Flicker ⌁ Barry Allen [1]

twelve.

I stood up from the couch, muting the microphones.

"I'm surprised you didn't hear me come in. You must be getting rusty." He teased.

"I wasn't expecting visitors, especially not all the way from Gotham." I retorted.

That was where I had run from. My past. I was born and raised in Gotham, thousands of miles from Central and Starling City.

I looked at his suit. It was dark blue and black, and had a blue bird-like emblem on the front. 

"New costume? What, you didn't like the Robin getup?" I said, still keeping my distance from the man I had basically grown up with.

"I don't work for the big man anymore. I work in Bludhaven now. As Nightwing." Richard said.

"Ah. Sounds eerily similar to Nightingale." I smirked.

"Yeah, well." He trails.

My grin drops. "Barbara?" I asked quietly.

His mood changed serious as well. "Misses you." He finished.

I rush forward, hugging him tightly.

"I missed you, Dick." I said.

"You know, it never was funny when you called me that. It always got me in trouble with the boss when he called me that and I would laugh." He responds before hugging me just as tight.

Memories came flooding back as I hugged him. I took a small little trip down memory lane.

~Flashback~

"Race ya!" I yelled at the top of my lungs.

"Oh, you are so on!" Batgirl responded. Barbara was my bestfriend, partner, and mentor. She had taken me under her wing after seeing me get harassed by men. She had trained me. And then introduced me to Richard Grayson, who worked alongside her, as Batman's sidekick. I had only met Batman once. It was quite terrifying, the way he sized me up and then gruffly told Richard and Barbara to leave me out of this, even though I could hear him clearly.

But, they had not. So Batman didn't want me as a sidekick. So, what? I worked better as a partner, not a sidekick.

So, whenever Barbara had something she needed to get done, she called me and Richard. We were a trio of friends and partners. 

We were happy, and free, as the trio of Batgirl, Robin, and Nightingale. Protecting Gotham by doing things that needed to be handled when Batman was 'busy'. I didn't mind. I was saving people, and I had my two best friends by my side.

~End of Flashback~

I unwrapped myself from Richard's arms. 

We sat down on my couch.

"How did you know where to find me?" I questioned.

"Well, my first clue was hearing about a masked vigilante with agile capabilities and superpowers, sporting a similar costume to Nightingale's. My second clue was that a few hundred bucks was taken out of your old bank account. Of course, that led me to a random building in Keystone, where you definitely didn't live. Barbara found out that it was for a costume. I knew it had to be you, even thought Ben wouldn't give it up." He explains.

"Ah, Ben. Loyal to the end." I giggled.

"So, I hear you're a trauma agent at the police department here." He comments.

I wasn't surprised, I knew that after they discovered where I was they would find out my life since I left.

I nodded. "Wanted to help people even if I couldn't be a vigilante."

"Seems like you're doing that anyway." He presses me for information.

"Do you want pizza?" I asked, knowing he was always hungry.

"Yeah, sure, I can call and get them to-" He's cut off by me rushing out the door. I return a few minutes later with four boxes of pizza fresh from Keystone, home of some of the best pizza.

"deliver." He finishes lamely.

He didn't seem at all shocked by my meta human speed. We had quite a few of villains with powers back home, which was why it was so surprising when I came to Starling City and later Central and heard not one report of a super-powered human until the particle accelerator exploded. It was strange.

We ate our pizza and laughed about good memories, but we both knew that eventually, we would need to talk about the bad ones.