First: Chapter 150! Cool, huh!
Second: We are not 69 ducklings in the facebook group! Doesn't mean you shouldn't join, because your're missing Sladin goodness! ;)

A/N: Happy B-day MelindaPotter (April 26)!

Did you love the Teen Titans episode "Haunted"? Have you been annoyed all these years because the storyline was never followed up or explained? Well so, apparently, has Melinda, because she wanted me to sort it out. So I did. With slash.

…and I think I actually came up with a good point or two… except that will pretty much be forgotten because of what happens afterwards… oh, well… ;)

Return to the Haunt

Robin groaned as he stretched after his workout. He was still sore. Days after an imaginary Slade kicked the crap out of him he was still feeling it… that had to earn the man a bunch of bad-ass points… if he was still out there. But the chance, or risk, was slim. As Cyborg had pointed out, the man had fallen into molten lava. No, the nightmare from a couple of days ago was probably the last he'd ever see of him. Thank god.

"Hey, Robin?"

"Yeah, Cy? What's up?" the teen asked his friend, who looked a bit… uncomfortable. Sure, they had all tiptoed a bit around him since his little psycho-dust attack, but this was more a guilty look than anything else.

"Well… we have to talk… it's about the dust."

"And the signal came from outside the Tower? Why are you just telling me now?" Robin asked, glaring at his friend.

"Just figured you needed some time to bounce back, man…" Cyborg shrugged.

"Have you traced it?"

"I… Robin, it was probably some sort of automatic signal anyway! Don't you think it's time to… just stop?"

"It's Slade, Cy!"

"No, that's just the point! It can't be! Slade is dead! Damn, I knew I shouldn't have told you!"

Robin didn't dignify that with an answer; he just stomped off to his private work-room. His team might have claimed that he was never alone in this fight, but obviously he still was, when it came to Slade. But that was just as well. That's how he wanted it.

It took hours to trace the signal, because there were a lot of false trails. As the night fell, however, the result was blinking on the screen in front of him and Robin was staring at it in disbelief.

"It can't be… there was nothing left there…" he mumbled, but, drawing a deep, resolute breath, he stood up. Obviously there was something left. And he would find it.

Two times in two days were two times too many, but he went there anyway. The rubble, the dust, the broken, jagged pieces of metal and stone, it was all like he remembered them. If the Titans hadn't showed up, the phantom Slade might have killed him here…

"Welcome back to the old haunt. Again."

The voice was only half unexpected, and Robin spun around, a powerful flashlight bathing the area behind him in light. The light shone off a dull copper mask and steel armor.

"You're real!"

"Yes. This time I am," the man told him, his voice a dark, smooth sound, like a perfectly tuned engine. "It took you longer to trace the signal than I expected. I'm disappointed Robin. I thought you missed me."

"I only found out about the signal today!" Robin defended himself, and then realized that something else the man had claimed demanded his attention. "And I didn't miss you!"

"Ah. Pity. I missed you." Slade took a few steps forward, making the teen draw back. He couldn't help it. Slade had always been a formidable enemy, a true nightmare, but what happened a few nights ago… Robin had never been truly scared of the man… before now. But that had been the Slade in his mind, and the one before him was real… at least…

"You might be a robot," the teen said, aloud, but almost to himself.

"I'm not. The one who fell in the lava, though…"

"Prove it!"

The man chuckled deeply.

"Maybe it's time… maybe you're ready."

"Ready for what?"

"To see my face."

Those words seemed to turn the very air around Robin to stone, because he couldn't move or breathe. He didn't know why; he had seen both heroes and villains unmasked countless of times, so why was he holding his breath now? Why did it seem like the most important thing in the universe was under that metal? Still, he never expected the man to actually do it. Slade never let anything slip; not his true feelings or thoughts and especially not anything as personal as who he really was.

But this time he did.

Robin opened his mouth, somewhere between a gape and a gasp, as a clicking sound echoed through the derelict room and the mask was suddenly in the man's hands. He was still stunned as he took in the white, somewhat tousled hair, the hard, angled face and the single, familiar, cold eye. The black eye patch seemed strangely fitting, as did the short, white goatee-like beard. Slade was human. A man. And right in front of him.

