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Robin, Kid Wonder

Chapter One

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Never thought I'd say this, but I'm happy I'm small, Dixie thought as she stared at her reflection. There had been a bit of an awkward conversation between her and Bruce a few months ago when she had gotten her first period. If Dixie hadn't been completely mortified she would have laughed at the fearsome Dark Knight coughing and sputtering his way through a speech on the maturing female body. An important topic discussed had been Robin.

Robin was a boy, and Richelle was not. This posed the challenge of how they would deal with her looking more feminine through her teenage years, to put it delicately. Recently she had started binding her chest. At this point it wasn't much of a necessity—which she was thankful for because it got a little hard to breathe sometimes wearing those things—but it was a good habit to get into.

Dixie knew that one day she would have to stop being Robin, or Robin would have to reveal that he was really a she. Although Robin never actually felt like a she. Dixie really enjoyed it, playing a boy. It was fun and honestly it felt right at times. There were days when she felt like she wanted to be Robin more than Richelle. On those days she would wear her domino mask around the manor. Alfred and Bruce didn't understand it very well, but let her be. And then there were days when she didn't feel like Robin at all. She would still patrol those days, but if she went to the cave it would be in civvies and she would wear one of Dixie's shirts under her jacket. Unless a mission came up.

But that really wasn't the concern right now. She only had on the black undershirt that was a part of her Robin uniform. The bindings helped to hide her maturing figure and once she put on the red vest the Kevlar and supplement padding would help her to look less curvy and leaner. Staring at her reflection, she suddenly got a very Wally idea.

Dixie raised her arms and actually flexed in front of the mirror. She was a girl, yes, but she was proud of her muscles. They were natural, not bulky from constant fitness. Perfect for an acrobat and Boy Wonder. She snickered, thinking of what Wally would say. Although Artemis had strong arms too. And Wally actually knew Artemis was a girl.

The smile slipped from Dixie's face and she distracted herself by pulling on the rest of her costume. Vest, cape, gloves, and mask. She didn't want to be late for the gathering at the mountain. It had been around a month since New Year's, when the Team defeated the Light. Although Robin thought defeated was a little too solid of a word. Unfeated sounded more accurate. Many individual members of the Light were still active and wreaking havoc, and the Team had been busy trying to round them up and put them all away. Vandal Savage hadn't been seen or heard from since then. Lex Luthor remained untouchable, and Queen Bee had gone back to Bialya.

Their current focus was Kobra. Despite the initial foiling of his venom operation as part of the Team's first mission, he had somehow managed to start it up again. Altered humans were popping up across the country and wreaking havoc in populated areas. While the League worked on subduing said humans, the Team's mission was to find out where the drug was coming from. They had already gone back to Isla Santa Prisca, just as a starting point, but found nothing. Bane hadn't restarted his own operation and Kobra hadn't taken advantage of the empty island. So they were at a bit of a dead end.

Robin sighed and left the changing room, heading over to the Zeta-Beam that was recently installed in the Batcave. Batman had decided that if something like the events on New Years' ever happened again, the Team might need the resources the cave had to offer. The easiest way to access the cave without coming within sight of Wayne Manor was through Zeta.

"See you later, B!" Robin shouted as he jumped into the Zeta-Beam. He didn't actually know if Batman was in the cave at the moment, but got the feeling that he was at least close enough to hear.

When Robin stepped out of the golden light he saw that most of the Team had already arrived, although three of them did live there. He had barely taken three steps when he was tackled by an overexcited speedster.

"Rob, you're here, finally!" Wally cheered, actually picking Robin up as he hugged him.

"Yeah, KF, I'm here. Do you think you could put me down?" Robin asked, blushing slightly.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, sure. There you go." Wally finally let go and Robin straightened out his cape. "Now that you're here, could you get Arty to stop hitting me?"

"I told you to stop calling me that!"

Robin peered around Wally to see an annoyed archer standing in the doorway.

"That depends. What did you do?" Robin asked. Wally shuffled his feet, an act that was actually pretty amusing since he did it with super speed, and kept his gaze locked on the floor. Based on his silence, Robin assumed that Wally had been flirting nonstop. Or at least trying to. He felt a twinge of annoyance at that but squashed it down. Wally was his best friend, he didn't care if he flirted with Artemis. Things had been interesting between them, between everyone really, since New Year's. Both young heroes stated that the kiss had been an impulsive mistake. They were excited by their victory, and tradition calls for people to kiss at midnight, so it just happened. Robin ignored the feeling of triumph he had whenever Wally and Artemis denied feeling anything for each other. Although Wally had started flirting with the archer a lot since then. But with M'gann taken, Wally's options were technically limited.

Besides Wally and Artemis, Kaldur and Raquel had started spending some time together. Not a lot, but they would hang out when they were both in the cave. He noticed that Raquel wasn't there now.

Wally still hadn't answered Robin's questions, so it would seem that Zatanna took it upon herself to answer instead.

"Wally here was trying to convince Artemis to ask him out, because he's just so desirable," Zatanna smirked and winked at Robin.

"No I wasn't! I was just saying that a lot of girls have asked me to the Sadie Hawkins dance at my school!" Wally protested.

"It was heavily implied."

