Robin one shot part 3!

You're really joking in a time like this?

Sorry this came out late but here ya go

Failed.

Failed. 

Failed.

Robin let out an angry huff as he once again fumbled the landing. He thought he was going to pick it back up like riding a back but he couldn't get his body to twist and turn nor could he get the image of his mum reaching out to him out of his head. 

Following a conversation he had with Starfire about her planet's traditions, he'd been thinking about his past as a circus performer. His parents had wanted him to continue the Flying Grayson's act but things got in the way and he hadn't been able to get back into it since their deaths. It hurt too much to perform alone when he'd once performed as a unit. Yet his conversation with her about how she was never alone thanks to continuing the traditions because she was carrying on their memory made him rethink his vow to never return to acrobatics. He put some equipment together and set up his own little trapeze area in the gym for him to use. Maybe he'd feel the closure he'd never felt before. Everything had gone so suddenly and changed so greatly that he never felt that comfort of a book chapter ending. So he practised. And failed. Over and over. He'd intended to practice alone but his constant curses and little rants to himself had gathered a crowd of teammates. They were quiet for the most part aside from laughing when he fumbled particularly badly. Eventually, Starfire caught him when he missed the bar to save him from falling all the way to the net. He groaned in her hold and frustratedly righted himself once they were close enough to the ground. Their laughter wasn't helping the situation much. It grated his mind and made him even angrier because they were laughing at him for messing up something he was born to do. "Hey, don't stress. Just because you're not naturally good at something you've never done before doesn't mean you'll never get it," Cyborg soothed, misreading his discomfort as an embarrassment for messing up. 

"I have done it before!" he snapped. "My whole family did this for a living, I don't get why this is so hard now." There were a few laughs at that which made him scowl. "What?"

"You don't have to lie Rob. Everybody has to suck at something." He narrowed his eyes at the group, feeling offended by the very notion. Something in him snapped from anger to some sense of childish upset at not being believed. 

"It's true! We were great performers, we travelled everywhere," Robin insisted, distress eating away at his stern expression yet he may as well not be facing them. Did they really not believe him? Sure he'd lied before but never about his personal life. Was this some kind of payback for the Red X situation that now they were going to take everything he said with a pinch of salt? 

"Yeah right!" Beast Boy protested.

"I'm telling the truth! I performed this! I-I did it one night after my birthday and we performed in Gotham and-and"

"Dude you're embarrassing yourself. Whatever lie training this is, it's not gonna work," Cyborg complained. He sounded bored of it. Bored of a conversation that meant so much to Robin. A sick feeling swirled in his stomach. He remembered how kids would laugh at him in high school. They'd poke and prod at his story, trying to force it apart and rebuild it into what they believed fit the narrative. It hurt more than the fall. 

"You really don't believe me?" he asked. His tone was shaky and broken, more so than before. The leftover giggles died down at that and they suddenly got the idea that he hadn't been lying. He gripped his arms tightly, his fingernails leaving small crescents in his skin from how hard he was holding onto himself. "I'm your leader and you don't believe me." They watched him tense up further at that. A leader meant that he'd be respected and trusted and believed when he opened up about himself but they'd laughed like the boys in school. "You're laughing at me for opening up, is that not what you wanted from me?" He felt himself spiralling as the phantom cackles haunted him.