Author note: This was written as a commission for the Titans Together Secret Santa event (yes I gave it a name), for none other than the event planner herself, Kdubbz1075! Here's a Speedy/Aqualad high school alternate universe, just for you! =) And thanks for putting this event together!

This kind of story is way out of my usual writing area, but it was great to do something so different. And I actually did a quite a bit of research and planning before writing it, so I hope it came out to your liking. Happy holidays!

Target Practice

1. Find the Target

It's a strange thing to realize about yourself. To wonder—bit by bit, day by day—if maybe, just maybe, you might actually be… you know…

Roy still couldn't bring himself to say the word. It didn't describe him; it described a way of life that wasn't his. A community of which he wanted no part. To Roy, it described high-pitched voices and loose wrists. Promiscuity and tight clothing hugging lanky torsos. And if one thing was for sure, it was that no soul would ever find Roy Harper in a skin-tight sleeveless tee.

So he was attracted to guys. So what? Did that make him gay?

It was one thing to be okay with the fact that his heart worked differently than most of his friends'. But it didn't mean he wanted a full membership with the whole damned club.

It just wasn't for him at all. There must be some way for him to explore all of this, but… how would he even start?

2. Thread the Arrow

The buzz horn sounded, followed by a small crowd's zealous eruption of cheers and shouts that all but drowned out the sounds of six bodies breaking the surface tension. For three seconds and eight meters, they were vague silhouettes gliding silently underwater, before emerging again with loud breaths and swinging limbs. As they splashed their ways toward the finish, two competitors pulled ahead of the rest, and fans jumped to their feet with louder and more enthusiastic cheers.

"Go Garth!" half of the bleachers exclaimed.

"Yeah Cal!" the visiting fans cheered, showing some impressive support despite their small numbers.

"Garth! You've got this!" Roy shouted, his fist thrust proudly into the air. "This guy's got nothing on you!"

Next to him in the bleachers stood his sister, a girl about shoulder-height next to Roy, wearing a red windbreaker and jet-black hair that reached just past her shoulders. At her side, she held a tablet device displaying a spreadsheet full of columns and numbers. In her other hand was a stopwatch; her finger pushed the "lap" button just as Garth crosses the finish line, then again as Cal finished a moment later, and then finally once more as the third place swimmer reached the finish. The crowd erupted again, while the girl buried her attention in her tablet.

Roy looked down at her and asked, "Robin, what are you doing now?"

"Logging the swimmers' times," she replied without looking up from the screen.

"Why? The school already does that," he pointed out with an irritated tone. Why did she have to be so weird?

"I can do it better," she stated matter-of-factly, still not skipping a beat from her work, but this time with more force of principle in her tone.

Roy sighed in frustration, turning to watch the swimmers get out of the pool. "But again, why?"

Several seconds went by as Robin declined to answer. As she finished entering the data into her chart, she glanced up at her brother and noticed that he'd given up the conversation, as well. Turning back to her tablet, she directed her voice toward him and said, "You should go to tonight's game with him."

Roy immediately bit his own tongue in surprise and found something slippery to trip on at the same time. Robin merely lifted an eyebrow as her brother collapsed onto the bleachers before quickly jumping back into place as if nothing had happened… save for a few beads of sweat.

"What the hell are you talking about?!" he asked.

Robin rolled her eyes. "I see you watching him. And it's not like you two don't talk. Just ask him if he wants to go."

"No."

"I don't understand why you have to be so weird about it."

"You'll get it when your older."

"I'm only a year younger than you!"

"Well apparently a year makes all the difference!"

"Yeah, that must be it," Robin faced him and stuck her tongue out with her hands on her hips.

"Exactly!" Roy returned fire, sticking his own tongue out and crossing his arms indignantly.

"Am… I interrupting something?"

Roy and Robin both turned and suddenly jumped when they found the victorious Garth standing before them. He'd put his shorts and shirt back on, although the latter had soaked through and stuck to his torso in several places. A white towel was draped over his shoulders to complete the ensemble. The siblings quickly snapped to attention, each stammering explanations while Garth merely chuckled.

"Uh… nope, nothing!" Roy and Robin both stammered.

The moment passed while the siblings exchanged a few more bickering glares, before Garth continued with a smile, "Well as usual, Roy, you were the loudest one cheering. I swear, yours is the only voice I can ever make out clearly once the race is going."

"Hey, someone has to light a fire under your butt," Roy smirked in response.

Garth gave a hearty laugh and replied, "Oh so that's what it was! And here I thought I was winning because of all the six-a.m. practice sessions." A few seconds of silence went by, before Garth looked out toward the pool and changed tones. "Of course, it's not like many people come to these swim meets, anyway. All anyone around here cares about is the football team."

Roy nodded, "You're right about that—" before Robin elbowed him in the ribs and caused him to double over for a second. He quickly corrected himself: "I mean… I'm sure lots of students follow the swim team. Robin and I are here, aren't we?"

