Laundry duty.

Frickin' laundry duty.

It's a bigger job than you might think. With nine people living in the tower, that's a lot of clothes. What's worse, the wash room is deep in the bowels of the building way too big for those forementioned nine people.

I grunted with relief as I dropped the huge basket of dirty clothes. I look back at Noir. Or rather, his legs. His whole upper body was hidden by his own pile of clothes.

"All right, we're here." I can't help but yawn. "I could sure think of better ways to spend this time, I'll tell you that."

Noir dropped the clothes and we started picking through them, separating the colors from the whites. I passed the time by muttering to myself.

"Why isn't Virgil with us stuck doing this, too? He was late, wasn't he? At least we were there, kicking butt!" I threw a lazy hook through the air.

Noir shrugged.

"I'm just saying, Robin's picking on us because we're noobies."

Noir's fingers cut through the air.

"I know! We're not really noobies. We busted plenty of bad guy head before coming here. We have plenty of experience." I suddenly stopped sorting the clothes and smirked. "Say, Noir. Who do you think these belong to?"

I held up a pair of dainty pink panties.

I laughed when Noir blushed and tried to look away, but I continued to wave the underwear like a flag.

"C'mon! Who do you think?"

Noir hesitated, but then his fingers made the shape of a bird.

"Raven?"

Noir smirked and shook his head.

I fell over laughing.

"Hahahahahah! Yup! I'd guess Robin before Raven, too!"

Noir snickered breathily. Tentatively, he held up a lacy black bra and looked inquiringly at me.

"Hmm..." I pondered. I was leaning towards Raven but-

Noir signed.

I did a double take.

"Terra? No way! She wishes!"

Noir gave me a shocked looked before he chuckled silently.

"Phew...Lord, I apologize." I cut my eyes toward the ceiling. "She's probably just a -I dunno- a late bloomer or something."

Noir didn't comment on that.

We had almost finished sorting the clothes when Noir reached into his basket and brought out a dark blue robe. With a flourish, he wrapped it around himself and looked at me stoicly.

"Hehehe. I don't think blue's your color, man. Maybe after labor day or something."

Noir shrugged and dropped the robe into the colored pile.

I looked down into my own nearly empty basket and saw something that caught my eye: One of Robin's black and yellow capes. I instantly tied it around my neck, spun and pointed in a dramatic pose.

"Titans, go! Do exactly what I say! I'm better than you because I've worked with BATMAN!"

I blinked when Noir didn't laugh. It wasn't my best joke ever but-

Noir stood stock still and, barely moving his hands, he signed one word: Trouble.

My brow furrowed.

"Trouble? What kind of-"

I turned and saw Robin, his face hard and his arms folded across his chest.

I gulped.

"Um...h-howdy."

Noir waved weakly.

Robin sounded all the world like a stern teacher when he said:

"I can see already I'm going to have to separate you two."

I spoke up immediately.

"You can't do that! Me and Noir here work best together. Like Brooks and Dunn! Or George Jones and Tammy Wynette...only in a platonic way!"

Robin's eye slits narrowed.

"Then prove it." He turned with a swoosh of his cape and walked away. When he was gone, I let out an explosive sigh of relief.

"Phew...I thought he was gonna bite our durn heads off." I was content on going back to our punishment of laundry duty, but Noir's face looked a little worried. He signed at me in a flurry.

"C'mon! What did I say about not letting them get to you? Don't worry, we did fine."

Noir's hands moved again.

"The guy that got away? Don't worry about it, we'll get him." An idea suddenly hit me. "Say...how 'bout we throw these clothes in and go get him ourselves? Robin won't be able to say anything to us then."

Noir started to sign again, but I waved it off.

"It'll be perfect!"

Noir's face told me he didn't agree.

"Loosen up, man!" I put my arm around his shoulders. "We just track him down, whack bam boom, and we bring him in. What could go wrong?"

Noir simpered.