Chapter Text
The group home you grew up in wasn’t one that was known for its welcoming nature and kind hearted residence.
This was the second time your small hands clung to the eroded paint on the chipped wood of your dorm door frame. You shared a room with 10 other kids, definitely not legal. Most of you slept on the floor while the older and stronger kids took the beds from you.
You didn’t want to be in the beds anyways, there were only two reasons you’d be in those beds, you were sickly to a dying degree, or an older kid or caretaker decided you were their next victim.
You peeked your eyes around the corner and watched the head mistress talk to the cops, explaining that there was nothing to worry about and that the structural integrity of the building was very sound.
You furrowed your eyebrows, and slowly crept out. Dirt caked your skin, your hair hadn’t been washed for at least 2 weeks and you had lice, as did most of the kids. You walked over to the cop through the creaking hallway and tugged on his coat sleeve.
“I turn 9 today,” you smiled up at him, your smile full of gaps and missing teeth. The cops face dropped and went cold. He shook you off. You fell on your ass.
The headmistress shot you a look that only meant a beating later, the police officer tossed a broken sucker at you and shooed you off.
You ran back to your room and walked over to the small corner you designated as your own. You currently housed a new arrival, 5 year old Macy. You were hoping the cop would try to help you but at least the sucker you pocketed was something.
You handed a piece of the broken sucker to the girl and her eyes sparkled happily, you usually hid some of your bread rations for her so she could get a full meal. At 9 you were fully ready to kill yourself for this girl. She reminded you of your baby sister, who you watched die with the rest of your family. Turns out your dad was in deep with a Gotham crime ring and when he didn’t pay his debts on time they came in guns blazing. You remember watching your sister running to you with her stuffed Batman in hand when a gunshot rang out and hit her back. You stayed hidden in a closet crying softly for what you assumed to be a few days. But when you finally went out side the cops wasted no time scooping you up.
You smiled at the girl in front of you, and kissed her forehead before sitting next to her and letting her crawl into your lap to sleep. You promised yourself that you’d never let this girl see the pain you did. You took lashings for her, fought back when the older kids wanted fresh meat and even bit headmistress once when she tried to shout at her. Macy was your world.
“When I get out of here I’m taking you with me,” you whispered into her ear, she snuggled into your chest, clearly cold. You pulled the ragged princess blanket given to you by that traveling church over her and wrapped her up softly, you leaned up against the wall and let her rest.
The next morning you decided after watching a kid Macy’s age get dragged into a dark room with one of the older kids as you had before, that you were done. You scooped her up in your arms and jumped out the first floor window connected to your room. You twisted your ankle but stumbled back to your feet and ran, you ran until you were two blocks away from the home and dipped into a known abandoned building. You found an empty room and decided this was your camp. Boarding up the door with a broken up dresser in the corner.
From then on you became very skilled at pick pocketing, you’d live mainly at the home but at night sneak out to bring food to Macy, you gave her money, weapons you made and decorations for her walls, her “house” was just one room, and you rarely left her alone for more than an hour. You scrapped together some papers and drew some outlines on them with broken crayons for her to color. She would fall asleep on the box “bed” you made for her listening to you hum softly.
The summer was harsh but you survived, bringing water and washcloths to her every day. Every time you’d go to visit her you’d drop out the window with a small pouch of food or items and run down that alley. You saved a lot of money to buy a relatively nice hotel room for her birthday, your face was so scraped and ragged from the stress you were under they didn’t even ask for an id. Though the teen at the counter didn’t seem to care either way. It was a cheep-ish single bed room with a bath and tv, Macy was turning 6, and you wanted to show her how much you loved her.
It took almost 7 months of pick pocketing and sneaking out to gather enough, every once and a while you’d come by with a freshly baked muffin or a new t-shirt for her, and always made sure to bring a cloth to give her a sort of sponge bath. She didn’t like living in that dirty place but it was better than her being abused at the home. You’d lit the room with candles that you’d stolen from a farmers market nearby and matches you’d snagged from a smoker on the sidewalk.
She ran around in circles when seeing the inside of the hotel room, her eyes lit up like she’d been told her mother was back for her. She ran to the bathroom gasping in excitement and then to the bed, but before she could hop on you caught her.
“Let’s not get the bed all dirty, you’ll wanna sleep warm and clean so come here,” you picked her up and carried her to the bathroom helping her get undressed and drawing a warm bath for her. You gently cupped water over her head but you couldn’t look at her, not at her body at least. Your brain was fucked up from the group home and you were afraid you’d do something even though you knew that you couldn’t ever hurt her. When she was dried off you showed her that you got her new pajamas and a new outfit.
She quickly and excitedly changed and crawled under the warm covers, she was out almost instantly, you carried her old clothes to the communal laundromat and washed her clothes only, you having clean clothes would tip off the others at the home, so you opted to just wash your good bra and some of your underwear.
When you came back you kissed her forehead and curled up in the chair in the corner of the room. You didn’t fall asleep fast enough so you decided to shower. It’d been so long since you had showered, you were so worried about Macy at all times that you never thought to care for yourself. The water below you was a sickly brown as you washed your greasy and dirty hair. Gross.
In the morning Macy was practically vibrating with how happy she was, you’d never seen her to well rested looking and happy. You who had only gotten around 3 hours were lucky you could sleep at all. You stuffed a pillow into a suitcase you stole out of some storage room, and stuffed some extra sheets and anything else you thought would be useful in the future.
Fall flew by smoothly, Macy loved her sheets and having a pillow made it so much easier for her to sleep at night, you slowly tried to make her room feel more like a home with items you stole and made sure that the outside world couldn’t hurt her.
One evening when sneaking out you were caught pick pocketing, and now you were here, back against a wall of the alley.
“Oh come on little girl,” one snarled “you can keep the money you just gotta let us have our fun before we go? So keep quiet alright.”
It wasn’t a question. It was a demand. You whimpered and stood flush against the wall ‘this is no different from the group home’ you told yourself over and over, grasping for some semblance of a comfort.
“Hey!” You heard a boy shout, he sounded a bit older than you, and soon a ginger boy in a red hoodie showed up. He looked pissed, his eyes a bright green were filled with hate and his crooked smile made your heart flutter. He raised the bat in his hand towards the grown men “Back away from her.”