A/n: Thank you to all of you who weighed in on my little dilemma. I'm sorry this next chapter's been a while in the making; my laptop had a fatal encounter with my dog one day… But that's a story for another time. By the way, I did bump my rating up, just to be safe. Robin develops a little bit of a potty mouth in this one and the overal media circus kind of changes the rating. I wasn't sure where this story was headed when I started it- I'm still not sure.

To the reviewer who said I was making them seem gay: That's the intentional humor behind the situation.

With all due respect and no further ado, chapter eight.

Additional note: Had to do a re-upload... It ate one of my paragraphs. Apparently it didn't like how angry Robin ran his words together. FIXED.

Chapter Eight: A Misunderstanding

Robin forced himself to stand up, grabbing his phone from his belt as he turned on his heel. The mob of press stood between him and the car, and so he did the only logical thing; grabbed the nearest microphone and swung it so that it caught the nearest reporter under his knees and sent him sprawling to the ground.

"Let's get out of here!" He yelled to the other two. Beast Boy, as though on instinct, grabbed a fallen newspaper, and the three boys ran back to the car as people began to turn and give chase, Robin wildly swinging the microphone in an arch over his head.

The scene was one of the ridiculous pandemonium that only seems to follow the circus known as the media.

Cyborg forced the doors open as they ran to it. One particularly daring reporter took a dive for Robin's leg and received a kick to the face. With the three of them inside the car, Cyborg honked once, a loud warning, and threw the car into reverse.

Reporters and fans alike dived out of the way as the half-metal man skillfully steered them back down the road towards the city, leaving the crazed reporters in the dust.

That was when Robin, who had thrown himself into the back beside Beast Boy, allowed himself to read the article.

"…Starfire and Raven have taken a step in coming out of the closet, apparently adopting a child together. The two were last spotted in public this afternoon when their baby, Tyler, was snatched. The two ran off, leaving the press with the image seen below of the girls gripping each other's hands as a means of love and support…" Robin read aloud. Suddenly he threw the paper, which hit the windshield with a sickening smack.

"What a bunch of bullshit!" He said furiously. He punched the seat.

"This has to be a mistake, Robin," said Beast Boy. "It's the newspapers. They always get things wrong. Remember the time they reported that Cyborg was actually an alien? Or that I had an IQ lower than a rock?"

"Well you do," Cyborg pointed out, driving forward in a hurry. His eyes were focused on the road as the rain came down harder, speeding through the city towards the mall where the child had supposedly been taken.

"Shut up!" Beast Boy said.

"There's no way. They hate each other! HATE each other!" Robin yelled.

"That's not being fair," Cyborg said. "They do like each other, in that off-kilter sort of way. They just can't spend time together. They're like… Like some kind of weird sisters or something."

"But what if we just didn't understand it?" Beast Boy asked, biting his lip.

"There is NO way!" Robin yelled. "None none none! Got that?" He got closer to Beast Boy, who could see that the leader's eyes were slightly red-rimmed.

"Okay, okay!" Beast Boy whimpered, pulling back.

"Robin, taking this out on Beast Boy isn't going to help. We've got to find the girls and figure out what happened."

Robin stared at the picture for a long time of the two of them holding hands. Raven's shoulders were tense, and Starfire appeared to be panicking, but it was hard to tell what the context was, what was going on in that mall. His mind had begun to race in a direction he could not quite shake.

He found that he was worried.

"…ringing?" Cyborg asked, looking back at Robin, who was visibly shaking, in his mirror.

"What?" Robin snapped,

"Back there. When we ran away. Wasn't your phone ringing? What if its them? What if they need something?"

"What if I don't care?" Robin asked.

"You do care," Beast Boy pointed out, and Robin sighed, knowing this was true.

"It's from Starfire," he reported to the other two as he checked his phone. "One of you please call her."

Beast Boy leaned over and took the phone. The conversation was a quick one, full mostly of sounds of agreement. "We'll be right over. Second Avenue, Cyborg."

