Vigilante Justice - A Young Justice Fanfiction

Chapter 19: A Glimpse at the Past

Dick was, for the most part, a pretty calm individual.

He had his moments of...anger, but he liked to think they were few and far between. Sure, he wasn't a Buddhist monk or the Virgin Mary, but he felt like a rather chill person.

Until today. Today his chillness flew out the window, hit a semi truck, and died a terrible death.

His restraint was so frayed it looked like some emo kid's pants; barely held together with safety pins and leftover thread. If one more person so much as looked at him funny, Dick didn't think he'd be able to stop himself from going full Nightwing on them.

He watched, teeth clenched, as Green Lantern—otherwise known as Hal Jordan, because of course Batman had every League members' identity on file—gallivanted off with their primary perpetrator.

Dick breathed in deeply through his nose, then exhaled again, determined to ignore the way Superboy was staring at him.

The clone seemed to think he was being subtle or something; examining the detective with those narrowed blue eyes of his.

Dick would probably have to start worrying about that soon, but at the moment he didn't have room in his brain for anything else.

Like how absolutely stupid Green Arrow had been. That was taking up a lot of space in his brain right now.

The Leaguer had taken one look at him and nearly blown his own cover, calling him 'Dick' and acting like they'd met before.

Which they technically had met before at one of Bruce's charity galas, where the older Wayne would act the part of a generous, well meaning drunk.

Dick remembered Oliver Queen, the playboy of Star City, cornering him near the punch stand.

"Richard? Richard Wayne?" The celebrity had said, adjusting his suit jacket where some woman had been hanging off it. "Is that you?"

Dick carefully eyed the other man, making it look like he was merely taking a particularly long swig from his cup. Even at sixteen, when he'd still been operating as Robin, he knew who Queen really was.

He knew to be wary of him.

"It's Richard Wayne-Grayson, actually," He'd corrected, setting his punch down on the table and offering up his celebrity smile. "But most people call me Dick."

"Oh." The billionaire hero in disguise didn't seem sure what to say to that. "How...unfortunate."

Surprisingly, that had actually startled a laugh out of Dick. He ignored the surrounding gala guests, who'd all eyed Queen greedily, as if getting Bruce's ward to laugh was an achievement. "I don't mind it."

"Oliver Queen," The blond stuck out his hand, shaking Grayson's with a firm but gentle grip. "Though I'm sure you already knew that."

Dick steepled a brow, looking Queen up and down obviously. "I had no idea who you were."

Oliver stared at him, eyes narrowed. After a moment, he said, "I can't tell if you're being serious or not."

Dick shrugged, hiding his grin behind another sip of terrible punch.

"You're a strange one, aren't you?"

"So my team of psychologists tell me."

This, if anything, only served to make poor Oliver look even more confused. Clearly the man did not understand adolescent sarcasm.

Dick rolled his eyes, offering the man another smile, "That was a joke. Feel free to laugh."

"Oh. I wasn't sure, what with your..." The older man gestured vaguely, trailing off. "You know."