HappyVerse fic: And He Missed

[sylph_fics]

Title: And He Missed, part 1
Cowriter:
Characters: Most of the combined clans, references to most others, and a guest star some may or may not be pleased to see.
Rating: R, profanity
Word Count: 11,159
Continuity: The HappyVerse. All fic gathered here.
Disclaimer: DC Comics makes the money, people
Notes: It's official... HappyVerse is our refuge from the meaner things in comics--and our one-stop fix-it shop.
Summary: It's Valentines Day, and what are our heroes doing? What they do best, of course.


It was a normal day. He woke up, kissed his wife, made his way to making coffee at half speed. Quick tour of the city while it brewed, pick up the papers and a gourmet breakfast for his wife. Back to the house, and he made his cup of coffee, then stood at the counter to read the latest news, still trying to get a handle on the world as it was. He made it to the society page, and the sip of coffee was suddenly decorating the newspaper as it fell to the counter, the air in the house stirring as he zipped straight out the door and beat feet for Coast City.

It was earlier in Coast City, but Hal was still up and around, just out of the shower, working on throwing something to eat together. The ring flared, warning him of someone incoming, then it informed him it was Barry--just after the Flash skidded to a halt on his doorstep, visible through the glass. He hauled the door open, "Barry? What's wrong? C'mon in."

"Got a paper...of course you do." He zipped over, flipped it to the society column, and showed him a picture of Dinah Lance simpering up to Bruce Wayne in Hong Kong. "This...is a problem. What? I mean.... She and Arrow..."

Hal swore mentally, eyes narrowing at the page. //You two...// "Ollie said something about putting Di's civilian ID back together, I guess they're starting with a bang..."

"With Bruce?! She's smarter than that," Barry said, before he could censor himself. "I mean...I like Bruce a lot, but that's carrying the public eye pretty far! He has to live under a microscope when he steps out in public. How are they going to act through a relationship and Ollie not get the wrong idea at some point? We know Oliver's temper."

//They don't have to, they're both sleeping with him,// flicked through Hal's mind, but he wouldn't say that aloud, not even to Barry. Not his secret, and he grinned at the commentary on Bruce, laughing. "Yeah, she sure as hell is," he agreed, then shrugged. "I don't know. What I do know is he told me not to worry about whatever I see, that it's under control. ...We'll see how long that lasts."

Barry did not look reassured. "I think I ought to go see them...get a feel for it, and maybe ..." //warn Bruce this is how bad trouble starts.//

Hal's eyes flashed with light at that, trying to decide how on earth to respond when he was torn between warning Barry off and wanting someone else he could talk to about this absolute insanity. "If you really think you ought to. Ollie might get annoyed, but... I'm a little worried too. Bruce's had a thing for Dinah for years..."

Barry's jaw clenched. "Think about it a minute, and tell me it's not a potential two way street. We know that girl...."

Hal shrugged. "That's what I tried to tell Ollie. He told me to leave it alone."

That did not set well with Barry. "Look, I just got back...and people seem to be pulling their lives out of abysses as it is," he said. "I'm going to speak to them."

"Maybe you'll have more luck that I did," Hal said. Honestly, he hoped Barry did. He'd bitten his lip on this mess for Ollie's sake, knowing anything he said against Bruce would just inflame his best friend's loyalty and make him hold tighter to the Bat, but Barry... Barry might have a chance at making the three of them stop this idiocy before they hurt each other any worse.

"Don't worry." Barry nodded once and took off for Star City...to find an empty house. That made him run for New York, knowing his friend spent some time over with his son there. He arrived at Arsenal's apartment to find Connor and Kyle in residence, getting Lian ready for school.

Kyle tilted his head as his ring, too, let him know they had company, and let Barry in after a startled glance. "Sir?"

"Don't," Barry said to that politeness. "You wear the spandex too, it's just Barry." He smiled to take the implied reprimand out. "Do either of you young men know where Ollie is right now?"

The engaged pair, rings shining on their bare hands, glanced at each other, wondering how much they could and couldn't tell--not that they knew much. "I think he's out of contract," Kyle said, trying to work up the nerve to call the Flash by name. He might just avoid that for a bit.

Barry frowned. "Out of touch, the morning after that hits the papers...so not good." He looked at Connor, flashed a smile, and then back to Kyle. "You two have a good day...and hello Lian. Wally wanted me to tell you he'd be glad to bring the twins by one day so you can get to know them."

"Unca Wally's not being a ..."

The rest of her words cut off as Connor slipped a finger over her lips. "No Grace words," he reminded.

"Something came up," Kyle told him. "That's why we're here instead of Roy. They were both needed. And... what hit the papers?" He hadn't been near one yet.

"Dinah had her date," Connor said calmly.

Barry stared at the young man who favored his friend in a very exotic fashion. "So this was truly planned?" Right now, Barry almost wished Darkseid would drop in for a visit.

"Oh. Right, I knew they were planning on that." //Oh crap oh crap Connor you get to answer that....//

Connor did not miss a beat, completely imperturbable. "I know she spoke to Dad yesterday morning, early, and he was laughing. His comment that he would watch the papers did not make the connection that now was the time they had chosen until I saw the pictures this morning."

"And you didn't show me because?" Kyle grabbed the paper with his ring and flipped through it. "They look good. G--I don't want to know how much he spent on that suit, I don't."

Lian tugged at Kyle's pant leg, demanding to be shown the pictures. "That's not Aunt Dinah... and Grampa Bruce looks funny."

Barry looked at the young men and the little girl, twirling the 'Grampa Bruce' comment in his head. Much as he hated to admit it, it seemed more fashionable among the Titans and their agemates to go for their own kind, and he was just going to have to get used to it.

"Your grandfather is playing his secret identity for other people, so he can't let any of the Bruce we know, or the Batman, show. And Aunt Dinah has to make a secret identity too, so that Grampa Ollie doesn't get hurt." Connor hoped he had explained it well enough

Lian thought about that, her little face creasing. "Oh. That's why her hair's all dark?" Then she looked a little indignantly at Connor. "I know about secret i-iden-identities. I always 'membered papa's secret, and Jesse's, and Unca Wally's..." her hands were firmly planted on her hips. "Still looks funny."

Barry came over and crouched down on her level. "If you let me bring you out when Iris and I have the twins, I'll show you lots of pictures of your Aunt Dinah with black hair like yours. And your Grampa Ollie with no beard or mustache." He was damn well make sure he connected with these kids hard, to see how the next generation was going to be, and hopefully set them straight on what their gifts could do. He had no doubt that the children of the current heroes were their successors in due time.

