Dick couldn't believe his luck as he and Barbara sat together during lunch, talking about their morning classes.

Not the luck with his classes—which he was quickly finding out he had none—but the luck that the making new friends with someone he already knew in a different way but who didn't know him was going so well. Barbara wasn't stupid, not at all, and he knew he had to watch what he said and did very carefully to make sure she didn't put together who he really was (yet—fingers crossed) but besides that nagging feeling he was almost enjoying being his normal civilian self.

With Barbara at least.

His classes were boring as purgatory, and before he made exceptions for it being the first day, one quick glance down the class syllabus/agenda for the year and Dick already knew he could sleep through class and still ace it. And, worse still, was that in the following two classes after the quiet English class he had first block, the teachers did a roll call to make sure everyone was there.

When they'd gotten to "Richard Grayson", every head in the classroom had turned to stare at him, and he'd had to draw on every ounce of self control Batman had ever taught him not to make faces at them, or then flip off the students who kept staring five minutes after everyone else had started paying attention to the teacher again.

Barbara had looked shocked when she told him that.

"Ok, first of all, you don't exactly seem like the 'flip them off' kind of kid to me, and secondly, why were they staring?" She asked the second part hesitantly.

Dick mentally went over everything they'd discussed and realized that she'd never reacted to his name before, therefore she probably didn't know who he was. Which, was on the upside seeing as he had no reputation with her to live up to, but on the downside was that now he had to tell her, and might just scare her off.

He quickly hid those thoughts and just smiled a bit wryly. "High society rules state I'm not supposed to be the 'flip them off' kind of guy, but I wasn't exactly raised in high society, so it's harder to remember sometimes." He sighed. "I was actually raised in the circus, so acting like I'm one of these rich kids is…"

"A challenge." Barbara supplied, looking completely fascinated as well as comforted at that confession. He supposed being here on scholarship she'd been thinking of the lines drawn by social status and wealth quite a lot today.

He smiled a bit warmer as he nodded. "Yeah, sometimes. I couldn't help but notice that you were reluctant to say you were on scholarship, which, I won't lie, probably is some kind of fault to some of these kids around here, but to me it just means you're real. I don't like fake people, even though I'm one of them when I have to be." He sighed, surprising even himself in his honesty. It was strange, he didn't have to sensor himself the same way he did when he was Robin. He still had to sensor himself but… differently, about different things. It was odd.

"Well I'm glad I found a friend who's not totally stuck up. That would get old real fast." Barbara snickered, and Dick beamed at her.

"And I can honestly say I'm glad to have a friend who doesn't mind that I'm not really stuck up!" He chirped right back, and she grinned while sadly shaking her head.

"The people these days, honestly." She huffed.

"Tell me about it." Dick agreed with an eye roll.

"So… that still doesn't explain why there were staring." She asked curiously with a slight tilt of her head.

He bit his lip. "Well… truthfully there's no reason for people to stare, but my dad sorta owns this school so I guess the students here kinda have to know who I am…"

Barbara's eyes bugged out, but besides that she didn't react.

"Your…your dad is Bruce Wayne." She said, her voice slightly higher than before.

He sighed in defeat. "Yeah. That's how I knew about the scholarships and stuff." He admitted, remaining silent as she slowly worked through it in her head.

"Oh." She finally said. After another long moment, "So…uh…. actually, I didn't know Bruce Wayne had a son." She blurted out bluntly.

Dick blinked, a little surprised at the change of topics, but eventually cracked a smile that she wasn't running away just yet. "Well, you obviously live under a rock then, don't you?" He teased and she stuck her tongue out at him. He chuckled, "He took me in when I was six, so I'm his ward or whatever the socialites call it. It doesn't matter because I call him dad and that's that, adopted or not."

"You're not actually adopted?" She said hesitantly, looking for signs he didn't want to talk about it, but he seemed fine with telling her at least.

"No, not officially." He admitted, picking at the table absentmindedly. "There are some sort of legal blocks to it so that billionaires can't just go around adopting orphanages and then neglecting them and stuff, which, is incredibly stupid seeing as I know of no billionaires who'd do such a thing, but whatever." He rolled his eyes. "He's said he wants to though, and that's good enough for me." He shrugged.

