[thread] What is the golden rule?

[flipping_bird]

Characters: OU: Tim Drake/Robin, OU: Robin [TT] Open to others (just be warned I'm about to leave for work. Please start a new thread per new character!)
Where: Wherever you like! Please specify in your comment.
When: After this journal post.
Summary: Having made a couple of changes, Robin is checking up on his friends.
Warnings: I got a feeling

Comments

[notarrowette]

Cissie was working out some of her frustration with archery. She knew it wouldn't help her. She knew being out alone in the park right now, without the cuffs and with the Keepers right there, was not the smartest move, but she needed to do something. Robin was angry, Kon was not himself, Quatre was worried, Helena was clearly cracked, Tim was--she didn't know. And she didn't know what to do about any of it. But archery--archery she knew. She could nock an arrow, pull the string, aim and shoot--and the arrow would go precisely where she wanted it.

Her arm, shoulder and back muscles were starting to burn when she felt eyes watching her. She let one last arrow fly and turned her head, wary of who she might see. Her eyes widened when she saw Robin--she recognized him, but the suit was... very different. Must be the new look he had been referring to. "Uh... Robin?"

[flipping_bird]

"Cissie," Robin said, with a nod of greeting. "You're really good." It wasn't a compliment, exactly, more like acknowledgement of a fact. Still positive though.

"You're about to run out of arrows though," he noted.

[notarrowette]

"I hope so," she replied, smirking--and teasing--a little. "I don't think they give out Olympic medals to people who aren't capable, although they could just be sympathy prizes--'you have no life, here, have a medal.'" She glanced down at the single arrow left and shrugged. "I should stop anyway. I don't normally shoot so many at once."

Cissie set her bow down and turned to look at Robin, eyeing the costume change carefully. "So this is the new look you mentioned?"

[flipping_bird]

"That would sort of go against the goal of the Olympics, wouldn't it? Promoting competition, exchange and self-pity?" Robin teased as he joined Cissie. "Want a hand tidying up?"

He stayed still as Cissie looked him over, letting her take in the costume. "That's right. Though it's not so much a new look. I've worn this before but -- not entirely by choice."

[notarrowette]

Cissie laughed a little. "Maybe just a little," she conceded. "And sure--thanks." She picked up her quiver and walked with Robin to the target. She grasped an arrow and in a swift, sharp motion yanked it out--it took more force to pull it out than it appeared--and looked it over carefully before turning to Robin again. "If you don't mind helping me pull these out, when you do--just look them over for me? If there's nothing wrong, go ahead and put them in the quiver. Otherwise, I have to try to repair them." She gave him a sheepish smile. "Sometimes they land too close together and they split, or the fletchings--the feathers--bend or rip out. Which sucks."

She pulled another arrow out, looking it over before finally commenting on the costume change again. "It's an interesting look. Different. How do you mean, 'not entirely by choice'?"

[flipping_bird]

Robin nodded, doing as he was told. "I have to admit that's a part of the job Speedy's never mentioned. Then again, he tends to use trick arrows the most -- he doesn't have to worry about fletchings so much."

He was glad for the distraction of gathering the arrows -- it made answering Cissie's question easier. "First time I wore this, my friends live's were being held by hostage by the guy who made it. His name's Slade. He wanted an Apprentice."

[notarrowette]

Cissie hummed a little in surprise at the mention of Speedy. "Speedy's a 'he', huh? Our Speedy is a girl--although the original was a boy." She frowned at the arrow she was inspecting--she would need to re-glue the fletching on this one. She set it on the ground next to the quiver. "I used trick arrows when I was Arrowette," she said, making a face. "They were a pain."

She eyed Robin as they worked, contemplating his answer. "Did he want you specifically or was it a 'wrong place, wrong time' kind of thing?"

[flipping_bird]

"We're still on our first," Robin said, trying to imagine what Cyborg and Beast Boy would make of a female Speedy, given that their reaction to the first was thinking Robin had a twin. "I'm the first -- and so far only -- Robin, by the way."

