Young Justice Fic: what are you doing for new year's? (2/2)
Title: what are you doing for new year’s?
Fandom: Young Justice
Characters/Pairing: Dick/Zatanna; minor appearances by the rest of the team
Rating: PG (teenage oogling)
Word Count: 11,715
Author’s Notes: empressearwig made me do it. OMG I don’t even know what this is. Probably not canon compliant as of season 2.
Summary: Four times Dick and Zatanna kissed for tradition, and one time they kissed for themselves.
The fourth time it happens, it’s an unmitigated disaster, emphasis on the un and the dis.
The party’s in full swing, with more superheroes currently standing in the cave than any other time since Zatanna’s been on the team. And she’s pretty sure it was never that full before she joined, either. Because she’s reasonably certain that most of the Justice League has never been in the cave with the full team before.
And the team’s almost as large as the League now. At least, it is if she counts probationary members and members so new they haven’t even been on missions yet.
Zatanna’s choosing to count them, because she’s not that petty. After all, she was new once, too.
Of course, even at her greenest, she never abandoned the team to pull off a secondary objective without informing anyone that she’d seen an opening. Not like Batgirl had on her very first mission. Not like Batgirl who, despite that and only having been with the team for three weeks, is already off probation. Because she’s Batgirl, and she’s been vouched for by Batman and Robin.
Meg told her that Robin pulled a similar stunt on the team’s first official mission, so of course he forgives her that particular transgression. And she’s already patrolled Gotham with the Bat-family for six months, so there goes her probation, too.
And she’s Robin’s girlfriend. Zatanna tries very hard not to think that plays a role in how easily everyone trusts her.
Whatever. Batgirl’s nice and a solid fighter, and she’s learning to tell the team her moves before she makes them. Mostly. It’s definitely no reason for Zatanna to snark on her, even if it’s only in her mind.
”Just remember you’re not the only one who can hear those thoughts.”
Zatanna’s head snaps up and she catches M’gann’s eye across the room. The Martian is smiling ever so serenely, and Zatanna smirks and cocks an eyebrow in acknowledgment. One little spell gets overpowered and now she’s got another week of Meg’s voice in her head beyond the scope of the team’s normal telepathic communication. It reminds Zatanna that there are no magic users in the League besides Dr. Fate; her options are to let the spell fade naturally or allow the mask wearing her father’s body to come anywhere near her. And at this time of year, no less...yeah, Zatanna’s crummy mood is totally justified.
”I know it is. Are you sure there’s nothing I can do?"
Zatanna sighs and shakes her head, before remembering that doesn’t actually answer a telepathic question. ”I’ll be fine,” she thinks at Meg. ”But thanks.”
”Just try not to take it out on Batgirl,” Meg answers back, and Zatanna can practically see the nervous face that usually accompanies that tone. ”She’s doing the best she can. We were all new, once.”
”Yeah, but the whole reason Batman pushed to get her fully on the team is because she’s been out with him and Robin for months now. She’s not new.”
”Zee, what’s going on with you? You should be ecstatic tonight--”
”I’ve got to go find Tim. Talk to you later. And try to be nice to Connor when midnight rolls around. This is going to be another bad New Year’s for him.”
Across the room, M’gann’s face looks as puzzled as she sounds. ”What do you mean?”
”I mean, just don’t grab L’gann in front of him at midnight, okay? Have fun at the party.”
Before Meg can respond to her snippiness, Zatanna throws up a mental shield spell. It takes effort to maintain, but being alone in her head right now is well worth the effort.
Even if she is almost completely magically tapped out. She walks past Kaldur, back on dry land thanks to Zatanna’s eleventh-hour burst of sorcery during their battle tonight, and knows that the days of uninterrupted sleep she’ll need to recharge is a small price to pay.
Despite what she told Meg, Zatanna doesn’t enter the crowded common area to look for Tim. She knows where he is, and to get to him she’ll almost certainly have to walk by Batgirl, who hasn’t strayed from Robin’s side since everyone got back to the cave and declared New Year’s Eve would double as the official save-the-world party.
Wally’s words. The last ones he said before grabbing Artemis after the fight and dragging her over to the corner; they haven’t come up for air since. Being a speedster still makes a bi-coastal college relationship difficult, so she doesn’t begrudge her friends their limited time together. But that does mean there’s one less corner of the room to hide in.
Not that Zatanna’s hiding. She’s just pulled off the biggest spell she’s ever cast under extremely high stakes, that’s all; it makes total sense that she’d be exhausted and not want to be all chatty and smiley and oh, did you see how Batgirl hacked the airship’s mainframe--
“Why in the world are you hugging the wall?”
“Gah!” Zatanna nearly jumps out of her skin at Robin’s voice in her ear. She whips around and jabs a finger into his (wow, really muscular) chest. “Are you crazy? You never sneak up a magician! We might turn you into a toad or something on accident. Not that anyone would be able to tell the difference if I did that to you!”
Robin just laughs and brushes her hand away. “Whoa, chill, Zee! No need to get all threatening.”
She glares at him. “What are you even doing over here? You were just on...the other side...” But when she looks at where Robin just was, sure enough, Batgirl and Batman are talking like there’s nothing amiss.
Robin cackles, smiling down from nearly a head’s height above Zatanna.She’s mostly used to having to crane her head back just to look him in the eye. Such as that is, what with him still being masked and all. “I ninja’d my way over here. Duh, Zee.”
Oh, right, duh What’s he even doing here, anyway? “You sure your girlfriend won’t get lonely?” Well, that sounded bitter. She doesn’t mean it like that. Really, she doesn’t. “Sorry, sorry,” she says when she sees Robin wince. “I just meant, tonight was only her third mission with the team, and she hasn’t really talked to anyone except you and Batman tonight, and…”
“No, it’s fine,” he says. “I get it. Bab…Batgirl still doesn’t think the team’s gotten over that first mission, and with Kaldur coming back tonight,” he bumps her shoulder with his arm, grinning widely, “and don’t think I don’t want to talk to you about how that happened. But she thinks tonight needs to be about the team as much as possible.”
“Then shouldn’t she be hanging out with the team?”
The tone of her voice must sound as bad as she hopes it doesn’t, because Robin’s lips press into a thin line. “You mean like your friend who hasn’t talked to anyone but Red Tornado all night?”
“Tim’s pretty much the most mystically powerful person on the planet.” Yeah, she regrets what she just said, but Robin knows what kind of magic she performed tonight; he knows what it costs her. “Talking to an android is like, completely out of the realm of anything he’s ever experienced before. Batgirl knows Batman. She knows you. She should be getting to know the team.”
“Yeah, because the team’s been so welcoming and open!”
“She ran off on her first mission without telling anyone! Even telepathically!”
“Yeah, to dismantle a bomb we missed on our first sweep!”
Zatanna shoves herself in Robin’s face, not caring about the rest of the room. “That’s not an excuse and you know it! She didn’t tell us what she was doing, and that puts the rest of the team in danger.”
“Yeah? And how did little Timmy Hunter do his first time out with the team?” Robin pushes right back. “Oh, that’s right! He hasn’t even been on a mission yet!”
“That doesn’t matter!” Zatanna shoves his chest; he doesn’t even flinch. “The League thinks he needs to be around the rest of us!”
“Oh, please! Dr. Fate wanted him here.”
Robin realizes what he’s said a second too late. She knows he’s trying to apologize, hears him like a muted buzzing in her ears, but right now it’s taking all the energy she has left to just breathe normally.
Is she being that bad? How could he even say...?
”...going on? Zee? Zatanna!”
Zatanna grips her head as Meg’s voice breaks through. If her shield spell fails this easily, then the magic to get Kaldur back took more out of her than she realized. No wonder she’s on a knife’s edge with Robin.
But still. For him to say that...
”What did Robin just say to you? I swear, if you don’t answer me I’ll link him up, too, and ask him myself!”
Zatanna forces her breathing to steady and pushes her off. Gently, because she knows M’gann’s concern comes from a good place, but Zatanna just doesn’t have the energy to deal with both of them at once. ”It’s fine, Meg. I’m fine.”
”But I felt-“
“Just…drop it, Meg. Please.”
The link is silent for a few moments, and Zatanna ignores everything outside her mind. She knows Robin must be distressed by her reaction, that he’s probably trying to spot-invent time travel so he can undo the last few minutes. Finally, Meg’s voice rings through Zatanna’s mind, and she sighs in relief at the answer.
”Fine, I’ll leave it. But I’m sending Tim over to help you. If you can’t even keep up a blocking spell right now…”
Zatanna concedes the point. “Yeah. I think the spell tonight took more out of me than I realized.”
“You’re really not going to tell me what Robin said that started all this?”
“No.”
