I don't own Young Justice. Once again, this was written in response to a prompt on the anon meme.

Secret Sympathies

It's not like him.

Robin repeated this to himself as he typed in a few choice lines of code, halfway through hacking the Cave's zeta-tube records.

He's pulling away from us.

Sure, Kaldur was entitled to a life outside the team, but he'd been gone a whole lot recently. And when anyone asked where he was spending all his time, he always managed to redirect the question in that quiet, polite Atlantean way he had. To be honest, Robin was a little worried that Kaldur was feeling disconnected from them, separated by age and culture. And really, he just didn't want him to feel lonely.

I'm investigating for the sake of the team.

It wasn't just curiosity. Really. They couldn't have their leader all despondent and isolated, now, could they?

"Gotcha," the Boy Wonder grinned, hitting one last key and watching as charts and profiles began blossoming across the main screen. He kept one hand on the escape button, just in case; you never knew when Wally was going to come downstairs for a midnight snack, if Wally was even here…well, he could always find out. But he was more curious about their dear leader.

"Computer, bring up all data for Aqualad, B-02."

The machine acquiesced, and Robin looked over the statistics with a critical eye, putting his feet up on the console as he read. Weird. Only a single visit to Atlantis in the last month. So much for that theory. Robin read on, looking for anything that could explain where Kaldur kept disappearing to.

24 transports to Star City?

He raised an eyebrow. Okay, that was weirder than not visiting Atlantis. Why on earth would Kaldur be on that end of the world? Maybe he'd been trying to investigate further into Artemis's background, after that unfortunate meeting in which Roy had outed her little secret. But no – Robin frowned as he checked it – the start of visits predated that encounter. By several months. It seemed Kaldur had made the trip at least twice a week for the last third of a year, with the visits increasing in frequency in the recent past. And he certainly couldn't be visiting Artemis herself there, since she didn't actually live in Star City.

But someone else did.

"Computer, show me Red Arrow's stats. B-06."

Obliging, computer displayed the data.

"I so do not remember that," Robin frowned, looking over Roy's records for the last few weeks. According to the computer, the archer had visited twice in the last two, but Robin sure didn't recall seeing their old buddy around.

"Computer, do you keep time-specific records?"

As Robin had muted the computer's voice technology (it was four in the morning, after all, and he wasn't trying to get found out), the computer responded by simply adding times to the logs.

"Not creepy at all, Roy," Robin frowned. The first time, the archer had arrived at 2:30 AM. The second, he'd come at a respectable 4:00 PM, but the team had been out on a training expedition then, and he hadn't actually left until 5:30 AM the next morning.

This required further investigation. But right now, Robin needed to sleep – they had a mission tomorrow, and though he was still working on the whole Being Batman thing, he didn't quite have the days-on-end-with-no-rest thing down just yet.

So it was the next weekend that he pulled on his civvies and his sunglasses (Dick Grayson couldn't be caught snooping around; it was bad press) and caught a zeta-tube to Star City to find some answers. It wasn't hard to find Roy's apartment – since he already knew his secret identity, he'd just had to hack the district property records, which had been a piece of cake. Government offices always had the worst security . From there, he'd staked the place with his binoculars out from the roof of the next building over for a few hours until finally, Roy had left (alone).

Then he'd drop-lined down and moved in for phase two.

As he stood at the door, trying to look as casual as possible, Robin pulled a small key-like item from his pocket and inserted into the lock. He gave it a few expert twists and flicks, then there was a click and the door swung ajar. Checking first to see that no one was watching, Robin slipped inside and shut the door behind him, careful to lock it so that if Roy returned he'd have bought himself a few extra seconds to bail.

"All right," Robin muttered to himself, rubbing his hands together and looking around the place. "Sleuthing time."

Well. For starters, the whole apartment was clean. From what he remembered of Roy, that was uncharacteristic, but the change could be attributed to any number of things. It wasn't conclusive evidence.

Two toothbrushes in the bathroom, one red-handled, one blue. A solid indication that someone else was here regularly enough to have his or her own.

The shower set to cold. Either Roy was some kind of masochist…or someone who liked it a little colder had used it last.

A full bed in the inner room. Who needed a full bed? Okay, so it was more comfortable than a twin, but judging from the rest of the flat, Roy was on a budget, so why splurge on a larger bed than he strictly needed?

Because he doesn't always sleep in it alone, Robin answered himself with eyes narrowed suspiciously. He didn't check the drawers after that conclusion. That felt a little too invasive.

Also, there some things he just didn't really need (or want) to know.

Okay. So, very strong evidence that Roy is seeing someone. And situational evidence that it could be Kaldur. But…what the hell? Roy and Kaldur? Really?

On second thought, it wasn't that weird.

Robin pondered it as he rooted through Roy's pantry – yeah, okay, that weird Atlantean seaweed shit Kaldur loved was in there – the two of them had always been pretty close, and they had a lot in common: a strong dedication to the cause, a lack of family and friends outside the hero community, and a severe deficiency in the sense of humor department.

Well. As long as Kaldur was happy, who really gave a damn?

Just then, a key scraped in the lock. Crap. Who had known Roy would be back so soon? Robin bolted for the nearest window, throwing it open and pulling his grappling gun from beneath his coat. In seconds, he was gone, the chill breezing through the kitchen the only sign he'd been there at all.

From his spot, suspended upside down from his hook line above the window, Robin listened carefully.

"Could have sworn I shut that," Roy's voice was muttering.

Then someone else, just before someone pushed the window shut:

"You know I do not mind a little cold, my friend."