Work Text:
Once a month, sometimes twice if the days are passing especially slowly, the Team gets together in the cave and plays board games, then watches a Disney movie. Disney was safe for the most part, Conner and M’gann were seeing most of them for the first time, though Kaldur’ahm refused to watch The Little Murmaid. Tonight they had spent time playing Cards Against Humanity, the clean version seeing as Robin was only thirteen and Wally basically had the maturity of a nine year old, now they were deciding on what movie to watch.
“How about The Lion King?” Artemis asked, looking through their little stockpile of DVDs, they had everything from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to Ecanto. Okay so maybe ‘little’ wasn’t the right word to describe their collection of DVDs, they had a pantry full. There was an agreement around the room to watch The Lion King but Wally felt Robin go ridged next to him. He knew Robin’s backstory, knew his identity too, and the realization hit him like a tsunami. The Lion King involves someone falling to their death. The Lion King involves a parents falling to his death.
“We can’t watch The Lion King!” Wally blurts out before he even realizes it, his outburst is met with confused stares and he sinks back into his seat a bit, “I mean… we shouldn’t watch that… it’s too sad?” His voice cracks with the excuse but he could feel Robin relaxing a bit at his side and reminded himself why he needed to stop them. Robin— no, Dick Grayson —is his best friend, and he has a boatload of trauma surrounding falling and death. Wally gripped Dick’s hand on the couch, “We shouldn’t watch something sad, our lives are sad enough.” He adds, making eye contact with Kaldur and trying to get the Atlantian to notice how ridged Robin is.
“Wally is right. How about we watch Monster’s Inc. instead?” Kaldur said, picking up the hint, and pulling out the disk for Monster’s Inc. After that, the night moved on smoothly. Everyone enjoyed the movie, even though Conner kept asking questions about the plot, and they had a good time. Wally never let go of Dick’s hand, and the latter never pulled away. By the end of the night, Conner carried a sleeping M’gann back to her room, Artemis made her own way back, Kaldur stayed up to work on something, and Dick and Wally laid in each other’s comfort in the speedster’s room.
The next morning there was a paper on the counter, the top was labeled ‘The Disney Blacklist’ and listed was The Little Mermaid, Bambi, and Cinderella each in a different handwriting. Dick looked away from the rest of the Team that was standing around the kitchen area and wrote down The Lion King, The Greatest Showman, and Dumbo. Wally smiled at him when he looked up and took the pen from him, marking down The Fox and The Hound. Then, when Dick walked away, he took a sticky note and wrote down ‘Avoid ANY circus themed movies, Disney or otherwise. please’, slipping it to Kaldur on his way to grab some breakfast. Kaldur smiled at him, they both shot a glance at Dick before going about their days with a mutual understanding.