A very loud mental grunt of frustration echoes through her head, and Zatanna laughs a little. ”Fine, fine,” Meg says. ”Sending Tim over now.”
It’s only when M’gann’s voice fades from her mind and she starts focusing on the outside world again that she realizes Robin’s practically holding her upright. She blinks, trying to clear her focus, and looks at him. He’s still in uniform - they’re all still in uniform; “save the world, throw a party” is taken pretty literally around here - so she can’t see his eyes. But his face tells enough of a story for her to imagine the worry she’d see reflected there if she could see them at all.
She imagines, sometimes, what color his eyes are. He’s got black hair, so they’re probably black or brown, but Zatanna’s got blue eyes, so she sometimes wonders if his are blue as well. Sometimes they’re green, sometimes hazel, but no matter what she sees in her mind, his eyes are always sparkling with mischief.
Whatever color they are, they’re definitely not sparkling with mischief right now.
“God, please, Zee.” His voice breaks on her nickname. “Say something! Yell at me, punch me, turn me into a toad, just do someth--“
“If you don’t stop shouting in my ear,” she says quietly, “I really am going to turn you into a toad.”
Robin sags against her. “Okay, seriously, don’t do that! No, wait, I’m sorry! I’m sorry; I don’t get to say that after opening my big mouth.”
Zatanna pulls away; she can’t be leaning against him right now. Not with Dr. Fate hanging in the air between them, not with Tim and Batgirl and a whole lot of things she isn’t strong enough at the moment to think about hanging between them. So many things she didn’t have to think about a year ago.
Which is precisely the problem. A year ago, New Year’s Eve was just a night for friends to stand by each other, to support one another. A year ago, they were all each other had. Now, they both have other people they’re supposed to kiss at midnight.
Zatanna knows their three years of good fortune have nothing to do with those three kisses...except for the tiny part of her that doesn’t. That part of her screams that what happened tonight, what she made happen tonight, can’t be written off as coincidence, that there are larger forces at play.
Sometimes Zatanna hates being a sorceress. That part of her brain is too superstitious for its own good.
“Zee?”
Hearing his voice makes her finally look up. “Tim.” Without thinking about it, she leans against Timothy Hunter and breathes him in, absorbing the magical essence he exudes without even trying. It doesn’t take long for Zatanna to feel a balm settle over her; Tim’s had that effect on her since the moment they met. He’s like a battery; when he’s around, she lights up.
“Well,” Robin says, and Zatanna feels awful that she could forget he was still there. “I guess I’ll just…leave you to it, then.”
Tim wraps an arm around her shoulders, pulling her against him. He’s easily as tall as Robin, but leaner; she feels bone above his heart, not solid muscle. Not that she notices Robin’s chest. She doesn’t.
No, really.
“Yeah.” Zatanna doesn’t miss the glare Tim gives Robin from behind his glasses when he speaks. “You do that.”
“Tim,” she warns.
“Hey, you try having an angry Martian yelling inside your head.”
Zatanna snorts softly. “Been there, done that.”
Both boys’ faces sober immediately. “Oh,” Tim says. “Right. I wish I had enough control over my powers to help.”
Zatanna watches the muscle twitch in Robin’s jaw (and when did that start looking so…square?). She knows he regrets what he said about Dr. Fate, and she honestly just doesn’t have the energy for this tonight. She should forgive him, she knows this, but Zatanna doesn’t want to, not right now. She’s just cast the most powerful spell of her life, she’s got Meg’s voice in her head until the magical overload fades, the only person on the planet who can help her stole her father’s body, and Robin accused her of dating Tim just to appease that person.
So, yeah. She’ll forgive Robin.
…Tomorrow.
“Hey, everyone!” Wally suddenly appears in the middle of the room, wearing the dumbest grin on his face and holding Artemis’s hand tightly enough that she can’t escape the limelight. “Thirty seconds to midnight!”
For a moment, it looks like Robin wants to say something. Zatanna refuses to think about what (oh, well, no one should be a slave to tradition) -
Out of nowhere (seriously, is every hero from Gotham a freaking ninja?), Batgirl appears at Robin’s side, the cowl still pulled over her face, obscuring her identity. Zatanna tries not to roll her eyes; heaven forbid Batman allow them to trust their own teammates.
“Hi, guys!” Batgirl smiles at their little group, sliding a hand through Robin’s. Her smile softens when she sees Zatanna. “How’re you doing?” she asks, and she sounds so sincere that Zatanna can’t help but soften, too. Towards her, at least. “That was some major power you unleashed out there tonight.”
“Yeah, well.” She shrugs, the movement stifled a bit by Tim’s arm still wrapped around her shoulders. “Go big or go home, right?”
She must look more genuine than she did before with Robin, because Batgirl relaxes, and she suddenly looks a lot more like a girl Zatanna might someday be friends with. “Now that is an idea I can get behind. You’re my kind of girl, Zatanna.”
Zatanna giggles at their identical trains of thought, then bursts out laughing at Robin’s ashen face. She decides he deserves nothing less than for her and Batgirl to become great friends.
“Ten!” Wally shouts above the din. “Nine! Eight! Seven!” He grabs Artemis and pulls her against his chest like a cheesy movie hero.
“Wally!” Artemis shouts, but doesn’t even bother trying to escape.
“Five!” The rest of the room is counting down now. “Four!”
Tim settles Zatanna against him, bending his head to meet hers. She can’t help the traitorous whisper in her mind, you’re not supposed to kiss him at midnight.
“Three!”
Robin and Batgirl move closer. Zatanna pretends she’s not watching them. She pretends not to see Robin looking at her and Tim.
“Two!”
A breath away from her lips, Tim whispers, “New Year’s Eve magic, Zee.”
“One!”
They kiss, and Zatanna draws everything she can from it. For the first time, it’s not enough.
Around them, the room is full of laughter and cheering, cries of “Happy New Year!” filling the cave. She pulls away first - easy enough to seem breathless when it’s still hard to breathe - and sees their friends and mentors embracing each other, spreading the holiday cheer. Wally’s finally let go of Artemis and is trying to lure M’gann with wiggling eyebrows; Artemis finds Kaldur and presses a soft kiss against his cheek. Zatanna relaxes; whatever happens next, tonight was a good night.
Last night, now. It’s after midnight. Time to start the new year.
“Hey.”
She realizes that Tim isn’t holding her up anymore, that he’s shyly ducking away from Batgirl’s advances. Robin’s standing next to her, arms folded tightly across his chest. The Robin uniform is starting to look a little…not right, stretched across his muscles like that. “Hey,” is all she says.
“So.” Robin looks pensive, and she wishes, oh, how she wishes just once that she could see behind his mask. “Um…”
“You don’t…” she says. “We shouldn’t.” Really, they shouldn’t.
Robin seems to decide something for himself, though, because he steels his shoulders and stares down at her. “Yeah, we really should. It’s tradition, right?”
Zatanna swallows harshly, because tradition is the last thing she’s thinking about right now. Besides, tradition for them is to kiss first.
Until this year, it had been to kiss only.
“Yeah,” she whispers, and lets Robin grip her elbows and lean in. “Tradition.”
The kiss is brief and chaste, and Zatanna is seized with panic, because she wants it to be neither.
Neither of them pull away first; they are pulled away when Tim and Batgirl bounce back over to them; the moment is easily broken. There shouldn’t have been a moment to break.
“Happy New Year, Zee,” Robin says. Zatanna pretends he doesn’t sound as rough as he does. “Another year just like the rest, right?”
Zatanna forces herself to nod. “Yeah.”
Nothing about this year will be the same. She knows it.
XXXXX
The fifth time it happens, they finally get it right.
The ballroom looks unreal. It looks real, too, because it is, but the emphasis definitely belongs on the un. Bruce has completely outdone himself this time.
It’s the Wayne Foundation’s annual New Year’s Eve party, which is basically an extension of the Wayne Foundation’s annual Christmas party, which caps a month-long stretch of any-reason-for-a-party December celebrations. The entire room is transformed into a winter wonderland, shimmering ice covering every available surface, while translucent orbs of green and blue and red and silver seemed to float overhead, suspended by microfilaments. Tables were decorated with every conceivable kind of holiday candy - though that was quickly being depleted by the two speedsters in attendance - and, in the center of the room, stood the Wayne masterpiece: a thirty-foot tall Christmas tree. Seriously, Dick willhave to remember to make a special toast for Bruce tonight.
Assuming he’s allowed to give a speech. The guests of honor are the newest members of the Justice League, after all, and they’re not supposed to know who he and Bruce are.
Really, it’s getting a little ridiculous. Batman needs to learn to embrace trust and discard the dis. Or maybe just card the dis. He’ll have to ponder that one.
