IMPORTANT 2,000 REVIEWER MESSAGE!
It seems people misunderstood me in the last drabble: it wasn't THAT close, as I write this the reviews are at 1,961, so relaaaax… still a bit to go! I've also noticed quite a few anonymous reviews… I don't know if this is to try to get the amount to rise quicker and then try to win, but I BEG you: PLEASE DON'T CHEAT! It's not fair to anyone, and mama duck don't like cheaters… ;) … though I'm a BIT flattered that someone would even think about it… -pffft…- ;)
Anyway, sorry about the delay, here's the story. Yes! Another one! So soon!
A/N: Another drabble as thanks for joining my "mean challenge" on Deviant Art! This one is for Darafeth who wanted a drabble with the prompt "I wish I was a fairy". With that kind of promt I'm afraid I only could come up with crack-situations and this is what stuck…
Warning: VERY silly. Not for the serious-inclined IC / Canon lover.
Freestanding story.
Wings and Kings
"I can't wear this!" Robin complained.
"Seriously! I wish I was a fairy!" Beast Boy whined, his long donkey-ears drooping.
Robin snorted and crossed his arms. White strips of silky gauze-like material made up his outfit which looked like a mix between a toga and a ballerina dress. He wore white tights and dainty little ballerina-like shoes. His hair fell in soft, natural curls over his forehead, no gel allowed, and on top of the locks rested a coronet-like crown of golden leaves. The leaves also adorned his mask, since Robin, of course, couldn't take that off. Oh, and he had wings. Butterfly-like wings which were very beautifully made, but completely failed to be macho.
One might have thought that the heroes had been cursed by, let's say, Mumbo, or perhaps been stuck in a fantasy TV-show by Control Freak, but no. They had volunteered for this, and 'this' was Jump City's first annual Shakespeare festival.
They were wearing costumes based on the characters in "a Midsummer Night's Dream", all thanks to the people who had arranged this festival and invited the Titans as guests of honor. These people, who obviously were Shakespeare fans if not fanatics, had provided the costumes for all of them and decided what characters they were supposed to be. They had been delighted when they realized that they could give Beast Boy the role as Nick Bottom, who, in the play, gets his head turned into a donkey's, because the changeling didn't really need a mask.
Robin, though glad not to have to be an animal, was not particularly happy about his current outfit either. Neither was Raven, who was dressed in a long, flowing dress, similar to Starfire's. The alien, on the other hand, was absolutely delighted and could barely stay on the ground. The girls were Hermia and Helena and Cyborg was apparently Theseus, Duke of Athens. Robin envied the much manlier, if still ancient Greek-inspired, getup he had on.
"Come on, Rob, don't pout, you make one cute fairy, ya know!" the metal teen grinned.
"Oh, go trip on your sandals…" Robin muttered.
"Who are you supposed to be, anyway?" his friend asked.
"Don't know? Random fairy? Maybe one of king Oberon's guys?" Robin shrugged.
One of the fitters next to him coughed.
"Well… traditionally…" the woman started.
"What?" Robin asked, dread filling his stomach.
"Well…. Men-played-the-female-parts-too!"
"No? Nooo! I'm not only a fairy, I'm a girl-fairy!" Robin exclaimed, his team erupting in laughter.
"Well… you're dressed mostly the same….?" the woman stuttered, obviously a bit scared. "And we thought you'd make a great, modern Titania…"
"Wait, that doesn't mean we have to make out, right?" Beast Boy asked nervously, actually remembering some of the play as Robin had made them watch a filmed adaptation the night before.
"We're not acting out the play, we're just going to be on a float," Raven said in the same way someone might have said 'we're not going to be executed, we're just going to be tortured within an inch of our lives'.
"Is there a king Oberon, then?" Robin asked carefully. Maybe if there was a hot guy playing him, he wouldn't mind…
"Not yet, we're still looking…" the costume-woman said. "There, the fitting's done… if you come back tomorrow around nine-"
Suddenly an alarm blared, followed by sirens and a man bursting into the door on one side of the warehouse where they were preparing. The man stopped dead, seeing, not only the Titans, but also a large assortments of other people in strange costumes.
Robin had never seen Slade stunned before.
The sirens came closer however, and the man took off again, crossing the room and disappeared out the other side.
"Titans go!" Robin yelled, his hunting-instinct awakened.
"But we're still in…" Cyborg started, but his leader had already left the building.
