One morning, Robin woke up to find that Red's side of the bed was completely empty. Assuming he was already having breakfast in the kitchen, he rolled out of bed and waddled to the door. "Red! I'm up!" He waited for a moment, frowning when he heard no response. "Red!" Still nothing. He sighed and stepped into the hall. "Red, come on! I'm going to leak!" He whined. He entered the main room of the lair only to find it just as vacant as Red's sheets. "Red?" Where was he? Come to think of it, where was Slade? Usually he would be faithfully sitting at the computer while he and Red ate breakfast. Had something happened?

Robin looked around for a note, making a noise of disgust. Figures, can't even trust them to keep him in the know. He bit his lip and looked down. What was he supposed to do now? Slade had specifically said no changing himself, but he couldn't just stay in a soaked diaper all day. It would leak, or he would get a rash. On the other hand, if he did decide to take it off, he wasn't sure what would be worse: a rash, or Slade's wrath.

"They'll probably be back soon." Robin told himself. "It would be stupid to get in trouble for being impatient." Robin took a seat at the island and grabbed a box of cereal, wondering what the titans were doing at that moment. Were they working tirelessly to find him? Or had they given up hope, assumed him dead, and proceeded with their lives. Were they broken up at the loss of their leader? Had Cyborg taken over? Robin was dying to know what was happening outside of windowless world Slade kept him in. Blackmail may have kept him from attempting to escape, but that didn't keep his thoughts from wandering towards rebellion. Speaking which…

Robin turned in his seat to look at Slade's monitor. He would bet his entire right hand that Slade kept the records of his secret on that very computer. Several instances of peeking over Slade's shoulder as he walked by told him that there was an encrypted folder on Slade's desktop labelled birdwatching. That had to be it. Looking around for any signs of Slade, he got up and quietly walked across the room to Slade's control panel. He took a seat in Slade's chair and felt a small shiver of excitement. It had been a while since he had truly defied Slade and he was surprised to find how much he had missed it. How had he become so soft? Was it truly the blackmail that was killing his rebellious attitude, or was it something else? Could it be that Red's constant babying and pampering was luring him into a safe sense of contentment? Was this Slade's plan the whole time? Robin blushed deeply at the thought. He had been confused by the lack of cruelty and restriction Slade showed him when he first arrived. Sure the spankings hurt, but the last time he had been taken, backtalk would have earned him a strike across the face, not a warning look.

Robin glared at his hands, hair hanging down in his face. But that was just it. Slade's cruelty gave him a reason to fight, to look for an escape. It reminded him of why Slade was so awful and why he needed to get back to his team. He had been here for months, going along with whatever Slade desired of him and why? Because he was a fool.

Robin felt his eyes welling with angry tears and quickly wiped them away. He used to be a strong, confident hero who didn't let anything stand in the way of his job. He had let Red and Slade convince him that wearing diapers meant that he was just a helpless baby playing pretend. He had let them coddle him and order him around and ignore his complaints like a child. And Red…all of his "acceptance no matter what" bullshit, Slade must have been paying him a pretty penny to hang around the lair with him all the time.

Robin's expression turned hard and he sat up and scooted closer to the keyboard. He navigated through Slade's system, using several of the codes he'd memorized to get past Slade's security blocks. When he finally got onto the desktop, he half expected an alarm to go off or sladebots to appear or something, but nothing happened. He easily located the folder, surprised Slade would leave his computer so vulnerable to someone as technologically savvy as he and double clicked on the icon. He hacked the password in less than a minute the screen became flooded with the same images Slade had sent him all those weeks ago. When he had first seen them, the idea of Slade seeing him in such a state had made him curl up in humiliation but now…Slade and Red had seen much worse. Compared to the things they had made him wear, made him do, a picture of him in a plain adult diaper was boring. That didn't mean he wanted Slade releasing anything to the public. A picture was worth a thousand words, and these particular pictures were worth even more money. He just hoped Slade didn't run into financial troubles any time soon.

He had only received seven pictures, but based on the size of the folder, Slade had kept many more to himself. Curious, he scrolled down through the thumbnails. There he was sleeping, showering, undressing, ugh even pleasuring himself. Blood rushed to his cheeks but he quickly pushed the embarrassment away. He was a teenager, what did they expect? Diaper or no he still had hormones. These thoughts made him angrier. He shouldn't have had to make excuses for himself. It wasn't his fault. It wasn't like he did it for some weird sexual pleasure. Nobody made fun of Cyborg for not having prosthetic limbs.

