EDIT: This story was edited for spelling/grammar mistakes in October 2011. Any remaining mistakes are probably meant to be there… ;)

Disclaimer: The Teen Titans? Nooo… they are not mine? Are they? Noooo….
Pairing: This is mainly a Robin-story…
Background: Another one… I should just rename this drabbles-collection "Beyond Terms of endearment" or something… wished I thought of that earlier… "future-fic" set around the others in this collection.
Warning: No… Barely a hug… sorry? This is a bit of a melancholy story, though.

Alone

The first time Robin spotted the boy was when he was out, as he liked to call it, patrolling. The boy was always in the same area, always doing the same thing, and Robin couldn't help but stay and watch from the shadows from time to time. The kid was Robin's age, and his passion in life was, obviously, to ride his BMX bike. He kept mostly to an abandoned plot where some skaters had built a ramp, clearly a few years back, as it looked positively lethal by now. The kid loved it, though. He had built a whole course to practice on, and he spent hours there every night.

The neighborhood wasn't one of the more dangerous areas, but it was definitely lower class, and this kid wasn't rich. Not by a long shot. Robin studied the bike, which looked oddly homemade, heck, the kid looked homemade too, Robin grinned.

As the days passed, the boy, without knowing it, became a permanent fixture on the young villain's tour. Robin never showed himself, but a strange longing slowly grew inside him. He wanted to talk to this boy, wanted to ask about the tricks… maybe… get to try his bike?

One night, as the boy was practicing on the ramp, Robin silently dropped down on it. Unfortunately the kid just saw someone suddenly appearing and lost control of his vehicle. Robin winced as the rider crashed to the bottom of the ramp, but it wasn't such a bad fall. He had seen him go down harder.

As he thought, the boy was back on his feet faster than a lightning bolt, pulling the bike to a standing position and glared up at Robin.

"What the heck do you think you're doing? You-"

Robin had been crouched down, but now rose from the shadowed spot.

"Cool bike, kid," he smiled. The reaction wasn't really what he expected.

"You… You… you're him!" the boy's eyes were suddenly big and frightened. Without another word he turned and threw himself up on his bike, pedaling away like the devil was after him.

Maybe that's what he thinks…

Robin just stood there, feeling more desolate and alone then he had in a very long time.

"Making friends, Robin?" Slade materialized from the shadows and Robin jumped down from the ramp to greet him.

"Tried to…" he muttered.

Slade had watched it all from his vantage point and embraced the boy's slumped shoulders.

"He was afraid of me…" Robin said softly, some strange pain in his voice.

"Hasn't he reason to?" Slade whispered in his ear, but he felt the boy tense at this. "Listen to me," Slade tried again, and looked into those serious, slightly hurt, blue eyes. "That kid got scared, sure, but you know what he'll do tomorrow, don't you?"

"No… what?" Robin wanted to know.

"He'll tell all his little friends at school, that last night he met Robin. The real Robin. And that Robin said he had a cool bike."

The boy grinned.

"Ya think?"

"Swing by here tomorrow night, and see for yourself."

Slade wouldn't explain what he had meant, so the next night Robin couldn't help himself. He was a bit late and blinked as he first laid eyes on the plot. There were at least thirty kids there! The bad news for "his" kid was that they all seemed pretty upset.

"Told you Mac was making it all up!" one of the gang said, inching closer to the boy, apparently named Mac.

"Yeah, no way Robin came by… like he cares about stupid old bikes!" the second boy aimed a kick at Mac's prized possession, and Robin snarled silently.

"Yeah…" a third and a fourth one said. Bullies rarely have the brains to be original, after all.

Deciding enough was enough, Robin swung into view, landing again on top of the ramp. There were startled cries and some even turned and ran.

"Hey Mac!" Robin greeted the boy with a grin. "Sorry I'm late. I was hoping to catch some of those awesome tricks of yours again, but I gotta go. I see you some other time, ok?"

The kid only nodded, stunned, but there was a hint of gratitude in his eyes.

Robin shot a grappling hook at the next roof. "Bye! Love your bike, by the way, pure piece of art!" and he flew away through the night.

Robin laughed silently on a nearby roof. Seeing how the kid's supposed schoolmates had acted, subdued some of the longing for friends in Robin. They were just children after all. He suddenly wished to see Slade and took off again. Back home.

He visited the place from time to time. Just showing himself briefly, or trading a few words. There were more kids around now, more bikes, and Mac seemed to be just as passionate about teaching his new friends tricks as riding himself. A core of them stayed, even after the charm of novelty was gone, and those became real friends. Mac, at least, wasn't alone anymore.

THE END

A/N: this is just like the immortal-thing… I thought about it; Robin "trapped" in a world of grown-ups… wondered what he would do… Sure, he was in the same situation with Batman, so I guess he's used to it…