THIS IS ONE DAY EARLY! BECAUSE I HAVE NO EFFING INTERNET! My phone company decided to do an upgrade and it went to hell… so I might not be online at all for a few days… so I'll update this now. The next drabble is scheduled at the 15'th so hopefully everything works WELL before then, but if not, you know why…

Happy B-day IWalkedWithZombie (August 8)!

This is a freestanding story with a little bit of angst… The theme is keeping secrets… ;)

What You Hide From Me

Robin straightened up and grimaced as he stretched his back. He whipped out his communicator from his belt and flicked it open.

"All clear on my side, Batman,"

"Meet me on the top of the Ace Chemicals building," the order came.

Robin pulled out his grapple hook and was flying through the air in an instant.

Back in Gotham. It seemed somewhat surreal and he couldn't say that he had missed this place, not really. Bruce was treating him a bit more like a partner and less like a sidekick, however, so it was tolerable, and he loved spending time with Alfred. And it was all worth it because the alternative was so much more painful. He couldn't stay in Jump City after Slade had- no. No, he wouldn't think about the man. Not now. He spent the hours in bed, trying to fall asleep thinking of him anyway.

"We're done for the night," the Dark Knight said as Robin landed next to him. The man also gave a short nod which the teen, now, knew to translate to 'good job'. He hadn't known that when he was younger, and the apparent lack of approval had been one of the things to drive a wedge between them. Still the damn man could say it once in a while, couldn't he? Even Slade used to- no.

"Don't let your mind drift. We're heading back." Batman almost snapped at him and was off. Robin sighed and followed. The man was right. It had been almost three weeks, after all… he should be able to at least come to terms with it by now. Slade was dead.

Even though it was two in the morning, Alfred had a cup of hot chocolate waiting for him when he came up from the cave. Robin smiled gratefully; this was one thing he would never grow too old for. He took it upstairs to his old room and sank down at his desk, sipping it and staring at the wall. His eyes drifted down to a framed photo on the desk and the pain came back again, as raw as ever.

It was he and Slade. Robin had taken it with his own cell phone, holding it out in front of him while pressing his and the man's faces closely together, making sure they were both in the shot. He was wearing a stupid grin while Slade looked half annoyed, half amused. It was the only photo he had of them. It had been taken just as their booty-call relationship had begun to grow into something more and then- Then Slade had died.

Robin groaned and rubbed his eyes. They hadn't even really known each other, for god's sake! They seldom really talked about themselves, they were just beginning to open up and trust one another when it had happened. The earthquake. It had collapsed a few buildings, and Slade had shown up when Robin and the Titans were getting people out of a damaged one. He had helped and was just going in for a last look around when the aftershock had hit. The rescue team had told the heroes that there was no way anyone could have survived in the rubble and that they needed the Titans special powers to rescue survivors they knew of. Robin had tried to help for a few days, but he was only human and his leading abilities were also shattered by the accident. So he had fled back to Gotham. Bruce knew about the relationship he had with Slade, Robin hadn't kept it from him or his friends, refusing to seem ashamed of it. He understood why people were skeptical, though. Not only did Slade have a bit od a murky past, there was also the age-difference, although the teen wasn't sure how old the man was… that was one of the things they hadn't talked about, and it was rather hard to judge. He could be anything between thirty-five and fifty, really, Robin assumed. The Dark Knight might not have exactly approved of the relationship, but there wasn't really much he could do, after all, and now… well, now he didn't have to worry anymore, did he?

Robin sighed and pulled out his communicator again, this time to contact his team. He checked in on them every day, even though it hurt and he felt like a quitter for abandoning them.

"Robin! Please, are you coming home soon?" Starfire asked as soon as she answered.

"Maybe… I… How are things going?"

Cyborg appeared next to the alien, looking a bit worn and serious.

"It's still mostly cleanup. No more survivors for days now… we're pulling out bodies, though."

"Have… have you found…?"

"No, sorry Rob, but that building was in the industrial area and that was almost empty as it was the weekend… we have to focus on down town… the malls…" the teen's voice almost broke at the horror he had seen for the last weeks, and Robin closed his eyes briefly.

