Disclaimer: The Characters from "The Batman" are owned by DC Comics, Warner Bros., Bob Kane and God knows how many other people by now. This is a story done purely for fun and not to make profit whatsoever. Any original characters that may appear belong to the writer and can be used with permission.

Knightshade

Chapter 1: The Confession

Barbara let out a tired sigh as she dragged herself into her dorm room. She stumbled her way over to her bed where she dropped her backpack next to it before she slipped out of her shoes and plopped down onto the welcoming mattress. She moaned softly as her overworked muscles slowly started to relax, tension built up from the day's classes and studying finally melting away. She knew college wasn't going to be a cake walk but she never expected it to be this hard. Mostly it was all the homework piling up on itself. Like ever professor thought that their class was the only one that people had to do stuff for. It was all a bit stressful and irritating.

Of course it might not have been as stressful if weren't for her..."night job". While she knew plenty of college students who went to class and had jobs none of them really had the kind of job she had. And despite what they might think there was no boss as demanding as hers.

Speaking of whom, I'm sure he's expecting me to show up for patrol duty here soon, she thought. Stupid study groups running late. Don't they have any respect for the nocturnal crime fighter?

She sighed then looked over at the clock on the desk near her bed.

Well I still have a little while before I have to punch in, maybe I can just get a quick...little...nap...

Her eyes slowly drooped down with each word before they were finally closed and she slowly started to drift off to sleep. She had just fallen into a good sleeping rhythm when a light tapping sound woke her right back up. She furrowed her brow in annoyance and tried to ignore it but unfortunately it persisted.

What is that? She wondered. Sounds like it's coming from the window. Probably just some drunk frat boy trying to play a prank or something.

She rolled over onto her side in an attempt to get away from the sound in hopes that the irritating intruder would go away and pester some other girl's window. Her eyes popped wide open when she finally realized what was wrong with that line of thought.

"Waitaminute! I'm on the fourth floor!" she remarked in confusion.

She rolled onto her back again before she jumped off the bed, now fully awake and on full alert. All the senses she had honed as a super hero were telling her that something dangerous was just beyond the drawn shades of the window. She briefly glanced at the underside of the bed where her spare backpack with her Batgirl costume was safely stored and she considered a quick change before pulling back the shades, but she decided against it. That might give away her secret identity and that's certainly not what she needed to deal with right now. So she just had to hope that whoever, or whatever, was outside her window didn't want to put up a fight right now. Or abducted her. She hated when that happened.

She kept her heart rate down as she slowly approached the window, the tapping growing a little more urgent. She paused for a second as she rested her hand on the drawstring and steeled her nerves one finale time. Despite her preparation she still let out a surprised gasp at the sight that met her once she pulled back the shades. Poison Ivy was lounging on a large vine right outside her window and waving at her. Before the stunned Barbara could react, a smaller vine grew out of the main one and pried her window open. It was only when Ivy started to crawl through her window that Barbara finally snapped out of her daze. Part of her wanted to try to tackle Ivy to the floor and hold her until backup could arrive. Unfortunately, that was the Batgirl part of her and once again she could risk giving away her identity so instead she took the Barbara Gordon action which was to try to get out of the room and go for help.

That plan didn't work either as Ivy's vine snaked around the room to cut her off and place the plant based girl right in front of her. She stopped dead in her tracks and glared up at her former best friend who was still smiling at her.

"Hiya Red. What's happening?" Ivy asked casually.

Barbara blinked, legitimately stumped by the friendly greeting. She continued to think it over for a few seconds, trying to figure out what the villainess was up to. Finally she blurted out the only thing that came to mind.

"What?!" she asked in confusion.

Ivy chuckled softly before she stepped off her vine so she could stand in front of the smaller girl.

"Been awhile, hasn't it?" she remarked.

That remark seemed to break Barbara out of her daze and she crossed her arms over her chest as she narrowed her eyes at the other redhead.

