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Nightwing groaned lightly as he peeled his eyelids apart, pain shooting across his forehead and digging into his eyes. The lenses of his mask always adjusted to the light – or lack thereof – but even with the lenses protecting his eyes, the light seen through his mask made his eyes sting. By his side, another groan echoed through the Bio Ship, and he turned his head to see Kid Flash planting an elbow across his face.
“Great!” a chipper, if worried, voice said, “They’re up! Nightwing, Kid Flash, are you two alright?”
“My head hurts.” Kid Flash replied, voice nearly a whine.
“You got magicked.” Artemis’s dry tone didn’t exactly cover her worry, “Zatanna is going to meet us back at Mount Justice. She’s already trying to figure out what spell you two got caught in.”
Nightwing sat up slowly, pressing his fingertips into his forehead to chase away the headache. He did remember chasing a magician, only for Kid Flash to ram against him to attempt to get him out of the way of a spell. A lot of good that did them. Nightwing turned slightly to look over to Kid Flash and his breath caught in his throat when he saw the wide green eyes already staring at him.
“You’re gorgeous.” Nightwing said.
Kid Flash flushed a pretty red, “Not as handsome as you.”
Nightwing laughed slightly and then grasped his boyfriend’s hand. “You okay?”
“I’m always great when I’m with you.” Kid Flash returned, leaning closer to him. He tilted his head back, attempting to catch Nightwing’s lips.
“Not in front of the team.” Nightwing giggled but gave in easily. He always gave in easily for his boyfriend.
Their lips were chapped and caught awkwardly, but Nightwing sunk into his boyfriend and all but melted when hands sunk into his hair. There was a gorgeous smile on the red head’s face when they parted, and they proceeded to laugh into each other’s skin, feeling oddly giddy. It wasn’t their first kiss, far from it, but the simple press of their lips left them breathless all the same.
“What. The. Fuck.”
Nightwing turned and tilted his head when he saw everyone gaping at them. “What?” he asked.
“A love spell?” Miss Martian asked.
“A love spell?” Nightwing echoed.
“Sorry, Megalicious,” Kid Flash added, “But I don’t need a spell to love ‘Wing.”
“You don’t?” Nightwing asked, turning a lovesick expression to his boyfriend. Kid Flash smiled back goofily.
“Obviously not.” He replied, reaching up to tuck some of Nightwing’s hair back, “I love you.”
Nightwing leaned into his palm, pressing his own hand against Kid Flash’s gloved one. “I love you too.”
“Okay, yeah, definitely a love spell.” Superboy said. “That saves us some time.”
“I’ll inform Zatanna right away.” Aqualad agreed.
“Should we...just let them do what they’re doing?” Artemis asked, waving a hand over to them. Nightwing didn’t really see what was wrong with how they were acting; they were just cuddling. He made sure to glare at them as he leaned further onto Kid Flash.
“Let them be.” Aqualad said. “If they are comfortable now, that is all that matters. And we don’t know if being apart harms them, yet.”
“Love spells.” Superboy grumbled. The rest nodded along with him.
Nightwing rolled his eyes behind his mask. As if he was caught in a love spell, he’s loved Kid Flash for too many years for that to be true. But whatever made the team stop staring at him and KF as if they’d grown third arms. He didn’t really like kissing his boyfriend when people were staring.
Kid Flash giggled against his lips.
“Oh my God,” Jason groaned when he saw his older brother stumble out of the Bio Ship.
Him and Wally were practically entangled together, giggling, and stealing kisses with every few steps. They weren’t usually this gross, though Jason’s seen too much of their romance on the off chances he’s barged into Dick’s room when the speedster was over. So, it was close to how they usually were. He could have sworn they agreed to not act like this while they were with the Team.
“They were hit with a love spell.” Kaldur reported instantly before turning to Zatanna. “Have you found a cure?”
A love spell? Jason shared a glance with Bruce.
“I think I can just counteract the spell.” Zatanna said. She glanced over to where Artemis was keeping Dick and Wally from wandering to the bedrooms. Jason made a face.
