A/N: Happy B-day Wildfire2 (April 21)!
Firstly, it's COMPETITION TIME again! See the bottom A/N for the details!
Now to the day's event: freestanding story, somewhat crack-ish and… a strange mix of AU and canon… ;) The characters are both IC and OOC… as the title says:
It's Complicated…
When Slade woke up he didn't know where he was. You might think that this experience wasn't so unusual for someone who moved around as much as the mercenary did, but you would be dead wrong. Slade always knew exactly where he was the moment he opened his eye. Unless he had been taken somewhere else while unconscious, and when had that ever happened? Alright, maybe around a hundred times, but this was different. He wasn't in some cell or tied up; he was in a bed. A comfy bed, by the feel of it, in a bright, modern bedroom and… ahhh… now things started to come back to him. He could forgive himself for not remembering, seeing as he, last night, had travelled through time or dimensions. Possibly both.
It had started when he had bought a little magical device on the black market, although it didn't turn out to be magical, of course; it was simply alien. It was extraordinary, however: a time-space-dimension-machine mixed with a wishing well and the size and shape of a wide bracelet. Slade flexed his wrist a little, and it was still there; a solid flat ring of gray metal, more like a protective wrist-brace that a piece of jewelry, thank god. He didn't want to travel though dimensions looking like a sissy, now, did he? No.
Once he had got it working he had faced quite a conundrum: if you could have anything in all the worlds in all the universe, and possibly beyond… where the hell did you start?
Slade had decided to start with Robin.
The teen had, after all, recently escaped his grasp, and it didn't sit that well with the man. The young hero would make the perfect apprentice, he knew it, and Slade had no intention of giving up…. so he had programmed his little find to place him in a time and/or place where Robin was more accessible. That could, of course, mean anything… maybe Robin was a mere baby here, easily snatched away from his parents so Slade could train him. Maybe his parents were just about to die, and he could step in. Maybe he was older, more mature, and thus seeing reason now… or maybe, although Slade barely dared hope, the young hero might not be a hero at all in this world. Slade all but drooled at the thought of training a young man who had put all the cumbersome morals of his behind.
During all this time Slade had not moved, more than his wrist. It was an instinct of his; if you woke up in a strange place, don't move until you know you're safe. It was time to get up now though. Time to check this world out and time to find Rob-
"Mmmmm…"
Now Slade moved, but he prided himself in not jumping clear out of the bed when he heard the soft moan behind him. He simply turned his head.
There was no doubt, even without the mask. It was him. Robin. Sleeping. In his bed. No, Slade realized, the damn device must have placed him in Robin's bed, and the teen was just about to wake up… Not good. First impressions were, after all, quite important, and shouldn't be had waking up together… well… in some unfortunate cases that might happen, of course, but Slade didn't think he would be able to convince the young man that he had gotten very, very drunk last night…
There was no time to do anything, however, even if Slade's rather stunned brain had decided to throw an idea his way… which it did not. The teen, older than the one he had left behind, he noticed, but not by more than a few years at most, yawned and stretched. Any moment now his eyes would open and then all hell would break loose.
"Mmm… morning…"
"Morning?" was all Slade could think of saying, as he stared down into two sleepy, blue, smiling eyes. Where was the panic? Where were the hissing, snarling and attacking? And dear god, where were their clothes?
"Did you just wake up?" Robin asked him, his voice still a bit gravelly from sleep, but no trace of hostility in it whatsoever. Quite the opposite. The young man also seemed unaware that he had kicked down the covers until they… barely covered anything. On any of them.
Slade just remembered that he had been asked a question, and grunted out a "Yes."
"Heh… did someone wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?" the teen grinned now, actually grinned, and what he did next was even more shocking. "Want me to cheer you up?"
Slade went completely frozen as he felt a hand slide up his thigh and straight to-
"Ah!"
"Mhh-mmm… I knew you'd like that…" the teen chuckled and then the twinkle in those blue eyes turned even naughtier. "And I know something you'll love…"
Half an hour later Slade, who had quit smoking almost as soon as he had started, felt the craving for a cigarette for the first time since his early military days. This was… that had… what had…?
"Mmm… that was great. Weird but great," Robin purred next to him, more or less wrapped around him, in fact.
"Weird?" Slade echoed. Who was the brat to say that it had been weird, he was the one who had started it, after all! This… thing…
"Aw, don't take it the wrong way, you were just so passive… you let me take control a bit more…" the teen explained. "I liked it! Not that I don't enjoy being thrown down on the bed or fucked hard against a wall either, you know, but, still!"
