Title: Mentors

By: Erin Griffin

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Rating: PG-13 for sexual language

Pairing: Helena/Dinah

Summary: Er- Let’s just say that merciless teasing takes Helena and Dinah another step closer (and over) the line of friendship.

Disclaimer: Dude, if I was making money from this fic, I’d be like sooooo poor, which I am (soooooo poor, not making money off of this lesser story).

Author’s Note: Uh… Hi. Enjoy.

Distribution: Sure, just tell me where it is going.

Dinah Redmond/Lance stood on the roof alone as she watched the sun set over New Gotham. She was in deep thought and didn't hear the brunette behind her walk out to accompany her. "How are you holding up, kid?" Helena Kyle asked her. Dinah spun to look at her, but she didn't respond to her question. Instead she turned back to the sunset and her thoughts. "Are you okay Dinah?"

"Yeah. I'm just thinking." she said. Helena walked over to the blonde and stood by her side, waiting in the silence for Dinah to continue, but she never did. Whatever she was thinking about, she must not want to talk about it. This was odd for Dinah, since she always talked to Helena about what she was feeling even if Helena didn't want or care to know. But Dinah didn't seem to want to share how she felt tonight, and that was unusual for her. Helena shifted uncomfortably in the silence. With anyone else, silence was a friend to Helena, and it was usually Helena who made people nervous, but this was Dinah, and silence almost didn't exist with this girl.

"If you want to talk about it, I'm here. You know that." Helena said. Dinah only nodded.

"Yeah, I know. It's just-"

"It's just..." Helena prompted.

"Never mind."

"You can't walk this far on the tight rope and just stop, kid. What were you going to say?" Helena asked. Dinah shook her head.

"You'd say I was crazy. Wishful thinking."

"Dinah, you are talking to someone who has dealt with crazy for most of her life. I wouldn't say any of that." Dinah still looked hesitant.

"I couldn't believe they didn't tear down the warehouse, you know the place where Black Canary died? I went to see if it was true and I walked among the ash and dust, past the homeless and through the breaking beams and broken floors... After a while I felt as if I was being watched, followed. This person was so silent that I thought it was you at first, but if you wanted to sneak up on me you wouldn't have waited so long. I mean, you're not the most patient person in New Gotham... But I would keep walking until I heard the footsteps get closer. I quickly turned around to face a woman, this... so many scars... She disappeared before I could ask her who she was or why she was following me. I think it was her. I think it was my mother." Dinah said, finally looking up at Helena, who didn't know what to say.

"How do you know it was her?" Helena asked. "Not that I don't believe you." she added quickly.

"I saw her eyes. Whomever she was... she had the same look in her eye my mother did before she died. When she... When she told me she was proud of me." Though she looked as if she felt great pain, Dinah didn't cry, only push her hands into her pockets.

"Must be tough." Was all Helena could think to say. Dinah shook her head as if to shake some odd thoughts from it.

"If she knows me, it has to be a relative I haven't met. It couldn't have been her. She's dead." Dinah told Helena as a way to convince herself more than the older woman.

"Have you told Barbara?"

"Why should I?" Dinah asked. "I had a hallucination from the ash and dust." Dinah said as if to shake it all away from her. She'd made up her mind that what she had seen was just in her head, and nothing even she said to herself would stop her from thinking that thought.

"Well, it may help you just to tell her how you feel about it."

"Yeah, well no offence, Helena, but you are the last person who should be talking to me about expressed feelings." Helena frowned.

"I have a shrink for that." She said a little angrily.

"Barbara and I are there to listen for free." she told her.

"I have my reasons-"

"Everyone has their reasons for not wanting to talk about it. Think about instead your reasons for needing to talk about it. That's all that matters." She said, cutting her off. Helena kept quiet, and after a few minutes of silence she walked inside.

*The next day after school in the training room*

"Faster! Move!" Helena shouted as Dinah punched, kicked, and blocked with all she had. "Come on, Dinah. Push yourself. Give me all you've got!" Dinah wiped sweat from her eyes and at the last second blocked the shot she coming towards her. She grunted angrily as if to say 'Cheap shot', but she never voiced her thoughts like she normally did. She started to breathe heavier but never asked Helena for a break (not that Helena would have given her one, but she liked teasing Dinah about having no stamina). Instead, she got up when she was knocked down, her focus on Helena searching for a way to knock her down. So far she hadn't found a way, but Helena admired her sudden efforts. "Alright." Helena said after 20 or so more minutes if this. "I'm beat." Helena laughed and Dinah just stared at her. "Pun." She explained. Dinah smiled weakly as she looked still at Helena. "Let's take a break."

