A/N: Happy B-day LurkingAustralian (January 13'Th)!

Today we have a bit of an adventure-story! Some parts are a little murky, but they have to be in an adventure, right? Canon universe (but set after the TT cartoon ended), and I've tried to only make the characters as OOC as they have to be… ;)

It's Your Lucky Day

Robin woke up and was immediately wide awake as he saw the time. He swore and jumped out of bed; he must have forgotten to set the alarm the night before because it was already eight in the morning, and now he wouldn't have time for his usual gym-session before breakfast. He muttered as he entered the shower and almost slipped on a few drops of shampoo. The day hadn't started that well at all.

When he came out into the kitchen he was met by the sight of two gloomy team members; Raven and Beast Boy.

"Morning…" Robin muttered on the way to the coffee-machine.

"Morning," Beast Boy mumbled, looking miserable on the other side of the table, while Raven only held up a piece of paper.

'Good Morning' Robin read on it, and the dark-haired teen raised an eyebrow.

"That was a little too quiet even for you, Rae…" he grinned.

The empath turned the paper over.

'My cold is worse. Lost my voice.'

"Ah, I see… well, you take it easy, then, drink lots of tea and stuff…" Robin said, giving her a sympathetic look. "So, BB, up for some patrolling?"

"Sorry, dude, not with this thing…" the younger teen mumbled and pointed down towards the floor. Robin arched his neck to look over the table and gasped.

"You broke your leg?"

"Yeah, just this morning… I was taking a catnap on the sofa, you know, as a cat? And I was gonna jump down, and I changed mid-air and a claw got stuck in the seat, and… I have no idea, but it hurt. Rae helped with the cast, though, so it's alright…"

'Only a crack.' Raven wrote on the paper.

"You can't heal it? Oh… no, of course not… your voice… sorry…" Robin apologized. "So where is Cy and Star, then? Sleeping in too? My alarm didn't go off…"

"Cy's recharging… there was some malfunction so he hadn't charged at all tonight, so he'll be out for like six more hours or so…" Beast Boy shrugged, looking, if possible, even more miserable. "And here I am ready for the longest 'Ninja Monkeys from Space 4'-tournament in like forever!"

"How about Star then?" Robin asked and now both Raven and Beast Boy looked rather amused.

"Well… you know when we had pizza last night?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, she wanted a regular one, remember? No mustard, no custard, no heaps of anchovies drenched in chocolate sauce?"

"Yeah, I know… she was being adventurous and going for a cheese and tomato, right?" Robin grinned. So what?"

"Turns out it didn't agree with her. She's been mostly in the bathroom since midnight…"

"Oh, poor Star!" Robin exclaimed but he couldn't help a little amused chuckle of his own. "Guess I'm on my own then? Or maybe I'll take the day off-"

'You should go into town' Raven wrote quickly.

"Yeah? Why?"

"Well, we'll be getting all these reposts all morning… nothing big, nothing that requires our help, or anything, mostly alarms going off for no reason, little fender-benders… stuff like that… but there's a lot of it… it's weird…"

"I'll take a look then…" Robin sighed and stood up. "I'm just gonna get some cereal-"

'Out of cereal, milk gone bad." Raven wrote.

Robin sighed again.

"I'll grab something in town then… call me if you need me and stand by the com-system, alright? That means you BB, I don't want to find you with your earplugs shoved so deep in your ears that you can't hear if someone's calling."

"Yes, Sir!" Beast Boy grinned and made a mock salute. "Hey… if you're out and everyone else pretty much down… does that mean I'm in charge?"

Raven picked up her pen again.

'Hurry back!'

Robin whistled in the elevator down to the garage. It was a shame that his team was out of action, of course, but at least he would be able to take his bike instead of the T-car. At least that's what he had planned. Unfortunately it didn't start.

Taking the car was impossible, since Cyborg was the only one allowed to touch her wheel, according to the half teen-half machine himself, and so Robin only had one choice: walk.

