Always Traught

He is My Angel

Artemis sighed loudly as she dug her index finger into the wet mud underneath her. It covered the back of her pants, the front of it, and her hands. But she ignored it. She listened to the sound of the small stream flow, the occasional gusts of wind, and the croaks of distant frogs.

She had found the stream when she much younger. It was on the outskirts of Gotham, where there were no buildings or busy cars whizzing by. To the goddess, it seemed too beautiful to be in a place full of serial killers and violence. It was too beautiful to be discovered by a girl like her. Since she was young, she decided it was meant to be found by her. Maybe it had some message? Or it was a secret haven to escape all the worries and abuse sent her way?

She came there to escape. When her father would beat her and train her till she bleed, she came there. And when she had a major argument with her mom, she would pack a camping bag and sleep till the morning. She visited it for hours after hanging out with the team. Artemis would spend more than a couple of days there when their words became too much. It always calmed her down. It truly was her safe haven.

So when the thoughts of Dick plagued her mind, she grabbed her motorcycle and drove as fast as she could. Originally, Artemis didn't have a plan but her body brought her to the stream. It dragged her through the forest and sat her down on the wet ground.

Artemis tried so hard not to see his lifeless body, not to feel the guilt building up, and hear his voice. And maybe she was delirious from mourning, but she could almost see the old Robin uniform, then his Nightwing one. And then she saw her reflection. She saw her red under-eyes, her sudden pale complexion, and the flyaways from her too-long hair. The spark in her irises were gone. Their silver color was too. They were black and lifeless.

The blonde didn't care about her appearance, but she looked so broken. It looked like one more lost would shatter her into a billion pieces. And unfortunately for her, it seemed like her heart ran out of glue.

Artemis bowed her head against her knees and took in a shaky breath. She squeezed her eyes tight just to see his face. His black hair, light skin, and his beautiful blue eyes stained her vision. So she took another breath and squeezed her eyes tighter. Artemis wanted to see him. She wanted to hear his voice and hear one last, "I love you," She wanted to tell him how much she loved him. Artemis wanted to kiss his lips and hug him so tight. If she could bring him back, she would. If she could tell him goodbye, she would. If she could tell him that he would finally be safe and sound, she would. And it all hurt so much.

Artemis didn't open her eyes until she heard the tweet of a bird. Her trained ears picked it up immediately. It was unique against the croaks of frogs, the howls of owls, and all the other creatures that made noises at that time of night.

Her eyes searched for the bird. She spotted it on a nearby tree. Its orange belly stood out against the darkness. Faraway moonlight illuminated it. As it tilted its head, Artemis noticed white spots around its eye. She bit back on a sob when it looked exactly at her and chirped again. It was a robin.

Artemis shook her head against her knees and held her breath. Maybe she was delusional? No, that wasn't the case. The chirp of the bird was too real for it to be fake. And the more it tweeted, it became undeniable. This was Dick, or someone giving him a message, listening to her.

She lifted her head up and wiped her eyes using the back of her arms. The longer she looked at bird, it tilted its head. It was as if the creature was telling her to get on with it. So she did.

"I-I miss you," Artemis said. It came out broken an uneven. Part of it was because she couldn't believe she was talking to a bird. The other half was because that was how she felt: Undeniably broken. The archer decided to continued, "I miss you everyday. I missed you the moment I saw you. The only thing is that it wasn't you ... You didn't wake up. You didn't wake up no matter how hard I begged. And I'm sorry that I couldn't wake you up," There was another chirp. If a bird could look sad, this one certainly did.

Tears started to come one after another. They didn't seem to stop, "And I hate myself for it. I hate that I couldn't save you. And I hate that I want to hear is you say that you love me. Cause how can you love someone who let you die? But god, Dick, all I want to do is bring you back. I want to hug you so hard that I can't breathe and I want to kiss you forever. I just want to feel you. Feeling you means you're there. And if you do have to go, if it's your time, I would do anything to say goodbye. I would tell you that you're safe. No one can hurt you now. Because he is my angel and no one can touch him," Artemis sobbed.

Artemis closed her eyes and saw his face again. This time his bright blue eyes were full of salty tears. And that made her cry all the harder, even though she tried not to.

It was past dawn by the time she had finished shedding her tears. She had laid down on her side and rested her head on a rock. Her eyes were closed an ached underneath their lids. Throughout the night, Artemis hadn't checked to see if the robin was still there. She knew that Dick was with her the whole time.