A/N: Happy B-day Armenian Beauty Hayeren (May 22)!

I know many people have missed this universe, so here's a LITTLE glimpse of it: Black Sheep! It starts pretty much after Black Sheep 3 ended. It's more or less freestanding, though, although if you haven't read the Black Sheep series, you might not understand every little detail… no need to re-read, though, I shouldn't think… ;)

Black Sheep 3 1/4: Can't Win Them All

Robin felt quite grimy as they walked into the scruffy apartment and he sat his bag down. It didn't get better when his eyes landed on the sofa, which, the teen swore, had decayed even more since they had been gone.

"Eww," he muttered.

"I knew spending time at Wayne Manor would spoil you, Princess," Slade chuckled a he pushed past to leave his things in the bedroom.

"Oh, shut it," the teen said lovingly. "But seriously, Slade, we have to get a better place. I… I mean… you do…if you want…" the teen bit his tongue, hating himself for the slip. He might be sure of his own feelings and rather sure of Slade's, but if the man wasn't going to confess anything, neither was he. Sure they had gotten this place together, but not together-together… Slade had needed a place to stay, after all, and Robin had more or less just approved it. Reluctantly. The bed they had bought together, though, but hey… there were limits to what the teen would let the man pick out..

"We'll go looking for one tomorrow," the man promised him. "Now, where were we? Nine thousand nine hundred and eighty two?"

"I can't believe we really did that on the plane this time," Robin muttered.

"Oh, come on, you thought it was hot," the mercenary chuckled.

"I did, that's another thing I can't believe," the teen laughed. "But I need a shower. Badly. And I need to see the team as well… why don't you come back with me to the Tower?"

"The wedding rather filled up my 'spending time with your friends'-quota for the next ten years," the man muttered.

"We'll go to bed early?" the teen suggested.

"Fine."

"You're so easy sometimes," Robin grinned. As he turned around to leave, picking up his bag again, he got a swat on his ass for that one.

"Dude! Where have you been? We thought you'd be home days ago!" Beast Boy greeted them.

"Told you, man, after two weeks apart, we weren't likely to see them for a while," Cy grinned. "Glad you showed, though, bro! You too Slade."

"Why, thank you," the man said dryly.

"Yes, we are indeed happy to greet you both!" Starfire smiled.

"Glad you're home," Raven supplied.

"So are you sticking around or are you just gonna go to your room?" Beast Boy wanted to know.

"I just need a shower and a change," Robin, who was in his civilian clothes, blushed.

"Right… see you tomorrow, then," Cyborg smirked.

"For lunch," Slade added with a smirk.

"Hey, I need to spend some time with my team too," Robin objected.

"But it's like they said, we've haven't seen each other for almost two weeks…?" Slade pointed out. They hadn't told anyone what had really happened and thought they'd better keep it that way for now.

"Um, yes, but… oh, damn, just come have a shower with me then…" the teen sighed, giving up.

"A shower and nine thousand nine hundred and eighty two?" Slade asked.

"Yes."

"Then let's go."

"Please?" Starfire asked. "I do know what number one and number two means now, but…?"

"Star," Cy said dryly, "I don't think neither of us would want to know."

The shower did last for a suspiciously long time, but then Robin returned, in full costume, to the common room to catch up on everything that had happened in Jump lately. Slade joined him, also in clean but civilian clothes, as he kept a few things here just for these kinds of… 'emergencies'. Instead of catching up, however, he went for the news paper pile on the sofa table.

"Well, nothing too big has been happening… Slade was out of town after all," Cyborg grinned.

"Thank you," the man nodded behind his paper.

"Still, we had a run-in with Control Freak and-"

BOOOOOM!

The sound made the windows vibrate. It was low and almost drawn out, like a thunder-clap, but they all knew they had heard an explosion… and not a little one.

"The hell?" Cyborg exclaimed.

"Smoke is coming from the other side of town, what's over there?" Robin asked, trying to figure it out.

"Industrial areas, mostly. Warehouses. Lots of repair shops," Slade supplied.

"Yes, you're right… There are lots of private homes right next door, though," the Titan's leader pointed out.

As the heroes headed for the elevator, Slade calmly turned a page.

"You're not coming?" Robin asked.

"Am I a Titan?" the man countered.

"No, but this is big! People might be dying!"

"I'm not a hero. I'm sure you'll manage."

Robin knew that the more people on a job like this, the better, and Slade was, after all, unlikely to get harmed. He decided to play dirty.

"I need you." The words were practically dripping with suggestive qualities and the man glanced up at him sharply.

"Well played."

"Always. Get off your ass and move it!" Robin smirked. "BB, you'll fly me, Star, take Slade. Cy, take the car. Rae, go with Cy, you might need every ounce of power there, I don't want you wasting any flying. Titans go!"