A little over half way into the tunnel he had to adjust his mask. He must have grabbed an old one by mistake that morning, he guessed, because the glue wasn't the best. Still, he had some in his belt so he would fix it, he decided, as soon as he was out in daylight again.

Once in the city he immediately noticed that, yes, things were… strange. He had never heard so many car-alarms, seen so many shouting people or such general disorder in Jump City before. He took to the roofs to get a better view of the situation.

The third building he swung over to was nearly his last. The jump cord suddenly snapped and hadn't it been for the hand coming out of nowhere and catching his wrist, Robin might have ended up very flat.

"Out flying for read, little bird?" the voice belonging to the same body as the hand, said.

"Sla- Wait… what? Slade?" Robin gaped. "What happened to you?"

"What didn't?" the man muttered dryly. "And you? Getting tired of the secret identity-thing, Dick?"

"Huh? What? SHIT!" Robin had just discovered that his mask was half way down his face again.

"Eloquent."

"Shut up."

"Equally eloquent."

"You should talk, by the way…" Robin muttered as hastily pulled out the small tube of special glue and tried to open it. "Damn, what the… it's stuck…?"

"Want to borrow some tape?" Slade asked, sounding amused.

"It doesn't seem to help you much," Robin pointed out and finally got the tube open by accidently ripping the top open. "Oh, this is just great…"

"Yes, it's nice to just chat once in a while…" his enemy supplied airily.

"Just a moment, and I'll be ready to kick your ass," Robin promised a bit distractedly as he reapplied the glue from where it had smeared over his glove. "There. Done. Now, where- wait, you know my name? And you saved me?"

"Guilty on both accounts, I'm afraid," the man shrugged.

"Why?"

"I discovered the truth and I remembered it?"

"I don't mean my name, but the saving!" Robin clarified. "You don't do stuff like that!"

"Did it before, didn't I?"

"Yes, but that was your droid…" the teen sounded a bit unsure.

"Oh, yes, I forgot, it developed a will on its own and decided it liked you," the man snorted.

"Oh, soooo…" the hero smirked, crossing his arms, "does that mean you like me, Slade?"

"How about we change the subject?" the man asked smoothly.

"Yes, why not? Aren't you slightly ashamed to be out looking like that?" Robin asked.

"I didn't go out looking like this. Things happened," Slade growled.

The truth was that the man was a mess. His mask was cracked in several places, barely hanging together, and there actually was a piece of tape across the largest crack. Also, the cloth on the whole right side of his chest seemed to have been burned away, without, Robin noticed with some interest, not seeming to have hurt the skin. The skin, in fact, looked very nice indeed.

"Are you going to stop staring any time soon?" his enemy asked dryly, but a bit amusedly.

"Just checking for injuries… you know… good to know in a fight," Robin coughed and looked away.

"I don't think fighting each other at the moment would be the best thing to do," Slade said gravely.

"No? So what do we do? Play cards?"

"How about a bit of a truce. You must have noticed yourself that something strange is going on here… I want to find out what, and I'd rather not waste time spanking your ass first."

"My ass? In your dreams…" Robin scoffed.

"Yes, frequently."

"What?"

"What?" Slade echoed.

Robin glared suspiciously at the man and then sighed.

"Sure… something strange is going on, but why do you care? Since when did you discover your humanitarian side?"

"I didn't. But, as you can see, it happens to me too… otherwise I'd just enjoy the show," Slade shrugged. "Besides, it's my city too."

"Ha! Well, let's argue about that one later… now… I just got here, so… any ideas? Spotted anything suspicious?"

At that moment a teen girl came running out of the park, screaming her head off.

"Does that one count?" Slade asked.

"I have a feeling it doe-"

More than that Robin didn't have time to say. The girl far below them had almost reached the road when an engine misfired and scared up a flock of pigeons. One of them flew almost straight into the girl's face, and she veered of course, tripped, and fell right into the street where an oncoming buss didn't have time to stop. The sound reached all the way up to the odd couple on the roof.

"… oh, god…" Robin whispered.

"Not something you see every day."

"We have to see if she's alright!" the teen decided.

