A/N: Another T-shirt slogan comp- oh you know what it is by now… Anyway, this is for higashisaru who gave me an idea I THOUGHT would only become a cracky-joke drabble, but actually evolved a bit. If only slightly. ;)
Universe: free-standing
Warnings: Errr…. nah… the genre is crack with a smallish bit of adventure/angst and pwp baked in, like chocolate chips in a cookie…
Fear and Trust
Robin grinned as he returned to the Tower. He had just prepared the best Easter-egg hunt ever! There were maps, clues, even GPS coordinates for some of the trickier ones… he had had an insane amount of fun, while his team was busy preparing food and decorating. Sometimes it was good being the leader.
Starfire had offered to be in charge of decorations, and as Robin had left there had been lots of feathers floating around in the air. As the elevator-doors opened up he was almost afraid to look.
"Robin! Was the hunting a success?"
"You guys will do the actual hunting," Robin explained, "I just hid the-" Something caught his eye and he stared. He looked in another direction and his eyes widened even more. Soon he was practically spinning around. They were all over the place!
"What is the matter? Do you not like the yellow birds of Easter?"
"Yeah, man," Cyborg chuckled. "We told her chickens, but she came back with these…"
"But they do float in the bath!" the alien exclaimed. "And so they are better, yes?"
Robin didn't hear a word of it. Ducks. Ducks everywhere. Small ones, big ones, smiling ones, staring ones; a sea of terrible, yellow rubber and plastic.
"Take them away! Take them away!" he choked out.
"Robin?" Raven frowned. "What?"
"Told ya they were creepy!" Beast Boy piped up.
"But Robin? They are surely sweet?" Starfire said, picked one up and squeezed it.
It was the sound of nightmares.
Robin ran.
When darkness fell, the hero sat curled up next to a chimney, glaring morosely out over the city. His panic had died down, but embarrassment had set in instead. Suddenly a shadow fell over him.
"Well, if it isn't Robin… out here alone… defenseless…" a voice purred.
"Fuck off, Slade."
The villain blinked. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. Robin was supposed to snarl, get to his feet and they would fight.
"Excuse me?" the criminal therefore said, feeling somewhat slighted.
"You heard me. Fuck off."
"Some time under my command will teach you more manners."
"I'm really not in the mood, Slade."
The man now took a step back. What was going on here?
"Not in the mood to fight? So you wouldn't resist?" the man cocked his head to his side in an inquisitive manner.
"Of course I would, should you actually try anything. I won't come with you willingly. On the other hand, I don't have anywhere to go…" the teen muttered the last part, but it was loud enough for Slade's keen hearing to pick up.
"Let me think… you finally snapped and slaughtered your friends?"
"I wish!"
The man chuckled.
"Did they kick you out?"
"No."
"Did you run away?"
"…"
"I see… well, good for you. You are much too talented for hangers-on… "
The teen only snorted.
"No I'm not, I'm touched in the head."
"All the best of us are. Embrace it," Slade smirked, feeling rather good about the fact that a grin flashed across the teen's face as well.
Slade then did something he never thought he would do. He sat down. Not exactly next to Robin, mind you, but a healthy distance away, but he was still opening up for a chat, not a fight. This made even Robin look up and blink behind his mask. After that hesitation, however, the teen relaxed again, even turning towards the man, his back against the chimney now. They had talked before. Sure, they had been taking a walk down into hell at the time, but still…
"What happened?" Slade asked.
"I don't want to tell you."
"Well, you still are."
"You will laugh."
"Probably. I might even go as far as saying that I hope so," the man nodded.
"I hate you."
"No, quite the opposite, but you are just too uptight to realize that, yet."
"Excuse me?"
"Never mind," Slade said, waving the comment away, "that's a completely different conversation. You were saying that you ran away because…?"
"I wasn't saying anything! And I don't think you're hot!"
"Robin, do you know what a 'Freudian slip' is?" the man purred.
"Shut up."
"I will, if you start talking. What happened?"
Robin sighed.
"Well, I'm still gonna kill myself, so whatever…" he muttered.
A few minutes later, Slade found himself almost completely lost for words.
