An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Nero sighed as they parked the RV that Dante so graciously rented for them (with what money, he wondered). Dante had suggested the two take a nice weekend camping trip to bond (and maybe make sure the backwoods were clear of demons. Just in case). When and where Dante got the money to throw him and Vergil on this trip, Nero wasn’t sure (although he wondered if Lady was involved). He glanced to the passenger seat, where his very irritated father sat (god, it was weird to think of this man as his own father!).
“Now what?” Vergil growled. Nero got up from the driver’s seat and opened the map that Dante had provided of the area. Pristine forestry, a shining lake not too far...well, that explained the fishing equipment in the closet.
“I think...Dante wants us to bond somehow.” Nero said slowly. Vergil rolled his eyes. “Probably involves fishing-”
“I’m going home.” Vergil suddenly stood, only for a spectral hand to stop him.
“No you’re not.”
Dante decides to send father and son out on a nice camping trip. Absolutely nothing will go wrong.
I just realized I’ve been exclusively posting DP, when I write for multiple other fandoms XD. So here’s a change of pace: Teen Titans!
Summary: Raven finds Robin alone one early morning. Bonding happens. Post-Haunted.
Words: 1,349
Raven’s thoughts on Robin have never settled in once place. They were like an evolution, with each thought adding to the next.
First, he was a stranger, but that one didn’t last long because within minutes of meeting her, he became a friend. It was rather silly of her, but no one had ever welcomed her so easily, so trustingly, not without a catch. She couldn’t help that one, how could she deny the first person that’s ever accepted her?
Soon enough he became a leader, her leader. Raven has never been on a team before (she tended to avoid groups), but when Robin formed their little team without even meaning to, he made the prospect of having a team seem so simple. He didn’t need time to settle into the role they’d thrust onto him (they took a vote, obviously), he just… did it. Some days he came off as bossy and heartless, but Raven could never fault that part of him; she’d heard of the horrible crimes that occurred in Gotham, it was honestly a wonder Robin still had the heart to have fun and be a normal teenager.
Even after that, he remained her friend. Raven had tried to keep a professional relationship with him in the beginning, but Robin was surprisingly persistent when it came to getting her to open up. He never stopped inviting her to join the team in whatever ridiculous activity they were doing, but he did so with a respectful distance. When she said “no”, he accepted that and didn’t push her. When she wanted to just be alone, he left her alone.
He was the only one that understood her, in that sense. The only one that really tried to understand her, really. Cyborg and Beast Boy certainly tried, but they always gave up or kept pushing her, overall becoming a nuisance sometimes. Starfire was naively open with her, but she kept expecting Raven to return the favor. Raven couldn’t bring herself to be so open, so trusting.
Robin was the only one that understood that.
Which is what led to… a tradition of sorts. Whenever Raven woke up, Robin was already up. She never asked him why because she knew. She knew it was because he had nightmares frequently, or just his insomnia acting up.
Knowing that, Raven decided she owed it to her leader and friend to help him out a little. Raven has awoken from enough nightmares to start a habit of drinking a mug of calming herbal tea. Raven has never seen Robin drink tea, only coffee, but maybe it could help him.
So, really, it's understandable that he's confused when she wordlessly offered him a mug one day.
He took it anyway, of course, and soon enough he stopped questioning it. The tradition kept going.
One particular morning, Raven woke up to a disturbance in the air. Or maybe it was her mind. Whatever it was, it woke her up.
She closed her eyes and focused on the source, but with her new connection to Robin after last night's fiasco, she easily found what, or who, the source was.
Of course he couldn't sleep after that, Raven thought as she floated through the halls. Who could sleep after being literally haunted by a ghost of your trauma?
She stopped at the door to the roof. She took a moment to consider if she should comfort Robin or leave him be, and decided on the former.
Robin has helped through many similar scenarios, silently sitting next to her and just offering her the comforting presence of a friend. She had to do the same for her friend. She chanted under her breath and pushed open the door.
