Batsis Stories, Imagines, & One-Shots

It's What We Do That Defines Us

"Hey (Y/N)?" She hummed absentmindedly, her eyes still trained to the stars above.

"Yeah Kyle?" Fingers switched against her palm, then laced with her own; a heartbeat pounded against her skin, causing her to look over at him. "Is everything alright babe?" Evergreen eyes met hers and he murmured,

"Do you ever think about what life would be like if you weren't a superhero?" (Y/N) blinked, the question giving her a slight pause. She leaned closer, propping her chin in his shoulder and teased,

"Thinking about how you could've had an apple pie and picket fence life, Kyle?" A grin crossed his lips and he glanced over at her.

"To be honest with you, I'm more of a cherry pie kinda man." His gaze dropped, and his eyes roamed her body. "Blame Warrant on that one." She rolled her eyes, but the laugh she gave him showed her amusement. Kyle paused, his gaze searching her face. "But back to my original question... what do you think you'd be doing if you weren't a vigilante?" (Y/N) inhaled deeply, rolling away from his shoulder and laid on her back, her eyes scanning the immense field on stars above them.

"...I don't know honestly. I've never really given it much thought." Raising her hand, she traced the scars across her expanse of her arm. "I've been training to be a vigilante since I was eight years old...helping people is all I've ever really wanted to do with life." She looked back over at him. "But since you asked... if I wasn't a vigilante, I'd probably be a stuck-up rich kid who overcharges her dad's credit cards." Kyle chuckled, causing her to laugh with him. After a moment, that lapses into silence, then he asked,

"Would you ever change anything you've done?" The question he'd given her had been one she's asked herself so many times. What if's rising to the tongue of a girl too afraid to choose a path other than that of the least resistance, but ultimately keeping them contained and taking the hardest ones anyway. (Y/N) bit her lip slightly, the memories of every mistake, every wrong choice flashing behind her eyes like lightning in a storm. The fingers laced though hers squeezed gently, dragging her from them, and she looked back over, her eyes tracing the wisps of hair at his temples that had fallen from the gel he'd put in it earlier. She blinked, then gave him a smile, her voice soft as she replied,

"No...I don't think I would change a single thing." Kyle's eyebrows furrowed in confusion and he questioned,

"Why not? Hasn't there been a time that you've done wrong and couldn't change it?" (Y/N) watched him carefully, the words toying with the tip of her tongue as she asked softly,

"Are you talking about what happened to Alex?" His face momentarily darkened, a mixture of anger, hate, and self-loathing, then it fell, and she saw the pain and regret in his eyes and heard it in his voice as he muttered,

"I'm talking about everything that I've done wrong." He sat up, resting his elbows on his knees, the heel of his tennis shoes scraping against the brick of the roof. He let out a heavy sigh, causing her heart to squeeze, and she rose beside him, curling her arm through his. They stared at the city across the water, then she spoke quietly.

"When I was sixteen, I accidently shoved someone over a support beam during a fight." He eyed her from the corner of his eye, silently asking what happened and what the hell this had to do with his issues. "Didn't mean too...he grabbed me from behind, and I did what I'd been trained to do...I freed myself and made the distance between us. But I misjudged the force of my kick and he tumbled over and down about a hundred feet onto concrete." She paused, thumb rubbing the back of his hand. "When my family and friends saw what'd I'd done, even if it was an accident, a lot of them decided to keep me at an arm's length. 'She might kill again', they said, 'If she's killed once, she'll do it again...there's no way we can trust her anymore.' Eventually, I stopped patrolling with the Titans and Teen Titans. Hell, I even stopped helping the Justice League. I did my own thing by myself because no one trusted me anymore. 'Til this day, there are some people within the superhero community who shun me and don't trust me. And at every meeting, somehow, someway, it's always brought up." (Y/N) looked over at him, squeezing his hand again. "Wherever I go, whatever I do, that follows me. It's never going to be let go, and it's certainly never going to be forgotten. However, despite those problems and feelings, and what occurred in the past, that accident doesn't define me or my actions. Yes, I unintentionally took someone's life, but I'm not a murderer. I carry that burden with me, and I always will...and while I can't change what happened, it drives me to make sure that I don't make the same mistake again." She let go of his hand, slipping her legs on either side of his body, her hands coming up to cup his cheeks; she caressed his cheeks with her thumbs, staring into his eyes, and mustered the sincerest voice she could. "Kyle, what you've gone through, the people you've lost, the people you've saved, and the friends you've gathered along the way? That's not who you are...it's what you do with it that defines who you are." His eyes widened slightly, and his lips parted to speak, but no words fell from his lips. (Y/N) gave him a smile and leaned forward, pressing her lips against his forehead; she pulled back and murmured, "It may not mean much, but I'm proud of you Kyle." She watched him exhale shakily, and she swore she could see the damn inside him breaking as he lowered his head, his arms reaching to pull her against him. She shifted, perching in his lap and let him bury his face in her neck. Kyle let out a breath, but it felt more like a soft sob, and heat blossomed against her skin where his lips touched; he let out a sound, crossing between a groan and grunt as he told her,