Manning Apartments, Jump City. 2:15 p.m.
This was it. Robin was standing on the small balcony of Apartment 217, peering through the glass. Then, after a moment of carefully studying the hinges, he decided to take the 'normal approach' and pull the door of its frame. Pulling out a small screwdriver from one of the many pockets on his utility belt (He's Robin. He can probably hold a circus in that utility belt), he inserted the screwdriver into the bottom of one of the hinges and turned. The screws came loose, and after doing this with each of the bolts in turn, he lifted the door from its frame and set it carefully aside.
With any luck, Insomniac, a.k.a. Andrew , wouldn't be arriving home from school for another hour…which didn't leave Robin with a lot of time, but nevertheless he could at least determine whether he was dangerous or not.
Stepping inside, Robin peered around. It seemed to be an utterly normal apartment, save for the fact that it was inhabited by a 16-year-old (normally, you have to be 18 to live in an apartment by yourself, and it seemed to be occupied by one person.) The room he had entered was most likely the bedroom ,and it was large and circular with large, dirty glass windows peering out the side. Curtains fluttered in front ofthe windows. The bed was unmade and there were dirty clothes and video game catalogues and magazines on the floor. There was an ancient writing desk, upon which stood a few silver-framed color pictures of a beautiful woman holding a small, dark-haired child as well as a bulging red folder marked with Insomniac's real name.
Robin opened the folder, expecting to find something outlandish like orders for drugs or counterfeit bills, but instead found page after page of homework assignments and tests from what appeared to be from Andrew's 8th-grade year, every last one of them marked with an A or A-.
"So he's a good student," thought Robin as he closed the folder and continued his evaluation. "Doesn't make him any less dangerous."
Moving on, Robin went to the computer desk. It was clean and tidy and the one thing that stood on the desk was the computer (perhaps the only clean part of the three-room apartment). Bending low, Robin looked to the back where the plugs are, and found a small USB adapter still in the back. Pulling it out and plugging it into a small handheld extension of his computer that looked rather similar to a Batman-ized Blackberry, he started pulling up the documents that were on it. He was disappointed, however, to have not uncovered some sort of blackmail evidence and instead found a few MP3 downloads and two more homework assignments.
He slipped the USB back into its slot behind the computer and checked his watch. 2:55. School was ending for most of the students all over the city, and Robin quickly made his way to the bathroom and kitchen/living room, still finding nothing suspicious.
After another 6 minutes, he was beginning to give up. His search of the house seemed to have been pointless, there was no doubtful paraphernalia, no trap doors that hid illegal immigrants, in fact, there seemed to be absolutely nothing wrong with this guy-he was completely normal.
By this time, Robin was making his way to the opening where the glass door was, when he realized he had forgotten to look in the most obvious place of all. How could he be so stupid? He mentally slapped himself as he turned 90 degrees to his left and opened the closet door.
Insomnia may have been smart, but he sure made a stupid mistake in putting his Starfire shrine in his closet.
Awed and rather bewildered, Robin stared at the inside doors and walls of the empty closet. There were hundreds upon hundreds of pictures of Starfire lining them, some hand-drawn (but rather badly), and all of them with Starfire. The one in-focus picture that had ever been taken of Robin was one with Starfire, during which she was grabbing him by the wrist, prepared to launch him at an attacker. Where Robin was, however, was a blank space in the picture; his figure had been cut out.
Robin would have stared all day at this, collecting evidence and fingerprints and even admiring some of those pictures of Starfire himself, when he heard a key being inserted into the front door in the other room. Panicking, Robin quickly and quietly shut the closet door and bolted for the place where he had taken off the door.
'Stupid, stupid, stupid!' Robin thought to himself furiously as he tried desperately to put the glass door back in place. He managed to fit it in, and was about to screw in the bolts at light speed when Andrew walked into the room and angrily through his backpack onto the bed. He was standing almost exactly where Robin had stood a split second before, near the center of the room.
