Title: Robin POV Part 1
Author: Katarik
Pairing: Slade/Robin
Rating: PG

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters from Teen Titans! DC owns the original characters. I get no money from this project.
Summary: The mask is always there. Until it's not.

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When Robin takes off the Red X suit, he hides it away so that he will never be tempted to wear it again. He returns the chips to Wayne Industries, thanking them for their cooperation. He takes one thing with him, and he keeps it in his room.

Slade's mask.

Robin runs his fingers over it before he goes to sleep, tracing the slits that prove Slade's as mortal as Robin is: Slade requires air. Slade, by dint of his mortality, is vulnerable. Robin learns every feature of the mask, including the fact that the left side, as Robin holds it, really is blank: no eye could see through the solid metal. Slade is half-blind when he fights Robin. Half-blind, and the man always *always* wins.

Robin hangs the mask where he can look at it any time of the day or night, where the mask is what he sees as he closes his eyes to sleep and what he sees when he opens them in the morning. It's an oddly comforting feeling, having someone watch him as he goes about his work. He's used to that with Gotham; Slade's the only one who does that here.

But Slade isn't Batman, and Robin has no intention of confusing the two. Slade is an *enemy*, and his mask hangs in Robin's room as a reminder of what Robin's sworn to do: he will *beat* Slade. He will rip the mask from Slade's real face, and he will know Slade's name, and he's going to *win*.

Robin glares at Slade's mask, and he *knows* Slade's smirking back. Try, Robin. I'll rip your mask away *long* before you rip away mine. Come on, Robin. Come find me, and try your best.

Robin rolls over onto his side and closes his eyes. He can feel Slade's one-eyed stare burning into his back. It makes him shudder with hatred and disgust.

When he wakes the next day, he can't feel that stare anymore. The mask is gone.

Robin ransacks the entire Tower to find it. Starfire pleads with him not to search; Robin shrugs her off and continues looking. Doesn't find it. He tosses and turns that night, unable to sleep.

He gets up at three o'clock in the morning, figuring that since he can't sleep he'll train. Tower security informs him that there's a package on the front stoop that's been there since midnight: fifteen or so minutes past the time that Raven went to her room to sleep. Robin goes to fetch it. When he opens the package, he freezes. Breathes easily for the first time in over twenty-four hours.

One of the Titans must have opted to send this, seeing his reaction to its loss, Robin decides. He goes to hang up the restored mask in its accustomed place. Staring into the eye, Robin feels the familiar surge of anger low in his stomach. He strokes one bare finger over the lines of the mask, swearing once again to see the face beneath it, and goes to bed.

Slade's stare feels like a knife pressing lightly over Robin's vulnerable back. Robin's mouth curves in a vicious smile as he sleeps.

--Fin

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