Okay, before I go any farther, I really need to say something. I just want to send a great big thank you out to my fellow (and very talented) fan-fic author myrina. She was kind enough to share her experiences with eating disorders with me, which really helped me to write this story. Your help was much appreciated, myrina! Thank you :) So everybody go thank her by reading and reviewing all of her terrific Batman stories! (pause) Well, what are you still doing here?! I said to go read her stuff!
Broken Glass
Chapter One: Perfect
Five months later…
"Hey, what's up with Robin? He's been acting really weird lately," were Speedy's first words as he entered the Titans' Tower that chilly February morning. "On the way in, I mentioned he lost weight and he told me to zip it."
"Telling you to zip it is weird?" Kid Flash shot back.
"Very funny," Speedy said with a glare.
"He has a point, though," Aqualad put in. "Robin just has not been himself lately. He told me to meet him at the Mexican border to do something about Dr. Light but he never arrived. I had to take care of it by myself."
Kid Flash couldn't help but express surprise at this. Robin was always so responsible; he took his job as leader of the Titans very seriously—sometimes a little too seriously for Wally's tastes. He'd never tell someone he'd be somewhere and then not show up!
"Did he have an excuse?" Kid Flash inquired.
"He said he was preoccupied in Gotham."
"That's it?!"
Aqualad nodded.
"Okay, now that's weird," Speedy had to agree.
"Maybe he is ill," suggested Aqualad. "That would explain the weight loss, at any rate…"
"I don't think Batman would let him out of the house if he was sick," said Kid Flash, sounding dubious. "And even if Batman let him out, Alfred certainly wouldn't."
The Teen Titans exchanged smirks. It was no secret that Alfred was by far the strictest parental figure any of them had ever met. They had visited Wayne Manor quite frequently and knew about Alfred's strictness from personal experience, as well as Robin's amusing anecdotes.
"He's probably just in one of his moods, then," decided Kid Flash. "Maybe he and Batman had another fight or something. That always gets Robby upset, and when he's upset… it's not the anniversary of his parents' deaths, is it?"
"Nah, that was months ago," Speedy informed him. "So you're probably right. Although why Robin is so attached to that guy is beyond me. He's too busy with all those crooks to notice if he's still breathing half the time…"
Aqualad, sensing a potential problem brewing, promptly changed the subject.
They eventually got around to discussing homework problems. Since Robin never seemed to have any trouble in school, it was a subject they tended to keep away from whenever he was around to avoid any bragging from him.
"I flunked my last health and nutrition exam," Kid Flash remarked. "Uncle Barry says he's gonna ban me from the Titans unless I get my grades back up, pronto."
"Ouch. How'd ya plan on pulling that off, Twinkletoes?" Speedy wondered.
"My teacher offered everyone the chance to do an extra-credit report on eating disorders if they needed the points." Kid Flash rolled his eyes dramatically, showing just how disgusted he was with the whole idea. "And boy, do I need them."
"Good luck," Aqualad said sincerely.
---
Wally sighed, bored, as he scrolled through the various articles on the internet. He had been sitting at the computer in the library for only ten minutes and he was already bored half out of his mind.
If only I hadn't flunked that test! he lamented.
Sighing a little, Wally clicked on a link and started reading again. So far, the only thing he had discovered was that teenage girls weren't the only people to suffer from the disorders, contrary to popular belief. And considering the report had to be at least five pages long, that wasn't a lot to go on.
He jotted down a couple of notes and kept on searching.
---
About a week later, the Titans were back at their headquarters, ready to investigate a series of murders that had been plaguing Gotham City for the past several weeks.
Batman had insisted that the Titans needn't get involved.
But Robin had decided otherwise.
"Are you sure? We could get into trouble for disobeying Batman, especially since it concerns his city," Wonder Girl had questioned hesitantly.
"Hey, it's my city too, remember?" Robin had shot back, sounding irritated. "Batman isn't the only one who lives in Gotham, you know. I just think we should do what we can, if that's alright with you."
Wonder Girl looked slightly hurt by Robin's gruffness and turned to see if the others were as surprised as she was.
They were.
Finally, Aqualad just asked:
"Robin, is there something wrong?"
"No."
"Oh, that's convincing," Speedy muttered under his breath. Robin shot him a rotten look but said nothing.
"C'mon, Robin, you know you can tell us," insisted Kid Flash.
"It's nothing, okay? Now will you drop it?"
"So there is something wrong, then?"
This time, it was Kid Flash who was at the receiving end of a dirty glare.
"Look, will you forget it already? Batman just yelled at me again last night. It's no big deal."
A couple of the Titans rolled their eyes at this. No, it wasn't really a big deal. It happened so often these days that it was pretty much old news to them.
No big deal.
Except to Robin.
He hadn't even bothered to tell the rest of the Titans why Batman was so angry with him lately. It must be something pretty bad, as Robin generally did his best to impress his mentor. In fact, he put a lot more effort into impressing his senior partner than the other Titans did with theirs. Why? That was still a mystery.
"Okay, look," Robin announced, "I think I've already figured out a pattern to these killings, so listen up…"
---
"Suicide, that's what it was! Walking into that place was just plain suicide!"
Wonder Girl sighed and slouched a little lower into her seat as Speedy continued to rant. Their investigation had been far from pleasant. Robin had been right about the murderer's next victim, and he'd also picked out the location with surprising exactitude, even by his lofty standards.
But that was just the problem. It had all been too simple to figure out.
"Are you sure about this?" Kid Flash had said, visibly bracing himself for an angry reaction from Robin. "This just seems a little too easy…"
Robin closed his eyes as if trying to control his temper. Then he opened them and said in a low and steady voice, "If we were discussing the Joker, I'd say you have a point. But this is just some two-bit killer who's gotten lucky in evading the law. Now we're going to put an end to his lucky streak."
