasma solution gotten from the sun itself. The sun, Rhysalin. The sun!"

"You done?" Reese asked once Dick paused to take a breath, and he gave a small nod. "Then, I think we should classify it as a fancy lightsaber. You know, just to be safe,"

" 'Just to be safe', she says," Reese heard Dick mutter under his breath as he walked a few steps away from her, and the brunette couldn't help but grin.

It was fun seeing Dick get so worked up about something. But, a moment later, Reese frowned again, as she remembered something.

"Hey, Dick?" she asked quietly, and when he glanced over at her, Reese sighed. "Have--Have you talked to Frank recently?"

After the whole debacle with Simon Stagg and Eliza Hurdle, the media had exploded in response to the whole thing, and for once, Gotham's justice system worked quickly, however twisted it might've been. 

Bruce had ended up needing to make a statement about the WayneTech theft, though he said that he hadn't even noticed that the prototypes were missing until the R&D department did an inventory check, conveniently the same day that the prototypes were found.

That was a total lie; there hadn't been an inventory check, but what had he been supposed to say? His teenage foster son and his girlfriend, who were superheroes, by the way, managed to figure out who had robbed his company in the span of ten hours and subsequently sent Stagg Industries into its own tailspin? Yeah...how about no?

As it were, and because Simon Stagg was much like Lex Luthor in the way he had slippery lawyers crawling up the wazoo, he had managed to get off with a two-week sentence at Blackgate Penitentiary. 

Two weeks. Not even a month. Stagg would be out by Monday. But, Reese was also sure Stagg had paid off the judge and most of the jurors in that trial anyway, so he'd get off easier.

Frank's mother, on the other hand, had not been as lucky. Dick and Reese had been the ones who sent in an anonymous tip to the GCPD about them finding the prototypes at Stagg Industries, hoping that Simon Stagg himself would get his just desserts, but considering the outcome of Stagg's trial, it was Eliza Hurdle who took the brunt of the criminal sentence.

After the two of them had escaped Stagg Industries, it seemed Stagg had also cleaned house, getting rid of most of the evidence implicating him in the crime as a whole (it wasn't much use, Dick had recorded Simon's conversation in the laundry room), and had ended up purposefully implicating Eliza Hurdle instead.

And, because of Eliza's past mental illnesses, instead of being sent to Blackgate like Simon Stagg, Frank's mother was back in Arkham and would be for the foreseeable future, and even though, technically it had been Frank who stole the WayneTech prototypes in the first place, Dick and Reese hadn't wanted to implicate him. 

Eliza had been the one to set the bomb at the docks, and had technically tried to kill both Robin and Silverbird, but Dick and Reese had wanted to get Stagg, the real mastermind behind the entire operation.

Look how well that turned out.

"I invited him," Dick finally said after a moment, and Reese glanced up at him as she leaned against the table again. "I told him that we didn't tell anyone that he was the one who stole the prototypes and that I understand why he did it, but Frank said he wanted to spend time with his dad and brother for a while. Avoid the media spectacle,"

"I don't blame him," Reese murmured, crossing her arms. "I can't imagine what that would be like,"

There was a sharp crash from over her shoulder, and Reese jumped, turning to see that Dick had just slammed his fist into the table, scowling as his dark blue eyes flashed under the room's dim lighting.

"This is so stupid!" he exclaimed, and Reese was inclined to agree as her boyfriend started to pace around, waving his arms around in wide gestures as he ranted. "Stagg was the brains behind this, he was the one who wanted the prototypes; how is it that he's the one who got the softest punishment?"

"Corporate lawyers and a corrupt justice system?" Reese deadpanned, and she heard Dick let out a scoffing laugh from across the room.

"Corruption is an understatement," the Boy Wonder muttered after a couple of seconds, and Reese sighed, walking forward and gently lacing her fingers with his.

"But," she began slowly, making sure that Dick met her eyes before she continued. "That's what makes what you're doing with Bruce so good. The two of you are helping the people of Gotham. Not just as Batman and Robin, but as Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson,"

"Yeah, I know," Dick murmured quietly, tightening his grip on Reese's hand as he rummaged around in the tool chest with his free one. "But, that doesn't change the fact that when Stagg gets out of prison, he's going to be pretty mad,"

"Yeah," Reese spoke up after a moment, staring down at her boots. "That I am not looking forward to,"

"It's one of the reasons...one of the only reasons--" Dick began again, glancing over at his girlfriend. "That I'm glad you live in Star City,"

Despite the sweet thought, Reese couldn't help but roll her eyes, as Dick pulled another pair of gloves out of the tool chest, tossing them absently over his shoulder so they'd land on the worktable.

"You know I can take care of myself, Dick," she told him, leaning her side against the tool chest, neither of them noticing the fact that the gloves Dick had just thrown landed against the cylinder holding the plasma bo staff, accidentally pressing the button that activated it. "Even Dinah said that if I really tried, I could beat her in a fight. Maybe even beat Batman,"

At that, Dick's eyebrows scrunched together, and he laughed--a real laugh this time--hard enough that he had to hunch over in order to catch his breath.

Reese sincerely hoped he wasn't laughing at her.

After a couple of seconds, he straightened up again, but when Dick noticed the look on his girlfriend's face, his eyes widened.

"I-I'm not laughing at you, Rhysalin," the fourteen-year-old said quickly, holding up his hands, and after a moment, and after realizing that Dick wasn't lying to her, Reese relaxed. "I just think it'd be funny to see you and Batman get in a fight. I mean, not haha-funny, because I don't want to see you fight each other, ever, but you know..."

He trailed off, but Reese had known him long enough to be able to catch the gist of what her boyfriend was trying to say, so she smiled at him.

"I know what you meant," she told him, giving a small smile, and Dick grinned again. But, just as quickly as it appeared, their smiles disappeared, because, at that moment, both of them heard a quiet hissing sound come from across the room.

Reese must've been too distracted to be able to catch the hissing before Dick did, but in unison, now that the two of them had noticed it, the two birds turned towards the worktable to see that, when Dick had thrown his extra pair of gloves, he had also accidentally activated his plasma bo staff. 

And now, along with a smoking piece of leather where the gloves used to be, the beams of light that made up of the bo staff itself were getting brighter the longer it went on.

"Uh-oh," Reese heard Dick mutter from beside her, a split-second before he dove on top of her, knocking both of them to the ground. "Get down!" he shouted. "And close your eyes!"

Reese complied, scrunching her eyes shut and feeling Dick hunch over her just as there was a loud 'boom', and a flash of reddish light shone behind her eyelids. The explosion wasn't as loud as the one at the docks when Eliza Hurdle had tried to kill them a week ago, but once the light had dissipated, Reese's ears were still ringing.

After a few minutes, the brunette blinked her eyes open, only to cough as a choking gray smoke billowed throughout the room. Reese felt Dick move above her, and after a couple of seconds, both of them sat up, leaning back against the wall.

"You okay?" Dick asked quietly, waving his hand around to dissipate the smoke in his immediate vicinity, and Reese gave a small nod, leaning her head back.

"I'm guessing that's what would've happened if I had touched the lightsaber earlier?" she asked, and Dick let out a small laugh as he stood up, pulling Reese to her feet a moment later.

"Yep," he answered simply, before rubbing the back of his neck. "Though, in hindsight, I probably should've waited to show you until after I got the protective casing for it. And it's not a lightsaber," Dick added after a moment, pushing a button on the wall, to which Reese just shrugged.

No matter what her boyfriend said, she'd keep referring to the plasma bo staff as a lightsaber. Because that's what it was. A lightsaber.

There was clanking noise, like metal hitting metal before a vent opened up above Reese's head and the smoke was sucked out of the room.

When she got a good look at Dick once the room had cleared, the brunette couldn't help but start laughing. The Boy Wonder looked like he had just climbed through a chimney, considering he was covered head-to-toe in a good layer of soot.

And judging from the mischievous glimmer that entered Dick's eye across the room, Reese had a feeling she looked the same way. A fact that was confirmed when the brunette glanced down and saw that her blue sweater was now covered in dark, dusty splotches and her white tights had turned the color of charcoal. 

But, then again, the entire room now looked like the inside of a chimney.

All across the walls were black scorch marks, as if someone (Dick, obviously) had gone a bit crazy with a flamethrower. The worktable where the two of them had been standing earlier was in shambles, with metal shards and other bits of shrapnel throughout the room. 

Honestly, if she and Dick had been any closer to the table (they had actually been closer to the door when the "lightsaber" exploded), Reese was pretty sure they probably would've died.

No joke.

As the two of them glanced around the room, Reese was able to see Dick's face turn pale from the corner of her eye, even underneath the layer of soot.

"Bruce and Alfred are going to kill me," he muttered, and this time, because her senses were still going a bit wonky from the explosion, Reese was able to hear the distinct sound of footsteps coming down the stairs from the Manor, and coincidentally, the footsteps were heading towards them.

"Batman doesn't kill, Boy Wonder," she whispered, tugging on Dick's wrist until he looked at her. "But, I think we're about to find out if a butler will,"

If it was possible, her boyfriend's face turned even paler, but before he could say anything, a familiar--and at-this-point unwelcome--English-accented voice came from the doorway just behind where Dick and Reese were standing.

"I sincerely hope you have a good explanation for this, Master Dick,"

Reese loved Alfred. Really, she did. He was one of the most interesting people she had ever met, but sometimes, he appeared at the worst times. 

Like now, for instance.

Dick visibly winced, and for a few seconds, Reese actually thought he might pass out before they both turned around and gave the British butler their best innocent looks, so he might think they hadn't really almost accidentally blown up the Batcave, and with it Wayne Manor in its entirety.

Though, Reese doubted with her entire heart that Alfred would believe them.

"Uh..." Dick trailed off for a moment, he and Reese exchanging a frantic glance with each other, both of them wondering which unsaid excuse might buy them the least amount of Pennyworth Skepticism, before finally, Dick spoke again. "Inventing?"

Alfred raised an eyebrow, before peering around Dick and Reese's shoulders, into the room that still looked like a chimney sweep had run amok through it.

"And did your inventing happen to involve the singers of Chim Chim Cher-ee?" the butler asked, and, actually feeling a bit surprised, Reese leaned her head back.

"You've seen Mary Poppins?" she asked, and Alfred glanced at her, the corner of his mouth twitching up into a half-smile.

"Of course," he answered simply. "Contrary to popular belief, I do get time off,"

"You've seen Mary Poppins?" Dick hissed to Reese from the corner of his mouth, and the brunette stared at her boyfriend, a bit affronted.

"Uh, duh," she said after a moment. "You haven't?"

Dick just shook his head, and Reese's eyes widened before she looped her arm through his, giving a grin.

"We're watching it this weekend," she said simply, before both birds glanced towards Alfred again, only to see him smiling softly down at the both of them.

"We'll clean up later, Alfred," Dick piped up after a couple of seconds, giving the butler another one of his Grayson-patented Innocent Grins. "Promise,"

Alfred blinked, staring down at them again for a couple of seconds before finally, he sighed, sounding resigned, which only made Dick's grin grow wider.

"See that you two do it before Master Bruce finds out," he told them finally, before straightening up again. "I also came down here to tell you that your guests have begun to arrive. Be sure that you both get cleaned up before you greet them,"

Dick and Reese both gave nods, before they bolted up the stairs to the main Manor, making sure the coast was clear before they darted out from behind the grandfather clock that led down to the Batcave.

Thus began a scene that would've done well in any old James Bond film. 

As it were, Alfred had actually started to let people into the house before he had gone down to the Batcave to get Dick and Reese, and it was an almost-difficult feat, avoiding Dick's classmates long enough that the two of them were able to get upstairs without anyone noticing.

Once they finally got to the upper floor's landing, Reese leaned against the stairway's banister, catching her breath for a moment, before she glanced at Dick.

"Your classmates are a pretty savvy bunch, aren't they?" she asked, and Dick laughed, waving a hand.

"A pack of gossip vultures," he answered simply. "The whole lot of them,"

Whenever she stayed over in Gotham, Reese had always stayed in a guest bedroom about midway down the corridor (god forbid her and Dick share the same room; Oliver would have a heart attack), and now, that was where she went, as Dick walked into his own room a few doors down.

Because the Waynes were nothing if not extra, each bedroom in the Manor had an en suite bathroom, and there, Reese took a quick shower, washing off as much of the soot as she could before she got out, forgoing her sweater dress and tights for another one of Dick's Gotham Academy hoodies that she had stolen from him a while ago, a t-shirt, and a pair of skinny jeans.

Reese opted to let her hair mostly air-dry, though she did towel it off for a few seconds right after she got out of the shower. Then, she tied it up quickly into a messy bun, before opening the door to the guest room, only to almost run into Dick as he raised his hand to knock.

For a moment, all the two did was stare at each other, before Dick tilted his head to the side, eyebrows scrunching together.

"Is that my hoodie?" he asked, and Reese glanced down at the sweatshirt she was wearing for a moment before she looked back up at her boyfriend.

"Yes?" she said finally, accidentally phrasing it as a question, but regardless, Dick grinned.

"Cool," he said, before giving a small shrug. "It looks better on you anyway," Despite it all, Reese felt her face heat up, scrunching up her hands so they were hidden in the ends of the sweatshirt's sleeves, and Dick's smile widened.

The two of them then started to head back downstairs, but Reese got about six feet down the hallway before she jerked to a stop, whirling around and heading back into the guest bedroom before Dick even knew what had happened.

