Love Birds

Chapter Nineteen

-Dick's POV-

I sat up in my bed, my alarm clock screaming orders at me to wake up. My hair was messy and my suit was ripped a little on the chest. I grabbed a different one and walked to the shower.

After rinsing left over dirt and blood off of myself, I changed and headed out to the Watchtower.

Almost everyone was there, standing around training or reading about missions. The people that weren't there were probably on an assignment. Aqualad and Nightingale were missing, but Connor and Megan had taken over the computers. They were reading while holding each other and giggling.

"Where's Kaldur?" I asked. Connor didn't look over at me while Megan snapped her head up to see me.

"He and Nightingale went on a small mission together to get her feet wet," Megan said, pulling up the reports from Venice, where they were stationed. The reporter was happily telling the world about how the two young hero's were saving the town from a brand new villain who was forcing sharks to attack the people of Venice. Aqualad was taking care of the sharks while Nightingale was taking down the ringmaster.

"Anything I can do?" I looked around and saw that the five members had left, leaving only two. Beast Boy was sitting down playing some kind of game with Kid Flash. They both looked bored out of their minds. I had to agree, I was pretty bored as well.

"No, everything is being taken care of. You can go home. Bart and Gar are here because they don't want to go to school orientation," Connor replied, looking over at the two boys. They shrugged and continued their game. Everything seemed boring.

"I am so bored. When will the other squads be back?" I reviewed the missions that the others were sent on, but everyone was still busy. Except for Alpha squad, which had ordered no communicate links between the tower and them.

"Don't know. Not soon. You can go."

"I might, actually. I have a circus to take care of." Taking off my mask, I headed toward the zeta tube and began unzipping my costume. I stood in front of the zeta tubes with half of my costume off when suddenly two forms revealed themselves. Kaldur and Nightingale were chatting and laughing about something. They went silent right as they saw me. A hot blush of embarrassment crossed my face.

"Dick...what are you doing?" Aqualad looked at me and looked a little disgusted. My ribs were wrapped in gauze, bloody gauze. I was guessing my stitches had torn. Nightingale didn't even bother looking at me. She pushed past without even shooting a glare my way or make a snarky comment about how embarrassed I felt.

"I was going back to Gotham, but now that you're here, may I ask if I can maybe have a mission?" I zipped my costume back up as my mind began toying with the idea that Nightingale had finally backed off.

"Yes, the Beta squad should be back soon. Excuse me Megan," he walked past Superboy and Miss M to look at the status reports, "looks like there is some trouble in France. Wanna check it out?" Waving me over, I glanced over Aqualad's shoulder and read the report. Great, someone put copy-cat non-lethal Joker venom in the donuts.

"Alright," I said. I read the report one more time, sighed, and slipped my mask back on.

"Nightingale, why don't you go? Two would be better to complete a mission," Aqualad said, getting Victoria to look up from whatever research she was doing.

"Um, no thanks Kaldur. I have a gash on my abdomen I have to stitch up. You go," she smiled up at Aqualad like she had known him for awhile. I tried to keep a peaceful face, but I felt my lips tighten slightly. Kaldur nodded as she pulled down her costume. Uh..Victoria keep your damn shirt on! Who do you think you are? I thought, trying to look away from Smith's bra. Don't get me wrong, I really hated that girl. But, out of curiosity, I glanced over. Her gray sports bra was of course covering her chest, but her shoulders were crisscrossed with old scars and burn marks. Her tight and toned abdomen was covered in light scars. The indents of her abs were traced with scratches and her visible hip bones were bruised. She was probably one of the most fit and damaged girls I had ever seen.