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M’gann had noticed how some people throughout their missions talked to Robin differently, even Connor slowed down a bit when talking to him. M'gann couldn't understand why, she knew that Robin was perfectly capable of keeping up with even Wally’s speed of talking so why so many people slowed their talking around him. She wondered if she was doing something wrong when she talked to him at normal speed, if he had some form of disability that she was ignoring or forgetting, now she felt like an asshole.
Robin and M’gann were cooking for a team dinner while the others cleaned up and set the table, she wondered about the slow speech thing again and tried it out, “Can you hand me the whisk?” She mimicked the way the cops had spoken to him on their mission earlier, exaggerating any words over four letters and pretty much cutting her usual speaking speed by half.
Robin groaned, but handed her the whisk, “Not you too M’gann.” He said, nearing a whine.
“Huh? Not me what?” She asked, she didn’t see what she had done wrong, he never complained when others spoke like that. She thought it was a good thing.
“You’re speaking all slow, like I’m incapable of understanding English.” He sighed, starting the oven whilst clearly trying to avoid M’gann’s eyes, “Out of everyone, I thought you’d be more understanding.”
“I’m sorry, I’m not sure what I did wrong. I thought people talked to you like that to help you?” She tried to explain, but as she said it she realized that she should have just asked him.
“Oh, no, I’m sorry. They do that because I’m Romani, they think I can’t speak english.” He explained, fidgeting with his fingers as he spoke, watching the oven heat up.
“...They’re talking down to you?” She asks, now feeling like a worse asshole than before, “I’m so sorry, I- I didn’t know. I thought-”
Robin cut her off, “It’s fine, I know you didn’t mean to.” He looked up at her, smiling a bit, “I’m just glad it was an accident.”
M’gann felt embarrassed and, frankly, horrible, but she gave him a smile back. In the back of her mind, she made a note to have a talk with Superboy
—-
Batman grabbed Robin’s shoulder before he could leave, waiting for everyone else to walk out of the mission debrief, “The cops at the scene, why were they treating you like that?” He asked, leaning to match Dick’s height. The police at the scene of the mission that they had just returned from had blatantly ignored Robin multiple times, even though he was the one leading the mission this time. Aqualad being on a personal mission with Aquaman.
“They… do that sometimes.” Dick looked away, refusing to face Bruce, and rubbed at his arm.
Bruce tilted his head and thought about it, he looked his son over and then thought back to the scene from before. Two cops, pushing Dick and M’gann to the side in favor of talking to Wally and Artemis, it clicked, two white cops pushing Dick to the side because of his darker skin tones. Bruce had no doubt that Aqualad would get the same treatment if he was there, and M’gann would too if Martians weren’t generally respected and feared simultaneously. Bruce looked over his kid again, he never thought about people possibly being racist towards Dick because he never saw Dick as anything other than his son, never thought about his skin tone or the fact that he’s adopted, it never occurred to him.
“Would you…” God, Bruce was bad at this, “Like a hug?”
Bruce’s shoulders relaxed when Dick nodded, he extended his arms and let Dick squeeze his back as much as he wanted. Bruce hardly noticed how small Dick was, barely thirteen and little for his age, he wanted the best for his kid and would do anything for him.
Peaking around the corner was M’gann and Wally, both letting out quiet ‘aw’s at the sight of Robin and his mentor behaving like father and son, little did they know that that’s exactly what they are.
—-
The Team was at an event, in their civilian clothes, for Wayne Enterprises. At this point, the team had learned of Batman and Robin’s identities and agreed to attend a gala incase of attack. Though, they ran into a different kind of trouble.
Wally noticed first, the condescending way people talked to Dick, the way they slowed down their voices and the way they avoided touching him, as if he had a disease that they could catch.
Kaldur noticed next, the way that the guests looked down at Dick, some with pity, some with disgust. He heard a few people even bring up his skin tone to him, and him living with a white father.
M’gann and Artemis noticed at the same time, they overheard a conversation between two rich, old men talking about how they didn’t understand how Bruce Wayne could adopt some Romani Circus kid. They commented on his tanner, “ugly”, skin tone, and his “weird” European accent.
Superboy never noticed.
Bruce stuck near Dick throughout the night, brushing back comments about the boy’s past or origins. The two talked about whatever felt right in the moment, it was good for them and the other five didn’t interrupt them.
Once the party was over, and everyone but the team had left, Dick joined the group, finally able to catch a break from the condescending atmosphere of the gala.
“Hey Dick, you good?” Wally asked, placing a hand on his best friend’s shoulder.
“Yeah, just tired.” He admits, swaying side to side the way that he does when he’s out of energy.
Bruce came and placed his hands on Dick and Wally’s shoulders, “Thank you all for helping today, I know nothing happened but we needed some preparation just in case.” He said, the team nodded and started grabbing their stuff.
“Hey Mr. Wayne? You might wanna reconsider some of the people invited here. Some of them said some pretty shitty stuff about Dick.” Artemis said, after Dicks and the others had stepped a bit out of the way.
“Yeah, I heard. That’s why I stuck around him so much today, I didn’t want anyone stepping out of line.” He sighed out, nodding along to his words, “Though he did seem to care what they said, the only times he has cared is when someone close to him makes comments like that. He’s really torn up about Superboy’s situation with him.”
Artemis hummed and agreed to talk to Connor about it.
——
Connor was confused at the least, he had no clue why he was being cornered by M’gann and Artemis. He couldn’t think of anything he did wrong nor anything that could cause the girls any concern.
“What’s wrong?” He asked, confident and loud as always, Artemis’s eyes narrowed at him.
“Why have you been discriminating against Robin?” Artemis asks, keeping her eyes stern and cold.
“Discriminating?” Connor asks back, looking to M’gann for answers.
“You have been… hurting Dick, with some behaviors that I hope were out of good intentions.” M’gann explains, hesitant to talk about it at all.
“Hurting Robin? I would never purposefully hurt Robin.” Connor declared defiantly, suddenly more agitated than worried. Why would they think that?
“Yeah well not only have you been speaking to him like he can’t understand you, but you look at him with those pitiful eyes like all those racist assholes.” Artemis shoots back, voice calm but full of venom.
“Racist? Huh? I talk to him slower because that’s how the cops talk to him.” Connor explained, the same thing that had happened to M’gann had happened to him as well, “And I don’t look at him with pity… I guess, I just feel like he should have had a better childhood. He’s only thirteen, and even though I’m technically less than a year old, I have childhood memories impaneled into me, so I at least have something to look back on.”
“Oh…” Artemis backed up a bit and softened her features, “Sorry.”
“Ah, I made the same mistake on the first part, those cops, they aren’t helping him, they’re looking down on him. And as for the childhood part, I’m pretty sure we all agree, but that’s not something we can change.” M’gann said, carefully placing a hand on Connor’s shoulder.
They talked through some things, then went to go find the others. Dick was curled up next to Kaldur, Wally leaning on his other side. The three smiled and joined them.