Right now, he needs to focus on avoiding Zatanna, because he knows that if she sees him like this, as Dick, that she’ll know. And as nice as that might finally be, it’s still a big “not gonna happen” in Wayne Manor.
Which is really stupid, because Bruce insisted on not only throwing this party, but inviting Dick’s former teammates. It’s like he wants the really unsubtle resemblance between Dick and Robin to be noticed.
Well, Dick and Nightwing, now. That might actually go a long way towards hiding him.
“Excuse me?”
Crap. Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap. Dick’s spine stiffens and he turns slowly toward the voice behind him, a voice he knows almost as well as his own by now. Five years is a long time. Putting on his best “Dick Grayson, Wayne Industries heir” smile, he braces himself. “Yes, Miss Zatanna? How can I help you? Congratulations, by the way.”
Zatanna Zatara, newest inductee into the Justice League and the teammate Dick’s never been able to hide anything from, offers her own smile. It’s the mysterious one he’s always loved, the one that says ”I have a secret.”
“I just wanted to thank you and Mr. Wayne,” she says. “This is a lovely party, and I still can’t believe he invited all of us.”
“Yes, well.” Dick swallows, and tries to just enjoy being able to look at Zatanna for the first time without something covering his eyes. His vision is perfect, of course, and he’s never had any problem seeing her; there’s something about just being able to look at her as Dick Grayson, though, that’s different. It’s real in a way he’s not sure he can quantify, and he can quantify anything.
He can. He and Wally tested that theory once.
But. The larger problem remains. As much as he wants to stay and talk with Zatanna, it is pretty much the worst idea ever right now. “Yes,” he says again, blinking himself back into the present. Crap, did she notice him staring at her? “Well, Bruce, that is, he and I both, well, we just wanted to thank all of you for everything you do for the people of Gotham, and the world at large. For all that you’re famous, you don’t get nearly enough public appreciation.”
“Hmm.”
“Hmm?”
“Mm-hm. Hmm.”
Okay, if he doesn’t make a hasty retreat, like, now, Dick is going to end up saying or doing something very stupid. Zatanna tends to have that effect on him. The problem with that, is that she already knows she has that effect on him, but as Robin. Nightwing. Whatever. She knows all the stupid, stupid things he’ll do, all the ways he’ll trip over his own tongue, when he’s got his mask on, and it probably won’t take much for her to put two and two together. She’s a lot smarter than people give her credit for.
No, seriously, what the heck was Bruce thinking?!
“Mr. Grayson?” Zatanna asks, breaking him out of his thoughts again. See? Stupid. “Are you alright? You seem…distracted. Is there something on your mind?”
“Huh? Oh, um. Nope! Nothing! Nothing whatsoever is on my mind. At all. Nothing.” Maybe the Joker will crash the party and put Dick out of his misery. “And please, Mr. Grayson is so formal. Call me Dick.”
Zatanna raises an eyebrow and Dick wants to find a nice rock to crawl under for a while. “Well, then, Dick.” She crosses her arms over her chest and, oh, Dick wishes she weren’t in uniform. That uniform’s always done things to him, and she’s all…grown up, now. She is way too distracting. Why can’t she just be tracting? His life would be a lot easier if she were more tracting.
Why won’t she uncross her arms? And stop smiling at him like that? And can she not say his name like that? Dick can’t think. Dick has to get away.
Dick needs to find a new nickname. Oh, god. Why the hell doesn’t he go by Richard?
Zatanna, bless her sweet, merciful heart, does uncross her arms. But instead of leaving him alone to die quietly, she waves at two seats at an open round table and sits down. “Please, Dick.” Make her stop saying his name! “Won’t you join me for a moment?”
Well, never let it be said that Dick Grayson retreats from battle. He sits down beside Zatanna, and is shocked so suddenly into a memory from a few months ago that his breath catches.
They’re sitting beside each other at the small, round dining table in the cave’s kitchen, Nightwing’s head in his hands as he relays every gory detail of his breakup with Batgirl to Zatanna. Because really, how dumb was he to think getting involved with his teammate, with one of his best friends, was in any way a good idea?
But Zatanna listens, because she always listens, no matter what idiocy comes out of his mouth. And she doesn’t judge him, because she’s just broken up with Tim, whom Dr. Fate has decreed needs additional training to use his abilities. Training he won’t get by joining forces with “a bunch of reckless teenagers.”
Nightwing doesn’t say it, but he thinks that Zatara might be influencing Dr. Fate in that decision.
Zatanna touches his arm, squeezing gently. It’s always been a gesture of friendship between them, but right now, he can’t handle her hands on him. He’s not telling her everything about the breakup; she doesn’t need anything else interfering with her own relationship with Batgirl. Bad enough that she’s caught in the middle between her two friends.
He shakes her off, her skin like hot metal on his. He can’t. He can’t. There’s too much at stake, especially now. With Kaldur…gone, it’s up to Nightwing to lead the team. He can’t afford to be emotionally compromised.
Zatanna’s always compromised him.
“Rob…er, Nightwing?” She blinks, her clear blue eyes reflecting confusion over his actions. God, he wishes he could be like her and just let the whole world see what he feels, but he can’t. He never could, and he’s got to be the leader now. “What is it?”
“I’m sorry,” he says, returning his eyes to the table. He can’t look at her right now, not when he’s dangerously close to doing something stupid. “I…I can’t.”
The confusion in her voice is replaced with something darker. “You can’t what?” she asks. “Can’t lean on your teammates? Your friends? You can’t let yourself be human for once and just feel something?”
It’s an old argument between them, one they’ll never resolve as long as his mask stands between them.
“I feel plenty!” He jumps up; he has to put some distance between them. “You have no idea how much I feel.”
“I would if you would just tell me!” She’s on her feet now, too, glaring at him like it’s taking all her self-control to not turn him into a rodent or something. “When have you ever not been able to just come to me?”
“You’re a distraction, Zee! I can’t afford to be distracted, not now! Not when I have to lead the team.”
Zatanna stumbles back like she’s been slapped. Great. Just…great. “You think you’re not the only one Aqualad hurt?” she asks. “You think I don’t know exactly how badly betrayed you feel?”
Nightwing bites his tongue against telling her the truth about Kaldur, but what’s one more secret he has to keep from her? “It isn’t that,” he says. “But now that I’m in charge of the team, I can’t be…compromised.”
“Compromised,” she repeats, laughing bitterly. “Well, that won’t be a problem for much longer, then.”
What? “What are you talking about?”
Zatanna crosses her arms over her chest, and Nightwing tries very hard not to stare. Yeah, he’s never telling her the real reason he and Batgirl broke up. “Batman came to talk to me yesterday. The League made their decision. Rocket and I are being offered full membership at the end of the year. So don’t worry.” She smirks, a dark, sad thing. “I won’t be around to compromise you for much longer.”
“Hey, Dick?” Zatanna is gently shaking his arm, snapping him out of the memory. “You kind of spaced out there. You sure you don’t want to talk to me? I’m a pretty good listener, even if my friends don’t…always appreciate it.”
Crap, is she talking about him? Well, Nightwing? “Oh?” Yes, that’s good. Nice and casual and totally nonchalant. This is not a time to be chalant.
“Yeah,” she says, and oh, crap, why is she smiling like that? “You seem really…distracted”
“I do?” Can Dick just hide under the table for a while? Puberty was supposed to be over; his voice cracking like that around her is definitely not cool. “I mean, really?” Yes, that’s deeper. Much more manly. “I’m sorry, it’s just so hard to concentrate around you.” He gives her what he hopes is a rakish smile; it’s the one he always sees Bruce give his groupies. Maybe it works on all women.
It doesn’t. Zatanna bursts out laughing. Dick waits for her to stop, but she doesn’t. In fact, she doubles over, clutching at her stomach and trying to stay balanced on the chair. Wonderful. Nightwing isn’t even in her life anymore and Dick Grayson is just a joke to her. This is just perfect. Dick sighs and slumps down, propping his chin in one hand as his arm rests against his knees.
Given the way she’s still laughing, he’ll be here a while.
After what seems like forever (his watch tells him no more than a minute has passed, but whatever, time is relative), Zatanna finally sits back up. She wipes at her eyes, actual tears of joy having leaked out at his expense. Well, that’s a little bit okay. She doesn’t laugh enough, Dick knows that. At least he’s done her some good, then. She opens her eyes and looks at him. They’re shining she’s smiling brightly, in a way he hasn’t seen in far too long. Dick finds himself returning the smile. It feels much better than the faux-Bruce one.
“I’m sorry,” she says. “But that was just such a Wally line.”
Dick’s jaw drops open before he can stop it. “Bwuh?”
Zatanna chuckles, her whole demeanor softening, and Dick would do just about anything right now to make her look at him like that forever. “Dick,” she says. “I know.”
What?! “What?! I mean, uh, what are you talking about, Miss Zatanna?”
