I let out a shaky breath, adjusting my tie. God, I was going to sweat through my suit at this point.

I stared at myself in the mirror, wondering how the hell I ended up here. Everything was happening so fast, and I realized I never got the chance to really go over the situation that I was in. I guess it was too late now for that now, because in about ten minutes I would be in front of hundreds of people advocating for this fake relationship.

I gulped.

Robin was insane. No, insane was too light of a category to put him in. He was more along the lines of demented; to engross in his delusions to think straight. And I, like an idiot, followed him through his path of madness. Robin was strong, powerful, and always a step ahead of his enemies; It's what made him a good leader. But he was so hell bent on protecting everyone that sometimes his plans got a little crazy. He was more than willing to stoop down to unimaginable lows to achieve his goals, but did he really have to bring me down with him?

"Do you need help?"

I jumped. Robin was standing behind me with a strange mixture of amusement and concern on his face. We were placed in a small dressing room backstage until the conference got situated. No doubt Robin wouldn't have any problems picking up on my distress. I mumbled underneath my breath, silently cursing him for being so perceptive, before pulling the tie from around my neck and shoving it in his direction.

"You know," He said, taking the cloth from my hands and stepping in front of me. I didn't meet his eyes, hoping my lack of contact would let him know how angry I was for doing this. "You can't pout while we're on stage." I scoffed. I could feel him staring at me for a moment before he began wrapping the tie around my neck. "Are you as nervous as I am?"

This got my attention, and I looked at him wide-eyed. The question was asked so softly that for a moment I didn't register he had even said it. It was only then that I noticed how close we were. He loomed over me only by a couple inches. I guess I went through a growth spurt at some point and hadn't even realized I had shot up.

My nose was close to his neck, and I couldn't help but take in his scent. He always smelled the same; on the surface, the cologne that he always wears, the one Starfire bought him for his birthday, mixed with hair gel and mint from his mouthwash. Beneath the surface was the faint traces of iron, coffee, and the outdoors. It was distinctively Robin.

I pressed my lips together, now feeling awkward. His fingers moved nimbly around the fabric, expertly tying it around. Before I knew it, he stepped away, finished with his handwork.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have said anything." He said, almost embarrassed. Right, he did ask a question. I don't know how I had forgotten it so quickly.

"Do you really think we can pull this off?" I asked seriously. "It's not too late to-"

"No, we have to do this. We're already in too deep." He interjected before I could try to persuade him out of it. Great, there was no getting out of this. He peered over at me and sighed. "We'll be fine. We've rehearsed and we shouldn't have any issues. If things go south, I'll take the lead. I just need you to act the part."

I sighed. "Right."

As if on cue there was a knock on the door. The door slowly creaked open, and a young woman's head popped through the door.

"Excuse me, we will be starting in five." She announced meekly. Robin grinned the charming grin that he always gives to civilians. It was always welcoming with a slight allure attached to it, making anyone he cast upon it swoon.

"Thank you, we'll be out soon." He answered kindly. The girl blushed before nodding and quickly closing the door behind her. It made me sick how easily he could put on that persona. I guess it came with being the face of the team but it all seemed so...fake. The Robin I knew was often cold, always obsessed over his work, and a complete control freak. He turned back to me, his expression reverting back to his normal, stoic look. "Are you ready?"

I closed my eyes, taking in a deep, shaky breath. I then opened my eyes, plastering on a fake grin. "Let's get this over with." I marched over to him and wrapped my arm around his bicep, in the way we had planned. Robin raised an eyebrow at me, but didn't question it, putting on a fake smile as well.

He opened the door, and we were met with the young woman. She grinned upon seeing us, her eyes quickly flashing to our interlocked arms before coming back to meet our faces. God, this was embarrassing.

"This way." She said, spinning on her heels. Robin and I exchanged glances before following her through the backstage. After rounding a few corners, we came to a door. My stomach dropped as I heard the familiar sound of a crowd. No doubt we would have a full house. Robin probably felt me tense up, and gave me a small smile of reassurance.

"Alright fellas. This conference should go by smoothly. Don't answer questions you aren't comfortable with. We're more than happy to escort someone out should they act out of line." I began to tune the woman out as she went through the standard procedures that came with hosting a conference. I've heard it a million times.

I could feel my anxiety spike. We were really doing this. Like, really doing this. For some reason I was thinking we wouldn't actually get this far, like Robin would realize how stupid this whole thing was and call it off. I should've known better than that. He wasn't the type to back down from a challenge, especially when he felt that there was a payoff to it.

Maybe I should start thinking the same.

"Any questions?" I was suddenly brought back to reality. I shook my head no, and Robin nodded in agreement.

