Chapter Text
Sixth grade health class is usually the most awkward thing Babs ever has to sit through, and she’s seen her dad try to flirt. Usually, she tries her best to look straight ahead at her teacher and to not to look at any of her classmates, and when she talks about it afterwards with her friends, it’s always in hushed tones. But today is different.
Today they start their unit on soul marks. Chelsea McMurphy was the first in their class to get it and she paraded this fact around like she was the Queen of England. Babs hated her smug little face bragging about how her soulmate was going to be the best because she got hers before everyone else. That wasn’t how it worked!
Ok, she wasn’t so sure how it works, but she’d seen them all the time in romance movies and in her books, and she’d heard them mentioned by random relatives at family events at the weddings of cousins she barely knew. Age and getting it first had nothing to do with how soon you’d find your soulmate or how great they’d end up being if those were to be believed. Besides, classmates would brag that their parents were soulmates, just to have them divorce years later. Heck, she hadn’t even been sure that her parents were soulmates, and they’d met young like stupid Chelsea was convinced she’d meet Tom. Also, who just goes around telling everyone what your mark says? That’s wayyyy to personal.
The chatter of the class is cut off by the bell ringing and Mrs. Greenwood walking into the room from the hallway. All eyes were on her, and a few girls can’t help but giggle lightly to themselves.
“Alright children, I’m sure you know what we’re going to be talking about these next two weeks. We’re going to be talking about soul marks,” she starts and the smartboard lights up with the prepared power point. A few images of famous fictional soul mark pairs on the opening slide.
Romeo and Juliet, Mr. Darcy and Lizzy Bennet, Han and Leia.
“Now, these famous pairings are good examples that soul marks aren’t always how you see them in the hallmark movies you might see during the holidays.” There’s some laughter from the girls. “There’s some people who say that just because your soulmates with someone that it’ll always be easy, and that’s just not true. These examples show that it can be tough sometimes, or tragic in some cases.”
She gestures to Romeo and Juliet.
“But it is a promise that it will be worth it.” Next slide. “We’re not sure how exactly the science behind soul marks, but we do know that it always appears on the 13th birthday and then it is only visible to you.”
The class glances at Chelsea, who reveals in the attention, but Bab’s friends’ glance at her, as she’s the oldest of their group and would be the first to turn thirteen in less than two months. There was a certain sort of pride in that, being the first to be a grown up. Not that she’d lord it over them like Chelsea. But Babs would get to be the one to tell them all about it without talking down to them and they’d get to gossip and wonder about her mark and what their own marks would read.
Not that she said that she would say the name on the mark, just so they wouldn’t try setting her up with whoever had the same name, though she knows they would needle for it. On the other hand her dad would wait for her to tell him about the name that would show up on her skin at her own pace. Until she finds them, she and her friends can just gush about possibilities of how Babs will meet her soul mate and how they will find out they’re soul mate.
Babs shakes herself out of the thought and zones back into the lesson.
“… when soulmates both realize that their soul marks belong to each other, that is when the marks become visible to the both of them.”
Quickly, she scrambles to write this down in flowy and elegant writing in a special composition notebook that she had bought just for this section so she could keep it as a soulmate journal. Maybe even one day show it to them.
If only she could become thirteen faster.
***
Babs realizes that standing in front of the mirror staring at herself for hours isn’t the best idea in the world, let alone the best way to spend the night leading up to her birthday. Instead, she settles for impatiently staring at her clock and mentally willing it to hit midnight sooner as well as occasionally glancing at her arms just in case that by some miracle that it would appear early.
The soul mark would be a reminder that there was a chance that she didn’t need to end up like her parents. When it was good between the two of them, it was good, but near the end it was all bad. Her mom, Thelma, told Babs that she and Roger, her father, were soul mates, but most times that that felt like empty words just to comfort her. It was hard for her to reassure herself about them since she couldn’t see their marks, and they had died before she felt like she got any real answers. Babs’ second set of parents hadn’t been either, she was sure they weren’t, with how easily Barbara Eileen had just up and left with James Jr, and while Jim had been upset by it, he didn’t seem as upset as he should be about having just lost his soulmate.
