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“I’m just saying that Jason is a maniac, who in the world just likes plain old cheese pizza? Where’s the pizazz?” Dick complained as he and Danny walked down the hall together. Danny snorted in response and just gave Dick a side-eye.
“This is coming from the man who likes pineapple pizza,” Danny said dryly, glancing over at the older man. The two were currently on a mission out in the middle of Illinois. Now that Danny was fully integrated into the team and had spent enough time training with Bruce they were finally getting to the point where they were investigating the GIW and their bases. Which required them to go to Illinois to start looking into the GIW headquarters. It was Dick’s first real case since he had started working with Batman again after becoming Nightwing. And the guy was more than just a little excited to prove to Bruce just how capable he was.
“Pineapple is amazing on pizza, you just don’t like cooked fruit. Like a loser,” Dick scoffed, his shoulder bumped into Danny’s causing the eighteen-year-old to stumble.
“How dare you,” Danny exclaimed, faux offense on his face, and shoved Dick lightly, making the man stumble back a few steps. Danny stuck out his tongue at his best friend before he swiped his card on the door lock.
He dropped his bag at the entrance of the hotel room he and Dick had reserved and stared at it for a moment in quiet shock. This wasn’t right, this was so far from what they had reserved it was unreal. How did this even happen? They had specifically requested a room with two beds in it, not just a single full-size bed that would leave the two far closer than Danny would be able to handle.
“Danny? What’re you doing? Is everything,” Dick stopped as he came up to the hotel room beside him, the question died on his lips. “Alright?” He finally breathed out.
Danny loosened a breath from his lungs as he looked at the situation in front of them. “I can sleep on the floor,” he rushed out quietly.
Dick shook his head. “No, no it’s fine D, I can sleep on the floor, you can keep the bed,” he said with a small smile.
The two were only even staying in the hotel because Bruce had sent the two on a mission together. One that required them to not only go undercover but to go out of state for. It was still strange for Danny to be working on a team if he was being completely honest. Sure, he had been working in Gotham as a hero for about a year now but things were still so foreign for him. Not only that but each day his crush on Dick Grayson seemed to grow more and more and one of these days he was going to screw up and say the wrong thing and embarrass himself in front of the vigilante.
It really didn’t help that Jason seemed to know about Danny’s crush on Dick and the little Robin teased him relentlessly about it every damn time he saw Danny. It’s not like Danny was bitter about it or anything.
Danny pursed his lips for a moment as he stared at the situation before them. “We can always share. I don’t want you getting stiff from sleeping on the floor and I have a feeling that it’s going to be a losing battle for me to even try to suggest that I sleep on the floor again,” he said and Dick sucked on his teeth for a moment as a pretty blush appeared on his tanned cheeks.
“I think that’ll be fine, we’re friends, it’s not like it’s weird or anything,” he said as he ushered Danny all the way into the room and set his things down on the little bedside table. Dick finally managed to give Danny a lazy smile as he flopped onto the bed, kicking his shoes off as he did.
“Do we want to order take out or would room service be better?” he asked, grabbing the menu from where it sat on the bed. Danny shrugged his shoulders and hopped onto the bed beside Dick and peered at the menu.
“I dunno, none of that really sounds all that appetizing to me if I'm being honest,” Danny admitted. He gave Dick a sly smile. “You know what does sound good?”
Dick gave him a look. “What?”
“Cheese pizza,” he purred out before letting out a yelp as Dick shoved him off of the bed. He let out a whine and buried his face in the plush carpet. “Worth it,” he groaned.
Dick threw a pillow down at the halfa and let out a huff before ordering their dinner. The rest of the evening was light and easy, neither teenager fully even thinking about the fact that they were going to even be sharing the bed in the first place. They lay atop the full-size mattress, shitty sitcoms played on the old television as the two gorged themselves on shitty, greasy pizza from the little hole in the wall that they had passed on their way into the town.
Before Danny knew it, they were turning off the lights and were lying down in bed, their faces just mere inches from one another.
“Are you ready for tomorrow?” Dick asked, looking at the way Danny’s eyes seemed to glow in the dark without his usual domino mask covering his face.
Danny crinkled his nose. “No,” he whispered. It had been two years since he escaped the Ghost Investigations Ward and a year since he had started working with the Bats to repeal the Anti-Ecto Acts but he was terrified. “I don’t even like being back in this damn state, much less the same town that I was imprisoned in for so long. I know it’s necessary and that it’s important for me to be here since I’m the one with the invisibility powers but it’s scary, I’m scared.”
Dick let out a breath and reached over, grabbing Danny’s hand in his. “I can’t even imagine how scary it must be to be back here. But you’re so brave, Danny. I mean you’re the one heading this entire mission, you and Bruce have been working on every single part of this for the last year. You’ve been training to get to this point, working with B and me and even members of the Justice League. You’re amazing Danny.”
The halfa mustered up a small smile for the other vigilante and squeezed his hand tight. “Thank you,” he said quietly. “And thank you for being the one to come with me on this mission. I wouldn’t have been able to do this without my best friend.”
