BOP fic: Beautiful (Barbara/Zatanna)

[seriousfic]

Title: Beautiful
Fandom: Birds of Prey
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1,986
Characters/Pairings: Barbara/Zatanna, Dinah, Helena, Zinda
Author's notes: Written for gulf_aid_now and based on Brave and the Bold 33, scans here. This fic is made possible by a generous grant from tokeloshe and readers like you.
Summary: A long time ago, Zatanna knew a horrible thing was going to happen to Barbara Gordon and did something about it. Was it enough?



There are certain things in any job that are going to happen to everyone. Especially in a small field; you'll tend to meet people. If you're a superhero, you're pretty much guaranteed to serve on the Justice League with the Martian Manhunter, there's a good chance you'll be gruffly dismissed by Batman, and it's not unusual for you to have sex with Nightwing.

With other people, months or years can go by before you see them again, even if you've shared something inexplicable, saved the world, confessed your darkest secret. You'll see them in the crowd while Superman is talking about why every city in the world is laying eggs or why your immediate family is zombifying, and it'll be like someone lit a match in the back of your brain. You know them, but you've forgotten them at the same time.

Zatanna really didn't go in for alien invasions and talking gorillas, not for the most part. She got called in when there was magic afoot, which kept her mostly clear of Gotham. Demons didn't go for it, despite the aesthetic. Scared of Batman. Plus, there was the whole ex-boyfriend issue, so Zatanna was happy to let Detective Chimp and his buddies handle Gotham.

She made an exception for the Birds of Prey. They were honorary sane people, ladies who couldn't do a Bat-glare if you kicked a puppy in front of them. It was always fun to play on a team where you were guaranteed no one was a quote-unquote lovable pervert, unless you counted Zinda saying "Hey, Dinah, her stems look better than yours in fishnets!" Which Zatanna didn't. That was the kind of thing you were allowed to say during the post-mission champagne (another plus of BOP team-ups).

"Should she be drinking that while she's flying?" Zatanna asked.

"I'm drinking it while I'm landing," Zinda corrected her. "Big difference."

Tipsiness aside, Zinda put the bird down on the roof of the Aerie, which was a Wayne Enterprises-owned hotel with a penthouse devoted to crimefighting. Superheroics with room service – Zatanna needed to look into joining the team. There was even a little elevator that lowered the bird out of the cold and saved them a trip down the stairs, a heavenly mercy when you fought crime in high heels.

"I can't believe you offered to become Neron's demon bride in my place," Dinah said to Helena, who was pouring her drink as they made their way into Barbara's bachelorette pad.

"I can't believe he turned me down! Too skinny, what does that mean…"

"At least he thinks you're skinny. I apparently have 'child-bearing hips'."

"Don't start fighting over a demon, girls," Zatanna said. "The important thing is we won and none of us are too injured to get drunk."

"I think I have a broken rib," Dinah said.

"You know what's good for that? Alcohol."

"Ladies," Barbara greeted, tossing Zinda a bag of sun chips which she ripped into. "You'll be pleased to know that Mr. Nesbit will be too busy dealing with IRS audits and penis enlargement spam to be summoning any more demons. And Dinah, it's not broken, just bruised. Put an ice pack on it."

"How does she—" Zatanna began to ask.

"Thanagarian medical scanner in the door," Helena answered by rote.

"Isn't that a little—"

"Violate-y to our civil rights? Yes. In time, you see it as comforting."

"I always know where they've left their keys," Barbara announced cheerfully.

Zinda was grabbing clubbing outfits from the closet and flinging them out. Zatanna dodged a cute set of boots. "Now if there're no further shenanigans or goings-on, I propose we retire to someplace more ovary-friendly, such as the nightclub across the street."

Zatanna suspected Barbara's hand in that. The redhead played coy. "You guys go on ahead. I need to debrief Zatanna."

Dinah raised an eyebrow. Helena raised two. Zatanna blushed. Zinda was oblivious.

"All work and no play, chief," Zinda said.

Helena pulled her and Dinah into the dressing room, which had vanity sets that ruined Zatanna for normal green rooms. Zatanna conjured herself some white wine, since the girls only seemed to have red, and sat down across from Barbara, slipping out of her heels and putting her feet up on an armrest. "So what's up?"

Barbara steepled her hands together. Then she shook her head. "I'm sorry, it's nothing. You should go with the others."

"And you?"

"I'll stay here. See if I can't get Nightwing interested in some phone sex."

"You? Please." Zatanna leaned up into a more serious posture. "Come on, you can tell me… is it something you can't talk about with them?" She jerked her head toward the dressing room.

"I haven't told Dinah yet," Barbara said simply. "I won't if you don't want me to."

The Birds spilled out of the dressing room, wearing more in less places than their superhero costume. Zinda's sole effort seemed to have been replacing her cap with a pink cowboy hat and unbuttoning her tunic. Dinah, her fishnets replaced with tight jeans and a crop top filling in for her bodice, leaned in to kiss Barbara's cheek. "You want me to wait up, sweetie?"

"No, I'll be fine."

"Alright, but next time your ass is mine."

"Go. Shoo. Text me with the gory details."

"If Helena ends up wearing Zinda's hat, I'll take a picture. No promises I'll show it to you." She disappeared into the express elevator with Helena and Zinda, who promptly oohed and ahhed over her abs. "You're one to talk, Huntress!"