"Since what, the last time you tried to kidnap my father?" she growled.

Ivy took a step back, surprised by the cutting remark. She then let out a soft sigh as she looked down at the floor.

"I guess I deserve that," she muttered.

"You guess? You guess?!" Barbara shouted in anger. "You tried to feed him to a plant! Then you replaced him with some weird plant copy and tried to do the same thing to me!"

"Right there is that," the green girl nodded.

"Not to mention how you became 'Poison Ivy' in the first place. You know when you left me alone at the giant, metal hands of Temblor?!"

"Hey I panicked, alright?! It's not like meant for him to find me. Or for you to find me for that matter."

"Oh they were secret eco-terrorist acts! Well that makes it perfectly fine!" Barbara shouted as she threw her hands up in disbelief.

"Well if you weren't such a little daddy's girl maybe I would have asked you to join me," Ivy shot back as she placed her hands on her hips. "In fact, when I first became Poison Ivy I did ask you to join me! And what did you do? You went crying to daddy who of course went to the Bat who of course had me taken away to Arkham."

Actually I just went to Batman, the younger redhead thought quickly.

She then focused her attention to the person right in front of her. Her face took on a more compassionate look as she reflected on what Ivy had just said. She took a cautious step forward, wanting to show her former friend she was still concerned for her but not give her enough room to try something.

"Okay, fine, maybe I did do that but I did it to help you," she insisted. "And you need help. I mean look at all the things you've done since you became Ivy!"

"What? Try to make the world safer for plants? I don't see how that's so bad," Ivy remarked and cocked her right hip.

"No that's not bad, but trying to replace people with plants? Helping Lex Luthor take down Superman?! How is that helping the plants?!"

The green girl cocked an eyebrow. "How do you know about that?"

Shoot! That's right, I wasn't involved with that one, Barbara thought in a panic. So how would I...waitaminute that's easy!

"Hello! Commissioner's daughter, remember? I overheard him going over the case file," she said quickly.

"Yeah you don't need to remind me you're the commish's kid," Ivy muttered as she crossed her arms over her chest and turned to the side.

Barbara studied her for a moment. "Is that what this is about? Some sort of revenge scheme against, me, my dad, and Batman? Are you trying to abduct me to set up some kind of trap? Cause if you are I gotta admit it's pretty much made of fail at this point."

An accusatory look crossed Ivy's face and she balled her fists up in anger.

"I didn't come here to abduct you!" she growled vehemently.

The younger girl was taken by surprise by the sudden outburst. She quickly regained her wits though and continued to stare suspiciously at her former friend.

"Okay if you didn't come here to abduct me then why did you come here?" she asked.

It was then that Barbara saw dramatic change in Ivy's composure. The frustrated look of annoyance almost instantly faded from her face and was replaced by one of uncertainty. She began to rub her left arm nervously as her eyes darted around the room, almost as if she were unable to look at the shorter redhead at the moment. Her toes curled into the short fabric of the dull grey carpet and she desperately wished she was back outside in some luscious field somewhere.

Well Pam you've come this far, time to just go for it, she thought in determination.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath that she held for a moment before she let it out slowly. When she reopened her eyes, they glowed with an eerie green light as they focused on Barbara.

"I'm here to just talk. You know, as your friend Pamela Isley. Remember her?" she asked a bit snidely.

"Do you?" Barbara shot back, again crossing her arms over her chest.

"Okay, fine I deserve that," Ivy held her hands up in defeat. "But just give me a few minutes and I'll be out of here."

While her suspicion was still on high, the younger girl nodded nonetheless.

"Alright then," the green villainess started. "I'm sure you remember that I'm not very fond of...well...people."

"Yeah, I kinda picked up on that."

Ivy glared at her and Barbara just held up her hands to show she was going to stay quite. The older redhead nodded then continued.