"No questions. Thank you for your help." Robin said in the charming way that he does. She smiled and opened the door. Immediately, bright light flooded my eyes, blinding me for a second.

Robin turned to me, letting out a long sigh.

"We're doing this?" I asked. This was our last chance to back out. Our last chance to say, hey, this was a crazy, stupid idea and I never should have brought it up.

He squeezed my hand with his own, a sort of gesture that I'm sure was partially an apology and partially a way of encouragement. "There's no turning back now." He stated. I shouldn't have expected any less.

We both turned back towards the door. The woman was holding it open with a warm smile across her face. "Good luck guys."

We both nodded our thanks in her direction. With a deep breath, I took the first step; the sooner we did this, the faster it would be over with. As soon as we walked past the door, I was greeted with the familiar sound of a conference; reporters yelling at each other, flashing cameras, and murmurs of excitement. However, As we began to walk across the stage, the room suddenly shifted to silence.

I peered over Robin's shoulder, almost terrified by what I would see. As I feared, everyone was staring at us in complete shock; like they had just seen Raven go demon mode. Maybe linking arms wasn't the right move. Most people probably didn't think this was a "serious" relationship, and seeing our arms conjoined like this must be a shock. I glanced up at Robin, who was keeping a straight face and looking unbothered. I wondered what he was really thinking.

We casually walked up to the conference table, where the rest of the titans were already seated. Upon seeing us, they each gave a small, uneasy smile. I took a seat beside Cyborg, Robin sitting at my other side. I let out a deep sigh and forced myself to peer over the sea of people in front of me.

Each seat was filled. I had to guess there were a couple hundred people occupying it, not including the massive crowd that stood in the back. It appeared to be organized by government officials to the right, reporters and press in the center, and on the left...other superheroes? Though it was common for maybe one or two supers from different cities to join conferences for updates and stuff like that, we never had a whole section fill up. I recognized a few of them; Bumblebee and the rest of Titans east, Doctor fate, Jericho, and Pantha all made an appearance. I gulped. Maybe this was more serious than I had previously thought. I don't know what I would've done if members of the Justice League showed up.

The sound of a mic screeched, and Mayor Neilly walked up on stage. She flashed us a quick, warm smile before gesturing for the cameraman to start broadcasting the live feed.

"Good evening everyone, thank you all for coming out and showing your support in welcoming the new couple. This is a special occasion, but I ask you to please keep your questions tasteful and orderly. Once called by one of the members by the team, we ask you to wait for a mic to be handed to you, or you could simply use the mic that's provided in the center of the floor. Each person is allowed the maxim of two questions." She then gestured to a microphone in front of the center row. "Any questions?" Receiving nothing but smiles and blank stares, she grinned and clapped her hands together. "Great, let's get started."

As if a switch had been turned on, the reporters were on their feet, shouting and begging to be picked. The uproar of it shocked me enough to make me jump. I looked around at my friends, all seemingly as shocked as I was.

Robin cleared his throat, tapping on his microphone. He pointed to a reporter on the front row, and he immediately sprinted to the center mic.

"Yes, Thank you." The man said. He seemed panicked, like he was new to the job. "I guess the question everyone wants to know is...what is this, exactly?" He then gestured to Robin and I. Robin cleared his throat again before leaning into the mic in front of him.

"We're dating." He stated.

It was spoken so surely and confidently that even I was taken aback by his statement. How was he able to say it so casually? A lie straight out of his teeth with not even an ounce of remorse? It was almost impressive.

"And how long have you been together?" He asked. Robin nudged me from underneath the booth, signalling that it was my turn to answer. I gulped. One thing I was not good at was lying. Cyborg always tells me it was easy to know when I was lying because my ears would turn red. I prayed they wouldn't betray me now.

"Well, it's been a few months now." I began, trying desperately to hide my nervousness. "And," I looked turned to Robin, who had warned beforehand that we needed to be as believable as possible. If the media got any sense of doubt that there were any problems in our relationship, it would be easy for them to pick us apart and pinpoint our lie. I just hoped my voice didn't betray me. "We're happy."

To my surprise, Robin smiled. I wasn't sure if he was faking it for the press but it seemed...genuine. Maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me. It was such a rarity that Robin looked at me like that; normally he would be annoyed by my presence, and wasn't afraid to show it. But this seemed authentic, like he was thankful that I had chosen those words. Slowly, I felt my face start to heat up.

"Thank you." The sound of the voice coming over the loudspeaker reminded me that we were, in fact, in front of a large crowd. There were dozens of cameras going off, and I turned away embarrassed that my reaction had probably been captured. I looked over the crowd and pointed at a woman towards the mid center. A mic was handed to her.

