barbara feels it must have been ages since they were last allowed to stop and breathe; but the tragedy of it all is that metropolis only fell a little under a week ago. the weight of millions, friends and strangers alike, simply adds time to them in a way they’ve never experienced.
in quiet moments like this, when she can feel the steady thrum of dick’s heartbeat beneath her fingers as she draws gentle ministrations down his jaw and neck, barbara wishes they weren’t so close to everything going down. in another world, he was never nightwing and she was never batgirl and heroes are a sideshow they can marvel at during breakfast dates. in another world, the bags under dick’s eyes are never so prominent and barbara doesn’t have to send the people she loves to battlefields on her behalf. alas – it’s a dream that drifts farther away the more unhinged clark becomes ( because he is, unhinged - and there’s no end in sight to this newfound world he wants to create ).
barbara doesn’t see justice in clark’s vision, even if the intention is good, but it still leaves a sour taste in her mouth to be defending people who did their damnedest to outplay the law and wreak havoc on innocents. she frowns, eyes flickering to the blueprint of arkham she’s pulled up on her monitors, and heaves a sigh, “ yes. mostly. there’s only so much i can do from here, but i’ll be with you both as often as i can. ”
she hesitates, breath catching in her throat as she catches dick’s eyes again, and, for just a moment, something in her wants to throw caution to the wind and say to hell with this; she chalks it up to her normal concern, despite the circumstances, and offers a tired smile. “ someone has to be keeping an eye out for you, bird boy. especially if – ” she hope it won’t come to this, but her gut says otherwise, “ if it doesn’t go as smooth as we could hope. ”
dick yearns for that other world sometimes. the one where they don’t meet as batgirl & robin, the one where they get to just be. dick doesn’t let himself fantasize about that sort of thing, not often. because until a couple of months ago, it always felt worth it. he wouldn’t trade nightwing for the world, would he ?? he’s not so sure anymore. the old nightwing hadn’t seen millions of people wiped off the face of the planet, clark’s madness the only monument to them.
hopeful or deluded or just in denial, dick still can’t get his head around a world where clark is so far gone. clark, who has been part of his world (his family, practically) since the moment dick donned a pair of green tights, cannot be so stupid, so cruel. he thinks of atlantis, hauled out of the ocean as a show of power. of the teen titans, what was left of them after metropolis, and their uncanny disappearance. it’s all unbelievable, inconceivable. simply, it’s insanity.
“ hey, it’s gonna go fine, especially with you in my ear, ” dick promises her when he hears the gut-turning shift in her tone. they’re all still...well, maybe not friends, but they’re still colleagues. heroes with decades of history between them. right ?? god, he hopes he’s right. “ we’re just gonna knock ‘em down a notch, you know ?? ” remind them that gotham isn’t a piece on the board. “ i’ll be home before the sun’s up. ”
yousharknotpass
2087
