A/N: Ah, my first attempt at an Older!RobinxArtemis thing. I like dabbling. A lot. Probably the third longest one-shot I've done…

I'll admit this: from where it starts, I was almost considering just leaving it as friendship. Then I decided against it. Then I toyed with the idea again before leaving it. Really, took me four days to write it and find the end game of it all. So this is the finished product, hope you like it.

Sidenote: Spitfire is non-existant for this fic.

Disclaimer: No, I don't own. Bite me. Gosh.

Side-By-Side

Batman had strict rules. They were out of Mount Justice at a training camp sort of deal that Black Canary had said would "be good for them". Boy, was she wrong...

The rules were this:

One: Don't screw around.
Two: Don't screw around.
Three: Don't screw around.
Four: Humans in bed two hours earlier than metas.
Five: Wally is not to be given Pixi Stix under any condition.
Six: Don't screw around.
Seven: Yes, Wally, that means you.

Only one of them even remotely applied. Dick kept his stash of Pixi Stix close; no way was Wally getting his mitts on the kid's sugar stash. But that wasn't even the enforced rule.

Humans in bed two hours prior to metas.

Artemis and Robin both fought on this one. "We live in Gotham!" "We can see in the dark just as good as they can!" "So what if we get the West Nile Virus? What do mosquitoes have to do with anything?" "We can't fight in sunshine all the time!" "We'll be fine!" "We can train as hard as they can!" "Are you trying to make the metas look better than us?"

The real reason for the rule was this:

Black Canary said she had a whole schedule of training planned out. In showing it to the Dark Knight, he noted that they weren't getting to bed until two A.M. Sure, by Dark Knight Gotham Time, that was nothing, but that didn't mean Daddy Bat couldn't try to get his kid to sleep earlier.

But Dick didn't want special treatment. So Bruce roped Artemis into it and slapped some labels of humans and metas on it and called it a night, giving Canary back her schedule and moving on with his life.

"You did that on purpose, didn't you?"

Bruce nodded when Richard confronted him. The argument ended there with an angsty fifteen-year-old Robin storming off. He hated special treatment.

The first day passed and as night fell, Artemis and Robin were ushered off to the tent that the six teens were sharing. It was more of a punishment than a camp. Whatever sick joke the whole thing was, no one wanted to be there. Training, fun, yay, sharing a tent- like a military tent, not one of those dinky camping things- with a snoring Superboy and the sleepwalking/sleeprunning Wally was somuch fun. And Kaldur was prone to talking in his sleep sometimes.

Not camp. Two weeks in Hell.

"They do know we're not going to actually sleep, right?" said Artemis to her human comrade as the two stood turned away from each other pulling on shirts and shorts. "Because if they do, they've got another thing coming, the ass-holes."

"I'm sorry I got you into this. Special treatment 'cause of Batman." Dick stretched his shoulders while watching the now bulky muscles strain against the pull. He listened for Artemis to say that he could turn around. "You're just the unlucky sucker who got stuck with me."

"I could be stuck with Megan," remarked the blonde as she pulled off her sweaty uniform and pulled on a tank top and skimpy shorts. "Better you than her, so I'm not complaining too much." A smile tugged at the corners of her lips as she turned around and snapped her fingers twice, the unsaid signal. As Dick, no mask, no sunglasses, turned around, the archer crawled beneath the blankets of the bed she'd claimed. Back corner, as far away from Superboy as possible. Yeah, he could lift a freight train, but he also snored like one.

"Well, if your plans are to stay up for the next two hours, what are you planning on doing?"

Artemis paused from snuggling into the thick blankets. They were out in the desert where fleece was a necessity at night. The blonde did take a moment. They couldn't go outside. They couldn't go anywhere. "You gonna stay awake?" she asked as she watched him flex a little bit more. She wasn't interested in him like that. He'd grown up pretty nice though. Less muscular than Superboy, more so than Wally, still athletic enough to rival an Olympic medallist and taller. Plus, she finally knew how blue his eyes were.

"Why would I sleep when Wally's still awake?" replied Grayson as he tilted his head back to get a crick out of his neck. "I don't want a makeover any time soon."

She did giggle. Because that was definitely Wally.

"So what are we going to do?" asked Robin as he sat in his own bed while curiously watching the archer who was toying with the ends of her blonde locks while her brows knit together showing how deep in thought she was. He nestled into his own bed, blankets drawn around his shoulders like cape, making him look small and young again.