"You haven't worked up much of a sweat. You can't be tired. I was just getting started." Dinah protested.

"Dinah, you look like you just went swimming." Her eyebrow raised at the blonde and then she smiled some. "We'll take a break, get some water, nurse the hurts, and start up again in a few minutes." Helena said.

"Fine." Dinah huffed, walking away from her. Helena didn't say anything and assumed it was a bad case of PMS.

Ten minutes later, Dinah was found on the floor doing some meditation and stretches. She seemed calmer, and the serenity surrounding this girl made Helena smile to herself. "You uh..." The words were caught in her throat. Dinah opened her eyes some and watched Helena. She nodded after a couple of seconds as the older woman held her hand out to help her up.

"Yeah, I think so." she said. She stretched real quick, then Helena quickly jumped at her, forcing Dinah into a defensive stance. Helena laughed at Dinah's sudden movement, and was surprised when Dinah kicked at her stomach, forcing her to step back some. "Did I get you off your guard, Helena?" Dinah asked, mocking innocence.

"You wish." Helena and Dinah exchanged blows for quite a while before Helena called it quits. "Geeze. Good job today, Dinah. Keep working like that with both Barbara and myself and you'll be kicking my ass in no time." Helena praised.

"Not that I'd want to kick your ass, but it would be nice to know I could." Dinah said after guzzling down half of her water without taking a breath. "Dibs on first shower!" she called when she closed the cap again.

"No way! You take all the good hot water!" Helena countered.

"So do you! I have to wait at least an hour for it to warm up again. You have an apartment to go to. Take a shower there. You're not getting first dibs on the shower today unless you're willing to share, and I happen to be very selfish. I don't share." she said. Helena grinned.

"But you are thinking about it."

"About what?"

"Sharing the shower with me." Dinah looked up at the older woman and scoffed.

"Get over yourself." She said. Though her face was flushed from training hard, she knew her face was getting a little more red. That didn't help her situation any. "You're insane." Dinah said, looking Helena in the eyes. "If you think I want you-"

"So you admit it?"

"What?!" Helena burst out laughing "Okay. Going to shower now. ALONE, I dare to add." Dinah said.

"But you'll be thinking of me the whole time." Helena shot back. Dinah waved her hand in a gesture that said 'Whatever' as she walked away.

*The kitchen of the Clocktower 2 mornings later*

"So... did you have a good shower this morning, Dinah?" Helena asked the blonde as she entered the kitchen.

"Why, miss me?"

"I was just about to ask you the same thing." Dinah rolled her eyes.

"For the last time, drop it." Dinah said, her anger starting to rise. Enough already. she thought, but she didn't voice her opinions as she sat down at the table across from Helena. She ignored the older girl as she continued to taunt her. "So, did you have to turn the nozzle to 'cold' this morning?" Dinah calmly poured her cereal into her bowl and put milk into it.

"What's with your sudden obsession with my shower, Helena? Are you jealous of my Lever 2000 because it joined me and you didn't?" Dinah finally asked, looking as if she had just seen Helena that morning. That seemed to keep Helena's mouth shut. She had a silent meal at least. Before Dinah had left for school, Helena followed her to the elevator.

"If you start getting the hots for me in the middle of class, you know where the almost vacant bathrooms are for a little... privacy."

"Shut up." Dinah said before the elevator doors closed again. Helena laughed almost maniacally.

"She wants me. She so wants me." She murmured to herself.

*After school that same day*

Dinah walked into the Clocktower reluctantly, for it was another training session with Helena. She didn't want to have to live through her ridiculing; she'd had a hard enough day as it was. Besides walking into a cafeteria with 6 or 7 people calling her Zipper Girl, Dinah had a hard time keeping her mind away from the older girl, but for reasons unknown, she wasn't able to for very long and had once or twice considered taking Helena's advice about the vacant bathroom... "Helena?!" She called out as she took a few steps past the DELPHI monitor computers. Then she started walking towards her room.

"You're not getting out of training today, chick." Helena's voice was coming from behind Dinah, and she whirled around to face her. "Miss me?" Helena asked as she put on a maniacal grin.

"No." Dinah responded.

"Liar." Helena said, her eyes glittering evilly. Dinah rolled her eyes.

