#babsdicks

Four Days Left Until DickBabsWeek26 Begins!

Relationships:  Dick Grayson/Barbara Gordon | Dick Grayson & His Siblings

Rating: G

Additional Tags: Magical Mishap | Wings | Fluff

Summary:

Now that the magic user is in JL custody, the reversal ritual is complete, and according to the greatest magical resources the Bats had available, Gotham will be returning to normal upon the strike of midnight. Dick Grayson has one last mystery to uncover.

@dickbabsweek25 Day 4: Falling | Flying

Excerpt:

“This might clear the top 10 stupidest thing I’ve dealt with,” Jason grumbles as he pulls off his helmet, careful not to snap his new appendages.

Dick snorts, feathers fluffing before settling against his back as he twists to catch to look at Jason’s wittle wabbit tail twitch in annoyance. Tim, famous for lack of self-preservation, reaches out to bat lightly at the floppy rabbit ears growing out of Jason’s hair.

Link to part one: https://www.tumblr.com/jenn0wow/734964837205114880/batgirl-ignite

After discovering a 100 year old university secret and taking down a cult of brainwashed sorority girls, Barbara Gordon has set her sights on off-campus crime this school year. However, her investigations on a mysterious string of arsons gets interrupted by Nightwing, who has a job to figure out who she is and stop her. Meanwhile, Barbara’s school life gets interrupted by Dick Grayson, and her quiet life on campus gets disrupted.

—-

CRIM365 was on the third floor of a building that smelt and probably felt like an ornate wooden casket--well, what he imagined it would feel like in an ornate wooden casket. Something about that place at 9am reeked of death which seemed like the appropriate ambience for a crime history course.

He never thought about ever going to college so he wasn’t sure what to expect out of this whole experience. Not that he didn’t think he shouldn’t or he couldn’t go--the moment he was adopted, he knew that possibility was open to him--, but more that he didn’t think it was what he wanted. He wasn’t really big into school, mainly the whole structure of it. He didn’t go to school while in the circus--surprisingly one of the clowns was previously a school teacher so he sort of taught the children on tour. After Dick was adopted, he was given a set of private teachers, kind of like he was homeschooled, but in the most rich and privileged way possible. He would have gone to Gotham Academy if he wasn’t so far behind his age group in certain subjects. The education part wasn’t a struggle, once given the proper structure, he actually excelled in all his classes. However, It was a bit isolating--to be in Wayne Manor with just adults trying to make him ordinary, and then Bruce making him extraordinary. The Teen Titans luckily changed all that for him, but now that’s all over. That was all his fault too.

Room 308. He turned in and immediately, he felt the room shift in attention. Of course everyone was staring at him. He had gotten used to it after his biology class and his English class and in the halls and, basically everywhere on campus. He wasn’t completely uncomfortable with it. He understood their fascination with him, and it made talking to everyone pretty easy. After his trip, he had just forgotten what that kind of attention felt like again.

Dick politely waved at everyone as he walked down the rows of seats. There weren’t many open--was he supposed to get here earlier than the time listed? He made his way to the back to an empty seat where he thought he was going to be alone, but then he saw a girl--sort of crinkled up in her seat with her head in a book.

He sat in the empty seat next to her, waiting for some sort of interaction of “Hi, thanks for sitting next to me, do you wanna be study buddies, blah blah blah blah. Please follow me on Instagram!” But, there was silence. Nothing. Maybe she was just nervous, shy. Maybe he’ll make the first move.

“Hey, so do you know when this class starts? I didn’t think everyone would be here this early.” He said, hoping for a response.

SIlence, again.

He waited a few more seconds of silence to causally stretch his arms up, feeling his sore muscles scream a bit from last night’s fight. He leaned back in his seat to look at her better. Maybe she had air pods in or was hard of hearing. When he looked past her book, however, he learned that she was actually asleep. Like deep asleep.

He paused, trying to figure out what he should do. He’s heard about college students being super tired, but didn’t think he’d see someone sleeping on the first day of school.

Dick weighed the most polite thing to do. She did look super tired so it felt rude to wake her up, but also if class started and she was still asleep, she could miss something. As he looked at her longer, he realized he knew her face from somewhere. It was the moles on her face that triggered something in his memory.

“Gordon.” He said, not really meaning to blurt it out.

Her eyes blinked open. “Huh?” She pushed her glasses up a bit then rubbed her eyes. She looked around a bit confused and saw him staring at her.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up!”

Barbara pushed her hair out of her face and sat up. “It’s okay…” she was clearly embarrassed.

“You’re the commissioner’s daughter, right?” He asked, needing to know if he was right or not before he stopped bothering her.

She nodded like she was anticipating this interaction and went back to looking at her book.

“Wait, we met before, right?” He asked, knowing he was still bothering her, but needed to make sure.

“Yeah, it was that gala at the History museum.” She said. Was she disappointed he didn’t really remember? A little, but it wasn’t surprising.

The teacher walked through the door and immediately started talking. Dick wanted to keep talking, but obviously he couldn’t.

He did remember that day. There weren’t many kids there that night and at some point they found each other next to each other. She was all dressed in black, not like she was in mourning, but that she just liked to dress that way.

“I don’t wanna be here.” She muttered under her breathe.

