Friday, 18 December ~* True *~

Robin was exhausted the next day and almost fell asleep during the morning lecture. His body was also aching, and he gulped down his white tea with grapefruit- and aloe, hoping the aloe would somehow work internally.

After class he, gathering all the strength he had, finally ordered the presents. They weren't going to be anything expensive, especially as he was willing to wager that Selina would be around at Christmas, and had bought her a little gift as well, a couple of handmade soaps. At least he was using his own money, that he had literally sweated his ass off for. He bought them all locally and most were promised to be delivered that very evening.

He had just finished when his bedroom door swung open.

"Aren't your classes done? We need to train," Slade told him.

"Please no?" Robin groaned.

"We're doing this Tuesday night, it needs to be perfect."

"We can fuck right now, if you just give me today off!"

Slade, to his credit, only hesitated for a moment.

"Sorry. This is too important. Come now or I'll carry you downstairs."

"That sounds good. Carry me. I can't walk," Robin whined.

So Slade did. Over his shoulder. Spanking the teen's butt every now and then.

"You raised a whiny, lazy little brat," the mercenary told Bruce as they entered the Batcave. Robin felt really hurt for a moment, before he was let down and saw the smirk and the glittering in the man's eye. He had just been joking.

"University changed him," Bruce sighed, joking as well. "Come on, we'll start working on where to plant the explosives."

"Are you sure you won't bring the place down?" the teen said after seeing the charges. "And how am I supposed to bring all that with me?"

"They are carefully calculated so they won't harm the structure. And in a bag. Which you also need to practice with."

"Yay."

"He's sarcastic too," Slade pointed out.

"Wait until you hear about his taste in men," Bruce told him.

"Actually, I'm straight now," Robin claimed innocently.

The work wasn't exhausting or difficult. Robin knew his way around a server room, and even though they didn't know how it looked inside of this particular one, it was easy enough to determine how to place the explosives in different scenarios. Robin practiced until he smoothly and quickly could pick a charge from the bag, fastened it and arm it, before moving onto the next. After less than an hour Bruce decided they had done enough in that area. The others had been busy deciding on how to place similar charges around their own targets, and they had even less of an idea about how that would look. Slade had experiences from the other site and it was most likely similar, but they didn't know, so the amount of material then needed was uncertain. They would have to think on their feet, but neither man had problems with that, after all.

Then it was time for lunch.

"Where is Selina, by the way?" Robin asked innocently as they were eating. He thought he saw Bruce's cheeks color just a smidge.

"She… is running some errands. She… is going to quarantine here with us for a while, so she needed to pick some things up."

"Well, that's reasonable, as she's helping out," Robin nodded wisely.

"Exactly," Bruce agreed quickly, sounding relieved.

"So, which bedroom is she in?" Robin then asked sweetly. "Have you prepared it yet, Alfred? Want me to help?"

"We-we have that sorted," Bruce quickly cut in. "Anyway, after lunch we'll do more training with the vent," he added, vengefully.

Robin looked to Slade for help, but found no sympathy. At least not enough for him to get out of it.

"We're going to be there at the beginning," Slade told Robin. "Getting the hood off the ventilation shaft, before we lower ourselves down to our floor. So, we'll make sure you're on your way."

"How do we know for sure there won't be anything in the way?" Robin said.

"We don't. But we know enough about ventilation to know that it wouldn't make sense for it to be blocked by anything. If it is…" Slade hesitated, like he didn't want to think about that option. "You have your metal cutter. It would be difficult to know exactly where you would end up, but you can get out."

Robin knew that was mostly bullshit. Yes, the cutter was very powerful, but it was one thing to cut through four screws and another to cut a hole in sheet metal big enough for him to climb out from. If he had even cut the hole where the vent went through a room, if it was going through a wall, he wouldn't get out anyway. But if Slade wanted him to feel like he had a security blanket, the teen was willing to pretend that too.

"I want to try climbing back up," he said a bit later, as he had just made it down the horizontal path.

"Alright," he was told, so he tried.

"There's no way. I can't get enough leverage to lift myself up enough," he said after a while, panic starting to well up inside him again. He wanted out. He wanted out now.

"Robin," Slade's voice said in his ear. "Continue on. Follow the plan. That's the way out. You're soon there. We'll open the hatch so you don't have to do it yourself this time. This was just warm up. Show us how it's done."

The teen took a deep breath. He didn't know what it was about Slade, but the man had a way of helping him center himself, that not even Bruce had. He started moving and his muscle memory took over. It was just a job he had to do.

To be Continued…