"You know what a buss weighs, don't you?" the man asked dryly. "She's dead. Doesn't mean we can't find out why she was screaming, though. Might lead us somewhere."

"Alright… let's go down there and… oh."

"I think someone needs a lift?"

Robin cursed himself for not having an extra grapple hook and cord, but had to admit that he needed help, it would be quicker than trying to find an fire escape, anyway.

"Fine, let's go…"

"Just a moment," the man said and removed his cracked mask. "this is just falling apart…"

"Ummm… yeah," Robin, who was in too much of a shock to say anything else, mumbled.

Slade didn't stop there, however, but removed all his upper-body armor, just to be able to pull his half-burned top over his head. He then re-attached his neck-plate, arm-guards and gauntlets, and straightened up, letting the rest of his armor be.

"There."

Robin, however, was not quite done staring. He would have never guessed that the man would have white hair, but his face, on the other hand, kinda matched… both his voce and his body. Especially his body, because they were both-

"Robin?"

"Huh? Oh… ehh… right… so… you're going to walk around like that?"

"I'm not a woman," Slade snorted. "I doubt that me being 'topless' will somehow raise the indecency level in this city."

Sure about that? Robin's libido asked.

"Um… kay, so… go?"

"Hold on."

Robin gasped as Slade pulled him close and made him hold on to his neck. They landed on the sidewalk just a moment later, Slade having used what handholds he could find on the way down to break the speed of their fall just enough so his ankles wouldn't break on impact. Robin's would, though, the teen was sure, if Slade's left arm hadn't been holding him so tight.

The teen felt slightly dizzy, but he tried to tell himself that it was from the fall and not for being unnaturally close to Slade. 'Unnaturally' because they weren't fighting, this was, after all, their natural state. Not that Robin hadn't fantasized about them doing some things, that didn't include fighting, from time to time. Although those things tended to look a bit like wrestling, to be fair…

"Are you going to let go of me soon?"

"Huh?" Robin blinked and looked up into the man's smirking face.

"We're on the ground… have been for several seconds, actually," Slade pointed out.

"Yeah, right, I… sorry… I- Oh. Oops."

"Oops?"

"I'm… stuck…on you…"

"I've noticed, but you mean literally, I assume?"

"Yeah... I mean, yes! Of course! What else would it- It's the mask-glue on my gloves…"

"So? That's not very strong, just pull free."

"I think some of it got in your hair…" Robin mumbled, shifting his hands behind the man's neck.

"It won't kill me to- OW!"

"It didn't kill you, though…" Robin, now free, grinned, a few white hairs stuck to his green gloves.

"Not me, no…" the man muttered.

The teen smirked and pulled off the gloves, cramming them in an empty belt-pocket. He didn't want to risk getting stuck to anything else.

Robin's good mood dissipated as soon as he turned around and spotted the bus, surrounded by shocked, yelling people. He could hear the ambulance in the distance and hurried over, seeing if there was anything he could do.

There wasn't. The only part of the girl that was visible from under the bus was her arm, and it was pretty clear that she was dead. Slade had already moved towards the place in the park where the young teen had come from and Robin wanted to catch up with him, so he didn't stay. He did notice a tattoo on the victim's hand, though, in black, running up a bit towards her elbow. It was a black pattern of symbols more than a design, but what those symbols meant Robin didn't know.

He left the scene of the accident and ran after Slade who was waiting for him by the tree-line.

"Fancy a walk in the park?" the man smirked.

"Didn't seem like she did… I wonder what freaked her out?"

"Could be nothing," Slade shrugged as they carefully entered the shades under the trees, their eyes searching for clues as to where the girl had come from. "She might have seen a spider."

"I don't think so… and I don't think whatever she saw is very far… she couldn't have run too long screaming like that… didn't seem the type."

"Sheer terror might add a bit to the stamina, but yes… I agree," the man nodded. "Good observation."

"You don't have to tell me, you're not my Master, remember?" Robin snorted.

"Then you won't get a gold star," the mercenary shrugged.

"Like I ever got one from you!" the teen scoffed.

