Title: A Darker Shade of Love
Author: Jordan Herbert

Rating: M throughout the entire fic.
Genre: Angst/Slash/Drama
Pairing: Sladin in the beginning with RobinRed X in future chapters
Chapter Summary: Robin's first full day of being Slade's apprentice. It's hard, confusing, and he really just wants to fall asleep and get the day over with.

The Open Cage

The sky was a dark purple and shaking. Voices were coming from every direction, from the past, from the left, from behind, yet he couldn't make out a single word. Robin turned his head, trying to find where the voices were coming from, but couldn't see anything but the purple sky and the black outlines of the cage he was in, the cage without a top. He could easily climb up it and escape, but the elegant purple sky made him want to stay put.

He sat down and pressed against a few of the sturdy cage bars as he tried to make sense of the oncoming downfall of words. He was starting to make some things out. He could hear his name he just couldn't tell who was calling it and where they were. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath and tried to concentrate.

"Robin, it's time to get up." He moaned and buried his head into the soft pillow that seemingly appeared from nowhere. He was so warm, comfortable, and he wanted to stay asleep, something said it was better for him to remain asleep. "Robin, you have to get up." Robin shook his head, snuggling it deeper into his pillow. "Robin," a hand was shaking him now.

Regrettably, Robin turned onto his back and opened his eyes. Slade loomed over him and Robin screamed as he moved away and promptly fell off the bed with a groan. "Good morning to you too," Slade greeted dryly as he walked around the bed and stared at Robin, tangled up in the sheet he had managed to pull off the bed while he fell.

"Wha—what's--" Robin blinked and licked his dry lips as his dream finally faded away and he was thrown harshly back to reality. "What's up, Slade?" Robin tried to smile as he pulled the sheet off of himself and placed it on the bed.

Slade stared at Robin for a bit longer. "I'm going to ignore that idiotic teenaged question and excuse you from it since you were obviously still stuck inside your subconscious dream world. Now, go get a shower and get dressed in your uniform. I want to see you in the kitchen in twenty minutes." Robin nodded as he smoothed the sheet over the bed to keep his mind over the fact that he was standing before Slade in only his boxers and had embarrassed himself so early in the morning. "And don't worry about making the bed, my Sladebots have to change the sheets anyways."

Robin lifted his hands away from the sheets and watched as Slade left, the door slamming and echoing in his hollow heart. He knew that the sound of a door slamming shut would haunt him forever, even if therapy helped him forget this experience.

Sighing, Robin rubbed a hand over his slightly covered face. It was too early to be depressed and filled with angst, he decided as he walked around the bed and into the bathroom. He slid Slade's glass shower door to the side and turned on the spray, turning the temperature up to as hot as he could stand it, and then climbed in, closing the glass behind him.

Robin bowed his head and relaxed as the water poured over him. He smiled as the glass doors soon covered over with steam. He absentmindedly started to trace little patterns into the steam; bats, a giant 'T', a bird, a game controller, anything that came to his mind that he figured he couldn't butcher too much with his lack of artistic skill.

He began to hum, tunelessly and without a real rhythm, just a happy little hum as he finished up his shower. It was nice, to wash all of his troubles away, even if only for a limited time.

"You can do better than that, Robin, I know you can. Stop holding back," Slade hissed as he stood above Robin. It was the third time in the past hour that Robin had found him on his back, the wind knocked out of him, and Slade standing over him with a disappointed attitude.

Robin groaned as air finally traveled through his lungs once more. He forced himself to sit up and glared at Slade as he shakily got to his feet.

"I'm beginning to rethink taking you in as an apprentice, Robin; you're not nearly as skilled as I originally thought. What a waste of nano probes." Slade sighed and took a step back. Robin growled and clenched his hands into fists at his side.

"If I had a bo-staff…" He began but cut himself off, knowing that arguments didn't differ Slade's mind at all.

