Chapter Text
Time to fly, my little robins.
That was the last thing that their mother had said to them - calling out to her children from where she hung on the trapeze, her arms outstretched and braced to catch them when they jumped. Dick was supposed to go first, and then Darcy would go right after him. It was because he was older, he would always tease - she would shoot back with the fact that they were twins, so they were the same age.
She would always be grateful that she had gotten irritated with him that night and shoved him on the platform, distracting her twin just long enough that he missed his cue. It was bad enough that they lost their parents that night - Darcy didn't know what she would have done if she had lost her twin as well.
All they could do was stand there in shock, staring down at their parents' bodies until someone came and pulled them down from the platform. The wires had snapped, the police told them. It was an accident, they said.
But the twins knew better.
They had seen the man talking to Pop Haly, had seen the argument that the pair had gotten into. They had seen the man creeping around the circus, until the strongman had chased him away. But neither one had imagined that this would come of it. A pool of blood and their parents mangled bodies, the screams that rose from around the tent.
But there wasn’t much that they could do about it - they couldn’t even manage to stay together. Social workers came, whisking them away from the circus, the only home that they had ever known. Pop Haly was fighting tooth and nail to get to them, and the twins huddled closer together until someone grabbed them, pulling them apart.
Darcy screamed, and Dick roared as they fought against the social workers holding them, shock blankets fluttering away to reveal the red, green, and yellow of their performance outfits.
They were loaded in the back of separate cars, men in blue uniforms speaking English quicker than Darcy could keep up with, asking her question after question and getting mad when she couldn’t keep up with what they were telling her. It was irritating beyond belief - she could speak six languages fluently, it wasn’t her fault that English was rarely spoken in the circus. She could understand it well enough, but speaking it was a different beast entirely.
They took her to a run-down house in the middle of the city, where the air smelled like garbage and the girls all had dead eyes. It took her a while to understand exactly where she was - they called it a girls’ home, where girls with no family lived. Day after day, Darcy tried to explain to them that she had a family - her brother, and her parents, and the circus folk. But nobody listened, and every day the truth sank further in.
Haley's Circus had left town after the funeral.
Her parents were dead - every night, their deaths haunted her dreams.
And the last time that she had seen her twin was at her parents’ funeral, a large bruise blossoming across his face. He was scowling up until the moment that he saw her, and then his smile was nearly blinding.
They handed her a uniform and shoved her in a room with five other girls. She didn't know anything that they were screaming at her, but she could tell from their tones that it was better for her not to know. So she didn't say anything - just went where they told her.
That first night she went to bed cold and hungry for the first time in her life - and the pattern continued, night after night for months. She curled up in her bed and cried for everything that she had lost, sure that she would never see her brother again.
8888
Richard John and Darcy Mary Grayson were eight years old when their parents died. They were eight years old when they were separated for the first time in their lives - Dick was sent to a juvenile detention center, and Darcy was sent to a home for troubled girls in Gotham City, New Jersey. Neither one of them spoke much English, and it was their first time in America. They were cold, bruised, and hungry, and missing their family.
They both decided - separately, since they weren’t able to see each other - that being eight years old was the worst thing ever.
By the time that they turned nine, they had been reunited, and had found a new family. Nothing like the circus, or even just their parents. None of the traveling and adrenaline rushes that came hand-in-hand with living in the circus, or the cramped camaraderie that was six people - them, their parents, and their aunt and uncle - living in a trailer.
But Bruce had showed up when they needed him most, and took the twins home with him.
Bruce tucked them in at night and helped them with homework. Gave hugs and yelled when they broke yet another chandelier. Held them tight when nightmares happened, and made sure that they were okay. Alfred read them stories and helped them learn English. Cooked for them, taught them how to take care of themselves. Bruce and Alfred were family, all the same.
And one night - in the kitchen at Wayne Manor hours past their bedtime, eating themselves sick on Bruce’s secret ice cream stash - the twins decided that maybe things would be okay from then on.