Robin felt angry. Angry at the Joker for stabbing him and at Bruce for letting that happen to him and at Slade for using it against him and Red for helping him…but mostly he was angry at himself for turning it into an emotional crutch, vulnerable to exploitation. He pounded on the keyboard and let out an enraged snarl. Bangs fell in his face as he breathed. Destroying Slade's keyboard wasn't going to help. He looked back up at the pictures and set his hand on the mouse. He selected the entire folder and pressed delete.

Are you sure you want to move these 37 items to the Recycle Bin?

Robin clicked the yes button, then repeated the process again with the recycle bin. Finally, he did a system cleanup to permanently delete it.

He shut down the computer and got up, heading to the bedroom to change.

Red returned in full costume, so he must have been up to something illegal that morning. Robin sat at the table pushing soggy cereal around with his spoon. For the first time in ages, he picked his outfit out himself, a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Nothing special, but as close to normal as he would get for the time being. He didn't acknowledge Red's presence, even when the man pulled off his mask and took a seat at the island.

"Hey, baby cheeks. Sleep well?"

Robin's hand tightened around his spoon. "Don't call me that." He muttered.

"I call you that all the time." Red frowned. "What's your deal this morning?"

"What's my deal? My deal is that I'm being held here against my will and this," He said, waving his arms around, "is a waste of time."

Red studied him with concern for a few seconds before breaking out into a smile. "I get it. You have a rash. Let me see." He said, reaching over to pull at Robin's pants.

In a flash, Robin grabbed his bowl and chucked it right at Red's face. The thief let out a cry and held his face as the bowl fell to the floor and shattered. Cereal plopped to the cereal and milk dripped off the edge of the counter.

"What the fuck?" He snapped, nursing the side of his face.

"Don't touch me." Robin hissed. He got up and started walking away. He heard a noise behind him and turned to see Red lunging at him. He stepped aside at the last second and brought his foot up to Red's stomach, making the man wheeze in surprise. He collapsed, curling into a ball as he tried to regain his breath. Robin stared down at him in contempt. "I can't believe I was tricked by someone as stupid as you."

"What…are you talking…about?" Red panted, sitting up.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about!" Robin snapped. "Stop acting like you actually care about me."

Red stood up and grabbed his arm. "Robin."

"No!" He yanked out of his grasp and backed up. "I know that you're doing this because Slade paid you, so stop acting like you're my friend. Well fuck you. Fuck Slade, fuck you!" He turned and ran. He took off down the hall, past his room, past the bathroom, to the very back where it veered off to the left. There were stairs there and he wasn't allowed near them, but he'd already broken enough rules, so what was one more? Hearing Red's footsteps getting closer, he took two steps at a time. He was halfway when Red got to the bottom.

"Stop! You've got it all wrong!"

Robin stopped too and turned to look at him.

Encouraged, Red took a step. "I don't know where you got the idea that I don't care, but you're wrong. I adore you, Robin. Diapers and all."

Robin's eyes narrowed. "Yeah, right. If you really liked me you'd cut the bullshit."

"Robin-

"Tell me the truth! Why are you here? Slade would never think of partnering with you, not after what happened the first time. So why are you here?" He repeated.

Red inhaled deeply and released the air from his chest. "Okay, look: at first, I may have found it a little funny…"

Robin turned and kept running.

"Oh come on, Robin! Can you blame me? What if you found out Slade sucks on a pacifier or something? Wouldn't you laugh at his expense and try to use it against him? Would you care about why he was doing it?"

"Go fuck yourself." Robin went up several more flights until he reached the door at the top of the stairs and pushed it open, running down the hall. He knew the way out from the various missions he went on; yet another point for Slade's mind games. He knew exactly how to escape and he still hadn't. Well he was now.

And yet, maybe he wasn't. Slade stood at the end of the hallway with his arms crossed over his chest, waiting for him. Robin started to slow, prepared to surrender but quickly banished that idea from his mind. Was he really prepared to give up? He was just standing there. He didn't even look that scary. Robin set his brow in determination and charged, building up speed.

"Robin." The mercenary said.

