"You've be staring at her for the past two hours."

"Shut up."

"What? If you're not going to go over and talk to her then I'll do it for you."

"I said, shut up."

The blonde man sighed loudly, pushing his long, unruly hair behind his ears as he leant back in his seat, folding his arms across his chest as his eyes remained fixed on the book which was open in front of him. Of course, he knew that he was going to fail the exam. He was pretty sure of it. He was one hundred percent positive that you couldn't revise for an exam in less than twenty four hours. Unless you had en eidetic memory which, of course, he didn't.

He looked to his side where the black haired man sat, his eyes focused on the page in front of him, pleading with the information to go in so he didn't fail the exam. He couldn't fail the exam. It was what he had always wanted to do and he wasn't giving up now. His brown eyes remained fixed on the page, but, they occasionally glanced up, noting the brunette sat on the other side of the library.

"You're doing it again," the blonde commented and the black head sat up straight, turning his head to glare at his friend who shrugged in defence, noting the death glare which he was receiving. "What? You are staring at her."

"I'm glancing," he mumbled back. "There's a difference, Rob."

"Whatever," he rolled his eyes back at him. "If you don't stop staring then I'm going to have to go and ask her out for you."

"You're crazy," he muttered, trying to look back at his book as his brows moved further up his forehead. "Besides, we're in a library. It's a quiet area."

"I think you'll find this area is not a silent area but merely an area for people to work quietly, John, my friend," Rob replied, the smug grin which so often occupied his face in full play as John scowled down onto the black writing on the page and Rob yawned once, looking around the room at the rows of bookshelves which sat on either side of them. The librarian was situated behind a cheap, wooden desk, looking at a computer and paying no one any attention.

"Besides, you dragged me here. The least you can do is let me go and talk to her," Rob wailed lowly and John turned back to look at him, shaking his head in disbelief as he did so.

"You have you exam tomorrow," he reminded him. "Just like me."

"We both know that I'm going to fail it," he let out a nonchalant shrug as John remained mute. "Besides, the force isn't for me. I only joined to wind my dad up."

"Oh yes," John remembered, irony radiating his voice as he said it. "I forgot that you don't really need a job when your father owns a multimillion dollar company."

"Hey," Rob held his hands up in defence, flashing John his best smile as he looked at him. "It isn't my fault that I'm minted."

"Well some of us actually need to learn this stuff. You know, so that we can get a job." John reminded him and it was Rob's turn to roll his eyes back as he shrugged once and nodded over to the brunette who was still sat opposite them.

"I'll talk to her, don't worry, she's not my type," he assured John who snorted once at that, flicking the page of the book as he did so.

"Meaning that she maybe has a brain," John muttered.

"Hey, nothing wrong with any of the girls I date," Rob said, rolling his neck from side to side to reduce the strain of it as his hands moved up and behind his back, stretching as he yawned.

"I would hardly say that you date them," John deadpanned with him, still trying to focus on the words on the page in front of him. Trying being the operative word. "You take them out for a meal and sleep with them and then don't call them."

"A meal is a date," Rob shrugged. "Got to do something around here, Johnny boy."

"I've got to revise for this exam," John drawled back to him. "I went through a lot of months at Community College studying Psychology for this. If I pass then I'm in."

"Providing you don't fail the criminal background check," Rob taunted him.

"I doubt that will happen."

"Well, whatever, good for you," Rob said, sounding uninterested and bored as John looked back at the brunette at the desk on the other side of the room, pushing the glasses which she wore further onto her nose before tucking her hair behind her ear. She bit down on her bottom lip before resting her head into her hands, her eyes still looking at the book which sat on the wood before her.

Rob noted his friend looking again and the grin moved back onto his plump lips as he chuckled, causing John to move his attention back to him.

"I'll go ask her," he said and John shook his head. "You've been out of the dating game for a while."

"That's because anyone who you set me up with annoys the hell out of me."

"I'm setting you up with her," Rob said, pushing his chair away from their desk as John's brown eyes widened in horror at what he was seeing. "I'm helping to speed the process along."

"Rob!" John hissed as his friend began to walk off, pulling his tight fitting jeans higher onto his hips as he glanced back at John, his eyes glittering with amusement as John sat back in his chair, his hand running through his hair as he tried to focus on his book.

Rob walked across the tiled floor, the usual confidence in his stride before he took in the girl's appearance. She was average looking, nothing like the stunning women he found at events held by socialites. Her clothes weren't designer; that much was obvious. The cardigan she wore was blue, long, and baggy considering she had to roll the sleeves up all the time and her jeans were tight fitting against her small frame.

Rob took a seat down opposite her, looking at her as she remained focused on her book. It took a moment for her to look up at him as he remained staring.

"Can I help you?" she wondered and he shrugged once again at her.

"You see," Rob drawled, "I'm sat with my friend over there...you know...the one in the grey top...pretending to swat over books but he's really wondering what I'm saying to you."

"He's been glancing over at me for the past hour," she informed Rob who blinked quickly in shock. So, she had noted. "It can be really off putting. Obviously, not as off putting as the effect which you have on him."

Rob remained silent, his lips in a straight line as he looked at her and wondered how she knew that. She smirked lightly before tucking her hair behind her ear again.

"It's obvious you're the trouble maker in the relationship. It is clear that he wasn't going to come across here and say anything so you did it for him even though I am guessing he protested with you not to," she reasoned and Rob's mouth twitched upwards for a second as he shook his head at her, wondering how she had deduced that. Was he trying to set John up with some crazy psychotic woman?

