Hey! So, I own nothing DC.

I actually tried to find Nightwing/Blue Beetle fics (I'm affectionately calling them BlueBird) but couldn't find any. So, I wrote one! I hope someone else likes this idea too, because I plan to do a couple more.

-Black and Blue-

"Blue." Nightwing's voice was steady in the dark, the way it always was.

Jaime sighed audibly. "Yeah." His head was as quiet at the dark of this cell. The collar felt heavy around his neck, bruising his skin. When he woke up with it on, he had expected to hear the beetle in his head telling him that it would shut it off or interrupt the transmission or whatever it was it did, but the voice never came and he seemed to be completely unable to access his powers. Nightwing had hypothesized then that it was a new design- an improvement on the last one.

The mission they had been on had just been a scouting. Nothing complicated. There had been a string of odd crimes in the area and just about the entire Young Justice team had been out, skulking on rooftops and keeping and eye out. The league of assassins had come out of nowhere in numbers Jaime had never seen before.

"You're going to be alright." Dick assured. He had said it when they woke up too and Jaime had nodded, unable to do anything else. The room was so dark they couldn't even see their own hands let alone each other.

Nightwing had felt out the walls and the door and the floor, he had searched every inch of it before settling into a corner and waiting. The only lights at all were the faint green of their collars.

"It's just... last time I was abducted.." Jaime started before his jaw flexed and he decided not to talk about the Reach.

"This isn't the same." Nightwing promised but something about his tone made Jaime wonder if the other man thought it was better or worse.

"Why would they collar you?" Jaime muttered. He thought he felt the other smile. "You're not super, I mean."

"Precaution? Maybe it has a kill switch?"

Jaime frowned at how casually the bat prodigy considered his possibilities. "I'm missing my graduation."

Nightwing laughed, the sound echoing in their prison. "You should thank them for that. It's like a hundred degrees out. It would have been awful to sit there all day waiting for your name to be called."

Jaime nodded. "I guess that's true. I did hate the hat."

"Always a bright side."

The lights came on and both of them flinched, eyes taking time to adjust. There was a new hum of electricity, the bulb high above and a camera in the corner turning on as well. "Speaking of bright." Jaime muttered, raising his bound hands to rub at his eyes.

"Looks like we have an audience." Nightwing noted, nudging his chin toward the camera in the corner. "It might have audio."

Jaime groaned and moved closer to his friend, leaning his head to the side. "See if you can get this shit off me and I'll blow our way out of here." He said and the other man leaned closer but before he could touch the collar a wave of electricity shocked both of them through their collars, bringing them to their sides on the floor.

When it stopped, Nightwing huffed out a breath. "Well, I think the camera has audio and now we know why I'm wearing a collar too."

"Always a bright side." Jaime muttered this time. With his cheek to the floor he heard the heavy foot steps coming. His brown eyes looked at Nightwing. "What do they want?"

"Guess we'll find out." Dick sat upright and on his knees, rolling up to his feet before the sound of the locks on the other side of the door started to unlatch. If Jaime wasn't another hero he might have told him not to tell them anything, not to give away any secrets, but it wasn't something that needed saying.

The door opened just as Jaime got to his feet, leaning his shoulders back against the wall. The light in the hallway was even brighter and three men in masks stood outside. Before anyone moved, electricity surged through their collars again to bring them to the floor. Two men grabbed Nightwing by the arms and lifted him, dragging him out of the cell. Jaime looked up in time to have the door slam back into place.

In the silence that followed he felt panic rising in his chest. He stood and stared at the door, waiting as though they would open it again any minute and take him too. They didn't. They didn't and it only made his panic worse. What were they doing? Where did they take Nightwing? Would they bring him back?

He slammed a kick to the door but it only echoed the sounds of his captivity back at him, reminding him that he couldn't get out of this place without the power given to him by the scarab. No one could get out of this place. No. That wasn't true. Nightwing didn't have powers and he got out of jams like this all the time. What had he been doing before? Searching the walls and the door. Jaime looked at everything around him, ever corner, ever crack in the concrete walls, the seams of the door, the dome camera in the high corner. He looked at everything but he didn't know what to do.

