Robin's Shadow (Batman OC)

Chapter 7: New Sidekick Mantel

Our next month went similar to the first day, only we usually trained ourselves during the day while Bruce was at work, or at night while he was out being Batman. Bruce would train us in between for a few hours every day. He usually only worked at Wayne Enterprises for a few hours on weekdays anyway, just when he was needed for board meetings and some paperwork.

We didn't go back to our old school at all. We argued we never learned anything there and that the only reason we still went there at all was because of the free meal. Bruce relented, but had us studying extra for during the daytime with Alfred and told us we were enrolling into a better school in the next school year. It was almost summer break anyway, so it was a good compromise for us.

Alfred oversaw and led our target trainings since he was also a good marksman, but really neither of us needed help too much. I was already good at it, and Jason had a natural gift for being an expert marksman. We excelled through the weapon's training at a fast rate, and absorbed the combat training like sponges when Bruce had the time to teach us. 

We both finally started to put on weight towards the end of the first month, from both muscle and just from not being starved anymore. After a few weeks, we were both able to eat a whole plate of food to ourselves, just not the ridiculously overflowing sized platters Alfred originally tried to feed us.

Bruce and Alfred soon learned the downside of taking in twins though. We were great at learning and focusing when we had structure, but we were still hell raisers whenever we grew bored or distracted. And often, we would escape to the woods surrounding the manor. While I usually perched hidden in a tree I claimed as my favorite, Jason would take books from the library and sit at the base of my tree and read. Often we would disappear from whatever task we were supposed to be doing if it was boring to us and we would hide in my tree.

Alfred still tried daily to get us to sleep in our own rooms. He even had us decorate our own rooms, thinking it would entice us to stay in them. I redecorated my room in shades of green, with wood furniture and pictures of forests and wolves. Growing up in Crime Alley, I had missed living surrounded by the woods from Konoha, so it's nice being here at the manor where we can run outside and play in the trees whenever we want. Jason decorated his room in shades of red and black, and put up a few posters that he just taped to the wall, ignoring the frames Alfred got for him. He had books lining his shelves, both our old ones and new ones he got from the manor's library. 

Though our rooms now reflected our personalities better, it didn't stop us from sneaking into each other's beds. I feel safer when I'm with Jason, he keeps the nightmares away just by being there. I've had a lot of violence in my last life and in growing up in Gotham, restful nights are hard to come by when flashbacks haunt my dreams. Jason doesn't have nearly as many nightmares, but when he does, he always calms down whenever I grab his hand and hold it tight, just like I did when we were babies.

When the school year was restarting, Bruce enrolled us both at Gotham Junior Academy. We tried to argue that we didn't want to go to the yuppie academy where we'll just be considered street rats, but unfortunately, Bruce already announced us as his new adopted kids to the public, and as his kids, it was expected to go there. 

The media ate us apart, calling Bruce a saint for taking in more orphans, and calling us dirty street rats who should be lucky, and also saying that we'll ruin the good Wayne name. Bruce eventually had told us that Dick, his other adopted kid, was the previous Robin and that he had quit. The media couldn't help but compare us to Dick all the time. Dick Grayson was Gotham's Golden Child. We, on the other hand, were delinquent street rats. Our story had made it out there, how we were orphans living on the streets of Crime Alley, how we used to boost tires, fight in school, and rob stores and people.