Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THESE CHARACTERS. I am writing for the joy of it, there is no money to be made here.
A.N. This is a fan prompted fan-fic written for one of my lovely followers. She asked for some Robin and Artemis love, so here we are. The song is we're all here by beautiful world.
"…Strawberry lips shining in the summer sun
Canary-tips glowing there for everyone
You fell asleep under the cherry tree…"
The warm spring sun shone down across the grass in splotches of gold and a sweet shade of daydream yellow. It was the kind of lazy day that seems to be made perfect with sweet ice cream and gentle laughter. These are the kinds of days I don't get often. I see others paired off, holding hands and smiling to each other. It makes me sick inside most of the time. But, this time- it's different. With my back pressed up firm against the tree I gave a soft sigh. It felt weird to be waiting for some one.
Spring Daze
High up on a branch midway up a tree, Artemis sat with her long legs stretched out before her. She had her thin arms tucked up behind her head for support and to keep her lengthy blonde hair from tangling itself in to the bark of the tree with the wind. She had a habit of putting distance between herself and the others in the park, by climbing this tree. But today was different. She wasn't hiding from them, this time she was just in the tree to get a better vantage point.
Her dark eyes scanned the landscape before her, watching for him to show up. This was her first time waiting on him, since he wasn't the type to keep some one waiting. But she would forgive him- this time.
"He better have a good reason for why his ass is fifteen minutes late-"
Before she even had the hope of continuing her rant, an overly relaxed voice seeped into her ear.
"Oh I do."
Her eyes flashed wide, but quickly narrowed into thin slits. She hadn't jumped, but she had leaned foreword, dropping her arms to her side. Slowly she leveled her breathing before whipping her head around to point that well focused glare at the dark haired boy hanging upside down from the branch above her.
"Didn't surprise you, did I?"
His boyish laughter sang out into the warm breeze and seemed to dance around her. It was a soothing sound, but her face remained unchanging.
"No."
Her voice was short. But she knew he could tell it was a cover. He could always see through her. No matter how hard she tried to build up her walls, he made her feel transparent. She was growing to like it.
"So, why are you late then? Let me guess, 'work related business'."
He calmly flipped himself up onto the branch he was hanging from and dropped down next to her. His well-placed feet balanced on the branch between her and the trunk of the tree as he lowered down to crouch beside her. His smile wide and warm as he reached out to brush a strand of her hair from her face. Letting his touch trail over her cheek as he slid his bare fingers down the length of the strand before tucking it behind her ear.
She watched her reflection in those dark sunglasses waiting for his response. She tried not to huff at his touch, but couldn't help her self. She quickly shifted away from him slightly and fixed her hair so that it sat back better behind her ears.
"My training took longer than planned-"
He slid his legs down and sat on the branch, careful of his left wrist, which was wrapped in a flesh-toned bandage, that had she not been watching him move she would have missed because of his long sleeves. She sighed and reached for his arm, pulling it to her she yanked up the sleeve exposing the wrap that covered the lower half of his hand, his wrist and clean up most of his fore arm.
"Though you didn't get hurt, tough guy."
His cheeks stained a pale pinkish tone and he turned his head away from her teasing gaze.
"Yeah, okay- well that fall was harder than I though. It's nothing."
She shook her head and let his arm go. He let it fall back down to his side. She knew he was lying but she knew better than to press, he wouldn't tell her anyways. It wasn't like him to complain.
"Right, what ever."
A soft breeze whispered it's way across her shoulders pulling her hair free from her ears and pushing it to incase her body in a soft halo of gold. Robin just sat there watching on in a quiet state of awe. Her face was set, her eyes portraying her frustration, while her lip had that slight pout.
"What are you /staring/ at?"
Without missing a beat he smiled wide.
"You. Duh."
He gave that warming laugh that caused her to turn her head away from him to hide her uncomfortably.
"Whatever."
Robin gave a friendly snicker as he reached his hand out and captured her chin turning it so that they were face to face. If it had been anyone else she would have pulled away, jerked her chin free from the touch and squared her shoulders in a brave front. But it was different with Robin. She let him hold her face steady, as she looked on into those dark glasses, relaxing. Artemis felt her breath hitch as he leaned in slightly. Her eyelids grew heavy and her lips parted slightly in anticipation of contact.
