TW: INJURY

The mission was definitely a test of trust between the mentors and their mentees as it required them to stay overnight at a safe house. They would be handling a small recon mission and then staying at a house before leaving in the afternoon. It was practice for when they were doing missions on their own and was a true test to see if they could handle themselves. They were all excited to prove themselves, doing everything they could to make sure things went perfectly so they'd get the chance again. This was a massive stride of progress from where they began and with this taste of freedom, they couldn't return to how things once were. Mission plans were looked over three times, comm units were quadruple checked and Kaldur was actually listened to. 

When they got through the mission without an explosion, it almost didn't feel like it was over until they got back to the safehouse. 

"Is anyone else not exhausted?" Artemis asked as she kicked off her combat boots. Her teammates paused to assess themselves before giving her a nod. "It's almost like not running for your life every five minutes leaves you with energy."

"Who could've thought," Wally commented, finding there wasn't as much of an ache in his limbs. Maybe they should do this more often. It was a nice change to get out of somewhere with no fear that they wouldn't return with all their limbs intact. Had they known missions could go this well, they would've tried much harder to avoid explosives. 

"Good job everyone," Kaldur announced.

"Good job leading us," M'gann replied with a smile. "Should we celebrate? We're bound to be deemed a success after this."

"They did fully stock this place," Wally said, already making his way over to the fridge. "I reckon this is reason enough to make the most of it. Who knows when we'll be let out to do this again."

"I'd like to do this again," Connor stated. "It was fun."

"Get changed then put on some music?" Artemis suggested. She received their nods of approval and grinned to herself. A mission without anyone getting hurt was so rare these days. Even if the injuries were small, the whole team felt it and couldn't help but feel slightly responsible for not keeping an eye on each other better. 

Turns out not everyone went uninjured.

It took some time to notice but about halfway through the party, they noticed that Robin was no longer with them. No one was sure if he started with them or if he'd left halfway through given his tendency to move like a shadow and be gone in a blink of an eye. They were at least sure that he'd returned with them from the mission so they didn't need to worry about him being missing that much. Still, they could rule out him turning in early given he was Batman's protege and some of them weren't even sure that he did sleep. 

"Has anyone seen Robin?" Wally asked over the music, voicing all the passing thoughts they'd all had at one point. As much as he enjoyed being the centre of attention on the dancefloor, it wasn't as fun without his partner in crime and God knows that the young vigilante could use an excuse to kick back. 

"I've not seen him since we got back," M'gann admitted. With a few other nods, Kaldur decided to turn down the music, therefore, putting the party on pause. "We should probably make sure he's alright. He seemed kinda lethargic on the way home."

"Maybe he's got burn out?" Artemis suggested. "He is out every night in Gotham." Although it was plausible, they still silently agreed that it was better to check and made their way to the shared bedroom. 

All the beds were empty, and most of their suits splayed on top of them as well as on the floor. They'd chosen beds before they'd gone out so they knew to direct their gaze to the one closest to the window. Two heavy combat boots sat at the foot of the bed on the floor and a black cape was neatly folded alongside them. That proved Robin hadn't gone out on some impromptu patrol. The bathroom they shared had its light on and the door was slightly open. 

"Rob?" Wally called, knocking on the door. "You okay in there?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Robin sniffled. He sounded like he'd been crying, his voice thick from it. 

"You don't sound it," M'gann commented.

"I probably don't look it either," he said sardonically. They didn't like one bit of that though so Wally rolled the dice by opening the door the rest of the way. Much to their horror, Robin was sitting in the bath with a gaping hole in his shoulder. He'd taken off his shirt, that now laying on the floor where it stained the bathmat with residue blood. A first aid kit was in his lap and he was currently working on closing the hole up with a needle and thread. He looked pale and had a thin sheen of sweat covering his skin although he gave them an easy smile as they flooded into the room. 

"Oh God," Artemis stated.

"It's not as bad as it looks, I'm fine-"

"We're never gonna get to do this again," the archer interrupted. His smile fell slightly as he waited for the others to weigh in, only to slip away completely when they finally did.

"We were doing so well too," M'gann concurred.

"We can wash the blood off," Kaldur suggested. For supposedly being the voice of reason amongst the group, he too seemed more focused on covering up the injury than the person actually dealing with the injury. 

"You can't cover up a hole in the shoulder!" Wally exclaimed.

"We could say that he already had it?" Connor offered with trademark niavity.

"Batman would already know about any injuries he'd have. We're screwed, no doubt about it," Artemis concluded. 

"Wow, thanks for your sympathy. Really feeling the love here as I sew myself up," Robin bit out once they devolved into worried ramblings. If he'd had the energy then he'd do a bit more to be angry about it but he frankly didn't. 

"Oh, dude we didn't-"

"No, no it's fine. You're allowed to care more about your special treat than me getting shot. For your information, I already let Canary know so I didn't ruin your chances." He left no room for them to backpedal their ways out of this mess and he didn't need to tell them to leave to be left alone again because they were already backing out of the room. They wouldn't be much help anyway. He could handle himself. Even if he didn't really want to. 