"Where did you take him?" He finally shouted, staring at the black lense of the camera. It stared back but said nothing. "What do you want?" He yelled but only silence answered. With a hiss he darted the short distance to one wall, jumping up to push off of it and up higher against the next wall, reaching for the camera. Before his fingertips could touch it, the collar shocked him again. His back hit the floor hard, knocking the air from his chest.

Time seemed to slow down. He had no way of knowing how long he was there, waiting, until he finally heard footsteps in the hallway again. It sounded like they were dragging something. Jaime stood when they started to unlock the door but the collar brought him to his knees again. The door opened and the same masked guards returned, this time dragging Nightwing's weight between them. They tossed him in and his body rolled, limbs limp.

Jaime's eyes widened. "What the hell did you do?" He shouted but no one answered. The door closed and locked in the same pattern of bolts and latches.

He rolled Nightwing onto his back. His hands weren't cuffed anymore but his left arm was definitely broken, along with several fingers on that hand. "Nightwing." Jaime whispered, pushing dark hair away from a pale face that was now welted with split flesh and bruises. His mask was gone and the cheekbone beneath one eye deeply bruised. "Shit. Wake up." He hissed. "Wake up."

Those eyes opened and they were blue. Jaime had never known. Honestly, he'd never even wondered. Now he was certain he would never forget.

Nightwing smiled, lip busted and the cut stretching when he refused to wince and drop the grin. "You're going to be fine." He said again before those eyes closed and he let out a tired huff.

"Your arm is broken." Jaime said, not sure what else to say or do.

Dick nodded once but didn't open his eyes again. "Yep."

"What do they want?"

Nightwing cracked his eyes open and looked up at him. "Don't worry. It's not about our team."

Jaime frowned. He hated when Nightwing was secretive. "Well it's obviously got something to do with us. Look at you."

"Me. Not you. Don't freak out." Dick muttered, tired.

Blue Beetle frowned for a long while before his features relaxed into some grim understanding. "It's about Bats?"

Nightwing shrugged his right shoulder, the one not connected to a broken arm and messed up hand.

Jamie sighed and leaned back against the wall. "I don't suppose you told them where the Bat hands his cowl and we'll be going home now?" He joked dryly. He wouldn't have told if he had known and no one that knew Nightwing would ever imagine getting any information about the Bat out of him.

Nightwing smiled and that was his answer.

Blue Beetle nodded and leaned his head back against the wall, looking up at the ceiling. "How many times have you been kidnapped?"

Nightwing laughed and there was a sharp cough that followed, pained. Jaime winced. It was the sound of broken ribs. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"How do you usually get away?" Jaime had lowered his voice, as though the people watching them wouldn't hear.

Nightwing opened his eyes again and rolled his head to the side to look up at the other hero. "Sometimes I find a chance to get away and I take it. Sometimes I make a chance."

"You didn't see any way to get away when they took you out of here?" He asked, voice still hushed. He saw something in those blue eyes, something different in the way they looked at him before Nightwing looked at the ceiling again. "You saw an opportunity?" He hissed in a whisper. "Why wouldn't you take it?"

"You should get some rest, Blue."

Jaime stared down at the other man that lay beside where he sat. His eyes widened. "Dios mio."

"Don't freak out." Dick reminded with a tired groan.

"You stayed here because of me?" Blue Beetle half shouted. "Are you stupid?"

"What was I supposed to do, Blue?"

Jaime ground his teeth. Nightwing sounded tired and somehow that just made everything worse. "Not getting your arm broken would have been a great start."

Dick smiled at the ceiling. "I'll try to remember that next time."

"Next time." Jaime muttered. "Mierda!"

"You're freaking out."

"Of course I am! You're going to get killed!"

Nightwing was quiet for a few seconds before he rolled his head to the side again and looked up at Jaime. "Since I am going to die," He started, not missing the cringe on the Latin man's cheek. "do I get a last request?"

"Not if it's for me to stop freaking out, you don't."