The first thing she saw was his silhouette, sharply contrasting the bright outline the sun was giving it. He almost looked solemn from where she was standing, even without seeing his expression.
She floated slowly, just to give him time to tell her off if he wanted to. When he remained silent, crouched with his arms pulling his knees to his chest, she sat down.
When a few minutes passed of him just staring ahead blankly, Raven finally spoke up. “You… wanna talk about it?”
She didn’t really know what to say in situations like this, usually it was the other way around.
Robin’s voice was raspy with sleep when he responded, “Not really.”
A wind blew through. Raven turned her gaze to Robin, taking in the odd sight of him in his pajamas and un-gelled hair. He almost looked like a stranger, had it not been for the ever-present domino mask.
She was surprised when he suddenly started talking. “Raven, how do you do it?”
“Do what?”
“Stay calm and collected, never lash out… how do you do it?”
She took a moment to format a response. “It’s not like I never lash out, I just keep those emotions in. Actions ruled by emotion are dangerous, especially for my powers.”
Robin turned to look at her. She felt a conflicted mix of emotions from him, like he couldn’t settle on one. She has never been able to read him well before, but now she felt like she was intruding with the way his emotions poured over her.
“Can you teach me?” he asked. “How to control my emotions, I mean.”
“You already can,” she pointed out. He had an annoyingly good poker-face, and sometimes she wished she could get as good a read on him as she could now.
“Not when it matters,” Robin said quietly, oozing a concerning amount of self-hatred and disappointment. Something else too, like.... Regret?
Slade, she realized with a beat, He’s talking about Slade.
All the Titans noticed the way he lashed out when it came to Slade. He lost his cool, he screamed at them for the littlest things, and he had no control over his actions. Even his combat suffered, and he was probably the most skilled Titan among them, even without powers. He single-handedly took them down both as Red X and as Slade’s… unwilling apprentice.
Both of which were also born from Slade. It always came down to Slade.
“You don’t have to,” Robin said, misinterpreting her silence. “It's not an order as your leader, I’m just asking you as my friend.”
Friend. He was her friend. She could even go as far as to call him her soul-sibling. Of course, she’d help him, what was he thinking?
“Of course, I’ll help you,” she sighed. “Don’t think so low of me.”
“I didn’t mean-”
“I know,” she smiled. It was small, but it always came to her lips around Robin. Always Robin.
He smiled back, a genuine one so unlike his usual smirk or mischievous grin.
“Let’s get started then,” she said, willfully ignoring the strange satisfied warmth inside her. Almost like satisfaction, but fonder. More familiar.
“First, go into a lotus…”
Robin picked up meditating surprisingly well for someone so emotional (ironic, really). As soon as he got a grasp of it, he was in the zone. They spent the better part of the morning meditating, the combined sound of their chanting filling the silent air around them. Raven has meditated with Starfire before, a nice way to spend quality time with the enigmatic alien, but it didn’t feel as serene as it did at this moment.
Then again, Robin has always managed to make himself an exception with her.
They stayed like that until their friends came to drag them to breakfast. Raven watched as Beast Boy and Cyborg dragged Robin, both relentlessly teasing him (“I swear it’s a sign of the apocalypse. Robin, LATE!”). Instead of snapping at them or cutting them off, Robin followed them silently with a smile on his lips, and something inside Raven settled.
And as she walked beside her friends, Robin sent her a grateful smile and spoke almost as loudly as the gratitude flowing through their bond.
She smiled back, and she knew she didn’t need to voice a response to his silent gratitude.
THIS FRIENDSHIP WAS A WASTED OPPORTUNITY AND I AM TAKING IT!
Summary: Beast Boy gets comfort from a very unlikely place, and an apology too? Post-Betrayal.
Words: 1,625
Beast Boy’s idol has always been Robin. Even though he was already part of an awesome team himself, he always found himself in awe of the little boy that managed to land the job of being the Batman’s sidekick.
