This story will not be a story in the sense of a continuing plot. Rather, it will be a set of related oneshots set in chronological order in the same universe. For the most part, this universe will remain true to the show. For example, only Superboy, Miss Martian, and maybe Kaldur (judging by Downtime) live at the mountain full time. However, we have seen the team sent on missions at night, so it stands to reason that the others have rooms there when necessary. Even trying to stay true to the universe being created on the show, I will be taking some liberties beyond those logical steps, because this is, after all, fanfiction.
As far as the stories themselves, they will be centered on Superboy and Robin, told as the title suggests from Superboy's perspective. There are a lot of reasons for that, but it boils down to they need to and should be interacting more, given who they are. This is not intended as slash, but if you want to read it that way, I am not going to stop you. Likewise, given that I do not like any pairings, the only pairings I will be including are the canon ones, if/when they occur, and even those will be downplayed, given my lack of qualifications in the romance department. So envision the characters however you want. Whatever floats your boat.
I would love reviews. In particular, I would really like any comments you have concerning writing style or characterization so I can improve the story.
Since this intro is getting long, on with the story! This takes place shortly after Happy Harbor and serves as a sort of prologue. Future chapters will probably be longer, and hopefully I will catch Superboy's mindset a bit better.
I do not own DC's characters, nor do I own the presentation of those characters by CN. I will not benefit financially in any way from this story.
Unsurprisingly, the events the Happy Harbor mission left Superboy in an apologetic mood. Not towards M'gann, to whom he had already apologized and still was not entirely sure why he had. He had not, despite what the others thought, overreacted. They all were upset as well. If he broke someone's arm during a sparring match, he would not be able to claim ignorance of human bone strength as an excuse, so why should she get a free pass?
No, it was for those very reasons that he wanted to apologize to Kaldur, Wally, and Robin for the Cadmus incident. True, he had not fully known what he was doing when he attacked them two weeks prior, but as he had decided, that really was no excuse. He knew both he and the events surrounding his freedom had left bruises and injuries, and regardless of his inexperience with actual life, it took very little to realize that was a bad thing.
Leaving M'gann behind and following the trio of not-a-sidekicks further into the mountain, Superboy was pleased to see them split up. Apologizing was not easy in the first place, so doing it without an audience seemed like a better idea.
Superboy paused to decide who to talk to first, and that pause gave him his answer. Wally shot off as only a speedster could, and Robin pulled his disappearing act, but Kaldur…Kaldur just walked, and that made him objective number one. With a quick "Kaldur!" to let him know to slow down, the clone followed Aqualad into the training area.
After a few awkward moments of Superboy standing there staring at the Atlantean, Aqualad broke the silence. "Was there something that you needed?"
"Yes. I wanted to talk to you. I wanted to, uhh, apologize for attacking you. You know, when you brought me out of the pod. That was wrong."
Kaldur just laughed softly at the pained expression on Superboy's face, and brushed the apology off. "Believe me, no apology is needed. It was not your fault that you were there, and I was not seriously harmed. Beyond that, you make an excellent addition to the team, so a few bruises were well worth it. That hit you delivered to Mr. Twister was quite a blow!"
Superboy did not know exactly how to react to that last statement, so he murmured a quick "Thanks" and moved on to try to find Wally or Robin. He was vaguely unsettled by Kaldur's response, though he did not know why, and hoped the other apologies were not as bothersome. At the same time, with Aqualad's reputation already intact as the most serious member of the team, he had his doubts as to that hope's fulfillment.
While he was sure that, if he tried, he would be able to hear Robin around somewhere (by his heartbeat if nothing else, though the kid was impossibly silent on his feet), Wally was, well, Wally, so Superboy headed to the kitchen. Even if he had not heard him talking to the freezer, complaining about "the quality of frozen food these days" as if he remembered any other days, an even slightly educated guess would put Wally by food at least half the time. Speedster metabolism or not, there were times when Superboy wondered how one stomach could physically hold as much food as got shoveled into it, but that was an issue for another day. Wally had started singing about the joys of pizza, and already bad singing was made worse by super hearing. Right now, all Superboy wanted was to get this over with, appease his conscience, and put it all behind him.
"Wally."
That one word had the red-headed teen jumping around in a remarkable imitation of a double axel, except it would hardly be appropriate for an ice skater to shriek like a little girl while skating. Frozen dinners went flying everywhere, though Wally was quick enough to catch a few of them before turning to Superboy and glaring.
"Dude! Don't tell me Robin's been teaching you his tricks! One ninja sneaking up on me is more than enough. My heart can't take two of you!"
"No. I made plenty of noise, Wally. Your serenade to frozen pizza just seemed to take a fair bit of your attention." One look at Wally's mortified expression was enough to get even the relatively tactless Superboy to move on. "But that is not why I am here. I wanted to say sorry. For Cadmus."