This was a recurrent thing? He had had -Slade was forced to take a mental deep breath to continue- sex with Robin before? A lot? Rough sex? With ROBIN? Sure, the kid was a looker, especially with his mask off, and if Slade had been gay he might very well had fallen for him, but he wasn't gay. He had only just had accidental gay sex. By accident. Because he was a bit confused after his dimension/time jump. Although it had felt good…. not the time-jump, the sex. Very good. He missed breasts only slightly. Just nipples were nice too, although they couldn't possibly be as sensitive…
"Aaahh… mmm…. yes…. wanna go again?"
Slade blinked. Without him noticing it, his fingertips had started tracing one of the teen's pink little buds, making in harden and flush just like a woman's. He wondered what it tasted like?
Another half an hour later Slade considered taking up smoking again.
When Slade woke up he knew exactly where he was. It was just that it was wrong, because he wasn't supposed to be in this small, run-down room. This had been a bolt-hole of his about two years ago, used only rarely, but since about a year he had lived with Robin in their bright and spacious apartment… so what was he doing back here?
He sat up and muttered as the world spun a little. Had he been drinking? It wasn't that kind of dizziness, though, it was more like… no, he had never felt quite this kind before… and as he had been drugged and sedated and drunk from most substances on Earth, that was saying something.
Even the air… smelled wrong. The man snorted and shook his head. He was probably overdramatizing something very simple. Maybe en old associate had come to town last night and they had talked, or rather drank, business until late… and then he hadn't wanted to return home in that state… or this place had been closer… but… hadn't this whole building been torn down ages ago?
Something was clearly wrong, and what seemed like some short term amnesia, as he couldn't remember anything from the day before, didn't help. But lying in bed and whining about what was wrong with the world didn't help either, so Slade got up.
He found his uniform on a chair next to the bed and that was also wrong. He hadn't been wearing that in a long time, as he was head of a large security company now, and there was no need for Deathstroke the Terminator. On the other hand, the appearance of the uniform matched the 'old associate' theory quite well…
He couldn't find anything else to wear so the uniform it was, and he put on the mask as well, because very few were aware that Deathstroke and Slade Wilson were one and the same, and if one of his employers saw him… well… he didn't want to explain that on Monday. He really hoped it was Saturday today, by the way, his internal calendar told him it was, but who said that was right? Well, he could afford to miss work, because he needed so get last night sorted first… the easiest way was probably to call Robin.
He found his communicator, not his phone, in his belt, but Robin's number wasn't on it. That was weird, because he knew it used to be. Well, he knew the number by heart, he had given him the phone after all, since connecting to the Titan's communicator was more of an hassle. He dialed the number and… nothing. Then a voice informed him that the number wasn't in use. All right. No need to panic. He'd go look him up, then. The Tower was closer that their apartment, and the odds were in favor of finding Robin with his team anyway, so Slade took to the roofs.
He hadn't gone far before he spotted the Titans, obviously just wrapping up another case. As he had no idea what had happened last night and there always was a possibility that the dingy apartment had been the proverbial 'couch', he didn't want to get too much attention from the other Titans. He landed in an alley that should be in Robin's line of sight, and let himself be seen. The result was imminent. He saw the young man tense and then say something to his team as he started running in Slade's direction. The tension was worrisome. So was the extended bo-staff.
Robin rushed into the alley and came to a halt a few meters away.
"Slade!"
Hmm. Robin hissing like that was never a good sign.
"Glad I found you," Slade said and took his mask off. "Have you any idea what happened last night?"
"I… I… Sl…y…errr…." Robin said and stared at the man like he had never seen him before.
"What? Do I have something on my face? If Beast Boy smeared shoe-polish on the inside of my mask again I'm going to kill the little-"
"I won't let you hurt my friends!" the hero suddenly snarled, so quickly it almost sounded automatic.
"Of course I won't, what the hell is wrong with you?" Slade snorted and then his eye narrowed. "Yes, what the hell is wrong with you?" he pulled off a glove and caressed the side of the teen's face. "You seem… I don't know… younger."
"Don't touch me!" His hand was slapped away, and quite painfully too, signaling that this wasn't some game. Robin was seriously pissed for some reason.
"Just tell me what I did. I really can't remember a thing before I woke up at my old place on King Street."
"King Street?"
