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Dick Grayson was not by any standard, your normal eleven year old. Of course, there were many things which factored into this. Maybe it was the fact he had grown up in the travelling circus, maybe it was the fact his parents died in front of him, or maybe it was that he skipped a few grades because of his smarts, or even more so, the fact that he was quite literally, Batman's protege.
Dick Grayson watched his parents fall to their deaths at 9 years old. Since then, his life had gotten considerably better. He had a father, 3 brothers, and Alfred, who technically classed as a second father to him. His first few months in the Wayne mansion had been tough- nightmares, school and having to adapt his accent from a mixed European one to a high class, Gothamite one was no easy feat for a 9 year old.
He had realized Bruce was hiding a big secret since the beginning, and after that, it was only a matter of time before he found out, which only took 2 months, surprisingly, but he always considered himself attentive; he often realized things that others could not, and it was quite easy to match their movements to the Gotham vigilantes once he had gathered enough footage of them - Bruce was very impressed, and one day, gave him the privilege of becoming robin, a mantle previously held by Jason Todd, who, after much persuasion and conversations with his brothers handed over the robin mantle, and began to work on his own vigilante identity.
So yeah, the last few years had been hectic, but hell, Dick was happy now! Sure, missions were dangerous, but he hadn’t yet sustained any life threatening injuries thanks to his brothers and father being the few most overprotective people in the world. With villains like the Joker around, you could never know what was around the corner in Gotham.
Dick Grayson was finally, as he thought, making his parents in heaven proud. This is what they would have wanted for him to do - save people.
One thing Dick Grayson didn't understand as an eleven year old boy, was how to save himself.
Another thing he didn't understand was school. He was terribly smart, earning the top grades in most of his classes, (apart from English, which admittedly he was not the best at, even though he had learnt to speak, read and write it fluently, he did not see the point in revising such nonsense) and could not see what was the point of him continuing school. Waking up early was not something he liked to do, and it restricted him from nightly missions before school- when he whined to Damian about this, he told him that- “Father will loosen up by the time you're 13, then he'll let you go out late”
This was met with a groan, and a very grumpy Dick for the rest of that evening. Coming back from school was less of a fuss, especially on the weekends.
Dick Grayson adored Fridays, because it meant that, inevitably, he would be able to go out and do some vigilante saving for the good parent of the night, before Bruce finally woke up to reality out from under his cowl, and promptly sent him to bed. Regardless, it was extra family bonding. As usual, Alfred, the overly nice but also rather terrifying, sometimes, butler, was waiting for him and Jason by the school gates.
Jason, his elder brother, who was 15, was already sitting in the car, a smug look on his face.
Dick got in the car, and was met with a warm “hello Master Dick”
“Hi Alfred!”
“nice day at school?” Jason asked
“yeah, it was okay.”
he smiled at Jason, who smiled back at him.
“English homework?” he laughed, noticing the sullen look on his brother's face.
Dick groaned “ Can you help me, please? I really want to go out on patrol tonight!!”
“hm.. I suppose I could help you..for a price.”
“Anything Jace! please!”
“Well I don't know now!! I'll help you, but you'll have to return the favour to me whenever I want it, little bird.” Jason bargained, an edge of humour to his voice.
dick could tell that he most definitely was not going to like this. but he really needed help on his English homework.
“...fine”
Jason started to talk about the symbolism of metaphors or whatever in the extract, and Dick wrote down fast notes to aid him in his later essay writing.
The rest of the car ride home consisted of Dick complaining about his homework, and Jason laughing at how even a baby could figure that out, and then a very angered dick contemplating whether to claw of Jason's face or not, but by the murderous look on Alfred's face, decided not to.
When they finally pulled up at Wayne manor, Dick rushed inside, and flopped onto the couch.
“Please, not in shoes Master Dick..”
“Sorry Alfred!” he hurried to take his shoes off.
“Where's Tim and Damian?”
“Damian is in the cave, i believe, and Tim is up in the study”
“okay!!”
“Master Dick, please do get changed first;” Alfred reprimanded, “I don't want to have to buy yet another school uniform..”
“Okay, I will Alfred…”
Dick sighed internally, and begrudgingly crawled up the stairs to get changed. After getting changed, he remembered that he had English homework, and that he better get that done, and had seemingly forgotten about talking to his eldest brothers, instead sitting down at his desk and getting on with his stupid Romeo and Juliet essay. He thought that Romeo and Juliet were idiots.
