**Sorry about the delay in updates! Here's something to recapture your interests! And, nope, the Teen Titans still are not in my possession!**
Raven was pleasantly surprised at the gloomy dark atmosphere of the room provided for her. Alfred had told her with a pleasant smile that he had been under orders to make sure the rooms were to each Titans tastes. She told him with a shy smile of her own that he had succeeded.
"Dinner will begin in five minutes, miss. Dress for the night is formal," Alfred said as he bowed out of the room.
'I might as well get ready for dinner now…' Raven started levitating articles of clothing out of her bags and attempting to piece together an outfit.
Five minutes later…
The Titans entered the extravagant dining hall centered around a large mahogany table capable of seating twenty people easily. Beast Boy sported a blue polo, a pair of khakis and a lot of cover-up as he took his seat next to Starfire in a pink sundress. Cyborg and Raven sat opposing Star and BB. Cyborg, in his "Stone" holograph, wore a pale-blue dress shirt and black dress pants, leaned in to Raven, clad in a black halter-top dress, and asked, "Have you seen the size of the bathrooms here? They're huge!"
"Cyborg, I have been here ten minutes and have yet to see a bathroom. No." Once she finished that remark, Robin, sans mask, entered wearing a black suit with a red dress shirt and black tie at the opposite end of the room that Bruce entered, wearing similar attire, save his shirt was blue. Robin and Bruce sat at the heads of the table. Two staff members entered carrying plates of food for the group, gently setting a plate down in front of each person. Cyborg, Starfire, Raven, and Beast Boy remained still, unsure as to the etiquette expected of them. They all watched Robin closely for reference as he placed his napkin in his lap and picked up his utensils delicately. Raven and Cyborg managed this easily, but Starfire launched her napkin across the room trying to unfold it and had to retrieve it quickly. Beast Boy, intimidated by the sheer amount of silverware in front of him, started trying to eat his salad with a shrimp fork and was stabbing ruthlessly at the lettuce leaves. Robin started laughing quietly at the changeling's antics, earning him stares from his entire team as they had not heard him laugh for several days. Robin cleared his throat and blushed slightly at the looks he was receiving, quickly looking down and focusing intently on his plate.
"Having a bit of trouble there, Mr. Logan?" Bruce asked dryly, causing BB to blush horrendously. "Don't worry about it. I never know which fork is which anyway, Alfred usually just hits me to make me remember. Since you're too far away to hit, I would suggest the second fork on your left."
"Th-thank you, Mr. Wayne." Gar stammered. "And, you can call me Gar. My dad was Mr. Logan."
"And my dad was Mr. Wayne. Call me Bruce, please. That goes for all of you." He turned his gaze to the other adolescents at the table who nodded mutely.
Starfire piped up, "This food is quite delicious Bruce. Of what may I ask are we eating?"
"Escargot."
"That is… some form of animal?"
"Snails to be precise." The Dark Knight was bemused and couldn't hide the curve of his lips.
The alien tilted her head as she examined the plate in front of her with that new information in mind. She then proceeded to heartily finish consuming everything on her plate.
Once the ice had been broken, dinner went much more smoothly than anticipated, and a surprising amount of fun was had by all. Once the plates had all been cleared and Beast Boy was attempting to extract a piece of carrot from his teeth (to no avail), Bruce stood up from his seat and addressed the Titans.
"I hope you all enjoyed dinner. If you'll all excuse me, I must have a chat with my former ward." With that statement Robin rose from his chair, not meeting anyone's eyes, and followed Bruce out of the dining room. The other four Titans looked at each other curiously until Alfred arrived to show them back to their rooms.
Bruce had taken Robin into the study, a room of dark wood and shelves upon shelves of books. Three dark green arm chairs were arranged in a circle by the stone fireplace, the same way they had several years ago when Alfred would join Dick and Bruce for strategic conversations until three in the morning. Robin swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat and sat down.
Bruce uncorked a bottle of brandy and poured two glasses, offering one to Dick who accepted and sipped the liquor. Bruce sat across from Robin and took a swig of his brandy.
"I can't believe it took you this long to tell me. How could you hide this for so long?" Bruce tried to soften his expression at the end of his sentence, noticing for the first time how tense he was about this conversation.
Robin stared at the floor and took another sip of his drink before answering.
"To say I was embarrassed would be an understatement, Bruce."
"How long ago did this happen, Dick?"
Robin once again hesitated before answering. The truth was that he had a very accurate count of how long it had been, down to the day. "Um, about four years since the first time."
"The first time? What do you mean the first time?" Bruce leaned in and was getting agitated. Very agitated.
Robin knew he had just made this harder on himself. "Well, the first time he…he…had his way with me was when I was his apprentice. He made me give up my Robin uniform and put on one of his own design. Once I had my old costume off, well, you can guess what happened. I was thirteen for crying out loud!"
"Richard, I'm so sorry, but you alluded to other…times. Don't be shy; you know you can trust me."
"There was another time when we had Terra on our team. When she betrayed us, Slade got me as a "present". Other then that, there was the reagent in the mask we had that made me feel him beating me like he used to. That kind of messed with my head. That was a couple months ago, before we went to Tokyo." Robin finally looked up, slowly, trying to gauge his mentor's reaction.
Bruce rubbed his chin with his hand and polished off his brandy and poured himself another. He was in complete shock that all of this had happened to Richard. But what really hit him the hardest was the fact that all of this happened without Richard coming to him for help. He had been a father to the boy, taken him in because he knew all the pain that came with being an orphan. Bruce wanted to make sure the Dick was spared from that kind of emotional pain. But it seemed that he had found that pain on his own.
"I'm so sorry." He said quietly. "I wish…"
Dick's voice faltered, "B-Bruce, this isn't your fault."
"And it's not your fault either." Bruce stated baldly. "You're making yourself a martyr when you have friends who are willing to sacrifice anything to make you realize that."
"I don't deserve friends like them." Dick said softly.
Bruce tentatively placed his arm around the boy's shoulders, thinking to himself about how much his young ward had had to grow up in the last few years and the incredible man he was becoming. "But you have them." He pointed out, "And I think they're a great group of kids. You've given everything for them. Let them return the favor and help you heal."
Dick rubbed his eyes surreptitiously. "Thanks Bruce." He whispered.
"Anytime, champ." He playfully ruffled the teenager's hair and chuckled at the Boy Wonder's attempt to fix it. "So," Bruce said, changing topics completely, "I like that Raven girl. Her sense of humor falls right in with my own."
"That sense of humor being ironic, macabre and dry?"
"Let's pretend you lived with me for all those years and knew that."
"Ha ha ha. That's hilarious."
"I may have rubbed off on you too much."
"Nah."
