"And this is our game room slash hangout space" Beast Boy finished with a flourish, his hands stretched wide. "Cyborg and I play games on the TV while Raven reads. Starfire used to do stuff with us but after our teammate disappeared, she kinda goes off to her room"

Starfire herself was already gone and Dick looked like he would rather be doing anything else than walk down memory lane.

"Hey Beast Boy, where are we staying?" I wondered aloud, hoping to move things along. "Because this place is huge and I already forgot where we were gonna go"

I didn't.

"Oh, I'm sure you guys are really tired." He glumly began to walk toward the rooms he'd excitedly pointed out earlier, completely avoiding one of the doors. The rest of the team stayed in the living room, going about a task they were probably doing before they got one of their 'titan alerts' as Dick had once called them.

We stopped at a door near the end of the hall, my supposed room was right next to it. "Don't worry Beast Boy, we'll still hang out, just give me and Nightwing a minute" I promised, practically shoving my friend into the open room.

The green boy instantly perked up. "Cool!" He paused, clearing his throat and trying to act natural. "I mean, yeah that's cool, see you soon"

Once the door slid shut and locked, Dick pulled me in for a hug, and if he held me a little tighter than usual, I didn't mind. "I know"

"It's been a hard day" he admitted, resting his chin on my head.

"Do you want to talk about what happened before we went through that Zeta tube"

"I was scared I wasn't going to be able to catch you" Dick's voice broke and he kissed the top of my head, clearly fighting his emotions. "If I lost you like I lost them-"

"I'm still here" I promised.

"Even after all this time, I can still hear them screaming. I can see their fear and remember the sound they made when they hit the ground" Dick wiped at his eyes, still managing to keep his hold as his mask dropped to the floor, completely disregarded. "Then when you fell, it was like I was eight all over again."

Leaning back, I put my hand on his cheek, thumbing away any stray tears he'd missed. "You caught me."

He sniffed, his eyes searching my face as if he were committing it to memory. I peeled my own mask off, allowing him to see me.

Seeing the need for a subject change, I stepped out of his grip, my hand finding his like always. "Do you want to tell them that you're their old Robin?"

"No" he shook his head, blinking hard a few times. "That'll bring up too many questions I don't have the answers to"

"Alright" I held his hand tighter. "What do you want to do?"

Dick sighed heavily. "I just need to remind myself that this is for their own protection, for everyone's protection"

"And if anyone else were threatening them, I'd remind you that your friends can protect themselves but we both know who we're dealing with. He'll use anyone against you that he can in order to get what he wants"

"As cowardly as it sounds I just want to stay in here until I can figure out how to fix that machine." Dick stepped back, rubbing the back of his neck. "But you can talk to them if you'd like"

"Ok first off, you aren't a coward, far from it." I pointed at him. "And secondly, I don't know if you've noticed Dick but I'm not exactly the most sociable person. I have like two friends"

His brow furrowed. "Who's this second friend?"

"Alfred"

"When did that happen?" He set his hands on his hips.

"You were in recovery and he was cooking so we chatted" I shrugged. "He makes very good hot cocoa and is a very good listener"

"I'm proud of you" he grinned.

Warmth rushed through my chest at the words. "Okay but what do we do in the mean time, it's not like we can just hole up in here"

"You're right" Dick sighed. "There's something in my old room I think I might need." He winced before continuing. "Could you maybe distract them?"

"I can do that, you're sure Cyborg can't detect you?"

"My program should've wiped everything" He tapped his wrist where his holoscreen sat. "My question is why you changed the story? You're a new hero now?"

Inwardly I grinned, nothing could distract Dick from something emotional faster than his friends or adoptive family. Mission accomplished. "What? I wanted to spice things up a little."

Dick rolled his eyes. "But seriously, if you did want to become a hero, I can help"

I pat his chest lightly. "No thank you. You're hero enough for the both of us. I just keep the secrets"

He pointed at me as we made our way to the door. "That's an important job too"

"Of course"

Dick reapplied both my mask and his, keeping our identities safe.

The door slid open, exposing the hallway. Laughter could be heard from the down the hall.

"Okay, I'll be there in a little bit" Dick promised quietly, giving me a side hug before slipping into his old room as we passed it.

Suddenly feeling self conscious, I dragged my sleeves over my hands nervously, the way to the living room, though brightly lit, was also slightly eerie and devoid of life.

It lacked the personal touch that Wayne manor had.

"Look it's The Keeper lady" Beast Boy greeted without looking away from the game he was playing with Cyborg, the late hour not seeming to bother any of the young adults. They were all so causal, the mighty Titans. Starfire was probably still in her room.

It's hard to believe that these people had given Slade so much trouble. "You could call me Kay"

"Kay" Beast Boy tested it out. "I like it, shorter than The Keeper"

"Anyway" I clapped my hands together, trying my best to hide the discomfort. Blending in had never been my forte during training, it still wasn't now. "How'd you guys know when we showed up?"

"I've got alerts set up, any activities out of the ordinary throughout the city, like say a zeta tube or whatever Nightwing called it suddenly opened up, I get a notification and we go check it out"

"You're looking for that Robin guy huh" I settled on the back of the couch, my feet resting on the cushions. Beast Boy gaped at me. "It was before my time" I shrugged, trying to play on naivety.

"Before your time?!" Cyborg had to actually pause his game to give me a look of astonishment. "Have you been living under a rock your whole life?"

Underground but sure.

"He's from Gotham right?" A nod. "I never had Gotham news or anything. My parents were kinda against any and all media and I was homeschool the majority of my life"

Sort of.

"How do you know how to keep me out?" Raven looked up from her book in interest. "Not being able to access memories I understand, it's not that hard to keep telepaths from that, but your topside thoughts? That should be impossible"

I shrugged. "What do you guys do for fun? Surely being a superhero isn't it?"

The three exchanged glances. "Pretty much this" Beast Boy replied carefully. "Sometimes we get pizza in the city but it's not like we can go civilian so we can only do so much"

"Well maybe Raven could if she put in contacts" Cyborg pointed out. "Point is being a hero isn't all it's cracked up to be"

Good thing I have no intention of becoming one then. "Not in it for the glory" Just wanted to escape my father.

"Most of us aren't" Raven watched me carefully.

Before I could reply, a sound emitted from all the available computers. The three heroes jumped up and ran out the room wordlessly. Curious, I followed them, not exactly wanting to be in a room by myself.

The closer I got to the Titans, the worse a feeling I had. Then I overheard the words Dick had been trying to avoid for three years.

"You're Robin"