"So you are saying that ducks…?"
"Scare the living crap out of me, yes."
"Lovely mental image. Rubber ducks?"
"Yes."
"Bath toys?"
"Yes."
"Which, when squeezed, tends to go 'squeak'?"
"Yes."
"And you have no idea why?"
"That's what I said, yes."
"When did this start?"
"I don't know! I think I was like… twelve? Thirteen?"
"So back in Gotham… did you have a rubber duck in Gotham?"
"Do you have a rubber-duck, Slade? I'm not mentally retarded!"
"Firstly, you have to agree that the question was valid, secondly I do not believe that the presence of bath toys is an inclination of mental prowess… how you use them, on the other hand…"
"So you do have one?"
"Of course not."
"Thank you. The world feels better now."
"You're welcome. Now, would you like to know why you are scared?"
Robin hesitated, but then nodded.
"Yeah, but… I don't know how. I've really racked my brain about this, and I just don't know! I can't even remember waking up and feeling like this… I mean, there are not that many rubber ducks around, at least there wasn't back then… now they seem to be everywhere!"
"When you point it out, I have to agree… they seem to be in fashion at the moment…" Slade muttered… "You are sure no-one knows about this?"
"I'm sure… well… my team will probably know by now… or suspect… I think they are unpacking a straight-jacket as we speak."
Slade stood up, calmly, as to not spook the teen.
"Come with me."
"Yes, that one will work, Slade…" Robin snorted.
"No arguments."
"Err… Slade? Still not gonna work. I'm not going to fall for yo- that."
"You want help, don't you?"
"…Yes…"
"Then let me help you."
"You don't want to help me! You want to lock me up and hurt my friends! And sure, right now I only have a problem with the locking-up part, but…"
"Well, maybe I shouldn't help you… it's not like I don't know how to defeat you now… and I could always let others know. I think Red X wouldn't mind adding some miniature throwing-ducks to his arsenal…"
"You wouldn't!"
"If you come along, you won't have to find out."
Robin was sitting in a comfortable, if somewhat threadbare, soft chair. It was thirty minutes later and he didn't quite know what to think. He was an idiot, of course, that much was clear… following Slade back to the man's lair… but he had not yet been locked up or attacked at least. Robin had a feeling things would change soon, as he watched the man fire up a computer and hook up several electrodes to it.
"What- what are you going to…?"
"These will measure your brain activity, heart rate and so on. I think the solution to your problem lies in figuring out when and how this phobia manifested. Luckily for you, I have some experience with meditation and hypnosis."
"Oh, no! You're not gonna hypnotize me! You'll have me clucking like a chicken while killing people in no-time!" the Titan said and flew up from the chair. A second later he found himself back in it, dazed and with a slightly sore shoulder.
"Don't be daft. You can never make someone do anything they really don't want to do, while under hypnosis. You can make suggestions, and the vict- patient might find him or herself more open to these ideas… in your case my only aim is to try to help your remember. I'm going to access the Gotham-news database and search for news-clippings concerning Batman and you… This will help us pinpoint the time, maybe even the exact moment, something happened."
"That's… not a bad idea, but you're not going to do it," Robin said and tried to get up again.
"Fine, but this technique requires two people. That means you have to tell someone else. I'm sure Batman could help you… if he can stop laughing long enough…"
"He wouldn't laugh!" Robin snorted, but felt his knees give in as he sank back into the chair again.
"No… it might be worse… he might be embarrassed on your behalf," the man in the metal mask nodded. "Consider you mentally unstable, perhaps. That's so much better. Now, make yourself comfortable…" the man said while sliding his gantlets off.
Robin stared at the big, rough hands that were now exposed, and felt his face heating up.
"Umm… right… so… comfortable?"
"Yes. You need to relax…. and trust me."
"Oh, that will be easy…" the teen muttered. "Hey, what the hell are you doing!"
Slade had touched the side of the hero's head, and started to pull away at his mask.
"I need to put these sensors on certain points, and the corners of your mask are in the way," the man explained.
"I'm only taking my mask off if you are," the teen snorted.