8888
It didn’t take the Grayson twins long to discover the truth about Bruce Wayne. They almost giggled, seeing the look of shock on his face when he came back from patrol to two tiny nine year olds flipping around the cave and calling back and forth to each other in a mixture of languages.
His heart almost stopped in his chest, then started again at double the speed it was supposed to. He didn’t even take the time to turn off his car properly, instead leaving it running as he hurried over to where his kids were playing. “Get down from there!” he called, nearly frantic as he ran between the twins, trying to catch both of them at the same time from midair, and failing. “You're going to get hurt!”
“No we won't,” Dick called back, his voice tinged with laughter as he flipped in midair. “Look, we're flying!”
He didn't know what to do - he was just twenty-four years old and the recently-appointed guardian of two incredibly hyperactive nine year olds. There were days now where he barely had the energy to get out of bed, let alone run a multi-million dollar company and fight crime. “What are you doing down here?" Bruce sighed, pinching at the bridge of his nose in the hopes of warding off the headache that he could already feel settling in.
“Why do you dress up like a bat, Mr. The Batman?” Darcy asked. She was hanging upside down from one of the rafters, her knees hooked around the beam being the only thing keeping her from falling over thirty feet to her death.
As if that wasn't terrifying enough on its own, Darcy chose that exact moment to let go of the rafter that she was attached to, diving into a free-fall with her arms outstretched.
Bruce moved to catch her, his heart racing in his chest as he ran. These kids were going to be the death of him - he was sure that he was already gaining grey hairs from them. “Because bats are scary. How did you get down here?” he asked, concerned, even as he checked her over with practiced movements that were quickly becoming far too familiar. They shouldn’t have been able to find their way down to the Cave in the first place.
Darcy thought about it for barely half a second, then nodded like his explanation made perfect sense. “Okay, Mr Bruce.” she said, clinging to his neck. “We were playing hide-and-seek and found a secret door.”
“What did you just call me?”
Dick flipped over to them, a wide grin on his face when he landed. “She called you Mr. Bruce.”
Bruce was surprised - and more than a little impressed. None of the Justice League had managed to figure out who he was yet - though not from a lack of trying on their part. Yet somehow his nine-year-olds had figured it out. They had the bonus of living with the Bat, of course - but still.
He couldn’t wait to rub it in Clark’s face.
8888
Bruce glared into his coffee, grunting a thank you when Alfred poured him a new cup. He pretended not to notice the amused smile that the man who had raised him was wearing - likely hiding a quip about how much his wards were like he was at their age.
The wards in question were currently hopping around him, one on either side. “We could help you!” Dick said, continuing the argument that they had been having for the last few days - ever since the pair had stumbled across the BatCave.
“No.”
"Why not?" Darcy asked, popping up on his other side.
“This is not a job for children.” Bruce said, clenching his jaw slightly. It wasn’t the first time that he had told the twins that, and something told him that it wouldn’t be the last. It felt like he had said nothing but that for the last few days, whether he was in the suit or out of it. “You wouldn’t be safe.”
"But we want to help." Dick - and wasn't that an unfortunate nickname for a child, but it was one that he refused to change - argued.
“No.” Bruce shot back automatically. It was bad enough that he was dragged into this at such an early age - he wasn’t about to let his wards get sucked into the world that had taken so much from him.
Dick climbed up his robe as he tried to move, moving faster than Bruce could pull him off. “Yes.” the boy argued, swinging his legs over so that he was sitting on his guardian’s shoulders.
But Bruce wasn’t going to budge, not this time. “No.” he repeated, starting to head towards his office after one last refill on coffee. He gave in every other time the twins asked him for things with their puppy dog eyes - staying up past bedtimes, ice cream before dinner, even access to the Batcave. But not on this.
Darcy followed after them, trailing him all the way to the cave.
She flipped up so that she was hanging from the rafters of the Cave again as soon as they were in view. “We can either go with you or go on our own.” she pointed out, and the Bat sighed. Normally he would have dismissed the threat instantly, but both of his kids were crazy enough to do exactly what they promised. And while he could have stopped normal children, these were the Grayson twins, who had learned to fly before they could walk and escape from just about anything before they could run.
