I fell asleep as soon as my head hit my pillow; that rarely happened. I was never exhausted like that. Even as I reminded myself of the battle the day before, I could feel the soreness revealing itself over my body again. My friends had been right the night before, and I was suddenly glad I had listened to them.

I looked down to see my arm wrapped in a cast. I had been so out of it Raven had been able to wrap my arm up. I closed my eyes and sighed. I would have to live with this cast for a few days. Sure, Raven could speed up the healing process and such, but if the break was bad enough...

I sat up, groaning as my back popped and cracked. My neck was stiff, and my shoulders could barely hold the rest of my arms. I turned to get off the bed, letting my feet dangle off. Then, I pushed myself off, stretching out the muscles that were crying for me to sit back down.

After yawning and doing morning stretches, I went downstairs to see who was there. Everyone was awake and in their normal position; Starfire and Raven were reading and Cyborg and Beast Boy were playing games.

They paused when they saw my face. It was probably distorted and frowning with pain, but no one seemed to mention it. "Pancakes in the oven, dude." Cyborg announced. "Made 'em myself."

"Why would there be pancakes in the oven?" I asked, rubbing my arm and walking to the pancake-oven. "That's like-"

"That's what you do to keep them - HEY!" Cyborg suddenly shouted. "I was talking to our leader! You aren't supposed to suddenly shoot me!"

"You should have paused." Beast Boy said, a hint of triumph in his voice.

"You little squirt! I'm not going easy on you anymore!"

Beast Boy eyes widened. "You were going easy-"

"Shut up!" Raven intervened.

The now annoying sound of buttons started again, and I went to the counter with my pancakes. I poked and prodded at them, but I didn't feel like eating. Even though they smelled amazing and I had put just the right amount of syrup on them, I didn't want to eat. I felt like it was my fault that I had lost a member of our team, and that I now couldn't try to get him back. At least, it would be a few days before I could go out again. It made me feel depressed more than mad.

"Robin?" Starfire said. Her voice almost startled me; she was standing right behind me.

"Oh, hi, Starfire." I said, glancing at her. I returned to poking my pancakes.

She began to rub my shoulders, and I immediately put my head down and began to relax. "What occurred yesterday was not your fault; it was just a chance of you being in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Yeah, uh-huh." I muttered, my eyes began feeling heavy.

"What Slade does does not have to all be on your shoulders; let us carry some of the burden for you."

"Uh-huh..."

"We are your friends, and friends..." She started to talk about friends and what they do for each other. I closed my eyes, thinking about Slade. But he didn't matter. Starfire did. Cyborg and Beast Boy did too, but just not as much. And Raven was a big part of the team as well; we wouldn't be able to succeed on many of the missions without her. But I didn't need them as much as I needed Starfire. She made me happy; why didn't I notice that every time I saw her? Why did I only notice that on special occasions? Was it because it was something I didn't want to face or because Slade was so large of an obstacle? Or... Was it because I wanted to protect her even if it meant the worst?

"Are you there, Robin?"

"Uh-huh." I muttered every time she finished what she was saying.

 "Are you... Okay?" She said, looking into my face.

"Uh-huh."

"Do you..." She paused for a moment. "Love me, Robin?"

"Uh-huh." Seriously, I had no idea what she had said. She had me in a hypnotic trance. And I just wanted to fall asleep.

"Will the children we have together have seven fingers?" 

That woke me up.

"What?" I said, straightening my back. My soreness returned, but I could tell it had dissipated a bit. My back no longer felt like balls of crumpled paper had been stuffed inside of it. "What did you just say?"

"Nothing." Starfire said with a big smile and a giggle. I continued to eye her cautiously, but it didn't seem too important. At least, for the moment...

I looked at the T.V. screen. Cyborg's character was seriously beating Beast Boy. "No, see, Beast Boy, you're supposed to hit Cyborg." I said with a groan. "You can't win otherwise." I was in a good mood, now.

 Beast Boy made a sound as if he was angry. "What do you think I'm doing?! Petting him?!"

"I was going to go for tickling." I chuckled.

With a smash of some sort, Cyborg finished his girl character off, and Beast Boy let out a cry. "What do I have to do to win?!"

"Defend more." I told him. "Then go in for a hit once you're sure you can safely get at him. Otherwise, there's no reason to hit him. You'll just go in and die. Again."

"Ugh..." He moaned, as if he thought it was just another losing strategy. "I'll try."

They started again after Beast Boy spent five minutes contemplating which character to pick. It was either, 'this one's too big' or 'this one's too slow' or 'this one's too fast' or 'this one's too girly and distracting'. Cyborg pretended to cry or yelled, finally grabbing his controller and picking for him.

"Hey!" Beast Boy yelled. "That's the one I was going to pick. Thanks!"

We all moaned, then watched to see if Beast Boy would take the advice or just keep trying whatever strategy he thought was working. But at the first attack that came to him, he guarded, then went in for an attack; for a moment, he was winning.

"Oh no, you didn't!" Cyborg shouted, going all in at Beast Boy. But in doing so, it cost him; his temper made him lose the entire battle. By dodging and guarding, Beast Boy was able to out-speed Cyborg and kind of out-smart him by keeping his cool and not getting cocky.

"You little brat!" Cyborg yelled. I could picture the steam coming out of his ears, which made me smile.

"Ha!" Beast Boy turned into a monkey and did some flips. I thought Cyborg would throw him against the wall.

"Rematch!" Cyborg replied. The battles after the were far more exciting and evenly matched. Sometimes Cyborg won, and sometimes Beast Boy won. They went on for hours, as if pressing the buttons and accomplishing nothing but a bit of hand eye coordination was good. Don't get me wrong, they were fun, but they played them for way too long.

"How is your arm?" Starfire asked, running her hand along the cast.

I lifted it up and shrugged. "It doesn't really hurt. The cast is just annoying."

"That is good." She replied. "I am glad you were not hurt badly yesterday. We should have stayed and looked for you..."

Guilt flashed upon her. "You guys were mad at me. You thought I needed time to get over myself."

"But, truly, you did not, and we were wrong."

"Least of all, it's your fault." I touched her hand that was laying on my cast. "I yelled at you. Twice. Once right after fighting Slade, and probably something the mannequin said to you. You wanted to get away from me the most."

"We all have duties, but friendships should come first. Well, that is my opinion." 

I didn't want to respond to that, but I knew I would have to. And deep down somewhere, I knew that was true. I would rather have friends than work to save the world a countless number of times. But does self come before the world?

"I know." That was all I could say. I looked down. I couldn't look at her face. I didn't want to know what it looked like, and I didn't have any clue as to what it would look like. Was it disappointment that my answer was so short? Did she know I felt such a duty to the world? Of course she did. It was the most obvious thing in the world. 

With those thoughts and preparations in my mind, I looked at her face. She was smiling a little, but I couldn't tell if it was a smile that was lying or telling my the truth. And I wasn't good at deciphering things that didn't have to do with my job. And I also couldn't help but smile back.

"Robin!" Cyborg suddenly yelled. I looked over to where he and Beast Boy had been siting, and the seats were vacant. They were both at the computer in front of the T.V. "We have a situation!"

"Where-" I stopped and looked back at Starfire. She nodded, removed her hand, and got up. I ran to Cyborg, but I couldn't help feeling a pang of guilt - again. My life would never be normal enough for a relationship. "Where is it?"

"The first question is what." Cyborg corrected. "Robbery at the... college?! There's nothing there!"

Only one name came to my mind. "... Slade."