Robin Da Circus: Damian Wayne FF one-shot

Robin Da Circus

I'm so bored, I think to myself. Father is out arguing with Superman as per usual. Alfred is cleaning as per usual. I know where most of the ex-Robins are except Grayson as per usual.
I wander around Wayne Manor aimlessly. When I realize how much time I am wasting I go to the gym and workout for a bit.
I'm in here for a full hour before Alfred enters the room, "Oh there you are Master Damian," he exclaims in his ridiculous British accent.
"Yes, Alfred here I am," I say dryly. "In the gym, bored out of my mind. Tell me there is a mission for me or that Father needs help with something, tell him I'll go unless it's one of his ridiculous parties because then I'll be locking myself in here."
"Actually Master Damian, it's not any of those scenarios today," he says, ugh I hate his calm tone.
"Then why are you bothering me, can't you see I'm training," I grunt as I jump off the rock climbing wall.
"Well," Alfred says. "It seems Master Richard has come to you."
I do my best to hide the smile that creeps up to my face as I take off the helmet Father forces me to wear when I rock climb leisurely.
"And this concerns me how?" I say heading to power tower.
"Oh come on Dami, I've come all this way from New York to hang out with you and you don't even care," Grayson says as he enters the room.
"Why should I care about a random man who comes around and calls me weird nicknames," I ask still not looking at him.
"That hurts Dami," Grayson says. "It hurts so bad you've killed me."
"Does it look like I care?" I ask.
"Oh sure you do, I am your favorite brother after all," he says cheerfully.
In the background, I hear Alfred leave the room.
"No, I don't, now get out of my house," I say as I struggle to reach the pole at the top of the power tower which at the moment had been set for Father's height.
I feel a strong pair of arms grab me then lift me up to the pole. "Last time I checked Dami, it was my house before it was yours," he remarks.
"We have this conversation every time we meet Grayson," I say as I begin some pull-ups. "I am the blood son, this is my birthright. You are the adopted circus boy."
I am not being harsh, I am stating facts.
"That reminds me!" Grayson exclaims. "We're going to the circus."
"No," I say. "I am going in the shower then I am going to walk Bathound and Catwoman's cat Isis."
"What's Isis doing here?" he asks surprised.
"Apparently, one of Miss Kyle's many other cats had a litter of kittens, said kittens kept getting under Isis's feet -or 'paws' as Miss Kyle said- so she asked me to cat sit her for me."
"And let me guess," Grayson chuckles. "She bribed you with one of the new litter."
"Your detective skills are impeccable," I drawl.
"Well come on then," Grayson says. "Hurry up and shower so we can take Ace and Isis with us to the circus."
"You're still on the circus train huh," I say as I jump down. "Well you did grow up on one so it does make sense."
He rolls his eyes, "Just hurry up."
I head to the shower, "Why are we going to the circus, you could just do their entire routine in the ballroom."
"Because."
"'Because' is not an adequate answer Grayson. Neither is 'I said so' before you decide to say so."
I take a nice long hot shower to spite Grayson and his impatientness.
When I get out, "So when is this circus?"
"Tonight," Grayson says casually.
"First of all, this is Gotham, it's practically always night, secondly, why did you rush me?"
"Because I knew you would deliberately waste time if you thought we were in a rush."
He's got me there, not that'll ever tell him that.
"We're still living now though, the circus is only part of the circus."
Ace and Isis strut into the room side by side. When did those to become so chummy?
"They'll need to eat before we leave," I say.
"Ugh, you and your delay tactics," he sighs.

*Time Skip*
Grayson drove us to the circus.
We park up but I decide I would rather stay in the car.
"Come on Damian," Grayson pestures. "It'll be fun."
"I have told you countless times Grayson, your ideas of fun and mine are very different."
"Yes, you like Todd, believe murder is fun whilst I believe Bounce Houses are fun," he says dryly. He leans over and takes off my seat belt then carries me out of the car.
"Put me down! I am not a child!" I exclaim.
He puts me down and smirks, "You're just afraid to have fun."
"I'm not afraid of anything," I retort.
"Prove it," he blurts out.
"Grow up Grayson," I remark.
"Come on Damian," he insists. "Prove to me you can have fun."
