Chapter Text
The fairgrounds were so close to the shore that Dick could taste the salty air on his tongue.
The trailer’s window was open as high as it would go—only about halfway, since it broke last summer and Tata swore that he was handy enough to fix it—and he was folded through it, as far as he could without tumbling out. The ocean breeze was wailing. It blew his hair into his eyes, and Dick shoved it back with one hand and kept it there.
A roustabout—Ezekiel, he was new this season—cursed as the canvas of a tent got thrown off its poles with a powerful gust. Dick giggled, and the man’s head jerked toward him, sheepish. “Shit! Sorry kiddo, didn’t see you there.” He wrangled the tent back into some sort of tent-shape, and drove a spike into the ground with the heel of his boot. “You’re gonna fall out of that window ass over tea kettle someday, Dick.”
“Not possible,” said Mama, she snuck up behind him! He tried to pull his shoulders back into the trailer, but she caught him and tickled his unprotected belly. “This window doesn’t open far enough for him to fall through–look how he’s wedged in there!” She ignored his shrieks of glee, and took his instinctive kicks and struggling like a brick wall.
“Just how I designed it.” Tata walked up, smiling broadly. He was carrying spikes and rope in his thick arms, and a bag of toys for the vendors in his back. “Have mercy on the little bird, Marygirl!”
Tsking, Mama relented, and Dick slipped back into the trailer, hopping past her and her clever fingers to the door. “Tata!” he called, flying to his dat’s side. “I can help! Let me carry something!”
Tata hummed. His eyebrows and thick, black mustache twisted. “My robin is getting big now, isn’t he?”
“Very big.”
He grinned and dropped the coil of heavy, thick rope into Dick’s arms. “Not such a little bird anymore.” He started walking off—Dick stuck himself close up against his side—and Mama called goodbye to them.
“How long until the grounds are ready, Tata?” The camp was buzzing, everyone bustling someplace, grabbing things and pulling ropes. It reminded Dick of a beehive, with the bees crawling over one another and humming together so the hive looked like it was alive.
“Hm. Early afternoon, maybe? Things are going fast today, I think everyone’s excited to be back in Gotham.”
Dick frowned. “Not Mama.”
His tata looked down at him, surprised, but before he could say anything, Joey the clown was clapping him on the shoulder. “How’re the stars of the show, huh? Ready to fly tonight, Dick?”
“I’m always ready to fly,” said Dick. Joey was balancing a pair of stilts under one arm; Dick tilted his head. “You aren’t going to be a clown tonight, Joey?” Joey barked out a laugh, and walked away, shaking his head. Tata chuckled and bumped his hip against Dick’s shoulder. “What?”
“Do you remember the last time we came to Gotham, Dickie?”
Dick looked over his shoulder at the rest of the island. The air was gray, the buildings were tall and bleak, but there was color too–the city seemed to have a secret that it was daring him to find. “Not very much.”
“That makes sense, you were only a chick back then.” He ignored Dick’s indignant huff. “About four years ago, a very bad man did a lot of bad things here, and he did it dressed as a clown. The natives are terrified of them.”
“That’s terrible!” Dick looked around for Joey; he wanted to give him a hug. “Clowns are supposed to make people happy.”
They finally reached the big top. Tata handed off his spikes and bag to a roustabout, and he reached for Dick’s rope. “Is that why we haven’t been back? Because Gotham makes the clowns sad?”
Tata said a bad word in their special language, but he was smiling one of those sad smiles, and reached a strong arm down to him. Dick planted his foot in the meaty palm of his tata’s hand, and clambered up and over his shoulders, nestling there comfortably. “I wish that were why, little robin. Something terrible happened three years ago, and a lot of people died.” Dick dug his nose into his tata’s floppy black hair—they both needed a haircut, Mama’d been saying it for weeks. “They needed time to rebuild.”
Neither his tata or mama were very tall—you couldn’t be, to fly the way they did—but Dick loved how far he could see, perched on his shoulders. All the tents were popping up like flowers across the midway and streamers strung between colorful booths, and there were even a few rides this year! The gray, cold city already looked a little brighter. “We’re going to cheer them up again, right Tata?”
