Gotham Girls #2: Nights For Nightwing (Batman) [Watty Awards 2014]

Chapter Eleven - Torn

My eyes opened again and I felt the side of my face slick with moisture. I had no idea what had happened, but my hair was clinging to me. My pillow had somehow become saturated, but again, I couldn’t figure out how – all I knew was that Dick was awake, but still behind me, rubbing my side in comfort.

“Lani, are you alright?” he asked, turning me to face him. I realised I probably looked like absolute crap, especially after going to sleep with make-up on and my pretty dress. It wasn’t logical, but I was too tired to change. But as I looked down, I was a little surprised, and a bit relieved – I was dressed in a baggy t-shirt and boxers, which certainly weren’t mine. My dress was hung up in the corner of the room, my shoes directly underneath them.

It took me a while to realise that Dick had changed my outfit while I was asleep. The term ‘pervert’ struck my mind, but I decided that as long as he didn’t actually do anything to me while I was asleep, then it didn’t matter. I knew he didn’t – otherwise I would have woken up.

“You changed... My outfit?” It was barely a question, more as an inquired statement. I stared down at my new outfit, still trying to comprehend what was going on. Dick smiled at me and rubbed my shoulder, trying to comfort me.

“I didn’t want you to ruin your dress. You looked beautiful in it by the way. Also, Em gave me a few make-up wipes. It seems she knew you’d fall asleep at my place.” With a wink, Dick helped me off of the bed and swept me into his arms, carrying me over to a table. Muttering a thank you, a smell of bacon and eggs drifted into my nose.

“Hmm... Very original,” I teased, sitting down, half asleep.

“Excuse me, missy, but would you like to cook breakfast?”

“No, thank you, Mum.”

“I didn’t think so.”

I giggled at him, before rubbing away water that was on my cheeks, trying to figure out what had really happened while I was asleep. Dick seemed to want to know as well, as he stared at me, seemingly studying me as I ate the food that he had placed on the table for us – bacon, eggs and orange juice.

“Lani,” he began, “what happened last night? I mean, one minute, you’re all safe and sound, and the next, you’re whimpering and crying, like someone hurt you.” I didn’t know how to answer, and how close to the dream that statement was. It had begun to scare me a little.

“You know, just a nightmare...” A freakishly realistic nightmare. It was obvious that Dick didn’t believe me, knowing that there was more to what I was just saying, but he dropped the topic and began hacking at the food in front of him. I, for one, wasn’t particularly hungry, so instead, I decided to watch him eat – just to try it. I had seen people watching their romantic interest eating, and it seemed so sappy, but now, I just felt like a creepy stalker.

“What are you doing?” he asked through a mouthful of egg, managing to spit some out accidentally. I chuckled, brushing a piece of hair back before smiling at the gorgeous boy sitting opposite me in the tiny room.

“I’m watching you eat... Wow, that did not sound any better, even in my head...” Dick’s eyes stayed on mine for a few seconds after he awkwardly swallowed his food, but throughout the rest of that time, we both remained silent. It was a little like those movies where voices in peoples’ heads tell them that they should kiss the other person, and the other person is thinking the same thing, but they don’t kiss and have an awkward moment instead.

“So... It’s officially the weekend. What would you like to do?” As much as I wanted to stay with Dick and hug and kiss him all weekend, I figured that listening to his every whim was probably not the most attractive look for a woman, so the term ‘hard-to-get’ came into my mind.