"Can't go anywhere, can't do anything, Canary said she'd check on the lights out status once she fixed Conner's left hook." Artemis was coming to a painful conclusion. "There isn't much we can do," she said at last with a heavy sigh. "Just sit around and chatter about the weather and how much this sucks."

"I don't mind." He was wearing his usual smirk. Not smug, not happy, just glad that he could be part of it. It was only the two of them, sure, and Artemis didn't have any other options, but it still made Robin feel like a part of something. He liked it. He didn't mind. To him, it was just another day.

"You like the weather?" Now one of her golden brows was raised in a questioning manner. "And how much this sucks?"

"No," said the Boy Wonder as he settled down into the bed, head propped up by his hand. "I just don't mind. Talking isn't something bats usually do."

She understood now. "Ah." There was a long moment of silence as Richard didn't answer. He was distracted by a newly found freckle on his forearm. "Idle chatter about..."

"Favorite things," suggested the raven-haired teen as he turned his attention back to her; he'd ask Alfred if that freckle had always been there at the end of the two-week camp. Alfred would know. "Wally and I used to do this all the time. It got crazy sometimes." He grinned at the memories.

Artemis could only imagine...

"Favorite fruit?"

She smiled. An awkward question to start off with but at least he was willing to talk. Better than some people (Conner) she knew. "Peach."

"Apple." Dick already knew this would be fun. "Favorite band?"

"The Band Perry."

"Counting Crows." Yes, this would definitely be fun.

Black Canary came in about an hour later on a brief water break. She found the two curled up in their own beds with the lights out, neither twitching nor stirring. Satisfied, she took a draught of her water and left them to sleep.

Artemis's head popped off the pillow. "Shit, you really do have epic hearing!" she said in a hiss, her wild grin invisible in the darkness.

"Told you so." He was smiling right back. "Favorite movie?"

"Definitely 'Hoodwinked'," confessed Artemis while making herself comfortable after the sleeping charade was over.

"No way, 'Saving Private Ryan' is the best!"

Night rolled on.

They were lying there quietly when Aqualad, Kid Flash, Superboy, and Miss Martian came in. They'd barely managed to settle down a giggle-crazy moment over the fact that Robin's favorite article of clothing was his socks because he hardly wore any.

The next night ran the same way.

"Favorite book?"

"Oh, that's easy, 'The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place' by E. L. Konigsburg. Greatest. Book. Ever." Artemis had her beat up copy of it somewhere in her bag...

"Nope. 'The Poet', Michael Connelly. Seriously. Great book." He had it packed away safely; in other words, Wally wouldn't be able to find it and burn it. "Favorite song?"

"Right now? Um... 'Your Love is My Drug', Ke$ha."

"I thought you'd have better taste than that." He shook his head and tsked disapprovingly at her. "Currently, OneRepublic's song 'Goodbye Apathy'."

"Very nice." Artemis watched him shift in the darkness. "Favorite color?"

"Blue."

"Ditto."

"Is that the first thing we've agreed on?"

"I think so."

And she was actually enjoying talking to him.

"Animal?"

"Squirrel."

Artemis couldn't help but stare. They'd survived the first five days of training and had spent ten hours worth of their time listening to each others' favorite things. Not surprisingly, they'd learned a lot. Artemis loved science, hated jalapenos, liked cats more than dogs, and had bad taste in pop music. Dick loved English, hated banana bread, always wanted a fish named Ima Fish and had surprisingly good taste in old movies for a kid his age.

Yet he was named after a bird and his favorite animal was a squirrel. "What?" she asked in a huffed voice, a somewhat questioning smile poised on her face.

"It's an inside joke with me and my dad. My mom called me her robin and my dad suggested we call me a squirrel instead. Since I was named after the bird, squirrel gets the favorite animal position. Make sense?"

Something else had caught her attention. Artemis's eyes squinted. "Wait, there's a Mama Bat?" asked the girl. It wasn't possible... was it?

"No." Dick's reply was short and quick. "Clearly you didn't look at the files that were passed around when my name got spilled by Kid Mouth."

"Didn't need to know." She gave a little shrug, hoping he could see it in the darkness. She had his real name, nothing else mattered. He was Robin and Dick, no backstory necessary. "Giraffe. Favorite type of lamp?"

