Review Replies:
Velvee – Thank u for being my first review! Though, there have already been a couple of stories already about Raven having a brother/sister left with the Titans… so I don't think I'm going to go in that exact direction. Raven, and the others, will be a big part in this, but the whole story is going to be Robin-centric, (Mainly b/c he's the one I'm best at portraying in my writing) and also b/c Nao has formed an attachment to him (singling him out). Besides, I've already stated the child's origin, and changing it now would be a little too complicated. But I appreciate your suggestion and will try to make Raven the 2nd most active character in this.
Jade Riddle 19 – Thank u for reviewing =) I'm glad that u like it. I hope u like this next chapter as well.
As you can imagine, showing up with a baby in your arms after telling your friends that you had 'something important to take care of' was not the best idea. Raven was the only one who knew where I went, and I think she got a kick out of the interrogations I got from the rest of the team. Sadist…
The baby watched the confusion with a feeling of ready-ness over him; like he would try to protect Robin if they tried anything. Robin thought this was a little odd, but shrugged it off, choosing to resolve the issue in the first place.
He explained what had happened and unconsciously wrapped his arms tighter around the child. The others nodded in sympathy; they all would have done the same thing.
"What now though man? Are you going to call child services, or give him into the police" Cyborg questioned Robin.
The Titans Leader gave a heavy sigh, "I don't know. I really don't want to do either. I just want him, well, near me. I-I can't explain".
"You two made a connection with each other" Raven put in. "I've heard it happen to people with young children before. Even in just a few minutes, you two formed an attachment to each other – You want to protect him, and he wants to be with the only one who ever did protect him; you".
She finished her speech and everyone paused.
"You're supporting this?" Beastboy almost fainted; Raven never did anything as crazy as this because even he knew that carrying a kid around on missions was dangerous.
She shrugged, "I never said anything about them staying together, I only explained why they feel they should be".
"Robin, what will you do with the young one," Starfire asked. She thought they were adorable together and hoped that they wouldn't be separated.
Robin looked hesitant, but as the child yawned and rested his head on his shoulder Robin knew what his answer had to be.
"What should we call him?"
XXX
"How about 'Mario'?" The baby had a look that said 'Yuck' on his face. Beastboy sulked; that was the twenty ninth name (literally) that had been rejected. He sighed but continued to think as he ate dinner – (1) some meat-less Onigiri (Tofu was put in place of the meat).
They had ordered out from a popular Japanese Food/Sushi place in the city. Cyborg chowed down on an oden dish, while Starfire had many samples of sushi, Raven had some yakisoba, and Robin had pork ramen noodles. On his lap sat the still name-less child with a jar of apple sauce on the table in front of him. The kid refused to eat; every time Robin put a spoonful to his mouth he turned his head and pouted.
"He's still not eating?" Beastboy asked with his mouth full.
"No," Robin replied "He just doesn't want it".
"He could just be not hungry ya know," Cyborg input.
"Or he wants your food instead" Beastboy sniggered.
Robin paused, "Maybe~". He put the jar down and lifted up one of his noodles instead, dangling it by the baby's mouth. "Say 'ahhh'," he told the child.
Surprisingly the little boy did in fact open his mouth and accepted the noodle. The other looked on with a bit of surprise. "You know it was a joke right" Beastboy said.
Regardless, Robin ended up splitting a good portion of his dinner with the child.
"You sure to like ramen noodles, huh" Robin asked the infant.
"Oh! I know, I'll look up Japanese names. If he likes their food, than maybe he'll like their names," Beastboy shouted excitedly. Before anyone could question the logic in that he raced off to find a list of names.
(Time Lapse)
"How about 'Arashi'? It means 'storm'," Beasboy asked. The baby gave him a bored expression.
"Okay, what about 'Eri'? Haruki? Hiro? It sounds like 'hero', like us! No? Okay, Izumi? Err… Okay fine, here" He thrust the book at Robin and the baby. "You choose, I give up"; he walked away frustrated.
Robin sighed and began reciting the names in the book.
"Mitsuo…? Moeta…? Morio…? Nami…? *sigh* Nao..."
"Ah!" A little cry of excitement came from the child.
"Huh," Robin 'woke' from his robotic trans. "Nao? You like that name," he asked him.
"Gah!"
"Alright, Nao it is then. Let's go re-introduce you to everyone, Nao"; they went into the living room area.
XXxxxxXXXXXxxx
That is pretty much how we got to where we are now: (3 Months Later)
"Damnit Nao! I'm trying to sleep," Robin whined as he covered his head with the pillow. He and Nao were supposed to be taking a nap together on his bed; Robin was exhausted (Raising a child was hard) but Nao seemed to be anything but.
"Ma-da~" cooed the baby. Robin groaned, oh that nickname. He swore that Raven was watching the kid too often because he developed a one sick sense of humor. He called Robin 'Ma-da' – Ma as in mama, and Da as in dada.
"No Nao, 'Dada' if anything. I'm a boy. Just because you're seen me with my hair down and it looks… different, does not mean I'm a girl" he tried to explain.
While relaxing he would wear his hair down, and since it was longish, and framed his face when de-gelled, it looked very feminine. (Along with his short stature, and thin-yet muscled body.) He also often would replace his mask with un-ordinary purple contact lenses – not for eye trouble, but for disguise purposes. (2)
"Ma-da~" the baby insisted, and held his arms up.