Even from where he stood right to the side of the door (where Andrew couldn't see him) Robin could see that it had been a very narrow miss. Cautiously, he put one eye around to the glass, and got his first look of his competi-uhm, Starfire's stalker.
He was tall and somewhat gangly, and he was slightly hunched over. He had very dark, short and kind of curly hair, and his eyes were grey but ever-so-slightly blurred as a result from the contacts he was wearing. All in all, he wasn't a complete Average Joe, but he was no Robin (for those who think Robin's hot). Andrew's face was screwed up in anger, and Robin noticed for the first time that his left eye was looking purpley-black. Robin watched, almost curiously, as the so-called Insomniac disappeared in the kitchen for a moment and returned with an ice pack clutched over that eye.
He made his way to the computer and turned it on, and Robin even watched as he logged on. Still holding the ice pack over his eye, he muttered, "Hope you have a smile for me today, sweetie."
He was typing a message, and a moment later he got a reply. Robin could make out the screenname CometKory from where he stood, and he triumphantly turned to start his trek down the building to get back to his bike. Luck wasn't in his favor that day. As he turned, he kicked the ringbolt he had not yet been able to put back in place and it rolled, tinkling, off the balcony.
From inside, Insomniac looked up through his window. The curtains were swaying lightly in the breeze, and he quickly got to his feet, nearly tripping, and ran over to the balcony. He peered around in all directions for a moment, confused, and when he saw nothing, he looked around one more time and turned to go back through the door.
When he turned to go back in, Robin breathed a sigh of relief. He had been straining to hold, one-handed, onto one of the bars of the balcony. Normally this wasn't hard, but as there was about a half a foot of cement between the drop off of the balcony and the actual bars, his arm was hurting as it bent at a crazy angle to hold on. It was really a miracle that Andrew hadn't noticed him, really, as his green gloved hand was holding on in a place that could have been completely visible had Insomniac stepped to the left a little.
Robin was waiting for Andrew to go inside so that he could shoot a zip line and get to his bike when Andrew closed the door. As he closed it, however, it fell off the hinges and to the side, where it shattered as it hit the ground. Robin covered his eyes at just the right time as the shards of broken glass came flying over the edge of the balcony at him. He let go as soon as Andrew came running over to look where there had come a low, strangled cry of surprise. Andrew looked around one more time after trying to explain what happened to his nosy neighbors, and went into the house, quickly typed brb to Starfire, and got a dustpan and broom to clean up the mess.
Robin had been a little more lucky this time, as when he jumped he managed to land right onto the tenant below's balcony, which was within jumping distance of the ground if he first lowered himself using a rope. He slid, rather than inched, down the rope and jumped onto the ground and ran for his bike to get away as soon as he could, and within 10 seconds he was nowhere to be seen.
As he sped through the city, he thought to himself,
So I was right, he really is a stalker. And look what he does, he has a shrine of her, that's a stop light if there ever was one! Half the pictures he has look like he took them himself, there's no other explanation, he's stalking her and he wants to meet her, and when he does he can take advantage of her naïveté, he knows exactly how to exploit her feelings…
And suddenly, that one evil thought that had haunted Robin since he left that apartment. It was a cold voice, that one you hear that preys on your fears.
He'd steal her from you, take her away, where she wouldn't ever want to see you again, she loves him, and you know it.
"NO!" Robin yelled, but he knew only he could hear it. He swerved into an empty alley and stopped the bike. He closed his eyes, breathing heavily, as he told himself, "That's not going to happen, Star's a Titan, she wouldn't go with him…" and after some 10 minutes that seemed like an eternity, he started up his motorcycle and drove back to the Tower.
So are you alright? You seem…angry
I'm alright, sweetie, I'm just having a really, really bad day
Aww, why?
Because the guys in my class are aholes, and I think someone broke into my house while I was at school
No!
Yea.
Are you alright? Do you need any help? Give me your address, I'll come over and I'll see if I can-
It's alright, I told you, don't worry about me. But it would be nice to meet you
I know, but not now.