“These things always suck. I can get us into the kitchen and sometimes you can get the desserts early because they feel bad for you.”

They both slipped away to the kitchen and snagged two raspberry tarts. They ate them in secret into the dinosaur exhibit.

“So this is your first rich people party?”

Barbara nodded while taking a small bite of the tart. She didn’t really like it and started picking at the crust. “Yeah, my dad has been invited to a few things in the past, but usually my mom and I stay home together. He doesn’t like me staying home alone. My aunt is busy tonight anyways.”

Dick nodded. “Bruce thinks it’s important for me to understand the business world. I don’t mind it though. It beats staying at home and playing chess with Alfred.”

She looked at him. “Who’s Alfred?”

Dick rolled his eyes. “The butler.”

“Oh, so you’re rich rich?”

“Bruce is rich rich and I’m just partaking in that richness.”

Barbara placed the plate of raspberry filling on the ground. “Does this feeling ever go away?”

Dick looked at her, not sure what she meant.

“Like, you’ve put placed in the wrong timeline and there’s nothing you can do about it?”

Dick looked down at her plate and then back at the ceiling. “Never. Everything feels wrong always.”

She looked down at her lap with a familiar sadness he’s felt before.

“There’s still good things to look forward to. Like sitting in a room full of dead dinosaurs eating free dessert.” She smiled a bit when he said that. He then looked down at the plate again. “Are you going to eat the rest of this?

She shoved it closer to him. “No. It has little seeds in them.”

He picked the plate and started to eat it without a second thought. “More little seeds for me.” It wasn’t shortly after that Bruce came looking for him.

“Dick, it’s getting late. We gotta go.” Which was code for ‘the penguin is raiding an underground weapon’s black market on the south end.”

Dick had almost forgotten that small moment. He’s had so many big moments since then. Being Robin kind of squeezes out anything less than extraordinary or life endangering out of the memory system.

Barbara hadn’t changed much from that moment. Her hair was shorter and she had dyed it. She still had a sad pout on her face. Quiet, but obviously had things to say. It’s crazy how life brought them back together like this. At least he’ll know at least one person on campus while he’s here.

The class was dismissed and Barbara quickly packed up her stuff and sped out the room. Of course, he was gonna chase after her.

“Barbara, hey!” She walked faster after she heard that, clinging to her tote bag tighter.

He jogged up next to her. “This is crazy! It’s been like what six years?”

“Probably.” She said, quietly.

“How are you doing? Are you a criminology major as well? Following in your dad’s footsteps?”

Her eyes started darting around as if she was nervously finding an answer. “No. It’s just an extra credit I needed.”

“You’re taking a level 400 class as an extra credit?”

“And you’re taking a level 400 class as a freshman?” She threw back and then shook her head. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to seem rude.”

“I took a few online courses before I got here so I’m a little ahead.” That was true. In his last year of school, he took a bunch of online college credits in math and English and other stuff. Finally they came in handy. “So what are you majoring in?”

“Pre-med” she said, disappointedly.

“Oh so, I should call you Dr. Gordon.” He said, jokingly.

She winced and then remembered what Harleen said about lying just to please people and make interactions easier. “Actually, I am majoring in Crimiology, but also Pre-med. and then minoring in computer science.”

Dick blinked at her. “Damn.”

“But, my dad doesn’t know criminology is one of my majors.” She said, looking away. “He wants me to be in a safe profession.”

“Fair. He’s seen some crazy stuff…I’m guessing.” Dick said. “So why’d you stay in Gotham? I’m sure you could have gotten into Harvard or Yale or something.”

“I guess…I don’t know. I guess, I was wondering that same question with you.” She said, and Dick felt a cool breeze pass in him when she said that.

“In-state tuition is cheaper, I suppose.” There was a pause, he realized what he had said. “Okay, I know what you’re going to say.”

“Oh, I wasn’t going to question it.” She said, “but, yeah. I was thinking it.”

“Bruce is more or less forcing me to go to college. I was able to convince him to let me take a year off, but he said pick any college and I didn’t care so now I’m at GCU.”

Barbara nodded. “Got it. I’m still in Gotham because of my dad too, I guess. I still visit him on the weekends.”

There was an alert on her phone and she quickly checked it. Fire on 34th street. She quickly scrolls through her phone to look at it better. “I gotta go.” She said, starting to walk away. “Sorry, it’s my dad!”

She speed walks away, muttering, “that’s three this week…” she holds her phone speakers up to her ear to listen to the police scanners.

Thank you!

DickBabsWeek25 has come to an end 💜💙

I want to take a moment to thank everyone for participating in this event! This is my first time running an event for the Batman Fandom and I had a lot of fun making graphics and getting to share my ideas.

Particularly, I want to give a special thanks to our creators! Thank you for interacting with my prompts and participating in this event. You guys are amazing and made this event a success 🥰

I also want to thank everyone who consumed the fanwork created for this event! Thank you for commenting/liking/reblogging!

We are still accepting work for the next week! Don't worry if you are a bit late!

If there are ways you feel I could have done better, please let me know! My hope is to host more events for this fandom and for these characters we all love so much!

Finally, I hope you all stick around as I have an announcement to make next week. This is not the last you will hear of me haha

-- Mod Q (@junkdrawerfan)