The swimmer seemed to ponder for a moment, and then he simply shrugged his shoulders. A more light-hearted expression returned to his face, and he again smiled, "Yeah, I guess you're right."

He and Roy continued to face each other, each expecting the other to say something next. When neither did, Roy was suddenly met with another bony elbow to his side as Robin sighed in frustration.

"Will you stop that!" he glared at her while nursing his newest injury.

His sister merely turned away as if nothing had happened, but muttered a barely-audible, "Well if someone didn't need so many hints…"

Roy vented his frustration in the form a dramatic, purposeful sigh, before turning back to Garth. "So… you going to the game tonight?"

"Yeah, why not? It's the homecoming game, after all. Everyone's probably going."

"Uh, yeah… right," Roy faltered. "I'm going, too. Do you want to go… you know, with… I mean…" Inexplicably, he was suddenly unable to form sentences and found himself choking on words. Why was this so hard?!

…thought Robin, as she felt her own blood pressure increasing. Unable to bear the train wreck any longer, she rolled her eyes before exclaiming dramatically, "Oh! I want to go tonight, but there are always so many jocks trying to hit on me…" Roy and Garth turned to her with bewildered expressions, so she threw her arm over her forehead whimsically, stared into the distance, and finished, "If only there were a pair of boys I could trust to go with me and make me feel safer..."

Roy could only stare with his jaw on the floor.

"Um…" Garth scratched his head. "I guess the two of us could hang with you, Robin. I mean, if you really feel that uncomfortable… Right, Roy?"

The red head took another moment to snap out of his fog, before quickly straightening his posture and replying somewhat awkwardly, "Sounds like a plan to me!"

"Oh, thank you boys!" Robin struggled to keep up her charm, but managed to maintain the most innocent, cutesy smile she could muster. The things she did for family…

Garth took a step back and said, "Well, I'd better go change. I'll see you two tonight?"

"You bet, see ya then," Roy confirmed, regaining his composure somewhat. After Garth nodded and walked off toward the locker room, Roy exhaled while Robin glared at him with her hands on her hips again.

"Sounds like a plan to me?" she repeatedly questioningly.

"Oh shut up!"

3. (Remember to Aim)

"Hike!"

It sounded more like a distant grunt from where Roy, Garth, and Robin were standing on the bleachers, and was followed by a tiny speck of a football being tossed backward as twenty-two jerseys broke formation and exploded on the field toward the end zone. A few moments later, the ball was hurled high into the air—almost lost in the dark, expansive sky overhead—before it reappeared a good fifty yards across the field.

As everyone's eyes turned back to the ground to see who would catch the pass, Jump's very own Number 05 pulled ahead of the pack. New to the team this year, he was exceptionally fast, and as he twisted to face the ball, Robin caught a glimpse of his characteristic orange hair sticking out from beneath his helmet. It wasn't exactly down to the shoulders like hers, but still longer than average for a guy.

On course to land just twenty yards from the end zone, the ball seemed to be out of everybody's reach. But as it passed overhead, Number 05 suddenly leapt upward. Leaving the ground far behind, he stretched toward the sky and snagged the ball impressively with one hand from its altitude of nearly ten feet. He landed on ground midstride, as if never having jumped in the first place, and neatly tucked the ball between his arm and his chest as he closed the remaining distance to the end zone. He crashed through the single defending player in his way, stumbling awkwardly afterward but nevertheless staying on his feet long enough to reach his target.

"Touchdown!" the loudspeaker rang as the crowd cheered and threw their fists.

It was a perfect September night at Jump City High School. The sky was dark and the air was crisp, without a single cloud overhead. The temperature was cooler than it had been during the summer months, but still mild enough that most of the students were comfortable in their t-shirts and jeans. Roy, Garth, and Robin were sitting a few rows from the front, right in the middle of the crowd, the latter of course with her tablet in hand.

As Robin intently watched Number 05 rejoin the teams formation for the next play, Roy looked down and smirked when he noticed that she seemed to have forgotten all about her precious data collection.

"There he is…" he sneered, nudging his sister's shoulder. "He must really be something…"

Robin jumped as she snapped out of her daze, stuttering, "What—uh, who, him?"

"Oh, I see…" Roy chided. "So then you don't have a thing for the new guy, Cory Anders?"

"Of course not!" she lied. "Besides, he's a year behind me."

Roy laughed, "Funny, because weren't you the one who said, 'I'm only a year younger than you' just earlier today?"

The girl blushed and quickly turned away in a huff, earning more chuckles from both Roy and Garth.

"Aw, give the poor girl a break," Garth smiled. "Although, I've seen him in a lot of the same classes as you, Robin. And I hear he's single…"

Robin's eyes widened and she blushed even deeper; this was not happening to her! Continuing to hide her face, she turned just slightly to glare at them both and said, "You two could talk about other things, you know!"

"Fine, fine," her brother gave in. A few seconds went by, before he turned to Garth and asked, "So, what's new with you?"

"Same old, same old, I guess," was the reply. "Swim practice, homework, parents getting on my nerves; the usual."

