Lost Stars

Chapter Twenty Two

-Athena's POV-

I crossed my arms and leaned against the door of Red Hood's safe house. It was seven in the morning and he still hadn't shown up.

It had been about two weeks since Red Hood and I joined up together. The most annoying thing I had found with working with him was that he was almost always late to almost everything. He had invited me to one of his safe house's, yet he was late.

Last night on patrol, Red Hood ordered me to show up at a random address before the sun rose for some random reason. I had agreed with some excitement. The more I worked with the Hood, the more I found that I wanted to impress him.

After another half an hour, he decided to show up. Still wearing his helmet, he swung his keys around his finger and casually approached me. On his key ring, there were at least two dozen keys swinging around. He didn't seem to even care or notice the time.

I pushed off the wall and glared at him. "What the hell, dude?"

"Something came up," He shrugged, "step aside." He grasped my shoulder with his gloved hand and gently pushed me out of the way of the door. I continued to sneer in anger, especially since he had touched me.

The door swung open. I expected the house to be cluttered, but it was actually really organized. The safe house was like a studio apartment, but it still seemed a little homey. His bed was in order and all his dishes were clean. But, it just looked like a normal apartment. Nothing special. I glanced around, raising an eyebrow.

"What are we supposed to do here?" I glanced around the room and looked at him, crossing my arms.

Red Hood removed him helmet, favoring me with a smirk. "If you're so excited to be in my apartment, I thought you'd have something in mind." His eyes darted to his bed then back at me. One of his eyebrows shot up as his lips twitched ever so slightly.

Fake laughing, I shoved his shoulder. "You invited me here and I doubt it was so you could cockily hit on me."

"You're the one that brought it up," he walked across his room and gestured for me to follow, "we actually have work to do."

We both stood in his small living room. Just as I started to question Red Hood's sanity, he pressed a button and a secret door slid open. I leaned over to look into the dark hole and was shoved. I tumbled down a flight of crooked wooden stairs until I landed flat on my back on cold concrete.

"Ow!" I shouted angrily at Red Hood as he casually climbed down the steep staircase. He crossed his arms and stared down at me, obviously trying to fight the grin on his face.

"I thought Ra's Al Ghul had trained you to not feel pain, or...was that just a rumor?" He quirked his lips, sticking out his hand. I slapped at it lazily and stood up.

"I will get you back for that, Red Hoodie," I scowled.

"Don't call me that, Thomas," He growled, threateningly pointing his knife at me. I laughed.

"What? Does Buckethead not like me giving him nicknames?" I made a pouty face as I held my cheeks in a mocking way. "Poor Mr. Leather. He doesn't like me calling him Little Red."

Red Hood twitched as I continued to stitch together more and more dumb nicknames. I was poking the bear with a stick. I was still kind of mad and disappointed he had been able to best me in a fight and I was determined to show him what I was made of.

Suddenly, he softened. A smile arose on his face. "You know what, keep calling me your stupid names. We all know that when a girl likes a guy she gives him nicknames. But know that we are strictly platonic," he smirked again, "no matter how much you dream of me."