Nightwing understood the importance of having people on global surveillance in the Watchtower at all times. It made sense; it was damned hard to do anything about a threat if you didn't know it existed. When one was injured and strictly forbidden from field work, guard duty was a satisfactory enough way to fill the time. The problem was that he always seemed to come up on the roster when he was perfectly healthy and eager to be out on the streets.

Tonight was such an instance. He'd been chasing a jewelry counterfeiting ring for weeks, working his way meticulously up the ladder to determine who sat at the top of the scheme, and had had every intention of continuing his investigation this evening. It wasn't as if he was missing a prime chance to crack the case by being above the Earth instead of on it – he was several rungs too low for that still – but seeing his name on the calendar had irked him nonetheless. The 'TBD' underneath was just as irritating, he thought as he dropped into a seat and leaned back to stare at the dozens of screens that were his responsibility for the next eight hours. If he was going to be on duty, he would have at least liked to know who he would be spending time with.

"You're here early," his question was answered a minute later. He pushed his chair around to face the new arrival, an eager-but-cautious grin spreading across his previously perturbed face as he recognized Batgirl's voice.

"Well if it isn't the prettiest heroine in the universe," he drawled, tipping an invisible Stetson to the woman in the doorway.

She responded by crossing her arms. "If all you're going to do is flirt in accents the whole shift, I'm leaving."

"If I flirt in my regular voice, will you stay?"

"You're impossible. And no. No flirting. We're here on business."

"You know every time you say that it just makes me more determined, right?" His tone was teasing, but the intent below it was not.

"Showing off your Batman-level stubbornness is a good way to watch the world spin all by your lonesome, Nightwing."

Wisely, he didn't ignore the warning in her words. "Okay, okay," he sighed. "Truce. I'll try to be good."

"You'll 'try'?"

"It's a hard guarantee to make when you're around," he shrugged, "but I'll do my best. Honest."

"Hmm...fine. But I reserve the right to leave if you start up," she stated, finally coming forward to occupy the chair beside him. "Got it?"

"I got it. No flirting, just friends," he grimaced. "Or am I not allowed to be friendly now, either?" The way she'd been acting towards him of late made it a valid question. When she'd been a single woman she had usually allowed him to get a few sugary lines in before she shut him down. Since hooking up with her current boyfriend, however, she'd adopted a no-nonsense policy, and even his most innocuous implications were now met with stony looks. Half of the texts he sent her, even the non-suggestive ones, went unanswered, and he was lucky to get the time of day if he met her on the street or passed her in the space station's halls. Given all of that, he was beginning to wonder if she was trying to squeeze him out of her life altogether.

For a moment there was a glint of guilt in her gaze. "...I didn't say that."

"Maybe not out loud," he murmured. "Anyway," he shook himself and placed his attention on the computer in front of him, "I glanced over the notes from the last couple of shifts. There's unrest in the all the usual places, the stock markets are swinging like kids on a playground, and everyone's favorite dictators got together to release a compilation of new 'come at me, bro' speeches."

"So that's business?" she asked, craning to try and see his face.

"Yup. That's business." He fell silent. It wasn't what he wanted to do, but she'd ruled out the things he could say from the safety of his flirtation shield and he didn't have the energy to try and be 'just friends' right now. "That's...business."

She cleared her throat. "I, ah...Batman said you're chasing some jewel thieves?"

"Counterfeiters," he corrected, focused now on the monitors that were streaming news in nineteen languages. If he didn't look at her, he thought, maybe it wouldn't hurt so much.

"Oh. Anyone I know?"

"Nope. All Bludhaven babies."

"...Oh. Well-"

"Why did you volunteer?" he whispered suddenly.

"Huh?" Her mouth turned down. "Nightwing, what-"

"Why," he repeated, "did you volunteer for tonight? I saw the schedule; it was me and TBD. If you hadn't volunteered, I'd be sitting here alone right now regardless of how the rules say guard duty is supposed to be handled. So why?"