“Fine.” he said - and if either of the kids noticed the small grin on his face as they danced around the cave, neither one said anything. “But you pass every challenge I give you, every test I set first.”
8888
One year later
Bruce looked at his kids - despite everything, he was incredibly proud of them. They had passed every test that he could have devised, had trained in hand-to-hand combat, various weapons, computer hacking, and survival situations. And while they each had their strengths and weaknesses, they were as prepared as they could be. There was no way that he was going to let them out into Gotham without proper training - but now they had it, and he couldn’t keep them back any longer no matter how much he wanted to. “What do you want to be called?” he asked, looking at them carefully. And if a small smile was on his face as he looked at his kids, neither one of them said anything about it.
Neither one of them cheered at the win - they both knew that it was too early to celebrate just yet. They would celebrate once they had gone on patrol. “Robin.” both of the twins said without missing a beat - so in sync that it sounded like they were one person.
“Two Robins?” Bruce mused, looking intrigued but skeptical. “I don’t know…”
“Our mother called both of us robin.” Dick said softly, a small, wistful smile on his face. “It wouldn’t be fair to give the title to only one twin.”
“Exactly.” Darcy nodded. “Besides, imagine the confusion on everyone’s faces when Robin keeps changing.” she smirked, her eyes lighting up with glee at the thought of causing chaos.
Dick knocked into her side, earning himself a small shove from his sister. “They won’t be able to tell, though.” he pointed out. “We’re too similar for that.”
Bruce looked between the two kids - his kids, now. Dick was right - the twins could still pass for each other fairly well, although once puberty hit they wouldn’t be able to do so as well. Darcy preferred to keep her hair short at the moment anyway - that way it didn’t get in her face as much when she was doing stunts around the Manor. If they wanted to, they could swap places and no one would be the wiser - for the next few years, at least.
“Fine.” he agreed, once again working to hide a smile as the twins danced around each other, cheering because they were going to kick the bad guys teeth in.
“That will teeth them a lesson!” Dick cheered. Darcy groaned, instinctively moving to punch her brother. Dick dodged the blow, starting an impromptu battle between the siblings that mostly consisted of shrieking and laughter as they chased after each other, with the occasional punch thrown.
Kids. He was never going to have any more, he promised himself. They were a terrible idea.
8888
Fifteen years later...
When Darcy Lewis and Jane Foster had first gotten the invitation to move into Stark Tower, they were relieved. Despite everything that went on in New York City, it was a definite upgrade over everything that they were used to - from the lonely labs of Gotham Academy to Puente Antigo.
While the official story was that they had met after Jane had put out an ad for an internship, the truth was far more interesting. The pair had known each other for years, since they were still at Gotham Academy. Jane had been Dick's tutor and one of Barbara's friends, and the two had known of each other even if they hadn't interacted much. Jane had hung out with Babs and their friends a lot, and Darcy and Dick had been almost inseparable at the time.
So the pair hadn’t really become friends until they met again in college - and even then, they didn’t recognize each other until their WE gas masks got swapped by accident. They were close before that, but the gas mask incident caused the pair to be even closer, bringing up . Enough so that when Wally West had showed up, offering to bring them both home when SHIELD appeared in Puente Antigo - and Jane had refused to leave her equipment behind - Darcy had put her foot down as well. She was staying.
Bruce had seen that as an opportunity - especially after Tony Stark had come knocking, looking for Jane Foster.
Ever since the Avengers had started - and even before that, since Iron Man had first stepped onto the scene - the Justice League had been trying to figure out a way to get in contact with the other heroes. Every single attempt was stonewalled by SHIELD, something that made even the Lanterns suspicious.
He had needed someone to go into SI and attach themselves to the Avengers - and if at all possible, get eyes inside of SHIELD. Not to spy on them or for any unsavory reasons, just to find out what exactly was going on and why they kept being blocked.
That was where Darcy became involved.
