[ it hadn't taken all that long for robin to get back into the routine that is haven. food, drink, patrol, sleep. he checks in with the people he checks in with and he sees where and what the few he's stayed connected with are into - for him, it feels a lot like going through the motions, because the people he had once taken comfort in are now all different. zee looks at him with pity - a tired, sad sort of happiness. he's thankful that they're back to being friends, despite how it's still too difficult to breathe when he's around her, and he does everything he can to make sure it stays that way. they can be friends, they can go back to being friends, because he is a bat and shouldn't have been relying on anyone in the first place. he'll get back to that point, he knows, but it's like not realizing there's a step down every time he tries to take a step forward - he can catch himself, sure, keep upright and moving, but the fall is enough to stop his heart.
it gets easier, because it always gets easier, the constant state of it familiar enough in itself to keep rob moving, to keep him on edge.
having various states of the bat family around him keeps him occupied, finding the time and scenarios to learn as much about them as he can. conner helps a lot too, sticking closer to rob that he probably would have before. rob knows it's because he thinks he might disappear again, knows it's because his first disappearance did enough to everyone he left behind. and it helps, it does, but it doesn't take long before rob is finding himself alone (conner has a girlfriend, after all - the entire team now pairing up and leaving rob back, still trying to figure out why, how, where, when...). and when rob ends up alone, he ends up missing kf even more. he left his best friend here, left him behind, and the fact that he's not here sits heavier and heavier on rob's chest as the days go on.
he did this before, he could do this again, but somehow this time it's different because rob knows what it means to survive haven alone and to survive it with others, and he feels - somehow, he's not sure why - more alone now than he ever really has. he pushes that away, down and out like everything else he was trained to do. surviving haven isn't about little bursts of emotion, isn't about feeling lonely when you wake up in the morning and when you get back in at night. surviving haven is about being prepared and proactive and efficient. he's a bat and bats survive, have to survive (and he pushes what he knows about the future away, doesn't care to think about what damian has told him, what he knows happens) and have to make sure everyone survives with him.
that's what gets him up in the morning, and keeps him going through the day and night. that's what has him out, and about, patrolling and checking and getting to know, becoming familiar. when his device goes off he assumes it's someone else - anyone, honestly - and doesn't even check the image. just sets it up (looking off in the distance) and turns it on, mouth opening to respond- ]
Rob here, how- [ but then he freezes, because he hears that voice, eyes going wide at the sound of it. he looks, seeing red and yellow, seeing wally, and almost drops his device then and there. he notices the tone heavy in wally's voice, can tell something is wrong, and he's moving before he really even knows why or where. ]
Stay there, I'll come to you. [ off the side of the building he goes. his voice is weirdly clinical, a clue as to how rob has been going about things here in haven since his re-arrival. he's freaking out, which means he's sliding further and further down the line of 'bat-like'. but he'll ease back out of it once he sees kf, once he knows this isn't some kind of joke. ] Where are you?
video.
it gets easier, because it always gets easier, the constant state of it familiar enough in itself to keep rob moving, to keep him on edge.
having various states of the bat family around him keeps him occupied, finding the time and scenarios to learn as much about them as he can. conner helps a lot too, sticking closer to rob that he probably would have before. rob knows it's because he thinks he might disappear again, knows it's because his first disappearance did enough to everyone he left behind. and it helps, it does, but it doesn't take long before rob is finding himself alone (conner has a girlfriend, after all - the entire team now pairing up and leaving rob back, still trying to figure out why, how, where, when...). and when rob ends up alone, he ends up missing kf even more. he left his best friend here, left him behind, and the fact that he's not here sits heavier and heavier on rob's chest as the days go on.
he did this before, he could do this again, but somehow this time it's different because rob knows what it means to survive haven alone and to survive it with others, and he feels - somehow, he's not sure why - more alone now than he ever really has. he pushes that away, down and out like everything else he was trained to do. surviving haven isn't about little bursts of emotion, isn't about feeling lonely when you wake up in the morning and when you get back in at night. surviving haven is about being prepared and proactive and efficient. he's a bat and bats survive, have to survive (and he pushes what he knows about the future away, doesn't care to think about what damian has told him, what he knows happens) and have to make sure everyone survives with him.
that's what gets him up in the morning, and keeps him going through the day and night. that's what has him out, and about, patrolling and checking and getting to know, becoming familiar. when his device goes off he assumes it's someone else - anyone, honestly - and doesn't even check the image. just sets it up (looking off in the distance) and turns it on, mouth opening to respond- ]
Rob here, how- [ but then he freezes, because he hears that voice, eyes going wide at the sound of it. he looks, seeing red and yellow, seeing wally, and almost drops his device then and there. he notices the tone heavy in wally's voice, can tell something is wrong, and he's moving before he really even knows why or where. ]
Stay there, I'll come to you. [ off the side of the building he goes. his voice is weirdly clinical, a clue as to how rob has been going about things here in haven since his re-arrival. he's freaking out, which means he's sliding further and further down the line of 'bat-like'. but he'll ease back out of it once he sees kf, once he knows this isn't some kind of joke. ] Where are you?