Before the two of them had come back upstairs after getting busted by Alfred in the Batcave, Reese had almost forgotten to grab her boyfriend's birthday present, which was, fortunately, left unharmed after the explosion.

So, suddenly remembering that she had it, Reese darted back into the guest room and grabbed the small bag before entering the corridor again, where Dick was waiting.

"Your birthday present," the brunette explained as Dick tilted his head, to which the fourteen-year-old shrugged.

"I could just open it downstairs with everyone else's," he said when Reese held out the bag towards him, but the younger archer just shook her head.

"No," she answered simply. "I want you to open it now,"

Dick raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything as he took the bag out of Reese's hand and sat down against the wall again, pulling out the few bundles of red tissue paper that the brunette had used in order to secure the gifts as Reese sat next to him.

"Is this my mug from the bakery?" he asked a couple of seconds later, after pulling out the first thing from the bag, and Reese gave a small nod. 

Technically, once she thought about it, Reese realized that having breakfast at Callie Rome's bakery in Star City last week had been her and Dick's first date, even though they technically weren't together until after Robin had saved everyone from a would-be robber.

The ceramic mug's background was colored a deep hunter-green and lighter green pine trees circled the entire mug, wrapping around the base to showcase a forest, with snow-capped mountains rising up behind them.

Before she had met Dick in the alley behind the bakery where they had had their first kiss, Reese had bought both of the mugs she and Dick had used, and hers, which was designed like the night sky, complete with silvery stars and a crescent-shaped moon, was currently sitting in her cupboard at home in Star City.

But, Reese had decided to give Dick his as well and figured his birthday, which was the week after their first date (obviously) was as good an occasion as any.

Though, the brunette didn't really think that a ceramic mug really lived up to the sentimental value that was her second gift to Dick.

"What else is in here?" Dick asked after he had wrapped his mug back up in the tissue paper, setting it off to the side and obviously noticing the large, rectangular object that took up most of the bag, and once he had said something, Reese nudged his shoulder.

"Look at it," she told him simply, and though he stared at her for a few moments afterward, Dick complied, reaching into the bag and moving more tissue paper out of the way before he finally pulled out the drawing that Reese had been working on in the bakery, the drawing she hadn't let Dick see.

When he saw the finished drawing, which Reese had actually been able to finish in the week since their first date, Dick's eyes widened, his mouth falling slightly open.

The grayscale drawing was encased in a simple oak frame, the wooden border finished so that it held a dark and glossy sheen. Behind the glass was a drawing of a scene that Dick hadn't seen or experienced since he was little.

It was Haly's Circus. 

Or, more specifically, the scene of his entire family leaping through the air from the 'The Flying Graysons' poster that Dick had hanging in his bedroom at this very moment, though Reese had drawn his family in such a way that, even though the picture held no color, Dick felt like he was there, before the accident, when everyone was so, so happy.

Dick didn't realize he was crying until he felt Reese lay her hand against his cheek.

"Is it too much?" her voice was so quiet, Dick almost didn't hear it at first, but he'd be able to pick Reese's voice out in a crowded football stadium filled to the brim with people, and not just because of her sonic scream. "I wanted to give you something memorable, but..."

"No," he said finally, reaching up with his free hand and wiping away the few tears that had managed to escape. "No, it's not. Rhysalin, I love it. This is amazing,"

Reese turned her head away and stared down at her boots, blushing again and murmuring something about how 'it's not that good of a drawing', which made Dick think back to the way that, whenever he had complimented her, even before they had started dating, it always took him physically convincing Reese that what he was saying wasn't a lie before she finally believed him.

And now, he wanted the truth.

"Who hurt you, pretty bird?" Dick asked softly a moment later, and Reese's head snapped up, her dark eyes wide.

"Nobody," she said quickly. "What are you talking about?"

Dick just gave her a deadpan look before he continued. "You're a phenomenal artist, Rhysalin," he began quietly. "An amazing designer. An amazing person. You're smart and beautiful, and one of the most endearing people that I know. Why don't you believe that yourself?"

"Dick..." Reese trailed off, the corners of her mouth turning down into a frown, but the Boy Wonder reached forward and wrapped her fingers in his before he continued.

"I don't want you to bottle this up anymore, Reese," he said quietly, reaching forward and brushing a few strands of dark brown hair away from where they had fallen in front of her eyes. "I know someone hurt you, and I just want to know who it was. Please, pretty bird, talk to me,"

For a couple of seconds, Reese didn't say anything, before finally, she gave a deep sigh, her shoulders moving with the action before she finally glanced at Dick out of the corner of her eye.

"Are you sure you want to know?" she asked quietly, and Dick gave another nod.

"Yes," he answered earnestly, and Reese sighed again, leaning her head back so it thumped against the wall.

"I was seven," she began softly, and Dick listened silently. "It was before I met you the first time... before Lauren was born...and before my parents died. My father was a research scientist. Obviously, that's how this--" Reese gestured to the base of her throat. "--happened. Anyway, before he worked at Cadmus, my father worked in the research department at Clark Industries,"

"I've heard of them," Dick answered after a moment as Reese paused to catch her breath. "They're a pharmaceutical company, right? Based out of...London, isn't it?"

Reese gave a small nod before she continued. "That's where their corporate headquarters is now, but before they moved across the Atlantic, Liam Clark had his company based right here in the States. In Star City,"

"So...what happened?" Dick asked quietly, gently lacing his fingers with Reese's, and the brunette stared down at their joined hands for a moment before she started speaking again.

"Liam has a son," she said softly. "Ethan. I think he's about Wally's age now. Anyway, because we were roughly the same age, our parents thought we'd get along pretty well," 

Reese closed her eyes for a moment, and Dick felt his heart seize up as he noticed that now she was the one crying.

"Did you?" he asked slowly, realizing that this was obviously a difficult memory for his girlfriend to recall. Man, he never should've asked.

"Yeah, for a while," Reese answered once she had opened her eyes again, glancing down at her and Dick's hands again as Dick started to play with her fingers, doing anything to keep Reese's attention off of her painful memories. "But, then Ethan's mother died in a car accident. Drunk driver. After that, Ethan got angrier. More mean. I understand it was grief, I was the same way after the fire, but, this was...different,"

"What happened?" Dick questioned quietly, his voice barely more than a whisper, and Reese sighed again before she continued.

"I think when it started was a few months before Liam Clark moved his company to Europe," she began quietly. "I remember...I remember my dad had to talk to Ethan's father about something, and he had brought me along to play with Ethan because my mom was at a doctor's appointment. She had just found out she was pregnant with Lauren,"

This wasn't just painful memories about whatever Ethan had done to her, Dick realized. Reese's biological family was intertwined in this story like the thorny vines of a rosebush, and it was hard for his girlfriend to remember them at all.

"You don't have to keep explaining, pretty bird," Dick said quietly, tightening his grip on her hand and making sure Reese was looking at him. "I'm sorry I asked,"

"No," Reese shook her head, taking a deep breath. "I'm almost done. Anyway, my dad and I were at Clark Industries, and Liam had said that Ethan was in his office. So, while he and my dad talked about whatever business they needed to talk about in one of the building's research laboratories, I went to find Ethan. When I found him--" 

Reese abruptly cut off, and Dick glanced over at the brunette again worriedly before she continued. 

"When I found him, Ethan didn't want to play any of the games we usually would. Instead, he began to rant. A nine-year-old boy, ranting to his seven-year-old friend about how 'she's a total waste of space' or how 'he wished it was her who had died instead of his mother', or, and this one is my personal favorite..." Reese said the last bit with a tone of dead humor, but Dick didn't find any of this even remotely funny. " 'No one will ever love you because if anything, everyone just wants you dead'. Ironic, isn't it?"

Even though she phrased it as a question, Dick knew that Reese wasn't really looking for an actual answer. 

After a moment though, the brunette continued again. "And that went on for the six weeks it was before Clark Industries officially moved out of the country. And it wasn't like I could do anything. My parents were too busy getting ready for another baby to pay attention to their verbally abused seven-year-old daughter,"

For several seconds after Reese had finished, Dick didn't say anything, because if he had, he probably would've ended up breaking something. And preferably, at the moment he wanted that something to be Ethan Clark's neck.

"I love you," Dick said finally, making sure Reese was looking at him before he continued. "I love you with every single cell in my body, and I have loved you for a long time, Rhysalin Blaire Queen," He saw tears appear in Reese's eyes again, but Dick wasn't finished. "Oliver loves you, and Dinah loves you, and the League, and the Team. You're not a waste of space, pretty bird, and don't let anyone else ever tell you anything different,"

Then, Dick leaned forward and kissed Reese again, and he was able to feel her tears as he cupped her face with his hands.

"I love you," he whispered in Romani, watching Reese's eyes turn silver for a moment as she processed the foreign language before he kissed her again. "I love you so, so much,"

Finally, Dick leaned back and pressed his forehead against Reese's, just listening to her breathe for a few seconds before finally, his girlfriend spoke.

"Barbara likes you,"

Okay, that, Dick had not been expecting. 

He leaned backward, his fingers looped together behind Reese's head, and he stared at her, wondering where exactly that thought had come from.

"What?" Dick asked finally, and he heard her sigh again.

"She told me the last time my dad had business here. Oliver, I mean," Reese began quietly. "I guess I should've told you before we kissed in Star City, but I thought you were leaving to go back to Gotham, and I thought she was going to tell you then, so I just...didn't,"

Dick would be lying if he said that dating his red-haired friend had never crossed his mind, but he had only really thought about it two years ago. 

But, then he, as Robin, and Batman had teamed up with Green Arrow, Speedy, and Silverbird to take down a joint Gotham-Star smuggling ring, and after seeing Reese take down six of the smugglers all by herself, even though she had only been Silverbird for only a year...to say the thought of dating Barbara exited his head pretty quick after that would be an understatement.

To Dick, there had only ever been Reese.

"We should probably go downstairs now," Reese said quietly a moment or two later, and Dick let out a hum as he leaned his head back against the wall. "It's not good if the birthday boy misses his own party,"

"Are you okay?" Dick asked quietly, opening his eyes again and glanced over at Reese. "I mean, I know you're probably not, but..."

"I'll be okay," Reese said softly, giving Dick a small smile that thankfully, her boyfriend realized was genuine. "Eventually,"

Then, Dick headed back into his bedroom, setting the bag holding his drawing and mug down on the nightstand before returning to where Reese was waiting in the hallway before they both walked back down the stairs into the fray that was Dick's fourteenth birthday party.

As the two of them made their way through the throng of teenagers that had effectively taken over Wayne Manor's rec room, Reese leaned over so she could whisper in Dick's ear.

"How do you deal with these people every day?" she asked softly, being sure to keep her voice quiet enough that no one else would be able to hear. She was rude, but she wasn't that rude.

"Very, very, carefully," Dick answered, giving one of his classmates a plastered-on smile when they said hello to him, and it was a smile that Reese recognized as the same one her dad used whenever he had to interact with someone he really didn't like.

As her boyfriend started to greet a few more of his classmates as they swarmed around him, Reese slipped through the throng of gathered teenagers towards the snack table on the other side of the room, because if she was going to have to deal with this many people for the next couple of hours, she needed sustenance. If only so she didn't end up shooting someone with an arrow; introversion at its finest. 

But, just as Reese gently nudged her way between two older teens, and if the brunette had to guess, they were probably the same age as Wally and Artemis, she accidentally rammed her shoulder into someone, sending both of them stumbling away from each other.

When Reese glanced up after a moment to regain her composure, she found herself looking up into the cerulean-colored eyes of one Barbara Gordon, who was dressed in a pretty black and green dress.

Now, let me make one thing clear, Reese didn't hate Barbara. Not at all. She actually thought the older girl was pretty cool, and the daughter of the police commissioner was undeniably smart, especially if she was able to keep up with Dick's rampant thoughts on a daily basis.

But, what Reese's problem was, was that Barbara was so confident, so self-aware, that whenever the two of them interacted, however infrequent those interactions were, Barbara's personality made Reese feel like she was six inches tall. 

And, also, Barbara was physically taller than Dick, which in turn meant she was physically taller than Reese. God, the brunette hated being short so much.

There was also that whole thing about them crushing (more-so 'loving' in Reese's case) on the same guy, so there's that.

"Hey, Barbara," Reese said finally, and for a few seconds, the redhead just blinked at her.

"Hi," Barbara answered before her ocean-colored eyes flicked down to what Reese was wearing, and subconsciously, the brunette winced.

Reese knew that Barbara probably realized that she was wearing Dick's hoodie, anyone who knew even the barest facts about Rhysalin Queen herself knew that there was no way she'd be able to attend Gotham Academy while living in Star City (duh), so there was no way the sweatshirt was hers.

As it were, after that particular revelation, the awkward tension upped ten-fold.

"I didn't know you were going to be here," Barbara said slowly, and Reese glanced down at her shoes. Where the hell was Dick? "Isn't it a ten-hour flight from Star City?"

"Nine hours," Reese corrected her quietly, deciding at the last moment not to tell Barbara that she'd been at the Manor for over an hour already, or that she hadn't even flown here. Thank God for the Zeta tubes. "But, it's Dick's birthday. I wouldn't miss it,"

"I'll bet," Reese was pretty sure she wasn't supposed to hear Barbara say that last comment, so she ignored it.