"No Nao, it's naptime." Robin closed his eyes once again, but Nao would not have it. The child crawled over to Robin's face and pounced on it. "Nao!" This motion was repeated several times and not just on the face – stomach, chest, and legs too.
"Okay, I give, I give" Robin shouted in surrender. The baby smiled and giggled, it was finally time to play.
But before little Nao could celebrate his victory a loud, raging sound echoed through the tower. "Trouble…"
Robin grabbed Nao and took off to see what was going on.
Usually when there was trouble in the city, now that they had Nao, one of them would stay behind to watch the baby and the other four would deal with whatever the problem was. But this time instead of one or a small group of villains, there were multiple groups of them working together and way more than just four could handle.
"What can we do? We cannot endanger little Nao," Starfire asked worriedly.
"I don't want to endanger him anymore than you guys, but I also don't think that we can chance not having enough people to defeat them." Robin didn't know what to do.
"It's okay man, I've got the answer to our problems," Cyborg said confidently. He pulled out a small, cube shaped device and pressed a button on it – the box took shape in the form of a playpen and the mechanical teen placed little Nao inside, and then pressed another button, and a lethal – energy bars formed around it. "Protects from the inside, harms from the outside; the release button is programed into my arm and if ya'll need to open it immediately when I can't then just send a command to it from your communicators."
The others were impressed. "Nice work Cyborg," Robin praised. He deactivated the bars for now and grabbed Nao. "Let's go take care of this."
XXX
When the Titans got to the scene three teams of villains were just meeting up with each other after pulling their heists. There were three teams of four: Team one consisted of Billy Numerous, Private Hive, Adonis and Johnny Rancid. Team two was See More, Kyd Wykkyd, Fang and Kitten. Lastly, Team three had Gizmo, Mammoth, Control Freak and Dr. Light. (3)
The Titans' worst fears were confirmed… villains had learned the value in working together. Damn.
The teams hadn't noticed them yet, and Robin knew that once they had that it'd be a very awkward start in this battle since they'd notice Nao. 'Oh well' he thought, 'might as well get it over with'.
Jumping out, leading his team, with the child still in his arms, Robin yelled "Freeze". Just as he had predicted, as soon as they turned but before anyone could greet them with the old 'Titans, we meet again' line, everyone paused for a few minutes just staring in shock… before either bursting out laughing, or letting out a string of confused babbling 'huh, wha-is-that-a, where did, WHOES?' The Titans had been expecting this; the media was going to have an even greater field day with this.
It was a long couple of minutes before one of them was finally able to speak up. "Who did you forget to practice safely with?" The mocking question surprisingly came from Kitten, with her boyfriend Fang laughing behind her.
"Funny…" Robin retorted dryly. He was already annoyed with this.
"I knew he was with her," called Billy over to Johnny, "Pay up".
"What? There's no way to tell whose kid it is! It doesn't look like Raven's" he yelled back.
Raven paled (making her already light skin tone turn white) and shouted 'What?'
Billy and Johnny continued though, "Well it looks more like her than it does like Starfire; who you bet on!"
"Whose kid is that anyway" See More had the decency to ask Robin.
"It's a long story… but if you must know there is no blood-relation between him and any of us. He just kind of, ended up with us".
That just left the majority of them even more curious. They looked at the child in Robin's arms who cuddled into the boy wonder's chest with a content smile on his face.
"Can we start already~" Beastboy complained, "we came here to stop you guys, not discuss Robin's sex life".
"You couldn't have said 'love life'?" Robin asked the shapeshifter.
"Babies come from physical motions, not emotional devotions… so, no." Confused/amused faces followed Beastboy's answer.
Robin was annoyed, "Let's just end this quickly". He nodded to Cyborg who activated the force field-playpen, put Nao inside, and turned back to the teams of villains. "Titans Go!"
(1) Onigiri - rice balls made of cooked rice and usually wrapped in nori seaweed. They are slightly salted and often contain some additional food in the center; such as tuna or salmon. (Which is why I said he had tofu in place of the meat)
Oden dish - A dish prepared with various fish cakes, daikon, boiled eggs, konyaku and kombu seaweed, boiled over many hours in a soya sauce based soup.
Sushi - *Self Explanitory* Raw fish or other sea creatures
Yakisoba - Fried or deep fried Chinese style noodles served with vegetables, meat and ginger.
Ramen noodles - *Another well-known one* Chinese style noodles prepared in a soup with various toppings
(2) For anyone whose read a few of my other stories, ex: "Your Fantasy" (which I really need to update) or "Secret Keeper", they know that I have a habit of making Robin brush his hair down and having it come out longish (like down to his shoulders) and feminine, and wearing purple colored contact lenses instead of his mask for a reason (depending on the story). This story was no accepting. ;)
(3) I read that Dr. Light was a member of the Hive Five in the original Teen Titans comics, so I figured 'What the hell' and added him in this story.
Well, I hope u all enjoyed that chapter. Sorry nothing really exciting happened yet; I was kinda introducing the idea that 'Oh, the villains know about his now... plans are coming.
I don't want this to be a long story really, b/c then it'll NEVER get done. So... we'll see where this goes.
Okay :3 Again, Reviews = Happy; Happy = *Hands out Cookie to reviewers* ^^
