AN:- I found TwinEnigma's drawings on deviantart and… well her headcanon is running amok in my headcanon and oh my goodness they started to merge and gosh, I need to ask her if I can borrow elements like Damian as Nightwing and her 'Rookery' concept and anyways…. So, do you ever get the feeling that you know something, but its beyond your physical capacities? Not just the technicalities but how it feels? That got me thinking. What if Dick's parents didn't die on that day? The guy seems destined to be a hero no matter what (hello Flashpoint-verse "Dicktor Fate"). And what if what was supposed to be bled over? So this was born…

Impressions AU: An Unknown Legacy

He took ill two days before their opening Gotham performance when he was eight. The close quarters meant that John and Mary Grayson followed soon after. Thus, with apologies made to the crowd, the Grayson family huddled up in their trailer on opening night. That's when things for Dick started to get strange.

It didn't feel right to see them around every day, and he always had this feeling of downright gratefulness around them, to see them alive.

Their tenure in Gotham would last another 2 months but already it started to feel more like home than the open road ever did. He grew attached, what could he say? But other things seemed to be happening to him that he knew was not supposed to happen to any ordinary child.

His mum knew he was bright. His dad knew that too, so did the online teacher that homeschooled his class.

But one day, after he had finished all his homework, and the extras, he emailed the teacher asking for more work (because he had finished all his studies and chores and he had already helped everyone around the tents and he was becoming more of a nuisance than a help) and she emailed him back High School Sophomore work (when he was nine) alarm bells started ringing.

He collected himself and calmed his racing heart and shallow breaths with a zen technique that he shouldn't know but does anyway and heads out into a blind spot of the circus, that no one noticed but him, but really though, since when did he notice these things or was everybody blind?

He's twelve when he realises that he's been keeping odder hours than the rest of the folk. He's thirteen when the offer to study at Brixton lands on his door.

On a full scholarship no less!

It takes begging and pleading and promises of all sorts (like he'd go to college for his Mum's sake and etc.) but he joins the spring semester and his family finally puts down roots (so near to Gotham, he finally feels somewhat sated). Mum retakes a couple of exams and opens a dental practice while father, somehow it doesn't feel right to call him Dad anymore, like the title should go to another, snatches up a job coaching a gymnastics centre.

And there is a dojo right there in Brixton and suddenly, everything again feels a little better. Dad enrols him in classes straight away.

But after a few sessions, one of his Shifu's asks him to take over a class, and doesn't he want to try out for a black belt?

Something in him, engrained from that night that they didn't perform told him to say no, that he couldn't compromise his position.

So he said no.

It was then he realised three things; he was nearly 14, and he already showed the signs of a developing martial artist's body, the times he ran off into that blind spot and just moved was him going through drills, and that same something knew that things were not quite right.

When he turned fourteen the nightly wanderlust turned intense and he couldn't ignore Gotham's siren call.

Pulling out his old Flying Graysons uniform (which he had been adjusting the past few nights until he was sure his mother would not recognise it, aka he added leggings and other stuff) and a domino mask, he took to the rooftops and flew.

Instinctively, while heading toward the skylight with the Bat symbol, he stopped five muggings, six would-be rapes, seven small-time heists and one drug deal. He didn't know how he did it, just that he did and it felt right.

It felt like he had been doing this since he was nine.

When he reached the light he saw him.

The Bat.

Part of him wanted to gaze in awe, ask his autograph maybe, but another part, a part that grew stronger with every breath he took in Gotham, told him to stay professional, and stay alert.

He followed Batman to a location where Two-face was supposed to be.

Twenty minutes later he found himself back to back with him and a pile of thugs on either side.

The ache in his soul had finally died down. He was home.

Then the Bat glared at him, strangely enough, he didn't feel any of the terror that the criminals did, just the urge to raise an eyebrow and say.

"You're supposed to be the World's Greatest Detective. Figure me out."

Handspring back, take the rooftop express back to Brixton.

"By the way…"

A hand brushing his face. A motherly smile. Spring.

"Call me Robin."

A/N:- You know you want to review….