“What spell?” Jason asked bluntly. This was pretty damn close to how they always were.
“You think this is normal, Robin?” Conner replied, bland.
Yes, Jason did think this was normal. That’s how they acted literally every time he saw them. Before Jason could reply, Bruce placed a hand on his shoulder. There was amusement in his features.
“Do what you can, Zatanna.” Bruce said.
Jason squinted at his dad before looking back to his older brother. Dick was currently whining as Miss Martian and Superboy kept him and Wally from each other. Okay, he guessed they were acting a bit weird, but overall, this was a normal Tuesday for them. They were just stupid, gross, idiots in love. Maybe the spell just...made them lose their inhibitions?
“Hey, B.” Jason whispered as he leaned closer to his dad. Zatanna wandered over to Dick and Wally, mumbling under her breath as she read over the old book in her hands. “They’re always like this, aren’t they?”
“Yes,” Bruce replied.
“Why didn’t you tell them?” Jason wondered.
Bruce smiled just slightly. It was gone as quickly as it appeared. “You’ll see.”
Oh. Jason grinned. Never let it be said that Batman didn’t have a sense of humor, because he did and it rocked. Jason couldn’t wait to see what trouble his brother was going to cause.
“I don’t get why it’s not working!” Zatanna cried out, tangling her fingers into her hair.
The counteracting spell she used ended up making Wally and Dick pass out, and in the half hour it took them to wake up, the Team had been prepared to tease them mercilessly over the incident. Except Robin ended up walking out of the med bay with a disgusted face, and not even a few seconds later, Nightwing and Wally were walking out, looking as lovesick as they had before.
The counter spell didn’t work. Neither did the second or the third spell.
“I don’t get why you guys are freaking out.” Nightwing replied casually. Wally pressed kisses against his neck, like that was a totally normal thing, and Nightwing just seemed to curl even lazier across the speedster’s lap.
“At least they aren’t trying to go to Nightwing’s room anymore.” Artemis ignored them. Actually, it seemed like everyone was doing their best to ignore them.
“I’m not finding this amusing anymore.” Conner said.
They all grimaced when Nightwing let out a string of giggles – giggles, what the fuck – when Wally whispered in his ear and tickled his sides. Nightwing should let out eerie cackles and anything less made their skin crawl.
“Undo this spell as soon as you can.” Artemis said, deadly serious. “I might have to stab my eyes out if you don’t.”
“I’ll do my best.” Zatanna replied, watching their friends with a pained expression. They were cuddling now, whispering and laughing while they held hands and pressed kisses against each other’s cheeks. She doesn’t even think this counted as blackmail material anymore.
“They’re going to die when I finally undo the spell.” Zatanna muttered.
Everyone nodded.
“Zatanna,” Batman said as he appeared from...somewhere. The team learned early on to not question him. “Thank you for your hard work, but it’s alright. We’ll take Nightwing and Kid Flash and observe them.”
“What...but I’m this close to finding a way to break the spell!” Zatanna said, lifting her book and shaking it.
“You said if it couldn’t be broken, it’s likely it would wear off on its own, yes?” Batman questioned.
Zatanna faltered. “Well, yes, but. But do we really want to leave them like that?” she motioned over to where they were now pressing their foreheads together and just staring into each other’s eyes.
Batman looked pain when he followed her motion. Everyone sympathized with him.
“They can handle it.” he said stiffly. “Don’t worry about them. We will...make sure they don’t do anything they’d regret. Nightwing, Kid Flash!”
“Oh, B! Are we going to the Cave?” Nightwing said cheerfully, “Wally can stay with me, can’t he?”
“Hmn,” Batman replied.
Nightwing tugged Wally up using their clasped hands. “That means yes.” he said, grinning. Wally pressed their lips together. They pulled apart with lovesick smiles.
“Oh my god,” Artemis said. “I think I’m gonna hurl.”
“Join the club.” Robin replied.