"I'm… I'm coming back. I'm so sorry I left. I…"

"We understand," Raven said firmly. "Don't ever doubt that."

"Yeah, don't worry 'bout us," Beast Boy told him with a weak grin.

"No, I let you down. I'm heading back tonight, I going to go talk to Batman right now," Robin said and ended the call.

When he reached the cave, however, it was empty. He checked the showers and the gym as well, but it seemed Bruce had gone to bed. Robin sighed. He shouldn't, no he couldn't, just leave without saying goodbye again… he just had to go wake the man up, he guessed. Strolling through the cave he discovered that one monitor had been left on. He walked over and sat down. Bruce had been working on collecting all the data for their current case, so Robin saved the files and closed them. As he had, however, he noticed a folder named S.W. His heart skipped a beat and then he snorted. S.W: Slade Wilson. That was what his brain provided, anyway, but of course it did; Slade was the only thing on his mind, after all. It probably stood for something else completely, but, even so, Robin opened it.

It was about Slade. Thumbnail photos and files popped up at him, the images all containing a white-haired man or a two-toned mask. Robin gasped but then smiled a little. Bruce had researched Slade. Of course he had. That wasn't surprising at all, and it actually warmed Robin's heart that the man had cared enough, or been worried enough, to go to this much trouble. The thing that made his stomach clench a little, however, was that there seemed to be much more information here than Robin himself knew about the man. Army records, medical records, photos from- wow, did he used to be blond? Robin gaped at a very old-looking ID picture. Huh… weird… and the date… that couldn't be right, could it? Was this Slade's dad? Had he had the same name? The teen hesitated. Going deeper would reopen the wound again, even though it hadn't exactly closed, but here was also an opportunity to really get to know the man he had lost. Like Slade was reaching out to him from beyond the grave, trying to let him know all the things they hadn't had time to share. Robin couldn't miss an opportunity like that. He took a big breath and opened the first file.

The teen turned off the computer feeling strangely cold. He then got up, his legs shaking slightly, and ran, all the way to Bruce's bedroom, where he pounded on the door before throwing it open.

"You knew!"

"Dick, what-?" the man, sleepily, asked, sitting up. He didn't have time to finish, however before a fist hit his face.

"YOU KNEW! And you knew I didn't!"

"What is this about?!" Bruce barked.

"His healing abilities! He's practically immortal! You knew!"

The look on the man's face told Robin that he had, indeed, known, and he also knew exactly what it meant.

"YOU FUCKING-!" the teen began. "HE MIGHT STILL BE ALIVE! Trapped under a building for weeks! And you knew! YOU KNEW!"

"I thought it was for the best to-"

"FUCK YOU!"

"If you read that part, you read the rest as well. He's not a good man, Robin, you deserve better, I-"

"I KNEW about the rest! I knew what he did!" Robin yelled. Slade might have never told him when and where, but he knew some details. "I didn't care! We were overcoming that!"

"He probably didn't survive, Robin, he's not indestructible, and-"

But Robin didn't listen; he had already turned around, leaving for the T-jet.

He arrived on the scene merely two hours later, having pushed the jet to its limits and beyond. He had contacted his team from the plane and they were already there, working with a rescue crew.

"Have you-?" Robin asked, jumping off his bike which he had taken from the Tower after landing on its roof.

"Not yet, but BB can smell something. There's just a lot of rubble to lift," Raven answered, looking beyond tired. She and Starfire had drained themselves dangerously several times since the earthquake and they could barely lift more than Robin at this point. Still they soldiered on. The hope of finding a survivor after all this death gave new energy to them all.

"I see a hand!" someone shouted and Robin's heart seemed to just stop. He didn't feel it beating again until he was standing over the body, looking into Slade's eye. The man was pinned under huge boulders and a normal man would have died instantly. The mercenary, however, was still alive.

"There you are," the man rasped. "I was getting bored."

The End

A/N: the prompt to this story was "Robin finds out that Batman has kept vital information about Slade away from him". I thought about what that information could be and what it might mean and came up with this… and yeah, I felt mushy and gave it a happy ending, just scratch that if you're feeling more angsty… ;)