Blue Beetle X Reader Chapter 8

I stormed into our temporary base in Blüdhaven, if you could even call it a base that is. I was absolutely furious as I looked around the place to find who Inwas looking for, but the only person I could see was Mal.
"Woah! Lady! You can't be here this is private.. Oh.." He started trying to herd me out as though he were a sheepdog making me the sheep. He stopped when I pulled my mask out of my bag and held it up to my face.
"Actually Mal, I believe I can be here." This place really needed to get some better security. Sure, it was relatively difficult to find, and it didn't look like much from the outside -or the inside for that matter- so it wasn't very suspicious, but when I found the place all I had to do was open the door and walk in. I didn't need a key or anything. Then again, it was a lot better than the piles of rubble that Mount Justice and now the Hall of Justice had been reduced to.
"Sorry about that (SH/N).. I didn't recognise you without your costume on.." Mal chuckled awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck. In my haste to get over here once I heard what was happening I had completely disregarded my costume, only just finding time to grab my mask on my way out.
"Hey (SH/N) I- woah you're not (SH/N)." Beast Boy came bounding in however he stopped very suddenly when he took in my appearance due to the fact that he's only seen me without the mask on once after the little counselling session with Black Canary when Tye discovered who I was. Crap. I had completely forgotten about the Tye situation. Apparently him and the other people who had been kidnapped were at Star Labs testing out their new powers. Maybe Nightwing will let Tye join the team, that way our little group won't have to keep secrets from one another anymore. We're so close that we'd be great fighting together, we'd be unstoppable.
"I'm not (SH/N) right now, no." I sighed and his eyes widened in realisation. "Right now I'm (Y/N) and I'm incredibly concerned about the wellbeing of my best friend who I care the more about than anyone and anything else on this damn planet."
"Are you talking about Jaime?" Beast Boy questioned, probably thinking back to our little scene on the bio-ship. We still hadn't explained that to the rest of the team what exactly that was about or why the two of us were suddenly super close after practically ignoring one another for the past few months.
"Yes, and until I know that he's safe, the costume is staying off and (SH/N) will not be making an appearance." I had gotten a call from Nightwing on the new phone that he had bought me after I bugged him repeatedly about mine being destroyed in the explosion at our old base. I mean he's the adopted son of Bruce Wayne, he can afford to get a new phone. Me? I'm just a 16 year old girl who is already struggling leading a double life as socially awkward schoolgirl (Y/N) and badass superhero (SH/N).. Well lately I haven't been all that badass but let's just pretend that I have been. I don't have time to get a job, particularly one with flexible hours so that I'd be able to leave whenever I was needed on a mission.

Nightwing informed me that Bumblebee and Atom were inside Jaime, trying to remove the scarab. At first I giggled because of the wording and my.. imaginative mind, however when what was happening actually sunk in, I rushed over to our temporary base as fast as I could so that Nightwing could take me to go and see when was happening. He said that judging by the amount of pain that Jaime was in, the procedure was not going well. Needless to say, I was both furious at Jaime for not telling me that this was going to happen and absolutely terrified for his safety. For all we knew, the procedure could kill him.

"Noted." Beast Boy nodded, probably still slightly confused as to what exactly was happening. "It's weird seeing you out of costume (SH- I mean (Y/N)." Very few people on the team had seen me completely out of costume. When I first joined the team only Aqualad and Nightwing had seen me as (Y/N), Aqualad as he was the leader of the team and Nightwing because I was practically attached to Batman when I first met the Justice League as he was the first one to find me and everyone else just seemed too nice and sweet. It was quite eerie so I didn't trust them at the time, now I realise that they were just trying to make me feel welcome.
I decided for my first few months on the team I would keep my identity a secret, at least until I knew that I could definitely trust them all. However when the fire happened the name (Y/N) was all over the news, everyone knew of me and what had happened. Everyone knew me as the miracle child, I felt like Harry Potter when they gave me the nickname 'the girl who lived'. I didn't need the sort of attention that a nickname like that gave from the rest of the team, particularly since I was going to be living at Mount Justice with a few of them for the time being, so I kept quiet. It wouldn't take long for them to have put two and two together and realised that I caused the fire which is why I escaped it unharmed. Eventually, a couple of other members of the team found out, such as Megan and Artemis, but still not many of them. They never mentioned the fire to me and didn't treat me any differently which I was incredibly thankful for.
"Come on (Y/N)." Nightwing appeared out of nowhere and gently grabbed my wrist. "I'll take you to go and see him." I hastily waved goodbye to Mal and Beast Boy before following after Nightwing to go and see my best friend.

--Time Skip--

We arrived in Ivy Town just as Bumblebee and Atom were removed from Jaime and grew back to their original sizes. Jaime himself was laying on his side, shivering and sweating with his face quite clearly contorted in pain. I was about to run into the room to comfort him and see what I could do to help, but Nightwing held me back at the doorway with his arm quite firmly planted around my waist, lifting me up off of the ground ever so slightly in order to prevent me from going in. I tried to fight against him, kicking his legs in a desperate attempt to set myself free, however it was to no avail.
"What happened in there?" Impulse questioned Bumblebee and Atom, pulling his medical mask away from his face. How come he knew about this and was allowed in the room but not me? I was Jaime's best friend, I should be the one in there.
"There were.. Complications." Atom said with a sigh. I could only hope that the complications that he's talking about weren't life threatening. Impulse suddenly noticed mine and Nightwing's presence in the doorway and gave the two of us a small wave. I gave him a look as if to say 'help me' in hopes that he'd make Nightwing let go of me, however Bart simply shook his head and turned away. Why wouldn't they let me in there.
"(Y/N) we don't know if tampering with the scarab has caused it to take control of Jaime, it's too dangerous to let you in." Nightwing whispered to me, still keeping a firm hold around my waist. As much as I hated to admit it, I suppose that did make sense. I still can't even begin to imagine life without Jaime being himself, where he's being controlled by that damn Reach technology. I don't know what I'd do without him, especially now that I've realised just how in love I am with him.