Just then, before either of them could say anything else, Dick popped up next to the two, and if Reese hadn't had her super-senses, and if she hadn't been trained by three members of the Justice League for the last three years, she would've jumped in surprise at the pure ninja skills that the fourteen-year-old had.

Reese didn't startle easily.

It seemed though, that Barbara did because she did jump when she noticed Dick suddenly standing beside Reese, and the twelve-year-old archer would be lying if she said she didn't feel the tiniest bit smug.

Just a little bit.

"Great, you two have met!" Reese didn't know if Dick had forgotten that she and Barbara already knew each other, or if he was pretending not to know. 

As it were, he was wearing his business smile again, though at this point it looked more like a grimace, and judging from the way his dark blue eyes flicked over to hers every couple of seconds, Reese also knew he was remembering what she had told him upstairs before the two of them had joined the party.

About Barbara's feelings for him.

"We already knew each other before today, Dick," Reese told him quietly as Barbara shifted on her feet, and again, Reese was surprised at how good of an actor her boyfriend was. Though, whether or not Barbara actually believed him, Reese wasn't entirely sure.

"Right, right, right," he said quickly, waving one hand around, while with his other hand, Dick laced his fingers with Reese's. 

The brunette may have squeaked. 

Reese also knew Barbara had seen Dick do it too because she saw the redhead flick her eyes down to their joined hands for a split-second before she looked upward again, giving Dick a small smile before she told both of them that she saw some of her classmates she wanted to say hello to before walking away.

Lie.

As soon as she was gone, Reese reached over and punched Dick in the shoulder, making the Boy Wonder wince and rub the spot where she had hit him with his free hand.

"Ow!" he exclaimed quietly, his voice bordering on a hiss. "What was that for?"

"I told you Barbara had feelings for you, Dick," Reese told him, keeping her voice down. "I didn't mean for you to rub our relationship in her face!"

"What?" Dick yelped. "I'm not rubbing it in her face," But, as much as she loved him, Reese just gave her boyfriend a deadpan look before she continued.

"Upstairs," the brunette began slowly as the two of them lingered by the snack table. "I told you that Barbara liked you. Okay, that's fine. What I didn't mean for you to do is blatantly point out to her that we're together!"

"Don't you want people to know we're dating?" Dick asked softly, his blue eyes turning slightly sad, and Reese quickly backtracked as she picked up a small cup of pretzels that was sitting on the table beside her and popped one in her mouth.

"Of course I do," she answered after swallowing. "But, A) I thought you had already told Barbara we were together, and B) weren't you the one who had said downstairs that you'd rather never tell people we're together, and just keep it to ourselves for all eternity?"

From his spot next to her, Dick sighed and leaned his head back. When he looked at her again, Reese could see that a glimmer of mischief had returned to his eyes.

"Obviously," he began. "I was exaggerating,"

"Obviously," Reese reiterated, eating another pretzel and reaching for a nearby cup of fruit punch before using the nearby Sharpie to write her name on the side of the cup. 

"When do you want to tell everybody we're dating?" she asked after a moment, glancing at Dick from the corner of her eye. "Wally and the others, I mean,"

Dick just shrugged. "Honestly?" he questioned after a couple of seconds. "I haven't gotten that far yet. KF's really the only one who could--"

Before he could finish whatever it was that he was going to say, Dick's watch let out a soft beeping noise, and Reese's eyes flicked down to it. 

Dick's watch also doubled as his holo-computer when he was in civvies, so, in order to keep the revelation of what exactly his watch was away from the rest of his classmates, Dick turned around so his back was facing the party, and after a moment, Reese turned around too.

"What is it?" she asked quietly, taking a sip of her punch. Dick didn't answer, only pulling up the Manor's security feed, particularly the hidden camera that was above the front door.

When Reese saw who was at the door, she choked on her punch and had to cough for a couple of seconds as Dick stared at her worriedly before the brunette finally regained her bearings enough to look up at him.

"You...invited..." Reese's voice was a bit scratchy from the coughing, and she rubbed at her throat for a moment before continuing. "Artemis?"

Sure enough, there the other archer stood, looking fairly uncomfortable in a sleeveless green blouse and black pants, next to another blonde girl that Reese assumed was one of her peers at Gotham Academy.

What she was doing here, Reese had no idea.

"She's a classmate," Dick said softly, giving his girlfriend a small smile as if that suddenly made it all better, but Reese only narrowed her eyes at him.

"She doesn't know who we are, Dick," she said quietly, to which the Boy Wonder just tilted his head in question.

"She knows who you are," he retorted, but all Reese could do was sigh. Honestly, sometimes her boyfriend was so smart, but other times (like now) he was so completely and utterly dumb.

"She doesn't know we're together, Dick," she added after a moment, emphasizing the together part. "And she doesn't know who you are. How am I supposed to explain what I'm doing in Gotham City at your birthday party, as your girlfriend, if we're still not entirely sure if I'm going to be dating you or Robin? Plus, technically, as Rhysalin Queen, I'm not even supposed to know Artemis."

"We'll figure it out," he said quickly, grabbing both of her hands and holding them in between them for a moment. "Promise," 

Suddenly, Dick's eyes lit up like the first (and last) time he and Wally lit a whole crate full of sapphire-colored fireworks in Wayne Manor's backyard at an Independence Day celebration a few years ago, and he grinned.

"What is it?" Reese asked, beginning to get a bit wary, but Dick's grin only widened.

"I have an idea," he said quickly, dropping one of Reese's hands and using the other to lead her across the room. "When I come back, pretend as if you're seeing me for the first time today,"

"What?" Reese asked, her wariness fading even more, and instead, it was replaced with more than a substantial amount of confusion. "Dick, that doesn't even make--"

He kissed her before she could finish her argument, and Dick smiled at the dazed look Reese had on her face when he leaned back again a moment later, slightly surprised that he had just kissed her in front of the entire room, though whether or not anybody had seen yet, neither of them were entirely sure.

"Trust me, okay?" he asked quietly before Reese sighed again, and this time, she was the one who gave him a smile.

"You know I trust you with my life, Boy Wonder," she whispered, and Dick smiled before he kissed her cheek once before going to answer the door, but before he could leave the room, Reese grabbed his hand and dragged him back.

"What is it?" Dick asked quickly, but Reese didn't say anything, only reaching up and quickly tucking Dick's golden arrowhead necklace underneath the collar of his shirt so it was out of sight.

"We don't want Artemis getting wind of who you are yet, Mr. Acrobat," she said softly. "She knows I gave the magic arrowhead to Robin. She doesn't need to know that you have the same one," 

A second later, Dick smiled again, before jetting out of the room, this time almost running headlong into Alfred as the butler went to answer the door, but with a quick pivot on his foot and a spin that would make Wally proud, Batman's young protege managed to keep from bowling both himself and Alfred over.

As she waited for him to come back, Reese leaned against a nearby wall, hoping to whatever deities were out there, religious or no, that this plan didn't completely backfire.

The brunette was so distracted with her own thoughts, that she didn't hear Barbara walk up next to her until the older redhead spoke.

"So," she began after a moment, and it took almost all of Reese's willpower not to jump. So much for not startling easily. "The two of you really are together?"

"...yeah," Reese finally muttered after a few seconds, wrapping her arms around herself and glancing over at the older girl. "Barbara, I'm sorry--"

"Don't be," Barbara cut her off, making Reese glance over at her again, and after a moment, the redhead sighed, glancing at the floor for a moment before looking over at Reese again. "I won't lie, and say that I don't have feelings for Dick...because I do. But, I can see that you make him happy. Well, happier. So, I won't get in between you two. Purposefully, I mean,"

"Thanks," Reese said quietly because what exactly was she supposed to say to that? As it were, Barbara just gave her a small smile, before walking off back into the party.

Then, Reese went back to waiting. Dick couldn't have been gone for more than a few minutes, but with her conversation with Barbara, her own rampant thoughts, and her general impatience, the brunette felt as if she had been waiting for hours.

But, just then, Dick walked back into the rec room, Artemis and her classmate trailing behind him, and subconsciously, Reese took a breath, and, though she was still halfway across the room leaning against the same wall she had been leaning against when Dick left to greet Artemis in the first place, she tilted her head, and began to listen in on their conversation.

"...the party's in here," Dick was saying, and Reese was able to hear Artemis's and the other girl's soft exclamations of awe as they stared around the room, and after a few seconds to take it all in, Artemis finally spoke up.

"Your foster father doesn't do anything halfway, does he?" the other archer asked, and Reese couldn't help but give a small smile as she heard Dick chuckle from where he was walking slightly in front of the other two.

"You have no idea," he answered, just as the trio walked past where Reese was standing, and the brunette remembered what Dick's 'plan' had been, and just as he turned to glance over at her, Reese gave a small wave.

"Hi, Dick," she said quietly, and her boyfriend's grin widened as he, Artemis, and the other girl paused in front of her.

"Oh, hey, pre--Reese," Reese quirked an eyebrow as Dick suddenly stumbled over his words, and it took her a second to realize that he had almost called her pretty bird. "Have you been here long?"

"No," she answered simply, eyes flicking over to Artemis for a split-second before turning back to look at Dick. "I was just wondering if the birthday boy was going to end up missing his own party,"

"You know me better than that, Rhysalin," he answered. "You know I'd never miss this party. Not if you're here," 

Reese giggled at Dick's fourteen-year-old flirting skills, but she couldn't help but find it undeniably sweet. 

Then, as if he suddenly realized that Artemis was still standing behind him, along with her friend, Dick turned around and gestured to the both of them, beginning to make introductions, even though both he and Reese already knew who Artemis was, even if Artemis didn't know that.

If Reese hadn't been so worried about Dick's identity safe, and simultaneously keeping her relationship with him a secret, she would've burst out laughing at the expression on Artemis's face as she obviously recognized her.

Honestly, it was priceless.

"Rhysalin Queen," he began, gesturing with one hand. "This is Artemis Crock and Bette Kane; I go to school with them. Artemis, Bette, jet-lagged from flying almost ten hours from Star City, the lovely Miss Rhysalin Queen,"

"Dick, stop it," the brunette rolled her eyes teasingly. "I am not jet-lagged,"

"Aren't you?" he retorted, tilting his head and giving her a grin that was pure Robin, and how Artemis didn't figure out his secret identity right then and there, Reese didn't know. "Because the last time you were here, I seem to recall you falling asleep on my shoulder right after Bruce and I picked you up from the airport,"

If they hadn't been in front of over two dozen other people, and if the two of them weren't currently trying to protect Dick's secret identity by making sure Artemis didn't figure out who he was, Reese probably would've flipped her boyfriend over onto his back.

As it were, Reese couldn't very well judo-flip Dick without drawing a whole lot of attention she didn't want or need, so the brunette settled for sending him a look over the shoulders of Artemis and Bette, to which Dick just stuck his tongue out at her, dark blue eyes glimmering with laughter.

"Your dad is Oliver Queen, right?" Bette, who was Artemis's friend, asked, and Reese glanced over at her, giving a small nod.

"I'm adopted," she explained after a moment. "But, yeah, pretty much,"

"Are you in Gotham often?" This time, Artemis was the one who spoke, and when Reese turned to look at her, the brunette knew that the older blonde was trying to get a read on her, and probably wondering what the hell Reese was doing here. "It can't be easy flying almost twelve hours to and from Star City,"

Reese just shrugged, wondering to herself how much she could actually say without making Artemis any more suspicious than she already naturally was.

"Not as often as I would like," she said finally, deeming that to be an honest enough answer before she shrugged. "But, I get here when I can,"

"Oh, please," Dick cut in, throwing an arm around Reese's shoulders and making Artemis's eyes turn as wide as saucers when she noticed the movement. "If she didn't get here every week, Reese would miss me too much,"

"Every week?" Bette asked, looking a bit confused as Artemis narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms from where she was standing beside the other blonde. "Don't you have school?"

"I'm homeschooled," Reese answered simply, before turning to send another look towards Dick, still playing the part of her not knowing who Artemis was, and pretending that Dick wasn't Robin. "And I would not miss you too much,"

"Sure you wouldn't, Rhysalin," he answered, before pressing a hand to his chest, much like he had done when he and Reese had been down in the Batcave earlier before they'd almost blown up the place. "Be still my aching heart,"

Reese just flicked her index finger against his temple, pushing his head back as Dick started to laugh. The flick didn't hurt him, but it only made him laugh some more.

"You're such a dork," she said, and from the corner of her eye, Reese was able to see Artemis's eyes narrow even more, and she knew that the other archer was wondering about her and Dick's dynamic.

"Your full name's Rhysalin?" Artemis asked, obviously pretending as if she hadn't already known that. "Why do you have everyone call you Reese?"

"It's easier to pronounce, for one thing," Reese answered after a moment as their quartet migrated to the snack table again, and the brunette refilled her cup of punch. "Dick's really the only one who calls me 'Rhysalin' on a daily basis,"

That statement was a bit of a dangerous one, as Dick piped up behind them with "yeah, I'm special" because Reese knew that Artemis knew that Robin also called her by her full name, but as far as Artemis knew, Dick Grayson didn't know that Reese even knew Robin, or that she was Silverbird.

Luckily, even though they both knew that what Reese had said was wrong, Artemis didn't correct her, and for that, Reese was grateful.

"Hey, the foosball table's open!" Dick suddenly exclaimed, interrupting the small staring contest that had erupted between Reese and Artemis as the latter tried to figure out what the former was doing here, and Reese tried to protect Dick's identity. "Let's do a couple of rounds!"

