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Warnings:

Mentions of underage rape. 

Childhood Sexual Abuse/child molestation. 

Abusive and Sexual Trauma. 

Gangs and mobs.

(I'm new to these themes and won't be going into detail over them. They'd simply be hinted towards and mentioned)

The story's not full on dark, all the warnings are mostly only mentioned over their past as they live their lives now.

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HOPE YOU ENJOY

PLEASE VOTE

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It started on a dark and stormy night. 

But than again, he always found that stories seemed to always do that. Well, they always started on a dark, stormy night or on a bright and beautiful day instead. He never liked a story that began with a bright and beautiful day because they always started off happy and pleasant before something truly sad and awful happens. A family member dying, a betrayal or something that breaks one heart, it's never good. He trusted a story with a dark and story night, heavy rain and an air that warned you over nothing good about to come. It was more pleasant to know that some form of evil or death was planned ahead because at least it got straight to the unhappiness instead of tricking you into a happy feel before ripping your heart out.

He'd prefer the truth, to feel the warning's and know that something whole heartedly evil and cruel was about to be laid out before him. He could close his heart off, feel pity and cry for the poor soul of whoever would be effected by such an promised event. He knew that once the bad deed was done, only good was left to be given and he could fully relax into the story told before him. 

A happy ending never started with a happy beginning. 

Not in the real world. 

We're all born innocent but we're all tainted at some point, one way or another, we never keep our happiness and we're force to fight for our happy ending. If we're lucky enough to hold one at least. 

But he still tried to look on the bright side of life. It was just how he was. Always looking for something good even when everything only seemed bad right now. He purposely kept hope over something better in life. He had to. 

It kept him going even during the worse moments of his life. 

He had no choice but to look for a bright side in life. To carry on hope in the world and hold faith in the people around him. 

That's how his parents raised him. With love, compassion and hope. 

His parents gave him plenty of affection, praises and plenty of bright sides in life. They taught him to hold faith in others, over second chances and to always find as much happiness as one can and enjoy every moment of joy as it comes when it can easily be taken away again as easily as it's given. 

He held a lot of empathy, he knew he did and he might have seem a little dumb to other's for always having his hands in the clouds and being so giggly but he was much smarter than other's thought. He knew over both the good and bad in life, he knew the pain and suffering as much as he knew the joy and warmth given in life. Being a circus boy, he was shown a lot of ugliness in the world but he was also shown the beauty. 

He wasn't a dumb boy just because he was always smiling and being kind to other's, he just wanted to pass on the kindness his parents gave him and brighten up other's lives in hopes to place a smile on them. 

But as much as his parents encouraged him and told him to always try and smile through the pain, how a smile could save the day. They didn't teach him how to keep a smile as he watched his parents fall to their death.

Instead his smile fell, his agony scream echoed above and his face stayed tear stained. He had watched them die, was prepared to jump and fly out their held our hands to catch him. It wasn't his first show with them, he'd been flying with his parents for just under a year and he had assumed it wasn't going to be his last show with them.

It was.

He was left alone, left behind and broken.

He didn't know when he had climbed down, ran to his parents limp and bleeding bodies. He clung to them, crying and begging for them to wake up, to hug him and to laugh it off like a bad joke.

But they didn't.

He was pulled away, took in by social services and placed in a form of holding for orphaned boy's like him. He had hoped he'd be release to the circus, they were his family. But the social worker had decided that a circus wasn't a suitable home for a child, wasn't fit to raise him even though he had spent all eight years of his life with them.   

Pop Haly had assumed he'd be given to them, he demanded for him to be released into his care. But they refused and his parent's never wrote a will or any formal letter that held their wishes of the circus to raise him if the worse was did to happen. 

Not because they didn't wish for him to be in their care but because they assumed that it wasn't needed due to two reasons. One, because he was born into the circus and they were one large family, all knew that. And two, because they knew the chances if they did die, he'd die with them by falling with them. The flying Graysons were known for flying without a safety net below them, once he had stared flying with them than it was clear if they fell, he'd fall with them. 

His parents never planned or wished for his death to be during a show but it was a point that couldn't be ignored either. Their show's were dazzling, thrilling and they were famous acrobats after all. But it was also dangerous and could be deadly, they had to face such a fact each and every show and their son needed to know the risks without a net. They may practice with a net but they never used one during a live show. 

Pop Haly tried, he really did but he just couldn't get the boy back. The circus stayed in Gotham, still trying to adopt him and having the whole camp set as it was the night of the accident. Well, the murder, Anthony Zucco had killed the Graysons as a warning and as an example. 

No one had told the boy, knew he was facing enough than to learn that his loving and kind parents were brutally killed for such a reason. Even the Social services had agreed to keep silent on the matter, agreeing with Pop Haly reasoning. 

And than Richard met Bruce Wayne, just once. He had visited him, took him out of the holding centre and to the garden space just outside the building. Sat on a bench and told him over how he paid for his parents graves and the whole funeral. It was booked for the coming Friday and he'd sent a suit for him to wear, he'd be picking him up and personally taking him to his parents funeral. 

Richard was grieving but he saw that the stranger had cared, was also in pain as he was. He noticed how the man had seemed as broken as he was and even seemed angry for some reason. 

Richard had silently hoped he'd be adopted by the man and his kind hearted butler called Alfred. He rather liked Alfred even though he'd only seen the man from a distance. He stood by the fancy car, sent a small wave in return when Richard had silently waved towards him as Mr Wayne went to leave.

As Friday came, he slipped on his suit that was posh but also comfortable and had fit him perfectly. He still wasn't smiling and he still cried more than he'd ever did before. But he wiped his tears, tried acting brave and hovered by the holding room door to be picked up by Bruce. 

But he wasn't met with Bruce as it opened. 

He was met with a man with an overly forced smile, a cruel and lustful glimmer to his drugged filled eyes. A man smelling of smoke, sex and booze. His teeth uneven and yellow, his finger nails yellow and cracked and he was completely disgusting.

"W-Who are you?" Richard weakly asked as he stepped back, his whole body is screaming for him to run away. 

The man smelt bad and it wasn't just his terrible stench that whiffed around him. He was a bad man. As bad as Anthony Zucco had smelled when he bumped into the man with his parents. 

"I'm your new owner, the adoption papers have just been finalized" He told him, his forced and sickening sweet smile growing as he took a step forward. His eyes dangerous and keen. 

"B-But Mr Wayne is meant to pick me up" Richard whimpered back, taking another step back to get further and further away from the man. 

He didn't like him. He was scary and something about him just screamed just wrong. He was dangerous, a mean and nasty man that he needed to run away from. 

"Not anymore. You'll be coming home with me. Be a good little boy and I'll treat you like a sparkling treasure. Misbehave and you'll be punished for it" He replied completely serious, reaching his hand out towards him and grabbing at his arm in a right and bruising grip. 

His whole world crumbled in that single moment as he realized, at merely eight years old, not everyone get's saved. 

Not until that one stormy night in years to come.