Lian looked at Uncle Connor questioningly, then nodded. "If daddy says it's okay. I'll ask, too. Cause I wanna see! ...Grampa without the beard? That's funny..." She giggled.

Barry smiled at her, then stood up. "If you two really think this is a stable situation..."

"It is, Flash." Connor was not about to call him by name either, but did not want the lecture if he called him 'Master Allen' or any other proper honorific. "They are all planning their moves to protect one another in the public and private sectors."

//Protect each other, period,// Kyle thought, but didn't say, and just nodded. Connor was handling it nicely.

Barry still wasn't sure, but was willing to trust the man's son to know his father well enough to guess. "Okay then. I guess I won't bother him." //Bruce, though, needs to be reminded, maybe.//

He looked so worried that Lian wanted to tell him everything was okay... but Aunt Dinah had made her promise to never, ever tell anyone that she was really Gramma Dinah. Though her face had turned kind of funny...

Connor scooped her up. "Dart. Time for you to get to school. Flash, I apologize, but Kyle and I have to..."

"I understand," Barry said. "See you all later." When he left, it was to head south for Gotham.

"Can we ride winged horsies, Unca Kyle? At least most of the way? Or a dragon?" Lian begged. He'd done that once, the pretty ones with the wings... even if horsies weren't supposed to be green.

Kyle laughed. "I'll have to make sure no one else can see us, but sure, Lian. Let's go."

"YAAAAY!!!"

*~*~*~

Alfred's head came up swiftly at the alert from the security system and he nearly went to acquire his shotgun before an image resolved into the Flash. //Master Allen.// Alfred went to meet him, wondering what had brought this on. He'd seen the news, and thought his eldest was playing a dangerous game... but it was his game to play, if they all chose to do so.

Barry smiled as he stood on the doorstep, smiling even more when he saw Alfred. "Mister Pennyworth," he said, remembering the first time they had ever been forced to take refuge in Batman's cave, and the butler had made them all feel very welcome. He missed that camaraderie, and he was going to have to see about finding a new way to form the League. "I was wondering if you could point me in Bruce's direction? I wasn't sure if he'd still be in Hong Kong, and thought maybe you might help me."

"Come inside, Master Flash," Alfred invited. Once he stepped in and the door was closed, Alfred answered. "He is not. There was a situation requiring his presence. I believe he is most unavailable at the moment."

Barry pushed his cowl back to rub at his hair. "Him too? Hmm."

Alfred inclined his head, inviting conversation for the moment, though he would not gossip about Master Bruce, or his chosen loves.

"Look, Alfred, I'm not here to pry, but would you let Bruce know I'd like to talk to him?"

"Of course, Master Flash. As soon as the situation is resolved."

"Thank you." He pulled his cowl back up, and decided he needed to go have a coffee with his favorite reporter.

Alfred nodded once more, and walked to the door with him. //Oh, my. This shall be interesting...//

*~*~*~*~

Canary and Nightwing both moved through the selective video shadows, listening over the comm gear as their partners kept the attention focused elsewhere. Getting here had been the easy part; convincing a suddenly stubborn Ollie and Roy to leave the retrieval to just them was not. Dinah had caught it in Bruce's eyes; they all felt it was a bad idea to let the two most involved in Slade's life be the ones to pull him out. But, in the end, Oracle had firmly insisted that they were the only two who could make the run in the time she would be able to buy for them. Getting through the trapped perimeter had been bad enough.

Beside her, Nightwing was moving like a ghost, carefully focused on the voice in his ear that told him when to move, when Tim would be able to flicker the cameras, focused on the successful run. Only if they could get into the heavily secured chamber they were holding--the target in were they going to get out without Dinah having to cut them a route... and nobody wanted that. Her Cry's aftereffect was too damn distinctive. Finally, they made it to the turn nearest the door. Robin warned them there was a guard, and Canary flicked her fingers, saying she would take him. He nodded once, and waited the few moments until he heard the soft noise of a body hitting the ground. He moved, and Tim unlocked the electronic component, leaving the actual mechanism to him. His hands were perfectly steady as he picked the lock open and went in, scanning the room.

"Well, if it's not The Kid," Slade's rough, low voice growled from a containment rig, his ankles and wrists firmly secured, as he was held upright in one corner. There was a trace of pain in that growl, but the main emotion tracing the words, to one trained to hear it, was relief. //He's alive. He's all right.// "Brought someone with you?" he commented as the fully covered woman lingered in the door, keeping lookout.

"Just. Shut. Up." His voice was low and cold, as controlled as possible, as he worked on the restraints... this close, it took everything he had to control his reactions to Slade's presence, even now. He wanted to say about a million things, some of them enraged, some of them threats, and some the things he didn't think he could ever say.

"A bit touchy tonight?" Slade of course ignored that.

"Wilson, please, not now..."

At hearing the voice, Slade knew just who that was hiding behind the covert body suit and mask. "Both my birds come to rescue me; how touching." His voice was amused, as he focused purely on their presence, on the fact he was going to be free at last. Of course, he knew he'd probably have to engineer an escape from these two and whoever was helping them, but they both had patterns he could use to that effect.

"If I wasn't so worried about what they might be able to do, I'd fucking leave you here," Dick retorted, finished with his wrists.

Slade's one eye focused soberly on the young man he had helped shape over the years. "I'm sure, Kid." Those three words held a trace of...regret? in them.

Dinah could not take the time to look inside the room, but even she knew things sounded different, more like... She cut herself off, focusing on the task of guarding from the door way.

Dick's head snapped up, studying the expression, running the tone through his mind, not quite understanding, and it was going to drive him crazy until he did. //Regret? He doesn't remember what that is.//

"Good," he answered, keeping the cold in his voice and the complicated mess out of his posture. "Then try not pushing me." He finished working the restraints free and was on the other side of the room in another moment, hand against his ear. "Get us out of here."

The voice on the other end started the pattern for him, fully immersed in strictly guiding and not listening to their conversations.

Canary moved to the point position, hating the conflict she knew Dick was going through. A mantra of sorts was running through her own mind, reminding her of every reason Slade had gotten himself in this predicament, and just how good life was with her two men. Slade fell in behind her, knowing the kid would insist on keeping him in sight.

He was absolutely right about that, and Dick had their backs as they moved. //Too smooth... please, please let it last... too smooth...// the mantra repeated in his head as he struggled with himself. He really would have left him... wouldn't he? //No. You wouldn't, much as you want to. Look at the shape he's in, the patterns of the wounds... you wouldn't leave him to this. But you don't have to tell him that.//

Canary ran the hand signs based off what Robin was feeding her. When Arsenal reported they were drawing heavy fire, she cursed softly under her breath. "R, flicker faster, or we're going to get caught down here."

