Not based on Pinterest
I often envy birds
They can fly away
They don't have to stay and face their problems
They have wings
To fly away
They have special bonds
That aren't broken
They have wings
To fly away
- best friend to Jean Shreave
Wings were made to fly, made to fly
Fears were born to die, born to die.
-John Cooper, lead singer to Skillet
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Krisil is a very strange name.
Krisil Foray has never heard of another name like her own. She has never met someone with that name.
Krisil.
Most people just call her Kris, and she's okay with that. She's used to that name. When her parents called her Krisil, she knew she was in trouble.
When the orphanage people called her Kris, she was used to it. Nobody ever dared to call her Krisil.
It sounded too much like Crystal and Kristina. It was a weird combination, and she often wondered how much her parents loved her.
When she was five years old she was sent to an orphanage as her grandparents died, and her aunt was in a mental hospital.
Her parents died during a shooting in the school they both worked for. Her mother was brave, she faced the shooter.
At least, that's what she was told. She wasn't sure if her mother faced Gregor Hillson or not.
But she knew for a fact that her dad would try to get her mother out of harm's way, putting him on the death penalty too.
Lisa Foray was a kind soul, and her father, Henry Foray was a bit of a rebel, but always had a soft spot for the Lisa Dane he knew.
Her grandmother, Rachel Dane, always told young Kris of her mother and father's love life. Good or bad.
Her grandmother told her that they met in Sophmore year, and became friends. They didn't start dating till after collage.
Her grandmother even showed her an old yearbook of her parents, and they made it to the "most likely to get married" section.
Kris wishes her parents weren't so selfless sometimes. She wished she got to know them better.
Because if they survived then she probably wouldn't still be going to different foster homes after 11 years.
It's not that nobody wanted her, it's that Gotham is always filled with sketchy people, so Kris declined every offer to live with anyone.
She has two years left, and she has to keep reminding herself this, until she's allowed to be free. Like a bird.
It was currently 2 am, and Kris wasn't really tired. She never got a lot of sleep. She only needed 2-3 hours to function, anyway.
She figured she might as well take a walk, no one is up at this time. No one would bother if she were gone anyway.
She walked out of the orphanage, careful not to walk on the creaky steps or open the door too loudly.
There weren't very many lampposts in this part of Gotham, and when there were, some of them didn't even work.
The dirt roads had many pot holes, and the cemented sidewalks could be mistaken for the roads based on how dirty they were.
Walks were usually quite peaceful, especially on this very specific day.
The anniversary of her parents death.
But today was quite different. Very unusual. And extremely nerve wracking when she felt a hand over her mouth.
The hand was gloved, and she was pressed against another body, as she heard the dark mans voice, as it tickled her ear.
"Stay quiet, and I won't hurt you."
Kris nodded, tears filling her eyes, hoping that if she did what the man wanted, he would let go.
She felt the mans hand uncover on her mouth, and then forcefully push her hands to her back.
"Move."
He forced her to walk forward, and Kris followed his orders, silently praying that someone would save her.
They walked a little further, and when a broken down warehouse was in sight, she felt a piece of cloth being held against her face.
Before she could hold her breath, she was already breathing in the chemicals, and her sight started to go dizzy and black.
☆☆》le time skip《☆☆
Kris woke up to the sound of grunts and sharp objects being thrown in in the air.
She groggily lifted her head up to make out Red Robin and her mugger fighting between the brown strands of her hair covering her face.
She went to get up, only to realize her hands were tied behind a chair, her feet tied to the legs, and a piece of cloth tied around her mouth.
Kris looked around the old warehouse to see a few more knocked out men on the filthy floor. Nothing else she hadn't already noticed.
Kris could feel the cool wind hitting her cheecks, making it known it wasn't too long ago when she got kidnapped because she could feel dried tears on her cheecks.
When her focus came back onto the fight, she got to witness Red Robin slamming his fist into the muggers jaw, knocking him out cold on the ground.
The superhero looked at the man a little bit, before he looked up directly at Kris, and started to run toward her.
Kris's heart was pounding loud in her chest and she couldn't hear the hero ask if she was okay.
She was scared.
She's heard stories from the orphans that Batman and his "batclan" only want to hurt people like her.
When the hero removed the piece of cloth from her mouth, she mustered up her voice, though it was still shaky and broke.
"Please don't hurt me!" Kris cried, new tears starting to roll over the dried ones from earlier.
The hero in front of her looked very confused. And a little hurt.
"Hurt you? Why would I do that?" He asked, his voice soft.
"Because that's what you do. You- you hurt people like me. They all said so." She cried out.
"People like you? Are you a criminal?" He asked, his voice matching what she guessed his age was.
"No. No. I'm an orphan." She stammered.
"And why would I hurt orphans?" He asked her, keeping his tone even.
"Because they all said so." She said.
