by different author
Disclaimer: I do NOT own anything involving this story!
He sits in his room on his bed. It's three in the morning. He should be sleeping. He should be working. He should be doing anything but exactly what he is doing.
The device is warm in his hands. Warm and familiar. He'd been turning over in his palm for who knows how long – just looking, remembering, wondering.
The bat sits on the dark surface, somehow an even deeper dark than the black it rests upon. Nothing is reflective. Nothing is bright. It is the complete opposite of the brilliant green, red, and yellow the teen boasts, yet somehow it seems entirely more fitting in Robin's hands than the matching yellow communicator on his belt. This is the darkness, now comes the light. Black and bright – like yin and yang.
As if summoned, the yellow communicator begins to beep (a silly little thing that he would have never allowed, but is the only thing that Robin can be sure will raise him from his so very rare sleep in times of trouble). Robin's hand flies to his belt at once; flipping open the T marked screen and scanning the information hiding inside. Like a flash, he is on his feet. Outside he hears the rest of his team stumble wearily but determined from their slumber and he hurries to join them.
He hardly notices as his hand automatically clip the other, darker communicator to his hip.
They stumble in. It's now morning. They had spent the night endlessly chasing Kitty and her moth friends around Jump, after she decided to take her ire out on the city, all because she was stood up for a date. All of them were battered and exhausted. With tired sighs of relief, one by one, the five friends dropped onto the sofa reclining deeply.
Robin leaned back into the deep cushions wondering why his bed never felt as inviting as the couch did now for sleep. He doggedly closed his eyes, just basking in the feeling of being off his feet. Raising his hand behind his head, he didn't notice as his cape shifted, revealing his utility belt and it's addition in plain sight.
Beast Boy on the other hand…
"Yo, Robin, is that what I think that is!?"
Robin, uncaring at his green friend's words, didn't open his eyes and merely grunted. Beast Boy let out a squeal of excitement and suddenly Robin felt a brief tug at his belt. His eyes snapped open and his hand instantly lunged out to grasp the thieving fingers, missing only as Beast Boy quickly turned into a monkey and leaped back, clear across the room.
In the monkey's palm was a black communicator.
Robin's throat fell into his stomach.
Suddenly, boy replaced monkey, who was wearing an expression of absolute awe as he handled the stolen communicator.
"I can't believe it. I mean, I knew you had to have one somewhere, being you and all, but still…too see one this close."
"You have one second to give that back before you see my fist that close," Robin growled.
Their actions had promptly stirred the rest of the team who were mixed between looking curiously (and clueless, in Starfire's case) at the object in Beat Boy's hands and looking surprised at the actual threat contain in Robin's words.
Beast Boy, for once, actually noticed. Head jolting up, he suddenly sprang to his feet and practically sprinted to give Robin back his prize.
"Right, of course. Sorry. Um, you won't tell him I took it, will you? He won't, like, be mad or something, will he?"
Robin snatched the bat-communicator out of Beats Boy's hands and clipped it to his belt, drawing his cape over his hip and standing up. He left the room without giving Beast Boy an answer or paying any piece of mind to the stares sent his way by the rest of his team.
He hoped that his team would take the hint and forget about it.
Some how he doubted that would be the case.
One week. That is how long the covert stares and badly concealed whispers lasted before at last they cornered him. It was waffle day, a near sacrilegious event that even Robin, prince of missing meals, did not dare miss.
He had only sat down his chair for less than a minute when they sicked Starfire on him. Crowded by his team, while Starfire's big, gentle eyes pinning him to his seat, Robin was trapped.
"Robin, I have been wondering. Who is the Bat Man? And why do you have another communicator?"
He wanted to swear. Hit his hand on the table and yell at them to take the hint. He wanted to be angry at the rest of the team for putting Starfire up to this. He wanted to – but at the sound of his name finally spoken out in the open all Robin could feel was a sense of crushing loss, a wound so deep and so old that it throbbed like an ancient war scar.
There was really nothing for it, but to answer the question. Or dodge around it the best he could anyway.
"He's a hero that lives in Gotham. He gave be that communicator," he said simply. Maybe she would drop it. Maybe she…
"Ah," hummed Starfire and that was enough for Robin to know it wasn't over. "Do you carry communicators from any other heroes. Like perhaps the Man of Super? Ooh, or maybe Wonderful Woman?"
Trust Starfire to seek out the very question that Robin was dreading to answer without even trying. Gritting his teeth, Robin could feel the other's eyes upon him, watching his every expression like vultures waiting for the juice bits to be exposed.
"No," he said finally, staring at nothing but his empty plate. "Batman is special. We were…close - partners."
Cue a tilt of the head. Starfire's eyes had widened. Her whole expression seemed to light up.
"You have a partner? Oh, this is glorious! I much desire to meet with him. Do you think that he could come and visit us for – "
Robin cut her off right there. "No. Absolutely not."
Her expression fell. Robin felt like the biggest jerk in the world. "But why?"
And here we go again. The right question bringing up the exact wrong memories. There was really no helping it. He was going to have to explain.
"Batman and I split up. We had an argument and…well, I left. Went solo. Met you guys. Formed the Teen Titans. End of story."
Except that wasn't the end of the story. That wasn't even the beginning. There was no talk of the days before the fight. There was nothing about Gotham with her beautiful but haunting buildings or her demented, horrifying villains. There was nothing about how Batman had took him in, taken him on as his ward, trained him, created him, and then smothered him so much that he had to escape. There was nothing – because even now there was ingrained in Robin that fiercest desire to protect his life with Batman. Every little detail a security leak – a betrayal.
Robin could feel himself growing more and more distraught. As his emotions started to threaten to explode (either in tears or a huge screaming match) Robin swiftly stood up, clattering the plates on the counter, and hurried out of the kitchen. He ignored the looks and Starfire's requests for him to stay. He ignored his own shame rising up in his cheeks.
He ignored everything. His tale was a secret meant for only two minds, his own and Batman's. And even now, as his heart ached at all of the hurt it was remembering, he would not betray that secret.
And he left the black communicator on his hip.