"Yes, the brick-house… don't you remember? I brought you there once or twice… actually that was the first place we slept together the whole night-"
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"Well, if you don't remember that, then I know something's wrong…" the man half joked, and couldn't help but leer a little. That had been quite a night.
Robin put a stop to the reminiscence by punching him in the face.
"Why did you do that?" Slade asked, stunned and somewhat irritated, cupping his jaw.
"It got the smirk off your face," the teen himself smirked.
The man closed his eye and pinched the bridge of his nose for a few moments, trying to collect his thoughts.
Weird sense of wrongness, a Robin that obviously had no idea he was supposed to kiss him rather than punch him, and loads of memories that didn't add up to reality…. apart from last night. Those memories were gone. Why? How?
"Robin," he asked, still with his eyes closed, "the night before yesterday… did we have Chinese food in bed while watching 'Sherlock'?"
"What? You and I? Sherlock? In bed?" Slade expected the next word out of the hero's mouth to be 'Chinese', but instead it was "NO!"
"So when did we last meet?"
"I don't know? When you tried to kill my friends, holding me hostage, and we kicked your ass?"
"Ah…" Slade put his mask under his arm and straightened up. "We have some kind of time-problem here. Interesting. Never experienced that before. Well… let's go."
"What? Where?"
"To get your friends, of course," Slade told him and took a few steps towards the opening of the alley. "Titans! Over here!" he called out.
When the smoke and dust from the attack cleared, Slade was standing in the middle of a heap of groaning teens.
"Now could you stop attacking me long enough for me to explain?" he asked tiredly.
"Explain what?" Cyborg growled.
"Truthfully…" Slade muttered, "I have no idea myself…"
"He's gone mental," Robin explained, picking himself up from the ground, refusing Slade's helping hand with a hiss.
"No, I seem to have gone back in time… although… well, we'll figure that out, but I need your help. Raven, look for any sign of magic being used, any residue you can find. Starfire, I need a list of known ways to travel in time today. Cyborg, I need you check if there has been any power surges in the city during the last… forty-eight hours or so. Robin, Beast Boy, come with me, we're going back to the flat to look for clues."
Slade looked down at the teens to find them all staring and gaping at him, and he sighed.
"I know it is hard to grasp, but I'm not the enemy here."
"Dude, you're always the enemy!" Beast Boy snorted, but then sniffed. The young teen turned into a dog and Slade then found himself being thoroughly smelled. As Beast Boy withdrew and changed back he had a puzzled look on his face. "Umm… guys? It's Slade but… it's not! I'll never forget his scent and it has changed!"
"So? Maybe he showered?" Cyborg shrugged.
"Not like that! I'm talking about his… like his core-scent! That can't be masked by anything!"
"And it can't change?" Robin asked slowly, eyeing the man.
"Sure it can, but it takes… time." The changeling stared up at the man. "Lots of time. Not just a few weeks."
"So, do you believe me now?" the former villain muttered.
Slade was washing the morning's experiences off in the shower. Rigorously. Where the hell had the portal taken him? A world with a Robin being all smiles and grins… and touches and … Damn it!
Slade fantasized about the notion of being in control of the whole world, and, even though he knew he wasn't, he demanded to at least be in control of his own body… which was busy betraying him for the third time that day. Turning the spray to ice cold, he battled down the betrayal and then continued his shower. The teen had been acting like a little sex kitten all morning, but then a very familiar alarm went off and the Robin he knew was back; all business. Well. Almost. He had, just after telling him he had to go, kissed him. On the lips.
Slade looked down.
Damn it.
Dressing was the next item on the agenda, but there was no uniform to be found. Figuring out which closet was his was easy, as they were so different in size, but-
Slade froze and opened the other closet again. They each had one. Robin's even had a few of his uniforms in it, besides civilian clothes. Robin and him… lived together? The man groaned. Couldn't it at least have been some sort of sordid affair? If he had seduced the little minx behind the back of his team, he could have used that to hold over the hero's head… was he sure? Was a closet of clothes the only proof? No, he found out, as he walked through the whole apartment. There were even pictures on the walls featuring him, Robin, and the Titans. Looking happy. Disgusting.
Back to dressing. No uniform, but lots of suits. Slade wasn't unfamiliar with suits, he knew he looked damn good in one, but if this world was trying to push him into wearing one, he wouldn't. He would not play this game. He snorted and shook his head at that childish thought. That was exactly what he had to do; he had to blend in… even if that meant gay sex. But not right this moment, he decided, and put on jeans and a t-shirt instead. Right now he had to figure this world out. There was still a possibility, after all, that the Titans were evil here. Please, please let them be evil.