"But you don't and like I've said there will be times that you won't have weapons. You're skilled at the bo-staff, I'll give you that, and you know more than the basics for martial arts, but you need to be even better." Slade took a few more steps back. "So prove to me your worth. Again,"

And just like that, a small army of Sladebots was surrounding Robin once more and he was forced to be on guard. He collected the rest of his breath, still slightly panting, and slid into a defensive stance. He had learned from the first round that it was better to wait for the enemy to make the first move and not to blindly rush into a battle.

Three jumped at him at once and he flipped into the air, not showing any hint of the joy he felt at watching the robots hit each other since that had cost him in the second round. He landed outside the group and quickly delivered a kick to the back of one Sladebot, sending it to crash into another like a short domino affect.

Quick on his feet, Robin spun around and grabbed the advancing fist of the Sladebot and used the momentum to pull him behind him and threw him into the Sladebot behind him. "Stop," Slade ordered and the Sladebots all froze, one with its leg outstretched in a kick aimed to Robin's back and another with its fist an inch away from Robin's gut.

"Robin, you're still holding back. Stop wasting my time; hit them hard and hit them fast. No more ridiculous flips and back kicks when you can do an efficient block and counterattack. I am not impressed with how high you can jump or how many times you can flip. Now show me something that can convince me not to just kill your worthless friends and stop your training now." Slade commanded. "Continue,"

Snarling, Robin quickly moved to the side and delivered a quick kick straight through a Sladebots torso and back out. He grabbed the sputtering Sladebot by its twitching arm and whipped it around to slam into two Sladebots behind him.

One hit him in the back and he stumbled forward, groaning, but quickly returned to his growling form and dropped to the floor as he spun his legs around and brought down the four circling Sladebots by knocking their feet out from under them. He pushed himself up again and didn't stop to think as he screamed and pulled his hand back and delivered a powerful punch to a nearby Sladebot's head, sending it flying off of its shoulders.

He panted and kept his hands up and clenched into fists as he looked around himself at the twitching and a few with sparks flying as an added bonus Sladebots on the ground. "Finally, Robin," Slade folded his arms over his chest and glared down at the boy. "It took you long enough but I think you might have proved that I wasn't wrong when I chose you. Really though, from now on, I expect better. It took you a few minutes to defeat my bots before there should be no reason that it took you three tries to finally defeat this small group."

"I had my bo-staff that time. Your robots are made out of a very dense metal that hurts, a lot, to hit." Robin growled as he shook out his fist. "I won't be hitting anything else for the rest of the day because of that one hit. In a battle, something like that would cost me my life."

"That's why you should have used more kicks. Your boots are covered with steel for more than just a fashion statement." Slade critiqued as he unfolded his hands. "And you'd best rethink your plans for not using that hand for the rest of the day. You're not even close to being finished. It took you ten minutes to defeat a group of thirteen; unacceptable." Robin bit his lip as he held in the urge to comment that Slade was counting the time that he had used to stop the fight and critique.

Slade took out a small device from his belt and pressed a few buttons on the tiny gadget. Slowly, the defeated Sladebots stood, the few that couldn't were dragged into the darkness and prepared ones showed up to keep the number the same. "Once your time reaches under three minutes, and keep in mind that I'm being very lenient with you since a real fight is usually over in two, then you can be finished with this for the day." Robin opened his mouth, ready to argue how unfair that was and how Slade couldn't possibly expect him to decrease his time as he only became more fatigued with every battle and his enemies already had the advantages of being robotic, replaceable, and—"Begin,"

"Two minutes and fifty eight seconds. It took you long enough, but you finally seemed to manage not to disappoint me, Robin. Congratulations," The last remark was pure sarcasm but Robin didn't care. He collapsed onto the ground, ignoring the fact that a piece of a Sladebot was poking him in the back, and just panted out his exhaustion.

"Get up, Robin; we're behind schedule for your training as it is." Slade growled as he marched forward, his boots crunching a few parts of miscellaneous Sladebots as he walked into the circle of destroyed and defeated robots. "You have so much more to do before you can rest for the day."

"Wha--?" Robin couldn't even gather the energy to complete a full question, yet alone stand up and fight again.