A few hours must have passed when his eldest brother peered into his room.
“-son, Grayson!”
His brother's sharp calls snapped him out of his essay writing.
“Hi Dami!,” he smiled, jumping out of his chair, “sorry, i was so absorbed..”
His eldest brother nodded, and raised an eyebrow, “ I saw. Would you like me to read over it?”
Dick sighed. “It's not finished yet.”
confusion riddled his brother's face. “But.. you've been up here for 4 hours.”
Dick smiled, his face now slightly red. “It's very challenging you know!”
“Okay then,” he chuckled under his breath,” dinner is ready, Alfred says. We're all going out for patrol after, Father mentioned something about a few drug deals going on. We'll probably be taking care of those.”
“sounds great!”
All truth be told, Dick was actually exhausted, he was still a child after all. But he held back his yawn until his brother walked away, before following him swiftly downwards to the dining room, sliding down the bannister.
Alfred stifled a look of slight disappointment, but he had told the young master so many times to not slide down the bannister that it was practically useless to tell him again, knowing the boy would probably apologize, then do it again regardless.
The whole family sat at the dinner table, surprisingly. Dick sat next to Jason, Tim and Damian sat opposite them, and Alfred and Bruce sat at the heads of their table.
As always, Bruce started the conversation off.
“How was everyone's day?”
a boring question, Dick thought, everyone always just said good, regardless if it had been the worst day ever.
he poked at his potatoes.
“good.”
He didn't feel like saying much- his mood had definitely taken a downer because of his stupid English teacher and his exhaustion, but he wanted to go on patrol so badly that he made a vague attempt to make it sound not exhausted.
Bruce raised his eyebrows, a slight flash of concern showing for his usually well spoken son. “Just good? Did something happen at school?”
“No, everythings alright!” he reassured his father, but even Damian gave him a worried side glance.
Jason sensed his discomfort and made a fast entrance to change the subject, smiling and proudly saying: “ I got a 100 on my English essay”
Bruce smiled, “Well done, I told you you could do it!”
“That's quite impressive, well done Master Jason!”
“Well done Jace!” Dick smiled, and the other two brothers nodded proudly.
Tim, notably, was eating his food with a rather robotic tired expression. It seemed his studies were quite difficult.
He spoke up, clearing his voice. “ I'm close to solving a few more drug-related cases. it might be helpful tonight..”
Bruce quickly replied, “That's great, Tim. They'll be a good help tonight.”
Tim nodded, happy about his acknowledgements.
The rest of the meal entailed scattered small talk, and compliments to the chef.
Dick Grayson loved patrolling. He loved saving people, fouling drug dealers, and going up against more advanced villains. He loved pretending that he wasn't scared, putting up barriers even though each time a villain came close to him he was shaking on the inside.
Robin swung through the streets of Gotham, Batman right behind him. The others had dispersed elsewhere now, tracking down the people in charge of the deal, and their mystery drug, which they had not managed to find out, only that it was rather dangerous, or so they deduced.
Batman on robin would be just on general patrol, but were available for backup if necessary. It wasn't expected, just like nothing ever is in gotham.It was meant to be a normal deal: one of many which happen in Gotham city, only larger, albeit the one drawing them in.
An hour into patrol, Nightwing’s voice ran through the comms: “We have eyes of the dealers, there's 3 of them, they're wearing masks, we can't tell who they are.”
“Good” batman called back gruffly, “ Tim, try to see if you can analyse their voices to match the system. Then try to intercept the deal. Don't let them get the cargo, get it?”
“Got it bats.”
The comm line broke off again, silence. Dick whined. “Can't we go and help them?”
“There's no need for that robin. There's only 3 of them, Red robin, Red hood and Nightwing can take them. They'll be okay.”
Robin decided that it wasn't worth arguing any more about this. His siblings would be alright, Batman was right. He'd only be getting in the way, as he had been told many times by his siblings during various missions and training exercises. When he had first taken over the robin mantle, Jason had been rather cold towards him, often telling him that ‘ you're doing everything wrong’ or even more so, ‘go away golden boy’
Their relationship had come far since then; Jason could still be cold but dick could understand that; he had taken his place, after all.
He was snapped out of his avid daydreaming by loud gunshots ringing out. Gunshots which sounded like more than 3 people, and were coming from the locations which his brothers were meant to be in. He looked over at his caped partner, worry evident on his face, Batman's remaining stoic.
