asterous

chapter twelve

chapter twelve - homefront

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GOTHAM ACADEMY GROUNDS
SEPTEMBER 22nd — 8:56 EDT

"dick? helloooooo?" barbara gordon droned, grabbing dick's attention. "what are you staring at?"

dick pulled his eyes away from the front gate of the school grounds, setting his eyes back on the group of friends he was standing with.

"i've never seen him so focused," jason todd scoffed, sarcasm oozing out of his mouth like slime.

"shut up, jay." dick rolled his eyes, earning a laugh from everyone other than jason.

"you look tired, dick. have you been sleeping well?" stephanie brown asked. she meant well, but dick could feel his heart pounding at the question.

the truth was, he hadn't been.

ever since bialya—waking up with no memory in the middle of nowhere—he had started having nightmares again. he thought, he truly believed, that they had stopped. it had been months since he had one. he was wrong.

"uhm, yeah," dick stuttered, "stayed up too late last night, i guess."

"texting your boyfriend," barbara mocked in a sing-song voice.

even though it wasn't the reason he was tired today, dick still blushed. because wally was his boyfriend. his handsome, funny, brave boyfriend.

"i still can't believe you were the first of the group to be wifed off." duke thompson laughed. "steph's been going after harvey for two yea-"

"have NOT!" stephanie elbowed him in the gut. it looked worse than it felt, hopefully. she was very strong.

dick laughed at his friends' antics, but couldn't help but look back at the gate. and, finally, there stood artemis crock, in the flesh.

she was talking to one of the student liasons, looking bored as hell. her gotham academy uniform was the masculine versions (which was basically a suit) and it didn't surprise him in the slightest. she was a badass, as usual.

"i'll be right back," dick said absentmindedly to his friends, waving off their questions.

dick ran over to artemis, grinning from ear to ear. "welcome to gotham academy!" he greeted her.

"uh, thank-"

before artemis could say another word, dick had already pulled out his phone and taken a selfie with her. he was doing his best to not laugh. if she didn't recognize him from his look, she'll recognize him from his laugh.

"what are you-"

"we'll laugh about this someday." dick waved her goodbye, ignoring the scolding from the liason, and joined back with his friends.

"what was that?" barbara asked, keen as ever. (this is a pun)

"just greeting the new girl. i am, quite possibly, the funniest man on earth."

"i will be the funniest woman," stephanie said, kneeling as duke started pretending to knight her. "i take the weight of humour upon my shoulders."

apparently, the weight of mankind's humour wasn't that heavy, as the second that the bell rang she stood up and took off to class. classic stephanie.

-

later that night, dick stood, at the top of a residential building, waiting for artemis. his intent wasn't as creepy as it sounds. he knew that she was heading to the cave—he knew which zeta tube she took to get there—and he had time to kill. so why not confront her and make her nervous?