"How did your friends react to finding out you were together?" She asked.

"Oh, I would like to answer this one!" Starfire cried. Bringing all the attention to her. "I was, as well as my friends, I'm sure, very shocked. But we are the very happy for our friends."

"It's been speculated that you and Robin have had romantic feelings for each other? Has this affected your relationship with him?" The woman continued.

My head shot towards Robin, and I could feel guilt starting to creep through my system. It is obvious that Robin has had a crush on Starfire ever since we first formed the Titans. The only person who seemed to not know this was Starfire herself. With us now in this fake relationship, did this ruin any chances he had with getting with her? Was I the reason that Rob would never get his happy ending? However, Robin appeared unbothered by the statement. In fact, he and Starfire, who were sitting side by side, looked at each other and giggled, as if there was an inside joke only they knew.

"Robin and I are just friends and have always been." Starfire said with a smile. The woman nodded and took a seat.

From there on the conference was running smoothly. About an hour passed, and I was feeling more comfortable answering questions. It was just as Robin said it would be. We both took turns answering questions, with the occasion of one of our other teammates sharing their opinion about our relationship. Pretty soon the conference would be over and all I had to worry about was the small after party afterwards.

I scanned over the crowd, trying to pick out who I wanted to speak. We were nearing the end of the conference with only room for a few more questions. My eyes settled in the section of supers. From what I could see there was someone patiently raising their hand, but I couldn't see who it was. Weird, usually the supers just observed and didn't bother to ask questions. Curiosity got the better of me, and so I called on him.

The owner of the hand stood up, revealing a tall and tanned man. He adjusted his tie, and walked up to the center mic, oozing with an aura I couldn't quite describe. He was handsome, even I couldn't deny that. His hair was pale blonde, contrasting his brown skin, and even beneath his suit I could tell he was pretty well built. He had a slightly cocky smirk on his face, giving out a sneak peak to his perfectly white teeth. Why had I never seen, or even heard of this super before?

Once he arrived at the stand, his eyes flicked up towards me. They were a light green, almost rivaling starfires. It felt like a flame was burning into me. His stare was intense, although only lasting a few seconds. I could've sworn I saw his smile get larger, but that might've just been my imagination. Just as soon as his eyes fell on me, they left, and he tapped into the mic.

"This question is for Robin." He stated, his smile completely dropping. It seemed the whole room had sensed something, and had gone completely silent. I glanced over to Robin, who appeared to have gone ridged as well. His mouth was pressed into a thin line, and his nose was wrinkled in the way it was when he was concentrating. This was completely different than the Robin just moments before.

"As heroes, we are sworn to protect the people of whatever area we reside in, putting their well-being above our own." The man started. He then turned around and scanned the confused faces behind him. "I think I speak for the general public when I say there's a concern that this…relationship," His eyes shifted back towards me briefly before settling back on Robin. "May become a hindrance. My question is, Robin, if you had to choose between saving Beast Boy, whom you said to love, or the citizens of this city, whom you swore to protect...who would you choose?"

The arena was deathly quiet.

The question even shocked me. This was so unlike any of the other questions we had received. I worriedly turned to Robin, who was obviously trying to control his temper. I knew Robin hated being questioned about his loyalty to the city. He wore that honor like a badge. However, there was something else that was bothering him. He wouldn't look this mad just because of a question like this. I glanced down at his hand, which was balled into a tight fist beneath the table. There was definitely something else bothering him about this question.

"When we all first formed the Titans, we swore that the city came first. That stance doesn't change just because Beast Boy and I are together." He was trying to sound calm, but I could sense the slight anger in his voice. It's the tone he would use to me when I disappointed him during training. I turned back to the man, who was now wearing a sly smirk.

He let out a short huff before leaning into the mic and saying, "Thank you." Without another word, he turned on his heel, and casually walked down the aisle and back to his seat. All eyes lingered on him as he sat down, still wearing that cocky grin. After a few more seconds of staring, the reports were back on their feet with a new wave of questions.

It looks like this conference will take a little while longer.

I sighed.

If there was one thing I hated more than conferences, it was the after party. It was nothing but rich citizens and pompous delegates asking questions that we've answered a million times before. The only difference now was at least other supers were allowed in.

The conference had ended roughly about an hour ago, and besides that one hiccup with that one super, it ran relatively smoothly. There was no way people weren't convinced Robin and I were a thing now. Currently, Robin and I were chatting with some of the state's representatives. Well, Robin was doing most of the talking. I was standing there completely bored out of my mind!