Wally continued to ramble, trying to come up with a plausible excuse, while Robin focused on Zatanna. Genetically speaking, Richelle was straight. Or at least she had considered herself to be straight until she met Zatanna. When they first met, Robin truly had had a crush on Zatanna. He had enjoyed their flirting, and as a bonus it helped to solidify his identity. But that's all it was, a crush. The kiss on New Years had been nice, but it was then that Robin realized he would never have more than a crush on Zatanna. They were still flirting, and as long as Zatanna didn't expect it to be anything more than that, it was fine.

"You're on your own for this, Kid Flirt," Robin took a step back, raising his hands as a sign of neutrality.

"But, bro!" Wally pleaded.

"Sorry, dude." Robin chuckled to hide the sharp edge in his voice. "So Kal, what did you want to see everyone for today? I haven't managed to find anything else about Kobra."

"We have been putting most of our focus upon missions since New Year's, and I think it is important that we spend some time together as a Team. Raquel has been with us for a while, but she has not had time to get to know us. Garth and Tula have also not had a chance to meet the rest of the Team." At this Kaldur shot Robin a pointed look. The bird couldn't deny, his only time with the Team recently had been to discuss missions. Robin liked to pretend it had nothing to do with Wally and Artemis.

"If we're supposed to be hanging out as a Team, the where are the rest?" Wally asked, eager for a topic change.

Rocket B-0-9

Tempest B-0-10

Aquagirl B-0-11

"Right here!" Raquel called out from the Zeta-Beam as the computer announced the new arrivals.

"Kidnapping the Atlanteans?" Zatanna asked, recalling her own kidnapping experience.

"Almost, girl. Icon called for my help, and I thought it'd be good experience," Raquel smirked. She had been told about the kidnapping incident. "So are we hanging out, or what?"

"Race you!" Wally had barely finished his sentence before he was out of sight, a gust of wind signalling his departure. The rest of the Team followed at a normal, non-speedster pace. When they got to the living room Wally had already claimed the couch. He was sprawled across it, stretching out as much as he could. He already had the TV on to some old cartoons and everyone proceeded to try and find a seat.

It wasn't easy since there were now ten people on the Team, but only five actual seats. They had been trying to convince any of the Green Lanterns to help them expand that particular room, but so far had no luck. As it was, Connor and M'gann shared one of the green chairs, while Tula and Garth took the other. That left the remaining six to squish onto the couch.

Kaldur and Raquel were on the right and Kal, being the polite Atlantian gentleman that he was, was trying not to impede too much on her personal space. Wally was shoved between Robin and Artemis, who had combined their efforts to rather roughly move the speedster from his initial position. Zatanna sat on the far left, paying no heed to personal space as she was forced to press against Robin.

Robin's cheeks, as a result, were coloured a light pink. A perfectly natural reaction for any hormonal teenager being in close proximity to someone they found to be attractive. Robin just didn't realize that that person wasn't necessarily Zatanna.

"Wally, change the channel," Artemis said, momentarily interrupting Robin's thoughts.

"Why? It's just a commercial."

"Yeah, but it's an annoying one." Robin looked at the screen and rolled his eyes at what he saw. It was an ad for the Collateral Clinic. In the past months, the CC's had been popping up in every city protected by heroes. Its purpose was to provide cheap healthcare for those caught up in the debris of heroes' fights and couldn't afford it, or didn't have insurance. It was a good set up, in theory. Too bad it catered to the paranoia in people.

When a CC opened up in Gotham, Robin was sent undercover to check it out, since it seemed too good to be true. The only thing wrong with it was the battery of vaccines the nurses tried to give him when he arrived. Some of them were standard, and actually needed. Others were tailor made to draw people in, like the supposed antidote to Scarecrow's fear toxin, or Joker's laughing gas. Robin had been injected with each before he could protest, but the samples he swiped from the pharmacy turned out to be harmless. Just a placebo.

Those in the hero community knew it was a joke, but the Clinic's did provide actual healthcare, so no one wanted to interfere.

Artemis started bickering with Wally over what he had chosen for them to watch after skipping the commercial, and they were currently battling over the remote. Wally was holding it as far away as he could, and Artemis was practically in his lap as she tried to reach it. Robin was painfully aware of all of this and tried to focus on the TV.

I'm not jealous, I'm not jealous.

It was a mantra echoing through the Boy Wonder's head. And the moment he looked over at the two heroes beside him, the mantra dissolved. He was a little jealous, but only a little! When the Team first formed and Wally used the majority of his spoken words to flirt with M'gann, Robin had a similar feeling. But it went away when M'gann and Connor started going out. He had thought that Wally's flirting with teammates was over since M'gann was taken. Apparently not. But Robin remained adamant that his jealousy sprouted from the fact that Wally was his best friend and wasn't acting very best-friendly. It had actually been a while since they hung out together, and Robin reasoned that he just missed hanging out.

"Ugh, fine! We'll watch your movie," Artemis ceded and slumped back in her seat. Wally gave a cheer of victory and nudged Robin.

"You knew I'd win, didn't you bro?"

Robin swallowed the anger that rose with that nickname and smirked instead.

"Actually, I was betting on Artemis."

…

Note about format: for the first half of this story, whenever Dixie is in the Robin persona, she will be referred to as he, which means there may be some sudden changes in pronoun use.

The first chapters are a bit on the shorter side, but they get longer later.

'See' you next time!