Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans. Haven't we gone over this before?

Hello! I'm back with the next chapter of awesomeness. No one really reviewed last chapter, which makes me sad so read and REVIEW this chapter! By the way, who his , , and some other ".com"? Are you a person?

Warning: orange.

I awoke to the searing pain in my side. I screamed bloody murder, my eyes stinging. My heart rate went wild and a sweat broke out all over me. Someone, Red I suppose, was grabbing me and trying to maintain my jerking arms. The voice yelling for me to stop was silenced and I panicked. Where is everyone? Why am I so alone? Where is Star? Raven? BB? Cy? None of them were there to calm me. I almost started crying out of a childlike fear that we all harvest deep in our souls. My breathing became shallow and my body felt numb. I closed my eyes, and fell back into a dark hole.

This is what people call a panic attack. I woke up an hour later, Red informed me. Slade had come earlier to check on me, to make sure I wasn't dying. Slade went on to tell Red I was under a lot of stress and his beating wasn't helping the situation.

Red kept on talking, "I woke up to you kicking and screaming, which isn't a panic attack symptom. Then you went into the panic attack, suddenly seizing up and breathing like you just ran a marathon. I don't know what caused it. Yeah, stress sounds right, but you handle things like this all the time. Perhaps stress assisted the situation along. But tell me something, chuckles, what really happened?"

I sighed. I know what happened, but telling Red meant telling him something deep and dark. I wasn't supposed to be connecting with him deeply. I wanted sexual release, not someone to talk about my emotional problems with.

"Nothing, Red. Slade is probably right about the stress. Maybe I just snapped finally. When your friend's lives are in your hand, that is a little more than I need on my plate," I answered.

Red watched my solemn expression. I have had many hours of training with Bruce on keeping my emotions secret, but it wasn't a breeze like I thought it'd be on schooling my expression in front of Red. I had a strange urge to tell him but I didn't know why.

"Fine, whatever you say," Red raised his arms up, shrugging away my gaze.

I noticed he was shirtless, and something beneath the covers was very interested as well. I drew my knees up so he wouldn't notice. The door suddenly opened and we both jumped in surprise. Four robots entered and I knew the drill. We both came to the door, I equally shirtless as Red. My bandages must've been changed in my slumber and I winced at the throbbing in my ribs. They were wrapped tightly around my torso, starting below my nipples and ending above my belly button.

The robots handed us each an apple. I bit into the hard skin and enjoyed the sweet juice. I watched Red do the same and almost had a nosebleed as the juice rolled off his chin, down his soft neck, and dropped onto his lean abdomen. He licked his lips and used his finger to carry the drop of juice up to them. He sucked on the tip of his finger suggestively while looking at me. I rolled my eyes, acting like I was tired of his mindless flirting. On the inside, though, I was having an aneurysm… or an orgasm.

We were once again escorted to the throne room/gym. We had no time to put on a shirt or even shoes. Our tight clad pants, and my bandages, were all we had on. This is the first I'd see of that bastard Slade since my punishment. I wasn't scared; I was just tired of being beaten around like a rag doll. The robots left us standing there, silent but not awkward.

I glanced at Red as we waited. He looked relaxed with a cocky grin, but I could tell something was amiss. His eye twitched and I could see his muscles doing the same every once in awhile, like they were held so taut they could snap.

"Ah, Robin, feeling better?"

We both snapped around so fast that my necked popped painfully, and my rib wasn't having much fun either. Red looked white as a sheet from being startled so suddenly; he was used to being the one sneaking up on people. Slade stood there in his normal garb, but something was off with him too. I felt panicked as they both kept glancing my way sporadically. Slade's unnerving glare was normally on him anyways, but now he did it with pride, longing, ownership? I didn't really know, but I was uncomfortable nonetheless. Red's gaze was more warm and welcoming, since I knew now he didn't really want to harm me.

I stared down Slade, my voice wavering slightly, "I'm feeling much better, Master. I am sorry for my crude behavior, but I think I am ready to come back to training."

"You think, or you know?" Slade asked, his voice still cold yet alluring.

"I know, Master."

Slade curtly nodded, "Good. We shall begin with hand-to-hand combat." He paused, sitting heavily down in his throne. He looked us over amusedly. "I see you didn't bother to dress. I suppose it's for the best. No shoes so you can kick and no shirt so you aren't overly heated. Come stand in the light so I can see you better."

Red and I moved into a light overhead, right in front of the throne. I was extremely pissed, since I was the one already injured. Red seemed to be having the same thoughts since he gave me an apologetic look. I frowned at him, showing my aggravation. Slade noticed.

Slade drawled, "You're injured Robin, not dead. You can still fight. There will be situations out on missions where you may have another broken limb or you lost a limb, but you must carry on. How about I give whoever wins an award?" We perk up, interested. "Whoever wins gets to ask me one question that I will answer to utmost honesty."

I had to win. I had so many questions dealing with his motives, his business, his lost eye (who was the real one with a lost limb on a mission, Slade?), his past, but one question stood most prominent: Who was Slade? What is his true identity? I nodded at Slade, accepting the fight. I could feel him smirking behind that mask, knowing that I'd give over five hundred percent of my skill and energy to find out who was laying behind that damned mask.

"Separate. Stand ten feet apart and when I say begin you shall fight until one of you gets the other down."

We parted, and I felt the empty space of where Red stood a second ago immediately. The sound of our bare feet on the concrete was all I heard in the silence. I glanced at my friend's charts illuminated about 50 yards away from me. My heart broke a little, and my urge to win crumbled a tiny bit with my melancholy, then it grew as I imagined them cheering me on.

"Begin."