Robin didn't focus on anything but the man who had just climbed a fire-escape and disappeared over the edge of a roof. Robin followed hot on his heels. He didn't have his grapple-hook, but he could still jump with the best of them, and the hunt continued until they had left the sirens far behind. When Robin turned a corner, however, the man was suddenly nowhere to be seen. The teen still rushed forward, but then he felt a jolt, and his feet were running in the air.
"This is so sweet that I'm not sure what to do…" a voice purred behind him. Robin tried to twist around only to discover that the man was holding him up by his wings like an overgrown butterfly-torturer. The harness and the wings themselves were incredibly well made even though they looked so flimsy, and Robin was pretty much stuck.
"Let me go!"
"Don't I get a wish? Or is that some other fairy-tale creature?" the man chuckled. "Now tell me what in the world is going on, and, if it's amusing enough, I might just not throw you off the edge of the building."
"I'll tell you… in jail!" Robin yelled and tried to kick off the wall and flip over the man. That didn't work, however, and only made him look more pathetic.
"Oh… you're doing something illegal?" the man asked innocently.
"No, you are!" Robin growled.
"The alarm? The sirens? Not me," the man claimed.
"Really? And why did you run?" Robin asked dryly.
"Oh, I was just at the wrong place at the wrong time."
"Sure you were."
"Let's just say that if Red X runs by asking you to 'hold this'; don't."
"I wouldn't."
"Smart boy."
"Smarter than you, apparently," Robin said smugly.
"Said the one dressed as a fairy. Care to tell me what is going on now, or should I just assume that you have all have gone insane?"
"Fine. Shakespeare festival," Robin muttered, still dangling in the air. It was like the man wasn't even aware that he was holding him anymore. "Tomorrow," he added because of a deep-rooted need to advertise the event.
"Ah. 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', I assume. Now who are you supposed to…" the man suddenly got quiet and Robin felt cold. Slade obviously knew the play… "The crown… don't tell me…"
"I'm just a fairy!"
"You're Titania, aren't you?"
"We didn't pick our roles, okay?" Robin growled.
"I assume, from the donkey-ears he had, that the green one plays Nick Bottom… who is king Oberon?" the man asked curiously.
"Why?"
"Because your character has wild bestiality-like sex with one but is married to the other…" the man smirked. "Who actually sets it all up… Now, who gets to play that wonderful part? Cyborg?"
"No, that part is still open… wanna apply?" Robin snorted.
"Why, yes, my darling bride… and I will even supply a Puck…" the man chuckled.
"Huh? Who?" Robin, who couldn't really grasp it all yet, asked.
"Oh, someone who owes me…" the man said and finally let the teen down.
"But you can't-" Robin started as he spun around. Slade was gone. "I'll have you arrested!" the teen yelled.
Somehow Robin didn't call the cops, however. He had rushed back to his friends and told them the whole story, well, a bit edited, because the way Slade had called him 'his darling bride' was just a bit too weird.
"Slade as a fairy? I gotta see this!" Beast Boy had exclaimed.
"Yeah, man, blackmail material to last a lifetime!" Cyborg had laughed.
"It is wonderful, is it not, that he wishes to assist?" Starfire had smiled.
"Slade is dangerous," Raven had growled.
"Exactly!" Robin had agreed.
"He's unpredictable," The magic-user had continued.
"Yes," Robin nodded.
"He's evil,"
"Yes."
"Manipulative."
"Right."
"Jump City's greatest threat."
"Absolutely."
"And I want to see him in costume too."
"Yes- wait, what?"
And so it had been decided, four against one, that, although they would be on high alert, the plan was to hang back and see if Slade would even show up, before deciding what to do.
The next morning, while gathering around the floats, someone was not happy. But it wasn't Robin. Obviously the teen hero wasn't over the moon, but the other young man, who was poking him in the chest at the moment, was actually more pissed off.
"This is all your fault, kid!" he growled. Robin had recognized the saunter and the way the other one spoke immediately.
"Red X?"
"Yeah!" The teen was wearing an elaborate half-mask made of leaves and looked more or less like a Peter Pan who had rolled around on the forest floor in sticky clothes. But in a good way. "I ask the guy for one little favor and suddenly I'm dragged up at freaking dawn, to… oh, hello, ladies…"
The thief was suddenly distracted by Starfire and Raven, and then he was their problem. Robin's problem had just appeared behind him.
"Good morning my queen."
The teen spun around and then gaped with the rest of the Titans.
Slade was dressed in the same Greek-inspired style as Robin, but in much longer robes. There were leaves and flowers adorning the outfit, and the man had a bigger golden-leaf crown on his head than Robin had, although they obviously matched.
"That's no fair, he doesn't have wings!" Beast Boy complained.
