Just Robin Oneshots Part 2

A little something

Here's a little something whilst I work on requests and college work

EDIT: TW BULLYING

https://www.bullying.co.uk/

https://www.nationalbullyinghelpline.co.uk/contact.html

https://www.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk/tools-information/if-youre-being-bullied/find-help-and-support

A gala. They were the bane of Dick's existence. He's hated them ever since he was a kid. The first one he ever went to was awful. Everyone looked down at him like he was a piece of discarded gum on the pavement. He was beneath the lords and ladies, the millionaires and billionaires. After all, he was just the orphan circus boy. Only there through the pity of one influential Gothamite. Dick looked at himself in the bathroom mirror and fixed his bow tie. Tonight those who looked down on him were going to get a show. He'd prove he could be just as good as the children raised by the nannies of the rich. He could be even better. This would be just another part he played. Richard Grayson, the circus boy who surprised everyone. The teenager that acted better than any other. He checked the cuffs of his sleeves. He'd be the picture-perfect boy everyone wanted him to be. That would cool the press right? They might finally give him time to breathe. Maybe he'd be able to walk past a newspaper stand without his next mistake on the cover. "Dick, we're going to leave in a minute," Bruce called from the hall. 

"I'll be out in a minute," he replied. He gave himself one last pat-down. No circus antics. No attempts at sarcasm. No being Dick Grayson. He was Richard and that's it. His posture straightened so there wasn't an inch that he could be slouching. His suit was perfect. He'd put makeup over the dark circles underneath his eyes and the small bruise under his chin. He was just a thirteen-year-old orphan on his best behavior.

Bruce noticed something was wrong as soon as they got into the limo. Dick's face was perfectly blank, not even a twinge of nerves on him. Normally he was rambling about math or something Wally did at this point but there was nothing. Not even a hum. "Is something wrong?" he asked worriedly. He didn't like whatever this was. Dick was so full of emotion, you could feel it come off him in waves, yet here he sat like a blank slate. "Not at all," he answered, his voice dull and dead. It sent shivers down Bruce's spine to hear. This wasn't the boy he'd raised. He certainly wasn't the boy his parents had once raised before meeting their untimely ends. "Are you sure?" He nodded stiffly. The older hummed, not believing it. "I forgot to mention before that Roy will be there too. If I'm not mistaken, Barry and Wally might show too later on," he said. Dick froze. Damn, they'd do anything to push him to act like himself. No, he wouldn't let them. He was trained to play a part. Maybe not this part but it was a part to play nonetheless. He could push them away by busying himself with socializing. They daren't interrupt a conversation between him and someone important. By the time they finally got to him, the gala would be over and his act would be over anyhow. "Dick?"

"It will be nice to see them both though I doubt we'll have much time to spend together."

"You're sort of scaring me here. You must tell me if something is wrong," Bruce persisted. Screw the gala. He'd turn this limo right back around if the teenager needed it. He just needed more of a sign. 

"I would tell you if there were yet there is not. I'm perfectly fine." He turned away from the older and towards the window at the passing landscape. 

"Okay, but do tell me if anything changes."