4: The Gallery of the Greats

Robin stopped his motorcycle on the curb of the apartment building that Olivia had directed him to. She was hugging him tightly and shaking a bit. Robin immediately felt bad. She'd never been on a motorcycle before, and he hadn't meant to speed the entire way. The bike was touchy. It only handled properly at the high speeds that it was built to accommodate.

"Are you okay?" He asked in an apologetic tone.

"That was-that was just- SO FUN!" she exclaimed, finally leaning back and taking off the helmet, revealing a sincerely happy smile. "This thing is so fast... gosh, I've been missing out taking the bus." He laughed, returning the helmet to the compartment.

"I'm glad you liked it, I was worried there for a minute." He took off his own helmet and smiled back. They shared an awkward moment of starting before Robin piped up. "Well thanks again Olivia. I better be-"

"Would you like to come inside?" She asked.

He stared blankly for a moment. "Uh.."

"I've got coffee, or tea..."

"Uuum..."

"I'd really like to show you some of my pictures, and it would be nice to hear a heroe's input..."

Robin knew he probably shouldn't, but he was curious about the pictures, and it was his day off. The sun hadn't even gone down yet, so... "Why not. Sure, I'd love to." He said with another smile. He popped up the kickstand and dismounted.

"Great!" She yelled excitedly, leading him up the stairs to the entrance. She pressed her key into the lock of apartment 314 and opened the door. "Welcome Robin, to the stately Wright manner." She said with a hint of sarcasm. Robin looked around.

The apartment was spacious and very minimalisticly furnished. Large windows on the western wall looked out over the city and the setting sun, bathing the apartment in soft golden light. The apartment itself had an older design, 20s or 30s architecture. It was nice, he thought, before realizing that between the circus, the LITERALLY stately Wayne manor, and the Titans tower, he'd never really been in a normal apartment before.

"Did you say coffee or tea?" She yelled from another room.

"I didn't, and coffee." He yelled back, totally engrossed in the pictures hanging on the walls. They were all black and white, simple black frames, and there were six of them in the living room.

One was of Superman, from the looks of it, deep in thought sitting atop the Daily Planet's globe. Another was Wonder Woman lifting a car above her head, hair whipping in the wind. The Flash, the lower half of his body blurred by speed, but his masked face and insignia perfectly in focus. Black Canary, her upper body bathed in some kind of spotlight enhancing her naturally perfect features. Aquaman, dripping wet and carrying a woman out of the ocean as lifeguards ran to help in foreground. And the last one, he loved.

It was him and his mentor, on a rooftop. Bruce looked angry, his mouth frozen in mid-reprimand at the boy, jumping with perfect trapeze-artistry off of a rooftop. Robin, very young in the picture had the biggest smile on his face. He laughed. A deep genuine laugh at how perfectly this perfect stranger had captured the very essence of he and Bruce's early relationship.

Dick pisses him off with his 'I have no rules because I'm ROBIN' mentality, Bruce yells at him because he's 'BATMAN', Dick jumps off a roof top to illustrate his point. Bruce yells at him to drop the trapeze form and do it right. He was in tears at the utter hilarity of the moment when Olivia entered.

"I'm glad you like it." She said with a smile, offering him a cup of coffee.

He took a deep breath and shook his head. "I love it. You even got my good side." She smiled at that.

"This is one of my earliest pictures. I visited Gotham when I was a kid and just happened to be at the right place and time with a camera. It kind of inspired me to follow this line of work."

"They're really amazing, I'm surprised you got a picture of Batman at all." He mused.

"He was pretty distracted." She replied with a coy smile, sending him into another fit of laughter over Bruce's face. "Do you remember what's going on here?"

Robin thought about his answer before saying anything. Always careful not to reveal anything. "Well... from the looks of it, I was getting on his nerves and he was trying to yell at me. My response to that was... jumping off a roof." She tried not to laugh out loud at how dryly he stated it. As if that were a totally average reaction.

"What was Wonder Woman throwing a car at?" he asked.

"I'm not sure exactly. Some kind of... plasma based villan." She took on an absent look as she tried to recall.

"Huh..." He continued to stare at the gallery before him. "Are you from a city with a justice league member or something?"

"No... I'm from Nevada." He looked at her with one eyebrow raised.

"They could probably use one in Reno." He said. She giggled and agreed.

"Aren't you going to take off your gloves?" She asked innocently. He shook his head slowly.

"I can't. Fingerprints." He said almost sadly, but mostly just stating his reasoning.

"Oh! Sorry... I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable..."

"No-it's fine, I have to keep the little things like that guarded for safety."

"But- " she stopped herself short.

"What?"

"It's nothing, really, just... a little hole in that logic."

"Oh, what, DNA on the cup?" She nodded with a smirk. "Well I guess that's why I have a bendy straw." He said sillily, producing a bendy straw out of nowhere and plunking it in the cup victoriously.

She cracked up at his little trick. "You're funny, I wasn't expecting that. You always look so serious."

"Well... I was taught by the best." He smiled.

They laughed and talked for a while, she showed him a few albums filled with heroes and titans.. When he finally checked the time it was almost ten thirty. He thanked her and took his leave.

"Will I see you again?" She asked.

"Well... sure, here." He took a pen from his jacket and scribbled down an e-mail on a bit of napkin, careful not to use his normal handwriting. "I don't have a personal cell phone, so if you want to get in contact, e-mail me, I check it every day" He gave her an easy smile and handed her the paper.

"Sounds good. Maybe I can teach you that pressure point trick next time."

"That would be great." They stared for a moment and said their goodbyes.

As Robin mounted his cycle outside, he heard Olivia yell something. He looked up at her door to see her running out with a manila envelope. She gave it to him. "It's a copy of the picture you liked, you and Batman, there's a few more in there too." She explained quickly, smiling faintly.

"Thank you Olivia, he'll love it as much as I do."

"Goodnight Robin." She said softly, returning to the steps.

"Goodnight." With that he tucked the pictures safely away and sped off towards the tower.

Upon his arrival he found the titans had all gone to bed except raven who was in the kitchen. She looked like she was thinking about something very serious while making some tea.

"Hey Raven." He walked over to the fridge and started digging for leftover fettuccine.

"You're in late."

"Yeah, I met this photographer, look in the envelope." He crunched a piece of garlic bread and collected a plate.

"Awe... you're so happy in this one." She pulled the rest out and flipped through them. "This is the best team picture we've ever taken." She remarked.

"And we didn't even know it was picture day." He quipped with a smile.