So I had this idea, and I just really had to write it. Richelle Grayson coming to realize that she's in love with her best friend.
If enough people like it, I might make a sort of story out of it with a fem!Robin and BirdFlash pairing.
Even before leaving the circus, Richelle had been used to it. In this instance, it meant being mistaken for a boy. She may have had her mother's eyes, which were unmistakably feminine, but she looked like her father. Granted, her sharp features were softened just a little by her moth's genes, but Richelle still looked like a boy. The short hair and hand-me-down clothes from her older cousin, Johnny, didn't really help much. But long hair got in the way while performing, and she never minded wearing boys' clothes.
Johnny had teased her relentlessly about her looks. Always saying she would grow up, and no boys would like her because she didn't look like a girl. At the age of seven Richelle wasn't particularly concerned with boys. After all, they were gross and had cooties. And she always had a retort ready on the tip of her tongue.
"I'd still look better than you."
Her mother and Aunt Karla used to gush over what a pretty boy she would make, if she were one. Richelle didn't know that boys could be pretty, because she thought pretty meant girly. She also wondered what that meant she was, since she certainly wasn't girly. Aunt Karla would always smirk and reply "You'll be a handsome girl."
It wasn't just her looks that made people thing she was a boy. She acted like one too. She was adventurous, loud, and liked to play in the mud. Which isn't too much of a surprise, considering she always chose to hang out with Johnny and the other boys at the circus, since it lacked an abundance of young girls and there was no way she was going to play with dolls.
Even her name was cause for confusion. She was named after her Uncle Rick (short for Richard) and nicknamed accordingly as Ricki. But that could be a little confusing sometimes, so people occasionally called her Dixie. Her father explained that it was basically the girl version of the name Dick, which was another nickname for Richard (Johnny wouldn't stop giggling as her father explained, and she didn't really get why). But Ricki remained the nickname of choice for a long time, until Richelle started asking people to call her Dixie.
It was perfectly logical for someone to assume a young child wearing overalls decorated with superhero emblems and covered in mud, running full tilt across the circus grounds with shouts of "Ricki!" trailing behind them was a boy.
So Richelle decided at a young age that she just didn't really care. If someone said something to her about it, she would correct them. Otherwise she just left it alone.
When Robin first appeared defending the streets of Gotham, three months after Richelle's family died, the newspapers had dubbed the mysterious crime-fighting child the Kid Wonder. Kid, not girl, or boy. Because quite frankly, the media wasn't sure which label to apply.
It took about a year for the watching world to slowly ease into the decision that Robin must have been a boy. It was bad enough that he (by now, everyone unconsciously thought 'he') was only eight, but if he were a girl? For some reason that would have been ten times worse. But Richelle couldn't see any reason why it would be worse. So what if Robin was a girl? That didn't mean she was weaker. She was, in fact, strong for her age. Daily acrobatics had a tendency to do that.
But no one ever asked Robin about his gender, so he never bothered to correct them.
Richelle always said she had been most excited to meet Kid Flash, out of the three sidekicks that came after her. It had been cool meeting Speedy, and knowing it was thanks to her example that Ollie decided to take the boy in in the first place. But Speedy hadn't really shared that enthusiasm. At first he had been a little in awe, but that quickly faded when her realized how much older he was than her (him in Speedy's eyes).
Meeting Aqualad had been interesting. He didn't know much of the surface world, and it had actually been his first time in a city. He had been surprised by Robin's age, and complementary of his skills. Afterwards Richelle sulked a little because Aqualad didn't know how impressive she really was. At least those were her words.
But meeting Kid Flash? He absolutely admired Robin, had been a devout fan although Flash was still his favourite. So Richelle was understandably looking forward to their meeting.
"You're Robin! Like, you're really Robin!"
Richelle had grinned, and blushed a little as Kid Flash continued to boast to her about her own skills. She was eleven, so to her boys were no longer the cootie-infested things they once had been. She was curious about them, but had yet to develop anything like a crush towards any of them.
It was for this reason that she didn't really understand why she frowned when Kid Flash called her bro.
"We can team up and fight bad guys together, with Speedy and that Atlantian dude, but we can be best bros!"
Her frown had quickly melted into a smile, because she honestly did like Kid Flash. Not in that way (at least not yet). She just thought he was funny and cool to hang out with.
She wondered if Batman would ever let her tell Kid Flash the truth, because this was the first time someone actually asked about her gender.
"Please don't be mad, but you do kind of look like a girl, I'm not surprised it took so long for everyone to get that you were a guy."
Well, he didn't really ask, but he addressed it in a way that no one else had before. And for the first time in her life, Richelle didn't correct the mistake.
Secret IDs had to come up eventually. Richelle may have already know Kid Flash's identity—Wally West, nephew of Barry Allen—but he hadn't actually told her, and he didn't know who she really was.
"I'm Wally."
It had been sudden, out of nowhere. The league members were at a meeting, so Wally and Richelle were hanging out at the cave. They had been playing video games on the Batcomputer. It always annoyed Batman when they did that, but Richelle continuously explained that since she couldn't tell Wally her ID, they couldn't play on her TV in her bedroom, so the Batcomputer would have to do.
Richelle wasn't sure why Wally had suddenly blurted out his name. They had just finished level in the game, and as the next one was loading, he had said it.