"It doesn't have to come off at all, only the edges need to be lifted."
"Oh, good."
"However… as you offered…"
Robin cried out at the sudden, burning pain across his face as his mask was ripped off.
"SHIT!"
"Oh, get over it. It happened seconds ago," the man smirked as Robin glared up at him after cupping his face for a few moments.
Then Robin realized that he could see the smirk. Slade's mask was gone. All he could do was stare. The man could be a model. A mature model, of course, appearing in ads for fashionable shirts, wooden scents, or cars, or motor oil, or lubrica- Robin's mind shut down as the man caressed the side of his face again, the tips of his fingers just touch-oh. The tape-thing holding the sensor was pressed to his temple. That's what the man was doing. Not anything else. And Robin had been about to tilt his head back, close his eyes and part his lips. Damn, he hated that man.
Two fingers under his chin tilted his head up.
"I wonder if your eyes look that blue because your face is so red…?" the man smirked, and pressed another sensor to the side or the teen's throat.
"Sh- oh! What are you-?"
"I need to attach a few to your chest as well," the man explained, with his hand up under Robin's top. "Your collar is too tight to pull down far enough… Maybe you should take it all off?"
"N-no, it's… okay…" the Titan mumbled. "Ah! Watch it!"
"So sensitive…" the man, who had just brushed one of Robin's nipples, grinned. "There's not much room under here, you know..."
"I… I can do it myself!"
"You wouldn't know where to place them. There. All done… now lean back and relax."
"You better not make me cluck!"
"I'm not going to exactly hypnotize you… think of it as a relaxing memory-exercise," the man suggested. "Now close those pretty blues…"
Robin felt himself get even redder, but did as the man said. At least he didn't have to see that smirk anymore.
Slade talked him through some relaxation-exercises, most of them familiar to Robin, tricks he had been taught by Batman as well and used almost daily to calm down and shut the world out for a bit. The familiarity of it calmed him in itself, and he started to feel himself getting heavier, just as Slade suggested he would. More and more of what Slade suggested started to make sense, and then the man began to talk about things that had happened in the past. He mentioned a high-society triple murder and asked Robin to think back to that time. The teen did, with surprising ease, and then the man asked him about ducks. Robin felt only puzzlement, not fear, and the man moved on. A gang riot a few years later, and this time, when asked how he felt about ducks, Robin's pulse spiked. The man diverted his attention to another memory, this one earlier, and so it went on. Faces, both of those he knew he would never forget, like the Joker and the Penguin, flashed by, but also people he had no idea he remembered.
"Now Robin, this was a strange case… not much written in the papers… you must have just turned thirteen. You and Batman were seen on the roof of a hospital. There was some kind of mass psychosis among the patients… In the photo he's carrying you. Can you remember what happened?"
"N.. no!"
"Yes, you can. What did you have for breakfast that morning?"
"Porridge… ham sandwich."
"Good. Give me a wall-color from inside that building."
"B-blue… with a white stripe."
"Good." Slade continued asking easy, safe questions like that for a while, tricking Robin to relax, before starting to close in on the source of the teen's fear.
"This is before anything happens. Just before. But you are still safe. Where are you?"
"Ch-children's ward."
"And what do you see?"
"Beds… empty… all evacuated… I'm walking down a corridor… quietly… there is someone ahead, I know it… I go into a… a…"
"Remember, you are still safe… nothing has happened yet. Where are you?"
"A… play room. There are toys lying around and… by a vent… Someone's standing there! A man! He has some kind of device… I have to stop him! It's important! Whole city in danger… he has his back to me… I get closer… he's busy… then… then…"
"Tell me."
"I step on something! It squeaks! I look down, it's a silly rubber duck! He's heard me, he turns around, and… and…"
"Focus on his face. What does he look like?"
"He doesn't have one!"
"He wears a mask?"
"Yes! No… It's… he throws something, and I smell it… some kind of gas… I can't see him properly… he's… changing… I… everything is changing… moving… he's… he's talking…"
"What is he saying? Focus on only his words, Robin," Slade insisted.
"B-boys…. boys shouldn't… shouldn't fight criminals, they… they should… play with toys…"
"What happens next?"
