"Alright, get your desks in a circle, we're having a class discussion." Mr. Lynch announced.
Five days. It had been five days since Slade had touched him outside of combat. It had been five days since he had said anything about…that night. Five days since he'd publicly humiliated the teen, or fought with him in the cafeteria.
Five days since Robin had been able to sleep.
The boy was falling apart internally. Everybody could see it. He was pale and thin with gigantic gray bags under his eyes like a zombie and his hair looked like it hadn't been brushed in days. He was the man in bed, waiting every night for the other shoe to drop. He was a prisoner awaiting execution. It was absolutely inevitable. Slade would be coming after him in due time. How could he possibly sleep or eat with that sword hanging over his head?
Robin tiredly opened his eyes and tugged his desk into a circle, taking his seat and burying his face in his arms. He didn't give a fuck about Gotham's most influential super villains. He was almost certain that Mr. Lynch was bringing it up just to piss him off. He had assigned each of them a Gotham villain to research and write an essay about, arguing why or why not they were the most influential and including evidence to support their opinion. Robin thought it was a waste of time. His five years in Gotham fighting beside Batman was evidence enough that no villain deserved to be recognized for anything other than being the worst people on Earth.
A throat being cleared loudly made Robin look up and he found that everybody was looking at him. "What?" He sighed. He had gotten over being respectful to the teachers here pretty quickly.
"Please try to pay attention. We are not all so fortunate to have come face to face with Gotham's finest." Mr. Lynch scolded and Robin rolled his eyes from beneath his mask. He sighed, pulling out his report on Mister Freeze and slapped it on the table, zoning out while others went on and on and on. Scarecrow this, Penguin that. Joker, Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Riddler, Two-face, Bane, Clayface, Harley Quinn…it went on and on and on until Robin was falling asleep once more. Class was really the only place he felt safe to sleep anymore. He figured Slade wouldn't do anything to him surrounded by everyone.
"Robin!" Mr. Lynch snapped sharply and Robin quickly lifted his head. "Read your report on Mister Freeze."
Robin sighed and looked down at his paper, half-heartedly reading his paper. He didn't agree with a single word he had said, of course, but it didn't matter what he thought. It gave him good grades that Slade wouldn't punish him for. Once he was finished, he sat back again and stared at the teacher.
"Very nice, Robin." Mr. Lynch.
"I disagree." Jinx immediately spoke up.
"And I don't care." Robin muttered under his breath.
"The Joker is obviously the most influential. He's created a sense of fear all over Gotham that even the Batman can't prevent. He's escaped from Gotham hundreds of times and he's got one of the highest killing counts in the history of Gotham." She stated with an air of superiority.
"Do you argue, Robin?" Lynch asked him.
"No." Robin replied dully.
"Let me rephrase that. Defend your opinion." Lynch replied.
"I don't have to. She's right." Robin replied.
"Enough! You may have been Batman's partner, but that doesn't make you any better than us. You're just a cocky little boy whose partner doesn't even care about enough to come looking for him." Lynch snapped.
Robin's eyes narrowed and he stood up. "You want my opinion? Fine. This is bullshit. You, Slade, everyone in this room, this whole fucking school is total bullshit!" He snapped. "You want to get my opinion about the Joker? Go tie yourself on a metal table and ask him to torture you with knives. Go throw yourself onto a pile of his mutilated victims. There's your fucking opinion!"
The class went silent.
Robin got detention.
Slade found out right away, of course, but much to Robin's surprise, he didn't say a single word about it during lunch. Robin kept waiting for a beating, a threat, anything, but it never ever came. It drove Robin crazy.
Waiting for the shoe to drop…
And then it was time for training, which managed to ease Robin's constantly racing heart for a little bit. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, bending backwards on the balance beam and gracefully pushing his feet into the air. His chest rose in time to his heart beat and the extra noise around him seemed to disappear. His arms quivered a little to maintain balance until every muscle was taught and steady. Slowly, he separated his legs into a split. His concentration was undivided.
Robin was the only boy in the gymnastics area. All of the boys loyally worked out in the weight room every day and even though Slade had urged him to gain muscle, he felt much more comfortable practicing his old drills. It was calming.
He carefully got off of the beam and walked over to the trapeze ladder, climbing all the way to the top. He turned around and glanced down. It reminded him of performing in the circus, being so high above everyone else that they looked like ants. He sighed and chalked up his hands before grabbing onto the first bar and taking a deep breath.
"Hey!"
Robin glanced down to find a group of girls standing around the base of the ladder. He noticed Jinx's unmistakable pink hair.
"Are you crazy? Are you trying to kill yourself? The net isn't up! You can't use the trapeze!" One of the girls shouted up to him. "You'll die!"
Robin chuckled grimly to himself at the irony. "Oh well!" He shouted back and jumped off of the ledge, swinging through the air like Tarzan. He spotted the next trapeze bar below him. Satisfaction filled him to hear the squealing, startled gasps of the girls when he flipped into the air and freefell straight through the two wires suspending the bar. At the last second, the tops of his feet hooked onto the trapeze and swung him forward allowing him to grasp the third trapeze. It felt wonderful, to be so high up again. Adrenaline pumped through his veins and air rushed up in his face as he rose and fell. He felt alive.
