Hello everyone.

This is for Dick Grayson's birthday in the comics (21st March).

In my mind Robin is turning 14 as this is set around the first year after season 1.

Barbra is in training to be Batgirl so she knows about the team.

Warning: implied/referenced child abuse.

No offense to any rich people intended.

Anyway hope you enjoy.

Robyn

It started with Richard 'Dick' Grayson. The weird kid in her school that was two years younger than her but seemed to continually find new ways to annoy her. He was a mathlete and genius (not that she would ever tell him that), they weren't friends but they knew of each others existence. Acquaintances she guessed would be the best term to describe their relationship, but he was also friends with her friends (not that she had many). Despite their lack of regular interactions she had always felt a weird urge to protect the little brat, like a big sister to a little brother.

According to Bette, her only true friend at Gotham Academy it was Grayson's birthday tonight and to celebrate his foster father - the famous Bruce Wayne - was having a party for the upper class and other selected guests. Unfortunately she was one of those selected guests as she was only in Gotham Academy because of the Wayne Foundation, plus apparently the kid himself had invited her (not that she had any clue why).

The only upside to these dreadful parties was Bette's presence but this time she wasn't able to attend as she had been dragged away for a family emergency, Being on her own was probably why she was in this situation in the first place. Not that she blamed Bette (much), it wasn't like she could control a family emergency.

Artemis could only spend so much time with the snobbish brats that inhabited her school before wanting to scream, so as soon as the lunch bell had rung she disappeared outside, around the back of the school to get some fresh air and peace in a private spot she had found months ago. It was times like this that she really hated being a scholarship kid in a fancy prep school full of rich brats.

When she arrived she found that she wasn't the only one with the idea (or the only one able to find the quiet spot). Grayson and his closest friend at Gotham Academy (and one of his only actual friends, and also one of her own friends), Barbara Gordon, were perched on the small wooden bench hidden around the back of the school. She had no idea what the original colour of the bench was, over time it had been covered in graffiti by rebellious, but still stupidly rich, teenagers.

They seemed to be having a very animated whispered conversation. Hands were waving and pointed looks were being exchanged. Need for fresh air forgotten, Artemis sneaked forward and hid behind a nearby bin. Her curiosity had taken over and she was leaning forward straining to hear what they were saying. She only felt a little guilty but her curiosity had mostly overpowered that (she was eavesdropping, so sue her).

"... I know Bruce cares, I understand that he has a reputation to uphold but does he really need to use my birthday as an excuse to maintain it? Especially as the guests are all rich snobs who only care about money. It doesn't help that you're leaving me alone." Dick whined frustrated. Artemis had to hold back a wince, so maybe the kid wasn't as much as a snob as the rest of the school, she even felt slightly bad for the kid (and mildly victorious - at least she wasn't the only one who would be suffering alone at the party).

"You know I'm sorry, but I can't make it. My dad needs me. At least Artemis will be going as well." Barbra tried to reason with the upset birthday boy. Artemis leaned even closer curious about what Grayson would say about her. She really hadn't expected her name to come up and it just made her even more curious.

"No offense to her but she's not going to be any help. Rich snobs rip people like her to shreds." Grayson snorted. She felt slightly insulted at that, she could hold her own.

"You mean people like you. People who are given charity." Barbara smirked.

"That's not the same. I know how to deal with the gossip and all the rumours they spread. I've had to get used to it growing up with Bruce. She's still not very used to surviving those as-"

"Dick!"

"Absolute idiots. That is definitely what I was going to say. Completely. 100%."

A comfortable silence descended, but before Artemis could decide whether to be insulted or not Barbara broke the silence with a change of topic.

"How's the team? Are you ever going to tell them?"

"Babs! You know we're not supposed to talk about our...extracurricular activities in public."

"Hypocrite!" Barbara scoffed.

"Hey! I'm not that bad." Grayson protested.

The pair were about to continue their conversation when they heard a crash. They turned around in sync to see the bin nearest the bench on its side on the ground.

"See Babs, someone was listening in! What if you had given everything away?" Grayson shifted nervously tugging on his school uniform as he stood up.

"Chill, there's no one here." Barbara replied before shivering, a cool breeze had appeared in the afternoon air. "Let's go back inside, it's cold out here."

With that final statement the pair went back into the warmth of the school building.

