I've been having SO MANY IDEAS and I couldn't fit them all into 'Fly Away, Little Bird' so I decided to write this before my head exploded. Funny how I have chapter 6 half-written in my doc bin for 'FA, LB' and I'm starting another story. Yeah, I know, another Robin fic. Feels like I'm obsessed, but it's not like I'm the only person with intense Dick Grayson feels. So intense, you guys. So intense. This idea might have been a little more fitting as a YJ fic, but I'm still a little noobish with that (and I haven't finished the second season yet, too many feels), so yeah.
By the time you read this, I'll probably still be taking story requests. I don't bite, shoot me an email. If I'm taking them, there will be details on my profile.
In this story, Go! issue #47 (Regarding Robin) never happened. This kind of takes place a year before that (this would be the second April 1st since the titans founded).
I'll be your betareader btw. Check my profile, you peasant.
Anyway, I don't know if it's required or not, but I don't own Teen Titans and have never claimed to.
On with the typing.
Robin was having a nightmare. No, he wasn't a stranger to them- he'd had some about pretty much everything at one time or another: Murders, suicides, his friends dying, his friends betraying him, him betraying his friends. He'd had some about Slade, some about the Joker, and even some about Batman (who was scary, no matter how close to him you were).
He'd had this particular nightmare more than a few times. It always plagued around this time of year. It was almost midnight, March 31st- the night before the first of April.
Only Batman, Raven, and Robin himself knew the importance of April 1st. No, not April fools day. April 1st, to Robin, was far from humorous.
Inside a blue and white circus tent, a short woman wearing a red and gold leotard with dark green bottoms knelt down and kissed her ebony-haired son on the forehead, her wavy, golden brown braid swaying slightly as she moved. She looked into his deep, azure-blue eyes, the same colour as her own, shining with excitement for the upcoming show.
"Now, be careful, sendre. Hold on tight, and don't worry about the net, okay? It will be a kushti ratti." She said softly, pulling him in a motherly embrace. The boy, who was around 8 years old, was held for a few moments before a muscular man wearing the same leotard as his wife and son walked in.
"Are you excited?" He asked, kneeling down beside them. The boy grinned and nodded quickly, wiping lipstick off his forehead.
"Five minutes, Graysons." A man's voice could be heard through the fabric of the curtain.
"You remember the routine, Dick?" The father asked.
"Arvah! Routine number two, and then a quadruple somersault for the finale, right?" The boy answered. His mother nodded, putting a hand on his cheek.
"Our little robin, flying through the air. Oh, I love you, Dick. Let's get ready, okay?" She stood up, leading him by his hand through the curtain. Her husband followed.
"The death defying trapeze act, performed by John and Mary Grayson, as well as their son, Richard! And even more, they all perform without a net!" Mr. Haly, the ringleader, announced to the crowds of amazed people watching the circus.
Gripping the trapeze tightly, the ebony-haired boy leaped off of the platform, grabbing his mother's hands as she flew towards him, arms outstretched. He let go as his father grabbed his feet and tossed him onto the platform on the other side of the ring in a fluid movement. The crowd 'Ooh'd and 'Aah'd as the Graysons performed well-practiced maneuvers in the air. Mary swung from her legs towards Richard, holding her arms out. The boy leaned forward to grab her hands, and then-
'Snap.'
Mary Grayson's eyes widened at the sickening realization.
"Dick!" She shouted as she fell to the ground with her husband.
"No!" Richard cried, his arm still reaching towards his falling mother, as if somehow, some way, he'd be able to pull her back up. To have her stroke his hair, to speak in her soft, kind voice. To have her tell him it'd be all right, that it was all a dream. To have them both hold him in their arms, snippets of Romani littering their speech.
'Crunch.'
Dick barely heard the sound of his parents hitting the ground over his own sobs. He practically flew down the ladder, running towards the broken bodies of the people who had raised him. The circus was quiet. The only thing anyone heard was the heart-wrenching sobs coming from the eight-year-old boy who had his mother's bloodied hand in his lap, begging her to wake up.
Darkness.
That was what Robin saw when he opened his eyes. Lifting a hand up to his face, he didn't feel the familiar black and white fabric, he remembered taking if off before he went to bed. Of course. He'd started removing his mask because of the tears. His face was streaked with them.