The next thing Reese knew, Dick was dragging her across the room, Artemis and Bette following them before the four gathered around the now deserted foosball table.

"Wanna be my partner, Rhysalin?" Dick asked. "That way, I know we'll win,"

"Hey, wait," Artemis cut in, holding up a hand, making both Dick and Reese turn and look at her. "What if I want Reese to be my partner? You might be flirting with her like there's no tomorrow, but you can't keep hogging her, Grayson,"

"I am not hogging her," Dick shot back, both him and Artemis acting as if Reese wasn't standing in between both of them, which caused the brunette to exchange a glance with Bette. "I just said I wanted her to be my partner for a foosball. Why do you want to be her partner?"

"Okay, how about this?" Reese cut in before the argument could escalate any further, and she pushed her way in between Dick and Artemis, shoving them away from each other and standing so she'd be able to look both of them in the eye.

It wasn't easy.

"How about this?" she repeated after a moment, making sure both Dick and Artemis were looking at her before she continued. "For the first round, I'll partner with Artemis. Dick, you can be with Bette. If you beat us, I'll partner with Dick next round, and Artemis can be with Bette. But--" she continued as Dick sent a smug grin Artemis's way. "If we beat you this first round, I partner with Artemis for the rest of the time we play. Fair?"

Neither Dick nor Artemis looked particularly happy with Reese's terms, Dick more so than the blonde, but they both eventually agreed, and after a couple of minutes to get the first game set up, the two pairs stood on either side of the foosball table; Artemis and Reese on one side, Dick and Bette on the other.

As soon as Barbara--who had walked up to the table just before the game started and was now acting as referee--dropped the small ball in the center of the table, Reese twisted the handle of the bar she was holding, and in one smooth move, she had scored the first goal.

Dick groaned and smacked his forehead against the edge of the table, while Artemis grew a large grin that stretched across her entire face.

"Team names?" Barbara asked, gesturing with a pen and small notepad she was holding in order to keep score, and when Reese glanced over at Artemis, she knew they were thinking the same thing.

"Team Arrow," Artemis told Barbara, and the redhead nodded, scribbling it down before she turned to Dick and Bette, who glanced at each other before Bette finally turned to Barbara.

"Think we should do it as Green Arrow versus Batman?" the other blonde asked, and Reese almost laughed at the irony before Barbara turned back to her notepad.

"Team Flying Rodent..." she murmured, and Reese heard Dick let out an odd sort of strangled-sounding noise, before Reese and Artemis both burst out laughing.

"Bats are mammals," Dick corrected Barbara after a moment, glaring across the table at his girlfriend and teammate (not that Artemis knew that), and Barbara sent him a raised eyebrow.

"Sorry, Mr. Sensitive," she told him, mock-offended, before setting her notepad and pen down on the edge of the table. "Then, Team Flying Mammal. The score is 1-0, with Team Arrow in the lead,"

As Barbara reached into the small pocket on the end of the foosball table and retrieved the ball, restarting the game, Reese stared down at the foosball bars, ready to start again.

She knew why Dick wanted to partner up with her. 

Aside from them being partners as their alter-egos, Reese's ability to predict a person's next move came in handy when playing games like foosball or air hockey, evidenced by the one time she had beaten Roy in a game so bad that her brother refused to ever play against Reese again.

As it were, Dick was almost as good at foosball as Reese was, and that was without any superpowers. So, as their mini-competition went on, the teams were pretty evenly matched. Reese and Artemis were pulling ahead in the first half, but then Dick and Bette managed to gain a small lead.

When the first foosball game finally came to a close, the score was actually tied 15-15. Reese was pretty sure Barbara was getting as into the game as she was, and the older girl wasn't even playing.

Finally, Artemis twisted her wrist, and the small ball flew into Dick and Bette's goal, making Barbara let out an exuberant exclamation and sealing the victory for Reese and Artemis.

"See?" Dick asked, throwing his hands up in the air as Reese and Artemis shared a quick hi-five. "This is why I hate playing against you. You always beat me. You and your abnormally fast reflexes,"

"Don't be a sore loser, Dick," Reese said, noticing the way Artemis's eyes widened. "Beating you is my superpower,"

The brunette was sure that if Wally were here, the redhead would be having a field day teasing Artemis with little clues about Robin's secret identity, and the fact that Dick also knew Artemis more intimately than her being just a classmate. 

From the corner of her eye, Reese also saw the blonde's face pale the same moment that she spoke up about her "superpower", and she knew Dick noticed it too, but he kept his eyes on her, dutifully playing the part of having no idea that Reese actually had superpowers.

Honestly, with how much Artemis was hiding about herself, Reese had thought she'd have a better poker face.

"She always beats you?" Bette spoke up from across the table, turning to Dick, and thankfully turning the conversation in a different direction, and in response, Dick nodded.

"Yeah," he answered after a moment. "She's like, ridiculously good at everything,"

Before anyone could say anything else, Alfred walked back into the room, Bruce at his heels, with the British butler carrying about half a dozen pizza boxes.

"Who wants pizza?" Alfred asked, and Dick turned to look at him, one eyebrow quirked in deep-set skepticism.

"You ordered in pizza?" he asked, because not once, in the almost five years that Dick had been living in Wayne Manor, had Alfred ever ordered takeout.

Though, that didn't seem to be the case here either.

"Don't be absurd, Master Richard," Alfred admonished him softly. "I ordered the boxes. I made the pies,"

That sounded more like the Alfred that Dick knew.

As the rest of his classmates gathered around the tables where Bruce and Alfred set down the pizza boxes, almost stepping on top of each other in their haste to get a slice, Dick noticed Artemis dragging Reese off into a now-abandoned corner of the room, beginning to speak in a hurried and hushed tone that the fourteen-year-old Boy Wonder wasn't able to catch from where he was standing.

He knew that Artemis undoubtedly had a lot of questions, number one being what Reese was even doing in Gotham, but Dick was pretty sure Reese was the only person who guarded Batman and Robin's secret identities as close to her heart as the heroes themselves did. She could handle herself against the other archer's interrogation.

So, once Dick was sure that Artemis wouldn't accidentally end up murdering his girlfriend, he slipped behind the crowd of his classmates still gathered around the food table, this time slipping into an alcove behind a tied-up curtain.

"I'm kind of surprised you're not in Dhabar," he asked Bruce quietly once the older man had joined him, and Bruce gave his foster son a small smile, so unlike the emotionless expression that he usually wore as his alter-ego.

A few days ago, Batman had stumbled on another plot against Rumaan Harjavti--the President of Qurac--'s life, likely instigated by Queen Bee again, and Dick had thought that Bruce would make the journey to the Middle Eastern country himself to combat it. But, obviously, that didn't seem to be the case.

"I wouldn't miss your birthday," Bruce said finally. "Besides, Dhabar's covered,"

Dick wasn't entirely sure what that meant, but Bruce's eyes flicked over his shoulder before the young protege could say anything.

"How much does she know?" he asked quietly, and Dick turned to see that Bruce was facing where Reese and Artemis were standing, the latter still gesturing wildly with her hands. The expression on Reese's face showed Dick that she really wanted whatever Artemis was telling her to be over and done with.

"Artemis doesn't know who I am," Dick answered because he knew that was Bruce was really wondering. "I think she's just wondering why Reese is here,"

"She doesn't know you two know each other?" Bruce asked, and Dick shrugged again.

"She doesn't know we're dating," he said after a moment, before glancing over at his foster father again. "You are okay with it, though. Right?" he asked. "Me and Reese?"

"Robin and Silverbird were partners long before Dick Grayson and Rhysalin Queen were ever in a romantic relationship," Bruce spoke up, looking as if he had actually thought of his response before Dick asked his question. "I'm just hoping that your new relationship will strengthen that partnership,"

Dick was pretty sure that that was as close to a 'yes' as he was ever going to get, especially from Bruce, but regardless, he grinned and turned back to face the party, just as his mentor leaned down towards him again.

"Reese looks like she's about to lose it," he whispered, and Dick flicked his eyes towards Reese and Artemis, and sure enough, if his girlfriend had been fed up with Artemis's interrogations before when Dick had glanced over at the two, now Reese looked like the one time Wally had actually managed to scare her.

The speedster still wouldn't go to any sort of carnival haunted house with her. And that particular incident had been almost three years ago.

"What should we tell her?" Dick asked, speaking of Artemis again as he itched to walk across the room and metaphorically save Reese from whatever the other archer was telling her, and Bruce sighed.

"You know we can't tell the truth," he murmured quietly. "We'll figure it out. For now, though, I think you may want to rescue Reese before she ends up shooting Artemis,"

➳➳➳

It wasn't often (more like never), that Reese allowed herself to be patient. She hated stakeouts, for one thing, simply because of the waiting. 

Hours and hours on end, waiting for one crime or another to either happen or for a criminal to do something dumb, and sometimes, those stakeouts turned out to be totally unnecessary.

But, this--trying to keep Artemis from figuring out Robin's secret identity at Dick's birthday party--that tapped into a whole other source of patience that the young brunette hadn't even known she possessed.

Just after the two of them had won their foosball game against Dick and Bette, Artemis had dragged her teammate across the room as everyone else was distracted when Alfred and Bruce had brought in the pizza.

"What are you doing here?" the blonde hissed as soon as the two were out of earshot of everybody else, and for a couple of seconds, Reese didn't say anything.

Over Artemis's shoulder, she could see Bruce and Dick standing on the other side of the room, and if she listened, Reese could hear the Dark Knight saying something about Dhabar.

"What do you think I'm doing here?" Reese retorted finally, turning back to Artemis and having to restrain herself from rolling her eyes as she crossed her arms. "It's a birthday party. I was invited,"

"Yeah, I get that," Artemis shot back. "But at the foster son of Bruce Wayne's birthday party? Reese, how do you even know him? I barely know him, and I live in Gotham,"

"My dad's done business with WayneTech before," Reese answered. Not a lie, but it wasn't the entire truth either. Artemis didn't need to know that Bruce Wayne was Batman. "I've known Dick since I was a kid," 

Also true, though technically, Reese had known Dick longer than she'd known even Oliver.

"And how long have you two been dating?" Artemis asked next, and mentally, Reese started to panic. "What about Robin? Reese, does Dick even know who you are?"

Reese scrambled to figure out what to tell her friend without giving everything away, and over her shoulder, Reese met Bruce's gaze. The older superhero held it a moment before he turned back to Dick.

Great. No help from the Batman then.

"Look," Reese said finally. "I trust Robin with my life. You know I do. But I don't--" the words caught in Reese's throat, and it took her a few seconds to continue. "I don't like him. You know, like that,"

Artemis's eyes widened, and she opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it again. This happened for a few seconds, and Reese started to liken the blonde to a gasping fish.

"As for whether or not Dick knows my identity..." Reese trailed off for a moment, noticing that her boyfriend had broken off from Bruce, and was walking over to where she and Artemis were standing. "It's complicated,"

"It can't be that complicated," Artemis shot back, crossing her arms, and mentally, Reese scoffed. You'd be surprised. "Dick either knows or he doesn't,"

"Do I know what?" At that moment, Dick finally reached them, and while Reese had seen him coming, Artemis hadn't. She whirled around and would've whacked Dick in the face with her ponytail had he not stepped out of the way in the nick of time.

"How long have you been standing there?" Artemis gasped out, and Dick shrugged, eyes flicking over to meet Reese's for a moment before he turned back to Artemis.

"Not long," he answered simply, before fixing Artemis with a look that, if Reese hadn't been who she was, she would've thought it was a simple questioning expression. But, no. Dick was probing. Figuring out what Artemis knew, and how much Reese had told her. "What do I know?"

"Nothing," Artemis said finally, her voice more than a little bit snappish, and even Dick looked a bit surprised. 

Then, the other archer whirled around and stalked off to the food table again, where Bette and Barbara were talking.

Once she was gone, Reese sighed heavily, and Dick glanced over at her.

"Well," he began, obviously putting more pep in his voice than the conversation required, and Reese was 80% sure he did that for her benefit. "That looked like it went well,"

"I hope you're joking," she muttered, and Dick just shrugged again. "She asked if you knew who I was,"

"What'd you tell her?" Dick asked, and this time, Reese was the one who shrugged.

"I told her it was complicated," she said simply, before remembering what else she had told Artemis, and visibly, Reese winced. "I, uh, I also told her I didn't like you. Robin, I mean,"

"What?" Dick asked, his voice a little bit too loud, and when a few people who were standing nearby turned to look at him, he lowered his voice. "Like...romantically?"

Reese shrugged again. "I'm pretty sure she knows we're dating at this point," she said finally. "I had to tell her something. I just figured having her hate me for not liking you back rather than her finding out the civilian identities of Batman and Robin was a better bet. Plus, it keeps your secret safe for a bit longer,"

"Well, that was a dumb idea," Dick's voice was flat, and frankly, to say it surprised Reese would be an understatement.

"What?" she asked, whipping her head up to look Dick up. "Dick, you know I couldn't tell Artemis who you and Bruce were. This was the next best option. And I don't know what the two of you were talking about before, but I'm pretty sure Bruce told you you couldn't tell Artemis either,"

"When have I ever done what Batman tells me to?" Dick retorted. "Let Bruce ground me until I graduate high school, I don't care. Artemis is your friend, pretty bird. She's my friend. And I can't have one of my friends hating on my girlfriend just because she doesn't have romantic feelings for a version of me. Allegedly, anyway,"

Then, before Reese could stop him, Dick walked around her shoulder and started to make his way across the room to where Artemis was talking with Barbara and Bette, looking remarkably well put-together considering the conversation she and Reese had just had.