Barbara seemed to sense the subject was closed, so she moved to another one. "And before that you were in the circus? That must've been amazing! That's what you meant about gymnastics, didn't you? Acrobatics?" She asked eagerly—this was a topic she knew something about.

He beamed. "Yep! Haley's International Circus. My parents and I were called the Flying Graysons; we were trapeze artists. I still do it as much as I can, just to keep it alive…" He trailed off, glancing off across the courtyard where they sat eating (or not touching and talking over) their lunches.

He was the orphaned ward of Bruce Wayne, so Barbara didn't ask the follow up of what happened to the elder two Flying Graysons. She'd only just met him after all, despite how close they felt already, and that question could be saved for another day.

"I have to ask—what was that like? Going from the circus—which is completely awesome, by the way—to living with Bruce Wayne? I mean, talk about a one-eighty! He's so…" She trailed off, but by her wide green eyes Dick knew exactly what she thought Bruce was.

He chuckled. "It was… interesting. I will however, point out that Bruce isn't quite… a socialite, I guess is the nicest way to say it, as you think. I'm not supposed to flip people off, but it doesn't mean I don't want to. Bruce isn't supposed to be anything but some playboy philanthropist, but that doesn't mean he is. I mean, that doesn't mean that's all he is, because he most certainly is a playboy philanthropist!" Dick cackled, and Barbara looked fascinated.

"So he's like… an actual dad and stuff?" She wondered.

He nodded with a fond smile. "We play basketball when one of us is upset. He likes to embarrass me in front of friends, and I like to call him an old man even though he's most certainly not. He's a completely normal guy when he's not being the 'Bruce Wayne' the world wants him to be." Dick said, editing out the other very important father/son bonding experience they shared and deciding "normal" could be taken as normal for someone who likes to dress up and fight crime.

"That's amazing." Barbara admitted, smiling as well. "I just never… I mean, of everything so far I think that's the most important thing I've learned today." She decided. "I guess we're all just people, behind the masks."

Wow, if only you knew how incredibly true that is. Dick thought in amusement to himself.

He decided that was enough about him for today. "So, what's your dad like?" He asked. If he was standing by his previous statement, even if he knew Jim Gordon as the commissioner, that didn't mean that was all he was.

She smiled a bit tiredly. "A workaholic." She said truthfully. "But honestly, I love that about him. Sometimes I think he's the only honest cop on Gotham, and other times, I know it. He tries so hard, but he's only one man and can't do everything at once. Like at my last meet, he nearly missed me perform, and I know if he had he'd be completely crushed. I don't know if I would mind terribly, but I know he would. He works too hard, but he's a great guy. Caring dad and all that." She explained, ranting a bit of her worry.

Dick smiled in sympathy. "He sounds great. You seem like his caretaker on top of his daughter though." He poked her jokingly and she rolled her eyes, picking at her sandwich.

"Yeah, sometimes. I don't think he realizes I worry about his just as much as he worries about me. It's a tangled web we weave." She smiled a bit sadly.

"Actually… I think I can relate." Dick said, surprising himself with his honesty, yet again. At her curious look he continued, choosing his words carefully. "I know Bruce and I don't have the typical problems, but sometimes it's just… everything going on in the world, Bruce tends to lose himself a lot. In work or his passion to help people, and the hard truth is that not everyone can be saved. I think I understood that early on: living in the circus, things like sickness and poverty were just… there. They never went away. Bruce… I don't know, he pushes himself too hard trying to do good, and he's always afraid I'm not going to turn out ok because he doesn't know how to be a good father, and all the while I'm just worried he's going to worry himself to death as he get overly concerned with making sure me and the world are all ok." He tried to explain.

Her wide green eyes were surprised, but actually seemingly happy about the confession.

"Same situation, worlds apart." She slowly grinned. "Fathers trying to make sure we're ok and we're just worried they're going to go overboard in ensuring that."

He grinned. "Yep. Pretty much. It's comforting to know I'm not the only one who feels like the parent of their parent sometimes."

She let out a clear laugh. "No, you're definitely not alone." She allowed.