Robin didn't scream when he had nightmares, instead electing to cry his eyes out. This was a good thing, as the Boy Wonder had been having so many of them lately that the entire city would have been complaining, not to mention the rest of the Titans.
Robin sobbed silently into his hands. It felt so out of character for Robin, Batman's former protégé, to be crying. Batman didn't cry. At least, during the 5 years Robin had lived with Gotham's Dark Night, he'd never seen him cry. He was too intimidating.
Robin heard a light knocking on his door. Picking his mask up from the table, he pressed it back into it's rightful place. Robin walked up to to the door, opening it with a 'whoosh' noise.
Raven stood in the doorway, eyes red and puffy. She looked at Robin solemnly.
"I'm sor-" Robin didn't get to finish as Raven pulled into a hug. To the empath's surprise, he hugged her back. They stood there in front of Robin's room, unmoving. Neither of them felt the need to say anything- it was an unspoken agreement.
Raven didn't mind that Robin was sobbing softly on her shoulder. She also didn't mind that he had woken her up in the middle of the night and made her cry. Raven had woken up because of her leader's (and a certain green changeling's) nightmares before, but they had rarely made her feel this way. She knew that Robin had gone through more at a young age than most people had by the time they had lived a long life. She knew about his parents. About the circus. About Batman.
Of course, Raven hadn't seen everything when she'd gone into Robin's mind. She could only guess why he'd made her feel this way.
Raven didn't pry, and neither did Robin.
After a couple minutes, the hug broke off. Robin silently thanked her and returned to his room, closing the door.
When Raven turned, she saw Beast Boy standing in the hall.
"Was Robin just crying on you?" The shapeshifter raised an eyebrow.
Raven sniffled. "Both of you wake me up at night."
Beast Boy looked puzzled for a moment, then it finally clicked. "Oh. Well-"
"Orphans get nightmares. I know." Raven cut him off. Before Beast Boy could protest, her door had closed. He frowned, returning to his own room. Robin was an orphan?
Beast Boy tried to go back to sleep- tried being the keyword. Damn enhanced hearing. He could hear noises from all over the tower: Cyborg's late night snacking, Raven's low meditation chant, Starfire's space heater, Robin's... Sobbing? It was inhumanly faint, but Robin was sobbing, Beast Boy could tell.
Beast Boy shook his head. It's not like I was gonna get any more sleep anyway.
Returning to the hall, he walked up to Robin's door. Raising his fist hesitantly, he knocked on it. He heard shuffling and footsteps before the door actually opened, revealing a tired-looking Robin with crooked eyewear. A green gloved hand reached up and straightened the offending domino mask.
"Is something wrong?" Robin asked.
Beast Boy cleared his throat. "Uh... I should be asking you the same thing. These attractive ears aren't just for show, dude."
Robin looked at his teammate and sighed. "No. Go to sleep." He reached up towards the button that would close his door.
"But-" Beast Boy attempted to protest.
"No." The door slid shut, leaving the green changeling standing alone. As he was walking to the main room, Beast Boy yawned, morphing into a cat. He jumped up onto the couch and curled up tightly, pressing his tail to his body. Within seconds, he was fast asleep.
So many feels, you guys.
Once again, a chapter uploaded during the unholy hours of the morning/night. Either way, I'm gonna pass out any moment.
Anyway, here are some Romani translations. Romani!Graysons are my favourite headcanon (ahhh, circus stereotypes, they burn). Don't worry, I'll smooth out the doubts you may have about this being a good idea.
Sendre is 'child'.
Kushti Ratti is 'good night'.
Both Arvah and Hai mean 'Yes'.
This was super depressing to write, I cried mental tears. Why must I torture Robin?
The reason that the circus scene isn't the same as the one in 'A Matter of Family' from The Batman is because Teen Titans doesn't appear to take place after that. In 'Regarding Robin/One Morning' the Flying Graysons poster shows that his mother has a braid and not a short ponytail (when performing it is shown that she has a long ponytail), and ropes snapping instead of loose cables (in The Batman Tony Zucco removed the nuts from the bars supporting the trapeze).
I kind of disliked the way they portrayed Robin in the entire series, actually. He seemed so happy and upbeat all the time, despite the fact that the memory of his parents getting killed would have logically still been fresh in his mind. I know he needed to be the hyper acrobatic child that added light to Batsy's life, but it was a little much for me, don't know about you.
In any case, don't hurt me because of my headcanon.
Until next time.