"...I wanted to see you."

"Bullshit." The word was out of his mouth before he realized he was even thinking it.

"It's the truth."

"Really? You're not worried that your boyfriend will be angry at you for talking to another man?"

"...No. Nightwing-"

"Oh wait, how could he be? He doesn't know that you know me, at least not like this," he swept a hand to indicate his costume, "because he's a civilian who you haven't told the truth to yet. Right. Sorry. Stupid me." The helpless emotions of a man watching the woman he adores walk away from him had started streaming forth through the crack in his control that her unexpected appearance had caused, and now that it had started he couldn't make it stop. "You know...I lied to you earlier."

"...What?"

"I lied to you." His voice was low, almost gentle, but he was squeezing the arms of his chair so tightly that his fingernails threatened to go through his gloves. "I told you I would try to just be friendly tonight. But I can't do that, not tonight, not any night. I can't do that because I love you. Whether you like it or not, that's how it is, and I'm not going to shove that part of me away in the hopes of getting to be the 'friend' that everyone else is a little creeped out by because they know the truth. Do you know what happens to people who do that, who shove away their love for someone and try to pretend it never happened? Do you?"

"No," she shook her head, her pursed lips barely moving as they mouthed her answer.

"They have this bad tendency to become villains. Well, I refuse to do that, even for you," he swore. "Even for you, I wouldn't. Not that. Not ever."

Their eyes stayed locked for several long seconds despite the lenses that stood between them. Then Nightwing pulled away, turning his gaze back to the screens. He felt hollow, and yet somehow better than he had in many weeks. Either she would hate him now or she wouldn't, but his feelings towards her wouldn't change, and that was the crux of the matter. Whatever happened next, he had played his last card, and had nothing further to lay down on the table.

"...He dumped me last week."

His brows drew down. "What?"

"I told him. I thought...he said he saw us going places together, and...well, I thought it was the right time. It would have felt wrong, making things serious without him knowing. Anyway...he dumped me."

"I assume you're safe despite that?"

A hard half-sob, half-laugh tore from her throat. "...Batman said the exact same thing when I told him. Down to the last syllable."

"If you were talking to him about it, then you aren't safe," he frowned. "What, are you hiding out up here or something?" He straightened, a mixture of anger and alarm rushing into his veins. It would only take one strategic unmasking, he knew, to out them all, and god only knew what would come of that.

"It's okay," she said, reading his distress. "Bryan promised that he wouldn't tell. He wanted me to quit and just be with him, but...I couldn't do that. I can't quit. I told..." She took a deep breath. "I told him that if he wanted to be with me then he had to accept me for who I am. For...all of who I am. And no, the irony of that in light of your soliloquy a minute ago isn't lost on me."

He hadn't figured that it was, but he let it be. "Can you trust him?"

"I wouldn't have told him at all if I didn't know that I could. Give me some credit. Everything's fine, at least on that count, but..."

"But he still dumped you."

"Yeah."

"...Asshole."

"He doesn't understand, that's all."

"No. You're right. He doesn't." He hesitated. "So why did you talk to Batman about your douche of an ex if he promised to keep your secret?"

"Because what I told you earlier wasn't a lie."

"...What?"

"I wanted to see you," she shrugged. "Call it bullshit all you want, but it's the truth. I thought you might be at the cave, since it's a weekend, but it was just him. He told me you were up here, so...here I am."

"...Why?" he circled back to his original question.

"Honestly? Because I knew you'd make me feel better, and I thought...I thought maybe I owed you an apology. I know I've come off as a bitch lately, but I wanted things to work with Bryan so badly, and he has this jealousy streak..." She trailed off. "Anyway, that's over, and I just realized that I missed you. That's all. I missed my friend."

"Yeah, well..." Part of him felt like crying, while the rest of him was screaming not to backslide on the statements he'd voiced only a short while before. "I already told you how I feel about that."

"I know," she nodded. "But you're still doing it."