"The straps were too short for my chest…" the man smirked, and now Robin realized that he wasn't wearing his mask either, but a half-mask like Red X, although Slade's was golden like his crown.
"Hey, white hair? Have we been fighting an old guy?" Cyborg gaped.
"Someone wants to be strangled by his friend's ears…" Slade growled.
Robin had noted the white hair as well, and the short, neat beard. It was strange to picture the man grooming… on the other hand it was strange to picture him in Caligae-type sandals as well, and that's what he was wearing, so…
Suddenly someone blew a whistle.
"Everyone to their floats!" a man, who Robin recognized as the director of the torture-session-disguised-as-a-parade, yelled.
Robin and Slade were shown to two elaborate thrones standing on what had been made to look like a green hill. Their 'court' was spread out around them and Red X was given a pouch of glitter which was to represent the 'love potion' in the story. The thief immediately tried it out on both Raven and Starfire with varying results from a glare to a giggle. Then Robin and Slade also got a dose, although the man only smirked.
"We don't need any, do we, my love?"
"Get stuffed," his love snarled.
"Ah, in character already?" the man chuckled.
"What?"
"Well, as the play starts, the king and queen are having a fight about a pretty young page they both want… I always wondered what Oberon had planned to do with the young man…. Well, not to worry, I promise that my attention is all yours…"
"Lucky me…" Robin muttered.
"I'm glad you think so," Slade leered, making Robin sigh.
The teen had hoped that they would set off soon so it all could be over, but no. There were still hours of last minute changes, rehearsals and instructions, before the warehouse doors opened and the floats slowly started rolling, accompanied by musicians and acrobats. Oh, Robin envied the acrobats…
He and Slade had been ordered to hold hands and wave at the audience, and soon it because apparent that they were very popular.
"I would just like you to know that we're ready for anything you have planned…" Robin muttered out of the corner of his mouth, while trying to smile and nod happily.
"Planned?"
"Yes, what is it? Explosives? Slade-bots waiting around the corner? Are you going to kidnap the mayor?"
"You make me sound like such a bad man… and here I just wanted to spend time with you…" the man leered and leaned back in his throne like he belonged there.
Robin couldn't lean back, thanks to the wings, and was rather uncomfortable. Slade noticed this and, with a tug and some brute strength, the hero was suddenly sitting across his lap, something that made the people on the streets go wild and the director mutter about 'damn attention-seeking amateurs'.
"Better?" Slade asked.
"I can't crush your nose in front of the children, but if we had been alone…"
"Oh, if we had been alone, we would have done this naked…" Slade whispered in his ear, making Robin blush, something not lost on their avid fans. Someone started chanting 'Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!' and it was soon picked up by the whole crowd.
"Where are the homophobes when you need them!" Robin complained.
"I'm afraid we have no choice, or we will have a riot on our hands," the mercenary said with an innocence that was completely ruined by his smug smile.
"Fine!"
"Really?"
"Yes. I've already seen you in sandals, sexy toes there, by the way, so why not take all my respect for you away and mmmppphhh!" Robin had thought that he was really on a roll, but Slade had apparently only noted the agreement and then went with it.
The roar of the crowd was drowned by the roar in Robin's ears. In Slade's lap he was taller than the man, but, as he found out, he could forget about control.
Robin was the one who introduced tongue, though.
The kiss, or series of kisses, just didn't seem to want to end and Robin didn't even notice when it suddenly became much darker. Then several people started clearing their throats around them and the teen looked up. They were back in the warehouse, the parade over.
"Wow! This stuff really works," Red X grinned and poured a little bit more glitter over the female Titans hoping for the best.
"Way to fight crime, bro!" Cyborg laughed.
"Oh, don't mind them. Now, I'll suggest that we…" Slade continued whispering in his ear, Robin's face growing pinker and his eyes wider for every word.
Robin sat up in bed with a gasp.
"God… that was a weird dream…" he muttered. Then he noticed the glitter falling from his hair.
"What was?" a deep voice asked next to him. The teen only now saw that this wasn't his bedroom.
"I… think I need to lie down…" he said faintly.
Slade agreed that that was a very good idea indeed.
The End
A/N: I took a few liberties with the play… the "love potion", for example, is really smeared on a sleeping person's eyes (they then fall in love with the first person they see as they wake) but I couldn't very well have Red go smearing stuff in people's eyes, so… So if you are a Shakespeare-purist: don't even bother whining… ;)
Also, as I said, I know it was a silly drabble, but I hope it was at least entertaining! I'm on vacation, I don't wanna try for deep and serious! ;)