"Hello Robin."

Something inside the teen wanted to snort, snapping back that they had already met, thank you very much, but a bigger part accepted it for what it truly felt like; as if they were meeting for the first time.

"Slade." That was all he was able to say. Just the man's name.

"I watched you the other night. Fighting for your life. I had no idea your mind could be so… violent…" the man purred.

"It wasn't me, it-" Robin stopped himself, and the man smirked. It was just the kind of smirk the teen had imagined him to have; the corners of his mouth curling up, the left one more than the other, his single eye glittering.

"You just realized, didn't you? That it was all you. Had to be."

"The dust, it-"

"Only set it free."

"You were… here?"

"Here, in the forest… even in the basement of the Tower."

"What? How?"

"How? Oh, Robin, I was the one who placed the mask in the box, after all."

"No, no, that was the mask you dropped when… when we fought you. The cracked one!" the teen claimed.

"It was a replica. Do you really think I would normally walk around with a mask full of hallucinogenic drugs, which could, after all, be triggered by accident?"

Robin felt that this was a genuine face-palm moment. If he had dared and If he had been able to move, that was.

Of course Slade wouldn't have had the mask prepared with that kind of drug back when he had tried to make Robin his apprentice! And the box hadn't been packed and moved to the basement until after the man's supposed 'death', which was, in fact, the ultimate proof that he hadn't died at all!

"Epiphanies. Don't you love them?" the man chuckled.

"And you were… watching?"

"Yes. At some points you were really facing me, not the nightmare version of me. We even spoke."

"Why? Why were you here?" the teen wanted to know.

"To look out for you, my little bird. I had no way of knowing how the drug would really affect you, after all. I placed it there so we could… reconnect. Just you and I. The others weren't supposed to get involved… they almost killed you, increasing your stress like they did."

"You just wanted to watch me die!" Robin snarled, his ears turning strangely warm from the 'little bird' comment.

"Quite the opposite. Although it was certainly entertaining… especially some parts…"

Slade knew. Of course he knew, he had been here, but… Robin's lungs sized up again, his face switching from red to white and back again.

"I was surprised, I must say…" the man continued, the smirk now seemingly a permanent feature on his face. "It was a good thing that your friends came in as you were fighting the hallucination, wasn't it…? Because only moments before… he was touching you. And you couldn't stop him. You didn't want to stop him."

"I… no… that's not… was… was that you?"

"No. I only watched from the shadows how you were on the ground… and then your eyes widened… and your breath hitched, much like it just did… and your breathing started to get deeper. You squirmed, and you were mumbling for him, for me, to stop, but… oh Robin… you were spreading your legs as well… arching your back…"

"I fought you off!" the teen barked, blushing furiously. "That was as far as it went! I fought you off!"

"Yes, because even in your own mind, my boy, that was a too scary place to go. But you wanted it. You still do."

"I…. I…" Slade was the only villain that could make him speechless, the Titan realized. And so easily too.

"Tell me…" Slade was now so close that their chests touched. Something cold, a huge metal cog-wheel was suddenly pressing against Robin's back, making up a wall, and Slade's hands, planted against it on either side of his shoulders, made up the bars of his cage. "Tell me what you liked most about our little… meeting, the other night."

The question was absurd. Who would like anything about being driven half insane, beaten within an inch of his life and forced to live in a nightmare? But there was one thing…

"That… that they couldn't see you." Robin swallowed as Slade's white teeth glinted at him in the darkness. "It… it made me feel…"

"Special."

"Yes."

"Like I was only for you… just like you had always known I was…" the man continued; his voice barely more than a whisper now.

"I knew you would return…" Robin tried to explain.

"I left you grieving for far too long."

"I wasn't..! I… I…"

"You were."

"Y… yes." He had admitted it. Something he had known since he saw the man fall but which he never, ever, could voice out aloud; he had grieved for Slade. Who would understand? Who could possibly understand the void of emptiness which had been screaming inside him? Slade was a bad guy, a villain, a monster… his death should be celebrated, and, if it hadn't been for Terra's fate, Robin was sure he would have been forced to live through such a celebration. A dark part of him was glad that Terra had turned to stone, as that gave him an excuse to feel, and look, sad. No one questioned his morose mood in the following weeks, because they all thought it was because of the blond little traitor…

"I'm back now… you won't be alone anymore." The words weren't exactly soft and sweet, there was a hint of a threat in them. The man wasn't comforting him; he was saying, very clearly: 'you're mine now'. And Robin didn't object. He didn't want to.