"Well, I guess you were too busy pouting about your friends to make any good observations back then, hmm?" Slade said innocently.

Robin snorted again, but only to keep himself from chuckling. The apprentice-thing had happened a few years ago, and the man had made some things right by helping them defeat Trigon, even though he had kept a low profile during the Brotherhood of Evil-ordeal. When Robin had asked why he had made himself scarce back then, the man had claimed that he didn't want to 'get in the way', which, Robin understood, meant that he preferred to sit back and watch. At least he hadn't joined the Brotherhood, and that gave him a point or two in the teen's book. Weak ones, though, and only drawn in pencil… The man was a bastard in general, and a dangerous one, which Robin tried very hard to remember at the moment, as he now had to add 'handsome and sexy as hell' to the man's description.

Slade's hand was suddenly on his chest, and it took a few heart-thumping moments before Robin understood that the touch was meant to stop him in his tracks and nothing else. Robin looked over at the man, who in turn was looking at something up ahead. The teen followed his line of sight, but a bush blocked the way.

"What-?" he whispered.

"We have another one."

"Another what?" Robin asked in a normal tone of voice as Slade hadn't kept his down, and simply walked around the still outstretched hand. "Oh no…"

On the path in front of them lay another teenage girl, equally dead.

"I think she tripped and impaled herself on the branch," Slade said. "Looks like an accident; it's still attached to the ground, so an attack is unlikely…"

She had fallen on a sapling which had, at some point, been broken off, leaving a rather sharp tip.

Robin, however, was still staring at the body, or rather, at her hand.

"The same tattoo…" he mumbled. "Although…" he crouched down and took a closer look. "It's not real; it's just done with a black marker or something…"

"Do you think the symbols are relevant?" Slade asked.

"Two dead girls, same symbols, yeah... I say they are. Do you recognize any of them?"

"A few," Slade nodded. "But they are just your standard, main stream, magical symbols… and they seem to be taken completely out of context…"

"Yes, the pentacle and an ankh… and that's a Chai-symbol…" the hero mumbled.

"Looks like they picked whatever they wanted… typical wannabe witch-girls," the man snorted.

"Yeah… but I don't know what these two means" the teen said and pointed to two large designs.

"Me neither," Slade had to admit.

"I think we need the help of the real thing…" Robin said and flicked open his communicator. He call was answered almost at once, the green face of his team mate filling the screen.

"BB here, what's u- THERE'S A LARGE SCARY HALF NAKED MAN BEHIND YOU!"

"I know, that's Slade," Robin said, "What I wanted to ask was-

"SLADE?"

"Yes, could you get-"

"HAS HE KIDNAPPED YOU? WHY IS HE NAKED? OH GOD, HE'S NOT RAPING YOU, IS HE?"

"Yes, that's what's going on… I just called to share the experience…" Robin said dryly, while Slade chuckled. "BB, get Raven for me, will you? Get her to bring a note-pad."

"You're sure you're not getting raped?"

"Yeeeees, pretty much," the black-haired teen said, seemingly thinking about it.

"Okay then… back in a moment…"

"Hurry up, squirt, because if I get bored you've just given me a pretty good idea about what to do while I wait…" Slade growled, making the changeling eep and run.

Robin sighed and shook his head, at both Beast Boy and Slade.

"That boy must have some kind of disorder, surely?" Slade snorted.

"There's not enough letters in the alphabet…" Robin smirked.

A moment later Raven appeared on the screen, her eyes widening.

"No raping is going on, whatever BB has told you," Robin hurriedly said. "It's more serious than that. Two dead girls, early teens, with the same symbols drawn on their hands. Do you recognize this one?" he asked and turned the communicator, focusing on the first of the two unknown drawings. He let Raven take a good look and when he turned the communicator back, the young woman was writing on her pad. She held it up for Beast Boy to read.

"It's a symbol for… protecting chickens?"

Raven nodded.

"Chickens?" Robin glanced as Slade who looked equally nonplussed. "Alright… glad the chickens are safe… what about this one?"