"The reason I wanted you to experience group fighting first was because I needed to see how much of an improvement in your technique was necessary before we moved on to anything else. Let me just say, that it's in a dire need of improvement so get up and I mean now. I want to focus on your kicks first then we'll move onto your punches, blocks, and we'll continue on from there until I deem that you're capable of at least not being an embarrassment to me when you fight." Slade narrowed his eye as he stared down at Robin. "I said get up!" He shouted and promptly kicked Robin in his side.

Robin groaned and rolled into a ball as he gripped his aching side. "Lazy boy," Slade scolded. "You should be thankful I purposely missed your floating ribs. My kick could have easily broken them. Now get up before I change my mind and decide I should break them." Robin moaned and slowly started to rise off of the floor. "Move faster, Robin, we don't have all day to wait on you. We're not going to stop until you complete everything I had planned for today and I don't care if we're still working on your form past midnight."

"What about food?" Robin asked as he continued to clutch at his side and finally stood on his unsteady legs.

"You had breakfast," Slade harshly stated and turned on his heel. "Now come along. Maybe if you're not a total disappointment in the next few hours, you can have dinner."

"Alright, we're done for the day." Slade announced and Robin instantly dropped his hands, reminding himself of how well controlled the Sladebots were since they did the same. "I must admit that once I pointed out your flaws, you did a wonderful job correcting them. You've redeemed yourself from earlier today, Robin."

"Can I go to bed now?" Robin asked desperately.

"I thought you wanted food." Slade reminded. "And besides, it's unhealthy for you to skip two meals in one day. Come now, we'll get you some dinner. A growing boy has to eat, Robin."

"You're the one who made me miss lunch." Robin mumbled under his breath as he started to trail behind the man. Every step he took made him wonder if his legs were going to spontaneously combust; everything hurt. He knew he probably had a dozen new bruises, his calf muscles felt tight enough to tear into two, and his arms wanted to fall off of his body altogether.

"You'll be having your lunch for dinner since it was already made and I don't waste food." Slade commented as he opened the kitchen door and Robin trudged into the room and collapsed in his chair. "Your meals will be the same each day; eggs in the morning, with yogurt, and some sort of fruit, a whole wheat sandwich with ham and cheese for lunch with some sort of side, and for dinner you'll get chicken with a variety of side dishes. You had chicken last night and your eggs this morning, so we need to get your grains into you. So eat up."

Robin opened his eyes—even his eyelids hurt—and stared at the plate before him. A tall glass of milk, a whole wheat bagel with ham and Swiss cheese sticking out of the sides, an apple, and a bowl of tomato soup; Robin started to drool and whipped at his mouth as he suddenly realized how hungry he was.

He glanced over at Slade, seated across from him like always, and then picked up his sandwich and started to devour it. "Well, at least you worked up an appetite. Really though, Robin, table manners," Slade sounded disgusted and to Robin that made picking up the bowl of soup and slurping it all down even better. If Slade was disgusted then he wouldn't find Robin too attractive which meant Robin could actually go straight to bed after eating and not have to worry about anything happening in the bed.

"No one's going to take your food away, Robin; you can slow down and actually taste it. Or you can just guzzle it all down and get a stomach ache like you're doing." Slade rolled his eye. "Fine, don't listen to my advice but if when you become sick to your stomach don't come crying to me about it."

Robin finished the rest of his meal and smiled as he wiped his mouth on his sleeve, minding the metal guards. "Napkins, Robin," Slade scolded. "I didn't realize that when you were hungry you reverted to a little kid. I'll have to make sure you don't skip meals from now on." Slade stood up. "Alright, leave the dishes and let's get to bed. I have a different position I want to try tonight."

Freezing as he stood up, Robin looked at Slade with wide eyes. His plan of disgusting Slade obviously didn't work well enough. Slade noticed Robin's sudden lack of movement and chuckled. "Don't worry, Robin, it's not hand and knees. I understand how fucking like a dog can be very demoralizing and I'm really not in favor of it, as you might have noticed." Slade held the door open and Robin swallowed hard and reluctantly headed out of the room and towards the bedroom.