Alright, so the Titans were not evil. Slade had found a wallet and a phone belonging to him, and was now surfing the web for clues. So far he had concluded that he was apparently running a company called 'S.A.F.E', which didn't, unfortunately, turn out to stand for 'Slade's Amusing Friend Exterminators' but rather: 'Security And Fraud Experts'. At least he seemed to be good at it. Of course. He wondered if he should actually be at work right now, and checked the schedule in his phone. Yes. In thirty minutes. He picked a contact which was simply named 'work' and let it ring.
"S.A.F.E industries, Sophie speaking, how may I help you?" a cheery voice answered. Slade contemplated only a split second.
"Hello Sophie, this is Slade."
"Oh, hello Mr. Wilson!" the woman on the other end of the line said brightly, and the man drew a silent breath of relief. He seemed to have called someone who knew who he was, at least.
"Hello. I only have a moment, but I was wondering if you could cancel all my plans for a few days. I'm taking a few personal days."
"Oh… but your meeting with the sales-representatives this afternoon-?" the woman asked.
"Damn, I knew I had something important planned…" Slade bluffed. "Could you…?"
"Yes, I'll get Jones to take over," the woman came to his rescue more than she knew.
"You are a star, Sophie. I will be in touch in two days," Slade informed her and hung up. In two days, he figured, he would have made up his mind about whether or not he would continue with this charade or move things along more in his direction.
"This definitely smells like Slade!" Beast Boy let them know.
"Which Slade, though?" Robin asked giving this 'new' one a suspicious look.
Slade chuckled. Robin's eyes hadn't been off him for a second since the alley. The young man was not amused.
"Both," the youngest hero said. "But the traces of new Slade are all… new… and nothing from old Slade since last night."
"Hmmm…" Robin was stalking through the dingy apartment, looking for clues. He stopped by a desk. "This is very neat… and the trashcan has been emptied. BB, could you check the garbage? See if you pick up Slade's scent? I really want to know what he threw away before he… disappeared." Another look in the man's direction told Slade that Robin wasn't completely convinced that he actually had disappeared. And, after all, he hadn't… in a way.
It was a very smelly but triumphant Beast Boy who returned a while later, waving a garbage bag.
"Found it!" he beamed.
"Good job… let's see what I've been up to," Slade smirked.
After opening the bag, however, they found a whole bunch of notes and documents, which didn't immediately make any sense.
"Let's head to the Tower and see what the others might have found out," Slade said, gathering all the paperwork up. Some were crinkled, some torn to shreds, and it was all a puzzle.
"I'm the one giving orders here, Slade," Robin growled at him. After a short staring-contest, however, the teen shrugged and looked away. "But fine, I agree, let's go."
"Well, the décor is the same," Slade said as he walked into the Titan's main living room.
"You've been here before?" Cyborg asked.
"Of course. I practically lived here at times before Robin and I found a place of our own."
Wide eyes and strangled sounds followed.
"Robin and you?" Beast Boy exclaimed.
"You turn gay in the future?" Cyborg gaped staring at his leader.
"No! Apparently this other me is, though… and has really bad taste in men," Robin added with a mutter.
The girls in the group, Slade noticed, both had faraway looks on their faces as well as little strange smiles. He would have a support-group there, he was sure.
"But this Slade is of the future, is he not?" Starfire pointed out. "So his Robin is the same as you?"
"Well, let's try to figure that out first," the man suggested. "Because I'm not so sure it is as simple as that… well... if time-travel was simple in the first place, that is. Let's see, in this place I had recently tried to… convince you to be my apprentice, correct?"
"Yeah… what, that happened in your time too? Then how the hell am I with you?" Robin asked and then paled. "Is… is it nano-probes?"
"No, trust me, you are not being coerced into anything… believe me, though, you made me pay you back for the apprentice-thing… at great length…" Slade smirked and Robin smirked back for a second before turning red as his imagination ran away with him. For that moment, however, Slade saw a glimpse of his Robin, and the ache of longing that left behind was unexpectedly painful. He mentally shrugged it off, however, because there was work to be done. "Where was I? Yes… time-line… so… what happened shortly after you escaped… let's see… Yes, the pink foam covering Down Town Jump."
"The what?" the Titans asked, looking confused.
"A collaboration between Chang and Mumbo Jumbo? That didn't happen?"