The other symbol gave the magic-user a bit of a start and she began to write furiously.

"Looks like we might be on to something here…" Slade said.

"Duh! I knew Raven would come through… not so 'worthless little friends' now, are they?"

"Oh, I always liked Raven," Slade claimed with a leer.

Robin noticed the girl blush as she bent deeper over the paper and felt an unexpected spike of jealousy.

"Oh, don't look like that, Robin," the man purred. "She's not the one I wanted to keep, is she?"

"Just… shut up…" the teen mumbled, feeling his own cheeks heat up.

"Okay, here it is…" Beast Boy started to read. "Oh… damn…"

"Just read!" Robin snapped impatiently.

"It's the symbol of this… bad luck demon." the changeling continued, as Raven nodded.

"There is such a thing?"

"Yeah, but he's supposed to be tricky to con…coju… I can't read this part…?"

"Conjure, I get it," Robin said. "So two girls with pencil-tattoos did it? How?"

"Raven seems to think the symbol was a fluke," Beast Boy shrugged.

"So they met, what…? This morning? And happened to call forth a demon?" Slade said, playing the part of the disbeliever perfectly.

"Last night, Raven says," Beast Boy let them know. "Thursdays are supposed to be a special night for witch- hey, give that back, I was reading!" the changeling complained as Raven had snatched the pad from him and was writing again.

"She's writing that it's Friday today…" he started and Robin gasped.

"It's Friday the thirteenth!"

"Yeah, it must have helped with the conjure-thingy…" Beast Boy confirmed.

"What does it look like, how can I find it and how do I kick its ass?" his leader wanted to know.

"She doesn't know, the book had like no info," Best Boy answered, looking over Raven's shoulder as she wrote. "Only on the conjuring stuff."

"Okay, I want you guys to find out as much as you can about this thing so we can find it… it's apparently affecting the whole city, at least, and we need to stop it… Give Star a few books too, she can read where she is…" Robin added.

"Raven says that they can't have done it alone, there had to be at least five of them," Beast Boy informed them.

"Oh, great, a dead girl treasure hunt… just what I wanted to do today," Slade said dryly.

"I don't see why you can't just go ahead and do whatever you had planned," Robin shrugged. "Let the good guys handle it… we'll save you, I promise."

"Yes, and how will your friends really help? Making the demon open the door to the bathroom of doom? Or are you going to send him notes?" the man snorted. "I think it's time for the bad guys to save the day for once."

"Oh, really?" The sarcasm was positively dripping from Robin's voice. "And how are you going to manage that?"

"Brilliantly, of course," the man smirked, "And we bad boys know the secret to saving people's asses too."

"And what's that?" Robin wanted to know, his voice still soggy from sarcasm.

"We…" Slade said and got really close to him in an 'are you going kiss me or kill me'-way. "…make sure it will be worth our while… if you get my point…"

"Oh, I get it…" Robin snorted.

"No, not yet… but you want it… Don't worry, though, it's yours as soon as the demon is dead."

"Yeah, you can't get it up before then, can you?" Robin smirked.

"Ehhh… guys?" Beast Boy interrupted. "I don't know what Slade's point is or why it needs to be up and stuff, but this bad luck person is still out there…"

"Right," Robin said and straightened up. "Get on it, and call u- me if you find anything."

"Will do, fearless leader!" Beast Boy grinned and hung up.

"Come on, then, if you are going to tag along…" Robin said to the mercenary. "Let's see if we're in time to save the others."

They weren't. Not very far from the second dead girl they found the remains of a fire, and three more bodies.

"Looks like they had quite the party," Slade noted, looking at a few empty bottles of red wine. "And more than alcohol too," Robin said disdainfully and indicated the remains of a joint on the ground.

"Still, it doesn't look like the demon suddenly appeared and killed them…" Slade said.

"No, and why would that girl run out of the woods now, hours later? I know drugs makes you slow, but this slow?"

"My guess is that they never saw the demon and that the girls we found first fell asleep, woke up to this sight, panicked, ran, and died."