Slade walked beside him and wrapped an arm around his waist. His hand started to stroke Robin's hip, below his belt, and Robin shivered. "I hope you understand that I'm only being so hard on you with training because I want what's best for you and I know that you need to be pushed to be as successful as you can be." Slade excused himself from the harsh treatment earlier that day. "You'll thank me in the long run when you see how much better you've become."

Robin half listened to Slade's words and focused more on just putting one foot before the other. He was so tired, he just wanted to go to sleep; maybe Slade would let him if he said so. "Slade, I'm really tired and I know I'm going to be really sore in the morning, so can we just skip it tonight?" Robin pleaded as he looked up at the man and stuck out his lower lip, trying to play the pouting puppy look.

Slade laughed and pulled Robin tighter against him. "Don't worry, Robin, this position has pretty much guaranteed that you'll enjoy yourself tonight. You'll see," And he continued to stroke up and down Robin's hip bone once more.

So much for any of his plans working, Robin sighed and stepped into the bedroom when Slade opened the door for him. The door slammed, echoing in the room and sending another shiver up Robin's spine. It was so finalizing; the echo assuring Robin of what was going to happen and how he couldn't do a thing to stop it. Slade hadn't brought out the trigger the entire day and Robin didn't want him to bring it out during the night either.

"I'm really sweaty, I know I smell foul, maybe I should shower first?" If he could 'accidentally' fall asleep in the shower than maybe Slade would see how tired he was and give him a break.

"I don't mind. You're only going to continue to sweat and why bother with two showers?" Slade asked as he started to remove his gloves.

Robin sighed and started to remove his own clothes. Slade finished undressing first, since Robin was taking his sweet time and hesitating with his boxers. He walked over to the drawer and grabbed the tube of lubricant and squeezed some into his hand. Settling onto the bed, Slade began to stroke himself into arousal as he slicked his erection, moaning softly. Robin gulped as he watched Slade's large hand pump up and down, becoming faster with the slick lubricant helping.

"Robin," Slade panted and the boy flinched as if he had been hit. He raised his eyes up to Slade's mask, knowing he was caught looking. "Come here, Robin," Slade coaxed as he stopped stroking and simply gripped the base of his erection.

Slowly, Robin dropped his boxers and climbed onto the bed. "Wha…what should I do?" Robin asked as he felt heat rising to his face. He felt like such a stupid kid, asking questions and trying to avoid looking at Slade's glistening body.

"Turn around and sit on my lap." Slade stroked his thighs and spread them slightly. Robin nodded and turned around. Slade's hands settled on his slender hips and led him to lay flush against his chest. Slade adjusted himself and Robin gasped as he felt Slade's large member slide between his ass cheeks, sliding against the sensitive skin in between. Slade's thumbs began to stroke at his hip bones and, along with his collective breathing, he started to relax his body,

Slade lifted Robin, still stroking with the rough pads of his thumbs, and held him flush against him, back to chest. Robin took an extra deep breath and tried to prepare himself as he felt Slade line his hardness up with his entrance. He slowly released his breath and tried his hardest to hold back his scream as Slade impaled him on his cock.

Robin's eyes were shut but the tears were still leaking down his face. It seemed to hurt even more than it did the night before, perhaps because his entire body already hurt. He decided to try and focus on why this position hurt more since it would keep his mind off of everything. By using just the slightest distraction and detaching himself from the true situation to look at things in a scientific way, Robin could find a way to come to terms with what was happening.

It was probably because he was still sore from the other night, he reasoned to himself as Slade's hands cupped his ass and his thigh, lifting him up again and bringing his straight back down. Robin whimpered once more and leaned his head against Slade, searching for the bit of comfort he could get out of human warmth. Slade wasn't going as fast as he usually did so Robin couldn't even concentrate on the slight pleasure friction brought him. Slade adjusted himself inside Robin, making the boy hiss as he moved.

