Disclaimer: You think I own Teen Titans? Well your wrong. And stupid. And perverted, just for looking at this fic...what the hell are you doing reading this anyway? Christ...
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Chapter Two
Greetings
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Robin let out a breath then pushed off of the wall, lingering under the now lukewarm water of the shower to let all evidence of his previous activities be washed away. He stepped out, grabbing a towel, and headed back into his room.
He shouldn't have done that. Well…he wouldn't go that far. He shouldn't have done that while thinking about Speedy. Shouldn't have been thinking of another guy in general. Not that there was anything wrong with that, of course, he just…wasn't.
He liked Starfire after all.
More or less.
He sighed and pulled off the wet mask before pulling open his closet to pull out another uniform. There was something wrong with him, obviously. He needed to…do…something…that didn't involve thinking about Speedy or how well they got along or how he was one of the few people to ever actually offer him a challenge or that he was legitimately intelligent or how much they had in common or…
Any of that stuff.
Because such things only led to places he didn't want to be.
Titan Alert.
Robin sighed, eyes rolling heavenward, before grabbing a mask from the closet and turning to run towards the common area, where the others would most likely be waiting. He was grateful for the distraction in reality, the longer he had to sit around the more he thought about things he shouldn't be thinking about.
Just as he'd expected the other Titans were waiting for him. Starfire was hovering above Beast Boy and both looked as cheerful as ever. Cyborg looked slightly serious and Raven just looked annoyed. Or as annoyed as Raven could look about things anyway.
"Mumbo Jumbo escaped from prison." Cyborg said without even waiting for him to ask. "Apparently he vanished and then pulled himself out of a guard's hat sometime today."
Robin put a hand over his eyes. "You have to be kidding me."
"I wish."
Raven's lips twitched into a strange half-smile. "Don't look so unhappy. This should be good for a few laughs."
Everyone stared at the girl, who just smiled again before floating off in the general direction of the garage. Finally Beast Boy coughed.
"She is so weird."
Robin was inclined to agree but found he didn't mind. He and Raven were…connected in a way; there was no denying that. He was drawn to her in a way, something about the sarcastic darkness inside of her reminded him of his own life. Everything was shrouded in the shadow of the Batcave and no matter how much garish yellow he wore he'd never be more than another one of Batman's shadows.
Not that he was bothered by that or anything.
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In true villain form Mumbo had, instead of taking his newfound freedom and running like hell, decided to rob a bank. Why they could never just run away when they got loose was something Robin would never understand.
He supposed they liked being in jail all the time or getting their behinds kicked by a bunch of teenagers or something as equally pathetic.
Still, this didn't surprise him in the least. It was just…the way things worked. Some kind of strange cycle. It was predictable and easy and never changed and thus it was good. Robin liked it when things made sense and were in order. He wasn't really a fan of surprises or being out of control.
So when they showed up at the bank only to find Mumbo dodging whizzing arrows and balls of water like his life depended on it, and maybe it did, he was…surprised. Even more so when he looked up and saw Speedy, bow aimed expertly, and Aqualad poised on top of a car and laughing.
Robin didn't like being surprised. And he was kind of against tormenting the bad guys, no matter how annoying they tended to be. (And Mumbo was damn annoying…) So, after telling Raven to collect the whimpering magician before he actually got hurt, he approached the other two. He knew his anger must have shown on his face because Starfire whimpered and veered off closer to Cyborg.
She was sensitive to the moods of others…at least the darker moods, even more so than Raven was at times. Robin usually went out of his way to stay under control when he was around her. She was just so…innocent sometimes.
Robin couldn't begin to remember being innocent.
"What the hell are you two doing?"
Speedy and Aqualad got over their amusement at Mumbo's plight very quickly after than and exchanged a long look while Robin pretended that it didn't bother him and that he didn't want to smash Aqualad's annoyingly attractive face into something hard.
"Sorry." Aqualad said finally while scratching the back of his neck. "We may have gotten a tiny carried away there."
"A tiny carried away?" Robin wasn't shouting but only because he just wasn't that kind of guy. He didn't shout unless things were really just going haywire. While this was an annoying moment it wasn't worthy of losing his temper.
Sure he was really damn pissed off but he couldn't show it.
He was the leader. He had to put forth a calm and cool exterior and getting pissed off every time one of them stepped a toe out of line wasn't going to help him keep that image. He mentally counted backwards from ten then sighed.
"That's not how we do things. You two should know that already."
Speedy smirked at him and Robin swallowed against the sudden thickness in his throat. "I don't know Robbie, how would we know something like that? I mean, without your infinite wisdom and guidance we have nothing to fall back on except our own attempt at amusement."
"Then you should join us at the Tower." The words came bursting from Robin's mouth before he could stop them. This was the problem with Speedy, he always made him falter and do things he wouldn't normally do, and he was always smirking like he owned the damn world and calling him by that stupid nickname and…well.
He wasn't playing fair.
Speedy blinked. "What?"
"You said that it's my lack of 'guidance' making you act like an idiot so I'm going to fix it. Stay at the tower and I'll teach you a thing or two."
Robin wanted to shout at himself, not only for making such an idiot proposal but also for the potential innuendo of what he was saying. And, since he in no way wanted to imply anything vaguely sexual about this, he had to choose his words more wisely.
Unless Speedy was…
No. No! Unless nothing!
Damn it. It was so hard to be in control around him. He just made Robin lose it.
Speedy and Aqualad exchanged another look, this time with the former smiling mildly. Robin looked away this time, not willing to acknowledge how strangely angry it made him that the two other heroes were, apparently, close friends.
Or…something like that.
And he wasn't thinking about what 'something like that' might entail. At least he wasn't admitting to thinking about it.
They hopped off of the car and headed towards the other Titans, leaving him to follow after them. Much against his will Robin find himself…checking out Speedy's ass.
He winced mentally, totally prepared to start yelling at himself.
After another quick look.
He groaned softly. He was so screwed.
It's over. The chapter anyway. Leave a review, they make us happy.
