A/N Oh wow, it's been a while. A long while. I'm sorry! *Hides head in shame* Also, there will be a short A/N at the bottom of this chapter that you should read. I'm pointing this out for the people who don't usually read A/Ns, in an A/N, which they probably won't read. Flawed logic...

Chapter Ten: On the Road

"But Slaaaaaade! You promised to tell me where we're going!" Robin whined. He knew he was being childish, but he couldn't care less. The teen had spent all morning patiently waiting for the time when the king would deem it appropriate to clue him in, and when he had finally had enough and asked, Slade had simply smirked and replied: "you'll see when we get there."

"I promised nothing." The evil, evil man answered the hunter's desperate plea, his voice light. The duo was currently in the royal stables, Robin simply watching as Slade groomed and readied their horses. When they had first arrived the teen had freaked out. He had seen horses the day they came to the palace, but that was from afar. The animals were much larger close up.

"I thought it was understood." The islander grumbled, wincing slightly as he shifted on the bench he was sitting on. He was sore, oh-so sore. Slade saw the movement out of the corner of his eye and heard the almost inaudible suck-in of air that signaled pain and chuckled to himself. The man had really done a number on Robin the previous night.

"But it was never said. And after all, last night was really your punishment." Slade's grin was positively malicious as he dropped the brush from the large black horse's side. Robin's eyes grew wide as they darted around, making sure there was no one to eavesdrop. "When you said 'anything', I was thinking more along the lines of obeying me completely, not sleeping with me. A pesar de su castigo fue muy agradable en sí mismo, yo estaba pensando que simplemente el sexo solo no sería suficiente.*" The teen froze while the man continued. A few stalls down Slade had noticed a stable-boy that was remarkably good at cleaning and listening, so the king had decided to spare him no details. If he was lucky, the story would spread everywhere, and fast, so that no one would be able to question his authority over the islander. Plus, it also gave him a chance to make his little bird turn red.

The hunter felt his face heat up as his eyes landed on the stable-boy, who was working with his head down but acted stiff, as if he was afraid he was going to get caught for doing something bad. Robin groaned. "Slade!" He hissed, visibly upset. "Not okay!"

"Anything I do is okay." The smug king replied as he began to saddle his horse. The teen wondered briefly what the large leather thing was that Slade was putting on the horses back. The ones that had pulled the carriage hadn't had them, were they not taking the carriage? "Your mount should be ready." The man said simply before swinging himself up onto the animal and trotting out of the stall. Robin stayed where he was, watching with his mouth hanging open. Slade was riding that thing! That huge beast that snorted and pawed at the ground! Did he expect the islander to do the same?

While Robin was still in the stall, catching flies with his mouth, the eavesdropping stable-boy cautiously approached him with an air of fear and envy. The hunter managed to pull himself together enough to look over his "mount", as Slade had called it. The horse was smaller than Slade's massive black one; its tanish-yellow coat shone and it shook its even blonder mane impatiently.

"Am I supposed to get on this thing!" The teen shouted over at the king, who was riding his rather prancy animal with ease around the courtyard. "It's bigger than you!"

"I don't know whether to be flattered or offended." The man yelled back, maneuvering swiftly around as if his horse was simply part of his own body. "Stop whining and let's go!"

Grumbling to himself in his native tongue, Robin attempted to mimic Slade's movements, placing one foot in a hoop of sorts that was dangling off of the leather thing and hoisting himself astride the large beast. Thankfully the stable-boy held the teen's horse stiff, softly petting its nose while he glared at the islander. "Thanks, I mean, Gracias.*" He panted out as soon as he was safely seated. The stable-boy merely gave him another freezing look while handing him two leather straps that were attached to something in the horses mouth before rushing off to Slade's side.

"¿Hay algo más que puedo hacer por ti, mi rey?*" The Hispanic worker asked in a gushing tone. Even though Robin wasn't quite sure what he had said, he understood what he had meant. The teen looked over the stable-boy in a new light. He was a few years older than him, with black hair, tan skin, and nearly black eyes. The smile that he was giving the white-haired man was almost blinding, and Robin felt possessiveness well up inside of him .

"No hay nada más, usted es libre de irse.*" Slade replied with a wave of his hand, his attention more focused on his little bird, who looked quite angry. The stable-boy bowed low before gracefully turning and heading back towards the palace.

"Ya, you better walk away. No one wants you here, Slade is mine! Got that? Good for-nothing man-whore." Robin muttered to himself in the islander's language. When he glance back at the man he was surprised to see the king with a soft smile on his face.

"You haven't moved yet." Slade pointed out after a beat of silence, trying to move past the previous interactions with his staff. Robin glowered at his words.

"I've moved plenty! This horse, however, has not!" The teen shot back, making the man chuckle. Technically, Robin was right.

"I'm leaving now." Slade call out as he began to trot away, only stopping momentarily to grab his bag off of a nearby stand. The teen watch briefly, then called out: "does this mean I don't have to go?" to which the man replied "you don't know how to get down" and disappeared over the hill. The hunter panicked and tried to urge his horse forward.