Or it might have been the fact of the position allowing Slade to use gravity's advantage and gain a deeper penetration, Robin continued to try and figure out as he kept his mind distracted. And as Robin was lifted and brought down again on Slade's pulsing cock, he knew that that was probably why it hurt so much. Gravity was helping Slade drive himself deeper into Robin.

Once more, Slade moved a bit to change the angle and lifted Robin up until only the head of his cock was still inside the boy. He slowly dropped Robin back onto his full length and brushed past Robin's prostate at the different angle, causing Robin to buck and throw his head back with his eyes wide open. That had actually felt good…

"There we go." Slade mumbled more to himself than to Robin as he leaned back against the headboard and started to stroke Robin's chest. He brushed across Robin's nipples for a bit until he stopped and started to play with them deliberately. Circling the soft skin, pressing a bit harder, flicking at the hardened nubs, and then twisting a bit until Robin gasped and leaned against him in order to try and move away from his hands and to gain that bit of comfort back that he could receive from human warmth.

As soon as Robin's back pressed against Slade's chest, the man wrapped an arm across Robin's chest and held him against himself as he slowly started to move his hips, continually brushing Robin's prostate. Robin closed his eyes, bit his lip, and tried to remember that he was being raped, that he didn't want it, and that it shouldn't feel good.

But to Robin's horror, he was instantly hard and Slade's thrust picked up speed. More tears welled up behind his mask and he brought his hands up to Slade's arm pinning his chest down. He wanted to pull away from the man, to get rid of some of the skin-on-skin contact now, to stop being so confused as to why his body was betraying him and liking the rape; he just wanted it all to stop.

Instead, Slade took his other hand off of Robin's hip and wrapped said large hand around Robin's erection. Robin's eyes shot open again and he gasped as his hips had involuntarily thrusted into Slade's hand. He simply stared at his erection in Slade's hold while he tried to figure out a way to get his body to stop betraying him. A bit of pre-cum slid out his aching cock and Slade chuckled as he began to slowly move his hand up and down Robin's shaft faster and easier with the lubricated help that Robin was providing.

Bucking, moaning, and turning his head from one side to the other, Robin kept thinking of how wrong it was. How he did. Not. Want. This. And yet his body was saying otherwise. Even biting through his lip he couldn't stop his moans, there was no way to control his hips when Slade's hips started to move in rhythm with his hand, and he was disgusted by the layer of sweat coating his body and his heavy, erratic breathing.

Slade however, was still hitting his prostate, still stroking his cock with a light, teasing touch, and pinning him against his chest so he felt the man's heavy breath on the back of his neck. Robin felt so hot, confused, and like his lower stomach was about to burst at any moment. It was so tight and he was really starting to hurt.

"Slade," he moaned and tossed his head again. "Slade, please," stop, he was sure he wanted to say. But he couldn't bring himself to actually say it because he knew that Slade wouldn't and he knew that he didn't really want Slade to stop. Not anymore. His body obviously wanted Slade to keep going.

"That's right, Robin, come for me, my precious boy." Slade's thrusts increased in speed and power and with a final pump, Robin came all over his stomach, screaming incoherently and for a second he was blissfully happy as he panted and plastered himself fully against Slade.

Then he felt Slade come inside himself and he groaned as he was quickly brought out of his bliss. Slade remained inside of him for a moment, breathing heavily, his breath coming out of the slits in his mask to ruffle Robin's sweaty hair. Slade lifted his arm off of Robin's chest and ran his fingers through the cooling cum on Robin's stomach. He scooped some onto his fingers as he drew an 'S' in it with possessive pride.

"Lick," he ordered as he brought his fingers up to Robin's mouth. The boy turned his head to the side in disgust. "Taste your pleasure, Robin," Slade ran his cum covered fingertips over Robin's lower lip and the boy's tongue darted out of his mouth and lapped at it's own account. It tasted salty like Slade's had and he honestly didn't mind the taste too much.

