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Nightwing leaped, and Batgirl followed shortly behind.
Kite Man glided ahead of them over the rooftops, a string of diamonds dangling from his pockets. Earlier that night he had stolen the diamond tinsel off Gotham’s Christmas tree. Which, Dick thought, was a pretty dumb thing for a tree to have to begin with, but Penguin had made a big show of donating it to be part of Gotham’s annual Christmas tree as part of his latest effort to reform the Cobblepot image. Remarkably, the tinsel had managed to avoid getting stolen until Christmas Eve. And with Bruce and Damian out dealing with a Killer Croc incident, that left Dick and Barbara to handle Kite Man.
The two had been pursuing in silence, until Dick finally spoke up, glancing back at Barbara. “Do you think we should give it a shot?”
Barbara kept her eyes on Kite Man. “Give what a shot?”
“Us,” Dick responded. Barbara ran ahead and leaped to the next rooftop, and Dick followed shortly behind.
“Are you really trying to talk about our relationship while we’re trying to stop a heist?” Hardly the best time to talk romance, Barbara thought.
Dick shrugged. “It’s Kite Man. Not exactly the Joker.”
Kite Man activated a wind generator on his suit to soar higher up in the air. Dick briefly wondered if he had overheard the comment and was trying to taunt them, but that seemed to be giving him too much credit. Barbara aimed the batclaw at the kite in an attempt to puncture it, but he dodged it with a surprisingly graceful dive. “Hell yeah,” they overheard him shout as he kicked the wind generator back on to soar back up.
Dick leaped to the next roof, and Barbara followed shortly behind. “This isn’t really a great time,” Barbara protested. “He can only do the wind trick in short bursts. So we just have to wait for him to start gliding back down.”
“But that’s just it,” Dick said, quickly scrambling up a water tower in an attempt to tackle Kite Man. He balanced for a moment to wait for Kite Man to descend again. “There’s never going to be a good time. Not as long as we’re doing… this.” He gestured at himself and at Barbara to highlight the absurdity of how they spent their evenings.
Kite Man began gliding downwards and Dick sprang toward him. Kite Man activated the wind generator again and he drifted back up above the roof just before Dick could hit him. Barbara ran toward the edge of the roof as Dick fell in between buildings. Before he could crash to the ground several stories below, he grabbed onto the railing of the fire escape and pulled himself back up.
“Careful,” Barbara taunted. “Wouldn’t want to have to tell Batman you were bested by Kite Man. Can you imagine what Robin would say?” She leaped to the next roof, and Dick followed shortly behind. Kite Man giggled in the distance as he continued making his escape. “Anyway, you’re right. The timing never works out. When you’re ready, I’m not. When I’m ready, you’re not. We keep doing this dance, and it never ends well.”
She aimed a batarang, and it knocked the diamond tinsel out of Kite Man’s pocket. Dick tried to grab it, but he was not quite fast enough. The tinsel slipped through his fingers and went tumbling to the streets below, Kite Man swooping after it. “We just need to get in sync.” Dick said.
Barbara perched at the edge of the roof, preparing to dive after Kite Man. “Dick, I love you, but…” She trailed off, realizing she had perhaps said too much.
Without missing a beat, Dick responded, “And I love you, Babs. So why don’t we just go for it?”
Barbara jumped. Kite Man had grabbed the necklace and was ascending again. As Batgirl descended upon him, Kite Man spun around mid-air to face her. He turned the wind generator toward her and hit her with a strong gust, knocking her off her trajectory. “Hell yeah!” Kite Man shouted, aiming the generator back at his kite to rise again over the rooftops.
With a grunt, Barbara fired the batclaw to return to the roof where Dick waited. “So we’re definitely not telling Batman about this, right?” Dick said with a smirk.
They had little chance to catch their breath as Kite Man continued his escape over the skies of Gotham. “He must have upgraded his little machine. If he keeps this up, we’re going to run out of roof.” Barbara sighed.
“Then we better stop him quick.” Dick leaped, and Barbara followed shortly behind. “So, you love me, huh?”
“I’ve always loved you, Dick. I don’t think that’s ever been in question. It’s just that whenever we try, it never works out. We’re never ready at the right time.”
“I asked Superman about love once. Back when I was Robin,” Dick said, watching Kite Man and trying to work out a strategy.
Despite her focus on the task at hand, Barbara couldn’t help but be curious. “What prompted that?”
“Well, this cute redhead had just made a million-dollar debut, and I suppose I had a little crush. You’d like her, she was great.”
“Mm-hmm, and so you went to Superman?”
“Well, I didn’t exactly have a lot of great people to turn to for this sort of thing. Romance isn’t Batman’s forte, so I thought maybe Superman would have some advice.”
“What did he say?”
“He told me that love was a leap of faith. You never quite know what’s going to happen, but it’s worth taking. And that I shouldn’t worry about falling. Babs, there are always going to be a thousand reasons that we shouldn’t. But I want to take the leap with you.”
“Take the leap…” Barbara mused. She and Dick looked at each other for a moment. And then, in unison, both turned toward Kite Man. Without having to exchange words, they knew what to do. The two took off running. “Are we really doing this?”
“We wouldn’t be us if we didn’t do stupid things,” Dick said. He jumped off the roof toward Kite Man. Kite Man began laughing when Dick came up short, but abruptly stopped when he saw Batgirl jumping behind Nightwing. She landed on Nightwing’s shoulders, who then propelled her up again, higher. As Nightwing fell, Batgirl rose above Kite Man. And with no time for him to dodge, Batgirl came crashing down into him, sending both to the roof below.
Kite Man had just enough time to regain his senses before simultaneously getting kicked by Batgirl and hit with an escrima stick by Nightwing. He crumpled to the ground.
Barbara brushed some dirt off her cape. “Well, that was definitely pretty stupid. But it worked.”
“Leap of faith,” Dick grinned.
“Maybe it is a leap worth taking. After all, gravity is no match for us, right?” She reached out and took Nightwing’s hand.
“Not at all.” Dick pulled her closer into him. “There’s nothing that the two of us can’t stop when we’re together.” Barbara leaned in and Dick reached below her chin to pull her face up toward his. “I’d like to kiss you.” His breath felt hot against hers after the rooftop chase.
“I’d like that,” Barbara said, and tilted forward to press her lips against his.
“… Hell yeah,” Kite Man said, causing the two to break off in laughter.
Depositing Kite Man at the police station and the tinsel back on the tree, Dick and Barbara found themselves on another rooftop, sitting with Barbara’s head leaned on Dick’s shoulder as they watched dawn break over Gotham City, ushering in Christmas morning.
“What do you say, Babs? Do you think we should give it a shot?”
“I’m tired of waiting for the right moment. Let’s do it.”
Dick stood and offered Barbara his hand to join him. “Merry Christmas, Babs.”
Barbara kissed him. “Merry Christmas, No-Longer-A-Boy Wonder.”
The two leaped together, hand in hand, toward their next adventure.