Helena was just landing on the apartment building’s roof when the snow began to fall. “Great…perfect,” she said, turning the collar on her coat up.

< Something wrong, Huntress? >

The light sound of typing and music came through the open comms channel. “Nothing spending the winter in Florida couldn’t solve,” Helena replied. “Do I hear Christmas carols?”

< I don’t know, do you? >

Barbara’s tone gently mocked the brunette. Dinah’s voice was clear, if distant, over the open mic and her words battered Helena’s ears. “You got a tree? Without me? You let the kid pick a Christmas tree on her own?” Helena asked, trying to suppress the disappointment she felt if only because it surprised her.

< You didn’t seem interested, Ebenezer. Come back and see it. It’s…big. I have no idea how she got it home. >

“I’ll give you three guesses and the first two don’t count,” Helena snorted. Dinah had been reveling in recent weeks in her growing control over her powers both telepathic and telekenetic. “If it wasn’t dead out here before, it’s sure going to be now,” Helena said, glancing down at the few remaining pedestrians who had all picked up the pace from hurry to rush. “I’m going off comms for the night.”

< Will you be by later? > [Continue Reading…]

Sunday, 8:42am, Barbara’s Bedroom

Helena kept still, her eyes firmly closed, even though she’d shed most of the remnants of sleep. She knew the bed was empty before she snaked a hand across the sheets. With a groan, she rolled over, and inhaled deeply of an intimately familiar scent. Barbara. The name shot through her brain even as her eyes flew open.

Clothes, hers and Barbara’s, were piled haphazardly in the corner. The empty plate and water bottles on the night table, her own nakedness, and the palpable aroma of sex all confirmed that she’d hadn’t just dreamed the night before, hadn’t just dreamed falling asleep curled naked around the woman she’d loved for so long. Helena rolled onto her back and stretched her hearing abilities out past the closed bedroom door. After a few seconds she groaned again and pulled the pillow over her head willing gone the grating noise that floated to her ears.

Sunday: 8:45am: Clocktower kitchen

“So, I’m guessing last night turned out OK then,” Dick said, doing a poor job of keeping the amused smirk off his face.

Barbara raised an eyebrow, her expression skeptical. “I’m not sure I understand what you’re getting at.” Dick reached out with the hand not holding his coffee mug and pushed the collar of Barbara’s kimono open just a tad. “Unless I miss my guess, that is a hickey. I always suspected Helena was a biter.” He laughed as Barbara looked down in shock trying to see her own neck. After much futile craning and twisting of her head, she gave up and pulled the collar of the robe shut to cover the mark. She could feel the heat rise to her cheeks and her embarrassment over the blush just caused her to blush even harder.

In her caffeine-deprived state, Helena shuddered visibly as Dick’s laugh echoed out of the kitchen. Great, I get the happy ex-boyfriend. She rolled her eyes and finished climbing the rest of the spiral staircase. She stifled a yawn against the back of her hand as she shuffled into the kitchen. “Morning.” Helena crossed to the coffee pot, pulled a mug down from the cabinet, and poured the remainder of the coffee into her cup, yawning all the while. She could feel two sets of eyes trained on her back. Fuck it.

Barbara smiled as she watched Helena shuffle over to the table. She’d put on the blue terry cloth robe. Barbara blushed as Helena leaned in and kissed her lightly before dropping into an empty chair, one that put her directly between the redhead and her former lover at the round table. Helena sipped from the coffee mug as she stared at a point in the middle distance, her free hand idly stroking Barbara’s forearm.

“That’s enough out of you, Dick Grayson,” Barbara chided, her tone a mixture of embarrassment, humor, and mock indignation as Dick tried to maintain the most innocent expression she’d ever seen on his face.

“What? I said what?” Dick asked, unable to suppress the mirth in his voice. He’d never seen Barbara so happily embarrassed as when Helena kissed her. And even though it was Helena that was the cause, a happy Barbara was a good thing in his book.

“I’m going to go run this disk and see if there’s anything I can use on it. Don’t go anywhere.” Barbara glanced over at Helena who was watching the exchange like a tennis match while she did a good job of looking like she wasn’t paying any attention at all. Barbara snaked the hand that rested under the table in her lap beneath the edge of the robe to about half way up Helena’s thigh and gave a gentle squeeze. She caught the slight widening of Helena’s eyes. “Either of you.” She moved away from the table and out into the hall.

Helena flicked her eyes over to Dick’s face and was unsurprised to find him examining her critically. They stared at each other for a full minute, neither of them breaking eye contact, before he spoke. “You hurt her and I will kill you. You do know that, don’t you?” he said, in a very even, conversational tone.

“I won’t, you wouldn’t be able to on your best day, and I wouldn’t expect anything less,” Helena replied. She took another sip of coffee.[Continue Reading…]

Monday/Tuesday, 4:17am: Clocktower

It was the blurred edges that told Barbara what she saw was part of a dream and not reality, was a dream and not necessarily a memory. The dreamscape always had a hyper-real quality to it: the sound was sharper, the colors more vivid than anything she’d seen. What gave it away, though, was the fact that only those things she looked directly at were in focus. She’d long thought this narrowing of focus was some sort of existential joke, her unconscious mind’s comment on the narrowness of human perspective.

Despite knowing it was a dream, despite having lived through the aftermath of the Joker’s one and only visit, Barbara vibrated with terror as she felt herself twist the knob on her apartment’s front door. Her conscious mind, the part of her watching herself move through the dream, barely had time to register the figure on the other side of the door before she awoke with a start. The small gasp seemed loud in the dark bedroom and Barbara jumped slightly as strong arms tightened their embrace around her.

“Nightmare?” Helena asked, voice thick with disturbed sleep.