She was the least high-profile of all of her siblings, mainly due to her being the only one of her siblings who was actually capable of going longer than a week without threatening to fight a member of the press. Known for liking her peace, it wouldn’t be too suspicious for her to disappear for any length of time. Adding in that she had already become attached to Jane and her impressive undercover abilities, and it was a no-brainer.
Now the only difficulty would be in keeping her siblings from blowing her cover.
8888
When they had come to the Tower, Pepper had offered them a full moving service - both to set up the apartment that the girls were sharing, and to set up the lab space that Jane would be using. But both women denied the offer - Jane was far too protective of her equipment to let anyone that she didn’t know and trust touch it. And Darcy didn't trust whoever the moving people would be without running a full background check on them - a consequence of the paranoia that she had learned since the age of nine.
But Pepper wasn’t convinced. So unconvinced, in fact, that she had come to see them in their new lab space before they officially moved in to try and convince them otherwise. The woman was a force to be reckoned with, that was for sure. If Darcy had been anyone else, she might have been a little scared of the woman. But she had spent her formative years around other powerhouses - her Aunt Diana immediately came to mind. As it was, she was just in awe of her.
“Are you sure you’ll be okay to get everything in here?” Pepper asked worriedly, her heels clicking as the three women walked. “Tony’s shown me pictures of your equipment, and it all looks incredibly… fragile.” she winced, worried that she had insulted the women.
But Darcy just laughed. “That’s probably because Jane cobbled most of it together with her bare hands and like a hundred pounds of duct tape, honestly.”
That did nothing to reassure the redhead - if anything, it just made her more nervous. “And you’re sure it’s going to hold up?”
"We’ll be fine, Ms. Potts." Darcy huffed good-naturedly, her phone already in her hands and texting the group chat that she had with her family. It had been around for years - the name of it kept changing, with it currently being labeled as The reason for Alfred’s headaches. All of her siblings were in the chat - all five of her brothers and her sister, plus her unofficial siblings that Bruce had never formally adopted. Which meant that within short order, she had at least seven people to help them move into the Tower - Babs was mainly coming to set up a secure line and help Darcy control her family, while Harper and Cullen Row might be able to join them.
Sometimes, coming from an extremely large family was helpful. Most of the time it was just annoying.
Still, she thought as she surveyed her moving crowd, this was one of the times where it came in handy. Out of the entire Wayne contingent, the only ones who hadn’t shown were Bruce and Alfred - Bruce was currently in space with the Justice League, and Darcy had refused to let Alfred help them. He already did too much as it was. Which meant she and Jane had eight people helping them - although Barbara was there strictly to help Jane with any electronics that needed to be set up in her lab. That left Damian, Tim, Duke, Jason, Cass, Steph, and Dick moving boxes with Darcy.
“Wally wanted to come help, but Bart isn’t feeling so hot so he had to stay home.” Dick had apologized, and both Darcy and Damian had rolled their eyes in unison. The youngest speedster had been staying with the Grayson-West couple for a few weeks while Barry and Iris West-Allen were away - which meant prime shenanigans with two speedsters in the house instead of one.
“Yes, because bringing your over-excited scientist into Stark Tower would be a brilliant idea, Richard.” Damian scoffed.
Jason nudged at their younger brother as he passed by, shoving him with an elbow. “Stop complaining, Demon Spawn, and grab a box.” he ordered, smirking when Damian scowled.
“Shut up, Todd.” the younger boy hissed, shoving past his brother as he went to grab a box.
“Damian’s got a point though.” Darcy admitted, grabbing a box of her own and falling into step alongside her twin, nudging Dick with her shoulder as they walked. “As much as I love my brother-in-law, it would be hard to explain exactly how he got into classified labs.” she smirked at the fond exasperation on her brother’s face - none of them were ever going to let Wally live down the day that he had done exactly that at Wayne Enterprises.