"Hey, Artemis--" Just as the blonde turned at the sound of Dick's voice, Reese clamped her hand down on her boyfriend's wrist, dragging him backward before he and Artemis could talk.

"Dick, you can't," she hissed, noticing the quizzical look on Artemis's face from the corner of her eye as Dick turned back to face her. "You can't tell Artemis who you are. Not for me. Please,"

There were multiple scenarios where the Dynamic Duo's identities could be revealed to people outside their inner circle, but this one, with Dick just blatantly telling someone, was one that Reese hadn't counted on.

"But--" Dick cut himself off when he noticed the look on Reese's face. And Reese knew he noticed it too, because his eyes, which had been blazing with the impulsiveness that usually resulted in something getting blown up, softened.

"Please," the brunette repeated because as far as she was concerned, her feelings came second to keeping the identities of Batman and Robin safe.

"...fine," Dick said finally, his shoulders relaxing again, and when Reese glanced behind him, she saw that Artemis had turned back to her prior conversation with Bette and Barbara.

"Thank you," she said quietly after a moment, and Dick hmphed.

Then, to get their minds off of the whole Artemis-situation, and because Reese hadn't eaten for a good eleven hours, she and Dick made their way over to where Alfred had set down the pizza boxes, and thankfully, there were still several slices left.

Barbara, Bette, and Artemis were sitting on the floor a few yards away, and even though Reese was pretty much persona non grata with Artemis at the moment, she and Dick sat across from the blonde, with Barbara on Dick's other side, and Bette on Reese's.

Reese knew her boyfriend was still pretty miffed about not being able to tell Artemis his secret identity, judging from the angry way he was eating his pizza, and judging from Barbara's raised eyebrow, she noticed it too.

"What'd that pizza ever do to you?" the redhead asked, but Dick just kept his gaze on his plate, even as Artemis and Bette turned to look at him as well.

"Nothing," he muttered finally. Barbara obviously wasn't about to take that as her friend's answer, so she glanced over at Reese, eyebrow raised again, but the brunette just shook her head.

Considering Dick's mood change was a direct result of Artemis almost finding out that he masqueraded as Robin, the Boy Wonder, in the middle of the night, the last person who needed to know about that at the moment was Barbara.

As it were, it didn't look like the Commissioner's daughter was just going to let this go either (which was great), but before she could say anything, Reese heard another one of Dick's classmates give an exclamation from across the room, and when she twisted around, she saw a teenage boy holding up what appeared to be an empty soda bottle.

"Hey!" the guy cried out. "Let's play Spin the Bottle!"

Reese had never played Spin the Bottle--why would she?--but she knew the gist of it. And frankly, she wasn't impressed.

But, all in all, she figured it'd probably look weird if she didn't play, and would probably instigate a whole lot of teasing from the Gotham Academy kids (bar Dick, obviously, and maybe Barbara and Artemis), which was how Reese found herself sitting beside Barbara in a rough circle with everyone else.

The game was fairly uneventful for a while, actually. Thank God the end of the bottle hadn't landed on Reese yet. 

She knew that the way the bottle spun was pure luck, you didn't really have any choice who it landed on, but Reese couldn't help but wonder if Dick was somehow subconsciously willing whenever someone else spun the bottle that it wouldn't land on Reese, and even though it was impossible, the brunette couldn't help but blush at the imaginary sweet gesture.

Reese had actually started to relax the longer the game went on because so far, the end of the bottle hadn't landed on her or Dick, and call her clingy, but Reese didn't want anyone else kissing her boyfriend, regardless of what Artemis thought about him.

But, the brunette had also said the game was uneventful for a while. And it was, just not for the entire game. Because now it was Dick's turn to "spin the bottle".

Reese didn't know what she was hoping for. No, that was a lie. She did know what she was hoping for, and that was for the bottle to land on her (obviously).

But it didn't.

Reese didn't know who was more surprised that, when Dick spun, the end of the bottle landed on Barbara instead of Reese, her, Dick, or Barbara herself. As it were, it was fairly close between the two girls, but anyone who looked would see that the bottle was obviously pointing towards Barbara, rather than Reese.

It's just a game, Reese closed her eyes and thought to herself, opening her eyes after a moment to see Dick staring at her from across the circle as some of his classmates began to tease him. Just a game. Just a game.

But, what surprised Reese--aside from the fact that neither Dick nor Barbara made any move to stand up--was the redhead leaning back against the leg of the table she and Reese were sitting against, and crossing her arms.

"No," Barbara said simply, and everyone's eyes widened. "I'm not doing it,"

"What?" someone burst out. "Why not, Gordon? You scared?"

"Of course not," Barbara snapped, glaring at the teenager who had asked her, before shrugging. "I'm just not about to kiss another girl's boyfriend,"

The reaction was instantaneous. If there ever was a need for a record screech like the ones you hear in movies, this was it.

As everyone started to clamor around Dick, basically assaulting him with questions about "since when did you have a girlfriend?" and "who is she?" and other questions of the like, Reese glanced from the corner of her eyes at Barbara, one of the only people who wasn't freaking about Dick's new relationship status, simply because she already knew.

"Thank you," Reese whispered under her breath, though because they were sitting right next to each other, Barbara was able to hear, and the redhead gave a small nod of acknowledgment.

Then, Reese glanced towards where Artemis was sitting across the circle, another one of the only people who hadn't freaked out when Barbara had spoken up, and god, Reese didn't think she had ever seen the blonde so angry, not even when she had first joined the Team and she and Wally had first come to blows.

But, the other archer didn't say anything, and Reese was beginning to wish she had let Dick tell Artemis who he was if only so she wouldn't be on the receiving end of Artemis's current glare.

"Okay, enough!" Dick suddenly shouted, shooting to his feet and making the interrogations pause, at least for the time being. "Yes, I have a girlfriend. But, I don't think either of us appreciates the Arkham-level interrogations. So please, stop it,"

"So, Grayson," the same classmate who had asked Barbara if she was scared to kiss Dick questioned Reese's boyfriend now, and the brunette was beginning to think he had a habit of calling people by their last names. "You going to tell us who your girlfriend is, or do we have to guess?"

"You don't need to guess," Reese spoke up, making everyone snap their heads to look at her, and she figured she might as well get this over with. So much for Artemis not finding out she and Dick were together. "I'm his girlfriend,"

"Then," Dick spoke up, getting over his shock at Reese actually admitting it when she was the one so set on keeping their relationship a secret from almost everyone they knew. "I take it you're not scared for what comes next, Rhysalin?"

Dick held out a hand, and for a split-second, Reese glanced at Artemis again, before turning back to her boyfriend. Let Artemis be mad at her for not liking Robin, even though Reese did. The brunette couldn't find it in herself to care anymore.

"Of course not," she answered Dick after a moment, and his grin widened before Reese set her hand in his, and let Dick lead her across the room to the storage closet that they had delegated as where each "couple" so to speak, would go for the seven minutes of each turn.

Seven minutes. That's all it was. So why was Reese so nervous?

For the first three, Dick and Reese didn't do anything, they just stood across from each other, with Dick's back to a pile of board games that reached almost all the way to the ceiling.

"We don't have to do anything if you don't want to, pretty bird," Dick said quietly, finally breaking out Reese's nickname when he was sure no one (mainly Artemis) would be able to hear and connect him to Robin. "It's one thing for us to kiss in the Batcave where there's no one else around. I think it's quite a different thing for us to kiss in a closet where there are over a dozen people outside a few yards away,"

"And Artemis," Reese muttered, and Dick tilted his head.

"Right," he admitted. "And Artemis," For a moment, Dick didn't say anything, but Reese could see that he wanted to, judging from the way he kept shuffling his feet against the carpeted floor of the closet.

"What is it?" she asked quietly, and Dick sighed before he glanced at her.

"Why didn't you let me tell Artemis about Robin?" he asked. "I told you, I don't care if Bruce grounds me forever for telling someone. I don't--I don't want you to feel hurt Rhysalin,"

"I know, Dick," Reese answered. "But...Robin's your life. I know you'd never give it up, not even for me,"

"Sure I would," Dick's answer sounded so sure, so absolute, that honestly? It surprised Reese. She snapped her head up and after a moment, he continued. "Reese, I would be willing to give up everything. Being Robin, a hero in general, all of it, if it meant you were okay,"

"Dick..." Reese trailed off, completely floored and not entirely sure what to say in response to Dick's revelation, because what could she say?

"Me mangav tut," Dick said quietly, and Reese's eyes glowed silver in the darkness of the closet. "I love you. And nothing, nothing in the whole universe will ever, ever change that,"

As Dick kissed her, Reese found that no, she didn't care if Artemis thought she had broken Robin's heart. Robin was right in front of her, and his heart was obviously not broken.

Not at all.

M O U N T  J U S T I C E
December 5, 17:00 EST

Reese was phenomenally proud of Roy, and she didn't care who knew it.

At the Justice League's meeting on Thanksgiving, Red Arrow had been voted in as one of the newest members of the League, to be sworn in at the press conference in a couple of weeks.

So now, three days after Dick's birthday, and Dick's revelation that he'd be willing to give up everything for her, even Robin, Reese threw her arms around her brother's waist where Roy stood in the center of the cave with Green Arrow, Red Tornado, Conner, Wally, Kaldur, Zatanna, and M'gann.

Batman and Robin were working another case in Gotham, and Artemis was...somewhere. Reese honestly didn't know, and frankly, she didn't care.

In the past three days, the brunette would be willing to admit she might have been avoiding the blonde archer a little bit, but whatever. She was too happy about Roy to care about what Artemis thought at the moment.

"Congratulations!" she exclaimed once she stepped back, and Red Arrow sent her a small smile.

"No more solo work for me," the older redhead said. "Guess I'll have to get used to working as part of a team,"

"Dude," Wally said next, walking forward and clapping a hand down on Roy's shoulder. "We have all been waiting for you to join this team for months. Better late than never, right?"

Before Roy could say anything in response to that, the zeta tube turned on, and Reese rolled her eyes at the hero whose arrival the computer announced.

Recognized Artemis B-0-8

"Artemis!" Green Arrow exclaimed once his other protege's molecules had been reassembled and she was making her way across the cave. "Just in time! Look who's agreed to join the Team!"

"Finally!" Wally exclaimed, but Artemis's expression didn't change. If anything, it grew harder.

"Sure," the blonde deadpanned after a moment, gesturing with one hand. "The Team's needed a real archer,"

"Uh, excuse you?" Reese asked, stepping out from behind Wally and gesturing to herself. "I've been doing this longer than you have, so I think that makes me  a real archer too, don't you think?"

"Whatever," Artemis muttered, and Reese hmphed, turning her head away as Wally's eyes flicked between the two, wondering what had happened between the two in the last week-and-a-half to make the air sharper than an arrow. As she walked past Reese, Artemis knocked her shoulder against the brunette. "How's Dick, Reese?"

"You tell me," the other girl muttered, crossing her arms. "You saw him at school yesterday,"

"He's your boyfriend," Artemis shot back, bringing everyone else's attention to the two. "Don't you two spend all night talking to each other? Long-distance relationships must suck,"

Reese huffed, not wanting to admit to the blonde that she and Dick had actually spent almost the entire night before talking with each other, practicing the whole looking-through-each-other's-eyes thing but Artemis didn't need to know that.

The brunette also saw the exact moment that the dots connected inside Wally's brain, and the speedster grinned, opening his mouth to know doubt say something metaphorically dangerous to the identities of Batman and Robin, so Reese kicked his shin to shut him up.

It was a bit difficult, considering Zira was hanging off her leg like a koala, the baby gorilla actually giving Reese's calf a good workout as she moved around.

"Wait..." M'gann trailed off for a second, eyes wide. "So Reese and Robin aren't--"

"Nope!" Artemis answered, looking entirely too pleased with herself, and Reese probably would have thrown herself at the blonde, had Wally not stepped on her foot in order to stop her.

It was one thing for Artemis to be mad at Reese for not telling Robin that she (allegedly) didn't have feelings for him. It was quite another for the blonde to be a bitch about it in front of the rest of the Team.

"Okay..." Oliver began, obviously trying to change the subject and de-escalate the situation before it became any worse. "Listen up," Green Arrow walked over to the holo-computer that was nearby and pulled up a few screens. "The Dynamic Duo's on a case in Gotham, but Batman gave me a heads-up,"

From the corner of her eye, as Sportsmaster's picture showed up on the holo-screen, Reese saw Artemis's eyes widen, and she almost laughed. Almost.

"Sportsmaster was spotted coming out of Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport," Oliver continued, and from behind Reese, Zatanna tilted her head.

"In full costume?" the magician asked, as Reese, M'gann, and Artemis turned to look at her. "Nervy,"

"In street clothes," Green Arrow corrected her. "Facial recognition software picked up the ID. Find out what he's up to,"

"All of us?" Superboy asked, and Reese shifted where she stood as Zira started to shimmy up her leg.