Slade listened, all senses tuned outward. With a quick jerk of his hand, he indicated they had company within earshot. Dick followed that flick of his hand, going to handle it before he even realized it, hearing them behind him. //Hmm... Wrong line of work, boys...// he thought as he flicked a sign over his shoulder and flung himself into the fight. //Two apiece, no problem... just keep them away from the guns, Dicky boy.//

Canary moved into battle-mode nearly as swiftly as Nightwing, dealing swift, hard blows to end the fight fast. She was vaguely aware that Slade was in the fight, playing off Nightwing's style as if the two had trained for years together...and she realized they had.

It was too damned simple to fall back into that, too easy to move with him like he moved with Bruce... but it ended the fight very, very swiftly... just please, god, quick enough...

"Move!" Robin told his team.

Canary sprinted into the next shadow, Slade on her heels, holding up when she did to catch the pattern again. Dick moved right with them, then froze just off Slade's left heel. He held himself under tight control, keeping the mess of thoughts and snarled emotions forced back. He listened as the archers and batman started a strategic retreat, pulling forces away from their exit point.

"A squad of ten are not following the retreat, but that should be all between you and running for the Aerie," Robin reported.

"Roger that," Canary said softly, getting used to him running her intel instead of Oracle, who was controlling all communication out of the facility right now.

"Ten," Dick told Slade, "between us and out of here."

Ten was easy, unless they were extremely well trained, but the weapons made them trouble. He did, actually, want to get the man out alive. Canary was relaying Robin's directions to Slade, he didn't have to, and moved on every cue until they were on top of that squad, then he flung himself into it. Canary'd had point and the first two were down... and he was adding to that count quickly, hitting hard and fast from angles most soldiers couldn't deal with.

He was in the middle of that when Canary snapped a warning. "No killing, Wilson, unless you want me to have a reason to scream you into oblivion and dump you in Alcatraz again!"

Dick saw the man shake his head just a fraction before he broke a man's jaw, knocking him out in the process. There was a lot of frustration and anger in the moves Slade was using, and from the marks on his body, Dick could guess why...but he was withholding lethal force.

//....Slade?--PAY attention, Grayson!// He yelled at himself, putting all of his attention back on the fight... or trying to. There was this hopeful little whisper that wouldn't shut up, stupid as that was. Nobody but a madman would fuck with Canary when she sounded like that, it didn't mean a damn thing.

"Get your feathers down, sister," Slade growled her direction. It was more than enough to make her own concentration falter, and she kicked her last opponent just slightly harder than necessary, sending him down for the count. //He sounds...// She squelched that, and looked at the run they still had to make. "Follow me," she said, switching her lenses to let her guide through the perimeter booby traps.

Slade noted as they fought the small squad that Dick moved better than he ever had before, his body matured into the full potential he had seen years ago, defined by intensive training. And Dinah...she had apparently taken her art seriously at last, because she was on a much higher standard than he recalled. Both of these things made him grow pleased, and look forward to the next time he did have reason to cross their paths in combat.

Dick's breath caught at that tone, the phrasing, and he forced himself not to react as he followed them. //It. doesn't. mean. anything,// he told himself again, making himself believe it. //He's playing you. He knows exactly how to play you.// He turned to check their backtrail quickly, just to be sure.

"Too easy," he barely heard Canary say, knowing that it should have been harder. "O! Tell me you got a doozy of a virus to hit their data thingies with," she said just as suddenly.

"R and I have it covered, C." Oracle sounded calm, as she normally managed when working with batman. He at least had kept her aware of the situation, like Arsenal, a fact she appreciated. She was pleased both archers had accepted their comm gear as permanent offers to be part of her stable of heroes on call.

//"data thingies"... She's worse than I am...// Seeing nothing back there just flipped him out more and he was hard on their heels.

"Treeline, mid height," Slade warned, catching something ahead of them, something suspiciously like a scope.

"Don't move off my path! There's traps," Canary explained, wondering if they would make it through without getting shot even as she set a more erratic, difficult path between the devices her lenses were showing her. //This is when I need you, Bruce.// She had faith in her lover to have found the snipers too.

Bruce'd seen them, already out on another track, but it was their lover and other son that had the range to deal with them easiest... and they were.

Dick held back a moment, watching, wishing for his own lenses so he wouldn't have to follow her so closely... Slade followed easily, and only once did he catch Dick's elbow, to make sure the kid was fully on balance when Canary paused unexpectedly, hearing the 'shwoop' of well placed arrows from well ahead of them. Dick had almost expected it--and that rattled him, but he couldn't easily pull away, not for a moment... thank god they were almost clear.

"Straight path now, boys," Canary told them, clearing the last nasty explosive device and breaking for a full run. Slade made a displeased noise at her choice of wording, while Nightwing laughed and fanned out off her side... and even in this he couldn't quite keep from being... himself. Despite himself, he kept an eye on Slade, making sure he was keeping up. //Didn't get this far to lose you now.//

Slade pushed through and found the speed to keep up with them, cursing inwardly that his little stay at this facility had robbed some of his reserves. He'd get it back, and take care of evening scores at a later date.

Canary knew their uneasy ally was having to push himself; she had glimpsed the marks still on him, bruises and more, and she kept telling herself she did not care. He deserved the hurt, he deserved far worse. Dick kept the comment he wanted to make behind his teeth, seeing Slade pushing himself, and his thoughts ran right along with Dinah's. He could almost feel his father and lover ahead, watching and guarding as they ran to catch up and get to safety.

Canary made it first, accepting the strong reach of Ollie's hand to pull her up faster. She turned, offering her own assistance to Slade, defying him not to accept it...and keeping her breath even when he accepted the extra pull to get in safely. Dick vaulted up and in, letting Roy steady him once he hit the deck sole. No-one looked badly hurt... they'd gotten out easy.

Slade appraised the team that had pulled his bacon out of the fire, and was not pleased with it in the least. He would have been okay with Dick and his Titans, but to see the Bat, The Arrow, and that smug little Robin....This was not setting well with him.

Roy kept Dick close to him, not caring in the least as the bird started to roll while Bruce dogged the hatch locks closed and dropped to a seat. Dick sighed and leaned against Roy, murmuring a soft thank-you before dropping into a seat as the wheels came off the ground. "Nice work, Robin," he called over, burying himself in his lover's scent and presence, though the touches stayed well-behaved for now.

