Written purely for fun, because I was bored and didn't want to start on history. Plus I think that they kind of match pretty well.
(Reviews would be wonderful. And constructive criticism. And stuff.)
Robin had, many times, been called a good leader. Loyal. Determined. Quick. Brave. And, most importantly of all, he was also considered a good friend. He also knew, however, that he could be a complete idiot sometimes.
He would always believe, however, that he had made one of the smartest and greatest decisions of his life when he scribbled down his number onto a dark-haired, dark-eyed girl's palm.
He had been riding through Jump City late at night on his spare, un-Robinfied motorbike, and in his completely civilian outfit. Forget the traffic-coloured suit and the bike that screamed his name. That night, he was simply another teenaged boy, wearing sunglasses, a pair of jeans and a plain T-shirt, riding through the night for one simple reason:
Girls.
This unplanned night bike ride was, simply put, due to a certain red-headed alien girl with the brightest green eyes that Robin had ever seen before. And this night bike ride was, simply put, a necessity, because Robin could not wrap his head around what exactly he felt for Starfire anymore.
Once upon a time, he'd been very, very fond of her. He'd liked her, a lot. Perhaps he had even been a little in love.
But now that feeling was fading. He still did like Starfire; he always would. It was just that the sight of her didn't give him as much comfort as it had before, and that her smile didn't make his heart pound faster than it had before, or – or anything, really.
And so he drove into the night. For just one night, he wasn't Robin, leader of the Teen Titans, many-times-over hero of Jump City. He was just another teenage boy.
And he needed that.
What he had not expected was to drive past a darkened alleyway and see a girl, no older than him, tackle three very big, very buff, very evil-looking guys.
Robin's reflexes had kicked in instantly. He was off his bike in a second, and even without his belt – he had chosen to stash it away in the bike, and besides, he didn't need his belt for a fight like this – he was quick on his feet, jumping up onto and knocking out the first guy.
He had thought, for a moment, that he'd seen only a single eye in the guy's head, instead of two. But he'd brushed that off almost immediately, and it had been two eyes fluttering themselves shut as the guy collapsed onto the ground.
Robin had looked over at the girl, then, who had glanced over at him. She didn't looked scared, or worried, or nervous, even – but did she look just a little annoyed? Her face was cold and impassive, and reminded Robin of one of those Greek sculptures of their goddesses that he always saw in museums or at famous sites.
She had given him a quick nod, as if recognising that he had joined the fight and that he could hold his own, and had turned back to the two bulky, massive guys in front of her.
The three guys were all down in less than ten minutes.
"Are you okay?" he'd asked her, an instinctive reaction when he jumped into a fight.
She looked at him coolly, and leaned against what looked like a long staff that glittered golden. "I'm fine." And then, almost grudgingly: "Thanks for your help."
"Don't mention it," Robin said. "You shouldn't be out here on the streets alone at night. It could be dangerous."
Something in the girl's eyes had flashed – suspicion, and what looked very much like anger.
"I was handling things fine," she said, and Robin couldn't protest, because he had seen that the girl had been managing herself well; it had just been his hero instincts that had kicked in and caused him to leap into the fight. "I can take care of myself."
Robin hesitated, and then nodded. "What are you going to do with these guys? You going to go to the station?"
She shook her head. "I'll deal with them myself."
"But – "
The girl had fixed him with a sharp look, then, a cold, sharp look. It was a look that he recognised himself, and that was when he knew. She was a girl who had her own way of dealing with things, a girl who wanted to settle things on her own, a girl who could handle herself fine.
It reminded him vaguely of himself.
So he had nodded, and fought against his instincts which said that she should not leave this girl alone with these three bulky, passed-out guys.
"If it worries you so much," she said, "I won't be alone. I've got a friend coming along in a few minutes."
He could hear the truth in her voice.