Okay, he could do without the snorting and the eye-rolling, because if this is the moment when she’s seriously telling him what he thinks she is-
“Dick,” she says again, exasperation mixed with fondness in her tone, “Batman told me when he invited me to the party. Actually, Bruce told me. Not that I didn’t figure it out before then, but hey, not my secret to tell.”
No, seriously, Dick’s world is tilting on its axis right now. “I don’t…what are you saying…” This can’t be right! Bruce would have told him!
“You started appearing as Dick Grayson, Wayne heir, in public more often this year.” Zatanna rests a hand on his arm. It still burns, but right now, Dick would gladly be consumed by flames. “You did that charity circus thing, remember? Did some acrobatics and told the press that you were a gymnast in school?”
Dick nods, remembering that event quite well. It was as close as he’d ever come to defying Bruce’s wishes by participating, but nothing will ever stop him from helping make a circus a success.
“Yeah, well.” She rolls her eyes again and quirks her lips in a half-smile. “I’ve worked with you as Robin for four years and Nightwing for most of this one. You’re not subtle.”
Bruce is going to give him hell for the rest of his life for this.
“I…”
Zatanna sighs and reaches inside her tuxedo jacket (oh wow it didn’t use to be that tight don’tlookdon’tlookdon’tlook) and pulls out a folded piece of paper. She hands it over and waits for him to read it.
Dick recognizes Bruce’s handwriting immediately.
I told Zatanna. Don’t worry. But I promised an old friend she would be taken care of.
The world slips slightly further off-axis, and Dick finds he’s pretty much okay with that. He raises his head and looks for the first time, looks into her eyes as himself. There’s nothing left but to do it, then. “Um…hi, Zee.”
Bright laughter fills the air as Zatanna claps and bumps his shoulder with hers. “Hi, Dick.”
He loves the way she says his name.
“So, I should probably say I’m sorry,” she says.
“What for?” There is absolutely nothing Dick would not forgive right now.
She grins a little sheepishly, and okay, he kind of adores that smile, too. “Well, I knew you were going to be here tonight as yourself, and since Batman told me, I kind of wanted to mess with your head a little.”
A lot of things about tonight suddenly make sense. “Wait a second…have you actually been following me around the room?”
“Yeah.” She laughs again. “It was fun! You’ve looked completely terrified all night.”
“Because I have been!” Dick can’t believe that she’s been screwing with him all night! That’s so…him. “I couldn’t figure out what Bruce was thinking, inviting you and Rocket tonight, so I’ve been running all over the room trying to stay away from you!”
Oh my god, she is the perfect woman.
“But, hang on a second,” he says. Something still doesn’t make sense. “I’m still not sure why Bruce told you. I mean, you figuring it out is one thing. But telling you himself? And not telling me that he told you?”
Zatanna shrugs, and Dick senses the air around them shift. She’s grown more powerful in the last year than in the entire time he’s known her, and he knows that her moods sometimes spread out around her. He wants to take back his question and make her smile again.
“Part of it was to teach you a lesson,” she says. Zatanna gives him a side-eye, and Dick feels himself shrinking back into his seat. “I think Bruce’s exact words were, ‘If he wants to make a spectacle of himself and let the whole world be able to guess who he is, then he can live with the consequences.’”
She leans forward, her shoulders hunching ever so slightly like she’s trying to curl in on herself, and Dick knows that there’s more to Bruce’s reasoning than just screwing with his son’s head. “But I guess it was an old promise he made to my dad,” she says quietly. “When I was officially invited to join the League, my dad wanted Bruce, Batman, to look out for me. He said this is his way of doing that, by making sure I always have a place to come home to.” Zatanna peers up at him through sooty lashes, and Dick has to stop himself from doing something really, really stupid. “So I guess the real question is, do I?”
Dick swallows, because this suddenly feels like every conversation they’ve ever had that wasn’t about what they were really saying. “Do you, what?”
“Have a place to come home to.”
Yeah, Dick’s going to do something stupid. But it’s okay, because for the first time, he gets to do something stupid with Zatanna as Dick Grayson. That makes all the difference.
His eyes never leaving hers, Dick leans forward, his mouth hovering just above hers. He waits there, lets her decide if they’re going to be stupid together, and when her lids slide shut, Dick closes the gap between them and kisses her for the fifth time.
Except it’s really the first time, because this time, the kiss is real, and the kiss is them.
She’s soft, is about the level of thought Dick’s capable of right now. He presses against her, letting everything Zatanna wash over him. She’s soft, and the air around them is warm, and Dick is happy, and it’s like the last five years suddenly make a lot more sense.
They can’t be kissing long (it feels like forever; it’ll never be long enough) before they pull apart. They’re in public, after all, and as much as Dick hates it, it’s probably not the best idea in the world for people to see Dick Grayson making out with a superhero. That’s something a little too easy to trace.
Or maybe everyone will just think that Wayne men really can have any woman they want.
Not that he has Zatanna. After all, it’s New Year’s Eve, and they always kiss on New Year’s Eve.
Oh, god. Does she think this is just tradition between friends? Does Dick have to actually say something?
Zatanna’s cheeks are flushed, and Dick has pretty much given up on getting rid of the Wally-grin he’s sure he’s wearing. At least smiling like an idiot might help hide the panic that’s building. He really needs to say something-
“Hi,” Zatanna says, almost shyly.
Dick swallows, but yeah, still grinning like a fool. “Hi.”
She looks up at him, the shy smile turning into something warmer, more open. “So…yeah?”
Huh. Okay, then. “Yeah.”
They sit together, shoulders gently brushing while they smile like they’re the only people in the room. Dick isn’t sure how long they stay like this, but he’s definitely feeling the aster tonight. He’d be totally okay with feeling like this forever. But all good things must end, and Dick has almost forgotten that the woman he’s falling for (fell a long time ago for) is still Zatanna, and she basically lives to make him a crazy person.
“So.” Zatanna’s eyes are sparkling with mischief, and Dick knows that she’s going to be the death of him, because her tone when she speaks leaves no room for interpretation about what she means. “Dick.”
He groans and shuts her up with another kiss. Hey, this could end up working out nicely. “Whatever you’re going to say,” he tells her when they pull apart, “don’t bother. Just assume that Wally’s already made all the jokes. Ever.”
Zatanna’s laughter sparkles like the crystalline balls hanging overhead, and damn, she really is going to make him stupid with feelings. “Fine, fine,” she says. “Ruin all my fun.”
“I’ll show you fun.” He grabs her around the waist and pulls her in again, perfectly content to just keep kissing her until midnight, and then long after, too. This is definitely the best way to celebrate New Year’s. Why haven’t they been doing this all along, again?
Wait a second…
Pulling back, Dick has to chuckle at the disappointed little pout she doesn’t hide quickly enough. He is so the man. But there’s a very important point that needs clarification before this can continue. His pride won’t stand for it otherwise. “You really figured it out from a few minutes on the news for a charity circus? I didn’t even do all that much!”
Zatanna sighs and rests her chin on his shoulder. She looks at him, her eyebrows pulling up and letting her eyes reveal just how silly she thinks his question is. Well, that’s insulting. But she lifts her head enough to press a kiss against his cheek, then moves over maybe two inches to let her lips hover over his ear, her breath tickling the nerves there and okay, maybe he’ll forgive her.
“Dick,” she whispers. “You are really not subtle.”
He has to laugh. “But I’m a ninja!”
Their old joke makes her laugh as well, but she pulls back, which, no, Dick would rather she didn’t do that. “You are,” she concedes. “You’re just also really noticeable.”
“So, you’ve been noticing me, huh?” Man, what is with him and the Wally lines tonight?
“Oh, shut up!”
Zatanna slaps at his chest, but Dick grabs her hand and folds it into his. He looks down at where their fingers are twined together, taking the sight in. She’s got great hands, small and delicate, but deceptively strong. They’re magicians’ hands, equally adept at fooling an unsuspecting audience as manipulating raw power. He’d like very much to keep holding them.
Yeah, she’s definitely going to kill him with feelings.
His watch beeps, and Dick pushes up the tuxedo sleeve enough to look at it. “Huh,” he says, smiling at her. “It’s midnight.”
Zatanna’s face melts into something Dick doesn’t have the brainpower to describe. He just knows that he needs to kiss her again. Like, now. So he does.
When they pull apart, the room is cheering and singing, champagne corks popping across the room. Dick rests his forehead against hers, breathing her in. “Happy New Year, Zee.”
She smiles as she kisses him, pecking her lips against his once, twice, three times before leaning her head on his shoulder. “Happy New Year, Dick.”
“So,” he says, rubbing his thumb over her skin. “Think tradition will hold?”