She wouldn’t be like either of them. She would be able to wait for sure for when she finally met her soulmate, and she would do it right. It didn’t matter how long it would take, she would be loved and love well. Even if took years of getting to know someone.
Babs, as logically of a young girl she was, was also a romantic and wanted someone who would just be hers and her to belong to them. Babs couldn’t help but giggle with her friends about who possibly could be their soulmates, and sometimes they would tease each other about it being different kids in their grade. They would wonder what their marks would look like and where it would show up.
Man, she hopes that the mark wouldn’t be anywhere embarrassing.
It’d be best for it to be on her forearm where her soul mate would be able to clearly see it. Lifting up one pale and freckled arm she squints at it again. Nothing.
As she lets out a long-suffering sigh, her dad, Jim, knocked on the door and opens it a crack. “Hey kid, don’t stay up too late, ok?” he says as he pops his head in.
“I promise I won’t. Are you leaving?”
Jim nods. “Yeah, I’ll be back in the afternoon and we can go do what we had planned for your birthday, ok?”
Babs smiles and nods. “Yeah! Say hi to the Bat for me if you see him.”
Jim shakes his head as he exits her room, muttering to himself.
Babs’ not so sure how the next two hours finally pass, as she keeps switching between pacing and trying to distract herself with books and magazines. When her alarm goes off, she’s quick to race to the full-length mirror, eagerly looking for any colorful words easily visible on her exposed skin. She sighs in disappointment when it’s not on her arm or shoulders or even legs before finally carefully and slowly lifting up her shirt, and there it is, in bright, rich blue and elegant cursive. Nightwing. It took up nearly the whole front left side of her rib cage and shimmered slightly as she moved. Holy Hannah was that going to be hard not to stare at it whenever she could see it.
Wait a minute.
What kinda name was Nightwing? It… it almost sounded like a superhero name. What if her soulmate was a super hero? The thought was exciting. Did it mean she was going to be a super hero too? Babs couldn’t imagine herself ever being one of those girls who patched up their partner after a bad fight or worse as a damsel in distress. No, she’d much prefer to be a crime fighter as well herself. There’s a thrill that runs through her at the thought of that. They could be a dynamite duo.
Oh no… What if it was a super villain name? What if she was going to marry the next Mr. Freeze? She was going to be a super villain! Dad would be so heartbroken. She grabs her head at the thought, oh no, how could she.
No wait, focus Babs. There’s no way she could know anything about them yet with only a name to go off of. She’d just have to wait and scan the news desperately for any sign of a Nightwing appearing on the hero scene.
***
Babs knows that she said that she could be patient but it’s already been almost a year, and no hero named Nightwing has shown up yet. A few other heroes her age had popped up with dumb names like Speedy, but no Nightwing. She’d take a slightly older soul mate but even with a slightly broadened standards there was no hint of her soul mate. Everyone she’d liked up to this point had been older than her so she was almost positive her soulmate is going to be older than her, because that was just statistics.
Babs is pretty good at being patient, at least she likes to think so, but she also couldn’t help herself from wondering and imagining what this “Nightwing” looked like. What it would be like to have a soulmate.
It’s some Saturday afternoon and she’s curled up on the chair in her room pretending to be studying while she’s really reading a fashion magazine hidden between the pages of her history book, when she hears her dad come up the stairs, talking on his phone. He probably doesn’t think she can hear him because he doesn’t usually talk about work where she can hear him and his voice is low.
“Now he’s got some kid in on it… I know that guy in Star City and that Oceanman have sidekicks but I’m not the police captain in those cities, I’m the police captain here.” A pause as he sighs. “It’s dangerous, and I’m worried about the kid. What if it was Babs?” Another pause as the person on the other end speaks. “Yeah, a boy, about her age. Said his name was Robin. He’s so cheerily colored too.”
His voice fades as he starts walking away from her room.
Robin. A teen hero in Gotham. It’s not Nightwing, which was disappointing but how lucky would she have to be for Nightwing to pop up in her hometown when the Bat was around? Still… It would be interesting to see a kid out there doing what she wanted to do too.
Still, she can’t help but think a little more about what her dad said.
Maybe she should take up Karate too.