"Nope," Cyborg shrugged.
"Yes! Yes, it did! A week ago, don't you remember?" Robin exclaimed.
"Pink foam all over Jump? No, and I think I would," Raven said.
"No, I mean it didn't happen-" Robin tried to explain.
"Exactly!" Beast Boy cut him off.
"It didn't happen, but it could have! We stopped them, remember, when we stumbled over them in that warehouse, and the liquid dripping from those containers… it was-"
"Pink!" Starfire nodded eagerly.
"Ah, so we are not in the same timeline, then," Slade concluded. "But a very similar one. A word of advice, though, should the pink foam ever happen, don't let her eat any," he added, pointing at Starfire.
"Eww, why would she want to?" Beast Boy asked.
"I do feel the need to admit that it did look delicious," Starfire mumbled.
Slade felt strange, walking on the street in broad daylight and without his uniform. Of course he dressed in civilian clothes now and then, but this was different somehow. Perhaps it was the occasional person nodding and smiling at him, it certainly added to the strangeness.
"Mr. Wilson!" Slade turned to a street vendor who was selling unappetizing things on sticks and arched an eyebrow.
"Yes?"
"Just heard it on the news, Sir, the Titans are just a few blocks away fighting Cinderblock!"
For a moment Slade wondered why the hell he should be interested in that, but then it dawned on him that if he and Robin were living together and it, obviously, was common knowledge, he was probably supposed to give a damn.
"Thank you. Which way?"
"Down there, Sir," the vendor said and pointed towards the business district. "A job for your company, huh?"
"I think I'll look into it myself first," Slade muttered and stalked off.
"Yourself?" he heard the man ask, and then add to no one in particular: "Well, that's one hands on CEO…"
Slade realized that his current persona perhaps didn't rush into danger as far as the public knew, but it didn't hurt to look.
He was almost wrong, because it very nearly did hurt. As he stepped around the last corner something came flying at him at great speed, and he just had time to duck out of the way. The projectile crashed into a news paper stand and groaned.
"Slade what the hell?" Robin yelled at him from a distance. "You could have caught him, you know! BB, are you hurt?"
"Naw, dude, I'm… ok…" the green teen muttered and picked himself up. "Could have done without the crash, though…" he added and gave the man a glare he would never have dared attempt in Slade's home universe. Slade couldn't help but match the glare and got a surprised, somewhat anxious look back before the teen threw himself into the fray again.
"That took you a while," Slade commented with a grin as a dusty and bruised Robin came up to him after the monster had been reduced to so much road fill.
"Excuse me?"
"You should have used the crane," the man nodded to a nearby building site.
"And endanger even more people?" Robin asked. "I don't think so."
"It would have gotten the job done quicker," Slade shrugged, unable to see the point of Robin's argument. "And you need to work on your landings, you almost twisted you ankle a few times there."
"Alright, I know we fixed the waking up on the wrong side of the bed-thing this morning, and now you're skipping work…? What's going on?" the teen asked, his eyes narrowing behind his mask.
"Nothing. Now, come with me."
"What? Where?"
"To work on your landings."
"Ahhh… 'work on my landings', huh?" Robin grinned cheekily and followed the man.
"What, we're really gonna work on my landings?" the teen gaped a while later, as they had found a private small yard at the back of some buildings.
"Of course," Slade told him but then realized that the hero had probably thought it had been some sort of innuendo. "Work before pleasure," he added, trying to keep the charade up.
"Huh… since when?" Robin grinned, but then shrugged. "Alright… so… what did you have in mind?"
"The angle of your left foot when it hits the ground is sometimes dangerously close to getting you hurt… Let me demonstrate."
Slade's demonstration and the following session left Robin with a few more bruises, but, it seemed, in a good mood.
"So, what did you have planned next?" he asked.
"Dinner?" Slade suggested, as it was getting late.
"Sure… dinner and dessert…" Robin smirked and came up to him, placing his hands on Slade's chest and looking up at him like he wanted something. Slade had a faint idea about what that might be, but he had decided to be straight and that was it. It didn't matter what his thickening cock thought about it. Of course he would have to have sex with the young man now and then as long as he wanted to keep his cover, but surely not every day?
"Maybe we should spend more time training and less time in the bedroom?" he suggested dryly.
"Who are you and what did you do to Slade?"
"What?"