Ollie let his hands float lightly over Dinah, breathing that much easier to know she was not hurt, and then helping her go sit as she pulled the mask off.

Bruce was looking right back at their... rescue-e, no more pleased to have him there than Slade was to be there. He wanted to reassure himself that Dinah was safe and knew he could not, not without ruining Dinah's favorite piece of the game they were playing.

"Your boy and my girl work good, apparently," Ollie said, trying to reassure his lover on a verbal level, while also making it clear that Dick and Dinah were marked by the family, not the dangerous man they had just saved the world from by rescuing him.

Slade ignored that, taking one of the other seats, taking in the fact that the Kid was tucked up with Harper so blatantly. He flicked a look in Robin's direction to see the boy watching him intently, but in that creepy way the boy had of not being overt.

Dinah sighed softly to herself as the bird got fully in the air. This was probably going to be one of the most unpleasant flights she'd ever been on.

Robin smiled sharply. "Someone has to keep you two techno-phobes out of the line of fire, bro," he said, easy as silk, though his eyes stayed trained just beyond one of Slade's shoulders. Honestly, the man didn't look good. Bruising old and new, slow-healing open wounds, loss of muscle-tone, winded when Dick wasn't...

Bruce had noticed the same things, and while he didn't mind him being out of condition, the circumstances still didn't sit well. That kind of treatment by the government, of their own people...

Dick rolled his eyes, tossing his head to make the gesture obvious. "Yeah, yeah." He turned enough to look at Ollie, "Who's surprised by that? She's good--and not. one. word. from you on that," he snapped over at Slade before the man could open his mouth, posture as hard as his not-visible eyes were.

"Now why would I bother to say a word?" Slade said, pulling up the insinuating rumble just for Dick. "I know the skills the two of you can bring to the table." The unspoken 'intimately' hung between them, making Ollie bridle, and Dinah just shifted, moving to lay her head on his shoulder. "Not worth it, Arrow," she purred softly.

Roy shot Slade one hard look, but he focused back on Dick, running a hand over his arms lightly.

"Di, shoving him back out of the plane, or that little island of yours, is sounding better by the moment," Dick said, deciding to just ignore Slade for a while. Juvenile possibly, but they were in the air for a while at least. The conversation could wait until he was willing to do something other than kick his teeth in for--well, a lot of things. The Bat nearly growled, thankful he could hide his anger about Dinah in protectiveness about Dick.

"Island?" Slade's tone shifted just enough to let Dick know that was a can of worms, and he happened to see as the faintest blush crossed her cheeks. "Planning a vacation with me, sister?"

"Slade, please don't start with me... or I will push you out as gleefully as I did Cheshire." She leveled her gaze on him, putting him in the same category as the woman he hated.

Ollie knew, despite the banter, that there was an undercurrent he really, really did not want to understand fully between the woman he loved and the man he hated.

Roy brought his lips down to Dick's ear. "Glad you're back with me," he whispered.

"I told you I wasn't going anywhere," Dick whispered back, turning his head so Roy didn't have his ear any more and his lips moved almost against his archer's cheek, not bothering to hide the small, nasty smile at that shot of Di's that must have struck home... though the flashing train of thought that followed it ended with his city's death and made him shudder in his lover's arms, eyes closing.

Dinah held Slade's gaze for a long moment, watching his reaction to her barb, and noting it when the old pride flared...and was just as fleetingly chased away by self-anger before being masked to neutrality.

"You didn't push her from high enough," he contented himself with saying, leaning his head back to rest. He could not sleep, as much as he ached to do so, but he could at least just listen to the people on the bird around him, and not work so hard to keep face. To anyone who did not know better, he was arrogantly posed, presuming he was perfectly at ease. Arrow was reading it as such, he could tell, but the others would never buy it.

Dick forced himself to relax, leaned up and kissed his lover--and then, unless Roy fought him--he was up and moving, prowling the rest of the plane as far from Slade as he could get, though his eyes tracked the man behind the cloth, well aware of what was going on behind those arrogantly closed eyes, and trying not to give a damn.

Roy let him go, and was not surprised when Dinah found a reason to follow not much later. He gave Ollie a quick shake of his head, warning his father/mentor to stay put. Only the two of them really could understand what it was in their heads right now.

Dinah did not consciously follow Dick; she just needed out of the presence of a silent Bat she could not go to, away from the man that was confusing her far worse than ever before. She hated him, hated what he had done, but...he kept flashing them pieces of the man who had made her stretch both mentally and physically on two separate missions, the man she had grudgingly found respect for.

Dick followed her, finally, route having taken them compartments away. He pushed the mask back to look at her with aching eyes. "You see it... don't you?" He wasn't sure which answer he wanted.

She slowly nodded. "Dammit, Dick...it's got to be an act, right?" It was tearing her up inside, and she could not even figure out why. Even as a working ally, he was a murderer back then. Even if a lot of his targets had been the better off dead sort. "I haven't seen him like this in a couple of years, Dick."

"I know. I keep telling myself it's got to be, that if he could make himself just like Chesh there's nothing left of him... but... he's... He held back. And not just for you... and I didn't miss that flash--not that he's not capable of playing both of us, that he doesn't know exactly how to screw up my head but good... I just... I don't know how to tell, anymore. I don't have any way to be sure he's not just playing me for his own ends..." He took a half-step towards her, despite how close they already were...

She met him, laying her head on his chest, letting him comfort her in the way she ached to have from Bruce. It was not that Ollie did not make her feel safe, but his temper kept flaring, despite his attempts to keep it in check. He reacted to Slade, whereas Bruce would have stayed calm on most levels. "We just have to try and sort through it...I saw the way he's reacting to you too." She looked up at him. "I think... I don't think he knew what happened to you after Metropolis."
Dick blinked slowly, eyes widening as his arms curled around her. "I... maybe..." //Eight months? Eight months of not knowing?// "What do we do? He won't talk to me, not with Dad and Ollie here... He'll just goad them both, and..."

"You take him to Savant's old cabin...let him get cleaned up, and dressed...there's clothes in there. Roy...I'll stay with Roy. The others won't like it, but I doubt anyone will try to stop you. You've been handling him longer than anyone in the hero community."

//I don't like it...// He nodded once, sharply, though. "Dad won't. Not... with what that would say. He won't give him that kind of leverage--I hope. ...Stick close to Roy, Di. I... I've barely got some of the wounds Slade put between us lanced, let alone scarred over..."

