"Alright. Would someone please tell me what's going on?" Barbara tapped her foot impatiently while glaring at the second redhead in the room.

"Yeah, I'd like to know that, too," Dick threw in with a dry tone, giving Wally a look.

Wally seemed to be nervous. Trying not to meet either's eyes, he laughed a little, adding to his suspicious appearance.

"Okay, look, I'm only doing this because I want to help."

"Wally..."

Dick's warning went ignored.

"And I know you think Bats won't understand, but I'll show you how easy it can be to open up."

Dick's eyes widened at the use of his mentor's nickname in front of Barbara and the implications of Wally's words.

"What are you talking about? Who is... Bats?" Barbara wondered aloud, brows furrowed as she tried to make sense of the boy's words.

Dick would have slapped himself - right after slapping his best friend - had there not been other important matters to attend to, mouths to shut, secrets to keep.

"Wally-"

But, of course, Wally was fast to interrupt him.

"No. You trust her, don't you?"

"Wally, I-"

"Don't you?" Wally pressed.

Dick glanced at Barbara, remembering all she had done for him, all the things they had done together, and sighed.

"I do."

Barbara looked as though she were stuck in between feeling touched and freaked out by the weirdness of the conversation.

"Then were is the problem?" Wally smiled triumphantly, while Dick opened his mouth to tell him exactly what the problem was. "Ah, don't say it. You'll thank me afterwards." He winked at Barbara. "Both of you."

"This can't end well," Dick mumbled to himself, quiet enough for no one to hear.

Suddenly, a harsh gust of wind filled the room and wiped some notes clean off Dick's desk in the process. Where before stood the regular teenager Wally West was now an all too familiar yellow clad figure. Now Dick did face palm, all while Barbara's eyes widened to the size of saucers.

"You're Flash Boy!" she exlaimed, making Wally groan and Dick sigh and pinch the bridge of his nose at the hilarity of the situation.

"It's Kid Flash! Why is that so hard?"

Barbara, naturally, ignored his outburst.

"Oh my god..." Her grin almost made Dick fell uneasy. "I knew it! You had to have some sort of weird secret. Why else would you and Dick be that close. Wait-"

"Yes, Artemis is the protege of Green Arrow."

Barbara gave Wally a confused look as Dick looked like he was about to face palm again.

"I... wasn't going to ask about her, but thanks for telling me anyways."

"Wally," Dick said. "What is all this about?"

"Well, I thought if I was going to reveal your identity-"

"You are not going to reveal my identity," Dick interrupted in an irritated tone that seemed almost threatening towards his best friend.

"Yes I am."

Wally was trying his best to sound defiant and steady even though usually Dick would never be impressed by it.

"No."

And he still was not today. Wally rolled his eyes.

"You don't actually think Barbara won't get it herself now that she knows I'm Kid Flash, do you?"

Dick eyed his other best friend and after a moment of thought realized that Wally was in fact right. There was no way he would be able to keep his hero persona a secret from Barbara any longer. And it was not like he ever wanted to in the first place, he did these kinds of things as to not pull her into the target zone. Barbara meant a lot to him after all. (Purely platonic, of course.) After sending another glare to Wally - not quite a Batglare, more of a I'll get back to you later glare - he sighed and turned to the female ginger.

"So, go on and take a guess," he urged, becoming impatient now that there was no going back.

Barbara seemed to think about it for a second. Suddenly her expression turned to a confused one, then a an unbelieving one, then an excited one. It was not hard to see that she had figured it out.

"No way!"

Dick was met with twin grins from both of his friends.

"You're Robin? I can't believe it."

"Then don't," Dick offered weakly.

"Actually, I can. It does fit you. So much about you suddenly makes so much sense."

Dick gave Wally a look that read see what you've done. Wally merely shrugged in response and spread his hands as though to reply you gave me no choice.

° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° °

"No."

"But-"

"No."

"Come on, Dick. I promise I'll be careful!"

He raised one eyebrow at her, effectively showing her exactly how much he believed that to be true.

"Yeah, sure you would. I can see it on the front page already, "Commissioner's daughter out of commission after taking a flight with the bats". I'm sorry, Babs, but you know it's too dangerous."

