Monday, 21 December ~*And *~

"What is it today?" Slade asked at breakfast.

"White tea with apple-, pear- and grenadine flavor." Robin read off the package. "Sounds interesting."

"Sounds like a fruit salad. Is the taste of tea so horrible that they need to disguise it as much as possible?"

Robin chuckled. Bruce was already at work. Alfred was also busy somewhere and Selina had gone into town. Robin wasn't sure what she did for a living now when she claimed to have left the criminal world behind, but he didn't want to snoop either. He was sure that Bruce knew, and if he was okay with it, Robin wasn't going to question it. Not throwing rocks in glass houses here. It was just the two of them, and it suited the teen just fine.

Slade was idly playing with a fruit knife as he was doing something on his phone. He put his phone down and all of a sudden slashed the top of his own hand with the blade.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Robin gasped, staring at him, wondering if he had gone mad.

The man looked back, puzzled, while wiping the blood off his hand.

"What?"

"You just cut yourself!"

"Yes?" Then he apparently realized why the young man had reacted, and snorted. "Robin, come on, I'm not psychotic, use your brain."

The teen, feeling rather affronted, thought about it all for a moment, and then understood what was really going on.

"You're checking your healing factor?"

"Bingo."

"Are you… worried it has… vanished?"

"When I've been injured before, it has been a bit… wonky, at times, afterwards."

"Wonky? Your healing ability? Wonky?"

"It has been slower, sometimes faster, than usual. I just like to keep track." The man looked at the top of his hand. "Stopped bleeding. Good. If it had already been gone, it would have been working too quickly. I think that drains me, and might be the reason I collapsed."

"Not taking a fucking break might have helped with that too," Robin muttered.

"I'd love to take a fucking break," Slade, predictably, leered back.

It had been a joint agreement, of sorts, that today was a day of rest and relaxation. Well, from the work with the mission at least. They had done everything they could, they had gone through what to wear, gadgets they would need, none of them easily connected to Batman, of course. In fact, Slade was going in in full uniform. He wanted to make damn sure they knew it was him who took them down, and Batman had agreed as the others then would most likely be dismissed as hired hands.

Slade had chuckled and said that was a suitable status, and Bruce had concurred, saying that he was happy to draw up an invoice for his time, materials, and room and board. Robin had then chimed in that he wondered if Bruce would charge Slade for him as well, and the mercenary had burst out laughing. Bruce had rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath, which, Slade informed him later, had been something along the line of 'cheap' and 'on the house'.

The teen had spent the whole night in Slade's room, and they had tired each other out. They still hadn't gone 'all the way' again, though. Robin discovered that the thought of it made him balk… like he would jinx it all and wake up alone again. He knew it was stupid, but as most of his brain had come around by now, he thought it was just a matter of time.

"Master Richard, if I may remind you of the stairs? And the servant's entrance too, please, I'm expecting deliveries later this morning," Alfred told him from the doorway, interrupting thoughts of fun things you could do in bed.

"Of course, I'll get right on it," Robin said.

"Thank you. I'll have hot cocoa ready for you when you are done."

Robin didn't even question how the man would be able to keep an eye on his progress and make sure the hot treat was ready at that very moment, because that was simply Alfred-magic. It just happened.

It had turned quite cold overnight and a lot more snow had fallen, closing some roads and causing some problems. Yesterday he had been able to get the snow off with a broom, but now it took a shovel. The actual driveway was cleared by the groundskeeper people, but the stairs were the responsibility of the inside crew, meaning, right now, Robin. Why that was, the teen didn't know, but it had to do with contracts and such, he suspected.

The sky was blue, without a single cloud. Robin got dressed warmly in some of his old clothes he still had at the manor and got to work. He hadn't asked or expected it, but Slade joined him, making the work much quicker.

"Still like snow?" the man laughed at him when they were almost done and Robin slipped spectacularly and ended up on his ass in the stuff.

"Yes," Robin insisted, "I just don't like ice."

The hot chocolate was, of course, handed to them the moment they came inside, and they drank it in the sitting room, warming up. They ended up stealing a few kisses on the couch and Robin stretched out alongside Slade, resting his head on the man's shoulder. Life was good. It was just a pity it would suck tomorrow.

He rested there, admiring the tree. It now had presents under it. His own had been delivered and he had wrapped them himself. He hoped his family would like them. He and the Teen Titans had decided not to exchange gifts this year and instead make a donation to different charities in Jump. It seemed to make more sense. He wondered about next Christmas. Would it be back to normal or not? It seemed impossible to him that it wouldn't, but on the other hand he had expected this whole pandemic to be over in a few weeks, and now it's been nearly a year. He put a lot of hope to a vaccine, but knew that wouldn't be a quick fix. Many would refuse it too, making it less effective overall. While he could understand the hesitation because of what happened with the swine flu vaccine, he personally saw it as his civic duty to take it. He also knew that what happened with the swine flu vaccine was extremely rare. Would there be some side effects for some people? Possibly, but if the world was going to be able to go back to a somewhat normal existence again, the vaccine was the way to go, he was sure of it.

Now, if there was only a vaccine against claustrophobia…

To be Continued…