Chapter Text
“So… Zatanna said she knew this would happen.”
Dick looked down at Artemis, then chuckled.
“Really?” he asked.
Artemis nodded slowly, mock somber. “Yeeep.”
“Well, I guess that shouldn’t surprise me,” he said, shifting his weight to draw Artemis still closer to him. “She and I aren’t very good at keeping secrets from each other—plus I swear she could look at me and immediately figure out every single thought I’ve had in the last five years.”
Artemis grinned. “Not only is she a sorceress, she’s a witch—she’ll take one look at someone and correctly guess all their deepest, darkest secrets.”
“Not inaccurate,” Dick laughed. “How’d she find out, though—just out of curiosity? Although I wouldn’t put it past her to pick up on even the subtlest of undertones from a humble text message.”
“Well, she asked where the heck I’d been all day since she’d been texting me forever,” Artemis said, “and I just told her I’ve been here. Which then she asked how you were, and then what were we doing, and then why couldn’t I respond after more than the entire afternoon and evening…”
“...And then she guessed what happened, I take it?” Dick asked.
“Yep,” Artemis said. “And then she said OMG SHE KNEW THIS WAS GOING TO HAPPEN and congratulated me. And you, on that note.” Artemis turned a bit so she could meet his gaze more comfortably. “And then she went on to tell me that everyone knew this would happen. As in… literally everyone. Barb included.”
Dick stared at her. “What…”
Artemis nodded. “Yeah. Apparently every last one of our friends and teammates have been taking bets on when we’d hook up for years. And our mentors have been on it, too!”
He gaped at her. “...You’re kidding.”
“I kid you not.” She paused. “...I’m gonna whack Ollie right in the wiener next time I see him.”
He laughed. “Likewise with Bruce—although I’m a little out of shape and might need a few tries to actually land said whack in the wiener.” He trailed off, sobering. “What about Jason?”
“He’s been right there taking bets with everyone else.” She shook her head. “I’m either going to kill him or hug him—but it would explain why he didn’t fight very hard when I broke things off.”
Dick squirmed. “...I’m gonna owe that guy a sincerely written letter of apology soon.”
She chuckled. “Yeah, man—he’s been dumped for you twice now. But! I have it on good authority that he’s hanging out with Barb as we speak. I think he’ll be okay.”
Dick buzzed his lips in what sounded like relief. “Honestly, they were a good couple. It sounds weird, but I’ll sleep better at night if they end up getting back together.”
She nodded. “No, I get it. Same, to be honest. And they were a good couple… but you know you were Barb’s first love. Like that girl carried an Olympic-sized torch for you when we were in high school. I’m glad she at least got a chance to try.”
Dick smiled. “We had some good years. Can’t say I regret them. My secret feelings notwithstanding, of course.” He lay back with a forlorn look and lamented, “And here I thought I hid everything so well…”
“Well. Good news. There’s no need for that anymore,” she said. “I guess there’s truth to the old adage that the last people to know how they feel are the members of the couple itself.”
He was quiet a moment, looking up at the ceiling. “And no one is really… you know, angry or anything?”
Artemis smiled. “Not to my knowledge. It didn’t even sound like Barb or Jason were angry. Honestly, if they were casting bets, they’re at least able to have a sense of humor about it even if they were upset. I’d say that’s a good sign.”
Dick let go a sigh, then smiled back at her. “Good.”
When she leaned in to kiss him, she still couldn’t quite believe all that had happened between them over the last hours—but for as surreal and unexpected as it was, she felt no compunction for any of it.
She’d never been one to fast track relationships, and she knew that even had her intimate history been different, she likely still would have taken a slower approach to any romances that came her way. Perhaps it was out of an intrinsic aspect of her personality, maybe it was out of self-protection, or it might have been ingrained into her by her upbringing. But to her mind and thinking, relationships were to be taken over long periods of time and never rushed. How would she know she could trust the person beside her—and moreover, that they would trust her in those early, endorphin-ridden months?
But somehow, with Dick, she felt as though she couldn’t move fast enough—and every next step they took came as naturally and comfortably as the last. It was all just so organic and right.
Dick had been her partner in so many ways for years. He was always her closest, most trusted ally in combat, the best of her teammates, and her dearest and most intimate friend. He complemented her in ways no one else did or even could, and she’d known this all along—whether she’d bothered to consider that knowledge or not. By the time they’d shed the majority of their clothing and the skin of his chest met that of her own, it all felt long, long overdue.
She hadn’t gone into kissing him a second time with the intention of it escalating, but it did quickly—and she had no qualms about it. She moved over him, one leg sliding across his middle, then raised the hem of his shirt to trail her fingers across his abdomen. She smiled when she found a ticklish spot at his ribs, teasing him a little with it until he laughed and kissed her harder.
She pulled back and lifted up over him, her knees bracketing his hips, his shirt drawn halfway up his torso. “So… have you been cleared to…”
He inclined his head in query.
She smiled, and felt her face redden a little in both excitement and, to her own surprise, some unanticipated nerves. “You know.”
Dick grinned in response, tilting his head further. “What?”
