4years Old…
"Do I have too?" I look up at Bruce again and watch him smile before nodding.
"You'll have fun Dick I promise." His hand tightens around mine slightly as we walk up the steps of YUHA; the Young Up-coming Hero Academy.
"You said that about the dentist and it hurt!" I pointed out as he opens the bug glass door.
"Yes but Alfred and I warned you about flossing and you didn't listen." Bruce smiles and walks to the front desk.
"Bruce! So nice to see you without that costume!" the lady gushes with a wide smile.
"It's nice to see you too. I'm here to check Richard in."
"Ah yes! Oliver was here just a second ago; just follow the orange line and you'll find the class." the woman points to the orange streak of tiles on the floor that leads towards a hallway.
"Thank you." With that, I follow Bruce.
"Who's Oliver?" I ask and let him tug me gently.
"He's an…aquantis." Bruce stops by a row of hooks that are lined with coats and backpacks like mine. "This is your classroom Dick." He waves towards the door and hooks.
"Bruce!" I turn and see a man around Bruce's age walk out of the room with a smile.
"Oliver." Bruce nods slightly and looks back down at me. "Will you be okay going in alone?" he kneels beside me and takes my backpack form my shoulders.
"Can't I just spend the day with you?" I ask and watch him pull something out form his pocket.
"You know I want nothing more Dick but…you can't. I can't keep bringing you to all of my meetings." I notice that what he pulled out of his pocket is a domino mask. "Here, keep this on." He pressed the mask onto my face gently. "And remember that you-"
"Can't reveal my identity to any of the other kids. Yeah I know." I sigh and he laughs softly.
"Alright. Go, have fun." He pushes me gently towards the door and I trudge over reluctantly as I watch him hand my backpack on one of the lower hooks.
When I walk into the classroom I find many kids around my age running around wildly.
"oh! You must be Richard." I turn to see a tall woman with black hair walking over.
"Um…yes." I answer and watch her kneel down in front of me.
"It's nice to meet you Sweetie. You can go play if you'd like." She nods encouragingly and I sigh before shuffling off towards the corner where I spit the building blocks.
"Roy stop it!" I hear someone yell and I turn to see a blond girl screaming at a red haired boy.
"Make me Artemis!" he yells back and smirks.
I only plop down on the floor and start putting some blocks together.
"Hi!" I jump at the sound of a voice by my ear.
"um…hi?" I turn to see a green skinned girl smiling widely at me. one of her front teeth is missing and her freckles give her a kind look.
"I'm Megan. What's your name?" I pause for a moment before answering.
"Robin." I say and watch her add a block to my structure carefully.
"I know that! But what's your name?" she asks and looks at me.
"Robin." I answer against and frown.
"Megan, don't bother him." when I look up to see an extremely large boy. He didn't look anywhere near the age of five.
"I'm only trying to be nice Conner." Megan stands and grabs his hand before waving at me.
"By Robin." She then skips away with Conner in tow.
After that I'm left alone until the black haired lady calls everyone towards the back door. many of the kids scream before running outside happily but I hold back until I'm the only one in the room.
"You coming?" the lady asks kindly and nods towards the playground outside.
"But…I don't know any of them." I trudge over and look out to see everyone running around with friends happily.
"Well that's why you're here Sweetie. To make new friends and to learn." With a sigh I walk towards the large jungle gym and watch the red haired boy from earlier climb up easily.
"Move it shrimp." A shoulder connects with my body and I'm sent face planting into the sand.
"Hey leave him alone!" I recognize the voice as Conner's.
"Make me." The other guy growls. I blink the sand out of my eyes and rib them to ry and make the sting go away.
"He's crying!" I hear someone murmur.
" Leave him alone Garth." (Please don't be mad! I had to think of someone and the first think I thought of was him! he eventually becomes nice though!) Another voice says angrilly and pulls my hands form my face. I see a small boy around my height. He has red hair, light freckles, and shiny green eyes. He pries my watery eyes open and then blows gently. The sand amazingly disappears and I wipe away the tears that are left on the edges of my eyes.
