So this is a birthday present to one of my faithful reviewers from Absonding Zebra, KTrevo! Happy birthday! :D Thank you for giving me so many ideas and inspiration for Absconding Zebra and being mainly a nice person to chat with. I wish you all the best ;)
Spoilers for Performance. I do not own Young Justice.
The first time it happened, he had given advice to Wally.
It was shortly after Artemis had first joined the team. Although they had somewhat made up by the end of the mission, there was still animosity between the two of them. And as any good bro, Dick set to work repairing it. Well anything within logical boundaries. He wouldn't go as far as to lock the two of them up in a closet because that would be outright mean. He came pretty close though.
So Dick invited Wally to go out for some food. As usual, Dick paid.
In between Wally stuffing his face, they talked about general topics ranging from anything to… really anything. Dick waited for a while before bringing up Artemis at the very end of their get together.
"Give her a chance, KF." He didn't look back.
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The second time he had done it was when Artemis was still recovering from their battle with the Reds. It took her a few hours and a mission, but the conversation that they overheard on the cameras had finally come back to her. He had noticed the way her eyes instantly darted to Kaldur.
He was trained by the Batman. He noticed these things, and a whole lot more.
Her eyes seemed to narrow considerably as she continued to stare at Kaldur, and it was not because of him withholding information about the mole. Her reasons were much more different. She had pieced that due to the mole information; he had suspected her or had used her to gauge the other members' reactions.
Whoever said that blondes aren't the brightest people around had clearly never met Artemis.
First thing she had done when they came back from their mission in India was rush to the gym. He had followed her, discreetly. He found her practicing shooting on one of the many target ranges in the training area. Faking nonchalance, he walked up to the parallel bars and begun his own set of training.
They worked in silence for a while. After finishing his usual – albeit shortened – routine, he went over to the benches to grab one of the unopened water bottles. Artemis was taking a break herself, sitting on the bench with her head leaned backwards on the wall.
Taking a swig and turning to walk out, he casually shot over his shoulder, "the past is the past, Artemis."
He did not turn back to look at her reaction.
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The third time was after the training simulation that had gone wrong. It had taken him a while to bounce back after that, mostly with the help of Bruce and Alfred combined. For the team as a whole, though, it had taken a bit more time. Megan especially.
He had noticed how protective she was of her past. At a first glance, M'gann seems like an open book. But Dick dug deeper, looked closer at her behavior patterns, and he saw how she often seemed to shift the topic away from anything that has to do with her personally. She would always change it to a topic relating to the other person or to another general topic.
He could only put the reason for that as insecurity about her past, just like Artemis.
So he did the same thing as he did for the previous ones, he offered his help in the only way he knew how. He took her out to Happy Harbour. Some may consider this a date, but he considered it something that he needed to do a long time ago. M'gann was always the one cheering them on and keeping the cheerful attitude in the team. She always played the peacekeeper; her and Kaldur.
He treated her to ice cream and various other 'Earth' delights. She smiled for the first time in a week. He felt accomplished.
Even if it was something small, he had made a difference for M'gann. From that day on, she smiled more and they could once again see their old teammate in her.
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Zatanna was a special case. He was under strict orders not to reveal his past to the team, so it was much harder to give her the comfort she needed without telling or revealing his previous experiences.
Bruce's limiters never stopped him before, though. He took it upon himself to make the cave as much of a home as he possibly can. He gave her space, but at the same time he stood close
Whenever she looked like she was going to go back into that post-traumatic state, he would cheer her up or touch her gently. That seemed to always get her back to them.
She noticed his efforts as well. She would often meet his gaze and smile softly, silently reassuring him that she was fine.
He would avoid direct confrontation with her simply because of the questions it would pose. But Zatanna was too smart for that. She cornered him in the training room around a week after her father donned the Helmet.
"Thanks."
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It was around Thanksgiving when Robin noticed Superboy's odd behavior. Dick always knew about Conner's issue of not being good enough for the League, for Black Canary, for Superman. He tried to make the clone see that he is a separate entity from Superman and that he doesn't have to try so hard to be just like the media leader of the Justice League.
Dick wasn't sure if Conner outright ignored his efforts, or was too inexperienced in social interaction that he just didn't notice the little things. Aqualad supported Dick in his crusade, assigning important roles for Conner to carry out during their missions that their leader could have easily done himself.
After seeing Superboy on the day after Thanksgiving, Dick redoubled his efforts on making Superboy feel more worthwhile. He would invite him to play video games with them. He would give Conner the preference of using the cave's giant TV for his own shows although the clone usually preferred the static. He even went as far as to request to spar with him from Dinah.
Once again he was stricken by the idea that the boy was simply ignoring his efforts.
After their training session, Dick held out his hand to help Conner up from the holographic ground.
"You've improved a lot, Con." He didn't look back.
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Robin had heard all about the failed mission that the team went on involving Sportsmaster and Cheshire. After all of the pressure on Kaldur, he couldn't imagine what was going through their leader's head.
Bruce wasn't too happy when he had gotten home, simply waving him off before heading out on business. That wouldn't be so unusual if it wasn't broad daylight and Wayne Enterprises had nothing major going on. It seemed like Bruce just wanted some alone time, and as usual, did not know how to say it normally.
So Dick let him have his alone time, choosing to go to Mount Justice instead. Meeting up with a quiet Kaldur in the living room and mostly an empty mountain made him think.
Aqualad didn't notice him for the most part, taking a page out of Superboy's book and just stared at the static on the TV.
Dick stood there for a long time, watching him. Robin thinks he should offer comfort in some way, but Kaldur didn't seem like he would appreciate the comfort at the moment.
Taking one last look at the room, he turned to head for the exit. "Not everything's your fault, Kal."
Once again, he didn't look back.
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During the mission at the circus, he had hoped that someone – anyone – would give him the same ambiguous comfort he was always giving out. He noticed Artemis kept shooting him these glances, especially when he was weakened from Parasite's attack. Megan clearly sensed that something was amiss but did not know how to approach the issue.
He told everyone to keep an open mind regarding the mission, but during that statement he stared at Roy. With his unmasked eyes, it was much easier to convey silent messages.
At first, Roy seemed like he didn't understand what Robin was telling him, but at the end of the whole mission, Robin noticed how he took Artemis's hand; a small victory in this mess of emotions.
Wally had come close. He was the only one Dick trusted with his secret identity, they were best friends. But Wally, the same Wally that was always goofing off, did not quite understand what Dick was going through.
"Then explain it to me, Dick!" he had pleaded once.
"Maybe later. It's too fresh in my mind at the moment Wally, maybe later," Dick had smiled sadly in response.
Wally had not pushed the matter afterwards, but he still regarded the former circus acrobat closely. He seemed to be trying to understand Dick based solely on his outward movements.
So Robin kept watching his team.
The silent guardian.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
The answer was obvious.
Something that came up to my mind after Performance. Leave your thoughts in a review? :D
Apr 9/2012 - Revisited and fixed some tense issues I failed to notice last night. If there are anymore mistakes, let me know please :D