"I'm si-i-i-inging in the rain, just--"
Dick threw a washcloth at Roy, nailing him neatly in the mouth. Roy coughed, sputtered, then twisted the washcloth into a tight little knot and winged it back at Dick. Dick caught it an inch from his forehead and used it to wash the soap off his chest.
"I have a great singing voice," Roy said.
"I've heard your band."
"Had a great band, too."
"You had a band, anyway," Dick said.
"What was that, Tin-Eared Wonder? Criticism from the man in panties?"
"The technical term is 'Batpants.'" Roy laughed at him and Dick ducked his head under the water to hide his smile.
Roy hummed a few more bars, his voice echoing around the otherwise empty shower room, and twisted under the shower spray. He winced and swung his left arm in a small circle. "Hey. Ow. How bad is this going to bruise?"
Dick took a step closer and felt the heat in the knot on Roy's bicep. "Very badly."
"Jerk."
"Should have ducked." Dick raised his eyebrows and stepped back under his own shower nozzle.
"You kicked me from behind."
"Should have anticipated. And next time, you will." Which was Batman's voice in his head; Batman's words, when he made the same complaints.
Roy threw the soap at him, as if they were joking, and Dick deflected it onto the floor. Roy tried a kick next and Dick blocked it, sending Roy off-balance. Dick caught him by his forearms before he broke his tailbone on the tile.
Roy rolled his eyes and went limp--he was such a kid sometimes--and Dick dropped him on his butt.
Dick shampooed his hair. Roy leaned over, grabbed the soap from the floor, and lathered up his thighs wordlessly, still seated on the tile.
It was going to be a hell of a bruise. Roy probably wouldn't be able to pick up his daughter for a day or two. "I didn't mean to hurt you," Dick said.
"Do I look hurt?" Roy grinned and squirted the soap up into the air; Dick grabbed it and tossed it into the caddy. "You're too tense," Roy said. Grinning, still, as if they're playing and not training.
Dick leaned forward into the cool water. "This is where I protest that I'm not tense at all and we end up soap-fighting like twelve-year-olds, right?"
"Sure!"
He didn't get it. He couldn't get it. He was always in teams, never the sole barrier between the innocent citizen and the hungry night. Even when he was Speedy, he was a Titan more than he was Green Arrow's partner. "Look," Dick said. "In the time that it takes to soap-fight with you, someone in Bludhaven dies." He met Roy's eyes, showing him just how serious he was. "It's my city. I need to be there for her. I don't have time to play around any more."
Roy stared up at him. "Dick."
Dick grabbed the conditioner.
"Dick, you know that's loco, right?"
Dick rubbed the conditioner into his hair. "It's duty. You're a hero. You know what that means."
"No, it means--Dick, when the hell did you go crazy? Was I not looking?" Roy reached for Dick's calf.
Dick sidestepped him.
"Man, you have to relax some time. You have to," Roy said.
"Roy..." People complained about Batman's unfriendliness, but it got him space to breathe. Dick put on the scowl and stared Roy down. "I really am not in the mood to play games."
"Who's playing?" Roy stared right back.
God, it just wasn't--he'd seen the statistics for Bludhaven, he couldn't just sit and let people get hurt. "You don't--"
"I'm a dad, remember?"
"--have any idea--"
"Also an ex-junkie."
"--what it's like to be--" Responsible. But he couldn't finish the sentence.
"I've led a few teams," Roy said. "I've seen a few people die. I'm not Speedy any more, and you're not Robin."
"I know I'm not Robin, that's my point--"
"But I'm also not Green Arrow and you're not Batman!"
"I know that!" Dick shouted.
"So soap-fight with me and prove it!" Roy shouted back.
"I don't need to prove anything!"
Roy tossed his head back and laughed. "Say that again," he said, and Dick resisted the urge to punch that mocking look right off his face and instead tackled him across the floor.
The were both still soapy. They went a long way with minimal tile burn. Roy squirmed in his grip, but he wasn't nearly as good at hand-to-hand as Dick was and couldn't compensate for the lack of friction. Dick rolled them back to the running shower and held Roy's head in the stinging spray.
Roy aimed a fist backwards and Dick realized almost too late that he was naked and terribly vulnerable. He clapped his legs together, losing his grip on Roy in the process.
Roy flipped over to face Dick and banged his head on the tile. "Ow," he winced.
Dick pinned Roy's arms with one hand and rubbed Roy's head with the other. "Non-fatal injury," Dick said.
"Yeah." Roy was still in Dick's grasp.
"We're wasting water."
Roy groaned. "Would you stop that? Stop worrying about every little thing!"
"Nobody else does," Dick said. He let Roy go and scrambled to his knees to turn off the water.
And Roy grabbed Dick's cock. "Relaxing starts right now," Roy said.
Dick grabbed Roy's wrist, but just the touch of Roy's skin against his was taking all the strength out of his muscles. "Roy."
"I'd give you a hummer, but I've never done it sober. Can't quite remember how it goes."
Dick breathed in carefully, trying--Jesus--trying not to move his cock in Roy's hand. "You've done it drunk?"
"That's what the Polaroids say." Roy knelt up beside Dick.
"Roy..." Roy moved his hand and Dick bit his lip.
"You don't let off that pressure, your boiler is going to explode," Roy said, leaning his forehead against Dick's. "And I've known you ten years, and with us, this job, that's like dog years--that's a century."
Dick couldn't answer. His hips were bucking into Roy's hand; his blood was fizzing in his veins. Cool water was still running down his left arm, over his ankle and into the drain.
"And--shit--I had a point but I forgot it," Roy said, "because you are severely fucking hot and I'm gonna blow you."
"Yeah," Dick managed. "Okay. Yeah."
Roy grinned at him; he bit Dick's nipple and stroked Dick's stomach until Dick bent backwards onto his hands, his entire body humming and electric.
Then it was Roy's mouth for a whiteout few minutes and an orgasm that almost hurt, it was so strong.
Maybe Roy had a point.
He could feel his back uncoiling.
Roy was thumbing Dick's inner thigh and coming into his fist when Dick caught his breath. "Good old pressure valve," Roy gasped.
"That's what you call it?" Dick let Roy pull him into his arms.
Roy ran his fingers through Dick's hair, rubbing gently at his scalp. Dick cracked his neck to the right and left and felt immediately better. "I've gotta say I'm impressed, guy," Roy said. "You shot over your shoulder. Aren't you glad I left the shower running?"
Dick reached up and cranked the water off. Roy bit his ear just hard enough to hurt and Dick wriggled his shoulders until Roy let him go, laughing into his neck.
Dick rested his head on Roy's shoulder and Roy stroked his hair. "I have to prove everything," Dick said softly.
"Yeah. Me too, I know how it is. But you're no good without your head on straight, vato."
"Batman is." Batman hadn't shaken hands with sanity since Jason died and it only made him better. Tougher. More efficient. More of a hammer on the criminal glass.
Roy grabbed Dick's head in both hands and shook it back and forth. "You. Are. Not. Batman."
No.
But he should be like him.
Dick leaned against Roy and closed his eyes, just for a minute.
THE END.
All comments are welcome.
bas@yosa.com
www.ravenswing.com/~bas/slash