It's Me

Tempting Fate

"I can't believe you!" I yelled at him the moment we made it back to the manor.

"You aren't taking these threats seriously." He countered.

"I'm Robin the freaking Boy Wonder, my life is in danger all the time!" I yelled in exasperation.

He pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath before continuing his attempt to justify his unreasonable actions.

"Not like this, the league of assassins is a major threat, one that should not be trifled with, you pissed off Ra's Al Ghul and he doesn't make threats lightly. I need to make sure you're safe Dick."

"Well why don't we just go take him down together, you know, the way you told the team we were, at least that way not everything you told them would be a lie!" I snapped at him.

"And bring you right to him?" He retorted.

"I can handle myself, I've fought the league of assassins with you before, I don't need to hide away like a child while the team babysits me, I can help!" I urged him, trying to get the man to be reasonable, an endeavor I hated to admit was probably wasted on a man who dressed up as a giant bat so he could pummel criminals in the dark.

I sighed, still ready to argue some more, but Alfred interrupted my admittedly pointless plans.

"Master Bruce, Master Dick, your guests are here."

"Be right there!" I yelled before shooting Bruce one last scathing glare to go along with my parting words.

"You know I hate you right now." 

As expected, he didn't verbally respond, resorting to the good old (patent-pending) Bat stare.

                                                                                                      ...

"My name is Richard Grayson, but you guys can call me Dick." I introduced myself as I led them into the foyer, this was a really surreal experience.

Polite as ever Kaldur returned the favor, "I am Aqualad, this is Miss Martian, Artemis, Superboy and Kid Flash." I smiled tightly, like I said, surreal.

Wally whistled, "Nice house."
"Thanks, I like it, though the size took me awhile to get used to, it's Bruce's family home, been in the Wayne family for generations." I rambled somewhat nervously.
"You call him Bruce, and you refer to it as his family, is he not your father?" Aqualad inquired thoughtfully.
"He is but he isn't, technically he's my foster-dad, I've been with B since I was nine." I explained.
"Where were you before Bruce adopted you?" Miss M prodded, curious as ever.
"All over, I grew up in the circus." I smiled at the memories, my family, the trapeze, a time where pain and loss were the farthest thing from my mind.
"Oh wow that's super cool." Wally nudged me back into the present with his enthusiastic statement.
I shrugged not sure what to say, setting on a neutral, "Yeah."
"Can you do any cool circus things?" Wally continued on, oblivious to my awkwardness.
"Well I do a mean backflip if I do say so myself, and you should see the things I can do with the chandelier, never fails to make that vein in B's forehead throb, which just makes it more fun!" I laughed, taking a page from the speedster's own book, masking discomfort with humor was the Wally West special. 

Judging by the amused reactions of my teammates, it was an effective one, with a bright smile I raised an eyebrow at them in question as I changed the subject.

 "So how about I show you guys around." I was gesturing in the direction of the game room, but Wally, or more accurately, Wally's stomach, had other plans.

"Awesome, so where's the kitchen?" He smiled broadly as he asked, and to further illustrate his point, rubbed his belly for emphasis .

In response there was a chorus of snorts and groans from my teammates, I myself had a hard time keeping my fond chuckles in check.

 As I laughed, somehow without thinking the automatic response I'd developed to KF's inhuman appetite slipped out,

 "Always thinking with your stomach huh KF?"

I didn't realize my mistake until my teammates laughter came to an abrupt stop and Wally regarded me with a puzzled expression clear on his face, "What?"He voiced, question clear.

I flushed and rubbed the back of my neck anxiously, okay deny, deny, deny.

 "Sorry, bad joke, kitchens this way." I started walking before the excuse had fully left my mouth in an attempt to distance myself from that slip up.

"Help yourself to whatever." I offered them as they followed me into our large, well stocked kitchen, hopefully all that food would distract Wally from my comment.

Not waiting for a response, I gestured toward the general direction of our home gym,"I'm gonna go work out, make yourselves at home, Alfred'l come by in a bit to give you the lay of the land." With that I speedily made my escape hoping none of them would follow.

I took out my frustration on a punching bag for a bit before I moved to the rings, doing flips and pull ups.

"Hey there." Artemis called out from the door way, finally having decided to make her presence known, despite the fact that I'd already been aware of her lurking, and had just been resolutely ignoring it.
"Artemis, really not much of a code name." I snarked without enthusiasm as I attempted to keep my focus on ring flips, unfortunately for me acrobatics were to natural and easy for me to provide any real kind of distraction. I sighed and dropped down from the rings, grabbing a towel as I sat on one of the weight benches and regarded Artemis.
"You go to my school, you were the weird freshmen that came up and snapped a picture with me on my first day. When are we going to laugh about that Dick? It's been two years now." She narrowed her eyes accusingly as she said that.
I shrugged, "You're edging around something, just say what you want to say."
"You're hiding something." She stated confidently, I eyed the wall clock, less than an hour, really what was Bruce thinking?
I arched a brow as I challenged her,"And you think you know what it is, just spit it out Artemis." 

I knew I was playing with fire here, but I really couldn't bring myself to care, Arty was smart, really I should have known it wouldn't take her long, really so should have Bruce, he was supposed to be the detective after all.

She gave me a once over and smirked knowingly before confidently stating, 
"Well okay Grayson, I think that you're Robin."