"Doing what?"

"Being my friend. There's more mixed up in there, I know, but right now you're being the best friend I have despite yourself, and despite...despite me."

"There's no 'despite' you. You're just...you. I'm used to that by now." He saw her wince out of the corner of his eye, but he didn't apologize. There was no point, not when they both knew it was the truth.

"I'm sorry, Dick."

He started, surprised not only by her use of his real name but by the deep regret in her voice. "You already apologized," he shook his head. "Well...more or less."

"Not well enough. I've been a terrible friend to you."

"People fight. That's just how it is." He sighed. "That doesn't mean that they can't make up."

"I'm talking about more than just the way I've been holding you at arm's length. I know you love me, you've made that perfectly clear. But you're a much better friend than I am, because you love all of me. Meanwhile, I've been trying to make you stop flirting, stop teasing, stop...stop loving me so damn well. Stop being so you. Don't ask me why I would want that, because I don't know. All I know is that I don't think I've ever had a better friend than you, and I don't think I'll ever find a better one, either."

It took everything he had to keep from giving in then and there, so happy was he to just have her talking to him again they way she used to. "I don't understand what you're asking me to do."

"...I'm asking you to be you."

"That's not what you wanted when you came in a while ago."

"I know. That's because I was afraid I'd never find an opening to talk about all this if you launched right into the compliments. I still don't feel ready to have such a vocal one-man fan club as you like to be sometimes," she smiled, "but...there's something dad used to tell me when I was little. He hasn't said it recently, but I see it in his eyes sometimes. He told me that the strongest relationships are built on friendship. If your partner in life isn't your friend, the road will be a bumpy one. But if your partner in life is your best friend...well, then it won't matter how bumpy the road is. You'll enjoy the ride simply because you're taking it together."

She held out her hand, and Nightwing felt his breath catch. "...I'm not looking for a partner in life at the moment," she went on, "but I would like my best friend back. If he'll have me, that is. After that...well, we'll see where the road leads."

"Been a bumpy ride lately, has it?" he asked, his tongue dry.

"Mm...it doesn't seem so bad right now. I guess things are easier when there's someone beside you who's feeling the same thing."

"Are they?"

"...Yeah. They are."

His glove slid over hers. Their fingers squeezed for a moment, then retreated. "You're not wrong about that," he murmured.

Neither spoke again until one of the screens they were supposed to be monitoring began rolling clips of a warzone somewhere below them. When the report had ended, the woman sighed. "Too bad Earth can't have a best friend. The poor girl needs it."

"It does have a best friend," Nightwing rebutted.

"Who would that be, exactly?"

"Us, of course. Through all of its flaws and outbursts, pains and pleasures, we love it just the same."

"...Wait, are you talking about the League?"

"Yeah. What's wrong with that?"

"You're anthropomorphizing an organization," she scoffed.

"Well, if corporations can have the same rights as people..."

"Gee, I wonder who raised you?"

"Heh. But seriously...think about it. You've been to other planets, some of them very nice; but did any of them feel quite as right as Earth?"

"...No," she admitted. "No, they didn't. But if the League is going to be the Earth's 'best friend,' then we should probably be watching out for her a little better."

"You have a point. She's going through a bit of a phase right now," he let a hint of teasing slip into his tone. Recalling the warmth he had felt when her fingers had pressed his, he nudged his luck. "You want some popcorn to go with the drama, pretty lady?"

"Do I get to throw it at you for the sheer audacity of that comment?"

"I'll make you a deal." His smile, absent for the last half-hour, peeked out of hiding. "You can throw a piece at me every time I flirt with you."

"...Go get a bowl, you dork," she smirked. "And bring the vacuum cleaner for when we have to pick up our mess later."

"I'll make it a double batch," he beamed, rising. "...I have a lot of catching up to do."

Author's Note: I hope you've all enjoyed this little series. Be sure to check 'Camp Batman' for an update tomorrow if you're following that story as well. Happy reading!