"The reason Robin/Dick never shows his eyes is because he is blind and doesn't want the team to give him special treatment/think he is less capable." – Prompt from YJ anon meme.

Alright, so it's been confirmed that Wally does know Robin's identity, BUT for the purpose of this fic, he doesn't. Sorry if this bothers some of you.

Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice.

Blind

It had never been a huge deal, to be honest. At least, Batman had never acted like it was, training him to overcome the disadvantage. Besides, it wasn't like he was fully blind and everything was dark and black all the time, more like his vision was perpetually blurry and there wasn't anything anyone could do about it. So, he just dealt with it and moved on.

As time went on though, he'd realized that being 'legally' blind was a pretty big deal for other people. His eyes made it obvious, as while they weren't fully the milky blue-white of legitimately blind people, they were – as he'd been told – a rather strange icy blue, so pale that they didn't look natural. When others first saw them, it was always rather shocking to them. He'd never understood it, so he decided not to let the team see them.

Of course, they automatically assumed the reason was that Batman was being super secretive. After all, that was what Wally, his best friend, had told them. If he didn't know Robin, then who really did?

It did get tricky sometimes, not being able to properly see and register the things around him. It made hacking a menace, but they'd installed braille onto the keyboard, so it wasn't too difficult. Walking around the cave unable to see what was in front of him was also not too great, but he managed. The alternative was to tell the team and say goodbye to being Robin, because, knowing them, they would make some sort of 'executive decision' and say he was incapable of being a member of the team.

Best to avoid the paperwork, he'd decided.

It was extremely difficult to hide it, especially with Artemis, who knew his alter ego and saw him every day. All she'd have to do would be to put his voice and appearance (minus the eyes) together and realize the truth. He couldn't let that happen.

So, instead of facing the consequences the truth would have, he hid it from six of his closest friends. Sometimes he couldn't stand the thought of holding back, keeping secrets from his best friends. When those times came, he simply locked himself up somewhere before he did something rash, something he might regret later.

Of course, it hadn't always been this way. No, he used to be able to see things with perfect clarity, until the day of his parents' deaths. Nobody could explain why his vision had suddenly shut down, just that it had.

Secretly, deep down, he did know why. It was like a psychosomatic thing, how people sometimes got a psychosomatic limp. There was nothing to support his theory, so he'd kept it to himself. What he thought may be the problem, was that he'd been the one to lock up his window to the outside world, probably because his six-year-old mind couldn't comprehend what it had been seeing and so had shoved it aside. That's what he'd come up with, anyway.

"Robin?"

He tensed involuntarily at the sudden noise of footsteps approaching. Before training could kick in, his mind was able to place the voice and he relaxed.

"Yeah?" he turned his head in what he hoped was her direction.

Turns out it was – or it must have at least been close – for Zatanna didn't seem to react. "Are you okay? You kind of just… disappeared on us."

He grinned. "That is what I do."

Even though he couldn't see it, he was sure she'd rolled her eyes at him. It seemed like something she would do, at least.

"Robin, I'm being serious."

Grinning again he answered her. "So am I. You just can't tell."

"Robin." Here it was: she getting exasperated and was therefore providing a distraction from his urge to tell his secret. An angry distraction was better than no distraction, right?

He heard movement and frowned. Why was she moving? He rolled his eyes slightly.

"Yes?" he said innocently. Zatanna sighed.

"We're worried about you."

Robin faltered. "We?"

Suddenly another voice came from his right side. "Yeah, us. Your team." He jumped violently, recognizing the voice as Wally's.

His head turned in the redhead's direction. Sure enough, he saw the blurry form of yellow and red. He frowned, knowing there was no way that his best friend hadn't seen him jump.

Who else is here? He looked around as best as he could. He discovered that his whole team had somehow entered the room without his noticing. When…? "The movement." He murmured softly under his breath. Of course. He'd stupidly assumed it was Zatanna.

"Excuse me?" Artemis said. His head snapped up.

"Nothing." His response came quickly. Too quickly. It was way too obvious he was hiding something.

"Robin," M'gann said softly. He heard her approaching and forced himself not to move away. This wasn't good. With Zatanna, he'd been distracted from his secret. Now, with the whole team surrounding him, it was brought fully back into focus. "We know that something isn't right. Please, let us help you with whatever it is."

He paused. It would be all too easy to tell them, to be rid of his five-year-old secret. It shouldn't be so simple, but it was. It was way too simple. Just two words. That's all that it would take.

Those two words were currently battling with his mind, fighting as hard as they could to escape. They were on a mission and he wasn't sure how much longer he could keep them at bay. So he did the only thing he could.

He looked up at his team. No, his friends. And he did something that he would regret. He turned on his heal and left the room.

He could hear them following, trying to stop him. Robin looked back once before taking the zeta-beam.

"Robin BO1."

The next day, he did regret it. He regretted it more than anything.

"Why?" he yelled, punching a hole through the wall. "Why couldn't I just tell them?!"

Okay, so this went in a bit of a weird direction. It wasn't planned or anything, I just let it go where it wanted. I thought they would find out, or Batman would come and tell them to stop interrogating him, or something. I didn't think Robin would be a drama queen and leave in a rush. Oh well, I guess Robin couldn't tell them he was blind just yet. Either way, hope you enjoyed it. Warning: this probably won't get much further than a one-shot.