Dick shouldered his twin, scowling when she just laughed. “That was one time, D.” he argued, defending his husband. “But I gotta say, feeling very whelmed by the whole Avengers Tower.” he continued, his head turning in all directions as he took in everything around them. “It’s nothing like what we’ve got back home.” Dick nudged Darcy’s shoulder with his own, grinning at his twin. “You feeling the aster yet, Rob?” he teased.
Cass settled in between the pair, stopping the sibling fight that was brewing before it could begin in the way that only she could. Darcy sighed - there was an itch building in her body that always happened when she was nervous, and the easiest way to get rid of that had always been sparring with her siblings. But since her younger sister had just put her foot down on that - and Darcy wasn’t foolish enough to fight her on it - she would have to find another outlet for her anxiety. “Always, Rob.” she said, readjusting her grip on the boxes in her hands.
Steph ran up to meet them, ponytail bouncing behind her as she walked. “You’re feeding us, right Darce?” she asked, somehow managing to trip over her own feet before catching herself, and making the whole thing look like it was on purpose.
“Yes, Steph.” Darcy said, rolling her eyes even as she laughed. “Don’t worry - I’m making plenty of food.”
“Breakfast food only!” Jason yelled, continuing an argument that had been had in bits and pieces over the years. If she wanted to, Darcy could track the entire argument from beginning to end. It always started when one of them - normally Steph or Jay - wanted breakfast food at a non-breakfast time. For some reason, that always set off Damian.
“Tt.” Darcy grinned, already knowing what was coming next. “This is not the time for breakfast, Todd.”
Steph looked back from where she was in front of them, calling out to the back of the group. “Any time is waffle time, Demon Spawn.” she grinned, and Darcy rolled her eyes. Sometimes Steph was a little too fond of creating chaos - but it always seemed to work out in the end, with only minor explosions.
Even without turning around, she could feel the glare that Damian was sending in Steph’s direction. “No it isn’t!” he said, almost sounding like he had stomped his foot. “There are certain times of day for certain foods for a reason, Brown.”
And then Tim would chime in, with the one line that he knew irritated Damian more than anything else - and true to his older sibling duties, he pulled it out every time: “Time is a social construct.”
“Silence, Drake!” the preteen scowled, rolling his eyes. “No one asked for your opinion, anyway.”
Darcy was more than willing to let them continue their argument, but Dick shot her a look as if to say ‘you asked for our help, so now you have to control them’. She sighed and rolled her eyes at her twin, before yelling at her siblings. “Calm down, all of you. Jay, I’ll make breakfast foods, but that means you’re helping me.” she started, waiting for her younger brother to agree. “And Dami, food can be eaten at any time of the day.” then, before Steph could say anything, she continued, “Yes, we’ll make waffles too.”
The blonde woman punched the air, still managing to balance a stack of boxes as she did so. She pushed ahead of them all, hurrying to meet up with Cass. Darcy smiled as she listened to Steph chattering eagerly at her younger sister, giggling when Cass just nodded along with everything that was being said. She could hear Tim, Duke, Jason, and Damian behind them, all of them arguing over who was carrying the most things and - still - whether or not breakfast for dinner was acceptable.
And despite everything - despite the constant chaos that they caused - she knew that she was going to miss her family when she was left on her own in New York.
8888
All of the boxes had been successfully moved in only a few hours time, and now all of the assorted Waynes - and yes, Steph and Babs counted as Waynes despite their protests - were in her apartment in Avengers Tower, currently demolishing the eight or nine stacks of waffles, pancakes, eggs, and other breakfast foods that Darcy, Jason, and Duke had made. If this was what it took to feed the wholly-human batclan - plus their only meta member, Duke - Darcy felt for poor Lois Lane and Iris West.
“You have everything you’ll need, Grayson?” Damian asked, studying her intently over his cup of hot chocolate. Even after several years of being out of the League’s control, he was far more formal than any other kid his age.
“Yes, Dami." she told him - a little exasperated that he treated her like the younger sibling despite the fact that she and Dick had practically raised him. She understood it, though, in a way - Damian liked to keep track of people that he deemed as ‘his’ to make sure that they were okay. “Batarangs, war fans, and a connection to the Cave that Babs is setting up."