"Conner's right," she spoke up. "That seems like a lot of firepower for a covert op,"

"Perhaps a small squad?" Red Tornado asked, and Reese turned to glance at the android. "Miss Martian's camouflage abilities seem ideal,"

"I thought the sidekicks--sorry, ex-sidekicks," Oliver quickly corrected himself again when Reese, Wally, Roy, and Kaldur all fixed him with identical looks. "Could suit up on this. Aqualad, Kid Flash, Silverbird, Red Arrow,"

"Good," Conner grumbled. "Stakeouts make me cranky,"

"It's a stakeout?" Reese groaned, and Wally smirked, leaning down towards the brunette.

"Where's the Boy Wonder when you need him?" he hissed, and though it was quiet enough that only Reese was able to hear, the comment still earned him another kick to the shin.

"You're not helping," Reese retorted sharply, keeping her voice low, but Wally's grin only widened.

"Aren't I?" he asked innocently, and Reese glared at him again, just as M'gann spoke up from her spot next to Conner.

"We could use the night off," the Martian said quietly, just as Artemis snapped her head up.

"I want in," the blonde spoke up, and from beside her, Reese heard Wally choke on air, as Green Arrow's eyes widened. "With M'gann and Robin out, no one's logged more hours piloting the Bioship,"

"Artemis," Oliver said slowly. "Are you sure?"

Reese was pretty sure at this point that her dad knew that she knew who Artemis really was, but really, wasn't he being a bit obvious?

"Absolutely," Artemis answered, and that was that.

Or at least, that was that until Reese tried to head into the locker room to change into her suit, and Zira started to throw the gorilla equivalent of a five-month-old human baby's temper tantrum.

Genetically-enhanced ape or no, Zira was still a baby.

"She obviously doesn't want you to leave," Artemis spoke up from behind the brunette, voice more than a little bit sharp, and Reese rolled her eyes.

"Well, then," she began, setting the baby gorilla down on a nearby bench so she could get dressed without any further interruptions. "I guess she's coming with us,"

➳➳➳

After the whole Zira situation in the locker room, the five heroes, plus Reese's baby gorilla, were in the Bioship, flying out over the ocean towards New Orleans, and somehow, while Roy and Kaldur were in the back of the Bioship, Reese had gotten stuck upfront with Wally and Artemis.

Great.

So, in order to distract herself, and to stop Artemis from talking to her, Reese had brought her cell phone, a well-read copy of Black Beauty, and some earbuds to listen to music while she read during the flight.

Zira had fallen asleep in her lap just as the Bioship left the hangar of Mount Justice, and Reese was hoping she'd stay asleep for a majority of the flight.

As ornery as the baby gorilla was, she was still one of the most adorable things that Reese had ever seen, and she supposed that made up for Zira's temper.

So, as Zira napped, Reese put in her earbuds and turned on one of her playlists, but, as noise-canceling, as her earbuds and music were, Reese was still able to hear if Artemis and Wally were to talk, so she also heard the exact moment that the speedster gave a sigh.

"Uh..." Wally began slowly, and Reese flicked her eyes up for a moment to see him scratching the back of his head as he turned his chair around. "This could wind up being one of those things that sounds better in my head than out loud. But, you are a real archer,"

Now, don't get Reese wrong, she wasn't mad about Artemis's skills. The older girl was undoubtedly talented, given the short amount of time she'd been doing this "hero thing", but Reese just thought Artemis needed a bit of an attitude adjustment.

Artemis needed to learn to trust people. But, then again, Reese had some major trust issues herself, so who was she to judge?

As it were, at Wally's admission, Artemis's expression didn't change from the hard stare it had been since they'd left the cave, and when he saw her look, Wally backtracked.

"Uh, I mean, I'm jazzed about Red Arrow," the speedster continued. "We go way back. And Reese is one of the most stubborn people I know. Hardly anyone can get that girl to back down from something, but..." he trailed off again, and this time Artemis spoke up.

"Robin's your best friend, right?" she asked, and from the corner of her eye, Reese saw Wally shift in his chair. She was still trying to pretend she wasn't listening, and the brunette wasn't entirely sure if Artemis and/or Wally knew she was.

"Yeah," the redhead said finally, tilting his head. "Why?"

"You were also one of the most vocal people about setting Silverbird and Robin up with each other in the first place, right?" Artemis continued, and Reese saw the moment that Wally started to panic, but she didn't think Artemis noticed before the speedster gave a small nod of agreement. "Why aren't you angrier that Reese is dating someone else?"

For several seconds, Wally didn't speak, and Reese turned her gaze back to her book as the speedster glanced over at her for a moment before looking back towards Artemis.

"Look," he said finally, bracing his forearms against his knees. "Reese has known Robin longer than I have, and I think she knows him better than I do. But, regardless, they're both my best friends. I think...all that matters is that they're happy, right?"

"Right," Artemis admitted slowly, and Reese was surprised that the blonde was agreeing with the speedster, but then the other archer continued. "But, couldn't they be happy with each other?"

"Of course," Wally said. "But, I've met Dick Grayson before once or twice..." Reese almost laughed. Once or twice, the speedster had said. "That guy adores her, probably more than Robin does, if I'm being completely honest. If Reese is happy, then I know Robin is going to be happy. All the Boy Wonder cares about is whether or not Reese is happy,"

Reese, if she were being honest, hadn't known that Wally was that perceptive. 

Sure, she had known the redhead almost as long as she'd known Dick and Roy, the two of them had actually met a few months after Reese had become Silverbird, just when Wally had been starting out as Kid Flash, but it had taken over a year after that before Reese was completely comfortable around him, and more often than not she thought his flirting tendencies were a little over-the-top.

But, regardless, even after the two of them had grown closer while saving Queen Perdita, Reese was glad she could call Wally West her friend. And however much he teased Robin about his secret identity, he still kept that secret close to his heart too.

Artemis's gaze, however, had suddenly turned suspicious, and she stared at the speedster with one eyebrow raised.

"I never told you that Reese was dating Dick Grayson," the blonde began slowly, and Wally's eyes widened, and this time, when he glanced over at Reese, looking slightly panicked, the brunette met his gaze, and quirked an eyebrow.

"Uh..." Wally trailed off again, and for a moment, Reese almost thought that this was it, that this was the moment that Dick's identity was blown, but fortunately, Wally was more adept at thinking of a cover story than he let on. "I told you. I've met Dick Grayson before with Reese, and I just assumed that's who you were talking about since he and Reese are about the same age, and Reese spends almost as much time in Gotham visiting him as she does visiting Robin. Plus, how many people do you know named Dick?"

"Not many," Artemis admitted after a moment, the suspicion leaving her eyes, and Reese was sure both she and Wally let out identical sighs of relief that Artemis was dropping the interrogation. For now, anyway. "Can she hear us?" the blonde asked after a moment, and Reese was sure the older girl was talking about her, judging from the way Wally turned towards her.

"Nah," he said finally, waving one hand, and Reese quirked an eyebrow out of view of Artemis as she realized that the speedster was lying. "Her earbuds are this special noise-canceling sort that Robin made her. They're supposed to dull down her hearing enough that she's able to listen to stuff without being completely bombarded with sound from outside," Then, he opened his mouth and shouted. "Hey, Reese!"

However impulsive this plan of Wally's was, Reese made sure not to move, helping Artemis buy into his explanation. 

Or at least, that's what she would have done, had Zira not shifted in her lap, giving a large yawn and blinking her eyes open.

"Wally!" Reese hissed, ripping one of her earbuds out and sending the redhead a glare as the baby gorilla started to clamber over the top of the console in front of the brunette's chair. "I wanted her to keep sleeping!"

"Sorry," the speedster said lowly, sinking back into his chair as Zira began to hang upside down from the console by her toes. Reese tugged her back, making sure the gorilla was sitting down before she turned to Wally, raising an eyebrow.

"Did you need anything?" she asked, holding Zira in place as she saw Artemis and Wally glance at each other. Reese pretended not to notice. 

"No," Artemis said finally. "Just checking something,"

"Okay," Reese said slowly, pretending to be confused before she put her earbuds back in. "Just...try to be quieter please?"

Wally gave a perky-looking thumbs-up and a grin, though Reese could see that the redhead was still a bit freaked about the whole Artemis-almost-finding-out-about-Robin thing.

A few seconds later, he turned back to Artemis.

"My point is," Wally began. "You've made your own place on the Team. You have nothing to prove. Not to me," he clarified. "Okay?"

"Okay," Artemis agreed after a moment, and Reese found herself grinning. A moment later, after Wally had turned his chair back around, Artemis brought her head up. "And Wally?" she asked, and when he glanced over his shoulder, the blonde gave a small smile. "It sounded...fine out loud,"

And Wally had said she and Dick were blind for their feelings. Ha, Reese thought. Hypocrite.

O R L E A N S  P A R I S H
December 5, 21:20 CST

If there was one place that Reese hated more than the jungle, it was the swamp. The two biomes were fairly similar, and though their temperatures were relatively the same as Star City on a daily basis, it was the humidity that always irked her. And the bugs. And the alligators.

So, to say that Silverbird was a bit jumpy as she and Red Arrow crouched on top of a hill outside New Orleans overlooking a boat rental place would be an understatement.

But, that also could've been because of the stakeout. Two hours she and Red Arrow had been crouched on top of the hill, and Sportsmaster was nowhere to be seen. Silverbird's butt had gone numb.

"Look," Roy said finally, and Reese glanced over at him, shifting in order to get feeling back into her legs as her brother turned off his commlink for a moment. "I should probably do the whole 'big brother' act and say how you probably should've told me you and Dick were dating, but I won't. You both are too good at keeping secrets for me to yell at you about it,"

"If it makes you feel any better," Reese began, giving the redhead a small smile as she shifted against the tree trunk she was sitting against. "Wally found out today too,"

"Artemis seemed to already know," Red Arrow said slowly, giving Silverbird a glance from the corner of his eye, and Reese found herself rolling her eyes.

"She was at Dick's birthday party on Wednesday," she explained. "One game of Spin the Bottle later, and she now hates me because I told her I don't like Robin,"

"She doesn't know Robin's identity?" he asked, eyes widening, and Reese shook her head.

"Dick wanted to tell her," she explained after a moment, shrugging and staring down the hill at the river. "I told him not to,"

"Why?" Red Arrow asked, just as Silverbird saw something at the edge of the docks. "Look, just because I think she's the mole, doesn't mean I think she should hate you for something as dumb as your feelings. Reese..."

But, instead of indulging her brother, Reese waved a hand, cutting Roy off, and making the redhead send her a slightly offended look before Reese pointed down towards the boat rental place and the dock connected to it.

"Shh," the brunette hissed quickly. "Look," 

Roy followed Reese's finger, and she was pointing at a large, muscled man with a blond buzzcut that they both saw walk out of the main building at the boat rentals and walk over to the dock, untying a rope from a post that was anchoring a silver speedboat in place.

"Sportsmaster," Red Arrow said simply as Artemis's father hopped into the speedboat, and Silverbird gave a small nod in agreement, just as Sportsmaster drove the speedboat off into the river, and deeper into the swamp.

"Red Arrow and I spotted the target," Reese looped in the rest of their squad by tapping her commlink, considering Roy hadn't turned his back on yet. "He's headed north,"

"Pursue. But, maintain a discreet distance," Roy added, as he did turn his commlink back on, and he and Reese slid down the hill they had been standing above, landing in a clump of bushes where Red Arrow had stashed a jet ski earlier. "And that goes double for you, Artemis," the redhead snapped after a moment as he and Reese began to follow Sportsmaster, the jet ski engine's hum dulling out the noises of the swamp at night.

"He's right," Reese piped up, her voice calmer than Roy's had been as she tightened her grip around her brother's waist. "This wouldn't be the first time that Sportsmaster's identified martian camouflage in motion. Be careful,"

"I'm touched," Reese rolled her eyes as Artemis's voice answered through her commlink, her tone more than a little bit icy.

"Just do it," Roy retorted sharply, and judging from the way Artemis stayed silent after that, Reese had a feeling the blonde complied.

If it hadn't already been obvious, while Red Arrow and Silverbird staked themselves out on the hill above the boat rentals and died of boredom, Artemis had stayed in the air in the Bioship, ready for emergency extraction should it be needed. 

She was also watching over Zira since there was no way that Reese would've been able to bring the five-month-old gorilla with her on the stakeout with Roy because, though it likely would've been accidental, Zira would've blown their cover the first chance she got. And this mission was relying on stealth.

Kaldur, on the other hand, was in the river itself, swimming underneath the path of Sportsmaster's boat, following it silently enough that he (hopefully) wouldn't be identified, and Wally was on his motorcycle on the road above the swamp itself.

Reese kept her eyes on the tail-end of Sportsmaster's boat as she and Roy followed the assassin along the river when suddenly, Artemis's father veered off the main waterway, and into a sheltered lagoon, where the boat finally stopped.

Silverbird tapped her brother's shoulder to alert him, but Red Arrow just gave a nod, signaling he had already noticed the route change before he concealed the jet ski behind a pile of fallen and dead branches just outside the entrance to the lagoon.

Both archers saw Sportsmaster hop out of his speedboat into the shallow water just off the shore of the lagoon, and Roy tapped his commlink again.

"He's stopped," he said firmly. "Hold your positions. Silverbird and I are moving in for a closer look,"

Then, when they were sure that Sportsmaster was gone, Red Arrow pulled the jet ski over to the shore, and he and Reese hopped out.

As soon as her feet hit the ground though, Reese winced, because just as her boots hit the sand, a wave met the shore at the same time, and while it wasn't a big one, she felt the foam and water arc over the top of her boot and into the shoe itself.