A flame of hope ignited in Robin's heart. Maybe, just maybe, the loud shots were not emitted from the place his brothers were. It wasn't unheard of, local crime syndicates shooting at each other. That flame of hope was quickly extinguished when he heard red hoods respond to Batman.
“Come in, what's your current status everyone.”
A raspy, out of breath voice crackled through the coms, accompanied by loud gunshots.
“They have backup! We're under major fire, we need assistance, fast!”
“I'll be there soon, don't get shot, you 3. Is anyone injured?”
“Not yet, just fucking hurry up!” this time it was Tim’s voice, angry out of breath. How long had they been at it?
Batman looked at Robin. “ stay back. We don't need you injured”
“Roger that.”
Of course, he wasn't going to stay back. He was 11 now, and perfectly capable of doing missions like this. If he saw people in trouble, it was natural he'd step in, he'd do more than that for his brothers.
There were about two dozen men, of which most had guns, shooting at each other and the vigilantes. The drugs were in the center of all the fire, untouched. The deal had probably gone wrong then, he thought to himself silently as he hid on top of a building. He retrieved his batarangs from his utility belt and threw them, hitting a masked man in the head, knocking him out.
“I said stay back robin!” Batman growled, anger protruding in his tone. Robin couldn't care less. His brothers were nowhere to be seen, either fighting elsewhere or tied up, but regardless, in danger.
“Nightwing, come in where are you 3?”
“In the warehouse, there's about ten more in here, we should be done soon.”
“The drugs?”
“They were fake!” shouted Tim. “Only a few were genuine, I have those to- shit!”
A pained gasp came from Red Robin.
“Red robin? Red robin came in.”
Tim groaned, and after a long silence , muttered; “GSW to shoulder, through and through, i think”
“Nightwing, red hood, cover him, well be there in a minute”
Gunshots and occasional shouts could be heard from the coms as batman and robin finished off the last of the masked men, they shared a fast glance before rushing into the warehouse, where the other 3 vigilantes were engaged in heated battle. Nightwing and red hood were covering Red Robin, knocking the men out as best as they could. They were severely outnumbered.
Right off the bat, the Dark Knight took out 3 men, discarding their guns, and continuing on to fight more. Nightwing and Red Hood were busy protecting Tim.
No one else saw the lone shooter, his gun aimed at Tim’s blind spot. Nobody but him.
Dick wasn't entirely sure what overtook him at that moment. But the second the man pulled the trigger, he dived, throwing a batarang straight at his head. Realizing what he had done, a strange sense of fear encapsulated him. He was 11, what if the bullet killed him? No. Robin was fearless, he couldn't think like that. He wasn't scared. What would have been scarier was seeing Tim's dead body laying on the floor, with a pool of blood. This, although terrifying, was what he was meant to do, he was Robin. Robin helped others.
A sharp pain ricocheted through his chest, causing him to scream. He fell to the floor, whimpering, and looking up, saw that the lone shooter was down. He had done it. He was fine. Tim was alive. Nothing else mattered right now.
He could feel the hot blood running down his chest. He could hear the shouts. The gunshots had ceased now, an eerie silence enveloping him, all but a ringing in his ears. He coughed, his body shivering, lips wet from blood. He brought a hand to his chest, scarlet staining it. His breathing was erratic now.
He was dead, he repeated to himself, but at least that meant Tim was alive. Tim hadn't been shot. Minutes felt like hours, seconds from the brink of death, blood spilled on the grimy floor. His blood.
He felt a firm hand on his shoulder, and with any of the remaining energy he had, he cracked open his eyes. Bruce looked at him, cowl still on.
“Stay with me chum, okay?”
warm hands caressed his hair, and indiscernible muttering floated past his ear.
He was tired, oh so tired.
Maybe a bit of sleep would be so bad?
The darkness taunted him, until he couldn't hold back any more.
The darkness engulfed him like a warm blanket.
Dick Grayson awoke, confusion coursing through his veins like blood.
Where was he?
What had happened?
Memories from the night's patrol hit him like a bullet as he shot up, immense pain shooting through him and the annoying beeping on the heart monitor spiking as he frantically looked around the room to see if his brothers were okay, above all. He wouldn't know how to live if Tim still died despite his best efforts.
He couldn't see anyone.
