None of them knew what to expect from the impromptu meeting. Dick spoke yes but he didn't speak a lot. He'd normally keep to a few sentences at a time. 

He fiddled with the toy elephant in his hands whilst he waited for everyone to join him in the room. He'd moved so he was near the headboard. The elephant was quite cute. He would've been very pleased to be presented with it when he was a kid. Elephants had always been his favourite animal. He felt himself get teary again so he put it down beside his other elephant. Maybe he'd give it a name. 

"Hey Dick, the boys said you wanted to talk about something," Bruce greeted as he was pulled in by Tim. He nodded. 

Suddenly, he could feel his heart racing. He'd never spoken about his life before. What if they treated him differently for it? How would they take it? He was painfully aware of the stigma. Then again, he was used to the feeling of being lonely so it wouldn't be too harsh if they did decide to be like that. 

"I needed to tell them, may as well tell you too," he responded.

"What is it?" There was a long pause. He'd never talked about it. Even when asked over and over about his past, he never uttered a word. He didn't know where to start or how to speak about it. They all knew he had nightmares now and that English wasn't his first language. He supposed he should start there. "English isn't my first language because I'm-I'm not from here," he said.

"You're not from America? But you have an American accent?" Tim pointed out.

"Practice," he replied. His eyes darted down to the elephant he was holding. There was a sting in his eyes as he thought about how to phrase what came next. It was almost funny in a sad way. Something he saw whenever he closed his eyes somehow got harder to think about when he was explaining it to someone else. "I was born in the circus. Haley's Circus."

"Dick Grayson..." Bruce muttered, his eyes wide. Tim looked a little queasy upon hearing the name. He quickly got on his knees and hugged Dick tightly, much to the surprise of the older. 

"That name sounds familiar," Jason commented. He couldn't place where he'd seen or heard it but he knew it.

"I was in the newspaper once. When my parents died."

Tim pulled away with a frown. 

"I saw you that night. You look so different now," he said in disbelief. How could he have not noticed that he was the same Dick who had his parents die right before his eyes? "We took a picture together, remember? You said you'd give a wave just for me when you performed."

"I'm sorry but I don't remember much from that night. Just the main things," Dick admitted.

"I was there too. When I asked what would happen to you, they said you'd be put into foster care," Bruce mentioned. The younger let out a sad laugh. He wished he had gone into foster care. It would've been much easier than this.

"Didn't have the right papers for that. I heard they were gonna send me to a correctional facility until they got back into contact with the circus so I ran away. Guess they saw it as a blessing since they never tried to find me," he explained.

"How did they die? Your parents?" Jason asked, still in the dark on the details of why he knew the Grayson name. 

There was another long pause before Dick spoke up. 

"They fell. We performed without a net so when they fell, nothing would catch them." Tears bubbled up in the acrobat's eyes which he tried to rub away harshly. He didn't like to talk about these things but he felt that he had to. "When I escaped, I knew very little English. Only the basics. So when Joey met me and started talking in the same language, I trusted him. Didn't have anyone else." He went quiet as his eyes stared at the bedsheets. They looked distant as he tapped into a distant memory. "I didn't know anything but the circus and we didn't have a TV or anything so I knew nothing of your culture. When things went south, I thought this was normal for America."

"Dude. Why didn't you tell us all this? You only told me you didn't speak English," Jason asked. The older glanced up.

"What good would it do? We'd still stay in the apartment Joey kept us in."

"Because we could've helped you," Tim added.

"You couldn't have. Besides, you needed someone strong," he replied. "And now I just-I just can't be that anymore." He covered his face to hide the uncontrollable stream of tears. The floodgates were open and now he couldn't close them again. It'd been so long since he'd cried about all this. 

Now that his mind had settled on the memories of the past five years, it became evident how sad it was. How terrible every day was. The nights where he desperately hoped that he wouldn't wake up became all too much. Everything was so much and he was just expected to stay happy or be relieved. How could he be relieved? How could he be happy? His parents were dead, he was just in another home he didn't know anything about and now his friends thought he didn't care about them. So what if he was in a new home? Bruce didn't know him. Even if he did that wouldn't make all the memories of Joey disappear whenever he tried to think a little into his past. 

"Dick, breathe," Bruce's commanding voice announced. Dick snapped his head up only to realize that he couldn't breathe. He stared terrified at the billionaire, silently begging for help. "Copy me okay? In...then out," the older told him. He took Dick's hands to grab his attention and repeated the steps. After a moment, the younger managed to copy him more or less. There were slight hitches here and there as he continued to cry. "You're safe here. You don't have to be their protector anymore, that's what I'm here for." 

"Yeah, you can be a kid. We'll help you and maybe you can show us some cool circus moves?" Tim suggested with an empathetic smile. Jason nodded along enthusiastically. He nodded and finally took a deep breath. He looked even more tired than before but at least he looked a little more relaxed. 

"Thanks. 'm sorry if I was a pain before."

"You weren't a pain it's just...well we thought you were only doing it to clear your conscience," Jason admitted. He felt like he needed to tell Dick. This was going to be their fresh start so they had to get everything off their chests. Dick chuckled solemnly. 

"I can't ever clear my conscience. No matter how many beatings I take."

we're not gonna comment on how long this took shut it

But if you think this is going to be the end of this story, a nice conclusion of him finally opening up and the beginning of a close-knit family, you ain't seen nothing yet ;)