Barbara consciously relaxed into the pillow and into Helena’s embrace. “Just a bad dream,” she replied. She glanced at the clock. It had only been about twenty minutes since they’d turned out the light, sated for the time being, their senses filled to the brim with each other. Barbara smiled softly in the dark as she felt Helena’s lips graze her shoulder, her question communicated by touch rather than sound. She laced her fingers between Helena’s and pulled the brunette’s arm tighter into her body. “Go back to sleep, love,” Barbara said quietly.

It wasn’t until Helena’s breathing settled into the even rhythm that meant sleep that Barbara allowed herself to return to the dream’s final image. She’d only gotten a slice, a brief glimpse, but it hadn’t been the Joker’s unruly green curls she’d seen through the open door. Instead, her eyes had lighted upon a very familiar, and deliberately mussed, dark head.

She pushed the image away, knowing that if she let it sit long enough she’d come up with the answer. Barbara closed her eyes and concentrated on relaxing, willing her sleep to be dreamless as it finally settled back over her.

Tuesday, 12:17pm: New Gotham High Cafeteria

“Let her go,” Dinah said quietly.

Chad looked her up and down and laughed. “Or what?”

“I’ll make you very, very sorry,” Dinah replied, her voice even. Out of the corner of her eye Dinah noticed the kids at the adjoining tables moving away slightly while simultaneously forming a circle around the brewing conflict.[Continue Reading…]

Tuesday/Wednesday: 1:56am: Clocktower

The sound of the elevator’s door and the low murmur of conversation that followed didn’t make a dent in Barbara’s concentration as she tried to find a pattern to New Gotham’s recent crime spree. She barely heard Dinah’s door shut and, if she’d been asked later on to confirm it, her morals would compel her to admit that she’d completely missed the sound of running water and the noise of the tub in her bathroom filling.

Barbara plugged the details of the last two major crimes, a jewelry store robbery and an armed robbery of an entire bachelor party, into the database and set the mapping program to render. She pulled off her glasses and rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands. You’re not 25 anymore, Gordon. The recent uptick in crime combined with Helena’s very welcome attentions had slashed the amount of sleep the redhead was getting down to an average of two hours per night. Dry eyes and the effort she was having to make to keep track of details both as Oracle and in the classroom were the earliest signs of extreme fatigue and Barbara knew better than to ignore them for too long. She was rolling her shoulders in an attempt to get rid of a knot under her right shoulder blade when she felt Helena’s gentle touch.

“You sit in front of that machine entirely too much,” Helena purred from behind her. She slide her thumbs and under the fall of Barbara’s hair massaging the base of her neck.

“Where else would you have me sit?” Barbara replied, fully aware of the range of responses she was inviting even the tension was pushed out of her system by the first stirrings of arousal.

Helena clamped down on her reflex impulse to flirt. Instead she smiled to herself, letting a hint of sin edge into her voice. “I’ve got some ideas,” she replied, shaking her head to banish the image of Barbara hovering above her, warm and slick with arousal. She brushed her fingers down Barbara’s neck and outward to work strong trapezius and deltoid muscles. In a smooth motion, Helena moved her hands further down, deft fingers tracing the shape of muscle and sinew to curve around Barbara’s shoulder blades. Barbara’s involuntary groan and the way her head lolled forward brought a soft smile to Helena’s lips.

She worked out the knot, careful not to pinch the underlying nerves with too much pressure. Before the redhead could sit up, Helena leaned forward and kissed Barbara on the back of the neck just where that smooth column of flesh intersected with her shoulder. She suppressed a smile at the resulting moan. She nibbled her way up the redhead’s neck. “I want you,” she whispered, her lips just barely brushing Barbara’s ear.

Barbara shivered, heart thumping in her chest. “Do you really?” she asked, keeping her voice even, stalling for time as she tried to plan what she’d do next. She flexed her hands against the arms of the chair as Helena’s lips caressed her skin. Her breathing was fast and shallow, heat suffusing her chest and face. Barbara wasn’t sure she could plan anything, though: under the onslaught of Helena’s touch her brain seemed to have ceased functioning.

“Yes.” Helena balanced on tiptoes, kissing the side of Barbara’s neck, just under the corner of her jaw. She slid her left hand over Barbara’s shoulder, across her chest and down, fingers brushing over the outer curve of Barbara’s breast. Helena bit down on Barbara’s shoulder careful not to break the skin as her fingers skimmed over the already firm peak of the redhead’s nipple where it strained against her bra and tank-top. The wicked twist of her smile matched the feral yellow of her eyes when Barbara’s groan of pleasure rumbled to her ears.[Continue Reading…]

“Helena, that’s not a dress, it’s…” Dinah closed her mouth with an audible snap.

“It’s what?” Helena asked, one eyebrow quirked as she looked down at her outfit.

“It’s a cocktail napkin with attitude,” Dinah finished. “And you look gorgeous in it.” Helena did look gorgeous. The dress, made out of a fabric Dinah couldn’t find a name for at that moment, was a blue that seemed to shift and change shades depending upon the angle of the light and it complimented Helena’s coloring perfectly. “Of course,” Dinah continued, “the come-take-me-now shoes don’t hurt either.” The teenager laughed as Helena’s other eyebrow joined its mate up near the brunette’s hairline.

Helena did one more revolution so Dinah could get a better look from where she sat on the beat up brown couch that made up the bulk of Helena’s living room furniture. “Too much?”

Dinah tried not to smirk at her friend’s sudden insecurities. Getting invited to the official New Gotham Police Department Christmas ball as Barbara’s date was, Dinah knew, a turning point for Helena. “If you consider most of your tattoo showing to be too much, then yeah,” she replied, shifting so she was sitting camp-style. “What else have you got?”

Helena laughed. “Get a beverage, Big D. I rented this place for the closet space.”[Continue Reading…]