"You've got to be a Psychology student," he informed her, his finger wagging in her direction as she arched a brown brow on her forehead and shut the book in front of her. Rob's eyes moved onto the front cover, reading it as she shook her head.

"Biology," she clarified. "It's pretty obvious. I was just observing."

"I didn't catch you looking."

"I wasn't going to watch when you were looking," she rolled her eyes. "Look, just tell your friend that I'm not interested."

"Come on," Rob pleaded with her, clasping his hands together and resting them on the desk as he leant forward. "He won't go out with any girls who I set him up with...you're more his type...not mine..."

"I doubt you really have a type," she muttered and Rob remained quiet again as she shrugged in his direction, picking her pen up and twirling it in her hand, looking down at her notes as she did so. "Just observing," she assured him and he inhaled sharply.

"He's too shy to come over here and talk to you."

"Or, he is trying to study and doesn't want to be distracted?"

"There could be that."

"I don't date people who I've been set up with," she informed him. "I don't have time, anyway."

"You're already perfect for him!" Rob exclaimed, earning the librarian to snap at him from her desk for being too loud with a perfectly timed 'Sh!'

"He doesn't do anything but work either," Rob said, his voice low as she pushed her hair through her hands and he remained seated, his arms tightly folded across his stomach. "I'm not going until you agree."

"Fair enough," she agreed with him and piled her notes up as Rob smirked smugly.

"I knew you'd come around."

"No," she shook her head. "If you're not going then I'll go."

She stood up, picking her brown satchel up from the floor and flinging it onto her shoulder before holding her books in her hands as Rob watched her and she suddenly remained still, looking over his shoulder. Rob followed her gaze, noting John stood behind him as he sat at ease in between them.

"I'm sorry about him," John apologised to the girl and she shrugged at him. "He's a persistent ass."

"Hey," Rob complained and she shook her head.

"It's fine," she assured him. "I was just leaving anyway."

"She's leaving, John," Rob pushed him. "You should maybe ask her out before she goes."

John's cheeks turned a deep red as Rob remained staring over his shoulder and the girl shifted uncomfortably from one foot and onto the other, looking down at her black, flat shoes as she did so.

"Yeah...so..." she said, a small cough moving through her throat as she motioned to the staircase of the library. "I'd best go."

She walked over to the staircase as Rob stood up and John watched after her, shaking his head as he did so and Rob hit him around the back of the head.

"You're never going to get a girl acting like that."

"Shut up."

...

John stepped out onto the steps of Gotham Central Library, his hands in his jacket pocket as he gave up on revision. There was no point when Rob was there. He wasn't learning anything. Rob had left him for his car parked around the back, informing him that he had a date that evening and needed to pick her up. John had rolled his eyes, realising he would have to walk back to the apartment which he was managing to rent with thanks to the part time job he had at the DIY shop around the corner from there. It would all change soon.

He'd be an Officer. He would make something of his life.

He looked around the busy street in the warm, Spring air, seeing people going about their own business as he saw the bike stand which sat by the side of the library and she was there. She was bent by her bike, pressing on the tyre as her bag sat in the basket along with her books.

He was in two minds about what to do. He didn't want her to think he was a creepy stalker. Then again, she didn't know him and there was a chance that he may never see her again.

"Are you alright?" he asked her and she looked up to where he was stood. She began to stand, hitting her head against the handlebar as she did so. John stifled the laugh which wanted to escape his lips as her hand moved onto the top of her head and she nodded, unlocking her bike from the stand as she did so.

"Flat tyre," she complained. "There was a bit of glass...sticking out...from it..."

"Are you sure you're okay?" he checked with her, his eyes looking at her hand on her head and she removed it from her hair.

"Fine," she assured him. "I'm okay...I'd best be going...I need to walk with this now..."

"Can I have your name, at least?" he asked her, managing a small smile in her way.

"Alison," she said simply. "Alison Carter."

"John," he replied out of politeness. "John Blake."

"Well, it was nice to meet you," Alison said, a polite nod of her head which made her glasses fall down her nose. "I really do have to go."

"Yeah...fine..." John replied, itching the back of his neck as he watched her move her bike, her hands holding onto the handlebars as she walked beside it and he thought for a moment, taking a deep sigh.

"Hey!" he called after her, rushing to her as she stopped, turning back to look at him as his eyes moved around the streets awkwardly. "I...well...I'm sorry about Rob...but...do you want to get coffee?"

"Now?" she asked him and he shrugged airily.

"Whenever," he responded and she bit the inside of her cheek, shaking her head as she did so.

"I can't," she said to him. "I need to go home and study."

"Well...what about another day?"

"I'm busy."

"Every day of the year?" he asked her and she remained looking sadly at him, wishing he would get the hint, but, he didn't. She took in his face, all the way from his neat cut hair to his blunt chin and his brown eyes.

She took a deep breath, moving into her bag and pulling out a scrap bit of paper from her notebook and she found her pen, scribbling digits down onto it before handing it to John who took it. She placed her hands back onto the handlebars of her silver bike and shut her bag in the basket.

"I'll call you then," John said, holding the piece of paper up and she nodded once at him.

"Okay," she agreed. "Now...I have to go..."

John nodded in agreement, extending his arm to motion for her to leave before he moved. She nodded once again at him, pushing her bike down the road and he watched her scurry off before chuckling to himself and shaking his head.

...

A/N: So, after watching the Dark Knight Rises, I decided to make a Blake/OC fanfic after my Crane/OC one went quite well. There will be a lot more to come, the first chapter is just the introduction and that's all, it'll get better as it goes along, but let me know what you think!