Oh my gods, will the Robrae shippers ever stop the Starfire hate? -,-
Exhaustion
"Rob, you sure you fine?"
"Yes."
Cyborg raised an eyebrow, clearly not believing his leader's statement at all. "Okay, let go of the table."
Robin frowned, not quite liking the idea of someone seeing through his façade.
Okay so maybe he had been avoiding sleep for a week now, and maybe he was tired. And maybe he had to hold on to the table to stay upright while he was reading the newspaper.
But he couldn't go to sleep now, crime didn't sleep; and if that really was the case then neither did he.
"Cyborg, I'm fine."
"Then do it."
Robin sighed and hesitantly pulled away from the table, wobbling slightly but quickly covering it up by standing firmly on his feet. He looked up at the mechanic teen with an I-told-you-so look on his face.
Cyborg's eyes narrowed. He still didn't believe the younger boy; he knew when someone was lacking sleep. He had experienced it many times.
Who knew how many times his coach yelled at him whenever he slacked in training? Every week he'd hear 'Go home and get some sleep, Vic, basketball doesn't mean more than your health.'
And then when he got home, he'd hear from his mother 'Victor, you really need to stop pushing yourself so much, honey."
Hell, even his father said it and the teen only saw him whenever he visited the lab.
The point was, Robin was pushing himself way too hard.
But if he knew anything about the Boy Wonder (which wasn't much) it was that he was stubborn and great at changing the subject or covering things up. If Cyborg kept pushing the topic; he would get nowhere.
So he dropped it and left the room.
Robin closed his eyes and sighed, was his lack of sleep really that obvious? Why was Cyborg up so early anyway? The only people that woke up this early were him and-
"Cy's right, you know."
Robin didn't even turn around to face the person behind him. "You were watching us and I didn't even notice, I'm impressed."
Raven rolled her eyes and flicked her hand; eyes glowing white as the newspaper her leader was reading flew her way.
He sighed. "Raven-"
"You need to get some sleep," her voice was monotone and her eyes quickly scanned over the paper. "There's nothing in here you should worry about, so go."
Robin finally turned to look at her and raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms and leaning against the table behind him. "The others already tried to get me to sleep, it didn't work."
"Think I care?" Her eyes locked on him. "Beast Boy isn't very convincing, neither is Starfire, and I just saw what happened to Cyborg. What you just told me isn't anything new."
"Then why do you keep trying?"
The half-demon hummed and shrugged, carefully folding the newspaper in her hands and putting it on the counter behind her. "Because sooner or later you have to give in, you may be stubborn, but even you need to listen to reason sometimes."
He scoffed. "Well, thank you. Now you just made me more determined to not give in."
She sighed. "Robin, I know you're trying to help people, but you can't do that when you're killing yourself here. This isn't healthy."
"All of the things we do isn't healthy for us, Rae. Normal teens don't dress up and save the world."
"Cyborg's half-machine, Beast Boy is a shapeshifter, Starfire is an alien, I'm half-demon and you've been through things that would make most people go insane but you still manage to be a hero," she deadpanned. "I don't know if you've noticed, Boy Blunder, but we aren't exactly normal."
Before he could say something, she sighed and closed her eyes; silently chanting her mantra. "The point is, you want to help people and stop villains; but you need to be healthy to do that."
"Raven, what if something happens when I'm asleep?" He started. "What if Brother Blood or Slade come back? What if the world happened to end? What then?"
She scoffed. "Don't be ridiculous, you're a light sleeper; and even if there was some reason you couldn't help; there are still four Titans left."
"You don't get it."
"Oh, I do," she shrugged. "I just don't care."
"How can you-"
"You know," she cut in. "Starfire is almost at the point where she's planning to sing you a Tameranian lullaby, I heard it and it sounds more like a battle cry than a calming song. Quite disturbing, if you ask me."
He chuckled and shook his head. "Raven, what exactly are you trying to achieve here?"
She shrugged. "Distracting you from pushing yourself, maybe talk long enough so you get tired and fall asleep."
"I'd never get tired when you talk, that's Beast Boy's thing. Maybe you should get Speedy to talk about his hair, maybe that would work."
"That can be arranged."
Even if she really did call Roy, he doubted he'd fall asleep. Bored, yes, but not tired. With a best friend like Kid Flash you had to be alert all the time; Wally just didn't stop.
Raven sighed and locked her eyes on his masked ones; trapping him in place. "Get some sleep, Robin."
"I can't."
"Please?"
He hesitated, he never thought he'd say this about Raven, but she looked so adorable with her head tilted to the side and her wide pleading eyes on him. "I...I'm not even tired."
He yawned and cursed, of course his body had to betray him.
She scoffed. "Liar."
"No, seriously!"
"Coffee isn't going to keep you awake forever; too much caffeine isn't good for you, you know?"
Of course he knew, how many times did he watch Alfred scolding Bruce for the exact same thing he was doing right now? He remembered trying his best not to laugh at those moments and sometimes even backing the old man up when Bruce was putting himself in danger by not sleeping.
Now that he thought about it, everything his friends had told him were things either him or Alfred had told Batman; he was being a hypocrite by not listening.
The Boy Wonder was so deep in thought, he didn't even notice Raven move closer to him. He blinked in surprise when he saw her standing about arm's length away while she was standing a foot or two from him a minute ago.
"See?" She said when she saw his startled look. "You're so tired you aren't even paying attention to your surroundings anymore! Beast Boy's been listening in on us the whole time and you didn't notice!"
Robin turned to see a green fly hastily making his escape.
Okay, if he didn't notice that then something was definitely wrong with him.
"Fine," he sighed. "If I get some sleep will all of you stop being so worried about my well being?"
"I can't promise that, you're always doing something reckless and dangerous-"
He rolled his eyes.
"-but it would help a lot if you got some sleep!"
"Okay."
Raven smiled, a happy look crossing her face; a look he'd like to see on her a little more often.
"So, it is not of the necessary to sing anymore?"
"No, Star, it isn't."
"Friend Raven, are you of the most certain? Friend Robin can be very deceiving."
"Starfire, I'm sure."
"So I really do not need to sing-"
"Starfire!"