"The toys, they… they are coming closer! Growing… they're attacking! The duck! It's huge! I'm... I'm on the floor… can't breathe… it's… it's crushing me! Just… staring… smiling… can't breathe! My… my chest… he- he's running away, but the duck, it's… no! NO! I… can't move! Can't… I... I'm dying! I'm dying! I-"
"Move one week forward. You are at home. In bed. Are you there?"
"Y-yes…"
"Good. You didn't die, then?"
"N-no."
"I want you to go back just a little bit now. Batman or someone else is talking to you. Explaining what happened… do you remember anything like that?"
"Yes… yes, when I woke up. It was… the Scarecrow… he used a… hallucinogen… He could just… suggest what was happening and my imagination did the rest… felt so real…"
"And what did Batman say?"
"That… that it wasn't real. That he understood that I thought it was, but that it wasn't."
"And after that… it was forgotten?"
"Yes."
"But not really, was it? Because whenever you see a duck…"
"I… I can't breathe… I panic… I…"
"Ducks are connected to a primal fear of death in you… no wonder you panic. Robin, I want you to listen to me now."
"Y-yes?"
"Rubber ducks are only toys. They can't hurt you. They are silly and ugly and not worth any of your attention, do you understand?"
"Yes."
"Good. Now, relax for me again. Let you mind drift. Don't think about ducks. They are not important. Think about nicer things… relaxing things… are you feeling good?"
"Yes," Robin smiled a little.
"Relaxed?"
"Yes."
"How about taking your clothes off?"
"Ye… huh?"
"And you're back. Damn, I thought I could make you go along at least a little bit."
"Slade, you bastard!" Robin tried to stand up, but the man held him down in the chair by his arms.
"Think about rubber ducks," Slade ordered.
Robin did, unwillingly. He still thought they looked creepy, but he couldn't sense any of that cold dread he had become familiar with.
"I… I think it worked…"
"You're welcome."
"Yeah… thank you…" Robin said a bit dazed. "Oh, but I still have to kill myself. I can't go back to the Titans after this!"
"I didn't waste an evening just to watch you dive off a building and go splat," Slade snorted. "I guess you are going to owe me for another favor."
Not long afterwards the Titans got an incoming call.
"It's me! Don't worry, I'm okay!" their leader told them.
"Where have you been, man? You just ran out on us!" Cyborg almost yelled. "It's like you went nuts!"
"What do you mean? I have not been home since this morning! I got attacked right after I hid all the Easter-eggs, I just woke up, tied up in some sort of warehouse!" Robin explained.
"What, but-? Oh, we have another incoming call!"
"I've gotta get out of here, I'll be home soon!" Robin said and turned the communicator off. He then hurried to stand behind Slade just as the communicator-link opened to show the Titan's living-room.
"Slade! Wait… Robin?"
"Yes… how did you like my little Robin-bot, Titans?" Slade, again masked, of course, just like Robin, purred. "I have to admit that it malfunctioned… I had planned for it to spend a few hours with you. Don't worry, I borrowed your leader for a while, but I only tied him with rope, so he should be back with you shortly… remember, though, children, that, from now on, you can never be sure who you follow… Isn't that right, Robin?"
"No, Beast Boy, we won't have pizza for dinner again. Hello Starfire, how's Silky? I saw that dent on the T-car, Cy, what happened? Raven, do you have a minute?"
"Dude, he sounds just like him!" the changeling gasped.
"We won't be fooled!" Cyborg snorted.
"No we will not!" Starfire agreed. "Our Robin does not have overly large ears and a voice of a whiney Snarlook!"
Slade almost lost his composure for a moment, and Robin really struggled.
"Well, I will perfect my technology, then. Or maybe I already have? Are you sure all of you are really…. you?"
With that the man terminated the link and Robin spluttered.
"Whiny? Overly large ears? What the hell!"
"There there…" the man chuckled, taking his mask off again. "Hurry home now, little hero, before your friends worry. And Robin? Relax."
Robin suddenly found himself very relaxed indeed.