Her own smile widened. “...You know.”
“I don’t know,” he said, all innocence, a devilish gleam in his blue eyes. “What?”
Artemis laughed. “Oh, come on, Dick.”
He lifted up and kissed her. “What, make love?”
She yanked her head back and groaned. “Ugh, you did not just call it that.”
He cackled, lying back down. “I did, in fact—I know how much you love that term.”
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, it’s consistently in my preferred vocabulary. But in seriousness—are you okay for it?”
He reached up and twined his fingers in a lock of her hair. “Yes. Cross said it’s fine as long as it’s nothing too wild.”
“Well. Guess I’d better not mention that bondage kit I brought along…”
He laughed. “I’m pretty sure you can tie me up and gently abuse me without any serious ramifications.”
She leaned down to kiss him. “Not my style. Not for first times, anyway.”
He gazed at her, one hand on her cheek. “...So we’re really doing this?”
“If you’re okay with it…” she told him, “then yes.”
He lowered his touch to take her hand, then guided her palm to cover his erection. “Oh, trust me. I’m very okay with it.”
She laughed, snaking her hand under the elastic of the track pants he wore to grasp hold of his stiffening length. “I see that… Or feel it.”
His whole body vibrated when she kissed him then, his form shaking under hers when his hips lifted into her touch, his tongue pushed into her mouth. His hands laced hard in her hair. Her own body gone hot and quivering, she stroked him faster, taking in his outbreath and the sensation of his heart as its quickening beat palpably reverberated through him. Artemis paused only to let him pull her shirt from her torso and unhook her bra, her back arching as he filled his hands with her breasts the second the garments fell. She worked the fetters of his clothing away, then her own, leaning down finally to feel the press of his naked flesh against hers before rising again.
He gazed up at her a moment, his hands lightly resting on her hips, his chest frenetically rising and falling. Artemis couldn’t stop herself from noticing the mark at his ribs—the entry site of the bullet. It was still dark and pitted, and would be she knew for a long time yet. She softly laid her fingers on the forming scar, realizing that same bullet might have very well been responsible for bringing them here. In an odd way, she felt a strange gratitude toward it.
“...I love you, Artemis,” Dick said into the humming quiet.
She smiled, then mimicked vomiting. He laughed.
“Okay, being serious now,” she said, reaching between them, her heart thumping in tandem with his. “I love you, too.”
He smiled up at her, then shifted.
“Just a warning,” he said, “this might not last long… I’d love to blame the fact that I got shot recently, but I think it’s more I’m going to have a problem with you being too gorgeous.”
She laughed. “Well, thank you. Likewise, by the way. And just FYI—quality over quantity, Boy Wonder.”
His head fell back with a deep groan when she took him into her body then, lifting and canting with an even greater feeling of homecoming than she’d experienced in his nearness. He released her hips, his hands spreading over the coverlet beneath him, his chest swelling. She looked down at him, appreciating the sight of all of him stretched beneath her. His eyes were closed, his brow furrowed, his jaw working as he breathed with little satisfying hmms escaping on the exhale. She rested her hands on his pectorals, riding him with mounting ardency. His eyes opened and met hers, their clear blue unbelievably vivid in the illumination from the bedside lamp. She ran her hands through his hair—soft and thick in her fingers—as she leaned down to kiss him again.
She bore down, surprised when a powerful, sudden climax shook its way through her body in a wholly unexpected seism. It hit her like a hard crash to a gong, and she vocalized her peak, unable to restrain her voice from crying out. Dick shouted into her parted lips when he came immediately after, lifting up into her, filling her with seed as he rocked his hips, his cry lowering into a moan. They cleaved to one another, skin to skin, each riding out the aftershocks in each other’s grip.
In time, she relaxed atop him with a deep exhalation, relishing his lapsing weight within her and the feeling of his hand as it rested on the nape of her neck.
“Okay, I’m just going to out myself, here,” Dick said suddenly. “Do you have any idea how many times I fantasized about this? And in this same bed, no less.”
She laughed. “Well, as long as the real thing stood up to your imagination.”
His eyes sparkled. “Oh, trust me. The real thing left even my wildest imaginings in the dust.”
“Good,” she said, then grinned at him. “And by the way, you still lasted longer than me—go you!”
“Go me,” he said with a laugh, and met her lips.
They rested like that a while, both of them wholeheartedly content, neither speaking, but not needing to. Eventually, he softened inside her, at last withdrawing to pull her close.
And now, after they talked about their friends and kissed some more, she laid her head on his chest, listening to the soothing sound of his heart. He lived, and he was here, and to a joyfulness and gratitude she never anticipated, he was hers.
“You were a kindness,” he murmured, then chuffed a soft laugh. “I’ll be needing to find a new song for you soon.”
She reached an arm over him to give him a squeeze. “We’ll find something.”
He grinned, and kissed her forehead.
They lay in comfortable, companionate quiet then until they both drifted into a sleep as peaceful as it was deep. While she dozed off, Artemis thought with satisfaction that she would gladly spend every night like this—connected to her partner, her true partner, each of them no longer shattered.