A/N) Snippet of Barbara's POV, she is one of the foundation people in Dicks life after all.
Here's her take on Robin my version.
"Oh my god, did you hear there's this new superhero in town and people say he's our age!"
"Nuh uh, they say he's as old as Batman."
"Well, my brother says he saw the guy and he's real short so."
"I bet he's cute."
"His butt looks cute, at least in the papers."
Giggle, giggle.
Barbra rolls her eyes as she passes the regular gossipers of their school, actually this topic has been breached by everyone and their grandma. She's getting tired of it. So hey, yay, a new crime fighter, she barely ever even seen the first one, and she's been begging Dad to let her say hi at least.
But this new guy? He seems waaaay more open about showing off, and judging from the pictures he's a young show off.
She's not jealous, Nope, no. Just . . . annoyed by how much people are talking about him.
Plus there's something weird about him she can't quite place yet. Barbara sucks on her strawberry pop, eyes glazed in thought until a hand waves in front of them.
"Heyllo, Wazzup Babs?" Dick grins widely at her, like he always does, his uniform pristine, and hair brushed back and she wonders if he'll stay shorter than her forever, because that would be sad actually. Granted, some girls stalk him recently, probably because he's the richest adopted kid in the school, probably all of Gotham too, but most just say he's too short for them and it drives the acrobat crazy.
"Nothing, where were you last night? I called like twenty times to finalize the project, you just ditched me." She says flatly.
Dicks face pales then colors, then he rubs the back of his head sheepishly. "Was that due today? Gosh, sorry Babs I ... forgot..."
She huffs at him. "You've seriously gotta start writing things down or something. Seriously, this is the fifth time this month you've spaced on me, are we still partners for lab next semester or did you forget that too?" She doesn't mean to sound so judge-y and annoyed but. . . she and Dick have been friends for almost five years now and. . . and he's never been this spacy before.
"No, no. . . I'm still. . . well still be partners, I didn't forget that. Sorry 'bout the project. Um. . . make it up to you?"
"How?" She eyes him seriously as he shuffles on his feet, surprisingly antsy under her gaze.
"Alfred's homemade snickerdoodle?"
Ok. . . so maybe that could pacify her for Now. "Deal."
He grins at her and grabs her bag from her grip to carry.
Barbara sighs. Well. . . at least she could get snickerdoodle out of him every time he's late or forgets something. There's that.
"Hey did you hear, Robin saved a bus full of people yesterday."
"Oh yah, Vicky Veil reported it."
"They're saying he has Superman powers."
"No way, there can't be a meta in Gotham, the police would freak."
"Batman's all the hero Gotham needs."
"Maybe this Robin's training to be the new Batman."
"Maybe he's training to take over?"
Babs rolls her eyes at the fan girls, the group getting higher every day, as she slurps her chocolate milk and glares at her trigonometry textbook. It's not hard for her – it's just. . . these girl are getting on her nerves is all.
"What's with the look?" Dick asks, stopping his report writing from across the table. They were in the cafeteria, and they were cramming last minute homework.
"I swear, if I hear another, Robin comment, I'm gonna throw something."
This seems to catch his attention very solidly.
"What's wrong with Robin?"
"Nothing. In front know, I've never seen him. But these people seem to think he's some sort of god or something."
"Who's to say he's normal?" Dick teases, grinning at her now.
"Seriously? All I know is he's a show off to the press too much and he's a sidekick."
"Partner." Dick mutters.
"What?" She looks at him, eyes narrowing,
Dick shrugs. "I heard he's Batman's Partner."
She shrugs back. "Well whatever, I just wish they would talk about something else."
He gives her a confused look, because really, what does she have against Robin? Nothing really. . . maybe she really is just jealous, jealous that even Batman would have an apprentice where her dad won't even let her into the office let alone learn anything.
"I think it's funny. I mean, every hero needs a fan base."
She scoffs. "What, like you and your blasphemous superman fan club?"
Dick laughs. "Yah." He looks way too pleased with that.
Barbara just has a headache.
"Barbra I said to head home after school."
"I know Dad, but its Friday, no homework this week and sitting at home alone is booooooring."She dramatically slumps in her father's swivel office chair.
Commissioner Gordon sighs tiredly. "The paperwork I have to do is piled too high to ignore anymore, I'm sorry Barbara. Besides, whatever happened with that boy? Aren't you two friends. . . "
"Dick?" She turns in the chair. "Yah, but he has some charity thing to go to or something."
"Maybe get more friends?"
"Pffft, and what, talk about normal stuff like the latest crime fighter sighting?" Her eyes glimmer teasingly at her worn out father.
The man's shoulders slump and he opens his mouth to say something, his phone buzzes, he flicks it on and reads the message, Barbara watches him go straight, army pose, and grab his trench coat. He's heading for the bat single.
Barbara shoots up. "Can I-"
"No, just stay here, I'll be back."
She frowns, pouts, and fall back in her chair, annoyed. Her dad leaves and the office is quiet except for the whir of the overhead celling fan.
Batman could be showing up right now. She wants to see him up close, see if he really is part bat.
She's bored. Dick's ditched her - he does that a lot lately, everyone at school is annoying, and she wishes she had a mom to talk to sometimes about her moodiness and emotional blurbs.
Being twelve sucks.