"Come on, I'm just kidding!" Robin snorted. "Oh, and by the way, I forgot to ask you this morning; where did you get this?" he wanted to know and touched the alien arm brace, "I don't remember it from last night?"
"Just a souvenir I found among my old things," Slade shrugged.
"Okay…" Robin said, but didn't look completely convinced. It couldn't be helped, however, because Slade didn't dare to take it off before he was sure that this was the universe to stay in. He had a feeling it would do just fine, however…
"Now, over dinner… let's talk about some other options, alright?" he asked the young man as they left the yard.
"What kind of options?"
"Options outside Jump City," Slade told him.
They had worked for hours going through the pile of papers, and finally things started to come together. They were sitting on, or hovering above, the large semi circular sofa, the contents from the trash-bag scattered all around them.
"So… there's this object, then… A time machine?" Cyborg said.
"Time and dimensions, as we have concluded," Slade said.
"I don't get it, aren't things supposed to be completely different in other dimensions?" Beast Boy asked, scratching his head.
"No. The theory is that an immense number of dimensions exist side by side. In those that you were born at all, or survived to your current age, sure there will be some where you might, for example, be evil, but many of them would only have insignificant details changed, like your childhood bedroom had green wallpaper instead of blue."
"Awesome dimension," Raven deadpanned.
"Yeah, I'd like to experience that!" Robin added with a chuckle. "So what went wrong in yours?"
"Wrong?" Slade asked.
"Yeah… you and me? I mean… yuck… no offence, but you're old. And evil. And a guy."
"It's rather hard not to take offence at those things, actually…" Slade muttered. "We're happy, though, and I very much would like to return to my universe soon."
"Do you miss your Robin?" Starfire asked softly.
"Yes."
There was an awkward silence for a moment, but then Cyborg cleared his throat.
"Okay, but if this time-travelling thing existed in your time, maybe there's one in ours? No, wait… it was in ours… damn…"
"No, but you might be on to something," Robin said. "If the Slades switched places, then maybe the things did as well? Or there's more than one?"
"We should start looking," Slade nodded. "I think I can work out which settings I used from these notes, but we would need the device, yes."
"We don't even know what it looks like, though, do we?" Beast Boy groaned.
"Please, might it look like a bracelet?" Starfire asked, holding up a print-out from a web-auction page which she had just taped together from several pieces. "Because I do not think shopping for the jewelry is something any of our Slades would like to do."
"You, young woman, are brilliant," Slade claimed generously, taking the page from a blushing alien. "Now… so where is it?"
Robin looked at the photo over Slade's shoulder and then yanked it from the man's grip.
"I saw it! It was on the floor by the bed, I think! I just thought it was part of your uniform or something! Star, could you fly and get it? I'll send the address to your communicator at once."
"And bring pizza back?" Beast Boy cut in before the girl had a chance to answer.
"Yes and yes my friends!" she grinned and was off.
Beast Boy, Cyborg and Raven left to do other things shortly after, leaving just Robin and Slade behind, sitting on the sofa with only a small pile of papers between them.
"Are you worried?" the teen asked, sounding rather civil for once.
"What about exactly?" Slade asked, as he could list a hundred things he might worry about.
"Well… our Slade is there… with the other Robin…" the teen clarified.
"He, or you, can take care of him or yourself," the man smiled, finding inter dimensional grammar somewhat of a challenge.
"I hope so… It might be weird, but I'm worried about my friends… the other ones."
"That's not weird, that's just you," Slade chuckled, making the teen blush.
"I think someone likes me a little," the man smirked.
"What? No! Never!" the hero gasped, looking around wildly for any signs of his friends overhearing.
"That's what my Robin said in the beginning. Complete denial," Slade claimed.
"Yeah, sure… as if I could even like you."
"Oh, but remember, I know everything about you," Slade purred, turning towards the teen and moving closer. He didn't think his Robin would mind if he teased this one a bit… "Especially everything you like… blueberry jam for example… baked potatoes with only butter… am I right?"
"Y-yeah… guess the dimensions really are pretty similar, then?"
"M-hmmm…" Slade hummed and moved even closer, tracing a finger up the teen's neck and jaw. "The skin here is very sensitive… and your earlobes… and your lips… and when you start to get excited you always lick your lips, yes, just like that."
"I wasn't… I…" Robin stuttered.
"Of course not…" Slade said and bent down even closer, his face not far from Robin's now. "And let me tell you what you really like- OW!" the man's head snapped back from the force of the punch and he clutched his eye, muttering curses under his breath.