The cold look on Robin's face as he said this was enough to put an end to any other questions the Titans may have had.
And so, after Wonder Girl had removed the bars from the window, the Titans swung (or flew) into the warehouse. Wonder Girl replaced the bars, closed the window, and hid behind a couple of old crates with Aqualad. Robin was behind one of the chairs while Kid Flash and Speedy were hiding in the next room.
What they didn't know was that the killer was hiding in that room, too.
And he had brought friends along.
It had almost cost them their lives.
They had managed to capture the gang and make it look like they had fought amongst themselves, thus knocking each other out (just so Batman wouldn't know they had been there). Then the Titans made their exit, none the worse for wear but very upset. Robin, meanwhile, hadn't said a word since leaving the warehouse.
"Why didn't you tell us this guy was part of a gang?!" Speedy demanded, storming over to the Titans' leader.
"Well, did it ever occur to you that I just didn't know?" he shot back. "I'm not perfect, you know!"
It wasn't often that Robin lost his temper with the Titans.
"Why am I always the one doing all the research anyway? Just so you can blame me when things go wrong?"
"You're the leader! You're supposed to take responsibility!" yelled Speedy. "You're the one who said that!"
"Well maybe you guys oughtta start taking some responsibility! You can't depend on me forever!"
Speedy actually looked like he was going to take a swing at Robin before Aqualad stepped in, placing himself between the two boys.
"I think we have done enough fighting for today," he said softly.
Finally, Robin admitted, "You can't expect me to be perfect all the time, Speedy. I get enough of that from Batman. However, I will admit that my research this time was… hasty. I'll do better next time. The meeting's over."
Robin got up from his chair and headed out the door.
"Robin…" Wonder Girl called.
"I said the meeting's over."
---
As soon as Robin returned to the Cave that evening, he knew he was in trouble.
It was clear that Batman had been awaiting the return of his teenage partner. The Caped Crusader never looked particular cheerful, but Robin never feared him because he knew that this anger was generally directed at Gotham's criminals.
This time, however, the Boy Wonder realized that Batman was mad at him.
"You disobeyed me, didn't you, Robin?" were the first words out of his mouth.
Robin removed his mask and instantly transformed back into Dick Grayson, youthful ward to Batman's Bruce Wayne. He didn't even bother to feign ignorance to his mentor's accusation.
"We got them, didn't we?"
"'We', is it? So you got the Titans involved, too?"
The boy could have kicked himself as soon as the words left his mouth. Stupid, stupid, stupid… now it wasn't just Robin in trouble, but the Teen Titans as well! Stupid!
"I thought I told you not to get involved," Batman said dangerously.
"You also told me that we were partners," countered Dick in a small voice. "If you had meant it, we would have been working on this case together anyway, and I wouldn't have had to go against your orders."
"Robin, you know why I didn't allow you to get involved in this case," the older one replied. He was beginning to get a little annoyed with the kid's whole attitude. "I wanted you home so that you could study and get your grades back up to an acceptable level."
"I've been getting A-minuses all month—"
"—in subjects that you used to get A-pluses in with no trouble."
Dick let out his breath and looked away.
"So you expect me to be perfect, too?" he whispered.
"I expect you to keep your grades up. If this trend continues, you'll be failing by the end of the year."
The boy jumped visibly. He hadn't known that he'd spoken loudly enough for Batman to hear, although he probably should have by this point. Stupid, stupid, stupid…
Man and boy stared at each other for a long while, blue eyes boring into blue eyes. Dick was the first to look away, no longer able to bear the shame he imagined he saw in his mentor's face.
"Dinner's in ten minutes," Batman said. "Be sure to wash up first."
And then he exited the Cave, leaving Dick alone with his self-destructive thoughts.
---
Dick reluctantly came to the dining room for the evening meal. Alfred had prepared a scrumptious-looking pasta dish, and just the smell of it was enough to make Dick's mouth water and his stomach growl.
Yet he touched none of it.
"Aren't you hungry, Master Dick?" the butler asked, concern evident in his tone.
"No."
"He's upset because I wouldn't let him get involved in the murder case until his grades improved," Bruce answered dismissively. Then, to Dick, he added, "You'd better eat something or you won't be able to concentrate on your homework."
"And that, of course, is the most important thing, isn't it? Nothing else matters except my grades, right?" Dick shot back irritably. "I said I wasn't hungry, Bruce. May I be excused?"
"No."
"Of course you may, Master Dick," Alfred interjected. The boy had leapt from his chair and was out of the room before Alfred could even remove his plate.
As he took Dick's untouched meal out of the room, Alfred noticed that Bruce was glaring at him.
"As you have probably noticed, sir, Master Dick has recently adopted the rather unhealthy habit of not eating when he is distressed. It does no good to push him. He will eat when he is hungry and not before then," the elderly man explained. Bruce could tell that the butler was speaking from experience.
Hey, he's your kid. You should have known that, Bruce thought ruefully.
---
Dick hastily left the dining room, relieved and even a little pleased with himself. He'd managed to disobey two orders from the almighty Batman in just one day—first was the order to stay out of the murder case, and second was the command to eat dinner. Finally, freedom!
The boy quickly changed clothes and headed into the gym to practice a few new moves on the horizontal bar. He may be young and small for his age, but nobody would deny that Dick Grayson was, by far, one of the greatest acrobats on earth.
But you won't stay that way for long without practice, Dick mused.
So he got to work.
Sorry for the delay. Stupid site wouldn't let me upload, and apparently I'm not the only one. I think someone in Batman: The Animated Series mentioned they had trouble uploading.
Anyway, I also noticed that this chapter seemed a wee bit rushed. Maybe it's just me. It'll get better later, I promise!