They got up the next day to the sound of cans being shoved into a bag and they all silently glanced at one another. It didn't take a genius to figure out it was Robin. He hardly ever slept and they were leaving that afternoon so he probably got bored of his attempt to rest, instead deciding to be productive. They felt a little guilty for leaving the mess and had they known he'd be cleaning it up, they would've made it easier. Slowly, they all got ready and moved into the living room where they found Robin grumbling to himself as he moved around the room to clean after them. 

"You didn't have to do that," Kaldur assured him. 

"I wasn't doing anything anyway," he replied sharply. Clearly, he was still upset about last night but he wouldn't tell them that directly. He was in the right to be upset, of course, but that didn't make it any less disheartening when he wasn't making an attempt to communicate.

"You should go lay down. Canary says you always need to rest after receiving an injury," M'gann commented. She flew over to lightly take the bag from him but he took a step back to maintain some distance, fixing her in place with a glare. 

"I'll live," he responded. "You know, for people so dead set on not ruining their chances at doing this again you sure did leave a mess." They cringed at his tone. Yep, he was definitely not happy with them. It was like when you did something wrong and your parents knew about it but waited for you to own up. There was an intensity that made you uncomfortable, everything feeling like a bother. It was almost funny that they were getting such vibes from a kid younger than all of them - except Connor but they still weren't sure how they were counting his years. 

"C'mon, can we not fight before breakfast?" Wally asked, hoping that would ease the mood. It didn't. His attempts at placating his friend only made Robin more agitated as his cleaning turned a little more violent. He continued his way around the room, picking up the crushed cans from the floor and throwing them into the bag. 

"I'm not fighting. I'm cleaning up your mess. If I was fighting you, you'd be on the floor."

"I get Batman doesn't teach you to communicate but you can't talk to us like that," Artemis pointed out and had it been a better day, the younger would've agreed and composed himself but it wasn't a better day. 

"Why not when I got hurt and one of your first reactions is that I ruined things for you?" he snapped. "I didn't spend five years of my life doing this job for a bunch of amateurs to say I ruined their chances at going out on their own. I had their trust so this was a trust exercise for you, not me. Only you could ruin your chances here because unlike the rest of you, I'm trusted to get things done without blowing myself up in the process. If anything, you're ruining my chances at being taken seriously outside of Gotham."

"There's no need to get mean," M'gann pouted. He huffed and dropped the bag on the floor, deciding that he didn't have to go back and forth with them. Frankly, he'd done enough mental run-throughs of their eventual confrontation to know it wouldn't get them anywhere and only make things worse. He skipped out on time wasters like that and this time would be no different. 

"Clean your own mess, I'm going home."

"Robin, we're at least four hours away from Gotham and you've been shot. You're far from stupid enough to attempt that drive on your own," Kaldur said, stepping in as their leader. "We've upset you, that is fair, but lashing out and acting brashly is not what will solve this. Maybe it does with Batman and yourself but not with us. If you need space, you can have it but you cannot run off. It's not safe and we don't want you in unneeded danger." The teen stared at his leader for a few moments before deflating and pinching the bridge of his nose to think. Eventually, he let out a sigh and picked up the bag again, continuing with his cleaning efforts with a calmer demeanour. "Tell us how you feel."

"Disappointed I guess," he mumbled, unused to actually confronting things. When he was pissed at Batman or vice versa they got passive-aggressive before things just went back to normal. "If... if this mission had gone well, I would've gone against Batman's stupid rules and told you who I am. Y'know behind Robin." Wally's eyes widened. Unlike his teammates, he knew who Robin was before the team was formed. He also knew, unlike his teammates, that if Robin did go against his mentor then it would raise hell. He'd get sent home early on every patrol for the next month and there'd be double the training sessions. Batman's unwarranted paranoia would make his life suck for ages and he'd be willingly putting himself through it as a sign of trust. "But you all seemed more worried about how this would reflect on you than you did about me fixing myself up."

"We only thought that because you're Robin."

"So if you saw a regular thirteen-year-old stitching himself up then it's time to worry?" he grumbled. "Doesn't much matter if it's me because I'm used to it, right? Doesn't matter if I don't like it."

"That's...no wait, yeah that sounds like what we're saying, doesn't it?" Artemis replied, her argument crumbling before she could even get the words out. He took pity on her, on all of them for that matter. He supposed that it was only natural to see Robin rather than a kid. Usually, he hated being seen as a kid but these were people his age and he'd felt comfortable with being the youngest - still unsure of where the Connor stand is - on the team. He really thought they cared about him but their first thoughts were about themselves. It didn't feel good. He felt like it was the team plus Robin rather than them all being a team.

"Look, I won't say anything about your reaction and Canary already knows that I was hurt. I told her as soon as we got back so it wouldn't be something we were marked down for. I just- I thought we were closer than we actually are but I'm not going to rat you out because you made me feel bad."

"You won't tell us who you are anymore?" Connor asked. He shook his head with a slightly solemn expression and continued to clean. "When will we know?"

"I don't know. Maybe next time something happens where I have the opportunity to see you care about me as a teammate rather than some sort of mini Batman. Maybe until I get permission or my file gets declassified."

"So there's a possibility you'll never tell us?" the clone continued. He nodded. Breakfast was quiet.