A/N: How are you guys? I was inspired by youtube songs and other things to create this new fanfic. After all with how happy Robin is all the time there has to be something behind it right? I hope you all enjoy!
'These are thoughts'
"These are talking"
"'This is mind chats"'
I'm sorry for not updating the other stories. I was planning on this being a lot darker. By probably 50 times as dark as it was, but then halfway through I went out with some friends and completely lost my mojo. I hope you all enjoy! I was planning on this being a one-shot, but if enough of you review telling me you want another couple chapters or for it to be continued/extended then I'll do it.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with this the characters are all DC's.
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He was always smiling in some form. Whether it was just a slight grin or a full blown smile that showed his teeth, he was always smiling. In any situation, whenever someone was around. It never left his face, at least not when anyone would notice.
To everyone else it was almost as if he only had one set of facial expressions, the happy ones, since no one else EVER saw him with any other form of expression on his face, but that is how he wanted it. He couldn't let anyone else see him without out a smile. He wore the smile not for himself, but for everyone else. His smile was like his mask, one that he wouldn't remove or at least not until he was alone. That is when he would let it out. He would let his true emotions show and express them only for the short time span that no one was near and the second someone was anywhere near him, if he was in the vision of any type of device, or thought he heard something then in a split second he would cover up and remove any sign that showed he was anything other than happy and could do anything other than give off a smile. It was his perfect cover, his ultimate mask that no one could see through. A false expression for the false emotions that he needed to show, after all wasn't it fitting? A false expression and false emotions for a false person, or at least that was how he saw it.
Behind his smile, the truth that lurked quiet and sad, hidden by his glasses and covered with a grin was almost a whole different person. A person that no one knew, Bruce didn't, Alfred hadn't seen the person either, not a single person at his school, neither did anyone in the League, and definitely not a person on his team. Each one just knew the jovial young boy with the seemingly eternal smile on his face. They didn't even know the other side of the boy existed, not even the "world's greatest detective" had discovered the truth, the reality, or the sadness held inside the boy's eyes, covered with a smile, and locked inside.
That is what had made Kaldur suspicious. At the beginning he just thought Robin was just a happy boy, after all everyone has their ups and downs, but Kaldur noticed the smile was even there on the events that they failed, although the smile was in the form of the slightest grin, and when they had seen the Leaguers or whenever someone asked if he was okay his smile grin to a moderate grin saying he was. To Kaldur it was odd Robin never seemed to have a down moment and as far as he could tell the boy hadn't ever dropped his smile in front of them. The smile was unsettling at times since it was there even in those times that the young hero shouldn't have a smile, but should be wearing a frown. He thought maybe it was something that was only in his mind.
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Over the course of the next couple weeks the fact had stuck out more and more to Kaldur. In each of the events that happened that grin stayed plastered on his face of course it shrunk and grew depending on the point in the missions and how they turned out.
In the first event the team was captured and locked into cages and slowly everyone was getting tortured in small amounts even Robin himself. He was shocked by a shock collar that was strung around his neck by the latest villain.
In the second event he noticed it again that when the team was slowly being picked off by the Joker, he stayed focused on Robin the longest, beating him with a crowbar, but even with that happening to him the smile stayed. Kaldur had hoped that maybe he had just a small enough portion of Joker's laughing gas that he'd just smile through it.
The piece that finally proved it to Kaldur was when they failed the mission to prevent a bomb from detonating and saving all of the civilians. The civilians were saved but the bomb detonated while Robin was close to it and the building collapsed around him, almost killing him, and even then his smile persisted.
"Is Robin alright? Is there something wrong with him?"
Those thoughts were what kept floating around his head; it was unnatural for anyone to always wear a smile. Kaldur had to wonder, was he the only one who had noticed this?
He found his chance to ask the team when Robin was supposed to be away from the cave for at least another day.
Conner was sitting in the middle of the sofa; M'gann was in the kitchen, burning cookies; Wally and Artemis were both on opposite sides of Conner, Kaldur was amazed that clone hadn't yelled at either of them yet since they were having an argument with both of them yelling on both sides of his head (and definitely in both of his ears.) Conner was probably tuning them out, because his favorite channel was on…. The static. Kaldur would never understand why he was able to focus so intently on it. It couldn't be healthy.
"Hello Kaldur." M'gann greeted him kindly.
"Hello M'gann. What are they arguing about this time?" Kaldur said flatly watching. It was trying his patience already and Kaldur had more patience than almost anyone else on the team.
'How was Conner not yelling at both of them? His hearing is way better than mine, and it's aggravating to say the least.' Kaldur thought to himself.
"I'm not sure they were yelling before I got in here and I couldn't understand half of what they were yelling about. Want me to connect you in mine and Conner's chat?" M'gann asked nicely.
"Yes, please." Kaldur said as he looked back at Conner on the couch. "How can he handle that?"
