In The Heat Of The Night

Author: Beth Winter

Summary: Roy Harper shows up at Dick Grayson's apartment in the middle of the night and demands to be cheered up

Rating: R to be safe, though I personally think it's more of a PG-13

Pairing: Roy/Dick (Arsenal/Nightwing)

Type: Fluff, First-time

Dedicated to: Becky Marie, for being an angel and lending me a hand with this plot bunny


IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT
by Beth


It figured. If he had a late day at work and an early morning the next day, the Bludhaven nightlife invariably chose that night to let its hair down. And conversely, on the one night when Amy let him off early and he had nothing to do the next day, the streets were as peaceful as a maternity ward in a geriatric hospital.

Around two a.m. Nightwing gave up on finding some criminal heads to bash in and headed home. Just as he had changed from his costume into sweats, someone knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" Dick called out as he pulled a Bludhaven P.D. t-shirt over his head. It never hurt to make sure - after all, the list of his possible night visitors included various 'haven bad guys he had antagonized as a vigilante, various meta bad guys he had antagonized as a Titan, and lately various members of the Bat family he had antagonized by not reacting calmly to Barbara's decision to start dating Jason Bard again.

But then there were more agreeable persons on that list, and one of them was currently yelling at him to open the door.

"Hi, Roy," Dick started as he opened the door. Then he got a good look at his friend's face. "Let me guess, Carrie kicked you out on your ear?"

"The Detective Wonder strikes again..." Roy Harper muttered as he pushed past his friend. "Yeah, she says she needs 'someone she feels safe with'. Can you believe that? Come on, I can take on interstellar crooks but I'm not 'safe' enough for her?"

Dick sighed and closed the door. He leaned against a wall and watched as his friend paced around the room. "Maybe she meant metaphorically. 'Safe' is probably some accountant whose idea of a wild night is two imported beers instead of a Bud."

"Instead of, say, getting drunk, hijacking the JLA transporters and painting graffiti in the White House corridors?"

"Exactly."

"But did she have to come to that decision after I spent two months chasing after her? I am the *king* of bad relationships!" Roy flopped tragically over the sofa and put his hands over his eyes.

"Cheer up, Roy, next thing you know you'll find someone else," Dick assured him.

"Yeah, that's what I could use now... some pretty thing to spend some time with... details don't matter."

"So she could be dumb as a brick?"

"Sure."

"Nothing else matters?" Dick thought for a moment, then smirked. "Not even gender?"

Roy peered up at him from under a hand. "Nope. Thought you knew that, Detective Wonder."

Dick did a double take. "Honestly?"

"Yeah. Never really mattered, and sometimes guys are even better. You mind?"

The dark-haired man sighed. "It'd be hypocritical if I did."

It was Roy's turn to blink in surprise. "No kidding? If you don't expand on that little tidbit, I'll shoot you with something really painful. Just so you know."

"Okay, see, I have this slight problem with saying no to people who forcefully pursue my company. Same thing all over again, Kory, Mirage, Helena, Clancy, the works. About the only time *I* was doing the pursuing was with Babs, and you're aware of how well *that* worked out."

Roy tactfully did not comment that the disaster was quite typical of his friend's love life.

"Anyway," Dick continued, "it's the same with guys; I'm a bit more skilled in refusing their offers, but if the attraction's there, I'm a goner. It's always been like that. Why did you ask?"

"Because that means there's finally someone I can talk to about the comparative visual merits of the male half of the hero community." Roy grinned unashamedly. "Connor faints from blushing within the first five minutes and it's just not the same talking about it with the girls."

Dick laughed despite himself. "Okay, so who did your sharp eyes spy in particular?"

Roy thought about it for a moment. "Bruce Wayne."

Dick jumped. "What?"

"Aw, come on. You can't tell me you missed those muscles, *or* that look-"

"Harper!"

"What? Like you think I never fantasized about Ollie? Especially with how he and Dinah never bothered to close the bedroom door, never mind locking it?"

"Harper, don't drag me down to the level of your gutter, please."

"But-"

"Bruce is... my *dad*. Ewww."

"Okay, okay, be a spoilsport. Let's see... that blond dish I saw you with the other day?"

A mischievous spark glinted in Dick's eye. "Oh, I'll introduce you. He needs to meet people who know how to have fun." He took a moment to imagine Jean-Paul's - and more importantly, Azrael's - reaction to being called a 'blond dish'.

"Promises, Grayson. Your turn."