"Got it," Cyborg said. He saw Beast Boy hang up the phone. "Now keep your cool when we get there, got it, Robin?"

"It's not your girlfriend that's running around acting like a lesbian," muttered Robin.

The three boys rode in silence to the edge of the street, where they saw a figure dressed entirely in black and a girl with long red hair in a ridiculous rain coat. Knowing it could be no one else, they stopped.

Robin practically threw himself out of the car, waving the newspaper, and instantly rounded on Raven.

"What the hell did you think you were doing? Raven do you realize the implications of this? Why would you two ever hold hands in public? You've turned this into one hell of a media circus! Honestly! Running around like a pair of..." Here he choked on his words and waved the paper at them. "You've damaged all the hard work I had to do to keep our names clear!"

"Robin, please, we can explain…." Starfire tried to set her arm on his shoulder, but he shrugged it off, rounding on Raven.

"Where the hell did the kid come from? What the hell were you doing? YOU OUGHT TO KNOW BETTER! Raven this is all YOUR fault!"

Raven stood up as straight as she could mange, looked Robin right in the eyes, and suddenly appeared more frightening than she ever had. "Are you even listening to yourself? You know how stupid the press can be. We were protecting the child. We were doing a SERVICE to the Titan name and if you EVER think you can blame me for this then I will walk away right now. Do you even realize what you did? You left me to babysit by myself, didn't answer your phone. What were you doing that was so important, huh? What gave you the right to even let this happen? It's your fault for not answering. It's your fault for leaving me with an alien and a baby!" By this point, she was yelling, and her voice echoed off the nearby buildings.

Robin actually shrank back. "Well… We were…"

"At the arcade…" Beast Boy finished.

Raven walked forward and slapped Robin across the face, the sound resonating off the buildings around them and causing the still-silent Beast Boy and Cyborg to wince. "The arcade. I get labeled as a lesbian, have a kid trash my home, find out I actually care about the kid, and have to put up with your girlfriend crying because we can't find him, and you're at an arcade?" Her voice had retreated to little more than a whisper.

Robin raised a hand to his cheek, which stung. He hadn't realized Raven could hit, let alone hard. "Hey don't get mad at…"

"I'm not done," she hissed, silencing him. "You are going to help me find him and stop Starfire from crying. You are going to help with this media circus. Or I will personally rip you apart. Got it?" Her eyes glowed black momentarily with fury.

"Friend Raven… That is the sweetest thing you have ever done for me!" Starfire said as Robin nodded, in shock, and hugged her, her arms practically crushing Raven's waist. Unsure of what to do, Raven patted her shoulders and hugged her back, her eyes returning to normal with the shock of the moment.

The member of the media circus that had managed to hold onto the undercarriage of the car took a picture and skittered off into the night.

Raven sputtered wordlessly and Robin sighed. "Bunch of bastards..." He said, his hand clenching.

"Now may we find friend Raven and I's baby?" Starfire wanted to know, still smiling and holding onto Raven's shoulder in her happy, clueless way.

"Yes… Let's go find him…" Robin muttered, his arms crossed, in shock that Raven had dared to speak up, and feeling like an idiot for ever thinking something was going on between the girls in the first place. Starfire smiled and gave him a hug, and he patted her shoulder as well. She kissed him on the cheek where Raven had slapped him and he smiled slightly.

"Misunderstandings happen," Beast Boy said to Robin, as he and Cyborg finally managed to close their mouths and Cyborg managed to stop silently laughing.

The girls climbed into the back of the car and the five sped off, deciding that to get into their house and do any kind of work, they would have to confront the media circus.


Across town, a man stood with the baby in his arms. Tyler was quiet, contemplating him. "I missed you," the man said finally, hugging her. "Where does your mother find such strange babysitters anyway?"

"Dada," Tyler said with a smile. "Missed you."

"I missed you too," he whispered. "I have a feeling they'll be back though... And we have to be prepared."

In his free hand he held a copy of the newspaper.