Great, she thought to herself as she and Roy began to sneak through the overgrown trees towards where they had seen Sportsmaster last. Wet socks.

Finally, Silverbird saw Sportsmaster through a gap between a few trees, and she dragged Red Arrow behind a fallen tree trunk that was large enough to hide the both of them.

Then, Reese noticed what Sportsmaster was standing next to. Train Tracks. Green Arrow had told them to find out what Sportsmaster was doing, what he was up to, but Reese could honestly say that she had no clue. 

But, whatever it was, it had to do with why Lawrence Crock was in New Orleans in the first place, and Reese was determined to find out what it was, trust issues with Artemis or no.

Before Silverbird could say anything about it to Red Arrow, she heard a commotion from farther back in the swamp.

Well, heard might be a bit of an overstatement. 

To say that Reese felt the commotion would be a better explanation, as it was simply her sensing the vibrations of something from the direction she and Roy had come from, and since she was bracing herself against the tree trunk with one hand pressed against the ground, the vibrations came all the easier.

Sensing vibrations always worked better when Reese closed her eyes, to block out the sights and sounds of her surroundings and focus on the vibrations themselves, so that was what she did, ignoring Roy's quizzical look as the brunette took her other hand off the tree trunk and placed both of them on the earthen floor, taking a deep breath, before she pushed.

Vibrations, in short, were basically sound waves moving through solid objects and considering sound was pretty much Reese's specialty, this particular ability was one that, although she didn't use it often, was one that came easy to her.

The first things she "saw", so to speak, were herself and Red Arrow, still crouching behind the tree trunk, out of view of Sportsmaster, who seemed too calm to be working this entire mission, whatever it was, all by himself.

Reese sensed Wally, further up the swamp, driving along the road, and singing to himself the Hello, Megan! theme song. There was a train, rumbling over the same set of tracks that she, Roy, and Sportsmaster were next to, but the brunette didn't focus on it too long before she turned her sights on what was behind her.

Artemis. For some reason, the blonde had left the Bioship, even after Roy had specifically told her not to, but that reason became clear a split-second later when Reese sensed who was with Artemis.

Cheshire.

"Huh," Silverbird muttered under her breath a moment later, bringing her hands up from the ground and opening her eyes, still ignoring the way her brother was staring at her as if she had just grown a second head. Even though he had seen her use the seismic sense before, it still freaked him out every time she did it. "Guess it really is a family reunion,"

"What?" Roy hissed, popping his head over the top of the tree trunk for a moment to make sure Sportsmaster hadn't moved or done anything villainy before he glanced back at his sister. "What are you talking about?"

Just because Artemis didn't trust her right now, it didn't mean that Reese was going to betray her trust yet, so at Red Arrow's question, Silverbird shook her head.

"Nothing," she answered simply, before reaching forward and tugging on Roy's jacket. "But, come on, we gotta go. Artemis is in trouble,"

"Artemis?" the redhead echoed, as Reese stood silently to her feet and crept back into the trees. "But, she's supposed to stay on the Bioship, why would she...?" 

Roy trailed off, but Reese heard him groan a moment later before he was standing up from his spot behind the tree trunk and following the brunette back into the swamp.

It didn't take long for the two of them to reach the clearing where Jade and Artemis were facing off, and before Cheshire could make another move, Silverbird had taken an arrow from her quiver, aimed, and fired, the arrowhead splitting halfway on its trip towards where Cheshire was standing and splitting into a net, trapping the assessing against a nearby tree.

"It's the baby bird and her big brother," Cheshire crooned as she struggled against the net's webbing before she tilted her head. Reese couldn't see Jade's expression behind her intricate cat mask, but she could make a guess. "You know, Arrow," the young woman began, and Silverbird found herself grimacing. Not this again. "If you wanted another date, you only had to ask,"

Reese didn't know who was more shocked by Jade's statement, her, Artemis, or Roy himself. It was gross enough in Taipei watching Artemis's sister flirt with her brother, Reese didn't want to go through it again.

Artemis, meanwhile, was more shocked than disgusted, probably at the fact that her sister--not that Roy knew that--was "dating" one of the heroes she was pestering the blonde so earnestly to tell "all her secrets" too, and she whirled around to face Red Arrow as he and SIlverbird closed in on the other two.

"You two are dating?" the blonde burst out, and Roy's eyes widened.

"What?" he burst out. "No!"

"Hmm," Cheshire hummed from her spot still trapped against the tree. "Why deny the attraction? After all, Arrow, you're here,"

Reese didn't really see the logic in that. It wasn't like any of them had known that Jade would be here. Well...Artemis might've, but the brunette doubted that. She didn't think Artemis and her sister talked all that much.

But, then again, here they were. And here they all had to deal with it.

There was a rumble nearby before the train that Silverbird had sensed earlier thundered down the tracks, and Reese suddenly realized that the train was probably what Sportsmaster was waiting for. Though why Jade and her father were working together on this, Reese wasn't entirely sure yet.

Silverbird saw Cheshire's body tense out of the corner of her eye, and she turned, pointing another arrow towards Jade just as the older woman used one of her sais to slice through the net trapping her against the tree, landing nimbly on her feet a moment.

"Really," Cheshire began. "I'm so fond of all three of you I couldn't bear to hurt you," Reese didn't even need to have a built-in lie-detecting ability to know that Jade was lying. "...Much,"

Artemis's sister stabbed her sword into the ground and ran forward, knocking Artemis to the ground with a dull 'thud' as the blonde tried to shoot an arrow at her, then, as Silverbird readied herself to give a Canary Cry, Jade hit Reese with a solid jab to the base of her throat.

For several seconds, Reese couldn't breathe. She legitimately couldn't breathe and felt her legs give out from beneath her as she coughed, trying to regain her bearings as Red Arrow was taken out by a trio of small smoke bombs that Cheshire threw at him.

The dark gray smoke was almost black in the night that covered the bayou, and Reese heard Roy cough through it.

Currently, the brunette was on her hands and knees on the ground, one hand braced against her neck as she tried to regain both her breath and her voice. After a moment, she was able to breathe again, but whatever League of Shadows move that Jade had used on her, it hurt like hell, and it undoubtedly damaged her vocal cords.

A minute or two later, Silverbird heard an engine sound coming from back down in the river, and she turned, the smoke thinner this way, and was able to see Sportsmaster's boat jetting in the opposite direction he had been going earlier, back the way he had come.

Apparently, judging from his next exclamation, Red Arrow noticed it too.

"Sportsmaster!" Roy cried out as he peered through the smoke, but before he could do anything about it, Cheshire dove on top of him, knocking both of them out of the cloud of smoke and into the open.

Jade spun one of her sais around and lightly scratched the tip of the longest prong against the redhead's cheek as Reese finally managed to get to her feet, letting out a series of coughs as she braced herself against a nearby tree.

"Oh, too bad, Lover Boy," Cheshire crooned from where she hovered above Red Arrow, and a moment later, she kissed him. If Silverbird had been up to par, she would've grimaced. After a second or two, Jade leaned back, and she smirked. "But, at least a kiss is still a kiss,"

Noticing a familiar speedster running down off the road, Reese reached into the holster around her thigh and took out one of her eskrima sticks, throwing it towards Cheshire and Red Arrow and managing to knock Jade's sai out of her hand just as Wally slammed into her, throwing the assassin back across the clearing.

"And a sai," Kid Flash began, his motorcycle helmet still on his head as he picked up the fallen sai twirling it for a moment before he pointed it towards where Jade had fallen. "Is just a sai. And quite the souvenir, by the way,"

"Artemis!" Roy shouted, sitting up. "Tracer arrow on Sportsmaster! Now!"

The blonde took the aforementioned arrow out of her quiver and pointed it towards Sportsmaster's boat, which was rapidly moving out of range, but a moment later, Artemis lowered her bow.

"Ngh," she groaned. "He's out of range,"

"Move," Reese rasped, her voice still not entirely back to normal as she shoved Artemis out of the way and shot her own arrow towards the boat. The arrow itself wouldn't make the entire distance, but the small tracer that shot out of the end landed securely on the engine of Sportsmaster's boat.

As soon as the tracer was set, Silverbird slid down the hill towards where Roy had parked the jet ski earlier, Red Arrow at her heels, Artemis staring at both of them with an aghast expression on her face.

"You're abandoning?" the blonde exclaimed, but Roy just sent her a sparing glance over his shoulder as he leaped onto the jet ski, Reese behind him, just as before.

"We're prioritizing!" Red Arrow corrected before he revved the engine of the jet ski and sped off after Sportsmaster, with Silverbird having to lock her arms around his waist like a vice unless she wanted to fall off.

"Kaldur," Reese began after a moment, her voice still a bit scratchy, but clearer than it was before as she suddenly thought of an idea. "Sportsmaster's made me and Red Arrow. We'll dive into the river, he'll think he's in the clear, and then you can track him from below. We'll be right behind you using the tracer,"

"Jumping into the river?" Roy added, sounding more than a little incredulous. "That's your plan?"

"You have a better one?" Silverbird retorted, but after a moment, in which her brother didn't say anything, Reese took that as Roy's answer.

Then, Red Arrow sped up the jet ski, and a moment later, the two of them drew up alongside Sportsmaster's boat.

Lawrence Crock obviously saw them, and he threw a small bomb towards the jet ski. The bomb hit the water with a large splash that was made even bigger when the bomb exploded, and Reese was pretty sure that even if knocking themselves into the river hadn't been part of the plan, she and Roy would've ended up in there anyway.

Silverbird took a deep breath just as she hit the water, and though she was afraid of fire, Reese was a pretty good swimmer, having lived on the West Coast all her life, and she was able to hold her breath for a good while.

The river water was murky, and it took a few seconds for Reese's eyes to adjust to the darkness underwater, but what she saw almost made her let out her breath.

Aqualad had kept up following Sportsmaster, as was the plan, but apparently, Lawrence Crock had found the tracer Silverbird had put on his boat's engine earlier, and now, he had thrown more bombs underneath the water towards the Atlantean.

When the bombs exploded, the shockwave sent Reese tumbling down the river with its current, and she would've been swept away had Roy not locked his hand around her wrist at the last moment, holding her in place as he grabbed onto one of the handles of the overturned jet ski.

Once the shockwave had passed, Red Arrow pulled both himself and Silverbird to the surface, and Reese took a deep breath of the humid bayou air as she and Roy held themselves against the bottom of the jet ski.

When Reese glanced around, she couldn't see Kaldur, and judging from the horrified look on her brother's face, Roy couldn't see him either.

"Aqualad!" Red Arrow shouted, and there was the sound of splashing water from behind the two of them as Kaldur's head broke the surface of the river.

"Here," the Atlantean said simply, and Reese couldn't help but let out a relieved breath. She'd find it fairly ironic if her friend and leader--who was born and raised in Atlantis--died in the Louisiana bayou. After a moment, Kaldur tapped his commlink. "Artemis, Kid," he began. "Listen..."

➳➳➳

Now, if you were to ask her, Reese would say that she always preferred to finish a fight. Defeat the bad guys, lock them up, etc. But, there was an occasion, every once in a while, like now, where she admitted that throwing the fight was a better bet.

After Silverbird, Red Arrow, and Aqualad had gotten away from Sportsmaster, what Kaldur had told Wally and Artemis was for them to throw their own fight against Cheshire--to purposefully lose--so that they'd all be able to regroup and think of their next move.

When Reese walked up to the others after she, Roy, and Kaldur had made it back to shore, that was what she heard Kid Flash talking about.

"So, we threw the fight, as ordered," Wally was saying when Reese walked up, wringing out her hair as if it was a soaked bath towel. Why was it that, whenever she was in the bayou, of any sort, she always ended up getting wet? "After," the speedster added. "Artemis planted the tracer,"

Silverbird, Aqualad, Red Arrow, and Kid Flash all turned towards Artemis as the blonde walked up with her bow at her side, her other hand holding the GPS device that they all used to follow the tracers' coordinates.

"Cheshire's heading north," she began, lifting the GPS up in the air, and frankly, Reese was almost insulted.

She and Artemis had been on the same team for what? Four months now? The other girl knew all about her powers, bar the seismic sense, and still, Artemis thought she could actually lie to Reese's face? Seriously?

Wow. Just...wow.

Red Arrow, it seemed, didn't believe her either, but Silverbird chalked that up to more of the "there's a mole on the Team" general suspicion.

"Sportsmaster was headed south," Roy piped up as he crossed his arms and glanced towards Aqualad. "Kinda like this mission,"

"Maybe he'll double back," Artemis added, conveniently avoiding Reese's gaze when they met each other's eyes for a split-second. "Maybe she will,"

"Either way," Wally cut in. "They'll rendezvous, and we'll find them,"

"We'd better," Silverbird snapped, turning her gaze hard again towards Artemis, and once more, the blonde looked away, turning her own gaze towards the ground.

"Reese is right," Aqualad added, before glancing towards Artemis. "Sportsmaster acquired an attache case. We need to learn what it contained. If you had stayed aboard the Bioship..."

"I saw Cheshire sneaking up on them," Artemis cut in, waving one hand towards Reese and Roy, but the two were decidedly not impressed. 

It was almost impossible for anyone to sneak up on Reese, and from what Silverbird had sensed earlier, Artemis had been the one who was jumped by her sister.

"Then you radio a warning," Red Arrow snapped, but the blonde wasn't going to be swayed.

"And if she found you by hacking our frequency?" Reese hated to admit it, but Artemis did have a point, and it seemed Kaldur agreed with her as well.