"Yeah, I know. I'll sit with him, try to get him to understand." She reached up and stroked his face. "I've got faith in you...and if he tries a head game on you, he will pay." Her eyes went hard.

"When's he not, Dinah?" Dick asked bitterly, eyes conflicted. "Oh, well, no time like the present..." He leaned against the countertop, putting himself back together again as best he could, then headed back that way.

She followed him, regaining her own composure somewhere along the way. As they entered the main cabin, she casually dropped down with Roy, her hand immediately finding his. It was more than enough warning to Roy that he was about to not like life even more, but he did not disobey that anchoring hand. If she wanted him right here, she and Dick had made some sort of plan.

Bruce's shoulders, and Tim's, tightened in almost the same moment, even before Dick's steps got louder as he walked towards Slade. He knew damn well the man wasn't asleep and could hear him as he stopped just outside the reach of those long legs, weight on the ball of one foot.

Slade lifted his head lazily, that one eye popping open with amusement. "Yeah, Kid?" His voice slid over the noun with familiar ease.

//Don't. Call. Me. That,// blazed in his eyes, but his voice was just as casual. "You look like hell. Come on." He jerked his head towards the forward compartments of the plane. Robin's hand tightened around the frame of his seat, //Dick don't be stupid...//

A message popped up on his console. "Let it be. I'm listening and watching," it said, in a code few would have been able to read at a glance, outside the bats. "Not liking, but we have to know more."

Dinah leaned in toward Roy, and he shifted, granting her the shoulder she wanted. It let him stroke her hair, anything to keep his mind off things as Slade nodded and followed the hero he saw as his protege.

Dick fought the way his shoulders tried to draw up for a few moments, then gave in to the urge to let them scream 'I don't trust you' at the man behind him, tensed as if for that first blow. He caught up a med-kit out of a cabinet along the way, then pushed open the door to Savant's cabin and slid in, trying to get himself under control enough to work the answers he needed out of the damned frustrating man.

Slade stepped in and let shut the door, watching Dick with a multitude of thoughts. Chief among them, and quickly dominating the language of his body, was sheer relief to know the kid was truly healthy and still alive. The last he had seen of him...it still made his soul grow cold and black to see what had appeared to be the murder of his Robin at the hands of one of the men he had a private reckoning to attend to. "You don't trust me....and I can't say I blame you."

Seeing that, seeing relief on him, did nothing to ease the war going on in him... and then Slade spoke, making things better and worse in the same moment--//so damn good at that.// "Why should I?" //Give me a re--You did not just start to think that, hell no!//

"You shouldn't. Told you that years ago." His eye went dark, seeing just how much his...problem, had cost him. Dick's trust in him had been built on the same thing as his reputation; the fact he would not violate his word, that there were lines he would not cross. And now, that was all lost.

Dick's expression couldn't be called a smile, even if the corners of his mouth turned up as they pulled away from his teeth. "You finally convinced me." //What are you thinking? I see something, you're letting me see something, but what is it?//

Slade eased somewhat at that expression, holding his hand out for the med kit. "Shame it had to be some other guy that finally made the lesson clear."

Dick's head cocked curiously, not following, even as he handed it over. "Oh?" He backed away, leaning against the door of the cabin, putting space between them again.

Slade picked his words carefully, focusing on cleaning and dressing the worst of the wounds he could reach. "The last clear thought I have from before seeing you get blasted by my next mark, was waking up with a headache and thinking I heard Joey screaming for me to help him, and your kid brother's team being there with Raven." He kept his voice neutral, even as he vowed Alexi's death openly to Dick. "Since then, it's been like catching glimpses of the world through a fogged window."

It felt like his heart stopped beating, like the world went sideways under him, and he struggled to keep everything off his face. He wasn't sure Slade wasn't just lying, but that was so foreign to him it might as well not be possible, he never bothered, and admitting to... vulnerability like that wasn't something he would do, not even to shif--//he wouldn't. He's always owned up to his actions, at least to me...//

//God, I want to believe you...// He realized only far too late that he'd said it aloud, low, soft, and ripped from his throat.

The one eye had come up to Dick's face, to see how he handled the admission, but those words coming out...a brief flare of pain and he looked back down at a deep knife stab in the side of his thigh, already healing but needing to be cleaned. //I've lost him.// There was strong regret in his thoughts, before he schooled his mind. He would focus on his work, on trying to salvage his career.

The words were out, blood in the water, he might as well add to it. "Keep talking, tell me... hell. Tell me what changed, if I'm to believe you're still the man I thought I knew."

"What's it really matter, Kid? I know enough of what happened to know I shot everything we ever had to hell and back. Not much point in me spilling useless words, now is there?" Now he did look up, and his face was the same neutral look of the man that had accepted a beating to let Dick get his grief out.

//Useless? With that look on your face? Try again, Slade. If... If you...// Flicker of thought, an angle to use, and the words were out of his mouth before he could check them. "That what you're going to tell your little girl? You know, Rose, the one that's terrified you're going to come back after her?"

The mask faded into the feral look of an angry, protective father...the one that had worked alongside the Titans trying to find Joey, the one that had been seen from time to time when the chips got down for any of those early Titans. "I would never..." And then he winced, as those not-quite memories forced themselves up and he sank down on the edge of the bed. "Hell, Kid."

//Oh. My. God. He's telling the truth. He's... He's really...// Forcing the flare of incandescent hope off his face out of his voice, he slowly padded that way. "Yeah, Slade?"

"Care to let me know how she is?" the assassin asked as casually as he could.

"She's okay. Some pretty intensive therapy, radiation treatment and several months in the hands of two women I trust did a lot to put her back together."

The slightest ripple ran through tight muscles; Slade was revolted by what he had been twisted to do to his own flesh and blood.

//Even he's not this good an actor, he's not. He never bothered to learn how...// "You have no idea how much I've wanted you dead over the last few months... but now you're telling me I was hating the wrong person... I couldn't understand how the man I knew could have murdered my city, twisted me up, done that to his own child when you knew what it did to Grant, to Addie..." Forbidden names on most lips, names he would normally never say but had to be said now, "I thought you'd become just as bad as the rest of them, but..."

"Just let it go, Kid. I'll settle the one that did this, and then you won't have to worry about me for awhile." He couldn't go to Africa; memories of Wintergreen lingered there. Gotham held its own problems, and Europe was home to more ghosts of Addie than he cared to admit. It was time to find somewhere new, a new base to remake himself.

"You won't have to bother hunting Alex," Dick told him. "Someone put a round in his skull... and the word on Gotham's streets is that the Joker did it. I don't doubt it, either." //Damn it, don't go and do something I have to hunt you for....// Something else tugged at him, something he didn't want to face. "Slade..."