However, the gasps and squealing suddenly stopped and it was replaced with silence. Confused, Robin sped up so that he could get to the other ledge and see what was going on. The last trapeze was a little far, but with a lot of focus he was fairly certain he could make it. Counting to three, he swung forward and let go.
"ROBIN!"
Hearing Slade's sharp voice, Robin faltered in the air and after a moment's distraction, he glanced over at the bar. Panic pierced his heart as he watched the bar swing away from him and gravity seemed to grab onto him and pull him down in slow motion. A stupid mistake, and now he was dead. For a split second as he stared up at the ledge he saw himself in his sharp red costume, watching in horror as his own parents fell to their deaths. How ironically perfect.
He closed his eyes as tears dripped down his face and he hugged himself tightly, taking short gasping breaths. He was falling on his back, his legs up and level with his face in an almost relaxed fetal position. The seconds passed like years and his muscles tensed, preparing for impact with the matted floor. Though it would feel much more like cement at his velocity. His heart pounded like a big bass drum.
He hit.
No, not the floor. He wasn't sure what. It was sturdy and secure, but at the same time he felt cradled. Gasps bubbled up into small sobs and fresh tears dampened his mask. Slowly, he opened his eyes and looked up, coming face with Slade's black and orange mask. Everyone was speechless, seeing as they had almost witnessed Robin's death, and the girl's immediately began to whisper amongst each other.
"Stupid. You should always use a net." Slade scolded. "You of all people should have learned that by now."
Robin didn't say a word as their gazes stayed glued to one another. The teen took a single trembling hand and gripped the material of Slade's suit as if afraid he would fall again. He panted, his entire body shaking at the near-death experience he'd just had. Sure, he'd been in tons of those, but there was something different about this one. It was…personal and tragic. Robin's stomach lurched. "I think I'm going to be sick." He choked out.
"Can you walk?" Slade asked calmly, not even fazed by the idea of getting puked on.
Robin shook his head quickly and without a word, Slade carried him into the locker room and over to the bathroom stall. The young hero expected him to go away then, or at least leave the stall, but instead he knelt down and steadied the smaller boy, stroking the top of his head. Robin shivered, regardless of the warm temperature of the locker room and he couldn't hold back a few miserable whimpers.
"Just let it out." Slade coaxed into his ear. "You'll feel much better."
Robin took a few shaky breaths before heaving forward and throwing up into the disgustingly filthy toilet, which simply made him want to vomit even more. He got it done quickly before leaning back against Slade who wiped his mouth with one of the rough towels from beside the bathroom sink and flushed the toilet before scooping Robin into his arms.
"I think you're finished for today." Slade stated. He cradled the weary Titan in his arms, his bicep supporting his head. All the way to his own bedroom he walked, then set Robin onto his bed. "Stay here. I'm going to get you some clothing to wear. You may take a shower if you like."
Slade left the room and Robin stared at the ceiling with all new dread in the pit of his stomach. This was it. The second shoe was finally going to fall after a week of waiting.
Slade didn't return to the room until dinner had ended. When Robin came out of the bathroom after his shower, he found not only clean clothes waiting for him, but his schoolwork and the remote to the tv as well. He settled down on Slade's bed and did his school work with the television providing a calming bit of background noise. The only media he had heard in the past two weeks were the explosions coming from Gizmo's damn video games and it was kind of felt like being back at the tower. At seven, Slade entered the room with a plate of chicken and potatoes for Robin with some tomatoes cut up on the side. He set it down on the bedside table. The boy flinched when he got too close and Slade immediately took note of the behavior. He stepped back to give Robin some space and took a seat at his desk.
Robin glanced nervously at Slade before slowly pushing his books aside and accepting the plate. He never took his eyes off of Slade as he took tiny, half-hearted bites of food, fidgeting uncomfortably under the man's gaze. He could only bring himself to eat half before nausea overtook his nerves and fear ate away at his appetite. Once he had finished, he set the plate aside and looked over at Slade, but the man did and said nothing, continuing to simply observe. Robin willed himself not to let it bother him and returned to his school work. That only lasted about a minute. He couldn't focus with Slade's gaze burning into his skin.
"Just do it already!" Robin burst.
"I'm sorry?" Slade asked curiously.
"If you're going to rape me again, just do it!" He cried as pent up tears started dripping down his cheeks. "Waiting for you to make your next move is driving me insane and I don't want to live waiting for the other shoe to drop!"
Then Slade did something Robin would have never expected. He began to chuckle. Getting up, he walked over to Robin and petted his hair. "I don't think you understand, boy. I won't be forcing you into sex ever again. Doing it in the first place was my mistake." And with that, he pulled out the key to the collar that Robin hadn't been able to remove since that horrible night and gently unlocked it. He stroked the sensitive skin of Robin's neck before taking his plate and leaving the room.