Mortification quickly moved to mirth on Wally's face. Laughing it off and physically dismissing the subject with a wave of his hand Wally noted with a smirk "I heal quickly, no worries. Besides, if I had really been trying, you never would have touched me. Now, I'm starving after that beatdown on Mr. Twister, so if there's nothing else, this pizza's calling my name."
Knowing a dismissal when he heard one (Thank you, Superman!), Superboy frowned and walked away. Taking Wally's cockiness out of that conversation, the result was that he said essentially the same thing that Kaldur had: it was fine because he had not seriously hurt them. But beyond that, neither of them had taken him seriously. That…bothered him, more than he thought it would. If they said it was fine, shouldn't that be enough? Apologizing did remove any minor issues he had with his treatment of M'gann, so why was it not working now?
He groaned a little inwardly, knowing that these thoughts would keep him occupied for quite some time, but knowing too that he still needed to finish his task. Focusing in on one part of his powers that he could control, he tuned out extraneous sounds and followed the heartbeat he recognized as Robin's. As he got closer, he realized with a start that the sound was coming from the infirmary and he sped up, his concern growing until he saw Robin, safe and…sound?
The smaller boy was shirtless and wrapping himself in one of the long fabric bandages that Superboy had seen before. Curious, he stepped forward and was about to announce his presence when Robin spoke, as always exhibiting an oddly creepy awareness of his surroundings. "Hey Superboy, nice job with Twister today. I'm glad you're on our side!" Only then, after growing frustrated with the bandage, did Robin turn to face the clone.
"Hey, would you mind helping me out here? I'm pretty sure one of those hits cracked one of my ribs. It was still messed up from, err… Anyway, this is kind of tough to do by myself, could you give me a hand? Just wrap it around me fairly tight. I'll let you know if you pull too tight."
Hesitantly, Superboy moved forward and began to do as he was asked, noting Robin's smirk at his reluctance. Carefully, he lightly draped the bandage around the Boy Wonder, until Robin started to sigh, thought better of it with a wince, and showed Superboy how tightly to pull it. From there, things progressed relatively smoothly, until finally he was able to tie the bandage off and step back.
Then he simply watched as Robin moved to return the rest of the bandage to its proper place, wondering why he was moving at all. Medical knowledge was something the genomes implanted early on, and he "knew" how painful cracked ribs should be, yet here was this young, small boy acting like nothing was wrong, thanking him for his help, and asking if he needed anything. Oh.
"Uhh, yeah, actually. I wanted to apologize for attacking you at Cadmus. I know I hurt you. Sorry."
After not liking the responses he got from Aqualad and Kid Flash, Superboy was not entirely sure what he expected or wanted from Robin. What he did not expect, however, was for the boy to tense up and sigh, ignoring the catch in his breath from the rib, and slowly turn around after replacing the bandage and putting his shirt back on. When Robin spoke, it was clear that he had wanted to avoid this conversation for some reason, but he looked at Superboy in the eyes (roughly, the glasses made it hard to tell) and spoke clearly, his serious demeanor seeming out of place on a face that was so frequently so relaxed.
"Superboy. I have to get back to Gotham to get ready for patrol tonight, so I will make this quick. I am not going to lie, I was pretty bruised up. Nothing I haven't dealt with before, but yeah, it was unpleasant. But here are a few things you need to know. You are special, Superboy. You are not someone we want the bad guys to be brainwashing. You are someone who will be good for this team, and for Superman once he gets his act together. You are someone who, I hope, will be a good friend of mine someday soon." Robin paused for a moment, smiling gently to reaffirm that last statement. "You are a very special person."
"But you need to know, the fact that you are that special does not mean anything. I would have done the same for anyone. Any person's life is worth any amount of my pain. I cannot speak for KF or Aqualad, but for me, that is what this job is about. So yes, you hurt me. Accept that it was not your fault and that you are worth it, because you are. I appreciate the apology for the fact that you felt you needed to give it, but please know that it was not necessary." Then he moved past Superboy, getting ready to head back to Gotham. "Thanks again for the help. Get some rest." And then he was gone, leaving Superboy more than a little stunned.
Superboy listened to the heartbeat as it moved away, then thought a little. He was intelligent enough to realize that he did not have a full range of experiences to draw on. Still, when he compared the way the genomes told him people viewed the world, the way the others seemed to view the world, and the way the enigma called Robin seemed to view the world, something just did not match.
Rather than continue the clearly futile effort of thinking rationally, Superboy looked at how Robin's words made him feel. Friend, for one, was a word that got thrown around too often, yet Robin seemed to mean it. And his core philosophy was self-sacrificing, almost to a fault. But taken as a whole, that little speech, so different from the way Robin normally acted, made Superboy wonder. As the little bird himself would say, while Kaldur and Wally's responses had left him underwhelmed, Robin's reply to Superboy's apology was extremely whelming.
Robin, decided Superboy as he moved back into the main areas of the mountain headquarters to find the others, was one to watch.