You know that feeling you get when someone you know is keeping a secret from you and they know that you know that but still they won't tell you? Aurelia Hall knows exactly how that feels. She knows Clara is keeping something from her; it was easy to figure it out, what with her suddenly being so secretive. But it isn't like Aurelia is obsessed with finding out whatever her aunt is hiding. She's going to turn sixteen in a month and she is on the last few weeks of her summer break before she starts her junior year.
So forget the damn secret. She's going to enjoy these last few weeks before she is crushed under the burden of homework, patrol and training with Clara.
Aurelia turns over on her bed, with the blanket covering half her body. Even though she has been awake for almost an hour now, she feels too lazy to even get off the bed and brush her teeth. And even Clara hasn't tried to make her get up for training, so she's enjoying this moment of relaxation as much as she can.
Even as she lays in the dark on her bed, there is a part of her that is still wary that Clara is planning something because she has that kind of attitude. Maybe that is the secret. Who knows?
"Aurelia, aren't you up yet?" Clara stumbles into her room, groaning slightly as she opens the door. "Did you forget? You have to finish the translation of the book by tonight so that you can finally figure out your familiar."
Aurelia doesn't reply and instead covers herself with her blanket. "Can't I take a break tonight? This week? This month?"
"Aurelia..." Clara says in a tone of warning. Aurelia can hear her footsteps get closer till she feels the edge of the mattress sink a little. With absolutely no warning, Clara pulls the blanket away from the bed and tosses it to the ground. Aurelia lets out a shriek as she closes her eyes and brings up her hands to cover her face because she hates the light at the moment.
Then Clara's phone rings and the noise is even louder and a lot louder than Aurelia would like. So she moves her hands to her ears and covers them, before shutting her eyes tightly. She is not going to get out of bed. She is not going to get out of bed. And she is definitely not listening to her aunt talking urgently on the phone.
"Aurelia, there is a problem that the Justice League needs to deal with," Clara tells her as she gets off the call. There is a grave look on her face (but Aurelia, of course, doesn't know about it). "I'm going to drop you in Gotham to stay at Bruce's mansion and you're gonna have to be there for a couple of days."
Aurelia is getting out of bed. "What the hell do you mean? Can't I just stay here? I'll totally be responsible. I don't wanna go to Gotham. It's too..."
"Depressing?" Clara interrupts, with a slight smile. "I know it is. I would love to send you to Themysicra or Atlantis but trust me, teleporting there. Not fun. And I believe both Donna and Garth are in the middle of some important training so who knows if they'll have time to hang out with you."
"So you want me to hang out with Dick?" Aurelia says, with slight disdain. It's not like she would mind hanging out with him; it's just that she had planned to stay in bed all day and this stupid mission of the Justice League is disrupting her plans to rest. (the mission's probably super important...but Aurelia, she just wants her rest)
"You two need to let yourselves be teenagers too; you and Dick...both of you are too obsessed with catching bad guys."
"Umm...that's kind of what we do."
"Whatever. Pack an overnight bag, Aurelia," Clara instructs her as she stands up from the bed. "We leave for Gotham in ten minutes."
***
Gotham will forever live up to its reputation as the town of gloom. Once Clara drops her off and she and Bruce leave together for whatever mission the JL is going on, Aurelia finds herself in the living room with a very angry Dick. Although she doesn't expect a huge welcome, she at least wanted to hear a hello from her friend like Alfred had greeted her earlier. But no, nothing comes Aurelia's way except for the slightest grunt of acknowledgement from Dick.
Even just sitting on the couch, Aurelia can feel the intensity of the anger in his room, just by looking at Dick's face. Rage seeps through his voice as he angrily rants about his situation and the fact that Bruce isn't letting him go on patrol while he's out of town. She feels incredibly confused and maybe slightly scared (although she'd never admit that) because she has never seen him this angry. She doesn't know what she's doing and instead grabs his arms and drags him in the direction of the Batcave, ignoring his sounds of protest.
Once they finally reach the massive cave, full of computers and highly dangerous equipment, she lets go of his arms. The beginnings of what can be her craziest idea, have already formed in her head. Aurelia can feel Dick's intense stare on her back as she walks up to the weapons case. She opens it up and grabs the two Bo staffs before shutting the case.
Aurelia tosses one of them to Dick and stares at him, with a mildly analytical look. "Hit me."
"What?" Dick sounds surprised and for a moment, the anger disappears from his voice. "Why would I do that?"
"I can feel the anger coming off you in waves, Richard," She drawls, getting into a fighting stance. "And what better way to release it than to fight with me? Besides, I could use some physical combat training."