Red moved like a cheetah running from an exploding volcano. He was in front of me in a split second and aiming for my face. I just managed to snap out of my stupor and block the punch. I was surprised Red was so bent on winning. I thought he'd go easy with my injury, but he was going pretty much all out to see me lose. Also, I don't know why I was dazed lately. Maybe his punches to my head had left my brain rattled.

We danced around each other, taking a macho brave act on like most men do in a fight. We think if we act cocky enough that'll actually help us win. I was taught to control blinding rage and confidence and focus that energy into an efficient and deadly skill regime. I swept my foot under him, but he jumped over it, landing on his feet and tucking into a cartwheel. I saw the kick that would come off the cartwheel, and prepared myself. He kicked, I blocked, while giving off a damaging kick to his stomach. He stumbled backwards. I kept up my attack, my fury back. We stayed in the light, in Slade's sight, making it impossible to miss the bruises and cuts we were giving each other.

Usually Red's mask hid the pain on his face. Usually our suits covered up the purple bruises and searing, bleeding cuts that we gave each other in battle. Now that I could see the harm I can do, and vice versa for Red, I was a little disgusted. I was such an animal, that I'd do this to a person so I could put them in jail for one night. The mental damage was short lived, but the physical would keep the criminals remembering me.

We kept fighting, though. Our kicks became less often used, and our punches more rapid. After a particularly hard kick to my injured ribs, I was through with messing around. No one was going to hurt me and get away with it. Red saw the way my shoulders hunched forward, my muscles flexing impressively, my growling, and clenched jaw. Something had snapped right there, and my animal instinct to kill the thing that was a threat to me came loose. Red saw it and smiled. He wanted me to try to hurt him.

What an arrogant bastard, I had thought seething. I charged forward punching and kicking with renewed fervor. Red dodged it with that smile still on his face. That smile fueled the rage, and I couldn't control my blood thirst. I finally got a solid punch to his jaw, and blood sprayed out of his mouth. The sight of blood calmed me down.

In my line of work, you'd expect that I would see a lot of blood and guts. Really, though, I have been kept in a pretty innocent environment. I destroy and kill machinery and plots of evildoing, not people. The only times I have ever had to fight hands on with another person, I used my acrobatic skill to avoid their punches and still get in a couple of my well memorized pressure point hits. Seeing Red's blood brought reality down on me. I was becoming bloodthirsty, like Slade wanted me to be. I was horrified.

I didn't stand there numbly, though. Red wiped his mouth on his sweating arm. I got in fighting stance, legs spread evenly and fists up. He did another cartwheel towards me, but stopped short of actually kicking me. He stood at least six inches from me. I was surprised by his abrupt stop of fighting, because he made no move to brawl. My stance faltered, and Red saw his opportunity.

Keep in mind that was just a couple of seconds, of what just transpired of Red's stopped cartwheel. The next seconds were crucial to later events. I faltered, and Red only had to take one step to wrap a strong hand at the base of my neck and pull me to him. He kissed me. Right. In. Front. Of. Slade.

Our bodies weren't exactly touching. I was frozen stiff, but also sort of wobbly –kneed because I was so surprised and Red was so… Red! I loved his smell, and, oh god, his touch. Our chests were within an inch of each other, and with him being a few inches taller than me, he dominated my lithe form. The kiss was short in truth. To me it was a century of bliss, but somewhere in the back of my mind I knew our lips could only be touching for at most, three seconds.

He leaned back slightly, and I looked down at his lips. They pushed into a cocky smirk, as usual, but there was an edge.

He whispered, almost silent, "Sorry, Robin." And then he swept me off my feet.

He didn't sweep me off my feet in the romance movie type way, but in a more literal sense. While he distracted me with the kiss, he had planted his feet behind my ankles. When he leaned back, he took his legs with him, making me fall to my ass rather harshly. I was unprepared and my head fell to the floor also. It banged painfully on the cold concrete.

I lay for a few more seconds, trying to comprehend what was happening. I looked up to see Red grinning in triumph. I was pissed beyond belief that he had startled me into that kiss, and trapped me! I hustled to my feet and glared daggers at his smile. His charming looks had no affect on me at the moment. Right then I just wanted a rematch so I could kick his ass into oblivion. Even though that ass was pert and cute… and his body was slick with sweat, heat radiating off his toned abs, and his pants had slipped down some during the fight. A little lower and I might've rejoined lips with him right there. Only if Slade wasn't here…

Slade! I whipped around. I wasn't hard, thank god, but I must've been standing there "glaring" at Red for half a second. Slade didn't see my lusty gaze, but when I glanced at Red to my left, I noticed a dazed half smirk on his lips. I focused back on Slade. He had been silently sitting there. I could see his widened eye behind his mask. He sat there stock still.

I didn't know what he'd say about the kiss, but he surprised me with his next comment, "You've both fought to your best ability. Red is the winner, and will receive his prize later. You've both been bloodied and soiled too much in the past couple of days, and I suppose you need another shower. Bots! Escort the apprentices to the showers."

The showers? As in the one place I could have my way with Red? Oh yes, indeed. We were man handled roughly by the robots, but we made our way in record time to the showers. The robots threw us inside and locked the door behind our exhausted bodies. We undressed in peace, and stepped under the downpour of water with a sigh of pleasure. This was going to be an excellent shower, indeed…

DUN DUN DUN! What happened to Robin in the beginning of the chapter? What are Slade and Red looking at Robin for? What did the kiss really mean? What does Slade think of it? Will sex ensue? Yes, yes it will, so don't worry your pretty little heads.

How was it? Please review! Sorry it took forever to put up, but with the beginning of summer break underway, I needed a break from doing anything work related. Once again, REVIEW!