"I could have handled it Wally." I look over to see a red pouting Conner.
"I know, but I wanted to help." Wally smiles slightly and gently drops my hands.
"Thanks." I mumble and sigh.
"I'm Wally." The red head smiles and sticks out a hand. I take it and nods slightly.
"Robin." I answer and feel him pull me along instead of letting me go.
"Cool! Come on, I'll introduce you to my friends. Then you won't have to worry about Garth messing with you." Wally smiles widely and leads my over to the see-saws where a dark skinned boy is seated with a frown.
"Sorry Kaldur, I had to go help." Wally blushes and goes over to sit on the other seat of the long stick.
"No worries." Kaldur sighs and jumps slightly to help Wally get on.
"Robin this is Kaldur. Kaldur, that's robin." When Wally's finally flying up and down easily, I sit down on the sand and watch them.
"Robin!" Megan plops down next to me and smiles widely.
"hi." I mutter and start pilling sand together to make a hill.
"We're going to play tag, do you want to play?" she asks.
"Yes!" Wally jumps off of the see-saw and sends Kaldur dropping to the ground.
"Ahh!" he screams and collapses onto the sand.
"Oops." Wally mumbles and walks over to the dark skinned boy.
"run." Kaldur mutters as he brushes the sand off of his hair.
"huh?" Wally frowns.
"Run." I repeat and frown.
"Oh…OH!" Wally gasps and grabs my hand before running.
What happens next is a complete shock to me. one second I'm sitting on the sand watching and the next thing I know I'm by the swings hiding!"
"How did you just do that?" I slam into him when he stops running but Wally doesn't seem to mind. He only steadies me before glancing around.
"Oh right, I didn't tell you. I have supper speed, Kaldur's a mere boy, Conner has super strength, Roy and Artemis over there have perfect aim." He points to each of them in turns and smiles at me widely.
"Tag you're it!" I jump at the sudden scream and feel a hand touch my shoulder. I turn to see a giggling Artemis.
"See ya!" Wally waves and runs off. I'm left alone at the swing set. I look around to see the playground suddenly empty.
"Come on Robin!" Wally's voice comes from somewhere to my left and I walk towards it carefully. Three kids that I hadn't seen before run away from me and giggle.
"Over here!" Conner's voice echoes form my right and I turn.
"No over here!" Megan giggles out from somewhere.
That's when I catch a glimpse of red hair and I lunge over. I tackle Wally onto the sand and he gasps in surprise.
"You caught me!" he mutters and looks up at me in shock.
"Tag…you're it." With that I let out a chuckle before standing and running away.
We play Tag for the next half hour before finally a lady comes out and calls us all inside.
"Come on robin, you can sit with us." Artemis takes my hand and tugs me towards a red colored table.
"No, he'll sit with us." Conner takes my other hand and glares at the blond girl.
"He doesn't want to sit with you buys. He wants to sit with us girls." Megan smiles and helps Artemis pull me closer.
"Gross no!" Roy pulls me by my collar and I whimper when it starts to hurt.
"Wally!" I look over at the red head who's currently watching with a pout. "help!"
"Stop it!" he moves forwards and pries everyone's hands off of me and I thankfully rush over to hide behind him. "Let's just sit together." He says and takes my hand before ushering me over to a yellow table with a smile.
The others sigh before muttering responses and walking to the table.
"Alright Kids, today we're having Mac and Cheese for lunch." The lady smiles at everyone once we're all seated and looks over at the door. Suddenly it opens and a bunch of other ladies walk in carrying a bunch of plastic bowls.
"Yay!" Megan giggles once we get our food and start eating. Hesitantly I watch the others dig into their meals eagerly.
"What's wrong?" Wally asks and looks at me.
"nothing." I mumble and pick up a spoon full of the food. I shove it into my mouth and frowns when the flavor isn't what I expect. "…it's not gooey." I say and jab it lightly.
"Of course not!" Roy frowns and eats more.
"It's yummy." I mutter and eat more of the pasta.