As they arrived on the site the whole block was already closed off by police, which was a bit surprising as the heroes usually were first to arrive. Glass and debris was littering the streets, sirens were blaring and people, both injured and not, were yelling and screaming. A large building in the middle had clearly been in the centre of the explosion and was reduced to rubble, the ones closes to it not much better off.

"Looks like a war zone," Slade commented.

"Officer, what happened?" Robin asked the closest cop.

"We had a fire in that warehouse." the man said, pointing to the rubble. "It spread to several surrounding buildings. We got everyone out and evacuated the closest buildings but then someone tells us they stored some gas bottles in there, and at that moment bang! There weren't many people close because of the fire, but we have some severe injuries from debris. Ambulances are on their way, but there's a lot of rubble to get through."

"Raven will be here any minute; could someone show her to the victims?" Robin asked and got a nod in return.

"The explosion blew the fires out?" Slade asked, and received a strange look from the police officer.

"Yes. For now. Sorry, sir, but no civilians are allowed here, please go stand behind the tape?"

"Um, he's not a civilian, he's a… hero in training," Robin said. "Something of an intern." As the officer just nodded and turned away, Robin glanced up at the mercenary worriedly.

-You'll pay for that- Slade mouthed to him.

Robin and the rest of the Titans, even Slade, began helping the less injured, Beast Boy and Starfire flying to the closest hospitals for supplies.

The air was thick with dust, making it hard to see and even breathe, and alarms of all kinds, car-alarms, fire alarms and burglar alarms had been set off all around the area. Suddenly a woman's voice cut through the noise.

"Cecilie! No! No, come back!" the woman came running towards one of the more damaged buildings and Robin was only able to stop her just before she ran into it.

"Ma'am, you can't go in there!" he barked.

"But my little girl! She ran in there! My husband works in there and- I have to find her!"

"Is your husband in there too?" the hero asked.

"No, no, he's not even in town, he's on a business trip, but-!"

The teen looked back into the shell of a building and swallowed. It looked like it could collapse at any moment, and it was big. The risk of the fire blossoming up or even another explosion was also great.

"We'll look for her, don't worry. Slade!"

As the man hurried over, Robin used his communicator.

"Rae, wounded status report?"

"Starfire and Beast Boy are flying critical cases to the hospitals, mostly scrapes and cuts left, but a lot of them."

"We might need you to help hold the big warehouse building up, we have a search and rescue."

"Need help?" Cyborg cut in.

"Sorry, Cy, can't risk more people in there, try to keep everyone away, alright? Slade and I are going in."

"What does she look like?" Slade asked the hysterical woman.

"She has blue eyes and-"

"Come on, Slade, it's not like we're gonna leave any kid in there just because she has brown eyes," Robin snorted. "Let's go!"

"Her name is Cecilie!" the woman shouted after them.

Immediately as they entered the building, even though the small windows close by the ceiling were long gone, the noise of the street seemed to die away. It was replaced by other noises, though; the creaking of beams, the almost popping sound of cooling stone and cement. These were sounds the teen hand never heard before. Sparks from a wall made him pull out his communicator again.

"Cy, it seems we still have live wires in here, tell someone to cut the power!"

"The buildings here are on their own grid, they are working on it... be careful!"

"There should have been a short-out by now," Slade said. "Maybe the place has its own generator as well."

"Just don't touch anything that goes 'ffffzzzt!'" Robin told him.

"Brilliant. Did Batman teach you that?" the man chuckled.

"Yeah, and he also taught me to- fuck!" the teen hissed and shook his fingers.

"No, that was me," Slade leered.

"Funny. Damn, that was hot!"

"The metal beam? In a smoldering building? Really?" the mercenary deadpanned.

"Well, I felt it through my glove! I can take things out of the oven with these gloves… Shit, if the kid touched-"

"Let's go on."

The place was big and seemed to be divided in several sections, each filled with shelves, containers or boxes, many of those destroyed by the fire and explosion. They took the easiest rout in, figuring that that's the way the girl must have come, but it still was far from a an easy walk, with debris everywhere. They came to what seemed like a maze of metal shelves, some which had collapsed, creating a domino-effect, dragging more of them with them. It was much darker in here than Robin had expected and he was glad he had a flashlight. He was not glad that, since he had been away for so long, he had forgotten to recharge it.

"Damn, useless thing…" he muttered, hitting it repeatedly with his hand.

"Yes, you are, but I'm keeping you around anyway," Slade answered. The playful bickering seemed to be on automatic, however, because the man was intensely focused on his surroundings. "Look out!" he suddenly barked and pulled Robin out of the way of yet another shelf that crashed to the floor.

"Hmmm… there's something very familiar about this… having stuff falling on us…" Robin grinned. "Lex, are you around here somewhere?"

"He better not be or he'll be dead. We can't go back that way, not without climbing," the man told him.

