Dick Grayson Trash

Fired

-Part 85-

"Robin, breath. Breath." Kaldur told him. "What happened?"

Robin opened his mouth, but gave up and just collapsed into the older teen, struggling to breath.

"Dude, what is it? You can tell us." Wally got on his knee to help steady the bird. "What happened?"

He opened his mouth, but just looked pained and closed his mouth.

"Let's sit down." Kaldur lead the bird to the sofa, where the others had recently been situated.

"Robin, what is it?" M'gann tried to reach out to Robin, but he jerked back.

Artemis was trying and failing to act tough. Robin could keep it cool when the cave was invaded, so what did it take to freak him out like this? "Robin, seriously, what the heck is happening?"

Dick sniffled a little, scaring them all. "He fired me." He muttered.

"What?"

He bit his lip, trying desperately to keep it cool. "Batman fired me."

There were a few seconds of quiet. Wally put a hand on Dick's arm. "Oh, Dude. Oh wow. Okay." He tried to calm down. "What can we do?"

"Wait," Artemis stopped the boys. "Batman fired YOU?"

Dick sniffled a little and leaned into Wally's chest, waves of mortification washing over him. How could Bruce do this to him?

"Can you tell us what happened?" M'gann asked sympathetically. Dick sniffled and shook his head. He wasn't supposed to tell anyone about his home life.

"Why would he do that?" Wally asked.

"BECAUSE HE HATES ME!" Dick shouted through his fresh tears. There was no point in having pride now, they already knew he was crying. "He HATES me and now I'm HOMELESS!" He sobbed into Wally's chest.

The team looked across at each other. They didn't know what the hell to do. "...Homeless?" Conner asked.

Dick shook his head. "I said too much." He murmured. "The only thing that matters is that he doesn't want me anymore! I can't tell you why that makes me homeless, but..."

"Why not?" Artemis asked. "What's gonna do? double fire you?"

"Artemis!" Wally hissed. "Not the time!"

Dick shook his head. "She's right." He sniffled, sitting up. He raised his hand and tore off his mask. "My name is Dick Grayson." He whimpered. "My foster father might've just disowned me." He leaned into Wally, wallowing in grief. 

Artemis gaped at him. "You were the weird freshmen! Gotham Academy! You were the creepy kid!"

"Artemis?" Kaldur didn't know what was happening, only that it wasn't helping Robin.

"He came up to me on my first day of school, took a picture of me, and was all like 'you'll find this funny one day' !"

Dick let out a little giggle through his crying.

"Wait, Batman is your father?" M'gann asked.

"Foster father." He sniffled. "Bruce Wayne."

Conner perked up. He knew that name. "Bruce Wayne is Batman?"

Dick let out a wail. "Bruce is going to kill me!" He wept into his best friend's shirt. 

"It's okay." M'gann stood up, trying to fix this. "It's fine! you can stay here if you like!"

"It doesn't matter! I'm not Robin anymore! I'm not Batman's Sidekick! I'm just some kid now!" Dick tried to stop sobbing, frantically drying his eyes as Wally and Kaldur tried to calm him.

"Why?" Artemis asked. "Why are you so hung up? Batman's been treating you like trash for years!" Dick covered his face, how didn't he know? He should've seen this coming! He was so stupid! "So stop feeling sorry for yourself! Once you're a hero, you can't turn it off, I've tried!"

"Yeah. Yeah!  Who needs Bats? You're your own person! if you want to be your own hero, DO IT!" Wally tried to mimic Artemis' tough love approach. "C'mon! Put two fingers up, and live without rules for the night! Make your own future!"

Dick sniffled a little. "You sound like a Taylor Swift song."

"Don't yo love T Swift?" Wally asked.

Dick wiped his eyes on his wrists. "Why'd you have to call me out like that?"

Conner stood up. "We need food. Would you rather we call you Dick?"

Dick nodded a little. "We're all going to die anyways." He cuddled into Wally. "Why would he do this? I gave him EVERYTHING! I gave that- I gave up most of my childhood fighting crime...  and sticking my neck out to save HIM! and then he just FIRES ME?"

"I know, he's the worst." Wally prompted. "What's you do?"

"What does he expect me to do? Say 'oh yes, of course Bruce. I understand' and just go to bed and stop being a hero? No way! So I start arguing, and he tells me that this isn't about me, and I need to shut up and go upstairs to think!"

Wally stroked the younger boy's hair sympathetically. He'd never fully trusted Bruce to treat Dick right. Bruce couldn't even treat himself right.

"You can stay in the mountain if you want." M'gann suggested, finally approaching Dick. She, most of the team, had never seen Robin so broken. He was always cool and witty and smart and put together... but he's fourteen, and it's inevitable that he must be in shambles.

"You can stay with us too." Wally said. 

"Yeah! I could Bully Ollie and Roy into letting you stay. Not that I'd have to bully Roy,  maybe I should call him up..."

"You don't have to." Dick murmured. "I'm a burden right now. I shouldn't have even come here!"

"Yes you should! You're still part of the team!" Artemis scolded. "You've saved us more times than I could comprehend. Let us take care of you once! for our egos?"

"You shouldn't have to take care of me. I'm supposed to become the team leader."

"You can't lead the team-" Kaldur started.

"Without trusting them I KNOW!" Dick shouted. "Great job I've done for that so far! I only told you my name like, what? Ten minutes ago?"

"Those were the orders you were given. I was going to say that you need to trust the team to take care of you, as well."

Dick frowned, he didn't like being proven wring in front of the team, he was supposed to be the one who was always right. 

Then again, he thought Bruce valued his work, and he was clearly wrong.

Dick started crying again. This was the second worst day of his life. He clutched Wally around his ribcage, the redhead was the only thing anchoring him to his normal life.

"I have food. nothing great considering the short notice." Conner set it down on the table. "Will that do... Dick?" He was trying to get used to the new name. Dick was surprised that no one was making fun of his name.

The food was old bread, Freezer burned Rocky road ice cream, and tap water. It was more than enough. Dick claimed a small bowl of hard ice cream and began eating, slowly, wallowing in his own misery. 

"Dude, stop worrying about what happens next!" Wally told him. "Things are so fucked up tonight that we might as well just...  full send. Lock Bats out of the system, fall asleep at four am, how much worse can we make things?"

So they did. Someone put on Lady Gaga, and the six of them just... mourned. Most of them had piled on the main coach, cuddling Dick, and each other... coming to terms with whatever had happened that night. 

No one went home, they passed out on those coaches. All for one. Dick wouldn't go through this alone.