"Oh yes Helena, you caught me. I have the hots for you and was so hot I almost wanked myself in the middle of school." She said sarcastically.

"Really?" Helena asked, backing up a step.

"NO!" Dinah shouted in a tone that clearly asked 'What the hell is wrong with you?!'. "I've got massive homework to do, so let's get this over with. I'll be out in 5 minutes." Dinah said.

"Sheesh, I'm just yankin' yer chain, kid." Helena said. Dinah rolled her eyes and walked away as Helena watched her leave.

*About 15 minutes later*

"You're not trying!" Helena shouted as she blocked an easy shot Dinah had given out. "Come on!" she shouted. Where was the fire that was in her training sessions a couple of days ago? Dinah took a deep breath and blocked a shot to the stomach. Then she hit at Helena, but only got air. "Stop staring at-"

"That's it." Dinah said, knowing what Helena was about to say. She stopped moving, then threw her towel over her shoulders. "I have better things to do... Well, not better since it is 4 pages of math, but-" Dinah didn't finish as she started to walk away.

"I'm just teasing you-" Helena started to say.

"Well stop. You're not funny." she shot back. Helena was quick and she grabbed Dinah's wrist.

"Look at- Look at me." Dinah stopped struggling in Helena's grip and then did as she was told. Helena said nothing, but the grip on her wrist loosened until she was no longer holding onto it. Then Dinah saw Helena's face inch closer to hers. Before she could stop herself, her face inched closer to Helena's. Their lips met half way, and Dinah's lips parted as Helena's tongue mingled with her own. After a minute both heads mutually parted and all was silent for a few seconds. Then Helena's lips smiled  viciously. "I told you that you wanted me." Dinah's heart sped up pace as her head finished spinning. Then she suddenly registered Helena's words and stalked off, cursing angrily. "Why'd I have to go and say that?" Helena muttered to herself.

*In Dinah's room*

Dinah ruffled through her drawers looking for her favorite shirt to remember that it was being washed since it was a Thursday. She changed from her 'training room' outfit, which was a black tank top and matching shorts, then she sat on her bed and let her mind wander. Just when Dinah had convinced herself that Helena's teasing shouldn't be taken seriously, she goes and does something like kiss her. That alone made her teasing seem so much worse, because with that one kiss Dinah had fallen in love with Helena Kyle. At least, the feelings she'd had for her for almost 8 years had gotten stronger.

*About 2 hours later in Helena's apartment*

She didn't mean to say it. She'd wanted to tell Dinah that her mind was always thinking about the blonde, and that her teasing was somehow a test to see if Dinah felt the same way. Helena sat on her couch, not sure what she wanted to do. She was surprised at her guts. She had never really expected herself to go in for the kiss, and was surprised (and a little scared) when Dinah was returning it. Helena didn't know how she was going to get a chance to talk to Dinah now. She was so pissed off when she left. More than anything Helena wished she didn't let her fear run her mouth.

*Same time in the Clocktower*

Dinah heard a knock on her door and she slowly opened it to see Barbara. "Are you alright Dinah?" She asked, wheeling in. Dinah closed her door and then sat down on her bed.

"Uh, yeah." She said slowly. "I'm just trying to think." She said after a few seconds.

"About..."

"Oh, I made the mistake of saying the wrong thing, and now Helena won't drop it and keeps making fun of me for it." Dinah explained the shower conversation and what was said earlier. She left out the kiss. She expressed how angry it was making her feel.

"You know, Helena's like the boy that sits behind you in class and pulls your hair. You know, the 'they're only doing it because they like you' speech? I think she's just teasing you because maybe it is Helena that wants you, not the other way around." Dinah looked at Barbara with surprise.

"What?"

"You heard me. I think she is just getting under your skin to get you to pay attention to her, since she can't just tell you that she likes you."

"Right." Dinah said under her breath, but she was trying to control her quickened heart rate. Helena was picking on her because she liked her? Just like or... Dinah thought it better not to think it over too much. Barbara watched Dinah's face, but the years of concealing frightening dreams from the Redmonds made her good at not showing the emotions she felt. "I think either you are in on some practical joke she's playing, or you've gone mad as well." Barbara laughed and patted her knee before she wheeled out. Dinah scrunched up her face and sighed before she lay her head on her pillow.