"Don't you dare kiss me!" Robin snarled, having jumped to his feet.
"I wasn't going to, I was just teasing you," Slade grumbled, still clutching his face.
"Friends, I have found it!" Starfire let them know as she flew into the room at that moment. The others came running, of course, too curious about the metal gadget to notice the man's pain.
"Oh, great, tofu chicken topping!" Beast Boy, who had gone straight for the pizza-boxes, exclaimed.
Slade muttered and grabbed the device, rifled through the notes again and got to work, ignoring the Titans. He wanted to go home.
"So, you're going to trace the signal back and redo the switch?" Cyborg asked him some time later with his mouth full of pizza.
"Something like that, but not quite. The other Slade wanted a switch, because he didn't want two of himself in the same universe… strangely, because that would obviously be great…" the man smirked. "I, however, want to see what I walk into and, hopefully, exchange a few words with the other me… so I'm going for the device's other option and will open a portal. But I'm tracing its twin's signal so it will open very close to where that is."
"Great, dude, let's do that!" Beast Boy joined in, a pizza slice in each hand, dripping sauce everywhere.
"I will. Just back off, or a smudge might have us open up a portal to the land of the bloodthirsty zombie tomatoes," Slade told him.
"You seen that movie too?"
"I can't believe I'm hearing this!" Robin exclaimed, getting up from the dinner table in their apartment. "You said you were happy… it was all a lie?"
"All I'm saying is that your potential-"
"Stop! You're sounding like an old recording from the let's-not-mention-that-again-time in our lives," the teen growled. He was just about to say something else when the doorbell rang. "You're not off the hook!" he hissed to the man as he went to open it. Outside his friends stood waiting, snack food in hand.
"Um… hi?" Robin said.
"Dude, you didn't forget about movie-night, did you?" Beast Boy asked.
"Oh, damn it… I did… but come in! Ignore Slade, though, he's in the dog house," Robin added darkly.
Slade snorted and narrowed his eye. This world wasn't so perfect after all. Sure, he had Robin in his hands, literally if he wanted it, but he had to tread so very carefully or the teen would become even more suspicious… and that meant making nice with the other insufferable brats… was it really worth it? The only good thing was that his cover was fool-proof. No one could possibly realize that he really wasn't-
"You're not Slade!"
"Excuse me?" the man glared down at the accusing little green boy.
"I thought something was off back at the fight, but I was a bit too busy to realize… you smell wrong!"
"Are you sure you didn't bruise your nose, BB?" Robin chuckled, but it was a somewhat nervous sound.
"I have a bad feeling too…." Raven mumbled. "Like… back then…"
"My scanner clears him…?" Cyborg told them but didn't sound convinced.
"Please? You are not our friend?" Starfire asked wide-eyed and Slade couldn't help but snort. If his cover was blown he might as well go with plan B.
"You're right. I'm from a parallel dimension," he began.
"What?" Robin gaped. "Why? What are you doing here?"
"It's simple. I'm here to take you back as my apprent- OW!"
The portal opened to a very tense scene, which didn't get better by another set of Robin and Slade entering it. The other Titans, recovering quite quickly, waved to each other through the shimmering doorway, but seemed to decide to each stay in their own world for now.
Slade glared at his other, younger and less moral, self and pointed to the portal.
"Get back to your own universe. Now."
"Slade!" 'his' Robin exclaimed and was in his arms in an instant. "What happened to your eye?"
"You did."
"Please tell me I happened to your eye too?" the younger Robin asked his arch nemesis.
"You should have kept your wrist straighter on impact," the man growled to the other Robin, the bruise clearly visible despite his healing factor.
"Leave," Slade told his other self again, his voice colder than an arctic wind in winter.
"Fine! This dimension has more problems than it's worth," the villain muttered.
"Um… actually… can't you keep him? Do we have to take him back?" Robin asked.
"Hmmm… weeeeelll…." the older Robin smirked. "Two Slades…."
"I demand to go back!" Slade told them.
"What did you do to him?" the other Slade asked his lover.
"I bet it was something with sex!" the younger Robin answered in his stead. "Did you know these two… well…" he asked 'his' Slade.
"Yes, I noticed that quite clearly this morning," the villain growled.
"It was a usual morning, then?" the former-villain asked innocently, making both Robin's blush for different reasons.
"Ummm…" his boyfriend said. "I'm sorry… I didn't know it wasn't you!"
"I forgive you… how many rounds?"
"Two."
