Hit the Rock to Break (X-Men Evo/Young Justice Crossover)

Hit the Rock to Break

"Fuck."

A cold sweat spread across his body, his muscles trembling as the memory remained fresh in his mind thanks to the nightmare. A hand reached up to run through his hair as robin-blue eyes closed as he tried pushing that particular memory into the back of his mind.

It hadn 't been pleasant those few days at the Juvenile facility with foster children intermingled with the youth who'd committed crime. Backward, the whole thing was, yet the whole thing sent a definite message of not being wanted, that those left to the system were nothing more than scum which in turn left the taste of survival of the fittest in the mouths of many who went through.

Which, of course, meant someone as small as himself would end up targeted to make sure they knew his place, not to mention everyone seemed to know he 'd come from the circus, that he was—well, different even from those who were different. Dick pressed a palm against his forehead as he tried forgetting about the larger youth who delighted in shoving his preteen self up against the wall, mainly since Jason was in the other room and—

There came that mewling sound that arose from acute panic, and Dick bit down on his tongue, knowing the walls at the manor were paper thin, the place having been built in an older time. He sucked in a deep breath, not moving when the door to his room opened. He didn 't hear it as the memory continued looping in that eidetic brain of his.

"What's your problem?"

Dick flinched, then glanced up, smiling at Jason, who looked far from thrilled at being woken up in the middle of the night. "Nothing. Just thinking."

"Liar," Jason said. "And I don't get what you could be having a nightmare about. You weren't stuck in the system ever."

Dick opened his mouth to say something about seeing his parents fall from a great height, yet that wasn 't something Jason seemed to care about whenever Dick mentioned that his parents were dead. It was, after all, the norm for those who went through the system to have a lack of family in some shape or form, and Jason was in that category. "Hold on. I did go through the system."

"Sure you did," Jason said, turning to leave.

"Yes. Well, you weren't small for your age," Dick said, a slight hiss appearing in his voice.

Jason paused and glanced over, his interest there even though he was likely trying to hide it—poorly, as he usually did. "And what? Surely you could have just beat them up? I mean, it's you?"

"And what? Be the only one getting in trouble because I'm Romani?" Dick said. "Not to mention I'd just been...."

"Romani?"

Dick paused, frowning. He tilted his head, thinking carefully over whether that conversation had ever come up—his ethnicity.

"What is Romani?"

"I'm actually half," Dick said low. "Half-Romani."

"You mean from Romania?"

"No. Not," Dick closed his eyes. "You know. Travelers?"

"Travelers?"

Dick swallowed, flinching.

"Hey! Don't do that! I didn't say anything wrong."

"Gypsy."

"Dirty gyp?" Jason said, unable to hold his tongue the way his foster brother could.

"Don't call me that. Please."