"Go, go!" He sighed and slumped down in the leather seat. This was not going well. Pretty soon Robin would be unable to catch up with Slade and would be left all alone in a foreign country, not to mention stuck on some animal. The teens scowled darkly at his horse that was calmly standing there, ears relaxed and mouth casually chewing the thing in its mouth. Suddenly a familiar whistle drifted over towards him, making him sit up and look around. "Anita? Anita!" The villager called out once he had spotted the elderly lady hanging some sort of cloth up to dry. The gray-haired woman paused briefly until she notice the hunter frantically waving and shouting from astride a horse. She then began to laugh.

Robin sulked as Anita began to carefully pick her way down the large hill to the stables. He couldn't believe that Slade would just up-and-leave like that! By the time the elderly Spanish lady made it to him the king would be long gone. Robin felt a strange sense of sadness at that thought. Really, he shouldn't care, it only meant more time away from the man who had essentially kidnapped him, but deep down the teen knew that him and the king were bonded. Suddenly the teen was struck with a thought that made his sit up straight; he would not sacrifice his culture just because he was in a situation that wasn't quite favorable!

"¿Necesita ayuda?*" Somehow during Robin's little mind-pep talk Anita had made it all the way to his side, still slightly giggling at the islander. The teen replayed her words in his head for a moment to try and decode it. He caught the word 'help' and nodded vigorously.

"¡Sí! Sí, quiero ayuda!*" Robin pointed off in the distance to where he had last seen Slade and then gestured to his horse. Anita smiled her grandmotherly smile and picked up the leather things from the beasts mouth and placed them in the villager's hands. The teen looked down at them and gripped them before glancing back up only to find that Anita was missing.

"Be ready!" The Hispanic woman yelled out in broken English and a slapping sound was heard. Robin's mount reared up before it took off running. The islander prided himself in his self-control, in which barley managed to keep the girly scream from escaping his throat. Instead the "pet" adjusted himself and found his center of balance. Once he was comfortable Robin began to try to calm his racing heart. Riding a horse wasn't that terrifying, the movements were some-what similar to the rocking of the ship he had been on only less than a week ago. Though the speed was intense. Robin was pretty sure that he had never moved this fast before.

Suddenly Slade's large black horse came into view. Only his horse. The teen's own mount began to slow until it came to a stop next to the larger one. Robin looked around cautiously. Had Slade been ambushed? Was the king laying somewhere in a ditch? Fear welled up inside the islander as he twisted around in the leather seat.

"Gotcha." A voice suddenly growled in Robin's ear and the teen, once again somehow managing to stay silent, flipped off the back of his horse, propelled himself off the back of Slade's horse, and landed in a crouch on the ground. He panted as the adrenaline in his veins flooded his system with energy. Suddenly a snicker made the teen whip his head around and zero in on the person who attacked him.

"Slade." Robin growled out, standing up slowly and brushing off his legs, attempting to control his nearly shaking body.

"And now you know how to get off a horse." The man smirked, making the teen's blood boil. Robin watch mutely as the king mounted his beast and gestured for the islander to do the same. The black-haired boy did so silently, still glowering at Slade. "I bet you thought that you were finally free of me." The man laughed jovially and Robin's face went from angry to dumbfounded. The teen hadn't even entertained the idea of being free, he had immediately began to worry about the white-haired man's safety. When Slade still hadn't received an answer he glanced over at the blue-eyed teen.

"Haha, ya, I thought that I could go home." Robin answered automatically in a hollow voice. Slade simply shrugged before digging his heels slightly into his horses flanks and starting off. The villager mirrored the movements and the two were off.

"You better get comfortable," the king called over his shoulder, "we have a long ride ahead of us." Robin rolled his eyes but remained deep in thought. What was wrong with him? Didn't he want to go back to his old life? The teen's blue eyes landed on the strong back of his "owner" and suddenly he wasn't to sure of anything.

* "Though your punishment was enjoyable in itself, I was thinking that simply sex just wouldn't be enough."

* "Thank you."

* "Is there anything else I can do for you, my king?"

* "Nothing more, you are free to go."

* "Do you need some help?"

*"Yes! Yes I want help!"

A/N If you stayed around to read this I love you! But you don't have to, it doesn't pertain to this story. Anyways, I have found that I right better if I have multiple projects (I don't know why, it's weird) so I was going to ask you all a question. My nerdy friends and I have a Harry Potter club thing, honestly we just fangirl together, but we all had to write a story that paired yourself with a character of your choice. Now normally I hate those stories with OC's, and I'm sure that I myself am very Mary Sue-ish, even though I try not to be, so my question is are any of you slightly interested? It'll probably be a giant one-shot, or at least under 5 chapters if I go hog-wild. I've already started writing it and I kind of want to post it, but I don't know. So I'll leave it up to you.

Also! I want to start another Titans fic (Sladin of course!) so I'll be taking suggestions if you have any:) If you read all of that I am truly impressed! Treats for all of you!