"And if I don't?"
"You'll have to take Beast Boy to the dentist."
I shudder, I've heard stories from Raven and Blue Beetle about Beast Boy's trips to the dentist, last time he almost bit Starfire's fingers off and her hands weren't anywhere near his mouth.
Grayson lets Ace and Isis out of the car then locks it and heads towards the circus stalls.
"You coming?" he calls back to me.
I roll my eyes and follow him.
We walk around and see everyone smiling, "See look at all these happy people," Grayson says cheerfully.
I notice some people eat different colored clouds. "That's cotton candy," Grayson explains. "Do you want some."
Before I can reply, he jobs off and buys some.
"What is the point of asking my opinion if he was going to buy it anyway?" I ask Ace and Isis.
A young girl appears in front me with a wide smile, "Are those your pets?"
"No," I reply bluntly.
"Then whose are they?" she asks still smiling.
"None of your business."
"So?"
"'So' what?"
"Who's your friend Damian?" Grayson asks as he walks up to us.
"She's not my friend, just a curious blonde."
"Well then see ya," she giggles and runs away.
"Why are all these people smiling? It is weird!" I exclaim.
Grayson chuckles then hands me the cotton candy, "Why don't you ever smile? It's depressing."
"Whatever," I sigh then take a bite of the cotton candy. "It tastes like pure sugar."
"Yes so remember to brush your teeth properly tonight."
Even though I was complaining, I eat the whole thing. It was addicting.
Grayson introduces me to different games, we won lots of prizes but Grayson gave them out to every passing child we see. Ace and Isis trail behind us, Ace is on high alert as per usual.
"We don't need the toys, we can buy as many as we want with Bruce's money," he chuckles. "However, you should buy a gift for the Titans, I'm sure they'll be happy."
He leads me to the gift shop and I analyze the stock.
There's a necklace with an Emerald pendant that Isis was eyeing eagerly, "Starfire," I say automatically to Grayson.
Then I see a Transformers figure, "Beast Boy."
It doesn't take me long to choose what I wanted to buy for Blue Beetle but it takes me a while to pick what to buy Raven.
"What about this necklace?" Grayson suggests.
"I'm pretty sure the girl has enough precious stones in her life," I remark.
Suddenly something catches my eye.
A small glass figure of a husky. "That for Raven."
"You put a lot of thought into buying gifts for your friends," Grayson smirks.
I give him a disgusted look "I don't have friends, only colleagues, and pets."
"Whatever you say Dami."
He purchases my gifts then suddenly the stall minder says "Don't buy the popcorn."
"Why?" I ask.
"Just don't."
We walk away, "that wasn't spooky at all(!)" Grayson mutters and starts walking off.
"Where are you going, Grayson?"
"To buy some popcorn."
I roll my eyes.
Suddenly we hear screams, automatically I move I to a fighting stance.
"Chill out Damian," Grayson chuckles. "Its just people -very likely grown men- on the roller coaster."
"Why would a fair ride cause men to scream in such a high pitch?" I ask incredulously.
"Why don't we get on it and find out?" he smirks.
He drags me toward the beastly contraption made of rails.
"We have to ride that?!" I exclaim.
"You scared?" Grayson asks.
"You wish," I retort. "Alright, Grayson get us on this rollercoaster."
We instruct Ace to sit in front of the ride and watch Isis then we board the cart and I see a sign that says to hold the bar. I do so.
"You only hold the bar if you're afraid," Grayson remarks.
"Then why does it say to hold it?" I ask.
"Safety reasons," he smirks. "You'll see." He nods at the rails that were going up, forming a hill shape.
"It's so slow why were they screaming?"
The cart reaches the top of the hill, "Nothing about this is fu..." Suddenly we are thrown downwards.
I feel the adrenaline pumping through my veins but I don't think I've got the option of fight or flight.
"GRAYSON!" I exclaim as I notice he was somehow enjoying this death trap.
"Still not afraid of anything Dami?" he laughs loudly.
I roll my eyes.
The ride goes up, down, and around the tracks several times.
When it finally stops I am so dizzy I can't see straight.
"So what did you think of your first rollercoaster ride Dami?"
As my vision goes back to normal I think back to the ride. "It was oddly exhilarating!" I say surprised.