'Come on, answer,' whimpered Starfire. She didn't mean for it to be like it sounded, but unless someone's safety was in danger, she didn't want to risk revealing her identity like that. He finally answered.
Ok, fine, we'll meet some other time. Whatever.
I don't like the way you're talking. I'm sorry if I angered you, but…
In the apartment, Andrew sighed.
I'm sorry, sweetie, I'm not mad at you. Like I said, I'm just having a bad day.
Alright then, I'm sorry too.
Why would you be sorry?
That you're having a bad day.
For the first time that day, Andrew smiled. That little comment just reminded him why he loved her so much.
Thanks, that made me feel better.
I'm glad
Meanwhile on Starfire's end, Robin had just arrived home from who-knows-where. He had come up through the garage, and went almost immediately to Starfire's room. He knocked on the door, and Starfire typed hold on a moment and turned to the door.
"Come in," she called cheerfully, and a moment later Robin walked in. "Hello, Robin."
"Who're you talking to, Star?"
First question he asked her. He regretted not saying hello first later, though.
"Just a friend," she replied innocently, although she straightened her upwards to hide the screen. "How are you Robin?" she added, as if to change the subject.
"I'm ok…but seriously…who're you talking to?" asked Robin. He wanted to hear for himself that she was talking to him.
"I told you, a friend," snapped back Starfire, somewhat defensive now that Robin wanted to pry. It was starting to fold out like Raven said. "Why do you care anyway?"
Robin seemed to be taken aback by her sauciness. "Just wondering, Star, I have personal experience when it comes to internet friends, and I don't want you to be talking to a hacker or something," he replied, with a rather hurt expression in his voice. This was playing out just like he thought it would.
"Well, I think I can take care of myself," she said coolly. "Unless you don't trust me?"
"Of course I trust you!" Robin nearly shouted. "But I don't trust that guy you're talking to!"
"How is it your business who I talk to?" she replied angrily.
"It's my business if he's trying to stalk you!" Robin was angry now, and somewhat scared. "I just care about you, and I don't want you to get into trouble!"
"Well I don't know what made you think that my friend is a stalker," she replied, her voice dangerously low. "But if you can't trust him than you can't trust me. Please leave, Robin."
He stared at her. She had just told him to leave. He was trying to protect her, to make sure that she wouldn't get into any real danger, and she told him to leave.
"I told you, please get out," she repeated, and this time, it looked as if she was about to cry.
"But, Starfire, I-"
"Get out!" and with this Starfire actually stood up and looked at him, as if to stare him down.
Hurt, confused, and now even more worried about Starfire, Robin turned and left through the open door. It closed almost immediately behind him, and he was left in the hall to repeat her words, her dangerous words in his head.
I told you, said that cold voice. She likes Andrew too much, she prefers him, that's why she was angry.
"Shut up," he told himself, still numb from her comments. "Shut up, just SHUT UP!"
Raven, who seemed to be everywhere these days, was walking down the hall when she heard Robin yelling at himself. Changing direction, she said in her same calm voice, "Robin. Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm just fine," he spat back, a mixture of anger, sarcasm and shock in his voice.
"Well, I would just suggest," Raven replied, somewhat annoyed that Robin was taking a go at her for no reason, "that you talk to your invisible friends in your room, where no one can hear you," and with that she walked off.
Robin, now livid that he had just made another teammate mad at him, punched the wall before walking back to his room.
Starfire, however, had finally regained her head, although she was still repeating those past few minutes in her head, sucking in her anger. She had wanted Robin to trust her, was that so much to ask? It seemed that she did not realize how much she like Robin until she had been deprived of his company that morning, and now he didn't trust her, and he even accused her best guy friend, whom she confided to about her best friends, of being a stalker? That last thought made up her mind.
So where do you want to meet?
Ooh, cliffie! I know you're all just dying to read the next one, to be posted tomorrow. Thanks again to those who reviewed, and thanks to Simon-e Bolon-e, who is my newest reviewer.