"Okay," he had said. But before he left, he whipped out a pen and, without a word, took her hand and scribbled his number on it. It was the number to his own cell, the number that the Titans knew existed but didn't know what it was, exactly. He could feel her stiffen as he scrawled in the last few digits, see her face lock into a cool, emotionless, hard mask as he dropped her hand. It was impulsive, and it was stupid, and he didn't really know what he was doing. He knew this was stupid. It went completely against his usually, highly suspicious nature. But there it was - the number scrawled on her hand.
"If you ever need help," he'd said. "Or, if you want to practice hand-to-hand combat, or something. You were really good out there."
That wasn't a lie. He had watched how she'd fought, and had been able to tell, immediately, that this girl knew what she was doing. And it also helped that Robin, for all his wonderful team-mates that were his family, didn't really have anyone to practice hand-to-hand combat with.
It would also maybe help to have someone outside. A friend, he hoped, if he ever saw this girl after tonight. It wasn't like she knew he was a Titan, after all.
He looked at her face, and even through her guarded expression, he thought he saw her face soften, just a little.
"All right," she'd said. "I could do with some practice myself."
He'd held out his hand, then. "I forgot to introduce myself. I'm – " He hesitated for a minute, a hesitation that he saw the dark girl catch onto quickly. "I'm Richard."
She'd nodded, and had taken his hand. "Reyna."
With that, he'd jumped back onto his bike and backed away, out of the alley. He waited across the street, in the cover of darkness, and he waited until he saw a bulky boy run along the street until he reached the alleyway, and until Reyna came out to talk to the bulky boy and point back into the alleyway.
Robin drove away.
It was maybe a week later that he got the phone call.
Robin frowned when he dug out his phone. He didn't have to worry about the other Titans hearing the call – Beast Boy and Cyborg were playing video games, Starfire was making something in the kitchen and cooing to Silkie, and Raven was meditating on the roof.
"Hello?" he asked, cautiously, after picking up the phone.
"Richard," a voice said on the other end. "It's Reyna."
He widened his eyes and shot out of the room and into the hallway like a cannonball. Reyna. He hadn't forgotten about the strange girl with the hardened expression and her guarded eyes. Hell, he'd even driven around Jump City at night a couple of times, trying to see if he could find her. She'd never appeared.
"Hey," he said.
"Are you still up for some combat practice?"
And it was then that Robin found himself on a deserted area of land outside of Jump City hours later, exhausted, and sweating, and tired, but very much satisfied. Reyna was sitting on a large rock opposite him, her purple shirt drenched in sweat, her dark hair curling where it'd loosened from her braid.
Robin had never had a fight quite like that before. She was good. She was incredibly, incredibly good. She could even give him a run for his money, even though she didn't use martial arts like she actually knew it. With the level of skill she had, Robin doubted that she could be that good without a reason for having to be. But then, she didn't seem like a crime-fighter, and she didn't seem like a villain, either, though she could very well be either.
Strangely, he didn't really care. It was good to just have someone who didn't know who he was, who didn't look to him to make the decisions or look up to him or rely on him. And, somehow, he thought that Reyna might be feeling the same way.
So he didn't ask, and he didn't care.
"Do you ever take off your sunglasses?" she asked him.
At that, Robin stiffened slightly, but he shook his head determinedly. "Not really. I feel – safer with them."
She hadn't said anything at that, just looked at him intently with those dark, guarded eyes of hers.
"Fair enough," she said.
"Do you want to go grab a drink or something?"
She raised her eyebrows at that, but she agreed.
And that was how Robin found himself with Reyna at the pizza place he almost always went to with the Titans, sharing a pizza and sipping massive drinks.
It was different, and it was a good different. He wasn't there after yet another session of beating up some villain and throwing him into jail. He wasn't there with the constant yells and arguments about meat and vegetarian pizza, or someone drinking mustard, or someone simply sitting there and ignoring the world around her.
He was there after an exhausting training session with someone who didn't look to him to always do the right thing or to make the decisions, and who didn't talk so very much but didn't talk so little, sharing a Hawaiian pizza and sipping at sodas.