And then an alien crashed in Jump City, and it all snowballed from there.
The Robin he’d always looked up to, the one that gracefully flew off buildings and effortlessly kicked butt while making jokes and laughing, was gone. This Robin was different. Stoic. Serious.
Like Batman.
Not to say Beast Boy didn’t like the Dark Knight, but he’d always loved the Dynamic Duo because of their, well, dynamic. The stoic Batman and the cheery Robin. It all balanced out perfectly. Now it just seems like there’s two Batmans, and Beast Boy can’t say if he likes that or not.
He tried not to think too much of it, after all, Robin was still his friend. He was bossy and oftentimes mean to him, but he figured he deserved it most of the time since he did crack jokes at the most inopportune times. Still, would it kill the guy to smile more?
So as soon as their team formed, Beast Boy set out on a mission: to get closer to Robin and crack his jagged exterior.
… As soon as he learns how to stop cowering under his leader’s glare. Seriously, how can someone glare so effectively with a mask on? It couldn’t be that hard; Mento has glared at him enough to make him somewhat immune to I-am-your-leader glares, so all he had to do was get used to Robin’s, right?
But Mento was older, and arguing with him was like arguing with a parent, which is to say, he never won against him. But Robin… Robin wasn’t Mento. They’re definitely similar, almost scarily so, but Robin always found a way to prove him wrong about that.
Mento didn’t play videogames with him. He didn’t crack smiles at Beast Boy’s jokes. He didn’t pat him on the back or tell him “You were great out there!” or “I’m proud of you.”
Robin did those things, and Beast Boy slowly stopped comparing them.
But Robin was still the Titan’s leader, so there were times when he had to be professional and detached. Beast Boy understood, he really did, but he still found himself getting more and more annoyed at Robin.
Beast Boy has learned to just shut up and do as he says in the Doom Patrol, but this wasn’t the Doom Patrol. This was the Teen Titans, and the Teen Titans weren’t just a team, they were a team of friends.
So he couldn’t help but feel worse when he was being scolded by Robin; because Robin wasn’t just his leader, he was also his friend, and friends don’t treat each other like this.
It was only after Terra’s betrayal that any real progress happened between them.
There he was, sadly curled around the box he’d made for Terra, when the sound of the door opening sounded in his ears. He looked up, expecting to see Cyborg or Starfire (the only two that actually did this thing called emotions). He was definitely not expecting to see Robin standing there, looking painfully awkward and out of place.
Beast Boy has never seen his leader look so uncertain, but he really wasn’t in the mood to think about Robin. He just wanted to cry, but he would never do that in front of Robin.
Robin cleared his throat, subtly shuffling in place as he asked “Can I come in?”
When he didn’t get an answer, Robin walked in and edged closer to him. Beast Boy kept his head down and curled closer to the box, something that didn’t leave Robin’s notice.
“I’m… sorry.”
He looked up in surprise. Robin was apologizing?
He had to morph back to human if he wanted to respond, but Beast Boy wasn’t sure if he could speak without breaking down, so he stayed as he was and simply looked at him.
Robin sighed, sitting a good distance away from him on the bed. “If I hadn’t driven Terra away, Slade wouldn’t have been able to turn her on us. I’m sorry.”
He wanted to say that it wasn’t Robin’s fault, but some sick sad part of him disagreed with that. Maybe if Robin hadn’t said what he said, Terra would’ve stayed with them and joined the team, then he wouldn’t be here wallowing in his sadness.
But anyone could’ve made that mistake, or at least see it. Starfire would’ve been too nice to comment on it, Cyborg would’ve tried to help by upgrading the Training Grounds to suit Terra’s power more, and Raven would’ve bluntly pointed it out anyway. Robin noticed and assumed she wouldn’t care if he pointed it out.
Looking back on it, Robin hadn’t said it cynically. He’d said it casually, like he didn’t mean any harm with the comment. One thing Beast Boy can confidently say about his leader is that he cared about his team, no matter how he showed it, so Robin was probably worried that Terra’s lack of control would hurt his friends somehow.
