Focus.
Aim.
Shoot.
Dodge.
Focus.
Aim.
Roll.
Aim again.
Shoot.
To the casual observer, Roy Harper made
archery look like a cakewalk,
but Dick Grayson was no casual
observer. He watched carefully as his
teammate, Arsenal, went
through the more rigorous battle simulations
Cyborg had programmed
into the Titans' training program. He watched
each muscle in Roy's
arms, chest and back tighten and relax with each
twang of the bow.
He watched a bead of sweat trickle down his
teammate's
temple...
Nightwing shook his head. "Get a grip,
Grayson," he thought to
himself. "It's never gonna
happen."
*
"Simulation complete," the
melodic, yet mechanical computer's voice
echoed through the gym
after Roy fired his last shot. Roy then heard
clapping echo
through the room, He turned to see his teammate,
Nightwing,
applauding him from the doorway.
"How long you been there, Short Pants?"
"Long enough to see you miss three targets," Nightwing smirked.
"Can it, Dick," Roy grumbled. "I'm having an off day."
Dick frowned.
Despite all his trials and tribulations, Roy never had
off days,
not where his shooting was concerned anyway.
"Want to talk about it?"
"Yeah right," Roy snorted.
Dick smirked. "Want to work it off?"
Roy quirked an eyebrow.
Dick rolled his eyes. "Come on, Roy,
when's the last time we sparred?"
Seeing Dick take on a
fighting stance, Roy grinned. "You're on, Short
Pants."
* *
It had been a normal sparring match, with all the usual
bad jokes
(provided by Roy) and bad puns (provided by Dick). It
wasn't until
Roy actually managed to knock Dick off his feet and
pin him to the
ground that things turned...interesting.
"Trying to get me all hot and bothered, Speedy?" Dick grinned up at him.
Roy froze. Did Dick just...hit on him? No. He couldn't
possibly see
through...
He wasn't able to finish his
thought before Dick had him pinned to the
ground instead, that
grin still plastered on his face.
Roy felt something flare up
inside him and before Dick could react,
Roy punched him. Hard. He
immediately backed away from Roy and
prepared to defend himself.
Roy always pulled his punches. Always.
Something was
wrong.
"What's wrong, Dick? Having all the women you want
isn't enough? Now
you want to give men a try?"
Swing.
Block.
"I
gotta tell you, Short Pants, you ain't my type, but that pretty
red
head of yours, what's her name? Barbara? Man, I wouldn't
mind
bedding her."
Dick continued blocking Roy's
advances, refusing to give in to Roy's
taunts, although he could
feel the anger sinking into his gut.
"I mean, really, if
you're gonna go the queen route, I guess all your
women are up for
grabs. I wonder if Kory has any need to learn Navajo."
Dick
grunted as Roy landed a lucky kick. "Cracked rib," he
noted
mentally before taking a swing at Roy.
"Of course, there's always Huntress. Oh, wait, did her already."
"Roy..." Dick growled.
"What is it, Dick?" Roy sneered as he
landed a punch to the gut. "You
should thank me for taking
all these women off your hands. Now you
and Brucie can live
happily ever after, just like in the tabloids."
* *
"You sure we won't be disturbing them?" Garth
asked cautiously. "They
get pretty involved when they
sparr."
"Don't worry about it,Garth. Arsenal and
Nightwing
have a healthy rivalry, that's all. It's harmless."
Donna stopped
walking when Garth also stopped and tensed.
"What?"
"Donna..."
She followed
Garth's gaze into the gym. Her jaw dropped when she
saw Nightwing
using full force on Arsenal, who was still attempting to
fight the
Gothamite. despite his obvious injuries.
Donna and Garth
quickly swooped in on the scene to pull their
teammates
apart.
"Roy! Stop it! You're already in bad enough
shape!" Garth struggled
with the archer.
"Lemme alone, Gillhead! He's got what's coming to him!
"Roy, you
have one good arm. Call it quits now," Garth tried to
remain
calm.
Meanwhile, Donna tried to subdue Nightwing. When her
coaxing had no
effect, she grabbed him and whispered, "Richard
John Grayson, stop it
this instant. Look at Roy, for Hera's
sake!"
