"Oh, no, it's-!" She turns pinker, her expression a shifting mess of embarassment, delight, confusion, sympathy, and a million other emotions she can't quite name. She doesn't want him to think she doesn't appreciate the compliment, but she's not sure how to properly express what she's feeling without sounding sort of... pathetic.

"I mean-- ah." She struggles with the words, gesticulating mostly meaninglessly for a moment before sighing, dropping her hands and looking away, still blushing ferociously. Her heart is pounding so hard she can barely breathe. Food would probably help with that though.

"It's just... nobody ever really wanted me to Batgirl. Or Spoiler. Or Robin." Or around to begin with, she almost adds. It doesn't help that the guys she's dated have all been assholes to her at some point or another. Just hearing it is more important to her than he can possibly know, even if it is overwhelming. She's so used to having to fight tooth and nail just to be who she chooses to be. It's staggering to be told that not only is she already that person, but she's admired for it.

She can't say any of that. It's too close to self-pity, or fishing for compliments, not at all the confident façade she likes to put on. It's too weak. So she falls back on her usual response to too much real emotion: flippancy.

"Hah. A lot of my friends are real jerks."