I had a lot of fun with this chapter. I sincerely hope you enjoy reading the horrendously awkward interaction below as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Kirokokori: Thank you thank you thank you for the advice about the adverbs. They were out of control and I didn't even notice. I tried to keep an eye on it in this chapter, so hopefully it'll be better. *thumbs up* You rock.

You guys are the bomb; keep on keepin' on.

After the first 'lesson,' Dick had been nervous about training with Slade; too much of what the man had said about his parents had rung true. He had wondered if every session would be as emotionally jarring. But he had taken Slade's words about controlling his anger to heart, and Slade had not felt a need to repeat the lesson. And since then, things had been... Well, 'perfect' felt a little too optimistic. Regardless, it was close enough.

Training with Slade was extremely different from training with Bruce. Bruce was soft sometimes, understanding. He was gentle and patient. Slade, on the other hand, gave the impression that if Dick didn't master a move quickly enough, the boy would probably die. The lessons were highly intense, and Slade was extremely critical. If Dick's stance were an inch too narrow, Slade would demonstrate his point by knocking the boy off his feet. If his fists were too low, or too high, or his kicks weren't powerful enough or fast enough or whatnot, the result was often the same.

And Dick loved it.

True, it was sometimes annoying to be knocked down constantly, or flung across the room, but Slade was never cruel about it. The man did it to prove his point: that whatever Dick was doing wrong was a weakness in the fight, and that if he expected to survive the big leagues he had to fix it right away. Dick took it very seriously, and Slade's words quickly became sacred to him.

That wasn't to say that he liked Slade; far from it. The man was a butt head. However, he certainly respected everything Slade had to say about fighting, and they didn't ever talk about much else. The moment Dick walked into the room they were both focused on the fight, and that was that. After two weeks of training, Dick still knew nothing about his newfound mentor, other than that the man had a wicked right hook, and he doubted Slade knew much more about him. Unlike training with Bruce, training with Slade seemed to come with the package that there would be no relationship involved. But this was fine; better than fine, really. Dick certainly hadn't forgotten the beating Slade had given him so long ago, and the blackmail hanging over his head. He had no desire to make friends. He wanted to learn, and that was that.

While things were indeed going well, he still wondered why exactly Slade wanted to train him. It seemed like such a waste of the man's valuable time. Even more than that, he wondered what Slade was up to when he wasn't with him. The man couldn't possibly be focused on only him... Could he?

He was pondering over such things on a Wednesday afternoon when Barbara Gordon walked by him in the hall. His eyes flicked up and found her face, and without thinking about it he found his mouth twitching into a tentative smile (although he didn't know why; the girl infuriated him, to say the least). She looked surprised for a moment, and then huffed angrily and stormed by him.

He raised his brows and shook his head. "Girls," he muttered. But he felt a definite sting, and a little indignation. What had he done to her to deserve her anger? He was trying to be nice, for goodness' sakes, and she just treated him like dirt. And it didn't help that no one else at school was being nice to him either. By the time he was sitting down for his next class, his irritation had transformed into righteous anger.

He carried that anger with him for the next several hours. Bruce certainly noticed on the way over to therapy. When the man gently asked what was going on, Dick snapped that he didn't want to talk about it, thank you very much. He and Bruce hadn't been talking much recently, and he certainly wasn't in the mood to have a heart-to-heart about girls. He was still angry when he got out of the car, and his emotions hadn't faded by the time he started training with Slade. They always warmed up with some light sparring, only today Dick went into it with his head clouded.

Why didn't Babs like him? he pondered as he ducked a kick. She had been so friendly to him before, always being a nuisance and following him around. And heck, he had practically saved her life. Where did she get off, anyway? And why did he care? After all (he quickly backflipped to avoid an uppercut) a few weeks ago he would have done anything to get rid of her. She was always defining words and trying to show how smart she was, and she always acted really intense, like she just wanted to be the best at everything...

It was only when Slade sent him flying across the room that he had an epiphany. Falling hard to the ground and rolling across the concrete floor, he suddenly realized that he wanted Barbara Gordon to like him.

"Geez Louise, when did that happen?" he wheezed, forcing himself to sit up.