"Yeah, rather not be disturbing anything else," the teen muttered. "Cecilie! Cecilie, are you in here? We're here to save you! Keep still and call to us, will you? Cecilie!"

But there was no answer.

"Raven," Robin called over his communicator, "How are things looking from the outside?"

"Not good, the police want you out of there. The building won't stand much longer," the empath's voice answered.

"Anything you can do?"

"I'm trying, but it's too big, too complex…" the young woman's voice sounded strained.

"Don't drain yourself, Rae, we'll try to hurry!" Robin promised. "Robin out."

"We won't find her standing around here, let's go," Slade said and continued on.

They kept walking, and Robin kept calling out, until the mercenary raised a hand.

"Shh!"

"What?" Robin whispered.

"I heard something… over here," Slade answered and pointed to a large pile of collapsed shelves. Now Robin heard it too.

"Someone's crying!" he gasped and threw all caution to the wind, jumping and vaulting over the rubble until he reached the source of the sound. "Cecilie? Cecilie can you hear me?"

"Owww!"

Robin blinked. That didn't sound like a girl. Slade joined him and peered into the darkness.

"False alarm. Just a cat," the man said, sounding irritated.

"Can you lift this part up, and I'll be able to reach it," Robin half asked, half ordered.

"I'm not risking you getting caught under anything for a cat," the man scoffed.

"That's very nice of you, but I'm not leaving it in here," the teen said, and a staring contest began. Robin won.

"That's not fair, I only have one eye," Slade muttered as he carefully took hold of the closest shelf.

Robin wriggled inside and could just hook a finger under the cat's collar, although the animal was not very happy about being found. Its fur were scorched in a few places, but it seemed healthy enough and hissed at Slade when Robin presented it to the man. "You hold it."

"You are the one with gloves."

"But you heal faster."

The man sighed and took the wriggling creature.

"Here," Robin said and took off his cape, and, with a little bit of work, the cat was wrapped up and looked like a pissed-off burrito, tucked up under Slade's arm. "Awww, you're a pretty kitty… must be some kind of purebred, right?" the teen asked his lover.

"Not an expert," Slade said. "Let's find that girl and get out of here."

"Robin? Come in Robin!" Cyborg's voice called out.

"Robin here, what's up Cy?"

"We're seeing smoke on the west side, seems like something has caught fire again!"

"Damn! No sign of the girl?"

"No, her mum is just sobbing uncontrollably… so you haven't' found her?"

"No, and we're really far in! I don't know how she could have run this far… how old is she, anyway?"

"Five, I heard, but that's all we been able to get out of her… that and that the kid was scared by all the alarms…"

"Ran in here to look for her daddy, no doubt," Robin growled. "We'll keep searching!"

They pushed on, and soon Slade said that he could smell smoke. They were moving in a circle, trying to negotiate the maze when they heard a loud rumble which made the floor shake.

"That must have been a wall caving in. Let's hope it wasn't a supportive one," Slade growled. "Robin, we should think of getting out."

"No! Not yet!"

"A five year old in there somewhere… and she hasn't answered in all this time," the man said grimly.

"She's all right."

"She could have gone in another direction, she might have taken a few steps, touched a wire and-"

"No! And even if… Slade, we have to find her!"

"Fine, Princess," the man sighed. "But we really have to talk about your obsession with being unreasonable."

Robin could smell the smoke now as well, and pulled out a simple filter mask for himself and the mercenary. Those wouldn't be enough soon, however, he knew that much. They were close to an outer wall when the roof above them began to give away.

"That's it. We run. NOW," Slade ordered.

Whoever was in charge of cutting the power had obviously failed, because as another wall collapsed the cables inside were exposed and they whipped at them like angry snakes.

"This building does not like us," Robin growled.

"The feeling is mutual," Slade replied dryly.

The wall had given them another way to go, however, and some more light. Robin's eyes were searching desperately, and he was moving slower than he could, much slower than Slade would have liked.

"I'll carry you too if I have to!" the man snapped.

"But I don't want to-"

"Tough!" the man grabbed his arm and hauled him around the next corner, and through the aisle which opened up behind it. Dust and smoke was thick in the air, and Robin's light flickered and died completely.

"Cecilie!" the teen coughed out again, squinting through the faint natural light filtering through to floor level. "Answer!"

The answer was a loud cracking noise, however, not a girl's voice.

"Part of the roof is falling in! We're close to the exit, now hu-"

They both had to throw themselves back as a huge metal beam and cement boulders crashed to the floor in front of them, together with several fluorescent lamps, which showered them in sharp shards.

"Okay… not that close," Slade growled. "Back, then! Back now!"

But the building were coming down all around them, and now the teen began to feel the heat of the air, knowing that the fire was closing in on them as well.

"Robin!" a call came through the communicator.

