-Athena's POV-

My father held me close as the winter nipped at my nose. He tucked me inside his ratty, ripped jacket, but I had to stick my nose out. I was a curious little thing.

I smiled as my mother came out from behind the winter trees. She had to pick her legs up pretty high to get through the heavy snow. A few snowflakes caught on my eyelashes, making me happy. I stuck out my tongue and caught as much as I could.

"Mommy!" I cheered, clapping my hands together. My dad whispered for me to be quiet as my mom sat down on the little couch we had. She rubbed my head and smiled up at my dad.

"I brought back my little girl something sweet," she said, handing me a little brown cupcake. I snatched it up and licked off of the white frosting. I devoured the cake and wrapped my arms around her. She was so much warmer than my dad was.

"A cake? You bought that? Those are like four dollars that we don't have..." My dad tried to avoid telling the four year old that we were too poor for a present for me.

"I didn't buy it, Mr. Haly did."

"Who's Mr. Haly?"

"Our new boss!"

"What?"

"For Theeny's birthday, I got us a home! Haly's Circus, the happiest place on Earth!" My mother cheered. My dad got up and grabbed her hands. They began twirling around, cheering. I clapped and laughed until they slipped on ice, falling on each other and laughing.

"Mommy, does that mean we have to leave the country now?" I whimpered, looking at the two lovers on the ice. My mom got up and kneeled in front of me.

"Yes, we have to go to the city. But, Baby Girl, trust me we will be way happier in the big city." I imagined a castle in the clouds as my mom and dad laid side by side on the stolen couch we had in the forest. They cuddled me and tried to keep me warm.

Over the next few days, my parents and I began to pack up all of our belongings. Most of our stuff was stolen. My dad put me on his shoulders on the day we were supposed to get on the train to go to Gotham.

"You ready, Theen?" My dad asked, smiling up at me. I looked around the small village outside of our little camp. It was the first and last time I would be in that small city.

The train was composed of many colorful box cars. I opened my eyes wide open and my mouth dropped. I jumped down from my dad's arms and put my tiny hands on the box cars painted with little elephants on it.

"Look, it's Dumbo!" I called, knocking on the door.

"Hello little girl!" A man approached me, leaning down to see me. "You wanna see the animals?" He asked, grabbing my hand. I nodded.

"I wanna see Dumbo!" I cried, waving my arms like an elephant's trunk.

The door slid open to reveal a car full of hay and two elephants. I clapped and screamed. "Elephants! Elephants!"

"Aren't they magical?" The man held me up so I could pat their painted heads. My parents came up beside me and stuck out their hands.

"I see you already met our daughter," my dad laughed, "nice to meet you Mr. Haly." I looked up at the man who held me.

"Wait, you're what gave us our new life?" I asked. Haly laughed and shrugged, patting my shoulder.

"If the Circus is your new life, then yes."

"Thank you, Mr. Haly."

"Thank you for joining, Dumbo," Haly touched my nose, making me giggle, "let's get you to your cabin."

We walked through a long hallway. I was kind of nervous and hid behind my parents as we walked past the other performers. I wandered away to try to find the animals again.

The lions roared out, calling me to them. I was about to open the cage of the lions when someone grabbed my arm, yanking me away. A boy about a year older than me pulled me back.

"Hey! What are you doing!?" The boy yelled. I looked up, scared to all hell. I began to cry, but he gave me a hug. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell. You're obviously new to the circus. I'm Dick Grayson," he stuck out his small hand.

I sniffled and shyly shook his. "Athena Thomas."

"Athena! There you are!" My mom scooped me up into her arms and sneered at the boy. "I was so worried! Don't ever leave our family again!"

"It's okay, Bonnie. That's Dick Grayson. He's an acrobat, he's okay," Haly smiled.

"Welcome to the family," Dick beamed.

********

I swiped at my face as I thought about my parents. Just a few tears, nothing too much. I glanced at the city and remembered when I first arrived there. I had come so far since then. I was working with a psychopathic killer to take down a man who dressed up as a bat while having a fling with a guy who doesn't recognize me even though I knew him for six years. Everything went wrong when they were murdered by Bruce Wayne.

