Promise Me
Characters: Nightwing and Mystery Girl (but don't worry she's cannon)
Pairings: None
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort
Notes: See if you guess who the mystery girl is before it's revealed at the bottom XD

"You don't want to be a hero, trust me," the words leave Dick's mouth like venom as he stares at the newest "hero" he's discovered.

"Oh ya and why's that?" Although he can't see the girl's eyes he knows that they're staring at him intensely, probably with that same look Babs gave him when she was annoyed. "Is it because you don't think I'm good enough? Because I totally am, I just went toe-to-toe with that thug down there!"

"And you would've been shot if I hadn't knocked out the second one!" He screamed back.

"Please, he would've missed," she snorted. "Trust me I know guns, it pays to be raised by a criminal."

Dick shook his head, now she reminded him of Artemis, stubborn, blond, and raised by the bad guys, but that wasn't what bugged him. What bugged him was the fact that he had never lost an argument with Artemis and he was worried this girl was going to be the same.

"But what if he hadn't!" Dick insisted his stomach tightening, "what if you had—" the word wouldn't come out, the word had refused to come out ever since the REACH invasion, ever since Wally had…he shook the thought away.

Get traught or get dead, he reminded himself. He's gone, you can't change that.

"Please I'm brilliant, he never would've laid a hand, or a bullet on me."

Again Nightwing's stomach became tight, that's what Wally had always said.

"Now back to the question at hand, why wouldn't I want to be a hero?"

"Because it's dangerous," Dick says his arms crossing.

"Please," the girl groans. "Of course it's dangerous; I knew that, we all know that."

"No you don't understand!" Dick yells and he watches as the girl jumps, startled. "It's fun at first I'll admit, it's thrilling and amazing and you love it and then…" Dick gulps and tries not to cry. "And then you start to lose people, you watch as people die and you can't do anything, and it's worse than any wound I've ever gotten." He looks at the ground.

"And the worst part is, that you can't stop, no matter how much you want to stop, no matter how much you need to stop you can't. It becomes an addiction, a necessity, and you lose friendship and you sacrifice things you never thought you would and then…" he gulps loudly and makes eye contact with the girl. "And then just when you think it's over, just when you think that everything's going to be okay, your best friend dies."

The girl takes a step back, startled by his sudden change in demeanor.

"And you lose that one last glimmer of light in your life, just like that it's gone, snuffed out forever and I don't want you to have to experience that. I don't want to watch you break and suffer the way I've seen so many other heroes."

"They're good people, but that doesn't matter, because good things don't always happen to good people, because life's not fair. Because the hero gig isn't fair, it's not fair to me, it wasn't fair for KF, it's not fair for Tigress and it's not gonna be fair for you."

The girl's in shock and she's shaking and for a moment Dick thinks she's going to leave, that's she's going to forget everything she thought she would do and go home, but then she stops and her demeanor changes in a flash.

"Well then I'll just have to prove you wrong," she says.

And Dick panics, "please don't I don't want to—"

She looks at him, "I want this, please I want this like you'd never imagine."

And he knows he knows that tone of voice; he's heard it in so many people.

He's heard it in himself, in Batman, in Artemis, in Kaldur, in…in Wally, and he knows that she won't give in.

"Then promise me one thing."

She looks startled by his sudden acceptance and he can feel her eyes barring into him, "promise me that you'll train hard and not get yourself killed. Promise me you'll find someone to watch your back and if you can't contact me and I'll find someone for you."

She doesn't move or speak.

"Please," he begs and she nods.

"Deal."

And he relaxes, "then why don't I get your name."

"Sorry," He can tell she's smiling under her mask, "Spoiler."

He smirks, now she's Bart…he misses Bart, maybe he should stop by the Allen's before he goes home.

"Very well Spoiler, til we meet again," he bows.

"What no I didn't mean—"but he's already gone, disappearing into the darkness.

So what'd you think? The girl was supposed to be Stephanie Brown aka The Spoiler from the comics, she also appears in one of the YJ episodes I think, but anyways, just a quick one shot.

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