"Good," was all he whispered, which, of course, meant; 'you're mine too'.

He didn't know who initiated the kiss. Robin did remember lifting his jaw a little, just to get a better look at the man who was filling up his whole field of vision. Maybe it wasn't because of that, though, as he was closing his eyes at the same time. Strange that.

The man's lips felt warm and peculiarly soft against his, but the softness gave way for demand very quickly.

Robin's hands came to life again and one wrapped around the man's neck while the other went around his back as he clung to him, pressing their bodies tightly together. The man's hand stayed where they were, however, caging him in.

A tongue insisted on being allowed entrance and was given it, Robin gasping as Slade's touched his own. It was so impossible; this kiss could, should, perhaps never have happened but it still did. Very much so.

Feeling lightheaded, Robin let his head fall back against the cogwheel behind him and tried to catch his breath.

"Why… why were you gone so long?" he asked.

"Because I realized what I wanted two years ago, and I knew you weren't ready," the man told him, his voice strangled like he was fighting to hold something back.

Two years. His apprenticeship. It made sense. Slade had been more distant with his since that, if you could call it that. They had fought a few times, but it hadn't been so… personal. The man drew back from him, only a fraction.

"Maybe you're still not-"

"I am!" Robin woke up from his musings and pulled the man closer again. "Slade, I'm… I'm ready." Their lips met again, even more urgently this time, and when they broke apart temporarily the teen knew what he wanted. "Touch me."

He had expected the man to pull him close, probably squeeze his ass, but instead one hand moved to the side of his face, caressing it with a couple of fingers, before catching the edge of his mask.

Robin stood perfectly still, holding his breath, as the man peeled what felt like his last line of defense off his face. But it felt right. It was just fair. They couldn't do this with masks on. Their eyes met.

"Hello, Slade…" Robin whispered huskily, a little grin on his lips.

The man chuckled and leaned in for another kiss.

"Hello, my little bird."

The man's hands, realizing that they had permission to go anywhere, now did what was expected of them, and Robin felt his ass cupped and lifted. He wound his legs around the man's waist.

"Are we… going to stay here?" the teen asked, quickly changing what he had almost said first, namely 'are we going to do it here?'.

"Yes."

"Okay."

Robin really was okay with it; he wouldn't have wanted to stop even if they had been in public, although this grim, cold place full of sharp objects wasn't exactly ideal for what he imagined would happen next.

Slade then reached out and touched the huge cogwheel behind them and the teen heard a click and a faint hum. All of a sudden the wheel slowly started to turn like a revolving door. Robin still clung to the man, his eyes getting wider as he saw the area behind what he had thought was a mountain of rubble.

"You never really left this place, did you?" he asked quietly.

"No… after all, why would you search for me here? Although that thought was flawed, as you seem to stop by quite often," the man chuckled.

Robin blushed. He had usually at least stopped and looked at this building when he had passed by, yes. It was hard not to. And Slade had been here all along…

"God, I hate you…" Robin muttered and kissed the man again.

The room was not big, but the bed that he was laid down on now was. A sleeping space and a work area was all that fitted in here, but that was also all Slade really required, the teen guessed. For such a small space the air didn't feel stuffy at all, nor did it smell of rust and dampness like it did outside. The man had turned on the lights as well, small ones which didn't sting Robin's eyes, only making it possible for them to see each other more clearly, something the hero was all for. His belt was opened, which should be difficult for anyone besides the Titan himself to do, but it was off in an instant, and dropped on the floor. His gloves were next. Robin worked on the man's gloves as well, and the first time their hands touched, skin to skin, felt just as electrifying as their first kiss.