I heard the smallest of lands on the concrete roof behind me. I pounced and held my dagger against the cowl of Batman, the man who killed my parents. He raised his hands in surrender. For a few seconds, I kept my dagger pressed onto his throat until I drew it away. I could've killed him right there, so why didn't I?

"Tim told me what happened," Batman's deep voice said. I stood up and pulled out my grapple gun.

"I don't care. I don't want to hear some speech about why I should stay."

"Nightingale, do you not remember our agreement?" I laughed.

"I am not part of your family."

Bruce's face twisted. I guess he didn't like hearing someone say that. Something other than coldness hid in his eyes. I was about to turn away, but I found myself staring to try to put together his reaction.

"Come with me," Batman finally said, "I need to show you something." I shook my head firmly.

"What do you think this is? A cheesy family flick? I'm not going to go see something that is important to you as if it's gonna make me seem closer to you. No. I don't trust you." Turning to walk away, I pulled out my grapple and lined up a shot to shoot me across the city.

"Come with me, or I will force you to come with me." His voice was way rougher than normal. He seemed more guarded and more vulnerable at the same time. Reluctantly, I followed him. I wasn't thinking about the mission at that time. Bruce could've led me to his thugs to destroy me for good, but he didn't. He led me to a graveyard.

The graveyard was a few yards from Wayne Manor. Trees surrounded it and there were only a few lines of graves. Fog, coincedently, collected at our feet as he led me to a specific stone.

I peered down on it. Two stones stood side by side. I felt my heart sank as I stared down on the graves.

"These are my parents," Bruce pulled off his mask to reveal his chiseled and deadly serious face. Like all of the men who lived under the Wayne name, they were all handsome. Even the butler was probably good looking in his own age.

Bruce was the face of wealth and playboy. He had a hard jaw, symmetrical features, and sharp bone structures. His soft hazel hair was always groomed and his face was already shaved clean. Muscles always bulged from all the fancy clothes he wore as a result of night after night of crime fighting. Tim was also gorgeous for a kid his age. He was more lean than any fourteen year old boy I saw in my assassin days and he had similar blue eyes to his adopted father and his older brother. His hair was a bit less full and thick as Bruce's, but it was still as dark.

"The powerful Martha and Thomas Wayne," I commented, "my parents always reminded me of their wealth and the selfishness within their company." My real parents never really knew the Waynes. When Bonnie was a child in a rich house, she told me that she had once met Thomas at a house party for the mayor. But, after that, they always told me stories about the dynasty that was Wayne.

"Wealthy and powerful, yes. But, selfish? They were never selfish. My mother was the most caring person in Gotham. She always wanted to make Gotham a more loving place," Bruce paused to look at the graves, "well, at least she tried." I think, he was hinting at how his parents were killed. Believe it or not, the death of his parents wasn't in his computer files.

"They were shot. I came face-to-face with the reality that my parents' visions for Gotham was not true and wouldn't be true unless someone fought back. As I cradled my parents' bloody corpses, I decided that that someone would be me.

"I would stand up. I would fight back. And I would avenge their deaths as well as everyone's deaths who died at the hand of mindless criminals. The Robins believe the same thing. Dick's parents were murdered and Tim's dad was also killed. That's what unites us crime fighters. We fight to avenge our dead loved ones," Bruce patted the graves and led me a couple of feet past his favorite spots.

"But you are different. You never had loving parents or someone to care for you, that's why it's so hard for you to live with us now. You don't fight for vengeance on your dead parents, because you were probably happy when they died. You weren't loved. You were alone as a kid. That's what brings me to this."

This grave was hidden and small compared to his boldly stated parents. I could barely read the small print. There was only the first and last name of the body under the ground as well as three tiny words. Jason Todd. The lost Robin.

"He was the Robin before Tim, wasn't he?" I looked into the emotional eyes of Batman.

"Yes."

The answer was quick and short. I didn't feel like pressing the subject like I did with Martha and Thomas. This was different. Bruce was older when this happened; more experienced when this happened. He wasn't Batman when his parents died. He didn't know how to save people when his parents died. But he did when this boy was killed.

"His grave reminds me everyday what family is. He shows me that loving someone who can be touched by death is hard. But, that it is the most important thing in life. Being Batman, or Robin, or even Nightingale -- it's about defending family. And family sticks together.