"I told you this position would work," Slade bragged as he waited for Robin to lick his fingers clean. He then slowly lifted Robin off of his limp member and placed the boy next to him. "It'll be like that from now on, Robin, you'll see." Slade traced Robin's face, making Robin shiver. Slade was barely touching him, his fingertips just ghosting over his super sensitive skin. "From now on, I'll make sure you always enjoy it."

Robin inhaled sharply and slipped off of the bed. "I'm going to take that shower now." He walked around the bed, picking up his boxers as he passed them, and stood in the bathroom's doorway. He glanced back at Slade, watched as the man crossed his ankles together, leaned further against the headboard, and stretched his hands over his head, looking altogether smug and too proud of himself.

Slamming the door, Robin threw his boxers to the floor and turned on the shower's spray. "So he made me come, big deal, it's not like I really enjoyed it. I'm a teenaged boy; I could get off watching Opera." He mumbled to himself as he stepped into the shower. "I didn't enjoy it, it's still rape." Yet he couldn't scrub away the feeling that his own body had betrayed him.

Robin finished up his shower in minutes, not taking any time to enjoy the hot water, even though it did feel good against his abused body. He dried himself off and pulled on his boxers, glancing in the mirror hanging over the sink. Robin looked down at himself and grimaced as he spotted the large bruise on his side. He immediately knew that it was from Slade's boot and already it was starting to turn purple.

"Ow," he hissed as he patted the spot dry and then ran the towel over his head. There weren't any bruises on his head, at least. Though, it could be argued whether or not he had bruises and scars on the inside of his head.

He threw the towel on the bathroom tile and glanced at the door. The bathroom was warm and filled with steam still. Outside, Slade was probably still on the bed with his arrogance attitude intact. Robin lifted the toilet seat down and sat on top of it.

Running his fingers through his damp hair, he sighed and thought of his friends. He missed them so much and he wondered if they were still looking for him. He had a feeling that Starfire had probably torn Jump City apart in her desperation to find him but he didn't blame her. He was her first friend she made on Earth. Running his fingers over his lips, he remembered the first time he met her and a feeling of a happy nostalgia soon overcame him as he became comfortable in the warm room.

It took him a moment to realize that he had drifted off and he groaned as he stood and stretched out his legs. Sore muscles and an uncomfortable sleeping position was not a good thing, he decided as he headed out of the bathroom. He was surprised—and happy—to find the bedroom empty. Apparently, Slade still wasn't going to actually sleep with him.

Robin shrugged his shoulders, he really didn't care if Slade slept or not. Besides, just because the man claimed to have feelings for him and raped him, it didn't mean that Slade had to continue to play the part of Robin's lover. Robin liked sleeping in the cold bed by himself in the unfamiliar room anyway. If Slade would sleep with Robin and insist on wrapping his arms around Robin to keep him safe and warm, Robin would hate that. Sliding into the bed, Robin brought the covers up to his chin and idly wondered which truly was better.

His relationship with Slade was confusing. Slade had been treating him like his lowlife apprentice all day, but after dinner he had started to act like he was Robin's boyfriend again, except not. When Slade and Robin had been dating, Slade had been comforting with his body, always touching Robin in a gentle and caring way. Now when Slade touched him it was always with an incentive for sex or it was during sex; there was no comfort behind it.

Sighing, Robin told his brain to shut down for the night. His body thanked him as it started to get the rest it rightfully deserved. Though, things never worked out like Robin planned and his thoughts kept him up for another hour until he finally fell asleep, wishing that Slade really did love him and not just love his body and skill.

A.N. Alright guys, I have some bad news; Crew is starting again. I know, I know, why haven't I quit yet and dedicated all of my time to writing slash? Well, my mom wants me to go to a great college and with Crew I can get a very nice scholarship so I can't quit yet. But because Crew is starting up it means that this Saturday I have my first inside race--which means it's on an ERG which is the death machine of death--and then this Sunday is my sister's 21st Birthday so I'm travelling up to her college. So, this chapter will have to hold you guys for two weeks since I'm gone all next weekend.