A/N: I don't always remember where I got ideas from, but one in this chapter I got from OptimisticEmotion so thank you! :)
Thursday, 12th of December 2013
Robin woke up closely entangled with Red X the next morning. They had again gotten a room with two queen sized beds, which seemed to be standard for family rooms, but the motel they had ended up staying at wasn't even close to the inn from the night before. This was, to put it gently, a dump. But they had chosen to press on as far as they could get as the kids fell asleep in the car and had managed to overshoot the place Robin had planned for them to stay in with just a few miles before the triplets woke up, hungry and wet. That meant stopping and finding a room quickly and… well… at least the place had a bathroom. It was a bathroom neither of them wanted to spend any time in, but at least the toilet flushed. Kind of.
It was still early, the phone propped up against the broken lamp on the nightstand said four A.M, but there had been a noise of some kind. Robin's ears twitched and then he heard it again; a soft mumbling. He lifted his head, looking over towards the babies in their carry cots –there was no way Robin was even going to ask for a crib in this place – and heard Red chuckling softly.
"Is that…?" Robin asked.
"Yup. He talks in his sleep too," the thief grinned. They both shared a quiet laugh and then snuggled back down under the thin covers for a few hours of more sleep.
The kids were on the floor on their play mat – there was no way Robin was going to let them sit on the carpet, which was most likely filthy− as the adults were dressing and tried to wash up as much as they could.
"I don't care where we stop next, but if it doesn't have a luxurious suite with a huge bathroom I'm not going to stay there," Red snorted.
"Oh, look who got all posh all of a sudden," Slade smirked. "This is at least ten times better than where you used to spend the nights."
"That's because you have spoilt me, darling," the thief grinned.
Robin saw what happened next out of the corner of his eye. Red was moving their bag and something brown and black ran out from under it. It ran right past the kids, and three pairs of ears pricked up in interest. Alexandra was working on her crawling and suddenly a hand had slammed down on top of the brown thing.
"A cockroach! She caught a cockroach!" Robin exclaimed. "Not in your mouth! NOT IN YOUR MOUTH!" he threw himself half way across the room to keep the little predator from eating the nasty bug and she got very upset about being stopped. Robin practically threw her into Slade's arms and poured hand sanitizer half way up her arm before cleaning her hand furiously. "We're getting out of here right now! Red, get the others off the floor!"
"But their food…?"
"We'll stop somewhere soon, just please let's get out of here?"
"Like I said, we need luxury now…" Red muttered.
"Yeah, I really wouldn't mind that either," Robin agreed.
"Spoiled brats. In the war you-"
"Slade, just carry the luggage," the hero snapped.
"It's a 'yes, dear' moment again," the redhead explained.
"Yes, dear," Slade sighed.
They didn't get luxury for a while, though, because they had to stop at a nearby gas station to feed the kids and themselves. Even Slade looked like he wanted to complain about gas station breakfast. When they took off the kids were in better mood than the adults…
Robin got on the phone with Alfred and then Nick, telling them about their 'adventures' so far, although he told Alfred a whole lot more details… After getting to vet for a while he felt better about things.
"Let's study!" He told Red X.
"But mooooom!"
"Don't call me 'mom'," Robin growled. "I'm not your parent. Now hit the books!"
"Well that sounds like my mom!" Red smirked. "Well… if she had ever cared about me… or school… or anything like that."
The thief always clammed up like crazy when it came to his past. Robin thought maybe Slade knew, not because the redhead had told him anything but because Slade liked to find things out… and knew the right questions to ask the right people. The man didn't share the info, though, and Robin respected that. It was Red's secrets, and if he felt like it he'd tell them one day. The hero couldn't help but prod, though.
"She wasn't… a very good parent then?" he asked carefully.
"What exactly are we supposed to study?" Red said, changing the subject.
"All of it," Robin grinned, taking the hint and followed the other teen's lead.
"That can't be done! You can't learn a whole book!"
The next hour was spent more trying to convince Red that studying was in fact possible, than doing any actual studying.
"But you already know a whole lot of these things!" Robin tried in the end. "Like traffic signs! Like this!" he pointed to a stop sign.
"Yeah! It's hammer time!"
"Okay, now you're being stupid on purpose," the hero snorted.
"He wasn't being that the whole time?" Slade asked. "Dear lord, let's get Oliver into a special school at once."
