It Hurts Sometimes

1. Life, Death and Oreos

As the young acrobat's parents hit the sand, Barbara Gordon, who had come to Haly's Circus with her God-father, the playboy billionaire who just so happened to be the Batman, which was unknown to Barbara, jumped up and held out her hand as if to stop them.

Barbara sat next to the small raven-haired boy.
"Hello." She said quietly.
"Salut." He replied.
"Vorbesti Engleza?" Barbara asked in flawless Romanian. She could learn practically any language if she set her mind to it.
"A little." The boy replied. "What is your name?"
"Barbara." She replied.
"I am Richard." He wasn't crying as much, but his shoulders were still hunched over.
"Maybe we can hang out sometime, and I can teach you English." Barbara suggested.
"I would like that, Babs." Richard almost smiled. He had to admit that he did think Barbara was very pretty.
"You can call me Babs if I can call you Dick." She said.
"Okay." Dick agreed.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Hi, Dick." Barbara waved to her best friend.
"Babs! You're here!" He said excitedly.
"Well, it is your first birthday since...the incident. Like I was going to miss it. Plus, I'm the only person invited." She laughed, carrying a bright blue box wrapped with a black ribbon.
"Thanks. That means a lot." Dick smiled. He'd never say it to her face, but Dick had a major crush on Barbara, even though she was two years older than him. They were in the same class though, since Dick skipped two grades. That's why he was called the 'Boy Wonder' not the 'Boy kind-of-smart' when he was in his Robin costume. And hidden from Barbara.

"Hey, Grayson. You there?" She waved her hand in his face.
"What? Oh, yeah. I was just thinking." Dick pulled the ribbon off the huge box, eager to discover what Barbara had bought him. "Oreos?" He pulled out a small blue packet.
"Oreos." Barbara confirmed.
"Why...Oreos?" Dick asked.
"Because they're your favourite colour." She said, as if it was obvious.
"Brown?"
"No, blue." Barbara corrected him.
"But the biscuits aren't-"
"The packet, genius."
"So, what do I-"
"Look at the bottom." Dick put his hand at the bottom of the box, digging through the chocolate cookies. He pulled out an Oreo-wrapper decoupaged 'R'.
"You made this all on your own?" He asked in that astounded way that only ten-year-olds can.
"Well, I made the wooden R in woodworking class, but I did the decoupage myself." She was blushing, because although he was younger than her, she had a crush on Dick too.
"Well, I think it's great-"
"Dick, we have work to do." Bruce walked in. "Barbara, you're welcome to stay in your room."
"Thanks Bruce." She tried to smile, but these rain-checks had been happening so much more in the last few months. As Dick followed Bruce out of the door, Barbara slumped down and turned on the TV, scrolling through channels until she found a true crime show called 'Mississippi Murders'.
After watching for five minutes, she started scrolling again because she had already worked out who the killer was. She ended up watching news reports about Batman and Robin.
Robin's kinda hot. She thought. I mean, Dick's never going to like me, but Robin's like a celebrity crush, right? But seriously, he needs to change those spandex shorts.