"Remind me to take you to Coney Island."
I notice everyone eating popcorn. When I say everyone, I mean everyone.
Grayson notices too. He walks up to the blonde girl we saw earlier.
"Hi again Miss, could I have a piece of your popcorn?"
"Sure," she giggles smiling madly and hands him a piece.
"They all look high," I observe as Grayson returns. He "mhms"s in agreement.
He lowers the popcorn to Ace's nose and he barks angrily at it, then Grayson pulls out a Batscanner then places the popcorn on it which the machine proceeds to scan. "We should get the results soon," he says as he puts it back into his pocket.
Suddenly, a loud voice boomed through the speakers, "COME ONE, COME ALL, THE CIRCUS IS ABOUT TO BEGIN!"
"I guess investigating will have to wait," Grayson exclaims excitedly and grabs my arm.
He drags me to the circus laughing and Isis and Ace trail behind us.
We sit down (Isis leaps onto my lap whilst Ace waited patiently at the edge of the crowd) and suddenly the lights go out and a spotlight appears in the middle of the ring to show a pale-skinned man in a top hat.
"Welcome to our show," he smiles widely. So wide it's creepy. He rambles about the acts as they appear in the ring.
"Look the acrobats!" Grayson exclaims excitedly as they appear on the trapeze.
"That was me back in the day," he says reminsingly. "The Flying Graysons."
"Why did you come if you were just going to cry about the past?"
"I'm not crying," he chuckles sadly. "It's just good to look back sometimes."
The Batscanner beeps pulling Grayson out of the past. He takes it out of his pocket and checks the results. His expression darkens, "We've got to suit up," he says instantly grabbing my arm and dragging me out of the crowd -he's been doing that an awful lot today.
As we're finally out of the smiling crowd and Isis comes out promptly after.
"The popcorn is covered in Joker gas!" he explains.
"That means..."
He nods gravely "The Joker has control of the circus."
Suddenly we hear a chorus of screams from the crowd.
"And best of all Batsy's out of town," the Ringmaster chuckles madly. "At least we don't have to go looking for him."
Instantly, we tear off our shirts revealing our suits and we put on our masks (Grayson for some reason even had the Bathound costume).
We run out into the ring, "Batman may be out of town Joker," Grayson announces loudly. "But that does not mean Gotham is not protected!"
"It's just the sidekicks Puddin'!" shrieks a familiar-sounding female voice.
We turn around to see Harley Quinn swinging on the trapeze and leaping down onto the net. Then down to us.
"I can see that Harley," the Joker says. "What are you defending sidekicks? The crowd's knocked out and I'm already legally rich, all I was going to do is ransom these lot."
"How dare you hijack the circus," Grayson snarls ignoring his comment. "I'll make you pay."
"Bathound go after Harley," I instruct.
He nods then chases after her. She begins shrieking and running away.
Isis leaps onto my shoulders and I pull out some Robin throwing stars.
I nod at Grayson, "Now Nightwing!"
He nods then runs straight into the Joker like an angry bull, pinning him against the large tent poles then I throw the stars at the Joker bonding him to the pole with the material of his clothes and a small bit of his flesh, what Father doesn't know, won't hurt him. The pale deranged man howls in pain.
Grayson lets go of him, then rings the Gotham police force.
Ace has Harley pinned to the ground. Isis leaps off of my shoulders then struts towards the pinned woman and scratches up her clothes a bit.
The cops turn up and the antidote to the Joker gas is applied to the crowd and the four of us disappear.
We put on our civilian clothes then head to Grayson's car which he proceeds to kick angrily.
"Why can't we have a normal day out in this stupid city?!" he exclaims.  "All I wanted to do was spend time with my brother, is that too much to ask?!"
"Come on Grayson it's not that bad," I say not sure how to react. "I still had fun, and I don't have to take Garfield to the dentist."
"Well, I guess there is a bright side then," he chuckles.
"You did say you'd take me to some island," I remind him.
"Oh yeah, but it's in New York, that place is cursed too," he sighs.
"Well, you'll figure something out," I laugh.
"At least I got you to laugh," he says, eyes brightening. "That's a major achievement."
"Whatever you say, Grayson," I say getting into the car. "Let's just go home."