Turns out, Starfire had an entire day planned, and Robin had griped and moaned and pleaded with them to just give it up and leave him be. But, to no avail, unfortunately. They took him out. All of them went to see the sequel to his favorite ninja movie in theaters, and visited some dojos, and presented him with their gifts. He got two new utility belts from Cyborg, a blue cape from Raven, a flower crown from Starfire, and Beast Boy made him a tofu cake. Seeing as that was an obvious disaster, they all agreed to go out for pizza.

They crowded around their usual table with the ceaseless kind of noise good friends seemed to emanate. Robin felt like he had had enough of celebrating. Everything had been awesome, and he really appreciated what his friends went through to make this day amazing for him… but he just wanted to go back home to the tower, and open his secret briefcase, and sit in nostalgia until today was over. His heart was heavy. And his good mood was getting more and more difficult to fake. When they were all distracted arguing over pizza toppings, he got up from the table and went into the bathroom.

He pushed through the door, and felt its outside heat pulsating through his gloves. But when it swung shut behind him the breeze was cold. He wondered why that was? Bathrooms were always so impersonal. He went to the sink to see his reflection. A spikey-haired hero of mystery. Reaching up, he touched his mask. It had been so long since anyone had seen him without it. Seeing as last night had been his first break from hero days in forever, he figured it may never happen. The job was all he had. It was him. He sighed heavily, leaning both hands on the sink edge and staring at them. Why did he feel so bad on his birthday?

"Hey," came a voice, startling him. He whirled to see a familiar freckled face leaning against the row of stalls, soft green eyes devoid of laughter. Wally pushed off the wall of the stall to stride casually over to Robin's side, hands in his pockets. "You look pretty down. Did something happen?" He was not in costume. A red jacket, a black t-shirt, jeans and those red sneakers again. Actually, he hadn't been in costume last time, either. His face was quietly, kindly curious, in sympathy for the obvious mood Robin was in.

"Are you following me?" Robin questioned, confused.

A shrug, and a smile met him as a reply, and he found that when he looked too deeply into the ginger's eyes he lost his conviction. "I asked first," Wally pointed out simply.

Robin sighed, leaning against the sinks and folding his arms at his waist. "My birthday happened." He said darkly, gaining a look of surprise from his questioner.
"How could that be a bad thing?" Wally asked curiously, shifting on the balls of his feet for emphasis, observing the caped wonder curiously. "Eighteen, right? Congrats. It's a mile marker."

"Yeah, eighteen. It isn't a bad thing. Not for my friends. But birthdays weren't the same for me as it was for them - I mean, even Raven, we still have parties for her; even after the end. I just…" He ran his fingers through his hair moodily. "I'm not really sure. I don't like to be reminded of what they used to be like, my birthdays, before…"

"Before you left Bats for oppressing your freedom?" Wally piped. He leaned on the sinks beside Robin, twisting to smile at the brooding expression on the other boy's face. "Look, it's none of my business, but those guys out there adore you. Without you, I think it's fair to say they'd be pretty lost. Why not let them celebrate?" His smile flickered. "Why sit around, and think about the past, and let it haunt you – when you should be happy your friends celebrate how much they love you?"

Looking over at him, Robin hunched his shoulders a bit, in defense against such personal questions, searching his face for some bit of selfish intent. There was none. All he saw was a handsome kid with a good heart, trying to make him feel a little less low. Robin let his shoulders relax and loosened his tightly-wound arms, pressing his palms to the cold bathroom counter. His eyes went to the floor. "I know you're right. But I can't help the way it feels," he confessed, unsure of why he was doing so. "Even if it was pretty tough wishing all those years for some celebration from the man I called my father. Even then, I liked those times. They built me. Made me humble. I won't believe that he didn't care – he was just trying to teach me. He was always trying to make me learn something new. This was just another lesson. And I knew it. I was ok with it."

Wally reached out and put a hand on his shoulder, and Robin felt his eyes drinking him in. "You can keep the lesson without the hurt. It just takes time. You just have to be willing to patch up that wound, and let time and your friends heal it."

Their eyes darted to each other's. The tension of nerves Wally held for his brazen answer to be met with anger was just as tense as Robin's nerves over asking him another question. But the Kid Flash was handling his with much more cool. Either way, it was up to wonder boy. Taking a deep breath, Robin glanced Wally over. "Your turn." Wally blinked. "I answered your question," Robin pointed out, "you answer mine." A beat. "Are you following me?"

Wally broke into chuckles, which was not what Robin had expected, and he watched in shock as the ginger slid his hands into his pockets again. "I might be, actually," he grinned, bringing a blush onto the other boy's face that crept under his mask unfettered. "Sorry, I'm not usually this forward. Actually that's a lie. I am. It's just what I do."

Robin recovered enough to open his mouth, but the time he'd begun to answer, Cyborg appeared in the doorway and Wally had vanished. The suddenness of his disappearance had Robin looking around wildly.

"You ok, Robin? You've been gone a while." Cyborg was giving him a curious look, but Robin just pushed off the sink and gave him a sheepish smile. "Missing something?"

"No. No, I'm fine," he replied, "I just needed some time to think." He walked out with him, glancing back only once to see Wally standing in a crowd of kids wearing high school sweaters. "I could use some pizza right about now."

"Well, all right." Cyborg grinned, smacking his back, hard. "Let's get back to the food. Hopefully BB didn't eat your share."
He had. The argument that broke out was only paused to order Robin a new pizza. He sat smiling, exchanging teasing remarks about not saving him a slice with the girls until the new pizza arrived. Seeing as he barely ate any, they voted to take it home and have a zombie movie marathon, and Robin picked up the box and followed them out the door. When he looked back to the table with the high-schoolers, Wally was gone, and he felt a strange, heavy disappointment in his chest.