"Yeah, Kid?" He finished dressing the wounds he had found in reach, and offered the kit back, turning so the cuts along his spine could be cleaned.

"I... Nothing." He took the kit back and settled on a leg to work on some of the damage. "Jesus they worked you over..."

"You were going to ask something, and I'm feeling a bit talkative...those two things rarely match up, Kid." He ignored the comment over his state. The boys that had done it were getting their own back, holding him accountable for things he had done over his years. And they had been following orders. Now that was another person to put on his list for future settlings, the officer in charge of him.

He gave up and asked, needing the answer, no matter what it was. "So what would you have done, when I went looking for you?"

Slade chuckled. "Knocked some damn sense in your head."

The air left Dick's lungs as an answer he could accept came out of Slade's mouth. "Yeah?"

"That has to be one of the stupidest things you've done since your original costume, Kid," Slade told him.

"Not arguin--hey!"

Slade's laugh was full and honest, not mocking. Dick glared indignantly at his back, muttering indignantly and trying to figure out if there was anywhere he could slug the smug son of a bitch that wouldn't impact a recent wound. "Wisecracks aside--and aren't those supposed to be my job?--you wouldn't have taken me up on it?" Stupid to let himself be this open, this fast, but... he had to know.

"Kid, there was a time...but not now. Not since Joey." That admission was one Dick knew only came out because Slade thought they were fully private.

Dick nodded once, shaken to his soul by a whirlwind of revelations that gave him some honest to God hope, and quelled some of the rage that had ebbed and flared for months, deep in him. His hand wrapped hard around one upper arm. "I've yelled at nine tenths of the Titans that they don't get to blame Rose for what happened to her.... same logic ought to apply. Not that any of them will listen to me on this..."

Slade shook his head at the idealistic words. "You know good and well, I never was one of the good guys." He looked at the hand, then back up to Dick's face. "Damn glad it was you who came."

Dick shrugged. "So? Manipulated and nuts is manipulated and nuts, and I said no-one else was going to listen to me. I also didn't say anyone else's going to forgive you."

He couldn't break that gaze. "I... didn't think this was going to go near this well--didn't have any reason to--and I was trying to figure out some reason to get you thrown back in a cell instead of walking on that pardon."

It was going to be a long time before he forgave Waller for that, even if Slade's words were the gospel truth. "Same time, no way was I risking someone figuring out the trick to the serum."

Slade smiled; he knew just where Dick was coming from, but for different reasons. He did not want the competition. "So, how about you 'lock' me in here for the rest of the damn flight, so I don't have to keep posturing around your broody Bat?" Slade suggested. He could use the time to sit and think, to start his plans, and he knew he could trust their honor even if they did not trust his.

Dick nodded once. "Yeah. I can do that--I'm pretty sure they weren't sure Savant wouldn't do something insane. Speaking of. There ought to be clothing in here, now that you're not going to bleed all over it. Get dressed. See you when the plane touches down."

Slade looked in the small foot locker, and found the offered clothes, sliding into the pants and ignoring the shirt for now. "At touch down."

Dick walked out of the cabin and twisted the lock on behind him. Built to handle Savant, it ought to have a shot at holding Slade, and he had no idea what expression was on his face as he headed back to find his lover and the rest of his family. Probably some bastard mix of disbelief and hope and anger and relief--since that was most of what he was feeling.

Pretty much all eyes were on him as he entered. Dinah stood from the warm spot by Roy, crossing the floor to rejoin Ollie, her eyes searching his, seeking any confirmation.

"If he's lying, I swear to god I am going to murder him, but..." his eyes shone as he looked at her, even as he dropped into the spot she'd left and curled close to his lover.
She gave him one nod, then very blatantly attacked Ollie with a kiss, snuggling into his arms.

"You..." Roy was haunted, seeing Dick in his colors, acting like that. "All okay?"

"Yeah. All okay, Roy. I promise." He twisted onto his side and pressed in tight, hand petting hard muscle. He swapped languages, going for one he was praying Dinah would know and Bruce was rusty in. "Mind-alterer in trouble soon, I think." Bastardized way to tell her what had happened to the man they knew, but if it worked...

Dinah's back stiffened just a bit, but at Ollie's temper flowing to the surface again, she tuned out Dick and Roy and concentrated on distracting him with not quite innocent snuggling, wishing against fate that Bruce could join her.

Roy decided that he would just have to accept that, then shook his head at Dinah whispering to Ollie just before the elder archer picked her up and headed for the back of the plane.

Dick curled around him tighter, "We've got the man we used to know back, love... and he sounds like he's going to go bury himself a while. Guess that'll tell me if he's lying..."

"Well, at least it might give us time to get the kids trained before we have to nail his hide again." Roy stroked Dick's neck lightly.

Dick sighed, then nodded. "Yeah..." leaning close against him.

"So...think we might be able to find a spot out of the way on this bird?" Roy whispered the words against Dick's ear, trying to ignore the brooding bat, the brooding mini-bat, and the fact he was still torn up over Slade's grip on his Dick.

Dick ran the plans through his head, then nodded and slid to his feet, pulling Roy up with him. He knew Helena'd kill them, so where... //Creote's old bunk? --No! Too close to Slade. Damn, where... screw it. Helena'll deal. I'll buy her new sheets,// and he headed that way.

Bruce was discussing things in soft tones with Tim... and the monitor screen. Oracle had relayed much of the conversation between Dick and Slade, the gist of it, to that screen to keep the others apprised, even as she seethed over just how viciously strong a grip Slade had on her ex. She had no problem being the ex, but she was going to be damned if she let the man tear up the one relationship she knew was right for the man she would always have a soft spot for.

Dick tugged Roy into one of the open cabins. "Helena can kill us later," he muttered as he shut the door. This was as far as he could get them from Slade and still have the use of a bed.

"She'd kill you maybe; she likes me." Roy let his smug, cocky self show through, a bravado against the gnawing doubts in his soul.

Dick snorted and curled around his lover closely. "What's wrong, Roy? What's going on?"

Roy did not really want to talk about it. Instead he caught Dick's lips with his own, pressing a hungry kiss home to distract his lover, and himself.

Dick relaxed and pressed up into him, opening his lips to let Roy kiss him deep, purring softly as he wrapped his arms low around his waist and the back of his neck. //Roy, it's okay...//

The archer was not settling down, his hands beginning to move over still armored flesh, frustrating him. Dick twisted, slithering out of the top half of the unfamiliar armor, kissing him again. Now, Roy moved from kissing his mouth to his neck, small bites betraying just how worked up he had been the whole time.