"What about the scarab?" Jaime questioned while standing up, clearly not having noticed that I was there. "Can you remove it or not?"
"I'm afraid it's immigration with your bio-system is too complete, it's defence is too thorough." Atom informed him regretfully. Jaime sat down, looking completely and utterly defeated as Bart laid a hand on his back in a comforting way. "Jaime I don't believe that scarab is ever coming off.. Not while you live."
I absolutely refused to stay back while this all took place. Bullshit about how that may not be Jaime, that the scarab has taken over. I've only seen that look on Jaime's face a few times but I'm 100% certain that it's him. I spun around in Nightwing's grip and bit his neck, which he was certainly not expecting. He dropped me with a gasp and let out a small "ouch", bringing his hand to his neck to check for blood. I immediately dropped to the floor and ran to Jaime, jumping onto the hospital bed that he was sat on and wrapping both my arms and legs around him in a practically bone-crushing hug. I paid no attention to the fact that I was basically straddling him. He gasped at to very sudden movement.
"(Y/N).." He whispered as he rested one hand on the back of my neck and the other around my waist in a close hug.
"You idiot.." I whispered back. Everyone who had previously been in the room saw the scene and decided to give us some privacy by leaving the room. All but Impulse who simply migrated to the corner and Nightwing who was still stood in the doorway after recovering from the shock my bite. They probably stayed to keep an eye on the two of us, knowing that there's still the possibility that Jaime will turn around and kill me, no matter how much I don't want to believe it. "What if the scarab had retaliated and killed you?" I hissed against his chest, both angry and terrified.
"I.." He sighed deeply and rested his chin on top of my head. "I'm sorry (Y/N), but you have to understand why I'm trying to get this thing off of me. I can't let that happen to you.. I can't let myself do that to you.." He explained in a soft voice, trying to calm me down.
"So you'd rather risk yourself being killed?" I pulled away to look at him sternly. "This is exactly what I was avoiding! This is what I was worried about! You're putting your own safety in front of mine! I love you too much to let you get hurt for my sake." Shit. Did I just admit to him that I loved him? I say it all of the time, surely he'll think of it as platonic love, like we always have. His eyes widened slightly but soon went back to glowing with anger. He grabbed either side of my now tear-stained face to look at me properly.
"Because I love you too, you idiot." He sighed and pressed his forehead against mine, his facial expression softening. My heart raced as he said that, but soon steadied again when I realised that he probably didn't mean it in the same way as me.
"Why didn't you at least tell me?" I asked, in almost seconds he became angry again. We rarely fought, but lately it seems like that's all we've been doing.
"Oh I thought that was 'our thing' now?" He said sarcastically, pulling away from me completely as got off of him and stood up. "You know, keeping secrets from one another?" In the corner of the room, Impulse rapidly tapped his foot.
"Uh guys.. Maybe you shouldn't-" He tried to stop us from fighting once more but both me and Jaime interrupted him.
"Not now Bart!" We chorused while glaring at one another.
"I had my reasons Jaime!" I yelled, backing away from him and pointing at him accusingly. "I had reasons and you know that!"
"Well I had reasons too!" He shouted back at me, standing up as well. He was intimidating when he was like this, especially since he towered over me. The top of my head didn't even reach his chin when the two of us stood up. Even Impulse was slightly taller than me, I only just succeeded in being slightly taller than Beast Boy, but even then that was only by a couple of inches.
"Oh yeah?" I aimed back at Jaime, wanting to know what these so called 'reasons' were.
"(Y/N) I might kill you! Do you not understand? I might kill you and bring on the entire Reach apocalypse! Do you really want that to happen?" He yelled, waving his arms around wildly as if it helped him prove his point.
"He has a point.." Nightwing mentioned walking into this room to stand by my side.
"(Y/N) just go.." Jaime sighed, sitting back down on his hospital bed. "I might end up hurting you otherwise." I was frozen to the spot until Nightwing physically picked me up and carried me out of the room and down the hallway. I heard Impulse trying to calm Jaime down back in the room, and by the way his voice was getting softer, it was working.

Nightwing finally set me back down and leant against a wall.
"Calmed down yet?" He asked me, a lopsided smirk ever so slightly present on his face. I nodded in reply and looked over at him. "You know you're actually quite intimidating when you're angry. I don't think you noticed but there were objects flying around the room. It's probably due to your telekinesis. You should really-" I don't know what possessed me to do what I did next.
"Shut up." I sighed, rolling my eyes before dragging the taller boy towards me and kissing him much like he had done not all that long ago to me. He seemed shocked at first but soon started to kiss back. To my surprise, he pinned me to the wall and kissed me deeper. I blocked the nagging voice in the back of my mind telling me that this was wrong by dragging him into the supply closet next to me that that we could continue in private..

I couldn't help myself.. I mean.. Have you seen Nightwing? Who wouldn't?
Don't worry, this is still a Blue Beetle X Reader story, only now with a tiny hint of Nightwing X Reader.
I was going to make that last part a lemon but then realised that I have never actually written one before, the closest I've gotten was when my friend wanted to know about my experiences, but even then I left out the details because I'm just too awkward to talk about that stuff.
Maybe I'll write a lemon in a future chapter if people really want it..

On another note... 1K reads and nearly 100 votes?! That's insane!