It was different. A good different.
And so Robin found himself calling her up more and more often, and found his phone ringing more and more often as well. It was good to just get away from everything. He knew his team-mates had realised that he disappeared for hours at a time, and that he wouldn't tell anyone where he went – he'd given both Beast Boy and Cyborg an earful when he realised that they'd been about to follow him, and had led them on a merry chase throughout the city while he sped on his Robin bike, only to go on a massive detour, change quickly and hide his bike, and find Reyna on foot, which had made him very, very late.
And more and more often, he found that they weren't just doing hand-to-hand combat practice sessions and heading out for food or a drink. More and more often they would go out and do regular teenage stuff. He learnt quickly that she didn't particularly like shopping, or going to the arcade, and more often than not they'd sit around somewhere with a smoothie or a soda, just talking, or explore Jump City. Even with his daily saving-Jump-City routine, there was plenty of the city he hadn't explored before; and he'd learnt that Reyna didn't actually live in Jump City either, though she dropped by from time to time, and she'd mentioned that it was convenient for her to come to Jump City. Something about an easy mode of transportation.
She was like him, in a lot of ways he could tell. She was a leader – a leader who had to bear the responsibility of her actions for a huge amount of people, and who wasn't always sure if what she was doing was right. She'd gone through plenty of pain and sadness, and she was no stranger to hurt, emotional or physical. Her face was guarded, her eyes watchful, like an enemy could spring up at any moment – but when he was with her, just as he could feel his own mask and responsibilities slipping away, he could see the hardness on her face being softened as well.
He didn't ask what she was, or what she led, or what kind of decisions and pain she had to go through.
She never asked him, either, though he was sure that she could tell he was like her. She was a seasoned fighter, just like him. She saw things.
He didn't tell the Titans about Reyna.
This was his life. His life outside of the Titans. And he didn't want to do anything that might destroy it.
It was when Robin saw her talking to a muscular, blond boy with bright blue eyes that something in him clenched up.
They were supposed to go and watch some movie. He figured that this was probably not the best idea, since a villain could attack at any moment – he'd already had to run off from his meetings with Reyna more than a few times, and she hadn't really seemed to mind that much, saying that she didn't mind heading back early. One of the best and worst parts was that Robin knew she was telling the truth, that she didn't mind. The best because she didn't ask – she accepted that he had a life outside these meetings with her, these meetings that had all stemmed from an encounter in an alleyway in the dark of the night and a shared passion for hand-to-hand combat with someone who really knew what they were doing. The worst because it made him feel even more horrible, the way he'd run off on her.
But there she was, standing outside the cinema with a good-looking, muscular blond boy.
Robin marched his way over to them, the scowl on his face clear as day.
"I know what I'm doing, Jason," she was saying to him. "I can take care of myself. You know that."
"Reyna, I don't want you doing something stupid and reckless – "
"When have I ever done anything stupid and reckless? All I'm doing is having a life outside of you and outside of – "
Reyna broke off, abruptly, when she saw him, his sunglasses on his face as they always were.
"Richard," she said. Then her gaze snapped to the blond boy, and back to him. "Richard, this is Jason. Jason, Richard."
Jason had looked at Robin. Robin had looked at Jason.
"Take care of my girl for me," was all Jason said to him. And then he turned and walked away.
Robin didn't say much, not as they paid for the movie tickets and for the popcorn and soda. (Reyna never let him pay for anything. She said that she could take care of whatever she bought, and him paying would make her feel indebted to him. Robin could understand that. She also said that him paying made it seem as if they were on a date. He could understand that too.)
"You're strangely quiet," she said, taking a handful of popcorn. She had also bought a large packet of jelly beans, which she was now holding. He'd realised that she liked jelly beans a lot. And chocolate. She loved chocolate.
Robin shrugged; and then, almost to his horror and complete surprise, he asked, abruptly: "Was that your boyfriend?"