"Two words, Kyle Rayner."

Roy started to fan himself. "Oh, *baaaybeee*!"

Which was, of course, the perfect opportunity for Dick to throw the redhead off the sofa and to the floor.

"What was that for?" Roy protested from his prone position on the carpet.

"Conduct unbecoming in a superhero," Dick intoned solemnly as he perched on the top rail of the sofa.

"You're one to talk, you narcissist."

"What?"

Roy smirked. "Come on, apart from skin color, you and Kyle look like twins. It'd be like dating a mirror!"

"Okay, now I know why Carrie dumped you: she got fed up of your mistaking her for Mother Mayhem with your bad eyesight."

"Oh, lay off acting like you don't know just how good you look."

"Really?" Dick's eyelashes fluttered over innocent wide eyes.

Roy got to his feet in one fluid motion and leaned over his friend, placing his hands on the sofa's back on both sides of the other man's body. Their faces were suddenly very, very close. "Want me to prove it to you?" he whispered sultrily.

Dick wrinkled his nose. "The way my love life's been recently, you might be an improvement."

"And you don't think I'm not safe enough?" Roy demanded eagerly.

The other man allowed himself a dangerous grin. "Oh, I could take you."

Roy leaned in even closer. "Try."

The redhead found himself lying flat on the floor for the second time inside five minutes. The difference was that this time there was a hundred and seventy pounds of pure muscle kneeling on his chest and pushing him down very decisively. "Okay, I give up," he croaked out.

"Good." Dick let go and rolled off to sprawl next to his friend. "I think it's your turn."

"You."

"Be serious."

"I am." Roy turned on his side to look at the other man. "You're gorgeous, you're smart, and you're dangerous. I *like* dangerous."

"Harper..."

"Quiet. I'm trying to remember what you said before."

"Which part?"

In a lightning-quick move Roy stood up, pulling Dick up with him. "The one about not being able to say no."

There were perhaps two inches between their bodies. And not for long.

Being shoeless, Dick noticed, meant both you and your partner could tell with a look if your toes were curling.

Dick's were.

When the kiss ended, they broke apart gasping.

"This isn't a good idea," Dick protested faintly.

"It's a great idea." Roy assured him.

The second kiss was even better. This time Dick was the one to break it when he arched his back as Roy's fingers found some sensitive points down his sides. The moan that accompanied this action, decided the archer, made it decidedly worth it.

"You're on the rebound," Dick tried again. He rather ruined this protest by wrapping himself around Roy like a big cat.

"So are you," the archer said triumphantly. "Come on, what's the harm?"

Roy knew he had won when he found himself on his back on the floor, *again*, without his shirt, pants, socks or shoes. Dick was taking care of the boxers at the moment. With his teeth.

The redhead allowed himself one delighted smile before tackling his friend and reversing their positions. After all, who was the seducer here?

* * *

The ringing of the phone woke them before dawn. Somewhere along the way they had moved to Dick's bed; the disadvantage to it was the fact that the phone was blaring right into Roy's ear.

"Wassat?" he muttered as he picked it up.

Then a firm hand took the receiver away from him. Dick sat up in the bed, fully alert despite having woken only seconds before. He spared a moment to note with amusement that Roy just snuggled in and went back to sleep, then answered the phone.

"Grayson here."

"You didn't report on your surveillance of Da Costa's network. Was there trouble?"

Oh great... now the Bat was on his case. "No, everything was quiet. I was distracted when I returned here, sorry."

A moment of silence. "Was that Arsenal I heard?"

"...yes."

"I see."

Dick cringed. "Do you, uh, have a problem-?"

"Only if you don't remember that Alfred's not a babysitting service. Arrange normal care for the child next time."

"It was a matter of life and death the last time," Dick reminded his mentor.

"Still-"

"Okay, we'll just drop her off at the Cave the next time. You can give her a blunt batarang to play with."

"Hn," Batman muttered over the phone. Just when Dick was about to hang up, he spoke again. "I wish you better luck this time."

"Don't worry." Dick sneaked his fingers into Roy's red hair. "I won't mess this one up."

{FINIS}

did it take you so long
to want something more?
did you never get off
on this before?
well, here it is
the love you've been waitin' for
standin' in front of you
like an open door
and then you ask yourself
is this where you belong?
is it right, or is it wrong?
does it matter what's right
in the heat of the night?

- Pat Benatar, "In the heat of the night"; lyrics by Nicky Chinn & Mike
Chapman