Nightwing: Heartless

Part 4: Friday Night Football

"DEFENSE! DEFENSE! DEFENSE!" The crowd shouted as they stomped their feet on the bleachers. Gotham University took it's football very seriously. The stans were filled with black and gold gear wearing students and fans.

They were down fourteen but you wouldn't know it looking at the passion the Knights fans cheered with. Willa stood between Chris and Abby, their friends around them. Chris was losing his mind, screaming at the team like they could hear him and cursing when the coach made a different call. Abby and Kate, Willa's other friend, just laughed at the boys, none of them super into football. They were just there for the experience. And to witness Chris's heartbreak as GU lost.

They all cheered with gusto until the final buzzer declared that Gotham University really had lost. Willa and her friends went with the crowd as the bleachers started to empty, everyone headed to the parking lot. Student dorms were through the parking lot and across campus.

"If that wasn't the dumbest, stupidest, motherf-" Willa tuned Chris's ranting out and looped her arm through Abby and Kate's.

"Do we want to hit up a frat party?" Abby asked but Willa made a face. She wasn't a fan of frats.

"Can we just hang out in the dorm or go to a bar or something?" Kate asked, seeing Willa's face. "I don't have enough energy to jump up and down for two hours after all that cheering." Willa shot her a grateful look. Abby groaned but relented.

The flash of passing headlights blinded them every few minutes as they walked along the sidewalk, slowly, due to the thickness of the crowd. Willa watched the cars, which were driving too fast, pass by them, jealous of their speed. This walk was taking forever. She also missed her car at home, missed having the ability to just drive instead of ordering an Uber to get anywhere.

She watched a grey Mercedes speed by, impressed with how silent it was. It must be electric, she thought. By chance, she was looking in just the right direction to see a woman's wallet fall out of her purse. She extricated her arms from her friends and gave them the signal to hold on a minute, before she pushed her way through the crowd to pick up the wallet.

"Excuse me, ma'am?" She yelled, relieved when the woman turned and saw her holding her wallet. Her face flushed with relief and she made her way back to Willa.

"Thank you so much!"

"No problem," Willa yelled over the sound of dozens of conversations around her. She grunted as someone hit her with their shoulder.

She looked around and saw her friends, maybe ten feet ahead, waiting for her. They were creating quite a roadblock. She took a step but a group of adults rushed in front of her, unknowingly pushing her to the side. She cursed as she stumbled back. She was small, sure, but shouldn't people be aware enough of their surroundings to notice shoving other human beings? She elbowed her way forward, now trying to move at a diagonal towards her group. They must've seen her struggle cause they were walking to her now too.

She smiled in relief but gasped as a group of guys started yelling in triumph and jumping in place. They were just messing around but one of them smashed against Willa, sending her stumbling off the sidewalk. She would've been annoyed if the brightness of approaching headlights, on a car going too fast, came straight at her.

She threw her arms over her head, sending a forgive me of my sins into the universe. Her breath left her body and she felt her feet leave the ground but no pain. Time was moving in slow motion and yet dizzyingly fast. She realized that the impact had come from the side, not the front, and it wasn't big enough to be a car. She was still alive, she was falling, she was spinning... arms around her waist...a thud. The screech of brakes.

She was shaking, her breath coming in gasps, but she had breaths. She was on the ground. No, there were arms around her waist. Arms she clutched in a death grip. She opened her eyes to make sure her soul was still in her body. She met blue eyes below her, a familiar face. She wasn't lying on the ground, she was on top of a person. The person the arms were attached to. Arms that had saved her, person that had saved her.

His gaze was much calmer than she assumed hers was. He was calm, much too calm for someone that had leaped in front of a moving car, and concerned.

"Are you okay?" He asked softly.

"You...you...me..."

"Just breathe," he said, "you're okay. Is it alright if I move you?"

A nervous laugh came out. She was still lying on top of him. She nodded and he rolled to the side, gently setting her on the ground. Now he was on top of her. "Um," he glanced toward her grip on his arms, still clasped in a death grip.

She felt her face flush and tried to unbend her fingers but it was like they were stuck. She let out a breath and realized she could breathe fine, even though this boy was on top of her he had no weight. That was silly, of course he had weight. It just wasn't on her. He was holding himself up, maybe an inch or two above her body. Now she felt even worse that her stupid fingers weren't working.

"Hey, relax," he said and met her eyes again, giving her an encouraging nod. She nodded back and sighed with relief when she got her fingers to work again and remove themselves from his arms. He pulled them from under her and rolled off of her.

She sat up, blinking at all the activity. It seemed impossible but it had only been maybe a minute. It seemed like time had stopped. She turned, surprised to see the boy sitting beside her, that concerned look still on his face.

"You dived in front of a car," she finally said, which made him smile.

"Only after you jumped in front of one."

Despite herself, she smiled, some of the tension from her near death experience leaving her body. "You saved my apple."

He grinned, "we've got to stop meeting like this then."

Willa laughed again and held out a hand, "I'm Willa. Willa Opal."

"Dick Grayson," he said as she shook her hand.

The slam of a car door brought her back into the reality of what had almost happened. The driver of the car came running, followed by her friends. The driver was apologizing, profusely, and seemed like a sincere guy. He was almost in tears and didn't seem to care that Willa wouldn't press charges. Her friends kept asking if she was okay and glaring at the driver that interrupted them to apologize. Campus Police and paramedics showed up a minute later, already onsite because of the football game.

The paramedics checked her out to make sure she didn't have a concussion, shocked when she didn't have a single scratch on her. "Odd," one of them said, "usually when someone's tackled like that they hit their head or bust a rib from the impact of the ground."

"But I didn't..." she trailed off. Now that they had mentioned it, she really should have gotten hurt. But she hadn't hit the ground. Dick had. But Dick had tackled her. It hit her, somehow he had tackled her and spun them so he had hit the ground instead of her.

"You've got quite some reflexes son," the paramedic said as he packed up his bag after checking Dick like he had checked Willa. "But don't do that again."

"Yes, sir."

The police came to take her statement next, but left when she made it clear she wasn't pressing charges. "If you ever need anything, Ms. Opal," the driver said, pressing a card into her hand, "just say the word. I'm so glad you're okay."

"No thanks to you," Abby had muttered after he left. "Are you sure you're okay, Willa?"

Willa nodded and finally stood up. Dick stood up beside her, watching her in case she fell or something. She was surprised he was still here.

"I'll see you around," he said softly then turned and walked calmly to two waiting people.

He didn't look back and by the time Willa realized she hadn't thanked him he was too far gone.