"Oh, god, I almost forgot they were out there," the teen gasped, and answered. "Raven! Can you locate us? We need to get out! Now!"

"Cy is helping me, but you're far away. BB and Star are trying to hold the roof up over your section!"

"Tell them to try better," the man muttered, pulling Robin close and half curling his shoulders over the teen, trying to protect him from the debris.

"Cecilie!" Robin cried out once more, one last, desperate, yell. There was no answer.

Black energy began to build around them, forming a sphere, and as they were lifted off the ground and the orb began to move through the closest wall, Robin let out a dry sob.

"You can't win them all, Princess…" Slade told him somberly.

The light outside made the teen hiss, it seemed too bright after the gloom inside. Raven's orb took them all the way to safety, clear away from the building, which gave one final shake and then completely collapsed behind them.

"Oh, god…" Robin mumbled brokenly as the sphere sat them down and he was met but the tearstained face of the mother who was coming towards them.

"My baby?"

"Ma'am… ma'am, I'm sorry, we-"

"My girl!" the woman was running towards them now and Robin could sense Slade tense beside him. "Cecilie!"

"We're really sorry, but-"

"You saved my little girl!"

"What?" Robin blinked, but before he knew it the woman had snatched the mewing burrito from Slade's arms.

"Oh, mommy's little Ceci-kitty!" she cooed, while everyone around her was staring at her.

"Ma'am?" a police officer said. "Cecilie is a cat?"

"Of course she's a cat, she's my little baby!"

"I think I will escort you home and we will have a little talk," the man said grimly, casting an apologetic look over his shoulder at Slade and Robin.

"WHOOO HO!" Robin whooped and hugged a rather unprepared Slade in the middle of the crowd, who gaped even more now.

"You are inappropriately happy," the man muttered.

"Why wouldn't I be? I thought a little girl had died!" Robin grinned. "See? You can win them all!"

"You might be the exception," the man sighed. "Let's get out of here."

But as they walked towards the car two police officers stepped in front of them.

"Is there a problem?" Robin asked tensely.

"No, sir, not at all… we were just talking and… well… we have a theory…?"

"Um… alright? About what?" Robin asked.

The officers came closer and looked around, lowering their voices so no one else would here.

"Your 'intern'… we were thinking he's tall and muscular enough so… is he Batman?"

Robin didn't quite know how to react. "Umm… I… Batman doesn't have a beard?" he tried.

"Well, it's obviously fake!" the other police officer snorted, reached up, and pulled at Slade's goatee.

The world around the hero stopped. He was, in a way, standing next to a nuclear bomb about to go off, and he knew there was nothing he could do. For once in his life he knew exactly how Wile E. Coyote must feel when he held up a sign saying 'Help!' or 'Yikes!' or something like that. There was really nothing else to do.

"You're not going to say anything?" Slade asked him three hours later.

"The bail was a bit stiff," Robin shrugged calmly.

"That's it? No yelling? No scolding? No threatening me with the couch?"

"Slade, you knocked out two police officers. What can I say besides… they deserved it!" the teen grinned. "But disturbing Bruce on his honeymoon so he, or rather Batman, could vouch for you… that you might have to pay for later."

"So I am forgiven?"

"Nothing to forgive."

"Good… then you only have to work on your own forgiveness…" the man told him, with a leer which spoke very plainly of the things the teen would have to do to earn it.

"Mine? What did I do?"

"Well, you goad me into going on a mission with you, you have an alien girl flying me there, chattering all the way about idiotic things, I might add, you present me to the police as an intern hero, you rush into a collapsing building without all the facts, you make me carry an absolutely mental cat around, the claw marks are still visible, by the way, and then I'm mistaken for BATMAN!"

"Well, in all honesty, the last thing isn't my fault," Robin tried.

"You put the hero-idea in their mind. You could have said mercenary."

"Yes, well-"

"I've had a really, really bad day, Robin."

"Fine. What can I do?" the teen sighed.

"When we get back to the Tower I want you in the shower with me again, and we're not leaving there until I have come at least twice. After that we're heading to bed, but I'm going to keep fucking you until I come dry. And then a few more times for good measure."

"Sounds fair," the teen grinned. "Maybe we should stop and pick up some more lube, though?"

"Speaking about getting back to the Tower…" Cy said dryly. "You are aware you are still in the car with us, aren't you?"

The End

A/N: Credits to Topkat82 who helped me name Cecilie (though she was told she was a girl.. .;) ) And yeah, I know some of you will review saying that you knew it was the cat all along… *sigh* I can never fool ALL of you, but I really tried to divert your attention from it. If you have any ideas about how I might do it better, please share.

I hoped you liked this little visit to this universe! There might, perhaps, be one more Black Sheep Drabble this year, but, for certain reasons, I have to keep this universe pretty much closed for now, so I don't encourage you to wish for it… you'll see more of it anyway, trust me! ;)