Robin's mouth went thin and tense. "He spent a long time manipulating me into the frame of mind where I believed that taking his orders was my only choice. He wanted me."

[notarrowette]

"Ah," she said, nodding a bit. "From what I've heard, the first Speedy's a pretty decent guy." She shot Robin a self-deprecating grin. "I had some jealousy issues with the second one, though."

The smile faded when she heard Robin's answer, and saw the look on his face. "He sounds... special," she muttered dryly, feeling angry on Robin's behalf. "What happened?"

[flipping_bird]

"I can imagine." Robin's expression as he returned Cissie's arrows to her. "Don't tell Nightwing or Robin Two this, but sometimes, being the youngest isn't a lot of fun."

Slade always brought out the best in him. Robin scowled. "My friends worked it out. They believed in me, and we kicked Slade's butt together. It was a really long time before he came back from that one." The scowl faded, becoming more sad as he continued. "The second time wasn't that long ago. One of the transformations. Nightwing became version of us that had seen all the Titans die. He was -- bitter. Me -- I was a me who had never been freed from Slade's control. That's how I got this suit."

[notarrowette]

"I won't." Cissie glanced at him curiously. That hadn't exactly been how she'd meant. She busied herself with putting the arrows away, leaning over while she spoke. "I imagine it isn't. I don't really know, myself--it's always been just me." She paused for a moment. "I was jealous of Speedy because she was a blond archer who got to join the Titans and work with Green Arrow. Not that I wanted to be a Titan or work with Green Arrow--it's not called irrational jealousy because it makes sense, though."

"I'm glad your friends were there for you." Cissie frowned, picking up on the sadness in Robin's voice and remembering something Tim had said when they'd argued shortly after her arrival. "That... second time," she said slowly, "was before I came here, right? Was that when Tim was..."

[flipping_bird]

"I'm happy with the Titans," Robin said. "And I know that leaving Gotham was the right choice. But -- sometimes, I'm jealous that Robin Two has what I never had." He made a face. "It's stupid -- and it hardly seems to matter now."

Cissie had it. Robin nodded solemnly. "That was when Tim was Batman," he said. "I was with him for most of it."

[notarrowette]

Cissie put her hand on Robin's shoulder for a moment--she would have squeezed it, but it was covered with steel. "I don't think it's stupid," she said, thinking of how jealous she sometimes was of people who had a parental figure who wasn't insane or unfit.

She drew in a slow breath, frowning. "So... can I ask why you want to wear it now?"

[flipping_bird]

Talk about irrational impulses -- Robin felt a twinge of resentment. Once again, it was Cissie who was giving him the sort of attention he wanted so badly from Batman. The thought was quashed in a second -- Batman was never going to be what Robin wanted of him, and he just had to learn to accept that. Cissie was kind -- a good person. They were rare. His smile was quiet -- and grateful.

It vanished abruptly to answer Cissie's question. "Things are going to be difficult from now on. It's going to be hard. I can't get -- distracted." Robin took a breath. "I'm going to need a lot of anger."

[notarrowette]

Robin's Batman might not give him the attention he wanted, and he might not want it from Cissie, but he definitely had it now. As far as she was concerned, they had been through far too much together for her not to consider him family--she didn't have much of a blood family; her friends were her family, and here in Econtra, Robin was quickly becoming a brother. She wouldn't have wanted to be with anyone else at the moment of their "death" than Tim, Kon and Robin.

Which was part of why Robin's comment about anger, combined with his reasoning for the suit, bothered her. She frowned. "Distracted how?"

[flipping_bird]

Maybe Cissie should have been a bat -- she'd caught the one thing Robin was really hoping that no one would. He sgihed, not quite managing to meet her eyes as he explained. "Scared," he said, quietly. "If I stop and think too much about this, it just -- I can't act if I'm paralysed. And -- I've got to be able to act."