Robin one shot part 3!

Then only for a minute, I want to change my mind

"Remember Ben 10, Rob?" Wally asked. It had been one of the many things he'd asked if Robin remembered and each time Robin would reply with no or that he'd never seen it. Each time, Wally and Artemis would scoff and prattle on about yet another thing that Robin didn't remember or know about. Those not from Earth or those who had only been born recently listened intently to every pop culture moment they unintentionally missed. They asked questions and M'gann was especially happy about finally getting context to the references made in her show. Meanwhile, Robin was anything but happy. To say he didn't have your average childhood would be an understatement. Neither did Artemis but even she seemed to have found the time to get caught up on pop culture. Recognition lit up in her eyes every time Wally blurted out a name yet there was nothing of the sort behind his own white lenses. Every now and then he'd think he knew what they were talking about only to realise he only knew the name superficially and never engaged with it. "Seriously? You don't know Ben 10."

"I didn't find the time to watch it," he replied. He hid his bitterness in a blaze tone and concentrated his efforts on writing up a report. Something he'd been doing since he was ten. Whilst Wally was watching his favourite cartoons, he was doing his first mission reports. They were littered with inaccuracies and run-on sentences but he'd somehow convinced himself that they were fun. MIssion reports meant that he was moving onto the next stage of being a hero and that was his dream. It still was. He was living it now which was amazing but it wouldn't be reality if there weren't cons to every pro. He just didn't think about them too often. Always wrapped up in impressing his mentor to get to that next stage and now he was slowly realizing what he was leaving behind with each step towards being the Robin he was today.

"Why?" M'gann asked.

"I've been working," he answered.

"Working?" she repeated. 

"He's been in the business since he was nine," Wally explained on his friend's behalf. 

"But what about before then?" she pressed on. She was in her right to ask. It didn't make much sense that if he started the job at nine that he wouldn't have had any exposure beforehand. Yet, that was the truth. Cultures tended to blend together when you travelled the world and small details had left thanks to trauma. Not to mention, he didn't have the means to engage with anything on TV and any music he listened to had been heard on the radio without a clear understanding of the song name or singer. 

"I don't talk about before then," he answered without any malice.  She thankfully dropped the subject.

"Still though, did Bats really work you that hard?" Artemis inquired.

"Well, I was on night patrol after a month which meant I needed naps and then there's training. When I wasn't training, I was doing homework and B never thought I could concentrate with the TV on. We only really watched TV for the news for obvious reasons. Even when I was benched for recovery I was usually too high on pain meds to understand what was happening." He'd never said it all out loud before but saying it did make him gain some perspective. His childhood, the moments he hadn't spent mourning which he'd pointedly left out, had been filled with work. All the things he'd missed as a result had never come to mind aside from missing a field trip or two. Bruce would make it all up with something or other and he guessed that always made him feel vindicated in the loss. 

"Didn't have much time to be a child then?" Kaldur asked. No. He didn't. The sweet parts of his memory were now covered in blood. 

"Not as much as some would like," he answered. 

"But I introduced him to games, didn't I Rob?" Wally said to ease the tension building in his friend's shoulders. The younger smiled and nodded. 

"Yeah, you and Roy are the only reasons I know what Mortal Kombat is." There was something a bit sad about that. He'd asked for gaming systems at Christmas but he was usually far too busy or far too tired to play them. Most of his exposure to things age-appropriate was from the combined efforts of Roy, Wally and Barbara. Even then, he didn't speak up if he failed to understand a reference and they didn't really ask when he didn't laugh appropriately.