Amends

By JC

Rating: PG

Fandom: Batman

Pairings: Batman/Nightwing

Feedback addy: jazzedup@prodigy.net

Author's Website: http://internetdump.com/users/jayci

Disclaimers: All characters used in this story belong to someone else... but they still insist on hanging around me. And they're superheroes, after all, so nothing I'm doing seems to have any permanent effects on them.

Notes: This is just a little glimpse at a moment between Batman and Nightwing. It's dedicated to Michelle for the wonderful original artwork that was the inspiration. To see her first bat pic, go to the batslash page of my website. And I'm not above shameless begging and pleading (as well as offers of batsex stories ) to get her to do more.

Summary: Batman and Nightwing... one moment in time and a decision made...

The kiss had been... almost beyond description. Impulsive, overwhelming. Sweet and fiery. Satisfying and frightening. A cosmic explosion that had caught him up so strongly, that he had no control over his reaction. Not his arms tightening around the responsive body, not his cock hardening against another, not his tongue blissfully surrendering to delightful suction.

Desire had swept him away.

Shock had brought him back. Back to the cave, to the costumes, to the Bat and this new incarnation of a young man whom he used to know so well.

And his subsequent reaction had been beyond his control as well. The quick pushing away, none too gentle. Harsh words... spoken softly, but sounding like a roar even to his own ears.

And Dick was leaving him again.

The rift between them had been great, made wider with time and distance, emotion and reason.

Only in dark moments alone had he ever allowed himself to savor the joy he had felt when Dick had simply walked back into his life. To replay over and over the simmering bubble of emotions that had touched his heart, throbbed in his groin, causing his gut to clench and his throat to close up, eyes stinging suddenly... all behind that blank mask that he had perfected over the years.

He didn't need a costume... the Bat was alive and well.

But as much as he hadn't allowed himself to change, Dick seemed to have changed a lot.

Nightwing.

Self-assured, on his own, a grown man. And despite the past, he had slipped in easily with little reproach. Just a gentle reminder that one can't be a Boy Wonder forever.

It had been wonderfully familiar to have the recurrence of Dick Grayson and his visits to the Manor. Even the presence of the new costumed figure hadn't felt too strange... the strength, the grace, it was unmistakable.

Little by little, bit by bit; they had approached some semblance of normality. A new way of co-existing. He knew that they hadn't really dealt with things... just drifted to that place of least resistance.

Until they drifted a bit too close together...

... exposing all of that *stuff* that had been hidden away in the back corners of his soul, fermenting over time into sweaty, late-night wet dreams, and fantasies spun in those cold early morning hours that mocked the fact that he was actually waking up alone...

... crossing a line that propriety, and common sense had drawn a long time ago. A line that he had sworn would exist for the good of them both. Even as he watched Dick walk away years ago, and especially after Dick came back, a fine specimen of matured man. Yet, in his heart, he knew the line had gotten almost too blurry to see.

A part of him had seen the kiss coming... had seen it coming ever since he and Nightwing had teamed up to thwart one of Catwoman's plans. Although it had been part of their strategy, jealousy had zipped through him relentlessly every time that Nightwing had done his little dance with the felonious feline. Made all the more agonizing because of his own threads of attraction for her, and Nightwing's knowledge of them. It hadn't been easy, but in the end it had turned out all right. Bad guys (and bad woman) in custody, good guys calling it a night.

Barely back in the BatCave, and not even out of their costumes before they were kissing. Restless energy and misdirected desires finally focused, culminating in something that was more than he had ever imagined. So much more than those steamy night visions, those heartbreaking daydreams. A single breath-stealing kiss.

And he couldn't bear it. Before the tingle had even left his lips, he was lashing out in word and action, inflicting hurt so deeply, that it didn't even show on the other man's face. Just a familiar blank stare that he recognized as a mask being firmly put in place.

And that was worse.

With a few, quick strides, he had his hands on shoulders that were no longer tense with passion, but instead strained with pain and anger.

"I'm sorry..."

A slight trembling, but the body remained rigid, head bowed. He took heart in the fact that he hadn't been shrugged off, or punched out.

"I...I'm not good with situations that I can't control. You know that. But I don't want you to go, and I don't want to hurt you anymore."

He snaked one arm around the younger man's middle, pulling him close, ridiculously grateful when he met no resistance. With one gloved hand, he gently swept aside the end of a silky, black ponytail, clearing a space to plant a needy kiss.

"I'd like to.... Will you let me make it up to you?"

There was no answer, but a hand that had been clenched in a fist, slowly unfolded, covering his where it lay over the muscled belly, and he took that as a 'yes'.