“I think so.” Zatanna squeezes his hand. “I’ve got a very good feeling about this year.”
Fandom: Young Justice
Characters/Pairing: Dick/Zatanna; minor appearances by the rest of the team
Rating: PG (teenage oogling)
Word Count: 11,715
Author’s Notes: empressearwig made me do it. OMG I don’t even know what this is. Probably not canon compliant as of season 2.
Summary: Four times Dick and Zatanna kissed for tradition, and one time they kissed for themselves.
The fourth time it happens, it’s an unmitigated disaster, emphasis on the un and the dis.
The party’s in full swing, with more superheroes currently standing in the cave than any other time since Zatanna’s been on the team. And she’s pretty sure it was never that full before she joined, either. Because she’s reasonably certain that most of the Justice League has never been in the cave with the full team before.
And the team’s almost as large as the League now. At least, it is if she counts probationary members and members so new they haven’t even been on missions yet.
Zatanna’s choosing to count them, because she’s not that petty. After all, she was new once, too.
Of course, even at her greenest, she never abandoned the team to pull off a secondary objective without informing anyone that she’d seen an opening. Not like Batgirl had on her very first mission. Not like Batgirl who, despite that and only having been with the team for three weeks, is already off probation. Because she’s Batgirl, and she’s been vouched for by Batman and Robin.
Meg told her that Robin pulled a similar stunt on the team’s first official mission, so of course he forgives her that particular transgression. And she’s already patrolled Gotham with the Bat-family for six months, so there goes her probation, too.
And she’s Robin’s girlfriend. Zatanna tries very hard not to think that plays a role in how easily everyone trusts her.
Whatever. Batgirl’s nice and a solid fighter, and she’s learning to tell the team her moves before she makes them. Mostly. It’s definitely no reason for Zatanna to snark on her, even if it’s only in her mind.
”Just remember you’re not the only one who can hear those thoughts.”
Zatanna’s head snaps up and she catches M’gann’s eye across the room. The Martian is smiling ever so serenely, and Zatanna smirks and cocks an eyebrow in acknowledgment. One little spell gets overpowered and now she’s got another week of Meg’s voice in her head beyond the scope of the team’s normal telepathic communication. It reminds Zatanna that there are no magic users in the League besides Dr. Fate; her options are to let the spell fade naturally or allow the mask wearing her father’s body to come anywhere near her. And at this time of year, no less...yeah, Zatanna’s crummy mood is totally justified.
”I know it is. Are you sure there’s nothing I can do?"
Zatanna sighs and shakes her head, before remembering that doesn’t actually answer a telepathic question. ”I’ll be fine,” she thinks at Meg. ”But thanks.”
”Just try not to take it out on Batgirl,” Meg answers back, and Zatanna can practically see the nervous face that usually accompanies that tone. ”She’s doing the best she can. We were all new, once.”
”Yeah, but the whole reason Batman pushed to get her fully on the team is because she’s been out with him and Robin for months now. She’s not new.”
”Zee, what’s going on with you? You should be ecstatic tonight--”
”I’ve got to go find Tim. Talk to you later. And try to be nice to Connor when midnight rolls around. This is going to be another bad New Year’s for him.”
Across the room, M’gann’s face looks as puzzled as she sounds. ”What do you mean?”
”I mean, just don’t grab L’gann in front of him at midnight, okay? Have fun at the party.”
Before Meg can respond to her snippiness, Zatanna throws up a mental shield spell. It takes effort to maintain, but being alone in her head right now is well worth the effort.
Even if she is almost completely magically tapped out. She walks past Kaldur, back on dry land thanks to Zatanna’s eleventh-hour burst of sorcery during their battle tonight, and knows that the days of uninterrupted sleep she’ll need to recharge is a small price to pay.
Despite what she told Meg, Zatanna doesn’t enter the crowded common area to look for Tim. She knows where he is, and to get to him she’ll almost certainly have to walk by Batgirl, who hasn’t strayed from Robin’s side since everyone got back to the cave and declared New Year’s Eve would double as the official save-the-world party.
Wally’s words. The last ones he said before grabbing Artemis after the fight and dragging her over to the corner; they haven’t come up for air since. Being a speedster still makes a bi-coastal college relationship difficult, so she doesn’t begrudge her friends their limited time together. But that does mean there’s one less corner of the room to hide in.
Not that Zatanna’s hiding. She’s just pulled off the biggest spell she’s ever cast under extremely high stakes, that’s all; it makes total sense that she’d be exhausted and not want to be all chatty and smiley and oh, did you see how Batgirl hacked the airship’s mainframe--
“Why in the world are you hugging the wall?”
“Gah!” Zatanna nearly jumps out of her skin at Robin’s voice in her ear. She whips around and jabs a finger into his (wow, really muscular) chest. “Are you crazy? You never sneak up a magician! We might turn you into a toad or something on accident. Not that anyone would be able to tell the difference if I did that to you!”
Robin just laughs and brushes her hand away. “Whoa, chill, Zee! No need to get all threatening.”
She glares at him. “What are you even doing over here? You were just on...the other side...” But when she looks at where Robin just was, sure enough, Batgirl and Batman are talking like there’s nothing amiss.
Robin cackles, smiling down from nearly a head’s height above Zatanna.She’s mostly used to having to crane her head back just to look him in the eye. Such as that is, what with him still being masked and all. “I ninja’d my way over here. Duh, Zee.”
Oh, right, duh What’s he even doing here, anyway? “You sure your girlfriend won’t get lonely?” Well, that sounded bitter. She doesn’t mean it like that. Really, she doesn’t. “Sorry, sorry,” she says when she sees Robin wince. “I just meant, tonight was only her third mission with the team, and she hasn’t really talked to anyone except you and Batman tonight, and…”
“No, it’s fine,” he says. “I get it. Bab…Batgirl still doesn’t think the team’s gotten over that first mission, and with Kaldur coming back tonight,” he bumps her shoulder with his arm, grinning widely, “and don’t think I don’t want to talk to you about how that happened. But she thinks tonight needs to be about the team as much as possible.”
“Then shouldn’t she be hanging out with the team?”
The tone of her voice must sound as bad as she hopes it doesn’t, because Robin’s lips press into a thin line. “You mean like your friend who hasn’t talked to anyone but Red Tornado all night?”
“Tim’s pretty much the most mystically powerful person on the planet.” Yeah, she regrets what she just said, but Robin knows what kind of magic she performed tonight; he knows what it costs her. “Talking to an android is like, completely out of the realm of anything he’s ever experienced before. Batgirl knows Batman. She knows you. She should be getting to know the team.”
“Yeah, because the team’s been so welcoming and open!”
“She ran off on her first mission without telling anyone! Even telepathically!”
“Yeah, to dismantle a bomb we missed on our first sweep!”
Zatanna shoves herself in Robin’s face, not caring about the rest of the room. “That’s not an excuse and you know it! She didn’t tell us what she was doing, and that puts the rest of the team in danger.”
“Yeah? And how did little Timmy Hunter do his first time out with the team?” Robin pushes right back. “Oh, that’s right! He hasn’t even been on a mission yet!”
“That doesn’t matter!” Zatanna shoves his chest; he doesn’t even flinch. “The League thinks he needs to be around the rest of us!”
“Oh, please! Dr. Fate wanted him here.”
Robin realizes what he’s said a second too late. She knows he’s trying to apologize, hears him like a muted buzzing in her ears, but right now it’s taking all the energy she has left to just breathe normally.
Is she being that bad? How could he even say...?
”...going on? Zee? Zatanna!”
Zatanna grips her head as Meg’s voice breaks through. If her shield spell fails this easily, then the magic to get Kaldur back took more out of her than she realized. No wonder she’s on a knife’s edge with Robin.
But still. For him to say that...
”What did Robin just say to you? I swear, if you don’t answer me I’ll link him up, too, and ask him myself!”
Zatanna forces her breathing to steady and pushes her off. Gently, because she knows M’gann’s concern comes from a good place, but Zatanna just doesn’t have the energy to deal with both of them at once. ”It’s fine, Meg. I’m fine.”
”But I felt-“
“Just…drop it, Meg. Please.”
The link is silent for a few moments, and Zatanna ignores everything outside her mind. She knows Robin must be distressed by her reaction, that he’s probably trying to spot-invent time travel so he can undo the last few minutes. Finally, Meg’s voice rings through Zatanna’s mind, and she sighs in relief at the answer.
”Fine, I’ll leave it. But I’m sending Tim over to help you. If you can’t even keep up a blocking spell right now…”
Zatanna concedes the point. “Yeah. I think the spell tonight took more out of me than I realized.”
“You’re really not going to tell me what Robin said that started all this?”
“No.”
A very loud mental grunt of frustration echoes through her head, and Zatanna laughs a little. ”Fine, fine,” Meg says. ”Sending Tim over now.”
