¡Hola mis amigos y amigas! ¿Cómo estan? ¿Bien? ¡Bueno! Y yo?

Freaking HORRIBLE, dammit.

So yes, my friends, I'm back and sicker than ever! (Can I not make it through ONE MONTH of school without getting sick?) I bet you're wondering where the hell this fic came from. Long story short, the lovely Lady Legend (previously of EverythingLooksBetterFromALap) requested a story with an OC villain and some kind of romance with Bruce. Seeing as I was in a rut and freaking IDEALESS, I started writing it and HOLY SHIT THIS IS FUN.

So yeah. More romancey than Flight of the Mockingbird (if you haven't read it, READ IT NOW) but still not especially... romantic and lovey-dovey and staring to each other's eyes finding themselves lost in the ocean blue and shit.

Oh, and alter egos (namely Candy and Sweet Tooth) are different from FotM. Just so you know.

Disclaimer: I don't understand the confusion over the fact that I own this. We've established that I'm a poor scholarship kid. All I've got is Roxanne... Though she was technically mentioned briefly in HMB... So I don't even know her... Sigh...

Chapter 1

I grumbled to myself as I dragged another page across my cluttered desk to lay in front of me. I was scarcely a sentence in when I scowled and shoved the paper away in disgust. Why had I given this assignment in the first place? I should've known what was coming when I told twenty eleven year olds to write a paper on their hero, should've known who they would all be about.

Batman.

I was an idiot for thinking this assignment was a good idea. I didn't want to have to read twenty papers describing in detail what a fantastic person the caped crusader was. Maybe citizens considered him a hero, but to me he would always be the villain who had ruined my life.

A year ago, I was happily married to my husband Wallace. Wally, for short. At that time, I still went by my birth name, Belinda. I had never much liked it, but Wally thought that it was a beautiful name, though he always said it could never do justice to the even more beautiful woman it belonged to. We owned a small grocery, and our life was wonderful. Perfect, really.

Then, one night in late December, disaster struck. Or should I say, the Batman struck. He was lurking outside our store as Wally locked up for the night, headed home to our small apartment. He mistook Wally for a thief, and attacked him, dealing out his own kind of 'justice' by shooting at my poor baby. The shots wouldn't have been fatal... had I been there to help. Instead, my beloved husband was left bleeding out on the pavement as I cooked his favorite meal back home as a surprise. I became worried when he didn't return and went to check the store, only to find him almost dead. He had only managed one word before he died. The name of his killer.

"Batman..."

From that moment on I was alone in the world. My parents had died long before, I had no relatives, and Wally's family lived on the other side of the country. I couldn't bring myself to tell them about him. So I sold the store, changed my name, and got a job teaching. I went from a happy life as Belinda Thomas, loving wife and grocery owner, to a crappy life as Roxanne Arthur, fifth grade teacher. I took my mother's maiden name and my middle name and cobbled together a new one in the hopes that ignoring the pain of Wally's death would alleviate it.

It hadn't.

I sighed and tore my eyes away from the photo of Wally and I, both decked out in full wedding regalia, that sat on my desk. Turning my attention back toward the stack of papers, I pulled the last one close again.

"There are many heroes in this world, but above all stands the Batman..."

OcocOcocO

An hour later, and I was finally done with all but one of the papers. They were all about Batman. Every. Single. One. Sure, they may have mentioned another hero in passing, like their parents, or a sibling, but it always returned to the Batman.

As I pulled the final paper toward me, steeling myself for yet another paper praising the man, I let a small smile slip onto my face. This one was from Richard Grayson, or Dick as most called him. I always saved his papers for last when I graded. He was unusually thoughtful for a fifth grader. Thoughtful, and completely brilliant. Even if his paper was on Batman, I knew I would still enjoy hearing his thoughts on just why the man was such a hero. Perhaps he would add a new perspective, maybe show me that my reasoning was flawed by grief, that Batman wasn't all bad.

Yeah. Right. That would happen.

I capped my pen, knowing it was unlikely I would need it, and began to read the boy's paper.

"Many children my age believe that the ultimate hero is the caped crusader that watches over this city, the Batman. While I am grateful to this man, protecting us from harm and keeping evil at bay, he is not my hero."

My jaw dropped. I couldn't believe that someone hasn't written about Batman, but then again, it was Dick Grayson. He was on a different level than his peers. I turned back to his paper and continued reading. To my surprise, the paper - well over the required length for the assignment - was about not a person, but a group of people, his biological family. I felt horrible for the kid as I read over the paper. I never knew that his family was murdered...

After finishing, I leaned back in my chair. I needed to talk to Dick, make sure he was okay. No child should have to go through something like that. As I packed the papers away and stepped into the shower, I resolved I would speak with him as soon as I possibly could.

So there you have it. Extremely minor character mentioned in passing now with a huge-ass backstory. And who also now teaches Dick Grayson. Interesting things are to come...

Oh, and I'm thinking I'll update every Saturday until I have more chapters done... Or on Sundays when I forget about Saturdays... Like today...

Review, please! Praise is adored, criticism is appreciated and taken to heart, and flames, well... Flame will use them for ammo and fuel.