Reyna had looked at him, her mask slipping away quickly to reveal a look of shock, before she got in control of herself again.
"Jason?" she said. "No. We've just been friends for years, and we worked very closely together as well. He's got a girlfriend of his own. A friend of mine."
"Then when he said my girl – "
"He's just protective," said Reyna. "Like I said. Friends for years. He knows me inside and out. Besides – " here a faint smile crossed his face " – he feels responsible for me. His girlfriend won't be the only one who murders him if something happens to me on his watch."
There was no bitterness in her voice, nothing.
Robin suddenly felt very much happier.
Robin kept his time spent with Reyna separate from the Titans – and after what had happened to Beast Boy and Cyborg, none of them tried to follow him again or find out where he went. He'd had a single talk with Raven, who had wanted to make sure he wasn't doing anything stupid or foolhardy; and when having reassured herself that he was not doing something stupid or crazy that would endanger his life, she'd made sure the rest of the team knew that whatever he was doing, it was all right, even if she didn't know what it was that he did when he disappeared from the Tower.
His life was split into two parts. Reyna, and the Titans. And day by day, week by week, Reyna was taking up more and more of his time.
What he had never expected was for the two separate halves of his life to collide.
The alarm had sounded. They'd headed downtown. And found themselves face to face with a bunch of massive, ugly, misshapen creatures that Robin had decided had to be ogres or something like that.
There were only five of them. They were big, and slow, and stupid. It should have been easy.
But nothing any of them did seemed to harm them. They could knock them flat on the ground, knock them out for a couple of minutes, cause them to stagger back; but they would be up again in minutes, roaring and shouting and yelling.
And that was when the huge horse with wings had come flying in, a dark-haired girl dressed in glittering armour and chainmail on its back, holding a golden spear.
She took out the first three ogres easily enough. Every time she jabbed with her spear, darting in and out of their reach, they dissolved into golden, glittering dust. Robin had only watched, his jaw dropping, at this strange girl fighting their battle for them, taking out the monsters so easily when they hadn't been able to do it.
Then she got injured trying to kill the fourth ogre, and she tumbled off the horse, her helmet slightly askew as she plunged the golden spear into his belly.
The fifth ogre was approaching –
Robin didn't even think.
In an instant he'd taken the spear from the fallen, injured girl, and thrust it into the chest of the fifth monster.
He promptly exploded into dust.
And that was when Robin turned to the injured girl, who was breathing heavily, bleeding. They had to take this girl back to the Tower, they had to heal her, treat her wounds. Carefully, he returned her the spear, and even more carefully, he lifted the helmet.
The eyes that looked back up at him were careful and guarded and dark, and long dark hair was spiralling out of a plain braid, and the girl's features were so very familiar.
His eyes widened in disbelief. "Reyna?"
"Richard," she murmured, and then promptly collapsed.
She'd been placed into the T-Car, and Robin had abandoned his bike, leaving it on the streets as he sat with her in the back seat, keeping her up, making sure she was okay. The huge flying horse galloped as it flew through the air behind them, a fair distance away from Raven and Starfire and Beast Boy.
"You'll be okay, Reyna," Robin muttered. "You're going to pull through this. You are not dying on me when you owe me a pizza."
Robin knew Cyborg was looking at him through the mirror. He didn't care.
When he got her to the infirmary, her eyelids fluttered open. "Ambrosia," she gasped. "And nectar. In my – in my belt."
He didn't ask questions, not even as Starfire and Raven and Beast Boy appeared behind Cyborg in the doorway. He found her belt, pulled out a plastic of squashed, yellow squares.
When she nodded, he immediately opened it, and pushed a few squares into her hands. Carefully, helping her lift her arm slightly when needed, he watched as she swallowed the first square, and her face relaxed; and then she took the second square, and she took a deep breath.
Colour returned to her face, her eyes brightened considerably, and the blood stopped gushing from her wounds.