"Mm-hm." Wally grins and shoves his face.
The rest of the day, Wally, Conner, Roy, Kaldur, Mega, and Artemis show me around the classroom. We play I Spy, and build with the building blocks, and then have a snack after a few hours of playing. Then we're all told it's 'Check out time' and everyone whines as they walks out of the class room.
"What's going on?" I ask and follow Wally towards the door.
"It's time to go home." He says and smiles when we reach our backpacks.
"Home?" I look up and sure enough the hall way's filled with superheroes picking up their protégés.
"My King!" Kaldur rushes away from our group and towards a smiling Aquaman.
"Roy! Artemis!" I watch Roy and Artemis wave at us before walking towards Green arrow.
"Where's your dad?" I turn to Conner when I see him looking around with a worried expression.
"Conner!" he turns suddenly and smiles before running over to a tall man with glasses.
"M'Gann!"
"Uncle J'ohn!" Megan runs away too and that leaves only Wally and I.
"Walls!" Wally smiles widely when The Flash appears in front of us with a grin.
"Uncle Barry!" he runs over and hugs the red dressed hero tightly.
"Ahem." I turn and look up to find a smirking Batman. "Enjoy yourself?" he asks knowingly before kneeling down.
"Yeah!" I hug his waist and he easily picks me up.
"Uncle Barry why didn't you tell me Robin was coming?" Wally asks and looks up at me with a grin.
"I didn't know." Barry mutters and crosses his arms before looking at Bruce.
"What?" Bruce mutters and covers my shoulders with his cape.
"He's my best friend now Batman!" Wally steps forward and grins up at Bruce.
I feel myself stiffen at his words before I smile slightly.
"Really?" Bruce looks at me with a quirked eyebrow and I smile widely before nodding.
"Yeah…" I wiggle myself out of his arms and walk over to Wally. "Best friends."
"And that is how Kid Flash and I met." I look down at the preschoolers that are seated in front of me. Upon Bruce's request, I had woken up early on a Sunday and marched my down to Gotham's Orphanage. I was currently on story time duty…as Robin.
"Wait…there's a school for heroes?" one of the blonde boys asks. I could tell by his KF t-shirt and Robin jacket that this kid was a serious superhero fan.
"Of course! We can't just go around normally. We'd get caught!" I say and smile as the others nod as if it made sense to them and the boy's question was dumb. Technically I wasn't telling a lie because there was a school for heroes…it was just a preschool though.
"How do we know you're not lying?" a girl asks and raises an eyebrow.
"You guys want proof huh?" I lean back in my chair and the all nod eagerly. "Hey KF get in here!" I call out and watch half of the four year olds squeal in happiness when Wally walks in wearing his Kid Flash costume.
"Hey kids." He grins and pulls his goggles off of his face as he sits next to me.
"y-you…your…you're here!" the super hero fanatic kid gasps and stares wide eyed.
"Yeah." Wally chuckles and stands suddenly before running over and laying down with the kids using his super speed.
"whoa." The ones around his jump in surprise before they scoot closer to the red headed hero.
"Alright Dick, next story!" Wally smiles innocently at me and I chuckle before shaking my head.
"You're such a…kid." I mumble and sit up again.
"Hello! I'm Kid Flash aren't I?" he waits until all the kids have look up at me before he winks and smirks slightly.
"Alright who wants to hear the story of how Kid Flash and I saved Superboy from the Joker?" I ask and watch them all –even Wally- lean forward in interest.
"ooh! This one's a good one! shh!" Wally whispers happily.
"but Kid flash you're the only one talk-"
"I said shh!" Wally grins at the girl and hugs her close to his side after a few seconds as an apology and I start telling the story.
"Okay, so it started off as any normal Saturday…"
Okay so this popped into my head after I read a friendship story on Dick and Wally when Dick starts going to this sidekick day-care. I really don't remember the name of the story but I'm sure if you look for it, you'll find it. Let's pretend that Dick told the kids a simpler version of their meeting and that he wasn't breaking any rules by telling them: )