"When you started fighting angry," Slade said with a scowl in his voice, standing above him. "Honestly, Robin, do we really need to have this talk again? I thought I made myself clear the first time."

"No, no, I just sort of, uh, had a realization," the boy said hastily, not wanting a repeat of the last lesson on anger. "I'm good now."

But he wasn't good, which was made clear when he started staring off blankly into space as Slade tried to instruct him on a new technique. In the middle of the lecture, the man suddenly growled in frustration. Eyes widening with fear, Dick knew he had pushed his luck too far.

"Robin," Slade said darkly. "I don't ask for much -" that was a laugh, Dick thought, holding back a scoff, "- but I do ask that you stay focused when I am taking the time to teach you." The man seemed to be growing taller. The one eye glowed with fury in his dark frame. Terrified, Dick took a shaky step back. "And if I don't receive that basic respect," Slade continued in a snarl, "I get... Upset."

The man moved forward menacingly, the air around him crackling with pure rage, and Dick yelped, backtracking away. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" he squeaked, fumbling desperately for an adequate explanation. "It's just... It's just... GIRLS!"

Slade stopped dead in his tracks. The one eye widened in what looked like deep-seated confusion. "I... what?" The man's voice might have cracked a little bit.

Dick flushed scarlet. "I, well... Well geez, it's not like that! It's just that there's this girl -" Slade was looking more horrified by the second, "- and I want her to be my friend, which is weird because she's so obnoxious, but no one else has been measuring up, you know? For being my friend, I mean! Everyone's just stupid or naive, and she's really smart - too smart for her own good, really, but anyway -" Dick shut his mouth when Slade held up a hand.

There was a pause. Then, in a steady voice that nevertheless sounded somewhat forced, "I fail to see how this such a distracting problem for you."

"She's mad at me," Dick sighed. "And I don't know what to do about it. And I just... I want her to like me. As a friend!" he added quickly, and he could've imagined it but it looked like Slade's eye actually twitched.

There was silence for a moment. Then Slade did the most human thing Dick had ever seen him do.

He brought a hand to his head and groaned.

"Why, in God's name, are you talking to me about this?"

Dick threw his hands up in the air in exasperation. "I don't know! I just... You're just here in the moment right now, alright? Look, okay, let me just get your opinion on this. I smiled at her in the hall today, right? And she totally blew me off! Like, what the heck did I do wrong? I'm trying to be a nice guy!"

Biting his lip and giving Slade a pleading look, Dick bounced in place and waited almost desperately for some advice. Slade, for his part, looked utterly lost. "Robin..." the man finally started with a sigh, running a hand over his mask. "I am literally the last person on earth you should be asking about this."

"Can't you give me something? Anything?"

"I... Well, I don't know," Slade said, sounding bewildered and intensely uncomfortable. "Give her something she wants, maybe? A gift or something. Girls like that."

"A gift?" Dick asked, furrowing his brow.

"Yes!" Slade replied, sounding relieved that Dick had latched onto something. "Yes, a gift. Chocolate or something."

"Yeah, chocolate," Dick said slowly, a smile spreading across his face. An idea was starting to form. "Or something."

"Excellent," Slade said a shade desperately, sounding for all intents and purposes like a man who had just dodged a bullet. "So then, now that we've resolved that we can get back to -"

"But what if she doesn't like it?" Dick asked, brow furrowed. "What if-"

He was interrupted when Slade suddenly leapt forward and twisted his arm behind his back.

"Ow!" he yelped, writhing in his mentor's grip. "Ow ow ow! Let g-"

"Robin," Slade growled, effectively shutting his protege up. "Your first lesson was to fight without anger, and so far you've done pretty well with it. Here's your second: women are not that complicated. More importantly, you should never allow yourself to lose focus in a fight over a romantic interest."

"It's not like that!" Dick yelled indignantly. "I just want to be friends!"

Slade rolled his eye and forced himself to take a deep, calming breath. Don't kill him, don't kill him, this is all part of the mentor-student bonding experience, and really you should be grateful it's not 'the talk,' just a crush, you can do this... "Fine. Then never allow your... Your female friends to distract you in a fight." Slade cleared his throat and continued in a gruff voice. "Your body is going through... Changes, that will make it difficult for you to stay clear-headed when it comes to women, or whoever you become attracted to-"

"Gah!" Dick yelped in horror, renewing his struggle to escape. "I don't want to hear this! We already learned about that stuff in health!"

