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Barbara’s hands are in the air and her nose is itching like crazy but she doesn’t move a muscle. Despite this unnatural stillness, the thug with the gun pointed at her head feels it necessary to yell out “Don’t move.” Although maybe it was more directed at the traffic light colored, pixie booted, teen hero in front of her. She has a feeling he’s never been completely still for more than 15 seconds at a time. He’s silent now but before the gunman had her targeted he’d been verbally picking apart the would be robber from everything to his plan to his choice of shoes. She only hoped his brain worked as fast as his mouth.
He breaks the tense silence with a question. “Do you trust me?”
She barks out an incredulous “What?” just before he pushes her off of the roof. She prepares herself to put her gymnastics training to use in a proper fall but at three stories she doubts it will matter. She hits something earlier than she thought she would, but it’s not the ground. Later she’ll realize it as an awning above a balcony on the third story but for now she instinctively tucks her arms in and rolls off the awning until she’s falling again. But again she doesn’t hit the ground, landing in a cart full of trash bags that happened to rolling under her at that exact movement. The Big Belly Burger employee who was taking out the trash let out a startled yelp as Barbara let out a groan on impact. Barbara was particularly pleased to be surrounded by smelly trash but she figured it was better than being a splat on the concrete.
After the robber whose plans to rob Star Labs hijacked her sophomore class field trip is arrested she’s sitting in the back of an ambulance with a shock blanket over her getting checked out by EMTs. The cops who interviewed her told her she was lucky that the trash happened to break her fall. Barabara didn’t believe in luck and as Robin’s question echoed in her head she doubted that the Boy Wonder did either.
When she works with him as batgirl and later as Oracle they ask each other to trust each other thousands of times often without saying the words. Eventually trusting him with her life comes as natural as breathing. She also finds that trusting someone with your life is much easier than trusting them with your heart
Dick’s question hangs in the air for a minute. “Dinner?” Barbara repeats. “Like a date?”
“Yes Barbara. A date.” To most people he would sound completely confident but Barbara knows him too well. She watches the way he tosses the nightwing doll in the air and doesn’t quite make eye contact with her.
She desperately wants to say yes but she can’t. She knows she can’t but her throat feels paralyzed for a few seconds and then suddenly the refusal rips its way out of her throat, raw. “No.”
“No?” He repeats the word but it’s not incredulous or shocked it’s just there hanging. A few seconds ago he wouldn’t look at her but now he’s staring into her eyes searching out her out. For a moment she’s trapped in his gaze but hen she rips away and wheels her chair back toward her computers. She starts working through some files and other tasks she only half pays attention to.
“Barb.” She hmms in response but keeps working without any other acknowledgment.
“Barb.” His voice is gentle but insistent. “Look at me.”
“Look Dick.” Her voice is confident but she still refuses to look over at him. “We’ve tried this before and it didn’t work out. And I don’t want to risk our friendship for nothing.”
“Barb.” His voice isn’t hurt like she thought it would be but it’s so raw and honest. It draws her to him and she finally turns around and looks at him. He smiles at her; that gorgeous smile so full of affection for her it always manages to steal her breath. He takes her hand into his. “My feelings for you aren’t nothing. And I think this, between us, could really be something if you just gave it a chance. But if you don’t feel the same way.”
“No Dick! Of course I do. It’s not that.” She closes her eyes tightly for a moment in an effort to physically restrain her tears. Her eyes are wet and she doubts he doesn’t notice but sheh at least manages to keep them from escaping her eyes.
“Then what?”
“There are just so many things that could go wrong. And I don’t know what I’ll do if this doesn’t work out.”
“Do you trust me?”
“Of course I trust you DIck. This isn’t about trust.”
“Look Barb. I know you’re scared and that’s okay. If you need more time I get it. You can have as much time as you need. But I’m not giving up on us. I can’t promise not to let you down but you can trust me not to let go.”
“Ok.” She nods and the tears have finally escaped down her cheeks. “Ok.”
He kisses her then and it feels so natural, so right, she can hardly believe that only a few minutes ago she tried to say no to this, to him.
“So is this a yes to dinner then?” He’s wearing that confident smirk that always sends some mixture of affection and annoyance through her. Today it was more warmth than irritation.
“I guess it is.” He lets out a warm chuckle and then leans back in. A few minutes later as they are breaking away yet again Barbara says, “So this not letting go thing. Does it include not pushing me off a roof?”
Dick lets out an exaggerated groan. “You are never going to let that go are you?”
“Nope” She says popping the p. “You’re going to hear about it so much more now.”
He looks her in the eyes. “Worth it.”
Your worth it. She thinks. Trusting you with my life and my heart. You will always be worth it Dick Grayson.