“Good.” he nodded, seeming to struggle with his words for a minute. "I'll… I'll miss you." He finally admitted, and her heart nearly melted.
“Aww. You do care!” she cooed, laughing when he hissed as she ruffled his hair. “But it's time for Nightingale to take a break, I think.” she said softly. Damian just studied her for a second, but eventually he nodded.
“Very well.”
Before she had a chance to say anything else to reassure her brother, she was called away by JARVIS'S voice - one that always had the same sense of it's in your best interest to listen to me that Alfred's had, and was more than enough to make any of the Waynes snap to attention.
As Darcy walked away, she missed the small frown on Damian’s face. He wasn’t used to his oldest siblings being gone - even with Dick living in Blüdhaven, he still spent most of his time at the house. But Darcy was going to be at least an hour and a half away now, and undercover to boot - which meant that Damian would have to work twice as hard to keep Darcy involved in everything.
Damian smiled to himself as he headed in Drake’s direction. There was a lot of planning that they needed to do - and as much as he despised Drake, everyone in the family knew that he was the best when it came to this sort of thing. And they had a lot of work to do.
8888
They had just gotten all of her siblings out of the Tower, and Babs was waiting for her upstairs for a movie night. But the redhead had been promised fresh caramel corn, and Darcy was determined to deliver. So she had gone down to the kitchen to start cooking, and had just gotten out the ingredients when someone else appeared in the room.
She had felt them coming more than anything, but still had no idea who it was until they announced themselves. “Who are you, and what are you doing here?” a redheaded woman with a gun. If this was Gotham, it could be any number of people with those descriptors. But in Avengers Tower, there was only one person who fit the description - Natasha Romanoff.
“My name is Darcy Lewis.” she said softly, acting like Natasha’s appearance had scared her. After all, normal civilians got scared when women with guns just appeared behind them. Then she shrugged, relaxing slightly. “I’m just here as basic support for Jane.”
Natasha didn’t look convinced. “And the sheer amount of weapons you have hidden in your bags?” she asked, and that made more sense. Between all of her brothers and Bruce - and her girlfriend’s ridiculously overprotective nature - she had left Wayne Manor with almost two bags filled with non-Bat-affiliated weapons, gas masks, and antidotes to every type of poison, gas, or sedative that villains used. And of course the resident spy would have gone through all of her bags upon arrival.
She shrugged again. “Basic self-defense.”
If Natasha had been any less trained, she might have laughed. Instead, she just raised an eyebrow. “Right.” the redhead said dryly.
Darcy got defensive - even if she wasn’t secretly a vigilante, no one from Gotham went around without at least one weapon on them at all times. “Look, I grew up in Gotham.” she said, crossing her arms over her chest as she glared at the assassin. “I'm not going anywhere without at least a baseball bat and a gas mask.”
“Hey, Rob - tell me you didn’t burn the popcorn.” someone called out behind them, cutting through the tension that was building. Natasha turned, seeing another redhead wheel into the room, a pile of movies sitting on her lap. She spared the assassin a smile before turning her attention back to Darcy. “I thought we were doing a movie night.”
Darcy smiled, tucking a bit of hair back behind her ear. “I’m coming, Babs - you go get set up, I just need to finish in here with Natasha and check on Jane.” the two women stared at each other for a minute - silently communicating with each other. Finally, the redhead snorted.
“Fine.” she said, smiling softly even as she shook her head. She started to wheel herself back towards the elevator doors. “But if you’re not upstairs in twenty minutes I’m not responsible for the consequences, girl wonder.” her smile showed only mischief, and Darcy laughed, so Natasha didn’t worry about the other woman’s words. She just focused in on the word choice of the wheelchair-bound woman.
“Rob?”
Darcy rolled her eyes, looking in the direction that the redhead had gone with a fond smile on her face. “Old nickname - Babs and I have known each other since we were all kids.” then she turned back to the stove. “If that’s all you wanted to know, Miss Romanoff, I have a movie marathon to get back to.”