"Because of that little...quirk I didn't really have many friends. Well not human friends at least. Plants have always seemed to like me, even before my make over," she smiled a bit at that last remark. "But when it came to human beings I just didn't know how to deal with them." A soft smile crossed her face as she seemed to look at Barbara for the first time that night. "Then I met you. You were the only one to ever really get how important plants were to me."

Now it was Barbara's turn to be a bit uncomfortable. There was just something about the way Ivy was looking at her that made her a bit nervous. She fidgeted a bit under the strange gaze and took a step back.

"Well...you know...plants are important to the whole world, right?" she mumbled.

"Exactly!" the green girl said happily. "No one else really understood that. But you got it Red! You really understood. It was one of the things I liked about you." Her short lived excitement disappeared as her own nervousness returned. "It was one of the things I really liked about you. In fact...over time I came to realize that I just really liked you. Really, really liked you."

The redhead cocked an eyebrow in confusion before they both shot up and her brown eyes went wide when the meaning of those words finally sunk in. She continued to stare unblinkingly for several seconds as she rolled the idea around in her head. After a very long, agonizing pause, she finally shut her eyes and shook her head to try to clear it.

"You're not talking about in a platonic way, are you?" she asked even though she felt she already knew the answer.

"Not at all," Ivy said with a slight shake of her head. "Trust me I know this is pretty shocking."

"I don't think you do!" Barbara shot back.

"Okay fine, maybe I don't get how you feel but obviously you don't get how I feel either."

"Yeah...you got a point there," she sighed. "Sorry I didn't mean to sound harsh but...this is a lot, you know?"

Ivy nodded and took a step closer. "I do. Trust me I thought about this for a good long while. In fact I almost let the whole thing go, but I..."

"You...what?" the other Red asked cautiously.

"I just...had to tell you have a felt," Ivy confessed, wringing her hands together uneasily. "Even if you say 'no' I just couldn't get on with my life without getting it out there." She then took a deep breath and returned to her usual confident self. "So there it is. It's a lot to take in I know and I'm not going to ask you for an answer yet, mostly because I should really get moving before the cops or Batman find my trail. We will talk about this later though, but before I leave I wanted to give you something to remember me by."

She called back her vine and directed it under her right hand. With a simple thought as small pink and white flower bud sprouted out of it. Ivy plucked it from the vine then closed the gap between her and Barbara. She smiled softly as she placed it behind her former friend's right ear, all while Barbara just continued to stared forward in complete shock.

"Remember the first time I gave you one of these?" Ivy asked softly.

"Umm...yeah," she replied in a distant voice even as she blushed slightly.

The plant-like femme fatal smiled brightly and took a step back onto the vine to leave. It had just started to recoil through the window but suddenly stopped. With a small shrug Ivy mentally commanded it to bring her back in front of Barbara where she clasped her hands on both sides of the stunned girl's face and pulled her into a heated kiss. Barbara's eyes become as wide as saucers and her mind completely blanked under the unexpected, and surprisingly strong, kiss. She was sure it felt like it lasted longer than it actually did but by the time Ivy pulled back, she nearly fell over from shock.

Ivy smirked as long as Barbara could see her and she was very thankful that the kiss had put her in such a daze so she wouldn't see the frightened look on her face as the vine pulled her through the window. She cast one last look at her former best friend and current object of her affection, not really sure what would happen now but hoping it would all end well. Then she was gone, riding the vine away from Gotham University and to a place where she could hide while thinking what exactly she wanted to do next.

Barbara didn't notice at all. She just continued to stare ahead at the faded oak door to her dorm room and thanked every deity out there that Kara hadn't walked in on any of that. She didn't think she'd be able to explain to her roommate why she was talking with the dangerous and wanted criminal Poison Ivy or why said criminal was kissing her! That in itself seemed to replay ad nauseam in her head until the point where she thought it would explode. Finally, somehow, she was able to push it down and try to actually think about what happened and just what to do about it. Still there was just one lingering question in her confused mind:

"What just happened?" she asked herself out loud.