"Yeah, I hear ya. They're always on me about studying and practicing and 'I should be thinking about my future'…"

"Well that's all there, too," Garth began. He trailed off as he looked blankly toward the football field, as if unsure whether he wanted to continue. "But… there's also the giant whale in the room…"

"Uh, what?"

Garth continued to gaze into the distance as he sighed and explained, "You know. They know I'm into guys, and they swear they're okay with it, but… it still makes them act real awkward sometimes."

"Oh," Roy didn't know what to say, although he suddenly found himself more interested in the conversation than the game.

"And it comes up at the most random times!" Garth's voice gained strength as his frustration vented. "It's not like I talk about guys with them anyway! We'll just be eating dinner or something, and things suddenly get awkward and I can tell that they're thinking about it. I just wanted shout at them, 'If the thought bothers you so much than stop thinking about it!'"

Roy thought about it before replying, "My parents and I don't talk that much, so I guess I haven't had that problem." Although now he had that to look forward to. Still, he felt like he should be supportive in some way. "But I guess, you know… if you ever need to vent or something…" Damn he was bad at this.

Fortunately, Garth knew where he was headed and saved him the trouble. "Thanks," he nodded with smile, allowing to put the issue away for the time being.

"Yeah, no prob—"

They were interrupted as the crowd erupted into commotion around them, and they looked toward the game to see that Cory Anders and two other Jump players were on a collision course with three opposing players, and were set to make impact right in front of them at the fifty-yard line near the edge of the field.

Kabump! Bump bump kabump!

Jumps forces struggled to protect Anders as he buried the ball in his chest and pushed his way through the barricade of enemy jerseys and shoulder pads. Despite his relatively lean build, he was somehow making his way forward while his teammates helped keep him on his feet. Fans went ecstatic as the two forces clashed and more players joined in, and then again as Anders began to pick up speed as he pushed through.

Robin stood with her hands in the pockets of her red windbreaker, watching intently as she caught another glimpse of Anders' orange hair in the midst of the fray. Then, she saw him thrust his shoulders forward in a dramatic push, allowing him to force an opening between the last two opponents in his way. He came bursting out of the chaos, his momentum immediately accelerating him to full speed. More excitement came from the fans, but Robin squinted her eyes as if struggling to see something.

As Anders had emerged from the pile-up and quickly sped up, it was unclear to Robin's analytic eyes whether his first two strides had… actually contacted the ground. It was a ridiculous thought, of course. She must have been more head-over-heels for this guy than she'd realized.

Anders sprinted down the field, leaving the last enemy player in his dust as he crossed the thirty-yard line. Then the twenty. There were more cheers and excitement, and then he passed the ten-yard line. And then… touchdown! Everybody jumped up and shouted cries of victory and taunts at the other team.

In the commotion, Roy and Garth were suddenly knocked into each other—and their hands reflexively clasped onto one another, resulting in surprised expressions from both of them as each pretended not to notice. If she'd been watching, Robin could have told them all about the gripping reflex present in all humans. And if Cory Anders had been there, he might have commented about the cultural role of hand-holding in his home country. But none of those would have explained why neither Roy nor Garth decided to let go at this particular moment. Neither dared to adjust his grip, but this was good just as it was.

Definitely better than his clumsy words, Roy decided.

He glanced to toward Garth on his right, who glanced back with a different, softer smile than before. Roy returned the expression, and then both turned to face the field in parallel as Jump nailed a perfect field goal and then began to regroup for whatever play might come at them next.

As Cory Anders came trotting back toward the other end zone in anticipation of the kick-off, he passed the fifty-yard line and glanced toward the crowd. What a strange feeling, he thought, to be treated like a hero by all these people. Suddenly, his eyes fell on someone familiar.

It was that girl from a few of his classes—he was fairly sure her name was Robin. She sure was pretty… wait, she was looking right at him! He almost tripped on himself as he jogged past her, but managed to throw a quick smile her way before getting too far away. Great, now she would think he was weird. A great thought for him to be pondering as the recently-punted football came soaring right toward his back…

As the crowd settled down, Garth turned to Roy and said, "Well, you've seen me on the swim team. Are you into any sports?"

"Robin and I both do a lot of martial arts," Roy replied. "But nothing really at Jump High."

"Kung fu, huh?" Garth was interrupt as the fans reacted to Number 05 getting hit in the back by the football. He chuckled at the sight, and then continued, "You know what you should try? The new archery set-up they built here over the summer. Something tells me you'd be good at that."

Roy laughed, "Yeah right. I'd be awful with a crossbow."

End

Author note: Again, thanks to Kdubbz1075 for giving me this commission, and for putting together the Titans Together Secret Santa event! This was quite an interesting piece to write.

Please review! I'm new to this pairing, and I'm also curious how my other changes came across.

If you want to check out any of my other stories, then let me suggest A Martian Abandon. It's a much more traditional (i.e. not alternate universe) two-shot, focused on Raven with quite a bit of interaction with Beastboy.