All they wanted to talk about was politics and the weather. Lame stuff like that. I don't know how Robin could keep a conversation going with these old drags. I looked around the room, which had cleared out significantly since when the party first started. Maybe I'd find Titans East and start up a conversation with them, it has been awhile since we all chatted. Anything would be better than listening to this lame excuse of a conversation.

"Hey, I'm gonna grab some punch." I whispered to Robin, who had just finished laughing at one of the geezer's outdated jokes. He nodded, silently letting go of my hand. I quickly made my way out of the group before any of them could question me. Letting out a sigh of relief, I scanned the large room. Everyone seemed engaged in their own conversations, too deep for me to try to intrude. At least the buffet table was relatively clear.

I briskly walked over to the food, scanning over the items and grimacing at the meat. After a few minutes of looking, I just decided that punch was looking like my best option. As I reached over for a glass, and hand shot out and grabbed it before I could. I looked up, confused.

"Allow me to get that for you."

I blinked in shock. It was the same super who had asked that bizarre question earlier. He was wearing a bright smile, and wagged the glass in front of himself before filling the glass with the sweet liquid. He then handed off the glass to me, his grip seeming to hold on for a moment too long.

"Uh...thanks?' I said, trying to mask my confusion. He gave me another friendly smile before filling up his own glass.

"Congratulations on your relationship." He grinned, raising his glass. I forced a small smile before lifting my own glass to toast with him. I took a few sips out of my glass while eyeing him wearily. He also took a few large gulps out of his glass before his eyes lit up and he made a popping sound with his mouth, as if he just came up with some brazen idea."Oh, I guess I should introduce myself! I'm Zero. I'm stationed out on a small island outside of Africa. We don't get much press."

He then stuck out his hands towards me. No wonder I had never seen, or even heard of him before. Now that we were so close, I could make out even more details of his face. He was even more handsome up close. His tanned skin was littered with freckles, which somehow enhanced his chiseled jawline. His blonde hair really complimented his green eyes, making them seem to shine brightly. Hesitantly, I took his hand, expecting a small handshake. They were warm. Even through my gloves, I could tell they were soft. To my surprise, he brought my hand towards his face, placing a soft kiss on my knuckle.

Not only did I feel the heat of embarrassment rush inside me, but he was staring at me so intensely with those warm green eyes that I could feel my face burn. He smirked, before leaning closer, still holding onto my hand, until his mouth was inches from my ear. I could feel his breath tickle my ear, and I felt a shiver go down my spine.

"Between you and me, given the choice to save my lover or the city, I'd choose my lover in a heartbeat." He whispered into my ear. I felt a lump swell in my throat. What was happening? It was like I was frozen in place. However, my body was becoming increasingly hotter. I just didn't know if it was because of what he had said or the proximity of our bodies.

"I-" Before I had the chance to speak, I felt two hands press around my shoulders and pull me back. My back pressed against something warm and sturdy, holding me there. I looked up wide eyed, surprised to see Robin was the one who had pulled me away.

Robin's nose was slightly flared, as he stared at Zero with an intensity I couldn't quite name. I could feel his chest on my back, and he was breathing heavier than normal. There was something threatening about the way he stood there and the way he clutched onto me. I didn't dare move. I glanced over at Zero, who frankly looked more annoyed than anything. However, he met Robin's glare head on.

After a few more awkward moments of staring, Zero let go of my hand and straightened up, cocking his head to the side.

"Robin, it's a pleasure to finally formally meet you." Zero said, but his tone hinted that he was anything but glad to be in Robin's presence.

"Beast Boy, who's your friend?" Robin asked, completely ignoring Zero.

"Uh, this is Zero. He was just introducing himself." I answered meekly. What was going on? Why did I feel like I was in the middle of an unspoken battle? Zero nodded in agreement, sticking out his hand in our direction. I felt Robin tense, and instead of shaking his hand like he normally would, Robin let go of my shoulders, and instead grabbed my own, interlocking out fingers.

"The other Titans are ready to go. We should head out." Robin grumbled. I raised my eyebrow at my leader's odd behavior, but decided now was not the time to question him about it. I gave an apologetic smile to the foreign hero, who simply shrugged, giving me an understanding smile in return.

We turned away from the scene and Robin briskly led me out of the room. I turned my head just as we were about to walk out the door. Zero was still standing there watching us leave with a smile on his face.

The last thing I saw before we walked through the door was him raising his glass towards me.

Hello lovely people!

I'm back with another chapter. Could it be that Robin is a little bit jelly that bb's getting some attention? Zero is an oc I made, hopefully there's not another hero with that name lol. I'm really excited for the ideas I have for this story. I also want to ask if anyone would be interested in this going up to M rating? This wouldn't of course happen until later chapters but I wanted yalls opion on it. Im still on the fence.

Thank you for reading and as always please review!