Please no.
His bright blue eyes rapidly dashed around the rooms surrounding, filling with tears like an ocean.
He heard steps, fast steps running towards him and he jerked his head, meeting eyes with his big brother, Damian.
“Oh dick, you're awake”
His eldest brother scooped him into a light hug, making sure to not hurt the already weakened younger boy. Dick leaned into him, making the most of it.
Damian was not one to
enjoy physical contact, and did not often call him dick, rather using ‘Richard’ or ‘Grayson’. They stayed in an embrace for a long time, before Damian finally let go, and almost shouted;
“What were you thinking, you idiot!”
The youngest looked surprised at the sudden change of emotion.
“I-I” he stammered, trying to explain himself to the agitated, worried older boy.
“Don't do that ever again, do you hear me?” he spoke loudly, holding back tones of despair, making sure that he made his point, and then mumbled quietly, “You had us all worried. Don't do it again Grayson.”
Dick smiled in acknowledgement, and opened his mouth to ask a question, when the person in question walked into the room, accompanied by the rest of their family.
Tim was alive. Alive, and as it seemed, completely better.
He hadn’t failed.
Jason and Tim ran over, overjoyed that their little brother had finally woken up.
“Jesus fucking Christ-”
“Master Jason! Watch your language, or I'll wash that mouth out with soap!”
Dick started laughing. He laughed loudly, his laughter was infectious, which soon spread to everyone, and for a good few minutes hearty, relieved laughter echoed off the sides of the empty , large cave.
“We're glad you're okay, buddy.” Jason smiled, tears in his eyes from laughing so hard.
Tim spoke up. “Dick, I'm so sorry.”
“Wait what? Why are you sorry? Did something happen?” the blue eyed boy looked around at his family, who he had grown to love so much.
“Oh my god, you really are oblivious..” Jason sighed, rolling his eyes.
“What?”
“I'm apologizing because you got hurt. Because of me.”
“Listen to yourself Tim, you sound silly, i jumped in front of that bullet so you wouldn't get hurt. I wanted to.” he confided, realising that he might have made a mistake in his wording. He opened his mouth to correct his mistake, but Damian had already uttered out the cursed words.
“What do you mean by that, Grayson?”
He quickly made an effort to correct himself, ignoring the surprised look on Bruce Wayne's face.
“No no, not like that! I meant that,” he took a deep breath, “There was a lone shooter who had his gun positioned on an open spot on Tim's head. if the bullet hit him, he'd die and he couldn't move or see him, so there was a larger chance of me surviving if i jumped in to save him.”
“There was a chance you would die as well though Dick. it was awfully close, we don't need you taking risks like that.”
Dick’s face fell, suddenly sullen.
“However, you made a calculated risk which saved your brother's life” Bruce contradicted, and dick smiled.
“But please, Master Dick refrain from pulling extravagances like these too often. It was quite a shock.” Alfred said, ever the voice of reason.
“Yeah, I'll second that” Jason confirmed
“Agreed..” muttered Damian, a small smile directed at the youngest boy.
“Yeah, please don't. that was scary” chuckled Tim.
“So then, seeing as we're not busy tonight, how about a nice movie night?” Bruce suggested, hoping that the others would agree. They all nodded, smiling.
“An amazing idea, Master Bruce. I shall change Master Dick’s dressings, check him over, then we will come up.”
“I'll make the popcorn then?” Bruce smiled.
“No!” everyone collectively desperately shouted, because Bruce Wayne in the kitchen would end up with a nuclear explosion, food poisoning or worse.
Alfred coughed. “That's quite alright, I don't remember lifting your kitchen ban, Master Bruce…”
Everyone laughed. It was true, Bruce had been banned long ago for only Alfred knows what reason, and it was probably for the best.
Bruce, Jason, Tim and Damian left the Batcave, and only Dick and Alfred remained.
“So, young master, how are we feeling?”
“Not so asterous” Dick chuckled “But I'll be alright”
The elder man smiled, beginning to change the youngest's dressings. “Right you are, Master Richard. You will be perfectly fine.”
The rest of the night was spent watching Disney movies, which of course, the injured boy got to pick. put on tangled first, and snuggled with his elder brothers on the sofa while eating popcorn, thinking about how much he'd grown to love the people who were essentially strangers to him around two years or so again. He didn't get to finish the first movie before he drifted back to effortless, dreamless sleep.