“My little robin could cheer up anyone, couldn’t he?” Tata pulled him from his shoulders under one arm, and rubbed his fist into his hair.
Dick groaned, and struggled in vain against his iron grip. The trailer! Mama was hanging out the door, watching them come close again with a wicked smile. “Mama!”
“What, you run away and expect me to save you?” She tutted, “We suffer the consequences of our actions, mon oiseau.”
Tata stepped up to the door, and held Dick to his chest while he leaned in to Mama. “Oh no,” Dick whined; he was squished between them as Mama pulled Tata in with a hand behind his head. “I can’t breathe.”
Mama laughed, muffled, and pulled away. “Bring him inside, mon chéri, we need to talk about tonight.”
Obediently, Dick let himself get tossed weightlessly onto the bed, rolling the way he’d been taught. Tata started to fiddle with the window again, and Mama climbed onto the bed with him. She buried her fingers in his hair, arranging it even though they wouldn’t need to get ready for hours and hours yet.
Her smile was warm, but the corners of her eyes were drawn tight. They had been since the boat had arrived in Gotham.
“Why don’t you like it here, Mama? I thought you were from here.”
Her sigh was shaky. “That means I know it too well. Now listen. I don’t want you helping the pitchmen and pitchgirls tonight before the show, alright? Gotham is not a nice place. Neither are its people. You stay here.”
“But you’ve taught me–”
“Little robin, the things I teach you are only for an emergency. Do you understand me?” Even though her words were severe, her tone was not. Tata stopped pretending to be able to fix the window, and just leaned against it, watching them. Dick’s eyes shifted between the two of them, and he nodded. Mama hummed and pulled Dick in, pressing her lips to his forehead. “It’s always better to hide our talents. Then no one expects them.”
Dick was quiet for a moment. “I’m sorry you’re scared here, Daj.”
“Don’t you worry about me, Dickie.” She stood up, and the line of her shoulders that had been slowly rising to her ears settled again. Her posture was always so perfect, even when they weren’t performing. So was Tata’s, but he also always seemed so careful—it was like that perfect-ness was just natural to her. Dick wanted to be just like her. “Now, do you want to brush Mama’s hair while I fix that hole in your costume? It takes much longer to pretty me up than you boys.”
Sure enough, her copper hair was tangled and frizzed from a long day of tent-raising. “Of course, Mama.”
Satisfaction bloomed in Dick’s chest as he managed a perfect flip, catching Tata’s wrists and dismounting with a flourish. The crowd roared. Dick had flown in cities around the world, but the Flying Graysons hadn’t been able to come to Gotham for years—it felt like the whole entire city was squeezed under one tent. Their applause was so loud, it felt like it could push him off of the platform.
“Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for our newest member!”
Dick waved enthusiastically, and began the long climb down the ladder.
“Unfortunately we have to say goodbye for now, because here it comes folks! The main event!” The house held their breath. “The Flying Graysons will now perform…without a net!”
The crowd’s roar faded as Dick slipped out of the tent into the clown alley, but just barely. He normally loved to watch them fly just the two of them, but he’d been cooped up all day. Dick stretched and somersaulted, landing on his back and looking up at the starless sky. A city so big it blocked out all the other lights in the sky…
A shadow flitted out of the corner of Dick’s eye, and he sat up.
The tent flap fluttered.
His eyes narrowed. Dick slipped back into the tent, and sure enough, a man had walked in. He was moving quietly, but quickly, and there was something in his hands.
“Hey!” Dick yelled, the sound almost drowned out by the crowd. The man startled and turned, and their eyes met for one moment; then he was off. He was running to the other side of the tent, away from one wire and towards another… Dick froze. His heart, his hands went numb.
“Now folks, these two are trained professionals with more than a decade’s experience. Do not try this at home.”
Dick tore off—it was too late to stop him, but if he could just warn them.
“Stop, please stop!” he screamed. “Don’t let them go, you can’t–”
He was almost in the center of the ring when his mama shrieked.
Two bodies fell, one after the other, and cracked and crunched on the ground.