"Don't call me that," He hisses and gets into a similar fighting stance as her. "I am not going to hold back on you if you keep on saying things like that."
"Good," Aurelia says with a slightly mocking tone. "I don't want you to hold back. Hit me as hard as you can, Boy Wonder. Because I am not going to hold back either." A part of her tells her this is a bad idea; the other part of her says she can easily beat him up with her magic and yet another part of her says that she should not use her magic in this fight because they're friends and she is doing this for him as he is a dear friend of hers.
Of course, Aurelia listens to the last one.
The two teens advance towards each other, with both of them trying to understand the other's moves. Aurelia knows Dick is going to be much better than her at fighting with a staff, but she is pretty good at fighting with a pair of swords, so a Bo staff shouldn't be too difficult to handle, right? (she's probably gonna use the staff in a similar manner to a sword, which is kind of dumb, but Aurelia likes to do dumb stuff).
She receives her answer in the next moment. Dick almost hits her with the staff and she barely manages to raise her staff to block his attack. The loud clang echoes throughout the cave and then they're back at it again. She strikes the next moment and swings the staff the way she does with sword trying to disarm him but he catches the strike with his staff and she almost stumbles before balancing herself.
Dick's blows get harsher like he is finally letting his anger out. Yet none of his moves are reckless; they're calculated and he knows exactly where to strike. Thank god, Aurelia knows how to dodge and defend because otherwise she would already be floored.
His next strike almost manages to hit her shoulder before she ducks and swings the staff towards him. He also dodges in time and Aurelia lets out a sigh of frustration. 'Damn it, why the hell does he have to be so good at this?'
"You giving up already, Lumen?"
"Not at all, Robin."
They go at it for a few more rounds, till Aurelia's momentary distraction causes her to receive a blow straight to her jaw from the staff. A burning sensation spreads from her lips to her chin. She raises her fingers to her lower lip and feels the slightly torn skin. She winces as she drops her hand before striking back at Dick, with a slight fury. She hates being hit (which is where magic comes as an advantage; but this is not a magical fight so she has to be content with using a Bo staff).
At first, Aurelia is fast and the suddenness of her moves surprises Dick, so much so that she manages to hit his shoulder. Taking advantage of his momentary shock, she strikes him again and this time, she hits harder with a lot of force. He stumbles backwards and the Bo staff almost slips out of his hand.
"I thought you were supposed to be good at this," Aurelia taunts him, which in hindsight might not be such a good thing. "Or are you holding back on me eh, Bird Boy? Or you know I am going to kick your ass, so you've already given up."
His face contorts into a furious look and he growls out, "Shut up. Don't talk like that to me."
"Well, why don't you stop me then?" She presses her lips together in a tight smile, one that shows that she is not going to back down. "Because I'd like to see you try."
Dick glares at her again and before Aurelia can realise, he attacks her with so much fury that she barely has any time to defend herself. Strike. Dodge. Strike. Dodge. Strike. Dodge. Strike. Dodge. Strike. Dodge. Strike. Dodge. They continue their wild dance around each other, each trying to maximise the amount of hits they land on the other. But Dick has gained the upper hand in their fight and he continues to strike her, again and again with the same amount of speed as before so much she can barely raise her Bo staff in time to stop him.
With one last final blow Dick hit Aurelia's wrists with his staff, making her drop the staff in her hand and cry out in pain. "Jesus, you hit hard!"
"Told you not to say anything to me, didn't I?" He says with a smug, victorious look on his face. "You'd only lose, babe."
Now Aurelia's the one who feels irritated and her stomach even does some weird backflips. "Really? Are you kidding me?" Her lip still stings, yet she wipes the sweat (or blood) with the sleeve of her hoodie.
"Let me show you how to actually fight, babe," Dick smirks at her before tossing his Bo staff to the ground. "I don't need my anger or a staff to help me beat you."
"I'd like to see you try, Dick," Aurelia glares at him as she clenches her fists. So now he's like that, huh? Does he get some weird release from hitting other people? (please ignore that last question; it is rhetorical)
"I bet you couldn't even land a hit on me."
"Are you trying to make me angry or what? I was doing this for you and for my own practice; not for it to devolve into a whole training session."
"I know, but I've been wanting to kick your ass for the longest time. And what better time and place to do it, than now when I know you won't use one of your spells?"
"If you piss me off well enough, I will use magic and I will turn you into a frog who'll not have any princess to kiss him."
"Why would I need a princess when I have you, Lia?" Dick winks at her, and for a minute she's thrown off.
'Is he flirting with me?' Aurelia blinks before the annoyed, angry and irritated look returns to her face. "Oh, I'd never kiss you, Dicky bird. Not for a million years. I'd rather kiss Garth than you; at least he is more handsome."
