It's not supposed to be like this. The Boy Wonder decided definitely as he slid into a tighter, cooler shirt. He had to do something. He had to do anything other than lay around his too big room and do nothing all day. He slipped his amalgam canvas sneakers over his feet as he headed off down the hall.
His obligations at Gotham Academy had been relinquished some months ago at the start of the summer season. Without school, studies, or missions; he still had to keep himself busy somehow. Easily making his way into the workout room located somewhere deep in the labyrinth-like halls that was the extravagant Wayne Manor, he flipped on the lights and the fans and got to work.
It had been this way for days now. That is, days he was not expected to be at The Clubhouse. The Boy Wonder had grown accustomed to laying around his room, not doing much until the runaround his head was giving him got the better of him and he had to get out. That would be when he made his way into the workout room.
Just keep moving, and you won't have to think about things like that. He reminded himself right about the time he let go of the bar he was swinging from. Just as soon as the floor had become the floor again, he found his feet land softly on the padded surface. Someone had better rob something, or start some kind of trouble soon... He decided to himself with a nod before jumping up to grab ahold of the bar that loomed above his head once more. Then things would get busy again. Then I could keep moving. Then he would have to come back.
A rather foreign sound escaped his throat as he found himself on his stomach on the floor's mat. He swore, leaving a dent in the mat with his fist as he rose to his feet. Stop it. He scolded himself, taking a rather sloppy throw at the closest wall. If he was going to keep thinking about things like that then he might as well go back up to his room.
He shook his head, resting for a moment only long enough to take a drink and re-coat his palms with rosin before grabbing a hold of the closer of the two parallel bars above him. Why? Why was he doing this to himself? Why did his head find it humorous to play these sort of tricks on him?
He sighed. It's not supposed to be like this... He repeated to himself. With both hands preoccupied with holding his body in the air, he squinted his eyes as he felt sweat threaten to fall in them. Even with the fans, it was getting hot.
Sixty-seven, then seventy-six, eighty-three, eighty-five, eighty-five, eighty-two. The last day he was here it had dropped down considerably to sixty-five, but that was not good enough. The Boy Wonder felt himself scowl. The summer had been unseasonably hot for the New England coast this year.
Atlantean physiology is highly susceptible to heat.
To have asked Kaldur'ahm to stay would have been cruel. Robin had long accepted this fact after Aqualad had obtained permission from The League to return home for a reprieve from the heat. At least, Robin was supposed to have accepted this.
He had been left as temporary leader of the team. Not that there had been any missions for him to lead. So why was the boy so distraught over the absence of his friend? It was not as though any of his other close friends or teammates lived in Gotham City, other than himself and Artemis.
Dropping to the floor once more for the simple purpose of catching his breath, Robin sighed. He knew the answer to this question far too well.
That did not mean he had to be happy about it.
Instead of hopping back up onto the bar, he leaned backwards until his hands touched the floor behind his feet. He raised his feet into the air and replaced them behind his hands so he could stand up.
The answer was there in his head. The reason he was so torn up about the absence of his leader was buried inside of him, and dammit if the Boy Wonder was going to keep letting those answers eat away at him while the object of his obsessive thoughts enjoyed himself during the team's vacation.
The feelings he had begun to harbor for his leader were going to stay in his gym. Left there and abandoned like an old spent rosin block. He planned to keep things that way. A secret, for him and the pounding in his chest that was not only caused by the adrenaline and blood that was rushing to his ears. He finally had to let himself become right side up again as he let out a shaky breath.
If only things were ever that simple.