It’s only when M’gann’s voice fades from her mind and she starts focusing on the outside world again that she realizes Robin’s practically holding her upright. She blinks, trying to clear her focus, and looks at him. He’s still in uniform - they’re all still in uniform; “save the world, throw a party” is taken pretty literally around here - so she can’t see his eyes. But his face tells enough of a story for her to imagine the worry she’d see reflected there if she could see them at all.
She imagines, sometimes, what color his eyes are. He’s got black hair, so they’re probably black or brown, but Zatanna’s got blue eyes, so she sometimes wonders if his are blue as well. Sometimes they’re green, sometimes hazel, but no matter what she sees in her mind, his eyes are always sparkling with mischief.
Whatever color they are, they’re definitely not sparkling with mischief right now.
“God, please, Zee.” His voice breaks on her nickname. “Say something! Yell at me, punch me, turn me into a toad, just do someth--“
“If you don’t stop shouting in my ear,” she says quietly, “I really am going to turn you into a toad.”
Robin sags against her. “Okay, seriously, don’t do that! No, wait, I’m sorry! I’m sorry; I don’t get to say that after opening my big mouth.”
Zatanna pulls away; she can’t be leaning against him right now. Not with Dr. Fate hanging in the air between them, not with Tim and Batgirl and a whole lot of things she isn’t strong enough at the moment to think about hanging between them. So many things she didn’t have to think about a year ago.
Which is precisely the problem. A year ago, New Year’s Eve was just a night for friends to stand by each other, to support one another. A year ago, they were all each other had. Now, they both have other people they’re supposed to kiss at midnight.
Zatanna knows their three years of good fortune have nothing to do with those three kisses...except for the tiny part of her that doesn’t. That part of her screams that what happened tonight, what she made happen tonight, can’t be written off as coincidence, that there are larger forces at play.
Sometimes Zatanna hates being a sorceress. That part of her brain is too superstitious for its own good.
“Zee?”
Hearing his voice makes her finally look up. “Tim.” Without thinking about it, she leans against Timothy Hunter and breathes him in, absorbing the magical essence he exudes without even trying. It doesn’t take long for Zatanna to feel a balm settle over her; Tim’s had that effect on her since the moment they met. He’s like a battery; when he’s around, she lights up.
“Well,” Robin says, and Zatanna feels awful that she could forget he was still there. “I guess I’ll just…leave you to it, then.”
Tim wraps an arm around her shoulders, pulling her against him. He’s easily as tall as Robin, but leaner; she feels bone above his heart, not solid muscle. Not that she notices Robin’s chest. She doesn’t.
No, really.
“Yeah.” Zatanna doesn’t miss the glare Tim gives Robin from behind his glasses when he speaks. “You do that.”
“Tim,” she warns.
“Hey, you try having an angry Martian yelling inside your head.”
Zatanna snorts softly. “Been there, done that.”
Both boys’ faces sober immediately. “Oh,” Tim says. “Right. I wish I had enough control over my powers to help.”
Zatanna watches the muscle twitch in Robin’s jaw (and when did that start looking so…square?). She knows he regrets what he said about Dr. Fate, and she honestly just doesn’t have the energy for this tonight. She should forgive him, she knows this, but Zatanna doesn’t want to, not right now. She’s just cast the most powerful spell of her life, she’s got Meg’s voice in her head until the magical overload fades, the only person on the planet who can help her stole her father’s body, and Robin accused her of dating Tim just to appease that person.
So, yeah. She’ll forgive Robin.
…Tomorrow.
“Hey, everyone!” Wally suddenly appears in the middle of the room, wearing the dumbest grin on his face and holding Artemis’s hand tightly enough that she can’t escape the limelight. “Thirty seconds to midnight!”
For a moment, it looks like Robin wants to say something. Zatanna refuses to think about what (oh, well, no one should be a slave to tradition) -
Out of nowhere (seriously, is every hero from Gotham a freaking ninja?), Batgirl appears at Robin’s side, the cowl still pulled over her face, obscuring her identity. Zatanna tries not to roll her eyes; heaven forbid Batman allow them to trust their own teammates.
“Hi, guys!” Batgirl smiles at their little group, sliding a hand through Robin’s. Her smile softens when she sees Zatanna. “How’re you doing?” she asks, and she sounds so sincere that Zatanna can’t help but soften, too. Towards her, at least. “That was some major power you unleashed out there tonight.”
“Yeah, well.” She shrugs, the movement stifled a bit by Tim’s arm still wrapped around her shoulders. “Go big or go home, right?”
She must look more genuine than she did before with Robin, because Batgirl relaxes, and she suddenly looks a lot more like a girl Zatanna might someday be friends with. “Now that is an idea I can get behind. You’re my kind of girl, Zatanna.”
Zatanna giggles at their identical trains of thought, then bursts out laughing at Robin’s ashen face. She decides he deserves nothing less than for her and Batgirl to become great friends.
“Ten!” Wally shouts above the din. “Nine! Eight! Seven!” He grabs Artemis and pulls her against his chest like a cheesy movie hero.
“Wally!” Artemis shouts, but doesn’t even bother trying to escape.
“Five!” The rest of the room is counting down now. “Four!”
Tim settles Zatanna against him, bending his head to meet hers. She can’t help the traitorous whisper in her mind, you’re not supposed to kiss him at midnight.
“Three!”
Robin and Batgirl move closer. Zatanna pretends she’s not watching them. She pretends not to see Robin looking at her and Tim.
“Two!”
A breath away from her lips, Tim whispers, “New Year’s Eve magic, Zee.”
“One!”
They kiss, and Zatanna draws everything she can from it. For the first time, it’s not enough.
Around them, the room is full of laughter and cheering, cries of “Happy New Year!” filling the cave. She pulls away first - easy enough to seem breathless when it’s still hard to breathe - and sees their friends and mentors embracing each other, spreading the holiday cheer. Wally’s finally let go of Artemis and is trying to lure M’gann with wiggling eyebrows; Artemis finds Kaldur and presses a soft kiss against his cheek. Zatanna relaxes; whatever happens next, tonight was a good night.
Last night, now. It’s after midnight. Time to start the new year.
“Hey.”
She realizes that Tim isn’t holding her up anymore, that he’s shyly ducking away from Batgirl’s advances. Robin’s standing next to her, arms folded tightly across his chest. The Robin uniform is starting to look a little…not right, stretched across his muscles like that. “Hey,” is all she says.
“So.” Robin looks pensive, and she wishes, oh, how she wishes just once that she could see behind his mask. “Um…”
“You don’t…” she says. “We shouldn’t.” Really, they shouldn’t.
Robin seems to decide something for himself, though, because he steels his shoulders and stares down at her. “Yeah, we really should. It’s tradition, right?”
Zatanna swallows harshly, because tradition is the last thing she’s thinking about right now. Besides, tradition for them is to kiss first.
Until this year, it had been to kiss only.
“Yeah,” she whispers, and lets Robin grip her elbows and lean in. “Tradition.”
The kiss is brief and chaste, and Zatanna is seized with panic, because she wants it to be neither.
Neither of them pull away first; they are pulled away when Tim and Batgirl bounce back over to them; the moment is easily broken. There shouldn’t have been a moment to break.
“Happy New Year, Zee,” Robin says. Zatanna pretends he doesn’t sound as rough as he does. “Another year just like the rest, right?”
Zatanna forces herself to nod. “Yeah.”
Nothing about this year will be the same. She knows it.
XXXXX
The fifth time it happens, they finally get it right.
The ballroom looks unreal. It looks real, too, because it is, but the emphasis definitely belongs on the un. Bruce has completely outdone himself this time.
It’s the Wayne Foundation’s annual New Year’s Eve party, which is basically an extension of the Wayne Foundation’s annual Christmas party, which caps a month-long stretch of any-reason-for-a-party December celebrations. The entire room is transformed into a winter wonderland, shimmering ice covering every available surface, while translucent orbs of green and blue and red and silver seemed to float overhead, suspended by microfilaments. Tables were decorated with every conceivable kind of holiday candy - though that was quickly being depleted by the two speedsters in attendance - and, in the center of the room, stood the Wayne masterpiece: a thirty-foot tall Christmas tree. Seriously, Dick willhave to remember to make a special toast for Bruce tonight.
Assuming he’s allowed to give a speech. The guests of honor are the newest members of the Justice League, after all, and they’re not supposed to know who he and Bruce are.
Really, it’s getting a little ridiculous. Batman needs to learn to embrace trust and discard the dis. Or maybe just card the dis. He’ll have to ponder that one.
Right now, he needs to focus on avoiding Zatanna, because he knows that if she sees him like this, as Dick, that she’ll know. And as nice as that might finally be, it’s still a big “not gonna happen” in Wayne Manor.