"Roy, Roy..." he whispered his lover's name, pulling him backwards and dropping down onto the bed.

"God, Dick..." The archer pressed hard against his lover, then reared back, stripping off the heavy chest protector and his own shirt. Dick just purred to him, hands sliding down his back, holding him close, hands threaded through his hair.

"Tell me what I need to hear, Dick..." Roy hated himself even as he said it, even as his hand slid over sculpted form, possessively caressing that perfect, scarred skin.

Dick gasped, twisting under Roy's touch, pulling him closer. "Yours, Roy. I'm yours. I'm not going anywhere. You've got me." He let himself talk, trying to find the right set of words to ease the memories he could see lurking in Roy's dark eyes.

//For how long?// He managed to stop himself from asking, but it lurked right there on Roy's face before he started a trails of biting kisses down Dick's chest and stomach.

Dick kept his hands tangled in Roy's hair, twisting under him, saying his name over and over again. "Roy, it's okay, I'm yours. I'm yours."

"Yeah, I know..." Roy told him, as he opened the waist of Dick's pants. "On one level, I've always seen it...but the leaving...the pulls from other people..."

Dick shuddered, closing his eyes. "What's it going to take, Roy?" //How long are you going to make me pay for that, Roy? What's it going to take?//

"I don't know, man." Roy looked over his lover. "Maybe only time can make me stop seeing you leaving me again."

"I'm not leaving you," Dick told him, looking up into his green eyes, "I am not going to screw this up again. I won't."

Roy did not answer him with words; instead he inched the pants out of his way, kissing along the hips of his lover. Dick shifted under him, arching up, hands petting his back and hair. Wanting Roy was like breathing, and he let himself just react.

Roy did not stop at kissing; he freed Dick from the pants as much as he could without taking too much time from tasting his skin. The hand not holding him up caressed the skin he exposed, while his mouth explored every hollow and plane of the hips. When he knew Dick was aching from the touches and licks everywhere but his shaft, Roy took it in his mouth and moaned against it.

"God, Roy," Dick breathed, trying not to buck too much, to let Roy have what he wanted--nothing else he could do, deep as that sliced...

The hand that had been caressing so gently, teasingly, came around to stroke the shaft and sac firmly, below Roy's mouth and tongue working just the tip, teasing and tasting hungrily. That drew a buck and a whimper, his lover twisting under him, making soft, hungry noises.

Roy shifted, to let himself be comfortable as he touched, one finger stroking back to tease from the steady massaging. His teeth grazed the ridge, his tongue flicking out. Dick writhed, twisting under his mouth, shuddering at his touch, whispering his lover's name again. Roy pushed the rhythm a little, taking his time, but wanting to be sure Dick understood in no uncertain terms that he wanted him.

"Roy, please..." low, soft whisper, hips rolling against Roy's touch.

Roy drew away, only touching him now. "Yeah, Dick?" His eyes were very close to gold now, shifting to ease the constriction of his own armored pants.

"Need you," Dick told him, reaching for him, wanting to be skin-to-skin with his mate again, and more. Roy nodded, moving back, hastily opening his pants and sliding out of them. His low moan at being free was heartfelt. When he moved back, it was to lie over Dick, pressing against him while he kissed his lover deeply.

"Mmm," Dick purred softly, pressing up against him in a long, slow ripple, wrapping around him, clinging to him, kissing him back over and over again. //i love you, want you, I'm yours, Roy...//

"Mine," Roy whispered, grinding his hips and closing his eyes at the feeling of the complete contact between them.

"Yes, Roy. Yours." Dick brushed kisses over the shoulder he could reach, hands running over his lover's back, tangled tight around him. "I love you, vestacha. my heart. mine..."

Roy claimed his lover's mouth again, harder this time, already close and not even needing more than the feel of Dick against him to tumble over the edge. Dick moved under him, shaking at the feel of his lover's pleasure as he tried to follow him... but things just weren't quite right, not enough.

Roy noted that, and it dampened the feel of pleasure as he got himself under control. He growled softly at Dick, feeling certain the fault lay in Dick wanting someone else, wanting to be with the man several cabins away.

Dick trembled at the growl, head spinning in too many painful directions, and buried his face in his lover's shoulder, squirming against him hungrily, trying to fall into this and give him what he wanted.

The archer's eyes narrowed, Pushing Dick to on side as he shifted off of him, only to settle behind him. He pressed hard against Dick's body, mouth finding the sensitive join of neck and shoulder with urgency, as he wrapped his hand around Dick's shaft, still slick with his own seed. He began to rock against his lover, forcefully, as he stroked him.

"Oh, god, Roy..." Dick bucked back hard, arching into that possessive bite as Roy moved them both, hand on his length so perfectly knowing, body behind him holding him in all the right ways.... It wasn't long before that was enough to take him over with a whimper of his lover's name.

Roy's soft use of Dick's name was one of half-pleading, half sorrowful emotion, not quite begging that Dick truly be there for him always as he kissed the spot he had accidentally marked in his need to make Dick his.

"I'm here, Roy. I'm yours. I'm yours." //Even if you don't trust me...// He made himself press tighter back against his lover's body, when what he really wanted to do was curl up around himself and just... stop until the world made sense again.

"Dick," Roy said softly. "What does he do...that I don't?" He would hate the answer, he just knew he would, but if he had to compete, he had to know where he was failing.

Dick froze, jaw dropping, stunned, and it took long, long moments before he could even get words out. "What the fuck?"

"We've...I've never lost you in the middle like that, Dick...usually no matter what one of us needs, the other can match it, go with, be there through," Roy said, hurt in his voice. "But he's on your mind. And I lost you. So what does he do, what's his damn secret for keeping you so tied up in him that we...that we're not working?"

Dick twisted around, staring at him with complete and utter shock and hurt on his face. "It's not Slade fucking me up, Roy. It's that no matter how hard I try you're never going to trust me again." Even saying it felt like a knife in his gut.

"I want to...god I want to, Dick...but you came back from that talk...and you looked..." Roy could not say it, could not tell Dick how much his relief had made him glow.

"Like what, Roy? I don't... I don't get what's going on in your head, I can't follow you, talk to me..."

"He made you happy, on some level that I can't even begin to understand, Dick...you were walking on cloud nine almost when you came back."

Dick stared at him, shaking his head. "And I came straight back to you, you--" he bit off the oath.