His lips playfully hung before hers, waiting for her to move in that last bit to complete the kiss and despite how much Artemis hated being controlled, she complied. She leaned into him, letting her cheek rest into his hand and her lips fall on to his. A gentle breeze swept her hair around them as his lips incased hers in a warm kiss that seemed to hang on her mouth even after he pulled back. He sat there watching her behind his dark sunglasses smiling even though she couldn't see. Artemis sat there with her eyes closed; in fear of breaking the moment but the longer she sat there the more awkward she began to feel.
"So, what did you want to do?"
Her voice was shaky as she tried to manage her hair back again. She opened her eyes slowly and shifted on the branch. Those glasses where starting to annoy her.
"We could, go see a movie."
She scoffed and whipped her head around to face him again. His eyes grew wide enough to shift his glasses but he stayed mostly unmoved.
"A movie? From behind sunglasses? Really?"
Robin gave a weak shrug and shifted uncomfortably.
"Ugh! Just, forget it."
He gave a nervous laugh and rubbed his shoulder.
"Art-"
She held up her hand to stop him.
"Just don't okay? There's no point. This was a stupid idea in the first place."
Robin watched as she shifted to prepare herself to jump down and quickly grabbed a hold of her shoulder to stop her. Artemis turned to look at him with anger spreading over her face but it faded as fast as it had come as she watched him bring his free hand up and remove his dark glasses.
"Artemis, please."
Her expression softened as she looked on into those crystalline blue eyes looking back at her. She was speechless. This wasn't the first time she had seen those eyes, but she never got over the surge her insides did whenever she got to see them again.
"Do you want to see a movie?"
She nodded dumbly before collecting her composer.
"Sure, why not?"
Dick Grayson beamed proudly at her and swiftly stole another kiss before rather clumsily climbing his way back out of the tree. Almost at the bottom his foot slipped and dragged down the tree until he fell backwards and landed in the grass with a hollow thud. Artemis heaved a deep sigh and cast herself down from her perch with more grace, landing on her feet beside Dick. She eyed him a moment shaking her head.
"Smooth."
He simply smiled in response. Dick sat up and dusted himself off as best he could and glanced over his shoulder to face Artemis.
"Yeah well-"
He gave a half-hearted shrug and pulled his knees up to rest his arms on them. Artemis watched him struggle inside himself with the battle to stay Dick Grayson without letting Robin shine through. It was hard for him to be himself, but not enough like Robin. She sighed, rolled her eyes and dropped down onto her knees beside him.
"You're so stupid."
She waited until he jerked his head up to defend himself, waited until she could see the confusion in his eyes before she leaned in and captured his lips with hers. Dick's face seemed to freeze up at first contact, his pastel blue eyes wide. But as Artemis tilted her head slightly to press firmer into the kiss, he relaxed. His lids grew heavy and he let himself relax into the contact. Her hair fell around her, incasing her face and trailing down over Dick's shoulders. Carefully to not break the kiss, he tilted his head the opposite way she had hers leaned and let his fingers quiver their way slowly up to nestle into her blonde hair. It was mostly to hold it back out of his face, but it was more that Dick couldn't help himself. In moments like this he found it was harder not to touch her than it was to just leave her be. He would trail trembling fingers over the backs of her hands and up her arms or lazily play with her hair between his fingertips. He had never been an overly affectionate person but something about the way her kisses felt made him want to hold her.
The sound of a dog barking a way down the path pulled his mind back to the here and now and he slowly pulled back form the warm kiss, his eyes lazy and dreamy as he looked on at the blonde before him.
"What was that for?"
She sank back onto her heels and gave a single shoulder shrug.
"Nothing. Let's go"
He let his lips tilt up into a warm smile that grew bigger as their eyes met. She huffed but didn't pull away as he reached for her hand. Artemis even let him lace his fingers with hers once they had stood up.
And after all that, the movie that caught, it didn't suck as much as she thought it would either.