The doors slid shut. Barbara darkened just a little, and Zatanna wondered if it was because she was putting on a mask like Bruce or just sorry to be away from her friends. She stood up to take off her suit jacket, dropping it with her top hat on the coffee table. "C'mon, let's get something to eat. I know a great little place in Soho. Emoh yreviled s'yonT azziP."

A steaming-hot pizza box appeared on the counter. Zatanna opened it for Barbara. "Don't tell me you don't like pepperoni. Everyone likes pepperoni."

"Zee… God, this is so awkward. I shouldn't have brought it up."

Zatanna knelt down beside her. "Hey. We're in the same business. You can trust me. Just tell me what it is, maybe I can magic something up. Is it guy trouble? I know an incubus, he's really sweet once you get to know him…"

Barbara's glasses caught the dim sunlight and turned opaque. "It's about the night we went dancing. You remember. With Wonder Woman?"

Zatanna sat down on the floor, crossing her legs under herself. She felt old and worn-thin, like clothes that had been put on too many times. She hadn't had many prophetic dreams since then. One or two she'd been able to avert. It made her feel guilty whenever Oracle called her.

"You knew," Barbara continued. Her voice was so flat she might've still been talking through a scrambler.

"Babs, let me explain."

"I get it. It's not like you were subtle, you know? All that talk about oracles and prophecies… what did you see, exactly?"

Zatanna gathered her breath. She hated when magic did this to her, made her this person. As much as she tried to run from it by pulling on fishnets and performing parlor tricks, there would always be that day where her life was a cruel bitch. "In my vision, you would be struck down in your prime, but afterward, you would rise like a phoenix from the ashes to become a force of great good."

Barbara nodded, like she was finally getting a diagnosis for a moldering sickness. At least she knew. "Phoenix, that's what I should've called myself."

Zatanna looked up at her. "You don't like Oracle?"

"I was kind of wallowing in self-pity when I came up with it. You know, vestal virgin, sitting alone in her temple. But now…" She half-smiled. "Force of great good, are your prophecies really that cheesy?"

"You should hear them when I foresee an apocalypse. It's all doom this and doom that…" Zatanna couldn't keep joking. She wasn't that blithe a person. Not yet. "I should've told you. It's just… not something I'm good at talking about. That's why I got Diana. Without her, I don't know how I would've kept it together."

"Zee, there are plenty of days where I would've thrown something at you for not uprooting heaven and earth to stop it from happening. But some things you can't stop. You just make peace with them and move on."

"There endith the lesson," Zatanna muttered. "Assuming whoever's in charge of this stuff wanted me to learn something and not just be astronomically cruel."

"Maybe they wanted you to do exactly what you did," Barbara said, faraway. "Why do you think I'm bringing this up? To thank you. You gave me one last night to be a dancer. One last night to be beautiful."

Zatanna took her hand, hoping this was what people did to Bats when they were being emotional. You never could tell if it would draw them out of their shell or shove them back in. "You've never stopped being beautiful."

"So people keep telling me."

Zatanna took up. "So listen to them. You can still go with your friends, you know. They'd love to have you with them, and not just if you bought a round."

"They want to go dancing and hook up with someone cute, neither of which I'm good for."

"Bullshit," Zatanna replied. "Yfed ytivarg."

Barbara felt her stomach go loose, like she was flying off a building and her de-cel line had just started doing its thing. Zatanna took her hands and pulled her up easily to a stand. She was weightless.

"Oh. You do still have that flair for the dramatic," Barbara said, smiling despite herself.

"What do I look like to you, a street magician? Cisum."

Ella Fitzgerald's In A Sentimental Mood started playing from nowhere. Barbara took her glasses off and swam down to place them on a lampstand. "Are you trying to seduce me, Ms. Zatara?"

"Hush, it's a good song. I'll lead." With one hand on Barbara's hip and another on her shoulder, Zatanna began to sway her through the air.

"I'm serious, my overly-complicated-boyfriend did this for me once."

"Really? He used years of magical training and understanding to break the law of gravity?"

"No. There was a trapeze. But it was nice too."

Zatanna spun Barbara out before pulling her back in. "Let's not talk about your boyfriend while I'm supposedly seducing you."

"He's not my boyfriend. We're kinda engaged to be engaged. I told you it was complicated."

"My nephew gets more tail than me. He's an asshole."

"Maybe if you stopped calling it 'tail'?"

Zatanna dipped Barbara, but the redhead didn't let herself be pulled back up. She grabbed the carpet and gave herself a pull, cruising lazily above the floor. Zatanna laid down beside her, cracking her neck as Barbara pushed off the wall and floated back.

"I have another confession to make," Barbara said. "When I saw you kissing Wonder Woman, I was kind of jealous. Of Wondy."

Zatanna caught Barbara's shoulder, stopping her eye to eye. "When did I kiss Diana?"

"In the bathroom. At the club?"

"Despite the fishnets, I do not hook up with people in public restrooms."

"Despite the--? Oh, does Dinah know you're a self-hating fishnet-wearer?"

Zatanna smiled and playfully half-slapped Barbara, sending her into a spin. "Anyway, if circumstances had been different… I think I would've liked to dance with you."

"Circumstances are different now." Barbara's hands gently caught on Zatanna's body, stilling herself to be guided over the magician, until finally they were face to face. "How beautiful am I, Zee? Still?"

Zatanna hooked her fingers in Barbara's hair, tilted her mouth just so, and showed her.