"I think it's time for your gold star…" Robin said thoughtfully. "This one looked like she choked on something… a marshmallow? Witches bring marshmallows to coven meetings?"

"Fake one's do, it seems…" Slade scoffed. "Her friends were probably too high or wasted to even noticed she needed help… or maybe this one did and fell into the fire, hit her head on the surrounding stones and got it barbecued."

"This one put her hand down an underground wasp-nest and she must have been allergic…" Robin shivered, backing away from the place from where he could hear a bit of angry buzzing even now.

"Soo… nothing to do here," Slade said, looking bored. "Where is this demon, anyway?"

"What if it's invisible?" Robin blinked. "Or maybe it doesn't have a body, I mean, the whole city is exposed… maybe it's in the very air, somehow?"

"No, it's not," Slade snorted.

"How can you be sure?"

"Because I can't fight it if it is… and that's not fair."

"Hah!" Robin snorted. "Welcome to being a hero."

They searched the park together without seeing a trace of the demon, only its deeds. People were nursing scrapes or getting out from involuntary dips in the pond and such things.

"How come some people stub their toes and the girls gets killed?" Robin asked.

"Can it be a proximity-factor?" Slade suggested.

"So… when that girl got hit by the bus… he… or it… was close?"

"Yes… or someone across town was hit by lightening, a meteorite and a falling piano at the same time," Slade shrugged. "We can't know for sure if just the so called witches are the only victims."

Robin got his communicator out again.

"Hi Rob, no luck yet," Beast Boy answered. "Sorry."

"Keep looking, but for now, check the emergency alerts. I need to know of any fatal or near fatal accidents across town, right now!"

"Checking… girl hit by bus not long ago…"

"Yeah, we got that one, anything after that?"

"Yeah, old guy hit by a falling flowerpot not long after, on the same road, and then two women were strangled to death by the leashes of each other's dogs a little further down the road… oh, a call is just coming in, north side of the park, guy biking into a window-pane carried by some workers…"

"It's not far, we're on our way!" Robin said. "It seems it keeps following the edge of the park north, probably keeping just inside the tree-line… call us if it changes course!"

"Will do... maybe… wear a helmet, or something?" Beast Boy said, sounding worried.

Robin didn't have time for worry, however; he had a demon to catch.

If the teen had wondered if he would realize that he was looking at a demon or not, he didn't have to be.

"There it is…" he whispered, as he saw the black shadow gliding slowly among the trees.

"There she is," Slade pointed out. "I knew it. Women always mean trouble…"

"You sound like you know what you're talking about, so for once I'm not gonna argue..." Robin grinned. "So… what do we do now?"

"Attack," Slade said and started running. He came five steps before he tripped on a root and fell flat on his face.

"Or not?" Robin suggested, trying to keep from cracking up as the man got to his feet and dusted himself off. "Not that I don't enjoy seeing you face down in the dirt, but the closer we get, aren't we more likely to swallow our tongues and die?"

Slade muttered about who would enjoy seeming who face down, but then sighed and nodded.

"Probably," he reluctantly admitted.

"So…?"

"The trees are ending a bit up ahead, and it needs to cross that lawn out in the open unless it is going to head back or can walk on water," the mercenary pointed out. "Right now we can barely see more than a shadow, maybe if we get a better look at the lady…"

"I thought it was Lady Luck, not Lady Unlucky…" Robin muttered.

"Maybe Lady Luck has a sister…?" Slade suggested.

"Hmmm… yeah, Starfire would vote for that theory…" Robin admitted.

"Besides, women used to be considered unlucky on ships."

"They did? How?"

"I don't know… maybe they kept the sailors from looking out for reefs," Slade shrugged.

At that moment the communicator beeped.

"We found something!" Beast Boy exclaimed excitedly.

"Great, because we found the demon. How do we stop her?"

"It's a girl? Well, anyway, we don't know how, but we know that it can be killed with brute force but, once you do, you need to have a mirror."

"Mirror?"

