Saviour || D. Grayson

𝘉𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩

"You're slouching, bird boy."

"I'm not slouching!"

"No? Then why are we almost the same height? We're not thirteen anymore. You had your growth spurt." I teased and he rolled his eyes. "Talk to me, bird boy."

"You think I'm becoming much like Bruce? Because I've been trying to be better!" Dick exclaimed. "Because I've been training them and-"

"I don't like you keeping secrets from your friends and you've been distancing yourself again from everything, including me."

"I try not to... but with everything going on, I just don't know what to do anymore."

"We're a team, Dick. It's always been you and me against everything. You don't have to hide from me." I sighed, straddling his lap and ran my fingers through his hair.

"All of this... the Robins, the Team... I created it and it all blew up in my face. People died, good people, and I'll have to carry that for the rest of my life."

"Wally, Tula and Jay's deaths aren't your burden to carry alone, Dick. I was leader too and I was in Arkham with Jason."

"I just can't shake the fact that I either keep failing or turning into the thing I swore I'd never become." Dick sighed and leaned his head back against the couch. "I once thought that being Robin was the best thing to ever happen to me, but I was wrong. It doesn't give you magic like Jason said, it doesn't give you hope like Tim praises... it's a damn curse that I can't get away from. Only Steph seems to understand that."

"Dick..."

"I try to be better at this, Mae. I thought becoming Nightwing was gonna give me the peace I thought I needed, but I'll never stop being cursed from Robin. I'll never be free from my past."

"I've learned that the more you run from it, the more it'll come to drag you down... Robin isn't something you should be ashamed of, Dick. Yes, it doesn't have the most amazing reputation, but that doesn't change the fact that all the Robins have done amazing things, especially you." I said and he scoffed.

"Bullshit."

"Dick, you helped create something so amazing that the entirety of the Justice League look up to you. You were the first one to step out of the mentor's shadow and surpass him in every way... you've risked your life every day since you were barely ten years old. You set the standard of what all of us should aspire to be."

"There's blood on my hands, Maeve. The blood of my brothers are in my hands and I can't seem to wash it off."

"What about Artemis and I? You think we're not stained as well?" I rolled my eyes and forced him to face me. "You've had every opportunity and reason to stray away from this life and become worse than the Joker, but you didn't. Instead, you chose to not let it affect you and continue to do good."