… It really wasn’t his fault, was it?
Beast Boy morphed back before he could change his mind, and Robin almost jumped in surprise at the sudden shift. He looked at Beast Boy silently, waiting for him to say something. Now or never, he said to himself.
“It wasn’t your fault,” he finally said.
Robin looked like he didn’t believe him, so he tried again. “It wasn’t,” he insisted. “You though it was obvious and pointed it out the way you usually do with the things you find obvious. If you hadn’t said it then, you would have said it later.”
“But I drove her away,” Robin repeated. “Don’t you hate me for that?”
“Not gonna lie, you’re pretty annoying when you want to be,” Beast Boy tried for a grin, but it felt fake even to him. “But no, I don’t hate you. So, this isn’t your fault.”
He almost jumped when he received a small smile from his friend. It was such a rare sight, and here he was on the receiving end of it. “Thank you, Beast Boy. Really.”
Beast Boy wasn’t sure what to say to that. Robin cut him off before he could formulate a response.
“About what you said before that,” Robin started, and Beast Boy groaned. Why, oh why, did he go and poke the beast with a stick. “I recognize that I’m not… the nicest… when it comes to you, and-”
“You’re the leader, you’re supposed to tell me when I mess up. It’s fine!” Beast Boy waved his arms frantically. He disliked Robin’s leader personality, but that didn’t mean he wanted his friend to feel bad about it. He was still his friend!
“I am,” Robin agreed. “But not as excessively as I do. There are times when you deserve it, I’ll admit-”
“Thanks,” he grumbled.
“-but that doesn’t mean I get to talk down on you or take out all my frustrations on you. I’ve treated you like crap, you have a right to hate me, honestly.”
His jaw dropped in surprise. Robin apologizing to him was one thing, but Robin apologizing to him about being an asshole was a whole other thing. He took a moment to take in what Robin had just said to him.
… Nope. He had to be hallucinating.
“Do… do you mind saying that again?” He asked sheepishly.
Robin let out a small laugh. “I am not saying that again, but I will say this: the next time I start talking down on you for something stupid, don’t stand there. Argue, yell at me, anything. Just don’t let me push you around like that. A leader is supposed to encourage, not discourage.”
All thoughts of Terra left his mind as he realized what his meant. Robin was apologizing to him. Robin just told him to not take his shit. Now he’s sure he’s hallucinating.
Beast Boy started laughing at the hilarity of the situation. Robin stared at him incredulously as he laughed. When he finally managed to calm down, he said, “Dude, you realize there’s no turning back now?”
Robin grinned. “Yeah, I might regret this later.”
“No way!” Beast Boy exclaimed. “You said it! I wish I recorded that, this is amazing!”
“You’re a little too happy about this,” Robin observed plainly, though his fond expression contradicted his statement. Then, his face fell as he continued, “Am I really that mean to you? I really am sorry Beast Boy-”
“Dude, chill, it’s cool.” Robin gave him a flat look. “Okay, so it’s not cool, but at least you’re apologizing for it! That’s a start, right?”
Beast Boy held his breath as Robin contemplated what he said. Finally, Robin gave in, “I guess it is. Sure.”
This time his grin came unconsciously, and he couldn’t stop the instinct to hug his friend. Robin yelped in surprise as he suddenly found himself with an armful of excited green teenager, but then he adjusted and returned the hug awkwardly.
Beast Boy smiled into the crook of Robin’s neck. He could get used to this.
He pulled away a second later. “Dude, you really need to work on your hugs.”
Robin laughed at that. “Oh, shut up, green bean.”
“Hey!”
Outside, three teenagers heaved a collective sigh of relief at the sound of laughter. They’d been worried about their green friend, but it seems their leader was finally able to cheer him up. Reassured that things were okay, the teens smiled and left the boys to themselves.