"Yeah, when it's dead it will escape unless you press a mirror to its body and then it will be trapped in it! You know it's bad luck to break one, right? That's why! You might release a trapped bad-luck demon!"

"Okay, but nothing on killing her? Apart from having Slade trip on her?"

"No, sorry, we'll keep looking."

"Do that… Robin out."

They followed the thing for a little while longer until it stopped, hesitated, and then stepped into the light.

"Oh, fuck…" Robin gasped.

"Not quite yet," Slade breathed. "That's one ugly cat."

"A black cat… of course…" Robin almost slapped his face, but was afraid he could poke his own eye out. The creature looked like a horrific version of the goddess Bastet; a human female body with a cat's head, but both the body and the head were covered in horrendous scars, the nails were several inches long and looked sharp as blades and the face… no normal cat had that many teeth, and not that long either. The mouth itself looked slitted up the sides, reminding Robin of the Joker, leaving an eternal, evil grin. The creature's skin was covered in black fur from its ears to its neck and then it gave away to pale, gray skin. It was clothed in a dress of sorts, of a thin, black material that seemed to turn to smoke around its feet. All in all, it wasn't something Robin wanted to pet.

"How do we get a mirror?" the teen wondered, looking around. The demon was moving so slowly that there was little risk of losing sight of her. An entity like that didn't have to move quickly, after all, as nothing could touch it.

"That's easy: rob a woman," Slade said, looking around as well. There were a few targets in the distance.

"Huh?"

"Purses. They usually contain make up. Some makeup containers have mirrors," Slade spelled it out for him.

"Alright… I'll go ask for a mirror, keep an eye on the cat," Robin ordered and hurried away as quickly as he dared.

Five minutes later he had been slapped, yelled at and almost kicked in the groin. People were just not in a generous spirit today. In the end he spotted an abandoned purse, however, seemingly forgotten on a bench, and went through it. He grinned when he found what he was looking for. Apparently the demon couldn't make all things go to hell.

"Got it!" he hissed as he rejoined Slade.

"Gold star. Now… how does one fight bad luck…?" Slade asked the world in general.

Robin thought about it, frowning at the ground. Then he spotted something and grinned.

"With good luck!" he said, bending down to pick something up.

"Is this the time to be picking flowers?" Slade asked dryly.

"It's not a flower, look! A four-leaf clover!"

"Ah… might work…"

"I'm going to try it out!" Robin grinned and rushed at the demon, Slade's word or warning ringing unheeded in his ears.

Up until now the creature had taken no notice of them, but as Robin ran towards it without tripping or accidentally strangling himself with his belt, it turned, an almost surprised look on it's face. The surprise turned to anger, however, when the teen attacked.

Even though the demon was now 'touchable' it turned out that it was still a deadly opponent. Those claws weren't for show. Robin got a few good hits in before he was flung away, landing at Slade's feet.

"Give me the clover," Slade snorted and the teen handed the lucky charm to him, glad for the respite.

The mercenary quickly closed in on the demon but then, promptly, stumbled.

"Slade! Wait! I just remembered-" Robin yelled just as the man was hit as well. "…it only works for the finder…" he finished. "Give it back to me," the hero hissed as he hurried to the man's side just as he was getting back up.

"Dropped it."

"You dropped it?"

"Unlucky. huh?" Slade growled.

"Let's find more!"

"Aren't you supposed to find them by accident for them to work best?" the man asked innocently.

"Fuck!"

"You and your one-track mind… any more charms that might be lying around?"

"I don't know… horse shoes?"

"Yes, good luck finding those… if I saw a rabbit, I might be able to rip its paws off…"

"Eww, Slade!" Robin exclaimed.

"What? If it was the city or the rabbit? I'd kill it first, of course!"

"Still, quite a lack of rabbits around, and that thing's getting closer…" Robin warned.

"Oh, I have an idea…" the man leered. "Something that would work for both of us, I hope…"

"What?"

"A good-luck kiss."

"A… oh… I… yes… I…" Robin stuttered.

"Sorry, no time to waste," the man said and tilted the teen's face up. "Time to get lucky."