Which is really stupid, because Bruce insisted on not only throwing this party, but inviting Dick’s former teammates. It’s like he wants the really unsubtle resemblance between Dick and Robin to be noticed.
Well, Dick and Nightwing, now. That might actually go a long way towards hiding him.
“Excuse me?”
Crap. Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap. Dick’s spine stiffens and he turns slowly toward the voice behind him, a voice he knows almost as well as his own by now. Five years is a long time. Putting on his best “Dick Grayson, Wayne Industries heir” smile, he braces himself. “Yes, Miss Zatanna? How can I help you? Congratulations, by the way.”
Zatanna Zatara, newest inductee into the Justice League and the teammate Dick’s never been able to hide anything from, offers her own smile. It’s the mysterious one he’s always loved, the one that says ”I have a secret.”
“I just wanted to thank you and Mr. Wayne,” she says. “This is a lovely party, and I still can’t believe he invited all of us.”
“Yes, well.” Dick swallows, and tries to just enjoy being able to look at Zatanna for the first time without something covering his eyes. His vision is perfect, of course, and he’s never had any problem seeing her; there’s something about just being able to look at her as Dick Grayson, though, that’s different. It’s real in a way he’s not sure he can quantify, and he can quantify anything.
He can. He and Wally tested that theory once.
But. The larger problem remains. As much as he wants to stay and talk with Zatanna, it is pretty much the worst idea ever right now. “Yes,” he says again, blinking himself back into the present. Crap, did she notice him staring at her? “Well, Bruce, that is, he and I both, well, we just wanted to thank all of you for everything you do for the people of Gotham, and the world at large. For all that you’re famous, you don’t get nearly enough public appreciation.”
“Hmm.”
“Hmm?”
“Mm-hm. Hmm.”
Okay, if he doesn’t make a hasty retreat, like, now, Dick is going to end up saying or doing something very stupid. Zatanna tends to have that effect on him. The problem with that, is that she already knows she has that effect on him, but as Robin. Nightwing. Whatever. She knows all the stupid, stupid things he’ll do, all the ways he’ll trip over his own tongue, when he’s got his mask on, and it probably won’t take much for her to put two and two together. She’s a lot smarter than people give her credit for.
No, seriously, what the heck was Bruce thinking?!
“Mr. Grayson?” Zatanna asks, breaking him out of his thoughts again. See? Stupid. “Are you alright? You seem…distracted. Is there something on your mind?”
“Huh? Oh, um. Nope! Nothing! Nothing whatsoever is on my mind. At all. Nothing.” Maybe the Joker will crash the party and put Dick out of his misery. “And please, Mr. Grayson is so formal. Call me Dick.”
Zatanna raises an eyebrow and Dick wants to find a nice rock to crawl under for a while. “Well, then, Dick.” She crosses her arms over her chest and, oh, Dick wishes she weren’t in uniform. That uniform’s always done things to him, and she’s all…grown up, now. She is way too distracting. Why can’t she just be tracting? His life would be a lot easier if she were more tracting.
Why won’t she uncross her arms? And stop smiling at him like that? And can she not say his name like that? Dick can’t think. Dick has to get away.
Dick needs to find a new nickname. Oh, god. Why the hell doesn’t he go by Richard?
Zatanna, bless her sweet, merciful heart, does uncross her arms. But instead of leaving him alone to die quietly, she waves at two seats at an open round table and sits down. “Please, Dick.” Make her stop saying his name! “Won’t you join me for a moment?”
Well, never let it be said that Dick Grayson retreats from battle. He sits down beside Zatanna, and is shocked so suddenly into a memory from a few months ago that his breath catches.
They’re sitting beside each other at the small, round dining table in the cave’s kitchen, Nightwing’s head in his hands as he relays every gory detail of his breakup with Batgirl to Zatanna. Because really, how dumb was he to think getting involved with his teammate, with one of his best friends, was in any way a good idea?
But Zatanna listens, because she always listens, no matter what idiocy comes out of his mouth. And she doesn’t judge him, because she’s just broken up with Tim, whom Dr. Fate has decreed needs additional training to use his abilities. Training he won’t get by joining forces with “a bunch of reckless teenagers.”
Nightwing doesn’t say it, but he thinks that Zatara might be influencing Dr. Fate in that decision.
Zatanna touches his arm, squeezing gently. It’s always been a gesture of friendship between them, but right now, he can’t handle her hands on him. He’s not telling her everything about the breakup; she doesn’t need anything else interfering with her own relationship with Batgirl. Bad enough that she’s caught in the middle between her two friends.
He shakes her off, her skin like hot metal on his. He can’t. He can’t. There’s too much at stake, especially now. With Kaldur…gone, it’s up to Nightwing to lead the team. He can’t afford to be emotionally compromised.
Zatanna’s always compromised him.
“Rob…er, Nightwing?” She blinks, her clear blue eyes reflecting confusion over his actions. God, he wishes he could be like her and just let the whole world see what he feels, but he can’t. He never could, and he’s got to be the leader now. “What is it?”
“I’m sorry,” he says, returning his eyes to the table. He can’t look at her right now, not when he’s dangerously close to doing something stupid. “I…I can’t.”
The confusion in her voice is replaced with something darker. “You can’t what?” she asks. “Can’t lean on your teammates? Your friends? You can’t let yourself be human for once and just feel something?”
It’s an old argument between them, one they’ll never resolve as long as his mask stands between them.
“I feel plenty!” He jumps up; he has to put some distance between them. “You have no idea how much I feel.”
“I would if you would just tell me!” She’s on her feet now, too, glaring at him like it’s taking all her self-control to not turn him into a rodent or something. “When have you ever not been able to just come to me?”
“You’re a distraction, Zee! I can’t afford to be distracted, not now! Not when I have to lead the team.”
Zatanna stumbles back like she’s been slapped. Great. Just…great. “You think you’re not the only one Aqualad hurt?” she asks. “You think I don’t know exactly how badly betrayed you feel?”
Nightwing bites his tongue against telling her the truth about Kaldur, but what’s one more secret he has to keep from her? “It isn’t that,” he says. “But now that I’m in charge of the team, I can’t be…compromised.”
“Compromised,” she repeats, laughing bitterly. “Well, that won’t be a problem for much longer, then.”
What? “What are you talking about?”
Zatanna crosses her arms over her chest, and Nightwing tries very hard not to stare. Yeah, he’s never telling her the real reason he and Batgirl broke up. “Batman came to talk to me yesterday. The League made their decision. Rocket and I are being offered full membership at the end of the year. So don’t worry.” She smirks, a dark, sad thing. “I won’t be around to compromise you for much longer.”
“Hey, Dick?” Zatanna is gently shaking his arm, snapping him out of the memory. “You kind of spaced out there. You sure you don’t want to talk to me? I’m a pretty good listener, even if my friends don’t…always appreciate it.”
Crap, is she talking about him? Well, Nightwing? “Oh?” Yes, that’s good. Nice and casual and totally nonchalant. This is not a time to be chalant.
“Yeah,” she says, and oh, crap, why is she smiling like that? “You seem really…distracted”
“I do?” Can Dick just hide under the table for a while? Puberty was supposed to be over; his voice cracking like that around her is definitely not cool. “I mean, really?” Yes, that’s deeper. Much more manly. “I’m sorry, it’s just so hard to concentrate around you.” He gives her what he hopes is a rakish smile; it’s the one he always sees Bruce give his groupies. Maybe it works on all women.
It doesn’t. Zatanna bursts out laughing. Dick waits for her to stop, but she doesn’t. In fact, she doubles over, clutching at her stomach and trying to stay balanced on the chair. Wonderful. Nightwing isn’t even in her life anymore and Dick Grayson is just a joke to her. This is just perfect. Dick sighs and slumps down, propping his chin in one hand as his arm rests against his knees.
Given the way she’s still laughing, he’ll be here a while.
After what seems like forever (his watch tells him no more than a minute has passed, but whatever, time is relative), Zatanna finally sits back up. She wipes at her eyes, actual tears of joy having leaked out at his expense. Well, that’s a little bit okay. She doesn’t laugh enough, Dick knows that. At least he’s done her some good, then. She opens her eyes and looks at him. They’re shining she’s smiling brightly, in a way he hasn’t seen in far too long. Dick finds himself returning the smile. It feels much better than the faux-Bruce one.
“I’m sorry,” she says. “But that was just such a Wally line.”
Dick’s jaw drops open before he can stop it. “Bwuh?”
Zatanna chuckles, her whole demeanor softening, and Dick would do just about anything right now to make her look at him like that forever. “Dick,” she says. “I know.”
What?! “What?! I mean, uh, what are you talking about, Miss Zatanna?”