"But you have to stay focused," Slade forged on sternly. "It will be hard, but you cannot allow any emotional problems you may be having with girls - ah, female friends - to distract you from your training. When you walk into this room, nothing distracts you, Robin. Nothing at all. Do you understand?"

"Yes!" Dick cried. "Yes, I get it!"

"Good," Slade said gruffly and let the boy go. Dick rubbed his arm and stared at Slade with wide eyes.

Oh my god, he thought in horror. I just got girl advice from Slade.

Dear god, Slade thought, trying to look unfazed. Please let this moment be over.

"Well then," he said in a rough voice.

Robin rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, so... Training."

"Yes, right. We were-"

"-Yeah, we were doing that thing-"

"-Yes, let's continue with that. So as I was explaining before..."

Slade gruffly launched back into his explanation. It took a few minutes for the awkward tension in the room to die down, but when it did Slade had a realization of his own.

As horrible and strange and uncomfortable as it had been... Robin had chosen to have that conversation with him instead of Bruce Wayne.

The thought was enough to make him smile for the rest of the night.

Down in the dark, Bruce Wayne sat hunched over a key board, typing furiously. His hair was mussed from pulling it in frustration, and his eyes were bloodshot.

Something distracted him. He blinked, took a moment to check the time, and with a small nod started typing again.

After a time, he heard footsteps approaching. Alfred.

"Master Bruce," his butler said softly. "Shouldn't you be getting ready to -"

"I have fifteen minutes before I have to get ready to pick him up," Bruce interrupted, not turning away from the screen. "That'll give me five minutes to clean myself up, so I'll be in the car ready to go in twenty. It's fine, Alfred."

The older man sighed heavily. "I wish you wouldn't do this to yourself, sir. It's been months."

"He's out there somewhere," Bruce growled. "I don't know why he's hiding, he said there was a reason he revealed himself that night. He's up to something, I know it. And it all goes back to that chip he stole. There's data in there that could be used -"

"To create an army," Alfred interrupted wearily. "I know, sir, you've told me many times before. That doesn't change the fact that you're running yourself into the ground and hiding it from your ward."

"Dick doesn't need to know about this. I want him to have a normal life." He arched a brow and finally turned around to face his butler. "Do you disagree with that?"

"No," Alfred replied softly. "He seems to have adjusted to a life without fighting, although it took the hospitalization of three young boys for that to happen." Bruce lowered his gaze, uncomfortable with the reminder. "I just feel that you've been neglecting your duty as Richard's guardian to hunt this man down."

"Neglecting?" Bruce scoffed incredulously. "I'm trying to bring his attacker to justice! How is that neglecting?!"

"You haven't been spending any time with him, that's how!" Alfred burst out, looking agitated. "You and I are all he's got in the world, master Bruce, and that's not something you can just ignore for your revenge. I care for him, and he cares for me... But I'm just not you. He used to look at you with stars in his eyes, see you as a father figure, and I can see that look fading from his face every day. And worse than ignoring him is that you're lying to him, pretending that you're peachy keen when you're actually spending your days and nights obsessing over a man who has clearly disappeared!"

Bruce's jaw tightened. "You don't understand, Alfred," he said in a low voice. "You didn't see Dick that night, he was..." He swallowed heavily. "I can't let that monster get away with what he did. I can't. Dick would understand that."

"If you're so sure, then why are you hiding this from him?" Alfred demanded, raising his chin.

Bruce shook his head. "You don't get it. I have to find him, and Dick shouldn't be any part of that." He narrowed his eyes. "He's out there somewhere, Alfred. And whatever he's doing, whatever he has planned... I have to stop him." He rubbed his eyes tiredly and let out a long sigh. "I have to find Slade. And after that, things can go back to the way they were before."

"I fear, master Bruce," Alfred said quietly, "that by the time you've found him it will be too late for that."

Bruce forced a small smile. "I promise that things will be alright, Alfred. I won't lose Dick." He took a deep breath and turned back to the screen. Far above, something upset the bats and they started to hiss and screech. He easily ignored them and started typing once more. "I promise."