A few metres away Artemis lay on her side desperately trying to control her erratic breathing around a corner. She had leaned forward too much and knocked the bin over, she'd only just managed to roll away and hide before the pair had looked behind them to find the source of the crash. She cursed herself for the rooky mistake, maybe this way why all their 'covert' missions didn't go so well.

Artemis lay on the ground, hidden away for the rest of lunch trying to figure out what Barbara and Grayson had meant by extracurricular activities. She only managed to pull herself out of her thoughts and panic when the next bell rang to signal the end of lunch. She cursed quietly as she pulled herself to her feet and dashed off desperately to her next class.

Later that day, it was time for the party. Artemis unconsciously tugged on her knee high silver dress, hating its restricting style and lack of pockets but her mother had insisted. The only thing she was grateful for was the flat shoes, she didn't want to worry about heels on top of everything else.

She hated how she was being forced to go to this stupid party full of rich snobs, especially with the curious conversation from lunch time which she still couldn't figure out. Normally she would have dismissed it but the pair had seemed so secretive and something about Grayson just meant she couldn't let it go. With a long drawn out sigh she moved further towards the edges of the party, leaning slightly against a wall next to an arched doorway that was closed to the guests.

Artemis really didn't like the fact that she was alone at the stupid party. She had already heard people gossiping and commenting on her dress and shoes and lack of make up and the old classic of her charity case status. Basically anything and everything, god she hated these parties and all the stuck up rich snobs who thought they were better than everyone else just because they had more money.

The only reason she was here was because her mom had forced her to go, with the reasoning that Grayson was her classmate and she should wish him a happy birthday. Plus, the conversation at lunch had made her curious and she felt a bit sorry for the kid. She would have hated to have her birthday taken over by this kind of party, there was no fun and everyone here was to show off not because it was his birthday.

Her plan for the evening was to stay on the outskirts of the party talk when needed and then disappear as soon as it was socially acceptable (which was when her mother wouldn't look at her disappointed).

She quickly scanned the room to see if she was safe for now. Rich snob there, less rich-more snobbish person over there and oh, the Drakes. Artemis found the Drakes annoying, they especially liked to insult her at these events and were particularly stuck up but their little boy Tim was just adorable (he wasn't at the party today though). She knew that Dick sometimes babysat for them when they went away as they lived right next door (or next door for rich people, which meant something completely different to normal people).

They were chatting away to Lucius Fox, Bruce Wayne's business manager. She had only met him once but he seemed like a nice guy. Fox looked awkward like he was trying to find an excuse to escape the Drakes, not that they noticed. She sympathised with him, she would definitely feel the same stuck in his situation.

Bruce Wayne himself was trapped in a crowd of particularly snobbish, rich snobs only to be saved by clumsy reporter Clark Kent. She snorted to herself, wasn't it a bit rude to have a reporter at your foster son's birthday? Also wasn't he from Metropolis? It seemed that maybe Grayson did have a great reason for whining to Barbara earlier at lunch time. Talking of Grayson, where was he? She couldn't see him in the crowd, maybe he had managed to get out of the party after all or she just couldn't see him. She turned back to the wall, having finished her people watching.

With nothing to distract her, Artemis' mind wandered back to the conversation at lunch. What had they meant by extracurricular activities and telling them? Tell who, what? The only team she knew Grayson was apart of were the mathletes.

A quite thud drew her out of her thoughts. A quick look around showed that no one else had heard it or at the least were ignoring it. Either were possible with this crowd. She shrugged and decided to do the same, she went back to her thoughts.

Thud! There it was again. She looked around once more trying to find the source this time. Nothing there, nothing over there and even more nothing.

Thud! Where was it coming from? Then a light bulb switched on above her head. The arched doorway. It was coming from through there. She was the closest and she could barely hear it so people further away wouldn't have ben able to hear it even if they had cared. But no one was supposed to be through there. Immediately on alert, she checked no one was looking her way before quietly opening the door and sneaking through, closing it silently behind her.

She found herself in a dark corridor nothing around. She remained on high alert, keeping one ear behind on the party and one ahead in search of the source of the thud. She relaxed slightly as she moved further away from the party, no one had seen her sneak in here at least. She turned her attention back to the corridor, a series of doors led off in all directions leaving Artemis confused on which she should enter.

Then she saw it. Golden light peaking out from under a door to her left - someone was in that room. She crept up to the door and put her eye to the keyhole, trying to find out what was going on without getting caught.