"You had sex with me two times! PERVERT!" straight Robin yelled at straight Slade.
"By accident!" straight Slade claimed.
"I thought you were a bit awkward… had no idea you were terrified…" the older Robin laughed at the villain. "And you liked it… a lot. And you," he said, turning to his younger self. "Don't knock it 'til you tried it."
"The portal is closing," the older Slade told them, and with a quick move, caught his other self's arm, pulling the alien item off. He threw it to the younger Robin. "Make sure this is destroyed."
"I will," Robin said and stepped back to his own world. With a scowl on his face, Slade followed and the hole in time and space closed.
"Well… that was…" Robin began, but was cut off by his boyfriend, who caught him and threw him over his shoulder. "What the-?"
"Titans," Slade told the team. "Movie night is either cancelled or you have to turn up the volume very loud. Your choice." With that he disappeared into the bedroom with a laughing and struggling Robin still dangling over his shoulder. The team looked at each other and decided that tomorrow might be a better move-night after all.
The enemies were outside the Tower, as Slade had had the sense to open the portal there and not inside, glaring at each other. The other Titans were holding back, prepared to aid their leader if things would come to blows. There was still more embarrassment on both sides than hostility at the moment, though.
"Well… that was…" Robin began.
"Strange," Slade finished.
"They were gay. And together."
"I know."
"If you ever even think, for a second…" Robin growled out the warning.
"No. No," Slade shook his head with some empathy behind it.
Robin visibly relaxed and then sighed heavily, shrugging his shoulders like he tried to just shake all the events of the day off him like a wet dog.
"Let's just… let's just go home, and wake up tomorrow being enemies like normal, alright?" he asked, almost pleaded, with the man.
"Sounds like a good idea…" Slade said, accepting the proposition.
"Good."
"Good."
"Fine." Robin gestured for the Titans to go back and was about to follow them, when Slade was suddenly very close behind him.
"You know…" the man murmured in his ear. "If you're ever curious… OW!"
The End
A/N: I'm usually SOMEWHAT sure that there aren't any plot-holes (although I have managed to create a few in my day), but in this one my head hurts just from trying to figure out if something IS a plot-hole or not… ;) Tell me if you spot any and I'll try to fill them in for later readers… ;)
It was very funny to write this, and the story COULD have gone on for days and been even more complicated, I know this, but I kinda wanted to keep it within a TT-episode-frame, where everything is resolved in 25 minutes or so, just to underline the small canon parts… ;)
If you have booked a b-day in MAY I should get in touch with you soon if I haven't already… I kinda hope someone will wish for more Demon-bride, because the demand from readers in general is high there, but no pressure! Wish for what you want!
/W
69-Competition time!
As you may, or may not, know I have a facebook group called "The Ducklings" (the group icon is the same as mine here on ff and dA, although I'm not sure that shows up anymore, after the fb changes…) and I really, really, what the members to reach the, somewhat magical, naughty number of 69… Right now it's 57.
The group is private, which means that not everyone can become a member, and that everything written and/or shared there STAYS there, no one else can see it… It's a great, silly place where we share Sladin sightings, comics, links to inspirational things like songs or young justice episodes and so on. We write stories, there's a bit of RP-ing going on and so on… and if I have any news, like about upcoming stories, I always share them there! And I ask the ducklings there important questions and stuff… like how to end a story… ;)
I'd like to be clear that the group is not about ME, though, it's about this pairing we all love, so if you are a writer or artist who wants more supports and feedback, this is the place to be!
It's especially the place to be if you turn out to be member number 69! If you are, you will get a drabble or pic from me, but you will also get prizes from other ducklings already in the group… and the prizes, at least mine, will ONLY be posted in the duckling group so even if you are member 68 at least you will be able to enjoy things no one outside the group will be able to… so go look us up and apply! I'll add you as the requests come in, just a few rules:
1. Keep the slash in the group: no posting slashy comments on mine or other member's walls, because some people have their grannies as facebook-friends, you know, and some are closer yaoi fangirls… ;)
2. Keep things clean, drug-free, legal and fun!
3. Join in the discussions, don't be afraid to stand your ground and/or disagree with anyone, but, again, keep it fun!
4. I encourage you to share your ff-alias with the group or at least with me, because even though I can't, I'd like to TRY to know who's who. I'm sorry when I confuse things, though… ;)
If you can't find the group, PM me and I'll send you the link to that or to my own page, whatever works best…
Hope to see you on Fb!
/W