This took so long... ugh. Sorry!

I feel like this chapter wasn't very good. Oh well. It'll be a little bit better next time.

If any of you guys have any ideas, I am so open! I have a few plans from the wonderful Lolzersgirl, but other suggestions will be run past her XD

NOT MINE BLAH BLAH BLAH

"You owe us one heck of an explanation," said Artemis, crossing her arms. "What aren't you telling us?"

Wally blinked several times, moving his gaze over the faces of his team mates. Superboy looked kind of mad- imagine that- and Artemis seemed pretty irritated too. Miss Martian seemed more worried than anything, but Kaldur was just… blank. Blank and calculating.

"What do you mean?" he asked, slowly edging towards the doorway to the living room. "I don't really-"

Artemis grabbed his shoulder and slammed him against the wall, pinning him there. "You are not getting out of this, Flash Boy. What's wrong with Robin?"

Frowning, the speedster crossed his arms. "Whaddya mean, what's wrong with Robin? I wasn't even there; you all saw it."

"That's not what I mean."

"Then what do you mean? He got tortured, Artemis; what do you think is wrong with him!?" Wally wasn't sure why he was so defensive of his friend right now, but he wasn't about to back down from this.

"Wally, you should keep your voice down," M'gann suggested timidly. "You'll wake Robin up."

"I won't wake him up," Wally snapped. M'gann stepped away slightly, which set Superboy on the defensive.

"You don't have to snap at her; she's just concerned about Robin," growled Superboy, narrowing his eyes.

"Maybe I should ask what's wrong with you," sneered Artemis. "Tell me, why wouldn't you wake Robin up?"

"Because he-"

Because he's temporarily deaf? You can't tell them that.

Wally swallowed hard.

"Because he what?"

"Because he's a heavy sleeper. It takes a lot to wake him up."

Artemis rolled her eyes. "Yeah right. Robin is a really, really light sleeper. He told us that before. Try again."

"He's a heavy sleeper after he's injured, Artemis."

"Yeah, somehow I doubt that. So why don't you stop lying and just tell us the truth."

"I was telling-"

"Kid Flash," Aqualad said firmly. "We could all tell something was… off with Robin. You are not helping him by not informing us of what has happened to him. We cannot help him if we do not know what is wrong."

"We can't help him anyway," Wally mumbled. "There's nothing we can do."

"So there is something wrong!" exclaimed Artemis. "I knew it. Just spill, Wally."

"He told me not to tell…" Kid Flash bit his lip and looked down at his shoes.

"It's for his own good," offered M'gann.

"Fine. Just… don't tell him I told you guys, okay? He'll be really mad." The rest of the team nodded, and Wally sighed.

"We will not tell him you told us," Aqualad agreed.

"Okay. Well… It's not really that bad. He's just having a little bit of trouble hearing."

Artemis raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Why do you keep asking that? Always 'what do you mean?'" Artemis' eyes narrowed, and he swallowed hard. "Well, you know. He's just a bit hard of hearing. Like, he can't really hear anything. At all."

There was a moment of complete silence. "He can't hear?" Superboy asked quietly.

Wally shook his head. "No. He can't…"

"He was responding to us though," Miss Martian said, obviously confused. "How could he respond if he couldn't hear?"

"He's reading lips," Wally said quietly. "He's pretty good at it, but he can't hear anything if we're not facing him."

Artemis looked kind of shocked. "Why wouldn't he want to tell us that? We could make it so much easier for him."

"Because he doesn't want to seem weak. That's just him. I think Bats practically ingrained that into him. It's usually just so he doesn't look weak in front of Batman… I don't get what his deal is." Wally sighed, looking down. He'd always noticed that.

Robin was always so… fake around Batman. Dick was never tense in front of Bruce, but around Batman? Complete opposite. He hid the insecurities around the Dark Knight. Sure, he'd still laugh and flip around and everything, but he was never weak. If it had been Batman, Dick would have never admitted his deafness, and Wally knew it. It was honestly kind of scary, to see such a change in his friend every time Batman was around. He quickly shook off the thought though, tuning back into his friends' conversation.

"So we just can't tell him we know, right Wally?"

Said teen nodded. "Yeah. He won't be able to tell. He's kind of a mess right now. This is just a team secret, okay? Don't tell the Leaguers."

"Why not? They could help him, couldn't they? I'm sure my Uncle J'onn could-"

"No. I… I already told you guys. Rob would be seriously ticked if this got to the League. We should keep it among ourselves."

Kaldur looked uneasy, but nodded. "For now, it stays with the team."