"Wally West, it's my ID."
"Wallace," Richelle had giggled, knowing from her research that he hated being called that.
"Hey, how did you know that? No, wait, of course you knew, you're a bat," Wally grumbled. "So, who are you?"
Richelle had frozen completely, the bright light in her eyes dying for a moment. Batman hadn't given her permission to reveal her ID, not yet at least. She understood why, the reasoning was logical and made perfect sense. But she really wanted to tell him. She didn't say anything, but Wally seemed to catch on quickly.
"You know what, it doesn't really matter, don't worry about it. We can make a game of it and I can try and guess!"
Leave it to Wally to bring her smile back. She agreed to the game, saying it would be fun. But he'd never win. Why would he? There was no reason for him to guess a girl's name.
It had been a close call, the first time Richelle got injured in front of Wally. Bruce Wayne was away on a business trip, and technically speaking Richelle Grayson was supposed to be with him. But she didn't want to be cooped up in a hotel for the next four days and somehow managed to convince Bruce to let her stay in Gotham, as long as she wasn't seen. Richelle's solution was to zeta to central every day, and return home at night.
During one of these days the Rogues had decided to cause some trouble, and Flash offered for her to join them. Richelle didn't think twice about saying yes. It was nice fighting against people that weren't certifiably insane for once, but they were still dangerous. Captain Boomerang proved that when he managed to slash Richelle's shoulder. It wasn't bad, just a superficial wound, but Barry and Wally had still freaked out.
Barry more so because of what Batman would do if he found out he got the Dark Knight's little boy injured. Wally was worried about the actually wound, because he didn't know how bad it could be in Gotham, and that at twelve years old a cut like that was no different than stubbing your toe to Richelle. It was annoying, it hurt, and she would get over it quickly.
"But you can't heal as fast as us, and we need to wrap it or something, and stop doing that! Don't do it yourself, you could make it worse!"
Richelle had rolled her eyes and allowed Wally to take over. He was dabbing at the wound, soaking up the blood, and when that was done he just stared at her shoulder.
"What?"
"Your shirt, it's sort of in the way," Wally explained. This was the second time that Richelle froze. Maybe if she really were a boy, she could just take the shirt off and let Wally finish, but she wasn't so she couldn't.
"Hang on." She grabbed a birdarang and cut away just enough cloth so that Wally could apply the bandage. He did so quickly, but Richelle found her face heating up as his fingers brushed against her skin.
"You're all red. Are you sure you're okay?"
Richelle nodded vigorously, lowering her face to hide the blush.
"Okay, if you say so. But I'll find out if my best bro has been lying to me."
Richelle seriously doubted it. Then she frowned, noticing that she didn't really like the fact that Wally called her bro.
It took a surprisingly long time for Richelle to properly realize her feelings. It wasn't until the team formed that she finally payed attention. She knew Wally was a flirt, had witnessed it on occasion, but never as insistent as he was with M'gann. And it really bothered Richelle.
"Babe, you're the best."
Richelle was jealous, that's what it was. She was jealous of M'gann for all the attention Wally was giving her.
Okay, she was jealous, but so what? It couldn't really mean anything. She also happened to be Wally's best friend, so it made perfect sense for her to be a little jealous. Instead of hanging out he was flirting their very unavailable teammate. Of course she was going to be a little upset. Then Wally finally found out M'gann was dating Conner, and it was over.
And then it started all over again, but this time with Artemis
"Hey Rob, bro, come on, we're going to watch a movie."
Richelle openly scowled when she walked into the living room, surprising everyone. Wally was sitting next to Artemis, a little closer than he needed to be, and just wouldn't stop calling Richelle bro. She wasn't supposed to care, she never had before, but now? Richelle thought she might just hate that word.
"You guys go ahead, I have patrol."
Richelle's epiphany was an explosion. Literally. They were on a mission, disrupting a drug ring that had suspected ties to Kobra venom, and the Light. They had finished taking out all the goons, but the boss had fled and the building was wired to explode. Richelle demanded the others leave the building while she attempted to diffuse it, reassuring them that if the time went down too much, she would leave.
She had put up a valiant effort, but the bomb was made with alien tech that she didn't have experience with, so she was forced to follow through with her promise. She synced her wrist-computer with the timer so she'd know how much time was left, then booked it. She made it outside with ten seconds to spare.
"I couldn't disarm it. We have eight seconds, we need to leave now!" Richelle shouted as she ran up to her teammates. But something was wrong. One of them was missing.
"Where's KF?"
Three seconds left.
"He went back inside to get you." Two seconds.
"That idiot!"
One second.
Richelle spun around, about to sprint back into the building.
Zero.
It exploded. The heat washed over her and the force of the blast made her stumble. She was certain that someone was screaming at the building. She was almost positive that someone was her. There was a sudden rush of wind, and a familiar voice.
"Man, that was close!"
Richelle didn't even think. She just threw herself at Wally who was alive and okay. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and just barely resisted the urge to kiss him, because bros didn't kiss bros.
But Richelle wanted to, and she finally knew why.
Robin, the 'boy' wonder, was in love with 'his' best friend.
"Geez, dude, you're crushing me. Seriously, I'm alright bro."
She really hated that word.
The continuation, Not Used to It, can be found on my profile along with multi-chapter story Robin, Kid Wonder.