Eight days into it and Richard wasn't sure he could learn anymore.

She liked floor lamps, hated the color yellow, hated football, wanted to name a pair of donkeys Jack and Ass, wore ribbons in her hair as a child, hated romance novels, her favorite Smurf was Greedy Smurf, would name her daughter Kayla and her son Jeremy, wanted to buy a rug for her room, and had daddy issues.

Eight days and Artemis wasn't sure if she could learn anymore.

He was in the circus once upon a time, disliked stripes, hated croutons, had a cologne that smelled like vanilla-cherry scones, wanted a nice Dodge Challenger when he got his license, was terrified of the movie 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs', loved reading the dictionary, and his favorite flowers were forget me nots.

What more was there to learn?

"Favorite kind of soda?" Robin was lying back on the pillow while staring up at the tent's "ceiling".

It was getting exhausting more than anything. Training all day, go to sleep early, get rest, wake up and do it all over again. But asking all the questions along the way... That was the tough stuff. Fun but tiring after a while.

"Grape," responded the blonde.

"Coke."

Damn it was getting boring.

"Rob?"

"Yeah?"

"We need to find a new game."

"Agreed..."

"Second thing we've agreed on." She gave a tired smirk.

He let out a strained little laugh.

"Then let's play..." He was almost scared to suggest it, but he said, "Truth or Dare?"

She smirked and responded, "Dare."

More games ensued. "Lick my foot."

"That's nasty." She did it anyways. Artemis wasn't about to wuss out on such an easy dare.

Later that night, when Superboy collapsed into his bed, he heard a farting noise and muffled giggles. The next morning, he pulled a whoopee cushion out from under his mattress.

Three days worth of Truth or Dare later and they were running out of dares. Because no one wanted to ask for any truths. "I dare you to..." Nope. Nothing at all. Nothing left to be dared.

And three days left of being sent to bed early. Then camp would be over and life would go back to normal.

"Just give up, there's nothing less for us to do in this stupid tent!" Artemis already had cabin fever. For the past two nights, she'd been dying to go home, curl up in her own bed and sleep for a month. She missed the Gotham air, the scummy streets, the way the newspapers crumpled in her pillow with every movement, the way her mother always nagged... The desert was lonely and she was homesick.

He had one more game up his sleeve. No, not cards, but something worse. He twiddled his thumbs for a few minutes while Artemis ranted before asking in a moment of silence, "Wanna play Nervous?"

It wasn't an awkward stare. She was familiar with the game. She'd never played it herself, but she knew how. And she wasn't sure if she wanted to. "Are you serious?" she asked. Yeah, she was up for it. It was like the sexual version of Truth or Dare. And he was just a kid... that was now fifteen years old...

"Why not?" He gave a shrug. She was a friend. They would be fine. Hell, it was better than sitting around doing nothing. They'd already talked about their personal lives, their love lives, past pets, future plans. "I don't care if you don't want to, I'm just throwing it out there."

With a bit of a shrug, she pulled the blankets off herself and stood up, fixing her clothes a bit before moving to sit herself across from him on his bed. "Alright, let's go." She was a spitfire, one to never back down from a challenge. This was no exception. She'd taken all the dares to prove that she could. She'd given herself a Wet Willie, run into the fabric wall of the tent, dug a hole and filled it with mud and then stuck her foot in it, and stabbed a hole in Kaldur's canteen. She wouldn't back down.

Although she couldn't deny the awkwardness of his hand on her shoulder and her hand on his thigh. It was only going south from here. "You start," she said with a bit of a smug grin, her folded legs touching knees with his.

His hand moved down from her shoulder only an inch or so. Dick looked her right in the eyes. "Are you nervous?"

Still wearing that same smug grin, she held up her chin defiantly and replied a simple "No." Her turn. Her fingers crawled up his thigh. She thought she saw him cringe. "Are you nervous?"

He'd seen his parents die, watched people bleed out because of gang violence, and heard about drug overdoses on a daily basis. Yet her touch was already bothering him. "No." Because Robin would never back down from a fight. He wore his own smirk of defiance.

A frown tugged at the corners of her lips. This would be harder than she thought. And she felt his hand move down a little bit more. She winced as his blue eyes found hers, the two staring at each other intently. She could see the fire in his eyes. When he asked "Are you nervous?", she shook her head, keeping that eye contact. This was a battle she wouldn't lose.

