The Last One (young justice/robin)

14. to be more human

Gotham
October 3, 11:54 EDT

"Hello?"

"Iris?"

"Earth to Iris!"

"Huh?" My eyes went back into focus, seeing that Fawn and all the others were staring at me.

"I was saying that we should figure out what we're doing after homecoming."

"Oh, okay."

Fawn gave me a weird look. "So..?"

"So what?"

"So, what are we doing?!"

"Oh, um, I don't know."

The ball rang for lunch, and it made my stomach turn.

"What's up with you?" Fawn asked. "It's like you're not even in the room."

I've been that way in every room for weeks. "I haven't been getting a lot of sleep."

Her advice came out cold. "Try taking melatonin or something then."

"You think it'll help?"

"I don't know," she whined. "Take something."

I didn't follow Fawn into the cafeteria.

I walked towards Adam and I's spot, too numb to be nauseated. The halls seemed to all blur into my peripheral, everything on autopilot—

Someone carrying a massive box of tools and spare parts hit my side, falling backwards as all their things clattered on the floor.

"I'm so sorry," I knelt down to help them.

"It's fine. I wasn't watching where I was going."

That was a lie for my sake, considering I hadn't even noticed there were people around.

It was all random pieces of plastic and loose wires. "What's all of this for?"

"Uh, the robotics club is programming cars to race at the end of the semester." They fixed their skewed glasses, able to regain enough balance to help with the box. That's when I noticed we had collided at the door to the club's storage room.

"Do you guys always do stuff like this?"

"Most of the time. Why, do you code?"

"No."

"Oh."

Nearly everything was back in the box. "Why, is it hard?"

They laughed a little. "Not if you start with the basics."

I couldn't tell if I was willing myself to make conversation or not. "Where can I learn the basics?"

They lifted their box back up. "Uh, online? But if you're actually interested we have tons of people who tutor."

I looked at the storage room that was slowly starting to fill up with the usual faces. "They're in there?"

"Some of them."

There was an opportunity for a way out, and I was too distraught not to take it. "Can I come in?"

It seemed like they didn't believe me. "You want to come into the robotics club?"

"Am I allowed?"

"Yes! Of course you're allowed," their eyes widened, "Sorry, it's just this usually doesn't happen."