"Dude," said Beast Boy, "what was that?"
Reyna's eyes had flickered over to the four of them by the door. She seemed to accept the fact, quite calmly, that there was indeed a half-robot, a greens-skinned boy, a redheaded alien and a grey-skinned girl standing behind Robin.
"Ambrosia and nectar," she said, managing to prop herself up on the bed. "A demigod's basic healing supplies."
"A – a what?" Robin looked at her, eyes wide.
She looked at him, and somehow, Robin knew, right then, that it didn't matter. It didn't matter that he was Robin, the leader of the Teen Titans, in his stupid traffic-coloured suit; and it didn't matter that she had a flying horse, and she fought and killed those monsters like she'd done it a million times before, or that she was a – a demigod, whatever that was.
She said, "Aren't the colours a bit too much?"
He told her, "You're the one in glittering armour."
It was that day that he found out about a world alongside their own. A world where Greek and Roman gods and goddesses roamed the earth and continued to have affairs with plenty of mortals, where monsters constantly appeared to kill and strike down demigods, and where there existed two entire camps of teenagers who knew how to wield a sword and hold their own against anything that came their way.
"And where do you stand, exactly?" he asked her. "You know I'm Robin of the Teen Titans, now. But who are you exactly?"
She gave him a long look.
"Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano," she said. "Daughter of Bellona, the Roman war goddess. Praetor of the Twelfth Legion."
Robin's mind went into overdrive, absorbing her words, recalling all that he'd ever read about Ancient Rome. And he understood.
"You lead them," he said. "You lead an entire legion of warriors."
She raised her head, slightly. "The First Cohort to the Fifth, of Camp Jupiter. Yes."
"And Jason - ?"
"He used to be my fellow praetor," she said. "My colleague. He has since resigned from his post. I now work with a son of Mars called Frank Zhang."
Robin blinked. "Oh."
What did he say to that?
They were on the rooftop, watching the sun set over the vast ocean.
"I would be mad at you," Robin admitted. "For keeping such a huge secret from me. But I've got no right to be. I kept a pretty big secret too."
"I'm feeling the same way," said Reyna. "The only thing keeping me from not harming you is that I didn't tell you about all of this, either." She waved a hand at her armour, at her spear, at the Pegasus that Robin now knew was called Guido behind them.
There was a long pause.
"I still owe you that pizza," she said.
He raised his head in surprise.
"This will – this will continue, right?" she asked, and Robin thought he saw a flash of uncertainty in her eyes. "What we have – I mean, what we're doing. The sodas and the walks and everything. Will it?"
Something washed over Robin then. A rush of affection, of relief, of pure joy that the girl next to him still wanted to spend time with him, to go out and simply be normal teenagers.
"It's not easy having so many decisions to make," he said. "To know that everyone looks towards you. That one small mistake can mean the destruction of everything you've ever known."
"It's not," she agreed. "It never has been. Never will be."
"But it can be easier," said Robin. "Tomorrow at the pizza place at noon?"
She smiled at him. A real smile, a warm smile. "Okay."
Somehow, in the light of the sinking sun, in the noise of Guido's hooves clattering on the rooftop, Robin's hand found hers.
As night fell, a small green bird ducked into the Tower from where it had been hiding on the rooftop, and transformed into a skinny, green-skinned boy with a fang.
Cyborg looked at him. "Well?"
Beast Boy broke into a grin.
"The pizza place at noon tomorrow."
Cyborg pumped his fist. "Booya!"
"Your friend was listening," Reyna said, as she clambered onto Guido, Robin next to her.
Robin grinned. "Beast Boy?"
"That one," she said. "How does the usual place we get smoothies sound instead?"
"Twelve-thirty?"
"Twelve-thirty."
He squeezed her hand, gently.
And Reyna smiled at him, before taking off into the night sky.
And Robin stood on the edge of the rooftop, watching her fly further and further away from him.
And he smiled.
No more secrets.