She shook her head again to try to clear it then reached up and pulled the flower bud from her ear. As she stared at it's familiar looking petals, she recalled the first time Ivy put such a flower behind her ear. Just like now she had been confused by what her friend had done but this time there were so many more levels to it. Also like before she knew she had to do something but she wasn't really sure what. Her first instinct was to suit up and chase after Ivy but that wasn't really a good idea at the moment. There was no telling what she'd do when she caught up to her or what she might say.

What could she say? Ivy was apparently in love with her and she...she wasn't really sure how she felt about her. Even with all that happened between them she never really hated Ivy and actually felt guilty for not helping her more after she became Batgirl. She just got caught up in the whole hero gig.

Yeah like that's a good excuse, chided herself then sighed. I just...need to think this out.

She walked over to the bed and collapsed onto it once again. She crossed her arms behind her head and she stared up at the faded white drop title ceiling for several seconds. She still couldn't make heads or tails out of the situation and trying to was giving her a headache. So she did what she always did in situations like this; she turned to her trusty MP3 player. Thankfully she kept it laying on top of the desk near the bed incase she needed some help with some late night studying or just wanted to relax. This was definitely a time for the latter. She placed the ear buds inside her ears and turned the small device on, letting it run on the "Random" setting. She was a little surprised when the first few cords of Michelle Branch's "All You Wanted" started to play as it seemed rather fitting for the situation.

Still she barely paid attention to the song as she closed her eyes and thought back to the first time she met Pamela Isley. It was actually her first day at a high school in Gotham, having just moved there when her dad took over as commissioner of the police. This added the stigma of her not only being the new girl in town but also the daughter of the highest ranking cop in the city. Not exactly the credentials to make her friend fodder. By lunch she resigned herself to spend the rest of the day, and probably the week, alone when Pam sat down beside her. She had to admit she was a little surprised by this turn of events. Not only was someone sitting with her but the girl was a full grade ahead of her. She was actually a bit flattered and now she had to admit, once they got to taking, a bit smitten. Pam just seemed so cool.

The more they talked the more they realized they had in common and before Barbara knew it she was helping Pam with her "protests".

I wanted to be like you
I wanted everything
So I tried to be like you
And I got swept away

Of course back then she didn't know they were secretly scouting missions for Pam's hired thug Temblor. Actually she figured the reason her friend when out on all these protests and acted out enough to earn herself a juvie record was get some attention from her rather absentee mother. Barbara never did find out what happened to Pam's father but she knew her mother took it hard and seemed to pay little attention to her daughter save when she acted out or needed the trash taken out. Thinking about it now it was probably the reason why Pam spent so much time with plants, at least they acknowledged her more her own mother did. It was a situation Barbara wished she could have done more to help with.

I didn't know that it was so cold
And you needed someone
to show you the way
So I took your hand and we figured out
That when the time comes
I'd take you away

Course at the time the only thing she could think to do to help was spend time with Pam and be the best friend she could. To show her that not all people are bad or neglectful like her parents or even some of the jerks at school. Show her that there was actually was some goodness in humanity and maybe help her soften up just a bit and maybe reconnect with people.

If you want to
I can save you
I can take you away from here
So lonely inside
So busy out there
And all you wanted
was somebody who cares

Little did she know that she was just a pawn in Pam's little espionage games against the polluting corporations of the world. Or at least those ones in Gotham. It wasn't that she completely disagreed with her she just wasn't sure about the methods. Especially using a thug with special oven mits that helped him bring down a building. Storming an office was one thing, completely destroying it was quite another.

Then there was the accident that led to their present situation. The mutual one that turned Pam Isley into Poison Ivy and Barbara Gordon into Batgirl and completely changed their relationship forever.

I'm sinking slowly
So hurry hold me
Your hand is all I have to keep me hanging on
Please can you tell me
So I can finally see
Where you go when you're gone

It had seemed so simple when she thought of it. Don a costume, get help from the Batman, convince Ivy to give up and get her the help she needed to get better. That was the plan. It wasn't much of a plan but it was a good plan. Until she realized that Pam actually liked being Ivy and wanted to over-run Gotham with plants. That's sort of when things started to fall apart.

