Alexithymia

'secret identities...'

❝sᴇᴄʀᴇᴛ ɪᴅᴇɴᴛɪᴛɪᴇs ᴋᴇᴇᴘ ɴᴏsᴇʏ ᴘᴇᴏᴘʟᴇ ʙᴜsʏ❞

"That sounds lame, Hal."

"Lame? I think hanging around these kids all day has you rebelling more and more." Hal playfully ruffled Aurora's hair into a mess.

She moved his arm away and pouted as she attempted to fix her hair. "Don't say that. I almost cried the other day when you said I was rude."

Hal's face fell at her words, "Wait, really?"

"No." Aurora giggled at his gullibility. Hal huffed out in faux annoyance and left for a meeting with the mentors of the team. She wondered if it had anything to do with the still missing Red Tornado, or who would be the next volunteer to watch over them.

"Oh hey, Aurora."

Aurora's whole body seemed to jolt up at the sudden new company. Turning around, the young girl attempted to ease her heart at the sight of a casually dressed Robin. Aurora still couldn't get over the fact at how well he hid strong emotions. To her, it was like Robin wore camouflage since she couldn't sense him around.

Not like Wally, whos glee she could sense a mile away whenever he attempted to startle her.

Aurora held tightly to the strap of her bag with one hand as she gave him a small wave. Ever since his accusing words on the mission with The Brain and Guerilla Gorilla, Aurora had admittedly been avoiding him. And quite successfully, she might add.

She avoided his stare and shifted in her spot for a few seconds. When neither said a word Aurora began to leave to another room.

"Wait." He spoke up and quickly moved to stand in her way. Aurora took a step back as Robin stood directly in front of her, dark glasses and all. It made her nervous as she couldn't read his emotions or even read the expressions behind his eyes as they too remained hidden.

"I've been trying to apologize to you since the whole monkey business last week." Robin met Aurora's eyes easily as she didn't have anything to hide behind as he did. "But you've done a pretty good job at avoiding me."

Aurora frowned. "Yeah. I can tell you don't like me at all since I first joined the team." She sighed, somehow feeling smaller in the situation despite her height advantage over him. "I understand if you don't trust me because I'm so quiet about myself, but you could've just asked."

"Why the whole secret then?" Robin prodded while shoving his hands into the pockets of his red hoodie

"I hate talking about myself...only because I don't like the attention." She coughed into the crook of her elbow to give herself a break so that she wouldn't stumble over her words. "Understandably so bringing up the fact that I got experimented only ever does that. Plus, it sucks that that's how I ended up here."

Robin nodded his head slowly as he took in her words. "It does. But we all have sucky pasts that we like to keep to ourselves. So sorry about being so uptight. I guess being around Batman all day makes me more paranoid."

Aurora smiled brightly at him as he briefly looked away. "Actually, I think it makes you much smarter. Not to mention way more experienced than all of us combined."

"Hey, kid, you ready to head off." Hal stepped into the room with a smile. Something that made Aurora wonder if he had overheard everything.

She nodded at her mentor before turning again to Robin, who stood quietly in front of the duo. "Hal and I are getting some muffins from a bakery a few blocks from where I live. I'll bring you some tomorrow before Wally gets here."