"He has ear plugs in right now and it muffles nearly all the sound out. Robin gave them to him after he saw Conner gripping his head in pain because of his super-hearing and their arguing." M'gann answered sweetly with a smile.
"That was nice of Robin." Kaldur said. 'I wish I had some of those.'
"'Hey Conner I connected Kaldur."' M'gann informed Conner.
"'Hey Kaldur."' Conner said eyes still glued to the screen.
"'Hello Conner."' Kaldur replied to him.
"'Do you need anything?"' M'gann asked as she returned to her cooking.
"'Actually yes. I need to speak with everyone, it's important."' Kaldur said a slight seriousness adding to his voice.
"'Oh, I'll call Robin then!"' M'gann said cheerfully, she liked the young boy after all he was practically her little brother. He was practically all of theirs little brother.
"'No, Robin is actually what I wanted to talk to all of you about."' Kaldur replied.
"'Huh, why is he hurt!?"' M'gann asked hurriedly.
"'What's wrong with Robin?"' Conner added in, a slight tone of worry in his mental voice.
"'He isn't hurt, and I don't know if something is wrong with him. I do need to ask you about him though. I need to ask the entire team if they've noticed anything."' Kaldur said to dispel their worry.
"'Oh okay."' M'gann said slightly nervous about what Kaldur needed to talk about. "'But Wally and Artemis are still going at it."'
"'I'll stop them."' Conner said a little too happily.
"'Okay, but let us know before you do it so we can prepare."' Kaldur replied.
"'Going to do it now."' Conner said quickly.
M'gann and Kaldur both plugged their ears with their hands. Kaldur heard a second of what they were arguing about before he covered his ears.
"YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN RUNNING IN THE HALLWAY WITH PAINT ANYWAYS KID IDIOT!" Artemis yelled. Kaldur finally noticed that both Kid Flash and Artemis were covered with multiple colors of paint, it appeared to be every color of the rainbow.
"YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN IN MY WAY SLOWPOKE!" Wally shouted in return.
"BOTH OF YOU, SHUT UP AND LET KALDUR TALK!" Conner yelled at Wally and Artemis.
That shocked both of them, because of how loud it was and since the boy hadn't said anything the entire time they'd been arguing. They also didn't notice Kaldur had entered.
"Ouch! Okay geez we get it, we get it!" Wally said back as he covered his now hurting ears.
"Ouch there wasn't any need to yell." Artemis said gripping her own ears.
"Yes there was. You both were to wrapped up in your argument to notice that you were screaming, and that Kaldur had came in here for something important." Conner said as he pulled out his earplugs.
"So what did you need to talk to use about, Kaldur?" M'gann asked letting her curiosity get the best of her while still hoping that it wasn't anything bad.
"I've noticed something to do with Robin." Kaldur started.
That had gotten Wally's nerves on high alert. Robin was his best bud, even if he didn't know who he was under the domino mask.
"What's wrong with Robin?" Wally said instantly.
Artemis had started to panic too. Robin wasn't an easy person to hurt, in nearly anyway. He was experienced and as she saw from the last couple weeks he could bounce back from anything, almost as fast as a speedster.
Kaldur waved his hand in a motion that told them to calm down. They listened.
"He has not been harmed, as far as I am aware, however I am afraid that there is something else wrong with him." Kaldur said urgently.
"Kaldur, please cut to the chase! Tell us what's wrong with him?" Artemis said in a demanding tone. He was a funny little dude, and a nice friend she couldn't handle him beating around the bush.
"Spit it out Kaldur please!" Wally said urgently.
"Haven't you all noticed that Robin, no matter what situation he is in is always smiling or grinning? He hasn't ever showed a different emotion. He hasn't frowned, or even showed a neutral expression the entire time we've been a team! And now that I think about it, I don't think has since I've met him." Kaldur said explaining his thoughts.
"What? You're crazy!" Wally said quickly.
"What's so wrong with him being happy?" Conner asked curiously.
"Yeah what's the problem with him being happy?" M'gann questioned not knowing what the problem was.
"Kaldur, I think it's all in your head." Artemis said dismissively but was relieved that it wasn't something major.
"No, there isn't anything wrong with him being happy and there also isn't anything wrong with him smiling. It's just I've noticed him never talking the smile off his face and it stays even when it shouldn't be there. He was smiling when we were captured and all getting shocked. Then when he was being beaten by the Joker with the crowbar he kept his smile up then too. Even when he was hurt by that bomb and the building collapsing almost killed him his smile NEVER faltered." Kaldur said finishing.
They all soaked it in, thinking about everything he had said.
"That's…..weird. Are you sure you just weren't imagining it Kal?" Wally asked slightly worried, after all with what Kaldur just said if it was true then there was definitely something wrong. Just imagining that it seemed a little unnerving.
"I still don't get what exactly is wrong with it?" Conner said confused.
"I'll explain later. Have any of you guys noticed him acting like that or weirder yourself though?" Kaldur asked. He wanted to get to the bottom of this.