"Who's they? The other orphans?"
Kris nodded, tears still rolling down her cheecks.
"Well I don't know what kind of stories they would come up with, or why they would, but I would never. Now let's get you untied."
As Red Robin kneeled down to untie the ropes keeping her legs in place, he heard her scream.
"Get away from me! Leave me! I- I don't want to go! Just- just leave me. I just want to die."
Kris's voice broke at the last part, and started to sob again, small fuzzy memories of her parents coming to her mind.
Red Robin looked shocked when he heard the last sentence, and gently placed his hands on her shoulders.
"Look at me." The hero demanded.
Kris obliged, but was still crying and hiccuping as she looked at him through her one grey, and one ember eyes.
"Don't ever say that. Dying is a horrible thing, and I'm sure that someone out in the world would miss you if you died."
This broke Kris. She started laughing.
"You think somebody would care about me? Let me tell you something, if they did, I wouldn't have been stuck in an orphanage for 11 years!
My parents would have thought about the consequences of dying before they stood in the line of fire during a school shooting!
My aunt is too mentally insane to even know I exist, and the rest of my family are all dead! Nobody cares about me, and nobody will!"
The hero looked heartbroken. She didn't know why, nobody ever did when she told them her past.
So why him? Why now?
There was a moment of silence before Red Robin started to talk.
"Did your parents at least love you?"
"I- I don't know. I was five years old when they died. Of the few memories I have of them, they are blurry. I don't remember much."
The hero nodded his head.
"My grandma told me they were the most selfless people ever, but I can't even remember their faces."
Kris clenched her hands into fist, not caring the rope against her skin burned.
"So selfless they never thought of leaving behind their daughter, who just started kindergarten, to be in a life of orphanages."
It was silent once again.
"How... how would you feel if you were adopted?" The hero asked her.
"I don't think about it. I was rejected most of my life, so I guess I never knew what acceptance felt like. And I was too young to know love."
"What if I told you, I could help you get adopted? At least for the two years you have left until you can legally live on your own."
Kris snorted.
"Right. After 11 years someone will finally accept who I am and adopt me. Better stop giving hope, it lessens the others when you can't fulfill it."
"But I know I can! Just, give me time to make a phone call, and I promise. You'll be living with some good kids."
Kris hummed.
"I guess I'll give it a shot."
The hero visibly relaxed and started to cut st the ropes tying her hands and feet to the cold chair.
"Wait here."
Kris obeyed and sat in the chair as she wat hed Red Robin press two finger to his right ear as he walked outside.
▪︎▪︎▪︎》With Tim 《▪︎▪︎▪︎
"Batman? This is Red Robin."
"Yes, Red Robin?"
"I... have a question."
"Continue."
"I... found an orphan girl tied up today in a warehouse, and after I beat all the thugs, I went to release her. But we have a minor problem.
She screamed at me and demanded to leave her there to... die. Bruce, she wanted to die. I tried to convince her, but there's something.
I told her I would find her a home for the next two years until she was able to go off on her own."
"And that means Bruce Wayne."
"Yeah." Tim sighed. "Look, I'm sorry I put you in this position, but-"
"Bring her."
And then the beep rang in his ears signaled that Batman disconnected the comms unit.
Tim sighed in relief.
He walked back to the girl, who looked deep in thought.
"Good news!" Tim cried out, shocking the girl out of her haze.
"You did it?" She asked, complete and utter shock filling her voice.
"I'll be bringing you to your new home. Do you need anything from your orphanage? Clothes or something?"
Kris was in utter disbelief and went into shock, wondering why someone was being so nice to her all of a sudden.
"Umm... hello?" Tim asked awkwardly when the silence thickened the air, which made him nervous.
Kris came out of her shock and bolted to give the hero a hug.
"Thank you! Thank you thank you thank so much! You have no idea what this could ever mean to me!"
Tim could feel small peetles dropping onto his chest, and looked down to see her crying.
Tim's instincts over came him and seconds later he embraced Kris in the hug. He was slightly heartbroken she was this grateful for something as simple as this.
They stayed like that, Kris whispering thank yous over and over again into Tim's chest while she cried.
They parted later and Tim asked her the same question again.
"Do you need anything from your orphanage? Clothes or something?"
Kris only shook her head and smiled.
Tim took her hand and walked over to his motorcycle parked in an alleyway close to the warehouse, the guys still somehow knocked out.
Tim gave Kris a helmet after getting onto his motorcycle and put his helmet on, told her that the bike was safe to get on.
After a few reassuring sentences, Kris got on the bike and put on the red helmet with a strange symbol that matched the hero's.
Tim soon zoomed off into the streets of Gotham city, after Kris secured her arms around him.
And Kris felt like she was flying, just like Robins.
Please comment if you want a part 2.
Next chapter is Jaytim