Robin ignored him. He yelled and ran directly at Slade despite his ordering to stop, jumping at the last second and using the man's shoulder to flip over him.

Okay, so he didn't know the way out as well as he thought because suddenly he was crashing through a window. He didn't even have time to gasp as glass shattered against his knees, flying around him as if in slow motion. He scrambled to land on the edge to stop himself from going all the way through, hissing as a shard stuck right into the bottom of his foot. However, the force was too much and he tilted forward, waving his arms about for something to grab.

He stared down at the ground, about twenty or thirty feet below him , curious as to how he was still alive. Panting, he slowly turned his head to find Slade grabbing onto the back of his pants. He brushed away some of the glass from the window and carefully pulled Robin back inside. Leaving the window be for the time being, he carried Robin back down all the flights of stairs, down to the lair where Red stood waiting looking one part furious and two parts scared.

"Take care of the cuts." Slade ordered.

Red wasted no time taking him to the bathroom and sitting him down on the toilet, propping his legs up against the edge of the bathtub.

"Are you kidding me?" Red growled as he pulled out the first aid kit.

"Oh stop pretending to ca-

"Shut up, Robin. Just shut the fuck up." Red interrupted him, his hands shaking with fury. "Not sure if you realized this, but you almost died. Or are you under the impression that boy wonder defies the laws of gravity?" He tugged some gloves on and got to work pulling shards of glass from his feet and hands with a pair of tweezers.

"You don't really care about me."

Red sighed tiredly. "Yes-

"If you really cared about me, you wouldn't blackmail me." Robin let out a hiss of pain as an especially big piece was removed.

"Sorry. Technically Slade's blackmailing you." Red replied.

"You're helping him."

"I'm helping you."

Robin gave him a disbelieving look.

"It's true. Slade was going to sell each picture to the highest bidder."

"So why didn't he?" Robin scowled, wincing again.

"He did. He didn't tell anybody what they were, just that they would destroy you. Slade may be intimidating, and a worse criminal than any of us petty thieves, but his reputation is good." Red checked for any missed spots and when satisfied, he pulled out some rubbing alcohol and gauze pads. "This is going to hurt." He warned. Robin whimpered and tensed as the wounds stung, his face growing slightly shiny with sweat.

"So what you're saying is that people knew this whole time?" Robin mumbled hopelessly.

"Nope." Red shook his head.

"But you just said-

"I know." Red smiled. "I made sure to win every single bid."

Robin's eyebrows furrowed in immense confusion. "What?"

"What can I say?" Red shrugged. "I'm crazy about you." He grinned. "Not that I was expecting to see you in pampers or anything." He blew gently on the stinging cuts, holding Robin's wrists delicately. "Definitely a shock at first and like I said, I thought it was funny, but that's just a natural reaction to finding out your enemy is a diaper baby."

"Red." Robin said sharply.

"Sorry." He smiled sheepishly.

"So if you had the pictures, why didn't you come after me yourself?" Robin scowled.

"I didn't want Slade selling more of them. I convinced him that blackmailing you would suit our desires much better." Red winked. "Besides, it's our little secret. Nobody else needs to know but me."

Robin looked at him deadpan. "You were jealous."

Red grinned guiltily. "Maybe." He began to wrap Robin's hands and feet, touching him as if he might break. Once he was done, he sat back. "I meant what I said, though. I don't care about that anymore. Sure I tease you about it, but you should know that I would protect you. If anybody tried to use that against you, I would kick their teeth out."

He pulled Robin down into his lap and kissed his cheek. "It's okay if you don't realize it yet. I'll be here when you're ready."

Robin wasn't sure what to do. He wasn't quite sure if he believed Red's story. Slade seemed like the type of guy who could think up blackmail on his own; he didn't need Red's help with that. If that was the truth, then why was Red involved? Was it possible that he stole the pictures and offered to sell them himself? Or maybe he bribed Slade into letting him join in on the fun. His mind flashed back to Ding Dong Daddy's race and how he had helped him even if it meant losing out on precious blackmail material.

"I know this is a bad time…" Red's voice pulled him from his thoughts and he looked up. "…I couldn't help noticing you could probably use a new…you know."

Shame welled in Robin's chest and he bowed his head to hide his tears, but Red heard the sniff and noticed anyway. "Let's get it over with."

Robin let Red pick him up and carry him back to the bedroom, but he knew all too well that it would never be over.