Barbara crossed her arms and glared stubbornly.

"You do it."

Dick sighed and put his hands on her shoulders, looking into her eyes, trying to make her realize how serious he was. He had to convince her.

"Babs. Listen to me. The people I - we - fight are ruthless criminals. Gotham City is dangerous. Even more so when you work with the Batman. I don't want you to get hurt."

Barbara looked like she was going to protest, but thought better of it.

"I don't want you to get hurt either. I want to go with you so I can make sure that you'll be okay," she mumbled.

His eyes softened and he pulled her into a light embrace which she returned without hesitation. After a moment he pulled away, pushing away the thought of how nice it had felt.

"I'll be okay, don't worry about me. I've been doing this for years. I'm trained. You're not. So please, don't go out there risking your life because I do it."

Not looking like she entirely agreed with him yet, Barbara nodded. It was hesitant, and small, but it was there. And that's what counted. Dick smiled, a real and genuine smile that he did not show often.

"Thank you, Babs. That means a lot to me. I need you to be safe. What I do would not be worth the effort if you would ever be hurt."

He inwardly scolded himself for how incredibly cheesy he must have sounded while hoping with all his being that his cheeks were not burning red by now.

"Just promise to let me know should you ever need any help. I will be there," she said softly.

Not having the heart to tell her no, Dick agreed. Right then, a kind of alarm sounded from Dick's computer and they broke their (really awkward) eyecontact to check it out.

"What is it?" Barbara asked, looking over his shoulder as he tapped a few buttons on his keyboard.

"Artemis," he explained. "She seems to want to talk." Glancing at Barbara, he said, "What do you think?"

"We shouldn't leave her standing there. I mean, she did come all the way here just for you."

° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° °

"What happened to your face?"

Dick watched, amused, as Barbara entered the room with the green, flowery couch. Artemis smirked when Barbara's face turned even redder in reaction to the blonde's comment. The fifteen-year-old heroine laughed.

"Honestly, you're as red as a tomato. What happened?"

Barbara mumbled somethig under her breath that Artemis did not seem to be able to catch. Dick however could barely make out the couple of words. He slightly blushed himself when he realized what they meant. Artemis furrowed her brows.

"What did you say? You need to talk a bit louder if I'm supposed to understand you," Artemis teased.

Dick was pretty sure Barbara had not intended for the other girl to hear what she had said. Deciding to save his friend from any further embarrassment, he turned on his microphone.

"How nice of you to stop by, Arty!"

Artemis scolwed at the empty air upon hearing the nickname. Dick was not fazed in the slightest. Besides, it was not like she would have to worry about people making jokes about it. That was more than he could say of his own.

"Don't call me that."

"Whatever you say, Arty!"

Speaking with this much cheerfulness made it easier for his cheeks to return to their usual cloring, although the weird but somehow nice feeling in his stomach was still lingering behind.

"Didn't I just- nevermind," Artemis grumbled, crossing her arms.

"Hey, you were the one that came here. I did not ask for you to visit," Dick reminded the blonde.

Barbara had taken up residence on the old couch by now, the blood from her face mostly back where it should be.

"He's right," she agreed. "Why did you come here?"

Artemis let her hands fall limply beside her, looking tired.

"I... wanted to talk to you again?"

"Is that a question or a statement?"

"A statement?"

Dick thought her statements sounded oddly like questions, but he dropped the subject in favour of asking another question himself.

"With me? Why?"

Artemis sighed, trudging over to the only seating furniture in the room and letting herself fall into the soft cushions next to Barbara.

"I don't know. I just did, okay?"

Dick was a bit worried, but he did not have anything against talking to Artemis, so he decided not to comment on her behaviour.

"I'm sorry, I did not want to be rude," he apologized.

"You weren't rude, so don't apologize."

Artemis smiled, it was a small smile, but it was a smile and smiles were infectous. So, Dick found himself smiling as well as he started an almost normal, casual conversation with his teammate and Barbara.

° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° °

I do not own Young Justice or any of the DC Universe characters.