A/n: So I totally didn't completely forget febuwhump was even a thing haha… but okay, in my defence I was very busy with something important and let's say I came out of it remembering why I work better independently yay. But hearing me rant is not why you're here so I'll shut up now and let you read :)

He'd grown up in the air. He'd learnt to swing on a rope before he'd ever learned to walk. His days in the circus had been spent with his feet spending less time on the ground than flying through the air.

He couldn't remember the first time he'd held a piece of rope, been told to climb it. He'd been too young. But it didn't matter - he knew he'd failed the first time. And even if he hadn't, he'd failed plenty of times after. Soon enough, he'd gotten the hang of it, moving onto greater things like the trapeze but he always came back to just hanging from the rope. One day he'd been allowed up on the silks, but he found them too soft and made his way back to the rope.

Apart from being climbed, the ropes were used for other things too. When he'd been too young to actually join the acts, he'd usually had the menial tasks of packing things up, securing tents, taking them down - housekeeping essentially.

Suffice it to say, thanks to his extensive exposure to rope, he also had extensive experience with rope burns. It was why even at a really young age, his hands had callouses. He'd never seen that as a bad thing though, having rough hands. Not until he left the circus.

Training as Robin had changed his relationship - if it could be called that - with rope. Now it was for climbing out of dangerous situations or tying people up with. He wore gloves now, of course, so his hands never really got rope burns anymore unless it was from training but in an odd way, he missed it. They hurt whenever he got them, but his young mind had then associated it with the circus and home so it also served as a reminder of better times. He'd get the burns often, which sucked, but it also meant his mother would kiss them better, let him have a treat, his father would let Dick guide his hands to use instead of his own ending up in a giggling fit usually from the both of them because though they were acrobats, they were also a child and his father and thus uncoordinated.

The burns weren't a reminder of pain, but of his parents' love and home.

It didn't take long for that to be tainted after he became Robin though, or even just Bruce Wayne's ward Dick Grayson. Very quickly, rope burns on his wrist were a more common occurrence than anyone would have liked and the only reminders they brought were fear and pain and cold and confusion. All bad things that he never wanted to feel but did more often than he enjoyed.

Just like he'd learnt to fly on the ropes though, he'd learnt to free himself from them. It was always harder to do as Dick Grayson for appearance's sake but as Robin, as soon as he had the right gadgets - gloves or not - it would take a matter of minutes to be free. Especially once his enemies discovered zipties and metal restraints, coming to with ropes tying his hands behind him became almost a relief because more often than not, it meant freedom soon enough.

From reminders of home and love to the lesser of two - or more - evils.

That wasn't the end of it though. It should have been, but it wasn't, just like the role and title of Robin should have ended with him but it didn't. Now Dick was someone who many of his friends and family had branded 'self-sacrificial', but in his eyes, all that meant was he knew his limits and he didn't always know others so why make someone else suffer something that would affect them possibly greater when he knew for sure exactly how it would affect him and whether he could take it or not. Sometimes he couldn't, but that wasn't the point.

The point was, rope burns to him meant something different than they might to others. He was used to rope burns, had different memories and feeling related to them even if it might seem weird, but he did. All of that only applied to his own rope burns, on his own body whether that be hands (associated with generally happier memories) or wrists, mouth, face, arms, ankles etc. (associated with decidedly less happier times).

The first time he'd had to save Jason from some guys who'd gotten their hands on another of Bruce Wayne's wards and seen the angry red marks on the small boy - his little brother's - wrists? That had opened up a whole new association with rope burns to him.

Now, they meant that someone had hurt his brother. Now, they meant someone had intentions of harming his family. Now, that meant they'd caused someone he loved pain so he was going to pay them back. With interest.

He thinks that day might have been where Jason learned to be a little intimidated by him, seen him as a little more than the goofy older brother who tried maybe a little too hard to make up for all the times Jason had been forced to witness an argument between Dick and Bruce. That day, he'd realised that as mad as he was at Bruce about handing down the title of Robin, he now had a responsibility to take care of this kid.

That bit hadn't changed over the years as he'd gained and lost brothers, sisters, friends, family. Even if he saw civilians - especially children - harmed by the very thing he'd once seen as home whether around the circus or in the air now tainted by the world's worst, it always made him hit a little bit harder for the rest of the night.

A/n: So, the concept might have seemed a little weird, but I hope I still wrote it in a way that at least got you considering it seriously. I saw the prompt earlier and my mind went to literally any time anyone in any fandom could have/was kidnapped, but then I thought it might be a little hard to get a decent story out of that so I decided to go deeper. And thus, Nightwing & rope burns as a relationship ig. Idk. I just thought that circus = ropes = rope burns = kidnapping and how you get from one thing to another in a character sense. Oh well, I tried something new and I hope you liked it but thanks for giving it a chance anyway. :)

Stay safe and see ya soon.

- CrowofArcadiaOaks