Her hand crept closer. "Are you nervous?"

"No." He wasn't nervous. Just edgy. He'd played this before and won countless times. Of course, he hadn't played against someone so much older than him or someone with the determination of a thousand men. Usually he would've had it in the bag with the staring at the way he asked with his charming voice. But not against Artemis.

He moved his hand down. This was suddenly getting a lot harder. "Are you nervous?" Blue stared into blue. Man, why wouldn't she just give in? He admired her unbending determination and her serious stance against the world, but she didn't have to be so tense about something as stupid as this! But Dick would never lose if at all possible...

She shook her head. And some part of her was registering how close they were both emotionally and physically... She almost wanted to- No way, Daddy-Bats would wring her neck and beat her hide before using it as a rug in the Batcave. If the rules had been expanded on a Batman level, rule number two would've said "Don't mess with Robin". Which meant rule number three would've said "Yes, Wally, that means you". Or "Yes, Artemis, that means you". Either way, the bird was off-limits and she knew it. "Robin."

Her eyes were suddenly serious and he could read it as if she were an open book. His hand moved back up towards her neck and he pulled her just a little bit closer so their lips could tou-

"Woah, I clearly picked the wrong moment to walk in."

Two heads snapped towards the open tent flaps where a certain redhead was standing while cradling a wounded arm. Glaring blue eyes found the interruption and gave equally irritated stares.

Wally gave his little shrug. "Hey, I can sleep in Black Canary's tent just as good. Walking away now, carry on." The tent flaps fell shut again as the speedster stumbled back out and towards where Black Canary's tent was. She had a bed, right? What was the difference?

Artemis pulled away, her gaze finding her fingers that had, at some point, interlocked with his. "Okay, well that was awkward." She cleared her throat and kept her gaze down, suddenly realizing that if Batman knew any of this, she'd die. She'd die and rot in the fiery pits of Hell. Death by Bat-Glare. Who would've thought? The archer always figured an assassin, maybe, but not a glare...

Dick was trying to keep his cool. Part of him wanted to carry on while the other part wanted to beat Wally over the head with a pillow. Repeatedly. Until he was unconscious. Wally, of all people, was always the moron to ruin great moments. The raven-haired teen scoffed his friend's name. "Wally."

Where to go from there? Back to her own bed, definitely. She figured they'd have to go back to talking about their favorite things. But she already knew that his favorite kind of chair was a recliner. She didn't want to go back to that. The girl started to get up and retreat-

A hand had a firm grip on her wrist, keeping her from getting too far. "Artemis." It sounded almost sad. And she didn't want to hurt him. Because she did feel like there could be a connection. If Batman didn't murder her first. "Are you nervous?"

Yes, she cracked a smile. No, it wasn't part of the game, but he'd grown accustomed to how awkward questions went with her. She'd get nervous and the tension would come prickling off of her like a porcupine's quills. He felt that now and Dick could only associate it with having this little moment discovered and something get out.

"No." Because she wouldn't back down when he made it sound like it was a challenge, like there was something they had to finish. She was too strong for that despite the weakness in her heart to give into his sad, pitiful voice. Slowly, the archer turned around to find Dick giving her his big grin that she'd grown far too used to in all the years they'd worked together. She settled back down on the side of the bed almost reluctantly; a silent prayer was sent, one where she prayed for Batman not to kill her.

A second time, he leaned in and their lips brushed. It was only a moment in their lives. Fingers intertwined. Skin touched skin if only for a heartbeat. Silence in the moment. Silence. All the talk was of emotions, silent emotions.

Pulling away, Robin's fingers trailed down her neck and back to her shoulder as his smile was a bit more content now. He wasn't sure if that was what he'd wanted or if he'd just needed to see if it would work. A spark, yes, but he wasn't sure if that was enough to keep anything alive. He knew so much about her, nothing they agreed on except for the color blue. Chemistry and sexual tension, sure, but he knew better than to push that envelope. "Are you nervous?"

After laying side-by-side with him for twelve nights and learning what she had never known about the Boy Wonder, she figured trying couldn't hurt. Even if Batman killed her. "No."

A/N: Argh, I hate how cliché and cheesy the ending felt, but damn, I wasn't sure how to do that without it looking terrible. So I'll suck it up and take my punishment. Review with comments and feedback please!

~Sky