It was valentine and Tom had plans with Rachel for the entire evening. Although she tries not to show her fun side every now and then but Rachel actually enjoys certain activities that amuses kids and teenagers alike.

He took her on a date to a Love Carnival and she had been smiling nonstop, unable to contain her excitement as she occasionally munched on cotton candy.

It was the perfect evening for fun between lovers, at least so he hoped until seeing Dick and his merry crew making their way towards them. “Oh, hey Rae.” Gar greeted us as he waved at them with a chummy smile on his face.

“You’ve got to me kidding me.” She remarked, clearly surprised by their sudden appearance. “What the fuck are you freaks doing here?” Tom questioned, making known how unpleasant he found their presence.

Taking a couple of steps forward, Dick reached out his hand as he gestured for Tom to chill while he spoke. “Relax kid, we aren’t here to intrude.”

“Oh, here’s an idea. Why don’t you all fuck off and we call it a day. How about that?” Tom couldn’t let them turn his date into some groupie hangout session.

“This dude might not be so bad after all.” Acqualad audibly muttered with a smirk tugged to the side of his lips like he agreed with Tom.

“Don’t encourage him.” Connor cautioned, crossing both arms as he exuded some sort of boy scout aura.

“I know it seems like we are crashing your date, but we’re not.” Kori stepped in.

“That’s right. You’ve had a lot of buzz going on in the city lately and you are helping Gotham in whatever way you can. As someone who grew up in this city, I just want to say, keep up the good work. And we do appreciate your efforts.” He extended an handshake of which Tom just stood there, staring at his hand for a couple seconds.

“Sure, I do it because I want to. Not for appreciations or recognition.” He replied, responding to his handshake while Rachel still seemed pissed off from their intrusion.

She pulled Gar to the side. “Let’s have a little talk, shall we.” She said to him as she dragged him aside, leaving Tom with Kori and Dick who seem to have a lot to say to him. All in a lame attempt to actually try getting to be a bit more friendly with him.

“You all tracked me down here didn’t you?” She asked with an infuriated tone, seething as to their invasion, interrupting her perfect date that evening.

“It was all Dick’s idea and when Kori realized you were at the Carnival, she suggested a team outing and that’s how we ended up coming here.” Gar replied her with a nervous smile on him. Rachel looked over at Acqualad who was the odd ball among the bunch, cocking up a brow.

“Don’t look at me, I was dragged into this. I’d rather spend the evening doing something else entirely.” He remarked, clearly against him being there.

Without saying another word Rachel walked up to Tom and grabbed him by his arm, breaking the small talk Dick and Kori seemed to be having with him.

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“We’ll be going now, do not follow us.” She said to everyone before pulling Tom away. “Told you crashing her date was a bad idea.” Acqualad commented, clearly stating the obvious to everyone.

….

About half an hour later, Tom and Rachel just got off from the Ferris Wheel and she was currently seated on a bench, eating a snack while Tom went to go get her a drink.

“Hey beautiful.” A voice came from right next to her as she noticed two guys approach her. Looking their way, one of them took a seat on the bench, sitting right next to her while the other just hovered around like some wingman.

“It’s sad to see a girl seated alone at a Love Carnival, especially on valentine night. Allow me to at least make the night a more exciting one for you.” She just stared at him without saying a word, completely dumbfounded. It was either he didn’t recognize her as a superhero or he was a dude with quite some balls to be that confident.

“I’m Stephen by the way.” He introduced himself as he extended his hand for a friendly handshake, but only got a stare down in response.

“Seems you’re really shy around strangers, that’s alright because…..” Stephen was suddenly cut off by his wingman. “Steph, I think we should get going now.”

“Not now dude, can’t you see I’m talking with someone.” He replied, not taking his eyes off Rachel.

“There’s a guy standing right ahead and he’s been glaring at you.” He informed him as Tom approached them with drinks in hand, rather than stare daggers at Stephen, he had on a more neutral look.

“Here.” He handed Rachel one of the drinks, while Stephan decided to act like some dickhead to assert dominance.

“Oh, thanks man.” He remarked, reaching to collect the drinks from Tom. “If you like those hands of your, I advice you keep them to yourself if you do not want to lose them.” Tom menacingly remarked with clearly audible disdain in his tone, and with his almost glowing crimson pupils which sent chills down the spine of Stephen as he locked eyes with him.

That moment Stephen felt his throat tighten from as sweat dripped down his face. “Come on man, we’re out of here.” He signaled his wingman and they walked away, looking back to see Rachel smiling gleefully as Tom handed her the drink.

“You didn’t have to be a meanie, he was just being a guy.” Rachel took a sip from her drink after teasing him, watching Tom take a seat right next to her as she blushed over what he did.

“More like a douchebag.” He replied. ‘He kind of reminded me of my old self from my previous life.’ Tom muttered to himself.

“Did you say something?” She questioned, bringing her face closer into his personal space, acting like a cute girlfriend as she sipped her drink through her straw.

“I was really hoping he would stand up to me, so I let him off with a broken finger or two.” Upon hearing this, Rachel let out a small laugh, pleased with how protective he could be over her.

….

At a significant distance from the couple, Fang and Charlotte sat at the front of a shop. He relaxed his back and elbows against the counter of the shop as he made subtle glances at Tom who seemed to be having a good time.

“Poor kid is unaware his life is about coming to an end, killing him at a place like this would just be seen as a successful follow up from the previous assassination attempt on his life.” Fang said to Charlotte who just wanted the job done quickly, so they could go on with their lovers night, wanting some intimacy and some good fuck after on.

“Just get on with it already.” She remarked while playing a game at the shop, wanting to win a stuffed animal she found to be cute.

“Yeah, yeah, here we go.” Fang nonchalantly replied, fondling with a silver in hand until it morphed into the shape of a bullet.

“Here we go.” He signaled before flicking his finger and sent the bullet right at Tom, managing to avoid obstacles like a professional sniper.

Taking notice of the incoming unknown object, Tom stretched out a bit, letting out a brief yawn. “That’s a first, I’ve never seen you tired before.” Rachel stated.

“No fucking way!” Fang remarked in disbelief. “What? You missed?” Charlotte asked, confused as to the disbelieving expression on his face, something she hasn’t seen on him before.

“You should probably join up with your friends, I’m sorry to end our date here but I have to attend to something right now.” Rachel seemed to have questions but just held back her tongue and shook her head in compliance.

“It’s alright, but you have to make it up to me sometime.” She replied in understanding as she gave him a kiss, waved him goodbye before walking away.

Reaching his left arm across his face as if to scratch on his ear while he held a drink with his other arm, he spoke into his wrist watch. “They are here as expected, time to move. Look towards the south east direction from my position and you should spot them.”

“Roger that.” Leo confirmed, dressed in his signature Captain Cold get up. “Also, heroes are around so we are taking this somewhere else according to plan.” Tom informed both of them, wanting to avoid civilian casualties and interruption from the heroes.

“Roger that.” They both replied, moving on to the rendezvous point.

“Here we go again.” Fang quietly announced to Charlotte before launching another, while she observed Tom to see why Fang previously had an unfamiliar expression on his face.

This time around Tom caught the silver bullet in the palm of his hand, raising up his hand to show both of them as he looked in their direction.

“What in the actual hell.” She muttered in disbelief as they both watched Tom complacently get up and walking towards the exit, stopping to look back at them before walking out.