"Tomorrow night, if everything is quiet and after the others have gone to bed, you will come up to the roof of the Tower. You will be looking forward to it. You can't wait. And you're back, wide awake."
Robin found himself nodding, although he was not sure about what.
"Yeah… I'll… better go back… bye!" he squeaked and ran for it.
"Slade, how dare you!"
It was the next night, and a certain villain was about to get an ear-full.
"Oh, busted, I presume?" the man smirked. His mask was off, and he was dressed in something that looked like black and gray camouflage gear.
"You tried to trick me to come up here! Alone! With you!" the teen hissed.
Slade looked around.
"Seemed like it worked."
"No, it- yes, well… I…but I know what you are doing!"
"I kind of understood that. May I ask how?"
"I recorded the session… I wanted to make sure you didn't do any fishy, and the recording ran until the memory-card ran out of space two hours later," the teen explained with a growl.
"You have trust-issues."
"Rightly so!"
"Oh, Robin, I wasn't going to go any further… remember, I couldn't have made you do anything you didn't want to. Relax."
"Ain't gonna work anymore," Robin smirked and crossed his arms. "I'm aware of the trigger-word, so I'm immune now."
"I actually only meant it as an instruction to relax," the man claimed.
"So you say…" Robin muttered.
"The important part here was that you wanted to come up here and meet me. You were quite happy about it."
Robin blushed. He had been. He had been strangely bouncy happy all morning, like a child waiting for Santa Clause. Cyborg had checked if he was real twice. Thankfully the check had only involved using his heat-scanner.
"Was not…" he muttered.
"Oh, yes you were… you were hoping I'd touch you some more…" the man smirked.
"Absolutely not!"
"You know I'm right. Last night, when I tilted your head back, like this…" Slade said and demonstrated on a speechless teen, "you thought I was going to do this…"
Robin just managed to draw a small gasp of air before the man's lips met his. The kiss was forceful from the start, leaving no room for hesitation or breathing. Robin found himself being pushed back against a wall and then a door opened. It was Slade's doing, and the door led into a storage-space, where they kept the barbecue, the volleyball things, a few basketballs, since they managed to break one almost every time they played, and a large stack of cushions for their outdoor chaise lounges by the poolside. Robin was, at that moment, being pushed down on that pile of cushions.
The kissing was soon accompanied by groping and the loosening of clothes. Robin gave as good as he got but when his vest and tunic were pulled over his head, at the same time, the slight chill in the air brought some sense back to him.
"Slade, we… we… mmm…. can't…"
"Shall we make a bet?" the man smirked in the dark. Only a bit of the security-lights on the roof managed to find its way through the door, which was not entirely closed, but it was not enough to see much more than outlines by.
"I… just don't think…"
"But I do. Or are you saving yourself for your future husband, Robin?" the man chuckled.
"What if I am!" Robin hissed, glad the man couldn't possibly see the blush the followed.
"Then he's going to be disappointed…" Slade let the teen know and kissed him again.
Robin was pretty sure that he could fight his way out of the grip Slade had on him, and easily too. He just had to want it… and right now he wanted the man's lips and hands, just for a bit longer.
"Mm… okay… a… a little bit more then… just a little…" he mumbled.
"Of course, just a little…" the man sounded like a spider suggesting to a fly that it was fun to be just a little caught in his web.
The fly, however, didn't hear the hungry undertone in the spider's voice, and decided that it couldn't hurt to get a bit sticky.
Robin was almost shaking with excitement as he slipped a hand down Slade's trousers. He had never, ever done anything like this before, tough it had been part of his wet dreams for quite some time.
"Oh, hell, do you have a third arm down here…?" the teen muttered as his fingers closed around hot flesh.
"Flatterer…" Slade chuckled. "Keep it up… literary as well, although you won't have any problems with that."
"Hmmm… I'll take that as a compliment…" Robin grinned and yanked the man's trousers down. "I wish I could see better…"
"We could take this out on the roof?" Slade suggested.
"Are you crazy? Someone might spot us!"
Slade made a sound like he didn't really think that was a problem.
"Oh, what the hell…. tuck yourself in and come!" Robin said and crawled out from under the man, got to his feet, and grabbed the man's arm.