If you want to
I can save you
I can take you away from here
So lonely inside
So busy out there
And all you wanted
was somebody who cares

True, she and Batman did defeat Ivy then and a few other times but really she wasn't actually helping her. Obviously Arkham wasn't doing much good but she didn't know what else she could do. Maybe she should have gone to visit her a few times but that was easier said than done. She would need her father's permission to go into Arkham and she doubted very much he would give her that. Besides she was too busy with school and...being Batgirl.

Maybe that was the problem. She had originally become Batgirl to help her friend but over time she got caught up in the thrill of crime fighting and saw her friend less and less as Pam and more as just Ivy. If she had taken in the interest she should have maybe Pam would still be here.

All you wanted was somebody who cares
If you need me you know I'll be there
Oh, yeah

But there was obviously some part of Pam still in there. The part of her that...liked Barbara. In a way that Barbara herself wasn't even sure how to deal with. It wasn't that she was against gay people or anything, far from it. She just wasn't sure she was one of them or that she could return Ivy's feelings. But maybe she could at least use them to convince her to get the help she needed.

If you want to
I can save you
I can take you away from here

So lonely inside
So busy out there
And all you wanted
was somebody who cares

But would that be her being a real friend or just manipulating Ivy's emotions for her own goals. Even if they were in Ivy's best interests. Still she wouldn't feel right about that. If she were to play to Ivy's feelings she wanted them to be genuine. Again to show her that people really could care about other people. Anything else would destroy that trust and turn her against people forever. Barbara couldn't live with herself is she caused that to happen.

If you want to
I can save you
I can take you away from here

So lonely inside
So busy out there
And all you wanted
was somebody who cares

But that just led her back to the original question: how did she feel about Ivy? Well if she really had to sit down and thing about it she had to admit that, even with the green skin, Ivy was kind of attractive. In fact the green skin is what made her unique and kind of...alluring. The leafy dress was an interesting choice and complimented her petite figure rather well. A figure that wasn't unappealing and one Barbara could actually appreciate. But to appreciate it that much?

Well that was the thing. She wasn't really willing to just say "no" but wasn't sure if she was ready to say "yes" either. It was a big life change in so many ways. Not the least of which included the fact that this girl was a wanted super criminal that she herself was going to have to help to bring in once they found out where exactly she was. And even when they did...she still wasn't sure just what she was going to do.

Please can you tell me
So I can finally see
Where you go when you're gone

Barbara let out a long, sad sigh as she hit the "Pause" button on her MP3 player and rolled over onto her side, burying her face sad deeply as she could in the pillow. She held the small purple device up to her eye line and stared at the dim screen which still showed the title of the last song.

"Well that didn't help one bit," she muttered.

To Be Continued...

Author's Notes: Well here it is! After a little more than a year of talking about this fic I'm finally getting around to writing it! Yeesh! I really did want to get to this thing sooner but you know how real life can be. Still as Babs herself once said "This is just the beginning" so you guys should stick around for it! Honestly I usually say more here but I can't think of much else other than to thank my friend Festum, or Trackula here on FF.N, for helping me out with the title. It's a bit of a pun which I think should be obvious but if you don't get it just ask me and I'll tell you.

The only other thing I can think to say is that this story is obviously going to be a slash story so if you don't like that stuff you should probably leave now. Oh and those who don't like songfics should probably leave too as I have at least two more songs to fit into this thing. Much like the use of Michelle Branch's "All You Wanted" I plan to make them actually fit well with the scenes. Or at least try really hard to. And yes I actually do like that song and for some reason I just see it fitting these two and thus that's why I used it.

Well that's all for me for now, hopefully it won't be too long before the second chapter is out but I wouldn't recommend holding your breaths.

Later all!