Robin felt his whole body tingle as their lips met, almost like a wave of electricity moved through it. He opened his mouth a little, deepening it, temporarily forgetting all about slowly enclosing cat-monsters.

"There…" Slade breathed as they parted. "Feeling lucky?"

"Yeah…" Robin grinned back.

They attacked in unison and, this time, their luck held. The creature reared back from their slightest touch. It was Slade who finally snapped her neck, but Robin was right there, pressing the mirror against her body, watching in awe as it was sucked into it.

He then carefully put the mirror in his belt and called his friends.

"Raven here…" a croaking voice answered.

"Rae, you can talk!" Robin exclaimed.

"Since a few moments ago…" the empath nodded. "It's better, at least."

"All's well at this end too. The demon is in the mirror," the Titan's leader reported.

"Are you heading home?" Raven asked.

"Not quite yet…" Slade said, snatching the communicator out of Robin's hand. "We have a few scratches to tend to and a few itches to scratch… He'll be back when I feel completely… reimbursed…"

Robin just watched the man snap his communicator shut, and then raised an eyebrow.

"Well…?"

"Well, what?" Slade asked.

"I'm not going to 'reimburse' you out here if you thought so…" Robin smirked. "Which way?"

They were soon in a small apartment where they took turns using the shower before Slade patched up a few shallow wounds on Robin's shoulder. The man himself, who had been hit worse, had already healed. The bandaging turned to kissing, which ended up with both of them on the bed.

"So… how did you like being a hero?" Robin asked with a grin.

"I think I made a decent one," Slade shrugged. "The reward-system would have to work pretty hard for me to keep it up, though…"

"How hard?" Robin asked, slipping a hand down inside the man's towel, which was all they were wearing after the showers; even the hero's mask had been taken off.

"A bit harder."

"Don't think it can get that…" Robin chuckled. "But let me take a closer look…"

That closer look also included a taste, which they both enjoyed.

"When I hit my head on the cabinet door this morning, I really didn't expat the day would end with you in my bed…" the man almost chuckled as he pulled the teen away from his treat and up for another kiss, slowly rolling them over until he had Robin just where he wanted him.

"Hmmm… yeah, maybe the demon still has power over me?" Robin asked, his big blue eyes looking very innocent.

"Tease. You know you'd give anything to be here," Slade smirked.

"Yes, but paying you makes you a prostitute," Robin shrugged under him, and got his nipple bitten as a response. "OW! Ow… damn… do… do that again…"

Slade soon had the young man making all kinds of noises that he had, apparently, never made before. The towels were long since on the floor, forgotten and unneeded, as they explored each other's bodies with hands and mouths.

"I… I want to ride you…" Robin gasped as he couldn't stand the horror of not being fucked any longer.

"Well, I guess I can let you do some of the work…" he man leered and rolled over on his back, reaching out for his bed-side table.

"Way ahead of you," Robin chuckled and then the man's shaft was suddenly wrapped in the grip of warm, lubed hands. When the teen deemed the preparations finished, he straddled the man and slowly sank down on him, a blissful look on his face.

"Oh, this is soooo much better than cucumbers…" he moaned.

"I figured you had been practicing…" Slade chuckled. "But that's no way to get your vitamins… I'm willing to let you practice on me any time."

"Less talking… more fucking…" Robin suggested as he, finally, felt his ass rest firmly on the man below him.

"Don't mind if I do," Slade nodded and grabbed his hips.

They both worked together to set an urgent pace, with only one goal in mind; getting off as soon as possible. After they managed that, they went more slowly on an second round, teasing each other and learning the finer points of each other's bodies and their limits.

Exhaustion finally did it for Robin, but he smiled as he lay stretched out next to the man, his head on Slade's shoulder.

"You know what?" he yawned.

"What?"

"Besides the dead girls and stuff…" the teen mumbled, obviously more than half asleep, "this wasn't such a bad day…"

The End

A/N: the wish was for me to write something with supernatural influences about today's date, Friday the 13'th, and I hope you guys haven't been having bad luck! ;)