*The next afternoon in the training room*

Dinah walked into the training room at 4:30 to work out some of her anger by beating the shit out of the punching bag. She hit it, kicked it, and even threw some things like her water bottle and her towel at it with her mind. Suddenly, the punching bag became Helena. Helena had gotten in front of her so quickly Dinah almost hit her. She stopped moving after her fist was held by Helena's palm, stopping the attack on the punching bag. "Easy tiger." Helena said, taking a step forward.

"No- no- no. Stay away from me." Dinah said, taking a few steps back. "You're the boy who cried 'wolf', and I am the stupid villagers who believed him." She walked away from Helena as she said all this. Helena jumped, using the wall next to her (wallwalking) and appeared in front of Dinah, stopping her.

"I didn't mean to say that to you yesterday. I had something else I wanted to say to you, but I didn't know how to say it."

"What was that? 'Sike' (AN: Spelled Psyche?)?" She asked. "Save it. I don't want to hear it because most likely it will hurt me, and I do not need this right now." She said.

"You don't need what?"

"Nothing." Helena frowned.

"Tell me."

"Why should I? So you will have something else to laugh at me about? 'Oh, poor kid, she's gone and fallen in love with me-' Oh shit." Dinah murmured, covering her mouth.

"Why didn't you tell me how you felt?" Helena asked, sounding almost hopeful.

"And why would I do that? I am 2/3 your age, and you didn't like me to begin with. Was I supposed to walk up to you, look longingly into your eyes and say, 'Helena, I have been in love with you since I dreamt of you leaning over your mother's body in the pouring rain'? And then what, expect you to walk closer to me and say, 'Oh Dinah, I am so glad you told me this because I have loved you since I saved your ass from scum in that alleyway'? Or 'Since I found out that you are the daughter of the late, great Black Canary, making you an automatic member of Superheroes Incorporated, you have been on my mind and it is driving me mad'? That doesn't happen unfortunately in the real world where I live, in New Gotham, where meta humans are everywhere. Some are good and some are bad but they are ALL hated for the same reason, because we are different...

"I didn't tell you how I felt because the one person I wanted to touch couldn't be touched. The one I wanted to love and to hold close to me has forgotten love, and won't let anyone close to her, not even herself. She's shut herself off. The one person she's ever loved is gone, so now she doesn't trust anyone. You don't trust Barbara, you don't trust me with good reason, and you don't trust yourself. You would have never loved me, which is okay. I’m used to that. I knew it, but I came here anyway. I thought that if you didn't love me I could at least learn to be like you. So how about it, Helena? Teach me to hate, teach me to... retreat. I wanna learn the 1,001 ways to push some one away, or better yet, not even get close to them to begin with. Teach me everything you know- Oh wait, Barbara's my mentor, not you. What a shame, I would have learned from the best." She ranted sarcastically.

"What if that's a lesson that I do not want to teach?" Helena asked her.

"Don't worry about it. You are not a mentor, Barbara is."

"Then what if I wanna learn?"

"Learn what?" Dinah almost barked.

"To trust? To love again... To be everything you want and more."

"You already are..." Dinah said slowly, making Helena's heart pump in her chest. Dinah looked as if she wanted to add something, but said nothing.

"Teach me to love. Be my mentor." Helena pleaded. She look at Dinah and waited for her to reply. She seemed to figure out if she was going be 'the stupid villagers that believed him' again if she did what she had wanted to do. Dinah swallowed the lump in her throat and looked Helena in the eyes.

"I am going to kiss you now. If you say 'Sike' or anything of the sort afterwards... I'm going to punch you-" Dinah didn't get a chance to finish her threat. Helena had taken Dinah's face in her hand and brought Dinah's head closer to hers. Their lips reunited, and their tongues did a short tango.

"I- " Dinah started to say before she stopped herself.

"You can't walk this far on the tight rope and just stop, kid."

"Helena, I have been in love with you since I dreamt of you 8 years ago." She finished lamely.

"I'm glad you told me that, because the last couple of months I haven't been able to be myself around you."

"And it showed." Dinah said a little bit sarcastically.

"Hey! I'm trying to sweet talk you here." Helena said. Dinah smiled and then she got serious again when Helena did. "What I'm trying to say is..."

"You can't walk this far on the tight rope and just stop." She said, repeating Helena's words. Helena smiled.

"What I am trying to say is... I love you Dinah. I wanted to tell you that yesterday, but I couldn't." Dinah and Helena shared another kiss.

"I love you too Helena."

*Okay, so this story was written in like 24 hours with sleep and school and stuff on my mind, but I hope you enjoyed this little fic.*