Okay, he could do without the snorting and the eye-rolling, because if this is the moment when she’s seriously telling him what he thinks she is-
“Dick,” she says again, exasperation mixed with fondness in her tone, “Batman told me when he invited me to the party. Actually, Bruce told me. Not that I didn’t figure it out before then, but hey, not my secret to tell.”
No, seriously, Dick’s world is tilting on its axis right now. “I don’t…what are you saying…” This can’t be right! Bruce would have told him!
“You started appearing as Dick Grayson, Wayne heir, in public more often this year.” Zatanna rests a hand on his arm. It still burns, but right now, Dick would gladly be consumed by flames. “You did that charity circus thing, remember? Did some acrobatics and told the press that you were a gymnast in school?”
Dick nods, remembering that event quite well. It was as close as he’d ever come to defying Bruce’s wishes by participating, but nothing will ever stop him from helping make a circus a success.
“Yeah, well.” She rolls her eyes again and quirks her lips in a half-smile. “I’ve worked with you as Robin for four years and Nightwing for most of this one. You’re not subtle.”
Bruce is going to give him hell for the rest of his life for this.
“I…”
Zatanna sighs and reaches inside her tuxedo jacket (oh wow it didn’t use to be that tight don’tlookdon’tlookdon’tlook) and pulls out a folded piece of paper. She hands it over and waits for him to read it.
Dick recognizes Bruce’s handwriting immediately.
I told Zatanna. Don’t worry. But I promised an old friend she would be taken care of.
The world slips slightly further off-axis, and Dick finds he’s pretty much okay with that. He raises his head and looks for the first time, looks into her eyes as himself. There’s nothing left but to do it, then. “Um…hi, Zee.”
Bright laughter fills the air as Zatanna claps and bumps his shoulder with hers. “Hi, Dick.”
He loves the way she says his name.
“So, I should probably say I’m sorry,” she says.
“What for?” There is absolutely nothing Dick would not forgive right now.
She grins a little sheepishly, and okay, he kind of adores that smile, too. “Well, I knew you were going to be here tonight as yourself, and since Batman told me, I kind of wanted to mess with your head a little.”
A lot of things about tonight suddenly make sense. “Wait a second…have you actually been following me around the room?”
“Yeah.” She laughs again. “It was fun! You’ve looked completely terrified all night.”
“Because I have been!” Dick can’t believe that she’s been screwing with him all night! That’s so…him. “I couldn’t figure out what Bruce was thinking, inviting you and Rocket tonight, so I’ve been running all over the room trying to stay away from you!”
Oh my god, she is the perfect woman.
“But, hang on a second,” he says. Something still doesn’t make sense. “I’m still not sure why Bruce told you. I mean, you figuring it out is one thing. But telling you himself? And not telling me that he told you?”
Zatanna shrugs, and Dick senses the air around them shift. She’s grown more powerful in the last year than in the entire time he’s known her, and he knows that her moods sometimes spread out around her. He wants to take back his question and make her smile again.
“Part of it was to teach you a lesson,” she says. Zatanna gives him a side-eye, and Dick feels himself shrinking back into his seat. “I think Bruce’s exact words were, ‘If he wants to make a spectacle of himself and let the whole world be able to guess who he is, then he can live with the consequences.’”
She leans forward, her shoulders hunching ever so slightly like she’s trying to curl in on herself, and Dick knows that there’s more to Bruce’s reasoning than just screwing with his son’s head. “But I guess it was an old promise he made to my dad,” she says quietly. “When I was officially invited to join the League, my dad wanted Bruce, Batman, to look out for me. He said this is his way of doing that, by making sure I always have a place to come home to.” Zatanna peers up at him through sooty lashes, and Dick has to stop himself from doing something really, really stupid. “So I guess the real question is, do I?”
Dick swallows, because this suddenly feels like every conversation they’ve ever had that wasn’t about what they were really saying. “Do you, what?”
“Have a place to come home to.”
Yeah, Dick’s going to do something stupid. But it’s okay, because for the first time, he gets to do something stupid with Zatanna as Dick Grayson. That makes all the difference.
His eyes never leaving hers, Dick leans forward, his mouth hovering just above hers. He waits there, lets her decide if they’re going to be stupid together, and when her lids slide shut, Dick closes the gap between them and kisses her for the fifth time.
Except it’s really the first time, because this time, the kiss is real, and the kiss is them.
She’s soft, is about the level of thought Dick’s capable of right now. He presses against her, letting everything Zatanna wash over him. She’s soft, and the air around them is warm, and Dick is happy, and it’s like the last five years suddenly make a lot more sense.
They can’t be kissing long (it feels like forever; it’ll never be long enough) before they pull apart. They’re in public, after all, and as much as Dick hates it, it’s probably not the best idea in the world for people to see Dick Grayson making out with a superhero. That’s something a little too easy to trace.
Or maybe everyone will just think that Wayne men really can have any woman they want.
Not that he has Zatanna. After all, it’s New Year’s Eve, and they always kiss on New Year’s Eve.
Oh, god. Does she think this is just tradition between friends? Does Dick have to actually say something?
Zatanna’s cheeks are flushed, and Dick has pretty much given up on getting rid of the Wally-grin he’s sure he’s wearing. At least smiling like an idiot might help hide the panic that’s building. He really needs to say something-
“Hi,” Zatanna says, almost shyly.
Dick swallows, but yeah, still grinning like a fool. “Hi.”
She looks up at him, the shy smile turning into something warmer, more open. “So…yeah?”
Huh. Okay, then. “Yeah.”
They sit together, shoulders gently brushing while they smile like they’re the only people in the room. Dick isn’t sure how long they stay like this, but he’s definitely feeling the aster tonight. He’d be totally okay with feeling like this forever. But all good things must end, and Dick has almost forgotten that the woman he’s falling for (fell a long time ago for) is still Zatanna, and she basically lives to make him a crazy person.
“So.” Zatanna’s eyes are sparkling with mischief, and Dick knows that she’s going to be the death of him, because her tone when she speaks leaves no room for interpretation about what she means. “Dick.”
He groans and shuts her up with another kiss. Hey, this could end up working out nicely. “Whatever you’re going to say,” he tells her when they pull apart, “don’t bother. Just assume that Wally’s already made all the jokes. Ever.”
Zatanna’s laughter sparkles like the crystalline balls hanging overhead, and damn, she really is going to make him stupid with feelings. “Fine, fine,” she says. “Ruin all my fun.”
“I’ll show you fun.” He grabs her around the waist and pulls her in again, perfectly content to just keep kissing her until midnight, and then long after, too. This is definitely the best way to celebrate New Year’s. Why haven’t they been doing this all along, again?
Wait a second…
Pulling back, Dick has to chuckle at the disappointed little pout she doesn’t hide quickly enough. He is so the man. But there’s a very important point that needs clarification before this can continue. His pride won’t stand for it otherwise. “You really figured it out from a few minutes on the news for a charity circus? I didn’t even do all that much!”
Zatanna sighs and rests her chin on his shoulder. She looks at him, her eyebrows pulling up and letting her eyes reveal just how silly she thinks his question is. Well, that’s insulting. But she lifts her head enough to press a kiss against his cheek, then moves over maybe two inches to let her lips hover over his ear, her breath tickling the nerves there and okay, maybe he’ll forgive her.
“Dick,” she whispers. “You are really not subtle.”
He has to laugh. “But I’m a ninja!”
Their old joke makes her laugh as well, but she pulls back, which, no, Dick would rather she didn’t do that. “You are,” she concedes. “You’re just also really noticeable.”
“So, you’ve been noticing me, huh?” Man, what is with him and the Wally lines tonight?
“Oh, shut up!”
Zatanna slaps at his chest, but Dick grabs her hand and folds it into his. He looks down at where their fingers are twined together, taking the sight in. She’s got great hands, small and delicate, but deceptively strong. They’re magicians’ hands, equally adept at fooling an unsuspecting audience as manipulating raw power. He’d like very much to keep holding them.
Yeah, she’s definitely going to kill him with feelings.
His watch beeps, and Dick pushes up the tuxedo sleeve enough to look at it. “Huh,” he says, smiling at her. “It’s midnight.”
Zatanna’s face melts into something Dick doesn’t have the brainpower to describe. He just knows that he needs to kiss her again. Like, now. So he does.
When they pull apart, the room is cheering and singing, champagne corks popping across the room. Dick rests his forehead against hers, breathing her in. “Happy New Year, Zee.”
She smiles as she kisses him, pecking her lips against his once, twice, three times before leaning her head on his shoulder. “Happy New Year, Dick.”
“So,” he says, rubbing his thumb over her skin. “Think tradition will hold?”
“I think so.” Zatanna squeezes his hand. “I’ve got a very good feeling about this year.”