"Ollie is smart as a whippet," Red exclaimed.
"It's 'smart as a whip'," Robin groaned.
"I'm pretty sure a dog is smarter," the thief snorted.
"Thank god you're pretty," the hero grinned at him over his shoulder, as he was riding shot gun again.
"Red is a very smart and competent young man," Slade, unexpectedly, defended the thief. "He just has a problem with commitment and discipline."
"Hey, here I am, young and sexy as hell, stuck with three kids!" Red snorted. "I'd say I'm committed! … For life."
The smile on Robin's face slipped off and he turned around in his seat. Red didn't notice and began distracting the kids, but Robin stayed quiet for now. Was that really how Red felt? Trapped? His life ruined? When he had found out that he was expecting, there had never been any talk about whether they would keep the baby or not… he knew Red had been nervous about becoming a father, hell Robin had been nervous too, and yes he still wanted to do more than be a mom… sometimes, maybe, in his darkest moments, he could feel a tiny bit trapped, or at least limited by being a parent, but it was the best thing in the world at the same time… was Red regretting it, though? Did he want out? Was he going to leave them? The pain welled up in him, but he tried to keep it all inside, because would bringing it up make him seem weak and insecure and pathetic? Had it just been a joke? Was he too sensitive? Or was there something else behind it? Something deeper…?
"Do you… do you really not want to be a father?" Robin asked softly. He felt the van swerve just a tiny bit.
"What?" Slade asked. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"Not you, Red…"
"Huh?" Red said from the far back,. He hadn't heard him.
"I'm pulling over for this," Slade said. "It's time for a lunch break anyway."
"What's going on?" the redhead asked, studying the two serious faces in the front. "Am I in trouble?"
He had to wait a bit for an explanation, though, but then Slade pulled in at a drive in restaurant. He stopped before going into the actual drive through.
"Get out you two. I'm going to order and then park at the far end of the lot over there," he said and nodded. The restaurant seemed to be part of a mall-complex and the lot was rather big. "You sort this out and get your asses over there when you're done."
"I don't even know what I did!" Red complained, but followed Slade's order.
Robin could see that the other teen was upset and a bit hurt, so as soon as they stood eye to eye he gently butted his head against the side of Red's.
"I'm sorry," the hero said gently, "but I just… something you said… I need to know: do you wish you weren't a parent? Is this too much for you?"
"I…" Red gaped like a fish. "This is stupid! Of course it's too much for me! It's too much for all of us, even Slade! Dear god, three kids at once and you are just barely seventeen, kitten!"
"So you want out? You want to leave?" Robin steeled himself.
"No! Robin, listen to me," the other teen first grabbed him by the shoulders and then let his hands slide up toward the back of his neck, grabbing the skin there gently. That was something only Slade usually did; it was both a dominant and calming gesture. "Do I wish I had been a bit older before having a family? Yes. If I could have these exact same kids in five years or so, that would have been great… but would I want other kids in five years instead of the triplets? No, not a chance! They are ours! I can't believe you would doubt me in this! Am I really such a lousy dad? I know I'm nothing like Slade, but-"
"Like Slade?" Robin blinked.
"Yes! He knows everything, can get anything done, is always in control… he's never insecure or scared he's doing the wrong things or-"
"Yes-" Robin put his fingers to Red's lips softly. "Yes, he is. Insecure, I mean… I've seen him looking through the baby books for things, and he was just as terrible at changing diapers as we were in the beginning, remember?"
"… That was a lot of ruined diapers…" Red recalled.
"And he put the onsies on the wrong way around…" Robin smiled fondly. "He's in deep water too, and you are a great father! I admit… sometimes I feared you wouldn't be, that you would be out a lot, looking for more fun things to do… or that you wouldn't care about any rules we decided on… but you're great! All the kids love you and trust you and I do too, I swear! I just… when you said that, I wondered if we were losing you. I don't want to lose you, I love you!"
"I love you too, kitten," Red whispered roughly and kissed him right there on the side of the drive through lane. "I love you so, so much! And you gave me a family, something I've always wished I had! You have no idea how much that means to me!"
"I wish… I know it's difficult for you, but sometimes I wish that... that you would tell us a bit more about… about your past?" Robin mumbled. "I know it can't be easy, and maybe it doesn't matter at all anymore, but…"
"Is that why you have trouble trusting me? Because I haven't told you my sob story?" Red asked. He didn't sound annoyed, just a bit sad.