The vigilante gave him a small smile, his thumb ran along the back of Danny’s hand as he gave him such a soft look. “Danny, I’ll always be here for you.”
Danny gave him a small smile of his own. “It’s going to be a super boring mission, I hope you know that,” he said, wrinkling his nose as he did.
Dick rested his head against Danny’s shoulder as he let out a soft chuckle. “I wouldn’t want to be on a stakeout with anyone else. At least you’re not as bad as Jason,” he said and Danny let out a groan as he threw his arm over Dick’s shoulder.
“He complains the entire time,” he bemoaned, chuckling at the memories of doing stakeouts with the Robin. Jason couldn’t sit still for longer than about ten minutes at a time. Not only that but he was constantly chomping at the bit to throw hands with any rogue that crossed his path. Bruce thought that he’d grow out of it eventually, but until then both Dick and Danny were constantly suffering with the ADHD teenager who wanted to prove himself.
“He’s the worst,” Dick cackled, laughing into Danny’s chest. “I love patrolling with the kid and I love fighting crime with him. But I would rather do a stake out with Bruce instead of Jason.”
“Oh god,” Danny wheezed. “Dick he’s horrible, Bruce is absolutely terrible. I can’t stand even going on patrols with him. He hates it when I fly, he hates when I use literally any of my powers.”
“Lemme guess,” Dick asked, letting out soft chuckles of his own. “Being too reliant on your powers is a weakness.”
Danny rolled his eyes and let out a groan. “Yes!” he complained, dragging out the word. “Training with him for the last year made me want to die all over again. Like am I a better hero because of it? Yeah, I am. But is he the most insufferable mentor ever? Absolutely.”
“Try being a ten-year-old kid training under him, fuckin’ ruthless. He used to make me fight robots Danny, robots!” Dick exclaimed making the halfa let out a soft giggle.
“I’m so excited to join you in Bludhaven when this is all over,” Danny said with a sigh, hugging Dick to him.
Dick let out a hum. “I’m excited to have you,” he murmured. “You sure you don’t want to go by the hero name Flamebird?” he asked.
“I have ice powers, D, I’m not going to be called Flamebird,” Danny said, rolling his eyes in amusement. This was an age-old argument between the two of them. Dick was more than excited to have Danny be his partner but he also desperately wanted him to be called Flamebird after the Kryptonian stories that Superman had told him.
“You hate me,” Dick mumbled, pushing his bottom lip out in a pout.
Danny rolled his eyes. “Whatever,” he said with a snort. “I like Shadow and you’re not taking this away from me. You need your own broody partner, just like how Robin has Batman.”
“I guess,” Dick said with a huff before he pulled away to stare up at the ceiling. “I’m really excited to take down the GIW. You deserve peace.”
“I’m very ready for them to be gone. The Fenton’s are finally in Blackgate for what they did to me and now we just need to take down the GIW and I’ll be free,” he said softly.
Dick was quiet for a moment before he turned back on his side and looked at Danny, a soft smile on his face. Danny just smiled at him, taking in the way the soft light of the television shone on his face. He was absolutely beautiful.
“Dick, i like you,” Danny blurted out before he could stop himself. Dick froze for a moment before a wide smile spread across his face.
“Really?” He whispered.
Danny nodded once. “I just, I had to tell you or else I was going to explode,” he said awkwardly and Dick let out a soft, disbelieving laugh before he pulled Danny in for a tight hug.
“I like you too,” he said reverently like he couldn’t believe this was happening. “I was thinking about asking you on a date when we got back from the stakeout but I wasn’t sure if you’d want to because the takedown for the GIW is going to take at least two months and I know you’re going to be stressed and I didn’t want to add to that and–” Danny cut him off with a soft kiss.
“I would love to go on a date with you when we get back to Gotham,” Danny said softly. He brushed a strand of hair out of Dick’s face before looking at the time on the alarm clock behind the vigilante. “Although, we should probably get some sleep. It’s three in the morning and our stakeout starts at eight,” he said softly.
Dick smiled and gave Danny another kiss. “I think that would be great,” he murmured.
Danny just grinned and pulled the blankets over both of them. He couldn’t wait to get back to Gotham.
“So do you think it worked?” Jason asked, falling into the extra seat beside the Batcomputer.
“What are you talking about?” Babs asked, looking between Bruce and Jason.
Bruce just smirked and looked at the computer, showing the email confirming that Bruce had changed the two-bed hotel room to a one-bed.
“I’m sure that when Shadow and Nightwing come back from their stakeout they’re going to have very interesting news to share with us,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest as Jason snickered.
“About time, they get so annoying with all of their clueless flirting,” Barbara said with a sigh as she gave the two boys an amused smile.
“Sharing a bed and a three-day stakeout with no one to talk to but each other? They better be dating by the time they get back or I’m going to lose my mind,” Jason said with a huff.
Bruce just hummed in response. He hoped that the boys wouldn’t be too angry when they found out that he played a hand in trying to get the two of them together.