"Now that you mention it…. Yes I actually think I have.." M'gann said nervously. She was scared what was wrong with her little brother?
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M'gann POV
After Kaldur had mentioned it she started noticing it more. In every situation he was all happy as could be, it gave her a weird feeling. It was comforting and unnerving at the same time. She was watching him now, the edges of his lips were tilted upwards. There wasn't anything for him to really be smiling about.
'Maybe he is having nice thoughts.' M'gann reasoned. She had the ability to see what he was thinking about, but M'gann promised not to look into their minds.
"Are you having a good day?" M'gann asked trying to strike up conversation.
"It's pretty average. It's been rather boring and uneventful. "Robin said casually, but his grin stayed. "How about you, are you having a good day?"
"Yeah, I've been having fun." M'gann stated plainly.
"That's good. You don't mind if I go to the gym to practice do you?" Robin asked getting off the couch. The two were the only ones currently in the mountain.
"No I don't mind. Be careful." M'gann said as she got up to go into the kitchen. "I'll make a snack for you for when you come back."
"Thanks." Robin said kindly.
When he turned the corner and was far enough away from M'gann he let his frown show and his depressed and angrier attitude show. He'd been suffering the entire time. It was difficult to keep up the act of being a hero, and of being an always happy boy.
When he got into the gym he started bashing a punching bag. He let tears stream down his face in those couple minutes with his sweat. That's when he heard a foot step. The step was slow so that ruled out Wally, it was soft so that ruled out Conner or and angry Artemis, and it was there so that ruled out M'gann who typically floated. He put his grin back on and quickly stopped his water works.
"Hey Kaldur, what's up?" Robin said in his normal voice back towards the Atlantean.
"I'm not sure Robin, why don't you tell me?" Kaldur replied getting on to the training mat with Robin. When Kaldur had arrived at the mountain he was pleased everyone was out and asked who was here. When he learned it was just them three he asked M'gann not to interrupt them, he asked politely.
Robin stopped in place. "What do you mean, Kal? Everything's all good here." Robin replied with a grin hoping he'd drop it.
"Robin want to spar?" Kaldur offered as he got into position.
"Sure, why not?" Robin replied getting into position.
Robin and Kaldur sent a weaving amount of attacks. Kaldur sent an uppercut and Robin dodged by sliding behind Kaldur and kicking out his legs with a sweeper kick.
"So why do you always smile?" Kaldur asked getting up.
"I'm not sure I get the question." Robin answered flipping four feet backwards.
"You're always smiling. I just wanted to know why you force yourself to smile all the time, my friend." Kaldur said turning to him.
"What makes you think I force myself to smile?" Robin asked still wearing the smile. He spring boarded off of Kaldur and sent a punch to Kaldur's chest but was blocked.
"You're not fooling me." Kaldur said simply as he did a sweeper kick, with more force than he actually meant to put into it, the kick nailed Robin in the side and flung him almost off the mat. The smile was still on his face.
"I'm not trying to fool anyone Kal. I think you're starting to go off your rocker my friend." Robin replied as he held his side.
"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to hit you so hard. Now please Robin tell me the truth please. I've watched you for a while and I've noticed it myself. "Kaldur said seriously.
"Kaldur it's all in your head." Robin said as he leapt over Kaldur and kicked both of his legs into Kaldur's back knocking him over.
"Robin, I'm not kidding. I'm your friend and I can tell something is off. Your smiles are genuine yet you smile all the time and keep it up no matter what situation you're in. Why? Tell me the reason behind it." Kaldur requested. "I will understand what it is if you just tell me."
Robin stopped for a second when he said that and was hit by Kaldur in that second. Robin fell onto the mat completely and it read "fail".
"Good match, Kaldur." Robin said as he got up with his grin up and hand out.
"Yes, now please explain. I know you well Robin, we are friends now tell me why do force yourself to smile? Answer me!" Kaldur pleaded.
Kaldur's eyes widened slightly as he saw Robin's lips drop down past a neutral face and into a scowl.
"You don't know anything about me Kaldur." Robin said with his scowl and a spine chilling cackle, it was different than his normal cackle it was a saddening and depressing cackle.
"Robin, trust me I'm your friend you can trust me. I know who you are." Kaldur said not knowing where this was going.
"You don't Kaldur. In all honesty you know nothing about me; you don't know who I am or anything of what I'm like. Why don't you like smiles Kaldur?" Robin said to Kaldur with a blood freezing, eerie chill in his tone. It was as if the degrees dropped by 50 degrees in that second he said that.
Next thing Kaldur knew Robin wasn't there anymore. He had vanished.
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A/N: I hope you enjoyed and I hope you'll review telling me things that I could work on and if you want another chapter of this? Other than that I plan to updated The True Robin with Cele and The Start of The X. Thank you for reading! :D Also I have a poll on my page if you guys want to could you help me decide which to update next?