"It is true," Aqualad began as he glanced towards Roy. "We have come to rely on M'gann's telepathy over our radios,"

Reese was starting to get a headache, and she pinched the bridge of her nose between her thumb and index finger as Wally butted in next.

"So let's stop looking to place blame," the speedster began. "And start looking for Cheshire,"

"Here," Artemis spoke up after a moment more. "Since clearly, I can't be trusted," She held up the GPS and tossed it towards Reese, though Silverbird caught it before it could hit her in the face. "You track her,"

But, it seemed as if this whole debacle was turning into a whose-on-whose side thing, and it clearly looked like Wally was going to be siding with Artemis, because just then, Kid Flash stepped forward and ripped the GPS from the brunette's hand, walking back over and holding the GPS out towards the blonde.

"Artemis..." the redhead muttered, and Artemis stared down at the offered GPS for a moment before she sighed.

"It's fine," she said, though anyone with eyes could see that it wasn't. "I'll...follow in the Bioship,"

Reese suddenly remembered that Zira was on the Bioship too, and she bopped the heel of her palm against her forehead.

"Oh my God!" she exclaimed, making the other four turn and look at her, eyes wide. "Artemis! Did you just leave Zira on the Bioship by herself?"

"The baby gorilla's fine," the blonde muttered. "She's asleep,"

"She might've been asleep before you met up with Cheshire," Silverbird retorted. "But she might not be now! When you get back, would you please check on her for me?"

Artemis gave a sharp nod before she began to walk back to the Bioship again, and a moment later, Kaldur turned to Wally.

"Go, Kid," he began. "Arrow, Silverbird, and I will return to the river," then, Aqualad turned towards Roy, and his eyes narrowed. "And we will all follow as originally planned,"

Wally put his helmet on again and sped off, and Kaldur began his walk back down to the river. But, as Red Arrow went to follow Aqualad, Silverbird grabbed her brother's wrist, halting him in his tracks.

"What is it?" Roy asked, turning to look at his sister with a quizzical quirk to his brow, and Reese bit her lip for a moment before she continued.

"Artemis was lying," she began and watched as Roy's eyes widened. "She was lying about where Cheshire was going,"

Before Red Arrow could say anything else, Silverbird ducked back into the trees and crept silently in the direction Artemis had gone towards the Bioship. 

The brunette peered through a gap in the trees and spotted the blonde archer just walking up the ramp at the Bioship. Before the ramp closed, Reese took an arrow from her quiver, aimed it, and fired, the tracer shooting out of the end and landing on Artemis's own quiver just as the ramp to the Bioship closed.

Silverbird was positive that Artemis hadn't seen her, but a moment later, Reese's commlink buzzed, and she tapped it, only for Artemis's voice to come through.

"Silverbird," the blonde's voice sounded gruff, but Reese was used to it by now, and she patiently waited for Artemis to continue. "Zira's still asleep,"

"Great," the brunette answered as she heard Roy come up behind her. "Thanks for checking,"

"What now?" Red Arrow asked, and Silverbird reached into her pocket, pulling out her own GPS, and showed Roy the white dot, signifying Artemis, that was moving away as the blonde piloted the Bioship into the sky.

"Now?" Reese echoed as the dot moved further away from them, and further south, in the same direction Sportsmaster had gone, and in the opposite direction that Artemis had said Cheshire had gone. "We follow her,"

N E W  O R L E A N S
December 5, 22:20 CST

It was one thing for Silverbird to hate stakeouts. It was quite another for her and Red Arrow to track the tracer Reese had put on Artemis (since Artemis had put "Cheshire's" on the end of a train) to New Orleans itself and end up at a warehouse in the docks.

Wally and Kaldur were still on their way, but Roy hadn't wanted to waste any more time, so here he and Reese were, crouching outside the closed door of the warehouse.

"Is she in there?" Red Arrow whispered, and Silverbird took off one of her gloves before pressing her hand against the cement, reading the vibrations, just like she had done back in the bayou.

The warehouse seemed to be some sort of storage facility for Mardi Gras decorations, and along with Artemis and Cheshire, Reese also sensed none other than Klarion, the Brain, Monsieur Mallah, and the android-building creepoid Professor Ivo himself.

But no Sportsmaster. Which was...weird.

"Silverbird?" Roy repeated, and Reese was suddenly back insider her own head, looking up and meeting her brother's gaze behind his domino mask, the both of them having changed into their suits before reaching the city.

"Yeah," the brunette said after a moment to regain her bearings. "Yeah, Artemis is in there. But..."

This time, Reese took both of her gloves off and pressed her hands against the concrete, and this time, she did sense Sportsmaster.

And he was right above her and Roy, holding his javelin poised to strike.

"Move!" she cried out, and dove on top of her brother, knocking both of them away from the warehouse just as Sportsmaster drove down his spear, the point going into the ground where the two of them had been crouched a moment before, and the door to the warehouse exploded.

Sportsmaster jumped off of where he had been standing on top of the warehouse, ready to strike again, but Red Arrow and Silverbird rolled out of his trajectory and jumped into the warehouse itself before Lawrence Crock could hit them.

Inside, Artemis was going up against her sister, and Reese shot an arrow towards Cheshire in an attempt to block a hit that Jade was aiming towards Artemis. Reese might have been mad at the blonde at the moment, but that didn't mean she wanted her dead.

"Arrow to Aqualad," Reese heard Roy's voice come from over her shoulder, and she assumed he was filling in Kaldur and Wally. "Silverbird and I have located Cheshire and Sportsmaster. Rendezvous at our coordinates!"

"Acknowledged," Kaldur answered simply as Sportsmaster swiped Red Arrow aside with a single blow. "Sending Kid on ahead,"

Suddenly, Silverbird screamed, and the sonic force threw Sportsmaster back out of the warehouse, as she, Red Arrow, and Artemis went back-to-back with each other, bows drawn and at the ready.

"You're lucky Silverbird sensed Sportsmaster when she did," Roy began towards Artemis, his voice more than a little bit snappy. "Are you somehow allergic to radioing a warning?"

"Artemis to Arrow and Pretty Bird," the blonde deadpanned in response, and Reese gritted her teeth at the nickname. "Look out,"

"Don't call me that," the brunette snapped, and Artemis tilted her head as the three of them periodically moved in a circle, shooting arrows towards Cheshire and Sportsmaster as the two assassins ran through the warehouse around them.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Artemis continued sarcastically. "I forgot. Only Robin can call you 'pretty bird'. But, I can't remember. Were you dating him? Or Dick?"

"Would you give that a rest already?" Silverbird exclaimed, turning her bow horizontal and swinging it like a baseball bat into Cheshire's stomach, throwing Jade back into a parade float. "Why does it matter who I'm dating? The last time I checked, I didn't have to ask your permission for it!"

Just then, Cheshire leaped back into the fray, and Red Arrow and Artemis attacked her simultaneously, leaving Reese to take care of Sportsmaster. Great.

The brunette shot several arrows towards Artemis's father that exploded at his feet but they didn't end up deterring the blond man all that much. As it were, Sportsmaster took out the literal ball-and-chain that he carried around and swung it, making Silverbird have to flip out of the way unless she wanted to get squashed.

Reese held up her bow as a shield when a swing of the ball-and-chain got a little too close to her head, but the bow was shattered as if it was nothing more than a simple stick. The brunette dodged again, ducking behind one of the parade floats just as Sportsmaster slammed the ball-and-chain into the spot where Reese's head had been a moment before.

Suddenly, Silverbird was shoved out of the way by Red Arrow as Roy took her place, shooting several arrows towards Sportsmaster, hoping to pause the older man, if not for only a moment. Then, she saw that a room further inside the warehouse had a very suspicious-looking red light glaring out of the windows.

"Go!" Red Arrow shouted as he slammed his bow upside Sportsmaster's head, and Reese bolted, taking her eskrima sticks out of their holster on her thigh and reaching the door just as Artemis did, her unbroken bow drawn and ready.

"You want to knock?" Silverbird asked, and for a moment, Artemis smiled, before she seemed to remember that she was supposed to be angry at the brunette next to her, and the blonde's expression hardened again.

But, Artemis kicked the doors open anyway, revealing Mallah, Ivo, the Brain, and Klarion inside.

"Freeze!" Artemis exclaimed, but Ivo just calmly shut the lid of the briefcase in front of him, the same attache case that Sportsmaster had delivered to him.

"Don't be absurd," the maniacal inventor almost seemed to preen. "With what we've created tonight I could--" but, before he could continue, Klarion cut him off.

"Why waste such power on those two?" the Witch-Boy asked, waving one hand dismissively. "Do as she says. Freeze,"

Just then, Klarion snapped his fingers, and with a wave of black-and-red magic, the four villains were gone, and in their places stood four glistening transparent statues.

Ice.

M O U N T  J U S T I C E
December 6, 03:21 EST

To say Reese was exhausted would be an understatement. Aside from the fact that Artemis was still mad at her (and if Reese were being honest she'd say the feeling was mutual) Klarion, Ivo, Mallah, the Brain, Sportsmaster, and Cheshire had all gotten away after Klarion's freezing trick, along with the attache case holding whatever it was that Ivo had "created".

So, now, here they all were, back in Mount Justice, having thoroughly failed at the mission as a whole. 

Zira was awake at this point, but the baby gorilla must have picked up on the downtrodden moods of everyone else because she stayed quiet in Reese's arms.

"Let me be clear," Kaldur began once they had all gathered in the center of the cave, along with M'gann, Red Tornado, Conner, and Zatanna. "We failed. Though the Injustice League is in custody, their allies still scheme, and we have learned nothing of their plans,"

"Well, I wonder why?" Reese deadpanned as she glanced towards Artemis, who whirled around.

"Hey!" the blonde snapped in response, waving her arms. "Who found out Sportsmaster was working for Brain, Klarion, and Ivo?"

"Technically, that was both of us," Reese piped up. "And that would be some good intel, had Ivo not been locked up in Belle Reve this entire time!"

"She's right," Roy added, crossing his arms. "And the guards just checked. It's the real Ivo, not a robot,"

"Android," Reese corrected her brother, but Red Arrow just sent her a look.

"Whatever," the redhead grumbled, just as Kid Flash stepped in between the three of them, glaring at both Silverbird and Red Arrow.

"Hey," the speedster snapped. "I am getting tired of you two dumping on her. Yeah, Reese, I get it, you're pissed that Artemis is questioning your relationship with Dick, that's fine," It wasn't. "But that doesn't give both you and Red Arrow the chance to be jerks,"

Normally, Reese would be mad at Wally for rounding on her, but the brunette was done caring, so instead, all she did was hold up the tracer in front of Wally's face.

"Her tracer," the speedster stated, waving an arm back towards Artemis. "So? Cheshire ditched it,"

"No," Reese answered simply, watching as Artemis's eyes widened out of the corner of her eye as Silverbird gestured to the almost identical-looking tracer that Kaldur was holding. "Artemis ditched that. To send us on a wild goose chase. Artemis put this one" Reese held up the tracer she was holding. "On Cheshire,"

Wally's eyes widened, and he turned his back on Roy, Reese, and Kaldur in order to face Artemis.

"Artemis?" he asked quietly, and Reese almost felt bad. "Are you that freaked out about Arrow joining the Team that you had to prove yourself by bringing down the bad guys solo? Please tell me I'm wrong,"

Artemis opened her mouth, to say what, Reese wasn't sure, because the brunette knew there was no way that the blonde was going to tell Wally the actual reason that she had gone after Sportsmaster and Cheshire by herself. And a moment later, Artemis's mouth was closed.

"Well," Wally continued, his voice turning angry. "Nice going. What you proved was that you're insecure and selfish. Keep the sai," the speedster tossed Cheshire's confiscated weapon at Artemis's feet, before reaching into Reese's hand and grabbing out the tracer. "This is the right souvenir for the mission,"

"So, how will you betray us next time?" Red Arrow asked once Wally had walked off, and even Reese had to admit that Roy had gone a bit too far.

"Enough," Kaldur set a hand on the red-haired archer's shoulder and stopped the beginning's of Roy rant. "If making a mistake was a betrayal, then we would all be traitors. I must report to Batman. The rest of you?" Aqualad glanced around at the others who were still gathered. "Get some sleep,"

Silverbird noticed that Red Arrow and Artemis stayed behind as everyone else walked off, but Reese didn't stick around to find out what they said.

She had kept Artemis's family a secret for this long, and Reese wasn't so mean as to blurt it out in front of everyone, but she was done caring.

At this point, unless Artemis stepped up herself and admitted everything, Rhysalin Queen didn't care what happened.

She was done covering for her.

-----

Y'all the beginning of this (Dick's birthday party and the scene in the Batcave) is over 16k words...I need help.

Let's all just imagine Artemis's reaction for a moment when she finds out Robin's secret identity--and the fact that Dick was willing to tell Artemis his secret identity just so she wouldn't hate Reese...god I love them.

The first one-shot of the five-year gap, which takes place in April 2011, a.k.a a few months after Auld Acquaintance, is actually Dick and Reese dealing with the consequences of them putting Simon Stagg in prison, so that'll be fun. You get to meet Ethan Clark then too.

Next Up: Performance
(a.k.a. my all-time favorite episode, aside from True Colors and The Fix in s2 and Leverage in s3. Also, Reese's birthday. Dick's birthday present for her is <3<3<3)

~Matia~