"Yeah, but because you knew you had to, or because you wanted to?" Roy bit his tongue as soon as he said it, knowing he had seriously screwed up with that thrust.

"If you have to ask, Roy, I'll never convince you. You don't trust me. Why've we even been trying?"

Roy didn't even try to answer. If it was coming to this, maybe it was time for him to take a page from the past and be the one to leave. He silently rose from the bed, gathering his pants, every line in his body screaming both defeat and self-pride.

Dick felt his heart rip in half as the best thing that'd ever happened to him got ready to walk out the door, and slid as far back and into a corner as he could, curling into as small a space as he could manage. He'd begged, submitted, and fought for his place in Roy's heart for the last time... apparently it had never been enough.

"You walk out that door, Harper, and it is the worst mistake you will ever make." A warm, concerned alto said in his ear. He knew it to be Barbara, the real woman behind the Oracle mask. "He's messed up, but I listened, I watched; he's really, truly yours!"

Roy growled in frustration, not knowing what to do, as he slammed his fist into the door frame. Dick flinched at that sound, breath shuddering in his throat, unwilling and unable to even look up. Babs must be trying to intervene... she wasn't going to have any luck. Roy was as stubborn as he'd ever been.

Roy started to move again, and he thought of Lian, of how happy she had been when he took her house hunting and explained why they needed a bigger place to live. "Barbara, go away again," he growled, turning back to Dick. Dick didn't even move, barring the tiny, convulsive shudders.

Roy went and sat on the edge of the bed. "Come sit with me." His voice was neutral, as he remembered just how good things had been.

Uncurling from the ball was more effort than he figured it was worth, and he wasn't about to let Roy see him crying, not now. He'd been taught that by the best of them. "Why?"

"Because, even with this...I love you and my daughter too damn much to walk out that door, if there's even a small chance."

"There's not. You. don't. trust. me. that kills it," muffled, tiny voice against his legs.

Roy sighed, rubbed at his face. "I trust you. I don't trust that bastard and what he fucking does to you," Roy said. "I look at you with him...and I see me, years ago on the smack."

Dick snorted. "Saddest fucking thing? I've never slept with him. Not that you believe me about that, either."

"Never?" Relief and surprise flared in his voice. "You..." He shook his head, laughing bitterly. "All these years, since ...damn, since Joey was with us, I thought....."

"No." //He never said yes.//

"Dammit, Dick, come here!" Roy turned toward the other man, his eyes expressing an apology he wanted to say.

Dick slowly uncurled his body, looking warily up into those green eyes.

"I'm serious." He held a hand out, wanting Dick to actually come to him. "I love you, Short Pants."

Pride warred with desperation and fear, and he reached out to catch Roy's hand, shoving down every acid-etched word he wanted to say as he reached for the strength to give in one more time.

As soon as Dick touched his hand, Roy both pulled and moved, meeting Dick halfway and wrapping around him tight. "Forgive me," Roy whispered.

Dick curled around him tight, "Are you ever going to trust me?" equally soft whisper, heart slowly slowing down from the brutally fast pace it'd been running at.

"Yes." The redhead stroked his lover's hair lightly. "You know, I'm an idiot."

"I've mentioned that once or twice."

"Yeah, well, I'm not alone in this room for being one," Roy said with a light tone. "If I promise not to fly off the handle, will you just...tell me what it is exactly that makes him have this sway over you? Maybe, if I could understand it, I wouldn't freak out so bad."

"I'd have to freaking understand it, Roy," Dick replied, twisting to settle on him more comfortably, leaning against him.

"Try?" Roy drew him back down, caressing lightly.

Dick sighed softly, pressing into Roy's touch, shrugging helplessly. "I... hell, Roy. You know as well as I do what we've been through. He has the damnedest habit of pulling me out of hot water. Or at least warning me over it."

"Right. But, it's sometimes like he's more your damn mentor than the Bat." As soon as he said it, Roy's eyes went wide. "Oh."

Dick sighed and pressed closer. "Yeah, oh."

Roy chuckled, then it built to a full fledged laugh.

"What?" Dick growled, still curled around him.

"I got Ollie and Dinah...you got Bruce and Slade," he finally managed to choke out, endlessly amused. "But who's the mom?" That sent him into new peals of laughter.

Dick elbowed him in the ribs, swearing at him. "Notfuckingfunny," he growled, pinning Roy against the bed.

"No?" The sparkle in Roy's eyes tempted Dick to ignore the humor of the situation. As he did, he pressed up, his body sliding against his lover.

"No," Dick replied, "and trust me, Ollie wouldn't much think so either..." as he stretched out over him, kissing his throat gently.

"Ollie's just going to have to trust Di on this one," Roy said, and considered the irony. "Just like I should have trusted you all along."

"Yeah. You should have." Dick shifted, cupped his face in his hands. "I love you. I'm not going to fuck this up again..." and he dropped tight against him, clinging close. //I can't take you walking out on me again, Roy. I need you too badly.//

"I can't promise I'm not going to flip...but I won't ever try to walk out on you again," Roy said softly, hands roving down Dick's back, holding him closely.

Dick sighed softly, nuzzling against him. "Thank god. ...you know, we have the awfullest timing. It's Valentine's Day, and you just about walked out on me."

"Never again," Roy swore, baring his throat to Dick. Dick shifted up, licking gently, then kissing... then bit down slowly, sucking as he did, working his jaw slowly, petting his shoulder.

This time Roy submitted, every line of his body inviting Dick to take the lead, his moans calling for more while his hands slowly caressed bare skin. Dick purred softly, hands moving and caressing as he tangled his body around Roy's, fingers tracing all over him as he kissed down his body, over his shoulders, getting Roy back out of the clothing before he seriously went to work.

When Dick had done that, Roy let one hand come up to tangle in his hair, and raised his other one up over his head, fully trusting his lover as he swore never to let anything else come between them again.

"Naah, Roy. On me," Dick said, voice somewhere between Gotham and south Florida, running his fingers from upper palm down to his shoulder, over every spot that would make his archer lover gasp.

"yes..." Roy brought that hand back to Dick's shoulder, bucking up at a particularly sensitive spot.

"Mmm..." Dick purred, letting go of the nastiness and grief between them to reassure his lover exactly who they belong with... each other. Forever. "I love you," was breathed against his throat again, his name whispered into a shoulder, "vestacha" and other, soft Rom endearments against his ribs and sides, Dick using all he had to push the reminder home. Roy accepted that reassurance, offering his own in his complete submission to Dick's wishes, letting go the fears and worries.

*****


Onwards to part 2