"That's not how it should work, but all right…" Slade snorted, curious about the teen's plan. "Where are we going?"
"My bedroom."
"Really? Inside? What happened to that trust-issue?"
"I trust," Robin smirked, "that you are horny enough not to cause any trouble."
"You might be right…" the man grinned.
"Good. I'll do my best to distract you, then…" the teen chuckled and dragged the man inside.
They were very quiet, but didn't even hear a beep from the other Titans. Robin could see Slade's eye darting around, taking in details he might not have known about, but it didn't bother the hero too much. He could always work on the security tomorrow, right now, however… well, he was going to pretend it was his wedding-night, so to speak.
"Aren't you at least going to act as if you are inviting me in to look at a collection?" Slade chuckled as Robin all but pushed him through the teen's bedroom door.
"Errmm… sure! I have a great underwear collection… I'm wearing my best pair… wanna see them?" Robin grinned.
"Of course. I'd like quite a close look if you don't mind…" Slade let him know.
"I couldn't help but notice that you're not a collector yourself…" Robin grinned and pushed his hand down the man's trousers again.
"Just want to keep things handy…" the villain chuckled. "Why don't you satisfy that curiosity of yours?"
"Don't mind if I do…" Robin smiled. He was actually too eager to feel embarrassed. Again Slade's trousers were lowered, but, this time, Robin could see what he had uncovered.
"I hope you know how to handle this thing…" he muttered, "because if you mess things up and kill me, I'm gonna have to be buried in two coffins…"
"Careful driving, I got the message," the man smirked.
"Yeah, but did that?" Robin snorted and gestured to the man's groin.
"It will be nicer if you pet it?" Slade suggested innocently.
"How about if I tell it that if it hurts me, it's gonna lose its two furry little buddies…?" Robin said dryly.
"Then it might not want to play at all," Slade warned him.
"Aw… well, that's no fun…" Robin admitted and grasped the shaft, stroking it slowly. "Is it happier now?"
"Much," the villain claimed, "Although it would like to see a bit more of its playground…"
Robin chuckled and started to remove his tights. Only now did he realize that all the rest of his clothes, including his belt, cape and gloves, had been left in the shed.
"Oh, great, I came down here half naked…" he muttered.
"I think that the fact that you were dragging a man along behind you, towards your room, in the middle of the night, just might have diverted your friend's attention from that fact…" Slade chuckled.
"Oh, yeah… knew you were good for something…"
"You'll find I'm good for other things in a moment…" the man promised.
He wasn't lying, Robin, had to admit, an hour later. The teen was both alive and a very satisfied customer. Sore, yes, but not nearly enough. It was only three in the morning, after all, and they hadn't run out of condoms, so no reasons to stop, as far as Robin was concerned.
He had his head on Slade's hip, and was running his finger up and down the man's half-erect member.
"Is it gonna take much longer?"
"Until you kill me? No, I don't think so," the villain muttered. "If I had known that you were this frisky, I would have taken a nap this afternoon,"
"Old, feeble men like you don't deserve cocks like these…" the teen snickered and stroked the quickly hardening member.
"Well, I better give it to you then…" the man said and sat up. "Roll over."
Robin eagerly did, but he suddenly realized something.
"Oh, damn, this is bad…"
"I have to warn you, I don't take insults well, and you've filled your quota for this year," the man behind him growled.
"No, I meant… If they thought I was a robot today, they are really going to worry tomorrow…" Robin groaned, "'cause by then I'll walk like one…"
The End.
A/N: the official (read: first) reason Robin doesn't like ducks, was simply a vague comment about him slipping on one as a kid… and that still kinda stands, this is just an alternative option that just happened in this drabble… and this doesn't mean Robin is "cured"! Well, he might be in this universe, but the duckies will be back, I'm sure… ;)
And yes, I stole stuff from Paul McKenna, just ripped it off him, I did! He just went "nooo" and cried, but I took it anyway… ;) (I'm talking about the "you're back/wide awake/relax" thing, of course, not his lunch-money).
Hope you enjoyed!
/W