Love Birds

Chapter Fifty Six

-Athena's POV-

The knocking made me jump at first. I was laying in my hammock, assessing my options for my future. I quickly stood up, welcoming the idea of having Aqualad's advice. After all, he was the only one who knew where my safehouse was. I still had my uniform on. Even my mask was still covering my identity.

I unlocked the several locks that protected my building from the outside world. When I yanked open the door, I nearly fell back. Nightwing -- he was in his full costume too -- was staring back at me. His arms were crossed tightly across his chest and his lips were pressed into a tight, thin line. I knew what he was there for.

Before he could put the handcuffs on, I shut the door. I didn't allow him one word. Knowing he would probably break in to arrest me, I scrambled to hide all the papers I had lying around. On them were documents of all the bad things I had done, all the bad things I was planning on doing, and all the bad things that had been done to me.

"Nightingale, let me in. We need to talk." Dick sounded impatient. I didn't want to hurt him, but I was prepared to defend myself. I wasn't letting him in. I wasn't going to let him just haul me off to Blackgate without a fight. I grabbed Thalia's dagger and stepped close to the door.

"I can't let her just get away," Dick mumbled to himself. "Nightingale! Open up or I'm coming in! I need to talk to you, now!" He pounded on the door. Even though I was kind of dreading using the dagger to stop him, I had been trained so much, my hands didn't shake. My body was completely ready to defend myself, even if my mind wasn't.

I could hear and see my locks turn as he picked them one by one. When the last one was picked and the door swung open, I ran towards him. I grabbed him by the neck and pulled him to the floor. We crashed to the floor a few feet away from the door. I pressed my dagger against his throat and held down his wrists with my legs. His mask was doing a pretty good job of concealing his expressions. I hope mine was too. A tiny trickle of blood leaked from Dick's neck as I pressed the dagger in harder.

"Hey, hey, hey. I'm not here to hurt you. I swear," Dick talked so quietly, I could barely hear him over the beating of my own heart. It also didn't help my blade was pressing into his windpipe. I slowly got off of him and stalked across the room. I strapped my knife back into place and went into the bathroom. I didn't know why Dick was there and I didn't want to know. What if he had found out about...everything? What if he knew the real reason I was in Gotham?

I heard a shuffle and my door creak. Dick was pressing his body against the door. He put his lips up to the crack between the door and doorframe. "Can you come out? I need help dressing the cut you gave me." I could hear his smirk. I was surprised. Without warning, I pushed open the door. Dick fell onto his back. I could see how deeply I had cut him. I grabbed some gauze from my utility belt and some antibiotic cream.

Kneeling beside him, I made him sit criss-cross. We didn't make eye contact once. Even if he did, our lenses in our masks were white, so we wouldn't of been able to tell. I put the cream on and cleaned the wound then used the gauze to dab up the blood. It was a relatively small cut; nothing serious. It would stop bleeding. Once I was finished, I stood up and went to wash the blood off my hands. Dick strolled around my warehouse-turned-apartment.

"This is quite the little place you have here," he said, looking at my training area. I sat down on my hammock and watched him. I couldn't take it anymore.

"Why are you here, Dick?" My voice echoed, filling the tense silence.

"I told you, I want to talk," he paused, looking down at his feet, "I want to talk about what happened."

"Yeah? And what is it that happened?"

He sighed and rubbed at his temple. He walked out into the open to face me. "I don't know what to say, okay? I fucked up. I was a huge asshole to you and I'm here to make things better."