Dick registered Donna's command enough to really
see Roy since he lost
his temper. Roy was standing, no, leaning
against Garth, with a black
eye, bloody nose, obviously sprained
or broken arm, and another dozen
injuries, he was sure,
unnoticeable to the naked eye.
"Oh, god, what have I
done?" he asked himself before bolting from the
gym.
Donna
looked to Garth, who nodded he was okay to handle Roy
before
following Dick out the door.
Garth sighed, "Come on, Speedy, let's get you to the infirmary."
* * *
Donna
found Dick right where she expected to- on the beach outside
the
tower. He was sitting in the sand, his back hunched over his
knees.
Donna approached quietly, careful not to get too close yet.
They
remained in silence a few minutes. Finally, Dick spoke.
"I could have killed him," he whispered.
Donna rolled her eyes. "Drama queen." She sat beside him in the sand.
"I'm serious, Donna. I lost my temper. I...I hurt him."
"You've got a pretty nice shiner there yourself, Dick."
Dick touched the tender bruise on his cheek.
"This is all my fault."
"Dick, I know you. And I know Roy. He
obviously did or said
something to make you lose your temper like
that."
"No. It was definitely..." Dick groaned
and lay back on the sand,
wincing slightly, feeling his cracked
rib. "I let my gaurd down."
"Dick, I told you, Roy taunted you-"
"I'm not talking about anger, Donna."
Donna looked down at Dick. After a moment she
registered what he was
saying. "Dick?"
"I... I love him, Donna."
Donna sat there, stunned. After a moment, "How long?"
Dick shrugged. "Years. I
always had a crush on him. I guess I
realized I loved him
when...when we almost lost him."
"The heroin,"
Donna acknowledged. Dick nodded. "How come you never
said
anything?"
Dick shrugged.
Donna thought over the years
she'd known Dick and Roy. The constant
squabbling. The sparring.
The subtle touches snuck in here and
there. They were both so much
more comfortable with each other than
they were with anyone else
she'd seen either of them with. "How did I
not see it?"
she asked herself.
"Too late now," Dick interrupted her thoughts.
"What do you mean 'too late'? Is Roy seeing someone?"
"Someone serious? No."
"See? Maybe he's interested."
Dick snorted. "Donna, if he
were interested, I wouldn't have this
shiner. And...and my
friendship with Roy wouldn't be completely
ruined." Without
another word, Dick left Donna on the beach and left
for
Bludhaven.
* * *
"Ow!" Roy howled as Garth checked yet another injury.
"Definitely going to have to
X-ray that. I think it's fractured."
Garth moved from Roy's
forearm up to the shoulder and down to check
the ribs. "Honestly,
Roy, you shouldn't say things that get your ass
kicked."
"He started it!" Garth stared at Roy. "Well, he did!"
"Hmm."
"Fine, take his side."
"I'm not taking sides, Roy. Obviously Dick must have
done something
pretty bad for the sparring to escalate to that
level."
"He did. That's why I made that joke about him and Bruce..."
Garth froze. "What about him and Bruce?"
Roy shrugged. "Well, you know how the
tabloids are always making up
shit about him and Bruce doing the
horizontal mambo together."
"Roy, you know how
sensitive Dick is to that issue. You know for a
fact that Dick and
Bruce do not share that type of relationship, it
would practically
be incest. Why did you even joke about it?"
"Yeah, well...he had it coming."
"What could Dick have
possibly done to deserve that?" Roy clammed up.
"Roy?"
"It was nothing."
"Clearly it wasn't nothing."
Roy
thought over the events of the last hour. "Dammit, Harper,
you're
a fool," he thought to himself. Finally, he mumbled,
"He flirted with
me."
"What was that?"
"He
flirted with me! And I freaked, I...I overreacted. I just
figured
it was a ploy, you know? A tactic to catch me off guard."
Garth smirked. "And did it?"
"That's not the point, Gillhead!"
Garth sighed. "Alright, Roy, calm down.
You know, it doesn't sound
like Dick to flirt with you as a means
to best you."
"Well, you give me a good reason why
Shortpants would be flirting with
me, because I can't think of
one!"
"Did it ever occur to you that Dick might have feelings for you?"
"That's bullshit, man, Dick's straighter than one of my arrows."
Garth just gave a knowing look. "If you say so, Roy."