"Jason's death is my fault. And that haunts me everyday of my life," Bruce paused to suck in a breath, "that's why I want you to train and be with us. So one day I'm not coming back from a mission to see that you've fallen. I don't want you to be lost, like Jason." He choked a bit, but held in his tears. I never was very emotional and neither was Bruce, but we were both very vulnerable. I pulled Bruce into a hug as an instinct.

This man had devoted his life to defeating crime, not running it. A real crime boss would've gotten the intel from his adopted son that their new agent was attacking his assistant's house. And he would've punished me after he noticed that I was onto him. But he didn't. He revealed more to me than I knew about him. A crime boss wouldn't do that. It was evident that Bruce didn't kill my parents in cold blood. How could he do the same thing to me that someone did to him? Unless...the Black Sharks is like the old Wayne Enterprises. The one that was trying to do good, but was made up of bad people with bad intentions. The gang is run by a do-gooder who is using it to cut down crime, but his employees are actually straying off course. But, does that mean that my parents were targeted by Batman? That would mean that they were criminals; bad ones at that. They were good thieves and my parents were always taking turns to go into the city for reasons I didn't ever know...but that didn't change anything. He still killed them.

"Let's go back inside," I told him. He nodded and we both filed into the building.

Tim was sitting on the couch and got up as soon as he saw me. He wrapped his arms around me and sighed happily. "We were worried about you. Don't leave again. Please. I'm sorry for yelling." I laughed and patted his head. It was nice that Tim had changed his shy, and sad tone to a happier song.

"I'm here to stay. Don't go worrying about me when I leave."

"Master Victoria, it is awfully dangerous to leave into the city without a tracker or back up. Tim has school tomorrow and he has been up all night waiting to make sure you're okay," Alfred said, coming from the kitchen.

"Don't ever place a bug on me. I'm turning nineteen in a few days, so I'm a big girl!" Alfred hugged me tightly. I smiled and swatted off the tracker he put on my shoulder guard. "Pennyworth, stop." He shrugged and Bruce patted my back.

"Let's go to sleep. I have a meeting tomorrow and Tim has a science test, right?" Bruce joked. Tim rolled his eyes and the two headed to their rooms. Alfred also left. I was left alone in the living room, almost seeming like it was on purpose.

I turned around to go to the kitchen to see Grayson staring at me. He smiled lightly and looked at his feet. I scoffed and strode towards him.

"You here to mock me for coming back?"

"Yeah, sounds like a cliche romantic comedy," Dick held out his arms slowly. I slapped his arms down and raised an eyebrow. "Come on, even Alfred got one."

"Because Alfred didn't fuck up my mission," I said, walking into his grasp. I quickly wrapped my arms around him. He smiled and hummed in delight, squeezing me tightly. I shoved his chest away. "Alright, alright. Enough."

"So, you're staying now?"

"Yep. Can you handle a girl changing right beside your room or being naked in your bathroom?"

"I've had a girl change in my room and be naked in my room before, so, yeah." Grayson smirked and wiggled his eyebrows.

"Oh really?"

"You can be one of those girls if you want," Dick tossed me another smirk.

"Nah, I'm good." I turned on my heel, but a familiar set of fingers wrapped around my forearm again. I was snapped around and Dick's fingers were buried in my hair. He forced my lips on his, but eventually I -- rather stubbornly -- melted into it. I smiled into his mouth as he held me against him. It felt kind of nice to be like a normal girl with a normal boy. It didn't really matter that I had weapons strapped to me, I was still in the arms of the closest I had ever came to a friend.

A knock on the door made us both freeze. We turned to look to see who would step in. The door slid open and a tall, redheaded girl stepped in. She had a suitcase at her side and a purple Batman hoodie.

"Barbara!" Dick let me go almost as quickly as he had embraced me. He ran towards the red head and lifted her up in the air, spinning her around. She giggled, her face turning bright pink. He tucked her into his shoulder in a tight hug.

"Dick! It's so great to be back!" She cheered, looking up into his eyes as she smiled largely. Her gaze shifted past Dick to me. Her smile fell. "Who's that?"

~~~~~~~~~Not as much action, lots of drama and romance! Yay! And yes, I added a picture of Dick because I feel like Athena is seeing that Dick is actually attractive. So, yeah. Vote, comment, and follow if you aren't already!~~~~~~~~~