Dick laughed and when Jaime heard that sharp cough following it he felt cold. What if Nightwing really did die in this place? What if he didn't come back next time they took him away? "What do you want?" His voice was low, his chest tight with the worry that the other would start giving him a list of things to say to his loved ones.

"It's kind of an odd thing to ask." Nightwing hedged, still watching him.

Jaime sighed. "Odd has always kind of been your thing, man."

Dick smiled, quiet for another few seconds before he asked boldly. "I want a kiss."

Blue Beetle actually felt his eyes widen before he laughed nervously. "What?"

"You should make it a good one too, since I'm going to die and it's probably going to be pretty brutal."

Jaime frowned abruptly. "You're trying to guilt me into making out with you?"

"I did stay because of you."

"I didn't ask you to!"

"Is that really going to matter when I'm dead?"

"Did they knock your brain loose?"

"Maybe."

Jaime groaned and shook his head, a small smile in the corner of his mouth. "What do you really want?"

Nightwing shrugged his right shoulder again, that arm bent with the hand over his chest. His left was a broken wing at his side. "You don't have to."

Jaime lifted his brows in surprise. "Seriously?" He was answered with another shrug. "Why would you want me to kiss you?"

"Do I need a reason?" Nightwing asked, sounding tired again. His eyes closed and his head rested back again.

Jaime stared at that bruised cheekbone and broken lip. He sat upright, away from the wall, but found himself still staring at the other man. Suddenly he felt afraid of the silence that built around them, the time that started to move by- inching them closer to the next time the door opened. He moved to sit next to Nightwing and over him, his back to the camera now. He leaned over him, one hand pressing to the hard floor on the other side of the bird's head. When that arm bent he found himself moving closer to that other man's face. That broken lip looked so raw. Would it hurt him?

Nightwing didn't open his eyes or move. What if he had fallen asleep? Did that make it better or worse? Jaime had dated guys before but he had never imagined kissing a teammate, let alone Nightwing. Then again, until today, he had never known those eyes were blue, either.

He lingered that last inch over Nightwing's face. No mask, but still just Nightwing to him. And then he closed his eyes and swallowed the space between them. It was a soft kiss at first, his thoughts still worried about that cut lip, but then Nightwing's mouth opened and he couldn't resist sliding his tongue in to find the other's. The kiss grew, his hand sliding behind Nightwing's neck, finger curling against dark hair to press into skin.

'Shutting down interfering technology, Jaime Reyes.' Scarab's voice rang in his thoughts, surprising Jaime from the kiss. He pulled back those few inches, still holding onto Nightwing beneath him. Brown eyes stared down at blue. Nightwing smiled, lips more swollen now than they had been minutes ago. "I told you, Blue, you're going to be alright."

Jaime heard the color click when it shut off and sat up a little more to see Nightwing's arm between them, a thin piece of metal in his fingers that he had used to pick Jaime's collar and disconnect whatever frequency was blocking the scarab.

An alarm sounded in the hallways outside.

'It is time to leave, Jaime Reyes.' Scarab hissed.

Nightwing's smile twisted suddenly when electricity lashed out through his collar to make his body tense and arch on the ground.

Jaime ground his teeth and the blue and black armor of the Beetle swallowed him. Fingers reached down, hooking into Nightwing's collar and ripping it off.

'Leave the other.' Scarab advised with the sound of foot steps beating down the hallway.

"No." The Beetle replied sharply before picking up Nightwing and folding him over one shoulder.

'It is a hindrance to take him. He is already damaged.' The scarab argued.

Jaime didn't reply this time, his right arm changing into a plasma canon. The guards were still working on the locks when Blue Beetle blew a hole through the outer wall. Wind gushed in and Jaime leaned out. Orange eyes took in the night outside. They were in a building pressed into the side of a mountain over the sea. It wouldn't have been a fun climb down. Luckily, the Blue Beetle didn't need to climb.

When the door was kicked open the prisoners were already gone.

So that's my very first go at these characters. I'm thinking about doing a second chapter for it. Hope you liked it!