“Please contact us if there is anything we can do to help aid you.” Kaldur said.
Batman dipped his head before turning and heading towards the Zeta tubes, Robin at his heels. Nightwing and Wally waved to them cheerfully before Wally scooped Nightwing up bridal style and hurried after them. Everyone saw how Wally pressed kisses against Nightwing’s face before he disappeared in a flash.
“I don’t know if I even want to make fun of them for this.” Conner said.
“I have videos for when we decide we do.” Artemis replied. Everyone shared firm nods.
“Okay, you guys can stop sucking faces now.” Jason said. “I do want to eat dinner without having to worry if it’ll come back up.”
Dick cackled and Wally flushed red. “Oh, that’s what gets you embarrassed?” Dick teased, “Not when you called me your sugar plum and licked my face?”
Wally leaned over and whispered something – Jason heard babygirl and Batman would murder me and decided he didn’t want to know – which just caused Dick to laugh until there were tears in his eyes. Bruce glared at the couple sharply, his amusement at the situation obviously gone after the last hour of having to watch them act like gross idiots. Jason still stood by the description.
“Imagine Arty’s face when we tell her the spell was undone the first time around.” Wally said, looking a bit nervous under Bruce’s wrath.
Dick grinned. It was unhinged.
“Oh no.” Jason said gleefully. Translation: hell yes, “What did you just think?”
“Image we acted like the spell broke overnight and went back to our usual behavior.” Dick’s grin grew, “Only to start acting like this again a few hours later.”
“Playing the long run, huh?” Wally waggled his eyebrows. “You know I’m great at that.”
Jason, as much as he didn’t like the idea of seeing them flirt at Mount Justice like they did at the Manor, could admit to a good prank when he saw one. He grinned sharply and offered Dick a fist bump.
“Please, don’t say a thing.” Wally groaned as he met their eyes. Nightwing already wandered off, looking a bit awkward as he glanced at Wally.
“The spell’s broken!” Artemis cheered.
“Oh thank god,” Zatanna mumbled.
“We have blackmail,” Conner said. Wally threw his hands up.
“Is that why you guys didn’t keep us away from each other?” Nightwing asked. Everyone noticed how he kept a large amount of distance between him and Wally.
“If you remember correctly,” M’gann said, sounding a little miffed but mostly amused, “Neither of you would let us keep you away from each other.”
“Wally bit me.” Artemis agreed.
“It looked like it hurt you guys to be apart.” Zatanna added quietly.
Wally’s face softened. Nightwing, however, just shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. It wasn’t that bad. I had my tongue down his throat.”
“Dude,” Wally said.
“What?” Nightwing questioned, “I can admit you’re a good kisser.”
Wally paused for a moment before he grinned. “Obviously I’m a great kisser, I’m the Wall-man.”
“I said good, not great.” Nightwing barked out a laugh, “I don’t think I’ll be doing it again.”
Wally nodded sagely and then they fist bumped.
“Thank god,” Artemis said again. “They’re back to normal.”
“THEY’RE NOT BACK TO NORMAL!” Zatanna yelled.
“Oh god,” Artemis bemoaned.
“I think I’ll leave this to you.” Conner said, looking like he wanted to leave but also sent longing looks to the television.
“I don’t get what the big deal is.” Nightwing threw his hands up.
“You were making out with Wally,” Artemis snapped, “Obviously the spell isn’t broken!”
“Okay, this counter spell should work!” Zatanna said hopefully.
Wally looked confused, “The spell worked the first time.”
“HUH?”
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT WORKED THE FIRST TIME!?”
“I’m very confused.” M’gann admitted.
Nightwing gave them a sly grin. Wally pecked his cheek.
“I guess we all can’t be detectives.” he said.
“I’m gonna show you detective–”
“Artemis, no!”
“That’s the explosive arrow!”
“Oh my god, Dick run!”
“Hahahahaha!”
“Stop laughing, Dick! I’m sorry, Arty, we were going to tell you guys!”
“GET OVER HERE, IDIOTS!”