Being twelve in Gotham sucks more.
She scoffs and stands up, well, if she can't become a cop, she'll be an investigative reporter then. She grabs a shelf camera, the really bulky kind from 1980"s, Dad likes vintage, and rushes past the desk officer with stealth and dexterity she's mastered sneaking around this place and hops up the back stairs to get to the precincts roof.
She creeps behind the AC unit and gasps. There he was. A tall huge shadow, practically dwarfing her father under it. She raises her camera, awestruck and a little freaked out. Then something taps her shoulder.
Barbara gasps and falls backwards, hitting the unit and making both the Batman and her dad pause.
"It's just my daughter." Her dad says after a moment, tiredness evident in his voice.
Batman grunts in acknowledgment.
They continue talking.
Barbara's never been so thankful for the bad lighting up here because she feels herself burn in embarrassment.
"You alright there, miss?"
She snaps her eyes up and glares.
There he was.
Robin, the great and amazing new sidekick every girl in Gotham Academy wouldn't shut up about. He looks like a pixy dressed in a colorful leotard.
"No one asked you." She swipes his hand aside and stands, pretending to fiddle with her camera she'd dropped. If the lens was broken, her dad would kill her.
She makes it a point glare at him. She's shocked by the friendly smile he giving her and the patient look on his face. She gets a weird wash of familiarity. . . she feels, funnily, like she's met him before.
"Do I know you?" She blurts out.
"Uh. . . no, no I don't think so." He answers firmly.
She stares at him openly now. "You look kinda familiar."
"I get that a lot. Comes with being everyone's knight in shining armor." He smiles teasingly now.
Barbara scoffs, "You mean Pixy in shining Kevlar."
"Heeey, don't diss the colors, besides maybe you should be nicer to the guy that could potentially save your life one day."
"Is that a jinx?"
"It's a promise."
"I don't know you."
"Doesn't mean I won't save you."
"What if I don't need saving?"
"I'll save you anyway." He winks and Barbara, despite her sour mood, laughs.
"You're just a dork, aren't you."
"You have no proof."
She raises her camera and snaps a picture of him before he can move. The frame slides out of the side and she shakes it to reveal the caught image of a badly flashed shocked face of the masked kid in front of her.
"Keep that confidential."
"I'll sell it to the highest bidder." She teases.
"You wouldn't."
"Why not?"
"Too good of a blackmail to get rid of."
She grins. Yah, he might have a point there.
"Robin. " Batman's gruff voice scares them.
The Bride boy turns with a wave. "See you around Princess."
"I hope not, since that would probably mean I'm kidnapped or something." She waves back.
Robin grins. "You'll really be a princess then."
"And you'll still be wearing those awful colors."
He laughs and throws himself into a seamless back flip off the roof.
Barbara looks at the picture in her hand and she could get the hype of talking about the new boy wonder if she could get more personal information on him.
"Barbara?" Her dad catches her thoughts and crosses his arms, mustache frowning in disapproval.
"Oh come on Dad, you said I needed more friends."
"That's not what I -"
"Besides, it's not like I'm going to see him again anytime soon anyway."She waves her dad off and heads back inside. Maybe she'll start a scrapbook of sorts, stalk Robin and take more pictures of him. At any rate she's got one hell of a story to exploit at school Monday.
"Soooo, you seem less moody today? Anything happen this weekend that I missed?" Dick slides into the seat next to her at lunch and smiles sweetly at her.
Barbara grins around her strawberry pop. "Yah. . . I meat Robin."
He shifts, face seemingly trying to fall into a natural look suddenly. "And?"
"And, turns out he's about our age, and likes to talk. Too much. He must drive even the Riddler crazy." She sucks on her pop.
Dick grins. "Maybe that's part of his job? You know, distract the criminals so Batman can pummel them."
A plausible idea. "That's not even the best part."
He sort of preens at this, weird. . . you'd think he was a big fan of the boy wonder himself or something, "What is then?"
She looks around exaggeratedly and leans in to whisper. "Turns out. . . he's a shrimp too."
That makes Dick burst into laughter, she doesn't know why, but she laughs with him anyway and files that information for later. Robin is short. Like Dick. . . maybe even a little cheeky, like Dick. . . really good at backflips - like Dick. Dark hair, sharp chin, cute butt. . . not that she ever looks at Dicks butt - er. . . But still, the similarities are there.
"Leave it to you to take joy in squelching a guy's masculinity."
She eyes him harder. "It's a perk."
"Yah." He smiles at her and it makes Barbara stop thinking altogether. Dick has many types of smiles, but this one, the warm one with the shining eyes full of - something that makes her squirm in her seat was weird and adult like and made her want to carve her guts out.
"Yah." She opens her milk carton and slurps loudly as Dick eats his hoagie.
He couldn't be Robin. . . because that string of thoughts leads to some weird ones and. . . Nah. . . there's no way.
She eyes him sideways.
At least.. . she's pretty sure he's not Robin.
Sorry for any rammer mistakes.
Special thanks to my consistent reviewer 'jdcocoagirl '
Here - (imaginary fireworks! ',`', ",) - Those are my attemts at writing fireworks ;)
She's awesome, it's real speical when you have at least one person that reveiwes every chapter that you post. Thanks for being that special reviewer.