"So you have a crush on him?" Dick questions as a brief flash of...well, something, passes across his face. "Can't wait to tell him about that."
"God no, ew! He's like a brother to me! I was just saying that to tease you." Aurelia gets into a fighting stance, the second time today but this time with her fists. "Now, enough with the irrelevant talk. I'm going to hit you hard and you, my friend, are so going to regret annoying me."
"Why don't you hit me then?" Dick questions, with raised eyebrows and a wide smirk on his lips. "Because I'd like to see you try."
"So annoying!" Aurelia says with a frustrated sigh. "You are so annoying."
Aurelia advances towards him, raising her fists before she throws them at him. He's quick on his feet as he dodges them, before swinging his own fists. She barely manages to duck before she sidesteps to dodge one of his move. Then she uses her right leg and shoves it in his stomach.
"Fuck!" Dick curses loudly before he manages to steady himself. He manages to grab both her arms and then spins her around, putting one of his arms around her neck, placing her in a chokehold. "Got you now, didn't I?"
Aurelia can feel his warm breath on the back of her neck. She can begin to see spots dance in front of her eyes and her breathing starts to feel really constricted. If she doesn't make a move in the next few seconds...her mind goes into overdrive and she loops her right leg with his before using a lot of force to send him to the ground. Aurelia pants heavily as she towers over Dick, one hand near his neck and her knee on his chest to stop him from getting up.
"Who's got you now?" Aurelia leans close to him and whispers in his ear. He shoots her an annoyed glare as she stares back at him with a smirk.
"Nice moves," Dick remarks. "But they're not enough to beat me." Using all the weight of his body, he pushed her off him and towards the ground. Aurelia groaned as her body hit the cold floor. He climbed on top of her, pinning her to the floor as he held her arms to the side, preventing her from even hitting him. "Now, who's the loser?"
"Go to hell," Aurelia glares at him, biting her lip out to prevent an angry Latin swear from escaping her mouth. They're very close to each other; close enough that if she had use of her hands, she could have easily punched him in his jaw. But they're also so close that Aurelia can see the small specks of green in Dick's eyes and the very light amount of freckles just above his nose. She can see the sharpness of his cheekbones and her gaze can't help but fall towards his lips. 'Fuck me. If he wasn't my friend, I'd totally kiss him right now...'
'No! Aurelia Hall, you will not think of him like that! He's Dick Grayson, your best friend and nothing more!'
"Why don't we stop for the day?" Dick says as he peers at her in confusion. He's, of course, caught the slight change in Aurelia's expression and doesn't really understand why she's staring at him with such intensity in those bright green eyes.
"Okay, but we better pick this up later on. Because I know I will kick your ass."
"You keep on wishing that, Lia."
"I will kick your ass, Richard John Grayson and you know it. Now do me the pleasure and get off me, please. You're heavy and you're crushing me."
"Oh sorry about that," Dick lets her go and gets off her. Aurelia sits up on the floor and raises a sleeve to wipe the sweat that has pooled in on her forehead. She winces slightly as her lip stings again. She's so going to fall asleep as soon as she hits the bed. Her entire body aches and she is reminded of just why she doesn't like doing physical stuff.
"I hate physical stuff so much," Aurelia grumbles slightly as she gets up,using Dick's arm as support. "I really don't know how you and Bruce handle yourself without having powers. Don't you get hurt easily?"
"Oh, we handle it, alright," Dick replies as he places an arm around her shoulders as they started walking towards the exit of the Batcave. "You just need some practice if you want to be almost as good as me."
"Did you just insult me twice in the same sentence, Dick? Because I will punch you again."
"Maybe I did. What are you going to do about it?"
"Nothing," Aurelia says with the slightest of smiles. She wouldn't do anything, but there was no harm in letting Dick think the opposite, right? "Why would I do anything?"
Dick looks at her with a wary glance. "That smile of yours says something else."
"Oh honey, this smile says a lot of things. You just have to figure it out." Aurelia giggles as she pulls away from his hold and runs out of the darkness of the Batcave.
She and Dick....they make a pretty good team, don't they? Even as Aurelia skips away, she suddenly remembers that she didn't really ask Dick what went wrong. She promises herself she would do it later.
For now, it's a hot shower and then complete rest for her.
this is the first fight scene that i'm actually really happy about. another plus point here is the fact you got to see aurelia and dick flirting 😉😉 and aurelia realising that dick is pretty cute hehe.
i hope you liked this chapter. let me know what you think in the comments below!
shoutout to lookingforlucy for the amazing gif banner you see at the top!