the robin & the canary; young justice

oo8: Downtime

"Okay," Dick answered, getting up again. "You wait here. I'll be right back,"

Then, though Reese still looked a bit confused, she stayed sitting on the bench as Dick left the park, darting into the alley where he'd been earlier, and punched in some coordinates on the Zeta tube's hidden keypad.

Recognized Robin B-0-1

When Dick stepped out of the Zeta tube, he was back in Gotham City, or more accurately, the Batcave. Bruce and Alfred were off doing whatever, so Dick was alone.

The Boy Wonder then dug the golden arrowhead out of his pocket and took out the empty piece of paper.

He swiped one of Bruce's pens off of the Batcomputer's desk and wrote a quick message, before tossing the pen back again and stuffing the paper back into the arrowhead.

Does it work?

Yes, Reese answered a few seconds later, and Dick found himself grinning. Where are you?

Gotham. I wanted to see how long of a distance these things would work with.

They're magic, aren't they? So what if they don't have a distance limit?

Dick had to admit, Reese had a point. So, after sticking the magic arrowhead back in his pocket, Robin headed back to Star City, where he met up with Reese outside the park.

"So, what do you think?" Reese asked as soon as she saw him walking towards her.

Dick shrugged, trying to seem nonchalant. "Well," he began. "I suppose it's pretty cool,"

"You suppose?" Reese echoed, grinning, and Dick laughed.

"You're right," he conceded. "Definitely feeling the aster with these things,"

As they began to walk down the street, Dick couldn't help but hope there was something he could do to make Reese feel better about tomorrow.

It was hard to feel the aster when both of your parents had just been murdered.

He must have zoned out a bit, because the next thing Dick knew, he and Reese were outside Oliver's front door, and Reese was going inside.

Okay, that was a bit weird, Dick thought to himself. Why did he keep zoning out? He supposed he was just tired. Robin and Batman had been working pretty hard lately, maybe it was just that.

Since Green Arrow and Black Canary had some Justice League business to attend to, and Roy was at his own apartment, and the Team wasn't currently on a mission, Dick and Reese were the only ones inside the apartment.

As Reese walked to the fridge, Dick leaned over the ceramic island separating the kitchen from the rest of the apartment, and stared rather directly, mind you, at the shorter brunette as she pulled a bottle of orange juice from the refrigerator.

When she noticed him staring at her, Reese paused. "What?" she asked, and Dick sighed. He knew when Reese was bottling up her feelings, burying them deep down inside where she left them to simmer until the pot boiled over, but this was ridiculous.

"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked finally, and this time, Reese was the one who sighed.

"I told you, Dick," she began, grabbing a glass from the cupboard and setting it on the counter. "I'm fine. It's been four years. If anything, I'd gotten over it as soon as we caught Blockbuster inside Cadmus,"

Now, if Dick hadn't been the protege of Batman for the last four years, he might have believed her. As it were, he was still Robin, the Boy Wonder, and he also knew when Reese was lying.