Undressing someone in armor wasn't easy, and he himself was wearing a cape. At one point they both burst out laughing and gave up, and Slade pulled Robin to his feet so he could get the damn thing off without strangling the teen. Robin also demanded help with the man's neck- and waist-armor, because they both seemed to be molded to him. Every piece of exposed skin was touched and explored, curiosity and desire fueling their actions until they were tangled up naked on the bed with only one step left to take.

"Ready?"

Robin's heart skipped a beat as Slade asked the question, but he was. The man had prepared him, but the sense of readiness didn't come from that; it came from a deep, burning longing which had been awaken even as he saw the phantom Slade in the forest a few days ago. A longing which had been a very real part of his life for over a year now.

"Told you I was," he whispered and lifted his hips.

Robin cried out as the man entered him, then bit his bottom lip.

"Relax… it's done… it's over…" Slade whispered in his ear, and, after a few deep breaths, Robin did. That's when the man slammed into him completely. Robin's nails dug deep grooves of retaliation into the man's shoulders as he gasped, his baby-blue eyes impossibly wide.

"I thought… you said… it was over…" he groaned.

"I was in… I wasn't all in," the man clarified with a smirk.

"But you ... are now? Please?" the teen pleaded.

"Almost."

"Oh, dear god…" Robin whispered, crying out again as the man's hips began to move. This time the cry wasn't out of pain or shock, however; it was out of surprise. Because it felt good. Which is shouldn't. Because if you had been pierced by a log you expected it to hurt… and if that log then moved, you really didn't expect it to feel better, did you? But this log did. He might survive this. Or not, because then the log brushed something which made him think that heaven was very close indeed, at least the part with the stars…

As the man's hips continued to go from a slow, sliding motion to short thrusts, Robin could feel the man working more of his cock inside him, mostly by the way he was stretched by the wider base. He was far beyond minding, however, quite the opposite. The short thrusts turned to long, deep ones, which turned harder by the second until Robin found out what getting fucked was really about. He liked it. A lot. Then his legs, which had been flailing all over the place, really, were caught and placed over the man's shoulders, and that made him able to go even deeper and faster. Robin clawed the sheets and wouldn't have recognized the sounds he was making if he had been aware of them.

It was like he was a ball of energy and every movement Slade made, every movement they made together, charged him up even more until he couldn't take it anymore. It really felt like he was exploding, in a way, although he couldn't imagine that dying for real felt this good.

When he opened his eyes again he hadn't began to breathe normally yet. Everything was sweaty and sticky and smelly…

"That's a big grin…" Slade commented with a lazy laugh.

"Yeah… everything's… perfect…" Robin sighed happily.

"Dude! Where have you been?" Beast Boy asked, shooting to his feet as Robin entered the Tower's common room.

"You went looking for the signal-source, didn't you?" Cyborg half asked, half accused him.

"Yes."

"And? Did you find it?" Starfire asked worriedly, while Raven kept her questions in her eyes.

"Yes… it was an automatic trigger, like you thought," Robin sighed. "Guys… you're right. Slade's gone. I just had to follow this last lead to be able to accept it. I'm sorry if I snapped at you, Cy," he said, keeping his voice calm and humble.

"Nah, that's okay, I was just worried, bro," the metal teen shrugged and then grinned. "Now get to bed. You've been overdoing it again, too soon, you idiot. You're limping!"

"Yeah… been overdoing it a bit, yes," Robin grinned and headed to his room, As he turned his back to his friends his grin grew. He wouldn't dream of telling them that Slade was back… this time, he was keeping the man all to himself.

The End.

A/N: not that long, but not a shortie either (a short one is max 4 pages and this is six, so…) after all, size doesn't matter. (Robin didn't get that last thing and I won't bother explaining it to him, I think… ;) )

I rewatched Haunted just before I started writing this, not to get it as canon as possible (because duh! Slash!) but to be sure I remembered the FEELING of the story… and it still makes my heart beat! Damn, I want to see that kind of fight in the Young Justice type of animation, because if the Anime-ish type was brutal, what would a more 'natural' style be? –shudders with dark pleasure- hmmm… I might be a bit sick… ;)

Aaaaaanyway, what I took away from the episode and tried to play with in this drabble was, pure and simple, TENSION… It had been building up for years and it needed an outlet… it was either going to be a new fight to the death or sex. And I suck at writing action. ;)