She didn't like what she discovered. There was a group of older boys from the year above her, she'd seen their parents in the main room and hoped they hadn't come as they were a particularly nasty group of bullies, she'd had the misfortune of running into them once before. Clearly they had been at the party but had cornered Grayson and dragged him into this room, out of the way from the party. Which would explain why she hadn't been able to see either the bullies or Grayson at the party. Grayson was stuck in the corner arms raised in a useless attempt to try and protect him from the merciless punches the group of boys were throwing. The thuds had been from chairs that were scattered across the room and other bits of furniture that had been messed up.

To make it worse they kept shouting insults at him.

"You no good gypsy brat!"

"You should've died with your dirty thieving family!"

"Did you cry when they fell you baby?!"

"Oh is the little baby sad?!"

"Rot in hell circus brat!"

"Charity case!"

"Little bas-"

It was at that moment Artemis burst through the door screaming insults at the boys. They jumped away from their victim, surprised at the sight of her, and swiftly raced from the scene of the crime, the cowards.

As soon as they were gone she closed the door again for some privacy and marched back over next to Gra- Dick, next to Dick. She sat down next to him as he gently took his hands away from his face.

His arms, face and legs were beaten black and blue. Tears were running down his face which was scrunched dup in pain. She could sympathise, she knew first hand how much those bruises must hurt. She let him lean against her, although she was surprised he trusted her that much.

"Hey Dick, I'm not going to hurt you." She said as calmly as she could muster, trying to push away the anger she was feeling towards those boys for beating Dick up on his birthday (and in general, but the fact it was his birthday and the fact that he was already having a rubbish day didn't help her anger).

"Thanks Arty." He sniffled trying to calm his tears, with impressive success. For once she was willing to let the nickname go, just this once.

"You shouldn't let them get to you." As much as the physical bruises hurt she knew the verbal ones were worse and tried to offer some comfort even if she wasn't particularly sure how. "They're wrong about everything."

"I know, I swear I don't usually let them get to me, it's just harder around my birthday." Dick replied between stuttering breaths and hiccups, she remembered Bette saying something about a bad past but she was ashamed to say she didn't know the exact details, only that he was in the circus and after his parents died Mr Wayne took him in. She wasn't exactly fond of the gossip like most of the girls in her year were.

"What happened? I mean - oh sorry, you don't have to answer that." Artemis quickly tried to back peddle, she shouldn't have asked that.

"It's okay. People say it helps talking about it." He took a shuddering deep breath and started his story. "Up until I was six I lived in Haley's International Circus with my parents, aunt, uncle and cousin. We were the Flying Graysons, best trapeze artists in the world. A week after my birthday, we were performing in Gotham. It was supposed to be my first show. Haley, our ringmaster was threatened by a mob boss but he refused to pay so later that day he came back and sabotaged our wires. During the show the wires snapped and whole family fell to their deaths. My uncle was left in a coma for a few years before passing away." He took another deep breath before continuing, words spilling out, ignorant to her growing horror.

"I was then sent to Child Protection Services and it was decided that I couldn't stay with the circus. There were no orphanages left so I was sent to Juvenile Detention Hall - kid prison. There I was beaten up most days by both kids and adults because I was Romani. I was still learning English at this point as it wasn't my first language, which didn't help. A couple of months later Bruce took me in. Well that's my story." Dick finished his story.

Artemis knew it was bad but that was horrible. Being beaten for weeks on end when you were six was horrific and something no one should endure. Plus, having to watch your whole family fall to their deaths before being dumped with people that didn't care when you barely spoke the language.

"Thank you for telling me." Artemis announced gently, deciding she could process what he had said later.

"It's okay Arty thanks for listening." Dick stood up, wiping away his tears and moved towards the door. She stood up too but stayed where she was. "Oh and Artemis I know it was you who overheard Barbra and I at lunch, eavesdropping is so not asterous by the way." He grinned back at her before continuing. "I have five words for you. We'll laugh about this someday." Dick darted out the room quickly before she could say anything.

Suddenly the dots connected. The team. Telling them. Asterous. Everything

"Wait! Get back here you little brat!"

That was how Artemis discovered Robin's identity. She only realised that she had forgotten to wish him a happy birthday the next day and when his families' death anniversary came around she sat with Wally and Roy helping him through it. He was after all her little brother no matter how annoying he was (though she did shout at him quite a lot for messing with her like that).