A Tender Moment

By: Luna Mrow

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot.

~X~X~X~

Everyone was tired but it was no comparison to how tired Robin and Artemis were. Batman knew this and after he finished talking to Robin he put a hand on his protégé's shoulders. "Really Bats, I'm fine," Robin assured, mistaking his master's gesture.

"Listen, right now I want you and Artemis to go rest," Batman ordered.

Of course the Boy Wonder objected. "I'm not a little kid. I don't need to take a break."

Batman rolled his eyes. "If you're worried about missing out on action, I highly doubt anyone will try and attack us when the whole League is here. You've had a tiring night, you need to rest. You might not have long—just take a few minutes to take in the night's events and collect your thoughts."

This made sense to Robin. Then again Batman always (usually) ended up making sense. "Alright," he sighed. "But really? I have to take Artemis with me?"

"I heard that," the blond archer muttered. She was standing a few yards away next to Green Arrow.

Her uncle elbowed her in the arm. "Go on. Batman is right, go rest."

"And what if I'm not tired?" his niece retorted.

Green Arrow smirked. "Go," he deadpanned.

Artemis knew that 90% of the time her uncle won the fights. She should just leave with what pride she had, what was the point of getting into a battle she couldn't win? With a stubborn sigh she turned to Robin, "Come on."

Robin followed Artemis out of the main room the robots had used for destruction. They walked along the halls of the cave, the carpet squishing beneath their feet because of the fire, which contrasted the burn marks on the wall. "We really went through hell tonight, didn't we?" Artemis murmured in a low voice.

The Boy Wonder nodded. "We all did."

Without a word the two found themselves in the kitchen. It was a miracle how the fridge was still intact. "Hungry?" she asked. It took a moment for him to answer. "Robin?"

He turned and looked at her. "What?"

She rolled her eyes but smirked. "Hungry?"

"Oh. That depends on what we have."

"Well it wasn't like I was going to make you a sandwich or anything. We both skipped on dinner because of, well, obvious reasons." Artemis opened the fridge and clicked her tongue.

Robin stood in the middle of the kitchen and felt a bit stupid for not doing anything. He decided it was because he had ditched his cape and it felt awkward without it. "I think I need some pills from blacking out," he muttered, more to himself than to her.

Of course she heard him. "Twice," she corrected. "You blacked out twice."

"Yeah, well, that's not breaking my record of four."

She raised a brow. "You've blacked out four times?"

He shrugged like it was no big deal. "Why do you think I always recover so fast?"

Artemis saw two vanilla pudding cups and took them out. She grabbed two spoons and handed him a cup and a spoon. He gave her a quizzical look. "Just eat," she ordered.

Robin saw no point in arguing—she was offering him pudding, not shoving an arrow in his face. He took the pudding cup and spoon. They both ate in silence. But for once it was comfortable silence; it wasn't forced, it wasn't awkward, actually it was… nice.

He noticed she was staring at him. "You're going to pass me up in height when you get older," she said, smiling a little.

Robin shook his head. "I'm only two years younger than you; you act like I'm ten."

Artemis laughed. "I wish I was ten," she said. "Then I wouldn't feel so stupid eating pudding." As she said that she accidentally spilled a glob of pudding on her shirt. "Damn it," she hissed.

He laughed. "If KF was here I'm sure he'd find some way to joke about that."

"Kid Flash," Artemis grunted. "He's annoying." She ate the pudding right off of her top. "There. All better."

The silence happened again. Except in this silence, the two youths stared at each other, looking at the other's faces, the events of earlier that night flashing through their minds. They really depended on each other. They wouldn't have been able to do it without each other. They were a team. They were teammates.

"Robin?" Artemis then says.

"Yeah?" he replies.

They're still looking at each other.

She broke their eye contact. "I was going to tell you thanks," she muttered.

He crossed his arms and smirked. "Why haven't you?"

"Well…" he voice trailed. "It might ruin this 'tender moment' between us."

Tender moment. He liked how she phrased that. Robin set down his pudding cup, and faster than she thought he was capable of moving, he was suddenly in front of her, close to her. "Thank you, Artemis," he said softly. He quietly chuckled, "There, now I've ruined the moment for us." He gave her hand a small squeeze—she almost didn't notice his touch—and then he was gone.

Where? She wasn't sure. Robin was stealthy when he moved. She gave a small smile. "It didn't ruin it."

Author's Note:

A sweet moment between Robin and Artemis. I'm not sure what I'd consider that, romance, friendship, etc, so I'm just calling it what it was—a tender moment :D

Obviously this takes place after the episode 'Homefront'. I think that's my favorite episode. I love Robin and he was total win in this episode. Artemis too, of course, and the Alice In Wonderland reference was amazing.

So thank you for reading and please review. Was my Artemis Robin chemistry off? Just right? Meh? I'd like to know!

~Luna