AN: Hi everyone~ Just a little one-shot I've written during school holiday. Hope you'll like it~ Do comment on it if you have time :)

Disclaimer: Teen Titans and Batman belong to DC Comics and not me~ Everyone knows that-

Normal.

Sometimes he just wished that he could be normal. A normal teenager, not some I-really-need-to-stay-up-all-night-to-predict-where-the-villain-would-strike-next superhero. But deep down, in his heart, Robin knew that he would never be able to live a normal teenage life.

And the worse thing was that he couldn't really blame anyone, could he?

It wasn't as if he was ever a normal boy, not for his age anyway. Travelling with a performing circus, he had never been in school and did not get to spend much time with boys of his age. As the youngest of the 'Flying Graysons', he'd been showered with attention from the both the media and the circus audiences which, he had to admit, was quite flattering. But who could he blame for the fact that he was born to a pair of famous circus acrobats?

The Mafia gangsters, yes, they're the only ones he could blame for sure. If they hadn't done what they did, everything would be different. Robin won't be Robin, he would be living with his family and spend their happy hours on trapeze wires rather than spending hours undergoing extensive trainings with Batman. Hooray.

Robin supposed he could blame Batman to some extent. If he hadn't shown up by the circus that night, he wouldn't become Batman's sidekick, Robin the Boy Wonder, would he? Of all people who could have turned up, it just had to be Batman!

Screw fate.

Then again, if it was the Mafia boss instead of Batman… Better not think about it. And Batman never really forced him to be his apprentice, in fact, he made that choice himself. Oh well, too late to regret now. And what would happen to him if Batman had not shown up that night?

Would he be sent to an orphanage and live a normal life from thereon?

He seriously doubted it. Fate won't be that kind. To him.

Being Robin wasn't a very big leap in his 'normal-ness' scale. It's just going from the 'not-very-usual-acrobat' to the 'special-superhero's-sidekick'. Yay.

On the other note, who was to determine what is normal and what's not?

For Robin, normal meant to spend his life in peace without having to worry about getting soul-trapping puppets or his youth stolen by some cane-holding mad creep. He strongly believed that there ought to be some other superheroes who feel the same. But still, he wouldn't be really surprised if others had different ideas. Batman, for one, preferred to be Batman compared to Bruce Wayne. It was almost as if Batman forgot that he was Bruce Wayne disguising as Batman instead of Batman disguising as Bruce Wayne. Robin would guess that Raven's idea of normal was to float about and meditate everyday and Cyborg's was to dedicate all of his time to his 'baby' T-car. Starfire and Raven would probably had never even though about it.

Guess that's what it meant by each to their own.

Thinking about his fellow Titans, Robin couldn't help to ponder if fate really had something against him. As if it wasn't enough that he wasn't normal, even his friends weren't exactly what people would call normal.

Sometimes he wondered how they felt about it. Starfire being so far away from home that she's planets apart from her kin in a foreign planet, Beast Boy coping with rumours that he's green because of all the vegetables he ate, Cyborg possibly having problems with airport security and the metallic scanners from his part-machine body and Raven forced to remain monotone, unable to fully express her emotions just to keep her powers in check.

He wished that he could say that he was able to fully understand how they felt, but he couldn't. He knew that they all understood each other's general feelings, but when it got down to the deeper, finer details, well, that's when people have to literally step into others' shoes to know their perspectives. Starfire and Raven had their bodies switched before, they would know better than him, Beast Boy and Cyborg.

It must be hard for them. All of them.

But they were all so brave, facing everything cheerfully and energetically. Okay, so Raven's not cheerful but still, she was courageous, never trying to run away from what she had to face. He, on the other hand, would frequently manipulate his workaholic persona just to escape reality, not that he would ever admit it. Concentrate on working and he won't think about whatever he did not want to face, even if it was just for a small fragment of time.

Robin considered himself the luckiest of the five Titans, for when he wanted some peace and quiet and the workaholic persona is getting a bit too stressful and out of hand, he could always take off his mask and pretend that he was a normal teenager in this superficial world.

Just like what he's doing now.

Sitting alone in the pizzeria, he felt sorry for the other Titans who had to disguise themselves if they did not want to attract too much attention. At the same time, he idly wondered how long would this peace and normality last.

Let's see, Slade haven't appear lately, knowing that bitchin' fate I won't be surprised if he decided to make his grand entrance today, then headline news: Cinderblock just escaped from prison again. Mad Mod's starting a school, Puppet King starting a show? This is going to be a busy day…

As if on cue, his communicator suddenly vibrated, reminding him that the not-so-normal leader of the Titans Robin is needed in town, Richard Grayson sighed, paid for his drinks and left his favourite pizzeria in town.

Well, at least he tried.

AN: Most, if not all, of the episode references came from Season One. I think. Hope you enjoyed it :D