"I just… what happens in our childhood do shape us," the hero told him softly. "And maybe, one day, you'll need help with it, and I won't see it, because I won't know…?"
"Then I will tell you. Both of you. But not today, okay? Give me a little bit of time?"
"Of course!" Robin melted against his mate and clung to him almost desperately. "I love you, you bastard."
"Yes, well, as a preview, I'm pretty sure I am one, yes," the thief snickered.
They kissed again, ignoring a car or two which was honking at them, and then they sauntered across the parking lot with their arms around each other.
"Good," Slade said when he saw them. "You made up. Now you have a dirty diaper each to change and I'm warning you; they are lethal."
After that, the bottles which Slade had warmed in mugs of hot water were done, and they all sat down on a blanket on the grassy area next to the parking lot.
The kids were eating and the adults were trying to feed themselves as well in between.
"Where had you planned that we would spend the night? Which city?" Slade asked Robin.
"Omaha, I found a motel there that seemed promising."
"Use that phone of yours and find the best hotel in the city, book a suite," the man told him. "We've deserved it."
"But are you sure we'll make it there?" the teen asked.
"We'll make it," the man promised.
Not long after they had gotten back in the car, the hero grinned. "That's one suite booked."
"Where?"
"Hilton Omaha Hotel, and it should be good, it has four stars. I made sure we could check in late if we needed to."
"Luxury, here we come," Slade grinned.
"Hot shower, here I come," Red agreed.
"I just want to come," the hero leered. "Do you think they have room service for that?"
"I think we can arrange that anyway," Slade promised.
Slade got them to the hotel well before the sun went down and the rooms were gorgeous. For the first time they could set up the kid's cribs – the hotel had provided three – in the second bedroom. Robin had the baby monitors at hand, though, of course.
They each took turn showering, they ate an amazing dinner ordered through room service and the kids got to play themselves tired, free from their carry cots, which they were beginning to tire of, Robin could tell.
Soon the triplets were sleeping and it was the parent's turn to play. Robin didn't know if being half cat meant he actually had a bigger libido than he would have had normally, but he was glad that his mates could keep up with him.
"Why did we set up the cribs in the room with the king sized bed, we could have all fit on that for the night?" Robin realized. This room had two doubles, which were smaller than queen size wouldn't hold all three of them at once… not while sleeping, anyway.
"We didn't think that through," Slade admitted, but the man was more interested in what they were about to do than their sleeping arrangements.
They made love quietly and gently that night, and Robin felt like it was what they all needed right now. After a few days cooped up in a car together they were tired and it was too easy to get annoyed about the small, stupid things… This was like one, long, wordless apology.
Once it was over, Robin felt incredibly sleepy, but he was barely clinging on to the edge of the bed.
"Someone has to move, or we're going to end up on the floor…" he murmured.
"Well, we have a bed each," Slade pointed out. "You can take the king size if you want to, you like to stretch out, after all." Yes, Robin 'stretching out' and, sometimes, sleeping the wrong way around on the bed or on top of his mates, was the reason they had a specially made bed at home, much larger than a king size.
"Oh, that would be nice for once," Robin grinned. "Night then!" he added and padded off to the other bedroom where he checked on the kids before, quietly, slipping in between the cool, crisp sheets.
He sighed happily and stretched out like a starfish in the middle of the bed. After a while he turned over, closed his eyes, and got ready to sleep. He could faintly smell his children from across the room, the sweet scent of milk and baby, which was so unique. He smiled and, as he was so tired, expected to doze off at any moment. But he didn't. He turned over again, and again, before snorting softly and just giving up.
Slade raised his head from his bed as Robin came back into the room.
"Something wrong?"
"No, I just need to borrow something."
"Another pillow? A blanket?"
"No, you two," Robin grinned and pulled the man up, grabbing Red's hand on the way out as well.
"Wait? Wut?" the thief mumbled, half asleep, but followed along obediently anyway and soon Robin was happy again, between the two men.
"It's not too crowded for you, is it?" he whispered to Slade.
"Not at all. Goodnight, kitten," the man chuckled. Robin drifted off as the man spoke.
To be Continued…
A/N: I want to make something clear in case people misunderstand: Robin isn't insecure or needy here, he's simply following his instincts. We all find it difficult to sleep if something isn't "right", after all… ;)
